2.2.23 - JR SportBrief Hour 4

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Learn more at Goalie.com today. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. And I am coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm going to be hanging out here with you for one more hour. Thank you to everybody listening in Atlanta, people listening in New York, my folks next door in Florida and South Carolina and Tennessee and Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma.

I can go all the way to California, but I'm not. So thank you to everybody listening, regardless of where you're at. We're being joined by super producer and host Dave Shepherd. He's holding it down in New York City. You can always listen to this show every minute, every second, every hour on the free Odyssey app.

That's A U D A C Y. You can hit rewind. And if you missed a minute, you can go ahead and tune in. We've had a busy night. We've talked about LeBron James, who had 26 points tonight in a Lakers win over the Pacers.

He is now 63 points away from passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the NBA's all time leading scorer record. We learned about the NBA All-Star reserves. Some familiar faces not making the All-Star game so far.

Who knows? Maybe they get in via injury. No James Harden this year. No Trae Young. No D'Aaron Fox.

He deserves it from the Sacramento Kings. Nick Sirianni for whatever reason. New York Giants are still talking crap about the Eagles. Julian Love, a cornerback on the Giants, is saying that Nick Sirianni is only here in the Super Bowl because of his players, like Nick Sirianni is just cashing free checks. Matter of fact, this is what Julian Love had to say Thursday morning on Good Morning Football. You know, he's a guy who really is doing a good job because he's not getting in the way of his team.

He has an experienced roster from top to bottom, offense, defense. You see this stuff, though? Like, what's your reaction as a player?

And that guy's doing that. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. I mean, he's in for a free ride right now. You guys can coach this team.

So if you're the general manager of the Giants, Joe Shane, if you're the head coach of the Giants, Brian Debo, then I got to check to see if Julian Love is a free agent or what his deal is. He's talking pretty freely for being a loser. Like you just lost. Your team just got smashed.

Why don't you? Yeah, I'm not mad that you're on TV earning some money and trying to build a future. But just don't diss the team that just beat you, man. So we talked about that. Aaron Rodgers is joking around that he ain't going to play for San Francisco.

He's playing golf. And they asked him, hey, where are you going to play, Aaron? He's like, I'm not for San Francisco.

Yeah, listen to that. Got any news you want to share with us? Not going to San Fran. Yeah, that was on CBS Sports Network. Aaron Rodgers is playing out at Pebble Beach right now.

So real loose environment. Aaron Rodgers says anything. He's like the drunk uncle at the holiday party. And anyway, speaking of the drunk uncle at the holiday party, I've wanted to talk about this. For a couple of days now.

And then Tom Brady decided to retire and he made me slow things down. And we touched upon it a little bit earlier this week, even today. It's officiating. It's the umpires. It's the referees. It's everybody who decides a game.

Or let me say, officiates a game. They're human beings, right? I don't see no robots out there calling fouls. Robots aren't calling balls and strikes yet.

Pass interference is not done by a robot. I don't think it ever can be. Go ahead and ask the Saints. And so we've had quite a few issues with officiating earlier this week or just in the past week. You know, LeBron James after the Celtics game on Saturday night, we saw LeBron James just throw a complete fit because the refs missed a blatant call foul by Jason Tatum. And LeBron, after the game, he could not understand just what the hell has been going on. He's frustrated with the refs.

Listen to this. It's been building and that's, I mean, you guys seen some of the games that we've lost this year with late game missed calls. We had an opportunity to literally win the game.

I mean, that's, you know, I had this second one in the last few weeks for myself. And he can't, he can't get it. That's LeBron James. The NBA referees union put out a whole damn letter kissing his ass and saying, sorry, LeBron, we missed it.

We're human beings, too. That's in the NBA. Remember a couple of weeks ago? The Chargers were taking on the Jags. Remember that implosion that they had?

I don't know. Well, Joey Bosa seems to have a lot of problems. He will. He wanted to yell at an Eagles fan this week and remind the Eagles fan how broke they are. But Joey Bosa after the Chargers. Yes, the Chargers blew a lead.

