Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: Get in on the action with the Draftking sports Book
Speaker 2: and official sports betting partner of the NBA. New customers
Speaker 2: who deposit five dollars or more can get a no
Speaker 2: sweat bet up to one thousand dollars back in bonus bets.
Speaker 2: How cool of a deal is that. All you have
Speaker 2: to do is download the Draftking sports Book app now
Speaker 2: takes ninety seconds, and use the code colin cli n
Speaker 2: This is the best deal you're going to find. New customers.
Speaker 2: It's a no sweat bet up to one thousand dollars
Speaker 2: if your first bet loses. How cool is that only
Speaker 2: at Draftking sports Book code is colin. The crown is.
Speaker 3: Yours gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or in
Speaker 3: West Virginia visit one eight hundred gambler dot net. In
Speaker 3: New York call eight seven seven eight hope and wire
Speaker 3: text hope and y four six seven three six nine.
Speaker 3: In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call eight
Speaker 3: eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or
Speaker 3: visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of
Speaker 3: Boothill Casino when resorting Kansas twenty one and over age
Speaker 3: varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario one no sweat bet
Speaker 3: per new customer issued as one bonus bet based on
Speaker 3: amount of initial losing bet. Bonus bets expire one hundred
Speaker 3: and sixty eight hours after issue. Ince See dkang dot
Speaker 3: com slash promos for deposit wagering and eligibility restrictions, terms
Speaker 3: and responsible gaming resources.
Speaker 2: There's two things in the NBA kind of roll why
Speaker 2: eyes at Everybody talks about how mobility works. No, it doesn't.
Speaker 2: It worked for Lebron. It worked for Lebron when he
Speaker 2: went to Miami, he got two titles. It worked from
Speaker 2: in Cleveland he got a title, and it worked in
Speaker 2: LA he got a title. And it worked for Kevin
Speaker 2: Love who joined Lebron, and Chris Bosh who joined Lebron
Speaker 2: in Miami, and Anthony Davis who joined Lebron in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: Mobility is and how you build championships. That's not how
Speaker 2: it works. It worked for Lebron in three places, Okay,
Speaker 2: going to Miami, coming back to Cleveland, going to Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: It hasn't worked for Kevin Durant other than one time
Speaker 2: he goes to the Warriors. Since then, Brooklyn didn't work
Speaker 2: Phoenix bit disappointing. So the mobility thing, you know, that's
Speaker 2: not winning titles. San Antonio mostly had a core group.
Speaker 2: Golden State they won before KD. They won a title
Speaker 2: after KD. You know, Boston gets Drew Holliday, but that
Speaker 2: team for years was built around Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum,
Speaker 2: and Marcus Smart. Now I like the upgrade Drew Holiday,
Speaker 2: but their two core guys are Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum.
Speaker 2: So I think, you know, mobility is something we talk
Speaker 2: about all the time in the NBA, and I just
Speaker 2: sort of rolled my eyes the other thing. I kind
Speaker 2: of you know, people talked about small ball. It worked
Speaker 2: for the Warriors because they had the three best shooting players,
Speaker 2: the best shooting backcourt tantem ever, Jerry West scale good
Speaker 2: Rich for most of my life was the best shooting
Speaker 2: backcourt ever, and then supplanted by Klay Thompson and Steph Curry,
Speaker 2: and then they had Kevin Durant. Yeah, they had the
Speaker 2: three best shooters of all time playing together, and they
Speaker 2: went and got bogd at one point, they got Kevin Durant.
Speaker 2: They weren't that small. There were small ball lineups that
Speaker 2: worked for them, but it doesn't work now they're pivoting
Speaker 2: off it by getting you know, Looney, Trayvon Looney has size,
Speaker 2: Sarich has size, Cominga's long, Jackson Davis is long. He's
Speaker 2: kind of a forward center sixt nine six nine and
Speaker 2: a half. So they're just they're not. They just more
Speaker 2: formidable in the front court than before. So small ball
Speaker 2: worked because really the Warriors had unique players, a wing
Speaker 2: in Draymon who can defend Biggs, and Stephan Clay the
Speaker 2: best shooting back court ever. That's your small ball. People
Speaker 2: try to duplicate it. It didn't equal titles and mobility
Speaker 2: doesn't really work. It worked with Lebron several times. I
Speaker 2: think the Warriors are really dangerous. I really do. I
Speaker 2: think they've won seven straight road games. They have a
Speaker 2: nice mix of young and old, and they have one
Speaker 2: of the highest IQ. They have probably the smartest team
Speaker 2: in the league right now. Between Chris Paul, Steph Curry,
Speaker 2: Clay Thomps and Steve Kerr Draymond Green, You've got I mean,
Speaker 2: you've got a lot of games. You've got a lot
Speaker 2: of games with those guys, and that's why I would
Speaker 2: take him head to head over an ok see, even
Speaker 2: the okc's built for the regular season. The regular season
Speaker 2: is it is a complete marathon. And you know, for
Speaker 2: older teams who are doing load management, you know, I
Speaker 2: mean like Lebron James has a great fourth quarter, you
Speaker 2: know against the Clippers, he would prefer not to play
Speaker 2: the following night. I mean he took the Celtic game
Speaker 2: off with Anthony Davis. These old guys picked their spots.
Speaker 2: Young eyes get injured less and they heal faster. So
Speaker 2: I think the Warriors are going to be a real team.
Speaker 2: And uh it's a nice mix of old and new
Speaker 2: and I really like watching them play.
Speaker 3: It is you know.
Speaker 2: The other thing about the three point shot, which I
Speaker 2: think is overstated. I think so much of analytics in
Speaker 2: baseball and in the NBA is based on regular season games,
Speaker 2: and you know, these are these are long you play.
Speaker 2: The averages analytics are averages over the course of time.
Speaker 2: But when you get into playoff basketball or playoff baseball,
Speaker 2: you just got to get outs. You go into a series,
Speaker 2: you're going to bring starters on three days rest, You're
Speaker 2: going to you're gonna use them in late innings. A
Speaker 2: starter if you have to win a game six or
Speaker 2: a game seven, So the analytics go out the door.
Speaker 2: You manage differently, you use your bullpen differently, you use
Speaker 2: starters differently on fewer days rest, and in a basketball playoff,
Speaker 2: basketball becomes very situational. It becomes very much about get
Speaker 2: a basket. That's why Kawhi Leonard has been when he's healthy,
Speaker 2: a very good playoff performer. Get a stop, get a basket,
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be a three. And so I think
Speaker 2: this Warrior team is obviously going to lie a large
Speaker 2: part on Steph Curry hitting threes, but they've got a
Speaker 2: lot of guys that can get you two.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Kaminga is a guy that's really good around the ten.
Speaker 2: They've got size, they don't have to shoot the ball
Speaker 2: as well. Pods is a nice rookie. He's the next play,
Speaker 2: but can be a little bit of a slasher, which
Speaker 2: I like. I don't think you have to rely on threes.
