It is! The JR Sportbrief Show here with you coast to coast 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 Monday to you. I hope you're safe. I hope you're well.
I hope you had a tremendous weekend. If not, the weekend is over. It's almost another day. It's almost Tuesday, dammit, depending on where you live.
Either way, I'm going to be here with you for the next four hours. This is when the show gets started. Every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. So much is going on today. They're calling today a sports equinox.
I will explain eventually. Got the World Series Dodgers are trying to go up 3-0 against the New York Yankees. How pathetic the Yankees have looked. We got another pathetic New York team.
How about this? Monday Night Football. The world has to watch the New York Giants take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Nobody want to see that.
Nobody. Like, oh, no, we're not going to give Daniel Jones the hook. We're going to give him a long leash to look awful. It's terrible. NBA basketball underway, NHL underway. There's a lot going on. If you're into soccer, Rodri won the Ballon d'Or.
If you like football, the one that you kick. Man, we have so much to get into. We got a lot of guests, too.
How about this? He's going to be joining us. I think he's at the stadium. Mike DeFabo is going to join us from the athletic. Talk about those Steelers in about 20 minutes. Give you a little preview of Monday Night Football. And Deion Sanders doesn't want us to talk about him. Don't want anybody to talk about him.
Doesn't want to be ranked. But we're going to talk about Deion standards. We're going to talk about Colorado. We're going to talk about the Ohio State University, even in a win, even in a W. Looking kind of difficult, right? Jameis Winston came back, got himself a W, had a wild speech. Dallas Cowboys, man, the biggest noise from the Dallas Cowboys came from after the game.
It came after the game. Trafon Diggs is beefing with reporters, beefing with a reporter that we had on the show. How dare he?
I don't need to stand up for nobody, but he's just giving everybody a hard time. Sheesh. Tim May is going to join us, figure out what the hell is going on with Ohio State from the Letterman show, formerly of the Columbus Dispatch.
But we got a lot to do. If you want to be a part of the show, it's simple. You can call up. The number here is 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. Find me online. I'm everywhere at JR Sport Brief. As I stand here in the studio surrounded by four screens, Russell Wilson is walking into the stadium looking like a million bucks.
I guess his wife dressed him today. There's just a lot going on. If you want to listen to the show every minute, every second, listen for free on the Odyssey app, A-U-D-A-C-Y. You could tune in on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. If you got Sirius XM, it's channel 158.
And if you got yourself a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. Super producer and host Ryan Hickey. He's not here in Atlanta, Georgia with me.
He's in New York City holding it down on the boards. Ryan Hickey, how are you? What is going on, JR? Doing well. I'm doing well on this one. How you doing? All right.
I'm great. There's so much going on. It's show hell time he's going to play. I guess his shoulder's great. How many needles did they put in his arm? I can't believe that. When he got hurt on Saturday, I mean, that bare minimum, you thought, OK, well, he's done for the series.
Oh, boy. Separated shoulders, swinging a bat. How you miss?
I mean, you miss no games, but essentially you have one off day to recover. Now you're back in. Shocking.
But I guess that goes back to your point and kind of what you've been joking about. Maybe he's the robot after all. I don't know any human separating the shoulder and back the next day.
I don't know. I don't know what the separated shoulder is going to do for the man, because he has stunk so far in this World Series. But he's going to find that short right porch. He's batting one for eight.
He has a 125 average. I get it. It's two games.
I get it. Shohei Ohtani is the one guy who's going to get better as now he's been injured. So now he'll be better. I'm not really a betting man, but just hearing your words and your powers, I will now bet on Shohei Ohtani's first pitch home run of this game. It feels like it's coming now. Almost a guarantee. I'm not going that far.
But I do think, how about this? I'm not going to say today or tomorrow. He's going to dump a home run into right field at Yankee Stadium.
Yes. And everybody's going to look. The guy's shoulder just popped out of his socket. He's hitting home runs. He's a robot. They put him back on the charger, you know, put some needles in him and they say, hey, man, go out there and play ball.
And he is good for him. We'll get you updated on the World Series. We'll talk some baseball. It's just Aaron Judge is getting dumped on. People are saying how terrible he is because he is in first pitch is about two hours from now. So we'll get into baseball later on.
