"For The Super Bowl, Jim!"

This is the DRIVE Podcast with Josh Graham.

Now you're talking my language. You can hear the DRIVE weekday afternoons 3 till 6 on WSJS. You are on a Tuesday DRIVE. It is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where we are back for the first time since Super Bowl 58. I was a bit under the weather, but really it was just another reminder of how the Monday after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday for everyone. Fun fact, the first time I ever had a governor on the show, it was when Pat McCrory was in office in North Carolina, and I'll never forget the incredulous, dismissive look that he gave me when I suggested, maybe in North Carolina you make it a holiday the day after the Super Bowl.

He thought it was the dumbest idea ever. Anyway, there is a lot going on. In DC, the next five ACC men's basketball tournaments will be held in the state of North Carolina. Have a great day and go ACC. This week, during ACC winter meetings in Charlotte, one of the top agenda items to be figured out, how many teams will be at those ACC tournaments, what exactly is it going to look like? And when you are in Jim Phillips' position, or in any position, of notoriety, running something that has so many entities, like the ACC now has, having to please 18 schools, being a governor certainly qualifies, being an elected politician certainly qualifies as this.

You're never going to have consensus anymore, so compromises are going to have to be made. And that's what we're going to learn with the format of an 18-team ACC. This week, I think, is all going to be about compromise between administrators in the conference and the coaches within ACC basketball.

And this is what I mean by it. Perfect example is the conference tournament. There is only one group of people, as far as I've found out, as far as I've learned among people that I talk to, a group of people that wants all 18 teams participating in the conference tournament, and that's the coaches. I have not talked to a coach yet, and I've talked to many within the conference that do not want all 18 teams there.

They do. They want every single one of the 18 teams there because the way that they think is some version of this. What if I were one of the teams not able to go to the conference tournament? How would that affect our recruiting?

How would that affect? What if my job's on the line, and this takes away an opportunity for us to salvage the season in some way, shape, or form, and give us momentum going into the offseason? That's how coaches think. They want all 18 teams there because they fear the worst-case scenario. What if you're one of the teams that do not go to the conference tournament? But I've got news for the coaches.

They are the only people that feel that way. The fans don't want all 18 teams there because they fear the worst-case scenario. They don't want a six-day tournament. They don't want 18 teams there. Jim Phillips, back at ACC tip-off the media day in October, he expressed he doesn't want 18 teams there. So I've got news for the coaches. There will not be 18 teams at the tournament next year in Charlotte. Stanford, Cal, and SMU being the newest addition starting next year, bumping up from 15 to 18 teams.

In order for that to be kosher, in order for that to be okay, there has to be some sort of compromise. If the coaches don't get the thing that they want there, maybe they get something else that they want. And I think the thing that they want and that they will settle for is going back to 18 league games. So the administrators, they get a conference tournament where all 18 teams are not participating, and you get to tailor that back a bit. The coaches get a shorter conference schedule, tailoring back from 20, which has been this way since I think 2018, 2019, and coaches get more control of their schedule again. Because there is a faction of coaches that believe that the 20-game schedule has led to this perception problem that the ACC has. With cooked metrics that begin when the conference play starts and less control of the conference schedule or of the non-conference schedule, if they had more control, they could affect those numbers to best benefit their school, yada, yada, yada. Coaches, they don't like the 20-game schedule. They would like more control year to year if they have the extra two games.

Then I think that's something that they will go for. But what will the conference tournament look like? I think it should mirror ACC baseball. W.D., you're a baseballer.

You could probably relate to this. What with pool play? Something like that? 12 teams make it.

I think that's the number. 18 is a lot of teams. I think there is a much better chance that they cut a day out of the ACC tournament, right now it being a five-day event, than adding a day. Well, because nobody really goes Tuesday.

Unless it's in Greensboro. Yeah, so I think the top 12 teams make it. Who would be against that? Other than the coaches, they'll be against that.

