Cowboys Restructure Dak's Contract (Hour 2)

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That's right, rocking and rolling. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. The SEC Player of the Year from Tennessee, Dalton Connect, is going to connect with us coming up 20 minutes from now from JUCO to the SEC Player of the Year.

And coming up in this year's NBA draft, he is already projected as a top 15 pick. So excited to talk with Dalton Connect. Coming up 20 minutes from now, Bobby Regan from Barcel Sports going to help us fill out your bracket in an hour from now at the top of the hour at 5pm Eastern, 2pm Pacific. So here's where I'm at with the Dallas Cowboys. And here's where I'm at with Dak Prescott. I've said this for a while now, it will get ugly. There will be a lot of drama. This is what Jerry Jones loves.

At some point, whether it's this year or next year, they'll get a contract extension done. Because a few years ago, we went through this same song and dance. Jerry tried to tell us how smart he was and how advanced he was and how he had a higher level of thinking than us.

And there was that whole weird analogy that he used where sometimes you're in a forest and you cut your hand open and to get the hands sewn back together to stop the bleeding, you may use some things from your bachelor's degree, where that may not be your main focus on what you were doing professionally from the better degree that you got in your master's degree. It was a bunch of stuff that I was like, what the heck is going on with Jerry Jones? And that analogy, I'm sitting there saying, when is he going to make sense?

When is he going to make sense? But ultimately, when the Cowboys had to, even with through all the dragging of Dak Prescott, and even with all the conversation, how much are the Cowboys actually in on Dak Prescott, when the clock was about to strike midnight, when you were in the 11th hour, they got the dealio done. And that is what is ultimately going to have to happen here.

The question just becomes, is it this year or is it next year? Now, there's been a slight, and I mean a really slight alteration in the Dak Prescott contract. Michael Gelkin, who covers the Dallas Cowboys for the Dallas Morning News, I think he did a good job summarizing it on social media. Cowboys and Dak Prescott are off to a strong start in contract talks, demonstrating collaborative ability to help team manage finances. Prescott was willing to add two void years, leading to $4 million in 2024 cap savings, good sign for a capacity to achieve an extension. So, Samter, I'm not going to move off my stance that ultimately this deal will get done. But the way that it's been being positively received from the Dallas media members, and I think even Jane Slater speculated this just kicks the can down the road to August and maybe they get a deal done in August.

I was seeing some conversation about this on social media today. I just think where you look at this from afar, and from afar you're saying, well, the cap hit for this upcoming season was almost $60 million in a final year of his contract. And this is what happens where they only save $4 million in cap for 2024, right? Like objectively from afar, if I wasn't plugged into the Cowboys and I wasn't plugged into the way that their organization works, I would say, well, they're setting this up for this to be a year where Dak Prescott has to prove it to get that extension, or they don't feel comfortable at this time in giving Dak Prescott the extension. Like that was my first thought right away when I just tried to take this report on the surface and I didn't try to use any logic and I didn't try to think about this organization and what this organization does with the Cowboys, which they like the drama. They like all these things to get ugly because they care more at this stage about their names being in the news and all the speculation and people wondering what's going to happen rather than winning football games. It's the same damn thing with Jerry Jones.

Hey, we're all in this off season. What does it do? It creates talking points. It creates hype.

It creates intrigue. And then the off season officially gets underway. And are the Cowboys going to do anything? Where are the Cowboys?

Dallas Cowboys, Bueller, Dallas Cowboys, Bueller, Dallas Cowboys, Bueller. Like they've done nothing. They've done Jack this off season. And Jerry's been through this before. Steven Jones has been through this before. Will McClay has been through this before with Dak Prescott where everything looks like he's not going to get the deal done.

And then the deal gets done. And it's, this is the insanity part to me. And I preface this by saying, I fully understand. I know that Dak Prescott had a good season this year, but it's amazing how Dak keeps on getting more leverage and keeps on having the Cowboys tied by the, you know what, and this dude still hasn't played in an NFC title game and continues to not show up in the big spots.

It's amazing. And this topic, it drives Sanford crazy because the idea of the Cowboys having to give Dak Prescott a new contract where it's like 55, $60 million a year, it's insanity. And when you can get your money, hey, in this lethal sport, go get it. And we know the NFL, you don't need to be a great quarterback on the field to be paid as if you're a great quarterback.

