The Ringer NFL Show - Maxx Crosby Trade Debacle, Geno's a Jet (Again), Viking Kyler, Bam Drops 83, Italy Beats Team USA at Baseball, and Pokémon or Coachella Band

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

The guys react to one of the strangest NFL offseason twists in recent memory, breaking down the Ravens backing out of a blockbuster trade, what it means for the Raiders, and why the fallout could reshape both teams’ plans. They also hit quarterback rumors, free-agency leverage plays, and the kind of NFL chaos that only happens once the tampering window opens. (00:00) Intro (02:37) Maxx Crosby Trade (29:45) Other News (01:08:38) Italy Beats USA at Baseball (01:18:04) Emails Discord link: https://discord.gg/Ge8bbYHrau Join our March Madness Bracket Challenge: https://fantasy.espn.com/games/tournament-challenge-bracket-2026/group?id=e3c76fdc-8f58-4fe0-9dbe-5154ff72e0b4 Check out The Ringer’s 2026 NFL Draft Guide: https://theringer.com/nfl-draft/2026/big-board#content Email us! [e-mail] Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Austin Gayle, Abou Kamara, Carlos Chiriboga, and Cameron Dinwiddie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy football show, a.k. The Ringer NFL Draft Show. My name is Danny Hypert. And I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbeck. And what a bizarre Tuesday night in sports. The Jets reunited with Gino Smith. Bameteuio had 83 points in an NBA basketball game, passing Kobe Bryant for the second most ever. America lost to Italy in baseball because the Americans didn't know the game counted.

I can't believe that. We obviously are going to start with the Ravens backed out of the Max Crosby trade. And we're going to bring in Austin Gale here at the Ringer, who is a massive Raiders fan, which is really sad. Massive Raiders fan who doesn't remember any of the Raiders' memories of being good. We're going to bring him in for really, I think, D.K., we might have to do Supreme Fantasy Court, if we're being honest here. I know.

Craig, should we do a special session? I think we need to. I think this calls for it. We need to. But before that, real quick, I want to mention it. We're also going to do a March Madness bracket again. We did it last year. We had a lot of fun with it.

So we're going to give Ringer merch out. Shout out again to Danny G who won last year, who... Danny G. I'll be totally honest. I forgot to send it to him. I'm going to send it to him this week. So I'm sending him to bring her merch. I know.

I blew it. No way. Oh, my God. I'm being honest. I can lie, but I'm being honest. I'm coming clean. But anyway, we're going to do our March Madness bracket. But I'm sending it to him.

I got his address and everything. Selection Sunday is this Sunday. So we're going to try to take Tate Frazier on next week on this show to do a March Madness preview. But the game start next Thursday. You're hearing this probably Thursday, March 12th. The game start next week. ESPN, not doing an entry fee. It's on ESPN.

Just look up the ringer fantasy football show. And on ESPN, and we're going to have the link in this episode description, wherever you're listening. So you can join our March Madness pool. And then Craig can give an in-depth breakdown of San Diego State and whatever else. And we'll have... Oh, they're not going to make it.

So I don't... There will be no breakdown. We can change it to make it about San Diego State, though, Craig. I mean, I don't want to talk about that this year. So any other team, I'm happy to talk about it. Yeah, that's brutal. Prize is TBD. So we could do ringer merch again.

And the prize will come in 2027. It will. Yeah, you're delayed. Yeah. It's a future, future consideration. So terrorists. I am going to send Danny G. the stuff.

Sorry, Danny G. Yeah, so join our March Madness bracket. And episode, that is in the episode description. So with that said, we're going to bring in Austin Gale, Raiders fan as the plaintiff here. But I think it's time for Supreme Fantasy Court. Definitely don't tell anyone about this thing that you're doing.

I don't really want to be handcuffed. The definition of an object is a material thing that can be seen and touched. Can you touch a cloud? Court is in session. We are joined by Austin Gale, Raiders fan. Austin, not usually how you start court, but Max Crosby, back on your favorite player, traded for two first-round picks to the Ravens. And then on Friday night, and then Tuesday, the Ravens failed.

him on a physical on Tuesday night and then they signed Tray Hendrickson to basically all the Max Crosby money on Wednesday morning. How do you feel lost? And how are you doing? My breakfast was a black coffee and starting Facebook groups to Jan 6, the Ravens organization. That's kind of where we're at right now. I'm reading every report. I have notifications on three different platforms of Deanna Rossini. I need to see everything. I need to cost of files. I need to know what happened here. This does not happen in the NFL for a reason. This does never happen. People bring up the brokers, the grant will get into it. This does not happen. This was bad faith, bad business.

They ripped Vegasione the dreams from me over a weekend. I can't believe this happened. I think I have ideas for best case, worst case, but this is no doubt a meteor, a nuke, dropped into the Raiders lap after they spent 280 mil on Monday thinking Max Crosby was a raven. What do you think the physical was like? Do you think they hit Max Crosby's knee with a literal hammer?

And they were like, did that hurt? And he's like, yeah. I'm like, well, it looks like you can't make it on the team. Sorry. We can make jokes all day long. The thing is everyone knew that Max Crosby had the surgery at the end of the season. It wasn't a trim. It was a repair.

Rappaport had receipts. They knew they talked to the surgeon before they made offers to the trade. That's the Ravens doctors. And I think what had happened because of this legal tampering period, they get to Tuesday. And all of a sudden, it's kind of easy to drum up that this knee, that yes, has been surgically repaired. And he has other injuries too. And he's turning 29. Might have, this is the quote, might have long term concerns.

Like anyone can make that up the Tuesday after. the Monday where they're talking to Trey Hendrickson. Like, this is very clearly like, yes, maybe his need doesn't make sense for two first round picks, but you can't agree to the trade Friday and then get out of it one day after three Agenzy starts. Like, this is- I sure as I can.

I'm sure as I can. It's legal by all, it's legal. And I don't know if the league is going to come down on the Ravens for this, but like in terms of like Gadell or whatever, but I might. I think other teams are really upset by this. Like, again, this doesn't happen. It's bad faith.

It's bad business. It's why like there's a bunch of mud throwing in the media right now. Like, people are really upset. with the Ravens. DeCosta's going live right now. Spewing probably lies, mind you, but it's an unfortunate situation for the Raiders, and I can't believe the Ravens did it. You got to come up with like a Trump nickname for Eric DeCosta, like DePropaganda or something. He needs to have his own name.

Go to DeCost you. Yeah, he really is. He is. He's costing me a lot. Eric Cost you. Yeah, just to go through this again, I mean, I actually just started writing down a list of questions I had personally throughout this, not even for content, but I just, because I realized that, I mean, this has never happened. I mean, nothing like this has really happened. Like in sports sometimes, I think every year, at least in one of the sports, basketball, baseball, football, you see either a free agent signing or a trade voided because of a physical. And like all signings and all trades are dependent on the physical.

They're mostly formalities for the most part that, you know, I would say 99% of them, it's fine. But every now and then. Legitimately, one of them was they discovered a brain tumor. Yes, Jerome Harrison was traded, I think, to the Eagles. Like that's the kind of thing that normally would cancel out a trade like this. not like, actually, you know what? The surgically repaired knee that we knew about is actually, it's surgically repaired. And gosh, you know what?

Trey Hedgeson is still out there. He wasn't supposed to take a physical until June. Like his knee, they know is not ready to be evaluated yet. They knew all of this going in. Like, it's clearly a parachute pole. They knew. They knew. They knew it happened.

I think, I do think that this is just honestly the $11 billion dollar football team organization version of just post nut clarity. If we're being honest, like, I feel like the Ravens did something completely out of character. They're a draft and developed team. They're a family team. They, you know, they go home to their wife. And they had this one night on Friday night where they were like,

it was Friday night. It was Friday night. And it's like Max Crosby two first round tickets. Drinks were flowing. Flowing. What time was at Eastern? It was like nine Eastern. And then they were buzzing. And they're like, oh, they're like, oh, I should have. What happened? happened like two first I guess my holocaust ring they never even traded one in the whole

history of the team they traded two you can't tell me over the weekend those the decision makers had a stomachache they're like oh my god we've never traded a first round pick we traded two and they started reading us for it and trying and reading the tweets the line yeah as as much as it pains me to say this is just incredibly savvy work by baltimore it really is that's the saddest part that's the Satisfar. Like, this is an excellent play. This is fucking Machiavellian. This is so smart.

Them giving this ridiculous package to Max Crosby. A few days later, they realized, oh, Trey Henderson's still out there. We can get rid of Crosby, get our two first round picks back, get the second best option at pass rusher. Oh, are we sure we're maybe overpaying Trey Henderson a little bit? But is that worth getting two first round picks back? Yes.

Let's do that. Send him back to the Raiders where that makes no sense now because they just filled their roster to replace Max Crosby. They also lost Linderb. bomb. They're like, shit, we thought we were going to have Linderbom. Like, now we have all this extra money. It's expertly done by Baltimore. You have to give it to them. It's a, it's a mafia move and they nailed it. I know. I was going to say, like, do I think the Ravens did something illegal? No. Was it insanely Bush League? Yes. Like, what's the punishment for being total

Bushley? I don't know. Maybe there's like, there's a code red. Like, is there a league code red thing, something that they could do? Look, they know the rules and they followed them, right? They, they They didn't pass the physical. Every team has their own standards of what is required to pass a physical. And the Ravens are like, he didn't pass our test. What are you going to say? You're going to challenge our doctor? And I don't want to get lost in the technicalities, but it's important to remember, like,

the whole weird thing with the, the league, we're recording this Wednesday afternoon, March 11th. None of these deals are technically official till 4 p.m. Eastern. So technically, Max Crosby never was a Raven because they do all the deals. He was in their musical. He was in their building. No one moves chairs. It's a fugazi. It's a fugazi.

He was in their business. building for a whole day. He was like rehabbing in the Ravens facility. The fact, Diana Rossini reported that they were on the phone with Trey Hendrickson while Max Crosby was there, that Max Crosby's there for eight hours in the Ravens facility, met everyone, brought his family, met the coaches, met everybody, met trainers, and then they're on the phone Hendrickson while he's there. Rappaport said Trey Hendrickson was going to sign with the Colts until he found out

about them backing out of the Crosby trade. They do! They do. Hayden Winks made this analogy and I thought it was perfect. The Ravens left their bride at the altar for a bridesmaid. Yes. Yes. It's like, is that illegal?

No. Does it look good? No. No one's going to forget. Like I said, the only recourse for this is spiritual. It has to be a curse. It's got to be a Crosby curse here. Like the Raiders aren't going to get anything for this.

The league's not going to do anything. But this is bad karma, bad voodoo, all of it. For a team that has had that for a while now, add this little sprinkle. Trey Hendrickson's 31 years old, three years older than Max Crosby, also coming off surgery. I hope he passed. is the physical. I'm rooting for the Ravens downside. I just rooting for the demise. I can't I can't do this. I can't do this.

Wait, but now he's going to play for your team. Right? And I like, that's best case scenario. Revenge maxing. We're revenge maxing with Maxxby still on the team. Everyone's bringing up the Capspace. We have so much Capspace. We have to spend 90% of the floor. We still have about 40 million in space with Crosby back on the books.

Convince him to play for the Raiders, it was always meant to be. He was in the facility this morning at 6 a.m. So was I. No, I wasn't. Turn him into a villain. Congrats. He's a villain. He's going after everyone. We play the Ravens in 2027.

Look out. I mean, I'm just kind of like, look out. The worst case for this is you trade Crosby for cents on the dollar. Not because, in my opinion, the physical brings him down, which like maybe doctors have differing opinions. We have to give some credits of that, like him failing the physical, having the surgery, whatever. The real problem is hours after this trade was announced, Deanna Rucini dropped the bag, Vic Tafor of the athletic dropped the bag saying, Mark Davis and Max Crosby met at his home for

like three hours, kind of saying their goodbyes in December. That was the hardest thing they had to keep close to the best at the combine. When SpyTech was immediately asked, how confident are you keeping Crosby? He says confident. They played cat and mouse the whole way. And then all of that rumors comes out. That's why the trade value has dropped. It's how their commitment to keeping Crosby wasn't as big as they said it was.

