The Sports Porch Black and Gold - Dead Zone Edition

Marc:
Oh boy, there it is! The grand entrance of Hockey!

null: There he is!

Chris: Okay, welcome to the Sports Porch Black and Gold Edition. We are live all over the world on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, X, the Fantasy Alpha crowd is in the house. And of course, as you can see in the ticker, if you're watching us live, we do drop the Sports Porch podcast right after the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere. You get your frigging podcast and you can always listen live to Radio PGH at the stream that I'm putting in the comments right now. Listen to our show live on Radio PGH right there. If you are not able to, you know, watch the video in the car, which I would highly advise against. I was going to say, is there a word for unadvised? It's ill-advisable.

Marc: Ill-advised, yes.

Chris: Yes. And as you can see, we are not on the actual porch tonight in the studio. We've got Hockey Jesus down below. He is in the Hockey Jesus temple. He is in the NHL temple. And then the Grand Schwabini is playing with his light. Playing with my light. Playing a little bit, just a little bit, right? Just a little bit, Schwaber. I can look like a ghost and I am.

Steve: I like I like that mark.

Chris: Yeah, this is. This is what we call the dead zone here because obviously we all know the Penguins were out of the play well out there. Season ended almost two months ago, but HJ is going to talk to us about the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs because he can't get enough of it and we can't get enough of HJ. Uh, the grand schwabini is going to make a prediction. We are going to do a little steelers talk a little buckos talk There is some breaking news on the buckos right now It's not good news, of course and uh a little bit and also doesn't pertain to anybody that's of relevance Yeah, well, I mean, as far as I'm concerned, right. And why don't we just get into it right now? Let's just do it. The pirate is here and we're going to do a little bucko talk. And that's about all I got. That's it. That's all I got. So the pirates are 27 and 32 right now. They play the Dodgers, I think, tomorrow at 640. The Dodgers are in for that. They dropped two to the Blue Jays. They split with the Tigers. They did take two from the Braves, which was kind of interesting. One of them, they exploded for 11 runs and another for eight runs. Paul Skeens, you know, he's got four starts. He's 2-0 with a sub-3 ERA, a whole bunch of strikeouts. Jared Jones looked somewhat mediocre in his last start. But to say all that, you know, in the hitting is still suspect at best. I mean, a couple of guys have kind of gotten hot and, and, and hit some home runs here and there, but you know, there was a stretch where the, you know, eight innings of hit list ball the other night. And, um, there's still four games under 500. I mean, if there was ever an obvious thing, um, that, that would scream at you, about what to do to make a team better. I mean, how many, how many times can we watch or listen to a sports broadcast such as ours or any other out there that says the same thing over and over and over again before you just… Actually, Technical Director, I actually do have a question for you.

Marc: I think you will be anti this, but I have to bring it up. Now, Now, granted, I'm coming from a position of I think that the Pittsburgh Pirates are severely devoid of talent.

Chris: Right.

Marc: So the fact that there are actually four games under 500, is that a pretty darn good coaching job or is that just good luck?

Chris: It's funny. We look for the bad guy in this all the time. It switches from one week to the next. Derek Shelton is no good. We got to get rid of the hitting coach. What's going on with ownership? Ben Charrington. Just looking for somebody to blame. I would say it's a little bit more on the luck side than the managing side. But at the same time, look, Chelsea's he's he isn't being given a full deck of cards to play with. And right. You're right. That's the that's the thing. It's like, look, give this guy a bona fide major league lineup, which which would mean adding if you really wanted to give him a bona fide major league lineup, you have to add at least two good hitters, at least two. I mean, you could say three, but you know, I, I went and I looked at the Orioles lineup the other day. And, you know, they've got, you know, you got a guy like Gunnar Henderson, who's who's hit a lot of home runs, 18 home runs so far this year. He was leading the major leagues. He's only batting like 254. It's not like he's hitting the cover off the ball, but he's got guys around him that are hitting better. But, you know, Cedric Mullins, who was a star for them, is batting sub 200. So it's kind of like the pirates don't need a whole lot. but they do need at least one or two good hitters. And you give Shelton a lineup like that. And yeah, with the pitching they have right now, you know, that should add three or four wins to their total. And now all of a sudden they're relevant in the conversation. I think the real question is how long can they hold out and stay? Because as much as we don't want to admit it, because of all the shit that we've thrown around about the pirates over the last few years, more than the last few years. But, you know, they still are in the conversation as far as wins and losses goes and relevant when it comes to the wild card.

Marc: And how many games out of the wildcard are they?

Chris: I'm going to I'm going to look that up right now. I want to say four, but I can't I can't say that for certain because I didn't check it before the show. But on the standings, as far as the wildcard goes in the National League, they are all I'm sorry, they're only two games back of the wildcard, two games back. So your question was, is it, you know, good managing or luck? I think it's a little bit of both because I think he does the best he can with the lineup he has. And I know I've been the first one in the past who said constantly banging on Sheltie for, you know, would you set this lineup, you know, let people settle into a spot in the lineup.

Marc: Although here's another way to look at it. They are two games back of the wild card. but they're also behind eight teams.

Chris: Yeah, exactly. But that's what MLB want. They want that wild card to be tight. I'm just saying, as far as relevancy goes, you're talking about a club who has just a horrible lineup. And, you know, they've been on the heels of three pitchers, three starting pitchers. I think prior to yesterday's game, the previous 14 games, the Pirates starting pitchers had the best ERA in the National League. And, you know, how many times we're wasting it, we're wasting these pictures, we're wasting these pictures. I mean, they have schemes under control for five years. So, you know, and of course, he's going to want to go to arbitration if he continues to perform this way when he's arbitration eligible. But, you know, how long are they going to let this go on? And I know what H.J. 's answer is. I know why he's being quiet, because he just doesn't want to talk about it. Is that is that true or false? Okay, so well, I did tell

Steve: No, I did tell you guys that I did manage to watch three innings of a baseball game, which for me might as well be like half a season, right? And and so when I did, there were there were two things that I noticed. Actually, Quinn Priester, and that's who was that was who was pitching, right? Pitching all he was pitching OK, and they pulled him right after he got a strikeout for another guy. who I don't even know his name. And then he ended up giving like a two run double up to the big fatty from Toronto. And I was just thinking to myself, the guy was clearly upset that he was being taken out at four and two thirds. He could have at least pitched to the guy and he's responsible for that run. So don't you think he would want to try and get out of that inning, at least to get out of that inning? But instead, you know, it was lefty righty bullshit stuff that that they do. And, you know, you were talking about the manager. I think that's just terrible management. Like, just let him. He was pitching fine. It's not like he just walked two guys in a row. He just got a strikeout after it was like a two and oh count. And he ended up getting a strikeout. And then the other the other thing I noticed on the opposite side was the hitting. I guess they had this grant. coach or coach. I don't even know. He was, he's there. He's the guy that they called up, uh, for the play catcher. Um, because Henry Davis camp, by the way, I think he's, but yeah, cook. He, so I watched him bat absolutely clueless, like literally three strikes. He's, he would have swung at anything and he missed them all by a country mile and it was just awful. And they were,

Chris: He said seven at bats, six strikeouts.

