6.5.23 - JR SportBrief Hour 1

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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 on CBS Sports Radio. Happy Monday night to you. I hope you had a great Monday. I hope you had a great weekend.

I'm going to be with you for the next four hours, and this is when I get started. 10 p.m. Eastern Time, 7 p.m. Pacific. Thank you so much to super producer and host Dave Sheppard. Thank you to everybody locked in and listening all over North America. On the free Odyssey app on your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate.

Man, you could be tuning in right now on Sirius XM 158, or you could be on a smart speaker. I appreciate you. We got a lot to get into.

How about this right now? Stanley Cup Finals. The Las Vegas Golden Knights. What a long ass name. Every time I say the team's name, I'm just like damn.

I want to say the whole name. I don't want to just call him the Knights, but the Knights are beating up on the Panthers right now. Four to nothing. The Las Vegas Golden Knights. They're trying to take a two oh series lead here in the Stanley Cup Finals, and it doesn't appear that they're just trying to.

It appears that they are. There's about 12 seconds left in the second period, and then they'll be moving on into the third. And unless the Panthers have just a minor miracle, the Knights are going to go up to, I don't know if we had the type of fight that we had the other night, but good on the Vegas Knights. And you know, we'll talk about the other team in a few minutes. The other team down in South Florida, the Miami Heat, who decided to pick up a victory last night against the Denver Nuggets in Denver.

It looks like they were on the way out the door, and then all of a sudden we saw we saw Struce. We saw Duncan Robinson come alive. You know, in that fourth quarter in the Miami Heat were able to walk out of Denver with the series tied at one all.

We'll talk about that momentarily. I really loved the comments by the coaches after the game. Everybody was upset. Mike Malone was upset, and Eric Spolstra was upset at one of the questions.

So we'll play that for you momentarily. They're trying to win a championship, the Super Bowl champions. The Kansas City Chiefs, they made a stop in Washington DC today, and the Kansas City Chiefs, they were at the White House.

Andy Reid, I don't know if he was the butt of a joke by the president, but Andy Reid also making a few jokes of his own. So we'll talk about that. Congratulations to Michael Vick and Randy Moss. It looks like they are going to be on their way into the College Football Hall of Fame.

They officially made the ballot for later on this year. I think that's just a formality. We'll talk about that and some of the other names that'll probably likely be going in as well.

Jaron Jackson Jr. says John Moran is good. He was talking to Paul George on his podcast. We have another NFL player who's being investigated for gambling on his own team, and so we'll get into that as well. Kyrie Irving wants LeBron James in Dallas allegedly. Leonard Floyd, he is going to the Buffalo Bills. It'd be nice to see how long it takes for him to be paired up with a recovering Von Miller.

Dallas Cowboys talking about bringing back Ezekiel Elliott, pretty much almost saying no to DeAndre Hopkins. So we have a lot to do, a lot to discuss. If you want to holler at me, it's simple. It's 855-212-4 CBS.

That's 855-212-4 CBS. Me, I am on social media everywhere at JR Sport Brief. Hey Shep, how was your weekend? You doing good? It was good, JR.

I have a good friend that I know that always says is too short, so I'm going to take his quote on that. You know who that is, but it was good, man. I appreciate you asking. How was yours, sir?

My weekend was, I like too short, by the way, but my weekend was also too short, but I'm glad to be back here. And as I sit here in the studio, there's just odd things to look at. I'm watching the San Diego Padres on one screen. I got the Knights whooping ass on the other, and the Padres are taking on the Cubs. And Gary Sanchez, I was reminded, is now a member of the San Diego Padres. And Blake Snell is over here throwing pitches in the dirt. And of course, Gary Sanchez can't handle it. And Gary Sanchez bounced around all over the damn place. And now he's in San Diego trying to provide some offense.

But all the best to him, one of the worst catchers that the world has ever seen. Anyway, speaking of offense, I told you last night, the Miami Heat decided to have plenty of it come the fourth quarter. The Miami Heat decided to wake up at the end of the game and bounce back from at what point was a 15-point deficit, and they avoid an 0-2 deficit in the NBA Finals. And last night in a good game, a great game, the Miami Heat came back to beat the Denver Nuggets 1-11 to 1-0-8. And if you want to go back specifically and look at that fourth quarter, the Miami Heat outscored the Nuggets 36-25.

And you can look at 2-2 to just help light it up at the end of the game. Max Struce, Duncan Robinson, Struce had 14 and Robinson had 10. And they helped win the game. And to the Denver Nuggets credit, they almost came back to try to tie it up. We saw Jamal Murray go out there and miss the potential game time three as time expired. And Denver now has to go down to Miami.

And they got to try to, you know, snatch up one or two victories. And not such a huge deal. Nikola Jokic had a ridiculous game coming up with 41 points, but only, only had four assists.

So not able to move the basketball the way that he would typically do or would want. And I don't think this is such a huge deal. I know that there are a lot of Miami Heat fans who feel just through the roof and through or to the moon about the result last night. And they should. But I've always thought that the Miami Heat would walk away in this series with either one or two victories. And so me personally, I'm not going to get up in arms about Miami winning a game because I still think the Denver Nuggets are the better team. I think they have more talent. I think they're going to walk away with the championship. And can the Heat win again at home? Yeah, I think they will.

Not a surprise or a shot, but for right now, they should be able to bask in their victory. Jimmy Butler spoke after the game and he said, you know, pretty much it doesn't matter what's going on in the game. We going to come out and we going to compete.

Listen. I just think nobody cares on our team. We're not, we're not worried about what anybody thinks. We're so focused in on what we do well and who we are as a group that at the end of the day, that's what we fall back on. And that's not going to change.

So that's what I think it is. I think it's the I don't give a damn factor. I don't give a damn factor.

Somebody is going to have that on a t-shirt come game three on Wednesday. The I don't give a damn factor. Someone who didn't give a damn as well from the Miami Heat was head coach Eric Spolstra. You know, he was asked by Ramona Shelburne and I mean, I don't know why he was so upset. He was asked about Nikola Jokic. And I told you, Jokic had 41 points, 11 rebounds, but only four assists. Spolstra was not happy when he was asked, hey, do you take away the passing? Did you take away the passing or do you have to let him score? Eric Spolstra basically called a stupid. Listen to this.

Hey coach, Ramona Shelburne ESPN. This is probably oversimplifying things, but sometimes when teams play against Jokic, you turn him into a scorer, you turn him into a passer and he controls the game. He only had four assists. Yeah, that's ridiculous.

You know, it's just that's the untrained eye that says something like that. This guy's an incredible player. You know, twice in two seasons, he's been the best player on this planet. You can't just say, oh, make him a score.

That's not how they play. They, they have so many different actions that just get you compromised. We have to focus on what we do. You know, we try to do things the hard way.

And he requires you to do many things the hard way. And we, he has our full respect. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, coach.

You want to get a drink after? I'm not mad at him. And maybe he wasn't mad at Ramona, just anybody who has an, uh, an untrained eye. And so what about Nikola Jokic? What about the guy who scored 41 points, only had four assists. You think about being blazed out of your own building in the fourth quarter. You think about not being able to hit a game tying three.

You think about not being able to complete the passes that you typically would. Nikola Jokic in the most simplest of ways, he described what went wrong in that 36 point Miami Heat fourth quarter. They scored 36 points in the fourth quarter.

That's too much, of course. And, uh, they got a couple off his rebounds. Uh, it was just, uh, it was just, uh, happened to be like that. Yeah.

Simple, right? They scored 36 points. They whooped our ass and offensive rebounds and three-pointers and, and we just lost. We, we can't do that.

Right? Nikola Jokic is such a chill, relaxed dude. Win, lose.

He sounds exactly the same. I guess the checks cash the same and Nikola Jokic is fine. His head coach, Michael Malone, he wasn't as soft-spoken after the loss. Now let's talk about effort. I mean, this is the NBA Finals and we're talking about effort. That's a huge concern of mine, you know, and you guys probably thought I was just making up some storyline after game one when I said we didn't play well. We didn't play well. And tonight, you know, that the starting line-up to start the game is 10 to 2 Miami. Start the third quarter, they scored 11 points in two minutes and 10 seconds.

Um, and we just got, you know, we had guys out there that were just, whether feeling sorry for themselves for not making shots or thinking they can just turn it on or off. Um, this is not the preseason. It's not the regular season. It's not around. This is the NBA Finals.

