My brother had his identity stolen. My neighbor did too. Identity theft is the number one crime in America. My gosh, my manager? My cousin.
LifeLock detects, alerts you to, and fixes identity theft, guaranteed, or your money back. Wow, that's a lot of people. Kind of makes you think. Don't wait to become the one identity theft happens to. Get Life Lock.
Save up to 30% your first year at lifelock.com slash podcast. terms apply. All right, so we roll on to our number two once again. We're moving quickly back to back from Mark Schlerth to this. This show is brought to you by FanDuel.
Not only brought to you by FanDuel, but every single Thursday we have a FanDuel segment where James Kelly and I get together and the head brings in his data and his system, which he won't tell me exactly what it is, but we break it all down and he acts like a juvenile and a delinquent. But it's a great segment and it's great content.
So let's not waste any time. We have ball. Not only do we have ball this weekend, we have ball tonight. We go to James Kelly for our fan duel segment. Are you not pumped up by a great intro like that, Ed?
Dude, I absolutely am, but I'm going to prove your point of maybe being a little bit juvenile. Before I have a question, I have a question.
Okay, I'm going to use a big word right now that you may or may not be familiar with. The word is prominent. prominent. Who has a more prominent flight deck? You or this guy?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Uh it's just For those on the radio, that would be our man, Dejaun. Dejaun Love, my dude, my favorite player ever, right there. I think he's a guy you beat for an acreage. I think we found somebody with a more prominent flight deck than yours.
Dude, what a story. Yeah, no, he probably beat me there. I'm not gonna take my hat off and try to compete with him. But and scare the hell out of all the ladies there. But Deja might got me beat a little bit there.
Okay, so where do you rank that? I know you love scandal. I know you love freak stories. Where do you slot this one?
So it's okay.
So I'm all over the place right now.
So this is actually like my favorite story ever. Yeah, I know, I know.
Okay, well, I love the story. I'm sorry. What is your favorite story ever?
Well, that was. What? Like... 30 minutes ago. I've been obsessed with this story.
I've been watching all his videos. The one at the beach where he's running routes is my favorite thing ever. How his buddy's like absolutely acting like a quarterback and calling out plays and snaps and all that stuff, cadences and everything. Absolutely love it. I think the 49ers are going to win the Super Bowl because of him and Jed Pork.
That one right there. I mean, what a route. What a route. A route. Unbelievable.
Exactly. This dude's routry. And look at him pulling that sled, man. What a, dude, this guy's incredible. Look at him.
So And this stuff working and carrying his helmet everywhere else, it motivated me to bring my helmet on the show without a doubt. And I was all over this stuff. I'm going to go meet Dajon later after this segment. Oh, I totally want to hang out with this guy. I want to be friends with this guy.
I love this guy. I do too. And he nailed I watched all of his videos, like, or most of them, like 90% of them, and he nailed like a lot of the guys. Like, I'm friends with Tyreek Hill, but Antonio Brown, my really good friend, going through some stuff. And I'm just like, this is fantastic.
Yes, he is. When I did the podcast where he is going through some stuff with Teron Armstead yesterday, he actually told me a story. He was so into it, like everybody and like you, that he went down that same rabbit hole. I thought that I knew everything about this guy. He told me a story, even that I did not know about this guy, involving a barbershop or a salon that I don't want to get into right now.
I don't want to give it away, but it's hilarious. Hilarious. The things that this guy would tell people.
Well, and they deserve it. I can't even stick up for these people. Do they not have Google? I mean, how did you not find out who this guy is or what he's about? I saw the free haircuts because he told him he's an athlete and it worked off that.
I saw something where did he get trade himself to the Rams too when he's wearing a Rams bandana? Yes. And then. Uh, he told one of the girls that he's like from the richest family in Switzerland or somewhere else outside the country. I mean, amazing stuff.
And I'm like, Has anybody ever heard of Google? Like, how could you not just put it in there? Yeah, the thing about Teron and the haircuts, the way Teron Armstead told me the story was, he said, I know you know who I am. But I'm coming here. Yeah, I want the free I want no, you know what he went?
He wanted like dreads, he wanted like free hair, but he says I'm bringing security because of who I am. Just so you know that, I will have security with me. All right, anyway, it worked. It worked, of course, it worked. It worked until it didn't.
All right, so where do you want to go? You want to be a delinquent? No, I gotta be a delinquent. I gotta have to. I apologize.
That was my absolutely nobody. Yes. Yes. That was my favorite story until I saw, and maybe I apologize if you guys have already hit on this. The serial butt sniffer is back in the news once again.
