1.4.22 - JR SportBrief Hour 2

This is your operating system talking.

Not your computers or your phones, but your internal, human operating system. I'm feeling a little overloaded. Here's how you can ease my stress. Close your eyes or softly gaze at something in front of you. Now inhale for four counts, exhale for six. Keep repeating.

Much better. Longer term, there's BetterHelp online therapy. They'll match us with the licensed therapist we can connect with via video, phone, or chat.

Visit BetterHelp.com slash positive and save 10% on our first month. This is your operating system talking. Not your computers or your phones, but your internal, human operating system. I'm feeling a little overloaded. Here's how you can ease my stress. Close your eyes or softly gaze at something in front of you. Now inhale for four counts, exhale for six. Keep repeating.

Much better. Longer term, there's BetterHelp online therapy. They'll match us with the licensed therapist we can connect with via video, phone, or chat.

Visit BetterHelp.com slash positive and save 10% on our first month. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. I'm joined by super producer and host, Dave Shepherd, and I'm glad to be joined by you, everybody listening all over North America. And so whether you are in Portland, Oregon, I was just there. Whether you're in Baltimore, Maryland, I was just there. Whether you're in New Orleans, Louisiana, I was just there. Down in Florida, there. New York, there. I've been everywhere, man.

Like Johnny Cash. But anyway, I'm here with you. I don't care if you're listening on the free Odyssey app, your local affiliate, cbssportsradio.com, Sirius XM Channel 158. You got a lot of ways that you can listen. Man, if you got an antenna with some aluminum foil on it, I'm glad that you're listening that way, too. But this isn't just about listening. If you want to participate and be a part of the show, which I highly encourage, I will tell you, there is, well, how would I know?

Because I'm not listening. There isn't a show that takes this many callers and has this many interactions on a nightly or, dare I say, daily basis than what you are listening to right now. That's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. You can contact me. I am at JR Sport Brief on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I believe in two-way communication. I don't want to sit here and just talk and talk and talk. I don't want to sit here and just have you listen to me interview a million people.

I believe in conversation with the audience, having a connection with the audience. I know there's some people who every now and then want to go, oh, you don't like people who don't listen? I don't care what other people think in that regard unless you're going to be a jackass. Haven't heard that one in a while, though. I'm sorry, Shep? Haven't heard that one in a while, though. Anyone saying that about you? Heard what? That you don't listen. No, it's not that. You can't please everybody all the time.

And I can say the same thing about, you know, starting in my bedroom on YouTube in 2009. Everything has been about this is what I think. What do you think in return? And so whether it is here on the radio, whether it is on television, whether it is online, you know, I believe in just communication and connecting with people and allowing people to have a voice. I also believe in having fun.

More importantly, I believe in having respect. And so thank you to everyone who's just participated in the show. I have completed almost, you know, three full years here on CBS Sports Radio. And so as we are here at the top of 2023, I'm looking forward to another amazing year.

And so to start things off on the second show for 2023, I say thank you to all of the listeners. We know what the main story has been this week, and that has been surrounding Damar Hamlin and the Buffalo Bills decided to share an update with us in the middle of the day this afternoon. Quoting their tweet, they basically said Damar remains in the ICU in critical condition with signs of improvement noted yesterday and overnight. He's expected to remain under intensive care as his health care team continues to monitor and treat him. And I will take it for what it is. He's still in ICU with signs of improvement.

It's the most that anybody can look for and ask for. We did hear from several members of the NFL community out of respect for the situation, the family, the teams. There was no media availability yesterday outside of a few who popped up.

Obviously, Mike Tomlin decided to speak, having known Damar since he was 12 years old. But then you also heard today from someone like Kenny Pickett, and I'll play that for you momentarily. You know, as we continue on with the show next hour, as I always do, I bring you a new top six list. Tonight, I'm not necessarily going to rank the top six.

It's not even going to be like a top this or top that. I want to share with you all some inspirational figures who have come through in the world of sports. You know, I want to continue on the realm of positivity. I got to be honest. In a few minutes, I want to share with you some situations that have also been disturbing for other reasons, but have kind of flown under the radar as Damar has just caught the attention of the country. There was a terrible story today with the United States men's national team.

