It is the J R Sport Brief. But JR has got a not Brief, lengthy weekend. Enjoy, big guy. Jody McDonald filling in for JR tonight, right here on the JR Sport Brief Show, which means I get to hang with you for four hours. On a night where we've got a lot of baseball to keep an eye on.
A day of camp work around the National Football League. I haven't thrown any NBA stuff at you for the last couple of shows I did. Last weekend was none. And filling in yesterday for Bill Ryder, I might have gotten something because it's Ryder's show and you know what a hoop head he is. I might have thrown something NBA in.
But we will do a little bit more. NBA tonight and a big race. Those of you who are fans of mine from the weekend, Saturdays and Sundays. Oh, by the way, just because I'm on Friday night doesn't mean I'm not going to be on Saturday and Sunday. You got me all weekend, the long weekend.
Big race tomorrow at Saratoga. Three-year-olds are back. Travers. Probably If you don't count the Breeders' Cup Classic, which is not a specific three-year-old race, oh, it'll have a bunch of three-year-olds in it this year, that's sure for sure. But just specifically three-year-old races It's the fourth biggest one of the year.
I know there are a bunch of preps prior to the Triple Crown races, but the Travers in Saratoga after the fact, they call it the Midsummer Classic for a reason. It is a big-time Derby three-year-old race. And I'll give you some insight to that.
So we got plenty to cover. I got not one, not two, but three good guests who will join us over the next three hours. I need you to join me too. If you're a big JR fan, listen this time of day on the Infinity Sports Network. I thank you.
I'm sure JR thanks you as well. We all at the Infinity Sports Network thank you for being loyal. If you don't know of my work on the weekends, maybe your area doesn't carry the Infinity Sports Network on a weekend. Who knows why? But yours, Julie, is on every Saturday and Sunday later than this time on Saturday, four hours later than as of right now.
Sunday is the same shift, 6 to 10 Eastern, 3 to 7 Pacific time.
So you do catch me on the weekends. If you do, if you are familiar with the show, then you know I like to talk to you guys. I started doing Sports Talk Radio thirty seven plus years ago. Actually now past thirty eight because we're past July first. That's my anniversary.
So yeah, thirty eight years I've been doing Sports Talk Radio. And I remember one of the first program directors I ever had told me that what they wanted to do was have a show With you being the host, talking to a buddy sitting next to you at the bar on a Friday night or Saturday night, debating the world of sports, trash talking about the world of sports. I don't know that we used the word trash talking in 1987 when I started, but that's what it was supposed to be. Guys sitting around shooting the breeze, shooting a bull about the world of sports. And I've been doing it ever since.
Uh that I need someone to spar with, to deal with, to shoot the breeze with, to chop it up with. That would be you. You guys, you diehard sports fans, at least on the weekend. I've got some really good regular callers. I'm always looking for first-time callers, and I should be able to get one or two here tonight on JR's show because you usually listen to someone else at this time.
You're not used to Mac Man being here.
So, if you've never called me before, this is an official invite. I open up my phone lines as soon as I get on the air. 888-710-4476 And you can take us where you want. We've got Ryan B. back at the studio.
He'll be fielding your calls. If you make a Sports point, sports question, sports take. Describe it how you want. You want to go off on a rant, that's fine. He'll tell you whether you're meritorious of being on the air.
I'm a very easy grader. Ryan might be a little tougher than me, but I've already indicated to him: let's see if we can get some newbies up tonight. People who have never called. Yours truly here on the Infinity Sports Network.
So I do a lot of phone call taking. Like I said, got three good guests: one hoops, one baseball, one football. Got a roll them by you as the show proceeds. But a lot of the show is just you and I going back and forth on what's going down in the world of sports. I give you a quick.
Synopsis of the things that I think are important, and I give you a little bit more depth on each and every single one. The magic number tonight is six. Why would it be six? because we are six days away from the MLB pl Trade deadline. Actually, now it's five and change because the trade deadline is at 6 p.m.
Eastern, and we just moved past that five minutes ago.
So we are basically six days away from the trade deadline. There were a couple trades made today. I'll run them down for you in a second. Glad to see there were a couple of uh trades made. I mentioned this on an Fill-in sports brief, Infinity Odyssey sports brief I did earlier this week.
It was, I think it ran yesterday.
