Brad Biggs talks Bears & Blackhawks name Connor Bedard their captain (Hour 3)

0:00I'm Annagarcia, host of True Crime News, the podcast. Every week we bring you in-depth coverage on cases making headlines, as well as those that go under the radar. Tune in for murders that defy explanation, mystery seeking exploration, and shocking secrets that will leave you breathless. Each week we honor the victims by going beyond the salacious in our search for justice. Crime never stops, and neither do we. Listen to True Crime News available now on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. You go wise to not allow yourself to get involved when people will say you and millions but are there bringing in a new era of Chicago sports? I mean, can you enjoy that and take yourself out of the equation to know it's things that are happening for Chicago people? No doubt. I've gotten a much better understanding of it's still kind of trippy, but like it's cool that people appreciate us being friends, you know, because that's where all really

1:03stems from. You know, we've definitely talked about what we want to build here together, but again, that all stems from genuine appreciation of each other's abilities and craft and how we make stuff happen. But I think it's all agreed upon by all of us that we want to give people something to look forward to. So I think that's where it's coming from, and that's what it is. Welcome back. It's Todd Payton, Chicago Sports Radio 103, the score on this Tuesday morning, beautiful morning in the city of Chicago, especially if you are a Cubs fan or a Whitesucks fan and we're talking baseball because last night as you heard, Pico Armstrong talking about the Cubs, seven to three victory over the Atlanta Braves. And in that game, PCA had four hits. He went deep. He stole another base. He's now have 37 stolen bases in 42 home runs, which brings us to our plumbers 911 hotline.

2:06Plumbing emergency call 1833 plum 911 local 130 plumbers get the job done right. The first time Bruce divine is the scores baseball insider and he joins us now. Good morning, Bruce. Morning, guys. How are you? Yeah, that was Pico Armstrong talking about him in Caleb Williams owning this city, owning it in a very good way, wanting to be the pillars of a building a new foundation for Chicago sports, a winning foundation going forward, moving forward with two elite superstars. And we're watching one of them play right now. We watch one on Sunday and we're watching one play every day for the Cubs with the loving games. No doubt about it. Caleb Williams after week one has entered the chat in terms of MVP consideration in the NFL. Meanwhile, Pico Armstrong, Bruce is likely to win his first most valuable player at the age of 24. When you look at this season, the body of work, 2026 Pico Armstrong, in your experience,

3:13covering Chicago baseball, especially just reduce it to the Cubs. How does that season stack up to other MVP like seasons, whether it's Sosa or Chris Bryant 10 years ago? How does this season stack up? Well, I mean, it does in the sense that he's dominated pitching since what the middle to the late end of June. And he's taken the best player in the sport out of the equation as far as I'm concerned, MVP conversation. More importantly, what he does every day to make his team win, it's just been incredible to watch. I mean, you know, the Bryant MVP season of 2016, the Dawson year of 1987, they were awesome in their own right. But this one doesn't have to take a backseat to anybody. I mean, it's just the numbers are completely there across the board. If you want to take strike outs out of the equation, nobody seems to care about him very

4:15much any longer. It's almost like asing every area of baseball. And he's done that. I mean, there is no conversation about, you know, O'Connor any longer. It's all about whether Pico Armstrong is going to be the unanimous choice of MVP. Bruce, last night, any more meeting to the win at Riggly last night, beaten the first place Braves team? Well, I think it's, you know, it's reassuring to that you can beat really good teams what you're going to have to do, Jared, over the next three weeks when you get into the playoffs and you're seated, you're going to have to go out there and show you can beat Atlanta, you can beat Philadelphia, you can beat San Diego, you can beat the Dodgers. These are the teams you're going to have to beat. Everybody says, well, you have to get seated here because you don't want to play this team

5:16on the road. Yeah, I mean, there's an equation to that, but the reality is you're going to have to beat them all, okay? You're going to have to beat all the best teams. You're going to have to be up to it. And you know, with the Cubs, it's certainly all about whether or not offensively and defensively, they can beat teams down and beat them in short series. That's going to be the key. Do they have enough pitching? Do they have enough faith in that bullpen that they're going to be able to win close games? Because that's basically all you see in playoff games. Regardless of the quality of the starting picture in these games, they're not going to beat it in there after the second or third inning if they're not getting out and they're not keeping their team in the game. So it becomes a whole different season, a whole different way that managers look at their team, especially in these two out of three games to begin the year or to begin the playoffs, where you know you have starting pictures to come in in the second or third inning if