Just you don't need to do so. We've seen it countless times before in the past, but that's the part to me that I love is that now the cowboy, the people that cover the Cowboys, they even know when you get the local people, when you don't even need to play into this drama game. Cause a lot of people are probably like me where they first read the report today. And it's like, Hmm, all you did was save $4 million in cap. That's not looking like it's lining up to set up for a longterm extension. And this isn't looking like Dak, the Cowboys are telling you is their guy.

Cause you think they would take care of their guy right away. You think if he was your guy, you would have maybe make him have to play out this year on a contract. Maybe a deal does get done this off season. Maybe it does get done this summer, but to just see the way that Michael Gelkin is responding to this, it just once again shows you, he knows how the Cowboys work.

And even this gets ugly, even though it looks like a little drama, they make the small little deal right now. Maybe a deal gets done this summer, but even if a deal doesn't get done this summer, I'm not going to sit here and think that Dak Prescott isn't getting eventually a longterm extension from the Dallas Cowboys. Cause we've already seen this once with Dak Prescott and it'd be different if you're a wide receiver, be different if you're running back, be different if you're defensive. And this is the quarterback of the team, even though it appears like they're messing around with him, ultimately Dak will get his way. And it's wild that Dak, and I'm not going to say he's the quarterback with the most leverage in the league, cause that would be absurd because Patrick Mahomes could do whatever he wants right now. And the chiefs have to bend the knee and the chiefs would have to listen and look like we didn't necessarily know this at the time, but then once you use your brain, Patrick Mahomes helped out the Kansas City Chiefs, but Dak Prescott, he's not a top five quarterback.

He's not a league quarterback, but he's a top five quarterback when it comes to having leverage over his organization. Cause even though there can be a case, and I'm sure Sam, you could make it why the Cowboys shouldn't extend it and why the Cowboys should make Dak prove it. Even if they go down this road where they present it like it's a prove it year, everyone knows at this point, he will be getting another longterm extension, whether it's this off season or next by the Dallas Cowboys. The only way it won't happen is if Dak doesn't want it to happen. And if maybe Dak says, I'm done with this drama, or I'm done with the Cowboys and I'll go somewhere else. But where are you going? You're the face of the Dallas Cowboys right now.

You're not giving that up. And there's not a team right now that I could really, like, I could see a team being interested in Dak Prescott, but where is Dak going to be interested? And I think there actually is one team that people will throw out there. They'll be like, oh, the Minnesota Vikings.

That argument goes right out the door. When the Vikings trade up to the fourth overall pick or the third overall pick, or they take a quarterback at 11 or, you know, wherever they are in the draft and they're taken now McCarthy, or they're taken Michael Panics Jr. They're taking Drake May, whoever it is like, there'll be teams that can be interested in Dak, but I don't think there's going to be one out there where Dak goes, yeah, I'm going to leave the Cowboys right now and pass up on all this money from Dallas.

And then also everything that comes with being the face, even though everyone rolls their eyes at this of America's theme, Santa. I'm just really interested to see, like, you're talking about what if Dak doesn't want to return. That's the only way it doesn't come back.

Well, I think if he has, if they end up not doing the extension and he has the last time he got hurt and still got extended. Right. But it was a gruesome injury.

Right. But I think at that point, there was still a lot of hope for Dak and there, that hope might still be there. He's played well.

He's just fallen short in the big game. So, you know, if the, if the blame falls on him and Jerry McCarthy or whoever, Steven make the decisions that they just need to go forward with a different quarterback or change the entire roster, it could be the Cowboys decision, right? Maybe they'll say, Hey, we'll keep you, but not for 50, 60 a year. I disagree, but okay. Continue.

You're probably right, but that could happen now. Dak could also say, I want out now you say, okay, he's the face of the Cowboys. What more could you want? He has the face. He has the recognition.

He has the sponsorships and the endorsements already. So maybe he could go to a different team and he'll still keep a lot of that just without the zoo that Dalton Schultz was talking about in Dallas, with all the distractions, without all the nonsense that come with being the Dallas Cowboys quarterback. Think about all the quarterbacks since Troy Aikman, right? There have been some big names there that have all fallen on their face, whether it's, uh, Tony Romo or Dak, Tony Romo really fall on his face. He didn't succeed in the playoffs.

He was had a great career. That's what the Cowboys are. The Cowboys for 25 years. I don't think before that they were before that they were one of the all time greatest franchises in the sport, but I can't say Tony Romo and Dak Prescott have fallen on their faces to meet Tony short, fine, Tony Romo and Dak. Yes, but Tony Romo and Dak Prescott are what the Cowboys want.

