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Rush to Reason with John Rush tackles the complicated world of education, politics, and the current state of American youth. Joined by Mark Bauerlein, the episode discusses the hidden stories behind student test scores and the unexpected consequences of federal education policies. The role technology plays in distracting the younger generation is examined, and solutions are proposed to combat federal overreach in the education sector. As always, John Rush offers practical advice and in-depth analysis on how Americans can reclaim local control and tackle the underlying problems within their schools. From detailing personal anecdotes to analyzing decades of educational
SPEAKER 05 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 13 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush. My advice to you is to do what your parents did! Get a job, Turk! You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 10 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know, you can’t explain. But you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 12 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind? It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 15 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Hour number two, Mark Bauerlein joining us now. Mark, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 14 :
I’m doing pretty well this week, actually. How are you?
SPEAKER 15 :
I’m doing very well as well. You’re author of the book, The Dumbest Generation, How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future. We’ve got a president-elect, Trump, that has talked on the campaign trail, and there’s been others around him, about the Department of Education. Do we need it? Do we not? Mark, I am one that would tell you we don’t.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, I mean, I don’t know why you would say that. I mean, since the Department of Ed has been created, student scores have just climbed through the roof. They are reading more. Their reading scores are astronomical. The math scores… Oh, no, wait a minute. Wait a minute.
SPEAKER 15 :
What country are you talking about, Mark?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, there we are. There we are. No, look, it’s time. We have the history here. What has been the effectiveness… of the Federal Department of Education. I mean, hundreds of millions of dollars passed through that agency.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, probably at this point, we’ve had it, what, since 1978? Is that right? 79, I think. We’re well over a billion. Yeah. So late 70s. It’s got to be over a billion dollars plus. And what results do we have other than low scores across the board and low literacy, by the way? It’s not just scores. We literally I mean, Mark, I’m an employer. I have watched for years folks, you know, coming in out of high school, applying for jobs, filling out apps and so on. And I will tell you, Mark, that I’ve been self-employed since 1986, and I’ve been watching those individuals that come in and apply for jobs do nothing but go downhill, not uphill.
SPEAKER 14 :
Indeed, and we know the reasons why. I mean, one reason why is they’re stuck on those little phones and on those tiny screens, and they’re listening to crappy music and watching idiotic TikTok videos. But also, we look at the curriculums. Compare the curriculum in English. In the 1960s, they were reading Shakespeare. They were memorizing poems. They were memorizing the Gettysburg Address. Now, what are they doing? They’re watching videos.
SPEAKER 15 :
They are doing little… Mark, I mean, not to get down a rabbit trail here, but we’re trying to teach them what gender they are.
SPEAKER 14 :
Nonetheless, the rest of the stuff you just talked about… And this is where federal hammer… comes down because when when joe biden when barack obama inserted gender identity into title ix which was only sexual identity men and women gender identity oh boy here come the male athletes who say they’re female trump took that out of title ix gender gender was gone biden right off the bat put it back in so when the university of pennsylvania has a guy leah thomas who wants to swim. He’s a foot taller than all the girls. Pennsylvania can’t say no without jeopardizing its receipt of federal research dollars, which keep all the research universities going. So that’s where you get the federal overreach. The federal government with the Department of Education can go into school districts and start saying things like, you are punishing black students more than you are punishing white students of course you know we all know that the teaching core is filled with a bunch of reactionary white supremacists right right right so of course that’s going to happen but this is where having a federal agency turns into Leviathan, right? It’s a gigantic octopus, it spreads, it’s the blob.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, and it’s also, in my opinion, just more overreach of government. I mean, I can see some, not many, by the way, because I’m kind of a states’ rights guy, not a Fed-type guy, but, you know, in this particular case… It is an entire overlay of what states are already doing. And correct me if I’m wrong, Mark, but to my knowledge, every single state across our great country has departments of education in their own state that handle that education all the way down to school boards, local levels, and so on. My question is then, why does there need to be some overarching federal bureaucracy when the states are already doing it?
SPEAKER 14 :
There doesn’t. There doesn’t. I mean, there were there were ideas right way back saying, well, some school districts might be might be violating civil rights laws or some school districts might might not be using the right curriculum. So we got to have this gigantic umbrella organization, the Department of Ed. But what what happens is this is the way things work. States get money. federal money from the Department of Ed. Now, they’ve got to give the… There are all these strings attached, but what happens is it’s a bribe. I mean, the states get addicted.
SPEAKER 15 :
Mark, it’s a bribe. I mean, our federal funds that come in for roads, bridges, and so on is nothing different than that as well. All of these are bribes, in my opinion.
