The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Foxworth Friday: NFL Collusion, Dallas Turner Scammed, "The Decision's" Impact | 7.11

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

Bomani Jones is joined by Domonique Foxworth for another edition of Foxworth Friday. On today’s episode, the guys start off by chatting about the unusual agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA to keep collusion findings secret (5:58) and why Bo doesn't think Lloyd Howell Jr. is an ideal candidate to be running the NFL players union (11:43). They return from the break in shock over Devin Booker's $145M contract extension (33:24) and try to make sense of how Minnesota Vikings edge rusher Dallas Turner could've been scammed (39:58). They wrap up the show by reminiscing over LeBron James' 'Decision' to sign with the Miami Heat which was 15 years ago today. (49:07) . . . Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Buy 'The Right Time' merch: http://therighttimebomani.com/ Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media: http://lnk.to/therighttime Support the Show: Download the DraftKings Pick Six app NOW and use code BOMANI. Better payouts. Bigger wins. Only with Pick6 from DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Go to zbiotics.com/BOMANI to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use BOMANI at checkout. Celebrate the progress you’ve already made. Visit ⁠BetterHelp.com/BOMANI⁠ today to get 10% off your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time, a wave original. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. And go to the right time, bomani.com.

If you are watching on YouTube, you can see that I am wearing this classy, right time with Bumani Jones T-shirt. We have merch available for you now at the Right Time Bumani. But first, it is Foxworth Friday. Dominique Foxworth. What's going on? Too much is going on. But I'm excited to be back with Foxwer Friday. A well-timed Foxwerp Friday. Hey, brother, I don't go out a lot, man. I watched you on television this morning as we was recording, boy, y'all scraping the bowl, trying to figure out what to talk about on TV. Like, my favorite thing about not having to do this every day now is I turn on the morning ESPN, and I'd be like, damn, I know them producers up all night, trying to figure out how to make. a show out of this. It's tough, man. But it's also like the thing about having your show or having

a show of your own is the people who come there also to some degree are coming there for you. The people who are watching Get Up is watching for sports. And it's like, ain't too much of going on right now. We got to do a lot of projecting and predicted and reminiscing. It ain't the same. It's so like if you go off on some tangent on your show, that is interesting because these people are here for you. I go and get up. It's like, hey, you better think of some football. Brother, I saw first take. Lee story was what direction

where the Phoenix Suns going in. It's tough, man. First take is even tougher. Even tougher to get up to because first take is built on arguing. It's like, what are we going to argue about that? Which is why you either got to argue about some old shit or arguing about some future shit.

Well, yeah, well, like, so Get Up got a lot of tricks in it, right? Or conceits, you know, games and stuff like that, that go along with it. First take was like it was. we was doing high noon. All we got is us. Right? Like, like, like, ain't no.

Oh, and now drop the graphic for the snaz. No, no, no, no, no. It's me and you, partner. Two hours. Figure out how to get through. Two of the things. Yes. Fill it up.

It's just a test, man. It's for real. It's like the training level. And they do have a lot of people in these time of years who don't get a whole bunch of reps. Like this is what you get on. Like, yeah, we're going to find out. what you really about right now.

It's like playing two-on-two full court. That's a perfect analogy. You know, it's something I did when I was 10. And I don't know how I end up doing it now, but somehow I'm still doing it. It used me breathing hard. I mean, one time, because we had popped up and doing high noon, we would do other shows, right? Try to like get the audience prepared for the fact that we were going to be doing this.

And we did first take. And I remember the day we did first take, the opening block was 18 minutes. an entire 30 minute show is 22 minutes of actual content. It was 17 minutes. You got to be in shape. Like you've got to start going to the gym if you're going to do first take every day. It's nice also to have somebody who you're comfortable with, which helps. It's real tough when they're trying to fill out the offseason calendar and somebody you ain't never work with before.

And you got to do 18 minutes with somebody. work with before and somebody who also sometimes they're not as on it as you and it's like, oh, I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there. I've been there with someone whom I liked a great deal, but we're not

we're not supposed to be in the same day. It's a tough. It's a tough conversation because if, especially again on first take, if you completely undercut the argument in the first three minutes, and you're just looking at each other. Right.

making jokes. Then you got to make arguments for them. But I could understand if this is what you were saying. I've been there before where it's like, I get what you're saying, but I could understand if you said this, then I would say that. So say it is. So this is what it comes down to on those days, right? Because in this context that we're talking about,

typically everybody there is a substitute. Right. Right. However, in real life, substitute teachers, generally speaking are all the same or at the very least are not trying to parlay the substitute teaching gigs into a real teaching gig right everybody just trying to get that check press play on the never ending story and then we all go on about our business right but when you to substitute teach well sometimes they would call me because i was the most overqualified potential substitute teacher

of all times. So all the shows who would be like, hey man, if you don't have any days, like everybody wanted to be to be their substitute teacher, but they wouldn't give me

no shows at that time, right? So I was like, yo, we'd sure love to have you. And then I look across and be like, never again. It do get tough. It do get tough.

