JR SportBrief Hour 1

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It is the JR Sport Brief show on CBS Sports Radio. Happy to be here with you on another Monday night. I hope you had a good weekend. Hope you had a good Monday. I'm going to be here with you for the next four hours, regardless of how your time was spent.

Okay? A big shout out to super producer and host Dave Shepherd. I am coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia.

He is coming to you live from New York City. And at this moment, live from Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Lakers. They're refusing to quit. They're refusing to go home. Or should I say LeBron James is refusing to be eliminated tonight. Plenty of time to go in the game. They're currently at halftime. And the Lakers lead 73 to 58. LeBron James has scored 31 points here in the first half to keep the Lakers alive. He played every minute of every second here of the first half.

All 24 minutes. He is almost perfect from the field. 11 of 13.

He is perfect from downtown. 4 of 4. So LeBron James with the Lakers having their backs all the way up against the wall. They're up against the wall. They're being pinned up against the wall.

The bully is trying to shake the last bit of change out. LeBron James is refusing to go anywhere. Nikola Jokic has 10 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds. Jamal Murray has 15 points here for the Denver Nuggets.

And so we will definitely keep you up to date with this game as it continues on. The Los Angeles Lakers at home in LA trying to fight off elimination tonight at the hands of the Nuggets. Last night was a crap show in the NBA down in Miami. Especially if you were a fan of the Boston Celtics as they were pretty much smacked by the heat. And they also have their backs up against the wall. And it looks like they have just pretty much quit. And so we'll update you on the Lakers in a few minutes. We'll talk about the Celtics. We've had a busy weekend in the world of sports.

A busy day today as well. It's been announced that Tom Brady will be buying into the Las Vegas Raiders. And that he needs approval for it. Ben Roethlisberger shared on his latest podcast that he wasn't a fan of Kenny Pickett. And was actually rooting for him to fail in his first season as a stealer.

And that was pretty wild. Brooks Koepka, he won the PGA Championship yesterday. Jim Irsay was busy on social media over the weekend deciding to tell everybody, like somebody asked, who his top 5 NFL players of all time were. And then we had an announcement from Carmelo Anthony earlier this morning. That Carmelo is done.

He's retiring. And we will talk about that next hour. And so we got a lot to do. Nick Nurse's name popped up and some coaching possibilities.

It's just wild all over the place. We learned that Green Bay is actually going to get its hands on the NFL Draft next year. So yeah, NFL Draft about a month ago in Kansas City.

Next year, the NFL Draft is going to take place in Green Bay, Wisconsin. So a lot of fun. Hey Shep, how was your Monday? It was good, Jared. Thank you for asking.

How was yours? And isn't it refreshing to see a superstar not quit at the end of a series? Oh, you're talking about LeBron? Yeah, as opposed to the other guy. Oh, okay, Shep. That's why I was confused. I'm like, I just asked you how you were doing.

I had to connect Dotsie. I'm like... My bad, Jared. This is so nice to see a player have pride and go out with a fight. How refreshing is that for a change? It is a nice shot. But I'm glad you had a great Monday. You did, my friend.

Thank you, Jared. How was your weekend, man? How was WFAN? How was everything in your life?

WFAN was fine, man. Thank you. Good for good. Always good to talk to my folks in New York City.

So it was very well, thank you. If you want to talk to me anytime, the weekend, a Sunday, a Monday, a Tuesday, or whenever I feel like it, you can find me online. I am on social media everywhere. That is at JR Sport Brief.

That is Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. If you follow me there, you pretty much already know everything that we will go ahead and discuss tonight. And speaking of my weekend, I certainly did, like probably some of you, all of you, many of you, whatever the case might be. I sat down and watched basketball over the weekend. I'll tell you one thing I did not watch because it was garbage. I ain't watched, I'll be honest, I didn't watch the Celtics in the Miami Heat yesterday. Every time I tuned in, the Boston Celtics were getting their asses whooped. They gave up. They quit.

