Speaker 1: Doug Gottli, Brob Parker in for Dan and the dan
Speaker 1: Net's and uh this is it's always fun for me
Speaker 1: to have lights out Sean Merriman on because now he's
Speaker 1: a great dude. He's got diverse interests. There's always something
Speaker 1: unique about him, right like like like Rob, where are
Speaker 1: where are you were? In the like, let's let's give
Speaker 1: away some inside the belt waste secrets. Where are you
Speaker 1: right now? I'm in my living room in West l A. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm in my I'm in my bedroom in Newport Beach.
Speaker 1: Sean Merriman, Where are you Guadalahara? Why are you in Gladhara? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I thought i'd get out for a little bit.
Speaker 1: I got some friends in town just uh maybe glass
Speaker 1: with dinner. Didn't head out to uh cain't colan right after?
Speaker 1: So enjoining them? Enjoined this a little bit of free
Speaker 1: time I have. What what is it? What is it
Speaker 1: like in Guadalajara right now? Uh? Shut down? It's just
Speaker 1: uh me, It's about you know, whenever I get free time,
Speaker 1: I have to have a change, change in scenity read
Speaker 1: because we've all been locked down and be in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles for moms and you know, it's the same routine.
Speaker 1: That's wake up, Jim, work home. You know, it's the
Speaker 1: same routine. So for me and noticed to keep any
Speaker 1: kind of sanity that I have left, I always go
Speaker 1: for a change in scenity. I'm with you. I've been
Speaker 1: going to Vegas just even for one night, just to
Speaker 1: get a change of site from l A. And it's
Speaker 1: not too far, you know, and whatnot. But Sean, so,
Speaker 1: so you're a world traveler, where's the best place you've been?
Speaker 1: Just curious? Uh, you know what, My favorite place in
Speaker 1: the world is probably south of south of France. Um,
Speaker 1: I love you know, samtel Pay a whole lot. Man.
Speaker 1: I've been there probably about seven eight times, and uh,
Speaker 1: I just really enjoyed going out there. I loved the weather,
Speaker 1: especially when they got big events and um you got
Speaker 1: the big Formula one racist it's out there and it's
Speaker 1: you know, the World Music Awards. I've been to, you know,
Speaker 1: three times, so it's it's always a good time. Best
Speaker 1: place you've ever been round Parker, you know what I've been, Well,
Speaker 1: an article trip was fascinating, But it's Australia. When you
Speaker 1: get off the plane in Australia, you feel like you're
Speaker 1: in another world. It is a it's a you know,
Speaker 1: it's a fourteen hour NonStop flight from Los Angeles and
Speaker 1: you feel literally you know they you know, call it
Speaker 1: down Under, but you feel like you're in another world.
Speaker 1: You're so far away from everything and it's fourteen hours
Speaker 1: over nothing but water to get there. It's incredible and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm planning a trip for next December to
Speaker 1: go again because the first time I went, which was
Speaker 1: back in the nineties, I didn't get to go to
Speaker 1: the West Coast, Perth and that part of Australia. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back and then go to the West
Speaker 1: Coast and check that out. But it was met Yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta do it. I gotta do it at Australia.
Speaker 1: Is is okay? So but I guess here's a question
Speaker 1: and we will get to sports, but this is this
Speaker 1: is way more interesting to me. How much time do
Speaker 1: you take off work to do that? When when I
Speaker 1: go coming up, I'll take off. I'll only go for
Speaker 1: nine days. I'll just go, you know, with two weekends
Speaker 1: wrapped around the week off. That's all I'll need to go.
Speaker 1: I'll just I'll rough it. Out. I don't need two
Speaker 1: or three weeks to go, um to make a trip
Speaker 1: like that. Even Antarctica was was only like a sixth
Speaker 1: day trip or something like that, that's what it was,
Speaker 1: or about a week. That's that's all. That's all I need.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to go for three weeks and all
Speaker 1: that and experience everything. I just want to go and
Speaker 1: see as much as I can while I'm alive. So
Speaker 1: that's that's the mode. I saw so many things in
Speaker 1: my my twenties playing basketball, and I literally haven't traveled
Speaker 1: much since, and I gotta like, I think, I think
Speaker 1: travel is going to explode the second people get the vaccine. Now,
Speaker 1: don't you guys like this the second then the second
Speaker 1: you get a chance to say go like I'm off,
Speaker 1: it'll be it'll it'll remind me of I UM one
Speaker 1: time in high school. Okay, I I my college basketball
Speaker 1: coach John mcclouds like, you should go run track, keep
Speaker 1: that speed up. So I went to run track after
Speaker 1: my high school senior season and I ran the two
Speaker 1: twenty right, and I remember be get the curve of
Speaker 1: the two twenty and I was in first, and I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm out I've going, if going, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden I get I get to the
Speaker 1: home stretch and dudes boat raced me. But the point
Speaker 1: was that when that gun went off, I took off
Speaker 1: like a shot. And that's exactly I mean, Sean, that's
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do, right the first second ship the
Speaker 1: first chance somebody says you can go to France. You're
Speaker 1: you're off, aren't you? Oh? Yeah, you know, And I
Speaker 1: think everybody should, right because you always take that that
Speaker 1: stuff for granted until they tell you have to stay
Speaker 1: at home. You know, you know, you know it's there.
Speaker 1: It's almost like you you know, I'm not a beach person, right,
Speaker 1: Um yeah, I look, I go to the beach once
Speaker 1: in a while. Uh, y'all stayed maybe twenty five or
Speaker 1: thirty minutes from there I live, and I'll probably go
Speaker 1: to the beach a couple of times a year. But
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they tell you, hey, by the way,
Speaker 1: you gotta stay home, and you're like, damn, I wish
Speaker 1: I could go to the beach right now. Right, So
Speaker 1: I think that's where I think that's what's gonna happen
Speaker 1: with everybody. And I know, me for sure, every time
Speaker 1: I get a chance to go and travel, I'm out.
Speaker 1: But I think now more than ever, uh now that
Speaker 1: people were forced to stay home and they can't do
Speaker 1: certain things. You're right, man, I think they're gonna take
Speaker 1: off and be gone. All right, let's let's let's get
Speaker 1: to the other reason we're having on is the NFL. Um,
Speaker 1: having played in the league and played at such a
Speaker 1: high level league, how much should we factor in wins
Speaker 1: and losses and put on the quarterback shoulders? Well, you
Speaker 1: know that's the thing. You know, it's such a quarterback
Speaker 1: driven league now. It wasn't always like that in the past, right, Um,
Speaker 1: even the times I played, you did have a great quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: but they didn't run the whole entire team. Now and
Speaker 1: the way the game has changed over the last ten years, um,
Speaker 1: you really started to got to look at the wins
Speaker 1: and losses being only on the quarterback shoulders because they
Speaker 1: control everything and they have so much power within Like
Speaker 1: some of these great quarterbacks pastrick to take Pastrickly home,
Speaker 1: for example, he had so much power within the organization.
Speaker 1: Um that he controls it, right, I mean he's the
Speaker 1: CEO of that organization. So the reason why I say,
Speaker 1: you take the wins and losses on the quarterback shoulders,
Speaker 1: because if the viver's he was not playing well, you
Speaker 1: dropped the balls. He's not running as route right, he's
Speaker 1: not doing certain things. You go upstairs, you say, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't want this guy here, or he shouldn't be starting,
Speaker 1: and guess what, that guy's not gonna be starting. So
Speaker 1: you have to, you know, take everything with a brand
Speaker 1: of stalt now and put more more responsibility and more
Speaker 1: pressure on the quarterback because it really relies on how
Speaker 1: he plays and what he does. Sean, how how surprised
Speaker 1: are you that, speaking of Patrick Mahomes, that it appears
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers or when the m v P and the
Speaker 1: year that he put together he still has one more game,
Speaker 1: forty four touchdowns, only five interceptions in the best quarterback rating.
Speaker 1: How surprised are you that that he looks like he
Speaker 1: beat out my homes for m v P. Not surprised
Speaker 1: at all, And I think the only people surprised, uh
Speaker 1: is the Green day package. You know, like you go
Speaker 1: out and you draft the quarterback. Aaron Rodgers had all
Speaker 1: the motivation this year to play extremely well. And I
Speaker 1: love it when when a player has the ball in
Speaker 1: his court, right because you go out, you're drafting a guy.
Speaker 1: You're basically telling Aaron Lodgers like, hey, we're planning on
Speaker 1: moving on from you at some point, and now you
Speaker 1: go out and have the one of the best years
Speaker 1: of his career. And I love that because now he'd
Speaker 1: go to organization and say, you know what, I'm out
Speaker 1: or ELM. So now he calls all the shots. He
Speaker 1: dictates his own future, if he wants to stay there,
Speaker 1: if he wants to go however he wants to happen,
Speaker 1: because that's the message you send when you go out
Speaker 1: and you draft the quarterback as high as they did.
Speaker 1: Um To eventually replays Aaron Rodgers well before he's his
Speaker 1: time is even up. Yeah, I want to I want
Speaker 1: to just follow up real quick. How crazy is it
Speaker 1: to both of you guys that they never drafted a
Speaker 1: skilled player in the first round during Aaron rodgers entire
Speaker 1: career in Green Bay? How how crazy is that? It's
Speaker 1: it's it's beyond crazy to me because look at it here,
Speaker 1: and don't get me wrong. To me, I think DeVante
Speaker 1: Gas is probably top two or three wide receiving in
Speaker 1: the National Football League so he you know, he came
Speaker 1: on as doing extraordinary things. But you didn't really give
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers a whole lot early on. I mean when
Speaker 1: I got um, you know, uh, you know, Mark, Mark,
Speaker 1: Mercedes Lewis. They put a couple other pieces, but you
Speaker 1: didn't go out and get Antonio Brown. You didn't go
Speaker 1: out and get a big stud and say, hey, Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: we're gonna help you out something. Uh. You're talking about
Speaker 1: a guy who continuously, uh does things himself, and he's
Speaker 1: been doing it in that organization for so long. And
Speaker 1: that's why and I want to bring it back to
Speaker 1: the poet, I said, that's why. I'm even more baffled
Speaker 1: that they go out and draft a guy that's behind him.
Speaker 1: You've got all these other positions to feel, and you
Speaker 1: got to draft a guy and now he's had his
Speaker 1: best year and now they're gonna have a problem on
Speaker 1: their hands going forward, regardless of how Aaron Rodgers said,
Speaker 1: if publicly they don't have a problem balling for because
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to make some real decisions. I could
Speaker 1: not disagree with you guys more. I couldn't disagree with
Speaker 1: you guys. More Like, look, Aaron Rodgers is thirty seven
Speaker 1: years old. Jordan's Love is everyone knows he's a he's
Speaker 1: a prospect, he's a project, he's a two years away.
Speaker 1: And in two years, I mean, it's reasonable to think
Speaker 1: that Aaron Rodgers is might not be the same quarterback.
Speaker 1: And you have to prepare for that day, especially if
Speaker 1: you're drafting in the twenty. When you have Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: You're never gonna be drafting in the top fifteen. Okay,
Speaker 1: You're just not okay, so you're not gonna get You'd
Speaker 1: have to move heaven and Earth to move up to
Speaker 1: get a quarterback in the draft. And like, look, Jordan
Speaker 1: Love is not what Aaron Rodgers was a prospect, but
Speaker 1: this is how it worked. Where they went from Brett
Speaker 1: Varve to Aaron Rodgers maybe to Jordan's Love. And if
Speaker 1: it doesn't work, if Jordan's Love isn't any good, as
Speaker 1: long as he never plays, nobody's ever gonna know, and
Speaker 1: he'll retain some of that value. And like we can
Speaker 1: sit here and go, we don't love their wide receivers
Speaker 1: or they needed who they need to add. They won
Speaker 1: thirteen games last year, they win gonna win thirteen games
Speaker 1: this year. They're gonna have home field advantage throughout, and
Speaker 1: they believe in their evaluation, right, Like, look, there's but
Speaker 1: Doug the other the other. I hear that. The only
Speaker 1: thing is they got to the NFC Championship game last
Speaker 1: year and got annihilated. So my only point is they're
Speaker 1: taking a defense, taking a defensive player because they couldn't
Speaker 1: stop the run. It's fair, absolutely could help. You don't
Speaker 1: think you don't think they had And they just picked
Speaker 1: up I know, it's very late. They just picked up
Speaker 1: Stotts Harrison, you know too, and all he's got it.
Speaker 1: It's just can he stop the run in that one which,
Speaker 1: by the way, against the Tennessee Titans. The teams that
Speaker 1: runs the football the show they can stop the run.
Speaker 1: This past weekend, Derrick Henry under a hundred yards for
Speaker 1: the first time in nine road games, right, And I mean,
Speaker 1: and look, they drafted A. J. Dillon in the second
Speaker 1: round here, like, why are you drafting a running back
Speaker 1: in the second round? Well, it's because one look at
Speaker 1: how well he played this weekend. To Aaron Jones contract
Speaker 1: is up. He signed with Drew Rosenhouse. He wants to
Speaker 1: get paid, and everyone who covers sport at the sport
Speaker 1: knows what you don't want to do is that big
Speaker 1: long term second running back contract or let somebody else
Speaker 1: pay that and if he doesn't want to play ball
Speaker 1: and take a reasonable salary. So I think the Packers
Speaker 1: are setting themselves up to be competitive for the next
Speaker 1: ten years, not just for one year. And yeah, by
Speaker 1: the way, during this one year, that's the best team
Speaker 1: in the NFC. Yeah, but I think you're speaking from
Speaker 1: the organization standport. Ye, I'm I'll just standing that part.
Speaker 1: But I'm also telling you that as a player, yes,
Speaker 1: as they player, you know, you don't draft a guy
Speaker 1: that high. Man. They seeing a guy up the six
Speaker 1: and seventh round here and they got up from talent
Speaker 1: maybe on to go down. He can step in for
Speaker 1: him and do something. That's fine, But you brought him
Speaker 1: in to say, you know what, we are going to
Speaker 1: be done with you, so right, I mean, if they
Speaker 1: want to sit the guy one or two years and
Speaker 1: they know he's gonna come in and be a start
Speaker 1: in one or two years because you had the talent
Speaker 1: to do so, and you know your starting quarterback can't
Speaker 1: get it done. I understand completely from the organization standpoint,
Speaker 1: but to do what they did, and the expect Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers to go out there and play miraculously, miraculously every
Speaker 1: single time. He's going to have a lot of pool
Speaker 1: and a lot of uh power. He had come out
Speaker 1: up here shortly in the organizations are going to have
Speaker 1: to make a decision because that doesn't sit well with players.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just playing for anybody if they want
Speaker 1: something in your position and your job and give him like, look,
Speaker 1: there's no there's no getting rid of him for the
Speaker 1: next two years, right like Aaron Rodgers is, he has
Speaker 1: two more years where financially it would cripple the franchise.
Speaker 1: They're not getting rid of him. He knows it, right,
Speaker 1: So I understand that on some level, you could sit
Speaker 1: there before who's who drafting years for three years. That's
Speaker 1: exactly what the green Bay Packers did. That's exactly what
Speaker 1: the green Bay Packers did with Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: they but they didn't they didn't move up like like
Speaker 1: Monty thing is. They didn't move up to go get
Speaker 1: a quarterback. At that point, Aaron Rodgers fell in their lap.
Speaker 1: And here's the other part. But you just went to
Speaker 1: pick but you just went to the NFC Championship game.
Speaker 1: My point is, it's great that you've had Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: It's great that he's gonna have three m vps, it's
Speaker 1: great that you won the NFC North all these times.
Speaker 1: But the Packers when Aaron Rodgers should have won more
Speaker 1: than one Super Bowl. Okay, but we can't listen, we
Speaker 1: can we can't go we can't go back to what
Speaker 1: they so so I don't care about three years from now.
Speaker 1: They should have been thinking about we have Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: but we still have a chance. You do have a chance,
Speaker 1: and you look a lot of people in crazy you
Speaker 1: draft a wide receiver. Okay. The first thing is all
Speaker 1: the good, All the first round wide receivers were gone
Speaker 1: at that point in time, and by the way, sixteen
Speaker 1: up until this year, and this year was a historically
Speaker 1: good wide receiver draft. Over the previous four years, the
Speaker 1: nineteen first round draft picks that were drafted in the
Speaker 1: first round, sixteen of them were busts. It's a really
Speaker 1: hard position because it's so different in the NFL than
Speaker 1: the spread offenses. Okay. Secondly, if you want to tell
Speaker 1: me that they were close last year, I agree with you,
Speaker 1: and they had to get better. I agree with you.
Speaker 1: They have gotten better. And and people go, you should
Speaker 1: draft a wide receiver. If you draft a wide receiver,
Speaker 1: that hurts the development of Marcus Valdes, Scantling and of
Speaker 1: some of these other guys who have developed. And those
Speaker 1: guys have gotten better, and the team is they're the
Speaker 1: best team in the NFC. I don't know what people want, right,
Speaker 1: the best team and they protected that they protected. Watched
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. Okay, look at Ben Roethlisberger. Look,
Speaker 1: I know he played really well Sunday, But what has
Speaker 1: everybody said? Man, Ben Roethlisberger looks shot? Looks shot? And
Speaker 1: you know what? The Green Bay Packers don't want to be.
Speaker 1: They don't want to be the Pittsburgh Steelers where at
Speaker 1: some point in time Aaron Rodgers is gonna lose it
Speaker 1: and you want to have a guy there who's been studying,
Speaker 1: been preparing, who you can throw in and there won't
Speaker 1: be this massive drop off. That's what happened in New
Speaker 1: England when they drafted Garoppolo and at something and this
Speaker 1: is too seawan to your point where Brady went in
Speaker 1: and goes, hey, man him or me and they said
Speaker 1: Garoppolo packing, which could very well happen with Jordan's love.
Speaker 1: But again, the plan was smart and that's what the
Speaker 1: packers are executing. But but what whate thing one thing
Speaker 1: about this who can't get better? What Aaron Rodgers did
Speaker 1: your quarterback? I just you're talking about bust and these
Speaker 1: other which one of these busts while there was drafted,
Speaker 1: had Aaron Rods a quarterback. I just feel like over
Speaker 1: the last decades or so, you know, they they've been
Speaker 1: relying on Aaron while there's so much to be Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers to guad and do things in his own uh,
Speaker 1: that they're willing to risk and sacrifice do anything bigger
Speaker 1: for the organization because everything is on him. Like I said,
Speaker 1: if they wanted to draft the guy in the fifty
Speaker 1: sixth round or third you know later on and like
Speaker 1: like Rob just said, felling his laps no problem. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, but you do the things you're doing. You're
Speaker 1: saying that, hey, you fix this planing and and mind
Speaker 1: you to read one of the name reason why they
Speaker 1: drafted because you kept getting hurt. He kept having these
Speaker 1: injuries that they're backed back and you never really send
Speaker 1: us your season healthy. That's one of the main fact
Speaker 1: that they did it. So they basically said, hey, these
Speaker 1: injuries keep power up or whatever it is going on,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a guy here to replace you. And
Speaker 1: backfired on them. And and I'm not saying to backfire
Speaker 1: on them in a way of them wing obviously they
Speaker 1: are a great team, but it's gonna backfire on them
Speaker 1: at the end of their day. Sean enjoyed Guadalajara. Happy
Speaker 1: New Year, by the way, everybody happy. Got happy to year.
Speaker 1: To everybody, I'll stare, stay safe, Uh, don't drink and
Speaker 1: drive man, be responsible. Yeah, and download The Lights Out
Speaker 1: podcasting