Remembering John Feinstein (Hour 3)

Alrighty, welcome back in. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We have been brought up in this Micah Parsons conversation. So we had Micah Parsons on at the Super Bowl and he said he doesn't plan on intending to request a trade and at the time follows suit with what we've seen Miles Garrett do, right? And as we know in the time of that conversation in early February that Miles Garrett who said it's not about the money and I just want to go to a winner and ended up being all about the money when a team guarantees you over $120 million and they pay you $40 million a year and you're like, okay, I'm good with never winning.

I'll stay in Cleveland. So Micah Parsons and our interview with him resurfaced and a lot of outlets have reported it that I sat down with Micah Parsons after the Miles Garrett contract situation was taken care of. That conversation with Micah Parsons to be abundantly clear was back in early February, but still it gives insight into what I thought was a very quick response by Micah Parsons and it was very clear. He doesn't intend on requesting a trade as long as the Cowboys take care of him. So I saw that Micah Parsons tweeted out 21 hours ago to be exact.

It's my time. So he's clearly talking about his contract. And I know the Cowboys get messy here with the contracts. We've seen it with CeeDee Lamb. We've seen it twice, not once, but twice with Dak Prescott where Dak Prescott, they made him jump through hoops.

It was ridiculous. I understand you could talk about moving on from Dak Prescott. I understand you could say there's better quarterbacks than Dak Prescott. We always knew the Cowboys were getting a deal done with Dak Prescott.

And I go back to right before the start of free agency where I shredded, shredded the Cowboys. Cause I said at the time Jerry Jones said, they're all in. Well, if you're all in, you need to get the Dak Prescott deal done before free agency started last year. Cause if you didn't, you weren't going to be able to move around to his cap number and it was going to prevent you from being all in. So now we sit here with Dak, with Micah Parsons and Micah Parsons has already played four years in the league.

This is fit your option, right? He's getting $24 million this year, but he's an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Now we've seen the Cowboys right with their last coach and Mike McCarthy have him enter the final year of the contract where I'm not saying Micah Parsons lame duck pass rusher, but Mike McCarthy was a lame duck last year with the Cowboys. So the Cowboys are not afraid, whether it's with coach, whether it's with the quarterback, whether it's with a wide receiver to have this be a drama game and make the player of the coach, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Here's the difference though. CeeDee Lamb won't be a malcontent. Dak Prescott wasn't going to be malcontent. Mike McCarthy was okay with this situation.

He wasn't gonna be malcontent. Micah Parsons has a very powerful podcast and Micah Parsons is not afraid intentionally or not to assert himself in every conversation, whether you like his opinion or you don't. Micah Parsons gives his opinion and sometimes his opinion is right.

And sometimes his opinion is ridiculous. We've experienced that two years in a row where I've said, who are the top five pure pass rushers in the NFL? And Micah Parsons, for whatever the stupid reasons are, he explains that I still don't get it, right?

Why he won't put TJ Watt as a top five pure pass rusher. It don't make any sense to me, but Micah Parsons is entitled to his opinion. And you've already started to see it, whether it's intentional and obvious, or if it's cryptic, because like when Micah Parsons tweets out today, it's my time. I think anyone with the brain interprets that and says, oh, he's talking about his contract. But Micah Parsons, if he really wanted to, when he tweeted that out at 736 p.m. Eastern time last night, he could say, oh, you know, it's my time. And he could say that it meant something else.

So there's still a level of ambiguity there, even though I think it's obvious what it is, where you could spin it a certain way. But there will be a moment this off season, if the Cowboys don't take care of this contract quickly, where Micah Parsons on his podcast will give you something that's going to be put in the news. And it's going to be, oh, Micah Parsons frustrated. And is Micah Parsons going to request a trade? Is he going to go back to this word with what he gave to Zach, which I wouldn't even be going back against his word because he was it's pretty open. I intend to request a trade as long as he gets his.

So I think that's fair. But the question becomes, how long is Micah Parsons going to be put in the game? How long is Micah Parsons going to be willing to go through this game with the Dallas Cowboys? Because you've already seen Miles Garrett get a new contract. T.J. Watt is next up.

