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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Playmaker's podcast. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Haley Ellwood and just wanted to start out by saying

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for tuning in last week and

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Speaker 1: for all your feedback from week ones episode. So on

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Speaker 1: today's show, we're kicking things off with Susie Spanos. Susie

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Speaker 1: is the wife to controlling owner and Chairman of the

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Speaker 1: board Dean Spanos. She's a philanthropist, cancer survivor, and sits

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Speaker 1: on the NFL Foundation's Board of Directors. We'll have a

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Speaker 1: conversation about why giving back is so important and the

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Speaker 1: roles women play in the NFL. After Susie, we'll hear

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Speaker 1: from NFL Media Cynthia Freeland. Freeland can be seen and

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Speaker 1: heard on numerous NFL network shows and platforms as NFL

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Speaker 1: Media's first analytics expert. We'll chat with her about her

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Speaker 1: job and also the predictions she has for this week's

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Speaker 1: game between the Chargers and the Lions. So now let's

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Speaker 1: welcome in Susie Spanos. Susie, thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: joining me on Playmakers today. Oh, thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: This is so fun. I'm so excited and I have

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Speaker 1: to say you're basically the inspiration for this because our

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Speaker 1: women's club of significant others of coaches and players has

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Speaker 1: the name Playmakers, and you kind of coin that, but ultimately,

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Speaker 1: what does it mean to be a playmaker? You know?

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Speaker 1: It's huge because really, the men work so hard. All

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Speaker 1: the people on the organization work so hard, and when

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Speaker 1: they come home or when they're with their significant others,

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Speaker 1: they need to be at peace. And so this is

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Speaker 1: the way we can honor them, show them that we

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Speaker 1: appreciate all that they do, the sacrifices they make, and

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Speaker 1: that they're part of the team too. And so we're

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Speaker 1: able to do as a group some things together that

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Speaker 1: shine light on different causes. And it's cool because a

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Speaker 1: lot of them have amazing jobs. A lot of them

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Speaker 1: are mothers. They're taking care of their kids at home

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Speaker 1: and everything like that, and they're taking care of their

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Speaker 1: husbands or significant others when they come back to We

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Speaker 1: have nurses, we have lawyers, we have an Olympic star.

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Speaker 1: So we have just a variety of really talented, creative women.

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Speaker 1: So let's get into you a little bit. You're obviously

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Speaker 1: married to Dean, but you're a noted philanthropist. You were

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Speaker 1: on the board of directors of the NFL Foundation. But

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Speaker 1: why is giving back so important to you? You know,

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Speaker 1: it's always been important to our family, and I was

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Speaker 1: very lucky to be a part of this for so

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Speaker 1: many years because when we shone our light on something,

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Speaker 1: it illuminates it and it gives it a power that

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Speaker 1: it couldn't get otherwise, and so we get to see

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Speaker 1: some great things happen and it's just so rewarding. You're

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Speaker 1: also a breast cancer survivor, yes, and that's another area

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Speaker 1: where it's been huge. So we had impact, yes, because

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Speaker 1: we had so we did the mammograms at the stadium,

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Speaker 1: which was just brilliant, and Kimberly Layton did that and

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Speaker 1: it was fantastic and we it's phenomenal. The turnout way

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Speaker 1: more than we could ever have. And then the second year,

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Speaker 1: I will remember this, this man came up to me

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Speaker 1: and he had a sports jacket on, just kind of

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Speaker 1: a cool guy with a jacket and he was kidding.

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Speaker 1: He said, can I get a Mamograham too? I'm like, sure,

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Speaker 1: come on, you know we're not thinking that anything may

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Speaker 1: come of this, nothing right, nothing. I'm like, sure, come on,

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Speaker 1: we'll sign you up. I take him over, we show

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Speaker 1: him the staffs, you know whatever. That day he was

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Speaker 1: diagnosed with breast cancer and through that, really we saved

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Speaker 1: his life. And he came back the following year, and

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Speaker 1: really I was crying. It was so wonderful. I mean,

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Speaker 1: how much does that mean to you given your personal

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Speaker 1: connection to it. And even since we've been in the

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles area, the team has done a lot with

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Speaker 1: raising awareness for breast cancer and also through their Crucial

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Speaker 1: Catch campaign as well. You know, raising awareness is everything.

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Speaker 1: You know that people get checked. And what's so great is,

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Speaker 1: besides you, breast cancer are all cancers, you know, if

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Speaker 1: you have something a skin cancer, if you have something,

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Speaker 1: you know, go get it checked. It's way better to

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Speaker 1: just go take that step. And I think people are

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Speaker 1: feeling more confident, like it's okay, I can do this,

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Speaker 1: I can take this step. I can you know, self

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Speaker 1: care or take care of yourself. Go go get checked. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So getting back to the Crucial Catch thing, I little

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Speaker 1: Bertie told me or you're gonna be firing our cannon

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Speaker 1: at the game. Yes, yes, get it right, And this

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Speaker 1: is gonna be the first time ever. I'm so excited.

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited. I'm already thinking how fun that's gonna be.

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Speaker 1: It's gonna be so it's gonna be a blast, yea.

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Speaker 1: So now getting to sort of just women in the

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Speaker 1: NFL overall. NFL Films recently released a film called a

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Speaker 1: Lifetime of Sundays. It focuses on the four female owners

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Speaker 1: in the league. What kind of changes have you seen

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Speaker 1: just in regards to women in the league since you've

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Speaker 1: been in the NFL? You know, really a lot of

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Speaker 1: change because I've been married to Dean forty two years, so, uh,

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Speaker 1: and we've been in the league since eighty four. And

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Speaker 1: it's and Jane Goodell, this was her project. She admires

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Speaker 1: Virginia McCaskey, who is an amazingly interesting woman that runs

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Speaker 1: an NFL team in our nineties. Same with Martha Ford.

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Speaker 1: And then of course Pat Rooney, who's behind the scenes,

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Speaker 1: always has been and has raised a remarkable family and

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Speaker 1: really is the lifeblood of the Steelers. And they're women, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're women. And of course Norma Hunt has been to

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Speaker 1: every single super Bowl. That's incredible, It's incredible. It's truly incredible.

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Speaker 1: You and I were kind of talking before we even

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Speaker 1: got on air, just about it's the NFL's hundredth anniversary,

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Speaker 1: and it's so cool that they're highlighting women. It's fantastic.

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Speaker 1: It's awesome for so many ways because when you think

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Speaker 1: about our fan base and you think about all the

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Speaker 1: women and they need to be recognized. And there's some

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Speaker 1: wonderful women that have been supportive or had, you know,

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Speaker 1: roles in the NFL for a hundred years. Yeah, Virginia

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Speaker 1: mccowski's dad started the Bears, right, so she has been

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Speaker 1: going to games for ninety plus, yeah, you know, ninety

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Speaker 1: six years. And then in terms of the Chargers organization

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Speaker 1: long advocates of supporting women. You look at women within

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Speaker 1: the organization like CEO and CFO Genie Bond to Alison Miner,

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Speaker 1: who's a physical therapist. She's one of the team's athletic

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Speaker 1: trainers and she's one of only six female athletic trainers

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Speaker 1: in the league. But just overall, how special is it

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Speaker 1: to be part of an organization like that. It's wonderful.

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Speaker 1: It's wonderful. You know, I will say this, you know,

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Speaker 1: is so fair. He's always been fair. And also he

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Speaker 1: really has always recognized with his other businesses how much

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Speaker 1: women contribute. Yeah, so that translated into this business to

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Speaker 1: hire a CEO CEO a woman. Yeah, young girls can't

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Speaker 1: look up that to that total a role model. Yes,

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Speaker 1: you know, like, gee, you know there's there's a position

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Speaker 1: for me in the organization somewhere, you know, whatever, whatever

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Speaker 1: it is, that they'll have an opportunity. And then, lastly, Susie,

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Speaker 1: what do you hope for the future of women working

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Speaker 1: in sports? You know, I hope they're appreciated for the

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Speaker 1: value that they have. I think in life, we all

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Speaker 1: one of our greatest needs is to feel appreciated for

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Speaker 1: what we do. And I see so many women in

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Speaker 1: this organization work day in and day out, tirelessly, and

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Speaker 1: they do a magnificent job. They really do. They rise

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Speaker 1: to the top and it's so wonderful, and I just

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Speaker 1: I would love for them all to be appreciated and

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Speaker 1: know how special they are and what a great job

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Speaker 1: they all do. Yeah that's Susie, Thank you, appreciate it,

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Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. Pay Bolt fans don't miss

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Speaker 1: a minute of the action with the official Los Angeles

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Speaker 1: with Cynthia Freeland, presented by Mercury Insurance. What's up, Cynthia Freeland?

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Speaker 1: How's it going pretty good? How are you doing him good?

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on playmakers today anytime.

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Speaker 1: You know that, Before we get into your thoughts on

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Speaker 1: the game between the Chargers and the lines this week,

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Speaker 1: I just kind of wanted to get into your job

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Speaker 1: a little bit because it's really cool. Frankly, it's one

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Speaker 1: that kind of makes me wish I paid better attention

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Speaker 1: in math class, if you will, But just kind of

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Speaker 1: give us a little bit of the reader's digest version

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Speaker 1: of what your job is as the NFL media's analytics expert.

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Speaker 1: So ultimately I get a chance to take a look

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Speaker 1: at how we can dissect football come to strategic and

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Speaker 1: contextual kind of answers based on lots and lots of

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Speaker 1: data over a lot of time, but taking everything all

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Speaker 1: these data points in context, both from a football perspective,

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Speaker 1: so talking to actual coaches, players, people who were involved

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Speaker 1: in the decisions that were made, and on the other side,

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Speaker 1: making sure that these decisions and the stuff that they're

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Speaker 1: teaching me from the film and everything that happened. Also,

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Speaker 1: do you have like mathematical implications so you can have

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Speaker 1: something happens that's the fluke, but if something happens over

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Speaker 1: time and you can prove the correlation or the causality,

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Speaker 1: so that there's actually like a reason for something happening

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Speaker 1: over and over again. Then you have both maths and

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Speaker 1: you have the football reason. So trying to find those

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Speaker 1: pairings to really find a strategic analysis of the game.

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Speaker 1: I mean it's pretty cool because obviously everyone sees you

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Speaker 1: on Sunday, but there's really so much work that goes

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Speaker 1: into what you do throughout the week. Right, I've been coding,

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Speaker 1: let's see, since the game stopped. Since the game stopped

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Speaker 1: last night, I did about old man, like maybe three

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Speaker 1: hours of work last night, and then I'm still not

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Speaker 1: quite done and we're a couple of whatever. We're an

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Speaker 1: afternoon on Tuesday, So you can imagine it's a little

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Speaker 1: time consuming. The mouth on that one. Yes, how many

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Speaker 1: simulations do you usually run per game? So every week

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Speaker 1: in the regular season I try to at least do tenhouts.

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Speaker 1: Been Yeah, so it's actually pretty good. Once you get

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Speaker 1: all the inputs in, it doesn't take too long for

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Speaker 1: the model to run, so then it can be updated

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Speaker 1: based on injuries or based on kind of things we learned,

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Speaker 1: you know, as like let's say somebody gets sick, rafts

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Speaker 1: in it, then you can rerun it with a good

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Speaker 1: amount of confidence that you're getting a good output. So

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Speaker 1: ten thousand at least for each and every week. But

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Speaker 1: with all these trades and like Antonio Brown and all

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Speaker 1: the fins, Yeah, it's been a lot more than that recently,

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Speaker 1: just because either major changes. Right, it's not like a

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Speaker 1: practice squad guy as being activated or someone you know

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Speaker 1: that isn't going to play a lot of snaps. This

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Speaker 1: is like a gigantic change. So the bigger to change,

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Speaker 1: the more simulations that I have to run. Thank you

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Speaker 1: Antonio Brown work. And kind of a tag off of

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Speaker 1: that surprise retirements like Andrew Luck, how did that if

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Speaker 1: it did maybe affect that Chargers Colts game last week? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: But the interesting thing about andrew lust for retirement is

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Speaker 1: that we kind of had some indications something was up.

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Speaker 1: There were two things that happened this off season. One,

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Speaker 1: I know a couple of teams were really trying hard

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Speaker 1: to trade or just Brissette and they wouldn't give them up.

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Speaker 1: So I was like, in my model, I ran some extriscimulations.

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Speaker 1: I thought he was injured. I didn't think retirement was

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Speaker 1: going to be this thing, but I thought that they

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Speaker 1: were really trying to keep Jcoby Brissette because maybe Andrew

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Speaker 1: Luft was more injured than we had originally known. So

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Speaker 1: he makes a big difference in every single game in

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Speaker 1: the passing game, in the competence in outside the numbers passing,

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Speaker 1: an area where quarterbacks just need time to develop those

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Speaker 1: harder caliber throws. So Jcobe Brissette has great upside, but

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Speaker 1: he doesn't have the like nice high floor than Andrew

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Speaker 1: luck does. They actually completely shifted the winner of my

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Speaker 1: game between the Chargers, and I hate to say that,

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Speaker 1: between the Chargers and the and the Colts, but I

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Speaker 1: had I had the Colt just slightly edging out the Chargers.

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Speaker 1: It was supposed to be closed. I mean, it ended

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Speaker 1: up being not for the same reason. Yeah, exactly. Now

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Speaker 1: let's get on to week two's game between the Chargers

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Speaker 1: and the Lions. You are from Michigan in so personal

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Speaker 1: feelings aside in California, now, yeah, that's true. And then

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Speaker 1: yeah and in the Greater LA area. So you're good.

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Speaker 1: You're totally good with this one. So have you run

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Speaker 1: a model on this week's game? I have. I just

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Speaker 1: finished running the first set of ten thousand simulations I've got.

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Speaker 1: I've got a few more to tennant figure out here

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Speaker 1: with some like I said, some new players for example,

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Speaker 1: the Jacksonville changes. It actually does impact like kind of

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Speaker 1: everything else because I do it for the rest of

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Speaker 1: the season too. So um so I did run my

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Speaker 1: initial ten thousand sims. And let's just say that my

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Speaker 1: Southern California friends are going to be happier than my

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Speaker 1: Michigan friends. Good to know we will take that overall.

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Speaker 1: How do you kind of see this one playing out?

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Speaker 1: The real The surprising thing that happened in the game

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Speaker 1: against the cult was the ability of the Cults to

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Speaker 1: really disrupt Silip Rivers. The insured the line, Russell COO's

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Speaker 1: injuries with people being missing from the line and the

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Speaker 1: interior was a problem. And you saw that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if you had a different quarterback who wasn't as able

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Speaker 1: to read defenses or connect with his receivers. And I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think maybe nationally Philip Rivers doesn't get the kind

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Speaker 1: of credit that he should. He's durable, he never misses games,

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Speaker 1: he complete, he keeps his team in the game in

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Speaker 1: crazy situations when other people don't. So you know, I know,

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Speaker 1: as a Chargers stand and people who are listening to this,

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Speaker 1: they get that, but you know, nationally, I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: he gets as much love as he deserts. But that

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Speaker 1: being said, his old line needs to help him out

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Speaker 1: a little bit more on this one than they did

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Speaker 1: in the one against the Cults, because that's really the

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Speaker 1: key indicator for me on this one if because the

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Speaker 1: Lats defense really they started off strong versus the Cardinals

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Speaker 1: and then just completely maybe it was fatigued, but their

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Speaker 1: efficiency and the last two one and a half quarters

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Speaker 1: of the game was really well and their ability to

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Speaker 1: bring pressure just dropped off significantly, which is that's going

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Speaker 1: to really help out so Rivers. Yeah, so it kind

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Speaker 1: of fortifies the wins for the Chargers. So these are

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Speaker 1: also two teams that went to overtime last week. The

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Speaker 1: Lions ended up playing an entire extra ten minutes. Oh

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Speaker 1: my god. Yeah, you know you hear about will playing

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Speaker 1: extra football does something like that, they'll affect your model

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Speaker 1: of how you would predict this game. So I think

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Speaker 1: that the it will affects the model more if we

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Speaker 1: didn't have I mean, it's a Sunday to Sunday games. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you're playing, if you're playing overtime extra football, and

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Speaker 1: it's Sunday to Thursday, that will certainly impacts the model,

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Speaker 1: but if you're going Sunday to Sunday, it's really not

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Speaker 1: super significant, with the exception of if you look to

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Speaker 1: see if there was a real imbalance if he was

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Speaker 1: on the field. So for example, you know the team

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Speaker 1: was really being like the defenses on the field of time,

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Speaker 1: and it actually was more balanced than it seemed watching

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Speaker 1: both of these games. So from ante name point the

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Speaker 1: Lions to Texte but to actually be a bit more

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Speaker 1: entire than the Chargers. But it's it's not it's not

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Speaker 1: like you know, we talked about their great point between

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Speaker 1: like where it's the map actually show that it's real

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Speaker 1: or not. And you know, there's there's some mass that

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Speaker 1: says teams traveling from west to east coast to be

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Speaker 1: more tired. There's the mass that but to me, it's

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Speaker 1: not strong enough, like the correlation isn't strong enough to

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Speaker 1: assume that it's causal. So in other words, I think

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Speaker 1: we're both operating from a pretty even even late on

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Speaker 1: this one, Thomas Davis. You know everyone says Philip Rivers

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Speaker 1: age list wonder, but this guy, he pays the defense

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Speaker 1: with fourteen total tackles last week. But overall, how do

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Speaker 1: you kind of see this Chargers defense stacking up against

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Speaker 1: Detroit's offense. The Lions OH line committed a ton of

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Speaker 1: I'm going to call them non necessary penalties, right, Like

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Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of number of holding penalties that

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Speaker 1: could call the game, and let's just say that's the

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Speaker 1: normal number. Like it just happens, right the Lions. The Lions,

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Speaker 1: especially Taylor Decker, he committed some really bad holding penalties

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Speaker 1: that were unnecessary. The word unnecessary it's hard to say

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Speaker 1: because I don't know what he was thinking, but ultimately

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Speaker 1: it's well above a normal number of holding penalties in

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Speaker 1: a game, right, So this is especially problematic or because

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Speaker 1: like you've got some really good path rushers coming Matthew

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Speaker 1: Stafford's way. So it's good for It's good for the

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Speaker 1: Chargers that their front is so excellent, especially against this

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Speaker 1: undisciplined O line because the loss of Erwin James is

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Speaker 1: a big deal, right and in other games this is

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Speaker 1: gonna be a much bigger deal. You have that path

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Speaker 1: catching running back, if you have that like flat guy

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Speaker 1: like didn't even do a lot of flat for the lines,

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Speaker 1: is going to be probably one of the ways, Like,

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Speaker 1: it's that they're going to target this defense, but then

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Speaker 1: if Kasey Heyward backing that up, so you have some

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Speaker 1: good solutions to probably so in this game Losingderwin James, great,

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Speaker 1: you've got Thomas Say, if you've got Kasey Hayward, you've

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Speaker 1: got some other pieces that really make it excellent. And

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Speaker 1: especially because you have such a strong pressure front, you're fine,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like, but great, we've got ten,

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Speaker 1: they've got six solid good to go. Let's get into

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Speaker 1: some Chargers fantasy projections for the week. Do you think

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Speaker 1: Austin Eckler could have another crazy performance like he did

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Speaker 1: in week one? Unfortunately, I don't think he's going to

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Speaker 1: need to have to because part of her reason that

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Speaker 1: his performance was so crazy from a fantasy perspective is

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Speaker 1: because this game remains competitive for so many minutes, so

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Speaker 1: that drives fantasy value a ton. For me, this one

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Speaker 1: doesn't project to be as close of a game, which

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Speaker 1: does say, okay, yeah, more running in the second half,

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Speaker 1: more rushing attempts to flow the past down kind of

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Speaker 1: steal the steel, the deal, feel the victory, But that

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Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily mean they're going to go to Eckler, right,

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Speaker 1: So as far as fantasy is concerned, yes, of course

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Speaker 1: he's absolute a must start, but just kind of temper

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Speaker 1: your expectations for that upside because they're not going to

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Speaker 1: need him to score two touchdowns and keep catching the

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Speaker 1: ball late in the fourth quarter. Who else would you

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Speaker 1: consider a must start from this Chargers team? I mean,

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Speaker 1: all of your wider here, start them all? Yeah, I mean, look,

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Speaker 1: the lines have a great corner in Darius Flay and

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Speaker 1: but you know, play can't be everywhere, and the different

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Speaker 1: looks like Ena out of the slot is just a

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Speaker 1: nap in his match, especially the line ends, lineback and

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Speaker 1: Core is missing at the pieces. So if you get

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Speaker 1: that weird like you know, oh Keenan's line up in

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Speaker 1: the slots, Oh, there we go, there's a billion Fantasy

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Speaker 1: points for you. So those are the kind of things

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Speaker 1: that I would target. But again, you have to remember

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Speaker 1: limit your upside in this game. I just don't think

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Speaker 1: this is going to be a super high scoring game. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so you're not going to get that sort of like crazy.

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Speaker 1: You know. Part of the reason why Lamar Jackson had

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Speaker 1: a billion Fantasy points, but because they kept scoring coins weight,

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Speaker 1: but you rarely see a game go that high, just

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Speaker 1: like unless overtime happens, you don't typically see this many

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Speaker 1: fantasy points scored by any team. Well, it's good to

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Speaker 1: know those star Ka thirteen right, absolutely, right, for sure

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Speaker 1: for sure. And then lastly, Cynthia, you are omnipresent on

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Speaker 1: the NFL network throughout the week. But in terms of Sunday,

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Speaker 1: where can everyone find you? Well, there's two places. So

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Speaker 1: Game Day Morning is on the network. So from we

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Speaker 1: started six dam our time, and I know you're up

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Speaker 1: watching a six dam because obviously that's like the absolutely

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Speaker 1: absolutely I'm curly hearty in the background. And then we

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Speaker 1: also have we're doing this new thing which is kind

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Speaker 1: of fun. From eight thirty to nine or eleven thirties

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Speaker 1: durn to twelve, So Andrew Hawkins and I we run

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Speaker 1: into this like digital room and on NFL dot Com

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Speaker 1: we do this thing called game game View and we

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Speaker 1: go through every single game and predict every single score

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Speaker 1: while Game Day Mornings play on right when injury report

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Speaker 1: comes out, so that you have like just two different

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Speaker 1: places to find us anytime you want. That is super cool. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's really fun. That is really awesome well, we look

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Speaker 1: forward to that and thank you so much for coming on, Cynthia.

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Speaker 1: We appreciate it any fine, thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: having me. And that's a wrap on this week's episode

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Speaker 1: of Playmakers. Many thanks to Susie Spanos and Cynthia Freeland,

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Speaker 1: but one final reminder to subscribe to the All New

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Speaker 1: Chargers podcast Network. Wherever you listen to podcasts, it's your

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Speaker 1: one stop shop for all things Chargers directly from the team,

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Speaker 1: including in depth conversations and analysis with players, coaches, executives,

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Speaker 1: national reporters and broadcasters, and much more for you. Sure

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Speaker 1: to rate and review on Apple Podcasts, and thanks for listening.

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Speaker 1: Catch you guys next time.