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What's good? A very good Thursday to you. I'm Jim Rome, and the program, as you know, is brought to you by FanDuel. Speaking of FanDuel, I've got a FanDuel segment coming up at the top of hour number two. We do it every single Thursday.
James Kelly will join me. We will break down a number of games.
So if you want to get down, you want some action, maybe You get lucky and make some money, or or You don't like where we're coming from and you want to fade us, that's good too.
So that's coming up in hour number two. In the meantime, nice to have you here. We have a lot to get done today. Telephone number three is toll-free. And I want to give it to you right now because we have a beef segment coming up later on.
Something kind of funny happened earlier. A number of you in chat. Have been asking what time is the beef segment. I think some of you are new to it and think that we do it every single day. We don't.
We only do it on Thursdays.
So like people were showing up on Tuesday. Hey, Matt, what time's the beef segment? One o'clock. All right, I'll be there. Thursday.
Don't be there on Tuesday. Don't be there on Monday. Just come with your normal takes. But we will have a beef segment coming up at the top of our number three.
So if you want to get into that, go ahead and do so. Backing up 18-00-636-8686. Oh, one more thing. I normally don't think about this. If you have a video beef.
Send it to us.
Some of you have been doing that on your own, but if you hadn't thought of that yet and you're thinking about it right now, you can go ahead and do so. If you want to hit me up on X, go ahead and do that. We are on X at Jim Roam. Email me to Rome, R-O-M-E, at habitate.com. And then the aforementioned YouTube channel.
Find that, Jim Roam. Hit the subscribe button, ring the bell, and jump up into chat. and become a distinguished member. That will get you. Immediately, that bitching little R that lets everybody know that you are a distinguished clone.
All right, with all that in mind, coming up at twelve forty, we're talking golf. Rex Hoggard will be joining me. If Rex number seven is coming in, there must be something big going on in the sport.
So that's coming up at twelve forty. I have a question for you guys. I've got James Kelly at one that we know. Mike Mayock, what time, Tommy? I've got him at 1-2.
I know I'm not doing both. I'm not confident in those two win. I think it's 1-40. Beef segment, two o'clock straight up.
Okay, there you go.
So Rex Hoggard, James Kelly for FanDuel, Mike Mayock, former NFL player, former NFL executive, Westwood One analyst, and the Peep segment. All of those things coming up today.
So get up in here. Let me start right here.
Now I know this may seem redundant. And I know I keep asking. Do you know Michael McDonald? Do you know about Ron Donald? Do you know about Michael McDonald?
Do you know about Ron Donald? Do you know about Michael McDonald? Do you know about Ron? Do you know? The reason I keep asking.
Not because of Cheryl. But because I think and not because He's got a great voice. But because I think this dude typically Does not get enough credit. or run. And I'll admit, I do keep asking because I do really like to say yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Mostly though, I ask. Do you know about Michael McDonald? Do you know about it? Because he's a pretty chill dude who flies under the radar way more than a lot of other big pros down to head coaches.
But not this week. Not this week. This week he's been right in it. Thanks to his own words, my dude Michael MacDonald has been all over the news this week. He's at the center of the biggest controversy in the NFL right now.
At least the biggest controversy outside of the way Caleb Williams got hurt and reacted. Caleb's supposed crime against masculinity aside, the other big NFL story of the week involves a Mike McDonald quote About an incident from the 2024 season. An incident that nearly led to a fallen open war with Sean Payton after Seattle beat Denver in week one that year. As McDonald tells it, the Seahawks went and dug up a bunch of Bronco fan videos on X from training camp that summer to get ready for that game. As a result, Seattle was very well prepared to beat the Broncos in week one, which happened to be McDonald's head coaching debut.
When Sean Payton got wind of how Seattle prepared, he essentially flipped out on Seattle. And the reason why he got so upset is really pretty amusing. And amazing both. Sean Payton got so upset because when he found out the Seahawks were using video from his training camp to get ready for that game, he jumped right to the assumption that Seattle was pulling a Michigan. Sean naturally just assumed that a former Michigan defense coordinator and a longtime Harbaugh assistant.
