The Summer Olympics Are Here - A CPS Preview

[00:00:00] Shit? Oh, they're wearing gaffling on a white brilliantly in days ahead of the field of the moment. And then, both going brand-new, come to your site, Bulk! Get the silver! Now you said, Bulk of Jamaica is the fastest man on the planet.

[00:00:28] The following is a presentation of Hopson Media. Woohoo! It's not just another day, it's two day. This is the Church Pew Sports podcast, featuring a group of pastors delivering bombastic takes on sports, life and faith.

[00:00:49] It likes to drink their hay to raid and eat their hay to toss it. Take a knee! Lend an ear. These are some of the best questions I can have to tell you that straight-up. What is that special? As the Church Pew Sports podcast begins...

[00:01:08] It's funny how one man's terrible is another man's pure joy. And next thing you somehow get the head in two days. We've got tomorrow, we've got now. You know, I don't even care really what your level of enthusiasm is for the summer games,

[00:01:41] because I frankly might as early as low. This is the best fanfare of any events I think next to the victors, of course, in the world of sports. John Williams coming through once again. Hello friends and welcome into Church Pew Sports.

[00:01:58] We're here to have you with us as we celebrate the connection of sports, to life and faith. And have a great time doing it with some fun conversation. Bill Hobbson here with you along with Pastor Paul Miller.

[00:02:10] And we are joined again by our friend David Collins coming to us from over on the west side of Michigan where from what I understand Paul. Olympic fever is running super duper high.

[00:02:23] Could you please just start us off by ranking kind of on a scale of one to ten with ten being. I can barely contain myself where your Olympic fever is right now. Wow, I mean, I'd have to put it at about a two.

[00:02:39] That's higher than I thought you were going to come in with. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was I was going to go with a joke there, but I decided to just be honest. Just about on a two. Does that mean you're just a level of America?

[00:02:51] Are you not are you not an American? There are some who would say that, but no, it's just. Honestly, like to be truthful, my, my like the way I. Let watch sports and care about sports has changed so much over the years.

[00:03:08] Like when I was a little bit younger. I every main event big thing going on. I was involved. I was listening. I was watching. I cared. And I've got to appoint my life where if it doesn't kind of involve my team.

[00:03:20] You know, I kind of absorb it through Twitter and social media. That's kind of been the way that I do it. So I know every big event that happens. I'm going to see seven seconds after it happens on Twitter or something like that.

[00:03:33] And so there's just not as much of a you have to be there and see it live element to a lot of sports that they're used to. That's a really good point, especially when the games take place. On the other continent and the time change is nuts.

[00:03:49] So, you know, we're recording this on Wednesday evening and it'll roughly about nine 30 Eastern time, which means I think it's six hours later in Paris. And the games have already started by the way, right? The games are underway. How can that be? They haven't had the opening ceremony.

[00:04:06] I told Paul earlier and he came up with some cockamymy explanation. No, it's like it's like how it is, right? And I guess in soccer and rugby they can't get all the way through the game.

[00:04:15] They're turning it in the period of time that the Olympics are a thing, right? So those two sports start before the opening ceremonies, usually by a couple days like France.

[00:04:27] The other tradition is that the host country always plays the very first event of the Olympics is them playing soccer at home. Really? Yeah, did I know that? That's the thing. But today, France played the US in soccer. And what happened? They beat them.

[00:04:43] US is not that great. In men's soccer right now. So that's the thing. But the headlines are already starting to roll, right? Like I saw that what was it? Canada against New Zealand. They were Canada was caught flying a drone over New Zealand's practice yesterday. Really?

[00:05:02] They had to send coaches home and New Zealand's protesting. Your penalty is to send coaches. You have to, they kicked out some of their coaching staff and everything else. Wait, this was your saying that Connor Stallions was hired by a Canadian team. You beat me to it.

[00:05:17] How dare you? That's kind of a thing, right? That's not on Netflix. That won't get to that. You're going to have your chance to talk about the documentary. But the other headline was, I think it was Morocco's playing Argentina.

[00:05:29] Argentina is like the number one soccer nation in the world. In some Moroccan fan, if my information was correct through like us. Chair, a smoke bomb or something out on the field and it distracted Argentina. And Morocco scored in one match and now Argentina's protesting.

[00:05:45] Distracted by the smoke bomb? This is like stopping you daily. So it's just great headlines to put right up their next to like the Hamas recordings of how they're going to terrorize the entire thing. And then so Olympic fever is often running.

[00:06:00] Hamas has to finish their terrorizing of Washington DC first and then they can jump on their delta flights that are going to run on time for them. We'll make their way over to Paris. What is your one to ten level of summer games that dozey as?

[00:06:13] Where are you? I'm a solid five. Like, here's my thing, right? The summer dead period is such a boring season for sports watching anyways. So I set the DVR and we'll get into this later because I have these categories that I put on the sports

[00:06:28] and I'll be events in everything else. And one of the categories is good thing it was DVR because I'm not going to watch it back unless the US wins.

[00:06:36] And I can just scroll through the highlights because I'm not going to spend what I'm not going to spend three hours watching Beach volleyball. Well, you know what? Table tennis is kind of wild because David sort of alluded to it.

[00:06:50] This era allows us to go and get all of our highlights off of Twitter in a matter of seconds.

[00:06:55] I'm really just watched the championship moment instead of sitting through the profiles, features, the three minutes about how this athlete came through a war torn country and made their way. Sometimes they're very compelling.

[00:07:09] But for the most part, we just want to get to the moment where we find out who wins the goal to run. And now being able to do that on Twitter takes the time change, kind of out of the equation.

[00:07:21] I still have this thing about watching a live broadcast on a big screen of historic moments. Like, probably just dates me it probably makes me a little bit old but you know, you take a moment like the first gold medal that Michael Phelps won. 2008.

[00:07:42] And he's been building each one hundred. We mentioned that this race would set the table for Michael Phelps. He was worried everybody was worried but no problem for Michael Phelps. None of these Beijing games. And the legend was born, right?

[00:08:09] He just began to crank him out after that and an alarming rate. So David is there any sport or is there any particular athlete in these 20, 24 summer games that even though you're not into the whole game that control you to the screen.

