Will Cain Country - Is The NBA The Easiest Sport To Rig?

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

Story 1: Will and The Crew discuss what might just be the sports story of the year: a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme involving NBA players, four of New York's oldest crime families, and a smorgasbord of crimes, all the way from insider trading up to extortion. They also debate which sport would be the easiest and hardest to fix. Story 2: Will makes his argument for one of the NBA’s most recognizable standouts: Victor Wembanyama, AKA ‘The Alien.’ The 7’6 San Antonio Spurs star seemingly has it all, from shooting ability, athleticism, and a physique that leaves no room for questioning where his nickname came from. Story 3: Will and the Crew give their analysis of some of the biggest College Football coming up this week, before discussing how pep rallies and football culture vary from state to state. Subscribe to ‘Will Cain Country’ on YouTube here: ⁠⁠Watch Will Cain Country! Follow ‘Will Cain Country’ on X (@willcainshow), Instagram (@willcainshow), TikTok (@willcainshow), and Facebook (@willcainnews)Follow Will on X: ⁠⁠@WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk, business. One, NBA, poker, gambling, prop bets. LeBron James, what is the hardest sport to meddle with when it comes to gambling? Two, college football picks of the week. The best games this weekend. all littered across your Saturday.

Three, you're looking at a freak of nature, you're looking at the next evolution of a human being. If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing out. If you haven't seen, Wimby. It is Wilcane Country. Normally leave it streaming live every Monday through Thursday at 12 o'clock Eastern Time at the Wilcane Country YouTube channel, but always available

by following on Spotify and on Apple. As is this edition of Kane on Sports. It's just me and the boys. Today's Dan, tinfoil, Pat, Ed, back in the studio. Let's get into it. Let's get into sports. Let's get into the sports story of the year. Story number one.

The FBI has lodged allegations and charges against several NBA players, including Damon Jones and head coach with the Portland Trailblazers, Chauncey Billups, and two separate schemes to defraud betters out of tens of millions. It's a poker game that was rigged with x-ray tables, cameras in chip trays, glasses that saw through the backside of a card, all hitting marks that simply wanted to play poker with Chauncey Billups. And prop bets inside the NBA,

Not just Damon Jones, but who might score or what might be scored by, for example, LeBron James. The allegation is that Damon Jones with inside information about when LeBron would play. How many minutes would be played by LeBron was manipulating prop bets inside the NBA. Let's bring in tin foil pat and two at a's Dan to talk about this story and ask, what's the hardest sport to manipulate in gambling? Boys, yesterday, I interviewed Christopher Raya, the FBI agent, in charge of this investigation. I thought there was two main questions to ask. How did this investigation hit their radar?

And where will it go from here? Are there more NBA players? Is this just the tip of the iceberg? He neglected to answer both of those questions. But I think the answer to the first has something to do with Jontay Porter. Because about a year ago, you'll remember, Jonte Porter was suspended for life from the NBA for gambling, for doing something very similar to what we're hearing now about Damon Jones,

shaven points, checking out of games early, manipulating prop bets. Jonte Porter is mentioned now in this investigation, Operation Nothing But Net. I asked Rhea, was Jontay Porter your asset? Did he cooperate? Was he the guy that flipped on other NBA? players. That's interesting from a soap opera development, but it's also interesting in that what happens next with Damon Jones? There is a sense this is a tip of the iceberg. There is a sense there's more. Look, gambling culture has always been part of sports, and I think it's been

acutely part of the NBA. I used to hear stories about Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley's card games. Those aren't illegal, but the point is gambling's popular. It's popular in the NFL as well. You'll hear about domino games and poker games. But I do think it's a bit of a part of the culture in the NBA. And I would be very surprised if this is the end of the story for the league. Does Damon Jones flip? What more does he share? What other stars?

And how does it make any sense when you make in Damon Jones case? $26 million a year and you risk that? I'm sorry, that's actually Terry Rozier, an active player in the NBA, who's actually part of this as well, making $26 million a year and you risk that for what? what was he getting? What kind of prop bets was he manipulating? Even if, as Director Cash Patel of the FBI said, this amounted to in aggregate, tens of millions of dollars, that's not enough. Trey Rozier, after taxes, is bringing home easily $14, $15 million a year. What do you need an extra couple hundred thousand, even an extra million? Where's the risk reward on that?

man this scandal has got him talking we played the sound for you earlier this week of stephen a smith saying this is donald trump he's coming no this started under joe biden and this is the law you know what's coming the law and charles barclay on espans halftime program i thought he was really smart on it i thought he was really good i thought he's to the point as he always is Kenny smith tried to explain some of this way through gambling addiction or at least soften the blow and in the indictment of some of these players with gambling addiction. And I'm with Charles Barclay. Bull. Barclay said it's stupidity.

I think they're both bouncing around something else. It's immorality. And that's the truth of it. Yeah, of course it's stupid. And maybe, maybe there's gambling addiction involved. But the thing that stops everyone from doing something incredibly stupid at some point is some perhaps never-existent but very possible loss. morality. Like once you're compromising the very thing that brought you to this point in life and

you know inherently, you're certainly taught that it's wrong. I know the NBA brings these players in and says, this is what you can do and this is what you can't do. Man, sometimes we've just got to call it the way it is. And you've, you may like these players, but they've lost their sense of morality. What I mean by that is, I believe it was Teddy Roosevelt who said something like, you know, above all, hold on to your morals, that he'd rather have a moral man that was stupid than a smart man that was unscrupulous. Two days, Dan, tinfoil, Pat. Ed, as well, I'll hear with us.

