Rice on the Mics

No PR Answers

• Ian • Season 2 • Episode 53

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Season 2 is here — but let’s call it what it is: Episode 53. 🎙️

This week’s theme is “No PR Answers.” It was a quieter week for games, so the real story became the honesty. Players, teams, fans… everybody started saying the quiet part out loud, and that’s exactly where we’re living on this episode.

NFL: Tyreek Hill is out in Miami and the league instantly turns into a jersey-swap machine. We break down what this move actually says about the Dolphins’ direction, what teams make sense, and why the “fit” might not look like the highlights people are imagining. We also hit Derek Carr’s “contender only” reality check, a quick look at the cap gymnastics that remind you numbers are never what they seem, and a rapid-fire check-in on the AFC East and NFC East. Jets fans, yes… we talk about the embarrassing stats too, because ignoring them doesn’t make them disappear.

MLB: Aaron Judge calling the Yankees’ offseason “brutal” isn’t a throwaway quote — it’s a captain setting the tone and reminding everyone what the standard is in New York. We also get into the Mets captain conversation and why the real question isn’t who gets a patch, it’s who sets the temperature and holds the room accountable when things get weird. Spring training notes pop in with some fun moments, we touch on baseball’s constant tug-of-war between tradition and new tech, and then zoom out to the bigger picture: the MLBPA story and how it could shape the next labor battle. Bryce Harper’s comments get some shine too, because mixed messaging and “keep it in-house” hypocrisy always finds its way into a clubhouse.

NBA: Knicks are back from the break and the Pistons game gives us an immediate reality check. We talk what mattered, what didn’t, and why Knicks fans have to retire the “woe is me” era when this team is still sitting near the top of the East. From there it’s the league-wide stuff: All-Star weekend gets judged by the people, and the verdict is loud. We hit the mailbag idea that could actually make All-Star feel like it matters, and we get into tanking — because the NBA is finally talking about it like the problem it is.

NHL: International hockey closes with pride, urgency, and real stakes — the exact product every other sport keeps chasing.

Then we let the listeners steer the ship with the mailbag, shoutouts included. Slow sports week or not, this episode had plenty of real talk.

Tap in, share it with a friend, and as always — spread good energy, and tell someone you love them.

Follow: @RiceOnTheMics
Mailbag/Mic Check: send your questions and drop your @ for a shoutout next episode.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it was loud and it was honest this week. Everybody just said the quiet part out loud. Sports does this thing where some weeks are fireworks, right? You're sprinting from headline to headline, barely even processing what you're sending to the group chat. Then you get a week like this where games breathe a little bit, not much going on, people get antsy, and suddenly the truth just starts leaking out. Quotes get a little too real, fan bases get a little too bold, teams start telling on themselves. And that's the theme tonight. The quiet part out loud. No PR answers, no, we like our guys, no, we're taking it day by day. And the NFL is a good example of that this week. Tyreek gets cut loose, and now everybody's playing matchmaker like it's a dating show. But the real story is what Miami is actually doing. Derek Carr has people talking all week, jets rumors flying around. Then he basically goes, Sure, I'll come back if it's a contender. One sentence, and everybody in the tri-sit area went, Oh, so not us. Cool. Love it, tremendous. Baseball's carrying that same energy too. Aaron Judge calling the offseason brutal, that's not a throwaway quote. That's the captain tapping the mic like, Hello, are we serious right now? Then you get the Mets captain conversation going on. Half the fan base wants a leader with a label, the other half is like, win games, the rest sorts itself out. Both sides make sense, which is why it's a real debate. And the NBA too. If 80% of people are calling All-Star Weekend mid, that's not a dunk contest problem. That's a product problem. Knicks are back tonight, so we'll cover the Pistons game and we'll check in on the Knicks fans because the woe is me era, I'm tired of it. It needs to be retired. When your team is sitting near the top of the East, be proud, be loud about it, lean into it. Be that seventh AV crowd after every win. Slow Sports Week, so I also opened up the mailbag and you guys did exactly what you always do. I got reckless takes, I got some real questions, I got some no-filter. Tyreek landing spot, how to fix the NBA Brig, whether Judge is right, all of it. And I got the shout-outs included. Season two premiere, episode 53. This is Rice on the Mics. Let's talk about the stuff that everybody's thinking and finally start saying it out loud. Let's do it to it. Once again, here we are in the dog days of the NFL. You know, everybody talks about the dog days of summer and it gets boring with just baseball. I get it, but these are the real slow times in the NFL if you're just a strictly NFL junkie. Still some stories to talk about, but not as much as uh we want on our plate. But we'll kick it right off. Tyreek Hill gets cut loose, and then the NFL immediately turns into a group chat. Everybody's got a screenshot, everybody's got a source, everybody's got a team that they swear makes perfect sense. That part is fun, right? But the part that I actually care about is the thing that nobody wants to say out loud. Miami is telling you who they are right now. They're not doing a run it back and hope for the best kind of thing. They're doing we're making choices, big ones, loud ones. The type that make fans mad at first and then make sense later. Or that blow up in your face and get people fired. Now the mailbag question was simple. I asked you guys, where does Tyreek end up? And first of all, you guys are unwell. Okay, five different people said to me in jail, relax, take a breath, okay? That's funny. It's funny for a little bit, but then it turns into a whole different conversation. So while I chuckled, we're gonna move right along, okay? The answers that I got were real. Well, the Raiders, the Raiders popped up a bunch. Jets