Best/Worst NFL Brands (7-9-20)

It's a big news day in college sports on this Thursday. A day after the Ivy League postponed fall sports with the hope to resume in early 2021, the ACC announced that all Olympic sports have been postponed to at least a September the first start.

And here's what's interesting to me. Pretty much the decision administrators are making in major college football right now, whether or not to play football is very similar to the decision football players and parents had to make in the last decade ever since we've known about the extent of brain injury in football and CTE. Playing football is a risk reward assessment.

It is weighing the potential dangers of brain trauma and damaging your body versus the reward and the status, potentially earning a scholarship or a professional career or obtaining some sort of fame or celebrity. Those are decisions parents make, young people make and have been making really for the last decade since we've learned more about some of the things that have happened to football players during their careers and certainly after they've ended. This is not the same decision that was being made in March when all of sports was canceled. Financial risk assessment is what's going to decide what happens with major college football, not public health.

It's completely different. In March, the Ivy League, they led the charge a day before Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus, effectively ending everything. On March the 11th, the Ivy League said, we're not going to have our men's and women's basketball tournament. So we were all on pins and needles yesterday, waiting to learn what the Ivy League was going to do in football. And of course, they postpone things. They postpone things because sports aren't a primary fundraiser for the Ivy League operation the way that football and sports can be in major conferences, especially in the power five.

But that's not limited to other schools like App State and East Carolina that are in the group of five among FPS. So I just find it interesting how people are taking what the Ivy League does yesterday and leaping to the conclusion that's where all of college football is headed. If it was a public health decision, there's no way we'd be trying to bring back any of these sports. There's nothing plausible about what the NBA is trying to do in Orlando with the bubble. It's kind of an absurd idea, but players, they want to salvage their lucrative salaries. The owners, they want to salvage the television money, the marketing money. They want to salvage all of that. And of course, the marketing companies, they want their ads to run because they know we're going to watch these games more than ever now. So it really is the money that's driving things.

It's a financial risk reward assessment. That's what this is. In March, that wasn't it. When Gobert tested positive, think about how little we knew Robert. It was scary. We felt powerless.

We didn't have testing at all. We didn't know anything about the virus. We didn't know how deadly it really was. We didn't know Jack. So we had to shut everything down. We were operating from a place of unknown. And that's uncomfortable. It was a public health decision that was made. That's not what this is going to be. Chris Pitola, I really love his perspective on things from ESPN.

He was with us on yesterday and he added this. It is comparing apples and oranges to say that the power five is is under the same calculation that the Ivy League is. But I think ultimately what the pressure that the Ivy League is now putting on the power five is the public health component to this. Are the power fives going to go on business as usual when the Ivy League is, in theory, making a public health calculation? I think that's ultimately what these other schools are confronting. I brought up a stat that the athletic put out there yesterday. The overall revenue that the eight Ivy League schools combined created was somewhere around 30 million dollars.

Just the Big Ten, those 14 schools combined created over a billion dollars in revenue. So to steal Spitola's expression, it really is apples and oranges. However, Robert, why can't we compare apples and oranges?

I hate that phrase. You can totally compare the two. One's a citrus. One is a fruit.

Yeah. What do you prefer? Apples or oranges? It kind of depends my day. I'm an apple guy because I like slicing apples versus just taking a big... Since I've gotten braces, I can't eat apples whole anymore.

But I guess I would put me in the citrus group, whether it's cuties or oranges or what have you. Good to know. B Dot's going to be here a little later on this hour. It's official or it was made official what we pretty much knew last Friday. Washington's going to change its team name.

It's not going to have anything to do with Native Americans. We don't know what the next team name's going to be, but we knew for years that the Redskins name, it was a slur, so easily was the worst name, the worst brand in the NFL. Now, if we take them off the board, who takes the cake now? Who has the worst branding in the NFL? Who has the worst team name?

Here's the way I'm going to do the criteria. I've got the best brands and team names, which we'll get to when B Dot joins us later this hour. But I think since the Redskins were the worst and that's on the way out, I have the five worst to go with, with the criteria being regional relevance.

I love when names are perfectly applicable to the region that they're in. I think colors, team colors and logo factors into this when you talk about the best and worst brands in the NFL. So again, this is the worst. Let's go with the fifth worst brand. Number five, the Green Bay Packers.

This might surprise you. A lot of history there, but do you know where the Packers name comes from, Robert? It was like a meat packing plant near their facility.

Curly Lambo once worked in the Indian Packing Company. So they thought, let's name our team the Packers. Just not great. Plus they're one of those teams that calls themselves the green and gold or whatever in gold and they don't have any gold.

They're yellow. I hate when teams say that they're gold when in fact they're yellow. I think the Packers brand is vastly overrated.

This might generate some pushback. I'm fine with it. The Packers are the fifth worst team name slash brand in the NFL. Number four, Indianapolis Colts.

This one is a bit personal to me. My dad grew up a massive Baltimore Colts fan and it's pretty cool how they got their name. In Baltimore, that's where the Colt revolver was created.

So it didn't have anything to do with Cowboys or horses. They moved to Indianapolis and heck, if they're going to steal Baltimore's team like they did in Mayflower trucks in the middle of the night in 84, come up with a different name. Come up with a different brand. Don't just hijack it so people forget about the Baltimore Colts because who knows, Baltimore might get a new team like they did in 1996 or 97.

And guess what? The Colts didn't change their name so Baltimore had to come up with something new. Not particularly fair. I think it doesn't make much sense for the Colts to be in Indianapolis.

