Query & Company - JuJu Brents Injured Again + Fever In Action Tonight. Joel Erickson & Debbie Ant…

man do we have a lot to get to today and it's a lot to unpack it was right after yesterday's show shortly after I got home can't remember what I I I actually ran some errands after the show yesterday and got home and was doing getting ready actually for this weekend's Indie Car finale and I get a text from somebody that says season over and I thought are they watching a Ben watching a TV show that i' asked them to fill me in on Jail jail yeah on reals Network and right then is when so I actually turned on John and heard him talking about Juju Brent and uh you know now that we've had time for kind of the Dust to settle on that we can talk about the the first in what probably inevitably will be a series of you know injuries that take place knock on wood I mean you hope not but the reality is that you are always going to have players that are in and out on your roster and changes that can be made and there are a lot of lot of webs to be weaved throughout that and we will get to that over the course of today good afternoon to you my name is Jake query Eddie Garrison's voice you just heard it is query and Company here on 935 and 1075 The Fan had a lot of fun yesterday on the program by just uh getting the the thoughts the viewpoints of those of you talking about the Colts and your overall thoughts and reaction I have a feeling we'll probably do some of that today Jimmy Cook's still out on paternity leave essentially for a couple of weeks we congratulate him on that and there is plenty to get to and talk about and I promise you we're going to do that but if you could lend me um 60 seconds or so for something that has nothing to do with the World of Sports that I thought about on the drive-in today um and what I'm about to say there are people that are far more skilled at talking about it or or touching on it than myself but I just do think that it is important to say I always think about Melissa DWI now I would not expect anybody here to know the name Melissa DWI I did not know Melissa D I've never met Melissa DWI and I I'm somewhat certain I'm saying her last name correctly I hope I am it's spelled DOI I believe it's DWI um but Melissa DWI to me is representative of a large group because Melissa DWI is the one to me me there is no one that is more heartbreaking than any other but it's the one that connected with me because Melissa DWI was a young woman who lived in New York City who when she was trapped inside the World Trade Center used 911 to call the 911 operator not even to ask how to get out not even to ask when the fire department was going to get there but simply to ask the 911 operator to get a hold of her mom to let her mom know how much she loved her and it always struck a chord in me I've read I I believe her mom might have been um I I don't know where I may have read this over the course of time but I think her mom might have been say like a second generation American um that's irrelevant simply to say this in that moment Melissa why didn't think about differences with co-workers didn't think about differences with college roommates didn't think about a bill that needed to be paid in that moment Melissa DWI thought about what was most important to her and that was that the most important person to her knew how important they were to her and it was of course after 911 when I first heard that 911 call it has always resonated with me she has always been kind of symbolic I guess of the overall human spirit that was attacked but at the same time in its own odd way um exhibited that day I will never forget on this day around this time almost exactly I was working at Channel 6 at the time I went into work I pulled into the parking lot and my colleague Glenn Welling was sitting in his car just incredulously as I think we all were and we didn't know if we were going to be doing a newscast that say if the lo you know nobody knew what the protocol was going to be and I remember Glenn Welling looked at me and I looked at him and and Glenn and I were he's a wonderful guy I mean we were close in general but he just looked at me and I'll never forget what he said to me and he said everyone is the same team and I've never forgotten that and I said you're right and as awful as today was 23 years ago it also was the old ultimate display of the strength and spirit of this country when it's unified and the the shortterm following that the way that everyone collectively came together to remember what it is that makes us the American people we go on about our lives we go on about our duties we go on about our rooting interests we go on about our sports teams we go on about our bills and our disagreements and sometimes we lose sight of that but it's almost like there is an external Force every year on September 11 11th that makes the sky as blue as it was that day and makes the sunlight as golden as it was that morning and yes I know part of that is just the Natural Evolution of the seasons and it's going to be the same temperate season every September 11th as it was the year before but by and large each year the day seems to look exactly like it did on that day in that moment when everything changed and while 99 9% of that change was atrocious there is that 1% that also reminded all of us what really does matter in life and it's my hope that when you look at the sky the Golden Sun and the reflection upon that today that we can still invigorate what it was to be United and to be as one as people in the greatest country in the world and none of us will ever forget that day and I and and the people that we lost and so long as those of us that are walking the Earth are around to continue the memory and the legacy of those that perished then I think it's our duty to do so so for me it is Melissa DWI and I think of her today uh the Colts yesterday got the news that Juju Brent is going to be out now Eddie I guess what we don't know is this and that is is Juju Brent out for the year or is Juju Brent out for maybe the year but but we're going to wait to see towards the end of the year if he's available so Ian raport of the NFL Network reported yesterday when the story broke that he would be done for the year but Mike chapel and James Boyd reported shortly after that that his uh potential return would determine on how the surgery went now I don't know if he's had surgery yet or not uh I'm sure it'll be either today or at least tomorrow but we don't know how long Juju Brin would be out the early he would return would be mid December I believe was the term that was thrown out between Mike chapel and James Boyd yesterday on Twitter so my my suspicion is by the way that they are going to wait and see I you know listen the surgery one of the things that happens let's go back to the timeline here on Juju Brent I think it's very easy for all of us myself included to say wait a minute Juju Brent suffered an injury against the Houston Texans why did he finish the game what if he was playing in the game why can't he continue to play if he was doing interviews after the game why didn't he mention it if Shane styken came out in his opening statement and started the press conference by saying bucks got a back and and we'll look at that and that's it what in the world well this does happen I'm not a pro athlete and there are probably a lot of us you know the other day I was walking along and all of a sudden I'm like holy cow like the inside of my knee is like super sore like it almost feels swollen kind of had like like it gave a little bit I mean I'm 52 years old right did I have a strain to a ligament in my knee I have no idea and I'm not by any stretch of the imagination pretending that my knee goes through the the rigors of a professional athlete that is in their early 20s what I'm getting at is it's possible that something like that took place but we're not going out and exerting our body to the level that is necessary to play a professional sport so you are fine-tuning there's a difference between how often you pay attention to every little single like clink in your engine when you're driving your Jeep Grand CH to work and how much you pay attention to that when you are running in the fourth place of the Indie 500 with one p stop left to go right I mean there's a there's a difference there and and one of them a professional athlete you are paying attention to every little sound so after the game is is probably when he said by the way my like my knee is swelling up and sometimes that takes a while sometimes it's once the the movement is over with then all of a sudden the swelling happens whatever else the The Challenge on the timeline of surgery is that in particular if you have and a strain by the way with a ligament a strain simply means that there is like a partial compromise or tear it's just not torn all the way through if there's say six fibers of a ligament two of them are torn that's a strain Etc so a lot of times they've got to wait for any natural swelling to go down before they can get a true measure on how severe the injury is or before they can go in to do the surgery then of course every single body is different in terms of recovery time there are some athletes that are just super quick healers I've told the story before about interviewing Marshall Faulk after a game in St Louis when I was covering the Rams and he had a wrap on his knee and I said oh did you hurt your knee in the game and he said no on Tuesday I got it scoped what on Tuesday I went in and got I had a scope done they went into my knee and cleaned out some loose particles on Tuesday it's Sunday some guys just heal fast right other guys you know there's a ton that goes into that on just how long it takes your body to heal so so we shall see with Juju Brent whether or not he is out for the year whether or not you know they he's going to be back in eight weeks etc etc but I got to thinking about this this aspect of it and that is it's very easy the easy narrative here which is one that admittedly I I've been on for sure the easy narrative is to be like what are you doing this is this this is the position room and I saw it yesterday I saw it from afar across the board literally in the old days of the grocery store when you'd walk in the grocery store this was pre you know social media um and all of the different apps in the old days you'd walk in the grocery store and on the right hand side they'd have the little community board cat sitter needed Tuesday November 1st to Tuesday November 8th I'm mowing on now call me here they have all these little Post-it notes up there right the in today's day if those things still existed every third thing would say why did Chris Ballard not go out and get Corners everybody in town anywhere you went was like why in the world did the Colts not get defensive backs and it's an easy thing and listen I've been the king at times of piling onto the the easy narrative I've been the king at times of piling on the like I said the pylon narrative right if you look at the Colts defensive backfield right now where a player is selected does not automatically equate to how good they're going to be but it does give you indication how much a franchise has been willing to invest in said player now let's look at the Colts defensive backfield as it stands right now okay you've got Jaylen Jones he was the 221st pick in the year he was drafted you've got Samuel wac who they got as a free agent he had been selected in the fifth round when he came out of college you have Dallas flowers that was undrafted you have Kenny Moore who was undrafted you have now on your practice squad Kelvin Joseph who was a former second round pick but not by your franchise you have Ronnie Harrison a third round pick on your practice squad in terms of your safeties you've got two third rounders and a seventh rounder now that's not to say one of the things that you can look towards if you are defending that strategy when were the Colts collecting this's a franchise that has not been necessarily a bottom feeder traditionally it's been kind of stuck in that mediocrity of the vat of suck for a while and so that means you're drafting somewhere you know 17 18 20 22 in round number one Elite level shutdown Corners are not the type of position typically that go 3 four five deep in a draft so you could certainly make the argument that if you look at it there are two ways to look at it and say they've invested nothing they've got seventh rounders and fifth rounders and undrafted free agents out there ridiculous this is malpractice or you could say well they when they had top 30 picks they used it on a quarterback or a receiver or an offensive lineman and because they knew that a corner in round number five was not that big a differential from a corner in round number two it may be a position that if you look at it and you evaluate Eddie give me an offensive player off the top of your head are you talking about on the position uh running back running back so if you look at running back they may look at it and say the top level running back that that if we're in the market for a running back and that's that's obviously one that you don't typically spend in the first round but we'll use it for this equation if they look at that and they go the top level running back is a 9.5 and then by round three you're down to a 6.5 and I know I need a running back in this particular draft and I've got and there's going to be one available it's a 95 there's too big a drop off at that position for me to not take it there whereas they may look at at corner and say you know the top corner is a 95 but I don't have where that guy's going to go and then after that the next Corner available it's an eight a 78 a 76 a 74 a 72 so the longer that I go in taking care of other positions I'm not getting as big a drop so I can take one in rounds five or seven Kenny Moore is a good example of it because he's probably their best defensive back well Julian Blackman's pretty good I think but Kenny Moore in the nickel you know he was an undrafted free agent I mean this is a guy that and not for the Colts but he was not drafted showed that he had potential and then they draft they get him in from New England you know the point being there are two ways to look at it you can certainly make the argument based on the ey test that they have not invested enough in that position at least in its core but this year in the off season it was what everybody was jumping up and down about literally I go in to get something to eat I love 317 Burger love it Usual Suspects is the accompanying bar it's right on brole Avenue across from the firehouse they have the best turkey burger with Swiss and the bar itself is just awesome it's like an old-fashioned kind of dingy lit bar it's absolutely I love everything about it literary quotes on the wall I love it and one of the things I love about it is it's like it's a really quiet place to go and just have a a a cold beer and a burger it's awesome but even then if if if you're sitting there and because it's kind of a smaller quaint environment if you can overhear conversation you might hear somebody like for and somebody's like what are they talking about I can actually hear the well they're talking about the fact the Colts need a corner and then I leave there and I I I stop at the grocery store on the way home and I walk up and somebody comes up and like hey real quick I got to ask though are the Colts going to get a quarterback when is Ballard going to invest in the back this is what everybody in Town's been talking about for a year and you ever been to Vegas Eddie I hav I know that you laid over there when you got when you met Pete Rose and you inexplicably had a baseball in your pocket right that's right so you met Pete Rose and you just happen to have a baseball in your pocket and you're like oh can you sign my baseball right I was at we were on our way back from Seattle we went to a Mariners game and I got a ball at the Mariners game and I had it in my did you buy the ball or did you get a foul ball I got it from the uh catcher and the bullpen The Catcher And the bullpen threw you a baseball yeah don't they usually do that for like eight was there an eight-year-old around you no it was a ball that was scuffed so they just threw it out but I mean did they were they