That's what they want. They want a good quarterback that anything that organization does they're fine with like Dak is immune to this stuff right now. Tony Romo was immune to this.

Well, if not, then why not go make a change? So you got a better quarterback than Dak Prescott. So one thing I think that Jerry Jones is crap about winning. I disagree. I think Jerry Jones yearns to win more than anybody else.

Think that Joe Jones show it. I think Jerry Jones also though is a very loyal guy, right? If there's a guy that he believes in, whether it's McCarthy or Jason Garrett or Dak or Romo, he's going to stick with that guy because he has loyalty that you're right on. And so maybe he's he's misguided. Maybe he's wrong about Dak and Romo and Jerry Jones cares more about winning than all the drama that he stirs up.

I've said this now for three years. He cares more about drama than he cares about winning. I think that it's closer than other teams, but I do think he cares more about winning than the drama. But I do think that the drama and being in the news and the money and the bottom line do factor in more towards Jerry Jones's decision-making than most other teams. However, I think Jerry Jones is a, he's a former football player. He's a passionate football fan.

He loves football and he loves the Cowboys. He wants to win. Maybe, maybe even more so because he wants to shut people up who are doubting him and questioning him and calling him names. And he just wants to shut them up. Are you talking about me? Are you talking about me? So maybe there's some of that, that he just wants to shut people up and just kind of get that monkey off of his back. But I do think that means you have to adjust and change.

You don't, you don't do that. Well, listen, it's hard for an 80 something year old guy to change, especially when you've been successful. It's been 25 years that they haven't done crap.

Well, so that's the weird thing. It's so, cause they've done so much. They're always like they're winning divisions. They're getting into the playoffs. They have such talent. People want to play and the brand is still there and people want to play for the Cowboys. And they have this gorgeous stadium.

They've done so much. They just fall short in the play. I don't win in the playoffs. They win in the regular season year after year after year.

And you know what, what is this? I love hockey. This does not mean to be coming off as a negative comment, but what now we got to award out the, the president's trophy to like the Dallas Cowboys and things like that. Like we don't reward regular season. The Cowboys bunch of hot air, whatever they do in the regular season, I do not care.

Cause it comes down to what they could do in the playoffs, but get him back. And I know we got adult to connect. Like, where's that going? You know, two, it gets hurt.

All right. Maybe you could make a case for Miami. They don't want to get the extension. I mean, if Aaron Rogers is one and done with the jets, I can see him go to New York. She's drafting the quarterback from one circus to the next. You go from the Cowboys to the jets. Oh, come on. Like that can't leave the Cowboys to go to the the GT jets.

Come on, come on. The jets are willing to give them the money. Pittsburgh, right? Russell Wilson flops this year than Justin Fields flops. The Titans, maybe depending on what happens with Levis.

You know, it's funny. Well, Levis actually just texted me as we speak. I texted him over the weekend.

I'm trying to get him back. Raiders, the Broncos. There's a, there's a bunch of teams that listen, if he's a free agent, he can go to the giants, stay in division. He knows those teams.

That would be a big heel turn. You know, draft somebody number six. The giants are going to take a quarterback though in this draft potentially, but if the Vikings move up to four and you get quarterbacks, one, two, three, four, I'll tell you where the giants end up not going with the fifth option. The two best landing spots where I think could be realistic would be Minnesota, but that requires them to miss out on a quarterback, which I don't. I can't see Dak in Minnesota. Here's the thing. Seattle.

Yeah, that could make sense. Seattle has a good roster. Tennessee makes a lot of sense to not leaving the cow.

It's near Mississippi. You got that like sec kind of not even the Cowboys to be the quarterback of the Titans every year. It seems like every big name is tied to the Titans at some point. Yeah. Right. Aaron Rogers was tied to the Titans. Russell Wilson was tied to the like every Tom Brady was. Yeah.

Everybody was tied to the Titans at some point. So they use, they use Tennessee. That's what they do.

Maybe that's that they use them. Please. Everyone listen with those two receivers and Dak. Could you, could you imagine Calvin Ridley and Deandre Hopkins and Dak throwing on the ball bunch of guys that don't win anything and he's got Tony and you're going, hold on.

We're going to put Dak. No, Tony Pollard is in Tennessee. No, he's in Jacksonville.

That was my mistake. Tony Pollard is in Tennessee. He went to Tennessee.

Yes. He went to Tennessee. He's a running back for Tennessee. Um, but here's the thing. Dak who can't win in the NFC is going to go to the AFC.

Huh? He ain't going to the AFC. He is not, whether it's this off season or next off season, barring an injury, like another catastrophic injury, lock it up a hundred percent that this deal will inevitably get done. And this tweet from Michael Gelkin tells me all I need to know because he's not even dealing with the BS anymore. He's not even dealing with the bull junk anymore. So here's the question. And the last question I'll have for you.

Well, you know what? I can save this question, but here's the, what is the level of success that Dak needs to have this year for the Cowboys to be comfortable moving forward with him after 2024. But we can answer that down the road. When, when 10 games make the wildcard spot and then choke it up on wildcard Sunday, Ed Park in the Twitter world, uh, makes a good, uh, good tweet. Where was Jerry Jones's loyalty with Jimmy Johnson?

Ooh, how about them apples? Wasn't wrong on that one, but I got Sam's point when it comes to Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy, there's more loyalty than what people usually do think when it comes to Jerry Jones, who has this perception of being impatient. All righty, Delta connect, the sec player of the year from Tennessee, they'll kick off their NCAA tournament run on Thursday, um, up against St. Peter's Thursday evening, Delta connect will join us next.

We continue this exact Yelp show coast to coast on CBS sports radio. Now joining us as we get set for March madness is one of the best individual stories of the NCAA tournament from junior college to Northern Colorado. And now his first year at Tennessee Dalton connect has been sensational.

He is the sec player of the year and Tennessee will do battle Thursday evening as a two seed going up against St. Peter's and Dalton connect is kind enough to join us right now on the Zach Gelb show on CBS sports radio Dalton, first and foremost, congratulations on all your success. Thanks so much for doing this and how you've been. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And I've been doing great. We're, uh, me and the team are excited to go out and put on a show for March.

Yeah. How do you kind of describe these emotions right now that no one come Thursday evening when the ball gets thrown up into the air, you're going to be playing in the NCAA tournament for Tennessee. Yeah, it's going to be, uh, exciting for me because it's my first ever, you know, March madness, uh, time to play in. So I'm going to take it all in as much as I can, but also I got a great teammates around me that's been there and done that.

So they're going to kind of tell me what to, or help me stay, uh, composed and stuff like that. So we're all going to be super excited and all of us are looking forward to it, but you've been able to accomplish individually this year. You know, a lot of people are familiar with the story now, you know, I, I kind of set it up when we introduced you, but how do you explain this success that you've been able to have at Tennessee, not just been able to fit with the program, but be the best player in the conference? Um, I would just say it's just hard work. I've been working super hard ever since I got here, um, as well as like the coaching staff has been there with me, helping me and grow my game. And, you know, I got a great, uh, support cast around me with my teammates. They're great, uh, players and great teammates to be around.

So, um, it's just real special to, you know, get that award being SC player of the year. On the surface, it seems like it's been a pretty easy transition. How has it been behind the scenes was a little bit tougher than the way that you made it look on the court?

No, it was super easy ever since I got here. Um, the guy, he was always asking me to go get some food or hop on the game with him as well as Josiah and stuff like that. So that everyone, ever since I got here has been super helpful. If I had any questions on the court or off the court, they're always willing to pick up the phone and help me or go get some go get some food or anything.

So, uh, ever since I got here, it was real special and I can't thank my teammates enough for making this transition super easy to connect here with us right now. We asked super serious questions on this show when you guys were getting food. What, what's the best meal choice on campus?

Just one through. Where are you guys eating? Um, I mean, we go to wing spots all the time in a place called chicken sacks. So we go there quite a bit.

And he says that was the best, uh, wing spot. So I'd have to approve it with him blue cheese or ranch. I'm a ranch guy. Oh man.

I think you were having a perfect year up until that answer. Why do you go ranch over blue cheese? You just never liked blue cheese. No, never did. And I don't understand why people like blue cheese.

Well, it's pretty damn tasty by myself, but we'll agree to disagree there. Delta connect here with dust. Why was Tennessee? I know you talked about the relationship you formed right away, but when you were kind of picking where you were going to continue the final year of your, your college basketball journey, what stood out to you with some of the other options that you had that made Tennessee the best destination for you?

Um, I mean, there was a lot of great schools that I was talking to and a lot of, uh, you know, great programs. And I just felt like, uh, I felt like Tennessee was just the right place. It felt like the one word I could say that every single time I talk about Tennessee is it's special here.