So it was about there being a week left to the trade deadline. And up until today, There wasn't a whole hell of a lot that was being done as far as trades go. You had the big Rafael Devers to San Francisco trade, but that was now more than a month ago. and activity had been quite slow. did trickle out today.
Start to trickle out.
Well, last night it started as a matter of fact. And I'll give you the details on a couple of deals that have been made. And on my sports minute, I suggested Maybe we'll get lucky. and there will be a domino effect. One trade begets another, begets another, leads to another.
Teams competing. with teams in their own division, they make a trade.
Now it ups the pressure on you to make a trade. We did get one last night. We got two response trades today.
So maybe, maybe, just maybe. And y for those of you who don't know me, Like I said, you know, I've been doing sports talk for 30-plus years. Prior to that, I was going to major league baseball stadiums for many years because my father started with the New York Mets in 1962.
So did I. I started in life in 1962.
So, yeah, I've been a baseball fan my entire life. My father rose to the level of general manager of the New York Mets, went to the St. Louis Cardinals, became their general manager, and won a World Series with his buddy Whitey Herzog, and then had one year as the general manager of the Detroit Tigers.
So he had three different teams. He was GM in the major leagues.
So wanting to see trades, analyzing trades, picking apart trades. is like one of my favorite things to do. in life. and has been for a very long period of time.
So I'm hoping that there's another trade or two tonight. They usually die down. Most trades are made during the day.
Some are made At night, you never, it takes two to tango. You want to get a deal done, you call General Manage, he's not available. You want to talk to somebody on the West Coast. Your game's gotten underway, theirs having. A lot of times, well, I won't say a lot of times, but often enough, you'll get a deal that'll come down while games are being played.
Now the key aspect of that is, and there'll be plenty of speculation tonight if you're watching your local team, you're watching all the the games jumping around, if someone is out of the lineup A usual starter for a team is without explanation, not in the starting lineup tonight. At least if your announcers are any good, they'll play along, they'll speculate. It's probably less likely to happen now than it was many years ago because. Announcers are hired by, paid by, teams specific and work on the broadcast outlets that they have, but they're not going to give you any. Details Okay.
Really on-point speculation, which may get them in trouble with their employers, aka the teams that they work for. But. You can draw your own conclusions. Hey, why isn't our usual left fielder starting in left field?
Well, could it be because they've already been traded, but the trade hasn't been announced yet? That's always a possibility. Guys get pulled in the middle of games. Guys get pulled because they're working on a deal and it could come to fruition. And then if it doesn't get done by a certain time, they maybe use the pinch hitter.
Oh, we're going to watch all of that tonight. That's a fun thing about when you get this close to the trade deadline. You not only have to see what your teams need, see who's available, see who are buyers, see who are sellers. but watch the actual machinations. Who is pulled from a game, who comes out of a game, what kind of a deal could be potentially happening.
All fun stuff that we can kind of keep an eye on tonight while we're doing the show. And the trades that have already been made. Like I said, one came down last night, Josh Naylor. A first baseman who this year was on the Arizona Diamondbacks. Year before, he had been a major player for the Cleveland Indians.
They decided to move on from Naylor, and Naylor went to Arizona, who needed a new first baseman when Walker left them.
So it was a little flopping of first basemen around baseball during the offseason.
Well, now in season, Josh Naylor is relocated after a good solid year from Arizona, a great year the year before. He goes from Arizona to A team that really needed an offensive upgrade, the Seattle Mariners. He'll take over as their everyday first baseman. The guys they've been using at first have some. Positional flexibility, so they'll move them around a little bit.
But Nail is going to bat right in the middle of that lineup. He's a decent fielding first baseman. Hit with more power last year with Cleveland. He's got only 11 home runs this year. 59 RBIs is not too shabby for 11 home runs, and his OPS is in the 800s.
That's a good sign. That's why they were willing to give up two profits. Pretty good. prospect pitchers.
Now Have I seen either of the kids, uh, Braden Garcia or Ashton Izzy, who were dealt in that deal? No, I have not.
So I'm only going by what someone else projects is the level of talent of a player uh that they uh Ranked prospects, be it MLB Pipeline or Baseball America, where the prospects rank. That's what we have to judge by. If you are such a die-hard minor league fan that you can actually give me a your own hands-on, watch-to-myself scouting report on Braden Garcia, oh, I'd love to get it. But most of these names going to throw around tonight are ones that I don't recognize all that much, which means I don't think you'll be recognizing it all that much. But good for the Mariners.
