
SEC Sues LSU, Will Fernando Mendoza Play, & Hot NFL/CFB Takes - 9/3/2026
About this episode
00:17:00 Memphis basketball attendance concerns
00:27:00 Ronald Acuna hits 200th HR
00:34:00 Texas High School football names
00:37:00 Paddle becomes fastest growing sport
00:41:00 SEC sues LSU
00:45:00 Is Lane Kiffin a villain
00:52:00 Bleacher Report's hot takes for CFB season
01:04:00 NFL talk
- Will Fernando Mendoza play this year?
- Laquon Treadwell keeping number 17
- FOX bold predictions for NFL
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Chris Vernon Show — SEC Sues LSU, Will Fernando Mendoza Play, & Hot NFL/CFB Takes - 9/3/2026. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
Live from downtown Memphis, this is the Chris Vernon Show on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media. Now here's your host, Chris Vernon. Hello everyone and welcome. Good afternoon. It's the Chris Vernon Show. Chris Vernon show here today on Grind City Media. Chris Vernon is not here. He's not here. Devon is not here. Roser is not here. They're here in spirit.
Yesterday it was... It smells like roser over here. What's that? I texted him earlier this week. I was at Walmart the other day. I guess it's old-spice bath soap, stuff like body wash with George Kittle on it. And I said, do you have this? And he said, I didn't know this was a thing. So maybe that's what Roser is going to smell like for now. Great. George Kittle body wash. Fantastic. It smells like sweat. I'm Rob Fisher, a Langwood accruist here. Hi, what's up? For the second straight day with me. Hello Lang. Good to see you. Yeah, good to see you too. And today, Ben and Doyle was with us yesterday. Today, CJ Heard is with the Sits and Old Odds couple crew back together. How are you, CJ? Wait, I got music. Do I have my plan? Did they play his music yesterday? No. No, okay, then I'm not playing my. So we're good. This is the Kittle shampoo conditioner sent the scent of musk and moving chains. Yeah, that's a man smell right there. Come over here, baby.
I smell like a first down. Hit over here. Wow. I smell like a red zone touchdown. Moving chains. That sounds terrible. I smell like a block down, double team on the defensive end, move up to the line backer. Yeah, a lot of people going to smell like that this weekend. Yeah. As we get set for a week or one of the small ball season. We're a week away from the national football league and getting underway. Well, talk some college football. We'll talk some NFL. We got some basketball news. We got some baseball news. We got a lot of stuff that we'll get into today here on the program. A couple of lists. We'll get into as well. It's all ahead here on the Chris Vernon show spectacular show set up for you here today. But of course, the big news in the sports world over the last 24 hours has been what has happened to the Los Angeles Clippers. I mean, it's pretty remarkable. The NBA ruled on the Clippers for salary cap circumvention investigation on Kawaii Leonard after a year-long probe stripping the franchise of five first round picks.
A $30 million fine to Steve Balmer suspensions for Balmer, Lawrence, Frank, and Gillian Zucker. Gillian. Balmer's going to Gillian. I'm sorry. Oh, just. Balmer suspended for a year. Zucker suspended for a year. Lawrence, Frank, suspended for six months. Pretty, pretty. That's the pretty hefty stuff. I mean, I remember the Joe Smith thing where it was like, oh, they took their draft pick away and they took five. They took five. Yeah, but they took away five first round picks and then ended up giving two back. Okay. So there, I guess there's a chance they get some back after this because the Timberwolves did. And Glenn Taylor, I believe at the time, the owner of the team got suspended for a year. And I don't remember, I think Kevin McCale was a GM. I don't remember what his role in all that was. But yeah, like this is, this is huge. I mean, it was shocked me a lot. I mean, I guess because the news that had been coming out, it seemed like, you know, they were just kind of going nowhere with this investigation.
And it was just, you felt like it was almost going to go away. I learned a lot about it today reading through all this stuff. Like I didn't realize that Steve Balmer was paying for the investigation. So that's, yeah, that sucks. Right. It's not great. There was a lot of stuff. I did like the five first round picks. One of them is the one they got for, for Zuba last year and unprotected first. So I, then I was trying to explain to my son and I said, I guess they could trade some players they had to get. Picks back in. But who do you, who do you trade? Who do you have? Yeah. Brandon Ingram. That's like your best pick. Keaton Wagler. He's just got him. So I don't know what, you don't really have a ton of assets. You're sitting on to, to kind of replenish with. I mean, when will they have a first round pick? What is it? 2033? Yeah. That's when they'll have one. No, 2034. It's when they have their own first round pick. I think. So like they don't have a first round. They don't have their own first round pick through the, but they could go get one.
Okay. So, but because of the trade for Kauai, calls them five and then says the, this punishment from the NBA calls them another, another five sold basically from what I read to get Kauai Leonard and Paul George. They traded 10 firsts round picks. Yes. Considering this and she guilt just Alexander and two firsts round picks, swaps and Jalen Williams. Yeah. So they give up a lot to get these guys and not win anything. Which happens first? The US Institute's a military draft or the clippers draft in the first round. Clippers. You don't see confident about it though. I don't know, man. That's a tough question. I'm waiting to be too old to be drafted. Yeah. That's what you guys. Yeah, I'm too old. I'm way old. Yeah. I have a 13 year old. Well, you get ready, Lane. He's going to be drafted. He's going to be drafted. He's going to be drafted in the first round of high schools. Yeah, start changing your mind on high schools. My dad got drafted. Sorry. Yeah. He went through it before. Yeah.
Wow. It's pretty incredible. And what was incredible as well is I liked how Kauai talked so much about how he was going to take accountability and responsibility for it. Yet through his agent, his statement said, I accept full responsibility for lapses and judgment by people within my inner circle and regret the distraction. The situation caused fans in my family. So basically he said it was their fault. Yes. Right? Doesn't that what you take from that 100% of my people's fault? Kauai, Kauai, like if the clippers put out several strongly worded statements fighting pushing back. But then Kauai put out a statement that said, I apologize. I'm sorry. Yeah. Like basically took responsibility. Yeah, but he said it's I have every he said it was his people, but he still basically said, well, he said they did it basically. So I think it's hard for one group to say this is all incorrect. When another person who's part of it says, yep, we did it. Yep. That's kind of weird. The guy who got the money. The guy who got the money says, yeah, we did it and I apologize.
But yeah, the clippers basically came out and said they vehemently reject the NBA's findings, which a result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence. We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward to an ethical and impartial arbitration process. Yeah. All right. But from our there is no arbitration process. Correct. Yeah. So I mean, they're going to have to go to a higher law. What is that? They're going to have to go one of those SEC lawyers going to an SEC lawyer who lives in Los Angeles. Yeah, one of those LSU lawyers. The issue is LSU matters in college football in the way the clippers have never mattered than NBA. So the clippers don't have like a clipper fan who's also a judge, right? Because if you're in LA, when you be a Lakers fan, there's only like five clipper fans. It's clipper Darryl. Billy Crystal from Blackish. Billy Crystal and that's it. And if any of them have become a judge, great.
But if not, we're in trouble. Billy Crystal might have played one. Yeah, he may have played one one time. Sure. The guy from Ticketmaster has been complaining on Twitter too. He's a he's a clipper fan too. So yeah, I don't think there's really a much recourse for them. I don't know what they can do. I mean, is it is it too simple to just say they're dead for a while? Well, they just I mean, how do you how do you over? They just got a lottery pick. Keaton Wagler, who some people say was the best point guard in this draft, which had a lot of good point guards. Who knows how well he turns out to be. I guess that's how you ride this thing out is if if you hit on this guy, if he's really good, he's a point guard. Be on the floor a lot. Can run your offense. Can do things. You have a really good coach in Tai Liu. You have Brandon Ingram. You have, I don't know, some pieces around that. I don't even know who else is on that team. If Wagler turns out to be good, you know, maybe it's equivalent to the Pacers having Haliburton
and a guy who can kind of lead your team and guide you through, but they got to hope this guy's good because if he's not, they're really good. Yeah, because if he's not, I don't we've seen teams that had Brandon Ingram as the best player and that hasn't worked out for them. And that's what the Clippers are kind of staring at right now. The NBA has hard capped itself with the penalties that come with the second apron. You need young talent on rookie deals. Five years without having that is going to put anybody well behind the eight ball. They have, they have Bradley Bill. Oh gosh. They have still they have Chris Dunn. Grizzly's legend. They have Darius Garland. He's the second high spade player on the team. Okay. Rui Hatchamura. Derek Jones Jr. Brooke Lopez is on the roster. I don't know how correct this is because they have Benedict Mathuron on here and he signed
with the Pelicans. Yeah. That was the Clipper. That was on ESPN's website where it looks like the Clippers.com. Okay. Bradley B.O. Keaton-Wagler. Derek Jones. Max Truce. They just got from the Caves. Chris Dunn. Yeah. I get him a little something. You know who one of the back up point guards is? Yuki Kawha Mara. That's right. Yuki. Yeah. I know. I don't know much about much, but I know Yuki's on a on a real affordable deal right now. Darius Garland, Taita Washington, Janai Broom. And that's about it. Did you have some more? Did you know that Yuki and who's the other fellow? Jamari and Sharp. Is he on that team still? No. He's not? Well, he was. Oh, yes, he is. He's seven foot five. Yuki's five foot seven. They're the shortest and tallest players in the NBA. And same team. Yeah. So they got that going for him. I've always felt like the most fun NBA stories are when a team doesn't have that superstar
and they just have to fight like hell every night to be good. And it feels like this Clipper scene is going to be set up to do that for the next four years. So between Tyrone Lew and the main assistant coach is Jeff Fingundy. Like they got some gritty guys there who can maybe figure something out defensively to keep them fighting. I don't know. Like I just don't know who's going to score points for them besides Brandon Ingram. And this brand spanking new arena. Yeah. Can't have nothing in Compton. Did all that work depended in Compton and now look at it. Yeah. Yeah. The team just done. Yeah. I feel bad for Dre. Boy, it's all too bad. It's too bad. Really, that we don't still hate the Clippers. In the day and age of us hating the Clippers, this would have been fun news. I mean, the other thing that's probably worth talking about is like they have this trade apparently worked out for co-ioner and Brandon Ingram that was worked out before all this. If without the draft picks, they were going to be that good anyway this year.
Right. This is like, it's not like the draft picks are going to change what they were going to do this season. This is the team they had for this season. They're going to be this going forward. What were they planning on drafting in the next four years that were going to make them all of a sudden a contender? They're just going to have to do it without that part of it. And if anything, they're going to have to pick up more fringe guys, undrafted guys, second round guys, something that are able to kind of fill out the roster around. I mean, they better hope Deris Garland and Keaton Wagler and Brandon Ingram are their big three. Yeah. Although if they're going to be really bad with the new lottery reform too, who knows if they would have even gotten good tricks. That's right. That's right. The whole deal. All right. They would have gotten something, but they would have gotten something. They get nothing now. Yeah. And I hear what you're saying, Lane, I think you're right. Like the true ramifications of this problem possibly might not be felt for three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years down the line. Right. You get the, you draft the, the player into the NBA hoping that they hit.
They give them three or four years to develop. And then fifth year is like, Oh, okay, we hit on this or, oh, we didn't let's go back to the drawing board and hit a reset. Well, now they've got to wait to see all of that stuff next year. They were able to get Wagler this year, but next year they won't have that. And that doesn't matter five or six years from, from now. Like they're going to be bad. Maybe not, uh, right now, maybe not next year, but 20, 30, they're going to be real bad. I was trying, I wanted to look and I haven't had time to do this at the Timberwolves and how they survived when they had that five year or I guess three years span without a first round pick. Well, they also had Joe Smith's contract avoided. So they didn't get anything off of that. At least the Clippers can trade. Didn't a, Kawaii, then the Timberwolves have like a generational player. Yeah, he was a second year player at the time. He was young. So Kevin Garnett is there and they had Marbury too. And Marbury, so they had Garnett and Marbury and they could weather that stretch.
They couldn't build around either of them while Marbury left and went to the, to the next that New York was, was home. But like they, they had one generational player and somebody who was a NBA all star caliber. Now if the Clippers have that on their roster, then good, good for them, but we don't, I don't, I don't feel confident saying anybody. It's had a big kid in Wagon or a Perennial all star for them. All right, there we go. Big, big news with the Los Angeles Clippers in their future. Other news this way. Oh, wait, yeah, just the biggest Clipper scandal. Right. Of the past 15 years, do the Clippers have the two biggest scandals in the NBA? What are the, what are the scandals where they're? Yeah, oh, that magnitude. I'm John Tay Porter. Gamblin stuff. Chauncey and now, oh, yeah, Chauncey. Yeah, John Tay Chauncey rose here. Yeah.
Yeah, so this is this is a big non bed and scandal. Yeah, this big. Yeah, that one, that one's, I would say this is bigger because that one, this one involves an entire organization. I mean, the last one's going to put an organization down. Chauncey got fired. Yeah, well, the last Clippers scandal, you know, arguably made the Clippers better. Yeah, you don't argue that it definitely made the 100% make them. I mean, it's like they, that was a scandal, but they got an incredibly rich owner and a new stadium and all this stuff that this one, probably inarguably is going to make them a lot worse. Yeah, next five years. Interesting story yesterday, Frank Bonner from the Daily Memphian talking about the Memphis Tigers and the Memphis Tigers finances, talking about football and the money being spent for football and the excitement around the football program right now and rightfully so. But in the story also mentioned, the Memphis basketball has sold 1,988 tickets, season tickets for this season, 1,988. Last year at this time, they had sold 4,000. Memphis sold 4,100 and 15 season tickets in Tubby Smith's second season, which was considered
a low point by the school. 1,988 season tickets right now, currently, for the Tigers for this upcoming season down from 4,000 last year. When you were getting those type of crowds with Tubby Smith, the answer was simple. We'll get a new coach. And higher, the son of Memphis, Penny Hardaway, and that'll generate the excitement and that'll get people in the seats and maybe it did for a little bit, some, but obviously it's not. And I look at this number as alarming, being in a 18,000 seat arena. Yeah. And also look at it as, to me, I think it's more an indictment and a problem with college basketball than it is with the Memphis Tigers or Penny Hardaway. I think this is the whole college basketball landscape right now. To me, I loved college basketball when I was younger because you held on to guys. You know, you followed guys from when they were freshmen to sophomores to juniors to seniors.
Sure. And some might leave after their junior year, some might leave after their freshman year. But the majority of the team was back. And now you're rebuilding a team with 13 new guys every year. Yeah. So you don't know how good they're going to be. You don't know any of the players. You don't know. There's no, there doesn't feel like there's any allegiance to the U of M and these guys that I think it's just really become rather nondescript that you feel like it's not our team. You feel like it's not our guys. You feel like it's, who am I rooting for? I'm rooting for the Jersey. And that's it. That's all you're rooting for is the Jersey. You're not rooting for guys. You don't even know the roster until probably three-fourths of the way through the season. It's sort of mirrors what's happening in college football right now because your guys are changing teams every year, not to the extent college basketball seems to be happening. Part of me, as you were talking about it, thought about it as like in some ways, isn't
this, isn't that the purest form of college sports? You shouldn't, shouldn't we just root for the Jersey? Like we're not, it's, it's college sports. It's not NBA teams. You're supposed to root for the colleges for the programs. You're supposed to root for the players playing for those teams as almost ancillary part of it. But the thing is, we're rooting for Memphis. We don't care about those on the team. You're rooting for guys who are representing Memphis as well. I mean, you right now say, if I put on the Jersey root for me being on a Memphis team. Give me 10 tigers of all time. You could rattle off 10 like that. If I tell you, give me the, give me two tigers in the last five years, could you name two? No, probably not. I mean, most of the time. I don't think that has anything to do with what's going on. They won 13 games last year. Right. That's what this is. So you think winning is the only thing? Yes, that is it. They won 29, two years ago and had sold 4,000 tickets. The numbers weren't this though, right? Yeah. Like, yes, they have one, but only so 4,000, but it wasn't as low as it is right now.
They've got to find a way to win. You can hire Pinyard away. That's wonderful. But you know what would be better than hiring Pinyard away is hiring somebody who wins games. We thought what's Pinyard away was going to come in and do both. And up to this point, he's been all right, but not with Memphis standards. I'd work. Sweet 16. Like, at a certain point, run your conference. You're not in one of the major conferences. You're in the American, which is according to the, the Kim Poms and all of that, not that great of a basketball playing conference. So run it. Run it. He's got a conference regular season and tournament championship. And I think he's got maybe another conference tournament championship. There's a NIT championship in there. There are three trips to the NCAA, one win in his coach and tenure in the NCAA. Like that's it. That's what it is. Sure we love the, the man coming home to coach. We love one Patrick. You and gets hired at Georgetown. We love when St. John's goes out there and hires Chris Muller.