Steve: So yeah, he, I mean, he looked clueless and then he's the number nine guy. Right. And then after him, Kutch came up and he looked clueless. So I'm like, they've got a young kid coming up. Who's only has less than 10 at bats in a major leagues. Okay. Maybe I'll forgive him for that. But I mean, he looks so bad. Like it was embarrassing. And then Kutch came up and he looked almost as bad and didn't even look like he cared that he just struck out on like five pitches. It just, that's the problem with the Pirates. They just have so much, I think they have so much apathy on that team. There's no signature guy. That's what they need to do. They need to go out and get a signature guy, a guy who's going to rally, that people are going to want to play for because they clearly have the pitching now. I mean, when Quinn Priester pitches OK, and what's his name that we signed last year? Like his last 40 some outings, he's given you five innings every time. I mean, he's an I get it. He's the number three guy now. Well, who knows? Maybe he's the number two because Jared Jones seems to be falling a little bit apart. But Skeens clearly is your number one. I just think that's the problem with the Pirates. If I was to be fair about it, you know how I feel about the organization as a whole. They're a disaster. They're never going to do anything. And that's the ultimate frustrating part. And I think it's starting to show now in the players that they get. Before, I think players, they could fake it. But now it's to the point where they can't even fake it on the field anymore. So That's why I get really quiet when we talk about the Pirates, because I do want to like baseball. By the way, watching baseball is, after watching so many hockey games in a row, it's really difficult. It's really difficult. Even with the pitch count, you know, or the pitch clock, it's really difficult to watch, but I still like the pitch count. Can't wait for the Robo-Umps, and I can't wait for a baseball game to last about two hours and 15 minutes, and I'll be back because by that time, hopefully we'll be under new ownership.

Chris: Yeah, well, I don't see that happening, but I think you're right when you talk about the managing of the pitching staff. And that's been a knock on Sheltie for years, you know, especially the last couple of years. He always seems to pull guys out just at the wrong time. And that falls more, I think, in this in this day and age, what we have to understand is that it's no longer just the manager calling the shots with these new pitchers. You've got the general manager and ownership saying things, they're using metrics and analytics, and they're falling down on that. I agree. I think all three of us agree. You're right. Priester was responsible for the guy, he let him pitch to the next guy, who knows what happens. Our bullpen has been for the most part, fairly atrocious for a good portion of the season. And, you know, it wasn't like the game was out of hand. You know, he gave up four runs. We were talking before the show. We don't think Priester should be on a major league roster anyway, but this is the Pirates. So that's what they're going to do. Interesting, though, I'm looking at this and Mitch Keller is seven and three. with the 342 ERA, 66 strikeouts in 73 innings pitched. I mean, here's a guy that signed with the Pirates. I mean, it kind of makes him your number one starter. I mean, I know you can say Skeens is number one, but he's pitched four games at the Major League level, and he does look great. But right now, Keller is your number one. Falter is 3-2 with a 322 ERA. He's got 38 Ks in 64 innings. He's more of a they put the ball in play kind of guy. And Jones is 3-5 with a 355 ERA right now, but he does have 70 strikeouts in 63 innings. So it's one of those things where, once again, here we sit. The Pirates, they're keeping us right on the cusp of you know it's another wasted season and and they'll drag us here all the way to the the trade deadline and you know and and then they'll make some god-awful move that right they'll push us right over the edge and i'll tell you what it would not surprise me to see them trade brian reynolds i mean who on who in their lineup is worthy of being traded. And from that, you know, from that standpoint, what I'm saying is who in their lineup is somebody that another team would say we can add this guy for a playoff push. And, you know, really, Connor Joe is having a decent season. Brian Reynolds, I know he signed a big contract, but we know in baseball that doesn't mean anything.

Marc: How old is Brian Reynolds? Is he 29?

Chris: Yeah, Brian Reynolds is 29. Yes. Yes.

Marc: So you got to figure he's going to go because the reality is, is that they'll figure anyway, by the time they're good, he'll be too old. You know, he'll be 34 by the time they're good. If they do get good.

Chris: Yeah, right. At least five years. You got that right. You got that right. Yeah. So, you know, it's like, you know, it's the real thing, though.

Marc: The real thing, though, is what they have to do, though, is that when they when they trade these guys, they got to get some decent pieces back. That that's the key. You know, like these these these teams that don't have high payrolls like your Tampa Bays and teams like that, you know, that they're always trading guys away. But like the guys that get back turn out to be players.

Chris: Yeah.

Marc: You know, that's that's the other side of it is, you know, what kind of eye does the GM have? I mean, anybody can pick Paul Skeens because it's the number one pick unanimously. Right. But, you know, you got to like be hitting in the second and the third round and the fifth round. You know that you got to find guys on your roster at those at those other spots in the draft or through scouting other teams, minor leagues and picking up guys who can actually play.

Chris: Yeah. And they, they're not very good at that. They're just not very good at that. And unfortunately, you know, I think we're going to be talking about this for the rest of the season on it. When's the trade deadline that's in late August or early September?

Marc: I think it's July 31st, I think.

Chris: Oh God. Yeah, that's right. July 31st. Well, Only about, I don't know, 57 more days and until we have some real exciting pirates news, unless they like rattle off 10 straight wins, which I find highly unlikely. But, you know, in true pirate fashion, the Dodgers are coming in for three. Watch them take two or three from the Dodgers. You know, I mean, how does that happen? How does that happen?

Marc: So it happens because the Dodgers take the pirates lightly.

Chris: Yes.

Marc: They decide to sit some of their best players to give them a day off. That's exactly how we talk about this. That's what happens.

Chris: Yep. And as a final insult, Tucapito Marcano is being investigated now for actually betting on Pirates games last year while he was on the IL. And if he's found guilty or if they find proof of it, then he will probably be banned from baseball for life. I mean, all I can say is, how stupid are these guys?

Marc: Also, you gotta use the Atani offense. You gotta say, I did it, I did it, you know, for my manager.

Chris: My handler. Yeah. Like it's that kind of money. You know what I mean? Like, who's he going to blame it on? You know?

Steve: He should have hired a trans, he should have hired a translator. Then everything would have been fine.

Chris: Yeah. All right. All right. Let's move on to something more entertaining, which is actually maybe even less entertaining. Let's talk about the Steelers and OTAs. You know, of course, there's some NFL news. Go ahead.

Marc: Let's talk about this in relation to the Steelers. OK. But I think it's actually a bigger thing for the entire league.

Chris: All right.

Marc: All right. How just how ridiculous is it that there's so many people doing what we're doing? And all they can do during the off the off season, the dead period, all they can do is just spit something out to make up some stupid rumor. That's totally not true. Like, do you know what I you know what I saw on the ticker today? Yeah. Could it could it be that the Steelers would use a two quarterback system? Now, every single time I've heard anybody with any credibility talk about the Steelers, they say Russell Wilson is the starting quarterback, period. Right. You know what I mean? But some Yahoo just decides to be like, well, there's nothing to talk about, so I should probably let's get a quarterback controversy going and maybe people click and listen. Yeah. And actually, look, they succeeded. I'm talking about it.

Chris: That's right. See?

Marc: Right, right.

Chris: You have fulfilled their fantasies and dreams mark, but how how stupid is all this stuff this this just clickbait that people throw out there Well, I sent you a text From the twitter feed that said that uh, according to uh, According to sources. Kenny pickett is out playing jalen hurts in otas for the Eagles. And I said, how ridiculous. I mean, come on, give me a break. Like he's got any like he's got any shot, you know, he's got it. It's all. And I clicked on that. OK, I read the story. Right. Just because I was like, OK, what does this Bozo have to say about this? You know, and it's like it's ridiculous. I agree. I mean, they I see stuff all the time that says, you know, so and so is going to be traded to the Steelers. You know, this wide receiver, that guy or this guy. And it's like, look, Russell Wilson is going to be the quarterback, period. End of story. OK, the one thing the Steelers are that the Pirates are not is smart about certain things, you know, like they they have their quarterback. He will be starting. And I don't think there's a shot in hell. that he loses the job if he plays average or a little below average the first four games. I think there's so much more involved in losing a football game than saying, let's switch quarterbacks again. They tried that all year last year and the year before. I mean, that's not what's going to happen.

