Hey, it’s that time again, folks. Fred and the Fantastics. Laura Snoke, attorney and good friend with us,
Art Sorce from Galaxy Sports with us on BLEAV and PodClips, and you can email us at sportsfred.aol.com.
sportsfred.aol.com. We are taping this on Thursday afternoon, Hall of Fame game.
Laura, yeah,
preseason football. It used to be six preseason games and then 12 regular season games and
Soon there’s going to be 18 regular season games.
And right now there’s like maybe,
maybe they’re going to cut the two to one
as far as pre-season games are concerned.
Laura, do you like it when there are more pre-season
or fewer pre-season?
And your comments.
I think if the players are playing 17 games
and that maybe they’re going to start playing 18 games,
you can’t expect the starters certainly
to play too many pre-season games.
Um, I think the preseason games are usually I mean are you guys would know more than I do
but it seems to me that the, the preseason games are, are being used so that that
that they can work out their plays and then they use their second and third stringers to
play the game. So I’ve never been a big fan of watching preseason games, um I’ll probably watch
the game tonight just because it’s the first football game and I love football, so, um, but
You know, I don’t think the preseason games are really all that important.
But let me but look, but let me tell you this Caleb Williams not playing tonight
Which is we understand that but my point is really
When it when you had six preseason games the regulars would play two.
Let’s say two of them or maybe two and a couple quarters. Yeah
So, so what I’m saying now when the regular season starts Art Sorce,
It’s really not the regular season because the starters really haven’t played in the
preseason.
And you have to take into account that as well, but one of the things that’s interesting
to me is, you know, the NFL is pushing for this 18 game season.
Here’s the problem.
You pay full price for preseason tickets.
I mean, you know, and just so you know, Steelers season tickets, you know, were
$300 a couple of years ago.
Now, the same tickets my brother-in-law gets are going to be $550, and you do not get a
break.
Houston’s coming to Pittsburgh next week, and that’s going to be the same price as
if you’re paying for a regular season game.
That’s awfully tough on people.
The NFL might be making a mistake here.
They’ve got 90 guys in camp.
To let 90 guys get a chance to prove themselves, as long as you limit it, like one of
these pre-season games, making a charity game,
like in Pennsylvania, have the Eagles and the Steelers
play at Beaver Stadium in State College,
or the Jets and the Giants play at a local,
maybe a local university or something like that,
or the Chargers and the Raiders,
or the Rams and the 49ers play.
Remember the Rams and the 49ers years ago
played at Dodger Stadium, the Times charity game.
That was huge.
They raised a lot of money for that.
But there’s two there’s two schools of thought on this, you know, number one is greed. The NFL wants all the money they can get.
Okay, which we understand that but you have to expand the rosters if you’re gonna play a
17-18 game season because eventually you wear down you’re gonna need to have at least two
byes in there. I think that’ll make a big difference as well.
But in terms of that, I think you need to expand the rosters from 53 to maybe 58
They’ve done a good job with what used to be the taxi squad, which is now the practice squad.
They’ve spent enough time on enough of those to know what those are all about.
But you need those bodies in practice to be able to go up and play against the first
team and the second team.
So at least the guys are part of the organization.
But that’s a very tough dilemma.
And I will watch tonight’s game just because it is the start of football season like
Laura and I’m a football nut.
And, you know, I also am really excited about the kickoff rules.
These new kickoff rules fascinate me.
What are they going to do?
All these franchises are going to be working out linebackers learning how to kick because
they want that guy because he’s the only guy that can run down the field.
See, in my day, I loved running down on kickoffs because I played linebacker
in high school. I’m a little nuts.
I would have been perfect just for the kickoffs.
Laura, you have any thoughts about how long this rule will be in effect?
The new kickoff rule?
Oh, I’m like, I don’t know what they’re going to do.
I mean, they’re all freaking out.
I don’t think it’ll make it through the season.
I mean, they’re all freaking out.
The kickers that they have are not, are not amenable to what the rule is.
Well, you know, there’s a certain point in time where they’re trying to figure
all this stuff out.
