The Jason Smith Show with Mike HarmonOn tonight's edition of The Best of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon, Arnie SPanier and Bernie Fratto are in or the guys on Christmas Day and kick off the hour by looking into the Ravens domainant win over the Texans, debating whether or not Lamar Jackosn is MVP material afe another strong perfromance. Next, they break down Chiefs win over the steelers and look intot he probabilty that the chiefs wil get the threepeat! Arnie tells us a story from his life before becoming a massive radio star, while Bernie delves into the legendary history of the Oakland A’s. Finally, the hosts look into why the NBA has gone soft and look into the College Football Playoffs! Tune in for an action-packed show!
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The Jasonsmith Show with Mike Harmon at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
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Oh that is us. Good evening, everybody. We're broadcasting live from the ti iraq dot com studios. Tyrack dot com. We'll hope you get there. Unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free roadhazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirerac dot com the way tire buyings should be. Hope everybody's enjoyed their holidays, their Christmas Derhonika, the Kwanzi, of course, myself, Bernie Frado, We're in for the guys night. Jason Smith at his best friend Mike Carmen right here on Fox Sports Radio. They'd be checking see how my best friend is doing. Bernie Frado. How's it going, Bertie? That was your Christmas today?
Thinking genius. Let's go, baby, Let's let's light this menora. You ready, you know David Lee Roth likes the menora. Yes, I got Douglas in a late Dinah.
Shora from the Adams Handler.
Look at you, right, I'll take songs for fifty.
Out exactly exactly. How things out there in Vegas? To see? Christmas time a lot different on the West Coast than on the East. God, here we had snow on Christmas Eve. You know, get the get the white Christmas. The streets are full of snow, or at least the sidewalks are. They do a pretty good job of, you know, getting rid of the snow on the streets. But out there in Vegas, you're to you, a winter time is what sixty degrees or what?
Yeah, it's been brutal, Arnie after seventeen Detroit winters, I lived through a rough sixty seven windshield degree factor. Today I was in short leaves, not bragging. I don't care. I'd like to be a little cooler for Christmas, Okay. I mean, you know, summertime rolls around four months, you know how it goes. You'll have two dogs fighting over a fire hydrant from kind.
Of that is the truth. There's no doubt about that. Look, I know everybody, sometimes it could be tough during the holidays. We are live today as you heard it. Like before us it was Rob Parker and e Fram It was good to hear them live, and before them VJ and Aaron Torres. So you know some of us we were okay working with the holidays. Love to have Bernie with me along the line. And you know, again, like I said, it could be tough for a lot of you listeners out there. We're here with you for the next four hours. We're going to keep your company. Hopefully it's enjoyable. We'll get you through these last hours of the holidays and of course get you ready for the new year. And I always like to start with this Bernie. We do this at Christmas when I fill in every year for Christmas. Always like to have people tweet us and you get a hold of us at Bernie Fratto, I'm at stinking Genius one, and we just want to know where you're listening to us from, what city, what state, and how you're listening. Are we on the radio, are we on next some serious? Are we on the internet? iHeartRadio? Any of that? So we love the year, always love the ear from the listeners, especially on this Christmas. Where are you listening, how you're listening, and you know, just get ahold of us, say low anything you want to say to us and get you to Some people get through a tough time. Other people you're maybe you're heading back from in laws or relatives or just flying somewhere. So again, we hope to keep your company and lots going on. Bernie. It's not like there's not going out Back in the day during Christmas it was a dead period of time. Not anymore. It's so crowded now. It's like the NBA has been pushedback, like nobody cares about the NBA. On NBA on Christmas used to be like really really big. Remember we used to say the NBA doesn't start until Christmas. Now it's it's like it's been overshadowed by the NFL.
Right now, what you're scooping me is the NBA season started already.
Yeah exactly, really, I'll.
Be damn, I'm too busy watching PBA bowling today on TV. You know, actually they don't have that anymore. They should with Chris Shankle and Don Carter. Jun You remember that actually watch over the NBA. NBA does start, I'm curious to know, Uh, I'm curious to know how the Sandy Clippers are going to do this year.
Yeah, it just uh you know, I just thought that when the Christmas time hits, we all get into the NBA, we love it, and uh not anymore. Now it's all about the NFL. And the NFL, by the way, is going to be around. Jerry Jones said, uh that it's going to be on Christmas from hopefully here on out, so there's always gonna be I don't know how they're gonna handle it on Tuesdays, but they'll they'll dominate ratings. It's gonna be all about the NFL, and that's going to push the NBA further into oblivion because the ratings are down as it begins. Christmas used to be a good date for them. It's only going to get words for the NBA with the NFL not playing on every Christmas from here on out.
By the way, not for nothing, not to go down this rabbit hole. I thought Netflix acquitted themselves quite nicy today. I watched both games. The quality of the picture clarity was great. The broadcast teams did a clean job. There were no glitches. It was pretty seamless. The graphics were kind of neat. I don't know about you, but after what happened in the Jake Paul Mike Tyson fight with Netflix, they took a lot of shots. I mean they took more shots in Rocky Balboa, and they came out tonight swinging. I thought that Netflix did well today.
You know, it's funny you mentioned that I was listening to the guys earlier. Then. I was listening to Monsei Jump On and they were complaining in the studio about the streaming and the and the lag, and I'm saying to myself, there's no problem. On my end. It was a beautiful picture. It was sharp. I was scrolling through Twitter. Everybody else had similar experiences. Everything came off without a hitch. I mean, look, I sometimes had it on mute because I was watching the basketball game early, and you know, I'm walking up and down downstairs, I'm doing a bunch of stuff. But otherwise it was seamless. They I thought they hit it out of the ballpark. It's a grand slam. I would give them an A plus. I don't know what more they could have done. I don't know what everybody else was complaining about about the streaming, Bernie, and it was lagging. I had no problem, So I have no idea what everybody else was talking about when they were saying this.
Well, the only thing that we're lagging were the Houston Texans and the Pittsburgh Steelers. And it steals my thunder a little bit because I've been screaming on my Friday and Saturday show for months that the notion that people would be smirched this Kansas City Chiefs team because they simply keep winning every week based on certain piccadillos. They cherry a pick and point out, we don't have to do this now, Arnie. But let's set aside, like two or three minutes later in the show, because what I want to do is give people some perspective over the course of history NFL teams that have actually gone back to back and what they did that third season, what the Chiefs are doing is beyond what you could ever. It's beyond comparable. And we'll get to that a little bit later. But the notion that this team is nothing short of a legitimate, bona fide three P team, someone is now officially going to have to go through Kansas City to beat them. And you tell me if you think Lamar can do it against that Steve Spagnola defense, look what they've done against him over the years. I'm not sure Buffalo has that in their DNA. We don't need to do the roll call right now, but you're looking at a team. Think about this Hall of fame coach, hall of fame quarterback, hall of fame tight end, and elite defense, e leite defensive coordinators. They've not only come off back to back Super Bowls winners. It's hard enough to win one, almost impossible to go back to back. They're fifteen to one the championship DNA that this team just plays week after week, when they continually make the plays that you know don't even necessarily show up in the BOP score. It's one of those situations when it demands greatness, can you be great? And the Chiefs, frankly are now they're getting back weapons with Hollywood Brown and Worthy and obviously you know assignment sound defense, They're going to be a major problem for somebody. I don't think anybody is going through Arrowhead, if you still want to call it that, to get to the Super Bowl. You plug them in and you start to project and I hate these if this then that scenario kind of stuff, But I don't know if the Lions would catch them right now. Trust me, the Lions injuries are far more severe than people realize. They're doing it. But it's going to get much more difficult. The second thing is, you know Philadelphia, were they exposed? I hate that word, but they're beatable. So if you start to look at the teams who could beat the Chiefs in a one game affair, it's a very short list.
It's a short list, but that doesn't mean the list can't be longer. And we'll get into that. If you want to be part of the show, like I said on this Christmas real simple add Bernie Fratto ads thinking genius one. How did you like the Netflix shows today? Was it okay? Did it have some lagging on your end? Because I thought it was one hundred percent perfect that I had no problem. The picture was sharp, clean, sound was clean, everything was good unless I miss something, Bernie, I'm totally fine with it. I think it was absolutely great out there all right. Two games today, Bernie, and both of them absolutely does absolutely dudes, Ravens beat the Texans thirty one to two. It was actually seventeen to two at a half time. That's a score, Agami. It's never been a score of seventeen to two at half time. Thirty one to two final, the Texans couldn't do anything. You know, for as much as we praise Lamar Jackson in the year that he's having, we have not even begun to rip the year CJ. Stroud's having. You want to talk about taking a step backwards, He's taken a ten step backwards from the year he had last year. From last year we thought he could be in contention for maybe MVP take his team. They can contend for a super Bowl. They're going to make the playoffs. But what CJ. Stroud has done this year, and I know they lost Nico Collins for about what four games, maybe five. He's been back for a while now. But for the most part, CJ. Stroud and the Texans, even though they're making the playoffs, a big disappointment for most of the year. The Ravens, though, Lamar Jackson another big game. They dominated the Texans easy win. This game was over at halftime thirty one to two. Year Lamar Jackson, though everybody talks about MVP. This MVP that will win a playoff game and you know, get to the super Bowl and then we could talk MVP. So that's all I want to hear about that.
Bernie, to your point about CJ. Stroud, and I'll take up for him a little bit because cumulatively his first two years in the NFL have been pretty good. They're gonna be the playoffs both years. But if you look at the Texans today from a top down standpoint, today was sort of a test to prove whether they could contend with a contender in the AFC, and they came out flat. They didn't do anything well. They allowed Derrick Henry to run all over them. Texans are now only one five against winning teams this season. They're going to be limping into the playoffs. What I thought was concerning is the Texans didn't seem to show a lot of fight. They were physically dominated on both sides of the ball. Again, the Ravens ran rough, shot up and down the field. Now you can perhaps you can't. You can't describe the narrative without highlighting the fact that c J. Strout is missing Stefan Biggs and tanked out that matters. Joe Mixon the.
Only get out now though, But yes, go ahead.
But today we're just as you'd love to say, are any of the shows today?
Budd show?
