Big Mac Slams the Rams’ Impossible Salary Cap Moves artwork

Big Mac Slams the Rams’ Impossible Salary Cap Moves

The Carton Show with Craig Carton & Chris McMonigle

August 31, 2026

Chris McMonigle expresses frustration over the Los Angeles Rams' ability to consistently manipulate the salary cap to retain superstars like Aaron Donald. He also recounts legendary stories of Bob Heussler's disdain for the Yankees and discusses the hit-or-miss draft record of Giants GM Joe Schoen.
Speakers: Craig Carton, Chris McMonigle

Topics: Sports

**Craig Carton** (0:01)
Oh, that's right. You say it's your birthday. Why do you always find live versions?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:09)
You're big on live versions.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:11)
I'm going to defend them.

**Craig Carton** (0:12)
Just tell me, I'll send you the...

**Chris McMonigle** (0:15)
This looks like a music video that he's playing.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:17)
It doesn't look like a live version.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:18)
I searched a good three minutes, and this is all I could find.

**Craig Carton** (0:20)
Happy birthday to you, Jalen Brunson.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:23)
Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:32)
Cha cha cha.

**Craig Carton** (0:38)
King of New York Championship ringer. Happy birthday to you.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:45)
Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Now there's like a new birthday song that the kids sing?
Man, it feels good.

**Craig Carton** (0:54)
Well, he's got kids because he did the cha-cha-cha thing.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:56)
Oh my god, so annoying.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:57)
And what's the new birthday song?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:00)
Happy birthday to you.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:01)
No, no, no, that's the old birthday song.

**Craig Carton** (1:03)
Second verse, same as the first. No, yeah, but the cha-cha-cha thing drives me crazy.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:09)
And they scream it.

**Craig Carton** (1:10)
You ever been to like a, I just, this summer.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:12)
Bang the tables and they're about to break.

**Craig Carton** (1:14)
Oh my god, this summer, we had a birthday party for my son at a bowling party. The cha-cha-chas, they scream it with everything they have in them. Like their veins are popping out of their throat.
Like, cha-cha-cha, and cha-cha-cheeseburger is another one. They say, instead of cha-cha-cha, they say cha-cha-cheeseburger.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:32)
I don't know about cheeseburger.

**Craig Carton** (1:33)
Yeah, well, that's what I heard.
Cha-cha-cha, cha-cha-cheeseburger. In between the happy birthday, I don't get it. But happy birthday to Jalen Brunson. Every day, every day, Pete Hoffman puts together a sheet, and every day it has the happy birthdays on it. Like today, Chris Tucker, it's also Chris Tucker's birthday.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:52)
Jeff Hardy.

**Craig Carton** (1:53)
Richard Gere.
I've told my Richard Gere story. That's my favorite. Richard Neer and Richard Gere, that's my favorite story ever on the fan. Jeff Hardy, Sauce Gardner turns 26
Van Morrison, my guy Van Morrison. We got to play a Van Morrison next. Love Van Morrison and then Debbie Gibson also turned 56 So, a lot of birthdays, but we never sing Happy Birthday. Jalen Brunson deserves that. Deserves it.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:17)
Can I just give a lazy shout out to this little stinker here? It was his birthday three days ago.

**Craig Carton** (2:22)
Happy birthday to the little stinker.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:24)
Yeah.

**Craig Carton** (2:25)
Who's been heard off mic all day today.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:27)
Yes, he won't shut up.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:28)
He's actually in the way for the first time.

**Craig Carton** (2:30)
No, he's clearly in the way.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:31)
I think it's the least you could do for the kid. You put him to work.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:34)
Well, he's doing a bad job. The phone call is terrible.

**Craig Carton** (2:38)
Yeah, they've been bad.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:38)
They've been awful.

**Craig Carton** (2:39)
They've been terrible. All of you callers, you've just been awful. You brought nothing to the program.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:44)
We should have had a citywide holiday today. Why is...

**Craig Carton** (2:47)
I know, it's a very... This is a big... It's 32 It's a big birthday.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:51)
Which is a little bit of a gut punch, too.

**Craig Carton** (2:53)
Yeah, he's on the other side. Now, he's on the other side of 30 It's all over.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:57)
I love him.

**Craig Carton** (2:59)
We do love him. We love Jalen Brunson. And he's the king of New York. And hopefully, my man takes it back.
He's coming back. He's going to be healthy. He's going to lead the Yankees to the World Series and take back the king of New York status.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:13)
Just because I loved the pompous attitude we had for a few months, it would be nice if the Yankees won, just to like... I'm not even a Yankee fan, but just to be like, look at New York.

**Craig Carton** (3:23)
So you will be rooting...
Let me ask you a question. Is there any chance? And I'm curious about this, because I'm sure there are Yankee fans. I wonder, the best one to ask would be Bob Heussler, because Bob Heussler... Absolutely not.
I think Bob Heussler, and I love him to death, love Bob, many a year fighting with Bob about Yankees and Mets. I genuinely believe that he might hate the Yankees more than he loves the Mets. It's close. It is close. That's how much he hates the Yankees. I wonder, considering the Mets season is dead, is there any part of you that thinks, I'm curious if you feel it or maybe even other Mets fans, would you be happy to see Tampa Bay win and hurt the Yankees' chances of winning a division?

20 more minutes of transcript below

Thousands of transcripts fetched by people building searchable podcast archives

Feed this to your agent

Try it now — copy, paste, done:

curl -H "x-api-key: pt_demo" \
  https://spoken.md/transcripts/1000651996090

Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any agent that makes HTTP calls.

From $0.10 per transcript. No subscription. Credits never expire. Prices exclude VAT, added at checkout for EU customers. Not what you expected? Email us within 14 days with 20 or fewer credits used and we refund the pack in full.

Using your own key:

curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_KEY" \
  https://spoken.md/transcripts/YOUR_EPISODE_ID