Tatum Tantalizes (Hour 2)

Alrighty, our number two of our radio program. That's right, it is the Zach Gelb show coast-to-coast on CBS Sports Radio. Time to update you on some of the biggest stories of the day with some audio.

We call this segment The News Brief. Most points ever in a game 7, 51 yesterday as the Celtics open up a can of whoop-ass on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6ers, 10, 9, 8, 76ers. Jason Tatum says he was excited to redeem himself in game 7. Coming off last game, you know, obviously finished strong but not starting off, you know, the way I wanted and especially with our season being on the line last game.

I was just excited to, we had another opportunity today as a team, you know, for myself just to kind of bounce back. You got to see Jason Tatum with his back up against the wall take his game to that different level. Because it is not easy when you are the star of a team in a game 6 facing elimination when everyone thought you guys were going to win the series to be as bad as Jason Tatum was in the first three quarters. And then in game 6 in the fourth quarter just go off where he had 16 points in the fourth quarter and somehow outscored the entire team for the Philadelphia 76ers. But once that moment happens, it was almost as if Jason Tatum could exhale and I know he said he put a lot of pressure on himself entering game 7, he wanted to redeem himself. But he really did that because even though everyone praised him for what he did in the fourth, he took it hickey as a different way.

I want to do that for the entirety of the game. And if Jason Tatum really wanted to, he could have scored 70 points yesterday, at least 60. But that game was over after the conclusion of the third quarter. But what a game yesterday by Jason Tatum and he was backed into a corner and up against all odds with all the people standing in his way, he found the way by himself to just throw haymaker after haymaker after haymaker and he found the way to get out of that corner. I understand the word about to use here doesn't technically describe what he is, but he played like a champion these last really 55 minutes because we're talking about a guy that up until the last six minutes of the fourth quarter in game 6 was one of 14.

One of 14, it's so easy to go in the tank, give up, not want the ball, pass it and say, Jalen, I don't have it, you take it this game, marker smart, you bail me out. He kept shooting and then figured it out and obviously prevailed to lead the Sixers to win in game 6 and then game 7 was unstoppable, was unconscious. And that's truly, even though he doesn't have a ring on his finger, that's truly what a champion does is bounce back and not only prevail in the face of adversity, play your best when your team needs you the most.

Well, I'll use his words. I don't even have to go to the championship. It's his words were he was one of the best players on the planet. You say that, you can't do what Jalen Beat did in a game 7, a no-show. If you're going to talk that talk after game 6, even though you extended the series and played great in the fourth quarter, you needed to have one of those performances in a game 7. You needed to do everything in your power to win and that's what Jason Tatum did. Let's go to the coach of the Celtics, Joe Mazzulla, who is proud of the team staying level-headed throughout the entire series.

One game, one play can change the course of a series, can change the course of a couple games and so he did it personally and our team did it to where we just handled the ebbs and flows of a series, never got too emotionally high or too emotionally low. We had rough patches but we were able to keep our emotional togetherness intact which I think is important during the playoffs. Early on, I thought the Sixers were playing some solid basketball.

Now the stars that they needed to step up didn't step up but for a while early, the Sixers looked like the better team. But Hickey, really that turning point in the game and it just shows you that you need one little thing and then that's how weak the Philadelphia 76ers are. Like they must have been up like six or seven points, I forget exactly what it was, when James Harden loses control of the ball and hits one of the Celtics players with an elbow. And right when that occurred in TD Garden, those fans at the Boston Garden are great.

I've been to games there, that is one of the loudest buildings I've ever been to and I've been to so many arenas around the country. Those fans really did start to wake up once that flagrant foul was called. And then right away it looked like the Sixers were the better team and then quickly you just saw, it's like something just overtook the Celtics and they needed that little sip of coffee to just kind of get them going and then it was a blowout after that. It's funny with Jason Tatum having the 51-point game, you could argue two of the turning points how to do Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown's a recipient of that flail from James Harden.

