Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Calls with Dean Blandino, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Hey, What's Up? It's Team Blandino. This
Speaker 1: is another episode of Good Call as always. I'm joined
Speaker 1: by I'm cringing just thinking about how he's gonna respond
Speaker 1: to me, Travisian, Hello, how are you? That's better? And
Speaker 1: on audio as always, Joe Madrid, What's up? What's up?
Speaker 1: What's up? Episode thirteen thirteen episodes, guys, Congratulations thirteen is
Speaker 1: my I hate. I hate people say that, Oh thirteen,
Speaker 1: So I'm lucky and they don't put like there's a
Speaker 1: thirteen floor in every building. By the way, Okay, whether
Speaker 1: you label it fourteen, it's the thirteenth floor, which is
Speaker 1: pretty annoying that they do that. My birthday is on
Speaker 1: the superstition. Give me a break. Whatever. All right, we
Speaker 1: got a great show. We're gonna we're gonna talk NFL
Speaker 1: obviously more past an inference discussion. We've got Andrea Kramer
Speaker 1: is going to join us, and uh, and then we're
Speaker 1: gonna break down some stuff some college football or controversy
Speaker 1: in the iron Ball and then as always, hit some
Speaker 1: stuff that happened in the Cube this weekend. So let's
Speaker 1: start with past an inference review. Going into week twelve
Speaker 1: of the NFL regular season, there had been seventy one
Speaker 1: reviews for past inference and only and only twelve were overturned.
Speaker 1: So the bar had been set very high and uh
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, call on the field being made,
Speaker 1: overturning that or call not being made and adding it
Speaker 1: and replay. What we saw in week twelve we saw
Speaker 1: six reviews and three were overturned, So it kind of
Speaker 1: felt like a little bit of a of a philosophy
Speaker 1: shift that some of the calls that were made in replay,
Speaker 1: if you compared them to some from previous weeks, it
Speaker 1: was are to to to find a a discernible, you know,
Speaker 1: a real difference between the contact the level of contact.
Speaker 1: But three of six and week twelve so far in
Speaker 1: Week thirteen, again six reviews, three reversals. So not basing
Speaker 1: this on any any concrete fact, but it does feel
Speaker 1: like that that there has been a little bit of
Speaker 1: a shift in in how these plays are being looked at.
Speaker 1: Just to kind of break down some of the calls
Speaker 1: from this week, I think the one that gar Garner
Speaker 1: the most attention was was our game and this was
Speaker 1: the game of the week you had, you know, you
Speaker 1: have nine into Baltimore, verse ten and one San Francisco
Speaker 1: and uh. And it was in the third quarter. It
Speaker 1: was a pass from Mark Andrews and Jimmy Ward clearly
Speaker 1: contacts him early. And and you watch it, you watch
Speaker 1: it in real time, and you say, there's contact passes incomplete.
Speaker 1: There's no flag on the field. Andrews gets up and
Speaker 1: his hands are up and you know what happened? Why
Speaker 1: was there a flag? Coach Harbor John Harburth throws the flag,
Speaker 1: It goes to review. You know, I went on the
Speaker 1: air and talked about it, and look, the contact is
Speaker 1: clearly early. The play ultimately stood. And the bottom line
Speaker 1: is when you're talking about past inference, and I think
Speaker 1: sometimes we get we always think past inference. We think
Speaker 1: when you Travis, when you think passive inference, what player
Speaker 1: offensive defense do you do? You look at first defense
Speaker 1: defense Joe defense. But the rule when you and when
Speaker 1: you look at the rule book, there there isn't a
Speaker 1: specific rule for offensive past inference and defensive past and
Speaker 1: inference there Now, there are some things that will only
Speaker 1: be offensive past and friends like blocking down field, but
Speaker 1: past inferences past inference. It applies to players on both
Speaker 1: sides of the football, and one of the rules says
Speaker 1: that it says both players have an equal right to
Speaker 1: the path of the football, and a defensive player can
Speaker 1: make a play on the ball and make contact that
Speaker 1: would normally be past inference. The only exception would be
Speaker 1: you can't play through the back to get to a football,
Speaker 1: and that's the key. So here, this is the issue.
Speaker 1: On this play. Ward is clearly playing the football, he's
Speaker 1: clearly early. Does he go through the back or does
Speaker 1: he get even with the receiver? Is it more shoulder
Speaker 1: to shoulder. I thought that it wasn't clearly in the back.
Speaker 1: I thought if you watch one of the replays, you
Speaker 1: can see Andrews numbers the entire time, which would indicate
Speaker 1: that that the contact wasn't directly in the back. And
Speaker 1: I thought the call was gonna stand. And and that's
Speaker 1: what they ended up doing. And I'm not saying I'm
Speaker 1: right or or wrong. It's just it's such a hard call.
Speaker 1: Does intent matter? Because to me, it was very very
Speaker 1: clear that he was going for the ball and absolutely
Speaker 1: and and and we talk about pass interference when one
Speaker 1: player is playing the mall and one player is not
Speaker 1: playing the ball, whether it's offense or defense, is not
Speaker 1: playing the ball, that player is now suspect for past
Speaker 1: in infeience. Right, if you're playing the ball, you have
Speaker 1: a defender has a right to that path of the football.
Speaker 1: And what we always think if, honestly, if you switch
Speaker 1: the if you switch the roles and make and make
Speaker 1: Andrew's ward, and Andrews jumping for the ball, trying to
Speaker 1: make the catch and him making contact with the defender,
Speaker 1: would we be up in arms saying well, that's offensive
Speaker 1: past inference. We know the receivers trying to make a
Speaker 1: play in the ball, and I think sometimes we just
Speaker 1: have to we just have to separate offense and defense
Speaker 1: and say it's all one and they both have a
Speaker 1: right to the to the path of the football. But
Speaker 1: it's a tough look. It's a close call. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that it's clearly not past an inference. I just
Speaker 1: thought it was close enough to not have it added
Speaker 1: in replay because the call in the field was not made.
Speaker 1: What about the fact that he kind of grazed his
Speaker 1: head while going for the ball. Yeah, I mean there's contact.
Speaker 1: There's contact with the head. Again, to me, that's contact
Speaker 1: that results from him trying to catch the football. That's
Speaker 1: how I look at it. And if you're not playing
Speaker 1: clearly through the back, you're not gonna you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get that call. I think that's the best way to
Speaker 1: really understand it. How you explain it. You explained in
Speaker 1: the Cube today. If you switch the players, and I
Speaker 1: think if people really grasped that, they would get it
Speaker 1: a lot better. Yeah, I think so, And I think
Speaker 1: even you know, and we had a discussion on the
Speaker 1: air with Charles Davis, our our analyst on the game,
Speaker 1: and Charles is a former defensive back, and he thought
Speaker 1: it was past inference. And when we kind of had
Speaker 1: a good discussion and a good healthy dialogue about it,
Speaker 1: and and there was, you know, some disagreement amongst the
Speaker 1: rules analysts, right, Terry McAuley on on on NBC thought
Speaker 1: it was past the friends, John Parry on ESPN thought
Speaker 1: it was past deference. Pereira was was agreeing that it
Speaker 1: wasn't past deference. So, again, this call is so subjective
Speaker 1: and what we're seeing is the standard. You know, where
Speaker 1: is it is it moving? What what is gonna be enough?
Speaker 1: You look at Philadelphia Miami, no call on the field.
Speaker 1: Challenged by Miami. You have Jalen Mills grabbing DeVante Parker's arm.
Speaker 1: It's added, He's got his arm around Parker's shoulder before
Speaker 1: the ball gets there. It's close, but they add that.
Speaker 1: They add that in read. I thought it was a
Speaker 1: good ad too, and it and it was more in
Speaker 1: line with kind of what we thought was a philosophy
Speaker 1: change or shift in in from what we saw in
Speaker 1: week twelve. Then then you get you get two plays
Speaker 1: in in the Raider Chiefs game. Um and that was
Speaker 1: Joe's Joe's hypothetical lock of the week was the Raiders
Speaker 1: that hyper to that that hypothetical lock hypothetically was not good.
Speaker 1: And so but you have you have in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: you have no call on on LaMarcus Joyner and he
Speaker 1: makes contact with Sammy Watkins, challenged by Kansas City. No
Speaker 1: flag added, So they let it stand. And I thought,
Speaker 1: if you compare that with the Miami play, similar close
Speaker 1: close type of contact. There was a there was a
Speaker 1: grab with the left arm and then he's and the
Speaker 1: kind of tomahawk chopped with the right arm before the
Speaker 1: ball got there. No no call added. Later in the game,
Speaker 1: third quarter, six fifty six, you have an interception by
Speaker 1: the Raiders in the end zone and no call. Trayvon
Speaker 1: Mullen gets gets called then in replay, uh for contacting
Speaker 1: Marcus Robinson. And I thought, and I really liked Tony
Speaker 1: Tony Romo. I've always liked him, And no Cowboys fans
Speaker 1: don't think I liked them because I overturned the deaths play.
Speaker 1: But I've always liked him as an analyst. I liked
Speaker 1: him as a football player. But I thought he had
Speaker 1: a great line. I thought that was such a great
Speaker 1: line because he goes he basically says, all right, let's
Speaker 1: bring in Geane so he can get this one wrong,
Speaker 1: which is hilarious. They were laughing as laughing. But but
Speaker 1: the thing is he's not saying that because he thinks
Speaker 1: Geene is incompetent. He's saying that because we've kind of
Speaker 1: been all over the place, and and it's so hard,
Speaker 1: and I struggle with it. Prayer struggles with it because
Speaker 1: you're just you're trying to come up with some consistent
Speaker 1: standard or something you can you can kind of hang
Speaker 1: your hat on. And it's really hard because this is
Speaker 1: such a subjective call and not all past inferences are
Speaker 1: created equal, and every play is a little bit different.
Speaker 1: There's always gonna be a little variant you look at them.
Speaker 1: We go to the to the the Rams Cardinals game,
Speaker 1: and there was no call made third quarter. UM. The
Speaker 1: guy that the rules should be named after, our guy,
Speaker 1: Robie Coleman. Here he interferes with Larry Fitzgerald or what
Speaker 1: looks like interference. Note call play was reviewed automatic review
Speaker 1: because it was an interception called reverse. They add replay
Speaker 1: UM for Saints fans. It's probably how many months too late,
Speaker 1: but they add the call on on Coleman and h
Speaker 1: he held, he held, fits his arm down. Again. When
Speaker 1: you look at all of these plays and you try
Speaker 1: to find some common denominators, it's tough. And that's not
Speaker 1: an indictment on the people making the decisions in New York.
Speaker 1: That's just the nature of this call. It is very subjective.
Speaker 1: I feel like the obvious ones that got that got
Speaker 1: added are the ones where you're seeing an arm being held.
Speaker 1: That that's the significant hindering that we talk. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that you know, you're trying to find some common denominator,
Speaker 1: like I said, and that could be it, you know,
Speaker 1: the arm being held. But then you go back to
Speaker 1: Golden Tate, you go back to DeAndre Hopkins. A couple
Speaker 1: of is that weren't overturned. But again, it's it's so
Speaker 1: subjective and I hate to sound like a broken record,
Speaker 1: but this is what you get when you make these
Speaker 1: calls revealable and look, this rule can work. It can work.
Speaker 1: They can tweak it, they can look at it, and
Speaker 1: they will do that. There's we've only got thirteen weeks
Speaker 1: of a sample size their team, you know, just under
Speaker 1: thirteen weeks, still got a couple of games to go.
Speaker 1: But to me, it's something that is is we're going
Speaker 1: to continue to kind of have to kind of go
Speaker 1: through these these these rocky waters to try to get
Speaker 1: to a you know, a really consistent standard, and it's
Speaker 1: just hard. It's really hard. You saw the end of
Speaker 1: the Chargers Broncos game. That's a game deciding play and
Speaker 1: you've got what what it's not a hail Mary, but
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of a hail Mary type throw. You know,
Speaker 1: they're down to eight seconds, seven seconds and the dB,
Speaker 1: you know, he doesn't he doesn't turn. He cuts off
Speaker 1: the route and he turns late and he interferes with
Speaker 1: with the Broncos receiver and they get a first down
Speaker 1: and they they're in field goal range and they kicked
Speaker 1: the game winning field goal. Now that's an automatic review.
Speaker 1: Inside two minutes, I thought there were a couple of
Speaker 1: good replays that showed it was past difference. Personally, because
Speaker 1: it is so critical, I would have liked to have
Speaker 1: seen them stop the game and just make sure everybody
Speaker 1: understands that they looked at it. I think people still,
Speaker 1: you know, you see those comments on social media or
Speaker 1: whatever was they didn't even look at it. No, they
Speaker 1: looked at it. They're they're reviewing every play and they're
Speaker 1: looking at it, especially scoring plays, turnovers, and inside two minutes,
Speaker 1: when when replays responsible for stopping the game, they're reviewing it,
Speaker 1: and they make decisions on a lot of those plays
Speaker 1: to not stop the game because they have evidence to
Speaker 1: confirm it or they feel like they're not going to
Speaker 1: change it, and so why are we going to delay
Speaker 1: the game further? And I agree with that in the
Speaker 1: third quarter, I agree with that in the third quarter
Speaker 1: with two seconds ago, when they're gonna kick the game
Speaker 1: winning field goal. Just just make it clear that it
Speaker 1: was looked at have the referee making announcement. But I
Speaker 1: do like that philosophy. If we know we're not going
Speaker 1: to change it, why are we going to stop the
Speaker 1: game for an extra two minutes? To me, that doesn't
Speaker 1: that doesn't make a lot of sense. So but that's
Speaker 1: past interference. You know, we're gonna be talking about this
Speaker 1: the rest of the season through the postseason for let's
Speaker 1: shift gears and and another rule that that we we
Speaker 1: may see some change where we've seen articles about, you know,
Speaker 1: potential changes, but all of a sudden this week things
Speaker 1: went completely off what was happening earlier in the season. Um,
Speaker 1: that's the onside rule or the onside kick, Like we
Speaker 1: we saw a bunch of their didn't talk about that that.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Travis. That was a great suggestion to talk
Speaker 1: about the onside kick. Hey, that was actually really nice
Speaker 1: move on just Travis just taking that. It's not like
Speaker 1: he and I talked about that before the show and
Speaker 1: I asked him to try to spin off he is
Speaker 1: what would his show be called? Like what was me?
Speaker 1: It was? His podcast would be he would make me? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I make Travis so uncomfortable. It would be it would
Speaker 1: be s w G with Travis Hanson. That would be
Speaker 1: the name of the show because Travis is entered white guy.
Speaker 1: Travis is the standard white guys. However, you gotta have,
Speaker 1: you gotta have the standard white guy in your group,
Speaker 1: like you know, some groups have. That's all they have
Speaker 1: is just the standard white guy and a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, conservatives. But anyway, but it's just the standard
Speaker 1: white guy. With Travis Hanson. I would listen to it
Speaker 1: every week and I would call you and make fun
Speaker 1: of you and make you feel so uncomfortable. That's good
Speaker 1: if it makes you feel better than them. Let's make
Speaker 1: that happen. We've got the equipmentisode. We could just right
Speaker 1: after this, we'll we'll do what what are you gonna
Speaker 1: talk about? What are you gonna talk about? On the
Speaker 1: first episode, he's so he's so uncomfortable. What do you
Speaker 1: talk about about your you know, your your Dave Matthews
Speaker 1: band experience. What are you gonna talk about, like rollerblading?
Speaker 1: What's what's going on? Eagles? The Eagles? So anyway, all right,
Speaker 1: let's let's talk about the on site kid, because honestly,
Speaker 1: we have been talking about this and you know, I
Speaker 1: think we were concerned. Small sample size and I think
Speaker 1: that's why you don't jump to conclusions, and that's why
Speaker 1: the Competition committee will always look at something over the
Speaker 1: course of a full season or several seasons. Because the
Speaker 1: onside kick, we had seen it historically, the number wastent
Speaker 1: for success in terms of recovering them. Last year we
Speaker 1: started dropped to eight. This year we hadn't had a lot.
Speaker 1: It was hovering between three and four percent in terms
Speaker 1: of successful on expected on side kicks. That's what the
Speaker 1: NFL looks at expected on side kicks is when everybody's
Speaker 1: lined up and everybody's prepared for it. The the surprise
Speaker 1: nonside kick, that's a surprise anside kick. That that's an anomaly.
Speaker 1: You know that that's you know, you see something on tape,
Speaker 1: you see something in a previous kick kick kick off
Speaker 1: um that tells you that you have a chance to
Speaker 1: get that surprise kick. But expected on side kick, you know,
Speaker 1: there are only two going into Week thirteen that we're successful.
Speaker 1: So far in Week thirteen we've had three, an additional
Speaker 1: three and if you count the one Atlanta New Orleans,
Speaker 1: Atlanta had three in that game. One got called back
Speaker 1: on an off side penalty that was close questionable. I
Speaker 1: think people sometimes and even the officials, we have to
Speaker 1: differentiate between offside and then the illegal formation kicking team
Speaker 1: player hast have both feet on the ground with one
Speaker 1: ft on the thirty four until the ball is kicked.
Speaker 1: Then can go, but can't be beyond the restraining line
Speaker 1: when the ball is kicked. So all these things, so
Speaker 1: you have three this week. So now for the season
Speaker 1: so far, five successful on side kicks and thirty eight
Speaker 1: expected attempts. That takes us right back to so to me,
Speaker 1: we had there was a CBS Sports um report that
Speaker 1: the league was gonna consider looking at the Denver Bronco
Speaker 1: proposal from last year, And if you're not familiar with that,
Speaker 1: that was a proposal for a team that could take
Speaker 1: an option in the fourth quarter only when they're when
Speaker 1: they're trailing, instead of an onside kick, they could go
Speaker 1: for a fourth and fifteen from the thirty five yard line.
Speaker 1: And that proposal didn't had enough votes last year, and
Speaker 1: they were talking about they were talking about UM bringing
Speaker 1: that back and possibly discussing it in the off season.
Speaker 1: To me, if we stay at thirteen percent, there's no reason.
Speaker 1: There's no reason, and that's why you don't. You don't
Speaker 1: make knee jerk reactions. You look at the whole season,
Speaker 1: sometimes a couple of seasons before you you consider major
Speaker 1: major changes. Do you think they'll still talk about that
Speaker 1: at meetings? Yeah, I think they. I think they talk
Speaker 1: about all of those things, and they'll have a discussion
Speaker 1: about the onside kick. They'll look at the tape, they'll
Speaker 1: look at all of the the expected on site kicks,
Speaker 1: and they'll they'll study it. But to me, it's always
Speaker 1: going to be driven by the numbers. The onside kick
Speaker 1: is so important for comebacks in close games and if
Speaker 1: you're if you have a thirteen percent success rate, that's
Speaker 1: where it's been historically, regardless of these changes, I don't
Speaker 1: think you. I don't think there's gonna be a compelling
Speaker 1: argument or a push to make a change. It really
Speaker 1: feels like it should go down considering the at rid
Speaker 1: of that huge running star you trying to got to
Speaker 1: bring that back up. Um. But yeah, it's that's that
Speaker 1: was the fear, right. You don't have that running start,
Speaker 1: and you're not gonna get that momentum and you're not
Speaker 1: gonna get as far down field that you need to
Speaker 1: to get that. But look the the Atlantic kicker and
Speaker 1: it's funny. Of the of the five, three have been
Speaker 1: against the Saints. And and when you talk about the Saints,
Speaker 1: Darren Rizzy, the special team's coach for the Saints, is
Speaker 1: one of the best in the business. Yeah, Darren is
Speaker 1: one of the best in the business by far. And
Speaker 1: it's just I think it's an anomaly that you see
Speaker 1: just that you know one team, and I know I
Speaker 1: felt bad for Darren, you know, watching the game on
Speaker 1: Thursday on Thanksgiving, because when Atlanta recovered that second one,
Speaker 1: he Sean let him have it. And I've been on
Speaker 1: the other end of of a Sean Payton kind of
Speaker 1: verbal uh down and uh it's not fun. But again
Speaker 1: something to continue to look at. But I think you
Speaker 1: can kind of put the onside kick is is dead.
Speaker 1: You can put that that argument to rest. And I think, uh,
Speaker 1: I had to lead, would be happy about that because
Speaker 1: to me, the the kickoff is still part of the
Speaker 1: fabric of the game and you want to make it
Speaker 1: as safe as possible. And certainly if we have if
Speaker 1: we have a ton of injuries, and especially head to
Speaker 1: head neck injuries, but the kickoff, the onside kick, those
Speaker 1: those are exciting players. You want to keep it as
Speaker 1: safe as possible, but to to go to a third
Speaker 1: for a fourth and fifteen type play, it just feels
Speaker 1: like it's going it's kind of gimmickay, and it's going
Speaker 1: against the the you know, kind of the fabric and
Speaker 1: the tradition of the game, not the not the only factor, certainly,
Speaker 1: but just my opinion. Um, let's talk about another play
Speaker 1: from Thursday before we take a break, and that's the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Dallas. This was, uh, you know, the highest rated
Speaker 1: game I think are one of our producer on on
Speaker 1: last call and he and he comes in Bondo, Stephen Bond.
Speaker 1: He's a which we're upset that his parents did name
Speaker 1: him Stephen James. Would have been a great opportunity there.
Speaker 1: He's a Yeah, he's a big Bills fans. He's walking
Speaker 1: on air, like walking on he's cloud nine right now.
Speaker 1: But um, that game Buffalo Dallas. You had to me
Speaker 1: it was a great illustration of why we can't jump
Speaker 1: to conclusions. It was in the second quarter and it
Speaker 1: was an illegal use of hands called against against Jordan
Speaker 1: Phillips of the Bills. And the replay, the replay that
Speaker 1: we showed on the air got to it late, and
Speaker 1: it was you see Phillips kind of making some contact
Speaker 1: to Dak Prescott's kind of head neck area, and you
Speaker 1: see the official throwing the flag even before that contact occurred.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people assumed that the call was
Speaker 1: for the contact on Doc and that was not what
Speaker 1: the call was for. You don't have illegal hands to
Speaker 1: the face of a quarterback. If you had any contact
Speaker 1: of the face that was forcible, that would be rough in.
Speaker 1: The passer certainly could have a face mask, but not
Speaker 1: illegal use of hands. And and so when you go
Speaker 1: back and you look at the live shot or you
Speaker 1: look at the coaches tape, it's actually it's actually on
Speaker 1: Travis Frederick. Phillips does get his right hand up to
Speaker 1: Frederick's head neck area and pins the head back. And
Speaker 1: that's what the call was for, and it was a
Speaker 1: correct call. But again we get that's why officials it's
Speaker 1: so hard because the scrutiny very rarely do we get
Speaker 1: the officials perspective the angle that the official had, and
Speaker 1: sometimes we're looking at it from a different angle. We
Speaker 1: don't see the entire act, and and we rushed to judgments.
Speaker 1: So I just thought that was a good a good
Speaker 1: illustration of you know that type of thing happening and
Speaker 1: looking at all the angles and all the available resources
Speaker 1: before we jump to a conclusion. All right, let's uh,
Speaker 1: let's take a break. When we come back, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk to I'm one of her biggest fans. She's amazing,
Speaker 1: the one and only Andrea Kramer. Next on Good Calls.
Speaker 1: All right, we're back on Good Calls. And I am
Speaker 1: so excited and so honored to be introducing our guest
Speaker 1: this week. She is She's an Emmy Award winner, She's
Speaker 1: won the Peabody Awards. She has covered Olympics, Super Bowls,
Speaker 1: NBA Finals, Stanley Cup. She's interviewed a who's who in
Speaker 1: the sports world. Someone Pro Football Hall of Fame Pete Roselle,
Speaker 1: Radio and Television Award winner, the Incomparable. I could go
Speaker 1: on and on, an unbelievable person, a great friend, Andrea Kramer. Andrea,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining me. How are you
Speaker 1: doing today. I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I'm very
Speaker 1: honored to be on with you. I think that I'm
Speaker 1: following in the footsteps of some esteemed guests that you've
Speaker 1: had prior to me. And I'll be honest, I am,
Speaker 1: I am a little bit. I'm a little bit intimidated
Speaker 1: because you have and just doing your you know, my
Speaker 1: my preparation for talking to you. You have interviewed and
Speaker 1: so many unbelievable people, and you're master of the interview.
Speaker 1: You actually teach a course at Boston University called the
Speaker 1: Art of the Interview? What what tell me a little
Speaker 1: bit about that? And what is that all about? I do,
Speaker 1: which means I will be evaluating you, getting a great
Speaker 1: just like back to your your old days you were
Speaker 1: in officiating. Now that's right, exactly. No, No, no, I think, um,
Speaker 1: I think that interviewing is really a lost art. And um.
Speaker 1: I had been asked to guest lecture years ago by
Speaker 1: a woman that I knew who was a professor at
Speaker 1: Boston University in the Journalism school, and she asked me
Speaker 1: to come in and talk about my Olympic experiences. So
Speaker 1: I came in and I did my normal prep, which
Speaker 1: is rather exhaustive, and when the class is over, she said,
Speaker 1: would you ever be interested in teaching? And I said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I talked to so many young people and
Speaker 1: maybe I would because it's sort of a way to
Speaker 1: institutionalize a lot of the knowledge that I've gathered and
Speaker 1: learned of in my thirty plus year career. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: just clearing my throat there. And they, you know, they
Speaker 1: basically said to me, designed the class that you want,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, We're gonna make it easy for you.
Speaker 1: No meetings, you know, you don't have to get involved
Speaker 1: in any of that stuff. Just teach the class. And
Speaker 1: it's been really great. Uh. It's made me probably even
Speaker 1: more neurotic about what I do, if that's humanly possible,
Speaker 1: just because you're you're you're hyper focusing on it. But
Speaker 1: it's great. And I love my students and I keep
Speaker 1: in touch with a bunch of them and I'm I'm
Speaker 1: so proud of them when they go on to great things.
Speaker 1: So it's just my fifth job. Dean. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: you're like me. You're like me. I got a lot
Speaker 1: of jobs, a lot of a lot of balls in
Speaker 1: the air right now. So the alternative, that's right. But
Speaker 1: I will be anxiously awaiting my grade at the end
Speaker 1: of the interview, so I have no doubt you will
Speaker 1: be earning an A. So and and in looking at
Speaker 1: your bio and it's interesting because there's so many in
Speaker 1: reading about you in your career, there's so many first
Speaker 1: when it comes to being a female. And and so
Speaker 1: you're you know, you and Hannah Storm are doing the
Speaker 1: Amazon broadcast and it's the first all female, all female
Speaker 1: booth in any men's sport. Your you're we need to
Speaker 1: talk is is the sports show on CBS that you're doing,
Speaker 1: all first, all female nationally televised sports show. And I,
Speaker 1: honestly I struggled a little bit with you know, highlighting
Speaker 1: those things. But you your accomplishments are unbelievable. I don't
Speaker 1: care man, woman alien, your accomplishments are amazing, saying. And
Speaker 1: I was talking to Amy Trask last week and she's
Speaker 1: another another kind of groundbreaking person in the NFL, and
Speaker 1: it's like, where is the line between highlighting your accomplishments
Speaker 1: as a woman, but also just your accomplishments are unbelievable
Speaker 1: regardless of gender. Well, if you talk to Amy, my
Speaker 1: dear friend for many decades, she will tell you that
Speaker 1: she she actually doesn't like to uh reflect on the
Speaker 1: on the gender aspect of things that you know, you
Speaker 1: should be evaluated for your work, gender raised things of
Speaker 1: that nature. Uh For me. I guess starting with being
Speaker 1: the first female correspondent that ESPN ever hired. It's just
Speaker 1: sort of the way it is. And I've never kind
Speaker 1: of focused on it in terms of, uh, the you know,
Speaker 1: the ground that you are are breaking. I've just what
Speaker 1: I've always aimed for is just knowing that everything that
Speaker 1: you do help set the stage for people that are
Speaker 1: coming behind you. And that's that in itself is enough
Speaker 1: motivation to want to do things the right way. I
Speaker 1: just think it's it's really important to do that. There's
Speaker 1: so many more opportunities that that excuse me, young people,
Speaker 1: particularly young women, have in the sports business. But I
Speaker 1: just think that there's certain absolutes that you need to
Speaker 1: have and um, you know, a high degree of professionalism
Speaker 1: and understanding that reputations are very easy to build, very
Speaker 1: hard to tear down. And I just think that I've
Speaker 1: never kind of thought about the groundbreaking nature of what
Speaker 1: I do. I just kind of do it. And uh,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you a funny story. So, uh, prior to
Speaker 1: my uh my Hall of Fame induction Profoba Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame last year, two years ago, I got inducted into
Speaker 1: the Phildelphia Sports Hall of Fame, and one of the
Speaker 1: people that was there was Mike Quick, the amazing See.
Speaker 1: So my very first job in sports I hated. I
Speaker 1: even hate to give a date here in Excuse Me
Speaker 1: nineteen I wish um. I was the sports editor of
Speaker 1: the largest weekly newspaper in Pennsylvania, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: do a profile on Mike Quick, the rookie wide receiver
Speaker 1: who was going into who was going to his first
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl. So I put in a request with the Eagles,
Speaker 1: and women were not allowed in the locker room on
Speaker 1: non game days. Think about that. So I got special
Speaker 1: dispensation to come in the day after the season on
Speaker 1: a Monday, to come in and interview Mike. So, you know, guys,
Speaker 1: see and how it is the end of the season.
Speaker 1: They're wrapping up their stuff and throwing all their things
Speaker 1: in a Duffel bag to get out clean out their lockers,
Speaker 1: and Mike is sort of sitting in one locker and
Speaker 1: I'm just sitting next tom. I have my record, but
Speaker 1: we're just started talking and after talking for about five minutes,
Speaker 1: he looks at me and he goes, Wow, do you
Speaker 1: really know what you're talking about? And I was kind
Speaker 1: of like, duh, what do you think I'm here for.
Speaker 1: We joked about that when he was there for my
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame induction, because you know, he
Speaker 1: was the first person that I really kind of interviewed,
Speaker 1: and that dates all the way back. But again, you
Speaker 1: just sort of don't think about how groundbreaking it is.
Speaker 1: You just know that you're doing the job and you
Speaker 1: want to do it as good as anybody, male or female. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that was you know, Amy. Amy told the story
Speaker 1: about being at the league meeting. She mentioned meeting you
Speaker 1: in the ladies room and how where there was no line,
Speaker 1: one of the few playss. But she mentioned her first
Speaker 1: special session, which is the privilege session where it's just
Speaker 1: two people per club, and that somebody from another club
Speaker 1: saw her and asked her to go get her a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee and and so it's one of those things.
Speaker 1: And she played it off really well and you know,
Speaker 1: you know, sugar Cream, you know, kind of okay, playing
Speaker 1: along with it, and said that the person was mortified
Speaker 1: when they realized who she was. And I think that's
Speaker 1: that's part of the challenge of your like, you just
Speaker 1: want to do the job the best you can, regardless
Speaker 1: of of you know, anything else, but you are, you
Speaker 1: are laying the groundwork for so many young women that
Speaker 1: see what you do and that that inspires them to
Speaker 1: greater heights and to do other things in their lives.
Speaker 1: Well you can't, you kind of hope. So I think
Speaker 1: that the the Amazon, the Amazon thing is is a
Speaker 1: big deal only because, as you pointed out, we're the first,
Speaker 1: uh all female broadcast booth of a male professional sport
Speaker 1: in the US. And then you know my individual roles,
Speaker 1: the first full time female NFL game analysts, and you
Speaker 1: you hope that it just begins to normalize things. We joke,
Speaker 1: we're on our Amazon broadcast, We're in two four countries
Speaker 1: around the world, and the idea of somebody potentially ly
Speaker 1: in Indonesia that here's this American football broadcast and they
Speaker 1: hear two women, Well that's all they know. They don't
Speaker 1: know that that's something that unique, that's something that foreign
Speaker 1: to to anything else, and there's there's something else you
Speaker 1: you you like your numbers, So so consider this one.
Speaker 1: The first football game was televised in nine and so
Speaker 1: you can imagine how many games have been broadcast since then,
Speaker 1: right up until last year. Now fit and I'll think
Speaker 1: about this, all the innovations they've had, the first down
Speaker 1: line and sky cam and all this sort of stuff,
Speaker 1: all the great technological interviet innovations that that have been
Speaker 1: UH implemented by television broadcast networks. But until last year,
Speaker 1: the broadcast booth looked the same. Think about that, thousands
Speaker 1: of how many games broadcast booth is? Yeah? Right, But
Speaker 1: then you know, in terms of the broadcast booth and
Speaker 1: even even Dean and look, I think that Fox putting
Speaker 1: you and Mike on the air was absolutely brilliant, absolutely brilliant,
Speaker 1: because it gave a totally different perspective UH that was
Speaker 1: necessary to expect. I mean, there's nobody in my years
Speaker 1: of working UH on Sunday Football, there's nobody I don't
Speaker 1: know if you feel the same way that knows the
Speaker 1: rules the way al Michael's does. It's unbelievable. And yet
Speaker 1: even he will be the first to tell you can't
Speaker 1: even you can't keep you can't keep up with it.
Speaker 1: It's impossible. It's just impossible. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that I learned, which I was really interesting earlier this season,
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity two along with my producer Betsy
Speaker 1: Riley watch a Thursday night football game before our season
Speaker 1: started in the command center with Al Riveron and Russell
Speaker 1: York and and uh Donna Ponte and of course try
Speaker 1: Vincent and I had said some thing about whether it
Speaker 1: was who are the players that are some player that's
Speaker 1: active or something like that, and Troy looks at me
Speaker 1: and he goes, well, we don't. We don't really pay
Speaker 1: attention to that. We we almost don't really pay attention
Speaker 1: to the game in the sense that we only focus
Speaker 1: on the referee. We focus on that. And it was
Speaker 1: just really it was really Oh, I know why it was.
Speaker 1: It came up because I asked for a flip card,
Speaker 1: which has the depth and he said, well, we don't
Speaker 1: have that here, and I said, really, yeah, but we don't.
Speaker 1: That's not what we that's not what we care about.
Speaker 1: So that was just that was enlightening in itself, just
Speaker 1: the idea of what gets focused on if you're an
Speaker 1: official as opposed to what gets focused on if you're
Speaker 1: a broadcaster. Yeah, and you know, and I give credit
Speaker 1: to you know, Pereira when he left. I mean, that
Speaker 1: was that was groundbreaking that no other sport had had
Speaker 1: an officiating voice and I thought it was such an
Speaker 1: unbelievable new innovation, and now you've seen every network has one.
Speaker 1: And because the rules are like you said, al Michaels
Speaker 1: knows the rules, but he's not going to know the
Speaker 1: rules like an official or a former official or somebody
Speaker 1: that worked in the in the officiating department. And uh,
Speaker 1: and that was definitely groundbreaking. And and it's interesting you
Speaker 1: talk about the Amazon experience, what is that would have
Speaker 1: been some of the challenges because when you know, I've
Speaker 1: talked to you about football and we kind of we
Speaker 1: were even texting last night about the game. But it's
Speaker 1: to think about explaining the game to somebody in Indonesia.
Speaker 1: All right, That's that's not something that most analysts have
Speaker 1: to have to deal How much of a factor is
Speaker 1: that when you're explaining something are you are you really getting?
Speaker 1: You know? Is it almost a one oh one type
Speaker 1: of explanation to somebody when you know how many countries
Speaker 1: there are? Well? No, no, no, no, no, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's anything like that. UM. I go back to
Speaker 1: um some advice that al Michael's gave me before I
Speaker 1: started this last year, and he says to me, uh,
Speaker 1: he says m You know, the broadcasters don't really understand
Speaker 1: the language that they use. The audience doesn't understand it either,
Speaker 1: So don't get wrapped up in in the language that
Speaker 1: is football. And there's no question that that does exist.
Speaker 1: So for example, if I'm talking about a jet sweep
Speaker 1: or ghost motion or the pistol formation, I'm gonna say, uh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna actually indicate what I mean by They'm gonna
Speaker 1: breakdown what it is with the pistol formation that you know,
Speaker 1: you've got the running back lined up behind the quarterback,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and if he's in the
Speaker 1: shotgun whatever it is, I'm just explaining it. And Dean,
Speaker 1: it's not that hard. It's not that hard. I mean,
Speaker 1: do you do you need to say a rub route
Speaker 1: or do you need to say well, kind of like
Speaker 1: you know a pick play in basketball where you want
Speaker 1: it where you're using your body to to shield the
Speaker 1: defender and it's not going to be legal if such
Speaker 1: and such happens. There's ways you can explain things. I
Speaker 1: do not call it dummying it down. I just call
Speaker 1: it trying to explain things. And so, uh, my my
Speaker 1: producer Betsey and I we we kind of had a
Speaker 1: We had a joke that actually dated back to Sunday
Speaker 1: Night Football where it used to make our director Drews
Speaker 1: a cuff crazy when you hear about a gap A gap, bac,
Speaker 1: all right, what do you think people really understand what
Speaker 1: that is? So I kind of made this this valve
Speaker 1: that I wasn't going to use that kind of terminology.
Speaker 1: So here we are last year, Um, it's our final game.
Speaker 1: It was Chiefs Chargers, and I think it was justin Jackson.
Speaker 1: He had just this gigantic hole in the A gap.
Speaker 1: So I'm on the replay and I go and look
Speaker 1: at that hole in the in that area between the
Speaker 1: guard and the center. And after the game, Betsy says
Speaker 1: to me, you did it. You You didn't pull out
Speaker 1: the lingo that nobody's I literally caught myself in the
Speaker 1: middle of it. And I think that's just what it is.
Speaker 1: And I and truthfully Dean, I think that that would
Speaker 1: benefit a lot of announcer because it may down really cool.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt. And you know, whether you're Tradeigman or
Speaker 1: or Chris or or James Lofton or or Mark Flareance
Speaker 1: or you know, you know, Spielman, whoever it is these
Speaker 1: guys that have played the game. Of course they know
Speaker 1: you know everything, but it may sound cool when you're
Speaker 1: when you're recounting this at the water cool or the
Speaker 1: next day, but you really understand it. So for me,
Speaker 1: it's just a matter of if I can't explain it,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to use that terminology because there's plenty
Speaker 1: of things that you can explain that make the audience
Speaker 1: feel that they're learning something along with you and not
Speaker 1: being just talked at. Does that make sense? It makes
Speaker 1: perfect sense. And I look at my own experience having,
Speaker 1: you know, coming from an officiating background, but I never
Speaker 1: was an on field official, and I had to learn
Speaker 1: the rules from from a different perspective. And officials, and
Speaker 1: you've talked to enough officials, they have a language that
Speaker 1: they speak and I and I use when I'm on
Speaker 1: the air and I'm explaining a call, I could use
Speaker 1: all of this official creating jargon and it would come
Speaker 1: across to the viewers what is he talking about? And
Speaker 1: and that's I've always felt that was an advantage for
Speaker 1: me because I was learning it from a fan perspective
Speaker 1: and I had to present it in that way. And
Speaker 1: I think that's helped me explain rules to people. And
Speaker 1: I think you you know, what you're explaining is basically
Speaker 1: similar in that because you know, we've all we've all
Speaker 1: seen the shows, and I think that's more that that
Speaker 1: language is probably more suited for you know, the breakdown
Speaker 1: shows where they have more time to really dive into
Speaker 1: the the xs and ohs, but where you you know,
Speaker 1: we we I have very little time on the air.
Speaker 1: You you have a couple of seconds to explain something
Speaker 1: next place coming up, and and I think that works
Speaker 1: and I think more analysts need to need to use
Speaker 1: that approach. Well, I appreciate that. So one thing that's
Speaker 1: kind of cool that, um, you know, I think that
Speaker 1: and we we kind of get asked all the time,
Speaker 1: what is it differentiate your broadcast other than the the
Speaker 1: voices are are literal really in figuratively different. And I
Speaker 1: always like to say that we're kind of a reporter's broadcast. Um,
Speaker 1: I think that, Uh it came to it was in
Speaker 1: full full bloom last year when we had Raiders Niners
Speaker 1: and during the week we knew that uh C J. Bethard,
Speaker 1: who's the backup quarterback who was already playing for for
Speaker 1: Jimmy Garoppolo was fifty fifty with an injury. And so,
Speaker 1: as you know, you get the the inactives ninety minutes
Speaker 1: before that. But even before that, about two hours I
Speaker 1: got a I got a text from somebody in the
Speaker 1: Niners saying, Bethard is that could be able to go.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be Nick Mullins, rookie from Southern Myth making
Speaker 1: his first start. So we kind of just we we
Speaker 1: leapt into action. So tracked down his college coach who
Speaker 1: was now the offensive coordinator, I think it Auburn, wherever
Speaker 1: he was. We got him on the phone, then talked
Speaker 1: to another coach who was with in college. That was
Speaker 1: Todd Munkin, who is now the offense coordinator in Tampa.
Speaker 1: Got him on the phone. Then I talked to John Lynch.
Speaker 1: Then I talked to Nick mullins agent, Buzz Cook, who's
Speaker 1: also Bred Fires agent. Because there have been some obviously
Speaker 1: some comparisons made, so we had about four or five
Speaker 1: different people that we talked to, and and our executive
Speaker 1: producer from Amazon said, a bunch of slackers. Why didn't
Speaker 1: you talk to the midwife who delivered him? And you
Speaker 1: know we're sitting there going but as it turns out
Speaker 1: the kid had you know, played out of his mind,
Speaker 1: had a great game, and as the game progressed, we
Speaker 1: could as as each quarter went on, we could give
Speaker 1: you different layers of information about Nick Mullins. And that
Speaker 1: to me was really cool. So as opposed to just
Speaker 1: continuing to say the same staying on a loop, we
Speaker 1: had all these different things. So that that being said,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I try to do when
Speaker 1: we talked to the players until last week we had
Speaker 1: the for two weeks ago we had the Texans, and
Speaker 1: this is a great example. We're on the phone with
Speaker 1: DeAndre Hopkins and so one of the things I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to him about, in addition to obviously going
Speaker 1: up against the the the the Colts defenses. Okay, you're
Speaker 1: known for your incredibly acrobatic catches, So take me through this.
Speaker 1: Explain to me the body control that's needed. Explained to
Speaker 1: me how you make these tiptoe catches. Explain to me
Speaker 1: how you are you know this almost you are are
Speaker 1: a almost automatic in terms of getting first downs, not
Speaker 1: converting just third downs, but getting first down. So the
Speaker 1: idea of what's it like to something is something is
Speaker 1: what I try to get from a lot of these players,
Speaker 1: and then when you see it materialized in the game,
Speaker 1: you can bring to your audience a whole another layer
Speaker 1: of explanation. So it's not just okay, well, you know
Speaker 1: he's going up against Pierre to see her there in
Speaker 1: man to man coverage, and you you can go way
Speaker 1: beyond that. You can try to give your audience perspective
Speaker 1: on how the athlete, how the receiver in this case
Speaker 1: is making some of these catches, not just you know,
Speaker 1: how he uses his body to box out whatever it is.
Speaker 1: And I think that's pretty cool. I think that that's
Speaker 1: just one other, one other layer of information that that
Speaker 1: we tried to give you, yeah and getting and people
Speaker 1: want they want you to peel back that that kind
Speaker 1: of that curtain, right and see behind the scenes and
Speaker 1: get in get in the mind of the player and
Speaker 1: what happens. And I think the especially the NFL fan
Speaker 1: loves that and I think they can't get enough of that.
Speaker 1: So you know, I love that approach, and we try
Speaker 1: to do that when we talk about of fish eating
Speaker 1: as well. So segue into that. Saving the best for last. Okay,
Speaker 1: where where are we with past interference review? What has
Speaker 1: been your your experience this season. What what are your
Speaker 1: thoughts on it, the rule, how it's been applied. I'm
Speaker 1: interested in what you think. Well, you're the expert on this, right,
Speaker 1: I mean I think that I think that people continue
Speaker 1: to say well, and when I say people, I mean literally,
Speaker 1: whether you're in the broadcast booth, whether you're a fan
Speaker 1: at home, whether whoever it is, whether you're standing on
Speaker 1: the sidelines. I think each week you continue to say,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what it is. I don't even
Speaker 1: know how the how it can be, how it can
Speaker 1: be explained, it can be qualified. Look, I mean what
Speaker 1: I what I've learned listening to people like you who
Speaker 1: continue to hammer it in, uh, certainly listening to it
Speaker 1: from from el Ververy Run and Troy Vincent. I think
Speaker 1: what people have to remember is the call in the
Speaker 1: field is the holy Grail. So what the initial call
Speaker 1: is is the standard from which you start. Well, that
Speaker 1: standard is we're all human and officials are human. That's
Speaker 1: still going to be a judgment call. What you see
Speaker 1: at that moment. Well, by the time it gets kicked
Speaker 1: back to New York, it's still a judgment call. That's
Speaker 1: what I think. So you're you're trying to get perfection
Speaker 1: in a situation where that is impossible. Of course you
Speaker 1: want to get it right, but at what expends to
Speaker 1: the game, because no matter what, it's still a judgment.
Speaker 1: And I I know that Sean Payton was very frustrated
Speaker 1: and he's talking about it's got to be more than
Speaker 1: one voice, and I understand that. But I've been in
Speaker 1: that command center and you know what goes on better
Speaker 1: than anybody. And there's still are other people. Even though
Speaker 1: it is Al's ultimate decision. He's out with Russell Yerke exactly.
Speaker 1: He's getting input. So I think it's I think it's difficult.
Speaker 1: I think Dean, anything that detracts from the lay on
Speaker 1: the field is not good for the game. And we've
Speaker 1: got to constantly remind people this is a one year experiment. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that as we edge closer to the playoffs
Speaker 1: and the whole postseason, it gets a little worried because, boy,
Speaker 1: you do not want above all, you do not want
Speaker 1: to happen this year what happened last year, which is
Speaker 1: that seminal play in the NFC Championship game that really
Speaker 1: you know that that turned the tide for things. But
Speaker 1: I I think it's Uh, it's added a whole another
Speaker 1: layer of of angst, which I think is very unfortunate, Uh,
Speaker 1: in a season that has had so many good things,
Speaker 1: and yet every week you kind of see this come
Speaker 1: up and you sort of shake your head and say,
Speaker 1: if not this, then why yeah? Yeah, And I think
Speaker 1: you you hit the nail on the head with the
Speaker 1: reason why this this has not been a reviewable play
Speaker 1: situation why the committee was so averse for so many years,
Speaker 1: Because like you said, it's a judgment. And when you
Speaker 1: when take a subjective call like past inference and you
Speaker 1: make it reviewable, all we're doing is taking we're taking
Speaker 1: the official on the field and we're replacing his or
Speaker 1: her judgment with somebody else's judgment. And it's still that
Speaker 1: word is still part of it. And you me our
Speaker 1: river On, Troy Vincent, Troy Aikman, Mike Prayer, we could
Speaker 1: all sit in a room and look at ten past
Speaker 1: interference calls and not agree on any of them. And
Speaker 1: because it is such a subjective call, and that's been
Speaker 1: I think we're we're seeing that, we're seeing that play out,
Speaker 1: and I think that's like you said, it's a one
Speaker 1: year it's a one year experiment or one year rule,
Speaker 1: and they don't have to vote it out. They can
Speaker 1: just let it be. I think they're gonna look at it,
Speaker 1: they're gonna tweak it potentially, But again, I just hope
Speaker 1: that we don't get into a situation, like you said
Speaker 1: in the postseason, where we have that, we have that
Speaker 1: catastrophe and uh and it and it detracts from what,
Speaker 1: you know, what should be a celebration of a hundred
Speaker 1: years of NFL football. So I'm curious that really quickly,
Speaker 1: where do you see it being How do you see
Speaker 1: it being tweaked? Yeah, well I like that now you're
Speaker 1: interviewing me. I love that. So it's it's to me.
Speaker 1: I think they have to look at every they have
Speaker 1: to look at how how the rules being applied. And
Speaker 1: from a replay perspective, I think you want consistency, and
Speaker 1: you either you either stick with okay Saints rams that's
Speaker 1: the standard, then then the call in the field is
Speaker 1: going to stand unless it is so blatantly obvious that
Speaker 1: it was past inference. I think we saw that throughout
Speaker 1: the season, and I think people had a hard time
Speaker 1: digesting that and accepting that, and so ultimately to me,
Speaker 1: it either is or it isn't past inference, and we
Speaker 1: use the technology if they're going to keep this rule
Speaker 1: to say, yeah, it's judgment and in my judgment or
Speaker 1: or whoever's making that decision in New York, it's past
Speaker 1: inference or it isn't. And I think that's where you know,
Speaker 1: that's where the committee has to focus on. The Other
Speaker 1: thing is we're talking so much about replay, but we've
Speaker 1: got to focus on the officials on the field too,
Speaker 1: And some of these calls that are being missed, why
Speaker 1: are they being missed on the field, And we're having
Speaker 1: this debate about replay, Well, let's get to the route.
Speaker 1: If there is a problem, let's get to the root
Speaker 1: of it and figure out the official on the field
Speaker 1: and coach them up and get them to the place
Speaker 1: where we're being consistent initially and that and see that
Speaker 1: that point is exactly consistent with what I started off saying,
Speaker 1: which is that the call in the field is the
Speaker 1: holy grail. That's why that's the one you have to
Speaker 1: try to get as as correct as possible, especially knowing
Speaker 1: the climate right now, which is that it has to
Speaker 1: take something so egregious to change that and um, and
Speaker 1: I think it's also interesting. Uh. And I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is across the board. You can't generalize completely,
Speaker 1: but you wonder how much pressure the officials do feel
Speaker 1: because maybe they sit there for well, you know it's
Speaker 1: going to go to review anyway. Well, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I think it's more important than ever to try to
Speaker 1: get it right. You always want to get it right,
Speaker 1: and that goes out saying that's that's everybody's job. But
Speaker 1: I think it's more important than ever to try to
Speaker 1: get it on the field, to get it right on
Speaker 1: the field, because it's so difficult to overturn you know,
Speaker 1: not even just p I, but just you know, any
Speaker 1: of these calls. I think, Uh, I think it's really
Speaker 1: interesting and look, it's um, it's something that it makes
Speaker 1: for great conversation. Uh, there's no no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: I'm just not sure if that's the that's the kind
Speaker 1: of conversation that you want to be having with with
Speaker 1: all these with all these great plays that are being
Speaker 1: made in all these you know, some of the especially
Speaker 1: some of these great games that are coming down to
Speaker 1: the wire. So um, you just you hold your breaths
Speaker 1: right As an officially you hold your breath. That was
Speaker 1: the season comes when I was in the officiating department,
Speaker 1: that the most tense time was when there was a
Speaker 1: flag throwne and then you're waiting for the replay. That
Speaker 1: was your just those couple of seconds waiting for the replay.
Speaker 1: Is it going to be there? As an not going
Speaker 1: to be there? And that's and so I live that.
Speaker 1: I know what our rivron's going through. It's a tough,
Speaker 1: tough job. And like you said, I hope we uh
Speaker 1: you know, smooth sailing the rest of the season and
Speaker 1: we can focus on these unbelievable games and great players
Speaker 1: and coaches and everything. I remember when we did the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, you know with Senn Football, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: we had the great Arizona Pittsburgh super Bowl. Remember meeting
Speaker 1: with you know, talking to Pereira before that game. You know,
Speaker 1: he was in our NBC production meeting, and you know
Speaker 1: it's just you know he was he was just honest
Speaker 1: about how you hold your breath because you just don't
Speaker 1: want a game of you know, the biggest game ever
Speaker 1: to come down to an officiating call, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And it's it's yeah, it's it's stressful all around,
Speaker 1: but you know you you at some point you got
Speaker 1: to trust your eyes and and and as as has
Speaker 1: been famously said, Dean, do your job. That's right, do
Speaker 1: your job. We know that, do you exactly well, Andrea,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for taking some time. You're the best,
Speaker 1: really appreciated. And uh and good luck with the rest
Speaker 1: of the season. Well, thank you, Dean. And not to
Speaker 1: not to end this by getting myself in trouble, but
Speaker 1: of course the officiating situation misses you well, pretty great,
Speaker 1: You've got a great gig. And but anyway, listen, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me on. It's it's always a pleasure to
Speaker 1: talk to you, and and happy to come back and
Speaker 1: visit any time. And happy holidays to you and to
Speaker 1: your listeners. Same to you. Thanks Andrea. All right, let's
Speaker 1: shift gears. Let's go this week in the Cube. We
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time in the Cube Friday, Saturday,
Speaker 1: Sunday got a little loopy. But the thing that stood
Speaker 1: out for me. One of the things that stood out
Speaker 1: for me is that we were quoting. We have another
Speaker 1: guy that works with us, Scott, and he's a he's
Speaker 1: a big movie buff, and so we were quoting. We
Speaker 1: were talking about the Irishman, which I haven't seen yet,
Speaker 1: Martin Scorsese, and it brings up, you know, Denier Opuccino
Speaker 1: and and Joe Pesci and and I started we started
Speaker 1: quoting good Fellas, and one of the classic scenes from
Speaker 1: good Fellas when Raleiota and Joe Pesci they're in the
Speaker 1: restaurant and Raleota says, you're a funny guy, and Joe
Speaker 1: Pesci starts playing, you know, messing around. Why am I
Speaker 1: so funny? What am I clown? I amuse you? The
Speaker 1: whole deal and Travis and Travis like, what was that
Speaker 1: from the Gods? What movie is that from The Godfather?
Speaker 1: And like he the fact that there were so many
Speaker 1: layers of my anger is that he didn't know what
Speaker 1: movie it was from, No, you didn't. The second layer
Speaker 1: of anger was that he just assumes, because I'm talking
Speaker 1: about it, it's The Godfather and it just makes me.
Speaker 1: And then we talk about that he he hasn't seen
Speaker 1: Rocky like he has I haven't seen. It's embarrassing as
Speaker 1: an Italian American offended that you haven't seen Rocky? And
Speaker 1: how do you not see Rocky? I don't know. Let's
Speaker 1: watch it together, guy, that's fine, that's fine, but that
Speaker 1: could be episode one of the s w G. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: him watching rock his toe, I've never seen I've never
Speaker 1: watched a movie with a person in it. This is
Speaker 1: this is so anyway that aside, there was some really
Speaker 1: good stuff on social media and one of the things
Speaker 1: this came across I don't know, it just happened, and
Speaker 1: it came across this This Twitter person started tweeting at me,
Speaker 1: started tweeting at me, and it's the Dean Blandino Alert
Speaker 1: and it's at alert Dean, and it's a Twitter page
Speaker 1: and it's trying to spot every appearance of the greatest
Speaker 1: rules analysts with the best name. And if you there's
Speaker 1: a picture the two great pictures. There's me my face
Speaker 1: on a goat's body, and I can only assume that
Speaker 1: he's implying that I'm the goat, which is great. And
Speaker 1: then it's a picture of It's the Last Supper with
Speaker 1: me as Jesus and and my face and it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: It's I don't know. And so this you're gonna make,
Speaker 1: We're gonna make T shirts whatever it is. So follow
Speaker 1: him with the good call. You'll get a you'll get
Speaker 1: a ping every time Dean goes every time exactly. So
Speaker 1: so there's that, and then there's this kid, and I
Speaker 1: don't know what to do, but there's this kid. He
Speaker 1: he he tweeted at me like he asked me how
Speaker 1: the weather was in l A. And I always like
Speaker 1: these guys, know, like I I'll respond any any tweet
Speaker 1: at me that has nothing to do with football, I'll
Speaker 1: respond football stuff. I'll respond if it's a legitimate question,
Speaker 1: but I'll respond to how's the weather. And I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's pretty good in l A. You know, a little
Speaker 1: cold for southern California standards. He's like, oh, it's snowing
Speaker 1: and raining in New York. I guess this kids from
Speaker 1: New York. And he's like, you know, um, you know,
Speaker 1: can we you know Penn State makes the Rose Bowl.
Speaker 1: Can me and my buddies come out and stay with you.
Speaker 1: We'll bring the beer. So I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: we're playing around. So I said, yeah, you know, I'll
Speaker 1: get a couple of air mattresses and I'll stock the fridge.
Speaker 1: So he sends me a direct message and he said
Speaker 1: we're gonna be in l A. Gives me the dates
Speaker 1: and if Penn State makes it, that would be so
Speaker 1: awesome if we could crash with you. And then he's
Speaker 1: tweeting his friends. So now I feel bad, like I
Speaker 1: want to hang out. I'll hang out with him, but
Speaker 1: I can't have him and his buddies staying with me.
Speaker 1: I just it's not gonna work. But hopefully the listens
Speaker 1: to the podcast know that, Andrew, I want you to
Speaker 1: come out, hang out. We'll have a good time. I'll
Speaker 1: show you know. I'll take you guys out, but you
Speaker 1: can't crash your my place. We'll get you a couple
Speaker 1: of shirts too. We'll get them shirts, We'll buy him
Speaker 1: drinks whatever. You know. Um, Travis, you you brought this
Speaker 1: up to me. Can you explain this? This this happened.
Speaker 1: This was a good discussion we had in the cube.
Speaker 1: Can you can you just set this up for everybody everyone? Please?
Speaker 1: So we see a lot of like, weird names, random names.
Speaker 1: We we the one we we had a few weeks ago,
Speaker 1: the coldest Crawford I think, and the coldest to ever
Speaker 1: do it was there and and the play by play
Speaker 1: voice of the Yellow Jackets Georgia Tech and also the
Speaker 1: play by play for the Atlanta dream is names Andy,
Speaker 1: What do you say de Metro? How is that al?
Speaker 1: We say it? He said. One of the most underrated
Speaker 1: storylines in the college football this season, the slow influx
Speaker 1: of influx freshman named after early two things. We have
Speaker 1: to march this episode explicit now because Travis just said
Speaker 1: what he just said. Now, we're gonna have to We're
Speaker 1: gonna have to make it explicit. So good continue influx. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that we're seeing all these new names of these
Speaker 1: two thousand and these are can you named? These are
Speaker 1: actual names. So here's some of the names this guy
Speaker 1: listed in this tweet. Jadakiss, Harvey, Cameron Kelly, Mr Cole McGhee,
Speaker 1: Ma Mace Funa. So it's we were so I was,
Speaker 1: I want this to become such a thing and I
Speaker 1: want people to name their kids like I was going
Speaker 1: through like nineties rappers and can we I mean, I
Speaker 1: just want like like Buster Rhymes Williams, like can we
Speaker 1: have Like I want so bad for this to become
Speaker 1: a thing, like please please name your kids after nineties rappers,
Speaker 1: Like this is two thousands rappers, So they're not even
Speaker 1: like good rappers on like the scene of like actual
Speaker 1: Good Road. That's w what do you know about's rap?
Speaker 1: That's when that's when these are two thousand rap Travis.
Speaker 1: But then again, but Mace is a nineties rapper, so
Speaker 1: so so he was a little bit off like because
Speaker 1: I have no idea what that is mystical, I don't
Speaker 1: even know what that is. You guys, Travis loves him
Speaker 1: some snow man, he loves snow. Did give I'm so
Speaker 1: close to see it, but I'm not. Please give us
Speaker 1: a little snow well we won't be able to play it.
Speaker 1: The guys will tell us inform, you know, keep a
Speaker 1: move down. We have a video. But I so want
Speaker 1: this to be a Please name your kids after two
Speaker 1: thousand rappers, so we can just we can just name it.
Speaker 1: I have a son on the way, Travis, but we
Speaker 1: want because you have the whole scan of name. Hans
Speaker 1: Hansen is probably still on the fur Hanson. Can we
Speaker 1: can we do with a K? Yes, Magnum Henry the
Speaker 1: Destroyer Hanson. That's why I want. But we do have,
Speaker 1: we do have. We do have some really good names.
Speaker 1: I mean we always we always loved he played with
Speaker 1: Texas last year. Is he in the league. I think
Speaker 1: he's on a practice squad. Little Jordan, Yeah, he got
Speaker 1: cut by, got cut by Atlanta, which I think is
Speaker 1: the greatest. Little Jordan's is such a such a But
Speaker 1: the crazy timing to this whole thing was when we
Speaker 1: were having this, we were the current cornerbacks Nebraska's names
Speaker 1: Dicacaprio Bootle, DiCaprio Boodle, So we weren't sure if that
Speaker 1: if mom was a fan of like Titanic or what,
Speaker 1: and so DiCaprio Boodle, like it's the King of the World, man,
Speaker 1: the King of the World. I think it's amazing. I
Speaker 1: named my son Clooney. Why don't you name him Shakille
Speaker 1: shack Hanson. That sounds shack Canson. Does I still like Sonny,
Speaker 1: Sonny Joe like Sonny um? And then speaking of Joe,
Speaker 1: speaking of Joe send So so we get a text,
Speaker 1: we just send the lot tex like like at midnight,
Speaker 1: Joe sends a you up text to me, Travis, and
Speaker 1: Scott in the studio, so none of you, none of
Speaker 1: us reply, but reply like, um, excuse me. And Joe.
Speaker 1: We we figured that Joe just sends when he's lonely,
Speaker 1: he sends a U up text to his entire contact
Speaker 1: was and he hopes that somebody responds. I only said
Speaker 1: I was trying to just send it to Dean. I
Speaker 1: just you guys were on the group thing, and you know, well,
Speaker 1: what did you want to discuss? I don't even remember exactly,
Speaker 1: but I mean you did said that one probably let's
Speaker 1: talk about your pizza. There was probably, oh the pizza.
Speaker 1: So Wednesday night, big night to go out, day before Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: So me and some friends were out having some cocktails.
Speaker 1: And what do you always want when you're out drinking
Speaker 1: when you're done? Not laten, Not definitely not. Either some
Speaker 1: sort of a burger or some sort of a taco
Speaker 1: or a pizza. I got on the app the Fresh
Speaker 1: Brothers up. Order a pizza to my house. Please just
Speaker 1: leave it on the doorstep. I paid with the credit card,
Speaker 1: left the tip, and then we got home and there
Speaker 1: was a pizza on the doorstep, and it felt like
Speaker 1: I had just one life. The video your video. But
Speaker 1: let me tell you something. Do not get the triple Pepperoni.
Speaker 1: It's too much pepperoni. I never thought I would say
Speaker 1: that that's a lot of but it was. This was
Speaker 1: two weeks in a road talking Fresh Brothers. This is
Speaker 1: pretty solid Fresh Brothers. You guys want to sponsor the show,
Speaker 1: come on Fresh Fresh Brothers was a good call. Video Fresh,
Speaker 1: probably it's a good call. So speaking of speaking of pizza, So,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've seen the Papa John's video.
Speaker 1: Was was quite the topic of discussion in the Cube
Speaker 1: this weekend and we were just amazed if there's so
Speaker 1: much and obviously there was so much talked about on
Speaker 1: social media about Papa John's like and so we came
Speaker 1: up with this this idea that that I'm friends with
Speaker 1: Papa John and he was. I was. He was calling
Speaker 1: me after the interview. I don't know how this came up,
Speaker 1: but he was calling me after the interview and it
Speaker 1: was just a one way conversations. All you could hear
Speaker 1: was me and I'm doing this in the Cube. Let's
Speaker 1: set up the covert or the video a little bit though.
Speaker 1: How his voice sounds like people, you watch the video,
Speaker 1: watch the video, trust me and and so and so
Speaker 1: I'm taking the call from Papa John Schnader whatever his
Speaker 1: name is, Schnader Hrder and after the video airs, and
Speaker 1: so this is me just talking. So I'm going, hey,
Speaker 1: what's up man? You know, no, it's late yeah, I
Speaker 1: was about to go to bed. No, I thought you
Speaker 1: came across the room. You came across really well, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: he has no pizza making experience, like great, it's forty
Speaker 1: pizzas is a lot of pizzas and you you were
Speaker 1: the guy, and there is no consistency. It's like it's
Speaker 1: like past deference in the NFL. There's no consistency right
Speaker 1: now with with pizza. And No, I don't, don't. Don't
Speaker 1: text Payton No, it's late, don't it's late on the
Speaker 1: West coast. Don't, don't text page heat. No, him and
Speaker 1: I don't think he and Brad Paisley have better chemistry
Speaker 1: than you and him. I really don't. So that that
Speaker 1: was just And this went on for like thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: So you can see we had a lot of fun
Speaker 1: and we had a late night on Saturday, and uh,
Speaker 1: and so we had to do this with more things
Speaker 1: that oh my god, we'll go. We'll definitely do that.
Speaker 1: So let's finish up. It's uh, let's let's end with
Speaker 1: the brain of Blandino. Joe, can you pick something for us?
Speaker 1: All right, let's check it out. Bobby got a raw deal.
Speaker 1: One kick to me and he gets d Q. Johnny
Speaker 1: commits about four flagrant fouls. Oh, karate Kid. We're gonna
Speaker 1: break this down, Okay, So in the off season, we're
Speaker 1: going to break down the karate Kid, the tournament and
Speaker 1: the final, the officiating because I have a lot of problems.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do a whole episode on on officiating in
Speaker 1: movies and TV, and I have a lot of problems
Speaker 1: with how that was officiating. Bobby got a raw deal.
Speaker 1: Here's the kid that was the one Cobra Kai with
Speaker 1: a heart. He was the one guy that when they
Speaker 1: were beating the crap out of Daniel Son, and he
Speaker 1: was the one guy that was telling Johnny and and
Speaker 1: then Miyagi had to come and and beat them all up.
Speaker 1: And this is the guy that came in. He was
Speaker 1: the runner up the previous year at the All Valley
Speaker 1: State Tournament to Johnny. He's already playing second fiddle to Johnny.
Speaker 1: And now he goes into the match and I think
Speaker 1: he's just as good as Johnny, and he could beat Daniel.
Speaker 1: But what does did the coach say? He says, I
Speaker 1: don't want him beat I want him I want him
Speaker 1: taken out. I want him out of commission. So Bobby
Speaker 1: has to kick him in the knee and he gets
Speaker 1: immediately disqualified for sweeping the leg. Right, I mean not
Speaker 1: even sweeping the leg. He he did a jump kick
Speaker 1: and he kicked him in the knee. If you watch
Speaker 1: the final match, Johnny commits like four flagrant fouls, culminating
Speaker 1: with him catching Daniel's leg and dropping an atomic elbow
Speaker 1: on the back of the knee, the already injured knee,
Speaker 1: and the referee is like, no, that's not a that's
Speaker 1: not even a foul. Well, it's a warning for illegal contact.
Speaker 1: That to me, Bobby got a rowdale. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna agree with you on this. Although you aren't a
Speaker 1: rules expert in the karate, we will we will bring
Speaker 1: on how about that? We will bring on a rules
Speaker 1: expert in that in that arena, and we will break
Speaker 1: it down with that expert. How about that? Do that
Speaker 1: in the offseason. That's our show. This has been good
Speaker 1: calls with me, Dean Blandino. Please follow me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Dean Blandino, in Instagram at deem dot Blandino. See
Speaker 1: what I did there. Follow the show on Instagram and
Speaker 1: Twitter at Rules Podcast, and be sure to rate our
Speaker 1: podcast on the I heart Radio app and on Apple Topics.
Speaker 1: M Good Calls with Dean Blandino is a production of
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