The Pomp And Joe Show

We think CJ Stroud should be an NFL MVP finalist. Ron covered the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics. Ron and Joe recap their time covering the Olympics and other great events.  

Hour 2 with Ron Cook and Joe Starkey: The PIAA has denied Aliquippa's motion to stay in 5A. Aliquippa won its appeal two years ago based on health and safety reasons, but the PIAA wrote out the part of their bylaws which Aliquippa was able to win their appeal for. The PIAA oversold their number of transfers for the Quips with 23 transfers. We hear from callers on Aliquippa. Mike White of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette joined the show. Mike doesn't think the PIAA sees the big picture. They tried to put the 2018 competitive balance rule in place to likely squash talks about the advantage Catholic and private schools have. Mike said the PIAA is not going to separate private schools from public schools. Southern Columbia is not being bumped up because they don't have transfer players. Westinghouse is going down to 1A from enrollment despite being in back-to-back state championships. The healthy and safety component is not allowed to be argued on. The situation doesn't make sense. Not one question was asked to Aliquippa from the board at Wednesday's meeting. 

Mark Kaboly of The Athletic joined the show. Mark thinks Zac Robinson isn't the most likely candidate to take the job and will have many different options to become a coordinator. Arthur Smith intrigues Kaboly and is on the short list. The former Falcons coach is tied to Mike Munchak, according to Poni. Mark thinks it's 50/50 that Mason Rudolph will return next season. The Steelers can get under the cap number at a pretty steady rate. Joe pitches potential options at offensive coordinator including Luke Getsy, Kliff Kingsbury, and others. Mark thinks Najee Harris' fifth year option will be picked up and eventually an extension will get done for Pat Freiermuth. He could probably come back on a cheap deal. Mark thinks the Steelers won't ask Cam Heyward to take a pay cut and instead will get an extension. Art Rooney values their legendary players and keeps them around as long as they can. 

Finalists for MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Defensive Rookie of the Year have been announced. T.J. Watt is a finalist for Defensive POTY and Joey Porter for Rookie of the Year. Ron wrote a column about fans storming the court and that fans are in the news so much lately. 

The PIAA has denied Aliquippa's motion to stay in 5A. Aliquippa won its appeal two years ago based on health and safety reasons, but the PIAA wrote out the part of their bylaws which Aliquippa was able to win their appeal for. The PIAA oversold their number of transfers for the Quips with 23 transfers. We hear from callers on Aliquippa. 

Mike White of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette joined the show. Mike doesn't think the PIAA sees the big picture. They tried to put the 2018 competitive balance rule in place to likely squash talks about the advantage Catholic and private schools have. Mike said the PIAA is not going to separate private schools from public schools. Southern Columbia is not being bumped up because they don't have transfer players. Westinghouse is going down to 1A from enrollment despite being in back-to-back state championships. The healthy and safety component is not allowed to be argued on. The situation doesn't make sense. Not one question was asked to Aliquippa from the board at Wednesday's meeting. 

Myles Garrett is probably going to win Defensive Player of the Year. He had one sack in the final six games of the season and his numbers aren't better than T.J. Watt. T.J. had five more sacks than Garrett, but Cleveland's guy had two sacks in their home win against the Steelers. We compare the candidates. J.J. Watt called out PFF for not giving T.J. Watt enough credit. We hear JJ Watt crush PFF and how a coach's grade is better than them. 

Has the gap closed, or gotten smaller, for the Steelers to be at or near the teams playing in the conference championship? The QB situation is murky going into 2024. The Steelers will be competing with Jacksonville, Miami, and the Chargers for a wild card. It's going to be difficult just to make the playoffs. 

Hour 1 with Cook and Joe: Joe's Six Pack. Is signing Aroldis Chapman signaling a David Bednar trade? Kevin Gorman of the TRIB game it some thought. Joe thinks they may go to a bullpen game in the rotation. The Oilers have won 14 games in a row. They need three to tie and four to break the record. Carter Hart and the Flyers are surprising the NHL. He has taken a mysterious leave of absence. Todd Bowles didn't use a timeout to potentially get the ball back with 25 seconds and either force a field goal or punt. Beltre, Helton, and Mauer were elected to the Hall of Fame. Ron only voted for Beltre. Pitt basketball has won two in a row. Audacy betting expert Chelsa Messinger joined the show. She wants to see if Deebo is playing for San Francisco before picking a winner and especially on the spread. She's going to take the Ravens in the futures market and believes whoever wins the AFC will win the Super Bowl. Jeff Patton of the Baseball Card Castle joined the show and has a "21" Clemente card for this week's Starkey's Card of the Week.

Hour 2 with Ron Cook and Joe Starkey: Starkey's mailbag. Does Aaron Rodgers regret not going back to Green Bay? Besides Eddie Faulkner and Danny Smith, should any other coach be retained? Teryl Austin is supposed to come back. The offensive coordinator is the main dish on the plate to find out. Will the Pirates shop Chapman? Would you trade T.J. Watt for multiple draft picks? Pirates over/under win total. Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette joined the show. With the exception of three teams, everyone in the ACC is fighting for where they will land either in the NCAA Tournament or NIT. Pitt only has one legit win (Duke) and aren't playing any ranked teams again. Pitt has to be near perfect to make the tourney. They need to go 11-1 to have a realistic chance. Pitt had answers for every Duke punch. The ACC is not that good and hasn't been for a few years. It's top heavy with North Carolina and Duke.