Beat the Clock: Sports Talk with Anthony Felli
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Beat the Clock: Sports Talk with Anthony Felli
Give Bronny a Break, Way too Early NFL Power Rankings & WNBA Rise
Next, we explore the compelling story of Bronny James, diving into the challenges he faces after his cardiac arrest cut his Collegiate career short. Despite being medically cleared to play, Bronny’s journey back to peak performance is just beginning. I touch on his summer league performance, searching for leadership qualities and ability to effect the intangibles of the game, comparing him to other athletes who grew up under the shadow of legendary parents. With a likely path to the G League, Bronny’s story is one of resilience and dedication that deserves our appreciation.
And for all the NFL enthusiasts, get ready for my way-too-early Power Rankings and divisional picks sure to spark debate. From the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs to surprising picks like the Houston Texans, I give you my "Way too Early Power Rankings" to start talking about the upcoming season. Plus, we celebrate the WNBA’s groundbreaking $2.2 billion media deal, a milestone that promises a bright future for women’s basketball. Tune in for an episode packed with sports stories, predictions, and the ever-evolving landscape of sports broadcasting.
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Welcome to Beat the Clock. Sports Talk. And the Blue Jays have repeated as World Series champions. Joe, you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life. Six yards away from Pontiac Third and three Montana Throwing in the end zone, clark caught it, dwight Clark. Beat the clock sports talk. Martez looking Gets it to Bryant. Bryant dribbling has to put it up with the buzzer Banks it in Ha ha. He banks in the three and the Lakers win the game. And now your host, anthony the Ant-Man Feli.
Speaker 1:What is up? Everybody? I am the Ant-Man. You are listening to Beat the Clock Sports Talk. Wherever you are, however, you are listening. Thank you for spending your day with me. Here we go. We are back on the mic.
Speaker 1:It's a polarizing time out there. It's a polarizing world. There's so much going on. There's so many things going on that can divide us, but sports is a great unifier, isn't it? So we're going to do this. We're going to talk some sports. I'm happy to be back on the mic doing this with you. A little bit rusty, you can't tell, but we're going to get through it. We're going to get through it. It's going to be a great show. I'm looking forward to covering a lot of these topics.
Speaker 1:A quick catch up what's been going on? What's happening here in my world, besides work, because I do not podcast full-time, it's more of a hobby. It's a joy. It's an opportunity for me to connect to everybody out there who has the time to listen. But I have a normal job, just a regular Joe.
Speaker 1:So, aside from that, malia, my daughter just turned 16. She's been on a golf journey. It's been pretty amazing. It's two years a little over two years now in experience, some major improvements, learning what hard work is supposed to be like, starting to understand that, no matter how talented she is, hard work always trumps talent. And so, just like any other teenager or any other young, so, uh, and so, just like any other teenager or any, um any other young athlete, period, you set these milestones and you have to figure out, uh, just how, just how much, are you willing to push through the trials and tribulation you know to, to, to get up and hit one more ball or shoot one more shot. And so she's, she's been learning that. A couple of milestones for her this year Um, third place, individual district, uh, championships, um, okay, so let me break that down for you, cause I think that I think I muddled those words.
Speaker 1:Um, they've got mumble rap and I just mumble sports broadcast it. So let me break that out a little bit, all right? So, basically, her high school team, two-time district champ, back-to-back district champions. They have Ella Donovan, who is my daughter's 16-year-old teammate. She is back-to-back individual district champ. She's just a sophomore, going to be a junior as well, and so this is a young team, bright future. But my daughter actually took the individual third place award and it's significant. It's a milestone for her because last year she wasn't even close, like they didn't even have a spot on the scoreboard for her. You know if you catch my drift, but through the hard work and the dedication that she was willing to put into it, she found herself in a third place individual finish and the team ends up going to regionals. They had a great regional showing For the first time in the STPGA Junior Tour. My daughter found herself in a third place finish earlier this year.
Speaker 1:There's been some ups and downs throughout this summer, but that's part of it. It's the growing pains of it all, but I'm just so proud of her. Uh, but you know, that's part of it. It's, it's the growing pains of it all, but, um, I just uh so proud of her, uh, want to congratulate her on air uh for the hard work and the dedication to this and uh and to her highest individual finishes so far. Um, and then, uh, yeah, man, just thinking about her just turning 16 years old and realizing, you know time flies. Here's a little antidote. You know, when I was a lot younger, and I'm sure a lot of parents feel this way we are indestructible, we don't have a care in the world and time is not something that we measure right, we just go right. There's no real concept of time, and when I became a father, I quickly realized that this little girl, who now I was responsible for and completely in love with, was a living measurement of time. And here we are, 16 years later and, uh, I can't say that I feel old, but it's. I think I would feel differently if I didn't have that measurement, um, you know, reminding me of of even how my own personal growth has come and the things that I've been able to accomplish. And so you know, I'm forever grateful for that gift, because it really is a gift and I think all parents, especially fathers, understand that to some degree. And you know, definitely proud to be a girl dad myself, so anyway, so that's what's kind of been going on.
Speaker 1:Before we get into the topics, just want to remind everybody you can find this podcast anywhere, on any platform that you choose to listen to podcasts. I am all over Spotify, itunes, amazon Music, so on and so forth. We are working on trying to get to YouTube. I think I have some production things I need to work out. I have a new studio I'm putting together and once I can get all that together. I think YouTube is the next step in this. I think consistency is probably the next step and then, once I get to that consistent place, sit down, put out this content more frequently, like we intended, like I intended, like how I began to do it early on in this process, and we're trying to get back to that Um, so I will leave all the links to all the social medias in the uh in the description down below the episode.
Speaker 1:Bear with me just a little rusty and uh, and I look forward to hearing from all of y'all. There's there's chat with me. Leave your comments, give your takes, drop how you feel or what you like about the show. Tell me what you don't like. I'll take it all. There is a place for you to do that. Check out the website wwwbeattheclockesportstalkcom. You can also find that link in the description below. Okay, without further ado, here we go.
Speaker 1:The NBA draft probably filled with as much drama for one team in particular and was so predictable for everybody else. There wasn't a lot of things happening in the NBA draft this year. Some would say it's probably one of the weakest drafts that we've seen. And the one team just happens to be my team, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the one team just happens to be my team, the Los Angeles Lakers. We all know that they got an absolute gift at 17. But I just want to take some time to talk about their 55th pick.
Speaker 1:The 55th pick in the NBA draft, lebron James Jr, aka Bronny James. I think I've been listening to a lot of the hate out there following his pick. A lot of people saying he didn't deserve it. A lot of people saying that he got it because of his father. A lot of people saying that he's not NBA ready and and and you know what. A lot of that may be true, but let's face it he's the 55th pick in the draft and he's and he's not ready. But here's my thought on this. I think I share a lot of people's sentiment and excitement over we finally have a father-son teammate in the NBA. We have a father-son duo in the NBA. Pick how you want to say it, pick how you want to say it Before Bronny and LeBron.
Speaker 1:Just a couple notables who could forget? King Griffey Jr and King Griffey. King Griffey Jr won the sweetest swings in baseball and in some ways put his father on the map because the swag and the youth that he brought to a very old game, but it was awesome to see them out there together and I still enjoy watching the highlights. I got a list of a couple others here. Oh, gordie Howe yes, another famous father, son or sons in this case the age of Gordie Howe, interestingly enough, at the age of 43, had an illustrious career. His sons, mark and Marty, joined the Houston Arrows of the World Hockey Association. So anybody who doesn't know that? They even made a movie about this? It was really cool.
Speaker 1:But the NHL wasn't doing so well. The NHL wasn't doing so well and another league came. It was like a startup league called the World Hockey Association and they were going to be the rivals to the NHL. What happens later on in the story is that the NHL ends up absorbing them, and this is what I thought was going to happen with the PGA and Liv golf Early on. When Liv came out and was making a lot of noise, I thought eventually they would peter out and then the PGA would be forced to absorb them and then they would have to reconcile all the suspensions and things that they put on. That has not come to pass, although they are trying to work some kind of deal out.
Speaker 1:You know, y'all may be familiar with the pga and I think it's the pif or pfi, um that it's. It's a little off topic, but but just to give you some background, the the nhl situation. It was a lot very similar that the nhl ends up absorbing the World Hockey Association. But three years after Mark and Marty were drafted by the Houston Arrows, they got Gordie Howe, who's a great hockey player Again. If you're not familiar with hockey history, he is one of the greats. He is, I think, still holds the record as the oldest NHL player to start in an All-Star game. But anyway, he comes out of retirement and remember he was 43 years old and uh, and he made it all the way through the world hockey association um experiment and ended up, uh, I think, playing one season um back with the nhl after the merger and then uh, and then he retired for good. So that was the other father-sons duo, the National Hockey League.
Speaker 1:And then people are even starting to talk now about what will we see in the PGA a Tiger Woods and Charlie Woods, not necessarily team situation, but will Charlie Woods make it into a PGA tournament while Tiger is playing? And it would have to be a major at this point right, because Tiger has said that he's only gearing up to play majors right now, and so Charlie's really close to qualifying for a US Open and within the next couple of years we might see a Tiger Woods and Charlie Woods US Open, maybe not pairing, but definitely both Woods in the field. So, uh, just, uh, just just kind of want to throw that out there. Now we get LeBron James and Bronny James and, uh, I got a couple of thoughts on this. All right, I am very excited for the for this to come to pass. I think it needs to happen early in the season. Um, you put Bronny on the floor, maybe in some garbage time minutes, and you get that out of the way very early. The first time father and son play are on the same court dressed in uniform, as teammates together. Okay, bronny has not had the summer league. That even I thought.
Speaker 1:But can we cut this kid some slack? I mean, he was he. He basically lost his college career. Okay, he, he, before it even got off the ground, uh, he suffered a devastating cardiac arrest. Um, so he, he missed most of his college career. Uh, he did manage to come back, he, he averaged four points, two assists and he only played 25 games. All right, and when I say this tragic cardiac arrest shortened his career. He was a freshman, he played 25 games and it was just a year ago. He's just, he's just a year removed, pretty much.
Speaker 1:I think it was July 23rd when the uh he had the cardiac incident and so he's not I mean, he's been cleared to play basketball. But, um, how how much basketball can you play when you're recovering from this right Like? You have to get in shape and you have to trust that your body can handle this. So the doctors medically cleared him. He looks good. Uh, I, I. For those of you not watching summer league, um, forget about the points. We measure everything by points because it's the most tangible thing that there is right, the, the stats. You know we judge based on stats, but just watch Bronny James the way that he moves as a defender, and I think this is where he's going to make his hay in the NBA. Will it be this year? I'm going to be honest with you. I got my notes right here and when I put this episode together it was about four days ago.
Speaker 1:There's been several things that derailed being able to record this. That's another reason why, uh this some? This might seem a little more clumsy than I I probably would like or you would, uh, probably be willing to tolerate under normal circumstances. Just stay with me, though. Under normal circumstances, just stay with me, though. I have written in the notes here that I expected him to play maybe 20 games and then three games into Summer League.
Speaker 1:I'm realizing that, yeah, that's a bit of a stretch. I'm not willing to say that he's a horrible player. He's a bust already. Let's keep this in perspective. He's the number 55 pick in the NBA draft. Some will argue hey, anthony, there are so many more people more worthy of an NBA pick that didn't get picked. They went undrafted. Okay, that may be true. Is he a product of his dad? Yes, he is, absolutely he is. That's not his fault. The kid's doing work. He's out there in the summer league. He didn't ask to skip the summer league. He's willing to go to the G League, which, more and more, it looks like that's where he's going to end up. Look, shaquille O'Neal's son I think it's Shaquille suffered a cardiac arrest, nearly lost his life, got drafted by the Lakers and never made it out of the G League.
Speaker 1:It happens, it happens. The expectation cannot be that they're born from greatness so they are going to walk in the footsteps of their great fathers. It's not going to happen, or very rarely. I'm not going to say it's not going to, but oftentimes it's the opposite. Oftentimes we'll see lineage in professional sports where the father is Not great but really good and a solid professional athlete, and the son or daughter for that matter comes in and ends up exceeding the accomplishments of their parent.
Speaker 1:It's hard to do it the other way, and I think part of it is because of the expectation us as fans, the media, we put so much weight on the shoulders of these kids and we don't let them be their own player. We expect them to be a version of their parent, of their great parent. Right? Michael Jordan's kids didn't even make it to the league. You know, that's. That's just some perspective. Uh, we already had another Woods in golf. Uh, cheyenne Woods. Uh, tiger Woods' niece, I believe. And the expectation on her was just so unreasonable, especially because she only shared a last name with Tiger. They weren't his genetics, I mean, they weren't direct genetics, obviously, and so the expectation for her to come out and be the female version of Tiger Woods just wasn't reasonable. It would have been reasonable although we have been cheated by tragedy to get to see Gigi go to the WNBA and make a career for herself, but it would be unreasonable to think that she could be anything like Kobe Bean Bryant. We'll never get to see it. That in itself is the tragedy. I think she would have been a great player for that league, though, so we have to temper our expectations.
