It is the JR Sportbrief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody for being tuned in, for being locked in all over North America. I hope you have had a tremendous Tuesday.
I'll be hanging out with you for the next four hours. This is when the show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our producer in New York City holding things down, Ryan Botcher. You can always listen to the show on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 375. And if you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. No NBA Finals today.
No NHL Stanley Cup Finals today. Aaron Rodgers showed up to work. He had a personal surprise for everybody.
Stephon Diggs didn't want to talk about his personal life of New England Patriots minicamp. We got a bunch of guys who did not show up to work. What a shock. Some of them are Bangles.
Two of them are Bangles. They want to get paid. Hey, James Cook showed up to work.
He didn't want to lose money. And how about this? We're going to have some guests to come through and chat about it all. NFL analysts based out of Chicago.
Hub R. Kush is going to come through and join us next hour. And then later on in the show, here in the United States of America, there's a lot of finals going on, but there's a big deal with the Club World Cup coming. We're going to have a chat with someone who plays on the national team for the U.S. men's squad and also plays for a big Italian club called Juventus. His name is Weston McKinney. Weston is going to come through and join us later on in the show as well to talk about the Club World Cup.
How does it feel to be an American representing an Italian club coming back and playing stateside? We're going to talk about it. We'll have a chat about it all. You want to call me? You can do so. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. You can find me online. I exist on the internet like a lot of people, hopefully doing better things.
I am at JR Sport Brief. Ryan Botcher, how are you, man? You doing good?
I'm doing good. I'm just actually surprised at how many drama queens there are in the NFL right now with their contracts. Drama queens? Are they drama queens or they want their money? A little bit of both.
It's a part of the business. Who's being a drama queen? Name one. Just a bunch. Just a bunch. Name one.
Okay. First, TJ Watt. Terry Mclaren, TJ Watt. Well, Trey Henningsen's been asking for it for a few months, so he's not really there.
Help me out here. When I think about drama, I'm thinking about what Brandon Aiyuk did last year. I'm thinking about him going online and whining and complaining on social media and putting up videos. TJ Watt put up a single post months ago. Haven't heard from him since. Trey Henningsen put out his note and his message.
Trey Mclaren didn't show up to work. Like, this is all part of the business. What makes them drama kings or queens? Just because it's going to drag on and on and then they're eventually going to get worse and worse. If there is an issue now, there's going to be an issue later and they're going to make it a lot worse for the teams. I don't think so. All part of the business, man.
All part of it. And I think the players, they don't want to hear about this. Joe Burrow doesn't want to talk about none of these guys' contracts. But look, these guys, to a certain degree, they are not pocket watching. They want everybody in the locker room to get their money.
And when it comes to getting their money, I think they work and understand in more of a concerted way. That's his business. I want him to get paid just like I got paid or I want to get paid. Like, we've had some real drama seekers and attention seekers in the NFL. Man, we shout outs to T.O.
We had T.O. sitting in his driveway doing sit ups like that's that's some drama. I hope these guys get paid. I hope they they get their money. And there's a lot of guys who did not show up to work.
And then God bless James Cook. He went out there and he did so. We're going to we're going to get into some of the dudes who showed and no showed.
We'll do that in an hour. Let's talk about somebody who did show up today after signing his one year contract. Aaron Rodgers has shown face on a football field for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I saw he was at Cam Hayward's golf outing yesterday looking all pals and chummy with his new wide receiver, D.K.
Metcalf. And today, Aaron Rodgers threw some footballs around. Good for him. And then Aaron Rodgers spoke to the media, which is always an adventure.
And let's just say it's an exercise, to say the least. And he said quite a few things. Aaron Rodgers, never short on words, basically talked about why he still wants to play this game.
He's going to be 42 years old come December. Why are you still out here, Aaron? I don't need it.
For my ego, I don't need it to keep playing. A lot of decisions that I've made over my career and life from strictly the ego, even if they turn out well, are always unfulfilling. But the decisions made from the soul are usually pretty fulfilling. So this was a decision that was best for my soul. And I felt like being here with Coach T and the guys they got here and the opportunity here was the best for me.
