JR SportBrief Hour 3

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It is the JR Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'm being joined by super producer and host, Dave Shepherd.

Thank you to everybody listening all over North America. It's a four hour show. I get started.

They turn the microphone on. I start talking at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific every single week night. Two hours down, two more to go. It's halftime. Better than that crap game we saw last night.

We actually have a competitive match up here, or at least I would say intriguing. OK, if you want to holler at me, it's simple. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. You can also find me online. I am at JR Sport Brief everywhere.

It's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We opened up the show talking about just just games that we've watched and witnessed in our lives that have sucked or they've been painful. You know, I think the worst type of games you watch in sports, I don't know if it's a if it's your favorite team getting blown out. Or if it's your favorite team losing in heartbreaking fashion. Like you're on the receiving end of a walk off home run or a Hail Mary or a buzzer beating three like this. There's nothing worse. I think the nail biter. Well, what I shop, would you prefer your team lose via nail biter or blow out like.

Would you care? Yeah, I mean, for me, I want to see my team show up. I want to see them take it seriously. I don't want it. I don't want to see a team that acted like they won the Super Bowl, the championship the week before, and then completely, you know, gag it when they show up. Right.

Yeah, you want. I agree. I'd rather see my team fight like close and then lose than just get stomped out completely. And then not talk about it like, well, we had a great season. Well, no one wants to hear that right now, TCU, because you were an utter embarrassment to college football on Monday. Well, I'm not going to go that far, but 65 7. They're an embarrassment. You said the college football, the way they showed up or chose not to on Monday, where you would dream of playing in a national championship football game title, that is, and you lose 65 to 7. And it could have been 80, 90 to 7 had Stetson better not come out late in the fourth quarter. Well, it was Shep stay out of Fort Worth.

Okay, deal and stay out of there at the same time. The numbers came out the ratings, didn't they? Yes. Yes, they did. They are.

What's the deal with that? Well, we are not surprised ESPN announces man. They never make announcements these days that the national championship drew a little over 17 million viewers. That is a record low for a championship game in the college football playoff era. Yeah.

Why would any, why would anybody want to watch? It was garbage. I agree. There's no, no, no shock there. It's tough.

It's tough. This is only good for Kirby Smart. Kirby Smart picked up another championship. He already is on what? I think a 10 year deal. 12 million dollars per in that ballpark. He got a 1 million dollar bonus for winning a championship. You know, he'll have a chance to go for three next year. That's tough as hell, especially when you got some of you even more of your key defensive players going into the draft. And then you got Stetson Bennett, who is going to try to play football.

I guess I gather and Kirby Smart. Congratulations to him. He's he picked up his his second championship. He ain't pulling up on Nick Saban or Bear Bryant anytime soon. But he's he's earning his money. And for all the years that they got smacked around when he got there, they were like the little engine that could haven't won a championship since 1980.

God bless his soul. Vince Dooley helped take him. And and here they are with a chance to to continue to be competitive with Kirby Smart. And so so kudos to that guy for helping him take this far or at least go this far. I don't know about three in a row. We haven't seen that since the 30s. And so if you remember that, good on you.

I doubt it. And Kirby Smart always wants to praise his guys. He knew that Stetson Bennett helped take him there. He said that he deserves a shot in the league. Take a listen when you got a quarterback that can do the protections and check things and know what the defense is doing.

But yet still beat you with your feet. You got a high level quarterback and people have slept on Stetson Bennett for too long. He needs an opportunity to play for a long time.

The next level. OK, let's see if he can take advantage of that. He's going to get an opportunity. And when I say opportunity, he'll get an opportunity to play on an NFL team in practice, in training camp, in minicamp. And let's see if he can take advantage of it.

You might have remember this from last night. Stetson Bennett was asked by the media what the league, what the NFL, what the teams should know about him prior to the draft process. And this was his response. Stetson, I know you didn't want to talk about the NFL. This game was over. This game's over.

The career's over. What do you want the NFL to know about you as they begin to scout you for that level? I don't know. I've been here long enough, I'm sure.

There's some game tape. I don't know. I'm a hard worker. Pretty good at football. Smart. But they'll see that.

I don't know. That'll take care of itself. Today, we're national champs. He's going to get his chance. Somebody's going to give him a chance to be on the team.