128 to 102 was the final score. And my thought process here surrounding the Celtics has not changed about them and their talent as a team. Now, it's without a shadow of a doubt here that they're getting beat by a better team right now in the Miami Heat, who, I don't know, and if you could be a Miami Heat fan and you could swear up and down you knew that they were going to be here and this and that.

Look, they deserve everything that they are getting right now. The Celtics, all things considered, have no business being beat by Gabe Vincent. He had 29 points last night. Duncan Robinson, who for the better part of a year now since the emergence of Max Troos, Duncan Robinson has been in cobwebs, mothballs.

They have stuffed this dude up into the attic and he's needed to get dusted off. He had 22 points. And he's really only playing because Tyler Herro's been out with that busted hand. Caleb Martin had 18 points.

Jimmy Butler didn't have to go out there and send or deliver the world. He had 16 points. Bam Adebayo had 13. The Miami Heat shot 57% from the field overall.

They led by 33 points at one time. I said, I'm not watching this crap. And every time I looked over, Tatum looked miserable. Brown looked miserable. And I guess if I only had 13 points like Tatum, and I had 12 points like Brown, or I had zero points like Malcolm Brogdon, the sixth man of the year, I'd be sad too. The Celtics gave up those two home games, those fourth quarter collapses. The defense has been garbage. Jalen Brown is two of 20 from downtown, just stopped shooting them. And the two superstars are getting outplayed by Gabe Vincent and Duncan Robinson.

What world is this? And the worst part of it all is that Joe Mazzulla, a first year head coach, he has to sit on the sword publicly for the team. But everybody knows what has taken place. It partially is your fault. But effort, that's something that nobody can ever coach.

You either have it or you do not, especially at this level. And so Joe Mazzulla, he was asked last night, just all over the place in many different forms and fashions, who the hell is to blame for this beat down? Yeah, I just didn't have him ready to play. I should have, whatever it was, whether it was the starting lineup or it was an adjustment, just I have to get them in a better place, ready to play.

That's on me. They asked that man that question about five, six different times, and he pretty much delivered the same answer every time. I mean, even moving forward, knowing that they are now down 0-3, and I'm sure you've heard this plenty of times today, in NBA history, 149 teams have gone down into an 0-3 hole. No team has ever come back. There have been three teams to push it to a game seven, and they didn't win either.

No one has ever come back down from 0-3. And so Joe Mazzulla, he was also asked, so what the hell y'all do, you know, moving forward? What do you do tomorrow?

And this is what he said. I think the most important thing is just sticking together, and then I have to be better. I've got to put them in better positions. I've got to get them ready to play. You know, I have to have the game plan ready for us to be physical and to execute, and you know, it's important that we stick together. Okay.

Yeah. He's reading out of a handbook at this time, because there are no answers. His strategies haven't worked. The defense is not as good with Imei Udonka, and the players, yeah, they've quit on the dude. They don't believe in him.

They don't believe that he could help turn things around. But at the same time, at what point do you take accountability? I mean, they're easily saying, hey, we're not doing the best.

Is that it? Do you give a damn about the coach? Everybody was so mad on Friday night about Grant Williams, quote, unquote, poking the bear. Are they equally as upset about their own performance?

Let's go to Jalen Brown, two of 20 from downtown in the whole series. Let's ask him, what's going wrong here? I don't even know where to start. It's an obvious letdown. I feel like we let our fan base organization down, we let ourselves down, and it was collective. We can point fingers, but in reality, it was just embarrassing.

It's just embarrassing for all of us, right? Okay, Jason Tatum, what about you? You only had 13 points in this blowout.

What about you? What happened in game three? From the beginning of the game, we was turning the ball over. We didn't shoot the ball well. They shot the ball extremely well. And it just kind of felt like we never recovered, honestly.

And that's on all of us as a unit. We didn't play well at all. Obviously, by the score, it showed. Yeah, well, the final score showed it all.

128 to 102. So you heard from Brown. You heard from Tatum.

Over and over again, you heard the same answer from Joe Missoula. How about Twitter's greatest detective, Twitter's greatest coach, one of the greatest point guards, if not the greatest point guard of all time. Los Angeles Laker Magic Johnson put in his two cents. Somebody wrote this for him, which makes it even funnier. Had it pretty much dictated.

