Hey folks, it’s that time. Fred and the Fantastics on BLEAV, on PodClips. Anything and everything in sports, and sometimes a little bit more, with Art, with Laura, with Matthew, and yours truly, Fred. You can email us at [email protected], [email protected]. Now Pete Carroll, with four seconds to go, says, I’m going to pass and score 10 points. He passes incomplete, but defensive penalty. So now, with no clock left, 0.00, Pete said, I’m going to score a field goal. He kicked the field goal, okay. So now it’s a 7-point win, 24-17, which means anybody that had the Broncos minus 8-and-a-half,

Five hundred million dollars switched hands on that game.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

My question is, and again, Art, you’re a Trojan, you think Pete Carroll bet or what was he doing? Tell me.

He covered, he covered that game.

Yeah, the Raiders fans love him for that, but yeah, that was a little scary. I actually saw a meme on Facebook, it was Don Rickles on the phone with Pete Carroll, saying, I need a kick here.

I know, I know!

Laura, you’re a Raiders fan. What do you think?

Well, I’m not really a Raiders fan this season, so I’ve been watching my Phils.

I think half the Raider Nation feels with you on that one.

Yeah, I don’t know really what happened this season.

You know, if Al Michaels did, if Al Michaels was doing that game, he’d have had so much fun with it.

Oh, he would have had. Oh my God, all you needed was Portnoy and Jimmy The Greek Snyder.

Last week, we were talking about the bad officiating, and I thought the officiating in the Thursday night game was atrocious. I can’t, you know, I agree with Art. I think that they need to professionalize the officials because I mean, they missed calls. There was that pass interference call, which was like a phantom pass interference.

How about when they get together, and there’s like five or six of them, and they look around? And then, like Al Michaels said last night on the grounding call, as he throws the flag out, he goes, Talk about a delayed call. They talked for about 15 seconds, they looked around, they looked at the running back, they listened to upstairs, he pulls his flag out and throws it, and I’m like, Oh, my God.

Well, it kind of was grounding. I mean, I said,

I agree, I agree with that, but it was a pretty obvious call right away, you know?

Who takes it? Pete Carroll? I think, take Carroll’s, but it’s a rumor now, is Robert Saleh, you know, they’re thinking of him as replacing Carroll as head coach of the Raiders, Saleh.

Well, we’ll see.

Matthew, I think you got to go with an offensive coach in the NFL now. I mean, I just I look at McVay, I look at the guys that have won the titles. I mean, you got to look at, you know what Kansas City has done, what Philly has done. It just seems like an offensive league.

We talk about numbers and maybe too many numbers, and I love numbers, but it gets to a point of give me a break. 29 -28 Tampa Bay loses to Atlanta on Thursday night. And I said to myself, somebody within the next two hours is going to tell me the last team to win, committing 19 penalties. And I swore to you within the last, within 30 seconds, they had the answer to that. It was 2016. So it took nine years for a team to win.

Listen, I got to tell you guys a story on this. That game, I had cousins over, 300 yards, three-team parlay. I took Tampa Bay late at the five, looked really good there for a minute, and I had the over, so about midway through the fourth quarter. They have this thing where you can cash out your parlay, or you go in. You know, like the parlay was like $25 to pay $108. But they were going to offer me $80 or $88 to buy out. I bought out of it, and I watched Atlanta come back and beat Tampa Bay. And I’ve never, ever seen that. I felt like I was the Cheshire Cat that ate the canary. I swear to God I’ve never done that.

What casino is that?

MGM, MGM BetPAWA, Bet MGM PAWA? I love it. You could actually cash out. So if you have a three-team parlay going and you have the fourth one, you know?

Yeah, folks, we’re taping this Friday afternoon, and Art, of course, very old, 128 years of age, on September 11th. Are you taking a specific medicine to answer these questions and discuss sports?

Oh, yeah.

What do you take?

It’s a professional formula of Prevagen. It really does a great job. Supposedly, these are, like, the only, you know, animal on the planet, these jellyfish that have no natural enemies, so the jellyfish is supposed to be really good for your brain. It’s called Apoaequorin; it’s got an interesting name, but the Prevagen’s been fantastic. I give it to a lot of my friends; it helps. But it was just amazing. I feel like I was so lucky it was created, Fred.

All right, we’re gonna take a break on Fred and the Fantastics. You can email us at [email protected], [email protected]. Back with more right after this.

Hey everybody, back on Fred and the Fantastics. You can email us at [email protected], [email protected], and we are taping this Friday afternoon. On Saturday, of course, the Heisman finalists, the Final Four. Art. Do you have any thoughts about who might win that?

I like, I like Diego Pavia, but I know you have a vote, Fred. What do you think?

Well, I voted for Maiava because of USC. If he really gave $3 million to the homeless in L.A. I really did.

I’m happy to see you do that because that kid had a great year for USC as a quarterback.

I voted for Maiava, then I voted for Fernando, and then I voted for Sayin, and if Sayin, if Ohio State had won, I would reverse those two.

I would have voted for the kid from Texas Tech, Rodriguez.

Maybe.

His wife is the helicopter pilot.

Yeah, but I wonder, you know, again, if Notre Dame got screwed Sunday? The votes came in, the Heisman, Sunday and Monday, Monday was the final day. I’m wondering if, because Notre Dame maybe got screwed or maybe not got screwed,

They’re going to give it to Love?

Maybe they’ll give it to Love because that was,

That would be great because he had a great year, Fred. I watched him running for touchdowns, long touchdowns, 60-, 70-, 80-yard touchdowns, five or six times this year. I remember him taking off. That would be awesome, because it’s always quarterback, quarterback, quarterback. Give me a middle linebacker, give me a running back, give me a, eh, wide receivers win enough, too. Laura, what do you think about the Heisman?

Yeah, I was thinking that. Has a defensive player ever won the Heisman?

Just Woodson, right?

Michigan, Michigan defensive back.

Yeah, but he was also a kick returner who did the famous pose in the endzone at the Big House.

I think Fernando Mendoza, I think he’s gonna win it.

Look at what they have accomplished in the last two years. It’s just crazy.

And Cal’s very happy with that, of course.

Yeah, Cal.

What,

They fired their coach, and now Rivera has got to rebuild that whole program. So, you got Rivera building up Cal, you have the old quarterback, Luck, building up Stanford. I mean, this new job in the, in college football, the GM is going to be just as important as coaches.

You just mentioned, you just mentioned Stanford, really interesting. I thought this week Cabrera almost was crying when he was doing an interview.

He wants out of Cincy?

He was not happy. And I don’t know if he wants out of, out of Cincy, or he wants out, period. Because of the injuries, I don’t think you have to worry about money. But you mentioned Stanford. Same circumstance. Andrew Luck retired only, I think, after eight or nine years, basically because he was injured every year, and he came when he came up, he was dynamite, he really was.

Did you see the numbers, the sacks those two guys have been subjected to their first five years? It’s ridiculous, I mean, it’s scary.

And Herbert, of San Diego is getting battered, too. You know, he’s getting battered.

That game against Philly. Holy Toledo.

Art, you played in the NFL, where you kicked, but you were close to the action. How the hell do you play at quarterback with either a broken wrist or broken hand? Explain that.

And keep the ball in key situations?

Yeah,

I mean, he shows, I’m telling you, that was, I’ve never been a huge, I mean, I love his potential as a quarterback. But I’ve never been a big fan of Justin Herbert, but I became a Herbert fan that night, watching what he did; the perseverance. The Eagles hit him with everything but the kitchen door, OK, and he just hung in there and won the game for the Eagles. He won the game; Eagles had a chance, but they did what they did. I think Hertz had four interceptions, but yeah, that was. These guys are tough guys, man, I’m telling you, a lot tougher than I give them credit for. I look at Jake, you know, Jake Allen, doing what he does in the snow in Buffalo. I mean, you get hit some of the ways he gets hit, on those cold days, I’m telling you, it’s got to take a toll on you, Fred.

Laura, a 44-year-old quarterback, old quarterback,

Grandpa Rivers,

Who played for the Colts,

Old Man Rivers.

He’s a high school coach. And all of a sudden, they called him. Laura. Are you looking forward to seeing a 44-year-old? I mean, probably he’s going to start, based on,

Looking forward to seeing him get killed?

Forty-four years of age. I mean, it’s, I mean, you’ve got to have guts to try it.

But it’s not even that, he apparently hasn’t been training, he hasn’t, you know, there’s, he’s not ready. I mean, I think it’s a recipe for disaster, really.

I’ll tell you one thing. There’s going to be some holding done by the Indianapolis offensive line. It’s like when George Blanding used to come in years ago with the Raiders.

Yeah.

And you know, and he would be drawing the plays in the dirt, and those tackles and guards. If that guy was beating them, they just, and the referees, they understood they didn’t want the guy getting killed. So it’s going to be everybody’s going to be out there, kind of helping to protect Grandpa Philip.

You know, I think, I think offensive holding is the most, I mean, I’m not even sure what the word is. It’s like everybody holds on every play,

Thank you.

Sometimes they call it, sometimes they don’t.

I like when they call it, and then you look at the replay, and there’s four guys holding.

Yeah, and it’s just ridiculous. It’s such an impactful penalty with a 10-yard penalty, and it ruins so many drives. I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe better football minds can do it, but there’s something wrong with it, with offensive holding,

The NFL is trying to cut back on that. Because it cuts down on the big plays, it cuts down on a lot of excitement in the games, you know, and I’m even noticing that on long, on long pass interference, penalties, they’re not, they don’t call it as often as they used to, except the one crew. There’s one referee that calls it, I mean, probably four or five times a game. He likes to see himself on TV.

I think offensive interference, my vote, if I were on the,

Where they push off?

No, no, I think the offensive interference should be, pass interference should be the rule, that in college, it should just be a 15-yarder and shouldn’t be at the, at the, at the spot of a,

The 50-yard bomb, just, you get a 15-yard penalty,

It’s ridiculous.

Nobody’s going to go deep because you’re going to be tackling people before they leave.

Yeah,

That’s another penalty that drives me crazy, too. Because it’s not called consistently.

Let’s talk about, let’s talk about Sunday night. The 44-year-old quarterback in the Colts at Seattle, 13 points, last time I checked, Art. You give double, if you give a double-digit points in the NFL, you’re going to lose two out of three times. But in this case, don’t you see a 50 to nothing score, 50 to seven, something like that?

Not necessarily, because I think the Colts can run the ball with Taylor. I think it would probably behoove them to come out with a, with a game plan like that, and I think maybe a three-step drop, throwing the ball deep a few times with, with Rivers trying to get the ball out of the backfield. They just can’t let him linger in the pocket. Either they’re in the, they’re in the, you know, the pistol, and they get rid of it quick. A lot of those little screens, those little, you know,

Yeah, quick outs.

Yeah, quick outs. You can’t have him hold the ball. He’s got to be able to just look at it, read the defense. Because he knows how to read defenses; he’s one of the best-ever at that. Here’s the funny thing, you guys. If he plays in one play, he has to wait six more years to get in the Hall of Fame.

You think he’s a Hall of Famer?

Is he a Hall of Famer? That’s what I was going to say.

Well, everybody says he is maybe not first, you know, ballot. But I mean, he has one of the greatest records of any championship, guys who win titles in the division, titles, and stuff. His record in December was something like, I want to say 64 and eight or something like that.

Wow,

Just incredible, over his career.

He doesn’t really strike me as a Hall of Fame player. They’re just intuitively, I don’t know.

More worthy than Jeff Kent getting in the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Thank you very much.

Yeah, yeah, well, that’s a middle finger to Barry Bonds, so Bonds must be having a fit out of your mind.

They hated each other. I used to go in the locker room in Scottsdale in spring training,

Yeah,

And you could feel the fridge, you know, the ice cubes in the room when those two were there.

That was a middle finger to Barry Bonds, so that’s the ultimate middle finger to him. Yeah,

All right,

They don’t like him, I guess.

Final question, final question. Baseball Hall of Fame. Fernando Valenzuela. In my opinion, as a player, I don’t think he played long enough, really, close, but no cigar. But, as somebody who changed the game, based on the fact he got Latinos involved, Hispanics involved in it. I’m putting him in the Hall of Fame at some point. Laura, your,

For his entire career. Yeah, his entire career.

I agree with you, I agree with you, Fred. I think you should be in the Hall of Fame. I mean, he is a seminal player, you know?

And he was a broadcaster,

He was great for the game.

It was great, he was great in the community in East L.A. And, you know, I mean, we’re talking about a California population of what, four or five million Hispanics who, I mean, Jaime Jarrin doing the games along with Fernando, and I mean, he went and visited people, and he was great with kids.

Four or five million just in L.A. alone,

That’s what I mean.

Not the whole state, yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Southern California, probably seven, right?

The fact he played in a World Series winner in ’81, that helped. The fact he’s with the Dodgers, that helps enormously with the press and all that. He’ll probably get in, yeah, he’ll probably get in.

I hope so because he did his, I mean, that’s 40 years of dedication.

That should be enough. All right, for Art, for Laura, for Matthew, for Mario, Fred and the Fantastics. Back soon, do not miss us, bye, everybody.