Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, Browns fans.
This is your chance to join the company of some of the Browns all time greats on the first ever Browns Fan Cruise. Picture this for five unforgettable days, you're sailing across the beautiful Caribbean Sea, reliving the Browns'greatest moments, getting autographs, snapping photos, and celebrating on the beach with your favorite Browns alumni like Josh Cribs, Webster Slaughter, Aaron Metcalf, and a dozen others. Book now and take advantage of our easy, budget friendly payment plans on this once in a lifetime all inclusive cruise adventure. The clock's ticking, Browns fans. To book your cabin and for more information, visit brownsfancruise.com or call 216-284-6472. Today Browns Fan Cruise, where diehard fans and Browns alumni come together for the trip of a lifetime. Don't wait. Secure your spot today and go Brown.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Media.
It's time. Time for the Burning River sportscast. With the preseason finally here, we're starting to see flashes of what we can expect this season from the dog pound. And survey says so far things haven't looked so bad. Through limited reps, there's been a lot of good, a little eh and some uh oh. There's even some momentum building around the quarterback. Conversations at DTR has taken the preseason by storm and showed that he has some goods. And we'll break it all down for you next on the Burning River Sportscast.
[00:01:49] Speaker C: They will be removing all of the lizards.
Like, oh.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: I just like that. When you read his quote slower, he gets a little more sexual.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: What do you say when things get hard?
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Things get hard.
You can count on Joe Thomas.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: I'm going to move on because Kenny I don't want Kenny to sully. Joe Thomas'name.
Jose Ramirez, with White Sox players draped all over him trying to hold him back, came up with the most devastating right hook a baseball diamond has ever seen that connected straight to the night night button. That is Tim Anderson's chin.
Yeah. And just like that, Tim Anderson will never, ever be looked at as a hard ass again.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: He's got a soft ass.
[00:02:40] Speaker C: Tim Anderson's got a soft ass. You heard it here first.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Put that on a shirt.
And love it, and wear it. And love it, and love it, and wear it.
[00:02:50] Speaker C: Hell yes. Come on down to Winking.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Welcome into the Burning River Sports Cast, presented by Tapin'media and brought to you by the Cleveland Browns Fan Cruise. I'm Kenny Thunder, seated beside fourth time youth champion of the World Erector Set Competition. There's no innuendo there just red hot Ronnie Jams behind the board. Today we have the not yet fossilized remains of the big bone man. Bone, how are you doing? Great, fellas. And Ronnie, where can our crew find the only Browns pod setting sail with dozens of Browns players on the inaugural Browns Fan Cruise next March?
[00:03:26] Speaker C: Well, you can find our podcast wherever you get your podcast. I'm talking Apple Podcasts, spotify Stitcher. Google Podcasts. Amazon Music. Pandora iHeartRadio Podcast castro good pods and so many more. And while you're at it, don't forget to check out our merch that's at WW Dot Thetappandmedia.com Shop. We've got shoes, hats, mugs, mousepads shirts, shorts, flags, phone cases, and so much more. So much more. And make sure you check that out along with everything else in the store that we're constantly adding. So there's going to be more. Just keep checking it out. Just go to the store every day until we find what you're looking for.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Is the cruise line live yet?
[00:03:58] Speaker C: No, not yet.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Soon.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: So with that, though, let's go ahead and get into the Burning River news.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Story of the week.
[00:04:14] Speaker C: I do like the news sounder.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Yeah, breaking news, bro.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: Breaking no, the news story of the week this week is that Kenny was pelted with 144 eggs.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: No, I'm just kidding. That's not the news story. But seriously, I do want to give a big thank you to everyone that came out and helped make Kenny's King of the north punishment such a major success or a major pain, as Kenny would probably put it.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Major pain.
What you looking at, ass eyes?
Yeah, we had a good time in the Muni lot before the preseason game. I got hit with a bunch of eggs. Some people just were throwing them unnecessarily hard.
[00:04:56] Speaker C: Oh, that big kid, he got you. There's a kid that was just jacked out of his mind. He was probably, like, 17 years old, came up and just wound up and destroyed Kenny's right hand.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: I was bloody by the end of this thing. Pretty well bruised. I will say the eggs that came through my helmet made great conditioner. My hair is so soft right now. It's really flowing today.
[00:05:18] Speaker C: I'm sorry you can't see that if you're listening to the audio version. It's really flowing today.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: But I've literally been blowing old Kenny's.
[00:05:25] Speaker C: Been blowing all day out of my.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: Nose for three days, which is not great, and nursing my wounds. So, yeah, thank you. Thank you for that.
[00:05:34] Speaker C: In case anyone didn't recall, I am the King of the north.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: You're the Burger King of the north.
[00:05:42] Speaker C: I'm still the King of the north. So there's that.
But no, seriously, the new story of the week, we've got to get to that. This one, it actually just broke today and just so happens to also be a football story. So former NFL player Michael Orr, subject of the Blindside fantastic movie, petitioned to court Monday with allegations that Sean and Leanne Tui never adopted him, instead tricking him into signing a document, making them his conservators and enriching themselves.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: First off, let me just say sandra Bullock has never looked better.
[00:06:19] Speaker C: Oh, she's like, that's a bullet point down here that you didn't even let me get to. Fine wine. Fine wine. Good job. Sandra Bullock. 100% fine wine. She's definitely aging well. But no.
Yeah. The tuis are being sued by Michael Orr. So all the jokes that you've heard about the Tui family and what they did, and it turns out those jokes are probably true, because allegedly, they actually took advantage of this young man, basically took control of his life. And disguised all of that in this package or this front that they put on for everybody, that they're this caring family that was looking out for a troubled boy. All because they saw the potential of.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: What could be and what became.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Look, I would just say it's really early on, right? I mean, this news story, it's all alleged. So everything is alleged at this point.
It was shocking to me a little bit because he's been seen in public with them several times over the years.
[00:07:24] Speaker C: And he didn't shy away from the publicity from the movie or any of that stuff.
Him and the family, they all leaned really far into it, actually.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: Either someone got to him and said, we can make a cash grab, or someone got to him through cycle analysis and was like, hey, what really happened?
[00:07:41] Speaker C: And actually sat down and talked to him and got his story without having anybody else around.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: But either way, it's disappointing because it was one of those feel good stories.
[00:07:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: And they did help this guy out a lot, right? I mean, they did put him in a position allegedly to become an NFL player.
[00:08:02] Speaker C: I mean, I don't know anymore and.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Make millions of dollars, but there's a.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: Lot of angles to this thing that make it real mean regardless of what ends up happening, you're going to look at the movie completely differently because you're like, well, is that really what happened?
[00:08:15] Speaker B: I would just say that in life in general, anytime there's a guardian involved, yeah. Things can get murky.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: Yeah. When you have a guardian, aka a conservator, one in the same a guardian, that's not a good time.
But damn, this story is just wild, man. And it completely as I read it, I was just reading this whole thing and I was like, this ruins this movie for me because it was so good.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: And it's always on.
[00:08:45] Speaker C: It's one of those that you and now it's not going to be on anymore because people are going to be like, we probably shouldn't play this.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: It's one of those that if you're sitting at home on a Saturday, you'll turn it on just because it's on.