Someone does dictate his tweets for him, by the way. Magic Johnson says, In my 44 years of being associated with the NBA, I never thought I'd see a Boston Celtics team, a franchise with 17 championships. Quit. I know Celtic fans all over the world must be disgusted and devastated. The Miami Heat blew them out. 128-102 in game three. Thank you very much, Magic Johnson. Now, I don't know if that's Magic the Laker Johnson trying to put a stamp on the Celtics, but you don't got to be Magic Johnson. You could be anyone who just enjoys basketball, and you will have seen the crap that they put there on the floor. The Celtics deserve to lose.

They really do. There's no other way. They quit. I told you Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin, they're out playing all NBA talents in Brown and Tatum, MVP caliber talent in Tatum. And so Gabe Vincent, who I don't think I've ever heard speak in my life, he actually spoke after the game, and he says, You know what? I'm just trying to be like Coach out there on the floor. I'm trying to listen to what Coach tells me to do.

Maybe the Celtics can learn. A lot of it is basketball related, whether it's where we're trying to get the ball, what set we're going to run, if he sees something, something he wants me to do, or even just share it with somebody else. If Bam can't hear him down the court, he needs me to tell Bam something. So I just try to be a voice for him on the court.

If there's something that he needs me to relay, and we just go from there. Well, let's not hear from his voice. He wants to be a voice for Coach Spolstra on the court. What does Coach Spolstra think about where the Miami Heat currently stand? One victory away from going back to another NBA Finals.

That was a solid, mature, professional approach. There's a lot of pent-up stuff here, and we're getting closer, but we still have to finish this off. Job's not done, right?

Still have to finish this off. I think the Boston Celtics have done their part by basically laying down here. And the Miami Heat, they've just beat the will out of them, man. And so Joe Mazzola and all of his experience, or his lack of experience, it's showing here in the most inopportune of times. The Boston Celtics have been up and down and up and down all season long.

Malcolm Brogdon pretty much said as well, we didn't have consistency all year. And I don't know, do you want to call it a miracle that they've been able to go or get this far just based on talent alone? I expected for the Celtics to go out there and win this series.

But it seems that all of the warts and the ups and the downs are finally showing right now. And the Miami Heat are taking advantage. The Miami Heat have gotten hot at the best possible time. Let's remember, this is a Miami Heat team that lost to the Hawks in the first play-in game. The Hawks said, okay, thank you, we got this, and they went into the playoffs. The Miami Heat had to go out there and play a second play-in game against the Chicago Bulls.

And it didn't look like they were even going to win that game until the end. The Miami Heat were steps away from watching at home just like everybody else. And then they went through the Bucks. Okay, somebody named Giannis had a back injury, but they snatched them up. They went through the New York Knicks. Damn it, and right now they are going and blowing through the Boston Celtics.

And you could consider this revenge for what took place last year. The Miami Heat were trying to go back to the NBA Finals. And they took the Celtics to a Game 7 that they lost in heartbreaking fashion. It was a Sunday evening, I remember it very, very clearly.

It was Memorial Day weekend. And after they were eliminated, let's go back a full year. Jimmy Butler sat in front of the media.

He sat at a table in front of a step and repeat. And Jimmy Butler pretty much said, we'll be back and we're going to win. This is Jimmy Butler after the elimination from last year. So we had enough. Next year we will have enough. And we're going to be right back in the same situation. And we're going to get it done.

That was a year ago. And the Miami Heat are now one game away from getting it done. And the Celtics have done their part. They have lied down. They have gotten the bed.

They've turned over and they have pulled the covers over their head. Celtics are finished. If they show up and give any type of a fight, then good on them. But the next conversation in about a week's time, probably less than that, is going to be about what happens next for the Boston Celtics. What do you do with Joe Mazzulla?

Does he get fired? What do you do with Tatum and Brown? Are you going to pay Brown all of the money that he wants? Approximately approaching $300 million. Not after this performance.

