[MUSIC] It's going to be one of those Fridays, AP, now you guys think I'm referencing the behind the scenes work stuff that people don't even know what's happening. And all I mean by that is like we got booted to a different studio. No, I got, I got booted off the highway on my way in here this morning. And then I thought it was going to be sneaky, you know, take a little service road, construction guys, get out of here. And then that had everybody doing their favorite thing in a very tight residential neighborhood that you do not know trying to just find your way to something that's going to get you into work. And hey, we got to Lakeshore, we got here, we're okay. All my complaining about the studio yesterday, radio gods took it away. They're like, you don't like this studio being hot, how about you don't like it at all? >> Yeah, the tech gods were going to get you. They're like, you guys texted me this morning, like, hey, we got to go to the main studio, even though the other one is the one we work in all the time. We haven't flipped the language around here. >> The language won't switch. As long as I am here, I am not, I am not changing the language. >> You know what the problem is, is that that studio was at least for the last two days located on the surface of the sun. And that is why it no longer ceases to work. >> At least right now. And then you guys told me like our Mr. Fix It, who again, like, you know, listen to the fan long enough, you've heard this name referenced before, Neil. >> Yes. >> We sick him on it. And then it's still not fixed. I honestly have never been more shocked. Then the first thing I see, just the last piece of business here, the first thing I see when I walk in studio this morning is Tiger Woods plus 11 grimacing. And it's like, that's not surprising to me, but I didn't need to start my day that way. So what's up, everybody? How we doing on a Friday? >> It's been an eventful start, Gunner. I got to admit, let me peel back the curtain slightly. So as you know, I'm a fairly early arrival, like I like to be very. >> I'm an early riser. You are an early arrival. >> Yeah, I mean, I like to get in here early. It doesn't matter if we're doing a show at 6 a.m. or if it's a 7 p.m. at night, I am always trying to be here as proactively as possible. So I don't know, it's 4 30 in the morning or so, maybe 4 40 and I'm walking over. >> Good for you. That's what time the alarm goes up. >> Yeah. >> Just to pull back the curtain even more. >> Sure. >> So good job. >> Excellent. I like that. That makes me feel great. I'm walking in the hallway on the other side of the building and I was first off listening to our station on the way in, as we know, we are preceded by Amy Lawrence over on the Infinity Sports Network. And she is referencing the fact that there's this, there's this outage that's occurring across the United States and it's affecting flights and different businesses and hospitals, police, all these, like, when we're talking about, obviously, emergency responders, then you know, it's kind of serious. >> And then your head goes, what about sports talk radio in the morning? >> That's precisely what I'm thinking in my back of my head, I'm like, but we're Canadian. >> Yes. >> So we're going to be fine, right? >> Right. >> Answer. >> Right. >> Wrong. I walk in and the first thing I see is Neil in the hallway and that's when I knew we were in trouble. >> Oh, Neil, never a great sign when somebody who's supposed to be working a regular nine to five job with regular hours and a normal life is here in the building at 4 40 AM kind of signals that there's a bit of a red flag there. So that's when I knew we were probably in for a pretty adventurous morning. >> The only thing I'd say to that is like we all, we've all worked jobs and regular and normal or not the words I use to describe any IT guys just going to throw that out there. Again, I love you Neil, but we know how that goes. The goalies of the world, it's okay, Sam toast her tech man back there. He's got a little bit of it in him as well. All right. There we go. >> Growsing and wine and reaction was great, by the way. >> Out of the way. >> Just kind of like nodding. >> Yeah, yes. Yeah, sure. >> Yeah. >> Don't make me tell people what you've taken vacation days off to do, Sam, man, we'll pull back the curtain all the way. Okay. All right, let's get into it here. And by that, I mean, there's still no sports discuss except for my lovely, my beloved open championship. We'll start there quick little quick little look, my boy, the man who held the open championship, the longest and by that, I mean, they just didn't have it during COVID on like all the other majors where they did it. So Shane Lowry held on to the jug when he won it for basically two and a half years. He's looking to get his paws back on it. He's seven under through four holes on the day that's got him, but they one shot lead on Daniel Brown, who that's fine. You're not supposed to know who that is. And I don't think by the end of the day, you'll need to know who that is. The guy I told you. Yeah, yeah. Hey, it's open championship. Literally anything can happen other than Tiger Woods coming back from the grave, which he appears to be in right now, Justin Thomas, three under, then, you know, you got some names, including Canadian Mackenzie Hughes, five shots off the lead, but one shot out of a solo or tied for third place with Justin Thomas, two under on the tourney yesterday, and he is even on his round so far. There were just a couple of things of note I wanted to poke at, and this is why the open championship, yeah, you were asking me power rank it like where I like it. I think it's my again, my second favorite after the Masters, but Tiger Woods, there have been a lot of moments in his life where he's looked the most something, you know, he looked the most dominant when he was winning the Masters by a cajillion strokes and he's 21 years old. You know, he looked the most embattled when he had to give a press conference in apologizing for whatever at Augustine for that blue velvet curtain, you know, he's looked the most broken at various times we've seen him, but he never looked older than he did in one fleeting moment yesterday. So I can't remember exactly what preceded it, but he had to take a drop on this like aggressive side hill. And now sometimes, okay, so then you drop the ball, it doesn't go where it needs to go. You get to place it him getting down into a crouch position on a side hill lie in cold, windy, rainy Scotland and having to bounce, bend down on his knees. He looks like he's in like a catcher's position. He has never