6:22your starter is not getting it done. You're listening to Haum Peyton talking to Bruce Levine here on the score and tonight the Cubs host the Braves at Riggly pregame covered to 605 first pitch 640 crystal clear FM quality on 104 through the score and the Northwestern medicine Cubs radio network. Bruce we heard yesterday, Danzby Swanson begins a rehab stint tonight. He could be back with a major league team as early as Friday, created nice situation for the Cubs. What to do with Pedro Ramirez? Who has really been very good in Danzby's absence and really very good all season long providing some key timely hits at times and playing an adequate defense. What do you think will be the move in terms of if Danzby comes back, what role will Ramirez play? It'll be either him or can Florida against right handers at the arching, right? So he's earned enough gravitas with this team to be able to be considered an important cog even as a hitter getting big hits timely hits.

7:25Never looking overwhelmed talking to Ryan Fleurty the bench coach on Sunday. He talked about that forget about the coaches and the manager. He's impressed his fellow teammates has to be calm, cool, collected, keeping them in the pen and race and in the race to be the number one wild card. I think it's been understated how important Niko playing shortstop and this guy playing in quality second base have been since Danzby went out. It's going to be a month before he returns maybe on Friday and the Cubs really haven't missed a beat defensively. Offensively, there's that occasional explosion from Danzby but they have done a terrific job of replacing probably the best defensive shortstop this year in baseball. Bruce, another start for Kevin Gossman tonight. What does he need to show tonight is just another start for him or is this kind of another

8:29showing for him that he should get a ball in the wild card start? It's all about him commanding the fastball and the spamitter. When he's commanding the fastball he gets a lot of swing and miss on that and then the splitter has to be down in the zone. Those are his two pitches. Basically it's an 80 to 90% of what he throws. So we've seen the good Gossman, we've seen the not so good Gossman and it's basically on command. You can say that about any pitcher any night. In his case he can be dominant. We've seen seven shout out in and he's a couple of times from him when the ball is being dispersed in the proper way. The fastball is looking like a strike but it's off the plate and it's high and out of the zone and the splitter is down. So it sounds simple. The equation is not always that simple for Gossman. But again, Jared, if you're asking me, is this the most important start of the year for

9:35him? I think they all are with 11 left. You basically only have one game leads on Philadelphia and Arizona in the standings. I always remind David when we talk on Saturdays, the lost calm is the only thing that matters. You have a one game lead in the lost calm. The good news is it's really two games because of the fact that they have the tiebreaker for both teams. Thanks, Dad. So Bruce, let's go to the White Sox because they had a victory last night that feels like it might have been the biggest of the year because of what it represented. They now win the series with Cleveland and that may matter down the stretch. They're clinging to a game and half lead. They got the big Homer from Vargas. They got really strong outing from Burke who was piggybacking last night. Kyle Teal comes through in the clutch. The Hagen Smith did it again since giving up that home run August 17th at the Peacoram

10:36Strong 16 and a two thirds scoreless innings nine appearances 25 strikeouts. This guy, I don't know if it's a revelation, but certainly he's in weapon and the White Sox are using him well. What do you expect tonight? You know, you have to have a good starting pitching and you hopefully get it tonight. But you're right David. The bullpen has been a revelation for them and you think about the left handers that have come out of the bullpen and gotten big outs all year. None of them were bigger than newcomers who started that game yesterday. He's had a continually had an ERA in the twos which is phenomenal for a guy that comes out of the bullpen either as a beginning, middle, or an end guy. Something like Taylor does for the White Sox as well. So it's all about pitching and you talk about a big game. I thought that was a huge game for the White Sox.