He's bleeding. And Jalen Brown is also the recipient of George Nying grabbing his knee on the bench and that caused an entire controversy. Why that was double text and why even Jalen Brown got a text in that situation was ridiculous. But again, you see the replay, the fans got juiced, they got jacked and you kind of maybe even sensed there, Sixers are starting to panic a little bit and doing some uncharacteristically stupid things when you don't have to do it.

That was just, I mean, what are you doing? It was close to Draymond kind of territory. Should have ejected for that, frankly. Grabbing the knee of a player on the court is... We've had a lot of interesting placement of hands and elbows during the postseason going back to previous rounds. I thought we were going to have another one the other day when he grabbed the leg. Can I ask a really weird question, but like this was on my brain even like two weeks ago.

Okay. Do you recall, now that we're tracking this a lot, like I feel like this postseason has had more... Crotch grabbing? Crotch punching, crotch involvement more than I could ever remember. It's almost like once again now someone's getting hit where they shouldn't and it's not getting hit in the groin. It's someone grabbing another body part yesterday, grabbing the knee of Jalen Brown for no reason. The hands of players have been going places they should not have, all postseason long more than I can truly remember.

And like, did you really think you were going to get away with it? I know the ref didn't see it originally, but they go right to the monitor and it's clear as clear could be. Because at first I was like, what is Jalen Brown doing just staring down the other team? I go, for a guy that's been in a lot of big games, he should know better than that. But if I got grabbed like that on my knee, I would say, dude, you're in my house, bleep you.

And I'm surprised they didn't go to a different level. Like, what is Niang even thinking? Like, oh, I'm going to throw him off his game, no one's going to see me?

Like, I'm not going to get caught? Well, you know people, when they're not part of the game, they try to act like the class clown to make themselves recognize. And he did that yesterday. Let's go to Joel Embiid.

So this was going around that he threw his teammates under the bus. We'll play the entire thing. Listen up, cut five. We got the chance to win, but it's going to take more than us. We all got to look at ourselves. I got to be better and I will be better.

That's what I'm focused on. You know, all of us, we got to come back and find ways to just keep improving and help the team. You can't win alone. I can't win alone. Me and James, we just can't win alone.

My basketball team has played 5 on 5, so we just need everybody to just try to keep finding ways to get better and we'll be fine. So I get everything gets clipped these days on social media and you don't get to see the entire thing. When I first saw that quote go around, I'm like, wow, Embiid, how lame could you be? And you just make excuses and you're just throwing other people under the bus when you and James Harden were both terrible. You hear the entire thing. And I went back and I watched the entire press conference. He said it like 9000 times. So he has to be better. And it kept on getting asked about the future of James Harden.

So I think that was like a buildup. You probably should have never said we can't do it alone, but it doesn't come off as the way that it's been blasted around when you hear the entire context or everyone's making out to be the only part that Joel Embiid said in a press conference yesterday was that him and James Harden can't do it alone when you hear the entire clip. And even in the one we just played, the entire press conference, he did blame a lot himself and even heard him starting by saying, I got to be better.

I will be better. What I'll say is this with how he played in Game 7, winning the MVP, he's sure he's right that it's a full team effort and we see teams with no depth lose and lose quickly. I would just say, I would stick to it's on me, period. Don't bring anyone else into it. Don't bring the depth into it. That was on Embiid in Game 7.

Leave it that way. It's actually crazy that he did 20 minutes yesterday with the media. That was his best performance from yesterday, spending 20 minutes with the media.

Because other than that, he was terrible on the court. How many times does a big superstar screw up in a big game and then you hear like a very short press conference, like a 90 second press conference? Or in the case of Devin Booker and Dylan Brooks, no show at the press conference altogether. No press conference whatsoever. I was talking about stars. Bum Brooks is not a star.

Devin Booker exited the stage left as soon as that series ended. Bum Brooks probably could not have been playing in this country next year, if I'm being honest. He missed his chance at one last press conference. We're going to get requests from overseas. Hey, you want to come on as a guest? You want to talk about Dylan Brooks? Please, please take him.