SPEAKER 14 :
They are. And what we need is state level politicians, conservatives, you know, Republicans mainly who are going to break the pattern. I mean, states need to realize it’s not worth it. Right. All right. To maintain independence, to maintain local control, to not have all these federal regulations coming in. All these people you have to hire in order to meet federal reporting requirements. It’s just not worth it. And also, look, last week was a referendum. We want a smaller federal government. We don’t want Washington, D.C. I believe in the Beltway. This is another reality around here. This is not people who understand Americans far away. I mean, the reason, one of the big issues for the founders of this country was It is unhealthy for a society to have its decision makers far away geographically, simply just being far away, you know, a thousand miles. And so this is one local control. Let’s spread things out a little bit. But it’s very hard. I mean, when Donald Trump proposed things like let’s move the Department of Interior out to Colorado.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, because that upsets the apple cart around the beltway, right? That’s right. Yeah, and that talk is happening again, and I think you’re going to see more of that actually happen this roll around, because I think Donald Trump had enough during the first four-year term to where he’s like, yeah, I learned enough. I’m going to do things a little differently. And he’s already talking about shaking up D.C. by doing exactly what you just said. I was going to talk about that today, so you beat me to the punch, Mark. But the reality is nothing better could happen to Washington, in my opinion.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, the D.C. situation looks more and more like Versailles in France. You know, the king, the court of Louis XVI way back in 17, you know, before the revolution in 1779. And it just breeds corruption. It breeds infighting. I mean, it is amazing. All the affiliations, you know, all the family relationships, the marriage relationships in this city. Nepotism runs rampant. And it is. It’s contrary to the American way. It’s contrary to the feeling of independence of citizens where they just feel like nobody represents me. No one’s acting in my interest. They don’t give a damn about me. In fact, they don’t even like me. Right.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 14 :
You know, we’ve got to break the D.C. bubble. So, absolutely, let’s take out the department right now. It’s going to be very hard. It’s going to take a while. And so I’m thinking, in the meantime, we can certainly peel away certain things like no more DEI practices. Right. the department. Done. We’re going to look at the accreditors as well and say, we need to have some conservative accreditors out there to monitor these school systems and colleges and universities. But there has to be sort of a longer term plan phasing the thing out. But it depends on whether our legislators, because part of this is legislators, Trump can have all the determination. If our legislators are not on board, so get onto your senators and congressmen and say, you’re waffling on this, you’re next.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s right, absolutely. Mark Bowerlane, appreciate you very much. Is the book still, I mean, I know this is a book back in 08, is it still available? What’s the best way for folks to get it?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, I’ve got a couple of books. One is The Dumbest Generation Grows Up, from stupefied youth to dangerous adults. It’s about the millennials in age 30, you know, they were doing so well back in 08, and now they’re all miserable, and unhappy because they got sold a bill of goods and life just isn’t what they thought it would be. Anyway, you can get that on Amazon. Just look me up. You’ll find those books.
SPEAKER 15 :
Mark, I appreciate your time today very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. You bet. Have a great one. And that’s spelled, by the way, for those of you that are going to go look that up, B-A-U-R-E-L-E-I-N. Again, we’ll have that in our show notes a little later tonight as well. Hi-Fi Plumbing is next. Don’t forget they’ve added electrical, so if you’ve had any trouble during this last storm and may still be having problems, please give Hi-Fi a call today, 877-WE-HI-5.
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SPEAKER 15 :
Bruce Simmons is next. He is our reverse mortgage professor. If you’ve thought of a reverse mortgage but don’t know the details of, talk to Bruce today. KLZradio.com is where you find him.
