Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schreger is a production of the
Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's up, everybody, Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Season with Peter Schreger. I'm smiling here as I'm
Speaker 1: recording this because it's.
Speaker 2: The last week of August.
Speaker 1: We've got the NFL's regular season kickoff rapidly approaching, and
Speaker 1: football is in the air. I'm joined by my wonderful producer,
Speaker 1: mister Aaron wan Kaufman. Aaron, are you feeling the football
Speaker 1: in the air right now?
Speaker 2: Or is this just me?
Speaker 1: Because I'm doing Good Morning Football and after three hours
Speaker 1: and I see the light at the end of the
Speaker 1: tunnel of talking about preseason football and cuts.
Speaker 3: No, or I mean there was a huge weekend of
Speaker 3: preseason games, some blowouts. I mean this was I'm getting
Speaker 3: ready and like roster cuts are happening, and so you're
Speaker 3: seeing getting a sense of who's going to be on
Speaker 3: every team and who might be changing hands, like the
Speaker 3: John Taylor News and so I'm very excited it is
Speaker 3: it's starting.
Speaker 1: I want to start today's podcast with a little riff
Speaker 1: on the Jets. It's time now, like to put up
Speaker 1: her shut up? And that's before the season even starts,
Speaker 1: but this has been in my memory, the most dramatic
Speaker 1: and positive and optimistic training camp in preseason. I can
Speaker 1: remember covering the NFL for the New York Jets, usually
Speaker 1: at Doom and Gloom franchise, And yet when they started
Speaker 1: Rogers on a Saturday night game against the Giants and
Speaker 1: the Snoopy Bowl at MetLife, and Rogers hits Garrett Wilson
Speaker 1: on that touchdown and you actually see it all and
Speaker 1: you can vision it, I started.
Speaker 2: To think, like, what if the Jets actually do this thing?
Speaker 1: And like what would that mean not only for New
Speaker 1: York City and for New Jersey and Connecticut and Westchester
Speaker 1: and Long Island in all those areas, but like what.
Speaker 2: Would that mean for the Jets franchise as a whole?
Speaker 4: Like they have been the punchline, the joke, the pinata,
Speaker 4: the punching bag, you name it for at least a decade,
Speaker 4: and yet there they.
Speaker 1: Were the ones, mind you Aaron going against the twos
Speaker 1: from the Giants defense, and they moved the ball right
Speaker 1: downfield and Rogers throws one of those perfect Rogers passes
Speaker 1: back shoulder fade touchdown, and then I look at the
Speaker 1: roster Aaron Rodgers is one of the best quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: NFL history. He could still play football. Sauce Gardner won
Speaker 1: NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year and was an All
Speaker 1: Pro in his first season at corner. Quinn Williams one
Speaker 1: of the best defensive tackles and disruptors in all of football.
Speaker 1: Garrett Wilson won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year as
Speaker 1: a wide receiver, with Zach Wilson, Mike White, and Chris
Speaker 1: Streveler throwing him passes last year. Bryce Hall's a stud.
Speaker 1: Dalvin Cook is a four time Pro Bowler. Alan Lazard
Speaker 1: might be the best blocking receiver.
Speaker 2: In the NFL. Weird thing to say, but he might be.
Speaker 1: Plus a really relied upon guy for Aaron Rodgers who
Speaker 1: he brings with him from Green Bay. You go down
Speaker 1: the roster of these players, I didn't mention CJ.
Speaker 2: Moseley.
Speaker 1: I haven't mentioned Elijah Vera Tucker, who's an outstanding offensive lineman,
Speaker 1: and it's like, it is kind of possible, and as
Speaker 1: much fun as we've been having with this Jets hard
Speaker 1: knock season, and as much fun as it is to be, like, Wow,
Speaker 1: the Jets for the.
Speaker 2: Super Bowl, what if? What if the only thing that's going.
Speaker 1: To stop the Jets, besides a difficult schedule and besides
Speaker 1: the inexperience from a lot of these guys in big games,
Speaker 1: is going to be that offensive line. I think the
Speaker 1: most fascinating moment of the entire NFL weekend came from
Speaker 1: the press conference after their victory over the New York
Speaker 1: Giants on a Saturday, meaningless preseason game, and it was
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers top came about Makai Beckton.
Speaker 2: Aaron, if you're not familiar, and I know some of
Speaker 2: the listeners aren't.
Speaker 1: In the Jets blogs and the Reddit every day, Makai
Speaker 1: Beckton was a top ten pick for the New York Jets,
Speaker 1: and in his first seven games as a pro was
Speaker 1: maybe the most dominant rookie offensive tackle the sport has
Speaker 1: ever seen.
Speaker 2: He was swallowing.
Speaker 1: People, he was protecting the quarterback, but also dominant in
Speaker 1: the run game. And then he got injured, and then
Speaker 1: he missed a year, and then he missed another year,
Speaker 1: and then he put on weight, and Mackai beckten became
Speaker 1: this punchline of sorts, and also in the social media era,
Speaker 1: a guy who would respond to a lot of the
Speaker 1: tweets and internalize it and then respond in a way
Speaker 1: that I don't think we ever familiar with. People would
Speaker 1: call him fat, he would respond, people would call him lazy.
Speaker 1: He would respond, it's been a long time since we've
Speaker 1: seen the Mackai Beckton that we saw his rookie year.
Speaker 1: And yet this offseason, every single day, McKai Beckton would
Speaker 1: take a selfie of his photo and be like getting
Speaker 1: a network in and you would see his weight drop
Speaker 1: from this three hundred and fifty pound giant offensive lineman
Speaker 1: who is just unpolished and to all of a sudden like, okay, there's.
Speaker 2: A physique there.
Speaker 1: And you would hear stories out of the Jets camp
Speaker 1: and I talked to the coaches that like, no, Becton's playing, well,
Speaker 1: he's getting there.
Speaker 2: He's getting there.
Speaker 1: There's always a hint of hesitation of being like Becdon
Speaker 1: is back or Benden is going to be that guy
Speaker 1: this year when I talk to Jets' sources. However, he
Speaker 1: is light years ahead right now as we head towards
Speaker 1: the season as he was a year ago, and McKai
Speaker 1: Beckton might be the most important young Jets player on
Speaker 1: this roster of course, Rogers and Sala and Nathaniel Hackett
Speaker 1: might be the key the key players in this thing.
Speaker 1: But if Beckden is good and Rogers is protected on
Speaker 1: the right hand side of that offensive line, there's a
Speaker 1: chance the Jets do fulfilled expectations. But the most important
Speaker 1: SoundBite came from Rogers. I want you to listen to
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers talking about the much belagued fourth year offensive
Speaker 1: tackle for the New York Jets, Mackai Beckton.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I like mckaye.
Speaker 5: I like MacKaye a lot. I think he's a guy that,
Speaker 5: just like all of us, we all want to feel
Speaker 5: like we belong, you know, we want to feel like
Speaker 5: we're part of this thing and that we're part of
Speaker 5: the group. And whether by his own doing or or
Speaker 5: just the way things fell, I think he might not
Speaker 5: have felt that way. And it's normal when you're when
Speaker 5: you're on age reserve, and I've been a couple of times,
Speaker 5: it's it's a tough place to be because you feel
Speaker 5: isolated from the team, you're outside of you know, you're
Speaker 5: not maybe traveling as much or not in the meetings.
Speaker 5: So I think it's been a conscious effort by all
Speaker 5: of us to make him feel like, you know, he's
Speaker 5: a part of this thing. He's so talented, he's he's
Speaker 5: humongous and he's athletic for a man who's six's eight
Speaker 5: three fifty and so I'm excited about seeing him out there.
Speaker 5: He's a big, big teddy bear on the inside. So
Speaker 5: I've been enjoying getting to know him. He's a fierce
Speaker 5: competitor on the field, though, and I'm excited about having
Speaker 5: him out there.
Speaker 1: And I think that's exactly what Mabel Kai Becton needs.
Speaker 1: He needs love, he needs compassion. He's been beat up
Speaker 1: pretty bad. And look, I know what you're saying. So
Speaker 1: what he's an NFL player, like be in shape, that's
Speaker 1: all you have to worry about.
Speaker 2: Go do it. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I still think of Becton as a twenty four year
Speaker 1: old kid, and he's got a young child of his own,
Speaker 1: and he spoke about that this week as well, and
Speaker 1: what that means as far as maturity goes.
Speaker 2: And I'm hoping for him and if he can.
Speaker 1: Return to form like he was those first seven games
Speaker 1: of his NFL career, watch out, Jets have another star
Speaker 1: in their hands. And if he doesn't, watch out this
Speaker 1: could tumble fast and this could be ugly for the Jets.
Speaker 1: Beckton might be that most important piece that no one's
Speaker 1: talking about, and as he goes, the New York Jets
Speaker 1: may go. So on the topic of Rogers, I look
Speaker 1: at the future and say, all right, who's gonna be
Speaker 1: that next young quarterback? And as I obviously focus on
Speaker 1: the NFL, Saturday is my time to just watch football recreationally.
Speaker 2: And I've got a dude.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be watching this kid every game and I
Speaker 1: cannot wait to see the fireworks he has. Kleb Williams,
Speaker 1: it's no shocking name. He was the Heisman Trophy winner
Speaker 1: last year, but gosh, he was fun to watch on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Cliff Kingsbury, as we talked about last week, is a
Speaker 1: pala mine. He's now coaching with USC and he was
Speaker 1: hitting me up all week like you just try to
Speaker 1: find like you gotta watch us, you gotta you know.
Speaker 1: So I have the package with all the sports channels
Speaker 1: I get on Pack twelve network. It's actually a pretty
Speaker 1: good listen. It was Ted Robinson and Yogi Roth. I
Speaker 1: like what they do. I'm like, all right, this is
Speaker 1: a good broadcast. I haven't watched a PAC twelve network
Speaker 1: in years. I know that they went through their own
Speaker 1: negotiation issues this past few months.
Speaker 2: Put it on. This kid's amazing.
Speaker 1: He's amazing, And I'm trying to temper my expectations because
Speaker 1: I'm sure I did the same exact thing when I
Speaker 1: saw Trevor Lawrence or when I saw de Sean Watson.
Speaker 1: And I'm not want to put him in that conversation
Speaker 1: yet because he hasn't done anything this season, but he
Speaker 1: is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and the player talking
Speaker 1: about and I'm not sure if we have the YouTube
Speaker 1: or the video that we could do that's to play.