Marc: No, they're like they wouldn't switch to Justin Fields unless they were like two and six.

Chris: Yeah, they want to turn Justin Fields into a project that they can keep for a long time and they want to ride Russell Wilson as long as he can. Thanks for putting that comment up. I'm guessing you did that, H.J. Mike Lawrence says I saw that same insane story about the Steelers using two Q quarterbacks on ESPN this morning. Amy wants to know if Steve is sleeping.

Steve: I'm sorry. Amy, I'm letting your husband have some of the air time tonight. I'm just chilling out. I'm waiting for the Stanley Cup playoff edition. So just, you know, please ignore. I'm actually in shock that I don't get to watch a hockey game until Saturday.

Marc: I think that's part of my lethargy. I thought that it was the Pirates talk that put you to sleep.

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: Well, you know, that always that always puts me to sleep that in watching three innings the other day. I think I'm still a little sleepy from watching those three innings. Yeah, I don't.

Marc: Well, you know, and that and that's, you know, it's Steve's bringing up a good point. It's actually it's the same thing with the NBA. The NBA doesn't play for a week because one series ended in four and one ended in five. up with that, you know, like, what do you like? You have to plan it that far in advance where, you know, everything's going to be lined up. How about just like, you know, hey, two teams are done the series, you know, it ends on Sunday. All right. Let's start you guys on Wednesday or Thursday. I mean, come on.

Chris: Yeah, I know. You start to lose the passion to even watch it. Okay, so real quick, I want to bring something else in here because I was listening to, there's a new CBS sports radio turned into the Infinity Sports Network and they have this guy on, I think his name is Mike Ryan or something, I really like him, but he did the math and he went back to 1994. And the gist of the whole thing was, can you win a Super Bowl if your quarterback's cap hit is greater than 13% of your total salary cap? Not as necessarily his actual pay, but his cap hit. And the answer was only one quarterback since 1994 whose salary cap hit was over 13 percent of the team's total allotted salary cap has won a Super Bowl. Only one since 1994. Can you name that quarterback?

Marc: Pat Mahomes.

Chris: You got it right on Pat Mahomes and he's, and he's a unicorn, you know, he's like big deal. So he started going down the line and he, and he said these, so therefore these teams are immediately eliminated already this year from Superbowl contention, the Dallas Cowboys. The Arizona Cardinals, the I was going to say the Saint Louis Rams, the L.A. Rams, the Cleveland Browns. And I can't remember the fifth team.

Steve: It might come to maybe Detroit, Detroit.

Chris: No, no. Goff did get that huge deal, but his cap hit is lower in the first two years than in the last two. So he basically said they have a two year window to win the Super Bowl. And if they don't forget about it, it's done. So I thought that was really interesting because these quarterbacks are getting these mega deals and they're not getting structured in that way. But that's a pretty telling statistic because if you go back to 1994, you're not talking about you're talking about different areas of football and basically 30 years and only Pat Mahomes has been able to do it. And I, I, I, I agree with him, you know, I agree.

Marc: Well, but also Pat Mahomes has done it three times.

Chris: Well, right. Well, he's the only quarterback to. Yeah, but it's the same. It's the same guy. He's the unicorn. Yeah, I got it. I got it. But they've only won two, haven't they?

Marc: No, they won three.

Chris: Have they won three?

Marc: Yeah, I got to put that in the category of meaningless statistic. Really? Yeah, I think that that is like like the bottom line is, is I'm sure, you know, look. It's way more so now than it ever was before. Right? Like, for example, let's just say if Troy Aikman was playing now. he would have an immense contract and take up 13% of his team and he would still win Super Bowls. You know what I mean? It's, you know, or same thing with Brett Favre. Right. I mean, I just think it's more like a recent thing where it's so out of, out of hand.

Chris: Um, you know, it wasn't like total paycheck. Right. Yeah.

Marc: Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. And, and like, you know, for example, like, you know, like, all right, so, you know, you could say that about, Like, let's just say that one of those guys was Josh Allen, right? I mean, I think that like, you know, 28 of 32 teams would take Josh Allen as their quarterback, whether or not it was 13% of the cap or not.

Chris: Well, the point the point he was making is that is that like, I think like Deshaun Watson's. And actually, this is a great example. Deshaun Watson's cap hit this year is like $69 million. Well, yeah. I mean, the point that he's making is that All of these other quarterbacks that played over the last 30 years that say got close and didn't win. The teams did not have the money to put the stars around them. Whereas Pat Mahomes is a unicorn. He won the Super Bowl last year with like me and you and Steve as his wide receivers. You know what I mean? Like the guy just he plays football on a totally different plane.

Marc: Although Travis Kelsey is kind of like 50 of you, me and Steve.

Chris: Like having 50 people on the field. Yeah, I know. Kelsey didn't have a great year last year, though. He did not.

Marc: So he did in the playoffs.

Chris: Well, of course. But but and yes, you do have to have more talent around you. There's no look.

Marc: I see. I'll agree with this. I'll agree with that. There are certain teams that make horrendous monetary decisions like that. The Sean Watson one was a disaster. And even from the beginning, even if they thought he was going to return to star quarterback status, top five quarterback status, to give him that entire deal, uh, you know, with, you know, with all the behavioral issues that he had to give the entire thing guaranteed. Yeah, that was, that was insane. And also too, you know, and like, you know, another perfect example of that is the Cowboys with Dak Prescott. where, you know, so like basically the Cowboys have signed nobody this off season because they can't, because they got like $50 million in Dak Prescott, you know, so, and look, you know, every, everybody can do it. Um, you know, like the way that that plenty of teams do it, you know, like the way like the Eagles do it with jail and hurts, you know, they're never on that list, you know, because they spread everything out and all that kind of stuff. Everybody can do it. They just they choose not to.

Chris: Yeah. Well, they they think that they're going to pay the guy and he's going to come in and he's going to change the franchise, change the direction. Right. And they don't want to lose. It's FOMO, fear of missing out. You know, we don't sign this guy. You know, then we're not going to, you know, we're not going to win, you know, and, and we got to give him all the money and it now, now signing, you know, the Justin Jefferson signing, we were going to talk about that. You know, he's getting what $140 million, a hundred million guaranteed. Uh, you know, I don't think he's going to have a great year this year. He doesn't who's the quarterback, Minnesota.

Steve: Uh, it's the Sam Darnold snow. Sam Darnold is yeah.

Chris: Well, then they, they drafted. Yeah. So I don't see Justin Jefferson catching anywhere near the 5,000 yards that he's caught in his first four years. I just, you know, you gotta, it does go both ways almost all the time. I mean, it's just, the money is getting so incredibly out of hand.

Marc: Well, and the other thing is you got to be really creative with how you sign people. Like, you should never wait until half of the good players are signed. You got to sign people early, you know, get them to take that money, you know, so that they're going to stay. But then, you know, by the time the season starts, there's five guys making more than them.