a little bit, Cowboys. One person said that he'll end up on a team that finishes under 500, which honestly is probably the most realistic answer anyone gave me. I mean, stars end up in strange places all the time, thinking that they can turn the career around. But the thing that surprised me the most, nobody said the Chiefs. Nobody. That's the obvious get the band back together move, right? One more run, nostalgia, rings, the whole movie. It makes sense on paper, but it also might be the kind of move that looks great in the jersey swap graphic and then hits week 11. And you're like, oh God, why did why did we do this? That's kind of the risk with reunions. Would he be welcome with open arms back there? Yeah, probably. Does he still have it after the injury? I don't know. Is Mahomes coming back? I don't know. But as for the Raiders, I I get why people went there. Look, new regime vibes, there's a new quarterback in town, more than likely. You give the kid a real weapon, and you let him play point guard. If Mendoza is as accurate as we think, Tyreek is the kind of cheat code where the play doesn't even have to be perfect. You know, a little bubble screen, a slant, quick out. He turns five yards into 50 real quick, and then the defense starts panicking. That's how you help a young QB. But the other side of that coin that nobody really wants to talk about. Well, a rookie quarterback, a new coach, a fresh locker room, Max Crosby drama, and that you dropped Tyreek Hill into the middle of it on day one, that's a lot, man. That's not just football, that's culture, that's ego management, that's keep the room together when you start three and five and the O-line can't block anybody. If the Raiders do it, it's it's either gonna be electric or it's gonna be chaos, or both, honestly. And quick jet note, since somebody did mention it, Jets fans just love pain, man. They they're always like, oh, bring them here, it'll be great. Guys, I get it. We've been starving. But still, if the conversation is what's the smartest football move, New York is not where smart football headlines go to live. Not lately, at least. Which brings me to my second story that fits the theme perfectly tonight. Derek Carr. Mr. coming out of retirement, maybe, maybe not. Yeah, he did the most brutal thing you can do in the offseason. He told the truth. Got on his podcast, said, I really like the Jets, him and his brother joking around. All week, the Jets rumor mill was doing the thing where it convinces itself, yeah, maybe this works, maybe he'd come here. This coordinator was here, this guy, he played with this guy. And then Carr goes, yeah, I'd come back if it's for a real contender. There you go, that was it. That sentence ended the Jets conversation in real time. Not because he hates the Jets, not because he's just taking shots, just because he's being honest. He's being honest about where he's at in his career and where he wants to play. Now, will a contender want to take him? Probably not. And if it was, it would be a backup. And I think Derek Carr's a little bit too good in this league to be a backup, but that's contenders aren't really looking for starting quarterbacks, Derek. Can't have it both ways. The Mike Check poll nailed it too. 22% of you said you think that he's coming back, and 78% said that he'd stay retired. I mean, that's not even really a prediction. That's a plea. Fans don't want another save us quarterback story. People want stability, people want a plan. Tennessee is a little bit interesting too, uh, and I want to sneak this in because it connects to the New York conversations. They bring in Brian Dable as OC, Robert Sala as head coach, running the defense. That's right, head coach running the defense, full control, and nobody's doing that. Is the head coach doing too much thing? Nobody's panicking that the head coach is calling that aside of the ball. Yet Aaron Glenn in New York says he's hands-on and Mike called the defense, and people start acting like it's a crisis. Same idea, different zip code. It's funny how that works. And I get it, Aaron Glenn doesn't really have a lot of leeway right now. You know, he a lot of people don't even think he can just coach at all. Never mind coach the defense and the team. But always seems that it's in New York, it's a bad move. But anywhere else, yeah, they might be able to make it work. As for Seattle, well, Kenneth Walker, your Super Bowl MVP, and they're still just looking at the tag like it's a luxury purchase. That's the running back market in one sentence. Nobody doubts his talent. Everybody doubts the price. This is why fans, exactly why fans get mad at teams. You watch a guy carry a season, carry a Super Bowl, win the Super Bowl MVP, and then the front office is like, eh, you know, look, we love him. Just not at$14 million. That's the quiet part out loud for every running back in the league. You know, not everybody's gonna get paid like CMC. Not everybody's gonna get Saquon money, which by the way, the Eagles are probably not looking too happy about right now either.$14 million is a lot against the cap, but there's always cap room to be found. Kansas City just did it. They did the classic NFL move that reminds you that cap space is basically just a magic trick. If you got someone smart, they know what they're doing. They restructure Mahomes' contract. People see the headline and then they think, oh wow, they have money now. Well, no, yes and no. They just moved money. You know, they kicked the can down the road. They made this spreadsheet look better today so that they can make a move for tomorrow. But the bill always comes. It just comes later when it hurts more. Trust me, the Jets just went through it with Aaron Rodgers. Okay, they they paid, they made their deal with the devil, and he came to he came to reap, and it put him in hell. That's exactly how a 3-14 season happens. And one last quick hitter to sneak in before I go in depth on uh the AFC East and the NFC East here. The Bears. The Chicago Bears, Dub Bears. Yeah, they might be the Indiana Bears now. Illinois, their stadium, they want to do stadium, but the politics, the leverage, everybody's posturing. I mean, owners do this every time. They float the move, the city panics, the state panics, and then somehow everybody finds the money. That's the NFL. Loud threats and quiet negotiations, right? But there might actually be some serious traction here, and you might be seeing