trying to throw it to a kid in the crowd Andis enough there were no kids watching uh Frankie Montas War up it was all adults and Red's fans okay so you had a baseball and you saw Pete Rose and you got it signed right yes sir okay so when you're in Vegas have you been to a casino in Vegas no because uh I've been there I think twice I was under 21 both times okay so the the casinos in Vegas one of the things you hear everybody going crazy and and cheering and you're like what's going on and and it's people at a craps table and there's one guy and he's got like this little this little rake that looks like it might be kind of a nice back scratcher but it's actually supposed to like I don't know he's pulling dice I I don't know how to play craps but there's always one person that that's rolling the the dice in the craps game and everybody's betting on that guy I think and he's either the most loved guy in the casino or he's the most hated guy I can never figure it out but you can always tell when a guy rolls the dice they're like oh he's on a heater this guy's on a heater and because everybody's going crazy a huge crowd and then he rolls a dice and for whatever reason he comes up empty and everybody goes ah and and that's kind of what being a Colts fan heading into this year felt like with the defensive backfield the suddenly the Colts everybody was talking about you know areas of need and they need a quarterback and they need receivers and and maybe Chris Ballard's on a heater looks like he he might have gotten himself a quarterback looks like he you know they they got a a really fast wide receiver from that that everybody talked about that you know this guy's going to be great and AD Mitchell and they got seven different tight ends now and Jonathan Taylor's resigned and Anthony Richardson's able to uncork 65 yard passes while he's falling backwards on coconut husks and this guy's on a heater I need to correct you it's organic coconut husk that's my apologies I forgot to do that yesterday as opposed to non-organic correct like lab made or artificial you know it's organic coconut it's not like those lab diamonds it's the real deal right so but Chris Bard everybody's standing around watching it with him at the corner and they're hoping that they that the heater and so he threw the dice and is it possible is it possible that after one of 17 games that he just the dice that he rolled just came up empty he was rolling the dice by not going with depth at the cornerback position because he had to have six tight ends or he had to have 10 defensive linan in the trenches that's the easy narrative right the easy narrative is to jump up and down and say what in the world is he doing but and I absolutely have teed off on Chris Balor before I've made fun of his kind of used car salesman nothing against used car salesman I like used car salesman that's a bad it's a bad stereotype snake oil salesman how's that that's better just his Showmanship baddy eyes his Southern draw his charm that he can throw out there the five o00 Shadow all that I I have kind of mocked that before and said proceed with caution the flat brim hat the flatbrim hat is a big one and listen I I I I'll wear a flat brim hat from time to time I'm not going to lie to you but but I think that he I think I said on this show Eddie I owe Chris Ballard a thank you because as a 52-year-old guy I occasionally would wear a flatbrim hat and think to myself like this looks pretty good and then I see it on him and I go yeah man it's over it took me a while to re to realize that but it's over but I have a couple of things in terms of and this is a big buzzword for today in the American culture factchecking if I fact check myself in regards to Chris Ballard and the debate about cornerback I actually went back and looked at it and discovered a few areas where I in fact needed to fact check myself to be fair and balanced and I'll do that coming up in just a couple of minutes I also wanted to point this out and I I am in real need here of some help and this again when you talk about rolling the dice I'm either going to come up empty on this or this is going to help me greatly if you go to the Twitter X jQuery is my Twitter handle J A ke q r y jQuery now I got into a debate with Derek Schultz that you know Eddie as well that's right Derek somehow or another tried to claim that he has a greater sex appeal all like 5 foot one of him and and body hair and everything else that he has a greater sex appeal than myself I saw this poll I did not vote just an overall coolness Factor now you vote on it of course I I I think that you have to take into consideration that I am you know 10 years older than than Derek so there has to be a little bit of a curve on which this is graded but even still our friend April who's been a wonderful um listener of this program and you know and as a friend April decided to take it to the people and let them vote on who is as she words it the sex EST middle-aged studmuffin now that seems a little much but but just which of the two of us just has a better cool factor which of the two of us has a a more sexiness between myself and Derek cool factor I would give it to you I'm not answering the second part of that question well I mean Derek looks like an Ewok I mean come on now if you go so if you go to my Twitter account it is the the top right now I just reposted reex retweeted whatever you want to call it reposted I just got it out there uh where you can vote and you are required since since I'm the one that is being courteous enough and putting myself out there enough to let you know I'm simply asking that people go on there and vote for me she simply says I'm tall and then for here's the thing this is why I'm asking I'm taking advantage of the platform to try to skew the vote because when she asks it her two options are Jake and then princess she put he's tall Derek and then princess she put duh well that's leading the the the voter right I mean that this is voter fraud essentially is what this is right it's election fraud bias thank you very much but speaking of bias it might have existed with me with Chris Balor but I had to fact check myself and I did it with Chris Ballard's words and it might not have gone well for me I'll explain next e e e e e e e e e e e e so Juju Brent gonna be out for a while Colts did make a move and by the way Rick I appreciate you calling in uh we'll probably revisit the significance of today coming up in the later hour of the show um so Rick since you're hanging on I wanted to let you know that it would probably be more in the 2:00 hour when we will get to that uh and I appreciate you calling in if you're listening right now now the Colts have made a couple of moves with Juju Brent you know going down they have signed quarterback Kelvin Joseph as i' mentioned a veteran former second round pick to the practice squad they also added safety Ronnie Harrison to the practice squad so you know they're they're trying to build some depth in that area and as i' mentioned it it seems like the easy narrative to jump up and down about the fact that the Colts did not sign Corners in the offseason or address it or draft them or or stockpile at that position somebody else said Jake it's not even the easy narrative it's the obvious one Shane styken had the following to say just a couple of minutes ago out at the complex about the Colts lack of signing cornerback depth no I made sure he came back from it and uh and unfortunately he got hurt again so that was just a tough break you know you can't predict injuries you know and just part of football that uh was Shane Sten talking about whether or not they were they should have been more concerned about Juju brin's health history but here he is talking about whether or not uh they in hindsight should have addressed and why they didn't address the quarterback room in this league it's next man up and I got a full faith and confidence in every single person in that room and Dallas and SE and samac and those guys um I think you know they got a great opportunity in front of of uh and I got full faith and belief in those guys for sure going forward so I looked it up last night and I me mened this earlier you know next man up we always hear that right oh it's next man up I I've covered so many professional sports teams that that it's the most predictable thing ever right as soon as the guy's hurt well it's next man up you know we just got to go next man up we believe in you know iron sharpens iron around here it's next man up okay I get it what else you gonna say and last night I was sitting there thinking to myself what is their overall depth in the defensive back field they got a seventh rounder at corner they acquired late in the off season through free agency a guy that had previously been a fifth rounder they're starting an undrafted free agent they're using as a nickel an undrafted free agent they've got a pair of third rounders at safety they've got a security and safety with a seventh rounder like man not a lot of like at the top talent there but again is it a position where you can find players in rounds three and five is a third to fifth round level Corner the same level of talent you get at a first or second round receiver Etc but as I was thinking about all that I thought back to something Chris Ballard said when the roster was complete with the exception of the minor tweaks that they make at the bottom of it after the Final Cuts were made and he went back to one of our favorite things to nitpick in particular when he did the morning show with Kevin take a listen guess time will tell I feel really good about feel really good about our fronts man I mean I I do I think we're really good up front I those I think on both sides of the ball you could say this probably our best front teams I think the skill now they're young but I do think we're really skill I mean Bowen ought to at least be freaking happy for once I mean he got hurt about beat over the head with wide outs forever I think it's a good team I think it's a really good football team now we got to go perform okay so once he had a team that he was happy with especially in the fronts meaning in the trenches and that is an area that he has emphasized and emphasized and emphasized and emphasized as a matter of fact there are times where his flat brimmed hat actually Blends all the way down to his neck because he's blue in the face telling you about how much he's going to be strong in the trenches but I think he made an interesting point there when he said Bowen meaning Kevin Bowen we played it all the time when he's like you know every time I turn around and look Bowen you know freaking Kevin Bowen's talking about receivers and writing about receivers and everybody in this town was saying why don't they go out and sign a wide receiver and it did prove costly to them so he eventually addressed it and he resigns Pitman and he drafts Josh DS who looks like he's going to be a good player when he's healthy and and he drafts ad Mitchell and you know we forget about Ashton duelan that's got speed so they got some Playmakers there and they finally feel good about that position so there's a little of both sides of the coin here part of it is okay he did it might have taken a while but he eventually addressed the situation and I wanted to push in when I heard that and go see this is why everybody was telling you to address the cornerback situation because everybody was telling you to address the wide receiver situation and you avoided it and told everybody you were smarter than they and that's why you didn't need to do it and you you mocked the fact that people talked about it until all of a sudden it was a major Achilles that cost you and now you want credit for addressing it when everybody in the city knew that that's what you should have addressed and that's where I was going to go with it but I kept hearing something in my head I know that's shocking but as I was laying there you ever had this happen Eddie where you're you're laying in bed and you're about to fall asleep and and you you don't think that you're falling asleep but then all of a sudden like some really weird thought comes into your head and then you have this Moment of clarity where you're like well I know because I'm pretty sure that I was just thinking about riding a unicorn down Capital Street that I must have been starting to dream and you realize that you're like starting to fade away right about that time when that was happening to me last night and I was thinking about all the things and all the the the fabulous points I was going to make and all the great facts that I had on why Chris Ballard had had was guilty of malpractice and Chris Ballard was guilty of oversight and this was an example of Chris Ballard's arrogance and this was a reason why Chris Ballard was showing that he shouldn't be trusted with building the roster right when I was ready to to prove all those points and make and Hammer home all of of those things and and be the voice for the Colts fans of the city that are jumping up and down today and are driving their car and saying see we told you this was going to happen we told you this was going to happen I heard this in my head and it's the voice of Chris Ballard talking about the cornerback room and the defensive backs that he had going into the season they're young they're going to get they're going to continue to get better um sometimes you got to be able to meet like things don't always work out even when you're trying to acquire a player not saying we didn't try to do some things sometimes it just doesn't happen but we do think we have good young Talent back there and we have a lot of belief in our front so we'll continue to to let these guys grow and and come on they don't become players without playing I mean I think sometimes we forget that you know they got to just they got to play okay he's right he's right in the end he's right if you go to basketball why are people in this town excited about next year's Pacers season who was the key player for the Pacers last year meaning the season that just ended Eddie that did not play the vast majority of the Season Benedict Maan okay by Benedict maen not being on the floor that meant more men for who Andrew NIMH hard and what happened he excelled he flourished so now you bring Benedict Maan back and you think to yourself oh gosh this is the found $10 bill in my pocket during while I was doing laundry we would not have known Andrew NIMH hard was that player if he hadn't gone out and played a second round pick or even Ben Shepard or Ben Shepard who both played well got into rotation and became good players and now you look at the Pacers and why are people so bullish on the Pacers why are people so excited about the Pacers they are because of the fact that you have somebody on the roster coming back that you known as a known entity and he is joining a deep roster with two guys that showed what they could do and became players because they played and in terms of the defensive backfield while it's easy for me to sit here and jump up and down and say Chris Ballard is a because he didn't address this situation Chris Ballard's flat brimmed hat was pulled down so far down below his eyes that he couldn't it ruined his peripheral vision and he couldn't see what was oncoming that's the easy thing to say but and believe you me I'm not here to carry water for Chris Ballard however I kept going back to that quote they can be players but they gotta play and that's when it dawned on me you know what he has to know what he has here and trust that he has guys that can develop and maybe this year anyway we all know nobody wants to admit this but everybody deep down knows this year is all about the development of Anthony Richardson it just is and the Colts are going to be what Anthony Richardson grows into and it's not going to happen overnight it's going to be that roller Co man there's going to be moments that are unbelievable and then there's going to be moments where you're like oh gosh and the oh gosh moments hopefully become fewer and further between as time goes on but you've got to let him play to learn that and anything that happens in terms of them playing and winning games is gravy because this year at its true core everybody knows it is about the development and the process of learning