JR SportBrief Hour 4

It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Super producer and host Ryan Hickey. He's coming to us live from New York City.

Time flies when you're having fun. I'm going to be hanging out with you for one more hour. I get started every single weeknight at 6pm Eastern, 3pm Pacific. Thank you so much to everybody listening and locked in all over North America. Folks listening on the free Odyssey app. People tuned in on their local CBS Sports Radio affiliate. Everybody listening on Sirius XM Channel 158.

And anyone locked in on a smart speaker. Getting ready for the weekend. Going to or from work, to or from home. Maybe you're getting ready to get into some extra curricula activity. Enjoy yourself. Also, by the way, I don't care where you're at in North America, I hope that you're keeping warm.

Because it is freezing cold all over the damn place. And so wherever you're at, I hope that you're well and I hope that you are safe. If you want to talk to me here on CBS Sports Radio, it's very simple. We got a phone number.

It works. It's 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. You can find me online. I am everywhere. That is Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all that good stuff. I am at JR Sport Brief. That's at JR Sport Brief on all social media.

So if you are an individual who enjoys wasting your time or voicing your opinion into the void, knock yourselves out. I am there as well. Thank you so much throughout the course of the show to Jonas Schaefer for joining us. He came through earlier on from the Baltimore banner.

And we had an opportunity to look at the first game that's going to get us all set for the divisional round of the NFL playoffs as we will witness the Houston Texans take on the Baltimore Ravens. And thank you last hour to Ian Williams. Ian Williams joined us here on the phone lines. He is a former nose tackle for the San Francisco 49ers.

He is currently an NFL analyst for CBS down in Orlando. And so thank you so much to Ian for joining us as well as Jonas for lending their perspectives. And you can go ahead and lend your perspective to 855-212-4CBS. As we continue on here with this hour, I really want to just go ahead and take a look at each game individually. And I want you to hear from a lot of the participants in those games. So we're going to hear from the Baker Mayfields of the world. I think that we've taken a look at just about every single game for Wildcard weekend, excuse me, except for the Lions hosting the Bucks. We'll also do a quick recap on the other games that we discussed.

And then also, it's not just about the action taking place on the field this upcoming weekend. We've had a little bit of a coaching movement here. Not too long before I started on air this show, this afternoon, we learned that Antonio Pierce is now going to be the full time head coach for the Las Vegas Raiders. There's no interim tag. There's no he's holding it down for a little while.

Antonio Pierce will be leading the way for the Raiders. And I got to tell you, I'm a little shocked. I'm a little surprised because Mark Davis, this man wakes up and he's like a character out of the movie Dumb and Dumber. He sees something directly in front of him and he says to himself, I need that.

I need that shiny object. At one point in time, John Gruden was that shiny object. At another point in time, Mike Mayock was that shiny object. And now Antonio Pierce, after taking over for Josh McDaniels, Antonio Pierce will have an opportunity to put his imprint on the organization in a full time basis.

And we know what some of the options could have been. I thought that Jim Harbaugh was going to leave Michigan and go ahead and coach the Raiders. I thought that he'd have influence over the Las Vegas Raiders. But no, Jim Harbaugh is actually having his own second interview with the Atlanta Falcons, just like Bill Belichick. And so the world continues to turn in the NFL with its coaching carousel. But one dude not moving is Antonio Pierce. I don't forget or I did not forget his postseason press conference where he said, I'm ready to be this dude full time.

I'm ready for it. Listen to what Antonio Pierce said. You know, my resume is on the grass. It's being out there every day that either I'm in front of you gentlemen and ladies to the grass, to the practice field, to the meetings, to the building. I mean, I'm being evaluated each and every day and they know what it looks like. They've had some really, really good coaches in their career.

They know what it sounds like, looks like, if it's real, if it's fake, if it's just a momentary deal. So to have their blessings and backing is obviously that's humbling. It's humbling. Well, the job is his. You don't got a thing to worry about, except for Mark Davis waking up one day and deciding to change his mind. And it's amazing what a coach can do for a team. You need an NFL head coach.

