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This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. When segregation was a law, one mysterious Black club owner, Charlie Fitzgerald, had his own rules. Segregation in the day, integration at night. It was like stepping on another world. Was he a businessman? A criminal? A hero? Charlie was an example of power. They had to crush him. Charlie's Place, from Atlas Obscura and Visit Myrtle Beach. Listen to Charlie's Place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. It's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers. We're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On June 11th, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. Hey, if they'll kill a cop and bury them, what are they going to do to me? What really happened to the missing deputy? Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert. Listen to Valley of Shadows on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, I try to butch it up for kids so they're not confused. Yeah, but you're butching it up. It's basically like Doris Day. No, I turn into Bea Arthur. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You are listening to The Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio. The All-Star Game coming up this weekend. This is not going as scripted for the NBA because I thought the world versus the United States was a wonderful approach, maybe a last-ditched approach to have a little bit of competition with the All-Star festivities. But now you've got a few players who won't be playing in the game. Kevin Durant was asked a question yesterday. I'll give you the question and his answer, and then we'll talk about it. I saw you saw the rosters were revealed and said you're on that Old Heads team. Do you think the Old Heads will compete and try to win the whole tournament here? You should ask the Europeans, the world team, if they're going to compete. I mean, because if you look at Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic now, let's go back and look at what they do in the All-Star game. Is that competition? So we haven't questioned what they've been doing, but we're going to question the old heads and the Americans. But these two dudes out there, Luka and Jokic, they don't care about the game at all. These dudes be laying on the floor, they shoot from half court, but you got to worry about the old heads playing hard. I can read between the lines, bro. Oh, Durant. He's funny. He's funny. He's feisty. But, you know, it's a fair point. He's saying, hey, we play hard. They don't. But the reason why Joker doesn't play hard in the All-Star game is that's not his style. The All-Star, the way that's played, up and down dunking, that's not his style. Luka, that's not his style. So he might single them out as not playing hard. I'm going to guess if they are playing this weekend in the All-Star game, they will play hard because they're playing for their country or countries, and I think you'll see a more spirited. I hope it is, and I'm not asking too much. It's not going to be the way it once was, but I would like to see some competition, and maybe we'll get that with this format. We're running out of ideas when it comes to the All-Star game, and it's not mandatory or the future of the sports at stake. You know, it's like the Pro Bowl. And I said that for years. They don't want to play in it. When it was in Hawaii, you wanted to be awarded the opportunity to go to Hawaii with your family and, oh, by the way, we'll show up, run through a couple of plays. Hopefully we don't get hurt. That's it. You just wanted the designation of being a Pro Bowler. With the All-Star Game, do I want to see them go out and maybe make it like Olympic competition? I'd love to. but it's not going to happen. So maybe you get something that is a reasonable facsimile of a pickup basketball game. Yeah, Seton. Yeah, I think the first problem is trying to make this mean something. Yes. That's the first problem. So already we're starting from like a deficit there. But do you think the NBA did enough to get the format, the tweaks to the format out there so people understand what this all-star game is going to look like? Because it is significantly different. Well, you have three teams. You have two teams from the United States, and then you have the world team. Right, and then what? You basically play like 12-minute quarters in like a round-robin kind of thing. Yeah, I don't even understand it, Seton. Well, I don't think it's complicated to understand. I just don't think that people know that it's changed that much. Well, that you have three different teams in the quarters. Even then, like I'm going to tune in and go, okay, maybe explain this to me a little bit further. But I thought, you know, when you have three teams and you have one game, but trying to combine three teams into one game and it's the All-Star weekend and then you have the Rising Stars, and now we just found out that Cooper Flagg is not going to be playing in that. This isn't going as scripted. And then you've got the commissioner who is going to be under fire this weekend about tanking because these teams, they're not hiding it anymore. It's like, yeah, you know, we're going to play our starters until the third quarter when that ends, and then we're going to sit them down. Hey, we might win, we might not. But it just feels like it's, well, it's not a growing concern. It's a concern here. And I can't imagine what David Stern would be doing right now if he was the commissioner. Maybe it's not fair to Adam Silver, but David Stern would not be putting up with this. But I don't even know what you can do. You know, all the media rights, I think it was a total of like $70 billion over the next 11 years. They're swimming in money. They don't know what to do with all the money that they're making. And if I'm a player, and let's say I applied this to Larry Bird. Larry Bird tried to eke out a 10-year career, back issues, and he had to retire. What if Larry Bird played today, and he did have a back condition, and I could maybe get 14 years out of Larry Bird instead of 10? And maybe he played 65 games. Wouldn't you want that? Do I want Steph Curry to be able to play longer? Do I want Kevin Durant to be able to play longer? LeBron James to be able to play longer? And the answer is yes. I don't think the NBA cares about us if we say the following. Well, I go to one game a year. The NBA doesn't care about that. Now, we do as parents where you say, oh, I want to bring my kids to a game. But the NBA is worried about filling up the seats every single night. They want repeat customers. They want the people are going to show up. And then you got the TV money as well flowing in. But I don't know if I got Commissioner Silver in a private moment and said, hey, if you're looking at the longevity of great players, like Cooper Flagg, he's going to have load management at some point in his career. They all do. Now, at 19, you can run all day. But he gets to be 26, now seven years on those legs, and then maybe you're going to have load management. It happens. But if I can extend Cooper Flagg four more years by limiting him, and maybe he's only playing in 65, maybe 70 games. It used to be a badge of courage. You wanted to play as many games as possible. Charles Barkley won the MVP of the All-Star Game, and he played on a stress fracture. He shouldn't have been playing in the game. Imagine Michael Jordan breaks his foot and then comes back, and you know you're going to play the Celtics who are going to beat you in the playoffs. They never would have let Michael Jordan back in today's NBA. They just wouldn't because they'd say, that doesn't make any sense. We're going to sit you down. We're going to get into the lottery. We're going to tank, and we're going to be better. So the philosophy has shifted. I never, ever worried when I tuned into a game if the stars were going to play or not growing up. It was a great luxury. And about 10 years ago, maybe a little longer than that, it all changed. But I understand it from a player's perspective. If I can imagine if you add four more years to Steph Curry's career, that maybe it would have ended at 36. That's over $130 million. by just being economical, smart, taking care of yourself, getting your rest. And I know we don't like it, but we're in a completely different world. What it was like when we were growing up. Bill Russell played every game, and Bob Cousy played every game. Yes, but in today's NBA, they're looking at this from a business perspective. The NBA has business and entertainment, but the player is thinking about, I'm going to sit out. I mean, look at Giannis. He's had a cafe. I don't know how serious it is, but he's been out for a while. And we don't even blink anymore. We're like such-and-such isn't playing. Like Kawhi. I'm always surprised when Kawhi's playing. Be like, oh, Kawhi. And Kawhi's having an unbelievable year. He is. Yes, Marvin. But also, you got to put this on the team also because they're protecting their investment because these guys are making so much money. Hey, this guy has a stress fracture or he has a bad calf. They're not going to throw him out there. Hey, let's keep him out here an extra two games. I know. I get it. I get it that this is, it's business. It's our entertainment, but it's their business. Yeah, Paulie. You know, you're completely right about it. It's like a ship that's going one way and you can't turn it around. But if you look at what most fans think of it, They compare it to the NFL, and they always compare the NBA, which is considered not as rough and brutal as a sport, fair to say, and they sit out all the time. And football players, they can't sit out because they have fewer games. But if you look at the ratings of the NBA Finals the past 15 years and load management, they match each other. The Finals keep going down and down and down compared to a generation ago, and that's a real problem. Yes, Eden. I think from the team perspective, too, though, I think it's important to remember that when you're the team, and yes, you're protecting your investment, but no one is bigger than the team. The team is going to keep going on after all of these people retire. After Larry Bird, there's always going to be another Jason Tatum, and then there's going to be another guy. There's always going to be another guy that comes down the pike, and that's what teams are thinking about. This one guy is not bigger than the team. I don't really care who they are. They're not bigger than the team. LeBron James is not bigger than the Lakers. Yeah, but you want to extend them. You want them to play four more years. Definitely, you want them to play four more years, for sure. But also not to the point where the team feels like we need you more than you need us. We'll settle on a poll question here. Chris Sims will join us. We'll look at some of these quarterback situations here. And, man, there's some wild things that are out there. And, you know, they're not really reports, but it's kind of a – what was the word you used, Paulie, where we try to get around saying it's a report? Linked to. Oh, linked to. Joe Burrow is linked to. I know. There was an article. I don't know if it was on the mothership, but it talked about Joe Burrow and being linked to other teams, and you're going, okay, wow. And I said to Fritzie, all right, read it to me. And I said, where's the Joe Burrow stuff? He goes, well, no, it's like the second part of the article. Yeah, I had Trey Hendrickson about Colts, Cowboys, what teams he's going to go to, and then a little blurb towards the end is like about Joe Burrow. And Joe Burrow's not going anywhere. He's their franchise quarterback, but. Like, what is that? Yeah, Paul. It is from Yahoo Sports. Bengals already have Trey Hendrickson replacement lined up amid Joe Burrow trade rumors as if they go together at all. And then you read it, and then they say the Bengals aren't trading Joe Burrow. But it's that link. and then you click on it, it's clickbait. And they got me. They got me. That's where you want to respond to somebody. You want to yell at somebody. Like, hey, stop that. You're better than that. But no, you got to click on. Yeah, Paulie. A big thing in journalism air quotes these days is say link to. It's in lieu of saying there's a report that Trey Hendrickson is being pursued by blank, blank. Like if you said today that, you know what, would be a great place for Joe Burrow would be the Miami Dolphins, they would use you and say, link to the Dolphins. And they'd tag it to Dan Patrick when you're not reporting it. That would be good, though, if Joe Burrow went to the Dolphins. You just aggregated yourself. They were all in on him. You know, it was weird that we had heard that leading up to the draft. They were going to offer like five first-round picks for Joe Burrow in Miami. And then, of course, the Bengals took him. and then it came out earlier this year that the Dolphins were trying to get Joe Burrow at the draft. I'm like, this is old news. They did. They desperately wanted to get Joe Burrow, and now you've got Tua. Maybe you don't even have Tua. So we'll talk to Chris Sims about a lot of these situations here because they're fluid. You're not quite sure. We know what the Raiders are doing, but after that, is there a quarterback that somebody's going to go all in on and say that's our future because I don see that The parade yesterday it was great to see Probably 800 there Beautiful day there in Seattle They feisty The Seahawks got that chip on their shoulders still Don come at us and don't be saying something about my quarterback. Sam Darnold is like, hey, thank you for believing in me. There weren't a lot of people believed in Sam Darnold when they brought Sam Darnold in. To be fair to the situation here, if you go back to when Sam was going to Seattle, it's not like it was, oh my gosh, we got Sam Darnold. It was, wait, we got rid of Geno and we got Sam Darnold? A lot of people said that. A lot of people said that. Be sure to catch the live edition of the Dan Patrick Show weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern, 