Okay, so the debate has erupted in the text chain. What's the hardest sport to manipulate? Tinfoil Pat, of course, with his conspiracies. And his hatred of, inexplicable hatred at this point of the Kansas City Chiefs, wants to believe it's the NFL. And I'm with you, Dan, in the text chain. I think if you're ranking sports where gambling is compromising the integrity of the game, lowest and last is the NFL.

It's too hard, man. Every play matters too much. The first thing, you need two elements. You need the individual's ability to actually accomplish manipulating the bet, which puts boxing in M&A straight in the spotlight. And you need, I think most. what makes it most easy is you need worthless plays and basketball's chock full of worthless plays 82 games over 100 points scored it's just easy to say tonight i'm doing x and have it

not really impact the outcome of the season and so i think that brings us to the next sport i think basketball outside of boxing which has a history of this um i think the next sport after basketball is is probably baseball. I think baseball has the right synthesis of the individual... It's an individual sport masquerading as a team sport. So you could strike out. You could throw a meatball over the plate if you're a pitcher. And with 162 games, there's just too many opportunities to go.

This game, hell with it. I'm going 0 for 4. And manipulate some prop bet within the game. NFL, man, it just doesn't have those worthless drives, those worthless plays. and if you did something, I also don't think you're involved in the game enough. The only player involved in the game enough is the quarterback. A receiver just isn't involved in the game enough to go, what is my over-under? Six catches for this game.

I'm going to drop this one. No one's going to notice it's not going to impact this drive. I just don't think the recipe – I'm not saying it never happens in the NFL, but the recipe isn't there for the NFL. What do you say, two a days? Well, what about faking an injury? I mean, NFL is the hardest one, but you could go down, impact a game if you're running back wide receipts. an impact player, that could happen. But you're right, NFL is the hardest, like we were saying.

We literally just had... But I think that the player, real quick, tin foil. I think that the player, I am maybe naively retaining the belief that even, okay, Terry Rozier, right, he actually doesn't want the season to tank. He doesn't want to compromise his team's ability to win over the long term. I think he's doing something like what we're talking about here, which is I can do this. So even a player, and it's probably not even. fair for me to use somebody's name hypothetically.

But let's do it historically, okay? That way it doesn't indict anybody. Bob Hayes, wide receiver from what? The 1960s for the Dallas Cowboys. Say there was prop betting at the time, right? Bullet Bob Hayes. Let's say his prop betting over under was six catches for 90 yards, right? I just think if Bob pulls up injured and goes,

I'm going to allow somebody to hit the under, on this because I'm going to drop out in the first quarter, I just think he's got more competitive spirit in that in what was then a 16, it might even been a 12 game season back in the 60s, that he's not going to do that. I guess I just naively maybe still believe that they're trying to thread the needle between winning a little extra money and still remaining competitive. Go ahead, tinfoil. So two things real quick. So with gambling addiction, okay, like Norm McDonald lost his entire fortune three times. So like when you have gambling addiction, sometimes it is all you think about. And you might, you might lose that competitive spirit,

you know, just because you're so obsessed with this. And two, just two weeks ago, the Arizona Cardinals running back dropped the ball right before the end zone. We've seen this so many times. We chalk it up to stupidity. It could very easily be something where, you know. That's interesting. That's interesting. Drops the ball. I don't think. I'm not saying. I'm not think he did it, but it's very easy to do. I know what you're talking about. That story was everywhere because Jonathan Gannon, the head coach of the Cardinals ripped into him.

Remember that? And he got in trouble. The coach got in trouble for ripping into him. You're talking about the play. I'm sorry, let me do this in the style of 10th throw pat. You're talking about the play. You're talking about the play, which we see with some level of frequency where a guy has a breakaway touchdown and celebrates too early and drops that ball.

intentionally, like, right as he's hitting the goal line. Man, I don't know. I guess I just see stupidity. I guess I see pure, selfish celebration and stupidity. Someone broke down a game of the Trailblazers with Chauncey Billups, and it was interesting because, you know, they were like down five, and he took their best player out with three minutes to go. And it looked like, I mean, if you look at those little things,

it looks pretty innocuous at first, but if you really break it down, it's like, oh, man, it seems. like he was actually trying to throw that game. So, I don't know. It's interesting. Boy, there's clips going around of Terry Rozier and the things that he was doing in a game. And now, have you guys seen, and this is going to get irresponsible the way that social media, in particular, X, and probably TikTok do really quickly? Like, there's a clip going on of Kevin Durant. Do you guys remember the clip of Kevin Durant standing? I believe he's at the free throw line, but he's not the one shooting the free throw. So he's lined up for rebounds on a free throw. And in the

background, there's a guy with a University of Texas shirt on. Oh, yeah. And at the time, you're like, oh, that was like a Texas thing, because KD went to Texas. And like, the guy taps his hat, but the guy doesn't smile. He is making some weird

movements, and Durant doesn't smile back. Durant kind of just nods at him, almost like, leave me alone. And people are passing that one around. Like, was that a signal, like, you need to? But again, this is Kevin Durant. Like, This dude is making...