Speaker 1:He's the 55th pick in the NBA draft. He played 25 college games. He's not a man yet right. He's completely, uh, different, even in makeup, from his father. His father, coming out of high school, was an absolute tank. I mean, I believe that they lied about his weight I will swear by that, though I have no actual evidence but that they would lie about his weight and he was actually bigger and stronger than what they were putting on paper. I mean, he was an unstoppable force even at 18 years old. He was a grown man.
Speaker 1:That is not Bronny James, but I have to admire the kid for being willing to go through the development, to take these lumps, to ignore the media, to keep playing, because, again, I'm watching. Ignore the media to keep playing, because, again, I'm watching, and I'm not watching for the stats, because I'm not expecting to see stats, but what I am watching for is hustle the intangibles right. What kind of leadership qualities is he displaying? Is he a good teammate? How is he defending on ball and how is he defending off ball? Does he take plays off when he turns the ball over? Does he get back down the floor? Does he sulk? So I'm looking for things like that and so far I have been. I have been impressed with him and I think that the ceiling is still very, very high for Bronny James.
Speaker 1:I also want to point out that and I didn't know this until earlier today when I was doing some of the research for this other notable 55 picks in the NBA draft Luis Scola and Patty Mills. So there you go, two guys who are not going to light up the stats, but would go out there and play with nothing but absolute heart for whatever amount of time they'd be on the floor, give you everything they had and be productive members of whatever team they played on. Luis Gola was an absolute nuisance on defense and same with Patty Mills and Patty Mills knocked down an occasional three here and there, but defensively, both players stunning, and that's how they made names for themselves in this league. So don't count Bronny James out yet, but here's what it is doing. And again, fan expectation and media coverage Over-the-top media coverage. Remember, at the beginning of this segment I mentioned a name the absolute steel of the NBA draft. I feel ESPN. When they did their first-round grades, the Lakers were the only team with an A-plus grade, with the 17th pick that they got in a pick swap with New Orleans.
Speaker 1:Dalton Connect, out of Tennessee is still available. He's fallen. He's supposed to be a lottery pick, projected to be a lottery pick, and he's fallen to 17. Absolute steel. And listen, for some, watching the stats doesn't matter. He watched what they're doing on the floor, how they're carrying themselves for For Dalton Connect, he has been the total package for this Los Angeles Lakers summer league team, averaging 22 points, three assists and four rebounds. He's shooting 41% from behind the arc Amazing.
Speaker 1:This kid is going to get NBA minutes in the regular season. This kid is going to be in lineups with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. He's going to be playing alongside, probably, d'angelo Russell, especially at the beginning of the year, and Austin Reeves Austin Reeves so somebody who probably has a chip on their shoulder, being projected to go in the lottery and dropping to 17,. This kid has every reason to show the other teams that passed him up what they're missing, and I am here for it. I'm here for it. It's been awesome to watch. So I think he gets real minutes. I don't even think they two-way him. I think he goes right to the main roster and then he fights for a rotation spot.
Speaker 1:So, listen, let's lower the temperature. We've heard that. We've probably heard if you've watched news anywhere else and and uh, this is an election year and so you've probably heard that a lot uh in in other areas of media. But for this, uh, for, for this situation with Bronnie James, let's lower the temperature. Let's let's realign our expectations for who Bronny James is as a basketball player and as an NBA talent, and uh, and let's let the kid develop.
Speaker 1:I honestly, right now, I see this being, I see this being about a two year development. I really do and, and, and you know who knows? Uh, um, uh, I think I think you bring them on um early on in the season. You give them some garbage time minutes. You get the, the whole spectacle of, uh, the father-son teammates playing on the on the same floor in the same uniform spectacle out of the way. You do it sometime when you're at home, I think is probably a good place to do it. I think it puts a lot of butts in the seats and sells a lot of tickets and creates a lot of positive media, and then you let the kid go to the G League and start developing the talent, try to get the amateur level experience that he never got in college because of the cardiac incident.
Speaker 1:Let's cut it out, all right. Let's cut that out, all right. Moving on oh man, it's like I never left. It's like I never left. All right, we're going to try this. I think it's going to be this one. Nope, that is not it.
Speaker 1:No, beat the clock Sports Talk Power Rankings. Here we go. Way too early NFL Power Rankings. I've been wanting to do this. Like I said, this episode is supposed to be no, beat the clock Sports Talk Power Rankings by a hurricane. Then life gets in the way and here we are. But I've been waiting for this. I've been waiting for this and I hope you know all my fantasy football boys. They're out there listening to this because they're probably going to disagree with all of it. So my way too early NFL power rankings top 10.