But they slimming down over here now. So ain't too many too many rookies out here trying to make the roster. Well, the other problem that you got right now, and I'm saying,

this. You're not saying this. I'm saying this. There's a difference between ESPN.com and ESPNTV. Right? ESPN.com has the great Don Van Nata and his story that works off of my old co-host

Pablo Torres reporting of a 61 page confidential decision. That confidential word, we're going to get to that. But it was a decision made basically that said that there was evidence that the NFL engaged in collusion to try to lower guaranteed money and contracts, the Lamar Jackson contract being, remember that Lamar Jackson was a free agent and somehow nobody wanted

a quarterback, right, including the Atlanta fucking Falcons who gave one-legged Kurt Cousins, $40 million only to draft his replacement with a project, but they didn't want Lamar Jackson. Okay. Gotcha. Right? But this collusion settlement was there. And it was in favor of the players, though there seemed to be pretty strong evidence to owners, but excuse me, it was in favor of the owners. The ultimate decision was in favor of the owners. But for whatever reason, both sides decided to keep the agreement from the players, right? So like they got news of what happened, but the actual paperwork, they decided to keep away from the players. And Don put some reporting out about this yesterday, along with Wednesday, right, and they give it a days, right? According to

reporting Thursday that said that the head of the NFL Players Association, who, and Dr. I mean, you correct me if I'm wrong, but the players decided after D. Smith's time was up that they wanted a guy with more corporate ties. Well, they got one. And his name is Lloyd Howell. I have met him. He seems like a nice enough fellow. He also works as a consultant for the Carlisle group, which is a private equity group that is looking into investing in NFL teams. And somehow he does both of these jobs, which seems like a staggering conflict of interest, but he continues to do both of these jobs. And I do believe there was a time where this may have been closer to red letter news on television, but that's not what we're doing on television anymore.

Like, we scraping the bowl for content. It's right here. This story is staggering. But just but. That we don't know. Okay. Okay. I thought another pregnant pause. Just the butt. Just the big, just the big old butt. So I'm leaving you. You know what I'm saying? Like that's all it is.

The Dominic, you worked with the union. You've worked with the NBA player in BPA. It's not the NBA PA. It's the NBPA. I don't even know where to begin with my question. Yeah. I mean, so I was president of the NFL players association. And like when I left that or my term ran out,

It's an active player's role. My term ran out. I was always conscious of what it was like. Because I was part of leadership, I was on executive committee in my second year in the league. So I was either on executive committee, which is essentially like 10 vice presidents

or the president of the union for more than half of my career. And so I was heavily involved in all of that stuff and then went on to continue doing union work afterwards with the basketball union. And one thing I always was aware of was how frustrating it was. when outsiders who weren't in the union would like make comments.

So I've always been really conscious of that. And like never even through DeMorris's term and Gene Upshaw when he was there, I had obviously disagreements when I worked with both of them and disagreements of things that happened afterwards. And I never really talk about it because it's like this is the players union, the active players. They got to take control. And I don't think it really helps if I, a former president is like,

Like, and making my feelings felt about it. But man, I can't. I can't. Like, this is, it's tough, man. It's tough to listen and watch this because you see different decisions being made that are, that. And again, because of my spot and my relationships, like, I hear about stuff that doesn't get out. And so I shut my mouth and whatever. Like, as long as the right players know, if they're going to take action, they're going to take action.

And I've seen players take over the union and take lots of action. Like when Gene died, a few players had to step in to ensure that the election process was fair. Like, the players aren't afraid. They aren't dumb. They aren't lazy. And so I don't want to assume that they are by feeling like they need me to come out and say something. So I suspect that this is going to lead to the players doing something about these sorts of things because these allegations are not only allegations like the confidentiality like this. these findings are staggering, man.

And union, the thing about unions is, man, it's, it's a different, it's different. It's a different mindset. And business experience is one thing. Union experience is another. And it's one of those things that require a different level of commitment and passion. It's not just like I want to do a good job. It just, it's also like, I know my place and I work. for them and everything that I do should be in service of the members, and that's part of it.

So anyway, I don't want to get on a high horse and soapboxy, but, like, there are plenty of decisions that were made that seem to, like, take some power away from the players, which leads us to this situation where there are things like this that could be happening, that just drive me crazy. And then the Lloyd stuff is, like, prior to him even being hired, it's, like, the stuff that, the stuff that's on his resume, man, like, it should give you pause before you commit to that, as if there ain't nobody else out there on earth that has,

that's qualified. That is not a union man. Like, I think the players, I understood the logic that you needed somebody who knew a little bit, like it was more of a business person, right? D. Smith was a U.S. attorney. And he's got a book coming out. I think we're going to have him on to talk about that book

once I get a chance to read it. But he was a U.S. attorney, right? But to me, and look, that is, while that is not a business job, that is a job that comes, one, I think, with the ego of a U.S. attorney. And I don't mean that negatively, but U.S. attorneys run shit in their world, right? But also, that's a wheeling and deal-in sort of position, and you've got to know the politics and everything else. And D is not flawless, certainly.

But I think that is a profile that I think is in line with being somebody to run a union. Lloyd is not a union man from meeting him. I met him during the writer strike, right? The WGA strike a couple of summers ago. And I spoke before Pickett Line, which is a very interesting experience because it gave me the juxtaposition between Lloyd and Marty, Marty Walsh, who is now the head of the NHL Players Association. He had previously been the mayor of Boston and was the secretary of labor under Joe Biden.

