I should have known.
I should have known when I left it open for c K there was a potential of getting weird spin doctors. Yeah, man, all right, nineties one Hit Wonders is where we went with today? What year was this?
I gotta say ninety three, ninety four ish?
That's fat.
Check me on this.
Let's see spin doctors. What's the name of the song? Two Princes Princes? Then they had another one little miss camp be wrong.
Oh my gosh. Only you would have this knowledge.
Mom, had the cassette played it in the Volvo.
Nineteen ninety one.
Oh man, I'm off. Okay, that's still pretty good.
Uh can we be honest? Horrible band?
Oh yeah, that's why they were one hit wonder fair enough.
Chris camaraddniy Liven Studio. Hello, Christopher, how are you good man?
How are you?
I'm good? I'm good.
So let's get the Shador Sanders stuff out of the way. As really the only local media member that has experience covering Colorado Dion and Shador. Let me ask you this, do you think Dion did him a little bit of a disservice throughout the course of this process, because you hear a lot of like well, like his dad, he sandbagged a bunch of interviews, and like his dad, he wanted to choose where he wanted to play. Dion could have sandbagged every interview possible. He's the best cornerback potential
you've ever seen play. Chador is just simply not that talent. Do you think he maybe was done a bit of a disservice by his father?
He was done a disservice by his father and basically the entire ecosystem of the NFL draft, because if we're being honest, the folks who are tasked with pontificating on such things in the months and years prior at Shador at a top as a top ten piss they did. So my question is, was the lead up to the combine, the interviews, skipping the combine, opting to maybe throw it pro day, and then throwing a pro day. Did all of that stuff suddenly sour team so much to the
point that it cost him to slip four rounds. I don't know, Like and to me, like I told one of my bosses, like, beyond the prank call, beyond where he ended up. I think this is a learning lesson for basically everybody who's involved in stuff like this, to take a step back and figure out what went wrong and why did it go wrong, because we've never seen
this before. I mean, like the closest analogy we have, honestly is Rogers was it was Aaron sliding when Alex Smith went one and still a first rounder, still a first rounder and obviously went to the ideal spot when a Super Bowl is going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. But I don't I can't remember ever having a prospect in the most important position in football, let alone sports slide at the level that Shador Sanders slid to. And I think we will have think pieces.
I think we will have reports coming out in the coming days. I mean, Diana was Seen, who works with me at the Athletic Now, reported this week that you know, a lot of it came down to the interviews, came down to the fact that he didn't want to participate
at the combine. And again, my question is going to be for a while now until we get it answered, and you'll only get an answered through sources, through league sources, through people who will speak on condition of anonymity because a lot of these folks, remember most people in the world of sports kind of live in semi fear of Deon Sanders. You do not want to get on the wrong side of Dion because of the cultural and medius way that he has. But again, how did this happen?
How did this kid go from being like maybe where the Steelers going to take him at twenty one as recently as a month ago, to going in the fifth round to the Browns after they had selected Dylan Gabriel the third round. It's a fascinating story and I'm really interested to see what in the coming weeks and months.
Yeah, and your point about the conversation, I mean, there was a point last year mid season where Vegas had pretty good odds for Shador to be a finalist for the Heisman Trophy and be the number one overall pick. So it wasn't just people throwing stuff against the wall to hope it would stick, like you could get odds on should or going number one. Mid season last year there was the Saints at nine, who need a quarterback.
To your point of this Dealers at twenty one. I do often find the chasm between NFL talent evaluators, NBA talent evaluators, and media talent evaluators interesting because how much of the media talent evaluating is also draped in I want this to be a great story, Like we sit down and watch mel Kuiper lose his mind for three days because he thought should or should be the number one overall pick. Is that mel Kiper really analyzing should Or as a talent or is that mel Kiper the
actor on television also wanting the story? Right, there's a gap between the two. You're taught when you're evaluating talent. If you're working for a team, you're taught to remove emotion. Now do you have to analyze everything that surrounds the player?
Yes? But can he play simple? Bottom line?
But on the media side of things, how much of this talent evaluation is draped in the narrative that they want you to click on their stuff and watch their TV show?
Right?
Well, it's a business in of itself, and the sport has owned the off season like unlike any other professional sport. We have really like worldwide because the international soccer window can get exciting, But the summer transfer window, as you know, the most important transfer window indeed, is only like three weeks long and you don't have you'll have some monumental movement like in Bob Beta Real Madrid that comes along
once a blue moon. You can make an argument that people are more tantalized by the off season and the draft than they are by the season for a lot of teams, because in the NFL, a lot of teams are bad for a long time, and all you have to sell them is hope. And what did we learn from Ted Lasso?
It kills you.
The hope that kills you.
So Porter loved that show, That Porter's show hate it.
I know. My point is is it is a It is an ecosystem in of itself, the NFL Draft, and a lot of people have figured out a cultivated a way to market themselves as pseudo experts. Selfishly, I'm going to lean and rock with my guy Dane Brugler, who you've had on the show many times, who knows the stuff because he isn't one of those guys. He is kind of the the guy behind the curtains for a
long time. It is like I'll show up in October November and I'll and I'll start to give you guys, you know, some feedback on who I think is good. But the Internet's a fickle place, man, and you can you can create a a fabricated existence for yourself and project yourself as an expert when you're really not, and you can be a fan of things. But unfortunately, in this world, somebody might find something hyperbolic and be like, oh, this person said it. Oh, let me check out their
online bio on x Oh they're a draft expert. Okay, let's spin this and let's aggregate it and then send it into the universe and then it takes on a life of its own. And this happens often, but in the NFL draft it happens at an alarmingly high rate.
Order brought this up, and I think it's spot on. And let's see Dane hat youd or going twenty one. Yep, the Giants trading back in. But I think as far as his overall big board, he was like forty three or something. So Dane actually was closer than most of the other analysts, certainly the mel Kuipers of the world.
But I don't know if there's another.
Events or anything on the sporting calendar that's covered by more liars and charlatans than the NFL draft. No Porter brought it up, it's one hundred percent correct because people realize you could be Joe Schmoe that knows nothing about what you're doing, and you create a mock and it finds its way into an algorithm. People are going to click on mock drafts no matter what, and it always makes it hard to understand where the real information.
Is coming from.
And honestly, you're also getting smoke screens and misdirections from teams.
That's the most undersold part of this. And talk about that, well, you know you've been in the front office rooms before, right.
And that's also what makes it complicated, because what you want to do when you're in a front office is you use your media contacts to send out messages via the media that will throw other teams off your sense and will make other teams believe that you're actually looking at players that you have no desire to select, and you want to throw media, you know, you want to throw the media messaging out there. Teams actually stay away from the guy that you like or think that you
like somebody that you don't. And therefore it makes our job analyzing this stuff beyond microphones or beyond computers riding about it really hard to do. And that's why you can look at every single mock. Everybody gets it wrong every single year, so it makes it hard to really understand what's real and what isn't. But you made multiple trips down to Boulder to cover Colorado and Dion and Shador and I told this anecdote Monday after the draft where when we were down, well.
It was Vegas Big twelve Media Day this year is in Dallas.
When we were in Vegas for Big twelve Media Day, we're on radio row, We're interviewing players and coaches, Kenny Dillingham. You know, you go down the list and it was a pretty docile environment. Intel boom. You look over, double doors open. Six cameras are following Shador and Shiloh and Dion as they walk in, and suddenly the circus isn't town.
And if you're running a front office, if you're a general manager, you don't want the circus in town for somebody you perceived to be as a backup quarterback, like all things being equal, unless you're a generational talent, unless you're Peyton, unless you're Andrew Luck, and there are no questions about who you could be as a quarterback all of your variables really need to be in place, and it seemed like a lot of the variables surrounding Shador
were question marks that were never fully answered.
Well, he existed in a biodome of he existed a biodome. Great movie, by the.
Way, right, solidy, we could go there, we could.
He existed in this reality that was cultivated from the get go, having always been coached by his dad, Hall of Famer, you know, bombastic human being, like like a plus genius and messaging. But to your point, yes, like what this was was this was the ultimate reminder that the NFL has the zeroest time for bs. I wish I could have said it like it would have been a good one.
It would have been a good one to land right there.
Yeah, they just do not suffer fools. And I'm not saying Shadoor is a fool. I'm just saying, like they do not have time for the pomp and circumstance, like you are expected to get in line and adhere and granted there. You know, there have been some characters over the years, but like think about recently, like who who came into the league with a lot of kind of fanfare, but a lot of questions like Johnny mansiin is a.
Great one, perfect one?
