Hype Train Crashing For Anthony Richardson? (Hour 1)

It is the JR Sport Brief Show here on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. Happy Friday to you. Wherever you might be, I hope you're safe. I hope you're well. I hope you're good. I hope you're amazing.

I hope you're great. I'm going to be rolling with you for the next four hours. I'm going to get you closer to Saturday. I'm going to get you closer.

To college football. This is when the show starts every day. Every weekday. 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.

I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you all so much to our super producer and host Ryan Higgy in New York City. And on this Friday, we got a lot to discuss, of course. We're going to get into FSU and Georgia Tech tomorrow.

Dustin Lewis, he covers FSU. He's going to come through and join us. He's gonna come through and join us next hour. We're gonna talk some NFL football as well.

Of course we are. George Bremer is gonna come through and talk to us about the Indianapolis Colts. What an interesting night Anthony Richardson had yesterday.

We'll get into that. Bill Belichick might get into the Hall of Fame a little sooner. Max Scherzer, future Hall of Famer, right? But he's looking cooked right now, if you ask me. He's looking cooked. Keon Coleman of the Buffalo Bills, hey, speaking of a Seminole. And Keon Coleman is trying to let everybody know, I'm not just some joke here, I'm here for football. Speaking of not a joke, Saudi Public Investment Fund may have potentially put some money into the Colorado Buffaloes, or at least it was being explored. What? What?

Lincoln Riley is not afraid of having Pete Carroll around, at least that's what he says. And so we'll get into a lot, okay? It's a Friday, it's a good day.

Every day is a good day above the dirt. And I'm happy to be here with you. If you wanna participate in the show, go ahead, knock yourself out. The phone number here is 855-212-4227. It's 855-212-4227. You can find me online, I am everywhere. I am at JR Sport Brief. Hickey, how are you, man, you good? Great, like you said, I'm alive, so that's always a good day. It's sunny out, we're about 18 hours away from college football starting here in 2024.

Friday, what else? This is a great, great day, nothing to complain about. Nothing to complain about, okay. That's good, I'm happy for you. Thanks, Jer, very heartfelt from you. Yeah, of course, everything is authentic here.

I try my best, I try. And shout outs to everybody on the internet listening on the free Odyssey app. Do your phone, do your tablet on your computer. People locked in on their local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 158, and a smart speaker if you have one. You can always tune in by asking it to play the Infinity Sports Network. Now, amongst all the football that will go on, we got some pre-season games tonight. People here in Atlanta are still worried about Michael Penix Jr. not playing again today, but we knew this was gonna be the case. Last night, as we sat here on air on Amazon Prime, oh, I guess I gotta get used to saying that, I saw a Thursday Night Football matchup.

Well, at least I had it on in the background. And it featured the Indianapolis Colts and the Cincinnati Bengals. Now, watching this, or while watching this game, and if you were here listening on air last night, you certainly heard me say it, Anthony Richardson started off the game like a man on fire. Anthony Richardson was ready to roll. And I gotta remind you, last year, we only saw the number four pick in last year's draft. We only saw him in four games.

Before his shoulder got blown to shreds and that was it for him, it was curtains, nothing else. It was Gardner Minshew time after that. And what's exciting about Gardner Minshew? The answer's nothing. I mean, the Oakland, I wanna call them Oakland so damn bad, the Las Vegas Raiders found out, or they will be finding out.

There's nothing exciting about Gardner Minshew. And so now, the Indianapolis Colts go into the off season and they say, hey, Joe Flacco, come here, come here. How old are you? Joe Flacco says, I'm old. I got kids at home.

I'm getting ready to send a few to college. And they say, you know what, we saw what you did last year for the Browns. Can you be a backup for us, just in case Anthony Richardson can't stay healthy? And Joe Flacco said, how much you paying? And he said, oh, well, we'll go ahead and give you about eight, nine, $10 million. And he said, oh yeah, sure.