They got a piece that they needed.
Now, they're still going to be in the mix for things. They need an upgrade at third base. They need both of their corners of their infields upgraded. Supposedly, they're still talking to the Arizona Diamondbacks about Eugenio Suarez, who is going to be one of the most sought-after players here at the trade deadline, is absolutely a major acquisition piece if he's dealt.
Well, if they're going to trade Josh, Nell, or that means they're going to trade Suarez. They're just going to play one team against the other for as long as they can to run the offer up and up and up and up and up. And we'll see if they can do it.
So that was the trade last night. Today, the New York Yankees acquired Ryan McMahon from the Colorado Rockies. There was no doubt that Rockies were a seller. Yankees have been looking to get their hands on a third baseman so they can move their current third baseman, Jazz Chisholm, over to second base, his more natural position. Ryan McMahon comes in, not hitting for a high average, but hitting for power in Colorado.
High draft pick came to the majors as a shortstop, has moved to third base. Is absolutely an upgrade for the Yankees. Again, giving up young pitching. If you know anything about Griffin Herring or Josh Gross, oh, I'll take your scouting report. I know they're middling-ranked prospects for the Yankees that are headed to Colorado in the deal.
And the Mets made. A deal. It's funny because every team that made a deal gave up two minor league pitching prospects, including the Mets. They're not as highly ranked because the only pitcher they got back a return was Gregory Soto, who A couple of years ago was the closer for the Detroit Times. Tigers.
The Phillies acquired him. He was part of their bullpen closer by rotation in 2023. 24 wasn't near as good. Got traded to the Orioles. Spent the first four months of this season in Baltimore.
He's never gotten to the high heights that he had in Detroit. But the Mets desperately needed a left-handed arm in the bullpen, so that's where Soto's going to fit in. Not going to have to worry about getting saved. You've got Edwin Diaz, one of the best in baseball.
So, wherever the necessity is, that's where they're going to plug Soso in.
So, we saw the Mariners make a deal, the Yankees make a deal, the Mets make a deal. Will there be any more deals tonight? We'll talk about it plenty. I got open phones in hour number one. When I set up my shows, four-hour shows, I almost always get guests for three of the four hours.
Hour number one, I always leave open. Even though you and I did speak yesterday, and that's a very familiar we, meaning everybody out there in the listening world, I was on yesterday. I got a couple of calls when I was filling in for Bill. Kind of like J.R.'s show. Bill doesn't take a ton of calls in his morning show.
J.R. doesn't get a ton of calls for his night show. I'm bucking a trend because I always like taking calls and talking to you guys when I get the chance. I surely do it on the weekends, and I try and bring it with me when I get on to a fill-in during the week shift.
So I've got open phones starting right here, right now. Check in with producer Ryan at 888-710-4476. If I'm not taking calls, I'm hopefully reading tweets.
Some people just don't call as much as they used to in life.
So maybe they won't call the Sports Talk radio station as often as they used to either. If you just want to go the easy route and send me a tweet, you can do that. That's how I use social media. I'm on X. I'm on Twitter at Jodi McMahon, J-O-D-Y-M-A-C-M-A-N.
If I get good tweets, I will absolutely read them on the air. I'll give you your responses on the air if you make a good enough point, as you said. send it to me on Twitter. But unless you're paying the extra to get more than 240 characters, chances are you're only going to be able to get one, maybe two points in to a tweet. If you get on the phones, We can go deep.
We can talk about Justin Fields. And he went from, oh my god, the Jets season is ruined because he was carted off the field yesterday at Jets practice. To his back out running again today. Didn't really take place in drills, but certainly going to be ready for the first game of the season. Damn, he was out on the field with his team in uniform with his teammates today.
So, the panic that maybe someone like, oh, I don't know, me showed yesterday, worrying about the Jet quarterback being injured as early as he did, still suffering from a little Rogers shock from a couple of years ago. And just being a Jet friend in general, you got Murphy's rule: anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Not just yet. Justin Fields should be okay. My Jets should be okay.
You tell me about your team. Mostly baseball, football. Got an NBA guest joining. Should I give you the details on that coming up in just a couple? You can go anywhere you want.
Get on the telephone lines, baseball trades, the NFL camps opening up all over the place to have a good baseball, good football, and a hoop guest to join. 888-710-4476. Jordan Mac for the JR Sport Brief here on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. Jody Mackin for JR tonight on this Friday night hang on the Infinity Sports Network.