what they have in Anthony Richardson so with that you have a cornerback group that we can sit here and jump up and down till the cows come home that they didn't go out and bolster it and they didn't go out and get veterans and they didn't go out and and retain certain players or they made they they punted too early on trading players at that position except for that he probably thought to himself I can go out and get a two-year Band-Aid but why go out and get a defensive version of Matt Ryan why go out and get a defensive version of an Ahad Bradshaw somebody that is just holding down the fort for two years and keeping Andrew NIMH hard and Ben sheeper off the floor the time is now yes it is entirely possible that we look at it and that we say that Chris Ballard and his dice came up empty and there are a lot of people that want to say that right now and it still makes be the case but what I'm saying is the dice are actually still spinning they have yet to hit that back foam wall and the price is right when you roll those two Big Dice that that truly determines how they're going to end up because these young guys have to play and he's talking about and JuJu Bren is one of those he was talking about don't get me wrong but he's talking about you know how good a player is Jaylen Jones how good a player is Dallas flowers what can they get out of Samuel wack that's what he's talking about in terms of you've got to see how these guys Jael together and you just don't know until you do it and JuJu Bren you hope comes back and I think again I'm I'm bullish on Juju Bren I love his size I love his athleticism I love his tenacity and his confidence lot to love about Juju Brent and of all the guys that it's the most disappointing to lose he might be the one that's the most because they invested a decent amount in him when you look at where he was selected and what they gave him and everything else but I just think he can be a player he he's played well when he's had chance to he just hasn't had an opportunity to get solid footing and that's probably the guy that Ballard was most talking about but if you are building a franchise you're believing in a franchise you're rooting for a franchise that means that you are agreeing to do so 1 through 53 and you have to have belief now as a fan you don't have to but as an executive at its core at least publicly you have to have belief in all 53 of your guys and when you are finishing a roster you have to have conviction in guys 50 to 53 probably more so than any other because those are the guys you most have to believe in and if those guys are not as naturally gifted and talented I'm talking about players 49 51 52 53 if those guys aren't as naturally just walk out of the box skilled ready to push and play like the guys that you've got on your roster one through five then what they need more than anything probably is the confidence that there is belief in them nothing's going to be gained by Chris Balor coming out going yeah man we we we did kind of screwed up this Dallas flowers I mean he's you know what do you want me to say played at Pittsburgh state you know he's undrafted you know he he he checked a box I mean he filled some time for us but deep down i h i I'm not totally confident we can go with him no you can't do that the time is now the time is now and when I sat there and thought about the fact that the easy facts were that Chris Balor didn't address the situation and the easy facts were that his experiment blew up on him and the easy facts were that the dice came up and it's empty the reality is then I had to fact check myself and when I fact checked myself and I sat down at the little counter and I had the little thing I realized that the facts say that Chris Ballard said we don't know until these guys play and that process is just beginning now and now is when we find out I thought you made a great analogy last tweek with it Jake about raising a kid you go through Elementary School you go through high school and now this is Chris Ballard sending them off to college yeah right I mean that's exactly correct like you know when you go away to college my parents have told me a million times I went to University of Kansas they dropped me off in Lawrence and my mom said Jake your dad and I hadn't even gotten to Kansas City yet we looked at each other and said this is going to be a disaster and I said why didn't you tell me that and she said because it was up to you to figure that out and you were either going to learn from it or it was that that's part of the process and that's where we are that's where we are by the way uh fever in action Debbie Antonelli going to join us coming up 1:00 right yes sir all right 13 minutes from now e e e e e e e e e now listen I'm going to have to shout this I guess Debbie Antonelli coming up top of the hour you didn't Shout it well no I'm about to shout this so if you go to my Twitter account and I'm blatantly listen I I know what's going on here people are they're playing games here because they know that I'm campaigning um there's no way that anybody can consider derck Schultz to be a better looking and more handsome man than myself but the poll itself that April did which I have now on the X Twitter jQuery j a q r y it's the top you go to my Twitter account it's the very top question um Derek at this point and only nine people have voted since I mentioned it earlier hit the button and vote for me please 44% I'm getting he's getting 56% that's so es skewed there's no way I don't know how many burner accounts he has but apparently it's a decent [Laughter] amount isn't that right clearly that's what's going on I did give you a vote so I was one of the nine thank you Eddie thank you uh the fever are in action this is a big one tonight right pair of big games coming up they have Vegas twice in their final four they have them tonight and then again Friday night and then Dallas on Sunday and Washington to close things out that would be a week from tomorrow night um only four games left fever have won eight of 10 and obviously Caitlyn Clark has been a huge part of that she has been a huge story she she was named Eastern Conference player of the week again for the third consecutive week I was going to say and I know that people think I'm crazy when I said I I don't think she's the most valuable player but I think she is going to get votes for that now and who would have guessed that to or three months ago Debbie Debbie Antonelli might have she's the TV analyst for the Indiana Fever and she joins us next e e e e e that Eddie Debbie Antonelli is native to South Carolina right and or lives there I think and has a child at Clemson even though hooting and the Blowfish are South Carolina I mean it's like a big rivalry thing right but Hoody and the Blowfish are basically the John melon camp for South Carolinians you know they're like a write of passage for the state and for those of you that are unaware the last time that we talked to Debbie Antonelli I was proposing to her the Dilemma that I was in of the double billing of weekends if you will where I had bought tickets for Shannon and myself to see hooting the Blowfish in Nashville we also had already previously agreed to see Alanis moriset here in Indie and I knew that Shannon deep down probably wanted to see Alanis moris set and we were I was asking Debbie Antonelli her opinion on what to do and Debbie is the one that said you got to go to the hoodie and the Blowfish concert and I don't think that we have talked since Debbie Antonelli who joins us now on the express Pro Tire and Auto guest line um and I thank you for your time and we're going to talk about the fever who are obviously playing really well but I want to let you know I don't think we've talked to you since the big dilemma now you recall the big dilemma that I was in with hooting the Blowfish in Nashville and Alanis moriset was here at the same time yes I do I hope I gave you some sound advice and you're still married the well though here so here's the thing Debbie now to be fair I mean basically common law married but 19 years together but not actually technically married but yeah same thing right um we did we did make a decision and I I weighed heavily your opinion on it you recommended that we go to see Hoody and the Blowfish but also at the same time 19 years of being together does mean that compromise has to be included so if you had to guess would you like to guess which way that we ended up going in terms of our dilemma I'm guessing you lost and she won uh I will tell you that hoodie and the Blowfish in Nashville Tennessee was one of the best weekends that we've had it was awesome they were great you you're exactly right it was like it just was like being together with 15,000 friends around a campfire it was awesome yeah those guys are fantastic I'm so glad you went of course National is a great setting for hoodie and the Blowfish come on now that's awesome it was great there's no question about it all right Speaking of awesome um look Caitlyn Clark's been exactly that but I I don't want to sell the fever short because it's been more than that they've won eight of 10 this is obviously big with two in a row against Las Vegas it's been a benchmark team with in the league for certain but I wanted to begin with this question for you because we talk so much understandably so about Caitlyn Clark tell me the player that is most either benefiting from Caitlyn Clark's Comfort level in the WNBA or better yet Perhaps the player that Caitlyn Clark is most benefiting from on that roster yeah that's a really good question I mean I I'm I'm not going to bail out on you I'm G give you two because Kelsey Mitchell has been able to get off the ball some not have the primary Defender every night and look what she's been able to do she is having a time of her life she is playing her very best basketball and it took time for her to make that adjustment along with Caitlyn the other player that I think Caitlyn's benefiting the most from is Aaliyah Boston I think because Boston has become so efficient and in the short role making decisions very good decision maker whether it's to reverse the ball Pass Drive it um she is becoming more confident she is running the floor harder um I think all that short roll action and those early drags have allowed Caitlyn to you know have that many of assist because Aaliyah can finish around the rim as well and when you throw it in there Aaliyah Boston Demands a double but it's hard to double so you go single coverage on her and she could score on anybody in the league inside so those two players I think have benefited the most from Caitlyn Debbie when you look at you know it's it's fairly unprecedented I I mean in terms of in the middle of a professional sports season for everybody just take a month off and and for the Olympics and then they come back from that though and they win eight of 10 now is that what went what took place during the Olympic break and I genuinely don't know this I mean I don't know did they did they continue you know you got players that had different areas in which they were going out what has allowed them more than other teams to be able to really come together after that time off you know I think it's a lot of it has to do with chemistry off the court I I think a lot of it has to do with repping the schemes defensively making sure that you know everyone understands all the techniques and all the the scheming and personnel and all those things that come with defending I do think they are a little bit better of a defensive team they're not a great defensive team but they are really good offensively they've got the best offensive percentage in numbers since the break and I think a lot of that just has to do with chemistry everybody accepting you know this is the way we're going to play this is what we need to do to win and I think they've come together at a very high Elite level that's allowed them to have the success is Caitlyn Clark a dynamic quick trigger outside shooter that that that ability then allows her to exploit defenses by making great passes or is she a great passer that defenses have to anticipate that first and that then facilitates her to occasionally be able to mix in a quick release shot yeah I think if you ask Kaitlyn she would say she's a pass first um I think her scoring and the space that she creates around their offense allows them to make the reads and the cuts if you don't have that kind of space you can't be that kind of passer so I think because she shoots it so well so deep and is so Dynamic which is exactly a great word um she's on the top of the Scout you got to guard her 10 feet off the 3point line and that opens up a lot of space for all the cutting and all the action that you see off the ball uh I think it's she'll tell you passing I'm going to tell you what you're scoring Debbie Antonelli is our guest on the express Pro Tire and Auto guest line of course the television an analyst for the Indiana Fever I don't know if you saw this Debbie but and I apologize that I don't have the the website in front of me but there was somebody recently that did a survey of every broadcast team in the WNBA and you saw who was number one right yeah we we saw it yes pretty darn cool right you and Pat boand number one in the league right yes thank you you know it's uh first of all um you know I've had a long career in the game I love it um I'm having the time of my life just along with Kelsey Mitchell I mean this is incredible for somebody who's been in the game as long as I have for 37 years calling games on television uh this is incredible I mean this is what we'd hope for and um to get to be at this point in my career to experience this in the women's game um I I can't imagine anything being much better than this and then to be uh a part of Pat boand and Kelsey Casper's early parts of their careers and watch them because they're both terrific young broadcasters I think we make a great team and I would be remiss if I didn't count you know Woody in the truck and Jamie directing who put our team together and Ma who does all the graphics I mean we are unique in the W in that we all travel together and call games on the road nobody does that that's how big this package is that's how important this package has been to the fever and that um is a really nice recognition uh by the fans out there and it was awful announcing that was the site so we're we're really proud of it but we're really proud of the team that we put together so here's the thing the site is awful announcing the announcing is not that's what we want to make sure that everybody knows right right right you know Debbie one of the things that that is interesting when you talk about you know the the length of time that you've been around the game I think sometimes we lose sight of this what we are seeing now is for the most part an entire league of players who have known no other than a professional women's basketball league because you know you were now see you know Caitlyn Clark grew up in a world where the WNBA was something she could watch you Cheryl swoops did not for example so with that how has the game itself changed not necessarily stylistically but maybe even schematically or is the women's game still from a scheme standpoint what it was in the early years of the WNBA I think the game has evolved overall in the NBA as well I think the college game is evolved I think what we're seeing is more race to to space okay you're you're sprinting with Incredible Pace up the floor trying to get the space so that you can get into some Concepts and some actions it's not a lot of play calling it's really read and react a lot of response uh and that's why when you sprint the floor you open up opportunities and if you don't have a lot of play calls that's when the game slows down or when you're running a a dead ball situation out of bounds otherwise to me the IQ of the players the fitness of the players you know when you look at the women's game you got to go all the way back to the early 80s mid 80s that's the best field goal percentage in the history of college basketball okay that's how good the game was back then and incidentally that's when I was playing but I'm a shooter so I know that number right um the way the WNBA has evolved is absolutely incredible um the pace is the most impressive thing and the