And Marty, because he's very much a mighty. He's very bossed. He is a Mardi. And Mardi, man, I think I had to talk after Mardi. Yo, yo, yo, that was like going on after DMX. That's what you're talking about. Like, I don't even know what to say. You know what I'm saying? That was a union man.

You kind of hear it in the spirit of what it is. And a union man is typically a fighting man. The NFL union to me is interesting for a couple reasons. One, all these sports unions are interesting because their unions are rich people, right? Or at the very least, well-paid people. I think we'll put it that way, which means you don't get that much sympathy. I mean, this country has just turned away from organized labor completely, but it's a limited amount of sympathy that you get from the people and, like, the compromise deal isn't necessarily that bad, right? But the NFL players are interesting because I don't

remember the exact quote. I believe, Dominic, you will know what I'm talking about, but it's to paraphrased Gene Upshaw, I fought one time and I went up that hill and I turned around and I was by myself. And Upshaw concluded then that the game was not to fight as much as the game was just to get as much money for his guys as he could possibly get. The baseball union was historically the fighting union. And they won every time. They stood tall.

They had their guys always and they kept winning. They kept winning. And then everything went crazy about 20 years ago because of the steroid stuff. at which point the players kind of had to make some compromises because the fight was making them look bad. And I think that that led to now where the owners stay colluding on them, stay keeping their money low, everything else. And so now for the NFL players, you decide to get a guy to help you do business, but you forget. And I feel like this paperwork, you know, once we, you know, everybody, I mean, it's up there. Pablo is definitely uploaded.

You can check it out. This paperwork shows, man, a union is still about the fight. Like it is an antagonistic relationship between labor and management at all times. You are never, ever partners. Sorry, would love for it to be the case, but you're not. Yeah. I mean, I think that there are sometimes that the collaboration is important. Like, it's obviously there, the thing about these partners in pro sports is there are no other partners.

Like, you're going to have to work together at some point, but no one's ever going to give you anything. And I think the power from anybody who's watched me or listen to me knows that like the power in the union comes from the solidarity. And this is frankly a fundamental lesson in life is nothing. It's free. The bigger thing that you want is going to cost you more and more. And it may not cost you money. It may cost you in sacrifice and pain. And that's the frustrating part. One of the more challenging parts about being a union leader is when your name, you are the union leader, it's possible that you can lose sight of your role as an employee. Like, your executive director, whatever, your president, whatever, your executive committee,

whatever. Like, it's an upside down pyramid. You work for everyone else. And showing up and telling people what you're going to do or trying to find the easiest route. Like, no, you work for them. And it's not only because, like, fundamentally that's who you're, who your boss is. It's also because that's where your power comes from.

It works to your advantage. If for some reason you've created a structure where they feel like, which is part of the challenge when you hire somebody from the outside and from an entirely different world, is you're hiring them because you're like, he knows what he's doing. He can take care of it. And when you hire someone like that, he knows what he's doing. He can take care of it. And you send him off to do it when shit gets tough.

And I'm not talking about Lloyd specifically anyone. When shit gets tough, you're still fundamentally going to need. that core of power being solidarity. And the guys, like, it's human nature. That ain't my plan. That ain't what I want. And they, like, they disperse. Like, that's, I think that's, like, the downfall of any union or the challenge of any union is forgetting that the executive director and the president and anyone leadership, like, it's based on solidarity.

It is based on the willingness to sacrifice. And that's, there's no other way around. There's no other way to create real leverage other than that. And once you lose that, you're in a tough spot. And it takes a while to rebuild. Like, to your point, the baseball union, like, that was built on, and the dynamics are different in different sports, but that was built on an understanding that this is the culture of the place.

This is your place. And you have to sacrifice for it. It's something that is hard to continue to perpetuate when you have constant turnover and the dynamics around the situation change. It's just not an easy thing to do. It's a hard job. And I think we've talked about some of this before. There's a couple of levels that make football, I think, very particular.

Number one, it's like four different unions in one union, right? There are superstar quarterbacks. They are their own world. There are the other quarterbacks. They are their own world. There are superstar to star caliber players that are their world. And then it's the biggest group, which is the rest of them. to y'all. You know, and they all have wildly divergent interest. You have a salary cap that's in

place, but the quarterbacks are, again, playing a completely different game in terms of how much money they can wind up getting. And so it's hard to get, I mean, basketball has the same issues where the superstars are playing a completely different game than everybody else and trying to find some level of consensus where, you know, among them becomes incredibly difficult. The thing that I think is interesting about football, and I'm curious your thought about this, football players are conditioned from the very beginning to sacrifice for the team. But the team, while it is the roster itself, really goes broader to whatever franchise it is that you're representing, whether it be your school, your little AAU program.

You know, it's not AAU obviously, but you know, your program, whatever it is. But that is to whom you sacrifice or for whom you sacrifice is that group, which doesn't leave a lot of room to go sacrifice for the other group. It's like the sacrifice that you make for the franchise, now you've got to go get your money because you've made this sacrifice to the franchise. And now that actually puts you at odds with the people with whom you often sacrifice in the name of this other thing to where y'all don't have the capacity or willingness in many cases to sacrifice for themselves.

