Bring in the NFL Replacement Refs & Tonight's MLB Betting Card

0:00Unfiltered, unadulterated sports. You've come to the right place. 957 FM, the fan, Rochester. Late games, loud opinions, and money time moments. Bed MGM tonight rolls on. Alrighty, welcome on back. Bed MGM tonight. Westwood wants sports. He's bread having some pap oil. You know, sometimes life happens. Weep happens. A producer, Brandon Combs, who is basically running the ship in Chicago, or he's our connection between our main, our mother ship, if you will, Westwood one in California. There are studio coms in Chicago. Combs lost power in the studio in Chicago. So that kind of sent us to break. We were still on YouTube, but all of a sudden he's like,

1:01Hey, we got to go to break. So, you know, that happens, but that's fine. That's now we got basically a 25 minute segment here to have fun and talk about so much different stuff. So, Brad, where were we? NFL hiring replacement refs? You know, I'll just, I'll start, I'll start it back from the top here. So apparently NFL owners are quote, unquote, unlarmed by the state and negotiations with the NFL referees association. The refs, their CBA with the NFL expires at the end of May, and they're very far apart on negotiations. And look, the nucleus comes down to NFL referees still get paid part time. They're not full time employees. They get paid part time salaries. Now some of those salaries from the more tenured refs, or you probably make a full time living off of it, but they're technically part time employees. And I think the easiest thing to get to get out of this, and I don't think we're going to, but the easiest solution, make the referees full time employees. 12 months a year, have them attend workshops in the off season, they get time off, obviously,

2:04like everybody else. But like this is, this is so stupid. We're talking about a billion dollar corporation, a billion dollar entity, multi billion dollars in the national football league. And we had the fail marry, those at home, over 10 years ago at this point, because you had replacement refs, nobody knew what the hell was going on. And so we're going to risk having the integrity of the game, and just the overall quality of the game, sink so low, because NFL owners can't figure it out and get to an agreement with the NFL refs. I thought we only had to worry about this with a baseball lockout, but apparently we have to worry about it with the zebras in the NFL. They got to figure this out, man, because if we have replacement refs again, it's going to be bad news. Yeah, it's very inexcusable for the NFL and the money that they're making handover refists that they can't pay these guys full time. My uncle back of the day was a head referee, the NFL, actually, and he was a banker on the side. He ran a local bank in the Champaign, Illinois area, and then he was a referee in the

3:06fall of the national football league. So that goes to show that they were paying guys substantial coin back in the 1980s and 90s when he was a referee and still aren't paying guys substantial coin here in the year of our football lords in 2026, and yet they're making infinitely more money than they did back in the day. I don't really understand it. They want consistency. They want integrity with the product that they're turning out. Just go ahead and pay these guys what they are worth. They knew mindset, well, they only work happier. Who cares? So the players, so the coaches, they're working like a little bit more than half the year as well. I mean, you don't have to pay them an absorbent and some might he starts to the imagination, but pay them what is fair and what is right. So the NFL just being cheapskates here and if they have to revert to what it was, you know, over a decade, almost decade and a half ago, it had these replacement reps in there. In this day and age with legalized sports gambling as a part of the ethos as ingrained into

4:12the game as it really is, you're going to have another fail, Mary. You're going to have a botch call, you're going to have more egregious calls that are going to sway the action on the field and honestly piss a lot of people off. So figure out a way, come to the table, sit down, negotiate, oh, in Pat, there's this wonderful C word that I think a lot of our politicians also need to adhere to. It's called compromise. Do the right thing, NFL, sit down, talk to representatives of the NFL referees and get a deal done in time for the season. We cannot have replacement rest period in a story. Yeah. And so the NFL began compiling a list of college level officials to recruit early this month. I mean, not like they're pulling these guys, you know, like the people that, that refugee kids high school games or middle school games, but still college level officials versus the NFL reps. And I know we get on them and we rag on them whenever they miss a call, but they are, they

5:13are very, very skilled and they are cut above from what the other, you know, college level officials at the division one level, even at the power conference level, like the NFL reps, they're the best of the best. It's a very exhaustive process to become an NFL referee. And so you're, yeah, you're going to have some bad calls. Here's the thing I worry about most, Brad, is that of course the league, they're already, they're already like thinking, well, what if they, you know, God forbid, we pay these, these men and women more money, right? That's a backup plan. What's our all-tierier plan here? The NFL competition committee has finalized a series of wide ranging rule change proposals in case there's a work stoppage with the NFL referees. And so basically you would be able to have the NFL game day central with, I'm trying to think of the word that, you know, obviously they're not referees, but basically NFL administrators and NFL, I guess you would call them referees, they, you know, they would be, like, you