What is Kevin Durant making at this point? $50, $60 million a year? And, I mean, one of the most competitive dudes in the history of the NBA, trying to win and successfully winning championships. I just have trouble. These clips are going around. There's some of LeBron now. There's clips of everybody going around that are suspect, right?

And I think sports is going to be full of things where you could look at and say it's suspect. Like just looking at the game. I'm not sure it's actually evidence. Well, think about Pete Rose. Ed texts over to us. Pete Rose never bet on, reportedly, never bet on the games that he was participating. I know, but bet on games. Or player.

So, you know, what does that look like? Did he have insider information too? Right. I mean, yeah. He's. Right. Yeah, there's two levels, manipulating the game itself and then just having inside information on another game. Exactly. Yep.

Like this guy's going down. You couldn't text people back. though, and say, hey, are you going to sit out today, you know? So it would have been harder to, it'd have been on the phone all day long, just... Carrier pigeons. It can just happen, yeah. Let's take a quick break, but we'll be right back on Will Cain Country. Calling all Booklovers.

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Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever Plus more peace of mind with your bill over five years This is big Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. So texted in by our boy, Ed, he says hockey. Now, you guys were debating hockey yourselves in our group text. And we decided, I think you guys smartly decided.

The only real player in hockey that could have a big impact on this would be the goalie. The goalie could say, I'm going to let one slide through. And theoretically, again, that's an 82 game schedule. and you can say I'm up four nothing, three nothing, you know, it's the third period, whatever the prop bet is within the game, I can let one slide through. And maybe that's a good, that brings up, have you seen what many people are responding to this with? And I can't remember who it was said this, but they said the thing that we really need to address

is prop betting. Yes. And that validates what I'm talking about, that these guys are still competitors and they don't want to throw actual games, but the prop betting allows an individual within the game to have a little more control over an outcome of a prop bet, and it doesn't really compromise his competitive instinct too much. So I think that's actually legit, like, should we look at... And by the way, we have sponsors, everybody has sponsors in the world of media and sports now.

They say that prop betting is the most profitable for all of the betting houses because it allows you to get into the parlays more easily, and parleyes are where all the money is for the betting house. That's because your odds is the better or the worst at a parley level now. And that's where they clean up. So I don't know that we're going to get rid of prop bets. Because remember, I think it was this week. We heard about it here on this, this canaan sports of Wilcane country.

We heard about it from NHL executives. And this week it was discussed openly. They need betting as a source of revenue. So I don't know, man. I don't know how you're ever going to reel this back. You've got to look at every sport. But I still think the NFL and football is the least likely. And do you disagree with that, Pat?

You don't think, if we're ranking them, what's coming in last is the NFL? Probably. But, I mean, like, there are so many situations where, you know, a team is favored by six and a half. You know, they're driving down the field. They end up kicking a field goal. But so many things have to happen in these scenarios that you're talking about. You know, like. So many different contributors.

So many different factors. Like, there's more red. string hanging everywhere than other sports. It's probably more difficult, but I'm just saying, I definitely think it's, I mean, there are a lot of questionable things that happen. You know that thing you say you hate nothing more than the thing that you love? Well, Pat loves football. He doesn't care about the NBA, so he has to turn his hatred to the thing that he loves,

which is football. That's why he hates Florida State. That's why he hate, I don't know where he is right now on the Jacksonville Jaguars. So let's talk about the NBA a little more because I want to tell you something and consider this a PSA because I think there's a lot of people like Tinfoil Pat who certainly don't pay attention to the NBA in October. But I did this week and I'm here to tell you the future has arrived. We are living with aliens. Story number two.

Victor Wimbunyama is an alien. He is legitimately unstoppable, fellas. Now, I don't expect that you would have tuned in for game one of the NBA Mavericks versus Antonio Spurs. I would not expect you to do that. I did, of course. I want to see the debut of Cooper Flagg. I want to see this all defensive Dallas Mavericks with tall guys everywhere but guard.

And I'm excited, and it was a real big letdown. It did not look good for the Mavs. However, you watch that game, and I was texting with some of my buddies about this, you are witnessing something that literally, I don't think anybody listening or, yeah, I don't think any, maybe nobody alive. There's some people out there that might have been alive for the only comp we can come up with on this, but that is totally unique in your lifetime. Seven foot six, athletic, can shoot.