But not only that. No, we did not hit on that. Not only did we not hit on that, we were not going to hit on that. Dude, this piece of video is the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. Jimmy the Clerk is a GOAT.
Lauren. Show the world, buddy. In the video, the suspect's apparent obsession targeted toward the store clerk stocking shelves. Jimmy says this is the third time the man has done this at his store. Crouching down like he normally would, and he'll just look around and then just trying to take the chance to sniff like any woman's butt.
First time I caught him, I was like, What is this guy doing? He looks creepy. You want to sniff blood? You can do sniff somewhere else. Glendale police identified the suspect as Khaleese Crowder after witnesses reported him doing something similar at another store the same day.
The 39-year-old was arrested for violating his parole. If you want a sniff butt, you could do it somewhere else, okay? But not in Jimmy the Clerk store. I love that. A violation of this guy's parole is sniffing somebody's.
Dude. Oh, and it was in Glendale. I used to have my bank down there.
So I'm like, man, maybe I met Jimmy the clerk or something like that. But, dude, that guy. And the way he talked, if you want to sniff butt, you go somewhere else. Like, not in the CD. You go sniffing.
You see, go sniff somewhere else, man. Don't be bringing that around my store. Go sniff somewhere else. All right. That was not worth it.
That's your favorite story ever? Dude, that tells you all you need to know about your video. His video, look at his face. Play it again, Lauren. Don't play it again, Lauren.
We saw it. We've seen it. We've seen it. We've seen it. We've seen it.
We don't need to see his face. What? We need to see his face. He was serious about this, Jim. Get out of here with all that stuff, he says.
Look at the sniffer. Sniffer back in the news. Anyways, yeah. That was my favorite piece of video, even better than Mr. Love, the footballer.
Is that why you're now in this business? Like, you actually don't really like sports at all. It's just your way into these kinds of stories. Nah, probably. Yeah.
I mean, I studied a lot and then I dropped it for the last two hours because of Jimmy the freaking clerk and the sniffing butt. You go somewhere else. You go up to Portland. You go somewhere else. You talk about you guys.
Your discipline. You're getting sidetracked, man. We're starting with the college season already underway. The NFL season is about to get underway. And what are you doing, man?
You're going down the rabbit hole of butt sniffing, man. Can we just stick to sports? Can we stick to Liverpool? Let's just stick to sports. All right, let's do it.
I got five games for you today, man. Let's go with the biggest one of the week, right? Clemson v. LSU. Interesting game here to say the least.
I guess we're waiting on a judge to actually see who can play for Lane or who can't play for Lane. On paper, LSU is kind of like Davos' team from last year. High-end talent, dark horse, trendy national championship pick for many, especially if he gets his NFL players. Here, a lot of people are laying the 10 and a half points because the LSU is favored by that much. But that comes with some concerns.
A new coaching staff, a brand new team. This is not BK and the Jug Bands Kids. 44 new players. The last. Uh-oh, who's that in the background?
Um. Last I counted their quarterback Sam Levitt, talented guy, but he also is a gunslinger himself. Their offensive line. Yes, tons of talent from the portal, but only returning starter is one lineman that center right there. Also, they haven't been able to run the football in years.
As for Clemson, the opposite of last year. Everyone is sleeping on them. They took a giant dump in their pants. We saw that. But Davo says this.
I don't know if we believe him or not. This is the strongest culture he has had there. Chad Morris, he's also back as OC. Um I'll take the 10 and a half points here and Clemson. You know what?
I'm going to hit that too right now. I'll take those points. All right, there we go. You don't think they beat them straight up though? No, I don't think they beat him straight up.
Two and a half points. We'll take that one. Lane's going to have a problem if he loses. All right, so we'll take the points, though. We like the value.
What else you got, head? Oklahoma State v. Tulsa. Get this. A Cowboy team from last season that beat UT Martin in their opener and went on to lose 11 straight games is a 13 and a half point favorite at Tulsa.
Why?
Well, they had the most radical roster rebuild in the history of the sport.
Sorry, Coach Prime and Coach Lane, but the Cowboys one-upped everybody. 91-player rebuild here. New head coach, Eric Morris, who happens to be 40, has taken over for Mike Gundy and has gone radical. 68 kids transferred in, 22 freshmen, 9 walk-on. Did you say that's what I've got?
Yeah, 68 kids transferred, 22 freshmen, one walk-on, 21 kids from his North Texas team. The big ones, Drew Mestamaker, the quarterback, Wyatt Young, and Caleb Hawkins. All three guys could be all conferenced. They're that good. But Tulsa, they did beat Oklahoma State last year.
