Why Deion Sanders Will Not Be Next Dallas Cowboys Coach (Hour 2)

This is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody listening all over North America.

I don't care if you happen to be in Montreal, Vancouver. You could be in Miami or San Diego, anywhere in between. Thank you for tuning in. I'll be hanging out with you for the next three hours. I'm being joined by super producer and host. He's in New York City. His name is Ryan Hickey. The show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. We've been hanging out for an hour already. See, that's quick math. We talked about Anthony Richardson returning as head or not head coach.

No, certainly not. Can barely be the starting quarterback. They're bringing him back as starting quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. We talked about Aaron Rodgers.

He's like, yeah, I think so. I think I'll be back next year. And hopefully for the New York Jets, he just leaves. Joel Embiid returned last night for the Philadelphia 76ers. He was just rusty and tired. He was looking real tired as the Knicks beat the Sixers. And then Klay Thompson, he returned back to the Bay Area, not as a member of the Warriors, but for the first time member of the opposition. Came back with the math, scored 22 points and lost to Steph Curry.

He dropped 37. What a shock, right? And as we continue on with the show, we're going to talk some college football playoff next hour. You know what? Inspired by Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, we're going to talk about some of the best duos that the sports world has ever seen.

Got that top six list coming your way in an hour from now. And speaking of returns, kind of shocking earlier today, Boomer Esiason, former quarterback in New York, Super Bowl, used to be CB, all of this. Boomer, MVP this. Hey, Boomer Esiason, he had some words on John Gruden, but potentially returning. So many people returning. I thought people returned after the beginning of the year.

Not, not now. And speaking of coaching moves, potential coaching moves, Deion Sanders just asked and asked and asked some more about whether or not he's going to move on to the NFL. Coaching Carousel moves on.

We got two vacant spots right now already this season. The New York Jets getting rid of Rob Salah. You think about the New Orleans Saints dumping Dennis Allen. You would think that Mike McCarthy will ultimately be shown the door the minute the season ends for the Dallas Cowboys. Hickey, I bet you if Jerry Jones had it his way, he would fire Mike McCarthy and just send him to the sun that he doesn't know how to identify. And then coach the team himself.

Oh my God. Wouldn't that be something, right? He's not that dumb. Not that naive. Not that silly, is he?

I don't think so, but it is Jerry. Can't put it past him. How long would it take to send somebody to the sun? I've watched Interstellar, so I know what I'm talking about here. Okay. 500 million years.

Is that, is it that far away? I don't know. I don't. I was going to say a year. I have no idea.

No, bro. I bet you it takes a while. Well, first of all, you would burn before you got anywhere close to it. Right. Let's see how long.

Hoping, knowing that fact, pretending that you wouldn't melt. How long would it take to get to the sun? Okay.

How long? Wait. Okay. See people that know they come here and learn science, Hickey. How about that?

All encompassing show. That's stupid AI. The time it takes to get to the sun depends on the method of transportation. Thanks. Jeez. Yeah. If we're going to walk there, I'm supposed to take a log on a spaceship. Oh my God. A plane, a car.

What is AI doing? Come on, man. A car? A plane, even. What plane is flying to the sun? Walking. Oh my God.

At a speed of three miles per hour, it would take 3,536 years to reach the sun. Okay. No, thank you, AI.

Oh, so that means like deaf. Okay. Like, I would say about a year.

It would be my guess. Okay. All right.

Depending on your preferred, why your preferred method of transportation, it would take you 19 years to reach the sun on a plane traveling at 550 miles per hour. Wow. Wow. 19 years on a plane. Damn, bro.

Wow. It's still time. Maybe Jerry Jones could send him out there.

Mike McCarthy and make it. What is he in his fifties? He'd be all right. I hope so. I mean, he sounds out of breath a lot.

I hope he's going to be, I mean, I guess it's not moving that much on the spaceship. So. Mike, Mike McCarthy sounds out of breath a lot. Doesn't he? No.

