Hot Seat Meter (Hour 3)

What's happening? Hour number three, Zach Gelb show right here at CBS Sports Radio could always give us a call 855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227.

Give us a follow on Instagram and also Twitter at ZachGelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Alrighty, let's get to a little hot seat meter. I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight names in front of me. And on a scale of one to ten, one being cool, ten being extremely hot on fire, where is the hot seat meter at for these coaches? Let's start off with Bill Belichick. I think it's at a six.

I really do. I think there is no longer it's 50-50. This is starting to pick up in intensity. Ultimately, I still think Bill will be back next year for one more season, but he's got to start to get this thing moving in the right direction. And I was reading that report in The Athletic where it's like this idea and this notion that Robert Kraft wouldn't have it in him to fire Bill Belichick after winning six Super Bowls is the farthest thing from the truth. At the end of this season, I think Belichick has to come prepared and Belichick has to identify some guys in free agency or maybe some trades that he wants to explore where you got to understand you don't have Tom Brady anymore. And you can't survive with like the David Givens, the David Paddens of the world, the Troy Browns, the Brandon LaFells, the Danny Amendola, the Chris Hogan's of the world.

You need to go get legitimate talent. And I thought Ryan Harris did make a very good point. He brought up the name DeAndre Hopkins. It infuriated me that Belichick did not get DeAndre Hopkins because it's nonsensical to just go get an offensive coordinator. And when you finally have a legit offensive coordinator and Billy O'Brien, not to get him some weapons to work with, like if I'm a defender. And I know we have one of the defenders on for the Saints early in the week, Brian Bursey.

And he kind of laughed because like, what is the guy going to say? He's not going to get on the show and just start trashing the Patriots after they beat them 34-0. I'm like, you look at this offense.

No one intimidates you. No one you look at on the offense side of the ball for the Patriots and go, oh, we really have to prepare for them. Like Ramondre Stevenson's solid.

He's good. The offensive line stinks. Pop Davis is a good young wide receiver, but there's a lot of good young wide receivers. It's like you're not going to get intimidated by Juju Smith-Schuster, Kendrick Bourne, Devante Parker. And their best wide receiver from a year ago was Jacoby Myers. They elected to go pay Juju Smith-Schuster. And the next thing you know, Jacoby Myers is off to the Raiders. And that was the one guy back actually had chemistry with.

And even when he had some chemistry with Kendrick Bourne last year, he was in the Patricia Dawg house. So I really do believe that there's a shot Belichick's back next year. But it started to become more and more uncertain. And if this continues where it's like the last two weeks where they're not even competitive.

It's just going to get worse and worse. So I put it at a six right now for Bill Belichick. And it's kind of crazy. I put that number six there. He's won six championships. And that's probably the only reason why everyone's still saying, OK, go potentially give him another year. Josh McDaniels.

I would say it's an eight. McDaniels wins last week. But you're looking up against the Packers. The one thing that I think is fascinating, because I think we're now at a crossroads from what I've been reading about Brady with the ownership. And that has not been finalized yet as minority owner. If that falls through.

Right. Because Brady is a McDaniels guy. And Brady's it would be in the ear of Mark Davis. That could buy Josh McDaniels another year.

But if this gets to a point where Brady doesn't become minority owner of the Raiders. And I know he's been like around the team. We saw him. It was the game. Oh, so it was the first game of season, the second game of season for the Raiders. It was it was a primetime game where Brady was like running out of the locker room with Jimmy Garoppolo and he's getting his ear. It doesn't matter. It was it was the Steelers game. Thank you. Yeah. The Steelers game where Brady was like trying to make it look like right that this minority ownership was actually going to happen.

And you read a report the other day that it's reached a little speed bump and there's a speed bump in the road and now may not happen. So I think that Brady determining factor is going to be massive. And then also the best thing that Josh McDaniels has right now is a contract. And what I mean by that is Mark Davis had to pay out John Gruden. We don't know what the settlement was, but he had to pay John Gruden.

You would think a substantial amount of money. The guy that you hired to ultimately replace John Gruden. Do you want to get rid of him? And I'm assuming McDaniels probably signed a five year deal. That's a standard. It's four or five year deal.

You want to get rid of him after two years. And we know how the Raiders writes to be a little frugal if that's the nice way that I'll dress it up for you. So that's something to me where McDaniels based off the way he coaches should be fired.

