Could A Salary Cap be Coming To MLB? (Hour 3)

It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America.

I don't care who you are, where you're from, what you're doing. I'm happy that you're here and this is where we will be for the next two hours. I'm in Atlanta. Super producer and host Ryan Hickey in New York. Thank you for listening on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 375, and a smart speaker if you got it. Ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. We're now less than an hour away, less than an hour away from the start of the men's national championship game in basketball, college basketball between the Florida Gators and the Houston Cougars.

Every person that we've spoken to, myself and Hickey and Rich Ackerman and also our guest, Matt Muehlbach, who played in college basketball for the Arizona Wildcats is now an analyst. We're all taking Houston. Barely. We'll see what Florida can do.

We'll see what Walter Clayton Jr. can do. We talked about that. We got into UConn beating South Carolina, the Gamecocks yesterday to win the women's national championship. We talked about Alexander Ovechkin. This man now has more goals than Wayne Gretzky.

What a world, what a world, what a world. Alexander Ovechkin, 895 goals. Wayne Gretzky, 894. And Ovechkin at 95, 895, he is still going and going and going and going.

We'll see if anybody ever catches him. So much more to get into as we continue on. Of course, when the game gets started and about 50 minutes from now, we will keep you updated on what's going on. That's about all we can do.

If we do anything else close to the game, I get the boots. So I'll keep you updated the best way that I can. Also some other cool things that have taken place over the weekend. More rumors in the NFL as it relates to the draft. We got a major league baseball player who signed himself, agreed to a new contract after he said he was not going to do so. And so, you know what, a matter of fact, let's talk about that. And then speaking of drafts, we'll talk the NFL draft. We'll talk about the NBA draft as it relates to Cooper Flag. But before that, yeah, let's talk some baseball.

Why? Because Rob Manfred had a few thoughts on the state and the status of baseball. And then we found out the Toronto Blue Jays, they got money for one of their guys inside their own organization. Hey, listen to this news that broke overnight courtesy of CBS Sports HQ.

177 doubles. By the way, a few silver sluggers and a gold glove on that resume and four appearances in that all-star game. Outside of that, it is the third most lucrative contract in MLB history.

Take a look at it. Look at all that money. Juan Soto, of course, 765 to the Mets. And then Shohei Ohtani, we all thought that was big money out in LA with the Dodgers, but there's Vlad right behind him with $500 million and staying put for 14 years with the Blue Jays.

Wow. Well, at least the Blue Jays are throwing money at somebody who's actually on their team. The Blue Jays tried to bring over Shohei Ohtani. The Blue Jays were hoping for Juan Soto. The Blue Jays hope for everybody.

And they don't get nothing. But let's also be honest. I hope this isn't just a, well, he's going to be a Blue Jay good for him. The Blue Jays are pretty average.

Like they throw this money at one guy and then all of a sudden they're just, is this really a game changer? I know Vladimir Guerrero is amazing, right? He's just, he's great. So far this season, nothing. I mean, the Blue Jays are 5 and 5. He has zero home runs and it's what it is.

It's only been 10 games. He'll get hot. He'll look good.

And so be it. And so now Vladimir Guerrero Jr., as you just heard, Juan Soto is making $765 million. The Shohei Ohtani is out here making $700 million. And then you have this man, $500 million over the next 14 years.

And you have to think about his contract. Hickey, I didn't see this. I didn't hear anything. There has to be an opt out in here somewhere, right? Has to be.

I didn't see it either. I don't know. Because if you're, I mean, if you're a Vlady, I don't, I mean, I guess maybe you can go to the table and get more money in three or four years, but it's a hefty contract that maybe you don't think you can do depending on the last two years and not exactly go great. And if you're the Blue Jays, like you just said before, this has been a team that they've not been cheap. They've been trying to sign Soto and Ohtani and have thrown money left and right. No one would take it. No one wants that money. So why give a guy a chance to basically leave them to go somewhere else, lock them in?

Yeah. And I think ultimately this is going to be a deal for 14 years. This is approximately $36 million a season. You take a look at Aaron Judge, he's making 40 a season. And apparently on this deal, as I saw, I didn't see it.

Hickey didn't see it. They are no deferrals. So none of this Shohei Ohtani make $2 million now, and basically Shohei is going to make $700 million over the next 20 years. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is going to see $36 million.