So that's, uh, that's probably the biggest thing that stood out was I could tell the culture here is different. Were you always this confident as the way that it perceives on the court, like to do what you did this year? It's such a unique and special story. Like if I would have told you this off season, once you selected Tennessee, that you would go on to be the SEC player of the year, would that be something that you would expect and you would believe, believe right away? Um, I believe I can get it done, but also at the same time, I knew it would be a lot of hard work and, um, you know, you've got to go out and perform every single night.

So I knew it would be super difficult to go get that accomplished. And, you know, it's just a big, uh, shout out to my teammates and coaching staff for getting me in those right spots and letting me, uh, play how I could be. That's something that they were always, uh, on me about as my teammates always wanted me to just play with how I play and they'll feed off of it. Talking to Dalton connect right now, the SEC player of the year, I know that, uh, you, you know, you grew a little bit later in life, but how do you kind of otherwise explain the delay in kind of your rise while you had to travel through junior college then to another stop before landing at Tennessee? Yeah, I would say, uh, the late growth for kind of helped me. I was always a point guard and now I'm a tall guard. So I'm a big guard now that could, uh, that still has a little bit of guard play in him for point guard. So I think it's, it helps me, uh, you know, I get to play more position and, uh, I think it overall helped me out at junior college and then Northern Colorado. What did that really teach you about the game of basketball and those two stops Dalton? Um, Jukka kind of found myself, you know, uh, Jukka guys.

I mean, they're tough and you got, you got to make it out of there with a tough mindset. So, uh, definitely helped me out there. And then, uh, at Northern Colorado, I developed a post game and learning coming off ball screens and stuff like that. So those are the two things that really, uh, helped me out, especially coming here, talking adult to connect right now, going back to the sec tournament. I know it didn't go the way that you guys wanted to you, the number one overall seed you lose in your first game up against Mississippi state. How do you just explain what happened during the sec tourny?

Um, we didn't come up more, uh, we didn't come out physical enough and we weren't the aggressors. Um, we played a great Mississippi state team and got to give them their props. They beat us twice and we, uh, no, we don't want this feeling to ever happen again, especially, uh, during the big tournament. So we know it lit a fire under us and we're going to be a super asked to go out there and go put on a show for our fans and make a run in March. You guys have been such a positive story for most of this season. You've been getting a lot of praise now, some negativity after what happened to the sec tournament comes your way. As you were just describing the feeling that was going through your body when it happened, why can this group push it aside so quickly and go make a run here for Tennessee and March madness? Yeah, we know we're one of the best teams in the nation and, uh, we're fine with people, you know, um, kind of hating on us after the sec tourny. So we're fine with all that and we're just going to embrace it and we're going to go put on a show for our fans.

And, uh, like I said, just go out and make a deep run. People talk about your story, Delta connect. Then they talk about the team's success. And now people are wondering, can this group get to Tennessee's first ever final four? Do you feel that pressure? Do you feel that conversation that's kind of been deriving over the last month, month and a half regarding your squad? Um, I don't think there's no pressure for us.

I don't think any, there's no pressure for any of us to make the final four. We're all just super excited. We're going to embrace it and we know we're one of the best teams in the nation. So now it's just the time just to go put it on, put on the show. Uh, we know we got tons of hard work to do, and that starts off with the first game and then just go from there.

Wrap it up adult to connect to joins us right now for a few more moments on the Zach Gelb show. I've seen that you've been projected to be a top 15 pick in this upcoming NBA draft. When you start to hear that buzz, knowing all the hard work and the growth in your journey, just how do you kind of process that when you start to see some of those pre draft projections? Yeah, I mean, it's real cool to see cause it's been a out of the dream of mine is being drafted in the NBA and you know, being a top 15 pick and some very few could say that they done, but also at the same time I know, uh, I'm not really focused on that nor do I want to care about that right now just cause I know we got one last run in this team and I love the University of Tennessee and want to go put on a show for our fans and put on a show for the school. A lot of people parachute into the sport this time of the year because everyone starts to fill out one of these brackets. So if people don't know your story, they're going to know your story by the end of this weekend. And hopefully it turns into a long run for the program where they get to highlight it even more.

But if people haven't seen the SEC player of the year play this season in Dalton connect, what have they been missing out on? And how do you come to describe your game? Um, I would say to describe my game is just fun to watch. And also that's the team thing is we're real fun to watch.

Anything can happen. We got tons of great players that could go out and put on crazy highlights and we're going to be a very scary team to, uh, play against in March. You've played for a bunch of different coaches. What makes Rick Barnes so special with what you guys have been able to accomplish this past year? I mean, coach Mars is he's all the same coach. Uh, he's been to March madness plenty of times and knows how to get wins. So we know we just got to lock in on him, uh, on the scouting reports and stuff and go out and just execute and, you know, just listen to him.

