FAA ground stop, Cowboys/49ers, Poch leaves USMNT | Free4All_

Welcome to Free For All, Ethan Herrera with Jeff Kolb. An exciting Free For All, but a very, very crazy day. Yeah, it's a crazy time right now. I'm sure you're all aware about what's going on with the national ground stoppage. Our great news team has been all over this for the last couple of hours. Just kind of the spark notes of where we're at with this. You know, obviously, like, it's low on the totem pole of importance, but sports is impacted by this. We're not sure how much it will be yet, but what's going on, it's a rare nationwide ground stop issued by the FAA. It's causing chaos at airports across the country. So, basically, right now, all departing flights in the U.S. are not happening at the moment. Probably on hold until maybe, like, 10 p.m. tonight at the earliest. That seems a little bit, like, wishful thinking at this point. The federal government is being kind of vague about what exactly is going on. We don't really have a great explanation for why this is happening. They're saying the ground stop was imposed, quote, due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety. Again, no word on when the ground stop will be lifted. Obviously, we love you being with us here on Fox 4 Plus for the next half hour. If you stream on Fox Local, you can... Get all the current developments on this story beyond the sports scope. So, uh, But let's go to what is going on as, yes, again, you know, that might just include hearing from President Trump. But as far as the sports impact. What's tomorrow? College football Saturday. College football Saturday. And it's a big one. So let's take a look at the schedule as far as the local teams and what the impact will be. Ethan, you and I have been kind of hawking. All the latest developments on this. Yes. And. And SMU, top of the list. You know, we did this by time. 11 a.m. kickoff, you'd be worried about that. The good news is Wake Forest, I can confirm, has made it to Dallas. As for Kansas State at TCU, 1 o'clock kickoff. Thank Reports on social media say K-State deboarded the plane back to the football facility. This is a common theme for a lot of teams. That would be a seven-hour drive to Fort Worth. you You know, any minute now, right this moment, like they might be deciding, you know, get on the bus and let's get on the bus. very Tennessee at Texas A&M, two o'clock scheduled start time balls. They went back to their facility. much. A Baylor at BYU. This is not a good scenario. I mean, you talk about conference realignment and the impact. I mean, that would be a 20 drive north to Provo, 20 hour drive, 20 hour drive. Yes, so... 2.30 p.m. start time is what's on the schedule. That's not happening unless somehow Baylor gets in the air. We'll talk more in a moment about some of the domino effect of these types of scenarios. Ole Miss reportedly not able to get to Norman yet. Six-ranked Texas was on the plane to LSU. Number 21 Tigers had to get off. That's a seven-hour drive, so that's possible. And the good news there, it's a 6.30 kickoff. North Texas had its flight grounded. They had a nice scenario here because the games at UTSA, they, as we speak right now, are on the buses down. Yeah, they hop on I-35 and they'll be fine. And that's an 8 o'clock kickoff tomorrow night. The SID there said, thank God for 8 o'clock kickoffs. And Texas Tech is at Oklahoma State, 8.30 p.m. kickoff, and the Red Raiders fortunately have arrived. And, of course, it's not just college sports. No, let's take it to the pro sports now around Dallas. You've got the Mavs, Stars, obviously the Cowboys on Sunday, But new so far. Mavericks have confirmed to us they have made it to Cleveland for tomorrow night's game at 6.30 as for the Sabres and Stars at 7 o'clock tomorrow. Buffalo has arrived here before the 7 p.m. puck drop tomorrow night at the AAC, although they do host the St. Louis Blues on Sunday at 7 as well, so that might also be in effect. We'll keep an eye on that. Florida Panthers. Panthers, yeah, sorry. The Panthers are playing the Blues right now in St. Louis. Florida is now coming. Somehow needing to come down to Dallas from them. Is that tonight or tomorrow? No, tomorrow. Tomorrow. I'm just here to fact check. It's my favorite hobby. Saturday at 7 is Panthers at St. Louis. So the Panthers have a game at St. Louis tomorrow. Right. I don't even know if we're sure that they've made it there yet. True. And now they're coming down to Dallas on Sunday, supposedly. On the schedule. And then obviously the Niner is coming to Dallas. We're supposed to be with a 325 kickoff on Sunday against the Cowboys. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan says the team is supposed to take off for Dallas tomorrow at 11 a.m. Our time central. So we'll see how that checks out because that's I mean, this is unprecedented. It's insane. Like middle of I mean, take away not to take away from everything that happens in everyday life that this is affected by. But sports wise, I don't know the last time this has ever happened. Well, we were just talking about this with Carter, doing all the good work to punch us, including, you know, showing you to all the good people. Yeah, sorry about that. Sometimes it's just the one shot here, but that's okay. It feels a little bit like COVID time. Yes, yeah. Right? And if I can, you know, this is a serious situation, obviously. You know, we hope that it's, you know, something that gets resolved and there's nothing really horrible that's imminent or... Possibly could be happening right now, but this is serious, but if I could just insert maybe something that's not so serious of a comment, maybe the Cowboys can't lose to the Niners on Sunday. Maybe they can't. Maybe it has to wait for Monday. That might be the only way that they don't lose on Sunday is if the Niners aren't, they don't show up. And if they don't show up, they forfeit the game as all Cowboys fans would like. We'll get to that. But on the college football front, you know, you look at the schedule. So, What is it here? Because math's always hard for me. So, one, two, three Saturdays from tomorrow is conference championship Saturday. So, you're up against it schedule-wise. I mean, like, the games that are supposed to happen tomorrow, if they don't, like, Baylor at BYU, which is 20 hours driving north, then you have to play the game this week or it just doesn't happen. And then if it doesn't happen, you get in some really murky territory with, like, How you figure out who qualifies for the conference title game, potentially. Yeah, I don't see them pushing back the entire college football schedule at all. Because, like, BYU, for example, they're a highly ranked team right now. Big time. And I think that they're going to have to get these games in by Wednesday, I would say, at the very, very latest. That's pushing it. That's pushing it. But I think at the very latest, they have to get these games in for this week. Or do you push games, like, next Saturday? Back to, like, a Monday. Maybe you do. I think right now all these guys are on some sort of Zoom call trying to figure all this out. Maybe they're in a room together. Maybe this whole grounding thing, you know, from the FAA, maybe it had something to do. Maybe it was affected. Remember the Outlook outage yesterday? Oh, man. Could be something like that. I'm not going to get on the conspiracy theory. I will say back to the college football, you know, this is... It's tough. It's really tough, obviously, because how do you get these games and how do these kids prepare? How do they kind of pivot on this entire scheduling, travel, all of it? There's so many different factors that we've never seen before. And even right now, if it gets resolved at 10 p.m. tonight, even then, that kind of messes things up for everybody in the college football world. One thing's for certain. Carter, he gave you the one shot. I did. I appreciated that. You know, before this FAA situation and the ground stop and the uncertainty with that, it seemed like the uncertainty of our sports day was George Pickens and Joey Porter Jr. Are they going to play Sunday for the Cowboys? Now we don't know if there will even be a game on Sunday. I mean, pump the brakes a little bit. Hopefully there will be. But George Pickens. Let's show the quote, Carter, because this is like maybe quote of the year. So obviously he misses last week in Indy with a hamstring injury. That was surprising. I'll get to, you know, Joey Porter Jr. also still in limbo after missing last week. But asked today about his status, and he said, quote, when you turn that TV on, get some food, make sure you have a wife or girlfriend, make sure you hug her, love her, and when you turn the TV on, you should see. Ha ha ha ha ha! Well done, George Pickens. Well done. Well done. That is a crazy quote to say. Why are we bringing the wives and the girlfriends in? I know, that's insane. Clearly his mind is on the 49ers. What a guy. I mean, we knew he's got a big personality coming into being a Dallas Cowboy. But. That's insane. Like, why would you ever say that? You know, I mean, he's entertaining. He said it because he's a Dallas Cowboy. Now, on a serious note, he is still questionable. Like, it's not a guarantee. And I'll show you a little bit of the video. The team this week, De'Ron Bland, we thought he was good to go. Well, he's been added to the injury report. He wasn't on it all week long. Now has an ankle injury, so he's questionable. Joey Porter Jr., who I mentioned, missed last week with an ankle. He's questionable, although he did more today. He was limited at practice for the first time this week. But right there, you've got the two top cornerbacks for the Cowboys. Fortunately, DeMarvian Overshawn, who missed last week, he should be good to go. On offense, again, Pickens still technically questionable. Kevontae Turpin, though, that's a big special teams contributor. It looks like he should be good to go to come back from his injury, a rib injury with the Cowboys. On the other side, the Niners, they look to be getting Debo Samuel back. He was out with a hamstring, but Mike Evans is still not a go. And Sam Fran's top two corners on the depth chart are also questionable. But here's the difference, Ethan. The Niners, with their injuries, they still win. They're still 7-1. The Cowboys need this win, especially knowing that the Giants lost Thursday now gives them an opportunity where if they win this game, they're just one game back of first place in the division. I mean, we embrace the challenge of playing a really good football team, and we have to play well to beat them. You know, I think their record proves that. They're 7-1 for a reason. They've won a lot of close games, and again, it'd be another great step for us, because I do think. That, again, the challenge that they bring is really on all three fronts. And so this is going to be one of those games where you really have to play well in all three phases. They do have to play well in