Not the damn refs, but the Chargers. Joey Bosa was throwing tantrums on the sideline and flinging his helmet and getting penalized. And after the game, Joey Bosa didn't say we sucked.

He didn't say our offense sucked. Joey Bosa was mad at the refs? I think there just needs to be more accountability on. I mean, if I say something to them, I get a forty thousand dollar fine.

But if they blow a call that ruins an entire team's season, they get to, they're probably back in the locker room after the game. Like, I got that. Oh, yeah. Got him.

15 yards. What a loser. I guarantee it.

That's what they're talking like in the back. Whatever, a power trip. I'm sick of those people. And I'm just about my third F bomb so far.

Sorry. But, man, Joey Bosa needed a hug and he did get fined. And then while supporting his brother, Nick, over the weekend, who unfortunately lost with the 49ers.

Joey Bosa, a fan, reminded him about his whining and crying and he decided to curse that fan out. So, you know, whatever happened to ignoring somebody and minding your business? And I guess that doesn't exist. But what do I know? Like, don't talk. Just punch somebody out.

Anyway. And Joey Bosa complaining about the officiating. Max Crosby, who we've had on the show before, for the Raiders. Max Crosby was on Barstool and he was even talking crap about Joey Bosa. Like, man, why are you whining and complaining?

Listen to this from today. A couple games ago, a dude had a meltdown and blaming the refs. And I see dudes blaming the ****. No lineman hold all the time.

Refs don't call it. Like, I'll never be that guy, bro. **** like that is so weak to me. Like, you're gonna get held. Like, I know I get held all the time, bro.

You watched the Rams last drive against us. Bro, I was getting literally tackled. But I'm not gonna go and double down and go look like a little **** crybaby. You know what I mean? That's not me.

I appreciate that. And we all know what happened this past Sunday with the Cincinnati Bengals. Everybody trying to understand how many opportunities the Chiefs get out of third down. There's even some folks who still don't believe that Patrick Mahomes was was pretty much hit or fouled on the way out of bounds by Osei.

Get over it. Like, this is this is a part of sports. This is what I know. As Nuno called and said, man, there are technologies that exist that can be implemented by all of these sports. We see it in football, soccer. We see it in tennis. Is the ball in? Is the ball out? And there are certain things that require a human eye. It might require a replay.

You know, something like pass interference when you got two dudes, you know, just running down the field, running a 40 at at four, six, four, five. It's going to be tough to see hand fighting. It's tough to see whether or not somebody caught the ball or didn't catch it. We have enough technology to fix things.

They just don't want to spend. The fan outcry hasn't been there. Everybody understands that the human element is a part of the game. I mean, take a look at baseball. It's like the umpires union is pretty much the last thing stopping us from moving ahead to automatic balls and strikes. And you even have some catchers who don't want to have a machine calling balls and strikes because it will eliminate the art of pitch framing.

Who cares? I'm catching a ball. I just want a legitimate ball or strike. Whether or not you're Aaron Judge or Jose Altuve, you know, we shouldn't have all these stupid variances and umpires calling balls and strikes that should be uniform. We shouldn't have the argument. Let's just go get get get used to it.

And so I understand it. Sports is difficult to officiate. Ridiculously tough when you have human beings out there. But what sport has it the worst? Which sport has the worst referees? Which sport has the worst officials? Is it the umpires?

Man, they're trying everything not to be replaced, but we know technology is on the way. Is it Major League? Well, I just told you baseball with the umpires. Is it the NBA? I mean, LeBron James can get slapped in the arm and you could have two officials there.

Everybody misses it. The NBA, they spend a good amount of time now walking over to the desk, the scorer's table and looking into that camera and describing to everyone and for five minutes what we all just saw. Is it the NFL? Does the NFL?

Is it the worst officiated sport? We got to pause. We got to replay. We got to talk to what's the guy's name? Jean? Jean Stavrotor?

