Ballmer and Clippers Punishments, NFL Week 1 Preview

0:00Band-Dool is now available everywhere in the U.S. So you can get in on the sports action no matter where you are, including these places. May this year most rewarding season ever with Band-Dool. Agent location restrictions apply. Product availability varies by market. C-Fandool.com for eligibility. Gambling problem called 1-800-Gemma. Welcome to the jungle, my name is Jim Rome. This program is brought to you by Fandool. Of course, not only brought to you by Fandool, but it's Thursday. So we have our Fandool segment with James Kelly coming up at the top of our number two. And more importantly, well nothing is more important than that. Importantly, we have ball. We're not just talking about futures. We have actual games. We have games tonight. Man, not a second too soon. So that's coming up at the top of our number two.

1:00What's good? Very good Thursday too. We are absolutely loaded. As I always say on Thursday, when we have our beef segment and our number three, generally we start rolling downhill. What's good? Everything's good. Cosses, what's good? Everything's good. I've got so much to get to today and not that much time to get it done in. So let's get rolling. Tell 100 is toll free. So the beef segment is at the top of our number three. You don't need to call right now. Just know we have two interviews. And then at James Kelly conversation. So before you know what we're going to be right there on the beef segment. So it's going to happen quickly. 1-800-636-8686. You want to hit me up on X. Hit me up on X. And Jim Rome. If you want to email me, email me, Rome at have a take.com. If you want to jump in the chat, you're probably there already. Go to our YouTube channel. Jim Rome. Once you get there, can you please hit the sub button. Can you please ring the bell and then get into the chat and do what you want.

2:01Tom and I were talking about after the program. The chat has become essentially its own being. Its own energy. Its own universe. Its own ecosystem within the ecosystem. If that makes sense. Its own entity. Its own organism. Whatever you want to call it, it is its its its onto its own within the ecosystem. And it did not take very long. So if you haven't checked it out yet, it's not for everybody. If you haven't seen it, it's hard to keep up with. But once you get in, it's addicting. At least that's what everybody in chat tells me. Like they're staying around on the show ends. They're coming in before the show starts. That's all part of the chat. Go to our YouTube channel. Alright, really quickly on top of all of that. Mark Slareth, 1240. You know I love stink. One of my favorite guys. He's coming up at 1240. James Kelly at one o'clock.

3:01Dan Woike is back. We'll talk clippers with him at 140. What's your beef at 240? And I've got a new podcast up. Tape Dee yesterday. To Ron Armstead joined me. He was great. Lot of fun. Have I given you enough to talk about? Is there enough content there? I want to hear from you. And what I want from you is some bleeping credit. Best three hours of radio anywhere. Alright, first things first. So when Adam Powder Silver and the NBA dropped that hammer on the clippers yesterday, we were right in the middle of the program. So I was reacting in real time. I did not have a chance to comb through the 35 pages of the Wattell, Lipton Report, while I was live on air. However, now that the entire world has had a chance to go through that report,

4:01because the NBA thankfully released it and made sure we could all see it. That mushroom cloud, currently hanging over the into a dome, it's starting to make a whole lot more sense. Because that Wattell, Lipton Report, is just bombshell after bombshell after bombshell. Nuke after nuke after nuke. I could spend the entire program today just throwing up passages that make the clippers look absolutely horrible. And I still wouldn't get them all in. Needless to say, Pablo Torre has never looked better and Steve Balmer has never looked worse. And needless to say, it is no mystery why the NBA dropped the harshest penalty in league history on this team. And of course, it's all happening to the clippers. This entire saga is the most clippers thing ever. Now without getting two into the weeds on the 35 pages, on that investigation, here are the conclusions.

5:03They can essentially be summed up in five parts. Number one, the clippers initiated off court opportunities for Kauai Leonard with four specific companies. Asperation, Bongo, Dectronics, and Lockton. Um, can't do that. Number two, the clippers facilitated the consummation of these deals with Kauai. Um, can't do that. Number three, the clippers induced these companies into doing these deals with Kauai by offering and providing them with business from the clippers. In other words, if you wanted to be in business with the clippers, there was going to be a Kauai tax. Can't do that. And the clippers also paid for expenses on behalf of Kauai and his reps and did not report it. That is in violation of league rules.

