3.9.23 - JR SportBrief Hour 1

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It's easy to achieve them. Goalie. Taste your goals. 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. It is the J.R. Sportbrief Show here on CBS Sports Radio. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia.

Much love to everybody listening all over North America. You could be here in the South with me. You could be in the Northeast. You could be overseas.

You could be in Hawaii, Alaska, Portland, San Diego. You could fill in the blank. Everything in between.

All of that stuff. I'm glad that you're here. This is when I get started.

10 p.m. Eastern time, 7 p.m. Pacific. I'm going to be rolling with you for the next four hours. I'm being joined by super producer and host, Dave Shepherd.

And I'm glad to be here. We got a lot to get into. We got a hell of a combination. We're talking college basketball, NBA basketball, NFL football. There's a world baseball classic going on, I guess. Superstars are playing. We got Otani hitting home runs in Japan. We got Mike Harvey representing Italy.

OK, whatever. And then we just had another basketball game go down. And there were actually human beings in the NBA available to play in it. The Memphis Grizzlies just beat the Warriors 131 to 110. Of course, Dylan Brooks and Draymond Green getting into a little bit of a beef. Just a little bit of a beef. No punches thrown. But at least Dylan Brooks can he can go home happy and at least say that he won this part of the battle, even though the Grizzlies haven't won anything.

Also, last night, just so many things have taken place over the past 24 hours. We discussed Patrick Ewing getting the boot. I said he's done and he's done.

No longer the head coach at Georgetown, his alma mater and someone who won a championship as a player with the squad in 1984. He is gone. And then I gave you the details on Sean Kemp. And we also learned that he is, as of right now, not being charged. Sean Kemp has no problem rolling up to get his stolen property back. And hopefully that that remains true.

It's good that he was not harmed and that nobody was harmed. Sean Kemp has taken matters into his own hands. We got a lot to do. The phone number here is 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. If you follow me on social media at JR Sport Brief, you'll already know everything that we will discuss tonight. And it wasn't a mistake that I just said you actually had enough Grizzlies and Warriors available to play the game. Because it feels like every NBA player or a vast majority, well that's an exaggeration. But there are still notable players, there are too many notable players in the NBA who are getting hurt right now.

I wish I was lying. We saw what happened to Kevin Durant last night. The Phoenix Suns and Kevin Durant, he's specifically getting ready to make his home debut in Phoenix against the Oklahoma City Thunder. And Kevin Durant sprains his ankle. He has an MRI today. Say he will be reevaluated in two to three weeks.

Come on now. Right before tonight's game in Memphis, Tennessee, there's no John Durant, we know why. Jonathan Kuminga, young explosive guard, has been improving as of late filling up the stat sheet. He twists his ankle on a crossover to the basket in warm-ups.

You can't make this stuff up. Luka Doncic exits the game last night. The Dallas Mavericks are playing the Pelicans. Luka leaves with a thigh injury. Thigh's been bothering him for the past two and a half weeks. We find out that Lonzo Ball, who we haven't seen play since last year, last January. He's had two surgeries on his knee. He might need a third just to play next season.

How many more dudes are going to be hurt? Karl-Anthony Towns has been out. Giannis Ettaracumpo is not playing basketball tonight, and this was an interesting reason. He has a sore hand, okay.

Giannis has a sore hand. And so I don't know what the deal is in the NBA. I guess all of these dudes are just, just cursed. Are they cursed?

Is the NBA cursed? LeBron James is rolling around in a boot. He has an excuse.

He's 38 years old. Kevin Durant, yeah, he has a lot of mouths and wear and tear on his legs as well. We know about his Achilles. We know about his foot. We know about the recovery from his knee. And now he's going up for layups and dunks, and he's twisting his ankle in warm-ups. The Suns still managed to beat Oklahoma City last night.

They'll take on the Kings over the weekend, so they get a couple of days off. Devin Booker is just going to shoot the living hell out of the ball every single chance that he gets. But we know the Suns ain't going nowhere without Kevin Durant. They traded to bring this man in to win a championship. Not to have him be a spectator on the bench. Last night, after their victory against OKC, their head coach, Monty Williams, he spoke.

