Speaker 1: Questions and answers. Yes, it is one of my favorite
Speaker 1: episodes to do. Welcome to the NFL Explained Podcast. Mike
Speaker 1: Yam joined as always by Addi kinkab Wla. How are
Speaker 1: you great? I forgot to put in my regular high
Speaker 1: because I was sort of wrapped up in this idea
Speaker 1: that this is your favorite thing to do. Well, but no,
Speaker 1: it is when we do our mail bag episodes and
Speaker 1: people are engaged in our episodes, and some of our
Speaker 1: previous shows have sparked questions and then they fire them
Speaker 1: off to us on social media. At my underscore m
Speaker 1: at a kinka wallah, Yeah, I get fired up. It's
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's like the connection that we have
Speaker 1: with the audience. So it is one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1: You know. I have to give a little shout out
Speaker 1: since we talk about having conversations. I spoke to a
Speaker 1: young woman named Gabby just yesterday who grew up in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: is a big Ravens fan, is studying abroad in Venice
Speaker 1: right now, and she told me that she loves our
Speaker 1: podcast and that she keeps going back to that field
Speaker 1: whole episode with Justin Tucker, a game that she was
Speaker 1: at the justin Tucker Game that prompted the changing of
Speaker 1: the height of the uprights, and she said she keeps
Speaker 1: mentioning it to be talking about things that she learned
Speaker 1: in that episode, which really just made me feel so
Speaker 1: warm and fuzzy. Yeah, it's amazing. And she's probably listening
Speaker 1: with gelato in one hand or phone and and the
Speaker 1: wireless headphones and the other. So Gabby's love and life.
Speaker 1: Right now, you got the end of explained podcast studying
Speaker 1: abroad in Venice. What could be better than that? Well,
Speaker 1: what could be better than that is giving our listeners
Speaker 1: another grab bag episode. So let's just jump right into it.
Speaker 1: Mike Fines, What can players get fine for? Where does
Speaker 1: that money go? What exactly happens during halftime? What doesn't happen?
Speaker 1: By the way, I did my best to get on
Speaker 1: the halftime field this past Super Bowl. That wasn't so successful,
Speaker 1: but I did get very very close to Snoop Dogg.
Speaker 1: I will say that, and to Dr Dre I'll send
Speaker 1: you pictures later away. So the importance of turnovers, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: We're going to get into all of that. The franchise tag,
Speaker 1: we'll get into that too all of it in this episode,
Speaker 1: all right, So there's a lot to unpack here. So
Speaker 1: let's sort of get into a couple of other things
Speaker 1: that we can make reference to. And by the way,
Speaker 1: you just dropped the halftime hanging with Snoop Andre. You
Speaker 1: didn't say hanging with I didn't say better sell, So
Speaker 1: let's just go with that. But because we do have
Speaker 1: a recently new crown champion in the RAMS, would love
Speaker 1: to start with the question of where did the idea
Speaker 1: of Super Bowl rings actually come from? Well, here's the answer.
Speaker 1: The first ever championship ring in pro sports and this
Speaker 1: is not super surprising, and it comes in baseball, uh,
Speaker 1: the New York Baseball Giants in ninety two after beating
Speaker 1: the Yankees in the World Series. The first Super Bowl
Speaker 1: ring was given to the Packers after defeating the Chiefs
Speaker 1: in Super Bowl One. It actually featured just one single
Speaker 1: carrot diamond, which you know, I mean, now I get
Speaker 1: like the blame and it's like kind of crazy in
Speaker 1: the whole I know, you got some bling on your hand,
Speaker 1: what you're you're flashing right now? So well, what's really
Speaker 1: interesting about this is our colleague Mike Robinson. I met
Speaker 1: him at a rookie symposium years ago, and he had
Speaker 1: his super Bowl ring, and this was prior to my
Speaker 1: husband actually proposing to me. And I took a picture
Speaker 1: of that big fat super Bowl ring and I sent
Speaker 1: it to my husband and said inspiration. And while I
Speaker 1: do have a very nice engagement ring, it is nowhere
Speaker 1: near what super Bowl rings are today. No, I mean
Speaker 1: they are no joke, but at least the one from
Speaker 1: super Bowl number one. Uh look one carrot diamond, but
Speaker 1: the ring itself usually there there rose or yellow gold.
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell you the difference between either one of those.
Speaker 1: They can include diamonds, although to be fair, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I've ever seen a championship ring at a
Speaker 1: pro level that hasn't included diamonds, um emeralds, ruby, sapphires.
Speaker 1: Oh my, that's a pretty significant list. It'll include of
Speaker 1: course the team, the name, the number, and of course
Speaker 1: world champions on it. The Collective Bargaining Agreement actually outlines
Speaker 1: that are practice squad slash inactive player for super Bowl
Speaker 1: winning team is entitled to a ring, and most teams
Speaker 1: actually give rings to coaches, administration, surrounding organizational staff as
Speaker 1: sort of like honorary rings. And I got a really
Speaker 1: good example for you. Add So, one of my best
Speaker 1: friends is the play by playvoice for the Rams in JB. Long,
Speaker 1: and I had asked him before the Super Bowl. I
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, man, are you gonna get a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl ring if they win? He said, I think so.