And I'm excited to be here. I like that. Playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers is like chicken noodle soup to the soul of Aaron Rodgers. Good for him. Whatever makes us so happy.
Good for him. You heard him mention Mike Tomlin. These two have kind of thrown roses and flowers at each other for the past several years. And they appreciate each other. Let's see how it works. And I don't even want to say this first year.
I think it's only going to be one year. You heard Aaron Rodgers mention Mike Tomlin. Aaron Rodgers explained a little bit more as to why Pittsburgh and the Steelers are perfect fit for him.
Take a listen to this. I think it starts with Mike Tomlin. And I've been a fan of his for a long time. There's a few iconic franchises in the NFL. I played for one of them for 18 years.
This is another one of those. There's something special about obviously this area. So many great quarterbacks are from Pittsburgh. I feel like Pittsburgh has been a part of my career from the beginning. Playing for Mike McCarthy for 13 years. Having Tom Clements or Tommy Clements, depending how old you are, as my quarterback coach forever. Don Capers, Kevin Green, Darren Perry, Ben McAdoo, Frank Signetti, Luke Getze.
I don't want to forget anybody, but a lot of yinzers in my life. Look at that. He feels right at home. Yeah, he feels right at home with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He said it feels good for his soul.
And God bless him. He he bigged up a lot of folks out of Pittsburgh and started off with the quarterbacks. Did not named Terry Bradshaw by name. We all heard Terry Bradshaw a couple weeks ago. Pretty much say, why the hell are the Steelers even waiting on this guy?
He should be out somewhere chewing on tree bark somewhere. OK, we know how Terry Bradshaw feels about Aaron Rodgers. I'm sure he didn't want to vocalize how he feels about Terry Bradshaw on the first day.
And I guess kudos to Aaron Rodgers. He said, hey, I played for one iconic organization in the Packers and I'm one another. And so what does that mean for the New York Jets? Are they?
Well, we know they're not iconic. They're pretty much a dumpster fire. That's pretty much been their entire history or existence outside of Mr. Joe Namath and his Super Bowl prediction.
Aaron Rodgers says the Jets. What about him? I'm not going to say nothing nasty about him. I'm not going to I'm not going to take any shots at my previous organization.
That's what you're trying to get me to do. I'm just going to talk about these guys. I like the opportunity here.
I like to feel with the guys. I like how Mike has been in the meetings. Previous organization. Aaron Rodgers, he can't even say Jets. I'm not giving them the benefit to even hear me say their name. The previous organization.
And why not? What do you what good is he getting out of talking about the New York Jets? Nothing. That was a painful experience, both physically for this guy and I assume certainly emotionally. The guy runs out with the American flag and pops his Achilles and in play number four. Comes back last year, the New York Jets go out there and win a whopping five games.
Like where was this? Everybody got fired. He got fired. Whether he wants to call it that or not, Salah got fired, Joe Douglas got fired.
Everybody with the New York Jets got the boot. Why would he want to mention that? And then I told you about his Achilles tear. I mean, he's getting older. He ain't getting younger. Is he feeling better? Is he feeling worse?
Like this is what he had to say now that he's almost two years removed. Yeah, I mean, I'm 41, so my body feels different than it did at 25. But I feel better. I feel good last year. You know, I worked really hard.
It was a tough couple of years getting hurt and then rehabbing for a year to get back. But I feel good. He feels good.
I wonder how long these good vibes are going to last, right? His leg feels good. He's happy to be in Pittsburgh.
You got a new organization. Like everything is good for Aaron Rodgers. Leg feels good.
And how about this? He had a little bit of a surprise today. He's been photographed with a wedding ring on his finger, and I guess he found a partner that they love each other.
Good for him. He surprised everybody and said, yeah, I'm married. A lot's been made about the ring on your left ring. Is that an aura ring or anything else that wedding ring?
