It is! The JR Sportbreeze 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 tuned in and locked in all over North America. I hope you're safe and well. I'll be hanging out with you for the next three hours. I've been hanging out for one already. I get started every weekday, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our producer helping to hold things down, Ryan Botcher, holding it down in New York City. And thank you to you for listening. Whether you're at work, at home, on the road, you're coming, you're going, you're leaving, you're staying. Maybe you refuse to go home. Yeah, I know some of y'all do not want to go back to that place with the people who live there. I understand. Not really. What am I saying?
Anyway, we talked about a lot. The Dallas Cowboys. Rumors that if Dion was offered the job that he would go out there and take it. I'm here for it. I need the drama. I'm here for the drama, not for my own personal life, but I'm here for the NFL drama.
Give me some more of that. Talked about Bill Belichick. Belichick apparently is not leaving North Carolina. He hasn't reiterated it himself, but it's Bill Belichick. Why?
Why would he do so? He ain't doing nothing. Hey, how about this? To talk about everything going on with the Dallas Cowboys and Dion.
Saad Yousef is going to join us in about 20 minutes. Covers the Dallas Cowboys for the athletic. We'll go ahead and get his thoughts on what's going on in the big D. Kevin O'Connell talked about his contract situation with the Vikings. Also, of course, he was asked about Sam Darnold and J.J. McCarthy, who's going to be quarterback next year.
He gave a reasonable response to that one. We'll get into that. We're going to talk about the Eagles and the Rams. We're actually going to highlight some positivity from the Eagles fans. They did something positive for somebody else on the other side of the country.
I'll explain as the Eagles get ready to take on the Rams. Speaking of that, that side of the country, Los Angeles, West Coast, LeBron James affected by the wildfires. And so we got a lot to get into the New York Mets and Pete Alonso. Apparently, they're at a contract impasse. Maybe he does not return to the New York Mets.
Could be a lot of posturing. And then earlier today, we learned about the passing of Bob Euchre. So we're going to talk about Bob and show some love there as well.
If you want to talk to me, you can. This is a radio show. It's a radio program. Shout out to everybody watching live on YouTube. You want to watch the show? Just go to the Infinity Sports Network YouTube channel and you can watch the JR Sport Brief. Thank you to people listening on the free Odyssey app, people listening live. Whoever the hell they live on their local radio affiliate, Sirius XM, you got that is now Channel 375.
If you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. Yes, I told you before the break, we talked about Bill Belichick, whether or not he was going to leave. I said, this man is not leaving. Ryan here with me as well said, yeah, Belichick, unlikely that he leaves before he coaches a single game for North Carolina. There is an idea being bandied about by someone in college, someone who says that, you know, with all these players in and out the transfer portal and players switching schools and moving around and whatnot.
That we need to figure out a way to maybe slow this down or at least reward some of the universities and colleges. I'll explain in a second. Let's go to the phone lines.
855 212 42 27. Dave is here from Wisconsin. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. What's up, Dave? Good evening, JR.
Happy to get on and happy to listen to you. Two things. First, me being located in Wisconsin, I have to say, you know, rest in peace. Bob Euchre, absolutely legendary figure, and especially just being the every man that he was. I'm sad to see him and learn of his passing. But number two, the reason why I did call in, if Dion does go to Dallas, I got two words for you. Hard knocks.
That is absolutely needs to be the NFL's number one priority if Dion ends up going to coach Dallas and the Cowboys, because that is just money printed all over. Oh, yeah. Forget forget hard knocks. Remember Jim Carrey and the Truman Show? Remember that?
You don't know what that put up? Does it catch a GoPro to Dion? And let's just follow him constantly? Yeah, yeah. Just follow. We forget hard knocks.
They just have cameras on all the damn time. I'd sign up for that. Hey, Dave, thank you for calling from Wisconsin, man. Absolutely. You have a good one. You as well. Thank you, Dave. He's not lying.
That's why I said I'm here for the drama. I mean, nowadays we have all of these. I don't even know what do you call them? Are these stations? Are they channels? Are they apps? I don't know. Hell if I know. Ryan, when I when I open up Roku or Apple TV, what are these things called channels right now? What are they even called?
Apps? Distributors, maybe. I don't know.
It's like a collective conglomeration of things. Yeah. Now you can streaming channels. Is that what they are? Right. Streaming channels. Yes. Yes.
That's that's a good definition. And they got family. Family Feud has a streaming channel like you can sit down in your house, I guess. I guess you still call it a television set. Smart TV, whatever it is. I guess calling it a television set is not obsolete.
It's not a set. Look at me. I'm obsolete, too, with my verbiage. You can sit down and watch Family Feud all day long. Is that? Here's Family Feud all day long. Steve Harvey all day long. Who the hell wants to watch that?
I have no idea. I would. That's good stuff. You like Family Feud? Yes, it's great.
It's good. It's something where Price is Right, too. Does Price is Right have its own streaming channel? Probably does. I have not looked that up, though.
Oh, my God. Look, Family in our Family Feud is great. And here's the thing about Family Feud.
It is so damn good. It does not matter who hosted. It doesn't matter. Like, you want to get a comedian out there. There was a point in time I forgot the guy.
Is it arms? Not Armstrong. Oh, my God.
Louie, Louie, Louie Anderson. Yeah. Do you remember him? You know who the hell that is, right? No idea.
Googling it right now. OK. Yeah, I think he I don't want to put Louie in the ground. Is he still here? I hope he is. I don't think he's here. Oh, my God.
He's not here. Oh, Louie. Oh, my God. Three years.
Three years. Wow, man. Well, let me tell you, he was a fun guy. Not that I ever hung out with him. But he's a funny guy.
He's a comedian. He hosted it. It was so Family Feud is great, especially when they have the dumb ass answers.
And between that was something else. People do dumb things on Wheel of Fortune as well. You like Wheel of Fortune? It's not as good as Jeopardy.
If you're comparing the two in the same hour. Wow. They have more entertainment value in Wheel of Fortune as opposed to Jeopardy, right? What did you say?
Agree? Oh, yeah. But I'm a lot worse at Wheel of Fortune, so I don't like it. Oh, OK. Have you been on Wheel of Fortune before? No, I just like playing along and I struggle. I am processing power like a squirrel.
So it doesn't work. OK. All right. I understand. We every now and then, I feel like every four months, some contestant on Wheel of Fortune goes viral because they can't identify. I don't know what's a cliche. Apple of my eyes.
Someone will just go, you know, plain of my eye. And it's just like, no, plain and Apple just they don't even they don't even go together. But I got you. How the hell did we end up talking about streaming channels and television shows?
How did we get here? Transfer portal. Ah, there we go.
Transfer portal. Is that is that what it was? Kind of half. They were on there. There's something about, oh, the guy was talking about hard knocks.
And television and wants to see Dionne on TV. I get it. I had Truman Show. Yeah. Yeah.
Truman Show. Yeah. There we go.
But hey, you got a good point. Transfer portal. Portal. Is in the news. We know that we got a big old national championship game here in Atlanta a couple of days from now. I can't believe it's Thursday. The game's going to be a Monday.
Tom is just flying by. We got Ohio State. We got Notre Dame. And there's a guy who has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the championship game.
Who has a thought on the transfer portal right now, of course, because everybody is moving the hell along. I mean, well, we got even got Quinn Ewers. He ain't transferring to another school. Apparently leaving six to eight million dollars on the table not to play for another school. He's going to go chase his dream of throwing a football in the NFL. Good luck, Quinn Ewers.
Good luck. But Sean Frazier, he's the athletic director at Northern Illinois. The last time you heard anything about Northern Illinois was months ago. At the start of the college football season. When they beat Notre Dame and since then, Notre Dame has won what, 13 straight games to get to this national championship? They're just out there whooping ass. I'll be very clear.
I think Notre Dame is going to lose to Ohio State. But I'll tell you this. Sean Frazier, his school, Northern Illinois. They get ready to move to the Mountain West because why not? They want to make more money. He is suggesting that schools receive what he is calling a talent acquisition fee. When a player moves from one school to another. And so if you follow football and you follow soccer, you know, typically guys aren't being traded.
Guys are being sold. You come to an agreement or a new contract with a new club or school. Then the score receiving a guy has to pay you.
So, for instance, this is a real life example. The Jimmy Butler gets traded to, I don't know, the Phoenix Suns. The Phoenix Suns have to send money back. Forget a player in exchange. Not only do they got to pay Jimmy Butler now, but the Phoenix Suns have to pay the Miami Heat.
And so think about it this way. We got a player getting ready to participate in the game on Monday and Will Howard, who's now the quarterback for Ohio State, used to be the quarterback at Kansas State. Imagine he leaves Kansas State. Now, Ohio State has to pay Kansas State for him being there. I mean, is this going to slow things down in the transfer portal knowing that one team has to pay for the services of the player by paying the school?
That's that's a lot. Do I think this is going to happen? Hell no. Like there's going to have to be some other restrictions to maybe slow things down in the transfer portal. There used to be a point in time where you had to have an exemption. You had to have hardship. You have to have had some type of injury.
Something crazy had to happen for you to leave. And now it's just just thrown around money. But to think about paying a school to acquire a player. Sounds good in principle, if you want to slow things down. It sounds good if you are the quote unquote little guy and you're developing players and player wants to move elsewhere. Well, now you want my player from my school. Great. He can go. But you got to pay me. Sounds good in principle. I don't I don't think it's it's going to happen. I think it's the worst idea. NCAA said, well, the government said, yeah, these guys can finally get paid.
And they had they had no parameters there. That's why Bill Belichick is in college right now. He's like, this is just like when I started with the Patriots, I got to pay the guys and I get to yell at them. Sure.
Sign me up. But Northern Illinois, we won't be talking about that much because, well, they ain't playing right now. But one of the schools that they beat is participating in this national championship. That happens to be Notre Dame. I wonder if they would have lost that game where they have had, quote unquote, the fire to get to where the hell they are right now.
You know what? Forget fire because their quarterback, Notre Dame's quarterback, Riley Leonard, he said, who needs fire? We got here because of faith. You know, not only us, but Ohio State as well. I think we're the two main teams to. Just publicly display our faith the most, and I don't know if this is some divine teaching who put us here, but I truly believe that Jesus was looking over both of our shoulders throughout the throughout the whole season and put these two teams on a pedestal for a reason. OK, cool. This is good.
Somebody still has to win and lose. I mean, we're going to figure that part out. Hey, how about is this buddy, his old roommate at the Manning Passing Academy, Will Howard? He told us, hey, we're good buddies. I guess there's going to be a love affair on Monday.
Yes. Me and Riley, you know, I actually met him initially two years ago at the Manning camp. And then last year we came back for I think it was both of our second time, maybe his third time. But we were roommates. It was me, him, Kate Club, Nick, and Van Dyke was the last one. It was the four of us. And, yeah, so, I mean, it was funny, man. It was it was we probably wouldn't have imagined that, you know, a couple months later.
Here we are, you know, playing for the national championship for, you know, two new schools. But it is pretty cool, man. It's it's easy. He's a great guy. Somebody I have a lot of respect for and not just the player he is, but the man and the man of faith that he is. Got a lot of respect for him, man.
And I'm excited to get out there and duke it out with him. How sweet. How sweet. They can hold hands and I don't know. Well, we ain't got no daisies here in Atlanta. Everything is dead.
It's cold outside. But they can hold hands and pick daisies after the game or should I say after Ohio State smashes Notre Dame. That's what's likely to happen. It's the J.R. sport. We show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We are going to take a break when we come back. We've had so many callers, so many people asking about Dion and Dion should go and Dion should stay and he shouldn't do this. We're going to have a chat with someone who covers the Dallas Cowboys.
We're going to be joined by side Yusef on the other side of the break. I'm going to get his thoughts on what the Cowboys need to do, how they get some talent in, what they do at the draft, because it's Jerry Jones world and we're just living in it. It's the J.R. sport we show coast to coast. The Infinity Sports Network. Don't move. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief.
It is the J.R. sport we show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. So many rumors. So many ideas.
So many thoughts. I mean, we got six job openings for head coaching in the NFL. The one that people are really dialed in on right now is the Dallas Cowboys. What's Jerry Jones going to do now that Mike McCarthy is gone and is he bringing in somebody to kiss his ring? Is he bringing in Deion Sanders?
There's so many questions. What do they do with the roster? How's Dak doing?
What do they do with the draft to talk about it all right now? We're being joined by someone who covers the Dallas Cowboys for the athletic side. Sod, you stuff is joining us here to talk about it all. Hey, son, how are you, man? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm excellent.
Thank you for taking the time to join us. Let's get this question out the way. Is Deion Sanders a legitimate candidate to be the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys? You know, that is that is the big money question. And I'm inclined to say with Jerry Jones, you can never say never, which is kind of the perception that most people have of Jerry. But if you also look at the reality, Jerry hasn't taken many gambles, I would say in the last two decades. He's been a pretty he's quite a pretty safe, whether it comes to signing players and free agency, whether it comes to his coaching hires all the way from from Wade Phillips to Jason Garrett to Mike McCarthy. So I definitely think that there's obviously credible, you know, credible things there that they have conversations and stuff. But in terms of how likely it would be, hiring hiring Deion would be the most ballsy thing that Jerry has done. Probably signing Deion as a player back in the 90s.
There hasn't been a whole lot of risk in the last 20 or so years. So it would be a surprise if it did end up coming together. Do you think it would happen and would it be a good idea? Could you see Deion coaching the team? And do you think he would he would do a good job? I can definitely see it happening.
There's a path there. Mike Zimmer was the defensive coordinator in Dallas last year. He has a very close personal connection with Deion. He was Deion's coach in Dallas back in the 90s and and he's maintained a close connection with him through Deion's growth in the ranks from Jackson State to Colorado. So having somebody like Zimmer on staff, whether it's as the defensive coordinator or advisor to the head coach, would be something that I could see enticing Deion and, you know, building out your staff with with other guys that you trust. And Deion has done this at a it's not like he's jumping from Jackson State to the NFL. And it's not like, you know, a lot of people throw out the name Jason Witten, who would be jumping from high school to the NFL. Like Deion has done this in a Power Five conference in college football. I don't think it's ridiculous to think that it could work out in Dallas.
Saad Yousaf is here with us. Covers the Dallas Cowboys for the athletic. Who are some other legitimate coaching candidates? We hear about Kellen Moore. It'd have to be someone with a much smaller personality that would want to fit into Jerry's box, right?
Yeah, I think a couple of things that you look into. Number one is, like you said, a smaller personality. I think Deion is kind of the exception to all that. But Kellen Moore certainly fits that bill.
Also, somebody the other thing is somebody that's familiar with the building. And again, Kellen Moore checks that box as well. The third thing and something that has been a prerequisite for Jerry in the past has been a former head coach. Like again, Jerry's not a very risk taking guy. So as much as Ben Johnson, if Jerry got if Jerry really wanted Ben Johnson, he could win any bidding war for any coach that he wanted in terms of the money that he could throw at Ben Johnson.
But that hasn't been Jerry's way. In the last cycle, he wanted Mike McCarthy, a former head coach who had a Super Bowl ring. He even interviewed Marvin Lewis last time. Again, a former head coach. So along those lines, you think of someone like Robert Sala, who they are interviewing. You also think of somebody like Pete Carroll.
And those are the kind of the names that come to mind as well. As you mentioned, Kellen Moore, for the other reasons, he's not a former head coach, but he is somebody who's a low personality, has a great rapport with Jack Prescott, and then also is familiar with how the Cowboys do business. Asad, I'm going to ask you about Jerry and free agency, but you mentioned Dak. How's he doing with that with that thigh and quad and leg? Is he doing better?
He's good. Yeah, I think I think, you know, rehab is right on track. I mean, it wasn't a injury that, you know, was a long term thing. It just, you know, the fact that he suffered that injury in November is kind of will put him out for the season. And the Cowboys really being out of it by late November didn't help either.
So I think that, you know, it's not something where you're looking at. You know, he I mean, he's come back from a broken ankle. It's not like he shattered his knee or anything like that.
He should be on track to be ready for any off season workouts. Yeah, Dak always seems to have these. Well, I mean, besides us watching him break his leg in horrific fashion, he always has these little knickknack injuries. It's his hand, it's his leg, you know, last year.
And I get it. He had major surgery to reconstruct that ankle. He was walking around in the boot. There was a controversy there. How a cowboy fans, how are people in the metro metroplex feeling about the 60 mil that he got last year? Not great.
I'll be honest. You know, it's tough to be a 60 million dollar quarterback with one playoff win on your ledger at 31 years old. And a big part of your success that got you the 60 million dollar contract per year was your mobility. And now, you know, the game before Dak got hurt, he trailed Joe Flacco in rushing yards on the 20, 24 season. So, you know, he hasn't been the same guy and he hasn't had the success in big games. And I think that is something that really irks fans. And, you know, I love Jack and I and, you know, I think he's a great leader. I think he understands how to navigate the spotlight that comes with being the Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback. But I also understand the criticism he receives. And to be quite honest with you, so does he. I don't think he thinks it's unfair.
It's just something that he has to work through. Asad Yousef is here with us from the athletic covers of Dallas Cowboys. Well, we know he's good friends with Ezekiel Elliott. We saw that signing last year and we saw what it did throughout the regular season. Nothing. Jerry Jones criticized constantly about what took place last offseason.
Not a whole lot. And then what we saw in the regular season. What are the Dallas Cowboys going to work on and do this year? They seems like they still got a lot of holes.
Yeah, they do. And, you know, they have a reputation and a history of sitting out free agency, which does not bode well for filling those holes. And, you know, they they've touted themselves as a draft and develop team. And for a long time, that was true.
And, you know, they've had success in that. But then you look at the last two drafts and you wonder why the Cowboys are having the problems they are, because they basically tanked in the last two drafts. They haven't got the players that that, you know, they needed to have a starter here or there to come out of the draft. But when you're a team like the Cowboys that sits out free agency altogether, you need to have success.
You need to get multiple starters, not just in the draft, to be quite honest with you. It's also in the undrafted free agent market and all that stuff. And, you know, that's where they found their kicker, Brandon Aubrey, who was probably their best player last season, which is great to find a player like that.
But also it tells you a lot about the team and where it's at when you say the kicker is the best player. And that's not where you want to be as an organization. Well, Saad, we heard we heard Jerry Jones tell everybody what last week. He's like, listen, I bought the team and not to give it to my kids or not as an investment, but to run it. Like, is there ever going to be any convincing that maybe he should just move the hell up on out the way? Does he not see the results or is he delusional?
Yeah, I mean, I think that last that last option is probably what fits best. I think he is delusional. You know, he understands he knows what the results are. He wears it on his sleeve.
He's you know, that's the one thing about Jerry that people often misconstrue that, you know, that he's not accountable. I would argue he is probably one of the most accountable figures in pro sports. I mean, he does radio interviews twice a week during the season. He meets with the media after every game, especially after every home game. He answers every single question.
He doesn't dodge. So he's accountable and he understands how little success this franchise has had in the last 30 years. He just doesn't have a problem with it because then twice a year, the Forbes list comes out and there the Cowboys are at the very top valued at 10 billion dollars. And, you know, that's a win in Jerry's in Jerry's mind. So is Jerry more interested in it?
He's an excellent marketer, an excellent salesman, as you just mentioned, with the Cowboys being the most valuable franchise sports franchise on earth. Everybody knows he's in it to make money, but is he in it to make money or is he just saying, hey, one day we'll just win by accident? I know, you know, I think that's unfair to Jerry a little bit, just because I don't think that it's not that he doesn't care about winning or he doesn't want to win. It's just he wants to do everything on his own terms. He wants to make sure he's doing it the way that he wants to do it. So he does want to win.
And I and I and I believe that as well. I just think that he wants it to be done on his terms, which is why, you know, he's he's the type of guy who, you know, parting ways with Jimmy Johnson after winning two Super Bowls. There's a reason why he did that. There's that ego in play. And I think that, you know, that that does come into play quite a bit.
Assad Youssef is here with us. You talk about being able to draft and develop. Dallas Cowboys are going to be selecting at number 12.
We started the conversation by talking about Deion Sanders and whether or not he would end up on the Cowboys. Is there any thought that the Cowboys would move up from 12 or do you think they're more likely to kind of stand back? No, I think they're most likely to to just stay put because they need all the draft picks that they have. I don't see a situation where they want to sacrifice that. They already gave up their fourth round pick at the trade deadline by acquiring Jonathan Mingo. And so, yeah, I think I think it's a situation where they will stand pat and and, you know, do do whatever is necessary and take the number 12 pick. Well, we mentioned quite a few coaches.
We're here in a month's time. What do you think is most likely to be the coach of the Cowboys, man? You know, if I'm being honest, I really think it's going to be one of the older guys.
I really think, you know, it's really close for me between that and Kellen Moore as an anomaly, as a standalone. But I'll say that, you know, I can see someone like Pete Carroll or Mike Zimmer taking over. And then you see someone like Jason Witten joining the staff as an assistant, kind of being groomed to be the next head coach. I can definitely see that scenario. At the same time, it wouldn't surprise me if Robert Salta got the job. It wouldn't surprise me if Kellen Moore did. The ones that I'm more kind of, you know, skeptical about is beyond getting the job. Jason Witten being handed the head coaching job. Ben Johnson getting the job. Those are the ones that would surprise me. But if you're asking me likelihood, I would say it's between the old guard and the guy that knows the building and that's Kellen Moore.
Well, the Dallas Cowboys certainly always keep things interesting and Jerry Jones always keeps people guessing up until the last minute. Asad, thank you so much for the time. Where can people follow you and all of your work with the athletic?
Yeah, just right there on the athletic. And then follow me on Twitter at asadusif126. Hey, appreciate your man. And you're always going to have a story, so I'm happy for you, Asad. You take it easy, OK?
All right, thank you. No doubt about it. That's Asad Youssef from the athletic. Yeah, he brings up an excellent point about how the Dallas Cowboys historically, Jerry Jones has typically gone the safe route, bringing in Mike McCarthy to replace Garrett, a guy who he knew. It just I guess if you're Jerry Jones, better safe than sorry. I mean, he can be quite bombastic when he's talking to the media, when he's communicating, telling people how he feels and what he thinks. But I guess I don't want to say slow and steady wins the race. I guess as long as the money keeps rolling in, I guess that's priority number one.
And I agree with Asad. He wants to win. I think a lot of people want to win, but it's how much you prioritize winning.
And it just seems like his ego has to get fed before anything else. I mean, we can go ahead and look at look at here's a great example. Look at Washington. Look at what the commanders have been able to do. Just what in the span of a of a year or two years since Dan Snyder would basically have to disappear off of planet Earth. Look at what a decent ownership group can do. Like there's actually there's actually enthusiasm when you think about the commanders. That wasn't the case.
If Dan Snyder was still there, I think people would still be miserable as hell. You still be a bunch of losers to eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven.
Still amazing. Washington got this far. Let's see what they do against those lines, though.
I'm not all that optimistic. We're going to take a break. And when we come back on the other side with all this contract talk, quarterback talk. Kevin O'Connell, the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, he spoke today. He discussed his own future in Minnesota as head coach of the Vikings.
And we all know Sam Darnold. What does his future look like after he basically stunk to conclude the season for the Vikings? Fourteen wins and what? Home. That's it.
What the hell is going to happen with Sam? We'll talk about this on the other side of the break. But right now, on the Infinity Sports Network, it is a newsflash.
Here it is. Rich Ackerman. You were listening to the J.R. sport brief class. What the hell did he get that from? Class, every shout outs to Alan from Toronto. I don't know where the hell he's at. What the hell you been, Alan? Probably driving all over America, either that he's frozen somewhere. I don't know where the man is.
Not in Canada, probably. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. Hey, thank you so much to Saad Youssef for joining us in the last break to talk about the Dallas Cowboys. He thinks that Jerry Jones is going to go with a safe option, that he's going to bring in an older fellow, a safer fellow. To run the team. It could certainly always be Deion Sanders, but older than him. Pete Carroll, maybe a younger guy who will fall in line. Kellen Moore. You missed that conversation.
Go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. A U D A C. Why all this contract talk? Somebody who talked about his his own contract and what he wants and what he wants to do. He is one of the best head coaches in the NFL.
And having met the guy and spent time around him one time doing some work with Special Olympics, I like him a lot. His name is Kevin O'Connell. I want to call this guy a quarterback whisperer, but I think that might be shortchanging who and what he is and what he's been able to accomplish so far in the NFL. I mean, since taking over this team.
Minnesota Vikings are not a joke. I mean, this guy just worked wonders with Sam Donald, who's basically been a journeyman. Sam Donald threw thirty five touchdowns this year for the Minnesota Vikings, helped them win 14 games. Had him right at the line competing for the division title with the Detroit Lions. And then Sam Donald sucked.
And then he stunk again. We saw it on Sunday. Excuse me, Monday night, embarrassing himself. Twenty seven to nine. Was the loss.
For the Minnesota Vikings and trying to win in the vision and avoid going on the road and all of this. They lost to the Lions annihilated. That was on a Sunday night. That was thirty one to nine.
And so it's one thing to surprise the living hell out of everybody. When it mattered the most. He shrunk. He stunk.
He fell apart. When it mattered the most, when the games mattered, the game to help you win at the vision. When the number one seed. Sam Donald turned back into a pumpkin. That's what we all thought.
I think for the most part, when is the bad version of Sam Donald going to pop up? He waited until the end of the year. And that's when he looked like he was a.
A New York jet. And so for a guy who was signed on a one year contract making 10 million dollars. I guess the hope and thought was exactly what took place. He was either a going to be a backup to J.J. McCarthy, who they just drafted. He was going to hold down the fort until J.J. McCarthy was ready to go.
Or he was going to take over if J.J. McCarthy got hurt. Well, he did get hurt. You got hurt before the season.
These guys had multiple surgeries on his knee repair, torn ligament in there. But now you got got months to go. We won't get NFL football again. At least the Vikings won't see NFL football until September.
It's nine months. They won't get to real training camp until July. We got time for J.J. McCarthy to get healthy and sitting around on the bench and taking in the playbook and learning a little from Kevin O'Connell. You would think that J.J. McCarthy would be ready to go next year. And so one of the major questions that Kevin O'Connell was asked today as he starts to wrap things up from this past season, which was a disappointment. Kevin O'Connell was asked, who the hell is going to be the starting quarterback?
Is it going to be Sam Darnold who disappointed last couple of games? Was it going to be J.J. McCarthy? Kevin O'Connell is a great communicator.
Listen to what he said. So I think it's just it's a remarkable thing to have all those guys in the room and how we build forward and how we put things together. As we move into the future, we'll be based upon what gives us the best chance to win.
What gives us the best chance to put the best version of the Minnesota Vikings football team on the field. And I think it's way too early to, you know, in that process to really identify exactly what that looks like. Yeah, it's too early.
They don't know. It's it's January. J.J. McCarthy has never played in an NFL game. And Sam Darnold historically beside this year has just been meh. He's been mediocre. The New York Jets picked him at third overall in 2018.
And it's the Jets. So, of course, he ended up being a disaster. Sucks for him. Had to go play for Carolina.
Think about that. Both him and Baker Mayfield on the team at the same damn time. Trying to figure out which one was going to be the worst of the worst. And now they actually are both good. Both made it to the postseason. Pretty good.
You can't answer that question. You would think the Minnesota Vikings would want to see what J.J. McCarthy has. If he's healthy, can you take the job from Sam Darnold?
Can you keep the job away? Do you want to give Sam Darnold a franchise tag and all of a sudden give him a raise just to see? Or does Sam Darnold, who basically destroyed his own his own marketplace by having two bad games in the most opportune spot? Is he going to get a better deal somewhere else? I think he might. I think he might. And if you're the Minnesota Vikings, you're just looking at another veteran QB to take you somewhere. Because Sam Darnold didn't help himself out. People were making jokes about how much money he lost by having two awful games when it mattered the most. Would you be surprised if, I don't know, one of these ass teams that are kind of middling for QB give him a deal?
I wouldn't be surprised. And speaking of deals, Kevin O'Connell, looking at the success that he had. People are saying that he needs a contract, that he may have to find a new deal somewhere else with another team.
Well, Kevin O'Connell put that to rest. He didn't say like Mike Tomlin, don't waste your time calling. He said, I spoke to ownership and I like it here. I love being the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. And with that becomes the fact that I love our ownership. I have a great relationship with our ownership and, you know, feel so fortunate.
Like I said, you know, not only just the way they support us and believe in us, but also, you know, the impact they have on our players, on our locker room and ultimately where we all want to go together. Feel very, very great about that. That man's in a good situation.
I wouldn't be moving here. He's not Sam Darnold, depending on what happens with Derek Carr's. Is Sam Darnold going to get a short term contract from the Saints? Is he going to hold things down for a little while in Tennessee? Sam Darnold, good for him.
He's he's what I'll call a transitional starter. At this stage, he's no different than Geno Smith. Who expected anything out of Geno Smith? I guess you've got to be a failed New York Jets quarterback to have some type of success elsewhere. But Geno, come on, Seahawks fans know that they ain't winning nothing with Geno. He's just there right now. He's a decent, solid starter.
He's getting paid some money. Man, in the NFL, you want to win big? You have to have a quarterback that takes you over the top. And so for the Minnesota Vikings, all this talk all over the NFL about coaches and who's going and who's coming and who's getting traded and who's going to play quarterback, who's getting drafted. Minnesota Vikings are still in a great space. You got a quarterback whisperer and a great head coach in Kevin O'Connell. And you got JJ McCarthy. Just hope that his knees hold up. All we heard all last year. Well, they didn't let him throw at Michigan. Wait until they let him throw in the NFL.
And all things considered, I think he would have took the job from Sam at some point. This flattened period. We'll see. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side of the break, we're going to talk about two teams. Well, they're still competing in the postseason. We're going to talk about the Philadelphia Eagles and the Los Angeles Rams. We had a team that just gave the Minnesota Vikings the boot. I'm also going to tell you about something positive. The fans in Philadelphia are actually doing all the negativity and foul words and obscenities. Philadelphians, some of them, can be some good people. I'll explain. More to go. This is the J.R. sport re-show coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
