JR Sport Brief Hour 1

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Additional terms apply must be 21 plus to purchase alcohol where available. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. At 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 Pacific. Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our producer Andrew Starpachi for holding it down for us in New York City. And thank you to you.

Yeah, you, everybody for listening. I don't care where you at. You could be at home.

Be on the road, you could be at work, you could be at school, you could be holding it down. Thank you so much for listening. I'm gonna be hanging out with you, as I said, for the next four hours. Today, tomorrow, and we'll talk about some other news that dropped today.

We'll get into that. You can always listen to the show on the free Odyssey app. Tune in on your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate. Shout out to everybody listening on Sirius XM Channel 158.

And if you got yourself a smart speaker, got one of them listening ass robots in your house, go ahead ask it to play CBS Sports Radio, and you get the entire lineup all day long, including me. Okay, there's a lot to discuss tonight as I sit here in the studio watching the Chicago Bulls beat the Lakers, 111 to 98. There's a lot going on today. A lot has gone on today as Mike Tomlin has had to defend one of his wide receivers for not showing any type of effort or balls. There's a lot going on today. We'll get into this in a minute. Jim Harbaugh, we were finally finding out more details as to why he had a self imposed a three game suspension at the beginning of the year.

Let's not confuse that with the suspension at the end of the year because one of his minions was out there stealing signs. Let's also remember that it's Wednesday. Every single Wednesday night I bring you a new top six list. And because this is going to be the final top six list of 2023. Everybody comes out with a list right sports person of the year sports women of the year sports guy of the year athlete of the year time this athlete that is doing what I do. I'm going to share with you a top six list we're going to take a look at my favorite athletes here in 2023.

What athletes have had the most riveting performances what athletes have had the best showings. Well, you don't have to wait too much longer I'm going to tell you how I feel. Two hours from now, you can feel however you want to feel.

This is my top six list. If you want to participate in the show it's real simple you can do that the phone numbers 855-212-4CBS that's 855-212-4CBS I'm also online on social media where I'm actually being inundated just pretty much all day all afternoon. I am at JR sport brief that's all over the place on social media. I got a lot of people to get back to before we do anything else. Let's have an acknowledgement. Let's have a big old thank you to our producer who's holding it down tonight.

He's been holding it down the past couple of nights doing an excellent job. I might add Andrew Scarpacci how you doing, man. You good doing great. It's been a fun week and always excited for a top six.

Oh, well, thank you, man. I appreciate that. Well, let me ask you this because this is going to be our last night working together. Shep is going to be here tomorrow before we get knee deep into all this the sports stuff, which is what they pay us to do. The hell you doing over the next couple of weeks.

You're going to put your feet up. You're working. You're making money.

What the hell are you doing? Yeah, I'm bouncing back between some producer shifts and some tape up shifts and yeah, I work game nights at the Long Island Nets. So a couple games there.

They have a little bit of an off break now, but they have a game later on this month. Oh, so you just out here getting all the money, huh? We're working on it. Yeah, man, you got it. You got to do your best to get all of the money and let me let me go ahead and acknowledge this and I know we're going to have plenty of time to talk about it tomorrow and there'll be plenty of time to talk about it next hour.

I want to get to it as well. Let me just say thank you. There was news released today from CBS Sports Radio that by the time we pull up on January 2nd that the JR Sport Brief Show is no longer going to be on at this time.

Not at 10 PM Eastern, 7 Pacific, but the JR Sport Brief Show is going to be moving up to 6 PM Eastern Time, 3 Pacific and so for all my late night folks out there. I love you. I'm not going anywhere. Some people are messaging me like I'm dying or like I'm disappearing off the face of the earth. I'm not going anywhere. Just moving up, moving up a shift. I'm taking prime time with me. I'm going from 10 PM start Eastern Time to a 6 PM start Eastern Time. And for all my folks on the West Coast, hey, you get me a little bit earlier, 3 PM Eastern. Zach will proceed me and then Bart will come on, you know, right after me.

