Shad Khan and the Jaguars ARE A JOKE! (Hour 1)

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, 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to what is a Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM, channel 375, always streaming on YouTube, and you can catch us on the free Odyssey app.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Cam Jordan of the Saints is going to stop by at 4.20 p.m. Eastern time today, 1.20 p.m. Pacific. Cam Lewis of the Buffalo Bills, he's going to join us at 5.20 p.m. Eastern, 2.20 p.m. Pacific time. So I was going to start the show shredding the Jacksonville Jaguars. And I'm going to really start the show shredding the Jacksonville Jaguars, but for a similar, but also different reason. So today we find out that Liam Cohen, who many thought was going to be the next head football coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, says, I'm going to pull a Ben Johnson, and I'm going to pull a Ben Johnson. I am not going to be a head coach this year.

I'm going to wait until future years, probably next year, and I'm going to stay where I'm comfortable in Tampa Bay, and I will reassess things, whether that's becoming the head coach in Tampa Bay a year from now or going elsewhere, you know, next season. And I saw that, and I said, look at the Jaguars, where you have Trevor Lawrence, who hasn't been great, but people think you could make it work with Trevor. You have a good pass rusher in Josh Heinz Allen. You have a very good wide receiver who showed superstar potential this year in Brian Thomas Jr. in his rookie season. And you play in a division where Tennessee can't get out of their own way.

Indianapolis is a joke, and the one strong team in the AFC South are the Houston Texans, who are good, but they are not as a team that is this unmovable force that is unbelievable. So I saw Ben Johnson said no to the Jaguars. He's now introduced today as the coach of the Bears, and basically Liam Cohen said thanks, but no thanks to the Jaguars.

So why was that? And it was because the Jacksonville Jaguars, and I don't know what photos Trent Balke had of Shad Khan, but for whatever the reasons are, after they got rid of Doug Peterson, they said they were going to keep Trent Balke even though you had Shad Khan with Trent Balke adjacent to him on a Zoom saying, hey, if a new coach comes in, and it's not just based off of ego, but he gives me a compelling reason why we should keep, keep Mr. Balke, then I'll maybe say, okay, we'll keep him or I'll have no problem getting rid of him. You know, if the new coach comes in and says, I give you a compelling reason why to get rid of him, he'll get out of business with Trent Balke.

But think about that. You're asking in all likelihood, a first time head coach, and this could be a ruthless business, to find a way on his first impression to be a guy that is somewhat well liked in that organization and Trent Balke, because that's the only justification I have him keeping his job at his track record, and walking in right away and getting him fired. Like, why would you put that onus on whoever you wanted your new head coach to be? And that's why, up until we got this news a few seconds ago, which we'll get to in just a second, I was under the impression once Liam Cohen said no, that you're going to have to settle for someone like Robert Saleh, who should not be a head coach in this cycle, but it's because people are crossing off the Jaguars off their list because Trent Balke is still there, and the presence of Trent Balke is still there. Well, if you thought that the Jaguars, with the way that I described them, were already a circus, now they are a mitigated disaster, and the definition of a huge, and I mean a huge clown show. That's what the Jaguars are.

They are a backwards circus. So you keep Balke, when everyone said you should fire him, you missed out on Ben Johnson, Liam Cohen said no, I'm not going there, and I'm going to stay in Tampa Bay, and then it takes Liam Cohen, basically leaving you out the altars, the way that I interpret it, for Shahid Khan, with his mustache, to finally say, oh yeah, maybe, maybe I should get rid of Trent Balke, because that's what the Jaguars just did moments ago, according to Ian Rappaport, the Jacksonville Jaguars have fired Trent Balke. So now, you're going to try to go get, I guess, someone better than Robert Saleh? It's not tough to do, but I really think Ben Johnson could have been your next head coach. Because a lot of the feeling was, leading up until the announcement that Trent Balke was coming back, even though we were all talking about Ben Johnson in Chicago, a lot of people believe Ben Johnson, you know, right as the search really started, was going to go to Jacksonville, for all the reasons that I laid out why the Jaguars were a little bit more attractive than I thought.

And I remember James Palmer being on with us, and James Palmer said, well, he thought going into the weekend that Ben Johnson, you know, a few weekends ago, was going to be the next Jaguars coach, but the moment they said, oh, Trent Balke's coming back, he heard that perception and that belief of Ben Johnson going to Jacksonville dramatically change. So you're already out with Ben Johnson. Now the question is, after Liam Cohen basically today said thanks, but no thanks, what are you going back to Liam Cohen's palatial estate in Tampa with the boombox holding it up and screaming, baby, come back?