And you know what? I think when T.J. Watt gets paid, that's what's going to set Micah Parsons off, because I've said this to Micah before. I think Micah just does not like T.J. Watt.

I think it goes back to the Defensive Player of the Year award ceremony last year when Miles Garrett won it. And he was annoyed that T.J. Watt didn't want to go or, you know, talked about, you know, how he was he was kind of upset that he didn't win. And whatever happened that night, it set Micah Parsons off. And ever since then, Micah Parsons doesn't like T.J. Watt. So when T.J. Watt gets paid and remember Micah Parsons, it was weird with us. He goes, he's a top five defensive player in the NFL, but he's not a top five pure pass rusher.

Stupid comment, but he's allowed to make it. So if Micah thinks he's a better pure pass rusher than T.J. Watt, when T.J. Watt gets a crazy record-breaking contract, isn't that's what going to ignite Micah Parsons if he doesn't get a deal by then? And, right, you still have other guys that need to be taken care of.

Trey Hendrickson is a name to watch. So I think that this is a brewing issue. But I'm hesitant to say issue. Because isn't this the way that the Cowboys operate their organization? Don't they want this? Don't they want speculation? Don't they want drama? Don't they want intrigue? And can we just be honest here? Has there been a big time player that Jerry Jones has actually wanted to keep that he hasn't been able to keep?

Like, just look at it recently. And I think Micah is bigger than Dak and I think Micah is bigger than C.D. But we just had all this speculation with C.D.

Lamb. We've had all this. They waited until the Sunday. The Sunday of the season started, the first football Sunday of the year to get the Dak Prescott stuff taken care of. So I don't think Jerry Jones is afraid to wait because ultimately I think Jerry Jones believes in Stephen Jones that they have to pay Micah Parsons.

And ultimately, I think Micah Parsons wants to stay with the Cowboys because the Cowboys kind of fit his brand as well. So I don't think, even though this will be segments, right, this will come up again on this show. You tune in to get up on ESPN. This will be a topic, inevitably, whatever the shows now are on F.S. one. I know Breakfast Ball with our buddy Craig Cardin, but whatever other shows they have, you know, some days, Joy Taylor's on them, some days she's not.

Wherever they move the manual, Ocho too. I know Nick Wright does an afternoon talk show on on F.S. one.

So whatever show you want on ESPN or F.S. one, they're going to eventually talk about or the Cowboys going to trade Micah Parsons. And is Micah Parsons worth the money? Oh, Micah Parsons frustrated. And I'll be clear, if I'm a team that needs a pass rusher, just like I said for Miles Garrett, I'd be given willing to give up two first round picks for Micah Parsons. I think Micah Parsons would go for two first round picks. Micah Parsons last year, when he played in 14 games, he had 13 sacks. Micah Parsons, what, fifty two and a half sacks in his career. He's been in the league for four years.

The dude is an elite pass rusher. So if the Cowboys don't want to play him, pay him, the Cowboys want to mess around with his money, then they could get a lot back for him. But with the two first round picks that you're going to get back for him.

And he's probably going to a contender, right? I would think if Micah Parsons gets traded, we're talking about the Cowboys. I would think if Micah Parsons gets traded, we're talking about the same teams that we were talking about.

Philadelphia would be out of. I don't think the Cowboys and Eagles are doing a trade. And maybe the commanders are out of it as well, because I don't know if the Cowboys and the commanders are doing a trade. But you tell me the Buffaloes of the world, you're telling me the Chiefs of the world, the Lions of the world, if they were interested or talked about for Miles Garrett, why wouldn't they be talked about for Micah Parsons? And also, I think actually Micah Parsons could be easier to trade the Miles Garrett, because at the time, Miles Garrett was selling the contender line. Now we know that ended up being a bunch of hogwash, but that was the line he was selling. I don't think, I'm not saying Micah Parsons doesn't want to win, but Micah Parsons right now in a situation where it's like, all right, you're on a big brand, but could Micah Parsons, let's say, get traded to a place like Atlanta and talk himself into Atlanta being a winning destination?

Yeah, he can. That's like one of the biggest fraud things in sports by the way. When a player says they want to go to a winning destination and then what they actually define as a winning destination. I think winning destination right now, if I had to give you teams, right? Eagles, Chiefs, you know, even Baltimore and Buffalo, like you could be considered a winning destination, a Super Bowl contender, and not actually win the championship. But then like you'll hear, great, Matt Judon. Remember last year when the Patriots traded him to Atlanta and Kaleis Campbell, I think it was two, a few years ago, he wound up in Atlanta.

I believe it was Kaleis Campbell. And they were like, I want to go to a winning destination. One of the Falcons winning. I don't know, like maybe an NFC South Crown? There's multiple levels into the winning destination thing.

And when it comes to money and getting the most money, you could look at a situation and say, it's a winning situation when we know it's not. So I don't buy it. I don't believe ultimately, here's what I know. I know the Micah Parsons thing's gonna get messy. I know because Jerry Jones wants it to get messy. And quite frankly, I don't think Micah Parsons minds it all that much either. But ultimately, if I'm sitting here and you're saying Zach, for his next contract, is it coming from the Cowboys or somewhere else? I would be shocked. Absolutely shocked if Micah Parsons does not get a long-term deal done with the Dallas Cowboys. I don't know when it's gonna happen, but I don't think it's if it's gonna happen.

Even though there will be days where we talk about it, because I know how publicly this is gonna get played out. Like you look at Dak, Seedy and Micah, from what Jerry Jones wants out of a football player. And Seedy already got paid, Dak already got paid. Who falls in line the most? And who is the definition of the way that Jerry Jones wants his football players to act?

And the way that he runs his organization? It's easily Micah. We don't hear Dak Prescott really starting up too much drama. Seedy lay him for a wide receiver, right?

Where you would think the stereotypes of the position, right? Drama, me, me, me, diva. Okay, occasionally you get like a crazy post from Dak or Seedy Lamb or from Micah from their family members, but it's never from really Dak or Seedy. I don't really see a lot of bitching on social media about the Cowboys from Dak or Seedy.

I think they're kind of just immune and numb to the way that Jerry Jones runs his organization. But you look at Micah, he'll make the comments. He'll create the drama. And Jerry will create the drama as well. It's almost as if Jerry Jones and Micah Parsons, they were made for each other.

Just the two of us. Seriously, they were made for one another. And if Jerry didn't allow Dak to walk out of the organization or Seedy to walk out of the organization, do I think they're going to allow Micah Parsons to walk out of the organization? Absolutely not. I don't even know if they get a deal done this off season.

I don't. Because remember, they slapped the franchise tag twice on Dak. They could technically do it twice with Micah Parsons. But the interesting part here is through all those, just the two times through the nasty negotiations and the stupid and pointless negotiations with Dak and the Cowboys, you didn't really hear much from Dak. With Micah being in the podcasting business too, you will hear a lot, a lot from Micah Parsons. So whether it's this off season, next off season or two off seasons from now, I would be really surprised if Micah Parsons doesn't get a long term deal done with the drama Dallas Chokin' Cowboys. And that's why I call them the drama Dallas Chokin' Cowboys, because there will be drama.

There is no doubt about it. And it's almost as if Micah Parsons, he was rolling up the sleeves last night, he was rolling up the sleeves last night, like 730. All right, Jerry, we haven't heard from the Cowboys in free agency.

Breaking news, the Cowboys have signed nobody. So now it's time. Let's roll the dice. Let's have a little fun. Jerry, I know what you want.

You know what I want. Let's dance. We're dancing for one another.

That's what we're doing. Jerry's going to dance at one point this off season and place and say something stupid. Micah's going to dance this off season and he's going to tweet or say something on a podcast. But ultimately, whether it's this off season, next season, all season after that, the Cowboys need Micah Parsons.

Micah Parsons needs the Cowboys and they will find a way to make Micah Parsons a very rich man and he will get a lucrative contract extension. We're going to remember the life of John Feinstein, who unfortunately did pass away at the age of 68 years old today with someone that was very close to him and someone that is a part of our network here, Andrew Bogus. John obviously was a part of the first lineup here at what was called CBS Sports Radio, which is now the Infinity Sports Network. And he brought Andrew Bogus here and Bogus is going to join us next to remember one of his mentors and long, long time friends in John Feinstein. Unfortunately, if you're just tuning in now and hearing this for the first time, we just found out right before we got on the air today that one of our former colleagues, John Feinstein, did pass away today at the age of 68.

All righty, welcome back in. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. It is a sad day today here for our network. Obviously, we were once called CBS Sports Radio and a part of the original lineup was John Feinstein, the legendary writer and so many bestselling books. And he was a host here on the network at the inception of the network. We found out right before we started the show today that unfortunately, he passed away at the age of 68. I know John entertained you, many of you listeners for so many years through his show, through his articles, through his books. And I always remember listening to his sports minutes. I talked about this with Ack and when the network did launch and I'm someone that grew up with New York radio roots, I would always listen to WFM with Mike and the Mad Dog.

I miss Boomer and Craig, you know, the 3000 midday shows that they had at WFM. But I heard about the network. You know, I you know, it's crazy that I've hosted here for so many years now, but I tuned in as a fan.

And obviously, like Rome is a huge, credible name. And he's like he was always a different entity compared to the network. But I remember when the network launch, I heard the name John Feinstein. And for me, that was a huge, credible name for CBS Sports Radio. And unfortunately, John passed away today.

We found out at the age of 68. Andrew Bogus, our colleague was very close with John and he's kind enough to join us for a few minutes. Bogues, I know tough circumstances today, but appreciate you doing this.

My condolences and thanks so much for joining us. Yeah, Zach, thanks for having me. Certainly a crappy day for for all of us, for the many, many, many, many, many people that knew John worked with John loved or hated John. And for all of us at the network to make can't believe that the show was 1213 years ago, it's a long time has passed as john was on the air. But you know, I'm sitting here laughing, you mentioning his sports minutes, because we always knew when they aired back in the day, because that usually was when our Twitter handle got the busiest with people mostly yelling at john in disagreement with those sports minutes. Yeah, and I'll like peel back the curtain a little bit on the sports minutes. Like I don't write much, right? I sit down, I do the show, I give you the take.

And you know, whatever comes out of my mouth. That's just the way they were also actual sports minutes back then. Now they're 23 seconds.

Now they're even tougher. But like you write those, and then you have to read them. And I never liked the whole writing and then and then, you know, read, you know what you're saying to the audience.

But it's to no surprise. And I don't know john's entire process. But we know his legendary writer he was, you know, you may have not liked what he had to say, you may not have agreed with it. But it was a purposeful minute that he actually gave you where it was always something that it's crazy how one minute can stick with with people for a while with what john was able to do. Oh, yeah, I mean, he did not he did not skimp on a minute, you got 50 seconds of thought.

Again, it might have been irrational, it might have been something completely against your belief system. But he brought it to you now, to really pull the curtain back, he was surprisingly not good at facts in those sports minutes. So the guys in our newsroom who had to cut that, and not usually, you know, you got to trim it down, get it to the right timeframe.

But you can trust that what's in there is right. But john gave them an extra layer of work because, you know, a year might be wrong. It might have been 89, not 98. It might have been George, not Gary, somebody's first name. He was kind of like an absent minded professor. And for everything that he knew, sometimes the facts got scrambled on their way out.

And he did and they needed fixing. Andrew bogus here with us. I remember one of our own john finds, you know, unfortunately passed away today at the age of 68. So I know you guys work together. I know you guys were close. I didn't know that he actually brought you to the network.

Tell me about that. Yeah, he was at he and I, me longer, but we were both at Sirius XM before the network started. And I had kind of all I, you know, it was a new venture. Our old boss, Eric Spitz, who was the head of our network and WFAN. You know, I had pestered him for a long time for different jobs. And then this one popped up and somebody else had said, Hey, you should send your tape to Spitz because he's hiring for this new network. So I kind of already started to apply, so to speak, but then john got this the midday show kind of the mid morning.

It was 9am to noon Eastern. And I had filled in john was doing a show at serious with Bruce Murray, another good friend of mine who is still there at Sirius. And a couple of times Bruce had been out. And I filled in for john enough to make an impression and john light working with me. And the idea was to find somebody to be with him, not a co host, but just somebody to be else also be in the room. And I don't know how many other people were involved. I don't know if I was the first or the eighth choice. But I know that, you know, john was when my name was presented to john, he was he okayed me coming aboard.

