Bengals Trade for Joe Flacco & Vlad Guerrero Jr. Steals the Show

Nick (00:00)

We're back, took off Sunday because we were driving home from the Bengals loss to the Lions, but it's the height differential powered by Gritily That's Neil. I'm Nick. Neil, before we get into update on sports, the show is called height differential.

Neil (00:15)
That

it is, yeah.

Nick (00:18)
I a little predicament today. It happens every once in a while. It doesn't happen very often. when it does happen, it comes out of nowhere. And it is honestly probably one of the worst things that I can hear.

Neil (00:26)
Yeah

Nick (00:27)
Sitting there eating dinner and all of sudden my smoke detector just starts beeping once every minute.

Neil (00:33)
Oof. It's

one of the worst sounds you could ever have.

Nick (00:38)
So like when that happens to you, it's annoying but is it that big a deal?

Neil (00:43)
Nah, for me I just reach up, press the little reset button, pop the battery out, pop the new battery in and we're good to go. About 10 seconds.

Nick (00:51)
So it doesn't work like that for me. So in the past, I've tried to take a broomstick, just knock it down. I've tried to climb a ladder. Climbing a ladder is worse because you get a little closer, but you still can't reach it. When things are just out of reach, that's way worse than it being so far out of reach that you're not even going to try. But doing stretch therapy, I've got this stretching stick that I'm able to use. So I take that thing.

Neil (00:53)
Mm-mm.

Nick (01:20)
and it's got a little grip on the end of it and I'm able to actually kind of turn it a little bit to get the thing to fall so I don't have to get up there. But I didn't realize that I was gonna, this is like, I'm trying to figure this out as I go. Like I'd never done that before. And you're like, am I gonna listen to this thing all night because I can't get this thing down?

Neil (01:26)
with.

Nah, at that point you just go sleep outside.

Nick (01:44)
I mean, I could go downstairs, but yeah, we got it down. It happens maybe what? Once every two or three years where your batteries go dead and your smoke detector.

Neil (01:53)
You don't ever, well, you're supposed to have the ones that are like hardwired so they last like 10 years, but why don't you just go knock on the next door neighbor's, bring the doorbell, knock on the door, have them come over and do it for you.

Nick (02:04)
I I guess if you got to that level of frustration, that might be something you would do. ⁓

Neil (02:10)
Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, ma'am. I need you to come over

and take down my smoke detector.

Nick (02:15)
Can I use your height, please?

Neil (02:16)
You

Nick (02:17)
But no, we got it down. But yeah, we'll wait for somebody to come over to the house to do that. Now it's just sitting on the.

Neil (02:19)
That's good. Now how you gonna get it back up?

Sure

hope your I hope your ovens turned off tonight, and there's no kind of electrical fire at your house. I like You'll be cooked Okay Okay

Nick (02:33)
It'll still work. I put batteries in it. It'll still work. It's sitting on the dresser.

I mean, I can't use the same stick that I took to take it down to put it back up. But it's sitting on the dresser. It's functioning. It's quit beeping. It's got fresh batteries. So if there is some sort of fire in the house, it will still beep. So we're good to go. But yeah, I got to wait for somebody a little taller to come by and put that thing back up because I'm not going to try it.

Neil (02:41)
No, can't do that.

That's good.

good.

Well, if we didn't live

on 30 minutes apart from each other, I'd be there for you. But ⁓ I ain't making that track.

Nick (03:04)
Well, I appreciate that.

I appreciate that. Speaking of not trying it, Cincinnati Bengals aren't gonna try to throw Jake Browning out there again. So made the move yesterday. Zac Taylor after their loss on Sunday was, he was still sticking with Jake Browning in the post game, but then Monday comes around and you could see that there's maybe a little thought process that they might go in a different direction. And then yesterday,

Neil (03:13)
Thank goodness.

Nick (03:33)
we find out Joe Flacco is headed south from Cleveland to Cincinnati.

Neil (03:39)
Yeah, would never have expected Joe Flacco to be the name that popped up this week. mean, you you've heard names like maybe like the Kirk Cousins of the world or the Jameis Winstons or the, you know, the Russell, ⁓ Russell Willsons, but old man Flacco. mean, it was a quick little drive down, ⁓ down the middle of Ohio to get to Cincinnati, but I'm just glad the Bengals are doing something. I mean, is Flacco the answer? Probably not.

especially behind the offensive line that the Bengals have. I don't know if his 40 year old butt is gonna be running around and avoiding sacks, but ⁓ it's something. It's at least the organization admitting that what is happening is not working and it's not acceptable. ⁓ After the game Sunday, you hear Zac Taylor talking and he.

gave the typical coach speak answers. I have faith in Jake Browning and it all starts with me in the audit. Put it on me, put it on me. But we all knew that it was a disaster on Sunday. The three interceptions that he threw were just absolutely terrible. mean, people want to point to his fourth quarter, but that was just garbage time touchdowns after you're down 28 to three. So those to me, those mean nothing. So glad that the Bengals are actually doing something. Joe Flacco, hopefully he'll bring a little bit of a spark to this offense and we'll see what we can do.

Nick (04:51)
Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, they had to do something. And you talk about the 21 points the Bengals scored in the fourth quarter. I mean garbage time, they got them within 11. ⁓ And then, I mean, you take a safety in the end zone, but I he threw eight picks in his, what, I guess three and a half games. I mean, QB rating is 70 and a half, completing 64 % of his passes. I talked about this in our last show. Like he just didn't look like the same Jake Browning that we saw.

Neil (05:06)
Three, two, down.

Nick (05:21)
two years ago when he was carrying them to the four and three record after Joe Burrow went down. And now you bring in a guy like Joe Flacco and you mentioned those other names like Kurt Cousins was never gonna happen with the contract that's tied to him. The Bengals were never gonna pay that and carry on dead money next year. That's the thing with Joe Flacco, he's not under contract for next year. So they don't have to worry about that. I don't think they ever reached out to the Giants in regards to Russell Wilson or Jameis Winston. ⁓

Neil (05:32)
and I'll see you later.

Nick (05:49)
He's not the oldest quarterback in the AFC North. mean, that still belongs to Aaron Rodgers. So, I mean, in two weeks, you're gonna see Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacco play on Thursday night in what may be the oldest combined quarterback age in NFL history. I mean, I guess Tom Brady potentially, if he played somebody who was a lot older when he was 45, could be up there. But I mean, they're bringing in a guy in Joe Flacco whose numbers aren't much better than, or they actually

Neil (05:53)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick (06:19)
worse in some categories than Browning's have been. you know, Jake Browning has had one drop with his receiving core. And do know how many Joe Flacco's had in his start?

Neil (06:26)
Yes.

I don't know, but I remember watching

that week one, those two interceptions the Bengals had were because of drops. So I know it's a lot.

Nick (06:36)
So he had 11 drops. So he goes from having statistically, which is the worst receiving core in the NFL to, mean, the Bengals aren't the best receiving core in the NFL statistically, but I think talent wise, they could be argued that they are. So he's stepping into a better situation talent wise and weapon wise, but you talked about it. I mean, the offensive line has got to keep him upright because he's not, he's going to be.

Standing still, he's not gonna be able to break out of tackles. They gotta keep him healthy.

Neil (07:07)
No, and I'll

give the offensive line some credit. I thought they actually played their best game of the season this past Sunday. There were times when Jake Browning had a lot of time to throw the ball and he just was inaccurate. I mean, in the previous games you could point to the offensive line and say that's why Browning played poorly. But I think on Sunday it was all on Browning. I thought the offensive line did a pretty good job.

