College Football Bounce Back Stories (Hour 3)

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Just go to Stamps.com and enter code PROGRAM. Alrighty, welcome back in and this is that Gelb Show Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. We'll chat some football right now with the 2005 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Played his pro career with the Chargers and wrapped it up in Buffalo with the Bills.

He was a two-time first team all-pro, a three-time pro bowler, and did lead the NFL in sacks in the year of 2006, and now he's running lights out fighting, and that of course is Sean Merriman. Sean, always great to have you on. Thank you for the time. How are you? Hey, what's going on, man? How you doing?

I'm doing fantastic. Always appreciate when you come on. Yeah, I want to start you off with the Chargers because we all know they have a ton of talent. Last year they had a good season, but it was a miserable performance in the postseason, gut-wrenching, big lead, and then they couldn't find the way to get the job done in the second half.

You've been a part of something like that. What advice would you give them to try to quickly move off a big loss like that so it doesn't derail their season this year? You know, for one, man, when you go from one season to the next, you got to kind of forget about it, right? Doing your whole offseason, you're walking around, you're doing your offseason workouts, you're with your coaches, you're watching some film, you still got it there.

But that first day when you walk into training camp, you got to forget about what happened last year. Obviously, they made a bunch of big moves on this offseason. They got some new players. They brought in, I think it's going to be the offensive rookie of the year and then Quentin Johnson. They brought in Kellen Moore, who I believe, in my personal opinion, was the best offseason move as far as coaches in the whole offseason. So, this is a different team walking in this year and you can't look back on what happened last year in the playoffs. You're going to feel bad during the offseason, but that day one of training camp, it's got to be a new team.

There's just some talking points that follow other teams and some big storylines that we always highlight. You mentioned the coaching. Brandon Staley is still there. I was not surprised by that because they made the playoffs, but a lot of people question Brandon Staley's abilities as a head coach. Where's your confidence with him leading the Chargers? It's still there.

It's still there. I mean, look, I was at all the home games and some of the away games and just like everyone else, you look at a couple calls, whether it's on fourth and one or fourth and three and say, oh, okay, I would have went a different way. But there's no doubt about it in his leadership, right? I think that that's why he's still there. He's a great leader. The players like him.

He's a players coach. And one thing that he will do, he will go out and correct his mistakes. And he has been already, but I think the addition of Kellen Moore is going to open the doors. And look, if he doesn't perform, then they probably will make a decision on him after this season. But I think that bringing Kellen Moore in and being able to open that offense up, expand the playbook and, you know, not having the quote unquote, dink and dunk situation they had during the last season. Let's see what a team really is after the off-season adjustments are made. But right now I still have full confidence in Coach Dilly. Injuries are part of the game, but I always wonder at Sean Merriman from the mental side of it, from a player, would a team just get hits with a lot of injuries like the Chargers did last year? Does that affect you just the way that you kind of operate and think going into the next year or do you just try to move on from that?

You try to move on to it. And you're right. I think we've seen something unprecedented where you got, you know, three or four of your biggest stars go down and not just for a couple of games, but, you know, Joey Bolter down. I played six weeks. Him and Khalil Mack, I don't think, was on the field at least more than half of the season together. J.C. Jackson go down and Keenen Allen gets hurt. You know, Justin Herbert's ribs early on. I mean, it was unprecedented.

I don't think we've seen anything like that. If you can't bank on something that critical happening every year, it's a part of the game. But, man, you got to be excited if you're a Chargers fan walking into this season. You say you're excited if you're a Chargers fan walking into this season. We know everyone is chasing the Chiefs in the NFL, but even more so the Chargers because they're right in their division. How far do you think they're behind Kansas City right now? I don't think very far, but one thing I say about K.C., man, you always got to give them the nod, right? They're the champs. They have proven themselves over and over again. Patrick Mahomes, you know, I looked at him when he came to the league and I saw him, you know, being on the verge of being great, but he's shown something this past year and playing for those injuries, not only playing through it, but being, you know, playing well and not only playing for his injuries, but all of it started as his wide receivers go down. This guy finds a way to win. You always have to give them the nod. You know, obviously I'm going to always love my squad and have support to charge, man, but you can't take anything away from K.C., man.

