You're listening to the downbeat on ninety seven one the freak. We got to turn over to intrepid reporter Mike Siroy here because we have our very first NFL Black Monday casualty and the six thirty am hour will be tracking this all morning long. Has the act swings Attention Atlanta Falcons fans. Arthur Smith got the boot. I think the email came in at seven. This is updated at seven oh one am Eastern time. Oh no, they had the email written
and ready. They were just waiting for They were waiting for the vocals to kick in on the downbeat theme exactly before they send it. Arthur Smith, Atlanta Falcons. The first firing. Oh the day. I know three coaches were fired regular season style during the regular season, and today hand expected to meet their employment maker. Who knows Ron Rivera, Bill Belichick. I don't know where he fits into this, but Arthur Smith got the business this morning.
Job available. You know. I blame this a lot on two things, and not having a quarterbacks the obvious one, but be the vest, mustache combo pladder never a good call. Yeah, he would rock a big walrus mustache and then the vest with the shirt underneath it, and it's just not a good look with the mustache. And some people could pull off a vest. He did not. Yeah, I think Arthur Smith is terrible. I think he's a huge meatball and he does not fit to be an NFL
head coach. I mean that. Oh and you can tell you can tell him. I said it. So there's that. Well, well, track these one these firings, and if and when the Belichick thing does happen, maybe later in the week, I don't know. I want to discuss what is what do you do with Bill Belichick? What does he do with himself? Is he even that great? Okay, I guess you can discuss that. But I mean our team's running up to the phone like the second Bill
Belichick's available. Of course, of course, of course. Well tonight we have Jim Harball the National Championship Game tonight, you know, Jim Harball of Michigan. I mean he's already gotten Tom Brady's agent, Don Yee, who's his agent, but like looking for jobs Chargers, Yeah, Raiders. I mean, he'll very likely be a head coach in the NFL next year. Jim Marble because he wants to get away from all that Michigan. Nonsense, he's got some of the teams already fired their coach, and the Raiders got
rid of Josh McDaniels and the charge charge of daily analytics. Man. So yeah, is that Well, that's the most important thing in the world. More football, but one big football. N Arthur's look it up research. Yeah, yeah, wake up, your little sleepyhead. It's time to get your stupid ass out of bed. To him about the most important thing, and the most important thing. It was Frank Reich with the third one shopped mid season from the Panthers. Yes, it's an unnecessary mustache on Arthur,
isn't it. Yeah, yep, yeah, doing it to be quirky, doing it so people are looking at him. Call the place. He liked to hold the sheet up to the mustache to cover up you know what the play call is. But he'd be scratching his mustache with the top of the sheet, with the top of the laminade the sheet. Yeah, this can't
be that much. I was once rocking a mustache as a joke years ago, and I had a piece of crab car, a little saturn, a little black saturn, and I was at a red light and I was drinking gatorade, and I wasn't used to having a mustache, and I was trying to, like me know, lick my mustache clean, like with my bottom lip. And I looked over the left of me, and there's just truck full of like workers, and the dude in the passenger seat was hysterically laughing
staring at me. I looked at him, and I look forward and I snapped my head back to look at him, and that made him laugh even harder. Then he drove away laughing, and it really kind of I was that kind of bombing like that dude just was laughing. How I look, You get clowned one gared. That's not the most part thing in the world. No, Mavericks got their biggest win of the year last night. Breakthrough beat the t Wolves one fifteen, one oh eight. Close. One got
behind by six in the fourth quarter. It was one or six, one hundred, and then Kyrie knocks down two threes in a row like a three, they get a stop, get it back another three from the corner. Kind of took over the game for a little bit. Kyrie had thirty five, Luca had thirty four, and you may be going, well, it's you know the t Wolves. Well, the t Wolves are the number one team in the Western Conference. They've been really good and they're just a half
a game better than the Denver Nuggets. Oklahoma City Thunder is a team who's really good now, and then you kind of have your MAVs. Technically they're the sixth seed in the West, but they are a game back of the four seed, and they're kind of in that conversation of teams who, when healthy and can string it together, can kind of go win on any given night against any body. And it's because the Luca and Kyrie thing is working.