You want someone who has the respect of the people in the locker room and just maybe sooner than later. The Raiders will be back in the postseason. The Raiders, we know they might be historic and people can look at their accomplishments dating back to the 70s. But more recently, they've been a joke. They've been a laughingstock. Whether it's some of the legal proceedings that face a lot of their players, whether it's their nighttime activities, whether it's sad stories. Chandler Jones seemingly going through a mental health crisis. You know, Josh McDaniels, the players hated his guts.

I can go into car accidents and homicides. It's terrible what's going on with the Raiders. Maybe Antonio Pierce can can add some validation to them in being a legitimate NFL franchise. Now, this this is a team that's been able to turn things around.

If the Raiders can kind of flip the switch like this squad, they should consider themselves, I don't want to say lucky, but moving in the right direction. And that's the Detroit Lions. The Detroit Lions will be in action. This sounds still sounds nuts to say the Detroit Lions will be in action on Sunday hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This is going to be the first time in the franchise's history that they're going to be hosting two consecutive home games and one postseason. Let's also be real and remember this for the Detroit Lions last week and getting red. Excuse me, last week and moving on and getting rid of those Rams.

That was their first playoff victory in 32 years. Last night, we told you about some of the prices to get into the building. Almost five hundred dollars, six hundred dollars. Those are the second cheapest seats.

We're talking about thousands of dollars to get into Ford Field to watch the action. And so the Lions, now led by Dan Campbell, missed the bite your kneecaps and break your ankles and all of that stuff. Another former player like Antonio Pierce, Dan Campbell, seeding the way for the Lions and Baker Mayfield. I know this still sounds nuts to say Baker Mayfield is leading the way for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was only last year that it was like Tom Brady looks done. He looks tired. He looks like a guy dealing with a divorce. But Baker Mayfield is here now. Just I don't even know what to say. This man is going to get a contract extension.

This man is getting a second lease at life. The Buccaneers win the NFC South. I don't care how bad they are. They end up winning the division. They end up winning and knocking off the team that won the NFC last year. And the Philadelphia Eagles beat them 39. And Baker Mayfield is not a savior.

What a world that we live in. Dan Campbell. I like listening to him speak. Let's hear him. He has a lot of respect for Baker. Look, I've always been a Baker fan from afar. I loved him when he was coming out. I tell this story.

This to me said a lot about him. And I went worked Blake Andrews out when he was coming out. Oh, you came out the same year tight end. And so.

So I went out there. Well, his quarterback, you know, it's cold, but he you know, he comes out there. I think he's got like flip flops on his Baker. Baker's going to throw for him. Well, Baker threw for every one of his guys that was coming out that year. And I think he'd already had two private workouts the two days prior. And he had one that afternoon and I think the one the next day. So that just says a lot about the guy.

There's no wonder why people rally around him and follow him because he's that type of teammate. Right. And there's a lot of guys wouldn't do that. I got to save my arm.

I've got so-and-so club coming in. That wasn't him. So, you know, you can respect stuff like that now. Yeah, come on. Of course, Dan Campbell's going to go for the tough guy. Dan Campbell is a living, breathing tough guy.

Not only did he have to go out there over the middle as a receiver, as a tight end. Dan Campbell, as we know, eats, eats screws and nuts and bolts for breakfast. He's he's drinking 20 cups of coffee like Dan Campbell is a man's man. He's a tough guy.

Biting ankles and all of the stuff that he talks about. So, of course, he has respect for Baker Mayfield. Of course, he has respect for someone who hasn't quit. And listen, Baker Mayfield has had enough chances. Baker Mayfield has had enough opportunities just to lay down and quit. He hasn't had the easiest road back to a starting job playing for the Carolina Panthers.

Not at all. And then he even had that cup of coffee filling in for an injured Matthew Stafford at the end of last season with the Rams. And Baker Mayfield in this position right now, having already knocked off the defending NFC champions. He now has to go to Detroit. It's going to be loud as hell. Those fans are going to be raucous. They're going to be making noise. They are expecting a Lions victory.

Baker Mayfield said, I don't care. I'm ready to play in Detroit. Just talking to some of those Rams guys, they said it was the loudest thing they've ever heard. So we've got to be completely ready for that. It just comes down to everybody knowing exactly what our game plan is, all the calls to and from. Because there could be certain times that they might not hear certain things.