[00:08:54] Speaker C: Yeah. And I'm sad.
And then I do have a bonus story here, though. Bonus story. Moving on from Michael, we'll come back to Michael or if we get more details and see what's going on. But a bonus story here. If you're from Northeast Ohio, you've probably eaten at a Winking lizard at some point or the something sad came about today and they have announced that they will be removing all of the lizards from all of their locations.
So you no longer will be able to go in and see the big enclosure with the Iguana up front.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Is this a PETA thing?
[00:09:29] Speaker C: I don't know. To be honest with you, it's probably the right thing to do because anytime I've been in there, it's just like kids banging on the glass trying to get this thing to move.
But yeah, I don't know if it was that or if they're just doing some updates and it just didn't really fit into the whole thing.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: Would you say that the lizards at the Wanking Lizard are under a guardianship?
[00:09:55] Speaker C: Yes, I would say that's probably the.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: You know, given just enough to stay fat and happy. They're given three square meals a day and a place to live. But let's be honest, the Wild isn't necessarily like Hotel California out there.
[00:10:10] Speaker C: No, I did read several of the comments online for all these people that think these Iguanas are going to go and live in the wild.
They're not and they would die.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: They'll probably be rehomed.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: I don't know if they're being rehomed to some of the owners of these places or what the case may be, but basically the gist of it was they just wanted part of it was getting them out of the environment where they're constantly being picked at.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: I mean, probably smart from the ownership standpoint of the Winking Lizard because in 2023, you just can't have fun anymore.
[00:10:43] Speaker C: Yeah. So happy trails to the lizards at Winking Lizard.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: Are they going to rename them? Are they just going to be like.
[00:10:49] Speaker C: Winking, come on down to Winking.
The winking.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: Tab the winking.
[00:10:55] Speaker C: Waiters yeah, I don't know. But you know what that takes us to?
[00:10:59] Speaker B: Is it the Burning River Rundown?
[00:11:00] Speaker C: It's the Burning River Rundown.
All right, so we'll start with the Cleveland Browns, obviously, because we're a Cleveland Brown podcast, but so it feels so good. First of all, that football is back to being on every like it's fantastic.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: I'm like here's football, this like, we've been such in this Browns bubble all season that we went to the Munil and did our thing. Had an excellent start to the season in the Munilot. And I've been just such in this Browns bubble, though, that when updates started coming across my phone, like over the weekend, I was like, oh yeah, the rest of the league is playing preseason, too.
So, yes, I am very excited to just everything about it. I'm just so quarter chub right now that's it.
It's going to grow.
[00:12:04] Speaker C: Okay. It's growing feeling, growing season with football being back every week. They are in the preseason, like you mentioned. But what that means is pretty soon here we will be back to every week. Every week. We can't wait for that. Let's go ahead and gear up and just get ready because at the end of the month, we're going full chub.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: We're going full chub. Yeah, 100%.
[00:12:24] Speaker C: With that being said, though, there were two preseason games since we've last recorded.
So first of all, the Browns won against the jets and lost against the Commanders.
But as we all know, these games aren't really prepped for in the traditional sense. You don't plan for these games, you don't like, we're going to game plan, we're going to run this against that, whatever.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: No, it's a look against real competition where they're keeping score, but outside of that, it's more about the position battles, who's going to show up, who's doing the little things right, who is winning on battles of alignment, who's understanding the playbook, who is where they are supposed to be when they're supposed to be there.
[00:13:02] Speaker C: Yeah, there's no scouting. We're not even necessarily trying to beat the other team. I know that sounds crazy, but we're not.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Well, Kevin said anytime we're keeping score, we want to win.
[00:13:11] Speaker C: Well, they say that because they have to say that. But the coaches use these games to run situations that they'll see in games, not necessarily try and win. I mean, the perfect example is against the Commanders, he punted at the end of the game, had a chance to try and win it.
So they want to get certain scripted plays run. Basically. It's just a glorified practice is what we're talking about here.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: And I will say that in true Kevin Stefanski fashion, the opening drive of the hall of Fame game against the jets phenomenal went really well. And the opening drive with most of the starters in the Commanders game, phenomenal went really well up until we started the one at the one, which that.
[00:13:47] Speaker C: Is actually kind of classic Kevin Stefanski as well. We stall at the One and we don't take the easy field goal at the beginning of the you know, I.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Look back at that game, though, and I'm kind of like, if Nick Chubb is in the game, I think the play calling is different. That's true.
[00:13:58] Speaker C: Well, you'd think he has a history of that as well. Let's just keep dragging these things up that he does so well.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: But the script looked great off the rip for both games.
That was the highlight, I think, of both games, was getting to see the offense because it was just true Kevin Stefanski, genius.
[00:14:17] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
And I will say this about the preseason in general, it still amazes me the amount of people you go online and you look at social media posts from the Cleveland Browns or groups on social media that are talking about the Browns. It just amazes me how many people don't understand that this is not a real game and they're like obsessing over.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: It and they're like, but that's fandom, right? I mean, we're excited for Paul's back.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: I mean, I get it, but it's just crazy to me that you're crazy to me. Like just some of the comments that are out there, I was just like, you guys do know this doesn't matter, right? Like, it doesn't matter until the season actually starts.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: The baltimore Ravens won like 23 preseason games in a row.
[00:14:58] Speaker C: And what did that get them?
[00:15:00] Speaker B: A couple of division titles over the last few years. How many do we have? We've never won the AFC North ever since its inception.
[00:15:06] Speaker C: We've also had undefeated preseasons and then a defeated regular season lost every game. So what does the preseason actually do for you?
[00:15:14] Speaker B: What does the preseason actually do for you?
[00:15:16] Speaker C: Okay, but while the win losses don't matter, what the preseason actually does for you, to answer your question is it allows you to assess the talent that is on your team. As we talked about before, the things that do matter is figuring out the fringe roster spots, the rookies, what they can do. And then also maybe even some of your starters in these one to two drives that they do get during the game.
Especially the new guys, like how are they going to impact the game as we get rolling?
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Well, that's what's exciting. It was the first time we got to see this collection of talent minus Nick Chubb on the offense and it didn't disappoint.
[00:15:54] Speaker C: No, it didn't. Kind of in that regard of seeing what some of these players can do. I'm actually just going to run down and point out a few here that kind of stood out to me. And you can chime in, I guess, if you want. You're part of this podcast, too.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Oh, thanks. Yeah, I'll let you have an ugly shirt on.
[00:16:11] Speaker C: It's the winning dog. Dog?
But anyway, so we'll start with Elijah Moore. That dude. Speaking of dogs, Elijah Moore is going to be a dog this year. If you haven't had your fantasy draft, make sure you pick up Elijah Moore because they're going to feed him early and often. If this last game was any indication of how they're going to use him. And he is absolutely electrifying.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: He was electric. They found him a couple of times on short passes. He looked real crisp, running routes, catching the ball. They fed him on an end around.
The only thing is he was also sent to the locker room early in that game. Precaution not supposed to be serious, but he is banged up and on the injury report right now. Precaution no, but I'm just saying he's a smaller frame guy, so something to keep in mind. But like you said, when he has the ball in his hands, fun to watch.