Not a lot of history with that. So the Colts are the fourth worst brand. Number three, Houston Texans.

Really? The Texans? It's almost like they're forgetting there's another team in the state of Texas that Texans root for that might be bigger than what you are. Also, kind of doing what the Indianapolis Colts should have done, Robert, when the Tennessee Titans took Houston's team, they came up with a new name.

And they were the Titans, right? Which means the Houston Oilers were available and you didn't go with that. It's a bad sign when the XFL comes up with a better brand than you guys had.

Give me the Roughnecks all day over the Texans. Not a great color scheme either. Not a great logo. The Houston Texans, number three on this list. Number two, worst brand slash team name, Jacksonville Jaguars. The only reason it's not dead last on this list is because they at least got it right with alliteration. They have some alliteration there.

I could get behind that. But Jacksonville Jaguars, awful colors, awful uniforms. There are no Jaguars in the state of Florida except at the Jacksonville Zoo, apparently. The oldest one in North America. You got it.

I see you read Wikipedia for this. Jacksonville Jaguars, get out of here with that. Number one, Cleveland Browns.

This one wasn't even close. It's got to be Cleveland. The Browns are named after Paul Brown, who then left Cleveland to have a better career with the Cincinnati Bengals. Your rival.

That's crazy town. That's crazy that you're still called the Browns when the guy left to join the Bengals. On top of that, your primary color isn't brown. It's orange.

How is this? I would love to hear an argument for a worse team name slash brand than the Cleveland Browns right now. He wanted to change the name to the Cleveland Panthers and got overrun, I think, in like 19 one of the 1960s.

Who knows? But I mean, the Bengals are also bad. There are no Tigers in Cincinnati. I like the stripes, though. I like the stadium, the jungle. I like the color. They have the worst stadium in the NFL. I like it. I like the Bengals. I'm sorry. Palisade walls you have thrown up here. I mean, at least it's like an intimidating animal.

It's a bingle. And it's better colors than the Jaguars are. See, I was thinking you were going to like be mad at the Bears for just copying the Cubs and sticking with your recent theme, because there are no Bears in Chicago, or you were going to make fun of Minnesota because it's not like the Vikings actually flew into Minneapolis.

Purple's a pretty cool color. I feel like you're very biased in this bottom five list. You're right. It's my radio show. It's my worst five.

That's what I'm saying. The Packers at five, the Colts fourth worst, Texans third worst, Jaguars second, and the Cleveland Browns dead last. Coming up, a local sign of how much the quarterback position has changed in really a short period of time. This is The Drive. Places, everyone.

Come on, places, please. We're ready. Back to The Drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. I want you to take the emotion out of this question I'm about to ask, especially if you're a Carolina Panthers fan. Could Jake the Loam start in the NFL in 2020? Ten years ago, he was the Panthers quarterback, and I feel like the position and the way we view it has changed so much that I don't know there be a place for Jake if he was coming up the same exact way he did nearly 20 years ago. I was watching one of the greatest game NFL Network series they have, and they were doing Super Bowl 38 and described how Jake started two games with New Orleans. He had the NFC or the NFL Europe path before he ended up signing with Carolina, took over for Rodney Peete, had that comfort behind win.

They had about a half dozen of them that season on their way to going to the Super Bowl. I just started thinking, though, what was Jake the Loam's elite skill to justify him being a starting quarterback? I felt like back then, even ten years ago, it was, all right, do you fit a prototypical quarterback mold?

Do you have some moxie? Do you in some ways look the part? Okay, if the answer to those questions are yes, then we're going to give you a shot, and when Jake got the opportunity, this is not the disparage his talent and what he did on the field. We certainly love Jake.

He made the most of his opportunity. Today, every single starting quarterback, I think, has an elite trait to them. Tua just drafted, it's his accuracy. Kyler and Lamar, their speed.

Cam, his strength, red zone threat. Pat Mahomes has a cannon. There's so much more competition because the idea of this prototypical quarterback mold has been shattered and it's happened so quickly. It used to be if you were shorter than 6'2", you were lumped into the Doug Flutie box and not many opportunities are going to be given to you. That changed because Drew Brees became a future Hall of Famer. Russell Wilson was drafted in the third round. Those guys became all pros and won Super Bowls. It opened the door for Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray to be taken number one. Both those quarterbacks ran an offense that NFL coaches, NFL scouts would have said, oh, it's unconventional and it's not going to translate to the league, the air raid offense. Mike Leach's quarterbacks didn't get drafted until they did, until Lincoln Riley took his offense and then brought it to another level with the two guys I just mentioned. Gardner Minshew, he got an opportunity because he ran the air raid so well, put up a million yards at Washington State. Cliff Kingsbury came out of that offense too. He's now a head coach.

You have the runners. Lamar, he's not taken in the draft anywhere a decade ago. The quarterback position has changed so much that I don't think you're going to see a guy like Jake Delome make it in 2020. I don't think he even gets an opportunity because with quarterback too, it's almost like a politician now. You got to handle yourself that way, say the right things. That's why many of the quarterbacks are vanilla. They don't really get involved in controversial subjects.

They try to be pretty laid back and conservative on those accounts. You got to handle things like a politician. You got to sell things to a fan base. It's difficult to sell undrafted player from a non-power school. He's going to be our starter.

