John Forslund (8-4-20)

It seems like it was just yesterday that the Carolina Hurricanes took a 2 games to nothing lead over the Rangers. Oh wait, it was yesterday and it's a quick turnaround for Carolina tonight facing the Rangers.

8 o'clock, Fox Sports Carolina's NBC Sports Network. One of my favorite 30 for 30's. This reminds me of that. Four days in October about the Red Sox coming back against the Yankees down 3 games to nothing. And on the first night, Kevin Millar, he's walking around to anybody who will listen saying, hey, if you want to take us out of our misery, if you want to beat us, beat us tonight. But I'll tell you one thing, Yankees, don't let us win this game. No, no, no, don't let us win this game. See, Canes fans, they're confident right now and they should be. You're up 2 games to nothing. They're on the brink of eliminating New York. But this isn't the same as a 3 games to nothing series and things can turn around fast. So Carolina, you need to have the urgency tonight. This is the Hurricanes best opportunity to close out the series.

Because New York, they're on the ropes right now. They're not returning to home ice the way you would after 2 games in a regular series. So it's going to be the same environment, no fans, they're down 0-2. Body language, it's going to be as bad as it's been. Carolina's body language, I'm sure, is going to be at an all-time high, riding high after the 2 wins. But that doesn't mean it's not a grind. Heck, a good friend of mine, Canes rep, Mike Sondheim, who's up there in Toronto, he texted me earlier today saying that it's been a grind, man.

Going to be a grind as we're trying to enjoy ourselves up here. And again, he's with the team that's winning right now. Imagine what New York's going through. What they're thinking.

They're missing their families, they don't have any fans here, it's weird, it's unlike anything they've dealt with. And now you gotta play back to back nights? Knock them out. Sweep the leg.

Put your foot on their neck. Robert, how many more expressions can I come up with that essentially say the same exact thing? I don't know, you have any more? Knock out punch. That's one more? I don't have anything else.

The deepest part of the pull and drown them? Okay, maybe that's a little far. That's a little graphic, Robert.

It is a quick turnaround, though. Robert is the producer of this show. If you want in on CanesRangers3367771600 on Twitter, at sportsupdryant, Jon Forslund going to join us at the bottom of the hour. It's less than 30 hours after the final horn sounded yesterday that tonight's game will take place. Strong possibility of carryover. The Canes were great in the second period.

They were awesome in the third. If that carries over and Carolina is great again right out of the gate, New York, they might just be looking to get back home. They might be ready to get back to their summer plans, whatever they've been doing before they started quarantining in Toronto. Plus, there's a different goaltender possibility.

This is what I want to ask Jon about. As good as Henrik Lundqvist, I don't think. Henrik Lundqvist is a former All-Star and he's a future Hall of Famer. So, if it's Georgiev, you're talking about a rusty, worse version of Henrik Lundqvist that you can take advantage of. If it's Bond villain Igor Sesturkin, well, that's a goalie that's not 100%.

Somebody else you need to jump on immediately. And yes, Robert, that is his real name, Igor Sesturkin. Can you sound more like a Bond villain? Not on the spot.

Maybe if I had time to practice. Where is he from? Igor Sesturkin? Yeah, yeah. Where do you think he's from?

I'm guessing Europe, but I didn't know... He is from Moscow. Oh, cool.

Yeah. I don't think that name could sound more Russian if you tried. Igor Sesturkin. So yeah, it could be him, it could be Georgiev, it could be Henrik Lundqvist again. Regardless who it is, Carolina, it's the golden opportunity for them tonight to knock out the Rangers, to end it tonight.

If it doesn't end tonight, Hurricanes fans, you could start feeling nervous. That's not the only big game tonight, though. I was surprised that David Griffin finally let Zion Williamson go. It's amazing what can happen if you let your best player play, or arguably your most talented player play. He was the most confident player tonight, than any of the other 20 NBA games he's played in.

He attempted more shots, 21, than all but one game of his 33 game career at Duke. And the Pelicans beat current 8 seed, Memphis. So right now, they sit three and a half games back, where they were three games ago. Portland meanwhile is one-and-one through their first two games. Tonight they have the Houston Rockets. I think the fate of the Pelicans hangs in tonight's game. If Portland wins, if Portland beats Houston tonight, I think it's gonna be too tall of a mountain to climb for Zion and the Pelicans regardless of how well they play. If the Blazers win, they're gonna have a full game up on New Orleans.

And if you're thinking, Josh that's not that big of a mountain to climb, what are you talking about? You're overreacting, you're oversensationalizing things. There's five games left. Portland has the tiebreaker over New Orleans. So not only do the Pelicans have to make up one game, they have to make up two. They gotta make up two games in five. And that Portland team, they're healthy now. They got Nurkic, they got Zach Collins. Gary Trent Jr. is shooting a hot basketball right now. They have that lineup with Trent Jr., Dame, and C.J.

on the floor at the same time. But if Portland loses tonight, that's where the Pelicans will have a chance. The Pelicans, they have a cake schedule. I'm looking at the Pelicans the rest of the way.

