Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
It's the most magical time of the year, and I'm not talking about Christmas. I'm talking about the NFL season. So make sure you're ready with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. Get the most live NFL games all in one place. Right now, you can save $85 when you bundle NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV. Sign up today at youtubetv.com slash Spotify. Device and content restrictions apply. Discount apply to first four months of YouTube TV, then $72.99 a month. Ends August 29th. Terms, restrictions, and embargoes apply. No refunds.
Ryan Reynolds here from Int Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down.
So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium Wireless. I bet you get 30, 30, I bet you get 30, I bet you get 20, 20, 20, I bet you get 20, 20, I bet you get 15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month. Sold! Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes each detail. Here we go. This...
is the Skip Bayless Show, episode 81, in honor of my friend Terrell Owens. You better get your popcorn ready for this one. This is the Un-Undisputed, everything I cannot share with you during the new Undisputed. Today, I will take you deep inside the psyche of, maybe even inside the heart and soul of one Deion Sanders, who is a one of one.
I will also today answer many of your questions. The first one about Shadur Sanders versus Caleb Williams and also about how many games I am able to watch at one time on an NFL Sunday and also about why I don't play fantasy football and also about why I have already been convinced by my Dallas Cowboys that this year, this year,
They will not be America's tees. They will be America's team, as in Super Bowl team. Thank you very much. And finally, I will tell you today why I recently saw two movies I enjoyed more than I did either Barbie or Oppenheimer. Forgive me. But first up, as always, it is not to be skipped. There's no way I could skip this. It's the biggest story in sports.
This is becoming, on its way to being, the most amazing story in sports history. And I don't believe I'm overstating that or overreacting at this point. I'm here to tell you that my Saturday life now revolves around Colorado games? It does. Around Colorado football games. Colorado? My wife Ernestine says,
Whoa, what time's the Colorado game this Saturday? Well, it's at 3:30 Eastern. Oh, okay, well we gotta mark that off. For me, it's all about Oklahoma. Grew up in Oklahoma City, is a huge Sooner fan. It's somewhat about Vanderbilt. I went to Vanderbilt and I do watch most of their games unless they clash with Oklahoma or huge SEC, Alabama, Georgia, whatever games. But now, start to finish,
My world revolves around Colorado football. Colorado football? They used to be in my conference when I was a kid growing up watching Oklahoma football. They were in what was called the Big Eight, glorious year, 1971. Would you believe that the top three finishers in the AP poll nationally were number one, Nebraska, number two, Oklahoma, number three, Colorado. And I was in my glory at Vanderbilt.
as I walked up and down the dorm halls, my fist in the air. Big 8, baby! Colorado in 1972. Tore my guts out to have to watch at Vanderbilt my Sooners lose in Boulder to Colorado
as 17-point favorites, 20 to 14. That's about all I ever thought about Colorado. I know they had their one breakthrough. They got their national championship. But last year, the last thing on my mind was Colorado football because they went 1 and 11. I'm looking at some of their scores from last year. They lost to an in-state rival Air Force 41 to 10. They lost at Minnesota.
49 to 7. Then I'm looking at the Pac-10, I'm sorry, Pac-12 scores. Do you realize they averaged against Pac-12 opponents, allowing almost 50 points a game?
45-17, they lost to UCLA. 42-8, Oregon State. 49-10, Oregon. 55-17, USC. 54-7 at Washington. 63-21 to Utah. I could go on and on and on, but I won't because now Colorado football is the center of the... It's not the center. It's the epicenter of the sports universe.
And my brother Lil Wayne saw this coming way before I did or maybe anybody else did. I've told you, Wayne's got sports genius about him. Even before the season started, he told me, "I gotta go see Unk at Colorado." He calls Deion Unk. "I gotta go see him." I said, "You're gonna go all the way to Boulder?" "Yep, I gotta go see him. It's gonna be special." "Really?" "But what did he run off, 86 players?" "Yep, it's gonna be special."
So Wayne, private planes to Boulder, spends the day with Unk in and around all the new Colorado football facilities, gets a feel for it, gets a feel for what the team will be, is telling me, I better open my eyes. It's coming. As Dion says, we coming. They're here. So Wayne goes out of his way to do a concert in Boulder just so he can be
in and around the epicenter of energy, and Unk, as in Dion, attends said concert just before the season started, and according to Wayne, Dion sat in the front row and did not move for two hours. Did not have to arrive fashionably late or leave fashionably early. Nope, he sat right there, wall to wall, ear to ear, song to song, two hours.
Unk loves him some Wayne. So as you know, Wayne agreed, because Dion asked him to, to fly back to Boulder last weekend to do an appearance and perform on Fox's Big Noon Saturday show. He stayed for the game. I wasn't sure that he would, but he stayed because Unk asked him to stay. And Wayne was in the pregame locker room. Wayne was in the postgame locker room.
Wayne stayed overnight on Saturday night just so we could have breakfast with Deion on Sunday morning. And as you probably saw by now, Wayne led the team charge out of the tunnel onto the field going sky's the limit. Wayne believes heart and soul in what Deion is doing, not just at Colorado, but in sports, in life.
Wayne texted me about how he and Deion laughed until they cried about the way Shadur, his son, the star quarterback, had protected Deion at the end of the Colorado State game, which ended at 2.30 a.m. Eastern time. But as you might recall from last week, the Colorado State coach, who happens also to be a Blackhead coach,
took a shocking shot at Deion, a personal shot, a cultural shot at Deion's hat and sunglasses, a shot at Deion's mama. Deion took it very personally, his team took it very personally, and especially his son, Shadur, took it so personally that as Deion approached Jay Norville to shake hands after the game at midfield, center of the field,
Shadur was at Dion's side, bodyguarding him. It looked to me, it felt to me like Shadur was ready to throw down on Jay Norvell. He even flexed his watch, did Shadur at Jay Norvell as he walked away. The watch signifying it's time. It's our time. So allow me to call up this text on my phone to read to you what Wayne said to me
about that breakfast with Dion. He said, "Me and Unc crying laughing together this morning about Shadoor. I effin' loved it, Skip. I wish I'd had an effin' dad, so do I, but I continue with Wayne, but I know my boys will Shadoor anybody." He's talking about his sons. "Will Shadoor anybody for me though, so that's what made my heart smile about it."
just to see the true, innocent, and genuine disregard for who he was, meaning Shadur, and where they were was brilliant ignorance, said little Wayne of Shadur. He was just being a son, not a star quarterback, not a potential Heisman winner, not a potential first pick in the draft. He was just protecting his pops. I got tears reading this. And then Wayne went on.
Wayne is a brilliant, a genius texter, trust me, because he's a, whoops, I lost my pen here. He's a genius lyricist, as we all know. So he goes on to text Skip. Unk is doing something that even he can't control, and that's being a blessing to each and every one that he encounters. And God doesn't like ugly, and God loves prime.
So it's pretty good for now, but it'll be beautiful forever, said little Wayne of Deion Sanders. I got to tell you, when I read that, it shook me. What Wayne is saying is that Deion does believe that God has something to do with what he's doing right now, if not a whole lot to do with it. Wayne believes that Deion believes he's on a spiritual mission.
and journey. You've seen Dion. He often wears that big gold cross around his neck, and you're going to have to trust me on this one. I'm a God guy. My radar is intense when it comes to phony God people, charlatans, false prophets, those living lies in God's name.
I haven't been around Dion a lot, but I've talked to so many people who do know him very, very well, including my new teammate, Michael Irvin. I believe Dion is flat out legit when it comes to his spirituality. I believe that Dion's belief in a higher power isn't just for the cameras. You remember the book that Dion wrote in 1997?
It's called Power, Money, and Sex, How Success Almost Ruined My Life. And in it, Dion divulges that he attempted suicide. He's going through a divorce in his first marriage. He says, I was pretty much running on fumes. I was empty, no peace, no joy, losing hope. Got in his Mercedes and drove it over a cliff. Estimates it was a 30 to 40 foot drop. Somehow he lived.
I don't know, you could chug it up to just sheer luck, or you can say God tapped him on the shoulder and said, "No, you're not finished, not yet." In the book, Dion says, "I finally just got on my knees and gave it all to the Lord. Sports is sports, it's a game. My faith is everything," said Dion in 1997. I believe that's operating right here, right now. I believe that Dion's higher calling
is touching the lives of the kids that he coaches. And remember, just a handful play pro football. A whole bunch of them pretty soon will be out in the real world facing real life problems. Probably harking back to what Deion told them about this and about that. And he said this and he said that. It's teaching them how to live, how to survive, how to thrive out in the real world. Higher calling. Deion is trying to show America
that a black man can coach in college football. I just looked this up just before I sat down to do this. You realize of 133 FBS schools, only 14 have black head coaches as we speak. 14 of 133. That is astonishingly wrong. Teams are what, 70 odd percent black players? 14 of 133.
