Notre Dame Advances To The National Championship Game (Hour 1)

It 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. Much love and many thanks to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. I hope you're well. I hope you're safe. I hope you're smooth. I hope you're amazing. I hope you're dry. I hope you're warm.

I hope that you are doing the best that you possibly can. This is where I'll be for the next four hours. This is when the show gets started every weekday, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you so much to our super producer and host Ryan Hickey holding it down in New York City. You can always listen to the show on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. You got Sirius XM, it's channel 158. You got a smart speaker, ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network and you can now watch this show. You can watch it live on YouTube. Yeah, just go to YouTube, punch in Infinity Sports Network and instead of listening coast to coast, wherever you might be, you can watch it as well. Just search the Infinity Sports Network.

Everything will pop right on up. It's Friday. We're in the midst of football playoffs all over the place, whether it be college, whether it be the pros with the NFL. Yesterday we saw Notre Dame advance past Penn State. Tonight we're going to learn about the other half of the national championship here in Atlanta, a little more than a week away as the Ohio State University takes on the Texas Longhorns down in Jerry's World. So hey, to talk about that, we'll give a recap of last night's game. Notre Dame radio analyst Ryan Harris is going to join us next hour. We'll talk about Ohio State in Texas about 90 or so ish minutes away.

Realistically, probably about an hour and 45 minutes. And then we're going to give you a preview of the NFL playoffs. Kansas City Chiefs getting a week off, the Detroit Lions getting a week off. That's what happens when you're at the top of the totem pole.

That's what it is. We got some good games. Lamar Jackson looks like he might be the leader for MVP. Buffalo Bills are going to take on the Broncos. A lot of questions there as to whether or not there's an upset.

So there's a lot to get into. Man, we got Deshaun Watson. This man tore his Achilles again in recovery.

That stinks. And then Zion Williamson. This just came down the pipe. Not just, not just a bad basketball player when he, well, overall, yeah, well, he's not a bad basketball player. He's a bum ass player who never plays. And not just because he's fat. He can't show up to work on time.

Zion Williamson was suspended by the Pelicans because he was late for the team playing. Come on now. You can't be a pro. You fat and you lazy. Hickey, why is Zion checking all the boxes? I wish I had an answer for you.

Yeah, you're right. You can't be both. You could be fat.

You could be lazy. You've got to be one. You can't be both. You're both. You're both. You're out of the league.

I mean, as an athlete too? Like, how you do that? Like, this is your job is to be in shape and to show up on time. You can't do that. Come on, man. What a, what a world.

What a world. Anyway, if you want to call up, you can. 855-212-4227.

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We just got to go ahead and get this the hell up on out the way. Hickey, you and I, we spoke earlier today. I know you're not happy with the results of the national championship game. I am semi happy because you're a not happy. So I'm not happy. And then on the other hand, I am happy.

You're going to be here in Atlanta despite Penn State losing yesterday and what was an ugly ass game until we got to the end. I know you're not feeling good. Can I buy you a drink? I mean, what do you need? I think you need a few drinks. So sure, absolutely.

Yeah. A few, few drinks maybe could help, help the sadness right now. How long is this going to, I don't want to call it pain.

Is it pain? Disbelief is how I describe it. I still almost 24 hours later, still can't believe that they lost and how they lost. Why? Because Drew Allard just kind of threw the game away at the end?

Yes, exactly. I did not expect that to happen. The game was, what was your overall feeling before we got to, I mean, at the end of the game, we got to the fourth quarter. We knew it was going to be a ridiculous back and forth.

I mean, they scored a combined 31 points in that fourth. So we knew it was going to come down to a field goal, which it did, a Jeter kicking that field goal for Notre Dame. But at halftime, what were your thoughts?

Because we didn't know the status of Riley Leonard after he went in to get checked out with his head. You had that felt good at halftime, right? I thought it was over. I thought the game was over. Like you said, Riley Leonard's hurt, the Notre Dame offense is not moving the ball. That last drive for Penn State, they just bullied Notre Dame, ran the ball right down their throat, looked like men versus boys on the field. We started talking about, my friends and I, all right, should we get the Airbnb tonight?

Should we start looking at tickets now? Even though it's only a seven point game, the confidence was dangerously, and at this point, recklessly high. Well, I hate to rehash some bad memories for you, but let's take a listen to that interception that pretty much sealed the deal, setting up that field goal for Notre Dame. This is Drew Aller just saying, here, take the ball, win, not us, you. Balls at their own 28, quick snap for Aller, looking left, can't get it out. Now pressure coming, Aller throws, loose ball, intercepted, Christian Gray picks it off at the 42 yard line. Notre Dame will get the ball back with 33 seconds left in the game.

What a big time pick from Christian Gray. Here's Tony Simeone again, Notre Dame radio. I told you about this field goal.

Well, this is the one that pretty much shut it down. Mitch Jeter lines it up. He's ready. The orange ball is on Mitch Jeter's leg. Good snap, good hold, kick on its way, and the kick is good! Mitch Jeter with seven seconds left gives the Irish a lead 27-24. Notre Dame is on the precipice. Well, they weren't just on the precipice. I mean, all that gadget, give and go, lateral, lateral, the ball got lateraled into absolutely nowhere. And ultimately, well, Penn State, they lost.

There will be no championship, something that they haven't had since 1986. And Drew Aller, and there's so many conversations about whether or not he should move on to the NFL, jump into the draft, pending the success of what might take place here in this college football playoff. Well, he gonna stay in college, rightfully so. He spoke after throwing that interception, after the tears fell. Hickey, is he still crying somewhere right now?

Do we know? I am. He might be as well. We both are. Damn, okay. Hickey, I don't want you to cry, man. I know we don't want you to cry. Well, he's got to figure out a way to win a big game.

Oh, damn. Are you blaming him or are you blaming coach? Oh, him. He threw the game away. It wasn't just that one.

Bad decisions, inaccuracy. There were some open receivers. He just flat out missed them.

Yeah, he's stuck. Let's listen to this man after he got some of the tears out on that interception. Yeah, I mean, I was going through my progression, got to the backside, and honestly, I was just trying to dirt it at his feet, but I should have just thrown it away when I felt the first two progressions not open just because of the situation we were in. But I was just trying to dirt it at Amari's feet, but just trying to execute what I was trying to do. Yeah, well, we saw that because the object of the game isn't to throw the ball to the other guy. Now, I had mentioned James Franklin.

And Hickey, I said this to you when you were here the other day. I said this yesterday in your absence while you were watching the game. James Franklin, he made this a little bit easier to digest. He gave me a little bit more of a rooting interest because heading into the game, he's a little bit more arrogant. He was a little bit of the, I'm the big brother and I'm happy to be here and and it's not fair how Notre Dame got here.

And it's just like, yo, just go out there and play and relax. And so now James Franklin, you think about taking on AP ranked top 10 teams. He has a record. Listen to this.

Listen to this. A four and 20. Yes, that is four wins and 20 losses. He beats everybody except for Ohio State and Michigan. I mean, he's done it in the past, but this guy is four and 20 against ranked teams. And that's what people said all year. It's like, hey, bro, who did you go out there and beat in the college football playoff?

You went out there and you, it's just, it's crap. Let's just put it that way. Hickey, were you excited when they beat SMU? Were you excited? I was. Yeah, of course.

I was excited when they beat Boise State. Oh, okay. All right. You didn't look at the level of competition at all and go, you know, maybe, maybe not. Well, I mean, yes. Like, don't get me wrong. Like, I think you could be both excited. Hey, look, you won a playoff game, but also the same time, you know, it's not, I'm not saying it's a big game that they won. So I think it's still like, yeah, you're advancing and you did what you're supposed to do in convincing fashion.

I can get excited about that. But up until yesterday, yeah, I wasn't, wouldn't say those either. Those teams were big wins for James. Well, James has, uh, I told you how, how vocal he's been over the past few days. He spoke after the game, of course, because he's the head coach is the mouthpiece for the team. He talked about Drew Allard throwing at interception and how he's going to bounce back and what this means for him.

Just listen to this. He'll handle this like he handles everything else with a first-class approach with an investment level. That's as good as anybody in the country. His jump is a year one starter to a year two starter was significant. He's got a chance to take another step next year, but he'll handle it the right way. He's hurting right now, right? Should be hurting.

We're all hurting. He'll handle it. Great.

Man. I saw the video, James Franklin, his daughter, and he's a human being. Now I'm talking about him as a head coach of the football team. I don't know him. He don't know me.

His daughter was hugging him. She was sad because daddy may not get another chance. He may not get, you know, ever.

He may, he may never get this close to a national championship. And so I can understand the, the, the feelings and the pain and the rawness of it. You think about accomplishing something and it just snatched right away from you.

You don't attain it. I mean, we know this in life, they're winners and they're losers. Everybody can't win all the damn time. You heard he, you heard him say that he was in pain. Let's listen to him describe his own emotions. As you could imagine, there's a thousand different emotions going on and, and, uh, and feelings.

And, um, the sun will come up tomorrow. The one thing I want to make sure that all those guys do is walk out of that locker room with their heads high and their chest out. Cause they have a ton to be proud of. There's about 128 teams that would give the right arm to have the season that we just had this year.

So doesn't feel that way right now, but there's a ton to be proud of. Man. We got, we got a college football coach quoting little orphan, Annie, picky. Why didn't he just, if you're going to say it, why didn't he just burst out into song? That's what you wanted.

You wanted him after the game, just be singing, dancing, maybe have a top hat, tap dancing. The man just evoked a little orphan. The sun will come out tomorrow. He might've keep going. Let the bet your bottom dollar tomorrow.

There'll be sun. Like he might as well. James Franklin has been on so much of a, of a role and, and, and expressing himself and how he feels and what he wants to accomplish and how you, what he feels about the competition. The least that he could do is just finish the song. He quit on that too.

Hickey. Well, he didn't quit. That's Zion quit and a couple other people quit.

He didn't quit. He's just a loser. Now let's focus in on some winners. Hickey, you're still a winner by the way. You're still a winner.

Oh, thanks JR. That, that makes you feel better. Someone's got to win here for Penn State. I'm glad I could be the winner. It's you. It's you. You're a winner.

Of course. Hickey's the winner. Now, even outside of Hickey being a winner, Notre Dame is a winner.

Marcus Freeman is a winner. Notre Dame are winners. Trying to pick up their first title since 1988. They await the victor of tonight's matchup between Ohio State and then Texas.

You don't got to wait too much longer, just a few more hours. And let's be real, earlier this year, speaking of crying and being sad, we saw the head coach of Northern Illinois. He was crying and sobbing and, Oh my God, we beat Notre Dame. Notre Dame looked like crap. And then they went forward and have won what, 12 consecutive games since then?

They're rolling. This is what coach Freeman had to say about bouncing back after that ugly loss. I often tell them, uh, in your lowest moment, you find out the most about yourself. And, um, we've had low moments, but we had a really low moment. Uh, we know we too, and these guys battle, we got great leaders. We got great players, um, that chose to put this university and this football program in front of themselves. Yeah. Well, they bounced back. I give them credit because you could have wrote them off from there. Forget a top 25, forget a top 12.

They look like ass. How you lose that game? Northern Illinois. I don't know nobody on that. Who knows anybody on that team besides those guys, family members, not me. Sad. And I gotta also be honest, Hickey, you want to talk about Drew Allen looking bad yesterday. Raleigh-London didn't look all that hot either.

Okay. I mean, at the end, he, they, I was trying to figure out who was trying to throw the game away more. And, uh, you know, we figured out who that was, but Raleigh-London didn't look all that good to me. He picked it up at the end, but they were both bad, man. Unfortunately, that didn't look all that good to me. Unfortunately, but that's also makes it so much difficult because not like he played great. You're right. And that's what makes the loss so frustrating.

Okay. Well, we had two, two bad quarterbacks going out there, Riley Leonard through two interceptions himself. And every time they put the camera on that guy, it was like, he looks like he's about to go out there and burst into tears and walking away with the victory, leaving Duke and playing at Notre Dame. And he said, this is why I came here to chase a national championship.

And now he's one game away. Throughout this whole off season, everybody would ask me why I came to Notre Dame. And I'll give a lot of different answers, but the truth is I came here to win a national championship and, you know, to go to the best team that would give me the best odds to do that. And, uh, you know, obviously this is the right place and I made the right decision.

So I mean, that's why I came here at the end of the day. Look, man, he was, he was real close to not getting back into that game after he got knocked out and get knocked out enough. He was able to return. Well, congratulations to, to Notre Dame. Congratulations to Marcus Freeman. And I'm sure Brian Kelly is somewhere banging on a table of water bottles being upset in Louisiana somewhere, maybe on the recruiting trip.

I don't know. Well, we'll talk about him later on because he ain't, he ain't looking too hot. And if you're a, if you're a fan of LSU, if you love the tigers, if you love Baton Rouge, you're probably looking at him going, this is the guy we hired. Like, okay.

All right, fine. But we'll, we'll talk about him later on in the show. Of course, as I told you, we got Texas, we have the Ohio state university. They get going next hour to determine who else advances to the national championship game to take on Notre Dame, not to talk about Notre Dame and what the hell they got going on. Uh, Ryan Harris is going to join us.

That is the Notre Dame radio radio analyst. There's so much to get into. We've got the college football playoff. We got the NFL playoffs. Got the Sean Watson re-tearing his Achilles. Oh man, that sucks.

That's awful. And we got a lot to talk about. And speaking of championships, you know what, let's take a break. When we come back, I got some news on a quarterback who's actually healthy enough, healthy enough to participate in the post-season. Matter of fact, he's going to be healthy enough to play on Sunday. I'll tell you who it is on the other side of the break. We got a lot of NFL action to cover. We got a lot of college action to cover.

If you want to call me 855-212-4227, that's 855-212-4227. It's the JR Sport Breeze show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. You're listening to the JR Sport Breeze.

It is the JR Sport Breeze show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. Yeah, we talked about last night, we found out one and a half of the college football national championship Notre Dame advancing past Penn State. Outside of Ohio State today in Texas, we got the NFL playoffs that start tomorrow and run until Monday. Unfortunately, we learned that Monday night's game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Rams, that is now going to take place in Glendale, Arizona, the home of the Arizona Cardinals.

Unfortunately, because of the wildfires that are taking place all over Los Angeles. So we know we got a lot of football coming up over the next several days. We're right in the midst of it. But I did mention to you that we have one quarterback who is kind of on the iffy side, but he has been cleared to play. So all you Philadelphia Eagle fans, you've probably already heard this. Jalen Hurts is going to be good to go.

Now, when I take a look at the Philadelphia Eagles, I look at the second best team in the NFC that has the best chance of knocking off the Detroit Lions. And earlier today, Jalen Hurts, someone who has not played since he was knocked out of the game in the first quarter, December 22nd against the Washington football team, Jalen Hurts says he feels good, really, really good. I'm good now, though. You're ready for a playoff game, big wildcard game that we got to go get. How do you feel physically? You know, does your body feel better? I feel ready to go. Well, he's not a not short on words now, is he? I mean, come on. What is he going to say?

He feels good. And if he wasn't out there, then I think you could probably maybe give the Packers a little bit of an edge, just a little bit. It's in Philly, probably not. Even throwing Kenny. No, I think it would be a wash.

I mean, we can't go back in time. But if Jalen Hurts didn't play, obviously, the odds of the Philadelphia Eagles winning, it gets lowered. Do you think, Kenny, there was that guy who called the other day.

He absolutely loved Kenny Pickett. I think all things considered, Green Bay would have still had a chance without him out there. I was about to say the one caller probably say that the Eagles have a better chance with Kenny Pickett to win. I mean, I probably still think the Eagles win. Yeah. But like you said, I mean, it's way closer to 50-50 than it is right now.

Yeah, absolutely. Eagles, I'm expecting them to go out there and win this game. And you talk about injuries. Jordan Love has been dealing with a busted elbow, dating back to the last game of the season for the Green Bay Packers. We know Christian Watson, he is not in any better place or he ain't playing at all. We won't see him until next year.

Maybe he tore his ACL. And so are they going to have to just hand the ball over to Josh Jacobs? They're going to be playing in Philadelphia. I'm sure the fans will be raucous. They'll be mad. They'll be losing their minds. They have to keep up offensively with Philadelphia and Saquon.

I mean, it is a lot to do. And if you think about the Eagles, the Bugaboo last year, the defensive backs, well, they addressed that in the draft. I feel like they got, I feel like they just came down here to Georgia and picked up every available player that was hanging out in Athens, whether it's Carter now, they just, they took all our players and now they got, they got a solid damn good defense. And the guy with the busted up elbow, Jordan Love, he knows as much. And he said, yeah, man, we got to deal with that. And the rookies and Dijean, it's too much work.

Listen. When we played in week one, we knew what kind of team they were, you know, based on, on last year. And yeah, they're a really good defense. They've got really good players over there. So obviously we played them. We saw what they're about and, you know, we did some good things that game, but yeah, they're a really good defense, really sound.

You know, it's, it's one of those games that everybody's gotta be at their best. The Green Bay Packers lost week one in Brazil, 34 to 29. Jordan Love was also lost as he sprained his knee in that game. I know he and Packer fans are certainly wishing and hoping for a completely different result. He's not the only quarterback to reference week one of the regular season down in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A lot of players were not all that enthusiastic about going there, but they, when they came back, everybody got back safe.

God bless them. Jalen Hurts said the same thing, except for, he's just like, listen, we're not the same team from when we played in Brazil. Listen. The reality is we've seen how we've evolved and we've progressed over the year. And so I think in all three phases, we're a whole different team.

You know, we're not the same team that they saw in Brazil in terms of how efficient we've been in the run, how deadly Saquon has been, and how we've been able to play really good defense. Okay. All right. Yeah. They're gonna, they're gonna take it.

Hickey. It's not, it's not the Packers' time yet. They gotta wait.

They gotta wait a couple of years. And I still, to be honest, I don't know what they want what they want the offense to be. I think it's a great thing that you can look and say, oh man, we got, we got so many wide receivers that you can throw the ball to. And even though they're down one, I think there comes a point in time where you still want one clear cut guy who can go out there and take a game over, go ask Joe burrow about Jamar chase, go ask Sam Darnold about having Justin Jefferson out there. And then he has Addison on the other side. The Packers got to spread that ball around and doing that in Philly, the quarterback has a bum elbow.

Philadelphia is going to advance. And if they don't, Nick Sirianni is going to be, he going to be crying. He's going to be dropping a lot of tears, man. He could be on LinkedIn searching for a new job.

Oh my God. Or indeed whatever, you know, whatever job searching firm you want to reference there. I mean, my, is that, that feels like a fireball offense. If you lose on Sunday at home to the Packers. I imagine you putting Nick Sirianni on LinkedIn. He's not going to get an NFL job.

Are there, I mean, there's hundreds of NFL coaches, all things considered. We saw Doug Peterson get one right after he was. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I don't remember that. That was a joke that he did.

He had a LinkedIn page. Oh, sorry. Sorry. I meant get one as in get a job. Sorry.

No, no, no, no, no, no. He's not on LinkedIn. Open to work.

No, that was not him. So you mean to tell me right now, if I go to LinkedIn and I type in, I don't know, Antonio Pierce, I'm not going to find him. Well, you might find him and you might find Doug Peterson now, because I don't, I mean, I don't know if either of those coaches are going to get another head coaching job or maybe even another coordinator job after their debacles. I'm on, I'm on LinkedIn right now. This minute, let me type in Antonio Pierce and see what pops up.

I'm going to get like, uh, okay. Hashtag open to work, uh, mental health care professional. It could be a role of a head coach, internet designer, a website designer.

Maybe he has control over like the hype videos that are put out each week. So maybe, maybe that could work. Oh, this Antonio, one is in Brooklyn. One is in Atlanta.

I don't think either one of these are, uh, no, you don't think you don't appear. So as a house from his giant stays in Brooklyn? Uh, no, probably New Jersey.

No, that's true. Maybe he's a California guy anyway. I don't probably think he's probably done with, uh, with New York. Probably right. I'm just, I'm just saying, Hey, LinkedIn is going to look, one of these coaches in the playoffs is going to be looking for a job. I think one of these guys is going to be, is Nick Sirianni.

He's probably the best candidate to end up on LinkedIn, huh? Yeah. Yeah. I would say so. I mean, McDermott's not going anywhere. If the bills lose to the Broncos, that's a big upset. If that happens, do you think McDermott survives that? I think not. With Josh out having an MVP, like, like if you're the bills, can you afford to run it back?

If you lose at home into the wildcard, the Broncos, they are, they are, and have been so close. Why do you want to go about doing a reset? That's what you'd be doing. If you give him, you'd have to, you'd have to fire him.

If you feel that you're going to get somebody better, that you absolutely know is better. And who is that outside of Mike Rabel? And is, is he going to wait that long? Are some of these other teams going to wait that long? Mike Rabel has already had his interview with the new England Patriots.

I don't know. Let's, let's look at this. Texas coach, not going anywhere. He just got there, Chargers coach Harbaugh, not going anywhere. The other Harbaugh's not going anywhere. Tomlin's not going anywhere. Campbell not going anywhere. Rams, McVeigh not going anywhere. O'Connell is great.

He ain't going anywhere. Dan Quinn just got there. It's really Nick Sirianni, Todd Bowles, and McDermott.

Those are really the only coaches that could legitimately get the boot in the playoffs. Don't you think? And Sirianni, yeah, I would agree. Yeah.

Yeah. I would agree. And it would probably take a, I don't, it'd probably take a wildcard loss. Like I don't think if you make the divisional round and lose, probably like if you're the Eagles and you lose two, I don't know if you face the Vikings in round two or you face even maybe the, I don't know, the Bucks could do, I don't know. It does feel like wildcard weekend would be the weekend if you lose and a coach that you just named is, is we're talking about maybe being on the hot seat and getting fired.

It feels like it would take a wildcard weekend loss where if you make divisional round weekend, I think it's harder to do it. Let me tell you, it would be hilarious, not for Eagles fans. I could hear Nick Sirianni and his post game being peppered with questions about what just took place and how they lost. And I could hear him now just going, uh, I don't know.

Uh, we have to figure out, uh, we just have to evaluate, uh, yeah, it's disappointing. No, that's not him. That's Mike McDaniel. My bad. My bad. I'm mixing up my, kind of similar though. He doesn't have as many long drawn out pregnant pauses, but there's a lot of ums and stumbling over words for Sirianni. Nick Sirianni is more to think about what we have to do and less thinking and we have to move forward.

And yes, it's a heartbreaking loss. And no, I'm not thinking about my job security. I'm thinking about the guys in the locker room who worked all year and then we blew it and I blew it and now we have to go back and think, and I'm going to be thinking about this.

That's more Nick Sirianni. And I think they're going to give him the boot like the next day. If he, uh, this chokes this one away.

Hey, I'm looking forward to this one. Green Bay in Philadelphia. Philadelphia should handle business. They should absolutely move on. If they don't, Nick Sirianni is likely to get the boot, especially if it's, uh, an ugly upset.

8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. My apologies to everybody in, uh, in Green Bay. No disrespect. We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side, it's time to talk about another matchup. I told you these two coaches, they ain't going nowhere. It's Jim Harbaugh leading the charges. D'Amico Ryan's leading the Texans. We're going to talk charges and Texans on the other side. We'll get into a quarterback who will probably not play next year because he tore his ACL again. Sorry, Deshaun Watson. We're going to talk about Notre Dame.

We got a lot to do. It's the JR sport brief show. 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.

If you want to call me up, it's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. We've been talking college football playoff. We've been talking NFL playoffs. NFL playoffs get going tomorrow. College football playoffs continue today. We got one more semi-final matchup to figure out who competes for the championship against Notre Dame. We have V Ohio State University taking on Texas down in Dallas. And in a few hours, we're going to know the field. We're going to know who is going to be in the other half of that championship along with Notre Dame. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.

That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. And before we went to break, I filled you in on one injured. I guess you could say he was injured. Yeah, that is hickey being having a concussion. Is that an injury? It is right. Your brain is hurt. Oh, absolutely.

You could argue it's the most serious injury you got. Oh man. Yeah. Does Tua Tonkaveloa know that?

Well, clearly not. He still continues to play, right? He needs that money. He loves what he does. If Tua wasn't throwing a football around, what would he be doing? I guess that's why he plays. If he wasn't throwing a football, what would he do? You got to do something.

I don't care how much money you got in life. You're right. I'm trying to think. He's a cheery, usually optimistic guy.

Maybe something front facing. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I feel like I don't know why. Maybe it's just the way he dresses. You ever see the show White Lotus? I don't know what the hell that is. Oh, good show. You should watch it. What the hell is White Lotus?

What is that? It's a show. It's kind of like a little mini series that just highlights like two or three different families on vacation. Usually something goes wrong, someone dies. It's kind of like a little bit of a whodunit sort of thing.

It's pretty good. But one of the guys, I think it's in the second or maybe the first season, they follow around like a hotel manager. His name is Armand. I could see Tua kind of being like that. Like basically a hotel manager, front facing, kind of walking around, greeting people as they come in, walking around at dinnertime, making sure everyone's having a good time. He seems like a cheery guy that truly wants people to be happy.

I think Tua could do that if he's not throwing a football. You want Tuatanga Veloa to work in hospitality? And I think he'd be great at hospitality, yes. A hotel manager for Tuatanga Veloa. The male version of the Mila Kunis character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

I think he'd do a great job at it. I never saw that either, Hickey. How am I right now in this segment more cultured than you? That's a great show and a great movie. You've never seen, have you ever seen Happy Days before? No. Okay.

And you name the list, there's probably answers to know almost anything you ask me. I am so uncultured outside for those small references. You never saw Happy Days. You never saw Robocop. I mean, no. Happy Days, though, isn't that like an older show?

Yeah, yeah, The Fonz. That thing was in syndication forever. That one I'm not going to hold myself and I'm not going to be able to- Oh, excuse me. Okay.

What do you stop? You're not going to watch nothing before, what, 1990? Probably at least, yeah. I think for me, that's okay if I've not seen.

Man, some of the greatest television took place before 1990. Come on. You saw Full House, right? Yes. Oh, okay.

Bits and Pieces, yeah. Oh, well, okay. It was good show. Olsen Twins? Yeah, yeah. And Bob Saget. It's funny. Maybe we can make Tuatanga Veloa an actor, maybe, possibly. Okay.

I like it. Part of the job, right? As a professional athlete, you got to act like you like talking to the media. I mean, a lot of professional athletes, lo and behold, a lot of these dudes act like they like to show up to work. Some of these dudes are punching the clock like a lot of us.

Just because you can run and jump and do all of this and you're great, a lot of these guys don't necessarily love what they do. They do it for the money. It's a lot of money. They do it for the check. Well, let me tell you, this guy, one of these guys I'm getting ready to tell you about, he does not wake up and do anything for a check. He likes money.

Who doesn't like money? Dalai Lama? I don't know. The Pope? Maybe they don't like money.

I don't think so. Jim Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh is, he ain't acting. That man loves football. And if football did not exist, I don't know what the hell this man would be doing.

He is back in the NFL in his first season coaching the Los Angeles Chargers. They're trying to win their first playoff game since 2018. I don't think we'll have massive choke jobs.

I don't think we're going to have classic mismanagement. I think the Chargers in the playoffs are in for something a little bit different. They had three straight victories to end the year.

They're first in defense and only allowing about 17 points per game. And this is what Harbaugh does. This is why you bring him in. Harbaugh turned them around. And Harbaugh knows he's opposing a quarterback, even though he's in his second year. Didn't have the greatest sophomore year.

But CJ Stroud is still someone to be reckoned with. Listen to Jim Harbaugh. This is what you call reverse psychology.

Jim Harbaugh. So many times I've seen like, you know, defender coming right at him and he just stands in there, you know, lets him get close enough almost. Those are going to hit him and then he's able to, you know, get the ball up over him around him. That's what you call kissing somebody else's ass.

That's what that is. And this is what we see at the professional level. He needs to, James Franklin needs to take a lesson from Harbaugh. You gotta, you gotta kiss the opposition's ass.

You don't talk about the opposition and what they didn't do to get there. Hickey, could you imagine that in the NFL? I get it. It's different. Could you imagine an NFL coach going, well, if you take a look at their strength of schedule, they've actually had it easier to get here into the playoffs than we are.

So we're more battle tested and ready. And, and I don't, and they're fresher. Could you imagine an NFL coach saying that? Never.

Never in my life. So when you equate it that way, that way, what the hell is wrong with James Franklin? Why didn't he just kiss the ass of Notre Dame? Why is he pointing out their flaws and how they got there?

I don't know. When we talked about it the other day, I thought it was a weird time to bring it up. I mean, I will say I liked, I mean, it gives us something to talk about. So I do like the fact that him, Lane Kiffin, you know, there are plenty of coaches in college for whatever reason that, that feel like they have the right to speak their mind on anything and everything. It's entertaining.

I will say, I appreciate that more than the classic, you know, Belichick, NFL, in this case, Jim Harbaugh, you know, buttoned up, like you said, kiss ass response. Oh, I'm here for people making asses of themselves. It's great.

It's great for me. I'm here for it. Imagine Jim Harbaugh's against CJ Shaw. Nah, we don't really care. He's not good. Now we're going to blitz him. This guy can't handle it. We're going to be all over him.

We're going to smother him. No, we wouldn't, we would need NFL teams to cut like wrestling promos. That'd be cool.

Right? Oh, that would be so much fun. It'd be like a boxing, like boxing, the way in you get that beef. Why don't we, everything has to be, and it's just situated that way to keep things on the even.

And we don't want anybody to have any bulletin board material. I like when the people are beefing, like we need more beef. And I, I get it. The NFL is one of the most violent sports on earth.

Give us some beef before the game. Everybody, let's listen to another compliment. This is actually a CJ Stroud, the man that Jim Harbaugh just complimented. Oh yeah. The same CJ Stroud who this past season, he can't be this damn good all the time.

20 touchdowns to 12 interceptions, much higher rate than what he did last year. CJ Stroud is like, Oh my God. Yeah. I'm not afraid of the defense of the Chargers, but they're good. They're good. All around. They're really good.

So, you know, but that's what the playoffs are is, you know, they're best for us, our best and got to do our best to handle what they're going to do and play hard and, you know, try to execute, execute every play as best as we can. Oh my God. Oh my God. Where are the personalities?

Hickey, who has, Harbaugh has the biggest personality. We got to wait until the actual game before he loses his, you know what? Yeah. It's a shame.

It's I wish we got him more before. More what? Brass, brashness, brashness. Somebody needs to, I don't know. I don't know. Put, put some extra sugar in his coffee.

I have no idea. This is disappointing. And then we got, then we got Justin Herbert who has the personality of mayonnaise.

Okay. Shout outs to Will Levis. Maybe, maybe mayonnaise will say, forget Will Levis. We're going to start paying Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert is just like, Oh yeah. The Texas defense is going to be a little bit different.

Defense. They're good too. They got the Neil Hunter. They got Will Anderson. They're coming, boy. He's coming back.

He's healthy. Oh yeah. Well, I got to look out for them. Listen to this boring ass quarterback.

Where's the fire. They've done such a great job of getting after the passer and causing turnovers. Um, so, you know, you gotta be smart.

You gotta understand where the hots are. Um, get the ball out quickly and, and, and avoid those sacks. Yeah. Avoid sacks. Yeah.

I don't want to get hit by Will Anderson. Yeah. We know, we know, we know. Hickey, I'm going with the charges in this one. You know, the Texans with all of their injuries, whether it's Stefan Diggs weeks ago and tank Dell blew out his leg. I think the charges are rolling right now.

This might be an ugly game. I know the charges dealing with their own issues at running back. They signed Ezekiel Elliott to the practice squad.

You got JK and Gus Edwards, both dealing with ankle issues. I'm going with the charges. I think they're more seasoned. I think they're more healthy. They're ready for the moment.

Charges all the way on the road. I am with you. I think both defenses are very good. I trust right now, LA's offense a little bit more than I do Houston's right now. And I trust Jim Harbaugh, who's won a lot of big games in Michigan, won a lot of big games of the 49ers games.

Guy's a big game coach and wins. I'll take a winner on the road here. I'm with the chargers on the road. Let's row dogs. Well, it's not dogs, but still. Well, it's still their dogs. They're going to play like dogs. They got that.

They got that dog in them. How long before Harbaugh is standing on the sidelines with his hands on his hips and his head cocked? I feel like that's almost permanent, like two minutes into the game. Yeah, I feel like he just stands there and he tilts his head and he's he looks like somebody's grandma trying to figure things out at the blank stare. Like what's going on?

Like, is this for real? What I'm watching is standing out there with his ball cap on, even though, you know, they'll be inside. I'm looking forward to all this playoff action. It's the J.R. Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you to everybody listening on the radio, the app, all that good stuff. Thank you to people watching on the Infinity Sports Network YouTube channel. Yeah, we're streaming live. We're going to take a break when we come back. I'm going to tell you about a quarterback, a football player you will not be seeing for a while. It's the J.R. Sportbreeze show, the Infinity Sports Network. Don't move.