But at a certain point in time, you know what? They’re gonna probably say kick the ball in the stands and put the ball to 30
I’m tired of worrying about it. My theory was the kickoff being the most exciting play back the kicker up to like the 25
And, and here’s my theory put the guys at the 50
Let the kicker kick it, but you can totally guy catches that you can’t start running from the 50
Do you understand what I mean? That way at least it would look like a kickoff
Now if you want to have an onside kick, you can’t do it until the last couple minutes.
I mean that was one of the great things, you remember Peyton in the Super Bowl?
They pulled that on the Colts, you know to start the second half, the long halftime show.
Everybody’s excited. They controlled the ball at the end of the first half next thing, you know, the Colts have gone
Probably 45 minutes without running an offensive play.
Laura, since they’re talking kicking I got a question for you if you’re a Kansas City Chiefs female fan
I can’t. I’m a Raiders fan. I cannot even pretend to be a Kansas City fan. Okay. I’ve watched this guy kick and let me tell you something, it sounds like a
Howitzer coming off his foot and let me tell you something they have two interesting kickers, they have Harrison Butker and him
You know what a combination they got in Kansas City that ought to keep everybody happy, but yeah
I you know supposedly he was completely exonerated.
The kid’s a talented, talented punter. I don’t know what really happened there, but he did pay his penance for a couple of years.
I expect him to be the first kicker in NFL history to average gross
Punting over 50 yards in the season. That’s how strong his leg is.
All right. Question about the quarterbacks. Six quarterbacks, I think, in the first eight
or nine picks in the draft. Art, at the end of the season, who will have played the best
of those six quarterbacks? A guy named Patrick Mahomes. On a serious note, of the rookies.
Oh, of the rookies. Oh, okay. Well, it’s going to be, it’s going to be Caleb Williams
because they’ve surrounded him with some veteran receivers.
I like their entire offense. I think he’s going to have a great year.
I think a couple of the other quarterbacks, one to keep an eye on, though, is Bo Nix in Denver.
From what I’m hearing, Sean Payton feels really good about him, but I just think
the Bears are set because the rest of their block club looks pretty good, and I think
Caleb Williams is a really good talent.
I think the kid for Washington, Daniels,
is gonna be a good quarterback.
I think Drake May’s a couple years away.
I don’t think you’re gonna see much of Penix down in Atlanta.
So I’m gonna have to go with Caleb Williams on that one.
Laura Snoke, of the sixth quarterbacks
strapped near the top.
Who do you think might have the best 2024 season?
I, you know, once again,
I’m gonna have to agree with Art.
I’m really looking forward to watching
the Bears this season.
I think they’ve got a really good team, you know, I think that Caleb Williams is going
to be, do a really good job.
I think he’s got all the skills and that I, you know, I think he’s going to do really
well.
I, I don’t know about Denver because I just don’t, I don’t know, but I can’t, you
know, root against them.
Hey, one thing that’s really apparent right now, you guys, the Raiders have a great
defense.
Their scrimmages I guess they have no quarterback around going, you know what
well what are they thinking about I mean it’s great to have a great defense, but
in that division you got the Chargers with Justin Herbert and you got you know
a pretty much pretty good football coach and Jimmy Harbaugh you got Denver
and Payton and you got Kansas City the first team to try to win three
World titles in a row, and the Raiders are going to go to battle with Garner
Minshew and Aiden O’Connell. Come on, fellas. Come on. Mr. Davis.
All right. Let’s take a quick break right here.
Fred and the Fantastics.
Al Davis. Back with the folks on Fred and the Fantasticks.
Laura Snoke, Art Source.
I am Fred. You could email us at sportsfred@aol.com.
sportsfred@aol.com.
So far, Laura Snoke,
What’s the most exciting part of the Olympic Games to you?
I’m just watching Simone Biles, I think.
She’s just so great and-
Her and Katie Ledecky.
Yeah, I mean, it’s so good to see,
well, especially from where she came back from in Tokyo
and all the grief that people, you know,
were accusing her of all sorts of things
and how she came back.
And I loved watching, I loved seeing her husband in the stands
with his big Biles t-shirt.
And I guess he got some dispensation
from the Bears to be there.
Yeah.
And that’s been the most fun for me.
And I like what you said earlier on our other show
about Peacock’s coverage being more internationally related.
And there’s a lot less nationalism in it.
I think it might be BBC or the Australian Network
that’s doing it for Peacock.
It provides a whole different look at it.
And like you said, you can actually segment the
different sports be able to pick what you want to watch and watch it as opposed to you know like
you said watch five minutes and then there’s 10 minutes of commercials. I’m really enjoying
watching and watching it on Peacock. The NBC coverage is I think it’s just been horrible.
So Fred remember we were talking about Discovery and Fox and ESPN their new network, well
basically that was that came out today and the network’s going to be called Venue, I believe
yeah and it’s $42.99 but I haven’t been able to find any details on what they’re going to provide
so i guess they’re going to be coming out this fall probably in conjunction with the NFL season
so they have 45 days to, to pick out how they’re going to what are they going to play what are
they going to do because there’s a lot of cable cord, cable cord cutters out there.
Then at $42.99, based on their, their programming, they might be able to, you
know, they’re looking to try to get 5 billion subscribers.
Well, I don’t know how that’s going to work, but we’ll see.
All right.
I’ve got Sandy and I have about four of the, uh, the, the streaming services.
Uh, how many can you have in our other show?
Laura was talking about, uh, uh, the show on Netflix.
We don’t have Netflix to show the Receivers.
I’m sure it’s a great show.
Laura, how many different streaming services do you have?
I was just thinking, um, uh, more than four, uh, Netflix, Apple, Peacock, Paramount, uh,
ESPN+, Hulu. Hulu, Netflix and Peacock for me.
We, we have Paramount and Peacock and, uh, Max and, uh, I think
I would have loved to have Paramount if we still had my favorite series with Kevin Costner,
but that’s not happening.
Folks, you’re listening to Fred and the Fantastics and discussing television and sports.
Laura, what do you think at the end of the story as far as the NBA trying to stream
on Amazon?
However, TNT matched that number that they were going to pay, not this year, but starting
next year.
Do you think that the courts will rule in favor of TNT?
Or do you think the courts will rule in favor of Amazon and the NBA?
What do you think?
Yeah.
Also I have Amazon too.
So that must be nine.
Wow.
I would never presume to, without reading the documents, I would never presume to make anything definitive.
But if what TNT is saying is accurate, that they have an under contract ability to match,
and they were willing to match the offer, then they should be in pretty good shape in litigation.
But anything can happen in litigation.
I haven’t read any of the contracts. You know, there’s always a lot of issues. So
my question is why didn’t they just add a couple hundred grand on that and, you know,
make it worth the NBA’s while? I, I don’t understand. I mean, that’s the part I don’t
care. Isn’t it? Cause TNT has been broadcasting 35 years. Yeah. That’s a good point. Charles
Barkley. That’s going to be a bummer, huh? That’s a great point. They had added,
if they had just said one more dollar.
Yeah, there you go, we won the bid.
We won the bid.
I don’t understand.
All right, Art, in 30 seconds on Fred and the Fantastics,
close it out from your perspective.
Hey, Otani, going for the amazing triple crown
in the National League.
Dodgers find a bunch of pitchers at the trading deadline.
Will it work?
Will they have 18 pitchers on the mound
before the season’s over?
We never know.
Um, Cleveland Guardians are the surprise of Major League Baseball.
I think people got to take note.
It’s old fashioned baseball.
They moved the hitters along.
They went a lot of three to one, three to two games.
I think it’s fantastic to see a bunch of nobodies have
the best record in baseball.
Laura, you have any comments about, uh, Mr.
Vance? The Vice Presidential candidate, Laura, any
Oh, Mr. Vance, any opinion or? I’m not a fan.
But I do love cats and I don’t have kids.
You want my opinion, Mr. Vance?
I’m a cat man.
This is going to I’m going to say what I said last week.
Mark Kelly is going to be the Democratic Vice Presidential choice
and Kamala is going to beat Trump.
that just just an opinion at this point in time because it seems that everything Trump does right
now. Can I do the show from Portugal if that happens? Well, if it’s on Wednesday of this week.
I’m gonna pull a Whoopi, a reverse Whoopi. All right, for Mario, for Laura, for Art,
I’m Fred. Join us all the time for Fred and the Fantastics on BLEAV and on PodClips.
Bye everybody. Fantastic.