NBA Finals Pressure (Hour 1)

Start your summer road trip at Midas and get up to $30 off your next repair service. Plus, get a free Closer Look vehicle check to make sure you're road trip ready. So if you need a brake service, an alignment check, or tune up, hit up Midas for up to $30 off.

For more details, request your appointment at Midas.com. Live from the play show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of the Infinity Sports Network here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to what is a Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming live on YouTube. 855-212-4227 is the number to jump on in, 855-212-4227.

And you could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter, X, whatever you want to call it, at Zach Gelb, that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We got a loaded guest list for you today. Coming up 20 minutes from now, we will connect with Neil Brown, the head football coach at West Virginia, for a little college football fix. Alex Myers will join us at the top of the hour to preview the U.S. Open. Bart Winkler will stop by for Winkler Wednesdays at 4.40 p.m. Eastern time today. And then the Hall of Famer, Tim Brown, is going to join us two hours from now at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific.

Got Carlos with the K, C-K, and also Moist Mike rocking and rolling with me all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. We also have Game 3 of the NBA Finals tonight. The Boston Celtics have a 2-0 lead, as you know, up against the Dallas Mavericks. And there's a few storylines that jump out to me. And I'm wondering, what is the biggest storyline going into this game?

And you could start with the health of Christos Porzingis. Who knows if he's going to play? I would be surprised if he's actually able to significantly contribute in another game this series. Maybe he gives it a go. I would be surprised if he gives it a go tonight. But maybe he gives it a go, if necessary, in a Game 4, 5, 6, whatever. And I don't think you could really expect much out of him. Luka Doncic has showed up. But as the games do go on, could it be a little bit of needing better conditioning? Sure. But this guy has been dealing with rib injuries and has been dealing with leg injuries as well.

I just think that body could only hold up so much. So you definitely got to monitor and talk about the health of Christos Porzingis and Luka Doncic. But the storyline that jumps out to me the most is when you look at the first two games. Sure, you could give an ample amount of credit to the Boston Celtics for their defense. We can discuss the Celtics taking a 2-0 series lead and taking care of business on their home court. But the two players that I think are the storyline tonight is what are we going to see out of Kyrie Irving and Jason Tatum. Kyrie Irving through two games has been a big fat zero on the court. He has done nothing in holding up his end of the bargain where if Luka plays well, you have to match that production because the duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving is fantastic. And I do believe the crowd and how Kyrie tries to tell you this is not a big deal, but it is a big deal. And it significantly impacts Kyrie Irving. I don't think he could deal with the Boston Celtics crowd. And in game one after game one, people thought I was too harsh. I was right where I just said he doesn't have the mental toughness to win four games in this series when you have to go into Boston even if the series did go the distance.

What would be four times games one and two, then game five, and then what could be a game seven in this series. The good news for Kyrie is now you go home. Now you go to Dallas tonight and you don't have to deal like there'll be some Boston fans in the building.

But that's a home crowd for you. So there's no excuses for Kyrie Irving. If Kyrie Irving gives us another dud tonight, then the Celtics are going to win. They're going to go up 3-0. And I'm not going to say they're going to sweep. Could they?

Obviously they could. But then this series will be over in five because Boston up 3-1, going back home, I would find it very tough for Kyrie Irving and the Mavs to win in that spot. But the other storyline that jumps out to me when you move off of Kyrie Irving is Jason Tatum. Because Jason Tatum, if the Celtics would have lost game two, where it seemed like for a while they were begging the Mavericks to get back in the game and for Boston not to win that game and Boston at halftime, they were dreadful shooting the ball at the end of the first quarter with how poorly Tatum played. He didn't register a single point in the first quarter for them to only be down by three.

That was a win for the Boston Celtics. And I know you could tell me about Tatum being selfless. I know you could tell me about the assists with Jason Tatum.

But Jason Tatum gets paid to score the basketball. And so far, his lack of scoring has not derailed this team in the NBA Finals because they're up 2-0. But I look at Jason Tatum tonight and I think there's a tremendous amount of pressure on him. Sure, the series isn't lost tonight, but the series could be won tonight. If Jason Tatum gives you one of those top ten player-like performances in the league, where he could just get to the rim and he finds a way to finish and he could hit you with the outside shot and the multiple ways on the court that he could put the ball in the hoop. If he gives you one of those unconscious Jason Tatum type of games and he puts up 30 plus points tonight and the Celtics take a 3-0 series lead, this series is over.

