JR SportBrief Hour 1

Listen up.

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Instacart for the win. A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners up get nothing, one retired cop returns... That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. It is CBS Sports Radio and you are locked in to the JR Sport Reef show. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. Thank you so much to our producer and host, Ryan Hickey. And thank you again to you.

Yeah, you. Everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. You can listen on the free Odyssey app. I will say again, it's free. Did you have to pay for gas today? That wasn't free. Did you have to pay for food today? That wasn't free. What I'm offering you is free. The Odyssey app.

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It just automatically plays the station and you can listen to everybody at any time of the day. And so thank you very much. I hope you're having a wonderful Tuesday, wherever you're at, whatever you're doing. This is when I get started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.

Ryan Hickey, simple question, man. How you doing? You good? JR, I am good. Not snowed in, not cold.

We are doing well today. So the snow in New York, was there a foot? Was there two inches? Was there no snow? What's the deal? There was a whole lot of hype, not a lot of substance.

Two inches, three inches, but even down here, there was nothing by the time I got off the subway. It was all clear. And they canceled school across the tri-state area for this crap. Wow.

You could put cancel in air quotes. Now kids have to work remotely. The kids, what happened? No more snow days. Yeah, well, but you stay home. I hate to say this, at 29 years old, back in my day, a snow day was you're off, no school. Now it's OK, yeah, you don't have to go to school, but now you still have to work remotely and log in. That's not a snow day.

Yeah, well, I heard the infrastructure in New York City is so bad, the online system didn't work. Yeah, which now maybe actually they did get a real snow day today. Good for them. Yeah. Like what percent of the kids are going online to do work on a day off? Like none of them anyway. Right.

So I don't know. Well, I'm glad you're not snowed in. I'm happy that you're here. I know there are a lot of people all over the country, specifically in Kansas City, still feeling the I guess we can call it the Super Bowl hangover. They have an entire parade that's going to take place tomorrow.

So I can't wait for well, let me not say I can't wait for the drunks. But for whatever reason, over the past several years, when it comes to sports, I don't care if it's Tom Brady and the Buccaneers, I don't care if it's Klay Thompson and the Warriors. Athletes have gotten very, let's say, liberal and loose when it comes to the consumption of alcohol at parades.

I mean, even last year, Mike Malone or excuse me, Michael Malone, the head coach of the Denver Nuggets, this guy was swearing like a sailor. I'm like, isn't this? It is a public event. Aren't there kids there?

Maybe not. I guess we've reached a point where you can't take kids to a championship parade. It's just it's a mess. I wouldn't take my kid out there. It's wild as hell. It's too many people. And and then in the drunks and then with the athletes, there's six and seven foot drunks. And so shout outs to everybody in Kansas City. Do I have a good time tomorrow?

Now, having said that. Taylor Swift might be there. So I don't know what that means for security. I don't know what that means for people going to enjoy themselves.

They're going to be some folks who show up to the Kansas City Chiefs parade tomorrow, not to see Travis Kelce, not to see Patrick Mahomes, but to see if they can get Taylor Swift with an eye shot. I don't know if I shot as a word. I know your shot, but you know what the hell I'm saying.

And speaking of shot, speaking of eyes and what people view, this is kind of wild. Last night while I was on air and on the way off, we got the Super Bowl numbers in. And so I must discuss them with you right now, because this past Sunday, the Super Bowl, this was the most viewed, most watched program ever, at least in the United States of America. As you talk about the World Cups, we're talking billions. But here in the United States of America, 123.7 million people watched on average the Super Bowl. Now, that counts in television and streaming numbers.

That is the most watched event ever, ever, ever, ever. A matter of fact, the news covered this. This was covered all over the country, not just here in Atlanta or in Vegas or in New York.

Take a listen. This is courtesy of CBS Texas. The ratings there ran.

That game was great. The ratings might be greater. Super Bowl 58 was the most watched television event in more than 50 years. The battle between the Chiefs and the 49ers averaged 123.4 million viewers. That's TV's biggest audience since the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.