just to hit some of the highlights, if not lowlights. My man James Franklin, who used to coach at the school I attended, Vanderbilt, and did an extraordinary job there. At Vanderbilt, he went 11-13 in the SEC. Try that on for size, ladies and gentlemen. James Franklin at Vanderbilt, the doormat of the SEC,
Almost one half his SEC games. It was impossibly great. 11-13 he went. He was 81-36 overall. I'm sorry, that's at Penn State. He went on, obviously, to Penn State where he is 81-36 overall. They won the Rose Bowl last year. He's been very good as a blackhead coach. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame, pretty good first year, 9-4 Gator Bowl.
Before him was another head coach that I covered, Ty Willingham. Lasted three seasons at Notre Dame, went 21-15. Not bad, not great. I thought David Shaw was great in his tenure post-Harbaugh at Stanford. Three Pac-12 titles, 96-54. Four-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year. Won two of the three Rose Bowls his Stanford team played in. He's on hiatus right now, just taking a break. But he was a stud.
Charlie Strong tried for a while, had success at Louisville, and got his big break and shot at Texas. Three seasons, 16 and 21, didn't really work. He's now on Nick Saban's staff at Alabama as just a defensive assistant and analyst, advisor. There is a Ryan Walters at Purdue, Dino Babers at Syracuse, Michael Oxley at Maryland, Troy Elliott at Virginia. There are those, but they are...
few and far between. I had the privilege, the honor, spending a week once upon a time back in the 1970s with the greatest black coach ever at a black school, albeit HBCU school, Grambling, Coach Eddie Robinson, Coach Rob as they called him. He once had me speak to his Grambling team when I was the ripe old age of 24 years of age. I'm just glad nobody filmed that because I'm not sure what I said.
I was pretty shell-shocked when Coach Rob just turned to me and said, the reporter from the LA Times is going to address us about how he has come so far so quickly in his business of sports writing. And I'm not sure what I said, but I tried. And I was honored. There's only one Eddie Robinson. There hasn't been anything really like him since until now. And here comes Deion Sanders. I think the greatest athlete ever. I think...
Deion has coaching genius about him because he is a natural born, naturally gifted motivator, especially of college kids. But he does know his football. And yet he did assemble what I believe is the best coaching staff in all of college football. Some black coaches, some white coaches. That team is well coached. That team is extremely prepared. But that team is detonated
pregame by, as Michael Irvin describes it, what feels like a club, like you've walked into a club. There's a DJ. Whatever the jams are of the moment, they're being played. As Richard Sherman and Keyshawn Johnson said on Undisputed, they played for coaches who said, turn that stuff off before kickoff.
No. They're prepared. They're ready. Now they need to get emotionally ready because above all the other games, football is played with emotion, and nobody can coach emotion better than Deion Sanders. And by the way, quick aside, I answered a question on this podcast a couple of weeks back, which I was asked about Deion possibly eventually becoming the Dallas Cowboy head coach.
And I scoffed at it because I know Jerry all too well. That's Jerry's show. He is the face of that franchise. And to me, Dion's star power would be way too bright for Jerry. Jerry doesn't wear sunglasses. Jerry wants the light in his eyes beaming off him, all the light, the spotlight. And a couple of weeks back, I just couldn't fathom
how Jerry could swallow enough of his ego to make just enough room for Dion's ego and persona and star power and charisma and stature and magnitude. Reggie Jackson once said, the magnitude of me, that's Dion. You want to talk about magnitude? So I said on this podcast two weeks back, no way. And now I amend that. And I don't often amend, but the more I watch Dion operate at Colorado, I say, way.
Jerry spoke about it a couple days ago, called Deion a hell of a coach, and then repeated, he's a hell of a coach, and made the point that because he knows Deion so well, because Deion played for five years for the Dallas Cowboys, that you got the sense that Jerry is in so awe of Deion's magnitude that he might step back, just one step back for Deion.
I think Deion could actually handle Jerry Jones. I think he could talk sense to Jerry Jones. And I think Jerry would listen because ultimately, Jerry undoes every coach that he has, most of them just puppet coaches. But ultimately, Jerry meddles, Jerry interferes, Jerry gets in the way, and the coach and the team trip over Jerry's feet.
Players all know, especially the best ones, that if they got a problem, they can go to Daddy Jerry and bypass the coach. The coach is emasculated. The coach loses all power in the locker room. I don't think that would happen to Deion Sanders. So now I'm forced into the precarious position, the extremely unwanted position, the mixed emotional position this year of rooting against Mike McCarthy. I'm not a McCarthy guy.