And I know it's easy for me to get on the air and right out of the gate say, hey Kyrie, you got to show up tonight. Because there's more pressure on the Mavs tonight than there are the Boston Celtics because the Celtics are up 2-0. And they know that they just have to or would behoove them to split one of these next two games. But let's just say even if the Celtics didn't do that, yeah, it's still 2-2, the Mavs then have life, and then game five turns into a you got to have it type of game for the Boston Celtics. But you look at something that has plagued the Celtics in the last few years.

It's when a team is begging you to put them out of their misery, can you execute the kill shot? And there has been a lack of a killer instinct from the Boston Celtics the last few years. And you look at it this year, outside of game two in the NBA Finals, there's really not a moment of universal praise that this team has heard this year. And that was with their incredible regular season. But in the first round series of the NBA playoffs in the Eastern Conference, they dropped game two against the Heat and people were like, see, this is the old Boston Celtics. Then in the second round series against the Cavs, they dropped game two and people said, see, this is the old Boston Celtics. And even when they quickly took care of business up against Indiana, it really meant nothing because I know Indiana got there because of the Knicks injuries, but Indiana was without Tyrese Halliburton for the last two games of the series.

And quite frankly, even if they had them, we all knew it wasn't going to make a difference. So Boston obviously shuts up every critic when they win a championship, and they'll win the championship this year. Like, I'm very confident the Celtics are going to win the championship. There's a reason why I picked them in six before this series did start. But you have an opportunity tonight, Jason Tatum, where if you go out there and score 30 plus points and win this game, you eliminate any doubt, even if it's a miniscule amount of doubt that people have, in regards to the Boston Celtics winning this championship because there's never been a team in the history of the NBA to be down 3-0 in a playoff series and force a game seven and win that game seven. Because we saw Boston last year. They were down 3-0.

They forced a game seven, and they lost to the Miami Heat. But you go up 3-0, the fat lady could start singing, turn out the lights, and this party's over. So that's what fascinates me the most heading into this game tonight. It's Jason Tatum, and it's Kyrie Irving. Because Jason Tatum right now would not be the Finals MVP. He could give you a Finals MVP performance tonight if he goes and scores 34 points and they go up 3-0. And for Kyrie Irving, if you don't show up in this series and you don't show up, bare minimum, game three tonight, everything that people said about you the last few weeks really just goes away because, yes, you and Luka got to the NBA Finals, but you can't be the second best player on this team and fail to show up three games in a row.

And the first two, maybe you chalk it up because of the Boston crowd and how much that's been a problem for him. But if you don't show up tonight, it just tells me that the Celtics, home or on the road, just absolutely own Kyrie Irving. So those are my thoughts on the NBA Finals as we get into game three tonight. I also just want to bring up, I'd be remiss if I didn't do this right out of the gate, the passing of the logo today in Jerry West, who passed away at the age of 86. When you live 86 years on this planet, obviously a day like this is sad, but it's less tragic than if, let's say, Jerry West was like 45.

So when you have an older person pass away, I tend to lean more so on the celebratory side and celebrating their life. Obviously, I understand the emotions and how somber it is if you knew Jerry West or if you're a fan of Jerry West or obviously if he's a relative of yours. So obviously my condolences to everyone that knew Jerry West and his family. But Jerry West is one of the more iconic names in the history of the NBA from many different angles. You saw what he did as a player.

There's a reason he's the logo. And as an executive, how many stars he put together and how many duos and even sometimes trios that he saw put together. He was in L.A. We all know the late, great Kobe Bryant's respect for Jerry West and Kobe and Shaq in Golden State with him being there in that front office and bringing in Durant. He had Steph Curry there and Klay Thompson and obviously Draymond Green and what he was able to do there. Then he did go leave Golden State and join the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

It goes on and on and on. It's rare when you have a person dominate basketball as long as Jerry West has. And it's one thing when he did it as a player, but then to do it as an executive. And we're talking decades and decades and decades of people knowing who Jerry West is and not just for what he did in the past. And that's what makes Jerry West so unique is you could ask people my age about Jerry West and it's what he did with the Lakers or what he did with the Golden State Warriors. And then if you talk to older people, it's oh, let's look at one of the greatest players of all time.

So what a unique and what a rare life. And I just hope today that Jerry West and Kobe Bryant are above and they're just talking and having a good time in heaven. So be remiss if I didn't say that right out of the gate as we remember the life of the logo, Jerry West. We'll take a time out.

It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. When we come on back, we will go to a college football fix. Neil Brown, the head football coach of West Virginia is going to join us. He's about to enter his sixth season as the head coach of West Virginia. Last year was his most successful one and it earned him a contract extension. A lot of people thought Neil Brown was going to get fired and last year was a lame duck season.

He ended up winning nine games and now there's some big expectations for West Virginia as you go into the sixth year of Neil Brown as their head football coach. Coming on back, it is the Zach Gelb show. Start your summer road trip at Midas and get up to $30 off your next repair service. Plus, get a free Closer Look vehicle check to make sure you're road trip ready. So if you need a brake service and alignment check or tune up, hit up Midas for up to $30 off.

For more details, request your appointment at Midas.com. Are you a fan of mystery and adventure? Introducing June's Journey, the captivating free-to-play mobile game that will ignite your inner detective. Play as June Parker in a thrilling murder mystery adventure as you search for hidden objects to uncover the truth behind her sister's death. Step into the glamorous world of the Roaring Twenties with stunningly illustrated scenes and over a thousand mysteries to unravel. With new chapters added weekly, you'll never run out of clues to chase and suspects to interrogate. Plus, you can build your own island escape with beautiful gardens and buildings and even join a detective club to collaborate with other players. Experience the thrill of being a detective and unravel the mystery in June's Journey.

Download June's Journey now on your Android or iOS device or play on PC through Facebook games. Healthy baby skin starts from the bottom. Pampers Swaddlers diapers absorb wetness away from the skin better than the leading value brand with up to 100% leak-proof protection to help keep your baby's skin dry. Don't forget to pair Pampers diapers with new Pampers free and gentle wipes. They clean better and are five times stronger than Huggies Natural Care for easy clean up without fear of tearing no matter the mess.

For trusted protection, trust Pampers, the number one pediatrician recommended brand. We miss college football. Milrose stands in. He throws into the end zone. It's caught by Isaiah Bond in the corner of the end zone. Touchdown, Alabama.

We can't wait for the 2024 season. Hands it off to Edwards who will bounce it outside. Donovan 40, Donovan 30. Donovan Edwards is in the clear. His second touchdown run of the ballgame.

This time for 46 yards and Michigan has taken a 13 to 3 lead on the second touchdown of the night from the man who was not tripping. And we're counting down the days to kick off. Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? I said no. Are we there yet?

What's wrong with your ears? Here is your college football fix only on the Zach Gelb Show. Already rocking and rolling. We continue this Zach Gelb Show on the Infinity Sports Network. It's time for a little college football fix. We are 80 days away from West Virginia kicking off its season against Penn State. Last year the Mountaineers had a nine win season and now joining us is the head football coach at West Virginia entering his sixth season.

And that of course is coach Neil Brown. Coach, first and foremost, thanks so much for doing this. And how you been? Hey, I am good. I'm good.

I appreciate you having me on. And for anybody that's watching, that's my nine year old son that just slid behind our grease board there. I just saw it as I was talking to you.

So Dax is his name. You and the board slide out of the picture there. That's wonderful. If anybody's questioning whether this was live or not, hey, we're ready to roll. That's great.

Well, how about the program that you have now? You're entering your sixth season. You guys are coming off a big win and it seems like obviously it's a family atmosphere at West Virginia. Yeah, well, we have momentum and momentum is only as good as your last game. And so we've got a challenging schedule coming up.

It starts right here in our home stadium, Mountaineer Field, where we host Penn State on the Fox big noon game. And that's a game that we're really excited about. And we returned a lot of production off our team last year. I think we've got a good mix of youth and experience. Offensively, we bring back almost in our entire production and all our skill positions. We miss our center, Zach Frazier, who was a second round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and then Doug Nestor, who was a starting lineman here for us for three years. But we've got a large piece of that back, and it starts with Garrett Green and Jaheim White at running back, who I think is as good as anybody.