looked older in his life to the point where he places the ball, it drops. And normally this is like a player caddy situation only. The rules official is like poking with his umbrella to try to stop it. He's like, Oh, no, this is too bad for Tiger. I just, that was the perfect crystallation of where we're at with this guy right now. And man, look, Hey, if it's 75 and sunny, I'm not going to sit here and tell you he can't like we talked about yesterday, like he can't have seven, eight, nine holes of golf where it looks like it once was, but man, cold, windy, nasty, rainy and playing poorly. He had just never looked older than he I don't know that he'll ever look older than he would that he did in that moment right there. Yeah. I think, okay, you know, the two biggest takeaways I had yesterday were a tiger be Rory and both for similar reasons in terms of the result that they posted interesting note with Tiger and something that I mean that that that one moment oddly enough, I'm with you. I can obviously point that out. It sort of was a microcosm of what has become the Tiger Woods experience. He has those fleeting moments, which is exactly what you alluded to yesterday on our show. It's funny. He starts off as round third hole, that beautiful birdie pup, right? Yeah. And you're thinking, okay. All right. All right. And then sure enough, here we go. And now it's spiraling downhill completely out of control from that point forward. Yesterday was teetering on the border of really, and I hate saying this, but that was embarrassing. That was embarrassing. And this is why I think we had this conversation yesterday as it relates to, at least from my standpoint, I don't want Tiger to be a novelty act. And right now given the fact that he's just not playing the volume of tournaments and though he's not getting the reps that are required to have even the touch around the greens that is necessary to compete, to stay relevant, it looks, he's just looks like a completely battered golfer and a highly diminished version of himself. It was very, very difficult to watch yesterday, and I really don't care to see that type version of him. I really don't. Like, I want to make sure that, and I know his legacy is intact. It's never going to be, there's never going to be something that chips away at it in a meaningful way, but it's hard not to think if this is our lasting memory, our lasting impression of him is a, let's say, 10 year span where all it is is tired limping around a golf course, trying to make it through two rounds. So I don't, never am I making a cut, right? He isn't fired around or under par at a major in more than two years. And these are the only tournaments he's playing in. So it's just, I couldn't help but watch that feel bad for the state he's in, but also thinking, you know, I hate to say it, maybe Colin Montgomery was kind of right, right? Like that did cross my mind yesterday, and everybody was given him tons of flak, but it did cross my mind, like maybe there is some validity to that idea, to the notion that you know what, Tiger, just do yourself a favor here. And I know you love it, and I know mentally you feel like you're still there, but clearly your body is just not in a position where you are able to play competitive golf to even be respectable when you step on a course of this nature and playing in this environment. Yeah, the body's cooked, man. I think, I think the point you posit there is the one that a lot of people go to. I just don't know how much whenever something's happening in the moment, it always feels like that will be how we remember it, right? And you know, we did the Jordan Tiger comp yesterday, right? We were joking about if they, if they allowed Michael Jordan to attend her team, he'd be in the play and every year still to this day, be like me and my boys. I hate them, but they're on my team. All right. This is not a LeBron situation. Watch. You think I was meeting a Steve Kerr. Watch this. Okay. He would do it. Does the wizards tarnish Jordan at all? Now it wasn't a decade long span to your point. And hey, there were, there were like, there were 45 point games in there. I don't know if he dropped a 50 piece as a member of the wizards, but like he had transcendent nights, sure, but I don't think anybody looks at, we all look at Jordan wizards for what it was a completely different show of the man, all that, right? But no one we don't, it doesn't get mentioned whenever we talk about Michael Jordan's legacy. We talk about it as a thing when somebody else is doing a joint. We refer to it as a Jordan wizards thing, right? But it is not part of his legacy at all. It's just a tack on chapter that happened. Now the difference is, is that it's just the amount of time careers can span in these different sports, right? Like we look at LeBron as a freak because he's in year 20 or whatever year it is and still productive, but with golf guys hanging around 20 years, that's kind of par for the course, you know, especially somebody like tiger bursts on the scene. It, you know, I mean, we've known about him since he's 15, 14 enemies on TV, three years old, right? That careers can just last so much longer. I still think the lasting image of him forever, forever, forever, forever, forever will be 2019 and that win at the Masters. And that's what people will remember and like anything else, when we're in the moment, yeah, it is sad and you look at it this way and it's not, I don't think anybody wants to see this. Well, one person call among government wanted to see this because he feels extra right. Yeah, I don't know that he is, but I'm sure he feels that way. But I just look at it with tiger that this is also part of the mystique of him. Like again, when I, when we look at these guys, we're not merely good in their sport, but truly all time greats, not, not just Mount Rushmore figures, but the first or second face on Mount Rushmore, there is a thing that defines them. And it's kind of the same for all these guys is the ability or sorry, not even the ability, the need, the want, the desire to continue to do it. It's why we love Sydney Crosby. It's why we love Michael Jordan. And honestly, for a guy whose career for the first three and a half, four decades of his life was defined by nothing other than greatness. This has actually become the defining trait for Tiger Woods, the ability to continue to stand up and say, no, no, no, I need it. I need the competitive reps. Now that mileage may vary for people to say, Oh, great. You show up, get punched in the mouth every major and go home after two rounds. And then you're gone for four months. What is that