Thursday Afternoon style ten minutes past the hour of two o'clock.
Hot day. It's been hot for a while, It's gonna be hot for a bit. It's gonna be have a little cool down this weekend. Maybe tempts in the eighties, mid eighties, as we.
Are inching closer and closer to fall. Happy Thursday to you, and as it is every single day, it's going to have you along for the Riots.
Spence check.
It's beyond the Mike, Porter Larson, beyond the glass today producing the program. And we've got a lot to do. Busy Thursday show, really good guest list, a lot going on. From a local standpoint. RSL picked up a win last night in League's Cup play, but it will not be enough for them to advance to the knockout round. But RSL unbeaten now and nine of their last ten matches. They'll be back in action and MLS play coming up on Sunday afternoon at four o'clock Mountain toime against the
New York Red Bulls. Made the signing a Victor Olatunji official. We did see the debut of Iran Cruise, the new designated player number nine, for about thirty minutes last night. Didn't do much in limited action, but didn't need him to do much as it was another Brian o'heita goal.
Brian o'heada with four goals in his last four games after scoring one goal in like his previous eighty So ourself continues to find their form for the stretch run as we get ready for a little fallse soccer see if they can advance to the MLS playoffs and maybe make some noise.
So they played last night.
We are just over three weeks away, three weeks from Saturday for opening Day in the world of college football for the University of Utah, in addition to BYU and Utah State Week zero prior to that, so college football right around the corner. We have some new practice sound media availability for Utah players and coaches. I would encourage you to go to ESPN seven hundred sports dot com for that. Coach wit and the wide receivers made available.
The positional group that we all probably have the most question marks about a young, unproven defensive line as well. But as the old adage goes, you don't worry much about a Kyle Whittingham or a Morgan Scalley defense and that defense in front.
I'm sure we'll be ready to roll.
But if you're looking for some University of Utah practice sound head on over to ESPN seven hundred sports dot com and should time allow, maybe we'll bring some on air today. But we have a lot to get to on the program, a little preseason NFL action, so we start to see some NFL football coming up this weekend where Jeddar Sanders will be starting for the Cleveland.
Browns, a new home for Thomas yasmin former you.
He signed with the Chargers, so he got some NFL football to get to on the program today as well. A big week, actually big stretch now in the world of professional golf, Round one of the FedEx Satan Jude Championship is going on right now. Ak she Batiya with a career low sixty two. Our guy went low today and he is your leader in the clubhouse.
This is a.
Massive, massive tournament for golfers who are looking to get exemptions next year. The top fifty are fully exempt with every single signature event and your top thirty golfers after this tournament, we'll advance onto the BMW Championship TPC South win in Memphis, Tennessee. So it's a big, big stretch in the world of golf and we are high speed ahead to the Ryder Cup coming up in just.
A little bit.
Does not look like Tony Fena will be playing in the Ryder Cup. One of my main hopes this year is that we'd see Tony represent the US, as this tournament is back on American soil, a tournament that really for a generation or so now has been dominated by the Euros.
So big stretch with the.
FedEx Saint You Championship going over to the BMW Championship, a lot of players playing for their PGA Tour life during the next few weeks. All right, we'll start things off today with our guy, Chris cameronni Ck, typically a Friday staple, but he's going to join us live in studio today for an hour.
Chris will be in Dublin for Week zero.
He's going to be part of the Athletics college football coverage, so we'll do some Utah football. We'll do some college football and a little RSL with c K today on the program. Brian Dunseeth joins us. Been a minute since we've had Donny on the show today, but it'll be fun to catch up with Brian. He has been busy this summer on a number of different assignments soccer assignments, both MLS and the national team stuff as well.
So we'll bring in Dunny today.
See our guy's doing Sam Brockhouse for Brouckouse Sports. We'll do some football with Sam on the program today, Little Sports Core with our friends from Handy and Handy as we are wont to do on those Thursdays, and we will go from there. So Chris Camaraddie, Brian dun Seth, Sam Brockhouse, Little Sports Court on a Thursday afternoon, me Spence check. Its all of you, the great listeners, and that guy Porter Larson producing the program on a Thursday afternoon.
NFL preseason football. Do anything for it is? That's been your beanie at all? Not really, but.
You know it's very case dependent, right. There are certain storylines that will catch my attention during preseason, you know, maybe certain roster position battles, but catch me watching like a full preseason game.
No, not usually, Yeah, no, I'm with you. They have truncated the preseason. It's a lot shorter than it used to be. If nothing else, it's an excuse to watch a little football. So we do have some NFL preseason football, but we are high speed ahead to college football. And of course as you're home with the utes, we'll have you covered. We want to let you know that all of the practice sound, whether it's the new stuff that we have or the stuff that's been you know, kind of out there in the ethos.
ESPN seven hundred Sports dot Com is where you go.
All right, Football season is here, and the Utah ESPN Radio Network is getting you ready with thirty one Days of Football presented by Baskin Robbins. Tune in daily to the best coverage for pro and college ball. It's the thirty one Days of Football presented by Baskin Robbins on ESPN seven hundred. All Right, it's rankings season, It's tiers season, it's projection season, prognostication season. USA Today Coaches Poll came out on Monday. As we've talked about, that's an unserious
endeavor and unserious exercise. Coming up on Monday of next week, we will get the AP rankings, which at least for the most part, consists of people that actually pay attention.
Hopefully, people that pay attention to do their jobs.
When it came to the coach's poll, BYU came into twenty three, Utah came in technically at thirty, with the others receiving votes. We'll see what happens when the AP comes out coming up on Monday. But David Hale today from ESPN dot com really good college football writer.
He tiered all one hundred.
And thirty six FBS teams, which must have been quite quite a project and kind of went, you know, tier by tier, named his own tiers. Tier one A a great matchup for Week one and the championship game. He has Ohio State and Texas as the two best teams in college football. After that, Tier one B the rest of the best three teams Georgia, Oregon, Penn State, and as you scroll down playoff expectations, he has six teams there.
This is mostly SEC Big ten, with a little bit of acc sprinkled in Alabama, Clemson, Miami, Michigan, notre name in LSU Tier three. He entitled someone in the SEC has to lose games, So he has six teams Florida, Oklahoma, Old Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A, and m Tier four. Last year playoff surprises. Four teams Arizona State, Boise State, Indiana SMU. Tier five so hot right now, four teams Illinois, Louisville, Texas Tech.
And this is where we find the University of Utah.
So Bill has or David has this to say about the Utes. Utah enters the season as the trendy pick in the Big twelve thanks to some returning stars and expectation that last year's bad luck has to turn and finally open his season with someone other than the hollowed out shell of cam Riise in a quarterback little little harsh there. If luck kept Utah from the Big twelve race last year, then luck should be on their side this season.
Essentially kind of regressed in the mean.
We have to scroll all the way down Tier eight, and he actually entitles this regression to the meaning quote the bad kind. He has five teams including b Yu b YU, Duke, Missouri, Syracuse, Vanderbilt. Here's essentially his reasoning is something that we've talked about and something that BYU Athletic director Brian Santiagre talked about when he joined us in Big twelve media day. Pretty Much every single bounce
that could have gone BYU's way went their way. They were little cardiac kids last year, including here in Salt Lake City, with a miraculous ending that led to BYU
getting that win. B YU tied or trailing in the fourth quarter seven times last year, and in those seven games they went six and one, and ultimately this where this is where the conversation comes in in my estimation about the quarterback situation in provo, because you know, you hear a people including me, I've said this certainly referenced the sat that Jake Rhetz Laugh was eleventh of the Big twelve in QBR last year, and I felt BYU
won games last year not necessarily due to Jake. Jake made some big time plays down the stretch and we know that here in Saul Lake he did it against the.
University of Utah.
BYU's success last year was predicated on a stout defense, a really good run game, and a lot of luck. And if we're clear, you have to have luck if you want to compete and win championships in sports.
You just have to.
Most of that luck involves health, and BYU was more or less very healthy last year. They lost the Connor pay kid for a while one of their better offensive linemen, and every football team across the landscape of America will lose players. But you just have to imagine that at some point the pendulum is going to shift, and this unbelievable stretch of bad luck that if we're honest, has stretched about four or five years now for the University of Utah just comes back down to where the regression
of the meaning takes place for the utes. Again, no one's going to be healthy all year long when it comes to just football teams across the landscape of the sport.
It's the nature of this game.
I hear people all the time say football is a contact sport. No, no, it's not. It's a violent sport. Basketball is a contact sport. Soccer, believe it or not, is a contact sport. Football is a violent sport. And that's why you cannot ever assume full health. But I mean, my goodness, you have to assume better health for the utes than we've seen over the past four or five years now.
One of the interesting pieces of sound.
That again you can get on the website ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Coach Witt was asked about the wide receivers and then the wide receivers were made available to the media. You know, the question marks around this team. Luckily, if you're a youth fan, there aren't a ton It's a young defensive line. Of course, with Kianotanavas and now wearing BYU Blue, you're going to see some new faces
and some new players in that positional group. But it's just not something you ever worry about when it comes to this coaching staff. And the first player the coach wit reference when asked about the wide receivers was Tobias Merriweather, who he talked about yesterday.
You know, six five, one ninety five.
He has the measurables in a way that the other receivers just don't.
You know.
He looks a little bit.
Like Devon, like Devon Veley, and Devon obviously has been able to find himself in the NFL with a nice start to a pro career without the ability to put out a bunch of tape in college because he didn't have a quarterback that was healthy to kind of capitalize on his natural gifts, and Tobias feels like he's a little bit like that.
Now.
Most of these receivers, if not all the receivers are transfers, but Coach Wit referenced Tobias. He was the first name the coach Wit mentioned as far as how well he's played in spring. Paul JJ Buchanan another name the coach Wit referenced, So Tobias, Tobias Merriweather maybe wide receiver one. He was asked about it and he said, in his mind, that's what he's shooting for. But it is a positional group that we continue to talk about because there's so
many unknowns. There's Ryan Davis, who is a transfer from New Mexico. Of course that's where Jason Beck was, and Devin Dampier was Mississippi State transfer.
Creed Whittemore is also in the mix.
They talk a lot about Hunter Andrews, who's a tight end that they could utilize in a bunch of different ways. Nate Johnson, once upon a time at quarterback here transfers comes back, will ultimately be a little bit of a utility guy at offense, according to coach Wit. And then remember what Kyle said to Sean and I had big twelve media day Smith Snowden Lander Barton. Here's what coach would have to say about them. Quote Smith Snowden is
looking good on offense. It's been a good addition for us, and Lander Barton is doing some good things on offense. So we've got a lot of options right now. It just feels like we know what the quarterback is going to be. Coach would also had some praise for way Shawn Parker today, but ultimately it is that positional group on the outside that could make or break this year for the Utes. Because we talked about this during Rosstalk
with Sean today. A lot of the over unders a shot is doing on a show as he's moved kind of over to the offensive side of the football. The lines he's setting would make Utah a top seven or eight offensive team in the Big Twelve. Now that doesn't sound awesome, but if you talk and be a top seven or eight offensive team in the Big Twelve, they will be right in the mix to compete for a Big Twelve championship and advance on to an expanded CFP
for the first time in school history. And just like everything else, all you want to do is to get in the dance and then you've got a shot, and that's all you want. Year and in year out. You got a shot. That's all you want to hear. Okay, you got a shot to get this thing done. I continue to be a little bit skeptical only because there are so many things about this team that we just
do not know. And if you've listened to this show for years, first of all, thank you, as we're about to turn six next week at our six year anniversary will be next week here on the show. Every year college football, I say the very same thing, observation not conclusions three four weeks because fan bases they'll go crazy.