I think they could go four-and-one or five-and- oh, Robert. You tell me where the loss is. New Orleans is Sacramento, Washington, Spurs, Sacramento, and the Orlando Magic. Those five teams, only one of those teams currently in the playoffs, and that's Orlando. And that game also happens to be the last game on the slate, which means Orlando probably isn't gonna play all their guys wanting to rest up and get things ready to go for their postseason series.

So I think that's an advantage that New Orleans has in that game. Meanwhile, Portland. Houston's a pretty damn good team, we could agree on that. But after that, it's Denver, the Clippers, 76ers, Dallas, and the Brooklyn Nets. All five of those teams are currently in playoff position.

So the schedules are essentially flipped. Portland's schedule, incredibly tough. The Pelicans' schedule, not so much. But I don't think the Pelicans will be able to make up two games with only five to go on Portland, considering how well they're playing right now. Also, Portland having a lot more urgency than many of those teams that they're gonna be playing, even though those teams are pretty talented. So I'm gonna keep a close eye on that tonight.

On Twitter, again, at SportsUpTryIt if you would like to chime in that way. It is a vast NBA slate later on tonight, and I still haven't gotten adjusted to sports happening at noon, where you have the Brooklyn Nets and the Milwaukee Bucks starting things off, and you got Dallas and Sacramento under way two, Phoenix and the Clippers. These are all games happening before you eat dinner, and I think it's a fantastic deal.

The month of August is usually one of the months you just take vacation. If you're a sports broadcaster, get geared up for football season. Now, every single day you have to be engaged. Almost every single hour of the day you have to keep an eye on things. Major League Baseball the same way, watching all those scores. Roberts probably keeping a close eye on his Colorado Rockies as they look to continue their great run of pitching, one of the best teams in terms of ERA right now.

So rather than dwell on the negative, and there's certainly a ton of things you could be negative about at this moment, there's just so much good as well. There are three postponed games with the Phillies, Yankees, St. Louis, Detroit, the Phillies, and the Miami Marlins, but so many others going on right now that, quite frankly, I feel more compelled to talk about those than the ramifications that I don't even know if people in the league office know right now, if I'm being honest. I don't know if they know the ramifications of things. Robert, you watched some of the canes yesterday. What's the percentage chance you're gonna keep an eye on them tonight?

Once again, it's like 0%. Oh, come on. I didn't watch them yesterday. I helped you find a stream for them.

It was pulled up on my computer for half a second, and then I went right back to basketball. Oh goodness, it's gonna be a great game tonight. The Rangers, they're gonna bring some urgency. I just hope the Hurricanes come out and punch them right in the mouth, and the Rangers, they start thinking about tee times tomorrow, and they're not worried about anything else. You just take away their will to win right out of the gate, because if they win tonight, if the Rangers win Game 3, whole new series. It's a whole new series even though this isn't the traditional home ice give-and-take where you have your first two at home and then things transition to another rink.

I do think, I do believe in momentum, and if the Rangers win tonight, the nerves are gonna set in. I don't know if I'll be wearing my bunch of jerks t-shirt tomorrow the way that I'm wearing it right now. Okay, I've got some information, been making some calls over the last day, taking some calls, learning some things that might be of interest for Appalachian State football fans, and heck, maybe even Carolina Panthers football fans as well. But in addition to that, college football coaches, they need to stop posing as medical experts.

I'll tell you why next on The Drive. Yes, Josh Graham has opinions. That's right. And yes, he's got attitude. That's correct. And that's exactly why you love him.

You wish I loved you that much. You're on The Drive with Josh Graham. If you were listening to this and you're gonna watch the Carolina Hurricanes face the New York Rangers tonight, eight o'clock, odds are you will not be seeing our next guest because you're gonna be watching Mike Maniscalco, Shane Willis, Abby LaBarre, Tripp Tracy on Fox Sports Carolinas, but somebody who knows quite a bit about the Carolinas and everything else hockey, of course, is our good friend Jon Forslund from NBC Sports. He's gonna be on the call NBCSN tonight for Rangers Canes. Before we get into what's happened through the first two games and some of the larger context for the Hurricanes, let's just get through a couple of housekeeping notes first.

What changes do you expect for tonight's game three? You know, I think there's a possibility that the the Canes will change goalies, believe it or not. I think the schedule is a little bit arduous, and I think they have the luxury of having two guys available, and there may be a thought in place here, Josh, that they they might have had James Reimer play this game anyway based on the fact that this will set up a three-game in four-night scenario and then have Mrazek fresh if need be for game number four, and Reimer was very good in the training camp, very good in the exhibition game, so I think they have a lot of confidence in him.

So I'm not saying that he is, I'm saying I think it's a possibility. There was really no other reason other than an injury or an illness this morning to change anything with the Hurricanes line up the way they played. And as for the New York Rangers, a big question is what they're going to do in goal as they're dealing with injuries, and of course Henrik Lundqvist, I mean he's gonna be, he's a future Hall of Famer, but you usually see goaltending changes to try and spark teams even in the playoffs. Well, you normally do, and in this circumstance with no fans and, you know, kind of a generic or if you want to call it organic atmosphere, and so coaches can only do a few things. Depending on who the home team is, a coach will get the last change.

