The Rundown with Desmond Johnson - AB is Running out of Teams

Everything you You know will change. Like to have everybody's attention for a moment. You the man.

Now what's that mean? You the man.

And now, ladies and gentlemen...

Well now, all of a sudden, you're stepping up to the next level of competition. All right, all right, all right, all right, listen up, listen up. Welcome to the rundown. Here's Desmond Johnson. What's going on, Triad?

It's sorta it sorta fall outside. It was uh it was eighty it was What, in the 50s last night I believe, when we went to go check out Easterside. But uh Fall is over because it's going to be 85 degrees outside today.

So, hope you got your shorts on. Enjoy this. Carolina's second summer, I guess is what we started calling it. Welcome to the Ruddown. I'm your host, Desmond Johnson.

I'm joined by John Oshaski, aka Johnny O, Rod Funderberg, and Brandon Blakeney. You'll hear from them in just a moment. Aaron Gabriel's in our house, manning our social media. Plus, He is on our board today.

Sorry, Dylan is off. 336-777-1600 is the number to call to chime in on any of our topics today. Let's go ahead and get started. Let's get into the Twitter poll question for today. First, let me just make sure.

Did we get the Twitter poll question up this morning? Aaron, is that up or no? I'm about to fire that off right now. Twitter poll question for today is Which player in their prime would you pick? First, if you were starting an NBA team, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neill, LeBron James or Kevin Durant.

And we'll actually chop that up, the four of us, in the second hour.

So definitely stay tuned for that. That should be a very interesting conversation. You can hit us up on Twitter at SportsHub Triad or at Sports Carolina One for any of the topics that you want to chime in on that we're going to hit today. Loaded Saturday morning here, guys. As we do during high school football season, we typically start off with a high school football rundown to get you caught up on what happened last night around the triad.

There were a lot of teams that had bye weeks last night, but a lot of teams asserted their dominance and are making their presence known in what's become our top five countdown powered by SportsCarolinamonthly.com for the week of September 20th, 2019. Scheduled to arrive, the number of the day is. Five top five top five number five Fine. Top five countdown powered by SportsCarolinaMonthly.com. This is week.

Five. Wow, we're already five weeks into the high school football season, man. And there's a number of teams that are starting to stake their claims as teams that can actually compete for state championships, I believe, in December this year. Brandon, I know that you were out at a game that consisted of our beginning of our countdown here, and that's going to be at number. I know at this point is when you say number one, no, or five, there you go, yeah, but uh, yeah, so five there you go, so five number five, the uh, the Dudley Panthers.

Uh, Brandon, you were out at uh, it was Dudley in Southeast Guilford. I'm out. Yeah, man, very physical games. You got Dudley's massive defensive line, uh, Miles Murphy on the end, North Carolina commit, four-star recruit. You got Peyton Page, who is actually the number one defensive tackle right now in the nation.

Has Clemson, has Georgia, has Bama calling. Kid is massive. He's number five in the 2020 class right now in the nation, number five player. Um, those guys, we have it. Good linebackers, they're fast.

Shut Southeast out last night 24-0. And they got Mike Wyman, the USC commit at wide receiver. Need to do a little better job getting the ball, but that defense is stout, fellas. It looked like from the. The highlights that I saw last night when I got home.

It looks like the quarterback for Dudley Slade that he's actually starting to get more comfortable in throwing the ball a little bit. And he's a sophomore. They let him move around a lot. And I think having that massive defensive front to plug up everything is going to help that offense come along. The run game and the defense is your best friend as a young quarterback, as you guys know.

So Dudley moves to 4-1 on the season, 23-0 winners over Southeast. Guilford. Four-game winning streak.

So, ever since they lost that opener to West for Scythebout and Clemens in a big way, and actually dropped him out of this top five for a couple of weeks. Reappearance into the countdown at number five. Number four making their first appearance in the countdown this year, Grimsley, the Grimsley Whirlies. 5-0 on the season. They were big winners last night.

They defeated. Who do they play? I'm sorry. Uh, Smith. I'm sorry.

49-7. Big winners over Smith out in Greensboro. You guys get to see them next week, right? Uh, week after, actually. Uh, and actually, it won't be you guys, it'll be you.

Oh, because uh, oh, because Rod is out that game, it's gonna be me and you take uh East for Scythe versus Grimsley. That's in two weeks because East for Scythe's on a buy next week.

Okay, I don't know if Grimsley plays next week, and I need to check that because I want to see Undefeated 2. Matter of fact, East for Scythe's got a Murder's Row coming up. They got Grimsley that week, and then they got West for Scythe coming to Cartersville the week after that.

So, they'll have two undefeated teams potentially. To go through.

So, if East makes it through that stretch, I don't see how anybody can really dispute what they're doing right now. We'll talk about them in a second. I think since I'm the Greensboro boy, I might jump on that Grimsley banner right now. The workies are whirling right now. I'm telling you, it's a good thing.

It used to be Paige, now it's Grimsley. Chris Zellis, the quarterback over at Grimsley, I remember seeing him as a freshman calling at Grimsley Eastern Guilford game at Jameson Stadium probably, well, about three years ago. And it's crazy to see what Coach Brown has done over at Grimsley. Like, he's literally took a program and just built it brick by brick. Last year, they were they finished seven and six.

They end up losing to East for Scythe in the 4-A playoffs in Kernersville. No shame in that, but Coach Woolert had mentioned to me and Rod numerous times that Grimsley is a team to look out for going forward. And they make their first appearance in the top five this morning. Number three. West for Scythe.

Locked in at number three. One big again last night over Mount Tabor, 28-0. And I think they got one of the best running backs in the state in Jamani Wilson, aka G money. Kid is tough. Already got a few scholarship offers as well.

He was named to the Shrine Bowl this week as well.

So West for Scythe still rolling, and they've got some good wins on their resume, including over our current number five, Dudley, the first week of the season. And they destroyed Dudley that week, but too. I mean, that was a weird week where we had weather delays. They played for a little bit, had lightning, so they had to play like the next day. And it was a weird week.

So I can't put too much on Dudley for that. Plus, they were on the road to go to Clemens to play West. That's a tough environment. Yeah.

Now, West, like I said, they've got a showdown with East for Scythe coming up in a couple of weeks. They've got two of the biggest offensive lines, too. We talked about East's deep offensive line. Every week we see East for Scythe from the press box, and we're watching them. And we're just like, why are these kids so large?

Like, they're huge. Bigger Hillsborough College. Hazel. Small to them last night, which is weird to say. But again, we'll get to East here in just a second.

But West is in the number three slot. They've been locked at number three for the past couple of weeks because the two teams ahead of them, and they don't look like they're slowing down anytime soon. Two. Number two is the Reidsville Rams. They didn't score 70.

That's been our running joke every week with them, but they tried 59 to 16 winners last night. They ruined their average. And I will say, this fellas, that was arguably their toughest test so far in Eastern Guilford, yeah. Mel Smith, 6'4, junior quarterback. Has already been max player of the week, max preps player of the week twice early on.

Very underrated passer. They, um,. I'm running out of things to say about Reidsville. Like, they're locked in number two because of who's at number one, but. They just go out.

It seems like they've got more talent than anybody at any classification in the area. They're so loaded, and those guys are versatile. You got Demontres Canada who can play running back, receiver. Breon Pass. Breon Pass plays everywhere.

Four-star athletes. Got the NC State offer, a few ACCs. Quarterback's pretty good. Al Pennix. Do they have like a.

Uh what do you call it? Middle school. Oh, Jason. Oh, yeah.

So, well, how Reidsville works is you know how they have the Little League ranks. The Pop Warner team in Reidsville is running the same system as the high school. They just come up and those kids are 10 already knowing what's going on by the time they get together. That's great. Yeah, it's a pipeline.

They got it figured out. That's kind of the way. I mean, and I talked about this the other night when we were watching a football game. Like, there's certain schools that have great years, and then there's certain schools that have great programs. And, like, the teams that have great years, they usually have seniors and skilled positions.

They've been there for four years. They graduate, move on, and then the team takes a hit and they go back. There's teams in this area that never go back. They just. They're just constantly feeding this animal they've built.

And it's like, how did they get bigger than last year? How did they get faster than last year? It seems like last year was the year to beat these guys.

Now they're looking for a three-peat in the state championship. I think someone said they haven't lost in like 1,400 days or something crazy. That's scary, dude.

So they're 5-0. They haven't lost in like three years. And their closest scare was against that Northeastern team in the state championship last year. But they aren't number one because. Number one is still the East for Scythe Eagles.

5-0. A dominating performance last night. Me and Rod went out to watch the game. We had some technical difficulties, so we couldn't bring it to the triad.

However, We were at the game, Rod, 43-7 winners over the Page Pirates. And you, I know you remember back in the days when both East for Scythe and Page were in the Metro 4A conference together, and it was a huge rivalry.

Now, I think it's still a rivalry, but last night, I think there was a clear difference in. Who was the better team on the field last night? Oh, yeah, clear difference in talent. I mean, Easter Scythe has it. Matter of fact, I mean, no, no.

Easter Scythe, man, they learned absolutely nothing about themselves last night. And what I mean by that is they play together well. They go out there, they will hit you in the mouth. Whether it's on a line of scrimmage, whether it's a linebacker's coming from around the end on a linebacker blitz and crushing a 218-pound quarterback. Doesn't matter.

They learn nothing about themselves because they still will dominate. I mean, period. Easter Cypher's got it going on. They do what they do and they did it last night. When we were watching them last night, it just felt inevitable that they were going to get to the score they got to because I told Raw, I was like, I'm leaving at halftime.

I know homecoming and all this stuff. I'm going home and try to rest for a little bit. They, East and maybe, maybe Reedsville are probably the only two teams I could say in our top five right now where they can have a bad game and still win the game. Like, East had a bad game against Mount Tabor. They had a bunch of turnovers, over 1,80 yards and penalties or something like that.

And they still won the game pretty comfortably, like 24-9 or whatever. Yeah, they won the game 24-9, five turnovers. I think it was 165 yards and penalties. It was something ridiculous. I will say, though, last year, I think they looked a little more balanced.

Early on, I know it's early, but the quarterback Tyla had a good game last year. Yeah, he did. I was going to say he looked a lot better than he has been looking. That's the scary thing because they've been averaging almost 300 yards on the ground rushing because they're all throwing. And they still got the kids at receivers that are some really good, talented passports.

You took some stats from last night, didn't you? I took a few stats last night. I don't have them in front of me right now because in order to hear the stats that I take, you must tune in to our podcast. With coach Todd Willard.

So, if you want to hear those stats, then you have to make sure that you listen in to that podcast and we'll have it for you. It'll be out next week.

Now, should East better bring their A game when they play West? Oh, they better bring A game game. They better not look ahead to West. They fixed Grimsley the week before Charlie Grimshaw.

Well, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what, West is definitely looking ahead. To uh East for Scythe. Reason why I say that, I had an opportunity to play a little golf on Wednesday, and uh, there was a gentleman by the name of James Gordon. His son plays for the West for Scythe Titans defensive back, and he said all his son was and the rest of West for Scythe's team has been talking about all year is they can't wait to get their hands on East for Scythe.