So yeah, I mean, it was not like, Hey, you know, let's go together. But he I don't know that I would have been there if he wasn't the person who got hired to do that three hour slot. So from the early days of the network, when you would tune into a john Feinstein show, and you'd be in there and you know, and you know, beat a part of the show, you know, kind of described to the listener that maybe wasn't familiar with john's legendary career, and they're just they're tuning in today, what you would kind of get on a john Feinstein show? I mean, you would get a guy who, who knew everybody and had an opinion on everything, which at times was taxing, because like, there were things that you know, what we'd be like, why does this bother you? How did you know about this, to then have an opinion on it, but that's why he was good at writing. And that's why he was good on the radio as a guest and as a host, because he always had something to say, he knew people and he was a journalist in the truest sense of the word. So, you know, when he thought about something, and kind of fleshed out an argument, he would talk to people who could help or refute what he was thinking, like, everything was done correctly and deeply and processed. So and sometimes it was crazy.

Like, I mean, there were times where we couldn't believe what he was talking about, or couldn't have disagreed more with his take on things. But you got you didn't nothing was mailed in. Nothing was at 50%.

Everything was full speed, everything was 100%. It could be good, it could be bad, it could be annoying, it could be genius. It could have been all of those things for everybody listening.

But you just you got a lot in three hours, you got some complaints, you got some whining, you got some good thoughts, you got some bad thoughts, you got some great interviews. It was a lot it was a show that definitely was unique. It was. It wasn't always for everybody.

It wasn't all it john I think had kind of geographical borders to a certain extent where he played best and where he didn't based on his thoughts on a lot of things. But it was a it was a good radio show. I thought it served its purpose for three for those three hours you you didn't know what you were going to get when you started the show. It could be something crazy political or it could be a 90 minute Dean Smith, like, you know, kind of retrospective, it could have been anything.

And on most days, I thought it was pretty fun. And you know what, usually this time of the year, I think of john Feinstein, because I remember especially his interviews with in college basketball season with March Madness, those were always a treat to listen to. I mean, it is it was it took some getting used to obviously I knew who he was long before I ever met him at Sirius and before I came to CBS to work with him. So I knew who he was. But to be next to him for those two plus years, seeing it in reality, it was shocking, like the amount of people really, really significant, important people in college basketball in particular college football as well, that wanted to talk to him that came that sought him out. I mean, I sat with him one year when the NCAA tournament was at Madison Square Garden. And he was on the phone with a still I can't name out loud, but a prominent college basketball coach, giving him advice on another job, leaving the current one he had to go take one at a bigger conference.

And this person had called him to get his opinion on whether he should leave school a for school B. And if I remember correctly, he stayed where he was, because that was part of John's argument. So like that, that's how sick, that's how significant he was like, you know, Coach K, Dean Smith, Jim Valvano, but like, these people opened up to him like nobody else. I mean, it's starting with the Bob Knight book that made john who he was that started this legendary Hall of Fame career. The the deference that legends had for him and the fanboying sometimes that these legends had of him, it never got old, and it was always surprising.

So give me the story because I saw your tweet when you're remembering your friend john fine seat unfortunately passed away today at the age of 68. Coach K once prank called you. So obviously john and Coach K are very close because john went to Duke and then covered Duke and ACC basketball for the entire time. Before Coach K was even there before he was Coach K. So Coach Kim, he came up often on the show, and came on the show once or twice. And that led me to start saying that coach liked me more than john, that we were the better friends, not him and john. So one day, all of a sudden, he takes a phone call out of nowhere. He says, Hey, I think this is Mike in North Carolina is on the phone.

And it's a chef ski. Wow, calling me Arnold bogus instead of Andrew bogus and saying how tight we are. And I might still have it. I still can't believe it. Fast forward a couple years later, Coach K is in our building, promoting I think a book. And I introduced myself to him. He had no memory of this.

No recollection. There's a picture of me holding up one of john's books with Coach K in the hallway right outside of where you're sitting right now. And he's he has no idea why any of this is funny, why I'm talking to him.

And it's one of my favorite moments ever. And it happened because of john, then coach K called in out of nowhere. So he's still being coach K and decided to mess with me for 15 minutes for fun.