And it's probably more so why I would put that number at an eight. But there's always skepticism when it comes to me and saying, yeah, I expect the Raiders to actually do the right thing. Ron Rivera.

It's a nine. I don't think Ron Rivera is back next year. This team I thought would make the playoffs before the start of the year. They had an awful showing last week on Thursday Night Football to kick off week five up against the Chicago Bears.

That defense has not got better. And look at this common trend. You see Tomlin with Canada. You see Belichick refusing to go get talent and then having Judge and Patricia. And then you have Ron Rivera being loyal to Jack Del Rio, like all three of those things. You just want to scream. It doesn't make sense.

And you want to say some words that I can't say on the radio. It made no sense last year by Belichick trusted Judge and Patricia to run his offense. Defensive coordinator and a special teams guy. It makes no sense why Mike Tomlin is allowing Matt Canada to run his offense. And it's like Jack Del Rio has done a lot of stupid things off the field and then on the field.

His coaching hasn't been good and they've regressed with a lot of talent. And Ron Rivera keeps on going back to the well of Jack Del Rio. And you also have the new ownership group coming in with Josh Harris and then Magic Johnson, who just tweets like the most simple things in the world. That's why I was surprised when I know how good of a quote Magic Johnson could be.

But when Magic Johnson came on me a few weeks ago, how how awesome he was, because you get it. He also owns part of the Dodgers, too. And did you guys see his tweet from last night? Did you see the Magic Johnson tweet? It was we're all disappointed that our Dodgers didn't hit or pitch well. That's why we lost the series to the Diamondbacks with an exclamation point on that tweet.

Magic does the most simple and obvious tweeting that is so unnecessary. But it's like you like that from an owner when you at least acknowledge that your team failed. But wait until like the commanders keep on losing. And it's like we didn't hit the quarterback and our quarterback didn't put the ball in the end zone. That's why we lost the game for the Washington commanders.

His Twitter could really be insufferable. I mean, it even feels more obvious. It's disappointing that they scored more points than we scored and they got into the end zone and kicked more fugals. And we got into the end zone and kicked more fugals.

So that's why we lost the game. When Magic is crafting up that tweet, do you think he's just trolling us at this point? Because with how intelligent he is, is that him just saying, I'm going to troll everyone and then just play into it? Or is this him really thinking he has this wonderful erudite thought and he just has to tweet something to tweet something? And he doesn't realize how simple he sounds.

He's 64 years old. He wasn't raised in the social media era. He just wants to get a thought out there and he wants to be not controversial. He wants to just put something out there and just have his words and have his name out there. But he's not trying to stir controversy.

He's not trying to have a hot take or be a troll. He's just stating the facts as obvious. And you've spoken to him. I've spoken to him. He's legitimately a genuinely nice guy. He's just a nice guy.

He's not trying to stir the pot. He just wants to, you know, say something. But that was the thing to me when we when I had him on a few weeks ago, he was opinionated on everything. Like he was he went after Steph Curry with the whole greatest point guard of all time debate. He said the Lakers are going to get to the championship this year. Like he said that Dame Lillard should wind up in my like he had opinions. That wasn't just saying things to say things.

Those were backed up. But then it's like you get to Twitter with Magic Johnson. It's like woke up today. Had a cup of water.

It's going to be a good day. All right. Let's see what happened with my teams. Oh, I look at the box scores. The Diamondbacks scored more runs than us. Oh, we didn't hit her pitch well. So that's why we ended up losing the series.

I just chuckled yesterday when I saw that. But Ron Rivera, new regime coming in. Also, him just putting his foot in his mouth too many times, saying the wrong things at the podium the last two years, making them messier situations that they need to be. And the team just not moving forward. Like when the highlight is being seven and nine and winning the NFC East, you're not moving in the right direction with new ownership coming in.

It probably does make sense to bring in a new voice and a new coach to push the commanders into this new era where for the last 20 years, they've been maybe the biggest disgrace with Daniel Snyder running that that organization in the NFL and, you know, around sports. I think Rivera is at a nine. Matt Eberfluss, I'm not buying the one week. I still think at the end of the year, the Bears will have two top five, two top seven picks, and they'll have an entire regime change and they'll get rid of Ryan Polz and they'll get rid of Matt Eberfluss. So I put that as a seven.

