JR SportBrief Hour 1

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Sport Brief on CBS Sport Radio. And we are coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Whether you're looking to purchase a new home or refinance yours, Rocket Mortgage can help you get there for home loan solutions that fit your life.

Rocket, Rocket can. Listen, folks, I'm going to be hanging out here with you for the next four hours. I hope you had a tremendous Tuesday. I hope you had a damn good Tuesday.

And if you didn't, let me help you out, okay? I'm hanging out here with super producer and host Dave Shepherd. We got a lot to get into. So whether you're listening on the free Odyssey app, whether you're tuned in on your local affiliate, SiriusXM Channel 158, or if you're on a smart speaker, you could be listening on a VCR right now. I don't care.

We got a lot to do, a lot to get into, okay? People always hit me up. They're like, hey, they always show me creative ways that they listen to CBS Sports Radio. Somebody sent me a photo of them watching on television.

I'm like, oh, this is great. If you're getting the audio through your TV, then that's good for you. I'm sure somebody has an antenna and some aluminum foil and is getting the show right now.

So God bless you, however you do it. If you want to talk to me, though, you got to do that in a traditional and digital way. The number here at CBS Sports Radio is 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. You can find me digitally. I'm on Twitter. I'm on Instagram. I'm on Facebook.

That is at JRSportBrief. We got a busy, busy show tonight. Next hour, we're going to be joined by someone who is one of the most accomplished skiers to ever just ski or go down a slope on planet Earth. Lindsey Vonn is going to join us, and I think it's appropriate that she joins us because she's going to be talking about a lot. Her career, retiring, what she's up to right now.

We're going to talk about sleep. We're going to talk about her bout with depression. I'm going to ask her about Tom Brady speaking of retiring. I'm going to ask her about the Broncos.

She grew up in Colorado. She's a big Broncos fan. I'm going to ask her about Russell Wilson. Unfortunately, I'm going to ask her about Brittany Greiner. There's a lot that we're going to get into with one of the world's greatest athletes. Lindsey Vonn is going to join us next hour, so you want to stay tuned for that. We will also talk about Brittany Greiner. As I'm sure you heard and learned earlier today, Brittany Greiner was denied her appeal. She is set, at least for right now, to spend the next nine years or eight years, if you want to count her time served, in prison, out in Russia, a penal colony, whatever you want to call it.

She doesn't appear to be coming home anytime soon. We'll get into that later on in the show. Something else that I didn't think would cross over into the world of sports, but at least it's going to cross over into this show tonight, that happens to be the fact that, yes, Kanye West, he's a topic of conversation in many areas right now, fashion, music. He typically hasn't delved too deep into sports, but he did start a marketing agency earlier this year, late last year, and two of his clients, some of the biggest names in sports, one, Jalen Brown, who just went to the NBA Finals with the Boston Celtics, and then Aaron Donald, who we know is one of the most disruptive forces that the NFL has ever seen. They were working with Kanye West. Well, after some of the wild last things he's been saying over the past several weeks, they are no longer working with Kanye West.

And so we'll get into that. Jim Nance is stepping down sooner than later from calling the Final Four. Ryan Eagle is going to go ahead and step up. Aaron Judge, no word on him with the Yankees. Matt Ryan, he's finding the bench.

Bill Belichick doesn't know who he wants on the bench. So we got a lot to get into. Before I do anything, Shep, how are you this evening, man? You smooth? Doing well, JR.

Always great to be with you, my friend. Sad news for Bernie Greiner, as you alluded to in the beginning of your monologue. Yeah, not the greatest of news. When I woke up this morning, two of the first things I saw. One was Kanye being dropped by Adidas. And then the next news not too long after that was Brittany Greiner.

So we're going to dive deep into that unfortunate situation and then Kanye as well. But I just mentioned Matt Ryan finding the bench. Not a difficult thing. He's not getting help offensively with the run game. Fumbling the ball all over the place. Throwing the ball to the opposition.

It's a surefire way to find the bench when you're 37 years old. And so at this point in time, and we talked about this last night for Monday Night Football, we have a 70-year-old coach named Bill Belichick. And for the majority of his career, he's had the benefit and the joy of coaching Tom Brady. And since Tom Brady exited the building and decided to go down to Tampa, things haven't been so damn bright for Bill Belichick.