Please, we need the publicity. I actually, out of the whole press conference, this is my biggest problem with Embiid. Embiid tried to be like Giannis Antetokounmpo a little bit yesterday. Listen up. For me, I just look at it, you know, it's a good step. Like someone said, it was not a failure, you know, a step to success.

But yeah, you just got to, you know, it's tough. So clearly he's doing the whole Giannis thing. He's laughing as he says that if you watch it. That was the one moment where I'm like, Embiid, you can't be trolling yesterday. You can't be saying something that stupid because I think he was making fun of Giannis in that spot. And when you're that bad and you played that poorly in a game and that dude's won a championship, I thought that was a bad look.

That was the one bad look yesterday in the Embiid press conference for me. Do you think he was trolling or being serious? Like you think he was trolling and more making fun of Giannis than anything else?

Yes. He's smiling when he does it. I wasn't sure. I got to say, I kind of took it as he's saying it. No, and he's smiling because he knows deep down no one's going to believe it. I looked at it as he was smiling, knowing how ridiculous the Giannis thing was. He was kind of using that how much Giannis was praised by some people for what he said.

I think that's what he was doing there. I personally hope I'm right in the sense that he was saying it thinking no one's believing because if you're right, that is 50 times worse. If you are taking that opportunity after that game to then troll a player that is better than you, that has accomplished a lot more than you, that is low.

And that is talking about what your standards or your priorities are nowhere near where they should be. I have not been in an Embiid press conference for years. I do love Joel Embiid, but I've been in many Joel Embiid press conferences. Knowing his personality, that wouldn't surprise me what I just said whatsoever.

Let's go to James Harden. He's asked about his relationship with Doc Rivers. When you got here, you said that one of the reasons you wanted to come, if I'm not mistaken, was Doc.

How has your relationship been with Doc, and would you like to see him back? Uh, I mean, our relationship is okay. Hey Zach, how's your relationship with Hickey? Um, yeah, okay. That's real believable. What a douche.

Seriously. What a douche James Harden is. You were horrible in the game yesterday.

You're, for the most part, usually horrible-hearted in the postseason. And that's what you say about your coach? I don't care if you can't stand the guy.

I don't care if you think he's an overrated coach, which you're not wrong. But James Harden having an issue with Doc Rivers is laughable to me. Because what did James Harden do yesterday? He was out of shape, he barely moved, and he did nothing. It's amazing the lack of accountability in this entire organization.

Harden's pointing the finger at Doc, and Bede, and he always gets a pass from people. It's like, what are they doing yesterday? This is not a tough press conference. We sucked, I gotta be better.

I'm horrible. But they just keep on giving you drama after drama. It's amazing. I can't believe that.

It's really crazy. Steve Kerr says the Warriors have reached their ceiling with this current team. To be fair, I think this team probably, ultimately maxed out. This is not a championship team. If we were, we'd be moving on. Which is interesting that he said that about this team, because a few days prior, I heard him say after a game that he still thinks this group has a lot to give. So I know he's talking about just that game and this team, but that's the weird part to me, Hickey.

It's like, you say that, but then a few days later it sounded completely different. Oh, we have that too. Let's go to Cut11. Steve Kerr says the Warriors still can compete for a championship. Draymond, Klay, Steph, our core guys, they've got plenty left off. There's still plenty in the tank. I thought they all had great seasons and may not have ended on a high note, but all three guys are still high-level players, and I still feel like this team has championship potential.

We didn't get there this year, but it's not like this is the end of the road. Hickey, you just heard those two cuts the same way that I heard them as well, right? And from the same press conference. Oh, that was from the same press conference.

Like literally minutes apart, the answer of this team is not a championship team, and this core can still compete for championships. Because that second clip, he must have said it something similar. The guy does a lot of interviews and a different interview, because when I heard the first one, I was like, wait, I could have sworn I heard an interview that he did the other day where he's talking about how this team still has a championship window with guys that have years and years of experience left, and still to give.

