November 12, 2019 • 41 mins
Big Ben talks Seahawks over 49ers on MNF, discontent within the NY Knicks front office, Maller to the Third Degree, Maller's Mountain of Money: Neil Young Edition, and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mallers
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every week
night from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your
local station for the Ben Mallers Show at Fox Sports
Radio dot com. You can find it there or stream
us live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
(00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Mallers Show on
Fox Sports Radio. So I assume you saw some of
the Monday night game, but maybe not the forty nine Ers,
Jimmy Garoppolo suffering defeat, the agony of defeat, first lost
the year for the Niners, and again actually lived up
(00:45):
to the hype. I mean, I'd like to sit here
and say it was terrible. It was horrible, It was sloppy,
but it was not a game that lacked drama at all.
A thriller in Santa Clara as the forty nine Ers
go down, and it was a game filled with screw ups,
but at the people remember the end of the dramatic
moments and all that. But somebody named Jason Myers, I
(01:08):
don't know if he's related to my guy, Mark Myers,
but Jason Myers kicking forty two yard field goal that
was only after somebody named Chase McLaughlin missed a chip
shot which should have been a chip shot for a
professional kicker in overtime. And so the Seahawks hand the
forty nine Ers the big EIGHTHDL. Yeah, losers eight DL.
(01:31):
All right, first lost the year twenty seven, twenty four.
Let's discuss the question. And in a game like this,
this is a this is a a legit question. You talk
about Monday night close game, a lot of mistakes. Did
the Seahawks actually win the game or did the forty
nine Ers lose the game? And the easy answer is
that both of them tried to lose the game. It's
(01:53):
like both attempted to commit the crime of defeat. However,
the one that was successful was the forty nine ers,
and the better story is in the losing locker room.
So we're gonna focus mostly on the forty nine ers.
Here is the Seattle Seahawks get the wind. But you've
got rainbows, Darwinism, and bubbly and we will combine all
(02:14):
these things together and make some Baba ganoosh is what
we're gonna make. Now, Hey, the forty nine Ers at
the beginning of this game. Not to flash back to
the very beginning, but the forty nine Ers came out
like gangbusters. They jumped out at ten nothing lead. You're like, wow,
they're playing at a different speed then Seattle. And then
the Seahawks they couldn't do anything on offense. It looked
(02:34):
like they hadn't been practicing all week in the lead
up to the game. They were totally twisted around like
they had their shoelaces tied together. And that's not hyperbolee
to point out the fact, and to highlight the fact,
the Seattle Seahawks on offense, their first four possessions punt, punt, punt, punt,
four punts to start the game, and then the next
(02:57):
two possessions full they turned the ball over on a fumble.
So the first six possessions four punts and two fumbles
and then they punted again, so over for seven possession
wise to start the game. But the de Niners build
up a twenty eighth to nothing lead. No, they could
(03:17):
not do that. They were unable to build up a
gigantic lead, and that turned out to bite them in
the tookis. Late in the game, there and in overtime
it shouldn't give should have never gone to overtime that
that turned out to kick them in the nuts. And
while this temp kicker, Chase McLaughlin missed horribly, like I
(03:38):
think I could have done better than that, he totally
shaked right and it was embarrassing. It should have never
come down to that. This game is on despite that,
despite him missing the kick and everyone pointing the finger
at him. I'm going Jimmy Garoppolo, and we were talking
about this in the hallways before the show, but that
was a mistake filled mess. This is an example of
(03:59):
why some that work for the forty nine ers are
not sold on Jimmy Garoppolo. I brought this up a
couple of weeks ago, and a bunch of arrogant, pompous
forty nine er fans are like, now, Malla, you don't
know what you're talking about. Your blowing smoke. Okay, Well,
the guy I saw play, quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, was terrible,
got worse as the game went on, and for the
(04:21):
second half of this game, all right, for the second
half of the game, Jimmy Garoppolo might as well have
been chasing rainbows. Because he would have had more success
finding a rainbow than he would consistently completing passes. His
pocket presence was horrendous for most of this game. Garoppolo also,
I've noticed, as I don't know this always is the case,
but he seems to rarely be able to escape when
(04:45):
the collapse of the pocket inevitably happens. And the great
quarterbacks are usually able to like a snake like the
slither out of the pocket, and Jimmy Garoppolo doesn't seem
to be able to do that very often. But the game,
as it progress he got continually worse. He did. His
mistakes handed the game to the Seahawks, even though he said, well,
(05:08):
there still a chance to win the game. He lost
two fumbles, he had an interception. I counted at least three,
if not four. I wrote that a little. There were
at least three or four other passes that should have
been intercepted, that should have been picked off, that were
not picked off by incompetent Seattle defensive players. And the
Seahawks scored fourteen points directly off Jimmy Garoppolo misques fourteen
(05:30):
points in a game that ended up twenty seven twenty
four you've handed the game with those turnovers and the
mistakes and setting up Seattle with these fourteen points. I
think it was even more than that, because I don't
think I'm including the Jadeveon Clowney play Clowney who scooped
up a fumble and went in and scored a touchdown.
(05:50):
But in the second half of the game, all right, now,
Garoppolo accounted for at least fourteen if not twenty one,
but he finished with a sixty six point two passer
raining He averaged Garoppolo about five point four yards per attempt,
which is not very not very good at all. And
then part being the Niners. Now I've already seen some
(06:12):
of this, so I might as well try to nip
this in. Some of the forty nine are apologists are
making excuses. It's not Jimmy Garoppolo's fault to, you know,
get a little violin out, play a little violin music
for the Niner faiths. They didn't have George Kittle, the
tight end. They didn't have him. They didn't have Emmanuel
Sanders for a big chunk of the game. He got
(06:32):
knocked out with a rib injury. It's not Jimmy Garoppolo's
fault that he drowned. No, it's not. The forty nine
er receivers bobble a bunch of passes. Did they do that, Yes,
they did a lot of dropsies. Did they force the
forty nine receivers? Did they forced Jimmy Garoppolo to fumble
the football multiple times? I don't believe they did. I
(06:53):
don't think that any of forty nine receiver forced Garoppolo
do that. These were self inflicted wounds. Most of them
were self inflicted ruins, and he was not on the
same wavelength Garoppolo. With those receivers, you say, well, they're backups.
But the way I look at this, the greats are
able to reform at a relatively high level with secondary receivers. Right,
(07:17):
you have to act like a chameleon as a quarterback.
When your receivers go down. You must adapt or you
die and you lose. In football parlance, you lose. You
don't die, but you lose a game. It's football. Darwinism
is what it is, the survival of the fitnist and plu.
Jimmy Garoppolo started. Let's just if you break the game
(07:40):
down into quadrants. If you will Garoppolo started completely screwing
up in the second There were a bunch of sacks.
The pocket presence we talked about was all messed up.
But Garoppolo got progressively worse as the game one kind
of like my gallbladder last week, got progressively worse as
it continue not but Jimmy g in the second half.
(08:03):
He was twelve of twenty six for one hundred and
eight yards, no touchdowns, an interception, was sacked three times.
Had a passer rating that is Ryan Fitzpatrick on a
bad day like or Nathan Peterman. I guess would be
the better example there. His passer rating Garoppolo in the
second half was forty one point eight was his passer rating,
(08:24):
and that includes overtime. He averaged four point one yards
per attempt. Remember, the Niners tied the game because of
a defensive touchdown. It was not it was a big
play by the defense. It was not a play by
the forty nine ers offense that set that up. The
Niners defense made a big play against Seattle art last
thing on this so we'll hear from some of the
(08:44):
sound from the locker room. Had Jimmy Garoppolo, here's my theory,
had he simply taken care of the football and regulation.
The forty nine Ers defense is good enough, they would
have won the game. All right. This is that's why
I said you can blame the idiot kicker. And that's
the simpleton's way to look at it and say, Chase
McLaughlin blew the game. But if Garoppolo just plays mistake
(09:07):
free football, the Niners likely win this game in regulation.
They don't have to worry about going over to the
other thing, obviously is it's somewhere there's a bunch of
old dudes like named Larry Zonka and Mercury Morris and
Bob Greasy and all those other guys that are still
around from the nineteen seventy two Dolphins that are celebrating
and cracking open the Bubbly to celebrate as yet again,
(09:29):
another NFL season has come and gone, and there will
not be a team that goes sixteen to O and
then goes out and wins the Super Bowl. It's not
gonna happen. The Niners the last of the unbeatens. Now
we still have a chance to have our third and
sixteen team in the National Football League in my lifetime,
in recent lifetime, for everybody like the last twelve years,
(09:52):
thirteen years something like that to have three and sixteen
teams that and we need the Bengals to lose out
And the problem is the Bengals have a lot of
games that are very winnable the rest of the way.
But you still got a chance of that. Uh And
and so let's hear from some of the participants. How
about Mike Shanahan's kid, Kyle Shanahan. I wonder how he
got his head coaching job. I'm sure his last name
(10:14):
had nothing to do with it. Anyway, here's Kyle Shanahan
pointing out the injury excuse. He's using the injury card
from the bottom of the deck. Um, I mean, I mean,
there are two best playmakers, so it definitely takes a toll.