I don't know his name. I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Yeah. What is it, Shep? Pretty sure it's Jean Stavrotor. Yeah. Jean Stavrotor.

I wish I didn't know his name. The less we see or hear him, that means the more the game is actually being played. Do I throw my flag? Do I not throw my flag? Is it pass interference? Did it go over the line? Man, is it a first down. Man, the NFL has enough money. They could put a chip in the ball and they could put a grid on the field to say it went over the line first down.

We got to use a stupid ass chain. Mike Pereira is pretty good though. Who?

Mike Pereira, the guy for Fox. That's the other rules guy? That's the other rules guy, yeah. He's good.

He's good though. I don't care about none of these damn rules guys. When they come on, I want to know the rule and then leave.

Gotcha. I wish we didn't have to hear from them. The fact that you have to have an old referee come on and explain what's going on to everybody should let you know that you have a problem and an issue. And I get it. The NFL is full of rules. These referees come out and they go, personal foul, number five, fingers to the face. Or, I mean, they could put on a whole show. And some of them do.

I don't need the theater. Let's just get to it. The NBA is in an interesting space. I think it's toughest for the NBA to utilize technology. The biggest calls are pretty much fouls. Who was fouled? Who wasn't fouled every now and then? Who did the basketball go off of?

That's tough. I don't think technology can always fix that outside of a few camera angles. The NFL drives a lot of people absolutely insane. But the fact that you can watch a baseball game and you will have an umpire, they all vary. If you're a batter, you have to go to work and go, well, this damn guy won't call a strike, even if it's in the middle of the plate. Or that guy is calling strikes and the man basically threw the ball in the dugout. Like there should be, should be, uniformity in being an umpire. And somehow some of these dudes still have their jobs is only a testament to the umpire's union. And so if I have to look at every sport, baseball is probably doing a good job into the future trying to implement rules and technology that speed up the game and make the umpire's job easier. But I believe baseball has been the worst. There's uniformity in basketball. There's uniformity in football. Imagine playing a baseball game.

In every game, the guy behind the plate has a different idea of what a ball is and what a strike is. Baseball, I think, is just, has the worst officials. I'm going to open up the phone lines. That's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. What sport, which sport has the worst officials? Baseball, basketball, football? I don't know. Tell me hockey's in there.

I ain't running around on no damn skates. 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Brief Show. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. I want to thank you for the sports entertainment that you provide for all of us who call your show and listen to your radio show. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. I thought, I'll take it, sports entertainment. I hear sports entertainment and I think about Vince McMahon. I guess he's still trying to sell WWE, I guess. Anyway, 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. There's been a lot of talk about officiating over the past week. Whether it's LeBron James saying, you know, why am I not getting some of these calls? That egregious non-call.

Saturday night in Boston getting smacked by Jason Tatum. We got a lot of Bengals fans who go, wow, whoa, whoa. Why the hell are the Chiefs getting all of these chances? A couple of weeks ago, Joey Bosa went nuclear against the refs when he should have went nuclear against his former offensive coordinator because he got fired. But anyway, being an ump is tough. Being a referee, it's not easy. And sure, the leagues can implement new technology, but we're not there yet.

So I pose this simple question to you all. Which league, which sport is officiated the worst? You know, is it basketball? I think most of the calls are about fouls and, you know, and nowadays everybody travels.

So what does it matter? If I look at the NFL, man, pass interference. Where do we put the ball down at? And was it a catch?

Was it not a catch? It's dizzying. And then you get the baseball where every single umpire has general rules for what should be a ball or a strike.

And somehow, someway, and I get it, everybody's human, some guys have a wider variance than others, much wider. So much so that, yeah, we're moving towards automatic balls and strikes from a computer, of which it should be. I think baseball is the worst officiated sport. Phone lines are open. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. Giovanni's calling from San Diego. What do you say, Giovanni? Hey, what's up, JR? Thanks for taking my call. First time caller, long time listener.

Thanks. I think it's the NBA, and it's not the officiating fault. I think the players' fault, they're always in their ears all game long.