They might have to plug and play some of the words. So just everybody doing the mental work to get prepped for that. But it shouldn't be a surprise to us. It's going to be a great atmosphere. It's going to be fun. It's going to be great for me sitting at home watching. You know, even watching last week, looking at Ford Field dressed up and look at the fans.

Looking at that place have so much life. I'm like, wait a minute. This is the playoffs? Like we're looking at the Detroit Lions in the postseason? It's still a sight to behold.

I say to myself, oh my God, how can such a thing happen? The Lions offense, I got to tell you, though, folks, I think they're going to go out there and put up points. I think Jared Goff is going to continue on with this role that he's on.

He has to be feeling himself after beating his former team and sending them home packing. Ahmaud Arson Brown, a rookie in Jamir Gibbs. Jamison Williams, I don't even think he's fully used properly. He's a weapon and he's an option out there.

Sam Laporta and even coming off of injury. Like it's crazy to think about the Lions as some type of offensive juggernaut. Now their defense, now that is something that you might have to watch out for. I wouldn't be surprised to see Baker Mayfield out there throwing bombs down to Evans. First of all, Baker Mayfield is going to have to be able to deliver the calls properly.

That place is going to be loud. And then another thing, you're going to have to keep Baker Mayfield upright and away from Aiden Hutchinson. You better pay attention. Tristan Wurfs, the offensive lineman. One of the keys to the offensive line for Baker Mayfield, he says, Oh, hell yeah, we got to keep this man upright. Finishing, you know, they got a bunch of high motor guys. So it's going to be, you know, matching their energy and not let them outwork you. You know, he likes to, Baker likes to run around, scramble a little bit. So just staying connected for as long as you can.

You know, giving him, giving him the time he needs. Yeah, this and hopefully I'm saying this for a few years now. This still sounds odd to say just to even talk about the Lions in the postseason because it doesn't happen. I'm picking the Lions to beat the Buccaneers.

At home, I am picking the Detroit Lions to go to the NFC Championship game. Hey, Ryan, that doesn't that sound odd to even hear? It sounds odd. Never happened in my lifetime. I've never seen it. So the history. I got the I got the Detroit Lions winning.

I do now. I'm not expecting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just to lay down. I told you about a Monroe St. Brown wide receiver and he feels kind of bad. He was omitted from the Pro Bowl.

He's like, how much more do I got to go out here and do? Throughout the course of the season, the Lions did play the Buccaneers. The Lions beat them 20 to six down in Tampa.

And even a Monroe St. Brown. He's just like, listen, I know we beat him already. This is a different team. We've grown a lot as a team, as an offense. They've gotten grown a lot as a team.

Shoot, just watching their game live on TV when they play the Eagles. They look like they were flying around on defense and offense. They look like they were playing confident receivers and making plays. Baker was playing well. Yeah, he can he can be diplomatic about it. And I know Baker Mayfield has gone back and forth with C.J. Gartner Johnson as to who is watching film, who's ill prepared and what have you. That's that's nice for a little bit of a sideshow.

I think when you get down to brass tacks. I think the Lions offense is going to put up enough points. I think the offense is more dynamic than these Buccaneers. And I think playing at home in Detroit, those fans will be ready to erupt. I think the fans and this isn't put into the case a lot of times.

This isn't factored in a lot. You want to talk about noise. I'm not going to say that Tampa Bay is just going to lay down because a couple of fans are screaming. But I do think it's going to have an effect on the offense. Unless Tampa Bay can go ahead and hit the road and put up some early points and put some doubts into the fans, into their thoughts and kind of temper their expectations. I think the Lions got this one and I'm going to say it again because I have to get used to saying it.

Such a rarity. I got the Detroit Lions advancing to the NFC championship game. And imagine this though, on the other hand, Tom Brady retires? And the Buccaneers go to the NFC championship with Baker Mayfield?

That sounds even crazier. I got the Lions winning this one. It's the J.R. Sportbrief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. It's 855-212-4CBS.

It's 855-212-4CBS. What game are you looking forward to the most this weekend? What team do you think is feeling the most pressure? What player is feeling the most pressure? I'm going to get to your calls. I'm going to tell you who I think is probably feeling the most pressure on the other side of the break. But before I do any of that, I want to let you know you should think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.