A GM, an owner, a coach, they're trying to run a business and selling that would be difficult to do or more difficult to do now than even a decade ago. Plus, Robert, you want to take a guess how many NFL starters are undrafted? Current NFL starters, guys that are scheduled to start or expected to start this year who are undrafted players. You want me to guess a number or a percentage?

Either or. I would say 20 to 25 percent is undrafted. Zero. Zero starters. Zero starters in the league undrafted. At quarterback? Yes.

Okay. 26 of the 32 quarterbacks were taken in either the first or second round. 26 of the 32. Two of the remaining six are placeholders for rookie quarterbacks that are just drafted. Ryan Fitzpatrick, a fifth or sixth round draft pick out of Harvard. He's starting for now until Tua takes over the reins. Tyrod Taylor, sixth round draft pick out of Virginia Tech. He's starting until Justin Herbert is ready to step in.

So really it's closer to 28 who are first, second round guys. I just don't think there's room for a guy like Jake and that's kind of a sad deal because he was effective and a great leader and it worked for Carolina. It's almost like when you watch a game, Robert, from 2005 then turn turn on one from 2006.

There's such a vast difference between standard definition and HD where 2005 might as well be 1991 in terms of how different it looks versus HD. I feel like as quickly as that changed, quarterback in the NFL has changed. And also I feel like scouting has changed too where less guys are going to fall through the cracks.

You're going to have more tape, more availability to see these guys like a Warren Moon or Arizona Cardinals quarterback. Why can I not think of his name? Tyler.

Thank you. No, no, no, no. The old one. Carson Palmer?

Yeah. Oh, he came back. One of the Steelers. Kurt Warner. Kurt Warner. There you go.

Those guys are going to fall through the cracks list. Another NFL Europe product. Man, this news bums me out from the Cole Auerbach. The Big Ten is expected to announce today that it's going to go with the conference only football schedule for this fall.

A person with direct knowledge tells her and the athletic. That's kind of sad. It's kind of a bummer. So rather than just get bummed out and dampen this entire radio show, let's look at a lot of lines that Las Vegas put out today for weeks zero and one. Yes, please. And give some picks.

These games might not happen, Robert, but let's throw some picks out anyway. You want some music for this? Oh, please. Your attention, please. Please do not turn off your radio. Why?

All right. Week zero matchup. Oh, I love betting. East Carolina hosting Marshall. Let's go.

August 29th. I couldn't believe this. ECU is a three point underdog at home.

That's crazy. I mean, you're not talking about fans being in the stands in all likelihood, but ECU gets to the players the night before, get to go out maybe and hang out at 519 or hang out before the night of this game and take on Marshall. It's the first time they're playing in a while since they were conference opponents in CUSA.

Fifty year anniversary of the plane crash in 1970, where most of the Marshall team perished flying back from Greenville, America. I think ECU is going to win this game. Second year for Mike Houston.

I mean, they're getting points. As Robert said at home, Holton Ehlers is back at quarterback, CJ Johnson at wide receiver. ECU wins this game. Mike Houston, tell the people what to do for your football team.

Put some money on it. Clemson, 29 point favorite against Georgia Tech. Why do the Yellow Jackets always draw Clemson?

It seems like the first game of the year. Poor Georgia Tech, poor Jeff Collins. Clemson's on a revenge tour after the way things ended last year. Clemson's gonna mollywop Georgia Tech by more than 29 points.

Put some money on it. NC State, 11 point dogs at Scott Satterfield's Louisville Cardinals. This is a Wednesday night game before all the other week one games start on Thursday and Saturday that following weekend. Remember the Kentucky Derby got moved to that Saturday. Really big in Louisville, of course.

So they decided to have the football opener on a Wednesday night. Coach Sat, he's experienced that back to his days with App State. They had those weird Sunbelt games in the middle of the week. I think NC State's gonna have a bounce back year. I don't know if they beat Louisville on the road, but 11 points. That's way too much for Dave Doran and now Ruffin McNeil and also Devin Leary. I think there's a lot back for NC State. You're gonna be pleasantly surprised how much further along they are versus Louisville. I mean, a lot of teams are gonna have Rust in week one. 11 points.

It's just way too much. Put some money on it. And lastly, North Carolina is at UCF. Three point dogs for the Heels.

I don't know why. North Carolina, plus 500 last year. A lot of momentum. Great recruiting class. Sam Howe's back. Every starter except for one offensive lineman returns. We're in on the Heels.

I like getting points. Mackenzie Milton, it's 50-50 if he's gonna start at quarterback for the night. So I like the Tar Heels in this spot. And if there's some other ones I like, Alabama laying 14 points against USC, you can bank that. Wake Forest, I don't know if I'd take minus 18 against ODU, but screw it.

Why not? And Duke is a 12 point favorite against Middle Tennessee State. I like the Blue Raiders to cover. Put some money on it. No clue if any of these games are gonna happen, but it's fun. I enjoy talking about betting.

You know what, someone actually told me this yesterday. I'm glad you're not going deep into the weeds on COVID and pretending you're an epidemiologist in this. I'm not. I like talking about point spreads, talking about sports, having fun in this time slot, and that's the promise I have to you, the listener.

Not to ignore what Nicole Auerbach's talking about, but to tell you about it and then still have fun anyway, because that in its own right makes things feel normal for us and we hope for you in the audience. B-Dots here. So we're gonna do the earliest ever edition of B-Dots Grammar School next on the drive. You wanted to hear some great sports talk? Well, here it is.