He had to go into a pandemic like everybody else. Then he had to select or bring in a Cam Newton to run the show. Then he drafted Mack Jones. And in all things considered for a rookie, the Patriots, they had a 10-7 record last year.

And here they go. Mack Jones goes down this portion of the season. Misses three games with a high ankle sprain.

They bring on a guy named Bailey Zappi who only his mother knew. He goes 2-0. They play the Bears last night. Mack Jones throws an interception after only throwing six passes.

Bill Belichick says, Mack Jones, sit down. Bailey Zappi goes back into the game. The fans in New England are losing their minds because Bailey Zappi threw a touchdown. And he helped lead them on another drive that culminated with a touchdown.

And that was it. The Chicago Bears then scored 23 unanswered points. And the post-game press conference was, or press conferences, I should say, plural. They were rife with, I don't want to call them contradictions or confusion. And this isn't typically what you get from Bill Belichick.

He might come out and be confusing all by himself. But if you have to think about his players saying one thing and I got another guy saying another thing, that's different for Bill Belichick. I mean, even after the game, he was talking about how it was the plan all along to play both quarterbacks.

Listen to this. So when Mack came out of the game, Bill, was that a medical decision, the timing of the bullying him? So was that related to the interception that was his last play tonight? No, we had planned to play, I told the quarterbacks that we were going to play both of them.

Okay. He told both quarterbacks he was going to play both of them. We had multiple other players, not quarterbacks, not that they need to know. We had other players saying, oh, I didn't know we were going to switch quarterbacks.

I didn't know until it was going to happen. Bailey Zappi said he wasn't sure if it was going to happen. He said last night he had no idea whether he was going back in the game, if he'd go in. He didn't know a damn thing either.

Nothing to my knowledge. Of course, that's something that, you know, as for Coach Belichick, but, you know, my job was to go in there and, you know, get the ball and I'll play makers and, you know, I need to do a better job at that. Yeah, he did get the job to his playmakers, helped them score two touchdowns, and then a couple of passes were tipped, and they went the other way.

Nothing else. Bill Belichick said if Mack Jones wasn't coming off of his injury, if it didn't become a runaway game, he would have put Mack Jones right back out there. Mack Jones a little bit different than Bailey Zappi. Mack Jones said, man, Bill Belichick told me what was going on.

I just didn't get the job done. We had a good plan, as always, just to, you know, go throughout the week and figure out what we want to do for the game, and Coach Belichick was very good about communication and felt like I was good to play, and we had a good plan there and just obviously didn't play well enough there. So, Bill Belichick says the plan was to play both quarterbacks.

Bailey Zappi said I had no idea if and when I was going to come in or if I go back in, and Mack Jones sounds like the teacher's pet. He's just, he's like, yes, Bill Belichick, yes. Absolutely, Bill Belichick, yes. Well, Tom, can I bring your laundry, Bill Belichick? Is Mack Jones just sucking up?

And why not? I'd suck up too if I wanted to play quarterback in the NFL. And so today, after all of the confusion last night, Bill Belichick did his normal hit on WEEI.

He does it every single Tuesday, and he came through, I guess, with the most important answer about this upcoming game when the New England Patriots take on the New York Jets. Bill Belichick asked very plain, cut and dry, is Mack Jones going to be the starting quarterback when he's healthy? This is what Belichick said.

Again, that's a hypothetical question, so let's see, you know, where that is and what that is. Oh, my God, the man, you said you would have put him back in the game if it wasn't a runaway. Bill Belichick didn't say nothing last night about this man was too hurt. When Bill Belichick last night was also asked whether or not you sat him and pulled him out of the game because of his performance, Belichick was like, no. He's just like, oh, the plan was to play him the whole time. And so is Bill Belichick outsmarting us all, or is Bill Belichick just losing his damn mind? Probably a combination of both.

Bailey Zappi, he also spoke to WEEI today, and he was asked if he knew that he would play last night. Listen. No, sir. You know, that's kind of up to, of course, Belichick.

That's his decision. I kind of prepared the whole week like I have the last seven weeks kind of the mentality that was one play away. Whenever that was, I was going to be ready and kind of just prepared that way this past week and taking every rep, like the game rep. What am I in? The Patriots' Twilight Zone? I can't remember any scenario or situation like this with the New England Patriots over the past 20 years.