Speaker 2: And I think small ball was overstated just due to
Speaker 2: unique generationally gifted players for the Warriors that other teams
Speaker 2: rosters couldn't duplicate. I think the NFL combine this week,
Speaker 2: let's talk about that. The combine really isn't about the
Speaker 2: measurables and the performance. What it really is is a
Speaker 2: chance for general managers and personnel people in the NFL
Speaker 2: to get together and a lot of late nights, a
Speaker 2: lot of beers, a lot of cocktails, and it's like
Speaker 2: they say, a lot of business gets done on the
Speaker 2: golf course, a lot of stuff gets done at the combine.
Speaker 2: I thought my guess was that Justin Fields would be
Speaker 2: moved from the Bears to Atlanta around the combine that
Speaker 2: you just you know, you get a couple of beers,
Speaker 2: guys sit down, and what my guess the way Justin
Speaker 2: Fields would work is that, Yeah, I don't know exactly
Speaker 2: what you do, but like the Bears have the ninth pick,
Speaker 2: Atlanta's got the eighth pick. Maybe you swap those in
Speaker 2: a third round or something like that feels reasonable, So
Speaker 2: the Bears move up one slot and get a third
Speaker 2: round or that feels like something you can do for
Speaker 2: Justin Fields. I don't think he's going to be a
Speaker 2: superstar in Atlanta, but I do think you can argue
Speaker 2: he'll be the most talented quarterback in the NFC South,
Speaker 2: where he's just not He's not as good as Jared Goff,
Speaker 2: and I don't think he's I don't think he at
Speaker 2: this point is trending to be nearly as good as
Speaker 2: Jordan Love. So if kirk Cousins comes back for two years,
Speaker 2: as kirk Cousins right now is a more efficient quarterback
Speaker 2: than Justin Fields and so he would be the fourth
Speaker 2: most reliable quarterback in the division. That's not a good
Speaker 2: place for him. I think it's a much better place
Speaker 2: for him to go to Atlanta, where you know Baker
Speaker 2: and Derek carr are. You know, they can win a
Speaker 2: lot of games, especially Baker. He's won a playoff game.
Speaker 2: You know, he's a playoff quarterback in the AFC and
Speaker 2: the NFC. But in terms of overall size and talent
Speaker 2: whip arm, you know, Justin's pretty special player. So the
Speaker 2: combine to me, and we sent John Middlecoff there for
Speaker 2: the volume. The Combine's really a relationship. It's like a
Speaker 2: camp for football grown ups where you get all the
Speaker 2: gms and the personnel people and they screw around. They
Speaker 2: have steak dinners and you get a lot of business done.
Speaker 2: I don't care much about the players testing, you know,
Speaker 2: it's like these personal workouts and testing. I do think,
Speaker 2: you know, there's a trend over the last several years
Speaker 2: that quarterbacks don't throw at this thing. I think every
Speaker 2: draft has a really interesting player. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: without question, everybody knows it's good wide receiver, good offensive
Speaker 2: tackle class, really good three or four really high end receivers,
Speaker 2: three or four really good offensive tackles. You could have
Speaker 2: six offensive tackles taken in the first round. That's a
Speaker 2: huge number of the quarterbacks. There's a lot of talent,
Speaker 2: but I think the most interesting player in the draft
Speaker 2: is going to be JJ McCarthy from Michigan, who had
Speaker 2: a great coach, a great old line, a great run game,
Speaker 2: and a great defense in a conference. Frankly, that's kind
Speaker 2: of Ohio State and everybody else outside of Michigan. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's about the only team Michigan face that has equal
Speaker 2: talent in the SEC. Even though Alabama can be great.
Speaker 2: There's Georgia, there's LSU. There's a lot of teams that
Speaker 2: can stack up athletically, three or four teams at the top.
Speaker 2: Ohio State and Michigan just looked different than everybody else,
Speaker 2: and McCarthy benefited from that. Now, he won a lot
Speaker 2: of games, but they didn't really rely on him. He
Speaker 2: didn't throw many touchdown passes, as his biggest games were
Speaker 2: off and against I mean he had I think it
Speaker 2: was half of his touchdown passes against three teams, all
Speaker 2: of them awful East Carolina, Michigan State. In Indiana, he
Speaker 2: had half of his touchdown totals and he only had
Speaker 2: one game with three touchdown passes. I believe Pannix had ten,
Speaker 2: bo Nicks had seven.
Speaker 1: I think he had.
Speaker 2: One game with either was it three hundred yards passing
Speaker 2: or three touchdown passes. My big concern is he's really slender.
Speaker 2: And let me give an example, so I've used this before,
Speaker 2: is that Aaron Rodgers and I are the same height,
Speaker 2: and I've seen Aaron a couple times up close. He
Speaker 2: doesn't look thick. He weighs two hundred and twenty five pounds.
Speaker 2: I'm the same height and I weigh onon ninety five.
Speaker 2: I work out every day. I'm in pretty good shape.
Speaker 2: You would view me as slender. If you looked at Aaron,
Speaker 2: you would view him as sort of slender. He carries
Speaker 2: thirty pounds more than me at the same height chest shoulders,
Speaker 2: but it's that thickness. Years ago, I asked somebody about Aaron.
Speaker 2: I said, he doesn't look that big, and this person said,
Speaker 2: look at his caps, look at his butt, look at
Speaker 2: his shoulders, look at his wrists. There's a difference. When
Speaker 2: Johnny Manziel came into the league, he just didn't he
Speaker 2: didn't have the size and the shoulders, the butt, the hips,
Speaker 2: the wrist. He just wasn't big enough. And so I
Speaker 2: look at JJ McCarthy and he's six ' three, so
Speaker 2: he is taller than Aaron Rodgers by an inch and
Speaker 2: a half, and he weighs twenty to twenty three pounds less.
Speaker 2: That is that's noticeable to me. He comes across his
Speaker 2: slender and you know it's somebody. An NFL executive said,
Speaker 2: he looks like a stretched out Bryce Young And I
Speaker 2: never thought of that, but in the context of body types,
Speaker 2: it kind of it kind of matches. And so I
Speaker 2: think McCarthy's fascinating. I know two people who I really
Speaker 2: like in the NFL. Executives think he's a hamnegger, just
Speaker 2: don't really see it. I know somebody else, Randy Mueller,
Speaker 2: a former executive in the league works for the Athletic
Speaker 2: now really likes JJ McCarthy. Obviously, Jim Harball loves him.
Speaker 2: He's rooting for his guys. I don't know quite what
Speaker 2: to make of him now. I didn't like Zach Wilson
Speaker 2: of the Jets out of college. I like JJ McCarthy more.
Speaker 2: I think he throws a better ball and a more
Speaker 2: consistent ball. You know, I didn't like Johnny Manziel out
Speaker 2: of college. I think JJ McCarthy is a much much
Speaker 2: better prospect. I didn't like Tebow at all a college obviously.
Speaker 2: I mean, Tebow couldn't throw a consistent NFL football. It's
Speaker 2: not like I don't think he has talent. I do
Speaker 2: think JJ has talent, but the body type, it's just
Speaker 2: it's a completely different sport. I mean the NFL. I
Speaker 2: remember when Johnny Manziel came into the league and he
Speaker 2: was a run around guy, gave Alabama's great defenses all
Speaker 2: sorts of fits. And I think it was a preseason game.
