Speaker 1: At least, is the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt
Speaker 1: Williamson on your twenty four to seven home of the
Speaker 1: Black and Gold cast in Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2: Yeah, welcome to the Drive. I am Dale LOLLI he
Speaker 2: is the Matt Williamson and Matt Lots of news coming
Speaker 2: out of the meetings that are taking in Minneapolis or
Speaker 2: just outside of Minneapolis at the Vikings facility. The NFL
Speaker 2: owners voted thirty two nothing to allow players to participate
Speaker 2: in the Olympics.
Speaker 3: Wow, thirty two nothing. I mean, I don't know how
Speaker 3: many votes they have, right, and we've talked about this
Speaker 3: quite a bit this week. I don't know how many
Speaker 3: players will take them up on it, or you know,
Speaker 3: what percentage of the roster will be NFL guys, maybe all,
Speaker 3: maybe one, maybe two. I don't know. I have no clue.
Speaker 3: I don't really know. I guess I guess I should
Speaker 3: look into what the rules are, you know, like they
Speaker 3: can play some dudes both ways. That's interesting. I mean,
Speaker 3: I definitely think the dedication to spreading the game of
Speaker 3: football worldwide is strong with the league really strong.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and there will be some other countries
Speaker 2: that can field teams that you know, they may have
Speaker 2: more NFL players on some of those teams. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: might not say American. That's a good point, Like I
Speaker 2: could see like the Canadian team, for example, there's I
Speaker 2: don't know, forty guys in the NFL that are Canadians,
Speaker 2: maybe more than that, maybe less, I don't know the exact.
Speaker 3: That might be a great opportunity for those players. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that makes sense.
Speaker 2: You know, some other countries may have some some guys
Speaker 2: that are capable of doing it, but I just think
Speaker 2: there are some very specific There are some specialized players
Speaker 2: who do nothing but play flag football in the United States.
Speaker 2: Oh right, right right, and they may have an upper
Speaker 2: hand on some of the NFL players because quite frankly,
Speaker 2: the NFL players aren't gonna have time to try for this.
Speaker 3: That's the thing that you're just gonna have to pick
Speaker 3: it up on the fly. Obviously there's some extreme overlap,
Speaker 3: but it's not like.
Speaker 2: The Steelers mini camp is in three weeks. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: end of the Olympics are going to take place in July.
Speaker 2: So if every team's mini camp is taking place as
Speaker 2: it does across the league sometime in June and.
Speaker 3: Then training camps right after the Olympics too. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: like you got to wedget in there. Your only time
Speaker 3: that you're off. But it is a unique opportunity, and
Speaker 3: you know, I mean it's pretty cool, you you know,
Speaker 3: stay Olympic village and go wherever. I don't know. And
Speaker 3: it's not like these hockey tournaments or whatever, where the
Speaker 3: rules are basically the same, you know, like you just
Speaker 3: they are a slight difference, you know, but I think
Speaker 3: they pick it up quick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm surely of course extreme extreme athletes.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: The NFL owners also passed the rule allowing on side
Speaker 2: kicks at any point when a team is trailing.
Speaker 3: When they're trailing, yeah, you can't.
Speaker 2: Take take out of the equation. What happened in the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl where the Chiefs scored with like eight seconds
Speaker 2: left in the third quarter. They're down three scores or
Speaker 2: four scores, whatever it was, can't do and they couldn't
Speaker 2: go on side. If they scored eight seconds later, they
Speaker 2: could have.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's a weird example because it's so late
Speaker 3: in the third quarter and you're getting beat that bad
Speaker 3: in the Super Bowl, But that that might happen five
Speaker 3: times throughout the course of the year. Yeah, you know, there.
Speaker 2: May be a you know, any you know, team might
Speaker 2: be down two or three scores in a third quarter
Speaker 2: and say, hey, we're going on side, Like why not?
Speaker 2: We can't stop these guys.
Speaker 3: I think it goes out saying but just to reiterate it,
Speaker 3: I mean, you still have to announce it. There's no
Speaker 3: surprise on sides because it's a different formation.
Speaker 2: But honestly, the on side kick is actually one of
Speaker 2: the more exciting plays in football.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, if it was executed correctly, if it bounces
Speaker 3: it in the air, you know, right, it's it's worth
Speaker 3: staying around for it. It doesn't happen a lot. But still
Speaker 3: that's a good rule. I mean, I think they just
Speaker 3: kind of screwed up the original rule. Yeah why may
Speaker 3: why limit it to the fourth quarter to begin with?
Speaker 2: I get you know, it was a brand new rule
Speaker 2: with the kickoffs. You had to kind of figure out
Speaker 2: what that was going to look like, so they had
Speaker 2: to have some guardrails there for it.
Speaker 3: But and maybe only you know, the Super Bowl is
Speaker 3: the biggest instance, but maybe it only happened three or
Speaker 3: four times in the course of the year. Where a
Speaker 3: coach is going, oh, I wish I could outside here. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so it's a small tweak, but a good one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. They also the Lions withdrew their proposal to change
Speaker 2: the playoff seating or even got to a vote. Okay,
Speaker 2: I think they realized it, don't We don't have the
Speaker 2: votes for this, Okay, okay, and we're fine with that,
Speaker 2: I think. I mean, again, the reasoning behind it was
Speaker 2: trying to get people not sitting late in the year.
Speaker 2: But I don't know that would be the end all
Speaker 2: be all for it, you know. And again everybody wants
Speaker 2: to throw out the rarities that occur. Right, Well, what
Speaker 2: you know, this eight win team gets to host a
Speaker 2: twelve win team. Well that's happened like three times in
Speaker 2: the last forty years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we cited it yesterday. The Seahawks with a
Speaker 3: losing record hosting a playoff game has happened once.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, happened one. And I've again, I've seen I've
Speaker 2: seen the Steelers be on the wrong side of that. Again,
Speaker 2: an eleven win team had to go to an eight
Speaker 2: win team. I've also seen the thirteen and three Broncos
Speaker 2: have to be a wild card and have to come
Speaker 2: to Pittsburgh. Yeah, which had won twelve games that year
Speaker 2: they were the two seeds.
Speaker 3: It's not that uncommon for the wild card five seed
Speaker 3: to have a better record than the four seed. No,
Speaker 3: but when your.
Speaker 2: Division win your division, that's you know, everybody knows the
Speaker 2: rules going into the season. Yeah, it's not like they
Speaker 2: surprise people with this. Somebody said, well, what you know,
Speaker 2: if a team goes six, and this was on the
Speaker 2: message board today, if a team wins sweeps its regular seat,
Speaker 2: it's it's division games and loses all the other ones,
Speaker 2: they could still win a division. You're not going to
Speaker 2: go You're not going to see a six and eleven
Speaker 2: team win a division, No, no, never. The rest of
Speaker 2: the teams in a division would have to be completely
Speaker 2: and utterly garbage.
Speaker 3: Right, I mean that that's what never happen, and they'd
Speaker 3: all have two wins from you anyways loss.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but a six and eleven team, for example, would
Speaker 2: be if they didn't make the playoffs, we'll be picking
Speaker 2: like eleventh or twelfth in the in the draft.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, maybe earlier.
Speaker 2: So you would have to have four of the worst
Speaker 2: eleven teams all in the same vision ten.
Speaker 3: I mean that never ever, it's that's rare than Seattle.
Speaker 2: It's not. It's never happened that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's almost impossible to happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: A point I wanted to make about that yesterday that
Speaker 3: kind of slipped my mind is unlike other sports, every
Speaker 3: schedule is an equal.
Speaker 2: He's my point with the whole thing. Mike de Corsi,
Speaker 2: who writes for the Sporting News today was was Tim
Speaker 2: Benz wrote about it in the Trib. In the Corsi,
Speaker 2: who I have a lot of respect for, you know,
Speaker 2: said he was one of the ones that brought up
Speaker 2: why should an eight win team host a twelve win team?
Speaker 2: I'm like, when you when your division, yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 2: know this is like this. You know, if you want
Speaker 2: to go to college basketball, which is what Mike primarily
Speaker 2: does he comes college basketball, then make it a full
Speaker 2: open NCAT Yeah yeah, yeah. And then the the ACC
Speaker 2: champion is the five seed because they, you know, somehow
Speaker 2: want a week conference that year. But that never happens
Speaker 2: that way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And my point is none of the schedules are
Speaker 3: the same in any right.
Speaker 2: That's and that's what I told them, Like, the schedules
Speaker 2: aren't equal.
Speaker 3: But at least the ones in your division are close,
Speaker 3: you know, the four teams of division play a similar,
Speaker 3: much more similar schedule than you know, the Steelers, Ravens, Browns,
Speaker 3: and Bengals play similar schedules more so than the Vikings
Speaker 3: do right to them.
Speaker 2: You know, we're going to see the teams in the
Speaker 2: NFC West this year, for example, have some reasonably gaudy
Speaker 2: win totals because they play the AFC South and the
Speaker 2: NFC South is their crossover games. It's just worked out
Speaker 2: that way this year. And well, of those teams in
Speaker 2: those in those two divisions, six of the eight aren't great.
Speaker 3: Aren't great, right, and don't project to be great? One
Speaker 3: of them be better? And we think want to be worse,
Speaker 3: we think, of course. And then there's like the flip
Speaker 3: side too, you'd be like, man, the Giants, they got
Speaker 3: last place schedule, they should have a nice easy run.
Speaker 3: Then we got that for the year this year for them,
Speaker 3: that way, they're projected to have the hardest schedule in
Speaker 3: the league. Yeah, that's a bad year to be the
Speaker 3: last place team in the AFC West. Or it's just
Speaker 3: how it works out.
Speaker 2: And and you know, this isn't this isn't like college
Speaker 2: football or college basketball or anything like that. You the league.
Speaker 2: I can tell you who. I can tell you who.
Speaker 2: The Steelers schedule is going to be five years from now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, there's a couple of variables, but right yeah.
Speaker 2: Other than you know, the teams, you know, a couple
Speaker 2: of spots that are determined by who they match up
Speaker 2: against based on wins, where they finish in the division.
Speaker 3: You can still pencil in wherever seeding they're in, they're
Speaker 3: going to play the NF North team that or AFC North.
Speaker 2: Team, for example, the Steelers twenty twenty let's go to
Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven schedule. That's that's even two years from.
Speaker 3: Right, right, Well, we know based on six games matter what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that they're going to play the Bengals twice, the
Speaker 2: Browns twice, the Ravens twice. But they're also going to
Speaker 2: play the Broncos, the Chiefs, the Raiders, the Chargers, Cardinals, Rams, Seahawks,
Speaker 2: forty nine Ers, and then there are three games that
Speaker 2: are determined on where they finish in the division. They
Speaker 2: played AFC South, AFC East, and NFC North. They finished
Speaker 2: with the same finish as them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they play West. I guess the twenty seven they
Speaker 3: play all the West, all the North, and that pretty
Speaker 3: much takes up fourteen of your seventeen games.
