Penn State Captains, NFL Kickoff, Perfect Season | Sports Talk w/ Steve Jones, Ep. 283

welcome to sports talk with Steve Jones The Daily Talk Show with the voice of Penn State football and men's basketball you never know what special guest may stop on by any given day now here's the man of the hour Mr Steve J great to be with you on the show today sure we'll all be subjected to some level of of uh soccer conversation of course but I want I want to give for no apparent reason special shout out has to be brought up first though Steve uh today is someone special's birthday we both Joe putam we both know this man Joe putam The Voice you hear inside Beaver Stadium The Voice alongside you for the State College Spikes for the Penn State leue lions and he does everything so and the new play byplay voice of the Lady Lion basketball team mhm there we go Mr Joe putam everyone's favorite guy we love Joe we love Joe here and Joe is also part of my trivia team which uh Steve will still not join he he refuses on principal which hurts my heart but don't have time to be on your trivia team that that hurts me Joe Joe makes time to be on the trivia team yeah but I've got a few other I got a few things to do but but don't you want to win a trivia title with the greatest team on on Turf I already did that a long time ago ow hurts that hurts um something we didn't touch on yesterday penate captains wanted to ask you about uh the captains who made it how you're feeling going to this season and what they represent I guess for Penn State as well because Captain's a big thing look it's a great honor uh without question uh it's a great honor because you're forever known as a captain of the of the team and Dom ducas in his second year Riley Thompson who by the way has two years remaining he's got time me they they petition the NCAA and he's actually a junior MH and in the off season I said to Chuck Losi say it looks like you could take a vehicle and toss it over a hedge he's the most powerfully built pter I've seen in the country not bad and he's had he's had a great preseason Kobe King mhm it's interesting everything here is up the middle if you notice mhm yeah yeah you build football defenses the same way you build baseball defenses catcher second short center field you build your defense up the middle it's called The Spine of the team every sport if you don't have a spine to your team it will not fun so here are the captains on defense middle linebacker Kobe King who will have the Green Dot and safety KJ Winston up the middle interesting offense same story up the middle Nick Dawkins Drew Aller there we go yeah it it makes sense like there's a reason that they are the captains because they are the leaders in the team but they're also a part of the most important piece of the team the Cog of the team that you need them you need these guys in these places but are there other people that are leaders of course and of course all right Devon J Thomas is a leader um I've seen more leadership out of abdil Carter MH this year than I ever thought I would see that's good um oh that's really good I mean I think cam Miller's a leader Julian Fleming is a leader um you know I'm seeing more leadership mhm out of certain guys um and you don't have to be a senior to be a leader that's the other part too that that is one of the uh um misnomers in all this because you start looking for example at um like I think a guy as a freshman among the Freshman group they could be a leader as Cooper cousins right I'm talking about among the Freshman group you're looking at that I mean among the young guys I think he has a chance to be a real leader Ethan grun has a chance to be a real leader when you are built like a leader it like it just is there it doesn't matter if you're young if you're old right age doesn't matter if you you have to have leadership in classes yes okay you know we talk about the captains okay captains I totally get right and they're they're older and so forth all right mhm um but you're also looking for leaders who are the leaders in the sophomore class who are the leaders in the freshman class I mean some guys that you can see even though they may not be the number one guy at their position you can see people naturally gravitate toward especially within the class so I just brought up a couple names like that my my favorite leader in all of sports Udonis has them was he the best guy in the NBA roster of Miami Heat no he was Guy number 15 but he was their leader and you followed him when he said jump you said how high well he started he started for heat he started for heat a little bit when they won their two titles in the back half of his career he didn't start but he was there he was their leader James Johnson with the Pacers like these guys who they're there to be leaders and that's what they do doesn't matter if you're the star if you're the quarterback if you are a leader you are a leader and that's how it works quarterbacks being named mhm across the country everyone's getting named and will Howard Ohio State Miller Moss at USC MH but Kon Hower for example former fourstar Prospect transferred from Michigan State to East Carolina was beaten out by Jake Garcia at eth Carolina and then I believe we're gonna name the same guy here Boise State Maddox Madson he gets the job and Malachi doesn't mm um pulling it up before you said it I knew where this was going I had somebody I was listening to somebody saying you know I feel badly for these kids they TR look no offense but you made the decision mhm it doesn't mean it's automatic it's going to happen for you you have to win it now we're not sitting there in the Boise State Camp so we don't know Madson for all we know and everything they graded out was the guy yeah all right he said well we feel awful for this kid well part of his problem I I'm going to guess is that when he was at USC and he was as highly recruited as any he was the number one Prospect in the nation in 2023 it's where he was but he tore his laborum mm now what did that do or not do mhm to him having to bounce back from that did it do anything to was throwing motion did it do anything to you know how aggressive