So why did Bobby Slowik only allow Joe Mixon to carry the ball nine times today? So Stroud drops back almost forty times. They ran you know again, they hit him more than a rocky ball ball. They pressured him, they bothered him, and he didn't do anything well now. And the other thing too, is he missed eight targets today. He was off. That's one of his worst games in the year. He wasn't able to get into any kind of rhythm at all. So is that because the Texans struggled? Or is it because Baltimore, after recognizing Pittsburgh lost, had a little bit more leadender pencil. They knew that if they won this game, they would jump all the way up to the number three seed. So I think they loaded up the box to stop Joe Mixon and they dared see j Stroud to pass. He doesn't have all of his weapons. And I think again he's now started what thirty some games. They got him on film and he got sacked five times today, And so look, welcome to the National Football It's you know, it's very unforgiving league and it's all about adjustment, so I think you have to factor that in. You're not wrong that he's dropped off from last year, but he came out of the gates so strongly last year that was probably a bit of an outlier.
Yeah, well, there's no doubt about that, that's for sure. And like I said, you want to get in that Bernie Frido at stinking Genius one CJ. Stroud though he has to be held to task for that. They needed a win here too. They get better during seedings. They'll get the division, but they really looked poor all year long. To be honest with you, They've beaten nobody of substance. I'm just kind of curious why they don't catch more grief out there. The Ravens look good. But it's gonna be the same old scenario if Lamar Jackson doesn't do well in the playoffs, Because if he doesn't do well, then they sayers are gonna come out Bernie and they're gonna say the same thing as they say every year. And you know what, he deserves the criticism, you know, that's what it counts. It's not what counts so much during the regular season. Show me in the playoffs. And he hasn't shown what he could do in the playoffs just yet.
Hero And if you got a text from a check that a tweet from Madame Fennis. He's listening to my show. He goes okay. Trust me as a Vikings fan, I first hand to understand why people would be cautious about giving him a chance. But seriously, Bernion, can you ask Arne when he's gonna give the Rodney Dangerfield the Vikings the NFL's to respect. Let me preface this by saying, the Vikings have too long. The Lions have two losses. We're heading toward a collision course, Arnie. A week from Sunday at Ford Field of Detroit. The winner of that game would win the division and have the number one seed. What's your thought about the Vikings?
Now, you know what I'm going to get into that. We'll get into the Vikings. We have a lot of tweets out there, like tennis data said Redondo Beach. He's living listening out there in Los Angeles. Out there in Redondo Beach was as beautiful on iHeartRadio, got up to sixty two degrees out there in La Bernie, and he wants us to crank. Call Ben Malloy later on today, Big Ben Maller working after us today. So he's getting back from the holidays. What he says, Love the duo, appreciate the show. Merry Christmas, Happy holidays from Wisconsin. Go Pack Go. That's another quarterback. I got a problem with Jordan Love. Oh yeah, I think he's overrated. You know his stats. I was looking at this before the show. They're not even as good as Aaron Rodgers. Yet we rip Aaron Rodgers like crazy, and we praise. We praised Jordan Love like he's a Hall of Famer.
Let me ask you a question, aren't he? Yeah?
Yeah.
If you could wave a magic wand, who knows you know you got this kind of power, like you can give you Saga the night off anytime.
You want, right, of course, absolutely, we all know.
The power you wield. That's say, you could wave a magic wand and you can assert Aaron Rodgers in a quarterback for the remainder of the season for the Green Bay Packers. Would you do that? Or would you keep Jordan Love?
Why would keep Jordan Love? Over Aaron Rodgers. Yet that doesn't but then.
Need to comparison just went right down to took us no.
But it just means that even if I don't like Aaron Rodgers and his numbers, that means I like Jordan Love even less because his numbers are below Aaron Rodgers.
I think is about winning football games.
It is, but I would just take him strictly because of the numbers. Yes, they're winning football games, but the Green Bay Packers are better teep than the Jets. I'll tell you what, We'll come back. We'll get into the other game. We'll get into the Jets. We've got a lot of football to get to. We've got a game tomorrow if you want to get it on this Christmas at birt at Stinking Genius one. We got a lot of tweets all that's going to be coming up next. Bernie and Arnie in for Jason and his best friend Mike Harmon right here on Fox Sports A Radio.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
Oh that is us. Good evening, everybody. Bernie Fraddo, Arney Span you're in for the guys tonight Jason Smith and his best Fred Mike Harmon right here on Fox Sports Radio. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hodakapy KWANSI happy to whatever you want to celebrate out there, And of course we're pretty much still. We have one more hour of Christmas left, or the holidays left here in the East Coast, Bernie, So I know it could be tough for a lot of people out there. The holidays could be stressful or very lonely. Maybe you're by yourselves. You just have to tune in to listen to Birdie and I. We're here to keep your company for three more hours. We'd love the ear from you, and the best way is to tweet us. We love to know where you're listening to the show from and how you're listening to the show, and we would just love the ear for you, and we'll read your tweets on the air during the course of the hours. Because a lot of people listen on Christmas. You wouldn't think that a lot of people listen on Christmas, but with two NFL games and five NBA games, you can only watch so many Christmas movies, you know, Bertie, After that I'm done with the Christmas movies. You see those on TV all the time, so you don't have to just watch them on Christmas.
You know that's true. They typically have a way of running throughout the year, and you've seen them all fifty.
Times exactly, exactly. Can only watch them so many times. Bertie wants to get to a Rickie Hender Henderson Surry. I'm going to get to that in just a second. I do want to say, we're live at the Tireck dot Com Studios, broadcasting go I from the tirak In dot com Studios. We'll help you get there and unmatched election, fast tree shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tyreck dot com the way tire buying should be. I do want to get to this because I think it was CJ from Dallas that sent us a tweet because I was telling a story about when I used to work out in Dallas, Texas, and he wants to know if we have any more stories like that or how we got into the business. I do have one funny story. When I first got into the business, Bernie, I was working in Phoenix, Arizona, Okay. One of my first jobs. I started in Vegas and I took another job in Phoenix, Arizona. I don't know if I should tell this story. It's kind of dark, you know, But what the heck, I already started it now, Bernie.