I got you for another three hours and change. Oh, man, the show just underway. A lot of time for you and I to kick it back and forth on my phone lines: 888-710-4476. I will punch up three good guests: one hoops, one football, one baseball. All three sports, major topics of conversations for me.
We've got one afternoon baseball game that's moved to the bottom of the seventh. The Red Hot and Milwaukee Brewers are on the short end of the score today. It was 1-1 in the fifth. I just checked in, and it's 5-1 Miami in the bottom of the seventh. Milwaukee's going to have to rally.
They're a game ahead of the Cubs. Cubs are in Chicago tonight against their crosstown mates, the White Sox. If the Cubs can win, we can have a tie. That division is going to be great. Mark my words: neither one of these teams is going to go off and grab a five-game lead.
There will not be another five-game lead in National Central this year. Milwaukee and Chicago will counterpunch each other right until the last week of September. Write it down. But speaking of Milwaukee, I did want to make this point because I ran down the three trades that we had starting last night, two more today, both a Met and a Yankee trade today. And ironically, all three of the deals that were made, the team that was acquiring the player who's going to step in and hopefully help them on the major league level right now.
We're able to get the deal done by giving up two minor league arms. And I'd love to be able to tell you how great the arms that have gone back and forth in these three trades have been. Yeah, I don't know. I I follow minor league baseball minimally, so I'm not the guy who's going to go and, Oh my God, what a steal by the Yankees. What the hell were the Mets thinking giving up to his two pitchers?
No, I don't know the pitchers well enough. And I'll give you a prime example of sometimes you don't even know what's going down. Milwaukee made a trade last year that surprised some people. They gave up Devin Williams who was one of the best relievers in the National League the previous season. The Yankees were willing to give up a good starting pitcher plus to be able to get their hands on Devin Williams.
And Williams has been kind of an up-and-down closer for him. Got off to a really poor start this year. Struggled badly. Has certainly picked it up, is better, is still their closer. They've been living with him as their closer all year long, and they're going to take him all the way to the wire.
But to acquire a. Highly rated believer like Devin Williams, not free agency via trade. They had to give up Nestor Cortez, who had been a key contributor in their starting rotation the last several years, including the team that went to the World Series last year. And Cortez was the big guy in the deal. Milwaukee was trading a reliever for a starting pitcher.
But they got a throw in player. And maybe it was a little bit more than the throw in, but he certainly wasn't the headliner of the deal. Yankees gave up minor league third baseman Caleb Durbin. Who, again, I knew the name. Could I describe his game, give you a deep scattering report on him?
Absolutely not.
Well, not only did he make the Brewers squad, but he's been one of their most productive players all year. Not a home run guy, but he does put the ball in play. He's got gap power, driven a good bunch of runs this year in the middle of that lineup. He's been the best player in the deal. Nestor Cortez, you hurt.
He's gotten back in, is pitching out for Milwaukee. He's fine but not dominating anybody. Like I said, Devin Williams, a very up and down year for the Yankees as their closer. best performer from the deal is Caleb Durbin, who is an afterthought in the deal that was made.
So when you hear about these deals tonight, you'll hear the names of the players. You might not recognize them. The person like me might not be able to give you good detailed information on them. Just remember, just write it down. Just make a mental note because we like to have a winner and a loser as soon as the trade is made.
As soon as the trade is made, one team had to get the better of the other. One's got to be a winner, one's got to be a loser. And you can have original interpretations of it. But then you have to wait. You've got to be patient to see what the guys actually do before you judge who got the better of a trade or not in Milwaukee because of the way that Caleb has been playing all year long, Caleb Durbin.
they've gotten the better of this steal.
Now, who knows? Maybe Devin Williams gets on a hot streak. Maybe the Yankees can catch the Jays, make it back to a World Series. He saves World Series games. Oh, it can change again.
But as we look here in the end of July, who's gotten the better of the deal? The Milwaukee Brewers because of the the throw in third baseman they got in this deal.
So you want to talk about any of the trades your team? Do you think your squad's a buyer or a seller? Should they be a buyer or a seller? If you want to talk about the Hall of Fame, because this is Hall of Fame weekend as well. Ichiro Suzuki, Cece Sabathia, Billy Wagner going in via the writers' vote, Dave Parker and Dick Allen going in via committee vote, Chances are, if you're a guy of my age, which is the big six oh.
you remember Dave Parker and Dick Allen as much as you remember Billy Wagner, Cece Sabati or Idro.