That might be one thing that could affect the game. The other thing would be lineup changes, and the most prominent lineup change you can make in hockey is to flip the goalie. And with the Rangers, they had every every every notion you can imagine to start the series with Igor Shostak and the flashing rookie when 10 and 2 and 12 starts, you know, starting in the beginning of January became the number one goalie. But he has a nagging injury, it's not an illness, it is an injury, I do know that, and it's a situation that I think he could play, but given his age and his development, I don't think they want to push it to make it a situation that could become, you know, really damaging for him down the road. So if he wasn't fit to play yesterday, I don't think he plays tonight, but I do think the Rangers have probably changed and go to Aleksandr Georgiev, who is their third goalie and equally played as well. Probably played better than Lundquist during the regular season, you know, at the same type of level at times as young Shostakin. It is Jon Forslund with us here. NBC Sports Tonight, it's Hurricanes-Rangers Game 3, and for those who don't know, Jon, you are in Toronto broadcasting games every single day for NBC.

Many of the local, regional broadcasts, they're doing it from their home arenas, they're doing it from studios, because you don't want to have a ton of people in the bubble or else it defeats kind of the purpose of the bubble. But since you're in there, how have expectations met reality for what exactly it looks like? Paint me the picture. Well, it's absolutely remarkable. I mean, what the NHL has done here, both in Toronto and in Edmonton, is really off the charts.

Every consideration, every detail has been thought about long and hard. You know, things aren't ideal like the ice conditions. People are starting to complain about that. I mean, the one sheet of ice is getting, you know, brutalized with all these games. That's going to get better as the tournament goes along and the teams thin out. But the combinations are outstanding. The compounds that they've created, there's options for the players to get around and experience a few restaurants within the compound. Not too many, but enough. They have their own sequestered floors where they have every luxury you can imagine.

They're spending time together, which I think they really enjoy based on the fact that they've been separated for so long and the season went on pause in March. And, you know, as national rights holders, we're here with them. We're in the same hotel. We go through the same situations and protocols every day. The best thing about it is the amount of testing.

Millions and millions of dollars. I think it's going to exceed 80 million dollars will be spent by the National Hockey League on testing alone. I get tested every day and it's just part of your ritual. You get up in the morning, you go and you get tested and you're cleared and then you can work and your temperature gets checked before you leave the hotel.

That's the only way you're allowed out. And so it's locked tight. I think the key was getting the players here after the two-week training camps in all the markets. They successfully did that and that sets up this. So a tip of the cap to Gary Bettman and Donald Fair, who's the head of the Players Association.

They worked together. They put this plan in place and they also extended a collective bargaining agreement, which will now go for another six years. So I think hockey of the four majors is in a better position, believe it or not, and I think they've thought of a lot of things ahead of time and they also figured out their labor situation with the players, which you'll see with baseball. I think there's some danger on the horizon with that.

Football, I think there's going to be some danger. I think basketball might be okay, but hockey had a situation that they had to address. They've reached a compromise with the players, but now this tournament kind of links all of that together.

So a good job by them. John Forslund with us here on Sports Hub Triad. Last year I remember when Andres Fechnikov stepped into the playoffs and scored a pair of goals.

The conversation surrounded the 19-year-old being, hey, this is what the future could look like. And then he has a hat-trick yesterday, almost wanted to say two days ago, but quick turnaround. Sebastian Ajo, 17 playoff games, 17 playoff points. Are we at the point where these guys are stars right now in a national context or is it still premature to say that?

No, they're stars now and they're both going to be superstars and I wouldn't say that about anybody unless I really believed it. I think Andres Fechnikov, the sky is the limit for this player because of a couple things. Obviously he's gifted. He's a gifted athlete and second overall pick, tremendous skills, but his work ethic matches his talent and when work ethic matches talent you have the ability to become a consistent superstar with greatness because consistency and greatness go together no matter what you do.

If you're consistent, it's the same thing every day. You're on your way and if you look at Sidney Crosby, the way he's played throughout time is that he has managed to put his work ethic and his diligence side by side with his skill set and look what you have. You have a Hall of Famer. The same can be said for Ovechkin.

The same can be said for a lot of these players who will be in the Hall of Fame who are playing today. Sebastian Ajo is the same type of player. Sebastian Ajo is too. Sebastian Ajo, Josh, sometimes gets overlooked because he's got this boyhood charm about him. He's got the impish features and you say to yourself, geez, he's probably a really highly skilled guy, but you don't see the burn. You don't see the work that he puts in because in my time with the team I was able to see that on a daily basis.

So I think the world of both of those two young men, one guy's 23, one guy's 20. The Hurricanes are going to be in a great position moving forward unless there's some type of contractual issue with either one of these guys, but these are the two centerpieces moving forward and you can rest on these players for at least 10 years and especially in the case probably another 15 years. So we're talking about franchise ability here and what you see is what you get and they're off to a tremendous start in this tournament and they should be able to get it done tonight, close out the Rangers, I believe. Real quick, Jon, how many games have you broadcast in the last three days? Two Saturday, did one Sunday, did two yesterday, that's five. I have one tonight.

Going again tomorrow, yeah, so it'll be seven or eight games by the time we hit Thursday. The last time you broadcasted five NHL games in a three-day stretch was when? Well, never. It's never happened. I've never done two NHL games in one day.

