11.3.22 - JR SportBrief Hour 2

Throughout the 60s and 70s, you're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. And we are coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

When you need cash out of your home in a simple way to get it, Rocket can. I'm gonna be hanging out here with you for the next three hours. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back.

You got a lot to do. And I'm here with super producer and host Dave Shepherd right now in the World Series. The Houston Astros, they're trying to take a 3-2 series lead in Philadelphia. Right now, this moment, it's the top of the eighth. Houston leads Philly 2-1. This is better than what Philadelphia did last night, as we know. They were no hit.

They ain't do a damn thing. At least tonight, they were able to get a run-up on the board. Let's see if they can come alive and stay alive in this game five. Whoever wins is gonna take a 3-2 series lead in the NFL.

No shocker here. The game is pretty much getting ready to come to a conclusion. But Philadelphia, less than two minutes left here in the fourth, they are beating the Houston Texans 29-17. It wasn't really that difficult to choose the Phillies. Or excuse me, there's so many Philly teams playing right now. Is it really that difficult to choose the Eagles over the Texans?

No, not really. The fact that it was so close for so long, that might be a little bit more of an issue, but Philadelphia, doing what they're supposed to do, recently pulling away. The first hour of the show, we talked about Kyrie Irving. You can look at Kyrie and say, oh man, what the hell's going on with this guy? Well, he spoke to the media earlier today and he didn't necessarily apologize. He just said, hey, I take responsibility for what I shared and how it impacted others.

Well, that ain't sorry. And so the Brooklyn Nets, knowing that he didn't fully accept responsibility by apologizing, knowing that he had many chances between today and over the weekend, which is now pulling up on a new weekend that he did not, he's been suspended five games. Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, after the fact, yes, he decided to share his thoughts. And I do not believe that we will see a bounce back from Kyrie. If he's able to do so, God bless him.

I don't think it's in the cards for him in his career. And as we continue on with the show, we'll keep you up to date with the World Series. We'll keep you up to date with Thursday night football as it comes to a close.

And then also, I must share this with you. In about 20 minutes from now, we're going to have a conversation with someone who used to work for ESPN and speaking of, you know, apologizing, speaking of utilizing your platform, we're going to have a conversation with Jamel Hill, formerly of ESPN. It's a misnomer that a few years ago, she quit or not that she quit, but she got fired. She decided to leave. And now Jamel Hill, she just released her own memoir.

It's called Uphill. And she recounts her time at ESPN, her departure, being pretty much verbally attacked by the president of the United States. She talks about her upbringing and Jamel Hill has a very unique perspective to everything going on. I'm going to ask her about Kyrie. I'm going to ask her about athletes and media. And then we'll also talk about her journey and what she's up to now.

So that conversation will come in about 20 minutes from now. And this isn't the only news that has come down the pipe today, not just Kyrie Irving. How about in the NBA? James Harden is hurt.

Are you shocked? No, he didn't have one too many Krispy Kreme donuts. No, James Harden didn't get hit. Any eyeball by a dollar bill at the strip club, James Harden is going to be out because of a spring or excuse me, a right foot tendon strain, not a spring in his foot. He's expected to miss a month. He got hurt Wednesday night against the Washington Wizards, Philadelphia lost 121 to 111, Joel Embiid, someone who is picked by many and he still is, I would think, to be a preseason MVP candidate. He's been out due to a non COVID illness in James Harden, knowing that he came into this season in shape, knowing that he wants to, you know, be decent this year so he can go out there and make additional money. He's averaged 22 points, seven rebounds and 10 assists so far for the Sixers. Unfortunately they're fighting to even up their record. Right now they are four and five on the season. Tyreese Maxey having to pick up a lot of the slack in the interim, especially with no Joel Embiid, he's playing like an all-star, 24 points.

He's almost hitting 45% of his threes and it's only a matter of time before he does actually go out there and make an all-star team. And so not the greatest of starts right now for the Philadelphia 76ers, a team that pretty much is trying to go to the finals, is trying to go to the Eastern Conference Finals and ultimately get a chip, get a ring. And so James Harden is out and last year he talked about his game, Tyreese Maxey, and this is what Harden had to say about it. I've been in the playoffs 13 years, man, so I'm just, oh yeah, sorry. So I just wanted to play with him. I wanted to individually just make sure I'm doing the right things and necessary for our team to win.

