Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast wants the Giants to go
Speaker 1: all the way said. Welcome to another edition of the
Speaker 1: Around the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hanzas, joining
Speaker 1: the room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Westling, and
Speaker 1: Greg Rosenthal. What is up, boys? Hey Dan, You guys
Speaker 1: might not be aware, but we had a close call yesterday.
Speaker 1: We almost lost one of our own. I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: did the softball team play? But that's tonight. We'll get
Speaker 1: to that. To some softball drama that I wanted. This
Speaker 1: West my Consigliari, my Don Zimmer, we were conferring this morning.
Speaker 1: Uh about some drama the softball team. We'll get to that.
Speaker 1: But I think the most pressing issue is that we
Speaker 1: almost lost our dear Erica tempose last night. Uh in
Speaker 1: a what was described to me by Erica, not you
Speaker 1: shouldn't use these words exactly, but it was kind of
Speaker 1: put out there that it was close to a five
Speaker 1: alarm fire in her apartment building that nearly scorched her alive.
Speaker 1: And but she's here, she's alive. I made it. I
Speaker 1: made it up. Woke up at probably like four or
Speaker 1: four fifteen in the morning. My window is open, there's
Speaker 1: a heat wave at the a C going whatever, And
Speaker 1: I was like, why is there like a dump truck
Speaker 1: outside my window at four in the morning. And then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I smelled smoke and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's not a dump truck, that's a
Speaker 1: fire truck. So I hop so I hop out of bed,
Speaker 1: like fly out of bed, and I'm thinking, maybe I
Speaker 1: left on the stove or oven, like I got home late,
Speaker 1: maybe I forgot to do something. And nothing's on nothing's
Speaker 1: on fire in my actual apartment. But outside of my
Speaker 1: this huge window in my kitchen that overlooks really open window,
Speaker 1: and it was just gray with smoke like smoke, and
Speaker 1: it was coming through. So I was like shutting the windows.
Speaker 1: I'm running around and put like and then I go
Speaker 1: out side and they just put some dramatic music under this.
Speaker 1: By the way, did you have the presence of mind
Speaker 1: to hit the hot butt drop with the whimpering man
Speaker 1: in the background. Seriously, it was so warm, it was
Speaker 1: like it was I've never seen anything like it. Smoke
Speaker 1: was like bellowing through my wind closed windows. And I
Speaker 1: went outside and the firefighters are there and they were
Speaker 1: spraying their two dumpsters. Yeah, there's like ten hot guys
Speaker 1: just like spraying. Yeah, it's like spraying shirt under Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had like my retainer in. It was like and
Speaker 1: then I woke up and they I think, like like
Speaker 1: either two homeless guys apparently were awake and saw the
Speaker 1: fire and ran to the fire station and rang the
Speaker 1: bell because there is a fire station around here, right.
Speaker 1: But I talked to them. I talked to them this morning,
Speaker 1: and they did say that they ran to the fire
Speaker 1: station to grab the fire. Talk to the vagrants, yeah,
Speaker 1: this morning hanging around here. Yeah, yeah, people they're still there. Um,
Speaker 1: but they said that the dumpsters were like set on
Speaker 1: fire by who. Well they don't know. Yeah. Um, up
Speaker 1: my entire wall through yeah yeah, couple. Um, all of
Speaker 1: the walls are scorched, My garage doors scorched, my car
Speaker 1: has burned. Marks. Um, it's a total disaster. And now
Speaker 1: my entire apartment reeks of smoke. Well you're moving, so
Speaker 1: it's perfect timing. What are you moving this weekend? Wow?
Speaker 1: It's almost suspicious. Last Yeah, a detective. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know what you would gain out of this. It's
Speaker 1: not like you're getting insurance money for an apartment you're renting,
Speaker 1: but the timing is kind of beautiful. Did it see
Speaker 1: you later? Maybe they did it so I don't get
Speaker 1: my security deposit back. One question for you, because I
Speaker 1: once had cut off getting an apartment in Arizona. I
Speaker 1: started to cook rice and beans, fell asleep. In like
Speaker 1: an hour later, there were some massive knocks on my door.
Speaker 1: I opened the door and it was like beefy fireman
Speaker 1: because my apartment was filled with smoke. The rice and
Speaker 1: beans had burnt, but my clothing for the next like
Speaker 1: month smelled like a like a hideous smoker's nightmare, and
Speaker 1: you couldn't get rid of it no matter how much
Speaker 1: you watch or your clothe. Is your clothing a disaster?
Speaker 1: At this point, my whole apartment smells like dead trash fire.
Speaker 1: Do you smell like it right now? I mean, I showered.
Speaker 1: Come in here a second. Yeah, okay, I want to
Speaker 1: smell you. Come on, you're serious, I'm serious. I want
Speaker 1: to save you. Smell like fire or a dumps there.
Speaker 1: And even if it had nothing to do with the fire,
Speaker 1: you're covered. Smell act a woman. No, you're fine, You're okay,
Speaker 1: you're fine. So that's good. So it didn't catch everything. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: my my place is fine. But if those homeless guys
Speaker 1: that potentially set it off didn't go get the firefighters,
Speaker 1: then my entire room and everything, like my house it
Speaker 1: was under my garage essentially in my househould have just
Speaker 1: blown the hell out. And to tie this whole thing together,
Speaker 1: one of those homeless men was the guy that lived
Speaker 1: on Greg's front step for um. Alright, good story. I'm
Speaker 1: glad you're okay, Erica. That is scary fire fire bad
Speaker 1: wise man. Well, he wasn't one of the greatest inventions
Speaker 1: in human history. In trouble without fire invention. Somebody had
Speaker 1: to invent it, just like somebody cracked open the first
Speaker 1: oyster and said, let me eat that. That's true. That
Speaker 1: is a brave person? Ever did that? All right? So
Speaker 1: Ricky's alive. She smells fine. I don't know about the
Speaker 1: rest of her wardrobe. Um, Wednesday, show Mark, you wrote
Speaker 1: a banger? How about that? Some of your favorite games? Ever? Wow?
Speaker 1: That takes work, That takes some actual effort. Well, a
Speaker 1: look behind the curtain. It was meant to be ten
Speaker 1: games and I got five in and it was like
Speaker 1: two thousand words long. So I just made it five games.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, now that's that's that's absolutely the strategy of
Speaker 1: of my writing at this point. It's like we there's
Speaker 1: an off season call. It's like, wait, I'm already at words.
Speaker 1: It's like eight takeaways is now five? Like no one
Speaker 1: knows the difference. It's fine, but I vouched for the
Speaker 1: five that I included. Good, we're gonna talk about that.
Speaker 1: And speaking of takeaways, um, they announced the Hard Knocks team,
Speaker 1: the Oakland Raiders. I wrote a piece for dot Com.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that as well, talking about the Raiders
Speaker 1: on Hard Knocks. But before we do that, let's uh
Speaker 1: take a spin through the news Morgan for all this
Speaker 1: all off, I'm running Fox two thousand and nineteen. It's
Speaker 1: called and turned in from Class Range easy as You're like, Morgan, again,
Speaker 1: is it going to Betty? It is sympathy from the
Speaker 1: USA plays, but any funtic victory for the USA? Um? Okay.
Speaker 1: So the United States women's soccer team, who are the
Speaker 1: defending World Cup champions UH defeated Thailand yesterday thirteen to nil. Uh.
Speaker 1: And first of all, there was some um pearl clutching
Speaker 1: about running up the score and I'm curious what you
Speaker 1: guys thoughts on that. But more I don't want to
Speaker 1: sound too like, what is a jingoistic but is this
Speaker 1: yet more evidence that? And I know the overseas listeners
Speaker 1: are gonna come after me at this after this. The
Speaker 1: women are so great, We're so tremendous that we are
Speaker 1: dropping thirteen bombs on these teams. If we just canceled
Speaker 1: the NFL, when the NBA and baseball and just funneled
Speaker 1: all of our might into our soccer program, we could
Speaker 1: be doing this damage on the men's side, right, we'd
Speaker 1: be winning World Cups. Right, Yeah, you're nay. I think
Speaker 1: I think it's more about like maybe twenty years from now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it certainly would help. By It's
Speaker 1: it's also like an infrastructure and a tradition and a
Speaker 1: culture which is hard to just kind of like snap
Speaker 1: your fingers and create. It's one of the reasons in
Speaker 1: four years, right no, yeah, but in twenty years, if
Speaker 1: you have children today, we're all funneled into one sport
Speaker 1: and that was the only sport they were playing. It's
Speaker 1: it's one of the reasons why our women are so
Speaker 1: good is because we do have a culture of women's sports,
Speaker 1: which is superior to uh much of the world and
Speaker 1: even interests, I mean people. I think outside the country,
Speaker 1: you have a hard time realizing, like how popular the
Speaker 1: women's national team is. We've got more Twitter followers and
Speaker 1: the men's team, so we like winners. It's a function
Speaker 1: of timeline. At the beginning, Towards the beginning decades of
Speaker 1: most sports, games are less competitive and there are more blowouts.