And I told him on the golf course, I said, you better be careful what you ask for. That's what I'm saying. But you just gave me a shot. Because you just might get it. They're going to get it.

Oh, my gosh.

So that seat, I'm here for all the smoke. I'm going to want all the smoke because that's we've been all we've wanted all year because we thought Easton Parkland was going to be a good back and forth game. I hate that Camian Schell. I'm not going to say that they would have won with him, but the complexion of the game could have been different because that offense for Parkland is not nearly what it is without Camian Schell. I thought that until I saw Page against them last night because, you know, they got Javandre Page and he's similar to Camian Shell, except he's bigger.

He's 6'215. He's a solidly built young man. Man, and yeah, yeah, and he's talented. And East would not, they just were not having it last night. Like, he couldn't get out of the way of the pocket, he couldn't get past the line of scrimmage.

Paige was just going side to side, they couldn't go forward with it. And East does this to everyone. Like, they're got, they've gotten to a point where they're you can see their confidence level on the field, like. And they told us, they told us during the podcast last week: they go into every game, no matter who it is, thinking we're supposed to win this game. If we do what we do, don't turn the ball over, run the ball, stop the run, all the basic stuff that every football coach should be teaching their football teams.

If they do that, it's kind of like the Patriots way. They just do their jobs, they're supposed to win the game.

So they're out here looking for competition at this point, and they're about to get it. Oh, yeah.

Grimsley and Wes back to back in a couple of weeks, and they got to buy right now. I think Wes is kind of similarly built to East. I've called images. That's what I call them both. They both depend on the run games.

Jimani and Amani are definitely two of the best running backs around the chart. Shrine Bowl participants. Yeah, not even close. Armani scored last night a couple times. Ty scored a couple.

Ty had a nice couple of times. Not only did Armani score on the ground, but Armani scored in the air. Oh, he threw one?

Well, he caught one. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

He's versatile, man. I think that's a huge get for Wake Forrest. Yeah, Wake's going to love having him. And you know what Wake will do? He basically won't play freshman year and they'll just get him bigger.

And he's already, what, like six foot 200? He's 205. Oh, he's still growing into his man body. You see his dad. His dad was the bodybuilder.

He knows his dad. He's a big dude. Yeah, his dad was like Big Brother growing up, but his dad was 225 pounds in high school. But you see Kay Carney. You know, Kay Carney's not at weight, though, so there's not really a power back.

Me and Chris Lee were talking from WXI. I was thinking maybe he could see some snaps freshman year because they don't have that power back. It's really with Christian Beale and the young freshman they got now. They're both speedbacks. You're right.

Kay Carney's gone, so it's open for that short yardage opportunity. We'll see. And Amani's in a physical condition to come in there and do it. And I love the fact that he's humble. Like he's really good.

He's extremely humble with what he does. But that's your top five countdown power by Sports Carolina Monthly for the week of September 20th. Real quick, before we get into this break here in a couple of minutes, I wanted to touch on some news that dropped down yesterday. And that's, excuse me, that's regarding Kansas. On Friday, the Kansas City Star reported the NCAA is preparing to issue a notice of allegations that details multiple.

Multiple major violations in the Kansas men's basketball program. The notice will come after a summer of speculation following a top NCAA official saying the organization would make findings against schools involved in a pay-for-play recruiting scheme investigated by the FBI. The SPN recently reported the NCAA. Investigators, in addition to NC State, were working on cases at Kansas, Arizona, Auburn, Creighton, Louisville, LSU, and USC. When a school such as Kansas receives a notice of allegations, the university has 90 days to respond, and the NCAA has granted extensions to schools in the past.

Real quick, guys, do you think Kansas is going to get anything off of this? Or this is basically the same situation NC State. Basically, he has been accused of paying $75,000 to Dennis Smith Jr. when he was in school. I think he could have got more if Markel Foltz got $100,000.

I'm just saying. I think they lost a lot of money. $7,000 a lot. I think Kansas will get something, but it won't be this coming season because it's just going to keep getting extended. They got 90 days, and then they might get an extension, and then they reply back, and then it goes back and forth.

And you guys know from when North Carolina was doing that, it lasted a while. And they just shifted the blame to other programs because I know the women's soccer team and what the football team took the hit.

Well, women's soccer and women's basketball. Women's basketball teams. In this particular case right here, the representative for Adidas was the one who actually got caught and he even testified in court. About the amount of money he spent over $85,000 paying different players' parents and guardians. And he also brought up.

text messages that self hit between him and self. Those text messages were not released to the public yet.

So that's going to make the difference, I believe, in how stiff of a penalty Kansas will get hit with. Because they said there it's Clear as day that Self knew about it based upon the exchange of conversation in the text message. That's going to be like a patino case, then. I hope not. All of a sudden, Self is just going to be let go.

I think they probably lose some scholarships for sure, depending on how bad it is. They're going to be penalized, man. They should. I mean, for I mean, it's an Adidas school, so I'm expecting a lot of these Adidas schools to get hit. Oh, yeah, Adidas, man, even from the AAU circuit, like their circuit where it really starts, to be honest with you, with these kids.

Man, you saw the Adidas circuit really take a hit from all the top guys getting canned. I mean, these guys are getting serious prison time fellas for this stuff. And then, under the Kansas investigation, there was also a mention of Self telling the agent or the representative for Adidas that he was upset about not getting Aiden, which is the kid who went over to Arizona because Nike picked him up. Who they got on. On saying that Miller paid, or not Miller paid 100K for him, right?

Not only that. But Adidas gave the best friend or a good friend of Aiden over $15,000 trying to get Aiden. And he still wound up in Arizona and not Kansas.

So there's a lot of information and a lot of details still left to go in that case.

Well, late last night, Kansas. Kansas lost a recruit after this, Isaac McBride, a four-star point guard recruit. He was the number one 109 player in the class of 2019. He withdrew from Kansas only months after enrolling in the university. Kansas coach Bill Self announced the decision on Friday.

Uh I'm curious as to what's going to happen with this because this is really the NCAA's opportunity to make things right in terms of perception of the NCAA. Because over the past couple of years, they have not They've been kind of a joke in terms of the way they handle these things. The Miami case, the University of Miami football case with the Shapiro booster guy. Oh, yeah.

They didn't get anything corrupted. Even Florida State when Jimbo was there and Jameis was. Oh, right. Man. He only took crab legs, though.

Nah, I mean, he had the. I'm just joking. I'm just joking. Man, that was. The Carolina situation where Carolina just lawyered up and got out of that situation.

There's been a lot of things over the past five or six years where the NCAA comes in with a big stick, but then they're like almost all bark and no bite. They've got FBI evidence behind this, so I would imagine that they can't mess this up, but it is the NCAA.

So they probably will mess this up, and none of them will get penalized very much for what happened. My thing is, though, on that list, there's one school that really sticks out that I feel like is kind of odd, and that's Creighton. Like, who are they paying to come there?

Well, wait, wait. No, Creighton has been pretty good, pretty good. Oh, yeah.

Maybe up to eight years. Pretty good mid-major, but they haven't had. Really, any NBA players?

So, like, what? All-Americans that they play. I know they had the kid Marcus Foster from Kansas State that was good. And, you know, the Marcus Watson kid. But it does stick out.

No, I agree. Yeah, like that just sticks out a little bit. They're solid Miggy schools. Doing very well. I'm just wondering who are their big-time recruits they're paying?

Let's take a quick break coming up. Loaded Saturday of the college football season. We've got a couple of top 25 matchups, plus an interesting game in Chapel Hill between two in-state favorites. I'm surprised Rodney's not actually at that game. He'll tell us why he's not.

Yeah, I will. I don't want that. I'll tell you why. We'll get you ready for a weekend of football action, ACC, and top 25. We break it all down and get you ready next on the rundown.

That means you can have The Nest with East Forsythe football head coach Todd Willard, a new weekly podcast following the Eastforside football team during the 2019 season. 4 is now available across all major podcast formats, sponsored by East Coast Wings Kernersville, Cindy Swain, VH Home Services, Haviline Express Loop Kernersville, Kevin Bug State Farm Insurance, and the Collegiate Shop. Stream on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple, and more. That is the Nest with head coach Todd Willard, hosted by our very own Rod Funderberg. Where did you find all those sponsors?

The town of Kernersville loves and embraces their East for Scythe program, and they definitely wanted to come out and show support to them. Come out and see us Tuesday evenings. We're in East Coast Wings recording the podcast. They get a pretty good crowd in there for that. And the Eagles are rolling.

They've won 20 straight games in defense of their 4-A state title. Let's talk a little college football, guys. ACC scoreboard for today, just to get you ready to figure out what you're going to end up watching here. Boston College is going to take on Rutgers at 12 noon. Johnny O's Syracuse Orange, 1-2 now on the season.

At noon, they've got to kick off against Western Michigan. That's a carrier dome. At noon at BBNT Field in Winston-Salem, you still got time to go out and buy tickets for that. It's homecoming for the Demon Deacons. They're going to be welcoming in a 2-1 Elon squad.

That's going to be that game. That might be a feisty game for Wake. Nothing against Elon. They're going to be past Elon. But if Wake goes to 4-0, man, that's kind of cool.

I'm happy for it. Starting to get some top 25 votes. Sammy Healman. Looking like the best QB in the ACC, to be honest with you. Day A.

Completely honest. If Utah State can push their quarterback in the Heisman category, if they go 4-0, I don't see any reason why Wake Forest can't start pushing Jamie Newman as a Heisman. I think he's a pro after this year if he keeps it up, to be honest. He's strong. He's stronger than I expected, too.

He had a touchdown last week where he's kind of burst through like six or seven dudes and just emerged from it like 10 yards out in a touchdown.

So I didn't know he could do all that. He's a triad kid, too.

So you got to be rooting for him. Speaking of 3:30 p.m., a game of local interest. Appalachian State comes down the mountain to take on North Carolina. That's at Keenan Stadium, Chapel Hill. The line is Carolina 2.5, actually, which is actually kind of.

Crazy that they're only favored by two and a half points at home. But Rodney's giving me three points.

So I'm giving Johnny O three points. We're going App State. Yeah, we've got a little lunch wager going on here. You know, I can't go against Matar Heels. Johnny knows that.

He took well advantage of it. I got outside source telling me App State all the way. That's Mr. Bill Ingram. He is an App State fanatic and uh He's telling me this Corey Sutton, this wide receiver coming back after a two-game suspension, is NFL talent?

And I see him scoring two touchdowns against the business. Why was he suspended? I don't know that. I don't know that. I don't know.

Explain to me why you're not going to that game, Rod, because you have season tickets to Carolina for football. I do have season tickets, and I mean, there are a couple of different reasons why I'm not going. There's some things I need to take care of around the house. There's some quality time that I need to spend with some people. And then also, I've got some friends who went to Appalachian State.

And, of course, they wanted to go to the game. And being the kind-hearted friend that I am, I told them that maybe I'll think about it. But in the end, they treated me like the godfather and they made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

So, and them making me an offer I couldn't refuse, I said, you know, this will be the game that I'll take off and I'll watch it on TV here. You'll see dollar signs in your eyes. That's going to be on. It says ACC Network Extra.

So I'm not sure if you can only watch that through the ACC Network or if that's the. The little extension thing they have on ESPN. I still do not have ACC network. Do you guys have ACC network yet? Yeah, I do.

Is it worth it? Most definitely. But I think it's kind of weird, though, that they were the ACC just reached out to ESPN saying they want ESPN to show more games. Like they wrote a letter to the commissioner. I'm like, you guys just started the network.

I'm confused. Yeah, because the Miami, Carolina game was on ESPN. Right. Yeah.

The Wake Carolina game was on ESN. The Wake Carolina game was on ESPN. Yeah.

Well, it defeats the purpose of having the network, doesn't it? Because that's why I haven't bought the network because usually the game I want to see is not on there. Because the Big Ten has had a network for a while. The SEC, and they put on. Really, the secondary games, you know, and those networks, and then ESPN and ABC and NBC or, you know, CBS or whatever covered the, you know, the big, the bigger games.

And the uh, that's true. The big games. That's true.

So, like, you know, the, I guess, the games like the Georgia Techs and the Virginias. Yeah, the Virginias will get on there. Or usually the 12 o'clock noon games are on there. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, so like Louisville is 2-1 on the season. They're taking on, I don't know what's going on with Florida State. They're one and two right now. Willie Tiger better watch his back. They're on ESPN today, 3:30.

Why? Wait, Louisville. They're taking as low as $9. Check them out. Are you telling me that Louisville is on ESPN against Florida State and Appalachian Mountaineers?

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Hey, the Carolina Tar Heels are not. That's my point. I haven't seen FSU since I watched that debacle against Boise State. I haven't watched a full Florida State game since.

What, two years, three years ago now? The last year, Jimbo Fisher, when they played Alabama that first game of the season, and Francois got hurt. That's the last time I've sat through a full Florida State game, and that's the last time Florida State was actually really relevant. They were number two coming in. Yeah, he got folded that whole time.

They have not been the same since then. And Willie Taggart, I don't know if he's going to make it through the season because those boys down in Tallahassee, they're going to be able to do it. They don't take kindly to losing, and they've been losing. I think they barely got into a bowl last year. Yeah.

Let's be honest here, though. I don't even think they made a bowl last year, but let's be honest. I tried out because there's not many African-American head coaches, so I try not to down the ones that are there. Willie Target is mad average, fellas. He was seven and six at Oregon and got a promotion.

I've never seen anything like that. And nothing has worked out for him. But you know what's on? Central Florida is the top school in Florida right now, right? Yeah.

Yes. They just beat Stanford last year. I know Florida is still rated a little higher, but Florida's like number nine. But they still don't look like the the Florida that we Used to kind of want, I mean, they used to be a powerhouse. Yeah, I'm surprised Irving went number nine because I tune in once in a while and I'm like, well, it's just not the same Florida team.

It's not the same. It's SEC bias. All it pushes all these SEC teams towards the top, and it makes for good. Late season matchups, I guess, if you've got number three taking on number seven and that kind of thing. That's the only reason why I can figure out why Florida is in there and some others.

We'll get to the top 25 here in just a second, but uh, uh, Virginia, they're in the top 25 this week. They're at number 21, they are 3-0. Uh, they're taking on Old Dominion at seven o'clock tonight. That's on ESPN 2. They've got a really good quarterback, too.

I don't know, man. I don't know why they've got all the Carolina State game on this ACC Network Extra, and all these other games are sprinkled out across ESPN, ESPN 2. NC State's on ESPNU today. They're taking on Ball State. That's at 7 o'clock tonight.

And then ACC Network, number one, Clemson. I like Will Healy. We had him on the drive earlier this week, the head coach at Charlotte. He's going to take the 49ers down to Clemson, South Carolina tonight for a 7:30 game. He's the number one ranked team in the country, and Clemson is favorite by 41 and a half points.

And Dabbo will be kind. Seriously, he will not, he won't put a 70 spot up on us, guys. He'll bathe it. I don't know if out of all the games I read, that's the one that stood out to me. Like, I could see a 56-7 game or 56-0.

They're definitely going to cover the points. I just don't want Charlotte. I have a soft spot in my heart for Charlotte because I was their studio host two years ago for IMG, and they were 1-10.

So basically, I had to sit through a 1-10 season with them trying to get right. And then I did their basketball season. They were 5-24.

So it was a long year. I know my last year at Pembroke, I think it was 2016, we played them. And I mean, they smoked Charlotte. But now, Charlotte, they're competitive. They just played App State last week.

They're 2-1. Getting better, getting better. They're scored some points. They're going on the road to Clemson to play Clemson at a night game. And Trevor Lawrence has not been playing that all the time.

In Death Valley, this would be the game I would imagine Trevor Lawrence throws for 600 yards. It's just that sophomore slump and with the running back Etienne, they haven't really needed Trevor Lawrence to be Trevor Lawrence yet. But I do think he needs to, yeah, they're going to need him though. They'll have a, actually, in a couple of weeks. They play Carolina, if I'm not mistaken.

Is that at Carolina or is that at Clara? Yeah, that's the game I need to be at. That's the one that goes to 28. If Carolina beats at. Is that next week?

28th is uh yeah that's next week that's next saturday you're going you're going to go out to that game yeah i'm definitely going out to that game you know how it is though every week you have no idea what time each game is going to be until about tuesday is usually when they put the time yeah if carolina wins today against app state they'll be uh three and one out of that might be a candidate for college game day you know them coming to chapel hill clemson carolina it'd be an undefeated clemson team unless uh unless charlotte oh man franklin franklin street would be jumping baby franklin street would be blue heaven depending on what time that game is if you're down there for that and not here then we'll do the segment like we did last year where you call in and give us an idea of the atmosphere and hopefully won't be uh well it's not gonna uh state's gonna win today so you know don't worry about that i don't know man i don't know we'll have to lunch on this johnny's talking a lot of big trash talk over in the uh the top 25 today there's a couple of really good matchups uh well not this one number two alabama taking on southern mississippi that's a tuscaloosa That's a noon game. That's usually death for whoever's playing Alabama. They're favorite by 38.

So we'll see what's up there. Number four, LSU, taking on Vanderbilt in an SEC tilt. That's at 12 noon on the SEC network. LSU might be the best team in the country. They're for real.

They have 40. Yeah, the kid Burrow is a good player. And they always play well on defense. I've said Alabama is not going to make the college football playoff this year because they're going to lose to LSU. I can hope so because LSU never has a quarterback.

So them with the quarterback. Yeah, now with Burrow. Yeah, Joe Burrows. He's the real deal. He is.

He's the best. He threw for like 400 yards last week, didn't he? Yeah, his draft stock's shooting up, too.

So watch out for LSU. And that's coming down the pipe between Alabama and LSU. That'll be, I think, late October, early November now, somewhere. You could sleep on Georgia either and Jake Rawman. Nope.

Tonight's game. I'm going to be tuning into that Notre Dame game. And they keep saying it. I mean, the line of that game is 14 and a half points in favor of who? Georgia.

I don't have a lot of confidence in Notre Dame. If you watch them play Louisville. You know, they really should have lost that Louisville game. They're going to have to really play unbelievable. And they're in Georgia.

Georgia, boy, you know, now that we now that I think about it, Georgia, LSU, and Alabama. Yeah, that's tough. And Georgia has a great secondary. Mm-hmm. Yeah, those defensive bats can play down there in John.

Y'all kind of skipped me on the scoreboard. Y'all went all the way to tonight. That was a little bit later on in the thing. I'm still at noon. 12-noon.

Number 11, Michigan, taking on number 13, Wisconsin in a Big Ten matchup. That'll be 2-0. If he loses that one, look at it. Yeah, a lot of people are picking Michigan to get to the College Football Playoff this year, too.

So I don't buy it. Yeah, if Michigan loses that one, man, Haskell's going to be calling for hardballs. I will say they got the kid Madison Cohn a safety out of East for Science. Yeah, and he's starting this year. Wow.

Wisconsin's favored by three in that game. It's in Wisconsin.

So that's a tough matchup for Michigan. They should have lost the Army. That Army game was tough. Oh, that was the second half. Number six, Ohio State.

They're still rolling. They're 3-0. They're taking on Miami of Ohio. That is at the horseshoe. A top 25 matchup.

Number eight, Auburn. Keep an eye on Auburn. They're 3-0 also. Taking on number 17, Texas A. AM.

That's at College Station. That's a CBS 330 matchup.

So that's actually sounds like a pretty good matchup. Because Texas and AM is coming. What? They lost two weeks ago to Clemson? Yes.

Yeah, they played them tough for about three quarters. Yeah, half, three quarters. Oregon Stanford's at 7 o'clock tonight. Oregon's number 16. Pac-12 stinks, right?

USC won last night. USC did beat Utah. Yeah, they won a big game last week, too, with the Stanfords. The third string quarterback came in there and started peppering the field with passes and stuff. Yeah, so he looked really good.

Okay, now at 8 o'clock tonight, number 7, Notre Dame, taking out number 3, Georgia. That's at Athens. Georgia is favored by 14.5. In a top-10 matchup, that's top 10. That's disrespectful.

I feel you, Jeff. Yeah, that's a marquee matchup tonight. But that, yeah, Georgia's 3-0. Notre Dame's 2-0. Haven't seen Notre Dame yet this year.

I've seen him. I've seen him twice. Weren't impressed? I didn't. Not very, very impressed with Notre Dame at all.

I mean, I think. They do just enough to get attention and then to get into the playoffs. You see what happened last year when they got into the playoffs. It was over. I mean, even in the national championship a couple years ago, when Mantateo was missed, they just broke it all about Teo.

They win tonight.

Now everyone starts saying, wow, Notre Dame, this is their year. Yeah, it's almost like an elimination game. Whoever wins this game is going to catapult.

Well, Georgia's already number three. If they beat Notre Dame ranked at seven, could they leapfrog Alabama at two? No. Because Alabama hasn't played yet. I think it's potentially.

We've seen something like that happen before. Guys, it's still Alabama. Usually Alabama that does the league. Who's Bama play today? Like Tussai.

Southern Mississippi.

Southern Mississippi.

Damn it. Alabama say Bama only wins 35 to. I tell you, they beat Duke South Carolina. Even though it scored in it, South Carolina played pretty good against Alabama last week. They lost 47 to 23.

Okay, they had 23 points. No, no, I understand. I understand. But 23 points, and they had two or three other opportunities. Of course, they didn't score in the red zone to score, and they had one touchdown on a punt.

uh fake punt taken back South Carolina could have been in that game with a couple of lucky bounces. I'm not on Alabama. I'm looking at their schedule. They haven't played a ranked team yet. No, they haven't.

Not even close to a ranked team. They got Texas AM in three weeks. Maybe. That's at Texas AM. And then they've got.

Uh L S U at home. November the 9th, that's going to be their biggest game. And then they got number well, then they have at Auburn at the last day uh game of iron.

So they really don't have a test until next month.

So to answer your question, let's say Georgia wins thirty-five 14 teams. You got to jump on the team. You got to jump them. Why not? It's mid-season.

You know, make it interesting. And they're going to see each other eventually.

Well, the only way they can see each other is in this SEC title game, if I'm mistaken. They don't do that. I mean,. Alabama just beat Georgia last year, did they not? But that was last year, though.

Right, exactly. That's what these boaters go for. That's what these voters go for. It is wrong, but that's what they do. They played twice, though, right?

Didn't Georgia beat Bamboo? Because Bamblas had a loss like the last season. They're not in the same condition. They gave them a couple of good games. Bamblas had a loss like the last two seasons.

They've been a one-loss team. I'm pretty sure Georgia beat them one time last season.

So Last year, Alabama won. It was Oklahoma, I think. Oh, well, no, they played in the SEC title game and then they played in the college football playoff. That's why they're playing. Yeah, okay, okay, okay.

And Alabama won both of those, if I'm not mistaken, right? 'Cause uh I'm looking through their schedule last year. Bama had one. They did lose to somebody. I can't remember.

It wasn't Oklahoma. No, Oklahoma got beat in the playoffs. They beat Mississippi State 31-24. It must have been Alabama then. Because Alabama, I think, went undefeated.

That was the big talk always. It's like, is a one-loss Bama team better than such and such, undefeated such and such? That was two years ago. Yeah, I'm trying to find w 'cause you're right, they did lose to somebody last year and I can't remember who it was. And it wasn't Georgia, it wasn't and it wasn't Oklahoma?

No. No, 'cause yeah, Oklahoma got knocked out. Here it is. They uh they got an SEC and they lost to They lost to Clemson. I guess they weren't defeated last year when they met.

That was the year before, the year before. Because they finished 14-1.

So, yeah, so they lost to Clemson in the final. But, yeah, I'm not really buying Alabama as this. Maybe it's because I watched them get... Slapped by Clemson, like open-handed slapped. And that stays with you.

When you watch somebody get open-handed slapped, you remember it. They've kind of rotated. It's like Clemson wins, Bama wins. Clemson wins.

Now it seems like it would be Bama's turn. I'll tell you what, man, the kid Judy at receiver they got. That's he looks like Julio Jones Amari Cooper good. Yeah, he's going to be, he might be the number one overall pick in the draft by the time we get to it. Over the quarterbacks.

Oh, man. I mean, they throw just yards after catch, them yak yards. He's eating them up. Let's take another break when we come back. Had to talk about him.

We've talked about it in the past month. It feels like every time we come in here, what's next for Antonio Brown? Would you sign him to your team? Or have we seen the last of AB? We'll chop that up.

Plus, a segment that's taken the triad by storm. One minute with Aaron, next on the rundown. Yeah.

Okay, Let's go. You're listening to The Rundown with Desmond Johnson. Listen to the best sports podcast on the go. Podcasts like the Franchise Players, Triad Racing podcast with Randy Pettit. A stone's throw with Ryan Stone, Live with Brandon Blakeney, and much more now available on all major podcast formats, including SoundCloud, Spotify, Google, Apple, Stitcher, and more.

Just search for the title of the podcast you're looking for, download and enjoy exclusively from SportsCarolinamonthly.com. On Friday, the Patriots cut star wide receiver Antonio Brown after just one game. Text messages that Brown sent out earlier in the week were released online that were not favorable to the wide receiver. In fact, just an hour ago, the New York Post dropped a story basically detailing that the owner of the Patriots, Robert Kraft, fired Antonio Brown over threatening text to his accuser. Robert Kraft was quote unquote enraged when he learned of the threatening messages Antonio Brown sent to one of the women accusing him of sexual harassment.

Kraft was on a business trip when he learned of the latest accusations. Kraft then decided with Coach Bill Pelichek to release Brown, a move which came immediately after a report surfaced on Thursday that Brown texted the woman in a group chat with his underlings and accused her of trying to extort money from him. Um There's a quote from Brown out of one of those texts. Let's look up her background history, see how broke this girl is. Brown allegedly texted the unnamed accuser Wednesday night after she publicly accused him of firing her for a painting job at his home after she rejected his sexual advances.

The woman provided screenshots of the alleged text to Sports Illustrated. The Patriots cut Brown 10 days, 11 days after they hired him. I don't know if you guys saw it or heard the drive with Josh Graham yesterday, but we played excerpts from Bill Belichick's press conference four hours before they cut Antonio Brown, where he literally at the beginning says, I do not want to answer questions about Antonio Brown. I want to talk about the football game. Let's talk about that.

And the next eight questions were about Antonio Brown, to which Bill Belichick eventually walked out. That's like I'm dope. That's what it was going to be, though. He was going to overshadow the team the entire year.

Now, so here's the question: really: Should any team pick up Antonio Brown at this point, or can they? Because it sounds like. I thought maybe the Patriots had been talking to the NFL. They found out what the NFL was going to do with Antonio Brown. They decided to get ahead of it and cut him.

This coming out an hour ago basically saying the NFL didn't have anything to do with it, and it was really more Robert Kraft just being enraged that he even would do this. It's a stupid thing to do. It's unbelievable.

So let me check this out. This is the pot. Calling the kettle black with the allegations Robert Kraft had down in Florida. Come on, man. Not the same.

Not the same. Nobert Kraft going in and out of a massage parlor. You're just saying, five, no, no, no, no, no. But I'm saying, I'm talking about conduct here. I'm talking about conduct here.

No, because Robert Kraft wasn't threatening. He wasn't threatening a female. He just was doing something with a female he shouldn't have been doing, but he wasn't threatening them. I mean, no, no, no. No.

You can't do this. You can't do these things. But here's a guy, Josh Gordon. He's walking on thin ice. He gets an opportunity with the New England Patriots.

He plays very well on that Sunday. He knows he's on thin ice, and he sends out these text messages. Josh Gordon. Antonio Brown. I'm sorry.

Antonio Brown. I don't know why I just said that. Dang, I'm real. That's the other guy. Yeah, you did.

Man, I lost it. You got me so upset. I had nothing to do with that. But Antonio Brown on thin ice, and he does that. I mean, Number one, to answer your question, I don't think he deserves to play on an NFL team this year, okay, until he shows something, you know, show some sort of class or just figure out what the problem is with all these things coming up in your life.

I hate it as a fan because I was really. Ready to sit down on Sundays watching Tom Brady throw to Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown. I thought it was going to be very interesting. And as a fan, I'm just really kind of disappointed. I'm sick of hearing about him, too.

I think he's like, he's acting guilty, in my opinion. With those, you're trying to cover your bases. You're intimidating potential witches. It's too much smoke. It's too much smoke.

Way too much smoke. Innocent people. Yeah, I mean, Antonio Brown probably is guilty. I'm sure he's guilty. He was stupid for sending a threatening text message to these folks.

He should have just sat down and let it play out and let it do what it's going to do inside a court. And this is civil court. It wasn't even criminal court. Like you said, the NFL didn't even get involved in it. But the issue is, he's such a good, productive player that someone is going to pick him up.

Some front office will pick up Antonio Brown. I mean, I don't know about this yet. I don't know. Maybe they could. If a receiver goes down somewhere, I could see it possibly happening, especially if there's no criminal issues coming out on him.

Well, experts are saying, you know, maybe after the seventh or eighth week, you know, someone's going to need a wide receiver, obviously. I think San Fernand could be a potential destination because they really don't have a number one receiver right now. They've already been in three teams in what a month for credit. My first thought when I heard it was, what team would be best suited to take on Antonio Brown? And it was the Raiders.

And I was like, nope, he's already been there.

So he's already been there to the Raiders. But that was the first thought. My second thought was the Dallas Cowboys. Oh, Jerry Jones. Like, Jerry Jones will.

Um What's he going to say? Hey, Tony Brown. Tony Brown, come on in here. I got a U-Haul truck, and I'll take care of you. I'll take care of your lawyers, take care of everything.

Oh, yeah.

Come on in. Jerry Jones. Jerry Jones will pick you up and he'll take you to the Bunny Ranch and you can hang out on the Bunny Ranch together. Yes, sir. And you get everything straight.

I mean, he will. That's just Jerry Jones. That's what he does. That would be so Dallas for them to be playing as well as they're playing. Dak is throwing for 82% completion rate, like off the chain.

Pay that, man. For them to be playing so well. They got Zeke back in the house. He's signed and happy. And for them to sign Antonio Brown, Antonio Brown.

And would get Antonio Brown cheap. You put him in the locker room and he just destroys everything they've built. And Dallas finishes like 6-10. And everyone's like, what? Granny!

Because they dropped Antonio Brown in there. But so the question is, why does Antonio Brown do this stuff? Is it because, you know, he's... Why do you send threatening text messages? Because he's seen it from the top.

Uh, you know, have you seen top people doing that? Is that the reason that he did that? He should have had his attorneys take care of it or his agent not. Yeah, why was he sending he needs better people in his circle? And not only that, he sent it in a chain like a chain.

There were multiple people on yeah, his buddies they were in this thing with like they did a group chat.

So, this is what I'm cooking just to roast her. See, here's the thing I think, and this is a issue that, and he doesn't have an excuse because he's 30, 31, I believe. Yeah, ABC, but I watch my kids a lot, and I try to let them because they're all they all were born into a digital age. They don't know what a record player is, they don't know what a newspaper is or any of that kind of stuff.

So, they're all used to sharing everything, like they don't think about not sharing stuff like we did. They look at it like it's just normal to share everything they're doing. And with Antonio Brown, I sensed some of that where even. It almost feels like He doesn't think of the repercussions of sharing stuff online, sensitive things, because he's almost thinking of it like. He's not thinking of it bigger picture.

And that goes back to, you know, Mike Tomlin in the locker room saying, you know, don't put our stuff on social media while Antonio Brown is recording it on Facebook Live in the locker room with him saying it. There's a misconnection there where. It's like he's not understanding. This doesn't just go to these four people. This can be screenshotted, and the internet's undefeated.

They can put this out, and it'll be there forever. 10 years to learn. Yeah, I think he's got brain damage from that Vantez birthday. I've been smoking. I've been saying, because, like Josh Graham, he's been saying Antonio Brown is stupid.

I'm like, I'm not going to go so far to call a man stupid. But he he is doing dumb things. But every week it gets harder. Every week. It gets harder and harder for me to not be able to do that.

He's unprofessional. Unprofessional, and he's acting like Terrell Owens. Terrell Owens got this whole thing started, and there's been quite a few. I'm not saying all. But a lot of these wide receivers have that mentality, that diva.

The diva this is kind of different to me because I was quick to maybe say he was like Chado Tricinko and Terre Lowens and all those guys too. But the stuff that they did was more disruptive to the team. The stuff Antonio Brown is doing is disruptive to himself. Yeah, he's blowing his life off. Yeah, he's like literally doing things that don't make sense.

They're not illegal. They're just dumb. Like. They're just stuff outside of the lines could be illegal here that he's doing outside of the team. I mean, this rape allegation, and I don't know if you guys read any of that.

That's the one thing that, yeah, I mean, that sounded pretty illegal. Why he's not coming up on criminal charges? I don't know. I don't know if it's outside the statute of limitations or what that is. But, you know, even with this whole threatening, I don't know if you can, I don't know what the laws are for threatening people.

And was it an implied threat or was it an actual threat? It sounds like it was a pretty nasty threat. Pretty much. I mean, with the I read something where he sent a picture of her kids.

So it's kind of like mafia style. It's like implied. Like, you know, I'm not going to tell you from the mafia, don't do this, but. If I were you. I wouldn't do it.

You know, one of those. The picture. When he sent the picture of her kids, that's when the New England Patriots said he has crossed the line. Done. Yeah.

That was the biggest part. I did hear that. You can't have a second Aaron Hernandez situation. No, and also, you know, if another team does pick him up, I did read or I heard last night. Um let's say, you know, whoever picks them up.

The NFL, he might go on that exempt list or something because of all this stuff going on. Right, because I would think that would be under the player conduct policy. Right, which is why the threat. Which is why the Patriots probably will not have to pay him a dime because they can get out of it because of that clause. Right.

They can use that clause. And if they can use that clause. The NFL could put him on the Commissioner's Exempt list too for the same reason, I would think. I'm surprised he wouldn't put on it before. I think it all goes back to something you said, Des, when we were talking about the first week and he said, I don't need football.

Yeah.

Maybe he really just doesn't want to play football. Maybe. He wanted to play for New England. I'm going to tell you that right now. You can tell by the way he said goodbye to them last night.

Yes, sir. Thanks for the week. And he was very appreciative. He was. He was.

But that also, then I'm starting to think when I saw those tweets he sent out. It's not even bothering him. You know what I mean?

So he sent out, you know, hey, I appreciated this and that opportunity. Go win it all. Nothing's made him dump the game anymore. I think that's what I'm saying. But wasn't there another tweet into that?

Something about looking forward to his next step in the NFL. Oh, no. I thought I saw something along those lines, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I mean, this guy, he's pretty arrogant. Not only is he a diva.

Drew Rosenhaus put out some stuff concerning, you know, his time with the Patriots and him being ready to suit for another team.

So Drew Rosenhaus definitely put the feeler out there that AB would be. Open to signing with agents do. He's doing what agents do. He is open to signing with the team.

Some of the text messages that have been released because the woman actually submitted screenshots to Sports Illustrated.

So she received a group text message, appeared to come from the same phone number Brown had in 2017 when she was hired by him to paint a mural in his house. The text chain had four other numbers in it. The woman said she believes Brown was encouraging others in the group to investigate her, describing her as a super broke girl and asking someone he referred to as Eric B. to look up her background history. He then sent the screenshot of an Instagram photo she had with her kids in it, adding, Those her kids, she's awful, broke clearly.

Um This was sent while he was a member of the New England Patriots. It was viewed by some of the organization to have crossed the line, and then the Patriots released him. I'm just going to put it out there, but for the past two offseasons, Cam Newton has been practicing with Antonio Brown at the Under Armour facility, and they are good friends, so. Take with that, what you will. And Tepper knows them from the Steelers.

So I don't think that would happen. Carolina's got their own problems, and we'll talk about that in the next segment. But Antonio Brown and Amari Cooper with Dak Prescott throwing to him and Zeke in the backfield. And Cobb out there too. Oh, well, actually, you know what?

The Cowboys don't need him. I keep forgetting about they have Randall Cobb.

Well, let's be clear here. If AB comes to Dallas, Cobb is losing some reps. Yeah.

A lot of them. And he's good. I like Cobb in that offense. Like, they've really opened it up. He would just have four receivers.

I think him and Tayvon Austin would suffer. I think him and Tayvon Austin. Did you take Antonio Brown on the Cowboys? Man, I take Antonio Brown all day long. I sure would, but he's only going to last a week or two.

That's all we need is to win one game at a time, baby. Because he's still a game at the time. Just win one game every time. We'll just play for every franchise. It's like one week, and then he gets cut and somebody else pissed him off.

He's not a man. Oh, man. Your boys would be on their way. Let's see. Jerry's working it right now.

I'm sure he is. Antonio, come on. I know you want to sign with me. Come on. Let's do it.

Aaron, this is our segment during the rundown where I turn over the wheels to Aaron Gabriel, who's doing double duty today. He's running the board with Sawyer being out and handling the social media as well. One minute with Aaron, my friend, I have no idea where you're going because I got it to the point where he doesn't tell me what. he's gonna do. Put a minute on the clock.

How about it? What's happening, everybody? It's your boy, Aaron Gabriel, checking in. Gonna give you the deal real quick. Today is September 21st.

Do you remember the 21st night of September? That's right. Happy Earth, Wind, and Fire Day. Yeah.

Appreciate that. That's real nice. I like that. I hope that gets to be like a regular thing where we can just do have like a funk holiday. That's nice.

Is he stalling? Is that what's happening? No, I'm not stalling. Today is also Batman's birthday. What?

Yeah, Batman, the Dark Knight, the Cape Crusader. That rich sociopath just runs around beating up homeless people. He was trying to put food on the plates. He's like, rich, like, nah, man. Can't be out here stealing.

Get a job. Like real people. Anyway, he runs around his underwear, beating people up since May 1939. Yeah.

Ugh.

So it's Earthwin and Fire Day. It's also Batman Day.

So take with that what you will. Aaron, I'm coming to check your temperature, man. I don't know if I can take your temperature. I'm all right, man. I like Batman.

I like Earthwin and Fire, too. Let's take a break. When we come back, more NFL action. The Carolina Panthers open.

Well, not open. The Carolina Panthers are playing tomorrow. 4 p.m. Sunday kickoff versus the Arizona Cardinals and Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray. We'll go over the keys to the game, look at premiere games around the NFL, plus rundown hot takes, NFL edition, next in the rundown.

What's up, dog? Think about it. Think about it. A party? Are we having a party?

Yeah.

Yeah! Back to the rundown with Desmond Johnson. Hey, check out the Triad Racing podcast with Randy Pettit each week on the Sports Car and a Monthly Podcast Network. Exclusive interviews with top racers from the past, present, and future. Current episodes now available via Spotify, Google, Apple, Anchor, and more.

Triad Racing podcast with Randy Pettit now available for streaming or download for listening on the go. Can we get a, you know what?

Well, normally we get a Twitter poll update from Aaron here, but we're gonna wait because we're actually gonna tackle that as a topic. After we go to our next break after this, Panthers taking on the Arizona Cardinals 4 o'clock p.m. kickoff on Fox. Yesterday, the Panthers officially ruled out quarterback Cam Newton and named Kyle Allen the starter for Sunday's game. Versus the cards.

Cam aggravated a sprained left foot. I remember the play it happened on. Carolina was driving. Cam was in shotgun. He's about to pass.

I don't know what the offensive line was doing on this play. Like, literally, Darrell Williams got turned around, like, he was trying to box out the dude for a rebound. And then, like, two other guys came in from the other side. Cam almost gets sacked. He avoids that.

He starts running towards the right and eventually has to throw the ball and he runs out of bounds. And I remember watching the game. This was against Tampa. I remember watching the game, there was a close-up of Cam as he was turning around to walk back to the field, and he had like a grimace on his face, and he kind of like. Like limped a little and then went back out to the field.

So that's he's not feeling good. He's not feeling good right now. He's in a walking boot. Whole week long. Thoughts on Kyle Allen and thoughts on the Panthers.

Should they still win this game without Cam Newton? I mean, Arizona picked first overall in the draft last year, and their defense is the worst in the league right now.

So you just said it. I mean, Carolina's gonna win this game. Yes, Panthers win. And their defense will win the game. Kyle Allen, as long as he, I mean, it's all about turnovers.

If he doesn't turn the ball over, they'll be fine because the Cardinals just really are not that good a football team. And I tell you what, that would end the Panthers season if they do lose. Go 0-3. I will say, though, I'm a little torn because I got Kyler Murray and Christian Kirk starting in my fantasy week this week. Those guys have been putting up some really strong numbers.

But I think it'll be a close game, to be honest with you. I really do. Can the Panthers defense win this game for Carolina by themselves? Because I think they can. I think the Panthers defense, they almost beat Tampa by themselves, really, because Carolina could get in the end zone.

Yeah, I mean, all the games that they played, they've almost done it. I mean, even the first game, they lost by three points. You know, there were turnovers in that game. Defense had to come out and play hard to keep them in it. But, you know, you've got to dial up some pressure against Kyle Murray.

Kyle Murray is a rookie, so you've got to let him fight. Feel that pressure and has a defensive coordinator, especially if Ron Rivera is going to be calling the plays. I'm sure he knows that. And you got to keep heat on him. You can't let him get that ball out free.

And then you may even have to use one under and over against their wide receiver, Mr. Larry Fritz Gerald, who's definitely in the Hall of Famer out there. Yeah, I think him and Christian Kirk have looked really good. The Cardinals have been putting up points, they have trouble scoring. This will be a bit of a reunion for Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray.

They were both for Texas AM in 2015. They both transferred to other colleges within a few months of each other. Allen went to Houston and Murray went to Oklahoma. Murray went on to become the Heisman Trophy winner and the first pick of last year's draft. Allen went undrafted after he was replaced as Houston starter in 2017, and then he forgone his senior season to enter the draft himself.

That's someone who was too good on all the QBs. Norv Turner had an interesting quote here about Kyle Allen. He said, the best thing I can tell you to do is to look at our last game last year, which was against. The Saints that they won. He said, that's the way I would expect him to play.

He played at a high level. He was 16 for 27, 228, two touchdowns, no interceptions. Speaking of Lord Turner, though, the play calling has been terrible. I want to get to that because me and Robert were talking about this last night, and I was saying when they were 6-2 last year, one of the things I was excited about was that the Panthers were doing a lot of misdirection plays. Yeah, the motion.

The jet sweeps, the double reverses, and stuff. They were trying to get the ball in the hands of their speed guys, like Curtis Samuel and Christian McCaffrey and DJ Moore. I haven't seen any of that this year. Like, they haven't done any of that.

Now, maybe it's because of Cam and his foot, because that's a big element of that game. But if Cam's got a hurt foot and you're trotting him out there, you can't expect him just to be a pocket passer all of a sudden when he's never been that his entire career, college or pro. He's a dual threat. That's what we love about him. And I wonder, I know Cam, he answered it politically correct when people were asking him last week, did you want the ball in your hands in that play?

And he's like, of course, you know, why wouldn't I want the ball in a play? But I got to run the play that's called. I think he. knew. I think that's why he didn't get so much of a big answer from him.

I think he knew his foot was something was off, so he didn't mind being motioned off to the right and kind of being out of the play. I've heard people say it's supposed to be supposed to be in a Philly special and all this other stuff. But why not give it to the fullback right there? Just run McCaffrey straight up the gut. I mean, just use that line.

Lean on people, man. Just go. It's half a yard. Or he could have jumped. We've seen Christian McCavney hop over piles as well.

But they tried to be cute and tried to outrun it, and it cost him a game against Tampa. They'll see Tampa again in London in a couple of weeks, actually. It's a 9-30 kickoff for us here.

So that'll be a fun Sunday morning. Let's go around the NFL real quick. How did the injuries to big Ben Rofflisberger, who's out for the season with the elbow injury, and Drew Brees, who had a funky play against LA last week and injured his thumb, had surgery. He's going to be out for at least six weeks. How does that affect the rest of the season?

Because we've seen a lot of quarterbacks go down in the first two weeks. It affects the NFL. I mean, are you kidding me? And Andrew Luck, and now Cam Newton out. I mean, all these.

Roll Bowl quarterbacks are out. It's devastating, actually. Yeah, well, I don't know how it affects, you know. Everybody else, you know, I know, but as far as Ben Roethlisberger getting hurt. It affects my hot take of last week when I said Lamar Jackson was going to be number one quarterback in the NFC night.

He has a bad guy. I shot now. I will say, I trust Mason Rudolph more than Teddy Bridgewater and Taysom Hill at the same point.

So I think people are walking around here saying, oh, the Saints will be fine. They can hold on through the sixth week. Have you not been paying attention to what this is with the Saints the past three years? Like, they go how Drew Brees goes. If he's not out there on the field, they're just an average 10.

And you can say what you want. They're missing their running back. Oh, Mark Newton. Mark Newman. Yeah, he's having a great year.

And he's having a great year. Yeah, him and Lamar Jackson together in Baltimore. That's been great. He's making that $100 million contract with that much worse. Tried to tell all my Saints friends.

They're like, oh, we're going to do it big. I'm like, name one team that's got a wide receiver that's in the top 10 of being highest paid that's in the playoffs. He's not Calvin Johnson. No, he's not. You see the thing Calvin Johnson posted?

I think it was yesterday. He's smoking the grass. Yeah, he smoked after every football game. Would you not, if you played for the Lions, though, at that time?

Well, he He said it was to avoid opioids, which a lot of these guys do. He held up pictures of his fingers, like his hands. His hands, like his fingers are all going all different directions and stuff. Non-concussions reporters. Yeah, man.

Yeah, well, that was during the time you could head hunt. Yeah, and there weren't these rules out there where you couldn't hit him above the shoulders and all that stuff. Or defenseless receiver. He didn't play in that area. He was like the biggest receiver in the league at the time, I believe.

6'5, 230. Who has looked better, Dallas or New England? Or is it a team like Kansas City? I just threw that in there for Aaron's sake, but Kansas City hasn't, they're not on Dallas. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute. Hold on. Hold on. Because I read this and I even thought that. Why have it worded like who has looked better?

Dallas, New England, or a team like Kansas City. What is a team like Kansas City? What is this? Dallas and New England have looked clearly better than everyone so far, including Kansas City. Yeah, I've come aboard the Pat Mahomes.

Vote this week. Oh, he's the true. He had a couple of passes last week against the Raiders where I just threw my hands out. But they can't stop nobody. They're going to have to score 50 a game.

That's what I'm saying. Because they're giving up 45. They ain't gave up no 45. They give up 10 to the Raiders. His defense is completely overhauled.

Don't let me educate y'all. Let me tell y'all something. Wait a minute. Who did they play second with? Big 12.

I'm tired of this. Yeah, they whipped the Raiders. And who did they beat the first week? Jags. The Jags.

Oh my God. Who everybody just gave him credit for looking good against Tennessee Thursday night. Yeah, I'm n nah. Everybody's loving Gardner Minshew. Everybody's loving him.

But, you know, for this question, Dallas Queens was better. And who else? Yeah, the Redskins played in there. And the Redskins, well, you know, the Redskins, I thought, were gave that game to Dallas. Josh Norman gave that game to Dallas.

Like, he got burnt like three separate times. I mean, yeah, but that was just Cobb rolling a little bit. And the Galloway kid, Galladay, too, left. It looked like Josh Norman was playing a different defense than the other 10 guys. Like, he was doing something all by himself, and everybody else was doing something different.

And Dallas kept picking on him. Like, all it was weird. Yeah, it was. He was getting burnt. And New England played Miami.

And who did they play the first game? Who did New England play their first week? Oh, Pittsburgh. Oh, okay. 30-3, and then 43-3.

So they've scored to what, 73-trash and trash.

So everybody's playing trash games.

So I'm going to say. Pittsburgh is trash. Oh, well, Pittsburgh's trash. Miami is trash.

So I'm going to say, who's looked better? Dallas is playing the best right now. I think so. I think New England's playing the best right now. I really do.

New England's got their one-ranked defense. None of these teams have. Dallas has played a little something more. Who, Dallas? Yeah.

The Giants are terrible. They're better than the Giants in Washington. New England has played Pittsburgh, who's down this year. I mean, there's no doubt about it. I mean, they almost did Seattle.

Pittsburgh. Yeah.

That's after Ben went out. Yeah, after being got hurt, you know, they lost their number one quarterback and still almost beat Seattle. Mason Rudolph's not a slouch, fellas. And I got Seattle winning the NFC West, so that's a good point. I'm going to say Kansas City's playing the best then.

Oh, why'd you get me started? I can't say Kansas City. I can't. You're just a hater, dude. Look, don't serge.

Look at this. New England has scored 76 points in two games, they have allowed three. That's nice. That's incredible. Pittsburgh has babies at wide receiver, whereas New England has grown men in the secondary.

Kansas City has scored 68 points their first two games. They've allowed 36. Told you they don't play that shit. I mean, men lie, women lie, numbers don't lie. That's fine.

That's just fun. I can't. Because y'all are going to find out. Big 12 defense. That's really that's insane.

And I'll have to do it. I do like the Kansas City Chiefs. I will have to admit that. Oh, yeah.

I do like them. I would say they have a chance of winning the Super Bowl. I would say New England's first because they've got their defense running. And that was the thing the past two years where it was a little suspect.

Now their defense is even last year, like the last 10 weeks of the season, they were like number one in the list. I'd put Dallas and Kansas City tied for second because Dallas has scored 66 points. They've allowed 38.

So they're they're right there, same in terms of net points, but I mean, you ain't going to be able to get it.

So, you can tell me New England scored 76 points in two games and has only allowed three games. First of all, if you play the Dolphins, I'm not really. I mean, they're barely pros. And that's what I'm saying. But that's Pittsburgh, too.

All three teams have not played anyone. Right. Yeah, they haven't really played.

Now, a lot of that's because of these teams coming out the gate the way they are. And we're not even talking about Buffalo is 2-0, too in the AFC East. Oh, they've got a top five defense. That's going to give New England. They got a top five defense.

The Ravens are 2-0. They've scored 82 points. They've only allowed 27. And the Ravens get to find out tomorrow. The Ravens play the Chiefs tomorrow.

They get to find out. Which is. Who do you? I've got. That's a shootout.

That where are they playing at? This is a Kansas City's home opener.

Okay. I've got Kansas City winning now. I'm taking Baltimore. I'm going to take Lamar Jackson, Mark Ingram. I mean, they can't stop the run.

They can't stop. I'm still laying on that. That's Kansas City winning now, actually. What a great game. I think that's a good one.

That's a one o'clock game. Ooh, that might be my one o'clock then since the Panthers are playing at four. The line for it? I'm trying to find it. NFL's not going to give me a bunch of people.

Overall, Thunder is 52 and a half.

So there is the line. Kansas City is getting five and a half points. Five and a half. That's going to be a nice. It's going to be tight.

I think the Ravens got it. Lamar's playing some football. He is, and their defense is better. I hear y'all talking about Lamar Jackson, but are y'all not seeing what this man Patrick Mahomes is doing? Oh, we already know.

He saw it all out. Don't get me wrong. No, what do you want us to see? This game is doing things you have never seen on a football field before. He's throwing his little precedence in wide.

You've never seen it. You know what he's not doing? Playing defense. No quarterback does. He's doing all this stuff.

And stuff I've never seen before. It seems to play two ways. Aaron, I just picked Kansas City. What are you talking about? I'm listening to these other clowns in here talking about Baltimore.

Oh, look at Lamar Jackson. No, we're just giving him credit, but Mahomes. I like Lamar Jackson. I like Lamar Jackson over Baker Mayfield coming out of the draft. And I got crap for it.

You know what I mean?

But we got to understand what we're looking at in Patrick Mahomes. And this is not even just, this is not even the Chiefs fan and me talking. I'm just saying, like, no, seriously. Seriously. We were just giving Lamar credit.

I like Lamar Jackson. I really do. But I really think what we're looking at in Patrick Mahomes is like really that type of player that makes everybody else look average. That's how good he is. Just take him off.

Oh, he's a system quarterback. Yeah, that's fine. I think the guys are more or less on Kansas City's defense. I don't think they have an issue with that. And that's not fair.

That's fair, but also the defense is unproven because it's a new defense.

Well, his defense is proven. They've allowed three points in two games. And New England's got an incredible defense. I just said it when they beat Pittsburgh. They've got grown men in the second game.

That's the separator. Tom Brady or Pat Mahomes. Who are you taking right now? Tom Brady, Pat Mahomes. Right now, I'm taking Pat.

Not you. I'm not asking you because I know who you take. You three. In a game? Right now, Tom Brady and his offense.

I'm taking Brady. Pat Mahomes and his offense. Because Pat Mahomes hasn't shown me he could beat Brady yet. Exactly.

So I'm taking who's got the better defense, Tom Brady or Pat Mahomes? He's probably got the better run game, too. Boom.

So, like, this is nonsense right now, week three of the season, when I'm staring at New England. No, New England is scored 76 points in two games. Yeah, and they shut down a high. Profile offense in the Super Bowl. Yes.

The Rams, the number one offense in the whole lock, they couldn't do anything, and they continued it through. Like, I don't, who's New England playing this? Their defense is scoring points. Yeah, they got the defense. Who are on their third-string quarterback and get.

Anything right? They're going to score a billion. They're going to score a billion points on the job. Pat's defense is scoring points. They had two interceptions last week.

I had their team in fantasy football for defense, and they had 75 points by themselves.

So, who do you guys have winning Baltimore in this Kansas City game tomorrow? I'm taking it. I'm going to take Kansas City at home. I'll take Baltimore. Because Burnhead gets loud.

What do you think? At 35, 28, or something like that? Yeah, it's going to be a high-scoring game, I bet. We're not even going to do hot tech because we don't have enough time to do it. We kind of ran through.

Talk about my Nats clinching that wildcard spot. I don't know if I care about that. Let's care about them chiefs. Let's do this. Let's take a break.

Let's get into our next topic. If we got room at the bottom of that, we'll do that. Coming up, we're going to tackle our own Twitter poll question: which player in his prime would you start an NBA team with? We'll chop that up and more next on the rundown. Oh my gosh.

Shut up. Shut up. Sit down. Are you ready? Stand by.

You're listening to The Rundown with Desmond Johnson. Who are the franchise players? Myself, Rod Johnny O bring you fresh takes on sports topics to sit around and discuss with your friends this week.

Well, actually, in there currently, why isn't Magic Johnson considered the second best basketball player of all time? There's a number of ones that are up right now that you can download and stream. Spotify, Google, Apple Stitcher, and more as well as sportscarmonphy.com. I have to apologize to the triad because apparently during our last break, all the microphones were left on by Aaron because he was so incensed that we weren't. I guess making Pat Mahomes president or something.

I don't know. We were being apparently disrespectful to Patrick Mahomes, and it caused him to fly out of the studio in a rage to yell at us, which I think the entire triad just heard. Makes for great radio. Live radio. That's my quarterback.