6 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Stugatz here. I have a podcast empire. It continues to grow. And I have brought it here to iHeart. I'm also doing a live radio show from 3 to 5 p.m. Eastern because my wife wanted to kick me out of the house. It's called Stugatz & Company Live, which is available in podcast form right when the show finishes every single day. Some of the biggest names in sports. A lot of phone calls. I love you guys' show. It's one of my favorites. a lot of interaction, guys not taking themselves too seriously. Those are just some of the things that you can expect from Stu Gadsden Company and Stu Gadsden Company Live. So listen to Stu Gadsden Company Live and our original podcast. Please subscribe, rate, and review. Stu Gadsden Company and God Bless Football. Taylor's livelihood depends on it. Do it today, and you can check all of those out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On June 11th, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. It's an all-out manhunt for John OJ. Every search and rescue team in L.A. County has been called in to help. Within days, tips started flooding into the Sheriff's Department. The rumor around the drug scene was that a deputy was taken care of. Is this the story of a man who just got lost in the desert? or of a cover-up inside the nation's largest sheriff's department. A homicide captain saying, Detective, do not find out if this guy's guilty or innocent. Who does that? Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert. Do you have any advice for us while looking into this disappearance? I wouldn't do it alone. Listen to Valley of Shadows on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Anna Navarro, and on my new podcast, Bleep with Anna Navarro, I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now, we are all cursing and asking what the bleep is going on. on. I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018. These victims have been let down time and time again for decades and decades and decades by local law enforcement, by federal law enforcement, by administration after administration. The Justice Department, through I think we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims. Listen to Bleep with Anna Navarro as part of the My Cultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler, we've got some incredible guests like Kumail Nanjiani. Let's start with your cat. How is she? She is not with us. Okay, great, great, great way to start. So this is a great beginning and hopefully you'll be able to, I don't know, maybe you will cry. Amanda Seyfried. Life is so short. If you feel something like that, you have that fire in you for this experience. It's not for a guy. It's for the experience of being in love and like it's bigger than a guy. Elizabeth Olsen. I love swimming naked so much. And I know you love taking pictures of yourself naked. Yes, I love to be naked. I just want to be in my brown underwear all the time. Ross Matthews. You know what kids always say to me? Are you a boy or a girl? Oh, my God. All the time. That's so funny. I know. So I'm always like, hi. I try to butch it up for kids, you know, so they're not confused. Yeah, but you're butching it up. It's basically like Dora's Day. No, I turn into Bea Arthur. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Usually on this podcast, We'll Kill You, we talk about the diseases, infections, and biological threats that can make us really sick. But right now, we're doing something a little different. We're stepping back and looking at what the human body needs to keep going. When you consider what we know about sleep in humans, there's one rule that comes out. We are predictably unpredictable sleepers. We're talking about why sleep works the way it does, why our bodies don't follow neat rules, and why modern life makes rest so hard to come by. The second half of our series takes us to the digestive system with a multi-part series on what happens after we eat. Okay, I just have to say that all of my favorite words apparently are digestive words. Sphincter, peristalsis, duodenum. It's fascinating, it's funny, and it matters so much more than you think. Episodes of our new series run from January 20th through February 17th, with new episodes every Tuesday on the Exactly Right Network. Listen to This Podcast Will Kill You as part of the Exactly Right Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, it's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers, we're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Chris Sims joining us on loan from Pro Football Talk Live. He's co-host with Mike Florio. Also was there working the Super Bowl for NBC Football Night in America. Do you think we'll ever get to the point where there is load management in the NFL? No, I don't think so. I don't. I mean, it's just, you know, the league is so close. one game is equal to five games in the NBA or ten games in the NFL and Major League Baseball, right? So, no, I mean, I think the only time you get to load management is with certain star players. Maybe if they have some injuries and teams that are smart, bring them along the right way. But, no, I don't think that's ever going to be a thing in the NFL. Then explain to me what the Raiders did with Max Crosby. Or is that tanking? Well, I think that was more tanking. I think it was that, maybe more than anything. His tanking, he was dealing with a little bit of injury. Maybe they're saving himself from himself. But, yeah, that's not a load management thing there. The Max Crosby situation in general is going to be fascinating here as we go into the offseason, right? Because you usually sit there and go, wait, you don't trade a player of the caliber of Max Crosby and do that. But yet this is one of those where you can look at it and justify it a little bit or at least go, I could see them doing it. He's 29 years old, as we know. Hey, there's a formula in the NFL. Most defensive players hit 30. Teams don't want to give them big contracts, new contracts there. And the Raiders have so many needs on their football team. Wouldn't be shocked if he does get traded this offseason. He's one of my favorite players because he wants to play and he plays hard. But if I'm the Raiders, I absolutely trade him. Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, I hate giving up on that, but I can't bring in a rookie quarterback with a rookie head coach and not have a good offensive line. Yeah, no, I hear you there. And you've got to wonder, Max Crosby's getting to a point of his career where, yeah, I don't know if he wants to sit around for the next two years and be a part of the rebuilding process. So, yeah, I'm with you there, Dan, in a lot of ways. All right, let's look at some of the quarterbacking situations. What's the biggest question mark you have? What team, what quarterback? Well, I think the obvious one is probably Pittsburgh a little bit, just as far as where they go, a playoff football team. We've got no idea who the quarterback is going to be. I mean, Aaron Rodgers, Mike McCarthy, it didn't necessarily seem like it ended the most perfect way when it was in Green Bay, and now here they may be thrusted back together. And then off of that, yes, do they bring them back, but is he going to understand that the quarterback of the future is not on the roster of the Steelers? So if they bring them back, is he going to be okay? if they draft Ty Simpson in the first round, and then if they go 2-5 to start the year, is Ty Simpson going to be in, and is he going to be able to deal with that? So that, to me, is probably the most intriguing one. I haven't thought about it as a whole as a league here yet. I'm still kind of transitioning at a Super Bowl mode here, but I think that's the one probably I'd still pick if you let me think about it even more. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out the Vikings situation, too. Yeah, right, right. That's going to be tough, no doubt. They're in a spot. They really are. because as we talked about last year, their team was playoff ready, maybe even Super Bowl ready. I do think if Sam Darnold played on the Minnesota Vikings last year, yes, they would have gone to the playoffs, definitely. If they got to the Super Bowl, I don't know about that. But yeah, they're in a spot where they definitely have to bring somebody that's tried and true and proven to a degree, not only because if J.J. McCarthy gets hurt, which is becoming a thing, and if he doesn't play well, you've got to have a guy there that can at least come in in those scenarios and hold down the fort a little bit. But I also think you need a guy there to kind of have the hot poker next to J.J. McCarthy every day a little bit to be like, hey, you've got to be good today. You've got to be good today. You've got to be good today. This guy's coming. He's practicing. He's a pro. He knows how to practice and look good in front of the rest of the football team. And I do think there's value in that for young quarterbacks. If I said you had to extend one, Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud? Gosh, I would have gone no-brainer, C.J. Stroud, right, before the playoffs or the end of the regular season. Like, no-brainer. But what happened here, Chris? Yeah. I mean, it was questionable towards the end of the regular season. You know, I've had people go, oh, they think his concussion in the middle part of the year was still affecting him. He has been in some different offensive systems. but man, he really lost his way towards the end of the year. Lost his way with decision-making, feel for the game, the proper type of throws, forgetting what his team was. I said to Mike Florio before, and I think this is why we were kind of talking about the Patriots and maybe there won't be the biggest bullseye on their back because of how the playoffs and Super Bowl went going in the next year. And I made the comment, yeah, I mean, hey, the Chargers game was underwhelming. The Houston game, you kind of felt like if C.J. Stroud just kneeled on the ball the whole game, Houston probably would have won the football game. Just kneeled on it. Every play, first, second down, third down, kneel on it. Defense will set us up for a field position at one point. We'll kick a field goal and win the game that way. I'm joking, but I'm not joking. It was that crazy. It was that bad. So I sit here now, I guess, giving the edge to Bryce Young, but don't feel necessarily great about that. I mean, I know Carolina went into the year going, hey, we like where we're going, but we don't have our quarterback yet. We don't really know. We don't think we got the guy. We don't have the guy. Now, he played better definitely. How do they feel about that? I'm sure they feel better, but I wouldn't sit here and just go, oh, we're just golden at quarterback with Bryce Young. I'm not ready to say that yet. You know, the draft is kind of sparse with what we think will be franchise quarterbacks, but I'm wondering about Mac Jones or Malik Willis. Feels like they could get that kind of, I don't want to say Sam Darnold, but they could get that, hey, we've gone through the washing machine a couple times. Maybe now it's our turn. Now we're at an age where we can handle this. Yeah, no, I think Malik Willis is a superstar, right? I would think he is the crowning gem of guys that's going to be out there as far as free agents that you can get, no compensation, trading, any like that. Why wouldn't Pittsburgh go for Malik Willis? If I were them, I'd be looking at that. You're exactly right. I mean, Malik Willis has proven. I mean, he's got special talent. He has a special arm. He's got special mobility. He knows how to run the offense and do all of that. So, yeah, you know, he's a great story here. And, again, another story of, like, we looked at the draft and, you know, again, I was a Malik Willis fan coming out. And it was like, okay, yeah, I know Kenny Pickett can play in the pocket and he's very good in the meeting room. And I'm so sick of that damn dumb discussion all the time with some of these quarterbacks. And I'm going to go, oh, yeah, how did that meeting room and in the pocket work for you, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia Raiders? You know, how about the guy that has a ton of talent and can make game-changing plays and just needs a little polish and needs to be coached a little? And that's where, you know, the league misses out on guys like that. But Malik Willis more than Jordan Love? It's closer than I ever thought it would be, right? And I'm really a Jordan Love fan. I mean, again, I'm the one that was like, Jordan Love, I think, is going to be better than Tua when he was coming out in the draft, right? So I'm with that. But Malik Willis, I'm not going to say he's better than Jordan Love right now. I will say that I think he shows more potential to be a greater player than Jordan Love. That's what I would say right now. But I've got to see a little bit more before I say he's better than Jordan Love. And he's $40 million cheaper. That helps, too. But he won't be $40 million cheaper after this offseason. That, I think, will change. What about Mac Jones' future? Well, Mac Jones is, first off, shown that he's capable of being a starting quarterback. We know that, right? And the guys like Shanahan and McVay and the Ben Johnsons in the world, the guys who have these unbelievable, intricate, hard offenses are always going to like Mac Jones, just like Shanahan and McVay love the Kirk Cousins of the world and those guys because they can handle all the tricks that they have to offer to make the offense look tricky and awesome. So that where there always going to be love for Mac Jones Now he can carry the team You put him on crappy Jacksonville for two years ago with all that was going on there Yeah he not Josh Allen or Lamar or Mahomes or just, hey, get on my back, guys. I'll get us through this time period here. No, he's not that. He needs system. He needs help. And when he does do that, you could see he could play at a high level. But at the same time, I don't think the 49ers and Shanahan are just going to give