That's the soccer club. I mean, that is just very scandalous what's going on there. And then over the past couple of days, this almost is a footnote. And that is this is Dana White, you know, putting his hands on his wife in Mexico.

They were putting their hands on each other. And it's just very little attention. Just pay to it. And the fact that it's well, I'll talk about it momentarily. It's it's I don't want to ironic is not the word or maybe it is. It's just disturbing on multiple levels what has taken place, especially given a project that Dana White is working on that I will share with you in a few minutes. Before I do that, I do want you to hear from Kenny Pickett. I mentioned to you that he talked about his former teammate at Pitt, Damar Hamlin, and they weren't just teammates. They were co captains there together.

Take a listen to what Kenny Pickett had to say. But tomorrow, you know, he's unbelievable person does so much for the community. A guy from Pittsburgh State home couldn't went anywhere. He wanted to, you know, stayed home and we had, you know, a great run together and he had an unbelievable career at Pitt. You know, captains together in 2020, just all around, you know, great person and great family. You know, his brother was always around the facility.

You know, so they're just they're just like Pitt family, you know, to all of us, you know, and myself included. So, you know, prayers, thoughts and prayers are with him and, you know, just trying to keep in touch with his family through coach Narduzzi. I'm sure they're getting swamped with messages, but trying to stay up to date on how he's doing and, you know, it seems like everything's going the right direction and, you know, just hope not for the best for just want to get better. We can't do anything but but hope for the best and so we did learn from Troy Vincent today he had a virtual press conference with the media privately, and he shared about scheduling is they still are being respectful of the bills and the family and the team.

He says he's been in touch with coach Sean McDermott of the Buffalo Bills just to see how the players are doing. They haven't. They haven't canceled the game they haven't postponed the game. I'm referring to the bills taking on the Patriots this upcoming Sunday.

And so there's still a lot that's that's up in the air and I don't think they're going to do anything, but take it day by day. The Ravens will also be taking on the Bengals. Ravens are going to take on the Bengals that will be a 1 p.m. Eastern Time start and Joe Burrow. He talked about the realities of just having to move on and kind of get back to close as normal as possible. Unfortunate as it is, you know, it's we got a game to play on Sunday. And so as unusual as this week has been, it's it's business as usual from a from a football standpoint, unfortunately.

And that's not I mean, I don't I don't even really know what to say about it because it's such a scary emotional time. And, you know, guys still have a football game to play on Sunday. And it's it's our job to to get out there and execute and play the game the way that we need to play it to to go and win. It is what it is. But that's we've had discussions as a team about what happened and about where we're at going forward. And that's where we're at.

Yeah, things are moving forward, even with as as much uncertainty surrounding it all. It's I give everybody credit. It's it's with respect. I said this a couple of nights ago, maybe last night because I wasn't here.

Last night was my first night back. You know, people are having conversations about, oh, well, who told the truth and who didn't tell the truth? The NFL told them they had five minutes and ESPN. They told us, man, it's so many different moving pieces and parts and everybody's always, always looking for blame. And, you know, I guess I guess we're getting a little a little bit back to normal as well.

When you got bad behavior all over the place and people are showing their colors and in some cases people are showing their ass. You know, it's it's wild. I told you about Dana White. We'll get there in a second to stay on on this theme.

I think someone who's just completely shown his ass and what else is new, it's it's what he does is is skip Bayless. I think we all know by now about the tweet he sent out and his his point. And there's plenty of points from people about, you know, reading comprehension. Look at what he said. And he's very careful about everything that he says and garnering attention. And so it's not so much about what he said. It's more so about his actions and deciding to share it, knowing that it would be controversial.

If what I said was not clear to you, I encourage you to listen on the Odyssey app and hit rewind. This is something that he has made a career off of. It's something that he has made millions upon millions of dollars off of.

And it's unfortunate, even in a situation like this, he can still utilize coded language to just have attention on him. And so Shannon Sharp was not with him yesterday on FS1, their show Undisputed, and they started the show off today. And Shannon Sharp was presented the way they said they made it sound to present a monologue and have some thoughts. And as a part of that, he mentioned Skip Bayless and in the tweet, and they just had it out for a little bit.