[00:08:26] Because I got to see this guy, I've got to see this lady. I mean the only one I can really think of off the top of my head is Simone Biles.

[00:08:35] She truly like, when I watch Jim Niss, I'm completely blown away by their athleticism and by the things that they do on it. So there is stuff that can draw me to it. I'm not going to find out when she's doing whatever and watch it live or. Right.

[00:08:55] But I truly enjoy like the highlights watching her. She's kind of the one that especially. The thing that I like about it is all of what she went through admitting about her mental health and dealing with a lot of that stuff. I think her story is really cool.

[00:09:13] Really brave and on top of that. I think these things they're doing in the air, they're getting 12 feet in the air on these jumps and spinning is like if I did that one time, I can't think of what it would do to my knees or whatever.

[00:09:28] Like it's insanity. So I think she's kind of the one that I would look at and say that's one that I'm really interested in to see if she can come back from everything she did. And again compete for a goal. Even though that's a judged competition. Yeah.

[00:09:46] Instead of one that's empirically measured with clocks and distances and things like that, so let's get into that discussion. Yeah, you're setting up that my whole thing though like I have these four kind of implied categories.

[00:09:59] It's just kind of intuitive for me that I put Olympic events into the four categories would be like I want to watch that.

[00:10:07] So I'll DVR make sure I watch it or I'll try to figure out how to watch it live which like we said is hard when it's over in Europe. Yeah, time changing all that.

[00:10:16] But that's category one and then the second category for me is a hard no and it's anything where a judge is involved. I can't do it. So when I was diving this much for me as much as some old miles as the compelling story I'm not watching gymnastics.

[00:10:32] I'm not watching but his Bobby is your wife. Oh Bobby is that she lives for the gymnastics. The gymnastics. The six in the summer Olympics and the figure skating in the winter Olympics and I can't do it.

[00:10:43] Artistic gymnastics and artistic like the rhythmic swim or that well the ribbon, the beautiful ribbon all the things right all the things that are judged. I hard no for me.

[00:10:55] And then there's this big category of that I call it just like sense it's the Olympics so I DVR everything. And then if I find out after the fact that someone from the US one or something cool happened then I'll go back and watch parts of it.

[00:11:10] And there's a lot of events that would fall into that category otherwise I'm not interested.

[00:11:16] And then there's this fourth category for me which is why is that in the Olympics and that's all the X games things like I don't watch the X games so why is the X games creeping into the Olympics and that's that's the VL works.

[00:11:29] And I'm going to do a category for me so here's what I like to do. I'd like to I went and found a list of like every event in the Olympics.

[00:11:35] I mean, and I put them in these four categories and I'm just going to read them and let you guys tell me where I'm on or I'm wrong what you disagree with what you would move to a different category.

[00:11:45] Yeah kind of things just look let's just state for the record at the beginning here. Trampo leaning is one of the events in the Olympics. It is. What do we doing here? Three guests with us must have watched DVR set for that right now.

[00:11:59] Yeah, okay so here's my absolutely yes I'm watching track and field. I'm watching basketball. Now track and field yes but track and field is a lot. I mean that's a lot. Yes there's days and days and days. I'll watch all of it.

[00:12:11] I'll watch every single event in track and field if you know if I have the time it feels. Whatever and I don't know what the time it since it's in Paris. It'll probably be on it like seven in the morning. That kind of thing. Sure whatever.

[00:12:24] Valiball to me is one of the absolute can't miss men's in women's indoor volleyball. I think is spectacular. I love watching that. Yeah. And then sports teams sports like soccer and the swimming is compelling to me and some of those things water polo wrestling.

[00:12:42] I'll even watch the golf because you know it's scored and I'll be able to root for the US guys or whatever. So that's those are my absolute yeses. Where is break dancing on your list? Oh that's under the why why is this in absolute yes. Absolutely yes.

[00:13:02] David is pretty much following form with exactly what I thought would interest him. Exactly opposite of whatever. I want for David. Are you more likely to watch if the United States men's basketball team beats a team like South Sudan or loses to a team like South Sudan?

[00:13:20] Which ones more likely to peak your interest? You've put me in a bad spot here, Bill. I'm with you. Are more interesting if they lose. Yeah. They almost did. Doesn't mean that's what I'm rooting for far more interesting if they lose like that's a better story line.

[00:13:36] So the follow up question would be are there any events or athletes that you would be rooting against even though they're from the US. For me, the only one that would come close would be the men's basketball if. If they started losing I wouldn't necessarily be heartbroken.

[00:13:59] You know listen to dream team was the dream team at a time when international competition was not what it is now. The league is comprised of like it seems like half of the NBA players from another country. Yeah. Didn't used to be the case.

[00:14:14] I won't root against them but I won't be shocked if they go through this tournament and have some troubles. I don't know if they're going to lose anything, but you remember the dream team never called the time out. Right.

[00:14:28] Jordan's playing 36 holes a day and then going to play against Brazil that night and their average margin of issues like 30 years. Yeah. I was nothing too. I didn't barkly elbowing a poor Angolan in the gut for some reason.

[00:14:41] There was really no drama to it, but I think there will be some more drama this time around. I don't have anybody that I would root against. I'm interested to see like what am I going to say like yeah I can't stand the Canadian archery team. No.

[00:14:56] But some of these story lines tend to arise during the games and quite often it's related to. Somebody was caught cheating. Yeah. That's quite often when it comes down to and then you have the representative from like Ben Johnson,

[00:15:15] a million years ago in Iran at nine, seven, nine and then he's busted for the drugs and then they come out and they all claim that the tests are biased and whatever whatever. And then two years later he has to give back his gold medals.

[00:15:28] That makes me want to root against programs that are known to cheat Russian weight lifters historically. Yes, that's the case. So I don't know. David, is there anybody on your list of, yeah, I'm not a. I kind of have my suspicions coming in.

[00:15:45] I kind of root against the IOC in general, but I don't know if there's a particular athlete or team. I know, I guess, I guess and I got this from somewhere else but the publicatory finds out has a podcast he talks about.

[00:16:03] Fencing and how unbelievably corrupted is that like 50 of the top judges in fencing like that are making these rules on like quite literally. Split second decisions on who gets points and and like the Russian oligarchs are essentially running their whole.

[00:16:21] Fencing organization to try to get extra medals and all these things. He doesn't unbelievable job on it on his podcast, publicatory finds out, but it's that like I wasn't interested in that at all until I heard that and I was like that's fascinating because they're all cheating.

[00:16:38] But this one's now out in the open and so for you when it's a judges involved and it could be controversial or a little dirty that makes you more likely to tune in.

[00:16:50] Well, so for for with the Simone Biles thing it's like whether she wins or not like to me it's about the athleticism and the achievement and like how unbelievable it is.

[00:16:59] Yeah, wins and loses is not really kind of on my radar but yes, if I definitely know there is cheating going on in something I am locked in yeah that's awesome stuff like it boxing when you see.

[00:17:14] Because what it is is it's taking it's it's it's it's saying it's essentially saying the quiet part out loud like you're finally just realizing this is what it is.

[00:17:26] Let's just address it and I said that with college football for how many years like that this is what it is.

[00:17:32] Let's get it in the open and deal with the messiness of it and that's what happens when you have sports with judges because there's no possible way to see somebody flipping through the air and go that was a perfect flip. It's all it's so subjective yeah.

[00:17:46] And that's where you have boxing and MMA and these things and there's always like one judge that scores it like. Huge this way and low this way and another one goes like barely this way and then the third one, you know you never know where he's going.

[00:17:59] Yeah, okay sports that's really good. Okay, so then my next question would be what are sports that you would never watch if they were like on a Saturday afternoon you ran them Saturday from the Olympics menu.

[00:18:11] Yeah, but since it's the Olympics you'll DVR it and you might be intrigued like here's my list archery badminton beach volleyball ping pong.

[00:18:22] All the cycling events handball judo rugby rowing sailing shooting weightlifting. I'm not watching any of those sports except if it's sensitive to the Olympics and there's someone from the US who does get well it could it could be.

[00:18:37] The the background that David and I have in a place called high-o-auth of youth camp, but I will watch ping pong.

[00:18:44] Because there used to be some ferocious matches taking place in the rec call up at camp and when I watch world class table tennis players, I find it fascinating but am I going to set aside time for it now.

[00:18:55] Now you asked me that question if I go off the list of Olympic sports that I'm never watching. Yeah, I'm not watching archery artistic gymnastics. I'm not watching break dancing.

[00:19:05] I am not going to be anywhere near rhythmic gymnastics. I'm probably not going to watch sailing. Yes, sailing is an Olympic sport. Synchronize swim. I am definitely not going to watch synchronize swimming unless it's the old Saturday night live skit where they're teaching synchronize swimming.

[00:19:23] I can't remember the two actors but it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen because one of them cannot swim and that presents a bit of a problem. I'm definitely not going to watch skateboarding. That's just a quick greatest hits off of my list.

[00:19:39] David, did you know that in these games not only is there traditional basketball but there's three on three. There's basically a Gus Macker breaking out of the Olympics. There's a three on three tournament as well.

[00:19:51] I think you Eric and Chandler, I don't know how you're not representing the good old USA in this. Well, I think if I have my facts correctly, Jimmerford, that's out there for the three on three. Did you see him really? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:07] Remember him like where do you go? Where did he come from? What do we see? I don't even know why I know that but I do believe he's on one of the three on three to two. So he's out. He's out there getting his game on. Yeah.

[00:20:19] That could put up a shot. Wow. It'll be interesting to see, by the way, Paul, when I rolled this episode out, to see how many of the fencing listeners that we have get irritated with us picking on fencing.

[00:20:31] So I want to just issue a blanket apology ahead of time to you fencing officiagnados. No intention whatsoever of sliding you. It's possible that we're just not sophisticated enough to understand the nuances of fencing and how it could possibly be susceptible to corruption.

[00:20:48] I thought it was you poke the guy with the foil you win, but apparently David, there's more to it than that. Yeah, it's actually, it might not be fencing. It's the one with the blade. You actually hit him with the blade and there's like an electronic mass.

[00:21:03] Yeah, that's fencing. Yeah. But the fencing is a little stab one. This one's like actually like slicing and stuff like that. That's, that's reality. I don't know what that is.

[00:21:13] Yeah, but the, but the judges apparently, like as, as even though they have the electronics that let them know what happens, it's such a split second decision making that they still have to have a human like decide who it was that got the first hit.

[00:21:29] And if I'm you, I'm putting my money on the Russians. Yeah. That's a good idea. So it is kind of like boxing where you, you, they put the score at the bottom of the screen and you can watch like the one guy is pounding the other guy. Yeah.

[00:21:43] But none of it is registering. Yeah, you're watching. You're like, you just hitting with three straight jabs and the, the, the, the score isn't moving at all because somebody has to manually hit the button right. Yeah. They were glancing blows. Yeah.

[00:21:55] You know, the guy doesn't know which day it is and he's staggering around the ring towards its corner. Well, you know, this, this whole thing will stretch over the next few weeks and so I'm sure we'll bring some more updates.

[00:22:05] But from a preview standpoint, just know a couple of key headlines. Number one, the games begin before they open. Yep. Go figure. There are still judged sports. And I wish, here's, here's one change. In fact, let's do this. Let's go around the three of us.

[00:22:23] I'm going to let you recommend one change to one Olympic event that you would recommend to one Olympic event that you would recommend to one Olympic event. That you would recommend it would make it just more enjoy work, work, work, sighting to watch. Here's mine.

[00:22:34] I want swimming to go completely analog back to the days of the 1940s and that old guys with the old 72 year old guy with cataracts and his straw hat.

[00:22:46] He's got a blue blazer on he's got a tie and there's one of them assigned to each lane and he's got a flag in his hand. And that's how they indicate who won who got to the wall first because he quickly has to reason.

[00:22:56] I got to give him the fact that these races are normally decided by a couple hundreds of a second. I think that would be a fascinating bit of controversy that would, we could go to the replay review.

[00:23:08] We could do that for hours and hours because that's what every other major sport enjoys doing. So I am recommending that in swimming. We go back to analog and since we're in the pool, one other change for synchronized swimming. No one's to replace for the judges.