So these are all time players getting their just due. Uh Dick Allen passed away years ago and as a Philly guy people have been moaning the fact that Dick Allen wasn't already in the Hall of Fame. Dave Parker got in this year. No, he was elected. unfortunately passed a couple of months ago, so he won't be there to accept his Hall of Fame plaque, but a member of his family will.
And I always thought that Parker was a borderline Hall of Fame and got no problems with him going in. An etero. is one of the greatest players of all time. Let me repeat that for you. He is one of the greatest players of all time.
We think a lot about home run hitters. when we talk about the greatest players of all time, Ichiro was not a big home run hitter. But it was because he didn't try and hit home runs. He tried to put the ball in play. He tried to use his speed as a weapon.
Phenomenal defensive outfielder. Center field. When he moved to right, he had the arm to be able to play in right, had an absolute gun of an arm. Ichiro had a career that. Could have put him in the Hall of Fame in Japan before he ever came to the United States.
Over 4,000 hits combining both of the two countries. Like I said, one of the greatest players of all time, each row going into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend.
So we got plenty of baseball. I'll start to give you some stuff on the NFL when we come back. I'll continue to keep the phone lines open. Again. No JR doesn't take a lot of calls.
So if you're a regular JR listener who doesn't call because JR just doesn't get that many calls in, hey. Free pass tonight. Join me, Jordy Mac, 888-710-4476. Come back. We get the phones hopefully going.
But first, for me, The first Infinity Sports Flash of the Night. none other than my buddy The big, the bad. Richard Ackerman. At North Carolina's Crystal Coast, you might have the same vacation plans. Hit the beach, find some good seafood, but when there's actually room to roam and space to spread out, the feeling is much different.
Visit crystalcoastnc.com/slash booking today. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. Appreciate Ryan B. Give me a little bad to the bone on the return here. Jody Mac for JR Sport Brief tonight.
Here on the Infinity Sports Network, a Friday hang. I will not hang up on you if you check in, but you got to get on my phone lines: 888-710-4476. This portion of the show brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all your car care needs. Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts.
I did say I would. Be punching up three very good guests for you tonight. I certainly believe it. You can judge for yourself. Coming up in 20 minutes from now, we'll go around the NBA.
I haven't had my bud, Brian Geltzeiler, on since after the NBA season ended. The free agency, all the big moves that have been made. Summer, I haven't got a chance to talk any summer, really goops with him.
So Brian Geltzeiler from SiriusXM's NBA Radio. You catch him from time to time on the NBA network on the TV side as well. The Hoops critic, Brian Geltzeiler, will join me at the top of the hour to talk all things basketball. A little bit later, we'll punch up Rowan Kavner from FoxSports.com, one of their lead MLB writers. Games will be underway.
We'll certainly talk about the trades that have come down in the last 20-plus hours. Rowan does a great job covering all MLB, but is heavy on the West Coast for FoxSports.com.
So he's going to jump in. And a little bit later, we'll punch up. Russell Baxter. Hopefully you recognize the name. Not only has Russell who been good enough to hop on my shows, but uh a bunch of shows here on this particular network.
He's been doing it for years. He and I go back to on a friend basis prior to like the mid eighties, early to mid eighties, nineteen eighty seven when I started doing sports talk radio, I didn't have the list of contacts that I do now, didn't know as many people in the world of sports, so I relied on some of my fellow ESPN workers who I knew were very good. They were behind the scenes guys, but guys who knew their stuff inside and out.
So I asked uh Russell to come on with me often, let's put it that way. And shoot, he's been saying yes since 1987.
So he and I have been doing this thing 27, 28 football seasons now. Longtime NFL writer, historian, heading out to Canton for the Hall of Fame stuff. He goes out every single year.
So we'll get an NFL conversation in with Russell Baxter. And I'll get an NFL conversation in with you if you hop aboard right here, right now, 888-710-4476. At least as per last I checked on all my best NFL information outlets. No one else like Justin Fields got hurt today. No major injuries in any of the camps around the entire NFL, and as I mentioned in segment number one tonight, it turns out that.
Justin Fields wasn't all that badly hurt. It was panic stricken for the way it was first reported because they said he was carted off the field. No, not actually. I saw the video thereafter. He limped over to the sidelines and then, rather, taking a long walk, he got on a cart to go back to the Jets trading room.
Later in the day, the injury came out as an injured toe, and then more details, a dislocated toe. That sounds bad, a dislocated toe. But then again, I've seen people dislocate their shoulders and then push them right back into place.
So I don't know what his dislocation is like, but here's what I do know. They said absolutely should be ready by the first week of the season if there are no further setbacks or complications. Surprisingly, he was out with the team on the field during practice today. with a dislocated big toe.
So I was Panic stricken that the jet season was going to go by the boards before it ever got underway. All apologies to Tyrod Taylor, but I want to see. The new jet quarterback, not the old reserve jet quarterback. I've been a Justin Field fan since his Ohio State days. Shoot!
I was a Justin Fields fan when he was at Georgia. People forget that he actually played his first year. He's from Georgia and was a bulldog, but he read the writing on the wall that he wasn't going to be able to necessarily break the quarterback room. And Ohio State brought him in right away and he had the season uh the career that he had at Ohio State, which made him a first-round draft pick. Should have been A number two draft pick behind Caleb Williams.
He didn't go to 11 with the Bears, but he ended up with the Jets who picked number two that year. Thank you, Zach Wilson. Thanks, but no thanks.
So in the end, I hope that it works out and it looks like he's going to be good to go at the beginning of the season for the Jets. You want to talk about them or any other NFL quarterbacks? Get on my telephone lines: 888-710-4476. First call of the day wants to talk about the quarterback in Chicago. Rick from Myrtle Beach, you're on the Infinity Sports Network.
Hey, Jody, how are you, sir? Good, Rick. How about you? I'm doing well. Hey, uh, give me your take on Caleb, if you would.
A fan, when he was coming out, I told you, I just was running down how highly I thought of. Mr. Fields, when he was coming out, and I said he should have been the number two pick to the Jets. Because I knew he wasn't going to be the number one pick, because I knew that was going to be Caleb Williams. Rightfully so.
I'll give the Bears credit last year in that they made the right move by putting more effort into upgrading the talent, the skill positions around Caleb Williams more than they ever did for Justin Fields, between you and I.
So he's got more to work with. They now have an offensive guru as their head coach. We know he's a phenomenal offensive coordinator. We'll see if Ben Johnson can make a good coach. The only thing Chicago's got working against them is That's a tough division.
There are no easy marks in that division. Three to four teams made the playoffs. If the Bears want to make the playoffs, they're going to have to get past a Minnesota or a Green Bay this year. Do you think that maybe the Lions have taken a step back and we still don't know what JJ McCarthy is. Yes, yes, on both fronts.
But I will say this about Detroit. I'm seeing too many people saying that because of the loss of the two offensive coordinators, they've already missed their championship window. I don't believe that for a millisecond. I think their talent is just as good as it was. And let's give the two no coordinators a chance to see how good, bad or indifferent they are.
People are just writing them off and saying they can't be good in comparison to the guys who left.
Well, maybe, maybe not. And I think talent is about 75 to 80 percent of what works in the National Football League.
So I think Detroit is still a legitimate Super Bowl contender. I got no idea how good J.J. McCarthy's going to be. I am hearing a lot of good things. I don't think anyone does.
Well, apparently Minnesota does 'cause that's why they didn't worry about uh let first of all watching Cousins walk out the door and then watching um uh Sam Darnold follow him thereafter after the good year Sam had.
So they believe that he's gonna be perfectly fine, ready to go, maybe even an upgrade. I I wasn't a huge fan when he was at Michigan. They they went to the championship and won it more much more on the strength of their running game than their passing game. And they were so good running the football, teams had to play them as if they were going to run the football almost every single play, which made things easier for J. J.
McCarthy.
So I I I'm very much in a prove it, prove it to me state with J. J. McCarthy this year with the Vikings. I guess, okay, from last year, you know. Caleb's numbers weren't horrific.
I mean, yes, he was. four, four and a half, almost five hundred yards short of being a four thousand yard passport. Um His twenty something touchdowns to only six interceptions wasn't. that bad. Yes, he held on to the ball.
Horrific. That was awful. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Um it owns.
My son and I were actually at that Washington game. Drove from Myrtle Beach up to the kitchen. Oh my God, that was such a tough game for a Bears fan. It was. And you know what?
We should have won that game. Should have, yes. We should have we should have won that game. No. And people throw that my opinion is people throw that phrase around too easily.