Aaron Judge, a 111 average, one hit in six strikeouts here in the World Series. Not not what the MVP is supposed to. Look like. I'm sorry, Hickey, I was Hickey, I was out, you know, you have a look at somebody on TV and go, I know them. You ever done that before?
Sometimes, yeah. Who got you? Who got your eye? I'm not I'm not going to say no names, bro.
Oh, not going to say no names. OK, OK. Now, I thought this was somebody I knew from a long time ago. I'm like, no, no, no. Does this person change careers? The answer is no.
I'm assuming it's not Jason Kelsey. No, it's not. No. OK, I wasn't sure we were watching something different. I see.
No, no, no, no, no. I got ESPN on. I got Fox on. I got CBS. I got everything.
Hickey is just there's a lot of things because there's a lot of things that are going on. So we'll keep you up to date on Monday Night Football. We'll keep you up to date on the World Series is both of those those games get underway in about two hours from now.
And as I told you, 20 minutes from now, about 15 minutes now at this point, Mike DeFabo is going to join us from the athletic. Take a look at the final game of this week of the NFL season to see what the Steelers are going to do. They beat the New York Jets last week. They're trying to go back to back, beat New York teams and try to take out the New York Giants today. But the New York Jets, how about this?
Did not. Hickey, I've been telling you this. I've been rooting for the new my favorite team. I love the Jets, them in the Falcons. I've been rooting for the New York Jets. If you're going to crash and sink and go up in flames, you have to do it in spectacular fashion.
And this is exactly what they're doing. So I don't I'm not I'm not shocked. You know, as a New York Jet fan, I don't ever expect anything.
I just look at it for what it is. And the New York Jets are two and six. They lost to the Patriots yesterday. Twenty five.
Twenty two. The offense stunk. You got a field goal kicker missing kicks, missing extra points. If he would have made the damn kick, they would have won the game.
They look pathetic. Devante Adams had 54 yards receiving. And now you got Aaron Rodgers always captain optimism, right? Accountability. And now we got to listen to his dumb ass tomorrow. You know, sit down with Pat McAfee, because instead of being a leader as quarterback, he's the the head PR guy for himself. Forget the New York Jets and he's getting paid to do it. Aaron Rodgers is sitting around telling everybody that the Jets have to accept being in the darkness. What? Yeah, I've been in the darkness. You got to go in there, make peace with it. Offensively, our goal is just got to be score 30.
Doesn't matter what the other two sides are doing. You know, we have trust in our defense and teams, but we're not scoring 30 underachieving this offense can do that every single week. I can't believe I can't believe the Jets are two and six. How are they on their way to being just as bad, if not worse than what they did last year with Zach Wilson?
Everybody's washed up, right? The New York Jets are dumpster fire. They fired their head coach who they really had no reason in firing him. The defense has now suffered.
Nothing has changed with the offense. The interim head coach, he doesn't know what the hell to tell him. Listen to what he said he told him after last night. Listen to yesterday afternoon. This is a moment of darkness. And we understand that the outside world is going to get really loud right now.
But the only thing I know in life is that when it gets dark and it gets hard that you work and you point the finger at yourself and you look inward and you figure out what can I do better in an individual standpoint? Yeah, that's good. But they know miraculous run coming here with the Jets. Is it possible? Of course it's possible. Unlikely.
I'd go for unlikely. Since everybody with the New York Jets wants to dive so deep into the darkness. Well, where the hell you think the fans been for the past 40 years? Everybody, every New York Jet fan been sitting in darkness every time there seemed to be any chance that light gets snuffed out. The New York Jets do something stupid. And so they swung, tried to hit a grand slam with Aaron Rodgers.
I had no issue with it. You know, you were going all in and it was either going to end up great with a Super Bowl and anything less than that. You all were going to be in darkness for years.
And that's what it looks like the New York Jets might be in a two and six record. What are you going to do? Go when?
What? 10 straight? 11 straight? They're going to turn this one around?
I think not. Devon Godshaw, the man whose job is to chase around somebody like Aaron Rodgers on the defense. He told he said what we all know, especially for a guy who just had his leg cut open with the Achilles. Rodgers, remember that?