[00:23:25] Let's just see them defend their ratings on people that are moving at 95 miles per hour and they somehow come up with a number. It's comical that they try to do that. So those are my two changes. What do you got Paul?

[00:23:38] The first thing for me would be, and the men's soccer is currently a U23 event. Meaning only 22 year olds or 23 year olds in under. So that's no messy, no renado, all the names that you know from European soccer and even from MLS and stuff like that.

[00:24:02] It's a youth event. And I think that's stupid. So I would change. I would lift that restriction. Yeah, I would agree with that too. Correct me if I'm wrong. But I think aren't. Isn't each team allowed to choose three members that aren't under the U23?

[00:24:19] Yes, they get three what they call overage players on their roster. And so there's all this like you can pick three really experienced guy. Why that makes no sense. I've never heard that. Why would you read your best players play?

[00:24:33] Why wouldn't you want messy playing in the Olympics for Argentina? Why can professionals play in basketball? I'm not a guy. That's pretty good. I did not realize that. Yeah. What do you got? What are you going to change?

[00:24:47] So one of my favorite quotes in the NBA all time was for Man'twan Walker. And one time the answer to that quote was, he said, why do you shoot so many threes? An Antoine Walker's response was because there's no four point line.

[00:25:06] So I would add a four point line in men's basketball. The only side on that because I wanted to use that quote. That's very good. Did you know they did the three on three basketball, the scoring is anything inside

[00:25:20] the three point line is one point and everything else is two. Like three point lines. Yeah, too. You kind of do it that way if you're playing it in a playground or something. Because you go like first to 11. I don't know how they do it. We do it.

[00:25:32] We do it. We do it. We do it. We do it. Yeah, we're all the retirees come out to play. All the guys. Yeah. And we're going to talk about one more aspect of the Olympics. That is the LeBron role right? Because now he's on our team.

[00:25:44] He's on America's team and David is a huge LeBron fan. So David, win us over. What are we doing here? No, I guess my whole argument is similar to how you look at it with like Tom Brady, Peyton, man, whatever. You can like them both.

[00:25:59] You can appreciate greatness in its time. Stop trying to criticize greatness all the time. You're frustrated with them. You don't like his political views. Whatever. You're watching the basketball game and you're looking at a 40 year old man still being a top 10 player in the NBA.

[00:26:14] There is nobody that has come close to this athletically. It's insanity. And my frustration with people is they want to just be frustrated because he doesn't play on my team or he plays for that or he is Nike, China, deal all these different things.

[00:26:28] Dude, just enjoy the greatness you're watching in its time. Don't look back on it 10 years from now and go, wow, you remember how good that guy was? And act like you weren't hating him that whole time. The reality is you're looking at something that is true.

[00:26:44] Like we've never seen. It's one thing for a quarterback to do it. And what Tom Brady did into his 40s was insane. A basketball player, the athleticism you have to have night to night. To do basketball and be that good.

[00:26:57] And now we're relying on this guy to win us games in the Olympics when you've got your Jason Tatum's and you've got your. You're. You're having a chance and all these guys out there and LeBron James is the one they are all deferring

[00:27:11] to give that guy the ball. It's great. He's great. I hated him when I was younger when he was. I didn't expect 24 and 25 against the pistons in the fourth quarter and overtime. I hated that. But I got pasted.

[00:27:24] I realized why would I just dislike this and not just appreciate it? Doesn't mean I want to win all the time, but I can enjoy what I'm watching. And what you're watching is unprecedented greatness. Okay.

[00:27:39] The only reason I don't like LeBron James is because he's not Michael Jordan. That's all it is. And he's probably better. Okay. We can have that conversation and you will lose.

[00:27:51] But I will give him his flowers for the fact that he is carrying the Olympic team right now. And the other thing that I would say is for all the junk that has been thrown in LeBron's way because he. The nagle to get brownie drafted by the one.

[00:28:08] He wasn't drafted on his own merits on now changed. The entire economy of the way basketball works. And now every other sport is following his model. Okay. Here are the economy. That's all fine. The amazing things for the athlete. That's all fine.

[00:28:23] What I was going to say is if I had the chance to like, if I was a professional athlete and I had the chance to have my son on the team with me, I would take that chance.

[00:28:35] No matter what it was, I had to do to make that happen. I would say that you're not worried about team chemistry or I'm worried about any of it. I feel like LeBron's earned the right to do that.

[00:28:45] And he clearly, you know, they're burning a roster spot or whatever for Brownie. I mean, who knows if he'll end up making the team or if he'll end up being in the G or whatever is going to happen to him who knows.

[00:28:58] But I don't begrudge LeBron that at all. There's a lot of other things that I do begrudge him but not that one. I totally understand and give him props for that.

[00:29:08] I appreciate you saying that and let me just really quickly qualify the LeBron Jordan statements that I made. Okay. I believe I believe there should be two categories. It should be better and it should be greater because I believe Peyton Manning was a better quarterback than Tom Brady.

[00:29:27] I believe Tom Brady is greater than Peyton Manning because greatness involves war involves big moments and involves finishing in the biggest games. I think Jordan is greater than Tom or than LeBron James. I think LeBron James is a better basketball player.

[00:29:43] He can do more things on a basketball court consistently well than Michael Jordan. But Michael Jordan was greater because he has the wins and the lower. That's that's my argument on.

[00:29:54] I think that we the promise you, you, we hear the word better or greater and you put everyone into the same category. Tom Brady greater. Peyton Manning better. Michael Jordan greater LeBron James better.

[00:30:06] Everyone wants to talk about who the goat is and it's hard because they're different areas and all the things. If we want to go down the rabbit hole and pull out the stats and actually talk to players that play it in both areas, etc. We can do that.

[00:30:20] I would actually be a really good answer. On another episode of Church Pew Sports. But like I said, I give him his props for what he's doing with the Olympic team and I totally am okay with him saying, I want to play with my son.

[00:30:35] I want my son on my team and leveraging his influence to make that happen. And we will all be Big LeBron fans should he lead the US team to a good middle without drama.