So thank you. Thank you to everybody who's who's listened, everybody who hangs out with me late at night and we'll have plenty of time to talk about this, including tomorrow as we tomorrow is the last show here. Twenty twenty three tomorrow will be the last time that you'll hear me at this time.

And super producer David Sheppard, he's going to be back with us tomorrow to wrap things up for what year we in 2023. So if you want to talk to me, it's simple. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. Speaking of wrapping things up. Yeah, we're all wrapping things up for the year 2023, right? Wrapping up the holidays, wrapping up work. Maybe you might be wrapping up some presents or maybe not.

I know some people like to wait until the last minute. We also know college football, they're wrapping up their season. By the time we pull up on January 1st, we're going to have the college football playoff. And then at the end of the night, we're going to know who's going to advance to the championship. And one of the teams that will be participating, I mentioned them a few minutes ago. It's Michigan.

All right. Everybody's waiting to see if Michigan will advance and go ahead and win a national championship. And we got to wait a couple of weeks to see if they even move on into the final.

But here's the deal. Today we learned, this is not really any type of big news. We learned a few more details when it comes down to Jim Harbaugh, who once again, even at the end of another season, is in the crosshairs of the NCAA for violations. We know that earlier this season, he was suspended.

He was gone for three games, a self-imposed suspension to basically try to skirt and curtail any future punishment from the NCAA because of recruiting violations. Back in 2019 and 2020, the NCAA, because they take, I can't even say a year and a day. That's a gross understatement. The NCAA is slower than, they're slower than the government.

I think that might be an accurate, accurate comparison. It's taken them about three years to come to a conclusion on what has taken place with Michigan and why Harbaugh and Michigan said, you know what, let's just sit him out for three games. Let's punish him ourselves and hope that the NCAA goes easy on us later. Basically, one of his coaches allegedly was running a practice during a COVID time when he wasn't supposed to. Allegedly, Jim Harbaugh himself, Jim Harbaugh allegedly was out here making phone calls in a dead time period due to COVID when he wasn't supposed to. Jim Harbaugh allegedly also has been, or was at the point in time, interfering with the investigation. And all of this is now coming out the light now, today at the end of the year, as Michigan gets ready to go into the college football playoff. This is what we are staring at right now. Let's keep in mind, that first suspension took place at the beginning of the year.

We get into the middle towards the end of the season. And then we have another issue with Michigan because they got this scallions dude who's a former military guy on staff as an assistant, as an analyst. And you come to find out that this guy was scouting teams prior to their games, at away games, in stadiums. And because this is the NCAA, that is also illegal. You can't do that. That's a no-no. You want to steal some signs, watch on television like everybody else.

You can't go ahead and do it in person. And so Harbaugh was ultimately punished for that. A whole lot of potential threats and lawsuits and drop lawsuits and tears on the sideline because we are winning this for Coach Harbaugh.

We got all that crap. And now we're finding out more details about the suspension that took place earlier this year. Michigan is on its way to participating in the Final Four, the college football playoff, January 1st is big time. And we can't even just fully focus in on the game. We got to focus in on Harbaugh. Because for whatever reason, it doesn't matter what's going on, he's always some type of distraction.

Like even when they win their distraction. I mean we should be talking about, I don't know, Saban vs. Harbaugh. You know before the game or after the game, maybe before, let's put him in a steel cage. Let's put Saban and Jim Harbaugh in the octagon.

And let's see who comes out on top. I'd give it to Harbaugh because he's younger, but Nick Saban looks like he fights dirty. He looks like a biter. That's what we should be talking about.

Maybe not the biting. But the fact is, Harbaugh is always a distraction. I mean it was only last season that the Denver Broncos said, hey, you want to come coach here? Harbaugh sat down with the folks in Denver and they picked Sean Payton. Because I guess they felt Sean Payton could do a better job yelling at Russell Wilson. I like the fact that they look like they hate each other.

