DL516: Groundhog Day, Letters of Intent, Stephen A, NFL Labor, Groundhog Day

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It’s Groundhog Day. I refuse to recognize Staten Island Chuck as a deciding-factor of springtime. Seriously, look at this guy:

Anyway, we talk about that, plus a ton on National Signing Day, Stephen A. Smith going back to ESPN Radio (it really IS Groundhog Day) and some NFL Labor issues.

There is another show coming today. Thanks for listening.

DL515: Football & Football; David Akers, Family, Robots & January Transfer Window

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The show is in two parts. First, Nick and I discuss Ashley Fox’s front-page Philadelphia Inquirer story on David Akers, his family, the struggles his daughter has been going through in her battle with cancer and what impact that may have had on two missed kicks in the playoffs. We discuss the story itself and how Fox framed the situation, Akers’ past financial woes and Andy Reid’s post game comments to curry sympathy for the kicker. It’s a terrible situation for his family, but was the story too sympathetic? Is that possible?

Second half of the show is with Jon Tannenwald of Philly.com talking soccer, and specifically the January Transfer Window. Is Fernando Torres the equivalent to Nomar? Why would a team like Blackpool even entertain trading away their captain for a few million euros? And how about the way the media covered the day, with stakeouts and Twitter fights and rumors of helicopters throughout the day.

Thanks for listening, as always.

DL514: All Star Weekend, Pro Bowl, Bubba Watson, Djokovic, College Hoops, More

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Here’s the email I sent Nick this morning:

• Pro Bowl blowout • NHL All-Star weekend/skills competition/player All-Star Draft • Golf – Watson/Mickelson • Djokovic – Murray • Kevin Durant calling Bosh soft • Insane college basketball games (UConn 2OT loss, Duke smoked by St. Johns) • Soccer transfer window is insane

That’s the show. I was really excited for a great weekend in sports, despite having no meaningful football. Nick was less than thrilled. Where’d you fall and did I convince Nick that the weekend was better than the thought?

DL513: Josh Zerkle on Pro Bowl Reform, BEN, Super Bowl Plans & Is Ines Sainz Still A Story?

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Josh Zerkle of With Leather, KSK and the House of Punte Podcast joins the show to preview Super Bowl week. Not the Super Bowl, but the week leading up to the Super Bowl which can be, in a way, as entertaining as the game.

First we talk about the Pro Bowl and give a huge rundown of suggestions for how to make the game better. We cover everything from helmet cams to a skills competition to Zerkle suggesting the game be played between free agent veterans and rookie wage scalers with the winning team getting a bigger piece of the contract pie.

That, and robots. Exploding robots.

We talk a lot about Ben Roethlisberger and if fans really care that he was an accused rapist a few months ago. Is it a big storyline heading into the Super Bowl? Of course it is, because there isn’t much else to talk about this week. But will it be an awkward moment after the game between Ben and Terry Bradshaw, and does Roger Goodell really wantREAD MORE

DL512: Plowed In. Jimmer. Hoops Family. Eating In-Show Crow. Federer. Steelers Knockoffs. Snow.

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I bitch about getting plowed in. Nick and I talk about the San Diego State-BYU game and he makes me eat a ton of in-show crow for watching part of one game and deciding there’s no way SDSU is the fourth-best team in the country. Totally not fair and I deserve the crow I’m fed. (Note: I still don’t believe it, but he’s right to call me out.)

We talk about Gary Parrish’s heart-wrenching story of Thomas Robinson of Kansas, and his sister Jayla, who lost everyone in their family last week. What should the NCAA do, if anything, to help?

Roger Federer lost while we were taping, so we touch on that, and what it means for the Aussie and for tennis in general this year that Nadal and Federer aren’t even in the final.

We talk about the next in a long line of stories where the little guy company tries to make the NFL look like a tyrannical, heartless machine. In this case, the company in Pittsburgh that keeps makingREAD MORE

DL511: Turn Into The Skid (Oh, Plus, SOTU, Bleacher Report Reboot & Andy Gray)

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Nick and I talk about the State of the Union, Bleacher Report hiring King Kaufman to unsully their name (note: not a word, don’t care) and a brief rant on Andy Gray and Richard Keys being dumb enough to say how they feel in front of microphones.