They are the truth. And you know this, the great quarterbacks, they find a way to win with less and that's what Mahomes did last year because first year without Tyreek Hill and they didn't miss a beat, they ended up winning a Super Bowl, which is just ridiculous. No, it's just past ridiculous, man. I mean, look, you lose a guy like Tyreek Hill, you automatically started to think we're going to have a dent in his offense. We're going to miss a deep ball threat. We're going to miss somebody who can be explosive and make plays. And you look at what Patrick Mahomes did when his whole starting lineup goes down.

And not only that, he's running around on a bum foot, bum ankle, and he's trying to go out there and play well. I mean, at this point, you can't bet against him. It reminds me very much so when, you know, when I used to play Tom Brady back in the day and I don't care who he had, he was throwing the ball to or running the ball to or how much he was down in the fourth quarter. He just always has a chance and we're talking about great quarterbacks. Now you got to start mentioning Patrick Mahomes as the all-time great. We're at the point where the conversation isn't how do you stop him, it's just how do you contain him to give your team a chance to win. If you were in that Chargers locker room, how would you kind of game plan going up against Mahomes? Well, I would say this and I used to say this before I broke down the huddle before every game.

I said, I don't give a damn how great a quarterback is. It's going to be hard to throw the ball from his back, right? I love that. You have to, you know, you have to hit these guys.

If you don't, Tom, they're going to just shred you apart. At some point in time, you know, they're going to have a breakout quarter or breakout half. I don't care how they look at the rest of the game, but you have to get enough hits on him where he started making decisions that is against what he really wants to do. That's the only way to stopping a guy like Patrick Mahomes. If you're waiting for him to make a mistake, it's just not going to happen.

So there's this docu-series that's coming out. They followed the three quarterbacks last year. One of them was Patrick Mahomes and I saw a little clip, Sean Merriman, that they released today and it was an interaction that Max Crosby and Mahomes had and Mahomes like took it to a different level with smack talk because he was getting into it when Crosby got up into his face. I always wondered this because you always brought it and you weren't afraid to celebrate. You weren't afraid to talk smack. That's part of the game, but when you know that there's like an all-time great on the other side, did you maybe say, okay, I'll tone it down and not say something that's really going to set him off?

No, not at all. I did the opposite. You know, I was never really a big talker.

I didn't really talk to a lot of guys. I mean, sometimes if they talk back to me, I did, but you're right, man. I mean, look, you're not scared of anybody, but the last thing you want to do is get Tom Brady fired up before the game or get a Peyton Manning or Ben Roethlisberger. Those guys I played against fired up before the game. And when you talk about trash talk, man, I played with Philip Rivers. So, you know, the king of trash talk and he's another one, you know, you get him fired up in practice and he'll start to pick you apart. Is that actually true though with Philip Rivers that he never curse? That he would always trash talk and it would be clean? Not one time. There was one particular time that I thought that he was going to curse in practice. We were kicking their butt.

They couldn't move the ball. Antonio Camardi had an exception and Quinn Jammer had one right out the head. I backed down the ball and I just thought that he was going to curse one time, right? Just once. And he didn't. And I said, if he didn't curse then, he's never going to curse. So I still haven't heard it, but he still is the king of trash talk. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm sure you're going to say that you believe Philip Rivers is a Hall of Fame quarterback.

I do. A lot of people though don't think he should one day get that call to the hall. What do you say to kind of make the case for Philip Rivers?

Well, you know, for one, let me, let me step out the way because I know him personally, obviously played with him. I'm gonna be a little bit biased, but let me step out the way and just talk strictly numbers. If you look at the guys that's in the Hall of Fame with those numbers, even the ones who don't have Super Bowls and they're up there, what's the difference, right? And if people want to say that he's not a first ballot, I can be okay with that, right?

I can tell you know what he may, may not be. But if you say that Philip Rivers is not a Hall of Famer at all, then it just doesn't make any sense because the numbers say otherwise. Let me get to other teams inside the AFC West.

Then we'll talk about lights out fighting, which does have another card coming up on August 26. The Broncos, all eyes are on them this year. We know year one for Russell Wilson out there at Mile High was a disaster.

Nathaniel Hackett out. In comes Sean Payton. How much of an improvement do you think we'll see from Denver?

I think they're going to make immediate improvement. You know, I know Sean Payton very well. Been friends with him for years. Not only is he a great coach, but he's a great leader. And you know, one of the things that always stand out about me, about him to me is his ability to come in and gain respect because of who he is and what he's done in the National Football League. I mean, the first day he gets in there, he's saying, you know, about Russell Wilson having his own trainers in the building.

He comes in and he can do that because he has enough respect in the locker room in that front office to do that. Let me tell you, that division, AFC West, just got a lot tougher because Sean Payton is there. And we're going to find out relatively quickly if Russell Wilson had a down year or if he just physically done, right? And that's yet to be determined. You know, I think that he's still got some gas left.

He can still go out and get it done. But the way he looked last year didn't look like Russell Wilson. We watched him his whole career, but let's see if Sean Payton can come in and change that.

Let me get to the Raiders. We know McDaniel's is a great offensive coordinator. He's been a bad head coach. They get rid of Waller this off season. They haven't figured out the contract with Josh Jacobs. They say goodbye to Derek Carr and they bring in Jimmy G, which is underwhelming. Are the Raiders just a mess and it's going to be a disaster this year? Do you see some hope for that squad?

Well, you know, it's unfortunate, right? Because I think you talked about a guy who I admire, love his game and Max Crosby. You know, they, Josh Jacobs is a staple of that offense, right?

He is. And without them running the ball the way he has, they don't have a chance in hell in many different areas. You know, Derek Carr leaves, by the way, I don't think that Derek Carr is as bad as they made him be on the way out. I do think he's had some great seasons in the NFL. But look, let's Jimmy G is in there for a reason, right? Let's see what he's able to do.

First of all, he has to stay healthy. If Jimmy G doesn't stay healthy this year, they are going to be a mess in my personal opinion as far as that team. So you wrapped up your career in Buffalo from 2010 to 2012. How do you look back at that experience playing in Buffalo? It was the best experience I had in my life.

You know, initially, but I was very vocal about it that I didn't want to go there. And not because it was Buffalo, it's just that at the time, they wasn't a very good team on paper. And being able to play in Buffalo for those couple of years was the best thing that's ever happened to me in my sports career because they have the best fan base, in my opinion, in all of football.

And there's no place playing like Buffalo. And to see them now with Josh Allen and Stephon Diggs and that team and all these new pickups they have winning games, there's nothing like winning football in that city because it's a different atmosphere. They've been so close. And like you said, the Bills fans, they deserve this. They are great fans. They've been so close.

You just wonder when you get so close, you'd be able to get over the hump. Do you think this will be their year where they can go hoist that Lombardi trophy? I do. I do. But this is the thing.

And we talked about this early on. The AFC has just gotten so tough, right? So even, yes, they are a much better team. It is their time to get over the hump.

The problem is now we're talking about Justin Herbert, that's in that division of Pashman Holmes, Burrow. You got six quarterbacks, in my opinion, that you got to go through in order to raise that trophy. And I've been in this situation before where teams have just gotten better in your division team. Miami's gotten better, right? Miami's got a lot better. They got a new coach, new players. And so just that path to get there to raise that trophy is a lot tougher. But you're right.

It's their time to get over that hump. Last thing I'll ask you before we talk about lights out fighting, when you look at a defensive player in this league, it's so tough now with the way that the rules and the penalties and the flags are called. And all these quarterbacks now, for the most part, have an ability to run the ball as well. Are you kind of happy you don't play linebacker anymore in the NFL? Well, yeah, because I would have been playing for free, right? All the fines are all the rest.

You know, it's one of those things. I'm glad that NFL changed the game and made it a lot safer for people, for the players. But also, too, it's still football. And it's the reason why this country loves the game so much, because we love the brutality of it.

We love these guys going out and getting after it. So you cross a fine line between making it safe and making it uncomfortable for people who just love the game. And so, yeah, I see some of these penalties, these quarterback hits, that's really light.

