3.6.24 - JR SportBrief Hour 1

Hey, Rob Bradford here. I have set out on a mission with my good friends at FanDuel to prove what I have known for some time. Baseball isn't boring. Now I have a daily podcast to prove it with some of the most notable people in the baseball world screaming, baseball isn't boring for the mountaintops, or at least agreeing to come on our show. Players, managers, GMs, and yes, even the commissioner of baseball, Rob Manfred. It has been a constant wave of baseball to both powerful voices. So join the revolution, subscribe, and soak in. Baseball isn't boring. Listen on your Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll be glad you did.

It is. The JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love to super producer and host Ryan Hickey holding it down for us on the board in New York City. And thank you to you, everybody listening all over North America.

Consider yourselves lucky because this is when the show gets started. Every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. You can always listen on the free Odyssey app, your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate. Sirius X, I'm Channel 158. If you have a smart speaker, ask it to play CBS Sports Radio.

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Make sure you utilize at least one. Listen, folks, we got a busy show in store for you this Wednesday, March, whatever the hell it is, March 6th. Another day. Well, it's Wednesday, so that means in two hours, I'm going to deliver to you a new top six list with all the movement and the expected NFL free agency that starts next week. We're going to look at some of the worst free agent signings ever in sports anywhere flat in period. Poyer is gone from the bills. He's getting the boot. Wilson is now officially available to shop his services around and across the NFL landscape. Bill Belichick might end up on television. He's having TV meetings. What a shock. Zion Williamson says he will join the dunk contest under one condition.

It does not involve food. Kelsey Brothers last night, we talked about it. They were in Cleveland having a time of their lives. There's so much to get into.

So much to discuss. You want to be a part of the show? It's simple. The phone number is eight five five two one two four CBS.

It's eight five five two one two four CBS. If you're someone who utilizes the Internet, if you scroll endlessly, mindlessly, if you're looking for news, if you're looking to waste your time, you can do all of the above. I am at J.R. Sportbree everywhere on social media.

That is X slash Twitter slash Facebook slash Instagram slash wherever you find human beings. There's a good chance that I am there before we move on and do anything else with this show. Ryan Hickey, how the hell you doing? Joe, we're doing OK. Raining today, so it kind of sucks.

But otherwise, we're doing well. It's raining. I feel like when I left New York, it was raining. I'm here in Atlanta now and it's been raining pretty much off and on all day. I just maybe the rain.

Is there like a dark cloud following me around? Maybe. I want to think about that.

Put two and two together. You're supposed to be a little bit more optimistic than that. Goodness gracious. Anyway, I feel good. My voice is OK so far.

Ask me how I feel in three and a half hours if I still have one. Last night we were able to make it through. And then we'll we'll we'll make it through tonight as well.

If I have to stand here in the studio and I don't know, just if I do sign language, it's not going to help over the radio. But we're going to get the damn job done. Eight five five two one two four CBS.

That's eight five five two one two four CBS. You know, I mentioned some of the topics that we're going to hit on tonight. We'll look at some of the worst free agent signings in the world of sports will get into Russell Wilson and the permission that he now has to shop his services across the NFL and Zion and all of that stuff. This actually came down the pipe today as well.

This is a pretty cool story. And you know what? We'll have a conversation with this man in about 15 to 20 minutes. His name is Chris Lowe. He's a senior writer for ESPN.

And earlier today he actually put out. A damn good article on how Alabama moved on so quickly from Nick Saban to bring in Caleb DeBoer from Washington and just kind of keep things are churning. And what we all know is a changing landscape in college football. So Chris Lowe is going to join us. And there's a lot of questions I want to ask him.

I want to ask him about Saban because we have learned so much more and I can't say we learned anything. But it's like we have a little bit more validation. You know, you can put one and one in front of a five year old.

Hickey, do five year olds know how to add? Do they know how to do that? Right.

They do. Right. Yes. Yes.

A five year old will know one plus one equals two. Yeah, I think so. That's that's pretty basic. Right. Kindergarten. I don't know.