And then people are now getting that Shannon. Well, not too many people, because I think I actually took a poll on my Instagram. It was about, I think, eight out of 10 folks were just pretty much sick of Skip Bayless. And then maybe one out of 10 took the approach of, well, why did he bring up the tweet if they weren't going to do it? But it was rather interesting this morning.

This is Shannon Sharp with Skip. There's been a lot of speculation of why I wasn't on air yesterday, and I won't get into speculation or conjecture or innuendo, but I will say this. Watching that game on Monday night, what happened to DeMar Hamlin struck me a little different. As a brotherhood in the NFL, when injuries happened, and we know injuries are a part of the game, I've seen guys suffer ACLs and Achilles tear, but I've never seen anybody have to be revived and fight for their life on the field.

So it struck me a little differently, because I remember seeing my brother paralyzed on the field temporarily, and he was able to regain focus. Skip tweeted something, and although I disagreed with the tweet, and hopefully Skip would take it down, but I didn't want it— Well, time out, time out. I'm not going to take it down, because I stand by what I tweeted. Skip, let me finish—go ahead. No, you go.

Go ahead, let's go, Jan. Okay. I mean, I cannot even get through a monologue without you interrupting me. You could have came back—Skip, just let me— I didn't know you were going to bring up this. No, I was just going to say, Skip, I didn't want to yesterday to get into a situation where DeMar Hamlin was the issue, should have been talking about him, and not get into your tweet.

That's what I was going to do. But you can't even let me finish my opening monologue without you interrupting. Okay. I was under the impression you weren't going to bring this up, because nobody here had a problem with that tweet. No.

Clearly, the bosses wanted you to offer explanation so clearly. No, they did not have—nobody— Let's go, Jan. Thoughts and prayers remain with DeMar Hamlin, gentlemen, certainly as he continues.

That's where the focus should have been, and not on the football game. Yes, let's go, Jan. Thank you. Ooh. Look, I'm not one to sit down and watch too much TV. I'm not one to sit down and watch people go back and forth about sports. I got to talk about it myself every day.

Damn. There's—you want to talk about—it's called reading the room. And you either read the room and you care or you don't. And I think there have been enough instances over the past 10 or 15 years where unfortunately Skip Bayless has shown that he cares more so about himself and sharing his opinion than what the actual situation is. And sure, he gets paid off of it, but he's not a stupid man.

He might be stubborn, he might be arrogant, but being a stupid man is not something that he is or even cares about. And so that's part of getting things back to normal. That's not the only thing back to normal. Today, with all the media availability that some teams got back to or were afforded, we had the New York Giants speak. Brian Deball decided to speak to the media as well, having been a coordinator for the Buffalo Bills and obviously, you know, with DeMar there last year before he moved on to the Giants. And the locker room was also open for the New York Giants. And if you know a little bit about anything, prior to the game on Monday night, it was business as usual. And so the New York Giants took on the Colts on Sunday, and the Giants beat the Colts badly, 38-10.

And, you know, Jeff Saturday was not a fan of what took place. There was a point where Kavon Thibodeau sacked Nick Foles. Nick Foles fell on top of the ball. Nick Foles was writhing in pain, and it was just bad. He decided, Kavon Thibodeau did, to get on the floor and make a snow angel, not realizing that Nick Foles was writhing in pain next to him. And so Jeff Saturday decided to talk about it again after the fact, and he was very short in his response, and he had two words for the celebration.

What were they, Shep? It's a little more than two words. We can play it. It's about six seconds.

It's a little more than two. Well, let's hear what Jeff Saturday had to say. Tasteless from the celebration afterwards. Just, you know, trash.

Not a fan of it at all. Let's put that one in the bank, okay? Yes. Let's hold on to that.

I want to hold that in the same esteem as Mike Tomlin's We Do Not Care. Can we do that? That is a deal, yes. Which part? The tasteless, the trash?

No, the whole thing. Jeff Saturday thought about the celebration. What was it? Tasteless from the celebration afterwards. Just, you know, trash.

Not a fan of it at all. Well, how about, yeah, probably just the trash part. You know what? We can minimize it. We can do tasteless and just trash. Well, anyway. Trash. Not a fan of it at all. Oh, there you go.