[00:17:06] Speaker C: Yeah. And the guy that everybody obviously is talking about this preseason and basically since he's come to Cleveland, with everything surrounding him, deshaun Watson, I will say he looks far more comfortable this year in the preseason than he did last year. He seems very calm, cool, and collected. Nothing's really rattled him, even when he's gotten some pressure or whatever.
He looks like the Deshaun Watson that we were expecting to get last year.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: I had to kind of take a step back because watching the first drive against the Commanders, I felt like, wow, he looked really good. I was like, he had an impressive he was throwing the ball well. He didn't throw any ground balls, which was great.
He was on point, on target, ran the ball a number of times, which I don't necessarily love in the preseason out of my quarterback, but he looked good. He looked like Deshaun. But then I had to kind of step back because I was like, he only completed three passes for like twelve yards. So I was like, did I see what I actually saw or did I see what I wanted to see?
And so I think that's going to continue to be an open question because I don't know that he's going to get a lot of reps between now and the end of the preseason. But I will say he looked, as far as the eye test goes, leaps and bounds better than last year.
[00:18:20] Speaker C: Yeah. So I'm excited to see what he's going to do. I think it translates. But I think your questions are fair as of right now, at least. The answer lies somewhere in between.
Did I really see what I saw or did I just see what I wanted to see? It's probably somewhere in the middle right now. But speaking of quarterbacks, moving on to one of the oh, boy, DTR has looked know I got to give Kenny props here. He was right. Kenny was right. People are currently calling him for him to be the backup already. And some people just reading the comments about DTR again on social media, wherever, they're starting to be fringe, like, is this good enough to start? I don't know if I like that. All I can say is Kenny may be right. And even though he's played 100% against third and fourth stringers, people in Cleveland are starting to get rowdy.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: There was at least three calls this morning on Cleveland Sports Radio that were like, I don't know, man, maybe he should just get more reps with the ones jesus.
We are one year removed from Josh Dobbs having an excellent preseason. He was the story of camp last year, remember, with the whole it was let's have the Josh Dobbs package. Like, we want to find a way to get this guy involved because he was so good in the preseason. But you saw what Josh Dobbs became when he ended up signing with Tennessee later in the year in games that mattered. And now that he was bad, I.
[00:19:48] Speaker C: Mean, filled in admirably. But he's Josh Dobbs quarterback in the NFL, right? No, and I totally agree with you. Like I said, DTR. We love DTR. Actually, him coming into this, I'm pleasantly he was going into the preseason. I said, watch out for this guy. I think he might end up being the backup. I think they might end up cutting Josh Dobbs actually, and making him the backup and just keeping the younger guys, but we'll I mean, he's he's been.
[00:20:18] Speaker B: More than I bargained for, for sure. I'm excited about him just like anybody.
[00:20:23] Speaker C: Else, especially because he was that what, 3rd, 4th round flyer that they were just like, yeah, we needed a young quarterback that we possibly mold.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: And it does make sense that he has a similar skill set to Deshaun. He's athletic. He can really throw the ball, and it seems like he's well liked amongst teammates right now. I mean, he's got a lot of good press around camp, so keep an eye on him. Again, I think the ceiling for him right now is like, does he make the active rosters as the backup?
I don't know that even the full preseason is enough to make that call because he's just so young and raw.
[00:20:55] Speaker C: We'll see. But sticking with quarterbacks here.
Kellen Mond, on the other hand, did not look good in the hall of fame game at all, but he did look a little bit better in the next think. You know, I just kind of mentioned I think they might go with this idea of keeping the younger guys and sending Josh Dobbs packing at the end of the preseason, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it went the other way. And they made DTR. The three kept Josh Dobbs as the backup and Kellen Mon's the guy that gets kicked out, because I think at this point, DTR is staying.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: I know Kevin. Stefanski likes kellen. Mond a good deal.
He was really high on him last year when they were to bring him into the practice squad, and that I just don't know that his skill set matches what the other three guys do.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: Well, I think that it was a situation where it's not even that Kellen Monda has been awful or anything like that. It's that DTR has just played so damn good in the preseason that it's like, you can't not keep this guy on the rock.
[00:21:54] Speaker B: Makes him obsolete because he doesn't offer anything more than DTR does outside of maybe some additional composure, but he'll learn that.
[00:22:04] Speaker C: Next up, we got dwan Jones has looked fantastic thus far, so this is.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: Another one we got to be careful.
[00:22:10] Speaker C: About, I think 35 pass blocking attempts in the hall of Fame game, zero pressures allowed, and then he looked good in the next game. And he's currently up to one pressure on 71 attempts.
So, I mean, he's got the size, he's got the strength, he's got the speed. So far.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: His feet look great.
[00:22:29] Speaker C: His feet look great.
The Browns may have gotten a pretty big steal with this one if he pans out.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: My concern here is that he has looked good. He's good. It's easy to fall in love with a guy that is just an absolute monster. He's big, just he looks imposing, and he looks scary out there. You would not want to line up on the other side of him.
[00:22:56] Speaker C: I know I wouldn't.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: What I'm worried about is, since the All Hall of Fame game, I've heard nonstop chatter about, well, let's just move him to left tackle because Jed Wills continues to be a turnstile's.
[00:23:13] Speaker C: The worst.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: I just think we got to be careful with jed Wills plays a tough position, and I don't know that all linemen are interchangeable. I mean, I think you saw Joel Batonio try to play left tackle and said, to hell with that. And that's a borderline hall of famer.
I don't think it's just as easy as just swapping a guy from one side of the line to another. And I wouldn't want that to hinder his progress as a right tackle at this point, because he has looked good, and Jack Conklin has been banged up every year since he's been a Brown. So there's a good chance that we'll see Dewan Jones if he continues to develop like that. But I just think there's so much chatter right now about, oh, let's just move Jed Wills over.
[00:23:57] Speaker C: I don't know about all that just yet. I can't stand Jed Wills, and I don't know how we have not found somebody better than him to play left tackle yet. But at the same, I'm I'm more than happy just sticking with I think we may have got a steal with Dewan Jones and not necessarily labeling what that's going to be yet. Let him, like you said, stick with his position that he's currently at, and if it develops into, like, a left tackle situation down the road, maybe. But I agree with you. I think it's way too early to start making those.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: It's a really hard thing to do. I mean, you have your guys like, if you look back at guys like John Greco that played kind of every position along the line, it's a hard way to earn a living.
[00:24:35] Speaker C: Yeah. Speaking of the line, we'll stick with lineman here Luke Whipler, another guy out of Ohio State. Zero pressures on 51 snaps so far in this preseason. So apparently those guys up at Ohio State can block because ain't nobody getting to the quarterback.
Hopefully another big surprise, another depth piece for the line. I'm pretty excited about that.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Well, and again, I just think it's one of those things that goes under the radar early in the season is what your offensive line depth looks like. But as we know, over the last two years, your line was decimated by injuries a number of times. So the more pieces that you have as good backups, the better.
[00:25:16] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And the final name that I want to call out here that stood out so far this preseason is Cedric Tillman has looked explosive. And because of that, he's received well. Not because of that, just because of everything he's done up to this point in his college career or what have you. And just the way he plays the game, he's received high praise from some legendary receivers, both Chad Ocho Cinco and Randy Moss. I've been talking up tillman this past week, randy Moss was quoted as saying he's the best young receiver in the past 15 years, and it's not even close. He also goes on to say every NFL owner should be pissed that they passed on him. And then Chad Ocho Cinco quoted that tweet or post on X or whatever it is that Moss said these things in, and he said he was the real deal at Tennessee. Scouts must do their due diligence and homework and not allow injury to ignore special abilities. Hyatt and Tillman are up next. So of course he's referring to Tillman's ankle surgery that cost him half of his final season at Tennessee. But, I mean, these guys are big time receivers. They know what they're talking about when it comes to receiving talent, and they're really high on him. So, I mean, talk about potentially another massive steal for the Browns if he can land himself somewhere in the top tier or even that second tier of receivers in the NFL.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: I will say just the one thing that has stuck out to me is like, you explosive.
That wasn't necessarily the book on him out of a college. He does a lot of other things really well, and he has good size, but he looks fast.
[00:26:54] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I mean, he looks he hits another gear sometimes. You're like that guy.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: He's almost got that. Like Josh Gordon. He kind of glides.
You almost can't appreciate how fast he is. And it wasn't like we drafted him because he ran a four two two. So, again, just the eye test.
But he has looked good so far. So I'm pleasantly excited about where he's at as well. It seems like he got reps with the first team when they were out against the Commanders, which is good.
One other receiver, I don't know if you have him in here or not that I've been really impressed with in the preseason is Austin Watkins.
I think he's got maybe really good chemistry with DTR from Camp and the Greenbriar, and that just playing with backups and backups. But I think he had eight targets and six catches for 70 or so yards against the command. Big numbers in the preseason. He had the touchdown in the hall of Fame game, and he's Sammy Watkins's cousin.
[00:27:56] Speaker C: That's good, I guess.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: And so he's kind of like he.
[00:27:59] Speaker C: At least knows well, he's been to.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: Be an NFL receiver, been mentored by him. So I find him really intriguing. I don't know if he'll make the active roster or not, but I don't think this is going to be the last time you hear his name. The browns don't sign him. I think someone else will.
[00:28:15] Speaker C: Yeah. And so with know, between the guys we talked about Watkins, we didn't have any first round draft picks. But if some of these. Guys pan out the way that it looks like they're going to look it's early, but Andrew Barry did Andrew Barry things.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: If that's the case, hedge your bets.
But yeah, so far I don't have a lot to complain about, which is good.
[00:28:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: I like yeah.
[00:28:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
You like all of them? Because I mentioned all of them.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I like all of them.
[00:28:54] Speaker C: No, but another thing that matters in preseason games, besides obviously working on technique and seeing what your young talent brings to the table and those types of things, is getting through the preseason injury free. Unfortunately, though, the Browns have already had some run ins with the old injury bug. So Isaiah Thomas and Alex Wright are both set to miss extended time due to significant knee injuries.
However, they are expected back sometime in the first half of the season, so that is the silver lining. But both of them just underwent knee surgery, so they'll be out for a little bit.
And then you also have the big one. Jacob Phillips was not so lucky to be able to have something where he could come back this season. Jacob Phillips suffered a torn peck in the game against the Commanders and is done for the season. And this is the same injury that forced him to finish last season on the IR. So it just kind of feels bad, especially since we've been saying for months now that they need to address the linebacker room and they've done absolutely nothing to do that. But I think it might finally happen because we don't have any linebacker depth anymore, so they might actually make it a priority. I don't know. Yeah.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: Look, super unfortunate for Jacob Phillips. I know that he's a guy that he's been through before. He was looking forward to having a good 2023 campaign, but ultimately disappointing that he'll miss the entire season again.
But not surprising. I've been saying literally all offseason that this was a position that they needed to address. They didn't think, you know, as smart as Andrew Berry is, every once in.
[00:30:38] Speaker C: A while he has something like this. There's DTS last year and this year. It's just we feel like we can completely ignore a position group and hope things go well.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: And we went through this right when Miles Jack was a free agent, and it's like, could a guy like that not have helped?
Know I will say about the defensive line injuries, there maybe a blessing in disguise because I think it forced them to sign Shelby Harris.
[00:31:06] Speaker C: Yeah, I would agree with that. You kind of stole my thunder there. That was my next point here is since we will also be looking at free agents at linebacker now, I wanted to talk about the free agent that we did sign this past week, shelby Harris, as you mentioned, looks like the interior of the defense is going to be really solid this year. I mean, it was already pretty good before that. We lost some depth with the injuries, but bringing Shelby Harris in, it looks like the interior of the defensive line could be pretty scary, especially when those two guys come back from injury.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: And I will say the one guy that we said to watch out for in the hall of Fame game was specifically me when I said I was looking at all the backup linebackers was Charlie Wilson, who was a little more quiet in game two, but he made a big old pop in the hall of fame game.
[00:31:52] Speaker C: That was the only time during that mean, you know, it's preseason game. So it was the only time during that game I literally set up, and I was like, oh.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: And since then, Brown's camp, anytime there's been a big hit, they've begun calling those Charlie's.
[00:32:09] Speaker C: Well, that's that's always encouraging, especially because they're trying to take big hits out of the so it's it's always encouraging when you got a guy that can deliver them on a regular basis.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I can't wait to see Mark Emerson light someone up this yeah.
[00:32:22] Speaker C: That'S that's part of the reason why I like him so much as a DB. He's not afraid to just get nasty with.
But, you know, we've kind of talked a little bit about the hall of Fame game. So just real quick, one last time, I want to touch on you want.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: To touch on Joe Thomas?
[00:32:37] Speaker C: No, I want to touch on the subject of Joe Thomas officially being enshrined.
[00:32:41] Speaker B: And getting sexual in here.
[00:32:43] Speaker C: I know we've talked about it a lot over the last few weeks, so we're not going to spend a lot of time on it. But I just want to say we could not be happier for Joe.
A couple of quotes from the week that stood out to me coming from Joe Thomas. When asked how he wants to be remembered as a player, he said, quote, when things get hard, count on me. I'll be there and I'll be at my best. And then during his acceptance speech, he said, it's the greatest honor of my career to be able to accept this lifetime award on behalf of all of Brown's nation. Cleveland, you could always count on me. Thank you so much for allowing me to count on just I think these are a couple quotes that really point to just the character of Joe Thomas and how much he knows that he means to the city of Cleveland.
But on top of that, I was a little confused, I will admit. I'm not sure what he counted on Cleveland for because they gave him a lot of heartbreak.
Not the fans, just the team.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: A lot of unfortunate years there for Joe. I just like that when you read his quote slower, it gets a little more sexual when you say, when things get hard, things get hard.
You can count on Joe Thomas.
[00:33:56] Speaker C: I'm going to move on because Kenny I don't want Kenny to sully Joe Thomas's name with anything sullying it that's fine.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: I mean, look, this is the wrong what am I looking know it's good.
[00:34:11] Speaker C: All right. So we're going to move on to the Cleveland Guardians here.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: No, please don't.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: I know. I don't really want to either go back to football.
[00:34:17] Speaker B: Here's the thing.
You got all this written here and we could talk about the Tim Anderson fight, but the Guardians are done.
I'm calling it officially, like this season's done.
[00:34:28] Speaker C: Oh, I would agree with you. They've fallen behind too far.
And it just looks like the team is kind of deflated at the moment. They've lost to some really bad teams lately that I'm just like I don't know what's happening.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: Despite getting really good pitching performances from young guys, from Gavin Williams, from IB, the future is good for this ball club, but it's over for this year. We were holding out hope that maybe they could get things together and maybe you win that division with 80 wins. I don't know, because just the division is so bad, but they're just so far out of it at this point and they just cannot get anything consistently moving in the right direction.
[00:35:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I totally agree with you. But I am going to spend time on the Jose Ramirez fight because it was fucking awesome.
So Jose Ramirez was involved in a skirmish on the field. If you were living under a rock and didn't know this happened this past week. And he walked away being courted by the top boxing promotions, Bellator and UFC alike to compete in their light heavyweight divisions. I love it if you don't know what I'm talking about. Again, Jose slid into second last week where that turd of a human being, Timmy Anderson, slapped a hard tag on him and then stood over him as Jose was called safe. Because Timmy Anderson's talking shit at all times, even when he's on the wrong end of things.
Jose didn't like that. He got up. He had some words for Tim.
And then after Jose said those words, old Timmy, timmy Anderson made the biggest mistake of his life. He threw his glove down and squared up to fight right there at second base. Dude thought he was like a bad man. He was like, I'm coming in. I got fists up. Like, I'm ready.
Yeah. But after ducking three punches thrown by Tim Anderson, jose Ramirez, with White Sox players draped all over him trying to hold him back, came up with the most devastating right hook a baseball diamond has ever seen that connected straight to the night night button that is Tim Anderson's chin. So down goes Anderson, as Hammy liked to, as he called it. So pretty exciting. It was like watching Rocky IV in slow motion when Ivan Drago drops for the first time and the rest of the teams were finally able to kind of get in between them after that before any more damage was done. And trust me, much more damage would have been done to Tim Anderson because he's a punk.
[00:36:50] Speaker B: They cleared everything, though. They cleared the matches. I think Tito was thrown out of the game already and came down from the Was.
[00:36:57] Speaker C: It was pretty dope ass because you don't really get to see two guys literally just square up and have a boxing match at second base. And that's what it was.
[00:37:05] Speaker B: It was a hockey fight. I mean, both guys just were like, okay, here we go.
[00:37:08] Speaker C: It's time.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: Let's get ready to rumble.
[00:37:13] Speaker C: And just like that, Tim Anderson will never, ever be looked at as a hard ass again.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: He's got a soft ass.
[00:37:20] Speaker C: Tim Anderson's got a soft ass. You heard it here first.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: Put that on a.
[00:37:26] Speaker C: Mean. That was pretty excited for the thought. I really thought that it was going to be like a team galvanizing moment and they were going to rally around.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: That would have been nice.
[00:37:34] Speaker C: They proceeded to lose, like, five of their next seven or something like and all while Jose Ramirez was appealing. And his suspension got dropped all the way down to two games. But we suck again.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: I'm going to play the Hammy quote. Now hosting and Anderson square off. They're fighting. They're swinging. Down goes Anderson. Down goes Anderson.
[00:38:00] Speaker C: Hell yes.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: It's got to be one of the best calls in baseball history.
[00:38:03] Speaker C: Oh, it was great. As if Hammy wasn't already going into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame. I mean, here's another one.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: I mean, this one, though, is special.
[00:38:11] Speaker C: Should we play it again?
[00:38:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Now hosting and Anderson square off. They're fighting. They're swinging. Down goes Anderson. Down goes Anderson. Courtesy of Cleveland and Guardians Radio.
[00:38:27] Speaker C: Yeah, that was fantastic. But yeah. So we'll move on from the Guardians, though, because other than that, they didn't really give me anything that I liked. So see ya. The Cleveland Cavaliers not playing basketball, so there's not much news. But I did want to talk about Ricky Rubio here.
Ricky Rubio decided that he's putting his career on hold to focus on mental health. On his mental health. Not sure how long this will be or if it will extend into the calf season. I know he's playing for his home country right now, and that's kind of the portion of his career that he officially paused. We'll see if that does go into calf season. But, I mean, good for him, right?
A lot of people don't know this about Ricky Rubio, but he's been playing professional basketball since he was 14 years old. He played from 14 to 16 in Spain, from 16 to 19 in the Euro League. He was the youngest ever professional basketball player in the Euro League. And then he was drafted to the NBA in 2009. And so he's currently 32. He has spent more than half of his life playing professional basketball, and he's had good success.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: I mean, it's not like he's a nobody. No, he's got a lot of career in professional basketball. Look, I think this is one of those things that, fortunately, I think the stigma around this has started to change because I think for a long time, mental health questions in general were kind of waved off, like that's weak of character or insufficient excuse for some reason.
I think, by and large, just where we've come from, a medical discovery standpoint and research on mental health. I think there's so much that we don't understand about the brain and the human body still that it's finally getting the attention it deserves, because.
[00:40:19] Speaker C: The amount of different things that just stress in general can do to your body, like physical manifestations to your body. You feel pain, you feel all kinds of things that you shouldn't be feeling simply because you are stressed out. And I know there's probably people listening to this at home that are probably rolling their eyes and saying it's all in their heads, whatever, but those are proven things that have been proven.
Those are responses to stress.
[00:40:47] Speaker B: I think that's why I'm glad to start to see the stigma clear on that, because I think we know so much more than we did 20 years ago. It's the same way with head injuries and football and CT and some of these things. Like, we know a lot more and know how serious these things are. So good on Ricky for putting his.
[00:41:05] Speaker C: Ricky o that's his new nickname, ricky.
[00:41:07] Speaker B: Over putting his mental health are these are courageous acts by some of these athletes. Again, I think you go back to the Olympics and Simone biles, and while that was disappointing that she wasn't able to compete, it was like, these are real things.
[00:41:21] Speaker C: These are people that we're talking people.
[00:41:23] Speaker B: At the top of their profession who have trained for this Ricky rubio since he was 14. Simone Biles, I'm sure since she was just as young or younger, that get.
[00:41:33] Speaker C: To the height she's in the Olympics.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: At 14, it was younger. Yeah. I mean, get to the height of their profession, and you have something like that happen, and there's no good way to fix it or guard against it, because we still don't really know what causes all those things.
[00:41:48] Speaker C: So like you said, though, good for Ricky rubio. We hope he gets the help that he's looking for and the help that he needs, and we just wish him.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: Well and come back and drop threes oh, please.
[00:42:01] Speaker C: Absolutely. We need that because we don't get a lot of them here. But anyways, in non Cleveland news, this.
[00:42:05] Speaker B: Should have been the news story of.
[00:42:06] Speaker C: The week, kind of Cleveland news. There was too many news stories of the week.
Former Browns cornerback Buster Screen. My dude loved watching Buster Screen. He played. He was phenomenal.
And I actually would flip his name around and call him the Screen Buster, because dude would come up and just demolish people in the backfield on screens. But anyways, arrested in Canada this past week after authorities said he fraudulently obtained more than $100,000 from banks throughout the country. Police said that Screen had attended numerous financial institutions recently in order to illegally obtain cash. So basically, the scheme was Screen would identify himself as a retired NFL player, open bank accounts with fraudulent checks, and then obtain a portion of the money before the check cleared.