And now that cat's out of the back. So the trade, no, the trade values dropped because the Ravens failed them on a physical. I'm almost positive. You know what? You know what's the funny thing? And look, I haven't, I haven't, this, DeCosta presser is happening right now. so I haven't actually watched it yet. But based on the tweets that I'm seeing

that are kind of relaying what's happening in this presser, I told Austin not to read any of these. He isn't even, he had, Eric DeCosta has not brought up the medicals. His explanation was, as part of the trade process, we were not able to complete the process based on our assessment of the situation.

This guy's playing with the lawyers right now, he's like, I had to do what's best interest of the organization. What kind of work are you in? What will I work are you in? Construction. fell off a truck. Waste management. He hurt his knee.

No, he can't actually say anything because technically Max DeCrosby is just another player under contract for another team and they're not allowed to talk to him. I do want to go a couple like things of housekeeping with all this just because it's worth going through. Max Crosby did have a knee surgery on his meniscus at the end of the season.

That was two months ago. Max Crosby was on crutches until two weeks ago and Max Crosby is not ready to play football again or practice in any capacity till two months from now. So on what? hand, you could argue that no team was going to quote unquote pass them on a physical now because frankly, players aren't usually traded on this kind of timeline, or at least for this much.

Like, players are not usually traded when they were just on crutches. However, there's also a reason that this almost never happens and has more or less almost never happened for a deal this big, which is all the teams knew this. Like all the other teams, the bears, the cowboys, all the other teams that put a first and a second rounder together in this package, and the Ravens beat it with two first rounders. All the other teams knew that this was the deal. So I think the weird part is,

it's not that the Ravens failed them in a physical. And again, it's subjective. What it means is they're like, ah, given the risk reward, it's a no for me, dog. Like, if it was a seventh round pick, they'd probably say yes. It's like, it's very subjective. Different doctors could give different evaluations

and the trade package could change it. Now, they did get five independent doctors, apparently, including the Cowboys team doctor weighed in in an independent capacity, which is also bullshit because you think Jerry Jones isn't calling the independent doctor that works for the Dallas Cowboys about what, it's a whole thing. But other team doctors weighed in on this and saw all the exams and everything.

But the point being- As did Neil Eletrash, who worked on Max Crosby. Who did, yeah, Neil El-Trosh was on the phone with Adam Schaeft. Who was like the top sports surgeon in the country who worked on Kobe's Achilles, Otony's arm, Aaron Rogers, Achilles. He said that, of course, because it was his handiwork that Max Crosby was progressing better than

ahead of schedule. With that said, there's an argument that he was never going to, Max Crosby is never going to quote unquote, pass a physical. The weird part is, if the Ravens do that, why the fuck did they accept the trade for two firsts on Friday night? Which is why where everyone kind of leans is there, Occam's razor is two things.

The least sexy answer of all is, well, Max Crosby's knee is probably degenerative because he plays a lot of fucking snaps and never comes off the goddamn field and it's not that great of a long-term outlook on his knee, which they probably should have saw coming. And honestly, anything, it reminds me what D.K. always says about when you buy a house, don't look in the walls.

Like DK.K. always says, like, don't look in the walls. You don't want to see what's in there. It's easy to say, oh, we'll trade for him. He's great. Watch the tape. Max Crosby's amazing. Then they look in his knee and they're like, oh, my God, there's a lot of moisture in here. Like, we might have to fix this. This might be a long-term problem. And I feel like, honestly, I just think the Ravens got, yeah, like, they just got to have the poster clarity of like, oh, my God. Like, this guy can't practice yet. Why didn't give the two first for him? So what now? Like, what, what is Max Crosby's, trade value. He's not going for two first round picks anymore. He's tainted by the news of him not

passing the physical. The Ravens giving up on him. Like, will he get traded, Austin? Do you think he's going to get traded? And what do you think the package is going to be? I'd argue the lowest point of Max Crosby's trade value is right now, if not like yesterday. And I think what the reports have been coming out where like Raiders camp is clearly trying to push this narrative is that we're willing to play him this season. We have the money to keep him. We're not, you know, relitigating our free agency deals. we're going to honor those two, unlike the Ravens, but we're going to honor those two. And they're going to go into this season saying like, okay, maybe we trade him close to the draft if the compensation gets closer to what they were going to get for Baltimore, which probably won't. And then there's another option where you wait until after the 26 NFL draft, focus all the capital into 2027, like a 2027 first and a 2027 second, which still would feel like cents on the dollar, given that you got him off the books for two first.

I think that the way you do this is you hold face, say you're prepared to play him all the way up into the season, even up into the, deadline and wait until his trade value is at least gotten out of the hole it's in now. Like it would be ridiculous to trade him in the next week. I know on Friday, he has like a bunch of money and guarantees through 2027 that will go on the books. I think you eat that. You go to the 2026 NFL draft, continue to field offers and wait until like this thing's at least salvageable. Like Crosby was in the building at 6 a.m. this morning. The relationship wasn't great in December of last year. Now after all this, after the Raiders did right by him, traded him to an organization and the Ravens burned him. He might hate the Ravens more than he

doesn't want to play for the Raiders. So I think there might be actually interest in him playing for the Raiders. He said in his goodbye video that he's since deleted, by the way, that he would want to retire as a Raider. He is a Raider for life. I think that there's a good chance that this helps mend the wounds a bit. And again, it's revenge maxing. He's going on tour, 18 plus sacks. We get into the Wild Card round. Uh-oh, here come the Ravens. I don't know. I'm fan fiction over here. That's best case. But I think that honestly, it's more likely that he gets dealt. And it's like either near the 26 NFL draft or cents on the dollar or closer to the season. But I don't think they ever get two first pack. And to your point, the Raiders spent like a hundred, like, I can't even

think of the numbers. Like $280 million. Yeah, absolutely insane amount because they had very little on the books and there was a salary floor that they had to hit. And so they actually can keep Crosby. They still need like $25, $30 million for the draft class. But D.K. Obviously, if someone offered the Raiders two first for Max Crosby right now, they would take him a heartbeat. Obviously, the market's different now because teams kind of spent their money. But if the team offered a second rounder for Max Crosby, be like, go fuck yourself. But right now, let's say the Bears called back and just offered a first and a fourth. Would you take that if you're the Raiders?

Probably not. I think I would go with what Austin was saying is like just stick with them, you know, prove that you're willing to put your money where your mouth is in terms of like hanging on to him and trying to repair that. And then your leverage, right now what Austin was alluding to is like the Raiders have no leverage, you know, like everyone thinks that you're trying to just dump him for whatever. That eliminates their leverage. So trying to reestablish some of the leverage in terms of, you know, his value on the open market.

I think you just hang on to them. Because if everyone thinks that they're just trying to get rid of them for nothing, that just, you know, they're not, they're not going to offer anything near what they got for. You know what's funny? Part of me thinks that it's just a no call off because I remember something off-in thing, a Schaefter, Ian Rap report had said is that none of the teams are going to call the Raiders back because they think the Raiders are going to call them. But if you're the Raiders, you can't call anyone. Yeah. You can't reach out. I was like, again, phone lines aside.

Give a phone chicken. Yeah. There was a, no, you gotta call me. And then they're just not going to talk. There was an anonymous, like, high-ranking executive in the athletic that was, like, calling the Raiders about Crosby. And, like, his quote was like, yeah, they're in a really bad spot. Like, imagine calling them being like, hey, how's it going with Crosby?

And you come out of like, yeah, they're really struggling. I mean, a meteor fell into their lap last night after they spent all this money with their expectation being, we have two first round picks and next year and the year after his draft class. And we don't have this 30 million. Like, they spent all day on Monday thinking, Max Crosby was a Raven. Like, no matter how you slice this,

how late this decision came from Baltimore, with all of the other stuff, it being unprecedented. Like, it completely puts the Raiders in a bad spot. Like, it hurts them in a big way. They signed Quitty pay to replace him for like 30 million or whatever,

$25, 30 million a year. That's kind of awkward now. But I don't know. Part of me is like, oh, ironically, you do all this stuff on offense. And you're like, oh, well,

you had a Max Crosby's player on defense. And you're like, oh, well, I have Max Crosby back. The other thing I wanted to mention is just the amount of physicals that, like, they could be wrong. Like, Drew, like Nick Sabin and the Dolphins failed Drew Breeze on his physical.

They tried to sign him from Miami in 2006. They failed him on his shoulder. And then he went to New Orleans and played 15 more years, won a Super Bowl, and finished his career as the NFL's all-time leading passing leader. So they can be wrong with this. You know what I mean? It doesn't have to be. It's subjective.

I think. It's subjective, exactly. I mean, you can go to three different doctors and get three different opinions. Totally. I think the best storyline outcome here is that he stays with the Raiders and the, the Raiders are pretty good this year. And now their defensive line is actually great. And Max Crosby's revitalized and the relationship is repaired.

Because wasn't it like, they knew his knee was hurt and they wanted to tank for Mendoza. So they benched him. Which like now looking in retrospect is not that big of a fucking deal. And I know Max Crosby wants to play every snap and that's awesome. But maybe now the Raiders are going to be good. All it takes is the Raiders being like two and one and the team looks good and Mendoza looks all right. And Max Crosby has two sacks in the first three games.

feel like the vibes are high again. Absolutely. I mean, the upgrades they made to their front seven, like Quay Walker and the Kobe Dean, two monster deals. It's like the best linebackers they've had in terms of investment in a very long time. They re-signed Malcolm Coons. They re-signed Eric Stokes. They traded for Taryn Johnson.

They promoted the defensive line coach who Crosby loves to defensive coordinator. They're moving to a three-four. They invest in Linderbomb. Coupiac. The problem with Max Crosby was not with Mark Davis or any of the seven previous coaches. It was like, why do we have like seven coaches the last like eight years? And other problems have been with Tom Brady. Guerrero, that stuff coming out.

I think that Kubiak being there, the investment that they've made, there's a long-term plan in play. And at the end of the day, before the Ravens trade, there was no evidence that the Raiders have done right by him or, like, honored their word. But they legitimately did. They traded for two first. They kept this on the quiet since December. Like, they did everything right by him.

And at this point, Raider for life, I think that makes the most sense. And quietly, even if all that shit is bullshit, you have to say that so his trade value goes up. So, like, I feel like you have to hold face and try and do that anyway. We don't, we don't know what Alex Guerrero's medical, assessment of Max Crosby looks like. I'm waiting for that report to come out. Did he pass Alex Guerrero's physical?

That would be amazing if the Ravens open it up and it's like, what the fuck did Alex do in here? Guerrero sends a tweet. He wouldn't have passed my physical either for what it's worth. They're like, get Crosby some strawberries stat. What's going on out of here? Yeah, if they, so if they do hang on to him, the other thing that I think is interesting here is just adding on to the layers of this whole Raiders saga this off season so far, there was a tweet from Diana Rusini that the Raiders are,

expected to show interest in Kirk Cousins who becomes a free agent. Yeah, perfect. Literally perfect. And so like my thought is if the Raiders just hang on to Crosby, there nothing materializes before the first couple of weeks of the season, and they go into the league and they start winning or they go into the season and they start winning a few games or at least competing. I mean, then you then you're really talking about potentially keeping it long term because winning, as we know, winning cures all ills. And obviously, you know, Max Crosby, the big part of the reason they fell out of, you know, they fell out. this last season because the Raiders fucking sucked.

And if they're actually good, you know, that eliminates a lot of the issues that he has. The problem with the Raiders being actually good is that it's been largely a fantasy for the last two decades. And, you know, it's like kind of hope casting or wishcasting. I think that they still have real problems with the roster. Like they need to add a nose tackle now that they're moving to a three four. I think they need a big body receiver that's better than Jack Bash and Deontay Thornton. They still have holes along the offensive line.