The game aired here on CBS with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, which streamed live on Paramount Plus, simulcast in Spanish on Univision, and as a telecast with SpongeBob and Nate Burleson on Nickelodeon. And while the Taylor Swift impact can't be measured, trust me, it is real. She brought in an enormous new group of viewers to the NFL with her attendance and relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. What?

So here's some facts, right? Last year, the Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Eagles, 115 million. This year it was one hundred and twenty three, a record two hundred and two million people watched at least part of the game.

All right. That's that's more than two thirds of the country at one point in time said, I'm going to turn on the Super Bowl. And you just heard it from the group, the good old folks. CBS, Texas, 1969, the moon landing. That's how long we've had to wait until we had something that was more watched than that. And if you can't tell by the audio, it was a long time ago in 1969. Listen to this courtesy of ABC. ABC News presents the flight of Apollo 11, beginning 30 hours of continuous coverage of the lunar landing. Good day from ABC Space Headquarters in New York.

It is July 20th, 1969, and man is about to land on the moon. That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind. Oh, yes. See? Yeah. You didn't think you'd come on the JR Sport Brief Show and get a history lesson.

1969. Yeah, I just I wasn't alive. I remember they sent that. Hickey, then they said, well, they sent quite a few things up there before humans.

Remember, they sent that that monkey and then they send a dog up there to just to test things out. I did not. They did.

Oh, geez. Yeah. I don't want to say that that that we as a country did it. I don't remember.

So people out there don't message me telling me about historical facts. I think it was. How do I say this? It was another country. It was it was a red country. That sounds familiar now. Yeah. And I think they sent a monkey and or a dog up there.

Or maybe the US did it. I don't think so. Where the hell Peter was. I have no idea. I don't know. But now we got Peter.

You can barely walk your dog outside, let alone, you know, send one in the outer space or that monkey that was, I don't know, floating up there forever. Bottom line is a crap ton of people watch this Super Bowl. And as CBS said, this thing was broadcast on Nickelodeon next year. Oh, CBS won't have the Super Bowl. But the next time the Super Bowl is on CBS, I might have to watch Nickelodeon.

I heard that SpongeBob and Patrick were making jokes about the players and some of these jokes were pretty adult. I might have to tune in next time. And so to think about this Super Bowl being the most watched event ever. Is it accurate that that Taylor Swift helped boost these numbers? Like, is it accurate that this year one hundred and twenty three million people tuned in on average?

Last year was 115. Eight million people tuned in extra because of Taylor Swift. Am I to believe that or does it make a little bit more sense just to go, hey, people want to see Patrick Mahomes?

I don't. It's Taylor Swift accounting for an additional eight million people. That just sounds like a stretch to me as much as I love Usher. Eight million extra people didn't tune in to see Usher and then something else to keep in mind. They combined the television numbers and streaming like you can watch on the NFL app, you could have watched on the Paramount app. This is not just television. And so I think the numbers here were boosted in a world where people are consuming video at a ridiculous rate in a palm of their hands. Yeah. How the hell were all of these people going to watch the moon landing?

People didn't have cell phones. It's as simple as that. And so we can go on down the line.

Moon landing. We can look at Super Bowls, which pretty much dominate some of the most watched and viewed products here in the United States of America. We could think about the final episode of MASH.

We can go on down the list. It's just hilarious. They have to combine streaming with TV. Because I wonder what the television numbers look like by themselves. And I know I get it. We're in a different world, a different time, a different era. If people watch, they watch.

What difference does it make? It's still eyeballs. It's still people. They're still listening. They're still watching.

They're still consuming. And the advertisers still have to pay. I think the advertisers were paying seven million dollars for a commercial, including that ridiculous one by Kanye West, which he said, hey, I spent my whole budget just to buy the commercial. And he sent in a video that he recorded from his cell phone. Tiki, did you see that commercial?

Thankfully, I did not. Kanye West recorded a commercial with his cell phone and basically said, hey, we bought a Super Bowl commercial. We spent all the money just to buy the commercial. And so go to my website. And buy my products. And that's it. Curious if that worked. Simple commercial.

Well, I believe I believe he had 20 million dollars in sales. Wow. Maybe that is a lesson now going forward.

Yeah, well, don't. Well, I mean, one of those other commercials I heard Ben Affleck got paid 15 million dollars for sitting around and doing one commercial. So I guess Dunkin Donuts is wasting money. This is actually the first year I didn't I didn't recall any commercials. I did it.

I remember the Planet of the Apes commercial at the beginning of the Super Bowl. And and that was it. That was all she wrote. Well, let me ask you this, Ryan. And then we have Matt Verderam, who's going to join us in a few minutes coming over from Sports Illustrated. You broadcast on the air right after the Super Bowl. And so did you get a chance to listen or were you just intently watching or what was the deal? I was able to watch basically three and a half quarters with sound on, at least either at a friend's house or here in the studio. And then once I was on the air at 10 p.m. Eastern, obviously the game is still on.

The game is going on for another 45, 50 minutes. So that point, it was silence. I wasn't even paying attention to what commercials were on.

So I'm not even sure when when the Kanye commercial even aired. But, yeah, it was it was interesting. It was interesting, especially trying to piece together what was going on with overtime and the clock rules, not really being able to hear any sort of explanation. I forgot that both teams got the ball in overtime now with the new rules as well. So it was it was a little bit of touch and go, we'll say for a little bit, trying to just absorb it and also realize what's going on same time.

Yeah, I certainly understand. Well, let me tell you, at least you're not Kyle Shanahan. You would have got your ass whooped in regards to to knowing or not knowing the rules. And and to be honest, even somebody like Tony Romo, you know, I wasn't paying all that close attention to what the hell he was saying. But even Tony Romo received some criticism as to how he went about calling and explaining, you know, the end of the game.

So you can't you can't please everybody all the time. But the Super Bowl, it's a wrap. The parade is tomorrow for the Kansas City Chiefs. Most watched sporting event. Most watched television event. Most watched program in the history here in the United States of America. And it was that Super Bowl from Sunday night between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. It's the J.R. sport we show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to get more into Kyle Shanahan and his decisions later on in the show.

Justin Jefferson did not participate in the Super Bowl. He wants to get paid. But there's a particular quarterback that he wants to play with. Speaking of end of games last night in the NBA. A bad ending for the New York Knicks.

This is a thing to come. And then also my main man, Tiki Barber. Tiki had some thoughts on the conclusion of the Super Bowl. Tiki wants to see some changes to the overtime rule. Does it make sense?

Does it not make sense? We're going to get into it. There's so much that we have to do here on CBS Sports Radio. We are just getting started on the other side of the break to kind of put a bow on Super Bowl weekend in the Super Bowl. We're going to have a conversation with NFL staff writer for SI Now, Matt Verderam.

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A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring. But the runners up get nothing. One retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

But you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort. Coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. OK, picture this.

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The J.R. Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Super Bowl is done.

Folks in Kansas City, they're getting ready for a parade tomorrow. The NFL doesn't stop, though. NFL doesn't sleep. And so to talk about it, to wrap up this past season, to look ahead and look forward, it's time to have a conversation with Matt Verteram. Covers the NFL for S.I. Now, also the host of the Matt Verteram show, which just launched and is all about Chiefs football. Matt, how are you, man?

Thank you for taking the time. I'm doing good. How are you?

Listen, I got not a complaint in the world. Listen, I guess to start off, are you going to be at the parade? Are you making a trip?

What's going on? I literally just got into Kansas City. I'm in the car right now. So, yes, I will be at the parade. I figure, you know what, it's not that far of a drive from where I live these days.

It's going to be 65 degrees out, so I feel like it was the right move. Oh, listen, that's not the worst thing in the world. When you take a look, and we discussed this to open a show, last night we all got the ratings and found out this is the most watched program that we've ever had here in the United States of America. A surprise to you, or are we looking at Taylor Swift factor here? Yeah, I'm not surprised. I mean, definitely the Taylor Swift factor didn't hurt, but then on top of that you have, you know, the NFL is only getting more and more popular by the hour.