Speaker 1:At number 10, I think I made a late move here, but at number 10, I'm going to put the Buffalo Bills and I've been going back and forth with this between 8 and 10. On my list I have them at 8. I gave it some thought. I'll be honest with you. Losing Stephon Diggs, I think is huge. Josh Allen is a wonderful talent, just not enough. I don't know that they'll have a running game. I think they've regressed from last year and so I've got the Bills at number 10.
Speaker 1:At number 9, I've got my Tampa Bay Buccaneers and yes, that is totally, totally biased and I will be the first to admit it, but I like Baker Mayfield. Year two, some of the pressure off, we get a healthy receiving core. We brought back Winfield Jr and beefed up the defense. If we could just fix the offensive line. Let's see how the offensive line has developed. Losing Jensen is huge, but we'll have to see if there's been some growth in the offseason and I think, with the running attack being better and Baker Mayfield not being on the hot seat or coming right off of the Tom Brady experience, I think that I like the opportunities. So I've got them at nine. I got them at a very strong nine, and again I will admit my bias. Here Go Bucs, all right.
Speaker 1:At number eight, taking the place of the Bills, who I previously had at number eight, is the Miami Dolphins. The Miami Dolphins, I think, have been growing and showing growth through the last few seasons. They've definitely beefed up their offensive attack. They can keep Tua upright and healthy. I like their defense, I like McDaniels and the way that he leads that team, and so I've got the Dolphins at number eight.
Speaker 1:At number seven, here we are in H-Town. I got the Houston Texans at number seven, really, really, really impressed with CJ Stroud in his first year. What'd they go do? They went and got Stephon Diggs to help him out. When it's all said and done, maybe the favorites come out of the AFC, only rivaled by Kansas City. So we'll see. I'm putting everybody on Houston Texans alert right now, before we even take a snap while OTAs are still going on. I'm putting everybody on Houston Texans alert right now. They've got it, they have it. Whatever, that it is right. They've got a strong, consistent defense that will muscle and push you around, and they've got firepower offensively. So look out for the Houston Texans, but right now in the way too early power rankings. I got them at number seven, at number six, baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 1:I said last year heading into the playoffs that if the Ravens were going to get it done, if there was any time that the Ravens could get the job done and win a Super Bowl, it had to be last year. And if it wasn't going to happen last year that they may have to consider blowing the team up and rebuild, it might be it and they proved me wrong. Did I feel that way even after the playoff loss? Yes, but then they went out and they got Derek Henry, and now you've got this three-prong rushing attack. I think Derrick Henry is going to thrive in this offense.
Speaker 1:I am waiting for Lamar Jackson to get to the next level. Well, ant-man, he's a two-time MVP. Yeah, I get it, but he can't get lost in trying to make the spectacular play. Sometimes he's just got to make a good play. And if he can mature to that and we're going to see a lot of that out of Caleb Williams too I mean, caleb Williams is going to be almost a younger mirror image of what for the Bears as what the Ravens dealt with with Lamar Jackson. And that's great in a lot of ways, because Lamar Jackson is a two-time NFL MVP but getting lost in the ether of making the spectacular play when the good play is good enough, and even if that good play is, just throw the ball away and live to play another down. So if Lamar Jackson can mature to that, if he can stay upright and healthy, I like the Ravens getting to the playoffs. Right now I have them at number six, so right in the middle of the pack.
Speaker 1:Number five Cincinnati Bengals, and I only got one word for that Joe Burrow is back. But goddamn, can we just protect Joe Burrow? I mean, there's crimes against humanity happening in Cincinnati over the last four years and Joe Burrow has been the direct victim of that, so let's get him some protection out there. I like the Bengals heading into the year. I really like Joe Burrow as a quarterback man. I'm looking forward to seeing the Bengals play football.
Speaker 1:Number four the Detroit Lions. Detroit Lions at number four Because they showed us last year that the culture is different there. It's just different and they've tasted success and that is probably one of the, if not the scariest team in the NFC the Detroit Lions. So I look for them to have another great year. I think they win their division. I really do.
Speaker 1:Number three the Eagles. And Saquon Barkley is a huge reason for that pick. They get better in their run game, they get better in their pass game because of Saquon Barkley. And anybody watching Hard Knocks right now got to be thinking the same thing. I'm thinking what the hell are you doing? Who is it? Joe Sean or Joe Shoner? What is going on? Gms lose jobs for approaching a marquee-free agent.
