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All right, like I said, it was gonna get hot fast, and it is. We're rolling downhill. Welcome back, or good afternoon. I'm Jim Rome. The show is presented by FanDuel.
Coming up next segment, Hall of Famer Ronde Barber coming up after that. ESPN analyst Andrew Hawkins coming up after that. What's your beef? Start dialing right now. Coming up right now.
My man, James Kelly, for our weekly fan duel hit. Let me get to the head right away. Head. We don't have as much real estate as we normally do. Two things.
One, how you doing? Number two, the hell is going on with your team in Frisco. Dude, I'm still laughing about that because the Jed Pork resets his shorts, and then Eugene Robinson resets, dude. How is that for that? What Denny Nagel don't want to let us in this direction on me?
Eugene Robinson's got nothing to do with this. How about that alleged Deke? By Jed Pork. I'm just gonna dress up as a chunked-up, middle-aged Yankee fan. They won't know it's me.
Dude, those shorts are unbelievable. I didn't even think they made those things anymore. I'm like, oh my goodness, those are something else. I mean, the hooker had to look Denny Nagel-like. Google Dak clones.
It's one of a kind from that mobile parker. Denny Nagel, dude. Yeah. Wow. Hey, we're talking Eugene Robinson.
Yeah, it was a great time. I'll never forget that Colfax look. Danny Nagel. Yeah, but. Yeah, but that guy could make that sound.
No matter what Danny Nagel got into, that guy could make that sound. No human being should ever be able to make that sound. Oh, incredible.
So never mind. We have a lot of to get to. You're lucky. We have so much to get to. You're going to skate with your family being in the news again.
What do you want to hit, man? We got some ball finally. Dude, we got some football. We got some college football. Let's start with North Carolina BTCU in Ireland.
Question: Did the sport really think this out? We're sending a Alvin, Mike Lombardi across the pond. Encourage people to like the football. Jim just asked Bruce Feldman. He knows Mike Lombardi Alvin sucks at Mike Barty.
That guy, yeah. We know it. They know it. We almost went, dude. We thought about going to that game.
We almost went. Did we talk about the show going? Really, I would have. I would have too, but we could not put it together.
So, guess who's not going? The face liquor is not going. Or Mike Lombardi. Or Mike Lombardi. Not either.
So, what are we looking at? We're looking at a line of plus eight and a half. Yeah, it was six and a half.
So, yeah, people are like a TCU. They smacked last year. TCU smacked them last year. What's it look like to you right now?
So the question is now: can that gutless bastard Bob Petrino overcome Alvin, Mike Lombardi-led roster right here? A team that averaged fewer than five yards per pass play last season. Bobby has Billy Edwards Jr. as his quarterback. The goal, cut down on mistakes, Jim, and run, run, run will be the blueprint.
But TCU strength on D was that run defense last year, and they returned three of four down linemen. Also, Jaden Craig seemed to be a pretty good replacement for my guy, Josh Hoover, at quarterback. He's a good quarterback too, himself. And who are we kidding? Mike Lombardi constructed that 33rd NFL team here.
We're laying all those points on the Fox. I think you made it pretty clear. I think I've heard that drop six times already. I think you made it clear. One of the greatest drops of all time.
Yeah. So horn frogs, minus eight and a half here.
Okay. Minus eight and a half. I can get eight and a half here. All right, what else we like? FSU in New Mexico State.
The line is huge. It's plus 32 and a half for New Mexico State. Mike Norvell, the Mike Lombardi of college coaches, the dude with the hottest seat in America right now, Jim. He is favored by 32.5. But he's lost seven of his last nine games last season.
And he has two winning seasons and six years in Tallahassee.
So that seat is hot. New Mexico State Aggies. FSU has talent on offense, as we know. The question is quarterback. They got Ashton Daniels in the portal.
He has plenty of experience, but not good experience. He has a fourth-worst passer efficiency in FBS since 2023. The Aggies have problems. Obviously, they're not very good, especially trying to run the football. But with FSU's program struggles, let's go with the Aggies here and take that 32.5 points.
Okay. You're right. FSU needs it. He needs to need to cover, but my guy Norvell definitely needs it and lots of it. He is on the hot seat, no doubt.
Dude, they beat Alabama to start the season last year, and it just all went off the tracks. Completely off the rails. All right, whatever you like. USC out there, San Jose State. SC is favored by 38.5 points at home.
It's a big spread, as we know. Offense hasn't been the problem for Lincoln Riley. This might be his most talented team that he's had in Southern California since he's been there. Last season, the offense. 7.1 yards per play.
That was fourth best in the country. They have their start quarterback back.
So that's a good news.
So you know they'll score points. And they face Ken Niu Matulo Lo, Lolo, Lo, the old Navy coach. I know I messed that up, but I was close. That's hard. That's a hard name.
