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Jan. 30, 2024 - Doug Collins Podcast
56:15
Is Atlanta one of the Great Sports Cities in America
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You want to listen to a podcast?
By who?
Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins.
How is it?
The greatest thing I have ever heard in my whole life.
I could not believe my ears.
In this house, wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule.
It has been said today, where is bravery?
I'll tell you where bravery is found and courage is found.
It's found in this minority who has lived through the last year of nothing but rules being broken, people being put down, questions not being answered, and this majority say, be damned with anything else.
We're going to impeach and do whatever we want to do.
Why?
Because we won an election.
I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
All right, everybody, we're back.
It's Friday's Finest.
The best that you can find on a Friday.
Well, maybe not the best, but we're, you know, we're going to go like Elf.
You know, it's the world's greatest cup of coffee.
We're going with it.
Hey, we're all here.
It's me, Chip, James.
We're all ready to go on Friday's Finest.
A lot going on.
New Hampshire primary this week.
Um, the horse that died in Iowa is still dead and coming out of New Hampshire.
And Nikki Haley doesn't seem to know it.
But other than that, we'll figure that out as we go along.
Um, ball games from last week.
Jason Kelsey, uh, We found a way to outshine Taylor Swift and also break the cameras in the ballgame.
I'm beginning to wonder what this is like.
We'll find out as this goes forward.
A lot of other things going on this week.
But golf is back as well, baby.
Golf is back.
The amateur won on the tour last week.
It was something to behold.
It was wonderful.
So a lot of these things are going on.
We're going to do some details real quick on that and then hit into Friday's Finest.
But again, it's your day to have fun.
It's your day to relax.
You're almost there.
And for those of you who probably in the dental world do Monday through Thursday, congratulations.
You made it to Friday.
You're now off.
Thanks for playing.
We're glad to have you here on Doug Collins Podcast on a fantastic Friday.
It's going to be a great time to where we keep everything going.
So in just a minute, we'll have Chip and James join us on the other side, ready to go.
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Alright, we're back.
And lots to discuss here as we get going.
Good morning to the gang.
James, how we doing?
Just peachy, man.
You know, that Texas weather is almost back.
The sun is not quite out, but, you know, we're almost there.
There we go.
We get it up.
Chip, how's the world with Chip World?
It's great.
It's great, man.
You know, after 10 days of really sub-25 degree temperatures, I looked at the radar, Doug, and it's not supposed to be below freezing for the next 14 days.
So, as somebody who doesn't do real well in the cold, man, I'm pretty fired up about that.
That is, you've got a, I'm getting ready to head on the road, and I'm so glad to see that, though.
But yesterday, actually walking outside and it not being, you know, really, really cold is like, okay, this is not bad.
I can handle this.
As we go into James and them who moved to the Midwest to figure out that it does get cold in the winter in the Midwest.
Yeah, total nonsense.
I was bamboozled into coming here.
It just makes you mad when you go outside and you're like...
All I brought with me was a sweatshirt, and I should have brought more.
And I never learned the lesson either, because I have one jacket, but I'm not putting it on.
I refuse.
I put too much effort into moving here.
I'm not putting on a jacket.
I just won't.
I'd rather freeze and die.
That's the motto.
Well, we've now got the title for this week's Friday's Finest Podcast.
I will never put on a jacket.
I left New Jersey so I don't have to wear jackets.
That's like the literal half the reason I moved.
James, we'll get your discussion on the couch here in just a minute.
We feel you, buddy.
But, you know, never reading the fact of some of the biggest ice storms in the country come through Dallas.
I don't really know how we missed that one.
Okay!
We love you, though.
You know, we'll keep it up.
Hey, Chip, this week, the New Hampshire primary...
What amazes me, Chip, is it still, I mean, even the media now is also jumping on the fact that Haley is done, okay?
They don't really say it, but then you got the, what I call, mid-media.
The media that is just trying to put print out there, trying to get something going.
They don't understand politics, but they were told to write about it.
And they said, well, she only lost by 11. Well, there's only two people in the race, okay?
You've been in campaigns most of your life, like I have as well.
The rarity of winning a two-person race, especially in a primary or anything else, by more than 10, especially 20 points, is just, frankly, not that common in contested kind of stuff.
But it just amazes me how there's some still trying to breathe life into a Haley campaign.
Yeah, look, I mean, if you remember, it wasn't but a week and a half ago when the Iowa caucuses happened, and in order for Ron DeSantis to really move on, he needed to finish second.
And it looked like going into the Iowa caucuses, he could finish third.
Well, he finished second.
And then his campaign lasted another six days.
And, you know, and so I think that's kind of where Nikki Haley is right now.
You know, she needed to finish a strong second.
But guess what?
There's only two people in the race.
And so, you know, I don't know that.
I mean, if the polls coming out of South Carolina continue to be what they are, I think the last survey that I saw there had Donald Trump with a 39-point lead.
I don't think she takes it to the voters of South Carolina.
I don't know that she wants to be embarrassed like that, but she's got four weeks to figure it out.
I suspect what they're doing is they're saying, hey, look, we've been running for a year and a half.
We've got it down to a two-person race.
This is always what we wanted to do.
Let's roll the dice and see how we do in South Carolina the next two or three weeks.
I don't think the dynamics are going to change a whole lot.
Honestly, Doug, I don't know that she makes it to South Carolina.
If she does make it to South Carolina and loses decisively, like the polling says, Then that'll kind of be the end of Nikki Haley's campaign.
