Mm-hmm

... that became a, a major storyline of, ooh, Philly might have a, another starting quarter.

They might trade him.

They might, they might try to get something for him because he could start for a team.

That, that didn't really happen this preseason.

He didn't play particularly well.

They kept Andy Dalton on the roster, maybe because he hadn't quite mastered the new offense that Sean Mannion, first-year OC, is running.

... whether it's Amazon, CBS, or whatever, but that would just blow everybody else away.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

And Pitt was a, an excellent team.

And Syracuse had a terrific team.

So I knew it was gonna be a, a good game, but that's what struck me.

It's like, okay, these are men.

These are grown men.

Who, who brings you that type of excitement?

And the fact that it's still possible on the buttoned-up network level like you guys have shown, like, that's gonna be a skill that I take with me for the next four or five decades.

Yeah, I think the lines have blurred a, a great deal.

Uh, no doubt shows like Pardon My Take have played a big role in that, and the fact that even the lines of TV, internet, podcast, social media post, those lines have blurred.

So what used to be very much corporate buttoned-up mentality on a football broadcast or baseball broadcast, so on and so forth, I think you can take some more liberties now, a- as long as it's still within the confines of what you're doing.

Where you can get into trouble, and look, I, I learned this very early.

When I got out of college, uh, I was working at All Sports Radio, WFAN in New York.

I was a producer to start, which was incredibly valuable and advantageous for me in understanding the business, understanding how to do a show, watching the update anchors do their thing, how they prepare, the skill level required to fill five hours of radio with callers, with guests, Mike and the Mad Dog, Howie Rose, Steve Summers.

[laughs]

And what do you make? Do you make mental notes? Do you say, is there any kind of a critique for your son?

It's a great question, Ernie.

It's my son.

I have a 35-point kind of presentation for him.

I will go right from the opening stand-up.

Come on, man.

I will criticize his facial hair.

but What's harder to prepare for?

What are you seeing differently with Josh Allen this year compared to years past?

This is what struck me about Buffalo week one, just even talking to them in our production meeting and then what translated on the field.

Sean McDermott did excellent work in Buffalo, brought credibility, brought a real sense of professionalism.

And my thought is he will get another chance at some point.

His success, just look at the record, that should garner him another opportunity.

But, and maybe this is similar to what we were talking about with Harbaugh with the Ravens, sometimes things can get a little bit stale.

And what Joe Brady has brought is a new sense of excitement.

What do you got?

Mm-hmm.

And what we've learned and validated through all the years of following the NFL, the first three to four weeks are some of the most overreactive moments in a season.

Teams that you did not expect much from that come out of the gates and impress you, teams that high, had high expectations and then didn't live up to them first few weeks, it doesn't mean that we're in reality.

If you're Buffalo, you like what you saw the first two weeks with your offense, the fact that they were just flowing up and down the field.

There was a command that Josh Allen has had through his career in many moments.

It was intensified, to me at least calling the games, the first week.

You could just feel it, hi- his tangible effect that he was having on what was happening on the field, and then the connection with Joe Brady, the trust that the head coach has in his quarterback, the trust that the quarterback has in the head coach, who also happens to be the play caller.

[laughs] Every day

And if there's a problem, they'll be able to spot it and correct it before the snap.

Yeah, you know the term, John, having an adult in the room.

That is what applies here with both DeMario and Minka.

You just get the sense that it was needed.

It was necessary.

It was addressed just strictly from an age standpoint.

DeMario Davis is 37.

What do you think the Jets need to do in order for the 2026 season to be considered a success?

And everything I've seen this offseason suggests the Jets really think Geno Smith can run Frank Reich's offense at a high level.

Yeah, I think that is real.

I think they would pass a lie detector test if asked the question about, Exactly what you just laid out.

They do believe that.

Now, going out and doing it and doing it against high-level defenses and week in and week out and consistently, that's a whole other ball of wax.

But at the very least, going into the season, I do think Geno has the respect of his teammates.

Geno has had enough success that that there is a general sense that this offense could surprise some people based on what we discussed earlier, offensive line, running game, And now enough weapons in the passing game with Wilson and with Mitchell.