We, we I love when Dwaron Howard was the head coach at Michigan. Until he started losing a whole bunch of games. They were like, hey, get you. Sorry, you slapping people, you got a bad heart. We losing game. We got a ticket sales kind of low. We got to move on from you, man. That's the, it's the harsh reality of it. I win. That's all that, that matters. At the end of the day, if you win enough, everything will be, be overlooked, forgiving and you can go out there and sell all the tickets you want to sell. They come out there and they look really, really good in the out of conference. They'll sell some tickets. It's also hard not to look at the basketball program right now in the context of the football program or what Charles Huff has done and the way he has come in. And I mean, before they'd even played a game, all those press conferences, how excited he had this everyone talking about this team and felt like there was some, I wrote about in the news, there was some momentum going for this Memphis football team. Then they winning the game. Awesome. And they look great. There was momentum and we don't, we didn't know none of them do his names on the football
field. Like that's he pulled a bunch of dudes from Southern Miss, how's the 70 of 70? 70, 70, 70 first man. We didn't know that, but they missed his football is still found a way to, to grab the city for a week. Now they go out there and lose this week or get slaughtered by boys, he state it'll be a different story. You got to be a good coach in order to sell tickets. Good coaches win games, winning game sales tickets, man. Yeah, I like you said, I mean, two years ago, they won games and the people weren't there. I just think college basketball is an issue. In college basketball, I think it's different than football. Football, you're wearing helmets and you got hat on hat and you got, you got, you know, it's football. Guys are just, there they go. They're playing 11 on 11, but in basketball, it's such a small roster that in years past, you knew the guys. You knew the guys on the roster and right now you just don't. It feels like football is also, I mean, tell me if I'm wrong. Football feels like it's more, the teams are kind of defined a little bit more like this
coach plays this style. That coach plays that style and in basketball, not just college NBA too, pretty much everyone does the same thing now. Shoot a lot of threes, get out, run, play full court defense. It's all very similar style, listically. In college, you got, you know, Michigan never passing the ball and you got Georgia playing pro style offense and Memphis is running the RPOs and Blitz and the guy like, everybody has kind of their own thing that makes them a little different where I don't really know what defines a penny hard away Memphis basketball. I can tell you. Okay. Turning the ball over a bunch, being unable to shoot a bunch. Right. Those thing, they'll get out and pressure you, but this meaningless pressure. If you can handle the pressure, you'll get easy looks at the rim. I hate to say it because of the connotations, but like, they'll be super athletic. They'll be the most athletic team in their, in their conference. They don't play necessarily the smartest brand of basketball. Like that's the, that's the problem.
People are tired of it. People are frustrated. How many years of this is it with coach Fendi Hardaway? And it's, it's, it's sad to see with, with Fendi Hardaway because he's, he's a legend of Memphis, a legend of, of basketball in the city. Yo, like it, it hadn't been a good enough product. It hadn't been a, it was not a good product last year. And it hadn't been good enough of the past handful of years. But again, all legging chain. What do you think that? So he, I was looking, he's, he's one 67% of his games. He's 175 and 87. So he's, they win two thirds of the games, basically underpinning. Like what, what is good enough, do you think? Do you like to win? Is it the American, or is it just, is it just winning, does he even mean, do you more postseason wins? When the conference get to a A suite, it's eight years. Eight years, Rob, you, you've been here for a while. You've seen the, the, the, what, some of the glory days of Memphis basketball. Mm-hmm. If I had to told you at, in what, 2020, 12, passingers still to coach, I think in 2012,
if I come to you and say, hey, Memphis is going to have a stretch of eight years where they don't get to a suite 16 and only win one, one, one game in the big dance and not in the NIT, but only one game in the big dance. What would your thoughts have been? Coach Scott, if I heard something, something's a ride with this program. I got here in 2009 and it was right when, when Kyle was leaving. And so all the thing pieces, all the articles are coming out and one that, one thought exercise everybody was doing is, hey, where is Memphis in the basketball? In the ball space, sure, Memphis is in the blue bug, but Memphis is a top, what program historically and routinely. People are like, oh, it's the top 15 program. Do people still feel that way about Memphis right now? No. And if the answer is no, if, then what do, how do fans feel about it? Where's the excitement at? When? Yeah. Like, that's it. That's all. And I think he, I think Penny Hardaway, I'm, will never count him out.
I think he'll find a way to get the job done this year. I think he'll find a way to get over 20 wins. I think he'll find a way to, to win the conference, find himself into the tournament. And now once you get in there, you got to get to the sweet 16. So you got to win both games open and weekend. And if he does that, he'll be fine. And then the next year, that's what, that's what, that's what, that's what, that's what loose 12 dudes and have to replace them all. Have to replace them all, but ticket sales will be up. Right. You get to a sweet 16 ticket sales are going to go up. It doesn't matter who the hell the dudes are out there. Right. We're good to go. Yeah. All right. Well, some exciting news. Ronald Akunia hit his 200th home run of the season became the fastest player in MLB history to reach 200 home runs and 200 stolen bases doing it 25 games faster than El Fanzo Soriano. That's your boy, ain't it, Lay? It is. Took Ronald a little time to get going this year, but he's certainly, yeah. But he's going. He had a strain, a kill he's, and he came back and then he heard it again. So he was out longer this time. So he's, he's only played.
I mean, I don't even have it in front of me, but 60 games this year. But yeah, this is, and he also got his 20 stolen base yesterday. So he's starting to run a little bit now too. The most exciting brave of my lifetime, I would put Dion Sanders in the conversation. But Dion, let's be honest, wasn't that great at baseball? There's more flash. Yeah, he was great. It's, I saw him score from first on a single one time, but he could do stuff like that, which was fun. Not a great hitter. The Koonahits for power hits for average. He has not this year so much. Can steal bases, throw guys out. He's one of the great, like outfield assists ever last season against the Metz. I love Ronald Koonah. I love having him on my team. It's very exciting to watch. You bring up prime, man. Prime's so important to Atlanta. He's coming there to play football and he sold out Georgia Tech tonight. Give us some of this Georgia Tech Colorado action. We got to see that. That's right. That's right. That's right. Georgia Tech six and a half. Oh, it's moving under seven.
Yeah. Oh, I don't, I don't like that. I know a lot of money on Georgia Tech. I'm like, Oh, give it to me. I saw that video Colorado with the P.W. team out there. Oh, give me Georgia Tech. I know they have the Colorado's offensive coordinator is the guy who invented the Gogo offense. That was last year that I think Sacramento State or whatever, like Deon brought that guy in because it's apparently we've talked about the way teams run and their philosophies and that. The Gogo offense is like one of the crazier fast-paced offenses there is. So Deon brought that guy in. You know, these two teams played last year at the start of the season. All four coordinators and the starting quarterbacks for both teams are different than a year ago when they played and look at that Rob. They still got to sell out. They don't know any of the coaches in sales. They know Deon. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know. They know all the comments. They know the judge verbally telling people where there's going to be a uncle and they'm
in doing it. I didn't know where people did it. Yeah, I tried. But he stevens a coach on last chance, you, after a blasting school in conference, officials in the local paper on Thursday, the East Mississippi Community College head coach and star of last chance. football games and his players are all laughing and think it's a stick because he's an idiot. He is a little too amped up and he's a little amped up when he eats his red man too. Here look at, look at this man devour this bag of red. Let's go. I don't know. There's still. Let's go. What the hell is there, Rob? And they're frowned upon now. What is it? You know red man is chewing tobacco. Okay. It's not dead. Oh, chewing tobacco. Okay. Leaf. I'm the guy who's like ground up stuff that goes, look at him. Robbing up in there, but I'm not playing baseball. We know about this stuff. Yeah, poured in bud. This is what made the kids sick on the ride in the sand.
That's right. Okay. All right. He's getting after it. How do you want to be fired, bro? How do I want to be fired? It's a good question. How do I want? But how do you want to be fired? It's not how you want to go. If I get fired, I want to get fired for popping off. I want to pop off. I want to pop off. I want cars to everybody. Not me but we get stomping on them. And I'll know. It's lyng a real case. Still having worked in there. 變 because I can't pop off all my verloren. Oh, I hate it. I could pop off your blood. And when you hit off too hard, okay, there were a lot of kids of raps and other stuff like that, was just sticking up to it rhythmically. We get the kids away So I thought really good story because of people like it but how you Мыy rep were like higher-winger, right? It's not bad, right? Great. What happened? Let's go! Who I was. everybody did. And I wasn't playing because I was hurt. So I was on the bench. I wouldn't do it when I was on the field because I was afraid I'd swallow it. Also, if you ever did, when you were a catcher, right? Yes. So if you had the mask on, it complicated things. You're spitting on the mask. It's terrible. So, but I would do it on the bench. And I mean, it gave you a little bit of a buzz, right?
But I did it one time. I was drinking with some friends and we decided to play some with football and up at the school parking lot. And I was like, oh, I'm going to dip, and we're running around acting crazy. I got so sick. It was so disgusting. And I never have tested it. When I played in high school, I was on the team in high school, baseball team, and somebody had Copenhagen, which is the dip, the one that goes in your lip. And allegedly Copenhagen or that, the dip stuff is cut with fiberglass. So it like makes micro cuts in there and gets into your bloodstream fast. I don't know. I'd never tried it. Somebody on the bench. I was on, I wasn't playing. And somebody was like, hey, do you want to try it? And I said, sure. I put it in there. The coach said, laying your right field. I was like, all right. I ran out there to right field and the field started spinning. So I stood there with my hands on my knees, just thinking, please, nobody hit the ball out here. Please, nobody hit the ball. I spit it out. And then it was, but it was still like, and I was just praying if somebody hits the ball, because if somebody hit the ball, I was going to just vomit right there and fall over. The ball is going to roll to the wall.