Yeah, well now he won't play, and he was interrupted in that with Tyreese Maxey. And it's still early in the season, and by the way, we got a final score tonight. The Philadelphia Eagles, they officially have beaten the Houston Texans 29 to 17. The Eagles, 8-0, I had them number two on my list of the best teams in the season.

Let's see if they can continue this on. It was an expectation that they do beat the Texans, and if they didn't, they should just pack in a whole season. Congratulations to the Eagles. Phillies winning big, except for this squad. I mean, if I have to look at the East, and when I say this squad, I'm talking about the Sixers, we got a long way to go in the NBA. Brooklyn Nets, disaster. The Milwaukee Bucks, they're not even playing that full strength yet. What happens when Joe Engle shows up?

What happens when Chris Middleton, probably their second best player along with Drew Holliday, what happens when he shows up? Who are we supposed to look at in the East that's supposed to change minds? Jimmy Butler is running around telling everybody, oh yeah, yeah, well believe us, we'll be in the finals.

Sure, Jimmy, sure. You have the Boston Celtics, obviously, the defending Eastern Conference champions. They're currently upset that Eme Udoka looks like the next coach of the Brooklyn Nets. Classy move Nets. Well, the Brooklyn Nets doubling down, right?

Yeah, you got that right. Hey, let's bring in a coach that sleeps with other people's wives, and let's hold on to the point guard who just tweets out garbage. They are, and I know you're doing this intentionally, but there is a franchise in the East that I believe is neck and neck with Milwaukee.

Now, again, you don't have the Middleton, you don't have Engle's, you don't have even Pat Conaton like the Irish, but believe land. Oh, no, not yet. Not yet? No, not yet.

You didn't see the MVP chants rain down on Donovan Mitchell on Valley Sports last night. That's a huge pickup, JR. That's huge, man. Hold on, hold on one second. Hold on. It's the year 2022. It's Thursday. It's November 3rd. Not yet.

Not yet. The Cleveland is still a team that has to ensure. I'm not surprised by anything that Donovan Mitchell has been able to go out and do. Not at all.

Not shocked. We see the talent and we see him on a different team. His efficiency has changed, but what we haven't seen up until now, despite the big man and guys that he works with, we haven't seen him go out there and play with the quote unquote other guard because he's not the other guard. Darius Garland was there before Donovan Mitchell. Unfortunately, he has a cut underneath his eye and how the two of them coincide and how they play and how they get to the postseason and play meaningful basketball is not something I'm prepared for yet. Did it look okay for you last night?

There's a big difference between what you do on November 2nd versus what you do in April, May and June. I think most of these teams have to get punched in the mouth before they move forward. I think, and sure, every team can wake up and compete for a championship. Every team can go for a run. The Cincinnati Bengals, nobody looked at them as a preseason favorite and said, oh my god, with Joe Burrow at the helm and Jamar Chase, they're going to go on a Super Bowl run.

Ain't nobody expected that. It's different in the NBA. The Cleveland Cavaliers got a lot of talent. They got a bright future. If they could quote unquote punch above their weight and legitimately compete to go to the finals, then God bless them. I will give them all the credit in the world, but what they're doing right now in the regular season to me doesn't hold or stand on a hill of beans for what they can do in the postseason.

I don't care. Darius Garland hasn't done squat yet. Donovan Mitchell has put up a bunch of shots. He's been exciting. He's been inefficient. He hasn't won a damn thing in a postseason. Caris Laverg, Nada, Evan Mobley just got to the league last year. Jared Allen, he ain't played in a damn big game in his life. Kevin Love is the guy and he's off the bench.

Nobody's going to look at him and say, oh, please do it. So the Cavaliers are good. They're going to win games in the regular season. If they're healthy, they should be one of the best teams in the East. But if I want to look at them as on par with, I don't know, I'm a walkie bucks. Hell no.