Of course you did. He lasted four plays last year and we didn't see him until now. He says this man is old. He's slow. He doesn't move. What a shock.
Listen to this. Yeah, I think he's struggling right now. You know, just a Hall of Fame quarterback like that, just hate to see him go out that way.
But, you know, always going to take a win against him, you know, build on your resume. But yeah, he definitely don't look the same. You just don't look like he kept moving back there. I could run him down and catch him. You know, he don't, you know, he don't look mobile at all, you know, so it was good for us. You know, we know we can get after him and attack him in the passing game too.
Ouch. I think you think Aaron Rodgers put a mental note down in his diary like, what is he doing? I wonder if he'll clap back on Wednesday. Is it tomorrow? Is it Wednesday he does all that talking or is it tomorrow? Oh, I actually don't know. I forget.
Maybe it is Tuesday. Who cares? Pat McAfee asks him, he goes, hey, I know there's certain NFL players who have said that you, you slow down. What do you say to those players? And Aaron Rodgers, it's true. Because I have.
And then he finds some way around it to blame somebody else. You go, I'm 40. What do you want from me? I slow down, but my mind is still strong.
I have the strongest mind. That's it. I can hear it now. He admits it because what he's going to do, he's not moving around the same way. This guy used to run around the pocket like he was Patrick Mahomes. He can't do that anymore.
He's 40. There's a difference between him and Tom Brady. Tom Brady, you know how much he ran? Never. This man dropped back through the ball and that was it.
Wasn't scrambling around like Aaron Rodgers did behind the line of scrimmage. Jets, a dump. I can't even call them a dumpster fire. They have a plane on fire. They're a plane that cannot take off. A little cheap plane that you get in the 99 cent store and you take it home and it's garbage. Your kid can't even play with it. Fell apart already. Probably. Nevermind.
I had a, I had a joke on where the plane might've been made, but I'm not going to do that. The New York Jets, they're made in America and they suck. How about that? They're not the only team. The Dallas Cowboys gave me a great entertainment in losing yesterday. Dak Prescott, three straight games, two interceptions. Had the 49ers just light them up in the third quarter. They're back to four and four or back to 500 I should say. Dallas Cowboys are three and four with no hope. And in the biggest fire, the most fire you saw out of a Dallas Cowboy yesterday was at a reporter. Come on. Trayvon digs after the game.
Unbelievable. This man is in the locker room. He doesn't even have his pads off yet. And he comes back out of the locker room to address a reporter who said, I don't know what he was doing there.
You know, trying to, trying to tackle. And he took issue with that. Like maybe you should take issue with how bad you've been and how bad the team is.
You're angry at the reporter. We're going to talk more about this. Listen to Trayvon digs.
You don't know football. You can't do nothing that I do. You can't go out there and do nothing. Just asking the question, Trayvon. I mean, I'm happy to have you answer the question. That's what you got from that whole play. That's what you got from that. I'm asked.
We can talk about it more. What were you doing that? And then he, he, he didn't want to talk. He said something derogatory about his, uh, his, uh, his testes. And he left.
That's it. Shout out to Mike Leslie. We've had Mike Leslie on here before.
Hickey, let's talk to Mike Leslie this week. Okay. Can we do that? See what he's up to? Oh, absolutely. You say when we'll make it happen.
Yeah. Let's see. Let's see what Mike Leslie's doing. I'm sure Trayvon digs did not send him an apology.
I'm sure about that. Why are you worried about what a reporter and Mike didn't tweet, nothing crazy. He just saw him going for a tackle and he kind of swung and miss while he was going to half-assed. And he's just like, what was he doing here?
And he had an issue with that. Come on, man. Why are you beefing with the reporter after the game?
Got nothing better to do. Oh my goodness. And then the other digs is hurt. Non-contact knee injury, getting an MRI and Texas better hope he's okay. Texas receivers out here dropping like flies.
CJ Stroud gotta be able to throw the ball to somebody. Come on. Damn. What a day. What a day.
What a night. Well, what an NFL week and it's not done because in about five minutes from now, we're going to talk about the matchup tonight between the New York Giants and the Steelers, mostly the Steelers. Cause we know the giants, they ain't going anywhere. Mike DeFabo is going to join us from the athletic to talk about these Pittsburgh Steelers. We're going to get more into the Dallas Cowboys. We're going to talk about what Jamis Winston did.
