Speaker 1: Cut open that DJ Moore hand zone touchdown touchdown pairs.
Speaker 2: I am Jeff Jonia blitz is on dot go.
Speaker 3: What was like playing for coach Good?
Speaker 2: I don't want to answer any questions like that pressure
Speaker 2: coming is a big trouble.
Speaker 1: Dotty goes Mottest Sweat Bears et cetera, brought to you
Speaker 1: by Miller Lte with the voices that the Bears, Jeff
Speaker 1: Joniac and Tom Thayer.
Speaker 2: Well, many hands make quick work.
Speaker 1: It's a phrase often used to describe getting the job done,
Speaker 1: meeting a goal, but in the NFL it definitely has
Speaker 1: a legit way to describe the process to building a champion. Yes,
Speaker 1: the players have to execute, the coaches have to make
Speaker 1: the right decisions, the GM has to bring in the
Speaker 1: talent and be flexible in the process.
Speaker 2: But there are so many more hands that make it
Speaker 2: all happen.
Speaker 1: And one of them is Bears Chief negotiator and VP
Speaker 1: of Football Administration Matt Finstein, described by a gentle manager
Speaker 1: Ryan Pull as an invaluable asset to our football operation,
Speaker 1: who joined the Bears in twenty twenty two after seven
Speaker 1: years with the NFL Management Council.
Speaker 2: This is Bears et cetera.
Speaker 1: Episode one five are brought to you by Miller Lte
Speaker 1: with Super Bowl winning Bears guard Tom Thare.
Speaker 2: I'm Jeff Jonaiack.
Speaker 1: Are you exhausted from the off season and the business
Speaker 1: season at so many things were going on?
Speaker 3: No, I'm energized. Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: The energy comes from the types of people we brought in,
Speaker 1: the things that were done. Take us through that. Because
Speaker 1: in your role, people don't don't know a lot about you.
Speaker 1: They know your name, they know you're the cheap negotiator.
Speaker 1: But when you get somebody signed or you make a
Speaker 1: free agent decision or an extension, I mean it's got
Speaker 1: to be an adrenaline rush for you as well, because
Speaker 1: that takes some time, it takes some process.
Speaker 4: It's the best feeling I have, Like the best possible
Speaker 4: thing that can happen during my day is going and
Speaker 4: grabbing a player and helping him to sign his contract
Speaker 4: because I'm sure it's you know, it's it's life changing
Speaker 4: money for them, and so just that process, right, it
Speaker 4: usually takes a long time to get to that point,
Speaker 4: whether it's quick in free agency and it's competitive, or
Speaker 4: it's negotiating an extension over months or weeks. But getting
Speaker 4: that done and getting to that point and usually seeing them,
Speaker 4: you know, super happy and excited.
Speaker 3: That gets me excited.
Speaker 5: Hey, when the season concludes, what is your job up
Speaker 5: until the day that we see the war room and
Speaker 5: you guys take the first pick in the draft and
Speaker 5: then all that excitement happens. But what are some of
Speaker 5: the details of your job at the conclusion of a
Speaker 5: season up unto that point.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a lot of preparation, because I think you've
Speaker 4: probably heard Ryan talk about this, But for us, when
Speaker 4: it comes to acquiring talent, right you're constantly thinking about
Speaker 4: free agency and the draft together, and so we're looking at, Okay,
Speaker 4: here's the free agency board. It may change, some players
Speaker 4: may go back to their original teams. Some players can
Speaker 4: make it franchise tagged, which adds another layer to the complexity.
Speaker 4: But we're looking at, Okay, what are our draft picks
Speaker 4: look like where we could potentially trade up or down
Speaker 4: or whatever, But what do they look like right now?
Speaker 4: Who are the players in the draft that are available,
Speaker 4: and then how do we combine that with a successful
Speaker 4: free agency to put the most competitive fifty three on
Speaker 4: the field in September, which is a long way away.