And they said that he did this at multiple locations in the Durham region, adding that they had significant reason to believe he had pulled similar scams all across Canada. So my question is this. Who the hell does this guy think he is? Frank Abigail Jr.
[00:43:06] Speaker B: So he saw Catch Me If You Can and decided check kiting seems like a great idea.
[00:43:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess. I mean, does he know? Like, this is just wild. Because, seriously, this is one of the worst crimes you could commit in 2023. They're going to catch you. They're going to catch you pretty quick. Like, you might get away with it for a few months.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: If he had stopped at 75, maybe he would have.
[00:43:26] Speaker C: Does he have 100 grand now? No, he doesn't.
And it didn't take very long for them to catch up to it. It sounds like this has only been going on for, like, a year or so.
Basically, the Canada equivalent to the FBI was all over it. And they're uh not today.
[00:43:43] Speaker B: I will say this.
[00:43:44] Speaker C: So they caught him because they could.
[00:43:46] Speaker B: The story. Catch me if you can. Frank Gabbingale Jr. Is a fascinating watch. But if you really want to get into the weeds, I mean, read more about Frank Gabrielle, because he went on.
[00:43:57] Speaker C: To be an FBI consultant.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: His life was crazy. I mean, the things that they covered the movie were, like, the highlights. But he was in jail multiple times. He's like, I just escaped from jail. What happened? He just walked out of jail. They were like, how'd you get out? He's like, I just walked out. Out. They weren't looking, and I just left.
[00:44:11] Speaker C: Try and stop me.
[00:44:12] Speaker B: His story is fascinating.
[00:44:13] Speaker C: Literally. Catch me if you can.
[00:44:14] Speaker B: Literally, catch me if you can.
[00:44:16] Speaker C: No. So that was pretty wild. So bad job out of him, out of Buster Screen. Come on, guy.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: I mean, he came on kind of as the no one here in Cleveland and put out and earned a contract.
[00:44:30] Speaker C: Buster Screen came in here and put.
[00:44:31] Speaker B: Out, and he didn't get a little contract.
It was a decent sized contract. Well, I think he went to the jets and signed like he did.
[00:44:40] Speaker C: It was the jets.
[00:44:41] Speaker B: Like, a $40 million contract. Like, what are you doing scratching the barrel for 100 grand in a check kiting?
[00:44:46] Speaker C: He's really in a bad place, man.
[00:44:48] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:44:49] Speaker C: I'm not here to judge him for that. I'm just saying bad job out of you for fraudulent checks, man. But anyways, next up and this is probably going to take up the rest of the Burning River rundown because this is a big topic, the Big Ten is up to the Big 18 as they are becoming a super league to compete with the SEC. USC and UCLA had already announced that they would be leaving for the Big Ten soon. Well, now Oregon and Washington have announced that they will be joining those two schools when they make the jump. And this is wild because I would say this absolutely puts the Big Ten on the same level as the SEC, which is the good news of this whole thing. That's fantastic because I'm so sick of hearing about how nobody can compete with the SEC. The SEC is so good, nobody cares. Bad news here though is the Pac Twelve is pretty much done and we'll get to that in a minute, but do you have any thoughts on them joining the Big Ten, these teams we're talking USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, I.
[00:45:45] Speaker B: Just think are we going to change the name to the Big 18?
[00:45:48] Speaker C: No, we're just the Big Ten. Because there's already a Big Twelve. There was a Pac twelve. The Pac Twelve at one time was the Pac Ten.
Right now the Pac Twelve is actually the Pac Four.
[00:45:58] Speaker B: I think my point is though, if they're going to just create super conferences, go ahead and just have like rename it to like national and an American conference and then have your subset conferences underneath them and be done with it. Like have 25 teams in each conference that could compete.
[00:46:11] Speaker C: It does seem silly to hold on to the Big Ten moniker at this.
[00:46:15] Speaker B: Point, but what I am glad about is I'll be excited to watch better competition.
[00:46:22] Speaker C: Which is wild because we're Ohio State fans. We're a little biased on this because they destroy the Big Ten every year. But the Big Ten does well against other conferences. So it's wild that we're saying that.
[00:46:32] Speaker B: It'S easy to root for Ohio State because they lose one game every two years. They are just a premier team in an upper echelon division, which is fine, but when you compare it to the SEC, it hasn't up until really now stood up to them. I think what will be interesting is these teams from different Geographies now have to start competing with each other.
And I would love to actually, instead of pulling in your Oregon's and your California teams, like I would have loved to see some Southern teams have to come play like Ohio State in November and December especially because when we get.
[00:47:16] Speaker C: To those bowl games, nobody talks about that stuff.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: And, yeah, they're always played on a neutral field indoors.
Yeah, it's just crazy. I mean, I can't even keep up with it honestly because it's like every there's a new story about a new.
[00:47:30] Speaker C: Team moving conferences with all this conference realignment talk. In related news here, arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah all announced that they will also be leaving the Pac Twelve and they'll be heading to the Big Twelve. So the Big Twelve, they're just trying to keep up after multiple schools from the Big Twelve left the Big Twelve and went to the SEC.
And if you're keeping score again, I mentioned it already, but this means that the Pac Twelve is no longer the Pac Twelve. It's probably actually dead, but for the time being, it is the Pac Four.
[00:48:01] Speaker B: Sounds like the AC is trying to come in.
[00:48:03] Speaker C: Yeah, that's the rumor right now that those four teams are going to merge with the American Athletic Conference and that'll allow them to remain a, quote, Power Five conference. But let's get into that for a second, right?
They're going to still be a, quote, Power Five conference, but who's going to be the face of their conference? Stanford. Stanford is going to be the face of your Power Five conference. They ain't power shit.
Look, power nothing.
[00:48:29] Speaker B: And what is sad to see is that I think the lifeblood of college football is rivalries. So as these conferences move around and the better teams get picked up by the better conferences, you're going to lose a lot of that history that you had with teams that were just either geographically positioned or just by the nature of your conference.
[00:48:47] Speaker C: I mean, let's say I'll go with each other. USC went with UCLA, Arizona went with Arizona State.
[00:48:52] Speaker B: Yeah, but are those are they still going to matter, though, when if USC is good and they're competing with Ohio State every year?
[00:48:58] Speaker C: No, I mean, probably not. Well, that's a whole different story because USC also has a rivalry with Ohio State. Not as big of one as like, the USC UCLA rivalry, but all I.
[00:49:08] Speaker B: Care about is the Wagon Wheel. So as long as that's it, that's the one.
[00:49:12] Speaker C: That's the one. You don't care about the game, you care about the Wagon Wheel?
[00:49:18] Speaker B: No, I just represent in the Mac here's. My whole thing is that college football.
[00:49:23] Speaker C: Can you tell everybody what the Wagon Wheel is? Because I'm sure a lot of people don't know what that is.
[00:49:27] Speaker B: Akron and Kent State, people that are.
[00:49:29] Speaker C: Listening to this show probably know if.
[00:49:31] Speaker B: You'Re listening in Lithuania, university of Akron and Kent State Golden Flashes.