A guaranteed low price is an excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. I'm going to get to your calls on the other side. We're going to keep things rolling. It's the J.R. Sportbrief Show on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. It is the J.R. Sportbrief Show here on CBS Sports Radio. All the playoff action getting ready to go down this weekend.

Two games on Saturday, two games on Sunday. You can stream the NFL on Westwood One for free. Sponsored by AutoZone. All season long you can listen to every Westwood One broadcast of the NFL live on the NFL app by asking Alexa to open Westwood One Sports.

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It's 855-212-4CBS. We took a look at all the games going through with the divisional round. I'm ready to roll. Right before we went to break, we talked about the Lions and the Buccaneers. I got the Lions going out there and winning that one.

And I think all of the games, I don't want to say they're cut and dry. The cliche is every or any given Sunday. I got the Texans losing to the Ravens tomorrow. I'm not overly concerned about the Ravens having time off. I'm not overly concerned about Lamar Jackson and his playoff record which now stands at 1-3. I think the Ravens are one of the best defensive teams in the NFL because they are. They've been able to expand offensively under Todd Monken.

Lamar Jackson is going to go out there and pick up his second MVP when it's all said and done this season. And the Texans, I don't want to say that they are lucky to be here. They've certainly worked their asses off. They deserve to be here. They're a growing franchise.

But all good things got to come to an end. And I think the Texans, I think their season is going to end tomorrow against the Ravens. And so the Ravens were actually asked about this as well.

You know, being prepared and whatnot. Their starters did not play in the final game of the season. And so John Harbaugh, he spoke to the media. He was asked about a lot of his starters having two weeks off. John Harbaugh was not overly concerned.

Take a listen to what he had to say. I feel great about the guys. I think the guys have done great.

You know, they've worked hard, Pete. We had four practices last week. We had our three practices this week.

We'll work on our walkthrough tomorrow. But they've been like they've been all season. It hasn't really been different. You know, it's definitely playoff football. They're definitely excited about that. But that's how they've approached their work all year.

Yeah, I'm not concerned. Ravens are a better football team. If the Texans are so damn hot and knock them off, good for them.

Keep the rod going, man. To say that you got a rookie quarterback and a rookie head coach that have made it in their first year, especially being rookies, to the AFC Championship game. Kudos to y'all.

I don't think that'll be the case, but we'll find out. And then tomorrow night, this will be the good one. And then we spoke to Ian Williams about this former defensive tackle for the 49ers. We got the Packers going against the 49ers. And we also know the Green Bay Packers, they also have their young hotshot quarterback in Jordan Love leading the way. I got the 49ers winning that one at home. But Kyle Shanahan, he knows this is not going to be a walk in the park because of that Packers defense.

Listen. A ton of respect for Joe. Got to work with him my first couple of years of my career in Tampa. He's been involved in a number of different defenses and playing against him a few times with the Rams. And in Green Bay, his scheme just keeps getting sounder and better.

Yeah. It's not the Packers' time either, though. I'll give him all the credit in the world, though.

Hella impressive. To leave all that crap with Aaron Rodgers behind and then move on to a quarterback that he goes, he plays, he looks affable, he looks likable. It's easy to root for Jordan Love. I just don't think it's their year. And then when we go ahead and take a look at Sunday, we talked about the Lions and the Buccaneers. And then we have the Chiefs and the Bills playing each other for the third time in four years. Patrick Mahomes, crazy to even think about. This is going to be his first road playoff game. He's either played at Arrowhead or he's played at a neutral site in the damn Super Bowl. This is going to be an adjustment for him.

But Andy Reid said it doesn't matter where or what time. He said Patrick Mahomes is built for this. I tell you all the way around, his preparation is phenomenal. His attitude is phenomenal. His compete is phenomenal.

So you love all of that. And we're lucky to have him here. Oh yeah, everybody's lucky to have him.

You're probably the most lucky to have him. God knows if you would have ever picked up a Super Bowl if it weren't for Patrick Mahomes. And now you got a couple of them.

You might have another one on the way. This game is a little bit more difficult to predict. We know the Buffalo Bills will be playing at home as we all know. Kansas City Chiefs their first time. The Buffalo Bills have certainly been hot here to conclude the season. Especially after starting at one point having a record of six and six and the sky is falling. Somehow, someway, this is a pick'em game for me. But I got the Kansas City Chiefs coming out on top on the road. And if the Chiefs win this game and beat the Buffalo Bills, this will be their sixth straight AFC championship game appearance.