I mean, do you remember 30 plus years? They used to clothesline each other, no calls were recalled. You know, I think it's the players that have to do with officiating in basketball.

Okay. Well, thank you, Giovanni, for calling from San Diego. That's part of the art of being an NBA player, or at least being a star. It's working the officials. Basketball officials are closer to the game, I'd say, than any other sport. And when I say closer, not just in regards to proximity, but referees, they are part of the flow of the game. Like they're running back and forth, they have to get into position. The referees are basically running sets and plays from where they have to be positioned and not, and they have to listen. Like they're right there. They can do a better job, but I think that part makes the NBA unique. Is that there's an art to communicating and working with an official.

That doesn't mean that they should just all of a sudden turn into one of these blonde mice. And they suck too at times. 855-2124, CBS. Harry is calling from Sacramento. What sport has the worst officials, Harry?

Hey, how's it going, man? I'd have to agree with you on baseball being the worst in terms of traditional mainstream sports. But I wanted to throw in UFC in terms of the judging that goes on for fights that go for fights that go to the judges decision. Yeah, that is that what we put judges in the same category as the actual refs or officials, though, and that'd be a different category. And you are right. It is a little bit of a different category.

I think overall rest in USC do a great job for the most part. But the thing I don't like is when it goes to a decision and then the judges end up deciding the fight. And then you see the scorecards after and they're so all over the place between the three judges. And I and it just feels like it kind of taints the end result. And, you know, the fighters, you know, they depend on that money and they're not getting paid that much.

So, you know, they might want they might need the bonuses from wins and stuff like that. I just think that it needs a little bit of retooling and I just thought it was an interesting. Interesting one that's a little bit outside the box. No, it's a it's a good point.

Thank you, Harry, for calling from Sac Town. It's true. And that is something that's more applicable to both UFC or not UFC, but MMA and boxing. And don't that is a whole different conversation I can go down when it comes down to voting in the judges. And most of the time the judges are being paid from the promoters legitimately to be there.

And it's just there's a lot of lines that get crossed in that regard. David is calling from California. You're CBS Sports Radio. What sport? Which sport has the worst officials?

Hey, how you doing, Scott? I'm going to have to go with baseball. I don't know if you remember when Tom Glavin and John Smoltz were pitching for the Braves. The umpires would always call strikes that were six inches off the plate. And they always said, oh, you know, he's a strike thrower. So that's why he gets the call. He used to drive me crazy because those guys never threw it over the plate and always got called strike. Well, though, they nibbled. And that is that is one of the things where you want to talk about the art of pitching.

You want to start working your way in. The thing is, they took advantage of of having excellent control. And I mean, you throw throw Maddox in there while you add it.

Don't just say Smoltz and and Tom. But that's that's part of the art. But we have guys and that happens in all sports. I think similar to basketball. The superstars will typically always get the benefit of the doubt.

That's just how it goes. I think we've all seen the clip by now. Michael Jordan, I believe he was with the Wizards at the time. He approaches an official. He's like, I got fouled. And the referee goes, Mike, I know. I'm sorry, Mike. I know you got fouled.

I got you next time. This is Michael Jordan. And sure, everybody's not Michael Jordan. But working the raffle, working the ump, I'm not mad at Smoltz or Glavin or Maddox or not necessarily Roger Clemens. He's just out there just powering, powering through guys. I'm not mad at any athlete who wants to take advantage of an ump that actually shows how I don't want to say crooked.

They are because that that leads to, you know, being an illegal bum. But someone who ain't all that good. If you're going to take advantage of me and you're going to go, oh, OK, I could throw outside.

He's going to call it. Then how far can I stretch the strike zone? That's part of the art. That part of baseball might change.

But I think the variances in balls and strikes is just too egregious to do so. A matter of fact, you want you want an example of working a referee. This is one of the greatest ever. His name is Michael Jordan. Take a listen. Michael Jordan, for one, thought that Aaron McKee had double dribbled in midair before the foul. And he talked with it, talked about it with Tommy Nunez.

And here's our court sounds. Listen to this conversation. He never, he never controlled him. Michael, he never picked it up and didn't touch with both hands. That's the thing. You think so, Michael?

55 hits to the count. Michael, I don't see two hands on him, Michael. But I believe you. But I believe you. I saw one.

I saw the one hand. Hey, Mike, I believe you. OK, can you sign my autograph, Michael? I believe you, Mike.

Gary Scollum from Vancouver. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Gary? Hi, Jay.

I love your show. I was, well, last year I was watching the Toronto Blue Jays playing baseball. And a couple of the pitchers are throwing the ball at 102 miles an hour.

Now, you tell me, I also watch hockey. You cannot see the ball coming at you at 102 miles an hour. So how can they call the ball a strike if it's that close? That's what, I think it's a baseball.

What do you think? Oh, I said I believe it's baseball. Not not for the reasons that you mentioned of not being able to to see the ball, but just just how wide the strike zone is. It's your job to see where the ball lands and where the catcher's arm is or the catcher's mitt.

And then we got catchers who do a good job, some better than others, going out there framing things up. Tommy's here from New Orleans. Jay, what's happening, my brother? I'm good.

Go ahead. Yeah. The worst officiating league is the NFL by far. And it's only because I think there's 11 players and all 11 players that touch the ball and there's just so much stuff going on. And the ball always has to be live. But in baseball, it doesn't happen that way. And that's why baseball has these, you know, these kind of unwritten rules.

And that's why Glaab and Maddox and Smoke could talk to the umpires and everything like that. Games by nature, I think, are just different. And therefore they're officiated differently.

And therefore the officiating impacts the games differently. So that's it. OK. Well, thank you, Tommy, for calling from New Orleans. Lou is calling from Massachusetts. I got to kill my radio. Well, what took you so long? Well, we've been over this. Goodbye. Damon's calling from Houston. You're on CBS Sports Radio.

Hey, JR, how's everything going, brother? Well, man, what sport is worst officiated? OK, I'm going to be a little bit biased in this situation. And as far as New Orleans is concerned, because I'm a New Orleans Saints fan.

And you saw the horrible call that they made, not all that they made. Yes. Yes.

But I'm gonna be honest with you, brother, if you look at all three of them, I'm an engineer in the exact science. With everything as far as technology is concerned and everything being around that cameras, you have all that stuff. What's going on? It's almost like no one is making the correct calls with the information which they have in front of them. I don't I don't agree with that. I don't agree.

OK. I think there's a large there's bigger things that every single league can do, but there's not enough fuss. At the end of the day, it boils down to the entertainment factor.

And if the owners don't feel that there's an impetus to utilize more technology, they're not going to do it. You know why? Because this is what it boils down to. You can whine and I can whine and your next door neighbor can complain. Everybody can complain. Are people still showing up and watching? Yeah. Every day. Every day and every hour. And so if everybody is still going to show up and watch, why do I want to implement, I don't know, you know, five hundred million dollars, a billion dollars into technology improvements in the NFL over the next two years?

Why do I want to do that? Real quick, man, I just think that, you know, someone should have the onus upon themselves, the league officials and everything else to get it right, just to get it right. I agree with you.

But we know we know money talks and it may it may take even larger of a disaster to change things. I mean, a few years ago, you talk about it as a Saints fan. The NFL did go into that offseason after that P.I.

against the Rams. And they certainly did implement a review of past interference. And they used it and they used it for one season and then they scrapped it because it wasn't utilized enough. It didn't overturn or change enough calls.

And and the thing is, and thank you so much, Damon, for calling from Houston. Most of the calls. And all of these sports. The majority of them are right. They're correct.

They're the ones that really stand out. Like Joe Assai running into Patrick Mahomes. He obviously pushed them. It was on the edge of it, though, right? You can make an argument that people will say, oh, that was the play that did it for them and did them in. OK, what about every other play in the game?

And so from the reverse, if you're an official. Now, you got that one play wrong before halftime. You got that one play wrong right before the end of the game.

That's what people remember. They're not going to be perfect all the time. But if you go by the statistics and the numbers and the stats from every single league. Their numbers will tell you 98 percent of the time, our officials, 99 percent of the time, our officials got the call correct. And if you think about the amount of plays that take place, the amount of possessions, the amount of pitches, the amounts of decisions that need to be made. They get it right the majority of the time, the vast majority of the time. It's the J.R. sport we show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. And there's a little bit of a tie in.

Because sometimes the officials are so damn wacky. That we got people who think these games are basically predetermined. I don't even want to open up that can of worms, but I will. I'm going to share with you some comments made by a former NFL running back.

Who was joking? We believe he is. I'll play that for you on the other side and get some more of your calls. You are listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. This is the J.R. Sport Brief show on CBS Sports Radio. You know with all of this talk and all of these conversations about which sport has officiated the worst, what sport has the worst officials.

It could be Major League Baseball, it could be the NFL, it could be the NBA, you could say hockey. You could say whatever the hell that you want. But sometimes some of these calls are so bad it leads people to believe that the games are rigged.

That the fix is in. And sure, I think we'd all be stupid to think that wasn't the case. We've seen evidence of it. We've seen people go to jail because of this.

Every now and then somebody gets got. No shock. And so Arian Foster, someone who I believe most of us are familiar with. Undrafted, running back, played the majority if not all of his career with the Texans. Had some injuries to his achilles. He blew his achilles out.

Had a crap back. And then he was just gone after making a bunch of Pro Bowls. You know, he denounced religion and I think he studied philosophy and now he has a podcast where he talks about, I don't know, conspiracy theories.

Just things that are under the radar. And so he was on Barstool Sports on his show and he took it a step further. And he's just like, he's like, yeah, the NFL is scripted.

He was joking. Right? It's funny, before we started taping, Arian was telling me about how the NFL is rigged and how every year he used to get a script. Day one of training camp that would get dropped off at his locker. And you would have to, you know, it was like week one, you'll do this. Week two, you're going to have hamstring injury. Week three, this is going to happen.

Week four, you're going to get three touchdowns. And so then you just have to, did you memorize those before the season started? Or would you go and rehearse the script before every game? We were really dedicated to it. So it was more so like, that's what practice was about. It was about practicing the script.

Like this is what goes on and this is what we have to do in order to, yeah. And this referee is going to miss this call because they hate you and they love the Colts, that sort of thing. WWF, so it's like, yeah, we know what's going to happen, but you just got put on a show. What did you think when you got the script in 2016 that said your career was going to fall off a cliff when you stopped believing in God?

That was 2015. Yeah, so he's joking. And we've had a lot of NFL players who have joined in on the jokes and dammit, we've had some fans join in on the joke about some terrible experiences some players have had. You know, what did Alex Smith feel when he read his script?

And so we can go down that rabbit hole. But here's the sad thing. There are already a lot of people who believe sports are predetermined.

There are a lot of people who believe the games are rigged. And even though Arian Foster is out here joking around, there's going to be a few people out of the population who listen to that clip and go, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Arian Foster said it. So it's true.

It's real. Let's get some more your calls before we roll out 855-212-4CBS. 855-212-4CBS. Lloyd is calling from Oklahoma. What's up, Lloyd? JR, super analyst, you really challenged me on this one. I've been watching sports, you know, I'm from Denver and I've been watching sports. I'll be 71 in April and I've been watching sports since the 60s prior to instant replay. And as you know, JR, the whole idea by having instant replay was to actually use that, utilize it to train other officials. OK, what a bad call is versus a good call. OK, but I have to agree with you 100 percent of baseball because and I don't think people realize you're only hitting the ball less than what, 30 percent of the time.

Right, JR? And think about when you have a loose strike zone or sometimes I see officials looking at a ball from an angle or looking out from the right or left angle, JR. And you can clearly see that ball didn't even hit that plate, didn't even come close to the plate. And it calls it a strike. Now, explain that to me and how that impacts a game. How are we protecting the integrity of the game when we see something like that? I want to listen to what you have to say about that, JR. Well, it's not the integrity of the game that's being protected.