Something's going to have to change in Boston. And I think I have a very good idea as to what it will be. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We are just getting started here. The Lakers and the Nuggets still going at it. Nuggets now having a lead, 82-81 in the third. We'll talk about that game.

We'll take your calls on the Celtics in the heat as the night continues on. Ben Roethlisberger jealous of a rookie. Jim Irsay being old and crotchety.

Tom Brady got a deal with the Raiders. We'll talk about that. There's plenty to do. We're just getting started. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

Music. JR wants to hear from you. Call him now at 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4227. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. The Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers are kind of going blow for blow right now. 88-85, the Denver Nuggets now lead the Lakers. LeBron James with 33 points trying to ward off elimination. We'll keep you up to date with that game as it continues to roll on. Right before we went to break, we talked about a game that was going on around this time.

Last night. And at this point it was already a blowout. It was the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat. And the Miami Heat down in South Beach giving them just a spanking.

That's what it was. 128-102 was the final score. Gabe Vincent lighting it up. Duncan Robinson lighting it up. Caleb Martin lighting it up. Out playing Tatum and Brown.

The Denver Celtics are now in an 0-3 hole. The phone lines are open. That's 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS.

You know, before I pick up the phone lines, I do want to let you know about someone that did get a job done yesterday. And it has nothing to do with dribbling a basketball or shooting shots. But Brooks Koepka just won the PGA Championship. It's the third time he's done it. 2018, 2019.

2019 probably the best year of his career. And he has now won five majors. And this is a big point here because the trophy celebration afterwards was pretty awkward. Because he's the first player to win a major championship while playing in the Live Golf League. Remember, Brooks Koepka no longer on the PGA Tour. He's over here playing for Live Golf.

And so when it came time to shake hands and pose for photos, it was a little awkward there yesterday. So Brooks Koepka picking up his fifth major in unique fashion. And afterwards, he spoke and he said, not winning the Masters helped me out yesterday, Sunday. And take a listen to what else he had to say. I definitely wouldn't have, I don't think, won today if that didn't happen, right?

I would definitely take it and keep using it going forward for each event, each major. Anytime I'm in contention, but I'm not going to share. I can't give away all the secrets. Okay, he ain't going to give away all his secrets. He also said that the win yesterday was for him. He says he didn't want to talk about Live Golf. He didn't want to get into all of the, yeah, I'm the first guy to win a major here with Live.

He wanted to be all about himself. Good for him for actually going out there and winning. 855-212-4CBS, that's 855-212-4CBS. Adam is calling from Toronto. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. What's up, Adam? Hey, JR, can you hear me okay? I can hear you loud and clear. What's on your mind?

Awesome, awesome, man. I got two quick points and then I'll hang up and listen. Look, after game six, was it in Philly? Tatum went up to the mic and he said he's humbly one of the best players in the world. He's talking about believing in himself. He's got to retract that statement. If you're one of the best players in the world, you do not come out the next series and look dead the way you do. It really is a shame. When you're a Boston Celtic, I feel like you have a responsibility. You're playing for one of the most historic organizations in all of sport. To come out and look the way that everyone has looked, it's a bad look. It's a shame because that team has all the talent in the world. It looks terrible right now.

My other point is that I've been on Twitter earlier today. I saw multiple, multiple people saying how if it's a Nuggets heat finals, which it's going to be, how it's going to be low TV range and how it's going to be boring. I don't understand how anyone can say that this final is going to be boring. Look, you have one of the best big men in the world, one of the best big men of all time in Jokic, who's never been to a final.

You have a kid who is just 45 minutes away from where I am right now who grew up in Kitchener, Ontario, who is an elite lights-out scorer, a certified bucket-getter. You have them going up against Michael Jordan Jr., it seems like himself, and Jimmy Butler. I'm really looking forward to this final. I think it's going to be six or seven games. I think that it's going to be super close. It's going to be a very gritty series. It's going to be a hard fought to the end, man.

I'm really looking forward to this final. I don't know what people are talking about, JR. Well, let me respond to that. Thank you, Adam, for calling from Toronto.