Speaker 1:The way that Saquon Barkley was handled and the situation was approached, the idea of him sitting with his team and questioning, like, who is going to give Saquon that kind of money? Let's let him go out, and the team trying to tell him somebody will and what if they do. And then your owner, your owner is saying if he goes to the Eagles, I'm going to lose sleep. And then they let him test free agency and he goes to the Eagles. I mean it's drama. It's drama in the Northeast, in the NFC East and man. So just so, saquon Barkley makes that team so much better offensively. And fly, eagles, fly. I mean that's. What else are you going to say?
Speaker 1:Number two and here we go, rounding out these top ten the number two team on my way-too-early NFL top ten power rankings is the San Francisco 49ers. Listen, brandon Ayuk has been in the news especially recently, but he's been in the news since last year. Things are not good between him and the organization, and reports today, uh, which is the 17th when I'm recording this is that it doesn't matter if he wants to trade. The Niners are not interested in trading him, and so we're going to see Brandon and you uh, either hold out or, uh, he's going to play, and he'll play at least until the trade deadline. Because one of two things is going to happen they're going to come to a deal and the 49ers are going to realize that they can and should pay him, or he is going to like most Diva wide receivers and I like Brandon Ayuk. So I'm not comparing him to an Antonio Brown by any means A Terrell Owens, even though a Terrell was great and had a great career Randy Moss, even though Randy Moss had a great career. But the Diva wide receiver in him is going to come out and if there's any time to really push for a move, it could be right before the trade deadline and there may be more teams willing to make that deal because of needs. So I got 49ers at number two.
Speaker 1:Despite all that, I think if things get really rocky, I think the 3-2 spot between them and the Eagles will swap, probably a couple times before the season's out. I don't see either one of them taking the number one spot. Though, because that number one spot, here we are. Drum roll please. You guessed it the Travis Swifts themselves. The Kansas City Chiefs. Listen, listen. The Chiefs are the reigning champions and the path to the Super Bowl, especially for the AFC, has got to go through them. I don't see any reason why it doesn't.
Speaker 1:This team has done everything right when it comes to how to manage a franchise, how to manage salary cap, and how to keep and look, and, and, even. Even when they took their lumps I mean they had to let the cheetah walk right, and, and, and, and, basically just kind of piece milled a wide receiver core together and let Mahomes do his thing, travis Kelsey holding it down at tight end and becoming the safety valve. And they did it. They showed the pattern, Not the pattern. What am I saying? They showed the formula for that kind of success On how do you survive having to take salary dumps, or let I mean Hall of Fame caliber players, I mean generational players, walk in free agency and still be able to keep the keep the train on the track, so to speak. Able to keep the train on the track, so to speak, and that's their fortitude Every time I doubted them.
Speaker 1:Last year, they proved me wrong, and I know there's a lot of people like me that was praying on their downfall, and just when it looked like it was going to happen, they would snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat, and I don't mean on a game-by-game basis, I mean on season success. And they win the Super Bowl. So Kansas City, to me, is not flawless, but deals with the flaws better than anybody else in the NFL. And so the Travis Swifts, the Kansas City Chiefs, however you want to refer to them, they are my number one team in this power ranking and I'm looking forward to shuffling these around as the season goes on, because, look, the MLB is fun, but 182 games is way too many. We're just at the all-star break, uh, I'm burnout on it. Um, until the playoffs, until the world series, uh, and so until that time, I'm, I, just, I am just looking forward to football starting. So let's go, uh, all right.
Speaker 1:So so that was power rankings and and I and I just kind of want to segue off of power rankings and I just want to give you divisional picks. So in the in the AFC right now, I have, winning the North, the Ravens winning the South, the Texans. Winning the East, the Bills and winning the South, the Texans. Winning the East, the Bills and winning the West, of course, the Travis Swifts, the Kansas City Chiefs. In the NFC, I have the Lions winning the North, the Bucks winning the South and a very close South, because I just don't think that division is going to be much better than it was last year. The Eagles are definitely winning the East and the 49ers will win the West because Seattle hasn't done much, arizona hasn't done much, but watch out for Arizona because I think they are on the right track.
