Is my proposal too extreme?

These guys all got around $500 million.

I would want to change the number a little bit, but I don't think it's too extreme.

Up or down? I think it's probably a little high.

But, DeMarco, I did it on my straight-up the other day when Rom basically said, I would like to come back in under the Koepka rules, right? Right.

Well, Koepka rules, when Ryan Rolap, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, basically said...

This is an offer today.

And anybody who leaves, you are never coming back ever.

And I would kneecap the preseason to two games.

The other thing that I just don't understand, like with the load management stuff, kind of going back to my first point, was it doesn't seem to work.

You know what I mean? Like the Kawhi Leonard was kind of like patient zero of the load management thing.

Is there anybody that's missed more time than Kawhi Leonard? No.

And it just seems like the more you try to prevent this stuff by paying less, and maybe this kind of piggybacks on Grover's idea, is...

It doesn't seem to work.

And it's like the pitch load, the pitch thing in baseball.

I

like they put the undefeated teams up higher this because when you lose, you still have room to come back from it.

Yeah, I think that's usually true, but if we're taking them at their word, where they say that basically we're starting right now, we're going on what we've seen through the first eight weeks of the season, UCLA's best win is what, Oregon? Yes.

Oregon stinks this year.

And Oregon's terrible, yeah.

Oregon's not a good team this year.

Still beat USC, but yeah.

You only can take who's on your schedule, but if your best win is against a really seriously depleted Oregon team, and they've won all their games, I think that this weekend against Minnesota is maybe their entire season.

How can they pass

I

don't doubt that.

What I do doubt is Lincoln Riley's ability to put them in a position to accomplish what they want to accomplish in those environments.

I've said this to DeMarco for the last three weeks.

The vibe that I get around...

SC, is hurry up and lose so we can fire you.

Just get it over with.

You beat Ohio State and two top 10 teams down the stretch.

That's

right.

Look, the Rams are so good at almost everything.

This apparently is the one thing that they cannot figure out, that Josh Carty is getting ready to run it back again, potentially.

Brandon McManus hopefully doesn't give him a chance.

Hopefully McManus makes all his kicks and we never have to go to a Carty party, but...

It is just bizarre that we've gone from the problems we had last year, tried to get it fixed, all the way around the horn again to where we're back with Josh Carty.

As a matter of fact, I think you're right – But the problem is if you take that attitude, you are giving a competitive advantage to your opponent.

They're just letting the

place burn to the ground.

I mean, yeah, exactly.

If DeForest Buckner is getting you a fourth, what was Nelson was like a fifth round pick? Yeah, they're just dumping.

I think you might be outbid by some teams maybe.

It depends on what they're offering.

I'd like to at least try.

As a team, you've got, what, 11 sacks? You're still at the bottom? Of course you can get

And I have no... explanation on why i did it or how i did it right and it was one of each two trap it was a four a three and a five and i'm like what and my friends are like what what is happening here well like

like he said like john and i are roughly the same when it comes to our ability to play golf but every once in a while there's just i can hit it where i'm aiming i can shape it the way i want to i can flight it right and you make putts yeah and it just shows up for no reason And it disappears for no reason.

Right.

Guys like Luka, they can enter that flow state far more frequently.

Well, here's something to think about,

I'm

with you on that.

I said it to DeMarco and Trudell on Friday when we were out there.

And

I get it that there are not a lot of guys on the receiving end of Matthew Stafford, but you still have Matthew Stafford.

And if he's going to, you know, he's an MVP last year.

If he's going to be special, like we've hoped he's been all season, then you've got to be special or at least borderline special with Mumfield, with Atwell, with Whittington, with whatever, with C.J. Daniels.

Like, Puka Nakua is a great player.

Devontae Adams is a great player.

Cooper Cupp's a great player.

Travis, I really like what you said yesterday about how the football gods don't like super teams.

Right.

Legends of Dodger baseball.

Okay.

So there is a category that is not retired numbers.

It's called Legends of Dodger baseball.

That Oral is in it.

Good.

But don't they say

So when you're looking at these matchups, when you're breaking it down, who are you looking at? Where is your focus going to?

I don't know if this qualifies as a matchup, and the Rams listeners to this pod will know where I'm going because, Q, I have literally said this for seven weeks in a row, and it's still an issue.

It's still the number one thing that is – It's inexplicable to me, the Rams' ability, or lack thereof, their inability to do anything right on special teams.

Literally anything.

They are 32 out of 32 in the league.

And think about what we're talking about here.

You're talking about a Sean McVay team that is good at, until this season, this comes with an asterisk, but...

Now, how does it get done? What's the keys to victory? What is it going to take for Sean McVay and the Rams to come into Allegiant Stadium here in Las Vegas and get a victory and improve their overall record to three and four?

That's

not very many.

Not a lot.

Well, you need somebody out there.

I think what he said is the right answer, which is if they win on Sunday, then let's see what happens the next Sunday.

And if they beat the Chargers, then I think a move is a fine thing to do.

If you lose to the Raiders and you spend any sort of capital to fix this, you're crazy.

were to happen, I will still show up here with great confidence and belief.

dead.

I agree with that.

Thank you.

But I also think they are in deep, deep trouble.

Oh, yeah.

And I think the game against the Raiders determines what you just asked.

If they beat the Raiders, then it's a, okay, let's look and see what's available.

If you go to Kurt Cignetti and say, here's $20 million a year

You think he's done?

Yeah.

I, I think he should be.

Yeah, I think so too.

I, I, I, I think we saw what we saw, and I think that his pitching- Hmm ... them going for a Cy Young for him, him trying to go and be a full-time two-way guy, I, I believe led to what we got to, where his body just completely broke down.

I have no doubt in my mind that if he showed up as a offensive player, a designated hitter, he'd g- goes back to a 50 home run guy immediately.

Hmm.

12 times, they haven't won the World Series.

They score

runs by hitting home runs.

Their offense is to hit a bunch of home runs.

When they don't hit home runs, they struggle to score runs.

Milwaukee can score without hitting home runs, and they are hitting home runs right now.

So they got the two-way thing going right now.

I wasn't talking exactly what you're talking about, but when they had the bases loaded and Will Smith had the double, I said to him, I was standing around with a bunch of people.

Can

There we, that guy.

The left-handed Milwaukee pitcher.

I think it's Gasser.

Once he's out, Muncy'll go in the very first time a right-hander comes in.

So Muncy's gonna play tonight, and he's gonna get an opportunity to face a right-handed pitcher.

I think the reason that it was Rojas instead of Quique in that spot is you wanna take Quique and be able to put him in when you want him in, and not just hope that his spot in the lineup comes up when you need it the most.

And whether that is hitting-

Mm

Uh, yeah, let's do it.

Okay.

Catch Me If You Can and One Battle After Another, both star Leonardo DiCaprio as a character evading law enforcement for a decade plus.

Both movies made at least 150 million worldwide.

How much did they make combined worldwide? Em, okay.

He, he hasn't looked right for a while.

A long time.

He's been not just not Ohtani, he's been bad for two months.

Yeah

... with Scubal and some other guys, and Milwaukee does not have another guy.

But if you can beat up their best guy, I really do think it takes a lot of wind out of the sails, and the Dodgers hit home runs, the Brewers don't.

That's usually how runs get scored in the postseason, is by running into a ball with some guys on base.

It's not grinding them out typically, but, and the Brewers don't do that, so I think that's an advantage for LA.

Uh, but, and the Dodgers have better pitching.

Like, f- their bullpen maybe is slightly less, but their starting pitching is way more.

Yeah.

Correct.

Yeah, this was a guy...

I don't think Trey McBride used a curse word.

You know, this guy took it to a different level, so yeah, you should be suspended.

The other guy I've seen before.

When refs get knocked down, they, they get a little scrambled.

They get pissed off.

Why wouldn't there be a competition?

Lot to talk about.

Coming up next.

Game of Games, by the way, presented by the Call Jacob Injury Hotline, only number LA trusts after an accident, 800-345-6789.

That's 800-345-6789.

Mason and Ireland Super Crosstalk coming up next, ESPN LA.

Hmm.

I know you're...

They're, they're...

Trav, what's the theme of the game?

The theme of the game, it's the first day of October, so these are all things that are October-based.

Okay.

We've got playoff baseball, we've got Halloween, and we've got Oktoberfest.

Best sports month of the year.

Yes, indeed.

Awesome.

I

really do, especially on paper, absolutely.

Yeah, they do not look on that favorably.

And when the Rams finished the season the way they did last year and they went out and they got Trent McDuffie and then they went out and got Jalen Watson, and that felt like, okay, you addressed the issue that the team had, their inability to cover.

One of the biggest examples was A.J. Brown last year.

They just had no answer.

for him at all.

And so you addressed it.

I think

And have

they named a starter for Atlanta? Is it Elder? I don't know who's going for Atlanta.

I know that Wheeler only is third because he had to pitch on Sunday to get them in.

So Wheeler goes tomorrow for Philadelphia.

I'm not sure who it is for Atlanta.

That was a great game again.

Yeah, yeah.

went two innings with Yohan Duran.

But the celebration that happened on the sidelines is the embarrassment.

I don't hate it as an idea, I think, because...

That, I would not think that Stevens needs to be out for as long as Moore.

But we've seen it happen in hockey where somebody will slash somebody and break their arm.

And that's not necessarily a part of the game, right? That's a violent act meant to hurt somebody.

And if that guy's out for a month, then maybe the other guy should be.

But I think those hits, they happen really fast.

They lost to

But isn't that weird? He basically, almost like a pitcher, had a tell.

There are guys.

That's a trip.

I don't know if this is the same in softball, Momo, but it was definitely true.

And I played with a couple of these guys.

There were guys on my team, one guy in particular, Jeff Elder, a teammate, a roommate of mine, too.

had this incredible ability to watch a coach, a pitcher, a third base coach or whatever, and instantly pick their signs.

It's going to

Yeah.

Uh, right on the way out, uh, I've...

So for the first time, usually at home he's got a microphone in his office.

Okay.

So I don't get to see him at home games for the, the, uh, the post-game interview.

Uh, this time I'm standing there, and Puka walked by with his brother, and he's doing the interview talking to JB and Maurice, and it was just kind of this look, smile that he had with Sean McVay, and just kind of this weird, strange moment.

You know what I mean? Yeah.

Yeah.