proving? Now, again, people's mileage can vary on that, but I think that that is the kind of tie that binds all these guys through is that they have to continue to do it. Now again, looking at all those guys, I don't think we're going to see Sydney Crosby. He is some guy who's on a who's a fine center. We're not going to see that. Probably not. Unlikely. The sport is just different. It is a, this is a, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to diminish what Tiger's doing, but the grind of walking around the golf course is a little different than the grind to play in 82 games. And then the state will come playoffs for same with the grind of an everyday season and all these sports, when you can just pick your spots for four times a year or next year, it's going to be if he's healthy, big if, by the way, once a month in these elevated events. I just look at it as something that is part of almost it's insane to say for a guy who is again, the most dominant figure again, maybe not best career. That's Jack, but the most dominant figure in the sports history for sure that to have this other part of him that is just as much a part of the legacy, the need to continue to want the punishment, to want to try to find a way, I mean, we'll talk about all the majors. He's one, but one of the other things that's always going to be part of his legacy will be the cuts made streak at the Masters and just it's remarkable rating your teeth and finding a way. And I think that that is just to him. Honestly, you ask him what's part of your legacy? Of course, immediately majors majors. They're the only ones that matter. Ryder Cup, all that stuff. That's what he would say. But given the truth serum or if he could even access this part of it, I think that is just as much a part of what he takes pride in as it is going for under something like that. I don't, you know, what's funny is, and we just, um, birdie a whole and deliver a beautiful t-shirt. See? Say more. Good things. I don't question, um, the talent, right? Like I, that's that that's there. There is ability there at a very high level. It's just because it's a combination of where his body is right now. And the fact that he just doesn't, he's not able to get the necessary reps that are, it's putting him in a position where it's impossible to be consistent or to ask him to even string together one solid round of golf, never mind like five, six holes, 18 is a challenge for him at this particular point. And a lot of it can be circled back to just the lack of reps that, that is a huge part of this. I think the big part of it as well is that it's for a guy who is always battered up and banged up. We, we hear this all the time with something like an Achilles injury. You're like, well, that's, you know, a guy's going to come back in a year, but he's not himself really for two. Tiger is constantly on the second half of a recovery from something. All the time is a back. It's a shoulder. It's whatever the gate is looking like on any given week. And I think that's the other problem is that he is, he's sitting there telling himself, I think wrongly that, okay, you know what, I've kept the, I've kept the machine on this year playing these major rounds. And then next year, I'm going to have the consistency of once a month being able to go play and having that goal to work to it. Now, do I think that's delusional? Yes, I'll be, I'll be perfectly honest in that. But I also think at one of those signature events, cause he's Tiger Woods. And if the weather is right and he needs everything to be right at this point in time in his career, he gets the right draw. He has the right partners. He gets a bounce here or there that he is still going to be able to access some of that. And I think for somebody like him who has nothing left to prove, it is about, and once he gets it one more time, he's not going to say, Oh, okay, good. I found it. No, it's about, can he continue to find it? One more time for one more round or one more weekend. And I don't, again, that's not, that's not the way he's going about it. Cause he's of the belief, I guarantee you that if he has that one round, it can be just parts. And it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. That's the thing. He is continually kind of searching for that. He, it's very similar to, I hate, I don't want to use this comparison, but it's almost like he needs to get his fix. Yeah. Right. Like he's, he's chasing that almost like that is exactly what's happening. He's chasing that high. It's all he's ever known, man. That's true. So I wanted to circle back on a point you made earlier and you referenced Crosby as an example. I think what's interesting and we compare golf to some of those other team sports. Yeah. I don't know why this guy popped into my mind and to my brain, but Corey Perry came to mine. Sure. Think of the various permutations of the different promotions, right? Of Corey Perry or Joe Pavelsky is another good one. He's top of mind as well. Cause of this week, he, I guess semi formally announced his retirement from the national hockey league. Either way, you think of how those guys went from being, you know, they enter the NHL as highly total prospects. They have the initial peak in prime of their careers where they're at their apex. They are among the best players in the sport. And then as time progresses, their role changes and evolves yet even at an advanced age, they're still able to be effective because they're only being asked to do a certain, to satisfy a certain role, right? To have to perform in a specific capacity, but in golf, that can't be the case. That's never the case. I'm not asking, nobody's going to stand there and like, is the PGA going to say tiger? You know what? We really need you man. We need you for the optics. So even if you go out there and you're shooting fives over, seven over, whatever, that's fine. You're going, but you're, you're, you're meeting the quota for us. Yeah. Right. But deep down, I think it's different because we can look at it and say he is a 48 year old man. What do we expect? However, unfortunately, in golf, unlike other sports, we're only measuring you against what the guys at the top of the leaderboard are doing. Yeah, there is no third line comparison. Right. There's a big difference there. And so seeing tiger be a 10 over as he's in his second round at the open. And I believe put some a hundred, type for like a hundred and forty ninth out of 154 golfers. There's 154 guys, two withdrawals, 154 guys who are participating and on the course today. Yeah, tiger is, he's, he's in the bottom five, like for a guy that we know. Yeah. And we remember now again, I should, now just for context sake and I'm like, I'm not saying you're unaware of this, but that is still among the top, like if we're going to look at professional golf as the NHL, then that is, that is like finishing dead last at the all star game, finishing dead last in a major because you have like, there are tons of guys that were killed to be in the field now. All right. If you expand this field to 200 players, that's entirely possibly still at the bottom, that's I think the other thing that goes to this is it's part of the conversation we always have about tiger. You said the, that is kind of what happened with the tour. They did come to him and say, we need you tiger. You need to show up at these signature events. You need to still be a part of this. And I believe that the PGA tour could be completely healthy without tiger woods, but it would have to be a clean, hard and fast break. So long as he's there, people want to see him. People want to talk about him. I still, he is still the straw that stirs the drink for so much of these conversations. And I think that that it is proof positive to all the players. They obviously, there is just a level of respect for tiger and that is part of it. Part of it is the power he wields and I'm sure there's a bit of fear of wanting, not wanting to cross him if they're to see in this voting against, giving him these exemptions. But that's the other thing is that all his peers, all the best guys are saying, no, no, no, we still want you to be able to play these events. And that is, that's the part of it that quite frankly is confounding. And I think the, I think the only reason you can look at it is twofold, one, it's the respect factor of just, hey, we still look at you that way and you're still, you know, we sit here and talk about him. He's an old, he's not a Jack Nicklaus, like, you know, he could still get in the gym and throw some weight up with these boys. And here's, here's the greatest, the greatest defense mechanism you can ever have for tiger. If John Daly is still permitted to tee up at these things, I'm sorry, that is the Trump card and all of those. And it's, and it's, hey, that is completely, completely valid. Like there's no doubt in my mind that if this conversation ever came up, and that's, again, trying not to be disrespectful to John Daly, but we can point at him because he's out here at every major shooting 15 over and yet he's still playing and has no qualms about showing up the next time. It let him ride a car. He's got an exemption Stephen Wright in the car. I think though what, you know, and this, I don't know why this, this pop into my head yesterday as well, watching the tournament. But I know tiger is a public attraction, always has been. Is tiger, when he's shooting 10 over, still a public attraction? Oh, okay. Here's the thing. Should we be seeing him every five minutes on our screen? The coverage is always tipped in favor of him in a way that I don't. When it is. All right. Let's keep tabs on him. Let's be aware of what's happening with Tiger Woods. I still have no problem with that. In terms of the draw aspect of it, I, okay, so like I've been, I've told this story a million times before I, I am a big fan of if they're, they're just guys you have to see. Okay. Obviously Tiger was one of those for me. I dragged my wife to the Bahamas as part of our honeymoon to go watch him at his tournament, which is incredible. Amazing. And this is like, this is. What year was that? This would have been 2018. Oh, that's awesome. This was Bryce him before he had really, but the thing about it is this tournament is it's not a golf tournament. It's basically a hitting giggle. It's just Tiger and 30 of his best player friends in the world. All right. They do have a tournament there, but it's just, it's not that serious, but as good a chance as you're ever going to get to see these guys super up close and personal standing there, watching Tiger, talking to Justin Thomas, well, like, oh, I got to go pick the kids up after they like it's just a little more relaxed. Yeah. I got to say, I got my fix. I saw Tiger in the flesh. I walked around. I followed him. I watched him warm up. I watched him putt. I watched him go play 18 holes. I watch him shake hands with people after him because guess what? I was there to do there. John Rahm won the tournament. Bryce and D. Shambo had just burst onto the scene. Justin Thomas was there Patrick, like it was there was not a who's there. There's literally not a player in the field that week that you would not care to watch for five or 10 minutes or think about or whatever, if you're a golf fan, but it was all about, I'm following Tiger, I'm going to follow Tiger, I'm going to watch Tiger, I'm going to be as close to Tiger as I can, I'm going to watch Tiger. And I got my fix of that. So I could say, you know, if Tiger were to not that it's happening, although feel free to prove me wrong. He wants to come up here for the RBC Canadian Open. Oh, please. Like you're welcome. You're more than welcome Tiger. Would I want to get catch a glimpse of him? Of course I would, but I've also like, I've checked that one off the box. I imagine you're a 25 year old kid who lives in Scotland and you know, you're true and is close to you. You go to the Open Championship, I still, you want to watch Rory and Shane Lowery's an awesome story. And oh my God, Justin Thomas is back in the mix of the major. You want to see all that? Yeah. But if you're right there and he's right there, that's, I know that is not there are not five guys ahead of him on the list of people you say, I go, I got to see this. It's still Tiger. It's still Tiger bleeping woods. Yeah. And I get it. This goes to the problem we haven't if they were doing open runs at NBA Summer League. Yes. And Michael Jordan walked in. Oh, Panda. People would still be curious. Do not care about Bronnie James right now going to walk over to the other court and look at MJ because it's MJ. Yeah. But the difference is, but the difference is that that's never going to happen. And it's just understood. But this sport is not that way, like it just, and that's the part of this that we're going to do this dance, I would have thought a decade ago, we'd be done it by now. And now I'm of the complete opposite mind, we're going to be doing this when he's 60 years old. Oh, for sure. Because he just can't quit. You said it. You didn't like the turn of phrase. I'll double down on it. He does need this fix. Yeah, he needs this fix. He time needs this. It's the high man. He's chasing that eternal high. And I actually, I think I sort of referenced this yesterday in alluding to we drew the comparison between Tiger and LeBron and sort of the element of closure and where it varies in both of these sports. The reason LeBron is still playing to a large extent, they're still an element of him chasing that high. Like once that dissipates, once that completely evaporates and is gone, that's when those guys know deep down, okay, it's it's time. It's in that entails something as simple as the will and desire for you to wake up in the morning. And my first thought is, I got to get to the gym compared to, you know what, today I'm really not. I just want to lay in bed. They have all the money, all the luxuries, anything they want in life and in the world. Tiger can go golf at medalist every day. But what what is he yearning for? He's yearning for that still still to this day, another moment where well, it's complete euphoria and admiration. He's standing on a green, not by himself, but with a caddy and with a gallery of people. And he's able to, whether it's him shooting 100 and it's a celebratory occasion. But some moment where there is that personal vindication, where there is that sense of real satisfaction and accomplishment and there's nothing like that feeling. And you can't replicate that when you're doing it by yourself at medalist golf club. Here's the other. That's the thing. Here's the other thing is Michael Jordan has golf. What's Tiger? What's supposed to do? Like Michael Jordan, if he didn't have the outlet, a goal, and play him poker and play in cards and and smoke it cigars. Well, I mean, like, I don't know how competitive don't become God MJ, like be competitive about everything. He's not killer in the cigar. I'm sure he is. I've seen him on the cover of cigar aficionado. Okay. It's a great picture. But I think the thing is, is he has all these other outlets. It's like Tiger Woods is not going back to Navy SEAL training. If you think professional golf is tough, that's not happening. And I'd certainly hope as a man that's balding and in his 50s now that he's not still locked into Call of Duty all the time. But it's like the problem, like we talk about Jordan, he is the other guy who is most wired. I think that way he the thing he uses is the thing we need Tiger to get away from. Like, we're not going to see Tiger go play in the big three to get his fix. No, it's not the other thing. Okay. A couple of the things I needed to hit on from from yesterday. We had one of the all time just I'm done here. Yes. Thank you. I don't know if this was appropriate to reference, but I like super, super appropriate to reference my man romaine Lagascaine, okay, or close enough to what I just said. He doesn't care. We don't care. He duffs a shot, like just a complete shank with a wedge out of the rough. It's cold. It's rainy. The camera zooms in on his face and he just gives a like, and then the hand of, you know, when you're like, no, I'm good. When someone offers you something, you're like, no, it's like, no, send it back. I don't want it. And then the official comes over to him. He just shakes the hand right away and goes, my back or something. He points at the back. And then like this backer. Yeah, I bet. He's been huffing it around in the hills of Scotland for three days already. I'm sure it doesn't feel great, but that was the most I'm done here. I'm done here. That's what you wanted Tiger to do. Yeah. I mean, that's too much. That's too much. I don't need Tiger to do that. Okay. I also. So that was a great moment. One of my favorite quotes yesterday was Mac Hughes. What? What's the Mac Hughes? No, no, no. I'm going to make sure if it was back user Nick Taylor, I'm going to double check this right now. This was another favorite moment. I have the quote in front of me too. If my computer cooperates. Okay. Well, I can give you one other while you tap dance for that quote. I forget what Hill it was, but the worst job at the at the Open Championship this week is there is a blind tee shot. So they put a guy on top of scaffolding and there's he's got no protection from the elements. He's just standing up there on top of scaffolding. Well, it's rainy. It's windy. And I guess there's no lightning. He's not going to die up there hopefully, but his job is to change the color of a flag. It's like red if you can't hit green when it's time to go. But again, I can think of no job more fun than just to basically sit in a crow's nest out in the cold wind rain of Scotland, just waving flags at guys for I'm assuming he gets a break after eight hours or something. That just looked like the least fun job I've ever seen in sports. I mean, you can look at what he has a great vantage point, not even that. Nobody's bothering him. Oh, that's good. Right? Some people like that where they're like, throw on a two. You know what? That guy is the best job. Yeah. I want to to put some air pods in. That's it. Leave me alone. They just see the light changing. They're like, Oh, Gordon's still up there. He's fine. This is good. Right. Here's the Taylor quote. It was Nick Taylor, by the way. Now he has, he's had some struggles at times in ages, like some serious bugaboos. He was four over yesterday. So it wasn't the worst round actually hit the ball quite well. This was his quote after the round. I might throw my putter in the ocean or go to work for three hours. We'll see. We'll see. I love that quote. I loved it. That's golfing in a show. That also is your answer to why Tiger can't give it up. That right there. That's the answer. All right. A lot more to get into this morning. We will dive back into the open championship. My man, Stephen Hennessy, going to join us after 830 there, but coming up summer radio fodder, somebody made a list of athletes in sports and we get to debate it. Where was this three days ago? Well, it just, it was out. It just wasn't complete. I'll tell you what I'm talking about on the other side. Fan boarding show with Gunning at Danielle Ann Sportsnet 590, the fan. Diving deep into leaps, rafters, J's and NFL, the JD Bunken podcast, subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning show, Brent Gunning, Danielle, a Franceski alongside me here. It's a Friday. I got was. As I say, I got all the complaining out of the way in the first block of the show, but you know, I wouldn't, wouldn't want to lie to the people. I'm sure I'll find something to get irked about a little later on. I don't know what it'll be. It's always interesting. What'll be the landmine that trips me up again, open championship underway right now. Second round, well underway because it's like the middle of the afternoon or getting close to it across the pond there, Shane Lowery's dropped a shot. So him and Daniel Brown share a three shot lead at six under Justin Thomas, the notable chasing them three shots back and Zander Shoffley and Mackenzie Hughes are tied for fourth. That is four shots off the pace of Lowry and Brown there. So nice for Mac Hughes, getting contention there. You know me. I would be loving, loving, loving and on the leaderboard this week. So we have our, our wonderful, wonderful, wonderful sports radio fodder. This is the time for it. I suppose we'll have another bit of a dead zone in August when it would normally be waver, deadline season, but that's now dead and gone. And again, I will, I will always miss you way, waiver tread trade deadline. That's when we had our wonderful Justin Verlander trade that we talked about. That's also when you get your like Darwin Barney's. And I guess he was like even after that though, because he was non playoff eligible for the J's. Good point. So the thing we were looking at here is the ESPN puts out their top hundred professional athletes since 2000 and 2000. It's funny how time works, I'm like, Oh, of the last 10 years, no, you're old, of the last 25. It's been a quarter century now. I loathe number one on this list. Okay. Can I just start there? I don't know where you wanted to go. No, no, I mean, I'm content to start there. Okay. I want you, if you haven't seen this, just take a guess who you think it is. And unless you're a nerd, you're not going to get it right. They have Michael Phelps as the number one athlete, professional athlete since 2001. Up the 21st century, weird, weird to think of a Olympian as a professional athlete because forever they weren't, but that's fair. Okay. I just loathe it being a swimmer. I get it. Cause golden boy and he's Mr. whatever I thought locked, he was coming. But then I guess he like, I don't know, he like peed on a bathroom in Brazil and some guys wave guns at him. He was doing a number of substances that I don't remember what happened. I just, I just remember people being like, Oh my God. Can you pour right into my poor Brazil bathroom on the floor in a country? You don't know. All right. That's a complete non sequitur. I just loathe the idea. And this is how I feel about it. It's not swimming in general. Like God, love Penny Alexiac. Okay. Like summer Macintosh. Let's go. Or Mac tower. Macintosh. Okay. Let's go. Like I'm excited. Summer games. Let's get it. Get in the water. Get some metals in the water. But, but we don't do, there's no other sport in the world other than I guess track and field, but even they're so specialized that like there's no track and field athlete that's great in the hundred and wins the marathon. Okay. But for swimming, it's like, well, they can swim backwards. They could swim forwards. They could do a side shuffle. They could do a crab walk, they could do freestyle. And look, I understand these are all different things, but the idea that we got to sit here and talk about Michael Phelps, because he like he is 300,000 times greater than every other Olympian, because they have 10,000 disciplines within their sport. Again, like just pick your favorite sport and baseball was in the Olympics. You know what would be in the Olympics baseball and that wouldn't then be the fastest pitch in the longest home run, the best batting ever, and you get a medal for all of them. It's just not the way it would work. But for this sport, it is. And I just think it is always the conversation I have the most trouble with surrounding like summer games because when a swimmer is doing well, I do not want to diminish it. This is not about no, no, it's not about the mission doing great. But it's the idea that, you know, like you say in bold had a less successful summer games than some swimmer when he goes gold, gold, gold in one, two in the relay. It's more impressive. I'm sorry. It just is to me. And that is the thing that drives me nuts. It's like it's an American list. I guess I shouldn't be overly surprised that it's that it is Phelps one, but I was floored when I saw he was one. It's a hyper American list. And I'm going to give you a reason why in just a moment, but on the Phelps thing, tease within a block. Look at you. Terrific. I'm going to give you on Phelps for a second here. I think a, in this instance, he's being lauded for being a quadrennial athlete. Okay. And I mean that from the standpoint of clearly they're valuing the fact that, you know, he's one 28 Olympic medals the most ever understand 23 of which are golds. I get it, competed in four Olympic games, unbelievable resume, right, understood. But here's where I can also make the argument that and not to denigrate him in any shape or form, but the fact that he is a quadrennial athlete should work against him. What about all the other ones, all the other athletes? And as you alluded to, they don't have multiple disciplines within their sport. And on top of that, they're doing it every year. They're doing it consistently where they're competing for the biggest and most lucrative prizes in their sport on an annual basis. Sorry, world swimming championships, apart with with apologies with the sincerest amount of apologies. Okay, but I do think that is a factor. And there are soccer players on this list. And rightfully so, but we with soccer, we can still point to all the other accomplishments within their domestic campaigns on a year to your basis that means something as well. I hate to say when it comes to these Olympians, what do we care about? It's what do you do at the Olympics? It's not about what you're doing at the World Track and Field Championships, or what are you doing? I'm in league. Like, you know, now there are hardcore people out there that are probably right now on the Gardener Slam and they're hitting the radio like you, you dumb bullets, not how it works. Stop talking about my sport. I don't think I, I don't think swimming people can get that angry. I've never seen it. That's possibly true. I feel like they tracked a water polo. Like if they have that in them, they're like two water polo instead. Maybe, maybe, maybe. But that sort of jumped to mind to me was how the timeline, like the time, the time, the timing of when these athletes compete, and in his case, you know, you're, yes, you have to perform in a, in a limited space. Like you, there's no other time. You need to peak and you need to be at your best for that one small finite window. So I can applaud him for that, but at the same time, I can also say, well, what about the other three years when there are other guys or other gals doing in various sports and disciplines that are still performing at a high level and trying to push their careers forward in other areas where in golf, there might be competing for a major or in soccer, they're trying to win a golden boot or a belong to or, or competing in different international events as well. Like there are, there are layers to it. And I feel like I, I, I'm not overly surprised it's Phelps number one on this list, but I do think it is a bit of an insult to a lot of the other sports and a lot of the other individual athletes who are participating in stuff that it's also, he's an individual athlete. Right. Yeah, that I don't have a problem. Let me run down the top five. So it's Phelps, Serena, Nessie, and then, and then we get to two of the possible right answers. I agree. Although I could hear Serena in there. I'm not going to lie. LeBron. Interesting. And Tom Brady. Okay. I think the reason I throw Serena in there and again, like people would say, well, same argument holds for Phelps, but I just, I'm sorry, like I just look at a swimmer and I'm like, I'm not going to, I, buddy, he'd have to never have lost a race and been like good at something else for me to put a swimmer is the best athlete of any period of time ever in my life. Okay. They could take me, they could take me to the pool today and be like, who's Beth laugh is here. I'd be like, I don't know. It's some guy playing pickup. It can't be a swimmer. I'm sorry. It can't. Let me have Serena. Okay. I can hear the art. I just don't want to get too bogged down. I'm sure. So I feel like I've dunked on him hard enough here. Let me do one more. It can't be a swimmer. Everybody who owned her sport for multiple generations of it, that is the thing. And I understand when we're looking at this, people could phrase it different ways. But that's why I look at Serena. I look at LeBron and I look at Brady as guys who owned not their era. They, of course, anybody who sniffs the top of this list should own their era. Then they own the era after theirs and then they hung around for like a little tail end of the next one and said, you know what, let me get some of that too. That was LeBron's bubble title. That was Brady winning with the box. That's why I have to look at it as athletes who span and with tennis again, like I, tennis careers can be so much more kind of leading that Serena probably had four or five in there quite quite frankly. So that's why I look at it is that kind of run. And again, I'm sure people would say, oh, but Phelps for Olympics can't be a swimmer. I'll just say it one more time. Can't be a swimmer. Well, I was just going to say the, here's my barometer. If we went in the hallway around the street and asked the average person walking, going to work this morning and stopped them and said, okay, top of mind, first, first blush. Yeah. Who is the greatest athlete of the century? I would be hard pressed to think even in the United States. Yes. I would be hard pressed to think that the majority answer would be Michael Phelps. Again, not trying to denigrate anything there. Serena is interesting to me because I think it's hard when I see Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic ranked below her. And I know they are a better athlete than she is. Yeah. And I hate doing that. I hate saying that, but objectively, well, I mean, if we're doing the better athlete thing, this is where then I think Tom Brady shouldn't even be on the list. Like if we're just talking about it, like, cause that, this is where I try to take it out of the athlete versus the accomplishment. Because I think, again, we're talking athlete, like the idea that Tom Brady should be one spot behind a list of athleticism of LeBron James, like, what are we talking about here? That's why I think we have to go to accomplishments with this stuff. Yeah, but then we can say the same thing about being those three guys and their individual accomplishments. Well, and that's always been a part more competitive depth of the world. This is the thing that's always been, for me, at least the hardest thing about it. When somebody nukes again, generations of athletes around them, we could say that about LeBron. We can say that about Brady. We could say that about Serena. It's very easy for me to grasp that. It is always the problem I've had with, and again, like I come to this from a place understanding that, hey, somebody can give me an opinion that's better than mine on it. But with Jokovic, we're going to sit here and he's going to get the record or he already has it or whatever the deal is. And I look at it as, yes, that is greatness. That is excellent. I don't take anything away from him. I also look at it as he had the great fortune of being a decade younger than Nadal and Federer. He went against those guys in their primes, but now they're gone and he's still here. And yes, is there another generation and his alcaras coming? That's the thing that has always made it the hardest for me about kind of judging them. When it was the Dal Federer, that's very easy to grasp your head. Okay. So two guys are roughly the same age. They're going to go head to head. They have surfaces, one's great on the others, not so where then Jokovic comes into the picture and you have to give them all the credit in the world. But when he continues stacking these up to guys who are, again, a generation before him or half a generation, however you want to look at it, that's the reason I've always had the hardest trouble kind of ranking the three of them kind of against each other. Yes. Age is a factor, but you want to take a guess. So Jokovic is 37. How old do you think Rafa Nadal is? 42. No, he's 38. Really? Roger. How old do you think Rogers? 41. He's 42. Okay. So he's five years younger than Federer. Yeah. And he's one year younger than Nadal. Those guys were doing it much before he was. Well, this is what's interesting with his career, our Jokovic, that is Jokovic's peak success has come in a much smaller time period than Nadal and Federer. What do I mean by that? They were essentially operating, for the most part, Federer different, slightly different because he was already, he was already sort of asserting himself before those two guys really arrived on the scene in a big way. But essentially, you had Jokovic who was the third man out, it was him and Andy Murray, those kind of those two guys that everybody felt, well, if everything breaks right at a bager, at a grand slam, they could be the ones to win a title. But it was universally believed that Roger or Rafa were going to be generally competing to try and swap as many majors as possible. And Jokovic, what's impressive is, for the longest time, for an extended stretch in his career, it seemed like it was never going to click to where he was going to be this potential all time great, a world number one, never mind all time great, a world number one, a guy that was going to win multiple grand slams and yet, he completely flipped it on its axis. And that was while, while Roger was still there and Rafa Nadal was still there. I'm just trying to say, just to validate the resume a little bit of him. Here's one reason why this list is completely invalid and it's irrelevant. Let me tell you one. I got a bunch. >> I got a bunch. >> This is very, well, there are plenty of reasons. But here's the chief number one reason. I know you want to point to hockey. I'm going to point to one of the most criminal, criminal omissions from this entire list. Christine Sinclair is not on this list. Christine Sinclair is the FIFA's all time leading international goal score men's or women's. There are, Marta is the highest ranked female soccer player on this list, she's 30 second on the list. Of course, incredible career with Brazil. One of the most decorated players. Never won a World Cup though. >> Yeah. >> Never won a major trophy. She won individual awards. Never won an international team trophy, okay? Christine Sinclair has the best accolades of any female soccer player in the world. She has come to not just define what Canada soccer is or the sport of soccer as it pertains to the women's game here in Canada. No, no, no. She has helped define a generation of women's soccer globally. And for her to not be on this list, when there are other women who are on this list is an absolute disgrace. That is the biggest fault in this entire thing. Because I'm here for the conversation of Wise Crosby, 22nd, Wise McDavid 98. That makes no sense. But what makes what's even more criminal than all of that is the fact that the greatest international goal score in the history of the sport of soccer is not featured on this list. >> I don't disagree. Give give since he or do, you know, my personal friend. >> She is one of the most influential of the generation. >> I have interviewed her in this very studio in which we speak and she came in here at like 630 in the morning. So as a morning show host, you know, I have I have loved my heart for since that is criminal. That is one of those that is a, again, like I'm not going to pretend to know exactly how they made this list. But that's one of those that is just like very easy. You get a hundred Americans in a room and maybe one of them remembers. >> Yeah. Precisely. >> Now I, you're right. I'm going to get mad about hockey. It's one thing to have Sidney Crosby 22nd, like I don't get particularly bothered. >> I think that's even insulting. >> No, no, it is. But it's just like, okay, let us do a list and watch where he's ranked. It won't be 22nd folks. I got some news for you, okay? It's the guy that he's two spots or sorry, three spots behind and it's not a man. It's a car. He's three spots back. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're not doing this. We're Sidney Crosby. >> No, man. >> Sidney Crosby is less accomplished than the guy with the fastest car. Look, yes, Sir Lewis, and he's a knight, we should knight Sidney Crosby in this country. That is a joke, a joke, a joke. I do think it's like kidding aside, I actually think it's wildly shocking to me. The Patrick Mahomes is 18th on this list. If you would have just, there were certain guys that I would have just expected to be complete prisoner of the moments, lock of locks, top 10s, shocked Mahomes isn't that. And I think part of it is again, like you try to put these lists together of an understanding of history, the moment trying to, let's also be honest about this, like trying to make sure there's a lot of different mouths fed, you want to make sure I guarantee you there were guys going, hello, hockey players exist, can we put a couple on the list? Guarantee you that happened, okay? So I'm not going to sit here and say it's criminal, that Mahomes is 18th on the list, but sandwiched between Shaq and Dakar of Lewis Hamilton, those are the two places. I know, I know, I'm breaking your heart. Yeah, I love, you know, I love motors. So I love F1 other other and I enjoyed it for five minutes as well. I think you say in bolt at nine, him and Tiger eight, nine on the list. So again, we'll just run down the top 10 here wrongly. They have Michael Phelps one. That's just again, super wrong. Serena to messy three LeBron four, Brady five, Federer six, Simone Biles seven, Tiger eight, you say in bolt nine and then top 10 Kobe Bryant. I think that that list in and of itself, once you take Michael Phelps out of it is a wholly fine representation of the last, the last kind of 25 years here. The other thing I think is interesting about this is we talk about Tiger and this doesn't include the first fourish years of his professional career. He is still on this list just inside the top 20. So it's just remarkable what he, what he's done through his time. Yeah. The idea of just a couple hockey players being on there. I'm not surprised. But again, let's support Sam make a list and I bet you it looks pretty, pretty different. I will say fun summer exercise. You know what kudos to them. It is a fun summer exercise and it gave us fodder and it allowed me to get a little hot and bothered about Christine Sinclair being overlooked and just be, just be better. Don't put a swimmer and number one on your list. I will say, if we're doing like top summer Olympians, I'll hear it. I could hear a swimmer and number one there, but I, but me still you say bolt, obviously. Come on, electric. This one right here. I'm getting into it. Yeah, you know what? I probably would go. No, no. That is not a right. That's not well thought out. That's not research. That's just my heart. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not going back to 2000 again. I go back to the street, like the street or test. Yes. If you ask that question, what are people going to say? I think people are doing this. Exactly. Just like the old Heisman, it's still, it's the bull. That's right. That's right. All right. Blue Jays, they will in fact, it's a threat or a promise. You decide they will play a game tonight. They start up a series with the Tigers will get into that. How much of a test will this be? How long will it reach school be in Detroit in Motown there and who's going to be left on the Blue Jays? When the deadline's over, we'll get into all that more of me continuing first hour in the books here, fan morning show on SportsNet 590, the fan. the game. (upbeat music)