Maybe not a long time. But a a Michigan Coordinator for sure. Was running another Michigan-style cheating scheme. That's where his mind went immediately. Sean was immediately like: man, you Michigan men are all exactly the same.
Cheaters. Was Connor Stallions in on it too? Did you have Connor stallions running around in disguise at my training camp taking videos with those dorky spyglasses?
Now, it's pretty easy to understand why Sean would be so suspicious. But again, to be clear, what the Seahawks did was completely legal. Because the Seahawks simply scoured social media for videos that Bronco fan made available for free. There was no elaborate cheating necessary. There was no scheming involved.
It was all right there on X. Anybody could have seen it. And Seattle. Effectively did. That's why the whole situation did not blow up into an open war between the Broncos and the Seahawks at the time.
Remember, this was a couple years ago. Because Seattle did nothing wrong. And we still would not know anything about any of this if not for that clip that went viral this week. The clip in question is from the show In Depth with Graham Bensinger. Although, as you'll soon see, technically the exchange was from before the start of the formal interview.
Check this. We took like 100 plays from their training camp. We were like scouting them, you know, and like, anyways, so he got wind of it. And he like lost him. It's like middle of the season.
And like, and we're, and we won the game.
So, like, and we're, and we were in the fight like our first year trying to. A lot of s going on. And so he called Johnny, basically like threatened to come out publicly and do it like a whole Patriot, like spygate type of thing. Yeah. And I'm sitting there like, oh my God.
I'm like, we didn't cheat. Like, like, You know, we thought it was a Michigan thing where we had a plant and the whole thing and we're like so we had to like counter with him to No, really? Say like, hey, look, if you come out of this, like, we're going to sue you because it's not true, you know? Right. All right, so if you watch that right there, a few thoughts.
Number one, clearly the interview had not started. Like he had not settled into interview mode. He wasn't in go time.
So Sean was ready to air out the entire Seahawk organization and accused them of combining Spygate and the Michigan Man scandal by having a plant in his training camp filming plays. But the Seahawks responded by threatening to get litigious with it. I mean, pretty spicy stuff. Also, pretty obvious from the camera angle and from his just general vibe. That exchange did not come during the actual interview.
Which is interesting. Ben Singer has since said that we do this sometimes. We start, we just start talking and then sometimes we use some of those pre interview clips as part of the show that we publish. But clearly that was not part of the interview. Because, of course, the Seahawks and McDonald immediately claimed that they didn't know any of that was on the record.
or that any of that would ever see the light of day. My take on that is this. At this point in time, at this point in life, it doesn't matter whether he knew it was explicitly on the record or not. Were there cameras surrounding him? Were they rolling?
Were their lights on? Was there a microphone clip to him? Then it's on the record. Or in the very least, you have to assume that it's on the record. If you say something in front of cameras, in front of a microphone, with the lights on, there's a really good chance it can get out in the public.
Somebody's going to have it.
Somebody in any production will have it or have access to it. And if they want Or they have an axe to grind, or they want to sell it, or whatever it is, they will push it out there. There really is no such thing as being on and off the record anymore, right? Like there are agreements between reporters and insiders. And, like, hey, I'll tell you this off the record because there's an exchange of favors.
That's how that game is played. But if you're a public figure and you're sitting for an interview or standing for an interview. And there's a camera or a mic or a light. Assume that if you don't want it out there, don't say it. You're on record.
Even if you think you're not. These days, you could be anywhere and somebody could pull out an iPhone, throw that clip straight on Instagram, and boom, you're on record. Like anybody in the public realm, if you're out in the street and somebody comes up to you and starts talking to you and they've got a phone, you're on record. You can't say to them, hey, you can't use that. What do you mean I can't use that?
We're in public. I have a phone. I'm using it.
So in short, what I'm saying is you have to know. And you have to always watch what you say if you're like, I don't know, an NFL head coach. If you don't want anyone hearing it, don't ever say it. Period. Period.
That way it never comes back to bite you in the ass. Let me repeat that. Yeah, I feel like back in the old days when I jumped on Twitter, I said, Let me tell you about Twitter. Let me tell you about Twitter, Twitter is a loaded gun. A loaded gun without a safety, it will go off.