But I mean, who else would be against that? From an entertainment standpoint, a four-day tournament, again, the top four seeds get buys to day two. I think that would be the best possible case for the event. John Curry, Wake Forest AD, was speaking with David Hale of ESPN on the ACC Network. And he said that they're thinking outside the box when it comes to the ACC tournament. Well, first of all, I think we've had a great tradition in history in our tournament.

And we know we're going to have a great scene. I do think we should be creative and think about options and not feel like we got to do it exactly the way we've always, always done it. And I know the commissioner and we have a men's basketball committee, so to speak, and put in some time looking at those different options. And how we can continue to drive interest and really make it great for our fans. If you're thinking about our schedule going into those last couple weeks of the season, it's going to be a barn burner.

A lot going on. And I think we've got an opportunity to build on that. I agree. And if you're making it best for the fans, I think not having all 18 teams, that certainly is what's best.

And I think even cutting back from the 15 would make a lot of sense. On X at WSJS radio, if you want in, that's where we're streaming video. In addition to YouTube and Twitch, Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show. W.D., we haven't really had a chance to talk about Super Bowl 58 yet. No, we haven't.

Good time the other night, though. Believe it or not, there is a way to hit this from a Carolina Panthers standpoint. Carolina Panthers fans are just looking for reasons to be miserable right now.

Just looking for reasons that aren't even there. And I've seen this with headlines, I've seen this with some tweets that are put out there. I think the NNO even put something out. The Raleigh News and Observer saying Carolina Panthers, former Carolina Panthers shine in Super Bowl 58. That's the headline that was put out there in both the Raleigh News and Observer and the Charlotte Observer. Sunday night and Panther fans were lamenting, watching. Oh, these guys used to be on our team.

Look what they're doing now. To that I say, nothing about the Super Bowl and how it transpired should have bothered Panthers fans at all. And I don't understand the frustration. I don't even get this one other than you're just mad at the world right now for being the worst team in the NFL this past year.

And anything, almost anything is going to set you off. Like it was not an incredible outing for former Panthers in this game. Oh, Josh, Christian McCaffrey had a touchdown. OK, Christian McCaffrey also had a fumble. Christian McCaffrey was held to three point six yards per rush, his third lowest total of the year. And the lowest total he's had in the seven games that he had at least 20 carries in for a Christian McCaffrey game. It was not a great one for his standard. Steve Wilkes's defense allowed Kansas City to score on its final four drives, including going seventy five yards for the touchdown in overtime to win it. Ray Ray McLeod, he muffed the punt on a key part of the game. Ball was at his feet. He tried to pick it up.

He couldn't. Kansas City recovered. They scored a touchdown in the next play to take the lead. Oh, and not to mention San Francisco lost the game. They lost the Super Bowl. But that wasn't the part that fired me up in the Observer story.

They have like a header, a photo that they put it. Who was the photo of Harrison Bucker? I hear Panther fans say, oh, could have had Harrison Bucker. The Panthers drafted him.

He could be on our team right now. When Carolina drafted Harrison Bucker in twenty seventeen, Graham Gano was their kicker. Graham Gano, a year after the Panthers drafted Bucker, was the NFC's Pro Bowl kicker, meaning he was one of the two best kickers in the sport. But we could have had Harrison Bucker also. Yes, the Panthers have not made the playoffs since twenty seventeen.

In those six seasons, twenty eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three. At any point of those six seasons, did anybody think, you know what would be the difference between the Panthers being bad and being good? Having a great kicker.

Has anyone even uttered that thought once once? Kicker being the difference for the Panthers. So get out of here with that. The only real regret Carolina has is not hiring Steve Wilkes. It came down to Frank Reich and Steve Wilkes as finalists. They chose Frank. We know Frank was the wrong choice, but it wasn't because of anything that happened in Super Bowl fifty eight. But you felt that that was the case. If the Panthers had the option to do the McCaffrey trade over again, they would, because it allowed for them to have the ammunition to trade up and take Bryce Young. And they weren't close to winning. And CMC was expensive and he was getting hurt a ton.