11:36Just the feel good part of maybe we're not clicking in all cylinders. Maybe we're not hitting the ball. Certainly Murkame and the Montgomery's are not hitting the ball. They're missing the ball a lot. And we're able to compete and win against the team that people say is superior to us. They're going to pass us. Well, now they have the three games. They have the two games in the lost column and they have the third game because the White Sox won the head-to-head competition against Cleveland yesterday. That's huge. That means that the first tiebreaker, the White Sox have against Cleveland and that's going to be important as we watch these games do a little down to a few. Bruce, that's the tough part. I was going to go with Murkame and Montgomery. Both were quiet again last night and just both guys just seem to be stuck. How do they have time to fix the issues and the problems that are going on with them

12:37right now? You know, things so. And I understand the venerable winning Miracame to be in the lineup. It's going to be easy for me to sit here at 8.15 in the morning to tell you guys Murkame should be on the bench. Okay, particularly against left handers. It's another thing to say. Okay. May draw, moves to shortstop. You can actually move to second base. You put in another hitter who can get the job done a little bit more and against lefties for sure and against other people you have to be selected by using Murkame. Murkame, too. You're pensioned, Mooney. What would you do with him? I would, at this point of time, you got to go with him. You got to hope that he runs into one. You got to hope that he gets hot again. You're not pensioned, Mooney. Not in September. You're not, you're not. But I'm not benching him. I'm dropping the mug.

13:40I'm trying to put him in a situation. I don't care if it's second, third, fourth or seventh right now. He's just, it's swinging miss, right? And, and Colson, you know, his credit has had some big hits, but it's not much better. You got poor guys in the lineup last night that are hitting two, ten or less. Okay. And, people don't care about batting average. I understand that. But from the metric of making contact, he's not doing it right now. So if you think it's a big deal to bench him, I would talk to him about using him like counsel uses players, like, venable uses players, that is you bring in the guy when the right handers are coming in. So if a left hander is starting to game, I don't start him. I don't know that I would go that far. You're talking about him being your left-handed Randall Gritchick.

14:40I'm not sure I'm there yet. I think you got 12 games left. He's gotten you this far. You got to write him out. You got to write this out just to see what happens. I know it's a different series, but I just don't, I don't know. That sounds pretty dressed. He's, he's not getting you there right now. He's not getting you there right now. And it's not punishment for him. That's the reality. He just is, it's swinging and miss, you know, to the- 30-homer guy. He's got 35% of his, his, his, at bats or strikeouts of his play appearances. 43% of his at bats or strikeouts. I'm not punishing the guy. I'm, I'm giving the guy a break against pitching that he's not able to do it. We'll finish this later. Bruce, we got a minute left. I want to ask you about this. Chris Guest doesn't make every trip. It tells you the gravity of this one that he's on it. He spoke to reporters, lot going on with the white socks of the past few days. He addressed Mike Shirley, the director of amateur scouting, who a friend of the program, we know him well, Bruce. He was resigned over the weekend amid allegations of verbal harassment.

15:43There's an internal investigation. Chris Guest talked about restructuring the front office as he strives to replace him. He talked about trying to get his team to relax and play through this little slump that they were in. How did you read the presence of Chris Guest on this road trip and what did you think of what he had to say about the future of the socks front office? Well, I think it's awesome. I mean, the guy has stood up. He's been a leader ever since the jury ran his door for a few years ago, appointed him the job. Finger pointing at him all the time, saying he was a lackey. He wasn't good enough. It's somebody that they settled on. And he's proved to be anything but that. He's a tremendous leader without, he, he has leadership with out an ego, right? So that's hard to have in modern sports as a leader, but he has done that. He did it again last night and he did it well. I mean, he, he, he doesn't shy away from, from facing adversity or things that aren't going well for the white socks and he's your American league executive of the year.

16:47I give him credit for showing up and asking the questions. I think obviously he knew that this called for that kind of presence and any responded. Plus, it is, it is as big of a series as they have experienced this year. So tonight, they're back at it. Davis Martin on the mount against Foster Griffin for the Guardians. That's going to be another big match up. Bruce, thanks for your time. Look forward to talking to the rest of the week. Yeah, why don't we get a talk about Mooney again? We'll get back to it. We'll talk to it. Yeah, to it. Well, I can't hear you break, you're breaking up. You're breaking up. Next, please. Okay. Bruce, I'm buying the score. It's baseball insider. We come back. Check your watches. Yes, look at your clock. It's big time. Thanks. Here on Hawn Page, Chicago Sports Radio, 104, 3, the score. Morning, boys, what's going on? History that doesn't suck is a legit, hard-hitting American history podcast fold through entertaining stories. History that doesn't suck, an Odyssey podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts. Good. The Brand Bigs. Bigs Time. Bigs. With all in pink. Bigs Time.

17:47The Bigs Report with Brand Bigs. Bigs Time. Bigs Time. His name is Brand Bigs. Brand Bigs Talks football with you. Welcome back. It's on Payton, Chicago Sports Radio, 104, 3, the score. Time now to go out to the plumbers. 9-1-1, hotline. Plumbing emergency. Call 1-8-3. Plumb 9-1-1. Local 130 plumbers get the job done right. The first time he is the football man for the Chicago Tribune, the best source of bears information anywhere. Brad Bigs. Morning, Brad. Morning, boys. What's going on? So easy question. Difficult answer. Are the bears the best offense in the NFL? Oh, boy. After one week, yeah. Right? For sure. But long way to go, different ways to measure it. But right now, after one week, you see them go out and put up 59 points.

18:50They're at the top of your leaderboard, yeah. You think that's going to be the case in a month, two months? Can that be the case in three months? It can. It can. It can. Well, I mean, but first we got to, okay, what is it? Is it simply points? Is it yards? Is it, you know, how are you kind of? What's your criteria? But yeah, they're more than capable of that. And, you know, we'll have to see. Remember what Ben said? A couple different ways since the game ended Sunday in Carolina. And that was basically finding a way to get back to the plane, to get to the airport, one and a half. So that's going to look a little bit different each and every week. You know, what is it going to take to get a win? And he doesn't care what it takes. It's just about achieving that result.

19:55So we'll see. But yeah, they're more than capable of any and all of that. Brad, we break down the film. And I know when Ben Johnson looked at the film, you, we all saw the amazing plays from Caleb Williams, either with his feet or some of the crazy throws that he had. But Ben really talked about yesterday was just how he liked how Caleb would reset and take what the defense was giving him, dumping it off instead of forcing things down the field. As much as we look at all the spectacular things that he does, that to me was the biggest thing going into this year for him. And it seems like he's having a better understanding of this offense. Well, if you're going to talk about setting a goal for getting a major uptick in completion percentage and Ben's talked about that, but I don't think he's obsessed with it. Like people talk about it like it's this be all end all goal that they've put in front

20:57of the quarterback. And that's not the case. But yeah, he's over, he's at what 71, 72% in the game. He's over 70% for the game. And like I said yesterday morning three or four of those were throwaways where you understand it. Like that's the play you got to make. You move on in the next down, but I agree. Checking the ball down in a couple instances, go into that second read that's kind of sitting in the void there in the middle of the field. And that's not something they did a whole lot of a year ago. Remember through the first five, six games last year, he wasn't throwing the ball in the tight ends at all. The running backs didn't catch a lot of passes last year. 34 for Swift, 18 for Menongay. You're basically talking about three running back receptions per game.

21:59If he's checking it down just a little bit more, they had to reach that number. And then with the screen game and everything else, that number is going to go up a little bit and second in five, second and four after one of these little check downs, better spot to be in than second and 10. We're listening to Haundt Payton here on the score in the segment of Brad Biggs, sponsored by S-Swing Professional Tools, made in the USA for over 100 years S-Swing.com. Okay, Brad, you know, things are going pretty well when Ben Johnson's Monday Zoom begins with a question about the origin of no block, no rock, and then is followed up by the decision to go good, better best after the game. What is the most pressing issue facing Ben Johnson this week? It seems like things could not have gone much better when you score 59 points, but there's got to be something there that requires immediate attention. What is it in your mind? Well, I mean, the defense, right? I don't care who's a quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.

23:03They've got to be better defensively. And then I guarantee you they've moved on from film review of Carolina and are taking a real close look at what Brian Flores and the Vikings are going to throw out of them on Sunday. And Flores, as long as been known as the guy who wants to send pressure, five or more past rushers as much or more than anybody in the league, and he blew the lid off that. This past Sunday against the Packers, you look at some things and they say the Vikings were pressuring at 75, 80% of the passing attempts. So they're going to have to have a plan in place to handle that and then counter punch, right? How are you going to beat the Vikings at what they want to do to you because they are

24:07giving you a weakness in your defense. You've just got to find a way to exploit it. I think the one thing that jumps out to me, Brad is in week one, this bears team. A lot of flags on the field, man, they have to clean that up. That has to be a point of emphasis for Ben Johnson going into this week. Yeah, David, something you're going to talk about every week. They had what they have 12 penalties. I don't know, I didn't have some two. You can't go forward with, well, I mean, there was only 57 yards. Yeah, it's something they're going to bring up. I'm more worried about, if I'm them, I'm worried about what florists is bringing that on them and trying to tighten up that defense. I think some of the penalties that they had are probably quick, correctable things that

25:11can be reviewed in the meeting like I still, man, how you get a delay game out of a time out is baffling to me. They've been able to do this for a couple of years now under with multiple quarterbacks and multiple coaches. You ought to be able to keep those five yards in your pocket. It didn't seem like there was a confusion over when they were going to restart the play clock, though, because they were thought that it was already restarted. He was put his hands toward the air. And I don't know, Brad, not making an excuse, but it did seem like that was a misunderstanding as much as it was. Again, there was no, there was some type of absolutely. There was some type of miscommunication there, but you've had your time out. You've got your play go, right? Because there's always something to explain it out. There's a flag coming out of a time out. I'm not putting it, I wouldn't have a ton of concern about the penalties that they had

26:16in that ball game, but they better be ready for Minnesota and the Bears traditionally have fared well against the Vikings in Soledadfield. I know that wasn't the case a year ago in the season opener, but talked about it for a long long time. Saw some really talented Vikings teams come to Soledadfield against more mediocre Bears teams and really have some problems. So Bears is going to be ready because Florida is going to be taking these highlights, the 59 points, all that. He's going to be showing that to his defensive guys and he's going to have them flying high coming into this game, I would imagine. If they're watching the highlights, Brad, then they're watching that run game. That's going to be a point emphasis for them to be able to stop. Let's say they do early on that Bears don't have success early on running the football. Do you think Ben stays with it? Because sometimes coaches find a way when things aren't working to get away from them,

27:17but that's their bread and butter. Yeah, that's going to be what they're foundationally based on as long as Ben's here, I think. Like that's really, you talk to him about, boy, what's your like most from the game? And he starts talking about them. And I'm going to run in some of these blocks and that's absolutely where he's at. I would not have, I mean, what happened on occasion maybe when you get to the end of a game and you feel like maybe the coach got away from the run game a little bit, yeah, that's going to happen from time to time. But with Ben as the coach, I don't think that's something that you worry about happening consistently. What are you hearing about Kyla Murray and concussion protocol? Obviously Carson went stepped in and they really, I think went 29, they scored 29 on answered points after that happened. Don't expect that to continue necessarily, but he is a veteran.

28:20He does have some limitations as well. But Kyla Murray, if he's healthy, would get the start? Yeah, I would presume. But what do you think that's going to happen there? I can't venture a guess with Kyla Murray, but I can say that Murray was in meetings yesterday with the Viking. So he's in the protocol, but he's not, at least yesterday, he wasn't in such a way where he had to stay home in a dark room, which can happen to guys with concussions that physically they feel very poorly. So he's good enough to show up, to be part of the meetings yesterday. What that means, potentially for Kyla Murray's availability this coming Sunday, I have no idea. And you just guess it, and if you're trying to predict it at this point. But yeah, when it came in and played, you know, the guy's been around a long time.

29:25He got things going for him. And yeah, he doesn't move real well, but the pairs have yet to prove they can rush the quarterback real well. That has to be, to me, one of the biggest things they have to get going, because you got Montez getting the sack and streets getting the sack as well. Can they get some pressure with a guy if, let's say, whence is in the pocket, he's a guy that's not going to move around a lot. Brad, they have to find a way to be able to generate some type of pass rush on Sunday. Yeah, and that starts probably with being better at first down, right? You get, you get, whence in a situation where it's second and longer, where it's third and you know, they're throwing, and then you're setting up opportunities for you guys to potentially get home. The run defense needs to be better too. The panthers hit him for, well, 5.7 yards of carry the other day.

30:26And Carolina basically had to kind of ditch the run game. Their late, the third quarter, early fourth quarter, because there were chasing so much. Time was of essence, and they couldn't stop the pairs from running the ball at all. So I would imagine they feel like they've got to, they've got to be better play in the run and earn your opportunities to go hunt the quarterback. The more opportunities you can create to get after wince or Murray or whoever it is, the better chance you're going to have for success. Great stuff, Brad. Appreciate you joining us this morning. Look forward to a really interesting week to see what happens with the Vikings quarterback situation and how the bear's handle success. Thanks guys. Have a great day. Brad Biggs, football man from the Chicago Tribune. Interesting in terms of Ben Johnson praising Caleb Theanham and Monday at the podium for the job that he did.

31:26And being somewhat critical of, and honest, about the jobs that Cornelback's did. I don't think it was Jalen Johnson's or Tyrick Stevenson best day. It looked like it was their season opener. And I think they're going to have to really take that next step. Ben put them on notice without putting them on blast. That's how I looked at it. These guys know they got to be better. And at some point, there's going to be a lot of pressure on Dennis Allen did to get things right and corrected inside of that defense medium. So here what Ben Johnson had to say about his cornerbacks and the challenge ahead of them because Justin Jefferson is coming to town talking bears next and on Peyton Chicago sports radio. 104 three the score. Hey, it's Jen Hatmaker. Here's what I've learned in midlife. Joy isn't the reward you earn after all the work has done. Joy is the work. That's what this new series on for the love is all about. The sacred. Yes. And delight rest and pleasure on purpose because saying yes to yourself.

32:28That's the thing that finally lets you fill your table with everybody else. Come find your sacred. Yes with me. Follow and listen to For the Love wherever you get your podcasts. Pa and Peyton in the mornings on 104 three the score. Cadbury fires it back here. Son of a low. Slow it down. Downs free into the corner. Here's Benard making moves. Knocked off a stick. He's able to recover. You'll try it from his old. Oh, for the hat. He's got it. Connabed. Hard. Samton career. Patrick. Five two. Parks. A high flipper. And everyone's going home to bliss. On this cold night in Chicago. Spirit and game. He's had a good one. Welcome back. It's on Peyton Chicago Sports Radio 104 three the score. We'll get to Ben Johnson's comments on his quarterbacks later.

33:31But we have breaking news here on the score brought you by I dot. At some point in the day, everyone is a pedestrian. Slow down and give them space. Here the road. It's not a game. Breaking news. Conner Bdard 21 year old. Blackhawks. Centerman is the 37th captain of the Chicago Blackhawks. They named him this morning. He had this to say about the news. According to the statement that was just released moments ago. Quote. Being named captain of the Blackhawks is an unbelievable honor and something I'm truly humbled by. The captains who have come before me have left an incredible legacy to now have the opportunity to carry that tradition forward is something I don't take lightly. I am grateful to the organization and my teammates for putting their trust in me to lead this team. We're building something really special here and I'm committed to making the entire Blackhawk organization and our fans proud. End of quote. Conner Bdard. Congratulations. 21 year old captain.

34:31Last conference at one o'clock right here on CHSN and on YouTube. Conner Bdard answers questions about being a captain coming back from his shoulder surgery. What to expect this season and the rest of his career? 21 years in 60 days old. Making him the second youngest in team history behind Jonathan Tate. Jonathan Tate. That's a great comp. That's a tall order. No, no, no. I'm not, I'm just saying I love the fact that they did this and Dustin was talking to it shows. Listen, this is your team. It's time. It's time. It's time. Your team moving forward. We're behind you and they made the investment with the extension. No, he's battling through trying to get back from the shoulder surgery but it shows that it's his team and it's his time and I think it's a great move. I think it's a great move too because it's inevitable that he was going to ascend to

35:33this leadership role. You could have put other people maybe under consideration for that job. Maybe somebody who doesn't necessarily have the dynamic rare skill set that Conner Bdard has to offer. He is your best player. Sometimes that doesn't always mean he's going to be your captain. Patrick Kane for example, you think he would come to town and maybe he would be somebody that would fill that role. That's not really Caner. He's always been a guy that has been as much of a complimentary piece in the dressing room as the leader who's going to take charge. The vocal part of it, the expressive part of it, you wonder about Conner Bdard and I don't mean that in a negative way. I just think that's part of his growth. That's going to be part of the maturation process that we have seen frankly in Caleb Williams. Now we're going to see hopefully that encounter Bdard. He's going to be the guy that has to have something to say. I think there's something to say about the growth in time and given these young guys

36:34to have a voice. Maybe he's going to have to grow into being that vocal leader. I think what you know about him is that it comes with what he does on the ice and how he takes care of business and how he kind of goes after his craft. Now it's more of a vocal role and I think that's what's going to be exciting. We might not see it on the outside. It should be felt inside of that locker room. If he's doing it right, that's the way it will be because there won't be as much external noise. He'll be able to keep things inside the way hockey players and hockey teams like to do it. This is year four. Can you believe that this is year four for Conner Bdard? He's had some injuries. He needs to stay on the ice. What he comes back, which according to projections, could be as early as late October, early November coming off the shoulder surgery. You want him to stay there because when he is on the ice, he's a dangerous player. In 200 and he's got 203 points in 219 career games.

37:35This is somebody that's a threat, whether it's scoring a goal with his dynamic ability to handle the puck and stick handle or it's finding a guy in the way that the eyes in the back of his helmet, it seems. He can set people up with the best of them. But 219 games, 203 points, that's a pretty good pace. You'll take that. I'll take it. I don't want to miss missing a lot of games. 30 goals and 45 assists last year. Now he's ready for the next step. This is an exciting time to be a hockey fan. Again, we talked early. We talked throughout the show. Cubs, socks, both headed to the playoffs or they're in position right now to make that possible. The Bears coming off a 59-point victory. And here, one of the big stars in Chicago, Connor Bedard is named Captain Today. That 1 o'clock press conference right here in CHSN, that's a big deal. That's going to be a lot of fun to follow and you hope that they can get off to a good start.

38:36They report this week. It's hockey season, baby. It's hockey. David hockey. Let's go. Let's go. They play Saturday. I think Saturday is the game first game against the Wild. I was looking ahead to next week's college football season on Saturday, seeing what was next week. And on that one app I use, I have follow favorite teams, right? Black Hawks are one of them. They're like, wait, what? I'm like, I went too far. No, no, no. That's Saturday. Hawks are wild Saturday. Hawks are wild Saturday. Hawks are wild Saturday. Pretty season game on Saturday. Yes, and I think they play a limited preseason. The season starts earlier than ever this year. I think it starts in September. We'll get some of the details later. Bottom line is, Connor Bedard is your captain. Connor Bedard is your leader. Connor Bedard is going to take this team as far as it's going to go. Patrick Kane is welcome with open arms. Who doesn't love the fact that Kaneer is back? Oh, man. That right there, that dynamic is huge. Frontel, Nazar, Byram. This team has a lot to be excited about. Spencer Knight in net. I think this is going to be a fun year, a fun start to the season.

39:40So breaking news here on the score, Connor Bedard named the 37th captain in Chicago Black Hawk history. All right. Back to the NFL. Back to football week one. Lasted forever from last Wednesday through last night. It seemed like it took a long time, but it was fun. It was interesting. And we'll talk about all the fascinating details with Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk. When we come back, it's Han Peyton's Chicago Sports Radio 1043 the score. David Hawkeye. I'm Dana Carving. I'm David Spade. Flying the Walls back for another season now on audio and video every Monday and Thursday. So many incredible guests will be joining us. Follow and listen to Flying the Wall everywhere you get your podcasts. lik you to latest.