And that to me is really, really perplexing, disappointing. Yeah, Mike Malone, not, not happy that his team kind of became a little lackadaisical in the game one of the Finals. And then last night, they just, they just blew, blew a league completely in the fourth quarter. As many as a 15-point lead and then an eight-point lead and going into the fourth and, and Miami just, just blew them away.

It's par for the course, folks. We know the Miami Heat weren't gonna just lay down and die. The Miami Heat weren't just gonna get swept. The Miami Heat are going to compete. You also had Kevin Love back in the starting lineup.

Gabe Vincent wasn't feeling well, so he came off of the bench and they, they gave him a different look. Miami Heat ain't no punks. They're not going anywhere. They're not gonna stop.

They're not gonna quit. Jimmy Butler had 21. Bam had 21.

Gabe Vincent had 23. They're gonna be fine. We also don't know, and I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing, we don't know the status of Tyler Hero moving into Game 3 on Wednesday. Is he going to suit up? And if and when he does suit up, coming off of that broken hand, is he going to be out there jacking up shots?

Is he going to mess things up or is he going to be slowly but surely integrated here into the offense? Caleb Martin, sick, only had three points. The game before, I don't know if he was sick there too, but he was equally as bad. If you want to think about it, he had three points in Game 1 as well.

And so maybe you want Tyler Hero out there. I'm sure win, lose, or draw the dude is gonna have more than three points. And so the Miami Heat walk away with a victory. I changed my mind.

I do not change my mind, I should say. I still got Denver winning this series and I'd say five, five, six games. I see Miami only walking away with one victory, or two, sorry. 855-212 for CBS, that's 855-212 for CBS. Oh, we got somebody from Arizona already here on the line. Hey, Gilly, you're on CBS Sports Radio, the JR Sport Brief Show. How are you this evening? Good evening, JR.

This is Gilly. God bless your soul. I'm calling in regards to Olive Depot. I believe he played forward or guard. When he played, thank you, Indiana with Pacers, Olive Depot and Autobi-O, they teamed up together. Good. And I have a question. Why is Olive Depot not playing for the Miami Heat?

Oh my God. Well, I was wondering why you were asking about Victor because this man basically blew out his knee again. And so you will not see Victor Olive Depot, obviously, not for the rest of the playoffs. You probably won't see him at the beginning of next season.

And if he comes back at the end of next year, then good on him. So Victor Olive Depot is out. He's hurt. Okay. Yeah. All right. All right.

Thank you so much, man. Sure. Yeah, Gilly is looking for Victor Olive. Victor Olive Depot ain't walking through the door to help nobody. I don't know when he's been able to help anybody. Victor Olive Depot, man, if you want to talk about someone who's just been just snake bitten by injuries, his knees just, it's crazy to think he's, he's already 31 years old. I remember watching him in Indiana like yesterday.

And here he is basically, I don't want to say at the end of his career at 31, but I mean, damn it, through his mid to late twenties, he has not held up one damn bit, but at least you got some hope here entirely hero, only a broken hand. And let's see if he can come back on Wednesday to try to come through and give them a boost Miami. They got to feel like they've gotten one walking away with a victory and going back to Florida. Good on them.

Let's see what else they can do by going home. I think the nuggets still are in a good position here. It's the JR sport reef show here on CBS sports radio. That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS.

That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. I will gladly take more of your calls on the Miami Heat nuggets, maybe the healthy guys who are actually playing. We'll talk about Vic and Moss, Jaron Jackson, his thoughts on John Morant, the Colts, one of their own players being investigated for gambling on his own team.

Kyrie wants LeBron in Dallas. Leonard Floyd goes to the bills. The bills are building their new stadium.

We got so much to do, and we are just getting started. It's the JR sport reef show on CBS on CBS sports radio. You're listening to the JR sport brief on CBS sports radio.

J.R. wants to hear from you. Call him now at 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 2 2 7. It is the JR sport brief show here on CBS sports radio.