It's not bad. I'd sign up for it. $36 million every year for the next 14 years. Now that's not too shabby to know that you're guaranteed $500 million. And so he took longevity and he took length here. Keep in mind, he is 26 years old. He's going to be swinging at bat until he is 40 years old. And with no opt-outs, he's just there. And when you think about some of these salaries in Major League Baseball, $36 million for a star is good. And I think given his size, one thing that he will always have is power.

I think he'll always have his eye. And I think that will play good for him. I mean, when he's 39 or 40 years old, is he still good for, I don't know, 20, 25 home runs? An on-base percentage higher than 35? I think so.

I think you would gladly go out there and take it. He's playing first base. He's not running. Hickey, what does he do? He just hits the ball. He doesn't run. He's not going to pull a muscle like Giancarlo Stanson.

I actually think this is good for the Blue Jays. And for him, I would have at least said, hey, depending on what I do, I want the ability to opt out. And he's 26. Give him 10 years, see what the market looks like.

But hey, what do I know? Maybe seven or eight years, but he's going to be here for the long haul. He is. And I think if you're the Blue Jays, you needed to do it. Because again, with all the swings and misses, if they could not re-sign Vlady, if they lose also Bo Bichette, who's going to be a free agent after this season, and you're kind of sitting there with nothing, right? You're cooked. Bo Bichette been kind of up and down, so I don't know.

That's also true. If he wanted to, I'd rather have his dad at this point in time. I don't know if I want this guy. Yeah. Bo Bichette kind of up and down.

Damn. That's an ultimate diss right there for an athlete. Oh, I'd rather have your dad? I'd rather have your daddy on my team.

Sit back down there, young boy. Well, I mean, if I had his dad in the time machine, I mean, his dad was badass. Now, his dad could swing the bat.

I don't know if it was partially because he was playing up in Colorado some of his prime years, but I remember Dante Bichette and what he was doing in the middle of that lineup of guys like Larry Walker. So, you know, sometimes the apple doesn't always fall closest to the tree. Let's just go ahead and put it that way.

Well, Hickey, sometimes you never know. I mean, we got Cody Bellinger on the New York Yankees right now. One season this guy wins MVP. His dad was nothing but a super utility player, you know? So and let's put it Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan was arguably the greatest basketball player ever. What did his son ever do? Nothing. Nothing. Didn't even make the pros.

Didn't even get out of college. Nothing. That's true.

Dating ex-teammates wife or former teammates wives. Now, is that a win or a loss for the Jordan household? I don't know. It's a good question.

Depends, I guess, who you ask. Let's not ask a Scotty. Scotty may talk about how bad of a teammate Michael Jordan was again. He's like, he's like, this guy's son took my wife.

What am I going to say about the guy now? You know? What a, what a world that we live in.

Wild, wild stuff. Hey, congratulations, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Good deal for him. Good deal for the Blue Jays. And then also as an aside, Rob Manfred had an extensive interview with the New York Times. He said, there's nothing wrong with the torpedo bats.

Basically told everybody, uh, get over it. Nothing is going to change here. And then what we've also learned and it's separately from Rob Manfred, the collective bargaining agreement is done for major league baseball next year. The owners apparently want to implement a salary cap in major league baseball. We just saw Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Get a half billion dollar contract from the Toronto Blue Jays. That's all good and well, but there are plenty of veterans in major league baseball who are having to wait.

Basically they got to sign up for, and young guys too got to sign up and settle for $100 million deals early in their careers just to have some type of stability. Jackson Merrill, Jackson Merrill, his deal isn't more than, than 100. The Braves have been robbing guys, I feel like for the past forever. I mean, based on Acuna. Hickey, maybe Acuna knew about his knees when he signed his contract. His contract looked like one of the worst ever.

And now his knees don't work. You're right. Yeah. We thought the Braves getting the last laugh about that one. Maybe it is Acuna after all. Hopefully not.

Still a long way to go, but yeah. April 2019, Ronald Acuna, eight year, $100 million contract. Come on, man. And I'm just like, this is, this is robbery. And I don't know if it's robbery anymore. You tear both of your ACLs. You, the contract looks good right about now. And so you don't know, I don't think any way in hell, like we'd have to miss an entire year of baseball. And I don't think the owners would do that. I don't think the players would do that. The players are already feeling like they're getting the short end of the stick. And this is honestly, what's happening in a lot of sports.