C.J. Donaldson is a big, powerful back, provide a one-two punch. And then defensively, our front, which played really well down the stretch last year, a lot of that production is back. We feel like we've made some real improvements at linebacker. And then secondary, that's where we needed to make our biggest jump. And our secondary, and then approving a couple of our special teams, is where we need to make a jump to be able to go from a nine win to a 10-11 team win and a team that can get to Dallas for our playoff, or for our championship and into the playoff.

You talk about all the guys that you return, and we'll get into more detail about them in a bit, but now there's expectations. Now, I don't want to say you guys didn't have a belief, but you have something tangible to hold on to with the nine-win season. How were you guys last year able to block out all the noise, right?

Everyone had your name on the hot seat. People were talking negatively about the program and get the season that you guys were able to have a year ago. Well, I think just from a leadership standpoint, myself and our staff, we always believed that in our plan and our process, and there were some things that occurred that are out of our control that may be where it took a year, a year and a half longer than maybe we anticipated getting it turned. But we felt really good about what we were doing offensively and defensively on special teams.

We felt really good about how we set up our calendar. We felt good about our support areas. And it's been a slow build. People on the outside don't really think about your support areas, but your nutrition, your sports psychology, your strength and conditioning, those are nutrition.

I can keep going on. Athletic training, those things, really the foundational pieces of your program, those take time. And they weren't here when we first got here. We built them up where we feel like they're a real big strength of ours now. We've gone all in on technology and sports science, and that's something that I think sets us apart. It's a difference maker for us in recruiting and retaining. And so it just takes time. And so we felt good about what we had.

We always talk about from a facility standpoint, support staff. Going into last year is really when we felt like, all right, this is what we have in place gives us an opportunity. And then we've slowly been building through the high school ranks, and our talent's good enough. And so we had a lot of confidence, and we knew we had a few players that people didn't know about, Garrett Green or Jaheim White, that were really good players. They just hadn't had an opportunity to show it yet. And your quarterback, Garrett Green, had 29 total touchdowns a year ago as Coach Neil Brown is here with us.

Dual threat guy could kill you on the ground, can kill you through the air, just for people that haven't seen him. And now maybe they'll get a better understanding of who he is this year with some expectations with your program. Just what can people expect out of your quarterback?

Well, there's not going to be anybody in the country that's more fun to watch. He's entertaining. He's capable of a big play every time he touches it. He's got elite speed for the position.

He's not as big as some other people, but he's big enough. He's really got lower body strength, which enables him to break tackles and run away from people. He extends plays. He throws the ball down the field extremely well. I think he led college football in explosive passes last year.

And he's really intelligent. And what our big push for him during the offseason has been is really getting him where he's more efficient on short and intermediate throws. And those really come into effect down in the red zone and on third down and medium and third down and long. And so we feel like if he can go from a 53% passer to a 60 to 63% passer, then he's got a chance to be as productive as any quarterback in the country this year. Coach Neil Brown here with us. You know, heading into last season, I was familiar with C.J. Donaldson Jr. And Jaheim White had a really big breakout season for you guys. When you have a young player like White who had so much success in your one, what was kind of the message to him in this offseason, knowing, hey, this guy could produce in big boy college football, but there's still more room to grow?

Yeah, I think that it's just about taking a step. And the way that I talk to Jaheim, and he's got special talent, is, okay, here's where we've got to improve. We've got to improve in pass protection. We have to improve in our productivity in the receiving game. And now our expectations of you are much higher than they were as a true freshman. But when I talk to him, I ask him, I'm like, okay, if you had the exact same production, which he was in that 700, 800 yard range, I believe. So if we fast forward and all of a sudden it's December and that's the yardage you have, are you going to be pleased? And the answer, of course, is no, he wants more.

Okay, so if you want to be more productive, then you have to put in more work. And that's the real challenge for him is the offseason, the winter, the summer, is putting in the real work where he can do that. You were very confident heading into last year, Coach Neil Brown. And a few of the things you said at Big 12 Media Days obviously caught some fire. You know, this team this year, I know earlier you talked about, you know, get into a Big 12 championship and also get into a college football playoff spot.

And obviously it expands to 12 teams this year. Going into this year, obviously you're going to be confident. But why do you think this team could accomplish all those things that you laid out earlier for us?