6:03Separate issue, but can't do that either. And finally, the clippers failed to report Uncle Dennis's improper solicitations. Also a violation of league rules altogether now can't do that. Ooh, good or not, I'll be that was loud. So the report does have hard evidence to back up all five of these points. There are smoking guns attached to all these claims. There are clear money trails from the clippers to these companies to Kauai. There are clipper execs, even Balmer, who were caught in lies by Wattell Lipton in this report. They found evidence of fake paper trails trying to cover up this obviously illegal nonsense. Again, nuke after nuke after nuke. Hence, why powder drop the hammer? And also why the reaction of Balmer and the clippers

7:05looks completely disconnected from all reality. They're trying to call this a quote, witch hunt. Even though the league is provided a mountain of evidence, the clippers are also trying to play the victim card. Even though what happened here is incredibly obvious that there are clearly no victims. It's also clear that the clippers simply would not say no. They would not say no to Uncle Dennis. Uncle Dennis, essentially took over the clippers. Uncle Dennis, essentially ripped the clippers president a basketball obstacle right from Lawrence, Frank. Uncle Dennis would not stop making requests that violated the CBA. And the clippers would not stop honoring those requests. And the report even details Uncle Dennis' direct interactions with Balmer. So I don't want to hear Balmer act like he had no idea what was going on in just a bunch of rogue out of control subordinates. How stupid do we look, Balmer?

8:07Who would be dumb enough to believe that? Balmer had no idea. Also, nobody should be surprised to find out that Uncle Dennis was going around making requests of teams that violated the CBA. Because that was first reported by Sam Amick seven years ago. So that's ancient history, not some revelation. I mean, we know that Dennis, check that, Uncle, asked the Lakers for partial ownership. That's the sack that that guy had. That's how brass that guy was. We know he asked the Lakers for partial ownership. Among other things, and we know that Genie Bus's response was to quote, make it clear that such perks were illegal and would not be considered. And quote, I mean, say what you want about Genie, but that's what a real owner following the rules does. You shut that nonsense down right away on day one.

9:10Not the clippers. The clippers did the opposite. They embraced Kauai and Uncle Dennis. And they acted on their unreasonable requests for years. There's 35 pages of evidence to back it up, which is why I'm a little surprised that Potter didn't take the opportunity to ban Uncle Dennis for life. For life. For life. Now, he did get a five year ban, which will probably keep him out of the league for the rest of Kauai's NBA life. For life. Life. Life. But I'm so surprised that Potter didn't ban this dude for life. For life. For life. Since that's what he loves doing. For life. Going back to Bomber. Yes, it's a stiff penalty. The stiffest penalty ever. But that'll happen when you get caught breaking multiple rules multiple times, especially when you're a repeat offender.

10:10Let's not forget. Bomber was already caught once trying to circumvent the cap in the same exact manner with you on Ray Jordan back in 2015. At that time, the NBA find the clippers a quarter of a mill. Yeah, I know. Walk around cash. 250K is jump changed compared to 30 mil. That is true. But when you think about it that way, it was actually more like 80 mil out of Bomber's bets. This is incredible. This dude paid 50 mil for this report. He reportedly paid 50 mil himself for the Wattell Lipton report. Imagine paying 50 mil for an investigation and investigation that finds you guilty's cost you an additional 30 mil. Oh, in five first round picks. Andy suspended for a year. Nice ROI toilet king.

11:11I'm just wondering what happened to that whole bomber vindication story that ESPN ran a few weeks back. Remember that one? At Backster News with at DVN Jr. At Ramona Showburn at Shamsher and the quote. The NBA has found no evidence showing LA clippers owner Steve Balmer funneled money through team sponsors to pay why Leonard in order to circumvent the salary cap. So it's still ESPN. If by the NBA found no evidence, you mean the NBA found a ishtun of evidence? Then sure that's accurate. Otherwise, man, that is bizarre as hell. I'm sure ESPN will try to claim that the report did not have any clear evidence of Balmer's direct involvement. But that's not even true. Balmer is in emails involving Uncle Dennis in the report.