Not one. And I'm not just talking about the quarterback scenario of Tom Brady knowing that that's set. Like, there was no controversy. Mo Lewis knocked the living hell out of Drew Blutso, and boom, we were giving Tom Brady for the last 20 years. I don't care if it was Randy Moss. I don't care if it was, and this goes way to the extreme, Aaron Hernandez. I don't care if it goes into crazy Gronkowski.

Man, it can end and culminate in Antonio Brown. I don't ever remember Bill Belichick dealing with a situation or personnel decision where everybody's like, what are you doing? And sure, does Bill Belichick deserve the benefit of the doubt?

I would say so. People will look at his time in Cleveland and go, oh, well, he didn't have Tom Brady. He would have stuck like he was in Cleveland. People will say, oh, Bill Belichick wouldn't have been nothing if he didn't have Tom Brady. Bill Belichick, out of his own mouth, has said, hey, I've had great players. At the same time, you have to have a coach who can actually have a decent structure for you to succeed in the NFL. Go ask the Jacksonville Jaguars and their young talent how things fared with Urban Meyer last year.

Go ask them. Bill Belichick is in a unique position here. He loves football. He's a football lifer.

I would venture to say, outside of many things, on a professional level, football is all he knows. You can look at two championships with the Giants as a defensive coordinator. You can look at another six championships with the New England Patriots. You can look at his successes. You can look at his failures.

Nobody bats 1,000. Nobody wins at all every single damn time. And Bill Belichick, he's felt it all. There's nobody more qualified, I'd say, to run a team in the NFL than Bill Belichick. But that doesn't mean he's going to luck out in every single situation.

Unless Bailey Zappi turns out to be the next coming. Or unless we can take a look at Mack Jones and just think that he's going to lead the way for the next 10 years. You know what they say about having two quarterbacks, right? If you have two QBs, you have none.

Let me tell you something. It's not going to take a game against the New York Jets or two games against the Jets or the next three games or the next four games. It's going to take probably more than a year for anybody, for Bill Belichick to figure out whether or not he has the guy to help lead them not just back into the playoffs to get smacked around but actually has a quarterback who he can count on to have success in the playoffs. It ain't Bailey Zappi right now.

It's not Mack Jones right now. Bill Belichick might as well go out there and run his own version of, I don't know, the Hunger Games. Send everybody out there and see what they got. New England Patriots aren't winning the damn thing this season. And if Bill Belichick wanted to be as honest as Greg Popovich, of which he won't, there's nothing coming out of this season.

Nothing. Just all an exploration process as to who will be that QB. So, yeah, small picture. Is it Bailey Zappi? Is it Mack Jones? I'd start Mack Jones this upcoming game against the Jets. And if Mack Jones sucks, then Bill Belichick can say, hey, I will pull you for Bailey Zappi. And he can be very clear this time, it's for performance. Because either way, Mack Jones, Bailey Zappi, neither one of these guys this year are leading the Patriots to a vast amount of success.

Don't count on that one. Maybe Bill Belichick is smarter than us all. Maybe he's smart enough to not just look at the next game, but the big picture. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio, 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. What are your thoughts? What should Bill Belichick do with this current quarterback controversy? Should he let Bailey Zappi go back out there to start against the New York Jets?

Or should he hand the reins over to Mack Jones? I'm going to take your calls on the other side. We're going to talk about Mike Evans. We're going to get into Judge. We got Lindsey Vonn coming up. We got a lot to do. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio.

That's a hypothetical question. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. . JR wants to hear from you. Call him now at 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4227. Bill Belichick, how about this? A quarterback controversy. Is it Mack Jones?

Is it Bailey Zappi? Bill Belichick basically said today on WEEI, he's like, listen, folks, it's a hypothetical question. Am I going to start Mack Jones if he's healthy? Well, man, you have an idea.

He did say also that, and that fellow's about competition. And so Bill Belichick being the ultimate puppet master right now in the long run, he has almost an entire half of a season to pretty much see who his quarterback is before he decides to reevaluate things. And I mean, listen, if you don't have Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes or Justin Herbert, you're in a constant mode of evaluation.