[00:30:50] And the most part by the way, I will say this in favor of Mr. James, I have no doubt that if they get to that point and they most likely will, that when he's on the gold metal podium,

[00:31:02] he's not going to have to cover the logo on the apparel that he's wearing. As long as he doesn't put his hands up over, he's heading crown himself, then we'll all be good. But there we go. That would work. Yeah. There you go. Okay.

[00:31:18] I mean, let me hit the Olympic music. That was your official Olympics preview from Church Pew Sports. All right. And now let's move into one of the things that we're probably a little more comfortable with and that is complaining about things with our Holy Discontent.

[00:31:34] It's time to blow off some steam. Get it off your chest. Rant about what's most bothering you. I got a lot of problems with you people. Now you're going to hear about it. It's time for Holy Discontent. All right. I'm going to lead this one off.

[00:31:53] The Big Ten conference, as you may be aware, has I think 49 teams in it now. Two of the newest members of the Big Ten, the proud Bruins of UCLA and the Trojans from USC. They would be located.

[00:32:09] I believe in the greater LA area of California of these United States. Yeah. We're at that time of year, believe it or not. Here we are near the end of July, which means pretty soon. All of our favorite college football programs will be in training camp.

[00:32:24] They're going to get after it and we're not, I mean, honestly, we're not that far from the season beginning, which seems crazy because summer feels like it just began. So they have Big Ten media day where each of the head coaches takes to the podium.

[00:32:40] Usually to give a dad, like a two or three minute raw raw speech about how good their teams going to be, how excited they are to compete and they'll throw all the around the names of a couple of players that are new with their expecting.

[00:32:53] And then they'll open it up for questions. That's standard procedure. It's not exciting unless you've got, you know, day up, Ryan Day up. They're talking about things and if you've got, if you used to have harbour, if they're making no sense, it was really quite entertaining.

[00:33:08] The new coach of the UCLA Bruins is Deshawn Foster. Deshawn Foster, making his foray into the Big Ten. He steps to the podium and I have actually shortened this up a little bit just by removing some of the longer periods of awkward silence.

[00:33:30] But for the most part, you're going to hear his entire presentation. Here we go. How you guys doing? I'm happy to be here. Glad to be a part of this great conference. Finally putting two great emblems together, UCLA in the Big Ten.

[00:33:53] We're a school that's won, what, 123 championships. So this fits us being right in this conference. Football wise, which is excited. You know, you tell. Sure, you guys don't know too much about UCLA. No, our football program, but we're in LA. Oh, thank you for clarifying.

[00:34:13] So with the LA part? It's us and USC. USC is there as well. Yeah, and then I cut it off. It goes for a little bit longer. We're at the E just stops and he goes, I'm excited. I'm excited. Any questions? Yeah. Here's my holy discontent. Somebody preparing.

[00:34:34] Can somebody in the sports information department do a little run through here? This is your first introduction to the conference. And I would, I would think you might have a little more juice to what you're, what you're doing. So Paul Miller, you're holy discontent.

[00:34:47] Okay, mine is coming from Major League Baseball surprise surprise, right? It's not the sport that I normally watch, but I caught this headline and I went back and watched. It's fascinating to me to diamond backs or playing in the Royals and body with

[00:35:01] juniors in his first three of bats has a triple double in a home run. The hardest parts of the psych, three hardest parts of hitting for the cycle. So he comes up to hit in the sixth inning and I think we have the audio of what happened.

[00:35:16] Basically, we have junior happy. I need to single for the cycle and then he's going to go on the plunkum. And so of course the guy start yelling from the benches and then at what do you think happens at the top of the next.

[00:35:37] In the next inning, the Royals pitcher plunks the guy from the diamond backs and the official, the arms get together. And they do their thing which is they warn both benches, right?

[00:35:49] But then the manager from the diamond backs decides that he's going to come out and give a little speech to the amp and he calls the catcher from the Royals over and he's like,

[00:36:00] I would never intentionally hit the first the future of baseball and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I'm like, I don't even know that guy's name but I want to know what do you, what did he think in? Right.

[00:36:12] Why didn't he just let the amp stew their thing which is one guy got hit. There was a retaliatory plunk of another player. Let it go. No, he's got to go out there and grant Santa.

[00:36:23] Of course he gets tossed and the Royals go on to win the game. So sometimes that stuff is intriguing to me in baseball but then there are guys who are like, they're showboat and a little bit or they're just getting out of their lane.

[00:36:34] And so that's what I think happened yesterday. You know, Plunk of Guy who's got a single away from a cycle. You just get you try to get him out. Yes, try to do them out.

[00:36:42] Speaking of trying to get him out, how are our tigers due today David Callos as we lead into Holy Discontent? Yeah, my Holy Discontent involves two parts with the Tigers. Organization. They lost again tonight which means they're most likely, especially if they lose tomorrow,

[00:36:57] going to be sellers at the trade deadline. And I'm frustrated with Chris Ailich. I'm frustrated with the fact that he won't pay money to people that deserve the money and Terrix Goobles are guy that deserves the money.

[00:37:10] Unfortunately, I think we're going to wind up losing him and we're going to trade direct Jack Flaherty. We're going to wind up having to trade Terrix Goobles. And I don't trust the organization to get back what he is deserved by having a top three

[00:37:26] picture in all of baseball for the next 10 years. That frustrates me because AJ Hinch, who in the past I've been on here even saying I'm glad that we got him. He has proven to be a frustrating manager who continually puts line-up out there that don't

[00:37:41] put us in the best position to win and makes terrible decisions consistently during game days which bother me like nothing else. And one of those terrible decisions is my second part of this. His name's Harvey Bias. And I used to love Harvey Bias from afar as a cub.

[00:37:58] I remember there was a play where he hit a ground ball and a guy was on third and by his ran halfway to first and the first base me didn't touch first and tried to run him back to home.

[00:38:09] They threw the ball to the catcher as he ran back to first and the guy scored from third. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. And then he took second base because the second base, he used to play the game.

[00:38:20] So fun and so carefree and he used to hit the ball. He's had over 800 OPS multiple times in his career. What is OPS? Say that again? What is OPS? Sorry. OPS is on base plus slugging. So if you get over 800 OPS, that's awesome.