Here's an interesting one. Sean Payton, because Russ has played really well in the first half. He hasn't played well in the second half. I think some of that's on the quarterback, some of that's on the coach. Ryan Harris, who joined us earlier, said that's on the coaching staff because when adjustments are made, they can't figure out how to put the players in a better position. I would say with Sean just getting there in the name of Sean, he's not in the hot seat at all. Right now, he isn't.

It's a one. Last week was super embarrassing. Now you go back to the wall next year and you're a four or five win team.

Then that number will pick up and it will jump up more than a few spots. Kevin Stefanski. So as quarterbacks hurt right now, we'll see if Deshaun Watson is going to make a return. I believe that the Browns have to make the playoffs this year for Stefanski to be back as the coach.

Because you just look at the way that power struggles happen and you look at the way where people criticize. If people are going to be critical of Deshaun Watson, where his play is not back at an elite level, a great level. Well, the Browns aren't going to move on from Deshaun Watson because Deshaun Watson, they just moved mountains to go get him. He's young and they just paid him a fully guaranteed contract.

The first person to go is going to be Kevin Stefanski. Now you could say maybe that's not fair, but that's the way that it's going to work because Deshaun will get sensitive to the criticism. Him and the coach will butt heads. Remember, Stefanski was there before Deshaun even got there. And then people look to save their jobs to try to get Deshaun Watson going before you realize that maybe Deshaun is no longer the player that he used to be. And they'll bring in a new coach there. I think it's at a seven because I don't think it's very likely that the Browns are going to make the playoffs this year. Brian Deball, it's at a three.

And I'll put one caveat in there. This has gone from year one where they were spectacular to now year two, they're falling flat on their face. I do believe Shane isn't going anywhere.

I do believe the Marrow family will be patient. And I don't think Deball will be going anywhere. But the only way I think this number could significantly augment from a three to like maybe a seven or an eight is if Belichick becomes available. Because Bill Belichick has a tremendous amount of respect for the Giants. He won two Super Bowls with them as a defensive coordinator.

And there's always been that speculation like years ago. If Belichick would ever lead the Patriots, he would definitely be interested in the Giants. In fact, the Giants have had a lot of hirings through the last few years after Tom Coughlin has left in the last decade, after they got rid of Tom Coughlin.

And every time there's an opening with the Giants, that name Belichick always gets speculated by someone in the New York media. But I think Brian Deball is at a three. And then finally, Dennis Allen.

I think Dennis Allen is actually at a five. I still think it's 50-50. Where if they win the division, I think he's back next year. But if they don't win the division, and that's still up in the air, with the Falcons being competitive, the Buccaneers being better than what expected, the Carolina Panthers absolutely stink. I look at Dennis Allen as someone that it's 50-50 and it's all dependent on if they're going to make the playoffs. I don't trust this team. I don't believe in this team.

But we'll see if they can start to be consistent. It really is a flip of the coin right now with Dennis Allen. But if I look at who's going to be the first coach to get fired, it wouldn't shock me if it's Rivera. Because I don't know if any other coach is really on my radar to get fired in season.

I know there's that report before the Commanders game that it could be Iberflus. I think if you're the Bears, it really doesn't matter who your coach is right now. You just get through the season and you clean house at the end of the year. I would actually say it's Rivera, though. And remember, Rivera got fired in season when new ownership came in with David Tepper. And he got fired with a few weeks left in the season. I could see that happening again with the Commanders where everyone respects the man that Ron Rivera is. But if you want to get a jump start on this search and if you just want to make it obvious and not have him go through the final month of the season knowing that you're going to move on if they're out of contention. And maybe they won't be just because of where this NFC at, even though the NFC is a little bit better than what we expected. If I'd take a guess right now, I would say Rivera is the first coach to get fired. And it could happen some point in December. Who's the coach that's on the hot seat?

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. We'll take a break. We'll come on back. We'll teach you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio.

We call that segment the News Brief. And we'll come on back in five minutes. Let's go to David in Dallas next up on CBS Sports Radio. David, go ahead.