It will go off.
Sometime, someplace, when you least expect it, that gun will go off. Same thing with this right now. If you don't want it out there. Don't ever say it. Hell, don't even think it.
Just to be safe.
Now to Did did you know McMacDonald? To his credit. He held it really well. He called it a learning experience and he did call Sean Payton to apologize. And then McDonald went to the podium yesterday and handled it like the pro that he is.
Probably it was the most appropriate thing to reach out to Sean and Really just apologize to him for. having that end up be public where it wasn't meant to. Um So I just and you know, you're you're kind of something that they have to deal with in real time that wasn't really you know, on their end.
So that's that's really where you're like crap. But um It's a lesson learned. You know, honestly, it's. I got to be better in that moment for understanding, like, look, I'm responsible for. what I say really no no matter the circumstance, whether you're mic'd up, whether you're not.
Whether you have some certain type of understanding. Um So, you know, I fell short at that moment.
So it's a it's it stings for me, frankly, but. It's something that I'm definitely going to learn from. Damn man, somebody pull that guy off of that guy. My god, it's all right. You owned it.
Most people owning nothing. This dude's owning it way too much. Damn, Mike. Stop beating yourself into submission. Yes, it's a learning experience, but it's also a story from years ago.
Technically, you really didn't do anything wrong. In fact, I'm not really sure. That anybody did anything really egregious in this entire thing. I want to point the finger at Graham Bensinger and his crew for releasing this, but Graham put out a statement last night that said the Seahawks PR. Had all the footage five days before it was published, and that they raised no objections.
No. Why the Seahawks were granted editorial approval? I don't know. That's a totally different question and a legitimate question. But since they were granted editorial approval and they had five days to voice a complaint, complaining after the fact that you thought that this was off the record doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense, does it?
For the record, Sean Payton also addressed this yesterday and said that he's good with McDonald and the Seahawks and that it's all good. Sean said, if anything, the whole thing helped the Broncos because it made them realize they had to button up their organization. They had to make sure that compromising clips from training camp did not make it to social media anymore.
So, in a sense, it actually helped them.
So the only real loser here is Michigan Man. Because the funniest part of the entire situation is Sean Payton finding out that the Seahawks used clips from training camp and just automatically assumed that Seattle was running the Michigan Man cheating playbook. Because I guess whenever you're involved, Michigan Man, people just assume the worst. Michigan football is so synonymous with cheating and bullcrap behavior at this point, Sean Payton automatically went right there. Right there.
What he thought But I thought wait a minute man, this was a totally Totally tactical. Complicated scheme. To get videotape of us. Oh, wait a minute. That dude was in Michigan.
Damn, Michigan man's at it again. And by the way, can you blame the guy from jumping to that conclusion? Anybody would have.
Now, whenever anybody gets caught cheating, everybody just assumes there's got to be a Michigan man in the middle of it. There has to be, right? Oh wait, there's cheating going on. There's got to be a Michigan man in the middle of it. And Do you know my coming told?
He has ties to both Michigan guys or both Harboroughs. But he was the AD coordinator at Michigan. Anyway, that's a story that's been floating around this week that I thought was pretty interesting that I wanted to lead with. Man, hell of a coach. Great coach.
Great coach. And if something happens, that's how you handle it. Then you d you know how you handle that? You call the other coach directly yourself, and then you get up in front of the podium and say, Yep. That's on me.
I learned. I learned. And I think we all learned everything is on record. Or even if it's not, assume that it is. Or, in the very least, no matter who you are, if you don't want something out there, Don't say it.
That way, it can never come back and bite you in the ass. Don't say it. He learned.
So I I would imagine he will be more guarded going forward. 1-800-636-8686. I will say this. If you see a mic, here's Here's more media training from Vance Mac. If you see a mic.
Assume it's hot. If you see a Mike. Assume it's hot. Assume that it's on. Assume that somebody is recording it.
But It's one of those gotcha. hot mic moments is pretty tame. This is pretty tiny. People have said much more offensive things than that. And owned a lot less than what he owned.
