Bradley Schwartz will make his college decision live next week on WFAN.
Long Island long snapper Bradley Schwartz is set to make his college announcement next week on WFAN’s ‘Boomer and Gio’ show.
The popular morning show is hosted by former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason and popular radio personality Gregg Giannotti.
Schwartz is a class of 2024 recruit. He will make his decision from a final four that includes Western Connecticut, Pace, Long Island University and Wagner.
“He has a smooth delivery and throws a consistent clean/ catchable ball. Bradley does a nice job using his entire body throughout the snap. His great elbow drive, eyes and butt drive are contributing factors to his consistency.”
The long snapper is the son of Peter Schwartz, a notable media figure in New York Sports. Schwartz is best known for his extensive time at WFAN, the flagship station for Rutgers football.
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He has served as a New York Jets beat reporter and does 20/20 updates for WFAN. He also regularly hosts overnight shows on what is New York’s oldest sport-only talk station.
Greg Schiano talks NIL and the direction of college football.
Greg Schiano believes in the impact of Name, Image and Likeness as potentially being a good thing for college football players. However, the Rutgers football head coach cautions that there needs to be structure to the whole process.
In an appearance last week on WFAN’s ‘Tiki and Tierney,’ Schiano talked about the importance on Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). While embracing the idea that college athletes can and should pursue compensation, he also provided some perspective on things.
Schiano said during his WFAN interview that there needs to be some structure in place for the benefit of the student-athlete and the institutions as well.
“It is really tough, but you’re right. And I’ve always felt the players deserve more and they deserve their share. What the problem I believe is that, you know, things just went from zero to no limits, no boundaries,” Schiano told WFAN.
“And you can’t do that, you know, pro sports has proven the only way it works is when you have a salary cap and you have a collective bargaining agreement. So if players are going to be paid, you know that they’re saying it’s for the Name, Image and Likeness. Well, the reality is, it’s about how well they are as players, how well they play and then their name, image and likeness becomes more valuable. Now people don’t want to say that but that’s reality, right? So if you’re going to have a systemthat’s based on things like that you need to have controls, and that’s why the NFL works. You know, people say ‘Well, Greg, it’s like being in the NFL.’ Like the heck it is. In the NF, there’s a contract and you know what the limits are and you know, how long you have the player.”
Because NIL is so new and rolled out with very little oversight, the complaint among many college coaches and fans is that the sports has become a ‘Wild West’ of sorts. There are no rules and it is simply becoming a time period where the highest bidder often wins.
There has had to be an adaptation from Schiano in his approach to things like NIL and the transfer portal as he looks to rebuild Rutgers football.
“It’s a strange time. But as I always say, there’s something on my desk that it says ‘If you don’t like something…change it or change the way you think about it.’ Yeah, and I want to coach and I want to coach college football, so I have to change the way I think about it,” Schiano said.
“And we are trying to be competitive in that in that space. But it is a challenge for sure.”
‘Tiki and Tierney’ is hosted by former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney, a well-liked personality on WFAN.
Greg Schiano believes his Rutgers football program’s pipeline is beginning to fill.
Rutgers football is ready to begin seeing the benefit of their rebuilding project. So says head coach Greg Schiano who tells WFAN that the talent level in the program is coming along.
Schiano’s comments came on Friday during an appearance on ‘Tiki and Tierney’ on WFAN, the flagship station for the Rutgers football program. The show is hosted by former NFL running back Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney, a popular voice on WFAN as well as SNY.
In speaking with Barber and Tierney, Schiano was asked about the status of his rebuilding project at Rutgers. In what will be his fourth season back with the program, Schiano believes that the Scarlet Knights are prepared to turn a corner in terms of their talent level and development.
Doing so in the Big Ten’s Eastern Division, arguably the most competitive conference in college football, is certainly no easy task for a rebuilding program.
“The league is a great league. It’s where I always felt Rutgers belonged,” Schiano said on WFAN.
“So we’re in the right place. But you know – you (Tiki) know better than anyone that you have to accumulate talent. In college football, you have to do it over a course of time. Because these are 18-year-old kids that are coming in. They have to get in the program, they have to get developed. So you have to fill the pipeline. And then once it starts coming out the other side, then things start to click and we’re getting close – probably have about one more recruiting class to fill this pipeline.
“And I really like the trajectory, we’re getting better. But you know what happens over a long period of time it kind of happens all of a sudden, in college football, you know?”
That roster was comprised largely of recruits from Schiano’s final recruiting class at Rutgers. Schiano left in 2012 to become head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano gives an update on the quarterback situation.
For a month now, Rutgers football head coach Greg Schiano said that he was uncertain where things stood with naming a starting quarterback. He didn’t have an answer after training. No answer after the first or second scrimmage the past two weeks.
Not even an answer when the media jokingly asked him on Wednesday. And now ahead of Saturday’s season opener at Boston College, Schiano not only won’t say who the starter is, he says he doesn’t know himself.
In an appearance on WFAN on Friday morning, Schiano was asked about the status of naming a starting quarterback. The Rutgers football head coach worked through the permutations of the answer before giving his answer.
One day out from the season starting and Schiano doesn’t have a starter named.
“You know I don’t know if this is good or bad, but it’s good because I can tell you the truth. Sometimes coaches tell you I haven’t and they really have. Or they’ll tell you ‘No, I haven’t.’ I’m not telling you. I can literally tell you: I’m still bouncing around in my head because I feel good with all and I think the more important thing is our team does,” Schiano said on WFAN on Friday morning.
“I don’t think our guys are going to be fazed at all if one guy’s in there and then another series another guy’s in there so we’re gonna play them. I think everyone’s gonna get a chance to play. We’ll figure this thing out as we go. We’re a young team and this is the beginning of something.”
This week, Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley said he was uncertain what direction Schiano and the Rutgers coaching staff would be going in terms of naming a starter. Hafley did, however, rave about the potential of Wimsatt, a former four-star recruit who joined the Rutgers program last September.
The PGA Tour is all in on the sports gambling trend. But the WFAN host tells another side.
He stepped groggily out of the van and shuffled inside, golden rock formations and Arizona wildlife bringing no warmth before 7 a.m.
The room made him uncomfortable. The people made him uncomfortable. Craig Carton didn’t belong around the dozen faces finding chairs in a circle around him.
As he sank in his own seat, the gruff sports radio host and self-proclaimed “single greatest blackjack player to ever grace God’s earth” could only remind himself this would make his wife happy. Rehab would look good to a federal court considering his charges of fraud.
He didn’t have a problem, and he certainly didn’t need this group therapy session. He had started wagering nearly $20,000 a hand in blackjack. He could handle multiple tables at once. He illegally gambled on sports online. He could win big, borrowing more than $30 million to fuel all his exploits. No one would ever understand his strategy.
Only, that bravado would shatter.
A woman from Nevada spoke first, outlining calmly her Fridays spent bringing every paycheck to its knees for $5 scratch-offs. She’d cash the check, find a bar, grab a seat and buy lottery tickets until she could only pay for the drinks in front of her.
“She described why she did it, how she did it, what her process was emotionally, mentally, how she hid it, how she lied about it,” Carton recalled, sitting in his studio. “And I was overwhelmed.”
A 24-year-old from Oklahoma was addicted to casino gambling. Then a Chicago kid shared the same, as the circle tightened.
“I was dumbfounded. I felt as if I had written a script — and they stole it.”
Craig Carton, WFAN sports radio personality and outspoken gambling addiction recovery advocate, tapes his weekly gambling show called “Hello, My Name is Craig” in New York City on May 22, 2022. (Photo: Seth Harrison/The Journal News)
A 2017 arrest threatened to send him to federal prison for his role in a concert ticket resale scheme, having in large part fueled his gambling. It forced the now-53-year-old to resign from the No. 1 sports-talk show in New York City, “Boomer & Carton,” after a decade alongside famed former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason. Unlike those sitting around the quiet room, his rock bottom would soon play out on a national stage.
“But this is what addiction is. There’s nothing special about me. There’s nothing unique about me. The money is irrelevant,” he recalled realizing. “That was the first time I was willing to admit that I had a problem.”
Carton may have wagered millions, but he believes his story can not only echo in high-stakes casino gambling — but across everyday living rooms and smartphone screens. At a time when gambling accessibility has grown more than ever before, Carton has fixed himself on a path to humanize an addiction often painted as “degenerate.”
His message meets a changing playing field.
In New York, mobile sports betting launched in January 2022. New Jersey legalized sports betting in 2018. With sports betting now legal in some 30 states, 18 offering online sports betting, roughly $120 billion in bets have been placed — nearly the combined GDP of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
From the Empire State’s launch alone, sportsbooks saw $1.67 billion in online wagers in their first month, $1.53 billion in February and $1.64 billion in March. New Jersey’s sports betting handle topped $1 billion for the sixth time in seven months in March.
And of course, the PGA Tour is all in on the sports gambling trend. The Tour has deals with Draft Kings, Fan Duel, PointsBet and BetMGM as partners. The Tour has said that it may provide an area at tournaments in states where gaming is legal so fans can make a bet on site. And an expansion in technology has allowed for talk of live odds on the golf course, either to win the tournament outright or to be the low player in a pairing on the day.
As an addictive activity fits legally in the palm of a user’s hand, some advocates worry a similar growth is headed toward problem gambling.
“That’s ultimately the story here, as more and more people start gambling for the first time,” said the radio personality nearing four years in recovery this June. “The far majority is going to be able to do it recreationally. … But there’s a group of people that are not going to be able to do it responsibly.
“And they have no idea, until they try it.”
How he failed his test
Carton was back at a blackjack table by June 2018. The second time in a casino since rehab, he still knew he had a problem — but his ego left him with something to prove.
He had a test.
Carton had left cash in the car, hoping to see he could simply walk away from the casino outside of Philadelphia if he lost what he brought in his pockets. But, staring down at the hand in front of him, he knew the right move was to double-down. He just didn’t have enough money.
He ran out to the car. He lost it all in about an hour.
“That’s the last time I’ve ever wagered,” said the husband and father of four. “I failed my own test, where I couldn’t control myself financially. And that was when I decided, I’ve got to really dedicate my life to not gambling.”
Carton’s charges marked a culmination of a roughly two-year period when gambling had seized his life. A dance recital, a kid’s ballgame, a work event: He was always focused on how he would gamble that day. He gambled illegally online. He scheduled vacations to be near casinos. He found himself driving to the blackjack table at midnight or 1 a.m., hoping to gamble without suspicion before starting his 6 a.m. show.
In the spring of 2019, Carton was convicted of fraud, sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison and $4.8 million in restitution. He stepped out of the minimum-security federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, by 2020.
Four months later, he returned to sports radio with WFAN. But he planned to do things differently.
In addition to his show “Carton and Roberts” — where the sports radio head can bring his brash on-air persona in full-force — Carton runs a weekly show centered around gambling addiction and recovery. “Hello, My Name is Craig” airs every Saturday. Also, in 2021, Carton was named ambassador for FanDuel’s responsible gambling initiatives.
An ordered 15 percent of each paycheck goes directly toward his restitution, Carton’s lawyer told federal court in 2021. His current salary wasn’t disclosed in news reports when he returned to airwaves and was not disclosed to USA TODAY Network — though his lawyer has called it “a fraction” of the $2 million reportedly made on “Boomer and Carton.”
“The reason I do ‘Hello, My Name is Craig’ is because of those 12 people,” Carton said, thinking back to his time at Algamus recovery center in Arizona. “My last night at rehab, they came to me knowing what I did for a living … and they asked me to make them a promise — if I ever get back on the radio, would I be the face and voice of gambling addiction? Because it doesn’t have one.
“So, part of my life now is trying to humanize the addict.”
Vulnerable sports betting populations
The newest way to bet is seemingly everywhere.
Social media platforms feed ads between scrolls. Watching any sporting event on TV comes with betting lines and commercials; listening to any radio show or podcast comes with sponsors like FanDuel, DraftKings and Caesars Casino. Where there aren’t physical posters and billboards towering over highways, online campaigns offer $1,000 welcome bonuses, betting matches and “risk-free bets” with strings attached.
Craig Carton, WFAN sports radio personality and outspoken gambling addiction recovery advocate, co-hosts a weekday sports talk show, focuses his 30-minute Saturday morning show on issues related to gambling addiction. (Photo: Seth Harrison/The Journal News)
Even familiar faces like Drew Brees, the fifth high-profile brand ambassador for PointsBet’s U.S. marketing and second from the NFL, stream in living rooms across the country, telling audiences just how easy it is to place a bet.
Carton is all for it — with conditions.
“I’m a huge proponent of legalized wagering, and one of the main reasons is that we’ve taken gambling conversations out of the back alley, and we’ve made it mainstream,” he said. “Now with that, comes a huge caveat: In my opinion, every state that has legalized wagering should set aside a portion of the tax revenue that comes in and set up compulsive gambling support centers.”
In New York, problem gambling services will receive a cap of $6 million annually out of mobile sports betting proceeds after its first year. If profits in New York meet projections of $1.1 billion by 2025, as set by VIXIO GamblingCompliance, that year would see about half a percent of state dollars allocated to support services. In New Jersey, fiscal year 2022 saw just about $3.9 million collected for gambling addiction treatment programs, according to the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement.
Two years before this launch, a New York State survey on gambling prevalence said 14.6 percent of adults who gambled in 2020 met criteria for problem gambling, while just over 4 percent — or about 600,000 people — experienced problems directly related to their gambling.
The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that 2 million Americans have a severe gambling problem while another 4 to 6 million are considered to have mild or moderate gambling problems.
The youngest age group, 18 to 24, had the highest risk. Communities of color, alongside lower income brackets, also faced higher rates of gambling addiction.
“We know that young males tend to have the highest rates of gambling participation and gambling problems,” said Keith Whyte, the National Council’s executive director. “And that also appears to be the group that is most heavily targeted for new online sports betting marketing.”
Carton hopes his story helps people see, or feel, the signs of problem gambling — because “it’s only going to continue to get bigger.”
Gambling should be a group activity, the radioman says, if done responsibly. It should not be hidden. If someone is sitting off in the corner on their phone, wagering on a 1 a.m. basketball game they know nothing about, or asking friends to cover a bet they can’t afford, these are signs of a potential problem. That joins noticeable mood changes, constant chasing of losses, borrowing money, opening new credit cards, not following a plan and more.
“There are enough warning signs out there to be aware of, for somebody to say: ‘Hey, buddy, stop. Hey, let’s have a conversation.'” Carton said. “Because if no one does that … there’s no happy ending to compulsive gambling. It doesn’t exist, until you are willing to acknowledge you have a problem.”
Often called the “hidden addiction,” with signs harder to spot than substance abuse, gambling disorders maintain the highest rates of suicide compared to any other addiction.
“The hardest and most important first step was the step that I internalized in that very first meeting, which was: ‘There’s something going on,'” Carton said.
He still sees a long road ahead.
“I’m still upset about some of the decisions I made and some of the things I did, the risks I took and the financial devastation and emotional devastation that I brought,” he continued.
“But I’m proud to be able to tell you that I’m an addict. I own it. And I’m not ashamed of it.”
Kelly Powers is a culture reporter for the How We Live team — covering race, culture and identity for the USA TODAY Network’s Atlantic Region. Contact her at kepowers@gannett.com or 443-694-0770, and follow her on Twitter @kpowers01.
Bilal Powell would like to retire as a New York Jet.
Bilal Powell hopes Green and White are the only colors he wears during his NFL career.
Powell was on WFAN’s Joe and Evan show Thursday and discussed his future in the league. Powell has spent his entire nine-year career with the Jets and wants to continue his career with them in 2020 and beyond.
“I just stay in my lane,” Powell said. “I sit back and let things happen and unfold. I want to retire a Jet, that’s the biggest thing for me.”
The 31-year-old is an unrestricted free agent for the second straight offseason. After the 2018 season, the Jets weren’t sure if he was healthy enough to play again, as he suffered a serious neck injury that put his career in jeopardy. However, Powell was cleared to resume play and the Jets brought him back in June on a one-year deal.
Powell has told his teammates that other teams have reached out to him in the past, but he’s committed to the Jets for the long run.
“For me, I just like to sit put,” Powell said. “I had a couple opportunities to leave around the times that I was a free agent in previous years, but I wanted to stick around and see this thing unfold.”
The longest-tenured Jet has run for 3,675 yards in his career to go along with 15 rushing touchdowns. As a receiver, Powell has 1,600 yards and five touchdowns. Last season was one of Powell’s worst in his career as he only ran for 229 yards. It was his lowest-rushing total since 2014.
Mark Sanchez blamed the Jets front office for not giving him any good receivers to work with throughout his New York career.
The Jets would have loved to see more consistency from Mark Sanchez during his time in green and white. He, however, wishes he got more of the same thing from them.
Sanchez’s first two years with Gang Green got off to a hot start as he led the Jets to two AFC Championship appearances in 2009 and 2010. Sanchez looked destined to be the franchise quarterback for years to come, but as his play started to decline, the Jets weren’t finding the same success. Much of that, Sanchez feels, stems from constant turnover within the organization.
“Every year was a revolving door,” Sanchez said on WFAN’s Boomer and Gio Show on Wednesday. “Every year was a new formula. Instead of maybe a draft-and-develop mentality, it was, ‘Let’s go sign some of the best guys on the market and see what happens.’ And every time you do that, you kind of roll the dice. And it just became difficult for everyone. And … you’re either the hero or the goat. When it doesn’t work out, it’s just, ‘Hey, welp, see you later.’ And then I woke up in Philly.”
Sanchez never had any great receivers that he built chemistry with. His top two receivers were Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards, who had short tenures with the Jets. Sanchez, however, wasn’t exactly an elite quarterback with them.
In four seasons with the Jets, Sanchez only threw more touchdowns than interceptions twice and only threw for over 3,000 yards twice. He was best described as an erratic game manager thanks to his turnovers — so a bad game manager — who rode the coattails of an elite defense to two straight AFC Championships.
Sanchez noted that injuries hampered his career, but also acknowledged that there were plays that could have been made that would have changed the narrative of his Jets career.
“Hindsight’s 20-20,” Sanchez said. “Listen, I think if some of the guys stayed healthy here or there, and you know the margin for error in this league is so small. You know, one play here, one play there changes perception a little bit, and maybe we stick together a little longer. Maybe we get through one of those valleys and get back up to one of the peaks that we should’ve been at.”
What could have been is left to the imagination. In reality, though, Sanchez’s Jets tenure ended up being a failure after a red-hot start.
