Running Backs Unite, Messi Debuts & Nick Goes to The Movies

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what's going on with you. So she'll be out for the next few shows, but then she'll be back before she leaves us for college. We have a ton to get to today, but before we do any of that, some bizarres scary, but it seems like everything is okay. Breaking news from TMZ. I'm gonna read you the article directly. Lebron James's son, Bronnie was rushed to a hospital after suffering cardiac arrest during a basketball workout, a James family spokesperson tells TMZ Sports. So this is a direct quote

from the James family. Yesterday, while practicing, Bronnie James suffered a cardiac arrest. Medical staff was able to treat Browny and take him to the hospital. He is now in stable condition and no longer in ICU. We ask for respect and privacy for the James family. Will update media when there is more information. Lebron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation of the USC medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication

to the safety of their athletes. That's the end of their statement now from TMZ, sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ Sports a nine one one call was made at nine to twenty six am Monday from USC's Galen Center, the venue where the team plays in practices. The eighteen year old Hooper was unconscious was taken by ambulance to the hospital. One source says it was a Code three meaning ambulance lights and SIRENSS, which signifies the importance of

the seriousness of the emergency. So the obviously that's terrifying people. You know, my eight I'm a little too young to remember this moment had happened, but people order than we certainly remember Hank Gathers Lowela Marrimount, great player who suffered cardiac arrest and passed away on the court. Obviously all of us remember the Tomorrow Hamlin situation, but that was different because that was following a hit. That the only question I would have that TMZ says in nine to

one calls made at nine twenty six am. That almost would make more sense to me if it was PM, because yesterday evening Lebron tweeted out the Forest Gump gif running, joking about him going and playing in Saudi Arabia if they offered him the billion dollars that was offered to Mbope for one year of playing soccer. So the fact that they have the exact statement and Shams has it too from Lebron's family, saying Brownie suffered cardiac arrest is

terrifying and it's not. And we can put up the Shams tweet the if we want to, but it's just the statement that I read. Uh, it's you know, I'm not gonna speculate on what this means for his ability to play at USC or anything like that. This is just a kid, uh, and I can't. I mean, exactly my daughter's age suffering cardiac arrest, which is terrifying. And credit to the people at USC that got him evidently

the attention he needed. And the other part listen, the parts of the statement that jump out to me are obviously cardiac arrest and then now in stable condition, no law longer in ICU. I mean that obviously is saying he at one point was in the intensive care unit. I this is a little confusing, it's also breaking news. But the headline is it looks like true tragedy averted for Bronni and well obviously first whole family. But that is a somewhat random and terrifying situation. So that happened

that that tweet came out nine minutes ago. So it's the definition of breaking news. If there's any update throughout the show, pardon me, throughout the show, we'll bring it to you. It's a little awkward now to just transition to our normal show, but that's what we'll do. Here's what missed the cut for today's show. Steph Curry leaves Lebron off his all time starting five. It was just bad. Starting five. You had Kobe Bryant at small forward and play small forward. I guess he didn't want to do

any active players. Bad start and five. I love Steph. That's bad starting five. Nikola Jokic wins a horse racing championship in Serbia seemed almost as excited as when he won the NBA Championship, and as I mentioned, club in Saudi Arabia offered him bope one year, one point one

billion dollars. That's a little misleading, and Babe wouldn't get the full one point one He would only get seven hundred and sixty two million because three point thirty and change would go to his club PSG as a transfer fee. All right, DIORA, Let's get to the actual show.

and try, but that's not gonna work. H I have a different take than I think most media on the running back situation. I don't feel badly for them. And that's not because oh, they're pro athletes, they should be happy. That is none to do with that. It is because much like once upon a time, early nineties NBA. Let's

go back thirty years. Shaquille o'neils in the league, ewing Alaju one, Robinson Alonzo Mornings coming into the league, These awesome, athletic, dynamic centers, some of the best players in the league played old school low posts. Give it to me on the block, and I'm gonna get you a bucket. Okay? When when that was how NBA basketball was played. Of your twelve roster spots, at least two, sometimes three of them were taken up by what were pejoratively called big

white stiffs. They weren't always white, they were always big, They were very often stiffs. And the job was you're gonna play twelve minutes a game. You're allowed six fouls. You're gonna use at least five of them to just lean on, hit, come down on these dominating centers. That was a job in the NBA. Are you seven feet tall, do you have a pulse? Can you commit a foul? Well, then we probably have a roster spot for you. Okay. The game over the last thirty years has changed so much.

Those jobs no longer exist, that position no longer has utility. I don't feel badly, you can feel badly for the individual person. I don't think it's bad for the sport because those jobs have now been replaced. Now are you undersized, not that great of a defender, but you can shoot from thirty five feet, you might have a job. The game has evolved in the NFL as we have become a more passing league. It's not like the money's gone down.

It's a salary capped and salary floored sport. Every team's got to spend a minimum of like one hundred and ninety million and a maximum of two hundred and ten million, So the money that is not going to running backs is going to other players. It's kind of the definition of a zero sum game. So yes, it sucks for the running backs, but it's really good for a fifth string wide receiver who previously wouldn't have a job, but now he does. So that's the first point. I don't

think it's a problem. It's a change. But that is not the only reason running backs don't make as much money. The reason running backs don't make as much money is because there's too many good ones. So what do I mean by that? What I mean is for basically as long as football has existed, at the peewee and high school level, the best athlete plays running back, get the

ball all the time. Now it's kind of changed where some of the best athletes play quarterback, but running back was the position, and for a long time it was the glamour position of the league. So many of your best young athletes played running back growing up. You have

too many good ones coming out of college. And if you can get Isaiah Pacheco from the Kansas City Chiefs in the seventh round for seven hundred thousand dollars a year as a rookie, if you can get seventy five percent of the production of a ten million dollars a year back for seven and a half percent of the price, you're gonna do that. We're not gonna get quite as much production, but we're gonna have an extra nine million

dollars to spend elsewhere. This makes I'm saying it directly to Dior as much as the audience, because I'm kind of framing this in a different way than I think most people have in this discussion. But they've said is the running backs need to be able to come straight out of college or they need into CBA just for him, And maybe but again, now with just any extra money going to the running backs is gonna, in a cap sport, gonna take away from other people. But so right now

there's too many good ones. Teams are passing more. Obviously, it's a position with a lot of injury risk, so teams aren't investing a lot of money. What people have not discussed enough of is that I think this will come back around the other way. And I think this will come back around the other way for two reasons.

The first reason and credit to my buddy las Low does radio in Kansas City, who was the first person I ever heard say this, And I think it's really smart, and I think it is going to start to happen in college football. Running Backs still super important in college football. Running Backs still after the quarterback, probably the most glamour position. And now in college football, these guys can make millions of dollars. Are we going to start seeing some of

the best college running backs? Not v Jean Robinson level guys are gonna be a top ten pick, but guys that are gonna go in the third, fourth, fifth round of the NFL Draft. Are we going to see those guys for going the NFL Draft as long as they can to stay in college because there's more money for them with name, image likeness deals in college football than there is in a fourth or fifth round rookie contract.

I think we might. So when that starts to happen, all of a sudden, a really good running back might become more We're valuable at the NFL because there's not as many guys to replace them. The next thing that's gonna happen, and this is gonna take longer. Is this Given everything I've just now told you about the economics of football, Dora, if you were to have a son and he is a superstar athlete, the like a superstar athlete, one of those kids that at nine years old you're like, oh,

he could be a pro one day. We've all seen those kids, you know what I'm talking He and he loves football, and he comes to you and says, I can play any position. I'm the best athlete out there. What's the position? If he really does want to say, he's twelve years old, once be in the NFL, you're gonna tell him, probably stay away from ru the running back position, work on catching the ball, work on sacking the quarterback, work on these other things. You have a

longer career, make more money. The best amateur athletes are going to stop playing running back. That then is going to once again lead to fewer B level running backs available, which will make the A level guys more valuable again. Why do quarterbacks make slightly above average quarterbacks like hell slightly below average quarterbacks like Daniel Jones? Why does he

make forty dollars? Because even though he's slightly below average, there are seemingly only twenty four people in the world that can play the position with any level of confidence at the NFL level. Right now, we have three hundred running backs who can play it somewhat well. As that number goes down, which it will inevitably because the best young people are going to want to stay away from the position, it will correct itself. It just will. And so say, I don't I think Sakwan, by the way,

made a mistake here. I think uh he he could have held out, He could have not reported to training camp, had no penalty whatsoever, and made eleven or ten point one million dollars. Instead, he signed a new contract which pays him ten point one million dollars. He has to go to training camp and the only benefit he gets is twofold. One is he can make an extra nine hundred grand in incentives if the Giants make the playoffs

and he has a monster year. And the other thing is of that ten point one million, he gets two million dollars via check today or direct deposit as opposed to having it split out over the course of the year. But it's not extra money. So I think Saquan made a mistake there. I think missing out on training camp and that wear and tear, an injury risk would have been worth it to him. But that's to me, not the real story. Like and people to me are showing

their own kind of blind spots here. You know who we really should be talking about feeling badly for fullbacks who don't even really exist in the NFL anymore because the game has changed. But again that's just that of the fifty three man roster, fullback is gone. But now you keep an extra tight end. So what's bad for the fullback is good for the tight end that would have been cut. So I think this all evens out

to a degree. I think sports change, and you know the there this will at some point come back in the other direction. And I know people can't imagine it now, but there may a day, might take thirty years, if we're still playing pro football the way we are now, where quarterbacking has become so specialized at such a young age that there is a surplus not of great but of competent quarterbacks. And what ends up happening is that a guy who can play the Kirk Cousins level of

quarterback is super easy to find. And if that happens, then the quarterback money except for the very top will go down, and that money, again in a capped sport with a salary cap and salary floor, will go to someone else. So there's my take on it. I know you're gonna roll your eyes at me. This with my entire vacation, this is what everyone was talking about in

sports media. I think I probably just gave the best, most lucid explanation anyone did, at least of any platform that I consumed, because you've got to kind of approach it from a non emotional perspective in that regard, so I hope everyone feels a little more educated on that front. Do you want to go right ahead?

And you can make the argument that right now, this moment, he's better than Aaron Donald, not historically, but where he is in his career, that he's the best dtackle. This is tricky for Kansas City though, because Aaron Donald makes thirty one point six million a year, the second highest paid defensive tackle makes twenty four. You're not supposed to have that gap between one and two. The Chiefs want to pay Chris Jones somewhere between them. Chris Jones wants

right next to Aaron Donald. I don't blame him, but It's tricky because Mahomes is on a bit of a discount. Kelsey's on a huge discount. I think this gets done. I don't, but it should be noted the last time there was a Chief that wanted to be paid at the very top of the market, he got traded. His name was Tyreek Hill. Now they could overcome that because of Mahomes. Chris Jones is wildly important to this team.

I believe they're going to get a deal done, But if they don't, this is probably his last year on the Chiefs and that absolutely hurts their ability to be to go on a dynastic run. If he's there this year, which I think he will be, I think they could have a top ten defense, top ten defense. They have all those young guys in the secondary, pardon me, with a year of experience. I really like Nick Bolton as their insidebacker. They have spent consecutive first round picks on

defensive ends. They then went out and got Charles Minehu and you have Chris Jones. You can have a legitimate pass rush a young athletics secondary. Bolton holding down the linebacker crew along with the guy they got from the Chargers, Lewis chanall will see what happens with him. I like what this defense can be, but the focal point is

Chris Jones. Chris Jones, who was first team All Pro last year, had fifteen and a half sacks, and people who haven't been paying attention, Chris Jones Mahomes his first year as a starter, set the all time NFL record. Look it up most consecutive games with a sack NFL history. Chris Jones holds that record. He's been awesome for a really long time. But I understand it's you can't have.

It's very difficult to have the highest paid defensive player in the league and be paying your quarterback fifty million a year, and so I think they get it worked out. My guess is this comes in at four years. They're gonna call it one hundred and twenty million, so he gets to say thirty million a year. But practically speaking, it's a three year, eighty million dollar deal with seventy million of that guaranteed. Clip this and mark this for me. So my I'm guessing it's reported at four to one

twenty that fourth year is a fake one. It's actually three for eighty, which is twenty seven million a year with seventy million guaranteed. I think that's how that this thing ends next.

I don't think that's smart. I don't think you can be You obviously are gonna pay Burrow, You obviously are gonna pay Chase, but Higgins is gonna be able to demand not the very top of the receiver market, but close to it. You can have two uber expensive receivers on essentially the same timeline along with an uber expensive quarterback. They didn't trade Higgins because they are going to sacrifice.

They're going to run the risk of just losing him for you know, minimal compensation or nothing, so they can be as good as possible this year. I get that it's not what I would have done, but the Bengals are positioned very, very well. But what is true is you want to win one with the quarterback on the rookie deal, you just yet ye. The Rams got to a super Bowl with Golf on his rookie deal. Obviously, they won one with Stafford. The Eagles won a super Bowl with Wins on his rookie deal. He got hurt

at the very end of the year. The Seahawks won a super Bowl with Russ on his rookie deal, got back to one the following year with him on his rookie deal, never got back. The Chiefs made a super Bowl and won a super Bowl with Mahomes on his rookie deal. They then obviously just won one since he's gotten paid. The Bengals and Bills the Bills window, not that the super Bowl window is closed, but Josh Allen's

out of his rookie deal. Burrow's not out of his rookie deal yet, but that clock is tick tick ticking, and so it just gets harder. And having Burrow chasing Higgins. Three awesome players all making next to nothing has been obviously a massive advantage for them all right.

we were. That was actually the night you me, not you me, your mom and your brother went out in the town and you could have come.

he did it in the World Cup final. They just won the World Cup final. Messi did like so I thought it was awesome. I thought it was great for MLS, really good for Apple, you know, which has this huge deal with the MLS and helped bring him over. Great for inter Miami, Great for my friend Mike Ryan and the people the Levatard Show. I you know, I thought it was awesome. I thought it was one of the coolest moments in the history of Major League Soccer in

the country. All right, take quick break, come back, we have a new game to play, and we talk a little more soccer with the Women's World Cup. That's all next, Well, what's right?

Bobby Knavali. Watch Unstoppable now exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

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What's right? Check it out? All right, DIORA, we had some breaking news right as we were going to break It involves the NBA. What's going on?

no trade clause on this? I would imagine there can't be, but he is obviously not eligible to be traded for a full year. That's part of the rules of this. And so the contract details are the following fifty two million next year. I'm sorry when it kicks in the year after next, then fifty six, then sixty, then sixty four, then sixty nine million in the twenty eight to twenty nine season, and that those are somewhat projections because it's based on a salary cap projection for the twenty four

to twenty five season. We'll figure out what the exact numbers are next June. It again, per Bobby Marks, it's the richest contract in NBA history. The richest previously was Yoki just two hundred and seventy six million. So the Celtics, I don't know that they are confident that the Tatum Brown combo can win a title, but they couldn't let him walk for nothing in a year. If they didn't sign him to this, they would risk losing him for

nothing once he became all NBA eligible. He was gonna have to get something like this or Supermax eligible because he made all NBA. And now what this does mean is for the first time in five years, Jalen Brown won't be the subject of trade speculation because they are not allowed to trade him for one year after signing this deal. Oh here's from Shams. Fully guaranteed with a trade kicker, no player option. That's, by the way, what

they are haggling over on these things always. Is there gonna be a fifteen percent trade kicker, Is there gonna be a player option? Is there gonna be a team option? And Jalen was traveling this summer, and I do think the Celtics maybe we're just wanting to make sure that there wasn't going to be a star news there wasn't going to be a star available that they could trade him for. So I think I think that there is real reason if you're a Celtic fan to feel somewhat

mixed emotions on this. Yes, you're glad you're keeping Jalen Brown. You saw Tatum and Brown together in the finals, but you probably don't think this team at least I know Vegas loves the Celtics. I don't love him quite as much. I think this team's gonna get over the hump. And what I would imagine is that if they don't make the finals again this coming year, that next summer, once again,

Jalen Brown is gonna be the subject of trade speculation. Also, Jalen gave those weird interviews I shouldn't say weird, but if you're a Celtics fan concerning interviews this offseason or this past during the season about the struggles room of living in Boston and the struggles of being constantly subject of trade rumors. So it's kind of a marriage of convenience more than anything. But it's also the result most of us expected we would get to. All right, next.

But anyone that anyone that is that pretends Lamar doesn't have some holes in his game when it comes to consistently making the easy throws. He's actually great at the tough throws and the elite throws, but he misses more layups than you'd want a fifty million dollars a year quarterback to miss. If he takes that next step, this is a wildly dangerous team. If he doesn't, or he gets hurt again, then the Ravens are in real trouble

and they just signed him. But I don't think it's gonna blow up on them, So all go glow up next.

We all agree their beginning of season schedules brutal. So these guys could end up that these young players having lost nine of ten, ten of a eleven football games. But that's not as what I'm focused on. What I'm focused on is how good were the Jets last year? So let's go through their seven wins and discuss them for a moment. Win number one, Week two against the Browns. That was the game that if Nick Chubb went down,

the Browns are taking these to win. Instead, he scores a touchdown to put Cleveland up thirteen with two minutes left, and the Jets have a miraculous Hail Mary on sidekick touchdown sequence to win by one against the Browns backup quarterback Jakobe Brissett, when if the Browns running back had just gone down, they lose the game. That's win number one.

Win number two is against the Steelers when they the Steelers benched, Mitch Trubisky put in Kinney Pickett his first action ever as a pro when he promptly threw three picks. Win number three was against Miami. That was a game Tua was out for the game. Teddy Bridgewater started. Teddy Bridgewater got knocked out of the game one play in and Skyler Thompson came in. Win number four was a

great win against Aaron Rodgers, who's now your savior. Win number five was against Denver in a game they didn't even have Russell Wilson. Instead they had Brett Rippin, So maybe the worst coach quarterback combo in NFL history for that game was Nat Hackett Brett Whippin Rippin. Win number six was a great win against the Bills, and win number seven was against the Bears in the midst of a ten game losing streak, in a game the Bears

didn't even have Justin Fields. Instead they had Trevor Trevor Simeon. So you had seven wins last year. Five of them we're about. We're against backup or third string quarterbacks. So I do think the defense is gonna be good, but I think the defense might be a touch overrated. And I don't think Rogers is gonna be unbelievable. I think there's gonna be all this pressure and all of this scrutiny and all this coverage. I think this is prime for a blow up. Sorry to our Jets fan, Gabe.

Nobody liked it. Nobody was even calling them that. People were still just calling them either their old name or Washington Football Team. So I think that's a good idea. Now, will the team be any good? Probably not, but I think the name change idea is good. Next.

That is the Warriors. I think they're gonna be about what they a little better than they were last year. But they're a second round team at best in the playoffs, and I don't know that Chris Paul is gonna be on the team at the end of the year.

don't get it. But I also think that Twitter has such a massive head start on all the other platforms, and so many of us use it so compulsively that no matter how quote bad unquote it gets, I think it's got a lot of durability as a platform. Now is it gonna you know, is he gonna end up losing more than half of his forty four billion dollar investment almost assuredly. But I on think Twitter's going anywhere, even, you know, despite Musk trying to run it into the ground seemingly all right, last.

time thinking about it. My brain doesn't really work totally in the way to figure out all you're making fun because I pointed at my head of all the different ways it will impact things, from retail to every aspect of life. All right, we will answer your questions next What's right?

correctly predicted the final from the beginning. I watched that whole match to you were on our flight to the Caymans. It was so perfect. It was with we were delayed on the runway for three hours and everyone was getting freaking out and getting annoyed. Except for me, it was just happily watching Wimbledon. It was great. Listen, I'll just be for the time being picking Alcarez in every major. He obviously won't win every major, but with it, i gotta maybe look at more of his record in the French,

but certainly on hardcourt and grass court. I'm just gonna go with him. I mean, he's the next thing in tennis. There's just no doubt about it. All right.

I'm gonna try to get mommy involved as well. How about you just watch it with my No, this could be a you and you're about to leave, and this would be a nice binding thing and that it would go to We're gonna do that either way, and it will. The reason I want to do it with you is if if you do, like maybe you'll love Marcus Mariota or Kirk Cousins and Mahomes obviously the other guy. Uh,

then you might be invested in it. And then when you're off in college during the NFL Sundays, you might call me and be like, oh my gosh, did you see what happened? It would be great. So that's why I watch it all right.

the open of that doc. So that was cool. And then evidently Steph Curry documentary ends with him winning the title, with my voice saying he'll never win another title. So you know, you get a little bit of best of both worlds. But I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it yet, and I haven't seen the entirety of Quarterback yet.

Seymour Hoffman as the villain. When it came out, I saw it in college and I remember leaving the theater and saying to my buddy, that's the best action movie I've ever seen. Then there was like a decade until they came out with another one. Mission Impossible four was exceptional, not as good as three, though, and then Mission Impossible five reset the bar and was the best action movie I had ever seen. Mission Impossible six, which is I'm

in the process of rewatching as we speak. I watched some of it last night to prepare me to see seven. Was had the maybe the coolest open of any of the Mission Impossible movies and wasn't a plus, But I don't know if it was as good as five and three, And now seven is two parts, so it's really seven and eight, but it is it. The Mission Impossible series is my favorite movie series ever. It's so good and you just have to pretend to didn't happen. It's so good. Uh,

all right? Is that all our questions? I think that's all our questions. We will be on TV today talking to I guess we have some jail and brown breaking news. Uh, we have a ton of We're really turning though the page to the NFL on the TV show and on this show. As you guys can tell, Diora will not be with us for until two weeks from today. You will be missed. We all love you and appreciate you. That was episode one sixty six. See you guys today on TV.

your ears instead of through your eyes. All that check it out. Appreciate you.