12:15So the idea that he was somehow oblivious or not involved in what was going on. She just absurd. So we have here are some really strong journals who were given some really bad information with some really misleading information. How do you report that and then have the NBA turn around and hit this guy with the stiffest penalty ever? But hey, at least we will always have Ramona grilling the hell out of Balmer on national TV. Gotta give her props for that because this gets better and better and better every single day. The court documents and in public podcast, the report was 20 million. The public's podcast, I don't know anything about the court documents on this. I haven't seen them and I don't know. I'm not trying to be who I don't know. I really don't know. But the speculation is what it is. And why did they do that? It's a lot of money. I mean 28 million, 7 million a year is a lot of money for a guy that you didn't actually require to do anything.

13:19I don't know why they did what they did and I don't know how different it is. I really don't. And frankly, any speculation would be crazy. These were guys who committed fraud. How would I be able? Look, they caught me. You're one of the richest men in America. They caught me. I made an investment in these guys thinking it was on the up and up and they caught me. At this age, I have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did. You have no idea. I'm here to help. I can tell you why aspiration gave Kauai a 28 million dollar no show endorsement contract. Because you guys told him to. It's right there in the Wattell Lipton report. I mean, we already knew this guy was lying out his ass when he went Mickey Mouse Fossetto and try to play the victim. But now we know he really was lying out his ass the entire time.

14:20And again, don't tell me he didn't know what was happening under the roof of his own toilet palace. I don't want to hear it. Just like I don't want to hear how Kauai didn't know any of this was happening either. The Kauai had no clue that millions were pouring in for no reason at all or where that money was coming from. There was all just Uncle Dennis and their Uncle Dennis did this to him, not for him, but to him. Go ahead and miss me with all that bull crap, Kauai. Of course, Kauai is laughing his ass off as always because Kauai is the one who skates here. Because every single story of course ends involving Kauai with him laughing his ass off. Kauai's throwing up deuces and piecing out of town, his hometown, wiping his hands of all of this as he leaves for Toronto after single handedly destroying the Clippers organization. Like he almost did it by himself.

15:21If you consider his recruitment and insistence on bringing Paul Georgian, this guy actually costs the Clippers 10 first round rapics. Oh, an SGA and 30 mil of Balmer's money and another 50 mil of Balmer's money for the investigation. And of course all the tens of millions of dollars that he put in his own pocket. I mean, it's actually impressive how much damage one dude can do to an entire organization and for what? To accomplish what exactly nothing to win what exactly nothing. So what happens to Kauai? What's his punishment? Is he suspended? Is his contract boyded? Nothing. Nothing. All this dude has to do is scratch a $700,000 restitution check and just move on to Toronto. 700K. Who cares? How many millions and millions and millions of dollars did this scam put in his pocket?

16:25Like I said, no matter what happens this dude ends up laughing his ass off. And no matter what happens the Clippers are gonna clip. It does even matter if they have the richest owner in sports or a brand new toilet palace. Clippers will always clip. So my advice to you Balmer, keep going Mickey Mouse. I know. I know you can get a few octaves higher. I know you can get a few octaves higher. Keep lying. Keep setting your money on fire. Keep cheating. Keep winning nothing at all. Keep getting suspended. Keep wasting everybody's time. Because you know all of that is still better than anything you're ever gonna put on the court. So go waste some more time and money in a real courthouse. If anybody will listen to anything you have to say. Oh wait, I know you reject this take altogether like you rejected the investigation. Vimitly reject.

17:26Man, this whole thing is hilarious to me. Hilarious. This guy paid $50 million for an investigation. Like, hey, yeah, I'm gonna clear my name. I'm gonna clear your organization's name. I'm gonna get to the bottom of this and I don't care what it costs. Here's $50 million. You ask anybody anything you do whatever you want. You investigate the hell out of us. Here's $50 million and I'll wait. And I'll wait. I'll wait and I'll wait and I'll wait. Alright, so what did you find out? Well, here's what we found out. Here's what you get for your $50 million. You can give us $30 million more and five first round draft picks and you can sit your ass out for a year. That's what you get for your $50 million. Bro, how did you get so rich making such bad investments? $50 million bucks. Hey, hey, why? Thanks for everything, bro. This guy ends up costing them 10 first round draft picks.

