It is! The JR Sportbrief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. How about this? We got a Monday Night Football doubleheader. And in Las Vegas, Kirk Cousins did a good thing, not a bad thing. He threw a touchdown, not an interception. And at the end of the first quarter, the Falcons lead the Raiders 7 to nothing. Meanwhile in Minneapolis, the Vikings lead the Bears 10 to nothing. Justin Jefferson hauling in a seven-yard touchdown coming off of a Bears turnover.
And all is right in the world. We'll keep you up to date on Monday Night Football, both games, as we hang out here for the next hour of the show. This show gets started every weekday, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. I'm being joined by super producer and host Ryan Hickey in New York City.
I'm in Georgia. You can always listen on the free Odyssey app. Your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate is Sirius XM, channel 158. And if you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker. Talk to the machine.
Tell it to play the Infinity Sports Network. I told you we're going to be here for one more hour. Of course, at the end of the show, we'll take a walk.
We'll take a look. We'll take a listen to a few things that took place this day in sports history. Today, as it's been all day, is December 16th. The year is 2024, in case you were not aware. And we've talked about a lot throughout this show already.
Thank you so much to our guest, Sal Cappaccio, for joining us. Bills Sideline reported the Buffalo Bills are rolling. They beat the Lions, won eight out of their last nine games now. The Lions are fortunately hurt all over the place. Now you got David Montgomery, who's out for the season. Patrick Mahomes. They beat, they, the Kansas City Chiefs, beat the Browns yesterday.
Patrick Mahomes diagnosed with a high ankle sprain. This is just, this is just a wild, wild weekend. And we're getting ready to call it a wrap now. There was no college football.
That's not true. We had Army, Navy. We had a couple of bowl games, HBCU, a cricket classic, whatever the hell they call it. The Southern classic went down. And this upcoming weekend, man, we, we got some playoff action.
So no one can see because you can't see me unless somebody's a peeping Tom across the street here in Atlanta. Like I'm literally in the studio rubbing my hands together. Like, like waiting for all this football that we're going to get this weekend. I'm ready, man.
I'm ready. I am with you Friday night and Saturday. They're going to be two really fun days. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it, man.
I really am. Hey, hey, if you want to be a part of the show, if you're rubbing your hands together, hopefully not because you're cold. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.
That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. Yeah. Hickey, you had mentioned tonight's match up and maybe the bears would show some type of resistance. What are they doing?
Nothing. We're already getting ready to move into halftime. It's 10 to nothing. This game is moving swiftly. Isn't it too, by the way? It is.
And I'm glad you used the word swiftly there because he has not been running the ball swiftly to say the least. Yeah. Well, it's the bears. They're gonna, they all stink. I guess just these are the things that, that we can expect.
Yeah. We'll, we'll, we'll keep you up to date on both of these games as they continue on. Maybe things will get interesting somewhere, but I, I doubt it. I would say the Falcons have a better chance of allowing Desmond Ritter to do something odd or amazing, but we, we shall see. Unfortunately, I did mention to you some of the, the big injuries that have afflicted some of our top contenders. For instance, we talked about Patrick Mahomes earlier on in the show that the Kansas city chiefs are basically playing a marathon stretch right now. They were able to go out there and beat the Browns yesterday, made it look easy, 21 points in the first half and didn't do anything in the second, but they beat the Browns 21 to seven and Patrick Mahomes late in the game, he sprained his ankle. His body went one way and his leg went another.
You got one guy on the leg, another guy hit him high and dammit, he got a high ankle spray. And so not only are the Kansas city chiefs, because when you're good, people want to see you. The NFL wants to highlight its superstar quarterback. They played yesterday, the Kansas city chiefs play again on Saturday against the Houston Texans. The chiefs play again next Wednesday on Christmas in Pittsburgh. And if I could tell you one thing, it ain't going to be nice in Pittsburgh. The weather's not going to be warm and cozy.