It looks like fun. Before that, Harbaugh said that he wasn't going to entertain any more NFL jobs when he finished up with the Minnesota Vikings. Jim Harbaugh actually said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I met with the Vikings and he thought he had a job with the Vikings. And that he didn't have a job with the Vikings. And they hired my main man, Kevin O'Connell.

Shout outs to Kevin O'Connell. Nice former quarterback now leading the way for Minnesota. He should probably go play quarterback himself for the team.

I think they're on quarterback number four right now. But the fact is, Harbaugh didn't get that job. He thought he was. And then he said, I'm never leaving. He said, I'm sticking around here at Michigan. I'm not going to put Jim Harbaugh on the level of Urban Meyer when it comes to lies. I'm not going to put him on the Bobby Petrino level when it comes down to lies. But I'm going to put him in a special category because Jim Harbaugh has actually had success in the NFL. His time and tenure with the San Francisco 49ers, his record was what, 44 and 19? He wanted more power.

He wanted more say so. And then they couldn't agree to anything. And now we're getting rumors that Jim Harbaugh is drawing interest, that the Chargers are interested in him. What a great disaster story that could potentially be, right? Here we have the Chargers who go from Anthony Lynn, who can't manage a clock, to Brandon Staley, who can't manage anything. They also fire their general manager, Tom Tolesco. And now they say, oh, well, let's bring in Jim Harbaugh?

Couple of things here. I have no idea what the hell is going to happen between Michigan and Alabama. To be honest, I think Alabama is kind of hot right now. I'm going to go ahead and pick Alabama. Now, having said that, I don't care if Michigan wins or loses the national championship. I don't care if they win or lose this first game against Alabama. I think Harbaugh is finally going to be out the door.

I mean, he's teased it over the past couple of seasons. And now that we have more details about the initial suspension, yes, there were two of them this year. One man missed coaching six games for the Michigan Wolverines. I think before things get any hotter, Jim Harbaugh is going to leave town. Some people understand what I'm saying. Every now and then, no, not every now and then, this happens all over America. Sometimes things get a little crazy in the neighborhood. Sometimes you get into too much trouble in the neighborhood and sometimes you got to leave. Sometimes you got to leave before more of a punishment comes.

Sometimes you got to get out of there. And I think Jim Harbaugh is staring that right in the face. It's just a matter of whether or not he has the ultimate success on the way out the door by winning a national championship. And then he can go out as a king. He can go out on top of the world. The Michigan guy comes back to Michigan and wins it all. Or Jim Harbaugh, he can say, man, I'm about to get punished some more and I just lost.

I'm out of here. And people will look at it as a great case of what if. And it will be the next chapter of Jim Harbaugh going somewhere, being a distraction, while still winning games. He is the ultimate yin and yang. Do you get victories with Harbaugh?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He'll win you a lot of games. Will you get some headaches with Harbaugh? Yeah, he'll also cause you some headaches. I guess this is like a marriage.

I'd speak to it, but hey, I've never been married. Jim Harbaugh is about to be gone, folks. I don't know if it's going to be with the Chargers.

I don't know if it's going to be with the Bears. This man is going to want a lot of money to leave Michigan. Maybe he will use the NFL to try to shake more money out of Michigan, especially if he wins.

And then maybe he sticks around for another year or two. Maybe if he wins a national championship, he'll use the NFL as leverage to say, yeah, yeah, I'll be suspended a couple of games next year, but pay me more money. Let's keep in mind, before this dude beat Ohio State, Michigan was looking at him like, you know what, let's cut that salary. Hey, you know what? You haven't beat Ohio State yet. You know what?

Earn your money, and we'll figure it out later. Well, if he wins a national championship, he's going to have Michigan, the Wolverines, by the you-know-what, and maybe he's going to try to wring some money out of him if he can't wring any money out of the NFL. But you can bet your ass the guy who lied about not going back when the Vikings didn't want him, the guy who ended up talking to the Broncos last season, Harbaugh's going to talk to the NFL. Harbaugh is also going to listen, and that's win or lose, because there is no draw at this point. And wherever he goes, bet on this, he's going to get paid, and he's also going to be a headache.

If you're an NFL team, like a disaster like the Chargers, buyer beware. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Oh, I'm getting warmed up. I'm just getting started. Yeah, I get started at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 Pacific, at least today and tomorrow, before the new shift starts at the beginning of the year. If you want to talk to me, it's simple.

855-212-4CBS, that's 855-212-4CBS. We have no idea what the headache of Harbaugh is going to bring over the next several months. We do know one headache in the NFL who's officially done for the season. He should have been done officially a few weeks ago, but he owns the team.

I'll explain on the other side. Happy Wednesday night. It's the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. God bless, wish you well, and all the best, JR, because you really are my favorite sports DJ on the air. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here on CBS Sports Radio.

855-212-4CBS, it's 855-212-4CBS, right before we went to break. I told you that Jim Harbaugh, we got some details about the suspension that he had earlier this season, not the one late in the year about the son stealing, but the one earlier this year about some of the recruiting violations, having to deal with practices from a few years ago, improper calls to potential recruits that he wasn't supposed to make during a dead period, allegations of interfering with the actual investigation. And so the man has missed out on six games this season in total, and they're getting ready to take on Alabama on January 1st.

And so we got some waiting to do to see how that bears out. It takes the NCAA years to go ahead and do these investigations, and so there's no guarantee that Jim Harbaugh is not going to face further punishment. Now, having said that, over the past two seasons, he's been flirting with the NFL. I mean, with the possibility of facing additional punishment, you don't think Jim Harbaugh is ready to skip town again, whether he wins a national championship or whether he loses? And even if he does decide to stay, you don't think he's going to not use the NFL as leverage to try to make more money?

Let's be real and let's be honest. He certainly had success all over the place as a football coach, but he also comes with a little bit of drama. Let's see what he does. Speaking of drama, I'll get to your phone calls momentarily.

855-212-4CBS. We have finally been able to put this Aaron Rodgers drama to bed. I said this a few nights ago.

Why are we still even having conversations? Why are the New York Jets entertaining this? I said this about a month ago, even when the New York Jets were just mathematically still eligible for playoff contention.

Like, why don't we just shut this down? It's because Aaron Rodgers' ego is so big and the New York Jets, Aaron Rodgers has them by the balls and he's the one running the team right now. And now that they've been officially eliminated from postseason play for the 13th consecutive season, now that Aaron Rodgers has let everybody know that he's not 100%, he won't be for a few weeks he hopes, Rob Salah spoke to the media today and they finally put this garbage to bed. We will not see Aaron Rodgers this year, but he is going to be added to the roster so he can practice with his teammates and be more readily available. But he ain't playing. Let's listen to this.

This is cut number one. We've got the roster flexibility with all the different things that have happened over the course of the last couple weeks. And, you know, like I said, it's all part of his rehab and, you know, just having him out on the football field is a plus for everybody. It's a plus for him, it's a plus for his teammates. And so we're going to keep him on the 53. Yeah, the continuous rehab, it's all part of his rehab. So there would be days when he's out there, there's days when he's not. And like I said, we just have the roster flexibility, otherwise we probably wouldn't be able to afford to do this. Yeah, so he'll be out there running around practicing, but we will not see him play good.

Sayonara. See you next year. And we won't just see him next year. Aaron Rodgers is going to be back the year after that.

How about this? Aaron Rodgers got some type of ethics, he got some type of soul. He's like, hey, you know, I told the Jets I'd stick around for two years.

