The Dan Patrick ShowSan Francisco 49ers TE Geroge Kittle drops by to talk about “Tight End University” and trying to help improve the performance and perception of tight ends in the NFL, as well as QB Brock Purdy’s new contract. US Open Champion JJ Spaun joins the show and admits the rain delay on Sunday was a huge help in turning his round around. And Lakers beat writer Dan Woike joins Dan to answer the question: why did the Buss family sell the Lakers now?
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I think this is the fifth year they've been doing the tight End University in George Kittle helped start that and the Niners tight End back on the program. Do you reject any tight Ends that want to go to tight End University?
Hey, Dago boarding Man, Hi bun, how are you doing? Petty Fother's Day?
Thank you you too?
Oh my goodness, let's see. Do I reject anybody? Actually? So?
How did you start it off where we were? Howd just do an only active players? In the last two years we've opened it up to all active practice squad guys who have been in the league who might not be on a team yet. So no, it is as long as I can get a hold of those guys and they have NEMO address, I can send an invite form and fill out on the registration form two they're invited. So I think we have between eighty and ninety guys this year, which I'm pretty excited about.
But is there a syllabus, Like if you're going to a university, they give you a kind of a rundown of classes that you go to, like what is required in all seriousness? If tight End diversity.
Really for guys to be there as long as you're on in NFL roster, were in like the last year, you're invited. But syllabus wise, what we do is we do a classroom session and you have guys like so, I've talked about run blocking, past protection, yack, those are things that I focused on the past years. Travis talks about his route tree, how he reads coverages. Greg Olsen talks about his routes. We've had Jordan Rita spoke former Washington tight End about his releases this year. Evan Ingram's going to talk, which I'm excited about. We got him up for the first time. And Jeremy Shockey will hopefully be teaching something. Gronk has taught something in the past, Dallas Clark and so really it's just we try to give We try to cover all the things that Titan does because we're the only position that really gets to do everything, you know, pass pro, run blocking, catching, catching the football, scoring touchdowns, running the ball sometimes. So like we kind of try to cover as much as possibly can in the limited time that we have with these guys and just we try to give them that's an extra step forward in their careers to help them make a team to follow and the following camp.
Are you guys like a union. I mean, it feels like the tight end was kind of forgotten, you know when you look at franchise tags and kind of fighting for those salaries there. But how much how much do you talk about the finances of playing the position?
You know what? We do that every once in a while, you know, we do bring it.
We do talk about things other than just football, Like we had some financial buysers come in one year and talk about that. We had some venture guys come in to talk about investments and so that is something. But what we do, like, the only way for the tight end market to continue to grow is if everybody's getting paid.
That's that's the only way to do it. That.
You can't just have one guy do it and then it just sits for three or four years, because then you're stuck and it's stagnan. No one's getting paid. So we want everybody, Like I want everybody to have great seasons. I want everybody to have great games, just not against the forty nine ers, but throughout the rest the season. They can play as well as they want to because I want guys to get paid to keep bumping up that market. So by the time that you know, brock Bowers is doing his contract in three years.
He's going for over twenty million, which he will. And that's just the whole point.
You know, when tight end you first started, I think the top of the mark was fifteen.
And now we're almost twenty. So like we're continually growing it.
And you know, as a tight end and as a position who does everything, yeah, I think we should be making more money, but we're working on it.
I go back to Jimmy Graham. Jimmy Graham didn't want to be paid as a tight end, and I don't know what that did to the salary structure, but I know he was very vocal at the time that hey, I knew what wide receivers do as well as play tight end. Did that change the salary structure?
You know?
I think it was a step in the right direction, because I don't I think they still paid him like a tight end, but like, just getting that idea out there, it kind of made everybody else kind of think about it and be like, yeah, you know what, You're right, Hey, how come I have eighty catches in eleven hundred yards and ten touchdowns. And you know, Travis Kelsey was making like eight million dollars in the next wide receivers making eighteen to twenty at the time. So it's just like, how can you, you know, not respect that position enough to give him that money, Because if you look back to it, like the last what ten Super Bowls, there's basically a Pro Bowl or Crene All Pro tight end in every single one of those games making plays, and so the team that have great tight ends usually win the most football games in my opinion, So just keep emphasizing those tight ends and keep paying them a lot of money.
George Kittle on behalf of tight End University and presented by Bud Light fifth year that they've had this in Nashville. How much do you joke with Rock Party now on how much he's making.
Oh my goodness, it's so nice. He can pay for our Halloween party. Now, Dan, I'm so excited about it. That's been on. You know, Jimmy g used to pay for it. That's what the quarterback does.