SPEAKER 06 :
Our reverse mortgage expert, Bruce Simmons, will help carefully craft a reverse mortgage that works the best for you. By obtaining a reverse mortgage, you can have a line of credit that grows over time. Bruce also can structure a reverse mortgage that helps you pay off your current mortgage and reduce monthly expenses. It can help create a lump sum to consolidate other debt or provide money towards an emergency fund. Inflation is forcing people to tap into more of their savings to get by. But with a reverse mortgage, you’ll be better able to meet those monthly expenses with the rising costs for medication, food, insurance, property taxes, and gas. Why not use the equity just sitting there in your home to keep more of your hard-earned savings? With a reverse mortgage from Bruce Simmons, this gives you peace of mind and will reduce your financial stress. Create a line of credit with the reverse mortgage expert, Bruce Simmons, by going to klzradio.com. Putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 15 :
All right. Speaking of kids, we’re back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush. Wall Street Journal article I read last week. I was going to get to this and just didn’t get time, so I shoved it off into today. The new must-have for overwhelmed kids. Now, I’ll talk about that in a moment. But the new must-have, if your kids are overwhelmed, is an executive function coach. Folks, I’m not making this stuff up. As students struggle with paying attention and managing stress, demand is soaring for a new and often pricey kind of support. I guess if you’re a wealthy family and your kids are having some sort of overwhelming stress and they can’t manage it, you hire them an executive function coach. I guess that must be the new, you know, in thing to do. By the way, I’ve never heard anything so full of nonsense in my entire life. First of all, what are these kids stressed about? Especially kids that live in a family where you can hire an executive function coach. What’s going on there that’s making them so stressed? So this article starts off. Soon after her son started middle school, Kay Nash, heard of talent at a Washington, D.C. law firm, head of talent, I should say, started worrying about his organizational skills and study habits. He’s been diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety in third grade, and a combination of medication and school support helped him navigate elementary school, but he still struggled. Suddenly, she saw more work and more subjects, more projects and more homework coming down the pike. I didn’t want to be micromanaging schoolwork, yelling, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I wanted a positive, encouraging relationship with my child. She wanted to find someone to help him, the child, get organized, and more important, to teach him the life skills needed to organize himself in the future. That part I guess I can understand, but it’s like, okay, at what age are you trying to get these kids to do these things? And again, what are these kids so stressed with? Now, there’s actually a coaching firm here in Denver that I guess I should try to interview. It’s Untapped Learning. There’s somebody that founded a coaching program here in Denver. Today it’s coming from all sides. Neurotypical students across the country, universities, school districts, and businesses. So many students are struggling today with problem-solving and basic executive function tasks like managing procrastinations. I got nothing, folks. I guess to back up, we just had a guest on talking about how since the Department of Education was started back in the late 70s, our test scores, and Joe from Jersey talked about this last week, test scores and the actual literacy of our kids graduating high school is plummeting. We spend more per student… than any other nation, developing nation, and yet have the worst scores. I mean, we are way down the list when it comes to the education of our kids and how smart they are. Now, I firmly believe this is by design. I’ve said that many, many times. This is what Marxism does. If you can dumb down society, you’re able to foist on them more and more things. So this is by design. That’s why we need to reverse it, by the way. But this whole realm of kids are so stressed that they now need some sort of an executive coach, I mean, I guess I could understand helping your kids learn how to cope with things in their life and be better students and so on. And if that’s the case, I guess I’m in favor of that. But if this is just helping kids cope with stress because of things you as a parent are doing, then that’s on you. I watched a video over the weekend where there was this lefty last week on election night that you could tell was recording herself. I think it was the next morning. Sorry, I’ll make sure I get this correct. It was the next morning. She was recording herself talking to her young kids about who won the election. Now, first of all, if you’ve got young kids that are in elementary school, I mean, unless they’re in junior high or high school, no offense, I don’t know that most kids care who’s president or even understand what that means. Let kids be kids. But this gal was explaining to her kids who won. And you could hear the back and forth, the dialogue, the mom crying, and just the nonsense in this conversation that was happening. And I’m thinking to myself the entire time, these are people that literally have no grip on reality whatsoever. And we wonder what’s wrong with the country. Literally wonder what’s wrong with the country. My kids never had any problems with who became president the day after an election. By the way, good, bad, or otherwise. Believe me, in my lifetime of raising kids, it wasn’t always the Donald Trumps of the world that won. We had the Bill Clintons. We had the Obamas. We had those types of individuals that won elections, and somehow we as a family figured it out and coped with it. Is the left this soft? I mean, I already know the answer, but are they that soft that they just can’t cope with any kind of a reality that they don’t feel they fit into? And man alive, if you’re that soft to where these sorts of things hurt your feelings that badly, man alive, I don’t know how you function in life. I