That is the phone number. 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. You know, right before we went to break, we talked about the Miami Heat walking away with a victory in Denver to go back to Miami for Wednesday, game three, and the series is now tied at one all right now. In Las Vegas, the Golden Knights are still smacking up the Florida Panthers, the other South Florida team. They're beating them four to one, so at least the Panthers were able to get a goal up here on the board. They just got underway in the third period, and if you did see the game on Saturday, the Golden Knights smacked them around there as well.

They won that with a final score of 5 2 2, and I gotta be honest here, outside of just looking at a beat down that took place on Saturday, I didn't really watch. I was kind of in and out, but I did see one of the fights that took place, and I saw some sucker punches. I saw Kachuk come through and basically swing on a guy who's being held down, and fighting is there in hockey. Is it the most exciting thing in hockey, the fighting, I guess, for a casual fan, right? Hey Shep, did you see the sucker punch on Saturday night?

Say again? Didn't Kachuk get ejected with that? Oh yeah, yes, but did you see the punch? I did not see it live, no. He had, one guy was holding like, it's like, it was like a movie. One guy is holding a dude down by his arms right in the back, like he's grabbing from behind, and Kachuk comes by and he just hits him like he was being, the guy was being held down, he just came through and swung. At least they showed up in game two. Oh well, hey, guess what? The Golden Knights just, they scored again.

Shocker. It's now five to one, and so they've scored 10 goals here in the first two games, and they still basically got 17 minutes left here in the third period. So plenty of time for the, I guess the Panthers have turned into a pumpkin. We've been saying that for a long time here about the Miami Heat. Well, when does this end, and when do they turn into a pumpkin?

When do they fall apart? Well, I guess for the Panthers, who were not supposed to be here as well, it's about due time, and you would think and understand so. And actually, one of the Golden Knights, Jack Eichel, he said, yeah, besides getting punched in the face, we're playing with an edge.

Listen to this. Yeah, that's part of their game. They, you know, as a group, they've done a good job of that in the playoffs.

Obviously, they wouldn't be here if they haven't, so yeah, I mean, you just got to stick up for each other, stick together as a group, and you know, we know it's going to be physical. Yeah, only in hockey, only in hockey can you hold a guy down, and just another guy comes through and just punches him in the face. Like, I can't see that in the NBA. Everybody get ejected.

People be suspended into perpetuity. I still laugh in the NFL when guys get to fighting and throwing punches. I'm like, come on, guys. Y'all are wearing helmets, please. Take the helmets off. We saw Rugnett O'Dore, I think it's actually, actually today might be the anniversary or yesterday where he punched Jose Bautista in the face. That's one of the greatest baseball punches ever outside of Nolan Ryan deciding to go ape, you know what, on Robin Ventura's head.

What's up, Shep? Yeah, I mean, JR, I mean, obviously, these are not the original franchises, and so we're talking Rangers and Bruins, etc. You're well aware of that. Is this hurting the Scanlon Cup Final right now that the Bruins did not make it play the way they did in the regular season and that had translated to the playoffs? Because I think it's hurting the league right now.

I'm not being here right now, yeah. I don't want to say hurting the league. I think, what are you talking about, in regards to ratings? Yeah, this is not a sexy series. Correct me if I'm wrong.

What's enticing about this? We know Kachuk's been great in the postseason, but come on, he's not a household name. Well, yeah, of course. Well, who in hockey is a household name? Bergeron? Patrice Bergeron is, no?

You are bugging. You don't think he's a household name in all seriousness? Hockey, the NHL does not have a household name. There is no household name in the NHL. Yeah, Conor McDavid on line six, JR, if you want to take it.

I'm sorry? Conor McDavid on line six, if you want to take it. No, bro. The only household name in the United States of America in hockey is a guy who doesn't play anymore, and his name is Wayne Gretzky, okay? Hockey does not have a household name. A household name is, I don't know, a Tom Brady, a LeBron James, someone who does not watch the sport and knows exactly who that person is. Hockey doesn't have one.

That's the nature of the business. You just don't like Ovechkin because he's going to pass Gretzky and goals. Ovechkin? I wouldn't say so. He's there, JR.

I'm sorry? Alexander Ovechkin's not a household name? No, man. I don't know the answer, but there's a lot of households in America. You know that, right? More than 100 million. Yeah. Not everybody, A, cares about sports.