I'm talking about shoot like Luca, like step-back threes, KD, step-back threes, has a handle. He's dribbling it between his legs. Like, he's doing that to break down his defender. He's back there at the arc, bringing the ball between his legs, back and forth, doing the things that you see from guards to break down his defender and then driving to the basket. And fellas, it takes him one and a half steps to get to the basket. I know. It's crazy. my man is dunking from the free throw line and it's not like remember when jordan did it and it's at the dunk

contest and you're like he can fly that's not what it looks like it looks like he's dunking from underneath the basket he it doesn't look hard for him it doesn't look like he did something superhuman it looks like the court's too small for him and then he's doing things again like you know oh you're used to seeing a big man right seven foot six and the way they dunk they go straight up and they straight down, right? Boom, boom. He did a dunk where he looked like Dominique Wilkins. He went from one side of the basket coming, you know, across the court, not down the court. So along the baseline. He launches on one side of the basket, and I don't know how he does this when he's seven foot six, because he's going to hit the rim with his head. He goes under the

basket and he dunks on the backhanded on the opposite side of the basket. And you've seen that, you've seen that play, but you've seen it by six foot four guys. and you're like man look at how athletic he is now you're seeing it from a guy and he has to calculate in his head how not to hit his head on the rim so he's like i don't want to jump that high it is wild man it's wild to see there's literally nothing he can't do on the basketball court and he's doing it all at 7-6 and the one thing i'll say is and i think i said this earlier this week when we brought this up this caveat of well as long as he stays healthy because you always worry about that with a big man right and you most notably worry about their lower limb structure like their

feet if he puts on weight yeah he's different no but he's different dan like because he's so athletic like he takes falls and sometimes when there's big men that take falls you're like oh oh how's that he doesn't he looks like a guard like he falls gracefully he falls the right way his body just bounces I don't know. It's the weirdest thing. Like, it's paid money to go see it. And Pat, I know you don't like the NBA. It's like pay money to go see this.

This is not something you've ever seen before. Janus might be the closest. Janus ended up putting on muscle all that. But Janus could never shoot like this. And he still can't. This guy has range all over the court. I don't. Here's the only comp.

And then I want you guys to jump in. And I heard them talk about this on local radio. And it's not a comp in terms of style of play. It's a comp for how this could go. The comp, because I mentioned our lifetimes, there may be somebody old enough out there listening. Shout out if you're a big fan of podcasts in Will King Country. It's Willett Chamberlain.

Will was scoring 100 a game. Allegedly. There's just nothing they could do because they just didn't have people that tall outside of Wilk back then. And he didn't have to shoot. He didn't have to do all the other stuff that Wimby does. They could just feed them. ball to wilt and like what are you going to do feel the team nothing like there's nothing you can do

about and i don't say this i don't want to say this in any kind of derogatory way i'm saying this complimentary what are you going to do about that freak of nature that's because that's a freak of nature and that sounds negative like circus no i mean like one of one and wimby scored 40 points against the maves in 29 minutes he didn't even play the third quarter 40 points i don't remember how many rebounds and assists and everything else that he did i think it's shooting percentage was like 60 or 70% and it can't stay that way every game. Again, they said this in the radio. If he's 75% of what I saw that night throughout the season, I mean, it's not even close, guys. It's MVP. Stop the talk. Steph was great in game one. Steph Curry was

incredible this week again. Doesn't matter. LeBron, doesn't matter. Luca, doesn't matter. There's nothing like this guy. And get ready for Santana to rack up. I don't know that it'll be this year, get ready from rack up championships again, dynasties again. They've also got a great roster. It's not just him, is the wild thing. Darren Fox, Stefan Castle, Dylan Harper, the second pick in the draft.

I mean, it's a good night, Irene, man, with Wimby and the Spurs. Go ahead, Dan. I've been waiting for this to happen. I mean, we've seen different types of players like LeBron coming in, his strength, his power, his height, all that kind of thing. This is the next thing

to happen. These tall, athletic guys. Kevin Durant was kind of getting there in that way where he was freakishly played like a guard at his height and now when... Because Kevin Durant I think he's seven foot. I think KD is seven foot. They list him at it but he's

probably like 6.11. But he, Wemby's just the next thing. This is what's happening. I don't know if there will be another like him but we're seeing this athleticism from these huge guys, these tall guys and shooting. I mean the ball is probably like a great

fruit in his hand. Do you know how hard that is to shoot like that? That's why Shaq had such a problem with free throws, because the ball's so small. Right. It's like sure. Everyone knows, everyone can identify because we've all done the Nerf ball thing. Yeah, exactly. With the basketball in the office. Shooting that little Nerf ball is hard, man.

Yeah, it must be crazy. So that's more impressive. And not even that. On the defensive side, I mean, just how tall he is in his wingspan just probably just knocks down. Like, you're not scoring. How do you score in the paint against that. Oh, Cooper

Flagg was really bad in his first game. So what? His first game, but Cooper Flagg's a great basketball player, right? Yeah. I watched Cooper Flagg do an amazing move, break down his dude, drive to the basket, easy layup, right? Nope. He's still there. Because Wimby's standing there. And Flag didn't even, and Flag didn't even try. He's like, I got to pass it out. He just reset the offense. It's crazy. Flag was at a spot where you're like, yay, score the easy two. And he's like, eject. You can't pump fight. You can't pump fake him because he's going to still be there. There's no pump-faking, Webby.

That's right. Oh, and you should see what he does. Like, when he's pump-faking, by the way, when it's reverse. Like, Anthony Davis didn't know what to do. Like, he's getting fouls, too. So he had a four-point play on a three against Anthony Davis. He's going to get every big man to foul out. And he just about did.

Derek Lively, Anthony Davis, they had like three fouls each in the first quarter. They're gone in the third. It was horrible. But I love what you're talking about with evolution. So I'm talking about him being like an alien, and he is. He is. But I do think we're headed there. It's not going to be like, it's not going to be he's number one and number three, four, five, six, and seven hit us in the next five years.