Cause he's been there and done that. So we just got to go out there and put on a performance. Last thing I'll ask you, you don't seem rattled by the big moment.

You don't seem like success has, has really affected you. How have you been able to kind of block out all the extra attention that you received this year with now really beat in the spotlight and being one of the more talked about stories and players in all college basketball? Yeah, it's definitely something real cool, but also, um, you know, just kind of had a great support cast around me to, you know, make sure, uh, that I'm good and stuff like that. So it's kind of just, uh, you know, just finally, uh, showing the world what I could go do and just, you know, living in that moment, some real special few could do.

Yeah. I know you probably pinch yourself a little bit in the moment and you probably won't be able to process everything until whenever this run does end, but for your family, just wondering, you talk about the support system behind the scenes, just to see all your success this year, what have been some of your conversations like with your families as they deal with this success as well? Yeah, me and, uh, my parents, we know we've been ready to go play in March and we're super excited to go. Uh, they're going to come out there in Charlotte.

So they're real excited. And, um, we just can't wait just to go. Uh, you know, we've been watching March Madness for tons of years. Now it's time to go play in it and go via that have an atmosphere.

Has it hit you yet? Just wondering, like you guys knew you were going to the NCAA tournament. I know the SEC tourney didn't go your way, but as it hits you that come Thursday, man, this is for real. This is a do or die time in March Madness and everything you grew up watching as a kid.

Now you get to write your own chapter of history in the tourney. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, uh, it's for sure, uh, kind of scary going out there, you know, you can, I could possibly play my last game for Tennessee Thursday, but also, um, you know, I gotta, we're all super excited and we've been saying since we all got together as a group that we wanted to go make a special run in March. And, you know, we're super excited to go out and finally do what we've been working so hard to accomplish accomplish. Well, Dalton, hey, your journey and your run this year has been incredible.

We're looking forward to more of it. Thanks so much for doing this safe travels and good luck coming up on Thursday up against St. Peter's. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

There he is. Dalton connect, joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS sports radio. What a story that is seriously JUCO and then eventually gets to the sec. And in his first year in the sec, how is he good, but he's the best player in the conference. I don't know, Tennessee at the end of the season, uh, they lost the game to Kentucky. They lose in the first round of the SC tournament to Mississippi state. A lot of people could be down on Rick Barnes, just like how people are down on that painter, but they got a heck of a player. And if they can't get it done with connect now with the way that he's been firing all cylinders, then you start to think, okay, that's it for Rick Barnes, but this is last really good chance.

And we'll see if he could get Tennessee to their first ever final four. And that's a region that has a lot of intrigue and a lot of questions. We'll get into that a little bit later. Bobby Regan for Barstool sports could join us coming to the top of the hour, help you fill out your bracket. But when we come on back, we got to talk about some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. We'll get 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.

All righty. Newsbreak time. Zach guilt shows CBS sports radio. Let's start things off with Kenny picket, the former Steelers quarterback, who is now the backup quarterback in Philadelphia. This is Kenny picket on leaving the Pittsburgh Steelers. You know, I just thought it was time, you know, just it just felt like it was time from, you know, the things that transpired and, you know, wanting to get a chance to go somewhere else and continue to grow my career. The fact that it's in Philly, you know, the place that I grew up, you know, found love for the game here with a great coaching staff, you know, great players. I'm looking forward to meet all these guys in a couple weeks when everyone gets back into town. But, you know, I think it's an awesome opportunity here to join this team. And let's go to Kenny picket on his handling of the Steelers situation.

I think the communication, you know, is what it is, is behind closed doors. You know, I'm confident in the way that I handled it. I handled it the way I should have handled it. You know, I'm excited to be here. It worked out so well that Philly was the place I ended up landing in.

So I think everything happens for a reason. And, you know, I'm right where I'm supposed to be. And then Kenny Pickett was asked about this idea. He refused to be quarterback three. Hey, Kenny, there were some reports that you refused to be an emergency quarterback for the end of the year last season. Can you tell us what happened there?

Yeah, then that goes back to a lot of the communication behind closed doors that, you know, didn't go the way that I feel like they went. I was getting released. You know, there was a plan there for that game.

It went down exactly the way it was planned to go down that entire week. You know, I was coming off the ankle surgery. So it is what it is. And, you know, like I've been saying, I'm very happy to be here.