That's the first thing if you want to think about households. And then B, has an interest, let alone in knowing the players. To be a household name, you have to transcend the sport where the general public and the general population would know who that person is. Ovechkin doesn't fall into that at all. At all.

You know, I can't turn on, not that I sit down and watch, but I don't know. Tom Brady is unavoidable. And he's been unavoidable for the better part now of 20 years. LeBron James, unavoidable. He's been unavoidable now for the better part of 20 years.

Alexander Ovechkin, where does he fit in? It's like saying, hey man, do you want to sit down and have a steak? Or do you want to sit down and have, I don't know, just Burger King? Like, there's a difference.

You can like Burger King, but it's not at the top of the class. And so the NHL, and I think we know this already, we can look at the revenue numbers as well. When you look at the NFL, the NBA, MLB, then there's the NHL.

And then you can go after that and then say, okay, well after that, then you have MLS. You think about the professional sports we have here in the United States of America, there's a pecking order. And so Alexander Ovechkin, maybe, maybe he gets a mention on the Today Show.

Probably not, not at all. I'm sure they don't even want to mention a guy's name because people are going to go, oh, and the guy has something to do with Russia. So yeah, these two teams in the Stanley Cup Finals, taking a look at the Panthers and taking a look at the Golden Knights, you know, is it the Rangers and the Kings? Is it the Blackhawks? Is it the Bruins?

The answer is no. And so yeah, there is an effect. I don't think the NBA is any different right now. You know, throwing out the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets, it's not pulling in the same type of numbers. If we had to sit down and watch the Celtics and the Lakers, you know, for the millionth time, you know, two stalwart franchises in the league. And so whenever you don't have those, those big names and those big teams involved, yeah, the ratings are going to hit.

I mean, you go anywhere, anywhere. The Lakers are a traveling circus. One of the most successful franchises, well-known franchises here in North America. The Celtics, Celtics can go play in, in Utah. They can come play here and people will love them. And so not the same for the Nuggets, a team that has never been to an NBA championship. They got that ABA and same thing here for the Miami Heat, although they've had success in their 35 years, plenty of it.

They, they ain't necessarily picking up fans all over the country, no doubt about it. 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS. That's 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS. Panthers getting smacked around. Miami Heat staying alive.

Chiefs, they are the winners. They just went to the White House. We got so much more to talk about, so much to get into. But right now on CBS Sports Radio, we're going to take a break. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. First of all, I just want to say I've been listening to your show for the last few months and I really enjoyed listening to you speak. So thanks for taking my call. Call in now at 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS.

It's the JR Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. You know, right before we went to break, we were talking about this, oh my god, another one? Hey Shep, can the Golden Knights, how many more goals do they need to score?

Oh no, we should ask DJ Khaled. That's all we feel like we're going to hear tonight. Another one. It's now 6-1. The Golden Knights are just smacking up on the Panthers. The Panthers have remembered their slot in life right now as Vegas is just smacking them around. There's about eight minutes left in the game and the Golden Knights is just a matter of, it's a formality right now that they're going to go up here 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals.

And Shep, you know, I haven't seen the numbers from game one on Saturday, but I do know as an overall here in the Stanley Cup Finals, especially the first round which is obviously a while ago, they didn't even average or crack one million viewers per game, man. We're talking almost 900,000. That's it. And it's tough. Really?

Yeah. I'm shocked about that. You know why, JR? Because we had an interesting hockey conversation last segment and really the numbers don't lie.

I mean, that's really what dictates the sponsorships and the television broadcasting rights and who jumps in. And I'm reading what took place in 2022. Now, obviously, we're talking about the Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Correct me if I'm wrong, JR. I mean, the Avalanche to some extent, but I don't think those are historically great NHL franchises, right? The Colorado Avalanche?

Well, I would go back 20 years. I think that's when they were at their strongest. Sure. But they don't have a great history. They're not the Maple Leafs. They're not the Canadians. They're not the Oilers.

You get what I'm saying. And so I was looking at the ratings from 2022, the Stanley Cup Finals, and they averaged, averaged five million viewers a night. Well, not bad. I mean, but what we are witnessing now in 2023, obviously, between the Panthers and the Golden Knights, completely pales in comparison to what they were doing last year and game six, it averaged six million viewers. What? You're talking about when? For this year? No, game six. Game six in 2022. But that is, I mean, that demoralizes, but the numbers are this year. So something is off about the product that's being disseminated right now. And what's crazy about that is this was actually a close game in game one up until the third period.