Speaker 4: And so we're constantly looking at all, right, what are
Speaker 4: the different combinations, you know, between both of those things,
Speaker 4: knowing that there's going to be some unknowns that some
Speaker 4: things are going to play out during OTAs and training camp,
Speaker 4: and then what does that mean for today? Right, So
Speaker 4: potential combinations of players were going to sign early in
Speaker 4: free agency or laid in free agency, and then as
Speaker 4: the draft goes on, right round one, Round two, later rounds,
Speaker 4: undrafted free agency, how do we put all that together
Speaker 4: to achieve the goals for the team as a whole.
Speaker 4: And so there's a lot of forecasting that goes into it, really,
Speaker 4: just a lot of preparation and for me, you know,
Speaker 4: forecasting numbers and trying to see what affects our salary
Speaker 4: cap this year and then in future years so that
Speaker 4: I can tell Ryan, hey, if we do this, it
Speaker 4: may affect how we're going to do something next year
Speaker 4: or in two years. So that's that's where the brunt
Speaker 4: of my work comes in. And then I have to
Speaker 4: distill all that down and say, all right, here's the
Speaker 4: amount of money we have to work with, you know,
Speaker 4: with some margin of error, and here's how we can
Speaker 4: potentially split it up. And you know, here's Plan ABC.
Speaker 4: Because things don't always go your way, so you always
Speaker 4: have to have fallback options and different plans and ways
Speaker 4: that you can be adaptable and flexible while not compromising
Speaker 4: your core values and losing sight of the long term goal.
Speaker 5: When you when you talk about forecasting, do you have
Speaker 5: a certain amount of allotted money per position or does
Speaker 5: that have you don't take that in consideration.
Speaker 6: It's individually done.
Speaker 4: It's more individual you know, I think we have enough guardrails, right.
Speaker 4: The salary cap obviously is a hard cap, and so
Speaker 4: I don't I don't try to put too many additional
Speaker 4: guardrails in place where, you know, we could potentially jam
Speaker 4: ourselves up if we're breaking our own rules that are
Speaker 4: arbitrary to begin with, versus just saying, hey, you know,
Speaker 4: this is the talent that you've got that's available. Talent
Speaker 4: is hard to come by in this league, right, It's
Speaker 4: probably in a lot shorter supply than people realize, and
Speaker 4: so we allocate resources that way.
Speaker 3: We want the best players available to play for us
Speaker 3: because that at the end of the day, that's what's
Speaker 3: going to help us win games.
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Speaker 1: options near you. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Speaker 1: You mentioned scenarios. You got to have plans. How far
Speaker 1: down the alphabet do you go on a plan? So
Speaker 1: you got your plan, A plan, B, plant C. I
Speaker 1: don't hear many planned des and fs in the world
Speaker 1: of business, but is that the case?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they happen, and oftentimes they end up
Speaker 4: working out, you know, pleasantly, well, you get pleasantly surprised
Speaker 4: sometimes right when you see you know, getting further down
Speaker 4: the line.
Speaker 3: You may not you know, make as many lines.
Speaker 4: Or get as much attention for some moves, But at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, once these guys hit the field,
Speaker 4: sometimes a're like, Wow, that was a really good deal
Speaker 4: or a really good move to go acquire that player.
Speaker 4: So we try to stay as flexible as possible, and
Speaker 4: that means having a lot of different plans. I wouldn't
Speaker 4: say that necessarily, you know, everything that we do fits
Speaker 4: one precise plan to a t. But at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, we're trying to stay within our overall
Speaker 4: sort of constraints and the overall vision where we can
Speaker 4: at least check off each goal in some former fashion
Speaker 4: in a way that we'd contemplated before we'd do it.
Speaker 2: How'd you get into this?
Speaker 3: That's a long story.
Speaker 2: Give us a cliff notes version.
Speaker 4: I thought I was going to do football analytics, and
Speaker 4: so I was writing about football analytics for Bloomberg Sports,
Speaker 4: which was Bloomberg Financial Sports Company years ago, this must
Speaker 4: be ten years ago, twelve.
Speaker 1: Years ago, or certainly before it was a thing for
Speaker 1: football analytic.
Speaker 3: I was their only analytics writer.