On a day like today, this is certainly a ‘steer into the skid’ kind of show.

We talk more about the nature of the State of the Union than anything Obama actually said. How different is the instant connection to the people than in year’s past? Heck, we’re pretty sure Biden was even reading tweets (or, as someone said on Twitter, playing Angry Birds) during the speech.

The State of the Union, ultimately, means nothing. It’s an annual pep rally, but with the change in how our politics are covered, is the President on TV so much (read: every single day) that the State of the Union has totally lost it’s luster?

Great speech, expertly read, but what does it mean?

Well, for starters it means that whoever had to followREAD MORE

Podcast: The Lost Episode (From Last Week)

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This isn’t some giant nugget of amazing podcast history that totally screwed up our numbering back in the teens or anything, but Nick and I did have a show that was never published.

Last Tuesday, the LOST EPISODE was taped!! I can tell you’re as excited as when they released those old Honeymooners shows.

Anyway, we taped this show last Tuesday then had to rush Max to the hospital and spent the better part (read: all) of two days there. By the time I got back home and had a chance to put the show up, the window for our rant had closed and it would have been piling on after the fact.

HOW-EVA, now’s as good a time as any to run the show, right? Nick likes the rant, and wanted it up, so here it is, and outdated conversation about Rex Ryan, the NY media, papers sending writers to the Super Bowl when their city’s team isn’t in the game, whether Roger Goodell wants a Ben Roethlisberger photo-op as his season-endingREAD MORE

DL510: Cutler, Twitter, BEN, Rodgers, Jets, Football, Super Bowl

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Where is show 509, you ask? Well, it’s a lost episode, for now.

That said, we’re back with show 510 talking about the media talking about Jay Cutler and spending a good amount of time on the fact that people were quick to rip him for “quitting” without finding out the real story. A product of the immediacy of Twitter, or more a story about the other shoe dropping on a guy most in the NFL really, really don’t like?

And can we please stop with the Philip Rivers comparisons? Rivers was terrible in the AFC title game he played with a torn ACL. It’s also hilarious that Maurice Jones-Drew had the guts to rip Cutler, saying, “All I’m saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee… I played the whole season on one…”

Really, MJD? The WHOLE season? In what amounted to a playoff game in week 15, Jones-Drew had six second-half touches (three run, three pass) for 16 yards. The lesson: being hurt and playing poorly isREAD MORE

Podcast Blast From The Past: Governor Ed Rendell on Politics and Football

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This interview was originally posted on January 15, 2009, but the full conversation actually never appeared on our main site at it was part of the series of shows I did for Philadelphia Weekly.

With Ed Rendell being all over the news the last few weeks, why not take a look back (or take a listen back) to our conversation from early 2009, when I got the chance to sit across from the sitting Governor. Here’s the original write up:

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Ed Rendell, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, joins the show to talk about his two careers – one in public office and one talking sports. Seriously, is there a more perfect guest for this show than Governor Rendell. We love sports. We love politics. And in this case, we get the chance to talk a lot about both.

The interview was done in his Philadelphia office, so we start there: Philadelphia. The city of champions. We discuss the genius that is the miniature William Penn statue atop the Comcast Building. Gov.READ MORE

DL508: A Show About Nothing, Or Everything, But Probably Nothing

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How is your week going? If you read today’s Call of the Day you can get a sense that my day yesterday was awful, though not as bad as it was for my son. We talk about that, and life, and parenting and being selfish at a time when you need to be selfless.

That spins perfectly into a conversation about sports and life and politics and perspective and Arizona and speeches and a whole lot more.

I got this email today:

This is Floyd from El Paso. I’m your biggest non media fan. I’m the retired Soldier guy originally from New Orleans (as a Saints fan I feel your Eagle pain). Having said all of that. There is two things I would love for you and Nick to chew on.

1. Please expound on “blood libel” comment by half term Gov

2. Recoil and turn the channel when you see or hear from Matt Millen. He was on NFL live and he was commenting on one of his million first round WR picks MikeREAD MORE