That was tied 2-2. But what's so shocking? People, not everybody plays hockey, man, you know. But I didn't realize it was going to take this much. Having the Panthers and the Golden Knights has really been a hit for the NHL Stanley Cup Final because last year's numbers, and again, Jer, those are not historically great franchises, the Avalanche and the Lightning.

They kick these numbers ass. People who care will sit and watch. People who don't, it's not like, I don't even think you necessarily get a casual viewer in who just says, oh yeah, I need to watch or I'm going to tune in. Like if you're a hockey fan, you're a hockey fan. If you're not, you're not.

I don't think there's enough crossover to go, oh, I'm going to do this. I would say, and this is changing over time, but I would say historically, like you didn't have to be a baseball fan at one point in your life to go, oh, I'm at a game. You know, somebody, you know, at the job or whatever had tickets, you go to the game and you, now you're at a baseball game, right? And you know some of the big names in baseball over time, whether it was a Ken Griffey Jr. or it was a Derek Jeter, you know, just ended up at a, at a baseball game. Or maybe you just ended up at a basketball game. Maybe the job had tickets or a friend. You just ended up at a game. I don't know too many people at any place in any walk of life who just say, oh, well, I'm just going to go to the hockey game.

You know, I got, I got tickets. It's not, it's, it's regionally based in a lot of cases. And sure, the NHL has expanded and we got a team in South Florida now. You got the Florida Panthers here in the Stanley Cup finals. But I think it's, it's like lacrosse. Like plenty of people love lacrosse.

Sure. But in regards to being regionally based, people play lacrosse everywhere. They play lacrosse all over the country. But if you want to think about hotbeds for lacrosse, it's the mid-Atlantic. You think about Virginia and Maryland. You think about the West Coast. You think about New England. Lacrosse, crazy.

People play lacrosse here in Georgia and Atlanta, but not in the same type of way. And so with the NHL, yeah, you can have a franchise anywhere. It doesn't mean that they're going to be, you know, bat bleep crazy about it.

And so it's, it's good. I mean, the NHL is what it is and it has its own fans and a bunch of fans. It's just no crossover. I think in the future and whether it's a 40-year future or a 50-year future, the world's game, soccer and MLS, you know, is it ever going to be what the Premier League is?

Hell no. Never will be. But it has an opportunity to, to continue growing here in the United States of America, especially, especially, and this doesn't get talked about enough. And I understand why, because we are still here only in the year 2023. The World Cup is going to be here in the United States of America in 2026. And there's going to be so much energy and support and coverage behind that.

I'd be real interested to see how, how soccer can just pick things up over the next, let's say decade, you know, following the World Cup. It should be a lot of fun. Should be, should be, should be. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. David is calling from Baltimore. You're on the JR Sport Reef show. Hey, what up JR? What up? How are you?

I'm good. Now I got a quick question. I'm a big boxing fan. So my, my question to you is, the way boxing is today, do you always think you would see boxing back like it was back in the early, when you saw Hagler vs. Lennon, Hearns, and Rand and all over? Do you ever think you ever see boxing, when you find people fighting each other, stepping and ducking each other? And the last question is, if, if Margaret Hagler wouldn't stop fighting after the first fight with Sugar Ray, he thought he got cheated. Do you think that could have been a bigger, bigger, bigger, like pay the dues, the remaster between Margaret Hagler and Sugar Ray Lennon?

I think so. To answer your last question, I think so, because we know he was basically, I don't want to say disenfranchised, but he kind of soured on the sport in that last fight where he felt that he won and then got robbed. To answer your first question, I take a look and say, no, I don't think we'll ever see boxing, you know, back in that space.

People have way too many options. You think about the biggest fighter and people love him, they hate him, they hate him, they hate him, they hate him. And Floyd Mayweather Jr., he was able to go out there and really sell his fights. And he did an amazing job at doing so. Floyd Mayweather Jr. himself was not someone who was a knockout machine.