skill set of the players it's not just long athletic can run and rebound it is being able to score at all three levels and you could be six5 six six and you can score at all three levels and that's what makes the game really Progressive Debbie I really thought and I think a lot of people did at the beginning of the year I thought to myself boy this Caitlyn Clark is an incredible entry passer to getting the ball to operating areas for an offense and this is going to be huge for Aaliyah Boston and the offense is going to flow through Aaliyah Boston now what we have found is in particular now that the fever have really hit their stride the offense truly does kind of flow through Caitlyn Clark but yet I think it would be easy to look at Aaliyah Boston and say because she did her numbers haven't exponentially risen from year one that maybe she's not as effective a player and I think that would be a really naive statement she might even be a better player because of I'll use the word sacrifice that is necessary there how mature has Aaliyah Boston had to be through through the jelling process and then also at the same time being a go-to when it's needed and one that is delivered when needed let me say this about the team collectively and not just Aaliyah you know that first 20 days where they played 11 games and they're on a one and eight start and everyone's going uhoh you know what does this look like there were some major adjustments that had to take place I said these at the top of your show or the beginning of my interview with you you know Kelsey Mitchell adjusting to getting off the ball Aaliyah Boston played in an incredible system at South Carolina that allowed her to play with her back to the basket constantly in a crowd there's no defensive 3 second rule in the college game in the WNBA there is so you're not always playing in double teams or teams don't have 10 feet in the paint so you you get to move and play freely and Aaliyah plays more on the top of the key and the in the uh elbow area or the top of the floor then she does with her back to the basket that adjustment was incredible for her playing not just screen and and long roll deep roll to the front of the rim you're screening and short rolling meaning Caitlyn's getting blitzed two are coming to the ball Caitlyn has to get the ball out of her hands quickly if Aaliyah long rolls to the rim there's no time to get it there that's where the turnovers were coming in the early part now Aaliyah catches in that middle third and she can make choices with the ball and she's excellent at making them she's got rain she can shoot the three uh her maturity definitely and I would say her value is much more important than what it was last year it's a much different looking team than last year and I would be remiss if didn't mention the play of Lexi Hall and the decision by Christy sides to go with Lexi uh at the three position because she has guarded one of the top Defenders or top players on the other team excuse me and she also can shoot the three at a blistering clip at 70% that affects Aaliyah's space that affects Melissa Smith's space and that affects what Caitlyn and Kelsey can do as well so this is a well put together by Design hard decisions made during the break to make some changes and I think that's part of the reason why you see Christy seis was coach of the month in August yeah and with that when you head down the home stretch when you head down the home stretch like this Debbie Antonelli Our Guest on the express Pro tires and auto guest line four games left and then obviously they put themselves in position to be a postseason team that I'll be honest with you Debbie I'll bet if you were to privately survey coaches around the WNBA Indiana would be very high on the list of teams that they would rather not see in the postseason just because of the way they've played but do you continue or or do you even keep and I'll use a bad term since Las Vegas is the opponent tonight do you schematically have an Ace in the Hole that you use down the home stretch or into the postseason or do you simply go with what has been working for you and you don't broke you don't break what currently has kind of been fixed I mean there's some tweaks and some changes you know in game might be screening angle or might be the acceleration through some set but um you're you're not uh you know I'm sure Christy sides has a few things left the tank that she's hanging on to for the playoffs but most of those things happen on the defensive end not necessarily on the offensive end there's no secrets everybody runs the same stuff you know it's about personnel and making shots um as far as the playoffs go um we have Indiana has a win over every team in the league with the exception of Vegas Vegas is two and0 on Indiana now they get him the next two games uh I don't think it'll affect Indiana's seating at all but Vegas is going to come ready to play it affects their seating they're trying to to jump up a spot to get to make sure they maintain that four spot or even maybe get to the three uh Indiana looks pretty good in the six uh they got the tiebreaker over Phoenix and they'll have the tiebreaker over whoever finishes in the last spot so uh I I don't know if they can jump up to five but I I kind of like uh Indiana sitting in the sixth spot as far as the playoffs go okay Debbie before we let you go I'm gonna ask you a question non- fever related here you ready I'm going to put you on the spot and I apologize for that um I think the first conversation we had with you and and I'm circling back to it because I just think it's super important you know you put together every year your 24 hours of nothing but net where you do a fundraiser for Special Olympics this is rooted in the fact that your son I believe his name is Frankie correct yes who has Down syndrome and is a graduate of the Clemson Life program for those that have listened to this program we know about that um I'm a Clemson fan and I love the fact that Clemson University offers life skill opportunities for people with Down Syndrome and in other challenges but I wanted you to touch on Debbie because I think it's really important for people to hear I saw the other day in Indiana that they're in need of Special Olympics coaches and volunteers and I think sometimes we get so caught up in the travel baseball and youth sports and the nine under and look my kid signing a letter of intent to play for his 12 and under travel baseball team and we get so caught up in the competitive nature of rankings and all of those things that we lose sight of the fact that there are there are some kids out there that still have the true essence of sports which is simply being their best them and their best them is the most important thing versus our interpretation of what the best means and I think we've lost sight of it and I think it's important for people to realize and I wanted to give you the opportunity to just share for people the fact that Frankie's best day sometimes might be something that you have a joy in the fact that his best day is more triumphant than other people's maybe even average day and there's something to be learned in it and I wanted to give you the opportunity to speak to people on the importance of that compassion and understanding well first of all Jake thank you so much you know this is a topic and a passion of mine it's very close to my heart and my family it's my why my drive are my three boys and my son Frankie who just needs a little more and we need people who are willing to give him a little bit more if you're a listener out here because you're a sports fan and you have a little bit extra time on your weekend you will not believe the give back that you're going to get if you get involved in Special Olympics it doesn't require a lot it just requires a little bit of time that you're willing to help organize and help them socialize and teach them a skill and let them get some sport so that they understand the value of healthy living and making good choices it's no different than those of us that have kids that are neurotypical I want the same thing for my three boys I want them to be happy healthy and included and that's no different for Frankie and it's no different for my other two guys uh and if you're listening and you're a parent and you have some time take your own kids to Special Olympics and let them experience take your kids to the to a miracle League game let them see what baseball can do what it means for those kids to get a chance to play to be a part of a team because you're always going to be a part of a team no matter where you go you're a team at work you're a team at home you're a team on a sports team and those kids want to have the same feeling and sense of Team also and it is galvanizing and it will make you better because they're going to give you more than you can ever give them and all they're asking for is a little bit of time my fundraiser for Special Olympics in six years we're almost at $1.1 million that goes directly to help athletes train compete organize and socialize that money helps program I want it to be in that area of Special Olympics because it matters because I know exactly what it means and Jake I can't thank you enough for giving me an opportunity to share that anytime if you have a listener that is on the edge or bordering on whether they should get involved or not tell them to call me I will convince them to get involved because it's important the only injury one might have as a coach in Special Olympics is a sore palm from the number of high fives they're going to give over the course of of the day right or or maybe arm from all the hugs they're going to give because that's the beauty of it right it's all about it's just about togetherness and celebration and I think it's wonderful and um probably you're going to get tired of me asking you about it over the over the course of time because I think it's great I also Debbie before we let you go I need to thank you because um last week I'm sitting there and I get this alert that and this you're going to be stunned when I tell you this Debbie this this dog and pony show here for the state of Indiana was nominated as a finalist they I think sometime in October they actually do the voting but we were nominated as a finalist for sports radio program of the year and I thought to myself this must have been a down year for submissions was my first thought but but then uh Eddie sent me the clip of the audio that was submitted for the nomination process and it included uh a a prominent part of that was an interview with you and so therefore I figured that the the awful announcing which we actually put the awful and awful announcing on this show but the awful announcing award that you received has vicariously now carried over and you're you're you're you blessed us with that help and so I appreciate that because that clearly is what put us over the top oh my gosh you're kidding that is absolutely amazing congratulations to you guys we're gonna have to celebrate together well and I will tell you this listen Jake Frankie doesn't hug with his arms he hugs with his whole body oh you're a Clemson fan you know dab says this all the time the only disability is a bad attitude love it that's it love it and and I love that program and um like I've said I'm hopefully hoping that we can spread that here to the state of Indiana Debbie appreciate it tonight it is the fever and the Las Vegas Aces and my apology for asking that's a s or 7:30 tip Eddie do you know 7 o'clock 7 o'clock tip tonight and uh the first of two with Las Vegas and then four to round things out appreciate it Debbie thanks a lot Jay good good luck uh congrat on your award and have me back when the playoffs roll around all right sounds good we look forward to it Debbie Antonelli joining us on the express Pro Tire and Auto guest line by the way speaking of that um I had a story that that I I kind of stumbled upon that I'm going to do for you coming up in about 15 minutes because last night again uh when I had my Chris Ballard Epiphany I was sitting there and started looking over some things and I I stumbled upon my favorite word of all time is Serendipity and Ed do you know the definition of serendipity no Jake enlighten me Serendipity and I have no idea how and how that became my favorite word or I should say educate me what do we do on this program uh we entertain and educate we educate and entertain we do it alphabetically if if we could here and and we also we we don't really entertain at all but we try to educate Serendipity is the process and I'm going to if you could look up the definition of the word we're going to test myself and see how good my definition is okay can you spell it I can SAR rip s e r e n d i p i Ty y Serendipity thank you now that would have won you spelling business back in the day no my I was the 1984 Allisonville Elementary School spelling be runner up and I got completely uh hosed with carfare okay so Serendipity I I'm going to say here is the Jake query definition of serendipity and then I want you to read to me the official online definition but I believe that Serendipity means the process by which someone comes across something accidentally while intentionally looking for something else what is the definition according to the dictionary the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way okay so in other words you're looking for your car keys and you you look under the couch and you find a $10 bill you found the $10 bill through Serendipity or you're on the radio trying to find something to listen to and you stumble upon this show that's exactly correct which is an unfortunate Serendipity but we do hope that it's a happy occasion right okay so with that I serendipitously came across something yesterday because I was thinking about Juju Brent being out for the year I was thinking about what we talked about earlier with Chris Balor which we revisit here coming up in just a little bit and jool Ericson's going to join us too but I was thinking about the the Colts and the the corners and some of the things that Chris Ballard has kind of stood by and so I decided that I needed to do some research now this doesn't happen very often right it's why it took me 34 years to graduate from college but I decided to do a little research so I got down to the Brass tax and started looking through articles and looking through things and stumbled upon an article that I thought to myself now this is something that I I absolutely I found it I it's something I didn't know I found it interesting I found it inspiring quite frankly and so I just figured I'm just going to mention that on the radio tomorrow so I'll do that coming up uh in just about 10 minutes from now but what we do know in terms of the Colts from today because I know people want to know about the Colts uh Shane styken did say that yes in fact Juju Brin you know is is going to be out for a while um and used the proverbial next man up obviously and was asked the obvious question which was should you have thought about this should you have prepared for this I understand his thought process Eddie and that thought press simply simply is you know look you're always going to have injuries but you're kind of at risk if you go into the season like well here's how we're going to build our roster we've got to have an fallbacks at every area right you you the rule is that you go with the guys that you have on your roster and the exception is that you you don't do that once those guys are not available and and I think it's often times safer to live by the rule and not by the exception and that's what they did and you know it hurt him right it obviously hurt him it seems like every year there's something along those lines last year and the year before was wi out an edge rush and it's just a constant cycle with underneath Chris Ballard it seems like it's one area okay I'll address this then it's another area that I have to address the next year and it's just it doesn't seem like there's a lot of Forward Thinking sometimes and it's a lot on the here and now I I think in terms of like depth and trying to have kind of like what Green Bay has done historically with their franchise you know they've always looked for the future with the quarterback spot it feels like Ballard hasn't really looked forward