[00:38:37] But there's a new stat called OPS plus which is where they take the on base plus slugging of every player in the major leagues. They find the very average and 100 is the very average OPS plus. Harvey Bias is currently at a 29.

[00:38:55] It's the lowest in Major League Baseball history. The man has forgotten how to play and I'm just reading this straight from the internet. We have him. We signed to do a 6 year 140 million dollar contract. And we have him until 2027.

[00:39:13] And he's going to be making more than 23 million a year and it get that number goes up each of the next two years. My frustration is with Harvey Bias. What happened?

[00:39:28] I once had a coach who used to play baseball and said he had a dream with that he forgot how to pitch. The next time you went out to pitch, he couldn't throw a strike. And he ended up not pitching and moved to the outfield.

[00:39:42] And he was like, I don't know. He's going to be a good player. Harvey Bias must have had a dream where he forgot how to hit. And now. I don't know. He needs to do the reverse rickering kill and go from.

[00:40:00] Rick and Kiel went for pitching to playing outfield and hitting. Bias might need to throw fast balls. Maybe find out how to throw a knuckleball or something. David, please tell me that after being a tiger fan who has watched Verlander and he will hold on to Terrick's school.

[00:40:14] I want to tell you that that's the truth. That's so painful. I'm more frustrating to you as a Detroit sports fan. The tigers are the lions. Oh, tigers by a million miles. Really? I mean, the lions historically, the tigers now.

[00:40:30] I'll tell you this from 2006 to 2016 to me that is the most underachieving 10 years in the history of baseball with what the tigers had. With mags and and and again in Cabrera and in early and or in Scherzer. They had they had a literal all star team for 10 years.

[00:40:51] And they went to two world series and one one game in those world series. Like it just was a complete disaster, but they were at least relevant and one big games. The lions have finally done that. So right now, tigers historically lie on it.

[00:41:06] Yeah, you're wholly just content really got to be there. But that's yeah, we're we're going to move into a segment. Then we really haven't done too much of which means I don't have a prepared musical open for it.

[00:41:17] But it's just called headlines of the week and Paul, I'm going to preempt you with one. Okay, because we have a special guest who's going to join us here for a moment to speak first hand about what really is the sports headline of the week.

[00:41:33] And that is the release of EA Sports in CWA 24. There you go. The return of the game so Bo Hobbson checks in from the greater Grand Rapids area having acquired the game and I think playing it roughly every waking hour that he's not at work true false.

[00:41:57] I've put some time in. Yeah, there's been a fair amount of time put into the game. How is it a great game? How good is it? It's it's amazing. It was worth the wait 11 years we waited and it is really good to gameplay is fantastic.

[00:42:22] It feels really good to throw the ball running the ball is honestly probably the best part. The mechanics that they put into running the ball is just very satisfying and. You know, leaving. Fuck guys in the dust.

[00:42:38] The Donovan Edwards does not get old and is there a wish to get by us built into the game? Yeah, I would say I would say there's a small one. Even as a Michigan fan, they. There's some commentary about. You know, if you play Michigan State as Michigan.

[00:43:02] You know, they say well the Wolverines don't even really view this one as a rivalry or something along those lines and. You know, they got the better end of the Spartans last year the 49 nothing beat down. So there's some of that stuff thrown in.

[00:43:18] I haven't done it myself but I've seen that there is. A little Easter egg where if you go to a if you're. Um, editing Ohio state and editing and making a custom jersey for Ohio state.

[00:43:33] Uh, and when you go to actually do that the first kind of default that pops up. Um, before you start making your Ohio. Stages is a Michigan jersey. So they kind of threw that one in there. Isn't one of the creative guys like a Michigan guy right?

[00:43:51] Yes, that's what I was just going to say apparently one of the head devs at EA or the branch of EA that did this game. Is a you of them alumni so. Um, yeah, there's there's a couple of little those those little Easter eggs and.

[00:44:10] But I'm currently taking the Michigan Wolverines through the 2024 season brutal schedule next year just. Just for Wolverines fans. We we better buckle up because we've got. We've got some games thankfully we only have like five away games, which I actually thought was a glitch.

[00:44:35] Uh, in the in the game and then I went and looked at our schedule and it's it's accurate. We don't have any away games next season but we do play Texas. We play Oregon.

[00:44:47] And so I'm currently taking Michigan offensive coordinator Connor Stallions through the 24 season I created him in the game and we're seven and one. And I don't want to say who we lost to because it was Michigan State.

[00:45:07] So I guess you could say the game has some realism because we were not supposed to lose that game. So, you know, Arkansas back to uh, to 2021 but painful. Great game really really enjoying it.

[00:45:21] The hype the hype is real the hype is legit there are some bugs they just released a patch and update yesterday that took care of some of those and they're going to keep updating it. So it's it's fun and it's hard to put down.

[00:45:37] Yeah, so I was bow I was watching that um, I was bored this afternoon and I was watching the big 10 media days and they asked all of the Ohio State players that were there, Rapping Ohio State.

[00:45:49] What they thought of their ratings and they all had their opinions about where they were underrated and overrated and then the funniest thing I heard was they asked Ryan Day if he had played the game yet.

[00:45:58] And he said yeah he's been playing a lot with his son who I think is a sophomore in high school. And they asked him how he does it and he said, well we played together my son plays the game but I call the place.

[00:46:11] Really that's what he said and the guy was like, wait you called the place and he's like yeah that's how we it's fun for both of us that way. David I was like okay David have you played the game? No, I haven't played the game.

[00:46:27] But for whatever reason I never really got into the maddenes and the EA college sports. I thought I figured you were as dihard into those as anybody.

[00:46:37] No listen, I watch like actual like NFL games and right down plays I like an inotable that I have things like that whatever reason. I like I like games that are unrealistic I like halo I like you know smash bros I like rocket league like yeah.

[00:46:55] I like that. Into him. Wait this is kind of breaking news for church Pew sports. You have a notebook that you write plays in?

[00:47:05] Yes, do you just give them your own play call me you know obviously don't know how the teams calling him but you're just you're you're writing in there the counter runoff what I mean what are you writing in there.