And when he talks. I think that's a lot of the coaches, man. Let me not say that. A lot of the coaches, I think they are in more, they are in better shape than coaches of yesteryear.

Wouldn't you say so? Yes, because I don't think coaches of yesteryear are doing like Robert Sala would do and run stairs before the game. I think they're just smoking a cigarette in the coach's office. Drinking a beer.

Right. Getting ready for, getting ready for the game. Eating hamburger, hot dog. Chewing some tobacco.

Yeah. Probably swallowing it too. Cause you know, that's what real men did back in the day. Insides hurt thinking about that.

Swallowing tobacco. Speaking of real men. Oh my God. This guy, I don't know. He's not a real man.

He just came across as a real terrible, awful human being. His name is John Gruden. And why is John Gruden back in the news? The man who won the Super Bowl as the Bucks coach, the man who used to play in the Bay, coach in the Bay, beat his old team. His Tampa Bay ended up beating the Oakland Raiders at the time. Everybody loved Chucky, right?

Chucky Dolls. He was the toast of the town. He was the toast of the NFL. He was, he was like Sean McVay before we got Sean McVay, except for he looked like an evil, you know, fill in the blank. He did. Got that scowl on his face.

Well, it looked like he was scowling on the inside as well. Cause John Gruden, when he went on that TV break, he was sending emails. He was sending emails in Washington, to Washington. And some of these emails were pretty nasty. Talking about the former executive director of the Players Association, Demoris Smith. He's a black man talking about the size of his lips. He had some thoughts, misogynistic thoughts. He was just a nasty, you know what?

And for whatever reason, he might be a great football coach. He's a dumb ass because he decided to send these messages via email, not realizing that anything that you write or type or say in the modern world, it's up for everybody to see. You cannot share or say anything in privacy.

It's nothing private, let alone sending it in a corporation, a business setting like the NFL. I mean, damn. Hickey, how dumb is this? Is he dumb or dumb?

Or am I missing something? John Gruden. Oh, he's dumb and technologically illiterate.

Man. Hickey, I'm going to send nasty messages to, let me see, who's somebody? I'm going to email the head of the Jets PR, right? And I'm going to, Hickey, I don't even know what to say, but whatever I would say would be dumb.

Why are you emailing from a corporate email to another corporate email? Hickey, it doesn't even belong to you. It is so stupid. But you know what, though? When you think that way, when you have those beliefs, that kind of serves you right. And so John Gruden, we might recall, he had to step down and then he pretty much showed how stubborn he was because he was suing the NFL for the leak of his disgusting messages. It's like, you're a nasty you know what, and then you're going to sue because they went public? You didn't expect it to get public or be publicized as the Washington football team at the time was being investigated because their own owner, Daniel Snyder, is also a nasty you know what? Like, misery loves company. Like, not only did you come across as disgusting, then you kind of doubled down by suing that people found out? Like, I will never ever look at John Gruden the same.

It's just beyond ignorant. But then earlier today, as I mentioned, Boomer Esiason was on WFAN in New York City. And amongst all of the potential hirings and firings that we have seen or will see so far throughout the NFL season, Boomer Esiason says that John Gruden might be back. John Gruden I can confirm that he definitely wants to get back in 100%.

I can also confirm, and I believe this to be true. This is again, my opinion after speaking to at least two different people that are involved in coaching searches and things of that nature. That there are teams that are interested in him. And if it's not this year, it's definitely next year. But he's coming back.

He's definitely coming back. Well, we've heard this. There was a big old article a few months ago that highlighted it was like an interview.

And it highlighted John Gruden. The fact I think he's down in Florida has an entire office. He's started his YouTube channel. Hickey, have you seen his YouTube channel? I've seen some clips.

I've seen some clips. Looks like a madman in the basement. Whose mom allowed to use the camera?