Yeah, it's a wedding ring. Congratulations. Thank you. How long?
It's been a couple months. Good for him. He's married now. Just a couple of weeks ago, Danica Patrick was sitting around on some show or podcast and she said that he was emotionally abusive. None of my business.
None. Good luck to Aaron Rodgers. Good luck in Pittsburgh, man. They'll win nine or 10 games. They'll go to the postseason.
They'll likely be eliminated. I'm glad that there's all these wonderful, great vibes in Pittsburgh right now, at least from Aaron Rodgers' perspective. And today is the one day where things are going to be nice. I'm sure it's somewhere down the line and I don't know if it's going to be September, I don't know if it's going to be October. He's going to be a pain in the ass.
That's it. I don't know if it's week one. The Steelers open up their season against his former team, the one that he didn't want to name, the New York Jets. Are we going to get drama after week one? Is it going to take week two? Are we going to have it in training camp?
I have no idea. But I do know this is not going to be smooth sailing in Pittsburgh with Aaron Rodgers because where, where, please show me where anything has been smooth sailing for Aaron Rodgers over the past five years. Everything is a bump and a hiccup from his time ending in Green Bay to his tenure with the New York Jets.
And what's indicative? That he's going to be any type of calm, cool, collected, easygoing. We're going to get some drama eventually.
It's just a matter of when. And somebody who's already kind of set for Aaron Rodgers, how about this? It's Miles Garrett, who I guess is all bells, whistles and daisies and flowers now that he got his 40 plus million dollars from the Browns, the team that he wrote an entire letter to saying he didn't want to be there until they paid him and they paid him.
And now he's here. He was asked about Aaron Rodgers joining the division. And if you're not familiar, Miles Garrett during Halloween, he puts tombstones of quarterbacks that he has played and sacked against. He has put tombstones on his front lawn. Kind of odd and kind of weird if you ask me, but hey, you might as well you're an NFL player. Hey, be an NFL player all the time. Miles Garrett was asked about Aaron Rodgers and he said, yeah, we can make a tombstone for him at my house.
Listen to this. What do I think about it? I think it's a good opportunity to put him in a graveyard. Oh, yeah.
Without proper context, I don't I don't know anybody who wants to be told about going into any type of a graveyard. They botched it today. Day one was good for Aaron Rodgers.
Let's just. Oh, it hasn't been bad. I wouldn't say good. Why hasn't it been good?
Because nothing special happened. He just practiced. Well, the way that that's good for him. He's 41 years old.
He blew out his Achilles. There's a whole lot of people that don't like the guy. The dammit, the legendary quarterback of the Steelers basically ripped him to shreds before he got there. We're going to have some bad Aaron Rodgers days in Pittsburgh. There's going to be some eye rolling. There's going to be some corrections or reporters. There's going to be some clarifications because of his vagueness and his inability to communicate or think about anybody besides himself.
There's going to be some bad days. All things considered, Aaron Rodgers showed up to work. He had a good day. He didn't get into a fight with a reporter.
He didn't correct anybody and cut his eyes, cut his teeth as his first introduction. And I don't know, maybe maybe you'll have to go outside and. Well, I don't know what the hell this guy eats. I was going to say, is he going to go to Permancy's in Pittsburgh?
Probably not. This is what Aaron Rodgers had to say about the city. I love the Greenfield Avenue area.
Mike told me to say that. No, I mean this is a blue collar town. You know that the history of this this great area is built to building the structure of the country. So a lot of great people here. Great fan base. You know, we played here over the years.
They even got their own song they play, you know, late in the third or in the fourth quarter. But it's a special, special place to play sports. Just great, great blue collar people and I'm excited to meet some of the fans along the way.
OK, nice. I guess what are you going to say? This place sucks. The people sucks.
The food sucks. I'm just here to play football. No, he's going to be in theory.
I certainly heard a lot of fans who are not happy that Aaron Rodgers is their quarterback because they've seen. What's happened in some of the markets that he's looking at? Well, the markets that he's left.