I'm gonna show up. I will be the Colts quarterback if Anthony Richardson can't go. Well, we saw him in preseason yesterday. He threw a touchdown at AD Mitchell.

I told Hickey about it on the air. And then the next thing I know, I see him throwing a pick six to a bunch of backups because none of the starters played for the Cincinnati Bengals yesterday, none of them. I'm not gonna say he threw an interception to me because that would be wholly disrespectful.

I'm not that disrespectful, just a little bit. And so Anthony Richardson, we basically got the tail of two players. You think about what the hell he did, I had to kinda scratch my head yesterday because he started off almost perfect, almost. Seven of eight, 65 yards, a touchdown to AD Mitchell.

Shout outs to the rookie. And then the rest of the game, oh, he sucked. He sucked, he really did. One of six, 21 yards, an interception, he sucked.

It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Anthony Richardson. And I mean, all we heard about coming out of school when he came out of Gatorland was that this man, he's a freak, he can lift the building or jump over one in a single bound and he can lift up a car, he's Superman. Until he got hurt in almost every game.

And then he got hurt and knocked out completely. And we saw glimpses, sometimes he looks good and sometimes he looks bad. But I don't know if we're gonna get 17 games of bad football before they just say, hey, Joe Flacco, come in.

We need your help. Why the hell you giving a backup quarterback like almost $9 million unless you plan to go out there and use him? Somebody who's not overly concerned right now and why would anybody say it, is everybody on the Colts. I mean, Anthony Richardson, after the game last night, he was asked about his performance and he's making jokes about throwing a pick six to the backups, backups, backups, backup. Decent, I got two touchdowns.

No, I'm joking. The interception, man, that was a tough one. Communication right there. Granson saw something and I saw something else. We just gotta be on the same page right there. The fumble, man, they preached two hands on the ball in the pocket almost every day in the QB room. And I know they gonna tell me that when we get back in the meetings in the next couple of days. But I feel like it was a decent game.

Just me being back out there, just filling it out. Oh my goodness, how could I forget the fumble? Focus so much on the interception and why not interceptions are fun, especially when it's a pick six. That guy doesn't sound like he's worried about a damn thing.

Man, you got a lot to prove. Now, what does his head coach think about this? Shane Steichen, now having what is hopefully gonna be a full year with Anthony Richardson, his freaking nature. Hickey, what does this do, like six, four, 250, 260?

A truck. This is a quarterback and he's doing backflips and the cha-cha slide, this guy can move. Shane Steichen said, I think he played well, huh? I thought it was good. Like I said, the first drive was really good.

There's some miscommunication stuff on one of the plays. But to get him out there again, like I said, running around with those guys and getting that quarter, quarter and a half, it was great to see. You saw the explosiveness that he had on the first drive, made some really good throws. I think he was seven, eight on that first drive.

So it was great to get him out there. Hickey, what the hell am I missing? Was the football game, was this performance just one drive? Did I miss the other four? Like what are they talking about?

Is this positive reinforcement? I watched it this morning and all I saw was, or heard were your comments yesterday, right? And then the social media reaction. I didn't get a chance to watch yesterday. So I figured this is gonna be really, really bad.

Watched it this morning. I don't know what everybody's talking about. He was fine. There's no reason to panic. There's no reason to crap on the guy.

There's no reason, as I saw a few times from different people, to say you're out on him. The guy's gonna stink, career's over. The interception was a miscommunication. Happens to every quarterback every single year. It happens, and you know what, Tara, preseason doesn't count. They'll fix it.

Rather have it happen now than week one. Miscommunication happens. I don't even know if it's his fault, to be honest with you.

I'm not smart enough to know that. But okay, even if it was his fault, it would be corrected. Fumble, inexcusable. Had another missed throw on a guy that was wide open. Otherwise, he had a few drops. Oh yeah, he went, he's sick.

Yeah, you're right, I forgot. He sailed the ball right over the guy. Yeah, A.D. Mitchell was wide open on the third down.

And that was, it's inexcusable, it can't happen. He overthrew, no one in his face, just poor mechanics. But there was a drop ball. There were a few guys running the wrong or stopping their routes. It really was not as bad as the numbers were suggesting. You see a fumble, interception. Again, the social media reaction was so over the top that I was expecting this guy was gonna look terrible.

You watch, it's like, he was fine. Oh, he had, no, but he had a, it was a 50-50 game. I would say more good than bad, 65-35.

Eh, 65-35, I'd move it closer to, I don't know if I wanna do a 60-40 here. I think it's a little bit closer to 50-50, man. You know what yesterday was? What? Classic social media overreaction. You see one clip and you just extrapolate throughout the rest.

Forget social media. If you combine, he is the great mystery, all right? We saw four games out of the dude last year. We finally see him now. And he basically gives you a little bit of what you saw last year. And I get it, it is preseason. He's coming off of the busted up shoulder. If the Colts felt so confident in him, they would've found some other bum quarterback to go out there and be the backup.

But they said, you know what? If this guy goes down again, let's bring in someone who actually has experience and looks like he has a little bit of life left in him. So I mean, the fact that Joe Flacco is on a roster at almost 40 years old pretty much tells you what they think about Anthony Richardson and his ability to either A, stay healthy, or B, actually go out there and deliver.

So I'm not burying the guy. I just think for a guy who was drafted last year, we saw him not even make it through a quarter of the season. Would you say he is not a little bit the great unknown? We don't know if he's gonna be good or bad, we don't. Oh no, that I part, I agree with 100%. I have my thoughts, but their thoughts based on hope, not so much fact, just because like you said, we've seen him play one complete game, that's it.

He started and finished one game. So what you think, what I think, what anyone thinks, it all is based on projection because we just have not seen enough. So I would 100% agree with that. There's no concrete evidence to say right now one way or another, he's gonna be good, bad, indifferent.

It's he right now truly is a wild card, that I agree with. He is, and you talked about the internet. I don't know if this is a good idea. Should I just like read random tweets that pop up? I just opened up. Sure, type in Anthony Richardson and have a field day because there are some doozies out there. Oh, there's positivity here. You want some positivity?

Sure. Some guy, I'm not saying his name. These are not people, if you wanna tweet me positivity, knock yourself out, I'm at JR Sport Brief.

I think he's gonna come back as middle fingers. Some guy says, I rebuke every spirit of setbacks fighting your progress. That's positive, right? Huh, that's pretty spiritual, all right.

It is, it can apply to Anthony Richardson, right? That it can. Let's see, is this, oh, a lot of positivity on my timeline. I don't know why. Maybe this is a message from God to me. I've never seen a day that God didn't come through. Hickey, this is some, wow, this is weird.

It is Friday, so maybe this is the one day the app is actually uplifting. Oh, wait, okay, nope, nope. Who gives a blank with Amber Rose things, okay?

Okay. All right, okay, and there's a- Well, Amber Rose, Anthony Richardson, AR, that could've guessed, you know. Okay, right underneath this post is actually Jalen Brown from two hours ago, the Boston Celtics. Uh-oh, what'd he say?

NBA Finals MVP. He says, they be hatin' on the low. That's what he said, just ambiguously.

They be hating on the law? Low on the low. Oh, on the low. Oh, boy, is that another Nike shot?

Team USA, we're still doing this? Somebody tweeted, beef and potatoes are greater than chicken and rice. I agree with that.

And someone said, this young Bills fan purposefully drops his football while Keon Coleman was walking by, forcing Keon to pick up the ball and sign it. Okay. Okay. Young fan? It is a kid, it's a kid.

Passable. Yep, all right, and there is Kamala Harris' sister. So, look, it's a little, it's balance. It's everything. We got a little bit of everything right there in those two minutes, wow. Elon Musk must be on vacation, because there's a little too much positivity on X, and he must be on vacation.

Anyway, Anthony Richardson, he ain't worried about criticism, he's not worried about negativity, because he was asked about that as well, and he said, I ain't worry about nothing. It's always fun when I get to play football. You know, it's part of the game. Stuff gonna happen, stuff not gonna always go our way. You know, there's gonna be incomplete passes. You know, I'm gonna miss some passes.

The receiver's gonna drop some. You know, we gonna drop the ball sometimes, but it's cool, stuff like that gonna happen. And then, when it comes to people just talking, that don't really faze me much, because people been talking pretty much my whole life.

So it's like, okay, just add fuel to the fire. You know, I'm just gonna do me and just keep doing me, no matter what anybody else say, so I'm not really worried about it. Oh, you can't, you can't. Everybody has an opinion, right? It's just a matter of whose opinions you listen to. Anthony Richardson shouldn't care what I say. He shouldn't care what Joe Blow on X says. He shouldn't care what Billy the Colts fan says. Picky, do you know a Billy the Colts fan? Do you know one? I don't. Okay, all right.

But I'll lie and say I do, I absolutely do. Are you a part of any of the like, do they got like a club or something like that? I'm in a few Facebook groups. That was gonna be my next question.

They're interesting. What do people do? They just get in there and get angry and curse stuff?

Well, what happens? It is both sides of the extreme scale. Either it's all positivity, uber positivity, too much positivity, delusional positivity, or insanely negative in spots that doesn't have to be.

There's no in between. Let's listen to the Indianapolis Colts head coach. Is he gonna be delusional? No. Is he gonna be overly optimistic? No. Is he gonna be downtrodden?

No. He's the coach. He's supposed to keep things even. And Shane Steichen said, I don't give a damn what anybody says. I think Anthony Richardson will be absolutely amazing this year.

Listen to this. He's played what, four and a half games to get out there. You know, this will be his first, you know, full season, which we're looking forward to.

Like, I mean, I go back to just his playmaking ability. He's gonna make some huge plays for us this year. I think it's gonna be awesome and fun to watch. I think Anthony Richardson is going to make absolutely amazing plays because he's an athletic freak.

I think he's gonna look great. I think we're gonna get a mixed bag out of the dude. He's gonna knock the living hell out of a linebacker one day. Then he's gonna overthrow a receiver, right? Then we're gonna see the guy fumble the ball. And then we'll see the guy rush for like a 60 yard touchdown with like defensive backs reaching for his ankles. We're gonna get a mixed bag. And I, like Hickey, think it's gonna be a little bit more, more positive than negative. But I think we will reach a point where there'll be some games where people are just like, oh man, you gotta get it together.

And they're just gonna have to ride it out. Because for all intent and purposes, this is Anthony Richardson's rookie year, okay? This guy, this is still his rookie year. Has he had the benefit of NFL coaching for more than a year? Yes. And NFL training for more than a year?

Yes. But to actually step out onto the football field? Joe Flacco's gonna be ready to go in there, okay? They might be calling on Joe Flacco to go out there and save that ass if this man gets too crazy with the turnovers. Unfortunately, Joe Flacco is, oh, he is, he is, oh. Hickey, he could really almost have a kid in college. He might. Yeah, he's getting towards that age. I hope he doesn't have to leave the Cold Star in training camp to drop his kid off soon.

Oh, oh, that's right. Today is moving day and moving week. It's starting. Man, there's so much damn traffic all over Atlanta. I'm sick of it. I had to pass by people at Georgia State.

People are moving in. I'm just like, just drop your kids off and leave. The kids don't wanna see you anyway and neither do they. I mean, come on, what are we doing?

You were right about that. They want you out of there ASAP. Yeah, they want the parents out of there and they just wanna do what college students do, study. Right, right? That's what you did in school, right? You studied? Day one, couldn't wait to dive into the books. Give me that syllabus. Dove into the books all day, yes.

Lots of syllabi. It's the JR Sportbree Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Listen, George Bremer, he's gonna come through and join us in a couple of hours. Let's get his thoughts on the Indianapolis Colts. Next hour, Dustin Lewis is gonna come through and join us to talk some college football because we got a match up, thank God, finally, between Florida State and Georgia Tech. But you know what, speaking of coaches and positivity, on the other side of the break, we're gonna talk about one of the most positive, uplifting, joyous head coaches of all time.

