The main reason the Rams got boat raced last night was what? The 49ers were better and

more rested.

So you do think that it – I agree with you.

I think they looked a step slow all night.

They looked like – it looked like everybody on the Rams had the flu.

Yeah.

It looked like just that fog that you have when you're a little sick and you just aren't sharp.

We were

Yeah

...

the bigger question is whether or not he's Myles Garrett or...

And if he is Myles Garrett, do you get the full Myles Garrett experience or not, that...

You know, I, I, I'm a, I'm a big believer, I've said this on, on the pod a million times, like, I'm, I'm gonna go by what you do, not by what you say, right? So when the, the, the Rams brass is, "Oh, he's fine, he's fine, it's just this, it's just this, it's rest, it's a veteran day, it's not a big deal.

He could play." Like, uh, o- okay, fine.

All I know is he's not practicing as much as I'm sure everybody would like him to practice.

And, and can they be successful doing that and, and stay in front of the sticks? That's what the, that's what Kyle Shanahan's gonna try to do, and that's what they're gonna have to do or Brock Purdy's gonna start he- gonna need to heave some stuff on third and longs.

I'm living and dying with them too.

Yep.

I sent in my, whatever you call it, fee, whatever.

I've not chosen my team yet because I don't have to until Sunday, I guess, unless I was going to use...

I

know.

They're the injury team.

I wonder if there's a possibility because of that history.

Is it better as a hitter? To sit or to try to swing your way out of

it? With him, I would...

I was surprised they didn't put him on the IL about four or five days ago.

Because now you can't retroactive.

Before, you could have retroactive and got him back in another week or so.

So now the clock started again because they played him again last night.

I think that that might have...

Mason and Ireland ESPN LA.

really

sure yeah um but after listening to the podcast clearly ipe mizuhara was just robbing him blind so that that was that was number one and i and i got out of the podcast thinking okay joey really didn't know what was going on and he pays a really bad guy and the bookies that were put you know taking advantage of epay and everything else like that whole thing was really ugly and gross that was number one number two was i don't understand how these were agents and moved on to another group of people because After that happened, Shohei was clearly asleep at the switch.

That goes without saying.

But so was everybody else.

And the job of the agency and the job of the agent should be, listen, I know that you think of Ipe as your brother, and maybe he didn't.

I know that was one of the takeaways, that maybe they were just business partners or whatever.

But the agent should have said...

The health of Matthew Stafford is literally the key to this season, you would think.

Yeah.

No, no, they're, they're good and if, look, Bryce Harper gets hot for a week, if the, the guys that, you know, the guys that they have on that team, Sosa is a really good player.

They, they've got very, very good players.

They've just-- they had a kind of terrible start.

They've had a couple of little weird swoons, but th- them and Atlanta, I think, are the two teams that just player by player match up reasonably well with the Dodgers.

Yeah.

I thought Glasnow, after the first inning, was very, very good.

I thought that they did a good job of getting back into the game.

baby.

Come on, DeMarco.

Come on.

I think it's a guy that's doing what he is.

While Stan Kasten is a very powerful employee, he is an employee of the team, and he is carrying a message, in my opinion, The part that really gives me pause for all of this stuff and why I think that we are way, way, way far away from the end of this story.

Not one person that knows stuff is saying, guys, this isn't that big of a deal.

Man casting it.

that walter's being federally investigated

Do you agree or disagree with

me? I agree with you because I think that the ethos of the Philly fan versus the ethos of the L.A.

fan are very different.

The Philly fans are so nasty that them saying, hey, listen, man, we're pulling for you.

Get your act together means something.

This would feel incredibly sarcastic, quite frankly, because we're not a booing people for the most part.

We're very indifferent.

You're still okay with

But

I think the biggest difference for me with Jones, and there are others like him, but I think that Kroenke falls into a separate group, is when the game ends, The first person to speak onto what happened about the game is Jerry Jones.

Then the coach, then the quarterback, then everyone else.

He is the point person for all of this because his opinion matters more than the coaches, than the quarterbacks, than everyone else.

Stan Kroenke rarely talks about the team.

Ever.

That's what I'm saying.

You're not

Okay.

That's how confident I am at you.

All right.

You're going to win this game.

I might let you down.

We'll never know.

We'll see.

Emily? Still the Chico's Bail Bonds.

Would you guys consider him as a replacement for Stafford?

No.

And I'm a Baker Mayfield fan.

I thought that he did a really good job here.

I think that was kind of the beginning of his resurrection as an NFL quarterback.

But when they move on from Stafford, I think they need to move on from an older player.

Well, Ty

They're better, I agree.

Right.

That's the best news I've heard in a really long time.

If that's true, because look, I hope that we never have to find out what this looks like without Matthew Stafford.

But if he has, and I always use this as an example, hope I'm wrong, he has an ankle sprain, and he's got to miss four weeks.

He's got to miss a month.

And Jimmy Garoppolo plays a month of football? Cool.

Like, fine.

Gnarly stretch of

Mm-hmm.

Th- and, and we saw what Seattle did to New England in the Super Bowl.

They absolutely demolished them, and I think the result would've been the same had the Rams gotten there.