Well, the two markets that he's left most recently, the New York Jets and then, of course, the Green Bay Packers. Good luck. I think we all know how this one is going to end. There's only one champion at the end of the year. And given what their offense looks like, given his age and durability, you have no idea how he's going to last. It's highly unlikely this ends the way it sounded today. Welcome to Pittsburgh.
Happy to have you here. You know, we're going to win. This is what Mike Tomlin had to say earlier today about Rodgers. I mean, read his resume. We're excited about him being here. He's excited about being here, but we'll make no bold predictions.
We're just going to roll our sleeves up and go to work and let let our efforts do the talking. Yeah, look. Past performance. Isn't necessarily an indicator of what you're going to receive when a professional athlete is about to be 42 years old. You can read his resume, but that Super Bowl championship, the MVPs, I mean, damn it, even the MVPs were from four years ago. He ain't going back in time. I expect them to have a year on par with what he did last year. The Steelers are a punch you in the mouth football team. I don't think he's going to be airing it out like Ben Roethlisberger ultimately did at the end of his career. I think Aaron Rodgers is going to do what he's always done.
Be efficient, be smart. He certainly can't move the way that he used to. But man, they don't they don't have the weapons. OK, they're going to be good, but not good enough to win a damn thing. It's the JR Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I mean, even at this point in time, they're trying to figure out T.J. Watt and his contract situation. It is guys all over the league that are looking to get paid.
They want their money and they're like, hey, it's it's June and we don't have real training camp until July. So we're going to talk about some of those players next hour. Of course, we're going to have a chat with Hub Arkou.
She's going to come through and join us. NFL analyst based out of Chi Town. We'll talk about some of these no shows. Kirk Cousins showed up to work today. We know he doesn't want to be here in Atlanta. I told you about the Cincinnati Bengals.
How about this? We got an update, not a good one on Anthony Richardson. I told you we'll be joined later in the show by soccer superstar, global soccer superstar Weston McKenny. We got a lot to do. If you want to call up and be a part of the show, you can do that to 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We come back from break. I wasn't here yesterday. Unfortunately, I saw what happened in Hockeyman. They were fighting last night and I saw that ass whooping. I saw what the Thunder did to the Pacers and now Halliburton got a leg issue. We'll get into that on the other side.
A lot to do. It's the JR Sport Brief Show Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Right before we went to break to open up the show, we talked about Aaron Rogers. We heard from Aaron Rogers making niceties and exchanging pleasantries with all the wonderful people in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We're going to get into some of these other NFL players across the country. Some who showed up to work. Some who did not. A lot of people are looking for money.
Some people are looking for practice. And so there's a lot to get into. I do want to mention a couple of things that unfortunately I missed yesterday while I was gone. And while one last night was a complete ass-whooping, oh my goodness, the Panthers, they went up and beat up one of the Oilers 6-1 that first game of the Stanley Cup Finals down in Florida. A lot of fighting by the time we got into the third period. Punches are flying all over the place. And then on Sunday, yeah, this was a dud. The Oklahoma City Thunder, they bounced back to even the NBA Finals up with the Pacers 123 to 107.
Nothing major. I feel like this NBA Finals is like one big shrug. And I know it's been two games and we saw what the Pacers did in Game 1. That might be their only game.
Shea Gilgus had 34 points the other night. But then also on Sunday night, Tyrese Halliburton, he was left limping around. And so now that the NBA Finals are moving back or moving to Indianapolis for their first game tomorrow, we had media day in Indy. And so Tyrese Halliburton was asked about his leg and why he was limping and listened to his explanation. Yeah, I'm fine. Really just a lower leg thing. I'll leave it at that. I don't think there's anything more to elaborate. I feel fine and be ready to go for Game 3.
Okay. And then they said today he was just kind of moving around. I think these guys have had so many days off. Everybody is hurting.