That's awesome. Andrew bogus here with us. So I'm reading this tweet. Give me the Brad Stevens story Brad Stevens got mad at you. Is that true?

So Brad Stevens came on as Butler head coach Brad Steve. Yeah. And john and I need to preface this like john didn't have to let me talk to these people when they came on the show. I was because usually when you have like a solo host, you don't usually hear from right update anchors or the behind the scenes people while while the guests are on. I was not the co host of the show. By definition, there is nothing in a contract.

There was nothing in it. I was not the co host of the show. But you kind of were really, but I was I was on the show a lot, almost like a co host and he let me interview these people with him. And when Brad Stevens came on as the Butler coach, before we went to the Celtics, I was trying to ask him a question about what he can't do at Butler in terms of like recruiting and stuff like that. And I just, it was delivered poorly.

I eat like just from a structure standpoint, I didn't say it confidently. And I think he was insulted that I was kind of knocking Butler, which was not my intention. We were just trying to explain in my mind, like walk us through how Butler's not Duke how Butler's not North kind of like what's the biggest obstacle to success at Butler. And so he was perturbed.

I don't think he was that that mad in the moment. But it became a running thing that I had angered Brad Stevens on the show. Fast forward to the final four in Atlanta. And john and I and our producer Max Herman are walking between a hotel and a restaurant, I guess. And we see Brad Stevens and Mrs. Stevens walking down the street towards us. And Brad right away, shakes john's hand, how you doing? And john goes, and this is Andrew and Brad had known about the running joke.

And he just looks at me and walks right past us with his wife doesn't say a word doesn't shake his hand turns around, laugh and everything's fine. But like in the middle of this, but again, here's this is Brad Stevens, the other head coach, and he's on the street messing with me again, because of john. That's it's wild, especially the impact that he had in the college basketball community. Give me one more because I see the tweet and I'm not familiar with the story. You almost got fired over something with Frank Vogel. Yeah, this one.

This is a bad one. So Frank, so john, one of john's many things as a host, and you know this because you're you just came back from the Super Bowl. john with every fiber of his being hated sponsored guest interviews. If if you were coming on and you were selling laundry detergent or a sneaker or a sports drink you weren't coming on.

Like it we the we turned down too many people because we had to mention Clorox or something along the way. And this particular one, Frank Vogel, I guess was in between he had just gotten fired by the Pacers maybe like it was Frank Vogel was in the news. They would have been a coup to have Frank Vogel on promoting the Dallas as soon shampoo, and john wouldn't do it because of the because of the promo attached to it. And here's where I made the mistake I could have and I did say to him like, I think you're making a mistake.

We are. We need to have Frank Vogel on the show because he's a new like he's in the news right now. And john wouldn't do it. And he wouldn't budge because he was a man of principles. And I couldn't give up the fight because frankly, I was nervous about, you know, like, I didn't know where the show was gonna go. And we were like, year to year, all the shows of network early kind of were fighting for their lives.

Yeah. So I wanted to have Frank Vogel on for the good of the show. So people would write up these stories or Frank Vogel told john Feinstein this. And so I kind of passive aggressively mentioned to our boss, that Frank Vogel was no longer coming on the show. So the so then our boss got angry. I went back to john and said, You need to have Frank Vogel on. And that led to a very kind of come to Jesus moment at john's pizza near the studio about we got to do with when it matters because john's name is on the show.

We have to do things the way john wants to and in particular, you pseudo going behind his back was not the best course of business by me. And he was 100% right then. And he's still right now, although we should have had Frank Vogel on.

I was right about that part. The stories are great. Um, if you had to look back at your time here working with him, like years later, and you know, I know it's tough to do on today when we find that when he passed away, john Feinstein said the age of 68. But bogs like how do you look back on that time together with him working here, launching this new network? I mean, it was it was great.

We went to two Super Bowls went to two Final Fours. I met all of these ridiculously famous people and like john's ridiculously famous. He is an all timer from his books to the Washington Post.

I mean, he's he is an all timer. And he likes me and I don't like I don't know why I take No, I'm fairly cool. Yeah, I don't I don't take that.