Chris: Yeah, yeah. Well, well, the guy's got to be willing to do it. I mean, A.J. Brown was willing to do it with the Eagles. you know he took a nice big huge paycheck and he probably could have waited a little longer and maybe gotten a little more but it was you know let's put it the rest he he's got the i want to get paid but i also want to win mentality you know justin jefferson doesn't have the i want to win mentality he wants to he wants to win the one-on-one match-ups to get his paycheck but he doesn't really care about a super bowl ring if he really did he wouldn't sign with the uh with the Vikings.

Marc: I would disagree. I think that this contract he signed for the contract and then the next contract he'll sign to go to somebody to win. That's probably what it comes down to.

Chris: Now, one last thing on this general NFL carousel we're talking about here. I did see something that I did not get a chance to send over you, Schwaber, and I just wanted to stick it into the Grand Schwabini a little bit. Something online where they said Saquon Barkley fleeced the Eagles. He only rushed for 1,000 yards in three of his six seasons with the Giants. And how do you feel about that? Or do you think that Saquon Barkley is going to be, he's the answer at running back?

Marc: Well, I don't necessarily think he's the answer, but what I think is, is that he goes from a team that had no quarterback, no receivers, no offensive line, where the entire defensive philosophy was, how do we stop Saquon Barkley? And now he's got a good quarterback, good receivers, and a good offensive line. I think things are looking up for him.

Chris: Yeah, but he's, he's in his seventh year in the league, man. He's lasted longer than a lot of running backs.

Marc: Yeah, he also doesn't have a lot of tread on the tires either, because, you know, you missed he missed a year with an ACL. And, you know, I think the bottom line is, is that he'll be good. I don't think he's going to I don't like he's not going to rush for like 2000 yards or anything.

Chris: No.

Marc: But, you know, will he? I think what they want for him to do is they want him to rush for, you know, 1100 yards and catch 50 balls. And I think if he stays healthy, he'll do that.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I actually think that it was a good signing for the Eagles. I just, I just thought that was interesting. It was another one of those things where it's like, let me put up something stupid and you click on it. And I fell for it again.

Marc: I like, you know, it's, it's one of those, it's one of those high risk, uh, high reward. You know, you, you can look at it from the standpoint of, Oh, he's got an injury history, you know, maybe he'll do nothing for them. Or you can look at it as, Oh, wow. You know, this guy basically had nothing working for him now that he has everything working for him. He's going to be great. Kind of like kind of like when the Steelers got Jerome Bettis.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was, and that was a pleasant surprise.

Steve: No, that's actually, that's actually not the same because they got Bettis in his second contract. The Eagles got Barkley at the end of his career. Don't get me wrong. I like Barkley and I think he's got staying power, but I don't think you can expect him to do more than 1200 yards receiving or rushing and 500 yards receiving. And I think that's a good year for him. And I think that's all they're looking to get from him. Because they have other weapons.

Chris: They have other weapons.

Steve: And I think it does solidify that running back position for the Eagles. But I think they definitely overpaid. But here's the reality. They can afford to overpay because they're smart in what they do otherwise. Like, look at the Steelers. Like, you know how much money the Steelers have tied up in three defense guys? That would be TJ, Cam, and Minka. You know how much money? 50 million. It's like 50 or it's like $50 million.

Chris: Well, and you got it and you didn't Highsmith just get a big contract to.

Steve: Yeah, but his isn't quite as much. But I mean, it's ridiculous. So if you spend the right money, and I think this is the key, and it might be right for Minnesota, by the way, with spending that money for Jefferson, because they can, but they can afford to do it now. But once these offensive linemen, they come up, are going to want to be paid. You can't pay these other guys. And that's why, you know, Cam crying for new contract is just, just wrong. You know, they're just not going to be able to do it. So I think it'll be interesting, but I do like, I do like the fact that there are different teams with different philosophies. I'm thrilled to see some teams sign wide receivers to big money because let's face it, it's a passing league now and the running backs and the running backs are really catching the brunt of that because There's just not a feature running back anymore. It's always running back by committee and that just hurts the running back getting really big money. So I don't think you'll see that come back anytime soon, even though I think Arthur Smith would like that to happen. In fact, I think Barclay would probably do worse on the Steelers because his workload would be too much and he probably would probably would get injured, you know? So it's like you almost have to have running back by committee on the Steelers. So, you know, just my two cents on the whole NFL front.

Marc: Most teams are running back by committee now at this point. You know, I mean, really, I mean, honestly, the only one I can really think of that's not is you've got McCaffrey.

Chris: You know, he's more of a hybrid anyway.

Marc: He is a hybrid, but he doesn't, he barely comes out. I mean, it might come up for one series or something. And the other guy who never comes out is Derrick Henry. Right. You know, but that, that could also change as he gets older or so.

Chris: Yep. Yep. Yep. Well, and he's in an offense now with Baltimore that has a running quarterback. So, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll see what happens there. We'll see what happens there.

Steve: Anything I hear they're going to run. I hear they're going to run the option.

Chris: Uh, Who, the, uh, could you imagine him running the option?

Steve: Right. Right.

Chris: Anything out of Steelers OTAs right now, Yinzer, YinzerHJ?

Steve: No, the only thing they didn't address in the OTAs is they still need to get a damn wide receiver. They haven't addressed that. You know, all this talk about Dan Moore starting is just crap. They just need to end that in the first week of training camp. Look, this is the last week of OTAs. They only have like three more practices left. So they're really not going to, they're not going, there's not going to be any breaking news. I guess they said that, you know, the reason they haven't signed a wide receiver is because they're signing a veteran wide receiver and they wanted to wait till OTAs were over so that they could start fresh with this person.

Chris: Another Allen Robinson.

Steve: Call me skeptical, but I don't think they're getting anybody good. I know the Grand Schwabini said Michael Thomas, that doesn't, that's not looking very good. I don't think they're gonna get AU now that Jefferson signed and they're definitely not getting Debo Samuel. So I don't know where they go from here to be honest with you. I mean, I just, it's frustrating to me because I think that's the one position they needed to lock down. Hopefully they do it here. Before training camp starts. I hope they don't go looking in the dumpster for you know people who get cut and shit like that because that it's too little too little too late and You know, we've got a whole new offense. So they got to learn it I guess the only thing you could say is in Arthur Smith's offense. The tight end is on the field a lot and So I guess it's possible that Fryer Muth and what's his face? The Incredible Hulk, Darnell Washington. Yeah, the seven foot Darnell Washington are on the field more than they should be.

Chris: I really do. I want to see that guy barreling down the field and just throwing people aside. He was underused.

Marc: We did also just get past June 1st. So usually it was June 1st cuts that, you know, creates more cap rooms. So maybe they will do something at the receiver position with some more room.

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: Well, yeah, maybe it's possible.

Chris: We got to wait until that happens. All right. This is this is this is time for Stump the Endzer. This is our we're not doing our Trader Joe's segment tonight. because we are in different locations. So tonight's Stump the Yinzer question is football related. And you know what? Listen, I created Stump the Yinzer. The questions I ask are my questions. Steve, you're wearing a Yinzer shirt, okay? I'm asking questions that a real Yinzer would know. I don't care if you know it or not. If you don't know it, then you'll have to settle this with your family because they're all a bunch of Yinzers for real and we know that.

Steve: Oh yeah, Susan's a real yinzer.

Chris: No, I mean your biological family. Oh yeah, you got that right. Where did Tony Dorsett go to high school? And it's in the Pittsburgh area. I should know that, yeah. You should know that.

Steve: I know it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I know what it is. It's Hopewell. No, no. Hopewell.

Chris: You are a Yinzer. You are. You wear this shirt proudly. Yes.

Steve: Wrong CD. Sorry.

Chris: Yeah. What did CD say?

Steve: Although that's what, that's what I was thinking, but I was like, no, it was the quips rival at the time.

Chris: Yeah. Wow. Okay. Now you've impressed me. You have absolutely impressed me. Uh, okay. Shall we go on to the, um, shall we go on to, uh, the grand Schwabini making a prediction and, uh, then we go on to, uh, uh, hockey Jesus. Okay. So the grand Schwabini.

Steve: He's going to make the lamp for him. Chris, you got to rub the lamp for the lamp for me.

Chris: Can you feel it, Mark? Can you feel me rubbing the lamp? Can you feel it now in the cap? What comes out of the spout when I open the cap?

Marc: Only I know. And only I know and I will tell all. I foresee the future and I am looking at the NBA playoffs. We have the Dallas Mavericks going up against the Boston Celtics. And I am going to tell you, there's going to be a surprise. It's going to be the Dallas Mavericks in six, because Jason Tatum is a choker and Luka Doncic is. only less than the Joker. And Kyrie Irving has turned things around and realized that the earth is round. And now the round ball is going through the hoop.

Chris: Okay.

Marc: So it will be the Mavs and Mark Cuban does it again with like not much of a team.

Chris: Well, hey, you know what I think is funny is they're talking about the NBA. So so the Grand Schwabini is predicting the Dallas Mavericks will win in six. I think there's a little bias in there just because. Oh, yeah, there is.

Marc: It's I mean, well, no, it it is. It is true that I do not like the the Celtics, however. I will say the Celtics did have quite an easy path to the finals. They did. And, you know, I just think that the Mavs are a little bit more battle tested. And if I look at the Mavs, you know, I look at a guy like Kyrie, who's got the experience of hitting a game winning shot, you know, in a finals when he was playing with LeBron. And I look at a guy like Luca who, to me, is a top three player in the NBA. It's probably Joker, Giannis, and Luca, I would say, are your top three. Um, so I, I just sort of feel like the Mavs are not that Jason Tatum and, and, and, and Brown or anything, you know, or it's not that they're not special too, but I don't feel like either one of them is on the level of a Luca or a Kyrie.

Chris: You're, uh, you're talking a little different than Jody Mack, um, on infinity sports network. He's got it in the reverse, but he, he made a good point. And you were kind of making that point swabber. He said that if you just take their superstars, you know, you need superstars to win in the NBA, right? So you've got Tatum and Brown on the Celtics, and then you've got Luca and Yonich on, on the Mavs. If you just take those two in the equation, the Luca Yonich, Luca and Kyrie, or I'm sorry, she's Luca and Kyrie Irving on the Mavs. If you just take those two versus Tatum and Brown, he thinks the, uh, the Irving and Luca matchup is a little, just a little better, but then you've got to take the whole team into account. And, and Boston has a much more well, a much well more, a much better, well-rounded team with a bench. So you throw that on top and he thinks it's going to be the other way around. He thinks it's going to be the Celtics in five, maybe six, maybe six.

Marc: But, you know, but the the other factor involved here, too, is this also is a. real choking Celtics team. I mean, I think they've I think they've been in. Have they been in two of the last three finals? And this is the third one. Yeah, this is like three out of four or something. Yeah. And they haven't won. Yeah. And and one thing I get one thing I can tell you, I actually really like Jalen Brown's game. But Tatum's the guy for me that. I just don't think he's that next level superstar, he He has these games where he just shoots like one for 10 to like, you know, through the third quarter. And I'm just like. You know, come on, like this is this is not, you know, this is not a top five NBA player. He's just a really good player. He's just he's just a really good player.

Chris: Yeah, they like that's what happens. And then so he'll coast through a quarter. So last thing on the NBA, which I think is is pretty incredible, is they I saw a piece where they were going down the of course, the scuttlebutt right now is who's going to draft Brani. in the top 10, just at LeBron. But there were some good points made. They looked at the top 10 draft prospects, and most of them are, I think the first four are from Europe. Two of them are from France, the top two. And the guy I was listening to said, okay, let's get this straight. You want to take this guy, number one, he's from France. I don't know what league he played in last year, But he averaged 10.2 points a game and 3.7 rebounds. And he's the number one rated prospect for the N.A.B.A. draft versus you draft Brani and you get LeBron, who averaged 25 points and like 13 rebounds. What's what's the problem? You know, what's the problem? Take Brani James.

Marc: Right. Or the other way of looking at it is Let's say you want to trade for a superstar that wants a new deal. But let's say, like, take Jimmy Butler for an example. OK, so if you trade for Jimmy Butler, you've got to give up three number one picks.

Chris: Right.

Marc: You know, whereas if you draft Barani James, you basically give up one first round pick.

Chris: Right. Right. And you could. Nobody can argue that LeBron is not, he's not at the top of his game, but he's still top 10, top 15 player in the league. You know, so adding him and Bronny versus adding some weird guy from France who in a league that's not the NBA averages 10 points a game. I mean, it's to me, it's a no brainer. I mean, if you're like Memphis, you know, or somebody who's kind of on the cusp, you know, that's what you do.

Steve: It just appears that way. then somewhere down the line, later in the season, you'll be able to pick up somebody else. But you still have to be relevant between then and now, and that's the hard part. The other thing is, how ridiculous is it that we're talking about Bronnie James, who is garbage in the NCAA, And now he's going to be potentially a number one pick only because his dad plays. I mean, how ridiculous is it that the NBA has suddenly become such a place for nepotism that this is what is happening? It just it's my to me. It's just mind boggling.

Chris: Welcome to welcome to America. Seriously, welcome to America. It's the way it works.

Steve: I thought I thought we were in France.

Chris: Yeah. Honestly, I don't care what anybody says. I'd like to be in France or Italy right now, to be honest with you. I feel like it's safer over there. Okay. That's enough of that. We're going to move on.

Marc: Closer to the Middle East.

Chris: I don't know about that.

Steve: Yeah. They're signing a peace accord over there.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. Any day now. Any day.

Steve: That's great. Thanks, Joe.

Chris: Thank you, Joe. Yes. But this is a sports show. This is a sports show.

Steve: Whatever. We're running out of sports topics.

Chris: Yeah, we are. We are. That's okay. We're going to launch another show where it's the three of us arguing about everything else, and that'll be a lot of fun as well. Okay. I want to welcome to the broadcast Hockey Jesus now wearing the Enzo shirt. It is time. Hockey Jesus preaches on the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere. Yeah, get your friggin podcast. After every single Penguins game during the regular season, you can go to the sports porch podcast on any of the aforementioned platforms and you can hear the hockey Jesus preaching. He absolutely loves it. He does a great job. Once in a while he gets a little excited, but you know, yeah, we can live with that. I mean, I always thought Jesus was kind of a chill dude, but not when it comes to hockey. So today, tonight, hockey Jesus is going to be preaching on the Stanley Cup playoffs. We now have. the final participants in the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Orioles. I, the least accomplished hockey fan in this trio, this trio of triage is I did pick correctly that Edmonton would be in the finals. Who was the other team that I picked in my bracket? H.J. I can't remember. Do you remember?

Steve: Yeah, I think you, I think you had Carolina in there actually.

Chris: Yes, I did. I had, I might've been Carolina. Well, Hey, can't get them all right. But anyway, H J we had a hockey Jesus from a couple of days ago, but now we're going into the finals. What are we going to talk about here?

Steve: Well, I mean, you have to talk about these, uh, the Eastern and Western conference finals. They were actually quite good. Both went six games. What was very interesting about both of those games is that the team that won Edmonton and Florida had the exact same path. They won the first, they lost the next two, they won the next three. And I think that's, uh, that's crazy. I thought that was, I thought that was pretty crazy. You never really see that symmetry in two teams, especially with teams that have such different styles. Look, Florida is going to come at you with their girth. They're going to run you over and then they're going to score goals and they're just going to keep rolling lines and they're just going to keep coming after you, coming after you, coming after you.

Marc: The Edmonton Oilers. Define girth.

Steve: Girth. Girth is guys like, uh, who can, can run you over, get the puck, do a spinorama and shoot it right on goal. Exactly where it needs to be.

Chris: Mike Lawrence with, and I was going to make a girth comment too, but it wasn't going to be defined girth. Anyway, Mike Lawrence wants to know, did hockey Jesus have a huge party when the Rangers got eliminated?

Steve: Yes, Mike, I absolutely did, as did the rest of the world. I think everybody's happy that the New York Rangers are stuck with that 1994 mantra. We're going on 30 years now of them winning a Stanley Cup, and that's just glorious. The only thing that makes it more glorious than that is the Philadelphia Flyers with their 50th year coming up, very, very soon without winning the Cup. I mean, you just gotta love these teams in the East that haven't won the cup in so, so long. And honestly, the way they lost it too, the way they lost it too was just brilliant.

Marc: The tide will turn, my friend. Yes.

Steve: Oh yeah, it will, no doubt. I mean, they've been in what? It's like seven Stanley Cups since then, and they went over seven or something like that?

Marc: Moses departs the seas.

Steve: We need the Philadelphia Moses.

Chris: It's hj you bring up a real good point and and and then i'll let you go back to the to the play to the stanley cup finals, but you know Here in pittsburgh, man. It's like it's been what nine ten years, right? No, no, no 17 18. It was 17 and 18, right? Yeah So it's been six years since they won a cup and and and that was their second in a row And they go crazy around here when they don't make the playoffs, you know, like this is well, I mean

Steve: this is the second year in a row we haven't won we haven't made the playoffs and it was 16 years in a row before that so that's that's the issue you get spoiled and like all teams get spoiled but I can tell you Edmonton and Florida are not spoiled although it is it is really wild to see that the Eastern Conference final Winner has come from Florida the past five years. It was three years before that. Uh, uh, the, uh, the lightning one and now two years in a row, Florida one. So I don't know that the Eastern conference final is, is ever going to not be in Florida. It seems like those teams down there are so talented, although popular in Florida, Florida.

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: Here's another tidbit for you. In the Stanley Cup Finals, Edmonton is the northernmost city and Florida is the southernmost city. So you couldn't be further apart in a series for a Stanley Cup Finals. I thought I heard that today. I thought that was pretty interesting, but here's the deal. Edmonton plays a fast game. They want to score quick and they want to score in a row. So they want to score like three goals in a row. They want to keep the momentum because you never know when Skinner is just going to melt down. And if Edmonton loses, it will be because Skinner just has too many meltdowns. And if Florida wins, I think Florida is going to have to go six or seven to win because I truly believe that the talent of Edmonton and McDavid being in the finals for the first time. I believe the team with the best talent almost always wins the Stanley Cup. I've got proof of that, but I'm not going to go over that today. I'm going to save that. You got to check out my show if you want to hear what I got to say about that. But the reality is I'm going with Edmonton. I think talent wins over girth. And I'm taking Edmonton to win. I actually think Edmonton's probably going to have to win in five if they're going to win, because I believe that if Florida gets to their game, I don't think that, I think Edmonton will just, they'll lose the momentum. That's what happened with Dallas. Dallas was on their game. And then once Florida took over, They just couldn't come back. They were just done. It was like they were just like decimated. It was like bodies everywhere, and they just didn't know how to score anymore. And that's what Florida does to you. Over the long haul, they will beat you. But if you can beat them with good talent in the first three games, if Edmonton can win two of their first three games, I think they're definitely gonna win it. I actually think they're probably gonna win three of the first four. and for the first five.

Marc: So how about how about how about the last time a Stanley Cup winner? The previous season lost in the finals was the Pittsburgh Penguins, Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, what do you think about Florida having that experience level coming into? Well, we got

Steve: I think Florida's an older team, and I think that is the problem with Florida. They're not a young, aggressive team. They're going to be more cerebral. And I think Paul Maurice identifies with that team really well. And I think that's where Edmonton has to be careful, because if they do… Florida doesn't give up the puck. in their own zone. And they're going to have to have floor to either make some mistakes, or they're going to have to do what McDavid did last night, which was, you know, stick handle in a phone booth, and make a real nice backhand goal and score and just overwhelm them that way. I think really that's really what it comes down to. Can Edmonton do that? Dreisaitl was almost non-existent in the conference finals. I don't think he's going to be that way in the Stanley Cup finals, but if they can hold Dreisaitl like Dallas did and McDavid can't find another gear, which I think he will, then I think Florida's got a good shot. Look, they're the deepest team that's left. And I love the team. I actually like the two styles of these teams, and that's what I think is gonna be most exciting about the Stanley Cup Finals. But one thing that is not going to be exciting about the Stanley Cup Finals is, one, I have to wait till Saturday, and then they basically take two nights off between every friggin' game. The last game of the Stanley Cup, if it goes to seventh games, will be on June 24th. Like, Oh my God, it's the end of the month. It's ridiculous. I just don't, I mean, I get it that, you know, they're so far away, but this was already baked in like that. I think that's, I I'm with you, you know, when you were going off about, you know, the NBA finals waiting so long, it's the same way with the Stanley cup finals. They just bleed it out too much, and I get it, ticket sales and that whole thing, but here's the reality. If they played back-to-back nights, they would still fill that freaking arena.

Marc: Right, right. And you have to wonder too about, you know, the quality of play and sports is also a game of momentum and you take momentum out of it by having all these days in between games. Yeah.

Steve: Well, I mean, you can change your style too. And the team that's actually been very good at changing their style has been Edmonton because they can score six goals, but they've won quite a few goals 2-1, which was super surprising. And by the way, they won the conference finals by only having 10 shots on goal, which is an all time low. That even beats, I think the last was the New Jersey Devils when Brodeur was playing for them, and they had 17 shots on goal.

Chris: Yeah. So I want to get a couple of quick comments in here. Jeff, Jeff Paulus from, from York is in the house. We'd like to see a Canadian team win it again. Uh, Kyle is back, uh, Portia to Portia to sports, uh, Florida. Um, and I, I, I think actually, uh, HGA, I think what they're doing is they're, they're spreading out the, the cup finals because they want to make sure you get some sleep in between the games.

Steve: I think they did that. No, I think I think I would rather just to be seven days, seven nights in a row. I just go on the bench like, you know, contemplate your pledge.

Chris: Yep. Yeah, exactly.

Steve: Just just get it done. Just get it done. Right. I want it over with.

Chris: I want to say that I don't need to hear between girth. And a fast game it's good we're we're finally gonna is it is it the size of the wave or the motion of the ocean we're finally gonna answer that question.

Steve: No it's either how you use it or how you run it over there you go that's what is greater girth or speed.

Chris: Yeah, that's what we want to know. If anybody has the answer to that question, drop it in the comments.

Steve: The Stanley Cup final will answer that for you.

Marc: And Chris Klein, can you define phone booth as to hockey?

Chris: No, I can't. I can't. Is it the net?

Marc: I knew you had no chance. And it's really not that hard. Think about it. Apply it from football.

Chris: Yeah.

Marc: OK.

Chris: Where's the phone booth in football?

Marc: What happens when you're in a phone booth?

Chris: You close the door. You make a phone call.

Marc: Right. And how big is the space in a phone booth?

Chris: It's small. Yeah.

Marc: It's not a lot of space in a phone booth.

Chris: Right. Right. Right.

Marc: Yeah. So somebody who is successful in a phone booth is able to weave in and out of very tight quarters.

Chris: OK. All right. Got it. You got it. Can you define successful in a phone booth?

Marc: I just did.

Chris: Yeah, but I'm still not getting it. I'm still not getting it.

Marc: McDavid had a goal the other night.

Chris: Right.

Marc: Where he was in a phone booth. He was surrounded by guys in a small area. Yeah. His stick work was incredible to be able to score a goal.

Chris: OK, well, when you're talking about stick worth, stick work and a phone booth, I attribute that to two human beings being in the phone booth.

Marc: Well, you're just now you're being a dirty bird.

Chris: Okay, that's enough of that. Hockey Jesus preaches on the podcast after every single Penguins game. He is also doing his NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Now Stanley Cup finals analysis. Jeff Paula says speed is what counts, so he's hoping for that Edmonton win. When are you going to do your preview here, HJ? I know you're going to do a preview of the finals.

Steve: Yeah, I'm going to. I'm going to do it Thursday.

Chris: Sometime in the future. Okay. Thursday night on the podcast, you can hear the hockey Jesus pontificate and preach on the NHL Stanley cup finals. I myself am rooting for Edmonton. Just want to put that out there because then that means I will probably win our bracket, right? All five of us. I mean, if I come in there and win that thing, I deserve something special. Maybe a phone booth, maybe a trip to the phone booth with hockey.

Marc: It just shows you that when you fill out brackets, the people that know the least usually win.

Chris: There you go. Thank you very much. I agree. What we are watching now, what is this? Well, we watch a lot of things on a lot of different streaming channels and what we try to do here is give you a couple things that we are all watching and give you our honest opinion and analysis as to whether or not we think you should watch it, whether it was good, bad, indifferent. The one qualification is that we finish the season Well, if it's a show that has multiple seasons, we finish the season or we finish the show we finish the movie Um this week I will start with the grand schwa beanie. The grand schwa beanie is currently watching What is this chant? What channel is this on there?

Marc: This is on hulu hulu. Uh, he is watching oh Wu tang an american saga three seasons, uh completed it Now, what I want to know from you, Chris Klein, is do you know who Wu-Tang is?

Chris: They're like a music group, right? Like a rap group or something?

Marc: Yeah. OK. How about that? You knew that. Interesting. Can you name a song? No. Absolutely not. If one came on the radio, would you recognize it?

Chris: Absolutely not.

Marc: Absolutely not. It's a shame.

Chris: It's a shame. Look, I stopped listening to music in 1999. OK, let's just know.

Marc: So Wu Tang Clan, it's actually interesting. You know, I wanted to watch it, number one, because I heard the series was really good. You know, they were up for awards and stuff. And I honestly didn't know that much about It was one that kind of sort of kind of went under my radar. And I was like, all right, this is cool. You know, three seasons, you know, 10 episodes each. Learn about, you know, how the Wu-Tang Clan came to be. And I'll tell you what, it was it was just a neat story. I mean, nothing, nothing like, you know, completely out there. But, you know, what kind of You know, essentially what it is, is it's it's a bunch of guys who were living in the projects in New York City who were just trying to scrape by, you know, selling drugs and, you know, being amidst a whole bunch of, you know, gun violence. And and kind of how the leader of this group was kind of like the one who was just like, hey, like, there's got to be another way, guys, like we could You know, you guys are like the best emcees I've ever been around. Like, we could do this. We can make a group, you know, and and just kind of all the things that had to happen for it to actually work were just like such a long shot. And it was it was really cool, too, because they did do something that was unique at that point in time. Uh, the most you had was maybe like, uh, like a two person group, like a run DMC, you know, or, or something like that. And this, this was the first time that you had, I mean, Wu Tang clan is nine guys. Right. And everybody would say to them, like, you can't have nine guys on stage, you know? Um, and, and obviously there's all sorts of issues involved with, um, you know, uh, if we sign the group, then we have the rights to all the guys. And so they basically and they and they actually tried to the main guy who formed the group. His name is RZA. They actually tried to make him kind of like a corny rapper. And he came out with like one song and it was like, we love you, Rakim. It's actually not a bad song, but, you know, and then they dropped him and he's like, I'm going to do this my way. And so they went for way less money for with a record label who would give them complete creative control. And they started their own record company and they did what they wanted and they sort of bullied their way into performances and and, you know, became just like a huge gigantic success, probably one of the biggest successes in rap history.

Chris: So you would you would say it's a watch.

Marc: I would say it's a watch. I don't know if you would like it if you don't like rap. Right. But but interestingly enough, I mean, it's three seasons and they actually don't they don't even make it until like the end of the second season. So, so, so there's a, there's a lot of like story beforehand, like they go into, you know, the kid's childhood and, you know, his parents sent him away to live in North Carolina with like a pretty strict, you know, father figure type because his father wasn't in the picture, you know, all kinds of stuff like that. You know, you'll see in the first two seasons and there's a little bit of a different quality to it. Probably the reason why it was up for some awards. Some of it was really good. Some of it was a little bit. I thought a bit much at times where they would sort of like take an episode and they would almost like apply like. Like almost like a mini movie to explain an episode, right? Like so Wu Tang. Is a series of Kung Fu movies that all these kids loved watching together. And so like they would do like, you know, an episode where it's just like they're like sort of acting out like what happens in that Kung Fu episode. So it's kind of neat, but it's also one or two of them weren't great, but but some of them were great. So.

Chris: It reminds me a little bit of our story, you know, there's a guy who's looking around and he's saying you know what? There's a better way to do this, you know, you two guys are the You guys are like the best assholes i've ever met in my life and like we we can do this better. We can do a show better That's right, you know and and we've all had our our own minus the gun violence Right, you know, but maybe not the criminal act there was there was and the rapping and the rapping Yeah, not very Schwab or Schwab wraps.

Marc: I've wrapped and and there's, you know, and remember, Chuck was held up by shotgun.

Chris: Yeah, true. So, yeah, but he's not part of the clan. He's not part of the the sports porch clan.

Marc: Well, but, you know, but part of the Wu-Tang clan is it's all your boys. So, yeah, that's right. He's in. He's in.

Chris: Here it is. Maybe by season 17 or 18, we'll make it big, too. Yeah. And you know, the one thing that I do remember about Wu-Tang, the only thing that I really truly knew, now I knew who the Wu-Tang Clan was and I knew they were a rap group, but I'd never listened to their music. But Martin Screlly, do you recognize that name?

Marc: It does sound familiar.