But they, they made some big mistakes down the stretch.

You know, they, they lost some games early that they should not have lost because of their special teams.

And those losses early, specifically to San Francisco and Philadelphia, meant that that NFC Championship game had to be in Seattle rather than in Los Angeles.

I think that played a big deal as to why they ended up losing that NFC Championship game, despite the fact that they played as well as they did.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Th- then when we saw what Seattle did to New England in the Super Bowl, they absolutely demolished them, and I think the result would've been the same had the Rams gotten there.

But they, they made some big mistakes down the stretch.

You know, they, they lost some games early that they should not have lost because of their special teams, and those losses early, specifically to San Francisco and Philadelphia, meant that that NFC Championship game had to be in Seattle rather than in Los Angeles.

I think that played a big deal as to why they ended up losing that NFC Championship game, despite the fact that they played as well as they did.

So they were a really good team last year.

So fast-forward to the off-season.

Yeah.

Which is?

Nobody scored, and everyone was faking it.

It was such a drag, Mace, honestly, because I loved the last six weeks.

I really, truly did.

The games were fun, lots of scoring.

Everything about it was something that I'm like, this is awesome.

Athletics and all that stuff.

There

It was the

soccer equivalent of a prevent defense.

They pulled everybody back, put everybody in their own box, and basically let Argentina fire shots at them for 30 minutes.

It was the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

And Trudell came in in the group thread shortly after the game and said, that's the biggest mismanagement he's ever seen.

As it's happening, I'm yelling, not yelling at Laura.

Laura and I are watching the game together.

the old dreaded double thuds.

Very,

very.

So he was the one.

The one guy that I met when he came in that was kind of like, holy smoke, I can't believe I'm actually seeing him.

And, I mean, great athlete, don't get me wrong, an incredibly famous person, but not on the level of Gretzky or Jordan was Andre Agassi.

Agassi had this incredible presence when he came in to do the show.

I loved Agassi.

I thought the Home Run Derby totally worked for

Tyler

Glasnow has pitched like six times.

Blake Snell's thrown three innings.

They're the best team in the league, and it's not close.

So it's really hard to get worked up about too much of it.

And I think what you said, Marcus, is exactly right, that this is a team that has played deep into October pretty much every year for a decade.

And when they get a chance to check out, I think they do.

Mm-hmm.

You'll be able to watch him a

lot.

I want to say that it turned me into a soccer fan.

I know myself well enough to know I won't.

I've enjoyed every single second of this.

We've talked about all the reasons why.

Trudell and I did the show yesterday, and he said – You know, the little pool that we all have going.

You do?

It's the same as inviting like the best kid in the neighborhood to go to your private school.

Right.

But here's OK.

And I'm not saying that he's wrong, but here's my question.

I had a kid in youth baseball, which is virtually the same setup as we're talking about.

It's not much different at all.

We're churning out a lot of world-class baseball players.

Never

Because you were out of your comfort

zone.

Absolutely.

And I'm thinking, can people see that my legs...

And all I'm thinking about is, can people see my legs shaking? So I'm distracted by that.

I'm going through.

I'm reading the things.

Patrick.

what's on the agenda? Have you worked up a monologue? Are you doing like a whole big spiel?

I would not say it's a whole big spiel.

I have some remarks that I will open the show with that they helped me with.

I've added a few of my own things along the way.

So I'm taking John's advice in that the number one order as the emcee of this event is to keep it running quickly.

Keep it moving, Trav.

Yep, I'm going to keep it moving.

Why are you pushing it? And then I thought, you know, Dodgers are always so sketchy and cagey when it comes to injuries, who knows what's going on.

who was it? Pete Crowe Armstrong hit for the cycle the other day, and there have been fewer perfect games than cycles.

The only thing more rare than a perfect game is a four-run game and an unassisted triple play.

Those are the only things that happen less frequently.

And I think that because it was – had he given up – had it been a tough – it was such a routine play that I think everybody assumed that Mookie was going to make it that when it went off the heel of his glove, the spell was broken.

And I just think even though he ended the inning and got out of the eighth with the no-hitter and the shutout still intact, I think the magic had pulled into the ether.

Although Kershaw was

Like, there was always at least one guy on base.

Well, you remember when they won the World Series during the pandemic, during 2020.

Why do you think that is?

I think it's as simple as the passion that the fans have for these games is infectious.

And when people care that deeply about something, it's really hard not to at least try to want to figure out why they care as much as they do.

I was telling Andy, one of the things I want to do on our show today is I want somebody to explain to me which soccer team I should care for outside of the World Cup.

Because I'm getting drawn into this.

I'm not a huge soccer fan, but like you just described, Ireland, I feel the same way.

I'm really enjoying watching this World Cup.

That's the reason I said

TV pays for

everything.

To go back to your question, Arlen, I think that will you get the regular fan back? I think it's a maybe under a very specific set of circumstances, which is if all of a sudden – Never mind regular, but it's such a small slice of people that can afford tickets that these venues are mostly empty.

And then it'll look bad on TV.

And then

I think it

was a Laker game.

I don't remember exactly what it was, but we bought two tickets outside of it.