Speaker 1: NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. Is it me or do? The
Speaker 1: week's just kind of like fly by. It's like a blur.
Speaker 1: We were just here in the studio, just flying by.
Speaker 1: But you know what, that's the NFL season, Yams season,
Speaker 1: and this is NFL Explained. Man, Look the NFL season
Speaker 1: when you're going through it, it feels fast, but each
Speaker 1: day feels slow. You feel. What I'm saying even now
Speaker 1: is you're not a player. You're not recovering. Like, do
Speaker 1: you know how much film I look at a week.
Speaker 1: I look at every single game at least three times,
Speaker 1: at least three You know who you should be hanging
Speaker 1: out with on a regular basis, Kyler, Kyla Murray. Yeah,
Speaker 1: playing video? I don't play Call of Duty. That's coming
Speaker 1: out this week, the new ones coming out. I'm actually
Speaker 1: now worried because this NFL Explained episode is all about
Speaker 1: quarterback controversies. And I'm just now wondering, like did I
Speaker 1: just set the table and like the worst way absolutely
Speaker 1: possible for this episode, you led me there. I'm blaming you.
Speaker 1: Today's episode of NFL Explained is all about quarterback controversies.
Speaker 1: We actually got the question from a listener who hit
Speaker 1: me up on social media, and we decided to make
Speaker 1: it a whole episode. And it's kind of crazy to me.
Speaker 1: I'm rob because I think about some of these controversies.
Speaker 1: You have dudes, established starters, stars in the league who
Speaker 1: all of a sudden lose their jobs because of maybe age,
Speaker 1: where they are in their career, or the NFL is
Speaker 1: a business. Sometimes it's just to do that. They drafted
Speaker 1: in the first round and you gotta find out if
Speaker 1: he could play or not. Absolutely. Look, I think when
Speaker 1: I first got to Seattle, my San Francisco days were
Speaker 1: a little bit different just because Alex Smith was a
Speaker 1: high draft pick. The year before I got there, everybody
Speaker 1: in the building new this was Alex Smith's job, So
Speaker 1: really what any controversy. There was more controversy about the
Speaker 1: head coach and Mike Nolan, uh coach secretary, things like that,
Speaker 1: But when I got to Seattle, Matt Hasselback was there.
Speaker 1: Matt Hasselback had went to a super Bowl in two
Speaker 1: thousand five. I got to Seattle in after training camp
Speaker 1: and there wasn't that much of a controversy, but it
Speaker 1: was that storyline like as as Matt washed can he
Speaker 1: still lead a young team? Pete Carroll and John Snyder
Speaker 1: they had like two business interactions and acquired players and
Speaker 1: let players go just during training camp, like it was
Speaker 1: something crazy. It's something crazy number like that. And so
Speaker 1: that was really the only controversy when I first got there.
Speaker 1: Obviously everybody knows. We had to varge Jackson after that,
Speaker 1: and then Matt Flynn. The Matt Flynn thing is that
Speaker 1: the controversy that came because we got Matt Flinn. He
Speaker 1: signed the twenty six million dollar deal and it's crazy,
Speaker 1: and actually, I'm not to cut you off here, but
Speaker 1: I think some of our listeners might not even be
Speaker 1: familiar with the name Matt Flynn. This is dude who
Speaker 1: got a big contract after just a couple of games.
Speaker 1: So they sound like twenty or five million dollar deal
Speaker 1: with Seattle. He backed up and Rogers in Green Bay,
Speaker 1: and yeah, he was the big money guy that was
Speaker 1: supposed to be the franchise quarterback for our Seahawks. And really,
Speaker 1: when you look at his play, he benefited from being
Speaker 1: in a great situation and he became a free agent
Speaker 1: at the right time. So we get Matt Flynn in there.
Speaker 1: And I remember during the draft that year it was
Speaker 1: and I get a call from the general manager. I
Speaker 1: was a team captain for the Seattle See I was.
Speaker 1: I get a call from John Snyder, and John says, Yo,
Speaker 1: we got this dude from v A. He's a quarterback.
Speaker 1: I had already heard of him because I was I'm
Speaker 1: from Richard, Virginia. Russell played at Collegiate, a private school
Speaker 1: in Richmond, Virginia. Even though with me and Russell Wilson
Speaker 1: when we talk, we argue about public and private school.
Speaker 1: I went to a public school and went to private school,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, dude, you would have never won a
Speaker 1: state championship if you was playing in the public leagues.
Speaker 1: But that's why I digress a little bit. But I
Speaker 1: remember John Snyder calling me and saying, Bro, we're gonna
Speaker 1: take this kid in the third round, and I believe
Speaker 1: he can be our starter. And you gotta think, yeah.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm a team captain. So I'm like, Bro,
Speaker 1: but you just brought in a quarterback, and I'm thinking
Speaker 1: we're gonna run the office through the run game. Just
Speaker 1: then the third Russell a little bit more dynamic. What
Speaker 1: are you saying any short like it was a lot
Speaker 1: of questions I had, but I trusted John. John was like, Yo,
Speaker 1: this dude can play. Trust me goes out when's the
Speaker 1: starting job loses the first game of the season that
Speaker 1: was on the Cardinals, and that bus right, I know,
Speaker 1: our listener, you know it was basically interested in how
Speaker 1: the locker room deals with this stuff, Yams. When I
Speaker 1: tell you that bus right, I mean that a plane
Speaker 1: trip after we lost it there as on the Cardinals
Speaker 1: was something entertaining. That's just a good word I'm using.