to the future when guys starting Anthony castano that whole situation is a prime example you know he has the thought of retirement he sticks around for two years and then you wait a season to actually address left tackle then you go out and get Bernard Ryman but ryman's been a good player so far right correct now you could make the argument that Ryman came to them somewhat serendipitously right they were probably looking for other positions and then they saw him on film and they're like wait a minute you know here's something that that we came across by the way speaking of the Colts and I'm not I don't want to jinx this you believe in jinx's Eddie uh yes I'm very superstitious really yes give me an example of your Superstition um if you're on a winning streak you got to do everything the exact same way um starting in high school it bugs it bugs Olivia to this day whenever we're at a sporting event and they're playing the national anthem I sway I don't know why I always have and it it annoys her all the time she goes can you stop I'm like no I can't um and then when I was playing you never touched the line in baseball I i' always put the left CLE in the left sock on first before the right CLE in the right sock same with the shinguards yeah what about in your day-to-day today I don't know I don't know it's hard to be superstitious about stuff you know in day-to-day life okay you would have to be thinking about it I think in order to have a Superstition in day-to-day operation so yesterday and I don't want to jinx anything so please Eddie refrain from divulging who I'm talking about because you know do I yes oh okay as I have mentioned before and I really do hope that we can pull this off for the entire season I really enjoyed talking with Chris Chandler on Friday the former Colt quarterback thought it was a fun conversation it's been fun because we've actually texted back and forth several times since then um and as I had mentioned I came up with an idea I don't know maybe a month or so ago of trying to get a former Colt on the program each and every Friday leading into the weekend to get set for the Colts game part of the conversation being about what's going on with the Colts and a big part of the conversation simply being a trip down memory lane with different players of yester year some more recent than others you know Chris Chandler you're going way back um to some of the early years of the Colts some of them players of the Super Bowl era some of them players that you know obviously not somebody that's you know still playing in the league elsewhere but you get the drift right guys that you go oh man you know and and guys that were part of significant moments yesterday so I had sent text messages or emails to a a a w I cast a wide net for players some got back to me some did not I think I told you that those that we have lined up that have agreed to do it and and coming up with the dates might be a challenge but that that have agreed to do it so far I'm going off the top of my head include Chris Henton um T Glenn I can't remember if Eric Dickerson maybe is one um Etc so you get the oh Larry triplet is one so there's one player that's pretty prominent pretty prominent in and it's not Bob Sanders I will tell people that cuz that's the Holy Grail but there's a pretty prominent player of very good Colts teams over the years and I had sent a message to said player not heard back so yesterday I just thought I'm just going to go on a whim here and call so I call and the person says Hey Jake what's up and it like startled me and I said oh so you clearly had saved my number in your phone when I reached out to you which is much appreciated uh I didn't know if you would know who I am or not I would not anticipate that any player would know me by name obviously but I and he said well I looked up you I I saw your message and looked you up and I do recognize your face which is about all you can ask for when you know it's it's been a little bit and this player and I talked for probably 10 minutes about a number of different things including I wouldn't say controversy but just different aspects of involvement with the Colts and a player that I always greatly respected and after talking about it I said well hey would you be willing to come on this Friday and he said you know what yeah I'll do it I'll do it and I'm telling you right now if we if I get the same cander Friday that I got yesterday off you know just in in shooting the breeze for five or 10 minutes people here will absolutely love it and it will be an interview that will that will have like articles written based on what he said I guarantee it now getting some to follow through is one thing and getting them to be as open when they know the mic's hot is another but I'm telling you either way totally Nice Guy totally fun guy and it's going to be great stories and I look forward to all of it I can't believe you got Ben Utch Ben Utch is when I reach out to not Ben Utch though but I did yesterday while exploring Chris Ballard and looking up some things about the cornerback situation which we're going to continue to talk about I didn't I did serendipitously come upon an article that I found fascinating and inspiring and I'll share it with you next e e e e e e e one of my favorite songs of all time Eddie well played thank you several people by the way and it's much appreciated just sent me the following Hey Jake listening to your interview I'd like to volunteer for the Special Olympics can you please send me the the information I will absolutely get the information out to people uh this from our buddy Rick great interview she inspired me to get involved how does one go about doing this I will uh get out the information to anybody that texts me 317523 9288 if you would like to get involved in Special Olympics and helping out volunteering coaching I will get you all of that information uh because it is awesome so I was looking over some stuff for the Colts last night and I don't even know how it It Came Upon that I found this article but I found it fascinating and I thought it worth sharing that song's awesome too actually if I'm always down for it if you want to continue playing it so I want to tell you the story of a kid named Jim you know any Jims in your life I do last name Leisure Jim Leisure yeah laid-back dude right yes very cool nice fell okay how about Jim that as a kid grew up in the South and then later moved to Michigan and at first family members thought Jim actually was mute because Jim did not speak and they they brought in Specialists and therapist but what family members noticed was they thought maybe that Jim might have even had like some sort of well well well before probably this was in the mainstream like maybe on the spectrum of some sort and I'm going to read you a quote directly from Jim and I will later State the site in which I'm reading this quote as a small child I would communicate to my family or at least those who didn't mind being embarrassed by my stutter but before that for the first six years quote I did communicate only with animals quite freely calling the Hogs the cows and the chickens they don't care how you sound they just want to hear your voice so Jim once Jim began communicating around the age of five or six family members realized that Jim didn't speak a lot because Jim had problems speaking stuttering is painful Jim said in Sunday school I'd try to read my lessons and the children behind me were falling on the floor with laughter by the time I got to school my stuttering was so bad that I gave up trying to speak properly so Jim decided instead of speaking that he would begin writing poetry as a way to express himself I had starting writing poetry in high school and I had a teacher who liked one of them teacher came up to him and said Jim this is a good poem in fact it's so good I don't think you wrote it I think you plagiarized it if you want to prove that you wrote it you can stand in front of the class and recite it from memory so Jim wanting to prove that in fact he had written the poem which he had stood in front of the class and powered through it because he said those were my words so I just got through it so his teacher came up to him and said I'd like to you for you to continue reading poetry in front of the class so he would work on reading poetry in front of the class because that was the time where he found that he could speak without his dreaded stutter and he said to himself I'm not going to say that I'm cured here but simply that I worked my way through it and in reading the Poetry in front of the class he realized that the teacher was challenging him not just to work through his stutter but also to Enlighten the other students about the power of poetry itself and ultimately Jim started reciting things not necessarily in the form of poetry but rather in the form of a stage and came out of his shell in being fearful once of speaking due to his terrible stutter and as he said it wasn't that he overcame his stutter and was cured by it but rather that he began speaking to try to prove to others that they shouldn't laugh the article that I found was from the stuttering foundation and stuttering help.org was the website Jim who didn't speak for the first five or six years of his life who spoke only to animals and with no confidence once soever in front of family as a young person to the point where they wondered what was going on and then because someone noticed there was an ability for Jim to be awakened and maybe pushed Jim out of his comfort zone a little bit somebody saw that in them and Jim began reciting poetry raising awareness not just about poetry but about the strength of his own speech and his own belief belief in himself later went on to recite some things that were written for him that people find pretty darn famous today for example people will come Ray people will most definitely come Jim is James Earl Jones who passed away at the age of 93 this week but I found it fascinating number one that I never knew that if it's common knowledge what I just shared about James Earl Jones my apologies I didn't know it maybe one other person out there didn't know that about him but the point being that Jim James Earl Jones as we now know him obviously didn't know of his ability to be able to speak until all of a sudden he had to do it and I don't even know why or how it was that I stumbled upon that article but I found it fitting and applicable because I found that article I think it popped up as like one of the suggested headlines on something when I got onto a Google to look up some facts about the Colts cornerback room because I was thinking about Juju Brent's going down and what how debilitating that was going to be for the Colts and then once I read that article is when it dawned on me Chris Ballard has a defensive back room that now is going to have to play Jaylen Jones is a seventh round pick that probably a lot of people from a fan standpoint didn't don't believe in and he sees the headlines of people saying like they got to go out and get dep they got to go out and get a strong you know a better Corner they didn't get any players in the offseason they didn't bring anybody in Dallas flowers was an undrafted free agent that made some plays then struggle a little bit but now's got to find some footing Kenny Moore was an undrafted free agent when the Colts acquired him and he's obviously been a good player for them but the point being I kept going back once I read this to Chris Ballard's quote in my head of if these guys are going to be players we're not going to know it till they play and that's where they are in terms of their defensive back field we don't know whether or not these guys can play and we're not going to know until they play and sometimes when you put people in position maybe even out of their comfort zone a little bit you never know what sort of thing you might be unearthing do they have players that are going to have the greatness of the acting of James Earl Jones probably not but the most important thing I took from that was not necessarily even a Loosely veiled tie in to getting it back into talking about the Colts as much as I didn't always think this way I haven't always been somebody that realized that there is a James Earl Jones within every gym but I just think it's important to to see it and recognize it in people and I try not to do it all the time I think probably it would get really old if I did it all the time but I do think from time to time that when we have the blessing of being able to have the platform to to opine on things when I see something that I think to myself you know what this might be good for people like myself to hear this story because it makes you stop and think a little bit about when you start to roll your eyes at somebody maybe actually you need to stop and turn them around to look at yourself and say okay they're doing their their best they're their gym right now but that might be James Earl everybody has their own things they're working through now in terms of the Colts I can see where they probably were fatigued by the constant criticism of their approach and listen if if if this thing goes south and Malik Willis on Sunday turns out to look like Dan Mar know because he's throwing to a second against a secondary that is absolutely inept and goes down and has no depth and no security blanket no insurance about it then yes absolutely I will be the first to sit here and say they aired they screwed up and this blew up in their face and I know that that's the narrative that most people thought yesterday when jujo Brin went down and they thought it today when they got up they're like the Colts are screwed because they put themselves in that position and they may well be but but I do think that it's worth giving them the chance still to get up in front of the class and recite what they've been told to see whether or not they can get it done and some of these young guys that's what's going to have to happen and like I said earlier did we know that Andrew dihard was this darn good or was it because Benedict mad went down and now all of a sudden it's like this guy's got to play so let's see him play and let's see what he can do and now you're like wow okay now all of a sudden the Pacers are totally deep in an area where they we thought they were totally void maybe the Colts will be as well I don't think necessarily that's going to be the case but we can't rule it out maybe I'm just an eternal optimist and that would be the first time in my life I've better ever been accused of that but I do go back to constantly the quote from Chris Ballard when he said simply listen these guys got to play and yeah he could have gone out and gotten himself you know like a a veteran to come in or whatever else and that would have been nice to hold things down for a year or two but then what happens at some point you got to have long-term guys and those long-term guys sometimes have to learn how to walk before they're starting to run with you bottom line 23917 is the telephone number your thoughts on it if you'd like and then jol Ericson joins us top of the hour e e e e e e e e e here's a jake query confession third grade Jake query during this music video was freaked out by the dude that plays the bass at the end during the because he had these weird glasses on and was an oddl looking dude and it was just weird it was creepy totally freaked me out not as creepy as the scientist in the Thomas Dolby She Blinded Me With Science video but close 23917 is a telephone number we've been talking about the Colts Debbie Antonelli joined us and we mentioned Special Olympics as well Doug joins us on the program um just figured we'd take a couple minutes to take calls with any questions or comments Doug and the Forum is yours be kind if you don't like me hey I I love listening to the show I heard you talking about the Special Olympics and I want to say I have a 16-year-old son that has Down syndrome okay and he plays in Unified sports in Brownsburg okay uh football track um that they have and they are excellent excellent programs for special needs kids and I just think it's great that you are promoting this and reaching out and helping with this kind of thing and I just want to say thank you and I think it's great what you're doing and uh if there's you know any way