His mom let him? Or does he have like no light behind him? He's just a dude sitting in a room talking about football? Talking to a VCR with a whiteboard behind him filled with plays. He's giving you a stink eye. It's almost like like in the in a like police movie or show. They like investigate you in the interrogation room.

It's like all dark for the one spotlight. He's that's yes, say that's John Gruden. Yeah, I think football might be the saving grace for John Gruden, even though if you were to ask me, I wouldn't I wouldn't hire this guy for nothing like he knows football. And look, I'm not going to run around and tell you that the NFL is some upstanding organization and no organization is upstanding organizations here or there. They all shovel you a pile of crap, whatever, whatever sounds good to make the money.

That's it. You know, NFL is no different. We can go through history and look at statements and things that have been said by the league employers.

It doesn't matter if you can generate money and it doesn't affect the bottom line and nobody cares. And so I wouldn't be surprised if John Gruden got a job one down the line. But I wouldn't hire a human being like that.

But we've seen human beings get hired for for worse. OK, no shock there. I mean, even this was this was as close to, uh, I don't know, as sorry as we would get.

John Gruden was sitting down in Little Rock in Arkansas at the Touchdown Club, and it was one of these panel events. And then listen to him tell everybody, hey, I know I said some disgusting, nasty, horrible, awful things, but I'm a good guy. I'm not going to say anything but honest things here.

I'm ashamed about what has come about in these emails and I'll make no excuses for it is just it's it's shameful. But I am a good person. I believe that I go to church. I've been married for thirty one years. I got three great boys.

I still love football. I've made some mistakes, but I don't think anybody in here hasn't. And I just ask for forgiveness and hopefully I get another shot. Yeah, no, look, every anybody deserves a second chance. It's not like he hits send on one email.

He was sending these disgusting emails for seven years. And so do I think he woke up and was just like, ah, yeah, I'm never going to say anything like that again. I'm not going to think this way about, I don't know, men or women or black people or or heterosexual people or homosexual. I never think anything every I feel like Jesus.

I feel great. I don't know if that happened for John Gruden and maybe it did. Maybe it doesn't. But I would think that all of a sudden he just didn't change.

I don't know. Maybe it's suing the league. Maybe that didn't change his mind. I would think, man, if you did something stupid, you'd be a little bit more humble. Have some humble pie.

Accept this. But look, if there's an NFL team that believes he will fix things and they will bring him on, it wouldn't shock me if the Raiders said, come on back. It wouldn't shock me if the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones, who's had his own history here or there trying to defend himself against saying disgusting things.

It wouldn't shock me if Jerry Jones said, hey, John Gruden, come on back. Me, I'm not an owner. I'm not a billionaire. I don't got no say so outside of what I do here talking to people all across the country in North America. But I'll tell you this. I don't want to be around anybody like John Gruden.

Nobody. And I'm sure I've had and encountered them and people don't always share their opinions and thoughts. And maybe you're like John Gruden.

You're too stupid and you just put it in email, you dumbass. I don't want to be around nobody like that. I don't want to hire anybody like that.

But we know it always comes down to the buck. And if there's one thing this guy knows how to do, he knows how to coach. And it's like he said, he knows how to sit in a basement in a dark room with a whiteboard, a flashlight, a bad haircut, a disgusting attitude. He knows how to coach. Are the players going to have any less thoughts and following a leader like him? If you got to show up to work and your boss says so and you're making millions of dollars, I guess, damn it, you have no choice. I wouldn't go anywhere near John Gruden. But hey, I hear what Boomer said. Do I think he'll be back? Yeah, I think somebody will hire him because the NFL doesn't stand for, you know, we're here playing football for ethics. NFL stands for Keqing. Let's make the money. 855-212-4227, that's 855-212-4227.

Phone lines are open if you want to give me a holler. Would you hire John Gruden back? We're going to take a break when we come back. Speaking of coaches that could potentially be hired, Deion Sanders is answering and responding to some of these questions about his own coaching future at Colorado. Is Deion going to stick around now that his son is going to the draft? Now that Heisman candidate Travis Hunter is going to the draft? What is Deion going to do? He apparently has answers. Again, we're going to get into that, talk about the college football playoff, answer your calls.