And he was playing a position that you probably shouldn't pay a ton when you're not any good. So, no, Carolina was not wrong to trade Christian McCaffrey and no, not the Super Bowl. Nothing about it should have been grounds to be further bothered or frustrated if you're a Carolina Panthers fan. I need Hayes Permar's expert opinion on something that is probably most pressing this week at ACC league meetings. The winner meetings taking place in Charlotte. Hayes, last week we learned that the next five after next month's tournament in D.C., the next five ACC tournaments will be in North Carolina, three in Charlotte, two in Greensboro.

And that's good news. But we don't know what exactly the format is going to be. Will 18 teams be at the tournament or is it going to be scaled back? Is there a chance that they could do it like ACC baseball where the top 12 teams make it and you even have it be a four day event versus a five day event like it is right now? When you think of the ideal ACC tournament, now that that is being discussed, what the tournament should look like with three new schools being added, what do you think the ACC powers to be should do? I think that we should keep it in North Carolina and only North Carolina teams should be allowed to play in it.

They can play a round route. Duke, State, UNC and Wake can play each other one time to determine on like Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday to determine seating for Friday, Saturday. Wait, so it's going to be in Greensboro and Charlotte only? It's not going to go to, you know, like maybe Jacksonville? I'm shocked.

I'm shocked I say that we are not. I love that we're like, hey, hey, hey, you guys, you guys can leave the ACC. But we're keeping the tournament in house from now on. I don't know if this is a... Well, you know the reason why that is.

The reason why that happens is they there are some people in the ACC office who don't know if there's going to be an ACC after two thousand twenty nine. So there is a... That's what I mean. Well, there's a... Y'all can leave. Y'all can try and leave.

But you're coming here as long as we can. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But they want to make sure they get a 15 million dollar payday from the state of North Carolina, who agreed to give them 15 million dollars if they kept their headquarters in... If they have enough ACC tournaments. That's right. They need to have two in Greensboro and two elsewhere in the state of North Carolina. Didn't stipulate specifically Charlotte, but said four tournaments in North Carolina and two in Greensboro.

They're like, we're going to get all these requirements in now. No, no, that is true. I mean, I know I've repeated this ad nauseam, you know, on your show, on other shows, but the... It goes back beyond this, but the ACC tournament, the basketball tournament was... It kind of defined what the ACC was in so many other ways. Like we're a basketball conference.

We're a North Carolina centric conference because of the uniqueness of four schools being so close together, three on top of each other and one, you know, close by. And ever since we added Florida State, even if some of the moves were about survival and their survival might not have happened without it. At some point, once we added Florida State, we were always chasing something that we were not, right? Like we were chasing the big game, even though that wasn't the game we were playing. We were not going to be able to compete in college football.

And even though we made it 40 years or whatever it is past that expansion, ultimately it's going to come down to like, no, like we're at our core. The ACC is not what the Big Ten and the SEC are in terms of football. And by the way, like 10 years ago when the Big East air quote fell apart, you had people saying justifying the moves.

That could be us if we didn't do this. But 10 years later, we've seen what the Big East has become in basketball and how great the league is and how much their fans enjoy watching the product and the history. And there are a lot of ACC fans saying, you know, like if it was everyone will tell me I'm crazy. But if we spent all the energy we spent chasing football, all we had to do was chase Kentucky. All we had to do, we 100 percent max effort at getting Kentucky to join the ACC and become the basketball. And then we could have had Connecticut, if we wanted Butler, we could have had anybody we wanted for basketball.

Right. And said, that's just what we're going to be. And then maybe you don't have to get to 15, 16 teams. You're trying to keep it smaller and divide the pie less and not get weighed down by these other schools. But my bigger point is we've been chasing the game ever since. And when you see to your point of the Big East is still a super cool basketball conference. And the fact that it is every year in Madison Square Garden is awesome. And I know Madison Square Garden is different from Greensboro Coliseum, but Greensboro Coliseum has a basketball history. And much like, you know, the Augusta for Masters, Omaha for the college baseball. If we had just kept this tournament in the same damn place, it would have had something special to it that it lost. More than than adding team, more than the fact that it's Boston College or that, you know, now Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech or whatever.