Maybe football, you can throw it out the window a little bit. Now we see key position players making upwards now 60 mil a year and wide receivers are making 40 plus and defenders in that, that same range. But when you look at baseball, you can have a guy on the team making $40 million a year, and you've got a guy on the back end who's only making a couple hundred. And so there's just this wide discrepancy that I've always found crazy in baseball.

And it's not just inside your own locker room, man, you can look team to team. Like the fact that the Dodgers can operate with a baseline budget salary all in at $400 million. Now you look at a team like the Pirates who are what are they 80 mil?

Like, in what world is that that equal? And so the owners apparently want to put a cap on spending. But then I feel like Hickey, you got some teams, the Mets, the Yankees, the Phillies, obviously the Dodgers, you know that that talent will end up in other places, or maybe the Dodgers just pay the tax with the Yankees don't want to do it. But I don't think that's gonna make the Pittsburgh Pirates spend money anymore.

You know what I'm saying? And that's again, I think that's the biggest problem. Baseball is that you have too many teams not willing to spend. So if you want to put a salary cap in there, in there to save you spending $700 million, $765, $500 million on one player, well, then you also got to be spending more than $80 million on your 26 man roster for a given year. And who's gonna who's gonna enforce that?

Nobody. I mean, it's one thing to have a salary cap. Are they gonna have a salary floor? Are they gonna have something where, hey, you know, your budget has to exceed this or that?

I don't know how you can force somebody to do that. I mean, the Yankees, I'm not gonna say that they've cried poverty. The Yankees have had many issues over the years with having to do revenue sharing with teams that don't necessarily take that money, and then reinvest it into the roster. So I don't know, I have always felt as much as I love baseball, like somehow some way, the salaries have to come to a head.

I don't know, like, just let's really think about that. If the money is there, and somebody is going to spend it fine. But are we reaching a bubble? Are we are we reaching a correction place in sports and spending?

I mean, yes, we have the Amazons and the Netflixes of the world and the Googles. And they can justify some of these ridiculous contracts. But you remember, I remember when Kevin Garnett got his deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and it was an excess of like 120 something mil and you got Michael Jordan here, he was on the back end of his career, the NBA had a lockout.

It was real simple. We can't have contracts longer than six and seven years and now we don't even get that. We're not just gonna have people out here throwing around money. And so I don't know, maybe we'll have that before we got a guy making $100 million. Like, let's think about that. If Shohei Ohtani is making after or before deferral 70 mil, Hickey, do you think do you think the bubble will burst before we get a $100 million player?

I think so. In part, just because in order for the salaries to go up, the TV revenue has to go up. And right now, well, you can say that absolutely will be the case for football and the NBA. I can't sit here and say that's gonna be the case for baseball. I mean, we just saw ESPN opt out of their deal they had with baseball because they thought they were overspending versus what they're getting. So if the TV revenue is not coming in the way it's coming in for football and basketball, I don't know how anyone's gonna be able to pay a player in what, 10 years from now, maybe?

Yeah. And then you also have to think we're, this sounds crazy, but we're still in the infancy of the streaming era, right? Like major league baseball and basketball teams and local teams, they're still trying to figure out what their business model looks like for broadcasting games with Diamond Sports Group or Fox Sports or Valley Sports or FanDuce, whatever the hell they're calling it today. Like they're still trying to figure out their local sports rights.

And so that's an excellent point by you. And I'll piggyback and just say, what happens when everybody just says, okay, I'm with Amazon, I'm with Apple, I'm with, what's another, Netflix or something like that. What happens when the dust settles there?

And then we move on to, okay, now we know it's streaming. Ain't no big money getting thrown around. This is the dust settles and everybody has kind of laid their claim. I don't know. I could see a Netflix and Amazon just like everything else. I don't want to say suppressing the market, but going, hey, look, we paid a lot of money to get involved.

What do you think? We're just going to continue to up that. And at what point, if you are the NBA, the NHL and major league baseball, at what point do you just go, oh crap, we're beholden to what they're paying us. So Hickey, if we get a $100 million player, it might just be a quarterback, man. I'm going to say it might be a quarterback first. And I think we're a long way away from that.