Like they're still far away from being competitive. And they made this entire plan with thinking they were going to have two first and next year's draft and like all this Crosby space. So like they have to like reset on the fly. I hope they pulled an all nighter last night. I did. I hope the front office pulled an all nighter and got back on the horse here. Let's figure out this cousin's thing, like get back on track. I think they've done the right. And the early narrative has been great in terms of like we're recommitting the Crosby. Crosby was first in the building. You know, it's all, it's all there. I think, um, you know, they're recovering from an all time unprecedented might never, ever see this again

kind of thing happening them on day two of the whatever the tampering period is. Like I think their response has been okay. It's the best you can ask for. And the cousins things make sense because again, I think they really might not play Fernando Mendoza early as early, maybe not the entire year. And I think just more teams should do that, having the option to let him win the game. Also, I mean, half the people's comp for him is literally Kirk Cousins. Learning for them talking. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, D.K., isn't your comp? Oh, no, you have Russell Wilson. It's Flacco on the field, Russ on the mic. But Craig actually made a pretty compelling argument that it's actually cousins on the mic. For sure. Yeah, I think you're right. The other thing I think...

It's earnest. He's so genuine and... He's overly earnest. He's earnest maxing. Russ is guarded. Mendoza is himself. And I believe Kirk is as well. An earnest man in an ironic world.

Okay, the last thing here, I just want to hit before we move on to all these other crazy stories that happen. It's just how much better Trey Hendrickson actually? How much better is Max Crosby than Trey Hendrickson? I think the short answer is probably just run defense. I think Crosden is just not as good at...

Hendrickson is just not as physical as run defender. Max Crosby is not just getting sack. but getting tackles for loss. Hendrickson's getting sacks, but on a Bengals team that's throwing the ball, has no defense. And so he's kind of just always, you know, frankly, Hendrickson's team is playing with the lead,

probably easier more sacks, and the Raiders are kind of more behind it. It's harder for Crosby get sacks, but he's a way better run defender. It's weird that even on Friday, and this is the thing with, I think some people like, conspiracy Ravens did this.

It's really weird that even on Friday night, the Ravens were like, we'll just trade two first for Max Crosby instead of signing Trey Hendrickson. And then three days later, they had the post clarity of just the, what if we just signed Trahendrickson and kept the picks? It's weird that even four days ago that didn't occur to them.

They're like, man, nobody's signed Trey Hendrickson yet. I mean, Max Crosby's not two first round picks better than Trey Hendrickson. Let's just do that. The reports are that Hendrickson wanted like 30 mil or even bigger than 30 mil, and I think what they found after like everyone kind of like watered down some of the Trey Hendrickson market on day one, it's like, wait, we could get him for like the same amount of money we're paying Max Crosby and get our two first round picks back. That came up in the physical X-rays.

Is it like set on the side? Like, wait, and they're like starting to stack it up because that's the thing. They're saying that this wasn't worth the, like, yeah, now you're measuring what Hendrickson you can give for Hendrickson. That's like the whole part of the tampering period being kind of like, I think this takes a big baseball bat to the tampering period in general. Because if it leads to mistakes like this or like awkwardness like this, I do think ultimately it's just better starting free agency on Monday. Like I think a lot of this is kind of like looking stupid from the NFL side. It's not a good sign or strategy or brand. decision that this this window

is called the tampering period. No, no, Craig. It's called legal tampering. Right, yeah. Maybe they could have changed that. It's like the purge. It's like legal crying. 48 hours. Like, what the fuck you talk? I feel you legally tampered with. Adam Schifter. Adam Schifter hates it. Adam Schifter rants against this every year.

Like, what are we doing? Why don't we call this legal tampering? He's like the NFL pretends free agency starts at four on Wednesday. It ends at four on Wednesday. So, by the way, real quick, we started this out as a fantasy court. was in a fantasy league, we would kick this GM out of the league. Oh, we would, thank God. Thank God for justice. I'm glad there's still justice in today's world.

I'm glad. The commissioner in a fantasy league would be like, you're doing this trade. Don't try to bullshit. Like the, the portion would come back to the group chat and be like, hey, I looked at the x-rays. I don't know. You'd really shut the fuck up. He's like, oh, I could get a guy off waivers for the same.

Actually, I don't want to do this trick. Kick him off the tour, Doug. He's not breaking any rules. Craig, I would go a step further. I want Netflix Warner Bros with this. I want a breakup fee. I want a second round breakup fee. What's wrong with that?

Where's the breakup fee? Is that in play? Yeah, give me a fourth. It's some, what's wrong? It's some cap space for it. If the Eagles shook down Arizona for a third round pick to make the Jonathan Gannon tampering stuff go away

after the Eagles won the, or lost the Super Bowl in Arizona, and then the Arizona took Jonathan Gannon. Honestly, the Raven should have to do the Netflix $3 billion breakup fee. There should be something. There need to be repercussions beyond just, Like a Crosby curse.

Yeah. Shake hands. Make it go away. So in this scenario, Mark Davis is Ted Sarandos. Who's Brady? Max Crosby is Warner Brothers. Max Crosby's Warner Brothers.

And Eric DeCost is David Ellison in Paramount. Is that what we're saying? I don't know. Eric DeCosta is Ted Sarandos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's just driving the price up. Yeah, but Ted Sarandos got the breakup fee. Yeah.

We'll look on it. It doesn't quite work. Yeah. No, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting lost. It actually doesn't...

Interesting. It's not a one-to-one comparison here. Maybe it doesn't work. So the Raiders are getting $31 a share. I don't really know. Okay. Austin, thank you for joining us. I'm genuinely sorry. Yeah, there's not much you can do.

It's another day in the life of a Raiders fan. You got good karma. Good karma coming your way. Fucking better cash into some playoff wins. Go go look at Fernando Mendoza's LinkedIn. And Fernando Mendoza is going to be hyped to play with Max Crosby. Just keep that in mind.

Fernando Mendoza and Crosby, you're going to have a conversation. It'll go on a Crosby's odd and that's going to be funny. Huge, huge. Awesome. Thank you for joining us. So the Raiders would get the breakup fee

making them Netflix. Warner Brothers. I guess the issue is that there's three parties. Why can't we figure this out? Well, because it would have made, like the Ravens overpaid for Max Crosby. That is what Paramount did for Warner Brothers.

So that works. It's the reneging that messes things up, but it's fine. Are the Raiders? The Raiders deserve the breakup fee because they got shafted. Got it. But Netflix didn't get shafted is the thing. They just play their hand well. I don't know.

So they're the Ravens. Netflix and Paramount. The Ravens, I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, yeah. So watch our show on Netflix. That's right. Watch it on Netflix.

Or don't watch when you leave your house, turn it on and let it play for your pets. Or if you don't have any pets, just let it play. Do the Simpsons thing where he just has the little dropper thing continue to refresh, refresh. Yes. People will know what I'm talking about. Craig, do you know what he's talking about? I don't, but it's right. No, me neither.

Okay. We have other football stuff, but I'm going to be 100% honest. I know we're a football show, but I thought it would be disingenuous to talk with the New York Jets before we talked about an NBA player scoring 83 points. I kind of wanted to just do it now. Somehow, Gino Smith is back on the Jets 11 years after he was punched in the face and broke his jaw and lost his starting job

as a Jets quarterback. What streamer are the Jets? Tubi, Peacock? I don't know. Mooby, Pluto? I don't know. Pluto. What's ridiculous is those are all real companies we just named.

It's like mad. Pluto, Tooby, Mooby are all real. Movie and Tuby. Watch us a movie and to be. No. Fubo. Fuba, I don't understand Fubo. No one doesn't understand any of that.

I don't understand. They're like the saints. I don't know how they keep paying for all these things. But yeah, so the Raiders traded Gino Smith to the Jets for basically a pick swap. The Raiders moved up 20 spots in the seventh round. Congratulations. The Jets moved back 20 spots in the seventh round. And the Jets get Gino Smith.

They're paying him like three million bucks instead of one million. Just they're paying him a two million extra so that Gino Smith didn't go to free agency and get the opportunity to turn down the Jets. I don't even know where. to start, but I just think this is bizarre. The reunion no one wanted to see. This is the ultimate beggars can't be choosers, right? Gino Smith choosing to be an adult about it.

I'm excited for this opportunity, but there's no way Gino wanted to be in the Jets unless he had no other choices. There's no way the Jets wanted Gino unless they had no other choices. It was probably Gino and then freaking bringing Derek Carr to retirement. And they're like, all right, you know what? We're probably all we can do. I forgot that this eliminates the Derek Carr element. Oh, damn it.

God. Oh, well. See him. Yeah, this is bizarre. This is, it's been a tough year for Gino and Gino stands like me because I still think he's You won the Super Bowl because your team got rid of Gino. Okay, good point. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'll take it.

I'll take it. But still, I do, I do think Gino is better generally than what he was last year. I don't know how much better he's going to be on the Jets. I don't know if the situation is altogether that much better. But hopefully, you know, he can at least salvage a little bit of, of his reputation this year and give the Jets a chance to compete. I know our co-worker slash boss, Sean Fennessey, all in on this move, which I absolutely love. I know. I couldn't tell if that was sarcastic.

Sean tweeted, he's a lifelong Jets Knicks fan. He said, league minimum, huge win for the Garrett Wilson, true believers. Gino behind a good offensive line with Mason Taylor, Breeshall, and a young wide receiver two is kind of cool. And then Bill quote retweeted it and said that somebody has hacked Sean's account. Because like a month ago, Sean was like, I'm just taking this season off as a Jets fan. I'm done. You know what they say, like, your boss only sees you as the first job you had at the company. Unfortunately, for Gino, him going back into a Jets uniform almost wipes away everything he's done after the Jets.

I immediately feel like it's not going to work again. Him just putting on the Jets helmet. We talked about how the Jets need new uniforms. They especially need them now. I can't see Gino in a Jets helmet and expect it to work. I don't care how good the offensive line is. Can the quarterback just wear a different uniform with you in soccer? I'm glad you I said that though

If who's a cool team that we believe in Like the Ravens? The Chargers The Chargers. They're not cool. That's for you. Are they not? Okay.

They're the laughing. The bills. Sure. If the, yeah, that's new. But yeah, sure. The bills are like had. What do you mean that's new? Bill's been good for six years.

Oh, what do you mean like historically good? No, like are you talking like a blue blood cool? What are the Blue Blood cool team? Like the Niners? If the Chiefs. She had Armand Membo with first run picket, at right tackle,

and Olu Foshano, a first run picket left tackle, and then they had signed, you know, they have, well, I guess they lost John Simpson, but then they have Garrett Wilson, and they have Breeze Hall. Yeah, AD Mitchell is like their second or third receiver. Then they bring in Gina Smith,

and it was one year ago when we still like Gina Smith, and this was one year ago, and they just didn't wear the Jets uniforms. Would we be like, oh yeah, I like this? This is smart. Yeah, and they like, top three pick in the draft,

get some great edge rusher. Yeah, probably. Absolutely, but here's the deal. They are the Jets. Yeah. It is actually pretty crazy Gino's career on the Jets and after.

Dude, on the Jets, he went 12 and 19. He threw 28 touchdowns, 36 interceptions, and 17 fumbles. And he got punched in the face because he owed a specialty linebacker $600. It took him then six years to throw for double-digit passing touchdowns again,

which is pretty crazy. Six seasons before he threw for double-digit passing touchdowns, again. And now he's back on the Jets. I was trying to find other examples of guys, quarterbacks who were drafted by a team left and came back and it worked out. The only one I could,

Fran Tarkington that happened a long time ago in Minnesota, he left because him and the coach didn't get along. And then he left and came back and ended up winning an MVP in the 70s for Minnesota. Outside of that, I think it's Nick Foles who was drafted by Philly. It didn't work out with Chip Kelly. He left, came back and obviously won a Super Bowl. He was a third round pick.