That makes no sense whatsoever. Is that him just crushing Wiggins and Poole? That's what it sounds like. I was just going to say, that's what I would take it as, is he still thinks those three guys still can compete, but everyone else basically stinks and they need an overhaul.

Yeah. Klay looks... What else are you saying? I hate to say it, but Klay looks like he'll never be the player that he once was, and it stinks because injuries, unfortunately, are going to limit that, how much longer and how great he could be in his career.

And Draymond, if they keep on just blindly turning and supporting Draymond, that's something I don't get. All right, he will take a time out here. Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. Everett Fitzhugh will join us. The play-by-play voice of the Kraken as the Kraken gets set for Game 7 coming up in about 40 minutes against the Dallas Stars.

That's the voice of Everett Fitzhugh, who is the play-by-play voice of the Seattle Kraken. We've become a big fan of his throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs as you play his calls all the time. The Kraken have forced a Game 7 that will come your way tonight up against the Dallas Stars. In Dallas, we're almost down to the final four teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs we know in the East. That is set in the Easter Conference Finals with Carolina and Florida, and in the West, we know that Vegas is through after taking down Edmonton last night in six games. And after tonight, we'll know who that fourth team is and who will be joining Vegas in the Western Conference Finals as puck drop is expected to be at 8 p.m. Eastern between Seattle and Dallas. Everett Fitzhugh now joins us.

Everett, appreciate the time. How are you? Hey, I'm doing well.

I will be honest with you. The nerves are up there, right? I mean, every sports cliche that you can imagine going into Game 7 is real, and it's fun to be in this position, though. It's been an incredible season for Seattle. Last year, their first year in the league, they only had 60 points. A year later, they had a 40-point turnaround in the regular season, and they had 100 points this year. If I would have told you, Everett, if we had a conversation before the year that your team that you called the games for would be 60 minutes away from the Western Conference Finals, what the heck could you have said to me?

I mean, in the words of the great Kevin Garnett, anything's possible, right? Listen, last season, we understand, we know that the record, the numbers weren't where people wanted to be. But I tell you what, in preseason, and even during camp, you could start to see a little bit of specialness with this team. You knew this team had something that was missing last year. There was a full team buy-in this season. From the beginning, there was that commitment to playing the heavy four-check style that Dave Haxtall likes to play.

But you knew within that locker room something was different. You added in Andre Burakovsky. You go out and bring in the Oliver Bjorkstrand. Yanni Gord is another year under his belt within the organization.

That core is together. Brandon Tanev and Jayden Schwartz, who were injured a lot of last season, you get them back on a full-time basis. Then the season goes along in November. December comes along.

You pick up Ellie Tolbinen off of waivers. It just seems like all throughout the year, there was a little bit extra that was added. And even when the Kraken were going through some of their downturns and a few of those little, you know, they would lose three of four, they would lose five of seven, things like that, they were able to turn things around quickly. And again, I just felt it earlier in the year that there was something special about this team. I wouldn't have said, you know, 60 minutes away from conference finals, but, you know, maybe making a playoff run. A lot of people thought that 500 just above, just below battling for a playoff spot in the final month of the season would have been a good bar to set.

But, I mean, they've blown everyone's expectations out of the water. And Matty Beniers has been sensational for you guys as well. Just what has really jumped out to you in his first full year? You know, every level that Matty Beniers has played at, he has never looked out of place. Whether it be junior, whether it be the college level, the international stage, he has always looked like he belongs.

And the same thing with the NHL. You had that 10-game tryout for him last season at the end of the year. He puts up nine points, you know, and you're like, wow, okay, this kid is special. We knew we were getting a special kid, but now we can see him in an NHL light. Full training camp, full summer preparation, now you get him into the beginning of the season, and he takes off like wildfire.

He does have that dip there midway through the season. This is the most games that he's ever played in his hockey career at any level throughout the course of a season, but he never wavered. He always works. You know, he is a big cliché guy.

First guy on, last guy off. He's always taking up extra shots. He's always putting up extra time. He wants to get better. And the one thing that Dave Hackstall says about Matty Badiers is that he's coachable. Compared him to T.J. Oshie when Hackstall coached Oshie at North Dakota, compared him to him in the way that he's willing to learn. He wants to learn. He wants to get better. And he is so mature already at this level, and it's no wonder why he's had the success that he's had. I mean, he has deserved every bit of what he's gotten this year, and he's earned, and he's worked hard for it.

Talking to the voice of Seattle Kraken, Everett Fitzhugh on the Zach Geld show, as you do have game seven tonight between Seattle and Dallas. I was in Philly when Dave Hackstall was the coach of the Flyers, and sometimes it's just not a fit between the coach and the city. I know he did make the playoffs twice in his short tenure there. Hackstall's done a really incredible job. I know some people are raising their eyebrow a little bit when he got the job in Seattle. Just what has really jumped out to you about the growth and the way that Hackstall's really developed this team? You know, I think develop is such a key word there, because how many times do you see a management team, whether it be the GM, the president, whoever, pulling the strings at the top, how many times do you see those folks build a team around a specific coach's style? It might not have been intentionally done.

Maybe it was. But the way that Dave Hackstall coaches, he is a guy that loves speed. He likes fast pace. He likes to set the tempo, the heavy forecheck, the clogging up of the neutral zone.

Everyone gets a touch. You look at the way that this roster is constructed, and this is pretty much set up for Dave as well as the team to succeed. And I think, you know, he's learned a lot about himself since that last coaching job with the Flyers. Obviously, he was an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Him and I have talked both on and off record, you know, just about some of the changes and how he's grown and how he's learned. But I think, you know, in this situation, in this arena that he's in now in Seattle, you've got a great group of players around him. You've got the staff that is willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. And he always gives the credit to the assistant coaches, you know, with Dave Lowry, Paul McFarland, Jay Leach, the guys he has around him, Steve Brier, our goaltending coach here in Seattle. He gives the credit to those guys because they have all around made him a better coach and obviously it allows him the ability to do what he does best. So I think for Dave Hacksall, you know, he's gotten the full team buy-in. He's gotten guys to believe into his system and believe in what he wants to do. And I remember a conversation with Carson Susi earlier in the season, and he was telling me, he's like, man, the way that Dave likes to play, it's tough. It's hard.

It's exhausting. But when we do it effectively, there aren't many teams that can beat us and it's been fun to buy in to his system. So he's got the guys on board. And like we said, I mean, he is, he's one game away, 60 minutes away from reaching, you know, the first conference final in his career and in Seattle's brief history. It's kind of crazy ever fits you because if the Kraken take care of business tonight, the Western Conference Finals are going to be between the Knights and Seattle. We know what the Knights did in year one where they got to the Stanley Cup Final. They've only been around for six years, and this is the Kraken's second season. Just what does that say, and why do you think these teams have been able to get into the league and have success just so quickly too?

You know, I think it's a couple reasons. I think, number one, when we talk about growing the game, we talk about, you know, these quote-unquote non-traditional hockey markets. By the way, hate that phrase. Everyone loves to use that phrase, but when we talk about that, we're growing fan bases. We're building new fans. We're earning new fans. You want to have success for your city, for your community early on. Again, Vegas, I will always contend that the Golden Knights, they set back expansion teams for the rest of time.

I don't care what sport it is. Everyone's going to be looking back at Vegas' first year and say, well, hey, they did it. Why can't we do it? That's what I thought was Seattle. It was like right away you expected them to be great last year just because of what Vegas did. You did. You did. And that was one of our big marketing pieces, actually.

You were like, hey, it's not going to happen. Lightning doesn't strike twice. You know, you look at the expansion rules and things like that. But as far as Seattle goes, it's all about growing the game. And for them to have the success that they've had, I mean, it takes a little bit of luck, obviously. But there are seven players on this team who have won Stanley Cups. Jordan Eberle went to back-to-back conference finals out east. You've got three guys on this team who are multiple-time Cup winners, including Andrei Burakovsky, who won last season. Johnny Gord has been to three consecutive Stanley Cup finals. So this team, although they're going through it for the first time together, they're a young team in that regard. Seven players with Cups, another two, three, four players who've been to finals and have lost.