[00:47:16] I mean whenever I watch and football and I see a play that I'm truly impressed with I go back and rewind it and mark down how everyone moved what they did.

[00:47:26] And I put it in there just in case one day somebody calls me to be an offensive coordinator. That's fine before you I don't know where it is but I can try to find it for you.

[00:47:36] What have you got down the you got down the nice tool catch last year. I did I do have that in that. That's that's one that jumped to my mind right away.

[00:47:46] Okay, so so what if I was going down what if Bo is playing this NCAA game in OC Connor stallions hits a rough patch and he just called you not to not to handle the controller but to kind of be by his side to call the plays may be in a playoff run would you bring the notebook out of retirement or would you find it find it wherever it is and use it.

[00:48:07] Yeah, I was going to say it's not in retirement and I just don't know exactly where I put it but. I. I.

[00:48:15] I guess I'd have an issue helping because I'm not certain what I think about like I don't know who he has a quarterback that's Alex or G. We're not even sure if he's going to be the quarter did you see the quotes did it was today.

[00:48:28] They they basically they said he's one of our best of 11 players on offense so we will have to find a way to get him the ball. Interesting doesn't sound like a starting quarterback subterfiel now. Starting quarterback usually touches the ball every play. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

[00:48:46] Yeah, I'm understanding football. No, it's funny you mentioned who the starter is because in the loss to Michigan State. Mr. Orgy actually threw five intersections. So the next game against Oregon we had to sit him down and we we try to Davis Warren out.

[00:49:06] And he played pretty well. That's what I think. Yeah, that'll be interesting life in the Tate of the interest. Yeah. All right, ball good review. Go thank you. Thank you. Hey, just don't forget you are married so don't play the game every waking moment of the day.

[00:49:22] Now we've struck a balance. Okay, so how it goes when he plays softball against us. In real life or video game, we don't need to talk about. But but you have two more minutes for us. I do. Okay because I have to come out of his game.

[00:49:38] It comes out of his game play time comes out of his game play time. So I love when I get the opportunity to climb into the Michigan Echo Chamber and this is the very definition of the University of Michigan Echo Chamber for me.

[00:49:51] One of the headlines of the week is that the Netflix untold documentary is coming out titled Sign Stealer. And I'm wondering what you guys think of that are you going to watch it? What are you doing? Yeah, we think it's going to be the feel of that.

[00:50:07] What are your thoughts? Man, they were quick with that. I was pretty surprised to see. To see that that's already happening. The image I saw was. Conor Stallion sitting in like a dark room shadows on his face. Looking. Looking very serious. I do think it's going to be.

[00:50:32] Somebody had someone tweeted something about I can't remember another documentary in which. Because it's an ongoing investigation so the subject of the investigation is is making a documentary or participating in a documentary about. And I'm going investigation so I'm really interested to see what it is.

[00:50:53] I'm guessing if he's in it, which the promo image certainly looks like he is. That it'll probably be. You know, trying to paint him in a in a good light and the whole kind of premise is we're going to get his side.

[00:51:11] So I truly don't know what this going to be in it because we still don't even know why he was at CMU on the CMU sidelines like that storyline just disappeared. I hope we get some of that. I hope we get.

[00:51:30] You know, some of the behind the scenes and hopefully we come away. You know, holding him high as an American hero. Former Navy SEAL and thank you for your service. Thank you for your service for sure. David must see TV correct.

[00:51:48] Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely going to watch it. I already have my kind of opinions set on the whole situation, but it'll be interesting to hear his side of it.

[00:51:57] I'm wondering if somebody has said something that you know, kind of puts the onus on him and increments him and that this is his kind of retaliation to like make his own story. Come out. So it could wind up turning positive in Michigan's favor, but in the end.

[00:52:19] The national champions, they're Michigan. Everybody's going to remember that the rest of their lives. That's the reality of it. And so it doesn't really make that much of a difference to me will it be filled with Hayter tots? Oh, if there's a hard by in the eye, can't.

[00:52:38] I just can't. I love it. I will be surprised if Jim's at it at all, but I mean, like other than clips from what he may have said already,

[00:52:47] but that will be a must see if you want to track Netflix ratings in the greater Big Ten region in the Midwest. I would guess that there would be a pretty big spike the moment that they can draw.

[00:53:00] It'll be interesting to see if Netflix lets Connor Stallion's tell the story he wants to tell. Because it feels to me like it would be super boring if it's just like, Yeah, I acted on my own and nobody at the, none of the coaches knew anything.

[00:53:14] Well, I was with it. I watched a few of the other untold documentaries that Netflix does. Yeah, they're pretty raw. They're pretty real. So let's hope that's the same thing here. All right, both, thanks a lot. See you later. Love you. Thank you. Bye bye. Oh, that's great.

[00:53:30] I can't tell you how excited he was to get this game. The NCAA 24 game. And there were some advance copies sent out to like, you know, Pat McAfee. It's got been pelt and obviously some of these big influencers.

[00:53:47] And he was just, I mean, you could not have, it could have been a Christmas morning and he wouldn't have been more excited than when he finally got that thing. So okay, so our next headline is, it follows, flows right from the first one.

[00:54:01] And that is that the rivalry made an appearance at the RNC at the Republican National Convention. And I just wanted, I think we have a clip from JD Vance and just wanted you guys to let Wayne on this.

[00:54:14] Now I love the Marines after four years of went to the Ohio State University. I'm sorry, Michigan. I had to get that in there. Come on, come on. We've had enough political violence. Let's. And then he went later on.

[00:54:37] He went on to say, we need to carry Michigan. He's like, we, we, we, we, we even, we need Michigan. So we've been in the Ohio State. We need Michigan. Yeah, so thoughts. Good for him. You got to acknowledge it. The elephant in the room.

[00:54:47] And when he said the he knew what was going to happen next. So I thought that was, I thought that was kind of cool. He appears to, he appears to embrace it and hopefully we'll have some fun with it. David more likely to watch RNC or Olympics. Olympics.

[00:55:05] Don't care much about politics. And I'm not going to share my thoughts on JD bands or some of those other things. There you go. All right, well then we're just going to go right to our last headline and build. We're completely putting you on the spot.