he I I don't know I don't know the kid at all we don't know like when you inj when you get hurt you lose all you lose confidence and like it is a whole thing to get back to your pre-injury self that's why it's a disuss in the pros of like you hurt yourself like it is not just a I'll be back in a I'll be back in 3 months the brand new knee and totally fine to go like it takes your brain trusting the rest of your body because there is a natural fear of I'm going to hurt that again and this is going to be a bigger issue right and and we all know yeah um CU I mean I've never been around him in my life MH uh the um I've never been around in my life mhm and the and but some was like oh I feel bad for these kids like you know he chose to leave Miller Moss chose to stay well in choosing to stay he ended up getting the job mhm okay each made a choice worked out for one didn't work out for the other MH okay the grass sometimes is greener on the other side as we've seen with Joe burrow the grass was greener yeah for him at LSU Jaylen Herz okay Daniels the Heisman Trophy winner brass was greener for him at LSU as compared to Arizona State where Arizona State I thought he was a very really good quarterback right Kaya Williams just followed Lincoln Riley that was just Jaylen Herz was that Alabama was starting guy Tua took over he said I'm going to leave the grass is greener at Oklahom he waited though he did not leave right away mhm and when they needed him in the SEC Championship game against Georgia when Tua got hurt he came off the bench and he is a big reason why they won but he got his degree at Alabama MH yeah he got his degree and he transferred as a grad transfer I have no problem at all with the grad transfer part you already you fulfilled all of your obligations and the university filled their obligations to you yeah uh so everybody's fine um and uh the um and but guys transfer but now here's the other part the grass isn't always greener on the other side sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't you've got an opening game here between Georgia Tech and Florida State coming up on Saturday in Ireland Haynes King I believe he was a Texas A&M he's Georgia Tex quarterback by the way really good and DJ OU young is now at his third School Clemson top recruit the whole thing didn't work goes to Oregon State he was okay at or you know he was good at Oregon State you I wouldn't call his time the one year in in Corvalis is bad he played well but now he's going to go to Florida State M and so he's on his third school okay it's interesting in Dylan Gabriel for example was very good at UCF mhm was very good at Oklahoma now he's considered a leading Heisman candidate in his first year at Oregon Bo Nicks needed to get out of Auburn he did yeah I mean you know Legacy the pressure on him everything like that he played much better at Auburn Than People realize yeah because obviously we saw him here uh then went to Oregon and flourished okay so grass greener for him Michael penck grass was greener at Washington but also paired up he was having success in Indiana with kalayn DOR as his coordinator yeah so he followed him so he followed him grass ended up being Greener MH but there's some guys it's just not that way yeah and you've got guys all over the place trying to I mean Hower is not the only Michigan quarterback I mean the other you what uh pton um lock whatever his name is he ended up transferring down to Auburn and mhm no uh it it doesn't work for everybody yeah and and like we can feel badly that it didn't work out but I don't feel badly about the decision because the kid made it himself MH or was forced to make it by somebody and that's I don't know I it's anyone who expects players to go and automatically just win everything and be the best like it's not everything is sunshine rainow all the time it's more than that I mean there is a segment oh it didn't work out that we should do something for them like like what MH or they entered the draft MH and then didn't get drafted yeah oh they should be allowed to go back to school no you made the decision okay okay let's let's now let's now transition to adulthood here I left my job I hate my new job um I want to go back uh no offense we filled your job yeah okay that's called real life okay that's real life I left my job without having another job I still don't have a job I want to go back and and and reclaim my job no we filled it MH well I opted for the NBA draft I opted for the NFL draft I didn't get drafted I I I want to go back we already filled your job mhm okay that's why I hear stuff like this it's like I'm sorry it doesn't make sense it's not real life in real life you leave the job for some odd reason they fill it couldn't imagine why right for some weird reason after a couple months you we did fill the job mhm well what have thought same thing in this mhm you opted to leave in other words you're off my list M okay we gave you your name to the Alumni Association hoping that you will donate yeah right it's like okay right hey I hear stuff like that I'm like going what's wrong with you people that's not real life it's not real life no doesn't mean you can't maybe go back because they have a spot but no mhm hey you may okay here's one they didn't tell you to leave to go to the draft MH right you got a draft grade MH and I'm gonna I'm willing to guess let's guess as a strong guess that the draft grade was stay in school yes and you didn't mhm H mhm really yeah and the NCAA has to it credit provided flexibility now where players especially we see it in college basketball they go through the process they get graded the NCAA does not do that that's the NBA's rule the NBA's rule the NBA's rule is a great not a good rule it is a great rule so the shout out to the NBA then where they now allow you to basically get graded and then you can say do I want to stay in do I not do I want to leave what do I want to do where you see players who get grades of mid-second rounds and they say I'm going to stay at school I'm going to come back for another season get better and then go in it works it's good or they end up being told hey look or here's here's