We have so much to do. It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network.

855-212-4227, that's 855-212-4227. We've already reached a point in this NFL season. We got coaches who have been fired. We have quarterbacks who are getting a second lease at life. Anthony Richardson will now get a new opportunity to start for the Indianapolis Colts, similar to what we've seen in Carolina.

You know what the Panthers, excuse me, Bryce Young getting a new chance and an opportunity with Carolina. The Saints and Jets have interim head coaches. And so now we're starting to hear about names that might be bandied about for the next coaching cycle. We know Mike McCarthy is likely to get the boot. Earlier today, we learned from Boomer Esiason on WFAN, a New York City former NFL player, CBS personality. He made it clear that people are looking at John Gruden as a potential hire. And we've heard this.

We've talked about this here on the air. You know, John Gruden having to step down a couple of years ago as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders due to years of his messages being released, his emails, which I guess he thought were private, that were being disseminated in the NFL that he was sending to members of the Washington commanders at the time. That was just nasty.

Just nasty. And so he had to step down. And now he's being looked at on a return. Is he likely to get a job? Yeah, I think so. Would I hire him?

Probably not. But we know the NFL boils down to the bottom line and no different than the Dallas Cowboys. How about this? You want to talk about another name bandied about? We don't have to look any further than the current head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. They could potentially go out here and win the Big 12. They have two candidates who could win the Heisman and Shadore Sanders, the son of Deion and Travis Hunter, one of the best two way players that we've ever seen in college football, playing defensive back and wide receiver. And so there have been a lot of questions as to whether or not Deion Sanders could take the move up to the next level in coaching in the NFL. A matter of fact, yesterday on Fox Sports, Deion Sanders was asked, are you interested in maybe coaching the Cowboys if Mike McCarthy gets the boot?

Listen to what Deion said. I know you focus day to day. I know you're a day to day man, but can you think about some days? Let me take the computer here because you starting to talk that talk. I got to show you where I am.

I love it where I am. What's going on in Texas? You think I'm going to put up with all that stuff going on in the NFL NBA. Come on, man.

Y'all know you can't build like that. We can't put up with that kind of stuff. He doesn't want to coach players that don't want to play. You got to convince guys to play who don't want to show up. He don't want to deal with no Anthony Richardson. Deion Sanders does not want to deal with no Joel Embiid.

Guys making millions of dollars who barely, rarely want to show up to work unless the conditions are perfect. And this is not the first time Deion Sanders said as much. That was yesterday. I mean, you can go back to November.

You go back to last year. Deion Sanders was chatted up by Dan Patrick and he says, man, I ain't built to be no NFL coach working with these folks. No. Is the NFL a goal eventually in your life? Coaching?

Yeah. No, no, not whatsoever. I don't think I'm built for the NFL. I don't think because I'm too, I appreciate the game so much and I respect the game so much of what the game has consistently done for me for a multitude of years that when I see a guy getting paid millions and millions, millions of dollars, and he has no respect for the game, does not want to excel and exceed expectations in the game.

I'm going to have a true problem. So I'm the kind of coach that would go out there with 53 and come back at the halftime with about 32 because I can't do it. Like I'm too brutally honest and I want to win that much and I need everybody that respects the game. And oftentimes money clouds that judgment. That is happening in college football.

Money clouds that, that love and that passion for the game. Okay. Look, do I believe Deion from last year? People change their minds. No. Do I believe Deion Sanders from yesterday?

Not necessarily. I think people can go out there and change their minds. Now, do I think Deion is going to coach the Cowboys? I don't know if that's a match because how the hell are you going to fit Deion Sanders who wants to do things his way and Jerry Jones in the same room who wants to do things his way? Are they going to mutually agree to put their egos to the side temporarily?