Keeping it in Greensboro was the move. And it would have defined something special about it in a way that that somebody just chase it. We've been chasing the whole time. And now we're finally realizing you're never going to get it. So it's sad. But it is cool. Like you said, it is cool that we're like we may be going out, but we're going out our style.

We're keeping it in North Carolina for as much as possible and making sure we get that 15 million dollar pay. That's the thing that we got to make sure to get. Let's do a special Valentine's theme skips or plays with Hayes. Hayes Permar is somewhat of a Renaissance man, an expert in the finer things. But he hangs his hat on music, loves his God.

And he's the friend of Satan. He was like, oh, six in busy with his sticks. Been watching big Mike and little trick trip.

I just need a Zion and someone he can dunk on. Today, Hayes will decide if this music is smash or trash, blows or blows. It's time for skips or plays with Hayes.

No idea what direction W.D. 's taking this in. Let's find out together. What is the first Valentine's Day themed skips or plays with Hayes song? We are starting off with some Paul McCartney and Wings with my love.

My love does it good. Oh, oh, oh, oh. I'll skip this. Yeah, what the heck?

I'm not a. Out of all the Beatles love songs, you choose that? I mean, say it. What were you going to say? It's Paul McCartney.

How can you go wrong with that? Because there are like a dozen more Beatles love songs that Paul McCartney also song better than that. Oh, I'm not.

It's clearly. I know that Paul McCartney is a Beatle. I know when he came to Winston-Salem, it was like seeing a Beatle. But I told you this at the time. There's something weird about. You either saw the Beatles or you didn't see Paul McCartney sing Beatles songs is not the Beatles. And so it just doesn't quite have the same interest for me.

And same thing. I never got that into wings. Now that they don't have some great songs that have made their way into my brain. But like, I've never like followed wings.

I mean, there's something in the way across the universe. Hey, Jude, I want to hold your hand. There's so many that you could have chosen. You chose that one.

It's incredible. Do you even back off? Back off? All right. Let's take a song. Lucy in the Sky of Diamonds. This may not go well.

OK, what's next? OK, that's not a Valentine's song. We're going to love song, though, right? I think it's I thought it was a drug song. Where's the Gary Hahn?

He was in love with drugs. L.S. Let's go to the Sky of Diamonds. Come on. What's next, Bruce? It's a trip.

Springsteen Valentine's Day. Don't look at me like that. Not you.

I am not me. I'm looking at you like this. Oh no. I'm so disappointed.

Who out there is like, I need a love song right now. Give me the boss. Let's go to Bruce.

Give me the boss. Like, what's he known for? Like his energy.

Bringing the energy, right? Not the ballad. I stand up for you, Dalton, but I'm skipping this song.

Skip. Hey, W.D. is going to unironically on the Fourth of July do Born in the USA as a patriotic song. That's that's a Fourth of July song. It's fine. Just because it's been co-opted. That doesn't mean it can't be a Fourth of July song.

All right. I've got one song in my head that might be able to say this whole thing for you and like the odds of you hitting it are low. But zero percent. But it could like in a Google search for Valentine's Day songs.

That's 100 percent what he did. I'm going to search Valentine's Day songs and see what if any of these songs have popped up. Well, if you buy this, if you search Valentine's Day, the song I'm thinking of would have come up. You know what? You know, it's amazing. I search Valentine's Day songs.

And one of the first three to pop up is All You Need is Love by the Beatles. How how does this happen? How? OK, what's the last one? Can I at least save it with this?

Do you want to tell them or should I? Oh, no. Well, that is the Dolly Parton song. Yes. Well, but that but also this is like a breakup song.

That too. This is like, if I should stay, I only would be like I said, like I would like I know that we're not going to be together, but like I will still always love you. Yeah, it's not it's not a love song. This is this is like a broken heart song, but it is Whitney and it's a banger.