Speaker 1: The ball is hiked over his head on one bounce
Speaker 1: as he's spinning around, he picks it up and he
Speaker 1: hurls at seventy yards on a dime to the receiver
Speaker 1: who was streaking for a touchdown. And in that moment,
Speaker 1: I'm like done, I'm good. I don't need to see
Speaker 1: anything else. I don't need to hear like, I don't
Speaker 1: need to see an interview.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I know I can work with that. I know that
Speaker 1: that play alone works at the NFL level. He's got
Speaker 1: the build, he's got all the makeup all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And I talked to Cliff and he's like, comes from
Speaker 1: a great family, you know, he's a DC kid, So
Speaker 1: like he's not, you know, one of these guys who's
Speaker 1: never left home.
Speaker 2: He was at Oklahoma, now he's here.
Speaker 1: He's already done the journey, and like, we're looking at
Speaker 1: what might be the next great NFL quarterback. And he
Speaker 1: did it in Week zero against San Jose State. I'm
Speaker 1: circling it out.
Speaker 2: Aaron.
Speaker 1: We had on Jed Fish, coach of Arizona last week.
Speaker 1: He and I have been texting ever since. Arizona plays
Speaker 1: at USC October seventh. I'm praying it's not one of
Speaker 1: those ten thirty ESPN games that like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: I'm already asleep. I've got to be up at four
Speaker 1: thirty the next morning. Put it in put it in writing.
Speaker 1: Right now, I will be going to the coliseum to
Speaker 1: see Caleb Williams Verus Jedfish's Arizona Wildcats.
Speaker 2: Will you fly in and attend with me?
Speaker 6: No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I don't want to travel.
Speaker 3: That's all right, thanks, though, you know, I've got I
Speaker 3: have something that night. I think there's a I'm going
Speaker 3: to rewatch the Mario movie.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you're to rewatch the Mario movie. Okay, understood.
Speaker 2: I'll be there for you. Caleb.
Speaker 1: One last thing, Aaron, as we record this, we're doing
Speaker 1: this some on Tuesday. It's NFL cut day, So by
Speaker 1: four o'clock, every team needs to go from ninety minut
Speaker 1: on the roster to fifty three men on the roster.
Speaker 1: You've read all the tweets from all the journalists being like, it's.
Speaker 2: A very sad day for so many young men. Be
Speaker 2: sensitive and you should be sensitive. I think it goes
Speaker 2: without saying.
Speaker 1: No one's you know, celebrating guys getting cut. There are
Speaker 1: great stories though, and that's what I like rally around.
Speaker 1: I know, guys getting cut socks, but there are guys
Speaker 1: who make teams, and I want to shout out because
Speaker 1: I got a text during the show that this guy
Speaker 1: was making it.
Speaker 2: Do you know who Tyson Badgint is not at all?
Speaker 2: Tyson Badgeant went to Division two Shepherd.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm googling Shepherd right now because I don't know
Speaker 1: their logo.
Speaker 2: I don't know what the team.
Speaker 1: The Shepherd football team is the Shepherd Rams.
Speaker 2: Okay, Division two.
Speaker 1: Tyson Badgeant's gonna be the Bear's number two quarterback this year.
Speaker 1: Justin Fields and Tyson Badgeant. Let me explain how far
Speaker 1: this guy has come. He showed us to the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 1: His father is an arm wrestling champion, and the big
Speaker 1: interview was his father did an interview and his father
Speaker 1: like arm wrestled to all the reporters at the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 1: And everyone's like, who is this character? But credit to
Speaker 1: our guy, Jim Naggy at the Senior Bowl identifying Tyson
Speaker 1: Badgeant from Shepherd. So goes to the Senior Bowl, plays well,
Speaker 1: the comes along obviously undrafted. No one took the Tyson
Speaker 1: Badgint out of Shepherd. And then he latches on with
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears. And here's why you should go to
Speaker 1: the Senior Bowl and why you should do it. Do
Speaker 1: you know who the coach was at the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 1: It was Luke Getzi, who's the offensive coordinator of the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears. So he was the coach of the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 1: He had a chance to be with Tyson Badgint. They
Speaker 1: don't draft him, he says, come to Bears camp. Well,
Speaker 1: they cut PJ. Walker a couple of days ago, PJ.
Speaker 1: Walker was making two million dollars, long time veteran in
Speaker 1: the league, and suddenly the door was opened for Tyson
Speaker 1: badgeint As everyone does the required and I don't do
Speaker 1: it because I feel like it's it goes without saying
Speaker 1: like today, please remember as you celebrate NFL football, thousands
Speaker 1: of players are losing their jobs. Yes, we know it's
Speaker 1: all that's us what it is.
Speaker 2: We've been following the league forever.
Speaker 1: It sucks, and those guys will go on practice squads
Speaker 1: or they won't in the dream ends, and we can
Speaker 1: do that story the other day. I'm here to celebrate
Speaker 1: a great one. Tyson Badgeant out of Shepherd will make
Speaker 1: the Bears. He will dress in games, and it's one
Speaker 1: of those stories where it's a come from nothing, undrafted
Speaker 1: guy as Justin fields his backup. He's one play away
Speaker 1: from being a starting quarterback in the NFL, and I
Speaker 1: can tell you draft weekend that was probably not a possibility.
Speaker 2: So those are the.
Speaker 1: Stories I rally around. We don't have to just focus
Speaker 1: on in toush tones. The same people that love tweeting
Speaker 1: out injury news and also love, you know, criticizing teams
Speaker 1: and players for personnel decisions and firing coaches who are
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, these sensitive souls who please remember
Speaker 1: there are so many players who will be losing their joz.
Speaker 2: Yes, we know, we know.
Speaker 1: Let's celebrate the good Tyson Badgant. What a cool story.
Speaker 1: The Pride of Shepherd will be a Chicago Bears player
Speaker 1: week one. And with that, Aaron full of I'm full
Speaker 1: of gusto today. Man, I've got some pits and vinegar
Speaker 1: in me and I'm ready.
Speaker 3: Thank you you mean to do some arm wrestling today.
Speaker 6: I think I'm in regular season.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm bringing out one of my favorite guys. Jason
Speaker 1: Gay has been one of the great long form profile
Speaker 1: writers of the last twenty five years. He's on incredible,
Speaker 1: all encompassing pieces on Lindsay Vaughn, on Tom Brady. I
Speaker 1: remember there was one that he did years ago on
Speaker 1: Zach Galifanakis that was incredible. He does celebrity profiles. He
Speaker 1: also does a column in the Wall Street Journal, where
Speaker 1: his job is Wall Street Journal Columnists, where I think
Speaker 1: he could be the voice of a generation in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways when it comes two sports columns. He's
Speaker 1: really good and he's an old friend of mine, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna have him on after this. Our guest this
Speaker 1: week is one of my favorite people in sports media
Speaker 1: and one of my favorite guys in general. We used
Speaker 1: to live in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn and we
Speaker 1: would have like coffee dates and just talk about sports and.
Speaker 2: Media and life.
Speaker 1: And then he moved to Baltimore and now he is
Speaker 1: my go to guy for anything and hey, what are
Speaker 1: you hearing on this or what's your feel for this?
Speaker 1: He is the columnist for the Wall Street Journal, and
Speaker 1: he's one of the best writers you will ever read.
Speaker 1: Mister Jason Gay Jason, Welcome to the season with Peter Scheger.
Speaker 7: I'm honored to be here, and yeah, it would be
Speaker 7: far preferable if we were doing this on a bench
Speaker 7: outside a coffee shop in our old neighborhood.
Speaker 6: But I want to.
Speaker 7: Clarify that we didn't always have a standing date. You
Speaker 7: were just easy to find, you know, once you finish
Speaker 7: the show, that was sort of your decompression time. I
Speaker 7: think like between like ten and noon, you could be
Speaker 7: fine reliably outside one of these places.
Speaker 2: Dude, that is so true.
Speaker 1: So when I finished Good Morning Football, and I still
Speaker 1: do this, I'll put on the headphones. I will listen
Speaker 1: to a podcast and I'll just wander around. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the beauty of Brooklyn, it's the beauty of New
Speaker 1: York City.
Speaker 2: You can just wander.
Speaker 1: Usually it's anonymously, but then I would spot you and
Speaker 1: I'd be like, yes, let's talk about Tour de France.
Speaker 7: Well, half the time I felt you were on the
Speaker 7: phone with an agent, but the other part of it too.
Speaker 7: For you, we're in different parts of our day. That is,
Speaker 7: you were in the midday, at least for you. Right
Speaker 7: you're winding the ship down. I am just getting turbo
Speaker 7: charged on what I'm going to do next because I've
Speaker 7: woken up a lot later than you have. Is it
Speaker 7: at this point in your life, Peter, is it completely
Speaker 7: normal to wake up early? Because I've talked to people
Speaker 7: who do morning television and they say it never actually
Speaker 7: becomes totally normal.
Speaker 6: It's always hard.
Speaker 2: It always sucks, dude, it always sucks. When the alarm
Speaker 2: goes off.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to go to work because I love what
Speaker 1: I do, but I still look at it and say,
Speaker 1: is that.
Speaker 2: Really a four? Like that is it the clock? Am
Speaker 2: I staring at a four? Before that call?
Speaker 1: And my digital alarm clock next to my bed that
Speaker 1: I'm like shushing so my wife doesn't wake up.
Speaker 2: Truthfully, though, on weekends.
Speaker 1: When there's like nothing to do and my son doesn't
Speaker 1: have it doesn't up at six am, or our daughter
Speaker 1: isn't up at four, It like I could still sleep
Speaker 1: to nine am.
Speaker 2: I think if I had to. I think if I
Speaker 2: had a complete.
Speaker 1: Silence and I was out in a hotel with absolutely
Speaker 1: no distractions and no responsibilities, I could still sleep to
Speaker 1: nine Could you with two kids and having a rip
Speaker 1: and roar go of a job as well?
Speaker 2: Could you do that? It's un till nine am.
Speaker 7: Ah, the kids are sleeping later, which I think is
Speaker 7: the game changer. When the kids actually start to sleep
Speaker 7: like teenagers, which they're not yet, but they're they're, you know,
Speaker 7: getting there, that's when your life changes. Are you able
Speaker 7: to get out like a cat burglar? I mean because
Speaker 7: you have a full house yourself?
Speaker 6: Now? Are you able to get out without waking anybody?
Speaker 2: Like a thief in the night dude?