Yeah, yep, And you know, you know, different set of circumstances, different set of issues, But like, what would be really fascinating would be go into a multiverse and be like, if Shador doesn't play for Dion, if Shador goes to play at Oregon State, or does he go play at you know, Texas Tech or a different school, does this conversation change Because he's a he is a You can't say he's not a good quarterback. He's a good quarterback.
But the line of delineation that I found fascinating after his fall is so many people were like, you shouldn't be surprised by Dion sanders slide, or should or Sanders slide? Look at the tape. If that's the argument, then why were we projecting him as a first round pick all along? I understand that he had a circumstance where he played for his dad, who obviously prioritized the offense around him to make him look good, but they failed to recruit
offensive lineman two years in a row. He was running for his life. He was the most sacked quarterback in college football the last two years he held the ball way too long, but he could make some throws. I'm absolutely one hundred percent confident by saying this, like if should or gets a shot like he will not look terrible. There's a chance he might not pay out, but it's not. He's not going to be the least prepared quarterback in
the history of the NFL. But he was brought in in a system that catered to his every need, both on the field and off the field. When I was at Colorado's pro day last year or fall camp media day, sorry, Dion spoke, and then the other two people that got on the dais were who Travis not Travis? Oh?
Wow?
Chador and Shiloh Oh come on, that doesn't surprise you. And again going back to the biodome, the ecosystem, I've used that word a lot today. It's fun when you're when you're brought up this way in like kind of just the the prince who was promised. Once you get to the NFL, all that stuff goes out the window. And one thing that I'm really interested in is like
Deon knows this. He lived that life, but he didn't lift that life at the level lit Shadoor's gonna have to because he's playing quarterback right, which is a position that takes on a life of its own. It's so much more pressure than cornerback. Dion could could, you know, go one on one with Chris Carter or Andre Risen or Jerry Rice. But like Shador, if he's going to get a shot, like he's gonna have to go up against the Baltimore Ravens defense and the Steelers defense by himself,
this is a totally different ballgame. I don't think we're ever going to see something like this again, which is why I think the draft coverage was so intense. It was burning white hot on this issue. But it was very tiresome and it and it turned into I guess you could say good TV for the folks at NFL Network in ESPN because everybody was waiting at baited breath for where Shador going to go. But you can make an argument that the entire weekend was hijacked by this. Well.
Andrew Marshawn from your outlet from the Athletic wrote a great piece on the mel Kuiper meltdown. Because I'll be honest, watching mel meltdown was fun. It was good television. I mean, even though it it kind of distracted from what we were actually doing. Good Bad Moon ryh the original Bad Moon Rising? Andre Rising? Was he the one who was it? Left Eye who burned this house down?
Yeah?
Peace, rest in peace, left Eye. Best poly shore movie.
Oh, I'm gonna zag on you. You're not gonna be ready for this. I'm not in Sino Man.
In Sino Man is I'm gonna go Son in Law.
Sun in Law is his best leading role in the Army now underrated. Okay, but if I want to watch one poly shore movie, it's going to be in Sino Man.
Okay, here's the question.
Chris Comraddie's favorite polyshore movie texted in right now to eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred, and you will win one round of golf to Davis Park, the best poly shore movie according to c K. Because that's what we do on the show eight seven seven three five three zero seven hundred. It is the Festival of the Tease. Every day this spring we are giving away one round of golf to the best courses in
the state. Listen to The Down and Dirty with Scott Mitchell, The Sean O'Connell Show, and then this little old radio show. The drive was Spence Jackets from two to six for your chance to win each day from ESPN seven hundred the Utah Golf Association.
All right, a couple more draft things before you catch a break.
Is it an indictment at all that Caleb Lohner was the only you drafted and no BYU players are drafted?
Or is this just a moment in time. It's a great question.
I was talking with this about this with Porter while you were on your last segment. What are the odds that the only dude between both schools, both rivals who is drafted is a former basketball player that played basketball at both of those schools.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm gonna go the logical route and say it's lightning in a bottle. But you're looking at back to back years now where Utah didn't have much NFL talent. BYU's different because a lot of their guys either transferred in the portal or stayed. I mean most of their guys stayed, honestly, But I don't know, like, off the top of my head, who would have gone really all that much higher than Caleb, even at BYU, Like.
I thought Junior would be drafted Tifuna.