So I'll indulge him with a play on this one. Hey, that might have been the worst collection of Valentine's Day songs ever. Go find Happy Valentine's Day by Outcast. Give me Happy Valentine's Day about make sure it's clean. I don't know. That's not clean. Oh, that's not clean.

And I love that song. I will maybe don't ask you. We don't want to get you. But instead of risking that, I'm going to ask you this before we let you go. Any preview of hashtag A.C.C. Valentine's? Oh, man.

Golly, is is there anything that you know much about world has changed? What's funny is that the best the greatest ones of all time are often collaborative efforts or like Josh Goodson randomly coming up with one. Like when Kevin Stallings and Pitt had like 13 losses in a row and he did the I want to lick you from your head to your toes with all the L's. And then but it usually boils down to Swain and I just swapping Duke and UNC jokes on top of each other. And Swain, like I'm a poor representative, like UNC having me out there is like having I don't know, Caleb Love out there shooting three pointers with the game on the line, which I which ironically, he had a big one. But Swain usually gets the best of me, including whoever the the the worst shooter is for UNC needs to get prepared. Actually, I'm trying to think you'll probably come with Bacott old jokes and didn't make out recently say something about the ACC runs through him. No, no, no, no. Well, I'm thinking about the team showing up late for warm ups or so.

That's right. Last week. Be prepared for Swain to make a joke of like, hey, it's Valentine's Day. Don't be late to our dinner or something. I don't know.

We'll see. I'm sure he might have something for the ACC refs usually catch one on Valentine's Day. And I heard they had a big night for for Duke wakes.

Ted Valentine was on the whistle to see. I'm trying to think of other you know, I mean, moving to Charlotte might get them off Florida State. But that's what I feel like sports channel eight is the best when Swain and I can lay down our swords and join teams to make fun of Florida State for being broke on Valentine's Day or something. That's so that I'm guessing there'll be some Florida State jokes. We look forward to seeing that.

In the meantime, I am furiously mad that that's what W.D. came up with. Can you tell me the three songs again, just in succession, that you chose to go on the air for wings? It was my love by Paul McCartney and wings.

It was Valentine's Day by Bruce Springsteen and Whitney Houston. I'll always love you. Hold on. Do you have a girlfriend, W.D.? I do not. Maybe it's because your mixtapes don't quite hit the way you're expecting. Like you think you're hitting her with like the most romantic tracks and instead it's all like breakup songs. And I think I have good taste for these things. Clearly. But you have people in the studio.

You can ask. Not even just me. Like anybody else. Can't win them all. Anybody else.

Hey, can you throw some love songs at me? And then we we make it happen. Like unbelievable.

That's what we came up with. I will say on the eve of Valentine's Day, I will just remind people that if you think that love is never going to happen for you, just look. Even Josh Graham found someone. Can I mean, I just I mean, I'm staring at that fat head of you behind to be like, there is a person out here that married that.

So there's there's someone out there. And I love your wife. That's not an insult to her.

That's solely an insult to you, Josh, as intended. She is an ACC legend. I am not. I went to East Carolina. She went to Virginia. So there's one ACC legend in our household and it is not me. Hayes Permar, you are an ACC legend, I think.

Probably. I'm a I'm a local local eccentric. And what was it?

What was the one? Oh, multimedia gadfly was the one I got thrown at me recently. So I don't know if an ACC legend, but I am a multimedia gadfly. We'll talk to you next week. Multimedia gadfly.

All right, whenever you're ready. This is The Drive with Josh Graham. When you follow sports for a long time or follow the news cycle closely for a long time, it's hard for headlines to really shock you much anymore. But there is something about when the rating was announced last night for Super Bowl 58.

That just makes you stop in your tracks. A hundred and twenty three million people watched. That was the average viewership for Super Bowl 58. Making it the most watched television program ever.

Forever is a long time. So for that to be so certainly very significant. And we'll get back to the Super Bowl in just a bit. But we must talk about what transpired at Cameron Indoor Stadium last night first.