You know, if Utah goes to the Rose Bowl to take on UCLA three weeks from Saturday and either loses an ugly game or even wins like thirteen to ten, I know what you guys are gonna do, because you do it every year.
It's like, oh, here we go again. Okay, here we go again.
If it's the end of the first quarter of the cal Poly game and Utah's up like seven to three, the panic will set in. Go to Laramie Porter Larsen Bowle, as it is coined on this radio show, and you come back with either a close win or a loss against the Cowboys, we are going to lose our minds. Observation, not conclusion. It's going to take a minute because this new reality of college football, not just for Utah but every other school is you're breaking in fifty sixty new players.
If you're Utah State, you are breaking in eighty new players. It's just not realistic to expect most teams to come out of the gates on fire when there's no more continuity in college football the way there used to be.
Chris Camaradni will be on the.
Row for the Athletic four Week zero of college football, so we'll bring in Ck coming up on the other side to do a little college football. We'll get his thoughts on the new additions for RSL. I do have an update once again. Last night checked out of the RSL match they beat Carratiio or whatever from Liga MX or MCHIS or whatever. Then afterwards once again attempted to watch Happy Gilmore two and I might I might just be out on it, man, because I gave it another
fifteen or twenty. They were playing against this weird golf league that is supposed to make fun of live where apparently they've clipped like a hip muscle so the other other golfers can hit it far and the regular PGA players can't. Scotti Scheffler knocked out a play and then I just turned it off and I watched the rest of the Billie Joel documentary.
Yeah, I don't blame you for doing so. Like I told you yesterday, I started it and and rolled my eyes a few times and fell asleep again. You don't have to expect too much. It is a silly flick, but I was hoping for a little more out of a show that a lot of a lot of folks in the sports world, in the comedy scene have been waiting for for a while.
Noted Adam Sandler, fan and golfer savant, Chris Camrodnie is in studio.
Have you attempted to watch Happy Go More too? Seen it?
You watched the whole thing? Thoughts the vibes? I mean, we live in a capitalistic society. A lot of people got paid and had fun period period. I mean, I'll never see it again. I don't know if I laughed.
To me.
The biggest bummer is and Sandler said this in one of his rare interviews. Apparently, Carl Weathers was supposed to have a prominent role as Chubbs, but Carl unfortunately passed away last year indeed, so I think missing his piece Chubbs to me was like as integral of apart to Happy Gilmour is like even Sandler was, because so much of his dialogue is what you repeat, you know, like
it's all in the hips, you know, just your home. Yeah, so many of them exactly, I go to your happy place, like you know, like they're they're sitting there at the water Barry open and he said, Happy tells him if I four pants like that, I have to kick my own ass. It's just like the inner there there. Chemistry was so electric. And now if if if if Carl Weathers hadn't passed, I don't know if it would have changed ultimately the way the movie was produced.
And how it came out.
But to me it was just a little too golfy like.
And I'm not not against your your kind, you know, I'm glad that kind. Lee Trevino was was made another appearance, which was which was cool.
My kind golf people don't define me as that. Now can't do what do.
You do more than any thing else recreationally outside of work golf? Okay, But like the Chefler stuff was funny. It was self aware, but then it was kind of like, we're kind of I mean, like in the first one it was Trevino. I'm trying to think who else they got. They didn't get that many real golfers to be.
In No, no, no, I mean the cameos. They had a ton this time around.
Yeah, and I get it, like it's part of the zeitgeist of sports comedies and golf comedies obviously along with Caddy Shack. But yeah, I was a bummer man. You could tell that they wrote that and film that in maybe two weeks tops.
Yeah, and I think forty seven million people watched it, which is a Netflix record. You know, we are in this current moment in society where the you know, you know, it's it's it's an.
Attention business, you know, That's what it is.
Like the revenue is generated right or wrong with just attention, whether it's good or bad. That's why you see all these people releasing just dumb, embarrassing videos online.
They don't care, They just want you to watch because they get paid.
Is that what TikTok is?
You know, not familiar.
We'll have to expend quite frankly with the TikTok situation Nate Nate loves himself some TikTok. I do have it on my phone, but I'm not looking to add any social media to my life.
I'm rarely on anything anyway.
You tell me it's not a very healthy habit. I don't think it is. I mean, I feel like I've been such a great example for you. You have, absolutely, Yeah, I deleted it, all of it for the entire week.
I was out last week and it was wonderful. Yeah. So have you experienced TikTok at all or you know you on the planet. I don't understand it.
My cousin send it to me and sometimes it will open up in my Safari app, and sometimes it won't. So sometimes I have to lie to them. I'll just write lol, pretending like I watched it. I don't want to have to go through the rigamarole being like, hey dude, it's not opening this time. Yes, can you send it to me? No, We're just going to move on now. That's the move all the time.
I have some people in my life who recently have learned how to send Instagram videos. Oh yeah, and I just you know, I hope it's not something serious because like you big Dave, Big Dave, who, by the way, have you noticed he looks exactly like Shooter McGavin.
I mean if yes, it's so good.
If if Dave had I mean Christopher McDonald had the curls a little bit, yeah, Dave, Dave doesn't have that, but yes, yeah, it's striking image. Can we get David gold jacket?
I would he actually so Initially there was a lot of pushback because when Happy Gilmore, the first one came out, I'm like, that looks just like that. Yeah, And he hated it because it was, you know, it was the antagonist. He wasn't the guy you want to be. And then uh, and so I would always tease him about it. You know, we'd be playing golf and I'd do the shooter thing
or whatever. And then we were in the airport once as a family and a random person with Christopher McDonald's way, he's like Shooter McGavin, and I it was one of the.
Top five moments of my entire life.
He looked right at me because he hates it so much, so we should get him a gold jacket. But to his credit, one year he did dress up a shootout Halloween. It's great, so self effacing as as he ages as we all should be.
Absolutely, that's good. He leans into it. Do you feel like you're self effacing? Can you laugh at yourself?
I mean yeah, I laugh at myself every day.
Okay, it's a good it's it's it's a good personality trait to have to not take yourself too seriously.
It is, I think though the there's a line in Midnight to Paris where they're in a heming Way character says, stop being so self effacing.
It's not manly. But maybe that's from a different generation.
Different generations, those guys who are boxing and fighting lines and stuff and writing.
Did you watch the Ken Burns Hemingway? Oh doc, Oh yeah, didn't seem like the most well adjusted fella.
No, well, I mean, dude, like I didn't know he was in like six plane crashes.
Yeah I didn't like and yeah, yeah it was fascinating.
You know.
You know me, I'm a burnsy I'll watch anything and everything they've been. They've got Revolutionary War coming out this fall, so oh doubt on that.
Did you watch the Prohibition one? Surprisingly entertaining?
Oh?
Absolutely, Prohibition, Even the more minute ones like the American Buffalo, which came out last year. I've not seen that awesome. It's only like a three parter. He you know, they make the argument that more than the Bald Eagle, the American Buffalo encapsulates what like this country really represents. Huh, And I mean they got me convinced.
So at three part or so, it's twelve hours, not seventy some of those.
Dude, it's like you feel like you're in class.
Yeah.
Well, I'm getting around to the point of trying to convince my wife to watch some of the war documentaries, but they're all two hours a piece and sometimes ten to twelve episodes long. So she's like, you think I have twenty hours to watch about the status stuff And I was like, it's fair point. It's that or Love Island and I it's you know, a relationship is all about compromise.
I hear, it is fair point.
And it feels like now attention spans, like it's one thing to watch a two hour documentary. I feel like a lot of people just want twenty twenty five minute quick show.
Yeah. I don't know if that's attention span or lack of time.
No, ally, people at mad now when they have commercials on their streamings, when it's like a thirty second interval, We're like, I don't have time for you dove soap today.
Do you are you watching the Handmaid's Tail? You're watching anything Handmaid's Tale? What was I gonna tell you?
Oh?
I told you about Stick? Did you Stick?
I did? And it was better than I expected.
It's easy. It's a thirty minute shows as it is to your point.
And Owen Wilson doesn't go like full himself, yes he is instead of trying to add lib I told you. My whole deal with Owen Wilson, I know, was him trying to keep up with the Vince Vaughan's of the world, which and Vince was like a master for like a decade. Yeah, so like the Wedding Crasher stuff, great movie, but th Owen stuff kind of fell in.
Not a lot on the on the programming list right now.
But Stick was good. I finished it. I've been doing a lot of traveling. I've been on the road quite a bit, Portland, Dallas, Standpoint, Sun Valley, so got a lot of downtime. Yeah, caught up on Stick, did the whole thing, but c K actually know what we'll do entire So you've got a cool assignmer for the athletic college football wise.
Well, let's do that in our next segment.
We've been awaiting the summer transfer window for RSL, and they made two official acquisitions more potentially on the way, Kurt said. Kurt was on the show yesterday. He said he's looking at a couple of other options. Ruwan Cruz, let's start there. A nine and a half, as Pablo said on the show, a player who can play striker but also can make plays as well. We saw him last night in League Cup action for about thirty minutes. It was a quiet performance. There was nothing there, right o'heita,
I don't know what's going on with this dude. One goal in like eighty games and he has four in his last four. But let's get into new acquisitions first.
'ron. Ruan Cruise, let's start there.
Yeah, I mean, he's a guy that fits their need in many ways. He's a guy who can play multiple positions. Was part of the most arguably one of the most talented teams Brazil, a team that a lot of ourself fans know Botafogo where yeah, for since Savarino went and he who he who shall not be named, decided to
go and is not. I don't think he's played a single minute your guy, Elias, Oh yeah, but Ruan Cruz was not necessarily a regular in that very deep team either, and that that's a team that played very well at the summer's Club World Cup.
So it's a very talented group.
They're betting on him to be able to come here and unlock some abilities that they see in him.
He scored a bunch of.
Goals when he was over in uh Ludigrets, which is one of the considered one of the better smaller you know, club division teams in Europe and Bulgaria. And he's uh he has the task in front of him, as does the other new guy, Victor Olatunji. Is getting used to everything that comes with life in the MLS or in MLS excuse me, sorry, Trey travel heat, new teammates, guys that want to beat the beat the living piss out of you. Like not everybody comes to MLS and is
able to handle the physicality. I mean, I'm next time you have Donny On Dunny has really good stories about Ozy on today.
Okay, I mean, like.
So many times you talk to these guys who come here, and that's the one thing that they say they're most surprised about is just how physical the defenders play and just how kind of ruthless it can be. But the good thing about ourselves they signed two really big guys. I mean, Rwan Cruz is like six something, Olatunji's like six three, like an out and out, you know, striker number nine. So on paper, they fit the piece, They
fit the bill of what Rsel needed on paper. But again, adding adding any type of player in the summer transfer window is a huge ask because it takes so much to get.
Up to speed financially.
There's an option to purchase Cruise at the end of eighteen months, I want to say, And you know, we talked about this couple of weeks ago as we were preparing for the summer transfer window for a fan base that is understandably skeptical, skeptical about ownership's commitment financially based off of the past few years.
I mean, there, you know.
Were some players brought in where some money was spent, but then those players were moved on from and the money was not reinvested in the club. What did this transfer window say to you about the miller's willingness to invest in talent, if anything at all.
I think they are in a holding pattern, a wait and see pattern, a let's see how this group finishes out the rest of the year type pattern, and and justifiably so, they were not very good. You know, I've been critical of the previous ownership regime and not spending, and everything went sideways with so many of the players that left last year, starting with chi Cho Rongo. But the reality is, does it make sense to open up a check book and write a ten to twelve million
dollar check. You can argue yes if you feel like your club is one piece away from transforming itself into a Western Conference contender.