Yeah, it seems that we are a long way off from that Patriots dynasty now, aren't we? 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Greg is here from Michigan. You're on the JR Sportbreeze. Show us on your mind, Greg. Oh my God, JR, Mr.

Positive, you are on fire. I'm a little bit sad that you chose the Chiefs over my Josh Elvis, Alan, but you make a lot of sense and that's why I love you. Hey, I got to tell you, it's been one heck of a week for me. Chris Cuomo tonight, on with your show tonight, cannot beat it.

I love it. The Lions are going for their second victory. And they will win, like you said.

They will win. But I think the person that has the most to prove is my Josh Elvis, Alan. He's got all the pedigree. He's brilliant.

He's talented. We're not supposed to be there. Tampa and not supposed to be there. Kansas City is supposed to be there. Lamar Jackson is supposed to be there. You think the Buffalo Bills are not supposed to be here? No, no.

Of course they are. But I think Josh has to take it to another level to get to the Super Bowl. I really think that he needs to do that. He needs to not turn the football over. But when I think about Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, although Lamar Jackson has had more success in the league, especially individual success given the MVP and probably future MVP, I don't view the Buffalo Bills or the Baltimore Ravens in two different spaces.

Over the past several years, it's just been the Kansas City Chiefs, and everybody else has had to go out there and play pickup. That's just flat what it is. Love you, Jer. Everybody, agents of inclusion, keep up the great work, Jer. You're fantastic. You know that. Thank you, Greg, for calling from Michigan. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I don't see no difference. It's Patrick Mahomes and everybody else. And when is somebody else, quote unquote, going to break through and say, OK, Patrick, it's my time? I mean, we could think back for years. If you want to look at the past 25 years, it's Tom Brady and then there's everybody else. I mean, even you can look at Peyton Manning. I don't think that Peyton Manning was any less of a QB than Tom Brady. It was the team. It was the structure.

It was the players. If we swap these dudes out, would Peyton Manning have all of these rings? Would he have more?

The answer is it's probably yes. So in the case of the new era of QBs that we have, we got Lamar Jackson. We have a Josh Allen if we want to think about the AFC. But Patrick Mahomes is a dude that they want what he has. They want one championship.

And so I don't see no difference between what's going on in Buffalo and Baltimore. I'm going to assume and it might be this year at some point, somebody else has to say we will win the AFC. Got to happen. At least one of them and maybe one of them will make the championship game this year. Buffalo going? Is it going to be Baltimore? I don't know about the Bills. I think that Baltimore has a much better chance of advancing. Baltimore is in a good position, as they should be.

They're the number one seed and they're taking on a team that has no experience doing this. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Joe is here from Nova Scotia. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Go ahead, Joe. Hey JR, how you doing? I'm excellent. What's on your mind? Good, good.

Thanks for having me on, dude. I'm a big, huge sports fan. I'll say this quietly. I'm a Miami Dolphins fan. They need to learn to put the foot on the neck a little bit more. Just to say, I watched Barry Sanders when he was running. You couldn't tackle him. Unbelievable. And then Dan Reno got in my ear and pulled me over.

But I called just to say, hey listen, there's not much talk about what's going on with hockey. It is an amazing sport. Every single one of them has a 2x4 in their hand, but you are not allowed to use that thing on any player. Violently. They trip, they slash, that kind of stuff, but if there's an altercation. They're fixing stuff up with hockey, with fighting. That's kind of moving its way out of the game. But I live on a huge lake. Nova Scotia doesn't have a single professional sports team. Joe, you gotta help me out here.

What's the culmination of the call, please? It's the freedom of having skates on your feet and flying. You cannot move in this world like you can on skates, dude.

It is unbelievable. Yeah, I've been on skates, but what's the point? I know you're in Atlanta, but you're in New York for a good bit. Yeah, for like 35 years in New York.

Yeah, but go ahead. Hurry up. I've been in a lot of places.

I've been all over the world. Hey Joe, what's your point? Just give it to me in a sentence.

Help me, please. Okay, I just want to put a little bit of respect on the game because I know it's not covered as much, but it's amazing. Well, Joe, thank you for bringing up hockey. I don't think hockey needs respect. I don't think nobody has a problem with hockey.