Speaker 1: And there is no shower in the morning that would
Speaker 1: wake the entire house. So it's interesting shower the night before,
Speaker 1: guy water in the face brush the teeth and let's
Speaker 1: go and then we go from there.
Speaker 2: And I think that's probably too much information for the listeners.
Speaker 1: However, it is important because you you were like such
Speaker 1: a part of my Brooklyn experience, because you are real
Speaker 1: pal and we would talk all the time. And then
Speaker 1: you told me the news post COVID like we're moving
Speaker 1: to Baltimore, We're getting some more space and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: kind of be situated there, and very quickly you would
Speaker 1: be texting me questions about the Ravens and giving me
Speaker 1: thoughts on Lamar's contract. Give us State of the Nation
Speaker 1: Ravens right now, they're on the other end of the
Speaker 1: Lamar stuff. And obviously Todd Monkin is offensive coordinator, Odell
Speaker 1: is there as a superstar.
Speaker 2: You feel it from the fan base.
Speaker 1: I'm sure when you're at your you know, your son
Speaker 1: and daughters athletics, or when you're at pickup from school,
Speaker 1: people want to talk your ear off about their local team.
Speaker 2: State of the Nation.
Speaker 1: We're going into the regular season twenty twenty three, Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 2: Jason Gay, what do we got?
Speaker 7: I mean, this town is America's leading sports town, Peter,
Speaker 7: I don't need to tell you this you got Ravens fever,
Speaker 7: but you also have bay Reels, the best team in
Speaker 7: the American League as we speak, you know, and definitely
Speaker 7: a playoff contender.
Speaker 6: It's great. I mean, it's a great vibe.
Speaker 7: You would think that actually the Orioles would sort of
Speaker 7: compete against Ravens media, but I actually think it kind
Speaker 7: of lifts all boats. This really does feel like a
Speaker 7: sports town, which is, you know, this is a two
Speaker 7: major league sports town, but it just there's a great
Speaker 7: energy to it.
Speaker 6: I mean, I should backtrack a little bit.
Speaker 7: You and I both married into Baltimore family, so I'm
Speaker 7: still a very much a stranger in a strange land.
Speaker 7: I've been told reliably that if I live here for
Speaker 7: fifty or sixty years, I'll start looking at me like
Speaker 7: a local. But I very much I'm still a stranger.
Speaker 7: But it's been just incredible to see. I mean, even
Speaker 7: in the two years since we've been here, Peter, we've
Speaker 7: gone from some you know, pretty downbeat Oriel seasons to
Speaker 7: say the least, some uneven raven seasons, real paranoia about
Speaker 7: Lamar leaving, real paranoid about the contract situation.
Speaker 6: What was going to happen next to you? Know, I'm not.
Speaker 7: Saying people are making hotel reservations in February, Peter, but
Speaker 7: I would not make reservations.
Speaker 6: And they're going to be a really fun team to watch.
Speaker 7: I think the excitement is partly a function of obviously
Speaker 7: having you know, Lamar back and in the fold and
Speaker 7: definitely committed to the team. But this is a new
Speaker 7: look offense for them. There are some real weapons. There's
Speaker 7: This is the sort of fantasy that people have hoped
Speaker 7: for for a long time, Like what happens if you
Speaker 7: take this guy who in and of himself is a top, top,
Speaker 7: top weapon in the league, but also give him the
Speaker 7: toys that he has wanted for a very long time.
Speaker 1: Have has Odell been Because it's like when he was
Speaker 1: in New York, he's the biggest superstar.
Speaker 2: We went to Europe last season.
Speaker 1: It was he was out of the league at the time,
Speaker 1: he didn't have a team, he was on the injured list,
Speaker 1: and we went to Germany and I'm talking to a
Speaker 1: German fan and I'm like, all right, so mahomes are Brady,
Speaker 1: Who's the biggest star? And he looked at me, this
Speaker 1: German football fan, and said Odell Beckham and I'm like,
Speaker 1: Odell's not even on a team right now, Dude, He's
Speaker 1: like Odell Beckham is the biggest star in Germany.
Speaker 2: I'm like, why how he's like he's a sensation? Is
Speaker 2: that how it feels?
Speaker 6: I believe it.
Speaker 7: Listen, you're also talking to a parent of a child
Speaker 7: who went to Odell Beckham football.
Speaker 6: Camp, Peter, about three weeks ago.
Speaker 7: Standing room only. There were kids. I didn't know there
Speaker 7: were this many kids in Greater Baltimore. I mean, every
Speaker 7: kid in town seems signed up for this thing Odell.
Speaker 7: As you know, in addition to sort of the obsessive
Speaker 7: fan base of like adult NFL fans, he has all
Speaker 7: the kids. The kids just love Odell, whether a combin,
Speaker 7: the playing charisma, the hair, the whole thing. I think
Speaker 7: there's a lot of excitement about it. I'm leaning on
Speaker 7: the skeptical side myself, right because we haven't seen him
Speaker 7: since that Super Bowl. We haven't seen him in a
Speaker 7: consequential football game. You know, age is a killer on
Speaker 7: you know, talent positions like his. But if you're talking
Speaker 7: about somebody who could be an option, if you're talking
Speaker 7: about putting him in an offense with Bateman, with flowers.
Speaker 6: There's a lot of flowers exciting.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a ton uh.
Speaker 1: I just I've been trying to picture it in my
Speaker 1: head like this, like high flying passing Ravens offense. I
Speaker 1: just don't see it because I've never seen it before.
Speaker 7: Well, the question is, of course, will be a protection question.
Speaker 7: You can speak to this, I'm sure much more articulately
Speaker 7: than I can.
Speaker 6: But like.
Speaker 7: You want Lamar to get all those reads right, You
Speaker 7: want him to be able to make choices and not
Speaker 7: be rushed and feel that he has to do something,
Speaker 7: make magic himself, you know, be the kind of pocket
Speaker 7: passer that he wants to be, and he's talked about
Speaker 7: wanting to be and not just be his sort of
Speaker 7: first option escape every time. If that kind of thing happens,
Speaker 7: we should talk about the new offensive coordinator comes in
Speaker 7: from Georgia. That's a big deal. Lamar seems really energized
Speaker 7: about that. I mean, just again, look, it's late August.
Speaker 7: It's everyone's got the upbeat energy in pretty much every camp.
Speaker 6: But the vibes are good, all right.
Speaker 1: So I miss you for a lot of reasons, but
Speaker 1: one of them being I think you would have had
Speaker 1: a blast with this Rogers stuff in New York and
Speaker 1: you could.
Speaker 2: Still have it writing from Baltimore and coming in.
Speaker 1: But like, dude, there's such little things like when he
Speaker 1: posts that he was with the cast of Chicago or
Speaker 1: that he went and saw back to the future of
Speaker 1: the musical. I'm like, this is Jason Gay's column, like
Speaker 1: I'm writing it for like we need like you on
Speaker 1: the ground here. What has been your impression from afar
Speaker 1: even of the Rogers New York City marriage, And it's
Speaker 1: been all good. And I've tell you, no one's penned
Speaker 1: the Day in the Life with Aaron Rodgers yet. But
Speaker 1: my gosh, I hope you get that assignment and just
Speaker 1: get a chance to follow him around walking around So
Speaker 1: how I Becca for a day?
Speaker 6: I mean, Peter, you know this.
Speaker 7: We're now old enough to know that we've seen versions
Speaker 7: of this movie before. The Jets are sort of famous
Speaker 7: for getting the kind of you know, late autumn superstar
Speaker 7: arriving in town with ambitions of bringing Jets football back
Speaker 7: to the promised land of nameath.
Speaker 6: You know, quarterback position.
Speaker 7: It's happened before other skill positions, but Rogers is a
Speaker 7: cut above and as much as I kind of want
Speaker 7: to rain on this hype, and boy, I mean it's
Speaker 7: just hype and hype. I mean I was giving you
Speaker 7: grief yesterday about the fact that, like, oh wow, I'm
Speaker 7: glad someone's finally paying attention to the Jets in the preseason.
Speaker 7: I feel like it's like one team and then thirty
Speaker 7: one other teams. I mean, the way that this Jets
Speaker 7: thing has just taken off, and like, you know, they
Speaker 7: should raise the August World Championship banner, I think in
Speaker 7: the opener, right, But so I want to just dump
Speaker 7: on all over it. But you know this again much
Speaker 7: better than I do that the heart hardest possible thing
Speaker 7: in football is to just figure out that quarterback position.
Speaker 7: And really, for the first time in a very long time,
Speaker 7: you enter this season saying, there's a grown adult who
Speaker 7: has this job, who's been here before. There's almost nothing
Speaker 7: you can throw at him that he's not going to
Speaker 7: have great deal of experience. He seems completely, you know,
Speaker 7: revitalized in New York. I didn't know what to make
Speaker 7: of that hype going in, but it definitely seems to
Speaker 7: be a thing that he is good. Aaron Rodgers, right,
Speaker 7: we haven't seen the Phantom of the opera version yet.
Speaker 6: I mean, that could happen, but.
Speaker 7: You know, and again that's a tough division, right, you know,
Speaker 7: they are stacked the AFC East. That is a very
Speaker 7: competitive division. They have two games against a lot of
Speaker 7: quality opponents. But I don't know they have cracked the
Speaker 7: one thing that is the hardest thing to crack. And
Speaker 7: so as much as I want to be the big
Speaker 7: rainclad here and mock the Jets, it's hard.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: I look at you as a writer and your stuff
Speaker 1: is different. You're not necessarily going to talk about the
Speaker 1: x's and a year more about the lifestyle and you
Speaker 1: know how sports incorporates into our daily lives, into culture,
Speaker 1: Like what would be the article if you were to
Speaker 1: follow around Rogers FORER day and he's like, here, Jason,
Speaker 1: here are the keys. Take me around your New York
Speaker 1: or take me around something cool culturally? Like what would
Speaker 1: you show him? Because honestly, I spoke to him. He's
Speaker 1: been to Broadway, he's been to a couple of Knicks games,
Speaker 1: a couple of Rangers games. He went to Carbone, which
Speaker 1: is like, you know it's yes, it's carbone, but there's
Speaker 1: a carbone in Vegas, you.
Speaker 7: Know, Yeah, well, I don't know if I'm giving away
Speaker 7: any confidences here, but you spoke to him and that
Speaker 7: was a big news making interview.
Speaker 6: Is he living on the Jersey side or is he
Speaker 6: living in the city.
Speaker 1: He's living in Jersey. He's living I'll give you the
Speaker 1: town because I think it's public now. He's living in Montclair,
Speaker 1: New Jersey.