He was not Gervonta Davis who, who hasn't peaked. And well, unfortunately for him, he's, he's locked up right now for violating his house arrest. That's, that's wild. It's like, hey, we're going to let you off for a hit and run. And all you have to do is, is stay home in a mansion and oh, well, there's not enough space for my security. So just staying in a hotel, staying out of Four Seasons, staying at my manager's mansion.

And then you just, you get arrested. I just, anyway, boxing is never going to go back to what it was. Too many options, man. People got too many things to do. There's this thing, combat sports, this thing called UFC is still around.

It's not going anywhere. People got a million sports and iPads. It's not, it's not like, oh my God, we, we got to watch baseball and then boxing.

It's, it's, it's beyond that. I mean, there was a point in time where, and it sounds crazy, honest sounds crazy. There was no NBA. The NBA was still nascent. NBA really didn't explode in popularity in a gigantic, gigantic way. You got to go back and look at the eighties with Magic and Bird. And before that, you know, people weren't screaming. We just talked about the NHL. There was no MLS like, like boxing combat sports and big fights. It's that, that was the thing.

Not anymore. Like tell that the same way Shep just asked me pretty much like household names, who is the biggest name in boxing right now? People would tell you maybe two, three, four different names, but the fact that there's not one dude who just stands out in a massive way tells you all you need to know. There was a point where you just said, this is the guy, whether it was a Mike Tyson or you want to look more recently at a Floyd, it's like, Hey, who's, who's the biggest boxer right now that the name should jump out at you.

You shouldn't have to think about it or debate eight, five, five, two, one, two, four, CBS, eight, five, five, two, one, two, four, CBS. Mike is here from Louisiana. You're on the Gerald sport brief show. Hey Joe, how are you doing today? Good. How about you?

I'm not doing bad, man. I'm interested in hearing the numbers on the viewings of the NHL ceiling cup. Cause I'm from Louisiana. We don't have a team. I can tell you last year, you know, there was nothing else on TV. I'm not an NBA guy.

I enjoyed watching the final. I have no reason to watch the NHL finals right now. And I don't believe half of the people that should be involved can even be involved. How do you have a team in Las Vegas? And I think it just goes to show all these leagues are trying to put a team in Las Vegas, but you don't, Las Vegas has only so many residents.

Everybody else is there to party, you know? So maybe you get several thousand to go to each game and yeah, you're in the finals now, which I have my own theories on why they would be in the finals all of a sudden, but what are you saying? That there's a, there's a bunch of cheating going on.

I don't know if it's cheating. I think it's highly suspicious that you bring a team to Vegas and all of a sudden that Vegas night there, Oh, all of a sudden the best team there is. No, I don't think that's, I don't think that's fair. You know, for the most parts expansion franchises suffer.

I don't care what sport it is. And so to think that, you know, the, the, the, the fixes in here for the Vegas nights, I don't think that's fair. Like at some point in time in the history of expansion franchises of which we've had plenty in every sport over the last 30 to 40 years, you know, I think, I think it'd be due to have a good one.

You know, I don't think it's, it's, it's, it's that far off. You can go back to Jacksonville, going to, going to the championship game. The Jaguars with, with Tony Boselli and, and Coughlin.

Yes, they were good. But they're not the Las Vegas Jaguars, are they? But what does that have to do with anything? You're just looking at the city and you're saying this without having anything but a feeling or a hunch. Well, that was like my little suspicion. Anyways, the main point was, I don't think you have enough residents in Las Vegas even warrant a team in the first place.

I don't think so. When's the last time you've been, Mike, when's the last time you've been out there? Vegas? Oh, it's been six, seven years.

Okay. I would tell you over the last six or seven years that Las Vegas as a city, as a metropolitan area where people move, where people live, it has exploded. It has grown. I know plenty of people who have certainly taken their own livelihoods to live in Las Vegas. I mean, there's an entire economy. Yes, it's built around gambling and entertainment, but there are people who live there.

And then as you mentioned, there's, there's still plenty of folks who want to go out there and party. It's the Gerald Sportre Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio Vegas and as small as you think it is. I'm going to take more of your calls on the other side and get into the chiefs. Your points are worth more than you think. This first-class flight to Tokyo, you can book it in your credit card portal for 1.4 million points. Yowzers. With PointMe, you could redeem just 120,000 points for that same flight.

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