18:2610, oh, an SGA. What a new bear. And millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars. An entire decade of first round draft picks. Oh, yeah, they do get two back in the trade with Toronto. Oh, okay. Oh, and the MVP. And 30 more mill on top of the 50 mill on top of all the other mill. Man, the clippers are hilarious. They are so funny. 1-800-636-8686. If you want to call anyone respond. If you like the X better, just go to the X. If you like email better, just go to email. It's sorry to disappoint clones. I know you thought this was going to be the day of all days. The investigation release day. Because not only did we get this, we actually got this yesterday. But you may have seen the story where the athletic completed its investigation into Diana Rousini.

19:26And then you all started to slumber. And you all started to reset and you clicked on the link. And you couldn't wait to see more pictures and more videos. Yeah, that's not what you got. And Nor should you ever have expected that either. I've got an update on that too. And I've got lots of NFL and a lot more things. I have multiple conversations. I have James Kelly. I have Whatcher Beef. Have I given you enough to talk about? Get up in here. All right, let's break. College football Saturdays are already packed with reasons to get excited. And this season, Fandall is giving you even more. Make this the most rewarding college football season ever with Fandall. From the first kickoff of the day to the final whistle of night, there are more ways to get in on every single matchup. Back your favorite team. Build a same game parlay, bet team props or make your picks on the biggest games of the weekend. And along the way, keep an eye on the Fandall app for even more ways to get rewarded throughout the season. Because when every Saturday brings another slate of games,

20:29Fandall gives you more ways to make every week count. So get ready for big games, bigger Saturdays and your most rewarding season ever, only on Fandall. Visit fandall.com slash Rome to get started. 21 plus select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas, star casino 18 plus DC Kentucky Wyoming gambling problem called 1 800 gambling 1 800 my reset call 1 888 789 777 visit ccpg.org slash chat Connecticut visit md gambling help.org Maryland visit gambling help line ma dot or call 800 327 50 50 Massachusetts call 1 877 8 hope and why text hope and why you're called 1 877 867 677 Louisiana. You're listening to the gym room show. If you ride you already know it only takes a second for things to go wrong out there. What a lot of writers don't realize is it only takes that one drink to change your whole life. Alcohol slows your reaction time throws off your balance and gives you a false sense of confidence.

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22:30From the moment your package is first scanned in, it moves through a secure, nationwide network, aiding in a timely and accurate delivery. You get near real-time tracking so you can keep up with your shipments and with affordable upfront pricing, there are no hidden fees or surprise surcharge to throw off your cost sheets. It all adds up to predictable deliveries that you can depend on because knowing your logistics or handled lets you focus on everything else, your customers, your team, and the future you're building. So visit usps.com slash Ground Advantage to start shipping with confidence. USPS Ground Advantage we mean business. So that's why I want to reset one thing. I know that I was pretty deep in the weeds in that open. Going through that investigation, I mean, it's 35 pages, and it did cost 50 mil. A lot of you clones are saying, care is 50 mil for a billionaire like that. I bet he does. 50 mil. See, it's one thing to spend 50 mil on something.

23:33Right? If you're a multi-billionaire, and one of the richest people in the world, probably 50 mil on the right player or the right asset or even a jet might be alright. Or maybe a mansion somewhere on the beach or in Monocito, fine. You know, it's hands-while set. But 50 mil on an investigation that got you find an additional 30 mil is not 50 mil. Then it's 80 mil. And then if it's five first round draft picks, it's damn near the death penalty for an NBA franchise. And then you're suspended for a year. So it's not like, hey, Rome, who cares? It's only 50 mil. It's 50 mil. And then what did he get for his 50 mil? So there's that number two. Never point that I want to make. I'll say this in defense of Balmer. If I could say anything in defense of Balmer. And him going Mickey Mouse. And I still think he's got three or four octaves he can get to. You can at least got wants to win.