Is that what you're doing today? And that's what it feels like. But even if you end up getting Liam Cohen, it could work with Trevor Lawrence, it could work with Brian Thomas Jr. on the defensive side of the ball, having Josh Heinz Allen playing in a pretty easy division. It could ultimately work, but how you got there was a disaster and an absolute bleep show. So it took Liam Cohen saying no, not Ben Johnson, but Liam Cohen for Shaad Khan to be like, aha, I get to get rid of Trent Balke. Now, maybe Liam Cohen still goes there, but if I'm Liam Cohen, I would say, get the bleep off my front lawn.

Why would I want to go jump on the Titanic when it's sinking? Because Liam Cohen wanted to go there, I think, but he didn't want to go there if Trent Balke was there. And now Balke isn't there, but you're already fractured beyond repair in the perception now of your franchise. And you know what, if we're going to sit here and slam all these incompetent owners, whether we talked about David Tepper, who actually got out of his way this year, but we talked about David Tepper in the past. We talked about the drama show that Jerry Jones loves to operate, the incompetence of a Jim Irsay. We got to talk about Shaad Khan as well. Shaad Khan completely in this entire buildup to today, he not only dropped the ball, he dropped the ball, tried to recover it, then had the ball in his hands and he kicked it 50 yards down the field instead of picking it up.

That's what Shaad Khan did. Everyone in America besides you and people close to you knew it was the right decision to get to Trent Balke. And you also fired the coach who's won a Super Bowl. You fired him. So if you fired Doug Peterson, he deserved it. Why aren't you getting rid of the GM? And you wait until Liam frickin' Cohen, right? Last time I checked Liam Cohen, good offensive coordinator, like he's not the greatest offensive mind in the history of football.

He said no. And now it's like, oh, man, we'll finally get rid of Trent Balke. I'm sorry. I know the Jaguars. And I said when this search started, before we knew that Balke was coming back, that they could be the most attractive job in the market. I may rather coach the Saints that got nothing right now. I may rather coach the Saints. I may even rather coach the Raiders. And I'm not saying that, hey, Mickey Loomis is great. I'm not saying that the Raiders have great ownership. But Shaad Khan, you don't know the difference between your elbow and your ass right now.

You don't. This is on Shaad Khan. This is pathetic. This is beyond pathetic. This is beyond being a clown show. This is beyond being a circus.

None of this makes any sense. I'm not even a Jaguars fan. But I'm furious because this is the definition of incompetent organizations making incompetent decisions. And I remember those fans a few years ago. They dressed up like clowns. Oh, you know what? They know a lot more than we did because this organization is a clown show.

A clown show. And if you're a head coach and I know it's one of 32 jobs now, Balke's out, okay, you can at least say it's somewhat attractive with Lawrence and Thomas and Josh Heinz Allen and easy peasy division, all that stuff. I made the case 9,000 times already. But with that owner and how he couldn't see that getting rid of Trent Balke was a good idea until you had head coaching candidates, two hothead coaching candidates say thanks, but no thanks. Geez, then you're more delirious and delusional than I even thought Shaad Khan was before this search started.

This really pisses me off. This is crazy. You should have known it was dumb when you were on a Zoom doing a press conference saying, yeah, we're bringing back Trent Balke. We're bringing him back. But, you know, new GM, you know, he's here, this guy Balke, but a new coach comes in and if he doesn't want him, if he gives me a good reason, then Trent Balke will be out. What?

It's not tough to give a good reason why Trent Balke shouldn't be the GM. Oh, my goodness gracious. This is wild and it's funny how this works. We were going to start the show shredding the Jaguars, right? I was going to be at like a 3 out of 10 shredding the Jaguars. I'm not a 10 out of 10 because the guy that we were going to attack the most, Trent Balke and Shaad Khan, well, Balke's now out of the organization.

What took so long? Oh, you know, all 37 Jaguars fans, I feel for you right now. I really feel for you right now in Duval. I know it's like bitter cold right now in Florida, but man, the Jaguars right now, they are a disgrace, an absolute disgrace. This is crazy. I never thought I would get this heated over the Jacksonville frickin' Jaguars, but I'm fuming. I am furious because this guy Shaad Khan. Oh, my God. Stu, you know what?

You should be happy. At least Shaad Khan doesn't own your football team because the fact that they took this long and they told everybody that Balke's the GM, we're keeping him. When everyone was laughing at them, like Liam Cohen, he's the guy that makes you realize this. Nothing against him. Knows McVeigh, worked for McVeigh, been back and forth with Kentucky, done a good job in Tampa Bay. But they were convinced Liam Cohen was going to take the job, and that's how they were going to pivot after Ben Johnson went to the Bears.

But when Liam Cohen's like, I like your job, but not with Trent Balke, so I'm going back to Tampa, that was the light bulb that went off in the crazy cabeza of Shaad Khan to finally get him to say, oh, now we got to get rid of Trent Balke. Huh. Crazy. So here's the statement from the Jaguars.

I'm reading this for the first time. Let's see, like I'm at a 10 right now. Maybe this statement will put me to a 48. Oh, put me past more a number than the more amount of fans of the Jaguars have. Sorry, Jackson.

That's nice. Full statement from the Jaguars via rap sheet in Rappaport. Owner Shaad Khan, following several discussions with Trent Balke this week, we both arrived at the conclusion that it is in our mutual best interest to respectfully separate, effective immediately. Trent leaves us with my deepest appreciation for his efforts over the five past seasons. Ethan Waugh will serve as an interim general manager and will play an important role with others as we continue the process of interviewing candidates to serve as our new head coach.

I am deeply committed to building a winner here in Jacksonville and look forward to introducing a new head coach who will make that happen for our players and fans alike. Womp, womp, womp, womp, womp, womp, womp, womp. Like, Stu, I don't know how you think on this one.

They got to call Liam Cohen back and say, hey, you were right. We were wrong. I'm ugly. You're hot. Like, I'm an idiot.

You're the smartest person in the world. And we're not like instead of getting it right when you mess up with your girlfriend, like a ring or a necklace or something. We got rid of Trent Baalke for you. But like Liam Cohen, never been a head coach before.

Is a hot name now will be even a hotter name next year. Is he supposed to then tell the Jaguars? Yeah, they did what they wanted him to do. But after today, leaking it out that you didn't want to go there anymore and you wanted to stay in Tampa Bay, you really going to go join that team after what they had to end up doing to get you what you wanted. But the way they got there was just a sloppy and I mean a sloppy process. Yeah.

If you're Liam Cohen, you can't. I mean, look, it'd be embarrassing. Like Trevor Lawrence is good, but it's not like there's not going to be a better opportunity with a better quarterback or a young rookie quarterback next year that he can go to. Like, it's not the end all be all.

So if I'm him, I would stay away. I'm kind of with you. I thought this was one of the better jobs. And now, you know, a couple of weeks later, I think it's it's one of the worst jobs easily. I wouldn't touch this job now with a 10 football. And I like this job.

I was on an island. People like, oh, take the Bears, take the Jets. So, you know, go here, go down.

Like, no, no, no, no. I go Jaguars. Best job. If I'm a young coach, not a lot of pressure.

Easy division. You got some core there. If you think you can fix Trevor Lawrence, great. But this owner, Shaq Khan, this is day of reckoning.

I'll tell you that. Like Shaq Khan's just always been an owner in this league, right? He's always just been an owner, like for the last decade.

He's there, fine. Now, I don't think anyone's ever had an opinion on Shaq Khan that's like, oh, I can't stand him or oh, I love him. He's one of the owners.

Right? Owner that just blends right in the middle. But now this is a level of incompetence that I would say I haven't seen in a long time. But we see a lot of incompetence with NFL owners. It's amazing how these guys have this much money. But this is a level of incompetence where it puts you in that running of maybe being one of the more incompetent owners in the NFL. Oh, this is something, you know, this is how you know, I'm really heated when I'm already 15 minutes into the show, folding up all the notes that Samter gives me before the show. And I'm just shredding the paper pretty much and just trying to hold back all my frustration.

Oh, my God. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. When we come on back, let's see what we're talking about. Well, let's get to the Jets. The Jets made a decision today to make Aaron Glenn their next head coach.

What does it mean for the future of Aaron Rodgers? We'll discuss that when we come on back. It is the Zach Gelb show on a busy and I mean, busy Wednesday where you know what? Santa, I love you. Still, I love you. You guys aren't in trend bulky status.

Don't worry. We're keeping you here. We're not getting rid of anybody.

And I get rid of anybody. But the Jaguars. Oh, we're keeping Trent bulky. And then he's gone after Ben Johnson was like, Don't even talk to me. Right. Ben Johnson was the hot girl at the prom.

And he's like, Oh, maybe interested in you. But now you give me the egg. And then they thought they were gonna get their rebound with Liam Cohen. And then the rebound option said, No, thank you.

So then let's get rid of Trent bulky. How it took them that long. My Oh, my. It is Zach Gelb show. All right. It is a Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network.

Shot gun. Jeez. I don't think I'll be seeing him on radio row.

I don't think we'll be having Tony and shot on this year. I'll tell you that. That's just terrible.

Absolutely terrible. How you made Trent bulky stay there as the GM when everyone knew he should have been sent packing and sent walking. And then ultimately, you you end up firing him because so many coaches were like, Yeah, we don't want to do that. Like, so imagine if I said to you, you could come like, let's say, work for for for an NFL team, right?

You're gonna be the head coach first time doing this. But you knew down deep that the GM wasn't the right guy. And they basically put all the decision making on you to be the one to say it when they didn't have the guts to just fire the guy. Because what?

Trent bulky is friendly with shot gun. So you have to walk into an organization that you never worked for before. Right. And people lose their job and a new coach comes in. But there's people in that organization that are going to stay, which maybe they like Trent bulky and you're going to walk in and right away. The first impression you have to give off is you saying, Yeah, I want the GM out because the GM should not be a GM in the NFL anymore.

And how shot con the you know where shot come loss. You want to keep bulky and tell everyone to bleep off. That's fine. But when you keep bulky and you say, Hey, we'll keep him as long as the new head coach wants him pretty much. That shows why you had to get rid of the guy and even Ben Johnson saying, Yeah, I'm not gonna go there. That wasn't enough. And it took until Liam Cohen.

Liam Cohen. That's what it took to for shotgun to eventually be like, Oh, boy, we couldn't even get our backup plan. You know, we were we were shooting for the stars of Ben Johnson, but we couldn't get our backup plan. So now they're going to say goodbye to Trent bulky. What a disaster.

Like, imagine what you would feel like as a new head coach having to walk in and you knew that the fate of the GM relied on you either saying yes or no. That's from a human standpoint and a business standpoint. That's just not a good model. Like that's a stew. That's a sad, pathetic model. It really is.

It is. And if you're Liam Cohen, you have to bet on yourself, right? Like, you can't be like, OK, this is you can't go with the mindset that I need this job and this is the only job that's going to come up. You have to believe in yourself and you know, there'll be a better job next year for him. And I think it would be embarrassing now if Liam Cohen took that job like you won the power play. You did like if you if you got hired there and then you got rid of Trent bulky, it's awkward, but you want a power play for a job that's not even yours yet. Like it'd be one thing if they hired you and then you won. But before you even get there, you already said, no, I'm going back to the NFL.

Like the situation I'm in right now with Tampa Bay and the team is so desperate to get you that in a last ditch effort, they're then going to say, oh, yeah, Trent bulky is out. And that's what they're going to try to win. It's too late. The damage is already done.

The damage is already done on that front. That's just sloppy. And I mean, a sloppy, sloppy process by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Let's get to the Jets. So no surprise. Aaron Glenn is now the new head football coach of the JTS Jets, Jets, Jets.

That's the reporting on that front. So Aaron Glenn go into the Jets. I think there's two reaction from the Jets fan.

Reaction number one. Well, it didn't work out for Robert Sala. Right. So why should I sit here and automatically believe that it's going to work out for Aaron Glenn? Like we were just told Robert Sala, new defensive coordinator, new head coach, leader of men, all that stuff.

First time being a head coach. It didn't work out for him. So why should I automatically believe that it's going to work out for Aaron Glenn?

Like that's a thought that you could have. The other part is, all right, this is a good hire. Like he was a hot commodity. He played for the organization. He worked in the organization after he played. You know, he obviously wanted the job.

This is home for him. So let's see if they could turn it around. But I think the most fascinating part, whether you like the hire or not, is now there is a theme from a lot of people. I heard Lomas Brown yesterday, Michael K, longtime New York talk show host and the voice of the Yankees, where he's saying that he's heard and Lomas Brown also heard that if Aaron Glenn is the coach of the Jets, which now we know he is, that this means Aaron Rodgers is going to be their quarterback next year. That's the belief that Aaron Glenn prefers that Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback. Now, there was this belief that Woody Johnson did not did not want Aaron Rodgers back next year. So maybe Woody Johnson still says, hey, we don't want him back. But if that's the case in Aaron Glenn, if that's true, if he was adamant that Aaron Rodgers would be the quarterback next year, then I don't think he would take the job of Woody Johnson unless of what he's just lying to him. Doesn't give him the assurance that as long as Aaron wants to be here, that Aaron will be here for 2025.

And that's the other part of the conversation, too. What does Aaron Rodgers want? Because who knows Aaron Rodgers? He go to Egypt.

He could go do some ayahuasca. He could go into a cave like you have no clue what Aaron Rodgers is going to do. But Aaron Rodgers, if he wants to play football next year, if it's not with the Jets, then where are you going? Like I'm looking at the options right now. They're outside of the Jets. There's not an option in the AFC East and the AFC West.

You want to go work? You want to go be a quarterback of the Raiders and have no one like outside of Brock Bowers and Max Crosby? I know him and Brady probably have a relationship, but I don't think the Raiders would be attractive. The AFC North, you want to go you want to go quarterback the Brownies for a year?

That's what you want your career to end. Cleveland. I don't know if the Steelers will be interested.

Carson Shields could be attractive. AFC South, huh? You're not like I know you have a house in Tennessee, but Tennessee doesn't have much there. So like, where are you going? And you want to go you want to stay in New Jersey and go play for the Giants? They don't have the outside neighbors.

They don't have much cooking for them. So where's the destination if you want to be like Brett Favre, go from the Jets to the Vikings? I mean, tell Sam Darnold go somewhere else.

JJ McCarthy waited all the year. There's not an option out there that if Aaron Rodgers not back with the Jets next year outside of Pittsburgh. And you could argue maybe Cleveland, but Cleveland's different than what it was a few years ago, right? They had a lot of talent. They still have a lot of talent. But that offensive line out as strong as it once was. Nick Chubb now has multiple injuries. Amari Cooper is no longer there.

He has got Jerry Judy, nice player. But that's not as a team with a plethora of talent as they've had for the last three, four years. It is viewed differently. So it's ultimately, well, Woody Johnson approve of Aaron Rodgers coming back. And the fact that Aaron Glenn got the job and if that reporting is true, that Aaron Glenn prefers Aaron Rodgers to be back. Then I would have to think who knows that with these owners, but you would have to think then Woody Johnson. In those conversations, told Aaron Glenn, you could bring Aaron back if Aaron wants to come back. But the question is, does Aaron want to come back to?

And that I don't know. Guessing Aaron Rodgers, I have no clue. But if I'm Aaron, I'm either retiring or come back to the Jets unless you go to Pittsburgh. And it seems like from some of the Pittsburgh reporters that Pittsburgh is not going to consider Aaron Rodgers. So this is the hiring cycle right now.

We had seven jobs. Vrabel already off the board to the Pats. Ben Johnson introduced today with the Bears, the New York Jets with Aaron Glenn. And that leaves us with four jobs remaining where the Dallas Cowboys, it feels like it's going to be Brian Schottenheimer. The Saints, I would say McCarthy, but who the heck knows? I don't think the Saints McCarthy even had an interview yet. So let's see what happens with with after the Bears, you know, end up going Ben Johnson. That pushes up the process with with the New Orleans Saints and Mike McCarthy. And then you look at the Raiders.

They hired a spy tech today. The GM from Tampa Bay, who was college teammates with Tom Brady, I think back in 1999 and Brady and him. They worked together in Tampa Bay when Brady was the quarterback there. So they get their GM, but we don't have a damn clue the head coach is going to be right. Liam Cohen was speculated with the Raiders.

That's not happening. You know, if he's staying in Tampa, which he claims Ben Johnson, we know, ended up picking the Bears. So is it Pete Carroll's at Brian Flores?

Who the heck knows? And then you got the Jacksonville Jaguars where you got some players, you got an easy division. Now, Trent Baalke is out. But how does anyone look at the Jaguars today and say, oh, yeah, I really want to go to Jacksonville after the owner embarrassed himself the last few weeks?

