Speaker 1: Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is
Speaker 1: a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2: We got lots to say, we got.
Speaker 3: Lots to say, would better here, and we hope you
Speaker 3: stay because we.
Speaker 2: Got lost to say.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got lost to say.
Speaker 2: Here's Bobby That.
Speaker 5: So he's Matt Castle. I'm Bobby Bones and we're doing
Speaker 5: this podcast question for you.
Speaker 6: Matt.
Speaker 5: We have known each other for about a month now.
Speaker 5: Obviously I haven't known who's.
Speaker 6: Getting closer by the day. Yeah, very much, very much,
Speaker 6: study my best friend.
Speaker 5: Whenever the call was made to you, hey you should
Speaker 5: do this podcast and think like, what did you even
Speaker 5: know about me? Or and be completely honest, what did
Speaker 5: you know about me? And what do they tell you
Speaker 5: about me?
Speaker 4: Okay, so I knew that you were a radio personality,
Speaker 4: but I'm not gonna lie. When I got the email,
Speaker 4: along with like just kind of general introduction, they put
Speaker 4: your whole resume underneath.
Speaker 6: Oh they were selling me, let's go. Oh.
Speaker 4: So so I sat there, I'm reading and I'm like, holy,
Speaker 4: that's goodness.
Speaker 6: All right?
Speaker 4: So I was like big bulls sell or twice big
Speaker 4: bullet point, big bullet point, big bullet point like all
Speaker 4: your viewers on social media and everything else.
Speaker 6: I was like, oh, this is pretty big deal right now,
Speaker 6: I don't know. I'm still trying to get over thirty
Speaker 6: on mine.
Speaker 4: Right You're like three point four, I think was the
Speaker 4: stat And so I was like, well, I've been interested
Speaker 4: in the podcast in a long time. And then I
Speaker 4: was like yeah, I mean, I've got nothing but time
Speaker 4: and lots to say love it.
Speaker 5: And for me, it was because one of the guys
Speaker 5: at the NFL they were like, hey, come come on,
Speaker 5: and I went to the NFL headquarters and they were like,
Speaker 5: do this show. And I was like, I want to
Speaker 5: do it without somebody that has credibility because I have none.
Speaker 5: I just have big opinions and I'm kind of funny.
Speaker 6: And they're like Matt.
Speaker 5: Castle and I was like, oh, the guy, well, Brady
Speaker 5: got heard. He went in what happened to him?
Speaker 6: That's exactly right.
Speaker 4: It's in my resume at all your life, but they
Speaker 4: didn't need to with me.
Speaker 6: They had to convince you. So as you're hearing.
Speaker 5: This show has called lots to say, We're gonna have
Speaker 5: guests from the world of entertainment and the world of football.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe. If you don't mind it, you might.
Speaker 5: Be our very first ever subscriber. You could be our
Speaker 5: number one first subscriber. Please subscribe. Check it out on YouTube.
Speaker 5: Matt Castle, Bobby Bones.
Speaker 6: This is lots to say.
Speaker 2: Tara Warner coming up in it just a little bit.
Speaker 6: Hey, what are these.
Speaker 5: Guys thinking right now? They're going to the playoffs if
Speaker 5: they've never been in the playoffs? What's the week like
Speaker 5: leading up to the first playoff game?
Speaker 4: Well, you know that the intensity ratchets up and a
Speaker 4: whole other level, right because you know you're really at
Speaker 4: that point in the season that you've been trending toward.
Speaker 4: And for some of these teams that got in that
Speaker 4: had to win that last game, it's it's exciting. You
Speaker 4: know that everything is about to come to a head
Speaker 4: right now. And the biggest thing for every player, and
Speaker 4: I think every organization is to try to stay within
Speaker 4: your routine, not make it bigger than it is, even
Speaker 4: though as a player it's undoubtedly you know that this
Speaker 4: is going to be the biggest game of the year,
Speaker 4: and you know if you win, you advance. If you lose,
Speaker 4: your one and done. So there's a lot that goes
Speaker 4: into this week. The preparation. I don't want to say
Speaker 4: it changes, it's just you don't want to leave any
Speaker 4: stone unturned, so you want the review everything, the attention
Speaker 4: to detail that you have. You're super focused and it's
Speaker 4: an exciting time. I mean, I think that the guys
Speaker 4: and players that sometimes don't play as well is because
Speaker 4: they make the moment bigger than what it really is,
Speaker 4: because at the end of the day, you still have
Speaker 4: to go out and execute. You just know that your
Speaker 4: margin for air shrinks dramatically when you get to playoffs,
Speaker 4: because these are all great teams that are going out
Speaker 4: and they're ultimate goals to go to the super Bowl.
Speaker 5: In baseball, the wildcard tends to do well in the
Speaker 5: postseason because they're playing hot as the season's ending. Like
Speaker 5: you're competing for that wildcard spot, right, so you're at
Speaker 5: the elite level, the best you've played all year for
Speaker 5: the most part, and that roles into the postseason.
Speaker 1: How does that translate into football?
Speaker 6: Does it?
Speaker 5: The teams that just hold on or just crawl like Denver,
Speaker 5: like they had to win to get in, Like would
Speaker 5: you rather be a Denver? And we'll take personnel out
Speaker 5: of it, but would you rather be a Denver who's
Speaker 5: playing hot right then, or a team like Buffalo.
Speaker 6: Now they set their guys the.
Speaker 4: Right they sat them and they got an extra week
Speaker 4: of rest. You know, it's interesting because I think the
Speaker 4: teams that excel in the playoffs are the teams with momentum,
Speaker 4: and it comes down to the health of your team,
Speaker 4: right It's the health of your team, the momentum that
Speaker 4: you've built and if you get hot at the right
Speaker 4: time of year, which is if those teams get hot
Speaker 4: right now. Even going back to two thousand and seven
Speaker 4: Super Bowl that I was in with the New England Patriots,
Speaker 4: we played the Giants. We played them the last game
Speaker 4: of the year, and both teams played all their starters.
Speaker 4: It was a heck of a game. I think we
Speaker 4: ended up winning thirty eight thirty five, something like that.
Speaker 4: But they crawled into the playoffs. But then they got
Speaker 4: hot and they went all the way to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: We met them back in the Super Bowl four weeks
Speaker 4: later and they ended up beating us.
Speaker 6: So it's all about can.
Speaker 4: You build on that momentum and then that confidence comes
Speaker 4: by winning one game, winning two games, and if you
Speaker 4: get hot at the end, become a streaky team.
Speaker 6: I mean, the sky's the limit was that Super Bowl Andy?
Speaker 4: That Super Bowl was in Arizona, and gosh, I can't
Speaker 4: believe they won that game. I mean Eli throws that
Speaker 4: ball late in the game. Yeah, on top of the
Speaker 4: head Rodney Harrison. Basically Eli was in the clutch. He
Speaker 4: throws up a hail Mary in the middle of the field.
Speaker 4: David Tyreek catches the ball. Rodney Harrison's right there, like
Speaker 4: the all time great safety, catches it on top of
Speaker 4: his head. For I think it was like a third
Speaker 4: and fifteen conversion, maybe it was fourth down, and then
Speaker 4: they go down throw a slant goat to Plexico Burgus
Speaker 4: on that drive, take the lead and we never were
Speaker 4: able to recapture. We had like a less than two
Speaker 4: minutes to go down the field and they were able
Speaker 4: to close it out.
Speaker 6: It was.
Speaker 4: It was devastating considering where we were at in the
Speaker 4: year seventeen and O going in or eighteen and O
Speaker 4: going in.
Speaker 6: That That sucks. Oh, that sucked. That one hurt to
Speaker 6: think about.
Speaker 4: It does just because of the historical value of that
Speaker 4: game and what it meant if you if you win
Speaker 4: that game, you're the best team of all time, and
Speaker 4: instead we had to go back and lick our wounds.
Speaker 4: And we had the greatest after party planned, and we
Speaker 4: still went to the after party.
Speaker 6: Like Snoop Dogg was.
Speaker 4: There, earth Wind and Fire, I think Rihanna was there.
Speaker 4: Then we had who was at Lionel Richie's in the
Speaker 4: other room playing just privately for parents and families and
Speaker 4: stuff like that. And I'm sitting there and I was
Speaker 4: the backup quarterback, so I didn't play, and I was
Speaker 4: devastated by loss, but I enjoyed myself that night still
Speaker 4: because it was an incredible season. But imagine if we
Speaker 4: would have won, how much fun it would have been.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know if I would be able to
Speaker 5: go out. Is the pressure because your family's with you
Speaker 5: one hundred.
Speaker 6: Percent, You've got so many people at I think it
Speaker 6: would be so sick that I wouldn't. We want to
Speaker 6: go over and have a good time, and people were sick.
Speaker 4: You're sick to your stomach because you're a minute and
Speaker 4: twenty seconds away from winning the Super Bowl and completing
Speaker 4: a perfect season. And to go through that season and
Speaker 4: we dominated early on, but then we had some adversity
Speaker 4: late in the year where we overcame some games. We
Speaker 4: beat Baltimore on a last second play. I mean, it
Speaker 4: was an incredible season all around. And then to go
Speaker 4: get to the super Bowl and be at the cusp
Speaker 4: of greatness and not be able to complete the season,
Speaker 4: it's stung.
Speaker 1: What about you playing in playoffs? You have kans City a.
Speaker 6: Year, Kansas City a year, Kansas City year.
Speaker 4: We played Baltimore in the first round and unfortunately Baltimore
Speaker 4: beat us pretty badly. I mean it it was close
Speaker 4: in the first half. I think we might have even
Speaker 4: gone in and with a tie ball game. In the
Speaker 4: second half, it got away from us.
Speaker 6: But that week leading up to it intense.
Speaker 4: It's a different time of type of intensity. You also,
Speaker 4: you know you're going up against Baltimore, and Baltimore always
Speaker 4: I was never really intimidated by players. You're intimate intimidated
Speaker 4: by units because you know it takes your best every
Speaker 4: single play, every single quarter to overcome and beat the
Speaker 4: team like that. And the caliber of players that they
Speaker 4: had with Suggs and ray Lewis and ed Reid, they
Speaker 4: just had players across the board, and so you know
Speaker 4: it's going to be a grind. You know it's going
Speaker 4: to be a challenge, and like I said, a small
Speaker 4: mistake here or there that makes all the difference in
Speaker 4: the world. And that's what happened in the second half.
Speaker 4: I think I threw an interception. I tried to fit
Speaker 4: a ball in there. Ray Lewis, of course, with his
Speaker 4: big eyes, I thought he was going this way.
Speaker 6: He came back and baited me and intercepted the ball.
Speaker 4: But and then when that game ends, it's just you know, there,
Speaker 4: You've got a really good team and you got to
Speaker 4: that point, but it abruptly ends and it's over, and
Speaker 4: you're just sitting there going what could have we done different?
Speaker 4: And you're always second guess and decisions that you made
Speaker 4: or plays that you want back, and it's it's a
Speaker 4: tough pill to swallow because now you have all off
Speaker 4: season to kind of chew on that and try to
Speaker 4: reevaluate how do we get better for next season.
Speaker 5: Let's take game film out of the equation. As far
Speaker 5: as looking ahead, and I've we've not gonna announce it, yeah,
Speaker 5: but I have a comedy specialist coming out on a
Speaker 5: TV network, which is very exciting. We just heck, yeah,
Speaker 5: haven't signed signed it, but have signed it. But I
Speaker 5: can't watch it back. I don't need to watch it
Speaker 5: back because I don't need to improve because I'm on
Speaker 5: the road right now. So I'm asking about a playoff
Speaker 5: game that you don't need to improve from.
Speaker 6: Do you watch the tape back?
Speaker 4: Honestly, no, I do not go back and watch that
Speaker 4: game because it hurts too much. Now, it might take
Speaker 4: some time. I might do it five months down the road.
Speaker 4: But once that game was over, it was like, it's
Speaker 4: too hard to go back and evaluate it right away,
Speaker 4: because normally you're used to coming in after every game good,
Speaker 4: better and different, and coming in and evaluating and you
Speaker 4: get the grade sheet, how'd you do?
Speaker 6: And sometimes you grade out really well.
Speaker 4: Other times you know you're sitting there and second guessing
Speaker 4: what your coach really wrote down as a negative. You're like, wait,
Speaker 4: this is w I did it, But you don't have
Speaker 4: any of that. After the playoff games, you literally come in.
Speaker 6: There's no for momentum, right but there's nowhere to go.
Speaker 4: There's nowhere to go, and you know that next year's
Speaker 4: team is going to be completely different than this year's team.
Speaker 4: Coaches are going to change, players are going to change,
Speaker 4: and so it's going to be different, So you don't
Speaker 4: reevaluate that game. It's just kind of you wrap a
Speaker 4: bow on it. You have your individual meetings with your coaches.
Speaker 4: With the head coach, you know, the only time that
Speaker 4: you really go in and talk to the head coach
Speaker 4: and maybe some of the other personnel guys, is if
Speaker 4: you're going to be a free agent, they want you
Speaker 4: back and they're still doing contract negotiations, and that is
Speaker 4: what it is.
Speaker 6: But it's really saying goodbye to all your buddies and then.
Speaker 4: All of a sudden you're cleaning out your locker and
Speaker 4: the next thing you know, you're figuring out what you're
Speaker 4: doing for the offseason.
Speaker 6: It's going to be a weird question.
Speaker 5: But whenever we would wrap a season of like My
Speaker 5: adventure show, Breaking Bobby Bones or American Idol or whatever,
Speaker 5: you get people gifts, right because it's like the last
Speaker 5: time you probably talked to them a little more see them.
Speaker 6: I'm a little gift.
Speaker 5: When I finished Dancing with the Stars, I gave shoring
Speaker 5: to like a iPod or phone or something.
Speaker 6: Let's be honest. You even a new car.
Speaker 5: You guys won, Yeah, no new car, but I remember, right,
Speaker 5: I yeah, we got n we to the nice gifts,
Speaker 5: but we didn't get the money. Then I don't think
Speaker 5: think about Dancing of the Stars. It's I think I'm
Speaker 5: making like four undred thousand dollars.
Speaker 6: In that show.
Speaker 5: That's outstanding because I won, though, because oh yeah one
Speaker 5: is ten thousand, everybody gets it. Everybody goes to week two. Okay,
Speaker 5: that's ten thousand, and then it gets to twenty five thousand.
Speaker 5: If you last twenty five thousand, and then like the
Speaker 5: last two or three or fifty to fifty to fifty,
Speaker 5: So oh.
Speaker 4: There's major instead of that, and I wonder why you
Speaker 4: got torn labor and you're like shooting up everybody.
Speaker 6: You're like, look, I did take a.
Speaker 5: Little bit of money, but yes, the money, but we
Speaker 5: didn't get it right then though. But I guess my
Speaker 5: point is we bought each other gifts, yeah, because we
Speaker 5: might not see each other again. Does that happen at
Speaker 5: all on a team at the end of the year,
Speaker 5: you walk around and give the little gifts to your buddies.
Speaker 4: Well, season still ongoing in at the end of the year,
Speaker 4: you've got Christmas. So as a quarterback, oh yeah, Like
Speaker 4: the quarterbacks now I heard are just absurd with what
Speaker 4: they're getting the offensive lineman or some of the prime
Speaker 4: time running backs.
Speaker 6: What they get guys?
Speaker 5: Rolelexes cars did the trucks, but that was a commercial, right,
Speaker 5: But still I agree, But about your boys trucks even
Speaker 5: like the I stout chains. Yeah, that's freaking crazy. You
Speaker 5: get all the guys, I absurd. What did you have
Speaker 5: to do do that?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah yeah, I mean I got big, big screen
Speaker 4: televisions one year, I got iPads one year.
Speaker 6: Sucks.
Speaker 4: Well, that's the other thing is you got to evaluate. No,
Speaker 4: like I'm a little small, Like, hey, guys, it didn't
Speaker 4: go so well this year.
Speaker 6: I got sacked thirty five times. No, what about backup linement?
Speaker 6: You have to get. You have to get anybody that
Speaker 6: is on that team as a quarterback. You're obligated to.
Speaker 4: And I still apologize to the lineman for the Patriots
Speaker 4: because the year I took over for Brady, like I
Speaker 4: wasn't used to are accustomed to getting any of these gifts.
Speaker 6: I didn't really know the lay of the land.
Speaker 4: So all of a sudden, season ended and I was
Speaker 4: like I got traded to Kansas City and I never
Speaker 4: got my boys at the Patriots any gifts, And so
Speaker 4: they still this day. They're like, you're the cheapest son
Speaker 4: of a bitch I've ever been around. I'm like, I
Speaker 4: agree with you, I apologize, they're still coming, but I
Speaker 4: had so much respect for those guys at the end
Speaker 4: of the day though, that you will hear it because
Speaker 4: it's something that is expected. You like that, regardless of
Speaker 4: where or not you had a successful year at the
Speaker 4: offensive line, or they blocked really well or great, it's
Speaker 4: just it's what you do in the NFL.
Speaker 5: I liked Burrow and the Swords. Yeah, they wanted guns
Speaker 5: and Borrow got them swords. Like with all with an
Speaker 5: individual story, thought that was kind of cool. Jared Goff
Speaker 5: did all the steaks, did the wagou with the big
Speaker 5: yetti ice chest, I believe, And people were giving them
Speaker 5: crap because they said, you can't give them a truck.
Speaker 5: But again, Rock Party makes relatively speaking, no money compared
Speaker 5: to other starting name quarterbacks. It's a lot of money
Speaker 5: and general but we're talking just like with us peers
Speaker 5: starting quarterback doesn't even make a million bucks a year.
Speaker 5: So they were like, how did he buy Toyota Tundras
Speaker 5: for his whole life? It turns out it as part
Speaker 5: of a commercial. But you're right, like there is an expectation.
Speaker 6: There's an expectation.
Speaker 5: Like my staff expected me to give them a massive
Speaker 5: gift every Christmas, and I got the expectation got so
Speaker 5: big I stopped getting any gift for anybody. Well, there's
Speaker 5: it's a lot of pressure. Well it's it's a stupid expace.
Speaker 6: It's an absurd So.
Speaker 5: I will one off them things privately, but I don't.
Speaker 6: Do the whole. I got everybody this, I got all.
Speaker 4: You guys the greatest gift you'll ever imagine, because every
Speaker 4: year it just gets bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1: It ends up being you have to beat yourself the
Speaker 1: last year as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but again you were the back You were the start,
Speaker 5: but you were the backup. So I don't feel like
Speaker 5: that should be the same on you, Like Brady should
Speaker 5: have still got the guys the gift.
Speaker 4: But that year I started every year, I mean the
Speaker 4: first game, first game, and I didn't even get credit
Speaker 4: for that win.
Speaker 6: He got credit for that win.
Speaker 4: It was zero zero when I went, wait, you didn't
Speaker 4: get to win as he started. That's how it works
Speaker 4: in the NFL. If you start and play one snap,
Speaker 4: the first stap, the first snap, even though you might
Speaker 4: get hurt on that snap, and then the other guy
Speaker 4: comes in and they win the ball game.
Speaker 6: He gets the credit.
Speaker 5: You would think it would be an a snack because
Speaker 5: in baseball, if you start, you've got to go five innings.
Speaker 5: Right to me, if it's zero zero, it's the quarterback
Speaker 5: that played the most.
Speaker 4: It's the quarterback that played the most or scored the
Speaker 4: most points for the team in order to win.
Speaker 6: Wait, wait to get the rollbook. We need to go.
Speaker 1: Let's go to County Hill.
Speaker 2: Ready.
Speaker 6: I want my win back.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 5: All right, coming up, Kurt Warner, we'll talk to him.
Speaker 5: Do you know Kurt, I do?
Speaker 6: I do?
Speaker 4: I played in this charity event before great event, Blag
Speaker 4: Football Event. I've known him for a long time. He's
Speaker 4: an incredible person.
Speaker 6: Never met him.
Speaker 5: Excited Kurt Warner coming up here in the second. We're
Speaker 5: about to talk with Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner.
Speaker 6: Kurt is known for having a great redemption story.
Speaker 5: Undrafted player PAULA Famer, one of the best analysts in
Speaker 5: the game. You can watch them every Sunday in NFL
Speaker 5: Game Day Morning at nine named Eastern NFL Network.
Speaker 6: A big thanks to Kurt for coming on.
Speaker 5: I know this is your boy, so I'll let you guys,
Speaker 5: all the athletes, this is going to be what I
Speaker 5: just have to just deal with.
Speaker 6: The athletes are.
Speaker 5: Your people, right and and but then the artist are
Speaker 5: your people.
Speaker 1: I know it's not even that. It's just I'm just jealous.
Speaker 5: I just want to I always want to be part
Speaker 5: of the cool athlete club and I'm not that.
Speaker 1: And I just to get reminded of how you just
Speaker 1: get stuck.
Speaker 6: In the locker. No, but you are.
Speaker 5: You're starting me in a locker many years ago at
Speaker 5: a different time. Never, I never would do something like that.
Speaker 5: I was always a good teammate Kurt. I'm talking about
Speaker 5: Bully just in general. I want him on the team
Speaker 5: and just show me Kurt Warner here he is.
Speaker 6: We love this guy, Hurt. What's up, buddy?
Speaker 2: How you doing? Man? What's going on?
Speaker 6: Life?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 6: Life is great.
Speaker 4: Got the five kids rocking and rolling, doing the college
Speaker 4: football thing. I did that this year with NBC. But
Speaker 4: all in all, Man can't complain. Just getting through those
Speaker 4: holiday seasons, as you well know, with all these all
Speaker 4: these kids and then family coming into town, it was
Speaker 4: just chaotic. It's kind of nice to get back into
Speaker 4: a normal routine and setting.
Speaker 2: Gosh, it makes it fun though. That kids, little ones
Speaker 2: makes everything worth wild. So that's awesome. Good, I'm glad
Speaker 2: you're doing well. It's good to see you.
Speaker 6: It's great to see you too. How do you guys
Speaker 6: know each other? Gosh, we've known each other for a
Speaker 6: long time.
Speaker 1: We compete fraternity of quarterback fraternity.
Speaker 6: We compete against each other. And then in addition to that, yeah.
Speaker 2: I just think when you're both playing, and then obviously
Speaker 2: me covering the league for so long that we've crossed
Speaker 2: passed a million times. That Yeah, he woke me up
Speaker 2: in New England one year, which is one game that
Speaker 2: I'd like to forget.
Speaker 6: I wasn't playing.
Speaker 2: You can forget one game in my NFL career, that
Speaker 2: would be the one I want to forget.
Speaker 4: I think it was the perfect storm, literally the perfect storm,
Speaker 4: because they come up.
Speaker 6: To New England that year.
Speaker 4: It was late in the year and it is a
Speaker 4: full snowstorm. I mean the entire the entire field. You
Speaker 4: couldn't even see anything, and it was freezing cold, and
Speaker 4: it was just the elements worked in our favor and
Speaker 4: we got a roll early I mean I threw a
Speaker 4: few slip screens is all I had to do really
Speaker 4: in that game.
Speaker 2: Next thing, I know, Randon, Yeah, because we did absolutely nothing,
Speaker 2: So it was it was awful. But you're right, you know,
Speaker 2: coming from Arizona, we roll in in that snowstorm and
Speaker 2: we're just like what are we doing? And you know
Speaker 2: we didn't. We didn't know all about the basoline and
Speaker 2: putting stuff on your shoes, like we're sliding all over
Speaker 2: and it's like, this is awful. This was awful. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I was a beat down. So he's always etched in
Speaker 2: my mind in my career, in that one game that
Speaker 2: that I'd love to give back if I could.
Speaker 5: We were talking a few minutes ago about quarterbacks in Christmas,
Speaker 5: and I was talking about how I kind of screwed
Speaker 5: over his line then whenever he went in for Brady
Speaker 5: because he got you know, he left, didn't get them gifts.
Speaker 1: But we started going through all the gifts this year.
Speaker 5: What was that culture like for quarterbacks whenever you were playing,
Speaker 5: did you have to buy them crazy gifts?
Speaker 2: Well, we bought them gifts, but like you know, we
Speaker 2: didn't make fifty million dollars a year. I mean we
Speaker 2: still make good money, but we didn't make fifty million dollars.
Speaker 2: I mean, guys are getting cars and likes. It's ridiculous. Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I gave away some big screen TVs to my guys,
Speaker 2: which was a big deal back then, like portable DVD players,
Speaker 2: you know those things that were kind of in style. Again,
Speaker 2: that was a long time ago for me. But yeah,
Speaker 2: we gave them gifts. But like this is ridiculous, you
Speaker 2: know because now they reflect back on it, like, hey,
Speaker 2: what did you give us? And it's like unfair for us. Matt,
Speaker 2: I agree with you.
Speaker 6: I mean it's gotten so out of control.
Speaker 4: And now all the linemen that we play with, I
Speaker 4: almost look at him around that Christmas time when I
Speaker 4: talked to all my buddies and stuff, I'm like, I'm sorry,
Speaker 4: Like I didn't know that it was going to get
Speaker 4: to the stage. I mean, it's gotten out of hand.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is is linemen now make more
Speaker 2: than we made as quarterbacks then, Like the linemen are
Speaker 2: making ridiculous Like it's ridiculous. I don't know why we
Speaker 2: have to buy them gifts. As much as I love
Speaker 2: them and as much as I appreciate them, it's like
Speaker 2: and everybody makes great money. Now, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Who's trending up hardest right now, not who's the best
Speaker 1: going into the playoffs, who's trending up the hardest.
Speaker 2: You're saying a team as a whole.
Speaker 1: Yes, as a whole, and that is a.
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I don't know if we have
Speaker 2: that one team that's just kind of running and necessarily
Speaker 2: hit their stride because a couple of these teams I
Speaker 2: think took a little step back. But I'm still going
Speaker 2: to say the Lions are like after that big win
Speaker 2: on Sunday Night where I think a lot of people
Speaker 2: had questions and all the injuries and they dominated another
Speaker 2: fourteen win team. Going into the playoffs, I would have
Speaker 2: to say that they're they're trending up right. We've got
Speaker 2: the Eagles that have some questions because the quarterback hasn't
Speaker 2: played in a couple of weeks, Minnesota that obviously just
Speaker 2: took a big loss. There. You know, the other teams
Speaker 2: in the NFC, you don't really you're not really excited about.
Speaker 2: And I look at the AFC and I just think
Speaker 2: it's so much about matchups, Like I could see the
Speaker 2: Bills beating the Chiefs, but the Ravens beating the Bills,
Speaker 2: and I don't know, it's going to be fun to
Speaker 2: see how that plays out and who wins and who
Speaker 2: loses and what the matchups are over there. But I
Speaker 2: think that big win for the Lions, and to finish
Speaker 2: the season with just two losses with all the things
Speaker 2: that have gone wrong, I would probably say they're the
Speaker 2: one team that continues to trend up for me.
Speaker 4: Now in the AFC, you obviously have the Chiefs and
Speaker 4: they're going for their three peat right now, and they've
Speaker 4: definitely got some concerns obviously at the left tackle position,
Speaker 4: the health of some of their guys. Patrick Mahomes has
Speaker 4: he played well at times this year, but not the
Speaker 4: dominant nature that we've been necessarily accustomed to of watching him.
Speaker 4: But at the same time, they're fifteen and two and
Speaker 4: they didn't even play last week. Do you think that
Speaker 4: this is another season in which they get to the
Speaker 4: playoffs and they're the team to beat in the AFC?
Speaker 4: Just to see the landscape and how it's gone this
Speaker 4: season for them and a lot of close wins, but
Speaker 4: at the same time, they haven't had the dominant they
Speaker 4: haven't played at the dominant way in which they were
Speaker 4: kind of used to seeing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I still think you have to say that the
Speaker 2: team to beat because they continue to find ways to win.
Speaker 2: And then the other thing I would say is that
Speaker 2: even I just mentioned the Lions, is maybe the team
Speaker 2: trending up. I thought the Chiefs the last game that
Speaker 2: they played with all their guys a couple weeks ago
Speaker 2: was the best I had seen them play all year long,
Speaker 2: and so, you know, you just wonder because they're one
Speaker 2: of those teams that always seems to kind of hit
Speaker 2: their stride at the end of the year and end
Speaker 2: of the playoffs, so home field advantage by really only
Speaker 2: one loss on the season and playing their best football
Speaker 2: at the end of the year, I do think they're
Speaker 2: still the team to beat. Do I believe they can
Speaker 2: be beaten? Of course I do. I think there's a
Speaker 2: couple teams on the AFC side that I just mentioned with,
Speaker 2: you know, with Baltimore and you know, and also with
Speaker 2: the Bills that definitely could beat the Chiefs. So I
Speaker 2: don't think this is a lock by any means, but
Speaker 2: I do think there's still the team to beat.
Speaker 1: The Chargers, being in the same division as the Chiefs.
Speaker 5: They've played twice already, that could end up being a
Speaker 5: matchup obviously before the AFC Championship game, like a guy
Speaker 5: like Harball third game, like, does it give them a
Speaker 5: bit of an advantage like going time number three? He
Speaker 5: knows his team is personnel a little more.
Speaker 2: I just think, you know, because again you look at
Speaker 2: the way teams are playing, both the Chiefs and the Chargers,
Speaker 2: and both of them really play kind of low scoring,
Speaker 2: muddle it up type of games, and it's really going
Speaker 2: to come down I think in the AFC a lot
Speaker 2: of times too, who makes that drive down the stretch?
Speaker 2: Who may that play down the stretch to win a game?
Speaker 2: I'm not sure. I'm believing that the Chiefs, even though
Speaker 2: they're the team to beat, are going to blow out anybody.
Speaker 2: I still think they're going to be in a bunch
Speaker 2: of close games. Now. They've been better in those moments
Speaker 2: than anybody else, so you give them the edge. But
Speaker 2: I think it's really going to come down to in
Speaker 2: a lot of those games. Chargers Chiefs, if they played,
Speaker 2: I believe it would be a one possession game, and
Speaker 2: which team makes those plays either side of the ball
Speaker 2: down the stretch? To win the game, will win the game.
Speaker 2: I just I think it's going to be that way
Speaker 2: in a lot of games on the AFC side, especially
Speaker 2: where the Chiefs are involved. It's just happens to be
Speaker 2: that there's so much better in those moments than everybody else.
Speaker 2: But you know, I sit here, like I think a
Speaker 2: lot of the pundits out there are fans that have
Speaker 2: watched it look at the Chiefs and say, can they
Speaker 2: sustain these one possession wins through the playoffs against Like
Speaker 2: can they keep doing that? You just almost feel like
Speaker 2: it's got to catch up to them, where there's just
Speaker 2: one game where it's close and Patrick doesn't make the play,
Speaker 2: or you know, they don't block the kick or the
Speaker 2: defense doesn't get like you just feel like that will
Speaker 2: catch up to them. But they've just been better at
Speaker 2: it than anybody else, so you lean in their direction.
Speaker 4: Ert you've been in both situations where you've had the
Speaker 4: first round by been the number one seed, and then
Speaker 4: at the same time you've been a team that has
Speaker 4: had to play in the wildcard round. Talk to us
Speaker 4: a little bit about the mentality of you're playing well
Speaker 4: at the end of the season, you get in it
Speaker 4: as a wild card team and all of a sudden
Speaker 4: you catch fire in the momentum and the advantage of
Speaker 4: that versus Obviously there's an advantage to having that extra week,
Speaker 4: to have that week off to rest your body, have
Speaker 4: that extra week of preparation. But talk to us about
Speaker 4: that team and the mentality of the wild card teams
Speaker 4: coming in and if they can build that momentum and
Speaker 4: what the importance is for teams like that and for
Speaker 4: them to go deep into the playoffs.
Speaker 2: I believe the mentality is built off of where you are, Matt, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know this, Like if you're the team getting the buy,
Speaker 2: your mentality is, yeah, we've earned this, we get to buy.
Speaker 2: Everybody else has to play. They're gonna beat each other up.
Speaker 2: We don't have to play as many games. This is awesome.
Speaker 2: And then if you don't get the buy, but you're
Speaker 2: playing really well, the mentality is in the locker room
Speaker 2: like we're playing great, let's just get out on the field.
Speaker 2: We're gonna beat everybody that we play. And so that
Speaker 2: becomes so important, is the mentality that goes into making
Speaker 2: that run. And you know, in good teams or teams
Speaker 2: that are playing well can build that mentality, however, they
Speaker 2: want to build that mentality, and so that's exactly what
Speaker 2: we did. No matter you know, which team I was
Speaker 2: on or what situation we were in, we would always
Speaker 2: try to, you know, change the narrative to, oh, we
Speaker 2: don't want to buy, like we don't want to buy,
Speaker 2: We're playing great, we don't want anything to slow down
Speaker 2: the momentum that we had. Let's just go make a run.
Speaker 2: And then obviously on the other side, like we earned
Speaker 2: the buye, we're gonna be sitting back, We're chilling. Everybody's
Speaker 2: getting beat up and has to play an extra game
Speaker 2: travel on the road. So you know, so much of
Speaker 2: this game is as much mental as it is physical
Speaker 2: and convincing yourself that your situation is the best situation,
Speaker 2: you know, whether that's you know, seating who we have
Speaker 2: to play like, you know, I'm sure there's uh you know,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think right now at the top of
Speaker 2: my head. Uh oh that that that are playing against
Speaker 2: the Texans, right The Texans aren't playing very well, so
Speaker 2: I think it's a Chargers right, yep. So the Chargers
Speaker 2: are like, Okay, I know we're a wild card team,
Speaker 2: but hey, we got the best matchup in the first
Speaker 2: round of the playoffs because we're playing against the team
Speaker 2: that's you know, been kind of limping down the stretch.
Speaker 2: So it's just part of the nature of us athletes
Speaker 2: is Okay, where do we where? Where can we create
Speaker 2: that narrative that fits what we're trying to do, And
Speaker 2: we're just gonna we're gonna pound that narrative because that's
Speaker 2: going to be the reason that we make a run.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the human nature part of this.
Speaker 5: Like Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator with the Lions, who you know,
Speaker 5: didn't head coach last year, he said, I want to stay.
Speaker 5: I believe in the offense. I'm going to stay with Detroit.
Speaker 5: Great decision. He's killing it. He's going to have whatever
Speaker 5: job probably he wants. However, these jobs are open right now.
Speaker 5: They're interviewing right now. He's not interviewing because he's but still,
Speaker 5: you're a human and it's like that's got to be
Speaker 5: on your mind as well as you enter. And I
Speaker 5: looked a few minutes ago, the lines are favored to
Speaker 5: win the Super Bowl. They're the number one team right
Speaker 5: now as far as like the odds, Like that's the
Speaker 5: human part of that's got to be difficult for somebody, right.
Speaker 2: Would I would think so, like, I don't really know,
Speaker 2: you know, especially when you know you are We use
Speaker 2: Ben Johnson as that example. It's like, you've never been
Speaker 2: a head coach, So this is like your moment, your opportunity.
Speaker 2: You got to be ready for these interviews. You've got
Speaker 2: to be thinking like, Okay, if the season's over and
Speaker 2: I get one of these jobs, like who's going to
Speaker 2: be on my staff? Who am I going to take?
Speaker 2: Like yeah, and then all of that while whatever your
Speaker 2: normal schedule is to prepare and create and build a
Speaker 2: game plan. I mean, yeah, I don't know. I don't
Speaker 2: know how you balance it. I mean, you know, we
Speaker 2: always said as players too, like you know, family was
Speaker 2: kind of that other side of it. So we talked
Speaker 2: about Ben Johnson the head coaching spot and is current
Speaker 2: like for us it was or for me it was
Speaker 2: the family, Like, okay, so this is the amount of
Speaker 2: time I'm going to spend, you know, preparing for football,
Speaker 2: and then I need to shut that off and try
Speaker 2: to you know, be a dad or a husband or
Speaker 2: or focus on family over here. And it was really
Speaker 2: hard to do. You know, it was hard to, you know,
Speaker 2: for those things not to get all mixed together and
Speaker 2: me thinking about football when I should be at home,
Speaker 2: or me thinking about you know, family and something that
Speaker 2: was going on when I should be at football and
Speaker 2: balancing that out. So I would have to think that
Speaker 2: would be a huge I mean, I don't think you can.
Speaker 2: You know, if if somebody's calling me today and going
Speaker 2: to do a you know, head coaching intergy interview with
Speaker 2: me today while we're getting ready for a playoff game
Speaker 2: a week and a half from now, Yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: I think you're fully focused on, Okay, how do I
Speaker 2: get this head coaching job? You know, what do I
Speaker 2: need to do and how do I have everything in place?
Speaker 2: And your current team has to take a little bit
Speaker 2: of a backseat in that regard. So figuring out that
Speaker 2: balance I think has to be key. But I think
Speaker 2: you're one unred percent right. Human nature is going to say, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to lean towards you know, I'm gonna have
Speaker 2: to lean into both of them and probably take some
Speaker 2: time away from you know, the current task at hand
Speaker 2: for the future task at hand.
Speaker 4: You played in a lot of these playoff games and
Speaker 4: we are having this discussion before. But Bobby was asking me,
Speaker 4: how does it change going into playoffs, like your mentality
Speaker 4: and you know that the intensity goes up tenfold. But
Speaker 4: were you one of those players that had a specific
Speaker 4: routine and tried to stick to that routine not make
Speaker 4: it bigger than it was? Were you also one of
Speaker 4: those quarterbacks? Look, I hated that feeling I used to
Speaker 4: get before the game. I always got those knots in
Speaker 4: my stomach. Oh, would over analyze, do all those But
Speaker 4: once you got out on the field, you get hit
Speaker 4: for the first time and you start to process and
Speaker 4: you go, hey, this is just football. I got to
Speaker 4: be reactionary, rely on my preparation what I need to do.
Speaker 4: But what time type of mentality you have going into
Speaker 4: these type of.
Speaker 2: Weeks, Yeah, playoffs was different. And so I was one
Speaker 2: of those guys that was really good at focusing. And
Speaker 2: so my kids still joke to this day, like, you know,
Speaker 2: even if I'm if I'm sending you a text, Matt,
Speaker 2: and my kids are in the room with me, and
Speaker 2: they're like, dad, dad, Dad, I don't hear them because, like,
Speaker 2: I'm focused on what I'm trying to say to you
Speaker 2: in the text, and I just tune out all the
Speaker 2: other noise, and they're like, Dad, we're trying to get
Speaker 2: your attention, Like all you're doing is texting. But I
Speaker 2: had an uncanny ability to focus, which obviously a lot
Speaker 2: of guys at our level and sisily playing quarterback with
Speaker 2: seventy thousand people, you know, have that ability to focus.
Speaker 2: But during you know, the normal week, it would come
Speaker 2: about three thirty four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon and
Speaker 2: my wife would be like, all right, he's in the zone.
Speaker 2: Go to the hotel, go to your room, like get like,
Speaker 2: no reason for you to be around anymore because you're
Speaker 2: you're a different guy. When I got into the playoffs,
Speaker 2: it was always like I had to tell my wife, Okay, honey,
Speaker 2: I know in the past, you've given me twenty four
Speaker 2: hours forty eight hours. Now I need four weeks. Like
Speaker 2: I'm not going to be a good dad, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to be a good husband. I am locking in
Speaker 2: for the next four weeks and it's going to be
Speaker 2: all football and it's all focused on trying to win
Speaker 2: a championship and then we can celebrate and go on
Speaker 2: trips and do that afterwards. But it was really that
Speaker 2: kind of change for me, Matt, where it was like
Speaker 2: I could never get it off my mind and I
Speaker 2: didn't really want to, Like I didn't want to separate
Speaker 2: it at that point, Like I knew it was all
Speaker 2: about the regular Season's great, but the regular season was
Speaker 2: just set me up to have a chance to win
Speaker 2: it all. So once we got into the playoffs, that
Speaker 2: was it. Like everything else is gone, everything else is
Speaker 2: pushed out. I'm sorry, but this is my focus. And
Speaker 2: you know, and just like we were talking about the
Speaker 2: split focus and bounce, I wasn't even looking to balance anymore.
Speaker 2: My mindset was, Okay, we're playing Sunday. I am not
Speaker 2: taking a minute off in terms of my preparation so
Speaker 2: I can be the best that I can be on Sunday.
Speaker 2: And you know, obviously my mindset was, I want to
Speaker 2: do it for four weeks because it's going to end
Speaker 2: up by us being in the super Bowl and hopefully
Speaker 2: winning it.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the Steelers for a second,
Speaker 1: because it feels.
Speaker 5: Like they are always one, like like the halfway house
Speaker 5: of winning. They don't lose enough because in the NBA,
Speaker 5: if you're mid in the NBA, you do not get
Speaker 5: a top draft pick.
Speaker 6: You do not get better.
Speaker 5: If you're winning five hundred, you're just going to stay.
Speaker 5: You almost have to bomb out to get way better.
Speaker 5: The Steelers never do that. They always Tomlin has a
Speaker 5: winning record every year. And so here they are again
Speaker 5: not playing well now, but they're in the playoffs. But
Speaker 5: do they need to lose and get a top pick
Speaker 5: in order to move forward because I feel like they're
Speaker 5: in the same spot every year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean right now for the Steelers, they need
Speaker 2: to find a quarterback like that, that's just the nature
Speaker 2: of our business anymore, like either have one or you
Speaker 2: don't in terms of having one that you believe can
Speaker 2: win a championship or you don't. And if you don't
Speaker 2: have one of those guys, it's going to be a
Speaker 2: struggle week in and week out, and it's going to
Speaker 2: be a struggle come playoff time. And so you know,
Speaker 2: when Big Ben was there, they were always competitive and
Speaker 2: they always had a chance to win in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: And you know, and since Big Ben, they just haven't
Speaker 2: had that guy. I still think, you know, I still
Speaker 2: think there are a couple pieces away, but I think
Speaker 2: they have a good football team. Like if you took
Speaker 2: Patrick Mahomes and put them on this team. I think
Speaker 2: we'd be looking at this team completely differently, and I
Speaker 2: think we'd say this team has a chance to win
Speaker 2: a championship. You know, you put Josh Allen on this
Speaker 2: team with that defense and that run game and a
Speaker 2: couple of the playmakers on the outside, Lamar Jackson. So
Speaker 2: I don't think it's a huge overhaul for them. I
Speaker 2: think they need to add some pieces on the outside.
Speaker 2: They're skilled players. But I think it's as much as anything.
Speaker 2: I look at this league every year, I look at
Speaker 2: the playoffs every year and I say, who's got a
Speaker 2: chance to win a championship? Who's got a chance to
Speaker 2: win in the playoffs, And it's all based around having
Speaker 2: a guy at that position that is different and you know,
Speaker 2: can be different in a lot of different ways, but
Speaker 2: that's different than everybody else. And I think that's more
Speaker 2: than anything else, what the Steelers are missing right now.
Speaker 5: But to get a quarterback, especially even like this year,
Speaker 5: a should or a cam Ward who's going to go one, two,
Speaker 5: three and two of those top three spots. Last year
Speaker 5: you saw like to get one of those top picks,
Speaker 5: you've either got to trade something valuable or suck and
Speaker 5: it's they have a lot of great players, but like
Speaker 5: you said, they cannot find that quarterback.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I know that's how we look at
Speaker 2: it in the big picture, and that may be the
Speaker 2: case this year, but let's also look at bon Niggs.
Speaker 2: You know, bo Nicks has got his team in the
Speaker 2: playoffs and he was a mid range pick. Lamar Jackson
Speaker 2: was the thirty first pick in the first round, and
Speaker 2: we know what Lamar Jackson has has been and so
Speaker 2: I don't think there's you know, I don't think it
Speaker 2: has to be a top pick, you know. I just think, again,
Speaker 2: the landscape is different, you know, around the NFL or
Speaker 2: in the draft every single year. But you've got to
Speaker 2: find one of those guys. I mean, maybe it's going
Speaker 2: out and maybe it's Sam Donald. You know, again, I
Speaker 2: don't know, he's had one great year. I don't know
Speaker 2: if that's going to be Sam the rest of his career.
Speaker 2: But maybe that's the guy.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 2: Obviously, they went out and got a couple of quarterbacks
Speaker 2: this year in hopes that one of them was the guy.
Speaker 2: But but that's not the case. So I just don't
Speaker 2: think there's only one way to play it. You know,
Speaker 2: maybe Sam Donald stays in Minnesota, and maybe Pittsburgh goes
Speaker 2: and gets JJ McCarthy and maybe that's the guy that
Speaker 2: they find a way to build around. So yeah, when
Speaker 2: you're in the middle or end of the first round,
Speaker 2: you probably have to be a little bit more creative
Speaker 2: or a little bit more convicted or dive in a
Speaker 2: little bit deeper to finding a guy that maybe isn't
Speaker 2: the top pick in the draft. You know, but you know,
Speaker 2: Matt and I might be able to sit here and
Speaker 2: tell you, like, there's some of those guys out there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know you don't need to be I mean.
Speaker 2: That were drafted in the top five, so you know,
Speaker 2: so I think there's other ways to do it.
Speaker 4: I mean, when you look at this rookie class, you
Speaker 4: got two rookie quarterbacks playing obviously in the playoffs with
Speaker 4: Bo Nicks, and then you got Jayde Daniels who's having
Speaker 4: a phenomenal year. But then you look at some of
Speaker 4: these other quarterbacks that were drafted in this first round.
Speaker 4: Pinnicks played late, obviously, Drake May went through his struggles.
Speaker 4: But how much of the success of these young quarterbacks
Speaker 4: coming in the league, because you know, not always the
Speaker 4: college offensive scheme correlates to the NFL. And I've heard
Speaker 4: you say it before, like it's hard to watch films
Speaker 4: sometimes on these guys and see how it's going to
Speaker 4: translate to the next level.
Speaker 6: How much of it is system fit in your opinion.
Speaker 2: I think most of it is system fit. But I
Speaker 2: think the problem, man, is that we don't always know
Speaker 2: what the perfect system fit is for a quarterback right
Speaker 2: until we see it, you know. So, like c J.
Speaker 2: Stroud was a great example to me. Like I thought
Speaker 2: CJ was really good at Ohio State. I didn't know
Speaker 2: if I thought he could be transcendent based on what
Speaker 2: I saw at Ohio State because of the way and
Speaker 2: the nature of how they played the game and you know,
Speaker 2: throwing the ball down the field more and doing some
Speaker 2: that big passing game. And then his first year in
Speaker 2: Houston and they were asking him to read and get
Speaker 2: the ball out and throw it quick and do all
Speaker 2: this intermediate stuff. And I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: this guy's way better than I thought he was. Like
Speaker 2: I didn't know he had all this in him, but
Speaker 2: I didn't know because he didn't get a chance to
Speaker 2: show it to us. I think Drake May was the
Speaker 2: guy for me this year that you know, coming out
Speaker 2: of last year, you know, I didn't like his footwork
Speaker 2: and you know, I thought he was kind of all
Speaker 2: over some times on the reads, and you know, so
Speaker 2: I really didn't know how he was going to translate
Speaker 2: to the NFL. I saw some of that stuff in preseason,
Speaker 2: but when he actually became the starter, he played really
Speaker 2: really good football in terms of consistent withness rows, that
Speaker 2: his eyes were in the right spot most of the time,
Speaker 2: in terms of making reads and getting there on time.
Speaker 2: And I was kind of blown away with what I
Speaker 2: saw in New England, and they had a lot of
Speaker 2: limitations around him, but I thought he played really really
Speaker 2: well this year. If you're just looking at the quarterback
Speaker 2: position and what you want your quarterback to be seeing
Speaker 2: and when you want him to be throwing it, and
Speaker 2: the decision making that he had, I thought he was
Speaker 2: really good. And it wasn't what I saw, you know,
Speaker 2: specifically last year. You know, it's a little bit better
Speaker 2: the year before in college, but last year in college,
Speaker 2: it wasn't what I saw. So I didn't really know.
Speaker 2: And then I guess we could use a Jaden Daniels
Speaker 2: who this isn't exactly who he was at dollege, you know, like,
Speaker 2: you know, if you're taking a guy and saying, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is exactly what I saw, and then you place
Speaker 2: it and you're like, oh my gosh, it's the same guy,
Speaker 2: and he's in a system that seems very similar. But
Speaker 2: he's doing all of those things. Which is another question
Speaker 2: that you always fight with as an analyst or probably
Speaker 2: as a coach, is like, Okay, he's really good in college,
Speaker 2: but you know, he can't be the same guy in
Speaker 2: the NFL CA any like, you know, because it's different.
Speaker 2: He looks like exactly the same guy. So the guy
Speaker 2: that won the Heisman last year that was the best
Speaker 2: player in college football is the best rookie quarterback and
Speaker 2: you know it was one of the top quarterbacks in
Speaker 2: the league. And it's because he's doing the exact same
Speaker 2: things that he did. And it's obviously why it's such
Speaker 2: an inexact science is because you don't know if what
Speaker 2: were in college is the best that they've got. You
Speaker 2: don't know if the system fits him, you don't know
Speaker 2: how it's going to translate. And sure enough, we've got
Speaker 2: a bunch of guys that have played really really well
Speaker 2: in the pros you know already this rookie year. And
Speaker 2: you know, I think there's some different elements there, but
Speaker 2: I think fits is extremely important. And you know, the
Speaker 2: quarterback being able to see the game the way the
Speaker 2: play caller designs the game or the way the play
Speaker 2: calor calls the game. If your quarterback sees it the
Speaker 2: same way, it gives you, you know, and a much
Speaker 2: better chance of succeeding, especially early.
Speaker 1: I tell jokes, that's how I make my living.
Speaker 5: So my NFL personnel scouting is not a tiptop like
Speaker 5: probably yours or Matt says. So this question is really
Speaker 5: just like a dude asking how do they miss? How
Speaker 5: do you miss on a quarterback? How do you miss
Speaker 5: when it's a top five to seven to ten pick
Speaker 5: and then they end up not being what you thought
Speaker 5: they were after all the time, money efforts, science.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I think, you know, I think there's
Speaker 2: you know, a couple of ways to look at it.
Speaker 2: I think, first of all, you know, we throw around,
Speaker 2: especially come draft time. This guy's ceiling, oh, this guy's
Speaker 2: stealing is so high, And my question is always how
Speaker 2: do you know with ceiling unless he's been there, Like,
Speaker 2: how do you know what a ceiling is until he's
Speaker 2: shown us what is ceiling? So we throw around this
Speaker 2: word ceiling as if somebody is going to get infinitely
Speaker 2: better at the next level. I have no idea why
Speaker 2: we do that. Because a guy can run really fast
Speaker 2: and throw really far, we think he's ultimately going to
Speaker 2: be able to think really fast and process really well.
Speaker 2: And like, I don't know, but that's the term we've
Speaker 2: come to use for all of these guys, and a
Speaker 2: lot of times it's the really athletic guys, right because
Speaker 2: we say to ourselves, they've got this unbelievable physical skill
Speaker 2: set that now, if their mental skill set matches their
Speaker 2: physical skill set, their ceiling is way up here. But
Speaker 2: we have no idea if that's ever going to happen.
Speaker 2: And so that's how you miss is that we project
Speaker 2: the guy's ceiling when we don't know what a ceiling is.
Speaker 2: I have seen plenty of college quarterbacks come into the
Speaker 2: NFL and five years, you know, into the NFL, they
Speaker 2: are the exact same quarterback they were in college. They
Speaker 2: didn't get better, they didn't improve in any area. So
Speaker 2: now they get swallowed up in the NFL because what
Speaker 2: they were in college is just isn't good enough in
Speaker 2: the NFL. And we've seen other guys like a Tom Brady,
Speaker 2: who was, you know, good college quarterback, Like you know,
Speaker 2: he wasn't even a great college court. He was a
Speaker 2: good college quarterback, and we saw him come into the
Speaker 2: league and every year he got better. Like he's like
Speaker 2: fifty seven years old, and I'm not sure he's hit
Speaker 2: his ceiling yet, Like I don't even know, Like he
Speaker 2: could probably come back and be even better. Like it was.
Speaker 2: It was amazing to watch because you're like, how does
Speaker 2: this guy get better? How is this guy throwing forty
Speaker 2: touchdown passes at forty five years old? Like you just
Speaker 2: couldn't figure it out. But but that's the other side
Speaker 2: of it, is that average quarterback, Like we've all seen
Speaker 2: the pictures at the you know, Combine, and we've all
Speaker 2: know where he was drafted overall because he was average
Speaker 2: in college, but just got better and got better and
Speaker 2: got better. And you know, you could probably stay the
Speaker 2: same about me, Like I sat on the bench for
Speaker 2: four years in college, so people didn't even know who
Speaker 2: I was as a quarterback. But you know, playing an
Speaker 2: arena football in Europe, I think helped me to develop
Speaker 2: so that when I got back into the league, I
Speaker 2: was a better quarterback. I was closer to my ceiling
Speaker 2: at that point, but nobody knew that. Like all everybody
Speaker 2: would see is like, well, the ceiling's not very high.
Speaker 2: Because he's sat on the bench for four years at
Speaker 2: an FCS school, he must not be very good. But
Speaker 2: we don't really know. And that's why we miss is
Speaker 2: because you know, if if there was a chart out
Speaker 2: there that said, Okay, Matt ceiling is right here and
Speaker 2: he's playing at this level, then we could go, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: he's only got a little ways to go. Let's go
Speaker 2: find the guy. But but you know, it's not out there,
Speaker 2: and so it's just a crapshoot. Most of the time.
Speaker 4: You're like one of the greatest redemption stories of all time.
Speaker 4: And then you've got guys you have to appreciate it.
Speaker 4: I'm guessing as an analyst, when you see a guy
Speaker 4: like Baker Mayfield what he's done over the last two seasons,
Speaker 4: are a guy like Sam Darnold, who these guys were
Speaker 4: high draft picks but were written off, you know, just
Speaker 4: a few years ago, and then they come back, they
Speaker 4: get into the right system, they have the right offense,
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden they excel. Even Bryce Young
Speaker 4: this year gets bench shirley on. Everybody's saying, oh, this
Speaker 4: kid's going to be a bus He's not this, that
Speaker 4: or the other, and then he comes out and plays
Speaker 4: tremendously well down the stretch.
Speaker 6: Do you love why? I mean, I know I do,
Speaker 6: But do you.
Speaker 4: Love and appreciate that aspect of the NFL and for
Speaker 4: guys like that and what they've been able to do
Speaker 4: this season?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, And I think different stories different ways. So
Speaker 2: like you said, I can you know, associate with the
Speaker 2: Jared Goffs and the Baker Mayfield, who are guys that
Speaker 2: in their first spot. I believe we're starting quarterbacks in
Speaker 2: the NFL, like really good quarterbacks like Bakers should still
Speaker 2: be in Cleveland. You know, I understand the Rams and
Speaker 2: getting Matthew Stafford, and you know, you can say what
Speaker 2: you want there because obviously staff is incredible. But Jared
Speaker 2: led them to a super Bowl in you know, his
Speaker 2: first few years. I mean it was playing really really
Speaker 2: good football. So he was a good player. And so
Speaker 2: I understand that because I played really well in Saint
Speaker 2: Louis and then they kind of said, hey, yeah, we're
Speaker 2: gonna we're gonna go a different direction, and then being
Speaker 2: able to come back and show people like I was
Speaker 2: never not that guy, Like I don't know what you
Speaker 2: saw or why you decided that, but I was never.
Speaker 2: So I loved those stories like I love you know,
Speaker 2: Baker and Jared and the success that they're having, and
Speaker 2: kind of going, I don't know what you guys were thinking,
Speaker 2: but this is who I've been all along. And then
Speaker 2: I can also relate to, you know, the Sam Darnolds.
Speaker 2: You know that I was cut by my first NFL
Speaker 2: team and had to journey around and fight my way back,
Speaker 2: and and I can appreciate that for for two different reasons.
Speaker 2: You know that there's one reason where you know, you
Speaker 2: do wonder about circumstance, right, you wonder about where the
Speaker 2: Jets were and they drafted him and did they give
Speaker 2: him a real chance to compete? And so it's nice
Speaker 2: to see him having success in a situation now if
Speaker 2: that was the case, And then I can also associate
Speaker 2: it with the other side of saying, maybe Sam wasn't
Speaker 2: ready at the time, just like I'm not sure I
Speaker 2: was ready at the time that I got my first opportunity,
Speaker 2: and so there's something too being able to step away
Speaker 2: from a situation and go, Okay, how do I need
Speaker 2: to get better? You know, instead of just saying, oh,
Speaker 2: this was all the jets, So this was all the
Speaker 2: packers cutting me and nobody recognizing my talent may have
Speaker 2: been the case to some degree, but I think there
Speaker 2: was also part of it where I had to go okay,
Speaker 2: but if nobody's seeing it, what am I missing?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 2: What's the problem here? And where can I get better?
Speaker 2: So when I do get my next opportunity, I'm ready
Speaker 2: for it, and so I can appreciate all the different
Speaker 2: levels of that, you know. I sat down with Geno
Speaker 2: Smith this year and I was asking him that same thing,
Speaker 2: you know, like where were you and why did this happen?
Speaker 2: And how can you be so good now? And he goes,
Speaker 2: because I needed to learn, you know, and he used
Speaker 2: a phrase, and I always love this phrase. He said,
Speaker 2: I didn't know what I didn't know, And that is
Speaker 2: so true with so many guys. As you get into
Speaker 2: the NFL and everybody expects you to know everything, and
Speaker 2: you think, oh, I know everything. I was really good
Speaker 2: in college. So I got it all. I know, I
Speaker 2: know it all. And then you realize, oh god, I
Speaker 2: didn't know that. Oh and I didn't know that, and
Speaker 2: I needed somebody to show me that. And so, like
Speaker 2: you mentioned Bryce Young, what a great example that you know,
Speaker 2: he's starting for you know, a year and two games,
Speaker 2: and then he gets benched because he's not playing very
Speaker 2: good football. I mean flat out not playing well in
Speaker 2: at all, you know, holding the ball too long and
Speaker 2: you know, not being able to see it in all
Speaker 2: this stuff. So then he sits behind Andy Dalton for
Speaker 2: a few weeks, the ultimate pro in Andy Dalton. And
Speaker 2: now he comes back at the end of the year
Speaker 2: and he is literally a different player. Like I watch
Speaker 2: him and I'm like, could five or six weeks on
Speaker 2: the bench really, you know, change all of that. Like
Speaker 2: he's getting it out on time, he's making throws that
Speaker 2: he made and you're just you're kind of odd by
Speaker 2: how bad it was at the beginning of the year
Speaker 2: and how good it is now. But you know, I
Speaker 2: sat down again with him because we covered one of
Speaker 2: his games, and he said that was a big part
Speaker 2: of what he did was step back. And now there's
Speaker 2: no expectations, and he just watched kind of how Andy
Speaker 2: did it and how Andy played and how the offense
Speaker 2: was supposed to run. And now he's come in a
Speaker 2: completely different player because of that. And so I just
Speaker 2: I appreciate that side of it too, Like it's okay
Speaker 2: to say I wasn't good enough. I didn't have all
Speaker 2: the tools. I didn't know what I needed to know
Speaker 2: the first time around. And I appreciate guys that, if
Speaker 2: taken on that run said, but now I got it.
Speaker 2: Now I've learned it. You know, I've accepted that I
Speaker 2: was around this coach and that player and they helped me,
Speaker 2: and now I see what I didn't know. Now I
Speaker 2: know it. Now I've got a chance to put my
Speaker 2: best foot forward like a Sam Donold is right now.
Speaker 2: And so I do appreciate that side of it too,
Speaker 2: because because I was there.
Speaker 5: Final two questions in mine is how you look at me?
Speaker 5: I'm like a six point five on the look scale.
Speaker 5: I know I'm no beauty. No, I don'tkay, no, I'm
Speaker 5: better than average, but I don't I'm definitely no beauty.
Speaker 5: Or I look at Kurt like a nine, right, and
Speaker 5: I would be so frustrated, to be good looking and
Speaker 5: have to wear a helmet when the other sports your
Speaker 5: face is out there. If you're good looking, it's more
Speaker 5: did you ever have the need to like rip the
Speaker 5: helmet off, like after a touchdown so people could see
Speaker 5: that face?
Speaker 1: So you get those shaving deals.
Speaker 4: Kurt had more personal like the penalty, the fifty nerd
Speaker 4: penalty for taking his helmet off on the I check.
Speaker 6: This, I got this.
Speaker 5: Just wonder what good looking people feel like when they
Speaker 5: have to cover their face up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't really know that. I make a question
Speaker 2: for people that don't play football because that was never
Speaker 2: anything that I actually consider at any point in time
Speaker 2: in life. But to your point, though, I mean, you
Speaker 2: see it now all the time with you know, guys
Speaker 2: that are on commercials, Like I think that was one
Speaker 2: of the things that the NFL. There wasn't as many
Speaker 2: guys doing commercials, you know, back in the day, And
Speaker 2: I think that was a big part of it was
Speaker 2: because people didn't recognize us like they recognized you know,
Speaker 2: guys that were on a basketball court because they didn't
Speaker 2: have the helmet on, and so there was only a
Speaker 2: select few guys that got those commercials. That's kind of
Speaker 2: The cool thing now is we see all kinds of
Speaker 2: different guys getting commercials now, so uh, you know, it's
Speaker 2: more about personality than it's about anything else. But I
Speaker 2: gotta say, never once crossed my mind. I need to
Speaker 2: rip my helmet off so people can see.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you would have been the first space that have
Speaker 5: been sure. Here we are Lions Kansas City. When we
Speaker 5: talk about breaks, there's there's the break, and then there's
Speaker 5: the super break where a lot of those guys you know,
Speaker 5: Jones and Mahomes and they didn't even play week eight.
Speaker 5: That's when it starts to feel to me like there
Speaker 5: may be too long of a break. Now again, I
Speaker 5: mentioned earlier, I tell jokes. I don't know personnel.
Speaker 1: That's just that's just.
Speaker 5: The coaching, knowing the personnel right and knowing who can
Speaker 5: take off two weeks and still bounce back three weeks later.
Speaker 2: I think so, But I mean, look at I mean,
Speaker 2: you tell jokes. You say that, so like if you
Speaker 2: take time off from doing.
Speaker 6: I'm the worst. Yeah, you know the last one is
Speaker 6: pretty good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, if I'm off, if I don't tell jokes for
Speaker 5: two weeks and I go, if I'm torying you back
Speaker 5: on stage, I'm rusty as awful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that timing element, right, that that just kind of
Speaker 2: feel for you know, and so I always felt like
Speaker 2: that when I was playing. Now the thing you have
Speaker 2: to do you have to remember, though, is even though
Speaker 2: it's like twenty three days off or whatever it is,
Speaker 2: for Patrick Mahomes, like he's still practicing every day. He's
Speaker 2: not playing in the game for those three hours, but
Speaker 2: he's still going through every practice just like he always
Speaker 2: goes through the practice. So it's not like taking twenty
Speaker 2: three days off from playing football and then we're throwing
Speaker 2: him out there for a playoff game and we're expecting
Speaker 2: him to play. Well, that's the first part of it.
Speaker 2: But I also when I look at Kansas City, they're
Speaker 2: not like a real timing oriented team. They're just kind
Speaker 2: of like it's kind of all over and it's kind
Speaker 2: of based on a field more than it is timing.
Speaker 2: For me, twenty three days would have been a long time.
Speaker 2: Like I was based off of hit the back foot,
Speaker 2: let the ball go, trust your receivers, see you know
Speaker 2: the body language of the defense to know what what's
Speaker 2: going to be open and where you get. So timing
Speaker 2: was like Vito for the way that I played the game,
Speaker 2: I couldn't make up for it with all these other skills,
Speaker 2: So that would have been a long time. Like I
Speaker 2: would have probably been asking Andy Reid, Hey, can I
Speaker 2: can I at least play a half? You know? Can
Speaker 2: I go into this game and just just get my feel,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of like a preseason game. Let me
Speaker 2: get my feel, let me get my comfort, like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm here, I'm good mentally, I feel good, then
Speaker 2: you can take me out. But but I do think
Speaker 2: that's a long time to be off. But I think
Speaker 2: if there's one team based on the way that they play,
Speaker 2: and I wouldn't even say one team, like I could
Speaker 2: see the Ravens doing that too, like Lamar Jackson, because
Speaker 2: it's not you know, it's not like m boom boom boom,
Speaker 2: you know, from an efficiency standpoint, it's more like feeling
Speaker 2: the game. Because I don't think Patrick Mahome is going
Speaker 2: to forget how to feel the game, and I don't
Speaker 2: think Lamar Jackson is going to forget how to feel
Speaker 2: the game. They're going to go play the way they play.
Speaker 2: But for guys that are more like me, you know,
Speaker 2: and there's probably someone the Chiefs that are more kind
Speaker 2: of rep guys that need to be out there. I
Speaker 2: could see that being, you know, a little bit of
Speaker 2: an issue in their first game back.
Speaker 5: You guys can watch cart every Sunday in NFL Game
Speaker 5: Day morning at nine am Eastern on NFL Network. I'm
Speaker 5: a massive fan. I know you and Matt know each
Speaker 5: other massive fan. We're both massive fans for different reasons.
Speaker 5: I was always, you know, wanted to watch it. I
Speaker 5: was like, take your home and off, man, you're so good,
Speaker 5: look and show us your face. So thank you real,
Speaker 5: thanks a lot for the past half hour. We really
Speaker 5: appreciate it. We'll be watching you coming up this weekend.
Speaker 2: Kurt. I appreciate good luck with this, and I appreciate
Speaker 2: you guys having me on.
Speaker 6: We need it.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Thank you brother, Thank you, Kurt. I watched
Speaker 5: WWE on Netflix, and I am a wrestling kid.
Speaker 1: I don't really not.
Speaker 5: I don't want to say I'm not a wrestling guy now,
Speaker 5: but I don't keep up with it now like I
Speaker 5: used to as a kid.
Speaker 6: I was dimard. I'm am arketsall.
Speaker 5: We're hillbillies like it's I had Jeff Jarrett earlier today,
Speaker 5: who is in the w W Hall of Fame and
Speaker 5: is still like part of wrestling in his fifties. And
Speaker 5: was just talking to him about back in the nineties
Speaker 5: and two thousands, and did were you a wrestling kid?
Speaker 6: You know what I was in the heyday.
Speaker 4: So it's the whole Colgan, the Junkyard Dog.
Speaker 6: I mean, give me, give me four.
Speaker 4: All right, I've got a whole Colgan for sure, because
Speaker 4: he's whole Colgan. Rick Flair, I used to love the
Speaker 4: junkyard Dog. I used to love Sergeant Slaughter, I mean Slaughter.
Speaker 5: When he turned bad, when he turned like Middle East
Speaker 5: art Slaughter. Yeah, that was that was weird. Yeah that's
Speaker 5: Andrey the Giant.
Speaker 6: But now you're doing more than four. You know, you
Speaker 6: said five.
Speaker 1: Mount Rushmore's four, You do him four plus.
Speaker 4: No, No, I'm doing five because Mount Rushmore is going
Speaker 4: to add somebody up there someday.
Speaker 1: I'm not even the president, the WWE man.
Speaker 6: I mean We've got to add somebody. Give me, so
Speaker 6: say you're five again, out loud, Hulk, Hulk.
Speaker 4: I had Andre the Giant, Rick Flair, I did. I
Speaker 4: named a lot more than I needed to. Sergeant Slaughter.
Speaker 4: Let's just go with those four well, who are you?
Speaker 4: Who is your gid?
Speaker 6: Did you ever go tho? Did you ever go to match?
Speaker 4: So my first match I ever went to, which was
Speaker 4: random because I don't think I went to another match
Speaker 4: my entire childhood, was in Cincinnati, Ohio. We were going
Speaker 4: with my cousins and guess who comes out but the
Speaker 4: Hulk himself.
Speaker 6: Did you know he's going to be there? No, no idea.
Speaker 4: I didn't even know who Hulk Wasn't that I mean
Speaker 4: I was a young kid and all I sort I.
Speaker 6: Am American for sure. Yeah, it was. It was epic.
Speaker 6: Do you remember anybody else there?
Speaker 4: No, not one other person, not one other person, but
Speaker 4: I remember the Hulk and that was song and it
Speaker 4: just was epic.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 4: It's it's amazing because forever, you know, as a kid,
Speaker 4: you're sitting there watching these guys beat the hell out
Speaker 4: of each other and you're like.
Speaker 6: How do they do that? Like how do these dudes
Speaker 6: go in there and fight?
Speaker 4: And then as you get a little bit older, it
Speaker 4: loses a little bit of luster for you just because
Speaker 4: you're like, they still beat each other up and it's
Speaker 4: amazing what they do week in and week out. But
Speaker 4: at the same time, they're really not beating each other up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it loses the luster up they're not
Speaker 1: really fighting.
Speaker 5: But as you get older, older, it gains the Oh
Speaker 5: my god, the athletes that these girls, freaks, freaks create
Speaker 5: the like flips, the landing there's the landing on like
Speaker 5: you're back inside, even that little padding on the floor,
Speaker 5: the ends they're jumping off. They're two hundred and fifty
Speaker 5: pounds undred seven. The athleticism is wild.
Speaker 6: It is wild.
Speaker 4: And then would you get up on the top ropes
Speaker 4: like you see and you see these guys do backflips
Speaker 4: and land on somebody or get thrown out of a
Speaker 4: ring and land perfectly in the middle of full table
Speaker 4: and break the table just for entertainment value. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's phenomenal how athletic these guys are, and especially at
Speaker 4: their size.
Speaker 5: I was talking to Jeff, Jared, the guy was talking
Speaker 5: to today.
Speaker 6: I was like, Hey, if.
Speaker 5: Somebody gets hurt in a match, like if your right
Speaker 5: shoulder gets hurt, and they communicate under their breath or
Speaker 5: some speaking carny, they're all these languages they can speak
Speaker 5: in the ring, so people don't know that they're talking, Like,
Speaker 5: will you then protect their right shoulder if they're a
Speaker 5: the right shoulder, so you're only working on their left side.
Speaker 5: He goes, Dude, that's almost every match somebody gets hurt
Speaker 5: doing something and you're like, right ankle, so the guy knows,
Speaker 5: just kick him in the left ankle.
Speaker 6: Just but it's a dance.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's wild because the core it can't all be coordinated, right.
Speaker 4: They have to constantly call it. That's what we're talking
Speaker 4: about calling it in the ring. Yeah, and the cadence
Speaker 4: of that and to make it look real and then
Speaker 4: entertaining at the same time.
Speaker 6: It's pretty amazing what they do.
Speaker 4: And then also when they get up in front of
Speaker 4: the audience and they go on their rants.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I think it's goodst spectacular, I would go
Speaker 5: Stinging is my favorite all time, especially blonde hearts. Aside
Speaker 5: from wrestling, there are four people that I've tried to
Speaker 5: have sit down and do an interview with me in
Speaker 5: person that I have not been able to get and
Speaker 5: only four as the White Whales.
Speaker 6: David Letterman is my hero. Yes, I remember you saying that.
Speaker 5: Mark Grace is my favorite ballplayer ever, baseball player Chicago
Speaker 5: Cubs first baseman never met him, tried Sting is one.
Speaker 1: Of them, and I've never met Sting.
Speaker 5: In my first book that I wrote, he signed it
Speaker 5: and sent it back, but I never sent it to
Speaker 5: him to begin with, which was.
Speaker 1: Weird because I wrote whole thing about him.
Speaker 5: I wrote a whole thing about him in the book,
Speaker 5: and I get a mailed back to me and he
Speaker 5: signed the page that I wrote about him, didn't write
Speaker 5: a message or anything. He just mailed the book back,
Speaker 5: and I was like, that's really cool, but that's really
Speaker 5: weird because I never said it and maybe write a
Speaker 5: note because I love Sting.
Speaker 6: No, no, bro, you just get a signature over, like
Speaker 6: his name is the wildest thing. Oh a, Bobby, thanks
Speaker 6: for writing about me. Nothing Sting, love Sting.
Speaker 1: We got to go hang out with Stone Cold Steve
Speaker 1: Boston at his ranch.
Speaker 3: There's awesome love that dude, dude whatever we called them
Speaker 3: from the truck because we flew in and I'm never
Speaker 3: laid anywhere right, like not that talented, So I got
Speaker 3: to be disciplined on when I'm gonna get somewhere, where
Speaker 3: I'm gonna get somewhere, I say it, I'm gonna be
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 5: So we're like mister Cold, we're gonna be at your
Speaker 5: ranch at two pm. And he doesn't live near airport.
Speaker 5: So we flew private into a small place and then
Speaker 5: we're gonna drive like thirty minutes over to his ranch.
Speaker 5: There were so many clouds over the airport we couldn't land.
Speaker 5: I'm humiliated because I'm like, we're right, we're not gonna
Speaker 5: make it.
Speaker 6: We can't.
Speaker 5: We gotta fly to a different airport another half hour away.
Speaker 5: And so we call him. He's like, yeah, uh, that's
Speaker 5: all right. I'm just at the ranch anyway, just let
Speaker 5: me So I'm nervous. I'm nervous about even showing up late.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, I just want to tell you, Steve,
Speaker 5: I'm so I should not have been late. And he's
Speaker 5: like and he curses nonstock and he's like, dude, ranch anyway,
Speaker 5: we sat with them.
Speaker 1: He could not have been a nicer, warmer, more generous.
Speaker 6: It was amazing. That's amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So you love people like that too, And he's
Speaker 4: he's authentically real too, right.
Speaker 5: Especially super elite in their field who are constantly celebrated
Speaker 5: because they don't have to act like that, right, yet
Speaker 5: they still do. And I find that a lot though,
Speaker 5: Like the more famous the person, the nicer they are
Speaker 5: because they have nothing to prove.
Speaker 4: Right, they're more harmful a lot of us, and they're
Speaker 4: like they're past all the other minutia.
Speaker 5: I would go sting. I would go stone cold Steve Auston.
Speaker 5: That was right when I was like checking out or
Speaker 5: watching it every week.
Speaker 1: But he's massive. U. Macho man, Randy Savage.
Speaker 6: Oh, macho man, I forgot it.
Speaker 1: Old brother who was the greatest athlete.
Speaker 5: So he played maybe minor league baseball or college baseball really,
Speaker 5: but get this, he was let's say, right handed, broke
Speaker 5: his arm, so he just played with his other hand
Speaker 5: and had to learn. And so then what didn't pitch anymore,
Speaker 5: like played first base, but started to play with his
Speaker 5: other hand. He broke one of his arms and then
Speaker 5: used his other arm, had to learn. He was that
Speaker 5: kind of athlete. That's absurd. It's absurd. That's what we're
Speaker 5: These guys are like crazy. So macho Man is there
Speaker 5: and probably like a Rick Flair just because of what
Speaker 5: he meant to the sport.
Speaker 6: I mean, Rick's pretty special.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was watched the Netflix thing. It's cool that
Speaker 5: wrestling has gotten so big. It has it's back into
Speaker 5: pop like pop culture, even like the sports, like they
Speaker 5: hold up the championship belts for like an interception and
Speaker 5: stuff like it's back in.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm telling you it took the kids down
Speaker 4: to the Summer Slam here in Nashville at Nissan Stadium.
Speaker 4: It was incredible, like just the production and everything that
Speaker 4: goes in. We sat two rows behind and it was
Speaker 4: Roman Reigns and brock Lessener in the main event, and
Speaker 4: I mean it was awesome and people love it. I
Speaker 4: mean that stadium was packed to the gills.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a football stadium.
Speaker 4: Too, it is, but then they also put the seats
Speaker 4: on the field, so you're talking about further capacity in
Speaker 4: what you get for even a football game.
Speaker 6: I mean, it was packed and it was awesome.
Speaker 1: This has been my very first ever episode.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 5: When I'm sure the microphones have been on, we could
Speaker 5: have just been talking to ourselves. So if anybody is
Speaker 5: actually hearing this, thank you for listening.
Speaker 6: Hey, Kevin run us.
Speaker 5: Each game, let's let's we'll pick each winner in each
Speaker 5: of the playoff games and we'll call it a day.
Speaker 5: We do have Tim McGraw coming up in the next
Speaker 5: episode or two. Jared Allen coming over, so we hope
Speaker 5: that they resigned us for another episode.
Speaker 6: Weren't kidding. We're in a one week contract. Game one.
Speaker 6: Just go a FC side first.
Speaker 7: Kevin, you got Chargers Texans, Chargers Texans.
Speaker 6: I'm going with the Chargers. Want the Chargers. Yeah, I like.
Speaker 4: I like the Chargers, justin Herbert and just what they bring,
Speaker 4: the physicality in which they play with.
Speaker 6: I just I like the Chargers a.
Speaker 5: Lot down arrow on the Texans right now as far
Speaker 5: as like trending up or down. I didn't really get
Speaker 5: season two from Stroud. Unfair to expect better than his
Speaker 5: rookie year, but you just expect growth one to two,
Speaker 5: as they say, the most growth happens between one and two, right.
Speaker 4: But I think Houston surprised a lot of people last
Speaker 4: year with the rookie quarterbacks and all they have a
Speaker 4: young team and the way that they came in and
Speaker 4: just kind of took over that division last year. But
Speaker 4: then this year, people the expectation level rises and they're
Speaker 4: expecting this team to be really good, and then all
Speaker 4: of a sudden people kind of are like, Okay, we
Speaker 4: got to get.
Speaker 6: Up for this game.
Speaker 1: Bad division, bad division, really bad division.
Speaker 5: I'm agreeing with you, though, I'm just be guess Texans
Speaker 5: down more than Chargers up.
Speaker 1: But Chargers are going to be really good in the
Speaker 1: next couple of years.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean Harbaugh. Look, he's a stud man. He
Speaker 6: wins everywhere he goes.
Speaker 5: He's gonna be getting like a Tyreek who's not the
Speaker 5: Tyreek of five years ago. But Tyrek's like, I'm leaving
Speaker 5: the Dolphins and he's gonna have a wider, a big
Speaker 5: number one, not just mconkey, and it's They're gonna be awesome.
Speaker 6: He only wins, all right. Next game, Steelers.
Speaker 5: Ravens, Yeah, Ravens, and but you know, the Steelers are
Speaker 5: going to play them closer than they should because they
Speaker 5: always play them closer than they should.
Speaker 4: They will and this is the third time they've met,
Speaker 4: and it was recent that they played, so they're so
Speaker 4: familiar with each other. But I just think the Ravens
Speaker 4: Lamar Jackson, the way he's playing, and Derrick Henry and just.
Speaker 6: All the weapons that they have.
Speaker 1: What about the pressure on them more because he's got it.
Speaker 6: He's got it, man. Is that a real thing to him? Now?
Speaker 5: Like everyone and says, I do not perform when it
Speaker 5: comes to the playoffs, well, I.
Speaker 4: Think they've earned the right to say it's Super Bowl
Speaker 4: or bust. I mean, because there have been such a
Speaker 4: dominant team for so long during the regular season and
Speaker 4: they get to this stage and to take that next
Speaker 4: step as a player and to become the lead of
Speaker 4: the elite, which he already is the elite elite.
Speaker 6: In the regular season. Now he's got to go win
Speaker 6: a super Bowl next game.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Broncos Bills, Broncos Bills.
Speaker 5: This is just a which quarterback is far and above
Speaker 5: the best quarterback? And I mean that this is a
Speaker 5: quarterback game right right And really, to.
Speaker 6: Me, it's the Bills.
Speaker 4: And plus they're at home, and you know that there's
Speaker 4: going to be conditions, and I know that Buffalo is
Speaker 4: Buffalo's I mean, yeah, Denver's cold for sure. But at
Speaker 4: the same time, it's just a different environment up there
Speaker 4: with the Bills mafia and everything else going on. And
Speaker 4: when you have Josh Allen back there pulling the trigger,
Speaker 4: I mean, it's going to be a difficult game for
Speaker 4: the Broncos to go into that stadium and beat that team.
Speaker 6: Right now? Yeah, did o Marx, That's all I need
Speaker 6: to say. Did A Marx in that one. I agree.
Speaker 7: Next NFC time Packers at the Eagles.
Speaker 1: That's a fun one. I'm going to go with the Eagles.
Speaker 5: Hey, so is he out a concussion protocol yet? Do
Speaker 5: we know like Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 4: He's still he still was in concussion protocol? What I
Speaker 4: and what I read now that could have changed today.
Speaker 1: Yes, And we're recording this late Tuesday.
Speaker 5: This is going to go up early Wednesday, so he
Speaker 5: could be out right now.
Speaker 4: That would change the dynamics of this game dramatically, all
Speaker 4: because green Bay.
Speaker 6: Green Bay's got a stout defense. There's what's up, Kevin.
Speaker 7: He's still in as of two hours ago, he's still in.
Speaker 5: More we're expecting him to be out. So let's just
Speaker 5: say everything. Help is still going to go Eagles green Bay, though,
Speaker 5: like you said.
Speaker 6: If Jalen hurts us out, I'm going to go green Bay.
Speaker 1: Okay, But if he's out, I say, there's no way
Speaker 1: he misses.
Speaker 6: There's no way. There's no way. So we're both going
Speaker 6: to go Eagles. What do you think about Sirianni? So,
Speaker 6: Nick Sirianni, I called them pipes.
Speaker 4: He was with me his first year in the league
Speaker 4: in Kansas City and you as a player of coach.
Speaker 4: He was a coach, first year coach there, and he was,
Speaker 4: you know, like the bottom of the barrel, but awesome.
Speaker 4: Dude walked around with these tight shirts, always flex in
Speaker 4: on people and all this stuff.
Speaker 6: But he's made his track up.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 6: I'll tell him this to his face.
Speaker 4: I'm like, dude, what are you doing bantering with fans
Speaker 4: on the sideline and doing all that stuff.
Speaker 6: I'm just like, come on, Pipes, what are you doing? Pipes?
Speaker 4: I mean, but at the end of the day, you
Speaker 4: you can't take away his track record. I mean, the
Speaker 4: dude wins ball games and that team is as good
Speaker 4: as they are. And then the NFL and they've been
Speaker 4: for quite some time. So if they're at full health
Speaker 4: and we've got hurts playing, I'm going.
Speaker 6: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 4: Next Commanders, Bucks, This is the you know what, this
Speaker 4: is the game that you sit there and you go
Speaker 4: you could go either way.
Speaker 6: I'm going to go Bucks. Again. If it's either way,
Speaker 6: I'm usually going to go quarterback.
Speaker 5: And if quarterbacks tight, I'm gonna go to quarterback and
Speaker 5: coach yep, and I'm going to go Bucks. Baker do
Speaker 5: for four thousand yards. Baker's also not a rookie mm hmm.
Speaker 5: And from my time playing in the league, you never
Speaker 5: know what rookie is gonna do when the lives come on.
Speaker 4: Right And when you look at Washington, their defense is
Speaker 4: struggled a little bit down the stretch, and.
Speaker 6: They've got a rookie quarterback, but he's amazing. I think
Speaker 6: they'll be able to put up some points.
Speaker 4: But I just believe Baker Mayfield the way that he's playing,
Speaker 4: and especially these last three games, I mean, I believe
Speaker 4: the Bucks are gonna win at home.
Speaker 6: Last one.
Speaker 7: Here Vikings at the Rams.
Speaker 5: See, this is the one. To me is this is
Speaker 5: the Mystery Prize. I'm gonna go and this is that game.
Speaker 5: And I know Chaos is your boy. He is I
Speaker 5: know KSI boy. So I'm gonna go first, and I'm
Speaker 5: gonna go Rams, because again, if i'm gonna go, it's close.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go quarterbacks first, and I'm gonna go Stafford
Speaker 5: and Darnold. I'm taking Stafford. And if I'm gonna go coaches, listen,
Speaker 5: Kaos's from.
Speaker 6: The McVeigh tree. He is exactly. So I'm gonna go
Speaker 6: with the Rams.
Speaker 4: They're familiar with each other. I mean, and they're coming
Speaker 4: off a devastating loss. At the same time, when you
Speaker 4: look at the Vikings what they achieved this year. They
Speaker 4: played earlier in the season, it was a heck of
Speaker 4: the game and Stafford, he was like seventy five percent
Speaker 4: in that game and played out of his mind.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna go with my boy, Yeah you should.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go with my boy. I'm gonna go with
Speaker 4: the Vikings. And you know the fact that they're what
Speaker 4: were they fourteen and three this season and they're playing
Speaker 4: an away game right.
Speaker 6: Now, crazy that itself is crazy. It's kind of nuts.
Speaker 5: All right, Thank you guys for listening. We will see
Speaker 5: you guys again real soon. And then we have a
Speaker 5: theme song on the backside too, so hit that theme song.
Speaker 5: Will please follow us, like if you see us in
Speaker 5: your town, just follow us in your car, subscribe on YouTube.
Speaker 6: I don't even know where these buttons are, but push
Speaker 6: one of them, all right, Bye, guys.
Speaker 1: Lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is
Speaker 1: a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcasts. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts