The Beat of Sports

Josh Robbins from The Athletic joins the show to talk about the offseason plans for the Orlando Magic. He talks about what they Nikola Vucevic could have a domino effect on the rest of the roster. Then he and Marc discuss the media's role in All-NBA voting and what it means for the players getting a max contract. Spoiler alert, the media does not like it.

One of the most beautiful things about sports is the way a city can rally around their teams. Or in the case of the St Louis Blues the way they've embraced a song. The Blues have wrapped their arms around Gloria by Laura Branigan so much so that they've begun selling merchandise with the phase, Play Gloria!

Mike Tirico will be sitting down to interview disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong on NBC. After watching the trailer Marc thinks that Armstrong is coming across as something that believes what he did was wrong but necessary in the end.

After having his tenure as the Baylor football coach end in scandal, Art Briles has bounced around in different leagues around the world but hasn't stayed very long. Could that be changing? One high school team in Texas has hired him but now the public outcry is getting louder and louder.

Yesterday was a banner day for awkward video in the sports world. At an event featuring Dwayne Johnson, Rob Pelinka told a story about setting up a meeting between Kobe Bryant and Heath Ledger to talk about the actors process while making The Dark Knight, only one problem. Ledger passed away months before the movie was released. Then at the SEC meetings in Destin, LSU basketball coach Will Wade was asked about the audio of him talking about offers to recruits and Wade acted as if the audio doesn't exist.

During an interview on a Memphis radio station American Athletic Conference Mike Aresco discussed the news of USF scheduling 2 for 1s with several Power 5 schools. Many fans of UCF took this to mean that Aresco was taking a shot a UCF and Danny White with how the are scheduling games. Brandon Helwig joins the show to talk with Marc about the comments made by Aresco and whether they were directed at UCF. Plus they talk about the latest with new conference television contract.

The SEC has their own television network, makes a ton of money from their television partners, and dominates all discussions during the College Football Playoff rankings, so Marc brings up a crazy idea. Why don't they just leave the NCAA and act as an independent? Add Texas and Oklahoma, sign a bigger television deal, and then crown their own champion at the end of the station. No more following the rules that everyone else has to follow.

The Department of Justice is again investigating Major League Baseball with an focus on the human trafficking of Cuban, Latin American players tried to enter the United States with the goal of playing baseball.

Over the weekend news came out from Orlando City SC principal owner Flávio Augusto da Silva that in 3 years he will be considering selling the team to open more time to spend on philanthropic work. This news led to Marc wondering why Flávio decided to make this news so far in advance.

Yesterday the sports world learned of the passing of Bill Buckner. Buckner will long be remembered by the miss played ground ball in the 1986 World Series against against the New York Mets. Marc talks about the story of what happened to that infamous ball and how it ties into Charlie Sheen and a 90s pop song.