I mean, who's done that? How are your pipes holding up? Doing fine, thank God. Yeah, I'm doing fine. Just the good thing about this bubble life is all you can do is do your job and go to bed and so I do my job and my job entails hours of prep in my room before I get to the rink and I get to the rink and do the game and then I just come back and rest and go to sleep and so that's all you can do. There's really nothing else and because of that hopefully we're going to hold up, be healthy, get through this. I hope the fans appreciate what's happening because I think the hockey is going to get better and better and better as we move along but I'm prepared to be gone and I've been told I might be gone for two months.

It's a long time and it is Groundhog Day at times but I love what I do and I'm looking forward to a long stay here in Toronto and then the possibility of maybe going out to Edmonton. Maybe when you're not doing national broadcast involving the Carolina Hurricanes you don't pull out the hey hey what do you say but in a national context is hey hey what do you say completely retired? In a national context it might be. It's probably a conversation I need to have with some of my superiors if we move forward. There is some branding attached to it I think the legalites because they do use it in some ads and things of that nature so if it plays out okay for everybody maybe we get to it but that hockey baby might show up.

I don't think that harms anybody. What you want to worry about in a national game is any type of bias and you have to be completely down the middle. In this day of social media you're going to hear from fan bases no matter what and a lot of the games that I do involve you know real healthy fan bases that have been that way for a long time so you're doing a national game on a Saturday night which we did going into the Pittsburgh market and we set a record over two and a half million people watch that game at one point during the game and it's on NBC.

You can't show any bias because those fans will eat you alive and you have to be respectful of that so for that reason that's that's where it is we'll see where it goes if I end up somewhere else then maybe it gets attached to that new team. My wish of course is that I could continue with the Hurricanes but it doesn't look that way but I do miss it. I do miss my time with the team. My heart is there.

I should still be there but but I'm not Josh so we're just going to look forward and instead of looking in the rearview mirror. Last thing for Jon Forslund, NBC Sports tonight on the call for Canes Rangers Game 3. Baseball.

Usually we catch up talking about baseball. I've been very cautious talking about that sport on this show because you know you just don't really know the state of things right now and it's really tough. I'm never going to pretend to be epidemiologist on the radio or pretend to know where we're headed with a lot of these things but when you're trying to follow your beloved Red Sox even as busy as you are how much confidence do you have that the sport's going to be able to continue like this?

Zero. I don't know how they're doing it. I just think it's there's too much cross-pollination. There are too many risks involved.

It's like playing a game of Russian roulette. I mean you're taking these guys and you're making them move from city to city and the more contact you have with people who are not sequestered the worse it's going to be and if you get out of that environment like baseball is going from park to park there's absolutely no way to do it as well as the the bubble sports are doing. So basketball and hockey are doing it correctly and even with that being said it's still a risk because you're coming in contact with the general public at some point. There are even various degrees of people that have been cleared to work in areas of the arena when we get over there. It's all based on a credential.

My credential allows me to go to various places. The teams are allowed to go where they have to go and that's the top-end credential and then these people who work in the building and they're doing food service and things like that but they're not able to access the areas that we are. I hope they're doing that in baseball. I'm not a hundred percent sure they are and then you hear stories about how they're testing and all this. There seems to be again some distrust between the players and basically baseball.

That's the key. The union has to agree with the commissioner and if everybody isn't on the same page you're going to have breakdown and I think baseball has been one breakdown after another and that's just too bad. You look at the Blue Jays and what they're doing to these poor kids. They're just nomads. They don't even have a home.

I don't even understand from a humane standpoint. I don't think that's a reach to say that. These guys are already paid. The pay scale has been cut. The season's been cut. The minor league system has been destroyed and they're taking this small group of players of the Toronto Blue Jays because they can't access their home park and just moving them around and making them sit in a city for a weekend because they couldn't play and then at some point they're going to Buffalo to play their home games. It just seems like a clown show to me and it's unfortunate as a baseball fan.

I don't like to see it. John, it's good to hear your voice. I look forward to hearing it on these NBC broadcasts. Keep up the great work.

Stay safe and oh yeah warm tea, honey, and maybe a little bit of lemon. It's a good pro tip to keep the voices where it needs to be. You got it. You got it, Josh.

There he is. It's weird to say the former voice of the Carolina Hurricanes for Fox Sports Carolinas. Hopefully that changes after the playoffs but as John said not really feeling optimistic about that so I have to say NBC Sports John Forslund ahead of Canes Rangers.

8 o'clock tonight. We're looking forward to that. We're also looking forward to the start of football. Teams are already in fall camp and early returns show us there are some things that need to be worked out.

I'll explain next on the drive. We're gonna be joined by Mike Pecorcy of The Sporting News in just a couple of minutes. We've got an NFL trading card war to do today. There is breaking news out of Major League Baseball because of course there is. I'm a fan of the Orioles and last week was kind of strange when they were getting set to play the Marlins.

We learned about all these positive deaths. They didn't know if they were gonna fly into Miami. Then they do and then they're sent right back. They didn't know who they were gonna play next. The Phillies then had their games postponed so the Yankees said all right we'll play the Orioles and they played a doubleheader and I guess as much as things are different so much more remains the same. The Orioles kept losing games to the Yankees.

I think they've lost 18 in a row now but who's counting? Rock Cabaco's covered the Orioles for a very long time just put out this statement. The Orioles they're set to play the Yankees or should be set to play the Marlins again tonight.

