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This program is brought to you by FanDuel. Of course, not only brought to you by FanDuel, but today is Thursday.
So we have our FanDuel segment with James Kelly coming up at the top of our number two, and more importantly, Well, nothing is more important than that. Importantly, we have ball. We're not just talking about futures. We have actual games. We have games tonight.
Man, not a second too soon.
So that's coming up at the top of hour number two. What's good? Very good Thursday to you. We are absolutely loaded. As I always say on Thursday, when we have our beef segment in hour number three, generally we start rolling downhill.
What's good? Everything's good. Conscious was good. Everything's good. I've got so much to get to today and not that much time to get it done in.
So let's get rolling. Telephone numbers toll free.
So the Beef segment is at the top of hour number three. You don't need to call right now. Just know we have two interviews And then a James Kelly conversation.
So before you know it, we're going to be right there on the beef segment.
So it's going to happen quickly. 1-800-636-8686. If you want to hit me up on X, hit me up on X at Jim Roam. If you want to email me, email me, roam at Habitake.com. If you want to jump in the chat, you're probably there already.
Go to our YouTube channel, Jim Roam. Once you get there, can you please hit the sub button? Can you please ring the bell and then get into the chat and do what you want? Tom and I were talking about it after the program. The chat has become.
Essentially it's Its own being, its own Its own energy, its own universe. It's its own ecosystem within the ecosystem, if that makes sense. It's its own entity, its own organism, whatever you want to call it. It's onto its own within the ecosystem, and it did not take very long.
So, if you haven't checked it out yet, it's not for everybody. If you haven't seen it, it's hard to keep up with, but once you get in, It's addicting. At least that's what everybody in chat tells me. Like they're staying around when the show ends. They're coming in before the show starts.
That's all part of the chat. Go to our YouTube channel. All right, really quickly, on top of all that. Mark Schlareth, twelve forty. You know I love Stink.
One of my favorite guys. He's coming up at 12.40. James Kelly at one o'clock. Dan Woikey is back. We'll talk Clippers with him at one forty.
What's your beef at two forty? And I've got a new podcast up. Taped it yesterday. Teron Armstead joined me. He was great.
Lot of fun. Have I given you enough to talk about? Is there enough content there? I want to hear from you, and what I want from you is some bleeping credit. Best three hours of radio anywhere.
Alright. First things first.
So when Adam Powder silver. And the NBA dropped that hammer on the Clippers yesterday. We were right in the middle of the program.
So I was reacting in real time. I did not have a chance to comb through the 35 pages of the Wattel Lipton Report while I was live on air.
However,.
Now that the entire world has had a chance to go through that report, because the NBA, thankfully, released it. and made sure we could all see it. That mushroom cloud currently hanging over the Intuit dome is starting to make a whole lot more sense. Because that Wattel Lipton report is just bombshell after bombshell after bombshell, nuke after nuke after nuke. I could spend the entire program today just throwing up passages that make the clippers look absolutely horrible.
And I still wouldn't get them all in. Needless to say, Pablo Torre has never looked better, and Steve Ballmer has never looked worse. And needless to say. It is no mystery. why the NBA dropped the harshest penalty in league history on this team.
And of course, it's all happening to the Clippers. This entire saga is the most Clippers thing ever.
Now without getting too into the weeds. On the thirty-five pages of that investigation, here are the conclusions. They can essentially be summed up in five parts. Number one. The Clippers initiated off-court opportunities for Kawhi Leonard with four specific companies.
Aspiration. Boingo, Dactronics and Loctin. Um Can't do that. Number two. The Clippers facilitated the consummation of these deals with Kauai.
Um, can't do that. Number three, the Clippers induced these companies into doing these deals with Kauai by offering and providing them with business from the Clippers. In other words, if you wanted to be in business with the Clippers, there was going to be a Kauai tax. Can't do that. And the Clippers also paid for expenses on behalf of Kawhi and his reps and did not report it.
That is in violation of league rules. Separate issue, but Can't do that either. And finally, the Clippers failed to report Uncle Dennis's improper solicitations, also a violation of league rules. Altogether now, can't do that. Yeah.
Cool. Good one, Alby. That was loud.
So the report Does have hard evidence to back up all five of these points. There are smoking guns attached to all these claims. There are clear money trails from the Clippers to these companies to Kawhi. There are Clipper execs, even Ballmer, who were caught in lies by Wattel Lipton in this report. They found evidence of fake paper trails trying to cover up this obviously illegal nonsense.
Again, nuke after nuke after nuke. Hence, Why powder? Drop the hammer. And also, why the reaction of Ballmer and the Clippers looks completely disconnected from all reality. They're trying to call this a quote witch hunt.
Even though the league has provided a mountain of evidence, the Clippers are also trying to play the victim card, even though what happened here is incredibly obvious that there are clearly no victims. It's also clear that the Clippers simply would not say no to Uncle Dennis. Uncle Dennis essentially took over the Clippers. Uncle Dennis essentially ripped the Clippers president a basketball ops title right from Lawrence Frank. Uncle Dennis.
would not stop making requests that violated the CBA. And the Clippers would not stop honoring those requests. And the report even details Uncle Dennis' direct interactions with Ballmer.
So I don't want to hear Ballmer act like he had no idea what was going on and just a bunch of rogue, out-of-control subordinates. How stupid do we look, Ballmer? Who would be dumb enough to believe that? Balmer had no idea. Also, nobody should be surprised to find out that Uncle Dennis was going around making requests of teams that violated the CBA, because that was first reported by Sam Amick seven years ago.
So that's ancient history, not some revelation. I mean, we know that Dennis. Check that. Onk Ask the Lakers for partial ownership. That's the sack that that guy had.
That's how brass that guy was. We know we asked the Lakers for partial ownership, among other things, and we know that Genie Buss's response was to, quote, make it clear that such perks were illegal and would not be considered, end quote. I mean, say what you want about Jeannie, but That's what a real owner following the rules does. You shut that nonsense down right away on day one. Not the Clippers.
The Clippers did the opposite. They embraced Kawhi and Uncle Dennis, and they acted on their unreasonable requests for years. There's 35 pages of evidence to back it up, which is why I'm a little surprised that Powder didn't take the opportunity to ban Uncle Dennis. for life. For life.
Like No, he did get a five-year ban, which will probably keep him out of the league for the rest of Kawhi's NBA. Life, life. Life. But I'm so surprised that Powder didn't ban this dude for life, for life, for life. Since that's what he loves doing.
Like that. Like for like going back to Balmer. Yes, it's a stiff penalty. The stiffest penalty ever. But that'll happen when you get caught breaking multiple rules multiple times, especially when you're a repeat offender.
Let's not forget, Ballmer was already caught once trying to circumvent the cap. In this same exact manner with DeAndre Jordan. Back in 2015. At that time, the NBA fined the Clippers a quarter of a mil. Yeah, I know, walk around cash, 250K's jump change, compared to 30 mil.
That is true. But when you think about it that way It was actually more like 80 mil out of Ballmer's pockets. This is incredible. This dude paid fifty mil for this report. He reportedly paid fifty mil himself for the Wattshell Lipton report.
Imagine paying five. 50 mil for an investigation. An inv investigation that finds you guilty as hell. costs you an additional thirty mil, Oh, and five first round picks. Andy suspended for a year.
Nice ROI toilet king. Toilets! I'm just wondering what happened to that whole Balmer vindication story that ESPN ran a few weeks back. Remember that one? At Baxter News, with Devi N Jr., at Ramona Shelburne, at Shyam Sharinia, quote: The NBA has found no evidence showing LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to pay Kawhi Leonard in order to circumvent the salary cap, source tell ESPN.
Yeah. Um If by the NBA found no evidence. You mean the NBA found a ishton of evidence? Then, sure, that's accurate. Otherwise, man, that is bizarre as hell.
I'm sure ESPN will try to claim that the report did not have any clear evidence of Ballmer's direct involvement. But that's not even true. Ballmer is in emails involving Uncle Dennis in the report.
So the idea the idea that he was somehow oblivious or not involved in what was going on is just absurd.
So what you have here are some really strong journals. who were given some really bad information. with some really misleading information. How do you report that? And then have the NBA turn around and hit this guy with the stiffest penalty ever.
But hey, at least we will always have Ramona grilling the hell out of Balmer on national T V. Got to give her her props for that because this gets better and better and better every single day. The court documents and in Pablo's podcast, they report it was 28 million. Pablo's podcast, I don't know anything about the court documents on this. I haven't seen them and I don't know.
I'm not trying to be, ooh, I don't know. I really don't know. But the speculation is what it is. And why did they do that? It's a lot of money.