the Indiana Bears coming soon. Now, to be fair, where they would play, it's kind of like almost exactly like the Jets and the Giants. You know, they're the New York Jets, New York Giants, but they play in Jersey, and they're like 30 minutes away from the city. That's the exact uh kind of thing that they would be doing. They wouldn't be playing in Chicago, they would be playing just outside of Chicago. So that is fair to mention, but still, hey man, Chicago Bears technically don't play in Chicago. But anyway, alright, let's do uh let's do the big questions with the only divisions that this show really kind of cares about, to be honest with you. We're gonna do AFC East and NFC East. I've uh I've got notes for all the divisions, but I figure we start home, right? We start local. AFC East first, Buffalo, uh well, Buffalo is simple. I mean, you're good. You are stable, you're a real team. Now you gotta finish. That's the question. Not are you talented? Not is Josh Allen elite? Yes, yes, he is. We know. The question is, can you close seasons? Can you win games that turn you from a contender into a team that people fear? Not a semi-decent defense, and Josh Allen has to put the quarterback the Superman cape on. Miami, Miami is the messy one here, too. The Tyreek move is the headline right now, and the reports that they're planning on moving on from Tua, even with the massive extension he signed two years ago, which carries a hundred million dollar dead cap hit, by the way. The truth is, and always will be, the direction. What is the actual plan? Moves like this signify that they are done living in the middle, and that's the quiet part out loud. You either build around your quarterback and go all in, or admit your resetting and just take your medicine. Uh, as for New England, fresh off their Super Bowl ass kicking, I'm sorry, I mean Super Bowl appearance, uh, they're in a are we building something real or just collecting parts mode? Right? They've been in that weird post-dynasty fog where every move is either the start of a plan or the start of another plan or the continuation of this. At some point, they they're gonna have to pick an identity and just live with it. You know, Mac Jones to Drake May to no running backs, to two running backs, to tight ends, to this, to that. Stick a lane. Stay in it. You can get back there. Vrabel's a hell of a coach. I trust him. And as for the Jets, well, you already know. Quarterback. Always quarterback, still quarterback, forever quarterback. That's the joke and the tragedy. And while I'm here, let me uh let you in on a little stat that I saw this week that actually made my stomach turn. Just how bad the Jets have been the last 10 years. Since 2015, the Jets have had 35 games without an offensive touchdown scored. 35. Would anybody like to take a guess who the next closest team is? That would be the Giants, who haven't been a shining ray of uh winning as of late in the last 10 years either. But they're only at 21 games without an offensive touchdown. That's not a gap. That's a canyon. That's not we had a rough stretch and we didn't really know, you know, how things were going. We were in between coaches. That is literally a decade of watching Sundays like it's a chore. And then the other one that I saw, no consecutive seasons at 500 or better since 2015. Eleven years of being terrible. 11. Like people can argue coaches, GMs, quarterbacks, owners, curses, whatever. The numbers are the numbers. The quiet part out loud is that this has been a broken operation for so long. Alright, anyway, onto the NFC East. We'll start with Dallas, another team that hasn't been anywhere in a long time. Uh it's always the same question in a different outfit, right? The star got a little bit bigger, it got a little brighter. It's are you serious or are you selling a lifestyle brand? They're talented. They're talented enough to win a bunch of games every single year. And then you get to the moment where you need to discipline and be tough, and the whole thing starts to just feel like a magic trick that ran out of cards. Philly is Philly's in a how long can we keep everybody paid and happy kind of spot. They're one of the best organizations in the league, best well-drafted and ran organizations in the league. But the truth with every contender is always the same. Every offseason is a math problem. Who gets paid, who gets moved, who gets mad, that's where the good teams get tested. That's where the real organizations get tested. Philly's been pretty good as of late. They've been on a good run. But they they always seem to find themselves with a little bit too much drama. So looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Giants, well, they had the big hire with John Harbaugh, but now they are. Do you have a spine of a real defense and a real plan? Like just hiring the coach isn't enough. There needs to be real set in stone. We're making progress or moving forward. The defense flashes from time to time, the fan base gets excited, and then suddenly the season gets weird, and it turns into another year of, oh, maybe next year. We looked alright, maybe we can do better next year. That's the quiet part out loud for the Giants. The plan has to stop changing every time the wind shifts. And as for Washington, well, Washington's in prove it just as a wasn't just a one-year vibe. You know, prove it wasn't a one-year wonder. I know Jaden Daniels got hurt. Looks like he's going to be a good quarterback, but they need some more offensive weapons. They need a little bit of help. The league is full of teams that catch lightning. Then they spend the next season trying to convince themselves that it was skill and not just the ball bounced the right way six games last year. The question is, can you stack it? Can you make it normal? You know? But yeah, so that's that's the NFL this week. The headlines were fun. The truth underneath them is what really matters, though. Teams are choosing directions. Players are choosing situations, fans are choosing honesty over hype. And again, that's the theme tonight. That's where we're sticking with. Next up, got some baseball. The sun is almost here, guys. I promise you, I know it's so cold in February, but there will be sunshine on our face before you know it. Spring training has pretty much kicked off, along with the WBC right around the corner. And the captain of the Yankees hopped on the mic and had some interesting things to say about how the offseason went. Stick around, we're gonna touch on that and much more. Diamond talk up next. Oh, baseball. Baseball is almost back. We get some spring training news. That means the sun is around the corner. That means hot dogs and beer are around the corner and yelling at ball players, letting a team every day decide your mood is around the corner. But baseball this week had the exact exact vibe as the rest of the episode. Not a ton of uh holy wow moments on the field, but but plenty of moments where people stopped doing the PR thing and they just kind of said what they meant. They said the quiet part out loud over and over again. So we start in the Bronx since the captain basically grabbed the mic and said it for everybody, said it for all the fans. Aaron Judge calling the offseason brutal is one of those quotes that sounds simple until you actually sit with it for a little bit, let it marinate, let it sit with it for a second. Brutal isn't I wish we added one more reliever, or I wish we got another bench guy. Brutal is a feeling, brutal is watching the league move, watching the teams that you're chasing, honestly, make noise, and watching names come off the board. Then you show up to camp and you're still wondering if the gap actually even closed a little bit. And Judge doesn't have to say that. He chose to. I mean, his leadership style has always been strong and silent, right? But it's also now him putting pressure. He's basically reminding everybody that the standard here isn't just pretty good. The standard here in Yankeeville is October. The standard here in Yankeeville is November. He knows exactly how thin the line is between looking like a powerhouse in the regular season and looking like a team that runs out of answers when the pitching gets nasty and all of a sudden every at-bat feels like a war. The mailbag asked straight up if the Yankees did enough and what else they needed. And I'm gonna save the full answer for the mailbag with the shout outs because someone did have a good follow-up question that deserves a real response, not just a quick throwaway here. So I definitely will touch back on it in a little bit. I'll just say this though Judge didn't call it brutal for no reason. Players don't exactly don't use that word when everything is perfectly fine and peachy keen and we just missed it last year. You know, he sees the forest suit of trees here. He sees his uh prime kind of coming to an end. I mean, he still is in his prime, but he's on the tail end of his prime. How many more years does Judge have 50 home runs in him, 60 home runs in him? Probably not too many. So when they quote unquote run it back, but don't run it back, yeah. I can understand why he's a little bit frustrated. I mean, that's the captain saying, I'm here forever. I did you a solid. I'm here forever. I'm gonna end and start my career here, but you need to do right by me. Speaking of captains, let's flip it over to Queens. Because the Mets, the Mets have a little captain conversations themselves, and it's kind of turned into a philosophy debate all of a sudden. Steve Cohen basically shuts the door on it, right? So if you missed it, comes out in an interview, he says, Nope, there will be no captain. While I own the team. And surprisingly, Francisco Ledore, I mean, what is he gonna do? Not back it, but Francisco Lindore backed it publicly and said, Yeah, yeah, we're good. We're moving on. So, okay, cool. But here's the thing with captain talk. So fans, fans treat it like a patch, right? They get the jersey, they get the patch on the sea, that's my captain, right? Teams, teams treat it like a power structure. If you name a captain, you're you're saying this is the voice of the room, but you're also saying this guy is allowed to call people out. And that's the part that people forget. The captain isn't just the vibes guy. The captain is also the guy who can look a teammate in the eye after a bad week and say, hey man, tighten it up, without everybody feeling weird about it and the locker room getting quiet about it. This is why the Lindor and Soto dynamic is kind of interesting. I mean, everybody assumed last year that Lindor would be captain at some point, that they would honor David Wright, retire as number, and then they would pass the captainship to Lindor. And it never happened. And now it sounds like it's never going to happen with Steve Cohen. But that doesn't exactly mean that leadership disappears either. I mean, the team still needs somebody to set the temperature in the room. And Soto is Soto. He is the workhorse, he's the superstar, he's the gravity. But that doesn't automatically make him the guy that uh keeps standards high on a on a random Tuesday when the team is dragging and the schedule's getting ugly and we got a long road stint. Marcus Simeon has that steady pro adult in the room reputation built in. And Lindor is more heartbeat, right? He's more emotional leader. He's all smiles, he keeps people happy. So the real question isn't who wears a letter. The real question is who can keep it fun and keep it sharp. The best captains, the best leaders, they have both gears. They can keep it loose, they can have fun. But they can also flip the switch when the standard starts to slip. They recognize that they'll be the bad guy for five minutes, so the team can be good for five months. And that's what the fans want, whether they realize it or not. Spring training is where you get a little, you get these little moments, right? You get these little confidence boost moments. Jonathan looking sharp, everybody's favorite, Tim Lindskum look alike. I saw a uh I saw a great video coming out of spring that uh he hit the ABS and he challenged the strike zone against Soto, who has notoriously the one of the best eyes in baseball. That's pretty hilarious to me. Uh that's either confidence or insanity, and sometimes those things are hand in hand in March, right? And it's also kind of a good bridge into the ABABS stuff that I want to talk about. Uh I'm not going to turn into a whole rule book lecture here and how many do they get and whatnot, but the game keeps moving forward towards a cleaner zone. More tech, more accuracy, more let's get it right. And then you get Chris Sale basically saying that he'll never be challenging a pitch ever. And it's not out of ego, it's more like he knows that he gets too emotional about it. And it'll snowball, and he just wants to keep his head steady and just pitch. But still, I mean, that's the most old school pitcher thing ever, right? Like baseball comes up with this thing, they bring you a new tool, the leagues goes, the league goes, here, use this. It'll help. It'll it'll improve the game. And the old vet is like, nah, yeah, I'm good. I don't need that. I'm good. Typical, right? And you put it right next to the pitch clock uh complaints and get off my lawn, old man energy. Lise Robert showing a little pop early is another one, too. That's something I uh I'm really looking forward to. Really hoping that being around his Dominican brother and being in the city of New York, not in cold Chicago, where they win 30 games a year and it's snowing on opening day. Every spring there's a guy that makes you stop and go, okay, this is this looks good, this looks different. So look, I'm not crowning anyone off the spring stats, but the power looks real to start. So that's the type of thing that could change a lineup real quick. We're just hoping. We're happy. We're hoping for the kid. And if he stinks, he stinks. Whatever. At least I got a good center fielder out of it. Uh, another quote that I want to hit this week was from Bryce Harper. And look, I've I've always liked Bryce, but also not liked Bryce. He's always been kind of douchey to me. I understand his he's as a player, he's unreal, but he's always just kind of been that guy, you know, like clown question bro, all that stuff. But here he is saying the quiet part out loud and holding his front office accountable. I mean, front office love to preach culture and accountability, they love keeping it in-house and yada yada yada, but when it's convenient, right? Then all of a sudden something gets said publicly that doesn't exactly fit the brand, and suddenly it's whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, why'd you why'd you say that out loud, man? Why'd you say that with a mic in your hand? And Harper's basically calling out the hypocrisy. If the message is we're a family, we handle it internally, then live by that. Don't pick and choose when to go public. Players hear that stuff, clubhouses hear that stuff. It turns into side eyes. It turns into, so you want us to be accountable, but only when it looks good for you. And that's the leadership again, not the rah-rah way, right? The I'm the guy, everybody's looking at me, I'm gonna protect the room kind of way. The star player saying, hey man, we're not doing mixed messages. That matters. You love to see that. And again, Harper's always kind of been that guy, but I gotta give credit where credit's due. Now, I do want to get into the WBC for just a minute here because this is the part of the calendar that I still think people undervalue, man. I mean, this is high-level baseball early. You got stars locked in, you got real intensity, national pride. Fans actually caring about something that isn't your division standings in July. It hits different. You can feel it in the at-bats, you can feel it in the pitching choices. The energy is honestly closer to playoff baseball than a lot of people want to admit. I mean, remember three years ago, you had Otani pitching in the ninth inning against Mike Trout with bases loaded in USA down a run with two outs? You can't script that better. And the timing is perfect this year, too. Olympics, the Olympics already have the country locked in. Hockey has everyone begging for USA versus Canada, and then you get the WBC, which gives you another version of it. You get that same pride, but just in a different sport. I mean, two chances in the same year to get that I'm actually kind of nervous feeling over a flag on a jersey. That's a gift, man. And I get it. The pushback is always the same. It's risk, it's insurance, it's workload. Teams are nervous about their arms. Every point is valid. I get it. Look, as a Met fan, I had to watch Edwin Diaz get a save and then tear his knee up, and I miss him the whole year. But as a fan, man, it's hard not to love it. Seeing top-level talent playing like it matters before opening day even warms up. I mean, that's exactly what the sport needs. The quiet part out loud is that baseball wants the attention and the global moment, but it also wants to control the risk, like it's a spreadsheet. And that's where the tension comes in. That's why the conversation with the union never ends. And that leads me to my next part. The MLBPA situation with Tony Clark and union leadership is tough, man. The CBA clock is always humming in the background. It's the kind of thing that fans ignore and ignore until it starts threatening games, starts threatening seasons. That nobody wants to talk labor until it's on the calendar, and then everybody acts shocked that it's snuck up on them. This is how it starts, though. There's uncertainty, there's leverage to be had, there's people posturing, players are bracing and digging in, owners are feeling bold, and the fans are just sitting around begging everybody not to ruin the summer. The stuff with Tony Clark is not great, man. Baseball is bats of ball, sure. But it's also billionaires, it's a union, it's negotiations, and it's a power trip. That's the truth behind the sport, whether anybody wants to hear it or not. Tony Clark was a really big voice for the players' union and knew how to negotiate and knew how to dig his heels in on what needed to be dug in on. This upcoming offseason, there's a really good chance that we miss baseball in 2027. Just basic because, basically, because the owners are gonna go for blood. They're like sharks. They smell blood in the water. And the players are gonna say, well, we're not budging. We might be watching minor league baseball and Juco ball. But anyway, that's that's the MLB this week, right? It's all I got. It's gonna pick up faster than you know it, and I can't wait. But basically, Judge said brutal, which tells you the standards are still the standards in Yankeeville. Mets captain talk is really just Mets leadership talk. You've got some stars at a game calling out the mixed messages that they're getting from their front office. And the sport is gearing up for a WBC moment that's gonna feel like playoff baseball early. Really looking forward to the WBC, and you guys should be too. Next up, we got hoops, uh, Pistons, Knicks, got a lot to cover there. And we also got to touch on the all-star break and the tanking conversation. Both of those things are two things that the NBA cannot keep ignoring. Gotta say the quiet part out loud. Hardcore up next. Keep it right here. Hoops is back, which means Knicks fans are back too. The group chat is alive again, everybody's got takes again, and everybody's either convinced we're winning the East or convinced we're just a bunch of frauds, and there's no in between. So let's start with the game since it literally happened while I'm recording this. Knicks lose to Detroit 126, 111, and if you only look at the final score, you might think it was a close-ish game. Yeah, it kind of wasn't. The Pistons had control for most of the night. The Knicks came out fast, and then Detroit settled in. They went into halftime up 58-48, and every time the Knicks tried to make it a game, Detroit had an answer. Knicks got it to 62-60 early in the third. Felt like we were about to flip the whole script. The garden was going crazy, and the Detroit hits back-to-back threes and pulls the air right out of the building. That's the story of the night. Push, pullback. Hope, reality. Quiet part out loud. Cade Cunningham, god damn it, puts on a clinic. Those garden lights love to shine for the away team, right? 42 points, 13 assists. It's not just a nice game. That's you're guarding me wrong, and I'm gonna show you all the angles. That's a guy controlling the tempo, picking the spots, and punishing every mistake all night. Credit where it's due. That was a star performance, but damn, man. He he just beats up on a Knicks. And the Knicks side is pretty simple. The math killed him. Eight for 35 from three. That's 23%. You can't shoot like that in the modern NBA and then act surprised when you're chasing all night. I mean, Brunson did what Brunson does, 33-8. Kat gives you 21 and 11, but didn't have three points going into halftime. Shamit hit some shots, Hart had his usual effort stuff. Still wasn't enough. Because you're bricking threes, and Detroit is hitting them at a real clip. It's hard to win a math fight when one team is raining and the other team is throwing rocks. Now, this is where I want to talk directly to Knicks fans just for a second here. Because I wrote this down during the week and it's been it's been bothering me a little bit. Are Knicks fans able to actually do this? Are we able to have a good team and not act like the sky is falling every time something goes wrong? This team has been sitting near the top of the East the entire season. This is not the woe is me era anymore. Okay, be proud of your team. If you've been watching the Knicks long enough, you remember the starting five that we used to put out. Be loud about them. Stop talking like we're some sad little underdog story when we're a real contender. Now that doesn't mean ignore problems. It just means stop being scared of being good. The loss doesn't mean that the Knicks are cooked. It means that the Knicks still have truths that they need to handle. One of them is very obvious. The three-point shooting can't be a coin flip. You can survive a cold night once in a while, but you can't build your identity around, oh, I hope we get hot tonight. And the other truth is that the spacing conversation, especially in the playoffs, teams are going to make you prove that you can punish them when they load up. Those are real things. Panic is not real. There's a difference. And I know, I know I get on them a lot, and I know it's also part of the problem. But big cat, man, I need more out of you, man. You're the number two on this team. It's not OG. It's not Mikel Bridges. It's you, man. You gotta be the guy that steps up when Brunson gets dominated by tall guards, which happens against teams like Indiana. Which happens against teams like Detroit. Sometimes it happens against teams like the Celtics. I can only rip on him so much. I can only get on him so much. It's just it's a glaring deficiency in his game. Whatever. Let's zoom out, let's zoom out a little bit on the league because the mic check poll that I put out this week was loud and it was honest. I asked you guys all about All-Star Weekend. Did it feel like it was fixed? Did it feel like the new format worked? Or was it just the same old, same old? 20% of you said that they fixed it. That's it. 80% said it was still mid. That's not hate. That's just pure boredom. And boredom is what kills you. People will watch something they hate. They don't want to watch something that feels like just background noise while they're scrolling through their phone. I mean, you could put Mahomes and Joe Burrow in midfield for the NFL playing chess, and it would probably draw three million people. The league keeps trying new formats, new drafts, new this, new that. Here's the truth. All-star weekend only works when the stars decide that it matters. Nobody wants to hear that because it feels too simple, but it's the truth. Fans want intensity, fans want pride, fans want one moment somebody takes it personally, another moment, somebody slams one on somebody. That's why when a guy like Wemby shows up for the All-Star game and plays like it actually means something, everybody notices it. It's a contrast, it pops, it's loud. Mailbag had a great idea on how to fix it, so I'm gonna save the full breakdown for that segment. But the quick version is this the best ideas always involve real stakes and real consequences, not just we're playing for charity and everybody smiles. Something that gives the player a reason to care about without making it corny, you know? The moment it feels corny, the the fans check out. They don't want to watch it, they don't want to be bothered with it. And you already told me that with the poll. Now, the other NBA problem that's always been just sitting there, and finally somebody in the league that they've started to talk about it out loud, they've started to say the quiet part out loud, and it's tanking. I mean, everybody sees it. Everybody jokes about it, everybody pretends that it's not really happening until you know the standings are obvious and half the league is managing minutes with two months left because this guy, you know, sneeze too hard or whatever. I mean, the NBA can find teams, they can do participation rules and lottery tweaks, they can do all these little band-aids. The core truth is simple. The league needs fans to believe that the regular season means something. That's the product. When teams are openly aiming for better odds at ping pong balls, it messes with the entire credibility of the league. So Adam Silver got to talking about anti-tanking ideas, even stuff like locking lottery odds at a certain point in the season. I mean, look, that's the league admitting what everybody knows, the quiet part out loud. It's that tanking is strategy now, not just a shameful accident. And that is the number one thing that is terrible for your game. Teams not caring about the games that they're playing. So, yeah, that's unfortunately that's kind of all I got for the NBA right now. First night back after the All-Star break, and the Knicks Nick, and they take a frustrating loss. They're still a good team, they're still a great team. A real contender. They just gotta clean up the math. They gotta clean up the little things, and they'll be just fine. All-Star Weekend is still fighting for its life, to say the least. And tanking is sitting out in the open, and it's becoming a real problem. The league is trying to figure it out and put it back in the box, but it's it's a big task that needs some really creative minds to try and figure out how to solve it. But next up, we got uh quick NHL, and then we're gonna mix it in the mailbag. We're gonna let the people talk. I asked you guys for some questions over the week, and you guys did not disappoint. It's time to let the let the people that listen to the show have their say on the show. So keep it right here. Couple fun topics talk about next. Before we close this thing out with the mailbag, I gotta I gotta touch on some hockey because hockey, hockey has been the exact opposite of mid lately. Hockey doesn't do that. Hockey doesn't do we'll try harder next time. Hockey does straight consequences. Uh first off, shout out to the women. Gold medal. That's a real moment, that's a real win. The rivalry is always a heavyweight fight. No fluff, no coasting, just super high-level hockey with actual pride attached to it, and the game-winning goal in overtime, that dangle and then five-hole on the goalie. Oh, chef's kiss. Beautiful. Now, for the men, well, team USA is two wins away from gold. You got two serious opponents standing in the way. This is the best part of the international hockey game. The whole country is basically sitting there like, please give us USA versus Canada. I mean, people who don't watch hockey are suddenly watching hockey and are super invested in it. That's the matchup that has the weight. They want to see it. It's not even about tactics, it's about emotion. It's about history, it's about everybody in the building knowing what it means. It's about wearing that flag on your back and watching the banners raise and hearing the star-spangled banner. I mean, the quarterfinal and semifinal stuff has been chaos in the best way. You've had OT moments, you've had big names making bigger plays. The whole thing just feels like you can't blink. This is the product people keep asking for in other sports, by the way. The stakes, the pride, the urgency. You don't have to beg hockey players to care. They show, they show up caring. Lot of fans, you know, bash hockey is the fourth sport, and nobody cares about hockey. Nobody cares about hockey boomer, you know? But every league wishes that they could emulate the pride that these guys have in their game. But alright, let's let's bring it home with the mailbag. Because you guys basically kind of co-hosted the show this week. It was a slow sports week, so I opened up the floor, and you guys did what you always do. You didn't disappoint. You got honest, you got loud, you said the quiet part out loud. You it's like you knew what the theme was before you even got into it this week. So shout outs coming because if you took the time to write in, I'm gonna give you some love. And the first question that I Posted was Tyreek gets released from Miami, so where does he end up? Now, the most popular answer was jail, but the most popular real answer I got was Raiders. So shout out the Persian Prince of Polaroid, shout out at Ray Capola, shout out at Brad underscore Piper131. All three of you said Raiders with the same energy and the same logic. So respect, you know. Great minds think alike, I guess. Here's the twist though. So I agree with you. I think it probably is gonna end up being the Raiders. I just don't think it looks like what people want it to look like. I mean, people hear Tyreek to the Raiders and they're picturing pictures in nuclear, right? 40 yard bombs every quarter, Mendoza slinging it, highlight reels, the whole thing. But the reality, the reality is a little more practical, right? Tyreek might end up being their new version of Jacoby Myers, who they traded away. And not so much in style, but in role. Like a guy who just keeps the offense functional, stretches the field enough to scare you, keeps the safeties honest so they're not stacking the box against Janti. Gives you a little speed. You know, the gravity piece. The real engine for that offense, if it's gonna work, it's two things. Ash and Janty out of the backfield is number one. I mean, he needs to be making linebackers miserable, he needs to be making guys miss, catching the ball out of the backfield. And the other one is the offensive line. The offensive line needs to get stronger. You need to be able to give Mendoza enough time to let the play develop a little bit. And again, that that's the quiet part out loud with rookie quarterbacks. I mean, weapons are great, but protection is everything. You want your quarterback to have somebody to throw to or somebody to run with or whatever. I mean, God forbid, look at Sam Darnold who just won a Super Bowl. When Sam was playing with the Jets, his best receiver was Robbie Anderson. But the protection is the key. You know, if Mendoza has two seconds, Tyreek's speed just turns into him running cardio. But if Mendoza actually has some time, well, now you might be on to something. So the Raiders make sense to me, but the impact might be more steady upgrade than video game stats. Still, steady upgrade for a team that has the number one overall pick this year, you'll you'll you'll take it. Our second mailbag question came in from add J Keating31. And my question was, how would you fix the NBA All-Star game? And his answer was the best one I got. He said straight up East versus West for the game, but then include a 1v1 tournament. Simple, clean, everybody understands it immediately. I'm not gonna lie, man. I I love it. The idea is spicy. But the only problem I see is the league is filled with fragile egos. Guys don't want to get cooked on national television and then turn into a meme for six months. That's that's the truth, honest part about it. The big names don't want to do it because they don't want to get embarrassed. But still, there is definitely something there. I mean, if you could get some of the bigger name stars, or at least even some of the high mid-level stars, to buy into it, the winner gets to walk around for the entire rest of the year saying, I'm the best 1v1 player on the planet. That's a real title. That's a real flex. And you want to talk about fragile egos, that's the kind of thing that'll boost their egos that'll uh get these guys involved and make some more, maybe some more high-level players want to get involved. You're gonna tell me you wouldn't want to see Jalen Brunson versus Joker in a 1v1? How about Kevin Durant versus James Harden? The NBA All-Star game doesn't need to be game seven, but it also just doesn't need to be a layup line either. There needs to be a little bit of in-between between those two. Lastly, our third mailbag question came from at the real Lawrence J. And my question was the judge said the offseason was brutal. Did they do enough? And if not, why? So he wrote in and said, uh, yeah, they didn't do enough. There was no big names added unless Cashman knows that the talent coming up is ready. That's a fair point, and I'm gonna kind of expand on it right there. Look, judge saying brutal isn't whining, right? That's the captain of your franchise, of your team, a beloved player, saying the part that the fans have been thinking and screaming about for Cashman for the past three, four, five years. The Yankees can win 90 games with a lot of different rosters. The question is whether the roster feels built for October, where every weakness gets hunted, gets exposed, gets magnified. And the one thing that I really keep circling for the this Yankees team is a real leadoff hitter. Somebody in front of Judge that actually gets on base. He sees pitches, works the count, makes the other team work. So Judge, when he gets up, isn't just walking up with nobody on, pressing, trying to hit a double so Bellinger could hit one behind him. Trying to create a run out of thin air. I mean, he's gonna run into 60, 50 home runs a year. How about it'd be nice if for half of those home runs there was a guy on? I mean, it's not fair to him. That's not how you build a lineup with your best hitter, is basically the sun, and everything else is orbiting around him. And then there's the kid conversation. I mean, fans cling to it because it's hope, it's promise, it's oh, we got this great kid coming up. Yeah. But they never call him up. I mean, Spencer Jones gets talked about like he's the six foot seven lefty judge myth, and maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. But the Yankees haven't decided what the plan with him is yet, so we don't know what he is. I mean, he crushed, he's four years down in AAA. He's 29. What is the point? You wasted all of his youth down there. This guy could be taking advantage of that left field wall and mashing the ball. But no, he's down there because, oh, we wanna we gotta bring up Jason Dominguez, we gotta bring up the Martian first, we gotta bring up Volpe. Get your best players up. Take a page out of the Mets playbook. They had no pitching. Guess what? They brought up Brandon Sproat, McLean, and Jonathan. Jonathan didn't look great. Sproat did okay, and McLean looks like a future ace. You don't know until these guys get up here if they can play. If you believe in him, stop treating him like a rumor. Let him show you. And if you don't believe in him, then stop teasing the fan base with a just wait till the next guy. Trade him. Go get Judge that piece. Judge is in his prime now. This is not a wait a year league when you're the Yankees. That's the standard and the accountability that you want to hold yourself to. You have to go do it. So yeah, I uh I appreciate everybody who wrote in for real. I mean, thanks for helping co-host the show a little bit here, and uh hope I gave you the answers that you were looking for. But for now, let's take a breath. Let's let's pull the theme back into focus here a little bit, and let's close this thing out the right way. Get you out of here on a high note. Theme tonight: Quiet Part Out Loud. No PR answers, no sugarcoating, no pretending. Quick run through just so you know what we covered the whole board, NFL Chaos with Tyreek and the offseason truth tellers, Judge's brutal quote in the Mets leadership conversations, Nick's post-break reality check with the Pistons game, the NBA All-Star Game problem, hockey closing it out with a gold medal, and then the mailbag steering the ship the way that it should. Now, here's what I want to leave you with. Most people don't get stuck because they're not talented. They get stuck because they avoid being honest. Honest about what they want, honest about what isn't working, honest about what they keep tolerating, honest about the standard that they say that they have versus standard that they actually live by. You know, saying the quiet part out loud is not about being negative. It's about being clear. It's choosing reality over comfort. If something's been bothering you, say it. If you've been drifting, admit it. If you want more, own that. If you're proud of something, stop hiding it like it's embarrassing. If you care about someone, tell them before it turns into what I meant to situation. That's the whole game. Clarity creates momentum. Silence creates stagnation. I appreciate you rocking with me. Seriously, season two is here, and this doesn't move without you guys. If you listened all the way through, you voted on the mic check, you sent a mailbag question, shared the episode, left a rating, any of that. It matters more than you think, and it's much, much appreciated. Make sure you follow the show on Instagram, on Facebook, TikTok, wherever you're tapped in. Rice on the mics, keep sending in questions, keep voting, keep getting involved, and I'll keep giving you the real. Most importantly, put a little more good into the world this week, give some people some grace, speak with some intention, check in on your friends, tell someone you love them. I am Ian Rice. This has been episode 53 of Rice on the Mics, and I'll catch you next week, same time, same place.