I don't know. Maybe they will, but I doubt it because ultimately one guy has to have spinal say so, and it has to be Jerry Jones. And that may not even be the smartest move. A matter of fact, I think we know it's not.

The other element is let's be real. Deion is really only coached his kids from the high school level, going to college, going out to Jackson, moving out to Boulder, Colorado. And the last time I looked, if you got to think about the Dallas Cowboys, they are paying a quarterback is $60 million a year in Dak Prescott. And so I don't know, maybe Deion ends up somewhere else. I will never say never about this guy going to the league. If he has an opportunity to coach his son, would he not look at that challenge? Would he not look at that and say, Hey, this is the next and last step because after that there's nothing else. I know Deion could keep saying, I'm good at Colorado.

I don't want to go. I'm not dealing with the NFL. I think coaching his son, I think that would be a little different than LeBron James son who, uh, you know, let's just be real. LeBron James son, he was gifted his opportunity given his circumstance. And now he has to go out there and earn it. Eight five five two one two 42 27.

That's eight five five two one two 42 27. Let's go to Sean. He's calling from Michigan.

You're on the JR sport re-show coast to coast. What's up Sean? No, I'm telling you straight up brother. I've done everything by playing along. I basically I've grown up on my own. Okay. But I ha I literally have, and I'm still living. I'm still surviving. I'm not worried about that. I'm not no athlete by any stretch of the imagination, but I get the job done every single day.

That's what I do. Anyway, you were talking about a little while ago about how, um, you're talking about, um, something about kind of lost track, but I got a question for you. Yes. How long does it take for the sun to hit you in the windshield when it rises?

I don't know, man. I'm not a scientist nanoseconds earlier about that. It takes the sun so long to do this. And I was just kind of laughing about that. I was like, okay, that's the speed of science and that's the speed of the network of everything.

Hey, well, let me ask you, let me ask you this. How long does it take? How long does it take you to hear my voice from the sound of a studio?

Well, that's a really quick, I think it's like 545. I can't remember that. Well, you got, you, you got home, you got homework, Sean, you go ahead and go home work too, because how long does it take for the sunrise to hit your eyes? Here's a diff.

Here's a different Sean. You, you called me. I didn't call you. Right. Yeah. I don't, I'm not answering.

I'm not concerned with that. Figure that one out and call me back. I'll call you back.

Okay. Thank you, Sean, for calling from Michigan. Man, hickey, whatever he was doing after work, I don't want none of it.

Yeah, I agree. Keep that for yourself, Sean. I don't know what, what was that first part about? He was, do you know what he was talking about?

I have no idea raised on his own, doing the work by himself. I don't know. I was trying to figure out the correlation to anything that we've discussed over the past 90 minutes. I couldn't find any.

Is it athletes not playing? I don't, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.

That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. Let's go to Tampa and talk to Rick. You're on the JR sport brief show.

Hey, how are you Rick? Hey, listen, I'm a Gruden fan because, you know, of his time here in Tampa and I love this show on ESPN where he had the quarterback to me and like, you know, you know, which show I'm talking about, right? Yeah. But I'm not a, you know, I'm not a fan of obviously what he did and, you know, I wouldn't hire him because the, uh, players in the locker room, they all heard that stuff and he's not going to have any street credit all in the locker room.

There's 70% African-American. So the answer is no, but I just want to make a comment that nobody mentions is that he's going to win his lawsuit against the NFL because he got targeted. Even though it was despicable out of all those millions of emails that they come through, they only released his.

So I just want to note that, uh, he is probably going to win his lawsuit against the NFL. Yeah. Well, I mean, whatever that means. Yeah. Well, you got, you got a million emails that come out and one guy's an ass, then that's the one that gets highlighted by the media.

