Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Mike, of course, you have the sporting news on coast to coast and we start rocking with
00:11him during the first week of the NFL season.
00:15He's fresh off a trip to Italy on vacation.
00:19And I was just telling him and I was excited to go to the Steelers home opener in a couple
00:23of weeks.
00:24I guess I can't live up to that, uh, you know, resume, you know, having that itinerary
00:29in Milan.
00:30I heard you say, I'm like, Christ, this guy went to Italy.
00:33Like you were in Italy for vacation.
00:36Like what is left after that?
00:39I will tell you, Scott, a part of the vacation was to go see a soccer game.
00:44My wife and I went to see Inter Milan.
00:47And you can, you can take all of the crazy sports, crazy American sports fans that you've
00:54ever witnessed, uh, inside a stadium of Cameron crazies, all of the, like, uh, all the crate
01:01and then multiply it by 10 and you'll still fall short of how wild it is at an Inter
01:07Milan game.
01:09They are absolutely, uh, uh, cacophonous, uh, throughout the game.
01:15And when the interesting things, their support, what some people call the ultras, their supporter
01:20section, whatever you want to call them, uh, they are located on the second level at
01:25the San Siro, uh, in, in, in the end zone.
01:29And there are eight to 10 of the, what they call in soccer capos, uh, the, the, the cheerleaders,
01:37the, the cheer, the yell leaders, whatever you want to call them, they are hanging.
01:41They are straddling the second deck railing.
01:45There is one leg dangling and then the other leg back on dry land.
01:50And if they lean a little bit too far to the right, they're falling 40 feet, but they're
01:54all in.
01:55They like it.
01:56They're not worried about the danger at all.
01:58It's all about supporting Inter Milan.
02:00I've never seen anything like that in 40 plus years of covering sports.
02:05Was it, uh, safe for me?
02:10Yes.
02:11Yeah.
02:12Do the straddling.
02:13No.
02:14Uh, for us, it was great.
02:15It was, uh, we had great seats on the sideline.
02:17It was a delightful night.
02:19They don't pay that much attention to the no smoking signs, which is a little bit disappointing,
02:23but, uh, it was, it was a phenomenal evening without a doubt, a real entertainment.
02:29Uh, I, we kind of wanted to see AC Milan to see Christian Pulisic play, uh, but, uh, our,
02:35the way our itinerary worked that, uh, it was Inter that was playing.
02:39Uh, so we went there and it was, it was a phenomenal experience.
02:43Where else did you go in Italy?
02:46Uh, we were in Milan strictly for four or five days.
02:50And then we went from there up on a train up to a beautiful Lake town in Switzerland
02:55called, uh, Lugano, which, uh, the most beautiful place I think I've ever been, uh, just tremendous.
03:01Yeah.
03:02My dad's been there.
03:03Uh, I remember, uh, him just raving about, uh, that place and the Swiss Alps and, uh,
03:10you know, it's just amazing there.
03:12I've never, they won't let me go there.
03:14The federal agents have prohibited me from going there.
03:18I would be one of the guys dangling off the railing and falling 40 feet and causing injury
03:24to others.
03:25I read your article, uh, about your excitement for the college football season, Mike, and
03:30it's underway.
03:31We've already been ranting and raving today about a couple of things.
03:35Mike Cain's, uh, Carver High's fighting Irish.
03:39So I have a history with Notre Dame and how bad Florida state looks and, uh, what was
03:44your thoughts of the real opening week of college football, which was this past weekend?
03:50Well, first of all, everything that I talked about in the column started to come true this
03:56past weekend with, uh, with some terrific results.
03:59The USC victory was huge.
04:03Uh, Penn state going down to West Virginia was really impressive.
04:07Uh, LSU taking that loss and then the Florida state taking that second loss, all these things
04:13add up to real significance now, whereas before you would just, uh, erase somebody like a
04:20Florida state from the rest of this season.
04:23That's over.
04:24They got nothing to play for, but maybe making the Liberty bowl or whatever.
04:27I mean, Florida state technically can still work their way back into it.
04:31And it's a huge, uh, it, you know, it's a huge mountain for them to climb because both
04:35of their lead, both of their losses were league losses, so it's going to be really hard for
04:40them to make it back or LSU.
04:43I mean, everybody's ready to write off Brian Kelly and the Tigers now cause they lost that
04:47game and it certainly hurts and they got mad and you saw Kelly pound the table and all
04:51that, but they can go into the sec now, win the league and make it to the playoff.
04:56It's still all out there for them.
04:58It doesn't have to be over cause you stunk it up in one week.
05:01I think that's beautiful.
05:04The Florida state thing is fascinating on its own, uh, because of the fact that, uh,
05:09they're suing the ACC.
05:11Everybody in the league now dislikes them.
05:13If not more, uh, I think they, they, they become maybe, uh, the least popular college
05:19football team in America.
05:20Now they're up there with Notre Dame, you know, they're kind of fighting the Irish,
05:24uh, for that title and the Irish course, they have basically a century of building toward
05:29this.
05:30Florida state got it done in six months.
05:32How about that?
05:34That's a real achievement.
05:35Don't you think?
05:36Yeah.
05:37I mean to tell you, and, uh, I, well, I'll say one thing.
05:40I don't believe for one minute that you can lose two conference games to start your season
05:45when you're double digit favorites and then have the schedule that they have left.
05:49Even in the ACC, there is no way in hell they're in that playoff.
05:54There is no, it's not going to happen, but it's mathematically possible.
05:58No it isn't.
05:59Okay.
06:00Now I come from, I skipped that day of school.
06:02I am telling you I'm from Mount Lebanon.
06:05That is not working.
06:06That math is not working for me.
06:07I have a question for you.
06:09I thought Michigan looked average to defending champs.
06:12Fans are already on Moore.
06:14That took five minutes and now they have Quinn Ewers and the Longhorns coming to the big
06:18house this week.
06:20Yeah.
06:21It's tough game for them.
06:23Absolutely.
06:24Texas looked really nice, obviously not a great opponent, but they looked really nice
06:27in their opener.
06:28Uh, Ewers is a significant talent.
06:32He now has a nice commercial out there, uh, uh, the, the Dr. Pepper commercial he's, he's,
06:38he's nationally famous now, and this is a big moment for him because he's got to deliver
06:43in a big game.
06:44I mean, they had a really nice year last year and they had a really nice year.
06:48But again, as I mentioned before, all these games have such consequence now, what it obviously
06:53won't have anything to do with whether Texas wins the SEC, but it will have a lot to do
06:58with whether Texas, if they don't win the SEC, can still get into the playoff.
07:03It'll have a lot to do with if they do get into the playoff, what they might be seeded.
07:07So these games really matter and going into the big house.
07:11I know Michigan doesn't have the same team that they did a year ago.
07:14They lost a lot of talent as well as their coach.
07:18But playing against 106,000 people, it's still a challenge.
07:22And I, I think it'll be a fascinating game to watch on Saturday.
07:27Aller looked good for Penn State.
07:30They have owned West Virginia like no other team.
07:34I mean, what are they like?
07:35I mean, they've lost to them twice ever and they've beaten them a ton of times and they
07:40kicked their ass in Morgantown.
07:42I know they had all these fancy shows down there celebrating how great the Mountaineers
07:46are, but they're not good.
07:48And Penn State looked good.
07:50I thought they looked really nice.
07:51I thought Aller played really well.
07:54Just a few passes that, that he could have hit and you say to yourself, how accurate
07:59is he?
08:00But then some of the passes that he put right on the money and you think, okay, like nobody's
08:04going to throw or not, not rare, not often is some quarterback going to throw 30 for
08:1030.
08:11I mean, they're going to miss a few along the way and he missed a few.
08:14But when you can put a pass like he did on the end on the sideline and put it where no
08:19one else can catch it, those kinds of throws are the ones that separate the special
08:24quarterbacks.
08:26People want to judge based on the first time you see somebody, but quarterback play of
08:30all positions in sports is something that really builds.
08:34I mean, even going back to when I first saw Peyton Manning as a freshman at Tennessee,
08:39not the same player that he was in year four.
08:42And then as a rookie in the NFL, not the same player he was in year 10.
08:47So I think Aller showed some real ability and that Penn State can be really dangerous
08:52as they go forward in the Big Ten.
08:54And remember, they don't have to play any longer, both Michigan and Penn State.
08:58They're going to have some tough Big Ten games, but that two game gauntlet was really tough
09:05for them.