Speaker 1: We've got Shawn Maryman now the Lights Out Podcast. Appreciate
Speaker 1: him joining us as he often does on Monday. Happy Holidays.
Speaker 1: You have a good you have a good Christmas. I did, man.
Speaker 1: I had some pizza whiskey and that's the gar I was.
Speaker 1: That's a hell of a combo. By the way, I
Speaker 1: saw you posting, I put pictures up in my kids too.
Speaker 1: Your son is an LSU fan. What have you done
Speaker 1: as a Maryland guy like Mike. I'll tell you this.
Speaker 1: My ten year old has So. I grew up a
Speaker 1: Tennessee fan, grew up here in the state of Tennessee,
Speaker 1: in Nashville, and you know, Alabama is the long time
Speaker 1: hated rival the University of Tennessee. And my son has
Speaker 1: turned into a huge Alabama fan. And I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to tell him who what teams he can
Speaker 1: root for. So so I took him to Obama LSU
Speaker 1: game the one last year with Joe Burrow and the
Speaker 1: l s U went off. And it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: when you're a kid, whatever teams are really good. When
Speaker 1: you're growing up, you tend to gravitate too. Is that
Speaker 1: what happened to your son? I saw him in some
Speaker 1: LSU gear. No, I think I made a ton of
Speaker 1: mistakes as a dad, but I should have. You know,
Speaker 1: you gotta look at spending more time or you know
Speaker 1: something I said. Maybe he's doing something out of spite.
Speaker 1: You know, No, my son is actually like I was
Speaker 1: growing up. I never had a favorite football team when
Speaker 1: I grew up in the p G County Melon area.
Speaker 1: So yeah, really I'm supposed to be a Ridskins fan,
Speaker 1: but I never was. But I love that team that
Speaker 1: he had. I loved watching our our our monk and
Speaker 1: um and ripping and and these great players. Um. And
Speaker 1: he's the same thing. He loves Juice Land, he loves o'dale,
Speaker 1: he loves Tyn Matthews, he loves you know, all these guys,
Speaker 1: the LSU boys. So that's why he's wearing it. But
Speaker 1: he got the Maryland get coming the man. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna let that slip. Uh. We're talking to Sean Marion,
Speaker 1: by the way, did you so we were talking about
Speaker 1: this off air? Uh a little bit NFL? You know,
Speaker 1: being a Pro Bowl or being a big time player,
Speaker 1: did you get excited still and feel a little bit
Speaker 1: childlike when you got to play in the snow and
Speaker 1: or did you ever get to play in a real
Speaker 1: snow game? Would that be something we're in the locker
Speaker 1: room dudes would be excited about because you know, like
Speaker 1: I remember being in college, for instance, and we would play,
Speaker 1: we play games, you know, just sad every Saturday. We
Speaker 1: are Sunday, we get out and we play. I went
Speaker 1: to school in d C. On the fields down there
Speaker 1: by the National Mall, and a couple of different times
Speaker 1: when we were in college, we got to play tackle
Speaker 1: football in the snow. And you know, you're twenty one
Speaker 1: two years old, it's like you feel like you're nine
Speaker 1: years old again, right, like a kid in the snow.
Speaker 1: Is it still like that a little bit in the
Speaker 1: locker room? Did you ever get to play in a
Speaker 1: real snow game? And was there a different vibe or
Speaker 1: a different field to it? You know, I grew up
Speaker 1: on the East Coast, so you know, planning of the
Speaker 1: snow I'm playing in the code, uh, wasn't a problem.
Speaker 1: I was used to it. But I played my last
Speaker 1: couple of years in Buffalo, and that's a different kind
Speaker 1: of code because you know, you got the wind coming
Speaker 1: off to the lakes and it's just a completely different atmosphere.
Speaker 1: Planning the code is never a problem. Um, you know
Speaker 1: I remember playing with the Charges and playing against the Bills. Uh,
Speaker 1: they had this I guess what do you call it?
Speaker 1: A ritual whatever, you you know, a tough man thing
Speaker 1: where oh yeah, we're gonna make them cold and they're
Speaker 1: not gonna be playing the code. So during the week
Speaker 1: what they'll do is go out and have a couple
Speaker 1: of practices in the cold. Well, you know, scientists will
Speaker 1: tell you your body doesn't get used to the code.
Speaker 1: You just you can't get acclimated to the cold. But no,
Speaker 1: it was never a problem. The only the codas game
Speaker 1: I played in was in two thousand and seven against
Speaker 1: the Patriots, THEFT Championship game. There was eleven or twelve
Speaker 1: degrees outside and the below you know, belay below zero
Speaker 1: and it wasn't snowing to the snow doesn't bother you.
Speaker 1: It's the code and the win. When you have the
Speaker 1: code and the win, it changed the ball games. Your fingertips,
Speaker 1: your nose, your toes, and you know I spent half
Speaker 1: the time on the sidelines fighting over the heaters because
Speaker 1: you know they have two heaters. At the end of
Speaker 1: the spaces and yeah, I'll never forget. I I almost
Speaker 1: gotten a physical fight with Nate Katie, the kicker who
Speaker 1: was over there. I said, you know, you got to
Speaker 1: move your ass outer way because you know you only
Speaker 1: got to play about tennis snapp this whole game, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and I got so close to the events
Speaker 1: and my my gloves actually melted on my hands a
Speaker 1: little bit because I wasn't fighting trying to get It
Speaker 1: was so cold out that it's never really the snow.
Speaker 1: It's it's always the cold. It's funny you mentioned that
Speaker 1: we do UH every year, and I did local radio
Speaker 1: in Nashville. We would do a toy field. It's a
Speaker 1: great thing they do at the local station here at
Speaker 1: the Titan Stadium, and everybody can bring their gifts and
Speaker 1: you try to fill up as much of this field
Speaker 1: as they can put in front. And one day we
Speaker 1: were there and it was so good. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it's been like, ten or fifteen degrees. We were
Speaker 1: doing an outdoor show and they had those big space heaters,
Speaker 1: um you know that the things that put off a
Speaker 1: ton of heat. Right, So every commercial break we'd run
Speaker 1: over there and you know, get lined up in front
Speaker 1: of it, and my pants caught on fire, you know,
Speaker 1: like I mean, it literally melted, like I had, like,
Speaker 1: you know, like a couple of different layers on, and
Speaker 1: when you got different layers on, you don't feel it
Speaker 1: as much. And I looked down, I'm like, man, I'm
Speaker 1: on fire, and I had to put it out. And
Speaker 1: that's how cold it was. And those are still some
Speaker 1: of the same stuff as the same exact stuff that
Speaker 1: they use on the sideline. Um and and it's pretty
Speaker 1: wild too to see how that gets shaken out. All right,
Speaker 1: speaking a while, So I took my family down to
Speaker 1: Universal Studios, had an amazing time early Christmas present for
Speaker 1: my boys. And I was in line and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm checking my phone while I'm in line, and I
Speaker 1: see that Dwayne Haskins, who is you know, first round
Speaker 1: draft picks supposed to be the future of the Washington franchise.
Speaker 1: That in addition to the fact that they lost the
Speaker 1: game on Sunday, he then went to a strip club
Speaker 1: and got photographed in the strip club in the middle
Speaker 1: of all this COVID stuff. Everybody's got teammates and co
Speaker 1: workers who have done dumb things in life. What do
Speaker 1: you think the locker room reaction is when you're starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: I mean they stripped his champ, his captaincy, right, I
Speaker 1: mean they pulled it right off, gave it to Chase Young,
Speaker 1: who's a freak. And we talked about last week, I
Speaker 1: think or the week before with you. What do you
Speaker 1: think the locker room reaction is when they see that
Speaker 1: not only went to a strip club, which obviously you
Speaker 1: shouldn't be doing while everybody's trying to avoid testing positive
Speaker 1: for COVID, but did it and got his picture taken
Speaker 1: there as well. It gets out and then he gets
Speaker 1: benched as the football team, uh loses against the Panthers
Speaker 1: this weekend. Yeah, and so this is how I feel
Speaker 1: about that obviously. Um. Yeah, I know Dwayne Haskins, he's
Speaker 1: you know, he grew up in Maryland, and I've been
Speaker 1: hearing about it for a long time. Great kid, great do,
Speaker 1: great person. Um, but what we're seeing is a lot
Speaker 1: of immaturity and your team captain, and not only your
Speaker 1: team captain, you're a quarterback. See, it's a different you
Speaker 1: have a different outlook from the rest of your teammates
Speaker 1: from your quarterback. If there was a linebacker or a
Speaker 1: defensive linement or cornerback, wide receiver. You're frowned upon. It.
Speaker 1: Guy in the shrimp club, he's putting people at rest,
Speaker 1: he's frowned upon. He'll get fine. Uh, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit of locker room chatter. But as a
Speaker 1: starting quarterback of a franchise, you're the CEO of that franchise.
Speaker 1: You leave that whole franchise. You have to act accordingly.
Speaker 1: And it's unfortunate because we're we have you know, all
Speaker 1: of us and I've been there, all of us. Is
Speaker 1: you have to watching him grow up in front of
Speaker 1: the pub a guy. So we're watching all these young,
Speaker 1: dumb mistakes. And unfortunately, in today's time, those are the
Speaker 1: things that people are going to associate what you Those
Speaker 1: are the things they're gonna remember about you the most,
Speaker 1: especially especially when you're not playing well. Now, if you're
Speaker 1: out there, you're just killing it. You haven't adjusted herb
Speaker 1: the type of season. Uh, you're a young guy. You're
Speaker 1: playing extremely well. Uh, and then you go out and
Speaker 1: make mistakes. Okay, You'll still slapping the back of the
Speaker 1: red and say, hey, don't do it. You don't get
Speaker 1: stripped your team captain. You may get fine a little bit,
Speaker 1: but then you move on to the next game and
Speaker 1: people forget about it. It's the connection with him not
Speaker 1: playing well and also not being a team leader that
Speaker 1: is really uh is gonna prompt him faster uh than
Speaker 1: a lot of these people. And I don't want to
Speaker 1: make these comparisons at all, but you know, you you
Speaker 1: have to when you're first round drafted, your top ten
Speaker 1: draft pick. But you know Jamacus Russell, you know he's
Speaker 1: a guy that came in with a ton of talent,
Speaker 1: big arm, very skilled, could have been a great pro,
Speaker 1: but just didn't take things seriously. And uh or Ryan Leaf, right,
Speaker 1: Ryan Leaves another good example, right, Like Ryan Leaf comes in,
Speaker 1: has the ability to do everything falls apart. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know these guys are more than talented. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: you don't get drafted that high um for any reason
Speaker 1: unless somebody's see something in you, period, and you've are
Speaker 1: proven UH players, And we know he's capable. We've seen
Speaker 1: it this year. We see splashes that he can go.
Speaker 1: He can play, but he's not consistent, he's not playing well,
Speaker 1: and on top of that, you're being a team distraction.
Speaker 1: And that's where UH people are really gonna start coming
Speaker 1: down on him, and he look, he's I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: say he's gonna be out the league and discontinues or
Speaker 1: anything like that, but you know, we can very much
Speaker 1: watch him be a backup quarterback until he, uh just
Speaker 1: learns mature a little bit and learns to understand that
Speaker 1: you're the CEO of a franchise and the whole team,
Speaker 1: the whole franchise, the organization is relying on what you do.
Speaker 1: We're talking to Shawn Merriman. Uh all right, so let's
Speaker 1: break down some of these division races and what we
Speaker 1: saw Seahawk to get the win over the Rams. Jared Goff.
Speaker 1: I mean, it seems to me like Sean McVeigh is
Speaker 1: just thoroughly disgusted with him. Right. They came out and
Speaker 1: lost last week to the Jets, and then you think, okay,
Speaker 1: well we'll see how they perform going forward, and they
Speaker 1: don't score a touchdown, they can't get into the end zone.
Speaker 1: What do you think going forward of Jared Goff and
Speaker 1: what is the significance in your mind of the Seahawks
Speaker 1: winning that division? Well? Going for Jared Goff, and I've
Speaker 1: always said this about him, Um, he's not going to
Speaker 1: play well unless you put the piece to the puzzle
Speaker 1: around him and they're playing well. When when they're playing
Speaker 1: well in offense, they're running the ball effectively, you know,
Speaker 1: they're making some big plays and catching and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: He looks I mean, he looks like a good, really
Speaker 1: good quarterback, but he's not capable in my opinion, he's
Speaker 1: not capable of going out there winning the game by himself.
Speaker 1: You know, if he has to get great play from
Speaker 1: the office line, he has to get great play and
Speaker 1: then running the ball, they have to dialup Sean McVey,
Speaker 1: have to dial up the right plays the call and
Speaker 1: not him and go out and play well. He's not
Speaker 1: going to go out and vow you and anything miraculous himself.
Speaker 1: Now he's gotten away with it because that defense they
Speaker 1: turned the ball over over him. They got Jyalen Ramsby
Speaker 1: and Aaron Donald and all these got to get out
Speaker 1: the guys up the end of front seven. So that
Speaker 1: builds them out a whole lot, and they play well
Speaker 1: in other phases of the game. But if he if
Speaker 1: it's if it's on him, if the game is on
Speaker 1: his shoulders, he's not gonna go out and win you
Speaker 1: a ton of football games. We're talking to Sean Merriman
Speaker 1: breaking down some of these big division situations. The Steelers
Speaker 1: come out of nowhere. They were down twenty four to seven,
Speaker 1: they had lost three straight games, looked like they were
Speaker 1: headed for their fourth straight. Then they suddenly get hot
Speaker 1: in the second half. How significant was that outcome in
Speaker 1: your mind? And did it allay any of your concerns
Speaker 1: about the Steelers going forward or do you still have
Speaker 1: the same concerns. I still had the same concerns, but
Speaker 1: you know, it was really good for them because right now,
Speaker 1: the last thing you want is we lose a fourth
Speaker 1: straight hid and into the playoffs. That is the last
Speaker 1: thing you want. Because the locker room is like a funeral. Uh.
Speaker 1: You walk around there and it's not a good taste.
Speaker 1: And you guys got a really good record. I mean
Speaker 1: it's nothing. You know, you've been playing well. Lost season,
Speaker 1: but the momentum will be going the other way. So
Speaker 1: it was important for them to get this win. But
Speaker 1: I think over the last you know, four weeks, they've
Speaker 1: been exposed in certain areas. Um you know, I think
Speaker 1: that there's obviously in my team and this is just
Speaker 1: my opinion that advential distractions what you do and um
Speaker 1: and just adding the field to the fire. And I
Speaker 1: don't think anything. Well, I like you as a as
Speaker 1: a person. I like Juju as a player. But you know,
Speaker 1: when you play on the team where you're putting the
Speaker 1: other ten guys in jeopardy because of something you're doing,
Speaker 1: you're becoming Bullington board material. Then you have to think
Speaker 1: about stopping. You know, you have to think about stopping.
Speaker 1: And it's ultimate disrespect, no matter what everybody want to say,
Speaker 1: it's ultimate disrespect to going dance on anybody's logo. Now
Speaker 1: I get it. They'll say that. You know, they were
Speaker 1: winning off season, nobody could play, nobody saying anything. But
Speaker 1: now that it's become more of a public matter, Um,
Speaker 1: you become they become bullets at Boar material. And look
Speaker 1: at the guys and what they how they celebrate the
Speaker 1: things they say. Um, after they make a big hitt
Speaker 1: of jujuo after they beat the Steelers, you know, it's
Speaker 1: always mocked because of what he's doing. And you know,
Speaker 1: fortunately they came back in one this game and the
Speaker 1: scenes like they got things back on trick. But I
Speaker 1: do believe the last four games. They have been exposed
Speaker 1: in sum areas. Do you think Uh? And Seawan Merriman
Speaker 1: with us encourage you to go listen to the Lights
Speaker 1: Out podcast. The Chiefs are on an unbelievable run. I
Speaker 1: think they're what twenty three and one in their last
Speaker 1: twenty four since November the eleventh of last year. They've
Speaker 1: only lost one game, that was to the Raiders. But
Speaker 1: they've won now I think it is seven straight games
Speaker 1: by six or fewer points. Are you concerned at all
Speaker 1: about what you're seeing from them? They beat the Falcons
Speaker 1: seventeen fourteen, or is this just a team that feels
Speaker 1: so unthreatened in terms of when they're playing against anybody
Speaker 1: that they are waiting to just be able to flip
Speaker 1: a switch. No, I'm not concerned about them at all.
Speaker 1: In fact, you know, we're just making a joke about
Speaker 1: my charges that they want some of these games by
Speaker 1: six points or less. They don't want to extra four
Speaker 1: games this year. They'll probably be sitting around at you know,
Speaker 1: eleven and five by the end of the season. You
Speaker 1: happy to just be able to win those close games.
Speaker 1: I know that they have a great team over there.
Speaker 1: For some weeks, Uh, you're gonna have to just squeeze
Speaker 1: a few of them out. And that's how what championship
Speaker 1: teams do. And look this team that the Chiefs have. UM,
Speaker 1: I don't think we've ever seen anything like this and
Speaker 1: this explosive. Now. I'm you know, we've had the greatest
Speaker 1: show on Turn and we had some explosive offenses, but
Speaker 1: with these guys, and including Andy Reid, who DALs these
Speaker 1: plays up to be explosive, We've never seen a package
Speaker 1: like this before ever. Would be three or four guys
Speaker 1: on offense who could possibly, you know, end up in
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame somewhere one day, and then a
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame coach like Andy Reid who can tenuously
Speaker 1: get creative every week. They have a new wrinkle that
Speaker 1: you would have to worry about, and they dialogue place
Speaker 1: specifically for what they can do. They're the most explosive
Speaker 1: team in football. So if I was them, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be too concerned at all. We're talking to Shawn Merriman
Speaker 1: breaking down everything that happened in the NFL. Uh. When
Speaker 1: you see Alvin Kamara go for six touchdowns, I know
Speaker 1: it was on Christmas. He had his green and his
Speaker 1: red cleats, on. I mean, I feel like, if anything,
Speaker 1: that's being under discussed in terms of how good he was.
Speaker 1: And then also Tom Brady going out and getting his
Speaker 1: team in the postseason. Again, how would you break down
Speaker 1: both of those guys. Those are games that happened before Sunday,
Speaker 1: but I feel like they deserve a little bit of
Speaker 1: talk as well. Yeah. I never understood the underappreciation for
Speaker 1: Alvin Kamara. I just never understood that because you as
Speaker 1: a former defensive player. I'm watching them and he's always
Speaker 1: shot out of a out of a canic. Mean, you
Speaker 1: see him touched the ball, he just looks faster, more explosive.
Speaker 1: Get the way he gets through the whole how how
Speaker 1: balanced he is his uh you know, the way he
Speaker 1: gets yards after first contact and the way you can
Speaker 1: catch the ball out of the backfield and do so
Speaker 1: many different things. I just I think that, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we're underappreciating, undervalue and how good, how great he really is.
Speaker 1: Probably because you got a Drew Brees over there, and
Speaker 1: you've got you know, Sean Payton who's a great coach,
Speaker 1: and you got some play neils, some pieces around them
Speaker 1: where uh you know, Michael Thomas and wide receiver, and
Speaker 1: we're not really appreciating the greatness surviving Camaral because this
Speaker 1: guy is he's a game breaker. And what I what
Speaker 1: I say by that is every time he touches the field,
Speaker 1: you have to concentrate on and he have to worry
Speaker 1: about what he what play he can hurt me on display.
Speaker 1: You know, you start paying attention to him, and now
Speaker 1: you know, Michael Thomas or somebody else gets getting involved,
Speaker 1: and Drew Brees is doing this thing, and also that
Speaker 1: defense or front camera. Join. These guys they're getting after
Speaker 1: you there there, I mean Davis the linebacker. They're they're
Speaker 1: getting after you all over the field. And he's guys,
Speaker 1: they're they're they're probably not it's hard to call them
Speaker 1: a sleeper because they're they're a great team. But I
Speaker 1: don't think that they're being um put up there enough
Speaker 1: with the other great with the other great organizations. Right now,
Speaker 1: the Browns lost to the Jets. Jets have now lost
Speaker 1: two games in a row. And so this is the
Speaker 1: last question for you as you break it down. When
Speaker 1: you look at the Browns having to play without all
Speaker 1: those wide receivers, do you just toss that to the
Speaker 1: curb and say like this game is not in any
Speaker 1: way a normal game, or do you go back in
Speaker 1: and say this is a game that the Brown should
Speaker 1: have still won. No, No, I mean, look, you're missing
Speaker 1: that many pieces to the puzzle. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to give them a pass at all because they didn't
Speaker 1: play well. But it's hard to to play with the
Speaker 1: It's hard to play well when you're listening to the
Speaker 1: key pieces to your game. Um, And we've always said that.
Speaker 1: I've said the whole season. When they played great defense
Speaker 1: and they're running the ball, they're unstoppable. They can play
Speaker 1: with the best of them. Every every NFL team in
Speaker 1: the league will have a problem planning when they're running
Speaker 1: the ball well and they're playing great defense. But that
Speaker 1: opens up for those wide receivers. And when they're not there,
Speaker 1: now you you totally your mindset is not, Hey, these
Speaker 1: guys hurt us on a big passing player, the wide
Speaker 1: Reso's gonna come and do something together against us. Let's
Speaker 1: take away what they're great at and let them these
Speaker 1: wide receivers is in there find a way to beat us.
Speaker 1: And they didn't find a way to beat us. Beat
Speaker 1: them without you know, they keep key components. Shawn Merriman,
Speaker 1: outstanding is always my man. We'll hopefully talk to you
Speaker 1: next week and have a better big picture by then
Speaker 1: of who's gonna be in the playoffs and where. Have
Speaker 1: a good New Year's and we'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 1: You gotta as well,