Speaker 1: So it's just another cool example of really what it
Speaker 1: could be. And you know what, Mike, some of those
Speaker 1: stories are my favorite stories go back to two thousand seventeen,
Speaker 1: when the Eagles won the Super Bowl. Owner Jeffrey Lurie
Speaker 1: actually gave John dorm Boss, who had been there long
Speaker 1: snapper for eleven years, had been one of the most
Speaker 1: popular guys in that locker room, but had been traded
Speaker 1: just before the season. He gave him a ring. He
Speaker 1: also gave a ring to a secretary that had been
Speaker 1: with the team from nineteen until two thousand fourteen, when
Speaker 1: then head coach Chip Kelly had fired her. Colts owner
Speaker 1: Jim Ersey. He gave Edgar and James a ring after
Speaker 1: winning the Super Bowl in two thousand six, and that
Speaker 1: was right after Edgar and James had left in free agency.
Speaker 1: And then you talk about giving extra rings or honorary rings,
Speaker 1: or pendants after winning Super Bowl fifty four? Quiz time,
Speaker 1: how many rings do you think the Chiefs gave out players, coaches, staff, ambassadors, cheerleaders.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I feel like just knowing
Speaker 1: in this administration, players practice, squad players, you're probably hovering
Speaker 1: around to Andrea just in general, maybe try seven hundred
Speaker 1: seven hundred. You're ordering those like right after the game,
Speaker 1: the eu fouria is still there as opposed to you know,
Speaker 1: weeks after where maybe that dies down just a bit
Speaker 1: and you start thinking about what that's going to go
Speaker 1: and cost you. Right, maybe you shouldn't be making that
Speaker 1: decision right then. Okay, but so we do know who
Speaker 1: has the most rings in history? Correct? Yeah, it's the goat.
Speaker 1: Come on, Tom Brady. We've all seen that picture, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I can't believe he retired with three fingers left. You know.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because actually about a year and a
Speaker 1: half ago, actually hosted a seminar with Charles Haley and
Speaker 1: Ronnie Lott about mental health awareness. And I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that Charles Haley, like, you know, I sort of he
Speaker 1: was getting bios and whatnot. He's actually the second most
Speaker 1: amount of rings that he has one hand five, which
Speaker 1: is kind of cool when you think about the success
Speaker 1: he had with the Niners and the Cowboys. By the way.
Speaker 1: The other thing to kind of throw out there on
Speaker 1: the expense of some of those rings, and you mentioned
Speaker 1: the Chiefs dropping seven hundred of them. Now not all
Speaker 1: of them are, you know, fully outfitted with like a
Speaker 1: crazy amount of diamonds. But the last ring that Brady
Speaker 1: got with the Bucks fifteen carrots of diamonds a total
Speaker 1: of three hundred and nineteen to signify the thirty one
Speaker 1: to final score. The value around six d k. It's
Speaker 1: the most expensive ring in league history by a very
Speaker 1: wide margin. The NFL, by the way, does contribute around
Speaker 1: five to seven thousand dollars on each ring. That softened
Speaker 1: that blow a little bit of d I can tell
Speaker 1: you this. My engagement ring was not sixty dollars. But Mike,
Speaker 1: if you're going to be dropping that one day, well,
Speaker 1: you know, lucky lady me and you were gonna be
Speaker 1: doing a whole lot of podcasts for me to be
Speaker 1: able to afward six k on an engagement ring. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: let's keep talking about money, and let's talk about contributions,
Speaker 1: and hey, we had another great question from one of
Speaker 1: our listeners at iron Will on Twitter and to Will
Speaker 1: asks us, where does all the money that is collected
Speaker 1: from the various fines that the NFL hands out go? Well,
Speaker 1: it's a great question. The first place we should start
Speaker 1: is how players actually get fined. Now, there are indeed
Speaker 1: maximum allowable fines that are laid out in the c
Speaker 1: b A. For instance, if you don't promptly report an injury,
Speaker 1: the most you can be fined is two thousand, eight
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty seven dollars. If you throw a football
Speaker 1: into the stands, the most you can be fined is
Speaker 1: two thousand, eight hundred and twenty seven dollars. Do you
Speaker 1: know if you are overweight? Mike, and thank goodness, I
Speaker 1: am not fine for this, But if you are overweight,
Speaker 1: how much can you be fined per pound per day?
Speaker 1: Seven hundred and fifty two dollars. How could it be
Speaker 1: that much? Well, that's what it is, seven hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty two dollars for a pound per day TB twelve.
Speaker 1: Here we go. I mean I'd bay go ahead and
Speaker 1: multiply five times seven hundred and fifty two, like I'd
Speaker 1: be out my whole salary right now, or maybe it
Speaker 1: would prompt me to get back into shape. Anyway, failure
Speaker 1: to report to a mandatory offseason minicamp the first day
Speaker 1: you're out nearly sixteen thousand dollars, the second day you're
Speaker 1: out thirty one thousand, nine hundred and sixty one dollars,
Speaker 1: and the third day you can be fined forty seven
Speaker 1: thousand in nine hundred and thirty six dollars. Now, if
Speaker 1: you have an unexcused miss on a team transportation fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand and ninety dollars, which I have a story about that.
Speaker 1: Once the Steelers were flying to Oakland and uh, I
Speaker 1: think the Raiders were in Oakland at the time. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Steelers were flying and Antonio Brown was late and
Speaker 1: Mike Tomlin held the plane until Antonio Brown showed up,
Speaker 1: Which means that maybe Antonio Brown, ohs Mike Tomlin part
Speaker 1: of that fifteen thousand, ninety dollars that he would have
Speaker 1: been fined potentially for missing the flight plus the cost
Speaker 1: of airfare to get across the country. Here's what's crazy.
Speaker 1: If you lose personal playbook, if you lose part of
Speaker 1: a playbook or a scouting report, it's the same fifteen thousand,
Speaker 1: ninety dollars. I would think that that would be a
Speaker 1: much bigger fine, don't you think? Agreed? But I'm having
Speaker 1: flashbacks to elementary school, like you lose your homework one
Speaker 1: of those moments and then just fast forward just a significance,
Speaker 1: like you know, the teacher now has a talking point
Speaker 1: some of their students. You know, in the NFL, you
Speaker 1: lose your playbook or your scant report cost k don't
Speaker 1: lose your homework. Well, it could also cost your team
Speaker 1: the game, though, depending on whose hands that playbook falls into.
Speaker 1: All right, what about fighting? First offense for fighting thirty
Speaker 1: five thousand and ninety six dollars, a second offense seventy thousand,
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety four dollars. If you have a foreign
Speaker 1: substance on your body, like it's cold and you put
Speaker 1: too much vaseline on your arms to keep them warm,
Speaker 1: and it bleeds onto your uniform and it makes you slippery, well,
Speaker 1: that could be five thousand dollars for a first offense.
Speaker 1: You know, penalties are also subject to find Mike, a
Speaker 1: fifteen yard fould like a face mask, a blind side block,
Speaker 1: a roughing the past or a horse collar, all of
Speaker 1: those can get you a find somewhere in between ten
Speaker 1: and twenty thousand dollars. And then, of course, you know
Speaker 1: there are uniform inspectors, So on game day there's as
Speaker 1: many a sixty four uniform inspectors who make sure that
Speaker 1: everybody's looking clean. You know, the socks must be the
Speaker 1: right color, and they have to be pulled up to
Speaker 1: the right spot, and gosh, all of that. You have
Speaker 1: to be proper in what you're doing. Some of the
Speaker 1: players really are not huge fans of that, and some
Speaker 1: that I know that we're just willing to just kind
Speaker 1: of pay the fine and just say screw it, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do what I want anyway. Um, it does total
Speaker 1: a whole lot of cash. Though. It's actually really good
Speaker 1: question indeed that iron Will had sent our way, because
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, like, those are large numbers and penalties.
Speaker 1: Where does the money go. Well, Mike, let's look at one.
Speaker 1: Players were find a total of one hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: three times for seven million dollars according to spot track.
Speaker 1: And so, to go back to iron Will's original question,
Speaker 1: all of that money goes to the NFL Foundation, and
Speaker 1: it's used to assist former players and various programs that
Speaker 1: help former players. These are programs that are agreed upon
Speaker 1: by both the NFL and the nfl p A union,
Speaker 1: And obviously last year was a big year for fines,
Speaker 1: but in general, the league has been able to give
Speaker 1: about four million dollars a year to these programs. So
Speaker 1: while that fine for an untucked jersey could be really annoying,
Speaker 1: at least you know that your money is going to
Speaker 1: a very good cause. Yeah no, I mean it's definitely
Speaker 1: it's a really worthy cause in a big way. Alright.
Speaker 1: A couple more questions to get to here. One regarding turnovers.
Speaker 1: You know there's that theme. My god, I feel like
Speaker 1: it's literally every time I watch a game, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't even have to be an NFL game, every single
Speaker 1: sport where turnoversus an issue. You got to win the
Speaker 1: turnover battle keys to the game. How true is that
Speaker 1: is the question. Well, it turns out it's actually really true.
Speaker 1: So there's a reason why everyone seems to say it.
Speaker 1: Since two thousand teams with a positive turnover margin win
Speaker 1: games at a rate of seventy nine percent over that
Speaker 1: same span, Since two thousand teams that have a turnover
Speaker 1: margin of plus one percent winning percentage a plus two,
Speaker 1: it knocks up to eight three a plus three turnover margin.
Speaker 1: And if you are plus four or better, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's like guaranteed victory. Ninety six point six percent is
Speaker 1: that win percentage. So when you consider that teams have
Speaker 1: about ten possessions are so a game it makes a
Speaker 1: whole lot of sense. Every single play matters in such
Speaker 1: a big way and indiity as far as success for
Speaker 1: teams during the season and reaching that Super Bowl, only
Speaker 1: four Super Bowl winners have ever had a negative turnover
Speaker 1: margin in the regular season the Oh seven Giants negative nine, three,
Speaker 1: Raiders negative four, Broncos negative for the Raiders at negative two.
Speaker 1: And how about this the Rams in one coming off
Speaker 1: that Super Bowl against the Bengals. A little doughnut there,
Speaker 1: the Rams somehow wanted all this past season with a
Speaker 1: differential of zero. So once again, um, you know, on
Speaker 1: the flip side, if you're thinking, like, what about teams
Speaker 1: with the highest turnover margin? The Ravens plus twenty three
Speaker 1: arguably the best defense of all time. But be I
Speaker 1: know you've got an up closer personal seat for that
Speaker 1: squad and the Legion of Boom the Seahawks a plus
Speaker 1: twenty differential for them. What are you talking about in
Speaker 1: two thousand, I was just a kid. I wasn't covering
Speaker 1: the NFL. End. I'm with you, Mike, that was a
Speaker 1: little rid moving right along. If your team is struggling,
Speaker 1: like Mike, yeah, I'm uppears to be struggling right now,
Speaker 1: whether it's turnovers or you know, schematically, it's important to
Speaker 1: get into the locker room at halftime, right. So a
Speaker 1: question that we've had a few times from a few
Speaker 1: different people is what exactly happens at halftime? Alright, So
Speaker 1: in a regular game, NFL halftime is only thirteen minutes
Speaker 1: for the players, and that's shorter than all other levels
Speaker 1: of football. It's time by the back jugged, and teams
Speaker 1: are not required to go back to the locker room.
Speaker 1: But it certainly makes sense, and especially considering that poor
Speaker 1: Evan mc fierce and the Rickey Kier for the Bengals
Speaker 1: who decided to hang out with long snapper and Clark
Speaker 1: Harrison watched the Jerry Snoop halftime show this year at
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. Um, we get that it's probably safer
Speaker 1: to just get out of sight. Although I should mention
Speaker 1: that the Super Bowl halftime is indeed longer than a
Speaker 1: regular season game halftime. In any case, what happens at
Speaker 1: halftime varies based on the team. So now you've certainly
Speaker 1: had coaches who say that, you know, there's just not
Speaker 1: enough time to get into any sort of really detailed
Speaker 1: chalk talk. Sean Payton once talked about this, that halftime
Speaker 1: is really only about seven and a half minutes. By
Speaker 1: the time you all run off the field, get in
Speaker 1: the locker room, get a drink, eat a peanut butter
Speaker 1: and jelly sandwich. Which remember when we did our episode
Speaker 1: on eating, if you eat a peanut butter and jelly
Speaker 1: sandwich at halftime, you should eat it on white bread,
Speaker 1: not we bread, because you don't want too much fiber.
Speaker 1: As you go out in the second half, go back
Speaker 1: and check out that. So lots of interesting nuggets un eating.
Speaker 1: But anyway, by the time you get something to drink,
Speaker 1: by the time you eat something, you go to the bathroom.
Speaker 1: The coaches talks amongst themselves there's really just not that
Speaker 1: much time to get into any sort of deep dive
Speaker 1: on anything. And so Sean Payton, going back the former
Speaker 1: Saints coach, said maybe you can talk about a couple
Speaker 1: of important things, but really probably not. And Matt Burke,
Speaker 1: who was a center for a long time with the
Speaker 1: Vikings and also played with the Ravens too, right, and
Speaker 1: you play with the Ravens too, Yes, okay, well he
Speaker 1: was a Viking center for a very long time. Harvard Man.
Speaker 1: He said the same exact thing that, like, you know,
Speaker 1: the coaches have a meeting, they come out and they
Speaker 1: very quickly say to players, Okay, guys, here's what we like.
Speaker 1: It's not like it's super specific that these are the
Speaker 1: three plays that are going to win the game, and
Speaker 1: you're gone, there you go. And another thing, they'll insist
Speaker 1: that like that whole glorified in the movies and TV,
Speaker 1: that impassion a halftime speech that changes everything, that that
Speaker 1: doesn't really happen. And another one of our former colleagues,
Speaker 1: Brian Billick, who of course won that two thousand Raven
Speaker 1: Super Bowl when I was, you know, just a small
Speaker 1: child in elementary school. Brian Billick said, in all my
Speaker 1: years in the NFL, I can't think of a single
Speaker 1: let's go win one for the Gipper halftime speech. Kind
Speaker 1: of disappointing. But now I will say this in my
Speaker 1: experience this past season, as you know, Mike, I spent
Speaker 1: so much time with the Cincinnati Bengals, and the one
Speaker 1: thing about the Bengals this year is that they were tremendous,
Speaker 1: especially on defense, in making adjustments. And I'm thinking of
Speaker 1: two games against the Kansas City Chiefs, one in December
Speaker 1: and then one again in the a f C title game,
Speaker 1: And after the Chiefs kind of ran all over and
Speaker 1: ran up the score on the Bengals in the first half,
Speaker 1: the Bengals both times came out and essentially shut down
Speaker 1: the Chiefs in the second half. And that was indeed
Speaker 1: because of some adjustments that were made at halftime and
Speaker 1: on the fly. But I will say this, this was
Speaker 1: possible because it was a very very smart and heady
Speaker 1: and overly communicative defense. I would not say that that's
Speaker 1: the norm. Yeah, I'm disappointed that the fired up raw
Speaker 1: Ra halftime is also not the norm, especially because of
Speaker 1: all the movies that we've seen, and you know the
Speaker 1: inspiration where they throw the cool music bed under the
Speaker 1: under the voice who would be one head coach that
Speaker 1: You're just like, Okay, this guy could talk and I'd
Speaker 1: run through a wall for him. Oh, you know it's
Speaker 1: that's actually a great question. Let me just rack my brain.
Speaker 1: There's one coach in particular who I've always thought very
Speaker 1: highly of, both on the pro side and the college side.
Speaker 1: But it's been so long since he's coached in the NFL.
Speaker 1: But when I was still in college at the time,
Speaker 1: he was the head coach of the Jets, and now
Speaker 1: he's at Arizona State, and then I got to work
Speaker 1: with her Edwards at ESPN Herms. One of those like
Speaker 1: I think it depends on how you talk to people.
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm not the person who needs like the
Speaker 1: raw raw like get in your face and everyone's screaming.
Speaker 1: That's not how I roll. I'm more of like the
Speaker 1: the easy like can you inspire me with your words?
Speaker 1: And that would be enough for me. You've been around
Speaker 1: a ton of coaches, you must have one in mind
Speaker 1: that you would run through a wall for. I'd like
Speaker 1: to play for John Harbaugh. Okay, yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 1: But that's a whole other episode, so we could get
Speaker 1: into that one another time. Okay, well, look, that'll be
Speaker 1: my question that I'll tweet you for our next episode.
Speaker 1: But there's more, Yeah, there's more. Questions that people are
Speaker 1: firing off to us, including one that we actually just
Speaker 1: got recently as in like morning of our record about
Speaker 1: the franchise tech, what exactly is it and how does
Speaker 1: it work? Not to mention, we're gonna find out about
Speaker 1: the shape and the materials that has changed throughout the
Speaker 1: years with regard to the actual football and also what's
Speaker 1: officially the biggest upset in league history. All of that
Speaker 1: still become on the NFL Explained Podcast. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the NFL Explained Podcast. Mike Yam and d D Kinka
Speaker 1: Wallah with you. We are continuing to steam roll our
Speaker 1: mail bag episode. We loved getting the questions throughout the
Speaker 1: course of the season. You can find us on social
Speaker 1: media at Mike Underscore Yam at a kin kabwala a d.
Speaker 1: Let's get right back to this one. An incredible year
Speaker 1: for football for so many different reasons. Probably the most
Speaker 1: exciting playoffs of all time, and there was a lot
Speaker 1: of parody, the road teams winning nearly fifty percent in
Speaker 1: the games, that's the highest percentage since two thousand two,
Speaker 1: and there were a couple of massive upsets. In fact,
Speaker 1: the Jack's pulled off two of the top ten upsets
Speaker 1: since Jacksonville. They beat Buffalo in Week nine, nine six,
Speaker 1: real barn Burners. There was the sixteen Yeah, it's that's
Speaker 1: a career. That's probably the better way of describing it. Uh.
Speaker 1: The then not to mention the nine six game. They
Speaker 1: were actually sixteen point underdogs in that one. Then they
Speaker 1: took down the Colts as four team point underdogs in
Speaker 1: Week eighteen, ending in these chances to the postseason, becoming
Speaker 1: the first team ever to win two games as a
Speaker 1: two touchdown or more underdog. And then that one, of
Speaker 1: course set into play Mike. Such a fascinating week a team, right,
Speaker 1: the Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger back into the playoffs. Everybody
Speaker 1: in the country is staying up late to watch the
Speaker 1: Raiders and the Chargers and see if that game is
Speaker 1: going to end in a tie or what I mean really,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, Tomlin told you he
Speaker 1: was sleeping, claimed he was sleeping. Whatever. I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to bridge I can sell you to add I know
Speaker 1: what you're thinking here. The biggest upsets since the records
Speaker 1: began in nineteen seventy eight, well, three teams have won
Speaker 1: games as seventeen and a half point underdogs. The winless
Speaker 1: at the time Jets took down the Rams twenty in
Speaker 1: Week fifteen season. I remember that game a year earlier
Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. Remember the Dolphins they beat the Patriots
Speaker 1: in Week seventeen by a count that's actually beat Miami
Speaker 1: forty three to nothing earlier that season. And then the
Speaker 1: Colts beat the Patriots as seventeen and a half point
Speaker 1: dogs in nineteen seventy eight. That final was thirty four seven,
Speaker 1: so all three winning teams on the road. So we
Speaker 1: shouldn't feel too bad for the Patriots because they actually
Speaker 1: hold the record for the most games in a row
Speaker 1: as a favorite. How about sixty two times from Week
Speaker 1: four of sixteen all the way to Week one of twenty,
Speaker 1: so basically four years the Patriots went into a game
Speaker 1: as a favorite in that span forty eight and fourteen.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's remarkable, and it does explain why Tom
Speaker 1: Brady's got all those rings. Kurt Warner's Rams team, right,
Speaker 1: the greatest show on turf. They must have been favorites
Speaker 1: a bunch two right. I'm glad you asked a d
Speaker 1: D faves fifty straight games for a three year span.
Speaker 1: Week four three week four of two thousand and two,
Speaker 1: they were thirty five and fifteen in those games, and
Speaker 1: then the next three that are on the list, you
Speaker 1: got the Niners a thirty five games span from nine
Speaker 1: five and then another thirty five game span from eight
Speaker 1: four to eighties six, and not to mention a thirty
Speaker 1: three game span from ninety six to so. And just
Speaker 1: in case you're wondering about active streaks and what's happening there,
Speaker 1: the Bucks have an active streak of twenty one games
Speaker 1: as a favorite. But you would imagine with a new
Speaker 1: quarterback in that goat guy kind of on the sidelines
Speaker 1: being a spectator, I would imagine that some of those
Speaker 1: numbers actually change. What about the flip who spent the
Speaker 1: most consecutive games is the underdog? This year's Super Bowl champs, Actually,
Speaker 1: the Ramp top the list the most consecutive games as
Speaker 1: an underdog forty three games from week fourteen to two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven to weeks seven of as the underdog,
Speaker 1: which is kind of I guess maybe I shouldn't be
Speaker 1: all that surprised, just kind of flashing back to some
Speaker 1: of those games from back in the day and just
Speaker 1: also knowing some of the success that the Rams have
Speaker 1: had generally speaking, and you made reference to sort of
Speaker 1: that error with the Greatest Show on Turf with Kurt
Speaker 1: Warner and company. But if you're wondering, hey, what about
Speaker 1: the Browns and the Lions. Yeah, those teams they've they've struggled, right, Oh, Mike,
Speaker 1: those poor Lions and Browns not exactly the most glorious
Speaker 1: pieces of their history, but you know what, they are
Speaker 1: two of the oldest NFL franchises, and so you would
Speaker 1: expect some roller coasters, and you would also expect that
Speaker 1: they've played with quite a few iterations of the football.
Speaker 1: If you look at the old videos of the NFL,
Speaker 1: the football itself is involved really quite a bit, right,
Speaker 1: Like the first college football game in eighteen sixty nine,
Speaker 1: which actually was played in our great state of New Jersey,
Speaker 1: was around rubber ball. But the first football's were actually
Speaker 1: made from an inflated pigs the ladder. They were rounder,
Speaker 1: so they were more difficult to throw. It was almost
Speaker 1: like trying to throw an inflated balloon. And here's something
Speaker 1: really gross. The players inflated them with their mouth. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And then a leather cover was placed on top and
Speaker 1: stitched together and here's another little known fact. At the time,
Speaker 1: soccer balls were also made of pig ladders, so the
Speaker 1: ball got narrower once the forward pass was officially added
Speaker 1: to the game in nineteen o six, because as we
Speaker 1: just said, it's kind of hard to throw that inflated balloon,
Speaker 1: and as the ball gets a little bit narrower, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit aerodynamic. But I will say this, the
Speaker 1: ball shape wasn't actually standardized Mike until nineteen thirty when
Speaker 1: the National Football League officially came into existence, So through
Speaker 1: the years, the specifications have continued to evolve. In nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty four, there was a rule to taper the ends
Speaker 1: and reduce the total circumference of the middle of the ball.
Speaker 1: Maybe if it had been reduced even more, Kenny Pickett's
Speaker 1: hand size wouldn't be such a hot topic of conversation
Speaker 1: right now. And the ball has been made exclusively by
Speaker 1: Wilson since nineteen forty one. Wilson remains the official supplier
Speaker 1: of the NFL's footballs today. According to the official rule book,
Speaker 1: today's ball must be made of eurythane bladder enclosed in
Speaker 1: a pebble grained leather case of a natural tan color.
Speaker 1: Without corrugations of any kind, and it also must be
Speaker 1: filled with between twelve point five and thirteen point five
Speaker 1: pounds of air. Don't ask Tom Brady or the New
Speaker 1: England Patriots about that specification. Each team's equipment crew MIC
Speaker 1: spends a significant amount of time prepping footballs for game day.
Speaker 1: A brand new ball out of the box is very,
Speaker 1: very rigid, so the equipment team goes to work using
Speaker 1: things like brushes and oils to soften them. I can
Speaker 1: tell you this that Tom Brady and Brian Horrier after him,
Speaker 1: and quite a few quarterbacks have liked using Mississippi mud,
Speaker 1: which is something that baseball players use on baseballs. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the end result is working the football, makes it softer, tackier,
Speaker 1: and a more throwable ball. As for game day, the
Speaker 1: referee is the sole judge as to whether all balls
Speaker 1: are fully compliant with the necessary specifications. All the balls
Speaker 1: are under the referee supervision until they're delivered to the
Speaker 1: ball at tendant just before kickoff, and each team is
Speaker 1: required to have exactly twelve balls available for testing by
Speaker 1: the referee no less than two and a half hours
Speaker 1: before kickoff each game. Six football shipped by a manufacturer
Speaker 1: are sealed in a special box and opened in the
Speaker 1: officials locker room two hours in fifteen minutes before kickoff.
Speaker 1: Those are the six footballs that are used exclusively for
Speaker 1: the Kicking Game. Okay, deed, hold on one second, because
Speaker 1: I want to tweet you at a kawala at Mike
Speaker 1: underscore Y by the way, for our next episode, mail
Speaker 1: bag episode. Since you're giving me the answer on the
Speaker 1: good old pink skin so to speak, I would love
Speaker 1: to know how many times the balls that are getting
Speaker 1: tested get thrown out and are rules not game ready?
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good question for our next one. Like
Speaker 1: I would imagine, there's so much hype around it. So um,
Speaker 1: I'll just hit send on this tweet. Okay, So just
Speaker 1: I'll book mark that be tweet for welcome back to
Speaker 1: NFL explained Mike, am Ina dB kin kawala with you.
Speaker 1: We're having a blast going through your questions on our
Speaker 1: mail bag episode. Got some good ones still left to
Speaker 1: fire off, some answers and a dd you made reference
Speaker 1: to it. The Kicking Game actually a huge part of
Speaker 1: the postseason. I know you were loving up Gabby who
Speaker 1: was in Venice, who was listening to the show. She
Speaker 1: loved the Justin Tucker episode, and it got us also
Speaker 1: thinking about some other questions that people were focused in
Speaker 1: on the rules of overtime, and the rules, of course
Speaker 1: have been sort of a huge talking port I think about,
Speaker 1: you know, sending that ball through the uprights is certainly
Speaker 1: the thing that I think about most. So. A little
Speaker 1: bit of the evolution of overtime since it began nineteen
Speaker 1: forty one, sudden death overtimes instituted for playoff games. Fast
Speaker 1: forward to nineteen eight. The first NFL playoff game decided
Speaker 1: by overtime was actually the Colts and the Giants in
Speaker 1: the NFL Championship Game, now known as the greatest game
Speaker 1: ever played. UH. In nineteen seventy four, the NFL officially
Speaker 1: adopted sudden death overtime to minimize ties, because who likes
Speaker 1: a tie? We like things to be nice and tidy
Speaker 1: and definitive. From nineteen twenty to nineteen seventy three, there
Speaker 1: were two hundred and fifty six ties. That sounds excruciating.
Speaker 1: I covered a tie this year the Lions at the
Speaker 1: Steelers when Mason Rudolph, the presumptive news starting quarterback for
Speaker 1: the Steelers, was quarterback A yeah, no one wanted to
Speaker 1: win that game. From what I remember, Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of butt of issues in that one. NFL
Speaker 1: actually changed the overtime rules for a playoff game, field
Speaker 1: goal in the first drive of overtime no longer being
Speaker 1: enough for a team to win. Playoff overtime rules expanded
Speaker 1: to regular season and preseason games seven team overtime shortened
Speaker 1: from fifteen to ten minutes, a lot of that player safety,
Speaker 1: and then in one the elimination of overtime for preseason games.
Speaker 1: Bot in the conversation, that is like the biggest thing
Speaker 1: in talk radio. I feel like whenever we get there,
Speaker 1: and certainly because of what we saw in the postseason
Speaker 1: a DIT that makes a whole lot of sense well
Speaker 1: for sure. And those current ot scoring rules, the idea
Speaker 1: that there's not sudden death unless the team gets the
Speaker 1: ball first scores of touchdown we're implemented in two thousand
Speaker 1: and ten for the playoffs, two thousand and twelve for
Speaker 1: the regular season. What will be interesting this year, Mike,
Speaker 1: after that Chiefs Bills overtime thriller in the divisional round,
Speaker 1: is if there is a change to the overtime rules
Speaker 1: for the playoffs so that they match up in some
Speaker 1: way with the regular season. Yeah, I think that might
Speaker 1: be a little bit of a tall task here, But
Speaker 1: the point is the NFL does have a history of
Speaker 1: making adjustments, So, you know, just based off of the
Speaker 1: fact that there's so much media attention around it, there's
Speaker 1: no doubt that those conversations will continue to unfold. Well,
Speaker 1: you're right, Mike, that it may be a bit of
Speaker 1: an uphill battle, But right now, there's actually two proposals
Speaker 1: to the Competition Committee to amend the overtime rules, and
Speaker 1: they come from the Colts and the Bills, both of
Speaker 1: whom lost overtime games this past season after not possessing
Speaker 1: the ball. So the Bills, of course, as we just reference,
Speaker 1: would like to see an extra period played out with
Speaker 1: no sudden death in the playoffs, so essentially, just put
Speaker 1: a certain amount of time on the clock and play
Speaker 1: until it expires. The Cult proposal is just that both
Speaker 1: teams have an opportunity to possess the ball. So the
Speaker 1: way that these rules work, Mike, you're right is that
Speaker 1: three quarters of the team need to sign off. That's
Speaker 1: twenty four out of thirty two. I don't know what
Speaker 1: do you think, would you vote yes to change or no.
Speaker 1: I'm a yes to change guy. But I'm also I
Speaker 1: have the luxury of being able to either be on
Speaker 1: a set or on my couch watching the games and
Speaker 1: not actually the physical demands. And what is actually you know,
Speaker 1: like you start doing this during the regular season and
Speaker 1: you get these scenarios like this could be kind of
Speaker 1: a funky situation in the postseason. I do think the
Speaker 1: rules need to be potentially adjusted in those circumstances. I
Speaker 1: could have done another fifteen minutes of the Bills Chiefs game.
Speaker 1: Couldn't you have do that every night? Kid? I mean,
Speaker 1: that was that thing was awesome. I couldn't get enough
Speaker 1: of that drama. It's like real, real life drama in
Speaker 1: that situation. So I'm with you there. And indeed that
Speaker 1: leads us to our final question, which actually came in
Speaker 1: this morning. We always love getting them on social media
Speaker 1: at Mike Underscore, yam at a King Kabuala and it's
Speaker 1: kind of timely franchise tags in full force, and well
Speaker 1: you got the tweets, so I'll let you kind of
Speaker 1: handle that. Well, for sure, it was Alex Alex in
Speaker 1: Winterland says he would love to hear an explanation of
Speaker 1: what a franchise tag is on our podcast. So, okay,
Speaker 1: franchise tags are essentially a one year contract, but it
Speaker 1: comes in two different forms. There's the exclusive franchise tag
Speaker 1: and there's the non exclusive. An exclusive tag means that
Speaker 1: the player can only negotiate with the tagging team and
Speaker 1: that the tagging team has to hay out an average
Speaker 1: of the top five salaries at that player's position in
Speaker 1: the current year. So those numbers, Mike, are kind of outrageous,
Speaker 1: Like the Bengals just franchise tag twenty five year old
Speaker 1: safety Jesse Bates. The franchise tag this year for safety
Speaker 1: is thirteen million, five hundred and forty four thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: as I'm sure you can guess. A quarterbacks franchise tag
Speaker 1: is twenty eight million, five hundred and ninety eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: A kickers franchise tag the average of the top five
Speaker 1: salaries that his position five million, four hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: nine thousand dollars. Now, in some cases it really financially
Speaker 1: works out like a tight end. The franchise tag for
Speaker 1: a tight end right now is ten million, eight hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty four thousand dollars, right, which is why we've
Speaker 1: seen quite a few tight ends franchise tagged in this
Speaker 1: past week or so. But now let's go back to
Speaker 1: the non exclusive tag. So what happens there is that
Speaker 1: a team pays out an average of the top five
Speaker 1: tag amounts of the player's position from the previous five years,
Speaker 1: and players who receive this tag can negotiate with other teams,
Speaker 1: but the tagging team has the right to match any offer.
Speaker 1: So if I give you a non exclusive tag, Mike,
Speaker 1: you can go ahead and negotiate with Rhett Lewis and
Speaker 1: Erica tam Posey and ANDREWA. Kramer to join their podcast,
Speaker 1: but I will have the right to go ahead and
Speaker 1: match whatever Rhet Lewis offers you, which, by the nay,
Speaker 1: was not offering you as much as I could pass.
Speaker 1: I'm going to let you go by any means. Now,
Speaker 1: where it gets really interesting is when a team places
Speaker 1: multiple franchise tags on a player. So you can tag
Speaker 1: a player one year and if you're unable. Usually I'll
Speaker 1: say this, in my experience, most teams tag a player
Speaker 1: with the intent to try to negotiate a longer term deal,
Speaker 1: and it just buys more time that they have that exclusive.
Speaker 1: Let's call it a negotiating windows simply because the player
Speaker 1: is tied to the team, the team is tied to
Speaker 1: the player, and everybody's motivated to get something long term
Speaker 1: done and you have more time to make that happen.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't work and you can't negotiate a long
Speaker 1: term deal, well then a team could franchise tag a
Speaker 1: player for a second time, but this time the player
Speaker 1: gets a one hundred and twenty increase off of whatever
Speaker 1: was his franchise tag salary. So that's a lot of
Speaker 1: money and there's a lot of incentive there for a
Speaker 1: team to try to get a deal done. And a
Speaker 1: few years ago, this entire system was kind of thrown
Speaker 1: on its head when Levy on Bell the Steelers running
Speaker 1: back decided not to play under a second tag. And
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time on Levy on Bell watch.
Speaker 1: It's always interesting as a reporter when you start covering
Speaker 1: these stories and the amount of hours invested in something
Speaker 1: like that, that sort of drags on. It's it's kind
Speaker 1: of crazy, and I think there's people you know in
Speaker 1: Green Bay probably thinking the same thing. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: back to back years and now obviously gets solidified with
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers getting that four year extension for two hundred
Speaker 1: billion dollars. But when you're on Roger's Watch or Bell Watch,
Speaker 1: just it something that you just don't forget. Franchise tags
Speaker 1: here we go, well and for sure and for me
Speaker 1: it's I remember explaining that to my son at the time,
Speaker 1: I think he was three years old, because I had
Speaker 1: to be at the Steelers facility the week before the season.
Speaker 1: I had to be at the Steelers facility all day long,
Speaker 1: every single day as we were on Levan Bell Watch,
Speaker 1: and my son just didn't understand, like why every day
Speaker 1: all day and why are you missing my first day
Speaker 1: of school in this, that or the other. And the
Speaker 1: way that I explained to him, remember because he was
Speaker 1: three years old, was the quarterback and the wide receiver
Speaker 1: in the offensive line. They're waiting for their friend to
Speaker 1: see if their friend will come and play with them,
Speaker 1: and he never really understood why the friend never came
Speaker 1: to be with his quarterback. Oh, I love that analogy,
Speaker 1: very digestible, but that that might be the best way
Speaker 1: to to explain. Oh, I have plenty wait until I
Speaker 1: tell you how I taught him the quarterback does, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden he saw Marcus Mariotta hold
Speaker 1: the ball and he said, what that's a story for
Speaker 1: another time in any Mars. This one's been really fun. Everybody.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sending us your questions. We
Speaker 1: love when you download and you listen and you interact,
Speaker 1: and your review and you rate, and especially when you
Speaker 1: send us messages and you tell us what you want
Speaker 1: to hear about. And Mike is nodding his head because
Speaker 1: he apparently, after this many podcast episodes, thinks that enough
Speaker 1: has heard. Oh, I thought you were just taking I
Speaker 1: thought you were closing it out because I agree with
Speaker 1: everything that you're saying. I honestly it is. It's one
Speaker 1: of the coolest things for me, and I know you
Speaker 1: probably feel the same way. When we hear from some
Speaker 1: of the listeners and they're learning about the sport that
Speaker 1: you and I obviously cover and we both love. It's
Speaker 1: just it's really cool. It's it's like you're exposing someone
Speaker 1: to something that you know that they haven't experienced before,
Speaker 1: so we absolutely love it. And if you're sharing it
Speaker 1: with your friends on social it's great. And we learned
Speaker 1: to right Mike, we we learned things as well as
Speaker 1: we do this, so everybody, thank you. That's a rap
Speaker 1: this time that was all sorts of grab that. Questions
Speaker 1: explain h