Speaker 2: He's playing for Cleveland. I think they played Washington. Is
Speaker 2: that the one where he gave somebody the finger and
Speaker 2: he rolled out and you know, he thought, I'm going
Speaker 2: to get around this defensive end and he could not
Speaker 2: outrun a defensive end in the NFL and in that moment,
Speaker 2: I'm like, Yeap, not going to work because his game
Speaker 2: is movement. It's just not going to work. Lamar Jackson moves,
Speaker 2: you can't stop him. Michael Vick moves, Steve Young moved,
Speaker 2: They got around the corner. So a lot of times,
Speaker 2: you know, you play in college school, in college, and
Speaker 2: what works for you does not work, does not translate
Speaker 2: to the NFL. So I'm just fascinated with JJ McCarthy
Speaker 2: to see if it does. I just don't quite see.
Speaker 2: Now you'd say Colin, you didn't see c J. Stroud, No,
Speaker 2: I said Lance Zerlein, who works at NFL dot Com
Speaker 2: a draft analyst. He said it Jared Goff was his comp.
Speaker 2: And I said probably ten times on the air, that's
Speaker 2: a good comp out of college. I didn't see a
Speaker 2: lot of juice with Jared Goff, but I thought he
Speaker 2: threw a beautiful ball from the pocket. I didn't see
Speaker 2: a lot of juice until the Georgia game on c J. Stroud,
Speaker 2: But he throws a beautiful ball out of the pocket.
Speaker 2: And Zerleine was on the Herd yesterday NFS one and
Speaker 2: talked about that that people give him crap for that,
Speaker 2: but if you go look at Jared Goff's second year
Speaker 2: numbers and c J. Stroud's first year numbers. CJ got
Speaker 2: a great first coach. Jared Goff didn't. They're very similar.
Speaker 2: So JJ McCarthy is going to be really really interesting
Speaker 2: to me. You know, like this was the best Michigan
Speaker 2: team perhaps ever, and the best team in college football
Speaker 2: I thought significantly. The great O line and a really
Speaker 2: powerful run game, and a great coach, very Alabama like.
Speaker 2: And if you start looking at all these Alabama quarterbacks,
Speaker 2: the Bryce Youngs and the Tuas, you know, they looked
Speaker 2: Mac Jones, Boy, did we really like them out of college?
Speaker 2: And then you get to the NFL behind an average
Speaker 2: offensive line and you don't really have a number one receiver.
Speaker 2: That's what JJ McCarthy feels like to me. The great coach,
Speaker 2: the great O line, the great run game, the great
Speaker 2: defense support, playing with the lead, getting very good field position,
Speaker 2: just like Tua and Mac Jones and Alabama quarterbacks time
Speaker 2: and time again. Then they get into the NFL and
Speaker 2: they trail and they don't have a good offensive line
Speaker 2: and they're moving in. JJ McCarthy weighs six three, two
Speaker 2: hundred and three pounds and then he probably needs twenty
Speaker 2: two pounds more with that size, so we'll see. He
Speaker 2: is to me, the most interesting player in the first round.
Speaker 2: You know, I love you know, I like poking people
Speaker 2: in the ribs from time to time. And you know,
Speaker 2: whenever I, you know, hear people say if I say
Speaker 2: anything about politics, stay in your lane, stick to sports.
Speaker 2: It's funny that people who are telling me that don't
Speaker 2: stick to their job. Mortgage broker, banker, school teacher. Everybody
Speaker 2: gets an opinion except sports guy. But you know, I've
Speaker 2: been in the market since nineteen eighty nine, the stock market.
Speaker 2: My dad was a stock market investor. Two of my
Speaker 2: best friends, three of my best friends are in the market.
Speaker 2: If I didn't do this, probably something I would do,
Speaker 2: you know, be a broker. Always been fascinated with it,
Speaker 2: you know, been a Wall Street Journal Forbes subscriber for
Speaker 2: some time, and I'd like to reading that section almost
Speaker 2: as much as the sports section. Not quite, but I do.
Speaker 2: But you know, I was, I was tweaking people over
Speaker 2: the weekend. It's just, you know, ex slash Twitter is
Speaker 2: a hell site, and I was saying, I'm going to
Speaker 2: be the balance from this point forward to some good
Speaker 2: economic news. Whenever I see it, I'm gonna post it.
Speaker 2: And you know, people always say you don't know anything
Speaker 2: about politics. Well, people will say, you know, you don't
Speaker 2: know much about the economy. You don't have to pay attention.
Speaker 2: Every flight I have been on, and I've seen bad economies.
Speaker 2: During COVID post two thousand and eight, the market crash,
Speaker 2: I've seen bad economies last four years, three years. Every
Speaker 2: flight I'm on is packed Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, vacation, holiday, business, personal,
Speaker 2: doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where I'm going. I can
Speaker 2: go to Rhode Island, I can go to Providence, I
Speaker 2: can go to Salt Lake, I can go to Dallas,
Speaker 2: I can go to Boise, I can go to Arizona.
Speaker 2: They're all packed, and I know those tickets aren't cheap.
Speaker 2: That's one way I've always measured the economy. Hey, during COVID,
Speaker 2: the early and late stages, you know, there were open
Speaker 2: seats on planes.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: One of the things years ago, I got picked up
Speaker 2: by a driver. It was the late Berning Max driver
Speaker 2: in Chicago, and I was asking him about how the
Speaker 2: economy was, and he said, well, I can always tell
Speaker 2: the economy. This was just a you know a driver
Speaker 2: in Chicago for Bernie Mac, the late great comedian, and
Speaker 2: he said, I can tell the economy based on the traffic.
Speaker 2: He said, people have jobs now, traffic's awful, So you
Speaker 2: don't have to be an economist to figure out what's
Speaker 2: the traffic like, try to get into a hotel. What
Speaker 2: are restaurants like on Thursday, Friday, Saturday? How about a Tuesday,
Speaker 2: a Wednesday? Are they busy? What are they charging for cocktails?
Speaker 2: I can tell you in the life I live, and
Speaker 2: I don't hang out with the ritzy crowd.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I got stay at home dads as friends, school teachers,
Speaker 2: regular dudes. Nobody right now is in dire strait. That
Speaker 2: doesn't mean people aren't in dire straits. But when I
Speaker 2: hear wow, the inflation, it's down, job growth ascending, unemployment
Speaker 2: three point seven, historically low. The economy's fine. I'm not
Speaker 2: saying it's on fire. I'm not saying the economy is great.
Speaker 1: It's okay.
Speaker 2: I know based on my AD rates and commercials, we
Speaker 2: have turned a corner in the last six months, probably
Speaker 2: the last four months, we've really turned a corner with
Speaker 2: our ad revenue on our podcasts. I have a big
Speaker 2: business dinner tomorrow night with a really important advertiser. I
Speaker 2: can tell based on my ads the rates how many
Speaker 2: dinners I'm having. Airports US casinos last year made six
Speaker 2: point five billion dollars. That's discretionary income. That's a lot
Speaker 2: of money. So because Biden's in office, you know, no
Speaker 2: conservative wants to acknowledge. Oh, the economies. It's not terrible.