We're going to talk about what Anthony Richardson did. This man said he was tired. Damn it. I'm going to be tired for the next five minutes too. I'm going to take me a break. We're going to get into the world series. We're going to talk about the 49ers. We're going to get into some college football.
We got a lot to do. Mike DeFabo on the other side, you are locked into the JR sport brief show here with you on the infinity sports network. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It's the JR sport brief show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. It's a busy Monday, world series on basketball on hockey's on. Oh yeah.
Yeah. NFL wrapping up week eight of the regular season out in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The New York Giants are going to try to show some signs of life against the Steelers who now have a record of five and two. As we wrap up this week, time to chat with someone who covers the Steelers for the athletics. Someone who is looking at them and we'll be watching them in person in a few hours from now.
It's Mike DeFabo from the athletic. Mike, how are you? Hey, I'm doing great. I'm here in the press box ready for the game and ready to talk some football with you. Absolutely.
Always appreciate it, Mike. I guess the first question here, we know the Steelers, they're favored. They haven't lost on Monday night football games since 1991. Is that accurate?
Yes. Crazy. And then you look at it, Daniel Jones, I believe he's 0-8 on Monday night football. So there's something about the environment here in Pittsburgh. You know, fans are out tailgating. I'm actually overlooking right now, looking at all the fans out there having a good time. So, you know, those terrible towels will be twirling and there'll be a great atmosphere here, which will help propel the Steelers forward, I would think. Well, Mike, we saw the Steelers knock off the New York Jets last week. Russell Wilson making his debut, accounting for three touchdowns. Have people relaxed and let Mike Tomlin breathe a little bit because of this decision that he made? Has he gotten a weak reprieve?
Yeah, definitely. I mean, the last time that we talked, I talked to you about how Justin Fields had really won over this city and the fact that he had led them to a 4-2 record. He was showing a lot of his athleticism and his ability with his legs and he was playing the best football of his career as a passer as well.
And so, you know, a lot of people felt like if you've got a good thing going on, why would you mess with it? Why would you change, you know, and go to a different quarterback, especially considering the fact that Russell Wilson was coming off of two tumultuous seasons in Denver. Mike Tomlin made the decision and was ultimately vindicated by that decision. Russell Wilson went out there, played very well. I think the differences you saw, you saw him with a command of this offense that comes in his 13th season, you know, making changes at the line of scrimmage, getting them into the right place, knowing where the blitzers are coming from, taking advantage of matchups. And more than anything, you know, Russ might not be at his Pro Bowl best right now at 35 years old, but he can still sling it.
He still has that trademark default and that has allowed them to open up and unlock George Pickens. That seems like it's the perfect marriage between a great default thrower and a great default catcher. And so, you know, now people went from saying which quarterback should the Steelers start to start saying how far can Russell Wilson take these Pittsburgh Steelers?
Mike DeFabo is here with us, covers the Steelers for the athletic at the stadium, getting ready for the game as the Steelers host the New York Giants. What are the odds? You know, it was like Justin Fields was in cobwebs last week. What are the odds that we see him inserted in different packages throughout the season? It's obviously going to be game to game, right? Right. I mean, if you go back to when Mike Tomlin initially named Russell Wilson the starter ahead of the season before Russell Wilson had an injury that complicated things, with the very next breath, Tomlin promised there would be a Fields package to showcase his excellent mobility.
And so I expect that to be the case going forward. I think that they will find ways to sprinkle Fields into the game. Now, for this particular matchup, there's a variable and that's that Justin Fields sustained a hamstring injury. He is out on the field right now, you know, running around jogging a little bit. He's doubtful for this game, but we'll have to wait and see.
I would think based on the nature of the injury and based on the fact that, you know, there's no reason really to rush him. They might play it safe, but I do believe going forward you're going to find the Steelers using Fields in trying to find ways to highlight the strength of both of these quarterbacks going forward. Mike, next week is the trade deadline. We've heard all throughout the course of the summer that the Steelers were interested in wide receivers who ultimately ended up in other places. We see DeAndre Hopkins is now a member of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cooper Cupp, his name has been thrown around. Ayuk at one point in time was connected to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Do you think they're going to get their hands on a wideout between now and the trade deadline?