Trey Lamb, he could coach. He's good. That's his. His second year, I believe, here. He added a good group of six transfer classes.
I'm going to take the points here and go Tulsa. You know what, dude? I'm going to say it with you. I'll do it again. I'll do it again.
All right, we are taking lots of points. Are you or are you not going to get to tonight's Colorado game? Nah, I might get there in a little bit. I'm going to go to Notre Dame in Wisconsin first, though. All right.
Like that one, maybe? That's kind of really, but okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be played at Lambeau Field.
The fighting Irish are favored by 20.5 points over Luke Fickle's badge. Dude, see, that's why I don't like that. I'm not saying that that's not right, but that's why I don't like that. When they hired Luke Fickle, if you had ever said to me that they would be 20 and a half point dogs against anybody in Lambeau, I would have been like, are you kidding me? You like that?
I know. It's crazy. I know. But it's just coming. It's absolutely justifiable.
Fun fact about Luke Fickle, too. I don't know if a lot of people knew this. Incredible wrestler. Like Olympic talent type. Yeah, definitely.
You know that because you were a wrestler. Did you hear? I hear it. Did you hear that story that Mark Slurve told about his old man wrestler? Good.
Yeah. Mark was a state champion himself, too, in Alaska, I believe. Stud, man. All right, so 20 and a half Atlanto. Notre Dame, a lot of people think, and we know they've got an enormous chip on their shoulder.
They are loaded. How do you see their matchup?
So, Fickles D showed progress in 2025 as the season played out. The only problem, like all those dudes are gone right now.
So, Lloyd's grandson, CJ Carr, should be teeing off on that. Defense, in particular, a pass defense that ranks 62nd in the country. As for the Irish defense, eight dudes return. They get a Wisconsin offense that were shut out twice last season and scored a whopping 81 points in conference play. No, Kirk Ferenc's kid is not the OC, but you know, it looks like it.
I'm going to go with Marcus Freeman and I'm going to lay the points, dude. Marcus Freeman. He's like the Dan Cannibal of college ATS's 66.1% cover since taking over. That is the best in the country, fickle. C showed up thirty-five percent cover for Wisconsin.
You know what? It's gonna hurt me. It's gonna hurt my heart. Business is business, Olay the twenty and a half. Yeah.
I hate myself for doing it. You know I'm Wisco. You know I'm Team Wisco. I like Notre Dame. I love Marcus Freeman, but I'm Wisconsin.
We're laying points. I've agreed with you on all three so far. We are laying nothing but points, head. What else you got? Yep.
Boise State v. Oregon, one of the better games of the week, maybe. But the Ducks are favored by 24.5 points. I think they both are a natty winner before the season started. Their ability to blow ass at a high level is matched with the amount of talent Dan Landing has amassed in Eugene.
This looks like a bad matchup for the Boise State. Thank you, Alvin. Boise State defense. A year ago, the Broncos couldn't stop the run, and they are now replacing four of five secondary positions.
So while Oregon can run the football, expect Dante Moore to go at the new Boise secondary early and often. He has a huge advantage on the outside and in the middle of the field with flatulence, Nark. That's what I call him. Jamari Johnson. Expect that guy right there, Jamari.
Sometimes Dante farts in the huddle, and we have like a little, a little. Competition of hoop of art in the huddle, but I would say. Really everybody. But mostly Tay because he parks a lot. Hey, head.
If you're going to pick Oregon games every week as a way to get that on the air every single week, we're going to stop right now.
Okay, how about we make a deal? I won't do that one, but I'm going to try to get Jimmy the clerk and talking about: hey, if you want to sniff ass and you go somewhere else. Can we use that one and I'll trade you for this one? How about we don't negotiate anything? And you scout acting like you're a moron.
Anyways, the football game, the Broncos, they've got to create a pass rush. That's something they did not have in 2025. Other side of the ball, Maddox Madsen. He returns a quarterback. I feel like he'd been there for like five years.
He's experienced. He lost his top four pass catchers, but he does have some talent there. And he has a pair of really good running backs who combine for almost 2,000 yards rushing.
Something else might work for Boise's favor here. Oregon, their biggest weakness outside their digestion. Two new coordinators, one offense, one defense. I'm taking the new Pac-12 powerhouse, Boise State Broncos in the 24.5 points. Wow, dude.
Again, again, 24 points.
Well, I think Oregon wins, but you know, 24 and a half points. I think Oregon wins. If you think Oregon wins, why don't you hit them on the money line at minus 3,000? That's probably what it is, huh? Yeah, it is.