No. The Bucks have been through it. They've been through the fire. They've been punched. They've won. They've lost. They've been injured. They have the best player in the league in the Cavs.

This is just still the honeymoon. They're going to go up. They're going to go down. I think they can go way up, but I'm not prepared to put them in that upper echelon of contenders just yet. That's fair. That's fair. But, you know, two wins against the Celtics.

I get everything you're saying, but all my point is this. When you talk about that squad you just mentioned, you have Kevin Love, who was one of still the three or four most productive players off the bench, given he's limited minutes wise. He's not close to what he was, but he was still top three in sixth men of the year voting last season.

Mobley is a freak of nature in the best way possible. Jared Allen is the all-star the Nets wish they had. Donovan Mitchell is a high volume shooter. I get all that, but he is still, when he's on, one of the five deadliest assassins we have in the NBA. We know Garland is an all-star personified and not to mention you have Bickerstaff, who I believe JR is one of the most underrated coaches we have in the NBA.

I'm glad he got a shot and wasn't put out the pasture the way he was with the Rockets. This is a dangerous thing. I get what you're saying. They have not proven themselves the way that the Bucks have. I get all that. But JR, when you look at the landscape of the East now, Boston's in turmoil, the Nets we know what they are.

They're a disaster and that's being kind. Who else is going to compete with the Bucks? The Cavs are the biggest competition for them this season. The Bucks come out.

I agree with you. All of them. All of them. Every team that you just mentioned. You trust Doc and Hardin, who's not going to play for a month? It's a long season.

It's a long season. I interpret what you said as in, okay, if I have to look at the best matchup or the most likely matchup in the Eastern Conference, then I might as well throw the Cavaliers out there with the, excuse me, the Milwaukee Bucks. Am I reading that accurately?

100%. And that's what I'm saying. But JR, this is an incredibly talented, like I don't think people aren't giving them the time of day because they play in a small market in the Midwest and people are so busy talking about Kyrie right now and the drama that is Russell Westbrook.

Partially, yes. I don't think the small market nonsense has anything to do with it, nothing. It has nothing to do with, oh, it's Cleveland, it's a small market. Yes, Kyrie Irving, unfortunately, is putting a shadow on Brooklyn, New York City, the NBA. Kyrie is doing that.

So that is accurate. I don't think the Cavaliers are being ignored because of the market size. Kyrie is part of the reason. But when it comes down to the Cavs, people aren't talking about them right now because A, it's early.

Yes, Kyrie Irving is a gigantic pain in the ass. It's probably the biggest story overall in sports right now, not just the NBA. But if you want to take a look at the Cavaliers, it is November.

We got a long way before we get to May and June. They can continue to go on a run. And if they continue on the path that they're on right now, people are going to pay attention. And look, the Cavaliers this season, they can win 50 plus games.

They certainly can. And when they get to the postseason, I'm going to look at them and go, well, keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

Do it. People told me the same thing about the Milwaukee Bucks a few seasons ago. I said, Giannis and Terracunpo was great. Giannis and Terracunpo was absolutely out here slaughtering guys, destroying teams. I want to see Giannis do it on a championship team.

They developed into that. I will say the same thing here against the Cavaliers. That's not to say that they can't have success or that they won't.

Let me see it happen first. Because more often than not, I don't care what team it is, I would say 70, 80, 90 percent of the time, your young squad, your young team, you show up to the playoffs, you got a lot of talent, and you get punched in the mouth, and you got to come back next year. This is ultimately what I would consider to be year one of these Cavaliers.

You have Michelin, you have Mobley in his second year, you have a healthy Allen, Darius Garland, all things considered, he'll come back and he'll stay healthy throughout the course of the season despite what happened in the first game with his eye off this day-to-day nonsense. They will be good. I don't know if A, they have the depth. Kevin Love is the pretty much real only veteran that they have, and I think it will take time.

If they can jump over that, God bless them. I will look at a whole lot of other teams. The Rockets, not the Rockets, I'm thinking about James Harden, the Sixers, they got depth. The Nets, crazy as hell, I expect them to be in the toilet at the end of the year, but they have talent. The Celtics just went to the finals. The Bucks, we saw what they can do, they won a championship, and they're not even fully healthy yet. We can put the Cavaliers in there, but on November, let me see again, November 3rd, not yet. All right, so four months from now, we have a conversation about why Donovan Mitchell is top five in the MVP conversation and why the Cavaliers have a mass 60 wins for the first time since LeBron James. I look forward to that. Well, that's fine. I don't know about no 60 wins.

Oh, no, book it. Sixty wins for the Cavs. The only loss this season was because it was their first time playing together as a core, and they lost on the road in Toronto, I think by one possession. That's their only blemish on their record this season.

They have the second best record in the NBA. Don't. Don't. They brought up the redemption story of Karis Laverg, by the way. You think the Nets won him back at this point? Sure they would.

Don't care. They can win 60 games, they can win 55, they can win 50. They can go, I don't know, 72 and 10.

They can do a whole lot. When it gets to the postseason, don't matter. The game that they play here in the regular season is not going to be the same game they play in the postseason. The caliber of competition is not going to be the same that they play in the postseason. And I believe in the Cavs. Best backcourt in the East, JR?

I'm not ready to say that right now. I know you guys in Atlanta have something to say about that, but. Oh, but let them play first.

My point is, who cares? Let them play basketball first. We got a lot of teams that when you get to the postseason, the records we know go out of the window. They can win a whole lot of games in the regular season. Against a whole bunch of teams that are trying to tank, teams that don't have talent, teams that are in disarray, when you get to the postseason and you're playing against teams who have been there, done that, have won, have lost, will bully you, have more depth.

What happens then? I am ridiculously excited about the Cavs. If I wanted to take a look at a team in the NBA that I needed to be just effusive about that has a great future, it would be the Cavs. But I'm not prepared to dump them at the top of the East with the Bucks just only two, three weeks into the season in due time.

We'll see. It's the JR Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Something that we don't have to see about is what we're going to do on the other side of the break because we're going to come back and have a conversation. Jamel Hill is joining us.

Don't move. It's the JR Sport Brief show, CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It's the JR Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio.

Right now we're being joined by someone who is a writer, a producer, a host, a media personality, an author. She has a new book out right now, not just the book. It's a memoir. It's Jamel Hill.

Uphill is the memoir. Jamel, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you?

I got no complaints. There's so much to discuss with you about. Let me get this out of the way. For anyone listening right now, what is Uphill about? Why did you decide to do a memoir right now? So Uphill is basically the story of my life.

I know a lot of people, obviously they know me through my work at ESPN, they may even know me in the social political space or social political sports space, if that is. I know sometimes that people who are delivering the news of commentary, you tend to not know their journey and how they got here. Uphill is basically my journey. This is what shaped me, what molded me. I talk about my childhood, some childhood traumas I had to overcome, and even the pathway to my career. So this book is as raw and honest and vulnerable as it gets, and I just hope people are able to learn about the real me, but also the other takeaway, I think, is that regardless of your circumstances, they don't have to impact the vision that you create for your future. Well, the things that you've been able to create for yourself throughout the course of your life, I mean, the memoir is very, very deep.

It doesn't just touch on your own life, it touches on the life of your mom, your grandmother, the people that are around you, your family. What did you take away personally from putting together this memoir for yourself? Well, I mean, a lot of the things I discussed in the memoir were things I sort of emotionally had already dealt with, but there were a few things that I realized I actually hadn't dealt with them, not as well as I thought I did. And I think the best part about this was learning even more about my mother than I already had. I mean, she was very honest that she was going through her addiction struggles, and I even, unfortunately, had to witness some of what that struggle looked like. But there were a lot of incidents that she went through, a lot of lows that I had no idea that she had gone through that. So I was learning information about her that was new, and that part was very enlightening because it allowed me to have a lot of grace and a lot of empathy for her. Again, I already had, but it just sort of felt like it tripled after listening to her kind of recount what, frankly, were some of the worst moments of her life.

Jamel here with us here at the JR Sport ReShow, CBS Sports Radio. Go get the new memoir uphill. When you talk about more recent things that you've been able to deal with, I'm talking about the past five years. Everybody knows about your exit from ESPN, your journey into entrepreneurship.

What has that been like in this journey of your life? Yeah, I mean, this is a much different season than I've ever experienced in my career. And I didn't anticipate being in this season. When I got into journalism, I never thought one day I'm going to be an entrepreneur and own multiple businesses, go into film and TV production, that was not something that I saw for myself. But once I left ESPN, I wanted to tell stories through different vehicles and in different ways and to even work a lot more behind the camera than being in front of the camera. And so this last few years had been about that. I mean, as some people know, and for those who don't, like I'm executive producing Colin Kaepernick's 30 for 30, that's directed by Spike Lee.

And that's not an opportunity I saw for myself five years ago. But nevertheless, I think it's very powerful to be able to influence content from behind the scenes. And, you know, I think a lot of people probably just assume that I would just jump right back into television and start doing that every day. And while I have had some television shows since, there's just so much more in this medium that I want to explore.

Jamal Hill with us is here on CBS Sports Radio. When you think about what the past five years have done just from a media perspective, everything is so much more polarizing. We know you criticizing and calling out Donald Trump was amongst many of the things that have taken place over the past five years. And now we even have athletes who speak up and just they start fires. You have someone like Kyrie Irving, and you mentioned Colin Kaepernick, regardless whether it's a good reason or bad reason. What do you think about the current state of media? So I do think one of the biggest things has changed, like you brought up athletes. I think athletes have a much bigger voice now than at any previous point in my career. You see a lot of athletes like Draymond Green, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, they started their own media platforms.

And to me, that's just a reflection and a response of what our business hasn't been doing. As you know, 85 to 90 percent of sports media jobs are held by white men. And I think that lack of diversity has prompted a lot of black athletes to start and create their own platforms because they got tired of waiting for our business to frankly get more inclusive. And when you're constantly covered by people who don't always understand you, don't always understand your background, don't understand what it's like to be black in America, you get tired of being characterized in very narrow ways. And so their response has been to start their own platforms.

And I love it. I love the fact that they're having their own voice and their own say into how they're shaped. And, you know, sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. Sometimes some of them realize they might have needed a gatekeeper like the media.

But nevertheless, though, I think it's giving them a real sense of themselves, a real sense of empowerment. So I think that's just been a really drastic change that I've seen throughout media or around media in my career. We hear a lot of times that the athletes who speak up, Jamel, they got a backtrack.

It's almost like learning. You got a degree in journalism. We've heard Draymond Green have to apologize for, you know, calling Kendrick Perkins a coon. We a couple of weeks ago, about a month ago, Matt Barnes said something and had the backtrack on eBay, Kyrie Irving just apologized. How do they approach that phone line? How should they approach it? Well, one thing, and I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, certainly not. Just because you have a microphone doesn't necessarily make you a journalist. You know what I'm saying? And I think what they're learning in real time is that there's a lot of responsibility that does come with having a platform. It's something all of us as journalists have had to learn at some point, sometimes in a very negative way. I've certainly had to go through that lesson myself. And I hope what they learn from that is that, you know, when you have the responsibility of millions or a hundred thousand, you know, or so people following you, that it's different. The scrutiny on you is much different than it is if you're talking to one of your friends or, you know, just as some group chat conversation is that it's going to be a different scrutiny. And, you know, I think, though, ultimately, these are all very teachable moments about how you handle that, you know, by and large, I think most of them handle it responsibly. But even if you wind up having to apologize for something, you shouldn't necessarily see it as a bad thing. You should greet it as an opportunity to learn and to be more responsible about the things that you say and the things that you put out there.

Jamel Hill with us is here with us, CBS Sports Radio, the JR Sport Brief Show. You tough Jamel. I mean, there's a lot that you put out in that memoir. You think about, you know, your experiences and it's toughened you up.

It's put you in a space. A lot of people would look at you leaving ESPN and after the Trump stuff that that would be the first time that you got hit, you know, proverbially. It wasn't. What do you think is the toughest thing that you've had to endure that's made you who you are? I mean, by far, the toughest thing I've had to endure is being a witness to my mother's drug addiction. Like that was excruciating. It was awful, you know, to see somebody who had unfortunately been put in the position where they were sexually abused by a family member, later suffered a very violent and horrific rape that all engineered and was the impetus behind her self-medicating. And to watch somebody in that kind of pain and trauma. And even later after, you know, my mother had gotten clean to still deal with the vestiges of that was was very painful to witness as it would be for any daughter. And it's also I hope people as they read uphill, I hope they understand. That is the reason why when people ask me about how is it I was able to hold up during the whole Donald Trump controversy and dealing with the waves and waves of his supporters, death threats, all those kind of things, how I was able to kind of withstand that.

And in their mind, we're standing in a way that was very resilient, almost as if I was done phase. Well, the reason I was is because I've seen so much worse, you know, yes, and angering the president wouldn't even rank in the top 30 of worst moments of my life. I really wouldn't I mean, and I wouldn't even consider that a worse moment.

I mean, honestly, I think it was more of a blessing. And it's hard for me to get too riled up about somebody that I don't even have any respect for. So beyond all, you know, the media attention and everything, you know, having to witness my mother go through that some of the fractures in my family that will are outrank any professional obstacle I've ever faced. And so I think so much of that experience growing up that way and witnessing that has shaped me into the person that I am uphill is in stores right now.

Go ahead and pick it up, Jamal Hill. Final question for you. A lot of people ask me in my background, totally different than yours, especially digital media. People ask me, hey, how do you get involved in sports media?

Times are changing. You know, I'm sure you get asked the same question a lot from your perspective with the way things are going. What advice would you give to someone who's trying to get involved in business? I mean, it may sound like really simple, but keep going because you you hit and you can attest to this, you hit so many discouraging turns that if you allow the discouraging turns to kind of root in your mind, it will play on your self confidence. It'll make you doubt yourself and you will find yourself finding reasons and excuses not to pursue something that you probably love and a lot of times just, you know, kind of like when a running back is stood up, you know, you just got to keep those legs turning and eventually you'll find the space that will fit you. And you know, I wouldn't see every rejection as I wouldn't one, take it as a personal front and two, I wouldn't see every rejection as a setback because there are some rejections that you get that actually set you up for something better. Or you realize when you see someone else who maybe gets that opportunity you want, that they were better suited for it and it wasn't your time. So I think we always have this tendency to look at closed doors as being something negative, but sometimes a closed door can lead to an open window. Hey, that's that's flat life advice.

It doesn't matter what you want to get into. Jamal, where can people keep up with you? Everything that you're doing, where can they get uphill? So you can get uphill wherever books are sold, you know, get it off Amazon.

Yes, there is an audio book, but I've tried to really encourage people to buy specifically from black bookstores because many of them were hit very hard during the pandemic. And as a career nerd, if you will, bookstores, libraries, those are I think some of the pillars of our community. So please try to support them if you can. No doubt about it.

Thank you so much to Jamal Hill for joining us here. The J.R. Sport Brief show on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. First of all, you know, I just want to start off by saying I respect you a lot and I love your show and everything that you do. So just want to say mad love and love everything that you do. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS.

The J.R. Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you for respecting me. I appreciate that. I respect Jamal Hill. Thank you so much to Jamal for joining us in the last break.

Talking about her memoir, Uphill. Make sure you go ahead and pick that up. Always a pleasure to catch up with Jamal. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. You just heard from Marco Belletti. The Thursday night football game. It is a wrap. And the final score there, 29-17. The Philadelphia Eagles, they go out there and they beat the Houston Texans.

The Eagles are now 8-0 on the season. Houston falls. I mean, well, hey, Shep, how many times can you fall? Like all the time? Or do you fall once? Or do you keep falling? How does that work? If you're the Texans, it's the keep falling part, J.R.

Okay. Well, they kept on falling tonight. Their record now stands at 1-6. And then they got a tie. They tied against the Colts. Pretty much the, I think it was the first game of the season, actually, and they stink. Like the next important game that anyone will watch when it comes down to these Houston Texans will likely be Deshaun Watson's return.