It's just the facts. Bill Belichick used to have one of those guys, and now that guy is gone and his ass is suffering right now in Tampa Bay as well. Mack Jones, excuse me, should start the next game. Let Mack start. If he sucks, then put Bailey Zappi back out there.

Why is it so difficult to comprehend? Mack Jones, I would say he probably has more of the confidence with the team. If he stinks and can't handle it, put Zappi out there. Matter of fact, it was pretty wild in Foxborough last night when Bill Belichick was asked, or not, he wasn't asked, he was asked today, that the fans were chanting for Bailey Zappi. They were yelling for this guy. And Mack Jones has to stand around and listen to the fans just basically cheer for his replacement.

That sucks. That's what Belichick had to say about those chants. I really can't control that. I'm just trying to coach the football team, and obviously I've got a lot of work to do there, so I'm going to focus on that. Basically, say what you want to say. It doesn't matter to me.

That didn't happen, so that's another hypothetical question. Oh, man. He's like that guy at the end of The Matrix. What's the guy with the white hair, the keymaker, or am I mixing things up?

I think you might be on this stuff. The Matrix is the one I omitted. Lawrence Fishbourne, his character? No. It's Keanu. You've never seen The Matrix? I've seen John Wick, which I think is a step up from The Matrix. No, I didn't ask you about John Wick.

You might as well have told me you saw Speed. No. I'm talking about The Matrix. I've got the Sandra Bullock now. Huh?

You're going after Sandra Bullock? No. I asked you if you've seen The Matrix, and you're telling me about John Wick. That's better.

That's nothing to do. Have you seen The Matrix? No. Okay, so it has nothing to do with John Wick.

You made like 20, well Keanu Reeves stars involved. That's where I'm drawing the parallels. No, no, no.

That's irrelevant to my point. There's a character in The Matrix. He's like the programmer of The Matrix, and he pops up at the end of the movie, and you try to ask this guy a question, and it's like splitting hairs. And that's who Bill Belichick reminds me of.

You ask this guy a question, and it's just, the answers are just like stepping over hot coals. 855-212-4CBS is 855-212-4CBS. Tommy's calling from Birmingham. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Tommy?

Hey, how you doing? And I just want to chime in on the quarterback situation between Mack Jones and Zappi. First and foremost, you got an iconic coach, which is Bill Belichick. But Mack Jones came from a situation of knowing how to win under Nick Saban, and that's one of the reasons he was drafted by the New England Patriots. If he didn't feel comfortable, confident that he could do it, he wouldn't have drafted him, and he's more of a proven winner. He's played on national championship teams, and he's done it in the clutch.

Why would you pay somebody that's a six-round draft pick over him? At the end of the day, it falls on Nick Belichick. He doesn't have the personnel to have a deep threat for Mack Jones to be able to throw and get the ball down the field. He's proven that he can do that consistently when he was at Alabama.

Nothing's changed. The only thing is that the personnel that is in the Patriots right now is not a championship caliber team. As much as anybody wants to think it's the good old days where Tom Brady could make something out of nothing, you don't have that. If you drafted a guy, give him an opportunity, but you can't just put it all on him because he doesn't have weapons. Well, thank you, Tom.

He appreciates you for calling from Birmingham. Well, he did get an opportunity last year, and I think that's one of the reasons why he got a chance to start this year is because he did find success. Now, having said that, it's very, very simple.

Very simple. Who cares what he did in Alabama? Yeah, you can go ahead and check that box and say, oh, he has success and a championship pedigree. What does that mean in the NFL? Nothing? If you come to the NFL and you suck, what does that mean? Nothing?

A whole lot of nothing. We can think of plenty of players who have done great things in college, and they get to the league and they suck. Who cares? Okay? He got a year, and he was the best rookie quarterback last season.

That doesn't mean that he's going to stick around with the New England Patriots and find success. Are you prepared to say that? So here's what it boils down to.

Almost every single thing that you just said was accurate. But when you start asking, oh, well, why put Zappy out there? It's simple. If Mack Jones sucks or if Bill Belichick feels that he provides more spark to the offense, you put him out there. He's not back at Alabama. I mean, Bill, he's happy to start things off last night. Yeah, it didn't end that well.