The drive with Josh Graham. It's not ironic. It's just coincidental on Sports Hub Triad. B-Dots is hanging out in studio with us. Yes, I'm his.

Yes, I'm his. Best transition we could come up with into B-Dots Grammar School, in which B-Dot teaches me about the urban vernacular because I don't know jack about it. I've been learning things over the last few months. One of the more popular segments that we do. It's the earliest that we've ever done this segment. So let's have fun with it.

Let's dive right in. It's time for B-Dot to take me to Grammar School. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking in high school.

He didn't play sports, but he did wear a helmet. And just when you think it can't get any worse, my English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high. Thanks a lot. Next semester, I'll be 35. Josh is going to attempt to learn B-Dots vernacular. I'm from the old school.

I got a street knowledge. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying?

It's time for B-Dots Grammar School. Oh, and by the way, I gave the worst NFL team brands and names now that the Redskins are being changed earlier this hour. I can't believe four you left off the list. In 10 minutes, I have the five best. Oh, really? That I'll give you.

The five best in the NFL. We'll do that after Grammar School. You know what's interesting about Grammar School, if this is your first time listening, welcome to B-Dots Grammar School. And here, Josh usually gets these five words and then he has to tease for his next segment. I don't know how you're going to be able to do that now, but I'm very interested in seeing you make that happen. Oh, I'll find a way to tease the segment. You just actually get to hang around after I tease it.

Absolutely. All right, so you get two review words and we'll have three new words. If you would like to help Josh, this is a time where you can be a part of the show. The phone number is 336-777-1600.

336-777-1600. And Josh can use you as a lifeline if, for example, he doesn't know what the first review word is. Fetty. F-E-T-T-Y. Fetty. That is a review word. What does it mean?

I feel like I asked the same question that I'm thinking about right now. It's not Fetty Wap. It has anything to do with Fetty Wap. I think Fetty is cash. Like, it's money. We reviewed this word on April the 1st and you are 100% correct, Fetty is money, Josh Graham.

Yes. Josh needs three words to pass today's class. All right, three words.

Second word. Smize. S-M-I-Z-E. Smize. What does it mean, Josh? To smize.

To smize. I might need help here. 336-777-1600. I do have Robert Walsh as a lifeline as well. And Robert is never on his side, which makes this bit even that more funny.

It's kind of like Hollywood Squares. Sometimes I help him, sometimes I might. I usually win this game too. Last time you guys were making fun of me, I got the first two wrong and then we got three in a row and we cleaned up nicely.

That's why we don't live in the past, Josh. We're off to a good start here. There you go. But with smize, I just have no clue at this. Robert, help me out here.

I'm going to say that smize is to... God, do I want to help you or not? I don't know. I guess this is up to you. It's a lifeline. It's for you to decide. Well, the Titanic had some lifelines too, but not enough.

So I'll let you decide. But the lifelines that were used, the life vest, they worked. We don't know that. They froze to death in those waters. And actually there were enough lifelines.

Not because of the life vest. Here we go. Okay. You can decide whether I'm being truthful or not. To smize is to smile with your eyes. That's just not true. It's just not true what you just said. To smile with your eyes.

To smize. Are you going to agree with that or not? No, because here's the thing. You know what? I have nothing else going for me.

I got to go with smile with your eyes. Wow. Are you going to go with that? I'm going to go with that. Well, you should thank Rob because that's exactly what it means.

To smile with your eyes. Thanks Rob. Thank you. Yeah.

We're off to a two and oh start. What does it mean to go fed? Oh, go fed. Is this a review word? This is a review word. I like that.

You remember that. What does it mean to go fed? I think this means to sell out or to like snitch on your boys or something. That means to go fed. Like you're going to the feds. That's go fed. Wow Josh. Right when I thought you were going three for three, you didn't do it. What? That is incorrect.

How far off was I? I mean like California and Greensboro. Going fed means to be super turnt. I put a post up yesterday and I was like, yo, did anybody from Winston Salem state ever go over to Wake Forest?

And somebody was like, yo, the barn used to go fed. See what I mean? I understand. Third word for you here, Josh.

What is one, write these down one three one two. Now let me tell you something. Let me tell you something Robbie. I do a segment on Twitter and Instagram called I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.

I love it. This could have gone on. I didn't know. Maybe you didn't really.

I had no clue. And I mean when I was sitting there like, wait, you mean you don't know what one three one two means and then you're going to throw it at me. Well for grammar school, what's up? Like like intense algebra that you're throwing at someone who barely understands math. Well, see, the thing is, is this segment is for all of us to learn on the same level, Josh.

OK, for no one to be above anyone else. I am not above learning. And when I learned this earlier this week, I said, yo, I've got to use that for grammar school so I can make sure that my boy is up on it. You're only wrong until you're informed. There you go. Word's been really masquadaisical lately. See, see what I'm saying?

Listen, 1312 or you can put ACAB. And this is a real thing. You can actually Google this.

This is a real thing. I don't think I even know what this is. I have a guess, but you also have a caller on the line, Lauren Walsh, but she doesn't think she could help you with this. All right, let's go to Lauren Walsh. She can't help with this. WXII.

I just want to hear what she has to say. What do you think? Oh, did first off, we'll get the smize real quickly. Lauren, did you know smize?

Hope you would smize. Yes. Um, that's a classic word, I believe originating from America's Next Top Model, Tyra Banks, telling the model, my correct smile. That is the exact place I know that from.