Zach, I think that this one, just hear me out, it's going to sound a little surprising. But I think Frank Wright could be gone because I think Fitterer there in Carolina, the GM, could be gone. And they, especially if they do a 2-15 and that pick is the Caleb Williams pick that's given away to Chicago. You know, Fitterer survived the Matt Ruhl era, but I really think David Tepper, you know, he's got a lot of Steve Cohen in him. I'm telling you, I think he could say, you know what, I'm getting rid of the GM and any new GM is going to win his own coach. So you bring up a good point and I don't trust David Tepper at all. I'm not a big fan of David Tepper. I think he's someone that just because he owns the team, he's trying to be like this football expert and he's not a football expert. And if that report is true that you saw from Adam Schefter before the draft that his preference was originally they like Bryce Young. And then through the process, Frank Reich wanted C.J.

Stroud. And then David Tepper swoops in and goes, no, we have to draft Bryce Young. And they change that decision. That's a bad look for David Tepper. The only thing I will say is I have a tough time and I understand what David and Dallas is saying. Fitterer could definitely be gone at the end of this season. That is not a crazy take. That team has no talent. They just traded to go get Bryce Young.

And now to go get something, you've got to give up something. You may have given up the number one overall pick, which could be Caleb Williams, which could go right to the Bears. So Fitterer is going to get fired at the end of the season and he's kind of the casualty and the scapegoat for this season.

I don't know if scapegoat is the right word, but you get what I'm saying. If he's the person that has to pay for what happened this year and you bring in a new GM. Yeah, then Frank Reich is kind of on borrowed time. I don't think they would get rid of Frank Reich after one season. Because what did you really give Frank Reich to work with? You gave him, and I'm not even a big fan of Frank Reich, but you gave him a quarterback with no all-line and no wide receivers and an overpaid running back. So it's like to me, I don't think the new GM would axe, he may want to, but I don't think he would axe Frank Reich right away. And then maybe it's like something that happens then a year from there.

But that is a slippery slope to play. And it's happened before, we've seen it, where the GM didn't hire the coach and then you know that the coach is on borrowed time until the GM ultimately gets to go make his hire. Because if the team continues to struggle, the GM can say, well he didn't let me pick the coach, so let me go pick the coach.

I do not think they're going to get rid of Frank Reich, but I do think they'll get rid of Scott Fitter at the end of this year. Alright, let's update you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. We go to the News Brief. Time for your Daily News Brief.

We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. Alrighty, let's start it off with Josh Allen. We saw Stefan Diggs two weeks ago have three touchdowns and that big dominant victory up against the Miami Dolphins.

Last week, the Bills offense did struggle up against the Jags in London. And you had a little sideline issue with Stefan Diggs getting upset with his team. Here is Josh Allen defending Stefan Diggs. He's a competitor, he's a fiery competitor. I'm tired of hearing all this nonsense from people because there's a lot of guys in the league that have that same fire that don't get talked about. But he's a lot of our juice on the sideline, making sure that the offense is staying up and as energized as possible and we feed off of that.

So I don't usually have a problem when a player has an issue on the sideline if it's rooted in the right spot where you're annoyed with your losing and you're going to freak out. The only problem is with what happened in the offseason, it just gets magnified to a different level with Stefan Diggs. And I don't know who to believe here because we still don't know what happened with Stefan Diggs, Brandon Bean, Sean McDermott and Josh Allen. There's a lot of speculation, but it was one of those situations where the toothpaste was kind of all out of the tube going back to the start of mandatory minicamp. And it's not like Sean McDermott tried to put that toothpaste back into the tube right away. Instead, he tried to get every ounce of toothpaste out when he was like, yeah, I'm very concerned that Stefan Diggs was there. And after getting all the toothpaste out of the tube, he was like, uh-oh, I made a mistake and now I have to fix this thing. So we have not found out the truth what happened there.

When you don't tell us the truth and you try to tell us it's no big deal when everyone saw a big deal happen, the little things get made into bigger things. And I can see why Josh Allen's getting frustrated with it and felt the need to go defend Stefan Diggs. Here's Mary Kay Cabot, who's covered the Browns for a long time.

She was on the Pat McAfee show and she was discussing the Deshaun Watson shoulder injury that made him miss last week. And if he misses this week, P.J. Walker will be the starting quarterback. He has a bruised rotator cuff. I talked to an orthopedic surgeon the other day who said it takes two to six weeks to fully heal from such an injury. And this Sunday would be three weeks for Deshaun. So, you know, if he takes it all the way up to six weeks, you know, then so be it. If he feels ready to go on Sunday, he'll play.

So he missed week four, then they had the bye week, week five, and now they play up against the 49ers at Cleveland and that's a 1 p.m. game. That's a tough landing spot. To come on back from an injury if you are up against maybe the best team in the NFL right now, that is a really rough landing spot. But then yet again, you are paid $230, $235 million fully guaranteed.

I don't want to hear about a rough or a tough landing spot. The thing that was so confusing to me is this injury. It seemed like it came out of nowhere where you go before week four and everyone's like, whoa, Deshaun Watson, late addition to the injury report. Whoa, Deshaun Watson's going to miss the game.

So I know that you're right there at three weeks like what Mary Kay Cabot's saying. If I had to take a guess, though, I feel like it's more likely that he misses this game than he plays in it, especially with the information out there that we already know that it wasn't going to be Dorian Thompson Robinson again. It would be P.J. Walker in this.

I think they're kind of giving us the answers. Expect to be let down there and see that Deshaun Watson is not going to be on the field up against the 49ers on Sunday. Let's go to Odell Beckham Jr. Has the injury impacted his play so far? I feel much better this week, even though there was a lot of traveling. It's hard to stay up on hydration, stay up on a regular schedule. There's so many things that you have to adapt to. But there's no time for excuses or putting blame here or there. You know, I'm a man. I take my wins with my losses.

I just got to come out and just be better, you know, playing it simple and do whatever I can to help this team win. I respect that answer from Odell Beckham, but let's be real. Odell Beckham is on the 17th or 18th hole of this career. He may not want to omit that, but he was having a really good rebound story right with the Rams, where he caught that touchdown in the Super Bowl, then tears the ACL. And now coming back from all those injuries with the other previous major injuries that he suffered, it's a lot of wear and tear on the body.

It's catching up to him. And it's, you know, not as, not directly comparable to the Michael Thomas situation, because Michael Thomas is significantly younger. But Michael Thomas right now has had so many injuries where you don't ever expect him to actually make it through the entire season.

And it's kind of one of those things where now with Odell, I don't expect him to make it through the entire season. Actually, I'll correct myself on that. Michael Thomas and Odell Beckham Jr. are actually the same age. They're both 30.

That doesn't seem right, Stu. Like, if I would ask you who's older, Odell Beckham Jr. or Michael Thomas, you would assume that it was Odell Beckham Jr. as well, right? By a few years at least, yeah.

Yeah. No, they're both 30. You know, I know Michael Thomas emerged onto the scene out of Ohio State, and then it was like, he was a really good wide receiver, maybe the best wide receiver in the league for like two or three years.

And then he just got hurt, and then he was out of sight, out of mind. But when I said that, I was like, oh yeah, Odell Beckham is significantly older than Michael Thomas, and then something went off in my brain where I was like, let me check that, actually. Because I always remember Michael Thomas being a little bit older than what we thought.

But both guys are 30 years old right now. Let's go to Deion Sanders. So they had some scouts at practice.

No surprise with the Colorado football team. And Deion Sanders tells the Falcons scout to draft both of his sons in Shadore Sanders and Shiloh Sanders. Tell her what I told you. Hey, we gonna get the Sanders boys.

No, no, tell her exactly what I told you. Hey, we ain't coming back unless we bring the Sanders boys to the A. Whoa, folks. That's all I'm saying. Hey, hey, how y'all feel about that? The A. How y'all feel about that? Okay.

It'll definitely be good for the A, good for the city. Man, that sounds like that scout was being held hostage right there. It was one of those situations where you're sitting there and you go, oh, I don't want to be involved in this social media. Because in some places it got reported that the scout was saying, because he was just repeating what Deion Sanders was saying, that it was the scout who said, oh, you know, we're gonna bring Shiloh Sanders and Shadore Sanders back to the A. I saw that reported one way on Twitter.

I was like, that can't be true. A scout's not saying that. Those scouts say nothing.

And they don't really have the decisions to, the power to make those decisions ultimately. And it was just Deion, Coach Prime, walking up to the scout and saying, what did I just tell you? Like, we're not coming back to the A unless you have Shiloh and Shadore with you. That could be a good landing spot for Shadore Sanders, too.

Walk in with Tyler Algier and Bijan Robinson and Kyle Pitts and Drake London. You got some weapons there. Here is Doc Rivers, who's now back at ESPN as an analyst. And he was asked if he's surprised by all the James Harden drama in Philly. I don't know if I saw it coming because I did think that they would all figure it out. But obviously, once you saw James opt in, you knew there was trouble in paradise. You just knew that. You know, I believe he believed that he was gonna get taken care of at some point. He didn't. And he's upset by it.