Why don't you hit that tough guy if you think they're going to win? Yeah, I thought we'd do Notre Dame. All right. All right, I'm not going to play that game just yet. I'm going to think about that one.
What else? That's four, right? What's number four? That's four. We got one more here: the Monday game.
SMU and Florida State.
So last week we took New Mexico. Can't believe your point. I'm skunking out and not playing that Oregon game tonight. The Colorado game tonight. They're playing tonight, dude.
I know. I'm very excited for it, though. I think it's going to be a fun game to watch. I'm so excited for it. I'm not going anywhere near it.
I'm so excited for it. Just don't ask me to pick it. Come on. It's six and a half points. Here's the worry.
Georgia Tech lost their offensive coordinator, Faulkner, to Florida, and I think he's a big-time key behind what they've been doing lately. And they also lost Hayes King, their quarterback. That worries me. Physically, I think they're going to dominate Colorado. But this go-go offense of Brendan Marion that he's bringing to Colorado, like outside of all the stuff that's going on with Coach Prime, that's the one thing I'm excited to see.
So, in theory, I'm going to lay the points six and a half, but man, Colorado, Julian Lewis is second year there.
So, I'm leaning towards Georgia Tech on that one. I haven't hit it yet, though. All right. That's fair enough. I think there are questions about both.
I think it's a fascinating game. Really important game for Prime, I think.
So we'll see. But go back to your other game.
Okay, SMU, Florida State. We took New Mexico State in the points v Florida State and covered last week. This week, the Seminoles are a home dog of two and a half points v SMU. What we like about Florida State, the obvious, they have a game under their belt and they're playing at home.
So that's good. Their offense ran for 217 yards on 5.6 yards per carry. SMU, they were tied for 19th in the country in run the last season.
However, They have four new starting defensive linemen, so that's an interesting matchup there. They also have to make quarterback Ashton Daniels beat them. He did not look that good last week. SMU has a huge quarterback advantage with Kevin Jennings coming back. He's like the most experienced quarterback in the conference.
He has all new weapons. FSU was pretty good in defending the past last year, but SMU was 10th. In the country and passing yards per game, that could be the factor. Those are the two big factors I got there. I'm gonna go with Rhett Lashley's Mustangs, and I'm gonna lay the two and a half.
Florida State having another early season loss would not be good for them. All right. Not at all. Especially Alabama's next. That's it.
Five games right there, and a whole lot of nonsense. Bro, you know, you know you have a bigger flight deck. Yeah, I probably do. Lowe's my guy. I probably got a bigger flight deck, especially lately.
Last couple years. It's going. All right, head. Appreciate it, man. Thanks so much.
Let's get it. Let's make some money. Thank you. All right, see you, dude. James Kelly, every single Thursday, part of our fan duel segment.
That's what you get with James Keller. You get five, five games. A dude after he's off the air, and all that other nonsense. including What's His Face? In that store, who said, Hey, man, don't bring that around here.
Do not bring that butt sniffing around here. Like, I don't get into any of that ever on this show. And then James Keller comes around once a week, and then that's exactly what we get into. I don't know, I can't stop the guy. And if you think, Rome, why don't you tell him to stop?
I tell him to stop on the air and off the air every time. The guy does whatever he wants. He's kind of like the Clippers. I reject, I vehemently reject those findings. I vehemently reject you telling me not to play those clips.
Vance Mack. The only reason we do it Is because he's often, he's right more than he's wrong, and he can make us some money, so I tolerate it. All right, when we come back. Dan Woikey coming up in 20 minutes. Want to get his thoughts on the Clippers?
Where do we go from here? The Beef segment. You can go ahead and start dialing right now. If you want to get in line for the Beef segment, or if you just want to write your beef, go ahead and write your beef on X, also on email, or do it in the chat. If you ride, you already know it only takes a second for things to go wrong out there.
What a lot of riders don't realize is it only takes that one drink to change your whole life. Alcohol slows your reaction time, it throws off your balance, it gives you a false sense of confidence, and that combination on a motorcycle is dangerous. This 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, you 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 one. 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're 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. Hey, y'all, it's Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke. Y'all know our fans are like family to us, and family watches out for each other, especially when we're out riding.
So, before you or your crew get on your motorcycles, make sure you're good to ride. Even one drink could be too many. Don't let a good ride end the wrong way. This little bitty. Tell me It ain't nothing We all stick around.
Ride sober or get pulled over. Without LifeLock, fixing identity theft on your own sounds a lot like this. There are 77 callers ahead of you. That's why LifeLock has experts who make the endless calls if your identity is stolen so you won't have to, and restores your identity backed by up to $3 million in coverage. There are 73 callers ahead of you.
Don't leave your identity in limbo. Get Life Lock. Save up to 30% your first year at lifelock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
Alright, so Dan Woikey coming on the next segment. Before that, though, let me say, it is the best day ever for people who really like published reports. Because while we're all still processing the Wattel Lipton Clippers report, the athletic today decided that it would be a perfect time to drop their internal investigation into their former national NFL insider, you know, the one caught in the years-long tryst with a prominent NFL head coach. Hate to break it to you smut fiends, but anybody jonesing for more pics or more salacious stories of Mike Vrabel and Diana Rossini are going to be very disappointed in this investigation because it turned up none of that. There is no more of that.
If you were looking for more shots of these two at a bar in New York City or at a casino table or on a pregnant love boat on a lake or at a couple's resort in Arizona, then you are deluding yourselves because that was never going to happen. The athletic was never going to say or do anything that made them look worse or caused this story to catch fire yet again. They were always going to cover their the best they could and try to get everybody just to move on. Which is why I would classify the athletics internal investigation as a giant nothing burger. It is not the 4x4 animal style y'all were looking for when you clicked on that link.
That was never going to happen. Your four by four was the NBA releasing its investigation. I know, not nearly as hot. as Roussini and Vrabel picks and stories. But the Athletic was never going to give you any more of that.
Personally, I actually kind of assumed that the investigation was just going to evaporate once she resigned her position. But here's what we actually did get. Here's what the athletic did actually say. Their first main point. Rossini's relationship With Vrabel was in clear violation of the athletic standards.
Regardless of whether the relationship was romantic, it was a breach. It should have been disclosed. Mm-hmm. Oh. Thanks for that.
And tell me something I didn't already know. Yeah, no kidding. Thank you for uncovering what everybody knew on day one of this scandal. Those two sentences are not news. They're exactly why this scandal was a scandal in the first place.
However, The Athletic then tries to make the point that despite this clear violation of journalistic standards, they couldn't really find many actual examples where it was actually problematic. According to The Athletic. In the 32 months of her employment with the athletic, quote, The website published only three stories Of unusual depth about Vrabel, quote end quote. And even in those three unusual stories, they found no inaccuracies. But did suggest an editor's note be added to two pieces of her content.
That's it. That was their big conclusion. That's what they found. That's upon their investigation, that's what they found. That it was a sketchy relationship that violated company standards, but She did not do anything that couldn't be corrected by a couple of little editor notes at the bottom of her old articles.
Pretty amazing what you won't find when you're not looking for it, right? Because of course, the athletic did not want to find any more serious journalistic breaches than that. They also did not investigate her personally in any way. They only reviewed her work. They only reviewed the 903 pieces that she wrote while she was there and her 204 podcast appearances and 77 video appearances.
But They did not access her phone. Or her email, they didn't even talk to her. And again, they obviously did not want to find anything damaging because, how does that serve them at this point? She's gone. They've moved on.
They were never going to say or do anything that made them look any worse after they had already mishandled that situation. And they're not the only ones that are trying to move on either. Check out what Mike Vrabel's reaction to this dropping today was because of course, the Chow Journos were immediately going to bring it to his attention and ask him about it, and this is what he had to say. Released or published its findings after its review into Diana Rossini's reporting. Curious if you have any reaction to that.
No, I don't have any reaction. No, we're moved on. Focused on Seattle and focused on the Patriots and focused on getting better this week. feel like that situation is fully behind you? Try to just say that I've moved on and excited about this new opportunity here as we start this season.
Hear that? Shia Journos. Rona Seattle. See how We're out of Seattle. I don't know where he got that one from.
I don't know who you learned that from. I mean he did he did study at the at the knees of the genius. Oh. At the Moob of the Genius. He studied at the Moobs of the Genius.
We're on a Seattle. We're moving forward. Yeah, so he's moving on. Just like the athletic and the hoodman. Everybody's on to Seattle.
We're on to Seattle. Everybody's moving on except the smut merchants who are still hanging on by the smut faucet. You're just waiting for another drip. Man, give me something else. Hate to tell y'all, but I think you have to move on to smut addicts.
I know you thrive on the smud, I know you thrive on the salacious. I know you love that story. I know that's your favorite story of all time. I know that was the time of all your lives. But it has run its course.
Vrabel made it Made it pretty clear he's moved on. And by the way, he made it to week one.
So he kind of has moved on. He made it to week one. The athletic proved they have moved on. I'm not even sure Diana. he's ever even left her house since leaving the athletic.
If there was anything else out there All those people with nothing better to do, that spend all day looking for it, would have found it already. And the athletics certainly was not going to go digging for anything more. than they necessarily had to. other than to say, all right, we did investigate it. They were going to dig just enough to say we investigated it.
So there's nothing to see here. Thanks for coming. I know how badly you junkies want to shoot up. Or blast more rails, or smoke out, or do whatever it is you do with that story. But it was a big nothing burger.
When you saw that story this morning, that was a big deke.
Now I hate to leave you with nothing, so my advice is. Go check your Google notifications. for Dejaun Love. See if anybody found any new stories, or any new vids, or any new pics of that loser. Go see if Tiger Woods has rolled his golf cart yet.
Go see if Lane Kiffin has butt-dialed any sorority girls. Go ask James Kelly if that other freak has sniffed any other butts. But there's nothing to see here regarding Braves and Diana. I am very sorry to say. I know you saw that story, and you were like, yes!
Okay. No, no. No, there's nothing. Because the athletic was not going to give you anything at all. I'm surprised we even got as much as we did.
I really thought the investigation was just gonna kind of disintegrate, evaporate, go away once she resigned. But They had to finish it off. In the event that somebody said, Hey, what about that investigation?
Well, they gave it to you, and there is nothing to see, unfortunately. All right, there's that.
So today's like release day. But The NBA's investigation was the 4x4, and that was a big nothing burger. And that's what you're going to get if you ask Vrabel about it. Yo, bro, too bad, man.
Now you are really boring and annoying, Mike. I hate to say. Used to love you, but now you're Belichick. Yeah, that this is where it's gonna go now. Yeah, but I'm already put that behind me.
They are in Seattle. Great. Freebool used to be fun. Franco used to say funny things, do funny things. You never knew what he'd say.
Now we know exactly what he's going to say. We're on a Seattle. No, we're on a Seattle. We're on the Seattle. He's like a younger.
He's like a younger, bigger, more physical. Uh Bill Balichak. I hate that. Great. They finally got rid of that guy and finally got somebody with some personality in there.
And now they've got that same old guy back, except he's half the age and twice the size. And we're on to Seattle. Gray Mike. Thanks, Mike. You're you're a barrel of monkeys.
You're a lot of fun. I'm on to Dan Woikey. Stay tuned. Be right back. Thanks for nothing.
Out. You're listening to the Jim Rome Show. Your information may be for sale online. Yeah, I'll take four social security numbers and a maiden name. LifeLock finds and removes exposed info from data brokers that could put your identity and finances at risk.
Nine email addresses, please. And if those sites put your information back online, and a dozen phone numbers. Life Lock over move that too. Save up to 30% your first year at lifeblock.com/slash podcast. Terms apply.
We have got the beef segment coming up next segment.
So, which one do you want to call right now? If you've got something to beef about, we only do this once a week, so take advantage of it: 1-800-636-8686. Call now with your beefs or write them in. As promised, we are joined right now by a Lakers beat writer for the Athletic. Before that, he was an NBA writer for the LA Times.
Also, previously, a Clippers beat writer for the Orange County Register. Very good friend of the program and of yours truly. He is Dan Woikey. Dan, always good to have you on the show, Dan. How are you doing, dude?
I'm great, man. I've been very busy this summer. Very busy. Doing what?
Well, we've got what the Lakers being sold for like the second time in like three weeks. We've got, dude, I know. We've got, you know, what do we have now? We've got, you know, a five-year draft pick swiping by the NBA, the Clippers. We've got.
You know, I said this to someone else, Jim. I did the thing. I made a horrible mistake this summer where we did our kids' camp schedules like in March. And it was at a time when I had just gotten off a really long road trip, and I really, really missed them. And I was like, I told my wife, I'm like, I got that week.
I don't need that week. Longest month of my life, Jim, getting him back into school. But we're back up. Exactly. You can't plan on that.
And then you got to take B. Arthur for a W-A-L-K. You got to do that. He's right here. He's ready for it.
He's ready for WLK. Yeah, it perked right up. Look at that. Right there. That was perfect, man.
Perfect. Your buddy. All right, Dan.
So, bottom line, based on what you know, because you did cover that team for quite some time, what is your reaction to the NBA dropping that hammer on the Clippers and Steve Ballmer for seemingly, decidedly, allegedly, definitely circumventing the cap, at least in the eyes of the NBA? What is your reaction? Yeah, you know, Jim, I think that having been around... The team at that time. There was so much momentum for the organization.