Gino was the second round. pick, but this is incredibly rare that a quarterback crashes and burns on a team, leaves to have a life, and then comes back and it works out. Do Jets fans like Gino after what happened after every how I think Sean does? I'm so glad you asked, D.K., do Jets fans like Gino Smith? Well, when he left, no. Since Gino Smith played, Sam Block posted this, uh, I, this list staggered me. Smith since then the jet starting quarterbacks have started Matt Sims, Michael Vic, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bryce Petty, who I forgot existed, Josh McCown, Sam Darnold, Trevor Simmy, Luke Falk,

Joe Flacco, Zach Wilson, Mike White, Josh Johnson, Chris Trevler, who was in the XFL and the CFL, Aaron Rogers, Tim Boyle, Terad Taylor, Justin Fields, Brady Cook, and now back to Gino Smith. And so, yeah, he's better than all those people. 18 quarterbacks between Gino. And it's like getting back together with your high school girlfriend when you're like in your late 30. Yeah, it's like they made an agree.

Like if we're both single at 35 will get married. It really is. Marriage back. Like, wow. And then you get there and you're like, holy shit. Did we beat that? They're like, you know what? We couldn't find anyone better.

Let's get this thing going. They'll save us on the tax. They run into each other at the local grocery store. How you been? That's been better. That's so good. Because I know, I noticed, I think a lot of Jets fans, or maybe this is just a few anecdotal or whatever, but I did see a lot of Jets fans.

seemed genuinely happy for Darnold when he had his success. So I'm wondering if there's something similar happening here. I think, I mean, I think what's incredible too, if you just look back is how many guys played so much better later after leaving the Jets. Sam Darnold obviously is like the ultimate example probably in NFL history now. But then Gino Smith also was, Gino Smith had 70% completion a few years ago. Gino Smith was incredible for the Seokes a few years ago. But even guys like Joe Flacco had two different stints with the Jets and then played so much better.

on even fucking Cleveland. Joe, you don't want to embarrassing that is to leave the Jets to go to Cleveland and you're a better quarterback for them? So I, the bet, yeah, it just,

it does worry me. It does worry me. It does worry me. What do we think of this? Like, Frank Reich is the offensive coordinator. I think the Jets are, is pretty good. I don't know.

I think the Jets are going to have the number one pick or top five. It's hard to, it's hard to, it's hard. No, this is not going to work because here's why. I put in my notes at the top of my Jets notes for next season to not have the amnesia. The Jets fired their,

a third of their coaching staff, two and a half, almost three weeks after the season ended. They dumped eight coaches. It's like a third of their staff. D-Cordator, like the line, linebackers, secondary, quarterbacks coach OC, two and a half weeks after the season. That is the dumbest. Like, there's no good explanation for that, in my opinion.

And that to me just signifies how fragile the jet season is and how quickly the moment there's adversity, the head, Aaron Glenn's going to get dumped. and all the free agent stuff they've done, they brought in a lot of free agents, but I just, I don't know. It's so desperate everything the Jets have done.

Can you remember a time when Sean was optimistic about the Jets? Not since I've worked. Sam Darnold. Fantasy was very excited for Darn. I was there when Darnel was drafted. Never wrong, only early, you know, on that one. Well, I don't know. Maybe there's something here.

Maybe Sean's like the Bellwether for the jet success here. And maybe this will turn into something. I don't know. Well, they did spend a lot of money in free agency. I think we're looking at a classic 20 touchdown 20 pick season for Gino and they go 4 and 13. I agree. The other big move here is the Colts signed Daniel Jones for two years at $88 million. Could be up to $100 million as the Senate as we'll see.

But overall, so the Colts had transition tag Daniel Jones for like $38 million basically. And the deal was if another team wants to negotiate with you, the Colts could match the offer, but no one's going to because Daniel Jones towards Achilles. It's interesting also that tearing your Achilles these days doesn't really cost you money. It just cost you a third year in your contract so guaranteed money down the line. But the idea that if Daniel Jones had not gotten hurt,

he'd probably get 50 million a year, 54 million a year, whatever, and he tears his Achilles and he loses $7 million a year on the deal. I'm like, that's pretty good. I guess he loses the third year guarantees. It's good for Jones. But a two-year deal for $88 million. So $44 million a year. I don't know what to make of this.

I think it's weird. And I just continue to believe between this and paying Alec Pierce $29 million a year, I kind of still just feel it's so strange how desperate the cults are to keep together this team that went eight and two for two and a half month stretch. I know. I just keep asking myself and asking you guys and asking random people walking by in the grocery store. Who are they negotiating against? Who is trying to sign Daniel Jones right now?

That is the right question. Who are they negotiating against? Because they could have just had him on the transition tech for $37 million. I understand trying to lock him up before he comes back and does well. But there's also a very strong chance that he does not do that in my mind. And the entire point of the transition tag is that they believe nobody else would be making an offer for it. Here's what I'm surprised with this contract. I don't get it.

And I agree, Dick, here's what I don't get about this deal. So I think the short answer is I don't think they're negotiating against anyone. They're negotiating against the franchise tank with the same thing that happened with Daniel Jones to the Giants and what Kirk Cousins is done is what happens is without going too deep in the franchise tag. But reminding it's just like a one-year deal sticker you can. give you apply. But also you don't want to let a quarterback go to free agency so the quarterback can use it as a weapon. Dak Prescott's done this with Dallas. Let's say Daniel Jones came back next year and played great and you just had him in the tag. He comes back and you have to franchise tag him. Right. That number would probably be like next year like $52 million because

it's the top five average. So it's $52 million. This deal, the simplest version of it, it's just this year's tag and next year's tag together. It's two years. It's $90 million, $88, whatever you're to call. It's kind of like 52 if you had to tag him, 36. What I don't understand is why don't the cults get a third year if you're going to do it? What I don't, you know what I mean? It's, it's weird to me that the whole point of you get the security is you might as well get a third year. If he's good, you keep him. If he's not good, you can cut him. And I think what this is is the cold. This is in a weird way, Daniel Jones kind of having his cake and eating it too, because if he comes back and he's bad, it gets re-injured, he actually still gets an extra $40 million for 2027.

But if Daniel Jones comes back and is great, he only has to play one year this year. And then he gets to renegotiate again next year because the Colts can't let him go to a contract year. So yeah, this is what that's exactly exactly why I'm like, I don't understand why they did this. I guess to do right by him, but no, well, I don't think they're kind of having them in a contract year again because next year basically the starting point for this year's negotiations is like 37. I think this is how you got to the number. Does it lower their cap a little bit this year? Is that the reason to do it? yes, good point. That's definitely part of it.

That's the main reason, I guess. It's 38 million if you carry it this year, but now you can push it later. Right. But the, basically, the starting point's 38 million this year. And they're like, well, if you tag us again, it's 50, meet us roughly halfway, it becomes 44 million a year. But if next year they have to tag them, now you're starting at 52, 53 is the base. And you have to pay them like 56. But overall, the larger point is they seem to think Daniel Jones is going to start for Indianapolis in a week one, which I hope is rehab goes well.

That's the reports that are coming out today. they think he'll start. Daniel Jones has never been healthy. Send him to Baltimore. Let's see if they agree. Yeah. With the ratings he would pass him on his medical? Can he walk?

I just, Daniel Jones has had it spinal injuries, a torn ACL, a torn Achilles, a broken leg, multiple high ankle sprains, a neck injury that lasted for three years with New York.

It's just a tremendous show of faith that he can play better. And also, he's a mobile quarterback coming off from Achilles injury. I'm genuinely curious how good he can be for Indianapolis if he doesn't have the mobility

this year. I mean, how could he have the mobility? this year. Yeah, maybe it's a cap thing and they wanted to defer money to the next year, but I just, why wouldn't you just stick with the one year transition tag, see how he plays and then go from there? Or get the more years on the deal.

Two years is kind of no man's land. It's like at least have, but again, I don't know. Also, you're keeping Alex Pears, so we'll see. But I just, I mean, I hope the cults are good, but it just feels like if I told you, if I gave you two options, the cult surpassed, DKs start with you, but I won't both you to answer this. If the cult surpassed

the Texans and the Jaguars and win the AFC South next year and are like definitely better than them. Or the Jaguars and Texans are obviously better than the Colts, make the playoffs, and then the Titans are even better than the Colts and the Colts come in last place. What do you think is more likely next year? I don't think they're going to come in last. I would say the latter is more likely.

I agree. I think the Colts are more likely to be worse than the Titans than be better than the Jacks. The Colts are third in division odds right now. The other big news, this doesn't happen yet. I don't really care. we're going to talk about it like it's going to happen. And if we're wrong, you can just laugh at us. But we might as well just talk about like if this if the Vikings signed Kyler-Murray.

Because I think it's going to happen. I mean, if you just- All the reporting is pointing. It's all going to, look, the Browns are going to play to Sean Watson and Shitter Sanders. The Falconsigned to play with Michael Pennix, Jr. The Cardinals have Gardner-Minchu signed to play basically behind Jacoby-Buris. The dolphins have Malik Willis. And the Raiders are going to do Fernando.

They're going to have draft Fernando Mendoza behind Kirk Cousins. So that unless the Steelers swoop in here with Kyler-Murie or something I don't see coming. It seems like the Vikings are going to sign Kyler Murray. And it's probably going to do the $1.3 million? D.K., do you think this is going to work? And by work, I mean, the Minnesota makes the playoffs and looks like a good team and Kyler looks rejuvenated with Minnesota.

Oh. I say yes. I'm more yes than no on that. You say make the playoffs. That's a tough division. It is. There's Lions Packers. I do think they're going to be a lot better than they were last year.

I mean, how bad was Jay-G McCarthy? My God. Um, pretty horrible. I think like, I think we have done a little bit of, um, changing the narrative about Kyler based on what, what happened this last year and how they benched him and moved on. I, I do think he's better than people are kind of like painting him to be, I guess.

But, um, I still have a lot of faith in, and Kevin O'Connell. I still have a lot of faith, obviously in the skill weapons, skill position players that they have there, JJ, uh, Jason, uh, Jason's sticking around. Uh, Addison is there. They just, They just re-uped Aaron Jones to stay in for another year. So like their run game theoretically should still have guys there. I don't know.

I do think that they'll be good. And I think Kyler, it's going to be a very different looking offense. But I still believe generally in what Kevin O'Connell's going to draw up for them. I do think the kind of the darnal thing has made this type of move now, the like philosophy de jure of like, oh, the talented guy, reclamation project on the right team can work. but I do think Kyler is clearly this year's Donald. And, I mean, we've, Minnesota won nine games last year. They weren't three and 14.

They were nine and eight with J.G. McCarthy and Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer. And like, if you're telling me Kyler Murray is not two games better than J.J. McCarthy, like, I have to believe, I think Kyler Murray immediately becomes a fascinating fantasy option going into the season. And the same way we talked about, like, just because of the legs of Justin Fields, we felt like, like he was a top seven pick. I mean, Kyler Murray in Minnesota with Justice Jefferson and with Kevin O'Connell in a dome, Kyler was already a guy who was like a fringe top seven,

top ten fantasy pick on the Cardinals when they were floundering. And they did start pretty hot a couple seasons that we chose to ignore. Like the Cardinals started 11-0 and once in the war. They were always like seven and two and then they flamed out. Yeah. And that's part of it's a mobile quarterback. He's a smaller guy. As the season goes on, he takes hits.

He gets wearing tear. He's older now. Like we've talked about all this. Like he's too short to see over the line. He got hurt too. he had an ACL injury. Yes. Kyler's,

yeah, he has an ACL. He said he didn't really think his name was even back really until last year 100%. The difference to me is very simple. When Kyler Murray is making

50 million a year, you judge him one way. Kyleor Murray, if he makes for one million a year is completely different. As a percentage of cap. It's wild. Kyler Murray is literally 60,

60 times more expensive as a percentage to Arizona's salary cap than he would, like a couple years ago, then he will be to Minnesota. I mean, he will be making less,

than 1% of the cap. A third because the cap's $300 million. $.3% of the cap. Yes. A third of 1%. The number one overall pick who's in his 20s will be 0.3% of the cap. And when he was on Arizona, making $50 million a year

when the cap was $200 million. Right. He was one quarter. So I'm not exaggerating. It used to be 20. And not really the cap pit was that, but the cap bit for Kyler used to be more like 10 to 15%, a sixth.