Well, it's a challenge without a question. You know, we've got a great opportunity to really get on the national landscape in week one. I feel strongly off our body of work from last season and who we have returning that we should be a preseason top 25. And the way college football works, you've got to be around that preseason, either in the preseason top 25 or around it to be able to get into some of those discussions.

That's just the way it kind of works. And so with our production, and then we played a really challenging schedule. Go Penn State host, opener, Albany really good FCS opponent. Then we go to Pitt.

Backyard brawl. Yeah, we play 11 power five opponents, which we're one of the few teams that do that in the country. And so our schedule is as challenging as anybody out there. The Big 12 Conference is extremely competitive. And I think it's one of the more exciting conference races there is because there's not a whole big difference one through 16 in our league. And it's not a top-heavy league like some other conferences. And that gives you a real opportunity. You know, the access to the playoff is from where we're sitting at West Virginia is much greater than it is in some of these schools in the SEC in the Big 10. And it just is. And so that's something that we're talking about.

You know, West Virginia has never been in the Big 12 Conference championship since 2012. And that's the goal for us. The playoff, we know if we get to that game, more than likely we're going to get in the playoff. And so that'll take care of itself. But for us, it's about doing something that's never been done. And it's about those daily processes to get us there.

When you talk about that daily process and you have success, now you're not going to fly under anyone's radar. And you know that. But then also, I know there's so much change in college football now, but people still have that fear of maybe complacency sets in. So let me ask you in this offseason program and leading up to Game 1 up against Penn State, have you sensed your team even hungrier than maybe where they were a year ago?

Well, we better be. You know, Penn State handily beat us. We were competitive in that game, but we didn't make the plays we needed to make in the second and third quarter to be able to win it. And we still remember vividly them scoring late in the game and putting that game out of reach. And so this is a great – it's about us showing how much better we've got.

It doesn't have anything to do with Penn State. We know they're going to be a top 10 team. We feel really good.

You know, their talent and how they're coached, those guys do a great job. But how much have we improved as a program? And then we're a team that, just because we won a bowl game and nine games, that wasn't – you know, we were up midway through the fourth quarter against Oklahoma State in a game we win here. You know, we had a fluke play where we were getting the ball back up four. And one of our jammers on the punt return runs into our punt returner. And then Oklahoma State scores two plays later to take control of that game. We got beat at Hail Mary at Houston. And so we're really close to being an 11-win team, but we weren't. And so we've got to do things during this time of the year, the summer, to earn the opportunity to be in those types of games again, but this time make sure the outcome goes our way. How were you guys able to keep that trust?

Just wondering. Because for a while, right, like going into last year, Coach, you know what the conversation was, Neil Brown. People thought that there was going to be a new coach and new leadership here that I was going to be talking to and previewing West Virginia. And you guys were able to stick it to a lot of people. So how did you keep everyone still on one page and working as a team and all locked in?

Yeah, I think just being transparent with the guys. Like, you know, I don't think our team ever felt that pressure just because I never, from being in the leader of the entire organization, I never put that on our assistants. Our assistants never put that on our players.

You know, I think your attitude and how you conduct business, you know, if you have belief and you explain the why, why we're doing this and why we have belief, and you treat people right, then I think you get good results. And so our guys never felt that pressure. It was coming from the outside world. And the other thing, too, is our administration, you know, our athletic director, Ren Baker, and our president, Gordon Gee, there was good alignment. And so I didn't necessarily feel we knew that we needed to win, but I wasn't getting daily pressure from them. And also, I knew, like, we were returning most of our front, our defensive front, which was really productive. We were returning the most starts in the Big 12 on our offensive line. I think we were top three in the country.

Offensive line starts coming back. So any time you're good on both fronts, you got a chance. And that's where the national media really missed. And that's why I think it was lazy, just because college football is one in the trenches.

A hundred percent. We had a bunch of production coming back on both sides of the ball, and that's why I was really comfortable and confident that we were going to play much better. Last thing I'll ask you, when you go into this season, right now, what do you think the biggest strength of your team is, Neil Brown?

And then what's the area this offseason you're like, you talk about improvements where you say, okay, this is the area we improved the most on this football team entering into the season. Well, I think when you start, our strength's got to be running the football. We led the power five in rushing last year, and that's got to continue to be a strength.