the starting point we're going to send you the g-league combine MH yeah that's a tip off right away but they give you the flexibility I think it's two and a half to three weeks before the draft which is the m the cut off three I think it's three weeks that sounds right where the cut off is three weeks before the draft where you can pull your name out and go back to school yeah see the NFL because of the calendar MH the NFL needs to have more flexibility yeah with that now it it does get complicated with the number of and it may be it may change because of the 105 man roster limit mhm maybe you can get more flexibility but the NFL needs to change its rule about declaring for the draft and staying in the draft Yeah I think you should be allowed to go through the combine MH and through your prod day and on April let's just in fact let's make it real instead of going April Fool's Day let's go March 31st yeah I was going to say let's pull back one day make it easy let's go March 31 and you should be allowed to pull your name out and and join your team in Spring practice I agree I mean you should be allowed to do that now that kind and the NFL needs to do that the NFL needs to do that uh the question is will they that's well that's something it's it's already in the basic agreement um and the job of the job of the Players Association is to take care of the current Rank and file uh that was always my complaint um about what they used to do between the NBA and and the the NFL they were putting in all these rules about like the NBA was the big one we want to go to 18y olds MH that's what they said originally we want to go back to 18-year-olds and like and I kept saying over and over again wait a minute your job is to take care of the current ranking file not the future ranking file they're GNA they're going to join you anyway okay they're going to join you anyway well they heard from the current Rank and file when they went through the last deal a year ago and they said what are you doing MH they said no because guess what for all those guys that you're you're taking in somebody's losing a job in your current Rank and file somebody's losing a job someone's it's not only is someone losing a job but it's we so often I feel like there's such a people are like oh but I want to see these 18-year-olds just come right in League because they look so good and High School the problem is in high school they're being guarded by me and in the NBA they're being guarded by Drew Holliday there is just a slight difference there in terms of every everything he's better at than me at basketball in every single way like you are going up big time in level it's always been disgus jump from high school to college is a Monumental leap the jump from college to the pros is like jumping from planet to planet well Bill O'Brien said to C that's what he told me it is an incredibly large jump and we keep seeing with players who come in the league and it takes them a year or two to get their bodies into a shape where they can really compete even a guy like a Desmond Bane who came in like a tank a unit his body's gotten he's been built up more he's bigger he's stronger he's better at what he does now and we've seen it over the last year or so where he all of a sudden has been in league for 3 four years and he's now ready to go and he's a good product now but you see it all the time with guys who come in well I'll give you an oldtime one Jermaine O'Neal Jermaine O'Neal came in this was always the um the Portland Trailblazers were the ones that really brought this up and they said you know what why do we have to be the ones that have to basically develop the guy and then when he becomes a free agent he goes someplace else and thrives when he went to Indiana he he actually played really well awesome but he was an 18-year-old he was one of those 18-year- olds came out that for three years did nothing mhm let he went free agent yeah I think he was with Portland for four years and Port was like excuse me we put all this work into him and then he he leaves like and we had to put up with the mediocrity of it because he wasn't ready to play yeah I know it's shocking um but he built he he worked on his body worked on his game and became a productive not a great but a productive NBA player and so but the NFL okay needs to change their rules now will they no because this basic agreement runs through um what 20 32 I think 20 31 I think 31 it runs and it barely pass the last time the average uh Peter King told me that the average uh per team was the vote was 3230 in favor that's nothing the vote that's 60 votes the vote runs through 2030 exact okay so they've got labor piece right now and the the area that they need to negotiate is going to be the area of the 18th game not the draft oh yeah but they need to discuss the draft and they need to take a look at what the NBA has done they need to give in order to get a better product mhm you need to give flexibility especially with marginal prospects that if they went back to college they can become a better Prospect for you that's what we see that's the NBA and the reason we're so on this because you see it all the time guys go through the process they're graded in that low second round slot or they're graded in the 20s and they he if you go back you develop for one more season and improve on what you just did showed us like you have a chance to be a really good player Z Zack e we want to see you develop your Inside Out game we want to see you develop your ability to block shot to rebound to pass well like it if you are these guys in the NFL if you're a wide receiver how many are drafted every season hundreds it is just like every other pick seems to bece receiver but we see so many not with the complete skill set they need to play in the NFL cuz it takes hard work and understanding to get to the point where you need to play and then you if you go back for one more season yeah maybe it's oh I need to see you develop your footwork better and what if they come back and their footwork is incredible and they already were a third rounder and they get drafted in the second all of a sudden they have a real