Is it gonna happen? This from Major League Baseball. The start of tonight's game between the host Orioles and the Miami Marlins at Camden Yards may be delayed as we await the final test results clearing the Marlins to resume play. Wait what? It is, let me check my watch, 30 seconds past 4 32 in the afternoon and they don't have the test back necessary to say whether or not the Marlins can play the Orioles tonight? I'll steal Jon Forslund's words last hour.

Clown show. We're being joined now by Mike DeCorsie of The Sporting News and there are a lot of things I want to talk to you about Mike but one of these things that bothers me on social media the idea that the media raising safety concerns about sports in the age of coronavirus means they're rooting against sports somehow and I think we see that in other varying degrees as well as we see this PAC-12 unity statement that was put out over the weekend where some of these players just don't want to play enough because they're making a lot of these demands. Now putting that aside I don't want to have the conversation how seriously should we take the players and you know should they get NIL and all these things because a lot of that is overdue and it's gonna happen whether we like it or not but how reasonable or unreasonable did you find their demands to be? Well I thought that asking for post-career post college playing career medical coverage is something that's years overdue I don't know what the window is the proper window I'd be for someone with greater expertise in the medical field than I have which is none but I think I think that's long overdue it's it's it's always been necessary and as the money has piled up and and coaches have made more and more money it should have been spent some of that money should have been spent on that particular item especially and obviously most especially for football because it does it does take such a physical toll on on on the body and but there are other athletes in other sports as well that suffer injuries that have lingering after effects and may need aftercare and they may not always be in the best position in early career the early post playing career to have that covered I mean I when I was you know when I was laid off in between jobs in 1982 I like I got like a medical plan that paid like I paid like 25 bucks a month for it I don't know what was covered but I had to have something until I could get another job and so you guys who come out of college and maybe takes a little while for them to find their careers or ladies who whatever play in women's sports I they should have that coverage absolutely because you just don't know what you're going to need when you're done playing but the idea that they need that they're they should have 50% of the revenue in every sport go to the athletes I found that to be ludicrous and what athletes and what athletes specifically and what does that do to women's sports in Title nine they said all of them well that's okay because in Title nine the women's sports that don't generate a lot of revenue you get half of that and so they don't care that the women's field hockey players wouldn't get much it's not their problem they get half a football take they're they're fine but it is that money that funds women's sports no I'm sorry the money the revenue that college sports do create that do not go to the players right now does fund women's sports no a lot of it yes absolutely a lot it also helps fund facility expansion and high salaries for coaches and all the rest of that it all goes into that sort of pile and the players are saying that each each individual sport you should get 50% of the revenue and obviously it's a much better deal for them than it is for the men's golf team I found that to be rather preposterous what bothered me about the whole thing was how and maybe you don't want like and this may be entering into the part of conversation ignore that out but the whole I mean the media went scrambling over their skis to get this story and it without any idea how much support it has and it you know I I think some of in one way that the support of the players was quantified with how many athletes in in in PAC 12 programs liked the post I mean you realize how little effort it takes to like a post I mean Josh I could do 12 while we're talking yeah that's not that's nothing it's what it comes down to it are 400 willing to walk out of their football season and I would bet a lot I'm not a gambler and I don't gamble on sports but I bet a lot that there's not 1,200 people or there's not 600 400 people players ready to walk out of their football there isn't and I think Dave Doran he even said it earlier today there were some things he said that he probably wishes he had back but he did say hey no not one athlete has communicated to me that he wants to opt out of the season they are all hungry to get into the building and I've texted college coaches off the record seeing if that is the case at other places and they all told me yeah they're in the building no one's opting out they want to play ball they're tired of sitting in their home and again it doesn't really feed this idea you're right that a lot of the media put out there hey these there's gonna be this mass revolt in the PAC 12 and athletes they're going to opt out but similar to the way I I'm bothered by a faction of the media being criticized for saying they don't love sports enough if they're raising concerns about the safety of having them I do think there's other media out there that doesn't understand the NCAA that doesn't want the NCAA to exist and has that agenda unlike us who grew up on college sports and loves college basketball and loves college football and seeing this idea I'm interested in what you make of this and I want you to cut through the crap for me the power five potentially just separating itself from the rest of FBS or division one whatever you want to call it how plausible is it well I think that the question that I keep asking for the people who keep pumping that I guess it's a good it must be a click machine right because they're the guys who do what I do that just keep pumping that concept like so hard okay and so I'm just assuming now and I of course I would never write it because I think it's preposterous but it must be just a click machine because they keep going with it and I wrote an article when Mark Cuban was on a Pittsburgh radio station early in the pandemic and Mark Cuban advocated the idea of separating and and his idea was separate and then go hook up with a private equity firm and let them fund all the things I talked about where would they get the money to pay the new staff and the new office building and all the rest of that for their for their separate NCAA hook up with private equity that works so great for the newspaper business so yeah let's do that but that's that was his idea so when I asked what I asked a simple question and no one has ever been able to come up with an answer what do the power five get if they do this what is the bonus for separating from the NCAA because the reality is the things that people don't like about the NCAA the rules how they're enforced those kinds of things the power five are the people behind the rules that's who does it they are that they are that they are the they are the the the autonomy conferences autonomy means they make their own rules and that's how it works and so what do they get by separating I don't see what they what they get and no one's been able to answer that question and I am dying for someone to at least give me a response of some sort even if it's something that I can knock down like I'm the Ken Bay Matombo give me something to work with no one comes up with anything now here's what they lose okay the first thing they lose is the NCAA tournament they can have their own basketball tournament sure the NCAA tournament with college basketball is extremely popular much more popular than people think but it's not even a fraction as popular as the NCAA tournament but NCAA tournament is multitudes more popular than college basketball and I know they're kind of it but like if you separate the two meaning it the NCAA tournament worth a billion dollars for three weeks three weeks the cup that the power five understand math they understand that yeah they could go off and have their own tournament and they would get the full cut of whatever it would be but it wouldn't be worth the same money even though they control all the money it wouldn't be worth the same amount of money to them so they lose that they lose the the liability like when somebody sued college sports you know who they sue they sue the NCAA mainly they sue the NCAA because the NCAA tournament makes so much money and they can go after that but that's who they sue if you're the power five and somebody sues college sports you know who they're suing now they're suing you so you lose that and then you lose the efficiency years of understanding and and sweat equity and all that that goes into running championships nobody ever says the NCAA doesn't do that great so you lose all that because they're all there in in Indianapolis and maybe you could hire away some of the same people but they can't necessarily bring all the same synergies we've seen people try to recreate circumstances by hiring the same people remember when the Cleveland Browns came back yeah after the Ravens thing and they hired all the San Francisco 49ers people because they that must not be how it works well they weren't able to get Bill Walsh so they just hired all the front office and they still stink using an outdated example I mean you see with Bill Belichick I mean hey maybe that's the more modern one they're doing the same exact thing hey maybe we'll get Bill Belichick by hiring Charlie Charlie Weiss yes but they lose they lose all they lose all of that and so I've not seen anything that they gained there's this there's this fantasy on the part of Twitter users sports fans that if you broke away from the NCAA now you'd have all new rules and they'd all be better enforced when in fact that again the power five has the loudest voice in the room in terms of making those rules and making sure they're enforced in the way they want them to be he's on Twitter at TSM Mike shoot him a follow the Hall of Fame sports writer from the sporting news also great at recommending movies I watched I got good news for you I watched in the heat of the night with Sidney Portier just tremendous from decades ago you're right it doesn't really seem like it was made I think it either 67 or 68 over right 50 years ago give me another movie give me something else I need to watch yeah you know my wife and I've been doing more TV than movies but the last movie we watched it was very good is a movie called Miss Juneteenth an independent film that we saw on demand I think it was on and maybe we saw it on maybe we we bought off Amazon I'm not sure which but but it was a very good movie and and worthy of your 95 minutes or so very very good performances neat little story I really enjoyed it all right Miss Juneteenth that's the next thing I got to keep an eye on it's almost like it's not a book club but this is like the sports hub triad movie club where Mike the course he every time he visits with us tells us a movie he's seen lately maybe gives us a brief review on it maybe sometime soon we're gonna be talking about hopefully a vaccine and things going well and college basketball getting set and ready to go we could talk some hoops and movies next time thanks for doing this Mike you bet Josh always a pleasure there you go on Twitter at TSN Mike just one of the best doing it and a lot of good perspective right there if the Carolina Hurricanes want to eliminate drama they want to make sure they beat the New York Rangers tonight is the night it's tonight and I'll tell you why next the drive with Josh Graham he's confident smart we need vicious brutal addictive monster maybe but he knows his sports back to the drive with Josh Graham on sports hub triad it is time for NFL trading card war Robert comes up with five different superlatives categories that we need to place players into out of a trading card pack consisting of 12 cards that we don't see ahead of time and we have to try and position players in that pack of cards into those superlatives we argue our cases best of five wins the war so it's a combination of the nostalgia felt when you open up a pack of trading cards and the NFL and senior year superlatives I forget Robert did you have a senior year superlative class clown oh that's right class clown I was best smile because I had my front tooth knocked out with the BB gun and after braces I had one of those flipper things that had a tooth in the front that I had to take out when I eat so my classmates were really nice to do best smile and once they voted me that they said you had to do the picture smiling without your front tooth so there you have it so it's combining a lot of things together I also love playing the trading card game war or just the regular deck of cards playing war with each other it's a good way to pass time anyway play the image this means war this means war it's cool let's go this means war what does it have to get it mean something else okay you dirtbags this means war all right open your pack of cards all right taking a look at these real quick one of these really like heavy hologram like cards Chris goblin from the box all right here are the five categories while we're trying to think where to put them most likely to remodel their own home to do it by themselves most likely to own a bust of themselves most likely or I guess the best player to play on the moon so a player that would be really good playing on the moon most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse and most likely to walk around in the woods barefoot Robert you want to start or should I go for it all right most likely to remodel their own home by themselves I'm going with miles Jack the guy is ripped he's a physical freak he has a tool in his name miles Jack is my choice what exactly are you gonna be remodeling at your house with a jack either way it was a good line either way either way I'm gonna lay down Joey Bosa he's the the cliche work pale type player he is also jacked he's also a big human being spent a lot of time outside as a young kid so I'm gonna assume that he would be good at remodeling good with his hands so I raised Joey Bosa I don't know I think Joey Bosa he's younger than miles Jack he's a year out of the league he strikes me as somebody who's a bit bro ish and I don't really picture bros as being somebody who remodels their homes and especially does it by themselves I do see a lot of those traits in miles Jack who was a little bit of a do-it-all type at UCLA they remembered they had him at running back and they had him at linebacker so the versatility there tells me this is a guy who's willing to get the job done no matter what it takes to do so you don't know a lot of bros do you if you had a 24 pack of beer and six frat guys you could get just about any project done you wanted to as long as there was beer I'll give you the miles Jack though that's fine I'll give you the miles Jack miles Jack I'm off to a one-to-nothing lead most likely to own a bust of themselves who do you got Cam Newton I don't have to say anything I'm assuming he does have a bust of himself probably from the shoulders up not just the noggin but Cam Newton you're gonna win this one but I had Marcus Peters uh I could see him having a he's more of a shoe guy than a bus guy I said I'm not done yet all right keep going I said I'm not done yet Marcus Peters he big personality the positions you normally see personality it's wide receiver in corner rarely do you see it at quarterback cams an exception to that it's the rare mix of the fame that comes of being an NFL starting quarterback in MVP but also someone who has interest in entertainment and is actually really good at the entertaining has a personality that you want to actually watch and see and hear from so we're tied at one apiece best player on the moon I'm going with Bradley Chubb NC State he was awesome local appeal top five pick the Broncos they're the closest team in the league to playing on the moon like you're talking about high altitude and if that's not enough of an argument playing in high altitude I will submit that his Twitter handle is at astronaut I'm not kidding at astronaut is Bradley Chubb good luck beating me here I'm gonna go Russell Wilson because I think he's a better player than Bradley Chubb is on the planet or the moon I could have picked Josh Dobbs here even though just because he's a rocket scientist but that would not make him the best player on the moon you think Russell Wilson's hard to tackle in real life imagine him jumping literally 15 feet over you on the moon I I don't know what else to say I'm gonna give it to me just because mine has local appeal because Bradley Chubb went to NC State that's this is the dumbest game we've ever played Russell Wilson with the way you really want to win this bad don't you Russell Wilson you can have it it's okay this game is meaningless to me that's fine take it you know he is a better player so you can have it but I do have the local appeal in Bradley Chubb that you don't have it's all good you're two and one here we go games already under appeal most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse I got Julio Jones the guy I mean is just a monster I don't think I need to say anything more than that what else do you have Julio Jones has more fumbles in his career against the Saints than he does the touchdowns if he dropped something during the zombie apocalypse you can't go back and get it I'm I'm I'm raising you Aaron Donald Aaron Donald is just a beast of a man you give him a riot shield you give him some armor and I feel like he could just plow through an entire crowd of zombies it's a lot better than mine it is I love the stats you're bringing up about specifically against the Saints more fumbles if he fumbles a loaf of bread who's gonna get caught in the zombie apocalypse walking dead style that probably was an episode of The Walking Dead I wouldn't know I haven't watched it Julio Jones dropping a a loaf of bread a a rye if you will and and that ending the Atlanta Falcons wide receiver the way that they blew a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl in case you forgot all right we're tied to a piece it's the last one here most likely to walk around in the woods barefoot I've got CD lamb excellent footwork and here's the thing anybody who's lived in the woods and I have I grew up in the woods walking around out there if you have a gravel parking lot shouts to you or a part I should say a gravel driver way you need to have very specific footwork to get through you know what I'm talking about where you're tiptoeing through that's the way that CD played it Oklahoma last year it's what makes him great he always knows where he's at he's not gonna step on any pine cones Robert not not CD lamb so I think wide receivers where you want to go and CD lambs the guy I'm gonna lay down Dallas Goddard mostly because I think he's actually been in the woods without his shoes on and it doesn't matter if he steps on a pine cone that dudes prop doesn't have baby feet he's got grown man feet with calluses on the bottom of them he could probably bench press with the bottom of his shoes if he wanted to Dallas Goddard he's got a redneck name he's got a redneck lifestyle I feel like he could do the outdoors better than most I feel like this game needs to be put up to the audience three three six seven seven seven one six hundred Dallas Goddard CD lamb who is more likely who is most likely to walk around in the woods or better to walk around in the woods seven seven seven one six hundreds the number if you put this up to the audience I would have won on the fourth card because there's no way they would have agreed that Bradley Chubb would be a better player on the moon than Russell Wilson astronaut high altitude I feel like I gave better reasons what should I should have just picked Laramie Tunsil because he's also higher than most players did you have Laramie Tunsil no but I did last week I didn't have Josh Dobbs either but yeah I think you're being I should have played greedy Williams right now because it sounds like you're being greedy I'm not being greedy no one has ever won this game with more than four points is the most controversial finish to this game I'm gonna leave it to the phone callers to decide at seven seven seven one six hundred who ended up winning this NFL trading card war between me and Robert that's what I'm gonna do because I I liked my arguments for CD lamb I think your arguments were good as well you grew up in the woods I think at some point didn't you yeah for the first three years of my life I was raised by wolves and we stayed mostly in the woods also a cave by a stream so got it yeah I I'm not sure if you've been to my home or where I grew up outside the city of Wake Forest in Youngsville north of Raleigh but it's it's a wooded area and I didn't really have neighbors that I knew that well just spent a lot of time outside and in the woods so I you know I know all about trying to avoid the pine cones and the snake every now and then I know it probably doesn't sound that way in my voice but that's that's what I grew up with all right we've had a big show so far today John Forslund joined us Hall of Fame sports writer Mike de courcy was with us if you missed any of that it's gonna be in the best of podcast about a half hour however and wherever you're listening we appreciate that tomorrow Wake Forest director of athletics John Curry is gonna be with us so there's a lot that we need to get to with John but let's go to the phone calls and I'm scared because we have a couple here and what if they split okay let's go to Dustin and Winston Salem Dustin who won the NFL trading card war between me and Robert I don't think it was you Josh I don't think a wide receiver is going anywhere barefoot without someone carrying them around all right thanks for the call Dustin let's go to Mike and Burlington Mike and Burlington who won the NFL trading card war Robert short and sweet thanks so much all right Robert congratulations you've won for I think the fourth consecutive week that reminds me are you gonna take a look at what's happening tonight as the Hurricanes look to follow the hat-trick scored by probably not eight o'clock tonight man eight o'clock tonight I got some big plans I'm gonna be a little busy tonight what are you doing I'm having like a little birthday party thing at my dad's that does sound like a lot of fun should be fun all right so a lot to get to again with John Curry you got Notre Dame facing Wake Forest in Charlotte as of right now it's still set for September 26 the adjusted schedule Notre Dame being in the league I mean just so much that a lot of people care about right now my Apple watch is talking to me right now what's it saying I think it's saying man this radio show kicks ass dude I wish my watch talked to me keep going keep doing what you're doing right here congratulations on another win in the NFL trading card war thank you thank you you're far too kind I don't think you're ever gonna let me win this thing it's not that I don't let you win I just think that I'm better at lying about players abilities than you are yeah Deebo Samuel I had him in my pack so you could have used the name Deebo as like who would he would Deebo the zombies I was thinking about that the Deebo is always a good play just for the namesake it is Chris goblin I didn't know anywhere I could put him Adam Thielen like it's not who can catch the most useless amount of passes see I would have it's him or Christian McCaffrey that lead the NFL and most useless passes caught Thielen out you could have put him as like would have remodeled his house though he's an undrafted guy he's not unfamiliar to working and I would have bought that way more than miles Jack but you know what your tool reference in know what it been a gene I just I wouldn't know where to put him I just wanted to put that out there because I spent a long time trying to pronounce his name so you might as well do that that's the thing when you learn how to pronounce someone's name you always want to say it just to prove you got it yep like I remember when I first got the Navy football coaches names his name down do you know the name of the Navy football coach Robert can meet me a Monta Lolo or something like that not far off Ken Nia Matalolo is his name and I just butchered it Ken Nia Matalolo there you go there you go right there I remember we used to do a skit on their segment on your show in Greenville whenever EC would play BYU we would get how do you spell their names yeah yeah yeah and we would try to spelling be some of those dudes names that was rough I mean I always loved the signing day spelling bee it's one of my favorite bits that we do there were a lot of annual bits that we have to look forward to anybody anyway I didn't have anybody else Tyler Johnson the rookie out of Minnesota I didn't have much use I had golden Tate so I was really hoping for like an adulteress theme I really need to open my pack of cards first and then make the category so I can make them all I want to sweep you know is that against the rules that's very much against the rules do you think Dave Doran deserves all the heat that he's getting today no nobody ever deserves all the heat they're getting maybe R Kelly but nobody else if you don't know what I'm talking about let's play that quote Dave Doran he's talking about I asked him in his zoom press conference today about the fact that many of the symptoms you look for for heat illness are the same you're looking for for COVID and this is what he said and I don't mean this in a way where I'm not respecting COVID because there's so many precautions here for that but I'm more concerned about you know heat illness and and seasoned ending injuries that I am about a virus that in most cases when our age group of guys is three to five days you know and so there's been a ton of conversation about heat illness we always talk about the guys on our team that are sickle cell positives because they're the ones that you most are concerned about when it comes to the heat so I I've tried my best Twitter isn't the place for contacts it isn't I thought what he said was newsworthy so I'm getting a lot of NC State fans saying that on social media that I wasn't being fair to Dave Doran but I've tried my very best to add the context in there because I do think the heat illness piece of this is being overlooked wasn't a gotcha question it was me simply bringing up how this could be a potential roadblock that COVID presents that we're not accounting for over the next few weeks if somebody is demonstrating these following symptoms if somebody at practice this week for NC State you look at him and you see he has headaches or high body temperature or fatigue or nausea or vomiting according to the CDC those are things you expect with heat illness and Dave Doran's a smart guy he's dealt with that right he has but also it's the same stuff the CDC says that you should be looking for with COVID so what do you do if somebody demonstrates those symptoms do you send them off into quarantine or do you throw them in an ice bath do you do both I don't know these are uncharted waters that's why I thought it was a legitimate question Robert what do we got and take it to the house today from Charlotte's web to arachnophobia I've got you covered that's next on the drive