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00:00But we begin with the biggest sports betting scandal that we have had thus far, especially
00:08involving a player in the National Basketball Association.
00:11You may remember his name from last year, John Tay Porter.
00:14His sentencing is coming up, folks.
00:16We're about to find out just how long a prison sentence Porter is going to get for admitting
00:21that he manipulated NBA games because of his player props that were available to be bet
00:29on.
00:30Peter Zegletti, who's a partner at a firm called Aird and Burless, who chairs a Toronto
00:35law firm's gaming group, said that although Porter has cooperated with U.S. authorities,
00:40he expects that the former NBA player will be severely punished.
00:45There is some speculation that this could be years, not months.
00:50So stay tuned as we get ready to find out exactly the precedent that will be set for
00:56sports athletes who try to manipulate games for sports betting improprieties.
01:01Meanwhile, the Atlanta Falcons drafted Michael Pennix in the offseason, and we didn't think
01:06that we would see him at all in the regular season this year.
01:10But here we are, $180 million given to Kirk Cousins, and that's going to be sitting on
01:15the bench.
01:16Michael Pennix Jr. is set to make his first career start and his first start since playing
01:20in college football a year ago.
01:22Get ready, folks, that the future is now.
01:25By the way, Atlanta plays Washington in Week 17.
01:28They flexed that game out so we could see the rookies, Jaden Daniels and Pennix, facing
01:32off against each other here coming up in a couple of weeks.
01:36So what the Falcons do with Cousins remains to be seen.
01:39You hear all this discussion about he can't be cut because of his salary and dead money,
01:44folks.
01:45You know that that's not true.
01:46They'll figure it out.
01:47They figured out Russell Wilson.
01:48They figured out Brock Osweiler.
01:49They will figure out a way to dismiss Kirk Cousins from the Atlanta Falcons roster in
01:53the offseason.
01:55All right.
01:56The NBA Cup, it's official.
01:57Congratulations.
01:58The Milwaukee Bucks, they won it.
01:59What is it?
02:00Still not sure.
02:0197-81.
02:02That's the final.
02:03So they celebrated last night on the court.
02:05Oklahoma City still has championship aspirations.
02:09But for now, Milwaukee is one of the hottest teams in the NBA and Giannis certainly has
02:12played fantastic.
02:137-1 to win MVP over on the FanDuel Sportsbook.
02:17He talked about winning the game last night.
02:19It's the best feeling ever.
02:24It's winning.
02:25Winning feels good.
02:26You know, playing big games feels good when you're able to come to the game and execute
02:34your game plan and then the outcome is exactly what you want it to be.
02:41But it's not only about the game, it's about everything leading up to the game.
02:45The way you prep your body, you know, the anxiety you feel that you want to get everything
02:56over with.
02:57Let's go straight to the game.
02:58You know, all those feelings leading up to the game is what makes the win even better.
03:04I'm so proud of the group.
03:06Everybody was extremely locked in.
03:08We came in.
03:09We were focused.
03:10We played great basketball and we were able to win this game.
03:16We had this goal as a team and we accomplished it.
03:21We accomplished it.
03:22I'm very proud of everybody.
03:23I'm so happy for Dane that we got our first trophy together.
03:29And this is just the beginning.
03:30We got to keep on improving, keep on getting better and we will be better.
03:35Genuinely will never forget where I was when Milwaukee won the 2025-2024 NBA Cup.
03:43Yeah.
03:44All right.
03:45Let's get back to the NFL if we can.
03:47Patrick Mahomes, this guy just has injuries and plays through them.
03:51It looks like this could happen again.
03:53Even with this high ankle sprain, Mahomes is back on the practice field this week.
03:56A positive day for him and basically went through a light practice.
04:01Is it possible that he could end up playing on Saturday?
04:04According to Mahomes, it seems possible.
04:06Yeah.
04:07I mean, I think it's done good with the treatment and the work that we've gotten in.
04:11I mean, obviously, it's a short amount of time, but I thought we had a good day yesterday
04:15and we had good work after the game as well.
04:18You said it's a shorter week than normal.
04:21Is it your intention to try and push to play on Saturday?
04:24Yeah.
04:25I mean, I think that you have to.
04:26That's the reason you play this game is to push to play.
04:30So I'll get to work at practice and try to push it to see where I can get to.
04:34But at the end of the day, I'm not going to put our team in a bad position.
04:38So if I feel like I can play and go out there and win a football game, I'll play.
04:42And if I don't feel like that's the best case scenario, I'll let guys like Carson play.
04:46I mean, he's a guy that's won in this league as well.
04:48So it's just about pushing it this week, seeing where I'm at and making the best decision
04:52then.
04:53I just want Mahomes to play on Christmas Day while I'm working here at SportsGrid.
04:57I don't want to be calling the Carson wins game here on the show.
04:59All right.
05:00Arizona is giving Buda Baker a contract extension, three years, $54 million, one of the best
05:05offensive players in the National Football League.
05:07Also an official quarterback change in Tennessee.
05:10Will Levis is out.
05:11Mason Rudolph looks like he is going to start week 16.
05:14And also the Browns made a quarterback change again.
05:17So add this player's name to the back of that long Browns jersey.
05:21Dorian Thompson Robinson starts at quarterback for the Bengals.
05:24The Jameis Winston era has come and gone.
05:27Meanwhile, the Pac-12 era came and went and a lot of infighting going on with a lot of
05:31teams.
05:32Colorado State and Utah State have now filed a lawsuit saying that the Mountain West is
05:35engaging in an extraordinary and unauthorized action to penalize the five schools that are
05:40leaving the conference of the Pac-12.
05:42This includes Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State, and Utah State.
05:46As they announced in September, they're joining the Pac-12 in 2026.
05:49There's actually a release that was set out as well in a statement saying that this flouting
05:54of the bylaws in Colorado law is not new.
05:57It's part of the Mountain West's ongoing efforts to restrict its members' ability to
06:00freely explore best options in the marketplace for their student-athletes and penalize certain
06:05members for announcing their intent to withdraw from the conference.
06:10We see players leaving all the time.
06:11It shouldn't surprise you to see schools changing conferences as well.
06:15All right.
06:16The Frisco Bowl.
06:17Memphis opened up as a four-point favorite against West Virginia.
06:21It went to like four and a half, five and a half.
06:23It went very high by the end.
06:25So those of you who got in and you took Memphis early, you won.
06:28Otherwise, you may have lost or pushed in this one.
06:3042 to 37.
06:31Very close, tight game went right down to the end.
06:33Michael Vick, former NFL quarterback, is going to take the head coaching gig at Norfolk State.
06:38So congratulations to him.
06:40New AP Coach of the Year is Indiana's Kurt Cignetti.
06:43They're getting ready for that big matchup against Notre Dame coming up on Friday night.
06:48And by the way, SMU is getting ready for the college football playoff as well.
06:51We met Lashley in a preview for the upcoming game, was discussing the transfer portal and
06:56basically said that the adults are letting down the kids.
07:00I mean, it's terrible.
07:01I feel so awful for our kids and kids around the country.
07:03You know, we talk about making a system that is all great for them, but we haven't.
07:10I mean, that's part of your job as adults is to do what's best for young people, not
07:14what they want necessarily.
07:16And they don't want this.
07:17Yes, they want the ability to transfer and go where they want to go.
07:20If they don't like their situation, yes, they want the ability to make money on their
07:24name, image, and likeness.
07:25Neither one of those are bad things.
07:27There's no other sport at all that has free agency in the season.
07:32It's sad.
07:33It's terrible.
07:34You hear the story about their backup quarterback saying, I don't have a choice.
07:38That's wrong.
07:39That's unacceptable.
07:41That's not okay.
07:42He shouldn't have to make that decision.
07:44Preston here is doing the same thing.
07:45Now, he has chosen to stay with us and we're working with him, but it's still a juggling
07:49act for him.
07:50Let's not forget they're in finals right now.
07:53So yeah, the real easy thing is you don't have a transfer portal in December.
07:57That's a real easy answer and it solves all the problems.
08:00Like why in the world would we put kids in a position where they got to decide, do I
08:04transfer or play in the playoff?
08:06Do I transfer or play in my bowl game?
08:10One of the more reasonable explanations I've heard, by the way, from coach Lashley.
08:13All right.
08:14Tonight, we got the Boca Raton Bowl right up the street from me.
08:17James Madison taking on Western Kentucky, JMU, seven and a half point favorites, total
08:21of 50 and a half.
08:22And UNLV now up to two and a half point favorites tonight in the LA Bowl.
08:27That's nine o'clock Eastern.
08:29It's Cal and UNLV.
08:31Also a trade in Major League Baseball yesterday, Cody Bellinger is now leaving the Cubs.
08:36He will take over in the outfield or maybe even at first base for the New York Yankees.
08:40They make a deal there.
08:41Cody Poteet goes in return and certainly some reconfiguring for the Cubs going on.
08:46Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
08:47We got Pat Evans with us from Legal Sports Report.
08:49By the way, everything we discuss here on the show, you can read over at legalsportsreport.com.
08:55Let's bring Pat in.
08:56Pat, happy holidays to you.
08:57Thanks once again for appearing on Newswire once again.
09:01And I know the story we've talked about previously is now coming to light a little bit.
09:04This congressional hearing that is going on, a lot of scrutiny going on, how to make sports
09:09betting better for people to avoid some of these controversies with players, athletes,
09:15everything else, learning a lot more about it thus far.
09:18What have you learned?
09:19What's happened?
09:20Yeah, so yesterday was the first congressional hearing about sports betting at a U.S. federal
09:26level.
09:27It was the Senate Judiciary Committee, their last meeting of the year, their last meeting
09:31with a Democratic chair.
09:33So next year, it's going to switch, of course, because the majority of the Senate will switch.
09:36So you'll have a Republican.
09:37So that kind of plays into a little bit of what we're going to talk about here in a second.
09:43What's interesting about this is the panel was largely made up of problem gambling kind
09:50of people, responsible gambling.
09:52There was also Charlie Baker, the president of the NCAA, and David Reebok, who's probably
09:58the most famous, most well-known, well-regarded regulator.
10:01He's a former director of the New Jersey Department of Gaming.
10:07And yeah, there were 10 senators sitting there talking about it.
10:10Everybody was asking questions, kind of figuring out where they need to work.
10:17And of course, Charlie Baker, who has been championing a ban on collegiate prop bets,
10:23he used his platform to further push that.
10:25That seemed like certainly kind of the biggest topic of discussion and most interest of the
10:30politicians, understanding that that does lead to athlete harassment and can be problematic
10:38and things like that.
10:40They certainly do want to focus kind of on consumer protections and figure out where
10:44that goes.
10:46David Reebok was the lone kind of pro sports betting voice, I would say, in a lot of ways.
10:52He was trying to make the point of, hey, the states are doing this.
10:56The state regulators and legislators have the same concerns you do.
11:00They're working on it.
11:01This should be a state issue, not a national issue.
11:04And yeah, from there, we kind of got to see where it goes.
11:09Dick Durbin, the chair, said this is only the beginning.
11:12This is not the end.
11:14It was a very short committee hearing, way shorter than I expected yesterday, probably
11:18a little under two hours.
11:21But yeah, it doesn't seem like it's going to go anywhere anytime soon.
11:25Again, this was a Democratic-led portion of it because of the majority at the moment,
11:30which Richard Blumenthal is on there.
11:31He's one of the authors of the Safe Bet Act, which is a pretty expansive consumer protection
11:38and advertising and a lot of different components to that bill that will unlikely be able to
11:44move with a Republican-controlled Senate.
11:46So things are going to shift a lot.
11:49Senator Tom Tillis from North Carolina had a lot of interesting questions.
11:52He's a Republican and will probably continue this discussion into next year.
11:57He compared it to the marijuana industry and the state-by-state kind of regulations
12:01and how we need to somehow come up with some sort of federal regulation, which, again,
12:06goes against Reebok's suggestions that the states have it and the states will continue
12:10to do a good job on it.
12:12So it was very interesting.
12:15Also of note, because of Charlie Baker's presence there, there were two Republican
12:20senators, John Kennedy and Josh Hawley from Missouri.
12:23They decided to make it about why the NCAA allows trans athletes to compete, which does
12:30not seem at all on topic with sports betting.
12:33So they spent their five minutes of questioning on that topic.
12:37So definitely went off the rails a couple of times.
12:40But yeah, again, this is not going anywhere.
12:42It will continue to be in the federal spotlight for at least a couple months, probably a couple
12:47of years until something happens.
12:49Who knows if the bipartisan issue can come together and come up with any sort of solution
12:55to what they want.
12:56But anyway, again, the spotlight's on it and it will remain.
13:00All right.
13:01Well, we'll read more about it over at Legal Sports Report as this progresses.
13:04Now, let's get to the very latest in Louisiana.
13:06No stranger to betting.
13:08Maybe going online here for potential casino gaming in Louisiana.
13:12How quickly can this get done, Pat?
13:14What are the odds on that?
13:16You know, I'm not quite sure.
13:18I think the odds are maybe a little better than some people are putting on to happen
13:22to get done in 2025.
13:25Earlier this year, they passed a Senate study bill to say, hey, let's look at this.
13:30Let's let's dig into this and see what this could mean for the state.
13:33And then, yeah, last week there was a nice hearing about it.
13:37A lot of industry people sat down and testified to the Senate about, you know, what it can
13:42be, what it could do for the state.
13:44You know, there were a couple of senators who said, hey, you know, we're missing out
13:49on a huge chunk of revenue.
13:50I think they cited $4.6 billion in illegal wagers every year online.
13:56So that could be a huge chunk to capture.
14:00And to your point, they have a vibrant casino, brick and mortar casino ecosystem.
14:06And that generally bodes well for, you know, states like Pennsylvania and Michigan here
14:10that we've had iCasino now for a couple of years.
14:14And, you know, of course, there were the negatives, just like we saw in Maryland earlier this
14:19year.
14:19Cordish companies came out and said, we really don't want this.
14:22We will participate if it does legalize, but we think it's a net negative for the brick
14:27and mortar industry, which, of course, concerns some of the legislators in Louisiana.
14:33So that's there.
14:34Of course, you had lots of problem gambling people coming out.
14:36And Chris Hebert, the director of the Louisiana Gaming Commission, you know, was like, yeah,
14:41this is an issue of regulation or unregulation.
14:44But we realize it is an issue to put casinos easily accessible in people's pockets.
14:50And so that is something that, you know, even the top regulator in the state is thinking
14:53about.
14:54Right.
14:55It's going to be again, I don't think I wouldn't put it as a will pass, but they'll definitely
15:01be talking about it.
15:02They will definitely kind of consider the pluses and negatives.
15:06We'll probably be talking about this quite a bit next year, Craig.
15:10Okay.
15:10Will it pass?
15:11I don't know.
15:11I'll put it at like 40, 60 at the moment.
15:15All right.
15:16Are the odds available, by the way, over at LegalSportsReport.com?
15:18Can we bet on?
15:19I'm just kidding.
15:20No.
15:21Being facetious.
15:22No.
15:23All right.
15:23So finally, let's get to this.
15:25Choctaw Casino.
15:26I'm very familiar with Choctaw Casino, by the way, because why, Craig?
15:30Well, the old stadium in Texas, okay, in Arlington, they have the new ballpark where
15:37the Rangers play.
15:38The old one is now called Choctaw Stadium because I was just there for the All-Star
15:41game.
15:42That's where they had their Fan Fest and everything else.
15:44This is a tribe that has a very big footprint on a lot of gaming things in both Oklahoma
15:49and Texas.
15:50So I found this really intriguing to think, Pat, that there's a possibility that this
15:55tribe could have the biggest footprint as far as getting sports betting going in either
16:00state.
16:00Is that the case?
16:01I mean, yeah, and that is what they are trying to aim to be.
16:05Of course, the Choctaw Nation is the third largest Indian tribe in the country.
16:09So they've got a huge footprint as it is.
16:12They have a casino that's 90 miles north of Dallas, which kind of, you know, that's a
16:17pretty close proximity for somebody who's in Dallas and wants to get to gambling, which
16:22you don't have in Texas yet.
16:24So that's a huge thing on its own.
16:26And that helps explain why they've taken such drastic measures in partnerships, to
16:30your point of that stadium.
16:32They've got partnerships with the Stars, Mavericks, Texas Rangers, and they just partnered
16:36with the Dallas Open, a tennis tournament that is one of the most elite tournaments
16:40now.
16:41And yeah, I think it's just to kind of double down, make sure that Texans know what they
16:46are for when, you know, maybe they do want to go up north and gamble a little bit.
16:51But also of note, the Choctaw Nation has partnered with Camby to be the back end of
16:56a sports betting platform, and they have aspirations to be a big player in sports
17:01betting.
17:01What does that mean nationally?
17:04I'm not sure, but it's certainly setting up for if Oklahoma legalizes and to be a major
17:09player in Oklahoma and, of course, in Texas, which, as we've talked about a lot recently,
17:14a study has recently said that that could be the biggest handle, you know, market that
17:20has the biggest handle in the U.S.
17:21So there's lots of, you know, even if DraftKings and Fandle do their big push in there and
17:27maintain their top, the status as a top two, you know, a powerful partnership with a lot
17:34of local teams and a big power behind it in that tribe could make, you know, some needles
17:39move.
17:40All right.
17:40Well, Pat, always great catching up with you.
17:42Will I see you before the holidays next week?
17:43Are you on Monday?
17:44Yeah, you'll see me Monday.
17:45You'll see me Monday.
17:46Okay.
17:47Then I'll wish you a happy holidays next week.
17:49I can say it now and I'll double down on it next week, Pat.
17:52Thanks again for coming on.
17:53Same to you, Craig.
17:54Yeah, you too.
17:54Pat Evans with us from LegalSportSport.com.