shot to do something in the NFL and it helps the college game it helps game it helps everyone involved now here's the next part though mhm how smart would some people be about making sure they're staying in school as they're going through the process MH see with the NBA a lot of this process occurs right when the semester is ending yeah all right so you can easily transition from school to the process where now I go to the combine in Chicago in May mhm I get individual workouts in May what am I not doing in May School you don't have to be in school MH in May and so the C calendar Works you'd have to have players in the NFL that would still maintain their eligibility now maybe they can then they can do it through they can do it through video classes yeah they can do that they can do through World campus MH all right they could but they'd have to stick with it to make sure they still had the option to come back but they should be able to declare MH um after the national championship game they should be allowed to go through the combine they should be allowed to go through their Pro Day in March and then by March 31st they should be able to clear whether they're keeping their name in the draft or not yeah which by the way still gives them one full month of school MH to finish up the semester MH yeah okay and that way they have you're it's going to be better for college teams MH um and and it's going to be better for pro teams and it's going to be also best for the player yes because they are going to go into the pros with if they go through that process with a better understanding of what they need to improve on where they're good where they're weak what the Pro system is going to look like and then they can go back and develop it and so on and so forth and it'll start a churn where you'll see better players coming in they you see a better college game because players will stay an extra year versus leaving a year early where you see a guy leave a junior like junior year and you'd rather of him have stayed that senior year develop more and be great Syracuse gadston is an incredible player he was a wide receiver he's now moved to tight end and he stayed the extra season cuz he said I want to develop I want to learn I want to get better right he didn't get the process because of course it didn't it's not there but like clearly he was like I need to improve I could go right now in the third round with his projection but he said I want to get better yep and we need more players who are going to be better in the college game because it'll just it'll bring in more Talent bring in more everything and you'll see a larger swath of players across the country with more Talent everywhere you're going to see Talent at the Syracuse's at the Dukes all these other schools not just the big powerhouses the 10 15 best schools you're going to see more like 20 to 25 schools all of a sudden have more Talent better quarterbacks better receivers better everything and it's going to improve the college game it's going to improve the players life cuz they can get better it it's as you said there is no loser in that argument at all and again with the new5 player roster MH you can leave some openings M and then after March 31st you can then fill openings MH if need be you know um let's take a guy that's on scholarship now that was a walk- on before a Dominic Duca m you know you can go into a a spring practice and you can you can get a couple of guy okay we've got four guys we're not sure about so I'm at 101 mhm I think you can make it work um especially at 105 as opposed to 85 mhm um but that's um that's something but this isn't going to happen immediately because the because the NFL players Association and the NFL have bigger fish to fish to fry with the 18th game the 18th game is is one a is without question the owners don't care about the draft issue yeah they can care less the the draft is working great for them we just pick guys we go from there we're not wor right if they cared about the college game if they cared about the college game like cared about their feeder system they would not have played two games on Saturday MH of the college football playoff opening round now they're doing it because they need to play Christmas which so the four teams that are playing on Christmas are the ones playing on that Saturday MH okay yeah I don't know I I know it's it's it's ridiculous I mean College had to work the semifinals to play one on a Thursday one on a Friday so they can go up against the NFL Playoffs Saturday is a regular season date MH and if they cared about the college game they would have said hey look we we got to figure out something different here maybe we'll have these teams play on Friday and they're trying to get these games to be every day of the week and it's like we want to have a game every every day pretty much at this point yeah why what need you already own everything MoneyWise TV wise why do you need another day to be yours they don't care all the NL cares about is the NFL MH that's all they care about and that's the part that just is so um they don't understand MH that the reason they're in the spot they're in is because a lot of outstanding college coaches developed a lot of really darn good talent that ended up being in your league yeah college football okay Caleb Williams the difference between the first overall pick in the NFL draft and the first overall pick in the NBA draft is very few people in the United States know anything about the first overall pick in the NBA draft they have never seen him play before no I don't even know I mean I did he play in the summer Sumer League uh Reay did he was he was okay but it's like but nobody knows I mean really essentially the vast majority of the sporting population in this country does not know anything about the common fan which makes up the majority of the watching guess what he didn't do playing college he didn't play college basketball but every sporting fan in the country knows the first overall pick in the NFL draft heck they know the 30th pick in the draft time they know the fourth round pick mhm all right I mean okay okay what New York Giants fans hey I really like Theo Johnson at Penn State I'm glad we got him he's going to help us out whatever now Theo's you know struggl in Camp right now but but like that the idea of you see these guys play on a constant basis and if I'm the NFL I am currently torching the ecosystem that is sports not just college but also affecting other sports in in all of our heads when you think of holidays I think every single Thanksgiving I think of the NFL they own Thanksgiving that is their day we always see those games always three to four games that are played on Thanksgiving and it's so much fun because you turn the TV on you eat food you're doing all this stuff you come over you look at the scores of the games and so on so forth right then Christmas that is always the NBA in my head anymore the N not anymore the NBA is gone which is ridiculous the NFL just looked at them went sorry which out which just it it does not it makes sense because they want money but my God like you're just trying to torch everyone else now and that they don't care messes it up and now they're playing these games on like the New Year's days and I'm like that's college football that's what they own so let's not I will be fair about New Year's Day let's be fair about New Year's Day for a second it has always been the tradition always that if New Year's day was a Sunday that January 2nd which is a holiday in the country anyway MH so I had no issue with that yeah none um Christmas mhm the NFL look I'm trying to think it was a couple years ago they put Cleveland and Green Bay on Christmas Day I think it was the only game they had on Christmas Day and of course naturally what did it do it buried the NBA mhm now this is the Cleveland Browns yeah now the Green Bay Packers are the National brand the Cleveland Browns for years have been really right I mean if this were College that'd be your homecoming game every year yeah all right um um and the the they've looked at that and they go okay now and not only that but they sold it to Netflix [Music] mhm which defeats the purpose of the Christmas Thanksgiving e Day games is giving this to Netflix because the whole point was you sit there you're doing holiday stuff and your TV is on ridiculous they are the greediest group on the face of the earth I mean I I look I enjoy the NFL no question I've always enjoyed the NFL going back to when I was a little kid I really enjoyed the NFL but after a while when you're not aware of the world around you and you're only aware of your [Music] world he now if they want to go ahead to head with the NBA and bury him then so be it but when your feeder system when your playing a game on a day that you don't necessarily need to be playing on MH you're going to go head-to-head with them and then they claim it's a compromise look at the times we did the games that way it's like okay I'm not buying now the 18th game that again that is their priorities the right now that's why the the college draft my point is yeah they don't care about the college football playoff or their feeder system so they're not going to sit there and they not going to look at the draft and go hey what can we do with the dra they're not going to do that they okay because to them it's the 18th game Boomer bust mhm and they wanted the 18th game I remember what was first proposed like 10 12 years ago like 18 my first thought was he everybody loves 18 games I kept thinking it's a lot of wear and tear and beating people up well they finally compromised and they got the 17th game mhm and you know what my perception of the 17th game became when they got to like the eighth or ninth game of the season I remember thinking oh my God we're only halfway through the season like the season's so long yeah well now the season's so long mhm and you don't want people always be thinking like the NBA season is long the NHL season's long Major League Baseball season is long what made the NFL season was like okay we got a certain amount of time here we go and I think that was always a drawing card and what I something that was just a personal thing I always enjoyed the fact that a team could end up eight and eight I loved there was just 500 like there was a line of demarcation M it was it I don't know if it's just me if it's one of those things but I always enjoy that in sports leagues when you can end up the exact middle of the road that way you know okay we are here we got to now improve and get better but now you can't do that you can't go 500 people say oh they're 500 you can't end the season 5 00 anymore unless you go 9 and eight and then lose a playoff game doesn't work like that well you can have a tie but that's but that is what you have to get a random thing has to happen to make this so you can go 500 now where a few years ago it was 500 was middle of the road and you knew you had to improve and it's just one of those things that I appreciated and when it comes to the NFL as we've discussed ad nauseum it feels like the past few years and I'm seeing it so much with fans right now on social media especially where they are pissed because there are too many places you have to go to watch games and I get the whole oh we're trying to make it so everyone can watch in every platform every place no one cares we just want to watch our games the reason everyone loved it for decades is because you knew it was CBS it was Fox and then ABC ESPN sometimes and ESPN for Monday Night Football that was like you knew where the games were every day and you can kind of switch back and forth between two channels and bounce back and forth until the night game when it was Sund Night Football or Monday Night Football you knew where the games were right and now if I'm a fan of the Saints I have to figure out okay is it on linear or is it on streaming is it blacked out for me on this one or can I watch it here and then also do I have subscriptions to every single place it it costs so much money to get all of these things and then I get to what watch for one game I love peacock for watching the soccer matches it is a thing I enjoy because it means they're all in one place and it helps me a lot and some games are kept elsewhere which I'm totally okay with sometimes I can watch Arsenal on peacock sometimes they're on Main TV and I'm okay with that right it is a very straight line of demarcation out of every some are not one of the first worst things that you can do mhm in our business is to force people to find you you have to make it as easy as possible to find your product yeah um and that's one of the things for example I mean with with play Fly taking over I mean I almost everything is staying the same um but you know I mean I'll be honest about it I mean s mountains made a mistake out of the gate last year mhm they had the games on the bus and the bus our engineer put it on a delay well you got 100,000 people in the stadium a whole bunch of them are trying to listen to the game and we're 9 seconds behind so we had to make an adjustment to get a second station to carry it live again forcing people to work to hear your product people do not want to hear a delayed product they want to hear the the game live they're sitting there m sorry to point it out but you guys did it all right so uh and I told you not to do it okay I mean to be honest with you to don't do that right but you got like every and I had to correct it yeah uh if they don't like it tough I mean I'm just me just saying it the way it is I mean it's like I'm sorry but like right I mean you can't make the audience work to find you every time someone has to do one extra click you lose 10% of the audience that is what I've kind of been raised on was if it takes one extra click for someone to find something they are going to you're going to get one of every 10 people is going to say you know what I'm okay I'm just going to go back to my social media streams Maj baseball playoffs are all over the place I want to know they're on ABC and ESPN that's I want to know like they're on the same three places I don't need to jump around every other day to find where these games are like if I want watch the Premier League I know it's on peacock or if not it's on USA or NBC very straightforward process if I want to watch the champions league for soccer I know it's all of it is on Paramount plus every single game it is just go right there and watch them they're all there every single match if I want to watch the MLB I'm like are the Yankees on Apple today are they on a normal platform are they on ESPN like where are they I got no idea the Apple thing has been mhm this is the mistake that everybody's making and I mean everybody including on the radio side okay you've got to stop doing things for yourself you need to do things for the audience triangle time what makes it easiest for the audience to find you hey so even something as simple as the formula used to be and people got used to the formula MH if you're in the AFC MH your games are on CBS MH when you played at home against an NFC team the game was on Fox MH or if you went on the road it was still on yeah now they've changed it yeah right now out of nowhere the Steelers can play the Browns and the game's on Fox okay again you can't keep forcing the audience to try to find you MH you can't and it's not as if we're sitting here in an era of newspapers today yeah we're not sitting here in ER newspapers where you sit there and go okay let's Okay so the game's on Fox right here that was something I remember every every time I was with my papa visiting him down in Florida we would sit there every Sunday morning we'd look and see where the games are and then we'd watch and we watch those games on those places on those channels you'd find out where a game was where it was blacked out where you could watch them it was just always there every Sunday in the newspaper that was what I grew up with and nowadays you have to say well where is the game today what platform is it on like if I go and pull up right now cuz I think you're going to enjoy this if I pull up where yesterday's match between leester City and Tottenham was yeah it was on a multitude of platforms if I pull up the upcoming games this week I can see they're on 17 different platforms yeah it's on 18 different channels of course because of languages though that's whatever but now I'm like oh is it on this or this or this or this or this or that or what I got no CL let's give credit where credits do ESPN though when you go to the top ribbon mhm they will tell you what channel the game is on yes which is even if it's not it's not them they'll tell it's Fox BTN whatever it may be to their credit they do a very good job of yeah telling you where the game is that's where you find it because the old day of newsp me newspapers are yeah going going gone and um if I pull up right now the NCAA tab I can see the FSU Georgia Tech game ESPN yeah uh wcu versus Northern uh NC State ACC Network Murray State versus missou SEC network that's right uh I think that's Lincoln versus Kansas is ESPN plus and so on so forth and down the line I know as you said where the games are what times they start in my time zone and that is the other thing is if you change time zones ESPN changes exactly what time things is which is like one of those small things that help they do do that which is really good if I'm in West Virginia I'm like I don't know what times I'm in anymore my brain if I'm in Chicago I sometimes forget am I is it an hour ahead an hour back if you're flying somewhere when the flight number changes you're like thank you I can finally see what my flight is I'm scared if I'm an hour early or late I travel so much I pretty much know what time zone I'm in must be nice Steve must be nice some of us peons here don't know that because we don't think far enough ahead no I know but I already look done it so many times yeah I mean I don't think twice about it anymore MH um so the it's getting to be a lot but you can't force people to find something and you can't do something because oh well we think it's best for us MH no it's not what's best for us it's what's best for the audience why do you think people complain because it's not best for for them mhm and they're not the okay they're speaking for a lot of people the Apple thing on Friday night I know why they did it because ESPN cut back