Speaker 4: They were basically they were doing mostly baseball, fantasy baseball,
Speaker 4: baseball analytics, things like that. I ended up that helped
Speaker 4: me get in to the NFL at the league office,
Speaker 4: and I was still doing analytics game stats analysis. If
Speaker 4: you remember years ago when they moved the extra point back,
Speaker 4: I remember doing a project about, you know, here's how
Speaker 4: that LFEC scoring. And then very soon after I joined
Speaker 4: the NFL, there was a lot of reorganization and shuffling,
Speaker 4: and I got basically dropped into the management council, which
Speaker 4: is you know, the arm of the NFL League Office
Speaker 4: that negotiates the collective Bargaining Agreement and deals with player
Speaker 4: contracts and really everything that has to do with player
Speaker 4: contracts and player you know, salary and benefits, compensation, everything
Speaker 4: between the NFL and the NFLPA. And so at that time,
Speaker 4: it was twenty fifteen, they were just starting to prepare
Speaker 4: for twenty twenty CBA negotiations, and so I ended up
Speaker 4: sort of transferring some of that analytical skill and looking
Speaker 4: at how players are aid, you know, how money is
Speaker 4: divvied up among different team salary caps, and applying that
Speaker 4: towards Hey, if we change this right, if we tweak
Speaker 4: the fifth year option calculation, if we tweak the proven
Speaker 4: performance escalator, how does it affect spending on players? Right
Speaker 4: Where you've got a certain amount of money that goes
Speaker 4: to veteran players and free agency or extensions, you've got
Speaker 4: a certain amount of money that goes to players under
Speaker 4: the rookie system, restricted free agents, everything, And so constantly
Speaker 4: analyzing that, engaging tweaks we could make, you know, as
Speaker 4: we got into twenty twenty and started to make some
Speaker 4: of those changes, which was really cool.
Speaker 6: You know, Matt.
Speaker 5: You said you started talking thinking about the Collective Barney
Speaker 5: Agreement in twenty fifteen when it expired in twenty twenty.
Speaker 5: How far ahead do you start thinking about a now
Speaker 5: that you're working for a team and not the league.
Speaker 5: How far ahead do you start thinking about a player contract,
Speaker 5: the possibility of a contract extension of a bright guy,
Speaker 5: for example, Kyler Gordon this year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, early, as early as I can reasonably. And I
Speaker 4: say that because you know, obviously what they do on
Speaker 4: the field is going to impact that, and so I
Speaker 4: can you know, I can say, you know, two years early,
Speaker 4: but in reality those seasons in between are going to
Speaker 4: have some effect on, you know, what Kyler's negotiation would
Speaker 4: look like. So I try to think it about about
Speaker 4: it as early as possible, But really I'm preparing, you know,
Speaker 4: probably six months out, because really for me, I just
Speaker 4: want to be prepared and ready for when Ryan says
Speaker 4: let's go. And at that point there's a lot of
Speaker 4: different things that are going to get put in motion,
Speaker 4: plans and research and things like that that we're going
Speaker 4: to bring to him, that he's going to bring to
Speaker 4: Kevin or to George and say, you know, this is
Speaker 4: something I want to do and here's why. And then
Speaker 4: eventually we have a plan put together and we can, you.
Speaker 3: Know, get ready to go and execute it.
Speaker 5: Matt, I've been a Bears fan my whole life, and
Speaker 5: the anticipation of watching a Bears game sometimes it adds
Speaker 5: a tenseness to me because I'm pulling so hard for
Speaker 5: the Bears. When you watch a game, can you enjoy
Speaker 5: the game or does every single play, maybe even an injury,
Speaker 5: all sudden ignite a thought in your head? Or is
Speaker 5: there any time during the course of a football season
Speaker 5: that you can just kick back and enjoy watching a
Speaker 5: game without all those thoughts that are being placed in
Speaker 5: your head unexpectedly.
Speaker 4: I think it's pretty tense for me, you know, I
Speaker 4: want to win, I think as much as anybody in
Speaker 4: this building. That's that's the goal, right, We're gonna We're
Speaker 4: gonna work hard from uh, you know, February through August
Speaker 4: with all these different things that we do to to
Speaker 4: put one a winner on the field.
Speaker 3: And no lead is too safe, right.
