JR SportBrief Hour 2

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Kick off your summer and shop in-store or online at Whole Foods Market today. The wait is over. That's right. Season 5 of The Kardashians is here. Just when you thought life couldn't get any faster, they're punching it into overdrive. Chris, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, Kendall, and Kylie are back and continue to defy expectations in all their endeavors. So, get ready to go behind the glitz and glamour of the most iconic family on television.

The all-new season of The Kardashians premieres May 23rd streaming on Hulu. It is the JR Sportbrief show here on the Infinity Sports Network. Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia, super producer and host Ryan Hickey is holding it down for us on the boards in New York City. You can always listen to this show on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 158. And if you got a smart speaker at home, at work, wherever, ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network.

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Now it's easy to use your phone to control your Tucson. In about 20 minutes from now, we're going to have a conversation with Matt Verteram from Sports Illustrated. Take a look at the NFL calendar, what we need to look out for, who should we look out for, what we need to avoid.

Matt Verteram has the answers and we'll talk to him in about 20 minutes. In the first hour of the show, and as I'll say it again, where were you? We talked about the teams that have the most primetime games, the Cowboys, the Jets, the Niners. We talked about the team that has zero, the Carolina Panthers, sorry. We showed love to the Dallas Mavericks for being one step away from eliminating the Oklahoma City Thunder. And then we talked about the Boston Celtics knocking off the Cleveland Cavaliers. And of course it took all of, I don't know, five minutes from the Cavs to be eliminated before we got an entire article about how dysfunctional they are. Jared Allen, their injured center team, was disappointed.

He didn't want to take a needle to the ribs to at least try to numb and manage the pain. Donovan Mitchell thinks his teammates don't want to win. Donovan Mitchell is eligible for a contract extension. Is he going to want to stay? Is he going to want to go? J.B. Bickerstaff, the head coach of the Cavaliers, the coach who's led them to the most success since the LeBron James era. He still might get the boot.

You got to love dysfunction, right? But how about this, in about an hour from now, a little more than that. Denver Nuggets are in Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves. Denver Nuggets have an opportunity to eliminate the Timberwolves. And then we got to wait a little while to see who the Celtics will take on in the Eastern Conference Finals. The New York Knicks, they have a chance and they have an opportunity to eliminate the Pacers tomorrow. If not, it'll be a game seven and Sunday. So look, the Boston Celtics, they have some time to rest.

And let's be real, the Boston Celtics, anything besides an appearance in the finals is just going to be a massive disappointment. Anyway, before we get Matt Verteram on, I want to let you know the phone number here. It's 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. You can find me online.

I am at JR Sport Brief. Before we went to break, we talked about contracts. We talked about contracts a few seconds ago. Donovan Mitchell can earn a four year, 200 million dollar contract extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now, whether or not he wants that, we'll see. Does he want to go to the Lakers and play with LeBron? Does he want to stay in Cleveland and have his own team? Hell, does he want to go back home and, dare I say, attempt to play in Brooklyn? Because at this point, I don't think the New York Knicks need him. They got their own guy in Jalen Brunson and I think they are doing just fine.

That's something for Donovan Mitchell to figure out. Two days ago, we learned that Jared Goff of the Detroit Lions, he got himself a brand new contract. He played himself into a brand new contract by helping to lead the Detroit Lions to the NFC Championship game. Jared Goff, last season, went out there and threw for 4,500 yards and 30 TDs, only 12 interceptions, they went to the NFC Championship game.

Maybe they could have won if Dan Campbell knew what a field goal was. But this was the best case scenario for the Lions. That you trade for Jared Goff and then you can now have sustained success. The Lions were one of the best offensive teams in the NFL last year, fifth in scoring. It still sounds dirty to say for the Detroit Lions because I don't expect not a damn thing from them. And so Jared Goff spoke today. The Lions fans who have basically been in the abyss for, what, the past 30 years, longer than that, they appreciate this man.