all three phases because, yeah, you want to do that every game. Oh, tough, because you're right. That Giants loss puts them within shouting distance of first place. We had to do some hard math on that one. We actually are. That tie is a real pain. That tie is a real pain. The tie is tough, but it puts them, technically, you're right, since they have that one more game. Let me just try and explain this. Go ahead. You can try. As a math idiot, okay, as a math idiot, I'm going to try and explain this. Cowboys are 4-5, right? The Giants are 5-3-1. So imagine you take that one tie and just. Blow it into oblivion and say that's a loss. Then right now, it would be Cowboys 4-5, Giants 5-4. So the Cowboys, if they win, get to 5-5, you're a half game back. So you take that out of it, you give the Giants an extra half game, they're one game back. People were roasting me on social media last night. I said after the game, oh, they can get within one game. They said, no, no, it's a half game. You're wrong. No, I think this is, yeah, they need to. This is a, oh, you're going to say must win. No, this is a must compete. Just for the fans' sake and for confidence' sake, they need to be competitive in this game. Yeah, but they need the win. They need the win. So my question to you is, like, how? How, if you're drawing up the secret recipe for the Cowboys to beat the Niners right now, what is it? I told you this earlier. I got pretty heated on NFC Beast on Wednesday. Wednesday. . They have three guys on their offense, . . Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens. You know them. Combined this year, their salary is over $120 million. They need to play like it. I don't care. I know the defense is going to be tough. Uh, for the Niners, but they need to play like big dogs cause they're getting paid like big dogs. I want to see. And I think the only way they can do this, it's not going to be trying to keep the ball out of the offense's hands, the 49ers offensive hands, because that defense is too good. You can't stay on the field with that defense. So big shots, they're going to need to take big shots. They're going to need to have George Pickens, CD lamb, get. Double-digit targets, and they're going to need them to go 40, 50-yard shots. And that's the only way. That's big. I know that's like home-run balls, but you're going to have to play home-run ball against this guy, against these teams. I mean, I think that those guys need to make plays. At the same time, if it's no balance and you can't run the ball against San Francisco, then you're in trouble. They're not going to be able to do it anyway. Then they're going to be in trouble. Right. You're not. Although we'll see what happens with the two top cornerbacks. As I mentioned for San Francisco, they're injured. I think you cannot turn the ball over. The Niners had five takeaways in the second half last week against Las Vegas. 30 seconds before we're going to break. Does Brian Schottenheimer need this win on the resume to save his job? This win on the resume does save his job. Yes. I want to say yes. I also know that the Rams and Seattle are hanging out there. But I'm with you, because I think by that point, if you lose this game, and maybe you lose one of the next two after it, like a game you should win, the Tennessee game or the Eagles game, by the time L.A. and Seattle come around, it might just be too late. I'm not saying this is going to be the reason if they lose this game that he gets fired, but this goes a long way to keep him here. You know, that has a nice ring. You're welcome. You know what else has a nice ring? The Bachelor. And we're going to talk about it when we come back. So, get away, dude. So the Commanders won twice in 24 hours. That's crazy. Pretty impressive, right? Yeah. Because they came back, they beat the Giants. And then their practice squad quarterback, Sam Hartman, was named the next Bachelor. I know you were trying to go for that, but... You know what? My application, I guess, must have gotten lost. Or they just didn't say anything about it. But whatever. This is awesome. Notre Dame quarterback. I was a huge Sam Hartman fan. Doesn't his life seem a little too perfect for you? It's too good to be true. He's like what Joe Montana wanted to be. It seems like AI before AI actually got to... Creating a human being. I guess. All I know is that it is the perfect, he was a quarterback for Notre Dame, gets drafted, and now he, or not drafted, he gets picked up by an NFL team, is playing there, he's on a practice squad, but then they're like, hey, you want to go to a house full of like 20 beautiful women and they can, you know, fawn all over you? Yeah, why not? That's pretty, yeah, that's a pretty good life he's got going. Do you think he's going to hand out the roses or like? There's going to be so many bad football puns. Hot rap. Yeah. Hot rap. Hot rap. All season long of this Bachelor is that it's going to be so many bad football puns, activities. It's going to be fun, but terrible, but funny. Yeah, no, I mean, it's not a show to punt on. Let's not start. So if there's one thing that I've learned about Ethan Herrera, there are things that are very important to him in his life. But I don't think anything is more important to Ethan Herrera than the hair. Don't eat it, don't eat it. Then the hair. That's not in the hair game. It's very close. Now, it's up there. I'm sorry, ladies, but he is taken. However, Carter, I tell you what, though. You know what? I wish my hair kind of looked like that. It used to back in the day when I was younger. It doesn't do that anymore, but I cannot believe you did this. I feel like his hair fits you very well. But there's one... I wasn't going to say that. There's just not quite the same beards. I don't know. Carter, do we have any other comps that might have a beard? Oh, my goodness. I don't know. I know exactly. I just, I don't know, it might take a while to search. I don't, I'm not, oh, there we go. Get out of here. Well, there's a nice beard. That doesn't even look like you. You know, I never, I never knew that this was such a Sam Hartman effect, this beard. Now, that hair, uh. If I was, like, maybe six to seven inches taller, you know, at least. Maybe I'd give him a room for his money. I think five foot three is, uh, you're not going to want that on The Bachelor. Three? How dare you insult him like that? You think he's only 5'10"? Look at these. Look at these, man. Those gotta be the best looking people at Fox 4, I'm telling you, look at that. Alright, real talk, would you ever go on any dating show? No, I don't think, no, I don't think I could, I don't think I could. Even if you were The Bachelor, like, they're all after you. How are you? That doesn't appeal to me, and I'm not trying to be like, oh, whatever. I just mean, like, that's, I don't think I could handle that sort of... I don't think I would, even if the hair was perfect, my hair is always perfect. So I don't, if it's on my head, it's perfect. You know, I'm just going to let you off the hook. Maddie, his girlfriend, he did a good job. He did a good job. Let's hard pivot to a breakup, to a breakup. And that is Mauricio Pochettino, US Men's National Team head coach. He's out. So he had just in August signed a new contract with... The U.S. team to lead them towards the 2030 World Cup after a really successful run, obviously, here in 2026 by U.S. soccer historical standards. But today, the news was confirmed. Pochettino is leaving to take the head coaching job in the English Premier League with Manchester United. Right now, it's kind of weird timing. They're in this... International break, so he and his staff will keep on coaching the U.S. through two CONCACAF Nations League matches, I believe. The U.S. has Haiti twice. First question to you, Pochettino, he was very emotional today. You saw the soundbite, and we'll show it here while we speak and let you hear our voices. Thank Did he owe it to the U.S. men's national team to stay? This is tough. I thought about this. I don't know if he owed it to where it was like so demanding, you like people should hate that he's leaving or, very or hold it against him. I'm always a person who's like of his word, man of his word kind of thing. much. And so, yeah, this is kind of a, kind of a punch in the gut for a lot of us men's national team fans, us soccer fans in general. And the, and the players, I just, I think, I think you should have stayed. I mean, I think just out of principle, I know that Um, probably what in the contract, man, man, you contract, it probably has them. Like you can't, maybe I just think there's no way you can do both jobs because even though you're like, you're only coaching the U S during international breakdown, like, I mean, it's a, that's a full-time job. So, no, I mean, I think it's a unique situation because, you know, man, you historic team, right. You have a chance to win in the EPL every single year, as opposed to every 40 years, uh, probably more money. I don't think that he owed it to stay. No. Because, and I actually think this is a good thing for U.S. soccer, believe it or not. Does it sting? Is it a gut punch to lose a great coach? Absolutely. But this is really like the first time this millennium that a U.S. coach on the men's side has left. On good terms, like with the program in a positive place, usually you're getting fired or you're not getting renewed or you're resigning after not qualifying for the World Cup. So it stings, but I do think that it's a sign of progress that you had a coach like this and man, you wanted to take your coach. He was great. And you have a team that he Played well because he was there. I still think, for all you U.S. men's soccer fans out there, I'll get angry for you. He should have stayed. I'm not saying not to be angry, but I still think it's a sign of progress. Back to that Niners game and the fans when we come back. Ha ha ha ha ha! I'll tell you what, man, guys are getting real creative around here, and what are you doing? What are you, do not take that off. The other day. I, you know what, I'm about all this social media back and forth, I love, I love the rivalry going back and forth between people, the poop talking, whatever you want to call it. Poop talking? Yeah, I was going to say a different word. It's harder to do. Is it? Oh, no. That doesn't seem like a scary belt. We're taking belts off here. I'll do it. Cowboys unfiltered. That was a clip from Cowboys unfiltered. It should be a juicy one. Uh, on Monday. Whoa, baby. One more time, dude. Get out of here. All right. Maybe that'll be the Cowboys to the Niners. No, I think Cowboys win by double digits if they play Sunday. So, top of the show, as we mentioned. Fluid situation with the ground stoppage across the country. We are waiting to hear from President Trump. Stick with us on Fox Local right now. If you're not already there, we will bring you all the latest developments, including our regular 9 p.m. streaming newscast coming up tonight. We'll see you then.