Oh boy, Mr. B. Oh boy, Mr. B. There he goes.
Wow. There's been, there was so much, there was so much momentum for the organization in the aftermath. He didn't open that door by himself, did he? He's a magician. He's a magician, I think.
Okay. Yeah, he's good. He's got, we have automatic around us. He was going to say, you've been around that organization and things were going to be. Thanks.
Yeah, thanks for serving me up here. He dude, you know, when Steve Walmart bought the team, it was at a time, right, when like Lob City was really in full swing and there was Clipper jerseys around town. The crowd was excited. You know, there was just like a really good vibe around the team, even if the playoff success hadn't followed. And I think, you know, when you look at the 10 years since.
It's just been a litany of things like every few years, something awful happens. And I was talking to a former Clippers player from that team, and we were talking about when they lost to Houston and they blew like a 25-point lead. And I remember saying, in that game, one of the craziest things about it was when they were up like 19, it felt like they were down seven in the arena because just everybody expected something horrible to happen. It was just like a preconditioned Sort of thing as Clipper fans that like there is a shoe that's hanging above us and it will drop. And yesterday, Another shoe dropped.
And it again, a lot of the good feelings that people had about Steve Ballmer, about the organization, about. You know, the arena and the direction that the team was headed. Even after they were entering another quasi-rebuild here, I think, all of a sudden, people are like, Here we go again. I mean, a shoe dropped or an H-bomb dropped. Like, five first-round picks, $30 million fine, and a year's suspension.
Dan, wokey, my guest. Dan, the reaction to me was incredible. The Clippers reacted. They pushed back hard. And I quote, the first sentence, we vehemently reject the NBA's findings.
Hey, Dan, I didn't know that you could reject punishment from the league. What? Do they have the option to not accept the punishment? Can they just ignore it? Like, we reject it?
Is he just going to come to work? Are they going to show up for the draft and try and make their draft picks? That's right. I mean, we reject it. Like in 2030, they just walk to the table and they select Cameron Wikey with like the 27th pick, and they're like, no, no, no, you don't have that pick.
It's not. We rejected it back in the day. Look, I think their options here are pretty limited, right? Um, You cannot fight the league on this. There is no arbitration process for the team.
There's no appeal process with the NBA. Um the only route I guess would be to go to court. But now you have a team suing a league that it's a willful member of that has. You know, signed off on its rules. And I think it's going to be hard to prove.
That this was unjust or that they didn't do the stuff that they were accused of. I mean, the evidence is pretty strong in the report, right? And that evidence, I think, beyond the things like paying for extra benefits and different stuff like that, I mean, they were brokering, you know, and by they, I mean, Gillian Zucker, the team's president, you know, in the finding, was brokering sponsorship deals for players. And that is very against the rules. And you cannot go to a sponsor and say, you should pay this guy.
You really can't go to a sponsor and say, hey, if you want our business, you need to pay this guy. Like, these are big-time no-nos in the NBA's eyes in terms of salary cap circumvention. And according to the report, that's what happened here. Yeah, and he's exactly. And if you read the report, it is so obvious that there was like this Kawhi tax.
Like, if you want to be in business with us, you have to pay this guy and you have to pay this guy this amount of money. And Palmer, of course, is a repeat offender. This is not the first time he's done this.
So that also bites him in the back.
So, what do you make of their response that it was a witch hunt? Like, have you ever seen a team respond to the league in terms of questioning their transparency, calling it a witch hunt? I mean, even it's one thing to say we reject it, but a witch hunt? I think, right, like their position seems to be that we're no different than anyone else. Like, this is happening all over the league, and you've just decided to focus on us because Pablo Torrey decided to focus on us.
I can tell you, in speaking to players around the NBA, that, you know, if the general sense that I've gotten from people is that if this is widespread to this level, Right. that it would get around. That word would be out that players were getting three and four and five million dollar extra sponsorship deals without having to do any work for it, and people would be lining up to do it.
Some of the players that I spoke to, were not aware that that was an option for them. You know, now I do think like things do occur. How do I sign up for that? Yeah, wait a minute. That's widespread.
That's going on. How do I sign up for that? Sign me up. Jim, the way that I put this, and I've said this to people in the league. Look, the if Circumvention is a speed limit, right?
You know, some teams drive 40 and a 35. Like this is 75 and a 35. Right. And technically, everybody's speeding. but one is reckless driving.