That stack certainly was brought up quite a bit. During Duke Wake Forest. The Blue Devils have beaten Wake Forest every single year at Cameron since Tim Duncan's senior year in 1997.

Twenty seven year drought. And last night felt like Wake's best shot at ending that long drought, at least in recent memory. You could argue Wake Forest should have won the game.

The stars were aligning for Wake in a few key ways. The Deacs have had issues this year with turnovers. Not at Cameron. You would think with a lot of guys who had never played there before. Boopy Miller and Hunter Salas among them.

That that might be a problem. Wake Forest giving it away to Duke. Not the case. The Deacs had single digit turnovers. Against Duke. And they also caught Duke on an off night. Duke missed seven free throws. Duke was twenty eight percent from three. If you would have told me those two facts going into the game.

Hey, Josh, just giving you a heads up. That Duke was going to miss seven free throws and be twenty eight percent from three. And the Deacs were going to have single digit turnovers in the game. I would have thought Wake Forest wins this game comfortably.

And you are you could argue, even though they lost by eight, they probably should have. Efton Reed's foul trouble absolutely killed Wake Forest in this game. Two fouls in the first four minutes. He had two in the first three minutes of the state game.

And that's why I don't want to hear about Ted Valentine and officiating today. They were the correct calls, or at least the first four were the correct calls on Efton Reed. The fifth one wasn't the killer.

The first four were. If you're Efton and you pick up one in the first couple minutes, maybe don't try to punch out a ball on an offensive rebound before even the first media break. That's how he got his second. And then Steve Forbes trusted him, keeping him in the game until he picked up his third in the first half. And then Steve had to have reiterated to him, hey, you got three fouls going into the second half.

Stuck with him coming out of halftime. And what does Efton Reed do in the first minute of the second half? He's coming over to Kyle Filipowski on a double team and Flip isn't even looking to score. He's looking to pass. And Efton on a double team gets Flip in the air.

Just clueless stuff. And it happens so often with Efton. And Wake isn't good enough to overcome that at Duke against many teams, including against state at home on Saturday. Wake Forest is good enough to overcome that. Overcome the foul trouble with Efton. Not in this game. Because it is not a coincidence that Efton Reed only plays 15 minutes of this basketball game.

And both Kyle Filipowski and Mark Mitchell go for more than 20 in it. And Duke out rebounds Wake. And Duke grabs 11 offensive boards against Wake. Efton Reed's one of the best defensive rebounders in all of college basketball.

A lot of those things simply do not happen if Efton's able to stay in the game. And the fact that he didn't killed Wake Forest. And while Duke was bad from three, 28 percent, as we mentioned, Wake was somehow worse. Wake missed its first 11 attempts from three, six of 26 on the game.

That's 23 percent. Steve Forbes had no answer for that when asked about the three-point shooting after the game. There's not an answer for everything, fellas. I mean, sometimes the ball doesn't go in the hole. Find other ways to do things, you know. Would you say, were they open? Yeah.

Okay. Well, I mean, we're playing at Duke and Cameron. You know, if you get an open shot, that's a victory. So make it, you know.

And so just step up and make those things, man. Wake Forest ranked 17th in the nation in three-point shooting going into last night. And on the night that Duke shoots 28 percent from three, they choose to have a 23 percent three-point night. And a lot of those looks were open.

Just that. That's why it was such a great missed opportunity. I see Jay Austin writing in here. Oh, I feel like the two-point loss was a more of a missed opportunity.

I don't. I felt Duke played really well that night. I remember Kyle Filipowski hitting the big shot from the top of the key to win that game.

W.D. was there last night. I was at that game a year ago.

Of course, you had this the same. You see us put back or it might have been Chandy Brown the year that Zion missed the game. It was senior night for Duke, but Zion was still out with the foot deal that you had a couple of looks at it at the end. And Wake Forest could have ended the drought. But last night felt like legitimately on the floor. Wake Forest had the right game plan and things fell their way.