We knew that coming in with UM George. George kind
of realized that what was going to happen today, and UM,
(10:34):
you know, Emmanuel was out there battling UM had that
happened with his ribs. He tried to go a few
more serious longer, but Um had to pull he had
to go out. UM. Other guys came in and got
some guys stepped it up at times. UM I would
just have the consistency out there. Okay, Now, who could
have predicted I don't know anyone who said anything on
the radio about Emmanuel Sanders being injury prone. I don't
(10:55):
know that anyone. Why would anyone have said that. Why
would any of you would have said that if you
look at Emmanuel, say, there's his age and his history,
that he would have been likely to get hurt at
some point. With the nine ers Richard Sherman, who this
must sting for Sherman, the old Seahawk player back in
the glory days, the legion of boom here, and he
is about to drop some wisdom. The forty nine are
(11:15):
defensive back on what a loss means. You learn more
in the loss than you're doing a win. Bengals have
learned the most silver lining, you always learn more from
a loss. Um. So I'm sure guys will take that
and take the lessons that they need from that. Um.
You know, we had a chance to win. We didn't
find out a way to correct those things and be better. Um,
But it's a good lesson. You gotta learn. You gotta
(11:36):
learn during the season. You know, in order to win championships,
you gotta have these lessons and they battle. So if
the Patriots who then when they went sixteen and other
during the regular season, then they lost the Super Bowl.
If they'd lost like in Week fourteen, they would have
won the Super Bowl that year. I mean, come on, yeah,
I always love oh you learn more from a loss
than a win. Of course, I think the Cincinnati Bengals
(11:59):
must be the smartest team in football. Right. Oh and nine,
I dominating the lost callum. All right, let's hear from
Jimmy Garoppolo tucked out bad. Garoppolo was in the second half.
He had a bunch of turnovers, two fumbles loss. He
also had an interception. Should have had probably five interceptions
by the time. If Seattle players just catch passes that
(12:20):
were thrown to them by Garoppolo. Anyway, here's Garoppolo pointing
out he left up. You know, I think we just
had too many self self imposed uh you know, mistakes,
And I think from my models, you know, when you
put yourself behind like that, it's hard to catch up. So,
you know, just little things we got clean up. Yeah, No,
big fumbles and interceptions are not little things. Those are
(12:41):
not little things. That's a lie. Now, I did see
Russell Wilson after the game, and I wanted to mention
this because I got a kick out of it. He
was being interviewed by Lisa Assaulters there on the post
game for Stivies after Monday Night and he said, quote,
that's probably the craziest game I've ever played it, he said,
(13:02):
which tells you that he's possibly got amnesia and he's
blocked out the Malcolm Butler interception in the Super Bowl.
That he's just completely blocked that out from his memory.
Which is good. That's a good thing. And then Russell
Wilson went deep into sportscliche dot com and said, following
the Seahawks win a game that was gifted to them
(13:25):
on a silver platter, he said, that's what championship teams do.
So if this, I love that quote. That's what champaionship
teams do. It's wonderful. So if the Seahawks had lost
that game, then they would not be a championship team.
But since they won the game, they're a championship team.
But then George Richard Sherman rather said, well will you
learn more from You learn more from a defeat. So
(13:47):
with the Seahawks have been better off losing that game
m deep thoughts. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
pm Pacific on Far Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
So we're not gonna get too far away from the
Monday night game. The Seattle Seahawks pull it out in
(14:08):
overtime twenty seven to twenty four the forty nine Ers.
The fact that they had opportunities to win the game
when Jimmy Garoppolo puked all over the field the entire
second half is stunning, and if Garoppolo had just been
a game manager and not fed up the game in regulation,
the Niners defense was playing well enough where they would
(14:29):
have won again the first and I think it was
the first seven possessions We talked about it earlier. For
seven possessions of the game the Seahawks either punted or
fumbled the ball away. But it was only a ten
point game, and the forty nine Ers they were unable
to build up a big lead. So that's the game
Monday Night. In a nutshow, we'll get back to that,
(14:50):
But there's other stuff going on. For example, we've often
said that the basketball season, the pro basketball season begins
in a about forty days, a little over forty days.
I think it's forty three days from Christmas, and that's
when the NBA will throw a gaggle of games up
and that is the curtain rising. This is like a
(15:11):
soft launch. You open a restaurant, you have a soft launch,
and then you have the main event, well the main
events not until Christmas, but the days of our lives
drama playing out in real time in Gotham. So we
mentioned this earlier, but maybe you were not listening, you
might have missed it. There's confusion and disorder raining down
(15:32):
from the top of Madison Square Garden right over Penn Station.
There the New York Knickerbockers are off to a tun
and eight start. Oh my god, the Knicks a tun
and eight, which I believe is a birthright for the
Knicks to be two and eight. And they've had a
couple of embarrassing home losses, which has led to rampant
speculation that coach David Fizdale is about to walk the plank. Now,
(15:56):
nobody really wants to spend that much time breaking down
David Fizdale as which the Knicks, but we are told
the team president, someone named Steve Mills has begun the
process or process internally, of disposing of the Knickerbocker coach.
I don't understand why it's that hard for data. If
you're the president of the team and the owner agrees,
(16:18):
fire the coach, that's pretty simple, all right, Rince wassh
and repeat. That's how the Knicks do things. So the
Knicks brass believe the roster is good enough to compete
with the other teams in the Eastern Conference, that the
East is not that good, and while the Knicks roster
is not going to win a championship, it should be
competitive for a playoff appearance. The Knicks don't look like
(16:40):
they're anywhere near a playoff appearance. They look like they
have a much better chance of finishing with the worst
record in the NBA. They blow They're terrible, which is
the same old song dance for the Knicks. So David
Fizdale hung out to dry as the team has. According
to the president of the Knick Steve Mills, had a
lack of consistent level of performance, execution, effort, all those things.
(17:06):
I paraphrase that, but he said most of that. All right,
So let's discuss, all right, the question how much of
the blame pie goes to David Fizdale for this wretched
start of the Knicks. Now, I'm gonna give him sixty
percent of the blame pie. He gets sixty percent of
the blame pie. You've got my observations, obscenity, three dollar bill,
(17:26):
and the dead End Street, and we will lock all
these things together now. Number one, I have only seen
the Knicks play a couple of times here, So it's
not like I have watched every Knicks game. Because they
don't pay me enough to watch every Knicks game. I don't,
but it pops up in my rotation in the early
(17:47):
portion of the NBA night. I've seen a couple of
the games a game against the Celtics, for example, earlier
this year. But it is not It's not something that
I go out of my way to watch the Knicks.
They're not must see TV. Now, that's it. You know
how when you're watching a basketball game or any sport,
you know if you're a sports fan. We're all sports fans,
so you know when a team is well coached, you
(18:08):
know when a team is prepared, you know when a
team knows what they're supposed to be doing, and you
also know when they're not doing those things. You're aware
of that as well. And it's kind of like the
Supreme Court, famous Supreme Court ruling years ago the threshold
for obscenity, right, the threshold Vosemite and porn was I
know it when I see it, all right. That was
(18:30):
the argument by one of these Supreme Court justices back
in the day, guy named Porters Stewart, and it was
asking it was about porn and obscenities, I know it
when I see it. Well, the Knicks have been obscene,
all right. That's an obscenity Knicks basketball. The players have
changed the performances not. They went out and signed a
bunch of D list free agents and a B list
(18:51):
free agent, Julius Randall was the headliner. They bought a
bunch of other guys in and the goal was not
to win a championship. The goal was to be competitive.
How's that working out. There's a lack of execution on
both sides of the ball. Now. The biggest indictment is
a guy that was drafted by Phil Jackson in the
lottery back in twenty seventeen. And this is the point
(19:14):
guard Frank Nimakina. Who has been a hot mess. The
guy I guess he was from Belgium or something like that,
but he's he can't shoot, he's terrible, He's slow. Alfred
Peyton also stinks New York. They've got this plotting, slow
moving style the way they've played the games I've seen
them in, which can work if you have Patrick Ewing
(19:37):
and Charles Oakley on your team. They ain't walking through
those doors. They're either banned from Madison Square Garden or
they're coaching somewhere else. The Knicks have suffered recent blowout
losses at home to Sacramento and then on Sunday Cleveland,
and Cleveland is such a dumpster fire, and they ran
through the Knicks, and that led to Steve Mill having
(20:00):
the news conference to announce that, hey, this is unacceptable,
this is not going to get it done here. That
was the straw that broke the Campbell's back, and so
owner James Dolan he freaked out, which led to that
bizarro world night of condemnation from the brass of the
New York Knicks executives apologizing and taking the blame for
(20:24):
the New York Knicks performance. Now, I love the accountability,
but it's also, of course, mixed with pointer pointing the
finger at David Fizdal, it makes for good to talk radio. Now.