You know, Jamie Alexiak, Adam Larson have all gone, and they've not been victorious. But for Seattle, it's the experience that they've had other places. It's the desire to want to help grow the game in a community that's never had pro hockey or NHL hockey, I should say, pro hockey and junior hockey have been here in Seattle for quite some time. But I think that's a big piece of it. I think you want your markets to do well.

You want to continue to grow the game. And hey, it doesn't hurt that you play in the nicest building in the NHL and you're able to lure free agents that way with the facilities and all of that. So all of that, I think, goes into the success that the Kraken have been having here in year two. For tonight, when you look at Dallas, we know how great they can be. DeBoer as a coach is 6-0 in game sevens. Pavelski has just been so hot even at the age of 38 with eight goals in this series. What jumps out to you ever fits you about Dallas tonight and what Seattle must do up against them?

You know, listen, it's going to be a battle. And Dallas, it seems like every game in this series, one team has had the clear upper hand. Outside of game one, even though game one was decided in overtime, Pavelski with the four goals in the game. Without Joe Pavelski, I mean, that game could have gotten out of hand pretty quick. Seattle had that game pretty locked up with Pavelski doing the four goal thing, doing what he's been doing best his entire career, tipping putts. But this just has the feeling of a tight game.

No one's going to be able to breathe and relax at all. I was at both morning skates today. The moods were pretty similar. Dallas, I think, was very worked in. Seattle's been loose, but they've also been focused. They've been confident, yet they understand what this means and what this could mean if they get the win here tonight.

But, I mean, you're in a very difficult place to play. Dallas has won two of the three games here at home in this series so far. I mean, so for Seattle, they cannot afford a slow start like we saw in game five here in this building. I mean, it was cracking down 2-0, five and a half minutes in. They give up the third goal early in the second.

They looked okay midway through the second period. But in a game seven, you cannot get behind the eight ball like Seattle did back in game five. But it's going to be tight. It's going to be tough. I'm already nervous. My stomach's in knots just thinking about this game here.

But it's going to be fun. This is what you play for. This is what you dream about in your backyard as a kid shooting pucks on the garage, right?

On the ponds, wherever you grew up. These are the moments that you want to play in and these are the moments that potentially could define your career. Ever fits you. I know that you're a Detroit native and you're a big hockey fan growing up. And when you got this gig with the Kraken, you became the first black full-time play-by-play announcer. What does that mean for you to become the first black man to be a play-by-play announcer in the NHL?

It was very surreal and I still sometimes have a hard time fully putting it into words. When I first got the job, I thought about it from a professional standpoint. I've been working in minor league hockey for ten years. I got my start in college at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. I knew that I wanted to be a broadcaster.

And for me, when I got that phone call a couple of years ago and I dropped to my knees and I'm like, man, all the hard work paid off. But then you start thinking about me growing up in Detroit. There weren't a lot of black folks playing hockey. I was a big Red Wings fan, but not a lot of people looked like me playing for the Red Wings. And then I actually saw an Oilers game and they had three black players on their team. And that was the first time that I really got to feel that representation.

So to be able for me to be in this chair, it's like when I'm growing up as a kid. I didn't have those black influences to look up to in hockey because there weren't that many. So it's one of those things where I owe it to our sport. I owe it to our culture. And I think I owe it to myself to be able to say, you belong in this sport. We need diversity. We need different voices. We need different faces and beliefs in our sport. But it still sometimes doesn't even hit me that they're the first black person, the first black man to be a play-by-play announcer in the NHL.

I don't think anyone ever sets out to be the first. But like I said, there's a certain level of responsibility that comes along with it when you do happen to find yourself in this position. Well, you're doing a great job. We really enjoyed your calls and appreciate you jumping on board with us a little bit before Game 7. Enjoy tonight and thanks so much for doing this. Hey, always a pleasure, man. Thanks so much for the opportunity.