His name is Bill Belichick and he might be going somewhere faster than you think he is. I'll explain on the other side of the break. Happy Friday to you.

I'm in a great mood, I always am. Mind in my business, I'm about to kick my feet up. Wait a second, can you hear? Yeah, it's the JR Sportbree Show, the Infinity Sports Network, don't move. You're listening to the JR Sportbree. It's the JR Sportbree Show here on the Infinity Sports Network. 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. Right before we went to break, we heard from Shane Steichen. He's the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. He was, I don't wanna say praising, but he was encouraging, had positive words to say about his, I don't wanna call him sometimes he quarterback because we don't see him enough, but sometimes he's good, sometimes he's bad, and Anthony Richardson.

We'll find out if he can make it through the season what he looks like, hopefully. And that's what a coach is supposed to do, right? Encourage you.

Words of wisdom, advice, guidance. That's what a coach is supposed to do. And I told you, if you follow those principles, Bill Belichick checks every one of those boxes, doesn't he?

Enjoyous and encouraging and loving and kind. Of course he is, his old players love him. So much so that Tom Brady was like, the only reason why I'm here is because we're winning. Otherwise I hate the guy.

Well, he didn't say that I did. And Bill Belichick, we know he's out of work, well, at least coaching in NFL games. Bill Belichick is gonna be on every television show imaginable talking football. And we all know that Bill Belichick, he wants to coach.

This guy was doing interviews with the Atlanta Falcons before they gave Raheem Morris the job. So it's not like Bill Belichick is just out the door. This man wants to coach, and I have a feeling if somebody like Nick Sirianni with the Eagles, if they choke again and Bill Belichick wants the job, I have a feeling that Bill Belichick is gonna get it. Screw all of that crap when it comes down to coaches and it's a fraternity and guys look out for each other.

And even though we're competing against each other, we're all in an exclusive group, we're all one family, it's 32 of us, oh my God, forget all that crap, out the window. I'm not sitting here telling you that Bill Belichick is gonna openly lobby for the job. But if there's a good job there, you don't think Bill Belichick is gonna wake up and say, I'll take it, I got it.

And so here's an interesting deal, and we learned this today, speaking of Belichick. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has made a few adjustments. They actually made an announcement today and one of those announcements is that coaches, coaching candidates, they only have to wait one year, that's it, one season to be inducted into cancer instead of five. Now, my suspicion as to why they're doing this, they wanna do it before these guys get older. They're already old, right?

Bill Belichick is 72 years old. We want him to be, I think he'll be here in another five years. I think it's Hickey, his girlfriend, she wants him to be here in five years? Yes. Okay.

Yes. All right, yeah, she wants him to be here. Somebody else, Pete Carroll is what, 72 years old. Pete Carroll is also out of work right now. We've said it this week, neither Hickey or I think that he'll get back to the NFL and he's supposed to be teaching at USC, that's what he said. Bill Belichick, I think Bill Belichick will be back. What an interesting story that would be if Bill Belichick is just going into the Hall of Fame and I don't think Bill Belichick gives a damn. Does Bill Belichick need a gold jacket to be verified?

We know the guy's going into Canton. You wanna think about regular season wins? Bill Belichick is trying to catch up to Don Shula all time.

George Halas is right in front of him. Bill Belichick has eight Super Bowl rings when you count in the other two from the New York Giants where he was the defensive coordinator. What else is there for Bill Belichick to do?

I think if the man had a choice, I think Bill Belichick would just say, give me another ring, give me, I don't know, two more seasons worth of victories so I could be the all-time wins leader and he'd be like, I could save the gold jacket. But the fact that they're chopping this down for a year, Hickey, you think they chopped it down? It's really gotta be because of age, right?