And they just couldn't get out of their own way when it comes to fouls and missing open looks at Cameron. Getting to back to the Super Bowl very quickly. W.D., how good was the BJ's Brewhouse that we enjoyed on Sunday night during Super Bowl 58? We had BJ's cater our Super Bowl party and it was a lot of fun. And if you haven't enjoyed their wings yet or some of their desserts like the bazookies, which everybody loves upon trying, give them a shout right off of Haines Ball Boulevard.

It's in the Haines Mall area in Winston-Salem. Try one of their bazookies or the food. The beer to the beer selection is fantastic. They have a beer called the light switch that I think is really good.

Go to their website, check out their selection. Pay them a visit, tell them that we sent you BJ's Brewhouse in Winston-Salem. W.D., I don't have my screen up right now. Am I going to the phones?

Yeah, we are. Brad in Greensboro. All right, Brad, what do you have for me? Hey, what's up, man?

Love the show. Just got a question. Something's always puzzled me. How do they come up with ratings for stuff like the Super Bowl when you've got 20, 30 people sitting in a living room watching one TV? How do they come up with these numbers?

Oh, see, it's a great question. It's not the it the numbers even greater than what you have in terms of average viewership, because it's based on the number of households, the number of people that are reported to a household. And it doesn't to account. It doesn't account for how many people might be in your household at one time. So I I think that is low end. It's it's not a high estimation. It's a low end estimation because it does not account for how many people would be in your home. Perfect example. W.D.

and I hanging out watching the Super Bowl at my home. We had ten to a dozen people over. They only have two people that they account for. Our average viewership being Sarah Bradford and I. And that's all that's counted into that figure. So even though it lists one hundred and twenty three point one hundred twenty three million watching the Super Bowl, that number is actually a lot greater. So I'm glad you made that point, Brad. To attach letter grades to Super Bowl 58, we will play Graham's grades next on the drive.

It's the drive with Josh Graham WSJS. Since we didn't get a chance to do so yesterday. Let's attach letter grades to Super Bowl 58. A lot of ground to cover. So let's waste no time in getting to Graham's grade.

Every week is a test for your favorite sports teams. Who passed the test? I don't know who dropped the ball. I don't know. Josh Graham has the answers.

What time for Graham's grade? OK. A through F. All Super Bowl themed. The very good from what we saw in Vegas. The not so good and the meh. From Sunday night, starting with a Usher's halftime show.

Look at you. We love to hear that. Now, my expectations were not as high as other people's expectations were, which made it easier for Usher to exceed those expectations. And the thing that Usher did that I wish more Super Bowl halftime performers would do is not just think in the confines of what his catalog is. And here's what I mean when they brought Lil Jon in.

OK. It was turned down for what that played. And you had the mosh pit and then the guy in the blue shirt in the background that was just being tossed 20 feet in the air. We hope he's OK. That was a great move when they brought Alicia Keys in. It was an Alicia Keys song that played before they did their song together.

My boo. And I thought that was a very nice touch. All the right songs were played. Usher, the dancing, him going shirtless, new memes being created, Ludacris being, you know, Ludacris dressing like White Goodman and Dodgeball. All of it memorable and was the highlight of Super Bowl 58 be the game itself.

It's another reminder. Not all great finishes are also great games. I remember some suggested because of the way the North Carolina Villanova National Championship game ended, Marcus Page's double three and then Chris Jenkins hitting the shot right after that. Oh, one of the all time great national championship games. Well, no, the first half was actually a slog. Wasn't a lot of scoring.

And that's kind of what this game was. Ten to three at halftime. Do you know how many touchdowns there were in the first 60 minutes?

Three. Only one by Kansas City. Like this was not some this was not a back and forth affair with a ton of scoring. It's not one of those Super Bowls you're going to remember forever for what happened in regulation. You'll remember it for being just the second Super Bowl to go to overtime and end on a walk off touchdown. But overall, I think the finish is what elevated this to a B before you went to overtime.

It was more of a C mid Super Bowl. See the commercials. None of them really stood out to me. I like the the Dunkin Donuts, Ben Affleck, Tom Brady on the keys, trying to impress Jennifer Lopez, Matt Damon. How do you like them?