6:18know, in a different location, like how the NBA has the replay review center in Sikakis, you will have that for the NFL. And these folks would be able to overturn penalties that were wrongly called, or they would be able to say like from the, from whatever wherever they are where there's game day central command center in New York is, and they would be able to say to the refs, hey, no, actually, I missed a roughing the pass or throw the flag right now. And looking theory, in theory, that sounds great, right? You got a second set of eyes watching the game, right? The first thing I think of, man, it is, is the integrity of the game is the, the, the billions of dollars that do get injured on the NFL every single week. Oh, I said, oh, no, hey, oh, no, the, the, the Patriots recovering is seven and a six and a half point favorites. Oh, it's a, it's a seven point game. Yeah, no, that's a whole call. That's going to be fourth down on the Patriots. That's what I worry about. Maybe I'm too skeptical. Maybe I'm too tinfoil hat, but I'd rather just have the men and women that get paid

7:20to do this and should be getting paid more that are the best in the world at their jobs at doing this. I'd rather just have them officiate in the game. Oh, yeah, again, it's all about the integrity. You, you want to maintain consistency as well. You know, you can say, well, that, you know, every game, every cruise a little bit different out. They call some of the games, some of the games a little bit tighter than others. But, you know, they're, they're trying to call, you know, a certain place by the letter law. What is an outline there of the rule book on a gaming game out basis, a bringing replacement referees and, yes, they may be collegiate referees, but the speed of the game is much faster at the NFL level than the college level. Yeah, even in an FCC play. So yeah, there, there's going to be a ton of miss calls and it's going to hurt the product on the field. And if you hurt the product on the field, there's going to be ripple effects just like you outlined with all of the sports bettors that are out there in the popularity that exists in those markets.

8:21It's going to be swayed and people are going to take to social media and they are going to absolutely destroy the NFL in that reputation. There is an egregious call and I guarantee there's going to be. So again, NFL protect your product, protect your ass, sit down, compromise, pay these men and women what they deserve and move on. You're still going to make an exorbitant amount and it reticates some amount of money in the better end anyway. Yeah, again, just building up that last point staff members of the NFL in this game day central New York would also be permitted to alert replacement referees that a flag shouldn't have been thrown if there is clear and obvious video evidence that at least one element of the foul called is not present, that includes a face mask, roughing the passer, intentional grounding, horse collar tackles, illegal contact, pass interference and disqualification. We already did this with the pass interference. Oh, you could challenge it. You could, it was the, it was the biggest disaster ever.

9:23It was a joke. So now you're telling me we're, you know, we have these replacement refs, but they're going to be overruled any time that they miss a call. We're going, we're going, we're, we're hopping through hoops here all because the NFL owners can't come to an agreement with the referees. Again, maybe the one thing, maybe, maybe I am too naive and I am, or not naive, maybe I'm too skeptical of the integrity. Maybe this would actually be a positive, I don't know, should I be thinking positively that like, hey, if these replacement refs suck, at least somebody, these, these overlords of the NFL that are watching from the sky will get the calls right or make sure that the wrong calls get overturned. And maybe we then end up getting more of that even with the regular referees. I guess that, can I, can I spin on this into a positive way or not? Uh, no, I kind of believe in that theory as well. I buy into it. I, I've always felt that they could expedite the entire replay process with the one thing

10:23you don't want is to really extend the game. Games are long enough as it is. Look, I love the NFL, but I don't want to sit there for four stinking hours and watch a single game, you know, I'd like it ideally to be over in like two hours and 30 minutes, two hours and 45 minutes, something under three hours. I, I don't want to expand my watching experience. And I think a lot of people feel the same way, special people that attend the games, they have some other things to do that they got to get back to like, I don't know, they're families, they got to get the bed and prepare for work the next day. So yeah, if there is a way that there's a silver lining and all this and maybe some good that comes out of it is going to a central command and immediately snap of a finger review a play. They have all the various camera angles in front of them. And they, you know, buzz in or they phone in or wherever they communicate and say, this call is going this way. This call is going that way. And over rules, these people, they have no saying it and you play on, they have to speed

11:28up the process. College has to speed up assess as well. And I've always felt like the big 10, they got money running out of the years, the SEC's got money running out of the ears. Why don't they do have a central command in that sport, it still is the same thing. So this could be the NFL institutes, it is a resounding success and then to get a trickle down effect into the college game for some of leagues can afford to do this with that central command and everybody went. So yeah, maybe there is something positive that could come from this plight that a lot of these current NFL referees are dealing with. One last thing that I will say here, it would suck if we do have replacement reps for however long. It takes another fail married to finally get the NFL to cave and give the NFL referees association what they want. But like imagine if we have replacement reps for the first couple of weeks of the season and you see a touchdown or two get taken off the board because they missed a clear and

12:31obvious holding call or an offensive pass interference. And we get to the point where you don't even celebrate touchdowns because you got to worry about hold on is the game day central going to overturn this because of a penalty and become you know, sometimes it takes it's taking the excitement out of regular touchdowns because you're like, oh hold on, we got to we got to review it. I don't mind not a bit of catch. My might have been something we missed. Imagine that if you have to review for a freaking penalty that the replacement reps might have missed. Yeah, then it's going to slow the game down and all of a sudden you feel like the excitement of every touchdown that you watch live on red zone or Sunday ticket or watching just your regular team that excitement goes out the window because every time you get a touchdown and you're like, hold on, I got to wait. Is there another penalty here that they didn't call or it's that's yeah, I mean, we just got to get a compromise. Like you said, the C word, baby, get that C word going. Yeah. And you know what you're going to take off that if you take touchdowns off the board, not only betters, but fantasy players and there are like 70 to 80 million people according

13:32to fantasy sports gaming association, the FSGA, that play fantasy football in this country. So if you see a play and a guy like cross the chalk and like us a touchdown, it's called a touchdown. The field. And as you mentioned, as example, they've central command then phones that, oh, no, there was a holding penalty. That's wiped off the board. There's going to be rights in the streets, especially come like fantasy playoff time, if there is no resolution to this, oh my goodness, I can't even imagine how hurt people will be that they may be like, I'm done. I'm never going to play fantasy football again. And that has been truly a gift that has kept on giving to the NFL and one of the main reasons why they have become a multi billion dollar industries because of fantasy football embedding because people are emotionally and truly invested in watching a four hour game from start to finish. Get it right in a fell. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's do a quick pivot here. Let's play our round the bases game with the crew.

14:36And right before we do that here for the night games in Major League Baseball, our friends at that MGM wants you to know that if you're looking to take your MLB action to the next level this season, boosted odds are here to crank up every pitch swing and home run. That MGM is so can you up with your very own MLB odds boost token to get things started this weekend and all season long, just add any MLB bet to your bet slip, activate your odds boost token and lock it in if your bad hits, your cash and out with an even bigger payout. So the premise of this round the bases game here, we go around the room, make selections for each category ahead of the evening Major League Baseball Slate. So we got four evening games, four night games, if you will, Yankees Mariners, Giants, Padres, Guardians Dodgers, and Tigers, debacks. So we started out with our favorite winner, Moneyline Play, Brad, go to you first brother. Who do you like and why? Oh, turn back to Clark, Justin Verlander. Do it for your beautiful wife, Kate Optin. I'm going to pick the Tigers on the road at Arizona win straight up, even Stephen plus

15:39one of the odds, Arizona off to an atrocious offense to start number 26 and WRC plus right now. And Verlander, you know, a guy that was a bit adventurous on the road last year, but a respectable 4.01 ERA going against Michael Soraka, who had a 6.75 ERA at Chase fields putting time between the Nats and the Cubs last season. So give me dates, wow, on the Moneyline against easy. Yeah, hopefully put some Soraka on Soraka. All right, I like, I like the Padres here. I like the Padres minus 118. You got Walker Bueller making his Padres debut against Landon Roup, who pitched like 20 games or so last year for the Giants. Look, I mean, Tori Vittello literally had to apologize for the opening weekend for the Giants of it was that bad Tony Vittello. We're getting names on all over the place.

16:39I'm going to Tori Lavello Tony Vittello had to apologize. He goes, yeah, I think I was too amped up. The guys, they tried too hard and they couldn't hit the freaking ball. The Giants haven't scored a run yet or they scored one run. So you know what, I'll go with the Padres here to, you know, bury the Giants in a little even bigger of a hole that they're in here, especially in a pitcher's ballpark like in San Diego. All right, Walker Bueller. I like the Padres. Basically, pick them. Combs. Yeah, I'll go with the Mariners plus 100 Luis Castillo on the mound. This isn't any shade towards your Yankees. Still think they're a good squad, but let's go with the Mariners at home. Luis Castillo on the mound. They are plus 100 right now for the Mariners. Okay. And that one's in Seattle really quickly. Video producer Monty. Monty, who do you like tonight? I'm going opposite of coms. I'm going with the Yankees. I've got a, yeah, it's right. I got a bunch of elite and strong rated hitters against Luis Castillo on my site. Badders dash box.com free ratings for all the hitters over there.

17:41Go check that out if you want to see what I'm talking about. So give me the Yankees. All right, very good. All right, let's, let's go to our favorite total of the night. Favorite over under bread. What do you like? All right, for the sake of time, I'm going to be quick here. You got Rupi. You got Bula, Bula, Bula, Bula, Bula. I'll take the under though in San Francisco in San Diego. Eight and a half at a minus one 15. Both these teams, that's wing and hot sticks outside the top 25 in WRC plus to begin the young year. Yeah, you know, I was, I was aiming for that one as well. You know what? I'll go. Yeah, I'm going to go over Yankees and Mariners. It's, it's the lowest total of the, of the four games here. Seven and a half. I mean, right? There is a, is a nice young pitcher for the Yangs. Castillo's good, but Monty mentioned he's got a bunch of elite ratings for Yankees. Hitters, the Yankees bullpen has been nearly untouchable, but Seattle's got a good offense. I, I just, I think we get a five four game or, I mean, even a, a five three game cash.

18:44It's over seven and a half Yankees and Mariners. My favorite total. Combs. Yeah, I'm going to go against Brad. I like the over in the Padres Giants. I know they have neither one of these is one great sticks, but Walker Bueller, just like Pat couldn't even strike me out. So I think the Padres, the Giants bats get going. I also think the Padres bats get going tonight to against Roop. So I'm going to take the over Padres Giants. Yeah, I would strike you out literally on three pitches. Monty, what's your favorite total? You stole my pick Yankees Mariners over seven and a half. I got a bunch of strong and elite rated guys for the Mariners as well. Like I'd say over 10 guys with a tier one or tier two rating in that game. So over seven and a half for sure. All right, very good. Let's bang out these last two or three here. If we can really quickly around the room, go yard, our home run pick for the night. Brad, who do you like to go deep? Slam the Cavalar and judge you would again, home run to two of your last three.

19:46And four for 10 with a home run at a 1,300 OPS against Louise Castillo plus two 75. And if he does, I'm going chase the Lord of Scrood, man. I'm going to ride the hot hand. The guys got four dogs already. He might end up being an expiry bond. So plus three 75 for chase the Lord or to go deep off Rokie Sasaki or anybody in the Dodgers pen. Why not? See, I mean, the guys got four ready. Come soon. You like to go deep. Give me Kevin McGonagall to get his first career home run tonight. Plus 750. Love this kid. Love the way he's been swinging the stick. He goes yard tonight. All right, Monty, you got anybody you like to go deep? What is batter's dash box? Who do we have? So a lot of people, but I'm going to, I'm going to stay in that game again. Soroka with, with coms. I'm going to go carry carpenter, the lefty for the Tigers. All right, beautiful. All right. We probably only have time for one more. So deal with the pitch voice here, Brad. You want to go with a hitter highest hits runs RBI's or a pitcher prop?

20:46Let's go pitcher. All right, go ahead. Who do you like? I'm going to go Rokie Sasaki over 13 half outs. Look, I know we primarily came out of the pen, but I mean, this is such a low stinkin number. All he's got to do is survive four and two thirds. I think it's good to go five strong. Give me the over 13 half outs. Sasaki of the LA Dodgers. Yeah, I'm going to stick with Walker Bueller here. Like the Padres and Walker Bueller, you know, again, trying to have a bounce back season here over three and a half K's going to be on a pitch count. But, you know, you got to drink some juice on it on Ben MGM. It's minus 150. But I think Walker Bueller on a decent day can absolutely get the four strikeouts here. So you'll over three and a half K's. Combs really quickly in 10 seconds. What do you like over two and a half earned runs for Walker Bueller? He sucks. Monty got something five seconds. Luis Castillo underouts whatever the number is. I don't know what it is. All right, very good. Brad will bid you a do. I got some more final four thoughts. When we come back, this is Ben MGM, the night of one.

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