Now he's a third of a percent. Yeah. So he's 30, 45 times whatever cheaper. And that is where you're like, yeah, I don't care. He's short. I don't care about the body language. I don't care. Like, you just roll the dice and you just be like, you know what?

That's a lot of money to save. It pays for Justin Jefferson. It pays for Christian Dara saw. It pays for all these defenders you want. And also, you give Kyler the opportunity because Arizona is just as bad of a franchise as the Jets or the Browns or all these teams, but no one gives a shit because they're in great weather and it's a fun city and no one cares. but I do think Minnesota is going to have to change the offense though

and I'm curious we think DK but I do think Kevin O'Connell this isn't like a Kyler-Marie is able, oh, he'll do a Shanahan thing and he'll do it under center drop back like Kyler Murray needs to be in shotgun and Minnesota's going to have to change how they play. Yeah. But I think this is not every coach is capable of doing that we'll change our system to what the players do best. Everyone says they want to do it. No one actually is capable of it.

I think Kevin O'Connell does have to change what the Vikings do. to fit Kyler, specifically like quicker stuff, more stuff to the outside, less crossers over the middle, depending on Kyler to see over his guards, consistently playing rhythm over the middle. But I think it's unequivocally worth it. And this is definitely Minnesota's best shot to compete in a very difficult division. Yes. It's like crazy that this is sort of falling into their laps on this.

I'm surprised there wasn't more competition for it, you know. It feels a little bit like last year where I don't remember the exact timeline, but there was like a four or five day period where the Seahawks had traded away Gino and didn't have a quarterback. And but they had already done like a handshake deal that it was going to be darnal. This is kind of how it feels for me like this is Kyler's handpicked destination. He wants to go play with O'Connell. And again, this is all assuming this actually does happen. If it doesn't happen, we can delete this whole thing.

But it does feel like such a good situation for the Vikings, almost like a perfect situation, considering there are other options right now, which is stick with J.J. McCarthy, who's clearly not. ready, go and grab a guy like Anthony Richardson, who's also a massive project and maybe not ready, probably not ready. Or grab this veteran guy for a million dollars who was the first overall pick in the draft. Yeah, I mean, it's not a one-to-one comparison at all, but my mind immediately jumped to the Mavericks trading away, Luca, and then getting the first overall pick in the draft. I'm like, they literally let Sam Donald go and now Kyler Murray walked in and is like, hey, what's up? I only cost a million dollars that I'm the first overall pick. And they're like, great, come on in. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of rolling the dice,

though, all these quarterback pieces are falling. What are the Steelers going to do if Aaron Rogers decides to retire? This is why he's like sticking around and not doing anything going on. The Steelers are once again, the Steelers are once again trying to win now. They signed a 28-year-old Michael Pittman. They have 29-year-old Jamel Dean. Cam Hayward. Cam Hayward re-signed.

They are fully trying to win right now. And if Aaron Rogers decides not play football anymore, are they going to go get Anthony Richardson? Are we going to go play with Mason Rudolph and Will Howard? What the fuck's going to happen? No way. Adam Schefter said this morning that, and he seemed very confident,

that Rogers was plan A, Kirk Cousins is plan B. Okay, well, Kirk looks like he's going to Vegas, no? Well, that's what I'm, here's my guess with Aaron Rogers. And this sounds a little insane. I think Aaron Rogers has told them privately

he'll probably come back. I think Aaron Rogers. This is last year. It's the same as last year. It's like Brett Farv. Aaron Rogers, if you'll remember, yeah, Brett Farv used to skip training camp. He'd like to fly him in on like a private jet

two days before the season starts. Because he didn't want to do it. Because they made him run. They basically made quarterbacks run during practice and he didn't want to do it is too hard. Aaron Rogers' version of that, and I'm serious, is he got bullied so much by the New York media for skipping OTAs

to film his Netflix doc to go to the pyramids about how we built the pyramids. To go to Egypt. Which is available on Netflix. Great programming. Put it on Netflix. Enigma. It's called Enigma.

Enigma. I watched two of the first three. Amazing. And he was so upset with how he was treated for skipping OTAs that the timing last year, you will never convince me, otherwise, that Aaron Rogers announced the timing of time at the Steelers because he didn't want to go to OTAs and the Steelers again.

And he didn't want to be criticized for skipping OTAs. So his very mature reaction to this was, I won't even sign until after OTAs. So no one can even ask me if I'm there. I'll skip them by not even signing up. I think he's doing it again. He's going to play. He's informed them.

But what did we talk about at the beginning of the year? There was issues getting on the same page with his receivers and getting offense. Yes! And I'm like, oh my God, maybe he showed to the fucking OTA. Like maybe he should have gone to OTAs. Here's the thing. No, no, he'll fly him out to Malibu. They'll practice out in California.

Hitman, D.K. And there are other receivers who are, I don't know, they're going to be named. Yeah. The OTA thing drives me up a wall because I get why veteran quarterbacks don't want to go. Because it's kind of like if you're a high school, you're like a college, or whatever going to syllabus week, whatever. You're like, I know this shit. Like, if the receivers are learning the name of the fucking plays

and these things that you're like, you can't even begin to talk to me until you've been here for weeks. Right. And I get that you don't want to be there for the 101. All you need to know is this. Tom Brady didn't miss OTAs until his 20th season. Patrick Mahomes still go to OTAs.

That is, I believe, one third of the Super Bowl representatives from the AFC in our entire lives is Tom Brady and Mahomes. If they go, why the fuck aren't you there? And you know why? It's not about the plays. Mahomes says it's about getting into the guys. It's about trust. It's getting into the other of them.

Also, also this is a, it's not Mahomes who's been on the Chiefs for 10 years. This is a new set. This is a new coach, new coordinator, new plays. Everything's new, even though he's been with McCarthy before. It's like, it's new. He's a new receiver. I know. Also, Omar Khan in Indianapolis when we were there said, technically to my face, that we're

going to find out much earlier this time. We're not going to let this drag out. So now if it does drag out, that's just such a weak look from Omar Khan, who's basically like, yeah, Aaron Rogers has us by the balls. If they genuinely, Steelers genuinely did. I didn't know. I think they would have done something unless they're actually delusional enough to think that Will Howard can compete, which you can't rule out. I like Will Howard. Hard. I, six-round pick has never had as much confidence from a team as Will Howard. Dude, Pittsburgh loves Will Howard. Well, Howard wasn't even that good at Ohio State. He was in the playoffs. He was good in the playoffs. Please. He was. He was great in the playoffs.

Yeah. How many first-round picks was on the goddamn team? All I'm saying is he played quarterback. All I'm saying is he played quarterback well in the playoffs. You cannot dispute that. Sure. And then so well, he moved from the seventh round to the sixth round. Sure. Yeah, sure. I just, if the, this, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm giving the Steelers too much credit.

I'm saying if they did not privately, they hired Mike McCarthy, you coached Aaron Rogers for like 10 years. Like, I'm just saying, I'm tired of giving the Steelers credit. They got fucking last on the fucking NFLPA thing. They'll turn it in this. I don't know. No, no.

What I think is, I think it's the same thing as last year. But again, the fact that Omar, we'll see. It's only March 11th. We'll see. But the fact that Omar Khan was like, one thing I can tell you about this year, it's not going to drag out like it did last year. If that happens again,

that will tell me that the Steelers actually don't have a great plan and that once again, it's all up to Rogers. But I would like to agree with you, Hyphids, that they know exactly what's going to happen. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit. We'll see. But these are the remaining open chairs

in this game of musical chairs for quarterbacks, right? Like, anyone else out there still? I mean, I would just be stunned if the Browns were not going to, like, the Browns have Shadour Sanders who wasn't, I believe Jimmy Haslam, the owner wanted Shadour Sanders. And then Deshawn Watson, who's getting $46 million. I don't think the Browns are going to bring in more money at quarterback to have a third quarterback there because one of those guys wouldn't get reps. Other than that, the Saints, I mean, we go through the teams. It's like, Bucks have Shuck. Carolina has seen too much from Bryce Young.

Falcons have Pennix and Tua. Cardinals, they signed Gardner, I mean, maybe the Cardinals, but I'm like, I think the Cardinals won for set and Gardermanichute a tank. For sure. Coming off to 20th seal. Rams, 49ers, Seahawks do not need quarterbacks. Raiders do not need a quarterback if they sign Kirk.

Herbert to the charges. Mahomes to the cheese. Broncos of Bo Nix. Unless Trump is going to bail on Bo Nix. And then it's like the AFC South. They just, literally all those teams have a number two quarter, like a first or second overall pick

a quarterback in the Colts signed Daniel Jones. The AFC North has Lamar, Joe Burrow, and then the Browns and Steelers. AFCs says Josh, the Dolphins just signed Willis. The Patriots have Drake May and the Jets is traded for Gino. Yeah, I think. And then it's Browns, it's Browns and then Brown Steelers Vikings.

We got to get Derek Carter to the Browns. Maybe Eagles for him competition. Why would he come out of retirement for that? I'm trying to think of the single most depressing thing possible. I want to talk, I want to hit BAM hitting the 83 in the World Baseball Classic. But first, the NFL is considering adding a game Wednesday night for Thanksgiving. Craig, I've said for a long time that, Sometimes we had too many NFL games and you're like, fuck.

And I'm like, you know what? Like, people like the NFL. I'll admit, this is too far. Oh, finally. This is like Wednesday. Like, look, our show is about the NFL. So we probably should want more NFL. NFL games on Wednesdays,

but here's where I draw the line. Unless they're literally on Australia for time zone purposes, I do think NFL games on Wednesdays that's not like Christmas Day, it's over the line. Like adding an NFL game on Wednesday, which means more teams have to play on the previous. Saturday. I think that's too much. I think that they're fucking around. Schefter tweeted about it. He's making up names for days. He called it Thanksgiving Eve. No one fucking calls it that. They're going to invent it. It's like fucking, I don't know,

they didn't used to be Father's Day. I think it's ridiculous. Thanksgiving Eve, aka when you go out in your hometown and see all your friends from high school. And everybody gets hammered. Thanksgiving, aka drunk's getting. I think they're watering down the product and there's too many games on too many nights. And this will be, if this happens, and there's a game on Thanksgiving Eve. There will be seven games in nine nights, which I think is personally ridiculous. We will have a game the day before Thanksgiving,

three games on Thanksgiving, a Black Friday game, and then games Sunday and Monday. It's just baseball. No, it's Sunday, then Monday, a full Sunday, then Monday night football, Wednesday night football, three on Thursday, Black Friday, three on Saturday probably,

and then Sunday. So, yeah, seven and nine or eight and nine. Like, it's that... There's no Saturday games around Thanksgiving. Well, they might do it the week after. They'll have to put the things to. The Wednesday teams on Saturday. I forget the don't make me do the math in March for the games, but they're going to have to do the Saturdays eventually. I just, I don't know. And look, I'm fully aware. I tweeted about it. A lot of people commented, half agreed with me and half thought I was dumb and that more football equals thumbs up. And I get that because this is a job as much as it is fun for us. So it changes things a little bit. But I really feel like I would think this way, even if I didn't have this job.

Football is Sunday, Monday, and Thursdays, and now just every holiday. But I do think that is the deal is the delineation. The in your mentions, Craig, the people who like spending time with their family and the people who. Everyone who divorced and single loves it. But also like 50 setting a fantasy line up on a Wednesday. How much do you want to hang out with your wife or girlfriend? That's that is the question that we first must ask. Uh, yeah.

So anyway, we have a lot of time. We'll see if they actually do it too. Okay. We have to talk about the Miami heat in Bam. at a bio scoring 83 points in an NBA game. And at one point, it was wild. It's very cool. Passes Kobe.