I don't know. Are we going to get that on the NBA court first? Baseball is tricky, as you said.

Their revenue and all of that is a little funky there. You think we'll see that in the NFL, the NBA, or not at all? No time soon. I mean, I think it's, I would agree with quarterback.

I think if there was a position, I think it would be QB. And look, they keep on going up. You see on average, Dak getting $60 million a year. Like we're now closer to 100 than zero. How many years did it, it took Dak, was it four years? Five years? It took him five years to jump from 40 mil to 60. That was four years. That's 20 mil. And so dare I think in another five years, we're going to have a quarterback making 80 mil? I mean, look at Jayden Daniels, right?

He's kind of in that pocket right now if he continues to develop the way he did his rookie year. Wow. Wow. Either that or the world, let's say the television and media world goes to hell and that money's not there. I don't know.

That is something I've thought about for the past couple of years, Hickey. I'm like, who in America, it's one thing to be Saudi, you know, be in Saudi Arabia and just be like, hey, we'll give Canelo, here's a hundred million dollars. You know, it's one thing to do that. It's another thing for team sports in the United States of America, given its structure and distribution, just to say, yeah, we're going to give Wen Binyama $100 million a year. And at that point, the team owners don't want to give these guys that much money?

Come on now. So yeah, we'll see what happens. There is certainly a threat that Major League Baseball unfortunately suffers some type of lockout after next season lockout strike. There has to be some type of monetary correction or things are just going to continue to go through the roof.

And even if they do that, there eventually has to be a correction. This is just nuts. The money is being made, the money is being thrown out there. And we saw the Golden State Warriors, what the NBA did, what they did with the influx of money and the Warriors have still stood to benefit it from that.

I mean, now they got the arena, they own the arena. This just, the business of sports is interesting if you ever take a look. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We are now 30 minutes away from tip-off between the Florida Gators and the Houston Cougars, the men's national college championship game on the basketball side. We'll keep you updated when that game gets started. When we come back on the other side, I want to talk about someone who's not playing.

His name is Cooper Flagg. Yeah, he might be done in college. It's not official, but we're going to see this man balling out in a few months.

Just a matter of for who. You're locked into the JR Sport Reshow, the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It is the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I need you to thank O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.

Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. About 25 minutes away from tip-off between Florida, the Gators and Houston, the Cougars. We wait, we wait, we wait. Now, if you want to see Cooper Flagg again, obviously it is not going to be tonight after that meltdown on Saturday night. If you want to see Cooper Flagg again, you have to wait until the fall. And the announcement hasn't been made by Cooper Flagg, but you would assume that he would be going to the NBA. I mean, yeah, he can stick around and Duke and make more money and go for another national championship.

But when you are the cream of the crop, don't you want to challenge yourself at the next level? I mean, this is the same Cooper Flagg who just this past summer was working out against LeBron James. This guy was working out against Steph Curry. He was working out against Kevin Durant. This freshman, this college freshman who technically is supposed to be a senior in high school is already kind of applied his trade against grown men, all stars, hall of famers in the NBA. Cooper Flagg sticking around another year. What's the point of advancing?

What's the point of graduating from high school early to play basketball as a freshman in college just to go back? And so I will assume he's on his way to the NBA. Is he going to play for the miserable Wizards? Is God going to punish us all? Is he going to be connected with Victor Wen Binyama in San Antonio?

I don't know. I hope he doesn't end up on some sucker team that's just going to stink the joint up forever. Or maybe, maybe, and he appears to be, maybe he can be the type of guy who can change the culture of a franchise and of an organization. Cooper Flagg is done here at Duke.

And I know they had the meltdown and I know they stunk. Cooper Flagg had 27 points. It ain't this guy's fault. Like in college basketball, it's never one young guy's fault. Duke has like six dudes that are going into the NBA.

Okay. It's not Cooper Flagg's fault that they fell apart and couldn't score at the end of a game. I mean, if we think about some of the past few seasons of Duke, forget seasons. If we start thinking about some of the stars that Duke has had on the basketball court, a lot of these guys haven't even, even met the expectations of a Cooper Flagg. Zion Williamson was player of the year. He was the first pick in the draft in 2019. He didn't make it out of the elite eight. A matter of fact, against Michigan state in the elite eight Duke lost. Zion had 24 points, 14 rebounds, three steals, and three blocks in that game.