Well, I know that they're definitely interested. As you mentioned, they were the team most actively involved in the whole Brandon Ayuk saga. They made their phone call and did their due diligence on Devante Adams, but ultimately he got what he wanted being reunited with Aaron Rodgers. So I would expect general manager Omar Khan, who does have an aggressive reputation and has shaken things up. You know, this is an old school franchise that likes to build through the draft, but since he came in two years ago, he's been willing to make some trades and do some aggressive things.
So I think he will be working the phones. The trouble for the Steelers, there aren't a lot of great options that feel like obvious upgrades for them right now. And so, you know, I think, uh, the Jaguar season continues to unravel, you know, maybe Christian Kirk could be somebody to keep an eye on now he's injured, which adds another variable. Um, I also think a guy like from the jets, Mike Williams might make some sense for the Steelers. So it's going to be, it's going to be interesting.
I think Omar Khan is going to make his phone calls. Um, but whether they are able to land somebody or not, I think that that remains to be seen, but that's been something here in Pittsburgh, man. I can't tell you all season long. People have been saying, who's going to be this number two receiver to compliment George Picken and Calvin Austin.
Sometimes the shown flashes here in his third season, Ben Jefferson scored his first touchdown as a Steeler last week. So one thing that I'm wondering is Russell Wilson has unlocked and opened up this passing game. This is really a big game for guys like Ben Jefferson and Calvin Austin to show, look, we can be that answer.
Maybe we're good enough and you don't have to make a trade. So, you know, I think that they have a lot to prove in this game going forward. Hey Mike, let me ask you about the defense. We know about the offense. The defense is, is so used to controlling things.
It doesn't get a lot of the attention. Cam Hayward is going, is tonight going to be the game where he's now played more games as a defender than anybody and steal his history? Is that today? He's up there. I think he's number two behind Ben Roethlisberger. But he's had really a great comeback season. You go back to last year and he was injured in training camp. He's a tough guy, team first guy, tried to play through it, but he obviously was not himself. And eventually he went under the knife, you know, missed a big chunk of the game. And even when he was out there, you could tell that he was still recovering from that injury. So, you know, coming into this year, there were a lot of questions about what he was going to be and he was entering the last year of his contract.
And a lot of people were saying, look, maybe it's time to part ways. The Steelers have done that countless times with beloved figures of the franchise, whether that's Franco Harris or Troy Polamalu or Hines Ward, guys that weren't ready to retire. But the team said to them, look, you know, you're getting up there on age and we don't have a spot for you anymore. But the Steelers gave Cam Hayward an extension. He's come back and played at an all pro level. And that's just been a big piece in the Steelers stopping the run. You know, over the last couple of seasons, they've been one of the best defenses in the league, but stopping the run has been an inconsistent endeavor. And so with him back with upfront, also Keona Benton in his second season, he's taken a sizable step forward. And then Larry Ogunjobi is the third piece of that three man line and he's the healthiest he's been as a Steeler. And he's been the most impactful and productive as he's been as a Steeler. So when you take that, that trio upfront, that's been a big piece of the Steelers stopping the run and turning opponents one dimensional. Mike DeFabo covers the Steelers for the athletic is at the stadium ahead of tonight's game with the New York Giants. We expect the Steelers to handle business against the Giants.
We know it's the NFL. Anybody can go out there and win. But we expect this. What are your expectations with this Steelers team, especially in a competitive, always competitive AFC North? Are they just kind of run into a wildcard potentially and kind of flipping the coin as to what happens in the postseason? What do you see with this squad?
Yeah, I mean, that's basically been the Steelers over the last couple of years as they've been good enough to get into the playoffs, but not good enough to make any kind of noise. And, you know, I look at it, it's kind of a similar structure to what they've been. They're a great defensive team as they've been really since 2019, when they added Minkoff and Patrick, and he kind of completed that defense.
And they have a similar approach on offense in terms of being a run-heavy type of team. But for me, it's just how much can Russ elevate their ceiling? And I think you're starting to see that. I think today is going to be another question of that going forward. You know, the way that I look at it, the Chiefs are clearly the top team in the AFC. But after that, I think that there's a lot of questions about who's that number two, who's that number three team? Like at different points, I've felt that the Bills and Ravens have looked like the number two team.