Oh, we should have won, we should have won. But you didn't. It wasn't that bad. Oh, no, you should have won. When you get beat by Hail Mary on the last play of the game, when you're playing prevent defense and you got everybody back there to knock it down, you can legitimately say we should have won the game.
Jodi, you're right. You're right. Hey, my friend, I appreciate all your insight. I really look forward to it. I'm glad you filled in a couple times this week because I don't always catch you on the weekends.
So you have a wonderful afternoon and try to stay cool in this hot weather. You got it, Rick. Thanks much for checking in. And if you do have a couple of minutes, you know where you can find me on the weekends right here. Yes, I do mean what I said to him.
Again, haven't done this sports talk thing as long as I have. Been listening to callers and fans, checking in.
So we could want if. two plays had gone differently during the year, we would be uh nine and three rather than seven and six. Or yeah, you can always make that argument. But the one thing that fans never do, and I mean never. They'll point to the game where one key play went against them.
It's a one score game. If that hadn't happened, the opposite result would have happened. Even if that's true and it didn't happen, you're a what if in the world. No one ever says, well, you know. We won two games.
We won three games by one score. And if this play for the other team or that play for the other team had gone differently, we would have lost. Nobody ever discounts their team backwards. They don't. Even consider or think about games that they won by the hair on their chinny chin chin.
over the course of a seventeen game season shooting I've been around long enough to remember when it was fourteen games and sixteen games before it became seventeen games. Over that course of a season, These things even out. Not always perfectly. Not two for two or three for three. Uh mostly four out of six, two out of six, depending.
It's not like you have no games. Every game you win, you win by a decided margin, but every time you lose you lose by one score. That doesn't happen. And people need to be realistic in evaluating their team after a game is played, how close it actually was before you throw out the phrase, we should have won. We would have won.
Oftentimes it doesn't come down to that. All right, a couple other NFL things before uh we get to the top of the hour. NFL, I told you the magic number is six today. six days to the Major League Baseball trading deadline and six days to the first preseason game of the year, which we should know by now is always the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio. It will be the Detroit Lions.
It will be the Los Angeles Chargers, two teams that both made the playoffs last year. The Lions got upset by the Washington Commanders in their own building in their first playoff game last year.
So the fact that they had the best record in the NFC kind of goes by the wayside when you get picked off in your first game, because you get a bye, and then it's bye-bye when the Washington Commanders come into your stadium and push you out of the playoffs. as I was sayin' to the caller, I'm not in as big a panic as some people are about the loss of the coordinators in Detroit. That Just I'll give you a for instance Last year the Philadelphia Eagles brought in Two new coordinators. Why? Because the two coordinators they had the year before stunk.
Why did they stink? Why did they get jobs? Because the two coordinators before them both left when the Eagles went to the playoffs and both got head coaching jobs.
So over the course of three years, the Philadelphia Eagles had six different coordinators, three offensive, three defensive. The first time they had to swap them out, Abject failure. Terrible. The next time they had to swap him out, Oh, guess what happened with the Eagles? They went to the Super Bowl.
With uh two no coordinators.
So just because you change coordinators doesn't guarantee you anything, good or bad. You could get better coordinators, you could get worse coordinators. You don't know. You gotta see how we play it out. I know we're in the business of projecting and speculating and coming up with educated guesses.
I'm not writing the Detroit Lions off. I saw two different articles in two different places this week suggest. If Cleveland if Detroit was ever going to make it to a Super Bowl, it would have been last year. And now with their new coordinators, they're just not up to snuff. Yeah, they are.
They they're the second choice in the NFC buying the Eagles. Eagles are should be number one. And Detroit off the season they had last year should be number two. I don't think Green Bay has caught 'em. I sure as heck don't think Minnesota's caught 'em.
I think Chicago's better, but they're not beating them out. What other NFC team is going to have a better regular season than the Detroit Lions? The Rams? I know a lot of people are bullish on the Rams. They did give the Eagles the most difficult tussle they had in the playoffs last year.
But I'm kind of in a wait and see mode on them too.
So plenty of football talk over the next three hours. But before we get to that, we'll do a little basketball. I haven't been lucky enough to get the Hoops Critic buying Geltzeler from NBA T V and Sirius XM's NBA Radio on since the season ended. We'll catch up with a little NBA talk with Geltz next here on the Infinity Sports Network.