This is one of the challenges is the story around professional football is I want to make it to the NFL. It's such a powerful story that guys are excited when they get drafted. And I know that doesn't, we all accept it. I know it doesn't sound crazy to you, but the idea that you are celebrating that you have a freedom that's afforded to everyone else, you are celebrating that you do not have that. And so, like, it's deeply ingrained that guys want to, and I'm one of these guys.

I was one of these guys. I want to get drafted. I want to play in the NFL. It's not I want to belong to the union. But all the cool shit about playing in the NFL is a result of the union. That's the thing that is like harder to remind guys because it's not, it's about control of the story, control of the narrative, control of media, the influence. It's like I want to be a part of the organization that Gene Upshaw led.

Like I want to have, I want to have access to millions of dollars. You know why that is possible? It's because a lot of sacrifices that other people made. And it's just like you are more proud to be a part of the Vikings than you are to be a part of the union. And that's a problem in like messaging. That's a problem in communicate. That's just a, it's a hard thing to overcome because then you're like, hey, but no, you know what? They don't really want you to have these things.

The reason why you have it is over here. This is what you want to be a part of. This is your team. And it's tough to, you don't, you can't just hit a switch on that. It's hard to rebuild. Yeah, I don't feel like any of the sport does the team. And normally, no other sport I don't feel like the team pretends love you quite like they pretend in football. And I guess it's necessary to an extent, right?

So, for example, when you talk about there being a prayer before a NASCAR race, yes, part of that is Southern culture and politics. The other part is we about to be going 200 miles an hour. I would like to pray. I would like you to pray for me. We all kind of need it, right? It's a little different. I imagine that you need to feel some kind of affection and what it is that you're asking people

to go out here and do it, even if they say they want to do it. When you're asking them to do it when they hurt, right? When you're asking them to do it at the expense of all these other things, you've got to have this dynamic and feeling of love. Like there's military culture that's involved in this. There's religious culture that's involved in this. You can't separate how all of these things are kind of put together. together in one place that creates this sort of loyalty or this idea that individualism is not

appropriate. But we're not even really talking about individualism. We're still talking about group dynamics. We're still talking about the squad. We're just talking about who is your master, them or yourselves. And another dynamic I would throw in there is the complexity of football. Like it's not a complicated game, but it's complex. And when you look at other sports, there's like basketball, everybody's doing the same thing.

Soccer, everyone's doing the same thing. baseball, like you're out there by yourself. The complexity of football is such that I could play in the NFL and Jeff Saturday can play in the NFL. And we are reliant on each other. You're not reliant on people in other sports the way that you are in football. And it's also complicated by the fact that we aren't together that often. So like you're in your meeting room. I'm in my meeting room. But we know that I got your back and you got mine. And that level of because the jobs is so different. I've had bad games that were a result of my safety doing the wrong thing. I've had great games that was a result of my safety doing the right thing. I've had terrible

games because we couldn't get no pressure and I'm covering for four seconds. I had good games because Suggs won't tip the ball. Give me a pick. Like that type of reliance is not something that you have from down to down or you have from play to play or game to game in any other sport. It's like, you know what? LeBron, nice, man. We know he can, we're not rebounded well. He's not. We're he can go get those rebounds. I can't block for you. I just can't. It ain't going to happen.

I can't rush to passer. And I do think that that adds to like, these are my guys. These are my people. And you don't have that same dynamic anywhere else. Like the communication and the connection just is hard to replicate. And I think another dynamic I'm curious what you think about is the union is there in large part to help guys get as much money as they can. Right. But what guys are really afraid.

of is losing money, right? And so a work stoppage of I talked to when I was talking to the guys in 2020 about the United Movement with the college players. We talked about this on your show. And I remember Andrew Cooper gave me a great quote. And he was like, one thing he learned is the only way, the, what you can't really make it happen without a work stoppage. You've got to be willing to go out there and do a work stoppage.

And 1987 really messed up the possibility of a work stoppage for the play. because they was out there going in front of Home Depot, getting them some dudes, putting them in football suits, and people paid and people watched. And then you had guys like actual quarterbacks or whatever, you know, going out there and playing with them. Like that trump card, and I don't think that would work now, by the way. I think it might work for a week.

But I don't think it's a replacement reps. We saw how that went. I forgot about the replacement reps. Yeah, they tried that shit with them. I was like, no, we ain't going to be able to do that. And they're confused in the back of the end zone. Just flabbergasted by a football play. I can't believe they thought the regular reps ain't that good already.

It's like, let's get the second ones. Like the reason why semi-pro football and I'm calling the new USFL, I'm calling the XFL, all of those, they won't work because they're not enough quarterbacks to go around. Right? Like, you see what happens in an NFL game, but you go to any backup. you see what it is. These cats can't even get those jobs. I think you're right. Your point about losing money is a big one because you can strike when you're not going to make $30,000 is different than striking when you're going to miss out on $15 million.

And like I understand that. That makes sense. Understand. And the other thing that people who haven't been in unions misunderstand is they think the job of leading a union or being a part of the union. or being a part of the union, particularly leading it, is about in-room negotiations. It's like who's the best negotiator? Negotiations is not like what you see in the movies. It's not like capably playing hardball or doing some tricky play with words to dupe somebody. Like negotiations is years ahead of time. It's creating leverage in power.

