Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast.
Speaker 2: Is practicing with the first team offense from.
Speaker 1: The training camp of the Dallas Cowboys. It is Around
Speaker 1: the NFL. I am Dan Hansis, I got heroes with me,
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal and his hairy legs and Mark Sessler.
Speaker 3: Hey, guys, I don't this whole practice for the first
Speaker 3: team offense, I mean camp and the preseason in general.
Speaker 3: Let's for real, has become like less and less first
Speaker 3: teamers doing anything and not even showing up in the games.
Speaker 4: Oh, we're absolutely like year twelve veteran who's slowly ramping
Speaker 4: up that starting spot is secured.
Speaker 1: I am, it's so exciting to be here at Cowboys camp.
Speaker 1: We we just wrapped up a press conference with Zaddy
Speaker 1: himself Mike McCarthy that just, you know, pinch me goosebumps
Speaker 1: moment for the old Zeusser. And I meant to Greg's
Speaker 1: wearing shorts and you did You did choose. You had
Speaker 1: two choices this morning, Greg, You could have wore the
Speaker 1: short shorts or the longer shorts. You chose the longer shorts.
Speaker 1: And I thank you because I have to say this
Speaker 1: to anybody at NFL network, colleagues, friends, many of you.
Speaker 1: You gotta be aware of sitting in the director chair
Speaker 1: at these remote things with your short shorts. The flesh
Speaker 1: email inner thigh is not something we need.
Speaker 3: And a lot of and to be fair, a lot
Speaker 3: of you know, you'd probably get less of that with Greg.
Speaker 3: But a lot of the people occupying these director's chairs
Speaker 3: are like x NFL linemen and just beefy general and people.
Speaker 3: So it's an excess of that body party.
Speaker 4: You don't have to mention my abundance of hair body
Speaker 4: hair though. I think that's that's rude. I think that's
Speaker 4: the way to go. We're at training game. Everyone in
Speaker 4: shorts is like Phonsie over here kicking the jukebox. This
Speaker 4: is audio medium your guy, though, Zaddie, it was nice
Speaker 4: to see him, Zaddy in a front like he is
Speaker 4: in his element. He very much.
Speaker 1: Are you starting to get it? I did I see
Speaker 1: in Zaddy? Well?
Speaker 4: I do, because I think he enjoys.
Speaker 3: I it's just coosing up to you, but absolutely, I.
Speaker 4: Think he enjoys being the head coach of the Dallas
Speaker 4: Cowboys very much that he embodies that in a Zaddy
Speaker 4: way where he's the man here. This is a nice
Speaker 4: time of year, or two. There's a lot to do.
Speaker 4: It's all about ball, but it's all about him. He's
Speaker 4: in charge too, and there's not a lot of pressure,
Speaker 4: and he's just like cracking jokes. He's so open with
Speaker 4: the media. I mean, he does fifteen twenty minutes on
Speaker 4: a podium, then he does fifteen twenty more minutes on
Speaker 4: the side with them, and it's just like he's so
Speaker 4: he's totally so like.
Speaker 3: Just from another angle, like he does all that, he
Speaker 3: does it all very well. And I think that he
Speaker 3: is in a very comfortable with his own skin. I
Speaker 3: think that's where you're getting out a little bit with
Speaker 3: your definition of all this. He is comfortable in his
Speaker 3: leadership role. He's taken on more than ever before with
Speaker 3: his team, and he seems to be uh delighted by
Speaker 3: the whole thing. And he was great with the media
Speaker 3: and he's joking with individual you know, reporters. So I
Speaker 3: see all that. I just don't. I just disagree with
Speaker 3: the base definition of where we don't. We've already talked
Speaker 3: about this.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about the seating arrangement. I mean, let's
Speaker 1: show some respect. Mark Me and Rosenthal are sitting with
Speaker 1: the reporters in the folding.
Speaker 3: Chair and would become a talking point mark off.
Speaker 1: To the side stand office. You won't even give McCarthy
Speaker 1: your respect of being in front of IL.
Speaker 3: So first of all, like it was a shaded spot
Speaker 3: which was appealing to me, and this like I don't
Speaker 3: like I'm I was just observing from a different perch.
Speaker 3: You guys had the same camera angle I had. I
Speaker 3: was like, we want to cover from all angles, so
Speaker 3: I'll go sit in a different place.
Speaker 1: I just wish you were. I knew.
Speaker 3: I knew that would be annoying. I knew that when
Speaker 3: you get on the radar, it's like, I'm not doing
Speaker 3: this is not because of you. It's because of the shade.
Speaker 1: It's because of Mike. That's what I'm saying, right.
Speaker 3: But I mean I got to see him from a
Speaker 3: side view like you saw him up front like that,
Speaker 3: so you could have why not if you're so fascinated
Speaker 3: with him, you could explore from different angles yourself.
Speaker 1: I am fascinated with him. In fact, do you know
Speaker 1: it would be an abuse of my duties as host
Speaker 1: of the show. I had to ask Mike McCarthy a question.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and let's listen in Dan Hansson around the NFL.
Speaker 1: NFL network Hard Knocks is starting up again this week.
Speaker 1: You run the show a couple of years ago. Mojo
Speaker 1: moment was a thing that kind of took off. I
Speaker 1: was wondering if that comes back there they are change it,
Speaker 1: maybe different from Mike Myers vehicle or anything like that.
Speaker 5: Well not the mojo movements still there. You know, we've
Speaker 5: we're using a pad of practices. So when we've won it,
Speaker 5: we've done it every day since we've been in paths
Speaker 5: and there'll be one today.
Speaker 1: So what was the greatest mojo moment of can so far?
Speaker 1: Follow us?
Speaker 5: So far as the offensive coach? Who was the two
Speaker 5: point play as the head coach is probably you know
Speaker 5: the last one was was pretty good for the defense.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what any of that meant. At the end,
Speaker 1: I mentioned another Mike Myers vehicle, maybe the uh, We're
Speaker 1: not worthy moment of the day, the extreme close up,
Speaker 1: something like that, something from the Wayne's World world.
Speaker 3: The thing I love because you know a lot of
Speaker 3: these are you know, people looking for a story angle
Speaker 3: or looking for basic data about players health, and so
Speaker 3: it's a lot you know, it could be dry and
Speaker 3: you elicited. I think you took him to a new place,
Speaker 3: and there were giggles throughout the crowd, and that's the great.
Speaker 1: Quest had a couple of those, like the turnback, like well,
Speaker 1: who's that guy, which you always expect when you're the
Speaker 1: stranger dropping in amongst the beat reporters. I've always been uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: whether it's combine or something like this, just because if
Speaker 1: I was a Beat guy, I don't want anybody in
Speaker 1: my time that's just like dropping by, and I feel
Speaker 1: that energy sometimes coming off emanating off other Beat reporters
Speaker 1: sometimes could be a little cranky.
Speaker 4: Sometimes not here though not like the Es are like
Speaker 4: very chill because they got to escape Dallas for a
Speaker 4: couple of weeks and hang out working like in a
Speaker 4: perfect uh southern California beach community.
Speaker 1: And isn't it. We're at RAMS camp last year. They
Speaker 1: were defending Super Bowl champions last summer, and you know,
Speaker 1: the Rams put together a really good operation there and
Speaker 1: everything was organized and clean and neat and friendly. But
Speaker 1: when you're rolling in, you get off the one on
Speaker 1: one and you head in and you start seeing the
Speaker 1: signs on the light posts, and you pull in here
Speaker 1: and you see all the people dressed up, all the fans,
Speaker 1: and the the way they have all the merch and
Speaker 1: the food and the and then you see the fields.
Speaker 1: It just feels bigger. And I think that's part.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, we're going to talk to Brad Sham. The
Speaker 1: Sham got it a little bit later. Who happened to
Speaker 1: be at that presser a little stroke of good luck
Speaker 1: for our show, the voice of the Dallas Cowboys, and
Speaker 1: he was telling us, you know, he's been involved forever
Speaker 1: with the team and Dallas. Everything's bigger, from the training
Speaker 1: camp to the to the Hall of Fame parties. And
Speaker 1: you feel that when you're here in a way that
Speaker 1: you're not going to feel it at other camps.
Speaker 4: There's no question. You also have like you have the
Speaker 4: huge signs coming in Cowboys training camp so that everyone
Speaker 4: can take their ine and pictures and stuff. But they
Speaker 4: are just literally bigger than they would be at any
Speaker 4: other training camp. They're like forty feet in the air.
Speaker 4: You have the tower old Bear Bryant style, and you
Speaker 4: know Jerry Jones was playing in the sec but like
Speaker 4: back when Bear Bryant was doing this, where like the
Speaker 4: owner is literally at the top of a tower, like
Speaker 4: coaches used to do in the fifties, barking out to players,
Speaker 4: and he's literally three or four stories above all the players,
Speaker 4: like looking down on his peons with the huge Cowboys
Speaker 4: logo on that, Like you don't see that at a Well.
Speaker 3: I think the other thing is because it's such a
Speaker 3: Cowboys it's kind of preposterous, but it's also I like it,
Speaker 3: so it's.
Speaker 1: Part of the Dallas Cowboys of lore.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's no way that you fly the Jacksonville Jaguars
Speaker 3: to Oxnard, California and when you park there's like four
Speaker 3: thousand Cowboys fans trying to get in.
Speaker 4: It's like Monday morning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure some of them traveled here to make
Speaker 3: a week out of it, no doubt, But like that
Speaker 3: percentage is way lower than it would have to be
Speaker 3: with any other.
Speaker 4: I don't think you've got to be an ox start
Speaker 4: in August.
Speaker 1: That's what everyone says.
Speaker 3: You're saying, I'm saying that these are California based Cowboys fans.
Speaker 6: Yes, not.
Speaker 3: There many other teams. They're Raiders, the Cowboys, a few
Speaker 3: others times, mostly.
Speaker 4: From the area.
Speaker 1: Anybody that works for the Chargers, they're listening right now.
Speaker 1: Cover of years, like they're not in them. They're not
Speaker 1: getting a medal. In most popular LA teams, I think
Speaker 1: it's Raiders, Cowboys, Rams in some order. And that's amazing
Speaker 1: because you could make sense.
Speaker 4: I think that's the order actually Raiders, cow.
Speaker 1: Rams obviously history here, Chargers, excuse me, Raiders history here.
Speaker 1: The Cowboys. They've they've been the Dallas Cowboys as long
Speaker 1: as they've been a team. And yet they have such
Speaker 1: a following that goes back to just the allure of
Speaker 1: it all. And I know there are people listening to
Speaker 1: the show. They're even annoyed right now. I could picture
Speaker 1: like comments now I can't believe they're doing kind of
Speaker 1: like a Cowboys episode of the show. But I think
Speaker 1: it's good to check in on this team because, in
Speaker 1: addition to them being this bigger than life entity within
Speaker 1: the NFL, the team does matter, Greg And we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk to some players in the team. We're gonna excite
Speaker 1: to get out in the practice field and check out
Speaker 1: what's going on there. But first let's get caught up
Speaker 1: from the weekend.
Speaker 7: Do some news. I'm talking about the quarterbacks schools, the
Speaker 7: mini camp, the all seasons.
Speaker 2: The training camp.
Speaker 1: You were tired, everybody.
Speaker 7: You fish one hell of a coup.
Speaker 1: And only thing else I got to say is how
Speaker 1: about your Cowboys? Dug that out with the archives? That
Speaker 1: was actually you think that was after one of the
Speaker 1: super Bowl triumphs of the nineties, Jimmy Johnson. That was
Speaker 1: after the nineteen ninety two NFC title game, that famous quote, And.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's very that felt like the Super Bowl it
Speaker 4: did with the Bills and waiting.
Speaker 1: Right with I think they beat the forty nine er.
Speaker 1: There's some classic games there in that era. It's very important.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a few weeks ago. Mark the
Speaker 1: team that everyone loves and the team that everyone loves
Speaker 1: to hate, and that's what the Cowboys are that moment.
Speaker 3: I think it's like I had a best friend who
Speaker 3: was a Cowboys fan, and he's the one that made
Speaker 3: me a football fan, and like watching how quick Jimmy
Speaker 3: Johnson turned that operation around from a one in fifteen
Speaker 3: nightmare post Tom Landry to a absolute juggernaut, and so
Speaker 3: I bited my friend. I'll tell you a really fast story.
Speaker 3: I was in Washington, d C. In college and there
Speaker 3: was a Redskins Washington game and we were on the subway,
Speaker 3: just gonna Redskins cowboy. Yeah, we were gonna go to
Speaker 3: us like we were going to go to a sports
Speaker 3: bar and on in this this subway car my friend
Speaker 3: had at Troykeman, Jersey on and there was like a
Speaker 3: thousands of Redskins fans and like as we come to
Speaker 3: our stop and you know, the doors about to open,
Speaker 3: I just go, I want to tell you the people
Speaker 3: sent in, and like the whole place went silent because
Speaker 3: they're thinking, like there's a terrorist, there's a bomb, and
Speaker 3: go how about their cowboys? We walk out the doors
Speaker 3: closed and we're just like everyone's just giving us the
Speaker 3: driving off.
Speaker 1: Good stop, good memory. Mark. All right, let's get to
Speaker 1: the news. Alvin Kamara will be suspended for three games
Speaker 1: for his role in a fight outside of Las Vegas
Speaker 1: nightclub last year. He was facing felony charges, pleated that
Speaker 1: down took care of the legal side. Now he's the
Speaker 1: football side of it after a conversation with Roger Goodell
Speaker 1: last week, so he's out of the picture greg for
Speaker 1: three games. Jamal Williams is now stepping into a role
Speaker 1: from Detroit last year where he set the team record
Speaker 1: to really get his footing in this offense. I think
Speaker 1: this is very good news for Jamal Williams, who gets
Speaker 1: to start in a big time role with the rookie
Speaker 1: behind him.
Speaker 4: It's interesting they brought in Kareem Hunt for a workout
Speaker 4: or a meeting on Monday, so this could be dated
Speaker 4: or they might not sign him right away. I didn't
Speaker 4: think that would that would necessary, and I don't think
Speaker 4: it's a bad thing for Kamara to miss three games.
Speaker 4: I think that was probably on the average or maybe
Speaker 4: a little less than what people expected. And I did
Speaker 4: notice over the weekend Nick Underhill, who does good work
Speaker 4: for a New Orleans football dot com, like he had
Speaker 4: an article where they have they have data, they have
Speaker 4: censors on Alvin Kamara based on the work that he's
Speaker 4: done this offseason. His burst is back. They can prove
Speaker 4: it that he looks better, he looks different. I think
Speaker 4: he's gonna have a monster year.
Speaker 3: Well you've been You've been touting Kamara all off season,
Speaker 3: so that's that's good evidence for you.
Speaker 1: I list Rex's career is kind of hanging in the balance.
Speaker 3: It is a little because we had our running back
Speaker 3: you know, draft, and I thought that was a tough
Speaker 3: moment for gressing we've been over that.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I want to know what he talks about with Goodell,
Speaker 3: because it's like, these suspensions come out one guy six games,
Speaker 3: one guy three, someone else the entire season and like this,
Speaker 3: like the actual variance of what occurred, like Alvin Kamara's
Speaker 3: situation was not minor. No, I say, terrible look for
Speaker 3: the league and for him, and he acknowledged that. And
Speaker 3: it's like three games felt soft. I'm not trying to
Speaker 3: like bang this hammer left and right, but it just
Speaker 3: felt a little bit like people forget about these things
Speaker 3: so quickly that the punishment's light, and we're talking about
Speaker 3: how fast he is on a monitor.
Speaker 1: I have something to be said there that it's interesting
Speaker 1: to me, as people who covered the sport, what what
Speaker 1: the media and what the public latches onto in terms
Speaker 1: of outrage and anger and.
Speaker 4: What another man like in a club does not get outrage.
Speaker 4: It just does.
Speaker 1: But I mean, that's not a it's not doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it's excusable.
Speaker 4: He suspended three games. But to your point, by the way,
Speaker 4: it wasn't him taking It wasn't one.
Speaker 1: On one a man squaring up with another man, and
Speaker 1: in fistics, this was a beating by a group of
Speaker 1: men that Kamara was a part of. It's kind of
Speaker 1: a vile thing, but it's it's something that in general
Speaker 1: people just move past.
Speaker 4: I think taking accountability, settling the lawsuit, apologizing, saying it
Speaker 4: was his fault and that he regrets it, that's fair.
Speaker 4: I think that actually does probably knock a game off.
Speaker 4: Maybe it shouldn't be like that, but if you compare
Speaker 4: that to some thing like Deshaun Watson, where he never
Speaker 4: really took accountability, He's still getting hugs from Goodell. So
Speaker 4: maybe maybe it doesn't matter. I don't really know, but
Speaker 4: I think that helped Kamara.
Speaker 1: In this case, chiefs edge rusher Charles Amniheu was suspended
Speaker 1: six games for violations of the Personal Conduct Policy. That
Speaker 1: suspension stem from a domestic violence incident in January. In January,
Speaker 1: so that was, you know, along those same lines. This
Speaker 1: is another violentce incident and the woman he signed it
Speaker 1: to year sixteen million dollar contract at the time of
Speaker 1: the situation.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that is telling. I mean, I think
Speaker 4: there would have there was some Deshaun Watson fatigue because
Speaker 4: when this happened last year, the forty nine ers like well,
Speaker 4: We're not worried about it. We don't think it's a
Speaker 4: big deal. He ended up playing for them in the
Speaker 4: playoffs after this incident, and you're right, it didn't get
Speaker 4: much attention at all. It didn't hurt his money. I
Speaker 4: think the NFL teams show you how seriously they take
Speaker 4: it that he still got a really good contract. I
Speaker 4: think the Chiefs are a little surprised actually that he
Speaker 4: got suspended, because I don't know if they would have
Speaker 4: given him all that money, and they are very thin
Speaker 4: in terms of their pass rushers. It is not a
Speaker 4: good pass rushing group, even with a menahu.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that it may help move things along
Speaker 3: with Chris Jones to some degree, but he was brought
Speaker 3: in to essentially replace Frank Clark. I wonder if someone
Speaker 3: like Carlos Dunlap, who was there a year ago, could
Speaker 3: be brought in because I think I think Clowney right,
Speaker 3: They would not think they thought six games was going
Speaker 3: to be the result here.
Speaker 4: No, it was so off the radar, and that's where
Speaker 4: I think media coverage can make a difference. It was
Speaker 4: so off the radar that, like the forty nine Ers,
Speaker 4: didn't take any heat for playing him. In the in
Speaker 4: the NFC Championship or anything like that. And the Chiefs
Speaker 4: certainly didn't take any heat for this signing, and I
Speaker 4: don't think it affected his money at all. But but
Speaker 4: he's taking this.
Speaker 1: This may interesting how it works. Janick and Gockway signs
Speaker 1: a deal with the Chicago Bears. Nice money this late
Speaker 1: one year, ten and a half million, ten million guaranteed
Speaker 1: for a guy that had nineteen and a half sacks
Speaker 1: over the last two seasons. Greg. That feels like I
Speaker 1: know in Gockway's not the same guy was a few
Speaker 1: years ago, but for a Bears team that could not
Speaker 1: get to the quarterback last year, a nice signing. Also.
Speaker 1: Marcedes Lewis the forever tight end. He latches on with
Speaker 1: the Bears for another.
Speaker 4: Ride from the two thousand and six draft.
Speaker 1: Crazy MJD's pumped.
Speaker 4: I think he was in the same draft class with mjd.
Speaker 4: Am I crazy Yeah, with the Jaguars.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: That's why every Sunday.
Speaker 1: Night watching it, marsides Lewis will be brought up in
Speaker 1: some capacity as somebody that needs it.
Speaker 4: His eighteenth tier. I love that the Bears did that.
Speaker 4: I don't know if I love in Gotway as a player,
Speaker 4: He's not good as a run defender. They immediately said
Speaker 4: he's playing every down, which says a lot about the
Speaker 4: rest of the Bears defensive ends that he's but the
Speaker 4: money says that too. But I hate unspent cap space.
Speaker 4: I really think teams don't when you have too. There
Speaker 4: is such a thing as too much cap space, and
Speaker 4: they had too much going into this offseason. They've tried
Speaker 4: to spend as much as they can, but I think
Speaker 4: it makes their team better, So like, spend it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this got them to the floor. But
Speaker 3: they this was you know, this is a team with holes.
Speaker 3: But the pass rushing situation was pretty dire. I was
Speaker 3: surprised they didn't go and he'd seeks some of the
Speaker 3: guys we'll talk about in this new segment that has
Speaker 3: signed somewhere else. I like in Gotway, But other than that,
Speaker 3: you've got like DeMarcus Walker. It's a really young defense.
Speaker 3: It's like Matt Eberflus is heading therefore another season. We're like,
Speaker 3: you're meant to put a stamp on this side of
Speaker 3: the ball, and that it was the opposite of that
Speaker 3: happened last year. It's like, what I want to. I
Speaker 3: think he's under a lot of pressure to show that
Speaker 3: he's special.
Speaker 4: I think they feel good about their linebackers and their secondary.
Speaker 4: The secondary is pretty young, but you're right, they were
Speaker 4: a terrible defense.
Speaker 1: The Pro Football Hall of Fame. In other news, we
Speaker 1: got to get out of the practice. But in other news,
Speaker 1: the Pro Football Hall of Fame welcome nine new players
Speaker 1: to the club this weekend. Ronde bardber, Darrell Reeves, Ken Riley,
Speaker 1: linebackers Chuck Howley, Cowboys great Zach Thomas, DeMarcus Ware, and
Speaker 1: Joe Thomas, along with defensive lineman Joe Cleco of the Jets,
Speaker 1: and coach Don Coriel, famous of the Air Coriel defense.
Speaker 1: Let's listen to a couple quick soundbites, starting with Zach
Speaker 1: Thomas on a player and a friend that he misses.
Speaker 2: There's one person whose name up yet to mintion it.
Speaker 2: His poster hung on my wall college, and he was
Speaker 2: everything I wanted to be as a football player. He
Speaker 2: was my inspiration. He became my teammate in fred. Though
Speaker 2: he's not here physically, he's here in spirit into the
Speaker 2: bust in that building behind me. I'm truly honored to
Speaker 2: join him. Junior say he love you, buddy.
Speaker 1: M very sad and uh. Also connecting the uh the
Speaker 1: past with his induction was Darrel Reeves, Jets great Patriots
Speaker 1: super Bowl winner.
Speaker 8: I didn't get the chance to play with this guy
Speaker 8: named Deon Sanders, but he was a prototype for me.
Speaker 8: What Jordan is to Kobe is prom to Revis Island.
Speaker 8: You came first, and I wanted.
Speaker 1: To play just like.
Speaker 8: You were to roll map to greatness.
Speaker 1: You gotta be giving in Canton to be able to
Speaker 1: just connect yourself to all those great players.
Speaker 3: Another forum, I would bump up. I mean not if
Speaker 3: someone else came up with that out of thin air,
Speaker 3: I would have a problem with it.
Speaker 4: But Darrel Revis, Okay, this is funny. When he mentioned
Speaker 4: the Patriots quickly and did the crowd just booze Jets fans.
Speaker 4: There's not Patriots fans there. It was kind of like
Speaker 4: a funny I wouldn't say side plot, but it was
Speaker 4: like I saw in the NBC coverage of the Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame game, uh when they were interviewing before the game,
Speaker 4: because it was like Rodney Harrison and Devin mccordy and
Speaker 4: they're kind of giving him some grief about the Patriots
Speaker 4: and he's feeling he's feeling awkward with that, and then
Speaker 4: there's just like a and I think they were almost
Speaker 4: being Rodney had a tone where he's almost being a
Speaker 4: jerk about it. It's like no where it was like,
Speaker 4: you know, don't forget it, Jets fans essentially that that
Speaker 4: he got his ring with that where Reeves is like,
Speaker 4: come on, bro, like that's why I was just playing.
Speaker 4: But he did play great for the Patriots, which I
Speaker 4: think actually was an important not that he wasn't gonna
Speaker 4: make the Hall of Fame, but I think it was
Speaker 4: an important coda to his career because Bucksy was underrated,
Speaker 4: but it was a little up and down and he
Speaker 4: did have one more great year, which is something you
Speaker 4: see with a lot of these Hall of famers where
Speaker 4: there's that one year like ten years in where they
Speaker 4: remind you of why he was so great. And that
Speaker 4: was him in New England.
Speaker 1: And you know, I have to talk about his Jet's
Speaker 1: career then if we're going to talk about that, just
Speaker 1: because the way we.
Speaker 3: Got ceede lambwalking right by the said here, wow, looks
Speaker 3: like action hero.
Speaker 1: Watch him in his prime that eight to twelve when
Speaker 1: he hurt his knee. I'll never forget it. He's his
Speaker 1: ability to shut down the best player in the field
Speaker 1: just changed everything for Rex Ryan and that defense. And
Speaker 1: I'll always remember the first year of Rex when they
Speaker 1: seemed like they were out of the playoffs. And Rex
Speaker 1: even came out after a bad Week sixteen loss and said, well,
Speaker 1: we're done. The season's over. And then a bunch of
Speaker 1: things broke their way and they had a chance to
Speaker 1: make the playoffs if they beat Cincinnati on Sunday Night football.
Speaker 1: And this is when Chad Johnson, Chad Ochocinco was seen
Speaker 1: as one of the great players, and Revas just erased
Speaker 1: him from that game. Then they had a rematch against
Speaker 1: Cincinnati the next week and he erased o cho Cinco again.
Speaker 1: And he just did that regularly. It didn't matter. There
Speaker 1: was no guy that always got the better of Durell Reevas, and.
Speaker 4: Stevie Johnson sort of famously was the one guy who
Speaker 4: would give him trouble. Just like, I don't know what
Speaker 4: the hell Stevie Johnson's gonna do. He just makes stuff
Speaker 4: up as he goes along.
Speaker 3: The playoff win over the Bengals was a high point
Speaker 3: for the Jets, I thought, because the Bengals did not
Speaker 3: take them seriously at all and they steamrolled them.
Speaker 1: Well, beating the Bengals in the playoffs is something everybody
Speaker 1: gets to do, you know, or used to be able to. Finally, Zach,
Speaker 1: excuse me, finally, Joe Thomas, Colleen Wolf's friend and Brown's great.
Speaker 9: With that said, it's the greatest honor of my career
Speaker 9: to be able to accept this lifetime award on behalf
Speaker 9: of all of Brown's nation.
Speaker 10: Hype down, Mark, Cleveland, you could always count on me.
Speaker 10: Thank you so much for allowing me to count on you.
Speaker 10: Don't forget to keep showing up for each other. God
Speaker 10: bless the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 9: God bless America, and God bless football, the greatest game
Speaker 9: of all.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mark. They're calling you. They're calling you home.
Speaker 3: Joe Thomas, someone I would all out to guide me.
Speaker 1: You can go home. Here are the angels, the sirens
Speaker 1: waving you.
Speaker 4: But Ria, okay, so hope, by hope, you don't mean
Speaker 4: like the afterlife, you mean the Browns.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah it sounds the latter sounds more comforting, But uh,
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't I don't think being coerced into
Speaker 3: it is the is the organic way.
Speaker 1: There's no no, not at all. He said. He said
Speaker 1: it himself. Joe Thomas said, stay together, stick together.
Speaker 3: Separate from all of that, Separate from that Tom foolery.
Speaker 3: Like Joe Thomas, you know, we know him a little bit.
Speaker 3: He's been on our show, Like I texted him just
Speaker 3: to say, like, the one thing I think about him
Speaker 3: is like we got to know him a little bit
Speaker 3: more as a person as a broadcaster. And I know
Speaker 3: Colleen like thinks the absolute world of him, and he
Speaker 3: brought her into like his fold of like all these
Speaker 3: x NFL linemen hanging out drinking, eating steaks, drinking beers,
Speaker 3: and like, Joe Thomas is a great guy who I
Speaker 3: hope continues to do television and broadcasting and used his
Speaker 3: creativity for a long time. Because it's like he started
Speaker 3: out as his player that log ten thousand plus consecutive snaps,
Speaker 3: never let anyone down. I've never done ten thousand things
Speaker 3: in a row. Who else has. And he's a special,
Speaker 3: special player and a good.
Speaker 4: Dude, greatest Brown of the last what twenty five years?
Speaker 3: He was also great from his first ever game, like
Speaker 3: it never there's no growth process. He was great right away.
Speaker 4: It's it's crazy because he really made he really talked
Speaker 4: about all the different quarterbacks he had, and that he
Speaker 4: literally said during his speech how he ended his career
Speaker 4: on a one and thirty one heater, and it was like, wow,
Speaker 4: it is really it's actually really unique to be like
Speaker 4: a first ballot, upper tier Hall of Famer, no doubt
Speaker 4: about it, and associated with losing like it's it's a
Speaker 4: fascinating and he he like took it in such a
Speaker 4: I don't know, like such a It didn't seemed to
Speaker 4: bring him down at all, which is a credit to
Speaker 4: the man. I do have one like turn in the
Speaker 4: punch bowl take on the Hall of Fame, because I'm
Speaker 4: into the Hall of Fame. I would love to be
Speaker 4: you are, so I would like to be a voter.
Speaker 4: I have thoughts, and I don't know what the solution
Speaker 4: is here. There's there's too much posthumous guys getting in.
Speaker 4: And I don't mean that they don't deserve to get in.
Speaker 4: I mean this is like the greatest moment in their careers,
Speaker 4: even posthumously and for their families, and it should be
Speaker 4: a moment of celebration. And I kept thinking, because you know,
Speaker 4: Ken Riley is no longer with us. The Bengals cornerback
Speaker 4: Don coriol Chuck Howley is alive but wasn't able to
Speaker 4: speak just because of medical stuff. And I'm thinking, like
Speaker 4: this was so bittersweet for all of their families and everyone.
Speaker 4: It's not it was it was a celebration, but they're
Speaker 4: also like really sad about it and I and I'm
Speaker 4: not saying you shouldn't like let them in. I'm saying
Speaker 4: like they should come up with the way that like
Speaker 4: the same amount of people should be getting in, but
Speaker 4: do it early, because this is it's like a celebration
Speaker 4: for the living. I honestly think like it's a little
Speaker 4: bit of an issue when.
Speaker 1: For the remaining family does get So I understand what
Speaker 1: you're saying.
Speaker 4: I'm not saying don't do it. I'm I'm almost trying
Speaker 4: to speak for them because hearing them talk about it too,
Speaker 4: they say it's better sweet. It's like the definition of
Speaker 4: better street that they can't be there.
Speaker 3: I think the problem with that, because I know you can.
Speaker 4: Getting the Veterans Committee is guys, maybe a little earlier
Speaker 4: in the process, there's nobody here.
Speaker 3: It's better that they should be celebrated as a dead
Speaker 3: person than a living person. So that that's I get,
Speaker 3: we all get that, but like there's a bottleneck because
Speaker 3: even if you look at the next year's eligible class,
Speaker 3: it's guys that we literally covered on this show. It's
Speaker 3: like there's so many eligible people. It's like you just
Speaker 3: need to you because when when we were growing up,
Speaker 3: you'd let like five people into the Hall of Fame
Speaker 3: every year, and there was a lot of diminished smaller
Speaker 3: class is now you're adding categories, new items in the
Speaker 3: classes are getting bigger and bigger, so you just have
Speaker 3: to This.
Speaker 4: Is a lot of people take this very seriously, and
Speaker 4: I wonder if anyone with the like whether they've thought
Speaker 4: about logistical things they can do, which is basically just
Speaker 4: shortened the period from when you're like a eligible person
Speaker 4: the first time round and the veterans shorten it up.
Speaker 4: This better be gregor what is this We're going to heaven,
Speaker 4: We're gonna go to cowboys practice.
Speaker 1: Sirens leave them alone? Or is this maybe to your point,
Speaker 1: it's hard to say.
Speaker 11: Yeah, eight o'clock, delight, Oh no, Logan Wilson, Cam Jordan
Speaker 11: and Malie Cooker, who's out on the field right now.
Speaker 4: The safety for the Cowboys all got contract extensions this weekend.
Speaker 4: I love that Logan Wilson deal, and Cam Jordan I
Speaker 4: think that's his fourth contract.
Speaker 3: I mean the Bengals under Louin Oramo and keeping Logan Wilson,
Speaker 3: keeping Jermaine Pratt, there's consistency. I love that for this
Speaker 3: team that.
Speaker 4: I thought he was the best free agent linebacker that
Speaker 4: was going to be available. Justin Houston to the Panthers.
Speaker 3: What's this doing at eight o'clock? He can still play?
Speaker 4: Figure, We got to get moving. Broncos have had a
Speaker 4: lot of injuries. Jonas Griffith, who's a rotational linebacker but
Speaker 4: a contributor for them, and then Riley Moss, a rookie
Speaker 4: who's maybe going to start at cornerback. Both out Griffith
Speaker 4: for the season, Moss for at least. Jeff Acuda, the
Speaker 4: cornerback for the Falcons out at least.
Speaker 1: You cannot get it going. Jeff Cuda, the former first
Speaker 1: round pick of the line's trying to start over All right,
Speaker 1: that's what's happening in the news. All right, boys, it's
Speaker 1: time for us to hit the practice field where the
Speaker 1: Cowboys are doing their thing. We'll come back here, talk
Speaker 1: to some players, share some takeaways. That sounds like a
Speaker 1: good plant. Mark, is this is a good plan.
Speaker 3: I think it's a master plan.
Speaker 4: Good might suit you up. Put you out there with
Speaker 4: the third string.
Speaker 3: I did taking a look at the current players, and
Speaker 3: I don't think that's a great idea for me.
Speaker 1: Well, men, all right, let's see if Mark and get
Speaker 1: out there and still play the guitar. But before that,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you something. Promo time Football is
Speaker 1: back in NFL Network has every preseason game, including twenty
Speaker 1: three live big names putting new cities on their backs,
Speaker 1: a new class putting their names on the map. Listen
Speaker 1: to this. Your team is back in action. It's time
Speaker 1: for football. The NFL preseason August tenth through the twenty
Speaker 1: sixth on NFL Network and streaming on NFL Plus. All right,
Speaker 1: let's take a break. We'll be right back.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Just off the practice field is the great
Speaker 1: linebacker of the Dallas Cowboys, Layton vander esh Layton. Welcome
Speaker 1: to around the NFL. Another w for the d in practice.
Speaker 12: Today, Yeah, I mean it was. It felt like it
Speaker 12: was a pretty even practice today. It was fun. I
Speaker 12: mean they got theirs and we got ours. But that's
Speaker 12: what makes practice fun is is you know when when
Speaker 12: you got a good team, I mean, it's battling back
Speaker 12: and forth and then they're gonna get something, We're gonna
Speaker 12: get some. So it makes the atmosphere fun and everybody's
Speaker 12: flying around having fun.
Speaker 4: I don't know if we've ever had an athlete a
Speaker 4: player right off the field. You still got the gloves
Speaker 4: on the cleat the pads. Are you a little worried?
Speaker 4: Like it's a it's too intimidating for sitting next to
Speaker 4: Mark here, who.
Speaker 3: Was a former you're intimidating.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it was a former player.
Speaker 1: In like nineteen ninety one in pee wee football. But
Speaker 1: he did play, Yeah, renowned. He's like, how do I
Speaker 1: answer that question? Wasn't any Let me ask you this,
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this. So the stan Quinn defense
Speaker 1: really balled out last year. Okay, where do you think
Speaker 1: the Cowboys stand in that conversation of the best defense?
Speaker 1: Do you think it gets overlooked a little bit when
Speaker 1: they talk about it.
Speaker 12: I mean, we're focused on proving ourselves every single day,
Speaker 12: so it really doesn't matter what we did last year
Speaker 12: or the year before. We're trying to better that and
Speaker 12: be absolutely elite this year. So but we have to
Speaker 12: come out here and put in the work every single
Speaker 12: day to do that. So we can talk about it
Speaker 12: all I want, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 12: it don't matter, and that's not what we're focused on.
Speaker 12: We're focused on being the best version of ourselves. And
Speaker 12: as a cruise of defense.
Speaker 3: About a week ago, this video surface of Digs and
Speaker 3: Dak getting into it in the end zone and like,
Speaker 3: I you know the thing. It annoyed me and annoyed
Speaker 3: all of us. Just like the next day on all
Speaker 3: the talking head shows, everyone's asking, is this an issue?
Speaker 3: Can you just clear up? Like in training camp, you've
Speaker 3: been doing this for weeks. It's hot out. You guys
Speaker 3: are challenging each other. Don't These things happen all the time,
Speaker 3: and you just move on with it.
Speaker 12: Every day probably every minute occurrence in practice.
Speaker 6: It's normal.
Speaker 1: So two football guys, it's.
Speaker 4: Just want to clear up that. Well used to I
Speaker 4: saw you guys getting after a little bit today. You
Speaker 4: were coming off the edge a lot. You've you've been
Speaker 4: kind of an off ball linebacker mostly, but just at
Speaker 4: least in this practice, we were watching you mostly coming
Speaker 4: off the edge. Is that a different role for you?
Speaker 4: What are you doing?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 12: Really just trying to grow my game and just being born.
Speaker 12: Just keep growing in any area I can just keep developing.
Speaker 12: I mean, adding tools to your toolbox. It's super important
Speaker 12: in this game and obviously it can make it tough
Speaker 12: on a lot of other offenses. So, uh, just trying
Speaker 12: to better myself as an individual player so it betters
Speaker 12: the defense.
Speaker 4: I'm curious, like you're kind of the quarterback of that defense.
Speaker 4: You've been with this defense now a long time. Looking
Speaker 4: at the Eagles in your division, obviously that that's a
Speaker 4: team that that got to where you guys want to
Speaker 4: go to last year the super Bowl. When when you're
Speaker 4: watching them, when you're on the field against them, are
Speaker 4: you more worried about like what are they going to
Speaker 4: do next and trying to figure out what they are
Speaker 4: going to do? Or are you more worried about just
Speaker 4: you know what they're going to do, but they just
Speaker 4: do it so well, how do we stop them?
Speaker 12: I'm really worried about what we're doing because I know
Speaker 12: that if all eleven guys on our team and on
Speaker 12: our side of the ball are doing what they're supposed
Speaker 12: to be doing. Nobody's gonna beat us. So, uh, it's
Speaker 12: focusing on ourselves.
Speaker 3: Really about like during a practice like today or maybe
Speaker 3: even in a real game, does your mind ever drift
Speaker 3: and you're just thinking about like like tacos or Xbox
Speaker 3: or other things, or you're just like a robot? Are
Speaker 3: you like super laser focused NonStop?
Speaker 12: You try, you try as much as you can to
Speaker 12: be as laser focus as you can. Your mind might
Speaker 12: drift here and there. Uh maybe if you're like if
Speaker 12: you just subbed out or something. But I mean that's
Speaker 12: what's important, is if you can realize that and bring
Speaker 12: yourself back in in and lock back in. That's the
Speaker 12: important thing. You gotta be able to catch yourself in
Speaker 12: those moments. It doesn't matter if you're tired, doesn't matter
Speaker 12: if you're thinking about anything else. You got to bring
Speaker 12: yourself real yourself back in and lock in every single
Speaker 12: play because those those are mental reps that you can
Speaker 12: get on the side. Every every rep during practice is
Speaker 12: your rep, regardless of whether you're on the field or
Speaker 12: whether you're on the side.
Speaker 4: Like, I get that, but the this news for the Yeah,
Speaker 4: Mark's actually been thinking about tacos the whole time.
Speaker 1: You ran so last question because you know you're a
Speaker 1: busy guy and fresh out the practice field. I I
Speaker 1: got to make it any question, it's important and it counts.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at your cleats again. You're in full uniform. Uh,
Speaker 1: you're a gridiron warrior. There's a rip in the cleats.
Speaker 1: Do those dis peer forever now? Or do you do
Speaker 1: you have lucky cleats or cleats that you were attached
Speaker 1: to or is that it for these now?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 12: I just broke these in so and I got a
Speaker 12: last practice, so I'm gonna keep warring.
Speaker 1: Oh you ride with them? Yep? Well again, Mark, you
Speaker 1: can relate, I know.
Speaker 3: The less and less of a degree.
Speaker 1: Yes, Leyden vander Esh, thank you so much for giving
Speaker 1: us a few minutes here and best of luck in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three.
Speaker 6: Thank you, guys.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it all right. There he goes a tight
Speaker 1: five with Layton vander Ash Mark, a little too much
Speaker 1: callbacks to your your playing days are not enough?
Speaker 3: No, I thought it was far too many. And I
Speaker 3: think we threw him off off key a little bit
Speaker 3: with that, But that's okay. I think he underneath it
Speaker 3: understood this guy did play roughly two and a half
Speaker 3: decades ago.
Speaker 4: Maybe that you this guy, you made it very clear.
Speaker 3: You made it I think you made the situation extremely clear,
Speaker 3: and I think he'd be painted a fair picture of
Speaker 3: that I played irrelevantly as a youth.
Speaker 4: He he reminds me of a player that you could
Speaker 4: imagine playing twenty thirty years ago in the eighties or nineties.
Speaker 4: He always he always had that he has the neck role.
Speaker 4: I think that was because of his injury concerns. But
Speaker 4: I always think of West when I think of Layton
Speaker 4: vander ash Yes, he was so in on that rookie season.
Speaker 1: Jalen Smith too, the two of them together.
Speaker 4: Of Layton Evander Uff and he's a good example of
Speaker 4: man NFL careers. Like he's only been in the league
Speaker 4: since twenty eighteen, but he's had ups, he's had downs,
Speaker 4: he's had injuries, and it's cool to see him established
Speaker 4: now he's one of the leaders of this team.
Speaker 1: I mean, going into last year, it seemed like maybe
Speaker 1: he was already part of their past in terms of
Speaker 1: being an impact player. And then he has a really
Speaker 1: nice bounce back season and he's an important guy and
Speaker 1: maybe we'll start. We'll start there as we you know,
Speaker 1: we were on the practice field. Very cool, it was
Speaker 1: very good vibes on the field, you know, we got
Speaker 1: we got to watch some of the defensive drills and
Speaker 1: we went and saw really good long eleven on eleven
Speaker 1: with the Cowboys offense with Dak and the first team
Speaker 1: really matching up against the defense. And we talked to
Speaker 1: Clarence Hills, covered the Cowboys forever and he said, it's
Speaker 1: been the defense most days and this this day was
Speaker 1: the offense was better. And yet Greg, it seemed very
Speaker 1: hard for the offense to move the ball against Van
Speaker 1: der Rush and this defense. And in the practice that
Speaker 1: we saw.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess at the very beginning like they hit
Speaker 4: a mojo moment, so that's a that's a big spot
Speaker 4: for them. And in the run game had some moments,
Speaker 4: but they just couldn't protect Dak Prescott. He didn't have
Speaker 4: Ceedee Lamb out there. But it like looked like the
Speaker 4: forty nine Ers playoff game because within two seconds of
Speaker 4: every single one of these plays, he's facing an incredible
Speaker 4: amount of pressure and they're not holding anything back. Dan
Speaker 4: Quinn is showing a ton of different formations Parsons is
Speaker 4: all over the field. I mentioned how Van Rush is
Speaker 4: on the edge and they're winning time after time after
Speaker 4: If we had all the time in the world, like
Speaker 4: I would want to ask, like offensively, like are you
Speaker 4: getting sick of Michael Parsons because he was in the backfield,
Speaker 4: he would have had three or four sacks in the
Speaker 4: plays that we watch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but then then you go face lesser defenses, and
Speaker 3: I think all this work, as you know, has a
Speaker 3: huge benefit on the offense. But you're right, I thought
Speaker 3: for chunks of the of the of the session, they
Speaker 3: weren't really trying to test the ball deep. They didn't
Speaker 3: have CD. They were working on a lot of like
Speaker 3: throwing to running backs and doing stuff over the middle.
Speaker 3: But the one thing about being at these practices on
Speaker 3: the sideline and you're you know, they're they're catching a
Speaker 3: screener and coming within two feet of you, and it's
Speaker 3: like you get a sense for how massive and gigantic
Speaker 3: these people are. And like the Cowboys defense to me,
Speaker 3: especially physically, looks so intense. And it was these practices
Speaker 3: like they've been heated. We knew that there had been
Speaker 3: fights and stuff before, and like today it was just
Speaker 3: like kind of an eye open and to see how
Speaker 3: hard they were going at each other.
Speaker 4: I just don't. All I was thinking was like, don't
Speaker 4: come this way, don't come this way, because there was
Speaker 4: a couple of times where the guys come hard and
Speaker 4: and at that point there's you're if you're in the
Speaker 4: wrong spot, you you're you're making headlines, you're getting you're
Speaker 4: getting tweets. It's you're living. You're living that down. So
Speaker 4: we survived.
Speaker 1: I saddled up next to Marrow and I did throw
Speaker 1: out a hypothetical to Mark, what would happen if there
Speaker 1: was a collision on the sideline. You get hit, You
Speaker 1: just get caught in the wrong spot of the arm.
Speaker 1: There's some nerve damage. There's only so much doctors can
Speaker 1: do at this time in terms of modern medicine and science.
Speaker 1: You lose the arm. I mean, is it you want
Speaker 1: to live at that point because you have to tell
Speaker 1: that story for the rest of time.
Speaker 3: That you lost the answer your question, yes, that's your answer, right,
Speaker 3: It's a bolittle in scenario, I would essentially turn around
Speaker 3: immediately and sue the cowboys and see what I can
Speaker 3: get out of it financially.
Speaker 1: That's definitely. I'm sure we'll get a credential next year.
Speaker 1: After that, I would possibly walk into the ocean with
Speaker 1: a minus arm. I just don't want to tell that story.
Speaker 3: There's no way the story is going to make anyone
Speaker 3: more impressed with you.
Speaker 1: No, Greg, Greg seems to think that, you know, it's
Speaker 1: something that he could tell with pride. I don't know.
Speaker 4: It's not so much to that, but I still believe
Speaker 4: I would have a lot to live for. It was
Speaker 4: just bad luck. Ultimately, maybe wouldn't take.
Speaker 5: Know.
Speaker 4: I've got my children to think about. Uh, but I
Speaker 4: was worried.
Speaker 1: What about your pride, Greg, I have.
Speaker 4: No I have no pride, lack pride. I was thinking,
Speaker 4: like watching that practice, duce Vaughan is an inspiration for
Speaker 4: for anyone like myself five six and under to be
Speaker 4: out there. And they they popped some running plays. They
Speaker 4: were getting excited. You could tell they actually took advantage
Speaker 4: of parsons aggressiveness on one play and actually did pop
Speaker 4: a nice running play. But asking duce Vaughan to pass
Speaker 4: protected he was, he was there with those, he was
Speaker 4: there with the starters, and he did okay on a few.
Speaker 4: But then there were a couple that were like, Okay,
Speaker 4: this is what training camp is for. You're trying it out,
Speaker 4: but I don't know if you want him protecting Dak
Speaker 4: Prescott on Sunday.
Speaker 3: He's a fan favorite, though we'll see where we are
Speaker 3: not show.
Speaker 1: There's an unnamed person who told us that it's you
Speaker 1: want to get him on video and share it as
Speaker 1: much as possible. It's called Deuce porn because people just
Speaker 1: like to see a guy that little yeah to thrive
Speaker 1: on the football field. And you did a great point
Speaker 1: on that that you heard the player is whooping it
Speaker 1: up on some of those running plays. Duce included, because
Speaker 1: everything you read from the Beat report is that the
Speaker 1: defense has been winning, and seeing my camparsons up close,
Speaker 1: it's like, uh, listen, like we don't know where he's
Speaker 1: gonna come down in the end. But the LT comparisons
Speaker 1: aren't off base at this point based on what he's
Speaker 1: done so far and the way the Beat writers talk
Speaker 1: about him. It's in hush tones, like he's literally ruining
Speaker 1: practice for the offense because they're just trying to get
Speaker 1: their feet wet and he's living in the backfield. So
Speaker 1: watching his combination of size and speed, everybody looks big
Speaker 1: and fast here when you're here, especially if you don't
Speaker 1: cover these teams day to day, like we don't do that.
Speaker 1: But he stands out even more as just like this freak.
Speaker 1: It's kind of cool to see it up close.
Speaker 3: No their defense, I mean it looks to be like
Speaker 3: picking up where it left off. I'll tell you one
Speaker 3: other person that kind of changed my mind about them
Speaker 3: little bit, Jerry Jones. Like, I mean, every time I
Speaker 3: looked to he's up in a like a state. We
Speaker 3: were taking photos with tons of people who's walking guests
Speaker 3: around like the fans were going crazy for him. I
Speaker 3: mean I just say, like there's owners that like they're
Speaker 3: billionaires and they vanished and like the football side of it.
Speaker 1: Oh, but he loves it more than anyone.
Speaker 3: He's up in the tower like pointing out he.
Speaker 1: He lives for this. This is the world that he built.
Speaker 1: I was impressed by because he's I think in his
Speaker 1: eighties now. At one point I saw him on the
Speaker 1: far side of one of the two practice fields here
Speaker 1: and then I walked the corner and I came down
Speaker 1: the sideline towards where they were doing the eleven on
Speaker 1: eleven and Gerald was up in the tower right, which
Speaker 1: was easily one hundred yards away, and then an elevator
Speaker 1: or five flights of steps. How did he do it?
Speaker 4: I don't know. Not a small guy either, former former
Speaker 4: you know cola, former D one athlete.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. Any other takeaways from practice? I got
Speaker 1: I got one. I posted it on a x or X.
Speaker 1: It's really hard, it's tough. It's tough sitch, tough stitch
Speaker 1: for the journalism community. Dak unfurled a beautiful deep ball
Speaker 1: that wasn't brought in. But as good as the running
Speaker 1: game was, like everything everything was checked down and short
Speaker 1: and everything was covered. So I do think there's so
Speaker 1: much with the Cowboys. There's so much coverage of Dak,
Speaker 1: the darkness of it all, and the offense and the
Speaker 1: narrative around the team and the failure to step up
Speaker 1: in big moments in January that the defense and vander
Speaker 1: Esh go under the radar a little bit. Parsons not
Speaker 1: so much. But the defense has a chance to really
Speaker 1: carry this team as much as the offense.
Speaker 4: I know. You just line it up and I would
Speaker 4: say the Cowboys or the forty nine ers should be
Speaker 4: the best defense in the league.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 4: Defense is very hard to predict. But to me, those
Speaker 4: are the two teams going into the season that I
Speaker 4: would go with because Parsons like, yeah, he's had an
Speaker 4: all time great start to his career, but he was
Speaker 4: like playing another position, like he didn't even really know
Speaker 4: how to be an edge rusher. He was still playing
Speaker 4: off ball linebacker at this point in practice a year
Speaker 4: ago at this time, And like the sound that everything
Speaker 4: that's coming out around him and how he's shown up
Speaker 4: to this camp sounds like he's maybe at another level.
Speaker 4: And him at another level with four or five defensive
Speaker 4: ends behind him that are really good in a really
Speaker 4: good secondary, they've got them all locked up. We mentioned
Speaker 4: the Molie Cooker. I just think this defense is loaded.
Speaker 4: And I talked to Michael Galkin, who's covered this team
Speaker 4: for a while now, used to cover the Chargers, now
Speaker 4: the Cowboys. He said this is easily the best team
Speaker 4: he thinks he's ever covered between those Chargers teams and
Speaker 4: the Cowboys teams over the last time year.
Speaker 3: And the offense is going through I know it's still
Speaker 3: Mike McCarthy. It's gonna be more similar than a complete,
Speaker 3: like basic change on offense, but that's still a transition,
Speaker 3: but it's another year in dan Quinn's defense. And it's
Speaker 3: like Vanderesh talked about adding stuff to his game, adding
Speaker 3: stuff to what he can do, and it's like they're
Speaker 3: gonna do that with all these guys. They just look
Speaker 3: completely cohesive.
Speaker 1: It's cool seeing up close practice what these teams work
Speaker 1: on because they have to be ready. Up here comes
Speaker 1: Jared red Pie. They have to be eddie for you know,
Speaker 1: you got a little wave, so Jerry Jones.
Speaker 6: Just walked by.
Speaker 4: It was like a low, a fist wave and it
Speaker 4: was just kind of like a point the point.
Speaker 1: Do you think he.
Speaker 3: Recognized No, absolutely not unless the time that I approached
Speaker 3: him at the coat combat on TV.
Speaker 4: And there's a chance, I mean, there's an outside chance
Speaker 4: he saw the NFL plus polos that we're wearing. But
Speaker 4: I think it's more likely that I kind of pointed
Speaker 4: to him first. I looked for the the I think recognition.
Speaker 1: I think I think that's what I think.
Speaker 3: It's very interesting to hear everyone's takeaways on this particular situation.
Speaker 4: He's just like I was a big fan of the
Speaker 4: end around back in the day.
Speaker 1: We've accomplished a lot of NFL media, and he is
Speaker 1: like he's got his fingers and everything that's fair.
Speaker 4: Maybe he knows the podcast.
Speaker 1: Well, he knows me, so I wanted to say, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy seeing it up close. The they have drills
Speaker 1: to react the defense, how to react to a loose ball.
Speaker 1: They're doing scoopid scores and seeing how everybody even has
Speaker 1: a role with that that you're trained to be ready
Speaker 1: for those scenarios.
Speaker 3: And like a six foot eight three and twenty pound
Speaker 3: guys rumbling into the end zone scoring a touchdown.
Speaker 1: He're very happy about it. And they even build in
Speaker 1: a TV time out. You hear on the on the
Speaker 1: sound system. It's like these guys then take the break
Speaker 1: because they're trying to simulate these things. Be ready. One
Speaker 1: other thing. We got Michael Gallup coming up. I have
Speaker 1: one more thing. You guys want to throw out anything,
Speaker 1: please do. Brian Schottenheimer will always be thirty one years old.
Speaker 1: He's got to be in his mid forties. Very vivacious.
Speaker 3: I think he learned some secrets from Peake Carroll. You know,
Speaker 3: he was out there chopping it up.
Speaker 4: That's the first time vivacious has not been used to
Speaker 4: like describe a young woman and I appreciate it. I
Speaker 4: think we should ungender vivacious.
Speaker 1: You have to be. You have to have a certain
Speaker 1: level ungender vivacious. We will. Let's make a note of that.
Speaker 1: You have to do to wear the visor backwards. I
Speaker 1: think it was that upside down to.
Speaker 3: He's been doing that for a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, to do that move when you are
Speaker 1: in your fourth decade, it takes a little bit of
Speaker 1: It takes a little nerds and he does it.
Speaker 3: His father had some fire, and I see it in him.
Speaker 4: He's putting the nard in ox nerd.
Speaker 3: Here's another little takeaway. By the way, these refs are
Speaker 3: in summer shape out here. We put the nards in
Speaker 3: ox nerd.
Speaker 1: Around the NFL. There's a cell eric anything else.
Speaker 4: I think we covered it all right.
Speaker 1: With that said, we saw that the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball were talking about Layton vander ash Now let's
Speaker 1: talk about a very important piece of the offense. Michael Gallup.
Speaker 1: Hit it all right. Our next guest is a very
Speaker 1: important piece of the puzzle for the Cowboys in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, wide receiver Michael Gallup. Welcome to Around the NFL.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I appreciate you having.
Speaker 1: So happy to have you. Michael. This is read about it.
Speaker 1: You're a full year, another year removed from knee surgery
Speaker 1: and you say that your mental game, mentally, you're all
Speaker 1: the way back. I was curious, as like a professional athlete,
Speaker 1: what was it last year that just felt different? And
Speaker 1: how are things in a different place now? In a
Speaker 1: better place?
Speaker 6: I think just coming off you know, really, any injury,
Speaker 6: you gotta you gotta make sure that you have your
Speaker 6: mentals right. I mean, everybody says they're good, you know,
Speaker 6: but there's always something a little bit up under the
Speaker 6: table that you're not trying to express to everybody. But
Speaker 6: that was that was my big problem. I said that
Speaker 6: was good mentally I really wasn't. But physically I knew
Speaker 6: I was good, so I could go out there and
Speaker 6: do enough. But you know, it wasn't enough to be
Speaker 6: out there, you know, I shouldn't have been playing like that.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you're in a better kind of
Speaker 1: a good spot here because they're bringing Brandon Cooks obviously
Speaker 1: CDs here and now you're feeling better physically and mentally,
Speaker 1: and maybe they're not expecting as much on the outside
Speaker 1: and it kind of sets you up nice to surprise
Speaker 1: some people.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, definitely. I mean that's how it's kind of
Speaker 6: always been, you know, all my years here playing for
Speaker 6: the Cowboys. Uh just kind of been that, you know,
Speaker 6: third wide receiver, a little outlier. But I mean if
Speaker 6: they get doubled, I mean I gotta be one on one.
Speaker 6: So that's that's easy pickings for me.
Speaker 4: I was watching you out there in practice today and
Speaker 4: I was wondering who who would you rather go against?
Speaker 4: And what's the difference when you're lying up across from
Speaker 4: either Trayvon Diggs or Stefan Gilmore.
Speaker 6: I'm rather go against Trey Stefine. He just too smart.
Speaker 6: He calls out to play before you even line up.
Speaker 6: You know, it's pretty tricky playing with him. But they're
Speaker 6: both good competition, either one of them. I like going
Speaker 6: up against either one of the great football players just
Speaker 6: helped me get better.
Speaker 4: He Trayvon sounds like he talks a lot to you, Tie,
Speaker 4: do you talk back?
Speaker 6: Trayvon talks more to that. He doesn't really talk to
Speaker 6: a lot.
Speaker 3: We learned that like these camps, like you know, I know,
Speaker 3: it's been a grind at this point, you've been there
Speaker 3: for a long time. They always talk about it being
Speaker 3: you go away you guys at a special team that
Speaker 3: goes to a completely different part of the country. You're
Speaker 3: hanging out together all the time. Is it like a
Speaker 3: bonding experience or are you kind of like, I love
Speaker 3: you guys, but I need to have some of my
Speaker 3: own time. Like what does the rest of the day
Speaker 3: look like? Can you get away you bring in your
Speaker 3: own bed.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean McCarthy actually does it pretty well for us.
Speaker 6: He sets it up to where it's like, you know,
Speaker 6: we're not just in meetings till ten pm at night
Speaker 6: and stuff like that. He's done, you know, as he's
Speaker 6: done figured it out that you don't have to be
Speaker 6: a means, you know, twenty four, so that everybody needs
Speaker 6: their own time to recover, you know, have their own space.
Speaker 6: So I definitely just go back to my room because
Speaker 6: I know I'm gonna be with you, you know, at seven
Speaker 6: in the morning again all the way till about six.
Speaker 3: What do you do in the reading books? Playing games,
Speaker 3: like talking to people on the phone.
Speaker 6: Mine's more, you know, Colin family and stuff, checking in
Speaker 6: on everybody.
Speaker 4: This is definitely coming from Marks, like he's imagining himself
Speaker 4: as a player and he was a former player, you
Speaker 4: know in pee wee, because he would be trying to
Speaker 4: get away from us. It would be too much time
Speaker 4: with his coworkers. He would just be like hiding out
Speaker 4: in the room.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was definitely understandable. I can't hear it.
Speaker 4: There's always a couple of things.
Speaker 1: Does Mike McCarthy allow guys to like ship in their
Speaker 1: own beds and stuff? Is that happened with this team?
Speaker 6: I doubt it?
Speaker 1: And you know, this is that show why the Cowboys
Speaker 1: are a team to reckon with, because we'll sleep in
Speaker 1: like the beds that are uncomfortable.
Speaker 4: Here because it's not a dorm, it's a hotel.
Speaker 6: It's not too at least it's not like a bunk
Speaker 6: bed or anything.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 6: Me, I can get my own room now. So you
Speaker 6: know we're up there a little bit.
Speaker 4: Who did you grow up rooting for? Were you a
Speaker 4: football fan? Nah?
Speaker 6: I really just for players. I love watching Calvin Johnson. Uh,
Speaker 6: definitely Julio Jones, Crumpler to be honest and Crumpler.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, well that wouldn't kind of snuck up like
Speaker 4: did the Cowboys ever get on your radar when you
Speaker 4: were like a kid, as like Why Why did the
Speaker 4: cowboys get so much attention? So you hear too much
Speaker 4: about these cowboys.
Speaker 6: I was doing too much other stuff. I wasn't even
Speaker 6: really playing sports when I was little. He was out
Speaker 6: there on the farm. I was fishing. I was doing
Speaker 6: all types of stuff. I wouldn't really into sports like that.
Speaker 1: Wow, what is your What is your I know it's
Speaker 1: a long way off hopefully, but your post NFL life?
Speaker 1: Is it back to the farm?
Speaker 6: Post NFL life? Yeah, I'm probably gonna be a pro
Speaker 6: fisherman to be like wow, fly fisher. No, No, just
Speaker 6: straight bad. I didn't do that fly. That's too much
Speaker 6: work for no reason.
Speaker 4: That's why I always say, like with these parents that
Speaker 4: have their kids in one sport all the time, and
Speaker 4: it's just like focus. It's like if you're if you're
Speaker 4: good enough to be a pro athlete, you can just
Speaker 4: be like Michael Gallup, not caring about sports, not playing sports,
Speaker 4: out there fishing, and then you'll end up in the
Speaker 4: pros anyway.
Speaker 3: Are you are you anti form now at this point?
Speaker 3: Are you just saying you don't you know, want to
Speaker 3: make that the center.
Speaker 6: Of her I can't be anti farm. My sister has
Speaker 6: like four hundred acres back home in Georgia. So it's
Speaker 6: like when I go home, that's that's the only.
Speaker 1: We're gonna set up like a point counterpoint Michael Galb
Speaker 1: versus Willie Nelson on farm life and the future of
Speaker 1: it in this country. U Michael, Uh can't wait see
Speaker 1: back on the field to get I feel good legit.
Speaker 1: Not just because he's here. Michael Galb is having a
Speaker 1: big year this year and is going to be a
Speaker 1: major reason the Cowboys are going to be better on
Speaker 1: offense this year. Good luck to you.
Speaker 4: Good sir, Yes, sir, thank you so much. Thanks Michael,
Speaker 4: There he goes.
Speaker 1: You know, Greg, I personally had made the decision to
Speaker 1: not bring up Mark Sessler's playing days after we hit
Speaker 1: it hard with Vandersch. But you went right back at
Speaker 1: it and and and you could tell Sessler's getting a
Speaker 1: little agitated. I said, you're playing with fire.
Speaker 4: Brouh, Mark, Yeah, I I it just came up naturally.
Speaker 4: I wasn't naturally feel.
Speaker 3: Like it's like a mind control attempt by Greg to
Speaker 3: like body shame the person to his left so that
Speaker 3: his own body isn't compared to the giant players sitting
Speaker 3: to my life.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is that's an incredible theory. It's so wild.
Speaker 3: Everyone around us is laughing because they can see the threads.
Speaker 4: They're laughing because they just got inside of Mark Sessler's mind,
Speaker 4: and it's a it's a dark noise. All right, let's
Speaker 4: that's absolutely.
Speaker 1: Let's let let's let our great team here, Parker, Eric, Jay, Randy.
Speaker 1: Do you think Greg was attempting to body shame Mark
Speaker 1: by making the references to his playing career pee wee
Speaker 1: with a big player next to them, let's hear it. Yes, No,
Speaker 1: he's nodding Jay behind the camera.
Speaker 4: I think we lost some of the d.
Speaker 1: So three to one, says Greg.
Speaker 4: It was I don't know if you've noticed, but my
Speaker 4: body is like immaculate. I'm huge, I'm strong, I'm big.
Speaker 4: That's why I bring it up to these players, because
Speaker 4: there's such a contract between me and you. Coming from
Speaker 4: someone like me, it's like, oh, yeah, he's really picking
Speaker 4: on the little guy here. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, anyone on the audio version only can assess that
Speaker 3: that's correct.
Speaker 1: Uh Gallup. First of all, I liked him, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I believe what I said. I think he is set
Speaker 1: up and it's a tough way It's a tough question
Speaker 1: to answer, but I can only imagine last year when
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be quote to good healthy, but you
Speaker 1: don't trust your body, and you look at his numbers,
Speaker 1: they were so depressed, and he's almost like where Leyton
Speaker 1: Vanderesh was a year ago, where you've almost are you
Speaker 1: moving on from him at this point in terms of
Speaker 1: viewing him as a key piece. But if certain things
Speaker 1: fall the right way and he's physically right, I think
Speaker 1: he could be shoot. I think he could get back
Speaker 1: to being a one thousand yard receiver even with hooks
Speaker 1: in the building.
Speaker 3: We've seen it. I mean, I it's just another lesson
Speaker 3: where like these guys a year ago, he's forced to
Speaker 3: ask or answer all these questions about his physical body
Speaker 3: is readiness and a lot of it is mental and
Speaker 3: like what are you gonna say other than like, yes,
Speaker 3: I'm ready because you can't expose any weakness, and like
Speaker 3: now a year later submitting like yeah, my head was
Speaker 3: not in it the same way I would want it
Speaker 3: to be. Like body trying to get there. It's like
Speaker 3: anyone that's coming off of major injury that tells us
Speaker 3: they're fine, Like it's a wait and see territory.
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, there's a lot of focus I think
Speaker 4: now on mental health in terms of like how we
Speaker 4: cover the NFL, but that that's mental health too. In
Speaker 4: that like, it's pretty remarkable how open and honesty is
Speaker 4: about it. It's like I wasn't right at this time
Speaker 4: a year ago. And it is something I do keep
Speaker 4: in mind with these players that it's like they're coming
Speaker 4: off the ACL and and there they're two weeks away
Speaker 4: from full contact and they'll be ready for week one,
Speaker 4: and it is a good thing to keep in mind.
Speaker 4: That's like there's a lot of obstacles and some some
Speaker 4: will be fine, but some that are even on the field,
Speaker 4: I thought that that shows a lot a lot of confidence.
Speaker 4: I think that you're able if you're him to just
Speaker 4: be so open and say that, and that budes, well.
Speaker 1: Ready for week one is one of the trickiest things
Speaker 1: in the summer, because yeah, all these guys that are
Speaker 1: just trying to be ready, But are you all the
Speaker 1: way back? Are you physically back maybe maybe not? Are
Speaker 1: you mentally back maybe maybe not. It sounds like Gallop
Speaker 1: was really neither last year, and that's not how he
Speaker 1: feels this year, all Right, more fun. Let's talk to
Speaker 1: the voice of the Dallas Cowboys, shall we. Here comes
Speaker 1: Brad Sham the Sham God. We are pleased and thrilled
Speaker 1: to be joined by the voice of the Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 1: a man whose voice has become an important part of
Speaker 1: our Sunday flagship program. He had no idea until now
Speaker 1: here's Brad Sham. And Brad, you should know that I
Speaker 1: always when I call you, your calls out. I say,
Speaker 1: Brad Sham the sham God.
Speaker 7: When when God Sham God was playing at Providence right, Yep, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I heard.
Speaker 7: I heard that a lot. Fortunately I didn't think it
Speaker 7: was talking about me, but Dan I was.
Speaker 4: I was not.
Speaker 7: Trying to be humble when I told you before, I'm
Speaker 7: glad that you play the highlights. And the reason I'm
Speaker 7: glad is my life is a lot better when they
Speaker 7: play well. And those highlights don't have anything to do
Speaker 7: with me. That's about them. You could be Vin Scully
Speaker 7: and if the team stinks, you're never going to hear
Speaker 7: his voice.
Speaker 4: Now we only play the winning highlights. So the Jaguars
Speaker 4: play by play guy had a few years there. Basically,
Speaker 4: whether there's a.
Speaker 3: Reason they're called highlve you don't like to cover a
Speaker 3: team that goes through some waves of intense chaos as
Speaker 3: the Cowboys.
Speaker 1: I have.
Speaker 7: I've been this is my forty fifth year. Name, an emotion,
Speaker 7: and something, a circumstance, I've I've experienced all of them.
Speaker 1: Well, you've with that said, you just got back from
Speaker 1: Canton where DeMarcus where Cowboys Great inducted into the Pro
Speaker 1: Football Hall of Fame. A man who's been around from
Speaker 1: the glory days with Landry in the seventies into the eighties,
Speaker 1: and then Jarah of course in the nineties, and still
Speaker 1: the Cowboys even without the title Jara.
Speaker 7: Did he just drop a Jarah?
Speaker 4: I thought sham God was your nickname. He just makes
Speaker 4: up nicknames for everyone. Mike McCarthy's that I've.
Speaker 1: Written on NFL dot com just casually j E R
Speaker 1: R A H. Yeah, they don't. They never catch it.
Speaker 7: By the way, if he's calling Jerry Mike McCarthy, Zaddy,
Speaker 7: I think we've got a whole other set of problem.
Speaker 6: We've got it.
Speaker 3: We've got large problems, truck.
Speaker 1: We've got a whole nother don't.
Speaker 7: That's a whole new podcast right there.
Speaker 1: Rad. My My question is, like you've been to some
Speaker 1: probably epic ragers, like I think Justin Timberlake played Jerry's Yes,
Speaker 1: yes that was Is that the ultimate party? Yeah?
Speaker 7: I mean Jerry built a tempt he built, he built
Speaker 7: a city, and uh and and uh, every every every
Speaker 7: flashy thing that you could think of happening in there happened.
Speaker 7: And when Justin Timberlake is on the stage doing a
Speaker 7: private show for you for forty five minutes and you're
Speaker 7: standing at the foot of the stage, that's I'm not
Speaker 7: looking for better than that. Really.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you were telling us before the show that I
Speaker 4: had no idea. The players have to pay for their
Speaker 4: own party. Yeah, yeah, I don't think Jerry Jones is
Speaker 4: going to be one that's complaining about it.
Speaker 7: Well, no, Jerry was going to pay whatever, you know,
Speaker 7: But I think yes, I mean I don't know the percentages,
Speaker 7: but I know that through time, guys have had to
Speaker 7: pay for their own and then so in the case
Speaker 7: of DeMarcus Wares, I know that the Cowboys and the
Speaker 7: Broncos were officially listed as as putting the party on together,
Speaker 7: and I think that what that means is they made
Speaker 7: sure DeMarcus didn't have to spend any more than necessary,
Speaker 7: And I don't want to forget Chuck Howley either.
Speaker 1: When we're talking about the Hall.
Speaker 7: Of Fame, he was Tom Landry said he was the
Speaker 7: best linebacker he ever coached, and that we're just in
Speaker 7: an era now where if you're thirty five years old
Speaker 7: or younger, you never heard of Chuck Howley until they
Speaker 7: announced his name. But he was a special player and
Speaker 7: a tremendous guy, great in the Dallas community.
Speaker 3: I feel like this plane for paying for your own
Speaker 3: party is not cool on some levels, but especially one thing.
Speaker 3: If you're a Troy Aikman and you've established yourself as
Speaker 3: like a multi millionaire twelve times over, but some of
Speaker 3: these senior guys that a party are they hosting? It
Speaker 3: would be like a YMCA because you're doing you don't
Speaker 3: want that that money from back then.
Speaker 7: I would say maybe a little a step up from
Speaker 7: a YMC. Not that there's anything wrong with the way.
Speaker 7: It's a nice place, but but yeah, I would say
Speaker 7: I would say a little more sedate.
Speaker 1: Perhaps, what are the vibes of the Cowboys now? You
Speaker 1: were there for the nineties, glory years. Now there's been
Speaker 1: this long run obviously without getting back to the big game,
Speaker 1: urgency wise this season. How important do you think this
Speaker 1: is for whether it's Mike McCarthy. Obviously Dak is comfortable
Speaker 1: and under contract, but still it seems like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on this team. Yeah.
Speaker 7: Well, Dak likes to say pressure is privilege, and I
Speaker 7: really like that because it gives you an opportunity to
Speaker 7: see what you're made of or crack. But there's there's
Speaker 7: no question there's some urgency. How about that for a word.
Speaker 7: They've been to, you know, the playoffs. Here's one thing
Speaker 7: that when they made the playoffs and won twelve games
Speaker 7: for the second year in a row, it was the
Speaker 7: first time in like fifteen years they had done those
Speaker 7: two things. So you can't say they're not successful. You
Speaker 7: can that huge part of our population that defines success
Speaker 7: only as the person holding up the hardware at the
Speaker 7: end of the year, they would say they weren't successful.
Speaker 7: I'm not of that mind. I think it's hard to
Speaker 7: say they were not successful. But they expect more of themselves.
Speaker 7: They want more of themselves. Here's the problem for them.
Speaker 7: I just saw a little clip. A friend of mine
Speaker 7: is a personal friend of the forty nine ers, center
Speaker 7: Jake Brindle, and he was talking about how hungry they
Speaker 7: are because they've got all this talent and all of this,
Speaker 7: and they haven't won the Super Bowl, haven't been to
Speaker 7: the super Bowl in the last couple of years. So
Speaker 7: Dallas is not the only hungry team. Dallas is not
Speaker 7: the only motivated team. I think they're good and usually,
Speaker 7: especially with the way preseasons are and the youth of
Speaker 7: the roster, I think they'll get better as the season
Speaker 7: goes along. But I do think there's a sense of
Speaker 7: urgency because it has been a minute since they played
Speaker 7: in one of the last two games of the year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been chic for ever since Mike McCarthy took over.
Speaker 3: To say that he particularly is on a hot seat,
Speaker 3: and this is more of a national media perspective, and
Speaker 3: also because of the special sauce you get with Jerry
Speaker 3: Jones constantly talking about the glory days, it's a little
Speaker 3: bit different than an absentee owner that's somewhere in Europe.
Speaker 7: I would challenge you to find me a place where
Speaker 7: Jerry spends a lot of time talking about the glory days.
Speaker 3: Well. I can think of a one press conference where
Speaker 3: they panned over to the Super Bowl trophies at one point,
Speaker 3: but maybe he's toned down that.
Speaker 7: Jerry's not walking around here talking about g I wish
Speaker 7: this was the nineties. G I wish our team was
Speaker 7: as good as the Triplets team. Jerry never I've never
Speaker 7: heard him say that. Does he want to win another
Speaker 7: one or two? Or darn righty does? But he doesn't
Speaker 7: talk about that. That's that's it's valid, I think. But
Speaker 7: it's a media driven narrative.
Speaker 3: That's why it's good to come here, I guess and
Speaker 3: unearthed that truth.
Speaker 4: Well, he also wants those eighty eights, and I'm sure
Speaker 4: he loves all the Michael Irving jerseys out there. But
Speaker 4: I was coming in thinking like there are still more
Speaker 4: eighty eight Irvins than there are eighty eight Lambs.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and why do you think that is?
Speaker 4: Yeah, because of what you said. You're out here though,
Speaker 4: I mean, you've been working for this, with this team
Speaker 4: now for over forty years. But you're out here grinding
Speaker 4: like a journal You're at the side press conference, asking questions,
Speaker 4: you're finding out everything. What what have you learned in
Speaker 4: these first two weeks of training camp? And anyone flashing
Speaker 4: and he surprises positions that.
Speaker 7: You know there are The flashing is a keyword, because
Speaker 7: that's that is really what you kind of get. I
Speaker 7: remember Leon Latt flashed and then you say I better
Speaker 7: pay attention to him, and Eric Williams flashed. Now we're
Speaker 7: talking about a situation where have they had four padded practices.
Speaker 7: It's really hard to get the same kind of handle.
Speaker 7: And I can't imagine how many of their starters we'll
Speaker 7: see play football in the next three weeks. So what
Speaker 7: you get is a sense of younger guys who might
Speaker 7: have a chance to be something. I think their safety
Speaker 7: position is pretty good. I think that they have some
Speaker 7: defensive linemen more than they've had in the past. I
Speaker 7: think their wide receiver room is vastly improved, not just
Speaker 7: because they added Brandon Cooks, but because of some internal growth.
Speaker 7: And Michael Gallup was just a shadow of himself last year.
Speaker 7: He wasn't Michael Gallup.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 7: I thought anyone who watched them play the forty nine
Speaker 7: ers in the playoffs could clearly see that, especially when
Speaker 7: Tony Pollard went out in the second half. Ceedee Lamb
Speaker 7: was the only playmaker that Prescott had available, which I personally,
Speaker 7: based on all my years of coaching thinks. I personally
Speaker 7: think that had something to do with his interception. I
Speaker 7: think which was an outlier statistic for him. But he
Speaker 7: didn't he didn't have I mean, I I love Zeke
Speaker 7: Elliott and I frankly they you know, they've gone a
Speaker 7: long time without ever asking me what a personnel decision
Speaker 7: should be. I would love to have him here.
Speaker 4: I would think he I think they're making a mistake.
Speaker 4: I think they.
Speaker 7: Should somebody will somebody. Well, it's a mistake if nobody's
Speaker 7: able to play that role.
Speaker 4: Now, I mean a mistake, not on the.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, trust me there, that's not a mistake. But
Speaker 7: but someone's got to do that. And and so what
Speaker 7: you see out here, So that's a great example. What
Speaker 7: do you see? Well, I don't really need to watch
Speaker 7: much of Tony Pollard, but I do want to see
Speaker 7: the two guys behind him. Everybody wants to see duce Vaughan,
Speaker 7: but I watched him play in college. I know what
Speaker 7: ducevawn is. He's he's he.
Speaker 1: Is warren Sproles.
Speaker 7: I think darren Sproles, I think I think that's who
Speaker 7: he is. But but the two guys behind him, I
Speaker 7: really like Malik Davis, but Doubtles, a guy who's been
Speaker 7: hurt for two years. I think they think of him
Speaker 7: as more of a short yardage back. I don't know
Speaker 7: how much of it here, you see. You know, you
Speaker 7: guys just heard Mike McCarthy's talking about they are. They
Speaker 7: have like two or three more installation periods this week
Speaker 7: to put in specific things. So when you get into
Speaker 7: a game, a preseason game and it's third and one, now,
Speaker 7: let's see who they give the ball to and let's
Speaker 7: see what they try. Those are the things that you
Speaker 7: look for. But I mean, I think they've got some
Speaker 7: quality all over the place, and is it going to
Speaker 7: be enough? They have to play complimentary football and one
Speaker 7: thing they got to do is find a kicker.
Speaker 3: You know, shame on us for burying the lead. We
Speaker 3: are also journalists and we've done this entirely. We've had
Speaker 3: two people appear on our show ever that appeared in
Speaker 3: a major motion picture directed by Oliver Stone. Jim Brown
Speaker 3: was one number of years ago. But you we learned
Speaker 3: also a Pierre and I think I'm totally intimidated at
Speaker 3: the well, I mean, but we are you appeared in
Speaker 3: Oliver Stones.
Speaker 4: W I did?
Speaker 7: I did it was. It's too long a story to
Speaker 7: go into about how I got it, but I did
Speaker 7: get it, and I'll tell you the big thrill. So
Speaker 7: I played a reporter who, parenthetically, it turns out, was
Speaker 7: John Dickerson, who is one of my heroes. I think.
Speaker 7: I think he's just one of the greatest working journalists
Speaker 7: in America. And he was at Time Magazine when he
Speaker 7: asked President Bush at a news conference, which I remember watching,
Speaker 7: what would you say were your biggest mistakes and what
Speaker 7: have you learned from them? And uh and and President
Speaker 7: Bush could not really answer the question. He had a
Speaker 7: hard time with it. And you know, I knew him.
Speaker 7: I know him a little bit when he when he
Speaker 7: was the owner of the Texas Rangers. I dealt with
Speaker 7: him quite a bit, and I was doing Ranger games
Speaker 7: when he was governor, and he would come up and
Speaker 7: every now and then he'd sit in a booth and
Speaker 7: spend some time with us. So one of the great,
Speaker 7: one of the great treats for me in that process
Speaker 7: was about the month before we shot the scene, rehearsing it,
Speaker 7: shot it in Shreveport, rehearsing it with Stone and Josh Brolin,
Speaker 7: and there's nobody in the room but the three of
Speaker 7: us and a couple of staffers. And so Brolan wants
Speaker 7: to understand what. And he's really digging, he's getting his
Speaker 7: hands dirty, trying to get inside George Bush's head. What
Speaker 7: what's so hard about that question?
Speaker 1: I don't get it?
Speaker 7: And so I said, Josh, I don't. I'm not saying
Speaker 7: we go to dinner all the time, but I mean,
Speaker 7: I know the guy a little bit. Which and then
Speaker 7: his eyes got whid like that, and I said, here's
Speaker 7: the thing. I think that George Bush had trouble answering
Speaker 7: that question because in his mind you don't have to
Speaker 7: agree with him. But in his mind, everything he did,
Speaker 7: from weapons of mass destruction and everything else, all of
Speaker 7: those things, especially in the war build up, he did
Speaker 7: based on the best evidence he could get, and he
Speaker 7: believed he was doing the right thing. So when you
Speaker 7: have all your people telling you this is how it is,
Speaker 7: mister president, and this is what we recommend, then what
Speaker 7: are you supposed to do? That's why you have advisors.
Speaker 7: So I said, I think the guy didn't answer it
Speaker 7: because he really didn't think he did anything wrong. He
Speaker 7: took himself back through the process and he made the
Speaker 7: best decision he could based on the information that he
Speaker 7: had at the time in his opinion. And the other
Speaker 7: thing I said to him was, you don't have to
Speaker 7: agree with George Bush's politics, and you can think the
Speaker 7: jobs a little too big for him, But I'm just
Speaker 7: telling you he's really a good guy, and which he is.
Speaker 7: He is George W. Bush is really a good guy.
Speaker 7: He's the kind of guy you would like to hang
Speaker 7: out with. And that really resonated well. Just seeing Brolin
Speaker 7: in his process was I don't when am I going
Speaker 7: to get a chance to do anything like that. Then
Speaker 7: the whole shooting the scene was surreal. Have I got
Speaker 7: like thirty seconds to tell you one more?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 7: So I come into town the night before we shoot
Speaker 7: the scene late, probably midnight by the time I got
Speaker 7: to the hotel room, and they slide the call sheet
Speaker 7: under the door. So here's who's you. Here's who your
Speaker 7: First thing I thought was it's midnight. I just got here.
Speaker 7: Please don't let this be six am. And it wasn't.
Speaker 7: It was ten o'clock. Okay, good, Now the call sheet
Speaker 7: shows you with whom you are in the scene. So
Speaker 7: here's Rob Cordrey who's playing Shapiro the Press Secretary, and
Speaker 7: Toby Jones is playing Carl Rove and uh and so
Speaker 7: they're all standing up along and I was fine reading
Speaker 7: until I saw Richard Dreyfus, who's playing Cheney, and and
Speaker 7: I am all alone sitting in this hotel room, and
Speaker 7: I looked up and said out loud, I looked at
Speaker 7: Richard Dreyfus's name, and I said, what the blank am
Speaker 7: I doing here? But they were all great? It was
Speaker 7: it was I mean, I love what I do. I've
Speaker 7: got a passion for what I do, or I wouldn't
Speaker 7: have been doing it so long. But that that's got
Speaker 7: to be the most fun I ever had working, probably
Speaker 7: because I don't do it very often.
Speaker 1: It's wild. That's cool. I wonder who we're going to
Speaker 1: get next from the Oliverstone Tree, but we got two
Speaker 1: good ones so far, Jim Brown and the great Brad Sham.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time, and we'll be
Speaker 1: listening to you again this season.
Speaker 7: God willing, thank you.
Speaker 1: All right, there goes Brad. Very good, I would say,
Speaker 1: mark if okay. So we got Sham God from w
Speaker 1: two thousand and six. We got the late Jim Brown
Speaker 1: from any given Sunday ninety nine. Maybe get a little
Speaker 1: woody house in next I think that would fit a
Speaker 1: little killers bit right into.
Speaker 4: There's such an obvious choice here, someone that you've been
Speaker 4: trying to bring back his catchphrase for the better part
Speaker 4: of a decade. It's Charlie She. I mean, I think
Speaker 4: we're at the point where our great our careers have
Speaker 4: been on a slow incline. I'm not saying metiorc, but
Speaker 4: slow incline. But I think we're at the point now
Speaker 4: he's going the other way we're gonna meet. I'm just
Speaker 4: saying he hasn't had a ton of air time. Maybe
Speaker 4: he's ready to join the around the NFL.
Speaker 3: But I think would benefit both sides. Now, a little
Speaker 3: platoon look back. Yeah, that's a great call.
Speaker 1: And speaking of Hollywood and just how different is Cowboys
Speaker 1: camp than anywhere else? Uh? I honestly, for a second thought,
Speaker 1: it was Tom Cruise.
Speaker 4: I mean, so I totally get check out our socials
Speaker 4: for the the reference. Yes, Tom Cruise, look an incredible
Speaker 4: Tom Cruise clone who could do the laugh the gestures.
Speaker 3: But here's the thing that I'd realized. He's walking by
Speaker 3: in a in a literally a top gun and outfit,
Speaker 3: which is like not something that Tom and the actual
Speaker 3: Tom Cruise would do. But but your reality stopped for
Speaker 3: a minute when you saw right, and they came in
Speaker 3: and took some photos with us.
Speaker 4: And maybe it's like a make a wish thing. Maybe
Speaker 4: you know, Jerry Jones is paying him a million to.
Speaker 1: Please dress two things. I left it purposely vague on
Speaker 1: social to see you know, how people react to it.
Speaker 1: They don't know whether if we think he's the real
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise or not. Let's see what the response are.
Speaker 1: Second second, he is wearing one of his character's outfits
Speaker 1: from Maverick. And right now there's a very contentious labor
Speaker 1: issue going on with the actors. Tom Cruise is maybe
Speaker 1: the most famous actor and is a kind of a spokesman.
Speaker 1: If the real Tom Cruise knew that there was a
Speaker 1: fake Tom Cruise dressing as one of his movie characters,
Speaker 1: he might have him.
Speaker 3: Well, that's I would not be powerful man's powerful guy.
Speaker 4: So I hope he.
Speaker 3: I mean he's handing out business cards and trying to Yeah,
Speaker 3: he's not trying.
Speaker 4: You can Actually he's got a home media kit. He's
Speaker 4: got a lot going on.
Speaker 1: Any other thoughts that was great talking to the sham
Speaker 1: god though, whenever you talk to these guys that have
Speaker 1: become a part of the show. Very nice, gentlemen. We
Speaker 1: actually did another you know, twenty minutes on w chopping
Speaker 1: it up his history with Oliver Stowe.
Speaker 3: Told us some Oliver Stone nuggets that were juicy.
Speaker 1: All right, so what have we learned today? What have
Speaker 1: we learned? The Cowboys are going to be good.
Speaker 4: They're America's team. Yeah, Cowboys. Haters could be great. Will
Speaker 4: not like this episode, but if you made it this far,
Speaker 4: you just can't. That means you just love us.
Speaker 1: So thank you, Yes, we thank you for that. We
Speaker 1: thank you Dallas Cowboys for allowing us to come by
Speaker 1: here and set up shop. Hopefully they'll have us back
Speaker 1: again in the future. Thank you to Eric, Randy Parker
Speaker 1: and Jay behind the scenes for making this thing go
Speaker 1: very smooth.
Speaker 3: Behind the glass though, just in a big hot tent
Speaker 3: with all of us.
Speaker 1: Yes. Thank you to Brian Schottenheimer for dressing like Eminem
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety nine. I appreciate his forever young attitude.
Speaker 4: Thanks for standing with me in the shorts gang and
Speaker 4: showing off some sweet leg tattoos. Thank did not know.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Eric surprises, they never cease. Greg, thank
Speaker 1: you for wearing the longer shorts. Mark, thank you for
Speaker 1: wearing the Panama jack hat out on the field. Yes,
Speaker 1: you looked very slick and maybe perhaps we can get
Speaker 1: a photo of that for the audience.
Speaker 3: I will source one. Okay, very immediately, acep anything else
Speaker 3: from me. I'm good.
Speaker 1: All right. We got a long ride back down to
Speaker 1: l A. Thank you everybody for listening. We'll be back
Speaker 1: Wednesday from uh Sofi Stadium or the I'm thinking Sofi
Speaker 1: Stadium because I'm going to see Taylor Swift.
Speaker 4: You gotta you gotta catch you gotta gotta.
Speaker 1: Catch a bird. Only I don't got a bird, so
Speaker 1: I gotta hit the road. But thank you everybody. Uh
Speaker 1: until Wednesday. You know what you gotta do. Heed the call?
Speaker 1: Cowboys eleven and six, twelve, twelve minutes. Oh what kind
Speaker 1: of run we make?
Speaker 5: What happened? One?
Speaker 1: Went one?
Speaker 3: Playoff loss,