So far, so good calling plays. We'll see. I think that's probably his strength as a coach because as a motivator, he's a big fat zero. Hard knocks a couple of years back. I was horrified by watching Mike McCarthy attempt to deliver motivational speeches to my football team. They didn't listen. He did not connect one ear and out the other.
And how many times has my team, especially in playoff games, shown up not ready to play? Deion's teams are ready to play. So would I love to see Deion in Dallas? It's almost like he was born to be coach of America's team. I don't want to root against Mike McCarthy. I've already picked them to get to the Super Bowl this year, to actually get to and win their first NFC Championship game in 27 years.
But you want to talk about a story, and Jerry loves box office even more than he loves winning, so maybe he could combine the two. Box office plus winning equals neon Dion, equals prime time, equals Dion Sanders, the one and the only. Maybe Jerry could take a back seat to Dion Sanders. So think about the story that's
Unfolding right before our very eyes, Deion takes a team that's a 21-point underdog to TCU, and he shatters TV ratings on Fox while shattering TCU, shell-shocking TCU, upsetting TCU, if not their stomachs. And then here comes Nebraska, and Matt Rule decides to take his entire team out to the Buffalo logo,
and encamped there for a while before the game. And Shadur does not like it and challenges them to get their you-know-whats off the logo. Buttons pushed, emotions spilled all over Nebraska, TV ratings fall, records fall. And then this last Saturday night, yeah, Colorado State was a 23-point underdog, but this after Jay Norvell takes a shot at Deion,
which hyped a game that didn't need hyping at all. So a game that kicks off at 10.20 Eastern time, ends at 2.30 a.m. Eastern time, shatters ratings records because it came down to Shadur having to go 98 yards with 2.06 left, down eight, down eight. And did he ever go Tom Brady? By the way, Tom Brady is his personal coach. I can't make this stuff up.
Shadur is starting to resemble a collegiate Tom Brady. Obviously, he went in the sixth round. Shadur is starting to make the case, I'll get to that in just a moment, that he could be the first pick in the draft. This is only in Hollywood stuff. Meanwhile, Dion's other son, his older son, who's two years older than Shadur, Shiloh, is becoming...
The best player on defense, making big play after big play. A big pick six the other day that kept them afloat. A big strip fumble recovery that kept them afloat late in the game. And obviously, when Colorado was down early 14-7, Shadur threw a ball up the Colorado sideline to Travis Hunter, a potential first overall pick in the draft because he's as great a receiver as he is a cornerback.
Goes up for the ball, gets fouled, gets pass interference, obviously. And then a four-year starter at safety for Colorado State for the Rams. Ram Travis Hunter, who was not looking for the cheap shot, not ready for it. It was a dirty play. He got him good, but it was a shoulder hit, not a helmet, not a crown of the helmet, so there was no ejection for targeting, as I reported on Undisputed.
Travis Hunter's liver was lacerated on the play. He tried to continue to play. Something was not right, obviously. He finally had to ask out. They took him to the hospital where he stayed overnight. He's going to be fine, but he's going to be lost for at Oregon and USC and probably at Arizona State. He'll be fine, not life-threatening, not career-threatening. It's just going to have to heal on its own.
But then came the death threats, predictably starting Saturday night. Then came the addresses of Henry Blackburn and his mother published on the internet, cell phones published on the internet. Hell hath no fury, like Dion fans scorned. I know how that feels. I've been there. I've been through the cell phone business. I've been through all the death threats. It's not fun.
It gets pretty creepy scary because you always try to convince yourself, eh, these people don't really mean it. It's keyboard courage. Yeah, they got my cell. So they fill up my cell. And some of it feels pretty threatening. Wife not happy. Her mom less happy. Nah, but if they say they're going to do it, they're not going to do it. And then you think, yeah, but what if...
While there's 99.99999% who won't, what if there's that tiny .1 that would? What if there's one psycho? So it starts to get into your psyche. So here came Dion two days later, and he sent a signal to his millions of believers, "Stand down, back off. Leave Henry Blackburn be." Dion went biblical because he is.
spoke from his real, live, authentic heart, and he said, "We forgive Henry. Travis forgives Henry. We are praying for Henry through his time of trial." Deion said, "This is a good young man and a good football player who's just trying to graduate with honors and make it in the NFL."