Speaker 2: I don't give presidents that much credit for the economy.
Speaker 2: But the stock market does matter. When people tell you
Speaker 2: the stock market is not the economy, well it's my economy.
Speaker 2: Fifty percent of my net worth is in the stock market,
Speaker 2: so I pay attention to it. So when my four
Speaker 2: to zer one k goes up, my step IIRA goes up,
Speaker 2: my mutual funds, my net worth goes up. I travel more,
Speaker 2: I vacation more, I buy more stuff. I can't be
Speaker 2: the only person in the country that thinks that. So
Speaker 2: I know that DraftKings. I know that people are sports
Speaker 2: betting and gambling and traveling and going to work. So
Speaker 2: what I don't buy into, I'll vote. I'll vote left
Speaker 2: and right. I would have voted for Mitt Romney. I
Speaker 2: don't have a problem voting for a conservative. I voted
Speaker 2: for George Bush, I voted for Obama, I voted for Clinton.
Speaker 2: Right now, I'm not a fan of Biden or Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: I am an independent, left leaning moderate on social issues,
Speaker 2: right leaning moderate on fiscal issues. But this idea that
Speaker 2: you have to be an economist to know the economy, No,
Speaker 2: you don't pay attention. The economy is fine. Nobody said
Speaker 2: it's on fire. Nobody said it's equal for everybody. It
Speaker 2: never has been. I grew up in a small rural
Speaker 2: town without a lot of money. We were struggling to
Speaker 2: buy groceries my entire childhood. We were not rolling in it.
Speaker 2: Today'somy is fine, and I ain't sticking to sports ever.
Speaker 2: John Middlecoff, former NFL scout, going to the NFL combine
Speaker 2: here three and out. His podcast Go Low is his
Speaker 2: golf podcast. You know, the NBA draft is fun, but
Speaker 2: there's two rounds and these guys coming at nineteen and
Speaker 2: they go to bad teams. So and the hit rate's
Speaker 2: pretty low because you don't have as much video. It's hard.
Speaker 2: In the NBA NFL college draft, you have minimum three
Speaker 2: years of film. A lot of these guys come from
Speaker 2: two or three major conferences. They're playing against NFL guys,
Speaker 2: So there's misses, but there's a lot of hits as well.
Speaker 2: You know, Now, I was thinking about one of the
Speaker 2: things in the draft that I was reading a story
Speaker 2: and I forget God. I want to give credit to
Speaker 2: whoever did it. They went back and looked at last
Speaker 2: year's draft and graded it. And again it's not so.
Speaker 2: Houston had the most successful draft. So when CJ. Stroud
Speaker 2: comes in and crushes some of it is very explainable.
Speaker 2: They hit like on five draft picks number two. I
Speaker 2: know the Rams and the Seahawks were up there, the
Speaker 2: Packers were at three. And I got to tell you something.
Speaker 2: I said this, I like both the Packers last two drafts.
Speaker 2: Is I sometimes wonder about this, but by the way
Speaker 2: the Jets and the Giants terrible. Is that I sometimes wonder.
Speaker 2: And you worked in the building because Philadelphia, where you worked,
Speaker 2: it's a wealthy franchise. There are a lot of money here.
Speaker 2: Green Bay, I could argue, over the last twenty five years,
Speaker 2: has done a better job than anybody in this league
Speaker 2: drafting and developing and when you were in the league,
Speaker 2: and my take is a lack of an owner helpful.
Speaker 2: The guys run at it are just all football guys.
Speaker 2: But the Packers they went to last year's draft and
Speaker 2: the receivers hit and the tight ends hit. And just
Speaker 2: when I look at Green Bay, I think, Okay, they've
Speaker 2: had different GMS, different coaches. They nail quarterbacks, great o' line,
Speaker 2: they always always find receivers and tight ends when you
Speaker 2: were in the league. Is it one of those classic
Speaker 2: the millionaire next door that if you're on a school
Speaker 2: teacher salary, you're just not gonna waste as much money.
Speaker 2: You're going to be smarter than a stockbroker who's got
Speaker 2: money to right? Are the Packers seen as frugal because
Speaker 2: they don't have the game day revenue? But when I
Speaker 2: saw that list, and again I apologize for not crediting
Speaker 2: who it was, I saw it on the plane. It
Speaker 2: was best draft from last year. Packers were third, and
Speaker 2: I thought, God, when is the last bad draft the
Speaker 2: Packers had.
Speaker 4: I think a lot has to do with, you know,
Speaker 4: a lot of cultures. When I get rid of everyone, right,
Speaker 4: a GM and a coach, the owner gets to hire everybody,
Speaker 4: and he's always the boss. He's always hovering over everybody.
Speaker 4: It goes back to ron Wolf and Holmgren taught all
Speaker 4: these guys right from Ted Thompson. Gudakins had worked there forever,
Speaker 4: so they've had the same culture in terms of management
Speaker 4: since Ron Wolf showed up in the early nineties. So
Speaker 4: the way they look at players, they've always been obsessed
Speaker 4: with high weight speed. I don't think it has to
Speaker 4: do as much with like pinchion pennies and not being
Speaker 4: able to like, you know, you're the Rays, they're the Yankee,
Speaker 4: so you have to outthink them. I just think that
Speaker 4: they've taught and streamlined it from generation to generation very
Speaker 4: very well.
Speaker 1: They have a.
Speaker 4: Like a company culture there that I think has transcended
Speaker 4: general managers from ron Wolf to Ted Thompson to now Gutikins,
Speaker 4: and I think they've been pretty consistent. Back to what
Speaker 4: you're saying with the draft of like they all know
Speaker 4: what they're looking for because they've been looking for the
Speaker 4: same thing now for thirty years. Helps a lot when
Speaker 4: you have a quarterback, right, they have a quarterback and
Speaker 4: they know how to surround the guy, and they've always
Speaker 4: done an incredible job of surrounding the guy on offense.
Speaker 4: I think the Ravens are a pretty good example of
Speaker 4: how they transitioned from Ossie to Da Costa because Da
Speaker 4: Costa was his right hand man forever. So it's like
Speaker 4: point when you have the cohesion, Like why are the
Speaker 4: Chiefs so strong right now? Because Andy has Spags who's
Speaker 4: never leaving, I mean, and who has been goes back
Speaker 4: for twenty years beating Belichick and Brady.
Speaker 1: It's very unique to have that.
Speaker 4: Kyle or McVeigh get a good coordinator, boom, the guy's gone.
Speaker 4: They can't hold on to their defensive coordinator. So I
Speaker 4: think having the cohesion the Packers is a great place
Speaker 4: to work.
Speaker 1: I remember when we were there.
Speaker 4: When I worked in the league, everyone was always kind
Speaker 4: of envious of like because it was like this chill vibe,
Speaker 4: but they were winning big and it was just through
Speaker 4: the Green Bay Packers. There was like the pressure we
Speaker 4: had in Philadelphia, felt it every day when you went
Speaker 4: in the building. They definitely don't have that. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: think the Chiefs really have that going on right now,
Speaker 4: but a lot has to do with winning. I just
Speaker 4: think it's it's a very unique organization. But I do
Speaker 4: think it gets back to the streamline vision from generation
Speaker 4: to generation, and they've all crossed, you know, like John
Speaker 4: Schneider hires Mike McDonald know each other.