And that leverage in power takes time to create and requires connection. And I think that's why like politicians. I think probably when they did the search for for Lloyd's replacement, they called and asked me if I had recommendations for the types of people to look for outside of athletes. I was like, yeah, like, politicians are the type of people that pound the pavement and are constantly campaigning. Like, you've got to go to see these guys. You've got to be accessible to these guys and you have to be responsive to them. And it has to be over decades, right, at least years before they feel like this is my. And then when they feel like this is mine, you then engender the type of commitment that we're talking about where a guy will tear a damn ligament and continue playing.

Like, it's in these guys. Obviously, they're capable of it. They demonstrate it for free. Frankly, like, it's not going to change the money that they're making. They demonstrate it weak in and week out. They just don't feel that connection to the union, which is sad because there was a time. when it was stronger. Maybe there was never a time when it was,

when it was like it was before they had, when the reserve clause was around, before they had free agency, free agency changed some things. But it was a lot stronger at one point. And it's obviously it's depressing for someone who, like, I've never cared about anything other than playing football and unions,

like legitimately deep in my heart. And it's, it makes me sick, man. It makes me sick to see that we're in a situation where we got, right now, three stories in a matter of a couple months that just frankly embarrassing. Yeah, and I'm going to make one point before we go on this break that I think people need to remember about the ability to stand tall in those moments.

Some significant portion of the league. I don't think it might be 50%, but that feels a little high, man, but a lot of it. A big part of this league, a plurality of it is making the middle. And let's call it, I don't know what the minimum is now, but let's just throw it out there and call it $600,000. $600,000 a year is a lot of money if you've been making money and get to the point of that. But if you are 24 years old, 25 years old, and you've just been making this a couple years, I know what you're thinking, well, you can stack up your, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, whatever.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. Nobody's saying you wrong, right? You can't stack and be ready for this, but no, that's not how it goes. Like, Katz can't always stand tall, no telling how many bills they're paying for other people, you know, what the obligations or everything else. So it's a tough game, but it is a bad look right now for the association. And we'll be back to talk about things that are better looking, like ourselves. Nothing beats relaxing on a hot summer day and watching baseball.

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Unwined from work with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash Bomani. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P-com, slash. Beaumont. Dominic, I do want to talk about this, right, fast, because we're in that time of year. This happens every year where the new round of NBA extensions come, and people start seeing those giant numbers, and they can't believe that, for example, Devin Booker can get $75 million or something like that in the season.

They can't believe that Chet Holmgren gets the five-year, damn near $250 million extension. everybody gets so shocked every single time and they're not doing it out loud this time but nobody's madder than football. That is a traditional situation, man. We always get mad because we see their numbers and they're fully guaranteed and they are so enormous and we like, but y'all like I game more.

Why we don't got those numbers? There's a number of dynamics that impact the way that it happens. But yeah, they ain't doing it yet, but they're going to do it. They deserve to. Go ahead. Well, I mean, look, it's the reason why they can do that because I just told you, they'll go to Home Depot and put some dudes in some stealer suits and they'll treat them like you Jack Labbert. It's going to be the same damn thing.

Like, it is, the dynamics of it are so fascinating, though, right? Because it's 15 guys on a roster. That's a major part of it. I think the part that is undersold in this discussion, they play. play 82 games. That's 82 opportunities to sell tickets, right? That's 82 opportunities to be on television. And yes, football has bigger stadiums and they have bigger numbers when they go. But the reason baseball players make all this money, they sell 162 episodes per team of their television show, right? That's where it winds up going. That being said,

David Booker's getting $75 million a year. You wonder while LeBron ain't taking a penny less than the max every time out. Your television show analogy, like, it's a perfect one because I would say that their television show also requires stars in a way that, like, professional football is closer to a reality show. And that it's like, all right, we are here for the competition. Whereas a lot of times in basketball, we hear, I mean, you see it reflected in the way that the ratings are tied to the games. Like, we'll watch anybody play football. We'll watch the bad teams play. They put up playoff level numbers for other sports to watch two bad teams play.

And basketball, it's not like that at all. It's like, no, we ain't nobody even going to watch it if you put it in O'SA's some garbage. But I think the football players still have an argument because the revenue generally is, dwarfs that. Understanding all that doesn't matter. It's like what you can leverage for. And the baseball conversation is always an interesting one because it's, I guess, the last remaining completely uncapped sport.

But what's happened with baseball seems like we're not going in a direction where more revenue is going to the players. No, it's been dropping. Yeah. So while we keep getting excited about how huge these contracts are, they're getting it off somebody ass. The percentage of revenue is going down. going to the players.

Well, the trade of an uncapped sport is an unfloored sport. Yep. And that is the one thing that the union and football in particular has done a great job on is raising the floor. Right. Now, granted, teams will consistently go under the floor, but once you do, you then have to write a check and that money, the teams have to write checks and then that money gets dispersed to the players. But, yeah, that's the problem with baseball. They'd be over there cheating, boy.