And let's go crackin'. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show. Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. So Matt Ryan isn't retiring, but he has a job already. As was announced today, he's going to be calling some games, doing some studio work for CBS. Hickey, we've seen guys go into the media and then come back to the NFL. But who the heck is going to sign Matt Ryan now? And it's not as if you're going to pass up on this opportunity at CBS Sports where I think Matt Ryan will be very good to go be a backup quarterback. Like, I could maybe see if, I don't know, the 49ers have a quarterback injury with the Kyle Shanahan connection in Week 9 where Sam Darnold sucks and they don't like Trey Lance and Brock Purdy was like a six- or seven- or eight-game wonder. And maybe it's Week 10 or 11. All right, you come back for a month or two with a great team.

But outside of that, Miami's another team. The two-injury pops up again with the concussions, unfortunately. But Matt Ryan, I know it's always tough for people to realize when they play this sport their entire life when it's time to go and when it's time to wrap it up, but your playing career is over.

It's done. So it's weird that this comes out today and then right away, oh, this isn't a retirement. This is just me taking a job where it coincides with NFL games. That doesn't make sense to me.

I mean, I get it just from the sense of, like you said- It's the Nile. It's okay, a quarterback injury to a team that maybe thinks they still are going to try to compete for a playoff spot. Matt Ryan right now, I would take Matt Ryan over Big Ben, over Phillip Rivers, so if you're going to that bargain bin of older- I know you're putting your hands up in your- Come on. I'm not trying to say you got anything left. That's not what I'm saying here. All I'm saying is- Phillip Rivers has been out of the league for two years, right? Yes. And Big Ben has been out of the league for one year? Yes.

Okay. 2021 was Phillip Rivers, yeah. You sit out an entire year and you're not back that year after that? You're donezo. Phillip Rivers, donezo. Big Ben is donezo.

He was donezo at the end of his career anyway with that arm and that shoulder not holding up. What team reportedly called Phillip Rivers or he called them? I think it was the Niners. It was the Niners. Maybe it was calling them. It was the Niners or the Dolphins. Yeah.

Oh, maybe it was the- I forget one or two, but you're right. But there was at least his name generating some interest. Andrew Luck's name still generates interest and you know that's not happening. Tom Brady's name is going to pop up over and over again. Oh, it will. For Matt Ryan, I get it.

You could do both. And also- You could say I'll be an analyst, but also, hey, the door's open if anyone gets hurt and you need a quarterback week nine, I'm still available. But you just saw him play this year. He's not a name that you could go, oh, yeah, wow, he's still okay.

He stunk. No, but it's one of those break glass in case of emergencies. I don't know if there's a better quarterback in that. Again, that extreme dire situation where hope is probably lost anyway. But like if you're the 49ers and you have to call Matt Ryan and you lose, I mean, at that point, two, maybe three quarterbacks, like it's basically Josh Johnson or Matt Ryan.

He's not saving the day either way, but you could do a whole lot worse. I think that Matt Ryan in like week nine compared to- You're screwed. I like Matt Ryan. He's come on the show before.

He's just served for the rejoined. But if you need Matt Ryan next year in football, your team's got no shot. You're screwed. I'm sorry. I got to be fair here. I'm not saying you're wrong.

Welcome to CBS, by the way. I get why Matt Ryan says I'm taking this job, but I'm still available if someone needs me. By the way, I mentioned Tom Brady. I'm a genius.

That's all I'm going to say. I'm going to pull a Jason Tatum. Humbly, I think I'm a genius. I had a tweet put out on October 28th of 2022. I guess that was right when the Brady divorce was being finalized. I said, so when will Kim Kardashian and Tom Brady start dating? Today, I read an article from the New York Post that Kim Kardashian is shopping for a home in Tom Brady's community and the pair are friendly. Now, it went out of the way in its article to say nothing romantic is going on, but the pair are very friendly. This seems like they're going to inevitably- I don't know if they're going to date, but you got to think Kim Kardashian and Tom Brady are getting it on, no? I mean, they have a lot in common, very public divorces. And also, Brady has dealt with getting slammed before when things don't work out.

Antonio Brown and getting dragged through the mud with Antonio Brown. You know if Brady ever started dating or getting a little bam chicka wamp wamp time with Kim Kardashian, you will get the wrath of Kanye West, which is very close to the wrath of Antonio Brown and just craziness. That is very true, so he knows how to deal with psychos. But I mean, look, if Gisele and Tom's mind was so controlling that they eventually had to break free of each other, I mean, you're only going deeper into the controlling well. Well, you know, maybe you're right because we go for the TV show and I'm sure Kris Jenner would be pushing that for sure.

And also, Tom knows what it's like to have the cameras following him and that Tom versus Time thing. He would be good with keeping up with the Kardashians if that's even still a thing. I don't even know if it is. I think it's on streaming. I could be wrong. But it's like old episodes? No, I think it's still new.

I got to look it up. I think they're still filming new episodes. And both of them have a lot of plastic surgery.

They do. I just cannot imagine Kim Kardashian letting kind of Tom do what Tom Watts will say. Also, wasn't there an article like a week or two ago where it's like Brady's done with supermodels? Now is Kim a supermodel? No, but you kind of got the point of of that article.

High maintenance, attractive woman. Yeah. So let me go be buddy buddy with Kim K. Yeah.

Like that doesn't fit what you were trying to push a few weeks ago. I would love that article to to be released about me. Zach Gelb is done with supermodels. Finish. Sorry, ladies, your loss. It's a true statement because I've never had a chance with a supermodel. So hey, but either way, it's they can't break up with you if you break up with them first.

But look at that prediction by me. Back in October 2022, Brady and Kim Kardashian will be dating. And I'm liking my chances on that one. There's a real chance you're not you're not believing that they are just truly platonic friends. Maybe they're friends with benefits. That would be the craziest thing in the world. I think we've all had our friends with benefits before in the past.

Yes. If you're Tom Brady, I would maybe say and argue and push for a friend with less baggage than with the last name Kardashian. Just because that's a lot to deal with. That's for sure.

Yeah, but like a lot to do. I don't think anything amuses Tom Brady anymore. This dude has been in the public spotlight for 20 years. He's the greatest quarterback of all time. He dated Gisele Bündchen, who's a mega, mega, mega star. And Gisele is pretty like.

She doesn't look for the drama, it feels like. I think Brady could deal with anything. That's one of the greatest adjusters of all time.

There's a reason why he's the greatest quarterback. That's the rubber dating department. Well, I was going to say, does he only keep that, though, for the football field?

I don't know. Didn't really just with Gisele at home. Oh, that was a long time.

I'm just like if now when you are dedicated to the grind for 20 some years, I would like a little freedom. If I was Tom Brady, I don't know if Kim K is the one to give him the freedom he wants. So Brady, what is in October?

It's going to be a year, I would think. And who knows when that relationship actually started to go south and all that. So it seems like time's right for him to start dating someone. There was that that idea that he was dating that like 20 something year old supermodel blonde smoke show. But then I read an article that she was actually married to that. She's married.

I think is right now. I actually married that girl, Veronica. Well, wasn't it just that she wore Tom Brady's jersey and people thought like that was actually his and all she did. But she did a lot of post fake fame by her clout. Yeah. I mean, it seemed like she made things seem like she was way more progressed than she was proposing pretty much to Brady. Yes.

And Tom was like, who the heck are you? Right. But it worked for her case.

You got the publicity she needed. How the heck do you date Tom Brady? Seriously, that's got to be so tough.

From a female perspective, I don't know. Yeah, I just get fame. Yeah. Like he can't I feel like he can't just date like a regular person. We just have real life. Yeah. I feel like you got to date a supermodel, which reportedly is not interested in. Anyway, Zach Gilpus, CBS Sports Radio.