I'm pushing 40. I'm going to tack on another year after this. How about that? Rob Salah talked about it and said that Aaron Rodgers, oh, yeah, he's in the Jets for the long haul. We've got to be smart and got to make sure we're doing the right things, but we want to win a championship. We believe we can win a championship. And I know he said two years, but in a perfect situation, we win a championship next year and he walks off in the sunlight, you know. But that's a whole other discussion for the offseason. Oh, I like how Rob Salah said he walks off into the sunlight. Like Aaron Rodgers is going to walk on water, like he's going to lead us all to the promised land.

Maybe. I guess New York Jets fans have to look at Aaron Rodgers owning the team for the next two seasons. He's already owned the team this year. He didn't even play. And now he'll own the team for the next two seasons as well. A very New York Jets thing to do. By the way, Aaron Rodgers also had a nice endorsement of head coach Rob Salah.

And so I don't think that we're going to see any changes there in the front office. 855-212-4CBS. It's 855-212-4CBS. Bill, he's calling from Cupertino, California, the home of all your favorite Apple products. You're on the J.R. Sportbreeze show on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, how you doing, J.R.? I'm excellent. How are you? I'm all right. I'm all right.

Thanks. I was listening to you talking about Jim Harbaugh going for the money. You know, I know these guys made a lot of money and stuff. Didn't I hear a couple of years ago he'd got some kind of bonus and deferred all the money to his coaches? I don't know about having a bonus or deferring money to his coaches. I know about the guy signing a contract with Michigan. I know about him sucking, having to renegotiate that contract because they told him, you've got to make less money because you can't beat Ohio State.

And then he decided to renegotiate his contract. And also, no, it's been reported that he's in line if he sticks around to make more money as well. Yeah, well, I thought the guy was a nice guy, man. I heard that.

He could be a nice guy. Well, what do you think, that he's coaching for free? Oh, no, no, none of these guys are coaching for free. They all want the money. Listen, this man is going to align up to – The NFL these days, nobody has any soul that wants to stick around, you know, to honor a team that brought them up through the sticks. Once they're ready for that money, they're going to sell out for the big dollar. You're talking about the coaches specifically? Well, no, players pretty much. Well, the NFL players selling out for a dollar, the NFL player doesn't have a guaranteed contract, okay?

They don't run around with set money. How about the guy for the New York Giants? You heard of him, Tommy DeVito?

Yeah. He's making $44,000 a game. Every game that he plays in the NFL might be his last game, okay? They could cut him tomorrow and we never hear about him again, and he's made his entire NFL salary. Like, the NFL is unforgiving, so to think that there should be some type of loyalty between the players and the teams, throw that out the window. God forbid a guy breaks his leg, is out of commission, NFL doesn't care about these dudes, they move on to the next. Ask the running backs. Don't some of these guys sign guaranteed contracts?

No. There's a guy on the Cleveland Browns who, by the way, he ain't paying. The Cleveland Browns, a dumbass organization, they decided to give him $230. In the NFL, the contracts are not fully guaranteed. No, that doesn't happen in the NFL.

Patrick Mahomes is the best player in the entire league. This man is not playing on a fully guaranteed contract. No, Bill.

Ah, that was unimpressive. It was guaranteed. No. Major League Baseball, fully guaranteed. NBA, guaranteed.

NFL, you better get your money up front with a signing bonus, because when they want to cut you, they can cut you and say goodbye. Ah. Sorry, Bill. All right, man.

Thanks a lot. Thank you, Bill, for calling up from Cupertino. I'm like, nah, Bill, it don't work that way, man. It don't work that way. You gotta be a, I was going to say a pervert, but that's not a nice thing to say, even though I said it out loud. You gotta be Deshaun Watson to get one of them deals, man.

You gotta be a dumbass team like the Cleveland Browns to start slinging them around. Pardon the puns. Anyway, 855-212-4CBS. Hey, we're going from Cupertino to San Francisco. Not far. Hey, Walter, you're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Walter?

How are you? I was, got a little cold. I was listening to your comments on Jim Hombro. I don't think the University of Michigan should even be in the championship. He cheated and he has no sense of respect for the NCAA rules.