That's just, that's just what it is. Nobody's going to go, Hey, receptionist number eight, you know, said that the boss is as a fat ass and nobody cares, you know? So I know I think they targeted him because they wanted him out. And, uh, you know, well, are you trying to tell me that none of the, nobody else had any emails leaked other than him? I mean, what I will say, let's, let's really, I can't answer that and neither can you, but what I can tell you is if you have to think about emails that are circulated in any organization and specifically John Gruden, who was, uh, not affiliated with a team at the time, this is someone who was broadcasting on ESPN.

Uh, what name could possibly be, you know, on par or greater than his, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I hear you. I'm just saying that he's going to, he's going to win his lawsuit with the NFL.

I just kind of want to make a, make it. You said that, and to me, that is, that's irrelevant. That doesn't matter. Okay. Thank you, Rick.

Appreciate you. Do you think he was targeted? Well, Rick, I don't know.

I have no idea. I have no evidence to believe such. What I know is, is that when you think about the, if you let's think about this, I have no evidence to say he was targeted, but I can utilize a little bit of common sense to say, if I have to think about every NFL head coach over the past 25 years, he is one of the more successful coaches ever.

And so I'm going to use this analogy again. If there was a receptionist who says something pretty nasty and derogatory, you know, who cares in the grand scheme of things, not an investigator, not anybody combing through things, not a lawyer, but if, Oh my God, a Superbowl winning head coach, one of the most successful coaches of the past 25 years does something, that's not going to be in the past 25 years, does something. That's the type of thing that gets circulated. And so it doesn't have to be a matter of, do I think he was targeted? I don't know. I didn't do the investigation, but I know if you are a big fish, big fish get caught, Rick. You don't think there was any, any of the other million emails that were of anybody relevant. Listen, Rick, I think it, I want you to, Rick, I, you sound like a smart guy.

I would be repeating myself. I don't know. I didn't do the investigation.

Listen to me very closely and very carefully and very slowly. Big fish get caught. Okay. Here's another example. Totally unrelated. There was a guy robbed. Okay. He's a professional baseball player.

His name is Shohei Ohtani. He was robbed by someone who was allegedly his best friend. They are people who get robbed every day. They are people who get made examples of because they are big fish.

Okay. I'm not telling you that nobody else was there or he was targeted. I don't know. But big fish get caught.

Thank you, Rick, for calling from Tampa. How am I supposed, was he targeted? I don't know. If these investigations, I don't know, anyone who's dealt with the legal system, these things are painstakingly, they are horrid. They are they are people who are paid to search and look through every single email of every single person. And if I just happened to be a legal aid and it is my job to look through thousands and thousands and thousands of emails trying to implicate Dan Snyder. And if I see emails that now correspond with disgusting things said by John Gruden, if I'm a 25, 30 year old intern or legal aid at a law firm and I see the receptionist emails and I go, oh, my God, John Gruden said this.

Oh, my look at those. Look at what John Gruden is saying. John Gruden said this about this guy. John Gruden said this. John Gruden said this.

Oh, my God. You don't think that's getting circulated. So my point to you is I don't know if he was being targeted.

I know his name popped up and a big fish got caught. But I wasn't doing the investigation. Not my job at all. 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. You know what? We're going to take a break. We come back on the other side.

Of course, at the top of the hour, I'm going to share with you a new top six list. This is a guy who just came back to Atong of Aloha. This is a guy who feels that he and his team, they have some hope. There's a former player who was on the Dolphins. He thinks that they have no hope because he says that the Dolphins are soft. We're going to talk about that on the other side of the break. Kirby Smart. He didn't call one of his players soft.

He called them an idiot. And then we get to the top of the hour. It's going to be a new top six list. We're going to take a look at some of the biggest sports duos that we've ever seen. You are listening to the JR Sport Brief. It is the JR Sport Brief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I need you to think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.

Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. At the top of the hour, I'm going to be sharing with you a new top six list. Steph Curry reunited last night with Klay Thompson. Klay Thompson, now a member of the Dallas Mavericks. It didn't go well for Klay Thompson. He lost. He had 22 points in the loss.

Steph Curry had 37 points in the victory. But we know these two combined, they teamed up to become the Splash Brothers. Well, we've seen some better duos in the world of sports, right? We've seen some better combinations. The two of them teamed up along with Draymond Green and some other guy, Kevin Durant, popped in to win four championships. We're going to give you a top six list, some of the best duos that we've ever seen in sports history.

That top six list is coming your way in about 15 minutes from now. You know, we talked about coaches potentially returning and moving. Guys like John Gruden and Deion Sanders may be moving from college to the NFL. Deion says he won't do it.

If he has a chance to coach his son, I think he will. You know, we talked about Anthony Richardson being reinstalled the starting quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. We saw Joel Embiid returned yesterday.

Looked tired as hell. What a shock. What a surprise.

And of course, yes, Klay Thompson returned as well. Now, before we get to the top six in a little while, I have to address this. You know, last break, we talked about, you know, people calling folks names.

Not always nice, but sometimes accurate. And John Gruden using some not nice names to describe human beings. And, you know, today in the world of sports, we had some other people being called names.

How about this? We had a former, well, we had one NFL player disparaging his former team, calling his ex teammates soft. I'm sure that's not fully appreciated. And then in another space, we had a head coach of a college football program calling one of his players an idiot. Now, I'm not necessarily one for name calling unless it's deserved. And on one hand, I'm talking with you about Deshaun Elliott, who was a starting safety opposite Minka Fitzpatrick for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The same Pittsburgh Steelers who just beat Washington, the same Steelers that are looking good this season, the same Steelers that have a difficult way the rest of the way.

But one thing nobody will ever call the Steelers are soft. Deshaun Elliott, last year, played for the Miami Dolphins. Yeah, the Dolphins that went to Kansas City and, you know, they got cold. The same Miami Dolphins that are built for speed and finesse. Yeah, we've been saying this for a long time. The Dolphins are good when the weather is nice and sunny.

But the minute the Miami Dolphins have to step into a game where somebody has to get punched in the mouth, they look soft. I didn't expect for one of their former teammates to come out of his own mouth and say this, but this is what Deshaun Elliott did. I want you to take a listen.

He was on the Punchline podcast because, yeah, athletes talk crap on podcasts. Listen to what he said. This will be fun. This will be very fun. I haven't been I haven't been able to play against Baltimore the way I wanted to because last year I played up for a team that was soft as fuck. I mean, oh, my God, I can't put that on there. That was pretty soft. The guys on the team, but there were some guys who were tough, but like for the majority of the team, there was not mentally tough individuals. So to be on a team with a full team of mentally tough guys going against another mentally tough team and asking North Ball, you know, this is going to be it's going to be fun, man.

Oh, boy. I know he got a call from Mike Tomlin. Like he's been on the show. He got a call from Mike Tomlin. Like he's being asked about their upcoming matchup against Baltimore on Sunday. The Steelers are going to take on Baltimore. Great.

That's going to be a great game. You don't have to disparage and bring attention to your old team to talk about what's in the future. Mike Tomlin called him and said, bro, what are you doing?

Had to. Sure. The first thing he said is, why are you on an opponent's podcast a week or playing them?

Talking crap about another team that has nothing to do with us. Shut up. Different worlds, right? It is. I know. Right.

Wild, wild stuff. Well, we're not going to get a public comment from Mike Tomlin. I think even if he's asked about this, he's not going to give you a full comment. But Mike McDaniel, the current head coach of the Miami Dolphins, he was asked about his former players commentary on his team. Mike McDaniel always want to, let's just say, ramble on.

He had a response. Listen, I am supremely only concerned with the 2024 Dolphins, for sure. And and I think that, you know, every every team's ability to be mentally tough in the NFL season has definitely tried. And I think case in point, some of the stuff that we've been going through. And, you know, I think we our team played a tough fought game the last three weeks and and ended up finding a way to win this this past week. And I think that's not the easiest thing to do.