And so, you know, you have the Mahomes factor, you have Chiefs going for a dynasty, and then on top of that you have Taylor Swift. So I'm not surprised that it did huge numbers. I mean, it being the most watched thing ever, yeah, that was maybe a little bit surprising, but I'm not surprised that it did an absolutely massive rating.

Matt Bertram is here with us from SI. When you look towards next year, of course Vegas already has the odds out, the 49ers are sitting on top there. Is that a little bit of a surprise? Why wouldn't the Chiefs, in your opinion, be posted as the odds-on favorite right out of the gate? You know, it didn't surprise me in the sense that when you really think about it, the Niners have a much easier path, at least right now. And of course we have free agency and we have the draft and everything else, we've got to go through all that. But like, as we sit here today, the Niners have an easier path in the NFC. You know, there aren't as many great quarterbacks, there aren't as many really good teams. And so if you're San Francisco, you're looking at it as, okay, look, there's maybe Detroit, maybe the Packers, which we're in love, the Cowboys are kind of there, but I don't know that you think about them as a title contender with the way they've been in the playoffs under Mike McCarthy. And so I think the Chiefs, there is that factor of, well, look what they're going to have to navigate.

Now, of course, it's proven they can do it time and again, but it is Buffalo, it is Baltimore, it is what you would think is an approved Chargers team with Harbaugh now coming in. It is a Miami team that's dangerous. So I think there's a lot of that that factors into those odds, not just, hey, this is the best team and so that's where we're picking it. I think it's more than just about the best team.

It's also about how hard it's going to be for that team to get to where they want to go. Well, Matt, you're very familiar with the Chiefs from your coverage, also the launch of your new show. We saw the issues earlier this year, whether it was dropped passes and continuity. What are some of the issues that need to be addressed for the Chiefs this offseason?

We know Chris Jones has his contract. What are some other areas that we need to pay attention to? Well, I think, look, this offseason, they have a litany of defensive starters who are hitting free agency, whether it's Chris Jones, Ella Jarry Snead at the top of that list, Willie Gage with Tranquil, Mike Danna. They're going to have to figure that out. They have some tap space. They're actually in a pretty good position cap-wise. And they can open up a lot of money. They can open up $12 million if they cut MBS, which they're going to do.

They can extend Justin Reed. They can open up some money there. They can do a simple restructure of Mahomes' contract and save $37 million against the cap. So financially, cap-wise, they're not going to have any problem.

I mean, if they want to open up $50 million in space, they can do it at the snap of their fingers. The question is going to be for General Manager Brett Beech, if and when you open up that space, how do you prioritize it? Do you say, okay, look, we're going to bring back Jones and Snead, and we're going to draft another receiver like Rasheed Rice, where they drafted him last year in the second round and it panned out? Do they say, hey, look, we're going to go out and get a second-tier receiver of free agency, a guy like a Calvin Ridley, a guy like a Hollywood Brown, maybe somebody enameled, maybe not a Mike Evans or a T. Higgins, who Higgins hit the market.

I think, look, if you know anything about Beech, he is very aggressive when he sees that he's got to fill a need. I would be shocked if they sit pat throughout free agency at receiver. They may not go out and get the biggest name, but they're going to go out and get a meaningful player in free agency at that spot. They have to address it after what we saw this year. Matt Berderam is here with us from SI.

You know, taking a look at the losers from this past Sunday, unfortunately the 49ers have felt this before the past couple of seasons, losing in an NFC championship, obviously the Super Bowl, injuries, what have you. How much more rope does Kyle Shanahan have? I think he's got quite a bit. Realistically, he's an excellent football coach. And I really thought, to his credit, I thought he coached a decent game on Sunday.

I really did. I know a lot of people have given him grief about the third quarter and maybe not running the ball as much as some people would have liked. They got a little pass happy for a couple of series. But if you really go back and look at those series, the Niners are in second and 15, second and 18.