That's a hard one. That's a hard name. We'll talk to Ken in a minute. It's yeah, Kins team's struggling. There's probably a reason for that.
His defense last year at ranked 119th in scoring, and they return no starters.
So that's a huge advantage for SC. Other side of the ball, too, where Lincoln struggled. On defense, he's added talent size and hired former TCU head coach Gary Patterson as DC. I like Gary Patterson. He's a smart guy.
That should help a lot. Good news for him as well. Coach Ken Inn's offense. I'm just going to call him Ken N instead of butcher that name again. Spread and shred is what they call it.
Tread and tread. Ain't that a great name for an offense? It's a pass-heavy offense up there. SC was worse v the run last season, so that should be an advantage for Gary Patterson and his defense and the Trojans. I'm gonna lay all 38 and a half of these points.
Bro. I'm gonna do it too. I'm gonna ask you something. Have we ever Since we've done this over the last several years, have we ever laid 38 and a half? Oh, yeah, I think we have in college football like 42 or something like that, Bama.
Wow. And I think we didn't cover or something like that. Yeah. 38. I've taken like 40 or 45 points.
We, dude, we have had success laying enormous lines, but 38.5. Look, I understand that's a paycheck game right there, and they should, but 38.5, man. It's a lot. It's a lot. Even Link is kind of my hosty a little bit, right?
Big time. Yeah, absolutely. And he's right on that like 50-50 chance, dude. Number one recruiting class in the country. They did good there.
They've done good the last couple of years recruiting. They brought some size on offense and defensive line. But yes, the pressure is on Lincoln with the money that he makes. They're right on that 50-50, you know, I would give him chance-wise to make the playoff. I feel like he's got to make the playoff this year.
Has to make the playoffs. And it's in the big 10, which is tough. Has to. Yeah. All right.
So we'll see. All right.
So I already laid the points. I'm with you. But we usually don't do that. 38.5. I did it.
38. Yeah. I got one more game here. NC stayed at Virginia. This game was actually supposed to be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but it was canceled and they moved it to Charlottesville.
So that's an advantage for Virginia. What's the difference? Also. Yeah, right. NC State, 0-4 ATS as a road dog last year.
Only power 4 team to fail to cover as a road dog with at least that many games.
So they were the worst there was on the road and trying to cover.
Now, they do have CJ Bailey back at quarterback. He is a three-year starter, so that's really good news. But don't be surprised if there's growing pains around him. His key production guys transferred, like all of them. Best running back that he had, he went to Texas.
Wideouts, they went out, they left. One went to the SC and a couple of the other ones left. Other key for Virginia, their offensive line. 164 career starts return for Virginia.
So let's say they lean on them here. They got a new quarterback.
So run game, big time for the Cavs. I'm going to lay four and a half points here. I'll do the same thing. I like it. We're on the same page.
We're on the same page. The good thing is, you were actually so. Efficient and economical in the way you went about that. We actually have a little bit of time on the back end.
So, let's talk some more about Jed Pork. Dude, what is going on with this franchise? Like, this was a bottle franchise. Nothing is going right for the Niners. Like I said, can we get to week one without their head coach getting into a wreck or their owner getting picked up for trolling for a hooker in a mobile home park?
Can we get to week one?
Well, that's a good idea. No, we still have two more weeks left, so I can't say we will get to it, too. It's the internet and a hooker. That is the most unbelievable thing I've ever heard in my life. A what, no hooker?
A billionaire? He I don't know if he's technically a billionaire, his family.
Well, he comes from it, right? Exactly. But dude, he's a several hundred millionaire. Maybe not a billionaire, but he's worth several hundred million himself, I'm sure. Yeah, carrying $160 in cash.
And I did Google the mobile park home. It seems like a pretty nice place. They're up in arms about this bad attack. By the way, by the way, they're really unhappy, and I don't blame them because their whole thing is the cops continue to bring people to our neighborhood, and that's where they set up their stings. We do not have a bunch of hookers or a bunch of crackheads or a bunch of drug addicts.
This is a very nice, clean place where we have certain elderly people and we have some kids. And I've seen the pictures. They are nice. It does not look like we're really seeing any place. They're like, stop making us out to be trailer park trash.
We're trailer park class. That dude over there is trailer park trash. That's a great saying, too. There's a Dairy Queen down the street, too. I was aware of that, too.
I was wondering if he's going to hit that up afterwards. You never know. Maybe get a blizzard after a. I'll stop right there, but you never know. Maybe pork was headed that way afterwards and those kick-ass shorts of his.
I do have another rant too on these college kids coming back to the R these in the tiger time for it. Go ahead. What do you? You know, I'm a vengeful human being, right?
So why doesn't the bad do it? Yeah. the most vengeful human being ever, right?
So why doesn't the Pac-12 just say Middle finger, all these big four conferences that basically ruin their conference and sign all those players like Boise State or somewhere that can compete and then put them in the playoff to fight this whole thing back. I was thinking, I'm like, that'd be sweet. Because now we're like the SEC and the Big Ten are now two morally against all this kind of stuff. I'm like, yeah, that's really rich.