when ESPN cut back they gave Major League Baseball less money Major League Baseball made up for it to the Dollar by the way by doing the Friday night thing with apple and nobody watches it I forget it's on Apple outside of the first year MLS is on Apple nobody watches it but at least that is one place at least that's one place where the MLS is and I'm okay with that but but nobody watches it yeah I mean apple does not have mhm okay I mean that's why the Pack 12 thing was going to be for them was going to be like you might as well been in the witness protection program MH right who is who is this quarterback at at Oregon State I checked the mil cart and we figured it out MH like I forget what it was I I loaded up a streaming platform at some point this past weekend and I was going to go watch something and I saw a game was on and I was like that game's on here I forget what it was and what game it was I could not tell you but I was like I didn't know that game was on like this platform now on this day it's like you don't remember anymore you just don't there is so much going on so many places it hurts our minds it's again you it's a lot the the job of media mhm okay mhm to start just the basic beginning of media mhm is to make it easy for the audience to find you that you are identified withh um the NBA is identified with ESPN they're identified with TNT they're about to be identified with NBC NBC is a major Network so okay yeah now they're going to throw the Amazon thing in there and because of the NFL MH people will be used to the Amazon idea yeah NBC is going to be doing a Sunday night NBA package M following Sunday NFL so they're making it to their credit easy to find the NFL's all over the place but they don't care right they added in Netflix MH okay between ESPN and TNT like the Stanley Cup Playoffs like you're trying to figure out what's what mhm Major League Baseball is TNT it's Fox a couple games at the beginning on ESPN it's like what the heck and you know which one has probably the most it it is always had the highest number of platforms but has always made the most sense for some reason the NCAA tournament it has always been on like four platforms it's on four of them thing is everyone knows that and you can you already are prepared for it make it work everybody already has TNT and T TBS linked anyway and that's the thing is the only one that's different is true TV but the fact that like you know they're on four platforms and it's easy enough to bounce back and forth between them and they make it really straightforward for everyone they say there's going to be game here and then a game here they stagger it and you know just follow the Stagger the entire way through and it's really easy for the first two rounds and it makes everyone's lives so very easy to follow well and not only that but by going to the four platforms they improved what they were doing because it used to be well the game in your area well that's not the game I want to watch and let's do a live look in it's like oh good that's the game I want to see or you had to go to a an establishment yeah to see the other games on the satellites and well now because of doing this every game is live and you know what the best part of that entire thing is alongside them being on these four places and all live there is also one hub for the NCAA where you can go to find every single game so as someone who when I was in college or high school I wanted to watch the NCAA tournaments I would pull up that one platform and be able to pick the game I want to watch and be able to watch it there if I was paying a certain fee or I got a three-hour free trial or whatever it was and I knew I can go there for every game or I could be home on my TV on my couch with my mother and pull up the UMBC game like I knew exactly what where I could go for everything and there was a hub for it all right it makes it so easy to do and it it baffles us that that is not what every sport follows how is it the NCAA is the one who's got this right how is that possible Steve the one organization that we laugh at because they mess everything up all the time has this right over everyone else it's crazy well it's crazy okay well let's start with this um they got hooked in with CBS back in the'80s mhm they wanted to stay with CBS mhm but they needed they wanted extra money mhm well what does TNT TBS let's go back to when this contract was put together years ago what did they bring to the table cable subscriptions cable subscriptions allowed them to make up for the money that was needed but it also allowed them to put every game on that you could see in its entirety and everybody loved the option of doing it compared to what they had been doing before yeah and that's why it it ended up working um I think it's great we're able to see every playoff game it's just you do have to find baseball's the worst oh my ESPN FS1 Fox TBS like okay you know okay who's what it's like okay um now when you finally get to the championship series round M okay one you know one has the American League the other one it's one fox has one and and TBS has the other which is fair whatever you know they're going to be there and then one person as all of the the finally but it's the leading up to it you're like what in the heck it just takes too much work to sit there and go where is it and that's the worst thing you can do where is it okay the big the fans that have the greatest complaints of all about Apple TV on Friday nights are the people watching the Yankees and the Mets cuz they they count on yes and S to be their that's where I went every single day when I was in living in Connecticut I would turn on yes at 6:35 p.m. to watch the Yankees play they would start playing I would eat dinner to my family then we' turn on Jeopardy and watch that but go back to the Yankees game afterwards it was always the same place same time every day you knew it was going to be there but now you're like I got no idea where the Yankees play a day and it is a struggle and it is a pain or like they're on Apple and you just flat out don't have it and there when when Aaron judge was attempting to break Roger maris's