Might as well go there.
Ernie a lady by the name of don Nietzsche. Okay, I only say that because it has to do with the story, and she wasn't a big fan of But believe me, a lot of people were irritated with me. So that's that was beside the point. So I'm in my house one man, I'm about to go into the station. I have the radio on to another station, a news station, and I hear over the radio and don Nietzschi dies today, and it goes on and on. I you know, I just caught the name. And I'm like, son of us, the boss died today. And I'm calling all the other hosts. I God, you hear the boss died and they're like no. I'm like, yeah, I just I just heard it on the radio. I goes, she died. I don't even know what the hell happened, and they go, what are we gonna do? I go, I'm going to the station now and see what's going on. And I get to the station and the lady behind the desk, the secretary's there. I go, hey, She's like, hey, what's going on the go are you guys okay? And she's like, what's wrong. I go, the boss died. She goes, what boss died? I said, our boss died. Dawn, she died. She goes, she didn't die. She's in her office. I go, no, I heard it on the radio. She's done. It wasn't Donnezschi that died. It was the actor don Amichi. I don't know if you ever heard of a the boss died the boss. I'm telling everything.
Right out of my cousin Vinny. No, not Jerry Gallo, Jerry Callo.
Yeah, it was Don Amichi, the actor who was He was in what trading places? And I think, can't cocoon?
Remember, yeah, famous actor.
And I'm running around telling everybody the boss is dead. And I'm thinking to myself, Okay, well she didn't like me anyway. Now I can just do whatever that I want.
And that's how you got into the business.
That was That was one of the big That was my first job out in Phoenix. She was our first boss. Yeah, she she wasn't a big fan of mine, but that's that was our boss out there. And I actually still keep in touch with her, with her husband, with her ex husband. So yeah, that was a good one. I thought for sure the boss was down. And people looked at me like, what are you an idiot? I go, look, I go, please Donnietzsche, Donna Meachi. Does that not sound you know, pretty cool?
Bertie? Yeah, yeah it does.
I mean, my goodness, man, all right, so at Bertie Frado, whitch think a genius one? You wanted to tell a story though about Ricky Henderson, And those are a lot funny because there's a lot of Ricky Henderson's stories out there, Bertie, that's for sure.
You know. Well, look, everybody loved Ricky Henderson. This happened very suddenly. I actually started getting some text a well placed source when I was signing up my show Friday night, and I kept it under my hat. He was in a hospital. I believe he had pneumonia. Very sad. I don't think people realize how truly good he was. You know, there have been only seventy players in Major League Baseball history that batted right handed through left handed. He's the only one to make it to a Hall of Fame. He's the only want to make it to the All Star Game. It's not that he just led the It's not that he had more stolen bases than everybody's five. He passed lou Brock by five hundred. Okay, this is the guy that he also had power. Let off the game of the home run eighty one times, and you knew he had instant starredom. He signed out of high school I believe in nineteen seventy six or seventy seven. In his first year while playing for Modesto in the California League, he stole fifteen bases in one game. Got to the big leagues in seventy nine. The rest is history. But he did some freaky things. He stole over one hundred and nine bases after the age of forty. All right, yes, so, of course the reason everybody loved Ricky is because of his personality. You don't see players like that anymore. Ricky played the game with joy. There's only one guy in history that could stand before a mirror naked in the locker room every game and say Ricky, Ricky the greatest. Ricky the greatest. He'd say it six times and he got away with it because everybody loved him. He was hilarious. And of course I'll just tell a couple of the more famous stories and people probably he played with my buddy Sean Green in Toronto. So the team bus pulls up to the hotel and somebody said they're traveling. Secretary of somebody says, Ricky, go ahead, you can get on the bus. You've got tenure. Ricky was tenure. What do you mean I got sixteen years?
I heard that one.
And of course you know the story about you know where he got a million dollar bonus and he framed the check ause he was a million dollar check. It was like office base. They found a glitch and payroll. Wait, wait a minute, we have a million dollars in here. They realized Ricky hadn't cashed the check. It was been sitting in a frame. But maybe my favorite one, and it's just crazy. You remember John olru Johnes played with that helmet. Hey, I played with a helmet at first base because while he was in Washington State he had a brain aneurysm and the doctor said, you're gonna have to wear a helmet all the time, even on defense. So Ricky played with John Olerwood in Toronto. A couple of years later, Ricky was somewhere else and John oler was somewhere else, and say, Ricky goes, damn, look at that guy in first base. We're taking a pregame infield. He's wearing a helmet. He was. I played with a guy like that in Toronto.
Because that was me. I was your tmate. There's always great Rickys and stories. I brought this up, Bartie, maybe you could answer me. I don't think Chris Blank answered me. Is he going to be the last Oakland A to get into the Hall of Fame.
For the foreseeable future?
I don't know. I can't remember if there was one. Maybe McGuire, but he's a cardinal as far as I'm concerned.