So that's kind of my. First of all, okay, interesting thought. There's only so many guys that actually fit that mold, right? You've got the three guys that Lane Kippen has. It's only these players from the class of 2022.
Right.
So I don't know that the Pac-12 can give the middle finger to all the power. These other power fours. But you feel like a top 25 team.
So that's what I was thinking about, too, right? Because you're right. Cause I'm like, go Washington State, go Oregon State, but they're not good enough. But Boise State's like right there. They're like 24, 25.
If you found seven of these kids, Yeah. Yeah. Right.
If you find seven of these kids. I mean, that's a pretty big difference there. Those are almost pro caliber kids. I mean, that might bring you up to playoff contention. Especially, you got lots of theories, head.
My question is: why is all of this worth it to LSU? For who, for what? They're not getting Joe Burrow back, all right? It's just a few guys. Why do you need to do this when you see how hard the SEC is pushing back?
And there was allegedly a 16 to 0 vote. Why is it worth it for these guys? Because it's Lane Kiffin and Will Wade. It's the greatest freaking absolute marriage in the history of, I mean, a big basketball coach and a big football coach, hand in hand. There's never been one like those two.
Me and the governor. It's LSU. It's Louisiana. That's how they found a judge. All right.
Head, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Got to keep moving. Good job. Football's back.
Thanks, Jim. Football is back. Find him at Big Head Bets, Big Head Bets on social media. Ronde Barber Hall of Famer joins us when we come back. Baseball fans.
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Labor Day weekend is upon us, and football is back. Our listeners are getting ready for tailgates and game day celebrations. That's right, Bleck. But if marijuana is part of your plans, remember: driving high is driving impaired. Yes, sir.
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All right, what you want to do? Top the hour, the Beef segment. Start dialing right now. It's toll-free: 1-800-636-8686. You know, we do that once a week.
All right, right now we are joined by a member. Of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, also a Super Bowl champion. Played his entire 16-year career with the Tampa Bay Bucks, five-time Pro Bowler, five-time all-pro, host of the Ronde Barber Show. Of course, I'm talking about Ronde Barber. Ronde, it is awesome to talk to you.
How you live in legend? I'm good, man. How are you? Thanks for having me on, dude. Dude, I'm doing great.
I'm doing great.
So good to see you. I appreciate you. Listen, as a Bucks legend, you're handling the team's preseason TV telecast once again. You had a special broadcast partner last weekend. I've got to know, man, what was it like to have your former head coach, John Gruden, in the booth calling his first NFL game since 2018?
Hectic. John's got a lot of energy, man. We had really talked about it for a couple of weeks and then it came to fruition. My regular partner, Chris Myers, was on assignment doing the Freedom 250 race or whatever in DC. And so we needed a sub and I wanted a totally different type of broadcast.
Didn't want. you know, traditional play-by-play guy sitting next to me.
So I asked asked my brother first. He said he couldn't do it. And then I and then I was at dinner with John and I asked him and he's like, absolutely, I'd love to do it for you, Captain.
So he is a football mind. At heart, man, it'll never be anything other than that. He has so much knowledge, he's actually really good. disseminating information too. And so I had a blast doing it with him.
I handled a lot of the play-by-play stuff, even though I didn't know what the heck I was doing. And then he just let it rip. It's like he's always done. It was good being with him, though. I spent a lot of time with him the past couple of years, and it was good to actually get him in the booth and have some fun.
Ronda Barber joining us. I like that breakdown.
So having spending time with him the last couple of years, I mean, he's made it pretty clear. He wants to coach. He said last year on X, quote, I died a coach in the SEC. Knowing him the way you know him, well, you know, he wants to. Do you think he'll get that opportunity?
Or do you think that ongoing litigation with the NFL is going to prevent that from happening?
Well, you just hope that it goes away at some point and resolves itself. And I don't have any idea what that entails. I don't know if that's the reason he hasn't gone back to coaching. I know that early on when this first started, he was trying to stay out of the public eye and not be a distraction for other people and interest. But I think he's come out of his shell, if you will, and really started to embrace who John Gruden really is.
And he's got his barstool Gruden, obviously, on that platform that he's crushing every single week. But I think at his heart, he wants to coach. I think he thought he had a really good Raiders team that year that he had to leave, and it doesn't settle right with them.
So in his heart, I know he's a coach, and he'll always be a coach. I think he's really good at what he does, entertaining us and the masses on his social platforms and in the broadcast with me last week. But the reality is he's a heck of a football player. Coach. I think he would be another one.
It'd be a good one if he went back to it. Hall of Famer Ronde Barber is joining us. Ronde, what about the Bucs? Baker Mayfield's got that giant chip on his shoulder. We know that.