24:36Now just hear me out on this. I'm not condoning the path he took. I'm not condoning the way you went about it. But I myself have said this over and over and over again. Just because you own a pro franchise does not mean you're in it to win it. You cost money to win. And as we know, not every single owner in every single sport is spending money. Or spending as much as they can. There are business people. They're in it to make money. They're not necessarily in it to win it. So Balmer wanted to win badly badly broke this incredible edifice. This great building and tried to win. The problem is he bet on the wrong guy. He bet on Kauai. What a disastrous business decision that was betting on Kauai. Like all right. And at the time, we're like, okay. This guy's all in. But look what happened. Look how this thing turned around and bit him in the ass. Bet on Kauai.

25:37Kauai pushed really hard for his dude pandemic P. So in order to get pandemic P, you got to give up SGA who turned into a two time NBA MVP. And not only did you give up a future two time MVP, you gave up five number ones with that two time MVP. So what do you get? You get Kauai. You get pandemic P. You give up all that draft capital. And what do you have to show for it? Nothing. Neither one of them are there. Both those guys are gone. The MVP is gone. Your organization is destroyed. You get nothing. And this is what you get for going into business with Kauai and Uncle Dennis. And honestly, now that I sit back and think about it, you know what? It's still hilarious. It's hilarious. It's incredible. Wow.

26:37And then Kauai, nothing happens to this guy. Nothing. Believe me, don't sit here and say to me 50 million to that guy is nothing because 700 grand of that guy is nothing. When that guy made millions and millions and millions and millions for doing nothing with these companies. And this guy can just go right to Toronto. And by the time he gets to Toronto for the record, they're going to be happy to see him. It's not like screw you LA. Duce's Toronto's me like, yo bro, that's right. You want us a championship. Welcome home, Kauai. They're going to be happy to see him. This guy, man, has there ever been anybody who's ever gotten over? And then what does he do? He runs his uncle under the bus. Like this is all on the onk. His statement yesterday was rich. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that the people around me let me down and gave me bad advice. See you on Toronto. What are your thoughts?

27:40Let me go first to the reaction that is not on chat. Romi, they caught me. Regarding ESPN journalists about their story sources. Berghian, Florida. See, that's another angle. It's really interesting because I'm not in any way anti ESPN. We put ESPN people on all the time. I actually have a better relationship with ESPN now than when I work for them. Which is kind of funny. They're better to me now in the way of sharing guests than they were when I work for them. Make that make sense. So you know me. I'm not one of those guys or I'm not a person who gets on the air every single day and goes in on ESPN. Look what they become. Look what they do. Look who their stars are. I don't do that at all. I have people that are there that are friends. I have people that are there that I'm friendly with and I respect. But that story was very odd. And the people that were on that byline are really reputable journals.

28:46And that frankly, that was a big miss. A big, big, big miss. They're way too good. The people involved with that report are way too good to miss that badly. That your sources tell us that the NBA has found no connection between Steve Balmer and this that and the other. That's not true. The NBA found lots of connections. So I don't know how they missed that badly on that story. Well, actually I do. Bad information, bad sourcing, but very unusual to see quality journals like that. Missed that badly. On the chat, hun7AR, quote, they called me sign Day-Jong love victims. They come to me. You're one of the richest men in America. No, what you meant to say is just sign Day-Jong love. Not the victims, but love. I was talking to it. We're on arm's dead. On my podcast yesterday.

29:47He's got his own show now. So I said, my guy, I don't want to give up the whole pod, but it's just too funny for me not to give up this part. I said, Tyron, when you look at Day-Jong and you see this guy running on the beach with his helmet and you see him running routes and you see the way he kind of carries himself, you know, athletically speaking. When you see the way this guy moves, what do you see? Like do you see a high school football player? Like if you're watching on the stream right now, I played this same video for Tyron. I said, and then he really laughed out loud when I broke out the sled video. And Tyron's a super good dude. He's not a hot take guy. He's not here to disparage people. I said, when you see this guy move athletically, what do you see? Like do you see a guy that played some high school ball? He's like, Jim. He's laughing. He's like, no, not even that. Not even high school football. Like he wouldn't even give him that credit. Never mind small college ball, like not even high school ball. He couldn't believe the story.