You're not going to run the ball very much out of that. And they did target McCaffrey in the passing game. It wasn't as though they just said, hey, we're moving away from McCaffrey completely. I thought the big sin of that game for the 49ers, and I thought it in real time. It's not a hindsight thing. I thought taking the ball to start overtime was insane.

Insane. But I still feel that way. I know Shanahan ended up saying, hey, look, it was because the game was still tied after each team touched the ball. We wanted to have that first shot in sudden death.

I understand that. But to me, if you don't score a touchdown and you give the ball to Mahone, that is sudden death. You're losing.

You're not surviving that. At that point in the game, the defense is both being gassed. I thought if you're going to take the ball there, you've got to get in the end zone. At that point, third and four at the nine yard line, that's two down territory for me. I'm not kicking that field goal. There's no way I'm kicking that field goal. That was where I thought the overtime, both at the coin toss and at third and four, that was where I had my issues more with Shanahan than anything else.

Well, Matt, let me ask you this. We talk about the pathway for the 49ers next year. Probably a little bit easier coming out of the NFC. The Eagles. This is a team that fell right the hell off at the end of the season. There were conversations definitely about Nick Sirianni and his return. What do you see with the Eagles? He is certainly on thin ice.

Yeah, I mean, Sirianni, listen, I'm from the East Coast. And if I know one thing about those fans, they're not going to be very patient. If the Eagles start out and they're one and two or something like that, it's going to be a problem.

I mean, let's just be real about it. It's going to be a lot of why do we keep them? Why is he here? What are we doing?

How do we fix this? And so, I mean, they kept them, but at the same point, they didn't keep all the coaches on that staff. So, you know when that happens, you are on some thin ice.

You are going to be looked at as, hey, you're here, but this isn't forever. And, you know, I think Sirianni deserves to have another shot at it. He's been the coach for three years. They've been to the playoffs three times.

They went to the Super Bowl in the second year. At the same point, that collapse was unacceptable. And you can't be the guy who's kind of an in-your-face personality. And then you lose a few games and the whole thing just completely falls apart. You've got to be able to rally guys and get guys back into it.

He wasn't able to do that. And so, look, I think he deserves another shot. But I also think realistically, if they don't get off to a good start next year, the calls for his job in Philadelphia are going to be deafening. Well, Matt, yeah, we know Philly.

Well, depending on what time of the year, they might throw snowballs, they might throw other things, but it depends on the time of the year. We've had a lot of turnover here this past offseason when it comes down to coaching. We know Belichick doesn't have a job.

Vrabel doesn't have a gig. We saw the success in the first year from Houston at Texans with D'Amico and also C.J. Stroud. Is there a team that made an adjustment with the coach that you think can have some success later on this year? You know, look, I think the Chargers are very interesting. They're a team that you look at and say, all right, look, they finally went out and got a head coach to have some confidence in. Not that it's perfect because they're going to have to really redo that roster. They have a cap crunch. There's some guys in that team, some big-name guys who are not going to be back next year. But you have Harbaugh, you have Herbert. I think you've got to at least feel like you've got the basis for something pretty good.

And then I look at some of the other openings. I think Raheem Morse is a good hire in Atlanta. I think he's going to do a nice job there. He deserved another shot as head coach. I think that he's going to provide a boost in Atlanta after really, look, Arthur Smith just never got it off the ground. It was a team that, when you looked at them, you always felt like there should be more from that team, right? I mean, offensively, they just kind of underwhelmed with all those first-round picks in London and Pitts and Robinson. So I think both those coaches could have immediate success. Who would agree? I don't think you're the ones going to Super Bowl next year.

I wouldn't be surprised if you don't want to make the playoffs, though. Well, on the other end of the spectrum, Raheem Morse, we know that the Falcons are in the market for a quarterback. You know, when you think about these names, the Russell Wilsons of the world, you think about Justin Fields and his status, where do you think either one of those two guys are going to end up?

You know, Fields is fascinating. He really is. Because when you look at the Bears, that's a team that early on in his career, first year especially, they really gave him absolutely no chance. And now he's a guy that you look at and say, okay, they're probably going to move off of him. I think that's reality. Whether they should or shouldn't, I think that's probably coming. And so if that happens and they move off of Fields, you're probably looking realistically at a situation where they get a second-round pick.