So I think this is easy to read here. Kenny Pickett thinks he got the short end of the stick in Pittsburgh. He thinks he got screwed over by the organization.

That's why he wanted to leave. He wanted to go to Philadelphia, where he's probably thinking to himself, I'm going to be a backup anyway. I may as well be a backup on a better team than a backup with the Pittsburgh Steelers who already gave up on me. Now, I don't agree with that thinking, because if Kenny Pickett stays with the Steelers, they don't trade for Justin Fields. So what happens if Russ gets hurt or what happens Russ just isn't that good?

You get a chance to go prove yourself and rewrite history and rewrite the narrative about you. The only way you're getting on the field in Philadelphia. Now, if you get on the field in Philadelphia, it's a much better situation than what you have in Pittsburgh or what you had in Pittsburgh. But the only way you get on the field in Philadelphia is if Jalen Hurts gets hurt. Jalen what? Because say what you want about Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts outplayed Patrick Mahomes in a Super Bowl. I know that down the stretch, he was not good, but he was also hurt. He still played. So unless he has to miss games, you're going to be holding a clipboard this year. Now, as for the Steelers, I commend what they did because I do believe that originally they went into this offseason saying, yeah, we're probably not going to move on from Kenny Pickett. But then you see how little you could get Russ for, and then how little you could get Justin Fields for.

They made the right decision because both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields going into the 2024 season, I believe, are better quarterbacks than Kenny Pickett. Here is Tom Izzo. He was on Sirius XM Med Dogg Radio with the great Christopher Med Dogg Russo, and Tom Izzo gave his thoughts on the NCAA tournament eventually expanding. Are you in favor of this being expanded?

Curious. Well, I wasn't in favor until there was about one bracket left. Let's expand that damn thing. You know, 100 teams. But parity is so big right now.

I think they're going to have to do something. But the excitement of the tournament is the excitement. And I never know what is the true criteria.

Is it strength to schedule? Is it the net? Is it the wins and musts? You know, the teams you play at.

There's so many different things. Well, no one knows what the heck is going on. But it doesn't mean that now we need to expand the NCAA tournament. It's how do you put out the best quality of teams in a 68-team field?

Like, don't get me wrong. It stinks that Indiana State didn't get in, or St. John's didn't get in, or Pitt didn't get in, or Providence didn't get in, or Seton Hall didn't get in. But is any of those programs big enough where now we're saying, oh, that's the sole reason why we need to expand the tourney?

No. The only reason they're going to expand the tourney, and they probably will, is because it's more money that could be made available and more money that they could get. That's why they're going to expand it.

It doesn't mean it makes the quality of your product better. But to Izzo's point, it doesn't make sense to me when you look at net and Ken Palm. And let's just use Pitt and St. John's as an example. In the net, St. John's was 32.

In Ken Palm, St. John's was 25. They should have a spot in the NCAA tournament just based off those rankings. Indiana State was 28 in the net. In Ken Palm, they were 45.

There's a big disparity between those two numbers. But still, you would think that they would be one of the 68 teams, but they weren't. Let's hear from one of the coaches who thinks he got snubbed by the NCAA tournament. Here is the legendary Rick Pitino on his St. John's squad in year one, not getting invited into the big dance. We're 32 in the net. Well, first of all, I think we all should probably never mention that word again because I think it's fraudulent.

I think the net's something that shouldn't even be mentioned anymore. We had a good strength of schedule. Ken Palm, why mention him?

We were 26 in Ken Palm, so I don't know. We tried to play a tough schedule. We tried to do things the right way, and we didn't get in. But I never make excuses. I respect the committee for what they do. They give their time.

They give their energy to it. They didn't think that we measured up to their standards, and we'll take it very positively like men and move forward. We're not going to gripe.

We're not going to say we got screwed. None of that helps. Bitterness does not help.

I've had enough bitterness in my life to last a lifetime. St. John's also declined participating in the NIT. I think there is some validity to what Rick Pitino had to say, though, about net and Ken Palm. Here is Kim English. When I saw Kim English, Providence's team take down Creighton, I thought they would get in, then a lot of bids were stolen.

Kim English not too thrilled about his team not getting invited to the NCAA tournament. Yeah, I think the analytics are bullshit, right? I think you could schedule bad teams in your non-league and beat the snot out of them and beat them by 50 and 60. I think coaching for so long has been a gentleman's agreement. You have a large lead at the end of the game. For health reasons, you take guys out to get some other guys opportunities to play, you take guys out. But right now, it might be a change in college basketball, where scheduling to beat teams by 40 and 50 might be a thing to do. But when you get into this league, the analytics aren't going to look very good in league.