I don't think. I don't think it's going to be like that. Because I still think that he's a freak of nature. But you're going to get more freaks of nature, right? You're going to get more athletic seven foot. something guys, positionless basketball. I don't even know. Coaches are teaching them different things.

Is the future of basketball that every, there's no positions in everybody on the court is seven foot? Like, I don't know. Like, I mean, I don't know. It's become the game of just jacking up threes all the time. So, I mean, it just makes sense that seven footers have to do it too. Wouldn't they be able to, wouldn't they be able to adjust eventually? I mean, like, you know, just like football, we have had the, you know, the athletic quarterback, you know, dual threat kind of guy.

It kind of makes the defense is more accountable. But like we've actually seen a decrease in quarterback play. Like, quarterbacks just aren't as good today in my mind because they depend too much on their athleticism. And defenses actually adjust and they learn they learn how to deal with that. Well, football adjusted because what you did is you started to get. getting the smaller, faster linebackers, right, to chase around the Lamar Jackson types. And then you just back, and then you got a Derek Henry type running back. And, oh, my God, now these small linebackers can't deal with the running game.

And I actually think this is really cool about football this year that, what is it, four or five years ago? We were talking about the death of the running game and running backs are a commodity. And football is such a pendulum. That's what makes it fun, like on the adjustment side. We're actually moving back to where running backs are important now. You know, I don't know. That doesn't mean they're going to get paid. But all of a sudden, in the last year and a half in the NFL, like, running the ball has become a huge emphasis back into the game.

But I don't, but I don't know how you adjust, Patrick, to 7 foot 6 athletic. Like, what do you, what's the adjustment besides find your own dude? I mean, just, I guess, you know, you maybe defend it better. Like, you defend it differently. You figure out a way to, you know, get more big men on the outside. How? I don't know. Genetic modification.

Yeah. You actually would have said the Mavericks are well suited to try to defend Wimby. They've got Derek Lively, who's seven foot, really athletic. They've got Anthony Davis, seven foot, really athletic, right? I think Daniel Gafford was hurt. They had numbers. They had athletic in the regular athletic seven-foot world, not the Wimby athletic world. And they got nothing for him, man.

They got nothing. I don't know what, I mean, like, I'm not even close to somebody that could ever say they could be an NBA coach. Like, okay, here's my first thought. I can see it. Like, start roughing him up on the outside. That's his weakness. If he gets the ball. His size.

Yeah, that he's skinny. Yeah. Yeah. So rough him up. But they're getting, he's getting fouls called when you do that a ton. So, I don't know. Keep though? I mean, I think that'll get old for the refs.

Let's take a quick break, but we'll be right back on Will Cain Country. 20th Century Studios presents, Springsteen. One thousand champs like us, baby we were born. Witness a true story of risking it all. These new songs, they're the only thing making sense to me right now. To fight for what you believe in. This is not going to be good for Bruce. I don't need to be perfect.

I just know it to feel right. Springsteen, now playing only in theaters. I'm telling you it's worth the price of admission. Go see this alien. Let's talk about college football. Story number three. All right. We've got new helmets on the desk this week.

It's been a big week for a collection of helmets here at Wilcane Country. The horn frogs, the mustangs have made appearances on the table. The canes earlier this week. And as of yesterday, we got the Aggies from Texas A&M. The big talk about the Fighting Irish and the Bulldogs making an appearance here on the table. But we do have a couple of games. Let's do three, guys. Let's do three.

Two days, Dan, I think you prepped this. So why don't you take us through really quickly some of the biggest games this week in college football? Yes, we got Texas A&M Aggies at LSU Tigers 730 tomorrow. You got the Aggies at 7 and 0. LSU Tigers are 5 and 2. I mean, it's an SEC heavy weekend. last week Texas A&M escaped at Arkansas you know it's two big teams what do you think so everything inside me says Aggies Aggies have they have what it takes they've got a

defense they've got a mobile quarterback and Marcel Reed they've got stud stud skill players specifically at receiver guys like Kevin Concepcion they're good everything in me says Aggies, there's two things that say, be careful. Also, by the way, something else that says Aggies is if you look right now at coach potential firings, every list is starting to include Brian Kelly at LSU. So it makes you wonder about like the circling the drain effect at LSU. I know they haven't been that bad, but they're just on that list, you know, in part because it was just such a bad fit, if nothing else stylistically. Like Brian Kelly is. just not Louisiana.

But here's what's keeping me from going all Aggies. A, Death Valley. B, every time someone has had their back against the wall, I feel like this year in college football, they've come out with the necessary win. Texas had to win against Oklahoma. And then they did. Every time this has happened, I feel like the team that had to win outside of the Florida State Seminoles, then they did it.

So this is a half to win for LSU. That being said, I think I'd still ride the momentum, and I would ride the Aggies. Is it a big rivalry, these two teams? I think it's a wannabe rivalry. Is it? It's a wannabe rivalry. In what way? The Aggies definitely would love it.

I'm not saying it's non-existent. It's growing, but it's not, you said, is it a big rivalry? No. Because when A&M joined the SEC, they didn't have a natural rival. LSU is the closest geographically to them. There is a little bit of cultural crossover there. East Texas and Louisiana have some cultural crossover.