him away. And not only will they have to be blown away by the trade, But the 49ers, as we know, are good. And with healthy, there might be a Super Bowl team. And knowing my buddy Kyle Shanahan, I don't think he would leverage the future of the team and get rid of Mac Jones unless he's very comfortable with who his backup quarterback is. And I don't know if he's there with Curtis Rourke, right, who came off the ACL injury coming from Indiana and being there and being that guy to hold down the fort if something did happen to Brock Purdy. We're talking to Chris Sims, Pro Football Talk Live co-host, Football Night in America analyst, and his podcast unbuttoned. If Mac Jones was Seattle's quarterback this year? Yeah, okay. I mean, they'd be in the playoffs for sure. Oh, okay. So you're not saying they would still have won the Super Bowl? No, I'm not going to go there. I think Sam Donald's talent is better than... There's a reason Sam Donald was the No. 3 pick and people thought he was going to be the slam dunk No. 1 pick, really, if you go back to that time, right? People were shocked that it was Baker Mayfield. Everybody thought, well, Sam Darnold's going to Cleveland. But he's got better physical ability than he gets credit for. You've heard Josh Allen talk about how Sam Darnold spins the ball. I mean, it's a perfect spiral that spins tight. His arm's a little more explosive than people realize. You saw on Super Bowl Sunday, his movement and getting out of trouble a few times was kind of special that way. So I do think he's capable of making some plays that maybe Mac Jones isn't capable of making. Let's go back to the Super Bowl. And it felt like, and I've said this a couple of times on the show, if you said to Patriot fans beginning of the year, you're going to the Super Bowl, but you're not going to be competitive, would you sign up for that? And the answer is, of course, yes. Yes. But, man, it really feels like morale is low after the way they were beaten. Your first-round pick at left tackle gets, you know, man-handled. Drake May didn't look good through the entire postseason. So now handicap the Patriots going into next season knowing you have this Super Bowl loss hangover. Yeah, I think they're still going to be really good. They still got a lot of room on their cap space, kind of like what you alluded to. I mean, they were playing with house money. The fact that they got this far is incredible. I don't think they're going anywhere. I think they're going to continue to be a really good team now. I mean, can they get back to the Super Bowl and go 14-3? I don't know. They're going to have a first-place schedule next year. And if you look at the teams they're going to play next year on the road and all that, it's like, whoa, okay, whoa, yeah, it ain't going to be the same. And I think, yeah, morale is down because of what you talked about. They didn't play very good football in the playoffs. I don't want to use the phrase they lucked into things, but things certainly with C.J. Stroud's play, the way Stidham, the Broncos, the snowstorm, yeah, that definitely helped out. And I think to your point, too, and to me the biggest story going into the game was that the guy that was one vote away from being the MVP was historically bad in the playoffs, like historically. And same with the left tackle. And then we got to the halftime of the game, and it was like, whoa. Again, the guy that was one vote away from being the MVP, historically bad in the first half of the game, made one real throw in the first three quarters of the game. He stepped up and threw a deep curl route to Stephon Diggs in the first quarter, and I would say that was the only throw he made in the football game until the touchdown drive to make it 19-7 to start the fourth quarter. That's crazy when you say that out loud, right? And that's why I think morale's a little down overall, and they were dominated in the game, and it just didn't look good. But they shouldn't be down for long. It used to be about the game, and the future's bright for the New England Patriots. Yeah, but why didn't they make adjustments? You've got 30 minutes at halftime, Chris. Yeah, right. Well, here, here. So here am I. I really watch the game on film, and, you know, this is what I do, and the podcast and Chris Simms on Button and all that. First, I think the Patriots, they knew they weren't the better team. I could tell you in the pregame warm-ups that they knew they weren't the better team. I said this to Rodney, Devin McCourty. You went to either side of the field. The Seahawks were up on their field like, we're about to show everybody today. It felt like the Patriots are a little bit like, I hope we play our best game and maybe we can pull it off. That's kind of what it felt like on the field on Super Bowl Sunday. And I know Rodney and Devin McCourty kind of felt the same thing to the point where you're like, Seattle's so psycho. Rodney Harrison was like, I hope they don't run out of energy before the game's over. And I was like, Rodney, Devin Witherspoon could not sleep for five nights in a row. He ain't going to lose energy today. I was like, they're young and full of it, and they're ready to go. But I do think the Patriots went in the game knowing that they weren't the better team. They knew they had to take chances on the defensive side of the ball, which is what you saw early on in the game, right? I mean, Sam Darnold threw some passes, and you're like, whoo, oh my gosh. I mean, they were going to go for it on that side of the ball, and I think they knew between the shaky play of their quarterback and how good Seattle was that they were just hoping to muck the game up, make it ugly. Oh, it's 9-0, so what? We'll put a drive together, make it 9-7. Maybe Sam Darnold will make a mistake, and now we go up 10-9, and now it's 13. That's what I think they went into the game thinking that was the only way they were going to be able to do it. But the fact that they couldn't run the ball at all then kind of shift the onus on to Drake May. And the passing game and the pass protection and a bunch of other things that went along with it led to some really tough sledding in that department. It's an eight-hour pregame show, and you have a rundown meeting where you get all the analysts together. but at what point do you look at the rundown and realize that Rodney Harrison is going to question Tony Dungy's Hall of Fame vote? Was that scripted? That was in the rundown? It was, I think, kind of thrown into the rundown, and I'm not privy to all these conversations, but I think it was thrown into the rundown when the Hall of Fame made the most egregiously stupid Tropic Thunder decision in the history of their Hall of Fame with not putting Bill Belichick in with the most obvious should-be first ballot Hall of Famer ever. So then it was like, whoa, we've got to talk about this. And, of course, Rodney and Devin being from the Patriots and all of that. And then, yes, throughout the week, people started to question whether Coach Dungy definitely did that and all that. So, yeah, I think it kind of came organically, and Rodney wanted to question Coach Dungy on that situation. and I didn't get to see the segment in totality there, but it sounded like it went pretty good, even though Coach Dungy didn't quite answer the question all the way. Should he have answered the question? Well, you know me. I mean, I'm a big mouth who tells says everything. So, you know, yeah, he should answer the question. I would have liked for him to answer the question. By not answering, isn't he answering the question? He answered it, right. By not answering it, he answered it. Exactly right. I would have called Rodney for targeting. I would have had to flag him on that. Well, I thought Rodney might go harder. You know, I thought, you know, Rodney, Rodney, as we all know, like Mike Tyson at times can be like a pit bull on the loose, and you're just like, uh-oh, he's in that mode, watch out. And I was kind of hoping the pit bull might get unleashed during that interview, but he kept tame there and, you know, stayed on leash, I guess. Thanks, as always, for joining us the entire season. We'll leave you alone for a little while. All right, just for a little while. Well, you know, we got draft and free agency to talk about, so you know I'll be game for that whenever you're down. Thank you, bud. All right, thank you. Tell those jerks I said hi. Hey, jerks, he says hi. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsportsradio.com. And within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live. On June 11th, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. It's an all-out manhunt for John OJ. Every search and rescue team in L.A. County has been called in to help. Within days, tips started flooding into the sheriff's department. The rumor around the drug scene was that a deputy was taken care of. Is this the story of a man who just got lost in the desert? Or of a cover-up inside the nation's largest sheriff's department? A homicide captain saying, detective, do not find out if this guy's guilty or innocent. Who does that? Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert. Do you have any advice for us while looking into this disappearance? I wouldn't do it alone. Listen to Valley of Shadows on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Anna Navarro, and on my new podcast, Bleep with Anna Navarro, I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now, we are all cursing and asking, what the bleep is going on? I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018. These victims have been let down time and time again for decades and decades and decades by local law enforcement, by federal law enforcement, by administration after administration. The Justice Department, through I think we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims. Listen to Bleep with Ana Navarro as part of the My Cultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's one rule that comes out. We are predictably unpredictable sleepers. We're talking about why sleep works the way it does, why our bodies don't follow neat rules, and why modern life makes rest so hard to come by. The second half of our series takes us to the digestive system with a multi-part series on what happens after we eat. Okay, I just have to say that all of my favorite words apparently are digestive words. Sphincter, peristalsis, duodenum. It's fascinating. It's funny and it matters so much more than you think. Episodes of our new series run from January 20th through February 17th with new episodes every Tuesday on the Exactly Right Network. Listen to This Podcast Will Kill You as part of the Exactly Right Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler, we've got some incredible guests like Kumail Nanjiani. Let's start with your cat. How is she? She is not with us. Okay, great, great, great way to start. So this is a great beginning and hopefully you'll be able to, I don't know, maybe you will cry. Amanda Seyfried. Life is so short. If you feel something like that, you have that fire in you for this experience. It's not for a guy. It's for the experience of being in love and like it's bigger than a guy. Elizabeth Olsen. I love swimming naked so much. And I know you love taking pictures of yourself naked. Yes, I love to be naked. I just want to be in my brown underwear all the time. Ross Matthews. You know what kids always say to me? Are you a boy or a girl? Oh, my God. All the time. That's so funny. I know. So I'm always like, hi. I try to butch it up for kids, you know, so they're not confused. Yeah, but you're butching it up. It's basically like Doris Day. Right? No, I turn into Bea Arthur. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. It's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers, we're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated senior NBA writer, and he contributes to NBC Sports covering the All-Star game this weekend. Seton, you want to give Chris the... Do we have an NBA poll question today? We do. We do, in fact. We have, would you rather a player 60 games for 15 years or 82 games for 11 years? Right now, we're at about 70% of the audience would rather 82 games for 11 years. What would you do, Chris? We know load management is here to stay, but if I can give you your guys, let's say your star, he's going to play 65 games, but that extends him four more seasons, or you get him for 82 for four less seasons. Well, the 65-game player, does he get the playoffs too? Yeah. Because then that's the ball game there. I would much rather have the guy for four extra years playing 65 regular season games if I can get him for the postseason. For a contender, the regular season is close to irrelevant when it comes to that. How did we get to this point, though? The tanking point of where teams are just a third of the league? No, just load management. But also load management ties into tanking as well. So how did we get to this? What came first, load management or tanking? I think load management came first, and a lot of it began, if you want to find a spot in history, with the Greg Popovich San Antonio Spurs who were aggressive in resting their stars. We all remember that great. I think I still have a picture of that stat sheet where it said Tim Duncan DNP rest, which is one of the early days of just straight resting guys. And that was what the Spurs did in the early 2010s. And teams quickly adopted it after that, you know, with the back to backs. If you get an older player, you're going to limit his minutes. And then Kawhi Leonard comes around 2019 and Toronto wins a championship by load managing him So I think you know the success of one team begat more teams doing it The success of the Raptors begat more teams doing it and it became part of the fiber of the NBA Who is going all-in tanking where it's not reading between the lines, it's just blatant? There's more than one. Well, Utah, to me, is really curious about. So, yeah, Utah is the most glaring example because of how they're doing it. Like, Utah is trying to throw games at the end. Like, simple as that. Like, that game they had against Orlando on Saturday, they were up by 17, I think it was, at one point, seven at the end of the third, and they tried to throw the game and succeeded. Against Miami on Monday, they tried to throw the game and failed because Kyle Filipowski and Bryce Sensebaugh made a bunch of shots, and that was how that went. But they have tried multiple times in the last week to lose games in the fourth quarter. Now, last night, I hate watched the Kings-Jazz game last night just to see what would happen. Of course, they boat raced Sacramento. That was predictable. But the way that the Jazz have been doing it has been the most egregious. But they are far from the only offender. Like, people know, Trey Young could probably be playing basketball at this point. Indiana, which is just as egregious right now as Utah. I mean, Avika Zubak gets acquired. He had been playing through what was determined a mild ankle sprain, and now that ankle sprain is so serious that he's got to sit out for an extended period. So the Jazz, because of the fact that they're playing their guys and then benching their guys, they are front and center, but they are far from the only offender. Dan, this is the first time in league history that we've gotten, We're before the All-Star break, and roughly a third of the league does not care about winning games. That is a five-alarm fire for Adam Silver to address. Okay, what's solvable? What's his solution here? Well, let's unpack it from a couple of ways. Short term, one thing that the people in the league that I've talked to have been pushing for is a fine with a warning. right so the first you go to utah washington whoever and you say all right 750 000 for trying to lose games if you do this again we're going to dock you a couple of second round picks if you do it again we are going to reduce your lottery odds this is something that's come up from a couple of executives like if you finish the season with the 14 chance of landing the number one overall pick we're going to slash it we're going to take away some of your ping pong ball combinations which is within the purview of Adam Silver to do. He can unilaterally do stuff like this. So short term, they want to see him threaten a big stick to some of these teams because there is 25 plus games left in the regular season. As far as fixing the problem, there are two camps in this. One of the camps says, let's just keep putting band-aids on these bullet holes. This is what they've done over the last 10 years. They've tweaked things. They've added the play-in tournament. They've flattened the odds. They've done things to try to save the system. And those people say, hey, if you eliminate lottery protections, good luck getting that past the general managers. But if you eliminate lottery protections, that's going to take away a lot of these things. If you say a team cannot draft in the top four for two consecutive years, that's going to solve a lot of problems. There's some people that believe that. There are others that say the system is broken. It needs to be taken out into the woodshed and shot. Like, just blow up the whole system, and let's all get into a room this summer and figure out something else. Those are the two camps right now, and those are the two sides that are, as we speak, lobbying Adam Silver about these changes. But how do I know if somebody is tanking? How do I know if Trey Young is not hurt? How do I know Anthony Davis can't play the rest of the season? I mean, what does Adam Silver do? How do you do something in a clandestine way that, ah, you're healthy enough. We saw you doing yard work here. Well, I mean, it doesn't take Inspector Gadget to see, like, some of these guys are. I mean, Trey Young had a quad strain in early January. Like, Anthony Davis, fine. Giannis Tendekumpo, if he decides to set up the season, I would say the same thing. The Jazz, again, are playing their guys. And, look, the Jazz, one of the problems that people in the league have with the Jazz is that right now they're a pretty damn good team. They've got three guys that are borderline all-stars, like Jaron Jackson Jr., Lowry Markin, and Keontae George. They're not all-stars, but they're on that next tier. So if these guys were all playing, could they make a run at the play-in tournament right now? Probably not. They're like nine games back of that 10 spot. But the teams above them, Memphis, the Clippers, they're not very good. Maybe if you really put your foot on the gas that you can go and get it. So you have to almost put that on a shelf. I think you've got to use common sense in these situations. You've got to make teams, if there are injuries, you've got to report it. You've got to have medical evidence. You've got to give the league a chance to review all of it so they can make an informed decision. Talking to Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated senior writer, the All-Star Game coming up this weekend. You okay with the format, even though we have some stars not playing? No, no, no. I don't like anything about this anything. Let's start with the dunk contest, which, again, needs to be destroyed. Nobody cares about the dunk contest. But nobody knows who these guys are. Two of them I had to go look up. I wasn't sure who they were off the top of my head. We have gone from being able to get Dominique Wilkins and Michael Jordan to being able to get Blake Griffin and a bunch of guys that were top-tier guys to having guys like Vijay Edgecombe and Cooper Flagg say hell no. Like, this is where we are. We can't even get the top young guys in the league to play. I think that's going to be pretty bad. Kevin Durant said something last night, and he's dead on about this. Like, the USA versus the world can work in some context. It could work in an Olympic setting where there's a medal on the line. You're playing for your country out there. But the greatest offenders of all-star indifference are the Europeans. Like, Nikola Jokic can't get him to care about an All-Star game. Luka Doncic, if he plays, can't get him to care about an All-Star game. Just that Alperin-Singoon. Alperin-Singoon is not going to care about the outcome of the All-Star game. I think it's a new format. But it's not the outcome, Chris. It's the style of play in the All-Star game. It's just running up and down and dunking and shooting threes. And, you know, Jokic and Luka, that's not their style. That's why they don't care. Nobody cared more about the Olympics than those guys did. Joker did. So I think if you attach an actual game to this instead of just a pickup game, those guys will care. I don't think they'll care. I think you're still going to get them shooting half-court shots. You're never going to get early 2000s All-Star. We've all seen the clips of those games in the early 2000s. You're never going to get that again. and the NBA is searching for a way to just get something more than what they've gotten over the last few years I can't see how this is going to be successful I mean the one thing the NBA could have done Dan that would have added a level of intrigue and they should have