Speaker 1: They're hoping this.
Speaker 4: Chemistry works because he's good coach with the Ravens, and
Speaker 4: you know he knows. But it's like you're kind of
Speaker 4: keeping your fingers crossed. You look at Harball goes to
Speaker 4: the Chargers. Who do they hire as his general manager?
Speaker 4: A guy he knows, A guy he's comfortable with from Baltimore.
Speaker 4: So you're like, yeah, it's probably gonna work out. He
Speaker 4: knows John there. It's all in the family that matters.
Speaker 4: Like Shanahan's had a lot of success with people he knows.
Speaker 4: He's worked with Robert solid he coached Tamiko Ryans, Brian
Speaker 4: Greasy he worked with when he was young in Tampa's
Speaker 4: dad knows him. We're all comfortable with people we know, right,
Speaker 4: who do you hire the volume like to run your
Speaker 4: management people that you're comfortable people with. You know, it
Speaker 4: helps now they have to be talented, but like when
Speaker 4: you're all on the same page, it's a lot easier
Speaker 4: to operate. And I think for thirty plus years the
Speaker 4: Packers have just had a lot of cohesion, not a
Speaker 4: lot of people leave their coaches, do you know, but
Speaker 4: there their scouts. I don't know if they pay top
Speaker 4: notch relative to the NFL executives, but I sure know
Speaker 4: when they're winning, things are having success, people like working there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can also buy a hell of a house
Speaker 2: in Milwaukee, live like a king a four hundred ninety
Speaker 2: thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's it's just it was when I saw the list,
Speaker 2: it was like, God, Green Bay knows what they're doing,
Speaker 2: and to your point, quarterbacks kind of make it all work,
Speaker 2: you can. I mean, listen, Brett Veach in Kansas City's
Speaker 2: had some misses. You forget sky Moore, you forget him
Speaker 2: really quickly. Malmes makes you forget shit really quickly.
Speaker 4: Well, it's like someone told me with the Jets a
Speaker 4: couple of years ago. They're like they had all those
Speaker 4: picks in the top whatever. The first couple of rounds
Speaker 4: for two straight years, could we could go seven of eight?
Speaker 4: They all could be pro bowlers. If Zach's a whiff,
Speaker 4: were in trouble, we'd go one of eight. If zach'sa
Speaker 4: hit contract extensions, Well what happened? They went seven eight?
Speaker 4: Maybe not seven eight, but five or six of eight
Speaker 4: and Zach's the problem and they got issues that quarterback.
Speaker 4: I mean, if Jordan Love and we're all gonna pencil
Speaker 4: him in, I do think there's a difference of kind
Speaker 4: of They got to fly unto the radar a little bit.
Speaker 1: This year.
Speaker 4: They started slow and they came on. Everyone next year
Speaker 4: is going to be looking at them like double digit
Speaker 4: wins playoff team. It is a different pressure. So why
Speaker 4: I give a lot of credit to the Lions. Everyone
Speaker 4: took the Lions seriously this year coming in and they
Speaker 4: handled it well like it's another Now Lafleur has success.
Speaker 4: Now he's been a part of those type teams with Aaron,
Speaker 4: so he's I feel comfortable with it. But sustaining high
Speaker 4: level play year in year out, that's hard. So you
Speaker 4: know there's going to be a lot of tangible pressure
Speaker 4: on Jordan Love next year.
Speaker 2: I've always kind of measured how often I talk football.
Speaker 2: I don't work at the NFL network, nor do I
Speaker 2: want to.
Speaker 1: I like the NBA.
Speaker 2: I like, you know, an October September baseball series. I
Speaker 2: like the World Cup, a good UFC fight, I like
Speaker 2: March Madness. I could never just talk football, and I've
Speaker 2: always kept the number around sixty five percent of the show.
Speaker 2: But I was talking to a TV exec. I had
Speaker 2: a meeting about ten twelve days ago with a really
Speaker 2: smart guy, and we were talking about the Big Ten
Speaker 2: and he said, those ratings going to go up fifteen
Speaker 2: to twenty percent. And I had given college football about
Speaker 2: an eight year break a hiatus on my show because
Speaker 2: it got very regional and very southern. And I'm not
Speaker 2: anti SEC, but if it was all it.
Speaker 4: Was Alabama, Georgia every in Clemson every year for seven
Speaker 4: straight years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so it just like listen, once baseball became
Speaker 2: very local. Nobody in Minnesota is going to watch the Mariners.
Speaker 2: Nobody in Seattle gives a rip about Tampa Bay. You
Speaker 2: had a Seahawk fan would watch the Buccaneers in Baker
Speaker 2: Mayfield play. So once baseball about ten twelve years ago,
Speaker 2: I felt it really got local. I just didn't talk
Speaker 2: about it. College basketball is a turnstile now between the
Speaker 2: transfer portal one and done. You can't name the starters
Speaker 2: on Duke, but it is sort of interesting. I was
Speaker 2: talking to this executive about the growth of college football.
Speaker 2: He goes, you're not going to believe the numbers are
Speaker 2: going to explode. And he started talking about the Big
Speaker 2: Ten schedule and he's like, you're going to get Washington
Speaker 2: Oregon or Washington, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State USC
Speaker 2: You're going to have three and four games in a
Speaker 2: row all day. And it did make me think as
Speaker 2: I was off this week, and I you know, I
Speaker 2: kind of shut it down. When I'm off, I don't
Speaker 2: watch sports. I just leave and there was nothing going
Speaker 2: on anyway. I'm watching the Warriors Nuggets today. But the
Speaker 2: biggest story in baseball last week as the season starts, uniforms,
Speaker 2: you know, they're kind of sheer see through. Biggest story
Speaker 2: in the NBA was how bad the All Star Game was.
Speaker 2: The biggest story in college basketball was storming the court. Yet,
Speaker 2: the NFL is the sport we talk about because we
Speaker 2: watch the games. Listen, if you're a fan, listen to
Speaker 2: what we talk about. When people, sportscasters, podcasters talk football,
Speaker 2: we actually talk about strategy in the games that the NFL.
Speaker 2: With the growth of college football, which by the way,
Speaker 2: between the Draft and the combine, they really started to
Speaker 2: go hand in hand. College basketball in the NBA are
Speaker 2: the Grand Canyon. They have nothing in common. Most of
Speaker 2: the great players don't even want to play in college basketball,
Speaker 2: college baseball, but major League baseball, college hockey they don't connect.
Speaker 2: You know, college soccer and the MLS they don't connect.