And let's see what he can do with it. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Gavin is here calling from Toronto. Beautiful Toronto. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Gavin?

Hey, Jay. I just want to talk about the game last night. I'm a huge TCU fan. Been TCU forever.

In Toronto? Yes. Well, my parents went to TCU. Well, my dad did. So, it goes back a little while.

Family ties. But it was quite positive. The worst game I've ever watched. I mean, I've watched some really bad TCU football games. But that was horrible. And I remember sitting on my couch. It was something like 35 to 7.

And I was thinking, Why couldn't this happen to anyone else? I'd rather have lost to Michigan than lose in this game like we did last night. It was embarrassing. You'd rather have lost to Michigan than even get to the playoff? The championship? 100%. If I knew it was going to finish 65 to 7, I would have 100% took a loss to JJ McCarthy and the Wolverines.

I got you, Gavin. Do you have any bit of confidence in your body that we will see TCU back in the playoff next year? Do you have any bit of confidence as such? I have no confidence considering the offense is going to be pretty stripped from what it was this year. I mean, Duggan's going to be gone. Johnson's going to be gone. I mean, Johnson wasn't really that good, this playoff especially.

But losing Duggan is a big one considering how big he was in late games this year. So I think next year is a good 8-4 season for sure. I'm not too excited about next year. We just heard Shep share the news that last night's game was one of the worst ratings.

What is it? ESPN said it was a record low for a championship game in the college football playoff era. Did you watch the entire game?

I'm not going to lie to you. Netflix was turned on after that 50-point route in the third quarter. Once it got to 50, I was like, I'm done. I can't watch this embarrassment anymore. It got way too bad.

Way too bad. You turned on Netflix and you watched Prince Harry and Meghan. Of course. What else am I going to watch? There's nothing else better.

Nothing else I'm looking forward to other than that. Okay, I get it. Well, thank you, Gavin. Appreciate you, man. No problem. Have a good one.

No doubt. He's like, yeah, yeah, I'm TCU. I'm in Toronto. I'm like, what?

I'm like, I get it. I know people. Listen, people sleep on Toronto. Shout out to everybody in Toronto. It's one of the biggest cities on this side of the earth.

It's one of the biggest cities on earth and is right next door to everybody here in the United States of America. I encourage everybody. You get a chance to go to Toronto. Go do it. Maybe not in the wintertime, though.

If you don't like the cold, it will whoop your ass. 855-212-4CBS. It's 855-212-4CBS. Lee is here from San Diego. What's up, Lee? You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, JR. How you doing, man? Excellent.

Great. I called you about a week ago and I was trying to talk a little smack about the Chargers and you shut me down pretty good, man. And I gotta admit, after that debacle in Denver, I just don't understand Brandon Staley and him putting his starters in there for the whole game when it was meaningless. And now I was watching Mike Williams. His back getting helped off the field. Right. And I don't even know if Joey Bose is going to be in there this week.

What the hell was he thinking? JR, what do you think of their chances in Jacksonville this weekend? Thank you.

I'm going with Jacksonville to win the game. Our sport brief show. Hey, JR. How you doing, man? Are you listening to me in the background? Well, what happened there?

Hey, oh. Hey, Shep, I think he got abducted by aliens. Yeah, that happens every now and then. Maybe he was just trying to interchannel his TCU and not show up. I heard him, and then I heard my voice, but not coming from me. And then I'm like, oh, now he's gone. Right. I don't know what happened there. Even that seemed less crazy than what happened last night.

Yeah, it did. Tim is calling from Maryland. You're on the JR sport brief show. What's up, Tim? Hey, JR. What's going on, brother? I'm good. How you doing? Well, I'm getting off work, heading home like always. Every time I call you, I'm heading home from work. This time I'm not getting in an accident, so that's a good thing. Let's try to stay away from those.

I'm happy that you're here with us. Hey, let me ask you something. What the heck is wrong with college football? I mean, do they actually have defenses in college football? I don't know. You know, you might want to tell me.

I don't know. Well, you can ask the Georgia Bulldogs. I mean, their defense last year was one of the best I've ever seen. I know, but I mean, I'm just saying, you know, it seems like every time I – and see, I'm not into college football, unfortunately.