And he appreciates them back. He says, man, Detroit, me, California guy, it feels oh so good to be in Detroit for the next bunch of years. This city just means so much to me now and will hold a special place in my heart forever. The reward of the contract and the success we've been able to have has been awesome. But the journey itself of these past three years has been the true success. And being able to go through that together with my teammates and with my family and go through the dark times and grow through those times and learn more about yourself and work on yourself, that's the win in all of this. And I'm happy to be able to stand in front of you and be your quarterback for a lot longer. But this city has meant a lot to me.

Man, all we needed was Dan Campbell just to give him a big old bear hug at the end and scream about how much they love him and how much they want him and are happy to have him in Detroit. Now, Jared Goff continued on at his press conference and he had a very simple point to make. He says, the only thing I'm here to do is win the big one. I want to win a Super Bowl. I want to leave a legacy. And I have a lot of personal goals, but I think most importantly, it is hosting that Lombardi. OK, that's that's what everybody wants, right? That's what everybody says at any point. I mean, we got guys I'm not going to put too much stock into that.

And I get it. Jared Goff has been to a Super Bowl. He's been to an NFC championship game. He's he's on his big contract. He just got a contract extension. He's the second highest paid quarterback on an annual basis in the entire NFL.

I get it. But everybody says that. Even rookies coming into the NFL say that.

People say any and everything for favor. He's further along. And I mean, damn it. Yeah, the Lions were close to the Super Bowl.

But what else is he going to say? It's going to be tough for the Lions. Things aren't getting any easier in the NFC North. You would think that Aaron Rodgers exiting into the AFC East and the New York Jets, that things would be a little easier. But no, the Packers got themselves Jordan Love. This is a team that went into the playoffs last year.

And well, they they knocked off some some Cowboys. Caleb Williams is in a division now with the Bears. Hate to tie everything back to Aaron Rodgers. He just beat everybody up in the AFC North for so long.

Come on, the man would do the discount double check. Aaron Rodgers reminded everybody how much he owned. The Bears went out of bears with Caleb Williams.

I don't know if that's going to be the case. I think the Bears have a legitimate chance and an opportunity to turn things around, not just for this season, but into the future. I think the Bears are getting better. The Packers have obviously gotten better.

And it doesn't stop there. Do I know what's going to happen? With the other team, do I know what the Vikings are going to do, post-Kirk Cousins?

No, no, I don't. But I'll tell you this much. I don't think they're going to be crap. They're going to be competitive. It's not going to be no cakewalk for the Lions. They've got to get that defense together. But at least with Jared Goff and the fold. You got what a lot of teams want, what a lot of teams in the NFL, the draft just went for. And that's a quarterback. I mean, everybody wants a quarterback so damn much, the Falcons decided to get two potential starters in the same offseason so they could add controversy to their building. Don't don't be the Falcons. Congratulations to Jared Goff, second highest paid QB in the game on an annual basis.

Fifty three million bucks behind Joe Burrows, fifty five. I'm happy to see the Lions fans happy. What the hell have they been happy about? The Lions, for the most part, for the country, the Detroit Lions have been a Thanksgiving joke. It's like, oh, the parade is over and here's a pregame and let's see who the Lions are going to embarrass themselves against on Thanksgiving. And now what is a great showing?

They're going to take on the Bears on Thanksgiving. That should be a lot of fun. America can watch Caleb Williams. This might be the first time that a lot of America sits down and watches Caleb Williams. That'll be a great showing on Thanksgiving. Congratulations to the Lions and congratulations to Jared Goff. On the reverse.

This sucks. I'm sure you heard that some guy named Tom Brady is going to be broadcasting later this year. I'm sure you heard that Tom Brady joined Fox. And he will be making thirty five million dollars a season. To be their lead analyst.

I'm sure you heard. That that's going to start this year. What he's going to do as a part of this process is remove the man who's been the number one analyst basically since he retired from the NFL. I mean, he was doing games as he was retiring. His name is Greg Olsen.

Yeah. That big old tight end that you primarily remember from the Carolina Panthers. He did a good job. He didn't over analyze. He wasn't one of these guys that just talk you to death. He made things simple. He didn't sound like the smartest guy in the room.

It's like, hey, yeah, Greg Olsen played football. We know it. He didn't belittle us. He didn't talk down. He didn't over talk.

He was great. And now he's demoted. And this day was always going to come. Tom Brady decided to take a gap year to hang out with his family.

To be insulted on a roast on Netflix, to be upset, to be mad about it. And I guess now he's preparing for his job. Tom Brady said, yeah, they offered me three hundred and seventy five million dollars for the next 10 years.

It was a no brainer for me to take the money. Well, Tom Brady is going to make more money. And Greg Olsen, we've we've learned that obviously he's taken a pay cut. He is now on the number two announced team for Fox. Greg Olsen will now be working with Joe Davis.

And it's been reported and I don't want no Crimea River. Instead of making 10 million dollars a year. He's now going to make three. Now, that's a that's a difference. I still take the three. I take half of that.

I take half half of that. But the fact is, that's a steep cut for Tom Brady to come in. And we don't know if Tom Brady is even going to be good. We don't know.

To be honest. Ten years of this. Do I think Tom Brady is going to be a Fox announcer for 10 years?

I don't I don't think so. At least Greg Olsen is showing some grace as he's been given the boot. I mean, back in January, he spoke to Dan Patrick and he said, look, I am willing to be demoted because I'm a team player. I'm not really in the business of making demands. You know, I'm not sitting here holding anyone's feet to the fire. Fox understands the position I'm in.

They understand what my aspirations are. You know, we're not sitting there banging the table and say, well, you have to let us know. We're not in that. We're not doing that. You know, we understand what we signed up for.

They understand where I where I am and being at this stage of my career, where I want to go. And I think we're all we understand the delicate situation that we're in. Right. I understand when Tom Brady's looming over your shoulder. It's the biggest news in sports. I get it. He's Tom Brady. He's someone I've respected for 20 years.

So I understand that the uniqueness of what's going on and I feel like we've handled it as well as we could for the last two years. And if I can get another opportunity to call top games at Fox or somewhere else, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Oh, I don't know about somewhere. Oh, well, Netflix, right?

Amazon got its own crew. And I told you folks, I'm not one for analysts. Most times I got the games on with no sound. I just but I've listened to him. I found him to be good. Nobody has any idea if Tom Brady is going to be good because we have never heard the man in a broadcast booth. Tom Brady will be with Kevin Burkhart. I think he'll be OK. He'll be fine, right?

As long as he's not trying to tell jokes, I think it'd be perfectly fine. I hope so. I mean, Fox better hope so. I think he'll be good. But I mean, it's also tough to like it's so different than anything he's done. It's really tough to tell until he gets in there. I mean, watch week one.

Here's a better question. I don't think he's lasting 10 seasons. You think this man is going to do this for 10 years?

No, I'm with you. I think he'll go in a different direction. Getting himself involved in different.

Yeah, different ventures. I'm with you. I saw that twenty thirty four. I would be beyond floored if he's still calling games. He's he's going to be pushing 60.

I don't see it. Greg Olsen is 39 years old. He just retired from the NFL. His last season was in 2020, the covid year. If I'm Greg Olsen, I'm sitting it out for a few seasons. Well, not sitting it out, but I'm I'm just relaxing. I'm buying time because when Tom Brady is gone.

So I don't know. Find a new Brazilian wife or invest in a new crypto. Greg Olsen can move from his three four million bucks and he can get back to 10. Good luck to Greg Olsen. Tom Brady doesn't need the luck of the help.

He might do this for one year and said, I'm out. I'm good. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven.

That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. We come back from break. We're going to dive deeper into the NFL this upcoming season, as well as its schedule. It's time to have a conversation with Matt Verteram from Sports Illustrated. It's the J.R. sport reef show.

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Thank you so much to everybody tuned in and locked in coast to coast and across oceans as well. Right now, it's time to have a conversation about the NFL. They decided to release their schedule after drips and drabs all weeks, all week, I should say. International games, night games, Christmas games.

I think the NFL might add a date to the calendar just to have it be NFL day to talk about what we learned yesterday and what we might see later on this year's time to have a conversation with NFL staff writer covers everything football for S.I.. It is Matt Verteran. Matt, how are you? Doing well. How are you? Excellent.

Thank you. The schedule is out. We know every single game.

What are you looking forward to the most moment? You know, I think really just, you know, for week one in particular, I think that the opening two games, they're awesome. I mean, Baltimore, Kansas City get the title game preview potentially, but also the rematch.

So you might learn quite a bit in that game, even though it's early. And then you have the Eagles and the Packers. I think it's really, frankly, I think the Ravens and Chiefs is the better game. The Eagles and Packers, you might learn a little bit more like fill it out. You fell apart last year. Is that who they are or are they the team that started out 10-1? The Packers. You know, they're a team that stuck into the playoffs and then once they got there, it looked like a team that could go to the Super Bowl. Do they continue that momentum? But I think overall, I'm very, very interested to see how the Jets handle what I think is a very, very challenging start to the year. I mean, you have the first 11 games that they have all before their week 12 bye. Seven of them are in prime time and they've got to go all the way to San Francisco. Then they're out in a short week. Go out to Tennessee.

Couple weeks later, go out to England. Come back. No bye. Play Buffalo on a Monday night. They have their work cut out for them. I'm very curious with a lot of older players. Guys coming off the injury like Aaron Rodgers. What do the Jets look like early in the season with all those challenges ahead of them? Yeah, the New York Jets, they tied with the Dallas Cowboys and the 49ers. They have six prime time games.

When you think about the schedule and you've got teams that are out here playing on Sunday and then on Thursday and then they bounce around and we even got a Friday game in Brazil. Did the NFL take into account any of this at all? They just said, hey, go out there and play. We need the money. Oh, look, I'll give the NFL one thing. I think the whole idea of player safety, they're not even pretending to care. At this point, it's just, hey, look, we're taking as much money as we can stuff in our pockets.

If the 20 falls out on the way down Broadway, go ahead and grab it. I think that's pretty much where they are with this. The Chiefs play every single day of the week except for Tuesday. I'm shocked the NFL didn't figure out a way to get them to play on Tuesday. But they're playing Saturday against Houston, Wednesday on Christmas against the Steelers, Black Friday. I think what is happening and what is pretty obvious, the NFL is just going to go for as many packages as humanly possible. And if they can strike a deal with you and you've got enough money like Netflix or Peacock or whoever, they're going to take your money.

Where I do think that becomes a tipping point is not so much with the fans. Fans may gripe about if they're going to watch all these games. It is with CBS and Fox because those are the networks that are paying the most money for these huge chunks of games every Sunday. And you sit there and you look at these Sunday slates, especially the one o'clock games. And a lot of the weeks, they're not good. There's a bunch of bad games with really unappealing markets because all the really good games are being given to Amazon Prime and NBC Sunday Night Football and ESPN on Monday night.

And then all these other little subset packages. I think that's where Goodell has to really be careful. Matt Verderam is here with us from Sports Illustrated. Are you saying in the future, Matt? And when I say future, I'm talking about, I don't know, 15 or so years. Are we looking at a world where the NFL is just like we're going streaming like everybody else? Hey, CBS and Fox buy or here, take this or don't take nothing at all?

I don't I don't know that that happens. What I do think is going to happen is there is going to come a point. Maybe it's the next negotiation.

Maybe it's the one after that. We're CBS and Fox. Look, we're getting screwed because these one o'clock games like you were sick and tired of having India, Indianapolis like Tennessee. Like we need Dallas. We need Kansas City. We need San Francisco, obviously, you know, in the later window, unless you're on the East Coast.

But like, that's the problem. And a lot of these times, you have one game on Sunday in that 425 slot that you can kind of hang your hat on. Dallas and Philly, Kansas City and Buffalo, Cincinnati, Baltimore, whatever it is.

But there's so many weeks where the one o'clock kicks are just unappealing. And you've got to kind of go, yeah, I guess Steelers, Chargers. It's OK, but there's not a lot of big time games. A part of that is also to be fair, the Giants, you know, they would be a really attractive team. They're not good. You know, the Bears are getting there.

You would think they might be good this year. That would be a helpful market for Fox. But I do think at some juncture here, you know, the executives are going to sit across the table from the NFL at CBS and Fox. And hey, look, we're not we're not paying billions of dollars to get stuck with with the Falcons and the Bucks at one o'clock.

You need to do better than that. And that's where the NFL is stretching themselves so thin with all these different packages. That is the one concern they might have. Matt Bertram is here with us from Sports Illustrated. You talk about how the schedule is changing. The NFL is taking advantage of pretty much every day of the week. When you look at how the NFL is is reaching out in an international space, additional games out in Germany. We have our first game in Brazil and Sao Paulo on the second day of the actual season. What might we see next? You know, that is really the great question that I think the NFL is pondering and trying to figure out, because clearly at this point, the international expansion, if you will, is not just a toe in the water.

I mean, they are trying to figure out which markets work best, how they can package all this stuff. You know, you've got Germany had the Dolphins and Chiefs last year. It was a great game, great atmosphere this year. They're getting the Panthers and the Giants. If they show up for that game, Germany deserves its own week. But, you know, I do think, do you have a scenario where maybe you don't put a team over there, but you say, look, we're going to put eight games a year in England and we're going to put eight games a year in Germany. And every team is going to play one international game. And we're going to show that like season tickets where, hey, you're going to see if you're in London, you're getting eight games. And if you're in Munich, you're getting eight games. Like, I think that might be something that they look into. I think it gets hard, like Brazil is interesting, but, you know, it's so far from Europe and where they've gone to this point.

I mean, obviously, they've played some games in the past. In Mexico, they had the Bills testing out the waters in Toronto years ago. That is easier because that's just right on the continent.

You can do that. If you're going to go over to Europe or even to South America, you almost have to develop where I think you can't really put a team there, but you could maybe do it where you could sell packages of games. That actually makes more sense than anything I've heard over the past 30 years. Oh, we're going to put a team in Europe. The same thing with the NBA. How?

It makes no sense. It's just so difficult, too, because, you know, to travel is the obvious thing. But you're going to have kids come out of college and go, I'm not going to play in England. I'm not moving. I'm just not going to do it.

You're going to have kids that are going to be like, no. And even if you can get a kid to go over there, there's a lot of things that go into that. I'm a big hockey fan, and I can tell you, when the Canadian dollar is not strong, that's a problem. Because you guys are like, look, I'm getting paid in Canadian money, but the salary cap is by U.S. dollars. So how do you factor that in? That was a huge problem 20 years ago or so in the NHL.

So what happens if the euro is way different than the American dollar? And on top of that, with the NFL and the way they play, how do you do travel? Do you do it a month at a time? Are teams from England going to be on the West Coast for a month?

I just think it's a very, very, very difficult chore to figure out. Matt Verderim here with us from Sports Illustrated. When you think about the schedule, and we know the Jags are going to be out there for two weeks, but when you think about the overall schedule, is there a team that has it the best in regards to strength of schedule? Is there a team that you see that has it the easiest? I know you mentioned the Jets having a rough time.

Any other teams that have to run through a gauntlet? As far as the best, I mean, look, you're always going to have these teams that play last-place schedules. The Chargers have that advantage this year.

That'll help them kind of get the Jim Harbaugh era off the ground. I would argue the Bengals. I think the Bengals, if they stay healthy, are going to have a very good season, because they have a last-place schedule, and they're loaded. I mean, that team, they're not perfect. They've got issues on defense, and the offensive line is always a question.

Come on. I mean, they've got Burrow, Higgins, Chase, good coaching staff. They're going to win games if they're healthy. So, I would point to some of these teams that finished in last a year ago. The Bears are another one.

The Bears' schedule, now, the division's not easy, but the schedule overall is not that hard. So, you could point to the Bears and say, okay, maybe they're a team that, you know, every year we see that worst to first. I would pick Cincinnati to be that team, but, you know, Chicago's in the mix. I don't think the Jags finish first.

Maybe they can be a wildcard team. I look at the back end of the Steelers' schedule, I've got to tell you, that might be the hardest eight-game stretch I've ever seen in the NFL schedule. I mean, their schedule, the last eight games of the season, involves all six games in the division. It involves three short weeks, which those weeks are at Cleveland on a Thursday night, at Baltimore on a Saturday, and then, oh, by the way, you get to come home on four days rest and play the Chiefs on Christmas. And the other game is at Philly. So, in eight weeks to end the year when you're beat up, you've got all six AFC North games, which are always physical games, you've got the Chiefs on Christmas, and you're going to Philadelphia.

I mean, that, and there's no bye, by the way, there's no bye comes before that. So, you're looking at a stretch where, if you're Pittsburgh, you've almost just got to pray that you can go somehow, go forward for me, like split your divisional games and find some way to beat the Eagles or the Chiefs. But you're probably going to have to be really good your first nine games. You're probably going to have to go seven and two to try to win 10 games overall, get in the playoffs.

And that is, that is a lot. That is a very, very demanding, difficult last half of the year for the Steelers. Hey, maybe the NFL is sick of Tomlin's, you know, under-500, never-under-500 winning streak.

Maybe they're also sick of Russell Wilson, so hey, that could be it. I'll tell you, I mean, if Tomlin, if they thrive in the last half of that season, Tomlin deserves coach of the year, because that is brutal. I mean, you're talking about all these teams, at least theoretically, are going to be competing for the playoffs. I mean, you'd expect the Chiefs to be toward the top of the standings. You've got the Bengals and the Ravens for four of those games. You've got the Eagles, and then the Browns twice who made the playoffs a year ago, and you're talking about three of the top three defenses last year for five of those games.

It is, that's going to be a gauntlet. If they go.500, I'd give all the credit in the world, because I don't know too many teams that would go.500 or better against that eight-game stretch. Yeah, let's see if Justin Fields has a great view of it. Hey, Matt, where can people follow you and all of your amazing work with Sports Illustrated?

Yeah, thanks. You can follow me on Twitter, at Matt Verteram. You can follow my articles either just there when I'm tweeting them out, or you can go to SI.com.

Check out my work along with my colleagues there. We have everything under the sun breaking down the schedule, so you can check that out. And then we'll be headed to OTAs and minicamps and the rookie premiere and everything else in the coming months.

There will be plenty of content, and also check out the MMQB podcast, wherever you find the podcast. Hey, Matt, enjoy whatever it is of an offseason that the NFL has presented to us, and I'm sure we'll be chatting it up down the line. Appreciate you. No problem, man.

Anytime. That Matt Verteram, NFL staff writer for Sports Illustrated. Yeah, man, this Steelers, after their bye week, the Steelers, Washington.

OK, fine, whatever. But here we go. Baltimore, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Kansas City, Cincinnati. That is how the Steelers end their season. The Steelers begin their season here in Atlanta, at Denver, against the Chargers, the Colts, the Cowboys, Las Vegas, the Jets, and the Giants. Yeah, they're going to they're going to have to start hot. This might be the first losing season of Mike Tomlin's career.

And I get it. Nobody's going to come out and say it publicly because nobody wants to be a punk. When Mike Tomlin saw that schedule, I know he said, well, damn, I know he did. And for Russell Wilson, if I'm Russell Wilson, I know he battened up his hatches and pulled up his pants and, you know, flexed or something like that. But I know even Russell Wilson had to go, well, crap, man. I'm I'm going to be on another team next year if they start beating me up at the end of the year.

Yeah, the Steelers got it rough. Thank you so much to Matt Verderam from Sports Illustrated for joining us. You're locked into the J.R. sport brief show here on the Infinity Sports Network. We come back from break. NFL schedule is crazy before my college football fans. We didn't just get a schedule. We got we got a cover.