I would be surprised if it's resolved unless there is a trade. So, Doc Rivers, that's a weird spot. The former coach of the Sixers. And he was basically fired because James Harden didn't like him. Because Doc tried to hold James Harden accountable. And Doc wanted James Harden to prioritize basketball more than the partying. And he wanted him to be a more diligent player. So, when Doc Rivers gets fired, it's, oh, I know when Bead likes me, but Harden didn't mess with me.

So, I lost my job for a few reasons. But mainly because James Harden didn't like me. And Daryl Morey became and has been best friends with James Harden. The thing that Doc Rivers didn't see coming after he got fired is that James Harden would turn on Daryl Morey.

So, that is an absolute bleep show with the 123456ers, 109876ers. Here is the epic speech by Justin Verlander last night. So, the Astros punched their ticket to their 7th straight American League Championship Series. And Justin Verlander gets called over by Dusty Baker, the manager of the Houston Astros. And then Justin Verlander gave this speech. There is nothing more as a sports fan that I kind of enjoy than seeing those videos where everyone's just spraying champagne after a big victory.

The only thing that maybe I enjoy better is when the grown men, when they win the Stanley Cup, they just like basically scream so high pitch when they pick that Stanley Cup up after winning the Lord Stanley Cup. But with Justin Verlander, it was so funny because I'm watching that last night and he starts talking about the entire season. I'm like, dude, you were pitching for the Mets before the season started. And it seemed like he was confusing the Mets a little bit even though there's some similarities with the struggles early on. The Mets never turned it around and the injuries. But he's like, oh, we had injuries, we were struggling early on. He's like, oh, wait, I wasn't even effing here. And then it's like, oh, then I came here and now we're going to 7th straight American League Championship Series.

That was pretty cool. Let's hear Dave Roberts swept out of the postseason by the Arizona Diamondbacks inside the NL West. He is not a fan of this playoff format.

There's some things with the format that, you know, people can dissect or whatever. But the bottom line is that, you know, the last two years we've got outplayed in the postseason. And, you know, it doesn't matter if it was a seven-game series. You know, we lost the first three games.

Mixed emotions there with Dave Roberts. Because you started to use the excuse of the playoff format and then you go, oh, bottom line is the last two years we didn't play well. I think you should not even mention the playoff format and just mention what you said towards the end. We have not played well the last two years. Maybe you want to do an offseason interview and then you discuss, oh, I don't love the playoff format. But last night, no one wants to hear you bitching and complaining to start your answer with the playoff format.

Here is Mookie Betts of the Dodgers on the NLDS sweep against the Diamondbacks and his performance. I mean, it's obviously super frustrating. There is no real words for it. They played better, you know. We didn't do much. I can't speak for all of us, but I know for sure I did absolutely nothing to help us win.

There's no real words for it. They got a hit, we know that. Now I'm going to sound like Magic Johnson where I just say, oh, you got a hit and then you also got to be able to pitch. But they got injured in the rotation. And I thought their hitting could carry them, and I was wrong on that. And that Diamondbacks team is fun with it all starting with Corbin Carroll. Alrighty, and finally Bryce Harper hit two home runs last night. Phillies one win away from going back to the NLCS.

They're up 2-1 against the Atlanta Braves. And this was the second home run that Bryce Harper had in the game. He did this throat slash as he crossed home plate. This is Joe Simpson and Ben Ingram on the Braves radio network who weren't happy with it. Michael Harris back to the wall. Harris leaps and that is out of here. And Bryce Harper has gone deep for the second time in the ballgame.

Sitting on a curve ball and he got it. Again gave the throat slashing sign, which given today's climate around the world, I'm not sure that's quite appropriate. What anybody wants to see.

So I'll say this to someone that is Jewish and someone that is clearly heartbroken and is sickening what's going on in Israel. If you're a baseball announcer there and you're trying to make the point about what's going around the world to a named baseball game and Bryce Harper doing a throat slash. It doesn't fly with me. I think it's a bad job by the announcer there if I'm being 100% honest to try to make it as if Bryce Harper is this villain and Bryce Harper is doing something that is so terrible.

You have to separate the two. That is a sporting event. That's a crazy environment in Philadelphia.

And when he does that, no one's thinking about what's going on around the world in that moment. He's sending a message to the Braves that your season is over, your series is over and this is a changing of a moment of it. I have no problem with what Bryce Harper did and I thought it was really laughable the reaction by the guys on the Braves radio network with the way that they handled it. And they went after the throat slash twice that Bryce Harper did. How are you offended by that if you're a baseball fan when you watch the game?

If you're a Braves fan and you watched the game last night, you should be mad at your team for getting blown out and letting Bryce Harper take advantage of you. So, I thought that was lame by the Braves radio network. Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a break.

We will come on back when we do return. We'll preview the game tonight between the Chiefs and Broncos. And also, Taylor Swift is in the building and we're already getting a little idea from Al Michaels how they're going to handle the Tay-Tay coverage tonight. Alrighty, let's get to the latest CBS Sports Radio update first with the Ak-Man, Rich Ackerman. Today's memorable moment is sponsored by Prevagen.

Prevagen is the most recommended memory support brand by pharmacists. In week 18 of the 2021 season, the Chiefs went a mile high and trailed 21-17 through three quarters. In the fourth, they got an 86-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Nick Bolton and ended up winning 28-24. The Chiefs have won 15 straight matchups against the Broncos and lead the all-time series 71-55. The reason why I started to slow down that read there for a second.

I thought this was an anchorman moment where you just give someone the script when you started off in the read. In week 18 of the 2021 season, the Chiefs went a mile high and trailed 21-17. I'm like, where the heck is this going when we're going back to 2021, Sam? I almost thought I was about to say, and you go bleep yourself, San Diego. That's where I thought we were going. 8-5-5-2-1-2 for CBS, 8-5-5-2-1-2, 42-27. Let's go to Jay in Alabama next up on CBS Sports Radio. Jay, what's happening? Jay! Jay going once, Jay going twice, Jay going three times, sold. So, Jay in Alabama, asleep at the wheel.

Sounded like something was going on in the background. Anyway, let's get back to the game tonight. I teased this right before the break, so we'll take care of this right now. I saw that Jimmy at Sports Illustrated said that he talked to Al Michaels, and their plans tonight for the Amazon broadcast are this.

We are going to do tonight, everything will be in moderation. Our crew talked about it this morning, you can't make it a sideshow, THE show. So that's how they kind of handle the whole Taylor Swift thing. I don't know about you, Samter, and I know we had Colleen Wolfen earlier from the NFL Network, it was phenomenal.

If you missed any of that, use the rewind function on the Odyssey app. You can also watch it, Samter will get it up on our CBS Sports Radio YouTube page in just a second. She said that there's been Taylor Swift fatigue for her while watching this. I kind of feel as if Al Michaels, who's your traditional legendary broadcaster, of course he's going to say, let's not make the sideshow THE show.

But with that being said, how many times does someone say something and you kind of then can justify it and where it doesn't become THE show? But like tonight, if that game stinks the way that we think it's going to stink Chiefs and Broncos, every time they show Taylor Swift, that's going to be a part of THE show and maybe the biggest story in the game tonight. Yeah, I think if it's a close game, then you have to kind of audible a little bit, but if it's a blowout like we expect, maybe you can go to her a little bit more. But kind of like what Colleen said earlier, I want to see who's there, right? Last game was Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, like that was awesome. Yeah, but was it really like when I watched that game and they talked about everyone was coming there, I know how big of a deal Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are. But to me it was, okay, she came to the stadium with them and then it was like, who cares that they're actually there? It was all about just Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift. If I didn't see them walking into the stadium, I would have no clue if they were sitting in the luxury box with her.

But that's exactly the point. I kind of want to see who's there, right? Maybe get a shot or two with Taylor. But I don't need the blow by blow, the play by play of Taylor and Donna. Did Taylor cringe when Travis got hit? Did Taylor cheer when Travis caught the touchdown?

I don't care. I want to see that she's there. I want to see how she's behaving. I want to see her go crazy if there's a wild play.

And I want to see who else is in the box. And that's about it. I don't need Taylor overload.

And Ian did it perfectly a couple weeks ago. He had the puns. Yeah, he had a couple puns referencing some of her songs. They were subtle, that if you don't know her music, you wouldn't understand it.