I mean, 28 million, 7 million a year is a lot of money for a guy that you didn't actually require to do anything. I don't know why they did what they did, and I don't know how different it is. I really, I really don't. And frankly, any speculation would be crazy. These were guys who committed fraud.
How would I be able? Look, they conned me. You're one of the richest men in the world. They conned me. I made an investment in these guys, thinking it was on the up and up, and they conned me.
At this stage, I have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did. You have no idea. Uh I'm here to help. I can tell you why Aspiration gave Kawhi a $28 million no-show endorsement contract. Because you guys told him to.
It's right there in the Watts L. Lipton Report. I mean, we already knew this guy was lying out his ass when he went Mickey Mouse Falsetto. and try to play the victim. But now we know he really was lying out of his ass the entire time.
And again, don't tell me he didn't know what was happening under the roof of his own toilet palace. I don't want to hear it. Just like I don't want to hear how Kawhi didn't know any of this was happening either. That Kawhi had no clue that millions were pouring in for no reason at all, or where that money was coming from. That it was all just Uncle Dennis.
And that Uncle Dennis did this to him. Not for him, but to him. Go ahead and miss me with all that bullcrap, Kawhi. Of course, Kawhi. Is laughing his ass off as always, because Kawhi is the one who skates here.
Because every single story, of course. And involving Kawhi with him laughing his ass off. Kawai's throwing up deuces and piecing out a town, his hometown. Wiping his hands of all of this as he leaves for Toronto after single-handedly destroying the Clippers organization. Like he almost did it by himself.
If you consider his recruitment and insistence on bringing Paul George in, this guy actually cost the Clippers 10 first-round draft picks. Oh, and S G A. and thirty mil of Balmer's money and another fifty mil of Balmer's money for the investigation, and of course all the tens of millions of dollars that he put in his own pocket. I mean, it's actually impressive how much damage one dude can do to an entire organization. And for what?
to accomplish what Exactly nothing to win what? Exactly nothing.
So, what happens to Kawhi? What's his punishment? Is he suspended? Is his contract voided? Nothing.
All this dude has to do is scratch a seven hundred thousand dollar restitution check and just move on to Toronto. seven hundred K. Who cares? How many millions and millions and millions of dollars did this scam put in his pocket? Like I said, no matter what happens, this dude ends up laughing his ass off.
And no matter what happens, the clippers are gonna clip. It doesn't even matter if they have the richest owner in sports or a brand new toilet palace, clippers will always clip.
So, my advice to you, Balmer, keep going, Mickey Mouse. I know, I know you can get a few octaves higher. I know you can get a few octaves higher. Keep lying, keep setting your money on fire, keep cheating, keep wanting nothing at all, keep getting suspended, keep wasting everybody's time, because you know all of that is still better than anything you're ever going to put on the court.
So go waste some more time and money in a real court house. If anybody will listen to anything you have to say. Oh, wait, I know. You reject this take altogether, like you rejected the investigation. Vehemently reject.
Man, this whole thing is hilarious to me. Hilarious. This guy paid $50 million for an investigation. Like, hey, I'm gonna clear my name. I'm gonna clear the organization's name.
I'm gonna get to the bottom of this, and I don't care what it costs. Yeah, here's fifty million dollars. You ask anybody anything, you do whatever you want, you investigate the hell out of us. Here's $50 million, and I'll wait, and I'll wait, and I'll wait, and I'll wait, and I'll wait.
Alright, so what did you find out?
Well, here's what we found out. Here's what you get for your 50 million. You can give us 30 million more. And five first-round draft picks, and you can sit your ass out for a year. That's what you get for your 50 million.
Bro, how did you get so rich making such bad investments? Fifty million bucks. It ain't Kawhi. Thanks for everything, bro. This guy ends up costing them.
Ten first round draft picks. Ten. Oh, an SGA. What it do, baby. An entire decade of first-round draft picks.
Oh, yeah, they do get two back in the trade with Toronto. Oh, okay. Oh, and the MVP. And 30 more mil on top of the 50 mil, on top of all the other mil.
Okay. Man, the clippers are hilarious. They are so funny. Mm-hmm. 1-800-636-8686.
If you want to call and you want to respond. If you like the X better, just go to the X. If you like email better, just go to email.