So is it still Roberts like imagine, Stu? Because I thought today that Robert Salah was going to be the next coach of the Jaguars because Trent Baalke is no longer, you know, is there. Now that he's no longer there. Are you really going to still hire Robert Salah? It's like the only reason you would think you would hire Salah is because, A, the owner's friendly with Salah, right? Like Salah was there in Jacksonville.

So and clearly he was friendly with Trent Baalke. So I can't put it past shot Khan to still hire Robert Salah. But the only reason Salah is really going to get the job is because Baalke was still there. Now that he's not there, like Robert Salah is a big loser, I would think out of this. But then also, maybe there's going to be a lot of people that are like Jaguars immediately know and just laugh them off the phone because of what happened. So maybe it still ends up being Salah.

But that would be the ultimate dagger if I'm a Jaguars fan. If you knew that Baalke should have been out and you could have got Ben Johnson or Liam Cohen, now you get zero. Let's say Liam Cohen stays true to his word. All right, you get Baalke out. But if you still wind up with Robert Salah, good luck trying to sell that hire. And sometimes, right, a coach, as you know, Stu gets introduced and it's met with a negative reaction, the coach ends up doing well. But what makes me think that Robert Salah, after just having all that talent with the Jets, I know he never got a quarterback, is going to then work in Jacksonville.

Outside of the fact that he's just a nice guy. Like, I would be furious if I'm, like I'm furious, I'm not a Jaguars fan and I am furious with this process. Imagine if you still make Robert Salah your coach, just how much more salt in the wounds, Stu, that does add to the Jaguars situation.

Yeah, it'd be pretty bad. With Salah, like, when I saw he's getting interviews, I thought it was just for defensive coordinator. And then I saw he's getting head coach interviews.

I think the Raiders are also a team that at least had conversations with him at one point this season. He's a likable guy and he's not a dummy. Like, I know he's a consultant for the Packers, but I don't think he was really doing much on game day when I saw him in the press box for Packers and Eagles.

He was sitting there at halftime, right next to the chicken fingers and hot dogs and the drinks in the press box, that the water and the coffee that they serve, and he was mucking it up with the media members. He knows what he's doing. He's a likable guy. He's not a dummy. And honestly, Robert Salah was a bad head football coach.

But the Jets getting worse without Robert Salah did do, I don't want to say wonders, but you get the point for the image of Robert Salah a few weeks later because of how bad Ulbricht in that situation was. He actually became a sympathetic figure, which is just crazy. Absolutely crazy. I thought the most I was going to really freak out today was on the Baseball Hall of Fame. I really did.

And we'll get to those bozos that vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame in a bit. But I don't know how you get more fired up than I've been the last thirty five minutes to start the show. The first 15 minutes. That's as fired up as I remember being in a long time. And I don't think much for me to get fired up. But we'll be like, oh, Zach, are you a Jaguars fan?

No, I'm not. I just hate incompetence. When something is so obvious and everyone's telling you something should happen and someone just refusing to listen, and they're holding on to it for like their last breath until they realize they got to let it go. And that's what Shaq Khan did today. Oh, my God.

That's really something. Jacksonville, you know, just move the franchise to London. Get him out of the United States. We do not need to see that team anymore.

And it's a shame because I don't think they're that far off from being able to be fixed. But with this bozo con and the way that he runs this organization. I don't know who's the bigger bozo, the Hall of Fame voters or or Shaq Khan. That would be a tough poll question for Zach Gelb.

That would be a tough poll question for you, boy. All right. We will take a break. We'll come on back.

Eight five five two one two forty two. Sure. You don't want to work into a full ladder there a little more. I don't I don't know if you were fired up enough.

And you got the back end of it. The first 15 minutes I erupted like Vesuvius. Somebody somebody spike your Wheaties today. You know, I may need something to calm me down after the show, if you know, you know, I may need a mad dog. Russo kind of died after the show or something like that.

Oh, my goodness gracious. Like I'm imagining. I imagine like Shaq Khan.

Everyone knew that Trent Bulkey should have been out. You know, I said, Shaq, you can make all the changes you want in the world. You can't unless you were like, geez, I'm blanking on the guy, Donald Sterling. OK, unless you're a Donald Sterling, you can't force the guy to sell the team.

Yeah, that's what it comes down to. So you need Shaq Khan to say something offensive. Oh, my God.

If I'm a Jaguars fan, I'm walking around with a camera on Shaq Khan trying to get him canceled. That's what I would do. All right. He will come up back. I will try to calmly. I can't promise, but I'll try to calmly talk about the Hall of Fame in baseball. We'll do that on the other side.

Update time first. Here's the soothing voice, the calm voice of Rich Ackerman. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

All right. Maybe we need a little meditation here on the Zach Gelb show. This music. Oh, I thought we were fading out there for a second.

I would say, no, keep this music going. It's kind of calms us all down on a Wednesday where I'm ranting and raving, going nuts, losing my mind, talking about Trent Bulky and the Jaguars and Shaq Khan. What a dumb organization.

But Bulky is at least out. Took you long enough. It's like a relative, right? That whenever you get together, you expect a gift. And that one relative never brings the gift.

And you're waiting years and years and years. And that relative is known for not bringing any gifts. And then they finally bring a gift one time. And it's like, all right, it's a fine gift. But it took them so long to originally bring a gift. And you're just really still disappointed with them.

That's Jacksonville today. They're the relative that you always know is cheap. That doesn't bring a gift. And then they finally do bring you a gift. And it's like all those years happened. All those years passed where you didn't bring anything.

So should I really appreciate this now? That's the Jags. Everyone knew they should have gotten rid of Trent Bulky. I'll finally give you what you want, though. After all these coaches say, yeah, you were attractive.

But now we want nothing to do with you because Bulky gave us the ick. So now we'll see who's the sucker that ends up taking the Jaguars job. It's time to ask the pros where you, the listener, gets to ask us a question. Brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at infsportscenter at Zach Gelb using the hashtag askthepros. We'll be listening later in the show and we might answer your question. Think O'Reilly 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. Hall of Fame results came out yesterday. Let me start off with a positive comment and then I'll get to my negativity. Because that is what annoys me with the Hall of Fame. Many things annoys me with the Hall of Fame. But we don't even talk about the guys that get in anymore. It's more so who didn't get in.

But Ichiro Suzuki obviously deserving of the Hall of Fame. Ninety nine point seven percent of the voters vote for him. Only one voter did not. I would like to know who that voter was. And I would like to hear his stupid reason.

You got 10 votes. There's no reason to not have Ichiro Suzuki. It's not as if all like I needed to vote for 10 other guys and we knew Ichiro was going to get in. Whoever did not vote for Ichiro Suzuki.

We need to examine your cabeza. OK. Billy Wagner gets in. Congratulations to him.

10th time last time on the ballot. So congrats to Billy Wagner. I thought he should have been in years ago. C.C. Sabathia easily a Hall of Famer.

I didn't know if he was going to get in on the first try. And congratulations to C.C. Huge fan. Big time pitcher.

Great personality. And C.C. I think is like the first new era of pitcher to get in the Hall of Fame where for him. You don't have to just say, oh, I know other guys have got him without 300 wins. But usually that's the benchmark in the way that we look at it now. He is in the 3000 Strikeout Club.

But for C.C. Sabathia, he deserved to get in. But with sometimes these curmudgeons that vote for the Hall of Fame, they're just so stuck in their ways with their standard. I felt good that he was going to get on his first try, but I wasn't 100 percent certain he ended up getting 86.8 percent of the vote.

So it really wasn't close. Carlos Beltran did not meet that 75, 76 percent whatever his threshold. He got 70.3 percent of the vote, but it's his third year of eligibility. So he's trending to be a Hall of Famer. You know, I don't really care for the Astros scandal. But I'm a little bit surprised that Beltran is this close because he got punished for the scandal, right? He basically lost his job with the Mets and he was playing for the Astros and the scandal happened. I don't think that should keep Beltran out of the Hall of Fame, but you never know. Because look at the way that the Hall of Fame has treated some of the steroid guys. Also, Andrew Jones. So Andrew Jones only gets 66.2 percent of the vote, eighth year of eligibility.

Does defense not matter? Like, just alone on his defense, Andrew Jones should be a Hall of Famer. And, you know, I talked to Tom Glavin. This has gone way back into the Zach Gelb Show archives. I was actually impressed that I remembered this. Because this is back from 2018. This was me talking to Tom Glavin when back in 2018, Andrew Jones didn't get into the Hall of Fame.

Listen up. Andrew, you know, you look at the body of work and particularly his first ten years in the league. And not only was he playing the best centerfield in the game and maybe in the history of the game, he was also hitting all runs and driving runs in.

I mean, I think a big part of Andrew's demise, I guess, for lack of a better word, is he was really good and then the follow-up was really fast. But again, playing with the guys day in and day out, I mean, it went all through respect to Willie Mays, so I never saw him play. I can't imagine that there was a better centerfielder in the history of the game. I know Griffy gets back to that a lot and Griffy obviously was a great centerfielder. But I'm telling you, the plays Andrew made day in and day out were just remarkable. And the amount of defense, you know, they have stats nowadays, I guess, to quantify that a little bit better. But he was as good as it gets out there.

And then we had the offense go with it. I mean, I certainly think he deserves stronger consideration than he's gotten. And I think hopefully over time people will come to appreciate that a little bit more. He's trending in the right direction. In the next two years, will he get in?

We'll have to wait and see. But geez, just based off his defense, pretty much as Tom Glavin said, and I don't know if you're going to the Willie Mays front of that. But still, if you're in that conversation just based off your defense, how don't you get in the Hall of Fame? But what still annoys me is I look at Alex Rodriguez, 37.1 percent. Manny Ramirez, 34.3 percent. I hate the selectivity of the Hall of Fame.

I do. Where we have put guys in that have used before, and then some other guys that have used, we say, nah, you're not getting in. Like, Manny Ramirez is a Hall of Famer. Alex Rodriguez is a Hall of Famer. Barry Bonds should be a Hall of Famer. Roger Clemons should be a Hall of Famer. Sammy Sosa should be a Hall of Famer. Mark Maguire should be a Hall of Famer.

I'm 30 years old. Those are some of the more iconic names in my lifetime associated with your sport of baseball. That's when I loved baseball.

I still love baseball, but that's when I fell in love with baseball. And don't tell me that the steroid era was bad for baseball just because, oh, we got to do what's right for the game. If that's the case, Bud Selig shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame because he knew what was going on. You know, Joe Torre, Bobby Cox, right? These managers that have got in, they shouldn't get in.

They knew what was going on. You know, Pudge Rodriguez, David Ortiz shouldn't get in. If we are going to say no to some, but yes to others, that's when you lose me. And here's what annoys me with the Hall of Fame voters. You're trying to erase an era. That's what you're trying to do.

You're trying to erase my era. And I don't like that. They cheated. We know that.

Tell the whole damn story. But you can't tell me that you want me to take that Hall of Fame seriously. And I love Cooperstown. I used to be so excited when they used to make this announcement.

Yesterday I felt nothing because I just don't even care anymore. I've been to Cooperstown four, five, six times. You know, a ton of times.

Good amount of times. I used to love going to Hall of Fame. Now I don't give a rat's ass for it. Because you're being so selective and you're being so arrogant and it's not a Hall of Fame anymore.

It's not. Barry Bonds was the greatest baseball players ever. Roger Cubbs was the greatest baseball players ever. How are they not in the Hall of Fame? Oh, they cheated. Okay, then there's other guys that have cheated that are in.

It doesn't make sense to me. And also, I know this isn't a steroid conversation. But CeCe Sabathia gets in on the first try. Curt Schilling, I know he puts his foot in his mouth like every time he speaks. But it's the Hall of Fame based off your baseball playing abilities. Curt Schilling was a better pitcher than CeCe Sabathia.

But he's not in. And I don't condone some of the things that Curt Schilling says. But how Curt Schilling is in it as well, that's another joke. And he's not a steroid guy, but the steroid guys, it's, oh, who was nice to us?

Who talked to us? Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens. I think Roger Clemens is one of the biggest jerks on this planet. I hate him.

I can't stop. I'm a Piazza fan. I can't stand Clemens. But Clemens, he's not in the Hall of Fame? Come on. So the writers have embarrassed themselves so much that the Hall of Fame has now kind of turned into something that used to be so big and there was just so much respect with it.

And it was prestigious. Now it's like, whatever. How do you have me take the Hall of Fame seriously when some of the greatest baseball players have ever seen? Bonds, Sosa, Maguire, Clemens, A-Rod, Manny Ramirez aren't in. But you put other steroid guys that are people that were associated with the steroid hour. That's where you lose me. That's where I'm not going to sit here and yell really anymore because it's a waste of time. We need to change the process on how to vote for the Hall of Fame. We need to diversify the vote.