BREAKING: SGA Wins NBA MVP (Hour 2)

Alrighty, hour number two of our radio program, it is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. So, Stu, we were trying to get it out of Hickey, what the heck he had on June 21st when he can't join us for the kickball tournament. And, like, all three of us kind of looked at each other and we just thought he was getting engaged. He said that was not it. But he wouldn't tell us what it is. So, not that I want to, like, figure out necessarily what he's doing, but do you kind of think he is getting engaged? That was my first reaction. I don't know what else it could be.

He was adamant, though, in between the break that it was not. So then it's not, but I just don't know what else, like, nothing comes to mind that he would be so secretive about, you know? Maybe he's joining, like, a competitive, like, peanut butter and jelly eating contest or something like that.

Who knows for Hickey. But, like, out of 100%, how likely are you to join us for this kickball tournament? No, I... Oh, you're in?

Yeah, I'm in. Like, I mean, you know, I guess something could come up, but... It's in Raleigh, New Jersey. So, it's in North Jersey. You could literally, from Penn Station, you get there in 15 minutes.

Yeah, it's, like, one of the first stops. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what my plans are yet on that day, but... So, 100%, how likely are you to... Right now I'm 50, because I still don't know. Okay, I'll say 60. All right.

I'm gonna need an answer within, like, a week and a half, two weeks. Okay, I'll let you know. All right.

So, I will send you both an email, and we'll get the details out there. And you know what is, Arm, I will even pay for your train ticket to get there. There and back.

Where do you live? Uh, East Harlem. Okay, yeah, yeah.

Like, how do I... I don't know how you get there from East Harlem, but... Would you just come to Penn Station and take the train with us? Yeah, I mean, I could just take the 4 or the 6. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Get to Penn Station in no time.

And then you'll be riding with us on the NJ Transit if, you know, let's hope they don't strike again. Did that cause a pain in the ass for you when they had the strike? Does not affect me. Oh, it doesn't at all? Luckily, no. Oh, okay.

It affected Dave, our boss. Oh, I'm sure, yeah. He wasn't here for, like, three days. I go, where are you? I go, everything all right?

He goes, oh, no, I just got affected by the NJ Transit strike, so he was working from home. So, that was that. Anyway, flag football is gonna be happening in the Olympics in 2028, and the NFL came on out the other day and they said that they've given the green light. It's only one player is allowed from each team.

You can only have max of one player from each team go represent their country in flag football for the 2028 Olympics. Oh, by the way, Sham Sharania had the report. I may as well just pass this along. We were talking about this right before the break. Now it's official that SGA, Shay Gildas, Alexander, every time I hear that now, I think of Jack Stern. Me too. Shay Gildas, Alexander, whatever he called him.

Whenever I'm reading it on all sides, I just pause because I feel like I'm gonna read it incorrectly. Yeah. Shay Gildas, Alexander has won the NBA MVP award. Sources tell ESPN that's from Sham Sharania. The first MVP, Shay Gildas, Alexander, led the number one seeded Oklahoma City Thunder to a league high 68 wins and became the second player in NBA history to average at least 30 points on 50% shooting, five rebounds, five assists, one and a half steals, and one block per game along with Michael Jordan. 1987 to 1988 and 1990 to 1991 when Jordan won those two. What a weird stat. So it says first MVP, Shay Gildas, Alexander, led the number one seed Thunder to a league high 68 wins and became the second player in NBA history to average at least 30 points on 50% shooting, five rebounds, five assists, one and a half steals, and one block per game along with Michael Jordan.

How many things are you gonna get that are just so peculiar and bizarre? So congratulations to SGA. Have you guys had a problem with the fouls that he's drawing? Everyone was bitching about that last night.

Just how they do it with Jalen Brunson as well. Zarm, you're an astute basketball minor. I know you're a big basketball fan.

I was not bothered. I mean, there were some fouls that weren't fouls. Questionable whistles. Yeah, there was a few that weren't fouls, but at the same time he literally gets in the paint every time he touches the ball. So I saw this one analysis where basically they said if you drive the ball 100 times and you get fouled 20 times compared to someone that drives the ball 20 times but gets fouled five times, obviously the person that drives 100 times is gonna get more criticism because they get more calls. But he's so good at getting in the mid-range and getting to his spot, you can't really complain. I think Yoko should have won MVP, but he's so deserving of that as well. Is basketball your favorite sport outside of soccer?

Yeah, it's number one. So if you take the 11 free throws that he made out last night and only gave him 21 points, they still win the game. They would have won the game then 103 to 88. So what are we doing here? Anthony Edwards show up in the fourth quarter.

Anthony Edwards, how about you score a bucket in the fourth quarter? So I think that's just people bitching a bitch. And also I don't know about you Stu. I don't have it in me and I can rant with the best of them, but I don't have it in me to lose my mind over officiating in the NBA and players like flopping and drawing fouls because the whole league does it. The entire league is a giant bitch fest of, oh, you know, give me a call. It's insufferable. So a guy falls down maybe when he doesn't get hit that hard and now we're supposed to sit here and I have to lose my mind about it.

I'd be losing my mind every day when it comes to the NBA. So I don't know. Did you have any issue with that last night?

I did not. I think he's been officiated pretty fairly and you know, there's a lot of whining in the sport right now, I feel like. And also social media has become insufferable because you take one thing and then you play it over 10,000 times and you slow it down and I, it's one like missed call that maybe shouldn't have been called or something like that. And I saw someone tweet though last night, which I thought was pretty funny. I forget who it was. I just got called for a foul from my couch and Shay Gilders, Alexander's going to line. I also, every time I say you shit a Shay Gilders, Alexander, I think of Shane Gillis, the comedian to a very nice guy who met at the Eagles after party for the Super Bowl.

He was pretty cool. Down to earth dude, big sports fan as well. Alrighty, give me a little NFL music here. This will do still with the NFL having flag football, their players allowing to go flag football in the Olympics in 2028.

Now this isn't who's the best quarterback, who's the best wide receiver. It's who would you want for flag football? So how do you want to do this though? Do you just want to alternate positions and go down the list or you could just pick it in any order that you want? I think if we do any order we want, there's kind of a strategy to it.

So I think that makes it kind of interesting. Alright, I'll let you go first. So here's what we're drafting. Quarterback wide receiver, running back tight end, an offensive lineman, a defensive lineman, a linebacker corner and a safety. Just to kind of hit every positions and how they would fit in flag football for the Olympics in 2028.

Go ahead. I just had one question for defensive line and linebacker. If they're pass rusher, just defensive line. So let's go, yeah, pass rusher, defensive. Okay, let's go defensive end. How about we do defensive end slash defensive tackle. Okay, that will do it. And then your traditional linebacker, not just like, oh TJY or like Will Anderson calling them a linebacker. Let's not do that.

Okay, perfect. I'll let you go first. Okay, so my first pick, I think this guy is the best tight end in the league now, even after just one year, I think he's, you know, head and shoulders above everyone else. I'm gonna go Brock Bowers in my first pick. First pick overall, Brock Bowers? Yes. Man, Stu.

Stu's on the Homer bandwagon there for the Raiders. I'm all in. First pick? So now I get two picks, correct?

That is correct, yes. Alrighty. I'm gonna get funky here. I'm gonna go quarterback and I'm gonna go Lamar Jackson. Now he's not the best quarterback in football, but for flag football, I want a runner first.

And his arm is obviously good. So I will go Lamar Jackson. Now, I'm gonna go corner here and I'm gonna play him both ways. Travis Hunter. Isn't Travis, were you even thinking about Travis Hunter? I was thinking about him, yeah.

Yeah. Travis Hunter for flag football would be legit. You can play him at corner and wide receiver. And that also gets me like an extra wide receiver because I haven't made my wide receiver selection yet. So okay, Stu, you got two more picks.

Go. Okay, since we are doing traditional linebackers, I will go Fred Warner with my first pick here. Interesting strategy. You want Brock Bowers and Fred Warner the first two picks?

I would not be thinking this. I did. So I have Fred Warner and then I will go to the running back position and I will take Saquon Barkley. I think his game would definitely translate to not just the NFL, but also flag football as well.

Very well. Yeah, you know what? You bring up a good point here and just your strategy because if you take a running back there, you're running backs off the board. So it doesn't behoove me right now to take a running back because I could just get like if I wanted Christian McCaffrey, I could just wait or Jameer Gibbs.

I could just wait till the end. Um, so off of that, let me get a little funky here. I'll go wide receiver. I will take Justin Jefferson, so I will go Justin Jefferson. Oh, do I get another pick? Yes, you have another pick here. Yes.

Sorry. I'm standing there. I'm like, Stu, anytime you want to go, go ahead. Um, I'm going to go defensive end tier and I'm going to take Myles Garrett. I'll go Myles Garrett here. So I have Lamar Jackson as my quarterback. Justin Jefferson is my wide receiver. Myles Garrett is my defensive end for flag football in the Olympics. Corner Travis Hunter and could also use them as wide receiver too. Stu has running back Saquon Barkley, Brock Bowers and Fred Warner. All right, so the only two positions we haven't taken are offensive line and safety.

Yeah. Um, I don't know how much you're running for either of those right now. I'm not, but it doesn't behoove me to take another position.

I don't think since you already took. So I will stick with those positions. I will take it safety. I will take Jesse Bates. I think he's the best safety right now. Uh, there are a couple other good guys in that area, but I kind of like Jesse Bates for that position. And then I'll take Trent Williams.

I still think even at his age and sometimes he's a little injured and whatnot, but I still think he's the best offensive lineman. Okay, I will go. Well, all the positions are off the board that you took that. Okay, so running back, I'll just plow through this right now. I'm actually not going to take Christian McCaffrey and I'm not going to take Derek Henry. I'm going to take Jameer Gibbs.

Remember, it's flag football. McCaffrey the injuries concern me too much. And Jameer Gibbs, I just think is a, is a nice dual threat running back in the NFL these days. Um, tight end. I'm going to go George Kittle. I will take George Kittleson stew took Brock Bowers. So I still have offensive line linebacker and safety left.

Stu still has quarterback wide receiver, defensive end slash defensive tackle and cornerback left. All right. And I'll, I'll do the same.

I'll kind of go down the line here. I will go quarterback. I'll go Josh Allen. Um, I Lamar would have been my first choice and I was kind of between Allen and Jayden Daniels just because the Jayden Daniels was runnability, but I think Josh Allen's runnability is very good too. So I'm pretty happy with him and that wide receiver. I will go Jamar chase. Um, you pick Jefferson, right? So I'll go Jamar chase here.

Okay. Offensive line. I'm going to go Penay Sewell and I'm going to maybe use like a little tackle eligible play cause he could catch the football and he could run with it as well.

We've seen that before with those Detroit lions, offensive lineman. So I will go Penay Sewell and then a safety. I think the best safety in football is not who I'm going to end up going with right now. So you took Jesse Bates. He to me is a top safety. And if I don't think he's the best safety in the NFL, I would say it's Antoine Winfield jr but it's flag football. I liked the range and the athleticism and the length of Kyle Hamilton. So I would go Kyle Hamilton there and then I have to pick a linebacker stew already took Fred Warner.

So go ahead. What do you got? Defensive end or at slash defensive tackle or corner.

What do you got? Yeah, so defensive end. I'll take TJ Watt. Um, again, between him and Garrett, I think we're the two pretty obvious choices there and then cornerback. I'll go Patrick Sertan the second defensive play of the year. And again, just a guy I think who could cover whoever he has to cover in this case would be Justin Jefferson. So you take Pat Sertan and TJ Watt.

So I got to go linebacker. Probably would have gone Fred Warner, but you already took him off the board. I like Matt Milano a lot from the Buffalo Bills. Roquan Smith's also very good. Patrick Queen, probably not.

Trying to think if I'm missing anybody here. Drew Tranquil is pretty athletic. Lineback is probably the toughest because Fred Warner is clearly the best linebacker in the NFL these days. Alright, so since you took Fred Warner off the board, I'll go Roquan Smith. I thought Matt Milano but too many injuries. I will go Roquan Smith. So here are the flag football teams. Stu's team quarterback Josh Allen, wide receiver Jamar Chase, running back Saquon Barkley, Saquon Barkley, tight end Brock Bowers, offensive lineman Trent Williams, defensive end TJ Watt, linebacker Fred Warner, corner Pat Sertan, safety Jesse Bates, my squad, Lamar Jackson, quarterback, Justin Jefferson, wide receiver, running back Jameer Gibbs, tight end George Kittle, offensive lineman Penay Sewell, defensive end Miles Garrett, Roquan Smith as a linebacker, my defensive back Travis Hunter, and then the safety Kyle Hamilton. Alrighty, there's our draft for flag football.

This is Zach Gilbeshaw on the Infinity Sports Network. Hey, Stu, if you get an alert that Brock Bowers is playing flag football in the 2028 Olympics or Ashton Gente, you're upset with it, right? Yeah, I don't love it.

I don't love it. You would agree that there's a difference in hockey. Like hockey Olympics, I'm okay with my guys going to play in that four nations thing. I was fine with it because I kind of think hockey needs that. The NFL doesn't need to see their players go to the Olympics.

I understand representing your country and all that stuff, that's nice. And it's something that all athletes probably aspire to do. But if let's just say God forbid Brock Bowers is playing in flag football in the 2028 Olympics and he blows out his knee and he can't play for the Raiders in the regular season, I would assume then, I don't know what the, I'm assuming this is not just going to be a one-off in terms of flag football in the Olympics. I'm assuming that since they're doing this now, they intend to have it for the foreseeable future, but it wouldn't shock me if there's a major injury that the NFL just says, okay, we're one and done. Or even still, they get through it and maybe everybody's healthy and they go, okay, let's not push our luck here.

You had an opportunity to do it. Now we're not going to allow it four years from now. That wouldn't surprise me either. Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me either. It's just not, it is something that very much concerns me that we could see an injury here. And I hope that's not the case, obviously. And you know, if there's going to be a player that gets injured, it's going to be a Raider. Oh, please don't do that to me. It'd be a Raider, it'd be a Jet, right?

All these, Chicago, all these curse teams. Yeah. It would definitely be a possibility. All righty, we'll have a little Take 5 Wednesday next. This is Zach Galb's show on the Infinity Sports Network. The football season might be over.

What? Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is.

But don't you worry. There are still rankings to be made. So get ready as Zach gives you his top five in this week's special edition of Take 5 Wednesday. All righty, it's time for Take 5 Wednesday and the Zach Galb Show on the Infinity Sports Network.

Here's what we're going to do right now. Because when you look at the Eastern Conference and Western Conference Finals, you have Jalen Brunson vying for his first ever championship. You also have Tyrese Halliburton vying for his first championship.

And you have Anthony Edwards and Jay Gildas Alexander gunning for their first championship. So not active players, but who were the top five retired players to never win a championship in the history of sports? In at number five, if it wasn't for Jerry Rice, he'd be the second greatest wide receiver, or he'd be the first, the best wide receiver of all time. He's currently the second best wide receiver of all time. That is Randy Moss. I'm putting Randy Moss in at number five. Had two opportunities to do so.

He was on the Niners and then he was on the Patriots in both those Super Bowls and couldn't get a ring. By the way, I just got a text from Santa, who's not here today. Santa goes SGA MVP.

It was 30 minutes ago. Thanks Mike. Thanks Mike, we appreciate it. But anyway, Randy Moss in at number five. In at number four, I gotta go Barry Sanders, right? One of the most electrifying running backs ever.

I'll tell you this, imagine Barry Sanders in flag football. If he was able to play for the 2028 Olympics, that'd be pretty awesome. In at number three, if it wasn't for Tim Duncan, this guy would be the greatest power forward of all time. He's a two time NBA MVP.

I'm going the mailman in Carl Malone. In at number two, I think most would consider him the greatest quarterback to never win a championship. It is Dan Marino. And in at number one, it's the guy who I think is the greatest baseball player that I've ever seen. And I know steroids, many people will try to take that away from him, but I'm going Barry Bonds. So my five, top five retired players never win a championship. Randy Moss in at five, Barry Sanders in at four, the mailman Carl Malone in at three, Dan Marino in at two, and Barry Bonds in at number one. I think there is one egregious, egregious miss by me, but I just couldn't put him in over Randy Moss. So let's see if Stu will get this and speak now.

Forever hold your peace. All right. I have a list. We have, what about Charles Barkley, the round mounted rebound and one of our favorite entertainment personalities right now. So I considered two players before I would put Charles Barkley in there. Obviously I put Carl Malone in there.

I just think Carl Malone was the better player. The other one, Allen Iverson. So if I didn't put Allen Iverson on the top five list, I'm not going to put Charles Barkley on the top five list.

I will say this. Barkley may be the athlete that we probably talk about the most and not winning a championship just because of how much Shaq just throws it back in his face on inside the NBA and reminds him all the time, Chuck, how many rings have you won? So that's why I did not go with Charles Barkley because I don't have Iverson in there. All right. What about one of the greatest hitters who never, he obviously never won a championship, but Red Sox, Ted Williams.

See, that's the one. I sat there and I said, Randy Moss or Ted Williams, Randy Moss or Ted Williams because Ted Williams batted over 400 in a season. So that's just flat out stupid. But the reason why I ended up going Randy Moss too is Randy Moss at times looked disinterested in Minnesota. Obviously with the Raiders basically took a few years off. So look how stupid good his numbers are right now and look how much better they could have been if he even would have been a little bit more plugged in those other years. So that was a big reason why I ended up going Moss over Ted Williams.

All right. Sticking with baseball here, what about Ken Griffey Jr. had a lot of injuries, but also had 630 home runs, just one of the the all time greats. Another one of those careers where it's an all time great and you're like, wow, imagine if this guy stayed healthy, how much better it would have been. I only ended up going one baseball player here and and I ended up going Bonds, the number one spot and I would have put Ted Williams in front of Ken Griffey Jr. That's just me. So that's why I did not put Ken Griffey in the top five. All right. What about Lydani and Tomlinson obviously had a lot of years with the Chargers.

They just never really were able to get over the hump. Yeah. So I look at that's the sport that I put the most players in. So I put three players in the NFL in.

Marino wins because he's a quarterback. Barry Sanders, a better running back than Lydani and Tomlinson. And I would say that Randy Moss was a better football player than Lydani and Tomlinson, even though he was sensational.

All right. Last one I thought about Ernie Banks and his five hundred and twelve homers. Yeah, I did think about Ernie Banks. You know, I know we're going back a ways back, but once I didn't put Ted Williams in, I wasn't going to put Ernie Banks. And even though he won two MVPs and obviously is Mr. Cobb with the 14 time All-Stars, that's another guy that you always think about whenever we do these list guys that haven't won a championship. Ernie Banks is is definitely a fair one. So that's a take five Wednesday for me.

My top five players never win a championship. Randy Moss in at number five. Barry Sanders in at four. The mailman, Cara Malone in at three. Dan Marino in at two. And Barry Bonds in at one.

Let's do this right now. Let's get into something about Aaron Murray. So Aaron Murray will do a little college football here. He doesn't view Arch Manning as the clear number one pick. A lot of people right now, they're saying, oh, Arch Manning probably gonna be the first quarterback off the board this time next year. It's not even a slam dunk that Arch Manning is going to say goodbye to another year at Texas after the season and forgo that season and go into the NFL draft.

But this was on SEC this morning on Sirius XM College radio. Let's hear Aaron Murray. He isn't the biggest fan of Arch Manning. I am not sold like so many other people are that this guy is going to be the number one pick in the NFL draft, that he's going to just be unbelievable, that he's going to be the next coming of pain. And Eli, but that's mobile. I'm like, Texas had probably the second or third best roster in America.

Probably the second or third. Why were they not competing for a national championship? It's because Quinn was holding them back. Quinn did not perform to the level that I thought he could. If you are so good and everyone has you projected number one pick in the NFL draft come twenty twenty six. Why in the hell are you not playing above a seventh round quarterback? Then you watch the tape and yeah, it looks good at times.

I wouldn't say like it's it looks incredible. It doesn't scream first round talents me off the back and I'm not saying he can't get there and I and I and I'm never going to talk bad about a quarterback because I know how difficult it is. I'm cheering for him. Like I cheer for every quarterback. I want them all to have success, but I need to see it first. So I think that's fair in terms of what he said at the end.

Before we say that Arch Manning is the best and Arch Manning to to go number one, let's see him play a full season. I think that's fair. The Quinn Ewers part. That's where you kind of lose me because Quinn Ewers right. He was the guy there and he won the Big 12 championship. And then he came back.

And what? You're not going to make him the starter like he's not going to be the starter in a year where they were in the SEC their first year just coming off a Big 12 championship. And also he played well like Quinn Ewers may be one of the more underappreciated college football players in a while.

And I'm not sitting here and saying that this guy was great and he was must have. But he won a Big 12 championship at Texas. And then the first year in the SEC, they made the playoff. And they made it to the final four right in the did they make it the final four? No, they the Texas they make it. Yeah, they did because they lost to to Ohio State.

And you had bad play calling by Sork. So the idea that, you know, Quinn Ewers, who also at one point was a number one prospect, right? A number one recruit that he was playing over arches that big of a deal of arches, all that like I understand. But I think it was more so that the Manning family, they kind of designed this. They at least designed this for a year where it was OK. Let's let's have Arch go to college, sit and learn. The thing, though, that was not foreseen was what was that Quinn Ewers was going to come back and then play two seasons. And Eli Manning said this to us on Radio Row when I talked about Arches coming back or to be Quinn's coming back. So maybe that you're going to end up having another another possibility where he's going to be the starter.

So would you end up transferring? And he said that's not going to happen. That that they're not going to go into the transfer portal.

They know what they signed up for when they got to Texas. So I don't necessarily need to have Arch Manning be viewed as the number one quarterback right now. And right. Joe Klatt had his list the other day. He had him as number two and he put Kate Klubnick in a number one.

I think that's fine. But there's a lot of quarterbacks that were banking on this year that haven't put it together yet or haven't had a full great season. Like Kate Klubnick last year had a great season, 36 touchdowns.

You know, give him credit for it. But I need to see more of Lenora Sellers. I need to see more of D.J.

Lagway. I need to see more out of Arch Manning. You know, Drew Aller has to put it together. Like you go through the list here. Yeah, there's a lot of quarterbacks that we're talking about. But can I sit here and guarantee that any of these quarterbacks in college are going to be great? I don't know about that.

I don't. Now, I think that Lenora Sellers is incredible high ceiling. Drew Aller has to put it together.

But you go through this. There's a lot of guys that were banking on in college football this year and they haven't done it for a full season. Arch Manning is always going to have the hype. Arch Manning is always going to have the attention. And yes, he has to put it together for a full season.

But I don't think it's crazy to say that Arch Manning could be the number one overall pick in the draft lot next year. Now, he has to go prove it. And if he doesn't, then he'll be back in Texas. And if he does, he may still go back to Texas.

We've had those conversations before. So I think it's fine right now if Aaron doesn't want to view him as the number one quarterback. But does it even matter if you viewed right now as the number one quarterback? Carson Beck was viewed as the number one quarterback last year.

Had that work out. He had to transfer out of Georgia. He also got hurt. And now he's going to be playing for Miami. And who knows when he's going to get drafted.

If he's going to get drafted at all in coming up in April and in a year from now. All right. We'll break. We'll come on back. We have our Hard Knocks team for this upcoming offseason.

It's going to be the Buffalo Bills. We'll discuss them. Update time first. Here is Zach.

All righty. This is Zach Gelb showing the Infinity Sports Network. So we had two Hard Knocks announcements today. The offseason Hard Knocks. So that's the training camp version. But I got to be careful with how I say that because the offseason Hard Knocks was the Giants last year.

And then who was the actual Hard Knocks? Was it the Jets? Or no, the Jets were two years ago. Jets were two years ago. Who the heck were the Hard Knocks team last year?

Because you had the Giants in the offseason. And the actual Hard Knocks, because the Giant one was actually interesting. I don't even remember who ended up doing Hard Knocks last year. But I guess they're not doing the offseason one anymore. Because the announcement today was that the training camp version of Hard Knocks will be the Buffalo Bills. And then the in-season version of Hard Knocks are going to be the Giants, the Commanders, the Eagles, and the Dallas Cowboys. Do we have a Hard Knocks team last year? Stu? If you could just look that up and figure it out. Yeah, that's what I'm looking for. It's given me all of this year for some reason. Okay, so let's just see.

We'll do this. Wait, was it Bears? Oh, it was. It was the Bears. It was the Bears. It was the Bears. It wasn't really memorable, obviously, from that one.

Not at all. You know what the most memorable thing was from that? Matt Eberfluss getting his hair slicked back and his haircuts. That's what we were doing.

I'm actually content with the Bills being on Hard Knocks this year. That's a pretty good selection there, Stu. Yeah, that's fun.

When I saw that, I was like, oh, that's interesting. Yeah. And you got storylines there. Now, they're an established team. You got McDermott there, even though he's not in the hot seat, but can he get over the hump? You got Josh Allen, who's the second best quarterback in the NFL. You have personalities on that football team with Deon Dawkins. Obviously, you got the story still of DeMar Hamlin. You got names there on that roster.

Keon Coleman will be very good on Hard Knocks. You ever see during his combat interview with the Bills, they go, what do you do for fun? And he goes, oh, I like to golf. They're like, you like to golf? He's like, yeah, I'm not Tiger Woods.

I'm Tiger. Wish he could. I thought that was a very good line from Keon Coleman.

So those are probably the biggest storylines there. That kid Maxwell Hairston from Kentucky, he's pretty funny, too. But you put the Bills on off season Hard Knocks, I think it's pretty good because you get a good team. Now, who else could they have potentially gone with? Who would be a team, Stu? Let's do this. We'll go around the room here. I'll get his arm started.

I'll get Stu's thoughts on this. I'll give you a team as well. If you could pick any team in the NFL, right? And some teams get exempt from being on Hard Knocks with the certain stipulations and things like that. Going into this season, if you could pick any team to be on Hard Knocks, who would the team be?

8-8, 7-10 for ISN, 8-8, 7-10, 44, 76. Stu, who would be your team? I think mine would be the 49ers. Just the idea of they were so disappointing last year, the expectations, especially after Brock Purdy signed that contract are so big for them now, especially with their schedule too.

I think the 9ers would be kind of intriguing. A lot of stars on that team, obviously with McCaffrey. I know Trent Williams, we don't really love offensive linemen, but you have Trent Williams there too. We love offensive linemen on the show.

Well, we do, but I'm saying a lot of people generally don't. Fred Warner, there's a lot of good players there, so I think the 49ers would be kind of fun. Azar, you have a teammate that you'd like to see on Hard Knocks?

If you could just pick one? Yeah, I would go with the Lions just because I would really like to see what Dan Campbell's like behind the scenes and Aiden Hutchinson. Yeah, did we get the Lions on Hard Knocks not that long ago?

Two or three years ago maybe? Yeah, because you had Hutchinson, it was his rookie season, so it had to be three years because remember he did the Billy Jean song and he was singing and they were going nuts? But yeah, and more Dan Campbell wouldn't be bad there. You know the team I would like to see, and I know we've seen him before in Hard Knocks, they did the joint Hard Knocks with the Chargers. I wouldn't mind seeing the Rams.

No more Cooper Cup there. You got Devante Adams, you got Puka Nakua, Matthew Stafford, like how close were you to actually getting a trade in and doing all that stuff and leaving? And that defense without Aaron Donald, they totally remake that defense now with Young, with Turner, with Fisk, with Verse.

They drafted a kid from Michigan that comes over from Coastal Carolina, Josiah Stewart. So I wouldn't be opposed to seeing the LA Rams on Hard Knocks this year. But I think the Buffalo Bills are a fun one because you got a coach who is probably considered a good coach, not a great coach. You got Josh Allen, the MVP of the league, the second best player, second best quarterback in the NFL, and a team that that's got to be talked about a lot.

To me, Stu, would you agree with this? What's the first, when you hear the Bills on Hard Knocks, what's the first storyline in your opinion when you look at the Buffalo Bills? I think it's just overall getting over the hump, like slaying the Chiefs, slaying Mahomes, getting over the Chiefs, yeah. And how the players are going to react to that, how the players are going to talk about that if they're candid about it. I know that teams have all this control and they'll figure out what they actually want.

That's to see how they're going to deal with that. And I know that's been the case for the last four or five years. I'm pleasantly surprised that it is the Bills. Do you have the list of the teams that are on Hard Knocks?

If you could just pull that up in the last 10 years. I usually feel as if they're bad teams. It's not usually, it's teams that are trying to sell you off of hope and teams that have younger players and things like that. Yeah, so obviously we had the Bears last year, the Jets in 2023. So yeah, Caleb Williams was the big story there. Aaron Rodgers was obviously the story with the Jets. 2022 was the Lions. Lions with Dan Campbell, bite your kneecaps off, okay. 2021 was the Cowboys. That was terrible.

That was a bad one. That was Jerry Jones with Salt on his hamburguesa. And then also it was either, I forget who it was, Dak or Zeke, one of them and how they wrapped the present. That was brutal.

I do remember wrapping the present, yes. It was so boring. 2020, as you mentioned, was the joint LA Rams and Chargers won. We were just happy to have football back at that point. 2019 was the Raiders. By the way, that one stunk because you had Antonio Brown, but they didn't really show much with Antonio Brown. You had Mayock getting threatened by Antonio Brown. They barely showed that.

And it was all about Antonio Brown's feet, remember? Yes, I do, unfortunately. Because he went to the frozen- The chamber, the hydro, whatever chamber, whatever it's called. Hyperbaric, whatever it's called.

I could never pronounce that. Stefo Marbury, did you read the gift cards that Stefo Marbury brought us? Read them, no. Oh, so you don't know any of the massages that are potentially on this? I don't. I did not look into it yet. I have the massages. We were gifted, but no.

All right. So Stefo Marbury came in studio the other day and also he ended up giving us these massage cards. So here are the three different types of massages you could get. The first one is a robotic massage for 30 minutes. So I guess you get massaged by a robot. The next one was PEMF therapy.

That's for 30 minutes. Do you know what that is? I don't.

Yeah, I don't either. I have no idea. Let's see, PEMF therapy. Pulse electromagnetic field therapy.

It's a non-invasive treatment that uses magnetic fields to stimulate cells and promote healing, particularly in conditions like pain, inflammation, and bone healing. So that's that. Then the last one was the hyperbaric oxygen treatment. So those are the three that I ended up getting. I don't know. I'm assuming that yours were the same as well. I think so. Because he had a stack of them. Yeah.

But that's like the really cult therapy. And it was all about Antonio Brown with his feet and how he basically froze his feet off. And then he was released by the Raiders and then in week one, he signed with the Patriots and he played week two.

He wasn't there for the first game up against the Steelers, but then he ended up playing for the Dolphins and then the Patriots ended up having to release Antonio Brown because of his off the field problem. Give me the... Give me five more hard knocks teams. All right. So 2018. This one might be my favorite one. 2018 was the Cleveland Browns. Oh, that was good.

That's a good one. And that's because Todd Haley and Hugh Jackson hated one another. And you had Bob Wiley with that big gut of his. Baker Mayfield and his rookie year. That was fun.

Yeah. And two things from that. Hugh Jackson, who I got to know pretty well and used to come on the network all the time, him like basically not giving Baker a chance to go win that job. I think there's a lot of reasons why Hugh Jackson got fired, but that's where that trust just led to an immediate disconnect. And there was no trust between Baker and Hugh Jackson because Baker just wanted a chance to compete. And for some reason, they guarantee that job to Terod Taylor. And then also, if you remember, Todd Haley, he wanted the players, I guess, to have more rest or something like that.

I think it was rest. He wanted to be in the practice field, whatever it was, either one or the other. So Todd Haley had to get reminded on Hard Knocks by Hugh Jackson, hey, you want to make those decisions. It's different to make those decisions when you're in the head coaching chair. And it was a really bad look for Hugh Jackson because you don't need to tell someone you're the head coach. Like, I don't need to tell someone like I don't need to tell Stu, hey, this is my show.

You know, it's different decisions when you when you when you have to make them and you're in my chair, when you're in the power chair, you don't need to say that, you know, a good leader doesn't need to say that. So Hugh was dumbfounded by the reaction to it. I remember talking about you about the whole Todd Haley situation, like, why would you even keep that in any and Hugh told me he told me this, that they were sending a message to Todd Haley because what you didn't see and who knows if this was true or not that Todd Haley suppose he asked about that four or five times. And the part that they captured was the part where he was just like, hey, you don't ask me four or five times already gave you the answer. You may not like it, but that's the answer that we're dealing with.

But yeah, that Brown's one was probably the last. Sorry. Great. Great.

Probably hard knocks. All right. Give me three more.

All right. Twenty seventeen. I don't remember this one. Twenty seventeen Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I have no recollection of anything from that.

Jamis Winston. That's the only thing I think. Yeah, I don't. Yeah. Yeah. I remember scenes with Jamis Winston. I think they went to where Jamis is originally from and they went to like his childhood home and he was talking about how they used to like cram like 10 people into like one bed or something like that. So that was about it. That's all I remember.

Twenty sixteen was the Jeff Fisher led L.A. Rams after drafting Jared Goff with the first pick. Yeah, I thought that one was OK. Fine. Yeah.

Nothing crazy. And then you got one more. Yeah. Then the Falcons detect the Falcons were two years before that. The year before that was the Texans in twenty fifteen.

Bill O'Brien Vince Wilfork with the the overalls. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

The Falcons I forget who it was. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Fourteen. They had some player with like really long like Anzalone type blonde hair and he ended up getting cut. And that was like the because hard knocks always make you fall in love with the player and the player always gets cut. Happens all the time.

I forget who the heck the guy was, but but that's what it was. But I think the bills are pretty good because you go through all those teams. A lot of those teams are kind of rotten. Now, I don't know what they ended up doing that season, but none of those teams were like, oh, my goodness gracious.

You've got one of the best teams in the league. By the way, twenty fourteen, that player on the Falcons name was Tyler Star. It says Tyler Star and Jacquez Smith's attempt to make the team. So Tyler Star was that guy with the the flowing blonde hair.

Tyler Star. That was his name. Yeah. He was a linebacker out of South Dakota.

Yeah. He played with the oh, he made the Falcons twenty. What year was that? You said twenty fourteen. Twenty fourteen.

Yeah. Twenty fourteen to twenty sixteen. So I guess he he made the Falcons he made the fifty three man roster, but did not see any game action. Oh, and then he was waived. Oh, no, he was he was waived in the final cuts.

Twenty sixteen. Yeah. He was he made the fifty three man roster, but did not see any game action. And then on September 5th, this Wikipedia was waived by the Falcons in the final cuts before the start of the regular season. And then he signed to the Falcons practice squad. So that was the whole Alex Star with with with hard knocks.

But he was he was he was on the Falcons from twenty fourteen to twenty sixteen and he was he was bouncing off the practice roster and then the the the fifty three man roster as well. Yeah. Are you still in on hard knocks? Like do you still get excited for hard knocks? I want to say excited. I think I'm I think this is the most intrigued that I will have been since the Raiders won in twenty nineteen. Obviously, the Raiders won. I was intrigued because I'm a Raiders fan. I think the bills being on hard knocks and actually a team that we know is going to be a good team, I think is really interesting. The end season hard knocks. I give two craps about if I'm just being honest with you, like in the middle of the season, I have enough football content.

I don't need to see the behind the scenes part of it. I feel like we get enough content with inside the NFL and things like that. So the Giants, the commanders, the Eagles, the Cowboys, the NFC East in season hard knocks is not a big deal. The bills will at least be intriguing because it's one of the premier teams in the NFL. And I thought the off season hard knocks last year with the Giants was great.

Just rehashing all that stuff and seeing the behind the scene conversations. The problem is none of these teams like to do it anymore. So you have a team that doesn't want to be on hard knocks, like how much do they really give? People are like, oh, the Jets one was really good a few years ago. I thought the Jets one stunk. The Jets didn't want to be on it.

Robert Sells told everybody that would listen. He didn't want to be in hard knocks. So what you got Oz, the mentalist in there. And he was basically predicting what the Super Bowl score was going to be. And it'd be Chiefs. Where I think it actually think he predicted the Jets to get in there as the Chiefs up against somebody else. It obviously wasn't the the or no is the Jets up against somebody else. Obviously it wasn't the Chiefs. Oh, it's because Nicole Hardman was on the Jets and they ended up winning the Super Bowl with the Chiefs.

And then Oz, the mentalist or Oz, whatever his name is, was like, oh, see, I got it right because Nicole Hardman was like, no, you didn't. You picked the Jets to get to the Super Bowl. So that didn't really make much sense. All right. Well, come on back.

We'll talk more about the touch pressure. Also get to a news brief. We're going to have to discuss Nick's Pacers game one. Take a break. We're going to have to go one more hour to play Zach Giltrow, Infinity Sports Network.