I think Pittsburgh would be ideal. And I know that's exploded out there. Mike Tomlin is an excellent coach, an excellent coach. And they've got weapons. They've got Pickens. They've got Fryermuth.

I mean, they've got Deante Johnson. Like, I look at a guy like a Fields and say, if I'm a team that needs a quarterback, and especially if I'm a team tight on cap space, he's somebody I'm looking at that I'm interested in. I think he could be a really intriguing piece.

Maybe, look, it's a little boomer bust. Maybe he goes somewhere he doesn't work out. I'm betting on the talent.

I'm betting on the kid. I've never heard a bad word about him in the NFL. I think he would be a very intriguing piece. And I think if you're a team like Pittsburgh and you're stuck with Kenny Pickett, then Fields could be a huge upgrade.

Stuck with Kenny Pickett. And Russell Wilson, we know that he's owed a lot of money. They just gave him a lot of money. Now Sean Payton is in there. What happens with this 35-year-old quarterback? You know, we just talked about the Falcons.

I could see that being an interesting fit there. You know, if he goes there, that's a team that, as I said earlier, they've got talent at all. I mean, that's not a team you look at and go, they just have nobody and it's a total tear down.

That's not the case. I mean, they do have real talent. They do have guys on that team that go ahead or you can move the ball. And he's going to cost nothing.

He's going to cost the veterans minimum because he's getting all of his money still from Denver with all the offset language or anything else. So if I'm a team like the Falcons, I'm calling up Russell Wilson and saying, hey, look, we'll bring you in. We'll give you a shot. Come play in the dome. Come play with some really talented offensive players. And we're going to give you a good defense. We're going to give you a really rock-solid defense. We're not going to ask you to do everything. We're going to just ask you to play a little point guard for us. I think Atlanta makes a lot of sense for a guy like Russell Wilson.

Well, it might. You certainly know his wife is from down here, so that might be an easy kind of flip over. Final question for you, Matt. We've never seen a team go to three Super Bowls, win three in a row. Odds of that happening for the Chiefs, huh, next year? I mean, look, if you're saying, hey, take the Chiefs or take the field. I mean, I think the smart money is always taking the field because it's just it's so hard. I mean, it's so hard to win one Super Bowl, not even one two. At the same point, I'm not betting against the homes.

That's that's great. I mean, right now, if they bring back Jones and they bring back Snead, the team is ridiculous. And especially if they add in another receiver, which you'd expect they would do, whether it's the agency or the draft. They're just so talented and they have the quarterback. I mean, the NFL, if you got the coach and you got the quarterback, you got a shot.

And what I again, it's going to be hard, but. Who else did you pick over? Who's the team you look at and go back over that? I don't know who that team is. There is none until they get knocked off again next year. And somehow, some way, I guess there's still an underdog level role.

Let's see if that continues into next year. Matt, I want to thank you for taking the time to hop on. Where can people follow you? Your work with S.I., your brand new show, Phyllis N. Yeah, thanks. You can go to at Matt Verderam, V-E-R-D-E-R-A-M-E on Twitter.

I'm on there way more than I'd like to be. But you can certainly catch all my work on S.I., tweet it out there. You can just follow it over at S.I.com. And as far as the Matt Verderam show, it's on Patreon. It's all, that podcast is geared towards the Chiefs.

My national one is at the M.M.Q.B. So, any and all support, always appreciated. No doubt about it. Listen, man, have a great, are you going to have a great time at the parade or are you working? I am doing, it's kind of a combo. I brought my dad out here because he's been a Chiefs fan for 55 years. So, going to enjoy it with the old man and probably write a column off of it.

Beautiful. There's nothing wrong with having a little bit of fun with family and then also being able to work. Hey, Matt, have a good time. Thank you again.

We'll talk to you down the line. Absolutely. Take care. No doubt about it. Thank you so much that Matt Verderam covers the NFL for Sports Illustrated. Also recently launched his brand new show, The Matt Verderam Show. So, go ahead and check out Matt.