What do you think we should be looking for from Glenn this year? I

What are your thoughts? Uh, how do you see this team right now?

[lips smack] Well, look, you, you live in it, and you're fans, and Lions faithful live in it.

Mine is more of a 10,000-foot view of where they are, who they are.

Uh, I think the general feeling is that we're gonna find out if the window is still open for them.

I personally believe it is.

I just look at their offense, I think they're stacked offensively.

What Drew Petzig has to work with here in year one as a coordinator is an embarrassment of riches.

That's, that's key, isn't it?

So I guess, how do you think he's playing? Let me specifically, is he playing better than he did last year with the Jets? Yeah.

I don't think he played that poorly last year with the Jets.

I think they definitely had some issues on the offensive line last year with the Jets.

I don't know if it was a great fit with the coaching changes and the offense never really came together.

I'm not sure he ever truly bonded with his weapons and him and Garrett Wilson didn't have this incredible chemistry.

Although Wilson's numbers were, were good.

You look, his mobility is, is not there anymore.

Yeah.

The Knicks, have they shown you now that this is a legitimate team that can win a championship?

I believe they'll still be an underdog no matter who they match up against.

That that's just how it's set up.

The Western Conference was far superior.

You have the defending champions and then you have a team that could very well be a juggernaut for the next 12 years.

And the way that oddsmakers will look at it and the general NBA public will see it is that the Knicks would be an underdog.

But not the underdog that we presume they would've been with everything that you just laid out as emerging as the best team of the Eastern Conference.

Be that as it may, is game one one of those games, Ian, with this sort of winning streak, where you say it's, it takes on that much more significance, or is that a little overblown?

So would it be a mistake to sleep on the Heat in the postseason this year or any year, really?

It would be a mistake.

We've been in this situation before.

We've seen it each of the last three years, Miami and the play-in, and yes, all of the rhetoric has been, let's avoid the play-in, let's make the playoff, let's not worry about win and you're in or treating every game like it's a game seven, yet they've come through every year.

I do think coaching plays a big role and style of play plays a big role and being on that stage again and again and again.

During the Jimmy Butler era, they not only won the play and they went to the NBA finals.

So I think that was validation for the league in many ways that hey, just because you're 7, 8, 9, 10 doesn't mean that you're a sacrificial lamb.

But roster to roster, who has a more dominant team?

So would it be a mistake to sleep on the Heat in the postseason this year or any year, really?

It would be a mistake.

We've been in this situation before.

We've seen it each of the last three years, Miami and the play-in, and yes, all of the rhetoric has been, let's avoid the play-in, let's make the playoff, let's not worry about win and you're in or treating every game like it's a game seven, yet they've come through every year.

I do think coaching plays a big role and style of play plays a big role and being on that stage again and again and again.

During the Jimmy Butler era, they not only won the play and they went to the NBA finals.

So I think that was validation for the league in many ways that hey, just because you're 7, 8, 9, 10 doesn't mean that you're a sacrificial lamb.

But roster to roster, who has a more dominant team?

But roster to roster, who has a more dominant team?

Yeah, different, different, Channing.

They're just different rosters.

Miami is an older roster.

There are guys that have been through it.

And they're weathered a bit.

And Charlotte has a young team.

When you're watching that 83-point game, any part of you as just a broadcaster say, man, I wish I was calling this game right now?

... or in a arena, or at a school, university, uh, biggest difference?

Huge, huge.

Uh, sightline's completely different.

You're not at your normal level of watching the game, so the action is actually above you.

[laughs] And certain things that you just know based on where your eyes go from doing game after game after game, you've gotta retrain your brain in the first five minutes.

Sightlines in the corners, I can tell you, and it'll probably happen again, anything in the far corners I can't tell if it's a three-pointer or not.

I have to wait.

... how do you, uh, encapsulate what he's done at Michigan?

in a arena or at a school, university, uh, biggest difference?

Huge, huge.

Uh, sightlines completely different.

You're not at your normal level of watching the game, so the action is actually above you and certain things that you just know based on where your eyes go from doing game after game after game, you've gotta retrain your brain in the first five minutes.