I don't take that lightly, though. Like I he, he didn't like a lot of people. And a lot of people didn't like him. And I liked him and he liked me and we got along and I appreciate the fact that, you know, he picked up the phone whenever I called and he called me on his own.

And he still called me Arnold up until thanks to coach K up until our last conversation last month. You know, our daughters are the same age, we trade holiday cards. I mean, he's a legitimate friend. And I had 15 of his books before meeting him. And now I think I have all of them because I bought both of them to kind of kiss up to him along the way. So again, I just, you know, I got I've got a lot of cool things because of him. And I can't, I can't ever repay him for that. I can't ever thank him enough for that. Well, I said, you know, obviously, Boggs, I wish we were having you on under better circumstances, but appreciate you. Give us a few minutes today.

Remember your friend John Feinstein, who obviously so many people know in the sports world and many of our listeners know when the network first launched, unfortunately passed away today at the age of 68. Thank you, Boggs. No, thank you, Zach.

I appreciate the time. You got it. There he is. Andrew Boggish, some great stories. Remember the life of John Feinstein.

This is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. Rest in peace to John Feinstein. Our condolences, obviously, to his family and all of his friends and also many listeners today who I know that this is a day that could be tough on many people that consume John, whether it was his articles, his books are obviously right here on the radio for so many years.

It's got the latest update. And here's Rich Ackerman. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports.

Let's start things off. Adam Schefter was on with Jen, Gabe and Chewy on ESPN Milwaukee, and he gave the latest on the Aaron Rodgers decision. To me, this shouldn't be that hard, right? Like the Steelers want you. The Giants want you. We're seeing players across the league make decisions.

It shouldn't be that hard. Either you want to play or you don't. You want to play Pittsburgh or you don't. You want to play in New York or you don't.

Like, Chewy, what do you have for lunch? You make a decision. You drag it out for four days, five days a week. It's not that hard.

Make the decision and live with it. So I'm with him, but this is what Aaron Rodgers does. If there isn't drama, he'll find a way to make drama out of it. And that's what he's doing right now.

Here is Pat McAfee, close friend of one Aaron Rodgers on his own show, The Pat McAfee Show on the ESPN. And he's talked about Rodgers future after the photo that everyone saw yesterday of Aaron Rodgers at the beach. Seems like he was contemplating a lot of things. I think that is currently what he's in the middle of. Do I want to play still?

And it's not coming from messages to me because once again, I've been trying to get answers and have not been getting answers. I don't think a lot of people have been because I think Aaron's trying to find answers right now on what does he want to do? Does he want to commit to another year? Did the Jets situation make him want to play football and prove himself? Or did the Jets situation make him say, I don't know if I want to go through all of that again? We don't know still at this case, at this point, if Aaron wants to play. Aaron Rodgers is making a massive decision with what he's gonna do at this stage of his career.

Whether it's walk away or go play in Pittsburgh for legendary team Pittsburgh Steelers. After seeing this photo, it's like I think he's deeply contemplating a lot. I mean, you're not going down to the beach and looking out into the great unknown. Oh, stop.

With, yeah, plugged into who knows, could be anything. What are you contemplating? He's making it out as if there's 10,000 options. There's two teams interested in you right now. So there's three choices to make.

You sign with the Steelers, you sign with the Giants, or you retire. Stop. This is ridiculous.

Diana Rossini with Gojo and Golic. And this is Diana Rossini on Aaron Rodgers' plan. Yeah, we're waiting. Everybody is waiting. Everyone's frustrated.

I can tell you that. Um, I feel like the New York Giants are almost at a point right now where they're just ignoring it and they're just trying to find another plan in case this doesn't work out. I think the Steelers don't have as many options. There's not been a lot of communication with the player directly, despite the fact that contracts have been discussed, you know, the structures of them, the money. Um, and in the meantime, you've got the Minnesota Vikings here lurking and they haven't made a decision just yet. They've had conversations over the last few days about whether or not they really want to do this.

Does this work? But I just think it's hard, right? Because we know what it comes with. We know how Aaron Rodgers likes to run an offense. Kevin O'Connell likes to run an offense a very particular way with a lot of control. Whereas I think you look at Pittsburgh and I feel like Rodgers could go there with Arthur Smith and probably have a lot of say in what they're going to do.