Maybe after them, then you put the, you know, Houston probably fourth best team. But if Russell Wilson can continue to elevate this offense, if he can continue to show his veteran experience, if he can continue to get the ball deep to George Pickens, now also, and I'm looking at this team thinking, man, maybe they're the third, fourth best team in the AFC, maybe their second best team in the AFC, and they can make a little noise. So, you know, I think the biggest question is just Russ. It's they've had questions at quarterback. They've had inconsistent quarterback plays for years. If they can get competent and consistent quarterback play, I think that really puts them in the conversation as these playoff contenders. If that is to be the case, Mike, I assume that we'll see Russell back next year on, I don't know, a little, I don't want to call it a discount, but of veterans, we appreciate you.
Here's a two year deal with no strings attached, maybe? And that's the fascinating part about this whole thing is that both of the quarterbacks, Justin Fields and Russell Wilson are on one year contracts. And before the season, we spoke with the general manager, Omar Khan and assistant general manager, Andy Weidel. And they said the plan is to just let things play out. So, you know, I think that right now, the Steelers are in that fact finding mode where it's been one game. And in Mike Tomlin's words, it was an excellent game from Russell Wilson.
Now the question is just, can he continue that? And if he does, you know, I think that the Steelers would be wise to look at the defense that they have assembled. Look at the fact that Cam Hayward's in his mid thirties, TJ Watt is 30 years old, you know, make it that Patrick's 30 years old. This is a defense that they spent years building and now it's getting old. And you've got guys like TJ who's never won a playoff game. They want to do something with this defense in, you know, your best path is going to be with a veteran quarterback.
So, you know, I certainly could see the scenario where this becomes a successful marriage, where these two sides seem to work well together. And really one point I want to make here is there have been times over Russell Wilson's career where he's been criticized as being somewhat of a game manager. But if you look at what the Steelers are asking of him, they would love that. And they've surrounded him with a lot of similar support he had during his most successful season in Seattle with a great defense, a reliable running game. So I think he's in a great spot.
I think the Steelers are enjoying what he brings to the team. So, you know, I think that absolutely there's the possibility of this continuing beyond this year. Awesome. Well, Mike, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. I know things can get real busy before the game.
You called us live from the press box. Where can people follow you and all of your work as we get ready for some Monday Night Football? Yeah, absolutely. Make sure to follow me on Twitter. I'll have the updates throughout the game and then you can read all of my work in the athletic. Thank you so much, Mike. Enjoy the game, OK? All right. Thank you so much for having me.
I really do appreciate it. No doubt about that. That is Mike Defabo covers all things Pittsburgh Steelers from the athletic. Tonight is one of those games. I mean, you heard him say it. You heard me say it. The Steelers haven't lost a game Monday Night Football in Pittsburgh since nineteen ninety one.
Nineteen ninety one. And let's just put it this way. When it comes to Daniel Jones, he just stinks. That's it. And at prime time Sunday afternoon, it don't matter.
He stinks. This is one of those games where everybody goes, oh, they see that one coming. Picky, what do we get? We get the football bounces around on the on the upright about five times for a game winner. That would be I mean, what would you call that?
Well, I don't know what you say five quadruple, but whatever that is, doink. Sign me up for it. That'd be fun.
Something. I mean, that could be the most exciting play we get all night. What a game winning field goal that takes five bounces off the upright crossbar crossbar back off the upright. Maybe one more crossbar for it goes over. You know, of course, I feel like the Steelers are going to win this one.
But there's something funny about this game, Vicki, like, I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. I see Daniel Jones. Maybe he's running for his life.
And T.J. Watts sacks him 20 times or maybe I don't know. I just I have a weird feeling about it. Doesn't mean anything. I just had a weird feeling. We'll see what happens. Certainly find out sooner than later. They'll get going in about 90 minutes from now.
It's the JR sport brief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Speaking of weird feelings, we had an NFL quarterback who yesterday said, I am feeling weird. I'm going to sit down for a minute. I can't believe it. But we had one.
We'll talk about that on the other side of the break. We had some wild things here. We had a quarterback who said, I'm tired. We had a defender who said the game is over. And then he realized the game wasn't over. And then he lost his NFL players.
