7-14-25 The Bart Winkler Show Hour 1

And that is you We're asking questions to you.

About you. We did it last year. We're doing it again this year. We look to continue to do it in the future. Now, it is MLB All-Star Week. Which means there's no baseball for four days, other than whatever this is that we're all complaining about online.

It is kind of a dead period, you would say, if you looked at the calendar of sports as a whole and thought when there are more things going on, when are there less things going on? You would look at this week and be like, Yeah, there's a little less On that week. Now Is it a coincidence? Week that we're celebrating falls on this week that there's not a lot of other things to talk about. You know d very well it is not.

But that still doesn't mean that we don't appreciate you. We just chose the fifty second out of fifty two weeks of the year where there is a the least amount of of of sports to talk about. But it does not Make this mean any less to any of us here at the Infinity Sports Network. So what we'll do this week. Is uh our number three. Each night. So that's gonna be midnight on the East Coast.

That's going to be nine PM on the West Coast and you can do the math in between. But hour number three throughout the week, we will be Taking calls, reading answers about that night's question of the night. And tonight's question is I want to know from you. Quite simply, and you can phrase this however you want or you can whatever however you want. It's an open ended question. But what is the greatest sporting achievement of your life?

And we'll take calls on that again in a couple of hours. I do have the question posted on the show Facebook page. Talk about hidden secrets. Um, why Facebook, you ask? Well, because for some reason they enrolled me in a program where I get Monetization without having to pay them money. So I'm doing things on Facebook. So Twitter I don't get money from and I'd have to pay them to get money. I don't like that idea. Facebook one time was just like, Hey, if you post, we'll give you some money.

So far for the month of July, I was just looking at the stats. I have made Two dollars and thirty three cents. So I I'm going to send people to Facebook. What is the greatest sporting achievement of your life? It can be you as a part of a team, it can be you individually, it can be something like high school football. It could be something like I beat the one bar shark at darts the one time. No one could beat him and then I took him down.

Like Ted Lasso. It can be anything like that, okay? Whatever it is, a moment with your kid, whomever. So that is a question of the night. You can get your answers in on social media throughout the next couple of hours, and then we'll start taking calls and reading those and discussing some of the great ones in a couple of hours. So listener appreciation week.

tonight. The home run derby is going on. Um we'll talk about it after it's over. for those that are not with us yet because they are wrapped up in the home run derby. Uh I will say that there are very few things that it seems like we all agree on anymore. And at the top of that list is the home run derby sucks as a TV product. So we'll probably say what do we do to change it? You don't really have to do anything to change it. It's it's not that good of a thing. It's just guys hitting home runs.

Man for after a while it's like the the this is the thing that you go to games this is always what I felt weird about this. This is the thing that you go to games and want to see the most. In a game, you want to see the home run.

That's what that's what you want to you want to see a home run. You go to a game and there's not a home run, you kinda you kinda feel sad. You kinda don't like it. So then they take that and they say the thing that's so special And not rare, but the like just once or twice or you know, however many times a game, we're gonna do one event where that's all that happens and then it kinda takes the like It kind of dilutes it a little bit, I think.

Um that is a practice I remember the first time it was a big deal. It was a big deal. Um when South Park for the first time they were going to say the S word on T V, which I still have to call the S word on the radio, keep in mind. Uh T V got there twenty five years ago. even to tell this story. But we were all tuned in that night. A lot of people tuned in to watch them say The S word. And oh how great that would be on TV.

to get this naughty word on the air. So what they did was they did not make you wait. They said it and then they had a counter along with it. They had a counter and they ended up saying it about two hundred eleven times. And the point was See how meaningless and harmless this is when we do it over and over and over and over. You thought it was one thing, but now since we've done it so much, it's completely changed our view of it.

So with the home run, it's so special. We love it. And this is a this is a contest where it's the only thing. And, you know They change the format all the time. It's very it's like longer than it should be, weirdly. One of the great TV scheduling quirks I always love is ESPN in the guide, in the listings, has always put this as a two-hour event.

It's never been that. It's all it's like a three and a half hour event. Although we are one round away from the finals, so maybe uh and we're we're eight minutes past when it was scheduled to b scheduled to be uh over, so maybe we are Getting there. But we'll talk about that a little bit throughout the night uh as well, and much more to get into here on the Bart Winkler show. I am going to bring this up.

Certainly going to bring this up as not only is it listener appreciation week, but as also the perfect time of the year to put out a quarterback list. A quarterback list. This is something that uh ESPN has been doing the last couple of weeks or the last yeah, the last week. They've been putting out have ranked at each position.

They cover it all. Running backs, defensive tackles, edge rushers, every any position you can think of, they they cover it. And today they released and then talked about throughout much of the day. Uh and now other stations are like, Hey, good topic, I'll read it. As is what I'm doing. But it's a list of the top quarterbacks. And I do think that one very interesting discussion that you can have with quarterbacks right now is there does seem to be a consensus top four.

There seems to be a consensus top four. Now who you're gonna rank at one, who you're gonna rank at four, two, three, that's gonna change from person to person, but there is a group of four guys. That are gonna be the top four on everybody's list. On this particular list, and again, this isn't just one guy wrote on one website. If that was the case, I may not even bring it up, but this was seventy different executives. coaches and they were given the

use of anonymity. So they they can freely rank, stay anonymous, and then we can see what the list is going to end up being. The top four being and you know it in your head already, but this is the order that they were ranked in cumulatively. Patrick Mahomes is still one, but by a slim margin, Josh Allen is two. Joe Burrow is three and Lamar Jackson is four.

Those are the top four quarterbacks in the NFL, no matter who's coming up with the list. I mean, if you're gonna put somebody else in the top four, you have to really come up with a counterpoint to how they would be that. These these are the top four quarterbacks in football. Mahomes is somebody that did not look as well last year, did not maybe play as well.

maybe we've seen such a good like we've seen the the pinnacle of him and now if he's not that then we view him a different way but Patrick Mahomes is still absolutely on this list. Lamar's won MVPs. Joe Burrow's been great. Josh Allen has won MVPs. These are the top four. I would probably rank them as of right now If I was submitting my list I would say and this is without like stats or this is without this I'm I'm basing this purely kind of on vibes, okay?

I would go Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, I still would go Patrick Mahomes and then uh Joe Burrow. But I think the gap is I mean very, very, very, very small. But those are the top four. Those are the top four. So who's number five? Who's the fifth best quarterback in the NFL? I believe that Tom Brady is not the greatest quarterback of all time. I don't feel like he's played the position better. than everybody else that's ever played the position.

I feel like there's a host of other names that you could put on that list and say that was actually the guy who played quarterback the best. Now, Brady is going to be in the conversation and maybe even top three. But Brady won so many Super Bowls and had so much success. It's no longer a debate. He is the greatest of all time. Even if he's not the greatest of all time He is the greatest of all time. Even if I don't think he's played it at the most el he he's done the most thing.

He's the most accomplished. And for a while that was what we were saying. We were saying, Well, he's not the best, but he's the most accomplished. And then he wins the seventh one and it's just like all right. We just he's the best quarter. I mean we gotta give it there's no we can't argue for anybody else. And Mahomes is a guy that, you know, maybe could be there someday, but then you go back to that Super Bowl, they did play each other and Brady beat Mahomes.

Brady beat Mahomes. So I feel like when you do talk about greatest quarterback of all time, Brady did so many things. that you can't argue it. You can still argue with basketball, LeBron, MJ And even if you think like it is LeBron, he hasn't he hasn't done it to lock it in. Where that's one of the big things that helps with Michael Jordan is, yeah, we went to six NBA finals and he won them all. Uh LeBron didn't do that, he's actually lost that many, I think, at least.

So that is still a great bar debate, right? Radio fodder. I don't think it is with quarterback. I say that because I feel like there is a group of four quarterbacks. that are the best. And then there's the fifth quarterback that has earned his way into that conversation, that because of what he has done on the field He needs to be fifth in any list. The top four is, we know what the top four is. The top four is the top four. There's very little debating that.

I feel like this guy at number five has done enough and has won enough. And has had enough success where, okay, then he's number five. And I feel like that's Jalen Hurts. So that that should be Jalen Hurts. Last year he was not on this list. He's at nine on ESPN's list of best quarterbacks that were voted on by scouts, coaches, and executives. I feel like for a guy who's been to two Super Bowls now, won the MVP in the one he won, could have won the MVP in the one he lost.

I think that because of what he has done, he gets to be number five for me. So I would put those four guys, Burrow Mahomes, Allen, Lamar. Then it's hurts. Then you start having the conversation about other people. That's what I feel like Jalen Hurts has earned. This list is ever changing. It may change by the end of next year. It may change by the end of November. But as of right now, based on what he has done, I feel like top five quarterback.

You can rank them the first four however you want. They're the top four. Then five has to be Jalen Hurts, and then we move on from there. He came in at nine at the at at this list. I think The number five quarterback on this list is we need to slow down. The number six quarterback on this list is absurd, and I'll share who some of those are coming up. Jordan Love, my guy Jordan Love, honorable mention. 8887 4 ISN, 888-710-4476. We start MLB All-Star Week, the only way we know how.

With a top ten quarterback list, and we'll fill it up when we come back here on the Bart Winkler Show.

The contract also marks the first time in NFL history that a receiver has averaged over thirty one million dollars now after playing just three seasons. It's a thirty two point five million dollar average. among NFL wide receivers.

I think the Jets were smart to do this. Now, Garrett Wilson's year last year I don't think he was as good as Um he was the year prior, but the Aaron Rodgers of it all and then getting his buddy Devante and now Wilson can just kind of focus on what Justin Fields can do for his career as the Jets kind of pivot away from the two year failed experiment.

of Aaron Rodgers. Uh Garrett Wilson thirty two point five million, DK thirty three, C D thirty four, J Justin Jefferson thirty five, and then Jamar Chase all the way up at forty point three. That's the average annual value for these guys and their contracts. I think if you're gonna end up signing a guy, sign him. Because When you don't sign your guy and other people sign their guy, the money goes up.

If the money continues to go up, you sign your guy before the money continues to go up. And I think everybody agrees that Garrett Wilson's a hell of a receiver. So the Jets doing, I think, a sensible thing. A lot of money. Lot of money, but this is a player that they've invested in. This is a player who has paid off that investment. This is a player they're gonna want to keep with them for a very long time.

Justin Fields I would not say is considered in a top ten quarterback kind of way. Well maybe on the Jets he is, but not uh overall in the league. ESPN putting out an article today. They've been doing this with their different Opposition groups where they've surveyed Seventy league executives, scouts, and coaches. And that's why I give some value to this list. This isn't just a couple of guys in a room throwing out some content.

In the middle of July, it's guys that are involved in the behind the scenes and the day to day process uh of this sport and they are telling you what they think from inside the league. Patrick Mahomes came in at one, Josh Allen two, Joe Burrow three, Lamar Jackson four. I think that those are the top four, no matter what. Whatever the order is, that's fine. Those are the top four. And then I think Jalen Hurts has to be five.

I think he's played his way into five. Now maybe somebody else shows up and emerges and has a good year following last year and it's like at by the end of the by the end of the season, maybe somebody knocks Hertz off. But as we enter twenty twenty five, I think Hertz has to be number five. Carlos Ortiz, do you agree with me on that one? I know it's gonna pain you to say anything positive about the Eagles. But I think Jalen Hurts has done enough that it's gotta be him.

You could point to the fact that he has more weapons than anybody else. He's got the best running back in football right now. Uh one of the best offensive lines, if not the best offensive line in football right now. Um, but I'd also kinda say, Hey, his coach is a little bit of an idiot, so there is that that he's overc overcoming. Um, but no. Uh

Whether it's the chicken and egg s scenario, I don't know if it's the team that's carrying him or he's carrying the team. I think he does very well. Uh I I think there's other quarterbacks that would, you know, love to be in his situation and they would thrive. But right now

He doesn't show any reason for me to think, hey, you know, he's number eight or twelve. You know, I I don't think he's a schlub. He's a pretty good quarterback. It does pain me to say it because I don't know what Jackson Dart is and I got Russell Wilson this starting this season. So Begrudgingly. Jalen Hurts at number five for me.

And when you talk about quarterback rating I think you sound smart, but when you talk about QBR I think you sound like a door. So they're saying Daniels posted the fourth highest QBR. in the NFL and on third and fourth downs his QBR was ninety five point three out of a hundred. So there's a lot. If you if you want to put together a thesis, put together a paper of why Jaden Daniels is the fifth best quarterback in the league, you've got more evidence.

to do that than maybe with some of these other guys. You've got the evidence that you can at least build the argument. I'm strictly saying just one more year, please. Just one more year. Last year we saw this out of CJ Stroud.

He was number seven on the list uh last year. This year he's off because it didn't go as well in that second year for him, where I thought even there were weeks and parts of the season where I think Bryce Young Played better than CJ Stroud and he beat CJ Stroud and I bring him up because they were drafted one two, and I do think those guys are gonna have like similar careers, but there's gonna be stretches where Stroud's better, but there's gonna be stretches where Young's better.