The second thing here this David Fizdale guy. He's an
interesting character in all of this because over the years
he has been one of the better sound bites in
(20:44):
the NBA. And I recall when he coached in Memphis,
he had a couple of iconic meltdowns with the media,
and we play some drops from time to time from
David Fizdale. You might not even know it's David Fizdale,
but he was hired in part because of statesmanship that
he is a buddy buddy with a lot of these
(21:05):
big name players. He was an assistant coach in Miami,
tight with Lebron James. He was tight with d Wade,
the former star Dwayne Wade when he was in Miami.
So the belief was the selling point of Fizdale was
hire this guy. He's got the ability to deal with people.
He's a people person. He can recruit big name free
agents to Madison Square Garden. Now he's only had a
(21:28):
couple of years on the job, but so far the
gift for gab has not paid off, and he sucked
at a time you cannot suck. On the surface, it
seemed like a good idea right right out of central casting.
Fizdale looks dresses the part of a traditional NBA coach
people person, as we said. But when you peeled back
(21:50):
the facade, you realize that Fizdale apparently is as phony
as a three dollar bill, and that guy to know
what he's doing as a coach. And you say, well,
I know the argument is where you can't win if
you don't have players. I know that's always the NBA
counter argument. That's true, you cannot win a championship without
great players, but that doesn't mean you can't compete. You
(22:10):
can't compete. Try put some effort out there. It's amazing
what can happen. Like look at the Phoenix Suns for example.
Now the Phoenix Suns have had a bunch of lottery picks.
They hired Manti Williams, who's apparently a pretty good coach.
Because the Suns are actually fighting back, they're competing, they're
winning some games against good teams the Phoenix Suns. Now,
(22:30):
the Knicks don't have the talent level at the Suns.
Hat but that's just an example. I'm just using that
as an example good coaching, and we've often preached about
this from our bully pulpit here that good coaching is
merely putting players in position to succeed, finding their weaknesses
and keeping them away from their weaknesses. Right. The Knicks
are always swimming against the current. I mean every year
(22:54):
they're swimming against the current, the Knicks, and I have
no skin in the game. I'm not a Knicks fan
at all. I got family in New York. That's their problem.
I don't have my own problems. I don't even worry
about that. Now. The final point, the fact that it
only took ten games for the Knickerbockers to break into pieces,
right is I think that's a new record. And the collapse, right,
(23:16):
that's impressive for a franchise that has perennially been a
dumpster fire. You know how some franchises are always contenders
to make the playoffs and to go far in the playoffs.
And then you got the Knicks, who provide comedy relief.
It's open mic night when the Knicks performed there. And
so they have been great in the New York Knicks
(23:38):
at staging civil wars in the bowels of Madison square garden.
It's not a house, it's a house divided, is what
the Knicks run there. Let's hear from David Fizdale, the
coach of the Knickerbockers. Here's Fizdale. You'll hear the question
and the answer, and it's all about whether or not
the front office has his back. David, what ways supported him.
(24:02):
That's the fact that that we talk every day, talk
and constant conversation with each other. We're very wrong with
each other, good or bad. None of us have an
ego about him. In the side Fazzer where we're talking
to get too, you know, and at the end of
the day we're all we're all un us together. I
(24:23):
love the sound of the basketball, it's drippling in the back.
But if Fizdale he's got a four year contract, I
don't feel bad for Fizdale. I feel I've also I
feel bad for people that lose their job, they have
no income coming in, their unwelfare whatever. I feel bad
for those people. David Fizdale, if he got fired today,
he's got two years of severance coming his way, top dollar,
and he'll get an assistant coach job somewhere else in
(24:44):
the NBA. So I don't feel bad for me. I
here's more from the coach of the knicker Bockers, and
he'll hear the question and the answer whether or not
he's been given any kind of promise. Um, you got
many assurances. I gotta to one and a half year contractorsurance.
You know, I'm saying, that's that's our business. Assurance is
(25:05):
about take that for data. That's that's one of his
great rants. That was in a playoff series for Memphis
against San Antonio. He had a rant. So that's that's
David Fizdale and the tabloids are having a field day.
They're reporting the Knicks right now in midtown Manhattan are
(25:25):
lining up a convoy of Brinks trucks and they're going
to drive in a convoy to Toronto and they're going
to deliver all that money to the Raptors and also
to Massihu Jerry. Whatever happened with that thing in Oakland
when he got into it with the fan the police,
Did anything come of that? Nothing happened all right, anyway.
(25:46):
I just I saw his name flash up. I think
I remember we did a whole night after Toronto won
the championship about MASSI U Jerry like punching a fan
a security guy or shoving a security guy. There was
an investigation, nothing came of anyway. He is seen now
by James Dolan supposedly as the Messiah from Toronto, and
they've got to get him to save the beleaguered franchise,
(26:07):
just like Phil Jackson was going to save the franchise.
Don't hold your breath, look at this objective. Like our
friends in Canada, like Messiah, you Jerry. He's got a
good thing going on now. I'm not saying he's gonna
be in Toronto the rest of his career, and I
don't think he will be in Toronto. But unless he's
got some kind of romance with New York City, which
(26:28):
we don't know about, why would you want to go
from Toronto to the Knicks. He's making a good amount
of money in Toronto, and you know New York has
I think they've got just as oppressive the taxes in
New York in Canada, so it's not like you're gonna
benefit from that. And working for the Knicks is being
well compensated to live on a dead end street, to
(26:49):
live on the wrong side of the tracks, you think
Bermuda Triangle. That's where the Knick franchise reside, somewhere in
the Bermuda Triangle. Be sure to catch live editions of
the Ben Maller Show dayson two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
It's Maller. How about that? To the third degree? Yeah,
this is one big ban gets grilled back from veteran's day.
(27:14):
The Coop de loop is have arrived here he is.
Recent reports indicated that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is interested
in buying an NFL franchise, and he has support among
the current owners. Yeah, you think Bezos would be a
good owner. Well, first of all, there is no team
that is off limits when you have a kind of
(27:34):
money that Jeff Bezos has. I mean, he's the richest
dude in the world. He could buy multiple NFL franchise.
He could buy every team in the NFL if he
wanted to. The guy's worth like one hundred and ten
billion dollars. The issue of him being a good owner
is complicated though, because typically a good owner you simply
(27:55):
hire people that know what they're doing. You keep your
nose out of it. But if I own an NFL team,
I would be like Jerry Jones, or Dan Snyder. What
fun is it to own an NFL team and not
trade players and fire players. I would want to be
the GM. So I don't know how Bezos is wired.
I don't know if he wants to be like Dan
Steyder or Jerry Jones, but I know if it was me,
I would want to be the guy making the trades now. Secondly,
(28:18):
the Seattle Seahawks are the obvious fit here. They just
won the Monday Night game. Their owner, Paul Allen, passed
away at a young age. I think it was last
year end of last year. And so Bezos, he's got
a home based Amazon. Obviously, they've got facilities all over
the place, but their headquarters are in Washington State, the
Seattle area. So owning an NFL team it's, you know,
(28:43):
it's kind of like art. It's owning. It's a status
thing when you own an NFL team. But the other
thing about this and being part of the good old
Boys network. Now he's not married to Lauren Sanchez, but
he's been dating Lauren Sanchez. And this is someone that
myself and Eddie know from back in the day, and
I would love if she would be like when I
was a kid, when I was younger, the Rams had
(29:04):
this Georgia Frontieri, who was this Everyone hated her as
the owner of the Rams and all that, and she
inherited the team because mysteriously the owner of the team
died in a swimming accident. Yeah, it's conspiracy theories about that,
But anyway, Georgia was a terrible loan. But I could
see Lauren Sanchez like outliving bezos and being like an
(29:24):
owner of an NFL team at some point, eventually controlling owner.
All right, next, now, Ben, the Bengals are now oh
and nine on the gratulation. That's impressive. Yes, they have
fans showing up with paper bags. Now, most of the
year we've been talking about the Dolphins going winless on
the year. Screwed that up, they did. But now do
you think it'll actually be the Bengals to pull off
the embarrassing feed Well, I am pulling for the Bengals
(29:48):
to go oh in sixteen, But this would be the
most impressive, a most impressive Owen sixteen of them all
if they were able to do it. The odds are
against it, and I'll tell you why. Number One, if
you look back at the O eight line of Dan
Orlovsky the twenty seventeen Browns of the shan Kaiser. They
had magical manure to go oh in sixteen. Everything's got
(30:11):
to line up just perfectly. It's very difficult to go
oh in sixteen, right, It's hard to do. You really
have to earn it now. Secondly, the problem with Cincinnati,
I'm hoping, I'm praying to God that they go oh
in sixteen every you know, every every week I wanted
them to lose. The problem with Cincinnati is the schedule.
Gods are not shining on them to go oh in sixteen.
Bengals got seven games left because they're obviously played nine.
(30:34):
Seven games left, four of them using mallor math, are
very winnable games. Cincinnati plays the Jets, They've got the
Dolphins home and road versus the Browns. That's four winnable
games for the Cincinnati Bengals. Now, all they have to
do is screw this up and win one of those games.
(30:55):
They might even win two of those games, but you
figure it. Worst case scenario, they just by dumb luck,
the Bengals win one of those four games. If not,
they will be the worst of the oen sixteen teams.