I don't know if Ursel's.
There yet, but as guys have said on the show before, I think Kurt and Jason have been pretty transparent with you where they're like, we're not that type of club, and maybe they are the type of club that are going to try to excavate diamonds in the rough overseas or in South America, which they've been able to do in the past. I mean, nobody had heard of Albert
Rusnak before he came here. Nobody had heard of Demir cry Lock, nobody had heard of ye person Savarino, and like those are all I mean, you could argue, you know, top top three to five international signings in the history of the club, like outside of hobby, Like the other players that have been really good in Ursel's uniform, are you know, Nick Kyle some other guys. I guess you
throw Sabo in. They're from the international perspective, but sooner or later you're gonna have to hit on some of these guys the way RSL did for a long time, even when they were on a shoe string budget, and we just haven't seen that necessarily from like a like a star playmakers perspective.
So they're not advancing in League's Cup Nope, even though they won last night.
RP. Yeah, indeed. Kind of this new tournament, I mean, it's I mean, it's.
It's cool, but it's overkilled because we've seen so many tournaments like the Club World Cup. You saw some of some you know, League and MECHIS teams in it. The summer, you saw some MLS teams in it, but like I don't know, Seattle hung a seventh spot on Cruise A Zool which I think won Champions League last year, and it's like, at what point can you start to take this tournament seriously like his Mexico just are the Mexican teams kind of just like meh, like what what do
we have to lose? And I know there's money at stake, which you know, that's that's great for a lot of teams and players, but I don't think ultimately we can look at this tournament where you're forcing Lega and Mechi's teams to fly all over the country and allow the MLS teams to stay put and be like, oh, look at MLS holding their own. It's like I think if the if it was flipped around, if you had of Ursel going from Mexico City to Tijuana to Wahaka or whatever, it probably would be pretty ugly.
So it is.
It is another I don't want to say useless tournament, but I just don't know. I don't think it moves the needle at all.
Comparing the two leagues.
I think once upon a time, League at Mechi's was head and shoulders above MLS.
Yeah, are they still.
From a spending perspective, yes, because there's no cap and I think if you measured up like the top five Mets teams with the top five MLS teams. I think I would take the Mexican teams, but the gap is closing. I mean you look at teams like Miami obviously, but there may be the exception Seattle's had a good League's Cup.
But other than that, it's like, is FC Cincinnati like as stacked as t Grace where they have a bunch of you know, current or former Mexican national team stars or guys who were in Europe.
I don't know. So when it comes to the LAFC signing, my guys.
Signed, excited.
That'll be cool, huge, huge signing for for LAFC, for the because there's a huge Korean community in La.
Yeah, and he's got some juice left.
Sonny's been one of my favorite players to watch in soccer in the last ten years.
Easy, come on, you spurs my squad, did you see I've long been of the opinion that.
Politicians talking about the clip should.
Not be part of any of this stuff like politics Hollywood. For ugly people go back and act like you're doing something important, stay away from sports because you don't know anything. There was a politician, there was President that there was present for the press conference and ask my guy son essentially alluded to the fact that the World Cup is coming here next year, win it for us, and we really need to win. And I don't know if you
saw Max Max. Max Bretta stepped up and said, I guess we could have a US you know, Korea final or whatever. It was, right, So he tried to bro Yeah, yeah, he tried to ease it over. Politicians don't need to be a part of any of this stuff.
Well, I don't know if you remember, but when Bashton Schweinsteiger came to the Chicago Fire like four or five years ago, is the same thing. They're like, do you think do you think you think we have what it takes like with you here if you there?
Yeah? No, do he just won with Germany.
Yeah this This city councilman thought that because Sun is now playing for LA he plays for US in the World Cup, which is not how that works.
I mean, it'd be cool, he'd probably be our he'd be.
Our best player right away. Thomas Mueller lands in Vancouver. So there there are. You know, once upon a time it felt like these signings were you know, once every two three years with Beckham here this or on recame for a minute, it feels like there is like this legitimate influx of really good European players that do have some gas left in the tank, that have come down ls over the past couple of years.
But I still think it's like two to three tops. I mean, Thomas Muller was off the bench at Munich the last couple of years and he basically achieved everything that any player would want. Won World Cups for this country,
one Champions League, when Bundesliga titles, Sun's thirty three. Like life comes at you fast, and it's cool that they're going to be here, don't me wrong, but like weirdly, like there was a clip circulating online of Tom Brady talking about soccer and he was like what the US needs is like they need like a young player like Lamina mal at Barcelona, who at seventeen is probably the best player in the world. Like in order to transform the like soccer in this country, you need somebody who
is that good, who is from here. And for Tom to say that Tom knows the stuff because he's not wrong, and like son's cool. Son being in in La is gonna be awesome. Maybe when LAFC comes here, we can all take the tracks out and go see your guy. Thomas Mueller picking easily the best market in MLS, Like, can't you can't fault anybody for choosing to live in Vancouver. Sure,
it's it's the best city in North America. But again, like these guys are in their mid to late thirties, I think it'd be different if if you know, at the height of his powers, for you know, Germany or Munich, he was like twenty six.
He's like, now I'm going over. Yeah.
You know, if that ever starts happening, then maybe the sport does change in a way that a lot of people thought it would buy now but just hasn't it. For honest, this conversation about changing the calendar MLS calendar to the European calendar, how would that even work?
Like for a city like ours, you.
Got to put sophisticated, very very very very very expensive heaters under there under the turf. I think they might already have some, but like enough to the point where like you would have to invest millions and millions and millions of dollars in stadiums that are cold.
What is that calendar?
It starts, they starting, they start in August, start in August, they go through me.
That's it doesn't work well. It doesn't work for us.
It doesn't work for Colorado, it doesn't work for Minnesota. Like there so many cold weather cities in Major League Soccer.
Yeah, yeah, the the Midwest and then the Rocky Mountains doesn't work. I don't think anybody's going to a Yankee stadium to freeze their cohonas off to watch NYFC ny CF in a blizzard. Things can get can get sideways in DC.
Yeah.
Basically, if you're I mean, if you if you could front load the calendar for these teams to play in warm weather areas and.
Then flip it.
But again, like you know, man, like we have snowstorms in March, we have snowstorms in April.
Ye, like it is.
I think the notion of trying to get on the calendar is endearing and I don't think it's a totally stupid move, but I just don't think it will work out wells too. The logistics are way too complicated here.
I agree with you, And of course I'm approaching it through the prism of RSL here in our market. And yes, you're right, we have snowstorms in March in April, but you can handle two or three as opposed to like nineteen or twenty.
Correct, Yeah, you would.
I mean I would imagine if they're if you're staying at America First Field, you probably have to make those overhangs different, more all encompassing, like you would have to the bells and whistles at that stadium would have to be updated substantially.
No, for sure.
So do you think at this point you're ready to say RSL will at least qualify for the postseason. I'm not saying anything beyond that.
Where are they in the eight?
They're unbeaten in ten. They've gone from thirteen to eighth in like six weeks. Right now, they're two point shy of Austin, who's in seventh, but they're only one point out of Colorado who's ninth. Honestly, this dopey league changes the playoff, you know, structure. So I don't even know how many teams make it. I think it's nine and RSL is eight. San Jose's chasing, Houston's chasing, and they're just right behind Austin.
LAFC in Portland.
With the qualifier of key players staying healthy, and if Cruz or Olatunji get their hands on the starting spot and start scoring goals, I think they have a chance to make it in. But if they're still relying on Diego Luna to shoulder so much of the offensive firepower, and if they're relying on Brian o'hada, who I think had like zero goals or a goal in like his first three years here, to all of a sudden having
this crazy runs, that's not realistic. So again, the pieces are potentially there, but you have to see it playut in real time.
One more soccer thing, we'll catch a break.
C K wrote a really really good piece on a former ute that I I think I'd may have heard of his name, but I did not know his story. So we'll do that, and we'll do some Utah football and tell you about Chris's assignment for Week zero college football shout out John Paul, the Royals move on from Ali Sender and the coach came out and said she wanted to be moved. A couple of days after the transaction, they got six hundred K spread out over the course of a couple of.
Years or years, I don't know.
Man, Like the first iteration of the Royals seems like it had a lot more buzz than this one.
We had a lot more buzz. It had superstar talent. Man, So what are we doing here? I don't know, that's a great question. I mean, like, I think you have to do a hell of a lot to convince the fan base that this is a team that's going to be invested in. Yeah, because once upon a time before COVID, that stadium was getting ten to eleven thousand people at
her home games, second most in the league. And the fact that you deal somebody who honestly probably is the odds on favorite to be the starting striker at the next Women's World Cup. For I don't want to say pennies on the dollar because I don't know the proper equivalent. But you're trading her to the team that basically turned you turned into because the previous rendition of it folded.
Maybe it was.
I mean, you didn't see anything from her camp come out and dispute the notion that she wanted out. So if we're being very hypothetical here and we're pontificating on what her thought process might have been, maybe she looked at the writing on the wall and be like, I have no idea what's going on either. So why am I going to stay on a team that has probably the lowest amount of talent in the league, at the bottom of the table. What am I doing wasting my
talent here? It's a big question because once upon a time the Royals were kind of the destination spot in this league, and after everything that's gone on, they kind of find themselves on the other end.
Yeah, I was surprised to get that news. All right, we'll catch a break. We'll do some college football with Ck coming up next. We got one more segments with Chris Camroannie from the Athletic who we spent some time with last weekend. We should shout out our gout trapped. We got a shout out our got trapped the goat. The Goat had us over to the place Juggarhouse.
Was enjoyable.
Shout out bench, everybody, shout out everybody except for Trey. He was out of town. So it was enjoyable seeing you and your bride in a social setting.
How did a Manda enjoy the group?
It was great.
It was it had been so long that we were both together in a social setting that. She was like, man, I need more reps, and I was like, I do too.
More reps just like you.
Well, no, you just forget because like when you are, when you're in the throes of putting a kid to bed for two and a half years straight.
Yes, it's it's kind of hard, man.
But it's also such a great built in excuse to get gone early.
I'm not saying you wanted to leave that one.
I did. I did, trust me, Man, the mosquitoes were biting me.
They like my blood.
Look you're talking to a famous user of an Irish kol guy, so I'm not judging you at all. And as I age, just leaving the house feels like a massive accomplishment.
I mean, leaving the house to do errands to me is way way in my wheelhouse. But like, it has to be the right group of people for me to be like, yeah, I can spend the next few hours there. Sure, Other than that, I'm doing forty five to an hour, and then I'm gonna be like, oh, man, got got this text, but.
You got you have, but you have the perfect excuse. Sure, yeah, I've got a good one with the dog. Yeah, but it's not as good it's not near as good.
Now.
You know, like you can leave a dog alone for a few hours, you can't leave a kid alone for a few hours.
Yeah, you can't use your kid because he's like an adult.
Now, No, Connor's the one that would be coming home for me. Connor's about to turn twenty four, so no, no longer can use that as an excuse.
I know I have a coop button.
Everyone calmed down, All right, let's start with you wrote a piece, You've been working on it for a while for the Athletic and I'll tell Utah football fans run and read it.
Chris, I know you don't.
Like it when I compliment you. You're you're very good at things such as this. A feature on Greg Newman, who was a defensive tackle for the Utah football team who beat Alabama in the two thousand and nine Sugar Bowl. And I'll be honest, i'd only heard of him, and I did not know what has turned out to be just a tragic story. So origin story. When did you first hear about it and take us through this process?
Well, I mean you were off.
So I was lucky enough to talk about this with OC because OCI knew Greg and even Scott Mitchell, Yeah, was on and we talked about it. But this starting out, the story has been like massively well received, which is
not dute. I appreciate your your plotits, but it all the credit goes to the family for being transparent about this stuff, because if they're not willing to open their doors up and like pour out their souls of basically every piece of heartache that they've dealt with for the past fifteen years, stories like this don't get told and they don't resonate with people for sure. But the backstory is is I was at the Cronny as the beat writer of the two thousand and eight Utah team. They
went undefeated. Greg and I were the same age, graduated at the same time.
You know.
The anecdote I always say is like, this is back when Kyle would let reporters watch practice and we could report on practice. So we would walk walk down and just talk to people. If there's no big deal there were the drugs machine was not clicking in the back, that was not going on. Back then, things were more tranquilo. But like so many other people, I forgot about Greg even though I talked to him, A bunch covered him he was a starter on a team that went undefeated
and beat Alabama, had had a sack in the Sugar Bowl. Like, this is a guy who has his hand in history for this university, and I forgot about him until he passed away last year and I saw that, you know, the GoFundMe was circulating and I was like, wow, like that's crazy. And his brother in law, Jef Dire, posted this GoFundMe and immediately was pretty transparent about what they
believed was the cause of Greg's demise was. They thought it was, you know, CTE, and they were raising money to donate to the Boston University CTE Center, which is at the forefront of the science of this studying this disease. So then like this is May twenty four and I just reach out and I'm like, hey, guys, like this is who I am. I kind of have this unique perspective.
I didn't know Greg well at all, but like I was basically following him around the country at one point as the same age, and would you be willing to talk to me? And you know, they were awesome, they were great. So basically for the past sixteen seventeen months, I was talking to them about this story while they donated his brain right after he died, and then they waited over a year to get the results, and then they got the results the first week of June confirmed
stage two CTE. And then the hard part came because, like, I have a year, nearly a year and a half worth of stuff, and I got to put it together in some comprehensive story. So that's what I spent like the last two months basically doing.
So for our Utah football fan listeners fill in the blanks between Sugar Bowl two thousand and nine, yeah, and when Greg passed.
So, I mean, there are so many alarming points of the story, man, But like the one that like honestly makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck is the fact that his SIMP showed up just
a year after he stopped playing football. Yeh, So Greg stopped playing football twenty three years old, a month after he turned twenty three, a month after the Sugar Bowl ended, and then a year later he is starting to show symptoms and for the next fifteen years he is dealing with states of paranoia catatonia, speaking in tongues like stuff that nobody should have to see. A loved one go through and it is so painful to ask somebody to
relive all this stuff. But like again, the fact that his family was willing to for me to be transparent for the story just basically humanizes this disease at a level that all the studies in the world, Like even doctor An McKee, who is the head like chief neurologists at BU. She told me, she was like, these are the stories that make people pay attention. We could put out all of these studies that say ninety one percent of these and a former NFL players who donated the
brands had ct doesn't resonate. But if you get somebody who's willing to share their loved one story posthumously, it hits people. And it's this one's hit hit people pretty hard. I mean, Greg, you know, he missed so many key like inflection points in his life because of this disease.
He dreamed about having a family, he dreamed about, you know, moving to New York and working on Wall Street, which he did for a while, but all of these things were derailed by you know, mental episodes that were ultimately caused by CTE. And he died at age thirty eight, and like you know, I last summer I went to his memorial. I went to a celebration of life at a at a church in Farmington, and nobody was there, Like,
there were a few former youths there. Gary Anderson was there, but like it's a reminder that like, while these guys are considered like all the kind of stereotypical macho bs that's thrown out thrown around about them, that they are warriors, they are brothers. All this stuff is, you know, it's real, but the repercussions that come from this sport for some people are fatal. And it's like until you know somebody, until you followed somebody, until you played next to somebody
that dealt with this, it doesn't really hit you. But for so many Utah fans, for his teammates, for people who knew Greg, watching him basically his brain decompose over
fifteen years was really really painful. I mean I talked to Mike Wright and like, Mike was one of the few former uths that was that was at the memorial, and he was like, I think a lot of the one of the main reasons people didn't want to go is because they felt like they said goodbye to Greg a long time ago, because that greg that they knew, they knew was gone for so long.
Yeah, a couple things stood out, well, a lot, a lot stood out. And you can get the links to this story if you haven't read it yet on CK's Twitter or just go to the Athletic. You can search Chris Comaraddi. Yeah, Chris Comaraddi is where you find it. So when he passed, he was homeless.
Yep.
He was found near a freeway forty five miles north of Los Angeles in his hometown thousands of thousands of Oak, California Highway one oh one. And at the time, the cause of death was multiple organ failure caused by kretum. Now, kretum is a stimulant supplement that a lot of people have used to get off of opioid pain medication. I believe its origin is Thailand's It's yeah, I mean that doesn't matter no right, but that it.
Is a botanical herb. Yeah that is currently not authorized by the FDA and is sold.
I mean I live right get it, Chevron.
I live right down the street from a CBD store that hastom in the blinking lights.
Yeah.
Yeah, so that initially organ failure caused by kretum and again as c K reference, it is not FDA approved.
You can you can get it anywhere, you know.
Have they changed the cause of death based off the findings of these they have.
No so CTE like they're the varying stages like CTE Stage four is the most severe stage, which basically renders like the human basically not functional. Those are very rare. I can't remember. I think maybe Frank Gifford when he died, had something close to that, but he was so old. I don't know that for sure, But like most of
the cases are anywhere from one to three. But like the thing that killed Greg was he was taking so much Credom because he felt like it would help him focus, he felt like it would alleviate the pain that was going on in his brain and body that it caused his kidneys and livers to stop functioning. And like I said, there the story kind of tells itself, and it's even's brutal to say, but like, here's a guy who was the star football player at a very affluent neighborhood in
southern California. He was on the front page of the newspaper and he turned out to be the guy twenty years later, like you know, trying to sell stuff and ask for money in the Whole Food's parking lot, and like this is a guy who had a sack in the Sugar Bowl. And you know, Kyle Whittingham told me, like, we don't go undefeated without Greg without you know, they had a bunch of injuries on the interior line that year and Greg stepped in. He was a former linebacker,
like crazy, undersized, and he did well. He had nine and a half sacks, tied for the most on a defense that sent seven guys to the seven guys got drafted off that defense. So the anecdotes are terribly painful, but like they're the things that, unfortunately, I think people need to read in order for them to like reflect on what, for some people is the ultimate reality of playing the sport.
Another interesting anecdote or you know, piece of the story because you reference and it was his sister Laura, correct yep. So by his twenty fourth birthday, he was only twenty four when Laura said to you quote that's when the voices started, yep. And Greg told Laura and his family that the voices in his mind told him he needed to serve a mission for the LDS Church. He was, he was sent home and reassigned after four months, right a radic behavior.
He was in Tampa, Spanish speaking, and then got sent home and then you know, saw some more, saw some therapists. The church helped with that, and then he felt like he was good enough. I think it was about eight months afterward to serve in a Utah based mission. So he served in Ogden, but that was short lived as well because of the episodes.
And in addition, there was you know, years of progress right where he moved to New York yep. He was hired by Northern Trust, passed the first two stages of the Chartered Financial Analyst exam, and those exams aren't easy. I mean you've got to put in work, you've got to study.
He was top ten percent in both of those.
Had a girlfriend, kept himself in shape. So there were moments in years of progress where you thought he was getting out of it.
But you also received access to his journals. Yep.
What are some of your takeaways from reading Greg wrote during this this horrible process?
Yeah, I mean like we like I said, credit goes to Greg's family because his words tell the story better than I could, and they shared you know, dozens and dozens of pages of journal entries from over the years, and it's like seeing how he felt ashamed of how he was unable to deal with his mental state. Was
was really was really sad. Like it for obvious, like to state the obvious, but to see somebody's de evolution in real time just through handwriting is really crazy because, like the earlier entries are extremely coherent, he's asking questions of why he's feeling this way, but then as the years go on, they become increasingly less coherent, to the point where he starts basically thinking he's living in an
imaginary world. Like I said, he's drawing pictures of dragons that he thinks will he'll be able to sell to people in the parking lot of you know, the whole Foods in his hometown got obsessed with crystals because they felt like he felt like they could be a healing
factor with his mind. He was, you know, an an unhoused guy at the library, always on the computer, and like you see that a lot in big cities and small cities too, and like it's it's it's yeah, it's it's a it's a stark reminder for everybody that like, while we while we celebrate this, this sport and this is part of the DNA of our of our country's culture, there are people who we lose along the way. And unfortunately, there are a lot of people that aren't necessarily leading sports center.
And the you know, one more thing here and then we'll get to your assignment for the athletic and do a little Utah football before I say you lose. One of the things that almost made me emotional reading it was he tried. Yeah, you know, he was looking for solutions, He was looking for answers. He wasn't giving up. He was trying to figure some stuff out out the line. I think this is his mother quote. His imaginary world was more real to him than this. There wasn't a
light side to him anymore. He he was he was trying to get on his feet. You know, he wanted to work, He wanted to be a part of society. This wasn't some deadbeat that just you know, was resigned to his fate.
Yeah.
Well, and again, there are so many like truly like horrifyingly sad anecdotes in the story, but like one of the reasons why he felt like drugs like Adderall that would help him like focus, because his the you know, the the damage to his brain wouldn't allow him to focus at all. So he would take Adderall and vibe Ance, which are stimulants to help you focus. Unknowingly, that is what made the voices and what made his episodes more
and more intense and more and more often. So it's it's tough, and it is you know, it's it's a privileged to be able to tell his story like I, you know, we talk about some of my best stories and I often tell you that I can't remember, but like Greg will absolutely be at the top of the list.
It was.
It was gripping. It was really well done. Once I started, I couldn't stop. Yeah, the Adderall stuff, man, I know, it's basically accepted in our society is something that people met.
It's met. It is legalized method.
It is a stimulant that allows the brand to hyper focus on things. But like to me, like the helmet too, like the like the fact that they found his helmet in in storage after he died, and just the damage that still shows you after just one game in the game that was like the highlight of his career is pretty telling as well.
Yeah, the anecdote where his parents brought him a meal on Christmas when he was living in a tent. Dude, it was just like the whole thing is. It's very, very powerful. So well done there, It's time to hit the pitch on the drive. The RSL Insider today and every day is brought to you by Beer Bar Head Downtown for watching and game day shuttles to the stadium more at beer BARSLC dot com.
Time now for the triumphant return. He's been a busy boy.
He's traveling all over the place, but I believe he's back.
In town now.
Brian Dunseeth RSL Legends, Dottie, how are you, buddy.
I'm good.
I'm good. Yeah, I appreciate that. By the way. Two things. Number one, I'm so happy for you man. You're absolutely killing it. I love to see the arc of your career and how you've established yourself as the voice of sports here in Utah and just the role that you have in educating people and getting the guests that you have. You do such a great job. And then I'll know in my own minds, I like to think that a tribe call Quest is be open just specifically for me.
So yeah, man, I'm always appreciative of the opportunity to talk without you my man, well.
I appreciate the kind words.
And yes, when we think Dottie, we think RSL, so it is for you, or excuse me, we think tribe call quest.
It is for you. Are you back? Are you back on the ground? Bryan?
I am, I am. I was just my wife and I were just calculating what these last two months have been since I did the United States first game against Turkey two months ago out in Stanford, Connecticut, and I've done thirty eight games in two months times. So the FIFA Club World Cup, I think I did twenty five games in twenty eight days back to MLS and then I just came off doing six games in eight days for the League's Cup. So very very very fortunate and
a very very busy time. And my wife Jade is doing what we're can, giving me this opportunity for a dream job.