Hold one second, though. How do you smile with your eyes, Lauren Walsh? I can't say I'm a master smizer, but it is a technique one can pursue and eventually master. Now let me ask you, Lauren Walsh, what is your Instagram so that we can go and look at a few of your pictures and see how you're working on your smizing? See, I'm not great at smizing because I smile with my whole face. But you have to be able to smile with the mask. Oh, that's true.

OK, that's true way to practice. So my Instagram is at Law Walsh, L.A.U. and my last name, W.A.L.S.H. Maybe I'll throw off a smizing picture tomorrow. Everybody, we're all going to Law Walsh's Instagram tomorrow.

She's going to give us a smizing picture and we're going to comment on it and like the hell out of it. All right. Thanks so much, Lauren.

Appreciate you trying to help. Sure. There you go. She's awesome.

I can't wait for the smize picture. WXII sports reporter Lauren Walsh trying to give us some help here. No relation to me. Really? None.

None at all. That's great. Maybe she's going to be your future wife. Oh, probably not. Unless you're Syracuse.

What the hell does that mean? I mean, she's an ACC school. She's also way out of my league. Yeah. You're like, oh, that's understandable.

You are a troll. Anyway, I think we're all hanging out tonight. You should come join in, Robert. See, this is how Josh guilts me into hanging out.

Let me bring the music. Why wasn't I invited to the hangout? Well, I was going to ask you after the break. Actually, please come hang out because we could hang out.

Is this in Winston? Yeah, sure. No, I'm going to come hang out.

All right. 1312. Josh, don't you think you've got sense of the principal's office?

You're still in grammar school, buddy. 1312. 1312 or ACAB. What does it mean? ACAB. I have no earthly idea.

See how he started out so strong with the two and O and now he's sitting here two and two. It's an X. Um, this word. Now this again, this, these are not the views of Josh Graham show B dot Rob Walsh or Josh Graham, but 1312 stands for all cops are bastards. Okay.

I thought it was an acronym. Yes. That is not, not the views. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I love you dad. But listen, like one is a three is a C one is the police officer that let you off because of this radio show.

Absolutely. 1312. I didn't even know that was a thing, but if you Google 1312 slang right now as you're sitting at the light listening to us, you will see all cops.

It has a Wikipedia page before we get to the finale of B dots grammar school. Let's put it on hold for a second so we could play an actual radio commercial that was mixed down. We said we were going to do this when you were in here last.

We were going to make a commercial to let people know, Hey, this show potentially could get you out of tickets. Let's let's hear that. Listen, you might learn something. The drive with Josh Graham blue lights come on behind me. First thing you see is on my big dash is 93.7 20. Oh, you listen to 93 seven. I said, yeah, I love sports, man.

Sometimes I'm on there on Wednesdays. Oh, you're on there with Josh Graham. I said, yeah, that's my guy. It's like, I listen to that guy. I'm like, that's what's up.

I've never been given a verbal warning. So I credit you, Josh Graham. If you forget it in an officer bus, you just, you listen to the Josh Graham show worked for me and I'm black. The drive with Josh Graham.

How often do you all run that? Uh, it's in our nonsense. Promo. Shout out to DJ Turner. He cut the immortal hell out of that thing. He's a master.

He's a master running every hour on the hour. Fifth word here. I need to get it right to pass. All right. So Josh got fed. Did not get going fed. Did not, did not get smiles. Wait a minute.

Which two did you get? Correct. Correct. Got smiles. Got fed.

He didn't get going fed. Didn't get 13 12 new word for you. What is juice? J U I C E. What is juice? Is this a repeat word or is this a, uh, I thought I had used it before, but you saw, yes, I've used sauce.

But when I went through and look, Rob, I had not used this word. So I'm going to bring it back here. Juice. Yeah. Juice. I think. Here we go.

Hmm. I think it means like you, you got, it's kind of like you got it going on. You got the juice like, man, he's got the juice. This guy, he's ready to go. Like if you're talking about sports, for example, like LeBron James, he's got the juice, man.

The Lakers are going to win. He's got the juice. So he's got it.

That's what juice is. He's got it. I really need the listening audience on this. Yeah. I don't know how much time we have in this segment, but please call.

You're going to be the deciding factor. 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600 because that's not entirely it and he's already submitted this answer so we can discuss this. Correct. Correct. Okay.

The answer submitted. I look at it as juice as an intangible. Someone can, you can gain and lose. Sauce. Sauce is like what you're dressed as while you're, you're feeling inside your soul. Juice is something like, that dude's got juice. That always can like, and I, and that's why I made sure to emphasize he's got it.

Like you can't really coach it. He's got it. It's really just street cred though. He's got street credit.

He's got respect. Those are the words that I was sort of looking forward and you kept saying the same word and he's got juice, but what is the juice? Defining it. Tell me what it is.

You don't know the definition of it. So Robbie, I ask you seeing that juice means respect or street cred. Did Josh give you enough saying that he understood it to win today's game? I think I used the perfect player for that. No one's asking you Josh. I used the perfect player for street credit.

If I used any other player, it probably wouldn't have qualified. First of all, don't ever say street credit again. Take the it off of credit right now. Take the it off dammit.

It's street cred and that's how you will reference the word. My apologies. Robbie, what say you?

Don't ever say I don't ever do anything for you. I think he did enough. Congratulations Josh Graham. Congratulations Josh Graham. Not only did he tell you what smiles was, but he also gave you the win for today.

Congratulations. Josh Graham got three out of five correct in today's grammar school. I don't agree with one, three, one, two.