Everybody is busted up to some degree or another. I am not worried about Tyrese Halliburton. He'll go out there and be a pain in the ass tomorrow and knock down a game winning three. Maybe, maybe not. And the world will go ahead and continue on. Let me know when somebody stops Shea Gilgus Alexander from dropping like, I don't know, another 30 plus points and we'll see what happens from there.
Shea Gilgus Alexander, he actually spoke and he was just like, yeah, it don't matter how we win, defense, offense, just get the job done. We just have to keep finding ways to get better as a group. If we continue to do that, we'll be, we'll be just fine.
But we, if we've struggled in the area, that's an area we can get better at and we have to attack that opportunity. And I think Game 3 is a perfect example of that. Yeah, even he sounds bored with the finals.
Batra's been two games. I'm already like, can we get this over with? I think it's the press conferences.
There's so many of them and it's the same questions over and over and over again. I think they don't even want to be there. Oh, well, most certainly.
But forget the press conference. I'm talking about the basketball. Like, get it over with. Like, I hope the Thunder just, as much as I won seven games, I don't think it's going to happen.
I'm kind of done. The game on Sunday wasn't interesting to me. I'm like, oh my God, this is, this is typically what a series is going to look like. And I mean, the way they had them in Game 1 as well, and then kind of choked that lead away, is that the Pacers are playing catch up in every single game. Everybody knows they're the better team.
They're the most talented team. Let's just, let's just get this one over with. Yeah, if tomorrow was not interesting, I'm 100% down to hit the fast forward button. Yeah, let's get it over with. I'm already starting to think about, well, we know what's going to happen in the draft. We started to get rumors about who's going where, and then Jason Kidd and the Knicks have interest. And now Giannis told the paper in Brazil, he said, hey, I'd like to be back in the finals with the Bucs.
That doesn't mean a whole lot of nothing. But they're saying that he's not leaving or he doesn't, he didn't ask for a trade. It's just, I need some drama soon. Let's send Kevin Durant to the Spurs or wherever the hell he's going to go.
Houston, I don't know. It's NBA finals ain't, ain't cutting it for me. Let's give Shay Gilgus Alexander the MVP award and keep it moving. At least there were no fights. I saw DeMarcus Cousins trying to fight fans in Puerto Rico. And then we saw the big old fight last night down in Sunrise, Florida, as the Panthers beat the Oilers 6-1. Man, if you can't beat them on ice, I guess if you're Edmondson, the next best thing is to go out there and just start, start swinging. They started getting real, real chippy.
And Brad Marchand, who was out there helping to turn things around, he talked about driving Edmondson crazy. Listen to this. No, I just think emotions in all of these games are extremely high. You know, and obviously this is the time of year you want to be playing and you're enjoying every minute. So, you know, it doesn't really matter what happened tonight. We both have to reset and worry about the next one now.
Yeah. Well, thank God nobody came away with a major injury. Could you imagine you sitting around here watching the Stanley cup finals and one team is beating the hell out of the other one.
And then the other way, Edmondson's response is to go out there and fight. How about you put some goals in the back of the net? Their coach Chris Knoblock talked about the fact that the other team scored six goals and they only had one. Well, definitely third periods and unraveling. Yeah, I think the game was out of hand. I don't think we would have acted or played like that had the game been a one goal or two goal game.
I think our guys were just trying to, I don't know, boys being boys. Yeah, boys being, yeah, like I'm losing. So now it's time to fight. I couldn't beat you in the actual game. I couldn't beat you in the match.
Now it's time to just fight. What else are we going to do? Nothing. Well, go out there and score some goals. That's what Connor McDavid had to say about just what the hell do you tell the team after you went through all that? Listen. Well, I mean, we got to find a way to win a game.
That's it. That's, that's the only message is, you know, the focus shifts right away to win the game on Thursday. We came for a split, didn't get it tonight. Another opportunity Thursday. Yeah, I feel more confident that we'll have more action and more excitement here in the Stanley Cup Finals than we will in the NBA Finals.