Can we just call a spade a spade here? No one knows what they're talking about with Aaron Rodgers. And it doesn't mean that Dan Orsini is not credible. Obviously Adam Schefter, we know what his career is.

No one knows. Aaron Rodgers ain't talking to these people. They're just not. So do I buy that the Vikings are really seriously like mulling over Aaron Rodgers? Personally, I don't think so.

Let's get to Shane Gilders Alexander. The Thunder last night did defeat the Boston Celtics and this is SGM the importance of beating the defending world champs. It's huge. Like just because they've done it like because they've done what we're trying to do. The games against them are always going to be heightened. They're always going to be a little bit more exciting. They've like I said achieved what we're trying to accomplish and there's no better test in the NBA. Like you play for late June and they're the team that won late June. So playing against them is always fun.

Always a really big challenge and something that we get to test ourselves against and I guess we passed two tests so far. 90's 100% right. It's a big statement and people keep on crapping on the Thunder and trying to take away for them because they haven't done it yet. They've been the best team in basketball this season. Let's go to Patrick Dumont, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

He commented on the Luka Doncic trade. Tough decisions are never easy. Part of leadership is looking at risk and looking at all the factors of a decision and being willing to act at that time and look to the long term and not only think about the short term or how it may be received immediately and so we had to decide how do we get better. What can we do to improve our team and so we looked at our trajectory during the season and realized that we did not get better but the teams that we competed against some of which we beat did get better.

So this was a decision about the future. If you look at our roster today and who we have we feel like we position ourselves to be incredibly competitive against the best teams in the NBA and if you're a fan of basketball you have Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, Anthony Davis and either Daniel Gafford or Derek Lively as your starting five. That's going to put fear into a lot of teams in the league if we can get going. We want to win championships.

We want to be a winning franchise for the city of Dallas and we want to be one of character and one where we sort of carry on the legacy the Dallas Mavericks in the right way. Stop it. You guys made a dumb trade.

All right, that's the bottom line there. Let's go to Rick Pitino. One of his players had to receive a lot of IV fluids before the game because it's obviously Ramadan and Rick Pitino only he could get away with an answer like this. This is some answer by Coach Pitino. Sadiku said he's getting a lot of IV fluids before the game while it's dark. He's getting IV fluids before the game which helps the Ramadan.

I asked him, I asked the trainers and him can we get something in the IV to help his defense. They said they said they're gonna work on that. It's unbelievable. That could be my favorite audio clip so far of the year. Here is John Calipari. They're up by three. He instructed his player with two and a half seconds left to miss a free throw. This was John Calipari and the odd reasoning for the end of the game free throws. He tried to miss it. He shot it flat and banked it in. You're up three and there's two seconds to go miss it. By the time they get it there's a second. Now the other side of that is what if they throw one deep and bank it in. But I've done it before so I do some unconventional stuff and he banked it in and I was like happy.

It's amazing and that obviously was from yesterday. Today Arkansas ended up losing to Ole Miss so that was from yesterday when the Razorbacks did win and they lost to Ole Miss today by a final score of 83 to 80 but it was an interesting strategy. Finally here's Coleman Hawkins. A Kent State transfer breaks down after a bad year transferring from Illinois to Kansas State. These guys haven't experienced some of the things I've experienced and I really wanted to come in and impact the program. I'm sorry for crying but it hurts but I really wanted to come in impact the program and I feel like I let a lot of people down.

I feel like I did a poor job of letting people talk about me and affect my play and it was evident all year and I wish I could just go back and block out everything not for myself but for the team so we could have a more successful year. I actually respect it and I get it he's in his early 20s he's 23 years old I remember him at Illinois he's a phenomenal player there. Sometimes when you play the transfer portal game it works out for you sometimes it doesn't there's going to be criticism praise either way and that really gets to someone so I appreciate in an era where there isn't a lot of loyalty I know he left Illinois just hear the commitment and how much he really wanted to succeed at Kansas State. Stu, Samter, Act, thank you each and every one of you. Appreciate it. We'll talk to you tomorrow on a Friday. I'm Zach Gelb. I'm out. Bye-bye. Talk to you tomorrow everybody. 3 p.m. Eastern Union Pacific time. Peace.