I would say if you lose all four games to
the Jets, Dolphins, and home and road to the Browns,
(31:15):
you're the most impressive and sixteen team. You've passed by
the O eight Lions. You've passed by the twenty seventeen Browns.
All right, next, well, Ben. After the Jets were able
to win their second game of the season, Sam Donald
said he thinks that the Jets can still make the
playoffs if they win out. Does he have mono again? Ben?
We know that's not gonna happen, all right, but let's
(31:35):
play the what if game? All right? Would nine and
seven be enough to get in? No? No, it's not
gonna be enough to get in. And Sam Darnold seems
like a nice enough guy. He also seems like he's
got a bit of Rube in him. You know, he's
a country bumpkin. He's not if like South Orange County
I believe, but he's soundbites. I mean, Mike, what does
(31:56):
he think the Jet fan like Fireman Ed and the
rest of the Jets fans are a bunch of clueless morons?
They Maybe he must think that, I mean, I know,
this is what you're supposed to say. We're gonna win out.
We want to win every game. It's not over yet
and all that, But how about some real talk. Remember
you used to have a call it in real time.
How about some real talk and b Sam Darnold, I'll
tell you, he says, this is gonna be seeing more ghosts,
(32:18):
all right. The High are the ghostbusters there in the
near future. The Jets making the postseason. It's like that
famous quote from the old coach of the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers before my time. Of course, Rich McKay and Tampa
had just entered a twenty six game losing streak. Coach
of the Bucks was asked whether or not they could
make the playoffs. He said, if three or four plane
(32:40):
crashes take place, we're in the playoffs, is what he said.
I don't even know the Jets. It might take more
than that for the jestice of the plaoffs. Anyway, there
it is Mallett of the third degree. How did we do?
Benny Passes edition, That is a winner you put on
the board. Yes, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
(33:01):
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the iHeart
Radio app. Search f SR to listen live. Why don't
we introduce our contestants real? We don't play the open.
Let's go. We got Matt in Pittsburgh. Hello, Matt, Hey man,
what's up my man? What's going on? Man? You ready
to do this? Matt? I think so? Yeah? I think so.
(33:23):
All right, hold on sec and oh boy, it's Matt
and Matt. We've gotten Matt in salt Lake. Hello, Matt,
what's going on? Man? Welcome in here? You you're excited
about this? You're yeah? I haven't played a while? Didn't play?
What's a while to you? Like three weeks? Like four weeks? Oh,
it's been it's been two months. I think two months.
(33:43):
I don't know about that, about two months. But we'll
let you play. Why I'm in a giving mood. Why now,
we'll let you play? Hold on a seg Matt. So,
Matt number one in Pittsburgh. Who do you want to
partner up with? Matt? Um? You know what? Ben? Are
you available? Yeah? I believe I'm still available. I believe
I'm available. Okay, all right, So Matt and me the
other Matt, Matt in Salt Lake? Which guy do you
(34:05):
want to partner up with? Matt? I'll go to Eddie.
All right, very good. Cool. What are the categories? Real
quick here? So we just get this out all right,
the Neil Young Edition. He is seventy four years old today,
Neil Young. Uh. The categories are Ohio, old Man, Yeah,
Heart of Gold and rocking in the Free World. All right,
(34:26):
Matt number one, which category do you want? Would that
be me? That would be you? Matt number one in Pittsburgh, Yeah,
let's go old man, old man? All right, very good?
And what about you, Matt number two in Salt Lake.
I'll go a Heart of Gold, Heart of Gold? All right,
very good? Everyone, hold on, don't hang up at all.
(34:48):
We're gonna have Mallor's mount of Money and its entirety.
We'll get to that. We'll do it next. Wow. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show
weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Now, Malor's
Mounting of Money? Do you have what it takes to
get to the top? Probably? Not? All right, let's do.
(35:12):
It's the Matt and Matt edition of Malas Mountaine's actually
the Neil Young Edition. But we have two guys named
Matt that have called up to play. Matt is in Pittsburgh,
and he is teaming up with me. Ben and Matt
is in Salt Lake, and he is teaming up and
punch the right lineup. That's not the right line. Hold
on a second, Put you on hold, put you over here?
All right? All right, gentlemen, Yeah, Matt in Pittsburgh is
(35:35):
teamed up with Ben. You chose the category old man.
You're gonna need to go through the whole list to
get increasingly diffic more difficult. I need the first and
last name. You have forty five seconds to go through
the list. Are you ready, Matt in Pittsburgh, Yes, all right,
forty five seconds. These former athletes would be considered old men.
Forty five seconds. Go all right. A quarterback of the
(35:55):
Steelers in the seventies, he's on Fox Television. Harry Bradshaw
direct a running back in the nineteen sixties for Cleveland,
Big Power Back. Considered the greatest running back, correct center
for the Celtics in the sixties, won the most NBA titles,
Correct Sweetness for the Chicago Bears. Running back in the
(36:16):
nineteen Yes, New York Mets starting pitcher in the sixties,
the ace of the Mets. He went to the White
Sox and the Reds. Also team with Nolan Ryan with
the Mets. No. Nineteen seventies hockey Boston Bruins Number four,
greatest defenseman of all time in NHL history. Uh, Gordy
(36:36):
how No Yankee pitching legend? All right, Gordy how? Yeah?
That's bad. Bobby? Or was who we were looking for
all the Bobby? All right, I believe you got you
weren't number four? Didn't he? Yes? He did, got one
hundred points. Oh, come on man, all right, Well let's
go Salt Lake City, Matt, here we go. All right.
(36:57):
You guys have heart of gold deeds. Athletes are some
of the most charitable. Forty five seconds on the clock.
Begin often injured pass rusher for the Houston Texans. Former
forty nine ers quarterback took a knee for the national anthem.
A long time veteran receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, number eleven,
(37:18):
say again, thank you. Just named manager of the Mets.
Played in the major leagues for a lot of years
for a lot of different teams. From Puerto Rico. No,
from Puerto Rico. Um just got named manager of the Mets.
Won a World Series with the Astros. Played on a
bunch of different teams. Uh, let's let's give it. Uh
(37:39):
defensive lineman for the Cowboys, but he's played for the
Eagles and the Patriots. Most notably for the Seahawks. Um
got arrested for running from the police in Vegas. Oh boy,
I that Wow. I'm happy you did though, Matt, good
job by you. I thought you were solid. That is
only sixty points. Wow, you missed Carlos Beltran and then
(38:00):
Michael Bennett was that last one. This is my faulty
because I was in the hospital. So the game shows
went to hell Salt Lake, Salt Lake. Matt, you'll be
going again that you are behind? Would you like Ohio
or rock in the free World? Ohio? Alright, Ohio, let's
do it. These athletes are off from Ohio. Forty five
seconds on the clock. Begin. Current Jets running back. He
(38:22):
sat out all last year with the Stellers. Current Cleveland
running back. He just came off a long suspension from
the Chiefs. Yes, start tight end for the Vikings. He
just had two touchdowns on Monday Sunday Night Football. Yeah. Uh.
Color analysts for Sunday Night Football. Former receiver for the Bengals,
He and Al Michael Yes greatest upset in boxing, knocked
(38:44):
out Mike Tyson in Tokyo. Yes, um two time Heisman
Trophy winner at Ohio State. I think he's the only
one who'sn't done that. Yes, one more former Braves out builder.
He was married to Hollie Berry. Yes, I think you're
in the table right he did that is a four
(39:05):
hun man in Pittsburgh. You gotta wake up here. I'm
not in this tolucy stupid game shows. I want to
win these games. I've heard. I've heard NBA's his week,
his week sports, So you're screwed. But uh anyway, Oh
(39:26):
you rocking in the free world is the category. These
athletes all came to America to play sports. Don Cherry's
favorite players forty five seconds begin all right, the Greek
freak for the Milwaukee Bucks center for the seventies sixers.
(39:53):
He played at Kansas. He's got a big mouth, he's
a good sound bite man. Toronto Raptors, Small fort. He
replaced Kawhi Leonard. He's had a great start to the
season for Toronto. You know Marcelo Korean, pitcher for the
Dodgers back in the day. He gave up two Grand
Slams in the same inning they no Japan alright, catcher
(40:19):
for the Reds in the nineteen seventies, catcher for the
Big Red Machine. No, you suck Wow that he's the
Greek freak again. Yeah, yeah, the Greek freak known as Yannio.
(40:39):
You missed Joel Embiid, Pascal Siyakum and then uh Shanhoe
Park not not a day on Omo. Sol City is
clearly superior to the Pittsburgh man. Alright, Matt, I'm giving
you Matten Pittsburgh. I'm gonna give you a cheat code.
(41:01):
That Coopa Loop who writes these questions loves the NBA.
So if you don't like the NBA, these game shows
are probably not for you because there's gonna be a
lot of NBA names in these games, a lot of
football names too. It's it's a nice mixture. That was
a lot of basketball. That was basketball heavy. I didn't
even get to Luca don Chick or Rick Smit's then.
Was he the Duncan Dutchman back in the day for
(41:23):
the Pacers from merist Yeah. I saw him in the
He was like the second pick in the draft. He
had no skills at all other than being seven foot four.