Speaker 4: So at any given point, it's not even about you know,
Speaker 4: the the little things you know that are that I'm
Speaker 4: thinking about transactions and things like that during the season
Speaker 4: but at the end of the day, what we're doing
Speaker 4: here is trying to improve our team and win football games, right,
Speaker 4: and so that that core sort of goal is constantly
Speaker 4: what I'm thinking about.
Speaker 2: Hey Bears.
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Speaker 1: Matt there are scouting report that's like you hear about
Speaker 1: it in every vernacular in the NFL as you get
Speaker 1: ready for a game. Do you have scouting reports on agents?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: But also I think one of the important things you
Speaker 4: can do in a role like this is is expect
Speaker 4: the unexpected. Yeah, And so that can only take you
Speaker 4: so far. You're always going to get hit sideways with
Speaker 4: something I think during every negotiation and just being able
Speaker 4: to stay on your feet and be nimble is a
Speaker 4: critical piece of it too.
Speaker 1: Did you ever consider becoming an agent when you're you
Speaker 1: went to the University of Michigan, right, Did you ever
Speaker 1: have any in contact with the football operations there anyway.
Speaker 2: So did you ever consider being an agent?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: I mean I didn't. I'd ever thought this was a
Speaker 4: career path for me in college.
Speaker 2: You know, what'd you think?
Speaker 4: I thought I was going to be a lifelong football
Speaker 4: fan and just live out my days and spend Sundays
Speaker 4: on the couch.
Speaker 3: File.
Speaker 2: So this is the coolest job overage?
Speaker 3: Oh, for you, it's awesome.
Speaker 4: You wake up every morning energized and excited to come
Speaker 4: into work and to get something done. And it's awesome.
Speaker 2: What's it like working with Ryan Poles?
Speaker 3: Amazing?
Speaker 4: And it's Ryan, It's the whole crew, you know, it's Ryan,
Speaker 4: It's I and Jeff Trey Breck down the line. Good dudes,
Speaker 4: Awesome people, incredible to work with. They they teach me
Speaker 4: as much as I can hope to teach them, and
Speaker 4: that that helps me do my job better because at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, I'm translating everything they're giving
Speaker 4: me about you know what a player does, you know
Speaker 4: how he competes, where he may fit on our roster
Speaker 4: into terms that I can use to better do my job.
Speaker 4: So I learned things from all them, and they're all
Speaker 4: just a great team unit. They work so well together
Speaker 4: and that just helps me, you know, as I as
Speaker 4: I try to do my little part.
Speaker 5: Matt, You've had time to develop a relationship with Ryan
Speaker 5: Paul's in his staff, to get to know what he
Speaker 5: requires out of you. How long does it take you
Speaker 5: to get to know a new head coach. You bring
Speaker 5: in Ben Johnson, here's a first time head coach, and
Speaker 5: do you have to develop a relationship with him to
Speaker 5: know his spending habits or do you deal directly with
Speaker 5: Ryan and let Ryan deal with Ben.
Speaker 4: A little bit of both. I think Ryan does a
Speaker 4: lot of that. He handles that a lot himself. But
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, I do have to have some
Speaker 4: sort of relationship with Ben, and it's for the same reasons, Right,
Speaker 4: I'm translating what he's telling me into things that can
Speaker 4: help me do my job. And I think Ryan certainly
Speaker 4: takes on the front of that, and you know he
Speaker 4: can help with that translation.
Speaker 3: Really well.
Speaker 4: It may take me a little bit longer to figure
Speaker 4: it out. But as Ben as all the you know,
Speaker 4: all of the his coordinators, his assistant coaches tell us things, right,
Speaker 4: We're just trying to take that information and use it
Speaker 4: to help us, right, whether it's scout when we're going
Speaker 4: out scouting players in college or you know, pro scouting,
Speaker 4: or for me in my job, right, I'm just trying
Speaker 4: to hear about the things that they prioritize in terms
Speaker 4: of different players, right both on and off the field,
Speaker 4: to better help me understand, you know, how I should
Speaker 4: structure something or to what extent to balance myself out.
Speaker 4: So it takes me a little while to kind of
Speaker 4: figure that out. But having a relationship, the more and
Speaker 4: more that you do it, the easier it is.
Speaker 3: With those guys.
Speaker 2: All right, we're gonna let you go.
Speaker 1: Time is money and you got a lot to worry about,
Speaker 1: so we could talk to you for a half hour.
Speaker 1: But I find this aspect of football fascinating because it's
Speaker 1: never really discussed much. And when you find somebody of
Speaker 1: a man like yourself making an impact in the NFL,
Speaker 1: people should know about you a little bit. So you've
Speaker 1: put a lot into it in your life and your career. Colemack,
Speaker 1: New York, do you know else Thomas from Comack, New
Speaker 1: York as a Golden domer. Tom Mendoza you know Tom
Speaker 1: Mendoza is of course business executive namesake of Mendoza College
Speaker 1: of business at Notre Dame. So that's a uh of
Speaker 1: course he played with Harball, Bob Costas.
Speaker 6: Yeah, these are.
Speaker 1: Things you know, right, and uh Rosie o'donald just to
Speaker 1: name a few.
Speaker 2: So wow, what a town. Those are the main ones.
Speaker 2: It's a whole list. I saw something I never heard of.
Speaker 1: But uh, where at where in relation to New York
Speaker 1: City is that it's a super.
Speaker 4: Okay, probably about an hour drive from New York City.
Speaker 2: Thank you so so much for your time. You do
Speaker 2: great things.
Speaker 1: Ryan talks about you all the time, said, hey, this
Speaker 1: is a man you got to get to know, so
Speaker 1: we got we got to know you a little bit today.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
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Speaker 1: Chicago Bears. Matt Feinstein, Uh, wonderful to hear, Tom, because
Speaker 1: often the backgrounds don't necessarily relate entirely to football, could
Speaker 1: be another walk of let They may not even be
Speaker 1: football fans. I love the fact he's a football fan.
Speaker 1: That makes it better, That makes the job even more
Speaker 1: important for me.
Speaker 5: Right they thought he was going to graduate with a
Speaker 5: degree in football pandemonium from Michigan, but look at him
Speaker 5: going from the league offices now.
Speaker 6: Being attached to the Bears the way he has.
Speaker 5: It was a great conversation and like you said, there's
Speaker 5: a thousand more things I'd like to ask him, and
Speaker 5: he it's a job that's never done.
Speaker 1: You know, the first job when you come here with
Speaker 1: the Bears or in any new situation, you gotta look
Speaker 1: at the financials. Hey is everything in order? What are
Speaker 1: we going to do as a franchise. And clearly when
Speaker 1: Ryan Poles came in, it was to strip it down
Speaker 1: to the bear wire. Frankly, that's the process, and the
Speaker 1: first step in that of a rebuild is getting those
Speaker 1: financials in order to give the franchise a new foundation
Speaker 1: to build on. And now we're starting to see the
Speaker 1: fruits of their labor. We hope it relates to wins,
Speaker 1: obviously in a Super Bowl, but the extensions that we've seen.
Speaker 1: We've talked about it on this show many times. That's
Speaker 1: telling me and telling the locker room that they believe
Speaker 1: in a cash of players that are going to be
Speaker 1: their core when they win. They're not going to give
Speaker 1: people extensions just because They're going to give extensions to
Speaker 1: people because they believe they'll be the reason why you win.
Speaker 1: And I think there's more of that coming. So that
Speaker 1: to me is a green light go.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: You know, whether it's a homegrown guy that you drafted
Speaker 5: and ben here since the beginning, are guys that you
Speaker 5: brought aboard and they showed significant traits of being in
Speaker 5: an alpha male leader inside that locker room and for
Speaker 5: their position. And I think that's what Ryan Poles has
Speaker 5: always wanted to do on this football team. And now
Speaker 5: I do think when you're a general manager that's been
Speaker 5: here and you having a brand new head coach, is
Speaker 5: it kind of it opens more avenues for conversations of
Speaker 5: what you want to try to accomplish in terms of talent.
Speaker 1: And honestly, a year ago, when you draft Caleb Williams
Speaker 1: won and Roma duns nine, you're already wondering, okay, if
Speaker 1: they're going to be the stars.
Speaker 2: Think they will.
Speaker 1: That's going to cost, you know, five years from now
Speaker 1: and where you want your money to be. Obviously, quarterbacks
Speaker 1: going to make the money, but I want to put
Speaker 1: it in my line of scrimmage, and I think the
Speaker 1: Bears are doing that.
Speaker 5: But you just look at the league over the last
Speaker 5: three or four years, and you look at the way
Speaker 5: salaries have gone for defensive backs, for wide receivers, four
Speaker 5: tight ends, every single position out there. They're knowing the start,
Speaker 5: they're not decreasing their contracts. Every contract has increased in
Speaker 5: some way, shape or form, and you know, so up
Speaker 5: and down the line of scrimmage, both sides of the
Speaker 5: ball and beyond.
Speaker 6: It, they're going to get paid.
Speaker 5: And that's what Matt said even in his interview, that
Speaker 5: you're making financial, life changing decisions for a lot of
Speaker 5: these young guys.
Speaker 1: And one of those is not a young guy, but
Speaker 1: a guy who's still playing in plans to make a
Speaker 1: big impact for the Bears. Reportedly NFL Network Insiders and
Speaker 1: Rapidport and Tom Pelasero reporting on Tuesday when we were
Speaker 1: taping this podcast, at the three time All pro Joe
Speaker 1: Tooney agreeing on a two year extension not official yet,
Speaker 1: as we as we put this together, but it was
Speaker 1: expected when they brought him here. It was something that
Speaker 1: figured to get done.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, it's kind of funny because when you
Speaker 5: bring that up and you talk about agents and everything,
Speaker 5: Mike McCartney, his agent is an ex Chicago Bear scout.
Speaker 5: And you know, the way that you know from what
Speaker 5: the first day you walk into hallis Hall and how you.
Speaker 6: Got to get to know it.
Speaker 5: Then you walk back into Hallas Hall and you're walking
Speaker 5: in with a client. It's, you know, an amazing kind
Speaker 5: of a turn of the wheel from Matt being Matt
Speaker 5: Feinstein being in the front office of the NFL to
Speaker 5: now being in the front office of the Bears.
Speaker 6: It's it's a definitely change of life.
Speaker 1: And if it were you in that position coming over
Speaker 1: after being a multi time Super Bowl champion and you're
Speaker 1: coming here with a lot on your shoulders as somebody
Speaker 1: that's going to lead that offensive line at the left
Speaker 1: guard position, how would that make you feel to get
Speaker 1: that belief in you from your new organization that hey,
Speaker 1: we really do We didn't just bring you here for
Speaker 1: one year.
Speaker 2: We brought you.
Speaker 1: Here to stabilize this situation on the offensive line and
Speaker 1: take us into the future.
Speaker 5: Well, Joe's coming in with Joe Toney's coming in with
Speaker 5: a reputation. He's got a reputation of an alpha male,
Speaker 5: of a successful offensive lineman.
Speaker 6: Not a pro bowler, but an all pro. He's got versatility.
Speaker 5: He's shown signs from New England to Kansas City that
Speaker 5: he can be one of the most successful interior alignment
Speaker 5: in all of the leagues. So if I was walking
Speaker 5: in with the same swagger as Joe Toney, I would
Speaker 5: come in here with the intentions of being an inside
Speaker 5: the locker room influence and get this thing turned around.
Speaker 1: Good news, Chicago United Airlines is getting brand new planes
Speaker 1: with all the bells and whistles, like Bluetooth connectivity screens
Speaker 1: at every seat in the room for everyone's roller bag.
Speaker 1: United proud to fly the Chicago Bears and you too.
Speaker 1: There's another round of NFL owners meetings. It's going on
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Again,
Speaker 1: we're taping this on Tuesday, so we won't know the
Speaker 1: outcomes of these things, but I wanted to get your
Speaker 1: take on a couple of them. One the flag football
Speaker 1: in the twenty eight Olympics, we know, flag football is booming.
Speaker 2: It's booming. It's going to be awesome that it's in
Speaker 2: the Olympics.
Speaker 1: I know there was some hesitation on the owner's part
Speaker 1: about allowing their players, especially you know, I'm assuming that
Speaker 1: the guys that they've heavily invested in to participate.
Speaker 2: So they had some questions.
Speaker 1: If a player got hurt, how that would work out
Speaker 1: in terms of accountability and how that works with the
Speaker 1: salary and the whole bit. There are some resolutions to it.
Speaker 1: One is one player per team would be allowed to participate,
Speaker 1: and permitting each NFL's club's designated international to play for
Speaker 1: his country as well, which would impact a guy like
Speaker 1: Tory Taylor, the Bears printer, if he chose to Each
Speaker 1: team would get appropriate injury protection and salary cap credit
Speaker 1: for any player who was injured while authorized to play
Speaker 1: in flag football activities related.
Speaker 2: To the Olympics.
Speaker 1: An agreement that an Olympic flag football teams would implement
Speaker 1: certain minimum standards for medical staff and field surfaces to
Speaker 1: be eligible. Now the Olympics will be in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there'd be ramp up practices and so, you
Speaker 1: really this becomes a big thing now it's only one player.
Speaker 1: But are you putting Lamar Jackson out there? Are you
Speaker 1: putting you know, say, qu I don't know. Are you
Speaker 1: allowing that? Is my question to you as an NFL player.
Speaker 1: Pretend for a minute that you're current in a NFL
Speaker 1: player and you want to play in the Olympics.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, I think there's a lot of similarity
Speaker 5: similarities to the modern day Pro Bowl. Those guys go
Speaker 5: out there and they play a flag football game and
Speaker 5: they have all these competitions in terms of a display
Speaker 5: of their athleticism. There's got to be a lot of
Speaker 5: similarities in that.
Speaker 6: Listen, if you take.
Speaker 5: A mid range player from the NFL and then you
Speaker 5: put a bunch of mid range guys from the NFL
Speaker 5: together for a team, they're going to be the greatest
Speaker 5: team in the world. So this is not something that
Speaker 5: now that these countries have had years to build their
Speaker 5: basketball talent or the basketball teams and they go out
Speaker 5: there and they're a little bit more competitive against the
Speaker 5: NBA players. The NBA players are still the NBA players
Speaker 5: and the NFL players are still going to be a
Speaker 5: competitive group of NFL players. And when you have a
Speaker 5: gold medal on the line for the first time in
Speaker 5: the history of the Olympics. That would be pretty awesome.
Speaker 2: I will watch. I will watch the too.
Speaker 1: I will watch to see also how far advanced other
Speaker 1: countries have become, like we've talked about on this show,
Speaker 1: like India, for example, they have a massive interest in football.
Speaker 1: They have a league that has broadcast rights and the
Speaker 1: whole bit, and they play football. Now what it looks like,
Speaker 1: I have no idea, but I think we'd be surprised
Speaker 1: at how many countries are actually playing football at some level.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's not at the NFL level in most cases
Speaker 1: all cases, probably, but how intriguing would that be to
Speaker 1: watch flag football internationally?
Speaker 5: Well, to me, it would be exciting to see a
Speaker 5: country like Canada because Canada has the Canadian Football League.
Speaker 5: They have guys on their football team that you have
Speaker 5: to come from Canada, so they have a larger pool
Speaker 5: of talent than some of the other countries will have.
Speaker 5: They also are a passing type of a league, so
Speaker 5: they're you know, passing their quarterback play.
Speaker 6: All that type of stuff is gonna be you know.
Speaker 5: I don't know if it's Manda mac comparable to the NFL,
Speaker 5: but it's gonna be, you know, a comparable brand of
Speaker 5: football that's gonna be super competitive.
Speaker 2: The only one I want to.
Speaker 1: Bring up is, and it's not the toush push that's
Speaker 1: an overtalked topic by now, but the new playoff format
Speaker 1: that has been suggested by the Detroit Lions. Seven seeds
Speaker 1: obviously in each conference seated by the best record, So
Speaker 1: in effect, the wildcard team could be seated ahead of
Speaker 1: a division winner if the wildcard team as a better record,
Speaker 1: and the chances are that division winners could be playing
Speaker 1: road games in the wild crowd round. So you know,
Speaker 1: I don't like it. You win the division, you've earned it.
Speaker 1: Certain divisions are weaker than others. Certain divisions are stronger
Speaker 1: than I like the NFC North right now, how do
Speaker 1: you feel about it?
Speaker 5: You know, it seems like if someone gets an id
Speaker 5: in their head according to the records that they finish with,
Speaker 5: they bring it up as a topic of debate and discussion.
Speaker 5: You know, probably be a nightmare for the guys like
Speaker 5: Kyle Kelly, behind the scenes guy for the Bears that
Speaker 5: has to make all the arrangements of where their team
Speaker 5: is going to travel, and if the records just unfold
Speaker 5: the way they do according to right now, there's a
Speaker 5: lot more anticipation of where you're going to go, where
Speaker 5: you're going to play, and what you need. If the
Speaker 5: seedings go after the season's over, then all of a sudden,
Speaker 5: you start throwing this you know, and you start deciding
Speaker 5: on who's going to play where when it just it
Speaker 5: seems a little bit more confusing to me.
Speaker 1: For me though, it kind of defeats the purpose of
Speaker 1: winning your division, like correct, that's how you get to
Speaker 1: the playoffs.
Speaker 5: But you get a division that's not as successful as
Speaker 5: some of the other divisions, and then they start this
Speaker 5: complaint train, And here we are is that they're discussing
Speaker 5: it at an owner's meeting.
Speaker 1: Well, if it does get passed, and I don't know
Speaker 1: that it will. In the NFC in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: under this proposal, five of the seven teams would have
Speaker 1: been a different seed, So interesting discussion if nothing else.
Speaker 1: The on side kick also, right now, you can only
Speaker 1: attempt an onside kick in the fourth quarter, and only
Speaker 1: attempt if you're trailing. Under the new proposal, team could
Speaker 1: declare an onside kick at any point in the game
Speaker 1: as long as they're trailing, and it will also allowed
Speaker 1: the players on the kicking team to line up one
Speaker 1: yard closer, which would essentially give them a better chance
Speaker 1: to recover an on side kick.
Speaker 2: How do you feel about that one?
Speaker 5: I don't know, that's kind of crazy, I don't you know.
Speaker 5: I like the new kickoff rule that there has been
Speaker 5: put in place, but not so sure. I mean, are
Speaker 5: you speeding up the collisions if you allow the guys
Speaker 5: to add, you know, show you know, come a yard
Speaker 5: closer and so you know there's a lot of I mean,
Speaker 5: I would need to see a picture of it on
Speaker 5: paper to help make a more clear decision.
Speaker 1: We're brought to you by P and C Official Bank
Speaker 1: of the Bears. So now we're in eight OTA season. Tommy, Uh,
Speaker 1: what do you want to hear? What do you want
Speaker 1: to see in the OTAs?
Speaker 5: I want to hear the terminology come out of Caleb's mouth,
Speaker 5: clear and concise and know exactly what he's saying to everybody,
Speaker 5: and then all the counterpieces know exactly what they're being
Speaker 5: told in the huddle. I want to see, you know,
Speaker 5: started in putting these pieces in place to eventually down
Speaker 5: the road. Sometimes at the training camp or beyond. When
Speaker 5: they do get a depth chart, the assistant coaches have
Speaker 5: a clearer understanding who belongs where and you know what
Speaker 5: position of competition that they are going to be slotted for.
Speaker 6: Once a depth chart does come.
Speaker 1: Out, well, I'll be excited to watch some of those.
Speaker 1: The media is allowed, I believe, once a week during
Speaker 1: the OTAs leading up to the veteran and mandatory mini
Speaker 1: camp before they head off for a month and then
Speaker 1: get back for training camp.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be fun, Tom, we know it is.
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Speaker 1: gonna do it for us, Spashal Thanks to our guest
Speaker 1: Bears Vice President of Football Administration Matt Feinstein.
Speaker 2: Fort time there. I'm Jeff Joningyac. Thanks for listening.
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