I would think so, yeah. I don't think they're doing it specifically for Bill. I mean, I think the NFL at least should know that he wants to get back into coaching, that he's not ready to hang it up. But I'm with you, I think it's more age to make sure that some of the greats that do hang on for a while and coach now into their 70s, mid-70s, that they're still around to be inducted. And so they can actually go up there and make a speech we can understand. Right, exactly right.

That makes sense. You know, this could also be Pete Carroll, as I mentioned. Pete Carroll is gone. He could be eligible by 2026.

And the reason why not 2025 is because they've already established and started on that class. And so ironically, Pete Carroll, I told you, he spoke to the media this week, he was on the radio, and he was talking about his status as a head coach. Pete Carroll, earlier this week, he says, you know what? Right now, today, while he spoke to KJR radio, he says, I don't even want to coach right now. I could coach tomorrow. I mean, I'm physically in the best shape I've been in a long time.

I'm ready to do all the activities that I'm doing and feeling really good about it. I could, but I don't really, I'm not desiring it, you know, at this point. This isn't the coaching season. You know, we'll see what happens. I'm not really, I'm not waiting on it at all.

I'm going ahead. I got other things that I want to do that I'm excited about. Okay, like teaching and wearing his air monarchs while he cuts the grass. Hickey, that should be an Olympic sport.

Now it is going to be in America. Grass cutting? No, no, old dads cutting grass and air monarchs.

Like who has the straightest lines? Yeah, no, who can cut the grass the fastest? Come on. Oh, okay, it's a race.

I'd watch. Grass cutting race, yeah. No ride-ons, obviously. Oh, like John Deere?

Yeah, come on, got to get them walking, pushing. That'd be pretty, you know what, now that I think about it, I think these things exist, Hickey, they do. We got farmers and people out here, but I think there are competitions, Hickey, in places where dudes are like, they're racing lawn mowers, they are.

Oh, no doubt, I've seen wood cutting competitions, so I'm sure lawn mower races absolutely exist. I'm going to go on YouTube and Google it in the break. I am. I'm going to go ahead and look it up, entertain myself while we are in commercial. It's the JR Sportbree Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. You know what, we are going to take a break.

You know, speaking of Pete Carroll being cooked, well, I think his coaching career is cooked, and Bill Belichick, I think, will be back. I'm going to tell you about a baseball player that I think is cooked. I'm going to tell you who it is on the other side of the break. You are listening to the JR Sportbrief. It's the JR Sportbrief Show on the Infinity Sports Network. 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. Ah, it's a Friday. I'm in a terrific mood, I hope you are too.

If not, I'll try to help you out. But now I got to tell you something that's not good. Well, not good if you're a fan of the Texas Rangers, because you went to the World Series last year, you won the World Series, and nobody's going to feel bad for you.

Okay, let's just get that the hell up on out the way. You won the World Series, you know, you're fine. It's kind of the same reason why nobody feels bad for the New England Patriots. You went for 20 years, okay, so what?

Tell me that you stubbed your toe, I do not care. You've been winning the lottery every other year, so I don't have any sadness or empathy for you. Now the Rangers, they just won, good for them, but this year they stink, they suck. 59 and 69, they're third in the American League West.

They'd have to go on a massive run to turn things around. You got Jacob deGrom, who was finally in rehab, and then you got another guy who you were hoping to get back and maybe kind of bolster some type of stretch run, and he can't even rehab, he can't even warm up. It's a 40-year-old Max Scherzer, come on. Who am I to tell somebody to retire, right, who am I?

But it's time to hang him up. Max Scherzer was supposed to have a rehab outing today. They scrapped it, general soreness. You know what, that's what happens when you're 40 years old, okay, general soreness. This man has dealt with multiple injuries over the past few years, I don't give a damn what team he's on. I feel like by the time you get to August, this guy's body is cooked, he needs a break, he needs a rest, he just had off-season back surgery. He's been dealing with a nerve issue in his arm.

He's trying to tell everybody he doesn't need a rip taken out, I guess he doesn't have feeling in there. He has pain from his arm down to his thumb, it's just, it's sad. Pitching is tough. You're not supposed to throw a baseball 100 times, 100 miles per hour, while gripping it and putting all the torque and the spin, that's not what you're supposed to do with your arm.

It's not good, but they do it. Max Scherzer is 40 years old, he's been doing it professionally in the big leagues since 2008. And yes, it's gonna take him to the Hall of Fame, he's 10th all time in strikeouts. He's more than 3,000 innings pitched, he has three Cy Youngs. He's going into the Hall of Fame.

He should do himself a favor. You're gonna be a free agent at the end of the year. The New York Mets gave this dude buckets of money before sending him out to Texas. I still can't believe it, between him and Verlander, they basically said, hey dude, we know you guys are old.

How about, I don't know, $44 million a year just to come through and help us out and it didn't work. The Texas Rangers picked him up, he was still hurt, they sucked, he had one good outing, kind of sorta in the World Series, three innings and gave up no runs, God bless him. He's done, it's comical. I mean, earlier this week, oh now this is the voice of God right here. Bruce Bochy, Rangers manager, he said that Max Scherzer had a great bullpen session and that he would be good to go ahead and start today.

We know that's not the case. Listen to this amazing voice. He had a really good session yesterday. All his pitches, it was always good to see your guys out there. Max is one of our guys.

When we got him last year. But yeah, I know he wants to finish up the season strong. I think he's already indicated he wants to continue pitching. He thinks he can still win ball games, compete at the level at the bar that he has set.

So I think it'd be important for him to finish strong. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. First of all, let me hickey, listening to him, I want him to like read me Disney books, okay? I need him to narrate the Jungle Book. He sounds like the guy who narrated Jungle Book. It's a very soothing voice.

It is nice. Yeah, he could do all, you know what, now with AI, I can steal it. I don't, you know, I can't, I don't, should I have said that on air?

No, right? Can you verbally trademark something? TM.

I don't know. Well, you just trademarked that idea. If I take his voice and I just play it in my house before I go to sleep, I can do that. I'm not selling it.

That's true, only your personal gain, which should be fine, right? Yeah, you know, forget all of that. I'm just gonna play all of his interviews to help me go to sleep. It's like listening to the waterfalls, or what's the noise, is it white noise you play for sleep? Is that what it is? Yes, sir.

Yeah, it sounds like static, mm-hmm. I'm gonna play Bruce Bochy's voice to help me get rest, now that we got that out the way. Max Scherzer needs to put his career to rest. Who the hell is giving this guy a job? What schmuck team is gonna give Max Scherzer a job in 2025? He needs to count his money, all of the money that he's made, I mean, when he was with Washington, they gave him a deal in excess of $200 million.

This guy's just getting rich, the well has run dry, man. Just go into Cooperstown and call it a day. I get it, who tells somebody when it's time to retire?

Nobody, but just walk away. Pitching is tough, man, it's unforgiving. Hickey, as I've gotten older, to really think about the sum of the injections and what is it, thoracic outlet syndrome, TOS, and you gotta take out a rib to just get feeling back in the arm. It's like, I guess clocking 300 plus $400 million in your life, I guess it's all worth it, but I like feeling my faculties, man. I would like, right, 27, worth it. At max Scherzer's age of 40 to have pain basically running all throughout your arm, no, absolutely not worth it.

Hang it up, man. He said it's general fatigue. He's pitched eight games this year. He hasn't even gotten to a full 40 innings pitched in eight games. He can't make a rehab start because of general soreness, and maybe you're doing too much too soon.

I understand. He's a professional athlete. He's been doing this his whole life, but for the past, I feel like five seasons. In seasons where he has pitched, he gets to August, he falls apart, he needs a break, they need to skip a start, and guess what? He hasn't done a damn thing this year besides rehab and think about surgery and get shots and injections, and his body is still sore, it's done. He needs, I'm sorry, I'm naming names now.

He needs to go. Verlander needs to go. Hickey, am I missing any other old-ass athletes that need to go away? In baseball, when it comes to pitching, no, I think you got him.

Yeah, I'm thinking all sports right now. What's old buddy that used to, he has anxiety, used to pitch on Kansas City? Zach Greinke?

Yeah, Zach Greinke. He's retired. Did he officially retire? Like, what, a couple of months ago or something?

I'm pretty sure he, I'll double check. I think he officially retired in similar fashion to Joey Vado, because you know Zach Greinke, not a man of many words. No, not at all.

I think it was short, sweet, with almost no fanfare. Wow. Yeah, well, I don't think, well, wait. Everything I see, he hasn't quit yet, no. He's not pitching, though. May 19th, Sports Illustrated. Zach Greinke, not ready to retire.

Oh, I take it back. He's gonna be like Ricky Henderson, man. Jeez, what was Ricky, 45? What, when he stopped? Yeah, when did he actually, I guess call it a quits is what we'll say, forget about last played.

Call it a quits what? His final season? Let's see, look it up. I think he was, I know he was in his 40s, that much I know. Man, he got playing. Yeah, he was. The Dodgers, 44 years old, in 2003. Ricky Henderson, he batted 208, an 84, he has 72 at bats. He hit a home run. Ricky hit two home runs, bro. He had two home runs. He had three stolen bases, 44 years old. Ricky Henderson is 65 years old.

Wow, oh my goodness. Now Ricky Henderson is somebody I thought, I thought he would never leave, Hickey. I feel like for 10 years after that, he kept telling everybody he could still play. Wow.

Still got one more stolen base in him. Wow, he was 40, whoa, I remember watching him at Shea Stadium as a Met. I don't recall him being 40 and 41 at the time. Wow.

That is crazy. I remember watching him play. In that season, let's see, he had 12 home runs for the Mets. Yeah, he did. 12 home runs, wow, 1999.

Damn. Well, like at that point, whether it's Ricky, now with Scherzer, like, isn't the old saying of like, you know, either leave the hero or stay long enough to become the villain? Like, I get it's hard to retire, but athletes do have to recognize that saying. Like, the longer Max Scherzer sticks around, he's not going to be much healthier. He's not going to contribute much. If a team does sign him, that fan base is not gonna be big fans of it, I promise you that right now. Well, I think somebody, he's gonna go into spring training, he's gonna, oh, I'm working out, I'm working out, I'm working out, and then all of a sudden, you know, some team will, some guy will go down and be like, oh my God, we gotta bring in Max Scherzer on like a minimum deal, and they'll do it.

I think that's what it'll be. But when you do something your whole life, and forget professionally, like, okay, you've been a pro, most athletes, you maxed out at 20-ish years, if that, you know, Tom Brady, LeBron James, and around that range. By the time you hit 40, 40-ish, you've been doing this really your whole life. You've been doing this since you were a kid kid.

So, what's the transition point? I'm sure Max Scherzer, to think about retirement, is like, well, what do I do in the house? What do I do in May, in April, in September, what do I do? Do I play golf, I mean, I don't wanna say it's entering into civilian life, but welcome to the real world, except for you got a crap ton of money, okay?

Figure out something to do. Do a baseball camp, and start a pitching school or something like that. Max Scherzer has enough money if he wanted to.

He can go to Mars if he wanted to, okay? It's just sad even having to read stories about how he is losing feeling, doesn't have feeling, needs surgery, a back surgery, this shot, that shot. Shut it down, that's what you should do. That's it, nothing else. I'm sorry, I don't wanna see Max Scherzer on a baseball field ever again.

It sounds rough, but the day's over. It's the J.R. Sportbri show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Speaking of over, we got an NFL quarterback. I told you earlier this week, he gotta prove it. Otherwise, his tenure, his time as a quarterback, as a starter, might be over. He's getting clowned by other teams too now, it's hilarious. It's the J.R. Sportbri show, the Infinity Sports Network. I'll tell you what it is, don't move.