And we've talked about it. You agree with me. I agree with you. I think the one thing that we can eventually look forward to is that as soon as maybe next season, not this one coming up for 2023. But maybe as soon as 2024, we might see an automatic strike zone coming to Major League Baseball. Coming to the majors, I should say.

You know, maybe the umpire has an earpiece in that tells him balls are strikes and it needs to be here sooner than later. Bob is calling from Maryland. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Good morning, my friend.

I congratulate you on an excellent show. You know your sports very well. And you show your humanity when some of your callers try to denigrate other people, sports people especially. But I'll tell you this.

They can have all the individual records they want. I think you would agree with me that it's the amount of rings that count. Bill Russell had 11 up in 13 years. And his last two years, he was the head coach at the Celtics at the same time. And he went on order when he was 35 years old in 69.

They won the World Championship. And on top of that, where were all these other guys, black or white, with Dr. King? Bill Russell marched with Dr. King. He loved people, period. His best friend, as far as I could see on that team, the Celtics, that was a team game. And he emphasized that as an individual. But Hadley Chuck, in my opinion, was the best six man in the history of basketball. I'll never forget that tape that you have on your station here with five seconds to go. They were winning by one point against Philadelphia in the World Chamberline.

And Hadley Chuck intercepted that pass from the sideline. And Bill Russell was the first man to grab hold of him and congratulate him for what he did. Bill Russell was a man. Okay. Bob, you're bringing this up because of LeBron James?

No. I say all records. Any sport.

I don't care. You show me who could win 11 rings in 13 years. No, I was asking because we were talking about poor officiating in sports. And you mentioned Bill Russell. And I just didn't understand the correlation. No, no.

I was going to call about what you were talking about before anyway. Team players. But when you take the umpires, you take Angel Hernandez. He was probably the worst umpire I ever saw or heard of. So do you think baseball has the worst umpires? Oh yes. My father umpires from the time he was 18 until he was 70. That's 52 years.

Amateur, small kids when you suck. You're on board behind Babe Ruth. Okay. Well, thank you, Bob. I appreciate you, man. You take care of yourself. You as well. Thank you so much, Bob. Take care.

You too. Okay. Well then, Shep, go ahead.

Say something. Oh, I'm just entertained by the call. I wish we had time to get to even more callers. But Bob always seems to take us on a tangent. And God knows we love Bob. But, Bob, just stick to the topic next time.

And I appreciate the fact that you're 84 going on 85 years old. And we know you love Bill Russell. We're all well aware of that, Bob. I didn't know that.

Oh, no. Oh, he inserts Bill Russell in every single call imaginable. Everything? Pretty much.

Yep. We could talk about Pele. He's going to bring up Bill Russell. Well, he loves himself from Bill Russell. And not just the champion that he was on the court, but the social justice champion that he was off the court.

Which you can't argue against, Bob. So, if we were talking about UFC, he'd find a way to insert Bill Russell? He'd find a way to say that the reason that they have the access to the media that they do and the reason they can create so much opportunity with funds and notoriety is because Bill Russell paved the way in the 1950s.

That's where he would go with that. And then he'd bring up his San Francisco days when he was in college. Do you think Bill Russell ever watched a UFC fight? I don't think Bill Russell cared to watch anything but the sport of basketball. Shout-outs to Bill Russell. God rest his soul.

Everybody's still running around with number six. The JR Sport Brief Show here on CBS Sports Radio is done. We're going to be back with you tomorrow, 10 p.m. Eastern Time, 7 p.m. Pacific. You can find me everywhere at JR Sport Brief.

You can find Shep at the Good Shepherd Underscore. Don't move here on CBS Sports Radio. We'll be back tomorrow.

But coming up next is Amy Lawrence. Y'all have a good night. Be safe. Tastes this good?

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