And I say, you know what? I would have just went right upstairs to the front office and handed my check right over, because I know that I wouldn't have been able to play at this time. But it's still football. I still love the game. When I look at these pass rush now, and these one-on-one matchups, it's so hard sometimes to be a fan to step away from it, because I'm watching God's hand placement, watching how they take off in the football and the way they turn the corner.

I'm still a fan of the game, but it's hard, man, stepping away from that, because I love watching these guys so much. Sean Merriman, tell me what you got cooking with Lights Out Fighting. Yeah, we got a huge fight coming up at Palma Casino, August 26th, at 7 p.m. Pacific. It will be live on FUBO TV, FUBO Sports. If you guys don't have FUBO, get it.

This is our biggest car. It's my first time actually having an event in San Diego since I retired, and we were announcing it this week in a fight call. We got 16 fights lined up, so if you guys don't have FUBO, get it August 26th at Palma Casino. You're going to be doing the Lights Out dance?

Yeah, I will, actually. But once it's over, so those four hours of live TV, man, I'm biting my fingernails, but I'll give everybody a Lights Out dance at the end of the fight. How did you come up with that? Because still to this day, I remember that as one of the great celebrations for a defensive player. You know, so I got a light switch on my right forearm, and I don't know if anybody ever knew that, but when I got the light switch, the tattoo, I was pretending to flick the switch on and off doing big hits and sacks. And so I started that when I got in college. Obviously, I couldn't follow through and do the full dance in college because it would get a flag. But when I got to the NFL, man, and people really started to like it, and it became a thing, right?

I mean, I would travel all over the country, and people would be doing it no matter where I were. So, and I just love the game. It brought a lot of excitement to people, and they, you know, kind of sit back and watch and sometimes even get it themselves. That's great. Well, continued success once again with Lights Out fighting, and always appreciate when you give us a few minutes, Sean Merriman. You got it. Thanks for having me. There he is. Sean Merriman joining us on the Zach Gelb show. We'll take a break.

When we come on back, five bounce back stories to monitor for this upcoming year of college football. For 25 years, Stamps.com has made mailing and shipping easy. All you need is a computer and printer. Imagine mailing and shipping right from your desk anytime.

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So I want to get into this right now. I'm not saying all these people will bounce back, but I do think these are five stories to kind of monitor for this upcoming year. When you look at college football of people that have had a problem doing one thing or recently have struggled somewhere and just, are they going to be able to bounce back? We'll start with DJ Uwe Ungolale, who Chris has, I didn't know this. And I saw this last night that DJ Ungolale got drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yes, he did. And that was in the 20th round. You know, you see some things on Twitter and it's not the first time, right? A player is supposed to be a star in football and gets drafted in baseball. We kind of saw it with Kyler Murray, obviously, being a top 10 or maybe he was just outside of top 10 with the athletics when he got drafted. And we all know he eventually got drafted number one overall with the Arizona Cardinals. But for DJ Ungolale, he was supposed to be the guy at Clemson. And we all remember it was when Trevor Lawrence got COVID and he played up against Notre Dame and played well. And we were all expecting DJ Uwe Ungolale.

He said that name so many times, and then you try to transition from another word and he's had a little tongue twister. But you look at DJ Ungolale, he's no longer at Clemson. And last year, he was very underwhelming. The year before that, he was really awful. And you ran out of excuses because you get on Dabo and the old offensive coordinator, Tony Elliott. And then you look at the lack of offensive line and some of the poor creativity. But the last two years, he just wasn't good. And now he goes to Oregon State where there's not a lot of pressure, but I want to see if DJ Ungolale can be that guy, not necessarily that we thought he was, but somewhat resemble where he once was thought to be in the landscape of college football.

Next up, it's two guys that are linked together forever, but they're at different spots now. I know Clemson just won an ACC championship, but they missed out on getting in the college football playoff. The standard for Clemson, going from DJ Ungolale conversation ironically, is get to the college football playoff. And for a while, they were winning national championships. But for Dabo Swinney, are you just going to have a team that could win an ACC that is not that great? You look at the ACC this year, it's very vanilla.

I know that you have Drake May at UNC. Florida State's a team that is talked about a lot. And I like their head football coach, even going back to his days at Memphis and Mike Norvell.