Sightlines in the corners, I can tell you, and it'll probably happen again, anything in the far corners I can't tell if it's a three-pointer or not.

I have to wait.

I have to pause.

... how do you, uh, encapsulate what he's done at Michigan?

but maybe some insight into people that actually make these decisions and broadcast these games.

The three things that have struck me and really resonated with me this year more than any other year that I can remember, and I've worked this event now 29 years, three things stand out.

In this current setup with NIL, The fact that you can have an Alex Caraban, who in the previous iteration of college basketball would have turned pro after his second or third year, the people around him would have said, hey, it's in your best interest to now start the clock.

And I don't know what would have happened after year two or year three.

Probably would have been a second round draft pick.

And maybe he gets a two way deal in the current NBA and gets a chance to prove himself financially.

It would not have been a boom by any stretch.

And it was very clear with you there was something there that they could work with.

What does Patrick Gumba do to Duke's ceiling now that he's back?

I thought he changed everything from round one to round two.

All of the confidence that Siena built in the first round, getting towards the rim, not feeling like there was a, a real, uh, hurdle for them on the defensive end.

Duke is known as a great defensive team.

I didn't feel that in the first half against Siena.

That team just gained confidence, and I thought a lot of it was based on the fact that you didn't have the presence of Gumba, a true shot blocker and a true presence to throw them off their game.

Second half, Duke, uh, obviously, they, they found something and they regained their confidence.

Yeah.

But

if you're a UConn fan, you remember it very fondly.

Last year, where other teams caught up a bit and had figured out the formula of how to put a team together, we had four number one seeds in the Final Four.

And we had three highly competitive games in the Final Four, played at an elite level of college basketball games.

And I do think it was quite memorable.

You know, just popping up on my feed yesterday, and we just never know randomly what's going to be on your feed.

It was Duke Houston in the final minute 50 of that game.

Just to be in the conversation.

Which is the best team you've seen with your own two eyes calling games this year?

I saw Duke this year in person.

Very impressive.

They're not very deep and they are dealing with some injuries right now.

So the concern would be that if they get into a real battle and this was a concern last year, I had Duke early in the tournament, then had him again, of course, in the final four.

They just didn't play in a lot of close games.

And then when they got into one against Houston, they made some serious errors down the stretch that cost them a chance to play for the national championship.

You know what I mean? Yeah,

Just give us a sense, to the layman who's watching, how much differently you view the top of this year's sport versus a year ago.

It feels a bit wide open this year, although Duke has been so dominant.

I think you can make the case that if you go eight, nine teams deep, a team could go on a run and maybe surprise some people and win a national championship.

Duke and Michigan have separated themselves.

There's no doubt about it.

They are the two best teams in college basketball.

Arizona is in that next tier.

Which sport do you find to be in a more interesting place right now between college and the NBA? Yeah.

But if you're looking at them as an opponent, do they have that one thing that's going to give you the shakes?

Yeah, probably not at the level that you would normally assign to Kansas City and Buffalo in the AFC.

Cincinnati, when they had it rolling with Burrow and those two receivers, there was just a serious star quality.

They have that in the quarterback position, and the question is whether or not you're fearful of what they could do to you in a playoff setting.

That's not to say that they're not capable.

They're already proving it.

And there's a feeling, I think, within the league sometimes in regards to coaches that can win you a game, that just know how to do it.

In your experiences with Drake May, Ian, your discussions with him, do you think he is capable of standing up to, say, Josh Allen coming to Foxborough for a playoff game or playoffs in general? I mean, he's in some uncharted territory here.

Uh, who is more unexplainable, Steph Curry's success or LeBron's?