And I know there are a lot of questions about it. Last year when and when it came, they weren't able to win games down the stretch and ended up tanking and helped you get Derek Clively, who you need. They didn't have Derek Clively last night. But this thing is absolutely working, and it works to the tone of generally Luca has thirty something points and Kyrie has a little less. Last night, Kyrie get the ball in the hoop a little bit more, and it's I'm not trying to get too far ahead
of myself, because Kyrie is This thing is his unavailability. He legit missed time earlier last month because he had stepped on going to the paint, an injury that could happen to anybody. So it's not like something I think you chalk up to Kyrie's reputation. He got stepped on that happens. That was a fluke thing. Who knows what their record is if that doesn't happen. Because he's having good yeah, and together they get along so far, it's
all working. He's been great, lovely since he got here and like cool and yeah, interesting and you know, minus the injuries, he's on court been excellent and not been the reason for the failures I think of last season, but not to associate him with that, because as soon as he got here the tankathon kind of started. But what's better is the defense I think over the last I don't know month maybe, and I don't know how you get Tigers to change their stripes, you know, but Luca's super proud of
the way he's playing defense and pride in it. Yeah. I mean, he's not an elite defender, but there's decided improvement. Yeah, And the eyeball test tells you that just you can he's engaged, you know, and he's trying and when it's time to get stops, like I kind of don't love the whole thing of like what the only thing that matters is the fourth quarter? Anally whatever? Not true, but there are times when you amp
up your defensive effort. And I want to play this audio for you because it's Luca last night, because he he shot down Karl Anthony Towns twice in the post and they asked him about it in the post gave his ANSWER's pretty funny. You like to talk about defense. Ah, why do you think you were able to to be as effective as you were defending Cat in the post? Because I'm Sean. People don't think that, But I had one
of the parts, the most part for Lex in the NBA. I think, how much do you enjoy that I have one of the most powerful legs in the NBA? I think one, Yeah, HiT's his other legs with the quad that's still bothering him. And look at his hurt. His quad is messed up like he has been for a year and it's never gonna get better because he never stops playing basketball. And I know a lot of people
think being too easy on these millionaires. It's insane. I mean, he goes, he gets two weeks off, he goes to Slovenia, a place for teams, Slovenia, gets two weeks off, and we're back to training camp and you're never gonna get better without resting. It. Like, it's always gonna be there. He's not gonna stop playing, so you know, he's always gonna be a little something that you're doing with. That's why you gotta have Kiro there to carry the load when he can't fully go hard.
And that's what Jason Kipp was talking about two weeks ago, was like, we can't have Luca playing forty minutes a night every single game. That's gonna kill us. And you're able to not do that as much now. I mean last night you had to get to play and go go eke out that win. But Kyrie and Luca can save each other so many minutes and so much stress just by being there because they're just bucket getters. So good just a I mean, this is sort of Gennaro but and I don't know how
rare this is, but all four of the teams are amazing. Are good? Yeah, are really good. All four teams could win titles. Absolutely, and that's pretty damn rare for any city with the whole four pack of squads. But you already got one in the bank. You got one. That's what three wins away. And MAVs are just this wild card. Who knows what They're at least loaded, and if they get healthy, you never know. And Stars are good too. Yeah, Maps can make a trade.
That's this week Stars coverage. Yeah, that is this week Stars coverage. They've been and you know, they had a little rough couple of games there, but good for them. The trade for Siakam could be interesting if that were to go through, Like if they were too, I don't know who would be in. Tim Hardley Junior woud probably have to be involved in
that, and Josh Green and more. But if you were able to acquire Paschal Siakham and put in with Kyrie Irving and Luca, you're instantly, instantly one of the favorites, one of the two or three favorites in the West. So I want them to go get aggressive and you're gonna make money work and all that stuff. But that's why I go back to Mark Cuban and his comments about the luxury tax might be more possible now with the transaction.
And this takes us to Friday where it came out via Tim mcman and Mark Stein and all the people who report things I don't know, and we'll give them all credit. They do a good job. Brad Townsend, good job, guys, Kevin Gray that Mark Cuban is giving MAVs employees a total of thirty five million dollars in bonus because he had got He got a lot of money added to his bank account with the transaction of the team to the Las Vegas Sands Corp. And the Addilson family. So thirty five million to MAVs
employees. And we have tons of friends who worked there machines. One of them ran Bobby Corella. I saw Corella speeding in a Tesla brand new double birds out the window. It kind of crazy everyone, So thirty five million. I did the math. Yeah, the other night, I was curious and I said, I'm assuming let's assume they have four hundred employees, but
it's got to be less than that. Well, it seems like a lot, right, I did it on two fifty, but I just checked it and someone did the work on this apparently according to Well, according to grow Joe. Okay, Yes, the company currently has five hundred and eighty eight employee damn oh man. I was hoping it was less. The Mavericks grew their employee count by twenty one percent last year. It says, uh.
Anyway, so if it is five eighty eight and if divided equally, which is not it's divided by tenure, right, so whatever, But an even cut for five hundred and eighty eight employees, if it's a thirty five million dollar drop, is just short of sixty thousand ahead, oh fifty nine, six hundred bucks. I texted Skin, I said, are you a MAV's employee? Are you a Bally's employees at bally Bah? Hurts hurts to miss
that one. I know someone who is a fourteen year employee that for a year now is not an employee follow well, no of the Mavericks, and I know they Yeah. Fired off a friendly email to the boss man was like, so, what where is this? Where are we fitting this? Interesting? It is? It's not my brother either, He's not you know, he hasn't an employee of the mass for ten years. It's like one
of those things where here's a very amazing gesture which it is. But can you imagine the amount of loopholes that would be coming back to your way just for trying to do something good, Because there are people like I worked there and I give him like seven years there, even eight years? Does that count? I want some of that? Yeah, do you have to be on the current yeah, payroll. Look I was here for that too, you know. I bet you gotta be pretty cut and dry current employees and
then just figure out the tenure. Yeah, it's definitely a sliding scale for something like that, because if they have five eighty eight now, I mean, if you look over Cuban tenure, you're looking at many thousand yeah, former employees. But yeah, and also you just said what they're a number of employees increased by twenty percent just in the last year. So like a go geek. So those new whatever one hundred some odd employees, they're not going to get an equal share. No, and they shouldn't. I get
them. But like our buddy Machine has been there, what four years? Four or five years? Five years, that's a nice little chunk. Heck. Yeah, when you're unexpected too, yeah, not expecting it at all. Yeah, I don't know how unorthodox that is. I don't know there it feels, but we wouldn't have heard about it in some other city. Pretty amazing thirty five million dollar pool, Like I mean, if you get
ten thousand dollars, that's that's awesome. Anything awesome anything, I mean, Dad, I know, I have our friends in radio who in their company just went through a has just filed for bankruptcy. And after COVID they got like the ratings bonus slashed and they were like, yeah, it sucks.
They're not doing that. They're not offering any type of rays and no ratings bonuses which we've always kind of had in our deals all gone, and they're like concerned, like now our company's going to bankrupt, are they going to take away? They just got the ratings bonuses back like like a quarter or two ago. It was real nice because we happened to have be able a good run, you know, and get that, and it's like, I hope that didn't get taken away. I think general companies should pay their employees
more money. That's just my baseline take. Like I don't know how often, well, I don't know like how often, Like Mark Cuban, he was very clear, I'm making a lot of money off of this too, is another reason why I'm doing it, Like does that come out of his pocket? I don't know. I don't even know what pucketts work, I mean, yeah, And I don't know how bank accounts even work when you're that rich either. I always wonder that. But he said how many bank
accounts a billionaire has? Like the question I think to him? And he was doing an interview on the court with the press, you know, and the question was basically, how did you know that the sale went through? Or when did you find out that the Board of governors like approved the sale? He goes, why I check my bank account really? Like cool? Yeah, just like that, like get a notification from Wells Fargo. Yeah, what is this? Well like three billion? Yeah, so here's thirty
five million to my team. What they almost think about? To you American Airlines security staffers who work MAVs games every night, forty one MAVs games a year, So you could even cut it up, but like, did they get a piece? I wonder what the least amount will be to the most like lowest tenured part time employee. Well, I bet somebody was hired within a month of you know, the sale. It would be funny though,
if they got a check for like, you know, fifty bucks. Yeah, they'd probably be like, man, all right, not like fifty bucks. Take that. Well, we'll have MAVs head coach Jason Kidd on with us on Wednesday. We'll ask him if he got a little bit of a bump. He's technically a MAVs employee, right, just one of the taste, don't I don't taste. I don't think the security I think the security people work for the American Airlines Center. Yeah, I think so too.
But like so they're right out and be cool if they got a little bit so say, it looked very easy. And this is the thing too, where there's part of being rich that would suck because people all of a sudden want these handouts from you, and like, I took care of my people, What do you want? I did a good gesture because there's gonna be people. I never be enough. Yeah. I wonder what terms he has to come up with to decide who gets who gets a taste? And the
answer is, don't worry about it. Be rich enough to buy your legal team to handle that. Like the Frinkles, Why don't we have a team I thought we would make more money off the downbeat singing pumpkin and singing Christmas tree topper. Yeah we made pretty much zero yeah zero books. Well, the little video suck can show people that where they can go buy these though, and they're still out in stores. I think seasonal next year. They're
so real, slashed prices. Birthdays, they are real and they are great birthdays on this day is January eighth. Ellas if you guys have a good JAY six weekend. Yeah, you call your mom. I don't even think I what was that Saturday? No, I didn't call my mom. I uh. I saw a place that was like a lemonade stand selling memoravillion T shirts and it was a Joe's Gotta Go RV and they were selling all kinds of all kinds of stuff. I was running late for the thing I had
to go to. But if I wasn't running late, I was gonna stop and just kind of maybe get some audio, you know it, just hey, you guys do it. You're having a big day. Yeah, you know it's funny. It's he grabbed some merch. They spent a lot of money on painting that RV a whole Joe's gotta Go American flag. It was Eagle Trump's face on it. It was amazing. Uh. Noah Cyrus is twenty four. I don't expect you guys to know Noah Cyrus, but that is my least versus. Little sister did a song with Leon Bridges. It's
pretty good. Oh, my old how would you say? Twenty four? Twenty four? Okay? Do you have a Mike specific birthday one of your guys right here, Jim Jensen, the fortieth birthday of Kim Jong un, my squad, the Supreme Leader. Yeah, that's why I put the picture up on the wall like every building in North Korea and Pyongyang. Y'all saw the interview right seth Rogen James Frank it's pretty good. That's funny. Margueritas are not gay. Rachel Nichols is forty four. Danny, I'll never forget
how the Hammer described her one time. She looks good up top, But man, she's got an ass that's axe handle wide, axe handle wide. I mean, I don't even understand. I don't either, because I handle the ax gets. Yeah, I guess you know an accent that if you make it, yeah, her wit guess her butts the size of an axe handle. But yeah, all I care about it with her talent, Yeah, I agree. Did you get caught on tape talking smack about Maria Taylor?
That was a pretty big scandal. Yeah, that's right. That was a couple of little three years ago. Yeah. Audio only goes viral when it's something bad. I'm trying to tell you people, only when it's something bad. Listen to Kevin. I'm right all the time. Yeah, we should all listen to Kevin Moore. And when I'm wrong, I'll own it. Jason Gialmi's birthday is fifty three. Admitted steroid user. He was not one of the guys that tried to run from it. A fantasy baseball beast,
Oh my god, yeah this decade. Yeah, his brother I think died, Jeremy. He was the guy tagged out on the Jeter cutoff play that Kavanaugh thinks Jeter's over eight because Derek Jeter impeded the process of that throw to home plate. If you remember it, Yeah, yep, It's like, I don't know that he did. I think he helped. I think he get there faster, but then he drove all night in a wagon ear
r. Kelly's fifty seven. Hard to comment on R. Kelly, but I did you tell you every time I had an interaction with R. Kelly When I was an intern at Fox Broadcasting in LA and went to Las Vegas for the Billboard Music Awards, and my job was to stand in hallway doing absolutely nothing. I was in this long hallway of the Thomas and mac Arena right like kind of right by the stage, but not where most of the
main people came through. But R. Kelly was performing, and I'm in this hallway by myself, and it's like it's probably ten feet away, but it feels like one hundred feet away in my memory. As the two darkened doors swung open and it was back lit, so I just saw the silhouette of a man who's striding toward me, and he had a red phantom of
the opera like half mask on with a flowing cape. And on his way to the stage was one R. Kelly who walked right past me, and I was like, that is a image I will never forget hey and he pete on me, And you see, you should have led with that. I was building that was a cool story about yourself. Oh dump it, it's about R. Kelly on his birthday. I don't know, I don't know who the lines are Big Music birthday David Bowie would have been seventy seven.
Damn David Bowie. R Kelly and also Elvis Presley would have been eighty nine. Wow, the three they jumped in together all the time. That's right, Elvis, David Bowie and R. Kelly. Everyone talks about them together. So the Elvis death date is, oh, August sixteen. Who is also somebody's birthday up here? Right? Oh? Yeah, mic writer ah, yep, suing because why is he always shaking guys? Stephen Hawkings
eighty two would have been yeah, it would have been Yeah. He was stacking tiny people in a pyramid and he was really just ramming the cart into him well, and I think he was getting off on my equations of the positions he was putting them in, and then he was doing the equation and that was the only way that he could orgasm. Oh god, he had a combination of keys and then enter move top up pyramid on his little speaking spell and the very sexist legendary game show host Bob you Banks is eighty six.
Love Bob you Banks. You loved that he was a sexist, not that part. But he was a good host and a real smart ass and in the seventies a good smart ass game show host, very good newlywed game. He really liked to try to get those newlyweds divorced. It is his play. You could tell. He would identify one of the four couples. He would get one or two, usually the hottest gal, and he would try to break him up. Was he the host? When he asked a
couple what was the weirdest place they ever made? Whoopee and the woman said the butt, Yes, he was the host. He also has an m head based on a receding hairline. But there's that. Here's your birthdays January eighth, and coming up next, Buckle up, we got a new live spot from Mike's Aroy plus why this is the best crack at the Super Bowl in the deck Prescott Air right next to ninety seven one in the Freak