Thank you, Shep. Jason Tatum had 14 points, not 13. I'm sparing him a point there. And then for Adam's point, the audio that Tatum, well, the piece where Tatum said, I am one of the best, is when he helped save their season, dropping 50-plus in the game seven.

This is actually Tatum on ESPN after that W from the last series. I'm one of the humbly, one of the best basketball players in the world. You know, go through struggles, go through slumps. It's a long game. Thankfully, I got some great teammates that held it down. Brogdon, JB, Smart, Al. And they all trust me, right?

They tell me, keep taking great looks, it's going to fall. Keep impacting the game in other ways. And all that mattered was we won this game, right?

Give ourselves another chance, come back home, you know, for game seven. Okay. Yeah, you're right. He ain't playing like one of the best players in the world. Certainly not right now. But I would still say that he is.

If he wants to adjust or change it and say you're one of the most talented. But unfortunately, he hasn't been able to consistently put it together. Certainly not now. Not at all. It's pretty pathetic.

It looks terrible. He's capable of going out in any game and dropping 50, but string it together. I think so many of these players, their offense is predicated on jump shot this and long ball this.

If it's not falling down, what else you got? What else are you going to go to? And so we know that Tatum and Brown and the Celtics have pretty much given up on on their head coach.

And for the latter portion or part of what you asked. For the NBA finals to be moving towards the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets and where's the excitement? Yeah. If you like basketball, if you care about the basketball and less about the storylines, if you're not interested in the razzle dazzle, then this this series is going to be great. But if you're in the entertainment business, there's nothing exciting about Jokic.

There's no aura of, oh, my God, he's a personality. He's not mainstream. You talk about Jamal Murray still coming off of his injury. You know, he's elevating his game publicly now post injury to another place and with the stakes or where the stakes are the highest.

Hey, just let me wake up and drop 30 plus. You know, people will pay attention. The man hasn't even been an all star yet. You look at Jimmy Butler and then you look at some of the names that I mentioned.

Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin. These are the names in the NBA finals who are going to be out there contributing. And so if you love and care about basketball, yes, this is going to be a fun watch.

I'm looking forward to it. But if you are just trying to, you know, sell the general public, sell the casual fan, you can say, look at this guy, Jokic. And he's so exciting. He's so different.

You can sell it. But there's a difference between selling that and saying, hey, here's LeBron James. Everybody in America knows LeBron James. There's a difference between that and saying Lakers versus Celtics. If you have any idea about basketball over the past 40 plus years, 50 years, you know, Lakers and Celtics is where it's at. And a lot of fans all over the country. You got a lot of Laker fans. You got a lot of Celtic fans.

Man, it's a race to 18 at this point in time when it comes down to titles. And so that's that's something that people are used to. The Denver Nuggets have never even been to a finals. Basketball wise, yes, exciting.

Bringing in casual folks. No, not so much. There's no history there. And the Miami Heat, all things considered, about 35, 36, 37 years old.

They got a lot of recent history, but they don't go back as far as the Minneapolis Lakers or the Celtics. So let's let's slow down. Can I ask you a question? Ask me and then we'll go to break.

Sounds good. So if you look at the last two months of basketball, if you had to pick two players in the world and say everything is on the line, the stakes are at the most premium. I need two guys to win me a series. I'm thinking number one is Nikola Jokic.

And I'm thinking number two is Jimmy Butler. And that's who we're going to get in the NBA finals. I think that's a beautiful thing. Would you agree with that? Would I agree with what? That if you had to win a championship right now, the last two months of basketball, the two best players on planet Earth have been Nikola Jokic number one and Jimmy Butler number two.

And that's who is going to be squaring up in about two weeks from now. Well, answer you on the other side of the break. Good deal. Well, that works for me, J.R. Good deal. It's the J.R. sport re-show on CBS Sports Radio 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. It's 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. I'm going to answer that question from Shep.