He's a win at all costs. Damn with the rules. He violated. He said he did something in 1919 with COVID. He was recruiting when it was against the rules.

He's stealing signs. The whole team should be penalized, but big money is there and he's Jim Hombro. It reminds me of the Houston Astros when they won a championship beating. I wonder how many games Michigan wins with the advantage of cheating, knowing the singles of the opposing teams. OK. Well, maybe their punishment will be a whooping by Alabama.

Will that suffice for you? It would. It would. You know, I know these are young men on the team, but he's the head of the organization. He cheat. The whole team should feel the brunt of his lack of ethics. So being in San Francisco, I assume that you aren't happy with his exit a few years ago. I could care less. I really could care less.

I'm not a major football fan. I'm a purist on ethics. Ah, I like that. We need we need more purists on ethics. Thank you, Walter.

Appreciate you, man. You are my well, the upstanding individual Walter is with a name like Walter. You've got to be upstanding on in the space of ethics.

Come on now. Hey, Marco Belletti, do you know do you know a bad person named Walter? No, I can't say that I know that many Walters, but no, I don't think I've ever come across a bad one. Yeah, because every Walter is supposed to be like an upstanding.

I hear the name Walter and I think about some guy in London with a top hat and a cane. Right. Yeah.

No, that makes sense. Like Jeeves. You've got to be a butler. Right.

Like, isn't that automatic? Jeeves? Yeah. You've got to be a butler. Hey, here's a here's a better question, Mark.

Are you ready for this one? Whatever the hell happened to ask Jeeves? Uh huh. I don't know. Did Google buy ask did Google buy ask Jeeves? I feel like Google bought everything. What?

I feel like Google bought everything. So that makes sense. Let's this is this might be even better question. Hey, Andrew.

I have not heard of ask Jeeves. I'm not sure if that gives away my age at all. Yeah. So not maybe. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. I think the last time I think the last time I've used ask Jeeves was. I don't know what.

Two thousand. I don't know. Ask Jeeves. This is a prime opportunity to go to ask Jeeves dot com right now and see where it takes me.

Hopefully to not to another dimension on a work computer, because I don't know where. Who knows what bought that? Oh, my God.

You never know. It still works. Oh, yeah. Does it? Seriously.

Ask Jeeves dot com. Wow. How old is Kobe? That's bad.

That one. How old is LeBron? Here we go. And let's see if ask Jeeves works. Well, if it says twenty three, then, you know.

What is LeBron James wingspan? You ask Jeeves is in the toilet, man. It's like Google will tell me in five seconds and ask Jeeves is still in the year nineteen ninety nine. It's a dial up still. But ask Jeeves.

It was probably it's running on dollar. I need to get me one of them AOL disks, you know, plug it into my. I think I got one somewhere.

Probably maybe survived six or seven moves. You got a you got a well dial up canister. I don't know. I feel like there's a bunch of things that are underneath the computer, like I still got like a computer or whatever you're going to call it, like in the corner. And I feel like there's still a bunch of stuff in that tray. That's probably one of those disks because I haven't looked through it in 20 years.

You just got me to move. You got a floppy disk in your house. I don't think I have the floppy disks. I used to have a floppy disk with the with the games on it, man.

You know, I'm going into those. See now again, this is where kids help you out a little, J.R. I think I'm going to have to do like a little retro Nintendo thing because my my oldest son is all about the Super Mario Brothers movie. He's watching about nine million times.

He's never played the game. So I think I might have to invest in like an old Nintendo just to bust out Super Mario Brothers. It got like two hundred games in one system, right? Yeah.

I saw one at five hundred. I just don't know how. Wow. Yeah. But it was like 30 bucks. It makes me wonder if it really works.

You know, I'm not I think it I think it's authentic. I think I might have to get one, too. Listen, in my house, I have a Super Nintendo hooked up. You know, those cartridges have a shelf life, right? Well, you got to blow on them.