Sorry to disappoint clones. I know you thought this was going to be the day of all days. the investigation release day. Because not only did we get this, we actually got this yesterday, but you may have seen the story where the athletic. Completed its investigation into Diana Russini.
And then you all started to slobber, and you all started to hit reset, and you clicked on the link, and you couldn't wait to see more pictures and more videos. Yeah, that's not what you got. And nor should you ever have expected that either. I've gotten updated on that too. And I've got lots of NFL and a lot more things.
I have multiple conversations. I have James Kelly. I have What's Your Beef? Have I given you enough to talk about? Get up in here.
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You're listening to the Jim Rome Show. Seth want to resell one thing. I know that I was pretty deep in the weeds in that open. Going through that investigation. I mean it's thirty-five pages.
And it did cost 50 mil. A lot of you clones are saying who cares fifty mil for a billionaire like that? I bet he does. 50 mil. See, it's one thing to spend 50 mil on something, right?
If you're a multi-billionaire and one of the richest people in the world, probably 50 mil on the right player or the right asset or even a jet might be all right. Or maybe a mansion somewhere on the beach or in Montecito, fine. You know, a tangible asset. But 50 mil on an investigation that got you find an additional 30 mil is not 50 mil. Then it's 80 mil.
And then if it's five first-round draft picks, it's damn near the death penalty. For an NBA franchise. And then you're suspended for a year.
So it's not like, hey, Rome, who cares? It's only 50 mil. It's 50 mil, and then what did he get for his 50 mil?
So there is that. Number two, another point that I want to make. I'll say this in defense of Ballmer if I could say anything in defense of Ballmer. And him going Mickey Mouse, and I still think he's got three or four octaves he can get to. You can.
At least the guy wants to win. Just hear me out on this. I'm not condoning the path he took. I'm not condoning the way he went about it. But I myself have said this over and over and over again.
Just because you own a pro franchise does not mean you're in it to win it. It costs money to win, and as we know, not every single owner in every single sport is spending money or spending as much as they can. They're business people. They're in it to make money. They're not necessarily in it to win it.
So, Ballmer wanted to win. badly. badly. Built this incredible edifice, this great building, and tried to win. The problem is He bet on the wrong guy.
He bet on Kawhi. What a disastrous business decision that was. Betting on Kawhi. Like, all right. And at the time, we're like, okay, this guy's all in.
But look what happened. Look how this thing turned around and bit him in the ass. Bet on Kawaii. Kawhi pushed really hard for his dude Pandemic P.
So, in order to get Pandemic P, you got to give up SGA, who turned into a two-time NBA NVP. And not only did you give up a future two time MVP, you gave up five number ones with that two time MVP.
So what do you get? You get Kawhi, you get Pandemic P. You give up all that draft capital. And what do you have to show for it? Nothing.
Neither one of them were there. Both those guys are gone. The MVP is gone. Your organization is destroyed. You get nothing.
And this is what you get for going into business with Kawhi and Uncle Dennis. And honestly, now that I sit back and think about it, you know what? It's still hilarious. Wow. And then Kawhi.
Nothing happens to this guy. Nothing. Believe me, don't sit here and say to me fifty million to that guy is nothing, because seven hundred grand to that guy's nothing. When that guy made millions and millions and millions and millions for doing nothing with these companies. And this guy can just go right to Toronto.
And by the time he gets to Toronto for the record, they're going to be happy to see him. Yeah, it's not like screw you LA. Deuces. Toronto's gonna be like, yo, bro, that's right, you won us a championship. Welcome home, Kawhi.
They're going to be happy to see him. This guy, man, has there ever been anybody who's ever gotten over? And then what does he do? He runs his uncle under the bus. Like this is all on the unk.
H his statement yesterday was rich. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that the people around me let me down and gave me bad advice. See you all in Toronto. What are your thoughts?
Let me go first to the reaction that is not on chat. Rommy They con me. Regards ESPN journalists about their story sources. Bergie in Florida. See, that that's another angle that's really interesting because I'm not in any way anti-ESPN.
We put ESPN people on all the time. I actually have a better relationship with ESPN now than when I worked for them. Which is kind of funny. They're better to me now in the way of sharing guests than they were when I worked for them. Make that make sense.
So, you know me. I'm not one of those guys, or I'm not a person who gets on the air every single day and goes in on ESPN. Look what they become, look what they do, look who their stars are. I don't do that at all. I have people that are there that are friends.