I mean, or fortunately, however you want to look at it. But every time I hear about a college football team, it's like, you know, they're getting beat by like 50 points. It's like, do they have a defense? I mean, I don't understand. I don't get to college stuff.

I don't know. Well, there's levels to this. You know that, right? Like, you have the – you got the cream of the crop who are at the top of the game every year. And you have conferences.

Some are better than others. And then you go down to divisions. It's – you try to give other people a chance.

But there's no – there's levels. It's not like – I mean, come on. Even in the pros. Let's be real. I don't care if you're looking at like, oh, maybe that's not true. I'm trying to be nice here. In the NFL, we know some teams are better than others, but anybody can always be gotten. But at college football, there are – there are so many teams, so many conferences, so many different levels.

You're going to have some ass-whoopings more often than not, I'd say. Okay. All right. You're right. I mean, I don't know. Like I said, I don't follow college football, so I don't know. But you don't – you don't – you don't – you and Maryland, you don't like the Terps? You don't like nobody?

Oh, I love the Terps. I always follow my teams, but I just don't follow college football. I don't – you know what I mean?

Okay. I always root for my boys. Did you attempt to pay attention or listen to or watch the game last night?

Did you attempt? I actually – I was at work, so, you know, when I heard what the score was, I thought, you know, I thought, well, that's just another, you know, college football game. You know, it's like it's always 50 to nothing or 40 to nothing or, you know, it's like – You're making it sound like high school. We had two great games last weekend in college football.

The two teams that got here had two fun watches. Okay. Well, you know, I can't – I can't argue with you with that because you're a whole lot smarter than me, man, when it comes to this kind of thing.

Yeah, don't – don't hold your breath on that one. No, I just – I'm just – I don't know, man. I just – it just seems like – I mean, I'm probably wrong, but it just seems like every time I listen, you know, hear about a, you know, college football game, it's like, you know, the score is so crazy.

It sucks. Okay, we get it. I get it, Tim. I don't – Well, listen, you got to start watching some of the rivalry games and maybe you'll get into it, okay? Or maybe go to a tailgate. Well, you know what? Maybe I should do that. I don't know. I just – I don't know why. I've just never been into, you know – I've just never been into it.

Here's some advice. When Georgia plays the Gators, they're going to play them in Jacksonville. Go down to Jacksonville and go see that game, okay? The only time I've been to Jacksonville was I saw the Redskins play the Jaguars and we whipped their butt. That's the only time I've been to Jacksonville in my life.

You'll have a different experience if you go to the world's largest cocktail party. Tim, I appreciate you, man. Hey, thank you, brother.

All right, no doubt about it. Norm is calling from here in Georgia. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Norm? Hey, how are you doing?

I'm excellent. Three quick thoughts. Number one, ESPN should suffer the lowest ratings ever in the history of college football, dating back to Noah in the Ark, because you don't put it on network TV for the fans all over the country to see. Only those who have some money in their pockets and only those who are on some kind of cable system could see it. I was very disappointed that there was no college games to be found on television, so they should suffer low ratings and they should continue to suffer. It's been that way for a long time, Norm. It's been that way for a long time.

Yeah, but they need to change it. They need to get it out there where the average person can watch the game all across the country. If you were not from northern Georgia, you didn't care because you knew it was going to be a blowout.

And so the second thing is that, you know, being from Georgia, yeah, they won a second championship, but as far as the game itself, it was boring after five minutes. You wanted to turn over and watch some kind of Weather Channel or something. Do you like the Weather Channel? I like the Weather Channel. Well, I like the Weather Channel better than the other championship game because I could see the Weather Channel for free. I had to listen to the ball game on the radio. Of course, I'm just being fictitious about Weather Channel. But yeah, the game was in the background on the radio low while I did other things. Oh, no.

So no, I wouldn't really. What about me? You didn't listen to me? Well, I'm listening to you tonight. What about yesterday?

What about last night? Yeah. Oh, no.

Listen, I listened to the regular session out of Atlanta, the broadcast show at night. So, yeah, I listen to you all the time. Yeah, well, that's me. That's 99 the game. Yeah. Norm. Yeah. Well, the game was on a different channel that we won't mention.

It had the low ratings. Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about. I like you now, Norm. I like you. You're my guy.

OK, now listen, y'all do a great show and I enjoy listening to it and keep up the good work. But boring game. Doing this service to college football by having it. You know, if you're not willing to pay, you can't watch. Well, guess what? The ratings proved we're not going to watch. OK.

It was a crap game. Well, thank you, Norm. Appreciate you, man. Keep up the good work, man. Thank you.

Shout out to everybody in Georgia listening on 92.9 the game. He's right. And we are so used to this.

Well, I'm well, part of what he's saying is right, because we know. We are not going backwards when it comes to paying for television. We are not. We are not.

We are not going backwards. I wish because I don't want pay either. I wish we had more more programing on broadcast television.

But let's be honest and let's be real here. People, I would say most people somehow, some way are connected to the Internet. Like you, you, you, you're streaming something in your house. You either have if you don't, you got a cable box. I would I personally would love nothing more to run everything in my damn house through an antenna. Yes, an antenna. A matter of fact, I got a TV. I have one TV in my house that is still connected to only an antenna. It's connected to an antenna and a Super Nintendo. And I find great joy with my antenna getting every damn television station on Earth, or at least within, I don't know, a 100 mile radius to Atlanta.

I appreciate it. I can't get that through no stupid Apple TV and Roku. But we ain't going backwards, man. They're not going to give us more games on network television. I wish every Monday.

Well, I think they are. I wish every Monday Night Football game was back on network TV. I wish all the basketball games were on network.

How do you think they're making billions of dollars? We paying for it. ESPN.

Paramount this. SEC Network that. ESPN 8. Hulu 5.

You can throw net. Do top shows even come on the Internet on TV? Shep, what's the most popular TV show on network television? Do we even have one?

Not with This Is Us being out of the equation these days. Yeah, everything is on Netflix. Yeah? It's, it's, there's not, there used to be, everything used to be on network. Everything. I need a time machine. I'm sick of this crap. I want to go back to network TV. Let's get the Internet the hell of it. Let's go back to 1990, uh, 1997. Sound decent, Shep? 97?

Yeah, that sounds good. I mean, I'm thinking what? I mean, like you talk about the Yellowstone's of the world. And I mean, those are all obviously stream, stream now. You don't watch those on television.

I don't know what the hell a Yellowstone is. Well, that's, it's, I can't believe I'm saying this, but that's the most popular show right now in America. On, it's on network television? No, no, it's not.

No, of course not. Oh. What is, what comes on network TV? The news? The news and Wendy Williams. We still have The View.

I don't know if you watched that. Who? The View. Oh, well, God bless Barbara Walters.

Right, right, right. The View is probably about to get cancelled, I mean. You think so? Uh, Barbara Walters show? Barbara not here. But, but yeah, she hasn't been on that show in a while though. Yeah, she wasn't on the show, but it's hers. Yeah, you think ABC held onto it just to pay homage to Barbara Walters? I think so. The View will not be on TV in no more than five years.

Oh, I don't know. It's an institution though. We said the same, I mean, I'll tell you what else is big. Um, on network TV still, SNL, as long as Lorne Michaels is still alive and running SNL, they're still gonna be big. I feel like SNL gets more from digital. Yeah, they do really well ratings wise.

There's a reason they're going on year 50 soon. Okay, so the local news, The View and Saturday Night Live. Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to, I mean, I don't, I'm trying to think Dateline, 2020, obviously.

What? Okay, I mean, news programs. You know what's big, honestly, has a huge audience? Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil, the People's Court, The Price is Right, and your local news.

These are daytime, these are daytime programming though. Yeah, it'd be nice if we had real shows that were free, but we ain't, people, people gotta pay for television. And speaking of paying, I'm gonna get to your calls on the other side of the break.

855-212-4CBS. Yeah, I wish we had more sports on broadcast television instead of having to pay for everything, but that ain't happening. And speaking of paying, you are listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Hey JR, thanks for taking my call. You have a great show.

I listen to you on my midnight shift every night. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. 855-212-4CBS. We learned that last night's national championship game was the worst rated championship game since the college football playoff.

I believe that's the new iteration of it. And you can also get a hold of me online, social media, at JR Sport Brief. We were talking about just terrible games, ass whoopings, and just tough games to watch.

Shoutouts to Christo. I had mentioned Germany beating up Brazil 7-1. He corrected me, and he's right.