And they started to put it together last year. But if you win the ACC, it's not as if you're guaranteed a spot in the college football playoff. And here's the thing for Clemson. And I said this to Isaiah Simmons, where I told him, do you think university is close to getting back?

He's like, what do you mean getting back? They just won the ACC. And I go, yeah, but that's not the standard for Clemson. Standard for Clemson is to be going on out there, winning the ACC and getting back to the college football playoff. And you look at Clemson this upcoming season, I don't know what they're going to be able to do, but you look at what they did last year, you know, they lost that game to Notre Dame and then they got themselves back in it. Not that they were like great, like they beat Louisville in Miami, but going into that South Carolina game, which they lost, if they would have won that game, they're probably in the college football playoff.

But since they lost that second game, that took them out of it because the two loss conference champ in the ACC isn't anything that you're throwing a parade for, but your one loss ACC conference champ, I don't think Ohio state who did not win a big 10 championship gets in, but all those teams last year in college football for that final spot were like there and then threw up on themselves. And that what happened with Clemson. You look at the Clemson schedule for this year. I had played Duke to open up the season, Charleston, Southern, yeah, Florida, Atlantic, Florida state, big game, Syracuse, Lake Forest, Sam Hartman's no longer there, Miami, Mario Cristobal did not do good in year one, NC state. You got Notre Dame who I liked with Marcus Freeman and they have Sam Hartman, Georgia Tech, and then at the end of the year, back to back two good games to end the season in UNC with Drake May. And then you do have South Carolina who Shane Beamer has brought a lot of energy to the game, Cox, and has done a good job.

So let's see if Clemson can be a one loss ACC champ and get back to the college football playoff. And the other one here that I grouped them together for five bounce back stories to monitor in college football, one of them being Diju Ngole. When I get to two it's Dabo and then it's also his long time defensive coordinator who's now the head coach at Oklahoma in Brent Venables.

Because forever it was, oh Brent Venables is a different guy. He's happy being the vice president to Dabo Sweeney. He doesn't need to leave. He'll do that job for the rest of his life. Then the Oklahoma job that he has a familiarity with and has been there before, it's a head coaching job.

Oh, he takes the job, right? And year one, there was expectations for them to maybe go to a college football playoff. There was expectations for them to win the Big 12 once again.

And year one was an absolute disaster. All right, next up, bounce back storylines to monitor in college football, it's Texas. Texas is a massive story this year for college football and I'm really pulling for Texas this year. I don't love that they're going with Quinn Ewers but that's not a knock on Quinn Ewers. It's just because how much people have talked about Arch Manning and Arch Manning right now is the third quarterback on that depth chart with Murphy in at number two.

But Quinn Ewers won the job, credit him. He was rolling in that game up against Alabama unfortunately until he got hurt and they finished up the season strong. This is a huge year for college football with Texas Longhorns because you look at the Big 12, they're supposed to win this conference.

Now, doesn't mean you're a lock, right? Last year, TCU came out of nowhere. They didn't even win the Big 12. It ended up being Chris Kleiman's squad with Kansas State and there's a few other schools that will be mentioned and will be talked about. But for Texas, this is the first time in a while where there's buzz and the buzz is actually warranted and should be justified.

Next one, we'll go to, we have two more options here. Five bounce back stories to monitor in college football. It's Ryan Day against Michigan and I worded that very particular. Ryan Day has not lost a lot of games at Ohio State but the last two years, Ohio State has lost their way where they have not only lost to Michigan twice and Michigan has gone to the college football playoff twice and has won the Big 10 championship twice but Michigan has annihilated them in back-to-back years and this Michigan team returns McCarthy, returns Blake Coram, Coram who had a chance to go in a Heisman last year and then unfortunately got hurt and you had Donovan Edwards, ball out, he's back. We've seen the way that they've been able to fix that defense, just pump out talent to the NFL last two years and this is a big moment for Ryan Day at Ohio State because if Ryan Day ever got fired, there'd be schools lining up to hire him. But at Ohio State, it's about where you are and for Ryan Day, I think there's a big portion of that fan base where the standard is beat Michigan, beat Michigan, beat Michigan that they're fed up with what happened the last two years because how easy Urban Meyer made it look and you think about it with Ohio State, they lost to Michigan last year, backed their way into the college football playoff and then you could argue played Georgia as well as anybody did in the country this past year actually did and if it wasn't for the kicker missing the kick at midnight which is still one of the craziest endings of college football season for a team I've ever seen.

Three, two, one, the kick is up and it's no good. Happy new year to everybody but the kicker and on the Ohio State football team. If you lose three in a row to Michigan though, I think those cries that you're hearing right now and the calls maybe for fans being upset and to get Ryan Day out even though he hasn't lost a lot of football games, they're gonna get louder if you lose to Michigan three years in a row because of how much of a disparity there was with Michigan and Ohio State for all those years and then finally, this last one I don't think you're gonna like Chris Hess but bounce back story lines to monitor, James Franklin coming off a Rose Bowl victory which is one of the most rated Rose Bowls ever and not winning a Big Ten Championship last year and only winning one Big Ten Championship during his time at Penn State and not going to the college football playoff, it's James Franklin up against top ten teams because we went through that Penn State schedule earlier outside of Ohio State and Michigan and if you're a top dog you got to beat one of them. This is a weak and I mean a really weak schedule for Penn State, West Virginia, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Northwestern, UMass, Ohio State, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Rutgers, Michigan State. You should be able with how much talent they have to split Ohio State, Michigan and only have one loss in the season and for James Franklin, his biggest problem, he's a great recruiter not a great coach and there's a difference there but the Nittany Lions are three and fifteen against top ten teams during James Franklin's time at Happy Valley and one in ten against top five teams.

This is a big, big, big, big, big year for James Franklin. So top five bounce back story lines to monitor in college football, DJ Ongole, James Franklin, Brent Venables and Davos Sweeney, Texas and Ryan Day up against Michigan and I'll give you one more and you know what I'm actually going to make this the top six stories to monitor in college football and if I was to rank them this actually may be number one, it's Alabama. Alabama the last two years lost international championship game if you recall and Nick Saban afterwards was very appreciative of Will Anderson Jr. and Bryce Young because he knew that team wasn't that great and they still got to a national championship and won an SEC championship. Remember that was the year Georgia won that title to start back to back and they lost that SEC title game was like up Kirby Smart just can't get the job done against BAM and then changed that a few weeks later but then coming off that year it was supposed to be Alabama's gonna be great and last year outside of Will Anderson and Bryce Young and Jamir Gibbs this Alabama football team did not give you a lot to write home about especially the offensive side of the ball. You know defensively they always have talent but offensively they were missing a lot of talent the offensive side of the ball outside of Young and Gibbs. Last year even though Saban's gonna tell you we'll be the underdog against uh most of these teams in the college football uh you know the favorite against most of these teams in the college football playoff anyway doesn't matter. You lost two games that you were favorited and you did you did not deserve usually get the benefit of the doubt as you should but you did not deserve to go to college football playoff. Now let's see with a lot of parity in the sport with people wondering can Georgia go back to back to back can Michigan they get in but can they actually go to a national championship game game and win it all will Ohio State bounce back and will Texas be back uh Clemson get back into the picture of the college football playoff with all these questions there's a lot of uncertainty in college football and what I'm still certain about is Nick Saban I can't say right now he's the best coach in college football from a legacy standpoint obviously but Kirby Smart has his number right now and how that has turned the last two years but outside of Kirby Smart there's not a better coach in college football right now and that's debatable even with Kirby Smart with me putting him in at number one currently but for Nick Saban this year with how open it is I know the SEC is going to be ridiculous when you look at Georgia still being elite um I think LSU is going to have another wonderful season with Brian Kelly and you have Alabama in there and who could be that fourth team that does emerge we're going to see if Alabama can return and bounce back to the college football playoff after missing out on not only going to college football playoff last year but also the SEC title game as that was a matchup between Georgia and then um you also had LSU with Brian Kelly in year one getting to the title game so those are five bounce back storylines well six when you throw in Alabama and they'll be the number one uh to monitor in college football for this upcoming season 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27 we will take a break we'll come on back and we'll update you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio we call that segment the news brief but first up with the latest CBS sports radio update here he is Wisconsin's finest wearing that Wisco shirt even though he never attended the universe have you ever been to Wisconsin no I'd love to go though oh I'd love to see a hockey game there too I I'm surprised you haven't gone with your uh dear dear friend Kenny Albert to to camper Elmo no he probably hasn't been to a Wisconsin football game in a long time no no because he's got he's got to call all the games exactly he can't take one day off Kenny Albert no no no not in the NFL why not you're your coach Bill Belichick no days off I know but he's Kenny Albert he's the number one voice for for hockey right now don't do it football he's in what is he like the number two booth I think it is for uh I'm not sure or whatever pretty high up there to begin with he's been there forever hey Ken and uh nope in a set in a September you say I'm not gonna go goes against the broadcasting fiber yeah I'll tell you remember when Kenny Albert oh of course you remember it because it's act's best friend but I remember the year the Rangers went to the cup final you know the western conference final which he was calling on tv it was LA Chicago yes and he was going from New York to LA then back to New York then out to Chicago then I still remember back to Montreal and then to LA it was crazy Sunday at Memorial Day weekend the Rangers played a night game Sunday night and he had a red eye out to LA and he was at king's practice 11 a.m pacific time the next morning and Ray Ferraro looked at him he said didn't you just do the game yeah he's a zombie he doesn't sleep yeah I would be surprised he can sleep anywhere so that's that's a very big plus uh I'm gonna make a suggestion for Kenny all right I'm gonna be his like publicist here oh okay he's got a book coming out that is true yeah Saturday October 28th he's got to be at Camp Miranda I'm assuming it's not a neutral site game okay going up against Ohio State that's a big time I'm like telling that to go out there for like Rutgers or or or for like uh Georgia Southern or Buffalo Luke fickle against his alma mater oh yeah that'd be pretty damn cool it's not bad maybe I'll just go yeah you know what screw that you know we're pushing Kenny to the curb act I'll pay for the hotel I'll even get your own room we don't have to split rooms I'll pay for dinner just get us the tickets and some sideline passes okay and we could jump around with everybody there you go bunch of spotted cows road tripping with app we even bring hickey so we get someone to go run and get us our beers and then bring them back and get some french fries for act two and some cheese curds there you go we'll put it we'll put hickey to work Zach Gelb show CBS sports radio news brief next you're listening to the Zach Gelb show all righty this is Zach Gelb show on CBS sports radio time to update you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio let's get rocking and rolling to a news brief time for your daily news brief we get you caught up on the rumors reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports we will hear from Zion Williamson who was on the gills arena podcast that's Gilbert arenas podcast and we played you one cut from yesterday but here's a new one Zion Williamson saying that he's listening to the right people now and blocking out the noise at the end of the day people gonna get their opinions and what I can say is I do respect brutal honesty I'd rather somebody be brutally honest with me then try to sugarcoat it because at the end of the day if they're honest with me I know I know what I need to do to fix it so there you go with Zion Williamson trusting I guess different people are actually finally starting to listening to them from what he said let's go to Philadelphia this was awkward the flyers were introducing a new player that I guess they signed and when a media member was asking a question you had this exchange with a reporter the player and then a pr person I gather who was caught saying something about the question that was being asked a veteran with a relatively successful NHL career what makes the flyers were in a rebuilt state a destination that there's really a lot of it's an organization wait wait wait so I read that yesterday and the new president of the flyers Keith Jones actually interned for when he was working at sports radio 94 WIP and I Jonesy very well and the flyers have to change the way that they're viewed and I think Jonesy is the right guy for that and now Danny Brier is also running that team but you're bringing in this new regime and you have a player getting introduced and you have a pr person I'm assuming that is saying how many times this person could have bleep and answer this question like what a loser that person is and you get caught on a hot mic like you're a moron do me a favor Chris because I got to hear the question again play me that from the beginning one more time a veteran with a relatively successful NHL career what makes the flyers were in a rebuilt state a destination that this design so the pr person basically gets mad because you're in a rebuilding stage what makes them attractive so you're basically saying hey the team sucks what makes them attractive it's amazing how sensitive public relations people are and then also athletes these days like what's wrong with that question you know it's the same thing with me and Deebo Samuel I really would happen Deebo got annoyed because I was asking him questions about things that he's saying and then all these people out there are like oh you treated him disrespectfully blah blah blah blah blah no I didn't like I was off at Channing Crowder today in Miami he said you asked him questions based on things he said and you're polite about it it's amazing like you can't ask a question anymore that is deemed somewhat challenging or isn't something where you're massaging the athlete oh such a joke let's uh hear from barry bonds he says he feels vindicated from the whole performance enhancing drug scandal this was courtesy of hollywood swinging podcast I was vindicated I went to the court I was in federal court and I won my case 100 where is the vindication of me amounts for it that's what bothers me so here's the thing we all know barry bonds cheated he could sell it however he wants and talk about the court case and all that you cheated but you should still be in the hall of fame and I've said that now for years that was such a big era of my life those players of major league baseball and it's like the writers they try to tell you that it never existed and they try to tell you oh they don't deserve to be in the hall of fame because they cheated and there's just so much it's really a process now that they start to select which guys that use that they wanted like john hayman once didn't vote he didn't vote for mike piazza ever because he thought mike piazza used or he didn't know and then the first time avon ronriguez was on the ballot he was like yeah I'm voting for pudge and who pudge it was on the record saying he was once asked did you ever use performance enhancing drugs he said only god knows the answer to that and david Ortiz gets in right away because people eat deserves to get in but there's a pass with david Ortiz but people like david Ortiz you know barry bonds is a jerk roger clemens is a jerk but just because you're a jerk and you cheat it doesn't mean that you don't belong in the hall of fame when I think of barry bonds the first thing I think of I can only speak for myself is great player I think of roger clemens and I can't stand roger clemens I'm a mike piazza god I hate hate hate hate roger clemens hate hate hate hate roger clemens but he deserves to be in the hall of fame let's hear mark cuban discuss the new mba in-season tournament and how he's actually a fan of it surprise surprise a governor owner whatever they call these uh people these days uh this is on serious xm mba radio additionally I was out on it but the more I thought of it there's no downside there's absolutely no downside and my son jake is here he's like you know oh we got a bad draw you know you know he's thinking about it and if it gets kids excited he gets whoever excited and there's again it's just a regular season game unless you win it so he's not wrong it's just a regular season game unless you win it then you get um extra games on your schedule one extra game at most but it's pointless because is anyone gonna really that's a star player say yeah for an extra 500 000 I'll go out for the duration of this tournament so give me a break there it's ridiculous at how much these mba players are paid that we now need to pay them even more incentivize them even more or threaten to take away awards if they don't play 65 games like you guys make so much money show up during your regular season we don't need this stupid in-season tournament here's patrick mahomes on the netflix the quarterback special where they follow mahomes kirk cubs and marcus mariota throughout the entire season here's patty mahomes talking about playing the bangles and how he wanted to play the bangles after beating the jags last season in the playoffs over the bills i think the bangles are better but i think with all those injuries on the whole line that the bills have a chance i mean i want i mean i think we match up in reverse the bills but i want for the bangles yeah yeah i mean it's honestly i mean i just want to play if we haven't beat them i'm tired of them talking bro i like that adds into the bad blood between those two teams he was just tired of hearing them talking and finally leave britney alone but this was britney spears responding to everything that did go on last week between her and victor when bin yama where she was reportedly slapped in the face and we saw the video and it looked like the security guard just slapped her hand out of the way and then her own hand hit her face it seemed like a really nothing thing happened even though security i probably should not have uh swiped at britney spears but here's britney spears in the 1b situation i heard on the news saying that i deserve to be smacked security was doing their job and protecting their client i've been with the most famous people in the world in sync at one time girls would like literally throw themselves at them on my way into the place actually i was knocked down by like three 12 year olds trying to get my picture my security not one time touched them or even came near them oh there's a lot to unpack right there and thankfully i only have about 40 seconds left that i need to stall but you know i don't agree with what the director of team security or the title is with the spurs did but this is the biggest non-story ever when you actually see the video so that's where we're at right now um with britney spears and victor one vinayama as that story starts to fade away all righty zack yelp show cbs sports radio we will take a break and when we do come on back we will be joined by ari tempkin from big 12 media days to preview the big 12.