It ended with them getting their asses whooped, and it wasn't all his fault, but pretty much to start the game off, he's like, hey, here's two touchdowns right out the gate when last time we saw Mack, he's throwing an INT. It's pretty simple. You suck.

You sit. If you can help us win, you play. Having said that, I will repeat this for anyone who did not hear me. I believe Mack Jones should get that opportunity against the Jets. This is a full season evaluation. We got plenty of time to see what happens.

Plenty. David is calling from Buffalo. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show.

Hey, JR, thanks for taking my call tonight. You know, you look at the situation, and to me, Mack Jones reminds me a lot of Tua. He's got scripted plays in front of him, and he's got the right protection, and he's got everything there in front of him, real simple route concepts, simple throws. He can make those plays.

I think the difference is with Zappy, he's the guy when, you know, things break down, he can move a little bit better. He played with lesser talent in Western Kentucky, so he can play off platform a little bit better. Like, you know, the Josh Allens and the Mahomes, obviously he doesn't have their talent, but he can play a little bit more off script, and I think that's the situation the Patriots are in. I think probably they should keep Jones in there for right now because they made the playoffs with him last year, but the bottom line is I feel like once you take the scripted plays and you take McDandles away from him like we're seeing this year with Judge and Patricia running the offense, Mack Jones isn't the same player, and that might be something Belichick can see, that he's the guy who's a little more dynamic at quarterback.

Yeah, there's no doubt about that. Mack Jones, for all the success that he had last season, he was a glorified babysitter as a rookie QB, and he was successful at that. I don't think anyone expected Mack Jones to step in and just light the world up with a touchdown, an INT ratio of 22 to 13. Bill Belichick rolled with him. You would have expected things to open up just a little bit more, but we know with the new offense, yeah, you got Matt Patricia in here, and you also think about Joe Judge and who's the OC and why they aren't called the OC, and you think about financial reasons. There were a lot of questions going on just this offseason regarding the New England Patriots, and so Tom will tell. Play Mack Jones. You got an old season left to see whether or not you want to put Zappi out there, and Bill Belichick, I'm sure, I am certain, if he doesn't believe either one of these guys, quote, unquote, has it, he's going to keep on looking for a quarterback, just like everybody else in the NFL. If you don't have one, you're searching. It's really that simple. The only difference is Bill Belichick is one of the most successful head coaches of all time, and he ain't got Tom Brady now.

It's a hell of a search now, isn't it? It's the JR Sport Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Speaking of Tom Brady, one of his biggest weapons, probably his largest weapon, not only did he drop a pass, a huge pass this past Sunday in a loss to the Carolina Panthers, his biggest weapon, Mike Evans, is in the news for other reasons. Is he a little too close to an official? Is an official a little too close to Mike Evans? I'll explain on the other side of the break.

I'll leave the phone lines open as well. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. ... You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, JR? Man, I want to first by saying I love the show, and thank you for keeping it so real on so many different topics.

Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Opened up the show talking about Bill Belichick, and we know that he's searching for a quarterback, and obviously he would be with no more Tom Brady. Is it going to be Bailey Zappi or Mack Jones? We'll just have to see.

If I were a betting man, I'd go ahead and say that Mack Jones will get that start against the New York Jets, and if he should falter, then Bailey Zappi will get that call. We got a whole entire season here to figure things out. Now, having said that, that's not the only quote-unquote controversy that's been running the NFL over the past few days, and I say controversy tongue-in-cheek, because this next story to me is a little bit of much to do about nothing. We know the Carolina Panthers. They surprised everybody this past Sunday by beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The final score was 21-3. Now, Mike Evans, he was a big name mention in that game because he dropped a 64-yard bomb to start things off, and he pretty much fell flat directly after that. Now, after the game, we received footage because it's the Internet.

It's 2022. Camera phones and cell phones everywhere to even call something a camera phone even sounds odd because almost most phones, they come with cameras. Now, we got a piece of footage that went viral of Mike Evans walking in the tunnel after the game and no, he didn't push a photographer, sorry. He was actually chased down by a couple of refs. The referees then slipped him like a card. He signed something and he kept it moving, and it was pretty much said like, hey, what the hell is Mike Evans doing, signing an autograph for a referee after the game?