And I don't know if that's, that's the proper weather. You want to be running around out there on a bum ankle. And so we got the update from Adam Schefter earlier on ESPN. What's going on with Mahomes today showed that he does in fact have a high ankle sprain. The chiefs will evaluate him throughout the course of the week. The issue is they have a game on Saturday and they have a game on Christmas day, Wednesday. So there are two games that he now is in danger of potentially having to miss Carson Wentz is the backup. He does have the high ankle sprain. They'll evaluate him through the week. And if he can't play on Saturday against the Texans, then Wentz would step in and we'll see if Mahomes can make it back from an injury that he's had in the past.
No, we don't, we don't need to see this man on Saturday. And I understand the Buffalo Bills are searching. You don't want to lose the top of the AFC. Kansas city has only lost one game. They're winning all these close games. You don't want to seed any control when it comes to getting that by.
I get it. You need Patrick Mahomes healthy. Set them out on Saturday. Like throw Carson Wentz out there.
Let everybody be in. People rather watch Carson Wentz play in a meaningless. I don't want to call it meaningless. These games matter, but we, we rather watch him play on a Saturday. We're just like, Oh, there's Carson Wentz.
What is he going to do? I'd rather that than picky watching Carson Wentz on Christmas day is like getting cold. Nobody wants that. Can I throw something crazy by you? Go for it. Go for it.
I think I would be more intrigued to watch Carson Wentz than I would be Patrick Mahomes on Christmas, just because of the unknown. No, man, I don't need that. I just want to see what it looks like. You just, you try all types of weird foods. You don't even do that. You don't, you don't even, I was going to say, you just, you just try everything. But then I'm like, no, you don't, you don't even like trying food.
On the opposite, on the total opposite. But for football, you're here for all the, the freak show, basically. I, I am. And look, Mahomes is great.
We know what to like. I'm just curious for one day only to see maybe what this would look like if Carson Wentz has any magic still left, or if he's just a disaster to see how ugly the disaster is. It's Saturday, bro. Saturday. We don't, we don't need this on, not on Christmas.
Come picky. Christmas would be supposed to be nice. Supposed to enjoy Christmas.
Merry Christmas. I want to watch him on, nobody wants to see Carson Wentz on Christmas. People want to see Patrick Mahomes. Well, you know who wants to see Carson Wentz on Christmas? His family? Not even them. Who?
One person more than them. Adam Silver. Get Christmas back himself.
Oh my God. What are the Christmas day games for the NBA? We got Win Benyama in New York, right? Yes. Yes. I think that's the first game at noon Eastern, I believe is Nick Spurs. And I don't, I don't know what, I'm going to assume the Lakers are playing Golden State. Is that probably accurate? Right? I would probably assume so.
Maybe like, you know, one of those, just looking up here. The Celtics? No, don't tell me.
I want to guess, right? Am I, am I good as an NBA matchmaker? Are the, are the Lakers playing the Warriors? Lakers, Warriors, eight o'clock Eastern.
So you're so far two for two. Spurs, Nick's at 12. Lakers, Warriors, eight. Okay.
I'm going to, the Celtics have to be playing. They, they have to be, right? They are.
Who are they playing? Okay. If you got to pick an Eastern conference rival for the Boston Celtics.
Okay. The Brooklyn Nets are ass. Orlando is not good enough yet. They, they gotta be playing an East team, right? They are.
And you said the word rival. Okay. Wait a minute. They're playing the Heat?
No. They're not playing the Sixers, are they? The Philadelphia 76ers are going up to Boston. Oh my. Well, at least people in Boston will get a win.
Okay. They lost. Joel Embiid got a broken face. Jared McCain is now out indefinitely. He needs surgery on his knee. They might as well just pack it in for the whole year, right? Who the hell knows if Paul George will be healthy enough by, you know, by this time next week. And I'm sure Paul George doesn't even care.
He's like, man, these checks still clear. Okay. I'm good.
Y'all dumbasses gave me this money. Okay. Okay. Fine. Oh man. That's going to be a MASH unit. It already is. Who else is playing on that day?
All right. Grizzlies are playing maybe? Grizzlies are not playing on this day. Minnesota has to be playing, right?
They don't want to highlight. Okay. Minnesota is playing. It has to be another West team. You are correct.
A good one. Oh my God. Houston? No, not Houston.
Houston probably not playing too young. Nearby. Dallas. Mavericks. Oh yeah.
What is that? Western Conference Finals rematch, right? 2.30 Eastern.
Okay. And then one more, the Nightcap. The night game. So this has to be a West Coast team. Correct. It's not the Clippers are not playing, are they? They are not. No, sir.
No, sorry. Household names. Good game. OKC? Not OKC. OKC is not playing on Christmas? They are not playing on Christmas.
Are you kidding me? They are actually playing the next day, December 26th on the road at the Pacers. Oh, who cares about that game? Did not crack the Christmas Day list.
Wow. OKC is not playing on Christmas. That's tough. But we have a West Coast team? Western Conference matchup. The Clippers versus Clippers not involved.
Oh my God. I just went through both L.A. teams. I know the Blazers are not playing. Texas teams are not playing. Utah is not playing. Phoenix Suns. Yes, has to be Phoenix because they hope Kevin Durant is healthy.
They are hosting who? They got to be another West team here. Big star. A big star?
Big star. In the West? In the West. Oh my God. OKC is not playing.
Dallas is not Dallas. I don't know. This right now is the epitome of this player's career. What you're doing right now.
Nobody knows. Forgetting about him. He's having a big year. He's a big star. Big star.
Lot of hardware. Oh my God. This is the Suns versus a team in the West? Team in the West.
I think I've went through. So I'm thinking about all the teams in the West. You got Utah. You got OKC.
The Phoenix Suns. Dallas? No, you said no Dallas. Dallas is already fighting. They're hosting the Wolves. Yeah, I'm saying the Chicago is in the East.
Oh boy. There's nobody on the Kings. Nobody cares about the Kings. Nobody cares about the Kings.
At least on Christmas Day. The Phoenix Tiki, do not tell me. I will not tell you. I just went through all the Texas teams. I just went through all the teams in California.
I went through the teams in the mountains. I think there's no Utah. No, nobody cares about Portland. There's no team in Seattle. It sure is not the Pelicans.
Tell me, what team is this? He said the mountains. He missed.
He overlooked one team. Oh, Denver. Oh my God. Oh my God. Star.
Hardware. Rings. Yeah, Jokic.
And what happened? What is Jokic? Overlooked. Not given the respect. Wow. Here we are, JR. Just leaving him out there to dry. How embarrassing, right?
Wow. It's because he might win MVP again. What is he doing this year? Is he average? Not at triple-double, but what does he think? Like 30, 10 and 10, Jokic is? With his on-off numbers being just absurd too.
Yeah, then you have like Hickey. I saw him here a couple of days ago. He was here in Atlanta. He had like almost 50 points. He made the game look so easy. He's second in... Oh my God.
This is stupid Hickey. Nikola Jokic, Nikola Jokic, excuse me. He is second in points per game and 31 and a half. He is second in rebounds, a little more than 13 a game. He is second in assists, 9.8. He is almost averaging a triple...
This is stupid. And for how great he's been right in his career, points per game, 31.4, as you just highlighted, highest so far of his career. 13.2 rebounds per game, tied for highest of his career. 9.8 assists per game, tied highest of his career. Unreal.
This is bad. Like this is just... You want to know something? I don't know if Nikola Jokic would be the same player if he was athletic. Would you agree?
Like he is a perfect combination of who... If he was an athlete, he wouldn't be doing this. He'd be utilizing his athleticism.
No, you get what I'm saying? He's like unathletic enough to where... He has to use his brain. And like be like fundamentally conscious.
Yes. He doesn't... Hickey, I watched him. He doesn't waste... And this is probably the second or third time. I think for whatever reason, I've seen him, I feel like every time over the past few years when he's come to Atlanta, he doesn't waste a step.
He doesn't waste a movement. He is the ultimate YMCA 60 year old guy at the gym busting your ass. Except for he's 29 years old. He's in the NBA. And you can argue that he is the best basketball player on earth today.
Right now, this minute, I don't think there's an argument to be made. He is the best basketball player in the NBA. And I haven't even taken a look at his shooting stats and numbers. I'm sure he's shooting over 50%.
Oh, of course. Every year. 56% from the field.
Hickey, he is shooting 51% from three. What are we doing? Insane. Insane.
Yeah. He don't make no sense, bruh. And he doesn't even...
I don't know if it's a game or he's playing. He don't even... I don't even like basketball.
I want to go home. You got to love it, bruh. You can't be this good and not like it. I know it's just a job. You want to do horses. I don't know if that's the gimmick or what the deal is, man.
But he has to love what the hell he's doing to be this good. Yeah. Anyway, Hickey, when is Christmas? Is it next week?
It is next Wednesday. Wow. Christmas. I feel like I was in my pool in 4th of July.
Thanksgiving just was like last week. Was it? Probably, right? Wait, there's another Japanese guy? No, the Orioles. Tomoyoku Sugano. One year deal with the Orioles.
13 million times. I was like, is this Sasaki? Like, oh no, it's not. Pan is a two-way player, I think. Wait, wait, two-way player? It said he's a right-handed pitcher. Hold on. Did I read it? Because I saw the headline. Did I misread it? I thought it was saying like there was a... They're going to make him hit two?
Why not? No, you never... Otani Jr. Never mind. I saw two and I assumed two-way. It was a two-time MVP MVP.
I apologize. Wait, wait, wait. This guy was an MVP in the Japanese league? Two-time MVP.
Oh, you know what that means? He's going to come over here and suck, right? He's going to stay. Hickey, he's 35 years old. Oh my God. Oh, he's 35.
Yeah. Orioles agreed a one-year deal with 35-year-old Japanese rookie. So he is either going to come over here and whoop ass or he's going to get destroyed. His ERA will either be one point nothing or be like five. One of the two.
No one between. Nah, it's a 35-year-old rookie. Segano, 35, was once, this is according to Jeff Passan, was one of the best pitchers in Japanese baseball this year. Excuse me.
My bad. I'm killing the guy. His ERA in Japan, 1.67. He walks 16 guys against 111 strikeouts in 156 innings. I don't know. We're going to find out. The Orioles are going to find out.
Good luck. 1.67 ERA. Okay. That Japanese baseball though, it's different.
Stickier, tackier, I think a little bit smaller. Well, remember what was it? Dice K came over and the spin raid and all of this. I don't know. We'll find out sooner than later. Hey, international players, they all come to America and take the money.
God bless them. Like Jokic, don't even like what he's doing. He's still one of the best, I guess. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you, coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We love what we do.
We're going to take a break when we come back. Hey, I know this guy. He loved what he did. Jerry Rice, he had some words for Deebo Samuels.
He had some thought. We're going to hear from Jerry Rice. Speaking of the 49ers, the guy who quit last week, Devondra Campbell, it looks like he got the boot from the team, but not necessarily cut. I will give you an update on that. Give you an update as well on what's going on. Tonight's doubleheader for Monday Night Football. It's the JR Sport Reshow, the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
Yeah, quick update. Monday Night Football, we got a doubleheader going on right now. The Minnesota Vikings lead the Chicago Bears 13 to nothing. Caleb Williams, seven of nine, pass completion 60 yards. Meanwhile, Sam Darnold has thrown a touchdown in an interception, something that he hasn't done in several weeks.
Minnesota firmly in control here. Not too much of a shock. Meanwhile, you head on over to Las Vegas and Kirk Cousins has thrown a touchdown to Drake London and the Atlanta Falcons are currently leading the terrible two and 11 Raiders 7 to 3. Hickey, did I just see a miss, did I see a miss kick? Even worse, you saw a delay of game by the Falcons that pushed him back five yards and thus took them out of field goal range. And they had the punt, right? Yes, not great.
They should, they deserve to lose. I mean, just off of that, what are we doing? What are we doing? Hickey, that'll be talk, that'll get like three hours of full airtime tomorrow here in Atlanta. As it should have been.
It's a lot of small things, right? I know we talk a lot about Kirk, but Koo has not been very good as well. Some decision making as well has been questionable.
It's not been good, not whatsoever. Yeah, Desmond Ritter will end up being a hero watch. Now that'll be sad. Hickey, I would want to hear the radio hearing that later tomorrow just to see how miserable everybody is, okay? I mean, I'm sure people would be at the airport boycotting the plane landing. Don't let them back in Atlanta, go somewhere else. You know, Delta's a major hub.
We love our Delta people here. They'd, no, they'd just be cursing them out on the radio. That's it. Okay. That's it. That'll do the job. Speaking of cursing people out, you know, last week we saw the disaster of the 49ers, man.
Oh my God. Deebo wants the ball. Deebo can't catch the ball. Last time we saw him, the Rams beat him.
Deebo did all this complaining online. Hey, I'd get numbers if I got the ball. Well, he got the ball twice and he dropped it and then had the nerve to go on social media and complain and then doubled down on the complaining when the media asked him about it. And then by the time we got to the actual game, he just sucked.
You want to know someone who thought that was pretty ridiculous? Jerry Rice. He was on 95-7 the game.
Yes. The greatest wide receiver of all time. You can argue that he is the greatest football player of all time. Jerry Rice said, man, you can't complain and then suck. What's wrong with you? I would have been pissed. I would have been pissed at myself.
I would have been pissed at the whole scenario. And I would pretty much go to work, go to work, go to work on the football field during practice. And if you do it during practice, you're going to be able to do it during the game.
That ball that he dropped. Okay. After, after, after you complain about not getting that many touches, you cannot drop the football. Yeah.
I mean, you know, because everybody is going to get down on you and, and, and, and they going to come after you. So, uh, you know, I, I never said anything about not getting touches or anything like that. I just worked, man. I just kept working. And, uh, if, if you show it doing practice, uh, you know, they're going to make the call, uh, doing the actual football game where you're going to have opportunities where you can make catches, get into a rhythm and be productive.
Yeah. It's crazy to me how many professional athletes make life more difficult for themselves. And I understand the check is still going clear every week, especially in the NFL, the check clears during the season.
These guys don't get paid for the most part outside of the regular season. And it's just why like deep, why would you set yourself up for the criticism? Why would you put more pressure on yourself? You know, earlier on in the show, we talked about Travis Hunter, the man just won the Heisman award, did his, uh, his uh, his speech on, on Saturday, took the photos as in Tom square has the big old trophy. And the day after he's live streaming and the biggest thing that, that garnered and captured attention is him talking about his girlfriend and people being critical of her and what she did and what she didn't do and him having to explain, you know, what was said and what wasn't said. And it was like, bro, like the next thing people should be thinking about with you as a bowl game, not, not what's going on.
You shouldn't be here explaining what's going on with your girlfriend. He's like 21 years old. Does everything need to be on the internet? Does everything need to be on social media?
Like, do people realize in a lot of cases you're, you're making your like, why do you want to make your life more difficult? But I don't think he does Deebo Samuel care. Like he cares. Right. Because he does it enough to go online and complain. Right. So I don't know, these guys make so much money.
Why you gotta be on the internet? I guess it's necessary. This is what they've, this is life. You know, this is what they've grown up with. So I get it, whatever.
Yes. And you're used to it, but to your point, like social media for the most part, sure, you can get a little bit of notoriety and maybe expand your brand. But if you're a good player, you don't need social media. And like I'm with you with like, all it does is make your life a lot more difficult. You bring, you welcome more distractions. You, you know, give attention to detractors. It like, even with Kevin Duran, for example, like, you know, roasting people on Twitter, he says it, you know, it's former therapy likes to do it.
Like it doesn't actually do, it doesn't bring anything positive for you or your game. Nope. Not at all. Yeah. We talked about Jokic in the last break. Is Jokic, is he, does he even have accounts? Does the MVP, future MVP, does he even have like social media? Is Jokic, does he have an Instagram with his horses?
I don't think so. He's a smart man, right? Yeah.
He seems like he's too busy betting on the horses and watching them. Then, then he has posted them. Yeah.
Let's see. That's the Jokic. If I search Jokic, nothing comes up, right?
Wait, Nicole, Jokic, Nicola official fan page. Yeah. He's listen, a genius right there.
Show up, do his job and then leave. Yeah. It's not the end of it. Social media is here ruining lots of people's lives. It's just, just what it is.
It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, you know, we mentioned the 49ers talked about Jerry Rice calling out Deebo, like, what are you doing? Get off of social media, stop complaining and go to work.
Sounds like what a lot of people can do in life. I do want to talk quickly about a team that might be on the up and up. Well, damn it. They are on the up and up.
Any NFC. I don't know if people are really paying them I'll tell you who that team is on the other side. And then of course, we're going to start to wrap things up. I'm going to give you a full rundown of a few things that took place this day in sports history. You're listening to the JR sport re-show 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. Thank you to Pat Boyle for coming through with the update. He just gave you an update.
I'll give you another one. I know it's only been about, you know, three, four or five minutes in Las Vegas right now, due to a safety Atlanta Falcons are leading the Raiders nine to three, less than a minute to go before they get to halftime. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, Minneapolis, Vikings are leading the bears 13 to zero. Hickey, these are one of the games where you can just go, eh, okay. You can just kind of pop in at the fourth quarter and just check in to see what happens. That's it. Honestly, thank God these games suck. And if I, if we had to watch any more, if I had to go back tomorrow morning and rewatch some, cause it's, you know, they were such great games.
I'm glad it's kind of one of those. All right. Yeah. We're watching it kind of going as you expect, pretty ugly, pretty boring, kind of counting down to when they're over. Yeah.
Yeah. And this is the time of the NFL season where the schedule is going to get real wonky. So we already talked about the game that we have of this upcoming Saturday between the Texans and chiefs. We have two games on Saturday. So we have the Texans and the chiefs. We have the Steelers and we have the Ravens. And we also have the college football playoff that starts on Friday that also goes into Saturday. By the time we get to week 17 of the NFL season, we got two games next week on Christmas day, the chiefs and the Steelers. Again, I know Patrick Holmes is like, can y'all give me a break?
My ankle hurts. And then the Ravens play again as well. The Ravens take on the Texans. And then we have Thursday night football.
The day after Christmas, we have the Seahawks and the Bears. And speaking of the Seahawks, and I did mention before we went to break that there's a team in the NFC that nobody is talking about. They just beat Seattle. It happens to be the Green Bay Packers. They are winners of their eight out of their last 10 games.
Jordan Love continues to light it up. He had two touchdowns against Seattle yesterday. And unfortunately for the Seahawks, not only did they lose, which prompted the snapping of their four game winning streak. And you had Geno Smith who unfortunately went down in the fourth quarter.
And so this is, excuse me, he went down in the third quarter and then we had to see Sam Howell take over, which wasn't fun because he did what you would expect him to do, which is throw an interception. So Seattle has never felt all that threatening to me, especially given what we've seen the Rams start to do. Now they're tied for first place in that NFC West with the Rams. And so good luck to the Seattle Seahawks.
I think we've seen them peak as a team. Their head coach, Mike McDonald, he spoke after the game. He gave an update on Geno Smith. There's a need for Geno. I'll tell you this. I mean, this guy, probably the toughest player I've ever been around was severe enough for him not to come back in the game.
We'll do all the tests tomorrow and kind of figure it out as we go. But right now, just structurally, it looks like it's okay. But, you know, we got to get an image and all that stuff. Yeah. Not, not looking good for the Seahawks. They trailed the Packers 20 to three at halftime. And next up for Seattle, good luck. They're going to need it. They got Minnesota.
Okay. I don't know if they'll be able to keep up offensively with them, especially if there is no Geno Smith, but the Packers are lighting it up and people aren't talking about them. Josh Jacobs is one of the best running backs in the game and not getting the same amount of attention as Saquon Barkley or Derrick Henry, but he's pretty much the third best back in the league this year.
He rushed for 94 yards and the Packers are rolling. I think the fact that you have Jordan Love and they just spread the ball out to so many different guys, none of them happen to be superstars. Nobody's going to confuse any of them with Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase, but they're getting the job done. And head coach Matt LaFleur, he says, you know what, we're just good all the way around. Team effort, especially our defense, I thought they played a really good game, you know, for four quarters, got constant pressure on the quarterback, got a couple of takeaways. It was great to have Cooper obviously back.
His stat line was pretty impressive and he made some big time plays. I think offensively we started fast and then stalled in the second half and, and didn't probably perform the way we'd like to. Yeah, they lit him up. I told you they, they let Seattle 20 to three at the half and Jordan Love, he says, man, when we beat up on teams early, of course it helps. That is definitely something that we've focused on all week. We've talked about all week is it started fast, you know, something that the week before we didn't do a good enough job on.
So it was definitely something that we focused on. And I think we did a great job of coming out fast, putting up some touchdowns early and, you know, defense doing a great job getting the ball back for us. Yeah, we'll see what happens there. You know, the Packers are good. I'm just not ready.
And I know the Detroit Lions are dealing with the injuries. I still think they're too young. Like I'm not ready to put them in that space yet. Unfortunately, Jair Alexander, there was a hope that he would come back or would have returned yesterday and didn't do so.
Not yet. I'm just not, I'm not putting in, putting them in that space of the Philadelphia Eagles. I'm not putting them in that space of the lines despite their injuries. But the Packers, let's be real.
They're going to, they're going to compete with anybody, anybody. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. Let's get to a couple of the phone calls before we get to a few things that took place this day in sports history. Let's talk to Ralph calling up from North Carolina. You're on the J.R. sport re-show. Go ahead, Ralph. Merry Christmas to you, J.R., and thank you for having me. Sure.
What's up? I just want to say really quick that basically yesterday watching the dolphin game, the hit on Brent Dubrush, I hope there's no suspension because I felt like it was two of this kind of misled receiver on this situation. And on the other side, with college football, the playoffs need to have a different implementation. The whole thing being basically decided by committee and always choosing power conference versus any. So you should basically have more power conference schedules against each other to play at least three to four games. That basically to me, with that, that will allow us to have a better playoff at the end of the season where nobody can complain because you played a lot of great team and if you didn't succeed, that's your fault.
Because even though a lot of those guys find an easy schedule and still cannot succeed, I find it is still an unfair system. Well, thank you very much. Go ahead. No, no. Thank you, Ralph. Thank you for calling from North Carolina. Hey, Merry Christmas to you as well.
Merry Christmas. Look, man, life ain't fair. Nothing will be fair. We got teams who who pick their schedules. They pick their schedules was to what they think will get them into the playoff. The playoff format already isn't fair. I mean, all things considered, Boise State is only getting a buy because a conference championship and highest conference top four like now just seed seed everybody out in the court. And look, if we have to endure, the committee is seeding teams all year long. Just go by the seats, throw the conference crap out the window. Like everybody knows what the good conferences are and the seedings are getting done by that anyway. So we don't need automatic, you know, buys for conference champs and then what have you. It just there is no such thing. There will never be such thing as a as a perfect system.
You can go ahead and throw that idea clear on out the window. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. Lee is calling from Cincinnati on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, thanks for taking my call, JR. And I just want to say, you know, I think the team that's got the best road to win the championship is Penn State. They're going to win the first two games they're playing. SMU first and then Boise State and Boise State's lowest.
They've got the biggest odds they have the worst chance of winning it. So I think Penn State's going to roll through it and then they're going to have to face Georgia who's got Gunner Stockton's doing great but he still is a backup quarterback. I think Penn State's going to make it all the way to the championship game and I think they've got a great chance of winning it all.
What do you think? I don't think they have a great chance of winning it all and I wouldn't even go as far to think that Gunner Stockton is going to be playing quarterback all the way through for the Bulldogs. So I wouldn't necessarily go ahead and get, you know, so far ahead of myself when it comes down to Penn State. Of course, I think they're going to be favored over SMU. I think they're going to have a good game against Boise State but then they'll probably beat them.
But then I'd stop there. I think there are too many variables when it comes down to whether or not we'll even see Gunner Stockton or Beck out there on the field. So I would go ahead and take my time on that one and then to think that they're just going to continue on and what, just go ahead and beat Oregon?
Like Hickey, what he just said would be music to your ears. Do you even believe that? I believe it up to the national title game. I think they can beat SMU. I think they can beat Boise State. I think they can beat Georgia.
I don't think they can beat Oregon. Yeah. Let, let give it, give it time. And I wouldn't even think, I don't know what the hell Carson Beck is.
Hickey, what are they doing? Shooting them up full of stuff right now? I don't know. He can't do that in college. And I'm not even sure if that would help. I think he's toast.
I wouldn't help him not turn the ball over either if he were out there, but we'll see. In due time. In due time. Speaking of time, let's go back in time to a few things that happened this day in sports history. It's time for this day in sports history.
December 16th, 2003. The New Orleans Saints smashed the New York giants 45 to seven. Joel Horn, 133 yards and four touchdowns. But you might remember this one because he celebrated by pulling out a cell phone. It cost him $30,000 in fines. Joe Horn, and he pulls up the protective coating.
There's a new one. He's got his own phone. He had his phone stashed in the end zone. Everything he does is perfect.
Number 87. The touchdown is good. The penalty will be enforced on the kickoff. Yeah, that's an expensive celebration. How about this day? December 16th, 2006. Morten Anderson. He kicked an extra point to become the all-time leading scorer in NFL history, passing Gary Anderson.
Take a listen to this. The Falcons beat the Cowboys that day, 38 to 28. And just like that, Morten Anderson has become the leading scorer in NFL history. His teammates mobbing him at the 15 yard line. Good moment for Morten Anderson.
Yeah, that man was 46 years old when he did that. Okay. Now Adam Vinatieri, he broke that record in 2018 and now he has more points than anybody in NFL history. Hey, how about this day?
December 16th, 2019. Drew Brees. He broke Peyton Manning's touchdown passing record by throwing for his 540th touchdown pass.
The Saints beat the Colts 34 to 7. Hey, this is courtesy of ESPN. There's only one word that comes to mind. Greatness. Yeah, greatness. Greatness. Hey, Drew Brees finished with 571 touchdown passes. Peyton Manning had 539. And Tom Brady said, screw all y'all.
649. That's what it is. They're going to be, well, they won't chase that man forever because those guys also sitting at home on the couch.
God bless them. Hey, I'm not in the couch. I'm on the studio. Double header Monday night football.
Let me give you this quick update. What the hell is going on? Falcons are leading the Raiders at halftime 9 to 3. And the Minnesota is still leading the Bears 13 and nothing in the third quarter. Hey, thank you so much to our guests who have come on by earlier in the show to talk about the surging Buffalo Bills. We had Sal Cappaccio join us, Bills reporter. We talked about all these injuries to the Lions, the Chiefs. And of course, tomorrow we'll talk about Monday Night Football.
I think by the time we return tomorrow, the Minnesota Vikings are probably going to have a share of the NFC North along with the Lions. So we got a lot to get into tomorrow. We'll be back with you at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. If you've missed any part of tonight's show, hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. Thank you to super producer and host Ryan Hickey. Don't move here on the Infinity Sports Network because the JR Sportbreeze show is done. Bart Winkler coming up next. Thank you.