But it just doesn't have any history. So LSU, I'm pretty sure they think of Alabama as their rival. So, I mean, I think there's something bubbling between the two, but it's by no means yet a big. I think it should be. I think that would be cool. Yeah, I like it. A&M, LSU, they should invest in hating each other. aren't they the ones that made the rule changes for overtime because of their game 72 74 remember that i don't know

it was like it was like nine overtimes just kept going and going yeah yeah um that may have been the inspiration for the new overtime it was definitely really quickly i was this morning this morning um i went to pure Americana. I went to a homecoming pep rally. And I've been to a few high school pep rallies since I was in high school. I went to one of my nephews out at Odessa Permian. I went to this one today for my son. And man, it is pure Americana. It is awesome. I sat there and watched this. I was like, the European mind just doesn't understand. Was there line dancing? This right here, this must be preserved. No, there wasn't line dancing. But see, then I got to thinking about that, Dan.

The European mind can't comprehend this. But did you do this in Connecticut? Surely you did, right? You had pep rallies before the games on Friday, right? We did. They weren't very big, though. I will tell you that. I mean, we don't have, we're not a big football area, the Northeast.

And football is what people really rally around. Was Friday night football a thing? Like, did you guys go to your high school game? We kind of. If you went to one, you'd be like, this is the lamest thing I've ever seen. But it was big for our towns. If I went to one. If you went from Texas, you would think this is insanely lame.

I went to one in California when I was in college with some of my college buddies. I'd go back to their hometown with them. And I was like, hmm, this is kind of weird. like they're not into it i can tell um but i think i have other friends in california and it is big in certain places and maybe it was just that town or that night but i don't know i just loved it i loved it this morning i was like this yeah but even up do you have hockey pep rallies oh heck yeah dude it is the wildest thing oh yeah we do in the northeast is a big hockey haven Do you feel

Do you guys do this in Florida? You have the pep rallies. You're Americana football Friday night, Friday pep rally, high school football in Florida. I want to say yes, but I was homeschooled, so I don't know. He has his own separate kind of pep rally. Ha! I was going to school. Sorry for playing through the pain, all right?

Little sickness. You're doing great. Should we move on to number two? All right. Yep. Second game. All right. We got Ole Miss at Oklahoma.

Old Miss coming off a big loss from Georgia. Their first loss of the season, there's six and one. Oklahoma, six and one. 12 o'clock on Saturday. Do you think Old Miss can bounce back? Such a hard game. Such a hard game. Because the bounce back theory I just gave you, you know, I want to do it.

I want to take Ole Miss. And Ole Miss looks good, actually. in their loss to Georgia, and Oklahoma looked bad in their loss to Texas. But it's in Norman, and I don't know, like, how does Ole Miss travel? How does Ole Miss travel? I don't know. It's also a massive right of flag. Lane Kiffin.

Yeah. For which one? For Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin is like the talk. You think he's one foot out the door? You think he's thinking about Florida? Florida? No, no. I mean, like, in the past, there's been rumors that he's going to go, and I believe his agent is Jimmy Sexton, so he's going to leverage this talk of the coaching stuff, and it's going to be

a big thing where, like, for sure, you're going to be distracted by it. Even if he stays, which I think he probably does stay, because Ole Miss is in a pretty good position, it's still a massive distraction. I thought about that, too, Patrick. I was driving around thinking about if I'm Lane Kiff and I leave Ole Miss for Florida. Any Florida fan is going to think that's sacrilegious to even entertain that you wouldn't because they consider themselves. And they're not wrong to put that in like one of top 10 job, top 10 job in America. That's just Florida State talk right there.

But, you know, I started thinking like, well, all right, you're Ole Miss. And first of all, I think Ole Miss has a really cool culture. It's a really cool town. you know, it would probably be a pretty good life right there at Ole Miss. And you've already got them. Like Lane Kiffin has them there. If Florida got to where Ole Miss is right now, that would be a huge leap forward for Florida. Right.

Now, they have higher expectations than that. You've got to be beating Georgia. You've got to be in the SEC championship game, all that stuff. But he's right there with Ole Miss. So why go restart at Florida? And I think the answer is it's money, right? In the end, I don't think Ole Miss can pay what Florida can pay. Florida's athletic budget, their boosters.

What's that? They can pay. They can definitely, yeah, it's comparable. They have, Ole Miss has a good donor base. I think if we looked up athletic facilities, NIL support, I know that he has had NL support at, at Ole Miss. Florida's facilities have traditionally been trashed. They've not really invested in the football. program. That's part of the problem. They're only now catching up.

Hmm. Hmm. I mean, and they have not been good. I mean, they haven't even made the playoff the entire time it existed. So it's not like you're, you know. Well, then there's the history. The history, the history is a, a draw for him. It's going to be the Spurrier, Urban Meyer history. I don't know. I don't know if he takes it. But here's where I will agree with you. Um, the distraction. But I'm going to zig to my own Zach. Yeah, I'm going to take Ole Miss against Oklahoma Yeah, everything says it should be Oklahoma I'm going to take Ole Miss. Go ahead, Dan, game number three.

All right, let's go with your Texas Longhorns. We'll finish it out here at Mississippi State. Texas being a bipolar team this year, you were down on them. What do you think going into Mississippi State? Don't forget the last coach to beat Mississippi State got fired. So just be careful. I mean, they could get knocked out of the top 25 with this game. It could be done.

I'm really, thank you for taking the Texas-Mississippi State game as one of the big games of the week. That's very, very charitable. Well, I did it for you. To call them bipolar up and down is also very charitable of you as well. I'm not sure where the highs have been. Oklahoma. One-half of one football against Oklahoma? Yeah.

One-half of one game. Hey, one-half becomes a whole win. And by the way, I think... Vanderbilt versus Missouri is a hell of a game this week. I have that out of area. I know that's not two marquee programs, but there's two six and one programs. I'm really nervous about Texas versus Mississippi State. Really nervous.

Oh, yeah. What about, yes, Ed's a Longhorn fan. What gives you confidence? Did you watch the game against Kentucky? Horrific. Horrific. There's no however. Pretty bad.

What, however? What? That's always a tough place to go. So that empty dome or wherever they're playing up in Kentucky. I mean, Arch was awful, awful. Like, probably should have been benched. What do you want to talk about, Arch? What happens with him?

Is he done? Is this ruining his legacy? Is he going to ever play in the NFL? Is he going to stay the started quarterback at Texas? What do you think? You've got to give him time. The NFL thing, you've got to give him time. I mean, I'm not ready to do that yet.

Okay. The Texas thing, people were pointing out, Quinn Ewers got benched. Like, Sarkeesian benched Ewers because he was playing bad, right? And Sark said afterwards, I just think Quinn needed to reset his mind. Wasn't that against Georgia? It was against Georgia. He said, I just thought he wouldn't see in the field, and he needed to sort of have a breather and reset. Man, that is not something he showed willingness to do with Arch.

And that's pretty interesting. I mean, I don't know how to pick this game, Mike. If I tell you it's Texas, I am doing that out of heart. I really am. Like, I can't intellectually do it. Okay, come here. Ed is all in on Texas. Just give me your best argument.

People can't hear you. Just give me one reason. Give me one reason. I'm like a man in the desert. I just need a sip of water. What is the sip of water that says Texas over Mississippi State? And please don't say how bad Mississippi State is. It doesn't matter.

Texas almost lost to Kentucky, who's the worst. team in the SEC. I agree. However, all right, this is the season. If we get knocked out, if this is our loss, we're done. So they're going to come with a different mentality. I think Arch needs to be benched. Oh, Matthew Caldwell, against Mississippi State, backup quarterback. Okay. So basically, Ed says it's do or die. This is it right here. And he's right. There's no playoffs if Texas loses to Mississippi State. All right. Let's do it. I'm about to go whip Ed's ass and bumper pool,

so I'm going to ride with him on the longhorns over the Bulldogs. Let's take a quick break, but we'll be right back on Will Cain Country. I'm here for Bet Rivers Online Casino and Sportsbook with poker icon Phil Helmute. Thanks to Bet Rivers, I'm also a slots icon. Great. And a same game parlay icon. Cool, cool. A blackjack icon, a Moneyline icon, a roulette icon.

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Don't play the music story number four. We can't get out of here without talking about the World Series. We got a. World Series going to. I don't have a four. I don't have a four. I'll just do. They don't say... Thank you, thank you.

They don't have numbers, Dan. I know it. I know what I'm doing, and they don't go, one, two. No, they have... And I all of a sudden took you to a place. They do. They have...

It goes down. Dund down. It has. So those are separate buttons. I've never noticed. Those are separate buttons. I've never noticed. Get out of here.

You didn't... We've been doing this for three years. All right. Here's story number one button. Here's story number two button. Here's story number three button. Huh. Do you know what this is from?

How about that? It's from your theme song, just in case you didn't know that either. Yeah. It's from what? Your theme song. It's from the intro song. It's a sample. Hmm.

So you didn't have one that went down, down, down, down, down. We've just never gone to four. I mean, it's like turning your guitar amp up to 11. Rocket. Well, Dodgers, Blue Jays, USA, Canada, World Series. First pitch tonight. Friday night. California versus Canada. Who do you root for? Now, you root for USA. Stupid lips. But, but. But, no, here's the but. See, I'm going to give you a quiz, Ed.

Somebody on the show doesn't like the idea that the Dodgers are on the verge of being a dynasty. Who doesn't like that idea? Who would be upset by that? That's right, tinfoil pat. Why? Because he hates great things. He hates great things. He hates greatness.

He hates the chiefs. He hates greatness. I'm sorry. He starts looking for conspiracies, bought off refs. I bet he didn't like the Patriots during their dynasty. And he had to reconcile To what really is bothering you here In the end, Patrick

There's literally a dynasty In South Florida right now With the Stanley Cup back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers So I'm all in favor of that one That's not the test That's not the test The test isn't whether not you like your team

Being a dynasty But whether or not you can look across The sports landscape as a neutral And appreciate a dynasty And we know the answer with you. You hate dynasties. Unless they're your dynasty, like with the Panthers. Yeah, because I'm an American.

You start looking. We hate dynasties. Why does being an American require you to hate greatness? We love underdog stories. It's ingrained in us. We're a capitalist nation. What are you talking about? You know, the Revolutionary War.

Like, we love underdog stories. 100%. It's ingrained. But we're the overdog now. I think you can do both. I think you can like underdogs, but appreciate great. and celebrate dynasties. You are the embodiment of that saying, America.

They love to build you up, but they love to tear you down. You want to tear them down once I get to the top. Yeah. Well, I don't want to both the daughters at the top at all. It's very lib of you. Yeah. To hate dynasties. That's fine.

It's the horseshoe. Are you too young? This will hurt my feeling a little bit, but did you hate the Cowboys dynasty? Or you were too little. You don't remember it. Dude, I was such a front-runner, by the way, on that. Yeah, I didn't get into the NFL until 95. You're in the opposite of Pat.

Yeah, I love it. I want dynasties all the time. For that, I definitely wasn't. Look at the teams you like. Shut up. The Yankees, the Packers. Shut up. Who's your basketball team?

Is it the Lakers? Nix. Who is it? The Warriors? Nix. Yeah, but Ewing is probably during the U.N. I'm a Rangers, I'm a Rangers hockey fan. During the Messier era, when they went a

Oh, Notre Dame? I might as well be a cowboy fan. Yankees, Notre Dame, and Cowboys all go together. I think Packers is almost as good for solidifying your brand. Like for the frontrunner, how about the guy, I'm from Amsterdam, I love American football. Ods are he's going to be a Cowboys fan or a Packers fan, right? Is there even a third in the running? Chiefs now.

Chiefs now, yeah. Chiefs now. Yeah, maybe Chiefs now. Yeah. When I started paying attention to the NFL, the Cowboys stopped being good. So 95-ish. So that's the last Super Bowl. And then they haven't gone to a championship game since, you know.

So I laid out an argument. I don't know. If you want it. Yeah, go ahead. Go lay out your argument too. All right. So if the Dodgers right now as a dynasty, here's the archery. argument for 11 division titles in the last 13 years averaging around 97 wins per year since 13

they have five trips to the world series since 2017 two world series titles 2020 and 2024 so they are the model everyone's trying to copy right now they are the gold standard however they do only have two championships the last 12 years likened to the 90s Braves. Do you agree with that, Patrick? So you need one more. They need to win this one. Exactly. And then they're done. And they bought them. I mean, do you say they bought them? Can you buy a dynasty? Does that count? Because they have... That's what Pat hates about them. They have the highest payroll. So you're buying a dynasty.

Does that count as a dynasty? Or are you playing the system? I don't hate them just because they have the highest payroll. I hate them because of the way they did it because Shohei Otani's contract is backloaded and it's like they're already paying this massive luxury tax but like they shouldn't be able to get away with the way they they did his contract. I mean, that's absurd. Otani's contract is super suspect. But they're not alone in that. Have you guys seen what happens to the Eagles in 2029? Like all this stuff they've spent because they spend a ton of money. It comes home in 2029 apparently. Dead money. Keep pushing dead money, dead money, dead money.

But, I mean, if in the meantime you're racking up championships, okay, so what? Sure. Now, imagine the Dodgers will figure it out. If they win, it's a dynasty this year. It's super good for baseball. It's super good for baseball for the Dodgers to be like this. It's not as good for baseball when the Texas Rangers are playing the Arizona Diamondbacks in the World Series. We all know it.

As much as I loved it, we all know that's not as good for the game. Dodgers, Dodgers, Yankees, that would be the best, right? For baseball. If they need them both, like competing to be the dynasty at the same time.

They need them both at that top of their game over an extended period of time. It would vault baseball. That's what they need. There's a political angle this year. Canada versus U.S. Right now with Trump. You know, Canadians aren't a big fan.

So it's becoming kind of an international issue right now, which makes it interesting. But the Dodgers, I feel like the Dodgers are one of these LGBTQIA alphabet teams that they've done a lot of that stuff, right? Didn't they get in trouble or a player wouldn't do it? I think Kirshaw. What was the deal? Wouldn't do it? Some of their players wouldn't do it.

Yeah. Or they had messages on their hats. Yeah. They put Bible verses on their hats during it. Yeah. But I don't know. I don't want to do the political angle to it. Sorry.

I like sports for what it is. Listen to me. I don't want to do it. I don't want to force it. I don't want to force it. I know. Bad Bunny, Super Bowl halftime. Oh, gee, don't even start.

Dude, I will go down that road with you if you want. What, you want to have a political debate about bad bunny in Super Bowl? Yeah, on another day, but yeah. Can we get some songs in English? There will be. There'll be a lot of collaborations. The official language of America. Wow.

So Bad Bunny's not going to speak English, but special guests will. Yeah. Can Bad Bunny speak English? Of course. He sings in English. He does. There's a Cardi B song. He doesn't have to get more, too.

He sings in English. He raps in English. Are you telling people to assimilate well? He's talking, he's talking Latino over there. I'm not sure what he's doing right now. All right. No, no politics and sports. Let's just enjoy it like we have for the past 45 minutes here on this Canaan Sports edition of Will Cain Country. We appreciate you being with us.

Check in with us on Monday, 12 o'clock Eastern Time at the Will Cain Country YouTube channel. Or go back and get us at Spotify or Apple. We'll see you next time. Listen to ad free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcast. And Amazon Prime members. You can listen to this show, ad-free on the Amazon music app.