[00:49:35] Speaker C: They still don't know what that is.
[00:49:37] Speaker B: Yeah, max schools.
But look, I would say I've been just personally disenfranchised with college football for the last few years because I know.
[00:49:47] Speaker C: Every time I want to talk about it, you don't.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: Because, look, I love Ohio State. We're from Ohio. That's great. But like I said, we expect them to win every game. We're disappointed when they lose because they just don't lose. But it's the same if you're rooting for Clemson or know there's only so many schools that at the start of the year have a chance at even winning and getting to the playoff.
And now with Nil, plus the conference realignment, it's just so busy, almost like professional sports. It's almost just like I just don't know. I don't know what the future is for the sport. No, especially if leagues like the XFL and the USFL keep growing. They don't collapse after a year. And that becomes kind of your farm league. I've seen a lot of the Browns just signed someone from the St. Louis XFL team.
[00:50:38] Speaker C: I thought they signed someone from Seattle as well. The Sea Dragons.
[00:50:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So if that becomes a legitimate farm system for players coming mean, why does the NFL want to deal with the NCA anyways?
[00:50:50] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:50:51] Speaker B: It's usually just a big headache. They're a bunch of just I don't I don't know that this makes things any better for the NCAA or increases the watchability of college football.
[00:51:00] Speaker C: I think short term it just makes it a lot more interesting because there's just a lot of things happening right now and college football is wild. Man, I will say this about this whole thing, right, is that college football runs all of college sports. And so we're talking about all these realignments for these different conferences. But what people forget is that's for all sports, it's not just football.
[00:51:19] Speaker B: There goes Kyle's track program, right?
[00:51:21] Speaker C: And so an interesting take this past week or a couple of weeks ago from Missouri head football coach Eli Drinkwitz, funny last name by the way, on all this realignment. He said, quote, did we count the cost for the student athletes involved in this decision? We're talking about a football decision. What about softball and baseball who have to travel cross country? Do we know what the number one symptom or cause of mental health is? It's the lack of rest and sleep traveling in those baseball and softball games. They travel commercial. They get done playing at four. They got to go to the airport, they got to come back. It's three or four in the morning and they got to go to class that day. I mean, do we ask any of them? I don't worry at all about the game. The game is going to be strong, football is going to be fine. But do we consider the people that we are entrusted with? Do we consider the student athlete? And so I think in this whole thing, he brings up a lot of really good points that absolutely not. They didn't consider it because all of these colleges see this as a money grab for football.
[00:52:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I would say undoubtedly 110%. They did not consider the college athletes at all. It's 100% about money. And as the conferences started to realign, it all of a sudden became a mad dash for who's going to get that money.
And those with connections moved quickly. So no, they don't give a shit about the college, and they never have. Let's be real. No, they haven't.
[00:52:48] Speaker C: It's all about money.
[00:52:48] Speaker B: Look at the ludicrous.
[00:52:49] Speaker C: There's a reason they weren't paid in the first place for their name and likeness.
[00:52:52] Speaker B: I mean, you look at the stuff that just came out in the Johnny Manzell documentary, and then you wonder why Reggie Bush still doesn't have his. Yeah, like, let's get real here.
[00:53:02] Speaker C: Well, the funny thing is, Johnny Manziel tried to tweet that away by saying, well, I did all of my illegal activities after my heisman. No, you didn't. Shut up. No, you didn't. You were getting paid the moment you stepped on campus there and even before that, so that you would go there.
They don't care about these student athletes. All they care about is the money going into their pockets. So I think it's something to really look at these next few years and just see kind of where that goes and what happens with these kids.
[00:53:31] Speaker B: I mean, we could go down the rabbit hole and have a whole nother show here about how corrupt the universities are. But, man, it's amazing to me that this still passes for education in America, but I'll leave it at that.
[00:53:46] Speaker C: Yeah, I agree with you. We'll pick that up another time.
All right, so that'll take us to the Burning River sportscast hot. Take hotline.
All right, you guys know what to do. Don't forget to call. Leave your hot takes on the hot take hotline. Remember, these are hot takes. I want to hear hot takes. I want to hear hot takes.
[00:54:06] Speaker B: So many hot takes.
[00:54:07] Speaker C: Hot takes. Hot takes.
[00:54:08] Speaker B: Hot takes. Hot takes.
[00:54:09] Speaker C: Hot takes.
[00:54:10] Speaker B: Hot takes.
[00:54:10] Speaker C: 3302-2780-8033-0227-8080-3302-278 call now. Operators are not standing by.
[00:54:25] Speaker B: Bone, what's that number?
[00:54:27] Speaker C: Bone, what's the number for the hot take hotline? Caught him sleeping.
[00:54:33] Speaker B: I was actually going to put it.
[00:54:35] Speaker C: In my phone, and then you asked me that question.
Bone is ready to call the hot take hotline. He might drop us one of his newly dubbed Boner bites.
Anyways, it's 330-2278 call now. Once again, operators are not standing by. And you know what time it is. Let's take a quick revenue break and then get back here and wrap it up. It's the end of the off season. I'm ready to get into the regular season. So let's get some facts for days and get these people on their Merway.
[00:55:06] Speaker B: I'm in.
[00:55:07] Speaker C: Topath Distillery an award winning craft distillery located in Akron, topath Distillery focuses on high quality spirits. Carefully made in small batches. Topath's lineup includes an ultra smooth, award winning premium vodka, a small batch silver rum made from the highest grade molasses, an American craft gin made from nine botanicals, and a blended straight bourbon made from corn and rye. Topath Distillery. Now available locally and in 44 states. Visit Topathdistillery.com to place your order online or find an Ohlq retailer near you. Topath Distillery handcrafted award winning, small batched, local and. Family owned.
Go fucking buy some.
[00:55:49] Speaker B: Whoa. You know the only thing I love more than football? Season.
[00:55:52] Speaker C: Topaz.
[00:55:53] Speaker B: Topaz season.
[00:55:54] Speaker C: Topaz season.
[00:55:54] Speaker B: Hell yeah. Topaz season's.
[00:55:55] Speaker C: Upon which one's your favorite, Kenny?
[00:55:58] Speaker B: Obviously the bourbon is my favorite.
[00:56:00] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. If you say anything else, you're wrong. All right. So before we wrap things up, I do want to remind everybody to keep their eyes and ears open sometime in the next few days here. I know we've been teasing it for a while, but we want to get it just right. We have a big news story dropping. Huge.
It's big.
[00:56:18] Speaker B: The biggest Cleveland news story of the year.
[00:56:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
It's going to make you think, and it's probably not going to make you think good things.
[00:56:25] Speaker B: It's going to hurt a little.
[00:56:27] Speaker C: Yeah. So just like I said, keep your eyes and ears open. That will be dropping shortly. I don't want to give an exact date, but sometime very soon, any day.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: We'Ll let you know what day it's coming, but it's very soon.
[00:56:39] Speaker C: Yeah. And then, once again, be sure to check out our merchandise. Go to WW thetapinmedia.com backslash shop. If you want the River Sportscast collection, you go to show specific hit Burning River Sportscast, and all of our shit will pop up right there. So make sure you buy it and wear it and love it.