Speaker 1: But as the sport evolves, and women's soccer came after
Speaker 1: men's soccer, it gets more and more competitive. So I
Speaker 1: think it's more that women's soccer is still relative in
Speaker 1: its infancy compared to men's. So I like your idea,
Speaker 1: but at no point where we ever dominated in men's soccer.
Speaker 1: But other we're getting word men's teams were saying, but
Speaker 1: your plan is your it's a long range plan, and
Speaker 1: it's really one of my plan. Well I know, but
Speaker 1: I like it, But it's a vengeance. We're not going
Speaker 1: to sit in this situation where the men's team, which
Speaker 1: didn't even make it last time, spend the next two
Speaker 1: or three decades and start to done. It seems counterproductive though,
Speaker 1: to hurt our basketball and football. I think let's just
Speaker 1: Why don't you just root for the women? I am,
Speaker 1: I am, of course it cares about But you know what,
Speaker 1: I do care about the man. It's an incredible sport,
Speaker 1: especially the World Cup, and it's fun and it's cute.
Speaker 1: Like maybe the men will make it through to the
Speaker 1: next round. No, at some point I'd like to see
Speaker 1: the US soccer men's team make a real run in
Speaker 1: the World Cup. I feel like that would set the
Speaker 1: country on fire. As things stand, though, I feel like
Speaker 1: we're kind of we have it in our developmental capabilities
Speaker 1: because we have so much talent. Going to other last
Speaker 1: time was embarrassing for the men, right, but but but
Speaker 1: let the women can set the thing on fire, win
Speaker 1: it again. Just set Erica's dumps from fire instead, which
Speaker 1: is fun. Don't try to turn this into Dan you
Speaker 1: don't care about women. I'm happy about the one. I think.
Speaker 1: I think there's a point to be made there that
Speaker 1: the that the country as a whole does not get
Speaker 1: is not is going to get behind a men's team
Speaker 1: more than the women's team. It's unfortunate, but that's true.
Speaker 1: Like I don't even think imagine if right, no, but
Speaker 1: I mean imagine if Serena Williams was a man like,
Speaker 1: how how big of an icon she would be, uh
Speaker 1: relatively and how much like people would watch it more.
Speaker 1: I think about that all the time because I love
Speaker 1: women's tennis like that, Like if she was, if she
Speaker 1: was a man like, people would be so much more
Speaker 1: into tennis. It's sexist and it's also it is not
Speaker 1: sexist though to say that the Men's World Cup is
Speaker 1: a much bigger deal than the women's World Cup. That's
Speaker 1: all I'm not saying, right, not in not The interest
Speaker 1: level in this country is is pretty similar, I would say,
Speaker 1: but pretty much everywhere at most everywhere else. Well, if
Speaker 1: the men were good here, I don't think it would
Speaker 1: be the same. When the men were playing at the
Speaker 1: garage the one we went to you they were breaking
Speaker 1: IRA coats. I don't know if that's happening at the
Speaker 1: garage right now. Just to be honest, interest level, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the battle they're fighting. Um, all right, let's get
Speaker 1: into it. Let's get into some news. Cameron Jordan and
Speaker 1: the Saints do business. A new three year deal for
Speaker 1: Jordan's um, the second time he's been extended uh and
Speaker 1: by the Saints. He's now signed through thirty thirty years old. UH,
Speaker 1: and this is a guy who has been one of
Speaker 1: the key members of this defense UH for years now.
Speaker 1: And Greg we talked about this. There's been a couple
Speaker 1: of different cases this offseason of maybe a new trend
Speaker 1: in the NFL of teams not necessarily needing to take
Speaker 1: care of their best guys. Jordan in this case had
Speaker 1: two years left on his previous extension, but the team
Speaker 1: going to the player and saying, let's make a deal.
Speaker 1: Let's keep this happy marriage happy. And that's how I
Speaker 1: read this situation. Uh. It's a great marriage, a productive marriage,
Speaker 1: so why not do everything in your power to keep it? Though.
Speaker 1: Absolutely a rare guy that has really gotten better. He
Speaker 1: was good to begin with, a very good NFL player
Speaker 1: to start and he's gotten better basically every year of
Speaker 1: his career. I mean he the last two years have
Speaker 1: been his best two years, and he continually gets better.
Speaker 1: They're a team that's in a little bit of has
Speaker 1: some cap issues. I was talking to someone that there's
Speaker 1: in there's a lot of cap rules because the end
Speaker 1: of the c b A is happening, and the way
Speaker 1: that you can push money into the future is not
Speaker 1: nearly as easy in as it would be basically every
Speaker 1: other year, because you don't want to be pushing it
Speaker 1: into this nebulous uh non peba area. So I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's part of it too, that they're saving
Speaker 1: some cap money in in the short term by giving
Speaker 1: a guy who deserves it some money. They have a
Speaker 1: stacked defensive line. I mean, we've spent most of this
Speaker 1: podcast up until the last couple of years talking about
Speaker 1: the Saints being a lopsided offensive base team. But when
Speaker 1: you sign one of your defensive core guys, now you're
Speaker 1: probably ejecting him to play into a post Drew Brees era.
Speaker 1: Not to go down that whole wormhole, but you may
Speaker 1: become more of a defensive team at some point, and
Speaker 1: you've got to keep these guys around. But also for me,
Speaker 1: Cam Jordan's you lost mark Ingram, who I think was
Speaker 1: the ultra leader in that locker room, one of the dudes,
Speaker 1: and Cam Jordan's right up there. The only thing that
Speaker 1: he's delaye is the minute he leaves the NFL. I
Speaker 1: think his media career completely takes off in the minute
Speaker 1: that is already beginning. And so it's just when we
Speaker 1: shipped right into that career. He might be here. I
Speaker 1: feel like seems like what seems like one of those
Speaker 1: Highers the last two years. If you remove Aaron Donald
Speaker 1: from the conversation, this guy's right there for Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year. He's in the mix. I wonder by
Speaker 1: the way Cameron Jordan's he's entering, I believe is either
Speaker 1: ninth or tenth season. He's signed through three. If he
Speaker 1: actually played through that contract would be thirteen years with
Speaker 1: the Saints. His dad, Steve Jordan's played thirteen year with
Speaker 1: the thirteen years with the Vikings. Has that ever happened before?
Speaker 1: Has ever a father and son had careers that length
Speaker 1: with just one team with the same team. Well, the
Speaker 1: Matthews is certainly and had longevity, but Clay Matthews is
Speaker 1: running Green Bay is now over. That was close, But
Speaker 1: I don't know. I did notice that they're using the
Speaker 1: Jordan's family in some advertisements for the upcoming Shaft movie,
Speaker 1: something to do with like Dad's, like Father's Day, Dad's
Speaker 1: and it's like the Jordan's and Shaft and his dad.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it all means. That movie also
Speaker 1: looks like a minor disaster to me, but separate a
Speaker 1: separate topic, moving on other money matters, so that the
Speaker 1: Saints pay their stud on D the Jaguars are going
Speaker 1: to do that with their's. Jalen Ramsey um has been
Speaker 1: made aware that the Jaguars do not plan to give
Speaker 1: him an extension this year. The Jaguars corner said Tuesday
Speaker 1: during mini camp he's been told he's not getting that extension.