I think so. It's taken quite some time. Well, having said that, it doesn't take a rocket scientist, it doesn't take a NASA engineer, doesn't take even maybe a second grader or kindergartner to know some basic things here. I mean, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Beyheim, we could go on down the list of famous coaches, whether they be in basketball or football, hasn't taken a rocket scientist to look at why they have all retired over the past one and two in three years. It's because the players have now become a pain in the ass because the players can now make money because coaching is no longer just, hey, let's bring in the best talent. Let's recruit the best talent.

But now you got a jockey and jostle to keep them. Throughout their well, not even their tenure, your tenure. How long are you going to be sticking around as head coach?

You know, how long are the players going to stick around before they get a better job opportunity elsewhere? And when I say job opportunity, I talk about a starting job on another program, talking about job as in make money, as if, hey, I came to Alabama to try to boost my NFL draft status, working with the great Nick Saban. But oh, yeah, Texas might pay me more next year. Well, Texas, not too shabby of a program. Maybe I can do the same damn thing at Texas and make some more money. Hey, Nick Saban, see you later. This isn't the case years ago. But this is now the reality for even the most successful of head coaches, somebody like Nick Saban who walks around and says, hey, I got seven titles from Louisiana to Alabama.

I got titles. Well, it doesn't matter right now because the student athletes have been asking, where is the money? This is like Cuba Gooding Jr. Show me the money.

Jeremy Aguirre, show me the money. If there's no money there, the student athletes are ready to bail. You know, wasn't too long ago that Nick Saban was on ESPN and he told everyone why he decided to retire. But I actually thought that hiring coaches, recruiting players, that my age started to become a little bit of an issue.

People wanted assurances that I would be here for three years, five years, whatever. And that got harder and harder for me to be honest about. And to be honest, this last season was grueling. It was a real grind for us to come from where we started to where we got to. Took a little more out of me than usual. And, you know, when people mentioned the health issue, it was really just the grind of can you do this the way you want to do it?

Can you do it the way you've always done it and be able to sustain it and do it for the entire season? And if I couldn't make a commitment to do that in the future, the way I think I have to do it, I thought maybe this was the right time based on those two sets of circumstances that, like I said, there's never a good time. But I thought maybe this was the right time.

Oh, yeah. And then this this article that we're going to talk to Chris Lowe about dives a little bit deeper. I mean, Nick Saban didn't necessarily pull any punches in some of the things that we've learned. He basically said after losing to Michigan, his players were were acting like asses, for lack of a better term, that they were acting like they haven't been there before. He says, this is not what we expect of our program.

We got guys throwing around helmets. He says that they were players who were were thinking about where they were going to cash out next. He says, I thought we could have had a hell of a team next year and then maybe 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to, all they want to know is two things. What assurances do I have that I'm going to play because they're thinking about transferring and how much are you going to pay me? He says our program here in Alabama was always built on how much value we can create for your future and your personal development, academic success and graduating and developing an NFL career on the field.

And so he said to himself, as you just heard, maybe this doesn't work anymore. Maybe the goals and the aspirations are just different. And that's all about how much money can I make as a college player? Nick Saban says, I'm not saying that's bad. I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying that that's never been what we're all about. And it's not why we had success through the years.

It's called changes. He's correct. And so we haven't heard this from the Coach K's in such a direct way and the J. Wright's and the Bay Himes and Nick Saban, you heard the concerns people asking about his age. He also said, hey, I couldn't have conversations with prospective coaches that I was going to stick around that one day I might wake up and say. I'm gone.

I'm finished. And he just did. And so now that Nick Saban has been sitting around, I guess, when one is retired behind for a little while, no disrespect is retired behind. Nick Saban was actually just asked a couple of weeks ago at his own legacy award presentation how the first month of retirement felt. What does it feel like to be retired?

Nick Saban. It's good. You know, Terry and I have enjoyed our time together and I got a little more time for family.

Good to see grandkids a little more. And it's been really, really good. Play a little more golf.