Donuts. I'm so sorry that that's that was pretty good, but none of them really stick with me. And I think the fact that all of these commercials are leaked on social media before the Super Bowl takes the magic out of it. A lot of the surprise out of it. I try not to see the commercials beforehand, but then you see some of the surprises in links and stuff just appear on your timeline and surprises are spoiled by the time Super Sunday gets there.

So I think that waters it down a bit. That's why the commercials a C for me. D Kyle Shanahan's play calling. He came up short when Kansas City was sputtering.

I can't get past in the second half. Kansas City's first possession was an interception. San Francisco had the ball in plus territory. Three and out. And then because their defense was playing so well and Kansas City was hemmed back. You had the ball near the 40 yard line on your second drive.

What do you do? Three and out. Kansas City gets a field goal.

They're starting to get closer to you. What do you do with your next drive? Three and out. All three of those drive.

Here's the thing. Nine plays were run on those three drives. Only one of them are run by one run play out of the nine. That's on Kyle Shanahan.

So everybody wants to focus on the end. But to me, that was the stretch that lost Super Bowl 58 for the Niners. F. Tony Romo. Thank God.

I was hoping this is what I hoped you saved that for that. Tony Romo. God, it was terrible. Even casual viewers turned on Tony. My wife, who's not the most dialed in football viewer, said, what is Tony even talking about?

And she looked to me expecting me to add some understanding to it. And I'd be like, I don't know what Tony's talking about. But it did become a running bit at our Super Bowl party. Just saying the most obvious thing and tagging Jim at the end. Hey, the Chiefs are going to need to score a touchdown here, Jim.

They score a touchdown here, they win the game, Jim. It also became a thing where he attached for the Super Bowl at the end of so many different plays. Even when it wasn't.

When it wasn't. It wasn't a game-defining play. Can you pull up the final call? Yeah.

The end of the game? Because another maybe inside baseball thing that bothered me about Romo. And he's been on television enough to know better.

But everybody should know if you're at that stage of broadcasting, when a great moment, a historical moment happens. You have to lay out as an analyst. You just stop talking. Shut your mouth. Shush mouth. Stop talking.

Let the pictures tell the story. And Tony Romo thought it'd be a good idea to give us the full breakdown of what happened on the final play. Right right after Nicole Hardman catches the ball to to win the Super Bowl. Like part of me blames the CBS producer. Hey, kill his mic. They could say we can't talk because that was a moment that didn't need any words attached to it. It needed silence and just letting the crowd noise in the pictures. The first cutaway being the Taylor Swift, of course. But you want to know why you have the highest rated TV show in history.

One hundred and twenty three million. And she's a big part of the reason why. So that's a bit understood. Here was that final call. Like what's going on? First and goal.

My home swing session is there. Hardman, Jackpot, Kansas City. And this was the Andy Reid special. This was the Andy Reid special we talked about. He was saving all day.

He's got a fake emotion to go across. And at that moment, he turns and goes back. Hardman, who they didn't have. Right.

And they go get Hardman and bring it. What are you doing? Nobody that just won the Super Bowl. Let's go to the sidelines, Tony. We don't need you to say another word.

He is you all. All that can wait. All that that he just said can wait. We can get to that breakdown about Andy Reid specials and all that. And even on the call itself, he almost interrupted Jim Nance from getting the words out of his mouth. Let's go to the sidelines, Tony.

It is fundamentally bad analyst work. Can Greg Olsen please replace him? Can that happen?

I don't see why it couldn't. Because you noticed at the end they said I love you to each other, almost like they suspected it could be his last brought. Did you notice that?

It's worth noting that. Jim Nance's final broadcast with Phil Simms as his analyst was Super Bowl 50. Bill Sims was not very popular among viewers, so they moved him to the studio from the top booth. So don't tell me that it's there isn't a precedent here to move somebody out of the booth after calling a Super Bowl. It could happen. And Greg Olsen is right there for the taking, just throwing that out there.