This was actually, or that was, in the semifinals and not the final. And some of the other tweets that I'm receiving are about how there are actually still decent programming on network television. What do I know?

I don't know. I'm not sitting around watching TV. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. Rizzo's calling from Pittsburgh. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. What's up, Rizzo? Hey, good evening. Happy New Year. To you as well, Rizzo.

What's up? Hey, I'm a Pittsburgher, a 30-year season ticket holder for the Steelers. And today we're going to talk about Tomlin tonight. And a big fan here. I know that all these people in town that say 9 and 8, we're going to let them go.

And it's time to move on. The word is still, that dude will have a job in 10 seconds the second the Steelers decide to let him go, which they won't. And that's going to be a big part of my take. So if anybody paid attention to the Steelers over the years, Art Rooney was the chief.

Everybody knows that. And Dan Rooney was the pinnacle of the ownership in the NFL. What people don't really talk about and understand is that, you know, Art Jr. has been in charge now for the last seven, eight years since the Steelers haven't won anything. And Mike Tomlin is completely 100 percent in charge of the entire franchise top to bottom.

Kind of ran Colbert out. And what the main point I wanted to make in all this is that, you know, Mike makes his coordinator choices. And I think those have been the downfall of his career and especially the last six or seven years. Kind of just kind of been stuck with guys that are just not the epitome of the NFL and what young, smart coordinators are.

And I think that's what's held them back to the 9 and 8 records and him getting to 500, but not getting over the edge and winning playoff games. And go ahead. No, I was going to say, I'm good. I love your reply and I got a little bit more after you're done, but I love your reply. Thank you. Well, thank you, Rizzo. You would know much more being in Pittsburgh. Shout out to all my folks in Pittsburgh.

What's up, Zeis? But the fact is, man, we can talk about the coordinators. Am I running around looking at every single coordinator for every single team?

Hell, no. But I certainly hear what people have to say about Matt Canada. And I think for a long time I've watched the Steelers, maybe not as intricately as you have, probably not being a fan. When I look at the Steelers, I think it really boils down, if you want to talk about recent years, like teams go through life cycles and it's something to actually look at as a positive.

When you have Mike Tomlin here taking over for Cower, it's been 16 years now and he still hasn't had a losing season. Now, can we pin that on the fact that he's had strong defenses and Hall of Fame players? Yes.

Is he a part of a great structure of an organization? Yes. Has he had a quarterback there who is a pinata, a dude who was tough as nails?

Yes. We can go down the list and look at the success of the Steelers. But that doesn't mean that Mike Tomlin did not contribute. Like you still have to have a dude who can go out there who the players want to play for and that they absolutely respect.

And so I can't get into the weeds about every coordinator and every decision. I look at the dudes on the field first and we know for a long time here, maybe for the past several years, that Ben Roethlisberger, he was like the milk at the back of the fridge. And it's just like, what are you going to do with him? He's not spoiled bread. You know, you got to just completely dump him.

You can't feed it to the birds. So I'm not going to fault Mike Tomlin on that. And I'm not going to look at his hiring practices. I'm going to look at, hey, we got a Hall of Fame quarterback here. And I think most teams will always have a Hall of Fame QB at the end of it. They end up holding the bags and the fact that you got Kenny Pickett here and then he was turning the ball over all over the damn place to start the year. And he has one turnover to finish the season. I think that's progress for a team that's rebuilding. I thought the Steelers were going to be worse than this.

Yeah, so great points, all great points. My rebuttal to that would be, you know, we've the last probably one, two, three since since they ran Han Haley out of town, who was a guy that made questionable, probably big ego calls in the red zone and really pissed everybody off and ended up possibly losing his job over that. But the offense had blow and moved. They went to Randy Finkner under that. That was an internal guy that was promoted.

Then they went to Canada after that. That was an internal guy that was promoted on the defensive side. Since Dick LeBeau, who's possibly one of the greatest defensive minds of all time. Since he was gone, you know, they promoted Butler internally.

They never went outside the organization. So what I'm going to agree with you 100 percent is that I think Tomlin did a knockout job getting that team to 500 this year. But in my opinion, I think he runs the entire franchise. And my point was, is that our junior is not Dan Rooney. Our junior lets Mike make all his decisions.