I stood there waiting, waiting. Got three outs. The ball. I didn't have to move the whole half inning. And I was able to kind of try back into the infield and into the dugout and drink some water. I was over by the next thing. But it came close. Yeah, it's dangerous. That much of that, that much of that stuff must be like, again, because I legit thought my man would just even beef jerky or something. No, I didn't look at this maniac. What a psycho. He is a psycho. Look how big that is. It's right here. Yeah. He's yelling at every damn body. He's wild. All the baseball players used to do it. Now they all do some fire seeds. It seems like they've kind of frowned upon it. Yeah, because they don't want the reverse. Devers puts it in like that. Yeah, there's a few guys who still do that. But Akunya does the some fire seeds. And they zoomed in on him yesterday and his lips. Yeah, like five some fire seeds stuck to his mouth during the game. Speaking of a football, Texas Texas high school football is a big deal, right?
Yes, Texas high school football is huge. And there are some amazing names around Texas high school football. I don't know if you've seen this. I have a sense. But here are the best names in Texas high school football. Hero answer. Why the hell would you name your child, Espin? ESPN. Top second one from top. ESPN. Espin cool. ESPN. Surely is ESPN though. Right Rob is not ESPN. I would think so. I mean, it's all capitalized though. I guess they're all capitalized. We got Rush Blocker. That's a good one. I guys that guy was born to play football. No doubt. Special Henry. Where else do we have success? SCN Achilles. His ass is interesting. Do you think they were they were in the Odyssey? Yeah, they were in the college. They're talking more. Yeah, Maximus the great Denson. Another one. You know they watched you know they watched Gladiator because LeBron named had the Bryce Maximus.
He named after the movie Gladiator. Oh really? Yeah. Seven thrower. Why why are you naming your child a number? Because he throws for seven. What's that? What's the one above him? Prince thank God jumbo. Thank God jumbo the last name. It looks like it. Somebody's walking around. His mama hyphenated her name from thank God to thank God. She married she married jumbo. That's incredible. Lucky Luther Gunner money. Yeah, some great ones. There's a gunner gunner gunner Stockton. Yeah, there's two. There's a gunner guy too. There's a couple of gunners. Yeah, shout out to all the gunners. So there's some of the the Georgia gunners name because his grandfather was a gunner in World War II. I don't know if these have the same connotation. I also sort of like a major factor. Major factor. That's a good one too. Who would you which of those names would you pick Rob? I think I'd go barefoot blue. If you could be one. Yeah. I might I might go lucky Luther. What do you see?
I'm a rush blocker man. I like that. I like that. Little rush blocker. I can imagine that person being three years old but weighing almost a hundred pounds. Like it's like all there is. My boy rush right there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So I had the chat next. I'd key and peel have to come out of retirement for this. Yeah. Wait, is that dash lappa? Never mind. Give me dash lappa. I'm in the dash lappa. Dash lappa. Yeah, that's a good one. Boss birds pretty good to some high school names in the state of Texas. All right. I don't know if you guys are aware of this but for 12 months ending in June of 2026. 81.3% of Americans actively participate in a sport. Okay. That's pretty good right? That's up from 80.5% in 2025 according to the sports and fitness in this. Wait, which which water you actively participate in and Rob? I was part of the 19%. I thought you was swimming with coach Carl. I just went. I just went. Okay. Yeah. I swim. I swim. I do. I flinch.
Lane. I've retired from sports. I walk three miles every day. I don't know if that counts as a sport. Power walking is a sport. I got a trophy. I play golf every weekend. Yeah. Golf is barely a sport but it is a sport. Now team sports continue to show strong growth in the first half of 2026 as well. The category grew 3.8% led by basketball plus 9.5% and flag football. 9.3% soccer is gaining momentum to outdoor participation up 6.2%. However, the highest growing pickleball by the way is way down on the list now. Yeah. Pickleballs way down on the list. It was hot for a while. Yeah. And now it's now it's way down there. But the sport that is growing the most is a sport called paddle. What's that? Are you familiar with paddle? I'm familiar with. I've heard of it. There's a picture of it. It's like pickle ball and tennis. And there's like a cage around the rumble. And you can hit it off. You can hit it off the cage now. Some of like the back walls are like glass.
And the side walls glass except by the net where it's like a cage. And the goal is to kind of hit it off the cage because the ball bounces off. So this is this is this is racquetball. Except you hit it over the net and you hit it into the square tennis. It looks like tennis cross with racquetball. It's tennis pick a pickleball racquetball. I've never heard of it. I've never either never seen it heard of it. Nothing. I remember five years ago when pickleball was the next big thing. And there's huge. They were supposedly opening pickleball facilities around the country and everything. And now I've still never played pickleball. I don't I've seen some people do it on a tennis court. This one, I don't know where you would play this other than I would need this court constructed to play. It's like Russell Manor because like you can't have a steel cage match without the cage. Like pickleball, you could go to a tennis court and you just down from the lines or something or some courts now do that. That's how it is over at the courts over by UT. But there's a pickleball court of I think it's a pickleball facility.
Excuse me. I'm pretty sure at the popular in Highland. Yeah, this is professional too. They do there's professional paddle. PADL. Who plays it? Who's the great professional paddle players of all time? I've been involved with a professional paddle player or two. Paddle greats Fernando Belastigian. Oh, he's widely considered the greatest paddle player of all time. Hold in the world number one ranking for 16 years. It's been going on that long. He might have been the only guy doing it for like the first 12 years. So he's like, I'm number one. Somebody. Anybody else any other Tigers who's next? Let's see what we got here. Juan Martín Diaz. Juan LeBron, AKL Lobo. Oh, the wolf. He's the first Spanish born player each number one. Wait, wait a minute. Those other dudes names weren't Spanish. What the hell were they? That's a good question because they are all Hispanic names.
Alejandro Galán, AK Galantico. Oh, and he teams with LeBron. Lobo. Yes. Okay. And then Arturo Coelho, who's six foot three crushes heavy smashes. Ooh. I've never seen this before. I've never seen it. But it's the fastest growing sport in the world. But I don't believe that. Or in America, fastest growing sport in America. I believe it because anybody else playing it. We go out there and play it. It's a low bar. I don't think I can handle that. You might be the greatest paddle player all the time right now. That's what we want to be. El Lobo and El. You're the Memphis and the best paddle player in Memphis. In Memphis. Yeah. I guess you're right. You guys have convinced me I'm gonna go out there and try what's his paddling paddle ball? Yeah. Paddling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know where you're gonna find a court. We'll just make one. Yeah.
I mean, we'd have to make one. Let's use the studios. It's glass over there. I can bounce them off. Let's try not to hit the TV. Well, your nickname can be the big hurt. Ooh. It's pretty good. I like that boy better than the one I was going to go with. Yeah. I was going to go with the dark one or darkness. It's not bad. Yeah. Thank you. Alright. Some college football news today. There's some breaking news. College football. Yeah. Yeah. The SEC has filed a lawsuit against LSU and Lane Kiffin saying that they have defendants wage a deliberate coordinated campaign to recruit professional athletes to play football for LSU during the season. Wow. Well, the hearing today is in Louisiana. It's the other thing going on. Yeah. So, and I saw the, I believe it was the attorney general for began her press conference with Go Tigers. Oh, geez. Well, the attorney general of Georgia, Chris Carr. That's right. Courage in Greg Sankey to take all measures available, including suspending and or removing LSU from the conference.
Yes. If the Tigers elect a roster former NFL players of season saying, quote, no institution should be allowed to ignore the obligations of conference membership while continuing to receive the benefits of membership. Interesting. It's fitting. So, let's say they kick LSU out. Who are we replacing them with? Memphis. Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech? No. Oh, no. Memphis would be a good fit. Like just somebody. Well, if you're losing a team from Louisiana, who would you add? I mean, to Lane, maybe. Again. Yeah. I don't know. But Memphis is the best arguably football team out of all those. If they, if they kick, they kick, they kick. They let you out. They look around and say, Oh, great. We don't have to adjust the media rights deal. Everybody, let's split LSU's cut of the pie. That's what I think that the, the, the greedy, greedy gum drops of the SEC would do. It is kind of fitting that the South Eastern conference is dealing with a member potentially seceding. I thought this was the, the land of states rights. No, apparently not.
We'll see what happens today. Yeah. Do they play? Do we play them this weekend? Or are they playing former NFL guys? Are they playing this weekend? LSU's got a big one against Clemson. It's not like they're playing Furman. I said this yesterday, they might play in them shots at Furman and Rob. Damn. Well, I know their plans. You had that locked in the chamber. Whoa. He hates the Paladins. What did that. Wow. That's a good get lane. I don't know if they, I don't know if they're, I, I just wonder if they do play like how effective these guys will be. Because apparently I don't think they practiced have they. I know. With the teams like they, I'm guessing they don't, maybe they do have the playbooks. If this has been going on for a while, but I don't know how much they know the players, chemistry, all that stuff. And it's sort of impact players, right? It's tight ends and guys who would be part of the game plan. So if they do play, I don't know how effective they're going to be. I don't know if it matters much against Clemson. I just don't think they're as good as they've been the last few years. And they have a quarterback starting who's started one game in his life.
So I kind of feel like this week it's sort of off. This has just been a big distraction and if anything, maybe a good one because no one's talking about LSU as a football team. No one's talking about if they're good, if kiffing and coach. It's just been everyone talking about this whole mess. So I think it's just become a distraction and perhaps a positive one in the end for LSU other than it might get them kicked out of the SEC. And their coach suspended for a year. No, that's not. Yeah, that'd be great. Speaking of just three years ago, Furman won their conference Rob. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. Furman, man. It wasn't a Furman thing. I was you said Furman real quick. I mean, real quick. Yeah, that's the first one I thought of. Speaking of Lane Kiffin, a column from Vanity Fair. Oh, man. About to come out on Lane Kiffin. And here's some of the excerpts that I can mention. You've got to keep Lane away from the girls that are in college. Nick Sabin said, according to a former coach, that's on Kiffin's chaotic Alabama era.
Sabin's frustrations and nights at an Irish pub in Tuscaloosa. Apparently here, here are some other ones. Just keep him away from the sorority girls. Sabin. The, the Innisfree co-owner Derek Perty would call me and say, your boy, Lane's back in here asking where the hotties are. Says Josh booty. Well, Sean, what the hotties are doing to the hotties? Did you do some to the hotties booty? I've seen him on the floor crying like a GD baby. And then I've seen him doing stuff that you're like, you got to put your stuff back in your pants. What's that? He's saying he's kidding me. No, no. ID. This is a ID. Is this, is this, is this a phase Lane Kiffin? I think we've reached the point. I mean, can you hurt Lane Kiffin at this point? He's sort of like Donald Trump in that sense. Like we've reached the point in society where they both like him young. I'm not here. Enough stuff happens and it just kind of, it's like water off a duck's back. We just all keep him moving and I have not seen any.
Pull, pull back on this from Vanity Fair or somebody saying, you know, this is wrong. But no one's talking about it. Everyone's talking about these guys. Yeah. NFL players going back to LSU and it's just kind of, you know, it's Kiffin. Are we shocked? I don't know. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. We're looking at him. We're like, okay. And he's one of the hotties. He's got divorced. He's got divorced. He was getting divorced at the time. Like, I don't know. Like it's, he was getting divorced because he was looking for the hotties, looking for the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, but, good point. But in a sport where coaches are doing this, right? Like it's, okay. As long as everybody's grown and everybody is consenting unlike a, a, a Brian Kelly situation or unlike, something that got weird and Ole Miss with, with you free. Or Michigan. Come on now. Come on now. Or is your own more at Michigan, right? Like this, the, the reason we're not flipping out about it is because the last time we talked about a coach doing things like this, more was holding a butter knife to his neck, putting in the commit suicide with a butter knife and in his mistress is home, right?
Like, come on, man. The other thing, Kiffin keeps winning. Like that, that's the, that's the other thing is like we talked about the, the, the Memphis basketball football situation. Like, if Kiffin was losing all these games, like, that's a different conversation to have. But he keeps winning and he got Ole Miss to the playoff and LSU spend all his money on him. I, that, it changes. Winning cures a lot of things. It changes. Lane, it changes, Rob. He go out there and get his brains beat in by Clemson. Like then, I'll be, oh, we got to get him up out of here. Yeah. We'll, we'll find a way to get him up, up out of here with calls. Yeah. The second he starts losing games, the LSU wants to win the LSU wants to win all the games. So, but I get this asking, where, have you ever asked where the, how do you say? No. Like, if you, if you were looking for some ass, why don't you walk in there like, yo, where the, how do you say? Where the, that's, that's, that sounds so creepy. That makes me uncomfortable and I'm not a hottie. He, the term villain. Do you, do you like the term for Lane Kiven?
Is he the villain of college football right now? I, I guess, right. I'm trying to think of who else it would be. I, everyone, everyone's, it's more like LSU's become the villain. Like, somehow in this whole scenario, he seems to kind of just be below the radar a little bit. Like, everyone's blaming LSU for this whole thing. He must be culpable for this in some way or another. He must have some responsibility in recruiting these NFL players and the lawsuit that apparently was filed today mentioned to him in it as one of the defendants. But right now, everyone has kind of pegged LSU as the villain in this scenario. It's funny though how last year when Kiven left during the playoff, right before the playoff left Ole Miss and wanted to bring coaches and didn't and there was like a whole big mess. No one's really talking about that anymore. LSU got their coach Ole Miss got Pete Golding, the beat Georgia and the Sugar Bowl. People are just kind of like, okay, let's just move on. I don't know if we really have villains as such anymore.
I was going to say when I think of the NFL, who's, which teams of villains? That looks like in the Patriots were forever. Yeah. I mean, the Patriots still sort of are in some ways just historically. Are the Rams becoming that? I don't think so. Nobody really hates Matt Stavler. If you're outside of St. Wadu, if you're outside of St. Louis, right? No, the Rams are fun. Dodgers and baseball for sure. Yeah, for Dodgers and baseball. And we get Lakers still in basketball, but we're getting to the end on the topic of basketball. We're getting towards the end of the LeBron as a potential villain or the Kevin Durant or even like somebody like Steph Curry. And I think once you get to a certain point is like, oh, I just want to appreciate you one last time. And then watch you go off into the sunset. So we might be, we might be in the, in the, the midst of a pretty villainous villain less sports world. But I think Lane Kiffin is absolutely one.
Michigan had one with Jim Harbour, but he bolted for the, for the NFL. So like we kind of just forget about that part of it. Drey Mons, one of the great villains. But he's on the, again, he's on the tail in that. But all these guys are now doing podcasts and they're trying to be liked now. They're all Drey Mons trying to be liked. I don't know. I mean, he's out there doing these podcasts all the time, trying to, he's in Kia commercials. He's trying, you know, he wants to be, I don't know if likes a word respected. Maybe he wants to have some, some people look at him in a positive way. I'd say that. So I, but I do think with all these guys doing podcasts now and social media and all that, it's, it might be a little harder to hate people than it used to be because they're trying to actively be liked. They're trying to actively be marketable and be, you know, positive forces and all this stuff. So a Tom Brady, like everyone hated him. But now he's on Fox and he's got a card show businesses and all this other stuff he
does. So I think it's harder to find people to hate. I think it's, it's on the topic of Brady, right? He's no longer beating everybody's favorite teams. Yeah. So once you retire, it's hard to hate you in general. If the only thing you've done is on the field stuff, like it's, it's hard to hate somebody once they've gone off into the sunset because the, the career is over. Yeah. All right. Bleacher reported the top, they got their eight big predictions, bold predictions for the college football season. Tell me if you agree or not. Bill Bella check won't be North Carolina head coach coming to your day. I disagree. Hmm. I think they think we're turning it around this year. I think they're, yes, but I don't think they're going to be over 500, but I think they're right at 500 and for him that's turning it around. And also like there, I mean, speaking of villains, that's a, that's a story that people have been all over for a while now. And they've had, you know, his son's sick has been out. Michael and Barney got suspended.
They've had some stuff they've gone through the last few months. I think if they go 500 people are going to be happy. They're going to say, look, don't check. He gets to a ball game this year. It's remarkable. I mean, they're overrunners. What four and a half? Yeah. They got, uh, Clemson, Notre Dame, pit, Duke, Syracuse, Miami, Yukon, Louisville, Virginia, North Carolina state. That's a, that's a hard schedule. Yeah. All right, especially with the way Virginia looked last, last week. Yeah, I think if they go over four and a half, it'd be five. But that's better than they were last year. So yeah. Um, all right. The, uh, the hot seat will stay hot in Wisconsin and Florida state. Yeah. I agree. No. For say it's going to lose this week. Go into, I mean, one and one Wisconsin is going to lose this week. Don't they play Notre Dame? Yeah. Uh, yeah. I think that seat stays hot in those days. And there are 20 point go. Yeah. So the seat can't be hot if you're, you're fired, right? Like, this is it for more.