If I had to pick one, I think most people would say so as well. There's a better chance that we get to a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup than we get to a Game 7 here in the NBA Finals. As you heard from Connor McDavid, he's back in action. They are back in action on Thursday.
Tomorrow in Indianapolis, we get Game 3 of the NBA Finals. At least those guys aren't fighting. I don't think Halliburton is the fighting type. Anyway, no fighting in the NBA. Everybody gets a ban, fine suspension. Nobody needs that. It's the JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Hopefully we get two teams that show a little bit of fight over the next two days. When we come back on the other side of the break, I guess this guy is no more fighting him. He has resigned to his fate. His name is Kirk Cousins. He spoke to the media for the first time since the conclusion of the regular season and Kirk Cousins seems like he has resigned to staying in Atlanta.
Or is he not? We'll hear what he had to say on the other side of the break. We have so much more to get into.
There's some NFL players who did not show up to work. We got a lot to do. But right now, it's time for us to listen to a newsflash from Rich Ackerman.
You're listening to the JR Sportbreeze. I'm retired. I ain't doing nothing. I'm retired. I'm done. I'm cooked. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Yeah, no Aaron Rodgers. I'm done.
Cooked. At least, athletically. Athletically. I'm not doing nothing. Go exercise. Go run. I ain't fighting nobody.
I'm not putting forth any extra effort. Hey, Boncher, you said you played baseball, right? Yeah, that was like a year or two ago, though. A year or two? Oh, come on.
I'm washed. If you needed to go play now, you could still go out there, right? Yeah, it'd take a lot of stretching.
But yeah, I'd play. Yeah, it doesn't go away like that. Yeah, I'm alone. I haven't picked up a basketball. Damn. Well, I've picked one up.
One like a shoot. I haven't picked up a basketball to actually play. Yeah, maybe about a decade, man. Maybe, yeah, I'm done. I'm not exerting any additional energy that I don't need to, besides what I need to stay alive. Good luck. Congratulations. Well, I watch sports. I watch somebody else do it. I get to sit down and talk about it. You're fine by me. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Somebody that should really get used to doing a lot of sitting around is Kirk Cousins. Because last week at voluntary camp, Kirk Cousins wasn't here in Atlanta.
He's like, what am I showing up for? You might recall at the end of the season, Kirk Cousins, well, the end of last season, he sucked here in Atlanta. He was so bad, they put Michael Penix Jr. out there.
Kirk Cousins was one touchdown and nine interceptions in a five-game stretch bad, and they benched him. Grand opening, grand closing. This man got himself a big old contract. Four years, $180 million. And then before the calendar year even finished, they told him, hey, Kirk, let's just have a seat. And so he wants out of Atlanta. And you can bet that the Falcons probably don't want him either, but they were always prepared to make him a backup quarterback when they gave him this big old deal and they selected Penix at number eight overall. And so now the Falcons are having to, to quote unquote, sit in this mess for a little while longer. Because if you think about the quarterback spots in the NFL, it's like musical chairs.
It's like every chair has been, has been filled up. I mean, the only place that I could look at to go, wow, you know, are they a sure thing is it's like Minnesota. Come on. They got JJ McCarthy. We don't know how that's going to work out, but why would they, they, they trade to bring him back?
They'd have to be a disaster. It's kind of far-fetched and I understand Terry Fontenot used to work with the Saints. It's kind of far-fetched to see Kirk Cousins being moved from Atlanta to a divisional rival like the Saints.
So Kirk Cousins can waltz into Atlanta and, and beat up on the Falcons. That's just, it's tough to believe. And then there's also the element of, we haven't seen all that much of Michael Penix Jr. Not at the professional level. He's had to deal with his own injuries when he was back in college. Like there's no guarantee that he's A, going to make it through a season or B, I don't know, be better than he was last year.
And so there's a lot here. Somebody would have to get hurt on another team. Somebody would have to make a call. But for right now, Kirk Cousins did show up to work and he said all the right things because why would he rock the boat any further? It's what he had to say about Michael Penix Jr.