Speaker 2: College football connects with the NFL more and more. And
Speaker 2: I was sitting there this week watching people talk about sports,
Speaker 2: and I thought, am I going to do an eighty
Speaker 2: percent football show based on the audience. As I've said,
Speaker 2: the audience drives the show what they want. I follow
Speaker 2: ratings and I'm sitting there thinking, I don't want to
Speaker 2: work at the NFL network. But John between legalized gambling,
Speaker 2: people now stick through bad games. This massive, yeah, big
Speaker 2: ten sec explosion where now the two conferences are going
Speaker 2: to have all the games we watch, The ratings are
Speaker 2: going to skyrocket the twelve team playoff. I was sitting
Speaker 2: there this week and I thought, Jesus, you're talking about
Speaker 2: see through pants in baseball? Is that amongst your friends
Speaker 2: when you go golf, does anybody talk about anything other football?
Speaker 4: The other thing that it comes up consistently? Even and
Speaker 4: I know a couple of guys and play golf with
Speaker 4: some former Major League baseball players. They talk football. I
Speaker 4: mean the Bill's fan, a Packer fan. That's all they
Speaker 4: want to talk about. And during the fall, I think
Speaker 4: college football, like you said, think about next year Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas, LSU,
Speaker 4: the SEC and the Big Ten get it's gonna feel
Speaker 4: like NFL light. I think the NFL, I've said this forever.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's gonna last forever my entire life.
Speaker 4: Like I'm almost forty, does that forty years dominating When
Speaker 4: I was growing up. Baseball was huge the nineties with
Speaker 4: the Yankees, basketball with Michael Jordan. But for the foreseeable future,
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 1: See how that gap.
Speaker 4: I mean the All Star Game, guys actively talk like
Speaker 4: why would we even try to participate. Anthony Rendon, who's
Speaker 4: making two hundred and forty five million dollars to that story,
Speaker 4: He's like, yeah, baseball is not even a priority. It's like, well,
Speaker 4: I think for two hundred and fifty million dollars, probably
Speaker 4: probably don't want to say that, buddy. You know, it's like,
Speaker 4: can you imagine an NFL play? I think the relatability
Speaker 4: sometimes with you and I don't even blame these guys
Speaker 4: cause you're getting two hundred fifty million dollars guaranteed.
Speaker 1: Some of these.
Speaker 4: Basketball players I played. I played golf last week during
Speaker 4: the All Star break with a guy that calls NBA games,
Speaker 4: and he was saying, one problem is, and he's on
Speaker 4: a pretty high level team, but he just sees it
Speaker 4: around the league is it's always like you have to
Speaker 4: max everybody out. Well, you can't lose them. Well is
Speaker 4: the guy a max player? Like we had the max zion?
Speaker 4: Did you or I mean, did you have to? Cause
Speaker 4: in the NFL you don't have to, and you would not.
Speaker 4: And so everyone's making all this money. I don't care
Speaker 4: who you are. If you're twenty five years old and
Speaker 4: you're basically guaranteed to get an astronomical amount of money,
Speaker 4: you're gonna be jaded in the way.
Speaker 1: You think about everything. Yeah, we're in football.
Speaker 4: It still has this old school meritocracy that if you
Speaker 4: do not produce within two years. I've seen it forever.
Speaker 4: It's why when I used to go to Niners camp
Speaker 4: a lot like I'm not gonna make it too big
Speaker 4: a deal about a third or fourth round pick, because
Speaker 4: every year I've seen that fourth round pick. By the
Speaker 4: time training camp ends, the undrafted free agents beating him
Speaker 4: out and might even beat out the starter, and all
Speaker 4: of a sudden, two undrafted free.
Speaker 1: Agents are starting. Guys are coming from everywhere.
Speaker 4: Every team. I don't care if you're a playoff team
Speaker 4: or a shitty team, and they're it's kind of like
Speaker 4: it relates to our life. You gotta produce whatever you do.
Speaker 4: You either generate revenue, get your job done, or you
Speaker 4: gotta get replaced. Where I think in basketball and baseball,
Speaker 4: it's kind of like scholarship. Once you get paid, Like,
Speaker 4: I can't what am I gonna do with you? Even
Speaker 4: in football, you're gonna see so many names this week.
Speaker 4: You're like, God, I thought that guy was under a
Speaker 4: long term contract. You're like, yeah, we're thinking about cutting them.
Speaker 4: If you won't take a pay cut, we'll thinking about
Speaker 4: trading them. So basically every guy, I mean, we could
Speaker 4: probably name thirty guys like untouchable in the NFL. A
Speaker 4: lot of them are quarterbacks, and then a lot of
Speaker 4: like high level Trent Williams, Travis Kelce, like those type guys.
Speaker 4: But basically every other name you go half the Pro
Speaker 4: Bowl roster, You're like, yeah, yeah, they could move on
Speaker 4: from that guy. Yep, And I think basketball and baseball
Speaker 4: used to have an element of that, and definitely their
Speaker 4: guys were wired. Like working in like local television in
Speaker 4: the Bay Area and meeting a lot of guys that
Speaker 4: played in the eighties and nineties, they had that attitude
Speaker 4: in baseball and basketball. I can be replaced, I could
Speaker 4: be cut. They were very relatable individuals. It's why Charles
Speaker 4: Barkley is like one of the biggest TV stars of
Speaker 4: all time. He's relatable. I think it's much more difficult
Speaker 4: for the modern guy in that sport to be relatable
Speaker 4: because you're making one hundred million dollars guaranteed, whether you're
Speaker 4: good or bad. No one has a problem when you're
Speaker 4: good getting paid. But he's like, is this guy, even
Speaker 4: Jordan Poole's making one hundred thirty million dollars, he's like
Speaker 4: the worst player in the NBA.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and I've talked to a handful of execs
Speaker 2: and I've brought this up before. They laugh at the
Speaker 2: NBA structure. They're like, what a joke they make fun
Speaker 2: NFL guys. I remember having this conversation a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago when the CTE thing came down, and a
Speaker 2: lot of these Northeast media types who don't understand the
Speaker 2: passion for football in the Midwest or college football. They're like,
Speaker 2: it's the end of the NFL. Like you've been in
Speaker 2: the Northeast way too long, where baseball still talk about
Speaker 2: on sports radio a lot. I'm like, football's not going anywhere.
Speaker 2: It's way too big to fail. There's way too much money,
Speaker 2: and they've cleaned it up that nobody hits at practice
Speaker 2: anymore once the season starts. By the way, you get
Speaker 2: to the Super Bowl, usually the teams that get to
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl are missing maybe one starter, like everybody's
Speaker 2: got the ye I mean, guys are healthy.
Speaker 4: Miners and Chiefs were healthy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's a you know, the Chiefs a few
Speaker 2: years ago missing their tackles, and it was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's what happens. But one of the things the structure
Speaker 2: of the NFL is the structure of most of our lives.
Speaker 2: You're tradeable, cuttable, fireable. And I never understand fans like
Speaker 2: this is like we're fans. I look at fans that
Speaker 2: I just think you guys are out in your mind
Speaker 2: this idea.
Speaker 1: I want my guy to get the bag. Fuck that.
Speaker 2: I don't want many players to get the bag because
Speaker 2: it limits my flexibility. I am always rooting for the
Speaker 2: team to sign a reasonable contract, so it gives the
Speaker 2: team flexibility. I mean, I like, Dak's got a three
Speaker 2: hundred million dollars net worth after his next contract. He's fine,
Speaker 2: but you're not. You're not fine if you overpay players.
Speaker 2: But it is interesting. The NFL is the only sport,
Speaker 2: and I will say the MLS and hockey are the closest.
Speaker 2: NBA and baseball are a mess that it's like you
Speaker 2: just I turned.
Speaker 4: To a former hockey guy that played fifteen years. I
Speaker 4: didn't know who he was, but we started BS and
Speaker 4: he was one of the most relatable individuals I had
Speaker 4: to google after us.
Speaker 1: God, this guy played.
Speaker 4: They have a relatability to the way they talk and
Speaker 4: the way they interact. They're actually I'm like, this guy
Speaker 4: could have talked to anyone in here and could have
Speaker 4: got along. It was very impressive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I met a guy at a bar in Naples
Speaker 2: one time. NHL guy was a Bruin.
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
Speaker 2: I'm googled them same. But I also think they have
Speaker 2: a very tight cap and stars get paid. Everybody else
Speaker 2: makes a good living, not an insane living. And I'm
Speaker 2: not anti I always said this, I'm not anti players
Speaker 2: making money. I'm not anti mobility. But in any business,
Speaker 2: if you're paying B and C employees a money, you're
Speaker 2: going to have a problem. And I do think and again,
Speaker 2: I love NBA playoff basketball, I really do. It's one
Speaker 2: of my favorite things. But I NFL guys they look
Speaker 2: executives owners, they look at the NBA and baseball and
Speaker 2: they just laugh at their structure.
Speaker 4: Well, I think one power of the NFL, like you
Speaker 4: said about a random fan will watch not his team
Speaker 4: and know their players. I also think because the power listen,
Speaker 4: we can argue over the franchise tag, whether it's fair
Speaker 4: or not. It's one of the healthiest things for the
Speaker 4: business by a mile, because when Kevin Durant or Aaron
Speaker 4: Judge or Shoheo Tani when they hit free agency, there
Speaker 4: is no mechanism to keep them, and in those leagues,
Speaker 4: guys turn over a lot, which is not great for
Speaker 4: the league. If I'm the Kansay Chiefs, I would imagine
Speaker 4: bottom ten market in the NFL. If I want to
Speaker 4: keep Patrick Mahomes his entire career, or the Packers with
Speaker 4: Rogers afar I can until I choose to get rid
Speaker 4: of them healthy for my organization, for the league. The
Speaker 4: Chiefs were just in a Super Bowl and they're easily now.
Speaker 4: I would say one of the most recognizable brands in
Speaker 4: the NFL because of Patrick, and that's not really possible.
Speaker 4: Like in the NBA, if the Nuggets make the NBA Finals,
Speaker 4: it's not great. They would much rather have that Steph
Speaker 4: Curry or Lebron in the NBA Finals. We're in the NFL.
Speaker 4: It helps to have the Niners there, but if it
Speaker 4: had been the Lions, maybe it's not one hundred and
Speaker 4: twenty What is one hundred and fifteen million.
Speaker 1: People still watch the entie. It doesn't impact.
Speaker 4: And that's where I think the NFL has dwarfed everyone
Speaker 4: that they're no longer dependent on markets the brands.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that their brands.
Speaker 4: Changed by the player, by the quarterback. Who you know,
Speaker 4: if Josh Allen's healthy is going to be on the
Speaker 4: bill for fifteen years and it's all.
Speaker 1: You like that?
Speaker 2: Well, we bring them on a couple of times a year.
Speaker 2: Ian O'Connor four time New York Times bestseller, twenty time
Speaker 2: first place winner National Writing Contest New York post. When
Speaker 2: I have tried to do one on one with Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 2: I've said this on the air. I'm not a psychologist,
Speaker 2: but he pushed back on his parents in religion, he
Speaker 2: pushed back on authority in Green Bay. He has pushed
Speaker 2: back on the vaccine. He's pushed back on media. He's
Speaker 2: pushed back. He's a bit of a contrarian. That maybe
Speaker 2: he is, you know, he's our modern day rebel. Is
Speaker 2: that if you look at his personality, what he does
Speaker 2: is constantly push back on conventional mandates, conventional wisdom, conventional authority.
Speaker 2: That's my interpretation. He just pushes back on group think. Now,
Speaker 2: sometimes group think is correct. I think people should have
Speaker 2: taken the vaccine if they were older, right, kids, maybe
Speaker 2: not as much. Is that a fair or reasonable interpretation
Speaker 2: of what you're discovering? Is that you know, he's never married,
Speaker 2: No kids, may not. You know, I don't know if
Speaker 2: his pet situation. He's really an independent guy. He's wealthy,
Speaker 2: good looking, older, he's got his worldview. It's a lot
Speaker 2: like Joe Rogan's. They're both talented, but he basically just
Speaker 2: pushes back an authority. Maybe one of the reasons he's
Speaker 2: not married. He doesn't want to conform, and that's his personality,
Speaker 2: that's his id.
Speaker 1: Is that reasonable reasonable? He certainly pushes his back on
Speaker 1: an awful lot of fronts, and I think growing up
Speaker 1: in a very strict religious household is certainly part of it,
Speaker 1: maybe the beginning of when you grow up in a
Speaker 1: household like that, I think maybe naturally later on, and
Speaker 1: he goes to Cow, this liberal global institution, people from
Speaker 1: all over the world, and he's experiencing different cultures and
Speaker 1: backgrounds and ethnicities and races, and you grew up into
Speaker 1: town that was overwhelmingly white, and so I think you
Speaker 1: start to see it maybe a cal cal Berkeley, and
Speaker 1: I think he starts pushing back, maybe against the religious upbringing,
Speaker 1: and that leads to other pushback. I think that's a
Speaker 1: reasonable interpretation of the journey of his life and where
Speaker 1: he is right now. And I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: the one thing about him that I admire, even though
Speaker 1: I don't agree with with everything he says, is he's
Speaker 1: he is pretty fearless. He's not afraid to confront opposition
Speaker 1: and to say unpopular things and to deal with the
Speaker 1: consequences of those things. And I think that's an admirable trade.
Speaker 1: I don't think that he's doing it just for that reason,
Speaker 1: just to push back. I do think he believes in
Speaker 1: what he says. But I think that's a It's a
Speaker 1: good read on the journey of Aaron Rodgers, and I
Speaker 1: did ask him some quiescent, for instance, when he said
Speaker 1: I'd been immunized, and then he got killed for that
Speaker 1: later on, of course, when it came out that he
Speaker 1: did not get the vaccine, and he explained why he
Speaker 1: said what he said, and he was allergic to an
Speaker 1: ingredient in Maderna and Pfizer and also concerned about the
Speaker 1: side effects, the reported alleged side effects of the Johnson
Speaker 1: and Johnson shot. Is, why didn't you just say that
Speaker 1: in August of that year when you gave that press
Speaker 1: conference instead of saying I've been immunized and sort of
Speaker 1: misleading people. And I thought his answer to that, which
Speaker 1: I'd like to save for the book, was very interesting,
Speaker 1: And because if I were sitting there as a columnist,
Speaker 1: I don't know how you feel Colin about vaccines and
Speaker 1: I got vaccinated, but I put myself sort of in
Speaker 1: the middle on it because I do think it was
Speaker 1: not quite as effective as it was advertised, and I
Speaker 1: got COVID twice, and so I said, if you gave
Speaker 1: that explanation about being allergic and also being concerned about
Speaker 1: side effects, I actually I think that's a reasonable explanation.