That's who we are. We want to be a team that runs the ball extremely well and hits explosive pass plays. And so that will remain the strength of our team. Defensively, I think the strength is we tackle well. And I think how we prepare our guys to go tackle is unique, and I think we're on to something there, and I think we'll continue to take a step there in how we tackle. The two areas of improvement that we've got, there's three areas.

I'll give you three. First of all, on special teams, our kickoff cover team has got to be much improved, and it starts with our kicker. We've got to kick the ball in the end zone. That unit really hurt us last year. Second thing on defense is we've got to be better at taking the football away. We didn't have enough takeaways last year. We've got to take the ball away. And then the third thing offensively is we've got to be better on third downs and scoring touchdowns in the red zone, and both of those are linked to our pass efficiency, and our completion percentage has got to be higher in those situations.

Just one more for you, Neil Brown, actually, that just popped into my head. For people that are still doubting your program and West Virginia and think last year was just a fluke and it was a one-hit wonder, what do you say to people like that? Well, I don't know how you would say that, you know, that we're the 15th-winningest program in the country. We've been in a bunch of different conferences, and we've always been extremely competitive. And I think, too, if I was going to make a statement for our team, again, you know, I would argue that, you know, we got a first-round pick, left tackle in White Mountain. We have one of, if not the most exciting player in college football at quarterback. We've got two running backs that have been freshman All-American. We returned almost every catch that we had from a year ago at our receiving corps, and we were extremely explosive. Turned on defense is we were very good at running, at stopping the run, and TFLs and sacks, and we feel like we've even improved ourselves from a year ago. And so that's a ton, and we return our kicker, our long snapper, our punter, and our returners.

And so there's not a whole lot of teams across college football that have done that. And so that's what my belief comes from, and I think we've also added some key pieces and areas of needs that will help us on our ability to rush the passer in one-on-one situations and be able to defend the pass on defense. Well, Coach, I never need any incentive, extra incentive to root against Penn State being a Temple University grad, but I think you provided that today. So good luck coming up against Penn State 80 days from now, and good luck and good health to your entire team for this upcoming season. Yeah, I appreciate it. Appreciate what you do for college football. Appreciate you having me on.

Good deal. There he is, head football coach at West Virginia in Neil Brown joining us for a college football fix on the Zach Gelb show. We'll take a break. We'll keep it on the gridiron when we come on back, but we'll go from college to the pros, and we will discuss Aaron Rodgers' absence from Jets mandatory minicamps and who's going to win the AFC East for this upcoming season of the NFL. Alex Meyer still to come in about 25 minutes from now. We'll preview the U.S. Open. Bart Winkler will stop by for Winkler Wednesdays at 4.40 p.m. Eastern time today, and the Hall of Famer Tim Brown will join us at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific. Let's get the latest Infinity Sports Network update with the act man, Rich Ackerman.

I feel like we should play more Beatles on this show. It's a good rejoin. It's a good job by Carlos Ortiz. I don't want to hold his hand, but I did give Carlos a big high five during the break because I walked into the control room, and I go, man, smells like there's some good chicken in there, and I didn't know that Chef Mike, Mike Sampter, cooked up some moist wings, and they were delicious.

Sampter made some wings, you know, moved out to Connecticut, now got the big porch, now got the big BBQ, and he was barbecuing some wings last night. And I always say this, you know, politics will never unify the country. There's so many things that could divide the country. For years, I said pigs in the blanket for the most part should unify the country. I would always make that joke when my sister was getting ready for her wedding, and, you know, there's always like the family problems leading up to a wedding, you know, this person wants to do this, this person wants to do that, and it's like, whose wedding is this? Let's do whatever the bride and the groom wants. I'm like, oh, just make sure you have pigs in the blanket.

They're the great unifier that bring everyone together. But I will say, what unified this show, not that we were really divided, but Carlos was very hungry today, and I guess he was going to text Hickey, hey, Hickey, on your way in, can you pick me up a sandwich there, hot take Hickey? And Sampter said, I got some wings that I brought in from home. Now you could mess up wings very easily, and I have a strict standard for wings. When I was on one of these bachelor parties I was on, we got a chef, this guy Chef Rob, he made like devil's poached eggs, which were really damn good. He made this candy, I think it was pork belly, which was phenomenal. He made jambalaya, which was really good. But then the main course, he made a very good mac and cheese, but the main course he made ribs and he made wings.

And I'm not going to lie, the way that they looked, I thought they were going to taste a lot better, and they were underwhelming. Because I like a wing that's crispy. I like a crispy wing. But Sampter, I'll give you credit for the barbecue wings that you made, because you could mess those up easily.

And I didn't realize that I wasn't looking at this screen. I just saw Carlos eating and devouring those wings. I did not know Carlos was on camera, darn well. Fat kid in a candy store, Carlos in pieces right now. And now he's trying to put his headphones on and his hands are all sticky from the wings.

I did promise, three fingers is all I've had for a second. Pete the body baladi tomorrow is going to get to do the board for Maggie and Perloff, and he's going to be like, why does this board smell like barbecue sauce? Why is there barbecue sauce all over the board?

But a job well done, Sampter. I appreciate that, man. Listen, you know, now that I'm a suburban man and I have a deck with a beautiful grill. Big deck.

A big deck. I have to be able to utilize it as best as possible. And so I'm practicing, but I agree with you 100%. Wings have to be crispy, right? Even if it's buffalo wings. Crispy and blue cheese. Those are the two biggest things that you have to look at for a wing. It's the sauce and the crispiness. Like a soggy, like mushy kind of wing.

Hate them. Not good. It's got it.

Like you got to crunch into it. Wait, wait, wait. Oh yeah. You got this bastard corn too? Oh yeah. We made some corn too.

Wait, I'm actually offended now. Carlos gets wings, corn and French fries. I just got one wing. You were holding out the good stuff on us. Well, Carlos was hungry.

He had no food. And I was like, well, I have some leftover food. This was actually from Sunday to be fair. I had some leftover food. I ate some Mondays, some yesterday, and I had some leftover today.

And I was like, you know what? I was going to eat it tomorrow, but Carlos was hungry and it's fine. How many days ago did you make those wings?

Sunday. That kind of shows you how good the wings are. Precisely. Where sometimes I don't mind leftover wings because then they marinate a little bit more in the sauce. But the fact is that you serve those on Wednesdays and you made them on Sunday to Carlos and they were still that good. Then I wonder what they were like coming out fresh. They're probably even better. Oh yeah.

And here we don't have like a stove or an oven or anything like that. So this is all microwave and microwave's going to make it a little bit softer too. A little soggy, a little moist. It was really nice.

I hate you. It was nice and crunchy, real crunchy. And like a little extra char, a little burnt almost.

And I like it like that. Can you make us wings one day? Absolutely.

For the show. I will gladly pay for all the materials, all that. But I think that we should one summer day on a Friday. Well, maybe we can make this a bit. Santa Friday. Well, I'm going to be off a lot of Fridays in the summer.

So maybe we do it Thursdays. Tasty treat Thursdays on the Zach Gelb show where we just let Santa cook up a bunch of things. I have a very limited repertoire of items that I can cook, but I will try some things.

Luckily for you guys, I don't. I have a very vast, you know, repertoire when it comes to cooking stuff. Oh yeah. So we could crush this potluck out for a while. All right, so let's do this. Let's pick a month. Let's say July.

Coming up in July. Every Thursday, someone will be responsible for making something. So one Thursday it will be Santa's. Then, you know, Stu, Carlos, whoever's running the board these days for us.

Who knows? I will make something and it will just be on just Thursdays in July. Tasty treat Thursdays on the Zach Gelb show where someone will bring something in. You won't tell us what you're making. And we will evaluate it and rate it properly on the air and then once, like, let's say, Sampter goes and the next week I'll go and then Carlos, Stu, you know, Manny, Chris Hess, whoever ends up running the board on this show.

Imagine you just like, they hire a new part timer and they throw them right under the fire on the board. Hey, you got to make us some brownies. I ain't talking about the special brownies.

I'm talking about the good brownies. Could you imagine if we were eating special brownies on the show? I mean, we already have a lot of fun. We're goofy enough as it is.

Imagine if that was happening. That's definitely a Friday summer show. It's a slow Thursday on the Zach Gelb show. I will say I also worked in an Italian restaurant so I have a few Italian dishes I can throw together. All right, so maybe we're going to double up Sampter. You know what? Sampter will be the cookie of the Oreo. The rest of us will be the cream.