Listen to this courtesy of Fox 5 here in Atlanta. Michael's going to do great. He's going to have a great career. He's off to a great start.
He's got all the, all the tangibles and intangibles you need to be successful. And I'm just here to support him as he needs it. But I also don't need to be, I don't need to be in his ear so much that I'm sort of another weight, another voice.
I just want to be as support as I can. And he knows that. And obviously we're in close proximity on the field and in meetings and we have great conversations and I can learn from him just like he can learn from me. And that's how a good quarterback room always should be. Awkward. Awkward.
It's like any other job. And the Falcons knew, they knew this. That's why I always thought this was ridiculous what they did.
Awkward. They don't want to get quote unquote with their pants down from what happened when, when Matt Ryan left. And they basically ran Matt Ryan out of town by openly flirting with Deshaun Watson.
How did that work out? Deshaun Watson's up. These idiots in Cleveland are going to pay me more money. I'm not going to Atlanta. And Matt Ryan was just like, oh, you don't want me. Then I'll just, I'll just leave. I don't want to be here. And then they had no quarterback.
Okay. Marcus Mariota and the Ridders of the world. Ain't nobody want to see that. And so the Falcons basically doubled down and said, well, we went through some years with no quarterbacks after we had an MVP quarterback who took us to the Super Bowl. Let's just get two. Let's get an old veteran.
Pay him a lot of money and then let's just bring in a rookie quarterback as well. Kirk Cousins, the backup, the 27 plus million dollar backup quarterback talked about what he needs to do to stay prepared. He's talked about being resilient. Oh, how difficult.
Yeah. You know, I've always believed going back to my rookie year, what Mike Shanahan told me, which is tough times, don't last tough people do. It's not just physically tough. You know, it's mentally tough, emotionally tough. You gotta be resilient. Life's gonna, life's gonna have some curve balls and you just have to keep moving. And I think the key is that you don't, you don't pout or stop. You just keep moving, keep working forward and believe that if you do that, you know, good things will happen.
You know, good things will happen. Listen, outside of him going on a photo spree at restaurants in Cleveland, outside of trying to throw the organization under the bus by saying, oh yeah, yeah, I was hurt. Yeah, yeah, I was hurt. Yeah, we didn't tell you guys, but yeah, I was hurt.
That's why I sucked. I was hurt. Cost the team some money. Outside of all of that, Kirk Cousins has been, he's been a good soldier here. This man hasn't been belly aching and whining and crying. I mean, he hasn't been on social media. He's been, he's tried to force his way out in the nicest way possible. I'm sure that Kirk Cousins went to Kohl's and got himself some slacks and a shirt just so he can go ahead and make a video that he wants to leave. He's such a, I won't say a wholesome guy.
He's certainly not an idiot. The guy's made more money than probably anybody playing in the league right now outside Aaron Rogers. And Kirk Cousins, this is the, this is the big one. He says he wants the Falcons to win, regardless of whether he plays or not. Well, I think right now it's about, you know, the situation I'm in and being the best I can. And hopefully, you know, in February, we as an organization are holding up the Lombardi trophy and how we do that, you know, it's just more important as a team. We do that some way, somehow. So that's where the focus has to be that we, as an organization, win a championship and each one of us individually has to, you know, do our part in that to get there. We, we, for now, we, I don't think he'll make it to training camp.
Like something is going to happen somewhere. And I know at this point of the season, a lot of teams have their own contingency plans. If quarterback X goes down, then we can go ahead and do this.
He's going to get a call. And even if he makes it into the season, I'll go even further. I don't see Kirk Cousins finishing the season in Atlanta. I don't. Something will happen to somebody.
I don't know. Another 40-year-old quarterback will go down, a team that feels that they're competing, they'll lose their QB, and then they'll go ahead and call call the Falcons and be like, hey, listen, we need Kirk. And Kirk knows this. The Falcons know this. And the fans here, it's just, it's a sad story to know that you're not wanted. There's a whole Teddy Pendergrass song about this.