But if you know her music, it's there. Give me some of that. Don't shove it down my throat. Give me a little bit.

Give me some subtlety. And then those who want it will pick it up. And those who don't want it don't have to think about it. Look, I don't need to know that Taylor Swift is eating a chicken finger with ranch and that she's more of a ranch girl like the first time she was in the luxury box.

And that's what we ended up having. I do believe it's going to be a major story tonight. Because if you're Amazon, you got like Bezos has to be jumping up and down like a fat kid in a candy store that she's going to this game. Because you will have Swifties that buy Prime Video to just watch this game tonight because she's going to be there. And, you know, even if the traditional NFL fan is like, oh, I'm getting tired of this, like enough of this Taylor Swift coverage. It does bring more people to the TV set. Now, someone like Samter and I could be like, oh, we don't really need the sideshow because the NFL each and every year is like 48 of the top 50 programs.

But on the streaming service tonight, they're going to play the hits. And if the Denver Broncos are losing for the 16 straight time to the Kansas City Chiefs, and let's say that this is a boring game, they're going to show a lot of Taylor Swift. And it's Al Michaels saying we're not going to make the sideshow the show. It is very similar to when a coach takes a job and he goes, oh, this was always my dream job. This was always a great job.

And he like talked himself into this being his dream job, even though it was never his dream job. That's what Al Michaels is going to do, where he's going to say, well, we only showed her like nine or ten times and the rest was all football. We all know that becomes the story.

But in Al Michaels' mind, it's not becoming the story because the focus for him is still on football. I wonder if you could bet on this tonight. What's going to be more, the amount of times Amazon shows Taylor Swift or how many points the Broncos are going to have in the game tonight? I think that's a fun bet.

I would take Taylor Swift camera shots. The Broncos stink. The first 30 minutes, sure, Russell Wilson is elite in the first half of football. We went through the stats earlier, but in the second half, that offense is terrible.

It's like one of the worst offenses of all time in the second half this year. Now, if this was Kansas City Chiefs points compared to how many times you see camera shots of Taylor Swift. Yeah, I would take the Chiefs points.

All right. I'll give you a play on the game tonight. I don't think this game is going to be close, but I'm going to do something that people hate when when you have gambling experts on. And I'm not a gambling expert.

I'm the farthest thing from it. That hook does scare me tonight. This could be a really ugly game. And then I could maybe seeing it being 30 to 20 at the end and you lay the ten and a half points and then it doesn't work out for you. I will say the play tonight is the over.

The overs forty seven and a half. The Broncos, you know, at least give you 30 solid minutes. The Chiefs offense outside the Bears game has not been clicking yet. This Broncos defense absolutely stinks. This Chiefs off defense has been up and down, but they played well against the Lions. They played well against the Jaguars, the Bears, but then against the Jets and the Vikings. It wasn't the greatest defensive performance showing the Chiefs.

They have like a mediocre defense where they make timely stops to get off the field when they need to. I expect a lot of points in this game tonight. I did bet anytime touchdown Travis Kelce had to Taylor Swiss in the building minus 140. I know the odds aren't great, but you know, he's going to get into the end zone. So those are my two plays on the game tonight. A Travis Kelce anytime touchdown.

Not great odds at minus 140 minus 145 are giving you better anytime touchdowns. And then I also do like the over in the game tonight of forty seven and a half points. And that concludes a Thursday edition of the Zach Gelb show right here on CBS Sports Radio. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for calling, listening and tweeting to the show at Zach Gelb on Twitter and Instagram.

You get all the behind the scene clips and the clips that we give you right here on social media at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. And appreciate everyone tuning in on this Thursday show. I'd like to thank Colleen Wolf from the NFL Network for joining us in studio and Ryan Harris joining us on the phone back in our two of our radio program. Big thanks to Samter.

Big thanks to Stuart Kovacs as well. And each and every one of you will be back tomorrow on a very busy football Friday. Some big college football games to continue to preview. Notre Dame USC also the game that I'm most excited for. Washington hosting Oregon. And we've got a big football Friday full of picks and we've got to cover all the NFL and hopefully fingers crossed for the sake of the great moist pork. We have a show tomorrow where the focus is on a great Thursday night football game between the Broncos and the Chiefs. And it doesn't have to deal with three hours of Taylor Swift. So moist pork. I can't promise you that, but we'll try. Buh bye. Peace.