That's a freak. The man had two points in the final six minutes. He was still selected number one overall. Now in his case, he was, he was sent to the worst possible city and I'm not calling New Orleans the worst possible city.

It's the worst possible city for Zion because they sent that man to the food capital of America. It didn't stop him being selected first though. Think about Apollo Bencaro. This man went to the final four. He had 20 points, 10 rebounds in the final four against North Carolina and Duke lost. He was selected number one overall. Cade Cunningham, no, he didn't go to Duke. This man played for Oklahoma state.

They lost in the second round of the tournament. He went number one to Detroit. Anthony Edwards, a local product here in Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia went to Georgia in Athens for the Bulldogs. This man put up 20 points and five rebounds for Tom cream. You want to know what Georgia did in the tournament?

Nothing because they didn't even go. Anthony Edwards still selected number one overall. Cooper flag has been talked about in the same space, if not a bigger space than every person I just mentioned outside of Zion Williamson, Cooper flag is dangerous and it doesn't matter what happened at Duke. This man, this young man, he's going to be selected number one overall and he is going to put his mark on the league.

I think we all know that. Cooper flag at the conclusion of his season said, damn it, it's only been a few months. It was amazing. It was an incredible season, incredible people, incredible relationships that I'm going to have for the rest of my life. Didn't end the way we wanted it to, but still an incredible year. Oh man, that's what he said.

Hickey, imagine that. Just how much time? Think of, he's done all things considered.

It's not official. He ends up there in, let's say August, right? August, September, October, November, December, January, February. Hickey, that's eight months of his life. Like this was the quickest transition period ever. Like this was his college experience, a shotgun into the NBA. Definitely different than most people's college experience. That's like, yeah. I mean, four years, like every, like even in breaks, even when you're on break in college, in between semesters, it still feels like you're in college. Oh yeah.

It's a good time. So people always say it's the best four years of your life for the most part. Not too bad to get drafted into the NBA though, right?

And get millions of dollars. I would also say not too bad. And then he'll have, how long, especially being on an ass team early in his career? I would say four years. An ass team early in his career. He's going to have what, five, six months off.

He won't know what to do with himself besides get better, right? That's true. That's the benefit of the season ending around this time every year.

Now let's think about that. You play for a bad team. You get April, May, June, July. You get sick of these guys work for six months a year on the road. The other six months, they do what they want. Not bad.

Not bad. Six months, the bums, the bums. No wonder LaMelo and, and what's the other fat one's name?

No wonder these guys are just, no, no, they're just like, I only got to work six months out the year and I get to make how much money? And then the other, what is, what is LaMelo doing besides playing basketball and riding cars? What is he doing? Does he play video games? I don't know. Does Zion play games? I guess he does, right? I don't know. I haven't seen him on a live stream, which I guess is good.

Cause usually when you do it's for comments, I'm not very good. So I guess that's a benefit. What, Zion getting tattoos and showing off? Well, if we are to use, this is all public knowledge for Zion Williamson, he has spent his off seasons with porn stars, getting tattoos and eating food. Okay.

Talked to a lot of people. That's what heaven on earth sounds like. You're dressed that up to be a bad thing. I don't know. Well, I mean, he went through some stuff with that lady, man. I don't, I don't know if you want to wish that on your worst enemy. I don't know about that one though.

Okay. That, that one was, that was a few, that was a rough few months. She was dragging that guy.

She was dragged. That's the type of stuff where your mother looks at you in the face. You just got to go, what do that's the stuff that that Tiger Woods apologized for that next to his mother.

What do we do? Oh my God. That's what happens when you have too much money and too much downtime.

That's it. You end up like Tiger Woods or Zion. I hate to use them as an example because I like him. He's a very nice guy. When I see him, like John Jones, think about this guy. It's one of the best fighters ever. He just beat up everybody. His only loss is like a disqualification. He beats everybody. But the thing about these fighters is like you fight in what, twice a year, maybe three times. And if you're good, you're only fighting once a year, maybe.

And then you, the rest of the time, you just sit around with money. John Jones has been popped for drugs. I think he hit a lady with his car.

It's just, it's bad. Like, Nicky, when's the last time, what's this knucklehead's name? When's the last time McGregor fought? Like four years from, they broke his leg. That's the last time we saw him. And at least right now, knock on wood, thank for the last few years, he's actually been out of trouble, but you're right. He went to a lot of trouble.

He just, he just, then he just get, he just had to pay money for an alleged rape, right? I missed that. I mean, how recent have we been talking here?

Like a couple of months ago. Well, fine. Yes, you're right. But that was also something that happened years ago. Like, and this in terms of new incidents. Well, we have to talk about which ones. Oh my God.

That's also true. Remember that there was, this is, this is terrible. I was going to say there was that time in Miami. Remember that one?

He was, remember he was at the Miami Heat game and some lady said he allegedly did something to her at the game. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I don't think anything came of that one, but there was the one from November.

Conor McGregor must pay $250,000 to a woman who says he raped her. I don't, you know, it's just, it's Nicky, too much time on your hands. Okay. You're right. Too much time and a lot of money. You're right.

A lot of bad things can happen. Yeah. Anyway, I hope Zion is on a diet this year. Okay. Hope he's on a diet.

I hope Lamello does something. I don't know. Hey, good luck to, uh, picky. What's his name?

This kid's name again, Cooper flag. We talk about things that you don't want to happen. So you just stay clear away from those three guys that I just mentioned. Okay.

Just do the opposite or whatever they do. And I think Cooper flag will be perfectly fine. Good luck to him on whatever bum team drafts him. It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side, there's some other guys who are about to be drafted and not into the NBA, but the NFL, of course, new rumors about your door Sanders, new rumors about Travis Hunter.

We'll get into it on the other side. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport re-show here on the infinity sports network.

I need you to think O'Reilly auto parts for all of your car care needs to get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly auto parts. It's the JR sport re-show on the infinity sports network. The national Anthem has been sung. Hickey. It was just a, it was a service member. God bless him. That's right.

Very nice. No Beyonce, no celebrity. I guess at this point it's, that's the safest option. You, you bring in someone who served the country to sing the national Anthem.

You can't go wrong on that end. Ever, ever, ever. The real heroes of this country. The real heroes. Yeah. That, that was a commercial too, by the way. Remember that? Remember those commercials? No.

No, no, no. It was not a real American. It was real men of genius. Remember that? Yeah. That's classic commercial. Real men of genius.

Thank you very much, Mr. Automobile driver. Yeah. Those were good. Now was that a commercial for beer?

Yes. And I was about to ask you, I don't remember the beer. It was a Miller. Those Bud light.

I don't think that's the type of thing. Just bring it back, run it back every 20 years. And I think everybody would love it. Real men of genius. Those commercials were hilarious. They were good.

Even, you know what, even the dose Echos most interesting man in the world commercials more recently were kind of similar, right? I mean, they killed them off. I don't know why. So here we go.

Hickey. That was for Bud light beer. Oh, good for Bud light. They may want to bring those commercials back because I agree. They've had some trouble over the past couple of years. Them and the Clydesdales.

No one's ever getting mad at Clydesdale. Never. Wow. And so apparently the first ever real men of genius commercial. Wow.

Was in 1998. You said it before about Disney, how basically all they do is just remakes now and there's no originality. Yeah. Why can't we just do that with commercials? I don't know. Because there's not many funny ones now in general, you can always reminisce about how good some of the older ones were.

So if the creativity right now stinks, why not just run back some of the older ones with maybe a little bit of a modern touch? Can I, can I steal this? Is it possible for me to steal this? I don't know what I'm gonna do with it, but can I steal it? Sure. I don't know anyone right now that would say no. They're not using it.

What's the point of hiding it? Here we go. 1998.

The first real men of genius. The first radio commercial came out 1998. Oh, okay. When did we get to a TV version? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

In 2003, they put 20 of these ads on a CD. Okay. In 2006, Anahaja Bush sponsored a comedy tour called Real Men of Comedy. Joe Rogan and Charlie Murphy were a part of that tour. Wow. I didn't, I don't remember Joe Rogan doing comedy.

Do you remember that? I do not. I don't either. Okay. In 2019, Anahaja Bush resurrected a new version of the campaign called Internet Heroes of, see that's when you're doing too much.

Okay. Internet Heroes of Genius. Yeah, that's, that's stupid. Let's leave it to real men of genius. And yeah, those commercials were great.

Figure out a way to steal that concept and make it my own. As we are now minutes, seconds away from tip-off. Hickey, this is the old Okidoke. Kelvin Sampson is, that was a long, did you see that hug? They were talking there for way longer.

It's about what, 15 seconds? Yeah, Kelvin Sampson was giving him the yeah, yeah, yeah, good luck, good luck, good luck, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, uh-huh, uh-huh, I'm gonna carve you up. That's what he was telling him.

That's what old guys do, Hickey. You ever had an old man put his arm on your shoulder and talk to you? Yes. And that's, I feel like it's like a subtle way to talk crap. Or to talk down like, listen, young buck, I'm still in charge here.

Yeah, yeah. And them old guys, them old guys get old and their hands get heavy and thick and they put, they put them, the hand on the shoulder feels like a bear paw. Why is it that like the higher up on the arm you go, like the more alpha it feels?

You ever noticed that? Like, you know, sometimes you go in for the handshake, you give the handshake, then the other arm kind of goes to the forearm, then it kind of went up to the tricep. Oh. And then like a picture like that, when you put the hand on the shoulder, like in this case, like the older guy doing it with the young guy. I'm thugging you.

Yeah, yeah, I'm thugging you right now. It's like, damn. That is, it's a power, it's a power thing. It is.

It is. Like I'm going to shake your hand. Either that, I'm going to shake your hand and I'm going to put my other hand over your hand while I shake it.

There's that, yeah, there's that one. And then there's the, like you said, grab you by the forearm. What are you grabbing my forearm for?

And then grab you by the bicep and then grab you by the shoulder. It's, it's an exertion of power. It is. It is. I don't know.

Maybe when you get old, you got to prove it to somebody. I don't know. I guess so. Neither one of us are, are there yet. So I don't know.

Yeah, yet is the key word. Playing on it someday. I don't, yeah, but I don't want to be thugging no young guy, letting them know I'm in charge. No.

I don't know. If you ever get to Kelvin Sampson's age, maybe you'll feel the need to. That's what he was doing, right? He was, they got to a point where it's just like, who's going to get the last pat on the back to exert dominance. You know, like I'll pat you in the back last. No, I'll pat you on the back last.

No, I'm the old man. I'm going to turn around and pat you on the back while I walk away. Yeah, it's just a lot of funny business here. As I was about to say, they haven't even tipped off yet. And they're about two minutes late. Here we have it.

This is nice. They announced the officials. I don't know. Do you know an official in college basketball? I used to know Gene Starator.

That's it. But he's also been out of the game now for like five years, although he's now on our screens more than ever. So, but no, I could not right now name you another official. I don't think I could name an NBA ref. I don't think an NFL, I only know NFL refs because I only know a hockey league because he has a kid. And Joey Crawford retired. Joey, yeah, because he gave everybody a tech. I don't, you know another NBA ref?

I don't know none. There is the black guy with the mustache. Oh yeah, who puts on a show? Yeah, he does the funny announcements when he needs to give a technical foul. He's the most noteworthy ref, a flagrant foul. I know him, Ed Hockley's kid. Is it Sean? Sean Hockley? Sean Hockley. And I feel like Sean Hockley just popped up like a year after his dad retired. It's just like, here's another one.

Like, where the hell did this guy come from? Maybe, did they ref at the same time? I don't think so.

I feel like that would have been a story. I don't think so. Right, right. Yeah. And I think he's been gone for a decent amount of time. Gone from officiating. Five years? I think it's longer than that.

Get out of here. I gotta look it up. I feel like he's been gone, I was gonna say close to a decade. That dude was jacked to the gills. He was, probably still is. Like, what do you do?

I'm a referee. Well, how, he's 74 years old, damn. In 2019. He retired in March of 2018? He finished in 2018. His son started in 2019.

How about that? So you were right? His son was in the Arena Football League. Wow, that's a hell of a story.

Gotta start somewhere, right? It's the JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. We got the first basket, the men's championship. We're gonna give you an update on the game as it continues on. We're gonna talk some NFL and more. It's the JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network.