Ever since that guy put on a helmet, he's had that.
Now he's got even more motivation, right? Can't take it off to Boulder now. He didn't get the contract he wanted. I want your thoughts on that. Do you think that he's a top 10 quarterback in the league and deserving of the respect that he thinks he's not getting?
Or do you like the way the team is handling it?
Well, I think the team is handling it the way that they want to because they know that they have him under on the franchise tag in a year or two years, actually. They can put him on franchise tag. Look, Baker just has to go play the way Baker plays. Two years ago, he was maybe a top five quarterback when he had 4,000 yards and all those touchdowns, 40 touchdowns or whatever he had that year ago. A little less or so last year with the new coordinator, but I think Baker can handle this all by himself by just going out and playing well.
He is the lifeblood of this franchise now. Everybody loves him. The locker room rallies around him. The community is in love with him here in Tampa. And I think if he goes and plays well, this won't even be an issue.
It'll be a preseason discussion point that people want to bloviate on, and it won't mean anything. He's got a good team around him. I think this will all take care of itself when we go out and win this year. Oh, Famer Ronde Barber joining us. You know what's strange, though?
It's going to be weird, right, to see a team play without Mike Evans, who's moved on to the 40. Right, really kind of strange. You've been calling the preseason game, so what stands out to you about the receiving core they have beyond veteran Chris Godwin? Yeah, Chris is a pro. He's second in all of our team annals to Mike Evans, obviously.
Replacing Mike is impossible. Mike is just a big, fast, reliable, you know, probably Hall of Fame receiver type receiver. Ameka Bucha is a good player. Jalen McMillan's a good player. Unfortunately for us in the preseason here, they've been hurt.
They haven't seen much action.
So what's impressed me is kind of the depth at that position. You got a guy we just drafted, Ted Hurst, out of Georgia State, who's really kind of been the star of camp so far. There's a bunch of other guys on the roster that can contribute. Cam Johnson, Tez Johnson, this guy Dean Patterson, who's out of Georgia Tech. He's a local kid from right down the road in Tampa.
That position is always deep and it's always the toughest one to cut. But the reality is this team's going to go as Omeka and J-Mac go. We know what Chris is. He's a possession guy. He does all the dirty work.
But those two guys, those two young guys, J-Mac in his third year and Ameka in his second year. Are going to need to have big years for this team to be really successful in the passing game. He is a Super Bowl champ, Ronde Barber, joining us. Ronde, what about the other side of the ball? Talking about guys that you got in the draft, Ruben Bain.
Looks like he's making a smooth transition in the NFL. After dominating in college ball in Miami, he's going to miss Saturday's game against the Chiefs with a shoulder injury, but should go in the season opener. Let me get your thoughts on him. How much star potential and upside do you think that rookie linebacker has? Yeah, so I don't think he would have played in this game anyways, you know, regardless of the shoulder injury.
I mean, he's this Tampa defense probably has three first-year starters, rookie starters. Bain, Josiah Trotter, and Keontae Scott, who's going to play the nickel here in Tampa this year. But Ruben Bain, I mean, people, you know, doubting him coming out of the draft, I mean, you can't say he's really doubted. He got drafted 15, but falling to 15 to us is a blessing for this defense. The one area that Todd Bowles' defense has lacked over the year is consistent edge pressure.
Haven't had it really since Shaq Barrett JPP back in 2020, 2021.
So to get a guy like this who is just violent, he has got a ton of pass rushing skill, but it's the violence. That he plays with that changes the energy of that defensive line, man. He's fun to watch, but I think he's going to take the league by storm, man. I don't want to put a lot on him. He is a rookie, but I think we would all be disappointed if he's not a double-digit sack guy in his first year.
He is that impactful. You marry him with Yaya Diabi, who's had a bunch of pressures, but not a lot of sack production. And this young kid we got named David Walker, he tours ACL last year. I think will be a surprise up front, too. But I think they're going to be led by this rookie.
He's something else, man. He's different. He kills everybody he goes against. Ronda, you know, dude, obviously, I'm not surprised by this, but you sound great. You look great.
It seems like everything is great. I've talked to a lot of athletes over the course of my career. Man, not everybody makes that transition. Understandably so, right? When it's your identity and you only know one thing and you've done this one thing your entire life and all of a sudden it's just jerk from you, especially if you don't got on your own terms, it can be really, really tough.
Did you even yourself experience any loss of identity when you retired, or did you already always have a plan and a strategy? In place? I had a plan because I went to work for Fox Sports right after I retired. I mean, I played 16 years. It's just a long road, but for the Three years prior to me retiring, Fox Sports was trying to get me to come on.
And so when I retired, I did.
So I had a plan in that regard.
Now, when that went away, I only was there for seven years. Yeah, I was adrift a little. It was during COVID, actually. The good part of it was my kids were senior and junior in high school.
So I got to spend a lot of time with them during that time, important time, especially my younger one who was stuck at home and not very happy to be stuck at home. But yeah, I've always had kind of a plan. The preseason gig that I had with the Bucks has been since I retired. I have a Rendez Barber show that started on WFLA, our local NBC affiliate in Tampa that started last year. I've started to do a little bit of work with the NFL, and some of this has just kind of fallen into my lap and it's given me a lot of purpose.
I'm general chairman of a PJ Tour golf event, the one in Tampa, the Boulast Bar Championship. That gives me a lot of things to do.
So yeah, I appreciate you noticing. But yeah, I'm busy doing what I want to do. I tell that to a lot of people. And when I'm talking to some of my past teammates or guys that are kind of adrift, like you said, you just have to find new purposes. You know, football is not forever.
I mean, it's actually trying to get rid of you while you're playing.
So when it goes away, you got to find something else to do with your time. I've been fortunate that I've found a lot of good things to do with my time. That's such a great line. It's trying to get rid of you actually when you're playing. You're right.
You got to find that purpose. You mentioned your show, The Ronde Barber Show. I would say to you, what's it like? Like, I want to say to you, what's it like being on the other side of the microphone and the camera? But the world's changed, man.
Like, you and Tiki have always been really good with the media. Everybody now is used to being on the other side of the mic and the camera. But when you look at content in media, do you have more of a respect for it than maybe you did? I'm not saying you disrespected it, or maybe is it easier than you thought it would be? I thought it was harder than I than I anticipated.
Anybody can be a talking head, right? You know a bunch of those, right? Guys, just but like being meaningful with what you're trying to talk about is that that was the difficult part for me to try to wrap my head around.
Now, you have producers, you have directors, you have all these other voices that kind of help you get along that. And on my show, I got my co-host, JBB, and my producer, Rhett Fail. Those guys do a lot of work for me because I give them the content. This is what we want to talk about. This is how we're going to lay it out.
And then we just go try to have fun with it. You know, we don't try to take ourselves too seriously, but we do try to tell facts and like, you know, just have something that people can consume, you know, smartly. Right.
But I've enjoyed learning this side of the business. It's, I mean, every, like you said, you can throw a camera in anybody's face and anybody can be on social or have their show. But doing it meaningfully, I think, is the hardest part. No, I think you're right. With intention.
Right, and meaningfully, and you don't just show up and say things to say things and chase clicks and that cheap dopamine. You want it to be meaningful and you want to be consistent with who you are and your brand. Let me ask you one football question before you go, and this is such a great catch-up. When you look back on your career, Who are the wideouts that you felt like you had the most legendary battles with? Like, if you're super elite, you are uncommon amongst the uncommon.
You have a ring, you're in the Hall of Fame. If I flip that thing around, wide receivers, who were those guys that you went up against that were uncommon amongst the uncommon? I can give you two of them. One of them, obviously, we were in the NFC Central when we first started. Obviously, that's now the North.
We're in the South. But we played Minnesota every year, and they had Randy and Jake Reed. But Chris Carter was that guy. And we're friends now. We're both in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
We play golf together now. He changed the way that I played the game. I respected him so much because of. He was an outside receiver, and then Rainey came in. He had to go learn how to play in the slot, and then he dominated in the slot.
I remember telling myself, If I can't cover this guy, I can't cover anybody in the league, you know. And so, I worked on my craft because of Chris Carter. I tell him this all the time. He always gets sheepish and like, oh, stop it, man. But then he's like, Yeah, yeah, I know.
I was talking trash to you the whole time, too. But he was so unique at how he played the game. And he obviously had great hands and whatnot. The other one, uh, for me, and and and he's not big, he's you know, not overly fast, but Steve Smith, man, he was unique, dude. We played in the South, so we played him twice.
I saw him every you know, every year twice. Uh, he was hard to deal with, man. Uh, our defense was simple, but you know, he they put us in positions where we had to change things for Steve Smith. He was uncommon, man. And I know he's not in the Hall of Fame yet, but to me, he's going to be a Hall of Famer just because of his production for a long time and just how unique he made the position for me.
I mean, they just step up and throw this little now past the flat, and you're like, Oh man, I got to tackle this dude all by myself. You kidding me? Um, so it was, it was, uh, it was a fun challenge, but there, there's, there's some guys out there. CJ, Calvin Johnson, freak, you know, that, that's, that's freakish stuff. I thought that you were saying Megatron.
I thought he was going to be top too. I love that. Really quickly, I love the Steve Smith answer. He's always been one of my favorite players ever, ever, ever, because of the guy's size. I can relate to that.
But, dude, it's just crazy toughness, crazy, crazy, crazy will and competitive. You did not want to piss him off. You did not want to piss him off. Ever. You pissed him off.
It was like a bad day for you. Dude, was he hard to bring down, even at that size? Oh, dude. His legs were just, he understood how to get himself in a position where only one guy could tackle him. Leverage?
And he was going to, yes, and he was going to break that tackle. That's how it was like every day, every play, you're like, all right, just find a way to get this dude back to the pack because if you let him get around you, he's gone. But, you know, Jake Delone, they had that great running game.
So it was a perfect compliment for those three or four players on that offense. And he was, he was a catalyst of it, man. And He was hard to deal with. Indeed, running on a different sort of fuel, right? A different sort of fuel, man.
Yes, yes, absolutely. Ronda Barber, Hall of Famer, Super Bowl champ, all-time class act. Ronda, appreciate you so much, man. Really good to have you on the show. Great to see you, man.
Thank you so much for doing it. Good to see you again, man. Good to talk to you always. Appreciate you. Ronda, you're the best.
Ronda Barber's all-class, all-class, on and off the field. Man, what a great player. What a great dude. That was so much fun. If you take a ride.
You already know this. It only takes a second for things to go wrong out there. What a lot of riders don't realize is it only takes one drink to change your whole life. Alcohol slows your reaction time, throws off your balance, gives you a false sense of confidence. That combination on a motorcycle, now that's dangerous.
This is Labor Day when you hit the open road for some well-deserved RR. Enjoy the ride, have fun, but more importantly, never ride while impaired. The bottom line is: if you hit the bottle, don't roll the throttle. Planning ahead is important because if you wait until you've been drinking to make decisions, you might not make the best ones.
So ride with a clear head, call a ride, stay over, or hand the keys to somebody sober. Because if you don't, you're not just risking your life, you are facing a DUI, which can cause you to lose your driver's license, your bike, your job, and more. Ride smart, ride safe, and remember: ride sober or get pulled over, paid for by NHTSA. You're listening to the Jim Rome Show. What's up, fellas?
Mike Gullick Jr. here. Labor Day weekend is back, and so is football. The tailgate's set, and everyone's ready for game day. But once the final whistle blows, there's one decision you can't afford to get wrong.
If you've been smoking marijuana, don't get behind the wheel, period. It's illegal and driving high could get you a DUI. When you're on the field, the game needs 100% of your attention. Research shows that marijuana impairs motor skills, lane tracking, and cognitive functions. You're putting yourself and everyone else on the road at risk.
Studies state that the THC in marijuana also hurts a driver's ability to multitask, a critical skill needed behind the wheel. That's not a stat you want to be a part of. Law enforcement is out there calling the penalties. Guys, they can tell when you're high. Look, if you drive high, you could get a DUI.
So huddle up and call the right play before kickoff. Plan a safe ride, call a ride share, or crash on the couch. You can be the MVP this time. Because the only smart play is the safe one. Drive high, get a DUI.
Paid for by Nitza. The U.S.
Soccer Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Klingerberg, and after interviewing so many dudes during this Men's World Cup, I'm so happy to be back with my U.S. Women's National team players. I know the U.S. Men's National Team has changed how I think about myself, how I think about being an American, how I think about being on a team.
It's one year out from that World Cup, and we're going to talk about the brightest prospects in U.S.
soccer. You ready? I'm ready, let's do it. The U.S.
Soccer Podcast, presented by Hencult. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Welcome back. Hit me up on the phones right now. We've got the beef segment coming up at the top of the hour.
So it's all free. 1-800-636-8686 from one stud to another. Just had Hoffman Mirande Barber on. We are joined right now by a former NFL wide receiver. He played six years in the league for the Bengals and the Browns.
He is an ESPN analyst. He is co-founder of Parks Tower Studios, which develops content for film and television, as well as the co-founder of Status Pro, a virtual reality training and gaming company. He is Andrew Hawkins. Hawk, always good to have you on the show. Thanks for making time.
How you doing, dude? I'm doing great, man. Appreciate you having me, Jim. I appreciate you making time. I respect your time.
Hey, before we talk NFL, the Hawkins family football tree continues to grow. Can you talk to me about your son Callie, who is entering the eighth grade? Dude, is he already getting letters, lots of letters from colleges? I can talk all day about my son, Callie Jim. Yes, he's in the eighth grade.
He's playing varsity football at university school down here in South Florida. He does have. Five Division I offers right now. He's such a great kid, man. I love him.
He works his tail off. It's very, very early.
So you don't know what this will actually end up being. But it is very cool to see him kind of come into his own a little bit and make a name for himself beyond his dad or his uncles or his cousin or whoever. See, that's hard, right? Because of the family and the legacy, that's hard. But obviously, a very special kid if he's getting letters already in the eighth grade.
So, does he want to be a wide receiver like his old man, or does he want to play on the other side of the ball? Does he know yet? Yeah, I think that's a great question. I've pushed him to play defensive back. Um, he does want to play receiver.
He does play receiver, he's a great receiver. But I'm very confident he will be one of the best. corners and defensive backs. In the country in two or three years. Like he'll be top ranked, be a guy just because.
He has a lot of the gifts that took me to college to get, and he's only 14 years old, which is nuts. Wait, how's his head? How's his mindset? It's incredible. All he knows is work.
He's like a... He's a football junkie.
So he spent his whole life. He does scouting reports. He watches college football, high school. He's obsessed with it. He sleeps with the football his whole life.
And so it's just a second nature to him.
So it doesn't take me pushing him at all. He just is obsessed. And to play at a high level, you're going to need it. You got to be obsessed with the game. You have to be obsessed.
That's exciting. Good for you. That's one to watch. Andrew Hawkins joining us.
So, Hawk, you spent three years with the Browns.
So let me ask you about that. Do you think that Todd Munkin was, do you think it was his call? Do you think that he made the call to get Deshaun Watson over Shador Sanders? Or did that come from higher up? How did that come down?
That's a good question. I can't really call it. I think it's his call. It's look, he's a head coach. He's coached for a very, very long time.
And what I know about coaches who get their first opportunity later in their career, they don't have time to mess around with the opinions of other people and also Ride or die on what somebody else thinks. I'm coaching this team. I put a lot of years into football. Yes, it's somebody else's organization, but I'm here because I know ball, I go off of my convictions, and I'm going to go with the quarterback that I think deserves to be the quarterback. And that's how I'm going to fail, or that's how I'm going to succeed.
I'm not going to fail because somebody else has an opinion on who should be the quarterback of a team that I'm going to be the fault of if we don't succeed. I just don't see that happening for Todd Munkin, for as old as a coach as he is. I think it's reasonable. He waited a long time for that op.
So, obviously, he's going to live and die by what he thinks is right. All of that said, do you agree with the decision? I don't. I look I get like Deshaun Watson has played a lot of football in the league. And in some ways, you can kind of see the floor.
We've seen it. We've seen like the bad version of Deshaun Watson. We've seen the great version of Deshaun Watson. And I know Shador Sanders might be a little feast or famine. But in Deshaun Watson's tenure as a Browns quarterback, it has been famine or famine.
And again, that sounds mean, but it's the truth. It just hasn't lived up to the contract that we signed him under in Cleveland. For Shador, he is young. And yeah, it's gotten ugly at times for him. But there's been a lot of glimpses where you're like, okay, wait a minute.
You know, he does have something here now. He needs to learn to play on time. There are things that he's probably just now learning in the NFL because he spent his whole career playing for his dad, who was a defensive coach and coached him from young all the way up to college. And yes, he's one of the greatest athletes we've ever seen in sports, period. But for Shador, you're now operating outside of that construct.
And there's a lot he needs to learn. If I'm the Cleveland Browns. I'm seeing what we have in Shador before next draft because there's a lot of good quarterbacks coming out. And for the supporting cast that they've been able to build on offense, on defense, you might be just a quarterback away. You need to decide this season if Shadora is somebody you think you can build around so that you can go into the draft next year with conviction, knowing, hey, We're going to bet the farm to go get the guy that we think can lead us into the next era for the Cleveland Browns.
Andrew Hawkins joining us.
So, Hawk, your other team, the Bengals, they're going to have a really interesting, interesting year. And they did dodge a bullet the other day of practice when Jamar Chase went down. Apparently, that's just a minor injury. And Joe Burr was talking, even more so than we normally see from Joe, with a real sense of urgency. Like, he knows what time it is, he knows what the stakes are.
In your opinion, looking at that roster, if, and it's a big if with them always, if they stay healthy, do you think this crew has another deep run in it this year? I do. I actually think that they should be talked about more frequently as Super Bowl contenders. I mean, when you look at the Super Bowl in general, over the last 13 seasons, there's only been 11 different franchises that play in the Super Bowl.
So think about that. And the Bengals are one of those franchises. When you look what they've done on defense in the offseason, not a lot of splash plays, but they got a lot of players that give them the depth and it right sizes some of the holes that you saw in the Bengals defense. They should be a lot better this year. They got a lot of consummate pros.
They did better in the secondary. They bring in, you know, Boyer in. They bring in Cook in that safety. In some of these areas, they had two corners. Dax Hill, who should have been in the running for Pro Bowl contention a year ago.
If that defense plays just average, I think the Cincinnati Bengals have a shot, especially since their schedule is so hacked. It's one of the easiest schedules in the league.
So if Joe Burrow is healthy and you can keep him upright, which they've done better with the offensive line and the moves they made this offseason, and that defense is average, I think they should be considered one of the favorite to end up in the Super Bowl to represent the AFC. Andrew Hawkins joining us, speaking of the AFC in the Super Bowl, there obviously was some Chiefs' fatigue, right? That was evident by the amount of haters that rushed in to pile on when they missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade. Is last year's decline a sign of things to come, or are you expecting a big bounce back from them this year? I'm expecting to bounce back.
Look, the big question for me with them is at their wide receiver position, but I think it's probably understated Eric Bienemi's role in this offense. When you go look at Patrick Mahomes' career years, they were all under Eric Biennemi. Every year outside of Eric Bienemi, there's been struggle. And yeah, we could talk about the receivers or, you know, in some seasons, it was the protection. They've been able to run the football when Eric Bienemi is there.
He also is one of those coaches that demands accountability. Everybody understands that. And I get that he hasn't been a head coach. You know what the reason is? He's not calling the plays.
It's Andy Reid show. The offense has not been as good without him as they were with him.
Well, he's back. They also bring in Kenneth Walker.
So the running game should be not only improved, it should be a good running game. If they have a good running game with Patrick Mahomes, who's coming back from injury, but if he's healthy enough, I think this receiving core has enough firepower to make this offense closer to what we've seen in their heyday. And even when you talk about a drop-off, Jim. Here's the reality. They didn't look great last year.
They didn't make the playoffs. Eric Bienemi hasn't been there for the last three seasons. And we've talked about how bad the receiving core is of protection. In the last three seasons, they've played in two Super Bowls. They won one.
So, if that's a drop-off again as a Cleveland Brown and a Cincinnati Bengal, please let me experience that drop-off, Jim. You understand? I got you. I see you working. Ed Rock is joining us.
Listen, the Raiders and 49ers go tonight in their final preseason game. You know, there seems to be that two schools of thought regarding Fernando Mendoza. You've got Kirk Cousins, he's there for a reason. There's no reason to rush Fernando out there, or you start the clock on him as quickly as possible to speed up the learning curve. Where do you come out?
I say start the clock.
Now, look, I think it is specific to the player. Not everybody you can start the clock on and reap good results. But when you watch Fernando Mendoza, you hear him talk, you hear the way the guys talk about him, you watch him practice, you hear him in his post-game interview. It's very clear. This is a very mature quarterback beyond his years.
He seems like he's played in the NFL for seven years when you hear him talk. And if you have that, if you understand, okay, can he operate the offense? If that's a yes, if he's not scared out there and you can protect him, if you can protect him, then you let him out there. You let him get out there where the bullets are flying so he can learn and speed up that learning curve because you only have a finite amount of time to have a potential franchise quarterback on a rookie deal where you can build around him. And the more that you wait or the more you put that off, you have a smaller window to kind of get this equation right.
We know what Kirk Cousins is. We know what he's not. I do not feel like Fernando Mendoza is going to be a guy that when he struggles, he's going to go into the dumps both. Mentally, you know, personally, the way he operates, he's going to fight through it. And if you have that, you let him get his lumps and you let him fight through it.
You're not going to pull him because he has the ultimate belief in himself. Every interview we've ever seen, that's all he's ever said. And I have the tendency to believe him. Hawk, what was your reaction to that body cam footage of Jed York's arrest? And then, secondarily, do you think Roger Goodell, as part of that code of conduct policy, will he come down on one of the owners the way he would a player?
I like how you like asked that question as a matter of factly. I'll be honest to God, I did not see the footage. And maybe that's me bad as an analyst because I have an eighth grade son who is doing, played on two football teams. I have not seen any of the footage. I do think Roger Goodell will come down on him.
I think as you've seen over the years, where now it's owners, it's players, it's coaches. I think everyone has a responsibility to protect the shield. And if you're not doing that, I do expect Roger Goodell to equally come down on players like he does, or come down on owners like he does players and coaches, because as people a part of this institution and the membership behind it, we all have the responsibility to do that. I would be surprised. If they don't come down, because of the amount of backlash that they will feel and see if that is not the case, you can't be hypocritical with these things.
You gotta be consistent. You gotta be consistent across the board. In fact, he'd even argue that owners are held to a higher standard, but we're gonna find out, right? Andrew Hawkins, former NFL player, he's also a monster off the field. We've talked about that in the past.
We'll get to that next time. Hawk, really appreciate you, man. Much respect. Great to have you on this show, and thanks for making time. I know you're a busy man.
Appreciate it, Jim. Thanks for having me, buddy. Thank you. Appreciate you, Hawk. You're the best.
Andrew Hawkins, he is so good. And by the way, a tycoon. Like, he has built some businesses off the field that are pretty insane. Really good stuff. And a son who's in eighth grade who's already getting recruited.
All right, when we come back, beef segment. Hit us up 1-800-636-8686. What do you want to beef about? You know, there's a couple of things that I don't want to hear about. Everything else is fair game.
Alex Hattie says that he's got it under control. You can write your beefs into. He's been stockpiling the entire program.
So hit us with a beef on X, hit us with a beef in chat, hit us with a beef in email, or call 1-800-636-8686. My thanks to Andrew Hawkins. The Beef segment is next. Start your day with the morning jolt of Drake Toll. See, now it's on demand.
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