Speaker 1: I would have accepted it. Unlike Kyrie Irving, who could
Speaker 1: not play because of the mandate of New York, you
Speaker 1: could play with that position. And my biggest problem with
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving is what he was doing to his teammates
Speaker 1: and particularly Kevin Durant, but also to middle and bottom
Speaker 1: of the roster players whose careers were being affected and
Speaker 1: could be elevated by winning a championship that they had
Speaker 1: no chance of winning with him not playing. So Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers didn't have to deal with that. He was eligible
Speaker 1: to play with the position of not taking the vaccine.
Speaker 1: But I think if I were sitting there as a
Speaker 1: commist and he gave the explanation he gave months later,
Speaker 1: I would have thought that was reasonable. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I view you as a storyteller. I think you're a
Speaker 2: great American sports storyteller, and that's what I value. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean your books. I've read them all and I
Speaker 2: can't wait for this. Aaron Rodgers that's a really you know,
Speaker 2: part of this book writing thing is the topic. I
Speaker 2: tell people this all the time in my business. You
Speaker 2: can be the greatest sports talk show host of all time.
Speaker 2: You choose hockey, I choose football. I win the segment.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter how great you are, howeverage I am.
Speaker 2: Topic matters, and right now I can't wait to read
Speaker 2: the Aaron Rodgers book.
Speaker 1: I can't. That's a great topic.
Speaker 2: I can't because nobody's really done the seminole book on him,
Speaker 2: because he's been a little bit elusive, he's a little
Speaker 2: bit prickly. He can be a tab aloof and he's
Speaker 2: not that giving.
Speaker 3: Teammates don't know him.
Speaker 2: He's not that giving. So do you know the name
Speaker 2: for it yet?
Speaker 1: Out of the Darkness that, oh my, the mystery Daron
Speaker 1: Rodgers is sort of the subtitle, but he he has
Speaker 1: said those words, out of the darkness. I came out
Speaker 1: of the darkness. It was more last year than I
Speaker 1: guess this year. But when he went on that darkness
Speaker 1: retreat and came outside, he still wanted to play. Then
Speaker 1: he wanted to play for the Jets. And so the
Speaker 1: idea is to bring light to the mystery of who
Speaker 1: he is, and so that's why that title was picked.
Speaker 1: And so you're not really you're not a huge fan
Speaker 1: of his as a as a figure right as a personality.
Speaker 2: Well, I think I first ballot Hall of Famer would
Speaker 2: always choose him over Far if I thought he was
Speaker 2: more efficient and more of a thinking man's player. I
Speaker 2: consider him like a Rod or Kevin Durant, an all
Speaker 2: time great talent, not a great leader, a little passive, aggressive.
Speaker 2: Jeter's more leader, Brady's more leader, and I think there's
Speaker 2: a there's a distinction between the two. I think Lebron
Speaker 2: has leadership quality. Steph Curry does. I think Kawhi Leonard's
Speaker 2: just great, and so we tend to think quarterbacks all
Speaker 2: have to be great leaders. Manning certainly was.
Speaker 1: He was very.
Speaker 2: Confrontational with Jeff Saturday, Brady with a coordinator Mahomes, with
Speaker 2: a coach that's not Aaron. But I do think he's
Speaker 2: a fascinating personality. He's a content machine. He's a contrarian,
Speaker 2: and I appreciate him. I think he suffers from a
Speaker 2: little bit of that smartest guy in the room disease.
Speaker 2: Rich single doesn't really have to sacrifice for kids, a family.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, Like you when you're married,
Speaker 2: it's a series of sacrifices. I'm willing to do all
Speaker 2: of them. But it's a different lifestyle than Aaron. And
Speaker 2: I think, you know, Bill Simmons and I have talked
Speaker 2: about this older richer, handsome, never married. You know, you
Speaker 2: kind of get into your own you get into your
Speaker 2: mirror a lot. You are the son the galaxy and
Speaker 2: the stars, and I think there's a bit of that
Speaker 2: that's a little over the top. But I respect the
Speaker 2: hell out of him.
Speaker 1: Oh it's interesting because the Jets, the players love him
Speaker 1: to death, and I think most of them did. In
Speaker 1: Green Bay, he had two guys, Greg Jennings and Jamichael
Speaker 1: Finley who had some negative things to say about him
Speaker 1: and his leadership style and approach over the years. There's
Speaker 1: really kind of just those two guys, and I had
Speaker 1: a prominent NFL figure. I used this quote in the book,
Speaker 1: but I'll give it to you now. I didn't name
Speaker 1: the person because he said, listen, I can't stand Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers and everything he stands for, particularly on the vaccine.
Speaker 1: And this is somebody who's done a lot of business
Speaker 1: with the packers and the Jets, prominent NFL figure, and
Speaker 1: he said, but I have to admit, I've never met
Speaker 1: an NFL player who don't like so in the locker room,
Speaker 1: He's loved in a lot of corners, and so Hard
Speaker 1: Knocks was very good for him. I think it became
Speaker 1: an Aaron Rodgers infomercial really in terms of how he
Speaker 1: connected with players, older players, younger players, and how they
Speaker 1: responded to him. So we'll see, we'll see how the
Speaker 1: season plays out. I just want him to be healthy.
Speaker 1: I just want to see the season. I just want
Speaker 1: to see him make fifteen starts. And I've never I've
Speaker 1: covered some of his games here and there, but I've
Speaker 1: never seen a full Aaron Rodgers season. I'd love to
Speaker 1: see it in my backyard with the Jets. And if
Speaker 1: he could win a championship with the Jets, which is unlikely,
Speaker 1: that would do a tremendous amount for his legacy. I
Speaker 1: think right now i'd have him fifth all time on
Speaker 1: the quarterback list. I think he could probably move up
Speaker 1: to two or three, and with a Super Bowl victory
Speaker 1: with the Jets, i'd probably put well Brady's one, Mahomes two,
Speaker 1: Montana three, Peyton Manning four, and I'd have Rogers five,
Speaker 1: but I think he can move up a step or
Speaker 1: two if he went on with the Jets. Yeah, I have.
Speaker 2: Brady Mahomes, Montana, Peyton l Way, and then I think
Speaker 2: you get into the next four or five guys. He's
Speaker 2: in that discussion.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you have more like seven to eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have him more like eight. But I always
Speaker 2: preferred him over far of who I thought was reckless,
Speaker 2: not as coachable, was more instinct driven, which I understood
Speaker 2: John Madden's affection for him. But I like guys who
Speaker 2: are more kind of buttoned up on script and take
Speaker 2: the laps and not everything is sort of you know,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it my way. I think that's a
Speaker 2: very outdated way to play football. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 2: If you've enjoyed the podcast, take a moment, rate and
Speaker 2: review