This is before the MRI in the two- to three-week evaluation. He says, look, we ain't trying to rush this man back. I think every team in the NBA is cautious just because, you know, there's a care for the guys that are trying to win games and protect their livelihood. So that's always at the highest place on the list. This will be no different. OK.

Very dignified answer there by Monty Williams. You bring Kevin Durant for what? You bring him in for the regular season? Do you bring him in to be a seven-foot-tall cheerleader? No, you bring Kevin Durant to win a championship.

And Monty Williams, he's like, we got this man this year. We have him into the future. It's not just about now. It's about the long term.

Listen. I don't get caught up in the buildup at all, you know. For me, it's just how do you get, you know, your team on the floor and get everybody healthy. He's out there working his tail off, getting ready for the game, and he twists his ankle. So, I mean, you can't get frustrated about that. It's just, it's life.

Yeah, it's life. Life for this season with the Phoenix Suns is almost done. Only about 15 more games left in the season.

Two to three weeks of what? There's going to be no preparation time. No acclimation towards Kevin Durant and his teammates, Devin Booker and Chris Paul. Thank God these guys are pros. Thank God they're good.

But this isn't necessarily going to help their cause. And we have seen Kevin Durant rush back from injury. He took place in the playoffs, but he had a knee injury and then he blows out his achilles.

And that was all she wrote in 2019 before he decided to go to Brooklyn. Is he going to push this? No.

I don't think so. But I do believe we'll see Kevin Durant back this season. It might be in the postseason. It might be a few games before the season starts. But this isn't great for the Suns and their continuity. They better hope they can pull things together. Or they might get beat by, I don't know, maybe the Denver Nuggets. Just a damn shame everybody paid a ticket to see Kevin Durant and Phoenix last night make his debut. Couldn't even make it to the main game.

Couldn't get out of warm-ups. And then another team, how about this? Kevin Durant used to play with Kyrie Irving. Kyrie's new teammate, Luka Doncic, all of a sudden we didn't hear about this. We don't hear about every injury until it quote-on-quote hits the fan. Luka Doncic left the Pelicans game last night in the third quarter with a thigh injury.

Luka's like, man, my thigh been hurting since about, I don't know, February 23rd, February 24th. Now this is going to allow Kyrie Irving to run around and just jack up shots. And I guess Tim Hardaway Jr. is also thrilled because this will allow him to jack up shots too. Dallas, I don't know what they're thinking. Kyrie Irving will be a free agent and he actually had some pointed remarks.

We're going to talk about that next hour. The Dallas Mavericks right now are 34 and 33. They're a two-man team. Luka Doncic, he had his thigh injury looked at today. And good for him, there's no timetable on his return because there wasn't any serious damage. Luka Doncic is going to be treated and whenever he can go out there and manage the pain, Luka will be back.

Jason Kidd, he talked about it last night. He said, listen, this guy's thigh has been an issue for a few weeks now. Left leg, he's going to come in and talk to you guys about how he feels. But that's what I was told, just his left leg, I think in the thigh. So he'll be able to answer those questions when it comes to him. We all can see he's not moving well.

So shooting defense, it's affecting, you know, everything. So he's trying to fight through it and help his teammates, but he had to leave there. And so, you know, hopefully it's not something serious. We have a couple days here before we play Memphis, so hopefully he's back soon.

How honorable. Jason Kidd did say we would hear from Luka Doncic and Luka did speak to the media last night after the loss. He was asked about how his leg is feeling and he got right to the point.

It's not good. I mean, it's been going for one week, maybe more. I just can't really push off that leg. Just getting my rhythm, you know, running, I can feel it. But mostly, probably on the jump shots, you know, because we need both legs.

So pushing off has been really hard for me. You need two legs to shoot a jump shot. I've never seen anybody shoot a jump shot without jumping. At least we're likely to see Kevin Durant back, right? I think. At least we're likely to see Luka Doncic back, sure, yeah. These other two guys who were hurt that we got updates on? I don't know about seeing them.

I know one for sure we will not see. Lonzo Ball looking into a third, count it, third knee surgery. This is on his left knee.

Hasn't played since January of 2022. Had surgery in January. Had surgery again in September. Still feels pain in his knee and now they're considering a third surgery. Which would sideline him for six months.

That would already push him back towards the start of next season if another surgery is even successful. I feel bad for Lonzo Ball. Improved three point shooter, knocking down forty percent of them. Playing defense at a ridiculously high level can go ahead and body up anybody out on the perimeter.

Giving you thirteen points, five rebounds, five or six. He was a great player. I feel bad for Lonzo Ball.

And then we know his brother, what, last week, two weeks ago, he broke his ankle on a crossover. What the hell is going on? Load managed this and load managed that. Maybe they just need vacations. Maybe they're not working hard enough.

Maybe they're working too hard. I don't know. And then we got Zion Williamson.

I had to take a deep breath. Zion Williamson is a result of the hype machine. Zion Williamson is pretty much, I'd say, the first superstar basketball player. From Instagram.

From social media. Some gigantic human being built like a defensive end, built like a linebacker. Playing basketball in high school, jumping out of the gym, goes to Duke, bursts out of his shoe, gets drafted by the Pelicans.

And can't stay healthy. Because he's too damn big. And of course he gets trade to one of the culinary capitals of the United States of America.

A city that has some of the best food on planet Earth. Zion Williamson, he gets drafted by the Pelicans? His own damn city's making fun of him. They put him on the side of a float. They put an image of him on the side of a float. And what was he doing? Eating. You go to the Smoothie King Center, right across the street there's a gigantic Jordan-esque billboard.

It takes up the entire side of a building. Zion, arms outstretched. Williamson on the back.

The fans who go to Smoothie King, they see that billboard, they see that advertisement more than they've seen Zion on the court. He has only played 29 games this season. The season is almost over. He has a leg injury.

Hamstring. This dude hasn't played basketball. He ain't played basketball since January. Zion is cooked. And they had the nerve to tell us all yesterday that Zion Williamson is going to be out at minimum two more weeks.

Who are we fooling? Did he find Jenny Craig? Did he find Slim Fast?

Did he find a bicycle? And he did lose weight. He cut weight. He slimmed down at the start of the season.

But he's still too damn big. And what good is it to be explosive? What good is it to be a bully? What good is it to play like an all-star? 26.7 rebounds, 5 assists, 60% from the field. He is a bully.

He's a bully with a $200 million dollar extension in front of him. The Pelicans are hoping this one works out. Two weeks? Yeah, sure. The Pelicans are 31 and 34.

They're going nowhere. I'm sure if Zion comes back and plays a game, which I doubt, he's probably going to pull that same damn hamstring. His head coach, Willie Green, he was asked about Zion being out at minimum for two more weeks and this is what he said. On a different note, you guys just announced that Zion will be out at least two more weeks. What are your general thoughts knowing that you'll be without him, I guess, for a few more weeks here?

Well, my first thought is always for Z. It's been tough dealing with the hamstring and working to get himself back and then kind of having the same issue again. So we're always mindful of him. And then, you know, for the rest of the guys, we just know where we are. We've got to go out and guys have to step up.

And like I said earlier in the press conference, it's go time for us. Sounds depressing. It sounds like he's on a hunger strike, something Zion should be on.

This is bad. I don't know what the NBA did to deserve this. We're getting ready to pull up on March Madness. We're going to watch college athletes run around and I guess they play basketball. They play, right? Some of them make money, some of them don't.

Most of them. Zion out. Lonzo Ball broken. LaMelo Ball broke his own ankle. Giannis Etedecumpo not playing. He got a sore hand.

What's he doing with his hand? Luka Doncic. Thigh injury.