If you're a fan of video games, college football, then this is a great combination for you. I'm going to fill you in on what EA Sports is cooking up on the other side of the break. The wait is over.

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Talk to your pediatrician or visit Y vaccines dot com. Brought to you by Merck. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief, the JR Sport Brief show here on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you to Matt Verteram, NFL staff writer from Sports Illustrated, for joining us in the last break to discuss the NFL schedule. If you missed it, hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. But it's good to be here with you live.

I appreciate you. It was great conversation told us about how terrible, how awful the Steelers schedule is to pretty much end and conclude the regular season. They're taking on every team in their division and then also just go ahead, throw the Eagles in there, too, for good measure. Throw the Chiefs in there for good measure. Steeler fans are tough, man. There's no amount of towels that they can wave that's going to help them out.

None. Russell Wilson is going to have to have a throwback. They may have to combine Russell Wilson and Justin Fields into one quarterback if they want to have some success on the back end. I'd be real interested to see.

I will. I am real interested to see, you know, how they conclude this season. Speaking of this season, we know the college football season gets started a little earlier.

And how about this? EA Sports College Football 25. It's it's back. Well, specifically this version. You'll be able to play it starting on July 19th. But EA Sports decided to let us all know who's going to be on the front cover. We have Donovan Edwards from Michigan. We have Travis Hunter from Colorado, and we have Quinn Ewers.

From Texas, the man who is he's finally going to have to go into the NFL draft next year. And must I remind you, the game is back because the players. They now get paid. Every player had to opt in to participating in the game so they can go out here and make some cash. And someone who's happy about that is Quinn Ewers, who happens to be, quote unquote, one of the cover boys. Quinn Ewers said, man, I'm on the cover of a video game?

That's what he told Texas football. It's kind of hard to put in words because obviously I grew up in an era playing this game. It was big for my youth group. These guys are just as pumped up as I am. So really cool experience.

Yeah, good for them. Whatever. So we had a bunch of players who decided to opt in to the video game. And Hickey, you said this was a fun game when it was out years ago, right? Oh, my favorite. By far my favorite video game I've ever played. Ever? Ever.

Favorite at any, even outside of sports? I love GTA, Grand GTA. Grand Theft Auto.

Yes. Now help me out. The I have never played Grand Theft Auto. The idea.

No, I'm more of a Super Mario guy. OK. The the idea of Grand Theft Auto, correct me if I'm wrong, is to be a criminal. Oh, yeah, that's the whole motive. Oh, yeah. That's the entire premise. I guess. I mean, I guess if you wanted to, you could be a good guy, I guess in theory. But stealing cars, getting guns. Whoa.

Do whatever, you know, anything and everything in between there. Yeah, it's basically The Purge in a video game. OK. I don't know what that is, but OK. Never seen the movie The Purge?

You never saw Die Hard. OK. Touché. Right. OK. Now, when did The Purge come out? 2017? No, that was like probably 2010.

If I had a ballpark, I mean, there's like three of them that have come out. I think I've heard of it. I don't know what the hell it is.

No idea. But I've seen Grand Theft Auto. Thank you for verifying that there's no use in me playing it. If I want to see all of that, I could just walk outside, right? That's true. Kids at home don't play Grand Theft Auto. It's not real life.

Yeah, just go outside. Well, don't do Grand Theft Auto. I think we have a problem. So for instance, Rashid Rice, he's he's doing he took Grand Theft Auto literally, right? Exactly right.

Don't do that, kids. Only in the video game. Only in the video game. Now, now I remember why the video games have ratings.

What is what is Grand Theft Auto rated? Mature? Oh, yeah.

Without a doubt. So what does that mean? A 16 year old can't download it at home? I don't know how that works. Oh, you know, I was I stopped playing video games since like it's gone electronic, where you don't have to go to the actual store to get the disk anymore.

I don't know how you verify age. GameStop. GameStop. Is that still a physical store? No, but I think the stock is still booming or maybe not. Maybe it was. But I'm going to Google my local GameStop and see if it exists.