Yeah, that's my teammate. 336-777-1600 is whatever to call. Who would you start an NBA team with today with these players in their prime? You can go vote now on our Twitter poll at SportsHubTriad.com. The players in question: Steph Curry, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, or Shaquille O'Neal.

So basically, we're asking: you can take this player out of history and what would be their prime seasons.

So, like, for Steph, I would say it would be the two years he won league MVP. One time was unanimous. He's the only player ever to do that. LeBron, his peak is probably, I don't know, end of Miami Heat, back to Cleveland. In that stretch, somewhere in the city.

That championship he brought to Believely, I think that might have been his best season overall. To Cleveland? Yeah.

So 2015, LeBron, somewhere in there. Yeah.

Jordan. Prime, I guess you could say the nineties. Like, I mean, from ninety Well, really, from ninety Really, when he came back. When he came back from playing baseball, he won three. But it was a different Jordan.

It was like he was at the peak of his powers.

So, really, the 96 to 98 Jordans really probably peaked Jordan. And then Shaq. Peak Shaq is probably 2000 Shaq, like the Lakers Shaq, first year of him there. Although, if you want to go back earlier in that, I would be mad if you wanted to take Orlando Magic's Shaq either, because he was a beast.

So, we'll just go around the table first. Let's start with you, John. Who would you start an NBA team with today? Which player out of this group of four would you start your NBA team with? Absolutely love all four of them.

There's no doubt about it. But if to start a team, I gotta go Bron Braun with Bron James because he could. Play any position. You know what I mean?

It'd be great to have Shaquille, or of course, Michael is just in a whole. Another atmosphere are, I mean, just unbelievable. Steph, great shooter, but LeBron can do it all. I would. I would build around LeBron James.

I'm going to pull their stats as you guys are talking to try to figure out what their best seasons were. Can't go wrong with.

Well, LeBron, for sure. I don't think anybody here is going to be like, oh, LeBron James. Why are you going to? It looks like. His best statistical season.

He averaged the most points in 07-08, where he basically carried a corpse of a Cleveland Cavaliers team. None of those guys are in the NBA anymore. I'm just going to say no Booby Gibson, no Z, Larry Hughes, Dellante West, all those guys. Devontae West is homeless. Yeah, he's homeless right now, from my understanding.

Andy Verjal's back in Brazil doing whatever he does. I'd probably say actually his 2013-14 season with the Heat, the last one, he was averaging 27 points a game, six assists. Uh seven rebounds. Um Almost two steals per game, a block a game.

So, I mean, yeah, can't really go wrong with uh.

Well LeBron, for sure. Uh Rod? Yeah, well, number one, I think the guy I would have picked is actually not on this particular list, but that's okay. Wait a minute. Who would that have been?

Magic? That would have been Kareem Abdul Japan. Oh, no. You can't stop his shot. And when you can't stop his shot, guess what?

You're going to keep scoring.

So Kareem in his prime. I would have been talking about Kareem like that because he I love that, man. What would Kareem's prime Milwaukee Bucks, I guess? Or him in the big O? I think when he went over to, I'd say when he got over to Early Lakers?

The early Lakers, yeah. I mean, because he's won multiple championships, you know, with both teams. Yeah, he won one with the Bucs. But, I mean, with this list right here, I would have to go with Michael Jordan maybe in 1993 when he was averaging about 41 points a game. During that time frame, and then he was Air Jordan.

I mean, he was jumping over people like what's the tall guy from the Knicks? I can't remember. I see him. Patrick Ewing. Patrick Ewing.

You remember he jumped over Patrick Ewing? You know what? I mean. This guy, not only would he, and during that time frame, not only could he still go to the basket and score, but then he started perfecting his jump shot and his three-pointer.

So, I mean, do you guys remember what that time? And I think Michael may have been either a rookie or after his rookie season. When he made Larry Bird look like he had no idea which way Jordan did y'all remember that was the playoff game in Boston Garden, where he kind of crossed him up a couple points. Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, he went off for 60-some points.

The Bulls lost that game. Yeah, they lost. But I mean, Michael Jordan, I just seen him do things that I. Don't think I'll ever see anybody else do. I mean, he's the one who started the whole free throw line jump.

you know, from the free throw line on the dunk contest. I mean him and Dominique Wilkins used to go at it and dunk. I mean, golly, it was just Michael Jordan. But would you start a team? Would you start a team with that?

Yeah, I'd start a team with Michael Jordan. I mean, like I said, there's no wrong answer. Yeah, I mean, Michael Jordan. I mean, Michael Jordan, I think he's going to make the players around him better somehow because they said his work ethic was just outrageous. And you can't.

Have a work ethic, and then your teammates not be willing to participate or get involved in it unless your name is. To White Howard. Wow. Brandon. All right, no further.

I'm going with the greatest player of all time to ever touch a basketball. Don't you do it? And that young man reigning out of Akron, Ohio. LeBron King James, the best ever to do it, can play all five positions like my man John said. Can play the point.

You want to talk about somebody that makes guys around them better? Absolutely. You want to talk about somebody that makes guys around them better? LeBron James has made every player that he's played with. You're a loser.

Loser. A loser. and magic together. Put together. He can play the one.

He can guard the big man. If you need him to play a four, he can. He can bang down low in the post. He plays defense, can guard all five positions. He's an ambassador off the short.

Brandon, you got to remember something. When Jordan was averaging 41 points a game, I think you were six months. It doesn't matter. We have this thing called YouTube. We have this thing called YouTube now, where, you know, I know y'all didn't have the internet back then.

You can talk on the phone. And you know what I'm saying? But you got YouTube now where I can go back and look at Oscar Robinson. I can go back and look at Kareem. I can go back and look at Jordan.

And Jordan. Wasn't averaging no triple-double in the NBA finals like LeBron did. Yeah, they lost to the Warriors, but he didn't have to. LeBron had to.

Now, I don't have a problem with you picking LeBron to start a team with. I mean, obviously, I have a problem with you calling him the greatest of all. He's the greatest player in such a basketball because he's not. I had an argument with a couple people online about this this week about how uh LeBron is better than Jordan. He's not.

He wasn't. And I'm a LeBron fan. I'm like one of the biggest LeBron fans in the room. I love LeBron James, but the one thing he cannot do. That Mike could do all the time is take over a game.

LeBron can do that. He just doesn't do it by choice. The thing that's different with them is: if that's the case, we got to compare Kobe on this list to Jordan. My thing is, though, Kobe could be triple teamed. It doesn't matter.

He's taking the last shot. But LeBron will make the right basketball play. That might also mean he loses the game. He could, but he's still going to make the smarter play, though. But listen, Jordan.

Jordan would. Take the last shot. Jordan would also make the right Call on the last plate, but when he made the last call, his teammates like Steve Kerr, John Paxson, knew. They better hit that shot too, buddy, because that's what he commanded. What do you mean that's that was rare because Jordan's taking that last shot?

You're not getting the ball out of his hand. I want him to take that last shot because he's the greatest player. He's not the best shot that's open. It's a team game. Oh, it didn't matter if he was open or not.

He was hitting. And that's my problem. What that he was going to take the last shot? Yeah, because it's not a good contest. Your goal is every possession to get the highest.

Percentage shot, not the highest contend. The highest percentage shot, if I'm the coach of the Bulls, is to put it in the best players' hands. I have to shoot it at the end. That would be Michael Jordan. I can't.

There's no way for me to sit. I could not pick Michael Jordan. I couldn't pick LeBron James over Michael Jordan in anything. Michael was a better scorer. He was a better defender.

He was a better. Yeah, he was like a two-time. You got to watch a little more YouTube. He's got to be, but he's a. I think LeBron's a more versatile defender.

He's and he's averaging more points, more rebounds, and a higher field goal percent. LeBron disappears sometimes, though. Like, there's times where we can point to LeBron disappeared in this big-time situation. I can't think of a single time Michael Jordan disappeared in a big situation. Even when Michael Jordan was sick.

And then I'll add this flavor to you, too, and this angle, Brandon. Michael Jordan played at a time frame where. A flagrant foul was a regular common foul. He had to get you come through that lane to even if you come through that lane, you'd catch an elbow to the nose, and it was no big deal. But basketball players are more talented now.

LeBron's one against better teams right now. No, he's not. He's the only Warriors team with Kevin Durant.

Well, Mike was the Warriors team. No, that's the team. He could be the 71 team because the Bulls team was the 71 team. That 98 Bulls team would not have beat the golden team. Oh, yes, they would have.

I don't believe that. Who's going to guard Kevin Durant? Wait, did that Donette Bulls team have Dennis Robin? Thank you. Scotty Pippin.

Dennis Rockman would lock him down. No, he wouldn't. Come on, man. Get this dude out of there. Kevin Durant.

Dennis Robin's going to lock up Kevin Durant. No, Dennis Robin would have been on Draymond Green Green. Dennis Robin would have been on Draymond Green. Dennis Robin didn't need to be on Draymond Green. Scotty Pippa couldn't even guard Grant Hill.

What is he going to do out there? Yes, he could. No, Grant Hill would be a good guy. Oh, my goodness. Brandon, you were seven months when Grant Hill was.

Grant Hill was giving them boys work because every small forward in the league when Jordan then played was going straight down and back.

Now, small forwards are primary ball handlers and they can go side to side. It's a new age game now.

So we're jumping on Brandon's fan wagon a little bit here.

Okay. Just as overall talents, LeBron James, I mean, every aspect of the game, you know, rebounding, passing. LeBron, much better passer than Michael Jordan, obviously. I'll go with that. Rebounder.

Uh Yeah, what what what other I mean He wasn't necessarily say rebounder, Johnny. I would definitely say rebounding. I'm talking about in his prime. Dead said in his prime. At one point, there was nobody else on the Bulls team but Jordan.

Jordan was yanking rebounds. He was scoring. He was stealing. LeBron murdered. He wasn't passing.

LeBron. You don't want to average six. And it wasn't. LeBron could average 50 if he wanted to. But if he wanted to.

But that's where his argument is correct because. He should have wanted to win more than 100%. That's why he's right the fall. But LeBron took the worst team in the NBA to the finals ever. The Bulls was the worst team in the NBA, dude.

But halves? Are you serious? He took them to the finals, but they got swept by one of the greatest Spurs teams ever. Jordan Herbert never played Danielle Marshall. No, but no, but Jordan had to go through teams that LeBron's Eastern Conference before Pippin's players.

Way, way, way weaker than the Eastern Conference that Jordan had. I don't think so. He had to deal with the Knicks that had Patrick Ewing and John Starks and those blacks. The Indiana Pacers with Reggie Miller. He never had a Pippin, though.

He never had a Pippin. What was the Bulls doing before Pippin got there? What was Jordan and the Bulls doing before Pippin got there? It was only like a year or two before Pippin was there. What were they doing?

Getting beat by the old Celtics.

Well, he met.

Okay, so he played rookie year. He played all 82 games. They didn't make the playoffs. Jordan broke his foot year two.

So he only played 18 games. Year three, 86, 87. He played all 82. That was the year Pippen and Horace Grant showed up. And then it was more of a matter of getting past the.

See, again, they had the pistons. They had to get past the pistons were getting old. The Bird Celtics were still around. Yeah.

Past them. They weren't old in 1937. And he caught 39. He caught Bird at the end of his career. Let's be honest.

He came in in 84, 85. The greatest Celtic team of all time is the 86 Celtics.

Okay, but they didn't do anything against the Celtics in that period. They couldn't because they were better. They were better than that. Because Scotty Pippen wasn't there to save him. No.

Scotty Pippen didn't save a soul. He saved Michael Jordan from winning the Scotty was a big one. Without Scotty Pippen, Jordan does not have those rings. That's fun. Scotty helped out.

But I'm saying that's the same thing with LeBron. Without Kyrie, he didn't have to be able to get it. Without Kyrie, he would have Bray Allen both. Oh, no. You remember when Kyrie went down with the knee?

He was like, oh, they got finished off too. They needed. Kevin Love went down, and LeBron still averaged a triple-double with that knife. I just realized y'all hijacked. My segment because I didn't even give my pick for who I was.

I'm sitting here. I'm sitting here. This dude, Brandon in here talking crazy. Hey, man, Brandon, Brandon has been smoking something, Brandon. We gotta be real.

Brandon, I'm gonna give you this cup. Brandon, you go to the bathroom. We gotta test you. All right, all right. I gotta get my let me get my pick.

After all of that, I'm not even picking Michael Jordan to start my team with. Oh my gosh. I'm actually picking Shaquille O'Neal because he is on this list. I don't care if it's, and I love, y'all know how much I love Steph Curry. And y'all know how much I love LeBron and Michael Jordan.

But out of the four names that are on this list, there is not a single one of them that was as dominant as Shaquille O'Neal was at his time. You could not guard him. You could not defend him. If he was within five feet of the bucket, it was going to get dunked and you were going to be a poster. And he was going to average 30-some points a game.

Just them feeding the big guy. I miss the days where centers were the focal point of an NBA offense. You throw it into them. They kick it out. They got to touch it.

And they don't play that way no more. Partly because of another name on this list, Steph Curry. He's changed the game. The game's a lot faster. He's outside in now in terms of shooting all these threes and Shaq.

You know, never had to worry about any of that. And I like Shaq. The only thing I didn't like about Shaq is if you sent him through the free throw line, you know, that was the only thing I didn't like. He claimed at the end of the game, he sent him the free throw line. He would hit him toward the end.

He claims he would hit him when they counted. He kind of sold us out in that, too. Yeah, I don't think that was accurate. I don't think that was true, Shaq. I kept saying it, but I don't think that was true.

Now, the one thing that we're talking about in his prime because my man traveled the league. Especially at the end. I mean, he played for My God, he played for Phoenix. He came to the Academy, then he went to the Suns, then he went to the Boston or Cleveland. He went to Cleveland, and he finished in Boston.

So that kind of hurt him there. He didn't even play hardly in Cleveland. No, he didn't. He played 53 games. He played 53 games.

He just didn't play. He didn't start or anything like that. Yeah, and he was averaging. Even then, well, he was averaging seven. No, 12.

He was averaging 12 points a game by the time he got to Cleveland. But for his career. I mean, 23 points a game, 10 rebounds a game, two assists, shot 58% from the field. And uh He wasn't the greatest. He was 5% three-point.

But like you said, he was the most dominating. That's what I want. Because the whole point of this was: what would you pick to start a team with? Not who's your favorite player or who's the best player. Who would you pick to start a team with?

And for me, I'm old school, baby. Like, I want that dominant center that now I can go build around and put. Guards that can shoot threes and guys that can rebound and all that stuff around him, but he would be my focal point. It's Shaq Diesel, man. That's the biggest thing.

Would it work in 2019, though? I think it would. I think, honestly, I'm surprised some teams haven't started going back to this. Toronto just won a world championship playing like this, where they've got. Marcus Saul in the paint.

He did, but you still have to realize that the best position in the NBA right now is Small Ford, and that's the same position that's dominating. The best players in the league right now are all Small Ford, really. The top three. And Kawhi Leonards, really. Kawhi Leonards, yeah.

Paul George. Paul George. It's gone that route, but. to the defense of the shack pick. Who's the best center in the NBA right now?

That's a great question. You know, like, who's the best center? To be honest with you, I mean, you don't have to have an elite center to win championships. Mark Gasol is not elite. Jordan and Pippen did that.

Jordan Pippen started that trend. They had Luke Longley at center. They had Bill Cartwright at center. That was the first team really. They had Tony Kuko at Charlie Gallagher.

He was coming off the bench.

So, I mean, he was stretch four, really. I guess either Shaq's Lakers or San Antonio, Duncan, and Robinson were the last teams, really, that had like a center title. Andrew Byrum, I think, too, with the Lakers. Yeah, you can get. I mean, he had Gasol down there with him.

This is a while ago, but how about the Elijah and Sampson dynamic duel? They should have won some titles with that. But yeah, so I'm picking Shaq. I've been behind my brakes all morning.

So let's take a break, come back, odds and ends, rapid fire round. I'm scared to death because Aaron didn't have Sawyer here today, and I don't know what questions he's going to throw at us. It's going to be about the Chiefs, probably. One minute. As long as it's not questions, like, why not Patrick Mahomes for five straight times?

Then we should be good to go. Man cover athlete ever. Clap your hands and stomp your feet. Yeah! It's gonna be one big party.

Yama! Back to the rundown with Desmond Johnson. Download full episodes of the rundown at sportshubtri.com, Spotify, Google, Apple, SoundCloud, and more. Search for the rundown with Desmond Johnson. Download it and go.

This episode will be up here shortly. Wanted to thank everybody on the panel today: Johnny O, Brandon Blakeney, Rod Funderberg, Aaron, filling in for Sawyer on the board this morning. Sawyer will be back next week. Let's go ahead and get into our. Odds and ends.

It's how we end every Saturday morning here on the rundown. Five topics. Aaron's going to pick these and give them to us. We got a minute to give our answers. Let's go ahead and pull up our.

our music here and let's go ahead and get going.

Alright, we're getting into odds and ends here. First off. With the new MBA tampering rules. Curve tampering at all. If you hadn't heard, the NBA has introduced a $10 million fine, suspensions for executives, loss of draft picks, also possibility of avoiding contracts if NBA teams don't adhere to the new tampering rules.

Probably not. I mean, Magic Johnston was the one picking up all the flack, and he's not really part of any franchise. Yeah, but $10 million, it will at least bring it down a little bit. But there's still going to be tampering going on.

Sounds like they're trying to prohibit player-to-player tampering. Like basically LeBron going and saying, hey, Dwayne, you want to get up together and play on a team together? Let's go pick up Bosch and just make this happen. It's like these guys will work out together during this conversation. Yeah, I think it'll stop intentional tampering, but sometimes you make a mistake and say things.

Mm. All right, moving right along. Patrick Mahomes. No, I'm just kidding. Should Reggie Bush be allowed back at USC?

Absolutely. He didn't make his high school. Yeah, I was about to say, not only should he be invited back, he's supposed to, well, he was just there last night for the Utah game on business. They had to clear it to make sure that he could even be there because of the rules that he can't be associated with the school. I think it's stupid.

Um. Give that man his Heisman trophy back because if you watch that season, Reggie Bush was the best player in the country. Hands down. Hands down. So excited.

Give it to him. People have been doing work. I mean, I don't understand why he even got in trouble for this because didn't this happen with Marvin Bagley Jr. and his parents? Nike gave them a house or something like that.

And he did a lot. Duke didn't get any trouble for that. He was not fine with him. He went to Proof. Right.

So, like, this is the same thing that happened to Reggie Bush, right? An agent was paying for a house. Yep, car and all that. What's the difference? You let Lane Kiffen back.

Why not? Very valid point.

Alright. Over, under 50% chance Antonio Brown plays in the XFL. XFL. Oh my gosh. Great question.

Under, dude. Under. He is not playing in the XFL. He'll retire first. Mr.

Mann would have to give him similar to what he was making with the Patriots and the Rams. He had to get $9 million this season. I think they have set salary caps for the players. He probably have to give him some stake in the league, too. Wow.

He might. If the NFL, if he doesn't get on a team this year, which is a good possibility, and a good NFL team. He's crazy enough to do that. I think he is, yeah. I think he can make more money in Canada, though.

By God, that's Antonio Brown's music. What is he doing here? This is nuts. He comes strolling out to Stone Cold's music. Got it.

Mm. How good does Kyle Allen have to play for you to want Cam to stay on the bench? To stay on the bench? Oh, he got to come out Kurt Warner type style. Like, come out, throw for 400 yards, first start, four touchdowns.

Like, he'd have to wow me. I used to be like, Cam, who? Hey, he has to play like Lamar Jackson's going to play tomorrow. Oh, he got to pull a Tom Brady like a nice person there at the end. No, I mean, honestly, I'm not expecting a whole lot from Kyle Allen.

Just play within yourself. Don't turn the ball over. Get it to your playmakers. Curtis Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, DJ Moore, and those boys. Greg Olson's going to be out there.

Let the defense win this game because you're playing against a rookie quarterback and a rookie head coach. Ronda Barris should be able to scheme against this team to put them in a position to win. He just changed the game. The only thing he's got to do is play like Joe Flacco when he had Ray Lewis. That's it.

He's going to throw for 200 yards, maybe a couple touchdowns, but no people change. He plays a Tom Brady on Juletzo. I don't know. That could. I mean, and even then, Tom Brady.

He was just dinking and dunking. He just basically was a game manager the first year or two.

So, all right, we'll see what's up, Kyle Allen. Last up, we already mentioned that today is September 21st. Happy Earthwind and Fire Day.

So, what is your favorite Earth Wind and Fire Jam? Huh. Uh Probably September actually. That's probably my favorite. There's a lot though.

Boy, you don't know that at the very end. You needed that question ahead of time. Hey, I can't think of the song, Aaron, but it was a song on the movie Hitch. When Hitch was walking with the girl and he had just finished drinking all the allergy medicine. Oh, and she asked him, she said, who sings that song?

And he goes, Earth, Wind, and Fire. And she was like, You should let them sing it. I'm actually changing my answer. I had to go remember some titles of some of their stuff. Let's Groove Tonight, probably my favorite Earth, Wind, and Fire song.

Serpentine Fire. Serpentine fire. Serpentine fire. Ain't bad, ain't bad. Or maybe reasons.

Might throw reasons. Yeah, the reasons. That's it. He has a reasons. I'm going to go with Keep Your Head to the Sky.

All right. Don't forget to check out Sports Colonel Monthly Daily for the latest news on your favorite sports teams in North Carolina. Almost said New York. Weekly podcasts like The Nest hosted by Rod Funderberg. New episodes every Thursday.

Franchise players. We got to figure out what we're doing. Franchise Players here. We need some new episodes coming up for that. A stone's throw with Ryan Stone, live with Brandon Blakely.

We did. And the rundown. In-depth articles and more. App State taking on Carolina today on the Sports Hub at 1:30. The Raiders and Vikings at 12:30 tomorrow.

And the Browns and the Rams at 7:30 Sunday night. Peace. Um