really don’t. I honestly don’t know. Now, I understand, and I heard Donald Trump last week. I didn’t mention this, and health and wellness on Wednesday, maybe I will. But I understand that when people get down, depressed, and so on, there are certain medical conditions that can even cause some of that. And I’m fully aware of that and sympathetic to those people. So I’m not shortchanging any of those folks whatsoever. Donald Trump said something, and he still got elected, but he said something not long ago to the effect of all these people running around, I’m paraphrasing, but all these people running around that are depressed. His answer was, get to work. Stop sitting around thinking about being depressed. Get to work, and you’re liable to not be depressed. Yeah, that was Donald Trump saying that. I know it sounds a lot like me. We are probably very similar in that particular respect because it’s hard. And his point was, and I would agree, it’s hard to be depressed when you’re working. When you’re busy and you’re keeping your mind busy, it’s hard to be depressed. Now, with these kids, I don’t understand everything that’s going on in today’s world with these kids. I realize that the rise of ADHD and some other things that are on the rise, yes, and some of that I’ve interviewed people on Health and Wellness on Wednesdays. Some of that’s coming from food and environment and other things, and I think that’s where you’ve got to be really careful as parents as to what are you feeding your kids and so on. We talk about that on Wednesdays. On the same token, I think some of these parents just get so off the wall with their kids, they don’t even treat them like kids. I mean, this lady the other day that I’m explaining to you that’s talking about the election the day after the election is talking to these kids like they’re adults, and they’re not. These are kids. Now, I’m not saying that you’ve got to use baby talk forever when you’re talking to your kids that could very well be elementary school age. You don’t have to use, Frank, I never use baby talk, period. You just talk to kids like you talk to kids. Like you would anybody else. But how you explain things to them, no, they’re not adults. Nor should they be treated as adults. They shouldn’t be treated as adults until they are one. Now, as they get older and they start entering into their teenage years and so on, yes, you start talking to them more like they’re adults. But keep in mind, even then, they’re not adults. And the conversation has to be adjusted accordingly. The problem that I feel we have, one of the problems, there’s many, but one of the problems is we’ve got these kids growing up way faster than they should be or in some cases not growing up enough. We’ve got them growing up in some ways too quickly and in other ways not at all. And then we wonder why they’re all screwed up and can’t go out and find a job after high school or college. But anyways, point is this article, the new must have for overwhelmed kids is an executive function coach, which. That must be another cost that I’ve never paid for, nor would I. I think you guys already know me on that one. I mean, my feeling is, and I think my kids adjusted pretty well, because, by the way, the cost for this is $125 to $225 an hour to have somebody come in and talk to your kids, your executive coach. It’s expensive. So with my kids, guess what? They all started working at an early age. I didn’t have any of these issues. I mean, my kids, because of a family business, when they turned 8, 9, 10, if they could push a broom, they were working in the summertime. Every one of them. And the fact of the matter is, every one of them can hold a job today, thankfully. I think because of some of that. So anyways… Speaking of kids, one of mine is going to join me in a moment. We’ll talk about some of the sports stuff, politics, and so on here in just a minute. Golden Eagle Financial, though, is next. Al Smith, he wants to help with your financial future, making sure you’re dialed in, and I guess can pay for that $125 to $225 an hour executive coach. Call Al today. Al Smith, Golden Eagle Financial. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 12 :
Now, back to Rush to Reason, presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 15 :
All right, we are back. My son Richard joining us now. Okay, Richard, really quick before we get going. Did I ever hire you an executive function coach? A what? My last segment, I talked about how stressed kids have to be pretty wealthy families because these coaches bring anywhere from $125 to $225 an hour. These parents hire their kids an executive function coach.
SPEAKER 05 :
And what are they supposed to do?
SPEAKER 15 :
Help these kids manage stress.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh. I don’t think that was on the John Rush book of how-to parenting.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah, no, that was not on my list. No, not at all.
SPEAKER 05 :
I don’t think so. I mean, that sounds like a colossal waste of money to me, but I guess if you’ve got money to burn, then…
SPEAKER 15 :
I guess so, but basically these are parents that don’t want to micromanage their kids with their schoolwork on other things, and they need somebody to come in and help them manage the potential stress that these kids have and so on and so forth, and I just look at it as all just a bunch of nonsense.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, it just seems like it. I mean, again, I think that there’s, I know that businesses do lots of this stuff, which is great for businesses, but I’m not so sure that that’s at the top of the list for parents for kids, I guess. Yeah. Part of the problem in society, unfortunately, Dad, right, is kids don’t know how to do that. They don’t know how to deal with, you know, tough stuff, right?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, they don’t.
SPEAKER 05 :
The gentle parenting piece that is all the rage on social media these days where you see all these you know, Instagram moms and TikTok moms that go and say all of these things. Well, you guys, you know, this is gentle parenting, you know, never raising your voice, never, you know. Yeah, it’s a bunch of nonsense is what it is. I don’t disagree with you.
SPEAKER 15 :
Unbelievable. Yeah, no, I watch some of those same things, and I look at some of these parents, and I just think to myself, you guys are absolute, total losers. Sorry, you’re losers. You are correct. All right, talk to us about over-the-weekend sports, football, there was some car racing and so on, but before we do anything, because I saw lots of videos, little clips of this over the weekend from not only some pro players, but some college players as well, and I’m not sure everybody on the field or the stands even knows what’s going on unless you’re an actual Trump supporter, but that’s the Trump football dance.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, the Trump football, which is like… It reminds me of from Hitch, right, with Kevin James and Will Smith, where you live right here. You’re right in here. You’re not the other stuff. It reminds me of that. I could be completely wrong with my assumption there, but that’s what it reminds me of. But basically, it’s you kind of keep your hands, and you just kind of almost do like mini punches.
SPEAKER 15 :
He’s kind of this mini-pump thing where he’s kind of dancing kind of side to side. So since then, since that’s kind of what he’s done to the YMCA song and others, you’ve now got football players after they make a touchdown or whatever, they score or they have a big play or whatever, they get up and they start doing the little Trump shuffle, I guess you could call it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you know, you kind of called it before the election, Dad, right? Which is that sort of this, I’m going to call them the silent majority, right? The silent voters that have sort of came out and people were, you know, hesitant to maybe voice their approval for Trump.
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right? When it was known. And then now you’re seeing a lot more people do it. And, you know, obviously Nick Bosa of the 49ers, he actually got fined. He was wearing a hat, right? After Sunday Night Football last week, 49ers won. He ran up behind Brock Purdy, their quarterback, before the end-of-game interview, and he basically had the hat on, posted it, and there is an NFL rule in the collective bargaining agreement that you can’t put any sort of political stuff on, not on your off time, but on the field or something like that. So before people, you know, the NFL and… Essentially conservatives, right, before we start throwing our arms up at it. Is it silly? Yes, but it’s actually in there. I saw the wording of the collective bargaining agreement, which says you can’t do that. And so whether it was that or even a Walz-Harris, whatever it might be, right? Now, granted, I think that most people don’t know this because they think that their favorite player – Well, I think actually most people who follow football probably tend to lean conservatively, unless you’re Tim Walz and you’re going for it on the fourth play or whatever silly nonsense that he decided to come out with. But a lot of, I think, most NFL players, right, because they’re of the top 1%. They don’t like the government taking their money.
SPEAKER 15 :
Some of those guys, for those of you listening that don’t know this, go look up how their pay works. And depending upon the state they’re playing in on a particular weekend, they may get a bigger or smaller paycheck for the same amount of money. It’s just a matter of which state’s taking more chunk out of it.
SPEAKER 05 :
You are correct. Well, yeah, basically they get jock taxed, right? They have to pay a higher amount in certain states, right? So, for example, when the Broncos go – well, the Broncos this past weekend, right? We’ll dive into that. They play the Chiefs. They have to pay a different rate for the hours that they worked, and I’m sure it has to do with game checks and all sorts of things. I mean, honestly, a lot of these players would – would benefit to do some creative accounting, but there’s only so much that the collective bargaining allows. Basically, they have to pay tax on where they play, right, Dad? So if these players go play in California, they have to pay a massive tax on that, even if you’re just a visiting team, even if it’s only for one game.
SPEAKER 15 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 05 :
And it’s just crazy, right? All sorts of things. So I think a lot of these players are… More of these players than not are fans of Trump than even you’d like to think, right? Probably so. Whether you’re black, white, Hispanic, whoever it is, I think a lot of these guys tend to feel the right. But as far as the games this weekend, Dad goes…
SPEAKER 15 :
So dispel the rumors that there were some that might have been playing on the Broncos team yesterday that had a bet on the game and then took a dive at the end. I would never go that far to say that because I think that’s being pretty outlandish. On the same token, how do you explain an utter colossal special teams failure at the last play of the game?
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, honestly, Dad, what I sort of equate it to is the Broncos, because you actually go back, and this basically had been happening for several weeks now. You actually kind of go back to some of their last 12 attempts, whether it be touchdowns or field goals. And this essentially was a problem since then. For this left, you know, tight end position, right, is what happened. It’s actually the guy who’s been playing center the past few weeks. He was in place of our original starting center because he was hurt. Actually did a really good job. And it was just a situation of the Chiefs called it. He plays too much on his toes. And for those that don’t know, when you are – Well, because you’ve got too much weight on your toes. You don’t have the right leverage. You’re not stable. That’s right. You don’t have the right leverage.
SPEAKER 15 :
In for everybody listening, football is a game of leverage, period.
SPEAKER 05 :
It is. The lowest guy, and it’s not even the strongest guy. Nope. It’s a game of leverage. It’s not even the heaviest guy.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 05 :
And what happened in this situation, I’m with you 100%, is he just didn’t have his right leverage. And it has nothing to do with taking a dive. It has nothing to do with any of that. It simply had to do with he just didn’t have – his feet weren’t right. And honestly, I will say this. I think the coaches missed it. They should have been catching it on film because if you actually go back to their two touchdowns earlier in the game plus their – missed field goal that they had, the same thing happened each time that. He was getting blown back, fell down, and in this case, they basically just overloaded that even heavier and went after it.
SPEAKER 15 :
Talk to the people out there that would say that, well, you know it’s fixed because a right-footed kicker, why in the world is he kicking from the right hash mark when he’s right-footed? I thought that would be the natural thing to do if you’re right-footed, Richard, because you typically, if you’re right-footed, are going to hook to the left a little bit, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you know that, honestly? The reality is it’s all up to kickers. It’s like baseball, right? Some hitters, it’s easier to pull the ball, right? It’s like in a golf swing, right? And a lot of people hook the ball.
SPEAKER 15 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
Because they kind of close the face, they take the ball, and so if you’re hitting right, that means going to the left. It’s a lot easier for kickers to do that versus pushing the ball, right? Where if he was on the left hash, he would have to do… Believe it or not, a lot of kickers don’t like the ball… in the middle of the field because they feel like they have to be more accurate. They have to aim the ball a little bit more.
SPEAKER 15 :
So that last play before that, Bo Nix, he gets the ball. He runs over about a yard or so, a yard and a half to the right, gets it closer to the right hash mark. And a lot of people are saying that was a setup to basically lose the game. No, Richard, I don’t believe that at all.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and you’re correct, and it wasn’t, and as much as, trust me, I love a good conspiracy theory, and folks, I was as angry as… No, I was too.
SPEAKER 15 :
I was hot yesterday. I was so stinking ticked off. I was like, you’ve got to be kidding me.
SPEAKER 05 :
Because, no, it shouldn’t have happened, and the Broncos actually played well, and here’s… They beat the Chiefs up and down the field all day long. They did, and I’m going to take what I’m mad about and make it a positive. They beat the Chiefs. Mahomes seems a little bit more mortal than he has been over the past few years. And ultimately, they had the Broncos, and they’re a rookie quarterback. took a five-minute drive at the end of the game, drove down the field what they were supposed to do, and they literally did everything right. Bo Nix made a really great play on the third down before all of this to where he didn’t have an incomplete pass. He stepped up in the pocket, was on the run, threw a dart to Cortland Sutton, made a play. Everything should have gone. And it didn’t. And I will say this. Yes, the Chiefs are a stinking lucky you-know-what team. It is a fact. And whether Chiefs fans want to agree with me, disagree with me, whatever it might be. And part of it is you’ve got to make sure.
SPEAKER 15 :
You know me. I’m not typically one to blame officiating on games or so on. But it sure was funny that they called holding calls on the Broncos all day long but rarely threw one on the Chiefs.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I saw holding.
SPEAKER 15 :
I mean, I get it. You can pretty much pick out holding on any play. It’s a matter of judgment on the refs as to whether they’re going to throw the flag or not. But there was some blatant holds on the Chiefs yesterday that they did not call.
SPEAKER 05 :
And what I will say is I totally agree with you. And I agree with you in the furthest extent is that there was a play where the Broncos got called for a legal contact. We sacked Mahomes on the play. They called him for a legal contact. And there wasn’t any. Well, it was a very questionable call. I’ll just say that. And that could have been a game changer. And it did. And would I have called that penalty if I was the referee? No, I wouldn’t have. At the same time, folks, the Broncos missed a kick at the end of the first half that would have obviously been in the lead.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 05 :
They had several drops, several self-inflicted things, so it never comes down to one play. But what’s promising to me, Dad, is I think that they can compete with the Chiefs. They can. And they proved that yesterday. Good point. I don’t think any team on the Broncos’ schedule remained the rest of the way. is insurmountable when they play the way that they did. Now, part of it for a young team is convincing them or getting them to do that on a consistent basis is one thing versus realizing it. But they did. And I don’t know if – well, I guess we can depend on it. I was going to say – We can keep going. No, keep going.
SPEAKER 15 :
I’ll combine breaks today to help you out time-wise. We’re good. So keep going.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, what I was going to say is, honestly, the last thing I was going to say is this – On the Broncos, the next thing is you combine that with a team like the Buffaloes, who sort of went through where the Broncos are at this year, last year, and where Deion sort of had to come in, remake the culture, and you can do it almost faster in college than you can in the pros, because there’s not as much of a free agency, or there is free agency, but it’s in a different way. But you look at the Buffs, and they played. Granted, they got close. I know you and I were talking about it on Saturday night, your afternoon. It was definitely closer than it should have been, just through some plays. But you’ve got a team like the Buffs, who last year, Dad, was losing close games, took a while to win. And I think you’re seeing football, as with anything, it’s family, faith, business. a country is establishing a culture, right? And I think that the Broncos are on their way to doing that with Sean Payton. I think that they’re making strides. And I think the buff with Deion, as much as people don’t want to admit it, Dad. they have done a phenomenal job at that, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER 15 :
Right, right. No, my only complaint with – well, I have several, but one of my biggest complaints, and I know it’s tough because any time you get a bunch of players into your point, and now with some of the new ways that players can make money, there’s a little difference in the cockiness of these college players and so on. It drives me crazy. I mean, it drives me crazy in the pros. I get it. It’s a little different situation. The rules are different, but it drives me crazy in college. You made a great play. I get it. Shut up. Go back to the huddle and stop all of your stupid gyrations and everything else that you do. All of your taunting and all of your other nonsense. If there’s anything Dion needs to fix, it’s that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and it’s funny because I think he will, Dad, because it’s been the second week in a row, and part of it is these guys have to realize that this is the nature of the beast when it comes to college, right? The refs are just a little bit more policing, and especially when you get to the Big 12 refs, they are not very, well, it was a very poorly ran game for a variety of reasons.
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, they let that thing get out of control. If you didn’t watch that game, you missed a lot of fan interaction that, frankly, the refs should have handled much earlier.
SPEAKER 05 :
Dad, I don’t know how in today’s day and age of player safety and all this other stuff, I have no idea how you can get away with throwing tortillas on the field. And for player safety, you’re reasoning that you’ll throw anything on the field, right? You know, everyone’s getting destroyed, you know, on a wide variety of, you know, reasonings and things. You know, anytime they’re throwing anything, you know, Texas happened earlier this year. They were throwing water bottles. Well, you know, what happens if you ball up a tortilla and throw it and it hits a player in the eye?
SPEAKER 04 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
Like, that’s just not safe. And I get that there’s all sorts of things. It’s just not cool, by the way. It’s not cool at all, and that’s what’s frustrating in this whole thing. But at the same time, Dan, CU, and who would have thought this at the end of last year and how everything went in the offseason, CU legitimately has a chance to be in the first ever 12-team college football playoff. They have three more winnable regular season games, and because of what happened this past weekend, if CU wins their next three games, which two of them are at home, they will be in the Big 12 championship game, likely playing BYU. And if they beat BYU, they will get not only into the college football playoff debt, they get a first-round buy in the college football playoff. Which is massive.
SPEAKER 15 :
As a coach, you’ve taken a team literally in three years and reversed its complete trajectory. Two years, rather.
SPEAKER 05 :
Sorry, two years. Two years. Two years ago, in 2022… CU won one game. They were getting blown out by 70 points in some cases. And you have now remade this team, and they are a much tougher team because at halftime, Dad, that game was looking a little dicey, right? And Deion has come in and completely remade that team, given them belief. And I tell you, Dad, belief is a powerful thing, right, when you can get a team to buy into that. And you said your players are treated differently. I think players actually enjoy playing for Deion as much as the media doesn’t want to admit this, and not local media but national media. He treats these kids like pro players because he knows some of them will be, and his philosophy is if you’re going to get paid like this, then you’re going to be treated like this. He doesn’t give out favors. He doesn’t play one guy over another. He doesn’t mince words when it comes to his kids and how they play. No, not at all.
SPEAKER 15 :
Actually, sometimes I think he’s harder on them than he is other teammates.
SPEAKER 05 :
Which is how it should be. And at the same time, I think he finally got fed up on Saturday. because you saw him actually get mad at the ref, and normally he doesn’t do that. He’s pretty level-headed. But he was mad because, again, the fans started throwing more than just tortillas. They started throwing bottles and other things. And then the ref’s response to that, I don’t know if you saw this or not, the ref’s response was, well, your players are blowing kisses at them. And it’s like, dude, it doesn’t matter what the player on the field says. It doesn’t make any difference.
SPEAKER 15 :
They’re doing that in response for what you’re throwing at them in the first place.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and like you say, and I think Deanna will get it corrected, sometimes the worst or the best celebration you can do is what Barry Sanders used to do, which is he scored a touchdown and he would find the referee and give him the ball. But that’s not quite today’s day and age, right?
SPEAKER 15 :
I know.
SPEAKER 05 :
And it’s just something that I think a lot of coaches… But here’s the deal. You just got to be smart about it, right? Travis Hunter a few weeks ago did a backflip. No flag on that. Perfectly fine. Your Shiloh scored a touchdown this week, Deion’s son, and he did Deion’s celebration, right? No flag on that. So I think you can celebrate. And do I think that that one taunting call when one guy broke it up is a little bit much? I do, but you’ve just got to know you can’t do that, right?
SPEAKER 15 :
Especially when things are elevated in the stadium like they were, they’re going to start throwing flags on any little thing that happens just because things are already elevated.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and like you say, officials are people. and they’re going to get in the moment, whether we should argue that they shouldn’t be in that moment or not, they are. That’s right. They’re fallible people. But ultimately, Dad, I think that this weekend, for as much of a bummer as yesterday was for the Broncos, I think it’s looking up.
SPEAKER 15 :
Okay, really quick, I got a text message that just came in. It said, what about the blonde female referee at the Bronco game that has selfies with Taylor Swift before the game? How does that pan out? Is that true? I didn’t hear that.
SPEAKER 05 :
So it is. Basically, she met Taylor before the game. FaceTimed her family, took screenshots or whatever it was, and that was that. Here’s the deal. Do I think that that impacted the game? No, I don’t. It’s still not cool. Two things can be true at once, right? Do I think it impacted the game? No. Do I think that it’s something that they are probably going to come down on her on for?
SPEAKER 04 :
And they should.
SPEAKER 05 :
As they should? Yeah, they should. And here’s the deal. I don’t care if that was a male refs. and he was getting a picture for his daughter, you can’t do that.
SPEAKER 15 :
No, that is out of line. You’re the official. You should not be doing any of that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, here’s the deal with that. It’s one thing if a celebrity is there just to be there, right? If a celebrity is there for the Super Bowl, and they really don’t have any rooting interest on any team, but everyone knows that Taylor Swift is dating Travis Kelsey. And so there’s a blurred line there, rightfully so or not, that you just can’t cross. And unfortunately, in that case, I think, again, the NFL usually comes down on this stuff pretty hard. She may be suspended. I don’t know. I mean, again, I don’t know what the referee association rules are with that. But again, going back to what we talked about, I don’t think that that had any bearing on the outcome of the game, but it doesn’t look great.
SPEAKER 15 :
No, and it’s like we say all the time, and this is something that the NFL has to be really careful of. You want to make sure that the appearance is never against you. And in this particular case, given some of the things that happened yesterday, that appearance is not in your favor, and the NFL has to fix that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Correct. And again, the NFL, it’s to their benefit that they get this stuff right, because especially when a team like the Chiefs is going for a three-peat, and they’re going for potentially a perfect season, all of these things, to give them… Any favoritism, whether it’s there or not, again, perception is 90% of reality.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s right. That’s right.
SPEAKER 05 :
And you need to remove that if you want it to be legitimate. And the only side, and I’ll say this, Dad, is I know Patrick Mahomes is great, but the fact that that dude sprinted out there like he just won the Super Bowl just made me want to just got so mad at it.
SPEAKER 15 :
Only plus side is the Chiefs organization itself are pretty big Trump fans, so we’ll give them that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and like I think we talked about with Andy last week on Friday, I think Mahomes is too. I think that his family is Trump fans. So it makes you like a guy that way. But you know what? This just goes to show you, I don’t care if you’re conservative or not, if you keep beating my team, I don’t have to like you.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s right. That’s exactly right. It’s still sports at the end of the day.
SPEAKER 05 :
We can agree to disagree that, hey, we can agree on politics, and maybe he loves Jesus and all that, and we can be on that same page. It doesn’t mean I’ve got to like you when you’re beating my team every single time.
SPEAKER 15 :
That’s right. That’s why it’s sports. Absolutely. All right, Richard, I’ll let you go with that. Appreciate that. That’s a good ending. Ridgeline Auto Brokers coming up next. If you’re looking for a great new used car, they’ve got you covered. They can take care of your current vehicle as well. RidgelineAutoBrokers.com.
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SPEAKER 15 :
All right, that’s it for this hour. Another full hour coming your way. Hour three is next. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you. I’m a rich guy
Tariffs, Truckers, and Tragedy: Politics Meets the Road