Amazing. Anyway, Kayvon Thibodeau was asked about these comments made by Jeff Saturday, one of the best centers to ever play the game of football. And this afternoon there were quite a few people online who then went at Kayvon Thibodeau, who still happens to be a rookie defensive end.

He was asked about Jeff Saturday's comments on him and Kayvon Thibodeau decided to say, I don't know who he is. That's what I'm saying. Who's the gatekeeper of when to do something? So once we figure out who the gatekeeper is, then we can write the rules and then we can establish, you know, the narratives and things like that. But until, you know, you guys actually are in the sport and do it and be in that moment, you can't create a narrative on it. Well, we're not creating a narrative on it. The guy, the other team's coach had a problem and he's the guy who played the game. I don't know who he is. No, I just don't know who, like anybody who commented on it, unless I know who they are, doesn't really affect me.

Trash, not a fan of it at all. Yeah, that's deep. I mean, Jeff, Jeff Saturday is just, he's one of the best centers ever. He's probably one of the few centers you could name, especially having worked and played for so many years with Peyton Manning. And there are people who are really online giving Kavon Thibodeau the business, saying he's being disrespectful and he's rude and it's just trash talk. You know, Jeff, do people reasonably think, and it's one thing hindsight 2020 after what we saw on Monday night. I don't think NFL players are running around, you know, celebrating anybody's injury. So I highly, when I saw it, and I believe I saw it live, it was an ass whooping, so I didn't stick around to see the Giants smack up the Colts.

I certainly exited the game. My brother actually messaged me and said, oh man, Nick Foles got destroyed. And I looked it up and I'm watching, I'm watching this guy ride around in pain on the floor and Kavon Thibodeau is doing a celebration.

And I'm saying there's no way in hell that that he's celebrating while this man is just in massive pain on the ground. And so Jeff Saturday, if he's entitled to stick up for his guys. And I also think Kavon Thibodeau is well within his right as well if he wants to give Jeff Saturday the business. And obviously he wishes or hopes to have the longevity of a career that that Jeff Saturday had and the Pro Bowls and the Super Bowl, et cetera.

But listen, just just two dudes having a back and forth, a coach and a player. And I think Kavon is going to be around for a while. And Jeff Saturday with these Indianapolis Colts, who he is currently babysitting, I don't see him around too much longer. I think Jeff Saturday is probably on his way out of the door. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio, looking forward to sharing with you a list of some of the most inspirational athletes in the world of sports. Speaking of on his way out the door, we're going to take a break when we come back.

I want to tell you about someone. He ain't going to be out the door. I don't even know if he's he's being punished in any type of way. His name is Dana White. I will tell you why.

And unfortunately, it involves slaps. It's the JR Sport Reshow here on CBS Sports Radio. Trash.

Not a fan of it at all. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're such a man of the people. You take more calls than any sports personality I've ever known. And to take words out of your mouth, pardon me, we appreciate you, man.

Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. After the past few days, I guess it just seems like things are slowly but surely getting back to normal. At least in the content space. I think that we've all realized how fragile life can be. And it's all still sports.

But then the realities of moving on have already started to take place. I shared with you Kayvon Thibodeau going back at Jeff Saturday called this celebration Nick Foles trash. Kayvon is like, I don't even know who Jeff Saturday is. And that's just a verbal war of words. I don't want to say that this has flown over the radar. I am I am sure by now you have heard about the incident on New Year's Eve with UFC president Dana White. And Dana White has shepherded this organization, the UFC, for the past about 20 years. I believe it was purchased for no more than a couple of million dollars. And they sold it for about four about I think at the time, four to five. And, you know, if you think about the how the valuations continue to move up, it's it's currently valued at about 10 billion dollars.

Not too shabby, you know, purchasing an organization that was pretty much on its way to being bankrupt. And so Dana White has hundreds of millions of dollars. He is the face of UFC. I have met the man. I have no problems with him.

Not always a fan of what he has said or things that he has done. But this past Saturday, New Year's Eve, he's with his family, with his wife down in Mexico celebrating the holiday. And like most folks had had too much to drink. I can relate. I cannot relate because I've never been married. At the same time, I can't relate to this ever hitting a woman. Both he and his wife were captured on video slapping each other around. She hit him. He hit her back and and it was a short interaction and it kind of just got swept under the rug.

I think the first way I learned about it was actually via the interview on TMZ. It seemed like because he has a relationship, it was like, here's the story. And then, boom, here's the apology interview via Dana White. And so he spoke to TMZ and he put an emphasis that in the past, I've been the one to say there's never an excuse to put your hands on a woman. He then put emphasis on having to explain this to his kids. He is accepting full blame. He understands that there are there will be plenty of people who will have opinions of which they will be justified for, but that he is more invested in his kids as he should be. That doesn't change the accountability from himself. What he does privately is his business. It took place publicly.

And people know Dana White. This is what he had to tell TMZ about unfortunately being physical with his wife. I'm one of the guys, you know, you've heard me say for years there's never, ever an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman.

And now here I am on TMZ talking about it. But my wife and I have been married for almost 30 years. We've known each other since we were 12 years old and we've got three kids. And, you know, this is one of those situations that's, you know, horrible.

I'm embarrassed. But it's also one of those situations that is, you know, right now we're more concerned about our kids. You know, we have three kids. And, you know, obviously since the video popped up, we've shown the kids the video.

And, you know, we're more focused on our family right now. People are going to have opinions on this. And then most of the people's opinions will be right. And especially in my case.

You don't put your hands on a woman ever. Yeah, I think we all, well let me not say that because it occurs. I think most of us know that and would agree with that. I think the issue here is the accountability, not necessarily of Dana White. I don't know, him and his wife might be in counseling right now. Where's the accountability for those who he works with? Because for the most part, he don't have a boss. He is the boss. He has partners.

But he does have partners that he works with. We know ESPN is a major distributor and partner of the UFC. And when asked or contacted by the Bloody Elbow, which is a very huge, huge MMA website and blog, they contacted ESPN. And ESPN said, UFC communications can answer that for you.

We just distribute the content. UFC puts it together. I must also tell you the company that now owns UFC, which used to be William Morris Endeavor, they haven't said anything. And this is even crazier.

I don't even know how to say this. It was only a couple of months ago that Dana White stood in New York City in Radio City Music Hall and held a press conference and announced his newest endeavor. Power Slap. I'm not kidding.

I'm not joking. Dana White a few months ago said, I want to get into slap fighting. And I remember growing up in New York City. If you grew up in New York or maybe remember 20, 25 years ago, there was actually a contest at a radio station called Hot 97 where they would have people come upstairs and slap each other. And the New York State Athletic Commission said, you can't do this. And if you venture onto the Internet every now and then, you will see someone slapping another human being. And Dana White has seen this. And this is what he had to say about his new endeavor a few months ago.

Power Slap. It all started for me back in 2017. I started seeing some of these slap videos on social media and I started to do some research on some of the companies and some of the promoters that were involved in it. And, you know, first of all, I was blown away by the numbers. I mean, some of these have like 300 million views.

I started thinking, you know, obviously this thing really works for social media, but I thought it would be good for television to have done the right way. Oh, my God. Cringy. When's it coming on the show, Jayar? Never. OK. No, you never, never.

I'll probably get invited. No, that's that's for another day. Never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never. Well, let me make two points. Power Slap is stupid. That's that's the first thing.

Sorry. And if I'm not the only one that agrees with it, yeah, there are plenty of people who will watch anything online. I have certainly anyone someone who will watch sports, but I'm not going to sit there and watch people slapping each other. And UFC as a social media account has shared this and promoted it. This television show was to debut next week on TBS. I have a feeling that that's not going to take place. I also believe, based on the trailer, that the content has been captured, the episodes have been edited, the talent has been paid, and that there will be millions of dollars in production money that has gone down the tubes as a result of Dana White's interaction, putting his hands on his wife. And so if you were interested in watching Power Slap on TBS next week, I highly doubt that that will take place.

We have not heard at all either from TBS on the status of this show and some of the comments that have existed online about Power Slap from just people on social media who can always be clever. Why? Just why? Absolutely trash. And I don't know if this one takes the cake, but it might.

I'd rather crap in my hands and clap than watch Power Slap. So I'm expecting Dana White. This might kind of be on the low right now, I believe. I don't think this story or situation is going to go away. Endeavor stock did go down as the business implications of his situation kind of come to light a little bit more. Maybe there'll be a bump. But, you know, Dana White will be fine.

You know, I don't know if he gets a slap on the wrist. He's he's the boss. He has partners. We know what took place with with Ray Rice and Dana White at that time said there's one thing that you never bounce back from, and that's putting your hands on a woman. It's been that way in the UFC since we started here. You don't bounce back from putting your hands on a woman. I think outside of his partners having or showing a little bit more accountability of working with him.

Yeah, you can protect your family. That should be first and foremost. But when you've also been very, very vocal about other people's situations, he has never been afraid to get into a verbal scrap with anyone. I think he should also hold a little bit more accountability for his position as being the boss, being the dude overlooking, being the president of the UFC.

I'd be very interested to see if he does so. You know, we can think about this week in the news cycle. There there should be some more. But I feel like everyone is just waiting for this to kind of blow away and and be forgotten. And I'm sorry. And this is what we're doing.

But there should be more accountability over that. It's the JR Sportbrief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio to get some more of your calls on the other side. I do. I can't wait at the top of the hour to share with you just some of the most inspirational athletes in the world of sports. You are listening to the JR Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, JR. Thanks for having me on.

First time caller. You got a great show. I really like your show.

You're really patient and I think you're really objective. Call in now at eight five five two one two four CBS. At the top of the hour. I'm going to give you, you know, every every Wednesday night I give a new top six list and we count it down. We go six five four three two one.

And you're going to hear all the fancy music that accompanies it. But I don't I don't want to rank the individuals that we're going to talk about tonight. And this is a first. I'm breaking format. Why?

Because it's mine and I can't. At the top of the hour, I'm going to share with you six individuals who have been inspirations for different reasons in the world of sports. Because we just had to talk about Dana White, you know, and his interaction, his physical interaction with his wife.

And I want to I want to get back to some positivity, especially in light of everything that has taken place this week. I'm going to get some more of your calls. The top of the hour. It's a new list, typically a top six.

But we're going to take a look at inspirations, six of them in the world of sports. Eight five five two one two four CBS. That's eight five five two one two four CBS.

Can this call from Pennsylvania? You're on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you. Good evening.

I hope you had a good Christmas and a good New Year. Thank you. Thank you. And one more thing. I like to really thank you for all you do for the Special Olympics.

I think it's the most incredible thing that sports can do for under underprivileged kids, you know, you know. So thank you for that. Sure. Hey, listen, I think it today today.

No. Hey, shut up. What happened? Maybe he pissed off Dana White.

Dana White hit him. I don't know. He he said something nice to me.

And then he got abducted by aliens. Like, what is that? What happens? Somebody says something nice and they get they get snatched up. A lot of people say nice things to you.

It's a it's a nightly thing. No, I don't know what happened to him. Right. You got hit in the kneecaps. I hope he's OK. What was his name? Ken. Ken in Pennsylvania. Ken in Pennsylvania.

Hey, Ken, if you didn't get abducted by aliens, if you want to try to call back Ken, by all means, we'll we'll try to get you on because he what did he you spoke to him before I talked to him, Chef. Did you speak to him for a second? Yeah. Well, basically it was it was just a matter of, you know, a Thibodeau.

The attitude is not necessary. He crossed a line. And I think a lot of old school fans feel that way. There's no way, like you said, if you're Thibodeau, you don't know who Jeff Saturday is. Yeah, he knows. He knows who he damn well is. He's just he's ruffling feathers. And if for whatever out of the ordinary world reason, this man, let's think about this. And ensure even if he's he's needling him a little bit.

Like, who cares? Or does Jeff Saturday going to walk from Indianapolis to New York to, you know, give him a piece of his mind? I'm pretty sure Brian Debo looked at him and said, I relax, chill. But he's just giving each other hell back and forth.

I don't think it's no big deal. I actually look at Jeff Saturday. And the only thing Jeff Saturday is doing is supporting his guys. Jeff Saturday, there's no way in hell he thinks that this man was celebrating him being hurt. Otherwise, he would have went off on a tangent about it. And so nobody is ignorant here as to what's going on. This is just a back and forth.