And that's OK. But the bottom line is that they have never had a coordinator that's ever left Pittsburgh and had another job in the NFL. And Mike needs to own that a little bit. And I think this time around, if he chooses to keep Canada around, I believe that he might be putting himself back in a situation where they can end up right back around a 10-win team next year.

Well, I think we need to give it a little time. Mike Tomlin didn't have to, quote unquote, build a team. And now he's been in the process. You mentioned Todd Haley.

That's been quite a few years. Now we're moving into a space where he doesn't have a quarterback. He didn't have one.

He's not inheriting anything. He's starting from scratch. And so if this continues to be complete ass or downward trend over the next several years, by all stretch of the imagination, beat up on on Mike Tomlin. But I think give it a few years, because everything that you just said, I find to be more so about the personnel who was on the field, as opposed to the dudes who were calling the plays. And now that he is more senior and he's not the baby faced fresh new guy here running the team. Hey, I think he understands and knows that the ball is in his court. And if it starts thinking over the next few years, I think he is going to hear about it.

But for so far, I commend him for what he's done, especially in a transition period. Rizzo, I appreciate you for calling up from Pittsburgh. Eight five five two one two four CBS.

That's eight five five two one two four CBS. I'm going to get some more of your calls on the other side. And speaking of Mike Tomlin, he had some positive words to say about his team.

We'll hear that on the other side, too. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio. I appreciate you. I'm grateful for your brand of sports. You are the best and I appreciate you keeping us entertained, informed with your hard hitting and beautiful style of sports.

Call in now at eight five five two one two four CBS. Before the break, we were talking about Mike Tomlin and how with a young rookie and Kenny Pickett, who was turning the ball over to everybody, we saw progression as the year went on. And I am shocked. I personally am surprised at the Steelers. Yeah, they didn't make the playoffs, but they finished with a record of nine and eight. This is 16 years that Mike Tomlin has led this franchise and the Steelers have yet to have a losing season.

And they're in transition right now. OK, we're not looking at old, old as dirt, dusty Ben Roethlisberger. We've seen big names come and go. And this is a this is about to be a new era, hopefully a new generation of Steelers of Steeler players that are out there.

And so I think we just have to chill out a little bit on. You know what, maybe they're in a transitional phase and they've been in that space for the past few years, even with Ben Roethlisberger. I mean, he's had to deal with injuries basically on his way out the door.

And now he's sitting around doing a podcast like a lot of guys. Matter of fact, Mike Tomlin is what he had to say about his young team. He's proud of him.

We were evolving group and that evolution continued even into today. But I'm just appreciative of the collective. I'm appreciative of the men are not what they're capable of, what they're willing to do in the face of adversity, man. That football presents in the face of adversity that life presents. And that was Mike Tomlin after they beat Cleveland 28 to 14 to close out the year. And Mike Mike Tomlin makes me want to play football. He does like he's one of the rare coaches. He connects with his guys. They appreciate him. They love him. The way you hear his former players talk about him. He makes you want to run through a wall and even listening to.

And he's not someone who sits around and does a lot of talking. But he's done some interviews recently, especially with Ryan Clark. It was it was a must listen. Go go check that out.

I believe it was from early last year. 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. Russell is here from Rochester. You're on CBS Sports Radio.

Hey, how you going, guys? Two things as a Pittsburgh fan that does not live in Pittsburgh. I'm from New York City originally. I'm trying to understand why native Pittsburgh. I didn't say anything you. Oh, OK.

Sorry. So I'm trying to understand why native Pittsburgh fans keep trying to find fault in Mike Tomlin. I don't understand being from New York City. I'm surrounded by, you know, dumpster fires. You just pick one, whether it's football, basketball, baseball. So so to see the consistency in the Pittsburgh Steelers and not appreciate that baffles me. I don't I don't get it.

People. We've been here before, I think. I know you said you're you're you're in Rochester. I love Rochester, by the way.

I also love New York. Think. Are you a Yankee fan or a Mets fan? Well, you kind of have to be a old. Yeah.

Yankees. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you don't have to be.

Nobody's holding the gun. Yeah, you don't have to be. But it's kind of like the fact is that we got a lot of Yankee fans. Granted, they haven't won a championship since oh, nine. But every year it's like how many games have they went up?