Nick (07:31)
Yeah, I mean, you

just can't make the mistakes he's making. And you look at a lot of the interceptions he's thrown and I mean, they're bad decisions and they're bad throws. And you can't put it's offense like Detroit in such good field position where, and you know Detroit's gonna score. Actually, I thought Cincinnati's defense played pretty well after that opening drive. They kinda kept them in the game. I mean, was the reason they were able to get it to 11 in the fourth quarter.

Neil (07:53)
Absolutely. They absolutely do.

Nick (08:00)
I don't know, you had to make a move. And if you're looking for a guy who's gonna be able to come in, learn the offense and play in week his first week of the team, Joe Flacco is probably one of the rare guys that can do that.

Neil (08:15)
No,

absolutely. And financially it made sense. like you said, he's not under contract next year. And all you really did was have a pick swap with the Browns. mean, you traded your fifth round pick for a sixth round pick. And you got Joe Flacco in return as well. I mean, they didn't give up a lot for him. Like you said, not under contract next year. I mean, it makes a lot of sense.

Nick (08:35)
No, and I mean, the AFC North is there to be had. The Steelers are leading the division at three and one, but they haven't looked like world beaters. I mean, their quarterback's 41 years old and is an injury away from being out of there. mean, they got ⁓ Mason Rudolph as their backup again, I think. ⁓ So, I mean, the Steelers aren't gonna run away with this thing. And the Ravens are struggling, are one and four, and Lamar's out right now. So...

Neil (08:52)
Yeah.

Nick (09:03)
I mean, you've paid T, you've paid Jamar, you've paid Trey. I felt like the Bengals front office was like, we can't really just sacrifice this season. We need to make a change at QB. And their schedule lightens up too. They got the Packers this week and then they get the Steelers. But then they get the Jets and the Bears in back to back weeks and their schedule really does lighten up in the second half.

Neil (09:23)
Yeah, and you

got, mean, like you said, after this Packers game, you got the Steelers, Jets and Bears and all three of those are at home. So you have three straight home games and then a bye week. So, you know, somehow just get through this week. I mean, hopefully you get a win, but even with the loss, you know, you have a chance to rebalance those next three games at home, going into that bye week, hopefully with a 500 record or better.

Nick (09:42)
After watching week one where the Bengals luckily really beat Joe Flacco, did you expect five weeks later we'd be watching him in stripes?

Neil (09:49)
No, you could have given me a million names and his name would not have been the one that I would be thinking about but to his credit That the Packers have lost one game this season and who was the quarterback in that game?

Nick (09:56)
But I think it.

It was Joe Flacco. His numbers weren't great in that game.

Neil (10:03)
Okay, now they work, but he did win the game.

The Browns won, so he knows the Packers defense. He's already played him once, so let's see what he does.

Nick (10:13)
Well, and that's the advantage too. You just saw this team a few weeks ago. And I mean, when you're preparing for a team on short, you know, on a short break where you just got signed and you got to figure anything out in a few days like that, that's one advantage is the fact that you just played this team.

Neil (10:15)
Hmm? Yep.

You've already watched film on them. Yeah.

Yep.

Nick (10:29)
But we talked about the Ravens. They fall, just get absolutely crushed by the Texans. 44 to 10. ⁓ The Chiefs lose to the Jags on Monday night. The Bills lose to the Patriots on Sunday night. And we can get more into those games. But it is the first time since 2017 that the Chiefs, the Bills, and the Ravens.

Neil (10:35)
44 to 10.

Nick (10:57)
have all lost in the same weekend.

Neil (10:59)
Yeah, I mean it's the NFL is absolutely crazy right now like we talked about last week You know who's gonna be the last undefeated team between the the Eagles and the Bills and they both lose You know like both lose games that they should not have lost both at home You know the the Broncos are a little bit better I think of an opponent than the Patriots but Patriots are kind of a nice little surprise of the NFL so far, but

Like it just goes back to the argument of it's just wide open. Like there's not that a dominant team right now. I mean, and you talk about like this past Sunday, all the crazy things that happened with those three teams losing. Like you have, what is this three, four, five double digit comebacks for wins. The Titans were down 18 to Arizona. The Panthers were down 17 to Miami. The Broncos were down 14 to Philly. The Saints were down 11.

They got their first win against the Giants and the Commanders were down 10 to the Chargers that came back at once. So there's not that dominant good team right now. ⁓ So it's just a wide open crazy league.

Nick (12:00)
Yeah, we talked about this last week, like the last two undefeated teams were the Eagles and the Bills. And I think they were clearly above everybody, I mean, they both lose on Sunday. the Chiefs who are now two and three, they play a Jacksonville team whose only loss is to the Bengals. The Chiefs have 13 penalties in that game, and including Buccos kick out of bounds when they go up 28 to 24.

Neil (12:20)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (12:29)
that gives the Jaguar short field position. Trevor Lawrence makes two really good throws and then he has that delay of game penalty, which is just, you cannot do that in that situation. And they get the PI in the end zone, I mean, it's like in a situation like that where you're third and long, it's probably your best case scenario is getting a PI. They get that, they get in the end zone and then the crazy play with Trevor Lawrence where he trips on the guard's foot.

Neil (12:37)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Fall's

over.

Nick (12:59)
falls over, somehow gets up and gets into the end zone.

Neil (13:02)
Yeah, insane. mean, maybe the Jaguars are the favorites to win the AFC now. You know, who would have thought that? But they're definitely in the conversation.

Nick (13:10)
Well, that 99 yard interception return for a TD when the Chiefs were getting ready to go in and score, which I think would have put them up by two scores. Another turnover forced by the Jaguars, that's now 14. And they lead the league in that category. They had a couple against the Bengals with Jake Browning. And now we see what happened to him after that.

Neil (13:16)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Hell

yeah. yeah, it's, I don't know. it's an unpredictable league. That's for sure. don't know. If you were to say, me your Superbowl favorites or Superbowl winner, I couldn't tell you. It's just, it's a surprise every week.

Nick (13:43)
And you talked about the Broncos come back from against the Eagles. I mean, they were down 17 to three in the fourth and they go for two. They scored a cut at 17, 16 with like eight minutes to go and they go for two and like nobody does that. Take the lead and end up getting a feel go late to win by four. I mean, Bo next day goes on three scoring drives in the fourth quarter to beat the defending Superbowl champions.

Neil (13:57)
you

Nope.

Nick (14:11)
Two Broncos losses have been that one crazy loss to the Colts where they were called for the leverage penalty on a field goal and then they gave up a lead late against the Chargers. So, I mean, they're looking pretty good too.

Neil (14:23)
Yeah.

Nick (14:26)
And then you talk about Buffalo and New England. I Drake May's numbers weren't amazing, but when he needed to make plays, he's looking like a guy.

Neil (14:35)
Yeah, I mean, Mike Vrabel's got them playing good football. He's turning them around completely. So they are definitely playing good football and they're in the playoff hunt, playoff conversation.

Nick (14:43)
And guess we have to get in to whatever it was that happened in that Titans Cardinals game.

Neil (14:51)
Clown show.

Nick (14:52)
So for

people that are playing Survivor, I pick the Cardinals. I'm watching the game while we're in Bingle Stadium, thinking that one's in the bag, right? Then you look up and when it was 21 to six in the fourth, and Amare Dermicado gets that 72 yard pass play for what should have been a touchdown.

Neil (15:04)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick (15:20)
and lets it go before it even gets in the end zone. So now two weeks in a row, because Adonah Mitchell did it for the Colts last week, two weeks in a row a player has fumbled the ball right before he's getting ready to score. Which I still don't understand how this continues to happen.

Neil (15:29)
Yup.

That makes no sense. mean, you see this happen to other guys around the league, you have to think to yourself, that's not going to be me. And then somehow it ends up being you. Like you, I don't get it.