Yeah. Um, Oklahoma state will execute one of the greatest college football turn around in recent memory. What? You know, Eric Morris is their head coach turnaround from what? Well, I think it's like four and a half past away. I'd, I'd say maybe, I mean, because of the money that he could throw into the program. But I don't know how they're going to turn it around. Uh, I don't know. Because they were a disaster last year. Yeah. Um, Trinidad Chambliss will become the face of college football. Disagree. Oh, I, I agree. I think he's one in the Heisman this year. I don't think so. They lost their offensive coordinator. They, they've lost some key pieces around him. I mean, the best, the best pass catcher, well, tight end that they had is going to play on LSU if he gets released from the NFL. Uh, I mean, I know they come on Lacey's there. But I, I just, I feel like this is, they had an amazing run last year. And I think this year, it's going to be a little different. My teams are going to have him target it a little more. Yeah. All right. Lane Kiffin will meet the hype, huh? Yeah. Lane Kiffin still looking for the hotties.
You think he's still looking for him in the tall room? I say no only because like that hype is impossible for anybody. But what is the hype? Right? I've got to win a title, right? Like that's, that's, that's it. So caught up in the everything else about Lane Kiffin's time at LSU. I hadn't even stopped to digest any of the, the LSU hype. Is it, is it like that? Is that the thought? Hey, this is a team that's in contention for SEC championship. Absolutely. Okay. National champions, that's, that's, that's the goal. Was it every year? What's the thing Rosa likes to point out about LSU? Some about every coaches has won a championship there up until Brian Kelly. Yeah. Orgeron Miles, 2001. On. Yeah. So I guess so maybe. I just hope he, he, he finds the hotties. 2006 will be the year of the running back, not the quarterback. Kiwan Lacey leading the way, Ahmad Hardy from Missouri as well. Yeah, I know the guy, Isaac Cameron was named, led the league in, in yards, led the
college football in yards per carries last year as back. George's got Nate Frazier back, who was one of their best players last year. They got to think. I don't know. I feel like quarterbacks are always going to get the attention though, right? Especially the way the teams kind of play running shoot. And the teams that are expected to be good this year, they're, they all have good quarterbacks to. Yeah. And, and so I think their names will be at the forefront. I mean, you're going to hear about Arch Manning and, and, uh, Chambliss and all these other guys all season long. Yeah. And not Julian saying my offer saying, Gunner. The SEC will again play its way out of the college football playoff. What do you mean play? How did they, how did they play their way out the last couple of years by losing to each other? It's going to happen to each other. They lost it. Everybody else. I mean, lose the lost little miss. It happens in the earlier rounds, maybe, but. I think an SEC team makes the, the championship game this year. Yeah, I had a couple of years. I don't have to. I think George is making it and I think they're winning it. Their other bowl prediction is Oregon will win their first national championship.
I say no. Didn't I pick them? I think I picked them last last week on just. I don't think so either, but you got to pick somebody. So why not? Yeah. But I get why you'll, you say no, like until you do it, you can't do it. So go out there and, and stop yelling into the cameras and being a pretty entertaining coach down landing. Go out there and win, win a, win a championship, though. Yeah. All right. Let's, uh, let's take a break. We'll take a break. We'll come back. We got some NFL stuff to get into as well. This is the Chris Vernon show. Yeah, you'll finish it. Oh, it's couple. He did yesterday. Yeah. It's a Chris Vernon show here on Grand City media. Grizzlies fans know it's the team that gives you the edge. Big River Steel does too. And much like the Grizzlies have recruited legendary talent, we want you to be part of our team. Are you ready to be part of something legendary? Visit www.bigriversteel.com.
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Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Your 27th season. How many years are you chasing to do? I'm just retirement age. But no. No such thing. Look, man, when you guys start to get a certain age, you start thinking of differently. You got to find that out. No, no. I need... I've got young kids, so I'm going to have... Okay. So probably 85. I'm back to you. Turn into the Jessica Benson Show with CJ Hurt live every weekday at 8 a.m. On YouTube, at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. Welcome back to the Chris Vernon Show on YouTube at Grind City Media and the official Grind City Media app. Now, back to your host Chris Vernon. I'm a real... Can you feel it? I'm gonna run me up by it. Can you feel it? I'm gonna run me up by it. Can you feel it? I'm gonna run me up by it.
Can you feel it? your Tennessee Army National Guard has been serving the volunteer state and our nation with pride since 16-36 interested in making a difference will speak to a Tennessee Army National Guard representative today or visit National Guard dot com slash TN to find out how you can serve your community and attend any of Tennessee's public colleges and universities with 100% tuition and fees covered in the next week. Welcome back everyone to the Chris Vernon show Rob Fisher Lang Whitaker and CJ Hurt in here for you today Chris and Devon and John the I'll be back tomorrow on the program. Wanted to talk a little NFL here today as well. We we mentioned yesterday that it was breaking news at the time that Kirk Cousins was named the starter for the Las Vegas Raiders he's named the starting quarter back. Is there a chance for an end of Mendoza doesn't play this year? No, you don't think so? No Cousins is not going to play all 17 games.
No way. I've watched them the last two years from our Falcons. There's no Mendoza is going to play at some point this year and I think worst case after eight games they're not really tough to vision. They're going to be sitting there two and six. They're going to say you know what? Let's just let him play. Don't you think? I would think so because that's normally the way things go. The over unders five and a half games. Yeah, that feels high. I think I think Cousins might get five a lot of times you look at the schedule and think all right well where's their buy week? That but they got a really early buy week so you can kind of cross that out. And then you think all right well where's the schedule kind of ease up. I don't think the schedule is is up for the Raiders at all this season either so I don't know if there's that good landing spot for him to come in. And start there by week's week 13. Oh it's week 13 so it's late. Yeah, okay. They play Miami so maybe that's a easy game to start at the Chargers at the Saints versus the Chiefs at the Patriots versus the bills.
It's a does schedule then they play the Rams then they get the Jets 49ers Seattle Denver Cleveland. There's a couple of games. They have a last play schedule. What are we doing here? I'm going to see all the Patriots on the wait the Seahawks and the Patriots and the Rams. Yes. And the bills. And the bills. How the hell did they end up with the whole team? I mean they ended with Tennessee Arizona and then at Kansas City which not great. But yeah, they're because they're in the same division with the Chiefs the Chargers and the Broncos. And the other teams that think they could be in the Super Bowl. Yeah. There's nothing you can do about that. So that's six games. Yeah, but those are teams that are going to beat up. You don't get a night off against those teams. No. And then you have to, you know who the Seahawks, the bills, the Patriots. There's like that's three more. Like I don't think they're going to win more than four years. I don't know where there's that spot to say. Yeah, go get the Patriots for an annual.
Yeah. Effort. Effort we ball. Go out there. Go out there and play. What was the line of bail? Go play. Put this on your LinkedIn. Let's go. There's going to be some point where Kirk cousins comes off the field and is like, I can't go back in. And then Mendoza is going to get to play. Yeah. That's going to happen. Are the Falcons regretting not keeping cousins? Sheesh. Yes and no. I mean, I would like, you would like some certainty at the quarterback position. We got two out here posting comments on his own Instagram. Yeah. That was two was wife. Sheesh is a council. This is two out here post on his own IG. We got. Pinnick still hasn't played. He just got cleared for 11 on 11 a couple days ago. The fans all want Jack Strand to play. Who? Division two. Who? Division two guy who played that one preseason game against the Colton was awesome. Just look like they scored 30 points when he played. I don't know what the hell is going to happen. The thing with cousins he was heard all the time.
I don't know. Yeah. This is the second time in the last 19 seasons that no rookie quarterback will start in week one. It also happened in 2022. The last six quarterbacks selected number one overall had started on opening day. The last one who did not was Baker Mayfield. He turned up pretty good. Yeah. About that. A couple of numbers for the national football league to talk about this week. I don't remember Laquan Tredwell, the Ole Miss wide receiver. He's currently with the Indianapolis Colts. He told reporters on Wednesday that he won't be surrendering his number 13 to Keenan Allen. Who will instead wear number 10. Here's why. You guys have any further conversations about that before? Yeah. I mean, Candace spoke probably three times already. He was just like he's not really worried about it. Like I told him, I respect the game. I know what you did in the number. In my family, we did a lot of praying about it as well. He was cool with me keeping the number.
We kind of smoked briefly about it. Like I said, a couple of times. We went forward from there. You guys are sticking where you are? Yeah. You have a good thing to do, Tim. Yeah. How do you end up with 13? I mean, a couple of numbers. Yeah. Have any significance to you or did you choose it? So, initially I came here. I was in seven. Chiberius came. Then DJ came. I was in 17. And so, then, Keenan comes. So, I've been switching numbers a lot. And so last year, I really grew to like 13. I was playing well in it. Just everything about my family. We just been, you know, just falling in love with the number and just seeing me out there making plays. So, having a great camp in it. So, I just still want to stop the momentum. I agree. What am I? I think he wants to get paid. From Keenan Allen? Yes. How about this? In 13 seasons with the Chargers and Bears, Allen is worn number 13. The whole time. The whole career.