to promote that and get it out there you know um I work for one of the local racing teams and we are doing we're trying to do a suite um for the battle of the Brickyard coming up in a couple of weeks and if there's anything you can reach out to me any way we can promote that or help it out um by all means contact me so Doug just out of curiosity um so you're talking about the the upcoming it's an imsa event right that's taking place at the Brickyard correct okay and so do you work for an impsa team yes I do okay and is that do they also have like an indie car and other other Ventures or strictly impa team no it's just strictly strictly an impa team well here's the thing Doug two things number one what is your son's name uh my son's name is Logan Logan okay so Logan's at Brownsburg we have on uh as part of a feel-good Friday I actually had on I believe it was Avon a gentleman that started Unified sports and for those that are unfamiliar Unified sports is where they take um you know special needs kids or those that that like in Special Olympics that get to participate in sports representing the school partnered with some of the kids from the school itself that are not in a special Olympic program and I think to be honest with you both kids Doug get as much out of it equally you know you think to yourself like oh you know my son's going to sign up and help out a special Olympian no no no no no the special Olympian is helping out your son just as much right I mean it works both I would totally agree there's he has met so many friends and there is so many kids that have gotten involved with it as the partner side of it that are have become friends with our families you know and it's it's an unbelievably great program I I I can't highly enough about it well Doug I'll tell you what I appreciate it I love that they and and Avon has partnered with Brownsburg and a lot of the schools in the the west side of Indianapolis to start incorporating more Sports I mean they have I think basketball now and you know they're doing a number of sports for it um I love the fact that you are involved in it I love as you know obviously when it comes to racing to help out what I would ask of you Doug is if you I'll give my number out right now that you either text me at and I know you're like on the phone so you probably can't write this down but um 523 9288 is my cell phone number so I always say Doug if you're a racing guy you can remember this May 23rd which is 523 and then if you just simply remember uh little Al and Rick MIRS 92 and 88 like that helps but 523 9288 or you can always email me at jQuery me.com easy to remember because it's my two favorite people Jake query and me Jake query me.com is my email send me whatever you have have and I simply um I'm thrilled that you would reach out to me about that and we'll see what we can't do to help out and promote something as a fundraiser for Special Olympics because didn't anticipate necessarily with Debbie you know I wanted to give her the platform I knew that she had raised a lot of money out of Special Olympics but I did see last week that they are in need of coaches for Special Olympics in the area and if we can raise money and awareness for that or just simply get people involved uh anybody that reaches out to me I will get them the ER information to let them explore whether or not it's something they might be able to help out with so Doug I appreciate it and go Logan go Logan for sure jol Erikson is with the Indianapolis Star a lot of Colts news to talk about and we'll do it next e e e e e e e e e e e here I need to hail Mary on the Twitter survey which I have as my top tweet right now uh April has sent out that she believes that Derek Schultz he looks like the fella from Lord of the Rings he's got hairy feet he's like 5'2 covered in body hair she thinks he's sexier than I am which and then she says she did a survey who is the sexier middle-aged guy Jake and then princess she put he's tall and then Derek and then princess she put duh well I mean that's leading the witnesses right there right I mean that that's clearly what we're looking at here is not to mention she didn't put any pictures of the two of you that's a compl yes that's a completely unfair moderator of the debate here it's not even fair uh so I need people to go on there and please vote for me because right now dererk is inexplicably leading 55 to 45% he's again Derrick's got a lot lot of burner accounts though uh joining us now and I'm sure thrilled to be doing so based on that conversation on the express Pro Tire and Auto guest line uh my understanding is jol Ericson and I'm only saying this and maybe this will sway people to vote for me um the beer fairy showed up at your house right the the beer fairy did show up at my house and not only not only did the beer fairy show up with new glaris as promise there was also a cream ale with one of the coolest uh one of the cool like can designs I've ever seen like an old school looking Green Bay Packers type thing my my brother and I have already consumed those did that very quickly okay so when I was leaving Milwaukee from the indie car race because you are a Wisconsin native and we talked on this show about the fact that I was going to bring you back some Wisconsin beer because when somebody is away from home occasionally they need a taste of home and when I was buying and again i' I've mentioned before the weird thing about Wisconsin is the beer section of their grocery stores are actually the size of liquor stores in in the other 49 states and I was buying the new garos and I looked over and and there was this as you mentioned retrolook beer that had a retrolook Packer player and I don't even know what the name of the beer was but I bought it based strictly on the packaging it probably is like the generic beer you you see on Mama's Family but but I bought it strictly for the packaging uh two-part question Jo before we get to the Colts were you familiar with that kind of beer and was it the worst beer you've ever had uh so I wasn't familiar I actually can't remember what it's I can't remember what it's called either now off the top of my head and it was actually pretty good it was actually a pretty good I think the crales can sometimes get kind of like weirdly bitter and this one was not like that had a nice like faulty kick to it yeah really really like that one okay all right well noted okay now speaking of a little bit bitter Colts fans are exactly that over the fact that Juju Brin is down let's begin with this in your estimation or from what you are hearing the Colts are accepting the possibility that Brent will be out for a minimum of how long uh the earliest that he could be back if he's going to be back is the last month of the regular season so you're talking like mid December is is my understanding of of when he could be if he is able to come back when he'd be back the natural question that comes from people is if this happened in the game then how did he finish the game and why did we not know about this until yesterday yeah so apparently the apparently it when it happened in the game it felt like something minor you know one of the stuff happens that I think all these guys are dealing with that you know you've got some pain but it doesn't feel like something serious that's that's what they thought and Brent BR in the in the locker room after the game was not acting like a player who was hurt he was you know not not with trainers or anything he he talks to reporters he seemed fine but then apparently they did the MRI just to be sure that nothing was wrong it turned out something was wrong and when that happens Joel I guess the first question would be do they determine whether or not it's something a guy can simply play through or is it one of those where they and I know that sounds like a dumb question or do they simply say we have to take care of this now so that it does not compound itself Beyond where it is yeah I I I don't know this part for sure the last two answers were based on reporting but my my my guess is that there's something there's a it's there's something that's that's there's a tear there's something that that could be that could either get much much worse if it's not if it wasn't surgically repaired or it would leave the knee you know it would leave the knee in a in a bad place going forward um it the injury thing it's it's weird you do have these because I think we've all seen injuries where a player goes down and it looks really bad for a second um or or when they come off the field and they end up playing the next week and then you have the opposite which is something like this where a guy finishes the game and they think it's minor and it turns out to be to be major I I I've never really I've never really figured out what the formula is for trying to figure that stuff out uh you kind of just try to describe what you're seeing I didn't even notice that Bren was hurt he played 66 snaps on on Sunday so it you know he must have thought it wasn't that bad Joel a Ericson is our guest he's on the express Pro Tire and Auto guest line he of course is with the Indianapolis Star he is out at you're at Colts camp or Colts practice today right yes I am okay so um anything else that jumped out at you let's let's start with this before we get into the cornerback situation uh any news or anything else that jumped out at you in terms of today that we should know about well other than a train apparently coming uh just behind you yeah that's see uh that's that they've got that airport over here that's one of the that's one of the planes flying overhead um Matt gay is the Shane second said we'll be good to go today which is obviously you know kind of remarkable I I don't know a ton about Heros but I my my guess my my understanding is that he had surgery roughly two weeks ago uh and and he's supposedly good to go so it's sounding like he's trending towards towards maybe kicking which again we knew it was a game time decision last week it's not surprising from that standpoint it's just surprising from you would you would think that obviously you know kicking uh the way those guys stretch out their bodies would would put stress on a a hernia but apparently he's he's he's ready to go at or at least to some degree based on what Shane siken said okay the important part of that to me Joel is this kicking is one of those areas where I if you are in a situation now where you already have attrition at an important position then you need roster spots quite frankly in other words it's it's another spot they can use to elevate somebody into the cornerback depth position as opposed to having the depth of a second kicker on the roster correct yeah yeah absolutely and and they have a ton of options now um you know there's four outside cornerbacks on the practice squad now uh Amir speed who's been a special team with the Colts round pick Jaylen Simpson uh veteran cornerback David long who was signed last last week at the beginning of last week and then they they signed Kelvin Joseph yesterday so they have a lot of options there that they could Elevate to give themselves some depth at that spot if they if they so choose I was looking earlier and I mentioned this point Joel Joel a Erikson Our Guest the corner position it's easy to look at it and go man what do they do and they're trying to rely on Fifth rounders and seventh rounders Etc and then I got to thinking about it and I thought you know it might be one of those positions from a draft standpoint in most years that yes if you're going to get an elite one you've got to do so in the top say 15 or 20 of the draft but then after that whether it's a second rounder fifth rounder or eighth rounder the different difference is fairly negligible at that particular position and thus you can't necessarily put a lot of stock in where or how they were acquired you agree or disagree with that well you know now that you mentioned that just right off the top of my head you know a corner that the that a lot of people thought the Colts would go after in the draft a couple years ago Tariq Woolen went and ended up going in the fifth round and he's been very very good in Seattle you know big long all the stuff you You' think the Colts would want from him and then they you know this guy they just signed Kelvin Joseph was a second round pick by the the Cowboys also Long Tall like all that fast all that stuff and he's really had trouble getting Traction in the NFL so that there may be some some truth to that that there's beyond the first round beyond that the top top of the top guys the other thing about cornerback is cornerback is a position that is notorious for being fairly volatile in play year-to year if it's not if you're not talking about the top four or five quarterbacks in the league or somebody like Kenny Moore who obviously plays a very specialized role and is excellent at it it's it's a it's a spot where you have lots of one-off Seasons where guys look really really good and then don't necessarily replicate that the rest of their careers Joel have they done from what you have been able to see have they done anything work-wise or discussion wise to use and utilize tight ends more in the passing game I know they only took 43 snaps but two total targets for tight ends and zero catches for tight ends to for a quarterback that's trying to get some stability at the position to me was surprising yeah that's that's interesting and I think I think not just the not just the lack of targets I think the other thing that was very very interesting and maybe speaks to a lack of of prominence for the tight ends in the in the game plan is that Will mallerie was was inactive will mallery last year you know if fans remember he had 18 catches as a rookie it was in like 150 snaps like he he was productive last year with this coaching staff uh in in Fairly limited time and the fact that he was inactive and you know you have Drew ogry and mo Cox up sort of suggest that they were kind of going into it without necessarily having um the tight ends as a big part of the game plan I I think there's a way I think that you don't necessarily need to because really in most NFL offenses it's like three to four targets who are primary and then everything else is sort of like the asht toan lightning strike we saw the other day um but they need Josh DS back for for the reason you just said that you want to have somebody working the middle of the field the short routes that the quarterback really really trusts that's been Downs in the past that the tight ends none of the tight ends have ever really got to that point especially in training camp I I don't remember many big tight end days in training camp give me the area of the Colts that was surprisingly more troubling than we expected in week one no the run defense I I didn't see that coming and it sounds like Gus Bradley didn't either based on our conversation with him yesterday this they they went into that game Thinking we've got to keep them from from going deep we can't let CJ stad throw for 350 yards so to do that we'll roll back our coverages we'll we'll we'll leave six you know more like six guys than eight guys in in up near the line of scrimmage and we should be able to limit their effectiveness uh in the ground game and it didn't turn out that way they didn't limit their effectiveness at all I I'm very surprised I I don't think trying to think I can't remember outside of Derrick Henry any other back having a day like Joe Mixon did in the in the Texans running game did against a Grover Stewart available Colts defense in my time here so uh they did some stuff they did some stuff that's frankly concerning for this week too because they they kind of went horizontal a little bit to get around those two defensive tackles they got the wide receivers involved this is all stuff that Green Bay will and can and definitely probably will do on Sunday that they've got to get cleaned up you know that Jaden Reed talking about the wide receiver reverses Jaden Reed from Green Bay just had a 33 yard touchdown last week they love to run those guys they're they're going to probably test them the same way I would think by the way carry the G cream ale that's the beer carry the G cream ale now it says here it's the official beer of cheese head TV is this some sort of I mean you work in newspaper I work in radio and I bought you a cheese head TV beer is this some sort of a violation you think that's a great question I think cheesee head TV is sort of one of those like alternate internet sites that has made into something you know what it is it's two guys that are just sitting around they're like hey daughter tell you don't all the sturgeon they're biting this morning there that's what it is right I think that was a better Wisconsin accit than I can do honestly I'm just telling you you know H yeah but uh I got the ice cabin ready to go there for Mid October yeah I mean that's pretty strong yeah my O's my O's can get long you know you start saying bu stuff like that but I I I have trouble doing the whole thing like that I listen that sounds like a caricature Joel you're from up there I mean that's not far off right well especially like over like the way I thought of it because I'm from I'm from up there it's it's West Central but it's really probably just West North Wisconsin if we're talking about the rest of the country um and my area is not so much those accents although the O's every time we go up there and visit my wife's like man you guys hang on to your o's forever but the the one you just did you get some of that over by Green Bay I remember I didn't go to a Packers game with my dad until I was like in college and they were playing they're playing the Jaguars and they sat down and the guy next to us goes oh you know this look this matchup looks good Brett far thr for 300 yards there today and I was like wow we do sound like that oh yeah no you're right oh yeah there I tell you um okay speaking of the Packers that's obviously the matchup this weekend there there is no way it's good that Green Bay holds on to their O's because that's what it's going to look like statistically in their passing game with Malik Willis right yes yeah I mean if if they have trouble with Malik Willis it's it's it's it's it's a really really bad sign I mean the Packers have a ton of great receivers you know with with a different backup that that would be you know maybe dangerous like if they had even a jake Browning level backup it would be dangerous but they don't and it's I think Packers fans this week are probably saying what Colts fans are saying the cornerback room why didn't we add somebody better than this um you know they they they said they thought that he was more accurate and stuff in the preseason but I if you watched that Friday night game he was only in for two snaps but it sure looked like an elquist I've seen before there was a misfire and then sort of an erratic scramble that led to a sack it I my bet my bet is that they're recooling their run offense and they're going to try to run at the Colts and hope that they only have to throw to throw as few times as possible I I could be wrong but that's his his lifetime quarterback rating is in the 48 range which is is about half of where you would prefer it to be oh that reminds me of the lind dicki days yeah right I'll never forget that Bo it's it's the seamless way you slip into it that's that's getting me I have to like work my way up to it yeah listen I told you Joel I had a roommate in college that was from the up of Michigan which is basically Wisconsin oh yeah yeah his cousin came up to to visit or came down I guess came down to visit and I needed subtitles but but how do you ask somebody for subtitles when they're sitting right in front of you right yeah yeah exactly exactly well if you're if you're around those if you round it you do pick up the accent my roommate my for the first three years of college is from from chiet Oklahoma and I could still drop into like the low kind of like long thing that he used to do you know it's just easy if you're around him a lot what he's from where again chiet Oklahoma oh chiet yeah now and how does a guy from chiet Oklahoma end up going to college with somebody from Wiscon what school did you go to I went to Missouri I went to Missouri okay yeah so basically halfway between the two right well and he was at he was at Missouri rala play baseball and uh kind of wrecked his leg and so he just kind he was he just kind of moved up now was this a potluck roommate or was this an established roommate uh it started out he he it started out that he came in like this the semester of my freshman year but then we ended up uh it's one of my best friends we we ended up living together for the next two years too okay that's cool that's cool now so back to the running game look Josh Jacobs can run the football and we know that Green Bay is going to attempt to do that a lot one would assume a ton my concern and I want you to tell me Joel if this is a valid concern jol Erikson of the indie star is our guest I thought the Colts I'm one of the few on this I I'm alone I I mentioned earlier the the organic coconut husk that was slipping CJ strout all over the field actually came from the island in which I'm the lone inhabitant right now and that island is that I didn't think that the defensive line was awful until they simply ran out of gas because they got nothing behind them out of the linebackers and the defensive backs your thoughts uh I I don't think I don't I don't think that that's necessarily too far off I I did not notice many plays from the linebackers at all in terms of filling um you know the safeties made some plays but they were of the like touchdown saving variety uh yeah I I would agree with that I I thought that you know there there there were some spots where you felt like okay that that defensive lineman has taken those two people and this one's taking that guy there should be a linebacker coming to fill and it never came um and maybe I mean maybe that's the the scheme stuff that Bradley was talking about playing six in the front rolling those other guys back I I would assume that in this game given them given the Malik Willis of it all that the the approach will be the opposite I would assume it's eight people against the run and we'll play the pass if we have to I love zy Franklin and I know I'm not alone in that I mean just you know he's a good dude and a good story and he's been a good player but what happened in week one I I I don't I don't know I I think that I think to some degree the Texans did a good job of of getting somebody to him but again but on top of that like we've seen other people get their lineman to him before he that's been one of his strengths his ability to get off blocks and make plays yeah we just didn't really see it from him on Sunday I I totally agree with that lastly Joel any changes you anticipate in terms of just you know lineup wise of of things that Shane Sten or guess Gus Bradley whichever way you want to look at it may do differently of different Personnel we might see against Green Bay than we did against Houston well I'm very interested in who is going to be the cornerback who replaces brand I mean I that that's the obvious one and I think I think it's pretty obvious it's probably Dallas flowers I think there might be a Sam wack chance I'm very interested to see that because they don't necessarily play with shorter Corners H he's only been there for what three weeks yeah um I but the fact that flowers was inactive last week W wasn't like they they were willing to go there if the Brent's injury had not come up during the game that's that's interesting to me and then I'm also interested to see you know normally I I asked Jan's thinking about this today and in his way he kind of acknowledged that I was on the right track without saying anything that might give away things but normally when a team starts throwing deep you go well they're just going to play a shell Now teams are going to play shell coverages and they're going to focus on their one deep threat I know ad Mitchell didn't catch any of them because there were some rough throws from Anthony in there but he was open deep a lot and you know that that presents a problem I think for Green Bay I think it's it's pretty hard to put two defensive backs on both of the deep threats every time and I'm curious I'm going to be very curious to watch not only this week but going forward how they kind of use those two guys back and forth to make it difficult on defenses to to like because if it's me I'm watching that that tape from last week going well I can't let 14 get singled up against anybody because he blew past Derk Stingley on that big that big touchdown pass then ad Mitchell also got Derek Stingley who's supposed to be good on a later route that they just didn't connect on there's there's a a piece of that deep thread offense that I'm really interested to see given the the choices that looks like they're going to make defenses pursue there's another plane flying overhead oh there we go y okay you could you could hear that one not as loud as the other one but uh Joel here's the thing before we let you go I so you and I don't know each other overly well right I mean we we we talk basically the whole world is a has has been given glimpse of our interactions because it's typically on the radio right it's not like we hang out afterwards but I want to let you know uh and especially like I'm trying to win this battle on on Twitter of people thinking that I'm sexier than Dereck Schultz which is like kind of like being the tallest member of the Lollipop Guild right but but even with that I'm trying to sway voters by telling them this like I'm not a bad dude and I'll give you an example why I want to let you know what I did for you and for the oh for the carry to G folk okay so oh so absolutely the store that I went to on my way out of Wisconsin was in kosha which is right on the state line okay yep and I go into this store and and it's a it's an unbelievable grocery store Woodman's it's incredible but what I didn't know was this they only take one kind of a credit card and debit cards that's it kind of like Costco does right well I didn't actually have my debit card with me and I don't have it on my Apple phone so I had two other kinds of credit cards with me that I use and neither are accepted there so I get up to the register and of course I mean you can only imagine you're in Wisconsin in the liquor area so the line is literally like the beast at Kings Island right and so% so I'm standing there and and the lady says oh sorry there honey we don't it's debit only or cash well I don't have my debit card and I and then I think to myself you know what I keep a little small cash Reserve in my car for emergencies and this is typically for like flat tires or running out of gas but it's been there for like 5 years and I think well Jolie Ericson's beer I mean what bigger emergency is there than that so I go and I get it and I also had to buy two tubs of a cheese spread for my parents neighbor that's from Wisconsin so so I go and I get it and voila I'm I'm 48 cents short okay I'm 48 cents short I'm now panhandling walking up to people asking if they have spare change that I can put in the little machine in order to free me from this liquor store jail that I'm in in with with like 20 people waiting in line and nobody carries cash right so so nobody has it and they're literally people are going around and they're looking underneath bins for loose change I finally got it and then I go to my car but the bag that I had that I'm carrying you're you're carry the G beer and everything else in is a plastic bag it rips the the cheese tubs of cheese spread fall out onto the ground I think I have both of them coralled back into my car along with all of your precious beer I pull away I hear what I think might be a small bomb and look back and there is cheese whiz that has now completely covered the Honda Civic next to me because I ran over the cheese whiz but I don't have any money and or cards to go in and get it for Amy to get her more cheese whiz so your carry the G survived your Spotted Cow survived the cheese whiz has now made itself into official Wisconsin roadkill which if we know anything so long as it's been there for less than 36 hours does become dinnerin with wiconsin and and then your beer made at home so there you go that's the dedication that I have well I that that story doesn't surprise me on three levels number one you're absolutely right about the size of the the beer in uh the liquor part of the get grocery stores it's basically an extra store walk through a door it's impressive yes yeah and and and just like your average grocery store too they're not special ones it's all of them um so that's that's number one number two very unsurprised that people were helping you try to find those change right especially it was for beer oh he might invite us over yeah yeah exactly and number three uh in kosha understand it no one carries cash anymore if you'd been up by where I'm from though someone would have had cash for you there's there's up by where I'm from there's still there still the people who are like I don't know if I can trust those just so you know I got home know I can trust those Banks I got home at two o'clock in the morning because I was actually at Woodman for four and a half hours to get your beer so there you go you you dropped it off late at night uh it really was a beer fairy situation yes I know I was it was absolutely I the listeners should know you dropped it off late at night uh you you it was it it was like a present waking you waking up the next morning you go outside and there's beer on the front porch if anybody else wants to leave beer on my front porch in the morning that's great that's right well I'm going back up in December for our annual Milwaukee Christmas trip so go through your spotted count out because I'll load up when I come back again and this time it'll be the beer Santa faery that will show up so just don't feel like you gotta pace yourself Joel because we appreciate the time yeah sounds good thanks Jake all right that's Jolie Ericson there you know he's one of the good ones from up here around our parts in the north Timber I do like doing my Wisconsin boetti just so you know you know what I mean did you get Jimmy's picks of the day plays of the day I did I think Greenfield signs I think so you know what I love about Greenfield signs that sponsor Jimmy's play of the day you love that they sponsor them I do love that is there anything else you love about them when we went over there to meet those fine folks that can you know accommodate whether you're talking about the big signs that are in front of IU indie or just simple signs in the inside of a building whatever it might be uh a family-owned business that's based right here in Indianapolis but started in Greenfield thus the name of it uh met the one of the young kids that is part of the family Lucas who's part of the family that does Green Field signs uh he's volunteering into a school for Special Olympics oh really helping out with the kids at special how about that telling you see that's and those are the kind of people that you're happy that you support them by the way it's like a full circle it is uh Hey Jake my wife's from Michigan and all her uncles sound just like that guy yeah I'm telling you oh that's right when when um when my roommate from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan I would say his name I I don't but you know I don't want him to be embarrassed because I'm making fun of his accent but uh he came back he went home one summer and came back and said oh yeah there's some jerky his accent wasn't as bad cuz he'd been in Indiana for a while but his his family was like holy cow uh it brought back jerky once and I was eating it I'm like this isn't bad but it seems it's just a little bit is a stale it seems a little tougher than usual oh it's squirrel excuse me a squirrel this is squirrel wonder if he got that at bies probably right yeah that's the thing you can do that now um he also said that if they would find like if you if you hit a deer within like six hours of it you could oh you could S I need a good Venice in there okay it's different world I'm just telling you it's a different world but you said Jimmy did do uh plays the other day yes all right we'll get through that in about 20 minutes and we need to check speaking of beer on our baseball beer bet cuz some strange things are a foot why do we need to check this Jake I'll tell you on the other side e e e e e e e e e e e e the way I mentioned earlier today um you know it's not lost on me obviously that today is September the 11th and while I can appreciate that with each year you know it does get further removed from the atrocities of that day 23 years ago it's not to say that we forget about it I always Marvel at the fact Marvel is maybe the wrong word but it always strikes me and I know that meteorologically it makes sense why the weather would be the same every year on September 11th but you know we very seldomly have like rainy or overcast days on this day and if you go to the 911 Memorial in New York City they have on the wall a mural of like a thousand different shades of blue in tile because they asked a bunch of different people what their recollection is of what this how blue the sky was that day in New York um and in really across the country and the weather here has almost annually been identical to the day in 2001 on the 11th of September in terms of the pitch of blue of the sky and the golden hue of the sun it was a beautiful day and we all have our own personal memory or recollection or connection with what took place on that day I mentioned off the top of the show that I I did not personally know anyone who was lost on that day I know people who ultimately ended up becoming lost if you will you know I have a cousin that worked in the World Trade Center that lost several co-workers and it sent my cousin into terrible terrible challenges emotionally and mentally in his life but in terms of people that were lost that day I always go back to Melissa DWI who was the one woman that that whose 911 call got out there are several whose 911 calls have been released of course but she was inside the World Trade Center and in that moment called a 911 operator and asked that the 911 operator get a hold of her mom to let her mom know how much she loved her and that always struck a chord with me because in those moments the you know it wasn't bills to be paid or you know job situations or other such things that she was worried about you think about those that love you and those that you love and I just thought that that I have always felt that Melissa DWI was symbolic of a little bit of who we all were in that moment and I think as important as it is to remember what this country saw in terms of our vulnerability and being attacked the most important thing is to remember it was the ugliest of days in American history and we it was the precipice of in many ways some of the most triumphant because I don't know that this country has ever been I was not alive for peal Harbor I was not alive for you know the vday after World War II but at least of my era I've never seen the country more unified and we were all on the same team for quite some time after that and I think it's important in not only remembering the people that were lost but also in remembering the spirit that that was captured and hoping that we can recapture that Spirit as a country and this the greatest country in the world still today uh Eddie Major League Baseball we had the bet that we made between the two of us the three of us actually Jimmy as well on which team you had it right the two of you that's true you right uh the way that we did it was at the beginning of the year we we took the teams that were predicted to win basically 500 or or or under and which one we thought would win the most games Jimmy took the Cleveland Guardians who've had a remarkable year they're 83 and 62 they lead the central I took the Milwaukee Brewers that technically are ahead in our wager because they're 83 and 61 they lead the NL Central uh so they're a half game up but Cleveland currently is I believe in the amidst a set with the white socks so just you know chalk that up I took the LA Dodgers right that's right you took the uh Florida don't call me Miami Miami don't call me Florida Marlins who are 54 and 91 so you're a little off now Eddie you are the baseball Enthusiast of the program so I am going to challenge you with this I'm going to ask that you please don't look at your computer screen okay can you tell me right now as it stands if the Major League Baseball season was to end today which it does not but if it did for the sake of the conversation because we're getting close MH tell me the three divisional winners and the three wild cards in the National League national league so you're looking at the Phillies for the National League East NL Central is the Milwaukee Brewers then the NL West would be the Dodgers okay three wild cards three Wild Card teams not in particular order because I can't remember the San Diego Padres you're looking at something no I'm not I need I need eye contact here please okay go ahead picturing in my mind okay go ahead San Diego Padres okay Arizona Diamondbacks the third one is where I get tripped up I want to say eye contact up here please I want to say Atlanta but they've faded a little bit um I'm so I'm going to stick with him I don't know who that third team is uh Atlanta is currently tied in terms of wins and losses but they must base have they must have a tiebreaker between uh themselves and the New York metropolitans that's right the New York Met by the way I don't know if you noticed there's an N Y and an m in the New York Met logo might have mentioned that before okay now uh the American League eye contact please tell me right here the three divisional winners and the three Wild cards in the American League I believe one of those divisional winners is cute fella okay am I incorrect there hey she's rude for me uh you are incorrect okay then it's the Yankees I know they're back and forth um so the Yankees for the AL East AL Central is the Min no Houston Astros Central Central no Central would be the Cleveland correct and then Minnesota's in the wild card um and then you've got Houston for the West you're missing a wild card team the other wild card team is I think the easiest to overlook because it's like wait what is it Kansas City or are they still right there Kansas City Kansas City at 80 and 66 14 games over 500 now are they 14 games over 500 or seven that's the million dollar question um but that's impressive I or four I guess it would be but Kansas City though I a month ago I didn't even hear about Kansas City now all of a sudden here they are yeah they've had a really good year with Bobby Whit um he's been in the conversation for American League MVP but it's been overshadowed just by the the numbers that Aaron judge has put up this year uh Bobby Whit's been one of the best players in Major League Baseball he's been one of the best players probably the best player in Major League Baseball since the All-Star break okay of those teams that I mentioned which one would be the coolest story if they actually won the World Series are you talking about either division or conference whatever the teams that we just mentioned that now would be scheduled to go to the postseason the one that would be like the coolest story Philly Dodgers Milwaukee San Diego Arizona Mets New York Cleveland Houston Baltimore Kansas City Minnesota I would probably have to say Baltimore I would agree with that I think most people would feel that way right because it's a historic Stadium kind you know it's a historic franchise for sure yeah um and they've been pretty good for a decade now they've had some pretty good teams and they they were terrible before that yeah I was about to say they ever pretty much the post Cal Ripken days they had not being good at one time the Baltimore Orioles had the best winning percentage in baseball history I think right that's a good question I don't know that one I think that's right and it wasn't it was not spectacular but they were historically speaking their their wins and losses was like 510 and it you know um I mean Houston nobody wants to see Houston because they they bang on trash cans and they they've been around forever the Guardians are cool nothing against the Guardians Yankees yeah whatever everybody likes the Yankees Cleveland could be a good story in that aspect too because I think they're one of the longest franchises without a uh Championship they're currently the longest of teams that have won a World Series they currently have the longest drought correct yeah cuz I remember a few years ago in 16 when the Cubs won it well of course yeah those the thing right yeah um you know the the Phillies the Phillies are look they got exciting players there's no question about it but they're just kind of yeah right um the Dodgers are very cool but they've been around for I mean the Dodgers I could see a fatigue factor for that Milwaukee I think would be cool for people cuz it's different even though they've been good for a couple years now San Diego would be cool even though nobody's actually a Die Hard Padres fan uh Arizona is literally like the Ikea of baseball franchises I mean it's just like you know what I mean uh and then I I think the Mets are cool because they have a cool song Oh yes meet the Mets greet the Mets step ride up and meet the Mets the Mets are conqueror and when I was an intern in New York City myself myself and four other interns living in my building from around the country we're like let's go to the Mets game this weekend so we bought cheap seats went to sha Stadium it was free duffel bag day oh nice so I got a little meti duffel bag that has Snoopy wearing a Mets hat I think I still have the the bag couldn't find it within myself to ever get rid of that uh and on that day by the way guy fell on the escalators at sha Stadium really uh non fatality but but not a good scene but did not pass away fortunately but it was quite the scene that's a fun little jingle can you play a little more of that yes sir we we'll do this leading up to Jimmy's plays of the day which are coming up right that is correct all right Jimmy's plays of the day brought to you by greenfield signs are next and play a little of this fabulous 60s jingle e e e e e e e e e e by the way I mention today's plays of the day brought to you by the fine folks at Greenfield signs and lighting Greenfield signs a professional comprehensive sign company with two locations in Central Indiana they'll take your signage ideas and take hold of the project from design all the way to delivery family own and manag for more than four generations you'll often get a second chance to make a first impression make the most out of your first opportunity with Greenfield signs and lighting for more information go to Greenfield signs.com today's plays are focused entirely on Major League Baseball we'll start first by laying one and a half on the Run line for the Philadelphia Phillies as they host the Camp Bay Rays a little bit later tonight we'll take the Atlanta Braves to of the money line over the Washington Nationals first pitch 705 between the Royals and the Yankees will'll take Kansas City to one of the money line over New York last one for you give me cute fella hey root for me the Baltimore Orioles to of the money line over the Boston Red Sox Eddie if there's any plays from you let's go now if not those are your plays of the day no plays for me today Jake by the way I'm sure Jimmy was thrilled he bet the uh Royals yesterday and they shut out the Yankees they just absolutely clobbered them it was like 14 nothing I enjoyed it thoroughly John you got any plays to the day uh do not I never have any plays of the day although I did last week have the Patriots and the points over the Bengals that was a pretty damn big deal right there for a guy that doesn't bet too often by the way I didn't realize that in I mean show my ignorance here I guess New England obviously drafted a quarterback but they're still going with jacobe BR I did not realize that yep Drake May sits on the bench I saw a video yesterday of you know Drake May was who knows maybe he W you know they're bringing him along slowly I I have no idea but I mean he's got a huge arm no question about that but yep Bengal Eddie could tell you that didn't look ready for prime time at all well that's what they always do they do that every year we always do the same song and dance they always lose week one they lose week two then they're back to on track week three that's what they do Bal fandom frustration you know Olivia is okay so I hear about it all the time fair enough John what uh what you got lined up on the Big Show I love the Bucko Bru shirt oh you like that do you awesome why why do they not utilize this all the time just so stupid in Tampa this is classic the cream sickle it's great come on who do you think of when you see this Doug Williams do you what about you Ricky Bell um lero Selman yeah yeah probably hard to argue that yeah I was also going to say wasn't Gary Anderson there for a minute to remember the running back Gary Anderson had a big Jerry curls going too man okay but I know I also remember him with the charger so he had now who's the other one um Hugh green wasn't he there yeah Hugh green yeah yeah I mean they had good defensive players but I you know I had when I was in 1979 when I first started collecting them I still have this actually I had a Doug Williams football card and yeah you know it had the little the Bucko Bruce down at the bottom and Steve Young Steve Young yeah Vinnie test yeah Vinnie was there too great great teams what you got lined up on the Big Show Charles Arbuckle who played at UCLA who does college football going to join us we'll talk about that match up a lot you and a lot of other stuff going on in college football Purdue Notre Dame I'm sure with Charles what else we got over there James Boyd and Bowen is some guy named Pete so it's going to be outstanding today man guy Pete Pete from Green Bay though right yeah I'm excited James is killing it well done from over there Jake he's from where all he's from Green Bay there hey Pete's gonna be on the jmv show there that guy's great you know we had a couple of C ones with him one time and he likes the Rylander you like Wisconsin don't you you like the state I I wouldn't want to live there because it's you know I don't like cold weather but yes in the summer time I do like it so we live here and there's cold weather here it's just a different level of cold there right a different level of cold yeah yes but Milwaukee is a cool town we we've if you had a choice would you live here or someplace else because of the cold weather do you want to go someplace else no for what we for right now no I mean I love Indie man I I'll always live here but at some point it would be nice to live like in the winter time in a if I knew that I could always come back here and have a place here what about you uh if I did my mom would kill me so well that's I mean yeah obious long when we're old right it's a hard enough the way that it is to keep her from killing me so yeah don't need to add that to the I talk to somebody yesterday that was down in Odin and in that why not the meat locker down there baby that's right they get the marinated turkey no they didn't go to the Odin Meat Locker like what you can't go to Odin without going to the meat locker I know they go to the Dutch Pantry which is the Amish place down there which is awesome it yes that's that is where they went when uh I wasn't on this particular diet I go down there all the time you know the full moon Colby cheese the round the full moon that stuff's legit this you know rubbery waxy stuff you get up here lame but that stuff is legit just off the diet right now if it's not tuna it's not me boys you guys got any tuna fair enough I do like tuna D I do like you got to have flavored tuner albacore just I eat it out of the can I eat it out of the can like I'm a feline water water or oil which do you go with um I like the oil better but I'll do the water because apparently the calories are lower right isn't that great what a what world am I living John you look good man I can tell you've lost a little weight you look good in the buck I play basketball until 11:15 last night too I suck so bad I was just cussing like you would not believe and then Lany had basketball practice at CG this morning at 600 I had to get up at 4:30 all right least at least didn't include a big breakfast I guess yeah all right John's up next boys uh including a guy named Pete I there from Green Bay and we'll be back with you at no tomorrow thanks for listening to 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