Speaker 1: But uh, every guy, especially defensively because we had a
Speaker 1: championship defense already, was like, why in the hell out
Speaker 1: we playing this rookie And it almost fractured us to
Speaker 1: a degree, and to Russell's and Matt Flynn for that matter,
Speaker 1: to both of those guys, credit Russell fought back, He
Speaker 1: heard the whispers, he could hear whatever. He fought back
Speaker 1: and got into the form that we saw when we
Speaker 1: won our Super Bowl, and then Matt Flynn was supporting
Speaker 1: him the entire time. I do think it's important to
Speaker 1: set the stage and discuss a couple of different quarterback controversies.
Speaker 1: Some were recent this season, some from way back in
Speaker 1: the day before I was even born. We just gotta
Speaker 1: set the table here. One that everyone sort of knows
Speaker 1: just because it's in the news. Mitch Sure, Biscuit, Kenny Pickett,
Speaker 1: We've seen that one play and that things just kind
Speaker 1: of interesting because of concastions and injuries and the whole
Speaker 1: thing and swapping guys in and out. But we can
Speaker 1: go all the way back to ninety nine. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Rams had two quarterbacks in Norm Van Brocklyn and
Speaker 1: Bob Waterfield. The Rams actually drafted Van Brocklyn in nineteen
Speaker 1: forty nine, and during his rookie season, he started zero games.
Speaker 1: Waterfield he was the starting quarterback the following year, though.
Speaker 1: From nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty two, the Rams actually
Speaker 1: alternated Waterfield and Van Brocklyn as the starting quarterback. Waterfield
Speaker 1: started twenty two games, van Brocklyn fourteen games Over those
Speaker 1: three seasons. Even with the rotation, the Rams won the
Speaker 1: NFL Championship that you're beating Cleveland in nineteen fifty one.
Speaker 1: Waterfield ended up retiring in fifty two, Van Brocklyn became
Speaker 1: the full time starter. He's a Pro Football Hall of Famer,
Speaker 1: and I think proving the old adage incorrect. If you
Speaker 1: have two quarterbacks, that means you don't have any It's
Speaker 1: like what people say, yes it is it. I didn't
Speaker 1: know this story to see the platoon system at the
Speaker 1: quarterback position go way back there. See I get into
Speaker 1: this crazy argument. That's really the argument. I call it
Speaker 1: heated fellowship with Bucky Brooks. I love he is a
Speaker 1: greater talent evaluator and him and I I talked to
Speaker 1: him about three years ago about this phenomenon that I'm
Speaker 1: seeing at the quarterback position. And when the fact that
Speaker 1: the salaries are ballooning so much or whatever, and it's
Speaker 1: not like guys are getting paid off a skill set.
Speaker 1: They're just getting paid because of the next guy up right,
Speaker 1: which is a little different every other position, Like you know,
Speaker 1: Sara and Donald, A lot of people ain't gonna make
Speaker 1: more than Aaron Donald. That's the left hand. A lot
Speaker 1: of people are gonna make more than Trent Williams because
Speaker 1: he is clearly the best in the in the National
Speaker 1: Football League. Quarterback is a little bit different. And I
Speaker 1: said that as the salaries balloon, I can see a
Speaker 1: general manager saying why Lamar Jackson, for instance, I e
Speaker 1: since he's not paid yet. Yeah cool, I'm gonna pay
Speaker 1: that whole room fifty million dollars a season. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get forty of it. But because of the way you play,
Speaker 1: I need this offense to continue to roll. If you
Speaker 1: get hurt Lamar Lamarian signed enough for that Tyler hunting.
Speaker 1: But if you're getting guarantee, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: the season, I mean, why not. I mean, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit more on the general managers some finances, but
Speaker 1: I just think it's coming. The league is too physical.
Speaker 1: These quarterbacks are running around now we're seeing what's happening
Speaker 1: to him. Welcome back to the NFL Explained podcast. So
Speaker 1: the controversies, they are going to continue probably forever if
Speaker 1: there's because it's not just quarterbacks. Like there's position battles
Speaker 1: every single year at different camps. There's one team that
Speaker 1: consistently comes up. And now I'll give them credit because
Speaker 1: they consistently have a dude at the quarterback spot. But
Speaker 1: when that dude starts to get a little tread where
Speaker 1: on those tires, like all of a sudden, it's that
Speaker 1: next wave and then that quarterback controversy kicks up. And
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the Green Bay Packers. I'll take you
Speaker 1: back to nineteen sixties seven. They had Bart Starr as
Speaker 1: the started. They drafted it Don Horn twenty overall. They
Speaker 1: also had a dude that they drafted in Brett Farve,
Speaker 1: and then Aaron Rodgers twenty four overall. In two thousand five,
Speaker 1: drafted Jordan Loved twenty six. Rogers, by the way, still
Speaker 1: a dude who's winning MVP awards. So kind of crazy here.
Speaker 1: But Horn was primarily starts back up before he was
Speaker 1: traded to Denver. The Farv Rogers controversy, that thing got
Speaker 1: heated back in two thousand eight. Man, I remember this
Speaker 1: doing talk radio, and this was all the rage. Rogers
Speaker 1: had been Far's back up for a few seasons. Finally
Speaker 1: it's like, yo, Brett's retiring. Dude, It's finally my time.
Speaker 1: Can I get out there and start slinging it. Farv
Speaker 1: un retires four months later and reports to camp and
Speaker 1: think about that, like you are in legend one of
Speaker 1: the all time grades. You unretired. It's like, all right,
Speaker 1: like I'm back, Like, what's the team gonna do? It's
Speaker 1: kind of funky, right, Packers decide, no, no no, no, it
Speaker 1: ain't that funky we're gonna go with Aaron Instead, Brett
Speaker 1: goes to the Jets. Do you remember that Crazy played
Speaker 1: against Brett and the Jets. They came out to San
Speaker 1: Francisco and I think they beat us in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight. I went too happy. I didn't have my
Speaker 1: best game special team wise. But it's okay. I digress.
Speaker 1: But to your point, it's hard to have these business divorces.
Speaker 1: It's just tough, especially a guy who's been playing that
Speaker 1: great Hall of Famer. But I do think it's on
Speaker 1: the decision makers of the team to have the team
Speaker 1: first and think, hey man, we gotta make those tough decisions.
Speaker 1: Bill Beltick does it all the time with every position.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. I mean, he just let Tom Brady
Speaker 1: goes not too longer. You gotta trust your talent evaluators
Speaker 1: and your coaches who are watching these dudes every single
Speaker 1: day in practice. Because keep in mind here when Far
Speaker 1: with that team's quarterback thirteen and three record in that
Speaker 1: final season NFC championship appearance in two thousand seven, so
Speaker 1: they're like knocking on the door to get into a
Speaker 1: super Bowl. Just for some context, here Far two thousand
Speaker 1: eight only played to ten in those two season. Now
Speaker 1: it's a different roster, right because it's the Jets. The
Speaker 1: whole thing, the win lost record nineteen Roger's still playing,
Speaker 1: He's got two wins. Like you understand, I mean looking
Speaker 1: back on but you understand like that was a great
Speaker 1: move from a Green Bay perspective. Here's where it gets
Speaker 1: a little interesting, and I think there's some correlation between
Speaker 1: present day when Rogers got drafted. Far said quote, my
Speaker 1: contract doesn't say I have to get Aaron Rodgers ready
Speaker 1: to play. Now, hopefully he watches me and get something
Speaker 1: from that reminds me of another rookie veteran comment that
Speaker 1: we heard this pass off season, like, well, let's get
Speaker 1: drafted by Tennessee. Tannehill says something kind of similar to it.
Speaker 1: What do you make of that mentality? And Rogers says
Speaker 1: something kind of similar about years ago. So, um, I
Speaker 1: get it. It is not on the starter to teach
Speaker 1: a guy how to take his job. That is not
Speaker 1: the responsibility of the starting player. Hell I was the
Speaker 1: only fullback in Seattle for a number of years, but
Speaker 1: yet every year people don't realize they drafted and bart
Speaker 1: guys in had to win the job. Every single year.
Speaker 1: So I mean, yeah, I think that's the right mentality.
Speaker 1: I think it's on the person competing for the job.
Speaker 1: It's on the backup quarterback to watch see what's going on,
Speaker 1: understand what this guy in funny he was doing right
Speaker 1: and wrong, and figure out your own path to being
Speaker 1: a starter. How hard is it? Football is a little
Speaker 1: different not to make this an NBA thing as the
Speaker 1: start of NBA season, And maybe that's I'm sort of
Speaker 1: thinking about some conversations that I've had watch um. I
Speaker 1: used to work with Kenny Smith, who's he played for
Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets, famous being commentator for international audience, who
Speaker 1: maybe it's not as familiar. He and Sam Cassell we're
Speaker 1: both playing for the Rockets at the time, and I
Speaker 1: remember doing a show with him and he's like, man, Mike,
Speaker 1: it was so hard for me because you want him
Speaker 1: and the team to do well. But when I'm not
Speaker 1: the dude out there plan it hurts. You just said, hey, like,
Speaker 1: I'm a fullback. Team keeps bringing it dudes in, I
Speaker 1: gotta compete you Also, like I know you you're you're
Speaker 1: a really nice guy, Like you don't want to be
Speaker 1: a you know, to somewhat like, but there's that competitiveness.
Speaker 1: How do you balance that? Well, um, you just have
Speaker 1: a little integrity about yourself, like for me, And this
Speaker 1: is what I mean by that, Mike. Like every fullback
Speaker 1: that we're walking into the running back meeting room, I
Speaker 1: would introduce myself. Hey, look, I'm here for you be
Speaker 1: a sponge. I'm not gonna take you after practice and
Speaker 1: show you what's going on, but if you ask, I'm
Speaker 1: never gonna turn you away. But this is a business.
Speaker 1: I got four children, I got bills. You ain't taking
Speaker 1: my job. And I would look him in the US
Speaker 1: if you say that, and I could see their response.
Speaker 1: My last year there, I had I had got sick
Speaker 1: or whatever. But my last year there, there was a
Speaker 1: runner there who ended up playing tail back in Kansas
Speaker 1: City for a while. I forget his name off top
Speaker 1: of my head, but I said that to him and
Speaker 1: he said, all right, I bet I take your job.
Speaker 1: That's when I knew what this kid is probably I'm
Speaker 1: probably gonna be my last season. That was part of
Speaker 1: it because I knew, okay, yeah, this kid is willing
Speaker 1: to do the fighting. I had already got to a
Speaker 1: point where I won't trying to fight no more. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had mentally, I had said goodbye. It's not on
Speaker 1: the starter to teach, But to me, with the starter
Speaker 1: gives to the team, is that ability to be a
Speaker 1: model for that person? Do you do you? This is
Speaker 1: a broad, sweeping generalization, and it's not necessarily quarterback specific,
Speaker 1: even though this is a quarterback episode, but I think
Speaker 1: it still applies. Do you rather have the Kumbaya kind
Speaker 1: of vibe in the locker room where everyone's kind of
Speaker 1: getting along, or have some of those dogs that are like,
Speaker 1: you know what, screw you, You're my teammate. I'm getting though.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. Yeahs, that is such a We could spend
Speaker 1: a whole episode on that. I do some consulting with
Speaker 1: some universities. I helped head coaches. I'll do some life
Speaker 1: coaching and stuff, even some coordinators and coaches in the
Speaker 1: National Football League. And I'm always having this conversation, especially
Speaker 1: with team builders, about just that you need a level
Speaker 1: of attitude or I don't know that that harshness on
Speaker 1: the Let me give you an example that way you
Speaker 1: can understand what I'm saying. When I played for Seattle,
Speaker 1: our defense was a championship defense. In eleven we didn't
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl to so our defense played two
Speaker 1: and a half years of championship ball before the offense
Speaker 1: caught up right, So practice Pete had to do a
Speaker 1: great job of regulating practice because if not, the offense
Speaker 1: and the quarterback won't have any confidence to go out
Speaker 1: there on Sunday, right we would have the biggest fights
Speaker 1: and not fist fights. But y'all ain't scoring. There would
Speaker 1: tell us we're not scoring me and Beast moltor office,
Speaker 1: We're saying, bro, we're gonna run this thing. Right there,
Speaker 1: there was this competitive juice there. It was you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes things got gone or whatever, but you need that
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, that is the vibration,
Speaker 1: that is the situation, that is the environmental game day,
Speaker 1: and great coaches simulate game days at practice. So you
Speaker 1: need these types of players on your team to kind of,
Speaker 1: for lack of better words, mix some things up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I think about being in the Bay Area
Speaker 1: this offseason before the year started, Fred Warner, linebacker for
Speaker 1: the Niners, Brandon I, you receiver, like those dudes got
Speaker 1: into it and it was the chirping on the field
Speaker 1: for a little bit and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it was more than chirpin like dudes were in each
Speaker 1: other's faces. And from a media perspective, like I think
Speaker 1: the ones who've covered the league for a long time,
Speaker 1: they go all right, whatever, you know, Like Brandon actually
Speaker 1: came out to our set after I asked him. It's like, no,
Speaker 1: we're cool, like you know, he said, because he understands
Speaker 1: the competitive nature of it and he understands like, that's
Speaker 1: gonna get the best out of me. There's no different
Speaker 1: in when you hear all the stories of when Tom
Speaker 1: Brady was with New England. The first time you go
Speaker 1: to a team meeting, the first thing Bill Belichick does
Speaker 1: is call out the goat. It's the same thing, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, He's trying to get the best
Speaker 1: version of himself. I'm glad you bring up Tom Brady
Speaker 1: because he is going to come up in this episode.
Speaker 1: And I know we already talked about the Green Bay
Speaker 1: Pack or some of their quarterback issues, but there's one
Speaker 1: quarterback controversy, m Rob that might be the most famous
Speaker 1: quarterback controversy in the history of the NFL. We will
Speaker 1: tell you what that is next on NFL Explained Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the NFL Explained podcast. Mike, Yeah, Michael Robinson
Speaker 1: with you. This episode is all about quarterback controversies. We're
Speaker 1: doing this episode because one of our listeners actually slid
Speaker 1: into my d M and had a question. We got
Speaker 1: our mail bag episode right around the corner. I continued
Speaker 1: to compile some of these questions. I promise if you're
Speaker 1: sending them in, I'll hit you back and make sure
Speaker 1: we get to it. Yeah. I always have a funny
Speaker 1: message when I screenshot it and send it on our
Speaker 1: group text. Are another team who had a ton of
Speaker 1: quarterback controversies besides the Green Bay Packers. And I teased
Speaker 1: and I said, this might be the most famous quarterback
Speaker 1: controversy of all time. It's the San Francisco Fordians, Joe Montana,
Speaker 1: Steve Young. I mean, Montana, are you kidding me? Like that?
Speaker 1: The dude like the goat the heats ago before TV twelve, Right,
Speaker 1: I mean that's probably the best way of describing it. Uh,
Speaker 1: Niners get Steve Young. Joe Montana missed eight games the
Speaker 1: previous season. I'm taking people back to seven, so just
Speaker 1: to reset, it's eighty seven. Niners get Steve and Joe
Speaker 1: Montana had missed eight games that previous year, so like,
Speaker 1: all right, we might need a little insurance here. Montana
Speaker 1: talking to Sports Illustrated in nineteen eighty eight and back
Speaker 1: in the day Sports Illustrated, man, like that was that
Speaker 1: was the jam, Like you got the magazine every single week.
Speaker 1: I still get the magazine to my house. That's still
Speaker 1: a thing. I don't even know. That was my son
Speaker 1: signed up. What I got a night. Jerry signed up
Speaker 1: for it. To get some other free magazines, I said,
Speaker 1: make it, yes, we want Illustrated. I still read the articles, Mike.
Speaker 1: I love it. I'm a reader, man, I love that.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool that you were supportive of your son
Speaker 1: signing you up and your family. A ton of spam
Speaker 1: that heads. I got a lot of those advertisements, so
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're at least getting some some sports and
Speaker 1: a fix for your kids. But Montana back in was
Speaker 1: talking to Sports Illustrated, and you know he's asked about
Speaker 1: the competition. This is what he had to say. We're friends,
Speaker 1: Steve and I, but on the practice field, if he
Speaker 1: doesn't hate me as much as I hate him, there's
Speaker 1: something wrong. Strong words. Yeah, is a strong world. But
Speaker 1: I get the energy he's coming from. He's like, dude,
Speaker 1: this is my livelihood. I want to be the greatest,
Speaker 1: And yeah, you're gonna have to take my job. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have to have a level of hate for me
Speaker 1: to take it. I think it's a good mentality to have,
Speaker 1: especially when you're competing at the highest levels of the sport. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's like some a lot of big energy type of
Speaker 1: type of there, like, you ain't taking my job, all right.
Speaker 1: During his fourth first four seasons in San Francisco, Young
Speaker 1: only started ten games, and he played in thirty five
Speaker 1: And which is why I didn't know that either until
Speaker 1: I got our notes. Played in thirty five. Bill Walsh
Speaker 1: actually tried to share that quarterback spot between those two guys.
Speaker 1: Mons had to miss the entire season with an elbow injury.
Speaker 1: So here we go. Here's your opportunity, Steve. You've got
Speaker 1: to make the most of it. And guess what he it.
Speaker 1: Because Montana never got that starting job back, Young proved
Speaker 1: that he could do it. Montana. He gets traded to
Speaker 1: Kansas City. You know, like dudes get traded and you
Speaker 1: think about them in one uniform and then you see
Speaker 1: him in another one. At least the color scheme is
Speaker 1: like kind of close, but it's still weird to think
Speaker 1: of him as a member of the Kansas City chi
Speaker 1: it is and didn't he have Marcus Allen and that
Speaker 1: team that was great and achieves uniform But I mean
Speaker 1: he didn't. I think he did. Joe Montana did get
Speaker 1: Kansas City to a playoff game. Now. I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going on in between your ears, but your dome
Speaker 1: has got some gems. You're right, like they did get
Speaker 1: to the postseason. I think back to his time though
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. I mean you talking about Super Bowls,
Speaker 1: considered it. Like I said, he was Tom Brady before
Speaker 1: Tom Brady. For a younger generation who might not be aware,
Speaker 1: how does the franchise just say, hey, you were the dude,
Speaker 1: you are the goat, goodbye, um again. I think the
Speaker 1: decision makers have to have an allegiance and a I
Speaker 1: don't know, like a promised to doing the right thing
Speaker 1: for the organization. And there's no one player bigger than
Speaker 1: the organization, and that includes the quarterback, no matter how
Speaker 1: much success that you have had with them. Now when
Speaker 1: you look at even in the Tom Brady situation with
Speaker 1: Drew Bledsoe. I think when an injury comes and gives
Speaker 1: the backup an opportunity to come show what he can do,
Speaker 1: that's the that's the opening. Now it's on the Steve Young.
Speaker 1: Now it's on the Matt Castle and Brady got hurt.
Speaker 1: Now it's on the backups to show the team you
Speaker 1: need to make a difficult decision. I think it's a
Speaker 1: little bit easier in those situations. But in Joe Montana's
Speaker 1: situation particularly, you gotta understand he was dealing with Bill
Speaker 1: Walsh early in his career. They had a West Coast
Speaker 1: system that now almost every offense in all of football
Speaker 1: has principles from it. Okay, and so we gotta understand
Speaker 1: the time in history when this quarterback change was happening,
Speaker 1: new offense was hit in the field and winning. So
Speaker 1: I think the organization, whether it's a new coach of
Speaker 1: the organization, could look at this situation and say, well,
Speaker 1: I think we can make the quarterback change because we
Speaker 1: have a cutting edge system that can in situate the
Speaker 1: qualities that a Steve Young head as m rob just
Speaker 1: dropped the West Coast offense. If you're just joining NFL
Speaker 1: explained and this is the first episode that you're listening to,
Speaker 1: I do encourage you to go back, because we actually
Speaker 1: have talked about the evolution of offenses in this season
Speaker 1: of NFL explained the Niners, though it wasn't just that controversy,
Speaker 1: because there's a present day one. And by the way,
Speaker 1: this is my favorite quarterback controversy of all time. It
Speaker 1: will always have a close place in my heart. It's
Speaker 1: Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance because without the Niners moving
Speaker 1: up in the draft to go third overall and Rob
Speaker 1: I might not be sitting next to you right now.
Speaker 1: That actually gave me some opportunities. That NFL Network happened
Speaker 1: to be in the Bay Area. We can talk about
Speaker 1: that off there. But this one, to me is still
Speaker 1: unfolding and playing out, and it does feel like a
Speaker 1: little bit like a movie. The fact that Jimmy Garoppolo
Speaker 1: is now starting for the San Francisco forty Niners given
Speaker 1: the injury to trade that's the fact that he's even
Speaker 1: on this roster is mind boggling to most people. It
Speaker 1: is mind boggling, and it goes against, uh some of
Speaker 1: the capitalistic um ideas in our society because it's always
Speaker 1: more and more and more more, Jimmy took a pay
Speaker 1: cut to stay on this day, a substantial pay cut
Speaker 1: like this was no just oh, I'm making five hundred
Speaker 1: thousand now making four hund No, he made. He took
Speaker 1: a couple of millions off of his salary and he stayed.
Speaker 1: And I think every time I talked to young quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: you know, in lower levels of football, I'll always tell them,
Speaker 1: look at it what Jimmy Garoppolo did. If you just
Speaker 1: kind of sit and understand your situation, if you if
Speaker 1: you're patient with yourself and believe in yourself, opportunities seemed
Speaker 1: to come to y'all. Jimmy did was be himself. He
Speaker 1: didn't complain through the off season as he was throwing
Speaker 1: on the side and wasn't even really allowed to be
Speaker 1: with the team. He didn't complain. He just said, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'll be okay at some point. And what
Speaker 1: happened was Trey Lance got hurt, opportunity came up, and
Speaker 1: now he's in a position where he can kind of,
Speaker 1: I don't know, provide a new spin in on this
Speaker 1: part of his career, especially if he can get to
Speaker 1: San Francisco for the honors over the hump. You know
Speaker 1: it's wild because it does remind me of the conversations
Speaker 1: which we weren't privy too, but Jimmy and Trey have
Speaker 1: talked publicly about their dynamic. The more people you talked
Speaker 1: to in that San Francisco forty Honors organization, the more
Speaker 1: they'll tell you Jimmy is like the greatest dude ever
Speaker 1: and that working relationship was good. And it reminds me
Speaker 1: of what you said a few minutes ago here on
Speaker 1: the podcast about having that line drawn like willing to
Speaker 1: help and be that sponge, but at the same time
Speaker 1: like it's it is a business. And then I think
Speaker 1: Jimmy understands. Jimmy knew that they talked to Jimmy. Hey man,
Speaker 1: we've been to go up and get this quarterback. You
Speaker 1: know this is you ain't been that healthy every single year,
Speaker 1: So this is what we're doing. And again understanding the
Speaker 1: business of it. Sometimes I think players we get we
Speaker 1: take business personal, and what ends up happening is that
Speaker 1: gets us in our feelings and then it leads a
Speaker 1: sour taste in our mouth. If you take business the
Speaker 1: way it is, you'll be fine hard not to take
Speaker 1: it personal, though, because the amount of time that you
Speaker 1: invest in it to be great and to have success.
Speaker 1: There's some other quarterback controversies, a couple for the old
Speaker 1: heads out there Steelers and maybe some of the younger ones,
Speaker 1: like I know who Terry Bradshaw is. I'll watch Fox
Speaker 1: on Sundays. You're kidding me. Bradshaw was the starter. They
Speaker 1: drafted Mark Malon overall in nineteen eighty the chiefs Alex Smith. Dude,
Speaker 1: talk about that, dude, resiliency. My lord. Let's not forget.
Speaker 1: They drafted Patrick Mahomes tenth overall in twenty seven team Uh,
Speaker 1: the Cardinals. Kurt Warner, he was drafted. It's my guy.
Speaker 1: Matt Liner had tenth overall in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: How about this one, Eli Manning for the Giants the starter.
Speaker 1: They drafted Daniel Jon six overall in the wrong. I
Speaker 1: just think they messed that up. They could have they
Speaker 1: could have been a little bit more respectful to Don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, Eli wasn't playing the best of football,
Speaker 1: But to pull him when that team just won't good
Speaker 1: anyway for Gino and then say, oh I messed up,
Speaker 1: let me put him back in. I mean, I just
Speaker 1: think that was that was messed up. The dude had
Speaker 1: two consecutive arts. I mean that was that's like a
Speaker 1: big deal. That's a huge, huge in this league. And
Speaker 1: you're right, I wasn't playing his best football like it
Speaker 1: is what it is. Gino gets thrown in, ends the
Speaker 1: consecutive starting streak. Ben Macao. By the way, who's the
Speaker 1: coach at the time, Obviously no longer the head coach realized, Hey, like,
Speaker 1: that's my bad. Is that like a gimmick though inside
Speaker 1: the locker room to do something like that, Um, I
Speaker 1: think guys understand that, especially if you're not playing well,
Speaker 1: something has to be done to provide a spark. It gets,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been on some losing teams and it
Speaker 1: gets to a point in the season where you can
Speaker 1: see that the head guys under a little bit of
Speaker 1: a you know, he's getting a little bit of pressure.
Speaker 1: We see press conferences, we see our coaches, we see
Speaker 1: what they say, we see everything we see. We take
Speaker 1: the message that they say in the media and we
Speaker 1: compared to the message that they said to us in
Speaker 1: the team media, and we say, is this some b s?
Speaker 1: Let me see what this dude is really about? So yeah,
Speaker 1: we're looking at that type of stuff. But um, when
Speaker 1: you're losing the way to New York, John's would lose him.
Speaker 1: Back then, I think they needed a little bit of
Speaker 1: a spark. I'm just not so sure Gino. Even though
Speaker 1: Gino's bawling right now, back then, I'm not so sure
Speaker 1: that Geno was the right spark. I'm with you because
Speaker 1: being a New York Giants fan, there's that sentimental aspect
Speaker 1: of it, which I think was really hard for that
Speaker 1: Giants community to to swallow. I think the fans still
Speaker 1: wanted to see Eli out there even in some of
Speaker 1: those struggles. You know what two yams uh. Alex Smith
Speaker 1: was in another quarterback controversy with Karlin Kaepernick. He was
Speaker 1: the second round, second, third round. People forget, but that
Speaker 1: was a chance. I mean Alex was planning NFC championships
Speaker 1: and things like that. Coach hap I was like, oh no, man,
Speaker 1: I want this running guy out there. And they still
Speaker 1: were successful and got to a super Bowl. Yeah. Alex
Speaker 1: Smith's the story his is really incredible. We should dedicate
Speaker 1: an episode just coming off of injury and figuring out
Speaker 1: the way. Then he picks up the phone when I
Speaker 1: call still we can we get him on the tip.
Speaker 1: Can we do that? I'm a call. Let's do the call. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's when you do that. Please, let's let's face time.
Speaker 1: Let's let's just say what's up in person? Him. Uh.
Speaker 1: The Giants, by the way, that wasn't the only quarterback controversy.
Speaker 1: They had a little young for this. But I do
Speaker 1: remember my grandfather talking to me and having those car
Speaker 1: rods talking about Phil Simms, Jeff Hostetler, who should be
Speaker 1: the dude. Let's take you back here. Sims starting quarterback, Hostetler,
Speaker 1: the backup when he was drafted in the third round
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, and he was there until the nineteen
Speaker 1: nine season as a backup Hostetler. In that ninety campaign,
Speaker 1: he takes over as a starter. Simms has got a
Speaker 1: foot injury unexpectedly. And we'll use air quotes around that
Speaker 1: because I think if you say that to a Giants fan, like, no,
Speaker 1: hell no, man, we expected that Giants three playoff wins
Speaker 1: and including a Super Bowl. Bill Parcel's head coach at
Speaker 1: the time, retired after that ninety campaign. So the new
Speaker 1: head coach is Ray Hanley to oversee this quarterback controversy.
Speaker 1: Here you go right, like I'm gonna go out on
Speaker 1: a high. You deal with this whole little deal. Hostetler
Speaker 1: started in two, Sims was the backup. Hostetler signs with
Speaker 1: the Raiders in free agency, Sims gets the starting role
Speaker 1: back in nine three were airing before a Pro Bowling season.
Speaker 1: Not bad, right, Like the dude still goes out on
Speaker 1: a high. Yeah, man, that's it's crazy because I'm remember
Speaker 1: coach paturn on what depends day, Joe Paterno, the great
Speaker 1: coach there, telling me I recruited Jeff Hostell. There's a
Speaker 1: linebacker no one day. He didn't come yet. I said,
Speaker 1: tell you, crazy man, we do you know the answer
Speaker 1: to that one. So sometimes stuff like that happens when
Speaker 1: you evaluate guys when and you're trying to recruit them. Um,
Speaker 1: believe it or not. Actually, multiple quarterback changes that have
Speaker 1: led to Super Bowl championship runs and the those quarterbacks
Speaker 1: actually taking over the job the following season. So I'll
Speaker 1: take you. In nineteen seventy one, I was negative ten
Speaker 1: at the time. Dallas cowboyst in full blown quarterback controversy,
Speaker 1: got Craig Morton and Roger star back. Morton started games one, three, five,
Speaker 1: and seven. We's got like prime numbers. All of a
Speaker 1: sudden stop, back goes to four and six. They both
Speaker 1: threw passes in each of the first seven games. Like
Speaker 1: what is going on here? November seven, My mom's birthday
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one star back took over as the Cowboys
Speaker 1: full time starting quarterback, finished the season undefeated before getting
Speaker 1: to the super Bowl. That's wild, man, that's because we're
Speaker 1: that's the most fans don't like, not like shout out
Speaker 1: to my mom. I got her birthday into an episode.
Speaker 1: She's like, I don't even know she's listening. To make
Speaker 1: sure she listens to this one. All right, Washington commanders,
Speaker 1: how about this? Doug Williams takes over phrase struggling Jay
Speaker 1: Schroeder in the team's final games, starting all three playoff games,
Speaker 1: leading to a super Bowl victory. Williams Is super Bowl
Speaker 1: win led him to take over Washington starting job in
Speaker 1: Schroeder was then traded to the Raiders week fourteen of
Speaker 1: the seventeen season. This one has we know about this one?
Speaker 1: This one's wild. Carson Wentz torn a c l Nick
Speaker 1: Foles comes in folds leads the Eagles playoff win and
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl win. Wentz comes back as Philadelphia started
Speaker 1: the following year in team, Folds again has to replace
Speaker 1: him because Once goes down with injuries and they actually
Speaker 1: do get a victory in a playoff game, Folds is like,
Speaker 1: you know what, Like, I don't know if I like
Speaker 1: this whole back and fourth thing signs with the Jags
Speaker 1: and free agency. Once remained the Eagle starter and a
Speaker 1: couple of teams later not having a ton of success. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually think, and I know that Nick Foles want
Speaker 1: to go get some money, but I actually think, yeah,
Speaker 1: why not? He played awesome. I actually think the Eagles
Speaker 1: was like, we gotta get Nick Foles out of here
Speaker 1: so we can get the best version across the France.
Speaker 1: I think in some situations, and I know I'm talking
Speaker 1: about Carson here, but I do think in some situations,
Speaker 1: the competition forces guys to make stuff up. Like every
Speaker 1: single big game I've been into, I've always had my
Speaker 1: coach saying to the entire team, all right, guys, don't
Speaker 1: make stuff up. Just do with your coach to do
Speaker 1: because in big time situations, it's a human it's a
Speaker 1: human thing to do to think. Oh man, it's a
Speaker 1: bigger game. So I gotta be bigger than myself. No,
Speaker 1: just do the just due to ordinary things a little
Speaker 1: extra and usually get to your goals. Okay, there's one
Speaker 1: other controversy that we have to get to. I promised
Speaker 1: that we would get to TV twelve at the start
Speaker 1: of the show. We're at the time you could talk
Speaker 1: about TV E twelve because there's a generation of NFL
Speaker 1: fans that are like, yeah, Tom Brady is the goat,
Speaker 1: I get it. It just wins all these super Bowls.
Speaker 1: This wasn't the path that most people would have anticipated
Speaker 1: for him, especially if you know the back story. So
Speaker 1: we got that for you, Brady and Drew Bledsoe, who
Speaker 1: by the way, makes terrific wines and the Washington Yeah
Speaker 1: great cat talking about that on another episode played for
Speaker 1: the Patriots. So I want to take you back two
Speaker 1: thousand one. Bledsoe's knocked out of the game against the Jets.
Speaker 1: Brady comes in, takes over our quarterback. Bledsoe suffered internal
Speaker 1: bleeding because of the hit, never got a starting job back.
Speaker 1: The dude signed a ten year, one hundred and three
Speaker 1: million dollar contract the year prior. Belichick goes, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm going, Brady over a healthy Bledsoe at the point
Speaker 1: of the a f C Championship camp. Eventually Tom takes
Speaker 1: him to a super Bowl. This is what Bledsoe had
Speaker 1: to say, And I think as a football fan, as
Speaker 1: a human and rob, we can appreciate these comments. I
Speaker 1: remember being excited for our guys, but at the same
Speaker 1: time kind of internally disheartened, Like, man, I battled through
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff to get to this point, and
Speaker 1: now we've arrived here and the other guy got to
Speaker 1: play with that team. It was truly truly bitter sweet,
Speaker 1: and with Tom it was bitter sweet. Love the guy,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, that's my job he's got
Speaker 1: and he's leading my team. Mha that it does. But
Speaker 1: as a competitor, you understand the emotion. You get it.
Speaker 1: You understand why it was a notion out there that
Speaker 1: maybe Carson Wentz couldn't stand a guy right behind him
Speaker 1: that one that super Bowl. And now you get to
Speaker 1: go into that stadium and see a statue of Nick
Speaker 1: Foles and you're the franchise quarterback. You got the money,
Speaker 1: but you didn't get a Super Bowl MVPN. You get
Speaker 1: to see a statue of the backup. I get it.
Speaker 1: It's a human thing to feel that way. But again,
Speaker 1: I've always been a role player most of time in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. I was a star in college,
Speaker 1: but in the league, I was a role player. And
Speaker 1: I've always been able to find success when the team
Speaker 1: has had success. When the team has has success, all
Speaker 1: boats rise, everybody's value was a little bit better. And
Speaker 1: so I've always stayed with the school of thought of
Speaker 1: do what I can to make the team better. At
Speaker 1: some point my value will be looked at it as
Speaker 1: opposed to the big hole. You get what I'm saying
Speaker 1: and what my value did to help the team win.
Speaker 1: There's been a common theme on this podcast when you
Speaker 1: talk about an NFL franchise as a business and business
Speaker 1: decisions that are separate from the human element of all
Speaker 1: of this stuff. But I do think about given to
Speaker 1: due to ten year, one and three million dollar contract
Speaker 1: in two thousand one. You don't give deals like two
Speaker 1: guys who can't play or marginal players. Drew Blessed. It
Speaker 1: was an absolute star who could thrive and play well.
Speaker 1: I had a great college career at Washington State. I
Speaker 1: think to myself, how difficult was that? I you kind
Speaker 1: of look you highlighted right matterally got paid to like
Speaker 1: sometimes like that is the worst thing for a front
Speaker 1: office to have to make a decision like that. But
Speaker 1: you gotta you know how well you and how we
Speaker 1: talk off camera all the time, and I'm always about
Speaker 1: no live in the past. Yeah, you can't look too
Speaker 1: far in the future. You have to look at your
Speaker 1: team and the circumstances that are going on right now.
Speaker 1: And when you look at the Tom Brady and Drew
Speaker 1: Bledso and Bill Belichick situation, that's all Coach Belichick was doing. Yes,
Speaker 1: the analytics say and the numbers say, Drew bleds So
Speaker 1: should be the starter, he's the better player. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, Tom Brady and what your
Speaker 1: eyes were seeing, what Bill belichick eyes were seeing, was
Speaker 1: that Tom Brady was a better fit for this team.
Speaker 1: I'm actually glad that you bring up bloed So because
Speaker 1: and Brady. This is not the only quarterback controversy that's
Speaker 1: out there. And I know, look, it's a heavy topic.
Speaker 1: There's some other ones. Drew Breese certainly comes to mind.
Speaker 1: Philip Rivers like those are two real dudes. You are
Speaker 1: on the short list of the great quarter acts over
Speaker 1: the last fifteen thirty years. I promised, if you got
Speaker 1: another question about some of those we've got you covered,
Speaker 1: to slide into my d ms man. Maybe we'll squeeze
Speaker 1: in a little bit more on quarterback controversies on another episode.
Speaker 1: I always appreciate you guys listening. Follow us on social
Speaker 1: media at Real mic rob At Mike Underscore, yam. That's
Speaker 1: quarterback controversies explained