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Speaker 1: nine twenty seven, twenty twenty six. All right, if you
Speaker 1: turn into this podcast and I looked like one of
Speaker 1: the Beatles. It's because I've been wearing a baseball hat
Speaker 1: all day at Bears practice. So I apologize for that.
Speaker 1: But I still have that smooth, silky, rich professional broadcaster
Speaker 1: of voice, which you know I always lean in. Not
Speaker 1: as nice as Danny Parkins, who was I was talking
Speaker 1: about with one of the pr people for the Bears
Speaker 1: today about Danny Parkins and I do in the podcast
Speaker 1: Chicago Boy. So I went to the practice. There was
Speaker 1: a massive storm, so they moved it indoors. And the
Speaker 1: first thing I was looking for is everybody said Caleb
Speaker 1: Williams lost fifteen pounds. So I talked to him after practice.
Speaker 1: He said thirteen. But there was a breakdown on one
Speaker 1: play and he moved left. And I am not joking.
Speaker 1: He looked like a wide receiver. He was always a
Speaker 1: good runner, he is. He looked so fast and he
Speaker 1: was out like the corners had angles and they couldn't
Speaker 1: they couldn't, they couldn't catch up on the angle. And
Speaker 1: I was like, and you know why I lost weight.
Speaker 1: He wants to be faster, right, he wants to everybody's
Speaker 1: faster in the sport. The second thing that jumped out
Speaker 1: Danny is and it was noticeable. And I talked to
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson after practice. He's much tighter like post practice
Speaker 1: during practice, accuracy it's different. He's always been a little
Speaker 1: bit of a streaky accuracy guy, like he'll be great
Speaker 1: in the fourth struggling in the second, but his speed
Speaker 1: was noticeable. He's much tighter with his accuracy. I was
Speaker 1: just kind of blown away. The offense dominated practice as
Speaker 1: far as I can tell.
Speaker 2: So first, I mean, it's rare for offenses to dominate
Speaker 2: defenses early in training camp, right, Normally, like offense is
Speaker 2: more timing, defense is more just like pure reaction and athleticism.
Speaker 2: So normally defenses are ahead of offenses early. But the
Speaker 2: Bears offense needs to dominate because their defense is not
Speaker 2: very good and they've invested a ton on the offensive
Speaker 2: side of the ball with draft capital, with head coaching,
Speaker 2: HighRes et cetera. So like it's good that the offense
Speaker 2: is beating the Bears defense, Like the if the Bears
Speaker 2: are going to win, they're going to be doing it
Speaker 2: with the top ten, maybe top five offense in the sport.
Speaker 2: So like that that's that to me, It was like
Speaker 2: a prerequisite, like they need to be beating the Bears
Speaker 2: defense in camp slimmed down Caleb like faster Caleb is
Speaker 2: a scary thought for the league. Oh because it looked
Speaker 2: so he looked like a wide receiver. Great, bring it
Speaker 2: on and listen. I people have been like like the
Speaker 2: producers on the show, and like, let's do the like
Speaker 2: are the Bears a regression candidate? Topic? Like, it doesn't
Speaker 2: offend me to suggest that the Bears could regress. You
Speaker 2: have to be good in order to be a regression candidate,
Speaker 2: Like the Rams are a regression candidate, The Patriots are
Speaker 2: a regression candidate. The Broncos are a regression candidate. The
Speaker 2: offensive line will not be as healthy, they will not
Speaker 2: lead the league in takeaways, they will not have seven
Speaker 2: fourth quarter comebacks. I agreed, agreed, agreed, point conceded, Point conceded,
Speaker 2: point conceited. But if you have one of the most
Speaker 2: talented quarterbacks on Earth with one of the best offensive
Speaker 2: coaches on Earth, and it's year two of them together,
Speaker 2: that's when the jump happens. Like, that's when the leap happens.
Speaker 2: So you know how you can cover up for areas
Speaker 2: of obvious regression by Caleb being awesome and the Bears
Speaker 2: offense being awesome, which is fully what I expect to
Speaker 2: happen for the Bears this year.
Speaker 1: Well, we all know it's a quarterback coach league, and
Speaker 1: it was Albert Breer was standing next to me during
Speaker 1: the practice and we were talking about this. We're like,
Speaker 1: there's not that many combinations where you have a coach
Speaker 1: that everyone agrees that's an elite coach and a quarterback
Speaker 1: everybody goes that's an elite quarterback talent. You have Vrabel,
Speaker 1: Josh McDaniel who runs the offense, and Drake May Harbor,
Speaker 1: Herbert McVeigh and an older Stafford. I think Dan Campbell
Speaker 1: and golf qualify is very respected both sides. It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson and Caleb and then you start saying, well,
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan, I don't think Brock Purdy is I think
Speaker 1: Brock Purty is efficient. I don't think he's in the
Speaker 1: Herbert class. Now I would have said Demko Ryan c J. Stroud,
Speaker 1: but c J. Stroud regressed badly last year. So the
Speaker 1: reality is now now there's an argument, Matt Stafford, Jordan
Speaker 1: Love they've had bad Septembers that they probably in that class. Ye,
Speaker 1: Matt Leafleur, Jordan Love. But there's about eight of them,
Speaker 1: nine of them in the league. In Chicago's one of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, I think that. Like, so I covered the
Speaker 2: Chiefs when Andy Reid got to Kansas City.
Speaker 1: And I want to read Mahomes right exactly and one
Speaker 1: of the things, but I was there before Mahomes got there.
Speaker 2: But one of the things, like when I really dug
Speaker 2: into Andy Reid that was so impressive was like, man,
Speaker 2: look at all of these different guys who had their
Speaker 2: best season with Andy Reid. Sure, Donovan McNabb, Alex Smith,
Speaker 2: but also Jeff Garcia, Kevin Cobb, Mike Vick. It was like,
Speaker 2: whatever level of quarterback talent you had, when you got
Speaker 2: with that coach, you had your best season or seasons.
Speaker 2: Then he got the homes and it was five thousand yards,
Speaker 2: fifty touchdowns, MVP's super Bowls, like the great offensive minds.
Speaker 2: So yeah, brock Perty is an elite processor. He's very accurate,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't have the biggest arm. He's not the biggest,
Speaker 2: he's not the fastest, he's not the strongest. When you
Speaker 2: but like when you have Kyle Shanahan, your floor is
Speaker 2: really high. But like I have no doubt Kyle Shanahan
Speaker 2: traded three first round picks to try to go get
Speaker 2: Trey Lance, like he he wanted the elite, super talented
Speaker 2: player because if you can blend, if you can blend
Speaker 2: the ninety nine percent talent with the ninety nine percent coach,
Speaker 2: that's when you get MVPs and Super Bowls. And I
Speaker 2: think that's what Stafford and McVeigh have shown, That's what
Speaker 2: Reid and Mahomes have shown, and I think that's what
Speaker 2: Ben Johnson and Caleb are going to show. I think
Speaker 2: that Ben Johnson is in that McVeigh Shanahan some level
Speaker 2: of coach.
Speaker 1: And by the way, like.
Speaker 2: I'm a little closer to that one. I have somewhat
Speaker 2: of a relationship with Ben Johnson, not much, but like
Speaker 2: he's been on the show, we text a little bit whatever.
Speaker 2: Like I think, if you're a Jaguars fan, you're hoping
Speaker 2: that Liam Cohen is also in that group. He helped
Speaker 2: Baker Mayfield, He got you, you know, Trevor Lawrence to
Speaker 2: have one of his best season ever and be a
Speaker 2: top seven MVP guy. Like I'm not saying there's only
Speaker 2: three or four of them, but if you have top
Speaker 2: flight offensive coaching mind who is a play caller, and
Speaker 2: that gives you stability of system and all of it,
Speaker 2: and then you inject them with top flight talent. I
Speaker 2: just think your floor is so damn high as an
Speaker 2: offense in a football team that I don't think there's
Speaker 2: many outcomes where it can be a disaster or the
Speaker 2: team could be bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was interesting. They drafted this kid out of Stanford,
Speaker 1: Sam Rouch, who was viewed as a blocking tight end.
Speaker 1: First of all, it's just he he looks like an
Speaker 1: NFL eight year tight end. He is a big, strong
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, he'll play.
Speaker 2: They want to move, they want they want to be
Speaker 2: the leaders in the trend right of two and three
Speaker 2: tight end sets. And you know, if you put small
Speaker 2: guys on the field, we will run at you. If
Speaker 2: you put big guys on the field, we will pass
Speaker 2: at you. Like they they want to be among the
Speaker 2: leaders in that evolution of football. So here's an interesting one.
Speaker 2: This whole Sophie Cunningham story is really interesting. I know, yeah,
Speaker 2: well we can right right turn.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of times and in my morning meeting,
Speaker 1: this is a big discussion. What's a topic and what's
Speaker 1: just a hot topic on the internet. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I've said before, I think one of the
Speaker 1: things our show does well, we talk about what the
Speaker 1: country's talking about. But you can get fooled very quickly
Speaker 1: talking about what the internet is talking about. So when
Speaker 1: it comes to like trans athletes, you know, listen, it's
Speaker 1: it's captivating on certain platforms, but on mainstream cable television,
Speaker 1: you know, on broadcast TV, how many trans athletes are
Speaker 1: playing in the WNBA zero. So it's like, what is
Speaker 1: it as a topic. Then Sophie Cunningham, who works at
Speaker 1: the Volume, you know, says, you know, I didn't think
Speaker 1: it was that explosive, but it's a topic that is
Speaker 1: just explosive, and she brings it up. But it was
Speaker 1: interesting because I asked my wife about it yesterday and
Speaker 1: she's like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, right, like, so, I'm like, yeah, And
Speaker 1: my wife doesn't love sports, but she no If I
Speaker 1: said to her, oh, you know, if somebody got traded,
Speaker 1: she's like, oh, I know, it's all over. Plus her
Speaker 1: sons are at you know, sports lovers, and I'm her husband,
Speaker 1: so she's got some sense of it. But what's interesting
Speaker 1: I mean about the whole thing is I texted somebody
Speaker 1: the other day. I said, in my life, good leaders
Speaker 1: who I've worked with or for have one thing in common.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they go to Ivy League schools. Sometimes they are
Speaker 1: going to Jayc's. It's not an education thing. They're really
Speaker 1: good leaders. Take little campfires and don't allow them to
Speaker 1: be infernos, like they're always a step ahead. George Bodenheim
Speaker 1: or ESPN. I've talked about he just ESPN every day
Speaker 1: you had something right, like you have to put fires
Speaker 1: out and on this trans topic for the WNBA, like
Speaker 1: you could see it coming down the road, and like
Speaker 1: players talking about it, and I feel like Kathy Engelbert,
Speaker 1: it's like now they're reeling now. I mean, Sophie Cunningham
Speaker 1: basically gets closed line that looked like Bill Lambier going
Speaker 1: after Kurt Rambus. So now you've got You've got a
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff like player on player owners screaming
Speaker 1: at fans for the Seattle storm. And my big takeaway
Speaker 1: on this is, Jesus, could you guys get ahead of anything.
Speaker 1: You're just constantly playing catchup. And I do wonder if
Speaker 1: it were just reached a point where listen, we got
Speaker 1: to get a new commissioner in here. Adam Stilber's like,
Speaker 1: we got to get a new commissioner. The league's exploded.
Speaker 1: She's just not built for it. But I felt like
Speaker 1: that Seattle Storm owner the Clothesline hit on Sophie Cunningham'm like, guys,
Speaker 1: you're just you're in reaction mode every third day.
Speaker 2: The last time we talked about the WNBA on this podcast,
Speaker 2: I said the thing as a not daily, weekly, monthly
Speaker 2: WNBA viewer, but just a viewer of sport who likes
Speaker 2: big same into big events, in big games, and like
Speaker 2: everyone was swept up in Caitlin Clark and all of that.
Speaker 2: But I'm not claiming to be a WNBA expert, but
Speaker 2: just as a I would say, an expert of media
Speaker 2: and sport. It's very clear that they have outgrown their leadership.
Speaker 2: Like that's what I said to you the last time
Speaker 2: we were on, which was six news cycles ago, probably
Speaker 2: talking about it. I agree with you, they've outgrown their leadership.
Speaker 2: This story, though, it really does make me mad because
Speaker 2: the people who are pretending to care about it are
Speaker 2: doing so just so transparently out of self interest slash
Speaker 2: motivation for like to cash in on the commerce of rage.
Speaker 2: Like you said, it is not one of the ten
Speaker 2: to twenty to fifty biggest issues facing mainstream people in America, right, inflation, wars, whatever,
Speaker 2: There's a million things going on. And then you have
Speaker 2: these people that were so adamant that athletes needed to
Speaker 2: stick to sports when they were talking about topics that
Speaker 2: they didn't like, But now when they see a topic
Speaker 2: that they feel like benefits politically their side of the aisle, well,
Speaker 2: why isn't Caitlin Clark speaking out for Sophie Cunningham And
Speaker 2: why is't Kathy Ingelber doing this in the WNBA should
Speaker 2: do this? And they did it. You don't care, You
Speaker 2: don't actually care. And so it's just it's so transparently
Speaker 2: transactional that it really does to me bring out like
Speaker 2: the worst in all of us and in common terry,
Speaker 2: and I just it bums me out, like on like
Speaker 2: a like a human level, because like, again I'm not
Speaker 2: a huge WNBA fan or consumer, but objectively it's going well,
Speaker 2: record attendance, record ratings, record, Uh.
Speaker 1: The quality of play is better than a decade ago.
Speaker 1: The quality of plays.
Speaker 2: Much like a franchise valuation, expansion investors, superstar talent across
Speaker 2: the league in number of places, like it's objectively going, well,
Speaker 2: it's a basketball league with great basketball that is gaining
Speaker 2: in popularity and money. And then they so then these
Speaker 2: just like people just try to siphon out the joy
Speaker 2: to feed into culture war stuff that it just it
Speaker 2: makes it it makes it so that the basketball is
Speaker 2: so secondary or tertiary that it it bums me off
Speaker 2: for people who are actual legitimate WNBA fans, because I
Speaker 2: do wonder like maybe they have to walk past a
Speaker 2: protest walk into an arena, but then they go to
Speaker 2: an arena and they watch great basketball and they leave happy,
Speaker 2: and it's like, are we just we're just bringing the
Speaker 2: worst of the internet front and center and it just
Speaker 2: it feels like the league and its fans deserve so
Speaker 2: much better.
Speaker 1: Well, also, just because Caitlin Clark and I did an
Speaker 1: essay this week, I saw this just because Caitlin. Just
Speaker 1: because Caitlin Clark did not want to talk about an
Speaker 1: issue that Sophie brought up, it doesn't mean they're not
Speaker 1: close or great teammates. I mean, like Michael Jordan was
Speaker 1: a political Tiger Woods a political Lebron James Moore political,
Speaker 1: it's like you can be best for I have friends
Speaker 1: that are hyper political. I'm not. I'm kind of agnostic.
Speaker 1: I'm a social liberal, fiscal moderate to conservative. I don't
Speaker 1: talk about it that much. I do think there was
Speaker 1: a moment, I'll say you an interesting moment. This was
Speaker 1: a month before the Trump Kamala Harris, Uh yeah. I'm
Speaker 1: at a club called the nine hundred Club in Manhattan Beach.
Speaker 1: It's a nine hundred member club, very much hoodies and
Speaker 1: tennis shoes. But it's like where you go if you're
Speaker 1: a local during the summer. It gets packed. You know,
Speaker 1: it's very terurist that you go inside and it's just
Speaker 1: a watering hole, real nice, like a lot of sports.
Speaker 1: You go watch a UFC fight or a college football
Speaker 1: game on Saturday. It's my favorite place in the world.
Speaker 1: And it was about a month before the election. And
Speaker 1: when I go there, you know, everybody's asking we talk sports, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's what you talk. Maybe your kid's doing something, and
Speaker 1: it was really instructive. I was sitting there a month
Speaker 1: for the election and it's like eight guys and I'm
Speaker 1: about ready to go. Two beers get in my car,
Speaker 1: drive a mile, go home, and somebody brings up, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of young like eighth grade basketball, eighth ninth
Speaker 1: grade basketball in Orange County, which is the southern county
Speaker 1: south of La County, Orange County, like kind of legendary
Speaker 1: for a couple of TV shows, reality shows right La Counties,
Speaker 1: Hollywood and stuff, Dodgers Stadium, usc All, that stuff. So
Speaker 1: somebody brings up their friend had a daughter that played
Speaker 1: against a team that had some trans athletes and that
Speaker 1: the biological boys just dominated. And I sat there for
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes and I didn't say a word because I
Speaker 1: was you know, you and I observe a lot for
Speaker 1: a living, Like we talk a lot on the air,
Speaker 1: but off the air, we observe two talk. And it
Speaker 1: was so visceral and so intense. I remember getting in
Speaker 1: my car going home that night and telling Anne, like,
Speaker 1: I think Trump's gonna win. I've never seen guys get
Speaker 1: so worked up. Here's like forty five year old, fifty
Speaker 1: year old guys. We just don't talk politics in that place.
Speaker 1: We talked sports, family, Hey, where'd you go on vacation?
Speaker 1: You know, it's just a beer games are on and
Speaker 1: so I do think if you have daughters who play
Speaker 1: in sports, I think it becomes much more personal. I
Speaker 1: don't my stepdaughters are like, they'll ski, you know, they'll
Speaker 1: do that kind of stuff. They're not team sports kids.
Speaker 1: But I do think if I had four daughters and
Speaker 1: I was living in it, i'd probably have I'd be
Speaker 1: I'd have a more emotional response. My kids aren't, you know,
Speaker 1: they golf, they ski, they don't do team sports. So
Speaker 1: for me, it's like I asked my wife, Like I
Speaker 1: told you, I asked my wife about it this week.
Speaker 1: She's like, I don't know what you're talking about. It's
Speaker 1: just done a topic in our house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, man, I don't know. I just maybe I'm naive.
Speaker 2: I do not think that what is happening is that
Speaker 2: a bunch of people are transitioning to get a leg
Speaker 2: up in sports. Like I just I don't. I don't
Speaker 2: think that that is like a the motivation or the
Speaker 2: end goal or anything like that. And I think that
Speaker 2: this is, like I said, I think it is a
Speaker 2: win politically for one side to amplify it, to make
Speaker 2: it seem like a much, much, much bigger issue than
Speaker 2: it is. Not saying that there are not incidents where
Speaker 2: it is an issue. Not saying that it is not
Speaker 2: something that should be addressed with common sense, just I
Speaker 2: think that empathy and common sense should carry the day.
Speaker 2: And the idea that this is some sort of like
Speaker 2: I don't know, national crisis, I just I just reject
Speaker 2: it on its merits. Like again, I would say to
Speaker 2: people who really like, I think that a bigger issue
Speaker 2: in the trans world of again issues, I'm saying that awkwardly,
Speaker 2: I apologize, would be like Google's suicide rate among trans
Speaker 2: people feels like a bigger deal to me than the
Speaker 2: high school sports team feels like a bigger deal. And
Speaker 2: I just we don't get anywhere near that amount of
Speaker 2: coverage because it's that's not a political winner. So and again,
Speaker 2: the most obvious point to make is the people who
Speaker 2: wanted athletes to stick to sports now when it's an
Speaker 2: issue that the AC is a win for their side,
Speaker 2: don't want them to stick to sports at all, which
Speaker 2: just makes the whole thing so transparently pathetic. It's just bullshit.
Speaker 2: It's just utter and complete bullshit.
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Speaker 1: We now are early August. Yeah, and Sean McVay ruined
Speaker 1: the NFL preseason because he stopped playing any of his
Speaker 1: starters and everybody said, huh, they will be soft and
Speaker 1: they went eight to o and everybody's like, yeah, that
Speaker 1: was stupid, let's stop. And then so the preseason isn't
Speaker 1: what it used to be. There's you know, I'm interested,
Speaker 1: although he's not going to start week one. I do
Speaker 1: think the Fernando Mendoza story is interesting, but he's not
Speaker 1: going to start week one, so I don't care. So
Speaker 1: I have found myself And maybe it's because I'm in
Speaker 1: Chicago and the Cubs just swept the Dodgers, and the
Speaker 1: Dodgers are reeling, encircling the drain. But I will say this,
Speaker 1: I have found myself the last two to three years
Speaker 1: in August being much more engaged with baseball races. And
Speaker 1: I think this is I think this is something that
Speaker 1: baseball maybe incidentally, maybe it's just been a matter of luck.
Speaker 1: But Cub's good, Yankees interesting, Dodger's reeling, Brave's excellent, Here
Speaker 1: come the Astros. It's like all these brands, Red Sox
Speaker 1: the hottest team in like eight years, Like they can't
Speaker 1: lose games. And I've got to tell you the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: I was like, I didn't know half the pitchers going
Speaker 1: to these teams outside of like, you know, the Cubs
Speaker 1: got somebody from the Jays i'd heard of. But I've
Speaker 1: found myself one of the rare instances, I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: choosing in August. I'm choosing some baseball on TV instead
Speaker 1: of like looking at mock drafts and caring about football
Speaker 1: in the NFL preseason. Do you share that sentiment or not.
Speaker 2: I'm real into the Cubs right now. I'll tell you that,
Speaker 2: like I am, we want to do a whole PCA
Speaker 2: for MVP conversation, like, am I am your huckleber.
Speaker 1: Pete Crawl Armstrong?
Speaker 2: Amazing?
Speaker 1: He is.
Speaker 2: The guy is so cool and such a great athlete,
Speaker 2: and I've been able to work with him a little
Speaker 2: bit just I don't want to overstate it, but like
Speaker 2: a couple of things for the big charity event that
Speaker 2: I do in Chicago and partnership with the Cubs. He
Speaker 2: just gets it. He's awesome. I'm so happy for him
Speaker 2: because he is the best defensive center fielder in the game,
Speaker 2: one of the fastest players of the game. Had a
Speaker 2: ton of power last year, but he swung and missed
Speaker 2: a lot, a lot, a lot of strikeouts, and early
Speaker 2: on in this season he was really struggling. And it
Speaker 2: didn't even like take the All Star break. It was
Speaker 2: like he just decided I'm gonna have a good eye now,
Speaker 2: which is just like not something that's supposed to happen
Speaker 2: in baseball. Like that's like you can maybe develop it
Speaker 2: over years. You're not supposed to be able to just
Speaker 2: like snap your fingers and like you know what, I'm
Speaker 2: going to lay off the two to two cutter out
Speaker 2: of the zone so that I can get a better
Speaker 2: pitch on three to two, and his walk rate is up,
Speaker 2: his on base percentage is way up, and he's the
Speaker 2: MVP of the league because show Hay hasn't pitched enough
Speaker 2: and has been a good offensive player but not the
Speaker 2: best offensive player. And show has won four of them.
Speaker 2: So if PCA keeps this up for the rest of
Speaker 2: the next five weeks and doesn't win MVP, it's going
Speaker 2: to be a problem. He deserves it well.
Speaker 1: I also I went to I watched all three of
Speaker 1: the Cub Dodger games, the first two especially the other
Speaker 1: one was in the afternoon when I was on so
Speaker 1: I went and youtubed it and read about it and
Speaker 1: watch the highlight of it. But there was no question
Speaker 1: if you watched the series that the Cubs had more juice.
Speaker 1: And to me, the lost in this Trek Scooball acquisition
Speaker 1: of the Dodgers is they're old Mookie beps looks shot,
Speaker 1: Freeman's dinged up. Otani had a two home run game
Speaker 1: in the last game of the series. But the truth
Speaker 1: with the Dodgers is Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, it wasn't
Speaker 1: a hey, let's add a helipad to the yacht. It
Speaker 1: was a somebody throw us a life preserver. If you
Speaker 1: have watched the Dodgers play against the Red Sox and Cubs,
Speaker 1: they looked like a team that had two really long
Speaker 1: playoff runs and they look old, beat up and tired.
Speaker 1: They don't have a lot of juice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I wonder if that is just because it's
Speaker 2: so clearly everything about them is defined by do they
Speaker 2: win a World Series or not? Because when they got
Speaker 2: scuball and they put up the five man rotation and
Speaker 2: they just like do those graphics like what like we do?
Speaker 2: Like when the Sixers acquire Lebron and you put up
Speaker 2: the Sixers rotation and it's you know, show Hay and
Speaker 2: Schooable and glass now and now it's just like it's
Speaker 2: outrageous the number of name brand talent that they have everywhere.
Speaker 2: They are the most talented team. But the Cubs, you know,
Speaker 2: they dug themselves a hole, and you know they're still
Speaker 2: trying to chase down the Brewers and like that division
Speaker 2: is just a rock fight all the time. But Wriggly
Speaker 2: in the Summer comes alive with a great Cubs team,
Speaker 2: like it's impossible for them not to have juice. And
Speaker 2: I know Dodger stadium crowds are big, and I know
Speaker 2: they have great attendance also, but you've now lived in
Speaker 2: both places. You've been to Dodger Stadium, You've been to Wrigly.
Speaker 2: It's different. Like the the energy and the juice at
Speaker 2: Wrigley is just something.
Speaker 1: Oh it's almost a college football game.
Speaker 2: Crowds, it's just excellent. And so you know, there's good
Speaker 2: Cubs teams always have a lot of juice in July
Speaker 2: and August because kids are out of school, kids are
Speaker 2: back from college. It's beautiful every day. It's packed every
Speaker 2: single day. Bear season hasn't started yet, so they're front
Speaker 2: and center. They're leading all of the shows. So yeah,
Speaker 2: tons of juice around that team. And to your point
Speaker 2: about preseason, like, yeah, preseason, the things that matter right
Speaker 2: now are just it's all bad news. It's like Trent
Speaker 2: Williams torn triceps, Luther Burden, Oh, how bad is this
Speaker 2: groin injury going to be? Like, it's just you just
Speaker 2: you don't want your team to have a news alert
Speaker 2: right now because you just want to get to the
Speaker 2: games that actually matter. And so, you know, I think
Speaker 2: turning attention back to baseball is great because there's so
Speaker 2: much damn talent in the sport right now that it's
Speaker 2: as good a time as any to kind of sink
Speaker 2: your teeth in before the playoffs get going.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of the things that's always fascinated me
Speaker 1: about sports. I like the cultural changes. Like I think
Speaker 1: it's so funny how we went from small ball and
Speaker 1: then Jokic win to title and everybody's like, Okay, you
Speaker 1: got to have two bigs to defend him, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden Wemby arrives and Oklahoma City is like, no,
Speaker 1: we need three bigs. We're going to draft a die
Speaker 1: Mara with Hart and Stein with chet Holmgren. No, we
Speaker 1: need three bigs. And I think it's fascinating in the NBA,
Speaker 1: like the second Apron. Now it's all about God, you
Speaker 1: can't have. I mean, your bench starts mattering now you
Speaker 1: I mean like Oklahoma City looked inevitable and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you're like, you know, they're kind of
Speaker 1: expensive on the bench. I think we've got to make
Speaker 1: some moves. And I mean the Celtics basically just said
Speaker 1: we want to get out of the Jalen Brown contract,
Speaker 1: and if we take in Paul George and we can
Speaker 1: get out of that much easier in a year. We'll
Speaker 1: just do that. You're like, well, Brown's better than Paul George.
Speaker 1: He plays a lot of games. And I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that baseball when you're when you're efficient
Speaker 1: and smartly run, which I don't think baseball was ten
Speaker 1: years ago or five years I think they are now.
Speaker 1: Like I've made this argument is that rich guys, when
Speaker 1: the money's coming in, don't impede the money. Is that
Speaker 1: what if milwalk because the Dodgers are not a lock,
Speaker 1: and by the way their cubs have right and the
Speaker 1: Cubs pitching, they made moves at the trade deadline, they
Speaker 1: may be a little light. If Milwaukee gets to the
Speaker 1: World Series, do you think all the billionaires are going
Speaker 1: to say, oh God, the books are in What a season?
Speaker 1: Because that's my take. The Rays right now are second
Speaker 1: in batting average, The Rays are number one hitting team,
Speaker 1: runners in scoring position. They're built for the playoffs. They're
Speaker 1: just they don't they don't need a ton of power.
Speaker 1: It is station station baseball. What if the Rais and
Speaker 1: Brewers get to the series, it won't be captivating nationally.
Speaker 1: But I don't believe that the lockout is inevitable. Like,
Speaker 1: let's just eight till the playoffs happen. Okay, So I
Speaker 1: mean there's a lot there. Like I I do think,
Speaker 1: I think you're we're probably saying the same thing. I
Speaker 1: do think baseball is going to lock out.
Speaker 2: Now, they're not gonna they're not guaranteed to miss games,
Speaker 2: but there will be a like a lockout will happen
Speaker 2: when this CBA expires. Now, whether or not it impacts
Speaker 2: a single thing of spring training or not, I don't know.
Speaker 2: But I've been basically assured that the lockout is coming.
Speaker 2: It's just a question of if it goes into to
Speaker 2: next season. You know some of these teams, and you
Speaker 2: mentioned the two that are probably the poster child of
Speaker 2: each league, the Brewers and the Rays. They're just excellently
Speaker 2: run teams. Like the Brewers have a better run differential
Speaker 2: than the Dodgers. Now that it's by one run, I
Speaker 2: just checked it to be it be updated. But like
Speaker 2: the Brewers are amazing. They can lose. They can lose
Speaker 2: their ace, they can lose their closer, they can lose
Speaker 2: their manager, which they have over the last three years,
Speaker 2: they've lost all of them. Hater and counsel, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And they just keep doing it. It's amazing. Same thing
Speaker 2: with the Rays. The Rays are just a great organization
Speaker 2: and they compete in the Al East with the biggest
Speaker 2: spenders and the biggest teams, and they just keep doing it.
Speaker 2: Doesn't mean they're going to win, doesn't mean they have one,
Speaker 2: but they give themselves a shot each and every year.
Speaker 2: So and that's what people point to of saying you
Speaker 2: can't buy a World Series. You can't. And it's like,
Speaker 2: but you can buy yourself margin for error, Like that's
Speaker 2: that's to me, like what the Dodgers have built in now,
Speaker 2: Like the Dodgers have built in a tremendous amount of
Speaker 2: margin for error that one or two or three or
Speaker 2: four guys can get hurt and they can still go
Speaker 2: on and win the whole thing. That's not what the
Speaker 2: Brewers have going for them. Even the Cubs, dude, Like
Speaker 2: the Cubs you mentioned their pitching is a little light.
Speaker 2: There was a time earlier this year where thirteen pitchers
Speaker 2: who had pitched in the big leagues were on the
Speaker 2: injured list, like and it was like it's just they
Speaker 2: kept getting hurt time and time and time again. But
Speaker 2: The Cubs have a great organization, They're very deep, they
Speaker 2: spend a ton of money, so they were able to
Speaker 2: withstand it in a way that a team like the Brewers,
Speaker 2: if they had that amount of pitching injuries, would not
Speaker 2: be able to. But baseball's in an interesting spot because
Speaker 2: I think the talent is as good as it's ever been.
Speaker 2: The business is clearly very very very healthy, but the
Speaker 2: owners seem to be convinced they need a salary cap,
Speaker 2: and the players seem to be convinced that they'll never
Speaker 2: give it, will never give in on it. So I
Speaker 2: do think I think there is at least a chance
Speaker 2: that we miss games for a work stoppage for the
Speaker 2: first time since nineteen ninety four in baseball, which would
Speaker 2: be devastating because there's nothing less relatable in a time
Speaker 2: of inflation and high gas prices and all of it
Speaker 2: than millionaires and billionaires fighting. And it would just be
Speaker 2: a shame because baseball has a lot of momentum going
Speaker 2: for You mentioned the leadership, the rules changes, the big market,
Speaker 2: all of them have been done.
Speaker 1: They've had a home run on like eight changes, eight
Speaker 1: for eight.
Speaker 2: And the big markets are good, and there's young stars
Speaker 2: in the game, Like there's a million things that baseball
Speaker 2: has going for it. So I really really hope, and
Speaker 2: I guess can be cautiously optimistic that the two sides
Speaker 2: will realize like is this situation perfect? No, but we
Speaker 2: we should not kill the golden goose here in miss games?
Speaker 1: Is it a lockout if you don't miss a spring
Speaker 1: training game? That's almost like saying.
Speaker 2: That's true, that's true, Like I think that's definition. It
Speaker 2: is a lockout. But to your point, like if nothing
Speaker 2: actually is mess do the fans care? But like the
Speaker 2: CBA is going to expire without a deal, which I
Speaker 2: think makes it a lockout. You know, so.
Speaker 1: Well, it's like I only worry if I go to
Speaker 1: Fox and my key card doesn't sure that's a lock out.
Speaker 1: Everything else is they're mad at me during negotiations for
Speaker 1: a month. I'm like, it's not really a lot lockout?
Speaker 1: Is you put that card up?
Speaker 2: It's like, no, I'm I'm I am a hundred that
Speaker 2: is one hundred percent true. I just know that if
Speaker 2: Jeff Passon says there's going to be a lockout, there's
Speaker 2: gonna be a lockout. That's that's what I know. He
Speaker 2: is my uh he is my north star on this
Speaker 2: sort of thing. So there will be a lockout, will
Speaker 2: they miss games? I think that is still very much
Speaker 2: up in the air. And yeah, man, like it's the
Speaker 2: baseball playoffs. They're great. Like, you want to go to
Speaker 2: a Cubs playoff game this year?
Speaker 1: Excuse me, well, I'm going to them. I'm first of all,
Speaker 1: I've been to two Cup games this year. I'm going
Speaker 1: to the Bears game Saturday night, sitting in a pretty
Speaker 1: swanky box. I don't want to give it away, And
Speaker 1: I am going to a You know, my wife's so funny.
Speaker 1: She's like, you know, I don't talk about sports around
Speaker 1: her because she doesn't really care. You know, she likes
Speaker 1: dog videos and culinary stuff on TikTok, but she you know,
Speaker 1: she reads the news every day, but she doesn't want
Speaker 1: to get into it. And Dan, I say, I was
Speaker 1: talking to a friend about the Cubs. She's say, oh,
Speaker 1: I want to go to the gates. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: come on, you can't just jump on you can't jump
Speaker 1: on the that's kind of a bandwagon fan.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing. And I say this as a card
Speaker 2: carrying member of Cubs Nation. We're familiar with Bandwagon jumpers.
Speaker 2: It's Wriggly is littered with him. It is a reputation
Speaker 2: that is well earned. It's a national landmark. It's why
Speaker 2: we sell out the stadium when the team wins seventy
Speaker 2: two games because Wriggly is awesome. So Anne is more
Speaker 2: than a welcome to bandwagon jump for a summer at Wrigley.
Speaker 2: Just get her an old style and a hot dog.
Speaker 2: She'll fit right in.
Speaker 1: I bought her a Wriggly cub shirt. She's Irish with
Speaker 1: an Irish green clasher with a with a clover. And
Speaker 1: when you go to Wrigley Field, and I've said this before,
Speaker 1: if it was in Belgium, if it was in you know, Florence,
Speaker 1: Italy or something, you'd literally say, oh, it's a bucket list.
Speaker 1: It's like going It's like going to watch Manchester United
Speaker 1: Wrigley Field. For those who have never done it, and
Speaker 1: in the Midwest, everybody's done it, diehard baseball fans have
Speaker 1: done it. It is like nothing else. It is a
Speaker 1: college football game eighty one times a year in this
Speaker 1: really cool part of the city. And you go to
Speaker 1: Mers and you go to the game and afterwards and
Speaker 1: then you can go on Sheffield or Waveland Avenue, which
Speaker 1: I did the other day. It's nothing like it in
Speaker 1: the country. There's nothing like.
Speaker 2: I completely agree, obviously I'm insanely biased, and like when
Speaker 2: the Cubs were when when theo Epstein was there, and I,
Speaker 2: by the way, congratulations on the success of the pod
Speaker 2: and the live event. It was. I loved every Oh god,
Speaker 2: I listen to every episode. I ate it up. It was.
Speaker 2: It was spectacular content. But like they all also knew
Speaker 2: how special it was. The private room and the upstairs
Speaker 2: at Murphy's which is basically just an apartment, but like
Speaker 2: that's where like theo is throwing parties when they would
Speaker 2: win playoff series, and like because it's just like everyone
Speaker 2: like Cubs players walk to the games. They live in
Speaker 2: the neighborhood, they bike to the games because it's such
Speaker 2: a cool part of the city. And so yeah, whether
Speaker 2: you whether you're a Cubby Bear guy, a Murphy's guy,
Speaker 2: a Slugger's guy, people say like that the neighborhood has
Speaker 2: changed so much, and it's like it it there is
Speaker 2: definitely turnover because post COVID and bars and restaurants, it's
Speaker 2: a tough business, like, but the institutions are all still
Speaker 2: there like Murphy's Sluggers, Cobby Bear, They're all still there.
Speaker 2: It's just a it's a it's a great thing. And
Speaker 2: I mean rig has been transformed. Man. Like we talk
Speaker 2: about these news teams and new stadiums, like the Bills
Speaker 2: are going to be debuting a new stadium this year.
Speaker 2: I haven't been to the one for the Rams yet.
Speaker 2: I have been to the Cowboys State Like sometimes they
Speaker 2: all feel little sterile and corporate and cookie cutter, and
Speaker 2: you know, all just as many suites as possible with
Speaker 2: as big of a video board as possible. It is
Speaker 2: an amazing thing what they've done with Wrigly to like
Speaker 2: add in a video board, improve the suites, add in
Speaker 2: the club seating, like to like generate more money and income,
Speaker 2: build the hotel across the way, do Gallagher Way, which
Speaker 2: is like an outdoor area where you can come in
Speaker 2: and out of the stadium during the gameplay with your kids,
Speaker 2: the games on, have beers whatever. And it's still the
Speaker 2: brick wall, the manual scoreboard, the ivy, the narrow seats,
Speaker 2: like it is still Wriggly Field. And so it's a
Speaker 2: it is a really incredible job of like modernizing a
Speaker 2: landmark without changing it. And it's just it's a perfect
Speaker 2: sports venue. It really is.
Speaker 1: Listen, there's a lot of things talking about controversial topics that.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: There are certain journalistic principles I follow. If I break
Speaker 1: a story, I have to have two sources. That's just
Speaker 1: the general rule. If I get a really hard quote
Speaker 1: on somebody, a real harsh quote, I want it double sourced.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: But there are stories that I'm not going to let
Speaker 1: myself be guilted in. I just don't care. And one
Speaker 1: of them is the Rabel Russini story, which I talked
Speaker 1: about once on my podcast. When it happened, I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's a moral issue for him because she's a journalist.
Speaker 1: There's an ethical standard on sourcing. It's an ethical and
Speaker 1: moral in story for her. That's her career. When I
Speaker 1: see people continuing to probe on it, my take is
Speaker 1: like if I cover the Patriots, I don't care. Like
Speaker 1: it happened for Rabel, he's not getting fired. Coaches don't
Speaker 1: get fired for that. It's a moral family story. I
Speaker 1: don't really care. There's a lot of stuff I don't
Speaker 1: know about that happens. Right for Russini, I do think
Speaker 1: it's a story in the journalism club New York Times Athletic.
Speaker 1: That's her career, of course, and it's also a moral story.
Speaker 1: But I have found myself. I've had people from time
Speaker 1: to time go, how can you don't talk about it? No?
Speaker 1: I did for about ten minutes, and I'm no longer interested,
Speaker 1: and that probably means I'm not a journalist. Is it
Speaker 1: a story going forward? I don't care.
Speaker 2: I was surprised that Mike Tomlin said, like, if they lose,
Speaker 2: it's like early, it's going to become the noise around
Speaker 2: it is going to become very loud, Like what is
Speaker 2: going to be the criticism that an affair was allegedly
Speaker 2: uncovered four months before the season started, So that's why
Speaker 2: they're losing games in September. Like, that's like a pretty
Speaker 2: huge leap to make. So I think that listen if
Speaker 2: it if the Patriots were interested in doing an investigation
Speaker 2: into him, Like was he using his closeness with a
Speaker 2: journalist to campaign for a Coach of the Year vote?
Speaker 2: Was he using his relationship with a journalist to try
Speaker 2: to get intel on an opponent ahead of a game plan?
Speaker 2: Was he using his relationship with a journalist to try
Speaker 2: to muddy the waters with Philly and aj Brown so
Speaker 2: that the price tag would go down so they could
Speaker 2: trade for him. Like I could see there being an
Speaker 2: argument for there being some sort of ethical quandary ish,
Speaker 2: but he was in the Super Bowl last year, so
Speaker 2: they don't care, well, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 2: I think that that is that Also, it's like, if
Speaker 2: your employer is happy with the job you are doing
Speaker 2: and the misdeed that you commit is not directly related
Speaker 2: to your job, which in his case is winning football games,
Speaker 2: they're not going to dig too deep into it. Whereas
Speaker 2: if to your point about her, this is it is obvious,
Speaker 2: like if you are using a romantic relationship to further
Speaker 2: yourself with a source, that is obviously something that needs
Speaker 2: to they have bylaws of the New York Times, these
Speaker 2: types of thing relationship personal relationships with the sources need
Speaker 2: to be disclosed. But clearly it is more ethically black
Speaker 2: and white in the newspaper online newspaper business of black
Speaker 2: and white journalism than it is being a football coach
Speaker 2: of the AFC champions I think.
Speaker 1: It's the kind of thing and I believe this with
Speaker 1: a Tony Romo situation that is the compresson league. Okay,
Speaker 1: So with Mike Vrabel, if Mike Rabel was in year
Speaker 1: four and was on the fence, employer goes, you know
Speaker 1: your leadership has been in question. You just you just
Speaker 1: booted it. Tony Romo, if he was as good as
Speaker 1: many of the other guys, his company would support him greatly.
Speaker 1: Al Michael's got a DUI. There was no talk about
Speaker 1: losing his job. Romo is highly compensated. Kind of feels
Speaker 1: like sometimes as a quarterback in a broadcaster, he's kind
Speaker 1: of ad libbing, you know, when you have one game
Speaker 1: a week to do and Jim Nantz does a majority
Speaker 1: of the talking. I don't think I'm out of bound
Speaker 1: saying that there are situations. They can be moral, they
Speaker 1: can be ethical. Obviously, let's not minimize you know, drinking
Speaker 1: and having a cocktail in a car. That's bad. Nobody's
Speaker 1: saying it's not. But I do think there is something
Speaker 1: about those situations where when you're vulnerable. Vrabel wasn't Romo
Speaker 1: is it does change outcomes potentially, of course.
Speaker 2: Right. Let's like I don't have to treat everybody equally.
Speaker 2: I just have to treat everybody fairly. Like, yeah, like
Speaker 2: if if they if they weren't happy with the job
Speaker 2: that Mike Rabel was doing, they could have said they
Speaker 2: could have been like morality clause, embarrassment to the franchise,
Speaker 2: you had to miss day three of the draft, dereliction
Speaker 2: of responsibilities, you're fired. But he but they were in
Speaker 2: the super Bowl, and he's a patriot guy and they
Speaker 2: love him, so they're like, dad, do what you need
Speaker 2: to do. Like, not everybody has to play by the
Speaker 2: same set of rules in life. Tony Romo was the
Speaker 2: greatest thing in broadcasting, now perceived to not be very
Speaker 2: highly paid. Like I feel a little badly like putting
Speaker 2: another current person's name into it, Like so I don't
Speaker 2: Charles Barkley. Everybody agrees best basketball analyst, highly paid, incredibly valuable.
Speaker 2: They want him to work for as long as he
Speaker 2: wants to work. If the exact same thing happened to Charles,
Speaker 2: does anybody think he's in danger of losing his job?
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, you're right. So it's interesting with Romo too,
Speaker 1: because media critics have had the knives out for him
Speaker 1: for years and they can be a little little jaded.
Speaker 1: But it was funny because about them. Yeah, two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: I was at an event and his name came up
Speaker 1: and it was kind of front and center that the
Speaker 1: Wisconsin open container, right, which we found out about three
Speaker 1: or four days after the story came out. He had
Speaker 1: an open container and it was funny. Whereas the critics
Speaker 1: crush him. The guys in the room I was with
Speaker 1: or like, I like Romo. I think he's funny on
Speaker 1: the air, and again when I watch him, I don't
Speaker 1: think he's as meticulous as Greg Olsen right or as
Speaker 1: or right like, I don't think he is. But is
Speaker 1: he as bad as the sense Like My take is
Speaker 1: the average fan out there thinks Romo's kind of fun
Speaker 1: and goofy andly easy to listen. Yeah, probably true and
Speaker 1: like listen, But executives don't like the negative publicity from
Speaker 1: the credit exactly exactly.
Speaker 2: It's one thing that I like. I've toyed with the
Speaker 2: idea of quitting Twitter because I just I don't it's
Speaker 2: it's a cesspool and it's before you tab is rage bait,
Speaker 2: and I genuinely think it's divisiveness by design, and so
Speaker 2: I don't think it's great. But like our bosses are
Speaker 2: all on Twitter, like there's a there is a Our
Speaker 2: industry is all on Twitter, and so there is like
Speaker 2: a little bit of a self perpetuating thing. It's like, oh,
Speaker 2: Twitter doesn't like Tony Romo, or Twitter knows that criticizing
Speaker 2: Tony Romo gets views and gets played into the algorithm
Speaker 2: and gets aggregated and makes it onto the websites and
Speaker 2: all that. And I have criticisms of a ton of broadcasters, right,
Speaker 2: So I'm not I do think that it is a
Speaker 2: fair thing to say that. Like when he first started,
Speaker 2: the energy and the predicting of plays was a novelty
Speaker 2: and I was transfixed by it. And then as he's
Speaker 2: gotten further from being in the game, and they also
Speaker 2: clearly told him like, don't tell us what's gonna happen beforehand.
Speaker 2: It spoils the surprise, Like his magic trick has been
Speaker 2: kind of neutered. And the thing that bothers me the
Speaker 2: most about Romo as an analyst is he says, I
Speaker 2: don't know way too much. I'm like, you're the analyst,
Speaker 2: Like what Jim will be like fourth and four here, Tony,
Speaker 2: what do you think is a field goal or a
Speaker 2: go for it spot? And He's like, I don't know,
Speaker 2: Jim it's a tough call. I'm like, no, man, that's
Speaker 2: your job, like you have to you say, I don't
Speaker 2: know too much for my personal liking, and so like that.
Speaker 2: That is my criticism of It's not his energy. It's
Speaker 2: not as joke with me like that's fine. It's he says,
Speaker 2: I don't know too much for my from my liking.
Speaker 1: As an analyst, I always think that you become the
Speaker 1: broadcaster you were as a quarterback. So the story of
Speaker 1: Brady the football player is legendary, where Belichick's like, well,
Speaker 1: it wasn't very good initially, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden becomes the goat and every year there's these massive jumps.
Speaker 1: That's what he was as a broadcaster. You know, he'd
Speaker 1: never done it. He was rough around the edges, and
Speaker 1: the last year, you're like, Jesus, he's good, like really
Speaker 1: knows what's happening. Romo always caught people's attention because of
Speaker 1: his athletic ability. But I had it pretty well sourced,
Speaker 1: well meticulously, so somebody in the locker room was like,
Speaker 1: but he kind of skimped on the details. He was
Speaker 1: a bit of an ad liver. He wasn't the hardest worker,
Speaker 1: but he was naturally really athletic, funny, guys liked him.
Speaker 1: There was some leadership stuff there. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: what he's been in a broadcaster. One starts rough, gets
Speaker 1: very good quickly, one starts surprisingly good, and then over
Speaker 1: the course of time, you're like, is he really putting
Speaker 1: the time in wait? And I think your personality becomes
Speaker 1: your quarterback personality becomes your broadcasting person.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think you and I forget about it.
Speaker 2: We watch all the games and every day and all that.
Speaker 2: My father has passed away. But like I remember when
Speaker 2: got hired, it was like like my dad knew who
Speaker 2: Tony Romo was quarterback of the Cowboys, you know, like
Speaker 2: there is a Q factor to those jobs. Sure that
Speaker 2: It's like fame is a huge piece of it. Like
Speaker 2: you get Tom Brady to be your broadcasters like these
Speaker 2: Tom Brady and he does work really hard at it
Speaker 2: and he has gotten a lot better. But like Chris
Speaker 2: collins Worth has to do a little bit more, you know,
Speaker 2: just because he's Chris collins Worth. He's not Tony Romo
Speaker 2: or Troy Yeikman or Tom Brady. Right, Greg Olson has
Speaker 2: to do a little bit more. I'm really interested I
Speaker 2: thought that Luke Keikley hire was really interesting. Like everyone
Speaker 2: says he's one of the smartest players ever, and people
Speaker 2: said he he aced the audition, and like, I can't
Speaker 2: wait to watch it because like, yeah, a linebacker is
Speaker 2: that's a unique person to have as a solo analyst
Speaker 2: and a football broadcast. Like I'm excited to watch Noah
Speaker 2: Eagle and Luke Keickley this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Luke Keithley greg Olsen tied end jj Watt, Like
Speaker 1: there is I mean, you kind of forget like jj
Speaker 1: Watt was always a really thoughtful guy, so you knew
Speaker 1: he'd be pretty good at it. Yeah. I met Luke
Speaker 1: at a wedding not long ago. He one of the
Speaker 1: most walks up to you, makes eye contact impossible not
Speaker 1: to like.
Speaker 2: So likability is the is the secret sauce to this
Speaker 2: thing that we do. And I'm not saying that I
Speaker 2: have it in spades, like so like I have to
Speaker 2: make up for it with great takes, but like, uh,
Speaker 2: but yeah, like if you are just like charming and
Speaker 2: likable and easy to listen to to watch, it's a
Speaker 2: It's a superpower. I say it about my buddy Adam
Speaker 2: lefgo All the time. At now he's he's gotten his
Speaker 2: due and he's the face of Turner Sports. You know,
Speaker 2: air a parent to Ernie Johnson who all that. Like,
Speaker 2: he's unbelievably versatile. He's doing boxing and the French Open
Speaker 2: and the NCAA tournament and college football. He's an amazing
Speaker 2: broadcast baseball playoffs. He does it all for Turner. But
Speaker 2: I'm like left Go in college was popular in a
Speaker 2: frat in some student media, but like he was like
Speaker 2: he did it more like socially and casually, and I
Speaker 2: remember being like, he's going to be successful. I've never
Speaker 2: met anyone more liked like. Athletes liked him, sorority girls
Speaker 2: like him, frat guys liked him, Journalism dorks liked him.
Speaker 2: Everyone liked him. Likability is the secret sauce, and so
Speaker 2: he's one of the greatest to do it. And so
Speaker 2: if Luke Keigley has that thing, it'll that charisma, it'll
Speaker 2: it'll come through. It's so valuable.
Speaker 1: So how do you prepare for a football season? So
Speaker 1: I like him afternoon drinking in the summer, I do
Speaker 1: not like it in the winter, in the fall, in
Speaker 1: the summer, it's almost a problem. I really enjoy an
Speaker 1: afternoon cocktail and turning on a sporting event. So over
Speaker 1: the last I got about three or four weeks. Now
Speaker 1: I've got to ramp up. I've got to be in.
Speaker 1: I've got to like, you know, the sauce. It just
Speaker 1: can't be sauce day every Tuesday. Do you prepare differently? So?
Speaker 2: I mean I wasn't thinking about the drinking component so much. No,
Speaker 2: like I I obviously footballs are bread and butter. They
Speaker 2: want us to take some vacations ahead of football season,
Speaker 2: some of us on this call more than others. I
Speaker 2: think I'm filling in for you.
Speaker 1: A few whoa, Hey, that's standing. I'm filling it right,
Speaker 1: You've earned it.
Speaker 2: I think I'm filling in for you on a couple
Speaker 2: of days coming up, of which they still haven't told
Speaker 2: me which ones not better? Which city am I going
Speaker 2: to be in? No, but like I what I try
Speaker 2: to do, even though, like when I did local radio
Speaker 2: in Chicago, it felt like we were sometimes, you know,
Speaker 2: three feet wide and a mile deep, like all fifty
Speaker 2: three guys on the Bears, every position battle, the solar
Speaker 2: reposition coach, the whole thing. Right now, this job at
Speaker 2: FS one, it's more a mile wide and three feet deep.
Speaker 2: I try very hard to be a mile wide and
Speaker 2: like one hundred feet deep because I think that that's
Speaker 2: like what I bring to the table. Right I didn't
Speaker 2: play in the NFL. I'm more I'm the smart guy.
Speaker 2: I'm the guy who watches the game and knows the numbers.
Speaker 2: And I know people will be like, you're dumb, but whatever,
Speaker 2: Like that's like my lane, right, and so I try
Speaker 2: right now to be consuming the stuff that I'm not
Speaker 2: going to actually need. Like I just got back from
Speaker 2: a week in San franc the San Jose, San Francisco
Speaker 2: area with my sister and brother in law and their
Speaker 2: kids and my kids, getting the cousins together for a
Speaker 2: week of vacation. So it's six hour flight. I consumed
Speaker 2: a lot of like NFL podcasts of different markets of
Speaker 2: teams that we're going to talk about, like Eagles pod,
Speaker 2: gast Chargers podcast, Cowboys podcast, like things like like like
Speaker 2: with like beat writers, things like that, whether they were
Speaker 2: going on national shows, division preview shows, whatever the case
Speaker 2: may be. To try to like have a deeper understanding
Speaker 2: of what the things are for the team because then
Speaker 2: when we do it, it's you know, Joe Burrow against
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson. But hopefully I can bring a little bit
Speaker 2: more context into it. So I try to because I
Speaker 2: know I'm not going to be able to do that
Speaker 2: once the season starts and we're doing all the topics
Speaker 2: and all of the games and all the teams. But
Speaker 2: so I try to have a really deep knowledge base
Speaker 2: going into the season, and then during the season, I
Speaker 2: just watch every game and go from there. What about you,
Speaker 2: what do you like? I mean, how do you prep
Speaker 2: it out? Is that what you were asking? Or were
Speaker 2: you literally saying, Danny, do you drink less in football season?
Speaker 2: Was that your question? No?
Speaker 1: I No, it is funny because I in the summer,
Speaker 1: like I golf, I am recreational. I like when I
Speaker 1: take a two week break in July, the first ten
Speaker 1: days I do not watch TV, Like I give my
Speaker 1: wife ten days of just because then in the last
Speaker 1: four or five days I go back to watching stuff
Speaker 1: and doing stuff. But no, I I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: I just what I just constantly do is just watch
Speaker 1: football stuff. And like I'll watch you know, I'll watch
Speaker 1: the games. I'll watch preseason games, even though I know,
Speaker 1: like I watched every second of Arizona in Carolina every
Speaker 1: single second, and most of those players, almost all of them,
Speaker 1: will have no impact. Not a single player there was
Speaker 1: worth half a point in the NFL game. But I
Speaker 1: like the sport, but I would say I go. I
Speaker 1: would just say it's I did feel like last year
Speaker 1: because I do think the gap between good and I
Speaker 1: think what's happened to the NFL because of the importance
Speaker 1: of the quarterback that if you don't have one, it
Speaker 1: used to be you'd kind of watch everybody until Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: But I do feel like there are about six teams
Speaker 1: that by October fifth, it could be sure, Like I
Speaker 1: think Arizona Jets, it could be over like three to
Speaker 1: four games. In Yeah, Miami. I like Malik Willis, but
Speaker 1: he is probably their second best player, and we don't
Speaker 1: know if he's coming back close two.
Speaker 2: But like they have no talents anyway.
Speaker 1: I would say what's happened to the NFL is a
Speaker 1: little like college football or the NBA, about thirty percent
Speaker 1: of it I know a lot about in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I always felt it had to be about eighty percent.
Speaker 1: But what I found over the last two to three
Speaker 1: years is the bottom of the NFL is growing now.
Speaker 1: Next year is a great college quarterback class, so that'll
Speaker 1: be fascinating because even bad teams will have rookie quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: But this year, some of the bad teams are just
Speaker 1: bad teams, uh, and they're not terribly captivating. I don't
Speaker 1: think the Jets or Arizona. I just don't think those
Speaker 1: are really interesting teams. But I will say if Minnesota
Speaker 1: finishes fourth, that's about as good a fourth place team.
Speaker 1: I think the Raiders will finish fourth and it'll be
Speaker 1: really interesting. That's one of the things the NFL has.
Speaker 1: There are bad teams that are good watching. Yes's not
Speaker 1: the case in baseball, hockey or the NBA.
Speaker 2: Like the NBA has it a little bit and like
Speaker 2: I want to see a great player, like like I
Speaker 2: feel like if you went to a Mavericks game last
Speaker 2: year and you saw Cooper Flag, you got you got
Speaker 2: your money's worth, even though they were a bad team. Right,
Speaker 2: So like I've I've but like, but that's more like
Speaker 2: you're watching them Wemby's Wemby's first two years exactly like,
Speaker 2: so I think it actually happens in the NBA. But
Speaker 2: it's different. It's not at all like the team is
Speaker 2: interesting or an expectation of winning. It's just like I
Speaker 2: want to see how this individual gets through the game,
Speaker 2: how he interacts, how he plays, how he does he
Speaker 2: hang his head, does he whatever? No, Like listen, football
Speaker 2: is like we don't think Arizona or the Jets or
Speaker 2: the Dolphins, but like every year there is a surprise
Speaker 2: team or injuries happen or luck happens. I mean, the
Speaker 2: Broncos won eleven one score games last year. It's an
Speaker 2: NFL record. Now it's tied with a couple of other teams. Like,
Speaker 2: I think the Broncos are good. I think it's a
Speaker 2: really talented roster, great coach, great defense, great offensive line.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's a complete fluke, but they want
Speaker 2: eleven one score games like that could go the other
Speaker 2: way that if they go five and six in one
Speaker 2: score games this year, all of a sudden, they are
Speaker 2: a nine win team and we're not talking about them
Speaker 2: very much. So there's a there is a lot of
Speaker 2: variance in the NFL. You mentioned the vikings, like the
Speaker 2: Lions finished in the last place week, the Lions ruined,
Speaker 2: the who's the worst? The first team segments that we
Speaker 2: all do in August because every single person would say
Speaker 2: that the Lions are going to be the worst the
Speaker 2: first team, even if you pick the Bears or the Packers, like,
Speaker 2: they're clearly the best candidate to go worse to first. So,
Speaker 2: like the there's a almost every fan base goes into
Speaker 2: an NFL season with hope, maybe not hope of a
Speaker 2: super Bowl, but hope of things could go our way.
Speaker 2: We could win ten games and we could make the playoffs.
Speaker 2: I would say, like twenty seven teams go into this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jets Arizona, No Jets Arizona, Tennessee, Tennessee. Probably know
Speaker 1: everybody else, Like I think the Saints are going to
Speaker 1: shock people and win ten to eleven games. Could be wrong,
Speaker 1: but I think Jets Arizona, Tennessee, you kind of know
Speaker 1: it's a nine would be.
Speaker 2: Great, great, but it's not going to IM going to
Speaker 2: keep throwing Miami and I think I know it's new
Speaker 2: coach Miamis. They have no talent. You're getting so much
Speaker 2: dead money. I think Miami. If I had to pick
Speaker 2: a team right now to get the number one pick,
Speaker 2: I think I'd picked Miami. But like Tennessee is a
Speaker 2: good example. Yeah, they don't have much hope, except it's
Speaker 2: year two of a number one pick. Like cam Ward
Speaker 2: could be great. I didn't see it. He didn't have
Speaker 2: much around him. He's dealt with coaching turnover and instability
Speaker 2: and all sort, you know what I mean. But like I,
Speaker 2: cam Ward could be great, and so like you you're
Speaker 2: a Titans fan going into this year, I still would
Speaker 2: imagine there's a decent level of opted. We got Carnell Tate,
Speaker 2: we got him at number one target. We spent money.
Speaker 2: We brought in Franklin Myers, the defensive tackle from the
Speaker 2: from the Broncos, who was awesome on the huge deal
Speaker 2: to put him next to Jeffrey Simms. Like, we've got
Speaker 2: a defensive line, we got a young quarterback, we got
Speaker 2: a young wide receiver, Like, let's roll the ball out
Speaker 2: there and see. We got a winnable division. Like, let's
Speaker 2: see what we got. You know? So, I think a
Speaker 2: lot almost every fan base can at least talk themselves
Speaker 2: into hope, which is just an amazing thing that the
Speaker 2: NFL has created, which is why it's the best product.
Speaker 1: Danny Parkins, that was good stuff. I appreciate. That was
Speaker 1: over an hour of we even we even got Uh
Speaker 1: was that controversial.
Speaker 2: Here's what I'll say. If anything is going to be
Speaker 2: aggregated from this podcast, it's clearly gonna be my pc
Speaker 2: A for MVP take That's what's gonna be. That's what's
Speaker 2: gonna be aggregated.
Speaker 1: That was I gotta be honest, I got I got
Speaker 1: a little nervous about that time.
Speaker 2: It was. It was scared, it was, it was scared.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna learn my agent right now. Hey,
Speaker 2: you might need to do some damage control over the
Speaker 2: next twenty four to forty eight hours for me. Okay,
Speaker 2: I came for show. Heyo, Tony, this is PCA's league now.
Speaker 1: Great stuff.
Speaker 2: Thanks Colin.