Hour 2: Connor Rogers

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT.
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
This is The Michael Kay Show Podcast.

**Jake Asman** (0:34)
I gotta get more Kay.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:35)
Listen live weekdays at 1 on the Espn New York App and your smart speaker.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:41)
No Michael Kay!

**Jake Asman** (0:42)
No Michael Kay! That's right, Don. Jake Asbin in for Michael as we take you until 3 o'clock. Don, Han and Rosenberg, comes your way then. Thanks for spending part of your Thursday with us. As Michael would say, we want to hear from the co-hosts on the line throughout the hour, 800-919-3776.
We got Ray, we got Tom producing, and Tom, I'm very sad, I got the message from Harvey saying that he's relieved you of your duties to produce New York Game Day this fall. Mike Tanabob and I back September 6th together. Mike didn't quit after last year's jet debacle, so that's a positive, but you're not going to be a part of it, Tom. You couldn't listen to me berate Mike T about Aaron Glenn for another year?

**Connor Rogers** (1:25)
Well, listen, I think everybody enjoys that. The camaraderie you guys have on the air.

**Tom Bauer** (1:30)
But I'll be listening from home.

**Connor Rogers** (1:32)
How about that? I'll be sleeping in until 8am when you come on the air, instead of getting up at 5am when I have to try and get into New York early in the morning.

**Jake Asman** (1:41)
Did you tell Mike, you're like, I'm stepping aside, good luck with Jake this year?

**Connor Rogers** (1:45)
I have not told him that yet. And I'll be honest, I don't even know if he knows the news yet.

**Jake Asman** (1:50)
Wow.
Well, he does know the news. You want to know how I know? How's that? Because I received this text message yesterday from one Harvey Cruz in a group chat with Mike Tanabon.
Gentlemen, Harvey Cruz here. I will be the lead producer for New York Game Day this upcoming season. Tom Bauer is moving on to Better Things, still at the station, but no longer with this program. So Tom Bauer, what better things are you moving on to that you can't produce New York Game Day with me and Mike T this year?

**Tom Bauer** (2:20)
I love how Harvey put that.

**Jake Asman** (2:22)
At first, I thought you died, to be fair, and then I re-read the message and made sure, okay, he's not saying Tom has moved on to like the heavens, he's just moved on to something else. Bigger and better things though, apparently. So what are these things?

**Connor Rogers** (2:33)
It's just working with Chris Carlin a lot more.

**Jake Asman** (2:37)
Working with Carlin is better than working with Mike T?

**Connor Rogers** (2:41)
Well, one of them doesn't require me to get up at 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

**Jake Asman** (2:44)
I mean, come on, it's football. You wake up, it's greatness every Sunday, unless you're a jet or a giant fan the last decade.

**Connor Rogers** (2:53)
I don't think there's going to be any explanation that will make you very happy right now.

**Jake Asman** (2:58)
All right, Tom, well, I hope whatever these bigger and better things are...

**Connor Rogers** (3:01)
I'll support you from afar.

**Jake Asman** (3:02)
are truly bigger and better. I don't know. Also keeping you unhappy, Weston Wilson, solo homerun. Ah, 1-0 Mariners? Yep. Well, this is what the Yankees do. They got to trail in every game before they have a dramatic comeback to win. That's the new Yankees of 2026, baby. The Cashman Master Plan, folks. We'll see if the Yankees respond. We'll keep you posted, obviously. We led the show with Yankees, some thoughts on their win last night. As Max Fried's on the mound today, Yankees go in for the sweep, but they do trail 1-0, as Ray Dinahan had to update me in the top of the second inning. Let's talk some football. So we're going to see Kate Klubnick tomorrow night for the first time in game action. Now it's preseason, but it's a game. We'll have the uniform on. Jets are going to play their starters. I think it's the right decision by Aaron Glenn. I think Aaron Glenn is right to want his guys to go out there. If you're the Jets, you need to get a competitive advantage in any way you can. When you look at the Jets' schedule to start the year, you're going to be an underdog in your first four games. You're going to be a big underdog against the Packers in Week 2, an even bigger underdog against the Lions in Week 3, and maybe an even bigger underdog against the Bears in Week 4 And Week 1, you're a slight dog to Robert Sall on the Titans, which is a must-win game for the Jets. As I will continue to say, and now every host on the station is seemingly talking about how big that game is. Been saying this since May, people. Lose that game and get ready for another miserable year of jet football. But my point is this, Glenn is right to play as starters because the advantage the Jets can get is potentially being just more ready to play football than the other teams they're playing. Steve Young famously would always say on the old Michael Kay Show with Don, Michael and Peter of course, that the first month of the preseason is basically or the first month of the regular season is basically the preseason because guys just don't play. They're not in game shape. You don't have the two a days anymore. And you could see some upsets happen early. No one's at their best the first four weeks of the year. Guys are still playing themselves into being football ready. So if you're the Jets, yeah, there's a risk if you play guys in the preseason, they could get hurt. But there's also a risk they could get hurt in practice. The Jets still haven't seen Tavandre sweat out there. He got hurt working out before training camp started. Canyon Siddique had a hernia issue, had the surgery, comes back. Now it's somehow still a problem. He's out. So you could still have injuries, even if you don't play guys in the preseason. So I agree with the premise of letting guys go out there and play and maybe the advantage the Jets can get, especially week one, Salah doesn't like the plays guys in the preseason. I haven't checked to see if the Titans are doing that this year as well. But the point is, maybe you could get a leg up on your opponent when your significant underdogs in your first four games, especially weeks two through four, your big underdogs, probably a touchdown underdog in each of those games almost. Maybe this gives you the opportunity to gain a leg up. It's not the same example, but I think one of the reasons why Tom Thibodeau with the Knicks had great success in year one, even though Alfred Payton was his point guard, RJ. Barrett was only in his second year. You know, Julius Randall went from a player Nick fans didn't like to a guy who made an all-star team in that second year with Tibbs. I think the reason why that Knicks team overachieved and they won 40-something games, they just played harder than other teams. They took the regular season more seriously than other teams. I think that matters. That's not the same thing with football because there's only 17 games, but if you're Aaron Glenn, you can't lose week one, you can't start 0-4, you have to get wins early. Maybe playing your guys in the preseason, just being more ready to play than some of these opponents that are on paper, are better than you, can help you steal a game or two early, and that keeps you alive, and that could be the difference in this head coach having a job or not at the end of the year. People are like, well, Glenn's got to win at least this many games to save his job. It's also how it looks. You can't start one and seven, like Adam Gaste did in year one, then go six and two against bad teams and back up quarterbacks over your final eight, finish seven and nine and say, well, the arrows pointed up.