And it feels like, to reciprocate your kind words, your career has really taken off as well. I mean, what's it kind of been like to expand this role that once upon a time was calling RSL games on the radio or doing pre aff and postgames on the radio with me. And now to experience where you your career art has taken you.
Yeah, no, man, listen.
For those that don't know when I retired or what, they just basically said, you're not good enough. My first job in the business was with you doing prem postgame radio for weal sall late games and that was that was two thousand and six. That would have been right
around May two thousand and six. And uh, you know, here here this crazy path of not having an agent and you know this trying to create relationships and be a man of your work and be a man of you know good you know, like your morals and sticking to it, especially in this business which you know you can sell your you can sell your soul pretty quickly,
as we've seen a lot of guys in our business do. Yeah, man, really really really fortunate And the FIFA Club World Cup was the first time that I was getting the opportunity to be the undisputed number one analyst, you know, being able to call some amazing games with Andris Cantor for Lionel Messi and then to Miami to being there and watching PSG thump Real Madrid and calling the game from MetLife Stadium and that four nil thrashing, and then you know,
four days later, watching Chelsea beat PSG at their own game in the sellout of MetLife Stadium. You know, to the point where I got invited to a FIFA dinner one of those gallays and I said, nah, my Left
Coast j goes, are you out of your mind? You are absolutely going And it's Cipriani's on fifty fifth Wall Street and being there with Infantino and Arsen Benger and you know, iconic players like Stitchcof and Cafu and being around all the guys from the Zone and you know, hearing them speak in front of me about you know, the job that I do.
It was.
It was wild man, so very very very thankful, very fortunate. You know, a broadcast that on his own was doing good, jillions of numbers doing on T and T almost two million eyeballs for the game. Yeah, it's outside of outside of Colin World Cup or calling a UA FIT Champions League final. This was the biggest game that I've could have been a part of. And yeah, hopefully keep the ball rolling and continue to grow and evolved as a broadcaster. It's been a fun ride.
Man, it's really cool.
I wonder, Donnie, how you would articulate because I heard you know, Don Garber has told the story when he
was in for our listeners who don't know. Don Garber is the commissioner of Major League Soccer, and when he was with the NFL, they went overseas and he saw a real Madrid game and I think it was in it inz to Don who scored like a crazy scissor kick, like thirty yard bomb, and that was like Don's eye opening moment to wait, soccer has played like this, And my father oftentimes tells the story similarly of being with the NBA NBA International prior to his staying with MSG,
and he was over in Madrid and went to a real Madrid game and saw the way soccer was played over there, juxtaposed with the way that it's plight here. How do you articulate, Like when you're calling a FIFA World Cup Championship match between two powerhouses like Chelsea and PSG, and then you're asked to call like a Columbus crew.
I don't know, San Jose game? What what?
What?
Are the main differences in the way the game is played at the highest of levels in Europe or wherever, opposed to the way that it's played here in Major League Soccer.
And are we making progress here?
Yeah? Let me let me, let me, let me attack this from the way you fit or doesn't get the respect that it deserves. And you and I go back to that first year with Real Salt Lake playing up at Rice Cycles and trying to put together a team led by Jason christ and Clant Mathis and Eddie Pope and Dante Washington myself, you know, mixed in with Brian Candler, mixed in with a bunch of dynamic, young, inexperienced, heavily talented, heavily egoed kids, and where the modern game is now
versus then, it's undescribable. I mean I could sit here and try to wax poetic verbally and I still wouldn't touch the growth that we have in the League Soccer. The speed of player, of technical ability, the infrastructure. I mean, we were getting dressed in the football locker room, its stepping out on that turf and our bodies were breaking down on a daily basis because ten months training on turf and never being on grass is absolutely murdered all
of us. And to see now what happens, you know, down at the Zebra, the training facility for REALSHA like the infrastructure for the academy for the Monarchs, for the Royals, the investment, the collective bargaining Agreement, all of these things. It's incredible what we've seen in real time. But we're also then trying to judge, you know, this juxtaposition of a team that's thirty years old versus these infrastructures that
are over one hundred years old. And even the game against Club America the other night, I mean, you have one hundred year's worth of difference between these two clubs. We all saw laking Club America. So when you're talking about Chelsea, you're talking about PSG, it's to spend. You know, Chelsea spent over two billion dollars on players in the last three seasons, versus a PSG that has an unlimited
checkbook because it's state funded. So when you're talking about that, you're talking about players that are worth you know, anywhere from fifty to one hundred million that are sprinkled throughout that roster. And to see the speed, the athleticism, the intelligence, the technical ability to see and try to put together food for thought. When you're talking about tactics and you know, execution, it's it's it's just not fair to try to compare the elite of the elite versus what we've seen in
Major League soccer. I know, we're constantly trying to wed and this is what the brilliance of the FIFA Club World Cup because we say, oh, you know, like Fluminense in Brazil, you know, I wonder what they would look like against a premier league team, a game that matters. This summer was not about friendlies. This summer was about the winning team taking home over one hundred million dollars.
One hundred million dollars. So the balance is the speed of play is going to look different, the technical ability is going to look different, and the overall quality the assets are astronomical versus when you're in Major League soccer, you know that there's a really strong starting eleven and then it's going to taper off a little bit. But I think that's the brilliance of having owners like Inter Miami with Jorge mass and David Beckham that are pushing
the envelope of growth in Major League Soccer. I still don't think David Beckham gets the credit he deserves for coming at the time in which he did to the LA Galaxy. But I also don't think he gets the credit for what he's done in terms of building inter Miami, because I think that club is really going to push the envelop and fast track and rising tide is going to lift all ships in Major League Soccer, and I think we're going to see I call it nuclear arms spending, Spence.
I think you're going to see more and more nuclear arms spending because it's going to be the necessity of MLS teams having to spend between ten to fifteen million just to stay with him touching distance, as other teams are going to look to push the threshold somewhere between twenty five and thirty five million per off season and per summer transfer window.
There have been some.
Very notable signings as of late, and the sun has set in La.
Donnie see what I did there, my guys, Sonny, I did, and I can't. I'm excited.
He's been my favorite because you know, I'm a Spurs guy and I've loved him for a long, long time.
In a vacuum.
What sort of effect does this have, not just for LAFC, but what does this say about players willingness to look at MLS.
As strong as ever? Rodrigo de Paul leaving Atletico Madrid will play in Miami, you know, think about Thomas Mueller signing in Vancouver leaving you know, f C Byron. This one's a little bit different though, because I don't think I know, you know, the power of Ferney with the South Korean market. A guy who has one hundred and
thirty four international appearances for South Korea. He is he is a a K pop superstar footballer and I it's funny we I do the podcast, the LC Podcast of Expertos, and the moment that there was the announcement that Sonny was leaving Tottenham Hotspur, we were doing the podcast and the jump in numbers on the podcast was extraordinary. Whether it's TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, the numbers are outlandish
because out the money. Don't worry about the money, the twenty six twenty seven million that's spent, that's going to be recouped the Jersey sales. I hope, I hope LFC and Adidas are prepared because that black and goal number seven in English and in Korean is going to be unbelievable. They had a Hello Kiddy night at Pimo Stadium about a month ago and it was outrageous to see the response.
This is going to be a destination demo stadium, a destination for not only the Korean fan base in Los Angeles, but the Korean fan base as a whole. I think it's genius. It's a messy level type impact, and that's what I think is the most fascinating, that fans truly don't understand the South Korean market and this is so much bigger than anybody could truly understand in real time. And by the way, that's a branding commercial side. On the field, I'm in love with Sonny. I think he's
fantastic as a human being. As a player, his net goal contribution goals in the sists is extraordinarily high. And for anyone says, yeah, but he's thirty three, he's thirty three with young man's legs, so plenty left in the tank. Brilliant execution from LAFC and I'm glad the deal dot done.
Your guy Max handled that politician I don't know if you saw the clip, but there was a city council woman, Oh my gosh, can we not have politicians involved in signings?
They don't know their elbow from their rear.
So she alluded to the fact that now that it'sn he's playing in LA somehow he's gonna help us win a World Cup. And then Max step steps up and brilliant He's like, yeah, we might get a US South Korea final.
I thought your guy handled that so well.
Del Max Man, he's the best. He's absolutely you know. It reminded me of when Bastin Steinsteiger signed with the Chicago Fire and a similar thing happened. And so this is where, you know, let's I agree with you. Let's just keep politics out of sports and just let sports be sports.
No doubt, no doubt.
All right, before we get to some specifics with RSL, we've got a couple of years sample sized with this league's Cup tournament.
Donny, what do you make of it?
What do you like what we're trying to do here with MLS and League Amakis?
Yeah, I do. I do like the adjustment to the format that it is MLS versus League A mechis in every single game. I think it's brilliant. I think it helps both sides to really understand from a business perspective, from an on the field perspective, what's happening. Covering the Club America game, Pablo and I talked about it's going to make him and his coaching staff better because they're going to understand going against Jordonay, the manager from Club America,
being one of the best in the region. You know, the influence, the tactics to shape, the change of systems, the substitution patterns, all of that are hugely, hugely beneficial. And again, I think it's naive to suggest that there's not an opportunity for maybe Club America fans that see Real salt Lake beat them to say, hey, hold on a second, I'm in Salt Lake City, my family, we grew up Club America fans. I'm going to go out and support Real Salt Lake. They're going to be my
local team. And I'm still going to support Club America each and every time they're on television, and we can go to a game and support them. So there's a cross branding effect. Ahead of the World Cup next summer, Mexico Canada and the United States holding games, and I think within you know, my friend is my rival, with
my rival is my friend. I think somewhere there's a conversation and the relationship between Legan Mechi's and Major League Soccer to continue to evolve and grow, as well as creating organic rivalries in the meantime.
How do these two leagues match up currently?
I think once upon a time the gap between where League at Mekis was and MLS was was massive.
Is that gap closing?
Do you think these two leagues are at least on similar footing at this point?
Yeah. I think there's certain teams that have passed the majority of the League A Mechi's teams, but the superstar teams are still the superstar teams. And you know, when you talk about the monsters and the giants of Chieves, Taguadalajara, Pulamus Cruise, who will think about America, think about Tiga, I think about Pachuca, think about Monterey, you know they I think more and more you're seeing LEGA Mch's leadership
adopt ideas that MLS has had. I think you're seeing League A Mechi's teams be really impressed with the infrastructure and the spend of the way that MLS is doing things. And I think more and more as these games happen, there's going to be more players that their first instinct would be to play for League A Mechs that are now saying, hold on a second, I've played against that
MLS team. They're really good. I'd rather be a part of that, And thinking about from a family perspective, off the field perspective, and what that looks like of life in America. So I think a lot of things are happening right now that are wake up calls for league at mechis that are wake up calls for Major League Soccer, and overall, I think it's going to strengthen the product product, both on and off the field.
So over to ours.
A couple of minutes left, I've got with you, Donnie there unbere et in nine of their last ten. We'll get to the new additions. But what do you most attribute this recent turn of form two.
I think it was adapting to who they weren't, and by that I mean the departures of Crooks, Chico Anderson, Julio Andres Gomez. I thought, and I understand the ownership change created its own circumstances, but Pablo was kind of put in a lurch to try to compete with the big spenders and the strengthening of rosters at the start
of the season. He's adjusted. And by the way, for anyone that doesn't think Pablo is very, very intelligent, he and his staff in terms of tactics, just look at the response of how they got the best out of Paula Luiz when Brian o'haeda was away trying to get his paperwork sorted, the evolution of Diego Luna while he was gone and coming back to a team, and now you know the significant spend on both Rowan Cruz and Olatunji and what that means even with maybe a couple
other domestic spots before this summer transfer window closes. I think what Pablo and his team have done if they put themselves in a position to get into the playoffs when that certainly wasn't a certain It wasn't for sure. And now how quickly can they adapt both the new
players into the team. Can the new players adapt to the culture, the dynamics, the training habits, and then the structure and go out and be the best version of themselves and the reason why they were brought into play for Rialso Lake.
So let's dig into these signings real quick. Ron Cruz, we saw him last night for about thirty minutes. It was a pretty quiet thirty minutes. He's brought in as a DP. Pablo on the show called them a nine point five somebody who can play striker but also make plays. So designated player there's a purchase option at the end of eighteen months.
What do you know about him? How do you think you'll fit in here?
Yeah?
So a player that was a part of Botafogo's squad FIFA Club World Cup, didn't play, hasn't played a lot of minutes recently, very dynamic, high high high ceiling, spent some time over in Europe, scored I think twenty four goals and like fifty appearances, came back. If he's coming out of Brazil, I would put him. Yeah. I would use the example of Colorado's hafe On Navajo, the number nine, where it took him a little bit of time to adapt, and once he did adapt, these last ten years two years,
he's been fantastic. So I'm hoping he's like Hafa Navajo in Colorado great size, great intelligence, great technical ability. He's adapting to the teammates. The teammates are adapting to him, similar to Williagatta. Similar. The good news is he's early, like Chicho a Latunji, great experience in Nigerian, in Sparta Prague, He's got some international understanding of what it means. He's
kind of a right side underneath type ish player. They need that, especially with Dominic mar Chuk being nowhere near the player we thought he was capable of being. So we'll see how quickly they adapt. Still think they need competition at right back. Besides that, everything else looks pretty good. I need to see more from Diego Gonzalez. Still haven't
seen enough from him. But they got some tough decisions to make, and we'll see as important players coming in, I think is as important as some of the players going out.
So the Olatunji kid, the Victor Olatunji kid, more of a natural nine. Yeah.
And also both these two players Doney are big and tall and long, and Pablo on the show a couple of weeks ago was kind of bemoaning the fact that they just aren't a very big team.
They actually just scored their first corner.
Of the year, and it was Ohita who suddenly is like scoring goals left and right, which is wild.
But as far as the natural nine, how do you think a tun Gi fits in?
Yeah, I don't know if he's a true number nine. To be quite honest with him, With what I've seen so far, I think he's I would probably use very similar to the nine point five conversation, or maybe an underneath type of guy, or maybe even like on the right hand side when he's facing goal, he's frightening, and that's what they're going to look Listen. You know, for Papulo talking about bodies, you know, a god has good sized, pole has been good size, but they need players that
conversion the opportunity is much higher. And you know, the Coma Medica game is maybe the perfect example of the Cincinnati game, the perfect example that Willy a Gotta puts himself in some great spots, but he's not a natural converter.
He needs three or four opportunities. And so that's effectively what you're trying to buy is guys that need two chances to find the back of them, as opposed to guys that you have that need three to four chances, So that's going to be the challenge for the two new guys coming in.
You may have answered this question because you referenced the compet right back that you think needs to be there, But Kurt on the show yesterday alluded to one or if not two, potential additions before this window closes, which I believe is in about two and a half weeks.
Any thoughts on where that could or should be? What does that look like?
I mean, I'm of the belief since Brooks Lennon and Aaron Herrera left Real salt Lake and these are multiple, multiple years that Real salt Lake has been extremely weak at the right back position. You know, Andrew Brody was supposed to be the guy. The body Hidalgo was supposed to be the guy. You know, You've gone through three or four or five different options. Noel Kalaskin has done a fantastic job, but I'm not of the belief that
he's a right back. Similar to when Mechanelli was being played at right back, I didn't think he was a right back. So there's going to be players that are experienced and that are going to be made available, and I'm of the belief that what this roster needs is experienced MLS type of veteran guys in that locker room that can help navigate some of the lesser experienced players as well as some of the foreign players that don't know the riggers and the daily ins and outs of
what it takes in Major League Soccer. I think having a couple of really experienced MLS guys are always important, and I would use that example. I would use the example of Toronto FC, when Toronto FC had Jaavinco and they had Michael Bradley, and they had Josie Altador. They still have the Jonathan Messorios. They had the Beta Shores, they had the Justin Morrows, they had the Drew Moores.
And I think it's a very undervalued group of players that become high value type of players for a team in a locker room.
I believe eleven matches left Dottie before the end of the season before we set you loose. Do you feel like this recent turn of form, combined with the additions, will be enough to get RSL into the playoffs and maybe do something I'll just say somewhat interesting.
I think they're a playoff team with these additions. I don't think they're a home playoff team with these editions, that creates its own set of circumstances. But as I said that, I would reference last year and the final was LA Galaxy against the New York Red Bulls. It's a different tournament once you get into the playoffs and it's all about form. It's all about momentum. And the
idea of this weekend being a perfect example. If wealso LA can go to the New York Red Bulls and walk away with three points, that's the type of mentality that they need to start creating. It's a free hit, it's out of conference, and you need to be able to understand that you are going to have to be on the road in the playoffs based on that first
half of the season. So if you start to do that, then you build yourself to confidence and the momentum necessary to potentially make a run at an MLS Stup final.
All right, my guy, I appreciate the time as always, Welcome back, welcome home.
Go spend some time with that family and we'll chat soon.
Be well, okay, appreciate you, ma man, Thank you all right.
Brian Dunseeth Elvetts played ten years in MLS, was on the Olympic team, was the captain of that Olympic team and now broadcaster for Apple TV and Turner Sports, doing some really really big matches, including the FIFA Club World Cup Final between Chelsea and PSG, which is pretty phenomenal to see. To see Donny's career spike the way that it has, Donnee stops by today courtesy my friends of
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Give Utah Lead Services a call for a no cost, no obligation estimate at eighth one eight two eight six seven zero. That's eighth one eight two one eight six seven zero. Preseason games tonight once starts in one hour. It's Colts Ravens. Then we got Bengals, Eagles, Raiders, Seahawks. So some pro football on your TV, and our good friend Sam Bruckouse stops by on a Thursday afternoon. Sam, Happy Thursday, man, How you doing.
I'm doing good man. You kind of broke my neck there with the with the Swiss and the music. We were playing some Rebecca Black Friday. All of a sudden in the tribe called quest I like the range spence there.
To go, Well, I've got to give my producer the credit. Supporter gets the credit there. Hey Sam, what if anything can we learn when we sit down to watch these preseason games starting tonight.
Yeah. So we talked about this with some general managers, some x scouts and coaches on the Summer Sports Show, which you can find on YouTube. We got some excellent video packages. Go subscribe at suomer Sports on YouTube. And I think the thing you really want to pay attention to is after those kind of first stringers come out, when do people get into the game. Because the coaches are sitting there and they have evaluations that they want to have, and they're not just sending people in willy
nilly or sending in packages. There's times and places in which they want to see these players play. So one of the things that Mike mccagnan, an external manager who had to make these tough decisions, particularly when it came to cutting people and who was on the borderline, was when they got in the game and who they were
playing against. And so a lot of the time you'll find that if a guy starts getting increasing reps in these preseason games against the twos, that they may be a player who may be being considered for a starting position. But interestingly enough, we found out Spence that a lot of the time the guys that are probably going to be on the practice squad, who may be getting raved
about in practice, may actually be getting hidden. And so some of the guys who are really contributing on special teams but on the stretch of the game, are getting in late, they may actually still end up on your practice squad roster. A lot of interesting mechanics from the coaches and general managers, but I think today, in particular the Colts, we'll actually get to see a quarterback battle. We'll get to see both Daniel Jones and any Richardson
trying to play high level football. And I'm excited about that.
What do you think gets that job?
That's where I was going to go next, because you know, some of the games tonight actually do have some intrigue. And you know, we're not going to see Lamar, we won't see Burrow. You know, we're not going to see like the big name dudes whose jobs are saved. But at the end of the day, when the dust settles, who's under center for the Colts this year?
It's a great question as compared to last year, where it was, you know, a bunch of quarterbacks who weren't necessarily in the mold of Anthony Richardson behind him. They now have two quarterbacks who can run the ball as well, Daniel Jones obviously coming in from the New York Giants, and then Riley Leonard, the Notre Dame product to college football fans out there in Utah may remember, was in the college football playoffs. I'm really intrigued. I think it's
still probably Anthony Richardson's jobs to lose. I think he is the most talented quarterback. Last year, he really did an excellent job of pushing the ball down the field. He just couldn't put it together with his accuracy. I think if he can improve marginally throughout the preseason on his accuracy downfield, it really changes the calculus, even if he still misses some of those short and intermediate throws given the scheme that Shane Stiken likes to run. But
I'm really looking at Riley Leonard as well. This was a guy who, while he was at Duke was looked at as more of a first round prospect. After you know, a season that didn't necessarily work out exactly how they wanted to at Duke and then a season where he struggled to kind of put it all together in the passing game. Was but was an excellent runner at Notre Dame.
I'm interested to see if he can, you know, do what Shane Stiken needs him to do in the preseason, maybe jump up to the two spot going into the season, either behind Daniel Jones or Athy Richardson, or ultimately become the starter. I actually think there's a better probability to all three of these players get core reps in this game. Been't necessarily just the top two.
Any intrigue on the Raven side of things preseason style there second in the Vegas odds to win the Super Bowl. I've got the this is DraftKings Bill's first Raven second. But it feels like Harbo's got a group that he knows what sort of hand he'd been dealt. So maybe this is just kind of like a stay healthy type thing, and he intrigued to watch the h to watch the Ravens tonight.
Yeah, I was about to say, I think the biggest intrigue may be their sports betting odds on the AFC title or on the Super Bowl. But a thing that I really am going to closely look at is going to be their back end depths. They added Malachi Starks at the free safety position and then also on their front line depths. People forget that this team did not get off to the shiniest start last year. It took a while for their defense, particularly their pass defense, to
get right. They made a couple of shifts, playing Nate Wiggins more, moving Marlon Humphrey to the slot, and then also on the offensive line, some of the young young players kind of came along as well as Ronnie Stanley at the left tackle position being able to be healthy all year. Look at some of those frontline depth players.
If they're starting to get pushed, that's a good signal for them long term, especially if you see guys like Ronnie Stanley a little bit older start to go down, and then I'm really going to be king in on that back end to see if any of those guys.
Have a lot of juice.
Should the defense start to struggle again.
I'm gonna see the Bengals in the Eagles tonight in Philly. It feels like the Bengals are kind of like this in vogue, pick to do something special this year because their Super Bowl odds are pretty low. Obviously they're solid under center. But I've heard a lot of people when it comes to where the odds but the Bengals to say, keep an eye on Cincinnati Philly, just like the Ravens
and the Bills. As I reference, they're one of the top three teams to win the Super Bowl according to Vegas at plus seven hundred Accordiona FanDuel.
That's right beyond in Buffalo and Baltimore. So what do you be looking for? Matchup two tonight? Cincinnati Philadelphia.
I think the Eagles have by far the best roster in the league. I think the Lions do rival them, but the Lions I don't think have the defensive depth. Now, if you told me this last year, I wasn't a big believer in the Eagles defense going in. I could see some regression happening. They had a lot of rookies and guys like Zach Bond who were basically signed off the scrap heap that played quite frankly, to an all pro level, which is very rare. I could see some
regression there. But with the Bingals in particular. I think my friend Nate Tice from Yahoo Sports said it best. If you believed in the early aughts Colts, then I can understand why you believe in the Bengals. They have two excellent wide receivers in Jamar Chase and t Higgins, and the quarterback is good. They have a pretty good running back as well in Chase Brown, and an offensive line that for the most part does its job. The
defense just very very badly struggles. And me and Lindsay Roads, my co host of the Summer Sports Show, we're discussing kind of the fantasy outlooks on these players, and I think last year we just saw such a strange year from the Bengals. I think it's probably possible that the defense could just get slightly better, because it can't get
much worse than last year. But I wouldn't necessarily expect to Mar Chase or Joe Burrow to have, you know, the super duper top tier seasons that they had last year. Both of those were career and quite frankly, almost historically great years, So I think there's kind of a mishmash. I don't think they're going to be wildly better than they were last year. But last year they were an extremely competitive team down the stretch, and I like to
bet on good quarterbacks and good wide receivers. So I wouldn't put them in the top tier of surprise teams, or even in the top tier of teams that would even make it maybe out of the wild card round. But I do think that they will continue to be competitive, especially given that we may see an off year the Steelers and the Browns in the AFC North.
The night cap tonight we could call the Pete Carroll Bowl or the Gino Smith Bowll. I suppose up at lumin Field where the Raiders and the Seahawks will We'll go at it. Sam Donald fourteen wins with Minnesota year ago. He's now a Seahawks, so same question. And we got a lot of Raider fans in this market as a result of their move by proximity. They're the closest NFL team we have the Salt Lake. Any intrigue with these two tonight up at Loominfield in Seattle.
Yeah. The two things that I'm going to watch bar Nune is Number one, how much is offensive coordinator Clint Kubiak going to run the ball with the Seattle Seahawks offense. Last year, this was a team under Ryan Club, who is now at Alabama, was previously with Michael PENNOCKX at Washington, slotted in for one year as the offensive coordinator with
new coach Mike McDonald. With the Seahawks, they passed the ball over expected as compared to down and distance and time on the clock more than any team in the league. Now Clint Kubiak is coming in and they ran the ball more than expected, more than almost every single team in the league. I think they want a power offense.
I want to see if that is the direction they are going in preseason because it will really change how we do Sam Darnold or Jackson Smith and Jigba or Kenneth Walker some of the offensive pieces they have on the Raiders side of the ball. I'm looking at if they can have any weapons for Gino Smith outside of Brock Bowers and potentially Michael Mayer the two tight ends
as well. If we can start to see some juice with the wide receivers, I think it shows, you know, a little bit of a little bit of shining light for a Raiders team that hasn't seen a ton of success in the last couple of years.
Shooter Sanders is going to get the start preseason Game one, that is tomorrow in Charlotte against the Panthers. They've just signed Tyler Huntleye who played his college ball a mile from where I'm broadcasting now. They just signed Snoop, so they've got like five quarterbacks on the roster. What do you make of Shador getting the start Game one? Does that say anything to you and you think there's a chance he's gonna start Game one in the regular season.
I am super excited for this. As the person who was talking all draft season about how we don't necessarily know which quarterbacks are good who. Once he started dropping or saying that, you know, the consensus typically sticks, and he was like the twentieth best player. I am extremely intrigued by this. I just wish it would have been against a different team, because the Panthers spent all off
season loading up on defensive front deaths. So they're gonna be trotting out Princely Umin Mialen, the rookie from Florida by way of Ale Miss. They're gonna be trotting out Nick score Ten, the rookie from next A and M, with the twos and the threes, against Shador Sanders, who will also be behind, you know, kind of a rebuilt Brown's offensive line. I think the Panthers are going to try to really press the gas with the twos and the threes and see what those young players can do,
and I hope that shape Shaedor can. I think it's going to be a true test of how the difference in system from Colorado, where he was kind of asked to do everything and as a result took a ton of sex, moving to a more NFL style, Kevin Stefanski style offense, which has won Kevin Stefanski two Head Coach of the Years, has made Joe Flacco look good at times,
has made Baker Mayfield look good at times. And let's see if he can minimize those negative plays and particular sex against a Panthers team who has extremely invested in a defensive front and really wants to get after him.
How do you think that Ben Johnson Caleb Williams marriage is going to work? You know, I'm not one to dismiss her anoint based off of a social media video going around where he made a couple of bad throws in practice. And Caleb was a Pac twelve kid. We saw him playing saut Lake quite a bit. I know he has his detractors. I know he has his supporters. Ben Johnson, you know, we know the deal with his
background and his reputation as an offensive guru. Feels like this is a marriage that has a lot of potential if things go right. Ye are you bullish on the Bears at all this year?
So? I thowt a really interesting graft today from a statistician on Twitter named Joseph Bryan, and he ran like a thousand simulations of how the season could go and Caleb William's distribution for this season is pretty flat in that you know, on average, she'll be about an average quarterback. He'll probably do what he did last year. But it could go really really good or it could go really
really bad. And I think a lot of people when they hired Ben Johnson, when they brought on Joe Toney, rebuilt the offensive line, drafted Colston Lovelin, got him some more weapons, just immediately thought this Bears team was going to be substantially better. I am of the mind that it could be more of the same or worse as it stands. And here is my kind of argument. The only person I think we can really trust to be quite a bit better at their position is Joe Toney.
We've seen Joe Touney do it on multiple teams. We've seen him be an All Pro last year. I think he is an excellent addition to that offensive line. However, the offensive line wasn't necessarily the problem last year. Research shows that quarterback sacks or a quarterback stat quarterbacks do have an element of control over that. Caleb was one of the most sacked quarterbacks in the league last year, and I wouldn't really expect that to change a similar
wide receiver group, some changes across the offensive line. People viewed Jonah Jackson coming in as their new right guard, who was with Ben Johnson at the Lions and was almost a pro bowler, but then he went to the Rams, couldn't even get on the field. Sean McVay wouldn't even play him. So I think there's a lot of spots where people think this team has gotten miraculously better, and I think they've really kind of stayed the same, maybe
outside of the play caller position. I think a lot of the pressure is on Ben Johnson, and I think, as you said, that partnership will maintain. I'm a little bit more bearish than bullish. The most people bullish on the Bears this year.
Tell me your expectations of cam Ward Year one Tennessee Titans. You know, it was an interesting quarterback class. There was a debate for a while, then cam Ward sailed to the top and it appeared to be a consensus. You know, he's He's got Calvin Ridley and Tyler Lockett. He has some experience as far as weapons go. But realistic expectations year one for Cameron.
Ward, Yeah, So realistic expectations for a first round quarterback, typically they get about twelve starts, whether that's because of injury or because of someone else coming in, or in the case of cam Ward, ideally he'll play all seventeen games. So we'll see what happens. Typically we see slightly above a slightly positive touchdown the interception ratio, but very slightly. I'd expect him to have, you know, maybe fifteen touchdowns, but eleven picks or something like that seems like a
stat line that makes sense. Quarterbacks are a multi year project, especially when you're coming into a situation like the Titans where frankly, they're probably going to have the highest probability of being the number one pick next year as well, unlike kind of the Bears were the year prior, and so I think we can expect a lot of them, you know, as mad rating is like a seventy two, I think that's a little low. As just in terms
of a consensus ranking. I'd expect him to have an okay year, but I wouldn't expect him to really, you know, lift the boat of the Tennessee Titans, especially as it pertains to an AFC South where you have two excellent pass rushers on the Jacksonville Jaguars and two excellent pass rushers on the Texans and two excellent defensive tackles on the Colts. Some pretty good defenses. I'm not expecting the world of cam Ward this year.
Let's stick with some rookie conversations.
Also saw Travis Hunter play out this way as he was a Pac twelve kid then a big twelve kid with Colorado, and Jacksonville is going to play him both ways. I guess you don't trade, well, you trade, you know, to get him to just use him as a receiver. How long do you think this lasts? Is it sustainable? Can try Avis Hunter actually do this in pro football?
So I do think that he's not going to be leaned on as the wide receiver. One. Everything we've heard from Liam Cohen has been that Brian Thomas Junior, the wide receiver out of LSHU, who had an excellent rookie year, will be the focal point of the Jaguars offense. And I think that aligns with what he did with the Bucks.
Mike Evans was the focal point of that offense. They got the running game going a little bit with Bucky Irving, and so I'd expect that Travis Hunter plays more of like a Chris Godwin role at the most on offense. They've said that he's going to play probably about eighty percent of the offensive snaps and be an offensive player first and then go to defense. I think that is
a good expectation. I am very interested to see in the preseason how he is played as a defensive corner because while he was at while he was at Colorado's Spence, you saw it yourself. He was a lockdown corner, like he was a guy who would be on a side and cut the entire side of the field off. So I guess that's not how they intend to use him, even though I think that is how he's probably best used.
I wouldn't be shocked if he's used in the nickel or the dime a little bit more as a package player, or if there's a quality matchup, particularly with a very talented wide receiver two as the season goes on, if he's utilized in that way. But I think that probably the Chris Godwin mold is what he's going to be in for the long term, and then add in a sprinkling of defense, at least as it looks currently, who do.
You like Offense, Defense, Rookie of the year, Give me a name for each side of the football. As far as Rookies Day you're keeping your eye out for.
I'm really interested in Tedor Rogan macmillan. Everything I've heard out of Panthers camp has been that he has kind of separated himself as the wide receiver one. He's starting to earn more target share, and I think that's really the key piece that the Panthers need, is that quality target earner wide receiver one to make Bryce Young make the jump. So I think Tedor rog McMillan is going
to be interesting. Obviously, you got to look at some of the quarterbacks that are starting, Cameron Ward obviously as well, but I think the person with the chance to be, you know, an absolute game breaker this year is probably going to be ted Rodan millan. On the offensive side of the ball, obviously a lot of great offensive linemen as well. They typically don't win, but that was kind of the crux of this draft. And I just think
there's so many good edge rushers out there. I struggle to pick one, but I could see, you know, the Falcons, James Piercer, Jalen Walker, standing out. Finally, the Falcons getting a defensive end, them making the jump on the other side with Michael Pennox, and all of a sudden they're a playoff team and two of those guys have ten plus sacks. I think it's going to be an edge rusher on the defensive side of the ball, and you can kind of take your pick in the first or
second round of which edge rusher it might be. And then I'm really looking at tedro and McMillan on the offensive side of the ball as someone who could have a breakout year.
Let me ask you about a couple of local storylines.
Jordan Love played his college ball Utah State, and after sitting behind Aaron Rodgers for a few years, he gets the job. And I would say it's been really, really good without anything excellent in the postseason. Do you think this is the year that they take that next step and maybe win a couple of playoff games.
I think that if there's any year, it's this year, because I think you look at that NFC North, the Vikings are starting what functionally as a rookie quarterback. I know that people aren't necessarily thinking of it that way, but JJ McCarthy has never played a snap in the NFL, and moreover, he didn't get a ton of practice time last year because he was injured for most of the year.
I think that could be a real, real setback for that team if he's unable to play well and they don't have, you know, an absolute ton of depth behind him either at the quarterback position. It's an excellent Vikings roster, but you kind of come and go as the quarterback goes. And we saw, particularly when the tackles got injured, Sam Darnold really kind of tanked down the stretch of the
season last year. I have them slotted as the third best team behind Jordan must Packers, and obviously we talked about the I think it could be a down year as well. I think in the NFC, you don't have to deal with the big three, you don't have to deal with Alan Mahomes or Jackson, and as a result, I think anyone can kind of make a run. I think with a young defense led by a guy that I think could be an all pro Edrin Cooper at the linebacker position on the Packers, I think their defense
could take a step up. I believe in Lafleur in that offense that he's gonna put Jordan Love in a good situation to make plays, and I think it's up to the wide receiver and tight end group for someone really to become a target earner. If that happens, I think this could be the year for them, particularly if they can overcome or just miss in the NFC playoffs. The Detroit Lions.
