Speaker 1: NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. All Right, I know everyone is
Speaker 1: not hungry when you feast at Thanksgiving, Like all you
Speaker 1: want to do is just sit back on the couch.
Speaker 1: You got some football going and then of course you
Speaker 1: got the NFL Explained podcasts. Yes, you explained podcasts, and
Speaker 1: we call that that itis. Might you know you fall asleep?
Speaker 1: Yeah you can. You can feel the food coma in
Speaker 1: a big way. Yes, it is NFL Explained. Yes, he
Speaker 1: is the Super Bowl champ. Michael Robinson, Mike cam with you.
Speaker 1: This is the episode all about facts. You realize that, right, absolutely,
Speaker 1: Like we that's the reality that we live in. Facts.
Speaker 1: We are bringing the heat. And I've been talking about
Speaker 1: this all season long. Yo, d m us send your
Speaker 1: questions mail bag episode as promised, we are delivering this.
Speaker 1: I've often said this, I get excited. In fact, there's
Speaker 1: one question and coming up in a little bit where
Speaker 1: I said, man, that's a good question because that affects
Speaker 1: me on Sundays. So I was like, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking about it, so you ready to all right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start off with this one for this male bag episode,
Speaker 1: What do you punters do during practice? When I was
Speaker 1: a kid, I thought they just punted it all practice,
Speaker 1: But now I realize, you're like, it's incapable of doing
Speaker 1: that all day every day, So what do they do
Speaker 1: all day? That's a really good question. Um, Honestly, I
Speaker 1: never really thought about what punters do, but they punt. Obviously.
Speaker 1: In most NFL practices, Wednesdays are the first days that
Speaker 1: were on the field. That's your base personnel day, and
Speaker 1: and the teams that I was on Wednesdays was punt day, right,
Speaker 1: so special teams will go out there first, The punter
Speaker 1: will be out there first, then the punt team will
Speaker 1: go out, then the rest of the team will go out.
Speaker 1: Then we start practice, and in the middle of practice
Speaker 1: we have another punt period. So Wednesdays would be the
Speaker 1: punt time where he would go punt. Fridays would also
Speaker 1: be a big time punt time, So Wednesdays would be
Speaker 1: kind of punting kick off, Thursdays would be punt return
Speaker 1: and kick off returning, and Fridays we would do kind
Speaker 1: of all of them. So he would punt on those
Speaker 1: two days, but during the rest of the days of
Speaker 1: the week, if I would always see like the quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: because the quarterbacks always just need bodies, right because they're
Speaker 1: throwing the football to a lot of people. And during
Speaker 1: individual drills, oftentimes the quarterback coach will grab the punter
Speaker 1: or the kicker or somebody get those guys to stand
Speaker 1: out there and kind of be a placeholders, so the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks have targets. And then during a show team. Show
Speaker 1: team is when you have your practice squad guys and
Speaker 1: extra players practicing as if they were your opponent that week.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes you get a punter or or or a kicker
Speaker 1: who when we need extra bodies to come over and
Speaker 1: help run the scout team. All right, So I know,
Speaker 1: totally different here, But as we're getting this question about punchers,
Speaker 1: I was on my phone because I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 1: gotta show you this video because it's a little different here,
Speaker 1: and it's a pregame deal justin Tucker, who by the way,
Speaker 1: was a guest on this podcast last season, and try
Speaker 1: to talk to through the science of field goal in
Speaker 1: a pre game kicked in eighty seven yard or are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? So I know, once again a little different,
Speaker 1: but I started thinking about what kickers are doing German
Speaker 1: practice as well, like, and I'm wondering if like the
Speaker 1: cadence is the same. By the way, when Justin Tucker
Speaker 1: berries an eighty seven yard field goal, and it was
Speaker 1: it was in New Orleans, it was before their Monday
Speaker 1: night games in the Dome. But still nonetheless, man like,
Speaker 1: that's still pretty crazy. Can you imagine what a kickers
Speaker 1: practice routine. It's like, um, like keep going back back
Speaker 1: back back back. Oh man, kickers practice within eddy. I'm
Speaker 1: assuming they kick a bunch of they kick a bunch
Speaker 1: of field goals. But again, but just like to the
Speaker 1: punter's question, those guys can't kick every single day. It's
Speaker 1: just like quarterbacks, Like they can't sit there and throw
Speaker 1: with the intensity every single day. So you do have
Speaker 1: to manage those guys. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I used to get on my kickers all the time.
Speaker 1: When you only kick all day during the game, you
Speaker 1: better make them all on Sunday. Okay, make them all
Speaker 1: on Sunday. Just get it done. And by the way,
Speaker 1: Justin Tucker goat. I don't know if there's another player.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this the other day. Is there
Speaker 1: another player that's better than he is at his position?
Speaker 1: Like the answers. No, I mean maybe Josh think about that,
Speaker 1: like if you started throwing quarterbacks out there, like at
Speaker 1: least it's debatable, right, Like if you said, Josh Allen
Speaker 1: like I'll take Patrick, Like you know, you can have
Speaker 1: those debates. Like on the kicker side, I say, Justin
Speaker 1: Tucker and it kind of ends there. There is nobody there.
Speaker 1: It's kind of wild. Um, got another question for you?
Speaker 1: And which one to me? This is what I was
Speaker 1: referring to where it was affecting me for a long
Speaker 1: period of time. Australian fan here, yes, here we go.
Speaker 1: I would love to understand the Sunday afternoon broadcast maps better.
Speaker 1: How do they decide which parts of Oregon get the
Speaker 1: Chargers and which parts get the forty niners. That is
Speaker 1: a really good question. I'm assuming it would be on
Speaker 1: the geographical location of the city and the team, But
Speaker 1: that is a really good question. That's a technical question
Speaker 1: right there. Really as thank god we have technical people
Speaker 1: who can give us the answer to it, because I'm
Speaker 1: at home sometimes now before I got to NFL network,
Speaker 1: you know, like I'm not gonna a little cheap and
Speaker 1: like I don't have I don't have it. Like that.
Speaker 1: So you know what I'm saying, like, you know the
Speaker 1: whole Like, you know, NFL Sunday ticket not my I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna go out, like I'll go hang out with
Speaker 1: my friends, you know, like that's where all go consume
Speaker 1: the games. Then I start working here and I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: I need to be able to watch market. You have to.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, all right, I'm a pony up and
Speaker 1: get this done. So Red Zone obviously has changed my
Speaker 1: life and many fans and the whole thing. But with
Speaker 1: sort of fascinating about this Australian fans, this is a
Speaker 1: real predicament because in a state of Oregon, You're like, well,
Speaker 1: why would they care about the Chargers, Well, justin Herbert
Speaker 1: is from Eugene, Oregon, and Plane in Oregon, and the
Speaker 1: last time I was up in Portland, all I saw
Speaker 1: was Chargers jerseys, which is and they're also just in
Speaker 1: Herbron And so I'm like, oh, like that's actually a
Speaker 1: really good response. So and Rob to your point, like
Speaker 1: the map is actually really significant. So here's the official
Speaker 1: answer here. The NFL's national broadcast partners, so we've got
Speaker 1: Fox CBS. They assigned different NFL games two different markets,
Speaker 1: with some help obviously from the league. It is based
Speaker 1: on regional and national interest in games and teams, so
Speaker 1: local TV affiliates they don't get any say in the
Speaker 1: final decisions, but they can make some requests if they want.
Speaker 1: Each team has a primary market, right so that makes
Speaker 1: sense to people. That's set by the NFL, and those
Speaker 1: primary markets are required to show all road games and
Speaker 1: all home games unless the home games are not sold out,
Speaker 1: which case they can be called blackout games. Locally, the
Speaker 1: use of the metropolitan areas basically which the team's actually are.
Speaker 1: So each team also has a secondary market that must
Speaker 1: air road games of a given team and would be
Speaker 1: blacked out of home games that don't sell out, but
Speaker 1: they don't have to air all home games. A little
Speaker 1: kind of convoluted here, but essentially, broadcast maps are published
Speaker 1: on five or six Sports, which began tracking broadcast maps
Speaker 1: in two thousand five. Previously the maps were generally speaking,
Speaker 1: a little unknown. The shortest way and most concise way
Speaker 1: of saying this is, if your team is in a
Speaker 1: given city, you know you're getting those games, and then
Speaker 1: the secondary side of things, there's obviously some a little
Speaker 1: bit of wiggle well, I know for me growing up, man,
Speaker 1: I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, so we don't have
Speaker 1: a team. We we didn't have an NFL team. Our
Speaker 1: closest team to Washington Commanders, that were the Redskins when
Speaker 1: I was growing up, So obviously we got a lot
Speaker 1: of Washington Redskin games, but it was really the entire
Speaker 1: NFC East. I was so surprised when I got older
Speaker 1: and conscious enough to kind of understand what's going on.
Speaker 1: How many Dallas Cowboys fans are in the state of Virginia.
Speaker 1: They're everywhere, Mike, there every I mean literally, bro, Like
Speaker 1: every bar you go to on Sunday there Cowboys fans everywhere.
Speaker 1: And again it's it's it's a tribute to to Jerry
Speaker 1: Jones is amazing at marketing and spreading the brand and
Speaker 1: those things. But the NFC East teams, especially the Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 1: those are the teams most marketed to me, and those
Speaker 1: are the teams that I saw most growing up. You know,
Speaker 1: We've talked about like we've what's the label America's team
Speaker 1: and a lot of that has to do with the
Speaker 1: Cowboys being on television in the early days, right, Like
Speaker 1: I'll make this as like a baseball analogy here t NT.
Speaker 1: The Turner family obviously had the Atlanta Braves, so they
Speaker 1: had a television network TNT you get on regular cable.
Speaker 1: They started Aaron Braves games all the time. So all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the Braves started becoming a really popular team.
Speaker 1: Sort of the same thing that you said for how
Speaker 1: it all worked out for the Dallas count It's kind
Speaker 1: of cool there, all right. A lot of talk of
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson and his contract, which, by the way, come on,
Speaker 1: a lot has been made. Here's the question. A lot
Speaker 1: has been made about Lamar Jackson not having an agent.
Speaker 1: Is this smart? What does an NFL agent actually do?
Speaker 1: Sides note here m Rob and I actually have the
Speaker 1: same broadcast agents, So be careful what you say. You're right,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about NFL football player a baby, But
Speaker 1: I mean, look to me, when I look at my
Speaker 1: you know, my playing days, and I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: who my agent was. I look back and I can
Speaker 1: say I'm not gonna sit here and say I necessarily
Speaker 1: needed him all the way back then, because when I
Speaker 1: looked at it, the way the draft works, you're slated
Speaker 1: pretty much in a spot there's not much wiggle room.
Speaker 1: I was a fourth round pick, right, I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: make more than the last pick of the third round.
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna make more than a quarterback who was
Speaker 1: picked close to me in the draft. And once I
Speaker 1: started to understand that, I started to say, well, what
Speaker 1: could an agent really do in this particular situation. What
Speaker 1: the agent did do for me coming in to the
Speaker 1: National Football League was helped get me ready, right, paying
Speaker 1: for workouts, get me ready for the combine, understanding the
Speaker 1: wonder Lick test, having psychologists come in and understand the
Speaker 1: questions that you were gonna I was so prepared for
Speaker 1: the combine mic Like, I know I passed it with
Speaker 1: flying colors. I knew I passed it with flying colors. Right.
Speaker 1: I was that much prepared for the combine. But again,
Speaker 1: just looking back on the business part of it, your
Speaker 1: play gets you paid. And when I look back at negotiations,
Speaker 1: and you know, after your rookie deal, I think the
Speaker 1: agent is important to save face, to keep people's personal
Speaker 1: feelings out of it, because, let's just be honest, a
Speaker 1: lot of the National Football League are people of color.
Speaker 1: A lot of people of color don't really trust business
Speaker 1: or understand business just based off of history and whatsoever.
Speaker 1: So when a lot of players and a lot of
Speaker 1: guys that I know and I talked to, when they
Speaker 1: hear about contracts and whatever, they just said, you know what,
Speaker 1: my agent got it just put it to the age
Speaker 1: because they don't even want to think about it. But again,
Speaker 1: once I started reading contracts and understanding what was going on,
Speaker 1: you know, I understood that. I understand the language. I
Speaker 1: know what a good deal and what a bad deal
Speaker 1: isn't um. But again, having that buffer when you're negotiating
Speaker 1: with a team and then got to go out to
Speaker 1: practice with them, and the same people that are coaching
Speaker 1: you are also in there trying to get you for
Speaker 1: a lower dollar that could get you emotional. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: I do think an agent is important for that aspect
Speaker 1: of negotiating. Do you ever think it slows it down,
Speaker 1: like it's not to call like Lamar and obviously that
Speaker 1: was you know sort of what was it was in
Speaker 1: reference to like there's a part of me it says
Speaker 1: now like if maybe it had an agent, maybe this
Speaker 1: thing gets done. I have no idea, I don't have
Speaker 1: inside knowledge to it, but I'm just wondering how that
Speaker 1: affects the timing of things. I don't know. We don't
Speaker 1: have any idea if that's the case either, but I
Speaker 1: will say this, Um, yes, there would have been if
Speaker 1: Lamar had an agent, there would be somebody in his
Speaker 1: ear saying, bro, we gotta get this done. You can't
Speaker 1: go out there the way that you play. Just more
Speaker 1: advice from a business standpoint. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, off, if Lamar understands who has the power
Speaker 1: and an agent and player relationship, the agent works for you.
Speaker 1: If Lamar has a number in his head from a
Speaker 1: guaranteed standpoint that he wants, whether he has an agent
Speaker 1: or not, the deal won't get done until the Baltimore
Speaker 1: Ravens meet that number. So I'm gonna go into some
Speaker 1: detail here. And there's another question that I have for
Speaker 1: you about specific agents in general. But here's some quick
Speaker 1: facts for you. There's nine and thirteen certified agents aren'tly
Speaker 1: listed in the n f l p AS database. That's
Speaker 1: important because you can't. I thought it was more than that. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean think about that, like not in thirteen. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I feel like you got to be proved.
Speaker 1: I think that's I thought it was more than that,
Speaker 1: quite frankly and honestly, in the NFL p A, they
Speaker 1: do a great job. I get letters when there's these
Speaker 1: bad agents out there, they put out alerts like, don't
Speaker 1: mess with this guy. This is his number, this is
Speaker 1: his picture, this is where his office is, all of
Speaker 1: those things, because again, with a National Football league, there's
Speaker 1: so many guys that just want to get their hands
Speaker 1: on players, and they're trying to protect the players in
Speaker 1: the aging business, which is really good that you should
Speaker 1: be certified to do any deal with the league because
Speaker 1: and not to make this like a broadcast deal, but
Speaker 1: generally speaking, you don't need to be certified obviously if
Speaker 1: you're going to represent on air people, and there needs
Speaker 1: to be some of those letters that on some of
Speaker 1: those i's nothing to do with the NFL, but not.
Speaker 1: Everyone's always on the up and up, and that's just
Speaker 1: sort of important to know. So the NFL and the
Speaker 1: nflp A specifically trying to do their best to police
Speaker 1: a lot of that. So you gotta be licensed by
Speaker 1: the Players Association. All agents must pass an agent exam
Speaker 1: that ensures they know the ends and the outs of
Speaker 1: the collective bargaining agreement and the salary caps so they
Speaker 1: can properly negotiate contracts against the team's salary cap manager.
Speaker 1: Sort Of interesting because there's like a science to it.
Speaker 1: You always here about topologist. NFL teams have it, NBA
Speaker 1: teams the whole thing out of front offices deal in
Speaker 1: those terms. The maximum and here's what I'm talking about here.
Speaker 1: The maximum commission for NFL agents from a player's on
Speaker 1: field earnings is three percent. That's set by the p A.
Speaker 1: The standard commission, though sitting out one and a half
Speaker 1: to two percent. Get that number lower. Come on, get
Speaker 1: it as low as you possibly can. I know again,
Speaker 1: for my agent at the time, I gave them three percent,
Speaker 1: but it was based off of where I got drafted.
Speaker 1: The higher I got drafted, the lower the number was.
Speaker 1: Because you make more money, the lower the number money.
Speaker 1: It off sets each other. So again that's something you
Speaker 1: gotta look at, all right. So the maximum commission for
Speaker 1: those who signed franchise or transition tenders, that's set at
Speaker 1: two percent, and it drops to one and a half
Speaker 1: one percent in the second and third years that a
Speaker 1: player is signed to a franchise transition tender. So it
Speaker 1: kind of is what m Rob's talking about. You know,
Speaker 1: once there, you're not negotiating, you sign a franchise tag
Speaker 1: like yo, the number set is what it is. It
Speaker 1: does make sense that that number gets slotted in from
Speaker 1: an agent's perspective. There's a ton of agents though, making
Speaker 1: money from a player's off field earnings. There's no commission
Speaker 1: limit on that side, standard commission rate for agents to
Speaker 1: charge for off field earnings. Now that number is actually
Speaker 1: coming from our research team. So who am I to say, like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't know about that twenty off of Like so
Speaker 1: if you're if you get like a Nike or apparelled
Speaker 1: out the door. Seriously, I like that one and a
Speaker 1: half percent number we were talking about before exactly, kind
Speaker 1: of like when you're negotiating interest on a loan the banks,
Speaker 1: same type of deal. Look, I always wanted to separate
Speaker 1: my marketing people from my agent people. I wanted them
Speaker 1: to separate companies. I want them competing. I want them
Speaker 1: completely separate and actuality, And if my agent had a
Speaker 1: market and deal that came up, I would say, wouldn't
Speaker 1: give it to my marketing people. That is not your job,
Speaker 1: it's not I don't want to convolute any buckets that
Speaker 1: you may be looking at to get money from. I
Speaker 1: don't want any gray area. It's black and white. You
Speaker 1: do this, you do that. And I just think some
Speaker 1: guys get in trouble by going with some agents who
Speaker 1: will say, oh yeah, one stop shop. I can do
Speaker 1: it all. I can do it all. I can do
Speaker 1: it all. Well, unless you're going on a weekly basis,
Speaker 1: line by line about what your your bills and invoices
Speaker 1: and money is coming in, you don't know exactly where
Speaker 1: that money is going. So again, I always charge guys
Speaker 1: and tell them, look, man, take control of your own affairs. Well,
Speaker 1: I god, I wish I had the skill and talent
Speaker 1: that you did a plan in the league to have
Speaker 1: to have some of these conversations and thought process. But
Speaker 1: I always sat like this, like when I get my
Speaker 1: taxes done, I go to a tax accountant. What only
Speaker 1: does taxes? Like, I don't want you telling me about
Speaker 1: some other products or some other investment, Like I don't
Speaker 1: play that game. If you got insurance, you did them
Speaker 1: with life insurance. Uh, just just just make sure Uncle
Speaker 1: Sam's not coming out exactly. It's the only thing I
Speaker 1: care about. Uh. And Rob touched on some of the
Speaker 1: duties of an agent. I just want to list a
Speaker 1: few because maybe not everyone is necessarily thinking in those terms.
Speaker 1: You touched on the predraft workout, to combine the pro
Speaker 1: day training, all of those things really important. Also helping
Speaker 1: to facilitate pre draft workouts, supporting god insuring like college
Speaker 1: All Star games. So when you think about East West
Speaker 1: Shrine Ball, that one comes to mind. I was there
Speaker 1: last year nfl p A Bowl. Um going back to Vegas.
Speaker 1: You got to get on that, trying to get on
Speaker 1: and actually be a lot of fun, to be able
Speaker 1: to put you know what and just why you're going
Speaker 1: through this. The agent, usually if it's a good agent,
Speaker 1: has a staff like setting you up for the combine,
Speaker 1: setting you up for these you know, visits the teams
Speaker 1: or whatever. You don't necessarily have the time to be
Speaker 1: talking to teams and setting up travel. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of logistics that go into this. The agent does a
Speaker 1: great job with their staffs kind of helping you out
Speaker 1: in support you in that regard. Yeah, we mentioned the endorsements,
Speaker 1: brand management, assisting setting up charities and charity events, public relations,
Speaker 1: social media needs, interviews with media. I can't even tell
Speaker 1: you how many times, just some of the radio work
Speaker 1: that I've done where you get a guest before the
Speaker 1: draft and you're going through their agent, so you're right like, hey,
Speaker 1: I need to you need to coordinate my workouts slash
Speaker 1: my travel city to city from my interviews helped me
Speaker 1: with the psychologists. You can get me prepped for that interview.
Speaker 1: When I go and talk to the team, Hey, some
Speaker 1: people that might know people in that front office. What
Speaker 1: are some of the questions that might be come in
Speaker 1: my way? And then oh, by the way, on my
Speaker 1: way to the airport or to the workout, Hey, I
Speaker 1: gotta go and do this radio hit. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of that stuff and people might oh, that's like how
Speaker 1: bad could that be? You know, you try juggling all
Speaker 1: that stuff. It's a lot, man. I know. For me,
Speaker 1: when I was coming out, my agent had me get
Speaker 1: a private quarterback to come in and train me because
Speaker 1: again it was always that with position, he is going
Speaker 1: to play those types of things. He brought an a
Speaker 1: private quarterback for me. I ended up working out with
Speaker 1: a private running back, coach, receiver, coach, all those things.
Speaker 1: So again when I got in front of an NFL team,
Speaker 1: I knew exactly what I was prepared to do. All right,
Speaker 1: So we've talked about the agents. We told you about kickers,
Speaker 1: specifically the punters. I just bring up Justin Tucker because
Speaker 1: that gives me an opportunity to promote something that we
Speaker 1: did last season, because you can go back and check
Speaker 1: that Outum when we come back here on the NFL
Speaker 1: Explained podcast, we're going to make the NFL and football
Speaker 1: a family affair. I'll explain that coming up next. All right,
Speaker 1: it's the episode that we talked about every single other episode,
Speaker 1: and it is the mail bag edition of NFL Explained. Mike,
Speaker 1: M and m Rob with you fire off those questions, because,
Speaker 1: by the way, this is not the only time we're
Speaker 1: gonna do one of these mail bag additions. I know.
Speaker 1: So I think it was Anne who sent me a
Speaker 1: d M. It was asking about defense and all that stuff. Ya,
Speaker 1: we just did a podcast about that. So if you
Speaker 1: miss any of our podcast, just remember that, like not
Speaker 1: like timely, so we're not talking about like, hey, what
Speaker 1: happened on Sunday, Like we're giving you some real stuff.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get back to some of these questions here.
Speaker 1: Did you ever by the way, have any teammates that
Speaker 1: were I don't know, cousins, brothers, not that I can
Speaker 1: remember off the top of my head. Now, you know,
Speaker 1: I played with beasts, got a lot of cousins, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if they real cousins, a fake cousins,
Speaker 1: but a lot of cousins. So yeah, I do remember
Speaker 1: him saying that's my cousin a few times. But I look,
Speaker 1: I know, I'm gonna say nothing. So here's one of
Speaker 1: the questions that we got from the listener. T J.
Speaker 1: Watt and his brother j J. Both have a chance
Speaker 1: to be Hall of Famers. What other family legacies like
Speaker 1: that have played in the NFL? Anything like, off the
Speaker 1: top of your head, I'm not gonna cheat, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna look. Um, the Gronkowski, Oh yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 1: The Watts obviously j J. T J. And then they
Speaker 1: got the full back that's out there with t J.
Speaker 1: Uh boom. The Sharps. Sterling used to work for us.
Speaker 1: He was actually my mentor in the broadcasting games. Sterling
Speaker 1: and Ushannon Sharp, who was also on television. Uh. The Matthews,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the Matthews. You see, I'm going with all
Speaker 1: the blocking other positions. I'm not going to say the Mannings.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows the Manning Jam, I guess the Mannings. Who
Speaker 1: else is that it? Well, you got a bunch, man,
Speaker 1: I mean the Mannings are the obvious ones, just because
Speaker 1: of the legacy, the notoriety, the commercials. You know, Man,
Speaker 1: think about this, if Peyton and Eli are paying that
Speaker 1: to their agent on are you serious? Let's get back
Speaker 1: to this agent conversation. Not that I want to dip
Speaker 1: into commission, right, but but again, when you gotta I mean,
Speaker 1: they got a franchise name, they got a manning name,
Speaker 1: So why even hire somebody like that? How are your
Speaker 1: dad keep the dollar in your family and just go
Speaker 1: and go with it that way? I think that's what
Speaker 1: they how they do it. Yeah, no, I'm with you there.
Speaker 1: The bosses certainly come to my right, like John bossa
Speaker 1: first round pick seven, and then obviously Nick and Joey
Speaker 1: just tearing the muscles, own muscles, man muscles, own muscles.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the Matthews. I didn't know, like I knew,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know how deep it actually. They got
Speaker 1: layers and layers of them. Okay, they got a football
Speaker 1: trapped over there, right, The whole blood line of football players. Man,
Speaker 1: and they can block, they can tackle. I mean they're
Speaker 1: big guys too, So I just think this one's kind
Speaker 1: of cool with this layer here. Uh, Clay Matthews senior,
Speaker 1: taken in the twenty five round of the nineteen forty
Speaker 1: nine NFL Draft. If you don't think that we're going
Speaker 1: to get a male bad question about the draft when
Speaker 1: it was in its twenty five rounds? Wow? Five rounds?
Speaker 1: Is that like actually a thing? I didn't even know
Speaker 1: that was. I knew, I knew they had a lot
Speaker 1: of rounds, but I five though, all right, So check
Speaker 1: this out. So that's Clay Matthews senior, so he played
Speaker 1: defensive right. Hall of Famer. Who's Clay's senior son. That's
Speaker 1: Bruce Matthews, fourteen time ball bowler. What's the record for
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl? I mean, I don't know, four teens gotta
Speaker 1: be close, though. I think Peyton has the record or
Speaker 1: something like that. It's funny actually something to me. All right,
Speaker 1: So you got Bruce Bruce Matthews right, then Clay Senior's
Speaker 1: other son, that's Clay Matthews junior, four time pro bowler.
Speaker 1: You got Clay Matthews the third who was Clay Junior Son,
Speaker 1: six time pro bowler. Which one was the one that
Speaker 1: went to sc Junior third? The last one? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that's who played with me. That dude was an animal
Speaker 1: to block Brown. I hated going up against him, especially
Speaker 1: when he played for the Green Bay Packers. I hate
Speaker 1: it going up against Clay Matthews because, like I was
Speaker 1: a thumper, right, so I wanted a physical altercation with you.
Speaker 1: He didn't want that. He wanted to make the tackle
Speaker 1: in the backfield a guy behind me. So it was
Speaker 1: just hard blocking that guy. Man. An, It's it's kind
Speaker 1: of crazy here. So by the way, it's not the
Speaker 1: only layer that's there, right. So Jake Matthews, who's Bruce's son,
Speaker 1: he was a pro bowler, Ksey Matthews, who was a
Speaker 1: linebacker fourth round draft pick also and then you got
Speaker 1: Kevin Matthews, Bruce's son. He started three games in the league.
Speaker 1: Like the point is, like I remember when Stephanie Graff
Speaker 1: and Andrea I guess he got married here, Like yo,
Speaker 1: that that kid is going to be like the greatest
Speaker 1: tennis player in the history of the sport. Like think
Speaker 1: about the lineage and the Matthews family. Goodness, man, I
Speaker 1: mean again, it's a football tribe, it's a football bloodline.
Speaker 1: I mean we got the Hotwey Longs too, we got
Speaker 1: the Long family. I forgot about the Long Colin Chris.
Speaker 1: I played against both of those guys. Man. Chris was
Speaker 1: a great div of the event in the National Football League. Man,
Speaker 1: and he has a great podcast too. I gotta check
Speaker 1: that out. Not that we should be promoting. No, we're
Speaker 1: not promoting it. Make sure they promote. NFL explained that
Speaker 1: we'll do some gift back. I gotta see them a text. Uh.
Speaker 1: Ed McCaffrey, Christian McCaffrey forgot about right, I mean think
Speaker 1: about you know Ed? And what was the story when
Speaker 1: Christian got traded to the Niners that Kyle Shanahan babysat
Speaker 1: and then Kyle's favorite player growing up was Ed McCaffrey. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: look at all the connections. Look at the university MS. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Bob and Brian greasy little father son duo as well.
Speaker 1: Only just because I mentioned this on a highlight the
Speaker 1: other day, Travis Kelsey was at Jason Kelsey's Eagles game.
Speaker 1: So the tight ends from Kansas City just drawing that
Speaker 1: out there. Who else the mccordy's look for us, So
Speaker 1: I was gonna say was good. So Devin mccordy and
Speaker 1: then Jason mccordy and Slatter's too. I want to mention
Speaker 1: Jackie Slater Hall of Fame tackle, seven time Pro bowler,
Speaker 1: and Matthew Slater, who again one of the all time
Speaker 1: great special team players in our league history. He's still
Speaker 1: doing it, ten time Pro bowler strictly for special teams.
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool. You mentioned the Sharps. I'll throw out
Speaker 1: the barber's tick and Ron day v A. How about
Speaker 1: the pouncing name. Talk about some big boys. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: they were actually on a podcast here recently and they
Speaker 1: lost some weight to all big guys man. Uh and
Speaker 1: only because we work with him every Tuesday on Total Access.
Speaker 1: It's our guys, David Carr the car. Yeah, how about
Speaker 1: you pause their first second? I'm like, I didn't know
Speaker 1: where you were going somewhere, oh David and Derek. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the amount of times have you caught yourself calling
Speaker 1: David Derek? I'll do it probably once a week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've done that before. I get He's like, Mike, there
Speaker 1: you go, I just mess you can always go d C.
Speaker 1: And and you're always You're always going to Clare. You'll
Speaker 1: always be right on that one. But the point is
Speaker 1: so many of these family combinations and the only other
Speaker 1: thing that I'll throw out there the Harbaugh family from
Speaker 1: the coaching tree, John and Jim, obviously, the Ryan Fry,
Speaker 1: Buddy Robin Rex that's pretty cool man. And again Buddy
Speaker 1: Ryan one of my all time favorite personalities in the
Speaker 1: National Football they got. I never played for him, obviously,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to. I always wanted to. Do you.
Speaker 1: Um you ever watch Amazing Race sometimes? Yeah, was actually
Speaker 1: on the show. I did not know that it was
Speaker 1: actually kind of funny. Yeah, he should check that out.
Speaker 1: That'll be like a little onto bad thing for you.
Speaker 1: All right, Welcome back to the NFL Explained podcasts. Mike,
Speaker 1: Yeah and Rob with you all right? Another question for
Speaker 1: your players play on different services. You've got natural grass,
Speaker 1: you got turf. How do the guys actually decide what
Speaker 1: cleats are going to use on the field? General rule
Speaker 1: of thumb that I just learned. I actually haven't ever
Speaker 1: really heard anybody to say. This is something I learned
Speaker 1: just my own experience. The heavier you are, the less
Speaker 1: spike you need, so if you're I've seen big guys
Speaker 1: just put on like shoes with very little spikes at
Speaker 1: the bottom, and they're so heavy that they don't slip,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, they can actually walk on grass.
Speaker 1: Be fine. The lighter you are, Yeah, you want the
Speaker 1: modive cleats the guys that are doing a bunch of
Speaker 1: cutting your wide receivers, your defensive backs and things like that.
Speaker 1: And for me, it's playing in a place like Chicago
Speaker 1: and Chicago Bear Stadium, their grass is always longer. So
Speaker 1: I was playing a Michigan the grass is always longer.
Speaker 1: I always thought that they didn't cut the grass on
Speaker 1: purpose to make a slower but that's a whole other
Speaker 1: podcast conversation, Yams. But in those longer grass situations or
Speaker 1: muddy situations, you want to wear the detached cleats where
Speaker 1: you pc people having to screw the cleats on because
Speaker 1: you can make them longer, you can make them shorter.
Speaker 1: So did you always wear the same ones and then
Speaker 1: just feel it at or change depending on what the
Speaker 1: conditions Like, if it was money and rainy, would you
Speaker 1: just wear different cleats? Yeah, if it was muddy and rainy,
Speaker 1: I already knew I was gonna go with the detached
Speaker 1: if it was one of those games where it was
Speaker 1: just damp natural grass. Though damp natural grass, yeah, I
Speaker 1: would go out there in my usual molded ones to
Speaker 1: feel it, and then if I felt like I was slipping,
Speaker 1: I would go put on the detached. Now, if it
Speaker 1: was rainy and it was filed turf, I never used
Speaker 1: the detached because when it's field turf, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: almost like being on a It's on a flat surface.
Speaker 1: It's not giving as much as the natural ground would,
Speaker 1: so wearing the longer spikes makes it more slippery. Did
Speaker 1: you prefer playing on turf for grass? That's a hard
Speaker 1: question because really you like the synthetic turf because it's
Speaker 1: versatile and you know, you always got your footing, so
Speaker 1: to speak. But natural grass gives and my limbs, my ligaments,
Speaker 1: so like the natural grass, the field turf didn't give
Speaker 1: as not as much as natural grass. So for me,
Speaker 1: the stadium I always like to play in was there's
Speaker 1: a Cardinals stadium. It's a natural grass, but indoors, it's
Speaker 1: the best of both worlds. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You've got no rain, no weather, but the ground gave
Speaker 1: with you, you know what I'm saying. So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: I think some people might say, Mike, like, why would
Speaker 1: you think turf would give I don't think astro turf. No,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying like a field turf, like the fake grass,
Speaker 1: because it really is so I mean it's nice. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's nice. And it has all these rubber pellets that
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, shield you from falling and things
Speaker 1: like that. And then think about the rubber pellets, Mike,
Speaker 1: if you don't have a shield, you get grand into
Speaker 1: the ground from a tackle or whatever. Dude, there's pellets everywhere.
Speaker 1: People don't realize how hard that is man like to
Speaker 1: see to get the stuff out of your head, to
Speaker 1: get stuff out of your eyes. And what if you're sick,
Speaker 1: what if you got a cold that day, Like, dude,
Speaker 1: I can't call in and say I can't play today
Speaker 1: because I got a stuff. He knowes. That's good point
Speaker 1: the pellets, but which, by the way, we'll come up
Speaker 1: in a second. Here. The pellets get all over you,
Speaker 1: like if you walk on field turf, like it's it
Speaker 1: like sticks to you, which is just this might be
Speaker 1: a little much, but you know what, it's just me
Speaker 1: and you here. It's just me and you here. Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: take a shower after the game and it's pellets everywhere,
Speaker 1: Pellets coming out everywhere in the shower, man everywhere. You're like, dude,
Speaker 1: I have my pants on the whole time. Pell Lets
Speaker 1: get right there. Pellets are everywhere, Mike. If you can imagine,
Speaker 1: I don't want to. By the way, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: some d M just about crevices and pellets. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, you said the word crevits. That might be
Speaker 1: that might come your way. Hey, one other note, by
Speaker 1: the way, on on, I heard this great story and
Speaker 1: it's related to what you're saying. One of our colleagues
Speaker 1: she married. She had said when he was coaching with
Speaker 1: the Packers, Barry Sanders just at the time playing for
Speaker 1: the Lions, and he's like, you know what we're gonna
Speaker 1: do with him, you know what we're gonna do. We're
Speaker 1: gonna slow him down. He said, we didn't cut the
Speaker 1: grass at Lambo and we just soaked the field. And
Speaker 1: he actually he laughed. He's like, we kept him in check,
Speaker 1: like it was you know, I don't he didn't remember
Speaker 1: the exact number, but it was like it's a real thing.
Speaker 1: It was like fifty yards or something like that. It's
Speaker 1: it's a real thing, man, competitive advantage. I did ask him,
Speaker 1: I'm like, can you do that nowadays? He's like, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't really know. It's like back that we could
Speaker 1: check him, So keep it to yourself. Moved. Hey. One
Speaker 1: other note on just because I know people really you know,
Speaker 1: got people who are like into shoes and like sneaker
Speaker 1: culture and the whole thing. Just some research numbers on
Speaker 1: the actual cleats themselves. As Emrod made reference, he got
Speaker 1: the molded ones permanently fastened to the shoe. That's the
Speaker 1: most common on artificial turf. The detached ones are the
Speaker 1: ones that Emrob was talking about. They come off the soul.
Speaker 1: They're usually longer spikes, and you're using those when the
Speaker 1: weather is not great snow, when traction is a little
Speaker 1: bit more difficult. What pros where actually found that six
Speaker 1: of starting wide receivers and the season were Nike cleats.
Speaker 1: The most popular where the Nike Vapor Edge three sixty speed,
Speaker 1: super light, almost no ankle support, but I mean literally
Speaker 1: it's super super light, Mike, you would holy shoes and
Speaker 1: be like, oh my goodness, like do you even have
Speaker 1: anything on your feet? Like do you even feel like
Speaker 1: you have something on their super light? And again this
Speaker 1: iteration of this three six speed because it used to
Speaker 1: be Speed TV back when I was playing. It is
Speaker 1: a little bit more durable. You can actually run as
Speaker 1: hard as you can and make a cut in the
Speaker 1: cleat won't burst. Sometimes back in the day to cleat
Speaker 1: euston burst Adidas they're most popular. One. Do you know
Speaker 1: this one? The Adidas at a zero zero? No, I
Speaker 1: don't know about that one, um, but I'm sure my
Speaker 1: thirteen year old does. There's no doubt actually taking a
Speaker 1: selfie and going to the selfie and Rob. You know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting because the NFL began tracking cleats
Speaker 1: players where in the nineteen to find some trends between
Speaker 1: cleats and lower body injuries. That's pretty cool man, that
Speaker 1: they're actually even looking at that, because again, the way
Speaker 1: that your foot hits the ground is the first part
Speaker 1: of health when you're talking about athletes. Em. Rob, you know, actually,
Speaker 1: since you knew all about like the Nike vapor cleats
Speaker 1: in the whole thing, I'm gonna throw something in your way.
Speaker 1: It's one of the coolest things that I think the
Speaker 1: league allows to happen because, as we know, the NFL
Speaker 1: would be a little sticklers on uniform right, you know
Speaker 1: where I'm going with very much sticker on uniforms. Yes,
Speaker 1: my cause, my cleats I love. First of all, they
Speaker 1: get to do cool designs and all that stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is and it's for a good cause. Like depending
Speaker 1: on what the cause of the player is, did you
Speaker 1: take part in any of that stuff? Um, no, ity
Speaker 1: didn't start doing it until I was on this side
Speaker 1: of it. But I did take part in it on
Speaker 1: this side, on the media side of it, because I'm
Speaker 1: an next player. The NFL Player Engagement Department, Yes, they
Speaker 1: come and ask us if we want on my cause
Speaker 1: my cleats. But I think it's awesome. It's allowing players
Speaker 1: to take ownership of their causes, allowing players to say, look,
Speaker 1: this is what means the most to me when you're
Speaker 1: watching me out here running around, when you're watching me
Speaker 1: out here and put my body on the line and
Speaker 1: things like that, I'm doing it for this cause. And
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty cool for me from a cleat standpoint.
Speaker 1: I used to always steal Russell's and Marshawn's cleats because
Speaker 1: they were the big money dudes man, and they got
Speaker 1: all the sweet cleats from Nike. So I'm like Russell
Speaker 1: after Tuesday's practice, I need those cleats because he wore
Speaker 1: a new pair every day with the green tips after
Speaker 1: Tuesday practice. Them need to come on over to Mike
Speaker 1: Rob's locker and then I wear him Sunday and he's fine.
Speaker 1: He got like thirty more pairs. He's fine. He's a quarterback.
Speaker 1: He got half a bill and dollar. Dude, we all
Speaker 1: knew he was gonna get paid. And then Beast Mood
Speaker 1: Beast Moore would still my real shoes, like my real
Speaker 1: shoes that I wore to work. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: drive home in sometimes, you know what I'm saying. Because
Speaker 1: he would take my real shoes. I would take his
Speaker 1: cleats because he would have he would put the goal
Speaker 1: and he would pay the fees and the fines for
Speaker 1: not having the team colors on because they would find
Speaker 1: us if your cleat is not the team colors. He
Speaker 1: didn't care. He just had a stand in check waiting
Speaker 1: for him him. You can have it. I'm wearing the cleats.
Speaker 1: I want best mode. They were pretty doped. Alright. One
Speaker 1: last question, because I don't want someone to d m
Speaker 1: me saying why didn't you ask Rob about this? You
Speaker 1: didn't take Russell's cleats every single day, which means if
Speaker 1: he was not wearing them twice, where did the extra
Speaker 1: ones go? Yeah, so at the end of I don't know,
Speaker 1: every three or four games I was actually in charge
Speaker 1: of when I was playing, in the middle of the
Speaker 1: locker room, this big box full of cleats and we
Speaker 1: would just e k our equipment manager. He would take
Speaker 1: those cleats to a local high school. Local very cool.
Speaker 1: Donate I mean literally one where cleats, literally one where
Speaker 1: gloves one where I mean do you give them? You
Speaker 1: give them away? Who just fast forward for a second,
Speaker 1: because you do so much youth football. If you find
Speaker 1: out that you could be wearing Russell Wilson's cleats, do
Speaker 1: you actually want to wear them? Well, like you want
Speaker 1: to just like I want to like put those into
Speaker 1: like a nice case. So it's crazy, right, Um. I
Speaker 1: donate a lot of stuff to like, you know, good
Speaker 1: will stuff in Richmond. And yeah, you got old Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson jerseys that I bought my kids when they were
Speaker 1: old Mike rob jerseys walking around Richmond. People have no
Speaker 1: clue that those are real jerseys in a real locker room.
Speaker 1: Warned by real guy. Yeah, it's because I don't have
Speaker 1: enough space forms. I give it away, literally, like sign
Speaker 1: bought footballs and everything. I have so much, I give
Speaker 1: it away. I got a Beast Mode Hawaii jersey from
Speaker 1: one of his Pro Bowls that I accidentally gave to
Speaker 1: the cook Will. This kid is just walking around has
Speaker 1: no that's a small game war here here if you're
Speaker 1: in rich Man and there's a good Will near you
Speaker 1: and you see some cool like Seattle gear. But we
Speaker 1: just just realized, um, look, I know we got so
Speaker 1: many questions. I was so thrilled to get not only
Speaker 1: the words of encouragement like hey really love the like
Speaker 1: it's really cool, Like are actually checking out this podcast,
Speaker 1: continue to support us man, really really do appreciate it.
Speaker 1: If we didn't get to your question, I promise you
Speaker 1: I'm literally screenshotting and sending them all to our game.
Speaker 1: So this went way longer than we were I text everyone,
Speaker 1: I throw in like fire emojis and the whole thing.
Speaker 1: But make sure you follow us on Twitter at real
Speaker 1: Mike rob at Mike underscore yeamh and I promised this
Speaker 1: is not the only mail bag episode we are going
Speaker 1: to do. I promised before the season is over. We
Speaker 1: got at least one five more just like doing these,
Speaker 1: so keep them coming. Really do appreciate it. That's uh.
Speaker 1: The mail bag episode explained