done this and maybe it'll be an opportunity the next couple of days I don't know what Lucas situation is going to be put Dylan Brooks on the all-star team put Dylan Brooks on the world all-star team like you want to get people to watch, how about you add a guy that's competitive in like warm-ups onto the All-Star team? How about you put a guy that has bad relationships with like every star player in the league, including LeBron James, on the All-Star team? You want to get some intensity? Put Dylan Brooks on the world team. I'm begging the NBA. They passed on it with Kawhi Leonard. They blew an opportunity, putting Shangoon on it over Dylan Brooks. Make Dylan Brooks an All-Star if you want to make this game interesting. Nobody cares about Dylan Brooks. But the way he'll play. You keep talking about the style. I'm not saying they care. Do they care about Shingun? Do people really, are they focused on the game for him? No. So let's just add something that maybe mixes it up a little bit. I want to see LeBron and Dylan Brooks in the same locker room. I want to see them kind of going at each other during practices. Give me a little bit of spice to this All-Star game. I have the betting lines here. So they expect a competitive game, according to DraftKings. USA getting two and a half against the world. That's the Stars team. And then the Stripes getting one and a half against the world. And then Stripes is favored over the Stars by one and a half. So they're expecting a competitive game, Chris. What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result. I don't see it. Look, it could be interesting because of the format. Maybe you can get some guys to be more engaged, but I don't think a format change is going to do it. I just think there's nothing. We are on the path to the Pro Bowl is what we're on with the NBA All-Star Game, and I don't think there's anything that's going to stop it. Is this LeBron's last season in L.A.? That's a good qualifier. Is it his last season in L.A.? I'm going to say no. there are options out there for LeBron James. It's not just Cleveland, although that's obvious. I think Golden State is another great opportunity. That's another way to stay in California as well. What we have to remember is that LeBron James, when he signed with the Lakers back in 2018, it was about more than basketball. It was about lifestyle. It was about business interest. I don't think a lot of those things have necessarily changed. Now, two of his kids are off to, are gone. Bronny's playing with them. Bryce is in college. So that dynamic has changed to a degree. But I think that his desire to be in LA goes beyond basketball. Now, what will the Lakers be prepared to offer him in the offseason I think is going to be interesting. They are pretty committed to rebuilding or retooling, I guess, around Luka, Austin Reeves, a prototypical center that plays well with those type of guys, will they be willing to make him a competitive offer? Or is it just, hey, we got the mid-level exception at $12 million or whatever it may be, and we want you to stay? That, to me, is the big question. I do think there's part of LeBron that wants to stay in L.A., but he's not going to stay, I don't think, if they lowball him. Who is more likely to be playing their last games with their respective team? Giannis with the Bucs or LeBron with the Lakers? I'm going to say Giannis with the Bucs. You know, Milwaukee, they entered these negotiations with other teams in good faith. Nobody really denies that. There was some uncertainty about whether or not they'd pull the trigger on a deal. But in the week before the deadline, they were talking to teams, making counterproposals. They were engaged in all this. There just wasn't a deal that made sense for them to pull the trigger right now when the expectation is more teams can get involved in June and the offers from the current teams are going to be better. That being said, from what I hear out of Milwaukee, they're not going to spend the next few months thinking about what offer they can get. They're going to spend the next few months thinking about who they can get to bring in to convince Giannis to stay. They could have, I believe, three first-round picks to deal around the June draft. They've still got some movable contracts. You don't know what's going to shake out in the postseason, who's going to wind up becoming available that you don't expect right now. So option A for Milwaukee is still to find that player, find that Drew Holiday, find that Damian Lillard, find that guy that can make Giannis say, you know what, I'm going to sign my name to an extension right now. I don't think they're going to find it. That's why I think it's more likely Giannis is gone at the end of the year in some kind of blockbuster deal, but that's going to be the priority. I love, Dan, seeing Cam Thomas last night going for 34, and there's that clip of Giannis' big smile on his face coming off the bench. If Cam Thomas winds up saving Giannis' future in Milwaukee, that will be the greatest plot twist in NBA drama history. Not good enough to play for the Nets, but good enough to play for the Bucs. 34. Yeah. Thank you, Chris. Have fun this weekend. You got it, Dan. Hey, everyone. It's Emily Simpson and Shane Simpson from the Legally Brunette podcast. Each week, we're bringing you true crime through a legal lens. Whether you want all the facts on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, or you still need to wrap your head around the ditty verdict, we're breaking it all down step by step. And we're not just lawyers, we're also husband and wife. It makes for some pretty entertaining episodes. Listen to Legally Brunette on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On June 11th, 1998, a deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department went missing. Hey, if they'll kill a cop and bury them, what are they going to do to me? What really happened to the missing deputy? Valley of Shadows, a new series from Pushkin Industries about crime and corruption in California's high desert. Listen to Valley of Shadows on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When segregation was a law, one mysterious Black club owner, Charlie Fitzgerald, had his own rules. Segregation in the day, integration at night. It was like stepping on another world. Was he a businessman? A criminal? A hero? Charlie was an example of power. They had to crush him. Charlie's Place, from Atlas Obscura and Visit Myrtle Beach. Listen to Charlie's Place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler, we've got some incredible guests like Kumail Nanjiani. Let's start with your cat. How is she? She is not with us anymore. Okay, great, great, great way to start. Maybe you will cry. Ross Matthews. You know what kids always say to me? Are you a boy or a girl? Oh my God. All the time. That's so funny. I know. So I try to butch it up for kids so they're not confused. Yeah, but you're butching it up. is basically like Doris Day. No, I turn into Bea Arthur. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.