It just so happens to be between a coach and an opposing player, which is not something you typically see at all. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Lou is here from Rochester. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, JR. Welcome back, man. Happy New Year. Have a great show.

You and Jeff do a great job, as you know. So look, I wanted to talk about DeMar Hamlin and Troy Vincent a little bit. By all accounts, DeMar is just a great individual, salt of the earth. And what happened was so unfortunate. And the last two days, I've been emotional about it, as has obviously the team, some sobbing, and the coach. And it's such great news that he's improving. He's probably going to be OK. And because of the way the injury occurred, it probably won't threaten his football career, because it's probably an episodic thing. But look, Troy Vincent, he was a great player. He played for the Miami Dolphins, made a couple of provos, as I recall, as a cornerback. Then he came to the Bills and played safety.

At that point, I realized that he was really a smart dude, and I gained appreciation for him. And now it has all has him on this kitchen point that he's not going to look good on, because it took them too long to cancel that game. And it's a good thing that Sean McDermott, in consultation with Taylor, quote, said that he couldn't coach anymore. So, Lou, in the interest of time, because we are getting ready to hit the break, what's your ultimate point here on Troy Vincent? Listen, you know everybody, or you know a lot of people, man, get the word to them that he's trying to champion a losing cause. He should just let it go.

What cause is that? That somehow it was absurd that NFL would require them to resume the game within five minutes. Okay, well, I did mention that. Let me put it to you this way, and thank you, Lou, for calling from Rochester. I want to expand upon this a little bit more.

I was not on the conference call earlier today. Troy Vincent, you said it, he played in the NFL. He played for 15 years at a high level in the NFL. Troy Vincent is also not an idiot. I'm saying this, not that I know, I believe that Troy Vincent has a good chance or opportunity into the future to be the future commissioner of the league. And so I've also seen a lot of people run around and say, oh my goodness, how is, oh, you know, why isn't Roger Goodell speaking, and why does it matter?

It's not the president of the United States delivering a message. Who cares who says anything, as long as DeMar Hamlin hopefully improves. And so there's a lot of quote unquote cooks in the kitchen for a situation that's unprecedented. The NFL is up for scrutiny for many things. I can sit here and give you a list of things that have taken place that have turned me off as a fan for a variety of reasons.

I think I think a lot of us can. But the fact is, there is no perfect scenario here. There is no perfect situation. And I'm not going to beat up on Troy Vincent, the NFL, Roger Goodell because of the handling. I certainly do believe there is or was a miscommunication as it relates to the game resuming or taking place as bad as we want to, or it's easy to say, oh, man, he's terrible humans. It's all about the money, all about the dollar.

Oh, yeah, it is. We know that in this instance, I don't think so much. I think everyone had to process this in real time.

I think this is also a moment for all of us to also realize they are humans. And if you want to look at Troy Vincent, please, please, please, please, please remember that he is a human and that he certainly understands what it feels like to be out on that field. Roger Goodell does not.

Keep that in mind. It's the JR sport we show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We are going to take a break when we come back. It's a modified version of the first top six of the year. We're going to look at some of the most inspirational figures that we've seen in the world of sports.

It's the JR sport we show CBS Sports Radio. They'll match us with the licensed therapist we can connect with via video, phone or chat. Visit better help dot com slash positive and save 10 percent on our first month. If you're feeling down and having trouble getting up in the morning, here's a tip. Brush your teeth.

That's it. Often when we wake up, our brains go into planning mode, which leads to overthinking and stress before our head even leaves the pillow. Something simple like brushing your teeth can break that cycle and jumpstart your day. This tip was brought to you by better help online therapy, which connects you with a licensed therapist via video, phone or online chat.

Visit better help dot com slash positive and save 10 percent on your first month. If you're feeling down and having trouble getting up in the morning, here's a tip. Brush your teeth.

That's it. Often when we wake up, our brains go into planning mode, which leads to overthinking and stress before our head even leaves the pillow. Something simple like brushing your teeth can break that cycle and jumpstart your day. This tip was brought to you by better help online therapy, which connects you with a licensed therapist via video, phone or online chat. Visit better help dot com slash positive and save 10 percent on your first month.