And speaking of what people want to root for, possibly rooting against this NBA finals, Ben Roethlisberger, I'll tell you, someone that he was rooting against, he really had no skin in the game outside of his own ego. We'll get into that. I'll answer Shep's question. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio. Hi, J.R., pleasure to speak to you. You know, just recently discovered your show a few weeks ago. And just got to tell you that you've got a very easy listening style. Call in now at 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. I try to keep it easy like Sunday morning. The Sunday mornings are supposed to be easy. I try to keep it that way every single week night. It's the J.R. sport brief show on CBS Sports Radio.

I don't know. Not looking good for the Lakers. Still plenty of time. About 8 minutes, 8 and a half minutes left in the game. Denver leads 98 to 96 at one point in time.

And it just moved it to 100. At one point in time, the Denver Nuggets, they were down by 15 points. And so the Lakers trying to stay alive. Lebron James, 38 points. Just trying to carry and shoulder the load all by himself. Even at halftime, Lebron James had 31.

So not necessarily able to keep up on the same pace, but still trying to keep them alive. Nikolai Jokic already with a triple-double. What else is new? 23 points, 14 rebounds, and 12 points. And right before we went to break, Shep asked me a question looking at the last two months of basketball. If you needed to go into a do-or-die scenario, you needed to win a game, who would you select? And he named Nikolai Jokic and Jimmy Butler. And I think without a shadow of a doubt, it is these two dudes.

Nikolai Jokic just won the MVP. Jimmy Butler has proven throughout the course of his career and the course of his life that he is not going to be denied and that he will outwork you. I would go ahead and put Jimmy Butler there first.

I don't think it is too much of a discrepancy to go who's one or two. They're both willing to go out and do whatever it takes to win a ballgame. I mean, even last night in the blowout with the Miami Heat, it's not like Jimmy Butler woke up and said, boom, guys, here's 38, 37 points. Jimmy Butler only had 16 points in a win. And the next game, it might be required for him to go for 35 or 37. And so in the NBA Finals with these two, man, I certainly hope it's a damn good matchup.

I think it would be. And an interesting wrinkle that we've heard that I did not think would come to fruition would be whether or not you have Tyler Herro back from your first game. I have Tyler Herro back from game two when he broke his hand against the Milwaukee Bucks. We heard up and down Tyler Herro out for the playoffs. I fully assumed like most he's done because if the only condition is he returns for the NBA Finals, what are the odds that the Miami Heat would be doing that?

And pretty much here we are. And to try and fit him back in, I think you have to take the approach of don't fix it if it ain't broke. And so Tyler Herro, unless there is an emergency or you want to try to sprinkle him back in, roll with the dudes who got you here. Gabe Vinson, Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin, Kyle Lowry from time to time. The Miami Heat are just throwing body after body after body, undrafted, unheralded body at you. And teams are not getting the job done. And it's a credit to Colt Spolstra in addition to Pat Riley. So good on them as they're trying to get the Celtics the hell up on out of here as soon as tomorrow.

Speaking of getting somebody the hell up on out of here, this was interesting. We'll talk about Carmelo Anthony and his retirement. Ben Roethlisberger just completed pretty much his first year out of the NFL. And so what has Ben Roethlisberger been up to? He does what a lot of retired athletes get into. He's sitting around doing a podcast. And Ben Roethlisberger actually had Kenny Pickett on his podcast. And I guess this is sort of a preview for this upcoming season. And Ben Roethlisberger, I don't want to say he dropped some major news, but he said something most guys wouldn't. Take a listen to what he told Kenny Pickett on his own podcast, Footballing. I mean, I'll be completely honest.

I'll be super transparent here and I'm going to get blasted. I probably shouldn't say this, but who cares at this point. I wouldn't say that I wanted Kenny to necessarily fail. But when someone comes to replace you and you're like, I still feel like I had it, my hobby doesn't come ball out.

Because then it's like, Ben who, right? But honestly, I think as you started playing, I found myself rooting more and more for you. You know what I'm saying?

We sat down here and watched games and we were high-fiving and going nuts when you were leading the team and doing things, and running and trying to fight people, all that stuff. That was my favorite, by the way. You better swing on that fool. I feel bad. I know I came on this show and said that, I forget how I said it, but I apologized to you for not knowing how good he was going to be. I just didn't know.