So that's not good. It's fun. So it's been good. Everybody wants to play a little bit more golf, right? Hickey, you want to play more golf? Sure. If I'm getting, you know, have a lot of money to lean back on.

Absolutely. I'll play more golf. Oh, OK. You don't sound all that enthusiastic, but I'm more of a beach guy myself. Yeah, me too. I don't give a damn about no golf. I like the beach, too.

But I don't. Nick Saban on the beach golf seems more appropriate for Nick. And I know as things move on, we'll see more of Nick Saban on television, because that's the destiny for like old retired coaches who are looking for something to do. That's the destiny of old retired players who don't start podcasts. The idea is to just jump on to TV. Nick Saban continued on at his benefit.

So he ain't playing golf. Probably going to be on television. Nick, what are you going to do at the University of Alabama? You got any type of role? We're going to continue to do things to help the community every way that we can. And the coaches all know that I'm available if they need me in any way, shape or form to help them. I talk to Kaitlyn every now and then and talk to the defensive coordinator every now and then. He's going to come over and meet me this week sometime. So, you know, we're around.

We're there to support the players and help them in any way that we can to help them be successful. He sounds so enthusiastic. I thought when you retired, that you're supposed to be happy, that you're supposed to, you know, enjoy it. He sounds miserable.

I'm going to help Kaitlyn DeBoer. And where's the enthusiasm? Part of the reason why I'm surprised he is retired. I didn't think he had any other hobbies or interests outside of coaching. And it's like you said, just by the tone, it sounds like he's rather be anywhere right now than retired. So when he and Bill Belichick get on the phone, unless Mac Jones has just fractured their relationship.

Right. Because that guy sucks. What the hell do they possibly talk about? Do they share stories of misery, stories of grief? Like what the hell is Nick Saban chatting it up with Bill Belichick about? They definitely feel like are two guys that reminisce on the old days, you know, like go back, like throw on like a 1988 like Browns Giants game and just like gush over like the 4-3 defense. Probably something like that. They're sitting around watching grainy film from the 80s?

Right. Wouldn't you say? They seem like guys that are, you know, would love the old school way of football, the fundamentals, watching, you know, some some pads popping in the hole. I could see them kind of rewinding the VCR living in those days. So basically, Nick Saban and Bill Belichick need to start an OnlyFans where they watch football games, right?

You know what? If they do that and break it down, that will be very popular. I would pay for that. I'd be interested. You'd sign up for a monthly subscription to watch Nick Saban and Bill Belichick watch football? Assuming, of course, they are fully clothed.

Just got thrown out there. I know it's OnlyFans, just want to make sure I'm not paying for any nude analysis. I mean, there's people with artwork on the websites too.

People sell artwork. I've never been on the site. I just assumed there's only sort of one reason maybe you would sign up for a subscription? That's what I've heard.

I thought musicians put like behind the scenes access to their albums. I don't know what you're talking about. Interesting.

I don't know what you're talking about. Huh. I got to expand my horizons. Do some research. Sounds like your horizons already expanded.

I'm talking about artwork and media. You're talking about people with their clothes off. Anyway.

Yeah. If I ever see Nick Saban, I've never met him. Never seen Bill Belichick a day in my life. I'm going to encourage them to watch football on OnlyFans and they can make buckets of money.

They would make more money than they could get from, I don't know, Fox and ESPN and all these other places. So look, congratulations to Nick Saban. You let the cat out the bag. You told all of us the reason that you quit. We already knew already.

You've been complaining for the past several years about the players making dough and and coaches buying players. And so now you're gone. And now you're going to be supporting Caleb DeBoer. And now you're going to be miserable. Now you're going to be making phone calls with Bill Belichick and the world will go on. I want to give Nick Saban some credit for being honest, because at least he told the truth. And it's something a lot of these coaches just, oh, I'm just just time to go. Well, yes, it's just time to leave. And Nick Saban's like, no, I left because the players are jerks and they're looking for money. And there's nothing wrong with that.

But the system and the structure of it is just poor. Enjoy retirement. Hopefully at some point, Nick Saban is not as miserable as the J.R. sport brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio eight five five two one two four CBS. It's eight five five two one two four CBS. We're going to take a break. And when we come back, we're going to have a conversation with the man who helped write this article about Nick Saban and Caleb DeBoer and what's going on with Alabama and what might be really next for Saban. Chris Lowe from ESPN joining us on the other side. You're locked in to the J.R. sport brief show on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio, the J.R. sport show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. So much going on in the world of sports right now.

So many changes. We're getting ready for March Madness. We're getting ready for playoffs in the NHL, the NBA.

Major League Baseball is in the training period. But we also have madness on the college football side. We know that we have changes that are brewing. We have teams that are moving. We have players that are moving, coaches who have moved. And then ultimately, we know the biggest name that has moved along is Nick Saban.

As he has now jumped into retirement and what might consider a little bit of an abrupt retirement. And earlier today, we got a whole lot more insight via Chris Lowe from ESPN, a senior writer who dug very deep into the retirement of Nick Saban and his transition and what Alabama has done next. And so we actually have Chris joining us now to discuss the article and some of the insights. Chris, first of all, thank you for the time and thank you for the great piece that we've had a chance to read. No, thanks for having me.

It's good to be with you guys. No doubt about it. So obviously, there's some massive changes that have taken place. I guess my first question, especially for folks who haven't necessarily read the piece yet. You know, Nick Saban signed a contract extension a few years ago, and he made it very clear that, hey, you know, I'm thinking on moving towards a year-to-year basis. So what changed in that regard? Was it just the NIL? Did things just happen quickly? What happened? It was a culmination of things.

It's an article. He and the AD, Greg Byrne, they talked last year, right after the season, and he wanted to give Byrne a heads up. He said, listen, it's getting harder, you know, in my age, you know, to coach and recruit and do all the things that I want to do at my level, the level that he expects of himself.

So we probably need to start thinking year-to-year on this thing, but, you know, you need to get ready, do what you got to do. I just wanted to give you some notice that, you know, it's getting closer for me because, you know, he would have been, well, he will be 73 this kind of football season. So Byrne had about a year's notice to work behind the scenes, and I think as the year played out, Nick was very, it was frustrating early, but he was really proud of the team. They were not a very good football team to start the season, and he was really proud of how much improvement they made to win the SEC title, to beat Georgia, to get the playoffs. I think a lot of things have played in it. I think the season itself that gets told on him, as he told me, hey, at 72, it's a heck of a lot harder to put in 14 hours than it is at 62.

I think that was one. This version of football and the changes, you talked about the outset of our conversation, the changes, coaches coming and going, players coming and going, having to sort of every year negotiate with players, hey, I'm going to jump in the portal unless you can give me this deal, that deal. And I think his staff, you know, you go back and look at his staff over the last two years, he's had a ton of guys come through there, and as he interviewed prospective coaches, a lot of those guys were the assurances from, hey, coach, you're going to be here three years from now. And he said, you know, in good conscience, I really couldn't say I absolutely was. And I think all those things, I think he promised his wife, Terry, listen, when I'm done, well, each time, there won't be enough quality, I want to have enough quality of life that we could go out and do some things that, quite frankly, they hadn't been able to do for the last 50 years. And I think as this season went on, and he got to the, you know, back to campus and players were asking him about, hey, coach, can you give me this assurance or, you know, can you double my deal? I think all this was sort of a culmination as he and wife, Terry, talked when they went on their trip to Florida, it was like, you know what, this is probably the right time for me to step aside and let somebody else come in. I'm not sure, and this is me talking for him, he told me, I'm not sure maybe this works the way it's always worked before and the way I want to do it. Therefore, instead of hanging around and rumbling about it or commiserating about somebody else, he said, you know what, this is a good time to do it. Let's step away.

And I think that's sort of how it all shook out, to be honest with you. ESPN senior writer Chris Lowe is joining us on the JR Sport re-show on CBS Sports Radio. You talk about some of the reasons that Nick Saban has stepped away and he's almost like the last shoe to drop when you think about just the real legendary coaches right now active between just football and basketball. He's also been vocal about speaking up about some of the changes that college athletic needs. How big of a voice is he going to have because it's the wild, wild west right now? Well, he wants to. That's important to him. He told me that he wants to be a voice of not necessarily change, but uniformity, sensible reform, trying to get everybody together, all the parties together to have sensible conversations about how to sort of get away from some of the chaos we have right now. And it's not to say that he's against, I think sometimes it's the misconception is that he doesn't want players to get paid.

That's not it at all. He wants to sort of figure out a way to do it. Whether you bring the compensation model for players in-house, whether you do contracts, but not that it's just sort of all over the place and everybody's sort of playing by different rules, depending on what state you're in, your school, your collective. That's where he says, listen, it shouldn't be that if a kid's jumping from school to school every year, that it's purely, well, this agent's telling a kid I can get you this deal at X, I can get you this deal at Y, I can get you this deal at Z, you know, and let's sort of play all those schools off of each other.

There's got to be a better way to do that. It's not that you're going to keep kids from transferring because, listen, you look at some of the players who transferred over the last few years, have been huge success stories. Joe Burrow certainly comes to mind. There's a lot of Knicks last year at Oregon, Michael Panics at Washington. We can go on and on and on.

So it's not just merely the fact that there's a transfer portal, but maybe try to come to some sensible solution to where, you know, it's not just, as you said, the Wild Wild West. Now, that in mind, to be fair, and Nick acknowledges this, coaches are making millions of dollars. I mean, he was making 11 million. Kirby Smart's making 11 million. Sarkeesian just went to 10 million. So from a coaching perspective, most of these guys are smart to realize that the players are watching this. They're seeing these salaries just continuing to increase.

Let's figure out a way to get the players a bigger slice of the pie and do it in such a way that there is some uniformity. Well, Chris, I mean, your ESPN article even detailed the transition in the period between Saban stepping down and the hiring of Kalen DeBoer. It was pretty cool to see that Bernie reached out to everybody from Joe Namath to Devante Smith. So to what extent did Nick Saban have say in regards to his successor, if any? No, he was he was certainly kept abreast. And anybody that knows Nick Saban knows the last thing he wants to do is a guy who's looking over people's shoulder. But he also wants to be a resource for Alabama.

And there's no doubt that Greg Byrne kept him in the loop. Ask him questions. Hey, have you recruited against this guy? Tell me what you think about this guy's offense.

Do you know anything? How would this guy's style recruiting approach work at Alabama, work in the SEC? You know, he would have been a fool, any AD would have been a fool not to solicit that advice. Nick Saban was not the guy behind the curtain, you know, turning the wheels. And that's again, that's not who he is. His office now is in the stadium. It's not even the football complex because he doesn't want to be there. He's not that guy that's going to be poking his head in the meetings and walking down the hallway. You know, he's he's had his run. He wants to be there.

They know that he's going to be a resource. But no, it wasn't like, you know, you hear sometimes, you know, coaches like Nick Saban won't depict their successor. That was not the case at all with him, although he was he was kept abreast.

A pretty cool story that the board told me. He said when he was offered the job on Friday morning, one of the first people he called was Nick Saban. He just wanted to reach out and tell him out of respect what it meant to him to follow in his footsteps. You know, the tradition and what he built at Alabama and how much it meant to him and to be the guy that follows him. Because a lot of people don't want to follow the guy. They want to be the guy that follows that follows the guy.

That's right. Had enough security, enough confidence in himself that that was a challenge that he jumped at. I think he wanted Nick Saban to know that. ESPN senior writer Chris Lowe is joining us here on CBS Sports Radio. Well, having spoken to both Nick Saban and Caleb DeBoer, I guess what do you see for the program moving forward? We know the landscape flattened period inside Alabama is changing. What's going to be different for Caleb DeBoer moving forward? Well, the first thing I would say is he's still he's taking over a championship caliber program.

He's not taking over a program that's mired in scandal, one that's sort of a shift that's been taken on water. These guys were in the playoff last year and beat Georgia. They hadn't lost in nearly three years. Now, several players have moved on to the NFL, to other schools, but there's still a strong nucleus. So it's not like he's walking in to a rebuilding situation. I think with the playoffs expanding to 12 teams, there's a little bit more breathing room for a guy like Caleb DeBoer.

You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to win the SEC. There's a little bit more margin for error than if you lose a game or two. You still got a pretty good chance to get the playoff.

I think that helps. But listen, it's Alabama. Nick won six national titles here.

He won nine SEC titles. You know as well as I do, the first time DeBoer loses a game to somebody that the Alabama fans don't think he should lose to, there's going to be, oh, Nick never lost to these guys. And he understands that. He understands that that type of scrutiny awaits him.

But I'll say this about DeBoer. He is his own guy. He's not going to be anybody that people may want him to be.

He's going to do it the way he's done it. I think he's very confident in his own skin. He's a very genuine, authentic guy when you talk to him. And I don't think he's scared to go in there while always respectful of what Nick did to go in there and do it his way. And hey, the guy was in the championship game last year.

People, it's not like they went and got somebody that hadn't been on that stage before. And here's the other thing I like about DeBoer. He's a grinder. You know, 14 years ago, he was coaching in NAIA football and won championships at that level. Went to Indiana as an offensive coordinator that goes to Fresno State. He's at Washington for two years. In his second year of Washington, they win the Pac-12. They beat Oregon twice.

They get to the national championship game. This guy was not born on third base in a profession. He has worked to get to this point.

And I can tell you this as well. He's really, really hungry. Well, thank you, Chris.

Let me ask you this. In the conclusion here, knowing Nick Saban, that he's going to speak up for change in college football, knowing that, well, yeah, we'll see him on television as he continues to move on into this next phase of his life. You know, what is his legacy going to be defined by? And are we expecting or should we expect to see him on TV a whole hell of a lot more in public speaking, et cetera? What's he going to be doing? Yeah, he told me he's going to do some speaking, you know, leadership seminars, that type of thing. He'll be on game day. He has been game day every Saturday. He's going to be a part of the draft coverage this April.

And I'll tell you what, I'll give you a little teaser. I tune into that because he's been, when I was with him two weeks ago, he is diving in head first. Homework, research, watching tape, just like he was recruiting again. And he will know everything there is to know about these guys as teams draft them. And you know what, he's recruited a lot of these kids. He's evaluated them as coach at Alabama. And I think that will be fascinating to hear his take and the way he explains the football, the game of football. You know, the best coaches are what? The best teachers.

They're able to explain the game at a certain level to where the layman understands what they're talking about. And I think that's why he'll be so good on TV. Is zero chance that we see him on the sidelines and zero chance that we see him with another university in any other capacity? I think probably about as much chance as the two of us get together by beachfront property in Missouri. Oh, well, say Florida. Say Florida.

Say Florida. I don't see it. I just don't see it. Listen, he's he's ready to move on to the next horizon of his life. And he didn't enjoy pro football. I know they're always. That's always hung out there when he was out there.

We go to the pros. He's he's ready to see the other side of life with his family, with his wife, Terry. And I talked to his daughter actually just two days ago and she says the best thing about it is he's walking away with no regrets.

And he feels good about where he is in his life and where he's headed. Good on him and good for him and his family. Well, Chris, thank you for the time and thank you for the excellent article in the read on ESPN. Where can people follow you, your work and check out this great article? Yeah, we can catch me on Twitter at Cielo ESPN and just go to ESPN right now.

I think it's at the top of the college football page. Lovely. Well, thank you, Chris. And enjoy the rest of this busy, busy season. And we look forward to chatting with you on down the line. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys. Have a great night. No doubt about it.

You too. That ESPN senior writer, Chris Lowe, who just put up a very detailed and intricate article about the transition as Nick Saban has retired, the hiring of Kalen DeBoer. He has spoke to both individuals and as you also heard, their families. And he has certainly a unique perspective as to what has just taken place. And let's not call it a unique perspective.

It's a firsthand one. It's the J.R. Sportbri show here with you on CBS Sports Radio 8 5 5 2 1 2 for CBS. It's 8 5 5 2 1 2 for CBS. You know, Nick Saban isn't the only gentleman that we will see on television breaking down prospects. It appears that there's another coach getting ready to do the same. I'm going to tell you who it is on the other side of the break. Shall I take your order or do you need a minute?

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Delivery fees may apply. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It's the JR Sport Brief show here on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you so much to Chris Lowe. Chris Lowe from ESPN senior writer joined us in the last break to break down the transition from Nick Saban to Kalen DeBoer out at Alabama. Great perspective because he spoke with both of them. He also said that there should be some interesting thoughts from Nick Saban coming into the future. Whether it be draft analysis because these are a lot of players that he's tried to work with and recruit. To even the changing landscape of the game.

And so yes, go ahead and check out that article by Chris Lowe on ESPN breaking down the transition of Alabama football. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Right before we went to break, I told you that I want to fill you in about someone else who is entering into a transition.

And also might be joining the world of television. I will do that momentarily. Let's go ahead and hit the phone lines. We got Brent calling from Illinois. You're on the JR Sport Brief show. What's going on, Brent? Hello, JR. Good.

I'm glad you're feeling better. I was in Las Vegas last week, weekend. I flew back Monday. I heard Hickey to board my plane.

Bart Winkler, I think, took your spot last Friday, right? No, I think Hickey was here. Okay. Okay, but I got back from Vegas. I want to give you a recap. Okay.

Yeah, the advice and everything, you were right. It's a little more expensive. Yes.

I found the strip pretty clean compared to other cities. Oh. I found it and, yeah. Okay.

That's surprising. You didn't run into a meth Batman or a stripper? No? Oh, sure, sure, but I walked away to take pictures. You took pictures of meth Batman?

No. Surprising to me, like a couple met some strippers on the strip. They handed me the camera to take a picture of them. Oh, nice. Nice of you to stay involved in a Blige.

Nice. Yeah, but I focused on Chicago, the band. They had their convention Friday and Saturday. The band spoke. There was meet and greet. We had a private jam session before one of their concerts. Fancy.

No, but... No, no, I said fancy. That's nice. Yeah, and then Sunday I went to the concert, which I paid a separate ticket, $900, front row, VIP. I took a picture with the band. So it was a successful vacation in Vegas. Good. Yeah, and I was at the 19th floor of the Treasure Island. It was this great to look out your window and see Las Vegas Boulevard, you know, the advertising trucks and the police cars go by. Yeah.

Let's go back. You spent $900 for a ticket? Yeah, well, $800 plus the $100 insurance.

So yeah, $900, but it was worth it. If I want Beyoncé tickets, can you get that for me? Uh... No. Sure. Oh, absolutely.

Oh, okay. Hey, Hickey, what tickets do you want, Hickey? Oh, concert-wise? Let's go Rihanna. You know, you put me in the mood yesterday.

She got some bangers. We want Rihanna and Beyoncé tickets, okay? Find them.

Okay, I will do that. Thank you, Brent. I'm glad you had a good time in Vegas. Nobody robbed you. You didn't throw up. You didn't have to pay 50 bucks for a toothbrush. I'm glad it worked out.

Yeah, yeah, and the flights were in and out. No problem. So thanks for your advice. Sure. Looks like I had a better weekend than you did. Well, look, I had no voice.

What the hell you want from me? I'm glad you did. I know him.

Not me. Okay. Now I'm here talking to you. Thank you, Brent. You're welcome, Chair. All right, take care, brother. Thank you so much.

Brent Collin from Illinois. Was that a shot fired at me? No? You making fun of me, Hickey? You made fun of me on my own show with that guy? I think he's making fun of you on your own show, and it doesn't sound like he's wrong, too.