Speaker 1:And then I also just want to give my quick picks for teams that made the playoffs last year that I don't think will make it this year In the AFC. I know I have the Dolphins at number eight in my power ranking, but right now I think they missed the playoffs. I think it's close, but I think they missed the playoffs. I think it's close, but I think they missed the playoffs. And then I definitely think the Steelers missed the playoffs and they're not even on my power rankings, and that's one of the reasons why I have them missing the playoffs. Who takes their place? I don't know, it's going to be close. If anything, it's probably going to be an AFC East team, but I can't be certain right now. I haven't made a pick, I haven't really gave much thought into who might. I mean, if Aaron Rodgers stays healthy, it very well could be the Jets, but I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. And then the NFC teams that made the playoffs last year that I don't think will make it this year.
Speaker 1:I took out the Cowboys. I think the Cowboys are in disarray. I think they are a rudderless ship right now. And uh, and so I think everybody is waiting to see the Cowboys um, regress to where we think that they should have regressed to over the last couple of years. I think it finally catches up with them and we see this uh, big drop off. They're going to be forced to make moves that I don't think they were originally willing to make. And uh, and so they missed the playoffs. And then, um, I have the Rams missing the playoffs. So, uh, so that's my NFL take for this episode. Again, the way too early NFL take. And uh, and there it is. That was beat the clock. Power rankings, all right. Moving on Speaking of preying on downfall, I want to end with this last segment because something huge has happened in the world of sports.
Speaker 1:A deal has been made, not just a deal, but a very large deal. Can anybody guess what it is? What am I referring to? I am not referring to the NBA's deal, although that deal is huge. My original plan was to talk about that deal and then another deal came and surpassed the importance of what that deal is. Because in that deal, the NBA deal, there's a lot to criticize and there's a large part of my fandom hoping that TNT finds it in themselves to challenge or to match whatever part of that deal they can match, to knock one of the streaming services out of the race, to basically take the deal and keep some of the broadcasting rights. Because, first of all, who really is ready to lose inside the NBA? I'm not. I'm not ready to lose that gem of a pregame and postgame group.
Speaker 1:The criticism I'll touch on real quick on that is where we've gone in professional sports and how the broadcasting and streaming and television rights has turned into a huge cash grab.
Speaker 1:The CBAs have allowed this a lot as well, because now so much of that percentage goes to players, so that's so. I normally wouldn't knock a business or a person from seizing opportunities to make the most when the most is available, but deals like this hurt consumers, spectators, fans like you and me, and the reason why is because, just like Charles Barkley said, not everybody can afford all the streaming services. Back in the day, when Netflix was still selling or not selling, but renting discs that you would pick online and they would mail you the disc and you'd mail them back, which is what started this whole streaming phenomenon. As they evolved, so too did the streaming world, and then it fractured into all these different streaming services and we had this huge cord-cutting event or period era. If you want to go there to subscribe to these streaming services for movie content, pre-recorded content, than it was to keep your cable. And then something happened with licensing. Excuse me Something happened with licensing.
Speaker 1:Excuse me, something happened with licensing. Deals became more lucrative and then live TV became available. So now, where I was saving money for cutting the cord and getting rid of DirecTV or AT&T, u-verse and any of the other cable programming that you could think of, and trying to find that content in one place on a streaming app Tell him rusty, but find that. You can tell I'm rusty, but find that content on one streaming app was all well and good for cheaper, until licensing created this environment where studios and corporations wanted to cash in on their own, so the licensing deals weren't enough. If we create this content our own and we become the licensee instead of the licensor, or maybe vice versa, we can make more money. And so now you you had Netflix, then you had Hulu for for the live TV, and now you have Paramount, and now you have YouTube TV, you have Fubo, you have Sling. Uh, directv has its own app. Now Disney has a streaming service, espn plus. Now you got ESPN+, hulu and Disney combined together. You have HBO and you had Max, and now you have the merger, where you have just Max, and now you have this deal between Max and Paramount. Now you're going to have Paramount and all this money being made and being made.
Speaker 1:And now Amazon is in the game. Amazon Apple TV is streaming MLB games. I will find more major league baseball games streaming than I can find on national broadcast television. Espn, tbs used to be the quarterstones of MLB baseball, especially for Braves. I was a Braves fan. Baseball, especially for Braves. I was a Braves fan, grew up being a Braves fan. Why? Because the majority of my childhood I could see a Braves game on TV almost every time they were on the field because of Turner broadcast systems. Same thing with Chicago Cubs fans, wgn. They were always on it.