I'd be shocked. Well, what makes EA Sports College football so good? I think it's more because like you can build your own player. OK. And you can basically build your own career. And so like you can get recruited, you know, you can be a coach as well and do the recruiting and you can take, you know, Akron and lead them to a national title and beat Alabama and Georgia alike.

Like be nice. I think the road and like taking either a no name player as yourself or no name university and like building it up to be this dominant program. I think that's the appeal because you really can't do that in Madden. You can't really do that in any other sport.

I think that's probably the biggest appeal for a lot of people. Wasn't there a point where you could port over your college player into Madden? I think you're right. Am I making that up?

I feel like I can 100 percent say I feel like that sounds right. Yeah, I like Madden, but there came a point in time where it's just like. I got bills to pay.

Like if I had it my way, I think I'd be sitting around all day, but I just I don't have time. I don't like I enjoyed NBA Jam. I liked the early 2K.

I tried playing 2K in the pandemic because I had a little bit more time like the rest of the world and it was too complicated. Like I'm trying to shoot free throws and I'm like, what is this? I don't. And I'm like, I'm not playing this game. So I'm like, forget it. But yeah, I couldn't tell you. I haven't played Madden in forever. I haven't played 2K in forever.

I've never picked up college football. I see that every player that's participating because of all the new NIL deals, they're going to make a minimum of six hundred dollars. I am going to assume that I don't know, Donovan Edwards and Travis Hunter and Quinn Ewers. I think they're going to make a little bit more than that. That has not been disclosed. I haven't found it yet. I don't think it's public.

Hickey, what do you think? They're making a couple of hundred for the cover, maybe half. Oh, I didn't think about that. They wouldn't make it like 250 for the cover.

I hope at least have to. I mean, if all of every player that signs up to be in the game is getting six hundred dollars. So Joe Schmoe in the game who sits on the bench and doesn't play. Ops in and he makes six hundred bucks. EA Sports has said more than 10,000 college football players have opted into the game. And so if I'm Travis Hunter or Quinn Ewers, Donovan Edwards, I got to be making a few hundred.

I don't think they're getting a mil or maybe they are. It depends on how much promotion they're going to do around the game. The game, again, if you're interested, releases July 19th. We haven't seen this game in what, Hickey, about a decade because all this NIL stuff? I think 2014 was the last year that it was that is out there. So it's been, yeah, I think just about a decade. Too long.

Here's the question. You're a busy guy. Are you going to get this game now that is coming out?

Hundred percent. I don't have a gaming console. I'm going to buy one just to play this game only. What, PlayStation or Xbox? Probably PlayStation.

I'm trying to do my research on that. I think some of my friends have PlayStation. All right. So you're going to you can play online at that point. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I quit playing online like, I don't know, the first time it was available. I think five year old yelling at you. No, it wasn't no five year old yelling at me. This was before the headsets. I think I was playing. I did like tech in the fighting game.

And a matter of fact, it didn't matter which one. Mario Kart. You play Mario Kart. And somebody from Japan waxed me. OK. And then they sent me an email, a video game email afterwards.

Let me know how bad I was. Was it in Japanese? Oh, this person was from Japan.

It was in English. Oh, OK. It's like it's like laughing emojis. And I'm like, yo, I'm not doing this. I'm not playing this video game.

The people who created the game are from Japan. They whoop my ass. Not doing that hickey no more. I'll stay away from the online gaming. But you're right.

Now, a five year old can curse you out from across the street. No, thanks. I'll stick to talking about real sports in the business of it. It's the J.R. Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Speaking of the business of sports.

Oh, man. We learned yesterday that the Jacksonville Jaguars are receiving a ridiculous amount of public financing. Just to renovate their rat trap of a stadium. The Jacksonville Jaguars for the past several years. They've been fees in the world with London.

We can do better with the tax money, I think. We'll talk about that and the decision of the NFL to go international. The J.R. Sport Brief Show here on the Infinity Sports Network.

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