I had no idea. Well, Kenny Pickett did end up, I'm not going to say he shocked the world or had some type of amazing rookie season, but he did have some poise outside of being injured. He helped the Steelers turn their season around and end with a 9-8 record after they started 2-6. He threw for 2,400 yards. He threw seven touchdowns to nine interceptions, nothing outwardly crazy.

The ratio was pretty much skewed to when he first started. He ran for 237 yards and had three touchdowns. I think if he continues on the progression that he had last season with the Steelers, I'm going to expect Kenny Pickett to be able to continue to get better. For Ben Roethlisberger, he still sounds like a player. He doesn't sound like a dude who's comfortable with retirement, who wanted to leave, and let's be real, he did not want to go.

His words about rooting against Kenny Pickett, it's not surprising at all, because he wants to go out there, he still wanted to play, and he wanted everybody to realize that, hey, be careful what you ask for, I'm gone now, and now you're stuck with this dude. Maybe Ben Roethlisberger, his attitude will change into the future if it hasn't already, but you really don't hear guys wake up and just say, oh, yeah, I didn't like him, I wanted him to fail. If you look at Ben Roethlisberger's career, hey, Big Ben, what more did you want? Your next step as a football player, certainly not active anymore, but as a retired one, you're going into Canton, Ohio. He's 39 years old right now. You've got two Super Bowl rings.

You won the first one back in 2006, you were the youngest starting quarterback ever to win the Super Bowl, you were 23 years old. Like, why are you beefing with Kenny Pickett for? Let Kenny Pickett go out there and be damn good and amazing, and give him a pat on the back. And so I'm glad he said it himself, is Ben Roethlisberger, is he bitter, is he angry, is he upset? He certainly is, and he's a human being, so I ain't going to crap on him about it.

And he said it, he knew he was going to get some heat, and the world continues to move on. All the best to Kenny Pickett moving on into his second year with the Steelers. Maybe the Steelers will have such a decent start that people aren't running around trying to fire Mike Tomlin, like they do pretty much at the beginning of every year. And then Mike Tomlin wakes up, goes out, and he just has another winning season. Like, you can't go 10 and 7 and 12 wins, 13 wins every year. So congratulations to Kenny Pickett for helping to turn things around, and Ben Roethlisberger, get a hobby. Hey, Shep, I've realized that most of his episodes that garner a lot of attention surround Kenny Pickett.

How about that, right? Yeah, I mean, listen, you're going to say something, and he knew what he was doing in making those comments. The reality, JR, is Ben Roethlisberger left a lot on the table. Like, you look at how great he was early on. Now, certainly he was a lot better in that second Super Bowl victory, where I think he should have been MVP. I thought he should have won that Super Bowl against Aaron Rodgers, and the reality is, there was a time where he didn't really put his body in the proper regimen and training that he should have. Ben Roethlisberger should have been one of the all-time great QBs. He left a lot of meat on the bone, in my opinion, JR.

I don't know how you feel about that. No, I mean, he maxed out. That dude is as tough as they come. I don't think there was going to be anything different from his body outside of, let me have a few more beers and hamburgers and hot dogs. He's one of the toughest quarterbacks that I've ever seen, and his body paid for it. He was always willing to stand in there in the pocket, bigger and taller than everybody else, all the defenders pretty much diving at his knees, diving at his ankles. And by the time he got to the end of his career, there was zero mobility, and all he could do was go out there and throw the rock around. And just in his last year as a player, Ben Roethlisberger had a grand total of five rushing yards. Like, I mean, if this is the best that you're going to give in a modern NFL, then you just need to just go home. And so over the last 20 years, he's been one of the best QBs, and I think he can just rest on that, man.

He's accomplished so much more than anyone I think would have expected for him just over the last 20. And you can't take that away. I don't think he should have any shame in his game about how his career ended outside of, yeah, you got hurt. But, man, you're a Steelers legend.

You really are. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Speaking of legends, Carmelo Anthony said, I'm done. What's Carmelo's legacy?

You hear that word all the time, right? We'll talk about it on the other side. I'm Chris Lakers.

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