1-800-636-8686. In addition to that, I want to talk about the Cincinnati Bengals. About time, you know, for a long time. Nah, never for a long time. Going back in the day on this show.
Marvin Lewis was the one NFL coach who would always come on the program, always, never said no. And they would make the playoffs a lot under Marvin. Rarely win but he would get them in. And we would talk Bengal football, and then Joe Burrow showed up, and then we talked a lot of Bengal football for a couple of years, and then not much of late. Today, I want to talk about Cincinnati once again, and I will.
We'll hit that a little bit later on. On top of that, I want to talk more about the Chargers. The Chargers. that they're actually playing for their season this weekend, period. They are.
I mean, I would have argued that week two was a must-win game. If week two is a must-win game and they lost week two. Then what's that make week three? And they've got to go to Buffalo. Have fun with that.
A reporter asked Justin Herbert about the leadership. And whether or not it has to step up this week. And for the first time ever, I saw him cut off a reporter. Like, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. Let me stop you right there.
We don't have any leadership problems. You have no problems at all. You just lost to. Arizona and Las Vegas, and you're 0-2, and you were a Super Bowl favorite, and you look terrible on offense, and not much better on defense.
Now you have to go deal with Buffalo. In their new stadium. We have no issues. Nothing to see here. Oh, all right.
Don't forget, we've got the beef segment coming up in hour number three.
So, if you're relatively new to it and you want to know when we beef, we beef on Thursdays in the third hour.
So, think about what you want to beef about. All right, come right back.
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Alright, it is a beef day, so it'd be a good time for me to remind you and ask you this question: why is old trap reef jerky so good?
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I love them all. I do not have a favorite. I mean that. I just bounce back and forth. I eat it every single day as well.
So grab and go with a four-ounce bag or load up with an 18-ounce bag. That will be enough for the entire team, or just smash that bad boy yourself. If you don't see it, ask for old trapper by name because no other jerky compares old trapper with your beef. The beef segment is coming up at the top of our number three. Iscat writes this on chat.
At DJ JB. We all know that, Jim. We all know that you can pull out your but where is the ethics in this? Is there any ethics is in this? I want to know a ruling from the NFL.
I want to know what they think about this. Oh. You want to know what the NFL thinks about this.
Well, I've got news for you, DJ JB. If that's what you're waiting on, you're going to be waiting a long time. The NFL is not going to rule on this. It's done. And by the way, ethics, you want to know?
Seattle apparently knew. Seattle had the video. Seattle had it. They had the footage. and they had five days to look at it.
At least according to the host of that show, and I haven't heard Seattle deny that.
So if you're the host of that show. I don't think you want to lie about something like that, right? Let me tell you something else in terms of ethics. Ethics. What, you think that I'm gonna sit here and that I'm pushing for unethical behavior?
What are we doing? I will tell you this. Here's how I would have handled this if I were Seattle.
Now, I don't expect. Ronald McDonald to have time to do this. But if you're a PR department and you're going to book your head coach on a show or on a platform, you're going to want to know about that platform, right?
So, what you're probably going to do is, you're going to watch interviews that that show's done. Like if I cast and I don't know the guy that I'm or person I'm talking to, I'm gonna watch a podcast or a few podca podcast episodes before I go on with that person to get a general vibe. When I interview people on this show, I watch other interviews to vibe of how they show up.
Now, if I'm going to appear on somebody else's show, I damn sure. Am I going to watch that show before I show up? Because if you do that, If what he says is true and you do that, you'll realize that what they do sometimes is they take clips that are like behind the scenes, or clips that are in a more comfortable setting before the formal interview starts. This is when he said that. They do this on that show according to that host.
Now I don't know personally. I'm just going by the statement that, that host issued. We do this as part of the program. Before we start actually rolling tape on the formal interview, we will cut up clips and we will use them and publish them. If you're in Seattle and you're going to put your coach on that show, maybe you have somebody watch that show first and you say to the coach, Coach.
The second you walk through that door, the interview has started. It already has. They use those clips.
So be wary of that. The interview does not start when the interviewer says to you, Are you ready?
Okay, everybody, everybody set? All right, here we go. Three, two, one. No. If you know that they use those clips, and you would know if you watch the show.
So you tell your head coach, just be ready. The interview actually starts the second you walk through that door. Not when you sit down, not when the host says, everybody ready.
So in terms of where the ethics hey Jim, where are the ethics? What What's I don't know what's so unethical about this? For instance, let me tell you something. If you're somebody who makes a living interviewing people, You don't want to have a reputation of setting people up. Trapping them, sandbagging them, or doing them dirty, because then nobody will come on the program.
I don't think that's what that guy did. I think it all just kind of went sideways. But I don't think there was anything super egregious That was done by anybody.
So, DJ JB, I hope that answers your question about ethics. And as far as what you want to hear what the NFL has to say about this, You're going to be waiting a long time. What else do we have here? Oh, a telephone call. This guy says he I'll make up for it now.
You should. He tried yesterday and went really badly. If you're going to call the program, try to have a clean mind. Because audio still matters. We go to Menafi.
He started his call. I had to run him yesterday because the sound quality was terrible. V in the fee. What's going on, V? Jimothy, what's up, brother?
Sorry about yesterday, you know, but as I was getting into it, you know, yes, Vikings are 2-0. Yes, you're leading this gold chance the next home game. I'll see the Super Bowl in SoFi. But Jimothy, I wanted to get into Caleb Williams. 'Cause nobody has Caleb's back right now except for that stretcher.
But Caleb is the reason is not the reason why the Bears look soft. It's guys like Adam Rink and Ben Johnson that make the Bears look soft. After they got their ass beat by the Vikings in Beeflow, the first thing they blame is the refs. And the weather and the rain. They couldn't drop these nights because of the rain.
I don't know if you knew this, Ben Johnson, but you play in Chicago, and this is the freaking NFL. Games have rain in them. It's gonna be cold and windy. Zach Wilson, so deal with it. You just got your ass ran by B-flow, and you got to hold that.
And look where I'm with you on the charges, by the way, that they need a must-win? For their three fans. I mean, holy crap, Charger fan. Way to show up at SoFi against the Raiders. I know they're expecting a 50-50 split, but it's more of a 90-10 split.
It's just like Silk Bra's wife when she opens the joint bank account. I mean, suck bra. How are you the Madison Beer in that relationship? I mean, I would say Jen Silk had fifth and her bro like talent, but Suckbra, you have name recognition, but you also have chest recognition. You are the Madison beer.
But I mean, at least you got a beat on bra sides. Bra. But anyway, Jim, in terms of like Caleb Williams and his injury, I don't think anyone should be chiming in on that, like, unless you've already, like, you know, been through what he's been through.
So I think the only person who could comment on his injury, honestly, is Diana Russini. 'Cause you know what it's like to have a sore vagina too. Uh That is your cup. No. You don't like thickness.
Now you're done with that cup. Mm-hmm. Not a very good color. That obviously is somebody who was not looking to get wrecked. Holy crap!
He was looking to talk about silks rack, but he was not looking to get racked. I know that. Every single V call, except for the smack off, which he wants to win, is going to end with him imploding and getting run. Because he doesn't want to get racked. He gets way more satisfaction out of getting run.
I just hope that every single one of his calls going forward is not about Diana. Oh, oh, V. I was thinking, I'm going to rack him, but no, I'm not. I know I'm not, because I know that he's going to get himself run, and he did. Speaking of Sopra.
Joint account, 50-50, 90-10. I don't know. I think that you're all so fixated on killing this guy for his moobs and living off his wife. His wife. Jen?
is really successful. Like she's really good at what she does. Really good. And believe me, you think Silk Broad's gonna screw that up? Hell no.
Hell no. No, she she is really I don't even know hey bro, no offense. I don't even know that these bringings have percent. But I know that she's really good at her job. And she does very well.
Like, he's not just bragging on her to brag on her. She's extremely reputable and respected in her industry. Let me get out. Rex Hoggard's coming up next. In fact, I'll be getting me out right now.
You're listening to the Jim Rome Show.
Welcome back, that is true. Let's get right back to it. We've got the Beef segment coming up in hour number three. I've got James Kelly and our fan duel segment at the top of hour number two. But right now, we are joined by a good friend of the program.
He is a golf channel insider. He is a senior writer for golfchannel.com. He is co-host of the golf channel podcast with Rex and Lab. He was Rex number seven in the legendary Rex Streak in the Jungle Golf Channel. Peacock and NBC Sports have live coverage of the President's Cup today through Sunday from Medina Country Club in Illinois.
We are joined right now by Rex Hoggard. Rex, if there is a big event in golf, you know why I'm looking for you, my dude. How are you doing, Rex? I'm good. I love the seven still.
Still love the seven. Dude, I love the seven. I love that you were the seven, and I love the seven. All right.
So, with day one, with day one of the president's competition or the cup between the U.S. and the international team being played out right now, can you do what you do best, Rex? Can you give us your real-time analysis? What are your biggest takeaways so far? Let's go straight to social media on this one.
And the international team is what we thought they were. And it's not a match when it comes to what they do versus what the United States does. And this is nothing to do with the top of the international world. There's plenty of really good players on that international team. Minwu Lee, Siwu Kim, I would say Ryan Fox, your open champion, can all go toe-to-toe with the best American players.
They just don't have the depth. And that's what we're seeing on this first day. I think when you look at the way this cup has played out over the last three decades, that's right. I'm not mispronouncing that. Three decades, it's been this way since the international team was able to win this.
And we're heading down that direction again. I think there are some interesting things going on on the board. They said Scotty Scheffler, the world number one out alongside Sam Burns, and that match is tied right now. They've just made the turn. I think that'll be interesting for the international side if they could somehow squeak out a half a point on that one and get some sort of momentum and beat the world number one.
That could work. But otherwise, I think we're seeing exactly what we thought we were going to see. Rex Hogger joining us. Elaborate on that, Rex. What you're saying is, for instance, that out of the 15 previous President Cup events, the U.S.
has won 13, and there was a tie, and only one win for the international team.
So you're right, they don't fare as well here. In terms of Scotty Scheffler, I was going to ask you: he wins the season-ending tour championship last month. Why do you think it is that the world's top-ranked golfer has not fared better in team events like the Ryder Cup and the President's Cup? And as you point out today, he's also in a dogfight. He's in a dogfight, I think, twofold here.
And this goes back to Tiger Woods. And you could have made the same argument when Tiger was in his prime. He didn't play. Very well in these team matches either. When it comes to Scotty Scheffler, the one thing we know about him is he's a creature of habit.
He loves his routine. And when I spoke with him earlier this week, he said this week, the Ryder Cup, it takes him out of his routine. He's practicing with a partner. They're talking about playing different golf balls. They're talking about strategy.
Those are things that he doesn't do on a week in and week out basis. There's also distractions with the media and dinners, all of that. And the other half of it is it's hard to find a player like Scotty Scheffler or Tiger Woods, a good partner. We ran into it with Tiger. Scotty Scheffler has now had six partners, hasn't had much success with any of them.
I think it has more to do there with pressure. You're playing with this generational player and you want to try to play up to his standards and very rarely. Does that happen? We've seen it before, and I think Scotty is going to continue to search. I do think it's interesting.
He and Sam Burns are pretty much best friends, and he decided to circle back around. And I'm just going to stick with this one, and we'll see how it plays out this week. That makes sense to me. We are joined by Rex Harvard. Rex, what about Medina?
So, Madina Country Club, course number three, has a long history dating back to the 1920s. It's hosted multiple majors along with the Ryder Cup 2012. After being redesigned two years ago, how is that track playing today? I think the redesign is exactly what they wanted from Jeff Ogley. The international captain this week actually was part of the redesign team, but they were looking long-term.
Dinah was looking at hosting major championships down the road. They definitely did not design a golf course that was going to suit the international team. As a matter of fact, I had someone on the American side tell me earlier in the week that Jeff Ogley pretty much designed a perfect course for the Americans. And he would look at what they do well statistically. They hit the ball a long way and they putt fast greens well.
And that's exactly what you have here. They made the fairways much wider. It's a really long, big ballpark, and you have a lot of undulation, really fast putts. I was out walking with Scotty Scheffler this morning for the first nine holes. And if you were above the hole, you had to put.
Defensively. That's all the things the Americans do well, and the internationals not so well. Talking to Rex Hogger. You know, Rex, I'm looking over your shoulder. It looks pretty nice from at least that shot.
Uh yeah, not bad, not bad. I mean, given the weather we saw, for instance, at Soldier Field over the weekend, we know that the weather can change pretty quickly this time of year in that part of the country. What does the forecast look like for the rest of the weekend with President Trump scheduled to attend Sunday's matches? I think they're going to get exactly the course they want. There was a lot of rain, as you pointed out last weekend.
We saw it at Silverfield. It certainly was the case here.
So, when we showed up on Monday, the golf course was soft. It was playing really, really fast. I mean, really, really slow. It was soggy. It's dried out.
There's been a lot of wind over the last few days. You can see the sun has come out behind my shoulder. You're going to get closer to what Jeff Ogilvie wants, which is a firm and fast golf course. I don't think we actually get there because of all the rain they got, but it's going to be a fun test. And I will also say, having walked the golf course now, he did a phenomenal job.
It's a really cool track. Rex 7 joins me for another few moments. Hey, Rex, one topic additionally.
So, the LiveTor filed for bankruptcy, saying that it burned through roughly. five bill with a B, five billion dollars over the last five years.
Okay, more than that then? More than that. As the Tor tries to recreate itself and survive, what does bankruptcy mean for players like John Rahm, who still has a ton of money left on his contract? It's pennies on the dollar. It's just like everyone else who's involved with this.
And like John Rahm is going to be the high-profile. Debtor in this particular situation.
So, are a couple of other players who owe quite a bit of money. But you also look at all the different vendors that were working with LiveGoff over the years. But the only path forward to LiveGoff 2.0 is what they'll tell you: was through bankruptcy. There's no way anyone is going to get involved with someone that has that much debt.
So you had to clear the table. on that first. I think as it applies to John Rom. And this also goes to Bryson DeShanpo, because Scott O'Neill, the CEO of Live Goff, has made it clear he needs what he calls a critical mass of players who are willing to stay committed to Live Goff. Going forward to secure future funding.
There's one major investment fund that wants to get involved, as well as some smaller investment funds, but they need quote unquote that critical mass. I don't believe for a minute that's going to include John Rahm. I think John Rahm is ready to cut his losses and move on, whatever that looks like, his pathway back to the PGA tour. I think Bryson, on the other hand, he's probably going to stay put. He's going to want to see how this plays out, and he's going to wanna try to be that, let's call it a trailblazer, the pioneer that he's kind of always envisioned himself to be.
You know, I was gonna ask about Bryson since you brought him up.
So you think he'll stay put and he'll try to make that thing work. Like, where do you think his head is at right now? Yes, he wants to be a pioneer and a trailblazer. I mean, would this guy really be satisfied just YouTubing it? Bing, live.
I mean, what does this guy really want out of it at this point? If you asked me that about 99.9% of the other players who play on the PGA tour, I would say absolutely not. They're not geared that way. They want to play against the best players week in and week out, and they want to compete for major championships. The idea of not doing either one of those things for a player of Bryson Caliber's Bryson DeCambo's caliber, someone who has won major championships and their expectations were so high, I can't fathom it, but it seems to be the case.
He seems to be fine going in a different direction. We always knew that Bryson was cut from a different kind of cloth. We always knew that he thought much, much differently than most other players. And this is an example. Of how that works out.
Because again, any other player, John Rahm all the way down, would tell you that, no, I'm good. I wanna go and do what I've always dreamt of. That's played PGA Tour, that's played in major championships. But Bryson wants to be on the other side. It's so interesting, right?
Like, what does he get out of that? Like, look, I'm not saying that you can't get business from that. I'm not saying that he can't make money from that. But to your point, the best want to go against the best and they wanna play for majors, but being a YouTube star and having your own network and having millions of followers. Why is that enough for him, do you think, other than he's different?
He's not like the rest. Oh man, that terrifies me trying to wade into Bryson DeSham Beau's brain. I just don't want to do that. It scares me to death. But I think when it comes to Bryson, and we have learned this about him over the years, the fact of the matter is, he was always going to be an outlier when it came to golf.
Even without Liv Golf, he was always going to do things differently. When he won the U.S. Open at Wingfoot during the pandemic, I remember talking with Andrew Shauffley about asking if maybe he was taking advantage of some of the things in the game. And he said he's twisting the game on its ear, like he's turning it upside down. And it's what he wants to continue to do.
Keep in mind, he's still qualified for the major championships because of that victory a few years ago at Pinehurst.
So he still has that option. But whatever Liv Goff 2.0 becomes, it's going to be kind of a shell of itself. You're not going to have anything close to the top players that you have. I think it remains to be seen. If that competitive spirit, that competitive void will still be filled by him going forward.
I appreciate your thoughts on that, Rex. One last thought: Has Lefty come out of his home? Have we heard anything about Phil Michelson? No, he hasn't played Liftoff at all this season. He played the very first event, and of course, everything that happened after that, we're still waiting to hear more.
There's been a lot of reporting on that, but nothing official coming out of the camp. He hasn't made any statements as far as what his future with Liftoff might be. And I think probably we won't. I can't imagine he's going to surface anytime soon based on everything that's going on in his personal. In his professional life, is there anybody in the sport do you think that would welcome him back with open arms or any kind of arms?
Cheers. I think even if you take away what has happened over the last few months, and there's various reporting, I would encourage everyone to go out and Google it and look for yourself. Even before that, I think the divide, the bridge that he burned down when he left the PGA to there's a lot of players who left to go to live golf. And a lot of those players, Brooks Tepka being the primary example, have been welcomed back by one level or another. We'll be welcoming back.
Patrick Reed here in just a couple of weeks when he returns to the PGA Tour. Those players, it's worth pointing out, pretty much kept their mouth shut. They didn't join a lawsuit against the PGA Tour, and they didn't try to recruit other PGA Tour players to leave to go to live golf. Those were all lines. That Phil Nicholson crossed, according to various sources, that I don't think that bridge could ever be rebuilt.
Not back to the PGA Tour. I think that's well said. There is a path back for some of these guys, for sure.
Some have already made it back, but I don't see it for him. Rex Hoggard, as I mentioned, anytime there's anything significant in the sport going on, this is my go-to. Rex, really appreciate you. Great job as always, and a great conversation, man. Have a great weekend.
Thanks, Jim. You're the best, Rex. Love Rex. Rex number seven. Senior writer for golfchannel.com.
He is a golf channel insider. Again, check it out. Golf Channel Peacock and NBC Sports have live coverage of the President's Cup today through Sunday, and USA generally rolls up the international squad in that event. And it looks like that might happen again. All right, so when we come back, James Kelly joins me.
We are coming off last week, one of our best fan duel segments. I think this one's going to be great too. I know the head is going to be locked and loaded and ready to roll. We've got a little bit better of a sample size. I know he gets a little, little sketchy, a little squirrely early in the year because, well, there isn't that sample size.
And so only two weeks in, but we know more now than we knew a week ago.
So we will have that when we come back. Also, still ahead. The beef segment, top of our number three. Think about what you want to beef about and be sure that you're ready for that. You can call the beef or you can write a beef in.
Mike Mayock will be joining me at 1:40. Always love to run Mike down.
So, lots of show for you today. Did not push out a podcast yesterday. We'll try again to do it today.
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Easy there, biscuit lady. Off to create the Hardee's $2 for $5 breakfast menu. Try the new Oscar Meyer bologna biscuit, sausage and egg biscuit, smoked sausage biscuit, biscuit and gravy, or a cinnamon roll. The $2 for $5 breakfast for a limited time only at participating Hardees. I got up early.
The least you can do is show up hungry. Mm.