30:47He had actually, he had a great take on it. And what he thought about the guy. So look for that podcast. When we come back, Mark Slerith will join us still looking for your reaction. In fact, we go back to back. Mark Slerith, then James Kelly straight ahead. You're listening to the Jim Rome show. FanDuel is now available everywhere in the US. So you can get in on the sports action no matter where you are. Including these places. Make this your most rewarding season ever with FanDuel. Agent location restrictions apply. Product availability varies by market. See fanDuel dot com for eligibility gambling problem called 1-800-Gembers. Yes, it is. And you know when to get to this as quickly as I possibly can. We are joined right now by a three time Super Bowl champ. A two time pro bowler. He played 12 years in the NFL, six in Washington, six in Denver.

31:47He's a game analyst for the NFL on Fox. He is a morning show host on 104.3 of the fan in Denver. You know, I'm talking about Mark Slerith, Mark. My brother. Appreciate you so much, dude. How you doing? I'm doing good. Jam is always going to be with you, my friend. Man, it's so good to see. I appreciate it very much. Mark, before you and I talk ball, your father herb has always been a major topic of conversation between you and I. So I want to start with that right now. How is pop's doing and how did the legend celebrate his 87th birthday last month? Yeah, he's a freak show. He is doing he is doing absolutely great. So my wife, we went up to Alaska for his birthday and my wife was like, I am going to run down to the store. I got to grab some stuff and I'll be gone for a couple hours. He's like, great. And so she goes down the street. She forgot something. She had to turn around and come back. And my dad, he's got a Kubota front loader and he's up in the bucket, probably 15 feet in the air, changing light bulbs on our, on our, you know, we've got a huge yard.

32:52So we've got all these lights across the yard in Alaska. And she's like, pulls up there is like, Dad, what are you, what are you doing? But this is this is the freak show that he is. I don't take a quick story. When I was a high school wrestler in Anchor's Alaska, we used to do Saturdays where you'd have like, hey, invite your parents to wrestling practice, right? And my dad comes in. I'm probably a sophomore. So he had to drive me to wrestling practice. And he's standard. He's never wrestled today in his life. He's probably mid 40s and he's like 180 pounds. And we had a heavyweight named Roy Willis, who is 340 pounds. And my dad goes, Hey, Mark, I think I'm going to go challenging. And like that, like, what are you talking about? He goes, no, they ain't taking. I go, you've never wrestled a day in your life. And my dad goes, I got it. So he walks across to the wrestling mat, challenges into wrestle. Roy Willis grabs him, throws him, lands on him and pins him. And my dad comes over like nothing happened. He walks over and goes, you're going to poke my ribs.

33:54You're going to have to call your mom for a ride and he left you up. So he broke his ribs wrestling Roy Willis and his never wrestled before in his life. I'm like, like you idiot. Like what do you, what are you thinking? Like this? This is the kind of stop. This is the kind of stock I come from. It's incredible story. He's a freak show. Mark, he's probably like, Hey, Mark, you got Dana White's telephone number. I think I want to do it. I think I want to use some USA. I think I can do it. He popped your 87. And maybe you don't. It's amazing. So I'm going to ask you about him. Mark Slurth is joining us. He is a freak show. So Mark, let me ask you something. You know the Broncos as well as anybody with all eyes on the Rams and the amazing off season they had. Great. They may be the ones to beat. But do you look at Denver and think Super Bowl or bust for the Broncos? I really do. I think their roster is incredibly loaded. I think first and foremost, Nana fell. We talk about quarterbacks and we talk about wide receivers, which are the most overrated position in football. But we talk about all the fancy things, all the periphery stuff that grabs our attention