And I think that that's what this at least purports and is purported to be. This is Tiger Woods with his SUV lying on its side and him kneeing it out, sweating profusely as somebody's got a camera on him and him telling the cops I just called the president. Yeah, it is, it's pretty damning.
Now, why would the Clippers act this way? I mean, Jim, you know this here in Southern California, right? Like, there's an inferiority complex. Like, they are fighting uphill. I'm working on a piece right now.
I talked to some fans and talked to a pretty high-profile fan about this. And he said, when you're a Clipper fan, you're constantly defending yourself against the jokes, right? People wouldn't realize this. And I don't know that your listeners and your watchers realize. Clippers have had at least a 500 or a better record for 15 straight seasons, the longest streak in the league.
Right now, like they have put together. You never know. It's such a great point, but I never know. You would never know. You would never know.
You would never know. It's a great point. You know, and all people would point to is like pandemic P. You know what I mean? Or, like, you know, Uncle Dennis, or Uh Like Chuck the Condor, or whatever, whatever.
Guilty. Yeah, like, guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
I said it myself that not only did Kawhi Leonard, not only did they just lose five first-round draft picks, they actually lost 10 because Kawhi Leonard pushed them to sign Pandemic P, who cost them SGA and those five first-round picks.
So actually, Kawhi Leonard cost them 10 first-round picks. And by the way, what is your reaction to him getting dinged a $700,000 in a restitution fee? Grant, given all of this, and his contract's not voided, he's not suspended, he can go right to Toronto. Is that not a slap on the wrist? It's good to be in Unions, Jim, sometimes.
And I think it was good that he was in the NBA Players Association. Like there are limits to what was available to him. The NBA was even creative in how it went after those limits. I believe the actual limit is $350,000. And they found via settlement that they were able to ding them on a couple different companies.
It was more than one company, it was more than one deal. But I mean, there just isn't a lot in these rules. Because generally speaking, teams don't. Don't do this stuff. Right, like everybody kind of agrees not to do this stuff.
It's sort of like. You know, they honor among thieves. you know It's funny. There is like an element, right? Like, of, you know, if you're not cheating, you're not trying.
And along the way, somebody kind of posited to me that Steve Ballmer is really, really competitive. And that if Steve Ballmer thought other people were doing this, that he would want to do it the best and he'd want to do it better than anybody else. And he would want to, you know, whatever. I just tend to think that a lot of this comes from the fact that they're running uphill. Um, as the clippers, and they didn't want to take slow steps, they wanted to take big, long, fast ones, and when you do that.
you put yourself in this position. I mean, in 2019, look. Kawhi Leonard wasn't just asking the Clippers for stuff. He asked the Lakers for stuff. He asked the Lakers for a percentage of ownership.
Exactly, Dan. Really quickly, before you go, last thought on that. That Uncle Dennis, man, he was running around asking teams for things like this. What do you make of Kawhi saying, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, my people put me in a bad position and gave me bad advice.
Yeah, I think it's a defense that I will be using in the future. Yeah, right. It was very important: is that I apologize for all the bad decisions I made that the people around me made.
So. I, you know, look, he gets to march on, right? Like, he gets to go play basketball next year. He'll sign an extension. The Raptors have his bird rights.
You know, he'll be kind of scot-free in all this. You know, the $700,000 is a fraction of what he made with these deals. You know, the people that really hurt. I think honestly, like Clipper fans, brutal for them, brutal day on the phones. Everything every bad Laker friend of theirs has said about them for years has been thrown back in their face.
Bad day for the people in customer service and in ticketing, talking to people who've had season ticket deals that are locked in for three and four years, kind of based on pricing that like this team was gonna be pushing for a championship. And now, who knows, like the best path forward might be just strip it all the way down for parts and try to get as many picks back as possible. That might be the route they take. And it's bad for the people, Jim and House, quite frankly, who really, truly, genuinely felt that the Clippers did nothing wrong in this and who put their reputations on the line to defend them. This is tough, too.
It's a really bad day. It's a bad day, Dan. It's a bad way for me to end this segment. I'm so sorry, my brother. Great job.
But we are on a hard out. Dan Woikey joining us. Thanks, Dan. We've got the beef segment next. Your information may be for sale online.
Yeah, I'll take four social security numbers and a maiden name. LifeLog finds and removes exposed info from data brokers that could put your identity and finances at risk. Nine email addresses, please. And if those sites put your information back online, and a dozen phone numbers. Life Lock will remove that too.
Save up to 30% your first year at lifelock.com/slash podcast. Terms apply.