Oh, my thighs been bothering me for weeks now. Nobody talks about Karl-Anthony Towns. Who cares? Anthony Edwards now. And then you got Jonathan Kuminga hurting himself in warm-ups tonight. Before the Grizzlies lost.

And then last night, one of the NBA's greatest players, Kevin Durant. I don't know if he slipped. I know he sprained that damn ankle. And now he's going to be reevaluated in two to three weeks. He's only played three games in Phoenix.

He has played three games since when he initially sprained his knee early, early, early this year. The NBA is cursed. Maybe these dudes do need load management.

It'd be nice if they could earn their salaries and actually stay healthy. It must be something in the NBA's waters. And then there was some other guy, he's still out because he just wanted to be an idiot waving around a gun. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you on CBS Sports Radio 855-2124 CBS.

It's 855-2124 CBS. We're just getting started. We're going to talk Garoppolo. We're going to talk about Fred Van Vliet.

He eviscerated the officials. We're going to talk about the Rams. They might want to get rid of Matthew Stafford.

Man, it's just, there's a lot going on. Matter of fact, when we come back, speaking of Phoenix, the poor fans didn't see Kevin Durant. There is another superstar in Phoenix who's hurt, except for he plays for the Cardinals. He had a recent play to tell him he needs to grow up. It's the J.R. sport re-show here on CBS Sports Radio. Don't move. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio.

Music. J.R. wants to hear from you. Call him now at 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4227. It's the J.R. sport brief show on CBS Sports Radio. We just opened up the show talking about the rash of injuries in the NBA right now. Luca dealing with a thigh. Zion, his hamstring has bothered him, it seems like forever. Oh, he will be re-evaluated in two weeks.

Like, yo, the season's basically done two weeks from now. Lonzo Ball is contemplating a third knee surgery. He hasn't played since January. His brother, LaMelo, he crossed himself up and broke his own ankle, literally. And then you got Kevin Durant who went up for a dunk or a layup in warm-ups and he twisted his knee.

Excuse me, his ankle. And now he will be re-evaluated in two to three weeks. Kevin Durant might miss the rest of the regular season. He's played three games for the Suns and if and when he returns it might be in the playoffs. That was supposed to be his home debut. It's crazy out here. And speaking of Phoenix, in a few minutes I'm going to tell you about somebody else in Phoenix who's hurt.

He did have a knee injury. His name is Kyla Murray and we can never go an offseason without Kyla Murray being disparaged. This time it's by a former teammate. I'm going to share that with you momentarily. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Adam's here from Toronto. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. What's up, Adam?

Good morning, or evening, sorry. So about the injuries, I'm wondering if a lot of this is because of the ridiculous travel schedules that these guys are going on. I mean I've never gotten the understanding that they insist that the team immediately after a game get into a plane and fly to another city that's only an hour away.

Instead of letting them get some real sleep and then getting on a plane and flying to the city. Well, just to save us some time here, in many instances that has been corrected. That is no longer the case. Does that still happen?

Yes, but that's something that the NBA has corrected partially. Oh, okay. So, I'm on. Okay, I'm just, that's it.

I didn't know if you had anything else. Well, and also about my man Mr. Van Vliet last night, which was, yeah, I'm not in the big conspiracy about how, I mean, that this particular referee is out to get him. Well, we're going to get into Fred Van Vliet and his comments later on in the show. So stay tuned on that, Adam. I absolutely will.

Thank you. We don't have, well, unless your name is Tim Donaghy every now and then. Give it every 25 years. We're not quite there yet to have a scumbag ref just looking to get somebody. I'm sure referees, they're human beings, but I don't think they're running around trying to target people.

They're trying to make money too. Daniel is here from Toronto as well. You're on the JR Sportbreeze. Show us up, Daniel. How you doing this evening? I'm very well.

What's up? I love your take about the injuries. You know, I listen to a lot of NBA.

I'm NBA fan since around 25 years, Raptor fans since 95. But, you know, you don't hear a lot of broadcasters talk in depth about how the injuries have really affected the game, how they're so prominent, how there are so many of them, and they're so frequent. And you would think that with the advent of sports science in today's sports world, with all of the resources they have to keep these guys healthy, you wonder how this is happening. And I think sometimes maybe it's because they just, they don't really play that, I know it sounds maybe of an old head, but they don't play the same type of physical game that they used to play. And I think that like when there's contact involved, and I can't speak to obviously the broken ankle or the practice, dunk injury in the warm-up for KD, but the other injuries seem to come more frequently. Whereas if I thought there would be, I don't know how to put it, but I think that their loss of physicality actually attributes to more injuries because they're not used to it. Well, I'm going to run off a string of, I don't want to pardon the pronoun things, I'm going to run down just a string of facts here in how the NBA has changed. I hear what you're saying, I don't necessarily agree with it, but I do think we have to take into account the pace of the game, the pace and the up and down.

So there are a few things here Daniel, and thank you for calling from Toronto. If you look at an NBA game, or you look at the style of play, Daniel is 100% correct, it's not as physical. But a lot of these dudes are, maybe they're not brutes in the same way of players who played in the 90s or the 80s. These guys are going up and down the court at a breakneck pace, and this is not the first time the NBA has played a fast paced style of basketball.

But these dudes happen to be bigger, faster, stronger, more athletic, they are freaks. I think that is something to take into account, and I used this example a few weeks ago, you look at someone like Derrick Rose when he was at his peak with the Chicago Bulls. If you watch his movements, they did not look sustainable. For the course of a career, his athleticism, his burst, the power, the speed, the dexterity, the ability to move from A to B in two seconds with one move, it made no sense. Derrick Rose played like an alien, and we saw what happened, his body could not sustain it.

And I think he is the prime example of what might be the issue with a lot of these players. You see Kevin Durant, his first major injury happened to be with his foot. What a shock, a seven footer, most big guys have problems with their feet and their knees and their legs, their ankles, that Durant's first major injury years ago with OKC would be his foot.

No shock, right? A seven footer playing like a guy 6'3", and we have seen the leg injuries. We have seen the ankle injuries. I'm surprised, right? Can you look at a linebacker, defensive end playing power forward, small forward like Zion, and you look at his athleticism, can his body sustain that?

It doesn't look like it now, does it? And so if we want to look at the injuries, bigger, faster, stronger, more athletic, and yeah, you can look at sports science. It looks like folks are not built to move like this. They're not.

Hey, I can go back to the plotting days of the 90s, I can go back to more of a fast paced style in the 80s, but none of those dudes were big as these guys. Flying like these dudes. Doing the movements on a consistent basis. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a scientist.

I'm just trying to make one plus one equal two. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to take a break. We're going to get into Kyler Murray. We're going to talk about Aaron Rodgers. It seems like the Jets feel positive about him. Kyrie Irving had some pointed remarks. Of course he did. Somebody let Kyrie back on the Internet.

It's not as destructive, but it's very interesting. We got a lot to do. I'll tell you about Kyler Murray on the other side of the break. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you first off for making my drive from the south side of Atlanta to the north side every night bearable. I always enjoy listening to you, man.

Intellectual and introspective. I appreciate you. I just started to listen to you about six months ago. Man, I love your show.

Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. You know, we talked about the injury to Kevin Durant in Phoenix. Unfortunately, there are a lot of folks in Arizona who've had to deal with this injury as well, and it's to Kyler Murray. Ironically, last night we talked about DeAndre Hopkins, the possibility that he might be traded from Arizona, new GM, new head coach.

Time to move on. And we don't know when Kyler Murray is going to return from his torn ACL. You might remember he was running.

There was no one there. He went down to the ground and he was carted off of the field. Kyler Murray finishing last year, disappointing 2100 yards, 12 touchdowns, six interceptions. We know he got that gigantic contract, $230 million, $160 million guaranteed. He didn't get a full guarantee. I hope Lamar Jackson knows that. I'm sure he does.

Of course he does. And this deal is going to run Kyler Murray until when he is 31 years old. Is he going to last that long?