Nick (15:50)
Look, is there anything more inexcusable in sports? Like it'd be like, I don't know, like in basketball, like getting the layup and then just like letting the ball go before you lay it in. Who would ever do that?

Neil (15:53)
No.

That or your

your rounding third you're heading home or no in a in a baseball game and instead you decide to jump over home plate like

Nick (16:10)
You just handed it to me, huh?

Just

head to the dugout, you're two feet away, you don't know if I'm gonna slide right. It makes zero sense. And this is something that happens once or twice a year, every single year, in college and pro.

Neil (16:26)
Yup.

Nick (16:29)
So instead of going up 28 to six, they remain up 21 to six and then.

The Tennessee gets like a 50 yard touchdown pass and then they end up, Ken Ward throws a pick, they fumble it on the ground, the Titans pick it up in the end zone.

Neil (16:43)
Well, he fumbles it, then some other dude kicks it from the car, kicks it into the end zone, and then the Titans decide to fall on it. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (16:47)
Yeah.

And they're still down 21-19. it's still, the Cardinals still lead.

And then have Bunton and Sly who had missed an extra point earlier in the game makes it 29 yarder to win it. But you know how like ESPN does those probability statistics like to win the game? Like when he's running 70 yards for a touchdown up 21 to six, I'd say it's pretty close to 99%. And then

Neil (17:08)
Yeah, this side had been like a 99.99

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nick (17:21)
they figure out a way to lose.

Neil (17:22)
Yeah.

And the Cardinals coach, Cardinals coach got into it there a little bit with his wide receiver. Yeah. After that, mean, I don't blame the coach for being mad, as you said, like, you know, it's one of the most inexcusable things in sports that you could possibly do. But he may have crossed the line a little bit, shoved the player, maybe a little, went a little bit too far. Fine. What was he fine? $100,000 by the organization. Yeah. So.

Nick (17:25)
⁓

yeah, we gotta talk about that.

100,000.

Neil (17:52)
I think he learned his lesson. No, you can't.

Nick (17:52)
Well, mean, as frustrated as you are, you can't put your hands on people.

But I mean, we talked about how just inexcusable it is to do that. I don't know. I mean, I don't know how you really handle that as a coach. The player knows better not to fumble at the one yard line. He's not just now learning this. So I don't know. But I 100 % understand his frustration. And the $100,000 fine was probably warranted, but hey.

Neil (18:03)
Is your phone on play?

Nick (18:24)
The Titans get their what they stepped a 10 game losing streak with this with this win and I'm sure that regardless of how it happened flying back to Tennessee. They were feeling pretty good.

Neil (18:30)
Well, game.

Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (18:36)
see, another good one was the uniform bowl with the the Bucks and the Seahawks. Like we can talk about this later, but some of these throwback uniforms, I don't know why they're not the main uniform.

Neil (18:45)
Mm-hmm.

No, the cream, the creamsicle

orange bucks uniform with the Buccaneer logo with the dagger in his mouth. Fantastic. Old school football brings you back to the good old days. Love that. Love the colors game. And then I love the, the blue green combo. The seat, you know, reminds you of like the old Bo Jackson days when he's up there running around. So I absolutely.

Nick (19:07)
Yeah.

Neil (19:14)
Love the color scheme, love the throwbacks. I wish everybody would wear throwbacks for a couple times a year, except the Bengals. I don't know, what Bengals throwback would you prefer them to wear?

Nick (19:23)
Well, I mean, their throwback would really have to be the old school with the bingles text on the helmet. I mean, their other uniforms are pretty similar to what they wear now. They're a little different. But like, you go from the Bucks with the creamsicles to what they're wearing now, they're not even close to the same. I the Seahawks are not even really close to what... The colors are closer than the Bucks, but still not really close.

Neil (19:36)
Yeah.

Thanks.

Nick (19:50)
But yeah, like I just look at all these teams like I miss the Oilers uniforms. And I know like the Titans have the rights to them because they moved from Houston to Tennessee. But the Texans should just buy those and like change their name and wear those uniforms all the time. Because those are great uniforms. The Dolphins should never not wear their old school uniforms.

Neil (20:05)
Yeah, the oilers were awesome. The Patriots.

Like

the Patriot hiking the football. Yeah, that's a good one. The Bronco the Denver Bronco with the the horse breathing through the D. Also a great logo.

Nick (20:16)
Yes.

We thank you.

And they kind of they went closer to that than what they were wearing during the Super Bowl years with Elway and Terrell Davis where they like they're kind of closer to what those uniforms look like back in the day, but they didn't go all the way back. But yeah, I don't know. There's just you see those old school uniforms and you're like, why don't they just wear these all the time? But the Bucks do what the Bucks do. And dude, here's the thing like Baker and Sam Darnold.

Neil (20:44)
I agree.

Nick (20:53)
Two guys that were drafted high and let go of their teams were at the Panthers together. In this game, they combined for 720 yards. They only had 10 incompletions. And it was a darno interception late that set up the Bucs-Filgo to win it. But it seems like the Bucs do this every single week. They've now won four, they've won their four and one. And their four wins.

Neil (21:16)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (21:22)
are all by less than three points. They are the first team in NFL history to win four of their first five games by three points or less.

Neil (21:30)
I mean

that's just I mean credit to Baker Mayfield man like the big dude is just you know he's a competitor and he's proven he's a winner I mean he's bounced back from his his failed stints in in Carolina and where else ⁓ Cleveland and he was out in LA for a little brief time, but you know people would cast them off and Here he is you know taking the bucks to four and one he had a great season last year You know he's one of the top quarterback one of the better quarterbacks in the league

And then Sam Donald, everybody everybody cast Sam Donald off after he was a jet. He had that resurgence last year. He's having success again this year with the new teams in Seattle. So credit to both those guys, but especially Baker Mayfield, know, showing once again he's a competitor and he's a winner.

Nick (22:00)
Well, I think he's.

He does it every week, whatever they need to do to late in the game to win, he does it. And I I think he's top five in the MVP votes right now, maybe top three. But I mean, you see fans in the tunnel like just getting in his ear before the game. Just getting any and he just gives it right back.

Neil (22:25)
I would say so.

That's the fuel. That's fuel

to the fire. Like if you're an opposing fan, don't do that because he feeds off that. He feeds off that. Like he wants to go out there and kill you and he's doing it.

Nick (22:45)
There's some guys that maybe that would get under his skin, but it ain't gonna be him. And you're right, that's just gonna fire him up. And I mean, he's just a competitor, dude. And I think we've talked about his journey a couple of times and I just think it's pretty incredible what he, I mean, his career was almost done. I mean, he was moving from place to place and finally got a chance, showed something in LA and got a chance in Tampa Bay.

Neil (22:48)
You ain't wanna go. Now.

I mean, he was on the bench in Carolina. That's... Yeah.

Nick (23:13)
And they weren't thinking that he was gonna be their starter for the next five, six years when they signed him. But the way he's played, he got his extension and they hadn't been able to take him off the field.

Neil (23:15)
No.

Nick (23:24)
So the Bucs continue to do what they've done every week. I mean, you look at some of the rest of the games and jeez, there were some bad games in that one o'clock window. We're sitting there in the Bingles tailgate. We've got a TV, we've got it all set up. We're looking at all these games and none of these teams are very good.

Neil (23:43)
No, the Ravens we had the Ravens game on and you know, I know they're all banged up but that defense is just absolutely ⁓ brutal right now. Like they're not very good at all. Giving up 44 points to a Texans offense that has struggled for their first couple games of the season. And then you know, you got Cooper Rush filling in for Lamar Jackson and that offense is only putting up 10 points. So, you know, it's not going well right now in Baltimore. You know, they I think have a little bit of a chance to turn it around if they can get healthy, but they need to.