Only person who scored more points in the game is Will Chamberlain. Also, kind of a total sham that nobody in the NBA seemed to respect. I think I heard that, Dick, that is a sham. You and your gens and people with the conspiracies. I actually think the biggest winner from all this is Will Chamberlain, because the idea that Bam could score 83 in an NBA game in 2026, Will Chamberl is playing against part-time electricians. Like, the difference in what Ban did and what Will did is two extra baskets a quarter.

I'm kind of like, of course we'll could do that in 1962. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was, although possessions were way longer back then. Now it's like everyone's shooting so quickly and there's also three point lines and stuff. But fair point. This is cool, objectively. I showed up to a rec basketball league a game last night, and I saw that Bam had 43 at half. And I was like, holy shit.

In 31 of the first quarter. Yeah, set the Miami Heat quarter record over LeBron. 83's crazy. The only issue I have is that it's really 79 because at the end of the game, the final two minutes, the Miami Heat players were deliberately fouling the Wizards players that they could get the ball back so that BAM could score, which is fucking lame. Well, the whole thing, though, and again, I tried to watch this live. And I got to tell you, being in D.C., it was impossible because, like, it was blacked out. and it was horrible.

But I then did go back and was able to watch it when it ended. I love that you can't watch local games in cities. It's impossible. You can't watch the Wizards play. And it was a shit. It's anyway. Ben was incredible.

I mean, he was hitting. He was amazing. Yes. Out of control. The game became, like other guys have done this, which is the weird, uncomfortable part of the conversation is, Joel Embed, of all people, had 70 and three quarters,

and they took him out. Clay had 60-something and three-quartered. quarters. Yeah. And so, which is kind of cooler. But so BAM started chasing it, which I get it. That's fine. I totally understand chasing it and like going for the record. Because it is like immortality to some degree. The game just became like total slop. The Wizards are the tanking and the NBA. We're not going to have a tanking NBA conversation. It became a side show. It became like a Harlem Globetrotter's performance. Because the wizards. So he shot four D. K.K. I don't know if you saw the box score. Bam shot 43 free throws. Yes. I thought I did the thing that's the thing that's. out to me is he made 36 fucking free throws. It's insane. And so like the game I was like, I thought it'd be better than LeBron. Maybe. The first half was cool to watch. The second half was like an abomination. And because what happened was the Wizards just started fouling him to have a miss. Then Bam started just making all the free throws. So then the Wizards started fouling other players so that the Wizards were actively trying to not let him score. Yes. So they didn't want to get, they didn't want to be the footnote in history. Right. Then the heat started fouling the Wizards.

back to extend possessions. Then I looked it up. That's what happened with the Wilts Chamberlain game. This is how Will Chamberlain scored 100. It's the same thing as the team was like, fuck this, he can't have 100. So they started fouling him.

He started making the free throws. And then they just had a foul off. And that is apparently how will get out to 100 too? So I don't know. It was kind of like, it's cool. How do they know that? Because no one saw that game, Hyve. It's true.

It didn't happen. What was Kobe's game like? So Kobe, Bam, he were up 15 at half. Kobe was down 15 at half in the game that he scored 81. They ended up winning by like 15. And in the fourth quarter, they pulled away.

But it was a relatively close game. Also, Kobe shot half the amount of free throws that BAM did in the 81. 43 free throw at that. Kobe shot less than half as much as Bam when he put up 81. Also, one of the best moments in the history of Twitter pre the Elon Musk version was Kobe just started to even know how to do a thread. But like in 2013, Kobe just was like had an off day and he was watching NBA TV.

and he was like, I've never watched this game. And he just started live tweeting it during the game, his own thoughts. And at one point, he was like, down 14, I'm heating up. At this point, I wouldn't have passed a kidney stone. And he just like has his running thoughts rewatching it. It was actually incredible. That's great. We could argue that Clay Thompson, what he did, arguably the most impressive.

The most impressive was that Craig somehow turned this into a war. Yeah, Craig could turn it into fucking Clayton. Clay Thompson had six. Don't be Bill with Jason Thadam. Clay Thompson had. 60 points in 29 minutes. Yeah, it was cool. That is on pace for a...

And then they bench him because the team was fucking winning by a lot. He was on pace for 100. A legitimate 100. On pace for 100 in one quarter. Was that the one where he hit like 15 threes? No, that was when he had... Well, you're talking about the game

where he had 36 and a quarter? Well, more of the point... He had... How many dribbles did he have? He had like... 12 dribbles or something? 12 dribbles, yeah. The...

It's cool that... Bam is an awesome guy. Bam is very cool. is one of, Zach Lowe, who's now our ringer colleague, has one of my favorite profiles of an athlete at ESPN, which I, if you don't know who BAM is, I recommend reading it. But one of the,

they talk about how BAM had one of the best pre-draft interviews ever, and that BAM had this line. And also, like, basically, he lived in a trailer with his mom and just like, he's very singularly focused on basketball. And they were like, so what do you like to do? Like, do you, like, party? Do you have any hobbies? And all his draft interviews.

And BAM every time was like, I, I like, he says, I do three things every day. I play basketball, hang out with my mom, and I take shits. And he said this to everybody. Also, one of the great names. Bam out of bio, great name. Unbelievable name. And when he first got to the NBA, he just lived in this giant Miami high rise.

And it just, he bought an apartment for his mom. And he just lived one floor above his mom in this high. And he just, he had the little, those little white dogs, the little Bishon. Sure. It could be a Bijon. He had a little. Bajon Robinson. I don't know.

Bam's a cool guy. And now he was dating Asia Wilson. Yeah, it was nuts. I mean, for his size, what he was doing in that game yesterday was pretty remarkable. Just the, this at the edge of, it's very 2026 for it to become what it became. People would have done. Here's the thing, though. Everyone's salty about it.

No one in the league wanted to give this any respect. Like, I was shocked how many NBA players wouldn't even pretend that it was cool. All the COVID people are mad. All the Kobe fans are angry. My impression online was that everyone was saying this is bullshit. Well, yeah. It is cool. I actually think a lot of the fouls, if you watch, were not bullshit on BAM.

Like, he was getting fouled pretty hard. And that was real. And he hit his free throws, but you have to give it to him. The only thing I'm mad about is the very end to get him from, I think it was 79 to 83, was like, okay, this is an actual joke. But. They were up 30 and they were deliberately fouling Washington. Every team in the NBA would have done that.

It's just lame. In that 90s second. There's like a lot of records have that little tiny aster's. I'm kind of dead inside now about points. It's like, oh, Devin Booker at 65. I'm like, okay. Well, it used to be, it's kind of like field goals where it's like we used to cut live

to a 60-yard field goal. They were four in the entire 20th century. Now it's like, there's like four a week. I know. When someone scored 50, someone scored 40, you like led sports spinner and it's like the proliferation of that. Now it's like it barely registered. It barely hits the Richter scale.

We need more teamwork. And if somebody does go crazy like, bam, scores 83, it's like pitchforks are out. It was illegitimate. Fuck you. Fraudulent. I'm going to pick this apart. Suck.

I will say there is something a little bit, it feels selfish to have that kind of scoring record. You know what I mean? You're like, okay, well, pass the fucking ball. You're 31 in the first quarter. That's good for any team to have in the first quarter. They won by like 20, but yeah. No, I know.

I'm just saying that there is something to that where it's different in other sports. He had, the Wizards suck. Cannot stress up at the worst bar. He had 43 field goal attempts and 43 free throw attempts. That's what did he? How many of they make it? 36 free throws.

So he shot the ball 86 times. That's fucking crazy. Like the ball left his hands 86 times. 83 points on, is that true? 83 points at 86 attempts? This is like my, well, I'm counting each free throw attempt

as any check. But yeah, this is like Calvin, my 6 year old, he has basketball game tonight going to his games. It's like the kids just drill off the court and shoot it. Like there's no passing. Staff ruin the game.

I will say it's funny. Wait, can I recommend this? Pull up whatever you're preferred, ESPN or whatever, just the scoreboard. and hit Tuesday. If you just scroll through the top performers, it's fucking crazy to see 83.

Yeah. I'm like, it's just 83 points nine rebounds. It's unbelievable to just see. 100 is up, hundreds up there with all time unbreakable records, like Cal Ripkin Jr. Games straight.

Oh, oh, I don't know. I don't think so. I think Ripkin is way more unbreakable than 100. I think somebody could think so. Yeah. Now, the way the game is now, I think people could break 100.

Seeing BAM, I think what everyone in the NBA said, Chris Taps, Porsengas said this. like four players were like honestly shocked it was bam, then thought it was an insult, be like, no credit to him, but just like, that's not kind of player.

I agree. First of all, his previous career high was 41. He broke his, yeah, broke his career at high at halftime. Webb and Yama could do this. Yeah. And also, I think there's a non-zero chance another team does 70 versus the Wizards this year

or the Jazz. Like these teams, also part of it said it was in Miami. I don't know when the Wizards got to Miami, whether the night before or the night after, but they were going to just party and they're excited to be 20 years old and rich in Miami. Like, that is not, not part of it.

Because I was also reading more about the Wilt game. And the starting center that was playing against Wilt was hung over. And they called it the flu, but he didn't play because he had just been partying. It's the same thing with those Wizards team. How long were they in Miami? They were probably just excited to go to fucking live. Fair. Okay.

Speaking of debacles, I got to, I can't, I've been waiting to talk to you guys about this all day. We haven't talked about this. The World Baseball Classic. We're getting more into baseball this year. This is a story about this country. I can't believe this, but basically, if you haven't heard, the Americans are in the World Baseball Classic. They rigged the entire tournament.

And they have a lot of great players in it. Aaron Judge, all the stars are in the World Baseball Classic for the most part. They rigged it so that America could play Japan in the finals again. Because they won Otani versus every. They did. They rigged the field. And America somehow is almost going to blow it. And it's Wednesday recording this.

It might already be Thursday. You might know what happened. But America somehow lost to Italy in baseball. on Tuesday night. And that's bad enough. It was 8 to 1 at one point. They lost 8 to 6. The manager of the USA team

had no idea that the game mattered. That's no clue. And like the amount of comments, the amount of like the wire, like are you taking notes in a criminal conspiracy? The amount of things this man said publicly to indicate,

he said, uh, our ticket was punched to the quarterfinals. This wasn't an interview before the game. On MOB TV, which they then took down when they lost the game. And he's like, well, that's not what I meant.

They're burying the evidence. The amount of things this guy said, which were he said the boys were celebrating until the wee hours of the night. The boys were buzzing. And guess what? They're dragging ass a little bit this morning. He was saying they were partying the locker room.

Then we parted in the bus. Went back to the hotel. He said, we parted in the hotel. He's like, yeah, we got some guys dragging today. We're talking about offseason baseball hyvitz. Come on. What do you expect? I know.

They asked about managing the game tonight. He said, we got to get some guys off their feet. And like, he was talking about he's like, they rested all their guys. How did no one tell him this game, matters. How did nobody tell him? How did no one know that? And on top of that, the runs matter for the point differential. So he didn't do sub. We could go on all the subs. This guy had no fucking clue. Um, I don't, I don't want to do. I don't, I'm not trying, I'm not trying to

diminish Italy's feet here in, in the term, in terms of historical upsets. I'm not trying to like be a wet blanket about this, but I actually looked at the, the, uh, Italian roster last night for the world baseball classic. There's three players. that were born in Italy on that team. Yeah, yeah. It's a lot of people with Italian heritage. Like, I would be on that team. Right.

Like, if Ireland made a team, I'd probably be on it. Yeah. So just saying that, I'm not diminishing anything, but there were three players from, there was three players from Italy, two players from Venezuela, one from from Canada, and then the rest are from the Jersey Shore.

The New Jersey MLB players. No, they're all Americans, basically. So I don't know. Look, this story is hilarious. I don't know how much more you want to go into this actual loss. I want to talk about Cal Raleigh versus Randy a Roserata. Oh, yeah, they wouldn't take each of his hands. That was amazing.