But man, was Trump not cranky after New Hampshire?
His Iowa speech was very calm.
It was very presidential.
It was very gracious.
He was cranky when he gave his New Hampshire speech that Nikki's only still in.
So we'll see what happens over the next few weeks.
Look, I do believe, and look, and like a lot of people around, I think there's this general consensus now, like we've talked about on this podcast before, it's all over but the crying.
And the real issue here is, are we able to go and get on to Joe Biden and not spend...
You know, what could be another million dollars or two million dollars to get, you know, to a South Carolina primary, which, by the way, she's skipping Nevada altogether.
And it really not make a difference.
And I think that came out last night.
I think there have been so much discussion.
And again, I never believed that Haley would drop out last night.
I just didn't never think that would happen.
I mean, it would be sometime between now and South Carolina.
But I think it was just out that they thought that she would drop out last night.
And I think, you know, he showed that flash of Trump passion and anger and said, you know, like, she didn't drop out.
And also, Chip, and I'm going to put myself a little bit in the Trump camp here and just bring it from a different perspective, because I agree with you, it was a different tone than what I saw in Iowa, which I thought was really good, and then last night.
But also, I think it was not just that Haley came out and said...
You know, basically we're not, you know, didn't say we're leaving and thank you.
She made comments like we almost got half of the vote and then kicked after the first like, which I thought was hilarious.
But after like the first three minutes of that speech, it was basically a rehash of her standard stump speech.
And with a little more, you know, again, 80 year olds, you know, which party is going to get rid of the 80 year old first, that kind of thing.
I think they expected her to To concede and say, hey, we're going to stay with this.
We appreciate the fight.
And we're going to see what we can do in South Carolina.
I don't think they expected her to give a 15-minute stump speech.
And I think that's probably what happened.
Well, I think that's probably right.
And I don't think they thought that she was going to go on as early as she did.
I mean, she went on early on caucus night, right?
I mean, she was prime time at 8.30.
Right?
And so, you know, their team had obviously seen the same data.
Look, I heard somebody say today, you know, campaigns are funded by millionaires and poor kids.
And when you run out of both, you know, millionaires to fund your campaign and poor kids to make the phone calls and knock on the doors and volunteer.
And so, you know, we'll see.
I mean, do our donors and volunteers stick with her?
Volunteers probably will.
But what are her donors going to be saying to her?
Are they saying, hey, Nikki, stay in.
Continue this fight.
It's worth it.
Or are they putting pressure on her to get in?
And I think we'll know more in the coming weeks where both of those situations stand.
Is this, I mean, at this point in time, though, I think there's also a little bit of a dark side that I think is going to come out in this as well, in the sense that these donors who obviously do not like Donald Trump, okay, they were searching for whoever, you know, they tried DeSantis, that flavor of the month didn't last, now they went to Haley, they couldn't go anywhere else.
But there is a little bit of a, and I think this is the point that I think I heard a little bit.
I was waiting, last night I was waiting on a TV. I was doing TV last night, and they cut to Haley's comments.
And I said, well, I'll wait for a few minutes.
I had another one after that.
And they said, I mean, after 10, 15 minutes, I had to cut to go to another one.
And again, it was just like, wow, we didn't expect this.
But also there's this underlying out there that Haley brings out more than DeSantis did and others.
And I don't think it's good because I think a lot of these, you know, indictments and everything else that's been brought forth by the Democrats and everybody else's lawfare, she seems to be leaning into the fact that Donald Trump's not going to be around.
And if I just stick around here, then everybody will all of a sudden love me if he can't run anymore.
I think that plays.
She's young enough now that maybe some people forget in 2028. She keeps this up.
I'm not sure that is applicable.
As they say, it was a DeSantis who got out pretty much when he knew it was over.
Yeah, and look, I mean, everybody, you know, there was a lot of speculation as well that, you know, a couple weeks back when there was a lot of pressure put on Chris Christie to get out that, you know, one of the reasons Christie waited to get out is, you know, he felt like Nikki Haley had cut a deal with Donald Trump to be his VP. Well, I don't think that's the case.
I don't think Nikki Haley is going to be the VP for Donald Trump.
And, yeah, I mean, everything you said is correct, right?
But I also think, you know, I also think, you know, these things turn on a dime.
And you could be in it going full speed, you know, at 8 o'clock on a Monday night.
And then by 7.30 the next morning, you've given up your campaign.
You've called and conceded.
And so, you know...
We'll see what Nikki Haley and her team decide to do, but if she does bring it to New Hampshire, and if her donors do decide, and I don't know which way you're...
Look, I say donors.
You know this game, Doug.
You've been in it.
You're always going to have some donors telling you to do one thing and donors, other donors telling you to do another.
But, you know, do they really fall on one side or another?
Because there are a lot of donors that just don't want Donald Trump to be the nominee of the party.
You know, but are they are they willing to take this process down, continue to take this process down the road, you know, to further damage him for the general election?
And that's, you know, that's not something anybody in the party wants, whether you like Donald Trump or not.
This is over.
Exactly.
And it's time to beat Joe Biden and get behind Donald Trump.
Amen.
I mean, look, Biden is the problem.
Okay, let's just face that, you know, or whoever they put up is the problem.
And it's not this issue we got to deal with.
Look, again, last comment on South Carolina.
You and I live right next to South Carolina.
We know the politics.