Well, you don't know what he what he would go in as But because he's a card Deroyd allegations, Yeah, I don't. I think you can pretty much scratch, at least for this generation McGuire, Sosa, Bonds canseco. You can scratch him off for dancecer. But to your point, yeah, okay, even though the A's were really relative competitive between twenty ten, and twenty twenty. I think they made the playoffs like five times. They did it with a low payroll. They don't have any stars. They don't clude anymore. They haven't had stars there, you know in twenty five years.
Yeah, But I was a kid in the seventies. They had the Hall of Famers, you know they did, yeah, and stars like Joe, Rudy, Gene Tennant. I don't know if they were Hall of Famers back then, but they were hell of a players, you know, they were great.
Well, they won three straight World Series, aren't he They won three straight seventy two, seventy three, and seventy four. Right, absolutely, so, I mean, yeah, they had and then Charlie Finley, you know, unloaded the you know what he called luggage and they all went else where. Jackson went to you know, Rudy went to the Angels, and Jackson went to Baltimore for a year, and right on down the line, they all ended up, you know, with other organizations. But the only thing, you know, in two thousand and two the Moneyball Team, all right, and that's one of my favorite movies of all time. They had some pretty good pitching on that team, all right, So, I mean you had Mark Mulder. Is Mark Mulder hall of Famer? I don't know the status man, he's sixty, I don't I'd have to look up his stats. But you know he was a big time pitcher on that team. I don't know who else beyond that. And that was the last team that really made some noise, right, I mean they didn't. Carlos Paeney's not a Hall of Famer. Jaot is not a Hall of Famer. Eric Burns. Is David Justice a Hall of Famer?
He may be Again, I'd have to look at the status that'd be.
That'd be Jervane Day.
But David Justice wouldn't go in as nay or anything like that.
But he'd he played for the A's right. I mean, you know, Sparky Anderson went in as a Cincinnati read even though people remember him more for his exploits in Detroit. So yeah, I would say, for for purposes of a year of this conversation, I would say, yeah, Ricky will be the last Oakland A. And of course he's in the Hall of Fame. He was, he was elected. I believe in what two thousand and seventis.
The last time we had a Montreal expow was it? Well, Gary Carter went? Is Gary Carter went? But he's a New York met he went, right.
Well, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. God, God, that was a great team. Remember that ninety fourteen. They were like one hundred and seventy and forty or something like that, and then the strike hit the people that that organization had. Okay, the Pedro Martinez is the Randy Johnsons right out down the line. I think there's only by the way, Gary Carter's in the Hall of Fame. Okay. I would bet you could google us. I would bet you he has an expos cap an exposed. I would bet that you got Andrey Dawson, you got Tim Range.
Vladimir garrelds in the Hall of Fame, right, Vladimir garre Well, No, I don't know if he is. I'm not sure. I'm not. I'm bad at that. I'm always bad at that.
I'm not.
You know, you want to get in, by the way, at Bertie proud Toz think of Genius one. There's a couple getting a lot of tweets. If you want to get in, Bowie says, I loved watching Ricky play. I pulled this out after the sad news broke the other day, It's says Oakland, A's lighter as one of those zippos. I love that. Yeah, I used to. They used to have cool uniforms, no doubt about that.
Unfortunately, remember back in the day they wore those wedding bell white uniforms on Sunday. Oh yeah, they had multiple you know, they had the tank cops with the gold and green. By the way, Jason Diamond tweets and he says Tim Huntson or Barry Zito.
Maybe the next day's the Hall of Fame.
I don't know if Barry Zito. Yeah, I don't think Barry Zito has the type of numbers, but I could be.
Probably not, probably not, but notable players.
Yeah, no, no doubt. Jimmy says, sneak and genius. Most people listening to your radio show don't think you're doing a radio show. Is that a compliment or did we make that?
Means you make it look EASi Ernie like watching Ted Williams.
Right, all right, So, like I said, where are you listening from? How are you listening? Give us a tweet out, Bernie Fratto at Stinking Genius one. We would absolutely love to hear from it all, Right, Bernie, we've both have done shows since the college playoff, right, yes, yes, And I was filling in because I did the show at Plank. You have your show on weekends. The outrage over the four earlier games, the Ohio State Tennessee game, the Clemson Texas, the Penn State route over SMU, and the same thing Notre Dame over Indiana which was only ten, but it was twenty seven to three until you got a couple of late Indiana scores. People were outraged. I was not prepared for this. This is the first year. I didn't expect everything to go smoothly. I didn't expect there would be one game that was closed that would come down to the wire. Maybe we'd have an upset, but maybe that was more wishful thinking, and then it was going to actually happen. Bernie. That's like going out on the first day and saying, you better fall in love with me right now on the first date, otherwise it's never gonna happen. Give it some time. I can't believe people were so like, Oh, I knew SMU should not have been there. I knew Indiana should not have been there. We're doing this thing all wrong. Let's go to this, that and the other. Were you surprised and all the backlash from the from the opening week of the college football season or.
One whether they were disappointed the games weren't more competitive. But let's let's not act like this hasn't happened before. When that long ago Michigan got completely pull acts by Georgia did the same thing to TCU, not her name got to a championship game years ago in Adabama. Role right, there have been there been upsets in Super I mean check that. There have been blocks in Super Bowls. It happens all the time, right right, And I think heading into this, we see a couple of fundamental flaws that are easily fixable. They wanted to make a championship base. So if you're Florida State and you win your conference, but you lose your quarterback, you're still getting We're not going to penalize you. Let's let it be decided on the field. Would Alabama have beaten SMU, I think so with Alabama beating Indiana, Yeah, but the committee said, look, if you're Indiana and you go eleven to one in the Big Ten, you're only asses at Ohio State. You're not getting left out. If you're BAMA and you lost three games, you had your chance to play.
And I had to get in there, Bernie. They had to get it.
And SMU lost to Clemson in the championship game and they decided they were not going to The committee already painted themselves into a corner the week before when they said, we're not going to penalize you for making it to your conference championship game. Now from so SMU got in and you knew they were going to get hammered. Look from a fan standpoint, let's keep it real here, these games drew eleven million viewers, which isn't setting any record. The Ohio State Tennessee game got almost fifteen million.
Yeah, but they they won't against the NFL.
Now, you just that's exactly what I was going to say next, right, But here's what was really cool that they got right. And by the way, they need to do next year. You win your conference, you're in, but you're not guaranteed to buy You're just guaranteed to be in. Right, Because the Arizona State really shouldn't have a buck. And I love Arizona State. I think they're live, man. I think they're gonna scare Texas. Texas may wear them out, but the bottom line is that's a real team with Camp scattable. They're they're real. But could you make a case they didn't deserve a Biden nor Boise State. Fine, I get that, but from a fans standpoint, if you get it on these Camp easily fixable. And I think you need to get rid of the buys. Just put sixteen teams if you are in fact the top four seed, because they deem you a top four seed for the right reasons, and if your schedule is one hundred and eleven in the country, shouldn't be a top four seed. Then you maybe get two home games if you win, but not no more buys. And I think you need to recede after the first round. It's ridiculous that Penn State, who's zero in two versus teams in this field, has ostensibly an easier path to the championship game, and State Oregon, who beat Penn State, who beat Ohio State, and who beat Boise State. That's stupid. But if you're a fan, he had one hundred and three thousand maniacs in the Horseshoe at Ohio State, and thirty thousand were from Tennessee. He had one hundred and two thousand for the Texas game. He had one hundred and seven thousand for the Penn State game. You had to get seventy eight thousand piled in a Notre Dame. You can't tell me this was a failure. Oh no, it's still it made for TV product, and the beauty of it is we get eleven playoff games this year instead of three for that stupid made for TV Invitational tournament and the BCS, which is better than nothing, but not much better.
I agree with you one hundred percent. If there was anything I learned from the first round is that I don't want neutral, syite games. I want a home field advantage for the higher seeds. The atmosphere for that Notre Dame game on Friday night was electric. The same thing for Penn State, the same Big Ver, Ohiles Date and Texas. Every venue was phenomenal. I don't want to the Chick fil A Bowl or a Rose Bowl, or the Fiesta or the Sugar and no offense against them. There's nothing like a home field advantage for the crowd to come Bernie, you know how many people are gonna go to this Texas ASU game, especially if you're Texas thinking you're gonna win and you'll wait to the next round. Maybe the same thing for Penn State. Are the fans gonna go to the Fiesta Bowl travel out there to Arizona to see them play Boise or are they gonna wait to the next round in the Orange Bowl? Or are they gonna wait for the championship. And of course you got the sugar with not youre name Georgia. This is the reason why we have to go ahead and have it on the home field, because really, these neutral site games not nearly as exciting as when you have that home field advantage of Bernie.
Well, then the coach you said as much. Marcus Friedman said he'd never been part of an environment like that what he saw in the Notre Dame Indiana game. James Franklin said it was phenomenal. The turnout was unbelievable, and even Steve Sokesian said he says this is not just amazing for Texas, it's amazing for college football. So what they've done is now move the needle forward in a positive way. But there are always going to be people who complain. They're professional complainers. And the games were blowouts, but you were going to watch it because you want to see the damn thing decided on the field. You don't want it to be theoretical. Look, it took a while, but we eventually had a number sixteen seed knock off a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. Right, the beauty behind this twelve team tournament, and I think all they need to do is make it sixteen and no bias, and reseed after the first round, and if you're a top four seed, then you can maybe get two home games if you're legit top four seed. Having said that, you don't want college football was the only sport I talked about this three years ago in Cincinnati. Didn't get in and they're undefeated. What other sport You wake up in August and you start your two days and you navigate the rigors of a long season, knowing full well you have zero chance to win a national championship no matter what happens.
Yeah, here's Bertie. Go ahead, he's Bernie. I was gonna say he's Bernie Fraddro. I'm Arnie Spanier. I'll tell you what we'll we get back. I want to go ahead and go through the next round of the game's Bernie, Let's give us four good games. Let's go through the next round. We'll break that down, Bernie and Arnie. In for the guys Tonight, Jason Smith and his best friend Mike Harmon right here on Fox Sports Radio.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
I welcome back to the Tireck dot Com studios. Bernie Fraddo, Arnie Spanier In for the guys to night, Jason Smith and his best friend Mike Harmon right here on Fox Sports Radio. Bertie, a couple of things I want to get to. So still, we're getting a lot of tweets, William says my two favorite crows, Heckle and jack O. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you, William. We appreciate your tuning on in. You know, Bertie, I'm always surprised we have more people listening on Christmas than I always imagine, you know, especially with all the sports that went on today, and we got another NFL game tomorrow, we got three on Saturday full slate on Sunday, of course, the Bowl games, the NBA games, hockey, whatever, whatever your heart desires. We got a whole bunch going on. There's no time off from the holidays.
No, there's always plenty to talk about. We've done shows on July fourth. People love to listen during you know, the July fourth holiday. I've done the Mallor show Thanksgiving night. You work Thanksgiving Night many years in a row. We both enjoyed. People mind down, radio is your best friend. And no difference you know between Christmas and New Year's And again you just you just said it. There's so much in the sports tapestry right now. It's a lot of it's game time. React. I'm opposite. My fa favorite month to do shows is July because it's a blank canvas, right, you know. But but regardless, uh, you know, you want to be a keen observer. You want to try to give a good opinions and you know, and back it up with you know, relegated specifics. But look, the bottom line is we're we're at Arnie. We don't have royalty in this country. Our athletes are our royalty. Our athletes and entertainers are our royalty and athletes are entertainers.
So there you have it, h Bernie. One thing I'm not happy about. I want to get to this before we get into the next round of the college football playoffs. Did you see Lebron today before the Golden State Warrior game. Did you happen to see when he.
Ran around and tried to block a steph shot there.
Though he tried the block Draymond Green shot, and then he gave a big hug to Draymond Green. And he gave a big hug this stuff like like it was his long lost brother that he's never seen in like one hundred years. Did you see the hugger?
I didn't. But are you I know it's against a lot of practice psychology without a license, but are you implying that Lebron is perhaps politicking or insinuating Before it's alf sitting done and he retires in fifteen years, we're never gonna get rid of the guy. He wants to be a Golden State Warrior.
That yeah, One, I am insinuating, Yes, he wants to be a Golden State Warrior. Two. I really dislike when athletes do that, whether it's Lebron or any other athlete, you know, before the game, giving a hugs, yucking it up, laughing and doing all that. It doesn't matter the sport. Hey, you're going in to win a football game, yucking it up and laughing and all that stuff. No, no, no, no, no, you got to get your game face on. You know, we went to football game, had the fight before the Uh.
Joe Johns in the backup and.
What Joe Mixon like punted the ball into the stands or that's what I want. That's the attitude you have to have, not going around giving a hug. That's another reason why the NBA finds their ratings just tanking. They're just too friendly to each other. Everybody's good friends. And they don't have that game phase, that that hated mentality like we used to have with the Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls, the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics. There was some real animosity there. You don't have the animosity. I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, come on, now, you're like when he was politicking Bertie, that's for damn sure. And two, I mean you could say hello after the game. This is getting ridiculous. You know.
Lebron loves attention. Just leave it at there. I mean, a guy is he he'll never retire because he realizes the spotlight will not miss him, but he will miss the spotlight. He's not quite sure how he's going to deal with that. And this is how he gets it now, you know. And so look, I don't I can hold two thoughts. Concurrently, he's had a good career, and I do agree with you that the general ambient so professional sports has changed dramatically. You just don't have the hate. You do have it in pockets the Steelers and Ravens when they get together. That's that fields McCoy's. But for the most part, everybody's making a ton of money whether you win or lose. And you know, very rarely does a player spend his entire care with one team. So you might be facing off against the guy tonight and he's your teammate next week. So everything's changed dramatically.
So you don't think that's one of the reasons why the NBA is going down in ratings then, because it happens in a lot of the other sports. So that can't be the reason why the ratings are going down in the NBA.
Well, the ratings going down as a real thing. They can be in denial all they want. And again I'll repeat my line. We don't have royalty in this country. Our athletes are our royalty. Leagues are predicated on stars, all right. When you look at the National Football League, Lamar Jackson's, the Patrick Mahomes, the Saquon Barkley's like a name of a bunch of guys that are stars. You add it in Major League Baseball. I'm not going to do a role call. There's nobody in the NBA right now that I pay a ticket to go see. Nobody, And I don't think a lot of the stars are particularly likable now, And no one's going to give me this crap about get off my lawn. Come up with a better cliche.
What about Wemby though? What about him? Beyond what?
Okay, he scores forty two points in eighteen and they lose win win.
Yeah, but he's still a big a big town, is he not? Would you not pay to see him?
He's got physical skills. I saw him in summer league a couple of years ago. No, I know, No, I wouldn't. It's eighty two games. A lot of times, they're going through the motions. The skill level is phenomenal, the athleticism is phenomenal. I don't buy. I don't subscribe to the three. They shoot too many threes. Can you imagine an NBA without threes? So you gotta have threes.
But people go way. I think that would hurt the NBA if they took away.
Of course it would, so you could shoot all the threes you want, But who is shooting the threes? I don't think Lucas particularly likable. Is Kyrie Lebron's very polarizing. And when you look at the men who built nobody is elevating the game from the prior generation. Yeah, I mean you went from from Chamberlain to Jabbar, to West to Elgin Baylor all the way up through Magic and all that up until Kobe Shack in their own way, they elevated the game. This generation is benefiting from prior generations. Nobody's elevating the game. You're not seeing anything new. You're seeing load management, you're seeing guys on social media, we don't really care. All right, Boston Celtics, what a phenomenal basketball team last year, but they're pissed off all the time. You hear about sore winner losers, they're sore winners.
Now.
I don't blame Jason Tatum for how they did him in the Olympics, and he handled it very in a very tegnified fashion. But what's up with Jalen Brown? So he's walking around like he's you know, just know the bad fart. These guys are just pissed off people. Joe Mizzula, he's always pissed off, always complaining. They're getting yelling at rest. What's up with Joel Embiid? What is going on here? These guys are magnificent technicians and athletes, but are they really producing a product that causes you to go wow?
Yeah yeah. By the way, Jason tweets in, by the way, what was the wire on the court? Did you see Joel Embiid trip over the wire pregame at the Boston Garden. That's actually like a thing they put up so people don't come on the court while they were shooting, and he tripped over backwards like an eighty year old man that filled out and broke a zip or did you have a chance to see that?
Or I no, no, I didn't. Oh that's not good. That's not that is he okay, because you.
Know, and he banged up his leg a little, so he's.
Going to be out three three to six months now. I mean he's worse than fred.
Lynne Brendan says, Merry Christmas to both of you. I'm listening on iHeartRadio and I'm listening to you from Palm Desert, California.
Oh, Palm Desert, beautifully.
Where the high temperature is just under eighty degrees. Thanks for keeping me saying, I appreciate it. Yeah, no, I see, Bertie. It's eighty degrees now, but in the summertime it's on you in twenty five degrees, and it's not so funny anymore. Now you're not yucking it up and laughing at the rest of us around the country.
You know, hey, what are you gonna do? Your life can't be predicated on weather. I you know, live a lot of my life in Michigan, where they have four real seasons. I lived a lot of my life in California where you don't really need weather man because it's just you know, it's beautiful. It's the most temperate climate probably in the world. But my life's not predicated on weather. So it's just one of those deals.
All right, Bertie, I want to get to some of the games. As we told you, the next round of the college football Playoff, Texas going to be playing Arizona State. That's gonna be in the Peach Bawl. Texas a thirteen and a half point favorite. Don't quote me on this. I think the line was actually fourteen. Money must have been coming in on Arizona State and drops to that point. That's not a lot of money. But we'll see what happens as we get closer toward kickoff. We still got a long way to go. You said you take that baby, Arizona State could give Texas a little bit of a fight, baby, even pull off the upset.
Well I didn't say that. Oh okay, Well here's the problem. Yeah, Arizona State's missing Jordan Tyson, their star wide receiver, and Clemson really passed the ball well on Texas. Texas's past defense is not great, but their run defense is not standing. So they're gonna have to show if they can shut down cam scatter Bowl, which I haven't seen anybody really do but Arizona State. Arizona State's offensive line is not great and Texas's defense in front seven is strong. But when you put two teams on the field in a one game affair, I remember a game back in the day with Bernie Costard in Miami. They were supposed to crush Penn State and the Orange Bowl. Penn State was a five point underdog and Penn State just smashed him around the field. And when that came up, you know, I was at the at the Miracle Bowl when SMU and Eric Dickerson and Craig James lost a BYU forty six forty five with Jim McMahon. So anything can happen. Okay, But if you play this ten times.
Remember now it's neutral night home, not Oldfield, but neutral.
Now it's neutral. Let's yeah, right, I get that. Look Texas, if they run the ball, which they can and shut down Camp Scatibo, I don't see a path. I don't see a path for Arizona State to win, all right? And uh look, and by the way, scatabol can catch the ball out of the backfield, maybe they get some chunk plays there. The games are typically one on the trenches, and the truth of the matter is the long runs have a better offensive line and a better defensive line. And if the Sun Devils have to play from behind. It could be it could be a long day. Texas is going to be the biggest, most physical challenge up front of Arizona's faced all year. And Texas completely owned Clemson at the line of scrimmage. So Arizona State's gonna have to beat you know, match their physicality and beat that, and you're gonna have to force quinn Ewers into a couple of mistakes. All right, So and again the X factor, what does Scatubo do against one of the best defenses in the country. We're gonna find.
Out what does Quentin Youers do next year.
I don't know, I don't know how high.
Well, he can't come back to Texas and he's not going to go to the NFL. He's going to have to transfer. I'm assuming.
I think it's about time to give the job to Arch Manning. He does a lot of things better. You may. Yeah, he's far more mobile and the Mannings do it right. Right, there's an old saying. It's not a it's not a quest to get there the quickest, it's a goal to stay there the longest, right, don't I had a buddy, Marty catstee you. He lived with us in the college, the same college baseball team. He got to the big leagues with the Detroit Tigers. He got into a big fight with Scarrett Sparky Anderson. He hit a home run in the World Series in eighty four. Anyway, Marty only lasted two years in the big leagues, and many years later he says, you know what, it was horrible getting to the big leagues and being done in two years. I was in too much of a hurry to get there, and I did all the wrong things. I didn't act like a professional. Because it's like going to this is what he says, like going to Disney. DJ Land opens up at any m You're gonna ride every ride. You're gonna stay there at midnight, and I'll set at ten am. Someone taps on the show says, kidd, you gotta go home, right, So Arch Manning, it's time to hand in the job. The analogy I'm making there is the Mannings do it right. They play, They play the long game. And he sat around for two years and you can clearly play. So you asking a really good question about Quinn yours, because they're not a better team with Quinn ewers in my opinion.
All right, by the way, shortly after the show that our podcast will be going up. If you've missed any of today's show. To be sure to check out the podcast, just search the Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon wherever you get your podcast. Be sure to follow a rate and review the podcast. Again. Just search the Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon wherever you get your podcasts, and you'll see the show posted right after we get off the air. Well, come back, we'll go through the other three games that's coming up next, Birdie, and already in for the guys right here on Fox Sports or radio forks up. Arnie