No, no, no, no. They have a life like they they don't hold the the memory card doesn't hold because these things are like almost 40 years old now. The memory card doesn't hold. So if I play Super Mario Brothers tonight when I get home, it may not save my it may save my level for three days. Oh, that makes sense.

I didn't even think of that. That makes sense. Yeah. It's what a terrible world we live in.

Cartridges don't work. Ask Jeeves is irrelevant. AOL. So what the hell are we doing? I don't know. I wish we could go backwards, but we can't. Sucks. I know who you're telling. We need to find that DeLorean and go back to the future.

There we go. It's the J.R. sport ratio here with you on CBS Sports Radio eight five five two one two four CBS. I'll get some more your calls.

Speaking of going back to the future or to the past. Mike Tomlin probably wants to go back to a time where he was loved because it seems like right now, man, people are ready to get him the hell up on out of Pittsburgh. We'll talk about Mike Tomlin.

I'm going to get some more of your calls. We're going to discuss National Signing Day. We'll talk about brand new news. Bad English, I know, with the J.R. sport ratio here on CBS Sports Radio.

But right now, it is a news flash with Marco Belletti. You are listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio. Hello, J.R., my first time calling you and I find you to be an excellent guy to listen to. So good luck. I hope you never lose this spot because really you're so bright and intelligent and you cover it all.

And I'm very happy to listen to you. Call in now at eight five five two one two four CBS. Damn, I didn't lose the slot. I'm I'm just moving up a slot. Sorry. We'll talk more about that at the top of the hour.

Eight five five two one two four CBS is eight five five two one two four CBS. We've talked a lot about coaches. We talked about Jim Harbaugh and the fact that we got more details about his just recruiting violations from a few years ago because the NCAA takes forever to release investigation findings.

What else is new? And then we talked about Aaron Rodgers basically being the coach and judge, jury, executioner, owner of the New York Jets. And so there's another coach. Let me get back to the coach momentarily. It's Mike Tomlin like Mike Tomlin for the past several seasons. He is.

He is. He's felt some heat. I like Pittsburgh. I've talked about it quite a bit.

One of my favorite whiskey bars in America is in Pittsburgh. And when I've been up there, you know, I get in the back of the Uber and it's just like, hey, you know, J.R., what do you think about Mike Tomlin? I'm ready for him to leave. And I have to go. Wait a minute. You don't know what you got till it's gone.

I get it. Third straight loss against Indianapolis this past weekend. Sixteen straight seasons now, never being below 500.

That's now at risk right now. They're going to take on the Bengals on Saturday. And in that embarrassing loss to the Indianapolis Colts, we got George Pickens, who doesn't want to block, doesn't want to tackle because he's a wide receiver. He doesn't want to get hurt.

He doesn't want to injure himself. And this kind of just adds more fuel to the fire for people who say, get Mike Tomlin the hell up one out of here. I mean, Ben Roethlisberger criticizing him a few weeks ago. And it's like, well, Mike Tomlin can't go play quarterback. I'm sure he had a great hand in selecting Kenny Pickett, but he can't go out there and play. He can't sprinkle magic dust on him. He can't bring back James Harrison and Hines Ward. He can't do that. He can only coach who's on the grass, on the field.

Can't do it all. And so now Mike Tomlin had to defend George Pickens because Mike Tomlin can't just do PR. He also has to coach the team. He's also trying to win some games. And so, no, George Pickens is not going to get benched because Mike Tomlin isn't out here trying to coach for you. He's coaching for the squad.

And I'm sure whatever punishment that Pickens got, it's embarrassment enough. And so Tomlin talked to the media today about his wide receiver who didn't want to chase after anybody after an interception and didn't want to block on offense because he was injured. But before we hear from Mike Tomlin, let's take a listen to what George Pickens had to say about 24, 48 hours ago about why he decided not to block for his own man.

Listen to this. Just the blocking thing for a matter. I remember all the media type guys who don't play ball was talking about blocking last year. Like, I'm such a good blocker.