Excellent conversation and excellent thoughts. It's the J.R. Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. The phone number is 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. He brought up some excellent points. When we come back on the other side, being here that I am in Atlanta, I do want to talk about the Falcons and their quarterback situation.

Because the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, Arthur Blank, he decided to share his own thoughts. He's like, yeah, we are going to be very aggressive when it comes down to getting our next QB. We're going to hear from Arthur Blank. We're going to talk about it. The phone lines are open if you want to talk to me. That's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. I'm Tony and this is The Tony Kornheiser Show. Wow, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about?

It's been almost 30 years and I still don't know. Right now we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world. And we get weekly picks from a monkey.

Do you really need more than that? I might just tell you about my bunker game of the latest failed entry in my quest to find the best coffee ice cream. No schmutz please. Listen on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. You ain't got a quarterback.

You ain't got nothing. Thank you again to Matt Verderam for joining us in the last break. This man covers the Chiefs for his own show also covers all things NFL on Sports Illustrated.

Make sure you go ahead and check out Matt Verderam 8 5 5 2 1 2 for CBS is the number that's 8 5 5 2 1 2 for CBS. We talked about what took place with the Super Bowl. We look back a couple of days. We're looking forward towards teams that might have success. Matt feels that the Chargers might turn things around and they're in a good position to turn things around with Jim Harbaugh now as their head coach. And then what we would hope and expect to be a healthy Justin Herbert. And so they may they may turn things around sooner than later might take a couple of seasons or years, but they could be a team that challenges, you know, the Kansas City Chiefs and the AFC West.

And that leads me to what's going to take up a lot of our time moving forward over the next few months. It's the NFL draft. What quarterback goes where? What quarterback comes in? Who has the CJ Stroud effect with Houston? What team?

And this is not what you want, not by any stretch of the imagination. What team bottoms out even though they select the quarterback like the Carolina Panthers? So let's just say two thirds of the NFL. I think realistically, two thirds of teams in the NFL would probably swap out quarterbacks or improve at the quarterback position without hesitation. Because everybody's always looking for an upgrade.

That's not to say that you can get one. But having a quarterback is at a premium. It's crazy to think that there are 32 of these jobs that exist and half of the quarterbacks suck.

Like, let's let's really think about this in the United States of America. It is so difficult to play the quarterback position that even at the highest level, it's a revolving door. Hickey, isn't that something? Like, you can be a star in any sport. You can excel.

You can be amazing. There are tons of great pitchers, right? There are tons of great, excellent shooting guards. There's not a dearth of them. And yeah, there's different levels of stardom. But for quarterback, we can't find good quarterbacks off the street. We can't get good ones out of college. It's kind of crazy. Especially now with so much specialization, right?

And kids now are playing quarterback 24-7, 365. There's a million camps. And still, here we are talking about what? Eight?

Seven guys? You feel good about it? And so what, 24 other teams are like, yeah, we could use an upgrade? You said it. It's crazy and truly unbelievable.

Yeah. And it's the rate in comparison to other teams. And yeah, sure, the NFL, you know, 53-man rosters. But all things considered, you've got 11 people on the field with you.

You've got one quarterback. Quarterback is the point guard. It's the center. It's the forward.

I mean, you can go on down the list and comparing it, you know, to other sports. The quarterback, you could say is the starting pitcher. Would you say the quarterback is more starting pitcher or catcher? Maybe catcher with the decisions and kind of knowing everything going on, catcher, right? And especially, I mean, there's not that many great catchers, right? There's a lot of replacement level catchers. So that's probably with how much the responsibility and also to the fact that there's not even 10 elite catchers, probably that's the comp. You know what?

You know what, Hickey? We might have a top six for tomorrow. We got we got to think about it a little bit more. Top six catchers? Let's go. Hell no.

Hell no. We may have to do top six catchers all time. Here's here's the thing I wanted to let's think about this a little bit more. It really what is the most difficult position to play in professional sports? You know, I mean, you just talked about catchers. We just talked about how that if you go through every NFL roster, we got teams that are shuffling around, you know, also ran QBs. I mean, the Cleveland Browns for all the success that they've had.