Who do the owners be over there, cheat? And the people don't care because they're like, you getting paid to play a kids game. And look, you might say baseball is a kid's game. That's fine. You want to say basketball is a kid's game. That's fine. But ain't nobody confused in playing football with throwing jacks. You know what I'm saying?

Ain't nobody talking about football like it's hopscott. You the fuck came up with that stupid shit in the first place. You get paid to play a kids game. I tell you who came up with that. Hators. haters is who came up with that. And who cares? What you get paid to do, whether it's a kids game or not.

You like it. It's valuable. I'm valuable. Give me my money. Call it what you want to call it. Like that to me, yeah, it's disrespectful. And just because you enjoy your job doesn't mean that you shouldn't get fairly compensated for it. But I think the baseball union is headed for, or at least because they can play the long game, the owners,

I think they probably are like trying to create a divide and trying to fracture the union and eventually institute a salary cap because the divide that they're creating now to the guys at the bottom is getting bigger and bigger with the bigger contracts and then those guys are cycling out. At some point, the guys at the bottom are going to be like, hey, give us a damn floor.

And then the owner's going to be like, oh, you want a floor, do you? If you got a floor, you know what you need above that floor, right? They're like, who said that? Who said that? Which one else said that? Right here?

Right here. Stand up, young man. What was your name? That was a great idea. Who else thinks that's a great idea? And then he'd look around. There's a bunch of guys who are right next to. Like, yeah, this numbers ain't right.

But ultimately, also. And then show, how, show, hey, El-Tadi back there, like, hey, I speak English. All of a sudden, I don't need no interpreter. He's going to be an up on a fucking side of like, J.P. Morgan, like E.F. Hutton. But that's, but that's, that's, that's where the lottery, the lottery mindset prevails, you know, it's like everybody think they're going to hit the lottery. That's where because no one, I, while we did, um, raise the floor, no one in those conversations is raising the floor for themselves. You're like, let me get this floor for these guys, man, because I'm gonna be nice.

I'm gonna hit that, I'm gonna hit that contract. Nobody is considering for them, for themselves. So that's another challenge for the future that both sides want to create. What a time, man. Like, I just find myself all the way around on the, what a time. I want to throw something out here that I just saw here and thought about. And I hadn't asked you about it. And like, I'm not always the best at empathy. I think I'm generally fairly good, but I admit not always that good. But you just, think about old buddy for the Vikings who took a couple phone calls from the bank and he thought he was talking to the bank and somebody scammed him out of $240,000 because he was wiring money.

You can be, you can have sympathy without having empathy. Yeah, and I know, hold on, let me, let me get the people caught up, right? This is from ESPN.com, quote, heard the affidated. And the player's name is, sorry, I got to do to see. about in the Dallas Turner. I'm pretty sure he played it out about. Pretty affidated. Someone impersonating a banker at J.P. Morgan Chase called Turner on February 19th and claimed, quote, and quote, claimed someone was attempting to a person Nate Turner at a Chase branch in Arizona and presented two copies of ID to execute a wire transfer. The caller instructed Turner to transfer money to two separate businesses to prevent the attempted theft.

Turner then went to two Chase branches to transfer $120,000 each to, Island Food Truck LLC and C-N-L-F-L-C. Hold on, hold on. Turner, who's 22, later realized, quote, he may have been a victim of a fraud scam after discussing the matter with a family member according to the affidavit, and I want to interview with that family member. I got to say this. And I get why it's hard to be empathetic or sympathetic that situation. I have not gotten scammed like that.

However, I've gotten pretty close in the past. Because what happens is, fortunately, I made the calls beforehand. What happens is they send you in the fight or flight. It's like if you get a call that feels credible or a letter or something feels credible that someone is trying to, you're like, oh, I got to stop this right now. What I need to do? What did I do? Like, I could see that having it.

So I don't have as much trouble. So in empathy for my guys. Well, well, well, number one, I think he needs to file a lawsuit against where his cell phone provider is because I would like to think this scam likely would pick that one up, right? I would like to think that part. I'm just going to throw this out here because as I talk about it, I do develop more empathy and sympathy for me. Right. But when they said that you should send the money to Island Food Truck LLC. I'm going to go ahead and say that they probably didn't say that.

They probably said wire it to this number. I understand you. Counterpoint, because I've had to do some wiring lately. Yeah, you got to put it in the name of it. Or when they put the number in, a name will come back. And where they're like, so you want to send this to Island Food Truck LLC? Hell yeah. That's how to keep my money safe.

Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, and to be fair, he has gotten back some of the money. $2,500. It's a start. What is that $2,500 is what I want to know. That $2,500 that he got back. Who did he get it from?

What is it? I'm guessing that's all that was left in the accounts that they could pull back. I don't know, man. Damn, man. That's a tough break, brother. And look, I'd be talking about this. Is that time of year we'd be scraping a bowl for content? I hope we don't even make a short video out of this because I don't want to embarrass that man no further.

And I always say I'd be looking forward to somebody getting arrested. This is worse. Like this is about as bad as that time. You remember when that lady ran that game on dirt that time? Oh, I have forgotten that. Yo, that is, that was just early enough in the social media era. But when he got dirt and for those you who don't look it up, that boy got dirt and he got dirt. This was how we found out what dirt like, by the way.