I'm such a good blocker. Now they want to, you know, say differently. So I'd probably say just look at the roster this year. Look at the yardage. Look at the catch radius. Look at the run after catch.

A lot of stuff. You know, he basically said he didn't want to block because he feared that he would go out there and break his leg. He didn't want to get injured. He doesn't want to get hurt.

He's saying, hey, take a look at my numbers. And his numbers this year, 800 yards receiving, three touchdowns. He got hot earlier this year. His numbers right now have fallen off. But what the hell do you want from him?

I mean, he got Kenny Pickett throwing him the ball and now you got to wait for Mason to throw him the ball. And so Mike Tomlin, he put in his two cents today when asked about it. And this is what he had to say. How he deals with us and how he deals with you guys might be two different things. And to be quite honest with you, it's a reflection of maturity or growth in that area.

To be quite honest with you, dealing with the media and dealing with you guys in an honest and upright fashion is a component of our jobs. And it's something that he and we are working on. But he is a competitor. That component of him is mature. And the competitor in him at times works against them when facing challenges such as dealing with you guys.

And I just want to be clear there. Well, damn, is Mike Tomlin making excuses for his wide receiver? Is he covering his ass? I think Mike Tomlin is just trying to win the game. And for an offense that's already sputtering, for an offense that already got rid of Matt Canada, for an offense that is going backwards.

I mean, let's be real. What the hell you going to bench this dude for? What do you want to do, bench him for a series?

What good is that? At the end of the day, the idea of football is to win games. And outside of going out there and being a complete jerk or slaughtering people, conduct detrimental to the team, you're going to play the guy. Yeah, I'm sure that's embarrassment enough to have to hear it probably from some of his teammates. Hey man, we need you to actually block out there.

I'm sure he got his ass chewed out. Come on. Bench him? Mike Tomlin is trying to win games. And if Mike Tomlin loses, that doesn't make sense.

Now they're going to destroy the dude even more. Sometimes you don't know what you got until it's gone. That's for real. 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS. It's 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS.

Here's another analogy. The grass isn't always greener on the other side. You can ask your ex. Kenny Scollin from Baltimore. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Kenny? What's up, Jay? How you doing? I'm great. What's up?

What's up, man? First I got to say congratulations Prime Time. You're doing the top six on best casters in the country. You got to put yourself number one now. That's good stuff. Well, thank you.

What else you got? We're up against a break. Okay, but I just wanted to say Christmas night is this Super Bowl preview, Ravens against the 49ers. And why are we getting so much slack for being so far under the San Francisco 49ers?

I know what you're talking about. You're talking about the odds and the Ravens are upset that they're underdogs. Man, it's because the Niners have just been bludgeoning folks.

That's it. And we know Baltimore is a great team. I agree with you. This very well could be a Super Bowl preview.

Sign me up for it. I think as an overall, people still look at Lamar Jackson and they look at the weapons that are surrounding him. And you tell me, Kenny, does San Francisco have a more dynamic offense, more dynamic players?

Yeah, they do. And I think that's your answer right there. I hope we get a good game, Kenny. I got to hit the break. Thank you for the kind words, okay? Thank you, bro. Take care. Thank you so much.

Appreciate you. You can't look at the 49ers. I don't think there's a team that they would face where you're going to look at the 49ers and go, underdog. Unless Brock Purdy blows out his elbow again.

Maybe Hassan Reddick slaps him in the elbow. Christian McCaffrey goes down. Like, you ain't looking at the Niners and going, underdog.

That ain't happening. I hope we get a good game. The Ravens, 49ers, Christmas night. That should be a fun one.

It's the J.R. Sportbreeze Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We are going to take a break and we're going to have some fun. Okay? Because I got some thank yous to dole out. And I got more thank yous to dole out tomorrow.

So I'll do that on the other side. Yeah, we got some big news here with the J.R. Sportbreeze Show. Where?

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