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00:00but let's get started with last night's result in one of the epic games you'll ever see in an
00:04AFC championship game, one that as expected did come straight down to the wire, points Brent
00:08included. They're back again, the Kansas City Chiefs are headed to another Super Bowl with
00:13an opportunity to become the only team in the history of the NFL to win three straight. They
00:17defeat the Bills 32 to 29 in this game, razor thin margins in all of it, including a play
00:25down the stretch. In the end, Josh Allen chased out of the pocket, throws a ball to Dalton Kincaid
00:32or really to nobody, but throws a ball. Dalton Kincaid almost came up with it. That would have
00:36potentially given Buffalo a chance to tie the game or maybe even take the lead, but it was not to be.
00:42The Chiefs close it out late. They're headed to another Super Bowl and as Patrick Mahomes,
00:45of course, is headed to history with a possibility of winning three in a row,
00:50and he talked about winning it in front of the fans last night.
00:53It's just so hard to get to the Super Bowl and I don't take it for granted, and to be able to do
00:58it again at Arrowhead was special. I mean, last year it was awesome. You get there and you win it,
01:03but you're at a different stadium and then being able to win it at Arrowhead and then you get that
01:07trophy on that stage, you look around and there's not a seat empty. It is a special place and I'm
01:13glad that I get to be a part of Chiefs kingdom and here in Kansas City because these moments that I'll
01:19have for the rest of my life. It's a long process and it takes everybody. It takes every single
01:27person on the team and you saw that tonight. If it was special teams, if it was offensive,
01:30it was defense. Everybody had their role in this game and that was a great football team that we
01:35played. For us to go through the season and win the games the way that we won them, I'm proud of
01:41the team, but like you said, we're not to the ultimate goal yet and this will be a great
01:45challenge for us with Philadelphia and so I'm excited for the guys preparing and get to New
01:49Orleans and put up our best shot. On the flip side, Josh Allen comes one game short of the
01:55Super Bowl yet again, as has been the story in the Chiefs era the last 10 years with the Buffalo
02:02Bills and Chiefs facing off against each other. Craig despondent Allen after the game talking
02:06about the loss. It's not fun, but to beat the champs you gotta, to beat the champs you gotta
02:14beat the champs and we didn't do it tonight. Yeah, they gave a good look. Didn't see anything
02:23in my first cadence. We were sliding left, corner came. Yeah, they're the best, but
02:36we just want to get it done and, you know, we haven't been able to.
02:40Josh, when you get the ball back down three, how did you feel about the situation?
02:45Felt good, relaxed. We just, yeah, we gotta, gotta execute better.
02:52Josh, how much does the fact that you've got this specific team that's coming back this season mean to you?
03:02They've ended a lot of, a lot of team seasons too and it's a good squad. They had a good
03:07play tonight and again, they made more play than we did. Really close finish there. Very exciting
03:13right down to the end. I'll be curious to see what the ratings are for that one. All right,
03:16the Cinderella story for the Washington Commanders officially comes to a screeching halt
03:20in Philadelphia. They just couldn't stop the Eagles, couldn't stop Saquon Barkley. Jalen
03:24Hurts looked like the Hurts of old. 55 to 23, the final was close for about two quarters and
03:30then the Eagles ended up pulling away. Barkley, several touchdowns in this game. Hurts, several
03:35touchdowns in this game and it was a pretty definitive win as the Eagles will now head back
03:40to the Super Bowl to take on the Kansas City Chiefs and their former head coach Andy Reid.
03:45But needless to say, the head coach currently of the Eagles, Nick Sirianni, super excited to be
03:51headed back to the spot but this time looking for a win. Yeah, this, this game is about overcoming
03:57adversity. There's going to be good plays in the game. There's going to be a bad, there's going to
04:01be bad plays in the game. There's going to be good moments in a season. There's going to be bad
04:04moments in a season and it's about overcoming and embracing the adversity because really what we've
04:11talked about as a team is like adversity. We've all had to get avert, have adversity to be in this
04:17moment as where we are right now and so adversity is what makes you who you are and it's and it's
04:23been the story of you know the 2023 to the 2024 Eagles is as bad as feeling we had is how last
04:31year ended. I think it makes you who you are. These guys are hungry and you know we got, we want, we
04:39got one more to go. What was your message to the team in the locker room? I don't know. They were, everyone was kind
04:44of flowing in. It was just basically what the schedule was. Kind of what our message has been
04:51all year is tough, detailed together. Tough, detailed together. You know mentally and physically
04:57tough. Detailed with our fundamentals. Detailed with being on the same page. Detailed with that
05:04and then together right because again it's not the best groups of individuals that wins. You got
05:09to become a team and you know we got one more to go. And the Chiefs currently a one and a half point
05:16favorite over the Eagles in the upcoming Super Bowl. Total 49 and a half. Rest of the news of
05:24the National Football League. A new head coach for the Dallas Cowboys as was announced over the weekend.
05:28It is Brian Schottenheimer goes from offensive coordinator to the head coach of the Cowboys. The
05:32Seahawks have hired Clint Kubiak as their new offensive coordinator. He was with the Minnesota
05:38Vikings in 2021 and the Saints this past season. Darren Mogey leaves the Broncos. He joins coach
05:44Aaron Glenn as the new general manager. He is 39 years old and now the third youngest GM in the
05:49National Football League. And the Bears have hired D-Clan Doyle, Broncos tight end coach, as their
05:55offensive coordinator. Of course Ben Johnson will be doing a lot of the offensive game planning I
06:00would guess going into next season. All right let's get to some college football as well. Penn
06:04State is finalizing a deal for Ohio State's defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. He'll agree to a
06:09three-year contract that will pay him almost 3.1 million dollars per season. So shift in the Big
06:15Ten no doubt. Shador Sanders, the quarterback of Colorado, headed to the NFL. Not sure if he is
06:21going to throw at the combine in Indianapolis next month but he's been meeting with teams including
06:25Tennessee, Cleveland, and New York. We'll see where he ends up. All-American safety Xavier Watts from
06:30Notre Dame is entering the NFL draft and also a recruit ends up flipping. Brady Smigel, 36th
06:36recruit for 26, takes away his FSU commit. Looks like he could be headed to Ohio State. No word on
06:42that just yet. In the WNBA, a pretty massive trade ahead of their trade deadline. Kelsey Plum was
06:48traded to the Sparks. The Aces land Jewel Lloyd in a three-team deal. The Aces get Lloyd, the Sparks
06:54get Plum, and a second round pick. And the Storm get a number two pick and a 2026 first rounder
07:01with another player as well. SGA Shea Gildas Alexander, the most dominant player going right
07:06now in the NBA. 33 points and they beat the Portland Trailblazers. Did OKC 118-108. Their
07:12record is now 37-8 on the season. Also Yusef Nurkic says he and their head coach Mike Budenholzer
07:18do not have a good relationship. We'll see what his status is moving forward. Some talk he could
07:23get traded ahead of the deadline which is coming up next week. In baseball, a trade yesterday and
07:28if you're reading the tea leaves could lead to some hot stove movement as well.
07:32Astros freeing up some money potentially to re-sign Alex Bregman. They've traded Ryan Presley,
07:38their closer from a couple of years ago before they got Josh Hader, to the Chicago Cubs. He
07:42was set to make 14 million dollars this upcoming season. Alex Bregman still unsigned. We'll see
07:47if that leads to a signing and maybe Jose Altuve moving to the outfield. And also Steve Cohen,
07:52the owner of the Mets, at the Mets Fest this weekend meeting with some of the fans and doing
07:56some media stuff, said that the process of getting Alonzo back in New York has been exhausting.
08:03There's been a lot of discussion as to whether or not Alonzo would accept a three-year deal with
08:07some opt-outs with the Mets. Apparently not. We'll see what happens with Alonzo. Word is he could
08:11make a decision this week. Although I thought that last week and the week before too. Nobody
08:16really likes Monday, you know. It's like a lot of people's least favorite day of the week. So
08:20I was hoping Pat Evans was going to pop on our show and brighten it up today with some really
08:24good news in the world of sports betting. But at least from what I'm seeing here, well, not so much.
08:30Let's bring Pat in from Legal Sports Report. It's Monday, Pat. Like, I get it. Let's just get the
08:34bad news out of the way quick, right? That's kind of what we're doing here. Well, I guess. But geez,
08:39that was kind of a sad opening. I thought I was going to bring the joy no matter what, you know.
08:44I'm riding high on Michigan State. 12 straight games winning. They're going to win tomorrow.
08:49Won this weekend in New York. I'm happy. It's Monday. I'm happy. Okay. Yeah. Well,
08:56I'm happy too. But I mean, this first story here is a big bummer, man. Like,
09:00we have a lot of viewers that are streaming the show in California. And look, I think that most
09:06people understand that the tribes are going to have a major factor as to whether or not sports
09:10betting inevitably gets passed in California. And we knew that 2025, it was going to have a hard
09:16time happening. But now we're even pushing this back beyond 2026. Pat, that's a lot. I feel like
09:22other states are going to get ahead of them now because of this. Yeah, I mean, this really all
09:27goes back to 2022. And there was a giant ballot proposal from both the tribes for in-person only
09:34sportsbooks at the tribal casinos, and then a mobile in, you know, a whole legalization ballot
09:40proposal from multiple sportsbook companies. And basically what happened was the tribe said,
09:47wait a second, if the companies want to do this and go online and not involve us, we're going to
09:52put a ton of money into it. I think it was 300 million plus dollars that went into this just to
09:57basically stop that ballot proposal. And it failed miserably. I think it was less than 20% of votes
10:05for the online. And so that kind of said to the companies like, oh, okay, we need to work
10:11with the tribes. We need to make this happen. If we're going to get into California, we need to
10:14work with the tribes. So basically California is, yes, to the tribal kind of mercy. And what
10:22happened was this week or last week in Spain, there was a conference that the panel of tribal
10:27leaders in California said, listen, we want to get this. We're excited about it. We know it's coming.
10:34We need to get it right. And they said, you know, it could be on the ballot in 2026,
10:40but we're not going to put it on the ballot in 2026 because we need to get this ready.
10:44A quote from Catalina Chacon, a board member of the Pachanga Band of Michigan Indians said,
10:49the data is telling us the time is not right. Definitely not 2026. We're looking more like 2028,
10:56but it has to include all the tribal communities. And there's more than a hundred in California.
11:01And so the big ones seem to be on board. They want to get it right. But with a hundred tribes,
11:05there's a lot of non-gaming tribes that are part of a revenue sharing kind of ecosystem from the
11:10gaming. They all need to get on board. That's what the tribal leaders are basically trying to
11:15do right now is get everybody on board and say, hey, let's do this. Let's do it the right way.
11:19They also recognize that this is going to have huge implications for any potential online casino
11:25movements in California. So they're kind of weighing that too. They just don't want to
11:29legalize sports betting and say, oops, we forgot about that component that's coming down the
11:33pipeline at who knows when. So yeah, just California is a very kind of lengthy process, clearly.
11:42It might be the, you know, it's not going to be Utah. I don't think Utah's ever going to legalize,
11:46but it'll be probably one of the last, if not the last state that is kind of up for grabs for lack
11:53of a better term to legalize because of just the tribal community wanting to make sure they get it
11:58right and make sure they're getting the best that they can. Yeah. I would probably say Texas has got
12:04a better shot than California to get going over the next couple of years, which I didn't think
12:08would be back when they had that 2022 campaign. All right. So look, a state, we don't talk about
12:13a ton, North Dakota here. I know that they were looking for some expansion, but as I said, Pat,
12:18you're not bringing the great news today. They also had their objective shut down as well.
12:24So what happened here? Yeah. So I mean, sports betting has been in North Dakota since 2021,
12:29couple tribal casinos in person only, of course. So it's not a big state, big market by any means,
12:35but there was a bill introduced at the beginning of the session, not that long ago, of course,
12:39we're still in January. So it was among those states that said, hey, we could legalize, we could
12:44do this. Really early on, it got a do not recommend from a committee, went to the floor
12:53and overwhelmingly voted against. So it's on the sidelines. North Dakota will remain without
13:00statewide sports betting. This was a full online kind of bill to legalize it. And it's interesting
13:06because, I mean, yeah, Minnesota doesn't have legalized sports betting. South Dakota has sports
13:10betting in their little Deadwood community down in the Southwest side of it. So they're not really,
13:15I mean, Montana, I guess, sort of does. So they're not really bordered by anybody.
13:22So it is a really interesting state. Again, not a big population, not a big market. So I don't
13:27think the sports betting industry is too upset. They're not in there. So, yeah, just another
13:33state that had just kind of, I guess, to your point, something positive for the industry,
13:37which we haven't had a lot legislatively in the last couple of years. This isn't it. So,
13:42yeah, North Dakota sitting on the sidelines again this year after not even a valiant effort,
13:48I suppose. All right. So the story to watch in 2025, definitely the story of the partnership
13:55between one of the sports books and the airlines. And when this broke a couple of weeks ago,
14:01we thought, oh, really, what's going to happen with this? Really seems like the more I'm reading,
14:07the more that the airlines would like to get sports betting in the air going. And I think it's
14:11going to take some time because, again, you're flying over different states. They have different
14:16legal and not legal places that you can do it. It almost, Pat, reminds me of these cruises where you
14:22used to be able to bet where you took offshore and then you could bet, bet, bet all you wanted.
14:27And then as soon as you came back, you couldn't bet anymore. It reminds me a little bit of this,
14:31too. And I wonder what ends up happening with this. Yeah. So, well, here we have a
14:36bill in Connecticut that was filed, and I think it is a little prematurely because of
14:40some things I'll get into in a second. But basically, this bill was filed, I think,
14:44probably a little bit in response to the DraftKings and Delta partnership, which we'll
14:49talk about kind of the little details in a minute. But basically, what it does was any flight
14:53originating or ending in Connecticut, in Connecticut borders, you can bet. But the
15:01problem with that is betting on airplanes is illegal federally due to some old acts.
15:07So, I don't even know if this could supersede that. That would probably, I don't know,
15:11if anybody would even care to take it in court, it probably just wouldn't be offered by the sports
15:14books because they want to try to stay on the up and up in all their other markets.
15:20So, we'll see what happens there. What's interesting is the DraftKings Delta announcement,
15:25we still don't know a ton about it. It was announced by the Delta CEO at CES.
15:30You know, it sounds like no, like real gambling, real money gambling, just kind of games would be
15:36implemented, you know, how you could in their seat back or even the app, seat back entertainment
15:42councils, they have all sorts of games. You can play poker and whatever. It's not for real money.
15:46I think that's kind of what they're toying at right now. You know, U.S. airspace is a whole
15:52lot different than international waters, I think. I do like your analogy, but it is a little
15:57different. You know, and cross-border sports betting is a little problematic, I think,
16:01in that sense as well at the federal level. So, yeah, a lot of weird kind of loopholes to get.
16:06It is interesting to see a state lawmaker already saying, hey, this is kind of fun. Let's try to see
16:11if we can get a little bit more tax money out of this because I think 1% of that revenue would go
16:15to public education in Connecticut. So, it is an interesting bill. We'll see if it moves at all.
16:22But, of course, to your point, we have a lot more to see how sports betting in the skies develops,
16:29if at all. I think we could certainly see other partnerships emerge between sportsbooks and
16:36airlines, you know, much like we saw in the early days, the sportsbook partnerships with sports
16:40teams. You know, this is still a potentially good consumer acquisition point. Yeah, it could be,
16:47and maybe set up for the future. It's a great point, Pat. Maybe not for now, but just to get
16:51something rolling to see what happens. It seems like the world of sports betting lately. Pat,
16:55thanks again for coming on Newswire and ending on a cheery note, I may add, too. Thanks again.
17:00Thanks, as always, Craig.