I mean, when you look at the lineup over there, One thing, though, I haven't seen Chip, and I'm sure we'll see it in the next couple of weeks, I've not seen a head-to-head in South Carolina with Haley and Trump with DeSantis and the others out.
Be interesting to see.
My guess is it'll show about a 60-40 split.
That would be my guess.
And people will say, look how good she's doing now.
Well, Chip...
Getting beat by 20 points in your home state?
I mean...
Not good.
No, and it's like, you know, you're sitting there and you look at the list, and you and I both know endorsements are only good for a moment or whatever they might be good for.
But when you look at the entire basic delegation of elected officials in South Carolina, except for Ralph Norman, Have lined up against you, including the two sitting senators, including one that you appointed.
You know, everybody is, you know, and now Nancy Mace, which, you know, Nancy, nobody knows where she's going to be most days, but she's even turned down.
I don't know if Nancy knows where she's going to be most days.
That's right.
That's a possibility.
And the funny thing, I know Nancy, she's one of the funniest people you ever want to meet, but you don't know where she's coming from.
That's for sure.
You know, but, you know, there's just in the South Carolina House delegation, Senate delegation in the statehouse over there.
There's just, again, my prediction and we'll move on.
I love it.
Here's our here's prediction time.
I predict she gets out with more than two weeks before the South Carolina primary.
I'm going to predict she gets out a week later than that, one week out.
And that's three weeks from now, right?
So I think both of us are in agreement that she doesn't take it to South Carolina.
And I just think that's the best thing for her.
I think it's the best thing for the party.
It's the best thing for Trump.
And I think it's likely to have it because nobody wants to be embarrassed in their home state.
No, no, it's not.
And because it just does so many other things.
Look, it's also as someone who supports, you know, the president, who's known the president for a long time and been, you know, watching this campaign and, you know, again, from a media perspective and seeing it.
It also, though, I've said this before many times, and you sort of brought this out.
When Donald Trump's giving out pizzas, when Donald Trump's going to the fire stations, when Donald Trump's going to Palestine, Ohio, and seeing people, when he is in that mode of Who he is, for those of us who've met him and know him off camera, okay?
And knowing it from a personal perspective that when my mom died, he wrote me a personal note.
Those kind of things like that.
That came out in Iowa.
It didn't come out last night, and I think we've discussed why.
If he comes back to that right there, I agree.
That is where it'll be very difficult for Biden to beat because Biden already has the issue problem.
And then if he has the Trump blockability factor that will meet some of those independents and meet some that we've actually seen, it'll be interesting to see coming up.
Quick question, though, before we get into some of the other craziness on Friday's Finest.
I'm hearing from some of my contacts and others that, and we saw one yesterday.
It concerns me a little bit of what we're seeing in the U.S. House, not from a perspective of policy because there is none.
There's not a perspective of bills being passed because they're not doing anything.
It concerns me with the folks who are leaving.
And they're more and more leaving.
I think there'll be four to five more.
I had a member of Congress tell me the other day that if there was another opportunity for them, they would not qualify to run again.
And it was as blunt as they could be.
We just had Kelly Armstrong this week, a good friend of the show, good friend of mine from North Dakota, you know, who's been one who actually got stuff done.
He said, no, I'm out.
I'm gonna go run for governor in North Dakota.
Chip, we're losing the middle here, it looks like.
I mean, Bill Johnson up in Ohio.
You're losing Larry Bouchon in Indiana.
You're losing, you know, these members.
Talk about from a perspective, if you would, from a staff perspective, but also an institutional perspective, what that does.
Well, I mean, look, has there ever been a more frustrating and miserable time to serve in the majority, right?
I mean, it's, you know, it's ostensibly a three-vote majority, a four-vote majority, and that's not a working majority.
And so, you know, I like Chip Roy from Texas, and I heard a speech he gave a few weeks ago on the House, but he said, just give me one thing I can take back to my constituents and tell them we've done.
And I wanted to come through the TV and just shake him and say, you know, there's a Democrat in the White House, and then, you know, you've got Democrats running the Senate.
And so your only role as a House member is to stop all these bad things that the President and the Senate want to do.
And so I can give you a list of things that did not become policy because the Republicans in charge, but I cannot give you a list of good things that the President signed or the Senate passed that the House passed.
And, you know, look, these things run on a pendulum.
And, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I think what we've done as a party in the House over the past, you know, year and a half is...
You know, it is not reflective of, you know, being a majority party.
It's fractured.
It makes us look bad.
It doesn't show that we're good at leading.
It doesn't give confidence in, you know, voters and those.
I mean, look, there are swing voters.
There's less of them than there's been in a while.
But, yeah, man, it's a problem, Doug.
And I don't, you know, I know these things run on a pendulum, but I don't know the solution to it.
My concern also, you know, with the concern I have, and you and I have had this discussion, and I'll just say this, then we can kind of move on.
I mean, you know, the one problem that Trump brings to Senate races is, in the past, He, in many cases, and I hope he and the Senate committee can get lined up better than they were in his first term.
But in the past, he supported candidates that might not make as good a general election opponents.
And look, we've said this a million times.
There's only one Donald Trump.
Only one.
And there's only one person that can do what Donald Trump does, and that's Donald Trump.
And so all these other people, you know, Carrie Lakes to the world, they try to be Donald Trump.
Well, you can't be Donald Trump because there's only one Donald Trump.
And so, you know, that's the one thing that I hope, you know, I hope the president and his political team And the Senate committee can kind of get on the same page so that they might be able to get behind the same candidate that can succeed in November instead of losing Senate races in the general election that we really have no business losing.
I agree, and I think some of those are out there.
Here's my final word on it, and this is my rant for the morning.
Remember, James, we used to have that segment on the podcast.
We're going to bring it back.
I'm done with you.
Here's my I'm done with you.
Okay?
One, by the way, we didn't mention Drew Ferguson.
Great guy out of Georgia.
Drew coming out fits that category of a great member who's leaving.
He was just tired.
He got out.
But here's my rant for that.
Here's my I'm done with you.
I'm done with Republicans who keep saying we've done nothing and yet vote no on everything.
I just don't get this.
Don't understand how, and it's becoming more and more evident for this House majority, which is ungovernable at this point, that Nancy Pelosi had the exact same majority for four years, almost two years in the last two years, and passed things like a huge, massive COVID relief bill, which sent our country into inflation and a lot of economic problems.
They sent the infrastructure bill.
They did the Build Back Mansion, Build Back Better bill.
They did these things with the same majority that we have.
I'm tired of us only getting everything or nothing.
Nothing doesn't work in this country anymore, folks.
You've got to actually be able to put 218 votes on the floor.
Don't tell me what you've not done until you tell me what you can do.
I'm tired of it.
The people are tired of it.
And it's just not an argument that works anymore, folks.
I love these guys.
I work with these guys.
They're dear friends of mine.
But their understanding of math is worse than mine.
At a certain point in time, I'm done with this argument that we're not fighting hard enough.
You're not fighting at all.
You're fighting amongst yourselves.
Okay, I love you.
Get better.
Realize that there's the best package you can get and pass it.
And then come back and do it again.
Ronald Reagan said, if you're my 80% friend, you're not my 20% enemy.
At this point, we can't even get to 80%.
So folks, listen up out there.
And if you want to call, you know, text me, email me, whatever, that's fine.
Duck Collins, podcast.com, hit that email button.
I'd love to hear from you.
But when you've got members now who are having trouble voting for a CR, who claim they don't want to, but yet they wouldn't pass the rule or were voted no on the appropriate bills that were passed out of committee, by the way, mind you.
And now you're telling me you want to pass all 12 appropriations bills?
Politely, please sit down until you can figure out how to govern.
That's all I'll say.
I'm done with you.
Now, on to Friday's finest.
Jason Kelsey.
James!
There's your Northeastern hero, your guy.
You won't wear a jacket, but he doesn't wear a shirt.
And Buffalo, he gets into the stands, he drinks from a bowling ball.
What was up with Jason Kelsey the other night?
Well, first of all, whether he said it officially or not, he's retiring, right?
So it's time to live the dream.
And everyone's dream is to be shirtless in Buffalo in the middle of the winter.
I love the idea that, like, Taylor Swift is in the stands.
And he stole the show completely.
Now, mind you, people are not totally thrilled that we have to see Taylor every two minutes.
And they did a pretty good job, by the way, of not forcing it down our throats.
Yeah, only every time Kelsey caught the ball, but okay, yeah.
But even one of the scores, they didn't go to it.
I was like, no way.
But when they, when Jason Kelsey did arguably the most athletic thing a man his size could do, and that's just hurtle into the stands.
And then you see all the good stuff.
And then after the game, they're like, by the way, he made this little girl's night by showing, by having Taylor Swift wave to her while she's holding that sign.
And I just, in my head, I'm just like, you know, we can make fun of people all we want and we can talk about You know, the Kelseys are too much and it's annoying, but he's just the best.
He gives his jersey to that lady at McDonald's because he shows up there every morning eating sausage, egg, and cheese.
He's just a good person and it's a good thing to see.
I hate that the Chiefs won.
But it was awesome to see Jason Kelsey fully embrace the retirement.
Open invitation.
Jason Kelsey, you are welcome on Friday's Finals anytime you want to come.
He's that old-school mentality.
His wife seems to be like an angel with him.
Oh, my God.
The word was circulating, Chip, that he did some of what he did to take some of the attention off of...
Taylor, what do you think some of that was that?
Well, I mean, look, he was, the way I kind of looked at it is, I mean, he does this for a living, right?
And so, you know, these guys show up to training camp in July and You know, and, you know, for six days a week, he's been showing up at the Eagles facility pumping iron and, you know, and practicing.
And Eagles lost last week.
And so to me, it was a guy that he's like, you know what?
I show up to work every Sunday.
In front of, you know, 70,000, 80,000 people who were drinking for four hours before the game, eating hot dogs and pretzels, you know, being stupid and yelling.
And I think Kelsey said, you know, I want to do that today.
I want to be like that today.
Absolutely.
You know, and he, you know, they didn't show it a lot, but he was, he was drinking before the game with Buffalo.
He was tailgating with Buffalo fans.
Out of a bowling ball.
Yeah, I mean, so, I mean, look, I just think.
He's who we all want to be.
Yeah, yeah.
So I just think he was, it's possible that he was trying to take some of the, you know, trying to take some of the maybe attention off of Taylor.
But I think he was well served.
And sometimes when you're well served, you do some impromptu stuff that maybe you wake up the next morning and they're like, hmm.
Half of that was cool.
The other half may be not cool.
But, you know, it's tough to take.
You know, it is tough to take.
I mean, I didn't realize until the game, Travis Kelsey hadn't caught a touchdown pass since week 11 until Sunday.
Oh, yeah.
He got two passes.
Yeah.
It's...
It's so funny because when he jumped over into the stands, my first thought was just so weird.
You know what I thought was really interesting is how well the Bills fan, notorious Bills mafia, took to Kelsey.
I never saw anything rude to Kelsey.
It was almost like there was a, hey, you're one of us kind of mentality.
There's no real reason to hate him.
You can root against his brother, but there's no reason to hate Jason Kelsey.
He's never given anyone a read.
When he comes and drinks at your tailgate.
Yeah, what are you going to be like?
You know what?
We don't want you here.
Yeah, it's like, you know, it ain't going to happen.
So it's pretty wild.
We get this together.
I thought it was pretty interesting, though.
Brittany Mahomes sure does seem to be more enamored at Taylor Swift than Jason's wife.
Have you noticed some of those pictures?
Oh, yes.
She likes her, don't get me wrong.
I don't think there's a problem.
It's like, okay, if you're going to be my sister-in-law, we're not going to be doing this.
Yeah, that's right.
She's too cool.
For Chip and I who know the dynamics of sister-in-law and brother-in-laws, yeah, that's an interesting perspective there.
Hey, we're another Friday in and no Belichick and no Harbaugh hirings.
Well, I'm curious because you guys are the ones that are probably going to benefit from this if you want Belichick.
Yeah, I mean, you know, we talked last week.
I get it.
You know, it doesn't look like Belichick has interviewed anywhere else but Atlanta.
Well, the rumor is...
That he only wants a small market.
And this is what I was reading last night.
I wish I could remember where I read it and I couldn't find it again.
But it had something to do with the idea that when Dallas and Philly both lost, they were considering getting rid of their head coaches, but obviously didn't.
The reason they didn't was because Belichick told them both he's not interested in a big market.
And I kind of get that for Belichick.
Does he want to spend the end of his career with a Philly or Dallas where everything is so beyond scrutinized?
Not to say that Atlanta is not a good organization.
They've won games.
They've been to championship games.
They've been to Super Bowls.
But in comparison to dealing with the Cowboys and the Eagles, Belichick is going to slide right away if he's in Atlanta.
Let's be honest.
Well, Chip, I want to interrupt you for a second, but I want to get something from Chip here, because from a political perspective, I think you'll agree with this term, but also from a sports perspective.
Atlanta is the biggest small-town sports market in the country.
100%.
Certainly with football, too, right?
Because if you're looking at a pro sports market, we're not a basketball town.
We like football, college football, and we'll cheer for the Falcons.
But we're a baseball city, right?
We're Braves fans, you know?
And that's where most...
So, yeah, I mean, it's kind of a weird...
I don't know that I've ever...
I've seen the beginning of an offseason.
And when I say beginning of an offseason, I know the playoffs are still going on.
But for the teams that didn't make the playoffs, the offseason started when they walked off the field.
Man, this is slow.
It's really slow.
I thought the dominoes would start to fall.
They've not done it.
You know, James, you always talk about...
James, you always talk about people in radio that you listen to when you were in New York, New Jersey, up in that area.
Chip possibly can't.
I can't tell you a sports show in Atlanta, number one, that I listen to on any regular basis, or anybody that has a personality that says, that's Atlanta sports radio.
I mean, there's names out there, don't get me wrong.
But it's just not here.
He could come here and basically go non-existent to 90% of the Atlanta market because the markets, the radios, are smaller stations that don't...
Granted, 92.9, I get it, Chip.
But people have moved away from it because that was an old rock station.
And I don't think people have ever gotten away from the fact that that was a station that I listened to music on.
They're not coming to it for sports.
Can I ask you guys a question?
Because I'm assuming you guys were in the area at the time.
But there were, there's three times I can think of in football.
Early 90s when MC Hammer was there and Deion was there, right?
Was Atlanta lit up?
Like, was the city embracing the team?
Okay, what about in 98 when you guys screwed the Vikings on that stupid play at the end?
Oh God, I knew the Vikings would come back.
No, but in 98 when you guys went to the Super Bowl, did people care?
Was it important?
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I would say this.
And I mean this in the most genuine sense of the word.
I don't mean this to be critical.
We are really good fair-weathered fans with the Falcons.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
No.
No, no.
That's right.
The reason we love the Braves is not the winning streak.
We love the Braves because of the 70s and the 80s when they were absolutely pathetic.
And you had Skip Carey and Pete Van Weeren and Ernie Johnson on the radio.
And people would listen to it.
We love the Braves because we saw every ballgame.
We got to know the guys as if they were next-door neighbors.
And the rest of it was just sort of...
For those of us who have been Braves fans for 50 years now...
I mean, the 90s and 2000s have just been frustrating more than anything else, but we were Braves fans then.
The interesting one, James, and you're our big NBA guy.
You tell us this.
The Hawks consistently fill State Farm.
Okay?
And they bring in real high-profile folks that I don't know.
Chip may know the rap scene better than I do.
But, I mean, you see all these sort of rap stars.
You see all these movie stars around on the floor.
But I can't tell you the starting lineup past Trey Young.
I can't tell you a person on the starting lineup for the Atlanta Hawks.
Most people I know.
I'm not going to start rattling off the Atlanta Hawks starting lineup, but I do know who they are.
But people in Atlanta don't, James.
Why is that?
So, here's the thing.
When Trae Young beat the Knicks a couple years ago, the story was the Knicks lost to Trae Young, not Atlanta beat the Knicks.
The Knicks lost to Trae Young and his cold celebration and all that stuff.
The Knicks are the bigger story, and they always will be.
The Lakers, the Celtics, all that stuff.
It's the same thing with you guys, like...
Um, with Atlanta, like, for some reason, the Saints are always the bigger story.
It's so annoying.
But the point is that, like, for whatever reason, yeah, of course, all the rappers are going to be there because they know some of the young players.
Like, they know who they are.
And when people come to town, they visit them and stuff like that.
So, like, when other teams are there, like, when LeBron shows up or when Kevin Durant shows up, they know them.
So they're going to go to the game.
Not that they're not there for Atlanta.
They're rooting for Atlanta.
But they're there to see all their friends.
That's how it works in this industry, especially in basketball.
Well, and also, Atlanta is the hip-hop, basically, hip-hop capital of the country, period.
Right now, absolutely.
Everybody's out of here.
It has been for a long time.
And it's great.
And listen, it's awesome.
It's a lot of fun to see the scene, but with Atlanta sports, you were mentioning the most important thing is You guys were talking about being connected because of Ernie Johnson and all that stuff, right?
Skip carry, baby.
That is such a huge deal.
I don't think people realize how important it is to have a guy.
There's a story.
I'm blanking out on his name right now because I could care less about the Yankees.
But the announcement for the Yankees in the 70s and the 80s...
He used to mention that he loved a certain bakery when he would be on the air.
My grandfather's bakery, he mentioned them on the air because we brought him cannolis.
But that was the thing.
People knew that about them.
They knew that about him.
That's something that's just intimate that is about New York and we celebrate it.
That's the most important thing about sports is being intimate with the fan base and with the team and with the broadcast.
It all matters.
And with Atlanta, and especially football, you don't really have a personal one all the time.
But with Atlanta, the football team doesn't feel like they have a real connection to the city sometimes.
Skip Carey, just as Chip will remember, Skip Carey would go on in games.
We were getting blown out.
I mean, we wanted to play the Cubs because we were both so bad.
It was just fun to watch.
But I remember Skip Carey, even in his life, he would look around like on the day games.
Day games in particular, he'd come on, especially if the game was sort of out of the third or fourth inning, he'd say, yeah, look around all these folks.
It is so good to see all these dads bringing their daughters to the game this afternoon.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, just great.
And James, you hit on something.
For me, and okay, let's do something here because this is fun.
It's going to lead into a point over an organization that is useless as can be, and that's PETA. But we'll get to them in a minute.
Think about this, Chip.
For me, football...
In the state of Georgia was Larry Munson.
Okay, Larry Munson calling the dogs, and I'm gonna give a benefit here.
Al Sorowdy calling Georgia Tech.
I mean, Al Sorowdy, again, told me it's leather, good.
I mean, you've heard it, you've heard it a lot.
But with Larry Munson, I mean, sugar falling from the sky.
When he called the Auburn, that Georgia game at the time, I still to this day remember what I was doing.
I was cutting wood in the front yard of my daddy's house because dad dumped the wood in front of my basketball goal, and until I got it out, I couldn't play basketball.
I'm outside freezing my rear end off, but I remember there's sugar falling from the sky.
There's sugar falling.
We get it.
James, Chip, what about you with Auburn and Atlanta area?
What is that one?
And James, I'm coming to you.
For me, it's Ian Eagle for the Nets.
He does national broadcast now, but I think about him from when the Nets glory days with Kidd and Vince Carter and him.
I can hear it.
Anytime he's on, I make sure I'm listening to whatever broadcast he's on.
He's my favorite person who's ever lived.
What about you, Chip?
Well, as an Auburn guy, I mean, I grew up listening to Jim Fyfe, right?
Yeah.
And Jim Fyfe retired and Rod Bramblitt took his place.
And Bramblitt was the guy that was on the call for Carlton Davis' 108-yard missed field goal return against Alabama.
And any Auburn fan just remembers Rod Bramblitt.
Rod Bramblitt going, there goes Davis!
There goes Davis!
He's down the side!
There goes Davis!
There goes Davis!
You know, and that's why we have hats and shirts that have one second on it, because there was one second left when Nick Saban attempted that.
Unfortunately, Bramblett, a year after that, never really had a chance to make himself kind of as big of a legend or stay as long as Jim Fyfe, because he and his wife were tragically killed in a car accident.
Right.
By a drunk driver in Auburn coming home from the SEC baseball game.
But yeah, Jim Fyfe and Rod Bramlett, two of the best.
Well, also you got, and frankly, the South has had some good, Eli Gold, and I know it's Alabama, but Eli Gold, I mean, that's another one that you got to look at.
I bring all this up, James, as we talk about fans and we talk about people coming to the game, because yesterday, and if Texas A&M can show class, And which they did.
Ugga 10 passed away.
And for those of you who don't know who Ugga 10 is, Ugga is our mascot.
It's that beautiful English Bulldog that we've had for generations now.
Ugga 10 was also known as Q because he was all white.
He was known as a cue ball.
He was a white English Bulldog.
He was from, I was there the day, I was actually at the game in 2015 when he was collared.
When they put his new collar from the older Ugga, they put the new collar on.
I saw and watched Q for a long time.
Q was one of the biggest Uggas that we've ever had.
He was just a big dog, big English Bulldog.
But he also ran, he was 91 and 18. He was the two-time national champion dog.
I mean, this whole deal.
And he passed away yesterday.
The Ugga 10 passed away.
Q passed away.
And of course, for the Georgia nation, it would be about like the Eagle at Auburn or other places.
But for this, it was a big deal.
And PETA, in its infinite stupidity, Posted, along with the thing, about how tragic it was for the University of Georgia and these English Bulldogs who are bred with flat noses have trouble breathing all their life.
And it was just like, are you kidding me?
And, you know, look, the best thing we ever did, and Chip remembers this, a guy named Gaines Robinson.
Gaines used to work for me.
Traveled around, went to D.C. And this is how idiotic PETA is.
And yes, I'm embracing the getting ready to get the PETA crazies at me.
I don't care.
Okay?
I'll eat my chicken and watch you yell.
The...
PETA set out, and I was in the 9th District of Georgia.
If anybody knows the 9th District of Georgia, it is the poultry capital of the world.
Sorry, Arkansas.
We're it.
There was a move by the PETA activists to put road signs like they do for people killed in drunk driving accidents, how they put the crosses and stuff by the road.
They wanted to put up signs where a chicken truck had overturned and killed chickens.
They were on their way to the slaughterhouse, okay?
We looked at that and they were all upset about this.
And so inside the office, we decided we wanted to do something on Twitter.
And so we thought about what could we say?
Gaines Robinson, I got to give him credit.
He's now a Delta pilot, by the way.
So if you're flying out of Atlanta and you see a very handsome young man who is flying your plane, he was with Air Force, a great guy.
Gaines is also one of the quieter guys you ever want to meet.
He said, I've got it.
I said, we said, what is it?
He said, how about this?
Every time a chicken dies, America gets its wings.
And we put that out on Twitter, and oh my goodness, the reactions were, I mean, it was worth it the entire time.
I mean, but let me just give you a little hint here, folks.
PETA, you're not welcome.
That was totally off the bat.
And especially, it goes to James, what we showed you.
The South is baseball with Atlanta, especially in Georgia, but it is college football.
It is why Tennessee doesn't have a ravenous fan base.
It is why Atlanta doesn't have that ravenous fan base.
It is why Carolina, very much so, does not have a ravenous fan base.
It's why, even if you get into Florida a little bit, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Miami in particular, they don't have the fan bases, the Bills Mafia, the Chiefs Kingdom, and the Raider Nation.
They just don't have it.
But you go to Auburn on a Saturday afternoon and you sit down with 100,000 people of your closest friends.
You go to Athens and sit down with 98,000 and plus 28,000 who don't have tickets, who are sitting out in the parking lot eating and watching on 80-inch TVs with dish boxes beside them.
That's what drives our area and why people...
Again, we just don't have the pro-continent.
That's why I think Bill Belichick bringing this all back around If he wanted to come to Atlanta, he could find a large market media-wise, but a small market intensity-wise.
It will be a circus, though, when he comes.
Just so you guys prepare for that.
Yeah, for a couple weeks.
Here's something that I never thought...
That I would say, but when we look at the series of events that is the Falcons' head coaching surge, I mean, it looked like a week ago at this time, Belichick was getting his second interview, and it looked like his announcement to be the head football coach, next football coach in Atlanta was imminent.
But they gave him a second interview, and now they're giving guys like Raheem Morris a second interview.
And, you know, it's possible Bill Belichick's coached his last game in the NFL. I don't know that I would predict that right now.
It wouldn't shock me, though.
It would surprise me.
I mean, you know, the guy's 72 years old.
The last six years have hurt him because, you know, there are a lot of people out there right now that That do believe that Tom Brady made Bill Belichick a better coach.
I mean, look, good players make coaches better, of course, but, you know, he's been the general manager now and he's made some pretty strange personnel moves.
I mean, I don't know.
I just think, you know, if the Falcons interviewed him a second time a week ago, you know?
Have you ever met Arthur Blank not get what he wants?
No, and that's why it leads me to believe that, you know, while he might have had some connection with Bill Belichick, I mean, are you going to hand your franchise over to a 72-year-old coach who hasn't won in the last six years?
Well, and also, does Belichick do want to be...
Yeah.
Also, does Belichick still want to be GM, which Rich McKay's going nowhere as president, and the GM's already there.
Hey, let's turn real quickly.
We got a lot going on here, but I want to get to spend a little bit of time.
We're going to wrap it up with this, and that is the games for this weekend.
We've got 49ers and Lions.
We've got Chiefs and Ravens as we go here.
Interesting enough, both one and three.
You had the one seed and the three seed, and both sides get this.
And in some ways, the three seeds are the ones with the momentum at this point.
If you look at it, the Lions and the Chiefs tend to come into this with a little bit of momentum.
Let's take, real quickly, let's go to 49ers-Lions.
James, what's your thoughts?
What's your pick?
Ugh, let's all root for the Lions.
You're such a good story.
I hate this so much.
They are such a good story.
Aiden Hutchinson's a hometown boy.
Jared Goff's playing well.
Dan Campbell's doing whatever he's doing.
The city of Detroit deserves this.
And I just found out Bob Segers from there, which adds to it completely.
Detroit's probably going to lose because the Niners just...
There's just something about them.
I know they almost lost to the Packers, but the Packers were hot as hell.
I don't know.
I feel like it's going to be close, and Detroit's going to be disappointed, but I know the entire world's rooting for them, so I'm still taking San Francisco.
San Francisco, cheer!
I think it depends on if Debo Samuel plays and how healthy he is.
We all saw last weekend, this 49ers offense is a completely different offense with Debo Samuel out of the lineup.
Now, this week they've had a chance to game plan the possibility of him not playing, and they didn't the week prior.
You know, look, I'll...
I'll take the 49ers, but that's assuming that Debo is going to get in and kind of make some plays.
If Debo's 80%, I'm taking the 49ers, but it wouldn't shock me if Debo's limited, if the Lions sneak up and win that game.
Yeah, I get it.
On that one, I'm going to take the Lions in seven.
I think that is, I mean, from a betting perspective, I'll take the Lions in seven.
I think the Lions have an intangible this year that is what you see in playoffs.
You've seen it with the Chiefs before.
You've seen it with others before.
I'll just take this.
Also, I'm going to go out here on a limb and say, look, I'm tired of the Brock Purdy's not a good quarterback.
Okay.
Brock Purdy is playing in the NFL and he's winning ballgames.
And I'm winning in spite of him.
Is he the best quarterback in the league?
Is he MVP? No.
But is he a quarterback that will win you ballgames and possibly win you a Super Bowl?
Yes.
I think he is.
It's his second season.
The what?
It's his second season.
Yeah, this is the first playoff game in the history of the NFL. Yeah, because he was hurt last year.
Yeah, this is the first playoff game in the history of the NFL where you have the number one pick in the draft.
Facing off against the last pick in the draft, both the starting quarterbacks.
Pretty good story.
That is a pretty good story.
I have to give you that one.
All right, moving on to the one that is the highlight of the day.
I'll be frank.
I'm going to start here because I did not see the Ravens blowing out like they did last week.
I just didn't.
I thought that was going to be a different game.
And it didn't turn out that way.
I get it.
But the Ravens also have sort of that intangible effect as well.
I think Harbaugh's got them playing very well.
But I still think there's something missing.
And so for me, I know this is hard for some who don't want to see this.
But yes, I think The Ravens will be defeated.
I think the Chiefs are going back to the Super Bowl.
You just see this.
Andy Reid has his way of doing it.
The defensive coordinator dials up the right thing.
If there is a year, though, I will say this.
If there's a year, this is the Ravens' year.
I think this is the time they seem to just come out of it.
But...
There's just something about the surge here.
They picked up their first road win last week in a playoff.
They're going to be the second one here.
I see them coming back together.
I'll take the Chiefs on this, but can understand a Ravens victory in this.
Chip, what do you think?
It's hard to bet against the Chiefs, but I'm going to do it.
I'm taking Lamar Jackson.
I agree with you on the fact that it was a blowout, but it was tied at halftime.
That game was tied at halftime, and it was only a one-score game going into the fourth quarter.
Lamar Jackson has had questions...
His whole career about how he produces in the offseason.
I think he silenced those critics last week.
But take nothing away from what Patrick Mahomes competed.
He's had nothing to throw to this year and stepped it up in the postseason.
But I think the magical run for the Chiefs comes to an end on Sunday.
I'll take Lamar Jackson in Baltimore.
I'll take the Ravens minus three and a half.
So, James, how bad is Baltimore going to beat the Chiefs?
Oh, man.
I'm so in for this.
The Ravens are going to win, and they better win, because Mike Evans is a free agent.
And he's going to end up in Kansas City, in my opinion.
So no one's ever going to win again.
Except for the Chiefs.
So the Ravens better win.
Because it's not going to be...
This is their...
Like you said, Doug, this is their moment.
I'm not sure they're going to have...
Not that they're not going to have another one.
But you can't discount...
Like everybody...
Joe Burrow's coming back.
Josh Allen's coming back.
That AFC offense...
The quarterbacks in AFC are too good.
You've got to take your opportunities where you can get them...
The Ravens defense is playing lights out right now.
Give me the Ravens, and they're going to win the Super Bowl, too.
I'm just going to let you guys know that right now.
All right.
Okay, a couple things here.
Number one, by the way, has there ever been more of a just freak show of a defensive player than Jadavian Clowney?
I mean, when he wants to play, he's unstoppable.
It is.
It is amazing to watch, right?
All of a sudden, you're like, oh, yeah, there's the guy who blew that dude's helmet off.
Yeah, I mean, and the other day when he picked up that guy and just threw him down, it's like, but he doesn't play every day.
Some people are just physical freaks, right?
Like it's when you first saw Randy Moss and you're like, oh my God.
Yeah, it was.
It was.
All right, here we go.
On the last part, we're closing it out here.
I'm going to give each of you a short last word.
James, last word.
Ravens are going to the Super Bowl.
I already said it.
I don't need to say it again.
San Francisco and Baltimore, the number one seeds in the Super Bowl.
But my last word is also that by the time we do Friday's Finest next week, the Atlanta Falcons will have hired their head coach.
Hopefully the Chargers will too.
There we go.
All right, we'll see that.
All right, I got my final word here is number one, I think it will be, there's gonna be another parade in Kansas City because they're gonna win the AFC this week.
I think it'll be a possibility of another Super Bowl.
We'll see how it all works out on the other side.
But I have one that's gonna make James happy.
Belichick comes to Atlanta.
The Falcons trade for Cousins.
They won't have to trade.
He's just going to go there.
We're going to lose him for nothing.
And that's why you love Friday's Finest, folks, because we can wind James up in a heartbeat.
Folks, thanks so much.
We appreciate you being here on Friday's Finest.
Everything is going great.
We'll see you next time.
Say goodbye, Chip.
See y'all later.
Say goodbye, James.
See you later.
Rest in peace, Ugga.
We're out here.
See you.
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