He's in Vegas. You have no voice. Oh, I think I had a better weekend than you, Hardy Har Har. No blank. Yeah, I know.

Thank you so much. Well, thank you, first of all. I'm glad he had an amazing time. I don't know why the hell he shared with us that he paid $900 for – I ain't paid $900 for a ticket to see nothing, man. I don't think there's a musician I would pay $900 to go – and nobody. The answer's nobody.

No one, huh? And you get a picture? Because you got a picture with them.

So it's like the concert and a picture. Does that change your mind at all? No. No. Okay.

I wouldn't spend $900 to watch anybody sing, dance, do anything. Nobody. Nobody.

Not like Hamilton on Broadway, first row of meat? No, Lin, whoever he is? No.

Manuel Miranda? You want to do that? No. No.

Don't care. No. You know what I could do? You know how much food I could eat with $900? Oh, you could be filled for a while there. Yeah, I like to eat. I don't need to see anybody.

If I want to go far and see somebody, I can work something out. Is there an artist that you'd pay $900 to go see? No.

No. I'm not a big music guy, either, so I'm with you. Sports would be a little different, but definitely not music. Wait. You don't like music?

No, no, no. I like music. I love music. I know you don't like movies.

I know that part. No, I don't like movies. I just don't get around to seeing them as much as I should. I love music.

I'm more of just a song guy than an artist or a band guy, and either way, there's no one I like enough to spend almost a grand to go see. Oh, yeah. Well, we're in the same boat. That's crazy. Well, good for him.

I'm glad he went to Vegas. Kind of shocked and surprised that he found it to be less filthy than I told him. I don't know. Maybe he needs to go in the summertime.

Maybe there's more people outside. He did say he saw meth Batman and he saw strippers. Now, I don't know where he hangs out that is a little bit less filthy than that or more filthy, but. Well, look, he's he's in Chicago, which is a clean city for being such a gigantic place. I'm glad he had a good time anyway.

Oh, also, by the way, let me mention this. Is it Ted from Alabama's name, Ted? Tim, right? Tim.

Tim from Alabama. While I had no voice, I did see Tim to message me and he messaged me. He emailed me from a text number, like I said. He did. Wait, what?

What does that mean? But he he tried to text you. He did. He text me. He emailed me from a text message.

That goes through. Wow. Years ago, I mean, you've never or maybe not that years ago you could send like a text and it would come from your cell phone numbers. Your cell phone number would have an email address. And so it'd be like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine at, you know, VZW at VZW dot com. And so you could send a text message, you know, as an email from your phone. Never seen that before. Wow. Interesting.

So what you thought was correct? Yeah, because I figured he said he messaged me and I'm like, this man sent me a text message to my email address. And so what I'm going to do now is I got a million messages I need to actually actually need to do and take care of. I'm going to respond to him, you know, but I'll hit him up and say, hey, we got to do it in a couple of weeks or something.

But it's nice. He thinks I'm joking. If he wants to come to Atlanta and he wants to eat.

Well, I don't know. Where should I? Well, I have an idea where I could take him, but I want him to I want to shock the hell out of the guy. So I'll just take him and get some wings or something. And that's that's what I'm saying. I want to. That's too much, right? I mean, the wings are to die. I mean, Lou Williams.

What was he broke the COVID seal, right? Go in there. Yeah, well, the food is good there.

You can they have a part where you just buy food, take them there. Well, just to have wings and we're going to get wings to go wings to go. Can you sit down there?

Well, yes, you can. OK, wings. And if there's a show as well, you know, maybe a little man. There's a show. There's a show. I know you talked about only fans earlier, but. Yeah, that's a well, that's a public private show in there, OK?

Those people are naked. So I don't know if I want to take a listener to Magic City, but I will consider it. You got to come along as well. If Tim is bringing nine hundred bucks, count me in. I'm in. Are you going to pick the money up off the floor?

I've had friends reportedly do that. We got to go to break. It's the J-Offs Porphy Show on CBS Sports Radio. I'll be back on the other side.

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