And just worry about this year's team. And, yeah, it's cool. You said on a podcast, cool podcast. Oh, my God. Hickey, him and Nixon, Rianni, they must be I was going to say pen pals.

I don't think that exists anymore. They got each other on speed, though, right? They just call each other at night, talk for about four hours at a time to say two sentences.

I was about to say, yeah, that's a long time those two are talking to say exactly what? Nothing. Hey, how are how are things going? How's Jalen Hurts? Is Jalen Hurts good? Yeah, Jalen Hurts is going through the process.

He's connecting. You know, A.J. Brown is back.

And yeah, so Saquon Barkley, amazing can backward flip and backward hurdles. So we're pretty confident about, you know, as we move forward. And so how are our things going? I don't know what, you know, to a house to his head and to his head. I don't.

Hickey, four hours of that, I bet. You've got the Mike McDaniel pauses down to to a science to a T. That was good. Good.

I have to work on Nick Sirianni. We want we want less process and more thinking. We want thinking and less process. We want more action and and we want our players to have more action and less thinking.

So when they play, I have some practice. OK. All right. I got some work to do.

No taking. Speaking of work to do, Kirby Smart. Still one of the best coaches in college football and has a terrible ass quarterback in Carson Beck who doesn't know anything but turning the ball over Kirby Smart. He says something not nice the other day as he was defeated by Ole Miss. One of his players, Jake Pope, was caught on video celebrating with the opposition. Yes, there was another player on Ole Miss that he was celebrating with.

This is someone that he grew up with in high school here in Beaufort, Georgia. And it's still a bad look to be a loser, to be in uniform and celebrate with the opponent. And so let's be quite clear. Kirby Smart on Monday, he said that Jake Pope, his own player, he called him an idiot for celebrating with the opponent. Yeah. What an idiot.

I mean, what I mean, just stupid. I didn't see it till today, but he's embarrassed about it. He's upset about it. That's obviously a childhood friend of his.

He grew up and played with there at Beaufort and knows him, hadn't seen him in forever, but just not real smart. But to be honest with you, I don't have time to waste energy on that. I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like, like my focus is on Tennessee. I'm not worried about that. Yeah. We know him playing Tennessee will basically be an elimination game for the college football playoff.

You better focus on that. But at the time, I guess at some point he realized that calling one of your players, one of your, your students calling them an idiot. It's not nice. It's a very, uh, Bobby Knightish thing to do.

Not a nice thing to say. We saw an apology and an explanation come from Jake Pope. And I guess the coach changed his mind because yesterday he said, man, I shouldn't have called that guy an idiot. I'm an idiot.

You know, I don't like to comment on the internal stuff going on inside. He did talk to the team, did a great job. You know, I'll say I should not have called the kid an idiot. That was a mistake by me, but I, uh, I appreciate Jake. He is a great kid. He works really hard. Um, he's a team player.

I think he knows it was a emotional mistake and he told the team that, so I appreciate the way he handled it. Oh, like an adult. Hickey, could you imagine being that guy's parents? Like the minute that Kirby's smart is up there, calling him an idiot. Could you imagine being that guy's parents?

Imagine being his teammates, seeing this guy jumping up or down as your just season is in the balance. Ouch. Damn.

You think his parents called him an idiot too? Probably. Yeah. Right.

I would. Idiot celebrating, but they said his family was out there. We don't know if it was parents though. That's the most celebrating he did because he really didn't play. And guess what? Going forward, hot take for you. He won't be playing. He won't be playing. Yeah.

That might be the most idiotic thing he's ever done. It's okay. He'll be, uh, he'll be back here in Beaufort, Georgia. I don't know, doing the job.

I don't know. No, he didn't play at Alabama. He doesn't play here. Says he plays special teams. Good for him. Never heard of him.

Get a lot of FaceTime. Not for the good reasons. You got to know when to celebrate people. It's the JR sport pre-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side, it's time for a top six list. I'm sharing with you the top six sports duos ever.