Speaker 6: Oh, with the half of the reporters in the city.
Speaker 6: That's hilarious.
Speaker 2: Talk about the Montclair mafia.
Speaker 1: You've got all I think it's like it's like Stephen Colbert, right, and.
Speaker 2: Then who else You've got all these different journalists.
Speaker 6: Right, yeah, Yeah, there's journalists for days in Montclair. That's
Speaker 6: fair funny.
Speaker 7: It's too bad he doesn't have kids, because you could
Speaker 7: see him at school pickups and stuff like that. I mean, look,
Speaker 7: he's a very eccentric, charismatic guy, obviously incredibly talented. You
Speaker 7: want to see him sort of light up the town.
Speaker 7: But do you right, It's like I feel like the
Speaker 7: second things go south, you know, people will be harping
Speaker 7: on him for that kind of thing if they go south.
Speaker 6: That is so yeah. I mean the time to join
Speaker 6: New York, to appreciate New York probably was the early
Speaker 6: part of this.
Speaker 7: I mean, I believe after he signed he went to
Speaker 7: every single Nixon Rangers game for about two or three weeks.
Speaker 6: He was very active that way.
Speaker 7: Again, what I find amusing, and I'm sure you do too,
Speaker 7: is people in Green Bay are like, who's this guy?
Speaker 2: What right?
Speaker 7: I mean, because that was such an incredible psycho drama
Speaker 7: the last bunch of seasons, and obviously, you know, it
Speaker 7: was a pretty combative situation with the front office there.
Speaker 6: They're like, who's this guy? And then the other thing.
Speaker 7: Green Bay fans like to be snarky and say, call
Speaker 7: us in November, you know, like like, let us know
Speaker 7: how it's going.
Speaker 6: We'll see. I mean, listen, I feel the Jets.
Speaker 7: You know, they're this un you know, there's this frozen
Speaker 7: cave man right lurking below the surface, and and and
Speaker 7: you know, people are just so accustomed to it going south.
Speaker 7: And were they to revitalize, were they to perform, even
Speaker 7: if they were to just be playoff competitive, Peter, the
Speaker 7: bar is low. This is not like Super Bowl or bust.
Speaker 7: If the Jets were able to go in and win
Speaker 7: a couple of playoff games, gosh, we have not seen
Speaker 7: that since the rec th Ryan ma Ja Kaki stays
Speaker 7: it's been a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So you're gonna be coming into New
Speaker 1: York the next couple of weeks for the US Open.
Speaker 1: I'm not looking to do a huge breakdown of Alcarez
Speaker 1: or Cocoa golf. But what I would say is I
Speaker 1: have questions about the US Open experience because I think
Speaker 1: it's maybe the best two weeks of New York and
Speaker 1: if you can get there, you've got to.
Speaker 2: You'll be covering it for the Wall Street Nal as
Speaker 2: you always do.
Speaker 1: Writing about slice of life stuff, but also tracking it
Speaker 1: as the tournament advances.
Speaker 2: Where do the players stay?
Speaker 6: They stay all over.
Speaker 7: I mean you can stay as close as you know,
Speaker 7: three blocks away at the Holiday Inn, Peter.
Speaker 6: You know, I know you like that Queen Day in
Speaker 6: the hotel.
Speaker 7: Yeah, fantastic aquarium, you know, one of the great aquariums
Speaker 7: in all of New York hoteling. Yeah, you can stay
Speaker 7: all those places. Most of them stay in the city.
Speaker 7: They have relationships, of course with some of the swankier hotels.
Speaker 7: Depending on how fancy you are. You'll see it turn
Speaker 7: up in a Instagram accounts, Peter. You know, when you
Speaker 7: see the players saying like, what a wonderful stay at
Speaker 7: the one hotel. You know, then you know something's going on.
Speaker 7: But yeah, most of them. You know, you see those
Speaker 7: courtesy cars, those Mercedes Benz courtesy cars all over the
Speaker 7: city at this time of year in midtown, that's a
Speaker 7: pretty good indicator that that's where the players are. I
Speaker 7: always this is one of my favorite things about the
Speaker 7: US Open, Peter.
Speaker 6: They for years.
Speaker 7: I don't know if they have it this year because
Speaker 7: I haven't been up yet, but they have had a
Speaker 7: free parking for Mercedes owners.
Speaker 6: Okay, I know if you're I don't know if you're
Speaker 6: a Mercedes.
Speaker 2: We haven't quite made that movie yet.
Speaker 7: Some time, maybe that's a reason to get one, Peter. Okay,
Speaker 7: you sit there, you're like, we could get the Dotson
Speaker 7: or we get the Mercedes free parking US Open.
Speaker 6: Let's do this. But yeah, that's a real thing that
Speaker 6: existed for quite a while.
Speaker 7: I think it's one of the great, you know, sporting
Speaker 7: experiences in New York City.
Speaker 6: I agree with you entirely.
Speaker 7: I think one of the things that makes the US
Speaker 7: Open phenomenal is that there's a lot to see, you know,
Speaker 7: especially if you go in the first week of the tournament,
Speaker 7: when more and more seeds are still active in the tournament,
Speaker 7: still competing. You can go there and watch at any
Speaker 7: given moment a dozen matches.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 7: You can watch it from you know, singles to doubles, women's, men's,
Speaker 7: wheelchair tennis, junior tennis, all kinds of competitive events all
Speaker 7: over the place. You don't have to start. It's just
Speaker 7: as you know, for a tennis person, it's like Comic Con.
Speaker 7: For somebody who is just sort of like a casual fan,
Speaker 7: you know, wants an experience.
Speaker 6: Good food, you know.
Speaker 7: Really good food, lots of booze, lots of places to
Speaker 7: hang out. You know, it can get a little hot
Speaker 7: around there, but there's shade, there's places you can go
Speaker 7: and get out of the sun. It's pretty special and
Speaker 7: you get around of your crowd then you get at
Speaker 7: other Grand Slam events. I think part of it is
Speaker 7: the booze. Part of it also is the night tennis.
Speaker 7: You know, that's the sort of big New York aspect
Speaker 7: of this, that these players will be out there sometimes
Speaker 7: you know, past midnight, playing sometimes deep into the morning.
Speaker 7: And that's a really bizarre, unique experience as well, and
Speaker 7: people love that.
Speaker 1: I think you'd be happy to know that Eric and
Speaker 1: I got married. And the specialty cocktail at her drink
Speaker 1: was the Honey Deuce, which is really which is the
Speaker 1: drink that they serve at the US Open.
Speaker 2: It's Greg Goose vodka. It's too melon ball.
Speaker 1: And then it's a bunch of sugar and it's delicious.
Speaker 6: Yes, you could keepuch sugar.
Speaker 7: You could keep the cup right, right, right right, and
Speaker 7: and you keep the cup. I believe the price is
Speaker 7: north of twenty dollars at the US Open now, and
Speaker 7: if you have four of them, you will likely be
Speaker 7: thrown out of the event because you'll be screaming at
Speaker 7: the players to you know, pick up the base.
Speaker 2: Real quick tennis stuff.
Speaker 1: We saw the al KaAZ Djokovic final, those two and
Speaker 1: then everybody else are is there another player you're watching
Speaker 1: on the men's side.
Speaker 6: I think so.
Speaker 7: I mean, Carlos has been you know a little bit
Speaker 7: up and down since Wimbledon, even though he won a tournament,
Speaker 7: even though he's been active, he has you know, been
Speaker 7: playing a little bit radically. He went through Cincinnati, you know,
Speaker 7: going three sets and everybody had a spectacular final guesst Jokovic,
Speaker 7: which he had match points to win. Didn't get it,
Speaker 7: but that's the match everybody wants to see, because this
Speaker 7: is the thing, Peter. Everyone expected men's tennis to be
Speaker 7: like done, Oh my god, what are we're gonna do here?
Speaker 6: Right? Right right? And it's all sudden.
Speaker 7: It's like, I don't know, to give it a football analogy,
Speaker 7: it's like drafting Joe Burrow on the heels of Tom Brady.
Speaker 7: It's like you have this person coming in who might
Speaker 7: redefine the sport altogether right on the heels and actually
Speaker 7: being able to play against arguably the goat in tennis.
Speaker 6: That's a really neat thing to witness.
Speaker 7: Djokovic actually seems very motivated by this because all of
Speaker 7: a sudden he's got this y nemesis.
Speaker 6: And Carlos is just super likable too.
Speaker 7: I don't know if you've gotten a chance to sort
Speaker 7: of see him in interviews toes or his body demeanor.
Speaker 7: I mean, just like guys excited, you know, loves playing tennis.
Speaker 7: Is a happy, go lucky guy, and it just comes
Speaker 7: out in the experience of watching him. I mean, he's
Speaker 7: that's her rare category already at age twenty of like
Speaker 7: he just pops off the screen.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 7: Our favorite kind of athletes, Peter As, you know, are
Speaker 7: those ones that like you don't have to know the
Speaker 7: sport to be like, who's that? You know, I want
Speaker 7: to know everything about that person, and he plays that way.
Speaker 1: Your best celebrity encounter at a US open go.
Speaker 7: I actually remember seeing somebody at the absolute apex of Hamilton,
Speaker 7: seeing lin Manuel Miranda like scarrying for a seat and
Speaker 7: being like, oh my gosh. And he had the whole
Speaker 7: like ponytail thing, like he.
Speaker 6: Looked like he had just come from Hamilton.
Speaker 7: He wasn't in like, you know, colonial gear, but like, yeah,
Speaker 7: that was pretty neat to see. I mean, there have
Speaker 7: been some pretty great ones. Pretty much everybody who's anybody
Speaker 7: comes through that event at some point.
Speaker 6: It's such a CNSB seen thing.
Speaker 7: Andy Murray had a very interesting super fan for a
Speaker 7: very long time, Sean Connery.
Speaker 6: So super Connery.
Speaker 2: From the same town, I know, I don't think so
Speaker 2: there were Scotts.
Speaker 7: They're both Scotts, and so he was a super fan
Speaker 7: of Anny Murray and Sean Connery. Not a very showy celebrity,
Speaker 7: like you would have pulled down very low, you know,
Speaker 7: that kind of thing, but Yeah, everybody comes through there.
Speaker 7: I just did a Carlos piece in which I talked
Speaker 7: to Jimmy Butler for this. So Carlos is big super fan.
Speaker 7: Is Jimmy Butler?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's just Jimmy.
Speaker 7: Jimmy's a huge tennis guy, been a tennis guy for
Speaker 7: a long time. Actually did an event at the US
Speaker 7: Open a couple of days ago with Carlos where they
Speaker 7: hit around a little bit. Jimmy's a serious tennis guy,
Speaker 7: you know. He's an international dude. When I talked to
Speaker 7: him about Carlos, you already said to me, Peter said,
Speaker 7: I actually should be doing this in Spanish with you,
Speaker 7: but I'm going to assume you don't speak Spanish, so
Speaker 7: we'll just do this in English.
Speaker 6: Okay, you got me on this.
Speaker 7: But he's a major Carlos super fan. Uh but yeah, listen,
Speaker 7: I mean name it. Last night, Michelle and Barack Obama
Speaker 7: in the audience to watch Cocoa golf and Novak.
Speaker 6: Djokovic, So they really draw him in there.
Speaker 7: Peter, and I should say, Peter Trigger shows up occasionally.
Speaker 2: I'm there. I'll never forget are you box only or
Speaker 2: are you been in a box? And there have been
Speaker 2: in a box.
Speaker 1: I go, I get the I get I buy my
Speaker 1: own seats. I've never covered it as a journalist.
Speaker 2: I just have to go.
Speaker 1: I like going during the day session. I'll leave good
Speaker 1: Morning Football, and I'll take this. I actually take this
Speaker 1: is a nice little hack.
Speaker 2: If you're listening in New York.
Speaker 1: Don't take the subway because it takes forever. Take the
Speaker 1: Long Island railroad to Metz Willett's point. It's a much
Speaker 1: more luxurious trip on the train. Instead, get off and
Speaker 1: it's probably won every hour, and then you just get
Speaker 1: jepped off at where City Field is and you walk
Speaker 1: right over to the stadium.
Speaker 2: But i will go. I'm thinking I'm gonna go Labor Day.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take my son, and I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: go and we're gonna check it out. But I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: Probably like ten years ago, I'm sitting there and we
Speaker 1: went on maybe the Friday before the finals. It was
Speaker 1: like back then, it was like not Super Saturday, but
Speaker 1: the Friday was awesome. You would get the women's semis
Speaker 1: and then like the doubles finals and it was women's
Speaker 1: semis and it was an incredible, incredible match between like
Speaker 1: Serena and I forget who she was against at the time,
Speaker 1: might have been Sloma.
Speaker 2: What's his name? Hallip? What was her name? Might have
Speaker 2: been that.
Speaker 1: And there was a woman in front of me, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: She's six foot ten, she looks like she's got a
Speaker 1: hair of it. And she turns around and she's like,
Speaker 1: are those good? And she was pointing at the drink
Speaker 1: I was drinking, which happened to be the Honeyduce, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's Shirlie's Farron, just sitting there
Speaker 1: with the with the with the sweaty masses of fools
Speaker 1: out there.
Speaker 2: And it was the coolest thing. And I'm like, that's
Speaker 2: the US opening a nutshell.
Speaker 7: Did you say that to Erica when you guys had
Speaker 7: your wedding planning, You're like, this is Shirlie's Urn's favorite drink.
Speaker 2: Eric's like, what is with this Honeyduce? It's like, no, no,
Speaker 2: we have to do it for our wedding.
Speaker 1: Why it has no connection to the two of us.
Speaker 6: We must do it.
Speaker 1: All right, here's the exercise we're gonna do because season
Speaker 1: starts next week. And I think you're one of the
Speaker 1: great profile writers of all time.
Speaker 2: And I mean that.
Speaker 1: And this is like you're like, Okay, don't make me
Speaker 1: blush with Frank the Ford and Gary Smith and all
Speaker 1: these guys.
Speaker 2: But for a while there, when like.
Speaker 1: Jason Gay did a big profile and a player or
Speaker 1: an athlete or an owner, I'm like, I'm reading it
Speaker 1: no matter what. And I'd say probably ten fifteen years ago,
Speaker 1: magazines had these giant budgets and they would give you
Speaker 1: an X amount of dollars and say, go spend a
Speaker 1: week with this player, or go spend a week with
Speaker 1: this celebrity, and go write this amazing profile and it'll
Speaker 1: be in a cover of whether it be Vogue or
Speaker 1: it be Vanity Fair in your case, GQ or The
Speaker 1: New York Observer, whatever it was. Here's the exercise we're
Speaker 1: going to do. There are so many personalities in football
Speaker 1: right now, and it's players, it's coaches.
Speaker 2: It's owners.
Speaker 1: We're going to do a draft, a fantasy draft, and
Speaker 1: I am the editor and you are the writer, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a giant budget and a
Speaker 1: one week deadline to spend as much time as you
Speaker 1: need unfiltered with this athlete or this coach or this owner,
Speaker 1: this person out of the NFL, and we're going to
Speaker 1: do a draft three players or owners or whoever's each
Speaker 1: and we're going to do who we would pick if
Speaker 1: we could do a celebrity profile on anybody, and do
Speaker 1: it old school GQ magazine style, back in the day
Speaker 1: when they would spend unlimited amounts of money just to
Speaker 1: get the best photos and the best articles written. That's
Speaker 1: the build up, Jason Gayer, first on the clock. The
Speaker 1: first figure in our NFL world that you would want
Speaker 1: to do a giant profile on is whom.
Speaker 7: Okay, well, I'm going to be a huge homer here
Speaker 7: and I'm going to take somebody who has been profiled,
Speaker 7: you know, quite well in other places.
Speaker 6: But you know, I would love to get my whack
Speaker 6: at it.
Speaker 7: I had an opportunity to speak to him last year,
Speaker 7: but I'd love to get a lot of time with him,
Speaker 7: the one and only.
Speaker 6: Justin Tucker, I thought.
Speaker 2: You were going somewhere else.
Speaker 1: Do not expect the kicker, did not expect to the
Speaker 1: first overall pick being an undrafted kicker.
Speaker 6: Go on, he's the goat. I mean, Peter.
Speaker 7: We can say this can we I mean, you're the
Speaker 7: football expert here. Is he a goat among us already?
Speaker 7: Is that clear?
Speaker 2: Yes, he's the greatest kicker to ever kick a football.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt.
Speaker 1: Vine Terry might have more rings, But you're talking you
Speaker 1: need one kick to win a game.
Speaker 2: Justin Tucker's the.
Speaker 7: Guy and talking to him, I'm going to make a
Speaker 7: terrible analogy, but like he's like sort of like a
Speaker 7: quantum physicist. I mean, he is somebody who does not
Speaker 7: look at kicking as this hysterile, repetitive act. That looks
Speaker 7: at it from so many incredible variables and just to
Speaker 7: hear his brain operate around the way you kick the
Speaker 7: all the things he can alter, the fact that he
Speaker 7: feels he can always get better, which is sort of
Speaker 7: an obsessive quality that I love. And also the fact
Speaker 7: that he's rich as hell for doing this one thing.
Speaker 7: Peter Right, It's like and he has just pinnacle respect.
Speaker 7: Nobody sweats him, like he just occupies this airspace. I mean,
Speaker 7: I always think of the kicker as like the first
Speaker 7: person pushed off the bus on the football team, right always,
Speaker 7: but he could make the cases.
Speaker 6: He's the last guy, right, I mean with the Ravens.
Speaker 7: I mean, and then you know that stadium is in
Speaker 7: a part of town where like it's near the water,
Speaker 7: like it's if you're going to be kicking like sixty
Speaker 7: two yard field goals, you would not put a stadium
Speaker 7: right now, right. I just think he be a fascinating dude.
Speaker 7: And and you know, I think the relationship between a
Speaker 7: kicker and a city. I wrote this in the Journal
Speaker 7: last year when I talked to him about like how
Speaker 7: many towns, Peter do you go to?
Speaker 3: It?
Speaker 6: I'm asking of you, where.
Speaker 7: You see the kicker jersey in high quantity? Is there
Speaker 7: any other city besides Tucker? It's just Tucker, that's it.
Speaker 7: He's number three. By the way, it's Lamar Andrews Tucker.
Speaker 7: I got that from the Ravens.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 7: I'm sure Odell's up there now. Yeah, but last year
Speaker 7: it was, yeah, it was it was Lamar Andrews and Tucker.
Speaker 7: In terms of jerseys, he just I mean, there's been
Speaker 7: nobody like him, and so I think all that territory
Speaker 7: would be really cool.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting because he is the best at what
Speaker 1: he does and it's of all time, and he does
Speaker 1: look and act as if he's just a normal guy too.
Speaker 2: Obviously, I've met him and you've met him.
Speaker 1: He has the opera stuff, which has been done a
Speaker 1: million times, but just from a pure athleticism standpoint, what
Speaker 1: he does, he's the greatest at his craft to ever
Speaker 1: do it, which is pretty incredible.
Speaker 7: He walks around as a normal human in society. He
Speaker 7: does not stand out physically. He does not like you know,
Speaker 7: he's not sort of a booming, charismatic crazy guy. I mean,
Speaker 7: he definitely has his eccentricities, as we alluded to, but
Speaker 7: like he's definitely I mean, I just feel like there's
Speaker 7: lots of.
Speaker 6: Two on there. Another one, Okay, this one is a
Speaker 6: little bit more serious.
Speaker 2: And so wait, do I get to pick? I want
Speaker 2: to pick?
Speaker 6: Let's we're going back and forth. Oh it's a snake
Speaker 6: it's not a snake draft.
Speaker 2: Okay, just a regular draft. I'm gonna go. So you're
Speaker 2: justin Tucker's off the board.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you one that I thought you
Speaker 1: were going with, pretty obvious, and yet I don't think
Speaker 1: the comprehensive post retirement piece has been done.
Speaker 2: I want to I want a week with Brady.
Speaker 1: I want to know what the hell's going on and
Speaker 1: I want to know what's going on through his head
Speaker 1: and what his life's like, and what it's like for
Speaker 1: the first time in twenty something years to not be
Speaker 1: playing football.
Speaker 2: I saw him on TV that he's now.
Speaker 1: He's like at the Vegas preseason game, and he's sort
Speaker 1: of there as a minority owner, but he's also sort
Speaker 1: of there.
Speaker 2: It's like Tom Brady celebrity.
Speaker 1: And I know he's supposed to take over the Fox
Speaker 1: gig next year all intentions, it seems like he is.
Speaker 2: But this year, this moment in time, tom Brady out.
Speaker 1: Of football as a player, before he goes into being
Speaker 1: a broadcaster, post divorce, pre whatever.
Speaker 2: This next chapter is like, I am fascinated.
Speaker 1: At what's going on with Brady, and it could go
Speaker 1: a lot of different directions too. I don't think this
Speaker 1: would be one of those glory you know, filled like
Speaker 1: hero worship pieces. I feel like I want the real stuff.
Speaker 1: I want to know what's really going down, and I
Speaker 1: feel like it hasn't been done yet.
Speaker 7: My question would be, as your editor, would be, do
Speaker 7: you think you can get it out of him? You know,
Speaker 7: is he in a place in his life where he's
Speaker 7: willing to go there with you?
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 7: I did get the opportunity to spend a little time
Speaker 7: talking to him a couple of seasons ago, and he's
Speaker 7: definitely less guarded than he was at New England for sure,
Speaker 7: you know, much more you know direct, and we saw
Speaker 7: him like interviewed on the shop.
Speaker 6: You know, is sort of showing aside the that you
Speaker 6: hadn't seen before.
Speaker 7: However, sort of like a skilled politician, he has this
Speaker 7: ability to kind of give you the Tom Brady experience
Speaker 7: without giving you Tom Brady like sort of like you know,
Speaker 7: throw an F.
Speaker 6: Bomb in there, like a candle here and there.
Speaker 7: You're like wow, But then when you get back in
Speaker 7: your role the tape, you're like, oh wait, it's not
Speaker 7: totally the whole thing. He's very skilled that way.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 7: There's obviously an incredible amount to talk to him. I mean,
Speaker 7: like look just off the top of my head, I
Speaker 7: mean obviously, you know, the personal life stuff was pretty
Speaker 7: messy last year, the whole FTX thing with him, Yes,
Speaker 7: all that stuff, you know, and like he's this guy
Speaker 7: who's trying to navigate being you know, he in front
Speaker 7: of him is the idea that he could be like
Speaker 7: the next like Michael Jordan Arnold Palmer type, the person
Speaker 7: who is the sport right, Yes.
Speaker 6: But it hasn't exactly worked right.
Speaker 7: It's like the clothing brand came and like a little
Speaker 7: bit of a splash, but I don't think it sort
Speaker 7: of took off in the manner that they were hoping
Speaker 7: it would do. He's had sort of very sort of
Speaker 7: all over the place kind of endorsements over the years.
Speaker 6: You know, he's not a normal dude. I mean, you
Speaker 6: can't win like that.
Speaker 7: You know, you can't be that person and have that
Speaker 7: kind of life and be exactly normal. I'd be curious
Speaker 7: to see what you could pry out them. Hopefully you
Speaker 7: can do better than I did.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. I think he'd be really interesting if
Speaker 1: he was honest. You're right, And I don't know if
Speaker 1: anyone's going to get that side of him. All right,
Speaker 1: you're up next?
Speaker 2: Who you go with?
Speaker 7: Okay, Peter, it's another kicker. This is more serious. I
Speaker 7: think Andy Reid. I think Andy Reid is somebody who
Speaker 7: has had incredible triumph and tragedy in his life. He has,
Speaker 7: you know, had a family that has had incredibly tragic
Speaker 7: circumstances and tough stuff and perseveres and I'd be very
Speaker 7: interested in sort of knowing more about what what sort
Speaker 7: of makes him operate, what sort of motivates him, what
Speaker 7: his sort of inner dialogue is. Like I have to
Speaker 7: figure that he is this master compartmentalizer, somebody who can,
Speaker 7: you know, keep on plugging away through terrible things that
Speaker 7: have happened. And I just think that's a that's a
Speaker 7: compelling story. That is the definition of sort of like
Speaker 7: a DeFord Gary Smith classic from back in the day.
Speaker 7: In fact, I imagine those were done when he was
Speaker 7: with the Eagles, because you know, some stuff was happening
Speaker 7: then too, but even now in sort of like the
Speaker 7: sort of golden era of his football respect, there's a
Speaker 7: lot to go there.
Speaker 1: I get a chance every year at dinner at the Combine,
Speaker 1: Brett Veitch, the GM and Andy Reid invite me to dinner.
Speaker 2: And I'm not name dropping or anything. It's a cool
Speaker 2: thing I get to do.
Speaker 1: They take me out and it's a few other people
Speaker 1: and I met a table with them, and Andy's nothing
Speaker 1: but sweet and incredible, And he's not as maybe you'd
Speaker 1: expecting to be loud, and like with the Hawaiian Suran,
Speaker 1: that's not him.
Speaker 2: He's sweets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's a kind man, but I too. Every
Speaker 1: time I'm talking to him, there's this like hole in
Speaker 1: my heart thinking about the tragedies that he's gone through,
Speaker 1: obviously with his kid.
Speaker 2: And then I start thinking.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then how do you also become the most beloved,
Speaker 1: giving warm coach to so many players? And then the
Speaker 1: thing with Andy that's so incredible is we talk about
Speaker 1: the Belichick coaching tree. Andy Reid's coaching tree blows Belichick's
Speaker 1: out of the water, and those guys have great success,
Speaker 1: whereas Belichick's don't have as much.
Speaker 2: So great call on that one.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go a coach also for my second pick,
Speaker 1: a guy who I got a chance to become really
Speaker 1: close with last year, but I want to see him
Speaker 1: in this moment in time. I want the definitive Sean
Speaker 1: Payton piece. And if Jarrett beldon't do a great enough
Speaker 1: job already doing it once, I almost want to double
Speaker 1: dip and go back and do it again. And see
Speaker 1: now that his comments were taken and put in print
Speaker 1: and he had to suffer the blowback from all that.
Speaker 1: But Sean is I've said this before, and I don't
Speaker 1: know if I've said it on this podcast or whatever.
Speaker 1: Not that I judged a book by a cover wrong,
Speaker 1: but like for years I've been covering the NFL ty years,
Speaker 1: Sean Payton and I had no relationship, and I always
Speaker 1: deferred to the fact that, like Jay Glazer works on
Speaker 1: Fox with me that.
Speaker 2: Is Jay Glazer's guy.
Speaker 1: I would be really annoyed if I had a coach
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, like a younger guy came
Speaker 1: in and was constantly like.
Speaker 2: Hey, coach.
Speaker 1: I also don't think that coach would want to open
Speaker 1: up to me. But we were put together on this
Speaker 1: TV show last year. And this is after I've been
Speaker 1: I've called ten different Sean Payton games. I met him
Speaker 1: been production meetings have been nothing but kind, but not
Speaker 1: like Schrigger, here's my number. I didn't have his number nothing.
Speaker 1: We became really close and I freaking loved his energy,
Speaker 1: like high energy, hilarious, encyclopediac mind parcels quotes, Churchill quotes
Speaker 1: like history, buff Love's pop culture has a young spirit
Speaker 1: like and I. And this is the second chapter of
Speaker 1: his career where it's like, all right, Saints thing broadcasts
Speaker 1: and now I'm going to try to revitalize the Broncos.
Speaker 1: I think it's a really cool moment in time. And
Speaker 1: we've got to pick like playoff teams in a week
Speaker 1: for Good Morning Football, and I'm tempted to put the
Speaker 1: Broncos in. And yet there is no evidence other than
Speaker 1: the fact that I trust Sean Payton that they are
Speaker 1: a football team. But yet that fact alone, Jason, that
Speaker 1: might be enough for me to say, like, the Broncos
Speaker 1: are going to the playoff, Sean Payton won't let them fail.
Speaker 7: Now, it's funny because you work both sides of the
Speaker 7: street on that story, because of course you were the
Speaker 7: one who went to Aaron a couple of weeks later
Speaker 7: or days later and asked him about it, and Aaron
Speaker 7: bit right back. But I have to think that like
Speaker 7: when you see something like that, you know, those amazing
Speaker 7: quotes that came out of Peyton's mouth and just sort
Speaker 7: of like, you know, I think we can say like
Speaker 7: sort of like breaking.
Speaker 6: The code, right.
Speaker 7: You know, it's like it's very unusual to see a
Speaker 7: coach criticize another active coach. I can't help but think that,
Speaker 7: like it's one of those rare experiences you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 7: that's the person, because sometimes you read quotes in the
Speaker 7: paper and you're like, ah, well he's being you know,
Speaker 7: behaved and like he knows what to say and he's
Speaker 7: not going to give it up. And you're like, oh no,
Speaker 7: that's the guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, yes, that's the stuff he would say in
Speaker 1: a green room and he'd be like whoa. And then
Speaker 1: he said in print on the record, right, And I don't
Speaker 1: think he said it on accident either, right.
Speaker 7: No fair play to the reporter too forgetting that, because
Speaker 7: it's it's that's that's really what you're striving for, and
Speaker 7: all this stuff is to have enough of a relationship
Speaker 7: that the artifice comes down and you're not getting the
Speaker 7: sort of managed commentary and you're getting something great like that.
Speaker 2: Your last pick if you were to do a profile.
Speaker 1: So far you've got the assignments you've got Justin Tucker
Speaker 1: and Andy Reid, who's number three.
Speaker 6: Josh Harris would be an amazing follow.
Speaker 2: For ye justice an owner, But like, why is that
Speaker 2: amazing to you? I've watched the in You want to.
Speaker 6: Shake my hand? Yeah, I want to shake my hand. Yeah,
Speaker 6: there you go, just hold it.
Speaker 7: I just think if I it's somebody who's like walking
Speaker 7: into a condemned house that they just bought, and they're
Speaker 7: going through all the newspapers that are up to the
Speaker 7: ceilings and they're finding like stuff that's like underneath the
Speaker 7: couch and they're like, what did I get? What am
Speaker 7: I doing here? And all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 7: you are the talk of the town. Everybody is obsessed
Speaker 7: with you. They want to give you the cues city,
Speaker 7: they want you to build RK and Washington, but you
Speaker 7: have to like sort of basically do this uh exorcism
Speaker 7: of you know, thirty years of misery. And like, I
Speaker 7: just think that's a compelling story to follow somebody around
Speaker 7: who's coming from any synchronous world. He's not a sports person,
Speaker 7: even though he has this like sports background.
Speaker 6: He's a you know, yeah, the finance guy that.
Speaker 7: But the other one that I think a little bit
Speaker 7: more closer to your heart, Peter, And I've not seen
Speaker 7: this profile. I've seen him be the person quoted in
Speaker 7: profiles of television people. But I really think if you
Speaker 7: it'd be a sort of great New Yorker profile for
Speaker 7: somebody who has really skilled.
Speaker 6: Uh Fred Godelli.
Speaker 1: Interesting Hall of Fame broadcast producer, Fred Godell.
Speaker 7: Producer basically you know, the way that football looks in
Speaker 7: twenty twenty three, the way that football is Narry, the
Speaker 7: whole sort of like formatting of it. He's had an
Speaker 7: incredibly influential hand in this. He is the executive producer
Speaker 7: I think of Amazon. Now he also has this joint
Speaker 7: deal with NBC. I mean, that's when you know you
Speaker 7: have power, when you're able to sort of work both
Speaker 7: you know, do that still both of those things. You know,
Speaker 7: he's obviously been Al Michael's guy for a very long time.
Speaker 6: You could spend a lot.
Speaker 7: Of time in a booth there and sort of see
Speaker 7: how their mind operates. I mean, that's something that I
Speaker 7: think that I mean, I'm sort of preaching to the
Speaker 7: choir here because you're in the world, but like is
Speaker 7: very very underappreciated how skilled the people who are giving
Speaker 7: you the camera work, the production value in NFL. And also, like, look, Peter,
Speaker 7: if I'm going to put a fancy hat on this story,
Speaker 7: it's the last monoculture we have left in the world.
Speaker 7: We have Taylor Swift, yeah, and we have the NFL,
Speaker 7: or at least in the United States, we have those
Speaker 7: two things. And it's the last great television show that
Speaker 7: we all watch and I think it's never been better.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's actually a problem for the NFL. Peter,
Speaker 6: you know this, that the TV product is too good.
Speaker 2: Some people don't want to leave the couch.
Speaker 6: They don't want to leave the couch. Stadiums are sitting around.
Speaker 7: I mean we know this, both of us, that they're
Speaker 7: having conversations about, like what does our value add here?
Speaker 7: Like if we're going to make someone come in here
Speaker 7: and spend five hundred dollars on a Sunday, what are
Speaker 7: we giving them that they don't get at home? And
Speaker 7: it's a hard sell, you know, for a lot of people,
Speaker 7: because the product is so good on TV, and so
Speaker 7: this is a person who it be an amazing portal
Speaker 7: to all that stuff. He also goes way back to
Speaker 7: some really cooky days of the Forum, when you know,
Speaker 7: people were a lot less well behaved, and I think
Speaker 7: you can get some great stories out of that too.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: I've never worked with Fred Goodelli, obviously, I've gotten to
Speaker 1: meet him a few times, and this year he put
Speaker 1: on a gold jacket, which is so cool and so
Speaker 1: well deserved.
Speaker 2: I love that. Choice.
Speaker 1: That'd be interesting. My last one would be Mike Tomlin.
Speaker 1: I know, I went retired player coach coach. I just
Speaker 1: feel like Mike Tomlin is the standard now in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: And they had another nine and eight season last year
Speaker 1: where you avoided going five hundred, but like to go
Speaker 1: through yet another transition of like, here's another version of
Speaker 1: the Steelers, and here's Tomlin now like the senior of
Speaker 1: the NFL's like coaching community behind Belichick and Carolyn Reid.
Speaker 1: I just think it's such a cool position for him
Speaker 1: and such a cool time. And I really think the
Speaker 1: Steelers could be excellent this year. And here's Tomlin, who
Speaker 1: is no thirty or forty year old coach anymore, and
Speaker 1: he's got these two kids in Pickett and Pickens, who
Speaker 1: I think are going to be excellent this year, and
Speaker 1: the Steelers this franchise. I think Mike Tomlin's always a
Speaker 1: great quote, but I don't think there's been the definitive
Speaker 1: sports profile of him done in many years.
Speaker 6: Is he now the longest tenured Steelers coach ever?
Speaker 1: Chuck Nole was there for a long time, Chuck Knowle
Speaker 1: was there up until Cower, So let's say Chuck Nole.
Speaker 2: But you're right, it's already I mean Tomlin got there
Speaker 2: in five o six. Maybe yeah, he might be, which
Speaker 2: is a wild.
Speaker 7: Statistic because the psychology of that role is interesting in
Speaker 7: the respect that, like, look, your buddy's also at Sean McVay,
Speaker 7: and we feel Sean McVay sort of takes wins and
Speaker 7: losses right on the shirt sleeves, like the like that
Speaker 7: he internalizes the pain and the suffering as well as
Speaker 7: the joy of the job.
Speaker 6: You know, very sort of viscerally.
Speaker 7: To be in a job like that for fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
Speaker 7: eighteen years, you cannot be constitutionally the kind of person
Speaker 7: who takes it terribly every time. You have to sort
Speaker 7: of get comfortable. I'm not saying get comfortable with losing,
Speaker 7: but you have to understand that you're never you know,
Speaker 7: it's like there's only one team left at the end
Speaker 7: and it's most likely not going to be you. And
Speaker 7: for him, he's been there to the mountaintop once, I
Speaker 7: believe as the champion. That means that the other years
Speaker 7: you didn't reach that And how do you sort of
Speaker 7: rationalize or resolve that. It makes me think of like
Speaker 7: the honest thing that happened after the NBA playoffs where
Speaker 7: they lost.
Speaker 2: Is it a failure to a lot?
Speaker 6: Yeah, is it a failure? And you know, there's a
Speaker 6: million reasons.
Speaker 7: And I know that people in your world are very
Speaker 7: skilled at explaining why Mike Tomlin is so incredibly great
Speaker 7: and the metrics of like how many rings don't necessarily apply.
Speaker 7: But yeah, he's you know, it's It's a funny thing
Speaker 7: to say because I looked at him recently doing a
Speaker 7: press conference and I was like, for the first time,
Speaker 7: I was like, oh, he looks old or older, Like,
Speaker 7: you know, he's always been the younger guy.
Speaker 1: You know, he's the youngest coach ever to win a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And and they're like, oh, yeah, now he's the
Speaker 7: older guy.
Speaker 6: That's an interesting dynamic as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, real quick in closing, you grew up a Patriots
Speaker 1: fan up in the New England area, and this is
Speaker 1: one of those years where no one knows anything. They
Speaker 1: could go ten and seven, they can go five and twelve.
Speaker 1: Your feel on your Patriots, Well.
Speaker 7: Just to clarify, I'm old enough that I grew up
Speaker 7: in Shafer Stadium, Sullivan Stadium, Patriots aluminum benches, snowplow on
Speaker 7: the field. Victor Kai am like, you know, two and fourteen,
Speaker 7: like Patriots all right, this whole like dynasty Robert Craft.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was.
Speaker 7: Long gone from Massachusetts. I don't recognize it whatsoever. No,
Speaker 7: I've I mean, listen, the Patriots are this kind of
Speaker 7: like institution now where everything that they do is outsized
Speaker 7: in the region, and so like there's always going to
Speaker 7: be disproportionate excitement, also disproportionate doomsdayism. I think it's hilarious
Speaker 7: to hear the sort of simultaneous conversation of are the
Speaker 7: Patriots actually an underrated potential playoff threat?
Speaker 6: And is Belichick on hot seat?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just like.
Speaker 7: Both sides of the mouth being talked about here. I
Speaker 7: just think it's hilarious that. But that sort of speaks
Speaker 7: to what, you know, it is that sort of New
Speaker 7: England ethos of like sky is following, but maybe we
Speaker 7: could make it this year.
Speaker 6: Like you know, that's all. I recognize that very well.
Speaker 1: Our mutual friend Bill Simmons is all in. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you've heard him talk, He's like, this is
Speaker 1: the year We're great. Everyone's not what's talking about us?
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can get on board. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I can do it. I will tell
Speaker 1: you this, there's a guy there that they're super excited
Speaker 1: about rookie Pop Douglas Wide Receiver. And as I say that,
Speaker 1: in the back of my hand, I'm like, gosh, if
Speaker 1: we're banking on Pop Douglas, are the Patriots really going
Speaker 1: to be a contender this year?
Speaker 7: What is your go to thing when somebody you know,
Speaker 7: you're at some social occasion, you know, you're waiting in
Speaker 7: line in Amagant for an ice cream cards, someone says,
Speaker 7: somebody says, Schrager, give me one fantasy tip, like, I mean,
Speaker 7: it must be the bandier existence.
Speaker 1: I hate, like you know that, I hate it, and
Speaker 1: I get it all the time and I say the
Speaker 1: same thing, and it pisses me off. The response, I'll say,
Speaker 1: take Jamiir Gibbs, the rookie from the Lions. And it's
Speaker 1: because we had Brad Holmes on this podcast, and Brad
Speaker 1: Holmes wax poetic about Jamior Gibbs like he was, you know,
Speaker 1: the next Jerry Rice Slash, you know, Roger Craig all
Speaker 1: on one And the response that I get that pisses
Speaker 1: me off so much.
Speaker 2: Jason as people be like, no, I know that one.
Speaker 2: Give me another one, and I'm like, oh, you know what, No,
Speaker 2: I don't have it.
Speaker 1: No, And I'm like, well, everyone knows Jamier Gibbs, Like no,
Speaker 1: not everyone knows Jamiir Gibbs.
Speaker 2: He hasn't played it down yet. So I always say
Speaker 2: Jamiir Gibbs.
Speaker 1: And then they'll say, well, give me a team that
Speaker 1: you think is going to be good, and I say,
Speaker 1: I really have to see Hawk this year.
Speaker 2: The Seahawks are my quiet team this year.
Speaker 6: I mean, can I ask you a couple of industry questions.
Speaker 1: Please, let's do it.
Speaker 2: I love it all right, so you.
Speaker 7: Know they're the whole fantasy construct in the NFL media
Speaker 7: is fascinating, where Like it is huge business. Of course,
Speaker 7: it means a great deal to a very specific crowd
Speaker 7: of people, a substantial crowd of people. It's it's it's
Speaker 7: it's a huge population plays fantasy. However, it's a parallel
Speaker 7: track that sometimes has nothing to do with what's actually
Speaker 7: happening from a success and failure standpoint, Like for example,
Speaker 7: I'm like, I hear all the time about Justin Fields.
Speaker 7: Justin feels this that the other thing, Like he's an
Speaker 7: incredible talent.
Speaker 6: Obviously he was a wonderful to watch. I was a
Speaker 6: big ten you know, fan lost.
Speaker 1: Ten games and the season last year, and he completed
Speaker 1: the least amount of passes maybe in the history of
Speaker 1: any starting quarterback.
Speaker 6: So is that just fantasy inflation is different?
Speaker 2: That is no, it's a different game.
Speaker 1: So his points count a lot because in fantasy football
Speaker 1: the quarterback position, rushing yards are seriously heavily weighted, and
Speaker 1: he runs for a lot of yards.
Speaker 2: So like Lamar a couple of years ago.
Speaker 7: So it's possible in your world to I mean, obviously
Speaker 7: there are some fantasy experts to have become enormously successful,
Speaker 7: but like you can exist in that world entirely. You
Speaker 7: just your rating players from a fantasy perspective, you know,
Speaker 7: completely ambivalent about wins and losses.
Speaker 2: Here's why I come out on it, my arrogance.
Speaker 1: I come off as pompous when I roll my eyes
Speaker 1: at the fantasy guys when they're like, I think Jamison
Speaker 1: Crowder is going to be a breakout, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I know this person doesn't talk to any of the coaches.
Speaker 1: I know this person isn't at practice. I know this
Speaker 1: person doesn't follow it every day like I do. So
Speaker 1: why do you know that this random third wide receiver
Speaker 1: is gonna be a breakout player and yet fantasy expert
Speaker 1: and they've won fantasy leagues and they got that.
Speaker 2: Like I just don't confront it.
Speaker 1: It's a different sport altogether, fantasy football and the world
Speaker 1: that I live in. So like today I'm on Good
Speaker 1: Morning Football and I will tell you and again put
Speaker 1: this somewhere if you want it.
Speaker 2: Greg Dolcich is tight end for the Broncos.
Speaker 1: I put him on a breakout player list, and I
Speaker 1: know that from good sources, from the aforementioned people that
Speaker 1: we were talking about, that they really are excited about Dulcic.
Speaker 1: He's nowhere on any fantasy list and I don't know
Speaker 1: if he's going to be a huge fantasy football player,
Speaker 1: but I know that Greg Dulcich has got a role
Speaker 1: in the Broncos offense.
Speaker 2: Do with what you want there.
Speaker 1: However, if someone was to look at me or some
Speaker 1: of these fantasy experts and they're doing a draft, I
Speaker 1: would probably direct them to those guys because they know
Speaker 1: all the metrics and how the stats equate into fantasy
Speaker 1: points more than I do.
Speaker 7: Do you think that the NFL preseason like the it
Speaker 7: felt to me something happened this year where like August,
Speaker 7: NFL coverage just jumped the rail. I felt that the
Speaker 7: NFL has been the number one story I'll tell you
Speaker 7: what it is for six weeks now. And it used
Speaker 7: to be like you got a little bit of a
Speaker 7: break going into September, and I feel like it never quit.
Speaker 7: And I'm like, you know somebody who covers all these
Speaker 7: other sports, and I'm like, guys, there's other stuff happening here.
Speaker 7: We don't have to like talk about the third string
Speaker 7: quarterback the Jets. You know, like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 1: It's the greatest show in town, as you noticed. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you a couple of combinations of things. And here's
Speaker 1: my big philosophy on it. Actors are on strike. Writers
Speaker 1: are on strike. So you take out the entertainment world altogether, okay.
Speaker 1: The New York Yankees and the New York Mets. I
Speaker 1: know I'm in a New York world. They both stink.
Speaker 1: You take them out there, okay, And the Giants and Jets,
Speaker 1: from my landscape, just New York perspective, are both supposed
Speaker 1: to be great, and there's a ton of excitement for
Speaker 1: the first time in a decade around both teams.
Speaker 2: It was the perfect storm. So for me, I think
Speaker 2: that's it.
Speaker 1: And then also football wise, they cut it down to
Speaker 1: three preseason games, it's not four. It feels like it's
Speaker 1: a more limited opportunity. And then we're right back into
Speaker 1: the season. So with the Rogers stuff and with all
Speaker 1: the different offseason acquisitions, and I think that's just a
Speaker 1: really intriguing season. And it was a perfect storm in
Speaker 1: New York at the very least with the Giants and Jets.
Speaker 6: Who's the halftime Do we know who the halftime act is?
Speaker 2: Quick draft?
Speaker 1: Again, we'll wrap it on this halftime performer for Bowling Vegas.
Speaker 1: All the reports you've heard, throw them out the window.
Speaker 1: You don't know anything. It's the NFL. They can get
Speaker 1: whoever they want. Relatively speaking, you're the first choice if
Speaker 1: you could pick anybody right now, who's the cultural moment
Speaker 1: or who's the person worthy of a Vegas Super Bowl?
Speaker 7: Well, obviously the first call is to Taylor Swift, but
Speaker 7: I think I heard somebody say on another podcast is
Speaker 7: she's bigger than the super Bowl, And it's a very
Speaker 7: legit argument. My second call would be Beyonce, who's done
Speaker 7: it before. But it is like in prime time, like,
Speaker 7: you know, performance wise, I think I'd probably say no
Speaker 7: because she'd been there, done that.
Speaker 6: So my next call, Peter, jeez, bad bunny, let's do this?
Speaker 6: Is that right?
Speaker 2: That's where you're going with it, bad Bunny.
Speaker 1: I know he's a huge international superstar, but that will
Speaker 1: long pregnant pause, bad Bunny.
Speaker 6: Yeah, top five recording artists in the world.
Speaker 1: I'm going Eddie Shearon baby all day, all night. That's
Speaker 1: my pick of verse.
Speaker 6: Okay, all right, listen, did you see that Eddie Shearon
Speaker 6: concert for those very special people?
Speaker 2: We talked about it. I did not. I would have
Speaker 2: loved to have gone.
Speaker 1: No, Sir Paul McCartney and Billy Joel and Jerry Seinfeld.
Speaker 2: And Dave Portnoy.
Speaker 1: No, I did not make the Listen, Bob Craft, Bob Kraft,
Speaker 1: bon Jovi, Angelica Houston and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Speaker 2: That was some crew.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 7: A couple more years out there, Peter, you'll get the
Speaker 7: you'll get the invite.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: I just got to keep on hacking away, Bad Bunny.
Speaker 1: Do you have a chance to take that back and
Speaker 1: put in an artist that you actually come on?
Speaker 6: I'm super legit and bad Bunny. That's a good one.
Speaker 6: An artist I like exactly, I know, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Is Jason Mraz performing?
Speaker 6: Yes, Phoebe Bridget is not playing the super Bowl.
Speaker 7: I don't believe although they, you know what, boy genius
Speaker 7: would be an amazing halftime show.
Speaker 6: I don't think they, you know, are going to get
Speaker 6: the call from the NFL. But I give my.
Speaker 7: That's Taylor Swift's other legacies. She's training the halftime acts
Speaker 7: of tomorrow.
Speaker 6: I know you know all these openings.
Speaker 1: She's paramore, good stuff.
Speaker 2: You're the man. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 7: Dude, Peter, it's a pleasure. I really really appreciate the
Speaker 7: opportunity to come on.
Speaker 6: To the show. I'll see you outside the coffee shop
Speaker 6: of the future.
Speaker 2: All right, Jason Gay awesome guest, Aaron.
Speaker 1: That was fun. Next week is like the start of
Speaker 1: the season. I'm debating do I bring on a coach,
Speaker 1: a GM, a broadcast. I might go broadcaster, what do
Speaker 1: you think? And like a guy who's gonna be calling
Speaker 1: one of the Week one games, and then maybe we
Speaker 1: go around the league and talk about our last second predictions.
Speaker 1: I haven't done my super Bowl prediction yet, as you
Speaker 1: know I pumped my chest everywhere.
Speaker 2: I've been very accurate with those in recent years.
Speaker 1: I had the Chiefs winning last year, I had the
Speaker 1: Rams winning the year before that.
Speaker 2: I had the Bucks in the Super Bowl year before that,
Speaker 2: and I had.
Speaker 1: The Chiefs going up against the forty nine ers and
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl yer before that. So I take a
Speaker 1: lot of pride in this, and I haven't made my
Speaker 1: official decision yet, but I feel like next week's monologue,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna lay on you all the predictions and I
Speaker 1: want yours as well.
Speaker 2: So that's a homework assignment. Okay, all right, I want.
Speaker 1: Your here's what you have to do for me, suerole prediction,
Speaker 1: MVP prediction.
Speaker 2: Okay, yep, and that's it.
Speaker 1: Okay, I need your super Bowl and your MVP prediction,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna lay it on the listeners. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: reveal it Thursday on Good Morning Football. So maybe, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know how we're gonna handle this. Maybe I
Speaker 1: like doing it on TV first. It kind of delivers it.
Speaker 1: So maybe I just get yours and then we pre
Speaker 1: tape something and we release it on Thursday after Good
Speaker 1: Morning Football and we just title it. Schrager and Aaron's
Speaker 1: predictions and watch we can book the best guests in
Speaker 1: the wrote. We can have Tom Brady on this freaking show,
Speaker 1: but Schrager and Aaron's predictions will be the most listened
Speaker 1: to podcast. I'm debating, do you want studio show guy
Speaker 1: or gal or do you want NFL broadcaster in the
Speaker 1: booth for next week?
Speaker 2: I can get anyone.
Speaker 6: I think.
Speaker 3: I kind of feel like broadcaster because we've had the
Speaker 3: studio shows they're going right now. The broadcast is gonna
Speaker 3: be the thing that's coming back, So I think that
Speaker 3: i'd be more most excited for that.
Speaker 1: All right, all right, so then we're gonna get either Olsen, Collinsworth, Aikman.
Speaker 2: I can call Aikman Romo. I don't know at all,
Speaker 2: so probably not Romo. It's gonna be one of those four.
Speaker 2: We'll go.
Speaker 1: I'll hit up Olson, I'll hit up Aikman, I'll hit
Speaker 1: up Collinsworth, and we'll have one of those three guys
Speaker 1: as our guest next week.
Speaker 2: How's that sound?
Speaker 3: It's perfect as long as they're good at arm wrestling.
Speaker 2: We got a arm wrestle like Tyson Badgent's dad, exactly.
Speaker 1: I assure you, no one else was talking about Tyson
Speaker 1: Badgen's dad on their podcast this morning on behalf of
Speaker 1: Aaron Wang Kaufman, on behalf of Jason English, the maestro
Speaker 1: from the iHeart sector of the world, the NFL Network,
Speaker 1: folks out West, our music man Jack Rudd, and all
Speaker 1: you guys who are listen, and then thanks for this
Speaker 1: week's episode of the Season with Peter Schrager.
Speaker 8: We'll check in with you next week.
Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
Speaker 1: NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts.