Speaker 1: From the King of Sports Books comes the Key Sports
Speaker 1: podcast Unleashed, presented by the MGM. Here's your host, Jerry
Speaker 1: Ferrara and Olivia Harlan Decker. Let's get a go in.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Unleashed, And you know, all is right in
Speaker 1: the world because Tom Brady is back in camp. So
Speaker 1: there was some speculation Tom Brady was on the Masked Singer.
Speaker 1: Do you buy that one at all? I love that
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory. You know, in the past that wouldn't have
Speaker 1: bought it, But I don't know. He's so he's you know,
Speaker 1: he's like a social media guy. Now he's got all this.
Speaker 1: I do kind of buy it, although that would be
Speaker 1: bad for the Mass Singer if that secret got out,
Speaker 1: be good for them. If he actually was on the show,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of buying that. All the loss a tough
Speaker 1: reason to miss camp. I liked it better when he
Speaker 1: was just paid leave, I'm going on vacation. I don't
Speaker 1: like it as much if he was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: took ten days off to go on the Masked Singer. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. But the whole thing is just shady. I
Speaker 1: wish you would just say what it is. Because the
Speaker 1: team said it was pre planned that Tom Brady was
Speaker 1: gonna miss eleven days of practice. But I'm not buying
Speaker 1: the vacation story, which NFL player, Even if you are
Speaker 1: Tom Brady decides to take a vacation in August, you
Speaker 1: just you don't do that. But the craziest Tom Brady
Speaker 1: news that broke even after that, is when Dana White,
Speaker 1: did you see this? I worked to put that deal
Speaker 1: together for Brady and Grown to come to the Raiders,
Speaker 1: and it was almost a done deal, and at the
Speaker 1: last minute, Gruden blew the deal up and said that
Speaker 1: he didn't want him, and he broke loose. It was
Speaker 1: crazy and and and Brady was already looking at houses
Speaker 1: and it wasn't being Jeff. The Gronk was coming. So
Speaker 1: last they just would have had Brady and Gronk the
Speaker 1: year that the Bucks won the Super Bowl, except Bruden
Speaker 1: blew the deal. All the whole thing is so shady.
Speaker 1: But gron confirmed it, confirmed it. And what I want
Speaker 1: to know is that was one of the best kept
Speaker 1: secrets in all of the NFL, because you know, no
Speaker 1: one in the media reported that ever. I know, like
Speaker 1: the Raiders at one point, I think we're definitely listed
Speaker 1: as a team before he went to Tampa. So cheers.
Speaker 1: I guess to all the insiders at the Raiders and
Speaker 1: Brady's camp because I never got leaked to my knowledge.
Speaker 1: And then I love Dana White just exposing it all casually.
Speaker 1: I watched that clip a hundred times. I couldn't believe, Like,
Speaker 1: that's the guy I think I want to go to
Speaker 1: dinner with because I feel like he'll tell you everything
Speaker 1: because he just doesn't care. Oh that's a great. Okay,
Speaker 1: Let's let's play this game. You can pick three people
Speaker 1: in pro sports. Let's say you can sit and have
Speaker 1: a drink with, go to dinner with. Dana White's one
Speaker 1: of yours. Give me two others. Dana White for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because like I said, I feel like Dana White will
Speaker 1: just tell you stuff because like the kids filter, I
Speaker 1: think he's in that like I don't really care territory,
Speaker 1: what you think if I break secrets another one? You know,
Speaker 1: I would have said Jeter up until the captain came out,
Speaker 1: And now I feel like I know too much. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tee up, you know what. I I kind of
Speaker 1: want to maybe man tie tail because I want to
Speaker 1: talk more about what we're seeing on Netflix. And then
Speaker 1: uh yeah, and then I mean selfishly my favorite boxer
Speaker 1: of all time. He's no longer here. I would have
Speaker 1: picked because we didn't say alive or dead. I would
Speaker 1: have picked the Turro Gaddy, one of my favorite fighters
Speaker 1: of all time, and I would have loved to have
Speaker 1: gotten some stories from him. Okay, I want to throw
Speaker 1: one another name in the ring. How about Antonio Brown.
Speaker 1: We talked a lot about him last week. But wouldn't
Speaker 1: he be a good dinner date? I think so. You
Speaker 1: definitely would be entertained, you know, But I think I
Speaker 1: think Dana White is definitely on my is my number
Speaker 1: one right now, just because man, what a bomb he
Speaker 1: drop cash? Really crazy crazy. No, that was good. You
Speaker 1: mentioned the Man Tito doc. It is so good. I
Speaker 1: was texting you this weekend. You've got to watch it
Speaker 1: because I I was flabbergasted watching how it played out.
Speaker 1: And I've got a couple issues with the doc, but
Speaker 1: I want to save that for our Unleashed segment that's
Speaker 1: coming up. But you know, we've got a really good
Speaker 1: guest this week. Are you excited for this one? Oh? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. Well, it's because we're really start digging into
Speaker 1: the football. So I'm ready. Yeah, And this is the
Speaker 1: guy you want to talk to. It's Andrew Brandt. He's
Speaker 1: seen it all. He's the sports illustrated writer, former Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers, exact NFL business analyst. It's gonna be great
Speaker 1: to pick his brain leading up to the season, especially
Speaker 1: with stuff that have to do with salary cap and
Speaker 1: contracts and free agents still, and boy, we got a
Speaker 1: lot to get with him on that. But I'm just
Speaker 1: glad that you're sitting in your seat. I'm the one
Speaker 1: who was racing here after my baby's doctor appointment, but
Speaker 1: you were the one with the busier weekend. Tell me
Speaker 1: about the charity golf tournament. Tell me all about that.
Speaker 1: Who do you see there? Yeah, I'm paying for it
Speaker 1: today because you know, weekend awake golfing. My wife's like
Speaker 1: these two kids, Now, what's your name on it? Ready
Speaker 1: waiting for you. You can't be hungover with kids. I've
Speaker 1: learned that. Oh yeah it was. It was in Detroit.
Speaker 1: It was the j R. L A, the Jalen Rose
Speaker 1: Leadership Academy. You know, he built the school literally, Like
Speaker 1: he's accomplished so much in his playing career, in his
Speaker 1: post playing career, and this is arguably one of his
Speaker 1: greatest accomplishments. So I got invited through an old friend,
Speaker 1: fellow Nick fan, Ben Lyons and Olivia. I feel like
Speaker 1: I failed you. I feel like I failed you on
Speaker 1: something because you know, we're doing this show and like
Speaker 1: and you know you're you're a real journalist and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to keep up. I had a moment to do
Speaker 1: some journalism and I completely choked. They were introducing all
Speaker 1: the celebrities that were playing in the golf event. It
Speaker 1: was at Detroit Country Club, Beautiful Club, and it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, Calvin Johnson, and there's Droit Bell. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you remember Joy Bell, one of the last fullbacks.
Speaker 1: I actually remember all these great like Detroit Midwestern legends
Speaker 1: in Houston. So we had some knicks love and they
Speaker 1: called me up and you go shake hands with Jalen Rose,
Speaker 1: and Jalen, being who he is and being super savvy,
Speaker 1: sees me smiles, which some He's like, hey, Scott Perry's
Speaker 1: here playing. We're about to introduce him next, and I
Speaker 1: walked away. I'm like, oh, so they introduced Scott Perry.
Speaker 1: I've met him, like once or twice comes out saying
Speaker 1: little everyone. And I shook hands at Scott Perry and
Speaker 1: I'm looking. I'm like, this is my moment. I could
Speaker 1: ask him right now, what's going on for real with
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell? And I looked him in the eyes and
Speaker 1: I went, how you doing? Mr Perry? Get to see you?
Speaker 1: And I put my head down. I looked at my
Speaker 1: shoes and he kept it moving. I mean, he wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna tell me anything. Anyway. I could have asked a
Speaker 1: hard question. We sent you out there. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you got per diem, I'd be really mad because then
Speaker 1: you'd be actually working. You can't get per diem from
Speaker 1: bet MGM, did you? No? I did not. Bet MGM
Speaker 1: was a prominent sponsor there, especially at the night before party.
Speaker 1: Was really cool at the top golf sweep. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I I journalistically, I failed you, and I feel bad.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I couldn't sneak in any question. I just
Speaker 1: I just didn't feel like it was appropriate, and I
Speaker 1: got I got nervous. I choked. I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: you do in that situation. You kind of you you
Speaker 1: chuck me up and then you ask, but then you
Speaker 1: make it sound like, you know, you're not gonna do
Speaker 1: anything with this information, and then you get on the
Speaker 1: mic and that's when you say an unnamed source in
Speaker 1: the front office told me that's what you did, so
Speaker 1: you don't have to out him. You know. It was
Speaker 1: even so bad every time he like looked at his phone,
Speaker 1: I was kind of I was sidling up. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to be like, who's who's texting you? Is that
Speaker 1: is that Danny Age? Is that Leon wrote? Who who
Speaker 1: just emailed you? What's going on? Is that Fournier? So
Speaker 1: failed you? But it was all in all great event.
Speaker 1: Came in third place on the golf. It's hard to
Speaker 1: imagine that Calvin Johnson was a wide receiver. It's insane.
Speaker 1: He's like one of the biggest human beings I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: I shook his hand and like I think my hand
Speaker 1: like went up to like his thinking it's like my
Speaker 1: forearm just huge, dude. And yeah, I don't think anyone
Speaker 1: could have stopped him in the red zone. That would
Speaker 1: have been a good picture. Your hands side by side,
Speaker 1: that would have been a good picture. Yeah. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: going back up to Detroit next week for another golf tournament,
Speaker 1: which might cost me my marriage and Calvin Johnson is
Speaker 1: slated to play so maybe I'll do that picture next
Speaker 1: week and ask him to come on the show. I'd
Speaker 1: love to have him on the show. Oh that I
Speaker 1: already did. I did so joistically, I failed you. But
Speaker 1: podcast sidekick wise, I definitely invited a lot of people
Speaker 1: on the podcast. There you go, There you go. Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of your New York fandom and Scott Perry and
Speaker 1: all that, but I always wonder this about people from
Speaker 1: New York. And first of all, as someone who grew
Speaker 1: up in the midwest, New York to me is just
Speaker 1: like I'm so confused with the Burroughs. I'm so confused
Speaker 1: with all of the schools there. There's like a million
Speaker 1: I don't want to say lower tier schools, but you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, like Division two, Division three schools.
Speaker 1: But like your college football fandom probably doesn't run too deep.
Speaker 1: And we are coming up on week zero, the biggest
Speaker 1: game of course being Northwestern in Nebraska. They're playing in Ireland.
Speaker 1: I don't really understand that that could have been my
Speaker 1: unleashed but I want to still talk about man titeo.
Speaker 1: But college football does it mean much to you? Do
Speaker 1: you care I do care. Ironically, I definitely care from
Speaker 1: a sports gambling perspective. I think it's it's probably even
Speaker 1: more enjoyable than maybe throwing a few bets than the NFL,
Speaker 1: because it truly is madness. But I'm speaking to all
Speaker 1: the New York City kids. It is tough when it
Speaker 1: comes to college sports. Even with basketball. St. John's was
Speaker 1: sort of okay when I was coming up, but in
Speaker 1: the nineties, Rutgers wasn't quite good yet. Syracuse like six
Speaker 1: hours away. I feel like I'm closer to Ohio State
Speaker 1: than Syracuse. Distance was so yeah. I I I've always
Speaker 1: said my collegiate sports teams are up for grabs. I'm
Speaker 1: a free agent. I never took to the USC or
Speaker 1: u c l A when I was in l A
Speaker 1: sou And obviously my in laws are trying to get
Speaker 1: me to Ohio State. And maybe that's what I just
Speaker 1: do because I live here now. But it's really hard
Speaker 1: to really care about college sports outside just being a
Speaker 1: sportsman because I have no loyalty zero and I didn't
Speaker 1: really go to a big time college or any college.
Speaker 1: Yeah you didn't go to any college. I did go
Speaker 1: to a community college for like a year, I was burned.
Speaker 1: I moved to l A when I was nineteen. I
Speaker 1: was done nineteen. Hey, okay, this actually lends itself exactly
Speaker 1: to my Entourage question. You know, every week for those
Speaker 1: who are just tuning in, I am watching Entourage for
Speaker 1: the first time and loving it, absolutely loving it. And
Speaker 1: I think I'm watching with a little bit more interest
Speaker 1: because I have you to talk to every week and
Speaker 1: I can ask you all the behind the scenes stuff,
Speaker 1: which is a lot of fun. So my first question is,
Speaker 1: now that I'm getting deeper and more invested in the show,
Speaker 1: did you audition? Did you know these guys before the show?
Speaker 1: I did not. I did not know any of them.
Speaker 1: I was twenty three years old. I was bouncing around
Speaker 1: from show to show. I met Kevin Dillon at one
Speaker 1: of the early I auditioned like twenty five times. I
Speaker 1: met him at one of the early auditions, and I
Speaker 1: was a fan of his from you know, Platoon and
Speaker 1: The Doors. Kevin Dillon has been acting since he was seventeen. Obviously,
Speaker 1: his brother Matt Dillon tremendous actor. So no, I just
Speaker 1: it was the old process of the old way it
Speaker 1: was done, and it all leads up to this network
Speaker 1: test in front of HBO, and I kind of almost choked.
Speaker 1: It actually was Mark Wahlberg who snapped me out of it.
Speaker 1: I was I did my first run of auditions in
Speaker 1: front of the network and that wasn't very good. And
Speaker 1: he came out and motioned for me. I had never
Speaker 1: met Wahlberg at this point, and he whispered. He was like,
Speaker 1: I just want to let you know you're kind of
Speaker 1: blowing it right now. And I'm like I am. He's
Speaker 1: like yeah, like you know that moment where everyone says,
Speaker 1: this is your time, this is your time. So it was.
Speaker 1: It was the greatest wake up call and and luckily
Speaker 1: I ended up getting the part. No, I didn't know
Speaker 1: any of those guys. That's a great story. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Did you ever tell him how much that meant to you?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, And he claims that He's like, I did
Speaker 1: I did that and like, you know, you don't act
Speaker 1: like you He's like no, He's like he just thought
Speaker 1: I was really nervous. So he's saying he didn't want
Speaker 1: to see me lose out because I was just nervous.
Speaker 1: Oh god, Oh that's great. Okay, I have another question.
Speaker 1: When they're smoking weed on the show, are they actually
Speaker 1: smoking weed? I am the perfect person to answer this
Speaker 1: question because it was my character who was always smoking
Speaker 1: or rolling the weed, you know, whenever there's a scene
Speaker 1: not Sometimes it's written in that we're smoking. Sometimes it's not.
Speaker 1: But all actors, even if you're not, even if you
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of lines, you ask for like business,
Speaker 1: meaning like give me an activity while I'm here, so
Speaker 1: I'm not just standing here waiting for these guys to talk.
Speaker 1: My move was always I'm gonna smoke a joint or
Speaker 1: light or roll a blunt or something. So no, you
Speaker 1: don't smoke real weed on the show because a lot
Speaker 1: of times those scenes are at like seven thirty in
Speaker 1: the morning and you have a whole fifteen hour day
Speaker 1: ahead of view. There is this herbal tobacco which is
Speaker 1: not harmful, so they say, obviously it does not get
Speaker 1: you stone, but it looks green and it burns exactly
Speaker 1: like we does. So herbal tobacco. Okay, that that's good
Speaker 1: to know. So anytime you see that most of the time,
Speaker 1: I mean all of the time, most of the time
Speaker 1: on the record. Okay. Another question, why is your character
Speaker 1: named Turtle? I don't think that's been told yet as
Speaker 1: never explained, never explained. I used to always ask Doug
Speaker 1: Allen in the early years. My question was always what's
Speaker 1: Turtle's real name? And he always said, well, we'll reveal
Speaker 1: it in season eight. I don't know yet, and probably
Speaker 1: thinking we never get to season eight. We did get
Speaker 1: the season eight, so his name, his real name, does
Speaker 1: come out. I want room before you never explained why Turtle,
Speaker 1: but I did forget to tell Levi on Bell a
Speaker 1: story that's connected to Entourage and Adrian Peterson. Adrian Peterson,
Speaker 1: as you will see, did a cameo in Entourage playing himself,
Speaker 1: and I met him and I walked up and very
Speaker 1: very nice guy and shook his hand, and it is
Speaker 1: like a vice gript. It is the firmest handshake I've
Speaker 1: ever encountered in my life. We have crew members, big
Speaker 1: burly teamsters and and grips with these big meat hook
Speaker 1: for hands. He was breaking hands left and right, and
Speaker 1: they want to warn Levian Bell like he you know
Speaker 1: obviously you know he's strong, he's got hand. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was the firmst handshake. It actually hurt. I had
Speaker 1: to like, I had to like bite down not to
Speaker 1: like whimper. So anyway bigger than Calvin Johnson's handshake, not bigger, strongernger,
Speaker 1: just just hurt. It just hurt. Oh my god. Okay.
Speaker 1: In my last question, you should see my notes here
Speaker 1: on my phone as I'm watching Entourage, and keep in
Speaker 1: mind I'm usually giving the baby a bottle and typing
Speaker 1: this out. Do they really smoke weed? Exhausting? Okay, So
Speaker 1: that's my Entourage questions for the week. Next week, all
Speaker 1: of more for you because I've got my long flight
Speaker 1: to London and I'm gonna download a bunch of episodes.
Speaker 1: I'm excited. All right, Okay, let's get to our unleash
Speaker 1: because I've got to talk about this out. He said,
Speaker 1: you're what one episode in of the man Tito Doc. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like ten, I'm ten minutes into the episode two
Speaker 1: of the Netflix Dock and what do you think so far?
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny. Obviously we all know the story.
Speaker 1: I remember it very well. But it just shows you
Speaker 1: how much your perception and memory changes thirteen years later,
Speaker 1: or have it. Like I remember in the moment it
Speaker 1: was this guy's in on it, what a fraud? I
Speaker 1: remember that being the story and I'm not saying that's
Speaker 1: what I believed, but I did remember not having sympathy,
Speaker 1: not as much sympathy for him on that end of it.
Speaker 1: I didn't know his grandmother passing was obviously real and devastating,
Speaker 1: but watching that first episode, I just felt bad for
Speaker 1: the guy. You know. Yeah, And so here's the thing.
Speaker 1: The dead Spin article that broke it, and here's what
Speaker 1: the doc kind of left out. They implied initially that
Speaker 1: Manti was in on it, and they kind of glazed
Speaker 1: over that in the documentary. There wasn't the best reporting.
Speaker 1: It was amazing reporting because they got the scoop when
Speaker 1: everyone else just accepted it. And as people in the media,
Speaker 1: it was a great check, a great lesson to be, like,
Speaker 1: just don't assume everything is fact. In fact, I've heard
Speaker 1: one person say, I forget it's a famous quote. They say, ah,
Speaker 1: even question your mother. Assume your own mother will lie
Speaker 1: to you. And if you're a good reporter, and this
Speaker 1: everyone accepted. It was the storyline of the season. Of course,
Speaker 1: he was a Heisman finalist, went to the National Championship,
Speaker 1: all this, but Dead's been even had a quote in
Speaker 1: there that an unnamed source was sure that Manti was
Speaker 1: in on it and that just that's just you can't
Speaker 1: do that. You can't do it. And a lot of
Speaker 1: people ran with that. And then you can tell so
Speaker 1: the times. You know, this was ten years ago on
Speaker 1: the Katie Kirk special and she asked are you gay?
Speaker 1: And you know, he's laughing like, no, no, I'm I'm not,
Speaker 1: you know, definitely not. And he's sitting there with his
Speaker 1: parents and it's so awkward and it's so dated because
Speaker 1: I don't think that question would be asked now. No,
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry I laughed at that statement that you made.
Speaker 1: The reason why I'm laughing is an unnamed source said
Speaker 1: that they're eighty procedure. I'm just reminded of Paul Rutting
Speaker 1: an anchor man when he's like sixty of the time
Speaker 1: it works every time. Oh my gosh, that's such a
Speaker 1: misleading thing. Yeah, I definitely don't know if that question
Speaker 1: gets asked. Definitely in the second episode when they kind
Speaker 1: of pulled the hole where she pulled, you know, oh,
Speaker 1: like I'm still alive, when his girlfriend was saying, no,
Speaker 1: I'm still alive. I'm on the run. That's so I'm like,
Speaker 1: you gotta all right, what's going on here? You gotta
Speaker 1: know now something's badly wrong. So yeah, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just such a joke, and I think it's it's really sad, because,
Speaker 1: no doubt about it, Man, Tito is a victim in this.
Speaker 1: And anyone who thinks, oh, come on, you never met her,
Speaker 1: blah blah, keep in mind this kid. He's the oldest
Speaker 1: of seven kids from an island in a very tight
Speaker 1: knit Latter Day Saints community where everything was church and football.
Speaker 1: They were very poor. He couldn't fly to California go
Speaker 1: meet this girl. Stanford because it's a private school. Never
Speaker 1: had to release the records that a student of that
Speaker 1: name even went there, because remember he said she was
Speaker 1: from Stanford, like all this stuff. I feel so badly
Speaker 1: from Antito in this, and I think his career was
Speaker 1: drastically affected, and I wish he could sue, honestly, but
Speaker 1: I don't think they could prove that his draft stock
Speaker 1: tumbled so much because of this. But you certainly could
Speaker 1: look at his performance in the National Championship Game and
Speaker 1: you're gonna get this. I don't want to spoil too much,
Speaker 1: but just as you get to this part of the
Speaker 1: story is a lot happens right before this National Championship game,
Speaker 1: and it just so clearly affects him on the field,
Speaker 1: which then so clearly affected his draft. It's just it's horrible,
Speaker 1: And honestly, I think the documentary because they wanted to
Speaker 1: get the other side of the cat fisher Ranaya Tuyasa Sopo,
Speaker 1: who was now a transgender woman. They wanted to get
Speaker 1: her take, and you know, I bet they promised kind
Speaker 1: of a would pro quo, We'll we'll tell your side
Speaker 1: of the story here and be fair. But just as
Speaker 1: I was watching it, I think they went a little
Speaker 1: easy on Rhania now Nya, because I just think it's
Speaker 1: criminal what this person did to Manteo and and his family,
Speaker 1: and he just fell so prey to this. And that's
Speaker 1: my take. I'm standing behind it. I felt so angry
Speaker 1: watching it, so I'm curious, as you keep going what
Speaker 1: you think I just was. I do remember too, when
Speaker 1: he was thinking about coming out junior year and to
Speaker 1: go in the NFL draft. Watching the documentary now, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, if you just went pro after your June,
Speaker 1: you know, his whole life would have been And you
Speaker 1: know he is married now with a kid, and he
Speaker 1: made a couple of stops in the NFL. I believe
Speaker 1: last year he didn't play anywhere. I think twenty I
Speaker 1: think he was with the Chargers. But oh, it's just
Speaker 1: I was so sick watching this that, you know, regardless
Speaker 1: of Rhania now Naya's journey and you know, all of
Speaker 1: that is fantastic, and I'm so glad that Manti has
Speaker 1: forgiveness in his heart. It just so it makes me
Speaker 1: so mad that he was such a victim and so
Speaker 1: many people made fun of him, ridiculed him, and that
Speaker 1: he lost millions because of what this person did to him,
Speaker 1: and that he was too trusting and really just naive.
Speaker 1: He's just a naive, unworldly kid, to be honest. And oh,
Speaker 1: it is such a good documentary. Though I was gripped.
Speaker 1: I'm finishing it tonight. Okay, all right, well that was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. Let's go ahead and get to
Speaker 1: our interview. Let's bring in Andrew Brand. He's a former
Speaker 1: executive for the Green Bay Packers a professor of law
Speaker 1: rights for SI dot com. Andrew Brand, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for being here. Good to be with you, guys. Enjoyed
Speaker 1: our chat before we came on here, Yeah, we did. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Before the pod. Yeah, I've got to tell you. For
Speaker 1: those who don't know, and Andrew was with the Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers and my grandfather was there at the same time.
Speaker 1: I'm Bob Harlan, and you know booking guests. Andrew is
Speaker 1: way above my pay grade on this show. So I
Speaker 1: was really excited to see you coming on, and I
Speaker 1: told my grandfather you were coming on, and here's what
Speaker 1: he had to say. He said, you are highly, highly intelligent,
Speaker 1: and you did so much good in regards to cap space,
Speaker 1: especially with the Green Bay Packers, so much so that
Speaker 1: he always wanted you to speak at the annual shareholders meeting.
Speaker 1: He thought it was great for the fans to hear
Speaker 1: what you had to say. And he always invited you
Speaker 1: to speak to the quarterly board members meetings because he
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that everyone heard from your mouth
Speaker 1: all the hard work you were doing. But he just
Speaker 1: had the best things to say about you. That's form
Speaker 1: that warns my heart, Olivia, because he's a he's a
Speaker 1: mentor of mine. He is someone that you come across
Speaker 1: so many people in your life and career they're really
Speaker 1: leave an effect, and he's certainly one. There's a saying
Speaker 1: out there. I think it's by Mark Twain. It's not
Speaker 1: what you say, it's how you make people feel. And
Speaker 1: Bob Harlan, the president of the Packers while I was there,
Speaker 1: really made people feel well. He made people feel good
Speaker 1: about their interactions with him, but about the team, and
Speaker 1: that is an underrated skill that he was so good at.
Speaker 1: Bob Harlan just making people feel like that was a
Speaker 1: nice interaction. He represents the team well. He's a sweetheart
Speaker 1: of a guy. And his wife, Madelene. I mean, they
Speaker 1: were just wonderful ambassadors for the team and still are
Speaker 1: and they were so good to me and my family,
Speaker 1: Madeline to my wife, and it just really it's so
Speaker 1: nice to hear that because I have similar feelings. So
Speaker 1: back at him. Oh man, that's a good story, you know,
Speaker 1: so true as well. I mentioned earlier you handled a
Speaker 1: lot of cap space and negotiations with players in front office,
Speaker 1: and you were kind of the go between for a
Speaker 1: long time with the Packers. And I'm curious as you
Speaker 1: look at a team like the Browns, who obviously Deshaun
Speaker 1: Watson was just served his eleven game suspension five million bucks,
Speaker 1: and the Browns have some cap space, and as I'm
Speaker 1: looking at it, and Jacoby Brissette is a capable quarterback
Speaker 1: and you know, a well liked guy on the team,
Speaker 1: And do they look at what they're investing already at
Speaker 1: the quarterback position, knowing that they still have about forty
Speaker 1: million they have to pay wattson this year, They're still
Speaker 1: paying for the Baker Mayfield trade. Could you see them
Speaker 1: potentially bringing in someone like Jimmy Garoppolo, who's worth a
Speaker 1: lot of money and getting paid a lot of money
Speaker 1: this year, but to take advantage of little cap space
Speaker 1: bring him in and have them be a placeholder for
Speaker 1: eleven games? Or is Jimmy g above that and probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't even be interested. I don't think that's going to happen.
Speaker 1: There's so much unpack with what you asked, Olivia, because
Speaker 1: the Browns have become the story of the off season
Speaker 1: with what they've done. I guess I'll start here. They
Speaker 1: gave the biggest contract, the best contract player wise, in
Speaker 1: the history of the sport to a guy that's now
Speaker 1: suspended for eleven games and accused of this pattern behavior
Speaker 1: over seventeen months where he's seeking sex in lieu massage
Speaker 1: that can resonate with people. I don't understand their cap
Speaker 1: management because they have and had the most cap space
Speaker 1: in the NFL, yet they continue to do contracts in
Speaker 1: a way that is pushing out cap. In other words,
Speaker 1: they do a big signing bonus which is peraded throughout
Speaker 1: the life of the contract, small salary, so they keep
Speaker 1: their their year one, year two cap numbers really low,
Speaker 1: and they backload cap into the future. But to me,
Speaker 1: if you've got all this cap space, why not use it?
Speaker 1: Why not load it now so you can be flexible
Speaker 1: in the later term. And the I talked to someone
Speaker 1: high up in the organization and they sort of gave
Speaker 1: me this explanation, and I'll share this with people. They
Speaker 1: think the cap is gonna rise so much that the
Speaker 1: present value CAP is better now than it's going to later.
Speaker 1: It was a long detailed discussion because in my management
Speaker 1: of the cap for the packers, I tried to match
Speaker 1: cash and cap as much as possible. So, in other words,
Speaker 1: if I was going to give someone twenty million in
Speaker 1: year one cash, I would try to get the cap
Speaker 1: numbers close to twenty million as possible. Because we had
Speaker 1: the cap he we created. That was hard work to
Speaker 1: do it, and the Browns are the opposite strategy. They're like, well,
Speaker 1: let's just keep loading up cap Like for what Now
Speaker 1: do I think it's for Jimmy Garoppolo. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't because two things. Number one, they signed Berset, and
Speaker 1: number two, this is not news that Deshaun Watson's going away.
Speaker 1: When they signed Deshaun Watson, there's no way in God's
Speaker 1: green Earth they thought he'd be playing week one. Come on,
Speaker 1: this has been out there for a year in reporting
Speaker 1: about what he's done. So I'm just saying, Jimmy Garoppolo
Speaker 1: has been on the market for six months. They're not
Speaker 1: just going to decide, oh, yeah, now we should get
Speaker 1: Tommy Garoppolo. No, I just think they've gone with Brissette.
Speaker 1: They like Brissette, and there's no Garoppolo on the picture
Speaker 1: on the horizon for the Browns. On the Garoppolo question, Olivia,
Speaker 1: I think this is a really tough one because he's
Speaker 1: scheduled to make twenty four million dollars, and the chance
Speaker 1: of him making twenty four million is about the same
Speaker 1: as you or I making it from the It's just
Speaker 1: not going to happen. So the question becomes does he
Speaker 1: take a financial haircut and stay. Does he take a
Speaker 1: financial haircut to go somewhere else or do they just
Speaker 1: release him and then he goes to zero and signs
Speaker 1: whatever he can as a third string quarterback somewhere. So
Speaker 1: I don't know why this guy has become unwanted the
Speaker 1: way he has. I understand there's an injury question with
Speaker 1: his shoulder, but this is one of the stories I
Speaker 1: just can't really figure out. Jimmy Garoppolo as a Packer fan.
Speaker 1: I knowbod he's done to us, Yet he has no market.
Speaker 1: He has no market. If he had a market, he'd
Speaker 1: be long gone by now. You know you're talking about quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: We had a lot of quarterbacks jump into new situations
Speaker 1: this year. Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan, Carson, Wentz, Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier. And you know Stafford did the same
Speaker 1: thing last year, won a Super Bowl. So of this
Speaker 1: kind of rotation of quarterbacks this year in the NFL,
Speaker 1: is there one that sticks out to you that maybe
Speaker 1: we could see another Super Bowl champions similar to Stafford
Speaker 1: with the Rams. Well, I'm gonna show my bias and
Speaker 1: Olivia's bias here because I think the best quarterback situation
Speaker 1: is the fact Aaron Rodgers didn't leave the Packers, and
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna be really good despite losing Adams.
Speaker 1: But I think everyone's gonna point to Wilson because you know,
Speaker 1: this is a team that has already made defense and
Speaker 1: they're just bringing in that one aspect that they haven't had.
Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens there. I think the real
Speaker 1: story the off season is another position, and that is
Speaker 1: wide receiver. I just mentioned Adams. This is the story
Speaker 1: to me because we see some positions continued to get devalued,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking at running back and I'm looking at
Speaker 1: tight end, and then we see the wide receiver position
Speaker 1: having extraordinary jump in value. For business nerds like me,
Speaker 1: I find that fascinating because what's happened is teams like
Speaker 1: the Packers and Chiefs had said, you know what, we're
Speaker 1: just not going there, and Titans, we're just not going there.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take cap space and we're gonna take draft picks,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna go young and cheap at receiver. Yet
Speaker 1: you have teams like the Dolphins and the Raiders and
Speaker 1: the Eagles that are saying, we'll take that guy from you.
Speaker 1: We'll pay them twenty five million year, which is way
Speaker 1: beyond what the market was. Market was like eighteen a year.
Speaker 1: We'll pay them twenty five million, and we're going to
Speaker 1: bank on our receiver eiver giving us extraordinary value only
Speaker 1: second to the quarterback. And we're going to find out,
Speaker 1: like here it is, two is going to tell us
Speaker 1: the value of receivers. We're gonna see what Brown brings
Speaker 1: the Eagles, Adams to the Raiders, Hill to the Dolphins
Speaker 1: versus the teams they left with draft, draft picks and
Speaker 1: cap space. And I think we're gonna have a great evaluation.
Speaker 1: Do you pay that market for top receivers or do
Speaker 1: you go young and cheap and spend elsewhere. It'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to see. Yeah, the Davante Adams signing set off
Speaker 1: trickle effect that the whole league had to play catch up,
Speaker 1: and similar bringing it back to Deshaun Watson a little bit,
Speaker 1: is that record deal of guaranteed money is now setting
Speaker 1: a precedent for someone else negotiating his own contract in
Speaker 1: that division, Lamar Jackson, and he's doing it with his
Speaker 1: mom and no agent. Have you ever been in that
Speaker 1: position dealing with a player directly and is that awkward
Speaker 1: representing the team in that instance. Yes, I'm glad you
Speaker 1: asked that, because at the Packers, I'm an agent that
Speaker 1: came I switched sides, right, So according to agents, I
Speaker 1: went to the dark side and I went to the Packers.
Speaker 1: But there are players, you know, I mean, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of names, but like a Donald Driver, Mark Tusher,
Speaker 1: they would they would come to me and say, yeah, Andrew,
Speaker 1: you're cool. You know you're a former agent. Let's do it,
Speaker 1: you know, let's have it. And I'm like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: will be fun, this will be cool. I'll tell you, Olivia,
Speaker 1: it was a bad experience. I had a lot of
Speaker 1: problems with it that I still to this day shake
Speaker 1: my head because negotiations are raw, you know, negotiations are personal.
Speaker 1: I'm telling a person who I'm friends with, they are
Speaker 1: not as valuable as they think they are. They don't
Speaker 1: mean as much to the team as the other players
Speaker 1: they're naming due to their teams. So players are very simple.
Speaker 1: They're like, hey, Detroit or Alice or Denver or Philadelphia
Speaker 1: or Miami, they paid this guy X. I'm better than X.
Speaker 1: Pay me more than X. And I would say, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not that simple. And we're paying Brett twenty million
Speaker 1: and they're like, what do you mean And I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: he's one year from free agency. You're two years from
Speaker 1: They're like, they don't want to hear it. And I
Speaker 1: lost relationships. I lost friendships because they're always looking at
Speaker 1: me like, hey, why didn't he want to pay me?
Speaker 1: You know? And then I got some deals and they
Speaker 1: were not great deals for the kid, for the players
Speaker 1: going forward, because the market would pass them by so
Speaker 1: long we did an answer your question is it's tough.
Speaker 1: It's tough on the Ravens. I know it's tough. I've
Speaker 1: been there, and you're dealing with human emotion. And my
Speaker 1: saying is when someone says it's not personal, it's business
Speaker 1: bus it's always personal. Now on Lamar specifically, you mentioned
Speaker 1: the Watson deal, I am just in sort of my world.
Speaker 1: It's really important to see what impact the Watson deal
Speaker 1: has because there have been two deals since. Now you
Speaker 1: can say they're not the level of Watson or Jackson,
Speaker 1: but Derek Carr and Kyler Murray. Now, in both of
Speaker 1: those deals there's really good cash flow about a hundred
Speaker 1: million over three years. But there's no bells and whistles right,
Speaker 1: there's no full guarantees, there's no suspension forfeiture protection like
Speaker 1: in the Watson deal. So I'm really interested to see
Speaker 1: if Lamar Jackson can get the full guarantee. We know
Speaker 1: he's gonna get a ton of money, but can you
Speaker 1: get the security that Watson got? Because if I'm Steve Baschatti,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, well, Murray didn't get it, Derek her
Speaker 1: didn't get it, and you know, Watson was an outlier
Speaker 1: because the Falcons want him in, the Saints want and
Speaker 1: if I'm Jackson and his mother, I'm like, that doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: This is the market. I have been better than Deshaun Watson.
Speaker 1: I've been healthier than the Shaun Watson. I don't have
Speaker 1: the baggage of every you know what everyone's talking about
Speaker 1: about Deshaun Watson. So this one shaping up and we'll
Speaker 1: have you know, deadline spur action, will know in two weeks.
Speaker 1: You know something that's always puzzled me, and you're obviously
Speaker 1: the perfect person to ask this to. Uh the Rams.
Speaker 1: We're talking about Stafford and their Super Bowl and it's
Speaker 1: just blue chip talent after blue chip talent almost to
Speaker 1: the point where you look at all these players and
Speaker 1: you say to yourself, even as a casual fan or
Speaker 1: a super fan, how on earth are they making the
Speaker 1: economics work along with all the draft picks that they're losing, Like,
Speaker 1: I really have a hard time even following out. You know,
Speaker 1: they get Allen Robinson, which is just just when you
Speaker 1: think they're done, they reload at wide receiver, which I
Speaker 1: didn't think is possible. Is this just them being super aggressive,
Speaker 1: is going all in? Or is there really a rhythm
Speaker 1: to this that makes this possible? Yeah? A little cap
Speaker 1: one oh one for you, Jerry. I'm gonna ask, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna quiz you. Okay, ready. So Matthew Stafford got this deal,
Speaker 1: which is I'm shaking my head at this, this this
Speaker 1: restructure this offseason. He got a sixty million dollar bonus
Speaker 1: six oh sixty million, so his salary is only a
Speaker 1: million dollars. This is sort of what we talked about
Speaker 1: with Watson. So here's the quiz. What is the cash
Speaker 1: that Stafford is getting this year? Is it one million
Speaker 1: dollars like on the books you mean? Or how much
Speaker 1: cash is it getting in two sixty one six? Do
Speaker 1: you one. Very good. Oh my god. Okay, now here's
Speaker 1: the second question. Five year deal, sixty million bonus, one
Speaker 1: million salary. What's the cap number? It's a million? How
Speaker 1: much is it one million? No? What's sixty divided by five? Go?
Speaker 1: You got me doing math? Oh my lord? Uh? Well
Speaker 1: plus one million a year? You see to jump in
Speaker 1: on the plus one one. That's what I did, my
Speaker 1: big math. But I was so cash for Stafford is
Speaker 1: sixty one cap for Stafford is thirteen forty eight million.
Speaker 1: Cash over cap. Cash over cap is what people in
Speaker 1: the NFL talk about a lot. What's the cash over cap?
Speaker 1: So what is happening here is Stan Cronki is paying
Speaker 1: Stafford sixty one million dollars on a cap number of
Speaker 1: thirteen million. So there's a quick answer of how they
Speaker 1: do it. They have a truly a billionaire owner that's
Speaker 1: able to use this cash over cap. I guess loophole
Speaker 1: in ways that some owners can't do it. And they're
Speaker 1: gonna pay the piper on Matthew Stafford's contract at some point.
Speaker 1: But while they're in this window of, as you say,
Speaker 1: acquiring all this top talent, they're using this Again, loophole
Speaker 1: is too strong a word. They're using this mechanism where
Speaker 1: they can load in these talented players with high bonus
Speaker 1: low salary. Now again, if you're the Browns, I don't
Speaker 1: know why you're doing it because you got a ton
Speaker 1: of a ton of cap room. But this is how
Speaker 1: the Rams keep doing this year after year. And Alan
Speaker 1: Robinson actually is a friend, so we talked before we
Speaker 1: signed with the Rams, and they got him, you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, the market's going to five receiver. Got
Speaker 1: him for fifteen. So they are one of these teams
Speaker 1: able to get players for a little less. They got
Speaker 1: it with Beckham last year too. Alan Roblin is one
Speaker 1: of my favorite wide receivers, and I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: hate on any of his previous quarterbacks. I just even
Speaker 1: in the fantasy football space, I used to always why
Speaker 1: can't look at the numbers he's putting up? Get just
Speaker 1: get him, get him a top quarterback. And I really
Speaker 1: do think he's a top three receiver anyway. I love
Speaker 1: Allen Robinson. Anything about Alan Jerry's that like you were
Speaker 1: just asking me. He asked me that stuff too, And
Speaker 1: he's a real student of the business of sports, and
Speaker 1: that's how I got to know him, so you don't
Speaker 1: find any players that really are interested in this stuff.
Speaker 1: And you know one day he'll be an agent or
Speaker 1: will be a team executive. He's really great at that. So, Andrew,
Speaker 1: can you explain to people who don't understand the structure
Speaker 1: of the Packers is the one outlier in the NFL
Speaker 1: with no owner. And as you talk about resources that
Speaker 1: the packers have, and of course, like I'm looking, I've
Speaker 1: got my stock hanging in my office right here. Of course,
Speaker 1: this piece of paper that means nothing, but that means
Speaker 1: a lot to fans, and just how ultimately that has
Speaker 1: come to be and how that helps revenue with the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers. It's funny you missed the stock and
Speaker 1: I bought some from my son's. But you know this, right,
Speaker 1: everyone you ask who's not a packer fan calls that
Speaker 1: a worthless piece of paper. Right. You can't trade it,
Speaker 1: you can't sell it. Everyone who's a packer fan says,
Speaker 1: you know, that's my most valable procession. Like there's this
Speaker 1: wide range. But listen, we have what we're called in
Speaker 1: my day and your grandfather's day was the preservation Fund.
Speaker 1: I believe we called it. You know where we just
Speaker 1: we'd accumulate this profit and revenue and we just put
Speaker 1: in a fund to be used for paying players, putting
Speaker 1: it back into the team. You know, we had no
Speaker 1: owner that's siphoning off money to use for US yacht,
Speaker 1: to use for other businesses, to use for his family's
Speaker 1: private jet, whatever it may be. Now, if you ask me, overall,
Speaker 1: I was happier without an owner. But there are things
Speaker 1: I missed. You know, when we went to owners meetings,
Speaker 1: they would sort of tap Bob and me on the
Speaker 1: head and like, yeah, good little Green Bay. You guys doing.
Speaker 1: You guys are great. You know you got bread, favor whatever.
Speaker 1: You're the only non billionaires there. Yeah. I never felt
Speaker 1: like we were at the same kind of respect level
Speaker 1: that Jerry Jones or Robert Kraft or Jeffrey Lory. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of this, oh, good old Green Bay.
Speaker 1: The other thing that, you know, you sometimes wonder with
Speaker 1: a billionaire owner if you could. You know, the league
Speaker 1: has a lot of politics, so sometimes you need something
Speaker 1: maybe little, and a billionaire owner would make a call
Speaker 1: and sort of get things done. And I do miss
Speaker 1: some of that. But then I talked to colleagues around
Speaker 1: the league and they're say they're dealing with the negotiation
Speaker 1: that lasts for months. One day the owner gets impatient,
Speaker 1: walks in their office says, hey, get this deal done today,
Speaker 1: and then it's just terrible to try to negotiate a contract.
Speaker 1: So yes and no, there are a lot of advantages.
Speaker 1: But what you see going on in Green Bay now
Speaker 1: is they've developed some land around their title town. They're
Speaker 1: using that preservation more fun to really expand real estate
Speaker 1: and to expand areas and entertainment district that they've never
Speaker 1: done before. And it's all good, you know, and you
Speaker 1: see the financials every year, it's extraordinary. The Packers are
Speaker 1: the representation of what the NFL owners are making. They've
Speaker 1: got these media deals yet to kick in. They've got
Speaker 1: a team friendly c b A with the players, and
Speaker 1: of course the franchise values. So it's a great time
Speaker 1: to be working in the NFL right now. Sure, And
Speaker 1: if I can piggyback on that too with what your
Speaker 1: impression of the Rogers renegotiated contract is and how it
Speaker 1: is going to affect what the team has been able
Speaker 1: to do this offseason and what they're able to do
Speaker 1: moving forward, and just to make sure I get this
Speaker 1: all right, as people are listening to the original deal
Speaker 1: was supposed to run through the three season. Packers and
Speaker 1: Rogers renegotiated so it would end it would be void
Speaker 1: after and let's see, fully guaranteed fifty nine and a
Speaker 1: half million next season forty nine and a half bish
Speaker 1: not guaranteed. So that doesn't leave much room to go
Speaker 1: get some shiny new toys for him. Huh m hmm.
Speaker 1: I have a different view of Aaron's contract, but I
Speaker 1: want to say this. First two years ago, when there
Speaker 1: was the noise about Aaron not coming back, I said,
Speaker 1: no way in hell he's going anywhere. He's there, you
Speaker 1: know he Packers weren't doing anything. Man, Last year, I
Speaker 1: was right. Last year is completely wrong. I thought that
Speaker 1: it would be the end of Aaron in Green Bay,
Speaker 1: and of course he came back. I guess I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say I still believe, um this may be the swan
Speaker 1: song for Aaron, because you know, I was there for
Speaker 1: three years of Aaron as in Prentice, and we had
Speaker 1: him in the bullpen three years and then we brought
Speaker 1: them out. I think that's probably what they're thinking for
Speaker 1: Jordan's love now. Aaron Science is three year deal, and
Speaker 1: as you said, Olivia, there's this weird part of it
Speaker 1: where it kicks in next year to fifty nine and
Speaker 1: a half million, But the fine print is that's an option,
Speaker 1: so the Packers have to exercise the option to kick
Speaker 1: in the fifty nine. So the way I look at
Speaker 1: it is a forty two million, one year deal in
Speaker 1: two and then we'll see about next year. I think
Speaker 1: with Aaron Rodgers, listen, I'm a big fan. I know
Speaker 1: people think he's weird. I'm I got a lot of
Speaker 1: zen in my life, just like Aaron. You know, I've
Speaker 1: done Aguasca back in the day, so um. But I
Speaker 1: think it's for anyone to look at either the Packers
Speaker 1: going to Aaron or Aaron going back to the Packers
Speaker 1: as more than a year right now. I think that's
Speaker 1: hard to say. You know, the guy is year to year,
Speaker 1: I think, and I think the Packers have they're waiting quarterback.
Speaker 1: Now it's gonna be three years, and what symmetry if
Speaker 1: it if it ends up being three years for Jordan
Speaker 1: as it was for Aaron, So let's revisit it later.
Speaker 1: But I'm looking at it a one year deal. Darry,
Speaker 1: have you done anyaguasca. I have not, but I'm also
Speaker 1: a big Aaron Rodgers fan, and uh yes, I will
Speaker 1: definitely try it. Yeah, I'm with it would be really
Speaker 1: sad if he does go, because that's his hard first
Speaker 1: of it's hard to see him in any other uniform.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's retiring anytime, so I don't
Speaker 1: know if there will be another um. Part of me
Speaker 1: like wishes it wouldn't be because I don't want to
Speaker 1: see that. But I also don't want him the player
Speaker 1: to go because I just end by watching him so
Speaker 1: much so I could see, like unless be so hard
Speaker 1: to keep emotions out. Like you said, the business and
Speaker 1: not personal thing is really sticking with me. That you said,
Speaker 1: there's got to be some negotiations from your past that
Speaker 1: you still think about. I imagine like or could have
Speaker 1: maybe off I would have just done this, or if
Speaker 1: they would have just done that. There there if you
Speaker 1: don't have to say which, but there, I'm sure there
Speaker 1: are a few that stuck with you in your time,
Speaker 1: right well, those three years with both of the guys
Speaker 1: was I don't know. It was challenging, and I think
Speaker 1: I'm a better person from it because we draft Aaron
Speaker 1: and that whole story I've told before, but no one
Speaker 1: loked it. You know, everyone hated it, and Brett hated it,
Speaker 1: and the fans hated it, and the media hated it
Speaker 1: and what are we doing? And they went through it
Speaker 1: again two years ago with love. But every week or month,
Speaker 1: I'm dealing with Brett's side, which is, hey, Andrew, you
Speaker 1: know what it's like coming in every week, every day
Speaker 1: and sitting with your replacement. That sucks. It's no light.
Speaker 1: And then I'm hearing from Aaron's camp, not him directly,
Speaker 1: but like, Andrew, are you ever gonna trade him? Like
Speaker 1: he's never gonna play there? Like what are you doing
Speaker 1: to him? Brett's never gonna retire, Like what are you doing?
Speaker 1: Get rid of it? And and so I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to be polite and tactful and professional with both camps
Speaker 1: because we didn't know, you know, we didn't there's no plan, like, oh,
Speaker 1: whatever it was, we're gonna play Aaron is. So it
Speaker 1: just got to a point where it became clear that
Speaker 1: Aaron was ready and Brett would stay in the off
Speaker 1: season down Mississippi those years and it was Aaron's team
Speaker 1: and We're like having guys like Greg Jennings and Donald
Speaker 1: Driver and Javon Walker come up to us and say,
Speaker 1: James Jones like, oh my god, like like this kid,
Speaker 1: Oh my god. And I'm like really like yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean Bret's great, but oh my god. Never seen an
Speaker 1: arm like this kid. And so it was clear we
Speaker 1: were ready. And then Brett retired right, but then he
Speaker 1: wanted to unretired, and that was messy. And one thing
Speaker 1: about Aaron, even at a very young age, he had
Speaker 1: an extraordinary ability to block out that noise. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was the number one story and sports not football,
Speaker 1: sports for a month and this kid's walking out to
Speaker 1: practice every day, and for a few of those practices,
Speaker 1: Brett's there, you know, Brett's back with his helmet and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, what we And you know,
Speaker 1: the thing is that what I tell young people all
Speaker 1: the time about who want to work in teams or
Speaker 1: cap or agents, I'm like, listen the numbers of the numbers.
Speaker 1: What you're dealing with? His people? It's all people, right,
Speaker 1: Can you communicate? Can you deal with conflict? And when
Speaker 1: people when I talked to young people and they're telling me, well,
Speaker 1: I studied this cap and like screw that, Like, can
Speaker 1: you deal with conflict? Can you resolve conflict? And when
Speaker 1: you work for a team or you're an agent, you're
Speaker 1: dealing with a lot of conflict. People don't know what
Speaker 1: kind of things bubble up in a locker room of
Speaker 1: eighty players, and can you deal with that? I brought
Speaker 1: in players for interventions. I brought in players that couldn't
Speaker 1: get along with coaches. I brought in coaches versus coaches.
Speaker 1: So these are the kind of things that you know
Speaker 1: when young people say they want to get into sports,
Speaker 1: I'm like, your people personally like study psychology. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's a lot of that. Yeah, not not just eighty people,
Speaker 1: eighty millionaires sitting with their own entourages telling them they're
Speaker 1: the best things and sliced bread. So, yeah, you got
Speaker 1: your work cut out for you, and you have so
Speaker 1: many great stories. We've got to get you back on here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: happy to do it. Happy to do it, guys. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. You can follow him on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Andrew Brandt, check out his website Andrew dash brand
Speaker 1: dot com, and there you can get his Sunday seven newsletter.
Speaker 1: You're gonna want to see that and listen to his
Speaker 1: podcast called The Business of Sports. Andrew thanks so much
Speaker 1: for being with us. Thanks Andrew, Thanks guys too soon.
Speaker 1: Ye all right, I'm very very excited about our next guests.
Speaker 1: Training camp consists of studying the lines and running Parlay's
Speaker 1: bet MGM gambling gurgle, Peter Andrew, welcome back, even though
Speaker 1: it's our first show to get the welcome back to
Speaker 1: Unleashed Buddy, It's great to be back. Sorry Live. I
Speaker 1: decided to wear my Niners gear. Little shade at you,
Speaker 1: that's all. I hate it. I like it. Also are
Speaker 1: wearing jerseys to Lord knows, I got some. But before
Speaker 1: we get the football, Peters just went really really quick.
Speaker 1: Leon Edwards, how much did your phone blow up on
Speaker 1: Saturday night? It's crazy. So I was talking to someone
Speaker 1: about this the other day. It's not like another upset
Speaker 1: in the world where you know, painonon as Holly Home
Speaker 1: rounda Rousey, where it was a huge upset from the
Speaker 1: get go. This was after four rounds. I think usmon
Speaker 1: was minus four, completely dominating, and then all of a
Speaker 1: suddenly on Edward's side of the head lights out. It
Speaker 1: was actually a bad result for us. So typically what
Speaker 1: you see is those big favorites losing are great results
Speaker 1: for the book. It was actually a bit of the opposite.
Speaker 1: So the parlays was great, but the singles, everybody was
Speaker 1: back in edwards. So we love to see it. We
Speaker 1: love to see Bettors come and take us for a
Speaker 1: little bit, but an amazing fight, and I think it's
Speaker 1: setting up a trilogy here, right, So look at the
Speaker 1: number three coming soon. I'm sure I like it. Like Okay,
Speaker 1: we want to get to NFL futures specifically this week
Speaker 1: we want to focus on NFL awards for individuals, so
Speaker 1: it might be a good time to find some great
Speaker 1: odds on these before the regular season starts. You know,
Speaker 1: it's as we first look at m v P. I
Speaker 1: already saw at bet MGM the highest ticket and handle
Speaker 1: is Russell Wilson. What do you think he's the favorite here?
Speaker 1: Huh yeah. I think there's a little bit of bias
Speaker 1: from our our friends in Colorado, one of our bigger states. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the movement there. I personally love justin Herbert, what that
Speaker 1: team has done. That offense is absolutely loaded. I think
Speaker 1: right now he's at plus a fifty. I think you
Speaker 1: look at Heckler, all of his wide receiver weapons, the team,
Speaker 1: the defense looks really good this year. I know that
Speaker 1: doesn't really affect him, but I think they are going
Speaker 1: to be a real force. I know you guys talked
Speaker 1: about it last week a little bit. Uh. I think
Speaker 1: split in terms of what you like in the a
Speaker 1: f C West, But really really do think charges not
Speaker 1: only have Herbert come out m v P, but it
Speaker 1: actually come out of the a f C and then
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl. I like that a plus eight fifty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And when I said Wilson was a favorite, he's not
Speaker 1: the favorite at BEDMGF. He's plus fourteen hundred to an
Speaker 1: m v P. But fans certainly love him. Those in
Speaker 1: Colorado certainly love him. Josh Allen at plus seven hundred,
Speaker 1: Why did you not say Allan just a little bit
Speaker 1: too chalky. You gotta put a little bit of value
Speaker 1: on top of it. And I think Herbert across lots
Speaker 1: of quarterback stats was top three and everything yards, touchdowns,
Speaker 1: I mean, really efficient year. The sophomore slump was no
Speaker 1: slump for him at all. So I think he comes
Speaker 1: out absolutely fire in year three. I think the team
Speaker 1: around him is really good. I think, you know, it's
Speaker 1: a tough division and there's gonna be some really tough
Speaker 1: games to be played, but I think he's gonna come
Speaker 1: out looking really good, especially start of the year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at all that. I mean, I got you
Speaker 1: just look at not getting sucked into the Jonathan Taylor
Speaker 1: at plus six thousand is going to be my biggest
Speaker 1: issue because I just look at the him. It's gonna
Speaker 1: happen one of these days. It's going to be a
Speaker 1: non quarterback. It's going to happen. In my lifetime. It's
Speaker 1: going to I don't think it's quite the year though.
Speaker 1: The only way it happens is if Jonathan Taylor does
Speaker 1: what he did last year and replicates that, and you know,
Speaker 1: then you have to have the conversation. But I mean,
Speaker 1: you know this. Every year it's m v P as
Speaker 1: a quarterback Award o P O Y is the wide receiver,
Speaker 1: running back or tight end award. But you're right, it's
Speaker 1: got to happen at some point. Why not the shirt?
Speaker 1: All right? Pure I'm gonna jump real quick because I'm
Speaker 1: trying to let my fandom get involved here. It's the
Speaker 1: worst mistake you can make sometimes with sports betting. Coach
Speaker 1: of the Year and we talked Olivia and I talked
Speaker 1: a lot about my New York Giants last year. Brian
Speaker 1: Davil plus fourteen and he's tied for the favorite for
Speaker 1: Coach of the Year. What's your feelings on coach, Because
Speaker 1: if you could do that, then you gotta go Giants
Speaker 1: over wins. I'm just saying, but I'd rather hear from
Speaker 1: you for what it's worth. I love Giants over wins.
Speaker 1: I think Sa Kuan has a really good bounce back,
Speaker 1: healthy year. Dabble amazing. I'm a Ranger fan. He was
Speaker 1: at every Ranger playoff game. Was unbelievable. But there's but
Speaker 1: you've got to make the playoffs to be a Coach
Speaker 1: of the Year. That's what it comes down to. You
Speaker 1: have to have a winning record. You've got to be
Speaker 1: a playoff team. I think people are gonna look at
Speaker 1: Dan Campbell and say, oh my god, hard knocks run
Speaker 1: through the wall for this guy. If they end up
Speaker 1: going for and thirteen, it means nothing. And even you know,
Speaker 1: even dabble, if they go eight and nine, that's probably
Speaker 1: not going to cut it. But for me, it's two
Speaker 1: clear options. It's Kevin O'Connell on the Vikings. I think
Speaker 1: they have a really really good team. I know you
Speaker 1: guys talked about it last week. They're they're probably the
Speaker 1: team in the North that looks the most complete. They
Speaker 1: have a monster in Justin Jefferson. They are going to
Speaker 1: have a good year. And then it's John Harbough. So
Speaker 1: you've got a team that's potentially going from last place
Speaker 1: last year, a ton of injuries, ton of problems, and
Speaker 1: they're the favorite now to win their division. You gotta
Speaker 1: think anybody who bounces from forth to first and ends
Speaker 1: up cleaning up the division, they gotta get a look
Speaker 1: for Coach of the year. I think you just actually
Speaker 1: gave us a parlay dabble coach of the year, say Kwan,
Speaker 1: comeback player of the year at plus what is the
Speaker 1: plus six? And Giants over wins. That's the connective tissue. Well,
Speaker 1: those three things will happen just a big Giants part.
Speaker 1: Sorry up now. Mortal lock for me is I think
Speaker 1: Quana is at over nine in something yards right now.
Speaker 1: I would absolutely hammer that over. We'll talk more about
Speaker 1: that in a couple of weeks, but I really really
Speaker 1: like that. I mean, he is their offense might not
Speaker 1: be Daniel Jones, but he's gonna be you know, I
Speaker 1: think he's gonna be back to his normal self. Hopefully
Speaker 1: he stays healthy looking at Defensive Player of the Year,
Speaker 1: Myles Garrett in Cleveland is tied with t. J. Watt
Speaker 1: for the favorite at plus seven hundred and Micah Parsons,
Speaker 1: though is the highest ticket, highest handle, biggest liability over
Speaker 1: at bet MGM. But Miles Garrett intrigues me because they
Speaker 1: play the Panthers September and that is when he will
Speaker 1: face off against his former quarterback Baker Mayfield, who left
Speaker 1: Cleveland obviously not on the best of terms, and there
Speaker 1: have been a lot of people to come out of
Speaker 1: that locker room with sore feelings about Baker Mayfield, and
Speaker 1: Myles Garrett just said he would love to get a
Speaker 1: couple of sacks on Baker Mayfield September eleven against the Panthers,
Speaker 1: kicking off the season in that kind of fashion and
Speaker 1: with this kind of urgency. Do you like how Miles
Speaker 1: garrett season could start and potentially play out as he
Speaker 1: goes up some pretty good qbs in his own division. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if given that exactly that you have to put a
Speaker 1: little bit of a flyer or not really a flyer
Speaker 1: who's the favorite. But put something on him, because if
Speaker 1: he comes out in sacks and four times does something ridiculous,
Speaker 1: that number is going to dramatically change in Week two
Speaker 1: and he might not have that same level of effort
Speaker 1: for the rest of the season. But if he comes
Speaker 1: out firing, you gotta you gotta put something on on
Speaker 1: Myles Garrett. I'm going I'll go a Homer pick with
Speaker 1: a Niner, but also you said him earlier. I'll start
Speaker 1: with Michael Parsons. He's nine to one right now. He
Speaker 1: plays every position. Last year, he literally played the back
Speaker 1: corner nickel, he played on the line, he played obviously
Speaker 1: as a linebacker. He does everything. He probably has the
Speaker 1: most opportunity to go and show off with forced fumbles, interceptions, sacks.
Speaker 1: I mean he's going to be all over the field.
Speaker 1: I think that's a very very logical pick. But my
Speaker 1: Homer pick Nick Bosa and how complete that defense is
Speaker 1: this year, especially their front seven. He's actually gonna get
Speaker 1: a lot of one on ones, which is scary to think.
Speaker 1: And at fourteen and one, that's a great price for
Speaker 1: a guy who's probably gonna get another fifteen and a
Speaker 1: half plus sacks. It's always a wild card, especially for
Speaker 1: a lot of these defensive players, always getting hurt. But
Speaker 1: Micah Parsons, you know he's going to be there on
Speaker 1: the field, he's gonna ball out, and and Bosa does
Speaker 1: it every year, obviously towards a cl the one year,
Speaker 1: but he has been nothing but productive in the other
Speaker 1: two seasons that he's played for the Niners. So I
Speaker 1: think it's a pretty pretty good price. I think it's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a miss price, but fourteen one
Speaker 1: hundred bucks when you're fourteen hundred bucks not too bad.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned Homer Pick and you said you listened
Speaker 1: to the show last week, which we do appreciate. How
Speaker 1: Appaul were you by my rant of the Seattle Seahawks
Speaker 1: for your lottery ticket to win the NFC West, Being
Speaker 1: that you're wearing a George Kittle jersey right now? How
Speaker 1: appalled by you? Remember I said lottery ticket, did not
Speaker 1: say sure thing. So I was driving. This is one
Speaker 1: of those things I'll never forget now. I was driving
Speaker 1: to the p G a tour of Superstore, almost crashed
Speaker 1: the car when I heard you say take them to win.
Speaker 1: I unsubscribed the podcast and I realized subscribed. But no,
Speaker 1: I I like where the thought is. I think you
Speaker 1: have to take a fly like that. Every year they
Speaker 1: always talked about there's always one team that goes from
Speaker 1: fourth to first and makes the playoffs. Why not Seattle
Speaker 1: probably drew Lock. Maybe that's why. Yeah, it's interesting. I
Speaker 1: think you're right in a sense. First of all, they're
Speaker 1: over in in wins, spot on, They're gonna play a
Speaker 1: lot of crappy teams. They're probably gonna steal one from
Speaker 1: either the Rams of the Niners of the Cardinals. That's
Speaker 1: gonna put them right there at four or five wins,
Speaker 1: and then they're gonna squeak out one or two. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there's a better chance of me making the
Speaker 1: NFL that than Seattle won in their division. So I
Speaker 1: know the way out in the limb I told I
Speaker 1: told Olivia is too. If the whatever the odds are,
Speaker 1: that this happens, everyone better run and hide from me
Speaker 1: because you guys will never hear the end of that call.
Speaker 1: So but luckily, I think you guys are safe. Okay,
Speaker 1: awards wise, because there's so many though anything we could
Speaker 1: just kind of narrow it down here. We went over
Speaker 1: the big ones. Is there anything else that sticks out
Speaker 1: to you award wise? Do you want to maybe just
Speaker 1: tell the listeners to just put a pin in for
Speaker 1: now as the odds are kind of all over the place.
Speaker 1: Offensive Player of the Year maybe yeah, O p O y.
Speaker 1: There's one player that sticks out to me, justin Jefferson.
Speaker 1: I think he's going to have another monster year. I
Speaker 1: think he's still something like something crazy. Again, the that
Speaker 1: is very much a skilled player award outside of quarterback.
Speaker 1: I think he has every opportunity to be probably best
Speaker 1: wide receiver in the NFL, certainly in the top three already.
Speaker 1: That one sticks out to me. And then one that's
Speaker 1: a little bit weird is Comeback Player of the Year.
Speaker 1: I think true. Additionally, that's another quarterback heavy award. But
Speaker 1: you have Trubisky who might not be starting by week
Speaker 1: five or six. It might be Kenny Pickett by that point.
Speaker 1: You have Baker who is probably he is week one
Speaker 1: starter officially. Janis Jamis is another actually great example of
Speaker 1: Michael Thomas. But the point I was gonna make is
Speaker 1: you got Christian McCaffrey, Michael Thomas, J K. Dobbins, Chase
Speaker 1: Young who's not coming back for week one, but we'll
Speaker 1: be back sooner than later. Those are a lot of
Speaker 1: guys that are huge, huge impact players going to make
Speaker 1: a difference on their team. For me, it's kind of
Speaker 1: chalk with McCaffrey. If he comes back healthy and you
Speaker 1: know what he can do, obviously catching the ball out
Speaker 1: of the backfield and russing for twenty five times, that's
Speaker 1: the no brainer. But those things can fluctuate so much
Speaker 1: based off performance and who gets reinjured and whatnot. Did
Speaker 1: they say when Chase Young has happened? Announced officially when
Speaker 1: he's back yet they didn't really. Yeah, I think they've
Speaker 1: just said he's pretty doubtful for week one. I'd say
Speaker 1: they slowly getting back probably three or four. But that's
Speaker 1: why his d p O I so high, right because
Speaker 1: right now I think Ben m has a plus four thousand.
Speaker 1: That might be another So you able to do a little,
Speaker 1: very very small Seahawks NFC West Chase Young Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year. It's a couple of little dollars. I'll
Speaker 1: just say. I like action, Peter, I like I like
Speaker 1: long odds. Hey, if you want mortal locks, well listen,
Speaker 1: if you want lottery tickets, you go to Jerry. If
Speaker 1: you want mortal locks at the Ravens preseason going, we'll
Speaker 1: give you a little bit of both. Every week. We
Speaker 1: try to give you a little balance to make some
Speaker 1: money or shoot for the stars too. I love it.
Speaker 1: I love Yeah. Last time Ravens lost a preseason game,
Speaker 1: I believe Lamar Jackson was going to be a freshman
Speaker 1: at Louisville. So a lot of fun there with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I almost lost my preseason mind watching Toodeau
Speaker 1: get that awful cheap shot for the job. So this
Speaker 1: is why I love preseason. It's fun. We all get hype,
Speaker 1: but that that that in the Zach Wilson and I'm
Speaker 1: no Jets fan, those two things just make me say,
Speaker 1: just start the season already, just started. Start the season.
Speaker 1: Get the third string guys in. That's a don't put
Speaker 1: any starters and not worth it. I got so scared,
Speaker 1: so scared. Well, we're gonna have a lot of fun
Speaker 1: talking to you throughout the season, Pete, because we can
Speaker 1: build some parlays, we can have running bets between the
Speaker 1: three of us. There's a lot of options here. So
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us and looking forward to
Speaker 1: catching up once the season begins. Yeah, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: some fun this year. Thanks guys. All right, We're gonna
Speaker 1: have a lot of fun with Peter this year, now
Speaker 1: that I know I control him so much about his niners. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I told you you'd like him. I love him. That's
Speaker 1: three episodes down and we haven't even begun to really
Speaker 1: talk about basketball yet. This is gonna be so fun,
Speaker 1: trying to broke all my energy out evenly. It's gonna
Speaker 1: get intense, though. I'm excited. And this week I'm fine
Speaker 1: London and you told me you've got a good London story,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna save it for when I've got boots
Speaker 1: on the ground, So I'm excited to hear that next week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: quick tease. Uh almost didn't marry my wife because of
Speaker 1: what happened in London. It's not as dramatic as it sounds.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we'll talk about that next week and a
Speaker 1: whole lot more. Three episodes in. I'm still here. I'm
Speaker 1: not going anywhere, Olivia, Thank you so much. And uh yeah, guys, subscribe,
Speaker 1: do all that good stuff. We'll be back next week.
Speaker 1: See Yeah,