So I do think there are some flaws in the system. I think I have a really unique ability of identifying a young coach and knowing when a young coach is going to be a rock star. Years ago, I saw Danny Hurley, coach at Rhode Island. I know he comes with a Hurley family, so it's easier. And his assistant was Bobby Hurley.

And I have one analytic. It's insane coaching on the sideline. There's just a certain level where you see a coach and he's on the sideline, whether it's a basketball court or a football field. And there's just a different level of coaching insanity that goes on where you're like, that's a positive and that's a dude that I want that's wired that way. I said about Dan Lanning when he got to Oregon and I saw videos of him at Georgia having to get held back. The same thing is there with Kim English.

I've seen Kim English coach twice this year in person. He's jumping up and down. He's stomping on the court. And then you hear the quotes that we've heard the last week from King English.

I think he's going to be an absolute star. Let's go to Danny Hurley. Talk to you about a little bit of that coaching insanity on the Big East Snubs. You're probably just a little embarrassed for the league, for such a proud league.

And the whole thing is just kind of a shell game. And it just really comes down to what the committee values. To me, I just, I don't understand how a Providence team could be in Wisconsin in the non-conference. Creighton, Marquette, and have those quality of wins and did not get in. How does Seton Hall do what they did in the second rated conference in the country with 13 games and not get in? How is Saint John's so far off of the cut line too? Here's my only thing.

I'm not freaking out about this. And you could use whatever analytics or whatever records you want to justify things. When you have UConn who's the number one seed, you have a Marquette team who's the number two seed, and Creighton who's the number three seed. It just is stunning to me, even with all the bids that were sold, that not one more Big East team got in. Whether you think that should be Saint John's, Seton Hall, or Providence, I don't care.

But I thought one of those other schools should have got invited in. Let's go to the Maggie and Perloff show right here on CBS Sports Radio. They were talking about paintballing, and somehow it led to a conversation where they want to throw down some dodgeballs against our show, and Santa is already getting pelted with some verbal shots.

Listen up. I think we should do a team building activity. We get out to the range and play paintball. How about dodgeball? I'm not playing dodgeball with you guys. No shot.

I'm not taking one in the face from one of you guys, just because it's ha ha ha. We should be a team that has to face another show. I think we should face the Zach Elf show.

I'm putting it out there right now. I want smoke with Zach Elf. I want smoke with Stu. I want smoke with Rich Ackerman. I want smoke with Santa. I'll take an elimination to hit Santa in the head. Santa's tough. He's a baseball player and he's short. Yeah, it's a more targeted thing would be tricky, but I think we could take them. I give credit to EJ because some other producers around here on other shows will take shots at us and then never tell us.

EJ goes, oh, take a listen to this and let me know your thoughts. I'm all in. See, dodgeball is just how quickly my arm goes. I am a big target, but I think Santa could be an assassin on that dodgeball court. But how about Pete the body? Bilotti basically said he just wants to pelt you with a few dodgeballs, Santa.

That's a humbling moment. I mean, listen, if, if EJ is going to call me a small target, I'll be able to get, I'll be able to get Pete and EJ pretty easily because they're larger than normal targets. So I'm not worried about it. Uh, I feel like we would absolutely dominate those guys.

They don't seem very mobile. I don't know. Again, Maggie would be the trouble. Well, here's the thing. I don't know if we would dominate. Well, Maggie wants no part of it.

It was clear by her response. I think EJ can be fine. Bilotti, I could see him taking a dodgeball right off the gut. Bogus, I could see him taking a dodgeball like right in between the eyes, I would say. Perloff, I think he could be sneaky good. I saw some, some Instagram posts this weekend of Perloff, like playing laser tag with a bunch of 12 year olds. I'm assuming his daughter was at the party. I don't think it was just Perloff showing up because that would be a little bit creepy, but I could see Perloff just being good at like laser tag paintball and dodgeball.

I did see him in that same video and he got nailed by a kid. Zach Yelp show Bobby Regan next. Celebrate and save at Ashley's anniversary sale with hot buys. Your choice of colors starting at just $3.99. Ashley's sleep mattresses starting at $2.50 plus receive a free adjustable base with select mattress purchases and shop top mattress brands like Stearns and Foster, Tempur-Pedic, Purple and Beautyrest Black with 60 months special financing only at Ashley.

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