Speaker 1:But now, if you don't have Apple TV, if you don't have Amazon, if you're not, if you don't have Peacock some type of way to stream a ball game you're not finding a lot of professional sports on regular nationally broadcast programming. You're just not doing it. You can't and it's frustrating for fans. Man, I said I wasn't going to get into this on this episode, but I think it's important to just say it, right To send this glancing blow, to give my thought on it. Because what? Because what I'm getting to now is an even larger deal. An even larger deal.
Speaker 1:Today it was reported that the WNBA's media rights. They've reached a media deal for $2.2 billion over the next 11 years. That's huge. The details over the next 11 years, that's huge. The details of the deal are this $2.2 billion over the next 11 years in rights fees and in new deals. That's an average of $200 million a year and there's an opening for them to make more if their value goes up between next year, when the deal goes into place, and the end of the deal. That's huge. It says right now that the WNBA's national media rights agreements are with companies such as ESPN, nbc and Amazon, as well as their own WNBA packages. The current media deal is valued at roughly $50 million. So think about that Right now. The media deal for the WN at roughly $50 million. So think about that Right now. The media deal for the WNBA is $50 million. They are set to increase in 2025 to $200 million a year. And this deal, this new deal, will also be with Disney I'm sorry, the expiring deal with Disney, ion, cbs and Amazon and other media partners.
Speaker 1:So they will remain in the ESPN Disney family, they will stay with Amazon and I believe NBC is the new partner yes nbc is the new partner and looks like cbs is out, so great news for wmba and a lot of people are a lot of people are placing this on on one individual player, caitlin clark who is amazing, by the way. This is not a slight at Kaitlyn Clark. In a lot of ways, this season for the WNBA with Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese and even Cam Brinks for a while before the ACL injury felt very reminiscent of everything you see in the 1979 season of the NBA, all the way to the 1985 season, that really prominent period of time where you had Magic and Larry and Dr J and then eventually Jordan in the 85-86 season. So this has felt very much like that and credit should go to that rookie class that came in this year. The Caleb Clarks, the Angel Reeses, the Cameron Brinks Wonderful players and deserve a lot of the credit. But this has been growing for years and people have tried to deny this growth for so long. It's amazing. It is amazing at how many people have denied that this was coming. We saw it over the last couple of years really, starting with Sabrina Inescu being drafted in the 2020 draft, 2021 draft. She didn't get the media coverage in college the way she deserved, and a lot of that was because when the Oregon Ducks were getting ready to make their title run, covid happened and the NCAA did not have a March Madness tournament. But Sabrina Inescu was setting all kinds of records at Oregon and that gets overlooked all the time. She didn't have a great rookie year. She hurt her ankle. She spent two years pretty much coming back from an ankle injury and last year dominated for the New York Liberty. We have players like AJ Wilson and Kelsey Plum, aaliyah Boston, brianna Stewart. You know we have super teams now in the WNBA. We have the New York Liberty and we have the two-time champs, las Vegas Aces.
Speaker 1:The WNBA has been on this rise for the last five years and it's because of the foundation built by Diana Taurasi, right, sue Bird? Look, this is going to be controversial, I know, for a lot of people, but I give Brittany Griner credit for being one of the OGs who started this rise in this product. Of course, there's just been so many and there's a lot of credit that we put around. Let's not get caught up in the recency bias. Let's celebrate the youth of the league and not forget to give flowers to those players I mentioned that helped create the foundation and start at this rise.
Speaker 1:The WNBA has achieved with this media deal what nobody thought that they would achieve, and they were some really, really harsh critics across the board in some of the biggest media outlets that took every chance they got to say something negative about the WNBA, and I'm so glad to see that they've overcome that and that they've been injected with this new life. They have been injected with this steroid, with this last draft class, and it can only get better from here. So congratulations to the WNBA and everybody involved. I enjoy watching it. I know the ladies from Locked In Sports. They enjoy covering it. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more of it and covering more of it myself.
Speaker 1:And let's just celebrate. Let's give praise where praise is due. Everybody within the WNBA ranks has worked for what they've just gotten, and now they've gotten it $2.2 billion. Let's talk in big money. $2.2 billion over the next 11 years, $200 million a year pretty much what it sums up to be. So, man, that's incredible. Look, it's been a great, great time getting back on this thing, getting to spend time with all of you out there. Hope you liked today's show. Hope you were willing to stay with me and tolerate some of the rust and went through the journey of knocking that rust off with me. Look, if you like what you hear, go follow the show. Hit the notification buttons. I am the Ant-Man. This is Beat the Clock so long you.