Like, what is this? The referee's supposed to, quote-unquote, be impartial. He's supposed to be an opposite party. He's not supposed to be here buddy and buddy and up with guys, and if he is, doesn't that potentially affect the integrity of the game?

Doesn't it mean that the official can be bought? What does this mean for the next game? If he feels favor towards Mike Evans, should he be calling the game? Are they too close?

Are we in store for a Tim Donahue situation in the NBA? It just opens up a lot, and so people have been throwing a fit. Referee can't be that close to a player where he's getting his autograph and the rules state that you're not supposed to for obvious reasons. What I just told you about maintaining the integrity of the game. And so today, after the NFL investigated this for about 48 hours, NFL said that there was no issue.

That there was no problem. That after doing an investigation, they found that neither one of these referees got an autograph from Mike Evans. And then a few hours after we were left hanging as to, well, if the referee didn't get an autograph, what the hell was Mike Evans signing? We got a little bit of an explanation. Mike Evans, he spoke with the media, and he said it was rather simple what was going on. Listen to this.

What's the sign of autograph? I talk to a lot of officials. We're all human beings.

He's a nice guy. So he was talking about golf. We were just talking about golf.

That's it. We were just talking about golf. Jeff Lambert, the official who ran up to him, in addition to Tripp Sutter, Jeff Lambert went to Texas A&M just like Mike Evans.

Now, obviously not at the same time because Mike Evans is younger. He's a player, and this guy's an official. But they said that Lambert wanted to get his phone number so he could connect him with someone else who could provide him with golf lessons. Sounds reasonable to me, at least to me. And we got people breaking down whether or not, well, when he signed it, did it look like a phone number?

Well, damn it, we only got 10 seconds of video. I don't understand what the hell the big deal is. I don't think these guys are running around getting and granting favor. I don't know why anybody has a reason to doubt that he was getting his phone number.

And I don't know why this is such a big deal. If the NFL investigated it, am I naive enough to think that this is, you know, NFL just said, ah, we don't give a damn what's going on? No. Am I naive to think that the NFL would try to make this go away? No, I'm not. NFL has been hustling people for years.

But I see this and I go, no big deal. I mean, is Jeff Lambert going to, you know, not call pass interference, offensive pass interference on Mike Evans one game? I don't think so.

It's like everybody has to find something to talk about. We don't know what he scribbled on a piece of paper. It could be a number. He could have stopped and put an extra four digits there. Let's just keep it moving.

I don't think this is the end of the world. I mean, damn. 855-212-4CBS. Tony is calling from New Orleans. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Tony?

Hey, JR. Great show as always, man. I don't want to talk about the Saints down in New Orleans because we sucked this year, maybe a few years of rebuilding. But I do want to talk about Bill Belichick and how I think he is showing his true colors now that he's not such a great coach like everybody said he was without Gronkowski and without Tom Brady.

Look, I'm 51 years old. When he was the head coach back in the 80s, if my memory serves me right, he sucked as a head coach. He sucked as a head coach, and it looks like he's sucking now, and I'm going to go ahead and hang up and listen to your rebuttal on this.

I want to see what you thought about Mike Evans inside of those referees autographs. You're right. It should be a conflict of interest, and I'm not naive, and you are not either, JR.

I listen to your show every night. You're an educated man. You know sports inside and out, but sports has been paid off and bets and the mafia and the mob from New York to L.A., Chicago to the New Orleans mob. Go look up Michael Franzese with the Colombo Crime Family on YouTube, and he tells you how they get to the officials in the NBA and the NFL has been going on for years, and I think it's still going on how referees are paid off. So you mean to tell me I can't walk into the old howers on Canal Street and I can't find something crazy to get into? Oh, absolutely, yeah.

That's sports betting in every casino, but those bookies and all that are still around, and a lot of money rides on it, and officials are intimidated by organized crime, and that's why you see a lot of bad calls in these games. Okay, thank you, Tony, for calling from New Orleans. Hey, Shop, I'm going to let you dig into that YouTube wormhole. You ready for that?

No. If you Google what he just said to Google, you will be stuck there for what do you think? 48 hours, maybe, probably?

Two days? I got to catch up with the Matrix first. You're right, you're right.