It's so good. Loving somebody when somebody loves you back. It's a, nobody loves him here. He don't want to be here either. Batra, you think he's going to make it through the whole season?
No, there's no way. I think it's more likely that he ends the season at home and just not playing anymore than finishing with the Falcons. Well, you, you think the man is going to quit? He's got to collect this check. He got to show up to work. Yeah, but at a certain point, why not just retire if you're not going to play?
Oh my God. Because there's a, there's a good chance knowing that these guys are flying across the field like they're lawn darts. And we see this. Quarterbacks go down all the time. I mean, we got an update on Anthony Richardson and we know the reason why they decided to bring in Daniel Jones is because he can't, he can't stay healthy. Like Anthony Richardson. Now he's, he's out for God only knows how long. We got CJ Stroud, who's dealing with his own shoulder. Throughout the course of the season, guys are going to get busted out. And so Kirk wants to play. And I think more importantly, it's, it's June.
All you have to do is show up to work and stand on the sidelines and make $27 million. I think he could hold off for another, I don't know, six months. And trust me, Michael Pennix Jr. as I mentioned is not, he's not such a sure thing. I know there are a lot of people here who are real excited about both he and Drake London and whenever Kyle Pitts comes back and he's even going to stick around on a team and be healthy for him to just deliver the ball all over the field. Pennix is an injury risk all by himself. Speaking of shoulder issues, he's another guy who's had shoulder issues.
So this is like a soap opera here in Atlanta, Georgia. Is Kirk Cousins going to stay? Is Kirk Cousins going to leave?
Who's going to trade for him? Damn it. It's June.
It's going to take a catastrophe for anybody to say, let's go ahead and bring them on. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. I give Kirk Cousins credit though. He showed up to work, spoke to the media and said all the right things. He could have went scorched earth. He could have said, yeah, I didn't want to be here.
Now everything is now about moving forward. He did not rock the boat. He could have been a jerk. I don't want to be here. I tried to trade.
I'm still hoping that they trade me. He could have said all of that. It's just not who he is.
He's like the Mr. Rogers of NFL quarterbacks, except for when he's lying and being a jerk quietly, deceptively. Anyway, he showed up to work. There's a bunch of guys who did not. Terry McLaurin wants a new deal in Washington. Did he show up to work?
No. TJ Watt, we talked about Aaron Rogers. We got TJ Watt. He wants a new contract. He's like, Miles Garrett is getting 40 what?
He's like, I'm not showing up to work here. Jalen Ramsey, John Smith, they're not at work in Miami for different reasons. One wants a contract. One is likely to be traded. And then, oh, man, we got to we'll get into the Cincinnati Bengals. They have a rookie that they drafted who is already publicly crapping on the team for not paying him like they have paid rookies in the past.
That's Shamar Stewart. And then, of course, we know Trey Hendrickson. He's like, I don't want to break the bank, but he hasn't gotten a number.
There's been no communication, apparently. I wonder how much TJ Watt getting paid is related to Trey Hendrickson and the Bengals. Just take a look at the Dallas Cowboys playbook as to how to screw things up. But when it comes down to the money, eight, eight, eight, seven, ten for ISN. That's eight, eight, eight, seven, ten for ISN. So we got a lot to get into. You know what? When we come back on the other side of the break, we'll talk about some of these players who decided not to show up to work. We'll get into some of the Miami Dolphins and their reasons why they're not at work. Hub Arkish is going to come through and join us. Hub covers all things NFL for Pro Football Weekly. We'll have that chat with him about these guys who may get paid, may not get paid.
And there's a lot to do. There's no Stanley Cup today. There's no NBA finals. But the NFL, just like seemingly it does every single day, the NFL is taking center stage about who's showing up to work in June. The season starts in September. NFL always for the attention. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'll take some attendance on the other side of the break. Then we'll have a chat with Hub Arkish. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on the Infinity Sports Network.