It's just not the most popular sport here in North America. That's it. What's the problem?

Football is number one and all of the other teams need four MLS, I guess, if you want to consider that. Joe, I don't understand. Joe, I'm going to hang up now, okay? Okay, and thanks for taking my call, dude. I listen to you all the time and I respect your voice. Well, thank you, Joe. Appreciate you, man.

Thank you so much. He just wanted to show love to hockey. Hey, Marco Belletti, he just loves hockey. He loves it.

It's great. I love hockey, too, but unfortunately, I think if I got to take all 50 states into account, I just don't think, you know, what do you want me to do? I think most people care and most people tune in come the Stanley Cup playoffs. I don't know. Maybe I should take, you know, the Friday before the divisional round of the NFL. I should dedicate some time as to, you know, who's going to come out on top in the East. Maybe the New York Rangers will do something. I don't know.

I don't know, man. Hockey's kind of cool. I agree with you. I agree. Well, how much should I dedicate a segment? Should I have dedicated a segment to it today?

At least a few, but not to any teams or anything, any storylines. Just the game itself. Oh, okay. So how about this?

This might be a good idea. The Friday before the Super Bowl, what do you think, Marco, if I take the first hour of the show to talk about how great hockey is? I think, to be fair, it's got to be at least two hours. You got a four hour show. There's really no reason that you can't dedicate half of it to just talking about a sport. Not anything, any storylines or individual players or teams. No.

Just the beauty of the sport. I think that's fair. I think it'll be well received. Hey, Ryan, let's do that. The Friday before the Super Bowl, two hours, okay? As Chance the Rapper would say, let's do that hockey. Yes. Let's do that hockey. Hey, remind me of that the Thursday the night before, okay? Maybe get a few guests on?

Yeah. Let's get Wayne on. Where's Marc Messier? What's Patrick Waugh doing? Where's he at right now?

I don't know. We got to find everybody. It'll be a great show before the Super Bowl. Let's ask Wing Gretzky about who's going to win. By then, we'll know what two teams are there.

We got plenty of time to do it. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Listen, we're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side of the break, I have to fill you in on one of the most famous sports media platforms, whatever you might call it. It's coming to an end. Maybe for good?

I don't think so. I'll tell you what it is. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Man, what a Friday has been. By the time we come back on Monday, we're going to know every team participating in the championship round. The AFC Championship game will be set, the NFC Championship game will be set, and we're one step away from the Super Bowl at that point. You know, the NFL season just in whole feels like it has flown on by as we continue to move on and start to wrap things up. Ryan, is there one matchup in particular that you really want to see this weekend?

What game stands out to you? Oh, I mean, obvious is Chiefs, Bills, obviously the storylines there. I am actually very excited for Ravens Texans. CJ Stroud now, you know, playing really well in what is basically two back-to-back playoff games. I'm really interested to see how the Ravens play.

If the rust actually is a factor and if Lamar can improve his playoff play, or if it's kind of more the same from what we've seen, that's one that's very intriguing to me. Yeah, you called it earlier. You said you're looking for the upset here for Houston to come out on top over the Ravens, right? That's right.

That's right. So I also selfishly want to be proven right. Well, let's see what happens there. 855-212-4CBS, I'm on the other end of the spectrum.

I got the Ravens, you know, going out there and beating those Texans tomorrow. Let's go to Doug. He's calling up from Alaska. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Go ahead, Doug. Yeah.

Good evening. I was just going to agree with the line. I guess they're given Buffalo by three. And it looks like the sportswriters at Miami Herald have the score at Buffalo 24-20.

So I'm going to agree with that. I was looking at the losses that the Chiefs have. If I have the right sheet here, it looks like they lost to Detroit, which makes sense. And then they lost to the Denver Broncos. Well, here's the thing.

Here's the thing, Doug. I mean, I can tell you all the losses. Yes, they lost to Detroit to open up the season. They lost to Denver, Philadelphia, Green Bay, Buffalo already in Las Vegas. Do you have any specific thoughts as it relates to the game on Sunday night?

Well, no. I was just going by their loss record. It just seems odd to me that they're not at their peak level compared to, you know, the Bills. The Bills seem to be peaking and ready to win.