[00:56:59] Speaker B: And wear it. And love it. And love it and wear it.
[00:57:01] Speaker C: Hell yes. So anyways, Kenny, what can we expect next episode?
[00:57:06] Speaker B: What can we expect next episode? Well, we do have the special edition episode that is in the final stages of post production and just about ready to fire. And we'll be back here in two weeks for the next regularly scheduled episode, where we will break down the Browns preseason.
[00:57:24] Speaker C: I thought you had a breakdown.
[00:57:27] Speaker B: I was building suspense.
[00:57:28] Speaker C: Oh, okay.
[00:57:30] Speaker B: And then very soon, here the start of the Browns season. We will be back to weekly so you can hear our angelic voices every week, every Thursday, right here at the Burning River Sportscast.
[00:57:43] Speaker C: Hell yes. And don't forget to check us out on social media. Tapping media is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at the Tapin'media and Burning River sportscast. That's this podcast is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Burning River Sportscast. And on Twitter. Well on x. On X now at Burning River Pod. And you can find our podcast wherever you get your podcast. I'm talking to Apple podcasts spotify. Google Podcasts. Amazon Music. Stitcher Pandora. iHeartRadio Podcast Castro. Good pods and so many more. Do you know what that takes us for, Kenny?
[00:58:11] Speaker B: Vax four with Twitter being x now. Like if you tweet, did the post. Did you x'd?
[00:58:26] Speaker C: No, it's a post.
[00:58:27] Speaker B: I X'd that you posted that.
[00:58:29] Speaker C: I posted that when you hit because before it would say, send tweet. Now it says post. That's all.
[00:58:36] Speaker B: It not that's not as no.
[00:58:40] Speaker C: No.
Elon didn't think those things through when he made the change.
[00:58:45] Speaker B: What a weirdo.
[00:58:46] Speaker C: He just wanted to go to X and he's like, we'll figure out all the nomenclature later. And the best he could come up.
[00:58:50] Speaker B: With this post bro the lifeblood of all organizations is their marketing.
[00:58:55] Speaker C: Right?
[00:58:55] Speaker B: Facts for days. Happy anniversary this week, as we celebrate the day Gino Smith was punched in the face by IK in a kampali sidelining. Gino for six to ten weeks with a broken jaw.
[00:59:05] Speaker C: Wow. Sorry about it, Gino. He's back, though. He's better than ever.
[00:59:09] Speaker B: He's back with a vengeance. Hell yes.
Number two teams with the most expensive offenses in the NFL this season. Let's count them down from the top three boys. Top three. The Lions of Detroit at $135.6 million.
[00:59:27] Speaker C: That's a lot of million.
[00:59:28] Speaker B: The Chiefs are number two at $138.3 million. And finally your Cleveland Brown at $151.7 million. Will all that cash translate into wins?
[00:59:45] Speaker C: We'll see. I hope so. Better or bold, edge will roll.
[00:59:49] Speaker B: The bold strategy.
[00:59:50] Speaker C: It seriously is 13 million more than the next closest team. Good job.
[00:59:54] Speaker B: It's not even close. No. Far and away. And finally, number three. This one's a fun one. Ever woken up after a nap and felt like you've been asleep for literally decades?
[01:00:04] Speaker C: Yes, absolutely. Hundred.
[01:00:05] Speaker B: But in reality, it's usually only been a couple of hours.
[01:00:08] Speaker C: Yeah, sometimes only a couple of minutes.
[01:00:11] Speaker B: True, but not for my friend Caroline Olsen.
She grew up with her family as normal for the first 14 years of her life. But in 1876, she returned home one day with a swollen face and an excruciating toothache. She told her family she'd slipped on some ice while crossing a frozen river. And when the pain became too much for Carolina to bear, her parents sent her to bed. Little did they know she wouldn't wake up again until 19. Eight today it remains a great mystery, as they had dozens of doctors in. They ran electric currents through her body and other various methods to wake her up. Nothing worked. Until one day she did just wake up. Remembered nothing was a bit immature for her age, but otherwise in decent health for a person who spent the last 32 years horizontally. And in fact, she lived for another 42 years before finally passing 1950. What?
[01:01:08] Speaker C: She was asleep as long as I've been alive. 32 years. She was asleep as long as I've been alive.
[01:01:15] Speaker B: And there's still no medical explanation for why.
[01:01:20] Speaker C: But why just don't understand.
[01:01:23] Speaker B: So a 32 year old? 32 year old. A 32 year nap sounds like a problem. If you're going to be a part problem, don't just be a part of the problem. Be the whole damn problem.
[01:01:31] Speaker C: And don't forget, only you can prevent river fires.
Burning river forest gas burning river burning.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: Burning river burning river burns when I pee.
[01:01:44] Speaker C: Whoa. Burning river sports gas. Did you try and hide that under all the we heard it. That's weird. Man. You should get it checked out.
[01:01:52] Speaker B: I always err on the side of honesty.
[01:01:55] Speaker C: Oh, fair. That's noble. And how did nobles become noble in the first place? They took it at the tip of a sword. Burning river sports cast.
[01:02:09] Speaker B: Brown's fan cruise and the Burning River sports cast. What better combination could you possibly think of? Motorboat. You play the motorboat, you motorboat son of a bitch.
[01:02:20] Speaker C: You old sailor, you. Sean and Leanne Tui never adopted him, instead tricking him into signing a document, making them his conservators and enriching themselves erroneous. Erroneous on both counts. Oh, lord. But damn.
[01:02:35] Speaker A: You know why, Mr?
[01:02:36] Speaker B: Because you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight. I drove an $80,000 BMW. That's my name.
Ralph, I don't know where you're getting your statistics. It's easy to fall in love with a guy that is just an absolute monster. It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again.
Where's logo girl when you need her?
[01:02:59] Speaker A: I desperately want to make love to a schoolboy.
[01:03:02] Speaker B: Go Sanderson. Go, joe Sanderson.
What an idiot. Oh, what a loser.
[01:03:15] Speaker C: No way you just straight finger banged her salad.
You first get shocked and then you get the shocker.
Today's episode was brought to you by Topath Bourbon topath Bourbon made from corn, barley, and just the right amount of rye, this blended straight bourbon whiskey is designed for the real bourbon lover. Intense notes of maple, cinnamon, vanilla and oats hits you up front. Rich and intense, yet balanced all the way through with a strong and lingering finish. Great by itself on the rocks or in a Manhattan topath bourbon.
[01:04:14] Speaker A: Hey, Browns fans.
This is your chance to join the company of some of the Browns all time greats on the first ever Browns fan cruise. Picture this for five unforgettable days, you're sailing across the beautiful Caribbean sea, reliving the Browns'greatest moments, getting autographs, snapping photos, and celebrating on the beach with your favorite Browns alumni like Josh Cribs, Webster Slaughter, Eric Metcalf and a dozen others. Book now and take advantage of our easy budget friendly payment plans on this once in a lifetime, all inclusive cruise adventure. The clock's ticking, Browns fans. To book your cabin and for more information, visit brownsfancruise.com or call 216-284-6472. Today browns Fan Cruise where diehard fans, Browns alumni come together for the trip of a lifetime. Don't wait. Secure your spot today and go Browns.