Yeah. This was the first indication. And she had already tried, I think she tried to, like, steal some jewelry from Tony Banks, but there go Tony, that Banks can play. There goes Tony Banks in this story, right? Can play. But she called Dirk Novinski and said, oh, wrong number. I would try to call my dad.

Hey, what's your name? And it went from there. That's a tough one, Dirk. That's a tough one. Yo, yo. And then, by the way, he bawled in the playoffs after that. I developed a whole new respect for Dirk. He had been struggling in a couple of playoffs before that,

and then he brought them pain. They lost, but he still did it. I can't, yeah, I can't. That is the place where I feel like most of us, particularly young ones, are susceptible. Like, yeah, that could get you. I had a conversation with one of our homeboys a couple days ago who broke up with his girl, he was with for a long time,

and he was saying, like, all the stuff. stuff, all the signs that he had before. And he was like, I just couldn't see him. And he was like, now that I'm far enough away, I was stupid. It was so obvious that she was up to something. But I was just stupid because I was so close. And I was thinking the wrong way. Like, yeah, he was blinded by love and some other things.

Yeah, but I'm just saying, she hit him with the, what's your name? Yeah. Right? Like, imagine your luck. I was trying to call my brother. And it turned down on the other end was Durbinbyn. Also, the confidence you got to have and whatever it is, you bring it to be like, watch, this going to work. And then it made it work.

And then it was Dirk's people around him that finally shut the party down because Dirk was so down. And, brother, I'm afraid to know some of the things that were said in German about this young lady in the game that she was rudded. the idea that the wish your name I mean I'm assuming that they did the the scatter shot like I assume that 500 players got that same text

like it's no way that they was like hey wish your name and it actually worked and yeah I don't know I don't know you remember that time by the way that Eli Manning gave game worn jerseys to people

that hadn't been worn in no games I forgot about that Yo, they made that one go away fast. I was like, hey, hey, y'all, they fooling me on this one. Y'all, I don't know who exactly was it on this game. And look, I feel like that's like all the, like, they just threw that bitch down in the grass and stepped on it a couple times. I don't know.

But they made that story go away immediately. Power and influence. I was just thinking about the points that you were making about business earlier and how it hadn't really hit me until now. It's like I might have been the only person to go. to Harvard Business School and come out like, I don't really want to do this. Like, the only person who went in there and got a look on the inside, it came. I was like, uh, that ain't for me.

No, you're not the only person. It can happen. Like, I remember when I was taking MBA classes and I was reading this book, The Shaw to Selle, it written about wrestling called Sex Lies and Headlots, and it had a picture of Vince McMahon on the cover, and this man who ain't speak that much English came up to me. I'm not going to do an impression of him because there's no way to do it without sounding racist. And he was like, Vince McMahon, I love him. I said, what? He's like, I love him. He is such a great promoter. And even if he was a great promoter, I had never heard the idea that

somebody would speak of Vince McMahon with affection was like, oh man, I could never do this world. Oh, no, no, no. I mean, when I had gone through the, we've had this conversation before. The CBA negotiations, it was like when it hit me that like that people who were billionaires weren't geniuses. And then I was like locked in. I was like, man, I'm going to go to business school. And I'm going to turn this money into hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars. Then I went there and started talking to people and read more about this stuff and spent one year in between doing venture capital work and was like, I can't sleep at night. This shit makes me sick.

Like I got to do something other than this because I, I don't want it that bad. I had to, like, I'm sure, like, not everywhere. There are plenty of ethical people in business, I'm sure. But it just felt like it was a more ruthless world to succeed than one that I had just come from because at least we was honest with each other. I want your job. I want your job. I'm going to try to beat you for it.

I'm going to try to hurt you on this next play. I'm trying to throw you off the field. All right. If you can do it, you win. There was no, like, let me try to tilt the rules in my favor and secretly do it like that. too many them win and then they write the story like they didn't do the bullshit

and then we all eat it up. I'll hit you with one last thing. All right. Our industry doesn't have the money to do retrospective stuff like they used to. But this week was 15 years since the decision. I don't know

if we could possibly explain to people because that 2010 is the combination of like the beginning of social media so you had the effects it had to make things bubble, but still monoculture in a sense, right? That night in totality, the idea of that whole thing, it'll never be like that again. That led to me to me the four most interesting years that the NBA has ever given us to LeBron and Miami years.

Mind blowing, mind blowing, but I really do look back on it and I was a big proponent of the decision. I was a big proponent of LeBron and still am in a lot of ways about that. but oh my God what a terrible idea that was. It wasn't a terrible. It was, I see where they were coming from. Right. But in retrospect,

I'm like, David Stern had the right point. There's 30 teams and only one of them is going to be happy. Yep. Yep. I mean, I like you. Like,

was a proponent and am a proponent, but I imagine that they would have done things slightly differently if they had the chance to do it. But you're right. I think I watched all of their regular season games. I don't remember the last time I've watched one team's entire regular season. Like I feel like I watched all 82. I was on my honeymoon in the Bahamas to watch decision.