Jackson Dharr didn't play his college ball round here, but he played his high school ball about twenty miles south of where we're broadcasting.
You think he you think he'll start this year? And if so, how long do you think that takes?
I think it's tough to say. Like I said, first round quarterbacks typically do start about twelve games. I don't know if this is going to be the case for them. I think that Jamis Winston and Russell Wilson are both at least trusted veterans there could be trusted to go in a starting game, start a game, and be competitive. It sounds like this is Russell Wilson's job this year, and I don't necessarily see him starting and less kind
of things start tanking in the season. The Giants have an excellent front seven on the defensive side of the ball, and they have some talent at the wide receiver position with elite neighbors, It's going to be interesting to see. Russell Wilson has been known to take sacks and take some negative plays, but I think injury or just an absolute bottom caving out, I don't necessarily see Jackson Dart starting.
I'm going to ask you about the other New York team because they're my team and I'm a long suffering Jet fan, as you know, can you give me any hope that this year will be anything other than just a dumpster fire?
So here's the hope is this team is actually pretty talented. The consensus is is that the offensive line is pretty good. Garrett Wilson is to believe to be a quality wide receiver one. The running back room is deep with Brief at the top, who I think is didn't necessarily perform to how people wanted him to last year, but with Braylen Allen behind him, I think that's a pretty good tandem.
And then the defense has some star talent as well that both linebackers are excellent, Quinn Williams on the defensive line and Sauz Gardner at the quarnerback position are all very very talented players to pretty talented ed rushers as well, and Will McDonald obviously had kind of made a jump
last year. The question is the quarterback position, and I think that Aaron Glynn and Tanner Ink should the crew coming in from the Lions, will do whatever it takes to make this offense move the ball, whether that's going for it liberally on fourth down or what I'm most
excited about is running the quarterback. I think, regardless of who is at the quarterback position, if they are unable to throw the ball, the quarterback design run game will be heavily, heavily utilized by this team, especially if things kind of start to stagnate on the offensive side of the ball. And we frankly haven't seen that quite a while from really any team in the NFL outside of
the Baltimore Ravens, and I'm really excited for that. I think that this could be a year where we see like eight to ten carries per game designed for the quarterback. I think it's going to be really interesting. It's going to keep them in games, and so I could see this team being about a five hundred team, but that's I wouldn't be willing to say anything over that.
How does this, Michael Parsons, Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys, the soap opera, and how do you think this plays out?
I got I got one note for you, forty two million dollars. That's how it ends. Forty two million dollars a year in Michael Parson's pocket. There's no way that he is not going to remain a cowboy.
At least is I see it?
In fact the way I see it Spence's I think a conspiracy is happening. I think Jerry knows that he can get everyone talking about the Dallas Cowboys, which he's smiling like the Sheshire Cat anytime a microphone is in front of him, and Michael Parsons realize that he can get more people to listen to his post cast by kind of milking this and taking it all these crazy terms. This ends with forty two million dollars in his pocket.
I was on Radio Row when Miles Gearrett said he would never play for the Cleveland Browns ever again, and they had disrespected him, and there were people following him. And he's a massive guy, six five, three hundred pounds walking through with microphones on him. Guess what, forty million dollars hit his checkbook will hit his check book this year. It's going to be the same for Michael Parsons.
Wonder your thoughts on it.
It's always a tough thing to make serious inroads in pro football and go from bad to good, and then it's even harder to go from good to grade. Can we see the Commanders go from good to grade this year? Based off of their editions and that dynamic young quarterback who we also had out here in our pack twelve footprint.
I think it's very possible given the profile that Jade Daniels put out last year. You know, we saw CJ. Stroud, who was the Rookie of the Year the prior, to regress a little bit. I don't think that's going to happen, just because of the that Jane Daniels can run the ball, and I think to the way that defenses have to approach that kind of changes how they approach an offensive line which has lost Sam Cosmy but added the all pro level talent in Laramie Tunsell. I am a little
worried about the age of this team. They're one of the oldest teams in the league. They're going to be relying on Frankie Louvu and Bobby Wagner, who Bobby Wagner was an All Pro last year, but frankly I thought he had kind of lost a step as the games kind of went on. I'm a little worried about that. But this is a team that is built to win now. They went ahead and added Deebo Samuel, they added Laramie Tunsell, They've added pieces like von Miller across the defensive line.
I could see them really challenging. It's just going to be really tough in the NFC East, where I think the Cowboys are really good. I think the Eagles are one of the best teams in the league, and you know, the Giants have a couple pieces, they have a tough schedule. I could see them probably playing up to snuff. But it's really on the back of if Jane Daniels can be an excellent player, and I'm inclined to believe that
he can. I think they are solidly, solidly a top ten to fifteen team in this league.
Before I say you lose, He's no longer my problem. Good ridden Saron Rodgers but he's now a Steeler. How do you think this looks.
I think it looks different than it looks with the Jets. With the Jets, he was kind of able to do whatever he wanted. He was sitting back there in the shotgun, letting the clock run down and trying to pick apart the defense pre snap. Don't think that's going to be the case. They added John hu Smith and Author Smith, the offense coordinator favored at the tight end position. They added a zone running, big running back in the mold
of Derrick Henry and Caleb Johnson from Iowa. And I think this is going to be a true Author Smith Steelers offense. I think there's going to be a lot of running the ball. I think there's going to be a lot of deep passes. And I think Aaron Rodgers is going to be more in the vein of the wiley veteran at the sticks of what the offenseve coordinator wants to do than necessarily it was last year where
he was kind of at the controls. That could change on a dime, But everything that they've made around Aaron Rodgers shows me that they want to run the ball heavily and play Steelers kind of smash mouth offense as compared to the way that Aaron Rodgers has played in the past. And frankly, you know, we saw when he played Matt Lafleur's level of ball he won two MVPs.
I'm not at all predicting that. I just think he'll be substantially, you know, in a better position or a position that's not necessarily his own, to make his bed for himself as compared to previous years.
Sam, where can our listeners go find your work pal?
Yeah, so go check us out and subscribe at suomer Sports on YouTube. We'd have some excellent visuals on there, and in particular the Suomer Sports Show we talked about MADD ratings with analyst E. J. Snyder and Brett Coleman. That came out today, and you can catch all the latest news at sumer Sports or on the Suomer Sports Show wherever you find podcast.
Thanks for the time, Bob, excited to have you on all year. Be well with chat soon.
Thank you all so much.
All right, Sam Bruckhaus, good stuff. Pro football preseason starts tonight. We've got three NFL preseason games. Of course, is we're inching closer and closer to the regular season, wrapping it up for a Thursday show, fun show today. A lot going on NFL preseason football tonight. You've got three games going on as we are inching closer and closer to the start of the regular season. But if you're looking kind of quench that thirst, you can check out some
NFL football tonight. Colts in the Ravens going on right now, Bengals, Eagles, Raiders, and Steelers. Tomorrow night it's the Lions, Falcons, Browns, Panthers, Commanders, and Patriots. So a bunch of NFL preseason action on the docket tonight. Some rough news if you're a Chargers fan. Ray Sean Slater is out for the season and he just signed the richest contract in the history of offensive linemen. He has a patella rupture, so he is gone for
the year. So some rough news there. Rory McElroy sitting at the FedEx Saint You Championship. So the sixty nine best golf in the world I went out of today Round two gets rolling tomorrow. Tony Feno's tie for twenty seventh one under par Porter. How much money would you pay for a top shelf Master's hospitality.
Package to go to Augusta. How much would I pay? Would you pay? Two hundred and nineteen thousand dollars?
No?
Okay, nor could I? Well, I guess I could maybe get a loan.
Well I wouldn't you know. Don't go get a loan just to then go to Augusta. That would be an unwise economic move.
Maybe borrow against some assets I could so according to well, you tell me I can't go to Augusta.
Well, I mean you you can go to Augusta, but if you want their top shelf hospitality package. The Sports Business Journal reviewed a brochure for what's called quote the Official Master's Hospitality Program. According to the brochure, the program offers a host home for forty five thousand dollars let's see one hundred thousand dollars for the week, private transportation for fifteen thousand, which includes a weekly driver and either
an suv or a sprinter van. Full scale private home program, so the sample total in this obviously I think it includes passes.
It runs for two.
Hundred and nineteen six hundred dollars for the week, eight guests, three waves of packages of the golf course. The amenities include two homes, the host home, as I said, a sleeper home, daily cleaning and fresh so for daily cleaning, fresh linens, and transportation, it's twenty nine thousand dollars. I don't know who's cleaning that house. They'll stock your pantry for six grand. You get a full time staff member for thirteen thousand, catering for twenty three point five tea times.
A golf course is thirteen point five and a twenty percent service fee for thirty six thousand, six hundred dollars to go to Augusta and see the Masters in style.
Yeah, I might if I ever see the Masters live. It might be the credential route. That's probably not too likely either. Maybe I can get our our guy Marcomera to sneak me in.
I don't really know.
I will say that it doesn't it's it's a big number, let's be clear. Doesn't surprise me that much because I've kind of seen the let's say, the money that's thrown around at just like a member guest tournament at Park City or you know, in in Hebrews somewhere. The money on golf courses is big. It's not a new thing.
Yeah, that seems a little aggressive. I've never been to Augusta. I would very much like to go. I don't think I would do it like that. Maybe just a day pass there you go where I can just go experience it. Because here's the other thing.
You have to get one of the sandwiches, though, what is it? I think cheese or something like forty dollars, but you got no, no there, they're actually cheap. Oh they've kept the sandwich is reasonable.
Okay.
Yes, the weird thing about Augusta is you get the pomenta cheese sandwich for like two bucks. Then you might get a vodka soda for seventy nine to ninety nine. Okay, but no, give me like a day pass because here's also I always say this, playing golf is better than watching golf.
And watching golf on a golf course. I don't know if you guys have ever done it before. That means you get to watch like one hole, You get to watch one player go walk by. Maybe you watch. Maybe you find a spot with like a good view of a of a green somewhere, or you paid a bunch and your you know you're sitting near a green. You're not watching every hole. You're not watching like the story
of the round develop you're hearing cheers off in the distance. You're, you know, kind of trying to figure out what's going on on the course around you. It's it's not it's not like other sporting events.
Yeah, I think I'd like to go to Augusta, see one round, walk the grounds, and then maybe go play golf the next day. I don't know that I need to watch four rounds of gold, certainly not at the price tag of two hundred and nineteen thousand dollars.
So there you go, little golf.
Let's see, we got pennant races in baseball if you're looking for something. But yeah, preseason NFL football tonight on your television. And we are just three weeks in change away from the start of college football, three weeks from Saturday, both Utah BYU and we should say Utah State in action.
So we are right right there.
We're gonna have our welcome welcome event for the Utah football season coming up next Wednesday. We should have some details for you guys about that coming up next week, Reporter before we get out of here for a Thursday edition of the show What Comes Our Way?
On a Friday edition of the program on a.
Friday edition of the show. You mentioned it three weeks from college football. Our guy Trevor Riley is going to stop by the program. Aaron Fulk's going to stop by the program of the Salt Lake Tribune, as is his manion Jason Batakiao, paulp. Hugmyer up by the show to talk some golf, and we may have some sound from up at Fall Camp as well.
And reminder if you're just looking for camp sound this time of year, when you're waiting for Utah football to come back, it's a one stop shop at ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. We'll say goodnight and a special thank you today to Chris com Ronnie Brian Dunsath, Sam Bruckhouse, our good friend at Preston Handy for sports Cord today. If you miss any of the sound from the program. Aforementioned website again is ESPN seven hundred.
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