Speaker 2: Right, But if you know, if teams are making their
Speaker 2: own schedule like they do in Okay, so this twenty
Speaker 2: five win team might not be the same as this
Speaker 2: twenty six win team.
Speaker 3: Note close.
Speaker 2: You know, that's why you look at stuff. You know,
Speaker 2: they have their ratings out there and the strength of
Speaker 2: schedule and all that stuff comes into play. Well in
Speaker 2: the NFL, Oh, you can't really do that because the
Speaker 2: schedule was set.
Speaker 3: And again we talked about this yesterday. I like the
Speaker 3: idea of team building to win your division, you know,
Speaker 3: to beat your opponents, to be your geography, you know,
Speaker 3: all that the stuff you deal with year after year.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Not, man, we got the Broncos on the schedule in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty seven. We better find someone that can beat patzertain.
Speaker 2: Which is actually you know where the Steelers got themselves
Speaker 2: into trouble in twenty sixteen, is.
Speaker 3: That, like the Patriot, they built the off season a.
Speaker 2: Man off season. Hey, we gotta we gotta go out.
Speaker 2: We gotta find a figure out a way. They had
Speaker 2: just lost to the Patriots in the AFC Championship. We
Speaker 2: got to figure out a way to beat the Patriots. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: they were still good enough to win the division.
Speaker 3: But how do we get over the hump of the
Speaker 3: big bad Wolf?
Speaker 2: But then, all of a sudden you run into a
Speaker 2: team that plays a real physical style of football, which
Speaker 2: you should have been built to handle in the AFC.
Speaker 3: North, but usually you are.
Speaker 2: Usually you are in that situation you weren't because you.
Speaker 3: Know, yeah, you're looking for Edelman and those guys, you know, right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I definitely think that can be a mistake. I'm sure
Speaker 3: teams do it with the chief now, you know that
Speaker 3: the Bills and Ravens look around like, Okay, we've done
Speaker 3: well in our division, but haven't got to quite where
Speaker 3: we want to go. Is it worse sacrificing some stuff?
Speaker 3: I think you can do that.
Speaker 2: If, for example, you're the Bills this year, you can
Speaker 2: look at the at the rest of your division go well,
Speaker 2: we should win our division. Yeah yeah, but can we
Speaker 2: beat the Chiefs? Whereas the Ravens might look at this
Speaker 2: and go, eh, we could lose the division to the
Speaker 2: Bengals or Steelers pretty easily because they're both good teams.
Speaker 2: Can we worry about what we need to do to
Speaker 2: beat the Chiefs or the Bills.
Speaker 3: Bills are a good example. I mean, obviously they're stronger
Speaker 3: on the offensive side of the ball, and they have
Speaker 3: been particularly in their playoff performances. But what knocked off
Speaker 3: the Chiefs a deep defensive line that the Eagles had
Speaker 3: they could really rush the passer, and they drafted three
Speaker 3: defensive line I think in their first four picks. Right,
Speaker 3: I mean that probably is not an accident.
Speaker 2: No, but to that point, that works against anybody. That's
Speaker 2: just something that works. Never a terrible strategy to get out.
Speaker 2: Then their d line need to work, right, Yeah, so work.
Speaker 2: We'll see about the Tush push stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I still think that is going to be the one
Speaker 2: that's going to be the most contentious.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It seems like the one most talked about too. Yeah, and.
Speaker 2: I still think there's there's going to be a reasonable
Speaker 2: push to make.
Speaker 3: That happen to eliminate it.
Speaker 2: I think, so I kind of lean towards that too.
Speaker 2: Sixteen Well, No, okay, that's I just was looking at
Speaker 2: the latest update here. It's still uh no proposal to
Speaker 2: band Tush push and NFL fails by two votes according
Speaker 2: to esp.
Speaker 3: Will stick around. Yeah, they need to get to twenty four.
Speaker 2: They get to twenty twenty two, okay, twenty two to ten.
Speaker 3: It was sixteen just a month or so, So maybe
Speaker 3: you're going to see it this year.
Speaker 2: There'll be some kind of modified proposal to what this was. Right, right,
Speaker 2: it's going away. It will go away this year, but
Speaker 2: I would expect it to go away in the near future.
Speaker 3: The way I understand this proposal was just banning the
Speaker 3: tush push specifically. Yeah, I would write it you can't
Speaker 3: aid any ball carriers.
Speaker 2: I would go back to the yeah, yeah, pre two
Speaker 2: thousand and five rules where you just can't aid the runner.
Speaker 3: Right, no matter who it is, anyone with the ball
Speaker 3: in their hand, the offensive player can't push them in.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: I've also seen the argument put out there, well that
Speaker 2: was never called because teams didn't do it, they didn't
Speaker 2: design it, nobody did it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like there
Speaker 2: was no there were There weren't situations where you saw
Speaker 2: these drums and these guys just moving down. It didn't
Speaker 2: happen that way. That's why it was never called. It
Speaker 2: was on the books and wasn't called because it didn't happen.
Speaker 3: Right, Like, I was in here thinking if there's a
Speaker 3: running back, fighting for yardage like Nausey often did with
Speaker 3: a bunch of people around him. He's not going down,
Speaker 3: and this tight end comes flying over to try to
Speaker 3: knock someone off the pile and runs into Nausey's back
Speaker 3: and helps them gain two yards. I'm not throwing the
Speaker 3: flag on that, you know what I mean, But it's
Speaker 3: if I'm behind them, you know, driving them and doing
Speaker 3: the work for them, basically flag. Yeah, you know, so
Speaker 3: I hope that's how it goes, but we'll see.
Speaker 2: I think that I think that would get much more
Speaker 2: support from the coaches around the league.
Speaker 3: I would also think it's easier to officiate.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, as opposed you know, you know what
Speaker 2: it is when you see it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's a design. It's a design play
Speaker 3: with its own formation. I mean you know it's coming
Speaker 3: before they even snap it. Yeah, you know, I guess
Speaker 3: I'm glad it got close. So it makes me think
Speaker 3: we'll have one more year a toush pushing.
Speaker 2: I would think, so, yeah, And then you know, I
Speaker 2: get the other side of the argument that you know,
Speaker 2: well stop.
Speaker 3: It, which is what okay something said for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, somebody can show me how you can stop it regularly,
Speaker 2: then I'll believe that it can be stopped on a
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: I just hope a quarterback doesn't get hurt this year,
Speaker 3: and that's the reason we get to twenty four next year.
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, especially Hurts because he's one does the most.
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, Hurts gets hurt.
Speaker 3: Hurts gets hurt.
Speaker 2: I don't want to see that.
Speaker 3: But uh and Mike commind a great point at the
Speaker 3: owners meeting too that there just haven't been that many
Speaker 3: times has been recalled in the history of the league
Speaker 3: to judge it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So let's get to a break. I am
Speaker 2: Dale Rollie. He is the Matt Williamson and this is
Speaker 2: the Drive on the Steelers Audio Network. We've got a
Speaker 2: lot coming at you today, star studded show. Nice, We're
Speaker 2: gonna take a break. We'll be back with more right
Speaker 2: after this.
Speaker 4: At least.
Speaker 1: He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on
Speaker 1: your twenty four to seven home of the Black and
Speaker 1: Gold Steelers Nation.
Speaker 2: Radio and welcome back. I am Dale Lolly. He is
Speaker 2: the Matt Williamson and you can tell by the music
Speaker 2: that we are joined on the Justin Miller Hotline by
Speaker 2: Bob Labriola, the Dean of Doom, the lord of living
Speaker 2: in his fears, the editor of Steelers Digest in Steelers
Speaker 2: dot com, How you doing, Labs.
Speaker 4: Theush Push survives.
Speaker 2: Barely by the skin of its well tush. It is
Speaker 2: still it is still alive and semi well. Matt and
Speaker 2: I were just talking about that in the previous segment, Bob,
Speaker 2: and the fact that it got twenty two votes. If
Speaker 2: you believe the reports that have come out of the
Speaker 2: owner's meeting here would suggest that maybe a couple of
Speaker 2: minor tweaks next year, we could see that go away.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I just I don't. I just don't
Speaker 4: see it being overturned or band or whatever the word is,
Speaker 4: until there is some something that happens, you know, where
Speaker 4: somebody gets hurt, because you know, it's an offensive play.
Speaker 4: We love offense. Anything that benefits the offense is good,
Speaker 4: good for ratings, which is good for everybody. So you know,
Speaker 4: to me, the thing that I've been reading that I
Speaker 4: am happiest about is that the playoff receding thing bit
Speaker 4: the GOA.
Speaker 2: Ask you about that, Yeah, yeah, that one. That one
Speaker 2: didn't even get off the ground. The Lions pulled the
Speaker 2: proposal before they even got into the meeting, because I
Speaker 2: think they realized nobody support nobody else is on board.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, one of the things that Judy Batista speculated on
Speaker 4: was that, you know that what is it twenty twenty
Speaker 4: six or it might have something to do with the
Speaker 4: eighteen game regular season. I don't exactly understand or what
Speaker 4: or know what she meant in terms of how that
Speaker 4: would be tied together. You know, maybe, and I'm speculating here,
Speaker 4: maybe what she was referring to was that whenever, you know,
Speaker 4: Roger Goodell tries to I won't say implement that because
Speaker 4: it's gonna it comes down to a vote of the
Speaker 4: you know, entire NFLPA, But whenever that is put up
Speaker 4: for a vote or whatever, maybe there is some sort
Speaker 4: of issue with playoff receiding tied into that whole eighteen
Speaker 4: game regular season package proposal whatever. I don't know, but
Speaker 4: I'm just glad for now that it maintains the integrity
Speaker 4: of if a team wins its division, it should get
Speaker 4: a home playoff game, and it should get preferred playoff
Speaker 4: seeding to the rest of the playoffs over teams that
Speaker 4: make the wild card. That's I believe that. I will
Speaker 4: always believe that. Maybe I'm old school, but that's the
Speaker 4: way I think it should be.
Speaker 2: Well, let's go down the rabbit hole with that, bob,
Speaker 2: because if you're going to do that, when you also
Speaker 2: go to eighteen games, one of the things that.
Speaker 3: We think eighteen games definitely happen.
Speaker 2: At some point, eighteen is going to happen, and it's
Speaker 2: probably in the next few years. And one of the
Speaker 2: reasons why that this was table was because of that,
Speaker 2: As Judy Batista wrote, if you're going to do that,
Speaker 2: shouldn't you then instead of having four divisions, have two
Speaker 2: eighteen divisions in each conference to make it more like,
Speaker 2: to make your maybe you don't play everybody twice, but
Speaker 2: maybe you play everybody in your division once or something
Speaker 2: along those lines, just to make it more equal, because
Speaker 2: you're gonna have to figure out a way if you're
Speaker 2: gonna if you're gonna receive the playoffs like that, my
Speaker 2: twelve and four record might not be the same as
Speaker 2: you're eleven, or twelve and five record might not be
Speaker 2: the same as you're eleven and six record because we
Speaker 2: don't play the same teams. You got to find a
Speaker 2: way to equal out the schedules a.
Speaker 3: Little bit more.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, again, I think that the NFL regular
Speaker 4: season is lessened if you don't have two Steelers Ravens
Speaker 4: games an example, you know, two Eagles, Cowboys, even Bears, Packers, yeah, Packers, Bears, whatever.
Speaker 4: You know. I just think that some of those divisional games, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, when and when the league realigned in two
Speaker 4: for the two thousand and two season into you know,
Speaker 4: fourteen divisions, you know, four divisions in each conference, sixteen
Speaker 4: game schedule at the time, I mean, it just made
Speaker 4: perfect mathematical sense. But over the course of that it
Speaker 4: also I think created rivalries that are good for television,
Speaker 4: that energize the fan bases excuse me. And so you
Speaker 4: know again, I think that if you're cutting back on
Speaker 4: some of those divisional matchups, I mean, maybe, you know,
Speaker 4: Houston against Jacksonville doesn't move the needle, but as I
Speaker 4: was just saying, Pittsburgh Baltimore definitely does.
Speaker 2: I'm just not sure where they get the extra game
Speaker 2: at if they when they go to eighteen games. I
Speaker 2: you know, because right now, as we know, the schedule
Speaker 2: works out that you play with the seventeenth game at well,
Speaker 2: now you got to play one one extra team in
Speaker 2: the other conference, and it rotates through. But as things
Speaker 2: are now, you play three, You play your regular your schedule,
Speaker 2: you play another division within the conference, you play another
Speaker 2: division outside of the conference, and then you play the
Speaker 2: three teams and you're within your conference that finish with
Speaker 2: the like record as you.
Speaker 3: I've heard some people throw out trying to create new rivalries.
Speaker 3: Eagles play the Steelers every year, the two New York
Speaker 3: teams play every year, the two LA teams play every year.
Speaker 3: But you start doing the you start connecting the dots.
Speaker 2: But there's still there's still gonna be an extra game though,
Speaker 2: because if that year that you playing the you're gonna
Speaker 2: play the Eagles twice.
Speaker 3: Four teams if they happen to be the same seed
Speaker 3: as you, it would happen rarely.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna have to see some kind of tweaking
Speaker 2: of the schedule one way or the other.
Speaker 3: But what's funny, though, Like when you do the AFC
Speaker 3: NFC and you go you draw a line from the
Speaker 3: teams that all should play each other, there's not as
Speaker 3: many obvious ones as you think, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: you got Arizona playing the Dolphins or something.
Speaker 4: How about this, the eighteenth game is an international game, You're.
Speaker 3: Still gonna play somebody.
Speaker 2: You still have to figure out who you're going to play, though.
Speaker 3: But I could definitely see what I mean, Yeah, I
Speaker 3: think that will happen.
Speaker 4: I'm just looking for yeah, because I think that's another
Speaker 4: area where the league's gonna want to continue to grow
Speaker 4: and expand. And so if the eighteenth game is an
Speaker 4: international game, maybe they figured out how to work that out.
Speaker 4: I don't know, make make more teams playing overseas, make
Speaker 4: more teams play overseas. Maybe it opens up more venues,
Speaker 4: more different countries.
Speaker 2: I definitely think that's in the works.
Speaker 3: I think the eighteenth when it gets to an eighteen
Speaker 3: game schedule, I think every team will go overseas one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's all part of the of the processor.
Speaker 2: I just don't know how you pick that additional team
Speaker 2: that you're going to play unless it's it's the other
Speaker 2: because you play you play one division in each conference
Speaker 2: outside of every year, Like I'm looking here at the
Speaker 2: Steelers schedules for the next four years. So in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty eight, they play the the AFC East. They also
Speaker 2: match up against the NFC East those they have the
Speaker 2: NFC South team that finishes with the same record as them.
Speaker 2: They have the AFC West and AFC South teams that
Speaker 2: also finished with the same record as them. That doesn't
Speaker 2: leave any other divisions.
Speaker 4: Let me just bread this out. It's not the same record,
Speaker 4: it's the same model spot.
Speaker 2: The only other thing that they could do would be
Speaker 2: to match up against the other team from the NFC
Speaker 2: that you don't play that year. So for example, that
Speaker 2: year they play the NFC South.
Speaker 3: You play two third place teams in the NFL or whatever.
Speaker 3: Or knowing the NFL, I just thought on me if
Speaker 3: it's a good idea or not, but everyone on the
Speaker 3: planet would tune in. It's some boring time of the year.
Speaker 3: You get a bunch of ping pong balls, Here comes
Speaker 3: the Steelers, and then you pick one out of the
Speaker 3: NFC bin. Oh, you got the Commanders this year. You
Speaker 3: know that's your last game. Okay, you know everybody would watch,
Speaker 3: That's true, everybody would hopefully.
Speaker 4: That's also the same year that the NFL goes to
Speaker 4: My greatest fear for the draft one one pick a
Speaker 4: day for the entire month of April, and uh, you
Speaker 4: know it's all.
Speaker 3: I'd be on the.
Speaker 2: I'd really be on the air a lot Williamson on
Speaker 2: the air.
Speaker 4: I mean, right, I'll give you a couple of years
Speaker 4: to get those vocals right, right, Maybe you can start
Speaker 4: doing bench presses. But I don't know. I I just
Speaker 4: think that and I always suggest that to be absurd,
Speaker 4: but I think that, you know, absurdity sometimes. Yeah, oh man.
Speaker 3: I do think there's a lot of merit though, to
Speaker 3: building your team to win your specific division. You know
Speaker 3: your geography, what are the rates? How do we you know,
Speaker 3: do the Steelers draft? Why you're black? If it's not
Speaker 3: for Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Uh right, and yeah, and I think divisions have
Speaker 4: developed identities.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, there's no doubt about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and uh, you know, I like it. It interests me,
Speaker 4: you know, when there are random games on, you know,
Speaker 4: I often would I would rather watch a division game usually.
Speaker 4: I mean there are obvious except but I mean, if
Speaker 4: you know, for example, if it's I don't know, Buffalo
Speaker 4: against New England or the Cardinals against Jacksonville, I'd watch
Speaker 4: the division game just because even when it seems like,
Speaker 4: for example, Buffalo against New England. You look at those
Speaker 4: two teams right now, that would not seem to be
Speaker 4: a very closely contested game based on what you think
Speaker 4: of those teams and where they have been recently in
Speaker 4: terms of standings and stuff. But division games, I think
Speaker 4: are always more likely to surprise you with the outcome
Speaker 4: because of the familiarity of the teams we mentioned.
Speaker 3: Earlier too, like Jaggs, Texans might not move the needle,
Speaker 3: but it might in five years. You know, Stroud and
Speaker 3: Lawrence is great, you know who.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So anyway, Yeah, I'm a I'm a believer in
Speaker 4: the division thing. I I like a lot of a
Speaker 4: lot about it, and uh, you know, I would be
Speaker 4: in favor of maintaining that.
Speaker 2: While we're on that subject, Bub and I just thought
Speaker 2: about this. We haven't really talked about Cleveland trying to
Speaker 2: build a dome in in up in Cleveland out by
Speaker 2: their up by their airport. That is non a f
Speaker 2: C North type football. I mean, when you think about
Speaker 2: the a f C North, you're thinking about teams that
Speaker 2: are playing out in the elements and doing those kind
Speaker 2: of things. It just kind of goes against what the
Speaker 2: division is about in many ways.
Speaker 4: Sure, But I mean I think that that is a
Speaker 4: reflection of their current ownership.
Speaker 2: So it's not even retractable. It's just do I think
Speaker 2: it's just a dome. Like buff Buffalo is building a
Speaker 2: new stadium right now. If if somebody wanted to say,
Speaker 2: if Buffalo should have a dome, and I would get Okay,
Speaker 2: I get it. You know, Minnesota should have a dome,
Speaker 2: right because it's ridiculously cold up there, you know, in
Speaker 2: the middle of the winter. But Buffalo said, no, We're
Speaker 2: not building a dome because this is what we are.
Speaker 2: This is part of our our you know, what makes
Speaker 2: us the Bills, the Browns, building a dome stadium in
Speaker 2: Cleveland goes just goes against the AFC North in general
Speaker 2: and what they.
Speaker 4: Should be and what everything you think about, you know,
Speaker 4: Sundays on the on the shores of Lake Ears.
Speaker 2: It actually takes away one of their few things that
Speaker 2: that gives them an advantage on some Sundays, Like there's
Speaker 2: been some games up there where weather has been a
Speaker 2: major factor and it levels the playing field for some
Speaker 2: bad Browns teams or Red eight eight or that. You
Speaker 2: might explain that one to our younger listeners.
Speaker 4: But yeah, right, that was a brutally bitter cold day
Speaker 4: where the Browns were hosting the Oakland Raiders and they
Speaker 4: were in position. The Browns were in position to kick
Speaker 4: a game winning field goal, and in his in his
Speaker 4: I don't know, I'll call it genius, Sam Ertigliana decided, well,
Speaker 4: let's run one more play and he tells Brian Sipe,
Speaker 4: you know, if it's not the play was red right
Speaker 4: eighty eight. If it's not there right away, throw it
Speaker 4: into the dog bomb, will kick the field goal and
Speaker 4: win the game. Well, Brian Sipe didn't do that. He
Speaker 4: threw the pass into the end zone, it was intercepted
Speaker 4: and the Browns did not get to go to advance.
Speaker 4: That wasn't an AFC championship game, I don't think.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: They saved that for games against the Broncos.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you know, the Browns were very much a
Speaker 4: Super Bowl contending team that year in my opinion.
Speaker 2: Oh they were many of those years during the eighties. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they just couldn't get.
Speaker 3: Over the hollow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was you know, I laughed very hard that day.
Speaker 4: I remember that was very enjoyable. But you know that
Speaker 4: that's a day, like you were describing, deal where it
Speaker 4: should have been an advantage for the Browns. Cold, raw, windy.
Speaker 4: I see all those things against a California team, but
Speaker 4: they still choked. So, you know, Yeah, getting back to
Speaker 4: the original point, I wouldn't be in favor of a
Speaker 4: dome in Cleveland. I don't think you need a dome
Speaker 4: in Cleveland to pack the joint those fans. You know,
Speaker 4: it's like putting a dome over lambeau Field. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: just don't think that those fans need that to show up.
Speaker 4: What they may need is, you know, respective respectable competitive team.
Speaker 4: But who knows, Maybe ownership now believes up there that
Speaker 4: it's easier to build a dome than it is to
Speaker 4: be a respectable competitive team.
Speaker 3: Lads, do you see the Browns as a distant fourth
Speaker 3: in the North right now?
Speaker 4: I do, Yeah, I don't, I don't know distant. You know,
Speaker 4: last is last, to paraphrase Juju, last is last. The
Speaker 4: Browns is the Browns. I just don't have a lot
Speaker 4: of belief that, you know. I think ownership up there
Speaker 4: sometimes gets a little too involved that you know. I
Speaker 4: will never forget the look on Andrew Berry's face their
Speaker 4: GM when they announced that Shador Sanders picky. I mean,
Speaker 4: so who knows. I don't. I don't. I really I
Speaker 4: don't know what to expect from Browns. They don't seem
Speaker 4: to me to do a lot of things where you
Speaker 4: after they do, then you say, oh, that makes sense.
Speaker 4: You know, even the Miles Garrett contract, the Deshaun Watson
Speaker 4: trade and the contract they gave him, the Johnny Manzel pick,
Speaker 4: the Brady Quinn pick. It's you know, I I from
Speaker 4: the franchise when it entered the NFL. The Cleveland franchise
Speaker 4: entered the NFL in nineteen fifty. It was so it
Speaker 4: was almost like a well oiled machine. You know. The
Speaker 4: Browns were They were always always, always near the top
Speaker 4: of the Eastern Conference. You know, the NFL even attempted,
Speaker 4: because the Browns were absorbed from the All American Football Conference.
Speaker 4: They the NFL even attempted to embarrass them by their
Speaker 4: very first NFL game, They had to play the defending
Speaker 4: champion Eagles, and the Browns kicked their butt, kicked their butt.
Speaker 4: The Browns were also very progressive in terms of African Americans,
Speaker 4: Bill Willis, Mary and Motley, all those kind of guys.
Speaker 4: You know, all the innovations Paul Brown made in terms
Speaker 4: of game film and you know all of that stuff.
Speaker 4: The Browns were the first franchise to have radio helmets,
Speaker 4: in the radio signals and the helmets so that Paul
Speaker 4: Brown could communicate directly with the quarterback.
Speaker 2: That franchise is still on pretty well, that's just in Baltimore.
Speaker 4: Now, right. But you know, again, like I said, so
Speaker 4: many things about that franchise were cutting edge, so well
Speaker 4: thought out, you know, just kind of I won't say militaristic,
Speaker 4: but they offered like a well oiled platoon of soldiers
Speaker 4: or you know whatever, whatever kind of comparison you want
Speaker 4: to make. But now, I mean, I just I don't know.
Speaker 4: You just never know what's going to happen. And as
Speaker 4: I said, very rarely after it happens, when you go wow,
Speaker 4: that makes a lot of sense. Wish I had thought.
Speaker 3: Of that, Labs. You might have noticed it from the
Speaker 3: article I wrote from you recently. I was not a
Speaker 3: big fan of the direction of their draft either, right,
Speaker 3: I mean doesn't add up to me at all. No
Speaker 3: offensive line, mean, what are you doing?
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, and all the picks they had it just
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know, and yeah, the and the
Speaker 4: the trading away from Travis Hunter.
Speaker 3: Two quarterbacks, two running backs.
Speaker 4: What are you doing if if they had, as you
Speaker 4: pointed out, if they had used that bounty they received
Speaker 4: from that to address the issues that their roster had,
Speaker 4: than okay, but they squat they blew those picks. Those picks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't understand it.
Speaker 4: I mean, right, I can't understand it.
Speaker 2: Well, Bob, this is why we have you on the show,
Speaker 2: because you are a true historian of the game and
Speaker 2: insight into not just the Steelers but some other teams
Speaker 2: in the division. And and I think people forget that's
Speaker 2: two different franchises, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Right, the good one left out right.
Speaker 4: And that's and that's why the Steelers hate the Ravens
Speaker 4: because at the time it was Steelers Browns was bitter
Speaker 4: from the beginning, and uh and the and the Ravens
Speaker 4: are our Modell's Browns, and so there was a lot
Speaker 4: of hatred. They're already built up. They didn't even have
Speaker 4: to a lot of times, you know, with a new team,
Speaker 4: not that the Ravens were an expansion team, but you
Speaker 4: catch I drift, it's a new team there, it takes
Speaker 4: a while before you start hating.
Speaker 2: Oh that was that was a team that the Steelers
Speaker 2: had just played in the playoffs like two years before that,
Speaker 2: when they were the first Ravens team, like they had
Speaker 2: just met in the playoffs.
Speaker 4: And beat them three times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was yeah, I mean, that was all
Speaker 2: across you.
Speaker 4: Think about it. The Steelers have done that twice to
Speaker 4: that franchise nineteen ninety four, in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 4: beat them three times.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, well, Bob, we will let you go and
Speaker 2: appreciate you drop them by. We didn't uh, we didn't
Speaker 2: get to talk all that much about the tush push
Speaker 2: and all that stuff. But plenty of time to talk
Speaker 2: about that, and there's there's plenty out there about it.
Speaker 2: Everybody has their opinions about it.
Speaker 4: But and thank thank you for not making me talk
Speaker 4: about OTAs.
Speaker 2: Oh, not a problem, not a problem at all. Are
Speaker 2: you going to OTAs?
Speaker 3: I said, we'll be broadcasting from down there next week.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I mean, uhh, if you guys are
Speaker 4: going to be broadcasting, I'll come down at least once
Speaker 4: just to make funny stop.
Speaker 2: By the cafeteria at least, you know where you can
Speaker 2: stop by the table and talk to us while we're
Speaker 2: on the air broadcasting during ota.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, all right, there you go, There you go.
Speaker 2: Our guest has been Bob Labriola, editor of Steeler's Digest
Speaker 2: in Steelers dot Com, the Dean of Doom, the lord
Speaker 2: of living in his fears. He's Matt Williamson. I'm Dale Lollie.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Driver here in the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 2: We will be back with more right after this.
Speaker 4: At least.
Speaker 1: He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson on
Speaker 1: your twenty four to seven Home of the Black and
Speaker 1: Gold Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2: And we are back. I am Dale Lolly. He is
Speaker 2: the Matt Williamson, and is Bob Labriola just said, there Matt.
Speaker 2: Next week OTAs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I actually see football stuff.
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks of OTAs and we'll get a
Speaker 2: week of mini camp as well. When I say a week,
Speaker 2: they actually go Tuesday through Thursday. Okay, right, that's right, right,
Speaker 2: So it's really nine practices on the field. They are
Speaker 2: football like. Yeah, it's football like.
Speaker 3: They were more.
Speaker 2: Involved in the rookie mini camp.
Speaker 3: So funny. I was on a Dynasty podcast this morning,
Speaker 3: and I guess tooting first time they hand him the
Speaker 3: ball he fumbles in Ota, we know he's a fumbler.
Speaker 3: I'm like, and they're like, should we be worried about it?
Speaker 3: I'm like, the big conversation was to be overreact to OTAs.
Speaker 3: I'm like, yes, you overreact to OTAs, but nobody hit them.
Speaker 3: Nobody right.
Speaker 2: It's like you can't even say, well, I hit you know,
Speaker 2: hit the handoff, hit my shoulder pad, and.
Speaker 3: I right right, right right, or something like. That's not
Speaker 3: a great sign a fumbler. No cackle didn't blast him
Speaker 3: in the ball and flying.
Speaker 2: Out and he knew it wasn't he wasn't gonna get it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's probably just like, don't fumble, don't fumble, oh.
Speaker 2: Man, don't think about pink elephants.
Speaker 3: So that's quite me if I'm wrong. But next week
Speaker 3: we got Memorial Day no show three from down there.
Speaker 2: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, down there Friday, no show. So basically
Speaker 2: from here on out, folks, at least until mini camps
Speaker 2: or i should say training camp starts at the end
Speaker 2: of July, and I'm just guessing here that's probably starts
Speaker 2: sometime around you know, if you can do the math,
Speaker 2: just go backwards two weeks from when they play their
Speaker 2: first preseason game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so when it camp opens you're talking about.
Speaker 2: So you're probably looking at somewhere in the one, two three,
Speaker 2: the fourth week of July that the training camp will start.
Speaker 2: We will go back to four days a week and
Speaker 2: actually or something sorry, five days a week. Actually during
Speaker 2: training camp, every day they practice, we do a show.
Speaker 2: We do a show, so sometimes it's more than seven
Speaker 2: day a week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, so good stuff. So we'll have
Speaker 3: three shows. Players should be joining us next week too, right, Yes.
Speaker 2: We will have player interviews and everything. I should say
Speaker 2: though that we won't have video down there. Friday of
Speaker 2: this week will be Friday this week will be our
Speaker 2: last day for video on YouTube until until training camp
Speaker 2: starts off, and we will have our all of our
Speaker 2: shows at training camp throughout the rest of the season.
Speaker 2: Then you can find us on like every other platform
Speaker 2: out there. Yeah, you can still listen and uh obviously
Speaker 2: we'll still do our Twitter Thursday and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it won't be much different. Good stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 3: that's just I just like to get back down there.
Speaker 3: And I haven't seen any of the new players in
Speaker 3: person yet, really, I mean, I want to see you're
Speaker 3: like Why You're Black is ridiculously huge. I've never seen
Speaker 3: Metcalf in person. I mean, I bet it's.
Speaker 2: A little whoa you know. So, So we'll get an
Speaker 2: opportunity to do all that next week again. We'll be
Speaker 2: broadcasting live during the OTA practices so well, and we'll will.
Speaker 3: Be commenting on like boy, that is a heck of
Speaker 3: a catch.
Speaker 2: Orge. We can't cover three right now, but we will
Speaker 2: have players coming over to join us once the session
Speaker 2: is done, so you want to hear that. We'll get
Speaker 2: some interviews with some of these guys. There's a list
Speaker 2: out there of guys that have been requested. You'll really
Speaker 2: like the list of guys. We'll get some of it.
Speaker 2: We won't get all of them, but we'll get some
Speaker 2: of them because there's only nine sessions total. But you
Speaker 2: will enjoy listening or being able to hear these guys
Speaker 2: chat with us for ten minutes or so at the
Speaker 2: end of the show. You won't want to miss that,
Speaker 2: and you can't get it anywhere else. That's key, that's
Speaker 2: the key. That's why we do these shows. But that's
Speaker 2: going to do it for hour number one. He is
Speaker 2: Matt Williamson. I am Dale Lallie, you're listening to the
Speaker 2: Drive here on the Steelers Audio Network. We'll be back
Speaker 2: with more right after this