Steph Curry. Steph Curry. He was the number seven pick in the draft. There were major questions as to whether or not his style and approach would translate to the NBA. Would he get his shot off? Like, think about that for a moment. If we go back and check the scouting reports, it would say, "Great three-point shooter, creative offensive player," but will the NBA be too physical for him? Is he big enough to handle the wear and tear of the NBA? Those were questions coming out of Davidson. That was the other part of it. He was coming out of Davidson. He was not coming out of Duke. His brother had gone from Liberty to Duke, so you saw him on a bigger stage and thought, "Oh, okay, uh, he can do it. It'll translate." And obviously he's had a nice career. Steph has had an all-time career, and I think at this stage, the rejuvenation that we're seeing with Jimmy Butler now on the team, Dan, I- I'm sensing that there's even a greater appreciation for Steph than ever before. Because as you see these incredible athletes hit the NBA, these physical specimens, these Adonises, Steph, it just feels like he could be anybody, and he's obviously a terrific athlete and he's, uh, in great shape, but he would blend in if you didn't know who he was. And that's part of the charm of it. This guy is doing it in a manner that I don't know if we're gonna see it again, the way he does it. And just, again, Dan, uh, my experience, uh, they're playing in Brooklyn so I'm gonna see this for the second time this week. I just happened to walk out onto the courts of my broadcast location as he was going through his warmup, and the ground swell of people that wanna watch him warm up-

... maybe not for the better, but, um, where do you stand on contributions to the game and, you know, people getting inducted?

Yeah, he should be in. He should be in. He, he played a large role in the development of the game. And you're right. Uh, there were some things happening that nobody was completely aware of and it changed the sport. But it was inevitable. If it wasn't him, it was gonna be somebody else. I do think the fact that he had a big personality was a big part of what made college basketball what it was. A- and I don't know if that's lost now a little bit, just like everything in life, uh, as it, it goes to a different level financially, business-wise, commerce. You lose a little bit of what made it so special. But the personalities made college basketball. Coaching personalities, behind the scenes, broadcasting personality, larger than life Dick Vitale, obviously played a big role. Raf, as you mentioned. And I, I think it is a little bit of a lost art now when it comes to sports, because it's much more corporate and we're not going to have that kind of visceral reaction like we used to have to people that had the impact that, that Sonny had. He, he belongs in there. No doubt about it.

Uh, who is more unexplainable, Steph Curry's success or LeBron's?

Steph Curry. Steph Curry. He was the number seven pick in the draft. There were major questions as to whether or not his style and approach would translate to the NBA. Would he get his shot off? Like, think about that for a moment. If we go back and check the scouting reports, it would say, "Great three-point shooter, creative offensive player, but will the NBA be too physical for him? Is he big enough?"... to handle the wear and tear of the NBA? Those were questions coming out of Davidson. That was the other part of it, he was coming out of Davidson, he was not coming out of Duke. His brother had gone from Liberty to Duke, so you saw him on a bigger stage and thought, "Oh, okay, uh, he can do it. It'll translate." And obviously, he's had a nice career. Steph has had an all-time career. And I think at this stage, the rejuvenation that we're seeing with Jimmy Butler now on the team, Dan, I, I'm sensing that there's even a greater appreciation for Steph than ever before. Because as you see these incredible athletes hit the NBA, these physical specimens, these Adonises, Steph, it just feels like he could be anybody. And he's obviously a terrific athlete and he's, uh, in great shape, but he would blend in if you didn't know who he was, and that's part of the charm of it. This guy is doing it in a manner that I don't know if we're gonna see it again, the way he does it. And just again, Dan, uh, my experience, uh, they're playing in Brooklyn so I'm gonna see this for the second time this week. I just happened to walk out onto the court to my broadcast location as he was going through his warmup, and the ground swell of people that want to watch him warm up...

... maybe not for the better, but, um, where do you stand on contributions to the game and, you know, people getting inducted?

Yeah, he should be in. He should be in. He, he played a large role in the development of the game. And you're right, uh, there were some things happening that nobody was completely aware of and it changed the sport, but it was inevitable. If it wasn't him, it was gonna be somebody else. I do think the fact that he had a big personality was a big part of what made college basketball what it was. A- and I don't know if that's lost now a little bit, just like everything in life, uh, as it, it goes to a different level financially, business-wise, commerce. You lose a little bit of what made it so special, but the personalities made college basketball. Coaching personalities, behind the scenes, broadcasting personality, larger than life Dick Vitale obviously played a big role, Raf, as you mentioned. And I, I think it is a little bit of a lost art now when it comes to sports, because it's much more corporate and we're not going to have that kind of visceral reaction like we used to have to people that had the impact that, that Sonny had. He, he belongs in there, no doubt about it.