I would go to sleep at night listening to New York Met games on WFAN roughly 35-40% of the year growing up. Once the Mets were done, the overnight host schmoozing sports with you till 5 a.m. and Imus In The Morning was Steve Somers.

Somers retired from full-time radio work in 2021, but anytime I think of a sports take, part of my mind imagines calling it into Steve and since it’s the overnight, you had until he plugged the plug to speak.

So here’s my latest hot take on the New York Giants’ release of James Bradberry and the silly column by Ralph Vacchaino of SNY, the home of the New York Mets. I call it silly because he answers his own question multiple times within it, yet still comes to the wrong answer in the end.

The question, also the title of the column, is why did James Bradberry’s inevitable Giants release take so long? For the non-sports fan still reading, thank you for your patronage and know that there’s a Kanye West/Tribe Called Quest comparison in the works, so stick around for that. But this is about the NFL – our country’s dominant sport and a year-round cycle that includes roster transactions, contracts and the ever-present salary cap.

Bradberry was one of the lone bright spots in the dark tenure of GM Dave Gettleman. The cornerback signed a four year deal, was a Pro Bowl corner two seasons ago, had a drastic decrease of performance last season and was due $13.4 million in the last year of his deal.

That’s the situation the Giants’ new GM Joe Schoen inherited, something Vacchaino notes in the opening paragraph.

Joe Schoen has known since the day he took over the Giants that he would have to get rid of James Bradberry. It wasn’t by choice. It was a matter of math. The Giants were too deep in salary cap hell, and their top cornerback was too expensive. His departure was inevitable.

Schoen spent four months attempted to mitigate this issue, but here’s the thing that Schoen, Vaccaino, Bradberry, Somers, and anyone else I can think of knows without a doubt – The New York Giants are going to be a bad football team in 2022-23.

That’s a fact, once emphasized by the team being mediocre at best for the past decade. You don’t have to go far to find that the Giants haven’t had a winning record at any point in the last five years, that despite a playoff appearance in 2016, the last time the team was worth a damn was 2017 when Elisha led them to a Super Bowl title over the undefeated New England Patriots.

The quick list of the worst problems Schoen is dealing with starts with the offensive line, a group that

When Dave Gettleman took over as General Manager in 2018, he promised change. He declared that restoring the offensive line, the “hog mollies,” as he called them, would be his first order of business in redefining the Giants’ culture and making the team an NFL powerhouse once more.

I add that to emphasize just how bad a job Gettleman has done with my favorite football franchise. Between that and the 850-plus miles to Giants Stadium or Met Life or whatever they call it; my love has waned. The MLB app gives me my daily feed, all 162 so I can go to sleep just like I did as a child…

But back to the Giants, who are going to be horrible again. Schoen, with his moves both early and in the draft, has shown that the offensive line was the first priority. That’s why he signed Mark Glowinski, who I’ve read is moving to center. That leaves one of the other bright spots, left tackle Andrew Thomas and a whole lot of question marks. He drafted Alabama OL Evan Neal and ‘all the experts’ expect he will start at right tackle.

There are still two other positions on the offensive line, but there are other much larger holes to fill. Like the lack of a true pass rusher, so he drafted edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux and won the draft by making this kid’s world and embarrassing the commissioner within moments. (Trust me, click the link – it’s a fun 2 minutes. Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you’re done)

There are still tons of things this team needs. Remember, they are going to be bad in 2022-23. Don’t let anyone tell you different, no matter what. So this becomes a season-long tryout for everyone; that’s why the Giants won’t pick up Daniel Jones’ fifth-year option for 2023; he’s on a year-long tryout and hopefully with a better offensive line, we can see more of the glimpses of a mobile strong-armed QB and less of the turnover-prone oft-injured player from the past.

I could write something similar for running back Saquon Barkley and wide receiver Kenny Galladay, but the offense starts with the line and Vacchaino admits

In fairness to Schoen, he did do the right thing by allocating most of his few free agent dollars toward fixing the offensive line. And while he theoretically could have traded down in the first round of the draft and landed a cornerback once Gardner was gone, he did end up with edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux and tackle Evan Neal, and it’s hard to argue with that.

And yet he does. Vacchaino admits it was inevitable Bardberry would go due to his salary; that there’s nothing that could have been done. Vacchaino says Schoen could have traded him for a third-round pick and in the third round, they ended up taking LSU’s 175-pound Cor’Dale Flott 81st overall. But just a paragraph earlier, he admits that by their second third-round pick, 10 corners were already off the board, that the top corners were taken with two of the top picks before they drafted Kayvon at No. 5.

All of this for new defensive coordinator Don ‘Wink’ Martindale, who is known for an “ultra-aggressive style” that Vacchaino says will fall on last year’s big free agent signing Adoree’ Jackson and a mix of untested players to fill out the rest of the cornerbacks. Sound like a tryout to you?

Vacchaion fails to mention that going into last year, the safety position (was) one of the strongest and Xavier McKinney and Julian Love return to help fill out the secondary. Only that ” the Giants still have a gaping hole in their secondary to fill”. That’s the last line in the column and as a former sports column writer, it shouldn’t be something I can easily debunk.

Well, maybe not easily, but there are five starting positions in the secondary. McKinney, Love and Jackson are all returning veterans and all but assured to start. That leaves two ‘holes’ to fill to go with the many other holes Schoen had to and has attempted to fill during his brief time as GM.

Oh, I’m sorry. Did I fail to mention that Schoen started his new job in late January? That he had roughly 16 weeks to readjust this horrible roster and the even-worse financial situation, all in preparation for the premiere event of the NFL off-season/summer cycle – The NFL Draft.

That same draft that Schoen was able to select Kayvon, who once again, won the draft by providing a kid with a great college essay (how this viral moment shaped his life, how he recalls that moment each day during his blah blah blah) and once again, making the commissioner look like the stereotypical rich old white man he is.

The column praising Schoen for his calm selections and showing the potential path forward for this forlorn franchise is the standard, but also what the beat reporter will be doing for the next two months leading up to training camp. It’s also not an Instant Reaction column, posted and published on the same day as the event to get the most reaction.

So here’s hoping Vacchiano was writing with intent to annoy his audience into reaction. Reactions like this, where I spend countless paragraphs expounding on the silliness of his opinion. This has always worked better when vocalized and my dream was to do just that, perhaps taking the place of Somers on the overnight, schmoozing S P O R T S.