I think that was the only which is a good
skill to have. By the way, it's a good skill
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mallers
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every week
night from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your
local station for the Ben Mallers Show at Fox Sports
Radio dot com. You can find it there or stream
us live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
(00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Mallers Show on
Fox Sports Radio. So I assume you saw some of
the Monday night game, but maybe not the forty nine Ers,
Jimmy Garoppolo suffering defeat, the agony of defeat, first lost
the year for the Niners, and again actually lived up
(00:45):
to the hype. I mean, I'd like to sit here
and say it was terrible. It was horrible, It was sloppy,
but it was not a game that lacked drama at all.
A thriller in Santa Clara as the forty nine Ers
go down, and it was a game filled with screw ups,
but at the people remember the end of the dramatic
moments and all that. But somebody named Jason Myers, I
(01:08):
don't know if he's related to my guy, Mark Myers,
but Jason Myers kicking forty two yard field goal that
was only after somebody named Chase McLaughlin missed a chip
shot which should have been a chip shot for a
professional kicker in overtime. And so the Seahawks hand the
forty nine Ers the big EIGHTHDL. Yeah, losers eight DL.
(01:31):
All right, first lost the year twenty seven, twenty four.
Let's discuss the question. And in a game like this,
this is a this is a a legit question. You talk
about Monday night close game, a lot of mistakes. Did
the Seahawks actually win the game or did the forty
nine Ers lose the game? And the easy answer is
that both of them tried to lose the game. It's
(01:53):
like both attempted to commit the crime of defeat. However,
the one that was successful was the forty nine ers,
and the better story is in the losing locker room.
So we're gonna focus mostly on the forty nine ers.
Here is the Seattle Seahawks get the wind. But you've
got rainbows, Darwinism, and bubbly and we will combine all
(02:14):
these things together and make some Baba ganoosh is what
we're gonna make. Now, Hey, the forty nine Ers at
the beginning of this game. Not to flash back to
the very beginning, but the forty nine Ers came out
like gangbusters. They jumped out at ten nothing lead. You're like, wow,
they're playing at a different speed then Seattle. And then
the Seahawks they couldn't do anything on offense. It looked
(02:34):
like they hadn't been practicing all week in the lead
up to the game. They were totally twisted around like
they had their shoelaces tied together. And that's not hyperbolee
to point out the fact, and to highlight the fact,
the Seattle Seahawks on offense, their first four possessions punt, punt, punt, punt,
four punts to start the game, and then the next
(02:57):
two possessions full they turned the ball over on a fumble.
So the first six possessions four punts and two fumbles
and then they punted again, so over for seven possession
wise to start the game. But the de Niners build
up a twenty eighth to nothing lead. No, they could
(03:17):
not do that. They were unable to build up a
gigantic lead, and that turned out to bite them in
the tookis. Late in the game, there and in overtime
it shouldn't give should have never gone to overtime that
that turned out to kick them in the nuts. And
while this temp kicker, Chase McLaughlin missed horribly, like I
(03:38):
think I could have done better than that, he totally
shaked right and it was embarrassing. It should have never
come down to that. This game is on despite that,
despite him missing the kick and everyone pointing the finger
at him. I'm going Jimmy Garoppolo, and we were talking
about this in the hallways before the show, but that
was a mistake filled mess. This is an example of
(03:59):
why some that work for the forty nine ers are
not sold on Jimmy Garoppolo. I brought this up a
couple of weeks ago, and a bunch of arrogant, pompous
forty nine er fans are like, now, Malla, you don't
know what you're talking about. Your blowing smoke. Okay, Well,
the guy I saw play, quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, was terrible,
got worse as the game went on, and for the
(04:21):
second half of this game, all right, for the second
half of the game, Jimmy Garoppolo might as well have
been chasing rainbows. Because he would have had more success
finding a rainbow than he would consistently completing passes. His
pocket presence was horrendous for most of this game. Garoppolo also,
I've noticed, as I don't know this always is the case,
but he seems to rarely be able to escape when
(04:45):
the collapse of the pocket inevitably happens. And the great
quarterbacks are usually able to like a snake like the
slither out of the pocket, and Jimmy Garoppolo doesn't seem
to be able to do that very often. But the game,
as it progress he got continually worse. He did. His
mistakes handed the game to the Seahawks, even though he said, well,
(05:08):
there still a chance to win the game. He lost
two fumbles, he had an interception. I counted at least three,
if not four. I wrote that a little. There were
at least three or four other passes that should have
been intercepted, that should have been picked off, that were
not picked off by incompetent Seattle defensive players. And the
Seahawks scored fourteen points directly off Jimmy Garoppolo misques fourteen
(05:30):
points in a game that ended up twenty seven twenty
four you've handed the game with those turnovers and the
mistakes and setting up Seattle with these fourteen points. I
think it was even more than that, because I don't
think I'm including the Jadeveon Clowney play Clowney who scooped
up a fumble and went in and scored a touchdown.
(05:50):
But in the second half of the game, all right, now,
Garoppolo accounted for at least fourteen if not twenty one,
but he finished with a sixty six point two passer
raining He averaged Garoppolo about five point four yards per attempt,
which is not very not very good at all. And
then part being the Niners. Now I've already seen some
(06:12):
of this, so I might as well try to nip
this in. Some of the forty nine are apologists are
making excuses. It's not Jimmy Garoppolo's fault to, you know,
get a little violin out, play a little violin music
for the Niner faiths. They didn't have George Kittle, the
tight end. They didn't have him. They didn't have Emmanuel
Sanders for a big chunk of the game. He got
(06:32):
knocked out with a rib injury. It's not Jimmy Garoppolo's
fault that he drowned. No, it's not. The forty nine
er receivers bobble a bunch of passes. Did they do that, Yes,
they did a lot of dropsies. Did they force the
forty nine receivers? Did they forced Jimmy Garoppolo to fumble
the football multiple times? I don't believe they did. I
(06:53):
don't think that any of forty nine receiver forced Garoppolo
do that. These were self inflicted wounds. Most of them
were self inflicted ruins, and he was not on the
same wavelength Garoppolo. With those receivers, you say, well, they're backups.
But the way I look at this, the greats are
able to reform at a relatively high level with secondary receivers. Right,
(07:17):
you have to act like a chameleon as a quarterback.
When your receivers go down. You must adapt or you
die and you lose. In football parlance, you lose. You
don't die, but you lose a game. It's football. Darwinism
is what it is, the survival of the fitnist and plu.
Jimmy Garoppolo started. Let's just if you break the game
(07:40):
down into quadrants. If you will Garoppolo started completely screwing
up in the second There were a bunch of sacks.
The pocket presence we talked about was all messed up.
But Garoppolo got progressively worse as the game one kind
of like my gallbladder last week, got progressively worse as
it continue not but Jimmy g in the second half.
(08:03):
He was twelve of twenty six for one hundred and
eight yards, no touchdowns, an interception, was sacked three times.
Had a passer rating that is Ryan Fitzpatrick on a
bad day like or Nathan Peterman. I guess would be
the better example there. His passer rating Garoppolo in the
second half was forty one point eight was his passer rating,
(08:24):
and that includes overtime. He averaged four point one yards
per attempt. Remember, the Niners tied the game because of
a defensive touchdown. It was not it was a big
play by the defense. It was not a play by
the forty nine ers offense that set that up. The
Niners defense made a big play against Seattle art last
thing on this so we'll hear from some of the
(08:44):
sound from the locker room. Had Jimmy Garoppolo, here's my theory,
had he simply taken care of the football and regulation.
The forty nine Ers defense is good enough, they would
have won the game. All right. This is that's why
I said you can blame the idiot kicker. And that's
the simpleton's way to look at it and say, Chase
McLaughlin blew the game. But if Garoppolo just plays mistake
(09:07):
free football, the Niners likely win this game in regulation.
They don't have to worry about going over to the
other thing, obviously is it's somewhere there's a bunch of
old dudes like named Larry Zonka and Mercury Morris and
Bob Greasy and all those other guys that are still
around from the nineteen seventy two Dolphins that are celebrating
and cracking open the Bubbly to celebrate as yet again,
(09:29):
another NFL season has come and gone, and there will
not be a team that goes sixteen to O and
then goes out and wins the Super Bowl. It's not
gonna happen. The Niners the last of the unbeatens. Now
we still have a chance to have our third and
sixteen team in the National Football League in my lifetime,
in recent lifetime, for everybody like the last twelve years,
(09:52):
thirteen years something like that to have three and sixteen
teams that and we need the Bengals to lose out
And the problem is the Bengals have a lot of
games that are very winnable the rest of the way.
But you still got a chance of that. Uh And
and so let's hear from some of the participants. How
about Mike Shanahan's kid, Kyle Shanahan. I wonder how he
got his head coaching job. I'm sure his last name
(10:14):
had nothing to do with it. Anyway, here's Kyle Shanahan
pointing out the injury excuse. He's using the injury card
from the bottom of the deck. Um, I mean, I mean,
there are two best playmakers, so it definitely takes a toll.
We knew that coming in with UM George. George kind
of realized that what was going to happen today, and UM,
(10:34):
you know, Emmanuel was out there battling UM had that
happened with his ribs. He tried to go a few
more serious longer, but Um had to pull he had
to go out. UM. Other guys came in and got
some guys stepped it up at times. UM I would
just have the consistency out there. Okay, Now, who could
have predicted I don't know anyone who said anything on
the radio about Emmanuel Sanders being injury prone. I don't
(10:55):
know that anyone. Why would anyone have said that. Why
would any of you would have said that if you
look at Emmanuel, say, there's his age and his history,
that he would have been likely to get hurt at
some point. With the nine ers Richard Sherman, who this
must sting for Sherman, the old Seahawk player back in
the glory days, the legion of boom here, and he
is about to drop some wisdom. The forty nine are
(11:15):
defensive back on what a loss means. You learn more
in the loss than you're doing a win. Bengals have
learned the most silver lining, you always learn more from
a loss. Um. So I'm sure guys will take that
and take the lessons that they need from that. Um.
You know, we had a chance to win. We didn't
find out a way to correct those things and be better. Um,
But it's a good lesson. You gotta learn. You gotta
(11:36):
learn during the season. You know, in order to win championships,
you gotta have these lessons and they battle. So if
the Patriots who then when they went sixteen and other
during the regular season, then they lost the Super Bowl.
If they'd lost like in Week fourteen, they would have
won the Super Bowl that year. I mean, come on, yeah,
I always love oh you learn more from a loss
than a win. Of course, I think the Cincinnati Bengals
(11:59):
must be the smartest team in football. Right. Oh and nine,
I dominating the lost callum. All right, let's hear from
Jimmy Garoppolo tucked out bad. Garoppolo was in the second half.
He had a bunch of turnovers, two fumbles loss. He
also had an interception. Should have had probably five interceptions
by the time. If Seattle players just catch passes that
(12:20):
were thrown to them by Garoppolo. Anyway, here's Garoppolo pointing
out he left up. You know, I think we just
had too many self self imposed uh you know, mistakes,
And I think from my models, you know, when you
put yourself behind like that, it's hard to catch up. So,
you know, just little things we got clean up. Yeah, No,
big fumbles and interceptions are not little things. Those are
(12:41):
not little things. That's a lie. Now, I did see
Russell Wilson after the game, and I wanted to mention
this because I got a kick out of it. He
was being interviewed by Lisa Assaulters there on the post
game for Stivies after Monday Night and he said, quote,
that's probably the craziest game I've ever played it, he said,
(13:02):
which tells you that he's possibly got amnesia and he's
blocked out the Malcolm Butler interception in the Super Bowl.
That he's just completely blocked that out from his memory.
Which is good. That's a good thing. And then Russell
Wilson went deep into sportscliche dot com and said, following
the Seahawks win a game that was gifted to them
(13:25):
on a silver platter, he said, that's what championship teams do.
So if this, I love that quote. That's what champaionship
teams do. It's wonderful. So if the Seahawks had lost
that game, then they would not be a championship team.
But since they won the game, they're a championship team.
But then George Richard Sherman rather said, well will you
learn more from You learn more from a defeat. So
(13:47):
with the Seahawks have been better off losing that game
m deep thoughts. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
pm Pacific on Far Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
So we're not gonna get too far away from the
Monday night game. The Seattle Seahawks pull it out in
(14:08):
overtime twenty seven to twenty four the forty nine Ers.
The fact that they had opportunities to win the game
when Jimmy Garoppolo puked all over the field the entire
second half is stunning, and if Garoppolo had just been
a game manager and not fed up the game in regulation,
the Niners defense was playing well enough where they would
(14:29):
have won again the first and I think it was
the first seven possessions We talked about it earlier. For
seven possessions of the game the Seahawks either punted or
fumbled the ball away. But it was only a ten
point game, and the forty nine Ers they were unable
to build up a big lead. So that's the game
Monday Night. In a nutshow, we'll get back to that,
(14:50):
But there's other stuff going on. For example, we've often
said that the basketball season, the pro basketball season begins
in a about forty days, a little over forty days.
I think it's forty three days from Christmas, and that's
when the NBA will throw a gaggle of games up
and that is the curtain rising. This is like a
(15:11):
soft launch. You open a restaurant, you have a soft launch,
and then you have the main event, well the main
events not until Christmas, but the days of our lives
drama playing out in real time in Gotham. So we
mentioned this earlier, but maybe you were not listening, you
might have missed it. There's confusion and disorder raining down
(15:32):
from the top of Madison Square Garden right over Penn Station.
There the New York Knickerbockers are off to a tun
and eight start. Oh my god, the Knicks a tun
and eight, which I believe is a birthright for the
Knicks to be two and eight. And they've had a
couple of embarrassing home losses, which has led to rampant
speculation that coach David Fizdale is about to walk the plank. Now,
(15:56):
nobody really wants to spend that much time breaking down
David Fizdale as which the Knicks, but we are told
the team president, someone named Steve Mills has begun the
process or process internally, of disposing of the Knickerbocker coach.
I don't understand why it's that hard for data. If
you're the president of the team and the owner agrees,
(16:18):
fire the coach, that's pretty simple, all right, Rince wassh
and repeat. That's how the Knicks do things. So the
Knicks brass believe the roster is good enough to compete
with the other teams in the Eastern Conference, that the
East is not that good, and while the Knicks roster
is not going to win a championship, it should be
competitive for a playoff appearance. The Knicks don't look like
(16:40):
they're anywhere near a playoff appearance. They look like they
have a much better chance of finishing with the worst
record in the NBA. They blow They're terrible, which is
the same old song dance for the Knicks. So David
Fizdale hung out to dry as the team has. According
to the president of the Knick Steve Mills, had a
lack of consistent level of performance, execution, effort, all those things.
(17:06):
I paraphrase that, but he said most of that. All right,
So let's discuss, all right, the question how much of
the blame pie goes to David Fizdale for this wretched
start of the Knicks. Now, I'm gonna give him sixty
percent of the blame pie. He gets sixty percent of
the blame pie. You've got my observations, obscenity, three dollar bill,
(17:26):
and the dead End Street, and we will lock all
these things together now. Number one, I have only seen
the Knicks play a couple of times here, So it's
not like I have watched every Knicks game. Because they
don't pay me enough to watch every Knicks game. I don't,
but it pops up in my rotation in the early
(17:47):
portion of the NBA night. I've seen a couple of
the games a game against the Celtics, for example, earlier
this year. But it is not It's not something that
I go out of my way to watch the Knicks.
They're not must see TV. Now, that's it. You know
how when you're watching a basketball game or any sport,
you know if you're a sports fan. We're all sports fans,
so you know when a team is well coached, you
(18:08):
know when a team is prepared, you know when a
team knows what they're supposed to be doing, and you
also know when they're not doing those things. You're aware
of that as well. And it's kind of like the
Supreme Court, famous Supreme Court ruling years ago the threshold
for obscenity, right, the threshold Vosemite and porn was I
know it when I see it, all right. That was
(18:30):
the argument by one of these Supreme Court justices back
in the day, guy named Porters Stewart, and it was
asking it was about porn and obscenities, I know it
when I see it. Well, the Knicks have been obscene,
all right. That's an obscenity Knicks basketball. The players have
changed the performances not. They went out and signed a
bunch of D list free agents and a B list
(18:51):
free agent, Julius Randall was the headliner. They bought a
bunch of other guys in and the goal was not
to win a championship. The goal was to be competitive.
How's that working out. There's a lack of execution on
both sides of the ball. Now. The biggest indictment is
a guy that was drafted by Phil Jackson in the
lottery back in twenty seventeen. And this is the point
(19:14):
guard Frank Nimakina. Who has been a hot mess. The
guy I guess he was from Belgium or something like that,
but he's he can't shoot, he's terrible, He's slow. Alfred
Peyton also stinks New York. They've got this plotting, slow
moving style the way they've played the games I've seen
them in, which can work if you have Patrick Ewing
(19:37):
and Charles Oakley on your team. They ain't walking through
those doors. They're either banned from Madison Square Garden or
they're coaching somewhere else. The Knicks have suffered recent blowout
losses at home to Sacramento and then on Sunday Cleveland,
and Cleveland is such a dumpster fire, and they ran
through the Knicks, and that led to Steve Mill having
(20:00):
the news conference to announce that, hey, this is unacceptable,
this is not going to get it done here. That
was the straw that broke the Campbell's back, and so
owner James Dolan he freaked out, which led to that
bizarro world night of condemnation from the brass of the
New York Knicks executives apologizing and taking the blame for
(20:24):
the New York Knicks performance. Now, I love the accountability,
but it's also, of course, mixed with pointer pointing the
finger at David Fizdal, it makes for good to talk radio. Now.
The second thing here this David Fizdale guy. He's an
interesting character in all of this because over the years
he has been one of the better sound bites in
(20:44):
the NBA. And I recall when he coached in Memphis,
he had a couple of iconic meltdowns with the media,
and we play some drops from time to time from
David Fizdale. You might not even know it's David Fizdale,
but he was hired in part because of statesmanship that
he is a buddy buddy with a lot of these
(21:05):
big name players. He was an assistant coach in Miami,
tight with Lebron James. He was tight with d Wade,
the former star Dwayne Wade when he was in Miami.
So the belief was the selling point of Fizdale was
hire this guy. He's got the ability to deal with people.
He's a people person. He can recruit big name free
agents to Madison Square Garden. Now he's only had a
(21:28):
couple of years on the job, but so far the
gift for gab has not paid off, and he sucked
at a time you cannot suck. On the surface, it
seemed like a good idea right right out of central casting.
Fizdale looks dresses the part of a traditional NBA coach
people person, as we said. But when you peeled back
(21:50):
the facade, you realize that Fizdale apparently is as phony
as a three dollar bill, and that guy to know
what he's doing as a coach. And you say, well,
I know the argument is where you can't win if
you don't have players. I know that's always the NBA
counter argument. That's true, you cannot win a championship without
great players, but that doesn't mean you can't compete. You
(22:10):
can't compete. Try put some effort out there. It's amazing
what can happen. Like look at the Phoenix Suns for example.
Now the Phoenix Suns have had a bunch of lottery picks.
They hired Manti Williams, who's apparently a pretty good coach.
Because the Suns are actually fighting back, they're competing, they're
winning some games against good teams the Phoenix Suns. Now,
(22:30):
the Knicks don't have the talent level at the Suns.
Hat but that's just an example. I'm just using that
as an example good coaching, and we've often preached about
this from our bully pulpit here that good coaching is
merely putting players in position to succeed, finding their weaknesses
and keeping them away from their weaknesses. Right. The Knicks
are always swimming against the current. I mean every year
(22:54):
they're swimming against the current, the Knicks, and I have
no skin in the game. I'm not a Knicks fan
at all. I got family in New York. That's their problem.
I don't have my own problems. I don't even worry
about that. Now. The final point, the fact that it
only took ten games for the Knickerbockers to break into pieces,
right is I think that's a new record. And the collapse, right,
(23:16):
that's impressive for a franchise that has perennially been a
dumpster fire. You know how some franchises are always contenders
to make the playoffs and to go far in the playoffs.
And then you got the Knicks, who provide comedy relief.
It's open mic night when the Knicks performed there. And
so they have been great in the New York Knicks
(23:38):
at staging civil wars in the bowels of Madison square garden.
It's not a house, it's a house divided, is what
the Knicks run there. Let's hear from David Fizdale, the
coach of the Knickerbockers. Here's Fizdale. You'll hear the question
and the answer, and it's all about whether or not
the front office has his back. David, what ways supported him.
(24:02):
That's the fact that that we talk every day, talk
and constant conversation with each other. We're very wrong with
each other, good or bad. None of us have an
ego about him. In the side Fazzer where we're talking
to get too, you know, and at the end of
the day we're all we're all un us together. I
(24:23):
love the sound of the basketball, it's drippling in the back.
But if Fizdale he's got a four year contract, I
don't feel bad for Fizdale. I feel I've also I
feel bad for people that lose their job, they have
no income coming in, their unwelfare whatever. I feel bad
for those people. David Fizdale, if he got fired today,
he's got two years of severance coming his way, top dollar,
and he'll get an assistant coach job somewhere else in
(24:44):
the NBA. So I don't feel bad for me. I
here's more from the coach of the knicker Bockers, and
he'll hear the question and the answer whether or not
he's been given any kind of promise. Um, you got
many assurances. I gotta to one and a half year contractorsurance.
You know, I'm saying, that's that's our business. Assurance is
(25:05):
about take that for data. That's that's one of his
great rants. That was in a playoff series for Memphis
against San Antonio. He had a rant. So that's that's
David Fizdale and the tabloids are having a field day.
They're reporting the Knicks right now in midtown Manhattan are
(25:25):
lining up a convoy of Brinks trucks and they're going
to drive in a convoy to Toronto and they're going
to deliver all that money to the Raptors and also
to Massihu Jerry. Whatever happened with that thing in Oakland
when he got into it with the fan the police,
Did anything come of that? Nothing happened all right, anyway.
(25:46):
I just I saw his name flash up. I think
I remember we did a whole night after Toronto won
the championship about MASSI U Jerry like punching a fan
a security guy or shoving a security guy. There was
an investigation, nothing came of anyway. He is seen now
by James Dolan supposedly as the Messiah from Toronto, and
they've got to get him to save the beleaguered franchise,
(26:07):
just like Phil Jackson was going to save the franchise.
Don't hold your breath, look at this objective. Like our
friends in Canada, like Messiah, you Jerry. He's got a
good thing going on now. I'm not saying he's gonna
be in Toronto the rest of his career, and I
don't think he will be in Toronto. But unless he's
got some kind of romance with New York City, which
(26:28):
we don't know about, why would you want to go
from Toronto to the Knicks. He's making a good amount
of money in Toronto, and you know New York has
I think they've got just as oppressive the taxes in
New York in Canada, so it's not like you're gonna
benefit from that. And working for the Knicks is being
well compensated to live on a dead end street, to
(26:49):
live on the wrong side of the tracks, you think
Bermuda Triangle. That's where the Knick franchise reside, somewhere in
the Bermuda Triangle. Be sure to catch live editions of
the Ben Maller Show dayson two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
It's Maller. How about that? To the third degree? Yeah,
this is one big ban gets grilled back from veteran's day.
(27:14):
The Coop de loop is have arrived here he is.
Recent reports indicated that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is interested
in buying an NFL franchise, and he has support among
the current owners. Yeah, you think Bezos would be a
good owner. Well, first of all, there is no team
that is off limits when you have a kind of
(27:34):
money that Jeff Bezos has. I mean, he's the richest
dude in the world. He could buy multiple NFL franchise.
He could buy every team in the NFL if he
wanted to. The guy's worth like one hundred and ten
billion dollars. The issue of him being a good owner
is complicated though, because typically a good owner you simply
(27:55):
hire people that know what they're doing. You keep your
nose out of it. But if I own an NFL team,
I would be like Jerry Jones, or Dan Snyder. What
fun is it to own an NFL team and not
trade players and fire players. I would want to be
the GM. So I don't know how Bezos is wired.
I don't know if he wants to be like Dan
Steyder or Jerry Jones, but I know if it was me,
I would want to be the guy making the trades now. Secondly,
(28:18):
the Seattle Seahawks are the obvious fit here. They just
won the Monday Night game. Their owner, Paul Allen, passed
away at a young age. I think it was last
year end of last year. And so Bezos, he's got
a home based Amazon. Obviously, they've got facilities all over
the place, but their headquarters are in Washington State, the
Seattle area. So owning an NFL team it's, you know,
(28:43):
it's kind of like art. It's owning. It's a status
thing when you own an NFL team. But the other
thing about this and being part of the good old
Boys network. Now he's not married to Lauren Sanchez, but
he's been dating Lauren Sanchez. And this is someone that
myself and Eddie know from back in the day, and
I would love if she would be like when I
was a kid, when I was younger, the Rams had
(29:04):
this Georgia Frontieri, who was this Everyone hated her as
the owner of the Rams and all that, and she
inherited the team because mysteriously the owner of the team
died in a swimming accident. Yeah, it's conspiracy theories about that,
But anyway, Georgia was a terrible loan. But I could
see Lauren Sanchez like outliving bezos and being like an
(29:24):
owner of an NFL team at some point, eventually controlling owner.
All right, next, now, Ben, the Bengals are now oh
and nine on the gratulation. That's impressive. Yes, they have
fans showing up with paper bags. Now, most of the
year we've been talking about the Dolphins going winless on
the year. Screwed that up, they did. But now do
you think it'll actually be the Bengals to pull off
the embarrassing feed Well, I am pulling for the Bengals
(29:48):
to go oh in sixteen, But this would be the
most impressive, a most impressive Owen sixteen of them all
if they were able to do it. The odds are
against it, and I'll tell you why. Number One, if
you look back at the O eight line of Dan
Orlovsky the twenty seventeen Browns of the shan Kaiser. They
had magical manure to go oh in sixteen. Everything's got
(30:11):
to line up just perfectly. It's very difficult to go
oh in sixteen, right, It's hard to do. You really
have to earn it now. Secondly, the problem with Cincinnati,
I'm hoping, I'm praying to God that they go oh
in sixteen every you know, every every week I wanted
them to lose. The problem with Cincinnati is the schedule.
Gods are not shining on them to go oh in sixteen.
Bengals got seven games left because they're obviously played nine.
(30:34):
Seven games left, four of them using mallor math, are
very winnable games. Cincinnati plays the Jets, They've got the
Dolphins home and road versus the Browns. That's four winnable
games for the Cincinnati Bengals. Now, all they have to
do is screw this up and win one of those games.
(30:55):
They might even win two of those games, but you
figure it. Worst case scenario, they just by dumb luck,
the Bengals win one of those four games. If not,
they will be the worst of the oen sixteen teams.
I would say if you lose all four games to
the Jets, Dolphins, and home and road to the Browns,
(31:15):
you're the most impressive and sixteen team. You've passed by
the O eight Lions. You've passed by the twenty seventeen Browns.
All right, next, well, Ben. After the Jets were able
to win their second game of the season, Sam Donald
said he thinks that the Jets can still make the
playoffs if they win out. Does he have mono again? Ben?
We know that's not gonna happen, all right, but let's
(31:35):
play the what if game? All right? Would nine and
seven be enough to get in? No? No, it's not
gonna be enough to get in. And Sam Darnold seems
like a nice enough guy. He also seems like he's
got a bit of Rube in him. You know, he's
a country bumpkin. He's not if like South Orange County
I believe, but he's soundbites. I mean, Mike, what does
(31:56):
he think the Jet fan like Fireman Ed and the
rest of the Jets fans are a bunch of clueless morons?
They Maybe he must think that, I mean, I know,
this is what you're supposed to say. We're gonna win out.
We want to win every game. It's not over yet
and all that, But how about some real talk. Remember
you used to have a call it in real time.
How about some real talk and b Sam Darnold, I'll
tell you, he says, this is gonna be seeing more ghosts,
(32:18):
all right. The High are the ghostbusters there in the
near future. The Jets making the postseason. It's like that
famous quote from the old coach of the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers before my time. Of course, Rich McKay and Tampa
had just entered a twenty six game losing streak. Coach
of the Bucks was asked whether or not they could
make the playoffs. He said, if three or four plane
(32:40):
crashes take place, we're in the playoffs, is what he said.
I don't even know the Jets. It might take more
than that for the jestice of the plaoffs. Anyway, there
it is Mallett of the third degree. How did we do?
Benny Passes edition, That is a winner you put on
the board. Yes, Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
(33:01):
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the iHeart
Radio app. Search f SR to listen live. Why don't
we introduce our contestants real? We don't play the open.
Let's go. We got Matt in Pittsburgh. Hello, Matt, Hey man,
what's up my man? What's going on? Man? You ready
to do this? Matt? I think so? Yeah? I think so.
(33:23):
All right, hold on sec and oh boy, it's Matt
and Matt. We've gotten Matt in salt Lake. Hello, Matt,
what's going on? Man? Welcome in here? You you're excited
about this? You're yeah? I haven't played a while? Didn't play?
What's a while to you? Like three weeks? Like four weeks? Oh,
it's been it's been two months. I think two months.
(33:43):
I don't know about that, about two months. But we'll
let you play. Why I'm in a giving mood. Why now,
we'll let you play? Hold on a seg Matt. So,
Matt number one in Pittsburgh. Who do you want to
partner up with? Matt? Um? You know what? Ben? Are
you available? Yeah? I believe I'm still available. I believe
I'm available. Okay, all right, So Matt and me the
other Matt, Matt in Salt Lake? Which guy do you
(34:05):
want to partner up with? Matt? I'll go to Eddie.
All right, very good. Cool. What are the categories? Real
quick here? So we just get this out all right,
the Neil Young Edition. He is seventy four years old today,
Neil Young. Uh. The categories are Ohio, old Man, Yeah,
Heart of Gold and rocking in the Free World. All right,
(34:26):
Matt number one, which category do you want? Would that
be me? That would be you? Matt number one in Pittsburgh, Yeah,
let's go old man, old man? All right, very good?
And what about you, Matt number two in Salt Lake.
I'll go a Heart of Gold, Heart of Gold? All right,
very good? Everyone, hold on, don't hang up at all.
(34:48):
We're gonna have Mallor's mount of Money and its entirety.
We'll get to that. We'll do it next. Wow. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show
weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Now, Malor's
Mounting of Money? Do you have what it takes to
get to the top? Probably? Not? All right, let's do.
(35:12):
It's the Matt and Matt edition of Malas Mountaine's actually
the Neil Young Edition. But we have two guys named
Matt that have called up to play. Matt is in Pittsburgh,
and he is teaming up with me. Ben and Matt
is in Salt Lake, and he is teaming up and
punch the right lineup. That's not the right line. Hold
on a second, Put you on hold, put you over here?
All right? All right, gentlemen, Yeah, Matt in Pittsburgh is
(35:35):
teamed up with Ben. You chose the category old man.
You're gonna need to go through the whole list to
get increasingly diffic more difficult. I need the first and
last name. You have forty five seconds to go through
the list. Are you ready, Matt in Pittsburgh, Yes, all right,
forty five seconds. These former athletes would be considered old men.
Forty five seconds. Go all right. A quarterback of the
(35:55):
Steelers in the seventies, he's on Fox Television. Harry Bradshaw
direct a running back in the nineteen sixties for Cleveland,
Big Power Back. Considered the greatest running back, correct center
for the Celtics in the sixties, won the most NBA titles,
Correct Sweetness for the Chicago Bears. Running back in the
(36:16):
nineteen Yes, New York Mets starting pitcher in the sixties,
the ace of the Mets. He went to the White
Sox and the Reds. Also team with Nolan Ryan with
the Mets. No. Nineteen seventies hockey Boston Bruins Number four,
greatest defenseman of all time in NHL history. Uh, Gordy
(36:36):
how No Yankee pitching legend? All right, Gordy how? Yeah?
That's bad. Bobby? Or was who we were looking for
all the Bobby? All right, I believe you got you
weren't number four? Didn't he? Yes? He did, got one
hundred points. Oh, come on man, all right, Well let's
go Salt Lake City, Matt, here we go. All right.
(36:57):
You guys have heart of gold deeds. Athletes are some
of the most charitable. Forty five seconds on the clock.
Begin often injured pass rusher for the Houston Texans. Former
forty nine ers quarterback took a knee for the national anthem.
A long time veteran receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, number eleven,
(37:18):
say again, thank you. Just named manager of the Mets.
Played in the major leagues for a lot of years
for a lot of different teams. From Puerto Rico. No,
from Puerto Rico. Um just got named manager of the Mets.
Won a World Series with the Astros. Played on a
bunch of different teams. Uh, let's let's give it. Uh
(37:39):
defensive lineman for the Cowboys, but he's played for the
Eagles and the Patriots. Most notably for the Seahawks. Um
got arrested for running from the police in Vegas. Oh boy,
I that Wow. I'm happy you did though, Matt, good
job by you. I thought you were solid. That is
only sixty points. Wow, you missed Carlos Beltran and then
(38:00):
Michael Bennett was that last one. This is my faulty
because I was in the hospital. So the game shows
went to hell Salt Lake, Salt Lake. Matt, you'll be
going again that you are behind? Would you like Ohio
or rock in the free World? Ohio? Alright, Ohio, let's
do it. These athletes are off from Ohio. Forty five
seconds on the clock. Begin. Current Jets running back. He
(38:22):
sat out all last year with the Stellers. Current Cleveland
running back. He just came off a long suspension from
the Chiefs. Yes, start tight end for the Vikings. He
just had two touchdowns on Monday Sunday Night Football. Yeah. Uh.
Color analysts for Sunday Night Football. Former receiver for the Bengals,
He and Al Michael Yes greatest upset in boxing, knocked
(38:44):
out Mike Tyson in Tokyo. Yes, um two time Heisman
Trophy winner at Ohio State. I think he's the only
one who'sn't done that. Yes, one more former Braves out builder.
He was married to Hollie Berry. Yes, I think you're
in the table right he did that is a four
(39:05):
hun man in Pittsburgh. You gotta wake up here. I'm
not in this tolucy stupid game shows. I want to
win these games. I've heard. I've heard NBA's his week,
his week sports, So you're screwed. But uh anyway, Oh
(39:26):
you rocking in the free world is the category. These
athletes all came to America to play sports. Don Cherry's
favorite players forty five seconds begin all right, the Greek
freak for the Milwaukee Bucks center for the seventies sixers.
(39:53):
He played at Kansas. He's got a big mouth, he's
a good sound bite man. Toronto Raptors, Small fort. He
replaced Kawhi Leonard. He's had a great start to the
season for Toronto. You know Marcelo Korean, pitcher for the
Dodgers back in the day. He gave up two Grand
Slams in the same inning they no Japan alright, catcher
(40:19):
for the Reds in the nineteen seventies, catcher for the
Big Red Machine. No, you suck Wow that he's the
Greek freak again. Yeah, yeah, the Greek freak known as Yannio.
(40:39):
You missed Joel Embiid, Pascal Siyakum and then uh Shanhoe
Park not not a day on Omo. Sol City is
clearly superior to the Pittsburgh man. Alright, Matt, I'm giving
you Matten Pittsburgh. I'm gonna give you a cheat code.
(41:01):
That Coopa Loop who writes these questions loves the NBA.
So if you don't like the NBA, these game shows
are probably not for you because there's gonna be a
lot of NBA names in these games, a lot of
football names too. It's it's a nice mixture. That was
a lot of basketball. That was basketball heavy. I didn't
even get to Luca don Chick or Rick Smit's then.
Was he the Duncan Dutchman back in the day for
(41:23):
the Pacers from merist Yeah. I saw him in the
He was like the second pick in the draft. He
had no skills at all other than being seven foot four.
I think that was the only which is a good
skill to have. By the way, it's a good skill
Host
Ben Maller
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