[00:55:20] I saw a deal that said with, um, softly went in the British open. Yep. Last week or whenever it was. Last weekend. Um, the question was put who from this current generation is going to be the next golfer

[00:55:35] to hit for the to win the career grand slam in golf. You got Rory who I think just needs the masters. Yep. And you got, uh, Uh, Speak. Jones, speak who needs the PGA. Yep.

[00:55:50] And then you got Schaffley who now has two of them and just needs the. Um, He needs masters and the US open. Right. Right. So who's next? Uh, maybe it's some other guy. It's got a chef. You think so? Yeah. He'll be the next one.

[00:56:04] Uh, Rory seems to be in his own mind right now and his own head. And um, had every reason to think he would be in contention instead of going home early. Just not playing that well. It's Andrew Schaffley's impressive.

[00:56:17] Um, he, he played one of the great championship rounds in modern golf history at true and on Sunday. In some adverse conditions made look easy. There was no drama to it.

[00:56:29] It was a, I mean, look like a cakewalk. But yeah, me and everybody else was full of a part. So, but I would say Schaffler is probably your guy. All right. Well, okay. So I'm going to completely put you on the spot.

[00:56:39] There have been five golfers in history that have hit one, The career grand slam. I wanted to see if you can name all five of them. Oh, I can't. No, I mean, there's, There's Tiger. There's Jack. Uh, there's, I don't think Jerry player did that.

[00:56:57] There might be Byron Nelson. Oh, I can't. I'm not going to get him for you. Tiger, Jack, Gary player. You know Ben Hogan. Yeah, I should have had that one and Gene Serzene, whoever that is, that must be an old guy.

[00:57:10] Yeah, I should have had that one too. Yeah, Gene is no longer with us, but yeah, I would not have gotten his name though because I didn't think he got the career grand slam. But yeah, legends of the game. And there's, there's something different about those,

[00:57:23] when you enter into that territory, you, you now nobody can ever say another word to you. For instance, when Colin Montgomery, in all of his bluster comes out and says that Tiger probably should stop competing because he doesn't have it any many more.

[00:57:42] Um, he probably doesn't have it any many more as evidenced by his performance there at Royal But it doesn't mean that Monti gets to call the shots, but Tiger, the guy. As Tiger did a wonderful job pointing out in his press conference, retort.

[00:57:58] Well, as a past champion, I'm exempt from 60. Colin's not. He's not a past champion, so he's not exempt. So he doesn't get the opportunity to make that decision, I do. I mean, you've had, you've had, you've deserved that.

[00:58:10] So when I get to, but if you had his age, I could sit till make that decision. Yes, you does. Well, many would say you might as well make the decision now. Tiger relishes those moments to put the needle in when he can.

[00:58:25] That's why he's my that guy. So what if you fire up on your that guy? Okay, so I'm going to take it back to the Olympics for this. Michael Phelps was recently on the Pat McFee show and McFee of course is just trying to stir things up.

[00:58:38] So he asked some, could you, if you jump back into pool, could you win? And I loved Michael Phelps's answer. So watching the Olympic trials, my son said, my four year old Maverick says,

[00:58:49] Daddy, do you think you could still get in the water and compete with these guys? Yes. And I said, I said, but I said, if I wanted to, yes, I could. And I said, I think I could still win.

[00:58:59] I said, but that also means that you're not going to see daddy Mary often. Right? You're not going to be able to spend time with me when you come home from school. And he's like, I don't want that. And I was like, I don't want that either.

[00:59:09] And of kind of a good. That was a great answer. David could juice still go back and compete at a premium level in three on three basketball. And if I go out to youth camps, broken small court.

[00:59:23] I got a lot of shoulder issues so it's hard to get the jump shot up. But yeah, you give me a couple weeks to get back in the basketball shape and I could do it. That's all it takes just a couple weeks to sharpen things up.

[00:59:34] All right, let's round things out with our three minute message. Homer, I'd like you to remember Matthew 7, 26. Oh, foolish man who built his house on sound. And you remember Matthew 21, 17. And he left them and went out of the city into Bethany and he logged there.

[00:59:57] Yeah. Think about it. Think about it. Okay, so we're in an interesting season right now. We are about to have the Olympics launch and it's going to be an opportunity for us as US fans

[01:00:14] To root for all the athletes and to have some patriotism going in some national pride and all those things. Right. And then, a couple months from now, we're going to be in the middle of a pretty intense political season

[01:00:31] Where we're all going to be telling each other how to define patriotism and democracy and all the things. And so I just have a verse, this is probably a minute and a half message for today, but I just have a verse that I want to read for us

[01:00:45] And let it be a reminder as we're watching the Olympics as we're resisting the temptation to jump into the political fray In ways that don't represent our savior well or his kingdom well.

[01:01:01] I just want to read Philippians 3, 20, but our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there the Lord Jesus Christ. The kingdom that we need to be loyal to is a higher kingdom.

[01:01:16] It's not the United States and however you want to view how the United States should be happening, how our republic should be functioning. So I just want to remind us where we are citizens of and remind us all that we need to represent well. That's all we got.

[01:01:35] Good stuff. And by the way, just a couple hours before we sat down to record tonight, we got a text from Mr. Collins who said,

[01:01:44] I don't think I have that much to add tonight. And I would like to officially state for the record as you've heard now over the course of the last 56 minutes.

[01:01:52] There's never a time when David doesn't have much to add. It's always better when David Gons is in his first show. That was gold. Thanks, Dee, for doing it. Really appreciate it. Yeah, I got nothing to say. Thanks for joining us. Make sure you check out churchpussports.com.

[01:02:08] And we've never heard of it. We've never done. Is there? And many of them are just evergreen. They're not tied to particular events.

[01:02:14] And we do hope that you'll help share the link. I got a couple of nice emails from listeners over the last couple of weeks folks that we've never heard from before, including one in Texas.

[01:02:23] Young lady who said, my daughter and I love listening to your podcast. It's finally something that we don't have to worry about what words are going to be said. So thanks for that.

[01:02:33] And thank you all for listening. We'll talk to you next time after the USA RECs up a just a bunch of gold medals. Yeah, maybe.