Speaker 1: He believes that he's outperformed that rookie deal. He's probably right,
Speaker 1: but the Jags are waiting it out. Here's what Ramsey
Speaker 1: told the Florida Times Union. I'm not down about it
Speaker 1: or anything like that. I'm blessed and he's made a
Speaker 1: ton of money. Um, he's gonna make they exercise their
Speaker 1: fifty year option on the former number five pick. He'll
Speaker 1: be He'll make almost fourteen million next year. Uh, he's
Speaker 1: getting paid relative peanuts for his ability this year at
Speaker 1: three point six. It has the talent to be the
Speaker 1: best cornerback in the NFL. And I think if you're
Speaker 1: the Jaguar, as you say, our locker room was a
Speaker 1: disaster in two thousand and eighteen, Let's see if this
Speaker 1: guy becomes a leader, the leader that we need on
Speaker 1: defense before we lock him up. I mean there's no reason,
Speaker 1: there's no hurry here. He tweeted. Uh a Dion Sanders
Speaker 1: quote yesterday, I'm asked for so much money they have
Speaker 1: to put me on layaway. Those fifth year options, by
Speaker 1: the way, kind of bang the first round picks just
Speaker 1: a tiny bit like if if you could choose whether
Speaker 1: not the purpose of them. Yeah, basically like if you
Speaker 1: if you could choose whether to be like the thirty
Speaker 1: fourth pick in the draft or the thirty first and
Speaker 1: you turn into a star like Michael Thomas, for instance,
Speaker 1: you would rather be the thirty fourth pick because you
Speaker 1: get the free agency quicker. I don't recall growing up
Speaker 1: a bunch of players where they would re up like
Speaker 1: two or three years into their rookie deal. That was
Speaker 1: not a phenomenon back then. Today it certainly is because
Speaker 1: you want to get them earlier than later. The Patriots
Speaker 1: famously did it with Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski like
Speaker 1: the first day possible that they could work out. One
Speaker 1: of those was one of the was the worst contract
Speaker 1: in NFL history. It's time to talk about the Giants
Speaker 1: quarterback situation. Uh. There has been an assumption made by
Speaker 1: some that Eli Manning will be the starting quarterback of
Speaker 1: the Giants. That's not an assumption. That's what the Giants
Speaker 1: told one week one this year, Week one next year,
Speaker 1: week one the year after that. However, there is the
Speaker 1: reality that the Giants used the sixth overall pick on
Speaker 1: Daniel Jones, and the head coach Pat Shermer told Tom
Speaker 1: Rock of Newsday uh that you know the team tell
Speaker 1: him this, leaving the door open for an actual camp
Speaker 1: battle this summer. Here's what Shermer had to say. He's
Speaker 1: on track with the goal to be ready to play
Speaker 1: on day one, Schrmer said of Jones. The QB stuff
Speaker 1: will be on the front burner for everybody. I get that,
Speaker 1: but he's on track. Schrmer than added, We're gonna play
Speaker 1: the very best player. I know we're dancing around the
Speaker 1: words here, but right now Eli is getting ready to
Speaker 1: have a great year and Daniel is getting ready to play.
Speaker 1: We'll just see what happens. We feel good where Eli is.
Speaker 1: He's our starting starting quarterback, and he's got a young
Speaker 1: player that we think is going to be an outstanding
Speaker 1: player getting himself ready to play. It all sounds like
Speaker 1: to me that it's just a matter of time, maybe
Speaker 1: not week one, but the handwringing unnecessary. Well, the more
Speaker 1: this is a different message from the Giants. This is
Speaker 1: a death the Giants. No, this is the Giants. This
Speaker 1: is what the Giant said. Elis our quarterback. And now
Speaker 1: Shermer is allowed to talk instead of gentleman and Sherman.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a great idea I think for
Speaker 1: professional sports team to put their best team. I also
Speaker 1: think Daniel Jones. You know, we don't put much into O,
Speaker 1: T A s and mini camps, but if I'm a
Speaker 1: Giants fan, I'd prefer the uh drips and drabs coming
Speaker 1: out of Giants camp about how good Daniel Jones has
Speaker 1: looked versus the opposite which often happens with rookie quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And you know, Pete Pete Traeger was on Good Morning
Speaker 1: Football talking about you know, jones is athleticism, saying he's
Speaker 1: becoming a Paul Bunyan esque figure. Like people talking about,
Speaker 1: you know a guy that's in the NBA draft, who
Speaker 1: was that Duke uh talking about how Daniel Jones was
Speaker 1: like an a a U legend duncan over six ten
Speaker 1: guys that he's hitting home runs at softball UH games,
Speaker 1: and he's kind of impressing everyone at the Giants camp
Speaker 1: just that he's a badass athlete. Which I'd also say,
Speaker 1: this is Pat Shermer's last chance to be a head coach.
Speaker 1: If this doesn't go well, it's not gonna happen again,
Speaker 1: and he would have a different message and desire to
Speaker 1: move on to the young guy and be tied to
Speaker 1: the young guy that everyone's not going to expect the
Speaker 1: world from a year one versus a sinking ship with
Speaker 1: Eli Manning that he's going to be blamed for all
Speaker 1: season long. I just think it's a good idea when
Speaker 1: the front office stays out of it and lets the
Speaker 1: coach play his best players, it's not a bad idea.
Speaker 1: It's always the writing was on the wall this day.
Speaker 1: They made that pick, and and you could passwords or
Speaker 1: look at what the GM is saying about the quarterback
Speaker 1: and the veteran and what what the coach is saying
Speaker 1: about the rookie. But it's all it's just a it's
Speaker 1: a countdown right now for a new aeron Giants football.
Speaker 1: But there are situations where GM says, Hey, this is
Speaker 1: what we're doing. We're playing this guy and then the
Speaker 1: coach is not even allowed to open the competition. That
Speaker 1: was my issue with it. You don't see the cardinal saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna start someone else. They're gonna start the guy
Speaker 1: they drafted. It's also there is the matter of and
Speaker 1: I know he's not respected very much in this room,
Speaker 1: but Eli Manning is a legend of that franchise. So
Speaker 1: they've been cut two years ago. But that's but see,
Speaker 1: you look at black and white with Eli, but that
Speaker 1: organization has some fuzzy feelings for him. So it just
Speaker 1: makes it a bit of a trickier transition. I think
Speaker 1: the Giants have had a terrible offseason. I'm on but
Speaker 1: I'm on the same page with you guys. But I
Speaker 1: don't I didn't think this is such a black and
Speaker 1: white issue. Um. I get what you're saying, though, was
Speaker 1: Ultimately we're on the sage put your best team. It's
Speaker 1: a big, wide page and you're both on it, not
Speaker 1: next to which it's one of those remember the old
Speaker 1: printers like little dot matrix. We're on the same role somewhere.
Speaker 1: Moving on more extension news written This piece written by
Speaker 1: Lakisha wesselingh Wow. By the way, your wife looking banging
Speaker 1: in this head shot? Is that appropriate? Can I say
Speaker 1: that you can? I don't think anyone could, but you can.
Speaker 1: She looks great. And you know an our internal u
Speaker 1: NFL media inbox Lakisha who works on the editorial desk,
Speaker 1: when she sends out various things during the day. Now
Speaker 1: I keep on seeing like wrestling, posting some new Damna
Speaker 1: Check podcast. I'm like, what is Chris doing. It's like, Oh,
Speaker 1: she should teach a class and like head shot photos
Speaker 1: and we should be her students because she really it
Speaker 1: a lot with which that little it's just a small
Speaker 1: little area you got up that box. I wouldn't limit
Speaker 1: it the head shots. I think we could share students
Speaker 1: in several area. Ours could use some work, no doubt anyway.
Speaker 1: Uh Lakisha wrote this piece for dot com Vikings and
Speaker 1: Kyle Rudolph agreed with terms on a four year deal
Speaker 1: UH thirty six million dollar extension. Tom Peal Sero, our
Speaker 1: own Tom Pella Sero had this UM Rudolph confirmed weeks
Speaker 1: ago that the team had offered him a five year extension.
Speaker 1: Both sides are working to get it done. UH keeps
Speaker 1: him in Minnesota. They have the young kid Irv Smith,
Speaker 1: great name, who's drafted in the second round, uh in April,
Speaker 1: So that's the kid in the future. But Rudolph who
Speaker 1: has had injury issues, But Wes, this is a guy
Speaker 1: that has put up the numbers before, and you could
Speaker 1: see a healthy Kyle Rudolph, even a little bit older,
Speaker 1: getting on the same page with Kirk Cousins and making
Speaker 1: some magic. Right. Hasn't missed the game in the last
Speaker 1: four years, and I think he's one of the few
Speaker 1: tight ends in the NFL who is just as at
Speaker 1: depth at blocking as he is at catching. So he's
Speaker 1: not gonna blow any fantasy football guys out of the
Speaker 1: water with his production. But I think the Vikings value
Speaker 1: him because he can do both things well. The other
Speaker 1: guy they have David Morgan and Tyler Conkin outside of
Speaker 1: your guy, I Smith, those guys were on the field
Speaker 1: for less than eighty passing snaps lesser Rudolph dominated that
Speaker 1: part of their offense. So why would you There was
Speaker 1: rumors they're gonna move on from him and all this
Speaker 1: not this year. If Smith sounds like a respected record
Speaker 1: label executive of Capitol Records, Yeah, like a guy that's
Speaker 1: making some deals, has worked with the Eagles and he's
Speaker 1: still in the mix or or not the not the team,
Speaker 1: the rock band of the seventy or like a creative
Speaker 1: like a high school creative writing teacher whose dreams were
Speaker 1: never totally realized, and so he takes out those frustrations
Speaker 1: on some of his students, just like in passive aggressive
Speaker 1: way what they were when they read their story. He
Speaker 1: just you know, yeah, like he's harder on the on
Speaker 1: the ones that are like like more talented, just be like,
Speaker 1: it's not easy out there, you know, like you gotta
Speaker 1: really like even if you like bleed for it, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna So what if you appeared in the Iowa
Speaker 1: Journal Review, Hey hey, Mr Smith, Hey call me IRV.
Speaker 1: It's one of those. Yeah, that's the teacher, not the player.
Speaker 1: I think this makes Kyle Rudolph one of the wealthiest
Speaker 1: people ever to come out of Elder High School in Cincinnati. Y. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you always wanted distinction like that. Let's move on to
Speaker 1: some camp injury news. Andrew Luck confirmed by Colts coach
Speaker 1: Frank Reich. He'll sit out mini camp. He has a
Speaker 1: calf strain. It's been it's lingered and uh wisely, the
Speaker 1: Colts they're not gonna push push that issue. We just
Speaker 1: came off, you know, a year and a half prior
Speaker 1: to last season of Andrew Luck injury updates and that
Speaker 1: team taking every precaution to make sure Luck was ready
Speaker 1: for training camp. And they're doing the same thing here
Speaker 1: under much you know, lower lesser stakes, but wise we
Speaker 1: don't need Luck out there right now. And Jimmy Garoppolo, Uh,
Speaker 1: another quarterback news. Uh, he has the knee. He blew
Speaker 1: out his a c L. Last was it November October September?
Speaker 1: It was September. Uh, he has been limited to individual
Speaker 1: drills in minicamp. He is on he is on track
Speaker 1: for training camp, but it is not he's not fully
Speaker 1: cleared and all ready to go. But wouldn't be too
Speaker 1: concerned about that. He has running two minute drills in
Speaker 1: their practice. It's a reminder though he's coming off in
Speaker 1: to ourn a c L. You're kind of just like, oh,
Speaker 1: they got Jimmy g back and that's fine, and uh,
Speaker 1: he's the guy who's barely started in the NFL. It
Speaker 1: was coming off a major reconstructive injury. Last week I
Speaker 1: wrote that um winding, uh double bang or piece and
Speaker 1: guessing team m VPS. I went with Garoppolo for the Niners.
Speaker 1: But it's this is a big year for him because
Speaker 1: if another season, you know, God forbid for Jimmy G
Speaker 1: got swallowed up by injuries. Uh, and we're now approaching
Speaker 1: age thirty with not a lot of track record, or
Speaker 1: if he struggles, I wonder, I don't want to say
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't wonder about his job security. But
Speaker 1: this is an important year for It's kind of time
Speaker 1: for the Jimmy G Show to be put together in full.
Speaker 1: His cap number is over twenty six million for the
Speaker 1: until the year. Like a star quarterback. They need it. Uh. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: on the throne of Slee's Bill Belichick. Last time we
Speaker 1: heard from Bill, he was canceling Uh the last week
Speaker 1: of practice, which apparently you could do and you have
Speaker 1: eight rings or whatever worked last year. This year, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe more concerned. Maybe they should have taken the practices
Speaker 1: and we'll find out come the regular season. That's him
Speaker 1: telling the NFL, you're little non contact rules that you've made,
Speaker 1: have made these offseason o t s the useless well
Speaker 1: you know what else is um? You know, maybe that's
Speaker 1: problematic that they took away the tackling. But you know
Speaker 1: what else is probably problematic. Shooting one of your players
Speaker 1: in the face. Yeah, that's not a positive typical, is it?
Speaker 1: Is it? Bill Belichick uh shot Kyle Okay, Kyle van
Speaker 1: Noy uh in the face, in the face with a
Speaker 1: paintball gun, so not a real gun, but he hit
Speaker 1: van Noy. Here's what Vanoy said, I got hit. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you this paintball hit me in the mask and
Speaker 1: the mask hit my tooth and my blank still hurts.
Speaker 1: So more evidence that Bill Belichick now and he's getting older.
Speaker 1: You gotta keep that in mind. Maybe some scrambled eggs
Speaker 1: up there, canceling practice shooting his own players. It just
Speaker 1: may be time. It's um making Bill kind of one
Speaker 1: of the guys on a human level. Because the only
Speaker 1: reason we know was Bill van Noy wasn't giving this up.
Speaker 1: He was embarrassed by it. But Dante Hi Tower come
Speaker 1: came and kind of like interrupted the interview and started
Speaker 1: telling him to tell everyone who who got him. It
Speaker 1: was Bell. It's Mr February to you, Dan, that's I mean, Kyle, know,
Speaker 1: you might as well call Mr February. After after that
Speaker 1: Super Bowl performance that the New nice. Belichick is spending
Speaker 1: an off off season on these tours giving speeches, and
Speaker 1: he claims that High Tower should be referred to as Mr. February.
Speaker 1: I like that, and Van Noisen he's good at the
Speaker 1: shoot him up games. He's playing in a Fortnite pro
Speaker 1: am this weekend, so if Bill can take him out
Speaker 1: in that, who knows. My goal in my house is
Speaker 1: to simply keep my two children away from Fortnite. The
Speaker 1: minute that that is, We're already too many wormals. I
Speaker 1: you know, you do the thing with your phone where
Speaker 1: you're clearing out videos to make room, And I found
Speaker 1: yesterday the video for all you, Mr Belichick so nice.
Speaker 1: The seconds after they knocked out the Rams in the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, everyone's hugging each other and a photographer just
Speaker 1: doing his job, trying to get a nice portrait of
Speaker 1: Bill hugging one of his people, and right away Bill
Speaker 1: just shoves the coach he's hugging out of the way
Speaker 1: and slams the photographer with it with an open fist
Speaker 1: or with an open palm, right in the face. And
Speaker 1: just now you could file a complaint. I would assume
Speaker 1: that's not what you'd want to happen. But nothing has heard.
Speaker 1: How close are these photographers are allowed to get to? Well,
Speaker 1: I I hear that side of it. But it was
Speaker 1: like in the biggest moment of you know, another crowning achievement.
Speaker 1: Where that guy is, by the way, the reason there
Speaker 1: was no criminal. He's wild. He is under the mass place,
Speaker 1: he's there with he's with the two of them. He
Speaker 1: got a paintball on the face, in the face under
Speaker 1: all right, let's check in with some kickers. Chris Blewett,
Speaker 1: who got you know, got never had a chance. Let's
Speaker 1: face it, bad name, it's family name. I don't want
Speaker 1: to s on the Blewett family. But if you're going
Speaker 1: to be a place kicker in the NFL, it's one
Speaker 1: of those things you just gotta change it. You gotta
Speaker 1: ellis Island that thing, you know, and it's gotta gotta
Speaker 1: happen soon because he's not getting younger. The Bears announced
Speaker 1: Wednesday they waved Chris Blewett, one of the three kickers
Speaker 1: in minicamp competing with the job. And it comes on
Speaker 1: what was another dis as for a stay in Chicago
Speaker 1: for their kickers. So blew It, eight, Pinero and Elliott
Speaker 1: Fry all missed kicks from forty two yards back to
Speaker 1: back to back. Matt Age, who's got to be ready
Speaker 1: to lose it after practice told reporters, whatever went through
Speaker 1: your mind went through my mind. And again you know,
Speaker 1: and so I'm sorry, Chris Blewett, good luck to you.
Speaker 1: I hope you catch on somewhere else. But again, doesn't
Speaker 1: it feel like the Bears are going out of their
Speaker 1: way to promote the dysfunction at this position that essentially
Speaker 1: cost them their season with a double doink? Yeah? He
Speaker 1: had all they had, all these like legends watching it
Speaker 1: or alumni, and first of all was a blocked kick.
Speaker 1: This is reminding me so much of when the Jets
Speaker 1: drafted Mike Nugent because they thought they were just a
Speaker 1: kicker away. Uh And the only thing that stepped in
Speaker 1: their way and herm Edwards this first season was that
Speaker 1: from advancing in the playoffs was Doug Brian missing The
Speaker 1: kicks are not going to be make or break your
Speaker 1: season here. It's like you can't just get back to
Speaker 1: that game. Everything over. But I know what you're saying.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I'm saying it's not for the Bears. Dann.
Speaker 1: You raise an interesting point if you are, Hey, let's
Speaker 1: say high end high school kicking prodigy. At what point
Speaker 1: in your career do you think about changing your name
Speaker 1: if it's blew it, Like at some point in college.
Speaker 1: After college, you could just do the thing where you
Speaker 1: like go by your middle name. Tom Cruise's middle name
Speaker 1: is Cruise. You know, just happens all they still got
Speaker 1: a last name, So just like officially go by you know,
Speaker 1: or you just tell the team to you. I mean,
Speaker 1: if it's if, you probably don't even need to officially
Speaker 1: change it, just be like, hey, list it this way.
Speaker 1: If you change his name, you know, half a year
Speaker 1: ago to Chris Chicago, you know, he's still on that
Speaker 1: roster because people are loving him and buying jerseys of him.
Speaker 1: There's no way to get you have to move things
Speaker 1: like someone with the last name blew it off the
Speaker 1: roster as soon as possibly. I just wonder why the
Speaker 1: Naggy and the entire Bear staff is leaning into this
Speaker 1: storyline and making it so public last week. We actually
Speaker 1: didn't get to it last week, but they made it
Speaker 1: be known that they're they're moved last week. I don't
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a show that they're smart and they're trying
Speaker 1: different things. But it's not quite getting over that. They
Speaker 1: were employing what they called augusta silence when the kickers,
Speaker 1: So everyone on the field and on the sideline, the coaches, uh,
Speaker 1: everyone in the vicinity of the kickers, nobody was allowed
Speaker 1: to say a word. How about how about Mitchell Robinsky,
Speaker 1: don't throw the ball to the other team and throw
Speaker 1: a little more accurately in your playoffs, because that was
Speaker 1: after that game and was harassed, right, I'm saying he
Speaker 1: had second half, he had a poor game, and he
Speaker 1: put his team in position to win, which it happens
Speaker 1: all the time. Don't give up points at the end,
Speaker 1: you know, It's just like that was a great Everyone
Speaker 1: was like in their right place, Greg getting upset about something,
Speaker 1: West firing back at Greg hard, and then Mark looking
Speaker 1: for a reckoning about something he was wronged over. We
Speaker 1: all at the same time it was happening. I was
Speaker 1: just watching the world burn um and separating himself as
Speaker 1: as ratings tumble. Anyway, So we'll see what happens. Now
Speaker 1: it's down to Piniero and Elliott Fry. And by the way,
Speaker 1: Elliot Fry, I don't know, he come up small, small Fry.
Speaker 1: How abounch of some strong names. Well, don't you know
Speaker 1: what what every Bears wants? And I don't Edie, Eddie's
Speaker 1: gonna save the season. I don't think that Doris closed.
Speaker 1: And you know what every Bears fan wants. I know
Speaker 1: Robert May's who's a you know, well known Bears fan
Speaker 1: who does the Ringer podcast. Uh, he wants Robbie Gold.
Speaker 1: Robbie Golds holding out in San Francisco. You bring the
Speaker 1: Gold back home. It makes a lot of sense. We
Speaker 1: we talked about this too. Remember Robbie Gold is building
Speaker 1: a home in Chicago. He sold his home and building
Speaker 1: a new one. And uh, he's ready to go there.
Speaker 1: And he will sign there in free agency next year,
Speaker 1: mark my words. But for the time being, they know
Speaker 1: what the Niners are saying, Hey, we want one of
Speaker 1: the top five ten kickers in the league on our team.
Speaker 1: If he hates it here, he's gonna put it through
Speaker 1: the uprights for his own well being. What he what
Speaker 1: a he's supposed to do? If just give him to
Speaker 1: the Bears. But Fry five days from now. Uh, he
Speaker 1: got small right Pry on your team. He got cousin
Speaker 1: Eddie got small Fry and he got blew it. You
Speaker 1: know what happened to Gary Cooper? As Tony Soprano once said, Um,
Speaker 1: the pride of the Yankees. Guy, Yeah, the men? What
Speaker 1: happened to the men? Where have all the cowboys going? Sometimes?
Speaker 1: I asked that question in the city. By the way,
Speaker 1: where have you gone, Joe? To manage you? Uh, it's
Speaker 1: a fair question in the city, all right. Finally in
Speaker 1: the news, Yes, the announcement finally came down. HBO, uh
Speaker 1: and NFL Films have made it official. The Oakland Raiders
Speaker 1: will be the team featured on the newest season of
Speaker 1: Hard Knocks. It is the fourteenth season, believe it or not,
Speaker 1: and the timing was interesting. On the same day that
Speaker 1: the Raiders were announced as the Hard Knocks team, in
Speaker 1: Floren Park, New Jersey, Joe Douglas was introduced as the
Speaker 1: new general manager of the New York Jets. And um,
Speaker 1: if you remember the first season of Hard Knocks, Uh,
Speaker 1: the Turk, which has always been you know, one of
Speaker 1: the most famous characters on every Hard Knocks season. He's
Speaker 1: the guy that goes get the gets the players, says,
Speaker 1: we're gonna need your playbook or your iPad now, and
Speaker 1: you gotta go see coach or cut. Joe Douglas a
Speaker 1: young spelt Joe Douglas was the Turk for the two
Speaker 1: thousand one Ravens. So you want to talk about working
Speaker 1: your way up the ladder over a long period of time,
Speaker 1: but on the same day that happens. Yes, the Raiders
Speaker 1: are the team. UM. I wrote uh on the dot
Speaker 1: com six takeaways. Probably was aiming for ten and then
Speaker 1: I got to six and I was like, that's about
Speaker 1: eight and fifty words a lot more than that. No,
Speaker 1: I think, ultimately, uh, this is a good pick. We
Speaker 1: We've talked about this on the show. There were there
Speaker 1: were five options that were eligible, meaning they didn't need
Speaker 1: to uh, they didn't need consent from the teams to
Speaker 1: be selected. Uh. You had the Raiders, the Redskins, the Lions,
Speaker 1: the Niners and the Giants. Uh, and the Raiders. They
Speaker 1: just have a lot of good subplot I think chief
Speaker 1: among them is John Gruden year two. Uh. He was
Speaker 1: born for this. They were the cameras of Hard Knocks
Speaker 1: and Gruden. I feel like we're made for each other,
Speaker 1: and you have this world with Gruden. Uh. Mike Mayock
Speaker 1: is in the building. And one thing I wrote about
Speaker 1: in the piece we'll start here. Uh is that last
Speaker 1: year the most exciting um or scandalous part of the
Speaker 1: very good Cleveland Brown season was the apparent power struggle
Speaker 1: within the coaching staff who was running the show and
Speaker 1: Hugh Jackson saying I drive the bus and Todd Haley
Speaker 1: obviously being um dismissive of Jackson, who had gone one
Speaker 1: in thirty one over the previous two years. It all
Speaker 1: plays out a couple of months later they both get fired.
Speaker 1: That will not be the case here. This is John
Speaker 1: Gruden show. Nobody thinks otherwise. So I'll be interested to
Speaker 1: see how a Gruden camp looks, especially after what we
Speaker 1: saw in Cleveland last year. All Right, I'm just annoyed
Speaker 1: by John Gruden acting like this is the worst thing
Speaker 1: in the world, and how how annoyed he is seemingly
Speaker 1: by it. It's just a little too much like protesting
Speaker 1: from a guy who loves attention. But let's let's calm down.
Speaker 1: Let's calm down on like, oh, I don't want to disrupt.
Speaker 1: I don't want this attention on me. Please. Who is
Speaker 1: telling everyone that you're in in in the morning at
Speaker 1: three thirty am? In every article it's like yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't mind it. I love Gruden and I love Mike Mayock,
Speaker 1: and I know Mike Mack has kind of it made
Speaker 1: it sound like he doesn't want to be on it either.
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't know. These guys have gotten where
Speaker 1: they are partly by promoting themselves because they're good at
Speaker 1: what they do and their interesting characters keep it going.
Speaker 1: Not all of them, but a lot of the coaches
Speaker 1: and gms, to Gregg's point, are charismatic guys that like
Speaker 1: the camera, that like to be heard, they like to
Speaker 1: be seen, and what what show is better than promoting
Speaker 1: your personal brand? Uh? Than Hard Knocks and then you're
Speaker 1: old job p f T. They wrote they were belly aching,
Speaker 1: like they wrote a piece saying, oh, there shouldn't be
Speaker 1: any Hard Knocks anymore because it's outlived it's usefulness in
Speaker 1: the age of social media. And I I saw what
Speaker 1: the angle was that now we're seeing we get to
Speaker 1: see things from inside these camps via Instagram and Twitter
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't have seen before. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: like just because the teams don't want to do it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. It is actually a fan
Speaker 1: service because it gives you an incredible look behind the
Speaker 1: scenes year after year of these teams, and I learned
Speaker 1: a lot about the Browns last year. Yeah, I totally
Speaker 1: disagree with that take because we never would have known
Speaker 1: some of the fishers and some of the issues inside
Speaker 1: of the Cleveland organization by instagram photos on the field
Speaker 1: at training camp. We wouldn't have known any of that.
Speaker 1: And I for me, I think I would I would
Speaker 1: buy that Mike Mayock is not totally into this in
Speaker 1: the sense that get it. Here's the issue though, But
Speaker 1: when you're when you're delivering, you know, a three minute
Speaker 1: spiel about a player that you watch tape on start
Speaker 1: say your thing close Now it's it's hundreds of our
Speaker 1: the footage edited in a way that you have no
Speaker 1: say over. That's what they do have to say. That
Speaker 1: was what I was gonna say, is they they get
Speaker 1: a lot of say and they can approve and take
Speaker 1: out anything they want. And I think Hugh Jackson and
Speaker 1: the Browns probably regret some of the things that they
Speaker 1: left in last night. That was that was kind of
Speaker 1: the worst case scenario I think of what teams are
Speaker 1: afraid of when it comes to hard knock. But Mike
Speaker 1: Mayock got his job as rich Eyes and pointed out
Speaker 1: in a threat on Twitter last night, uh in the
Speaker 1: NFL by going to his his local Philly legend, Steve
Speaker 1: Sable and asking him, how do I get into this business?
Speaker 1: And that's what this this Hard Knocks show is all about.
Speaker 1: It's NFL films. It's ultimately shows teams in a very part.
Speaker 1: So are you prepared to see Vonte's perfect in a
Speaker 1: different light, which which I think is gonna happen, Richie incognito,
Speaker 1: I don't really want to yuck anybody's yum here. The
Speaker 1: Hard Knocks is not my favorite show. Um and the
Speaker 1: Browns were a mystery after watching John Gruden and Mike
Speaker 1: Mayock on TV for a decade, I don't really need
Speaker 1: to see any more of them. But you saw them
Speaker 1: as analysts that now they're being team built like Mike
Speaker 1: Mayak and John Gruden. R. I mean, I just don't
Speaker 1: need to They don't contain any mystery for me whatsoever.
Speaker 1: I don't find this team to be compelling, but that's
Speaker 1: all I know. What about the fact you guys should
Speaker 1: watch it, everybody should have fun watching fair enough, But
Speaker 1: what about the fact that Cruden is really is back
Speaker 1: up against the wall coming off last season. This isn't
Speaker 1: him compelling in any way perform. I would absolutely enjoy
Speaker 1: any one of the thirty two teams. I would find
Speaker 1: it interesting because of because to me, just seen behind
Speaker 1: the scenes of any team is interesting and the way
Speaker 1: they make it is good TV. UM a couple other
Speaker 1: subplots that they'll be sure to be drilling down on.
Speaker 1: I am uh, I see your point, West, But one
Speaker 1: thing I do want to see with Gruden, even if
Speaker 1: you kind of know what his vibe is by this point,
Speaker 1: the chucky, the intensity, the ship grin and all that stuff. UM,
Speaker 1: I want to see interactions between um, Derek Carr and Gruden,
Speaker 1: who had it was interesting watching that a relationship from
Speaker 1: a far last year. There was some heated sideline exchange
Speaker 1: ages and then we went through a draft process where
Speaker 1: there seemed to be some flirtation with the idea of
Speaker 1: replacing Car and Derek Carl that we love him and
Speaker 1: he's probably gonna be the m v P this year.
Speaker 1: Uh in the NFL complimenting Derek Car there we go. Um,
Speaker 1: he's a sensitive guy. He's a guy that you know,
Speaker 1: watches things and tracks things. I wonder a chronic QB.
Speaker 1: Needler like Bruden, how that plays out with the cameras
Speaker 1: on got Antonio Brown in the building incognito? Uh? And
Speaker 1: the team is moving to Vegas. I hope Greg, they're
Speaker 1: not going to give us too many of those. Al Right,
Speaker 1: Front Office, Mark Davison Company, road trip to Vegas. Let's
Speaker 1: check out the status of the building. But part of
Speaker 1: it is a pr and they're going to want that.
Speaker 1: I mean, too many more than one would be too much.
Speaker 1: Although I will hope that Mark Davis is in the
Speaker 1: show as much as possible. If you just wanted to
Speaker 1: make it inside now, that's what would make me watch.
Speaker 1: It was just like Hard Knocks Mark Davis. They just
Speaker 1: follow him around for an hour every week and cut.
Speaker 1: That showed me up. I couldn't really right about that
Speaker 1: on the website. But what you're saying, everybody knows exactly
Speaker 1: what you're saying, and I backed that. Give us a
Speaker 1: lot of Mark Davis. Uh. That's what's happening in the news.
Speaker 1: Before we get to Mark's favorite games, um West, we
Speaker 1: have some some softball drama the Shield. We're in a
Speaker 1: good spot. We're six and two. We are second place,
Speaker 1: second place. The top three teams make the playoffs. Uh.
Speaker 1: We have I believe, four games left. So we have
Speaker 1: a big game against Barney's Beanery, another UM six and
Speaker 1: two team. And if we win this game tonight, we
Speaker 1: are in the driver's seat to go back to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And we know what happens when the Shield goes to
Speaker 1: the playoffs. We win, we win. Uh. There is more
Speaker 1: drama though, and UH, and you know what it's It's
Speaker 1: just the truth of the matter. With any drama we
Speaker 1: dealt with West over the three years, it's happened. It's
Speaker 1: a co ed league. It happens with the ladies. It's
Speaker 1: always something popping up with the ladies. And this year
Speaker 1: and Erica had on the She's on the team. She
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with it. It wasn't her fault,
Speaker 1: but she was indirectly right in the middle of one
Speaker 1: of the great controversies Uh in the history of the Shield. Yes,
Speaker 1: last week Erica is starting. Were you aware of any
Speaker 1: of this? Ricky? Okay, Ricky, I put her in the lineup.
Speaker 1: She was starting in right center field, UH, and batting
Speaker 1: UH ninth, And I and I had a backup player.
Speaker 1: I won't say the name. But she came up to
Speaker 1: me right before the game started and she said, oh,
Speaker 1: who am I up after? And I said, oh, actually,
Speaker 1: Erica is gonna start. She's gonna get a couple of
Speaker 1: bats and play out there, and then you're gonna go in.
Speaker 1: We took the field to start the game, came back
Speaker 1: to the dugout after the top of the first and
Speaker 1: she's gone. Is that what happened? That's why she left.
Speaker 1: She took her ball and went home, took her and uh.
Speaker 1: And then I waited to hear back from her over
Speaker 1: a course of days. Just almost shot Ricky there. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like, if I'm bench for Ricky, I'm taking off.
Speaker 1: That's a shot. But well, you know, I think Ricky's
Speaker 1: a developing talent in the outfield. I wanted the reason
Speaker 1: she was starting is I wanted to get her innings,
Speaker 1: and I was hoping that that would be understood. But
Speaker 1: I never heard back from this individual. I sent an
Speaker 1: email checking in to see if everything was okay. Didn't
Speaker 1: get a response. So I had to put out a
Speaker 1: new starting lineup for tonight's game. And that individual, apparently
Speaker 1: so angry about Erica starting, is not in the lineup
Speaker 1: and presumably off the team now in communicado. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: wait what Because some people just don't check emails or
Speaker 1: they get they get buried a little bit. I am
Speaker 1: guilty of that. I don't have I don't have this
Speaker 1: individual's number, but uh it was a private email sent
Speaker 1: on the NFL server and uh I expected to hear
Speaker 1: back from this person in some regards. So there's no
Speaker 1: mark as you're a front office uh worker of some
Speaker 1: kind for us pro bono. UM, I don't need it.
Speaker 1: I'm not looking for any any official move or announcement.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of like a weird It's one of
Speaker 1: those weird NFL things that pop up where it's just
Speaker 1: a lingering issue and we have this lingering drama and
Speaker 1: I don't know quite as the skipper had to resolve
Speaker 1: at this point. So I'm just gonna let it just
Speaker 1: I think one fix sit, one fix for next year
Speaker 1: from a front office angle, and I put this, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, very very minorly on myself a team phone
Speaker 1: tree so that you can text versus just not having
Speaker 1: the number of a key player. But you know what,
Speaker 1: Bill parcels back in the day, trying to get the
Speaker 1: Giants to the Super Bowl, had his star player, Lawrence Taylor,
Speaker 1: dealing with all sorts of off the field issues, major
Speaker 1: drug issues, and that was a big hiccup in his
Speaker 1: coaching career, but he handled it. This is your issue
Speaker 1: to deal with it. I think this is equally as
Speaker 1: large of a scenario too well to overcome. The difference
Speaker 1: though is lt is not bad and ninth and splitting innings.
Speaker 1: You know, you might the different players have different rules.
Speaker 1: Tom Brady he's a starting quarterback, he has different O
Speaker 1: t A rules than I think if they had a
Speaker 1: twenty five year old starting quarterback. So you know, you
Speaker 1: treat each player as an individual. This is more like
Speaker 1: center that vanished to Mexico Super Bowl. There's a bad
Speaker 1: Robins vibe to this whole thing. It's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a mystery. Everyone a little confused. That's an organizational
Speaker 1: that's not just on you, there's it's it's a mystery
Speaker 1: to all. So well, every coach has to deal with
Speaker 1: that tug and pool of what's best for each individual
Speaker 1: player versus what's best for the other members on the team.
Speaker 1: And in softball it seems to be even more pronounced.
Speaker 1: And dan is dealing with that right now in a
Speaker 1: big way and reminder why I hung out the Cleats
Speaker 1: by the yes and why I will once again after
Speaker 1: the season think he's already retiring again. I think the
Speaker 1: guys on our team understand what your job is, and
Speaker 1: the girls on your team are more like what's good
Speaker 1: for me? I just also what that's just crazy and
Speaker 1: I hit my best game last week. You played well,
Speaker 1: but you responded like a champion. Your your fielding is
Speaker 1: not great, but you know what your effort and the
Speaker 1: reason why you were out there is because you don't
Speaker 1: get better in the field without the reps. But as
Speaker 1: a hitter, you really you're making strides and that's why
Speaker 1: I want to keep you involved with the lineup. But
Speaker 1: there just has to be an understanding and everyone pulling
Speaker 1: in the same direction if you really want to build
Speaker 1: a champion. Right well, me and Brassey split reps a
Speaker 1: few games ago. You didn't see me leaving crying team player,
Speaker 1: So there we are. Was Wow, is this gonna go
Speaker 1: out on the waves? I hope this. Hope she doesn't
Speaker 1: listening to the show, but maybe this will be the
Speaker 1: only way to communicate. Well, this is the wake up
Speaker 1: call signal. You're handling it through the media. You have
Speaker 1: to take things there. I tried to go one on one. Um,
Speaker 1: now I'm going to go through the media. Maybe the
Speaker 1: message gets through. I feel like I could get her numbers.
Speaker 1: Barney Beanery the best team in the league, because it
Speaker 1: feels like that just sounds like a champions matchup. There
Speaker 1: an old rival of Town Tavern or were like the
Speaker 1: Bears in the in the packers or Cheers versus h
Speaker 1: what is it? Rexeltil Tavern more imposing than Dollar Dog
Speaker 1: Taco could whale. Those guys could rape really well. I guess,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess maybe that. Why should I assume
Speaker 1: that if you're if you are employed by Dollar Taco,
Speaker 1: you probably play some softball. I don't know what the
Speaker 1: makeup is the workforce. There, I'll stop talking. We're still
Speaker 1: waiting for you to attend a game. By the way,
Speaker 1: I wait till it gets hot. I mean I I'm
Speaker 1: saving up for playoff tickets. So okay, it sounds good,
Speaker 1: very expensive? All right? Mark wrote a banger his favorite
Speaker 1: games in the history of your life or the NFL
Speaker 1: no my sort of my viewing history as a fan.
Speaker 1: You made it cleared, and I might I kind of.
Speaker 1: I find it interesting that this made its way onto
Speaker 1: the website, but I don't argue that it did. I'm
Speaker 1: glad I enjoyed. It's a bit nebulous. I enjoyed the article,
Speaker 1: and I enjoyed you pointing out many times, just like
Speaker 1: trying to prevent the tweets at you have, like these
Speaker 1: are my five games. Well, I know they're not the
Speaker 1: best five games in NFL history, you idiots, but these
Speaker 1: are the games that I enjoy. And then you're like,
Speaker 1: and then when you put the Patriots Browns in two
Speaker 1: thousands and you went back to that well and was like,
Speaker 1: once again, idiots, you're right because you know how they're
Speaker 1: going to be headlined and sent out over social media.
Speaker 1: And it's something like this guy thinks that a regular
Speaker 1: season Brown's game by a five and eleven Cleveland squad
Speaker 1: is one of the best five games of his life.
Speaker 1: It's your games. Is what looks like about a week
Speaker 1: eleven matchup in between the Browns and Steelers that was
Speaker 1: seven final I don't I mean, you should be able
Speaker 1: to read the context clues that that is not an
Speaker 1: all time game in the history in the league. That
Speaker 1: was the first time I saw them in person, which
Speaker 1: is it was a personal importance. What was that day like, Well,
Speaker 1: that was that was my That was It was in Cleveland,
Speaker 1: and I had been a super obsessed Browns fan, but
Speaker 1: only watched them on television from the East Coast. And
Speaker 1: the reason I included that game was because as a surprise,
Speaker 1: and this is good dad worked by my dad. I
Speaker 1: did not know this was going to happen. They basically
Speaker 1: took Bingo, took me to the airport and flew me
Speaker 1: to Cleveland and it was raining cats and dogs, and
Speaker 1: on the way, I realized this is where we're going,
Speaker 1: and we're going to a Brown Steelers game, and they
Speaker 1: were in a tight fight to get back to the
Speaker 1: play offs. Kozar was their quarterback, and so we stayed
Speaker 1: overnight in this hotel that overlooked the stadium, which to
Speaker 1: me was like the most incredible thing I've ever seen
Speaker 1: out of any window ever. Walked to the stadium in
Speaker 1: the rain the next day watched them drop a giant
Speaker 1: bomb on the I believe Mark Malone led Steelers at
Speaker 1: that time, and that was the good old days, and
Speaker 1: it was like I had never been to the Dog
Speaker 1: pound or anything. So it made my list because you know,
Speaker 1: with as a family, you go on we went skiing
Speaker 1: a few times, you go somewhere tropical, and they're like,
Speaker 1: weren't those your favorite vacations. I was like, the best
Speaker 1: vacation ever was the two the forty eight hour swing
Speaker 1: to Cleveland, Ohio. That's funny that you it was nineteen
Speaker 1: you said, yeah. My first Jet game was October second night.
Speaker 1: It was a game against the Chiefs and it was
Speaker 1: a fitting way to start my fandom was a Jets
Speaker 1: fan because it was a seventeen seventeen final in a
Speaker 1: driving downpour in the Meadowlands. Freeman McNeil like fumbled the
Speaker 1: ball away when they were in chip Shot territory to
Speaker 1: win it. Sort of some heartbreak in there. It was
Speaker 1: some misery with the rain and you go home ultimately uh,
Speaker 1: kissing your sister essentially with the seventeen seventeen tie. Those
Speaker 1: things stick with you. The first experiences absolutely what I
Speaker 1: noticed in your piece, which was really well done. The
Speaker 1: football itself, it was just a small part of the experience.
Speaker 1: In every one of these games. You had the raucous
Speaker 1: atmosphere on Wilsher Boulevard for your first one that made
Speaker 1: it cool for you. Then your father's son dynamic, and
Speaker 1: also your first time seeing the Browns in person. Um
Speaker 1: the third thing you know you had. I think people
Speaker 1: of our age we think of Parcels as magical. You
Speaker 1: think of Parcels as this guy who was just one
Speaker 1: of the smartest coaches ever. But the difference between him
Speaker 1: and Belichick is Parcels humor comes out all the time.
Speaker 1: Totally agree. Uh, Then you had the Lway redemption story,
Speaker 1: plus you go into Camp Jewel and then the last
Speaker 1: one Mancini hillis and Rob Ryan slam your boy Belichick.
Speaker 1: I used to coach your team. These are all about
Speaker 1: other things going on other than footballs blowouts. I kind
Speaker 1: of love blowouts, so I love I love that you
Speaker 1: have the Rex Ryan Jets win over the Chargers in
Speaker 1: January two. Can we can we listen to that Sean
Speaker 1: Green running over the Chargers defense, including an Antonio Cremarti,
Speaker 1: a scared Cremarti running away from contact, which was beautiful down.
Speaker 1: There'll be seven dragging head tuck it up. That's why
Speaker 1: he's not gonna be caught touchdowns. Cremarti wanted nothing to
Speaker 1: do with that. Why did that make your list? That
Speaker 1: is a flash forward to Cremarti doing the same thing
Speaker 1: against Tim Tebow a few years later when you and
Speaker 1: I watched that game when he wasn't yet. It made
Speaker 1: the list because you know, sometimes when you're when your
Speaker 1: own team is not in the playoffs, you cle you
Speaker 1: hook onto someone else. And I really love the vibe
Speaker 1: of Rex Ryan, who came in that year and basically said,
Speaker 1: you know what, Belichick f you f your rings were
Speaker 1: coming after you. And instead of whet it being another
Speaker 1: story that doesn't really hold up, they did surge down
Speaker 1: the stretch and they were a team that won in
Speaker 1: a very unusual way. They ran the ball at two
Speaker 1: at one point in the regular season for two straight
Speaker 1: games of three hundred plus yards, and then they got
Speaker 1: super hot down the stretch in the playoffs and they
Speaker 1: ran the ball thirty nine times on the road against
Speaker 1: the Chargers, and it was one of It wasn't big
Speaker 1: long runs. It was like they were just tiring San
Speaker 1: diego out and then when that when when Sean Green
Speaker 1: bust through for that run, it was like all game
Speaker 1: long they were planning for that. In Sanchez had a
Speaker 1: hundred yards passing It was like they came in and
Speaker 1: they said, this is what we're gonna do. I'm Rex Ryan,
Speaker 1: and they did it. That was ground and pound at
Speaker 1: its finest. But my favorite Green run actually, and one
Speaker 1: of the most memorable plays of the Rex Ryan era
Speaker 1: was fourth and one. Uh, They're up three points of
Speaker 1: like two minutes to play Philip Bridge Rivers. They were
Speaker 1: fourteen and two the the Charges that year, waiting to
Speaker 1: get back on the field, and they Jets have a
Speaker 1: chance to come, you know, go for the field goal
Speaker 1: or maybe pin with a punt, and Rex goes, no,
Speaker 1: I'm sending my running back and my offensive line out
Speaker 1: there to win the game, and they did. That was
Speaker 1: that was Rex at peaks wagger. What about the your
Speaker 1: Brown's Patriots romp in November two thousand ten, because I
Speaker 1: don't think a lot of people even remember this game,
Speaker 1: but Tom Brady remembers it. Let's play that clip before
Speaker 1: they'll throw it to him, and he's a very good
Speaker 1: superant this game that we're out going off. That was
Speaker 1: one of the biggest man handlings I've seen in the
Speaker 1: Belichick era. Absolutely to the point where everyone talks about
Speaker 1: we're on to Cincinnati, but they went out the Patriots
Speaker 1: and won the next ten straight games to close out
Speaker 1: that season, because I think this was a throttling that
Speaker 1: woke them up, and it woke me up because the Browns,
Speaker 1: they came out of their bye week. The week before
Speaker 1: the bye, they had on the road knocked off the
Speaker 1: world champion Saints, and that was like, how did that happen?
Speaker 1: Because it was a very man genie esque team with
Speaker 1: not a lot of stars on offensive, guys like Chance
Speaker 1: He's stucky and Josh Cribbs getting snaps at quarterback. But
Speaker 1: then Peyton Hillis started getting hot, the guy that they
Speaker 1: basically shipped, Brady Quinn did the Broncos for in return
Speaker 1: for a running back of no name exactly after this though,
Speaker 1: this is what helped that happen, And this game, to
Speaker 1: me gave me one of those false flashes of intense
Speaker 1: hope where I thought the Browns were turning the corner
Speaker 1: in a major way. In the cult. McCoy despite being
Speaker 1: like five nine or five ten with a pop gun arm,
Speaker 1: had all the gifts that you wanted. I completely was
Speaker 1: convinced what My son Luke was born days before this,
Speaker 1: and I thought all the turning points are happening. I
Speaker 1: named my next my next son, Colton, after Calton McCoy
Speaker 1: because of this game. Big mistake, although I loved that
Speaker 1: he's named calling, but this game was such a butt whipping,
Speaker 1: and I don't you you have to search through years
Speaker 1: and years to look for a Patriots team that was
Speaker 1: so caught off guard because there was a clip at
Speaker 1: one point of Tom Brady roaming around the sideline in
Speaker 1: the third quarter and was sure that they had spiked
Speaker 1: something that he had eaten or drank that day because
Speaker 1: he looked drugged. And they never became unhinged. They never
Speaker 1: had the ball in that game. Hill Us was just
Speaker 1: running back. It's it isn't like pretty much the worst.
Speaker 1: So many of the worst losses one sided losses in
Speaker 1: the Patriot in the Belichick era are from former Patriots assistants,
Speaker 1: including Variable and the Titans one year ago. Yep, uh,
Speaker 1: Matt Patricia got him last year right, Yep, he did
Speaker 1: close game either, So check that, check that piece out.
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler wrote about some other games to their um
Speaker 1: my favorite NFL games of all time, Colin Brown's triumphs
Speaker 1: among top five. I mean, I guess it's for SEO purposes.
Speaker 1: But do we really need NFL to be in that headline.
Speaker 1: I don't think we do, but someone else clearly believes
Speaker 1: that we absolutely do. Uh. We will be back um
Speaker 1: Friday with another show. UM, so make sure you check
Speaker 1: that out. Will do some spin around the league like
Speaker 1: we did last week, checking in on camps all the
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of dozen teams almost uh wrapping
Speaker 1: up their final O T A s and mandatory mini camps.
Speaker 1: So we'll check in on that, uh and that will
Speaker 1: be uh something to look forward to. I know you're excited. Great,
Speaker 1: I am. It's the best time of year. You won't
Speaker 1: be at the game tonight, um, so we will will
Speaker 1: keep you up to family. I'm not, I'm not. You know,
Speaker 1: only if she had not seen at the game last week,
Speaker 1: none of these problems would be occurring for you right now.
Speaker 1: Well that is true, although it's certainly not on her,
Speaker 1: but the you know, they probably would have been. It
Speaker 1: would have happened this week as opposed we probably was
Speaker 1: unavoidably the inevitable. But we'll let you know how the
Speaker 1: shield does, can't. I want to find you know you
Speaker 1: should who's close to this person on the team and
Speaker 1: get some information West. Do you know I can. I
Speaker 1: can get some information if you want. Just to be clear,
Speaker 1: the person is safe and sound. We don't even know that.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people had a lot of
Speaker 1: jokes about Barrett Robbins. Ultimately, it was kind of a
Speaker 1: tragic story. It's almost an unsolved mysteries episode. A woman
Speaker 1: with a white dog shows up to a softball game.
Speaker 1: We turn around and there's just a fog and she's gone,
Speaker 1: and no one has seen or heard from her since,
Speaker 1: I mean even more concerning. Nobody pursues her to find
Speaker 1: out what has happened. It's been some emails the games started.
Speaker 1: They were committed, all right, let's go. Dan Handas signing
Speaker 1: off for Quiet Storm, the Mailman, the Old Boss, and
Speaker 1: Ricky Hollywood behind the Glass, go shill till Friday s