They need to get healthy quick because the window is closing. So ugly, ugly game in Baltimore.

Nick (24:17)
And I mean, the Saints, like you said, they played the Giants. mean, the Cowboys beat the Jets and the Jets are probably the worst team in football. But the story of the Cowboys Jets game may have been, which it always, guess it is, things always in the spotlight, is Jerry Jones, once again.

Neil (24:36)
Old man Jones ⁓ thought he was giving a thumbs up, but I guess he put up the wrong finger. I don't know.

Nick (24:43)
I mean he's around a bunch of Cowboys fans, so I don't know why he would be flipping them off He's at MetLife Stadium, so maybe he's not telling the truth but Yeah, throws up the finger gets fined. I think it was two hundred fifty thousand dollars because it was caught on TV I mean if it's not caught on TV. You're not gonna get fined, but I mean Just wait. What was it that he said he said I just put up the wrong show of the hand so

Meant to do thumbs up, but accidentally sent the wrong figure out there and resulted in a $250,000 fine.

Neil (25:17)
Jerry

is old, we all know Jerry's old and he's been around for a while and he's getting up there in age and are you buying this? Are you buying the fact that he, is he telling the truth? Was he trying to give a thumbs up and he just put up the wrong digit? I'm not buying it. I don't know, what do you think?

Nick (25:34)
I mean, I don't understand how to buy it. I don't know how I could accidentally throw up the wrong finger. Now, I'm not 80 years old. I don't know how things maybe change when you get 80 years old. But at this point in my life, I don't know how I could ever be like, try to go like this and end up flipping somebody off.

Neil (25:36)
It doesn't make sense. Right.

Yeah,

I'm not buying it either so

Nick (25:57)
I could you see, I could see like a two or a three year old doing it.

Neil (26:00)
Yeah, yeah, sure. But you say he's old. ⁓ He's old, man. Maybe I don't know. But I am not buying it. I think the fans said a little something he didn't like. Cowboys were winning, so he was in a good mood. You know, he's probably just giving them giving them back to him. So I don't know.

Nick (26:03)
But you're talking about two ends of the spectrum here.

Yeah, no way that was on accident unless he's just completely lost control of his fingers and tries to throw one up and the other one goes and you just never know. It's a crap shoot. It's a crap shoot. At that point, I think I would just be clenched fist all the time and not throwing up any fingers. But if anybody can afford a $250,000 fine, think Jerry Jones probably ranks near the top of the list.

Neil (26:30)
you.

Yeah, he

probably wrote him a check before he even left MetLife. He's probably got that in the bank account.

Nick (26:48)
So I guess the kind of close out last week's NFL schedule, we didn't talk about the completion from Josh Allen to the fan in Buffalo. And Mike Tirico's call, which Mike Tirico's call was just spot on and just shows you why he's so good at what he does.

Neil (26:57)
That was a great team.

yeah, funny, hilarious moment. Mike Tirico nailed it, as he always does. Fan catches the ball in the first row there, the end zone, and tucks it up under the shirt and runs for the exits.

Nick (27:18)
So evidently, these were his buddy's seats and they use them a couple times a year. And I guess his buddy had got a couple balls thrown his way and he'd always given them back. And he's like, he told his wife, if I ever get one, I'm going, I'm taking off, I'm taking off. So it happens, mean, are the chances that it's gonna happen again? I guess you're right there in the corner, but still, it's pretty slim, I would say. But it goes right to him.

Neil (27:33)
He win. He win. Yeah.

Nick (27:45)
Tucks that thing up, just takes it straight off, goes straight to his car, his wife stays there.

And I guess the Bills contacted him afterwards because they like, know who you are, dude. Like we can get in touch with the people's, the tickets that you're using. And they got in contact with him and they made him give the ball back. They gave him a different ball, but like you can go buy that ball. You can go buy that ball at Dick's Sporting Goods.

Neil (28:02)
That's terrible. what are we? Why? Why? Why? What

are we, like, why? What is the attachment to that one ball that the Bills needed to get? Hey, sir, we're gonna need you to drive back to the stadium tomorrow, Monday morning, you know, drop that thing off to us. Like, what? Like, what? Why? And then you give them a different ball. Like, what's the difference? Who cares? You have a million of these game balls. They have a ton of these game balls.

Nick (28:28)
I have

Neil (28:31)
Why that ball? Is it Josh Allen's favorite ball? Does he tuck it, does he sleep with it? You know, put it under his pillow at night? Like, what's he doing? Like, why, why do we need to get this back? It's like a foul ball in baseball. We're not giving foul ball. We're not turning foul balls into the concession stand for snow cones like we do in Little League here. Like, no, you keep anything that's into the stands. That's fair game. The fans get it, they get it.

Nick (28:37)
You might. I have.

Well, I mean, clearly that's not true in the NFL. But if you go to these lengths to keep a ball, like you sacrifice watching the rest of the game and the rest of the game was pretty dang good. Like he sacrificed watching that in the stadium. He got this home. Like you're going to make him come back. Like you're right. Like what is the big significance for this football? It's not like it doesn't have any like touchdown number to it. Like it didn't win you the game. It was just a random football during the game that you threw at a fan.

Neil (29:02)
That was great.

Nick (29:22)
And for some reason you made him give it back. Now, maybe are you not trying to set a precedent where all fans are just taking off as soon as they get a football? Maybe that's it. But dude, it's still kind of messed up. Come on, Bills. It's like, this is a cool story. Like Mike Tirico did that whole call. just let him like show a picture with him holding his framed football next week that he ran out of the stadium with. And let's leave it at that. And cause this other ball doesn't mean anything.

Neil (29:41)
Yeah.

Like you like it's a cool story for the fan like you caught a pass from what could be a future Hall of Fame quarterback and Josh Allen You know, maybe he's already won an MVP could be a Super Bowl winner down the road here You know one of the all-time great quarterbacks possibly in this league's history That's a cool story for you. And instead nope I got this non game use football that they just like you said went to dick sporting goods and pumped up and just gave it to me ⁓

Nick (30:11)
Yeah, I can do that myself.

I can do that myself. look, Josh Allen makes it cooler, but any quarterback that you get a ball in the NFL would be cool. You get it from Cam Ward, that'd be cool.

Neil (30:19)
I mean at least the ball

that they gave him, was it signed by anybody? Did Josh Allen have a signature on that thing?

Nick (30:29)
It didn't mention that in the story, but that would at least make it a little better.

Neil (30:32)
That would make it a little

bit better if you got at least an autograph out of this thing. But if it's just a football, that's terrible. The bills have to be better. You gotta do better.

Nick (30:43)
I mean, according to the story, was just a random old football that you could have got at Dick's So, mean, probably why you lost the game, Bills, cuz they knew you were gonna do that eventually. shame on you. But when you look at the NFL schedule this week and a lot of really not great matchups again, but

Neil (30:48)
That's sad. Sad.

Yeah. Arm up. Yup. Yup.

Nick (31:07)
We do get the Lions and Chiefs on Sunday Night Football, which Chiefs two and three now looking at maybe going two and four because the Lions look pretty good.

Neil (31:18)
Yeah, the Lions have rebounded after that week one disaster against Packers. They once again look like they're one of the top teams in the NFC. Chiefs look like they were getting better after their 0-2 start. They were playing good football, maybe gave one away on Monday night, but that should be a good matchup. Where'd you say that was? In Kansas City?

Nick (31:40)
Yeah, in Kansas City.

Neil (31:41)
Yeah, that's gonna be some much much much appointment TV on that one. We got to tone into Mike Turrico again on Sunday night for another good matchup.

Nick (31:49)
I mean, you look at that preseason and the lines are going back to back at Cincinnati at Kansas City. I mean, that's pretty tough to reach stretch. But yeah, so that's the holiday next week. we'll go through this later college football really quick. But the big one last week that we talked about was Bama and Vandy. Vandy went up 7-0 and then we're at 14 to 7 before being outscored 23-0 the rest of the way. Pavia.

Neil (31:54)
And they've already played Baltimore. Yep. Yep.

Nick (32:19)
had an interception and a lost fumble was kind of running his mouth before the game. Didn't play poorly, but that made some mistakes and was clearly outplayed by Ty Simpson at 340 yards and two tutties as Alabama continues to look like. We don't have to talk about them if we're talking about the playoffs.

Neil (32:38)
Yep,

the tide is rolling. The tide is definitely rolling. Another big win over Vandy. As you said, Pavia, the doors came in confident, but as we mentioned, it was a revenge game for Alabama. Like we said, Vandy kept them out of the playoff last year. They were not going to let that happen again, and they took care of business.

Nick (32:55)
And I guess two of the surprises were Florida beaten Texas. ⁓ Archie Manning was outplayed by Lagway who had his best game of the year through 298 yards and two tutties and found a true freshman who's playing his first game Dallas Wilson who had like six catches for over 100 yards and caught both of those touchdown passes. And the other surprise was Penn State losing at a terrible UCLA team who hadn't won a game and they allowed Nico who

Neil (33:20)
Yeah.

Nick (33:25)
hasn't done anything all year to, he two passing touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns. UCLA had combined for 57 points in the four games in their four losses, but they beat Penn State 42 to 37. Just.

Neil (33:37)
And they yeah, and to be honest like that. Yeah, and that margin of victory wasn't even indicative of how that game went. I mean, UCLA was up big in that game, like 17 maybe so like they they from start to finish. They just put it on the Nittany Lions like I don't know. don't know why it would be a trap game. I mean, they came off that let down against Oregon. You know the week prior. I mean, I guess they just in their minds were going to to a little beach vacation out in LA. You know, partying a little too much downtown LA.

Nick (33:39)
It's just inexcusable loss by Penn State.

Neil (34:06)
And they didn't take care of it. I guess they just overlooked them. I mean, it can't happen. I mean, there's been some teams that have some inexcusable losses along the way. when you're Penn State and your goal in beginning of season, you're one of the national title favorites. Now you're on the outside of playoff looking in. You can't be doing that.

Nick (34:24)
Well, you had that tough game against Oregon last week where obviously you came up short and you're disappointed, right? But, and this is the thing with the Big Ten now is you got to go out West and play conference games. And it's tough to go out West, like regardless of who you're playing. And they clearly overlooked a UCLA team that everybody thought was terrible and still honestly might be terrible, but it's just.

Neil (34:29)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (34:53)
I mean, with this weird Big Ten where you've got teams in California, I mean, I think these things are gonna happen every once in a while. And one of the things about James Franklin, we've talked about his record over and over about top 10, his top 10 record being as bad as it is. But one thing they've done is they've taken care of business against teams they should beat. And they did not do that on Saturday. And just ⁓ a really tough loss and-

Neil (35:12)
Yeah.

Nick (35:21)
We talked about Texas losing, we talked about Penn State losing. The number one team Texas, number two team Penn State, number four team Clemson, all preseason, are all three out of the top 25.

Neil (35:30)
Yep.

Yeah, I mean that just shows you that preseason rankings are usually just built on reputations, know, so until the ball is snapped and we get a few games in, that's when we really start to get a feel for how things are going. But usually those preseason rankings, you're ranked based on the name on your jersey and not really how good you are.

Nick (35:51)
The problem with college football though is it can affect things. If you're preseason number two, that gives you an advantage over somebody who's not ranked because you don't have to climb there. But it just shows you that we really don't know anything with these preseason rankings. And maybe they shouldn't play such a big role as they do in college football.

Neil (35:59)
No

Why

do you need preseason rankings? Start ranking them after week one. Start ranking them after week one.

Nick (36:14)
because it gets clicked.

Or can you even rank them after week one?

Neil (36:19)
I mean, I mean, it's tough, but I mean, there are some good like, you know, like week one this year was a great sleight of games. You know, LSU going into Clemson and winning, you know, that maybe then LSU is a top 10 team. And then you got what else? We had a couple other big matchup. I can't remember what they were, but a couple other big matchups.

Nick (36:37)
That's an issue.

Neil (36:38)
Yeah, there's some others that week too, but you know, like you can maybe get a little bit of a feel after week one, but not a not a great one, but I wouldn't like preseason rankings before a ball is even snapped or kicked. It's done make any sense to me.

Nick (36:51)
Look, and it's fine if it like in college basketball, it doesn't it doesn't affect anything like preseason rankings are just there. It doesn't affect what your seed is going to be in the NCAA tournament. It's just something fun to look at and they can fluctuate. But the problem with college football is it actually does matter. Like it actually does affect like you being in the preseason top 10 gives you an advantage over somebody who's not and it just shows you that we don't know we're talking about and giving somebody an unfair advantage really doesn't make sense and

Neil (36:57)
Right.

Yes.

Nick (37:21)
You've got three out of the top four teams that now are not even in the top 25.

Neil (37:25)
Yeah.

Nope.

Nick (37:26)
But one of those teams was able to get right.

As Clemson went into Chapel Hill and just blew the doors off of North Carolina, 28 to three in the first quarter, 35 to three at the half. I mean, half the stadium was empty at halftime. They go on to win 38 to 10. Man, it's a mess there in Chapel Hill.

Neil (37:49)
Yeah, it's not working out the way that fans and donors probably had hoped. All the hype coming into the season and that crowd that they had week one against TCU and how fired up everybody was. then ever since then, ever since that first drive of the season when they went up seven nothing on TCU, it's just gone straight downhill from there. So I don't know. ⁓ It clearly seems like Bill's not cut out for maybe a college football gig.

I think he's probably reevaluating what he wants to do now. He's trying to get another job maybe back in the NFL or even transitioning into maybe a TV role, which I can't see him being that good on TV either, to be honest with you. he can't be having fun. It's got to be a miserable situation over there. ⁓ But it's bad.

Nick (38:39)
Well, does he not just come off as a miserable person?

like this is reputation, right? And like, I don't care what your reputation is. If you can't relate with these college kids, I don't know how you're going to coach. And that was one of my concerns with him coming into the college. And I really didn't understand his motivation either. Like why, why, why are you taking this job? But I mean,

Neil (39:03)
Yeah.

Nick (39:05)
They're two wins are against Charlotte and Richmond. They've been outscored 120 to 33 in their losses to TCU, UCF and Clemson. They've just been completely outmanned. mean, we're a little over a month into his tenure. They were going to have a show on Hulu, you know, behind the scenes about everything going on in North Carolina. That thing looks to be canceled for probably good reason. They're already talking about buyouts and his contract to get him out of there. It's just been...

Neil (39:27)
Yeah.

Nick (39:33)
complete mess and for somebody who was regarded as maybe the best coach in NFL history, The more that he did like with this like it's and then Tom Brady goes to Tampa Bay and wins a Superbowl, you wonder like, I mean, you got to have a good QB to win. You have to, but it makes you look like it was Brady maybe a lot more important than Belichick was.

Neil (39:41)
Ciao! ⁓

That is definitely the perception that I'm getting and I think a lot of other people are getting.

Nick (40:07)
So why not just retire as when he retires and just go out?

Neil (40:10)
What's he gonna do? I

don't know if he has any other hobbies except football.

Nick (40:13)
Well, I know one he has.

Neil (40:14)
Well,

yeah, he's got one. He's got one hobby.

Nick (40:22)
It's not a bad hobby. He's got a lot of slack for it, ⁓ he's probably, he's like, all right, whatever.

Neil (40:24)
Thanks

No, but I think I just think that he's a football guy. You know, like he wants to be around the game. I think that's probably why he took that job is, you know, he wasn't getting an NFL job, but he wants to be in the game. He wants to be involved in the game. He wants to be coach. And you know, North Carolina came calling with an offer that he thought was good and gave him an opportunity to get back in the game. It has not worked, but I just think that he's a football guy.

Nick (40:55)
He is, but I mean, we see all these coaches that have been around for a long time getting out because this NIL is so much where you're recruiting guys year after year. I we saw Nick Saban, we saw Jay Wright, we saw, you know, Tony Bennett, all these guys get out before you probably think they're going to retire because the landscape is just so different than it has been in the past. And like maybe Bill Belichick wasn't completely aware of all that was going to entail and maybe it's just a little too much.

But I mean, I'll be honest, I mean, wasn't pulling for him to be successful in North Carolina just because I didn't understand. It was just the decision was odd to me, but it's been a complete fiasco.

Neil (41:27)
Thank

Yeah, and I guess he's like I said, a football guy. He's used to the NFL where you don't have to go recruit players. You you have a GM that just builds your roster for you and all you do is basically you focus on coaching. And so it's a completely different world that he's in now. It's not just football like you mentioned. So that's probably I mean, that's that's why it's not worth it.

Nick (41:58)
Yeah, but I mean, that's not

a surprise. You know that going into it.

Neil (42:03)
He was told that I don't know if he knew like you said, I don't think he knew what it all was. I think he thought he could just show up and coach and somebody would just bring the players to him and it's not working.

Nick (42:17)
Does he make it through the end of the year?

Neil (42:18)
I put it at a 50-50 shot.

Nick (42:20)
Yeah, they interviewed him in the end zone pregame on game day. And I mean, the interview was actually better than I thought it was gonna be, but it's still just, it's just so awkward. And they're not very good and he just gets still gets all this attention. And I do you want all this attention when your team's just gonna get, I mean, your team's just not very talented. And I think their schedule lightens up a little bit. So maybe, they'll have a better second half, but it's just.

Neil (42:48)
Yeah.

Nick (42:49)
For a coach that's as well regarded as him, whole thing's just kind of odd.

Neil (42:51)
Yeah.

Very odd, yes. Odd is a good word.

Nick (42:57)
But the big one this week is Indiana and the ducks.

Neil (43:04)
yeah, we'll be tuned into that one little hoo-hoo-hoo-sure ⁓ action. It's going to be, it's going to take a, almost a near perfect game, I think, for them to win that one. Going out west, if it was at home, maybe a little bit different, but going out to Eugene ⁓ in their toughest game, it would be the toughest game that they have all year. ⁓ We'll see. I mean, they're coming off a bye week, so they've had another extra week to prepare.

We'll see if Mendoza in that offense can put up some points and see if can stop that organ. The defense can stop that organ offense.

Nick (43:35)
And for those that are hearing something, they'll say, we, I, alone. You can, you can say it.

Neil (43:40)
Yeah,

there's a pubs of Bloomington poster hanging in the background there as you can see Probably about 95 % of this I Said the pubs of Bloomington poster hanging proudly in the back. I've been to probably about 95 % of this

Nick (43:46)
You can say it, but yeah. Do what?

you at 95 % of the pubs, I'm surprised. But yeah, I think Oregon's probably top three team and with Ohio State and Miami and Ohio State gets a really good Illinois team that Indiana just put it on a couple weeks ago. So some good matchups in college football this week that will be fun to kind of talk about next week. And I guess kind of transition into the MLB playoffs. Dude, what about Vlad Guerrero?

Neil (44:00)
you

What'd do?

Nick (44:26)
I think he was one for three before we started tonight and already had another RBI. But he entered the game tonight, eight for 13 with three home runs and eight RBIs.

Neil (44:36)
He's tearing it up. Tearing it up.

Nick (44:39)
And like I looked it up his numbers all time against the Yankees like almost 14 % of his home runs have came against the Yankees. Almost 14 % of his RB eyes have came against the Yankees. His dad almost signed with the Yankees in 03 and has a lot of like resentment towards the Yankees because I think they kind of backed out and they obviously didn't sign him.

And his dad had some success against the Yankees in the playoffs. He beat them with the Angels in 05, beat them with the Rangers in 2010. But I mean, Vlad Guerrero is just kind of carrying on this legacy of just putting it on the Yankees.

Neil (45:19)
Yeah, I mean they're rolling. I mean they absolutely crushed the Yankees in the two games up in Toronto. Up 5 to 1 here in game four in the Bronx in the eighth inning. So they're well on their way to go into the ALCS and you know they're doing all this without one of their other best players. Boba Shet. You Boba Shet's been hurt and there's still this offense is still rocking and rolling 11 hits already tonight through eight innings. So they they are playing some very, very good baseball. That's for sure.

Nick (45:44)
You know, it's funny, I saw this quote from Vlad Jr. back in 22. And he said, like to play New York, I like to kill the Yankees, I would never sign with the Yankees, not even dead.

Neil (45:57)
no. Dang.

Nick (45:59)
Now, his contract talks stalled with the Blue Jays in the offseason. He eventually signed that 14 year deal for $500 million. But I think he had backtracked a little bit. And I think if Yankees would offered him a little more money, he would have been playing in New York.

Neil (46:11)
Yes.

Money

talks money definitely talks. He would if the money was right. I think he would be in New York as a Yankee but flip side of this you're the Yankees and let's say your season ends tonight as it looks like it's going to you know what what kind of decisions do you make in the offseason? know Aaron Boone they've been down on him a little bit this year. You know which of the World Series last year expect this were to get back to it. You know they they're in the playoffs. They're in the second round of the playoffs. He's not a bad manager, but he's.

Is he Yankee standard? I don't know if he's Yankee standards.

Nick (46:44)
I mean, you just got their World Series.

You just got their World Series last year. That buys you another year. They've got some good young arms. They got a good lineup. They'll run it back. They'll add some pieces and they'll run it back next year with Aaron Boone. I mean, if they would have lost to the Red Sox in the wild card round, I could maybe see them making a move with winning that series. I don't know. I don't see them moving on from Aaron Boone after at least getting to the ALDS.

We'll see, but I mean, it looks like it's gonna be the Blue Jays and then we got game five between the Tigers and the M's. And then the Cubs forced a game four earlier today and later tonight the Phillies will try to get on the board and they're going to LA to get it. So.

Neil (47:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, but.

Nick (47:32)
But one day we didn't talk about was the Mariners game not today, but yesterday. Kyle Raleigh hit another one.

Neil (47:36)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

as he does frequently.

Nick (47:43)
Would have been his 61st, it doesn't count towards his, but his 61st home run of the year, regular season and postseason. They're in Detroit.

Neil (47:47)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Nick (47:52)
and falls and goes into the bullpen, bounces up into the arms of a guy wearing a shirt that says, Cow Valley dump 61 here.

Neil (48:05)
Good for that guy. On the road too, guy wearing this shirt in a visiting ballpark, right spot, right place at the right time for that guy and he called it.

Nick (48:15)
Yeah, I mean, what are the chances? What are like this is, I mean, we talked about the, Bill's guy, but I think this is even more the chances of this happening or even more astronomical dude actually wearing a shirt with the numbered home run catching it. Now he didn't take up, he didn't take off and get out of the stadium.

Neil (48:34)
Nobody's making him give that ball back, that's for sure.

Nick (48:38)
No, and he was able to go and see Kyle Raleigh after the game. I think he got a bat. And dude, he was prepared too. Like you talk about being prepared in life.

Neil (48:40)
to

What

did my guy do after he caught number 61?

Nick (48:51)
He switched his shirt to 62!

Neil (48:53)
How

about that? Look at that guy.

Nick (48:55)
And then the game today, he's all over TV. They're showing it. He's in the same exact seat and he's wearing a 62 shirt. It reminds me, so like back in 98 when Sammy Sosa was doing him and Mark Mawar were trying to break Roger Maris' record. And at the end of the season, we went to my dad and my grandfather and Carl, who's been on the show with us, went to up to-

Neil (49:03)
you

Yes. ⁓ Yes.

Nick (49:23)
to Synergy Field to watch the Cubs and the Reds play. And we wore white tank tops. I can't say the politically incorrect word that we probably called them back in 1998.

Neil (49:30)
Yeah.

Nick (49:35)
⁓ But we wore these white tank tops and we had 21 on the front and 62 on the back. We didn't catch a ball though.

Neil (49:47)
That's unfortunate because if you would have caught number 62 from Sammy Sosa back then, that's worth a little bit of a coin.

Nick (49:55)
We were also on foul ground, pretty much impossible to catch a home run. Right, so we weren't getting 62, but no dude, cool story there in Detroit and was cool to see him take pictures. We've talked about all these bad things with home run balls and things being thrown into stadium. It's good to see a guy come prepared and catch a home run.

Neil (49:57)
Oh. So basically, 62 was not going to you, not one way or another.

That's

Glad

some tiger lady didn't come over and yell at him and steal his ball, but that's good.

Nick (50:24)
I'm

glad, yeah, we don't need any more Philly Karens or Giants Julies. Y'all just stay home. Let the people have fun. We don't need these Karens and these Julies bringing everybody down with their antics. ⁓

Neil (50:28)
Don't need that. Stay home.

No.

Yep. Glad we

finally get a feel good story from a home run. Yeah.

Nick (50:42)
Yeah, good for my guy.

He didn't get 62 today, but there's no doubt he'll be there in Seattle for game five and the cameras are gonna find him and he's gonna be wearing that same shirt.

Neil (50:50)
⁓ no, for

sure.

Nick (50:52)
So, NCAA tournament, they've talked about this for a long time in college basketball expanding, what is already the greatest event in sports. Why you're gonna run it, I have no idea. And I think it's a good thing that we pushed it off a year. There were talks that it might happen in 26, but now it really looks like it's gonna be 76 teams in the NCAA tournament in 2027. So enjoy this last one where it's just 68.

Neil (50:55)
Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know why we're messing with it. Are we trying to get, you know, a couple more media, yeah, a little bit more media revenue, a couple more TV dollars here and there. But I mean, at this point, you know, like what, why just let them all in? Like, what do we, it's, it's a good product. It's, think it's a near perfect product.

Nick (51:26)
I mean, you know why for TV, but.

Neil (51:42)
⁓ I don't know why we're messing with it just to get a couple more, you know, 18 and 13 teams in the tournament that probably aren't going to do much anyway, get past the first round or two. ⁓ So it's, it's to me, it makes it little bit watered down, but I don't know.

Nick (52:00)
It just,

I don't know, whole, like going to 68 didn't make sense, but we've kind of gotten used to that. It's just an extra four games. You know, you kind of have got to where Tuesday, Wednesday is, it's not the real tournament, but you enjoy tuning in and watching those. But now we're going to have 12 of them. 12? And what they're wanting to do is they want to take the 12 bottom AQs according to their ranking.

Neil (52:18)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (52:29)
and the 12 at larges and put them in these games to play to get into the real tournament. And my issue with when it's been 68 and will be even worse when it's 76 is these smaller conference schools that don't really get to experience, they win their conference tournament and they don't really get to experience the NCAA tournament. And like,

Neil (52:51)
Yeah.

So, yeah.

Nick (52:57)
And now it's going to be even worse. Now you're going to have potentially 12 AQs who don't actually get to play in the insane turn, but they're just playing in this opening round so we can make more money on TV in these watered down games that honestly, when you get to that many, I don't know if people are really good. They'll tune in, but they're not going to tune in like they do for the real thing.

Neil (53:18)
No,

they wouldn't like you said when they expanded it to 68 and I've been against it from the beginning of these smaller schools, these 16 seeds that have to play each other in Dayton just to get into the what we call the big, you know, the real tournament because he's like you said, these kids win their conference tournament. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. It's probably one of the best, greatest things in their lives. And you make them go and play a Tuesday night game in Dayton just to get in. It's like, come on.

Like let these kids enjoy the tournament. Have the big arenas, the open practices. You get to go up against Kansases and the Dukes and the Carolinas. Instead you're going up against Alabama A&M versus Texas Southern. It's like, come on guys. These kids earned the right to play the Kansases and the North Carolinas. I mean, sure, they're gonna probably lose by 50, but you know what? Let the kids enjoy it. Let them experience what it's like to be.

in the big dance and not a Tuesday night in Dayton.

Nick (54:15)
1000 % and I don't agree with you very often. But the main thing is the Alabama States and the teams like that not being able to play the Blue Bloods. Because that is what getting in the NCAA tournament is all about for these 16 seeds Is getting an opportunity to play Kansas, to play Duke, to play Kentucky, to play Louisville and to be up at the first media timeout. Be up eight to six.

Neil (54:31)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (54:44)
and everybody's watching and they're like, can they do it? Can they pull off this month? And they ended up losing by 40, but like that's what it's all about is getting the opportunity. Like they play, like they get to play smaller schools and non-con they, happens, but they don't get to play the blue bloods like that. And now with you having more of these play-in games, you're taking more opportunities from that away. You're penalizing these AQs to me, if you really want to do this, which I still disagree with doing this, but

Neil (54:46)
Yeah.

But.

Nick (55:13)
You don't penalize the AQs, you penalize the at-larges and you put all the 24 bottom at-larges into this thing and make them play their way into the tournament

Neil (55:21)
Absolutely right 100 % correct, you know, like if you're the last the last couple of that large teams Like I said, your records probably 18 and 13, know If you want to be securely in the tournament you either win your conference or you play better basketball throughout the year You know, like we don't need any more 500 around 500 teams in the tournament just to play another week like these kids like you mentioned these Alabama A &M's it's more than just playing the Blue Bloods. It's playing in front of 20,000 fans. It's

You know, getting to go to media day, you know, you're up there with your coach and media day and you've got national media talking to you. Like, how are you going to pull off the upset? How are you going to do this? You know, it's like the thrill of just all of it. It's not just the game. It's the entire experience of playing in the big tournament that they're getting robbed of.

Nick (56:06)
Yeah, and you're following Mike Krzyzewski to the table. Like he just finishes the table, does his press conference and he's stepping down and you're stepping up and you're talking in the same press conference table that he had just talked. I mean, that's what this is all about. ⁓ We ruin everything with money and with media dollars. like going to 68 did not ruin the tournament. Going to 76 is not going to ruin the tournament.

Neil (56:08)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

No.

Nick (56:34)
But it waters it down and it takes away experiences from kids that deserve it, that have worked so hard to get to where they have an opportunity to have those experiences. I don't know, it's just, I was really glad that it's not gonna happen this year, but you know it's gonna happen eventually and now it looks like it's gonna be in 2027. But yeah, let's just go to the 24 at larges make them play it out. They all suck anyways.

Neil (56:35)
It does.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yup.

Let's do it. Yeah.

Nick (57:06)
I mean, you're talking about teams that are hovering over 500 in their league. But we gotta get all the power four teams in this thing.

Neil (57:09)
I mean, yeah, it's good.

Like

18 and 13 West Virginia is playing a 17 and 14 TCU or something. Doesn't excite me at all.

Nick (57:23)
And why would it?

Why would it?

You wanna talk about these breadsticks?

Neil (57:26)
⁓ I like breadsticks. What kind of breadsticks we talking?

Nick (57:30)
We talked about breadsticks last week. It's just the crust of the pizza. It's just the crust of the pizza. You gotta have your sauce. Cuz I know you're not gonna eat the crust.

Neil (57:31)
Because they're soft. You gotta get soft.

It is go down some sauce

Nick (57:41)
So we like to close with non-sport stories. If we can. In St. Louis, 26 year old waitress.

Neil (57:44)
Yes.

Nick (57:49)
Working at Olive Garden, I believe.

Neil (57:50)
Yeah,

think that was right.

Nick (57:54)
husband and a wife run up like a almost $100 tab.

Neil (57:57)
Ooh, they must have got the fine wine. Yup. Okay.

Nick (58:01)
Almost 100 hours have.

Don't tip. Just leave. No tip. Which is zero dollars. Zero dollars.

Neil (58:03)
⁓ no tip? Zero dollars. A zero dollar tip. ⁓

no.

Nick (58:12)
I mean, 20 % at $100 is a 20-buck tip. Like, throw down 20 bucks.

Neil (58:16)
Yep, 20 bucks.

Nick (58:19)
She doesn't take it very well, which I 100 % get it. I think she chased them down and started throwing breadsticks at them.

Neil (58:26)
literal threw the breadsticks out.

Nick (58:29)
started throwing breadsticks and was arrested. So this 26 year old waitress who doesn't get a tip probably had a bad day. mean, the ones that should be getting arrested are people that tip zero on a hundred bucks. They should go to jail.

Neil (58:31)
man. ⁓

There's no doubt about it. That's stealing.

It's stealing.

Nick (58:47)
I they're making $2 an hour. Like, they live off of tips. Like, how do we not know this is a society?

Neil (58:52)
If you

If you can't tip 20%, then you have no business racking up $100 tab at an Olive Garden. Like if you can't tip, don't go out to eat. If you can't afford the extra 20 % on top of your bill, you have no business going out to eat. Go to your local Kroger, get your lean cuisine, get your Stouffer's lasagna or some other kind of frozen Italian food, pop that in your microwave, and then you don't have to worry about tipping. But don't do this to this poor 26-year-old girl who's relying on these tips to maybe

you know, help her family, maybe go through nursing school, who knows what she's going through. You know, like they rely on these tips, you know, as their wage, as you said, they make $2 an hour, like, come on, you're stealing from her, is what you're doing.

Nick (59:38)
And here's, maybe this is the case too. She hurled a whole basket of breadsticks. So maybe she thought they just need them to go. Like they couldn't afford to tip. Maybe they need a little more food. You know, they couldn't afford it. So maybe that was the gesture. And it just so happened that the basket of breadsticks hit the dude in the chest. mean, and also is it really going to hurt you dude? Like it's a basket of bread, bro.

Neil (59:42)
Yeah.

Now, see you.

No, no. I

mean, to be fair, throwing the, wasting a good basket of Olive Garden breadsticks, to me is a crime, because those breadsticks are very, very good. I might've just thrown the empty basket at them and just, you know, maybe saved the breadsticks, because they're pretty good.

Nick (1:00:19)
But people were in the restaurant, they just started recording and throwing up a live stream of her reaction. So there's plenty of videos of if you wanna go find it. And mean, she's arrested with charges of assault and disorderly conduct.

Neil (1:00:36)
Hopefully that gets all worked out and those charges are dropped against her. Maybe her story catches on somewhere and maybe she can get some donations rolling in to help cover the $20 tip that she's rightfully deserved. But it's sad, what are we doing? If you can't tip, don't go out to eat.

Nick (1:00:54)
It's two things in a row you said that are 100 % right. And also let's make a rule, if you tip zero dollars, you should be arrested.

Neil (1:00:58)
Mm-hmm.

There's no question.

Nick (1:01:04)
Like the minimum tip should be 15.

Neil (1:01:07)
Minimal. Let's just charge it to your car without you even...

Nick (1:01:09)
Minimum,

minimum 15. If you can't tip 15, don't go to the restaurant.

Neil (1:01:14)
100%.

Nick (1:01:14)
And like even when your service is poor, you still got to throw some money down. I mean, I'm not even one of those if my service is poor, I'm not going to, I'm going to tip zero. Like they're still working. I'm just, I might not go back. Might not write a little hard on all my, on my check when I signed it, but.

Neil (1:01:18)
Yeah.

You

gotta throw something down though. But I mean, there was, mean, is there, have they told their side of the story? I haven't heard ⁓ the person that's been assaulted with the breadsticks, what's their side of the story of why they didn't it? Did this waitress do something to offend them? Did she not provide the services that they thought they were getting? Like what's the story here?

Nick (1:01:35)
Did you?

Well, what?

Yeah, I mean, I guess that is potentially a reason for them not tipping. Maybe she didn't do a good job. The story where I read the article did not go into that detail. ⁓ Maybe it's something that we need to maybe do a little research on and try to figure out what the root cause was here. But per the article, was just she was having a bad day, got tipped, she didn't get tipped, and threw breadsticks, hit the dude's chest. She ended up getting handcuffed.

and it out and everybody's video on it with their phones.

Neil (1:02:27)
I don't know, based on the evidence we have so far, I'm gonna side with the waitress in this story.

Nick (1:02:32)
Well, I think there's no question there, Neil. I don't think you're gonna side with a couple that tips $0 on a $100 bill.

Neil (1:02:38)
except

she wasted the breadstick so it's one strike against her.

Nick (1:02:41)
Well, I'm pretty sure the breadsticks that were probably on the table for the couple that is leaving were probably not going to be redistributed to another couple. ⁓ But yeah, I guess they were wasted.

Neil (1:02:48)
Thank

Nick (1:02:54)
Bottom line is tip your waitresses and your waiters if you're going to go out.

Neil (1:02:58)
and

the people that cut your hair. I see that nice little haircut you got going on today.

Nick (1:03:04)
Yeah, we get a little fresh tight from Tammy last week. Always taking care of us. Great clips. Great clips in Fern Creek. Go see her.

Neil (1:03:09)
So was a great show.

Yep.

Nick (1:03:13)
So I've gone through everything on my sheet. You got anything?

Neil (1:03:20)
Nope, let's just get a the cards are off this weekend. So we'll be tuned in to the IU Hoosiers versus Oregon Ducks on Saturday. Let's get that dub.

Nick (1:03:30)
Oh, we got the, we got the, the Hude tailgate scramble on Sunday morning presented by the height differential podcast. So we are excited to be a part of that. I think we're going to draw teams myself and my dad and Rick Brown won the thing last year. So I don't think, I don't think we're going to be on the same team this year. We're going to random draw playing out at Glen Oaks and

Neil (1:03:50)
thing.

Nick (1:03:58)
Hadn't played golf since our scramble last week, so excited to get out there.

Neil (1:04:02)
Yeah, you played pretty well last week. So if you're on my team on Sunday, you better be playing just like you did last week.

Nick (1:04:08)
Yeah, need nice weather now that it quit raining. I need to get out there before Sunday.

Neil (1:04:13)
I'm out there. Me and Michael Vanover will be out there at the ULGC tomorrow.

Nick (1:04:19)
Yeah, y'all have fun with that. I'll be working. I'll be at the old job. we'll be back on Sunday night,

Neil (1:04:22)
Good for you.

Yeah, four o'clock bangles game might be a late podcast, but maybe.

Nick (1:04:33)
Well, not too late, I gotta stay up and edit this thing for, we'll figure it out. Yeah, more than likely a Sunday pod. We'll be back to recap the weekend of college football NFL. But for now, I'm Nick, you've been listening to the height differential powered by Gritily