The world baseball classic has turned into must-see TV. It's sick. Did you see this? I did. But didn't he do, there was an interview after. Nobody knows what happened and if he was kidding or not. No one can tell if they were kidding or not. I think what I've been able to kind of glean from this whole thing is they weren't

kidding. but it's not as big of a deal as everyone's making it out of the beat. So basically what happened is if he didn't see it, Cal Raleigh is a Mariners catcher. He was catching for the United States. 60 home, the big ass guy, big dumpers. It's not just a mariner's catcher. Randy Rosarana, who is also on the Mariners playing for Mexico,

and went up in an at bat, which apparently you heard about afterwards, like Randy was told that he's not going to shake your hand. Like this is an American team thing. We're not shaking our teammates' hands. We're doing like the Kobe versus Paul Gasol thing where we're getting really into this. This is exactly like Danny Rojas versus Zorro or whatever on Ted Lassow where he's like, we're teammates in this other team. But when we're playing international ball, it's like fucking prison rules or whatever.

So anyways, Randy Orozarena goes up to Cal Rale and tries to shake his hand. Like first of all, you never see. Shake my hand. Like batters don't go up to catchers and like shake their hand. Maybe the knuckle touch. Like he probably would have knuckle touched. The handshake is a lot. I think yeah, but anyway, so in Cal Raleigh refused.

And apparently after like, I think Rosarana said that he's like, he said nice to see you. Like refused to shake his hand. And then a Roserata after the game was doing an interview and he like, he, he did much of it in Spanish. And it was basically like, look, there's some loss in translation here. But he basically told him to go fuck himself. Yeah. Or go to hell. Or depending on how you, you want to translate it.

it's like eat a dick or something like that. He was like basically like tell him to fuck off. Scholars maintain. Yeah. And I literally was going into like Reddit threads trying to figure out exactly what he had said meant in in Spanish slang. Okay. But anyways, it was like go to hell. But but very forcefully.

So anyways, yeah, I love this. It's fucking hilarious. Cal Raleigh came out today and said like he's like, that's my brother. We're fine. This is nothing. we haven't heard yet from Rosarena. But man, I'm like all in on this. I think it's hilarious.

But also maybe a little concerning for my mirrors. Hopefully this doesn't create a rift. I love the world baseball classics fun. Yeah. I feel like we are really peaking right now in international sports. Like just countries playing each other is working better now than ever. Just like U.S. Canada, hockey, world baseball class. It's like as we're just in as many sports as possible,

we just need to get countries to play one another. Well, we're making the World Cup a little different right now, but otherwise I agree. Yeah, sure. World Cup's a little challenging, but no, the USA hockey thing. NHL with the League of Nations was brilliant. That was incredible.

And then, yeah, the USA Mexico game was very intense. And then, hold on, I found, oh, the other part of the Reserator thing he said was, thank God that Cal Raleigh has good parents. His parents, very well educated, thank God. I got to see him at the hotel two days ago. They said hello to me, gave me a big hug. Oh, and that was another part of it.

translation thing. Apparently he said they were very respectful. Yeah, they said they were very respectful. And he was like, your parents are great. Don't know what's wrong with you. Yeah. To me, it just like feels like he's saying this with just a little glint in his eye. I kind of agree, but I don't know. And then he was like, I'm going to, I'm going to say something to him in Mexican Spanish and then in Cuban Spanish and then he kind of walked off. It's pretty funny. Incredible. But yeah, I agree. Yeah, the, the World Baseball Classic's been great. It's been very fun. I know. I'm like, I'm going to watch it now. I mean, I I'm gonna tell you, I think until this year's World Series,

or last year's World Series, whatever you call it, which was probably one of the better World Series ever. I thought the best baseball I'd watched in a long time was Otani pitching to close out the World Baseball Classic against like three MVPs in a row. It was like, Betts and then Freeman and Lighter and Mike Trout. And I'm like, this is crazy that a hitter is about to strike out three guys in a row, one MVP.

Also, just the pandemonium of him in Japan is every time, it's unbelievable. Dude, did you see the video of, there's a couple of Japanese guys that came over to MLB this year that are incredible. Like, there's a lot of, um, very,

uh, very, like highly hyped players came over. And I, I forget one of his names, but I think he's the first baseman, a third baseman that came over. I forget what team he signed with,

but there was a video of Otani trying to like, he was like, um, trying to fix his like stance or little, like where he held the bat. And he just was explaining, he was trying to move his elbow angle, like just a little,

He just was a judge. He basically was saying move your bat back one inch and tuck your elbow in. One inch. And it was kind of like adjusting someone's golf stance a little. And they had like a 90 second conversation where you could just see them doing it. And the next that bat, he had a grand slam. No. And it was unbelievable.

But yeah, I thought he. He's like, holy shit, I should do that every time. Yeah. Taddy just fixed this way. It was crazy. Okay. Let's do a couple of emails to get out of here. Let's do it.

also breaking news also diggy was traded to the 49ers I don't know if that Cowboys traded with 49ers there so there's that oh wait also hold on shefter posted that Ravens GM

Eric Dacosta said that after losing their starting center Tyler Linderbaum to the Raiders they were interested in pairing together Trey Hendrickson and Max Crosby but Crosby's medical exam put an end of that discretion there's also what Hendrickson said yeah there's a quote already up from

Costa's press conference. I'm not listening to it, but I can, they wrote down the quote. He said, he said he had buyers remorse, quote, I understand it. We live in that age of skepticism and people question. I have a responsibility to the Ravens. Nobody is more upset about this than me. Guided by it actually and regret. Nobody's more upset about it. He's gutted by this. He's like, I'm going to love using those first round picks stuff. It's going to be awesome. can't wait for that. He probably does feel good. Like, I will say, though, I don't think this is a master plan.

No, it's very embarrassing for the Ravens. It's very embarrassing. Like, this is humiliating because they really care about, like, holding themselves on higher esteem. And yeah, as he said, push league. That's all. Brutal. All right, wait, I want to read this one email.

I'm going to, I want to just tell you guys a story. So we don't bring up Donald Trump a lot on this show, but I did have to read you guys. Did you see the Wall Street Journal article about how Donald Trump is obsessed with this pair of shoes. And the shoes that he wears. He buys for everyone in his cabinet and they all wear them. Because you guys don't buy me shoes.

I should. But Trump buys everyone the shoes that he wears and that everyone wears them because they're afraid that they'll insult him. So they all wear these shoes. But the best part is that Trump does not. And this is everyone, Rubio, this is like his entire cabinet. Everyone gets these shoes. The best part, though, and my favorite part of the story is that Trump does not ask

them what size their shoe is. He just guesses. He's just sizing him up. He just guesses. And so none of them fit. They're all too small or they all too big. So they all have to just kind of sack up and like wear these shoes that do not fit them and like be in pain all day. Jesus.

And it was about how well this Trump's in his circle like hates the shoes they wear constantly, but no one wants to not wear them. I wish I wasn't wearing this fucking shirt. So Trump takes the time to guess everyone's shoe size? Yeah, he just orders them in bulk and he's like,

why doesn't he have like an assistant find out everyone's size? No one knows. These are the questions someone should be asking. No one knows. It's like how he avoids doing work. He's like, I have a lot of things to do. I got to guess every single person's foot size, shoe size.

I think that's a window into the man's mind as we go through various world events as he just guesses people's shoe sizes. But this story particularly hit me because my dad, who's also from Queens, also does this. He buys people's shoes? He guesses their shoes? No, not like everyone is to wear his shoes. My dad, and dad, if you're listening, I love you.

My dad will buy me a gift. Like, he'll buy me shirts. Does not ask me what my size is. He just guesses. There's something old school about sizing someone up with fucking guesses. And I don't know if it's a boomer thing that you're closed. Well, I mean, at this point, you are who you are. And he know, I mean, you're either like a medium, a large or an Excel.

He knows by now, right? He doesn't know. So he'll buy me a shirt. and I'm like, do you want me to like try it on and we'll return it? And he's like, no, no, no. And he just sent me, he just would send me a shirt. I'm like, dad, this doesn't fit.

And he's like, yes, it does. I'm like, no, no, dad. I appreciate this gift. He gaslights you. But this does not fit me. I can't wear this. I look like, I look like a pirate. I'm like these sleeves.

I can't wear this. And he's like, you're being ridiculous. Just accept the shirt. What do you do? I would send him a photo and be like, look at me. He doesn't care. I FaceTime. I'm like, this doesn't fucking fit.

I'm sending this back. I'm like, Dad, what are you talking about? There's an article in the Wall Street Journal. I, that doesn't, my shirt doesn't fit. You're embarrassing me. So I read this and I was like, oh my God. You're like, this is too real. I got to say, that's a queen's thing.

That is real alpha behavior to be like, I'll tell you what your shoe says is. It's insane. That's actually crazy. It's just so pathetic that his underlings won't just get their own size. It's more work what he's doing. The shoes are $145. Does Trump get like a, are they like, hey, this guy, Mark here is 6.3-205. And then Trump's like, hmm, 12.

I'm 6-4-225. So you must be. Does Trump have like a file of feet picks that he then judges shoe size with? Yeah, maybe. Yeah, he just, yeah, they released the files. Yeah, he's got all everyone's feet. Yeah, that one blew my mind. So, yeah.

I have another email here. Also just are sorry, I found this from last year's email. I wanted to read this, but this is from Cam. Wow. Cam. We talked about March Madness and Venmo and Venmo has this problem where every year in Venmo, the biggest spike they get all year is March Madness for everyone they can't report it as gambling.

Pizza. So yeah, it's like pizza. And then Venmo sits here and just sees someone getting. We had so many pizza parties. We also had a huge pizza party right when the NFL season ended and we were done with our fantasy leagues. So Cam talked about how, wow, this is. aged even better because he was talking about basically I'll summarize the email but his point is he

said his Venmo to private and he didn't realize that that meant that like your past Venmos don't become private. Yeah, you can set that. So he realized that he had been like taking March Madness Venmos from co-workers but all the Venmos that were left on his feed that they were looking at were all of his dumb transactions for college. It's Venmo canceled. Old tweets. What kind of psycho has their transactions public. To be, why is that even an option, is my question. Who the fuck needs a social media feed of Venmo payments? Zemmo fucking trying to make a coffee.

If anyone from Venmo's listening, I'm so angry at you. They try to make payments to social media. How fucking dare you? You can like people, like other people's transactions. I've thought I'm doing here. It's remarkably stupid. It's linked year old Facebook, so it's just old people I don't know anymore from high school that we weren't even the same grade and I'm seeing who they're, they don't know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jacob, he paid so-and-so Sarah for a pizza. I think most 99% of the people that are on your feed or whatever on Venmo don't realize that they're on your feed. 100%. Also, like you said, Hypat, there's like private mode and then there's like extra private mode where you can actually block. I don't know why there are so many layers. Seems like it should be just one or two up. Just one or not, you know, like binary. You can either see them or not. That's what I want. Is this Venmoing so, oh my God Is Venmo the latest?

No, I guess it's chat GPT. I was going to say, is Venmo the latest app to become a verb? Because Venmoing is a verb now, but I guess people do say chat GPT it. Well, that's terrible. That won't last. I know.

They do say it though. But like, oh, I'll just Venmo you is just like in the lexicon now. Venmo it's two syllables. It flows. It's perfect. Chat GPT, four syllables, horrific order. Yeah, I'll cash app you. Ugh.

People say that? No. No. And then snap. Oh, just VDMO me. I'll Vemmo you $20. No big deal. One letter, yeah.

Chat GBT, T it. People say that. I know, but we got to do better. It's a mouthful. One last email from Jimmy. Jimmy. Breakfast was a banana and a hazelnut. Don't touch Jimmy.

Jimmy! Speaking of Baltimore. Sorry, what was his breakfast? Breakfast, a banana and hazelnut uncrustable. Hazelnut. Crossedibles. Wow. That's kind of cool.

Did he get the banana in there? Or was he like, was he back to back? I feel like a banana and uncrustable goes together nice. I'm not real familiar with uncrustables. What are they? What are they like Pop Tarts? What are you talking about? That's the thing they give out in Indianapolis.

Yeah. I've never done that. I've never had them. What? You don't know what an... You've heard of an incrustable? I've heard of it. I don't know what they are, though.

Like, can you picture it in your head right now? No, that's why I'm asking. What? I said, is it like a Pop-Tart? I don't know. No, it's basically, it's just a PB&J cut into a circle without crust. Oh, yeah, no, I was not. It's like our twinkie.

They'll live forever, but they have to be frozen for some reason. They're really good frozen. Oh, wow. Even if you don't let it thaw. You know what I've never done? This, I think, is having flashbacks to what he ate is. I haven't said, when you turn 30, you start choking on air. Just joking on your own stick.

You know what I do that I think is considered blasphemous and people don't like it is I never. toast my pop tarts. I have never toasted and uncrustable. I just eat that shit straight. You just raw dog it. Yeah. Right out the fridge, right out the box. I do both with pop tarts. Do you heat up cold pizza?

No. I'll do both. I think that I don't heat up pop tarts, but heating a pizza's worth it. Heating a pizza to me, the structural integrity of the slice of pizza gets more limp after you microwave it. It actually holds firm around the fridge. You toast it. You oven it.

That's ridiculous. I'm in a hurry. I'm having fucking pizza for breakfast. That's ridiculous, he says. Well, that's ridiculous. I can't turn it.

I can't be turning on the oven. The whole point. The whole point of having pizza for breakfast is that it's fucking quick and easy. I got to turn on the oven and throw it in a pan. No, it's not. It doesn't have to be breakfast. I have leftover pizza the next night. For dinner?

Yeah. Lunch or lunch. I think I think breakfast and lunch it's cold. By the way, the oven, it takes like five minutes. It's not like that long. It's just a lot of.

You got a waste a pan. It's just like a lot. I think that like a Pop-Tart, it's good, better, but I won't do it. Put some freaking... A pop-tart is for... Aluminum foil down or something. What's that nice pizza place in L.A.? The one where they put the little hot honey on the thing where they invented...

There's like 15 places to do that. Well, they did it first. I don't know. The point is you have a nice pizza there. You eat that cold? Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's the best. That I think you heat out.

I just ate Pizza on a cold two days ago. Well, I bet the owners of Pizza on it would probably be horrified at you. No, I don't think so. I get it. I've done it. It's worth it to heat it up as I've gotten older. Pop-Tarts, I can't know. Microwaving pizza is objectively terrible, but putting it in the oven is good.

I've already had it hot and it was great. I'm not going to recreate that. Now I have a cold. It's a different experience. Craig's whole logic. I've already had it hot. Now I require a different form. It's not going to heat the oven up.

I've got to get the foil out. I've got to get the pan. I'm like, it's already good cold and it's quicker. Do you even heat up for a crustable? I've already had cold ice cream. I need this one. Don't some people toast and uncrustable or no. I don't.

I don't know. I don't have uncrustables that. I feel like they're having a renaissance. I don't know what big encrustable is doing, but they've never eaten one. Because all the players have uncrustables. All the teams, the NBA players. Is that right? The NBA players love peanut butter jelly.

All these guys do. But now all that teams have for encrustables. They've had a whole renaissance. I don't know how they all. PB&J is fucking great. One of the all-time flavor combinations. Properly rated. It really is.

Every time I have one, it hits. Yeah. My son's allergic to peanut. Well, he probably still like the taste. No, in fact, he hates it. Well, I think he's probably

trained. It's like makes him, it's revolting to him. Yeah. Which is great. Almond. I guess he can do almond butter and jell.

Sure, that works. That was good. Mm. Cross-contamination. It's good. I do a lot of almond, I do a lot of almond butter. All the butter's fine.

Yeah, yeah. Can I do one more email for you guys? Oh yeah, right. Jimmy. Right. We're in the middle of it. Wait. Did,

Did we ever? Yeah, what is it? But incrustable, yeah. He said, Jimmy had a pitch for a sequel to Harry Potter or Coachella game. Wait, did you just read his email verbatim? Jimmy had a pitch for a movie. He's speaking in the third person.

Here's my pitch for a sequel to the Harry Potter character or Coachella Band game from last year. Pokemon or 2026 Coachella artist. Ooh, I'm a little bit familiar with Pokemon because Calvin's super into it. I am doing this straight from his email. I don't, I don't know. Okay. I know like old school Pokemon, but are there like a thousand new ones? I don't know. Probably.

I know like fucking Charzard and Squirtle, but I don't know any. They're not on here. So we're doing Pokemon, is it a Pokemon or a band playing Coachella this year? Sweet. Iron Jugulus. That sounds like a Pokemon. Band. I think that's got to be a band.

Okay. Fuck, it's a Pokemon. Really? Jugulus. As Sparta. What? Espartha. Pokemon.

A-R-T-H-A. Pokemon. Pokemon. It's a Pokemon. Nice. Prospa. Pokemon. Yeah, I'm going to go with Pokemon.

It sounds like Pokemon. It's a band. Damn it. Prospa? I'm almost positive. Wait, let me look it up. Coachella Band. I don't.

A-R-O-D-E-S. I don't know how to spell. Say that. I'm going to go with band. Same. It's Coachella band, yeah. I feel like it needs to be easy to pronounce if it's, a Pokemon because kids

Is it just a road? What about Guzzlord? Guzzlord. Guzzlord. That's a band. Tuzzi's Guzzlord. Band. It is Pokemon.

Fuck. Yeah. Guzz Lord. Guzz Lord. Guzz Lord. Guzz Lord. Some of the names are kind of sexual. Tapu Coco.

Coco is two K's. Two different words. Tapu Coco. Tapu. I abstain from this one. Tappu Coco? I'm going banned because of what you said about pronunciation. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. It's a Pokemon. Well, I guess you pronounce it kind of easily. Freak Slug. Freak Slug. I feel like... Pokemon. The Guzz, what was the Guzz one?

Gus Lord was... Gus Lord being a Pokemon, I feel like is a... Is leading you to believe this is a Pokemon, so I'm going to go banned. It is a band. Freak slug? What about Mochak? M-O-C-H-A-K-K. That feels like a Pokemon. Pokemon.

Band. Oh, no, it's a band. Yep, it's a band. What is it? Mochak, M-O-C-H-A-K. Our hit rate here is pathetic. It's insane. We actually, it's hard to do this bad.

Breon. B-R-I-N-N-E. Brian. Breon. Pokemon. I think that's kind of be an artist. It's a Pokemon. God.

Nice. Shit. Clef-E. I overestimated my Pokemon. Clefky. Band. Band. Banned.

Pokemon. God. Screlp Pokemon Pokemon Gordo Pokemon Band band band band

Band band It's a band Yeah Durrant Spelled like Kevin Band Band band Pokemon

What Durant the Pokemon Durant's a Pokemon Wow Glitterer If that's Oh wow actually I don't know Pokemon

Pokemon Colchella band We're terrible at this This is actually a very good game. Well done. Jimmy. Well done, Jimmy. Incredible work. Jimmy. Incredible work. Dereat the Pokemon. I wonder if he's tweeting about all the other Pokemon.

Just wow. Yeah. Wild. Freaks. 30th anniversary. All right. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you Austin for, I'm sorry about the Raiders. I'm sorry, Austin. Thank you for coming on. Thank you, Cam. Thank you, Abu. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for listening. Email us to ring and fantasy football at g-gumel

draft show. The March Madness Brackets on ESPN. Just look up we're having the episode description or just look up bring your fancy football show we'll have a 2026 tournament we will send out merch unless we think of a better prize uh emails if you have any idea for prize do we want other emails what else do we ask for i we're going to do the free agency hangover next week so i want i want i want hangover stories i want all time i want hangover stories good enough to be to be the movie hangover four yes tell me about your most legendary insane hangover stories happened the night before, what happened when you woke up, where you were when you woke up,

having to go back and find somebody. Any hangover related story, we will add to the end of our free agency hangover episode next week. Hell yeah, yell those. And of course, thank you, Lord. Lauren. Thank you, Freaks slug. Yeah, freaks slug. What is freaks lug doing? That's what they called me in high school. Oh, I don't have to look this up. Her name, her name is Zena Genovese. Her name is Zena Genovese. Is she on the Italian baseball team? Zena Geno known by her stage name Freakslug is a British indie rock musician from Manchester.

Oh, cool. She has one studio album called I blow out big candles. It's provocative. What I mean, Freaks. Zenia Genovese. Zenia Genoesee.

Genovese. You know what's crazy? He's the rare person who could have just gone by Zenia. For sure. Could have just gone by Genevese. Zenia, well, Genevisa is going to take it. We're really in a crazy era

just names. People just be named anything. People just be naming. Dude, do you know Chase Infinity, the actress from one battle after another? That a real name. Chase Infinity? Yes. Which character? She's a daughter? She's Leo's daughter, yeah. Chase Infinity. Correct. Her name is Chase Infinity Pain. Her last name is Payne. Her last name is Pain. Her middle name is

Chase Infinity Pain. She's named after fucking Buzz Lightyer. Oh. Like, I'm not... To Infinity and Beyond. It's in her Wikipedia. Our parents are just like, yeah, we liked her name. We like Buzz Light. Her name's Chase Infinity. It's kind of sick.

Yeah. I'm into it. She's born and raised in Indianapolis. Maybe we get her on the next combine up. Ooh, there we go. Next year. Chase Infinity. Oh, you also, Craig, are you going to be at the Oscars on Sunday?

You bet you. If they'll let me in, I think I'll be there. All right. So what happened last year. On Monday, Oscars recap from Craig. Are you, what do you, how many times? have you been? I'm fortunate enough.

This will be my third time. What are, what's the 101 I go to the Oscars that people wouldn't know? Like, things you wouldn't expect about going to the Oscars. There's a red carpet for famous hot people. And then there's this other red carpet in the back for ugly non-famous people that I will be on.

You should do the interviews in the back. The black carpet. You should just go the whatever. Like, the carpet is red, but it's like behind all the other stuff. And there's not really, and there's like no cameras.

The maroon carpet. It's like really stained. Yeah. This carpet has been here since the 70s. Yeah, I don't know. What else? The food is actually sneaky great. There's an after party of the floor above the Oscars called the Governor's Ball.

And Wolfgang Puck does the whole thing and it's really good food. That's kind of sick. I was just going to ask you to do a Wolfgang Puck impression, Craig. I don't know if you were real familiar. It might just turn out to be like kind of sounding like you're making foot of his accent. Right. Where is he from again? I think Germany.

Germany? I don't know. Let's see. Let's see. Oh, Austria. I don't have a good German Austrian. I guess Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I don't really have a good German accent in my bag. Get to the chopper.

Dude, can you do the shit? Who is the director? Werner Herzog. Herzog. I do a Werner work. He's the craziest motherfucker I've ever seen in my life. I saw something where he was made, he made this, he made this movie that's based in like the Amazon or something and he was like, the jungle, it is angry.

It's trying to kill us. It's, I just love everything about it. That's good. Did you see it? I saw Netflix as the dinosaurs thing and I haven't watched it yet, but I did see Morgan Freeman had some, I don't, I should now that I think about it, I don't know if this was AI or not. I know, actually, now that I know what you're talking about.

It was Morgan Freeman outtakes from the dinosaur thing and now I'm realizing I definitely got got that was definitely not real. but it was allegedly outtakes. I do want to watch that. It's definitely fake. I love, I'll watch anything with dinosaurs. I mean, Spielberg produced it. I mean, I'm in.

Dinosaurs, to me, are like space. If you... We're like, you know it's not actually real, but it's fun to watch. You know, the suspension of disbelief. Yeah, sure. Goodbye, everyone. The T-Rexes are so big, why, why they die?

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