I'm not so sure. But he made the right selection in picking football over baseball because there's no way in hell he would have seen this amount of money, this type of money so fast if he were out there playing second base for the lowly Oakland Athletics. And so Kyler Murray is hurt. And we know and he's currently rehabbing. We know before he got the contract or when he got the contract, it was pretty much announced that Kyler Murray had a clause in his deal that basically said you have to study and commit to your playbook X amount of hours. That clause got out.

It was made public. And then the Arizona Cardinals realized that, hey, we just crapped on our own quarterback by holding him accountable. And then Kyler Murray had to come out and and try to clean it up as well. Kyler Murray had a whole press conference trying to defend himself, telling everyone at my size five ten at my my height, my weight, that I would not be able to play football at this level.

If I didn't practice. That's all good and fine to say in a press conference. But why would the Arizona Cardinals put it there?

If they didn't feel that you were committed this there hasn't been a quarterback to get that type of clause. And we know Kyler Murray. Guess what he is? Admittedly. He is a huge video game fan. So if you're Kyler Murray and it's better than, you know, going to the strip club and doing other things. But if Kyler Murray is burning stress by playing video games.

It's not wrong with that. But you can certainly look in your playbook instead. And so that was the massive criticism for Kyler Murray last year and the Arizona Cardinals. They took that clause out of his contract.

Now, fast forward to right now. Offensive lineman Kelvin Beecham. He is one of the most respected players in the game. There's not a year that goes by where Kelvin Beecham is not there and a candidate for the Walter Payton Man of the Year. I don't know Kelvin Beecham personally. There are quite a few folks that that we know in common. And I constantly hear about his charitable endeavors in the space of technology and just just of service. And so earlier today, Kelvin Beecham was on the radio in Arizona, 98.7 FM.

Shout out to my buddy who runs the joint. And Kelvin Beecham was chatting it up and he was asked about Kyler Murray. Kelvin Beecham is just about ready to move on. And this is what Kelvin had to say about his, I guess, former quarterback. Listen, there's a lot of criticism of Kyler.

What does he have to do in your opinion to be great? Grow up. Give me an example. Be a man to grow up.

Like it's not it's not complicated. You've got to be a leader of men, period. And he's not right now. He's maturing. But he's not there yet. It's not a completed process.

It's not a completed process. Be a leader of men. He's got all the tools, you think? He has all the tools, man.

If some guy can throw off one leg, he can, you know, throw it a mile. He can run fast and anybody else on the field. He just lacks the leadership. He's put together.

I didn't say lacks the leadership. I just think he needs to grow up a little bit. And I think if he has the ability and the willingness to grow up, he's gonna be just fine.

Whoa. Kyler Murray turns 26 years old in the summertime. He turns 26 in August. He doesn't lack the leadership, but he just needs to. To grow up.

I would look at the two as kind of one in the same. You know, we didn't necessarily get too many details there as to, you know, what he needs to. Does he need to show up on time? Does he need to study more? We can all draw our conclusions, but.

When there's smoke, there's fire. The team said enough last year about Kyler Murray and his commitment to study. You just heard Calvin Beecham on the offensive line say that he needs to grow up and didn't provide, you know, too many details.

Talked about his physical tools. Good luck to Kyler Murray. Maybe being away from the game and having to rehab this blown out knee is going to change his perspective. But it's rare, very rare, when you hear an offensive lineman, I don't want to say trash, but be so honest. About a former teammate and Calvin Beecham, he's not a quote unquote, you know, word stirrer.

I'm surprised he said that, but he ain't one to go out and lie and just run his mouth for no reason. Kyler Murray, let's see how he bounces back. Let's see if he has DeAndre Hopkins with him. Let's see what Gannon does as a first year head coach. Cliff Kingsbury is gone.

Time is gone. These are going to be a new Cardinals or this is a new Cardinals team. And they just gave Kyler Murray a two hundred thirty million dollar extension. I'm sorry, this is a dumb ass team. This is the same team that gave Cliff Kingsbury an extension and then fired him one year after that. None of that made sense to me. We gave, they gave Cliff Kingsbury an extension and then they gave Kyler Murray an extension and they got rid of him.

And now Kyler's hurt. It's a crap show. And you can fill in the blanks as to what type of show it is.

There's another word, a synonym for crap. Eight five five two one two four CBS. It's eight five five two one two four CBS. Matthew is calling from Toronto.

You're on the JR Sport Reef show. What's up, Matthew? Yeah. I just want to talk about Aaron Rodgers going to the Jets for Zach Wilson. I think that's a huge benefit and especially from what Aaron Rodgers learned sitting on the bench for a few years. Well, Brett Favre was doing his thing from Green Bay. You know, it can only be a positive in my opinion.

Well, there's a couple of things. So there was actually a report earlier today. Diana Rossini pretty much said the New York Jets are starting to become very confident in their chances of landing Aaron Rodgers. So it's not a done deal as of yet. We know earlier this week that the New York Jets flew out to California to go visit with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets feel good about it. You know what they sold him and what they told him.

I have no idea. But if Aaron Rodgers wants to return to the NFL, as of right now, it looks like the the Jets would be it. I don't think there would necessarily be too many financial barriers for it to happen. Otherwise, they wouldn't be out there meeting with him. Now, when it comes to Zach Wilson, the New York Jets can can feed everyone, you know, lip service about Zach and him staying or moving on from him. Is it going to be a benefit for him to to watch and learn under Aaron Rodgers? Yes. Sure.

Why not? The New York Jets ain't thinking about that immediately. That's plan number two. Plan number one is try to win right now.

And then plan two is, yes, let's have a plan for whenever Aaron Rodgers is gone. He's 39 years old. He's not pitching a tent in New York City or New Jersey for the next 10 years. He's going to be here today and gone tomorrow.

It's rather odd. New York Jets feel optimistic about it, so. I guess we should, too. I guess Jet fans should feel optimistic. New York Jets, we said it last night, I gave you a top six list of teams that need a QB. New York Jets are right there at number one. Or excuse me, I had them at number two. Had the Texans at number one.

Can't fault me too much. The Jets have been a have been a crap show. And now we all have to wait. We all have to see when exactly Aaron Rodgers makes his decision. Because he's going to keep the people waiting. Shep, how much longer do you think before this man decides to come back? Man, you know, he's going to play this as long as he can because he needs the attention at this point. And to your point, Zach Wilson, he's in enough of a headspace right now where he's not healthy and he's not thinking for himself. And he's too busy thinking about the tabloids. He really needs a guy to, you know, make that even worse for him.

Because, you know, he's not going to play if Rodgers comes. That's that's that simple. So, yeah, I think that goes without saying. Right. So in terms of when Rodgers will make a decision.

Well, I think he is, like I said, JR, he is. I have a question for you. Have you met an athlete in your lifetime that absolutely is obsessed with attention more than Aaron Rodgers? Me personally? Yeah. Obsessed with attention like him? Can't live without it.

Can't breathe without it. Well, surprisingly. I've never met. No, I've never met Aaron Rodgers. Never met him. Never been in the same room with him. And in trying to think about someone who yearns for attention. I. I can't think anybody tough, right? I mean, someone who screams and shouts like, hey, I'm going to do every show.

But then if you don't like it, don't listen. No, I. Hey, I actually do. I'm going to tell you the answer on the other side of the break.

I know who needs attention. I'll tell you on CBS Sports Radio. I'm J.R. CBS Sports Radio, and I want to introduce you to a new podcast titled Agents of Inclusion, brought to you by Special Olympics Odyssey and J.R.

Sport Reproductions. Every Wednesday, we'll be speaking with a different Special Olympics athlete to share their stories of perseverance, accomplishment and path towards inclusion. We don't want you to just listen. We want you to become an active agent of inclusion as well. Special Olympics Agents of Inclusion. Find it on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast.