It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in all over North America. It doesn't matter where you are.
It doesn't matter where you're at, no matter what you're doing. Thank you for tuning in. We'll be hanging out with you for the next three hours.
This show gets started every weekday, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. That means we've been here for an hour. You bet. Man, we've talked about March Madness. We're down to the Final Four in San Antonio this weekend. We talked some NFL football. We talked some baseball.
Yeah, we got some baseball updates for you in a second as well. Somebody just had a kid. Good for him.
Jerkson Profar didn't have a kid. He got suspended. 80 games for doing drugs.
Performance enhancing drugs. So he's going to be missing from the Braves for the next 80 games. It sucks for them. Hey, how about this? In about 20 minutes, we're going to have a chat with Joe Rexroad. And we want to talk some more college basketball with an expert.
Get into some more NFL action. We talked about New York Jets happy that Aaron Rodgers isn't there. No circus. And Kevin O'Connell gave a nice reason as to why the Vikings didn't bring the Aaron Rodgers circus to town.
They don't feel it's necessary. At least right now. So we got more to get into. You want to be a part of the show? You can. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We just talked about the New York Yankees and those funny looking bats. I wonder if I could hit a home run with that funny looking thing. I don't know.
Maybe not. We got a lot to do. You can find me online everywhere at JR Sport Brief. 888-710-4ISN. If you missed last hour, you can hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. Tune in on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. You got Sirius XM, Channel 375.
And if you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. Real simple. Hickey, we've learned that Francisco Lindor, thank God, he's not injured. His wife had a kid. Good for him, huh?
Very exciting times. And so I guess that's why he is no longer in the lineup today. He was out there with his family and just got back.
Very nice. So after you have a kid or his wife has a kid, does that mean he now has life in perspective? He's going to hit the baseball when he comes back now? I mean, you said it. I think you could be right.
Right. Maybe he was anxious because he was waiting for the baby. Can you blame him?
He's human, right? Maybe now all of a sudden he goes to the plate, clear mind. Met fans treated him like crap when he first got there. He starts the season slow and they were killing him. I feel like he started every season slow. And I mean, until last year, he was crapped on.
He's been an MVP candidate. What's wrong with your fellow New York Met fans? Why are they being jerks? There are always a few idiots that ruin it for everybody else. And the, as we call them here in New York, the Lindorcs that hated on him. Lindorcs?
Oh, yeah. A lot of Lindorcs. People that would just basically be 24-7 watching every move and waiting crap on him for saying that he's overpaid, not worth the money, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Maybe some night even Mets fan just trying to hoping that the Mets look bad.
Yeah, they were not kind early. But like you said, he's been killing it really ever since he got here for the most part. I mean, first year is not great, but he shot a lot of those Lindorcs up. OK. And he has a fancy new bat, too. So that he does. Watch out. Yeah. Watch out. Fancy Batman coming through.
All right. Good for him. Anyway, yeah, he's he's there. People love him.
This is actually hilarious. Hickey, you nailed this one last week. I got to get this out the way. Kevin Woolard, who was the head coach of Maryland. He is now the head coach of Villanova. He left. He left.
The man said, I'm out of here. Maryland beat Grand Canyon. We saw that amazing shot by Derek Queen beat Colorado State.
They lost to the Gators 87 to 71. I think I said Monday he would be in. Hickey, did you say Saturday or Sunday? Which day did you say? I think I said Saturday. So I was off.
And then we thought, well, by a day. This man is gone. They were booing him prior to his final game, and Kevin Woolard did all that whining and complaining about the resources and lack of resources that he got at Maryland. They pay too much attention to trying to build up the football.
But it's like, hey, we actually can win a national championship and y'all are taking a dump on us. And so we left. And he just wasted no time and letting people know that he was going to leave. And he ultimately did so.
I find it pretty hilarious. This man was just gone. And then I don't want to say he lied to anybody.
He did it. But when he got through the tournament is like, OK, this we need a separation. I want you to listen to this as CBS Sports HQ broke the news yesterday. We have breaking news out of college hoops where Villanova has hired Maryland's Kevin Willard as its next head coach. Willard spent the past three years in College Park leading the Terps to the Sweet 16 this season before losing to one seed Florida. Prior to that, Willard spent 12 seasons with Seton Hall, leading the Pirates to the NCAA tournament five times. He'll now return to the Big East, taking over a Villanova team that has not made the big dance since Jay Wright retired in 2022. And this is the part that really sucks about college basketball is that you can have success with a coach. And we heard Derek Queen say, hey, I play hard for the guy because he pays me.
You can have all of this success. And that's just blown, blown to shreds. The coach left. The players are going to leave. Guys are going to the pros.
He's going to Pennsylvania. Like, what are we doing? I'm supposed to be invested in this. I'm supposed to love every minute and second.
No, thank you. I mean, college basketball is a circus in and of itself. I mean, it's good you think about the games that we have this upcoming weekend. And we have some new coaches trying to build new dynasties. I don't think they're going to be running away. They're at a top in programs.
And then we have some other coaches. They're like the furniture at your grandma's house, like we mentioned last week. They're not going anywhere.
And if they are going anywhere, it's very likely that their next stop. His retirement. Hey, let's look at someone. Like Kelvin Sampson. Sixty nine years old. The man has been coaching at Houston since 2016. Since he got to the Cougars.
Love Cougars. This man has a winning percentage of 78 percent. This man just went to the Final Four a couple of years ago. Unfortunately for him, he lost the Baylor eventual champions.
He went again a long time ago, more than 20 years ago with Oklahoma. Kelvin Sampson is still searching for that first championship in the Cougars. They shoot threes. They play defense.
They stop you. Kelvin Sampson is a member of the old guard with these Houston Cougars. He's going to be taking on a young coach in John Shire and Duke, who's 38 years old, who's taken over for Coach K. Kelvin Sampson from yesterday.
He was asked just about the short time span going from sweet 16 to elite eight. Why? Why is this team so confident?
Only an older gentleman could explain why. Well, it wasn't the last 36 hours since June. And we don't we didn't get good last 36 hours. You know, it's you know, we just went through the Big 12 tournament, played three games there. I think I like about this team.
I don't think they overreact to anything good or bad. Yeah, this is wisdom. He's like, man, ain't nothing about no 36 hours and working on this since June. John Shire over at Duke.
And he's only been working on this now for three years. Coach K said, I'm gone. I'm not dealing with this NIL nonsense. I'm quitting. Go sit down with my kids, my grandkids. I'm going to do a podcast like all retired people do.
And I'm on my business. So John Shire here at 38 years old. Is going to lead the Duke Blue Devils against Kelvin Sampson. Well, John, you've never won a championship, obviously. Lost the North Carolina State trying to get to the championship last year.
Why you feel so good about what you got going with these Blue Devils today? We've always thought about doing things differently. I think the key to this team one is you bring in the right people as freshmen, but then you have great balance. You know, Tyrese is a junior, Caleb coming back, Seon, Mason, Malik. That that balance is huge.
And I think that was really important for us in the off season to add that. In addition to really mature freshmen who are loose, confident, competitive and not fazed by this environment. Man, Duke got money.
Is that is that good enough? Duke got money. They're always going to be able to attract people. They got a name. They got money, a name brand. It's probably the biggest program in all of college basketball.
They got money. And coming after Coach K, it doesn't hurt either, you know. John Shire never won a championship.
Probably never going to leave. Kelvin Sampson never won a championship. This is probably his last stop as a head coach. And then you got another older gentleman in Bruce Pearl.
He's 65 years old. This man has been all over coaching in Milwaukee, was at Tennessee, and now has been at Auburn since 2014. This man took Auburn to the Final Four in 2019, lost to the eventual eventual champs in Virginia. Bruce Pearl is trying to get that championship.
He's trying to cut down another net. Before it's too late, Bruce Pearl, he gave an explanation why his team has been successful. Auburn is a special place.
It is a very, very genius. It's a special place. I've liked every place I've lived. Okay, I've never liked any place more than I've liked Auburn.
And so that's how the program is where it's at because of this staff. I did not do it. Okay. Well, it's humble.
It's good. It has nothing to do with the fact that, you know, starting rotation is probably the oldest out of the Final Four guys that are remaining. Nothing to do with that. But Bruce Pearl here never won a championship. Not going anywhere. You know, you got Todd Golden.
I don't know. At some point in time, he may go somewhere coaching for the Gators. Last time they won a championship.
I remember this vividly. I mean, we had Corey Brewer and Joe Kim. Noah was out. Al Horford was still in college playing at that time. Billy Donovan. Hickey, one point in time, he was young. He still looks the same, doesn't he?
Right? He does. He's not really aged too much. You would think coaching the Chicago Bulls would age you, but I mean, damn, that's a loser team that does nothing. Great game against the Lakers last week.
But damn, that's a that's a team that would give you great. Billy Donovan looks good. Last the last time the Gators won a championship and Todd Golden, he's 39 years old. This guy, I feel like he was just playing at St. Mary's. He's three years here at Florida.
You want to know something? He never won a game in the tournament. Until this year, he could win a national championship without ever having won a tournament game until this tournament. Pretty crazy when you take a look at things. Todd Golden, I don't want to say he's excited just to be here, but he's like, you got to be kidding me.
That's what he told CBS Sports. It's crazy, to be honest. You know, yeah, I think if we would have said this at the beginning of the year, a lot of people would have laughed at us. You know that we would have been meeting in the final four.
Surreal. You know, as you know, Bruce is one of my mentors and his son Steven is one of my best friends. And I FaceTime with Steven last night after after they got the win, we were just sitting there shaking our head like, really? You know, we're meeting up again here in the final four.
Like, it's hard to believe. But I'm incredibly happy for them and just proud of the success that their programs had. And I know they feel the same way about us. And, you know, if you're going to if you're going to play somebody you care about, you might as well make it in the final four where at least one of you guys will have the opportunity to go win the national championship in the next game you play in. I said this early in the show, I think the Gators are going to advance. I think that they're going to look at Duke and I got Duke knocking off Florida.
It's my thoughts, Hickey, for like one day. I'm going to I'm going to find photos of me in Florida and act like I'm a Gators fan. Hey, that works. This is the time to jump on the bandwagon, right? Right. If I thought they were going to win. So I don't think they will. So I change my mind. I don't want to jump on a bandwagon of a team.
I think it's going to lose. Is that why you're not going Auburn as I've seen that? Auburn is Bay or Atlanta is like Auburn North. No, I don't do that.
No, no, no, no. I feel like there's more Bama out here than than Auburn. From what I see, just you'll see some more.
You'll see people walking more of the street. They got Alabama stuff on in Auburn. So.
We'll see. More Bulldogs, Bulldogs all the way. But that's even more local. But I digress. You get it. You know, I don't don't do no no Alabama nothing for me. Hey, you all Atlanta. OK. OK. OK. And let's let's get this guy on. We got to go to Baltimore before we get to Joe Rex Road from the athletic. I'm going to get his thoughts. Well, we got left here in college basketball, but let's talk to Sam. Sam, you're on the chair sport.
We show us on your mind. You're talking about Aaron Rodgers. I didn't realize somebody showed me his stats for the second half of the season. It looked like he had a fairly decent season, even though they didn't win many games.
But the problem with Aaron is he commands so much money and he really doesn't produce as far as wins. And I turned from the Ravens game to whatever was on CBS at the time. And they had like five minutes to go in a game and they announced that Aaron Rodgers had just took himself out of the game. The last game of the season. And they were losing.
They were being shut out. And Tyrod Taylor comes in now. Tyrod Taylor has been in the NFL for like 20 years or more because he was going to start for Baltimore and got got the flu.
Well, Sam, to not to not go too far out on a limb. Aaron Rodgers largest issue isn't so much that he demands a big old salary. The larger issue with Aaron Rodgers is that he demands a lot of attention that's unnecessary to winning, which is unfortunate. Well, and for him is one of the reasons why the New York Jets no longer want him.
It's a reason why the Packers were just like it's time to move on. The guy doesn't shut up. Do I think he has something left in the tank? I do.
But is the juice worth the squeeze? I think not. Let's see where he ends up. I think he's still likely to end up in Pittsburgh with the Steelers to kind of try to wind out his career on a high note. Thank you so much, Sam, for calling from Baltimore. It's the J.R. sport show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
We're going to take a break when we come back on the other side. It's time to have a chat with Joe Rex Road to talk all things college basketball and Final Four. He's joining us via the athletic.
Don't move. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief. It is the J.R. sport brief show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Man, we started off with sixty four or sixty eight teams. Now we're down to four. Starting this Saturday in San Antonio, Texas. This is going to be fun. We got Duke versus Houston.
We got Auburn versus Florida to talk about what we've seen, what we might see, what we can expect by the time we get to next Monday. Joining us right now is someone who covers all things college basketball. His name is Joe Rex Road.
Joining us courtesy of the athletic. Joe, how are you? I'm doing great, J.R. How are you?
I'm very well. Thank you again for taking the time to come on through and join us. We got four number ones here. This is the first time we've seen this since 2008. Are you surprised that the best of the best came through and that there are no surprises?
Oh, no. Although, you know, you figure maybe one of the twos or threes gets through. You know, obviously, I mean, you don't expect all one. Because like you said, I mean, since CD began in nineteen seventy nine, we've had that one time that was in in our way, which, of course, ended with the wild title game with Kansas coming back to beat Memphis in that game.
But Mario Chalmers three. But, you know, you expect I'm not surprised it's a chalky tournament. And I do think that there's the possibility of that becomes more the norm. Some people are freaking out about that.
I don't think that we've lost Cinderella altogether. But I think that, you know, there are some some I think there are some things that are going to make it more difficult. I mean, I think it's it's hard not to see those. But, yeah, I mean, the fact that we have all ones, you don't expect that in a given year.
But I will say, I mean, these ones are just I mean, they were so impressive. They are, I think, the clear four best teams. You know, only one of those four elite eight games.
J.R. was really, really a great game. Michigan State. I mean, I guess with Auburn.
But really, the one great game was Texas Tech, Florida. And, you know, if you go with the Ken Palm ratings, which he's been doing since ninety six, ninety seven, these four teams are among the 10 most efficient teams since that time, since the ninety six, ninety seven season. So this really is a loaded final four. No doubt about that.
Joe Rex wrote here with us from the Athletic. When you talk about being loaded, Duke was a favorite to get here from the onset and from the get go. Any changes in your mindset after having seen them play even on a quote unquote bad game, but still all around great game from Cooper Flack?
Yeah, I like it more than I did before the tournament. The hard part with Duke for me, J.R., was like they just didn't they didn't have a lot of great games this year because the ACC was so down. They lost the one game at Clemson. They weren't in a lot of close games. So even though the collection of talent was impressive and they did some good things and I think they beat Auburn, you know, they lost a couple of tough ones in there, too. But, you know, I was very curious to see if they'd be as dominant in this tournament as at times they have looked. And they've just been tremendous.
Cooper Flack, like you said, he has a down game of 16 and eight, you know, and three assists or whatever and all over the place as a defender. But what you what you've seen from Duke to me is my watch and and and Knipple and Proctor Mills. Three guys are just in their different ways are are just right now playing at such a high level. And then you have, you know, see on James and you have and you have, you know, Mason Gillis coming off the bench so much depth, length, talent. And I just think John Shire has done a tremendous job to what they did against Alabama and Mark Sears after Alabama put 113 on BYU.
You kind of figured they wouldn't have the same kind of shooting. But I just thought Duke's plan was tremendous. So, yeah, I just I think Duke is the favorite. I think Duke is the best team and it's going to take a tremendous effort from someone to knock them out. Well, the team that they're going to take on Houston is is the best defensive team in the country. I think Duke is putting up about 91 a game. Meanwhile, you got Houston holding teams to about, you know, 56. We know that they're going to go out there and try to knock down those threes. How can Houston overcome this? So they're going to have to have an Alabama like historical performance and not Alabama in the loss, but the victory.
Yeah, I'm so excited for this game. There are it's it's it's just a tremendous and I almost not to discount the SEC. The SEC has had an incredible year and they've got the other two teams. And I think that they backed up their dominant season. But I almost look at Duke Houston as a national championship game. Like you said, Houston, the best defense, Duke, the best offense. And it's, you know, watching what Houston did to Tennessee yesterday. Tennessee is not, you know, Tennessee is also an elite defensive team, not not a great offensive team. But still, it's like you're talking about a team that's like 17th in efficiency in the country and set some very good games offensively. And they just couldn't do anything against that team. Very different situation going against Duke.
But I think if they can figure out Cooper flag, which I know that's, you know, easier said than done. That's the one matchup that I think is kind of an issue for Houston. But the way they help the length and, you know, they're so strong, too.
You know, they're so strong, they're so great at getting in the gaps and just contesting everything and being so physical. So I think that they're going to have the pace more the way they want it. And of course, you would also expect in San Antonio, one of those two SEC teams is going to win. So their fans will be there cheering for Duke to lose. Right. And then you've got what you would think would be all the all the Houston fans in San Antonio.
So I think there are some factors that could really make this a classic. Joe Rexroad is joining us from the athletic. You talk about those two SEC teams. We saw a historic season out of the SEC from probably the best conference performance ever when it comes down to college basketball.
Yeah, we got Auburn and Florida who are left here. Why do you think that was the case this year? Is it a matter of the kind of the football programs, having money, being able to help out?
Why do you think this is the case? Well, this is kind of a almost decade long story for the SEC. You know, they hired Mike Traneasy to come in and, you know, formerly the Big East to help them kind of just figure out basketball. You know, if you remember, you know, 10 years ago, SEC was getting like three programs and it was Kentucky. Kentucky was great under John Calipari. And then, you know, Florida was kind of down. Billy Donovan left. They just really had nothing going on.
So they did a lot of things. But the biggest thing was you guys have got to invest more and you've got to hire better coaches. And so you see so you see Auburn gets. I think we might have dropped. We might have lost Joe there. I think Joe's gone. Hey, Joe, did Joe drop off or did I fall off the face of the earth? Oh, boy. I think Jay, I might have fallen off the face of the earth. Here he is.
Hey, Joe, you there? Hey, yeah, I don't know what happened there. Sorry about that.
No, it's all good. Sometimes I'm known to talk too much and I get the boot. So I had to think about that for a second. So I was just yeah, I was just saying the SEC, you know, they they they really went through a they really went through a league wide examination of why basketball is so bad. And they came away with you got to invest more money, you got to hire better coaches. So you've got Bruce Pearl at Auburn and Rick Barnes at Tennessee and you got Chris Beard at Ole Miss. And, you know, Mike White is I mean, there's a lot of good coaches.
Now you have Todd Golden, of course, at Florida, NATO. I mean, there's a lot of really good hires that have happened. And so I think to your point, yeah, I mean, money is a big part of it. I think that, you know, these these schools have a ton of money.
They have the resources. We know that, you know, the collectives and, you know, paying players, you got to have you got to be able to be competitive in that way. But I also think it's very good coaching. And then you've just had some teams that have been able to stay old, like Auburn. You know, very old team that have stayed together, you know, and you think about even before this, they're like those Villanova teams that had all those old players who played several years together. You know, that's what we're of a certain age where, you know, we remember college basketball teams when they would kind of grow together and get better year after year.
And it's obviously a lot different now. But when you can get that and some of these SEC teams have had that dynamic, then you obviously will benefit from that, too. So, you know, I think this is the culmination. I don't know that this continues at this level. I think it'll be a very good league. You think about it moving forward. You know, they've got revenue sharing and some of these other leagues don't have football.
So they don't have football to worry about. Right. Whereas the SEC, like the SEC football teams are going to get their cut, you know, a big cut of the revenue sharing. So does that make it go down a little bit moving forward? It'll be interesting to see. But do you think at any point in time that we'll get a little bit more stability?
Of course, the transfer portal and NIL is not going anywhere. But can we get to a point where we can get a coach in for four or five years, 10 years and get some players to stick around for a couple of years as well? They can't be the everybody move around every year. It can't be that way. Right. Yeah. Well, I think that I think one big thing there is can you get to the point where it is more like you have multi-year contracts? You know, I mean, and I think that then you get into labor and collective bargaining, which some people really don't want.
But I mean, that to me is is how you get that stability. I mean, you still do have some programs. You know, Purdue was in the Sweet 16. They had all their all their players who started with the program. Like, you know, we're all the starters were guys who started Purdue, Michigan State. Four of their five were players who started me say there are still some programs who have more. I mean, Houston, most of Houston has been there the whole time, you know. So you do have that some. But to your point, you've also got some of these.
I mean, you know, like Florida and some of these other schools that are really good have just been it's been very much built by the portal. But yeah, I think I think it's better for the game at some point and for fandom to be able to have some consistency, to know what year after year you have some of the same guys you're rooting for. I think that would be I think for the big picture of the sport, it's important to find that stability one way or the other.
Yeah. Sign sign me up. I'm going to be paying attention to the games on Saturday. I'm going to be watching, obviously, on Monday.
Like you, I'm looking at Duke to walk away as as champs. And I think one guy who won't be moving away from his job at any point is John Shire. The Joe, I don't I don't see him going anywhere else was there for him to go, right?
Well, exactly. You talk about a big task, trying to follow Mike. Your chefs get Duke. And I got to say, you know, I covered the Tennessee Duke game a couple of years ago on the sweet 16 when they lost.
I was like, man, this is just such a tough job trying to follow your chefs. You know, but then they get to then the lead eight last year. They lose NC State and, you know, D.J.
Burns and that kind of, you know, Cinderella run for them. But for him to just keep getting better each year to have this team, it's awfully impressive. I mean, look, you have advantages at Duke that you can argue no other place has or at least a very small number of schools can claim. Right. But it still can't be easy at all to follow your mentor and arguably the best coach or certainly one of the best two or three coaches of all time. So you got to be impressed with what he's done.
And without a shadow of a doubt. Hey, Joe, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. We'll see what takes place over the weekend and on Monday.
Where can people follow you in all of your work? Well, thanks. Yeah. At Joe Rex Road on X and, you know, the athletic dot com is where all of our coverage is. And I'll be in a lot of us will be down in San Antonio this weekend providing coverage. And no doubt about it. Hey, enjoy some of that good old food down there. Bring some back up if you pass through Atlanta on the way to Tennessee.
Bring bring some back. OK. All right. I got you.
Thanks. No doubt about it. Always a pleasure having a chat with Joe Rex Road covers all things college basketball. He's looking at Duke to win like me and a whole lot of other people.
It's the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. Joe made a good point. We know how important it is that you've got to have great coaching at every level.
But at college, that that's your one stability point. You look at the players who come in there, there for a year, two years, if that they're in, they're out. You want to have stability at the coaching spot if you want to have any type of success.
It's the JR Sportbreeze show, the infinity sports network. When we come back. Speaking of coaching, how about this?
Who would have thought? Andrew Luck, former NFL quarterback, is reconnecting with his former NFL coach and Frank Reich. I'm going to tell you where they're reconnecting and why they're reconnecting.
We'll get into that on the other side of the break. Speaking of quarterbacks, this guy still plays in the NFL. He's looking for some more money. Maybe his name is Lamar Jackson. And then Brock Purdy. Well, it's about time for that guy to get paid.
He's like the NFL's biggest discount. We're going to talk some quarterbacks on the other side of the break. You're listening to the JR Sportbreeze. It is the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. Thank you so much to Joe Rex Road for joining us to talk some college basketball. In the last break, if you missed that conversation, go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app.
He came through courtesy of the athletic. If you want to talk to us, you want to talk to me? You want to talk to him? You want to talk to the country? You want to talk to North America? You can do that, too. The phone number here is 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Whether you love Duke. Whether you hate Duke. You just got to you got to ride the wave. You got to ride the train.
You got to get on board. It'd be a surprise if the Blue Devils aren't national champions next Monday night. It'll be a surprise if they don't win the championship. And then Cooper Flag is selected number one overall in the upcoming NBA draft. Like I'm already thinking about the NBA draft. I'm like, where's Cooper Flag going to end up?
What miserable ass team is he going to have to try to help go out there and elevate? We'll find out. We'll see soon enough. Hickey, this man is going to end up in D.C., watch, just being he's going to be miserable somewhere, right? Is that the worst case? Oh, my God. Well, they need they need it like doesn't the worst case team need the best guy, right? Yes.
Yes, you're right. Worst case, I guess, in terms of like buzz, excitement or maybe his career would go to die. Bro, I mean, the Wizards have been so bad for so long. Aren't they deserving of someone who can actually kind of right the ship, like not somebody who's going to be there and then, you know, kind of flame out?
Like, let's think about some of the stars, not necessarily drafted, but guys who are expected to turn them around. Gilbert Arenas was supposed to help him and he was playing with guns, right? We had Juwan Howard, who popped up for a while. You got John Wall, who got hurt. Bradley Beal, who got hurt.
I don't know, maybe they deserve a Cooper flag. And I believe Alex Sar has been playing better as of late as well. OK, so you're saying it's not hopeless there if he goes to D.C. It's worst case scenario. Yes, I think so.
But not hopeless. Maybe because of him. OK. They got some good young talent.
I don't know. D.C. deserves better from a basketball standpoint. They got Washington. They got them good.
Everybody's looking at Ovechkin right now. At least they won, you know, the Stanley Cup. What at this point? Damn. Damn, when the Caps win?
Let me see. 2017? Is it a decade almost already? Damn. It's getting close. Oh, my God.
I'm doing math. Hickey, I still feel like I'm in pandemic era, OK? I still remember when they were celebrating in the streams in the city, swimming around. That was a well-documented celebration the Capitals had. What do you mean, the stream? You know, cities have fountains. Not the stream.
That was a bad choice of words. The fountains. Right, right. Like, I think it's like maybe like a Nats game they went to, like where they're honored and like after the game, like there's like video of them in downtown, like swimming in like the fountains in the city. Oh, my God. There's people swimming in the fountains in D.C. right now. I don't think it has anything to do with a championship celebration.
I would agree with that. Oh, man. Hickey, I go a couple of times a year, man. I just pop up and pop out in D.C. I feel like I was there, I don't know, in the wintertime for something. I don't know. Every time I go back, I'm just, uh, nothing surprises me anymore. I'm like, these people live outside the White House, too? Like people, I guess, right?
No city is exempt. Shout out to everybody out there just trying to make ends meet. Anyway, I did tell you before we went to break, as we talked about the importance of coaches and Joe Rexroad had brought up all the Final Four coaches, how good they are. This is a wild story. I don't. Maybe it's not wild.
It is certainly interesting. Andrew Luck, who decided to retire from the NFL because of the beating that he took. And I guess also the fact that he's a very smart individually smart enough not to take a beating. He quit. He's now the general manager for Stanford football. And apparently he's the only general manager, the college level and all of sports, college sports, I should say. That has final say over the coach, like he's not just some guy out here trying to find money and sponsorships and, you know, shake hands and kiss babies and try to take people's wallets and dig in their wallets. He's actually in charge of the coaching coaching search. And we heard and we learned that they had to fire their recent head coach, Troy Taylor, because of investigations.
And now he spoke to women and they got him the hell up on out of there. Keep in mind tomorrow and yet really keep in mind tomorrow is April 1st. It's April Fool's Day. There's gonna be a lot of jokes.
People are gonna be saying stupid stuff. Don't expect any jokes here from me. You got a joke planned for tomorrow.
Should I know about anything? No, sir. I'm not funny to begin with, so I won't try tomorrow. I ain't got no jokes either. Don't expect jokes on the J.R. sport reshow. Pretty sure we'll get some stupid stories all throughout the course of tomorrow. So just beware.
But keep in mind, it's April 1st tomorrow. And this team, Stanford did not have a head coach. Until earlier today, apparently. Andrew Luck decided to bring in someone who used to coach him for the Indianapolis Colts. I want you to take a listen to this breaking news as it came through earlier today from CBS Sports. We've got breaking news out of college football. Stanford is hiring Frank Reich as their interim head coach.
That's the latest from our Matt Zenitz. He'll replace Troy Taylor, who was fired after two seasons amidst allegations that he mistreated staff. ESPN reporting that Reich will serve as the team's interim head coach for just one season in 2025. The former Colts and Panthers head coach was hired by Cardinal General Manager Andrew Luck, who, of course, overlapped in the NFL with one season in Indy back in 2018.
Oh, that's not bad. Andrew Luck basically got himself a babysitter. That's what happened. Andrew Luck is just like, listen, man, this March is April. Where the hell am I going to get a coach? He called in his old buddy. He said, I need you to watch this team for a year and only a year. And then we're going to move on.
And that's not to say that he's not going to stick around. Just need somebody to do the job. It's like calling up that one friend when you need something moved. It's like, who the hell can I call? Well, that guy, he can come do it.
Currently unemployed, maybe he can come through and just help me move my couch. That's what Frank Reich is doing right now for Andrew Luck. And last time we saw Frank Reich, man, this poor guy was trying to coach the Carolina Panthers a couple of years ago. He didn't even make it through the season. A record of one in 10 before David Tepper just said, I just just leave.
Just go away. And so good luck to Frank Reich as he tries to figure things out at Stanford and to Andrew Luck as well. He ain't going anywhere.
You see that guy never quitting that job. And then also speaking of of coaches, how about this? John Harbaugh, the man who recently got a three year contract extension from the Baltimore Ravens? I know some fans were like, why are we still giving this guy an extension when we can't get past the Bills or the Chiefs? Well, it looks like they're going to be keeping their quarterback around as well. Lamar Jackson, we know he is not going anywhere. The Ravens would be stupid to get rid of him. Well, apparently the Baltimore Ravens are also looking at giving Lamar Jackson a contract extension so he could be paid commensurate with the top quarterbacks in the game.
Even though he's still making fifty two million dollars. John Harbaugh talked about this earlier today. Listen, there's been conversations about that internally. I know how far along that is or whatever.
I don't know. But I definitely think it's an obvious point that you're making. That's that's that's going to continue to have to be addressed really with all those guys. I mean, he's got to kind of manage that dance salary cap dance. And Lamar is the main part of that because he's the franchise. But when the market's paid, he's going to be the highest paid player in football. You know, just like he was last time. I think every contract he signs, probably until he decides to hang up his cleats, he's going to be that guy.
Yeah, come on, man. You think about Dak Prescott now getting 60 million dollars a year. Lamar is making 52 a year. Josh Allen gave his team a little bit of a discount.
He's like he's gone from 43 mil a year to 55 a year. It's Lamar going to give the Ravens a discount. Is he going to go out there and break the bank? We'll find out soon enough.
Lamar Jackson only paid 52 a year. He's like, that can't make more money than me. We'll see how this goes. Leave some money on the table, man. Try to get some help.
You need it. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break when we come back. Speaking of quarterbacks, Lamar Jackson, multiple time MVP, not a mistake. There's a team in his division, the Browns, the Haslems. They've admitted to a massive mistake with their quarterback. This is something you rarely hear. I'm going to tell you about it on the other side. It's the JR Sport Reshow. Don't move.