You will start it off. Sounds so wrong. That's because you have a dirty mind.

And then the other end of the cookie will end it and everyone else will fill up the rest. You're the one who made me serving hot dogs dirty yesterday. I mean, come on. I don't recall what you're saying. I don't have a memory of what you were saying or what you're accusing me of. Anyway, can we have a conversation about Aaron Rodgers? Because I'm never one where I like to say, hmm, I told you so.

But I got a very interesting text from Sampter today. And by the way, it's time to ask the pros or you, the listener, get to ask us a question. It's brought to you by Raleigh Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at INF Sportsnet or at Zach Gelb using the hashtag ask the pros.

Be listening later in the show when we might answer your question. Think of Raleigh Auto Parts for all your car care needs. Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts.

O-O-O-O-Riley Auto Parts. It seemed like Robert Sala was not thrilled that Rodgers isn't there. I also wanted to know where Aaron Rodgers was. Not that I really care, but I just think it's intriguing because Aaron Rodgers could be anywhere and nothing would surprise me.

But overall, my main takeaway was it's not a story that makes me irate. And I know Rodgers does it to himself, but when you are very polarizing, people like to make something maybe a bigger deal than what it actually is. But I did say many times yesterday, as long as the Jets' offensive line stays healthy and Aaron Rodgers is healthy this year, no one's going to give a rat's ass that Aaron Rodgers wasn't at practice for July 11th or July 12th with mandatory minicamp. Now, Samter, you were pretty animated yesterday and you were pretty disgusted with Aaron Rodgers.

And I got a text from you, and you usually don't change your tune that quickly, but now I think you want to issue somewhat of a mea culpa and you think this Rodgers story has got blown out of proportion. Is that right? You know, I never thought that I would have to figure out what crow tastes like. I just assumed it tastes like chicken. But crow does not taste... Pretty good chicken. Yeah, crow does not taste good. I'm eating crow today.

I feel like I jumped the gun. I heard the frustration in Sala's voice and it just felt like they were just frustrated. And you don't like Rodgers, let's just be real. Yes, but it's more just like hearing Sala just sounded pissed off and it sounded like he was just fed up with Rodgers nonsense. But the more I'm hearing about it, he's been in every voluntary workout that the team has held since he joined the team. He scheduled this trip before the team even put out the schedule for where minicamp was going to be. So he scheduled this predating so he would have to cancel his trip for the team. So if the team cared that much about it, they would have maybe thought about him. Oh well, Rodgers isn't going to be here.

Either we'll excuse him or we'll just change the dates of minicamp by a day or two. And also, let's be real. Like, Robert Sala may be the head coach in terms of title. Aaron Rodgers is the real-life football coach of this team.

He's also the president. He's like Kevin Durant when Kevin Durant was in Brooklyn. He could do whatever he wants and ultimately you have to be healthy and you have to play well.

And we know in Brooklyn that wasn't the case for Kevin Durant and other people that he brought in didn't hold up their end of the bargain. So I know people are looking to talk about something in June, but to me this isn't really that big of a deal. I just want to know where he is at because they're making out like it's a vacation. Is it just a vacation to Rodgers because he's not doing something football-related? Like, is he on an island somewhere? Like, vacation to me means I'm burying my toes somewhere in the sand laying on a beach and drinking a bunch of cervezas, right? That's what that means to me. But is a vacation for Aaron Rodgers just being away from the Jets facility and going to some RFK junior function or some ayahuasca retreat?

Which could be a fun vacation. You know, if he planned something months in advance and told the team hey, I'm going to be away these days and the team was like cool, we're going to schedule minicamp those days that's more on the team than on him. I don't think Rodgers did anything wrong here.

I actually kind of, I step back completely. I still think it's going to be a bleep show there but I don't think this is part of that. And also, it kind of shows you that the coach needs to communicate that better. Because the coach left it up for interpretation and made me think that the coach was annoyed yesterday. I did talk to John Kuhn, by the way. And he told me that he said this on his radio show today the former Packer and really close friend of Aaron Rodgers. It just shows that there's something more important than football to Aaron Rodgers at the age of 40.

And you sometimes got to prioritize that when you get a little bit older in life. Alex Myers will join us next to talk Golf US Open as we get our third major championship up to you.