Chris: Martin Shkreli was a guy that bought a drug company and basically jacked the price of the drug by a thousand times to become a billionaire. And then he went to prison and he bought like the original Wu-Tang platinum album. Like, yeah, he paid like millions of dollars for it because he was a big Wu-Tang clan guy. And they did a whole documentary on Martin Shkreli. I think his name was Martin Shkreli. I know his last name is Shkreli. It's about five, six years ago. So the grand squad beanie wu-tang an american saga on hulu he likes it uh hj you are watching actually whoops you are watching i want to i wanted to watch this and i haven't watched it yet so i'm interested in hearing about it dancing well let me tell you about it it's called dancing for the devil it's on netflix it just just dropped last week

Steve: It can be a little disturbing, actually, and the fact that the saga is still kind of going on is a little bit disturbing, but it's basically about two sisters, Miranda and Melanie, the Wilking sisters. I guess they got their fame on YouTube through dancing. They do all those TikTok dancing, where it's like pairs are dancing like this, and they go like that, and they go like that. And they got real famous. And then they ended up meeting up with some other dancers. Well, I guess one of these other dancers belonged to the Sakaina Church. And Robert Shin was a guy in the Sakaina church. And I think it was Melanie who got hooked up with this guy. And she started becoming distant from her family. I think you know where this is going. And then Miranda was like not able to get a hold of her. And then they're like, what's going on? And then they find out she's married. And it's like all this weird stuff. So, you know, everybody's like, well, it's a cult. It's a cult. And the parents actually went to the police and are like, she's an adult now. She can do what she wants. And if she doesn't want to talk to you, there's nothing we can do about it. So so it's like this conundrum with parents losing one of their daughters who supposedly is being brainwashed But every time the police go to her they're like she's like my parents don't understand blah blah blah Well, I guess as it turns out this Robert Shin had her had a run-in with some other people and it turns out that he was You know sexually molesting these other people and then they finally came out Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a shocker talk That doesn't know. No, it wasn't happening. It wasn't happening on tick tock or whatever in the church. But what I'm saying is that no, nobody, there's no predators on Tik TOK looking for young women to brainwash and sell into the reason, the reason, the reason, the reason you need to watch it is because the way he went about manipulating these people, they don't, they don't, they don't, they don't really show it because obviously didn't have access to the, to the cult side of things. But, Like the parents really were like, they were stuck, like literally they could do nothing about it from a law standpoint, from a communication standpoint. If your children want to cut you off from the world, They basically can, even if they're being brainwashed, there's nothing you can do about it. Fingers crossed.

Chris: Fingers crossed. Okay. Steve, H.J. is watching Dancing for the Devil on Netflix. The last what we're watching is something I actually. Sounds fun. Yeah, it does sound fun.

Steve: It's it's it's not fun.

Chris: No, I mean, I guess if you if you want to be a predator, you could, you know, good for some tips, you know, hints tip.

Steve: Well, you can you can still join the Sakina church if you want. It still exists.

Chris: It's in L.A. I know. Or are you saying that? Are you saying that wrong? Because to me, Sakina rhymes with another certain kind of makes it Sakina.

Steve: Yeah. It rhymes with the word you're thinking of. Sakina. Yeah.

Chris: Yeah. Sakina.

Steve: Yeah. Right. China. Yeah. There you go. Thank you, Mark. All right. All right.

Chris: All right. I am watching. I am. I have just finished watching something called Finding Andrea. Finding Andrea.

Marc: Is this a documentary?

Chris: Yeah. Kind of like the ones you just watched.

Marc: Can I just mention one thing? Sure. Sure. I got and I feel like they found her.

Chris: They have not found her.

Steve: Oh, wrong.

Chris: So this is, this is on it.

Marc: It's a process. It's a process of finding her.

Chris: It's that well, basically in a nutshell, um, finding Andrea on what?

Steve: Mads.

Marc: Mads.

Chris: Max. Sorry guys. Sorry guys. Yeah.

Steve: I thought you had a new streaming service that I wasn't aware of.

Marc: That's some good stuff on Mads, man.

Chris: Yeah. The technical director is not with it completely and I, Finding Andrea on Max. So Andrea was part of this small group of women in Kentucky. They formed a group called Missing in America. And what they did is when a family or friends had a loved one go missing and they didn't think that the police were doing enough, this group of women would get involved and they would do their own kinds of investigations and go out on the street and do all this stuff. And they also had a private investigator who became part of their group who was this dude. And then all of a sudden, one day, one of the group, Andrea, goes missing. And then what it does is it reveals the inner workings of this group, because there's personalities and egos and feelings involved. And dare I say, it's a group of women, and we all know that, you know, emotions run high.

Steve: Careful, careful.

Chris: Well, you know what I'm saying? You know exactly what I'm saying. I mean, it's just, you, you, you've got a lot of emotions running high and so they start pointing the finger.

Marc: Go ahead. I don't know what you're saying.

Chris: You don't.

Marc: Well, you just have it out. Spell it out for me.

Chris: Well, Mark, you haven't been around very many women in your life anyways.

Steve: So a lot of, a lot of cat fights, a lot of pillow fights.

Chris: There you go. Cat fights and pillow fights. Yep.

Marc: Earth and motion. Are you sure it's Andrea or is it Andrea?

Chris: It's Andrea. That's how they say it in Kentucky. Andrea. Okay. Yeah. So the bottom line here is that they start pointing the fingers in all different directions. What turns out what looks like a very compassionate, loving person in Andrea on the outside. On the dark side. Yes, who on the outside was helping people look for their lost loved ones. She had a lot of secrets and there were a lot of family things going on. And there's some really twisted family stuff that's going on. And so they bring in another retired homicide detective who happens to be romantically involved with one of the other members of the group. And investigating again and it there's going to be another season and I'm not gonna tell you why and I'm not gonna tell you the ends because it it starts.

Marc: Well you told us they didn't find her so we hope in season two they find her.

Chris: Well, maybe they do. Maybe they maybe they think they did. I I'm not going to reveal that. But here's the warning I will give you. Here's the warning I will give you. This is one of those documentaries on the fly.

Marc: And what I mean by that is a documentary on the fly.

Chris: the producers heard about this story and decided to do a documentary and at the time she had not been found or located and nobody really knew what had happened the group had splintered some people had moved away so they went down and they started interviewing everybody and preparing the documentary and during the documentary the filming of it some other things started to happen and come out so the very first like two episodes they kind of drag a little bit they almost seem repetitive and you're just kind of on the edge of your seat like okay i've heard this i've heard this you you've talked about the fact that there's some hidden secrets here what are the hidden secrets and then it's like oh they haven't discovered them yet and then when you hit like episode three and four then then everything starts to kind of come together all the the backstory and you're like oh now it's intriguing so it's worth a watch

Marc: I'll tell you what, I love this. I'm going to write into Netflix and I'm going to, first I'm going to see if I can trademark this category.

Chris: Max, Max. Cinema Parallel. Yeah, Max. Whatever. Write the letter to the right people. Okay.

Marc: Let's just get this. But documentaries on the fly.

Chris: There you go, baby.

Marc: Yeah. Let's copyright that.

Chris: That's right. Let's do one. Why not?

Marc: Let's trademark that.

Chris: Yeah, let's trademark. Documentary on the fly. There you go. I think that's a great idea. You know what else I think is a great idea? What's that? I think it's time to start the music. Yes. There we go.

Marc: As always, we're sad to say goodbye, but it's that time.

Chris: It is that time. Thank you for watching the SportsPorsche Black and Gold on The Middle of the Dead Zone. If you're watching us live, of course, on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, thanks, Amy May, YouTube, all over the world. And we're going to drop the podcast right after the show. You can find the podcast. Please follow, subscribe, leave a review, click the notifications button. You can find us on YouTube at the SportsPorsche Podcast, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere. You get your friggin' podcast. Thanks, Amy. I am your technical director and for the H.J. and the Grand Schwabini, I am out.

Marc: Jablonsk!

Chris: Jablonsk. There it is.