I have people that are there that I'm friendly with and I respect. But that story was very odd. And the people that were on that byline are really reputable journals. And that, frankly, that was a big miss. A big, big, big miss.
They're way too good. The people involved with that report are way too good to miss that badly. Dead.
Sources tell us that the NBA has found no connection between Steve Ballmer and this, that, and the other. That's not true. The NBA found lots of connections.
So, I don't know how they missed out badly on that story.
Well, actually, I do. Bad information, bad sourcing. But very unusual to see quality journals like that missed that badly. On the chat. Hun seven AR quote They con me!
Sign Dejaun Love victims. They conned me. You're one of the richest men in America. No, no, what you meant to say is just sign Dejon Love. Not the victims, but love.
I was talking to Teron Armstead on my podcast yesterday. He's got his own show now.
So I said, My guy, I don't want to give up the whole pod, but it's just too funny for me not to give up this part. I said, Terron, When you look at Dajon and you see this guy running on the beach with his helmet and you see him running routes and you see the way he kind of carries himself, you know, athletically speaking, When you see the way this guy moves, what do you see? Like, do you see a high school football player? Like, if you're watching on the stream right now, I played this same video for Teron. I said when and then he really laughed out loud when I broke out the sled video.
And Terran's a super good dude. He's not a hot take guy. He's not here to disparage people. I said, when you see this guy move athletically, what do you see? Like, do you see a guy that played some high school ball?
He's like, Jim. He's laughing. He's like, no, not even that. Not even high school football. Like, he wouldn't even give him that credit.
Never mind small college ball, like not even high school ball. He couldn't believe the story. He had an act, he had a great take on it and what he thought about the guy.
So look for that podcast. When we come back, Mark Schlerith will join us. Still looking for your reaction. In fact, we go back to back. Mark Schlerith.
Then James Kelly, straight ahead. You're listening to the Jim Rome Show. Yes, it is. And you know, I'm going to get to this as quickly as I possibly can. We are joined right now by a three-time Super Bowl champ, a two-time Pro Bowler.
He played 12 years in the NFL, six in Washington, six in Denver. He is a game analyst for the NFL on Fox. He is a morning show host on 104.3, The Fan in Denver. You know what I'm talking about? Mark Schlerith.
Mark, my brother, appreciate you so much, dude. How are you doing? I'm doing good, Jim. It's always good to be with you, my friend. Man, so good to see you.
I appreciate it very much. Mark, before you and I talk ball. Your father, Herb, has always been a major topic of conversation between you and I.
So I want to start with that right now. How is Pops doing? And how did the legend celebrate his eighty-seventh birthday last month? Yeah, he's a freak show. He is doing absolutely great.
So my wife, we went up to Alaska for his birthday. And my wife was like, hey, I'm going to run down to the store. I got to grab some stuff and I'll be gone for a couple of hours. He's like, great. And so she goes and she goes down the street, and she forgot something, so she had to turn around and come back.
And my dad, he's got a Kubota front loader. And he's up in the bucket, probably 15 feet in the air. Changing light bulbs on our, on our, you know, we've got a huge yard, so we've got all these lights across the yard in Alaska. And she's like, pulls up there and she's like, Dad, what are you? What are you doing?
But this is the freak show that he is. I'm going to tell you a quick story. When I was a high school wrestler in Anchors, Alaska, we used to do Saturdays where you'd have, like, hey, invite your parents to wrestling practice, right? And my dad comes in. I'm probably a sophomore, so he had to drive me to wrestling practice.
And he's standing, he's never wrestled today in his life. He's probably mid-40s, and he's like 180 pounds. And we had a heavyweight named Roy Willis, who was 340 pounds. And my dad goes, Hey, Mark, I think I'm going to go challenge him. And I'm like, Dad, what are you talking about?
He goes, No, I think I ain't taking him. I go, You've never wrestled a day in your life. And my dad goes, No, I got him.
So he walks across to the wrestling mat, challenges him to wrestle. Roy Willis grabs him, throws him, lands on him, and pins him. And my dad comes over like nothing happened. He walks over and goes, I broke my ribs. You're going to have to call your mom for a ride.
And he left.
So he broke his ribs wrestling Roy Willis and has never wrestled before in his life. I'm like, you idiot. Like, what are you thinking? Like, this is the kind of stock. This is the kind of stock I come from.