They're just preoccupied with doing everything except for their job. We'll talk about that on the other side of the break. It's the JR sport brief show here on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It's the JR sport brief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Hey, thank you so much to Mike Defabo for joining us from The Athletic.
He gave us a nice little preview of the Steelers and Monday Night Football. Bottom line is they win. They win a lot. They haven't lost that home Monday Night Football since 1991. It is 2024. Good luck to the New York Giants, really. Good luck to them. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. When we get to the top of the hour, a lot of tease there. We're going to talk some college football.
Oh, yeah. Got some teams that are rising in the rankings. We have some teams that are falling in the rankings. We're going to blink. We're going to be staring right at the playoff. We'll get into that next hour.
You know, we opened up the show. But really, unfortunately, taking a look at some miserable players. Just people performing miserably. Players performing miserably yesterday. We had some miserable, absent-minded performances as well.
And not just with the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets. Miserable. Hickey, are you done with Anthony Richardson yet? I know you're a Colts fan. Are you sick of this guy yet? You done? I'm not done. I'm sorry.
Damn. I knew it would not be easy. With that said, I thought we'd have more progress, more development, more highs than we've gotten so far. And yesterday, I saw something. I think we all saw something that we've never seen before. And that's a quarterback leaving, not because he's hurt, not because they turned the ball over, or because it's fourth down, but because he's tired.
I've never seen that before. You've never been tired before? Oh, I've been tired.
I've been tired. I've never seen a quarterback, though, be out of breath on a third and goal. Granted, a third and goal for like the 15, the odds of you scoring there are slim. But still, in a close game on the road against a big-time divisional opponent saying, I'm tired, I need a breather, on third and goal is a first for me.
All he was going to do is hand the ball off anyway. I mean, damn. Houston beat the Colts, by the way, 23 to 20. Indianapolis is four and four. Houston is now six and two. Stefan Diggs did go down. I mentioned that earlier. A non-contact knee injury.
They're giving him an MRI, so we don't know the full status yet. But Anthony Richardson, yeah, he really sucked himself out. And I get it. And I've never played in the NFL, but you never hear about that. You never hear that.
Unless somebody is hurt and they pull you out, or you say you're hurt. You said he was just tired? This is new. Listen to him. Explain why he decided to take a play off. Man, tired. I ain't going to lie. That was a lot of running right there, all I did. And I don't think I was going to be able to go that next play. So I just, you know, just told the saying I just needed a break right there. Nicky, forget even him saying that. The man was 10 of 32 yesterday.
He couldn't complete 30 percent of his passes. What are we doing here? What are we doing?
What are we doing? I wish I knew it was ugly. Now, I will say he.
Yeah, go ahead. I thought he actually looked better at the beginning of the game than he has in previous weeks. And again, the stats would beg to differ. I don't think he got all the help he possibly could have gotten from some receivers. But nonetheless, shocking, jarring to see that completion percentage be so low in today's NFL where it's easier than ever to pass the ball.
Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I mean, you got AD. The guy had one reception for nine yards yesterday. Hickey, why don't they send him to the Steelers?
They could actually use him. He had a nice touchdown pass. The only problem is the second foot was not in bounds. He's close.
AD is close. Eventually, hopefully they'll get on the same page. But eventually the quarterback will realize that, you know, in order to win, I got to complete a pass to my guys. That's just as bad.
And his own guys today, his center, Ryan Kelly, was just like, nah, bro, we can't do that. You taking a play off. You don't think I'm tired?
What is this? Yeah. I mean, I think we had a conversation about it. And, you know, I think, you know, that's not the standard that, you know, that he needs to play up to and the rest of the team holds him to.
And I kind of leave the conversation that we had at that. But, you know, I'm sure he's going to take the criticism for that. Just rightfully so. Right. I mean, that's a tough, tough look, but I'm also, you know, he's out there giving it all for his team.
Right. And it's not always pretty sometimes, you know, an offensive lull the last couple of weeks, you know, just having a hard time getting going at times. I thought we did some good things in the game, but if anybody ever questions how hard he plays, I don't think that that's the case. I mean, if you watch this film, you know, surely, you know, we didn't move the ball effectively at times, but I mean, he's giving it everything for his teammates. So he's young. I'm sure it's a learning moment for him. And I'll leave it at that.