So I'm not going to include that in the uh, in the T's here. But um, tell you what, the NFL, it's no coincidence that they make a lot of Fetty. What I'm saying? Because they have good branding, great brandy. I mean talking about great marketing, these quarterbacks are out there smizing left and right and all these ads. They, I mean, come on. They can. I mean, have you ever looked into the eyes of one Dak Prescott? No. I mean, come on. He's got, he's, he's got the juice.

That's what I'm saying. So I got the five best brands. If the Redskins are the worst, the best branding slash team names in the NFL. We'll get to that next. Check this out. This is the drive with Josh Graham. Okay, let's get this show rolling.

On Sports Hub Triad. Okay. So I revealed the five worst brands and team names. Now that what was seen as the worst for the last few decades, the Washington Redskins are now going to be changed to something else unrelated to Native Americans. Green Bay Packers were the fifth worst, Colts fourth, Texans third, Jaguars two, and the Cleveland Browns were the worst in the NFL. I've got the five best now as B.

Dot is in studio with us as he is for an hour each week. Five best. And I feel very strong about the top five here. And it starts with number five, Baltimore Ravens. Edgar Allen Poe from Baltimore, perfect color, not enough purple teams in sports. I think the Ravens at number five is a fantastic team name. I thought if they got the Baltimore Colts back, they'd be one of the stronger ones in the league. But to be honest, I think the Ravens are a lot cooler than even the Colts were. Ravens at number five. Miami Dolphins, fantastic colors, works perfectly for Miami.

If you're talking about criteria, I forgot to revisit that. It is logo, it's team colors, it's the relevance to the region your name has. The Dolphins, it's perfect for Miami. The colors fit too. It's a great jacket. The Miami Dolphins teal slash green to wear. The orange goes perfect with that. I love the logo too.

Number three. San Francisco 49ers. This is a team that's gold and actually means it. Gold mining in 1849, that's where the name comes from. One of the longest standing team names. They haven't changed the logo, they haven't changed the colors, haven't changed their location of course in their entire history. So it's one of the brands of the NFL.

It's a benchmark. Gold rush. It's not yellow jerseys, it's actual gold. I think about the gold pants going with those red jerseys. The 49ers are at number three.

Number two. Pittsburgh Steelers. No other Steelers in the NFL. Steel City, Pittsburgh, the Steelers, black and gold. Eh, it's yellow. It is mustard yellow.

But black and yellow, really cool color mix too. Pittsburgh Steelers, perfect branding, perfect name. Number one.

Dallas Cowboys. Talk about it. It's gotta be. It's perfect.

It is perfect. I'd say it's the best brand in North American sports. The silver pants, the star on the side. Cowboys in Texas, Texas liking big. Dallas Cowboys number one. It's the best NFL brand out there.

And the most profitable. But you could also argue the New England Patriots. I was wondering if they were on the outside looking in. Patriots are definitely on the outside looking in. Just thinking about the whole Boston Massachusetts. That's the way I say it so I can remember how to spell it.

I didn't know that. Boston Massachusetts them being there and then of course patriotic and all that. And then the colors being red, white and blue.

Like then of course the Super Bowl after 9-11. The Patriots, that right there could have been number one as well as I like the Saints. I love the color scheme of the Saints.

Someone in the law office adjacent to us heard we were doing this today. Popped by and said Saints number one on your list. I'm like are you a Saints fan?

No I like the Panthers. I'm like well then why are you saying the Saints? It's like oh man the Saints have a great brand. Well you think of Saints, you think of Singing and Harmonious. In New Orleans you think of that the rhythm that they do with the parade. Saints are coming in. The Saints come marching in.

All of that. Like they really do a good job of branding it too. I like the Seahawks too just cause like the Ospreys. The jerseys.

And the color scheme is so hard. It's great. I also I was considering the Patriots. Another one on the outside looking in was the Vegas Raiders.

Just because even though they bounced around a bit that actually helps. That lends to the name Raiders. Well as rebels it's black and silver. It was based off the Spanish Conquistadors that went up there through California and raided through there. They actually were originally going to be the Oakland Senors. Really? That's right.

I didn't know that. Oakland Senors and the second name was Raiders and they said let's go Raiders. Smart. On Madden you can change where your team is located and give them a whole new team. One of my favorite names on there for New Mexico City was the Conquistadors. Yeah.

I think that would be a bad ass team name. Agreed. I want to shift things to something I've been wanting to talk to you about for a while now. We were on vacation last week but you had Makur Maker, 5 star player commit to an HBCU specifically Howard which is huge for the MEAC as teams are leaving the MEAC to go to other conferences. But I think it's leading to a bigger conversation in college basketball about how things might be shifting to star players potentially going to some of these HBCUs. Lavelle Moten was on Sports Hub Triad yesterday talking to Adam Gold and this is what he had to say. He's the head coach at Central in case you don't know.

Here's what he had to say on Maker's commitment. You know all it takes is one to reestablish a trend. And I think the significance is you know we're living in a world now where all individuals are starting to realize their power right across the globe whether it's women or you know athletes or owners or coaches or all race creeds, colors, different backgrounds, sexual orientations, it doesn't matter.

Everyone is starting to realize their power and I think that's a beautiful thing. I think college basketball is the only place that this could really happen among football and basketball being the major sports in college in this country. I don't think it could really work for football because they're not playing the same sport really. I mean they're playing football don't get me wrong but it's not FBS. Basketball it's D1.

You have a spot at the table. If you win the conference tournament you're going to go to the NCAA tournament and be given that type of exposure. Also in basketball it's easier to gather attention and to have exposure for yourself individually in a way that it's really difficult to do so in football. So there are more benefits attaching yourself to brands and football than basketball where the athletes are almost as big of brands in some cases as some of the schools are.

But before we fully react to this let's hear the end of what Moten had to say on the Adam Gold show. Regardless of where I go I'm going to be in school for four and a half months and it's a possibility I would never take second semester classes. That's just the reality and so some go to school to be an engineer some go to school to be a doctor you know criminal justice major whatever have you. These guys genius is basketball and you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone with the potential future earnings of them.

So just them utilizing that power and realizing that power and now applying that power I think it starts a shift and I always say it will be a cultural shift the moment this happens. B.Dot you went to Winston-Salem State you talked a ton about HBCU sports a lot about basketball as well. When you saw the core makers decision how big of a deal did you believe it to be? A huge deal and I would like to just correct you it is a small correction but I would like to correct you I graduated from Winston-Salem State University didn't just attend that joint. But with that being said I was so happy man that a top recruit of that caliber would choose a HBCU and I think Howard is the best HBCU to really take this initial step of a five-star player or four-star player that caliber transitioning into this limelight for a couple of reasons. One Howard is equipped with how to handle celebrities if you've ever been to Howard's homecoming or heard of Howard's homecoming rappers always talk about Howard's homecoming celebrities frequent Howard University so as far as the national spotlight and a lot of cameras and fanfare they're used to that as far as HBCUs are concerned. And Kenny Blakeney went to Duke. That was my second point Kenny Blakeney he knows what mature maker is going to need to get to that next level he knows what type of facilities and workouts trust and believe it they don't have it at Howard he's going to probably get over there to the Washington Wizards organization and get him the correct you know assistance and workout plans and stuff like that that he needs.

And third the big thing about it is they had four wins last year. Howard had four wins last year so the room for improvement is so huge with his talent level it'll be a huge success what he can do for the Howard University program but I was ecstatic like much HBCU alum and I'm hoping this will be a trickle effect and we'll keep building and keep building and keep building on this. It has to be the right kids though like kids that are good enough in their own right to you know already have exposure going in to warrant it like Ronnie James is such a name right now of course because of his dad but also a pretty good basketball player too that ESPNU is carrying his game right Zion Williamson he had that kind of brand I thought Duke helped him magnify that even more but he's the type of guy who could step on to an HBCU and the TVs were going to come to you.

Yes. Family backing that's a significant thing too when you're trying to make decisions between resources that may be a North Carolina or in the core makers taste a Kentucky might have versus what an HBCU you might have when people are pressuring some of these kids to choose between some of these it's choosing between resources and places that don't have as much so I think it has to be the right kind of kid who also understands the history of what he's doing as well and clearly hearing Maker talk about it he's one of those guys. Absolutely and resources will get better when TV contracts come to these schools so that they can get the funding to increase the resources you gotta think about it like names like Steph Curry, CJ McCollum, Dame Lillard, Ja Morant they went to schools that were small schools but they still got the exposure that they needed once they got to tournaments and made a name for themselves I'm sure a mature maker will do the same thing for Howard. That's right if you get to the NCAA tournament it's going to be a story and if you win in the NCAA tournament that's how Steph Curry became a household name at Davidson. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPCM Burlington, WMFR High Point this is what they call in the biz a legal ID on Sports Hub Triad. WMFR. That's right.

Oh got it. You're on the drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. Death, taxes, big time breaking news that happens right before we speak with Ed Hardin of the Greensboro News and Record. I think maybe a minute or two before we chatted with you a few weeks ago Bubba Wallace we learned wasn't the victim of a hate crime according to the FBI and in the last hour we've learned according to Brett McMurphy and Bruce Feldman's reporting the ACC is planning tentatively to have only conference games in football this year after the Big 10 told its coaches and I think Gene Smith confirmed to reporters that the Big 10 was going to do the same thing.

Now according to Feldman Notre Dame would be included in this framework if Notre Dame needed to have those games. How big of a deal is today's news Ed? What are you hearing because I see some of the tweets you're putting out just tell us what you know.

Well I'm trying to clarify some reporting that's out there that's a little premature. The ACC has made no decisions. It could very well come up with a no conference or no non-conference games and that's obviously one of the more likely things to happen but they have prepared no release. They have not told the coaches. They have not taken it to the Board of Governors or the Board of Trustees who will make this call. They're just not there yet. I don't know where these sources are. They're not from the ACC.

I just got off the phone with them so anyway a lot can still happen. I mean there's some really big games you're talking about not playing. You're telling me Clemson is not going to get to play South Carolina? I mean I just can't fathom that. I can't fathom Florida not playing Florida State. Georgia not playing Georgia Tech. You know this there are a lot of moving parts to this that haven't been ironed out yet and this is not an imminent announcement at all. So let me let me ask you this. What does this speak in your mind to an issue that we have that's exclusive to college sports that we don't see in professional leagues where you can have in a sense in essence a league go rogue like the Big Ten and say hey we're gonna do this while there's not alignment at least not from the SEC especially and what you're telling us the ACC hasn't prepared any announcement of that kind of decision being made? I mean I guess it's possible I think the Pac-12 and the Big Ten are just slightly enough different from the from the Southeastern and the ACC that they can probably do things differently and probably need to but the ACC is going to take a little extra time the SEC is going to take all the time in the world before it says anything and they just play by different rules down here we have better weather we have better rivalries we have more albums more big TV games and there's just a lot more at stake down here you know what they say it just means more they don't mean that about us do they? I was thinking about the Ivy League announcement yesterday and I see a lot of people linking what happened in March where the Ivy League cancels the men's and women's basketball tournament and a day after that Rudy Gobert test positive effectively ending live sports to Yale and the rest of or I just say the entire Ivy League yesterday voting to postpone sports until the calendar year 2021 and now today the Big Ten's announcement coming a day later they're linking the two here and I it feels like to me Ed that in March the decision we made as a country or as the sports world made was a public health decision because we knew very little about the virus then we didn't have the information on testing and how deadly it was we know a lot more now than we did then to the point where it seems like this decision that's being made is going to be financial risk assessment a completely different situation now than we had back then it's about figuring out what what you're willing to willing the risk on the financial end at the expense of playing or not playing sports how when do you think is the deadline to have a firm decision on what you're doing with your football season well I still think it's a moving target I mean people say it's got to be August 1st but you know there's so many moving parts to this I don't know if there is a last-ditch deadline they can still play these games in spring I mean we're just not there yet I think yeah money's driving it because they're starting to panic they're starting to realize now okay here's what this really means this isn't just the athletics department this is the entire college let's get ready to go under and that's going to happen to some places it's it's that intricate it's that important for football to drive the entire university's finances so you're right it's it's about money but it's got to be about the students too and I believe them when they say first and foremost it's the health of our student athletes that better be what's driving this if it's not they're exposed forever and I just don't I just can't be callous or cynical enough to think that this is all about money but if they don't play football it's not going to matter about how many student athletes they have anyway goes there's a bunch of schools getting ready to go broke could ACC and SEC schools feasibly play a non-conference schedule with a conference schedule while the Big Ten doesn't is that something that you think is plausible absolutely and it's been discussed the power five presidents and commissioners have been talking to each other every day for months and every scenario you can imagine has been put out there and what the what the Ivy's did what the Big Ten did today what the PAC-12 may or may not be getting ready to do that's based entirely on them saying we've got to do this now we can't wait any longer the ACC and the SEC can wait a little bit longer now they could come out tomorrow with an announcement of their own I don't know where they are on this but as of right now everything's still on the table but how does this happen where the Big Ten makes this decision if all these commissioners are speaking every single day and we're seeing that SEC officials are blindsided by this yeah I think I think there was an element of them eventually throwing up their hands and saying we can't we can't keep talking about this we're gonna go ahead and make a decision and they just did it and I don't know if it was a rash decision I don't know if it was a rope decision but for whatever reason you're hearing a lot of pessimism out of Big Ten Commissioner out of Big Ten coaches except for Harbaugh and they're for the first time they're saying this is all trending the wrong way this isn't looking good so they went ahead and they made a decision to say okay no matter what we're just gonna play a few games this year so again it's a different world up there it's a different world out there than it is here in the south and we've got time we can still come up with plans just like your ACC SEC he's on twitter at Ed underscore hearted reading stuff in the Greensboro news and record percentage wise what's your level of confidence in the NFL having a season this fall versus college football hmm well I personally I think it's zero for college football I just don't think there's any way in the world they play a fall schedule I just don't see that happening if that's the case the NFL Players Association is going to push back and they're starting to now you're starting to hear a little noise a little chatter I can't help but think that the NFL is all talk right now and when push comes to shove and the NFL PA gets involved it's a coin toss I personally I don't see it happening what's gonna be the biggest consequence of that well TV is gonna get involved and they're gonna they're gonna play the season you know just not this fall they're gonna have to wait until well there's a lot of things I got to wait for but if they make it through the fall and if the virus hasn't spiked again and if we're a little bit closer to a vaccine or something and if they've come up with another plan according to TV then maybe this maybe the NFL starts January 1st what that does to everybody else god forbid but everybody knows who's king you know NFL's gonna do what what it wants to do this could be its last stand though in the last few minutes Big Ten the Big Ten Commissioner had a quote we may not have sports this fall certainly wouldn't surprise him Gene Smith said he's very worried about it as well the CI double-a season this fall all CI double-a sports have been postponed to 2021 that just came down in the last few minutes there's something trending on the internet I want to shift things because I like talking to you about other stuff as well there's this thing trending that says that LeBron James today could beat Mike Tyson in a fight at 53 years old who wins a boxing match between LeBron James at 53 year old Mike Tyson can beat anybody's butt in the world I don't care how old he is I wouldn't even pay money to see that still the meanest guy in the history of boxing and that led me to asking a question on social media let me check how many people have voted on it you got about a hundred people voting on it still plenty of time on it who wins a fight between Cam Newton at 31 and Jackie Chan at 67 well Chan wouldn't fight fairs yeah I go with Jackie to 58% of people agree with you on that before we let you go tell me about the last catch you had oh I don't think the last catch I had was any different the last time we talked I've been really busy I've been doing yard work we've been boating a lot we just haven't fit the line in so we ought to be getting ready to do that right now my wife's wrapping up things in her office and it's a beautiful evening I'm looking at my boat right now it's calling me so ask me that question again in the hour all right I might actually do that and we'll get an update the next time that we chat thanks for doing this Ed anytime Josh got it that is Ed hard and he's on Twitter at Ed underscore you