A good young man who made a mistake. Did he ever. We all agree, did he ever. It's a painful mistake because it took Travis Hunter out of at Oregon and USC against Caleb. But in this case, Deion's playbook was the New Testament. We forgive. Let's move on. Lil Wayne gives Unk's team a great shot at Oregon as a 21-point underdog. Operative word, dog.
because Wayne texted me, "This team is full of dogs from top to bottom." Wayne texted that this team has faced more adversity early than any other team has already. This team said, Wayne, by a text, "Is battle tested." I'll buy that. Wayne says, "Don't sleep on Mikey Harrison #87." All of a sudden, late in Saturday night's game,
Shadur began to develop a wavelength with number 87. Wayne says maybe he found something of a Kelsey that Mahomes has. Not saying that Mikey Harrison is Kelsey because nobody is. But Mikey Harrison's a great story. Another part of this Hollywood story because he is one of those holdovers who was there last year and the year before.
one of those holdovers who was challenged by Deion to, well, show me. Deion's telling them all, you're going to have to pack your bags and get out of here because I'm bringing in better players whether you like it or not. And I got no problem with it because it's big time college football. Mikey Harrison said, I'm staying. I'm not going to transfer. No portal for me. What do you want me to do, coach? I'll show you. He toughed it out. He gutted it out. He's got talent, this kid.
White kid, Mikey Harrison. Who knew? And all of a sudden, he's become a very important piece to this puzzle at Oregon because they don't have Travis Hunter. Mikey Travis, no, he's not Mike. He's not Travis Hunter. He's Mikey Harrison. He's pretty good. 6'3", maybe even 6'4". Got a little wiggle to him. Got a little rapport, a connection with Shadur to uncover in the end zone as he did in the two overtimes.
I believe Unk's team has more than just a shot. I would love to take that 21 points. That's a lot of points. I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I would take that 21 and run. Maybe I'm swept up. Maybe I'm thinking with my heart over my head, but I think Colorado's going to win at Oregon. I think the Shadur-Caleb showdown of the following week in Boulder will be the story of the year in college or pro football.
It's not that I'm saying Deion has God on his side. He just has God in his heart. That's why I always say on Undisputed, there's one man I don't bet against in sports or in life. That man, Deion Sanders.
We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't a search at all. Don't search, match with Indeed. If you need to hire, you need Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates for
Thank you.
According to a recent Indeed survey, join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash Bayless. Just go to Indeed.com slash Bayless right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash Bayless. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed.
First question is from Wesley from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Would you want to draft Shadur or Caleb Williams if you had the number one pick? Wesley, that is the question of the moment. I know it's still very early. I watched two Shadur games at Jackson State. They lost the conference championship game I watched at the end of the year, but he played great. So did Travis Hunter. They just got outscored.
I need to see a little bit more of Shadur at Oregon versus Caleb, but I am leaning Shadur over Caleb as we speak. Shadur is the reason I give Colorado a real good shot at Oregon. He is going to score points on Oregon. Shadur is more Brady-esque because he's being taught, tutored, mentored by that man, Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr.,
He's a little bit more, Shadur is, of a pure passer than Caleb is. He's a couple of inches taller than Caleb is. I think he's a little more accurate than Caleb is. He doesn't have quite the cannon that Caleb has, but it's enough of an arm because it's a Brady-esque arm, and Brady had plenty of velocity. Plenty.
What I love the most about Shadur is because he doesn't have his father's wheels, I mean, Dion ran 4-2 at the Combine, Shadur moves to throw, and he moves very well to throw because his eyes stay locked downfield on his targets, and he moves plenty well enough to buy just enough time for the Mikey Harrisons of the world to uncover. He keeps going through his progressions
as he moves to throw, not to take off and run. To me, Caleb Williams, whom I watched a whole lot at Oklahoma because USC stole him from my Oklahoma Sooners, stinking Lincoln Riley stole him,
Caleb's the ultimate backyard quarterback. Ultimate. He is an escape artist of the highest order. He does get beat up and knocked around because of it, 'cause he's gonna hold the ball too long and he's gonna take shots, but he's gonna shrug 'em off almost like Ben Roethlisberger used to. And he's going to tear away from those pass rushers and he's gonna make a play. He's gonna make a throw that'll take your breath away because he's got a howitzer, rocket launcher of an arm.
I'm just not sure Caleb would have been quite as capable of that 98-yard drive, albeit against Colorado State. You just can't make one mistake, not one, or you're done. Shadur has a little better poise, a little better command, a little better feel for the position. And he does have, as he's demonstrated several times already this young season, Brady's clutch gene.
Caleb just wheels the ball where it's supposed to go. Shadur has better anticipation. I think slightly higher football IQ to see it and feel it before it happens, to sense that Mikey Harrison is going to wheel, pivot, uncover, get open just enough that I can just fit it through the window to him. Again, they're 20.5 points.
Dogs at Oregon? No, no. Give me Shadur, even if he has to throw to Mikey Harrison. This is Henry from Iowa. Dion, Stefan, Trevon, rank the cowboy corners. Go on, Henry. Just go on. It's a clever question, all three of those names ending in on. But obviously, Henry, in the end, it's just a silly question.
because there's only one on of an answer. Deon, Deon, Deon. Greatest cornerback ever by far. Biggest gap between the best player at an NFL position and the second best player is Deon over fill in the blank. You can have Darrell Rivas. You can have my guy Richard Sherman. You can have my new guy, Stephon Gilmore, a former defensive player of the year.
But Deion is by far the greatest cornerback ever. But because Stephon was that DPOY, I would obviously rank him second right now in just body of work. He's just more decorated, obviously, than Trevon is. Trevon did lead the league in interceptions. He's got a lot of Everson walls in him. I covered Everson, was buddies with Everson, love Everson.
Trevon has got more talent, more speed, more athletic ability than Everson did, but Everson was a ball hawk of the highest order. In Trevon, you have a receiver playing cornerback. He can flat out go get the ball. He'll gamble. He'll clue. He'll jump routes. When he guesses right, as he did on the final interception against the Jets the other day, he guesses real right. So obviously I'm going Deion, Stephon,
Trevon, but the gap between Deion and Stefan is like a galaxy. School is back and Dick's Sporting Goods has what you need to win your year. We've got everything from cleats to Sambas, dunks and more. Plus the hottest looks from Nike, Jordan and Adidas. Find your first day fits in store or online at Dick's.com. This is Michael from Columbus, Ohio. How many games do you watch at one time on NFL Sundays?
That is a good and a tough question for me to answer. Week one, I did have a technical problem getting two games at once on my two giant screens in my sort of office that I watch the games in. Got two big screens side by side. But now we've got this year, as you well know, maybe painfully so, YouTube TV. My subscription caused some bugs to be in my system because I realized that
on week one, if I can explain this, because I'm not even sure I can explain it to myself, but I needed a second Roku installed so that I could put a YouTube game on this screen and a second YouTube on the other screen, because with just one Roku, the same game would come up on both screens, whether I liked it or not. So it cost me $1,500 to get a second Roku installed. Even that had some bugs in it for a while.
for a Thursday, the first Thursday night game I had sound but no picture. Had to get the game on my computer, which I did, no problem. Technician had to come back. I'm sure that's going to cost me some more money. But the point is, I now have Roku 1, Roku 2, so I got 1, 2, and then the game on my computer. I have three screens going at one time.
There's also on YouTube TV, you probably know this or noticed, there's a new four box that you can hit that allows you to see in miniature form four games at once, but the sound comes from only one. Okay, so here's the truth and the answer to this question. In the end, if I'm really watching a game and absorbing it, if it's the game of the moment, Cowboys at Giants, Jets at Cowboys,
Whatever the game may be, even that Baltimore-Cincinnati game was a big game for us on Undisputed. I picked Baltimore to win it all this year. I got Lamar winning MVP this year. So I'm watching it very closely, Lamar versus Joe Burrow. But the problem is I can really only absorb, compute,
drink in and actually quantify in my brain one game at a time because football is an extremely and beautifully complex game. I don't know how people go to the sports bar and sit back and just say, oh, look there, look over there. How can you really comprehend the flow of the football game without actually locking in on one football game?
I mean, short attention span does not work. Attention deficit does not work when you're trying to get to the bottom of what's really happening in an NFL game. My new man Keyshawn, he goes to sports bars to watch games. Love him for that, 'cause he loves to go out and be Keyshawn. My man Michael Irvin went with him to Keyshawn's, I'm not sure where they went, they sent me a picture of the two of them out among them at the sports bar.
And that's all well and good. Keyshawn says, hey, come to the sports bar. Do you know what would happen to me if I went with those guys to the sports bar? Not that they're not huge. Michael's in the Hall of Fame, and Keyshawn is just flat-out Keyshawn. He has magnitude to him. First overall pick in the draft, USC Trojan superstar. Just give me the damn ball.
These are big guys, and yet you put them in a sports bar, people are going crazy around them. You put me in a sports bar, people go different crazy. They would be all over me every second. Did you see that? What'd you think of that? Hey, can you believe this? How about them down boys? There's no way I could concentrate on the games the way I must.
I live for this stuff. By Monday morning, I am locked and loaded. I am so ready to unleash on Undisputed with everything I saw and why it happened, the how of it, the depth of it, the essence of it. I always tell Keyshawn, you better come prepared. That's our motto. No mercy, as Wayne's first intro song said for us. And now it's good morning, and I say good morning and good night to Keyshawn because...
It's over. It's hard to debate me on pro football. Keyshawn played it at the highest level. Michael did. Richard Sherman has high football IQ. So do I. But I have to lock in so hard on the game that I get every nuance that when they bring up something, I say, no, it was actually this way. And I pride myself on that.
consistently, routinely saying, no, it's really this. But I have to watch the game very carefully, and in the end, that game has to be one game at a time, even though maybe I keep half an eye on another one. Okay, indulge me, just a quick aside, quick thought for you on why I recently found two movies that were far less hyped
better than Barbie or Oppenheimer, which were the two blockbusters of the summer, of course. And that's in part because, for me, Barbie and Oppenheimer were so overhyped that by the time I finally saw them, they just couldn't live up. It took a while. Ernstine's still a little bit paranoid about COVID. You know, packed theater still surges out here occasionally. So am I.
So we waited until the theaters had died down a little bit in our neighborhood to go see first Oppenheimer, then Barbie. We were very late to both parties. So we get bombarded with the hype. It's this, it's that. All of our friends are saying, oh, wow. Oh, you can't believe. Oh, this was, this was, it's the great, it's, you got to understand about me, if I may say so myself.
I do have a strong intellectual side to me. I don't brag about it. It just is. My all-time favorite books, novels, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, William Faulkner's Light in August, John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, even though I had some issues with it because of my home state of Oklahoma, but I digress. I'll leave that alone for now. Even if I go a little more contemporary, Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities, absolute genius.
But my problem with Oppenheimer is, because of that intellectual side, I knew the story start to finish. I know the rise, I know the fall. I am steeped in World War II history, fascinated by it, study it, lessons to be learned. So as brilliant as Christopher Nolan is as a director, he couldn't show or tell me anything that I didn't already know.
In stretches, Oppenheimer for me got a little slow, maybe a touch tedious. I once glanced over at my wife Ernestine and she was dozing. Brings me to Barbie. It just couldn't live up to the hype I had experienced. And in the end, or maybe the beginning, I guess it was just a little too silly for me, a little too over-the-top cartoonish.
I greatly admired Greta Gerwig's clever audacity, just her creation, but I heard so much and I expected too much. Heard so, so much, expected way too much. I did not exactly float out of the theater in ecstasy. It was just pretty good. I'll give it that. It was pretty good, which brings me to now. Forgive me, but
Equalizer 3 is even better than 1 or 2. I am the biggest Denzel fan. I love him in that role. He is captivating. Talk about grabbing screen. Just takes these movies over. That opening scene grabbed me by the throat. I wasn't ready for that, and all of a sudden, the tone was set, which led to that restaurant scene. Lord have mercy.
Denzel in his 60s can still absolutely take Equalizer over. I was, I'd be the first to admit, I was more entertained by Equalizer 3 than I was by Barbie or Oppenheimer. Forgive me. Ditto for A Haunting in Venice. For the record, Ernestine and I are huge Agatha Christie fans. Talk about genius.
the genius of the whodunit, the goat of the whodunit. The goat story is, and then there were none. You either know it or you don't. I read it when I was 14 for the first time in a day and a night. I couldn't stop. You want to talk about Paige Turner, just pure genius. We love her character, Hercule Poirot. David Suchet owned that character. We've seen every one of Suchet's performances as Poirot.
Now Kenneth Branagh has taken over this role compellingly. I'm not saying he's a Christopher Nolan of a director, but Kenneth Branagh is very good. He's as good a director as he is an actor becoming Hercule Poirot. "Haunting in Venice" grabs you by the throat from the start. It's scary, it's complex, it's captivating, it's edge of seat. Ernestine and I were thoroughly entertained.
We could not stop talking about a haunting in Venice this past Friday evening after we saw it. I'm still upset with myself that I didn't see it coming. I picked the wrong villain. I did not know the right who did do it. But for us, in the end, looking back, Barbie and Oppenheimer came and went. This is Julius from Tampa who says, "'Cowboys versus dolphins?'
In the Super Bowl, what say you? I say no. No to the Dolphins, yes to the Cowboys. Real quick on the Cowboys, and I appreciate your Floridian in you, Julius, and the Dolphins rise, Tua's rise, but real quick on the Cowboys, they're legit. I don't care if the first victim was Daniel Jones or Daniel Radcliffe playing for the Giants. I don't care if the second victim was Zach Wilson or Zach Galifianakis. I don't care.
We destroyed both of those quarterbacks and both of those teams. I said all offseason we're going to have the best defense in pro football, and we do by far. I said all offseason that Micah will take it up a level, and has he ever, 11 from heaven, my oh Micah. We've been doing this so far without Brandon Cooks for the Jets game, without Tyler Smith for either game. He might be our best offensive lineman as a young man.
Donovan Wilson, our best safety, our best blitzer. We're doing it without all of the above. Maybe we're slightly deficient at tight end, but Jake Ferguson is good enough. Our offense is actually our defense. It just is. We play offense with our defense. We're going to flip the script. We're going to show you that in this day and age, you can win it all with your defense with just a pretty good offense because we're
We lead the world in takeaways. Two straight years we've led the league in takeaways and we're off to the races again with seven and two games leading the league. CeeDee Lamb is a flat out beast of a receiver. A top five receiver who caught 11 balls for 134 yards. I know they weren't all on Sauce Gardner, but some were. I think he made a believer of the Jets secondary and the Jets defense. And speaking of our offensive line,
When it's right, when it is healthy, and right now it isn't thanks to the young man being hurt, but when Tyler Smith is back, if I can just keep Tyron Smith, Zach Martin upright for most of the season, since Hall of Famers that they are, with Biotis at center, very underrated,
Terrence Steele at right tackle. They just gave him a bunch of money because he can play. I don't know that we don't have the best offensive line. It brings me all the way around the circle to my quarterback. Dink and dack. I just need dink and dack. That's all. Just dink and dack it. Don't throw it to the other team. Don't get strip sacked. Just play within your fourth round self, and we're going to the Super Bowl. I got Baltimore winning it all. I got Lamar as MVP, as I mentioned.
I don't have the Dolphins. I don't believe in Tua. I'm not sure he can stay healthy. I'm going to knock on some wood here for him. I think Mike McDaniel has worked Harry Potter wizardry of miracles with Tua so far, and I don't think it'll last. So I still have Baltimore versus Dallas, and being the objective Cowboy fan that I am, I still have Baltimore over Dallas in the Super Bowl.
This is from Dean from North Carolina. If you played fantasy football, would you draft only Cowboys? It's a good question. I guess I would. I don't play fantasy football just because of this kind of question because I pick games, not players.
I bet my pride, I don't know what we're going to bet this year, used to be Diet Mountain Dew, Breakfast of Champions, Nectar of the Gods. I pick games and put my pride on the line, my reputation on the line on national TV. So I want to root for teams, not for players on the other team. I mean, if I wound up with Jalen Hurts in my fantasy draft, I don't want to root for Jalen Hurts
when Philadelphia's playing Dallas. I just can't imagine. I don't want my emotions mixed by having to root for players on other teams just so I can win my fantasy league. Obviously, I root for the Cowboys. I root for the Ravens because I picked them. I understand fantasy football. I appreciate it. I respect it. I honor it. But
I don't play it because I don't need it. So, yes, if you force me to play, I guess every chance I'd get, I would pick a Dallas Cowboys so that I could root for the team to win and the players to put up big numbers. God bless you playing fantasy football. Which brings me to the final question. This is Brian from Texas who says, nervous about the Eagles yet? The who? Oh, you mean...
You mean that other team in the NFC East? Oh, you mean that team from Philadelphia? The one that we get to play twice a year? That we're going to beat twice this year? Get even with them? The one that has that torchable defense that we scored 40 on the second time we played them last year? The one on Christmas Eve? Brian from Texas. Obviously a Philadelphia native. The better question is...
Are the Eagles nervous about us yet? And the answer to that question is, you better be. That is it for episode 81. Thank you for listening and or watching. Thanks to Jonathan Berger and his All Pro team for making this show go. Thanks to Tyler Korn for producing. Please remember, Undisputed every weekday, 9.30 to noon Eastern, The Skip Bayless Show, every week.