You told him, hey, you told you can't do that. Like, what is he? Hickey's getting all this guaranteed money. He's just, I don't want to put him in Jamarcus Russell territory, but I never even heard of that guy saying I need a break. Come on now. Well, that's because Jamarcus Russell was out running around the way Anthony Richardson is.
Jamarcus was just throwing picks and jogging up the sidelines. Okay. All right. I'm surprised that you're giving this guy a pass, Hickey. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not giving him a pass. I don't want that to come across like that whatsoever. No, no, I'm frustrated for sure.
What I'm hoping, and maybe this is more, again, the hope here more than anything else. I'm hoping this is a wake up call because I thought Ryan Kelly said perfectly held him accountable without throwing him under the bus a la Aaron Rogers. That was unacceptable. You can't be doing that again. I've never seen that before. I didn't think that was like an option. I did not like actually comprehend the thought of I'm tired. I'm going to just shut myself out. I did not think that was even in the realm of possibility.
I hope. Maybe it's just a lack of experience. I've never experienced. What do you have? How many starts at Florida? 15? Uh, I think it was 12.
If that, yeah, not giving them too much credit. So this guy has 12 starts in Florida and we draft him because he could do backflips. He's a ridiculous athlete. So what does he need a pacify after the game? Like what else does he need?
He's so damn tight. Does he need a nap? He's a blankie. He's a blankie too.
What does he need? He didn't even stay healthy last year. He didn't stay healthy this year. I'm surprised he's still out there. I'm not, I'm not a fan of injuries, but at his rate, he's about due for the next game. Hickey, what's next? Uh, Minnesota, right?
Minnesota for the entire country to see on Sunday Night Football. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I'm looking forward to that. Oh yeah, that's right.
They were advertising it big time last night. Oh my God. It's terrible. He's not even, I can't even call him absent-minded.
You said lack of experience. How about the Hail Mary that we saw yesterday? The commander's knocking off the bears. You got Jayden Daniels flinging at 52 yard pass to Noah Brown that popped off the hands of Tyrese Stevenson.
And what a world that we live in. Tyrese Stevenson is, it's waving by to the fans. He's taunting the fans instead of being invested in the final play of the game. And then he ends up tipping the ball to Noah Brown for the Washington victory that moves into six and two and the bears fall of four and three. And at least this man, he had a, he had enough of it in him to go on social media last night and apologize to the bears and their fans and, and say that what he did was wrong because you, you're not in the game.
You worried about the fans and maybe you would have been in a different position to tip the ball if you weren't being a jackass. A matter of fact, today, he says that his lapse of focus, it will never, ever happen again. To give you the brief message, just, you know, I apologize to them boys for letting them down. I let the moment get too big. And it's something that, you know, can never happen again. It won't ever happen again.
Wild stuff. Head coach Matt Eberfluse from the bears. He spoke as well. And he says, man, he says that man screwed up in a nice way though. Kind of, we just got to do a better job of executing, you know, on the defensive side of the ball, the hail Mary, you know, and, and the setup for us is just have a body on a body. We're picking guys up down the field.
And again, we just talked about that, you know, in the team meeting, you know, Tyreke's got to do a good job of putting his body on 85 and boxing him out. Hickey, why'd he save that last piece for the end? He's like, oh, he got, he got, he got a little, got a little angry there at the end.
Damn. Yeah, that's not good when the guy that's supposed to be the last line of defense is 50 yards away from the play with his back turn for five seconds. That's another thing never seen before. Maybe there was something in the NFL waters yesterday. Got a quarterback who decided to take a play off. You got a defender who's just like, I'm going to diss the fans instead of finishing the game.
We had a Dallas Cowboy and Trayvon Diggs who wanted to yell at a reporter. It's the Twilight Zone. What's going to happen in Pittsburgh tonight with the Giants?
I have no idea. It's the JR sport pre-show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. This is not the Twilight Zone.
855-212-4227. We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side, we might have some Twilight Zone-esque things happening in college football. We will explain on the other side. It's the JR sport reshow of the Infinity Sports Network.