It's an incredible story. He has a freak show. Mark, he's probably like, hey, hey, Mark, you got Dana White's telephone number? I think I want to do it. I think I want to do some USC.
I think I can do it. Hey, pop your 87. Maybe you don't. It's amazing. I'm so glad I asked you about him.
Mark Slurth is joining us. He has a freak show. So, Mark, let me ask you something. You know the Broncos as well as anybody. With all eyes on the Rams and the amazing offseason they had, great.
They may be the ones to beat. But do you look at Denver and think Super Bowl or bust for the Broncos? I really do. I think their roster is incredibly loaded. I think, first and foremost, in the NFL, you know, we talk about quarterbacks and we talk about wide receivers, which, you know, are the most overrated position in football, but we talk about all the fancy things, all the periphery stuff that grabs our attention and wins us fantasy football games.
But the truth of the matter is, if you can control line of scrimmage on both lines of scrimmage, you can win in this league. And when I look at Denver, you know, the combination of their defensive front seven, the combination of their offensive line, there's nobody that's better, that's more loaded and deeper at those positions.
So if you can dominate and control line of scrimmage, you have a lot, you're going to have a lot of success. And then they've added a couple of weapons on the offensive side of the ball. One, Jalen Waddell, who is an absolute freak show. This is a really, really good football team. A lot of people discredit him because they don't really know Bo Nicks, or the narrative was Bo Nicks shouldn't have been a first-rounder.
Well, Bo Nicks is pretty damn good. And it's, and he's had great success in his first two years.
So I'm really excited to see how this team fares. And there is that bit of a chip on their shoulder because not a lot of people nationally give them a ton of credit.
So they're a damn good team. And like I said, they'll dominate the lines of scrimmage. Mark Slareth is joining us. Mark, your week one assignment for Fox is going to Vegas next Sunday, and the Raiders take on the Dolphins. What did you think of what you saw from Fernando Mendoza in the preseason?
And then how long do you think they ride with Kirk Cousins as their starter? Let's see. Yeah, I thought, you know, you look at Fernando, I thought the ceiling is obviously very high, but there are a lot of, you know, there are a lot of little idiosyncrasies and mistakes that were made along the way. And just from reading things out and being very comfortable in those things.
So I always think that there is value in sitting on the bench for a while and watching a professional, because Kirk Cousins is a professional. I was studying film last night and just. You know, fascinated how quickly he'll get off a front side and get to the backside and make the right decision. Like he will look and great quarterbacks and the guys who really function at a high level, they don't look at the routes. They don't look at the receivers.
They look at the defense and they know instantly, like, uh-oh, that's that defense isn't good against this route combination we called. Let me get to the backside. And you watch Kurt and Kirk, and he has had. uh i think three offensive possessions all ending in scores in this preseason so his efficiency is so much higher right now than mendoza's and mendoza makes some big time throws he's got you know he's got all the talent in the world but i think you're probably looking at you know probably six seven weeks before mendoza gets to play but i do think he'll play at some point this season agree exactly what's the rush mark schlareth is joining us mark let me go sidebar on one thing for a minute because my money and my son go to colorado our son is a senior of boulder we will once again be at parents weekend this year This year. We will once again be at that game this year.
You know that program. You know Deion. Let me ask you something. And I'm not hot-taking at all, but is Dion coaching for his job at this point? I don't know about this year, but I think within the next two years, yes, they have got to win.
And, you know, and people, Dion and I are buddies, but you know, I understand this is not a try-hard league, it's a do-good league, right? And you haven't done well. You won three games last year, and now you've turned over your entire roster. You've got 50 new people on your roster. You've gone through three defensive coordinators, three offensive coordinators.
It's time to win, and you have to win. It's been an unmitigated success. When you talk about Dion taking over and all that he brought, and all the hype, and all the, you know, I mean, the pomp and circumstance, and they won nine games one year and the whole nine yards. It has been great. And, you know, the university has thrived, but at some point, all that stuff is not going to be enough, and you're going to have to win games.
And so I think that's where he is right now. It'll be really interesting as they open up tonight against Georgia Tech. I'm really interested to see exactly what they look like. And if they get away from some of the high-flying stuff and morph into a little bit more of actual football stuff, they've been so set on like. four wide receiver, 10 personnel stuff.
And, you know, I just don't think there's a lot of formational value there. Wide receivers don't block very much. They just don't. And so all of a sudden, if you can mix in the tight ends, you can mix in a fullback and running backs and do all that stuff, you've got more formational value, meaning you've got guys that can block, you've got guys that can run routes, you've got guys that can do. a lot of other things think about the rams and how they operate with their you know being in in two tight end formations three tight end formations um you know two back formations with a couple of receivers they do a really good job of mixing those things up and colorado has fallen into the college football of just let's get out there and four wise and spread the ball well there's a lot of things that happen um from a protection standpoint protecting a quarterback and not being able to run the ball that that doesn't bode well so i think they need to to understand the value of formational differences and um and you know and different personnel groupings right all the more reason why tonight's gonna be really really interesting Mark Slurth, joining me for a few more moments.
Hey, Mark, really quickly, what about the AFC West? Stay there for a minute.
So, the Broncos open up Monday against Kansas City or on a Monday night. You know, it used to be betting against the combination of Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid was a good way to get your ass handed to you. Given where they both are in their respective careers, do you still feel the same way about both of them and the Chiefs? Or has their dominance in that division actually already ended? Yeah, I, you know, it's really interesting because I'm really interested to see exactly what they look like, Jim.
You know, you got Mahomes coming off the knee injury, right? And you think about this, if you look at the last three years, his statistically, he has dropped every year over the last three years. And last year, you know, wasn't they were still, I think. They were still like I don't know. When he went out, they were, I think they were six and eight or something of that nature when he went out last year.
And I keep looking at it like defensively, their last three Super Bowls were, they were really led by the defense, not so much the high-flying offense that we remember from the very beginning of Patrick Mahomes' season or career, excuse me. And then you look at, you know, you look at both starting corners are now in Los Angeles.
So you're going to play young guys at the corner position. Chris Jones is a year older. They're not the dominant defense they were during those years. And all of a sudden, this offense is older. And I just don't know where it's all going to come from.
So it'll be very interesting to see exactly if they can bounce back. But I have my doubts. I just, I look at how they're built right now. And are they going to be an offensive juggernaut again? I just don't see that with aging players.
And I don't know what Rashi Rice is going to be after missing all the time that he's missed. And nobody else on that offense to me. Really, really feels like a prominent player.
So I just don't know. I just don't think, I don't think they're the team they were. And I think their reign over the AFC West is over. I think you're right. They're not the team they were and never will be ever again.
Hey, Mark, really quickly, I got about 90 seconds. You weighed in on this recently. See, look at the quarterback situation with the Vikings. J.J. McCarthy not only does not beat out Kyler Murray, he doesn't even beat out Carson Wentz.
So should they cut their losses short and just move on from him? Yeah, I do. I think he needs a change of scenery. I think there's no question about that. But if they're sitting there trying to get value for him, what are you going to get?
Like a half a year's supply, Gatorade? Like, what's he worth? You're not going to trade any valuable draft picks for JJ McCarthy.
So at this point, the best thing for him to do, and we've seen this, we've seen it with Baker Mayfield. We've seen it with Sam Darnold, who just won a Super Bowl. They all went somewhere where they could get some quarterback rehabs. Sam Darnold spent a year in San Francisco backing up before he went to Minnesota. Baker Mayfield got some time with Sean McVay in Los Angeles before he went to Tampa Bay.
We've seen that, you know, kind of that reclamation project go with those guys, and it worked really well.
So I think the best thing they can do for the kid, the best thing he can get done, is to move on from Minnesota and just say, hey, man, let me go find another place and let me learn the game a little bit because it certainly hasn't worked out here so far. A three-time Super Bowl champ, two-time Pro Bowler, also a game analyst for the NFL on Fox and a morning show host on 104.3. The fan in Denver, nobody better. Mark Schlareth. Mark, appreciate you, my guy.
Thank you very much. Great job. Hold on. You got it, Jim. Take care, buddy.
You're the best, bro. Mark Schlerith. I love him. Always have loved stank, always will.
Alright, when we come back, I know somebody else who loves that guy. The Big Head. I got a question for the big head. Graphically speaking, I may need to get his reaction on something. Because you know he's going to have a question for me.
He always does. Me, I ask the right questions. Head, he asked all the wrong questions. We will have that when we come back. Don't forget the beef segment, top of our number three.
Start thinking about what you want to beef about and whether or not you want to call the beef or write your beef in. Stay tuned.