Just only ninety five and went to the playoffs again. And people get spoiled. And so when you have the Steelers, there's an expectation. There's a lot of people who don't remember when the Steelers were actually trash. You know, so you want to ask why do people talk about Mike Tomlin like this and don't appreciate it? Because they're they're used to they used to it.

They don't appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. People don't realize that the blueprint was actually for Dwayne Haskins to possibly. Rest in peace to Dwayne Haskins was to possibly start this season. He had a promising preseason. And if it wasn't for what happened to him, you know, we might have not even seen Pickett play. So for Pickett to pick it to pick up the playbook over the course of a season and to still come out over five hundred to me is a win. I thought he was eventually going to get the chance to especially the fact of where they draft.

I don't think they drafted him as a charity, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

But what else? You said something else, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Second thing is and I and I credit this to to Greg Popovich. I just wanted your opinion on this. I think we're coming into the era of sports with the with the Greg Popovich philosophy of resting your veterans and putting all the chips in for the postseason. I think other sports leads and teams are going to start trying to follow that.

And I think maybe maybe the Rams could have I don't know if it would work, but maybe they could have tried that approach. It's like I think we're seeing in the NBA, I think. Well, just just in the NBA specifically, I think we're seeing we're stepping into a time where the regular season is going to be for bench players. Well, we've I think and thank you, Russell. I'm going to respond to you.

Appreciate you. I think we've already been there for like 10 years now and like the NBA has tried to incentivize guys playing in the regular season and they they don't like what's going on with the Clippers? Like, I don't know. I have no interest in the Clippers. How many fans actually have an interest hardcore in the regular season? Every game, every second, I feel like and I could be wrong. The majority of NBA fans, if I have to think about it from a global perspective, people are looking at the stats, the numbers, the fantasy, the highlights. How many people are legitimately sitting down watching all 82 plus 82? I mean, not plus 82, but 82 games for your favorite team. And then you're watching a whole bunch of other games and you're going to be that invested, especially when these dudes aren't playing.

It's it's tough. Eight, five, five, two and two for CBS. But it ain't going to happen to no other sport. You can't half ass football. They happen in baseball. They play more games in the NBA, double the amount.

But that's an NBA problem and they have no idea how to fix it. I'll talk about that more as well. Greg is here from California. You're on CBS Sports Radio. How you doing, J.R.? I'm good, Greg.

What's up? I want to give you some confidence back in network television, because I think there's four shows that are kind of legit and might stick around in no particular order. That's OK. OK. Shark Tank, Pawn Stars, 60 Minutes and Jeopardy. Pawn Stars comes on network television?

Yeah. And they have a side show, Pawn Stars Do America, where they go to different cities now. I thought Pawn Stars was like I thought that was like Discovery or A&E or something. Yeah, but it's OK. So I mean cable television, not like streamed.

Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm not talking about cable. I'm talking about free over the air television that all you need is an antenna.

Oh, gotcha. OK, well then take out Pawn Stars. Yeah, not Pawn Stars. Everybody knows Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, all these things and syndication.

Yeah, they've been around forever. Ain't going anywhere, but you kind of... Shark Tank? You kind of proved my point. Yeah, Shark Tank comes on ABC. Shout outs to Damon John.

Hell yeah. Yeah, but you kind of proved my point. You gave me four shows and one of them, you told me, what does it come on, A&E or something? History Channel, I think. Oh, see, History Channel. You got to pay for that.

Touché. Yeah, we're talking free. Free, Greg. Shark Tank. Let's go with Shark Tank. OK, I can dig it.

Thank you. And I know they also come on cable. I'm talking free. Like ABC World News Tonight, free. The Simpsons, I don't know who watches The Simpsons, but free. Jeopardy, free. Wheel of Fortune, free. The Price is Right, free. I haven't watched The Price is Right since Bob Barker passed.

Hey, shut up. He's been going what? Has he been going 10 years yet?

Bob Barker? Yeah. Are we still alive? Still alive. In what world?

Not this one. No, Bob Barker? Bob Barker is definitely still alive.

From The Price is Right? Yes, sir. He's 99, but he's still alive. No, he's not. I'm positive he's still alive. Trust me, man. Damn, he is alive.

I'm going to talk about this on the other side of CBS Sports Radio. Let therapy help empower you. Visit betterhelp.com slash positive to get 10 percent off your first month.

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