So that makes sense to me. Yeah, no, absolutely. The Buffalo Bills, I mean, they went through a stretch early this year where they were in danger of not even making the playoffs. They were 6-6, and right now they're on a winning streak.

So, no, it makes all the sense in the world. They just have to go ahead and do it. And they certainly are capable of doing so on Sunday and finally breaking through that glass ceiling.

Hey, Doug, thank you so much for calling from Alaska. Yeah, you bet. Yeah, thanks. No doubt about it.

Yeah, nah. Look, let the Buffalo Bills do it for once. They got enough talent. They've had enough talent. Last year was a big ol' massive disappointment. I mean, people were looking at Josh Allen to step forward and become MVP.

And it turned the ball over. And then we get to this season, and here we are. They're starting 6-6. I wasn't concerned about the Buffalo Bills throughout the course of the year. Even when we got to the point where people are like, oh, my God, they're going to miss the postseason.

I wasn't worried about them. And, yeah, they're peaking right now. They do have an injury to Gabe Davis. He will not be out there.

That is certainly going to be a hit. As long as Josh Allen doesn't feel that he has to be Superman, I think that things will be fine. This is a team right now that is on a six-game, or excuse me, they are in a five-game winning streak. They have won every game since their bye at around Thanksgiving. They have not lost since. And we saw what they just did to move on here going into the postseason, getting the Dolphins the hell up on out of here.

855-212-4CBS. Speaking of the hell up on out of here, this is some news that I think probably there's a portion of listeners who at some point in their life, they were heavily invested into this. And it's Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated publication has been around probably as long as every human being listening to the sound of my voice has paid attention to it.

The magazine started in 1954. And well, I just want you to take a listen to this news. This is courtesy of ABC 7 in Los Angeles. Stunning announcement impacting the sports and business world. Sports Illustrated laid off most of its staff this morning. The Sports Illustrated union made the announcement on X. According to the Washington Post, that includes all of its writers and editors. The layoffs are being viewed as a strong sign that the publication will stop after more than 70 years in business. The company has struggled to keep up with declining subscriptions. Yeah, we know this, folks. The magazine business is dead. I mean, I used to work for VOD magazine at one point in time. OK, where's that? It doesn't exist.

I mean, there are other websites that come up and pop up. It's not just Sports Illustrated. There's the the Bleacher Reports of the world, the ESPN. God bless them.

Did an amazing job. One of the first Web companies, you know, when ESPN, when the Internet was really starting to run and Sports Illustrated with a lot of publishing companies, they didn't they didn't ride that wave. And so they've been out here playing catch up. Now, the brand Sports Illustrated isn't going anywhere and it hasn't. It's been passed around from multiple publishers and distributors for the past several years now. And the current publisher, Arena, utilizes and pays a licensing fee to authentic brands.

Authentic brands owns the likenesses for people like Muhammad Ali helps handle all of their businesses. Well, Arena could not pay Sports Illustrated the licensing fee. And so thus, Arena is losing the license. And so Sports Illustrated, it might go away for a few years. I can imagine in some type of iteration, it'll be back. You know, I mean, the last time we talked about Sports Illustrated was a couple of months ago when Sports Illustrated said that Deion Sanders was their person of the year.

And it's just like, I guess you got to do whatever you can to go ahead and drum up business and interest. Sports Illustrated, I'm just sorry. There's going to come a point in time unless they can really jump on a rocket ship. It's not going anywhere. The name isn't going anywhere. But let's be real. For right now, Sports Illustrated momentarily, it's dead.

It's unfortunate. You've been listening to the J.R. Sportbrief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you so much to our super producer and host, Ryan Hickey, holding it down this week, holding it down for us on the boards in New York City.

And thank you all so much to you, everybody listening all over North America. This show gets started every weeknight at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, 3 p.m. Pacific. We'll be back on Monday and we're going to talk about all of the football action over the weekend. Maybe we have some new hirings. Maybe we have some upsets.

I don't think so, though. I even got the Chiefs beating the Bills on Sunday night. You can find me everywhere I am at J.R. Sportbrief. You can listen to me tomorrow in New York City on WFAN. The J.R. Sportbrief show here on CBS Sports Radio is a wrap, but don't move. Bart Winkler coming up next. Thank you, Ryan.