And I was like, nah, yeah, we're going to have to take a break from this meal and walk over to the bar because they was planning it at the Bahamian bar and see where LeBrongo go. I was at the house. I was by myself. And I remember I knew I was lit and I had to stop tweeting because it was John Barry, Stuart Scott, Michael Will Bond, and Chris Broussaw. And I sent a tweet. I think I said it. I may not have said it.

But either way, at the very least I wanted to send a tweet that said they need to put a paper bag on the table. And I realized right then and there. Yeah, yeah. I need it. Yeah. I needed to tap out. I was not capable. I was so crunked up about the decision and so crucked up of what I was crunking

that I needed to fall back. I needed to fall back that night. My man Terry, Terry worked for the news station in Cleveland, right? And he was calling me from the streets and I would just hear the people in the background as he's walking down the street. Because, you know, TV news, he's driving the van. They got the cameras and, hey, fuck, LeBron!

Hey, fuck, I'm just screaming all this. He said he was in my, this was the funniest thing. Some dude in Nepal was like, and I quote, I always knew he was a bitch. He was a bitch in high school, and he a bitch now. Like, that is one of the meanest places in the world. Let us keep in mind with legitimate reason to be upset.

And he gave it to him. man, and then came back and they loved them. A lot of people loved him. I've got one Cleveland, Fred, by good buddy Russ in North Carolina. Nothing changed. Really? Happy to Cavs won the championship. Hated LeBron like he always did.

Hey, man. I think a lot of them were happy about the championship and they clap about LeBron, but don't think for a second that they did not stop hating him. Yeah, that's reasonable. They just made the trade. They just made the trade because look, you've ever been to Cleveland not for a game. Yeah. I went up there to talk to Jake Paul, and that's a story for a bit more.

That's all I will say about Cleveland is this, and this is a true story. And I hope this has been rectified. I stayed at the double tree and it ain't had no cookies. And they said they hadn't had cookies for a while. And I don't, that's what you, that's who you are. That's what you do. That's not what I was expected. It's like as a measurement of the city's prosperity is the double tree test.

We got to introduce that. Well, this was after the airport test. Oh, God. Like, I don't think you've been there. Like the airport test. It's rough. Like Cleveland's airport made me think of, something that I think about whenever I go overseas, which is, how much do paint costs here?

Because it feels like a couple of coats could really change the way people look at this place. This seems like a really easy solution. Just a couple coats. I'm over there in Portugal and I'm like, damn, ain't nobody got no paint. Nobody over here got no paint? Like what? How much does a can of paint cost? here. I see all these people out here smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee at 2 o'clock in the

afternoon. Clearly they could use something to do. Yeah, they just get a couple rolls on there, man. It doesn't change the way things look, man. Change the way you feel. It might make people happier. Like when we see ancient ruins, we forget that before they become ancient ruins, they are new ruins. Right? And I'm watching in Portugal, like as things are becoming ancient ruins every day and that I rode around Cleveland. I saw the exact safe thing. One day some archaeologists going to come through and be like, damn, what was they doing over here? Like, it appears that they used to

build things, make products, the men work with their hands. I didn't stay Cleveland long when I was there. I was just passing through, but I did not take a stop at the airport. But I've told you when I was in Detroit, I was surprised. It was like maybe I was in the right areas. Downtown Detroit was popping, man. It was nice. Except for the guy that I saw standing on the corner

in a bulletproof vest holding. And millimeter in his hand with no shirt on. The element was there. Everything else. I'm like, this is wonderful. People talking bad about Detroit. This is fantastic. That's all that guy. Oh, okay. So I rode around Detroit with Vinny. I went up to Ann Arbor for something.

Vinny came and, you know, Mr. Detroit, right? Vinny came and schooled me up. And what I felt about Detroit was where Detroit was nice, Detroit was nice. Where Detroit was not nice, there was literally nothing there. Like them riots was like 60 years ago. It's like Miami's got spots. like that too for when they had their rides in the 80s and the white folks was like, I bet you'll learn your lesson.

We ain't going to fix it. Yeah, we ain't going to fix nothing. Y'all just going to be here. Those particular places, man, it's tough. Because you're right, Detroit, I drove through some of those places that were not great, which is where we saw the guy with the tactile vests and three guns. His arms count as two. It was not, because he was ripped too.

It was not pleasant going through there. And then they have like uniquely named things that like a lot of Zs and X's in the spellings of regular stores. It's like, man, which are all, man? I don't appreciate it. I feel, I feel disrespectful. What can I say, Dominique? They can't all be Baltimore.

A wonderful magical place. Hey, go to BWI. I got the airport got respect, man. The airport got respect for itself. Damn it. It's saved. I live in D.C. now, two airports

with respect for themselves. A 50 mile radius, we got three airports that got a fresh coat on them. Fresh coats everywhere. You won't find no cracking or pier. Fresh coats. You sound like you selling shit in the parking lot. Fresh coats. Fresh coats. And we buying it here too, so

we good. And that is Dominique Fosworth. Check him out on the Dominique Fosworth Show where you can find an episode with me, Dominique and Spencer Hall, talking about college sports and payments. Available for All Fine Podcasts. A giving away for free. My brother, I appreciate you. Appreciate you. And ladies

and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this three times a week. Ryan Brumley handling everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us. Give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. And we got

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