And then uh wait wait wait what's the Halloween party? Like, what what does that encompass? Oh?
We just like rent, we ran out of a restaurant, a bar area. Just make it a private event so guys can go to it with their wife's significant other. It's just like I like to I like to congregate outside of theacility so you can actually build these relationships, enjoy going to the work with the guys. And I'm always big the one thing the Niners do a good job of. They always bring the wives and the families in all the time to a couple of events throughout the year, and so I just want to reemphasize that. So you know, so like when you know, my wife goes to a game, it's not the first time she's hanging out with one of our defensive lineman's wives. You know, something like that, just so you do they have a relationship and gives guys an opportunity to loss some steaming in the season, whether we're having a good year or a bad year. And so hopefully Brock will be paying for that one. Hopefully he's paying for a lot of stuff that'd be helpful. I would enjoy that.
But you can joke with him about oh yeah, the amount of money.
Oh yeah, you know what it's I told him, you know, before the deal's even done. I was like, you guys are in a different status for this quarterback market. Like I'm over here fighting for nineteen to twenty million dollars a year and you're you're above fifty. So I was like, look, just whatever, you know, whatever's best for you, guys. I know you'll make the right decision. But you know, I'm happy for Brock to him and his wife finally got it done.
And McCaffrey, though he makes good coin to you got a lot of guys who make a lot of money on the we.
Have a lot of guys make a lot of money. We have a lot of guys who make a lot of football plays. So I feel like that's good for football.
McCaffrey, did you get invited to his wedding?
I did. I was there. I had a fantastic time.
Okay, what are you getting for a wedding gift?
What did I get him for a wedding gift?
I flew into Rhode Island from Nashville, Tennessee, which is kind of hard to get. And then I just give him my valuable time. It's hard to get a gift for somebody who can get whatever they want. Man, that's always the toughest thing.
But you could have, you know, an autograph jersey.
You know what that is. That's a good one. You know, I usually trade. I trade jersey with my teammates after we no longer teammates. So like me and Deevo finally traded jerseys for the first time, which is pretty fun. I got a tarvarious Ward jersey. But yeah, at some point, you know, I could get Christian trying to think. Yeah, I find I could find like a fun Kevin Grant jersey, Kevin Garnett jersey or.
Something like that.
Wait, he's fans of those.
Kevin guard I mean he does like basketball, but that's one thing. I have a good memorabilia guy.
Like I just got one of my best friends to signed Kevin Garnett jersey as a birthday president.
He was blown away. Oh it's pretty sick.
Yeah, that's he's the man who benches more. You were McCaffrey bench press.
I'm gonna take myself on that.
I'm gonna even though he's got a little bit shorter armed might be easier for him, I'm still gonna take myself.
How about a tight end university.
Oh, I definitely don't bench the most of the tight End University that is that is not but we do.
We do have some fun workouts.
We do a little it's called arm Farm Friday, and we just see how big our bicyps and tryceups can get for a day.
That's always pretty fun.
Do you film this stuff?
Uh?
Yeah, we filmed so, Like we have classroom sessions that we have cameras on that, you know, we can send out to the guys afterwards so that they can revisit those.
Lessons in public. Uh clips and stuff like that.
Not necessarily all the classroom stuff because I like to keep that kind of private for the guys to learn. All the on the field stuff though, that's recorded. We push that out as much as we possibly can, you know, just grills and stuff like that.
Can you kid Travis Kelcey about Taylor Swift?
I think Greg Olsen does that enough for everybody.
Give me a for give me for instance.
Uh well, we first off, we just call Greg Olsen Dad twenty four to seven. That's what me and Travis call him, because he's like you should see the way he coaches on the field.
It's like he's coaching Pop Warner football. It's fantastic. But he likes to. He likes to give.
Everybody some crap every once in a while, whether it's Travis in his relationship with Taylor. It's all good hearted though, because we all love Traravis. I mean, Travis has done so much for Titan News and so much for the Titan position. And you know, when you're as awesome of a guy that he is, it's kind of it's really fun just you know, bust his balls once in a while.
I know you want to mention your sponsors there. We do this every year, so can you see them all? I can see him. I brought my Gatorade water, okay as well, you got bud Light, you got dude wipes, you got ye like gatorade.
Dude wipes, old Spice, new Era. We had all the We have a bunch of new sponsors in which we're really excited about. You know, it's we raised all this money. Basically, every Titan that comes in, they pay for their flight. We take care of everything else. Hotel, transportation, food, the concert with country musicians, a golf tournament, we take care of everything. We wanted to be a first class event, and our sponsors make it possible. And the cool thing is too. After we raise all this money, everything that's left me, Travis and Greg Olsen, we kind of divvy it up and then we donate it.
Through charities of our choice, so we give back at the end.
So basically raising a bunch of money, like I always donate my money to the Iowa Children's Hospital, some close to my heart's I went to college there. Travis has his foundation, Greg has his foundation, and so that's really the fun part about it.
Too.
Great to talk to you again. Hopefully we'll talk to you during the season. Thank you.
Yeah, you know what, Dan Zory's great talking to you man.
At George Kettle. He's the Niners tight end.
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He just won the US Open. He's JJ Spawn getting ready to join us on the program. I mentioned this yesterday at when we were at Pebble a couple of years ago. He came up and introduced himself and I thought the line was just so oh there he is JJ spawn. Official introduction here, JJ Spawn US Open champ joining us on the show. Do you remember how you introduced yourself to me at Pebble Beach a couple of years ago.
Exactly? No, but I do remember being there with you.
Yeah, you walked up and you said, I'm the other black guy on tour.
Yeah, yeah, I remember that now. I remember that.
Congratulations. Give me the second favorite shot that you hit at Oakmont.
The T shot on seventeen on Sunday.
But that was the risk and the award there was. I mean, we've seen guys die in the rough there around seventeen, but there was no hesitation.
No, I mean, that was the strategy all we long, is to send driver up there and just try to get up and down and actually hit almost an identical shot in the practice round on Tuesday where I flagged it to about twenty feet away. But it's a blind T shot, so you can't see the green. You can just see like the top half of the pin. And you know that was that was the one shot that got me the lead and you know, led me to victory.
But also you're listening for the crowd's reaction to it. Since you can't see it, you can kind of differentiate between oh that was a good shot, that was a great shot. That was an unbelievable shot exactly.
And that's exactly what happened. You know, you can't see anything, but there's tons of people up there, big grandstands, and I you know, once I hit it, the ball kind of you can see it one hop and it disappears, and all you hear is just this growing roar the stands, and you know, you can tell, like a clap would be like, okay, that's probably somewhere near the green, and then all of a sudden you hear whoa, and you're building up like it's going in. Like I literally thought I was gonna make this shot, and then it was like the oh like adjustment, So I knew it was relatively close before I got.
On the green.
How do you pay back Victor Hoblin for giving you the read on eighteen?
I gotta give him a nice bottle of wine or something, whatever he wants. That was a nice teach, and I think that was just one of those things that has to go your way to win not only a championship, but a major championship. And I'm just happy to have capitalized on that little advantage.
How surprised were you that it went in though.
Oh stunned, I would. I mean, you can tell by my reaction that putt going in. You know, my la hot. My lab putter was so hot I had to toss it, you know, with that back nine finish. But I did, you know, I didn't. All I was trying to do, obviously, was get it to tap in. I didn't even want like a three footer. But when I hit it, I knew it was good pace. I just didn't know if it was the right line. It was raining and misty. It couldn't even really see the hole from that far away. And you know, I'm glad I didn't have to tap in a little three footer.
For the win.
Do you retire that putter?
Heck no, Dan, come on, that thing's been so hot for me. My lab putter has been like one of the best kind of components of my game. That's always been a part of my statistically my game where I've struggled, But I think it's been a great equalizer now and it's kind of helped keep rounds going, whether it's making a clutch six footer to keep momentum going in the right direction during round or making a sixty four footer to win.
The US Open.
Talking to JJ Spahd US Open champ, let's clear up the overnight CBS trip for your sick daughter. What exactly happened and why can't you send your caddie to CBS. I know.
It was a crazy sort of Sunday morning, early Sunday morning where the tournament had a daycare provided for all the players, and she must have caught some sort of stomach bug from one of the other kids running around in the same classroom as her, And all we can hear in the other room next to us was her just kind of puking up stuff and crying. So we kind of tended to her, made sure she was okay, but she wasn't trying. She couldn't hold anything down. She's crying for water. Poor things. She's two years old, and you know, little does she know any sip of water kind of you know, makes her feel worse. But yeah, I was up at three thirty. I was looking for twenty four hour pharmacies. You know, did my best to get her what she needed. And you know, fortunately, you know, we we got her some PDA light and we just tried to, you know, help her get on the man and she's doing a lot better.
Now, though I smell a sponsorship there PDA life. How important was the rain delay? Maybe that sounds strange to say, but was it a great opportunity for a reset?
It was huge?
You know.
I think if things were going the other way where I was like really hot starting off and kind of all of a sudden leading, that would be kind of the last thing you want. But it's almost like, you know, being down twenty points going into the the halftime, you know, break an NBA final to kind of regroup, you know, get a game plan reset. I even changed my clothes. I was like, I want to feel like a completely different person going out there. Because I had ten holes to play. I was still four shots back. But it's the US Open, you know, like people aren't running away with this tournament. In the field kind of tends to come back. But my team, my caddie, we all said, hey, if you were four back going into the back nine at the US Opened on Monday, knowing that you would take it, so don't worry about your start. Let's just go back out there and try to execute our game plan.
Okay, but was there a point when you bogie five to the first six, where you go, well, I had a good run.
Yeah, I think on number number six when I couldn't. I've made one par on a par five and it was still a grinding par. But I'm hitting flag sticks, spinning off the green, hitting rakers, rakes that are bounding just outside the bunker where I can't even hit the ball. I was just like, Okay, I guess it's not meant to be. But maybe that kind of helped me. You have the right mental aspect to where you know if it's meant to be to happen. If not, then I'll just take what it gives me.
Congratulations, a lot of fun. As rich Lerner said on the Golf Channel, that you beat the best, but you beat the beast as well. That was Oakmont.
I love that. Thank you, Dan, I'm so honored.
Congrats Thanks Dan, Thank you JJ spahn us Open Champ.
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Ten billion dollars Why now, Genie Buss the family sells the Lakers to Mark Walter. The part of the Dodger ownership for ten billion dollars. Dan Moyki, he is the Lakers beat writer La Times joining us on the program. Dan, thanks for joining us. Why sell? Why sell? Now?
The only answer I've been able to come up with at this point is ten billion dollars. That's the answer, and it's it's an interesting thing because that'll be the thing that we learn here over the next few weeks, few months and stuff. No One from the Lakers is still set a peep about this, right man. Sjhonson kind of was the de facto spoke person. He's the person that has you know, hands in the Mark Walter cap obviously very close to Jennie Buss. So we don't totally know why. Here's what we do know. We know that to sell the team, the way that the ownership thing is structured, after doctor Jerry Buss died, a majority of his six children needed to vote to sell, and that majority never existed until yesterday. So that is I think the interesting thing, right is that always Genie was running the team. You know, Jim was involved with the team. He was the sort of executive bathe operations famously tried to sue his sister to try to wrestle control of the team. In twenty seventeen, the older siblings Johnny and Janey not that involved. And you know, but but Joey Buss runs the you know, salt A team, Jesse Buss involved in the scouting department. These are people that have day to day roles with the organization, and you know, so I think that's kind of what's what we're learning here a little bit is sort of how this played out that way. It's an interesting not to get like way in the weeds on like trust law, but it's an interesting like part of the way that ownership is structure. This was always sort of inevitable. The way the deal with structured dan was that you know, this to sound morbid, and I apologize, but if the oldest Bus sibling were to die, it's not like those shares go to next of kin. The tide just gets smaller. It goes from being cut six ways to being cut five ways, and then it goes to being cut four ways, and it keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller, sort of a last person standing type of situation, you know. And these are people genies in her mid sixties and stuff like that. It just it's a lot of money. Dan, It's a lot of money.
What's it mean for the Laker fan?
I think it's probably good news. It's a little less charming, right. I think that was one of the things about the Laker organization, especially if you were around the team and you're a fan who goes to games and you see you know, Genie bus and you could used to be able to tweet it or a lot when she was really active on social media. It was like very she's a very public person. I mean, it's a family business. It truly is a family business, and I think it will lose that and I'm not sure that's like good in total for a league that is losing this all the time because the money is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. But I mean, I think we can It's fair to look to the Dodgers, right, And I'm I'm not suggesting they're gonna pay show hey o Tani, you know, twenty million dollars to play center next season, Like that's not how this really works in the NBA. But what you can do is you can pour that money into everything else. You can pour that money into your bench, you can pour that money into your analytics department. You can pour that money into development, pour that money into the arena, you know, the Lakers. That's another crazy part of this deal, Dan, The Lakers don't own property. It is like a brand, right, that is what you're buying a lot of times when these evaluations come up for teams, it's you know, they own their arena. Part of the Warriors evaluation is they've got a huge piece of real estate, you know, right on the bay. That's not the lake. The Lakers are, at least the play inside of Crypto dot com. Like, so, this is a deal for the brand. But I think it's fair to think that Mark Walter, the way that they've operated the Dodgers, they're going to pour money into this in all the places they can to give the team the best chance to win consistently.
But you know, in baseball you can overspend, can spend, yes, but you can't outspend. I mean, you know the Golden State Warriors did there for a while where they didn't care about the luxury tax, but and.
Then they changed the rules.
Yes, right, yeah, and so yeah, I think I think that part of it is overstated, right, Like, look, the Lakers were in the luxury tax. They're repeatedly in the luxury tax. You can point to a couple of times in recent history where maybe they cheaped out on something famously kind of Alex Caruso is like one of those things, and obviously that was bad decision, I think. But I mean they're paying. They're not afraid to fire coaches and keep paying salaries. I mean, it feels like we do that every two years out here right now. You know, that's not the issue. I will say when you talk to people about the Lakers organization around the NBA, generally speaking, the thing, the sort of really direct way people describe that is it's a place that does the big things really well and the small things really poorly, and the small things like they've been getting better at some of the smaller things. But I think it's fair to point to infrastructure when you talk about small things and like things like beefing up a scouting department, you know, putting more money into that, putting more people on.
The road, stuff like that.
You know, that's where, especially the way the second apron is structured, you've got to hit on your minimum signings. You have to hit when you don't have draft picks. You have to hit on your secon ground picks. They've drafted pretty well. They've done well with the college cutting. Their prost cutting needs to get much much better. And I think that's a place where Mark Walter can put a lot of money into it, and I think you can see a difference.
Talking to Dan Woik, the Lakers beat writer for the La Times, what kind of moves in the off season with the Lakers do you see?
Yeah, well I didn't see new owner. I do see new center. I think new Center is the is the most obvious one.
I know.
You know the Lakers have spoken with Luka Doncic multiple times kind of what that could look like. They know that's a position he needs, they know that's a position they need.
Right.
It's an interesting kind of team building exercise for them because they don't have a ton of assets. Stop me if you heard this before about the Lakers. They need to get better and they don't have a ton of ways to get there. They have a first round pick that they can trade either in twenty thirty one or twenty thirty two. They have Dalton Connect their first round pick from last year. They've got some pick swops this. I mean, this is what they traded for Mark Williams before they stall the physical right, so they have some stuff. I would be looking at centers like kind of like Mark Williams around the NBA, those that has been sort of their type, right, So like jal Ender and Anyaka kong Wu in Atlanta, Walker Kestler in Utah. These are people that I think they're going to try and target young senators who kind of fit the next future. Now, whether or not any of these players are available Dan another thing, and do the Lakers, you know, if you're not available, Like do the Lakers have a ten billion dollar offer to make for Walker Kessler? They don't, you know, unless they're going to trade Austin Reeves. And they've shown no indication that they are going to trade Austin Reeves. They believe in Austin Reeves. Lukadacich believes in Austin Reeves. The best Dallas Maverick teams with Lukadacic had three things. Generally, they had a good center, they had athletic wings, and they had a secondary playmaker Kyrie Irving Jalen Brunson. So in neither of those guys a Tony Allen either right when it comes to like locking guys down on the perimeter so it can work. I think that is sort of where they're at in terms of trying to figure this out. Athletic wings definitely.
A big What about Lebron's future?
I mean, boy, you know, well, we know he's not retiring via Amazon commercial. He put that to bed, you know, tease that out last week. He's gonna be back. You know, I think he is good enough to keep playing. He had the player option at the end of this month, early signs where that he would accept it. He may opt out and resign as an unrestrictuit free agent and again kind of play this sort of signed me for a two year extension, give me an option on the back of that. You know, it's all signed points in finishing his career as a Laker, and he's not done. He was an All NBA player last year, played some of the best defense I've seen him play as a Laker for a stretch, kind of that January to March stretch. Then got hurt. I think the knee injury Dan is an interesting injury. It's an interesting thing for him. He hasn't really dealt with something like this, and so you know, as a forty year old, I'm a guy who woke up this morning with a sore elbow. Somehow like this happens at age Dan and he yeah, you know, I think he's gonna take his time and get to one hundred percent. It's but yeah, I mean, e's a part of their plans.
Good to talk to you. I know you're on vacation, but I don't know you're ever true the.
Surface of the sun here in Scottsdale, Arizona. Dan, it's it's a two hundred and fifty degrees.
You're not truly on vacation if you cover the Lakers. Never never, not allowed to be Thank you, Dan, like I said, Dan Wiki