We're going to talk about the Matrix. Look, we know there's some dirty figures in the world of sports. We know that, okay? We know that there are people who are trying to get a leg up. There are people who try to influence the outcome of games.

Man, that's not far and few in between. What I will say is this. For the most part, for the most part, I think the players on the court, the talent on the court, what they do on the court in the field has more of an effect on the outcome of a game than some outside forces trying to make not just a buck, but several million or hundreds of thousands of bucks, okay? I believe that wholeheartedly. Maybe I am a little too close to the situation. I'm not naive enough to think it doesn't happen, that we have had point shaving. We've seen it. We've had evidence. We've had this admitted. It happens.

It does. More often than not, I do not find that to be the case. And so in this specific situation with Mike Evans, where a referee is calling him from down the tunnel and he scribbles something on a piece of paper, is this an exchange, hey, I give you this autograph and you better give me this call. Or I give you this autograph and wink, wink, I need you to do this for me later.

Or yeah, let's go to dinner. There's a lot, okay? I don't think that's the case. Mike Evans on the football field outside of a drop, I don't think he needs too much out. And the referees, to do something like that out in the open, I don't know if they want that problem. It already started a problem that the NFL wanted to investigate.

It all just sounds a little too easy. If I was going to do something that I knew was going to get me in trouble, I wouldn't just stand outside on Front Street and do it for everybody to see. Or maybe that's just their way of being so overt that no one would ever suspect this. Look, the person who took the video, put out a caption, I believe her name is Sheena Quick out of Charlotte, and she just said, I didn't know these guys could get autographs. Is she so sure that that's what took place? I see stuff all the time, and sometimes I just mind my damn business because I don't know. I don't think this is a big deal.

Me, I'm just going to watch, take a look, and keep it moving. And when it comes down to his other pay shop, do you remember what the hell else he asked me? It wasn't the Saints, because he said the Saints suck. It was about the Mike Evans autograph situation in which you alluded to the previous three minutes. But didn't you have another point? It was just those two.

No, he made three points. He said Belichick basically couldn't coach without Brady. He made reference to the 80s, even though Belichick was never an NFL head coach in the 80s.

Yes, that was the point. He says if my memory serves me correctly, no. He was a defensive coordinator for the New York Giants in the 80s. He didn't get his head coaching chance with Cleveland until the 90s. And he lost a lot, by the way. And he did. He did. He benched Bernie Kolesar.

People were not thrilled with that. But to say that he is nothing without Tom Brady is not wholly accurate. He has a lot to give. He has a lot of credit to give Tom Brady. And this is the part that I don't get.

He has said this out of his own mouth. Like, what are we missing here? Yeah, Phil Jackson would be a whole lot of crap without some guy named Michael Jordan and Shaq and Colby and Robin and Pippin. Phil Jackson would be another dude sleeping in Montana somewhere right now. So stop it. That's all coaches. You got to be able to manage. And Joe Torrey would have just been a bum with the cards if he didn't have Jeter and Rivera and I don't know who else.

I mean, come on, stop. If you're going to be a great coach, you have to have great talent. Why do we want to take away from what Belichick has done? And then football is difficult, man. Built for parity, not built for long stretches. And for as much as they won, it's not like the Patriots won every game.

They lost on two, damn it. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We got Lindsey Vonn coming up to join us next hour. I want to talk about Matt Ryan being benched.

And I got another thought here about Bill Belichick, the architect. If you're feeling down and having trouble getting up in the morning, here's a tip. Brush your teeth.

That's it. Often when we wake up, our brains go into planning mode, which leads to overthinking and stress before our head even leaves the pillow. Something simple like brushing your teeth can break that cycle and jump start your day. This tip was brought to you by BetterHelp Online Therapy, which connects you with a licensed therapist via video, phone, or online chat.

Visit betterhelp.com slash positive and save 10% on your first month. If you're feeling down and having trouble getting up in the morning, here's a tip. Brush your teeth.

That's it. Often when we wake up, our brains go into planning mode, which leads to overthinking and stress before our head even leaves the pillow. Something simple like brushing your teeth can break that cycle and jump start your day. This tip was brought to you by BetterHelp Online Therapy, which connects you with a licensed therapist via video, phone, or online chat. Visit betterhelp.com slash positive and save 10% on your first month.