What do they do? Five, six quarterbacks this past season? And yes, it's due to injury, but you just said it. Catchers? Like there used to be a time where, you know, having a catcher who could swing the bat is at a real premium. And I don't know if we still have that because a lot of times the catcher has to know everybody on the pitching staff, which is ridiculous. You could have up to 14 pitchers on the team at one time. You think about everybody that comes up and down through the majors.

Maybe you got to know 20 to 30 guys. And at what point do you have time to go out there and swing the bat? Most catchers, they either great. Well, this is this is really careful here. They're either great behind the plate or they're great swinging the bat. There's there's no in between. It's it's very few and far in between.

I don't know. I'm going to think about that more. We know quarterback is is the most important position. No position player in any sport has more influence on the outcome of a game than a quarterback. But being a catcher. It's just why we have catchers who convert into being just just managers because they have to know every aspect. They understand hitting. They understand strategy. They understand defensive positioning. They see the field. They're the only position that sees the entire field. And then they have to manage the pitchers.

So they know they know everything. I think I think quarterback might be most important. I think pitcher might be or catcher might be most difficult.

What say you? I would still go with quarterback just from the sense of I mean, mentally, you have what? Two or three seconds before the snap after the snap to know what the defense is doing. And so many guys have adjustment and you got to know the old line is doing the receivers doing running back is doing the play calls are long as hell in terms of how you know how you got to regurgitate them. Also, you got 300 pound men breathing down your neck. I'm not going to sit here and tell you it's easy to catch like a 90 mile an hour curveball. I couldn't do it, but I think I would just have you drop back like dropped us behind under center.

Totally lost. I would still say quarterback. Yeah.

Yeah. I was thinking about it from a physical standpoint, but you bring up an excellent point. I'm thinking about a catcher having to know and I guess it's the same for a quarterback. Even though quarterback is not playing defense, quarterback has to read the defense. The quarterback probably knows just as much as the defense. And in some cases, it's a cat and mouse game. What do I know versus what you think I know and how am I going to get a leg up on you? And you know what?

There are a lot of similarities. I'd say that, to be honest. And this is separate from getting, you know, kind of tackled and destroyed.

For the life of me. And maybe it's because my knees suck. OK, I need new cartilage in my knees, but I don't get how the hell they squat back there for hours at a time.

And yeah, you get to stand up and yeah, you're only there for half an inning and then you stand up and swing and then you run and then you squat back down. I can't squat for two minutes. And these guys are squatting for 10 and 15 minutes, sometimes at a time. Am I the only person that feels that way?

I'm with you there. That is physically grueling. And then imagine, too, squatting after taking a 95 mile an hour foul tip right to your shoulder.

Yeah, these guys, they weren't wearing all this hockey equipment back there. I know no catchers equipment. I don't need any catchers being mad at me. It's tough. But I want to think about that tomorrow. Tomorrow we should really think about a top six, maybe most difficult positions, most important positions in sports. There might, might be something there.

Possibly. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. When we come back. Yeah, I started talking to you about the Falcons, started talking to you about the ridiculously important position of quarterback.

I'm going to give you an update. What the hell are the Falcons doing at QB? What the hell is Justin Jefferson want in order to stay in Minnesota and what's going on with Eric Bienemy? The Chiefs, they win the Super Bowl and Eric Bienemy, his name is back in the news. I will fill you in on it all and more on the other side of the break. It's the J.R. sport brief show on CBS Sports Radio.

A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners up get nothing. One retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

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2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. I'm Tony and this is the Tony Kornheiser show. Well, that makes it sound a bit more serious than it really is. So what exactly is the show about? Been almost 30 years and I still don't know. Right now we have some of the best voices in football come on to explain to us what we need to know in the college and pro world.

And we get weekly picks from a monkey. Do you really need more than that? I might just tell you about my bunker game and the latest failed entry in my quest to find the best coffee ice cream. No schmutz please. Listen on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.