His 14th season will mark the first time he'll wear a different number. Treadwell, meanwhile, has worn, has NFL career, which has not been long. He's worn 11, 80, 82, 18, 17, 17, 17, and 13 from 2016. Before landing on 13 last year and in that number last year, Laquan appeared in 10 games with no catches and no targets. But the fact that he keeps saying, wow, I talked about my fan. Great on it. And we just liked it. We just liked it. We just liked everything. I think he's like, he said, I talked to Keenan about it. We had a good conversation. I'm sure he was all right. How much are you going to pay me for this number? He said, I'm not paying you for the number. All right. I'm keeping 13. I wonder if Keenan Allen went to the number 13. I wonder if Keenan Allen went to him and was like, hey, I'll give you whatever. How much do you think it takes? A watch. 50,000 bucks. I don't know. I'll pay you X amount for the number. And I wonder if he would change his family might have a different conversation about this.
With God? Yeah. God might say, take the money. Yeah. I don't know. Come, come, come, do them in a burning bush. A burning jersey? Look, a burning jersey. Look, on my child. Change your number. Get that money. All right. Now, Dishon Stribling, rookie wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, he has changed his number. He was given, I think, 17 when he was drafted or 15, maybe when he was drafted. He's changing it to number seven. Now, that's the number that was born worn by Dishon Love. Yeah, that's Dishon Love. Dishon Love. That was number seven. Here he is talking about his new number seven. What went into the change from 15 to seven? Yeah. So War Seven back in high school was one of my favorite numbers at the time. I just want to be comfortable in that and do my thing. Did you get any text about the scammer that was wearing seven and all the posters?
Yeah, it's hilarious. That's kind of crazy, but it's pretty cool at the same time. Crazy. Crazy, but pretty cool. Seven's a good number, though. I like seven. Seven is a good number. And what's it wants to do? His name's Camerdo. Dishon Love. Yeah, I think he tried to scam a busters. It wasn't just women he was trying to scam. There was a post going on. This is a of him sliding into Busters DM. Asking where the Hotties were. No, I think he knows what the Hotties are. There he's tricked them out. He's like, yo, listen, I'm gonna come through. I need y'all to the block this off. Obviously, I'm an NFL player and I can pay for this, but I'm just asking if you guys are curious about doing a trade where for a photo with the staff and social media posts. I can come in here, just give us unlimited cards, unlimited food, open up all of the prizes because I got somebody who want to win a PlayStation for the kids. Wow. He was out here getting it wrong.
I bet you, I bet you if you paid days, I love he'd give up seven. Oh, yeah, oh easy. Yeah. Easy. Well, well, it might be a counterfeit seven. It might be a feature. That's the average. Yeah. Right. Bold predictions again. Okay. This time from Fox Sports for the NFL season. Number one, the Chiefs of Mississippi. I can see it. I'd say no. I mean, you could see it though, right? Like that is a tough division. Sure. But until they do it, I don't want to bet against it. They still have my homes. And I assume he's healthy, right? I mean, I don't know. We can return from ACLs that fast now, I guess. I cut him from my fantasy team. He didn't even put my team. I already had Justin Herbert and I was, I don't want to. I'm good. I don't think we're going to, I don't think he's going to be patching homes for a little while at least, right? I mean, I didn't think Jason Tatum was going to be Jason Tatum for a little while. It wasn't. And then he come back and drop 20 immediately. Yeah, but he had some games where he wasn't going to.
Yeah. I don't think he needed a lot of her. She writes this for the chiefs. Number two, the Bengals will be the AFC's number one seed. I buy it. I believe it in the whole AFC. Yes. Number one seed in the AFC. I take it because Joe Burrows great. There's no Josh Allen. You don't think the, what about it? The bills could be the number one seed. No, I don't think the bills will win the vision. Patriots will win their division. Thanks, huh? Yeah. So Bengals won a game in September because they hadn't done that in a really long time. That's a big key. But I think their defense is a little bit better, which they only has needed to be a little bit better. It's been dreadful. Yeah. Also, they've never been able to protect Joe Burrows. And they don't have the wide receiver issues with contract talks this year. So I think, I think Joe Burrows is. He always gets hurt though because they can't. They don't have any offensive linemen. And they look like they block like you and I'll be up front every year. So can they prefer men now the rebels that you and I will be we want we all watch that fourth quarter of that game.
That's ridiculous. I was thinking about today. I was cackling at the TV watching that thing because every player like no up here they coming in and they go everybody bust through the line. Like it's like you know, he was like the lineman thought they were running screen passes and no one else did. The way everyone just burst through it. Yeah, I don't know if the Bengals can protect Joe Burrows. All right. New Patriots wide receiver AJ Brown will lead the league in receptions. No, I can see that, but like I don't think it'll happen. A lot of five yard plays short passes a lot of them. Yeah. I don't know. All right. Caleb Williams will top 4,500 passing yards and the Bears returned to the playoffs. So you got to hit two of those things. You got to get the passing yards and the playoffs. I'll say no. What kind of the nails will they play in? Yeah. Yeah. He's orange and black. Ben Johnson said he's done with the goofy stuff. Yep. Which I'm not sure exactly what that's an expression of these young people. Yeah. I don't know if that's part of it or not.
Yeah. Yeah. I would say no. The Bears have the hardest schedule in football. It's wait, it's harder than the Raiders. We just read the players and it was impossible. Apparently, Rick. Yeah. I'm looking at that. Lions Packers Vikings. Those are their division team. So that's six. That's that's a tough division to be in. Yeah. They got to play. Did they win that division last year? No. Okay. They go, but they got to the playoffs. They go, they started at Carolina, home against Minnesota. Okay. Then they home against the Eagles, home against the Jets. So far, like it's not terrible. All right. At Green Bay, at Atlanta again, winnable game. Home against New England, at Seattle, home against Tampa Bay. That's against the Saints, at the Lions, Jacksonville, Miami. I mean, I think this is easier than the Raiders schedule. Yeah. No, this way easier than a Raiders schedule. They do play at Buffalo and... It's all of the Raiders.
At the end of the season, they go at Buffalo, home against the Packers, the Lions, and then the Vikings. But I feel like the Raiders schedule is... It was ranked number one. However, they rank them. And the teams that have had the number one ranked schedule have not fared well. I mean, the last like eight years, I think only like one has finished over 500. Yeah. So it'll be tougher for the Bears this year. The schedule's much more difficult than it was last year. They'll need some of that magic we saw from Caleb Williams last year. Yes. Maybe he can do it. The Lions will go from worst to first in the NFC North. Hmm. From worst to first. In the NFC North, just in the division. Yeah. So the Lions, the best team in that division. Yeah. CJ is a big dang Campbell guy. Hmm. Not really. But he's one. So what can I, what can I say? I mean, that's tough because you got the Bears are certainly going to contend for it. And I would imagine Green Bay will be contending for it. If they can keep Parsons healthy. Yeah. Yeah. They'll absolutely be there.
So that'll be tough. The Vikings will not... I mean, Caleb Murray's running round out there like a toddler would do to win his draws, right? Vikings are out there. Vikings are going to run for season. You think so? Maybe they're home. But somebody season is a good run by the Vikings. The Saints go from worst to first and Tyler Schuck jumps into the top 10 in passing yards. No. No, that's not happening. You don't like Tyler Schuck. The Dolphins... All shots. Dolphins lose. Is that as the Falcons Corp X situation is? I'll take it. Dolphins will lose a league high 16 games. Have did they see the Cardinals take the ball? They do that pop the champagne bottle. Like the Dolphins do that, Dolphins. Chris Burman will be there. Aaron Donald leads the Rams and Sacks. No. There's no way that happens. Even with the tackles, one, defense as great as Aaron Donald was, I don't think that he usually led the team in Sacks one, two. I hear you bring him in there because he forces the double, the triple teams and then
get free somebody else up. It's going to be something no name do who's going to lead the Rams and say, we could rotate in on the other side of Mal's Garrett. We're Aaron Donald in the middle. We could get six or seven Sacks in a season. They're going to look like Memphis against you in LV. Every game. The Raiders, Max Crosby will lead the NFL in Sacks. I hope so because I have him on my fantasy team. About that. I feel like though the Raiders are one of those teams, like he won't have as many chances to tee off on quarterbacks because they're going to be playing from behind all the time. And the other teams are going to be running the ball. Yeah. A deck press got wins MVP. No. What? Who? Dax. How are we doing this? I'm just saying, got to generate buzz, bold statements and whatnot, but no. No. No. Okay. You might not even meet the Cowboys MVP. I mean, yeah, he'll definitely be the Cowboys MVP. I mean, I'll give a side ourselves. Well, what is he? CD?
Yeah. Pickens? Pickens will be hilarious. If you were wondering, would you be of that team? All right. There you go. Samantha fell stuff. Did you see the jazz chisel in the Red Sox? I did. A situation. Okay. The Yankees were playing the Boston Red Sox over the weekend. And the Yankees were losing the game seven to one. Or winning the game seven to one. Yeah. And jazz was on first base. And they weren't holding them on. And coach Boone, manager Boone, told him to steal. Because usually seven, one, you don't run up the score. There's like an undriven rule. You hate that. So jazz steals second. Yeah. With no throw. Yeah. Next pitch, he steals, steals third. Yeah. The breadboons tell him to steal third. Yes. And we'll Fleming, who is the announcer for the Red Sox, called jazz a bush league player who plays the game the wrong way after he stole the two bases. And then went on to said, and the pitcher should go fight him. Wouldn't you like to see him drill Austin Wells right here?
Well, things can be true. So jazz said they're called on written rules because you're not really breaking any rules. You said you do the same thing when teams are pouring on runs. We didn't have nothing to say about that when they did it does. It's just how unprofessional he is. Following the game, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said that he told jazz to steal. He said, I'm an old school guy. I respect the unwritten rules, but they've evolved and they've changed. I've got to do what's right for me. We're playing at Fenway Park. He can score runs and bunches very quickly. So, you know, seven ones, not that out of hand. Yeah, I agree. So we're going to steal. So Boone said that Fleming apologized to him over the phone on Monday. He accepted the apology. And then he also apologized publicly on social media saying that his comments crossed the line that has fanned him blood into the broadcast. But he didn't really apologize specifically to jazz. And jazz Chisim said, to be honest with you, I don't know about it. I didn't even know who that was until this morning. And I'm not going to remember who he is after today. That's sort of that's kind of the jazz Chisim experience, right?
Like he's really talented. Every once all does some incredible things. But then like earlier this season he went out to play second base with a lollipop in his mouth. Yes. With the stick sticking out. What's the issue with that? Huh? You can't do you can dip and eat some parsley, but you can lick a lot of it. I don't think it's specifically against the rules of it. It's another rule. It's another unwritten rule. Oh. What if he went out there with one of those giant lollipops like in his hand? How do we agree? Like from the spiral. Yeah. Yeah. Just that lick it everyone's so on. But he's a thing. Chisim does a lot of stuff like that. He makes a lot of kind of like brain dead plays where he makes awesome plays too. And then he does stuff where you're kind of like what are you doing dude? Are you think I've seen ganky fans throughout this season? Fed up with him equal parts fed up and equal parts. Yay. Great play by jazz chisim. Yeah. So I think he's probably an easy target in this situation. He's a lover. Hey guy for seven one doesn't feel like that much of a blow out to me. That was a game I think to finish 18 to one or 19 to one. If it's 19 to one then I would have a problem with somebody stealing second and third.
Right. But seven one I can live with that. What's the last time y'all had a lollipop? Now I want a lollipop. It's been a minute. My kid gets a method doctor's office. You know dumb dumb. Oh shout out to the dumb dumb dumb. Yeah. But I don't like giving me a blow pop on the way on. I've gotten I've gotten more into bubble gum. Oh. The last six months. Good. But not all the way into the lollipop bubble gum stuff. Got you. Should we should we have a mercy ruling baseball? We had another fielding guy. No, I guess last night. Actually, I haven't I saw a redden idea for this. That's a good one. I love it when the fielders come in and pitch at the end of the day. I know I think you hate it. But the guys come in and you know throw 50 mile an hour fastballs. And half the time the guys make outs on it because they're trying so hard to hit home runs. I read somebody the other day that said every MLB team should get one player on the roster who is like a local mensley baseball player. And if you go down by 15 he's allowed to come in and pitch.
She's calling out of the crowd. Yeah, or he sits in the bullpen every game. That's his job. He just sits in the bullpen, you know, has some hot dogs. Down down 15 guy. Yeah, if you're down 15 or 18 or something. Well, I mean, that's just as stupid. That is what are we doing? But hockey does it? I mean, that's true. They have an extra goalkeeper. They just grab a random dude out of the crowd to play goalie sometimes. Yeah, let's go. Well, that's when guys get hurt. They don't do it when it's a blowout. But in base, I mean, here's what I don't understand. I feel like the blowout's a better situation. When guys get hurt, it might still be a close game. Yeah. And blowout, like who cares? When guys come in, fielders come into pitch. Yeah. How come they can't throw the ball like they would throw from like shortstop to first or to first base? Why can't they just pitching's hard? We saw you. We saw your first pitch. Well, yeah. Don't just move. I'm not a professional. You're a high level college player, right? I mean, how come you can't just... How come you can't just... Why do you have to...
Throw this... EFIS lob. Because they're trying to... Why can't you just throw it? Throw it at their strike. Try it at their strike. Try it at their strikes. Just... It's very simple. Throw it over the... A guy who... Kike Hernandez came into play. Yeah. He's played outfield. He's played shortstop. He plays second base, third base. He's played all over the field. He can throw the ball to the catchers bit. Yeah. Just throw it. You're thinking it's hard. Don't throw it 30 miles an hour. Throw it like 60. At least so we can get through this a little quicker. It's stupid. I was watching Bull Durham was on Turner Classic Movies last night. And I was watching it for the first time in years. And Tim Robbins plays a pitcher who has control issues. And there's a scene where Kevin Costner challenges him to a fight. And he's like this far away. He says, throw it at me. Hit me in the face. And he can't. He throws it 10 feet off to the side. And then coincidentally, I was listening to the smart last podcast with Tim Robbins. And he said he played and he could throw it 85 miles an hour. He had played like in high school, but not really. He didn't know how to pitch. He played first base or something. So he took lessons and learned how to throw with the proper fundamentals and all that.
It could hit 85. I feel like even if like maybe an infielder or major league infielder could hit 60, 70. But I don't think I could. I'd be doing great to hit 40. Loving that thing across the plate. What about you? If you threw it, you could. I mean, I could throw today. This age. I could probably throw 70. You throw 70 Rob. Yeah. Rob. 70. Yes. We need to get a miles per hour. Yeah. Kilometers. Miles or kilometers. Miles. American miles. Yes. Somebody get the pitch clock set of. I don't think you can hit 70. No question. No, I got question. Yeah, I could throw 70. Would your army soar the next day? Awful. Yeah. Visible. Yeah. We might have to do this next time we're here. Yeah. We can do it. There's no one on those own Park. They got a gun. They got a gun. HGP let us come through that. We trying to throw. See if we're coming in. They're having a grizzly tonight. There's a September, I believe. Get Rob out there on the field.
We want to see him throw 70. This should be in between innings. We should have a now. Yes, we should have. Yes, we should have. Get Rob. Let Rob. Let Rob pitch. Let Rob pitch. Let Rob pitch. Yeah, 70. I could hit 70. I mean, certainly. Should we put a batter in there? When I played, I probably could hit 80, 85. 85 can we put a batter in the box. No. God no. You said my go right at you. We'll put a cardboard. A cardboard cut out of Cameron Booser in there and you got to hit the thing and I'm I chop them in half. It should be bad. So you said when you played you can you can hit 85 problems. Probably if we took a mall all for every year since you played the game. We're going to be 50 cents a quarter. We'd be here. We'd be about 50. Yeah. We'd be pretty far down. You did it out. You didn't know that you got it. You don't think I could. But let's go. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. And I did it at we were in Atlanta. We were at the the the the the the the bar on the
beach street by the hotel. But they goose those numbers. Oh, please. They want you to feel like they want you to feel like you're getting your money's worth. So you and Hasselstein did it. What the Hasselstein hit? I think he is. I bet Hasselstein hit higher than you. Why would that be? Because he he's his son plays like high level baseball. And I know Hasselstein's like sort of a round baseball all the time. He's the sun plays year round. Yeah. Like travel ball. His son's really good. Right. So I would assume Hasselstein plays more baseball than you. What time do you think he let's her how many times you think he let's it rip? More than you. How many times do you hear that? No, no, why? Yeah. You're busy swimming. You're in the pool of Carl. That's true. That's true. Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to do it for us today. No, I want more. No, that's all we got. I got to go start getting my arm loose. See that's crazy back up to 70. Let's get it going. Crank
up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up to 70. Well Saturday. That's that one. The game is Grizzlies night. Oh, it's next Saturday. I think it's yeah. It's next Saturday. Yeah. Go ahead and start getting loose Rob. We're going to get you out there. I'll do that. Okay. Oh, I'll pop it. I can pop it September 12. Can you lock it and drop it? Saturday September 12. Yeah. All right. That's going to do it for us here today on the Chris Vernon show. Thank you for joining us Chris and Devon and Roser. We'll be back tomorrow on the program. Thank you, CJ. Appreciate it. Lang, thank you for hanging out last couple of days as well. Appreciate it. For CJ and for Lang, for Jalen. I'm fish. Thanks for joining us here on the Chris Vernon show. Keep it right here on Grand City Media.
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