34:55and wins this fantasy football games. But the truth of the matter is if you can control a line of scrimmage on both lines of scrimmage, you can win in this league. And when I look at Denver, the combination of their defense of front seven, the combination of their offensive line, there's nobody that's better that's more loaded and deeper at those positions. So if you can dominate and control on scrimmage, you have a lot, you're going to have a lot of success. And then they added a couple of weapons on the offensive side of the ball. One, Jaylen Waddle, who is an absolute freak show. This is a really, really good football team. A lot of people discredit him because they don't really know Bonix or the narrative was, Bonix shouldn't have been a first rounder. Well, Bonix is pretty damn good. And he's had great success in his first two years. So I'm really excited to see how this team fares. And there is that bit of a chip on their shoulder because not a lot of people nationally give them a ton of credit. So they're a damn good team. And like I said, they'll dominate the lines of scrimmage. Mark Slayerith is joining us.

35:57Mark, your week one assignment for Fox is going to Vegas next Sunday. And the Raiders take on the dolphins. What did you think of what you saw from Fernando Mendoza in the preseason? And then how long do you think they ride with Kurt Cousins as their starter? Yeah, I thought, you know, you look at Fernando. I thought the ceiling is obviously very high. But there are a lot of, you know, there are a lot of little idiosyncrasies and mistakes that were made along the way. And just from reading things out and being very comfortable in those things. So I always think that there is value in sitting on the bench for a while and watching a professional because Kurt Cousins is a professional. I was studying film last night and just, you know, fascinated how quickly he'll get off a front side and get to the backside and make the right decision. And he will look and great quarterbacks and the guys who really function at a high level. They don't look at the routes. They don't look at the receivers. They look at the defense and they know instantly like, uh-uh, that defense isn't good against this route combination we call. Let me get to the backside. And you watch Kurt and he has had, I think three offensive possessions all ending in scores

37:01in this preseason. So his deficiency is so much higher right now than Mendoza's. Mendoza makes some big time throws. He's got, you know, he's got all the talent in the world. But I think you're probably looking at, you know, probably six, seven weeks before Mendoza gets to play. But I do think he'll play at some point this season. Agreed. Exactly. What's the rush? Mark Schlärth is joining us. Mark, let me go sidebar on one thing for a minute because my money and my son go to Colorado. Our son is the senior aboulder. We will once again be at parents weekend this year. We will once again be at that game this year. You know that program. You know Dion, let me ask you something. And I'm not hot taking it all. But is Dion coaching for his job at this point? I don't know about this year, but I think within the next two years, yes, they have got to win. And, you know, when people, Dion and I are buddies, but, you know, I understand this is not a try hard league. It's a do good league, right? And you haven't done well. You won three games last year.

38:03And now you've turned over your entire roster. You've got 50 new people on your roster. You've got, you've gone through three defensive coordinators, three offensive coordinators. It's time to win. And you have to win. And I, it's been an unmitigated success. When you talk about Dion taking over and all that he brought and all the hype and all that, you know, I mean, the pomp and circumstance that they won nine games one year and the whole nine yards, it has been great. And you know, the university has throught, but at some point, all that stuff is not going to be enough and you're going to have to win games. And so I think that's where he is right now. It'll be really interesting as they open up tonight against Georgia Tech. I'm really interested to see exactly what they look like. And you know, if they get away from some of the high flying stuff and morph into a little bit more of actual football stuff, you know, they've been so just so set on. Like four wide receiver, 10 personnel stuff.

39:04And, you know, I just don't think there's a lot of formational value there. And wider receivers don't block very much. And they just don't. And so all of a sudden, if you can mix in the tie dance, you can mix in a fullback and running backs and do all that stuff. You've got more formational value, meaning you can block, you can run routes, you can do it a lot of other things. Think about the Rams and how they operate with their, you know, being in two tight informations, three tight informations, you know, two back formations with a couple of receivers. They do a really good job of mixing those things up. And Colorado has fallen into the college football of just let's get out there and form wise and spread the ball. Well, there's a lot of things that happen from a protection standpoint, protecting a quarterback, cannot be an able to run the ball. That doesn't bode well. So I think they need to understand the value of formational differences and, you know, different personal groupings. Right. All the more reason why it's nice to me really, really interesting. Mark Slerth, join me for a few more moments.

40:04Mark, really quickly, what about the ABC West? Stay there for a minute. So the Broncos open up Monday against Kansas City or on a Monday night. You know, it used to be betting against the combination of Patrick Behalms and Andy Reed was a good way to get your ass handed to you. Yeah. Given where they both are in their respective careers, do you still feel the same way about both of them and the chiefs or has there dominance in that division actually already ended? Yeah, you know, it's really interesting because I'm really interested to see exactly what they look like Jim. You know, you got my homes coming off the knee injury, right? And you think about this, if you look at the last three years, is statistically he has dropped every year over the last three years? And last year, you know, wasn't, they were still, I think, they were still like, I don't know, when he went out, they were, I think they were six and eight or something of that nature when he went out last year. And I keep looking at like defensively, or their last three super balls were, they were really led by the defense, not so much the high flying office that we remember from the

41:08very beginning of Patrick Mahomes season or careers, excuse me. And then you look at, you know, you look at both starting corners are now in Los Angeles. So you're going to play young guys in the corner position. Chris Jones is a year older. They're not the dominant defense they were during those years. And all of a sudden, this offense is older. And I just don't know where it's all going to come from. So it'll be very interesting to see exactly if they can bounce back. But I have my doubts. I just, I look at how they're built right now. And are they going to be an offensive juggernaut again? I just don't see that with, you know, aging players. And I don't know, you know, what Rishi Rice is going to be after missing all the time that he's missed and nobody else on that office to me really, really feels like a prominent player. So I just don't know. I just don't think, I don't think they're the team they were. And I think they're, they're reigned over the AFC West is over. I think you're right. They're not the same they were and never will be ever again.

42:10Mark really quick. They got about 90 seconds. You waited on this recently. See, look at the quarterback situation. It the Vikings. Jay, Jay McCarthy, not only does not beat Al Kylo Murray, he doesn't even beat Al Karsten Wentz. So should they cut their losses short and just move on from him? Yeah, I do. I think he needs a change of scenery. I think there's no question about that. Hey, you know, but if they're sitting there trying to get value for me, what are you going to get? Like a half a year supply of Gatorade, like, like what's he worth? He's, you're not going to trade any valuable draft picks for Jay, Jay McCarthy. So at this point, the best thing for him to do, and we've seen this. We've seen it with Baker Mayfield. We've seen it with Sam Darnal, who just won Super Bowl. They all went somewhere where they could get some quarterback rehab. Sam Darnal spent a year in San Francisco backing up before he went to Minnesota. Baker Mayfield got some time with Sean McVey in Los Angeles before he went to Tampa Bay. We've seen that, you know, kind of that reclamation project go with those guys and it worked really

43:10well. But I think the best thing they can do for the kid and the best thing he can get done is to move on from Minnesota and just say, Hey, man, let me go find another place and let me learn the game a little bit because it certainly hasn't worked out here so far. Hey, three times Super Bowl champ, two time pro baller. Also a game analyst for the NFL on Fox and a morning show host on 104.3. The fan in Denver. Nobody better. Mark Schler at Mark. Appreciate you, my guy. Thank you very much. Great job. You got Jim. Take care, buddy. You're the best, bro. Mark Schler at that level. Boys have love, stink always will. All right, when we come back, I know somebody else who loves that guy, the big head. I got a question for the big head graphically speaking. I may need to get his reaction on something because you know, he's going to have a question for me. He always does. Me, I asked the right questions. Head. He asked all the wrong questions. We will have that when we come back. Don't forget the beef segment. Top of our number three. Start thinking about what you want to beef about and whether or not you want to call

44:12the beef or write your beef and stay tuned. Fan tool is now available everywhere in the US. You can get in on the sports action no matter where you are, including these places. May this year, most rewarding season ever with FanDual. Page and location restrictions apply. Product availability varies by Mark. CfanDual.com for eligibility. Gambling problem called 1-800-Gemmar.