And we're putting this guy seven last year. So Jaden Daniels, I think by the end of this season, he can knock off Jalen Hurts and he's number five. But j maybe this is just a matter of semantics or patience. But I think he should be at five. Uh at number or don't think he should be at five. At number six, they have Matthew Stafford. I I don't I don't I don't know. Uh Justin Herberts at seven. Herbert's got the

chance I think and and for a while I think you would have put him with those other four guys. Burrow and Herbert were linked together a lot, but it's not happening for him in the playoffs and the winning percentage. is like even. They they need he needs to do better in the postseason before we start throwing him up there. Jared Goff came in at eight. Jalen Hurts nine, Baker Mayfield ten, and then honorable mentions were given to CJ Stroud and Jordan Love.

So interestingly enough, no Dak Prescott, who I always say, wherever you rank him, I've got him at least four spots higher. I think he's a top ten guy. And no Brock Purdy, who two years ago They were adding a new wing at Canton for this man.

So that's that's what the list is. comes up to be. David is in Buffalo, eight eight, eight, seven ten for ISN. What's up, David?

For sure. Um the other thing I wanted to give a prediction on, I got a busy week coming up. I know the uh British Open is this week. I'll give you a couple uh predictions for that. I think John Rahm is gonna win. Um he's been a a factor at the last several British opens. Um, and I think to me, he's been uh kinda overlooked since he went to live and I think he's sorta found his game this year playing on the Live Tour. Um I think Tommy Fleetwood will be a contender but won't win like he does

All the time it seems like. And then I'll say the guy that's guaranteed to miss the cut is Cameron Smith. He is the poster child of all these guys that took the money from Liv and just hasn't done anything since then. So I'm interested to hear your thoughts, man. Enjoy the week and uh talk to you soon, dude.

You know, something something died in him. You lose that spark a little bit. When he's back with these other guys in these majors, he's fun loving John Ramagan. And so maybe he's trying to refine that. I I would think he comes back to the PGA tour. Some of these guys I think Bryson's gonna lock back in to live, however long it's gonna go. Still can't bel I still can't believe that golf got separated. And for what?

So we b book another vacation I mean who's who's going there? Unl unless I'm wrong. Has anybody has anybody because of Live Golf uh taken their family to Saudi Arabia yet? Has that worked on anybody or are we just we just splintering gulf for no good reason? eight eight eight seven ten four ISN eight eight eight seven ten four four four four four four four seven six Home run derby.

Drawing to a close. We'll get an update on that a little bit later. Right now, an update with Jen Williams.

But the ones that like you can find someone to come that has been there all year and done a lot of good things and the fact that Christopher Sanchez isn't here and Mizorowski is at least summed it up perfectly when they said it was a joke.

Because what do we always complain about with baseball? Oh they don't they don't promote their young stars. They're promoting their young stars. So if you don't like it, you don't like it, but you can never make that argument again because they're doing the thing that you've wanted them to do.

Great for baseball, by the way. Not only is this kid gonna be in But baseball found a way to have like a you know, kind of like a meaty like argument and be in the dominant headlines over the weekend and even get a little action here on a Monday. So good on baseball killing two birds with one stone.

Yeah. Yeah, there's some other well, there's some other guys, Carlos, that um you know didn't get in, but sin since when are we as a country gonna go to bat for Ranger Suarez? And there was plenty of guys too that turned it down and baseball's just like screw it. Let's get somebody that the fans want to see.

And we are too many places right now. We we're i we've experimented. Apple's been a great experiment, but we do have a lot of fragmentation. We need to get into a more streamlined model where a fan knows. Friday I wanna see my game tonight. Either they go to a digital service, they know the game's there. If it's not there it's gonna be one of of a couple of national games and it's easy for the fan.

Um but it is too fractured. He is right about that. There's games on Apple. There's game he didn't mention Roku. Uh Fox has their package of games. And then over on FS one. I think another player that would be good is there's a weekly game Tuesday nights on T B S for some reason and then they get some of the playoff games. Turner can get more involved here. They just lost NBA. The overlapping window is kind of brief, really just in the spring. But they're try they're like

They're like as much of a sports network as any of these other channels. All day long they play random shows and then like every night they try to have a sporting event of some kind. Bidding on leagues you've never heard of, whatever. Athletes Unlimited is. So he's right. And they just need to figure that out. Make sure that hey it's Friday night. I know there's a game on this channel and more national is better. I agree.

And uh he spoke about a couple of things on the SEC network, uh, but I wanna hear his take, even though Jen Williams played it under the update, on what he thinks about the current state of college football is.