Yeah, yeah, I mean he he came. It all depends on who you play with. Man Junior played with a lot better talent his early years at the U than his later years. And when you play with better players, they're going you're going to look better because they're going to make you look better. Yeah. I don't know if if Chase would have been I mean he probably would
have maybe six seven rounds, six seventh round. But like, other than that, it's a really fascinating team if you really think about it, because like they were so good, but they don't have because the Etien kid didn't get drafted. No, it didn't. So yeah, it's I think i'll say lightning in a bottle moment. But for Utah, there was a time where it was like every year you're kind of relied upon to have a top three round pick. Now next year it'll be different because Spencer Fano is likely
a top ten pick. But there was a time during Utah's you know, PAC twelve run for the demise of the conference, where you were looking at four or five guys going from you know, rounds two to six every single year.
Yeah, and a lot of them landed. I thought Batty would be drafted. I thought Tyler Batty was gonna get drafted, and a lot of them landed on their feet. Conra O'Toole got one of the richest like undrafted deals with Seattle. I think he got like three hundred k guaranteed with a signing bonus. But yeah, it's just always interesting to consider. I guess we should shout out Jalen Royals, who was draft from the fourth round by the Chiefs.
Fano is a top ten pick. Is that what we're here?
My guy Dan Brugler has him as a top.
Ten Really okay, very nice. Well, hopefully it is just a moment in time. All right, we'll catch a quick break. Ck is live in studio for another big segment. We also are going to bring in Dave Fox today, who has two Pelotons and two Emmys. Do you have a Peloton or an Emmy? Do you have either?
I definitely don't have an Emmy. I have an old used exercise bike hand me down from Aaron Folk.
You have a hand me down exercise buck from falk Oh. That rules erin if you're listening. Get back about tea times coming up this weekend? All right, I want to tell you about a new partner here on the show, our friends at Outlaw Distilling. Outlaw Distillery is a homegrown grain to glass, nitty gritty whiskey, vodka, rum, and moonshine distillery right here in Salt Lake County, Utah, grown with so much history here of cowboys, outlaws, mining, and more.
They've got everything on the spirit spectrum, from their spiced rum, vanilla being rum, Outlaw coffee, rum, honeybourbon, barrel proof whisky, vodkan, moonshine. They have it all and they're embracing the Outlaw name by being rebellious and making some very unique spirits that aren't being seen or created by any other distilleries in Utah. It's a passionate group. We're happy to have them on board. So take a trip and sip some of their spirits.
You can either find their bottles in local liquor stores or book of tasting if you tell them I sent you and book of tasting. It's about an hour and a half and you get to keep your shot glass as a souvenir after you're done. Get your tor and tasting booked at Outlaudistillery dot com. Today in honor of Andre bad Moon Rising, and of course Cameron Rising. By the way, you heard anything about our guy Cam Last thing I heard he was out of Utah Royals game get his mic on.
But yeah, that was the last time I saw Cam publicly. Was I think he went with a couple of former Utah and BYU players.
Porter.
Have you heard anything about the future of one young Cameron Rising.
No, I think that's kind of the question right now last night. Just to be clear, last I talked to Cam was in January, so at that point he wasn't necessarily training for an NFL team, So I don't necessarily know what the next move is for one Cam Rising.
I honestly thought he'd make like three hundred grand and go play quarterback for like Sacramento State or something. Well, they just got Jaden Rashata. It was just a hypothetical. I'm just saying, not that school, per se. But didn't you think that maybe you go play another year of college football?
Maybe? But man, I mean, we've talked about the sad nauseam, but the amount of serious injury back to back to back, it was a lot. Yeah, I imagine that the mental component is as hard, if not harder than the physical part at this point.
Do you think there was any conversation at all about him coming back to Utah?
I guess would be.
No.
It felt like it was.
Just one of those things like, hey, this has been great, give you a hug, go on your way, right.
Well, there's still guarantee that Cam wants to still play. Well, I don't know, that's what I mean. No, for sure? Yeah, I mean my guess would I mean, I don't know. I don't even want to guess. But we have to prepare for and the eventuality that football will not work out for a lot of people. And you know, Cam reached some incredible heights, but like I said, to go through the amount of injuries that he'd went through in his career, just a Utah alone is a lot.
Do you think the time of.
College football college basketball programs building their programs with athletes and players that we all get to know over the course of two, three, four, five years is just completely done? Because when you look at the history, well, and this isn't just a Utah thing, but if we're you're going to use our local example as the home of the U, it's family on three the basketball program, you know, the teams that were the best and the teams that everyone
remembers Van Horn, britt Andre, three four year guys. The best football teams we had were guys that stayed here two, three, four years.
They were upperclassmen.
Uh.
And you know it's not just.
Success, but it's also this thing in the community where Hey, Britain's a senior or Cameron's camraisings like, Okay, they're coming back.
Do you think those days are over?
Nor your guy at Yukon's coming back for a senior year? That yeah. I mean the guy who was a lottery pick projection just a couple of years ago. I guess he likes Dan Hurley a lot.
It's also getting paid a little money, so played.
A little getting paid a little money. I mean, one thing I will say about in a little bit of a caveat On. You know the the PAC twelve title teams is like a lot of those teams were transfers. Cam was a transfer. S Quinn Jackson was a transfer. Yep. A lot of guys who are part of that team
didn't necessarily start out as utes. I think college basketball still has a chance because the roster size is small enough you can afford in theory to pay a decent amount of nil money to players who want to stay and make money rather than risking rolling the dice and
go into the NBA. And depending on where you go to school, the house settlement could benefit basketball players like pretty well yeah, I mean like I would imagine the house settlement will help yukon basketball more than it will uk on football.
Well, and Richie Saunders announces he's coming back, and the reports are that's a seven figure deal. How about BYU basketball if all the reports are true, paying between thirteen and fifteen million dollars for their roster next year?
Is that true? Well, I mean I was told, I was told, I was told that b WHYU doesn't prioritize.
Well, well, they also out love, and out develop and outserve everybody. Okay, yes, indeed we know all of that. But Jeff Goodman is the one that reported the Baylor kid is getting three mil aj debands to seven mil for five months of basketball. That's ten Richie gets seven figures.
There's stays on campus shout out, you gotta go, you gotta go down to campus. You gotta get some some swigs with aj.
I'll go, I'll crush some uh, what's the cookie company, Crumble crumble or chip I'll crush.
It's not idea, it's a remote.
It's an excellent idea. I wish I would have thought of it. Zach Wilson bought a bunch of chips, I think with his New York Jets money. But yes, I mean all of the lovely ancillary BYU.
We love everybody, out serve everybody.
Things aside, if you just do the math based off the reports thirteen.
To fifteen min it makes sense just because it's so it's so front loaded or you know, top loaded, with with AJ getting that much money, you're probably never gonna pay that again to another, you know, number one crew in the country unless your guy, Kevin k why my guy, my guy, unless he manages to strike gold twice and keeps this thing rolling. But I mean, even if you take AJ out of the equation, then you're saying you're paying seven to eight million dollars for the rest of
the roster. That still makes sense and probably is necessary in a conference like the Big twelve.
See, that's the thing, and that's why I don't get the Steve Bannon muddy the waters flood the zone with misinformation and then the deflection about what's really going on. I don't understand why the culture just can't embrace and be honest and authentic about what's really happening. And the reason I don't get it is that it's not a bad thing. To your point, if you want to keep up,
it's what you have to do. Like Utah should be so lucky to be paying this roster thirteen to fifteen mil and they're good, Like BYU is going to be a top five team next year, and it's because they have deep pockets, it's not because they outlove everybody.
Just stop saying things like.
That, is BYU a final fourteen? It could be? Is is I don't I'm coming in. I'm coming on the drive with zero AJ debonsa tape Are you Are You? Is? Like? Is he the surefire number one? The following he's awesome? Like he is he as guaranteed the number one pick in the twenty sixth draft, as Cooper Flag was for the twenty.
Five No, because there's another kid in that draft that's thought to be on his level. Okay, but everything I've seen on tape, because you know me, grind, grind on the tape.
Give me, give me your cump, give me your spench. Check.
He's he's a Lebron type wing. He's a Durant type wing. He is a Kawhi type wing. He is all of six 't eighty sixty nine. He's got a big body, and even at his age, he doesn't need to fill out much. I mean usually when we see seventeen eighteen year old great players, it's like they got to put on ten to fifteen pounds. Aj is big, He's strong, he can handle it, he can shoot it. He finishes on the break, he finishes with force, and he guards three or four positions. He's awesome. Can he shoot He
can shoot it. There's nothing he can't do. The only thing he has to improve on is incrementally on everything that he he's already awesome at, and then learn how to play against men in the NBA. But no, he's surefire like BYU fans are gonna love him. He's awesome. He's all that.
So you think he'll be able to handle the pressure of playing Utah twice a year question?
I mean, I think the pressure of the Huntsman Center might get to him. But no, I mean it's he's worth every penny they're paying him. I just don't understand why people can't say it out loud, like what are you hiding? What are you trying to deflect from? Is it like an embarrassment, like they don't want to admit that they're outbidding everybody. I just don't understand the dynamic at all.
I'm thinking, I don't know if it's an embarrassment. I just think you lean in long enough to an approach to things that maybe you feel like you're portraying all the legwork that you've done up until this point. But I agree wholeheartedly. I mean Kirk Bowles, who is a Austin based calmnist who's covered University of Texas for a
long time. He's not the Houston Chronicle. He reported today from several sources that he anticipates Texas spending as much as forty million dollars on their football team this year.
And it's what you gotta do, yep, you know, And all of the pearl clutching right about not wanting to admit this is what's happening.
You should lean into it.
One caveat that I think is important to make, and maybe this is the sensitivities of the culture of Brigham Young is that maybe there's an idea that the church up here on South Temple or whatever is writing the checks, and we should be very clear that's not happening, right. These are Crimson or Royal Blue or whatever the current nil stuff is down there. These are wealthy donors that donate to the collective that are paying the bills. The
checks aren't coming from the church. Maybe that's what people are sensitive about.
Yeah, I don't know. I guess any school, not Utah, any school would be lucky to have that amount of money at their disposal to build a basketball program, and a competitive one at that.
Is b YU currently paying more for their basketball team than RSL is paying for their soccer team.
Are we counting transfer fees?
Yes, ooh, probably that's wild to consider.
I wanted to get this because we talked about it off air, one more football thing before we kind of move on, because one of the conversations that you hear post draft are NFL gms and executives turned off at the way Shador handled the process. And there simply is no other league or any other sport that has this kissed the ring protect the shield field kind of like, you know, quite like football, would you agree with that?
Like the NFL protect the shield, kiss the ring. There is this like cultish feel around football and if you don't handle yourself, well, nobody's bigger than the Shield in the NFL, like nobody is.
Well. Yeah, And there's a reason why it took And this is a very dark turn, but it's the reality.
If there's a reason why it took so many tragedies in the world of CTE, why it took a movie like Concussion, why it took something as severe as deaths of former players for anybody to even remotely challenge the league, right, And there's lots of guys who are still afraid to talk about it because they're afraid of being shunned or being excommunicated, or being viewed as the type of person that doesn't respect or you know, have this devout loyalty
to the quote unquote shield. It's it's ridiculous.
What is it about football that breeds the religious man?
We don't have enough time for that.
Oh we do, we do.
But there's something different even about fandom.
Man, and it's man in it's man in the arena. It is our modern day Gladiator, and I'm and I'm throwing out all the cliche bs. This is not stuff I believe, but this is stuff that some people believe. Most of it is living vicariously through athletes and people that they'll we know will never be able to be fast enough or strong enough, or good enough or talented enough. And it's a great question because you can make an argument that it's leveled up significantly even in the last
like twenty five years. I don't. I'm sure this comes along with the advent of the Internet and social media and the explosion of media rights and basically being able to watch every game, But why do you have to spend five hundred dollars on NFL network or in red zone red zone? Yeah? Like, and people pay it like it's not even a second thought. I gotta watch my Jack, I gotta watch Jaguars, I gotta watch the Carolina Panthers.
Yeah you don't.
Yeah, there's something even about fandom where you see people visit their favorite NFL arena for the first time and openly weep, or go to the Rose Bowl for the first time and openly cry. And then there's the whole media race to prove who's the hornyess for football when fall comes, which is just.
Like it's booky man, it is it is. It is odd. Yeah, I mean that sounds like a story.
I should explore that our football guys is uncomfortable.
Yeah, you're right in there.
No, I was just saying, it's me. Oh, I know, I'm most ready for Porter goes to Jerry World and he's just like ready to take out.
As orders a card carrying member of the Church of Football and Saturdays and Sundays and look, I love football.
I've always my whole life, I've loved football.
But whenever anything starts to feel cultish, I tend to go the other way. I'm like, Okay, that's a little weird because still at the end of the day, we are talking about children's game in college played by mostly children. Yeah, that is consumed by people that make it their entire identity, and when the season ends, it's like they're lost.
They're wandering in this abyss. They don't know what to do.
Yeah, little story tease for you, which has been a while.
What finally, because you don't tweet them out anymore.
I spent a day with Dan Mullen in Vegas last week. Nice and we talked about this okay, and what we can talk about it more next week after the peace comes out. I think it's supposed to come out on Monday. But Dan was very transparent and honest about the grind and the drain of the reality of football and college football and the sec and how beneficial it was for him to be away from it and enjoy it. Like I mean, obviously, if you're good at TV, it's fun.
Dan was good at TV, was yeah, and he probably could have been on ESPN for another twenty years and been good. He told me that as much when I was in Vegas. But it is fascinating to get the perspective from guys who get a break from it and then get back into it because they're they're basically challenging themselves again again to try to not let what happened the first time happen again.
I'm interested to hear his thoughts and read what you have to say, because nobody can live up to the pressure of being a deity. If you're a football player and a football coach and these fans in your community treat you like you like you walk on water, that has to be exhausting to deal with day in and day out.
Yeah. I think Dan had had a quote where he was like, in the sec if you win, people will be good job. But if you lose, it's like you walked in the front door and kick their.
Dog, for sure.
For sure. You know there's there's a little bit of that with what happened with Utah football year ago. You know, coach Waite has spoiled this community so much that one down year I.
Mean victim of your own circumstances success, Yeah, and you'd rather take that ten times out of ten, because if you don't have success, you don't have the job.
In the first place anymore, for sure.
But perspective is important, man. It's important in fandom, it's important in everyday life. And I want to believe people are smart enough to understand where it fandom fits and how a potential kid in the transfer portal may or may not affect a season, or how you know, recruit who has Utah on their top five may or may not affect the longevity of the program. But I don't know, man, this is a reality check episode. If we really I mean, that's what we got to do.
For sure.
We gotta get we got to get Spencer Hall on. We got to get some sports psychologists on and we really got to get into the nitty gritty well.
And the other interesting dynamic is, just like other religious elements, the more you can convince people that what you are selling them is paramount to their very existence, the quicker they're going to pull out their checkbook and say where do I sign? And that's the lifeblood of college football programs. The donors, your season ticket holders, people in your community that preach at the Oak Duke calm down. My dog
has a humping habit, which we're working on. If you want to see my dog hump Chris on YouTube, go ahead and sign on.
Let's get to ten. Let's get to ten viewers.
But the more you can convince people that the altar with which they are worshiping is actually a real thing that benefits their life, the more that they're going to donate, and the more money you have, and therefore the more you can keep up.
And in a way, the present day model of college athletics benefits universities at that level way more than it ever has. Sure, Yeah, because you can go into these meetings with boosters and folks that potentially can get out their checkbook and be like, you can make a difference, right, you can help us land so on and so forth. And if we get this guy, our fortunes are changed.
Forever and you will be known as the person that helped us do this. And therefore you will be a member in the community where other community members look at you as the shining bright north Star. Yeah, and that that that creates an identity that people the crave. You want to be the season ticket older, the booster that wrote the check that had led Devin dan Pier to sign here. Then suddenly you're a hero amongst your community that is worshiping at the altar of Utah football. But
no other sport has this. Maybe European soccer, but no other sport really has this feel where people would It feels like they would dive for the team they cheer for.
Oh it's yeah soccer for sure. Yeah, not just soccer worldwide.
Good good segue Oka, Right, last few minutes we have you here.
So wait did you get did you go to the game?
Oh, the vibes were high, So San die.
Tell me about because they played at San Diego State Stadium.
San Diego State Stadium.
How it like did it look Okay?
It did.
It looked better than I was expecting at San Diego. So it's gorgeous no matter what. But mountains in the backdrop are beautiful. I don't know that that's sustainable long term, but you know, I guess according to what I was told. The turf takes a lot of abuse and beating throughout the course of the year, but the conditions look great.
The crowd was pretty good.
Yeah, because it was a football stadium, they were kind of scattered, but I would say all in there was probably eighteen nineteen thousand people there through out the course of the stadium. But the lads get all three Diego with the brace your guy. We saw our big Willie Goles come on as a sub sat next to Johnny Russell for a little portion of the game.
My man's intense. He's got a great beard, but vibes are good.
Man.
Three points on the road. Here we are with the lads, all.
Right, here we go.
I know, no, no, no, try you just got me. Is there anybody else on this roster that can level up to the level that Diego Luna can level up to, Because if if Ursela is going.
Amaca was really good.
Okay, okay, I guess I should quantify it by saying, like, in the attacking third, is there anybody that's a problem, Well, what about big Willy goals had had a pretty good chance. He did put it. I think, I mean it's probably a field goal, it's probably an extra point.
He died it. Yeah, he got ensolved it or.
I don't think you can rely on those types of performances every single week from my guy. Like there's one guy in the world that you can do do that within his name's Lionel Messi, and even at thirty seven, he's still doing it in this league. But other than that, it's just not realistic. And who knows, maybe Agata's addition changes things. I am fascinated to see what the what
the attack looks like when he's that number nine. But our sales problem now is not in the attacking third, Like they're down like three or four center backs and like that vera collision, dude, Yeah, like wow, like that was some scary, like straight gone, like you could immediately tell when the other team comes over and like freaks out. That's when you, like I think of when I think of Gordon Hayward's broken foot. Like, I don't think of everybody else. I think of what Lebron did, You know
what I mean? Because like it when it resonates with the opponent on the level, that's like visceral. That's when you know it's bad. I don't I don't know what his availability will be that for this week because it was so Yeah, I would assume that he should probably be held out because he was knocked out cold. But Glad was hurt. Somebody Kobe Kobe Henry's been hurt for like a month now. I guess Quinton was having some
cramping issues or something like. And now you have to go to Vancouver, who plays tonight plays Miami tonight in the in the Conker caf Semis. So maybe you get those guys tired on the you know, second leg of their two game week in Vancouver. But you're still going to play the best team in the West, maybe the best team in the conference, on the road in a place where historically you haven't been very good.
What's realistic to expect?
I mean, Johnny Russell in his prime was really good for SKCS thirty five. He's been without a club for seven months. I was told by my guy, my guy Pobs that he was impressed with his initial conditioning. He's not as far behind as they thought. I don't know if he's available this Saturday, thirty five years old, right, So what's reasonable to expect from from Johnny.
Russell on the field or off the field?
Well both, if you like.
On the field, I would say that left footed gold dangerous player late in games, probably shouldn't be starting because you have younger wingers. I mean even a kid like Xavier Gozo who are in the start in San Diego, Like,
these are guys you need to bring along. Yeah, And I think you know the segue to why I ask for off the field is like you need guys like Johnny Russell who've scored sixty goals in this league or whatever to kind of teach a lot of these young guys the ropes and you know, give them advice on how to handle things and how to go at certain defenders on the field. Like I would guess that Johnny Russell could still stand over a free kick and hit it with his left foot and peg it pretty well.
But I don't know if he's going to be in for a seventy minute work shift where he's busting his ass up and down the line the way Pablo wants his wingers to play well.
And your point, Diego is clearly head and shoulders above everybody else and kind of has to make miracles happen every game if they're going to have a chance to compete. And the summer window will open, but by the time it closes, there's just not a lot of time. Eight or nine gait or nine games left, all right, One more thing here. The headline on ESPN dot com is Mammoth gaff question mark Utah Mama.
Name after leak.
So we have a situation where the hockey club change their social handles, but it was not supposed to be for public consumption to Utah mammoth Uh. This is the same operation that leaked the Jazz yellow jerseys too early and then try to walk it back to say, wait, Purple's back to this is embarrassing, like what's.
People just need to be on the same page. I mean, I'm of the opinion that it should just be Utah Hockey Club. I feel an imperpetuity forever and I will I will drive this steak into everyone's heart. We are a state known for fossils, but we're they're dinosaurs, right, Come on, man, Like the entire Eastern Utah is known for just a bleep ton of dinosaur fossils, mammoth, what
are we doing? Yeah, I will say, I'm sure it's very difficult to have a perfect sinked out roll out in terms of moving things over bing bong bing bong. One who's weird enough to notice that stuff at like eleven pm? Come on, guys, go to sleep. You know, I watch some you know, righteous Jempstones or something. But yeah, it's it's not great to me. The bigger misstep is the name as opposed to the cand rollout.
I would agree, but both of them are embarrassing.
But I guess maybe Purple is back.
Chris, Great to see you, enjoy mo Apple, See you next week. Right, it's man, Chris Comrodnie stops by today courtesy of our good friends at IFA Country Stores. They have everything you need to care for your lawn, no matter size or shape. Their four plus lawn care program can promote healthy green grass this summer. Visit with their team of pro turf and landscape consultants that help provide products and services to local baseball and soccer fields, golf courses, parks,
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