That's it. Maybe you watch tonight, Thursday night football, Deshaun Watson will be the next step up there. And speaking of a next step up. Right now in the world series, this continues to move on. The Houston Astros in Philadelphia, they are moving into the bottom of the ninth. Houston now has a 3-2 lead. They're trying to take these or get these final three outs so they can go back to Houston with a 3-2 series lead and close out the world series on Saturday night. Meanwhile, the Phillies entering into the bottom of the ninth as a home team, obviously, they're trying to stage a comeback. They're trying to go up 3-2 and finish this series in Houston, Texas. It's a lot of Houston, Philadelphia connections, obviously. Thursday night football, Philly in Houston, the world series. We get a little bit of Philly in Houston. The starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, he happens to be from Houston. It's actually hilarious that we have seen the Astros utilize Jalen Hurts to troll Phillies fans to say that, hey, your starting quarterback, he likes us better. And ain't nothing wrong with that. You root for who you root for. I don't really think Eagles fans care as long as Jalen Hurts continues to put out amazing performances. And so even in tonight's victory over the, I want to say the Astros, there's so many Houston teams, Shep.

I'm screwing them up, man. Well, there's one team that shouldn't be associated with Houston and that is that football franchise. You and I both know that. Oh, damn. And you know what?

No. The Rockets and the, man, between the Rockets and then the Texans, it's like a sister of the poor. Well, at least the Rockets, they have talent that they know they want to continue with.

What if the Texans are in just wait and see for the next million years, they got to draft the quarterback. We know Davis Mills is not that guy. It's a little tricky for H-town right now, man. You can say that again. I mean, I mean, what's the highlight they have to go by right now if they don't win this World Series? Jim Nance, Last Call in Houston, Final Four. Oh, my goodness.

Wow. I mean, we're really stretching here because the Astros are the only thing going on that's good in Houston. And the reality is there's still that whispering. There's still those rumors about whether they did it clean or not. I mean, for World Series, only one title to show for it. And we know garbage cans had something to do with that. Yeah, you don't think that's done by now.

I think people are still going to hold on to it for a long time. I mean, baseball is such a purest game. I mean, I mean, Jayar, we've said this so many times. I know you're not a huge fan of him, but he is the most talented baseball player that has ever played the game. And that is the big head guy, you know, Barry Bonds. What about him? Well, I mean, there's no reason why he shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame because other guys have cheated, too, and have you know, there's been you know what I mean?

Like, there's been whispers. I mean, David Ortiz, for God's sakes, he's in the Hall of Fame in first ballot, might I add. So I think Barry deserves a shot out to the 10th ballot.

Well, the Veterans Committee will probably put him in and I wouldn't argue the fact. I think it's appropriate that he should probably just suffer a little bit on the way. He hasn't suffered enough. I mean, I understand he wasn't the media's best friend.

He was no media darling, but at the same time, Jayar, it's like. This guy was the story of baseball for seven years. No, I don't feel bad for he did it himself. If it wasn't if it wasn't self-inflicted, I'd be like, oh, man, put them in while they torture him. He did it to himself because McGuire and Sosa so didn't have a talent in their whole body that amassed to what the talent, Barry, had a pinky finger.

And they were getting the headlines and all the cache because of what they did in order to enable themselves in 98 to hit 70 home runs and then 60 something for slamming Sammy. So Barry said, you know what? I'm not going to be short changed here. I'm not going to get the shaft.

Well, that's a that's a cheap reason. That's like saying, hey, I saw those guys rob the bank down the block. And yeah, I know how to make money, but they they made money faster than me. So let me go rob banks to one is one is one is crime and larceny and incarceration terms. The other is just, you know, if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying the same thing. Same thing. My point is just because somebody else is doing something wrong doesn't mean that you should go ahead and do it as well. It's not a crime to operate on your own merit.

Not at all. It's the J.R. Sport. We show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'll update you on the World Series on the other side of the break. And of course, we're going to talk some Thursday night football.

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