American League record well the Yankees on yes were getting great ratings and also a key game down the stretch I can't remember who they were playing it was the second to last game before he did it all right remember I remember it was on Apple yeah every was like what are you doing and people are like ah there was questions of can they Flex this game to Prime TV they asked that question no more than fair for them to say no by the way they sign a contract contract but like the fact that people expect now how many Friday games think are played during the MLB season do we think how many how many Friday games are there during a season like 26 26 of them okay so 26 Friday games let's say four of them are Yankee games if I'm a Yankee span I have to pay 40 bucks hypothetically cuz there's no way they're going to be in the same month right I 40 bucks to watch four Yankee games right it's ridiculous it's dumb like it's extra money people don't want to spend no want to spend like I'll pay that if they're going to be there the entire time if they're there the full season like if I want to watch the Charlotte Hornets which no one wants to and if I know they're going to be on NBA TV every single game cool I'll pay that fee I'll live with it because I know I can watch them night in night out yeah but if I have to or maybe they pay they play 81 games there and they have one game on TNT or whatever it is okay we can live with this but as soon as you say in the NFL there's 17 games four of them are on here four of them are there six of them are here and then all of a you got one there one there and one there I've Got to Now work in seven places I'll say this about the NFL though when they put out the schedule they don't float it around no what college football does is they disgrace mhm it's a disgrace I'm Penn State fan this season where can I watch these games right I mean there's only half the games fact I think this time it's less than half that you already know the kickoffs for and what network has it I believe we only know two full kickoff games confirmed as of this moment I believe that's absurd the entire schedule should be done now MH right now yeah right and give in November M the ability to flex two games mhm yeah right the NFL does it sometimes and I'm okay with that they Flex the Mondays and the Sunday nights they can do move one or the other like once once every three weeks they do it right it's okay well but they don't do it until the end yeah they do it week 16 17 18 November you should be allowed to flex a game if you want to do it right all the other kickoffs should be all set you know Penn State fans should know the kickoff already of the USC game I have a pretty good idea what it's going to be but yeah okay but it should be done now okay Penn State fans should know what time the UCLA game is kicking off okay instead of a rumor as to what it's going to be they should know what the Ohio State game is the rumor the white out game should not just be a rumor they should have all the kickoffs okay set ahead of time and you know what part of the problem is for fans so often we find out 10 days in advance you know the problem is 12 days in advance yeah find out 12 days in advance you know what the issue is people have booked their travel and let's say they're flying in the morning of their flight doesn't land till 11:30 and all of a sudden 12 days out they're like kickoffs at noon what does a fan do then they've missed it because this is the only time they could get to go to this game is this time and this place and they thought they'd make it because they were under the assumption it's night game or 4:00 and all of a sudden you're like oh it's noon you I mean or they have to leave at 8:00 p.m. because they were expecting a noon game oh it's 7 I mean tell us just tell us all of it at some point the college basketball schedule for the Big 10 will be out I think we should know the Big 10 schedule somewhere right around Labor Day so we're close all right so 10 days or so maybe 12 days we'll find out what the you know that week what the Big 10 Basketball schedule is but at least you'll know ahead of time yeah what it happens to be we know like and so 95 99% of the schedule right and the times don't change there's like one game at the end of the year that's kind of a flex date game that's fine but everything else will be set that you at least know ahead of time for basketball in a 31 game schedule what time you're playing you know the either or game is going to be the um the second game of the uh daytone a tournament because it depends on whether you win or lose as to the fact that that is the only ones you don't know are one or two tournament games I'm okay with that college football you sit there I complain about this all the time You' got to stop taking the fan in the stands for granted you've got to stop taking the viewers for granted you've got to go out of your way to make it as easy as possible for them to either attend or watch and I don't understand why people can't get that concept I don't get that the game is nothing without the fans it's nothing with all all of you nothing okay no you no game MH it's pretty simple feel like we're going crazy Steve no I'm not I mean I'm just no but like it it feels like it the fact that we have to have this discussion and it's it seems nonsensical we have to discuss it because it's something that should not have to be discussed it should be a given but Network TV Executives mhm are aching all the time about and and bragging about their ratings their ratings their numbers their ratings and yet do nothing MH to make it easy for people to see things these days because all they care about are are how much they're paying the fact they have the rights and then they start like okay we got to move stuff around it's like wait a minute what about the fan oh yeah no they count they are in the ratings no it's infuriating thank you for listening to sports talk with Steve Jones a seven Mountain media production come back at 11 every weekday for analysis of the latest happening in the sports landscape from college football to European soccer Steve and Kyle cover it all on