Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. We're he football is finally
Speaker 1: here and this is the opening week episode of the
Speaker 1: season with Peter Schrager. Aaron wan Kaufman joins me here
Speaker 1: in New York City. We're recording this on Tuesday. Kickoff
Speaker 1: is on Thursday. I'm excited, Aaron. Are you ready? Have
Speaker 1: you fully gotten over the summer and shifted and turned
Speaker 1: that page to first day of school? Football's here mode.
Speaker 2: I'm not ready. I don't know how I'm gonna feel
Speaker 2: comes Sunday, when it's suddenly hours and hours and hours of.
Speaker 1: Fun sneaks up on you. Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it's nice to have Thursday to start, which
Speaker 2: is one game and like really get into it. But yeah,
Speaker 2: that's Sunday, back to back game games. Yeah, I'm so excited,
Speaker 2: and I'm also not ready.
Speaker 1: So I've work a daily show. And when I complain
Speaker 1: about being on in June and May, it's because there's
Speaker 1: nothing to talk about. It's like random player, you know,
Speaker 1: tweeted this do three hours on it. Football season starts.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a schedule with sixteen games. We could
Speaker 1: talk football. I don't need to talk about Marquette King's
Speaker 1: tweets anymore, or I don't need to talk about what
Speaker 1: Chandler Jones posted on Instagram in the middle of June
Speaker 1: while he was on a boat in Hawaii, like we
Speaker 1: are here, and I love it, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I almost have too much information in my head. I
Speaker 1: have to like dummy it down a little bit and
Speaker 1: sift through it and be like, Okay, now that we're here,
Speaker 1: let's make rational football predictions and football thoughts and kind
Speaker 1: of be satient with this thing. I know I've been
Speaker 1: hyping Jumior Gibbs and the Lions for three months. Am
Speaker 1: I really putting Jamior Gibbs in the same breath as
Speaker 1: Emmett Smith and Jim Brown? Maybe I could just take
Speaker 1: a step back, but it's my excitement, and I know
Speaker 1: I love what I do because we're here and like,
Speaker 1: I'm giddy. I feel like this is our gift, this
Speaker 1: is the gift, and now find me in week thirteen,
Speaker 1: after twelve weeks of travel and flight delays and eating
Speaker 1: the same Delta meal, maybe I feel differently. But coming
Speaker 1: off summer as sad as I am to see the
Speaker 1: summer done like it is a beautiful gift to see
Speaker 1: Thursday night NBC on the schedule and it not be preseason,
Speaker 1: and it not be some terrible game show or reality show,
Speaker 1: and it be actual NFL football. That's Thursday Night, Lions Chiefs.
Speaker 1: If you want a comprehensive preview, you can watch Good
Speaker 1: Morning Football in the morning, and then Sunday we have
Speaker 1: a slate of games from the football Gods. I cannot wait,
Speaker 1: and I think it's an awesome one on Fox at
Speaker 1: four point thirty on America's Game of the Week, Bears
Speaker 1: hosting Packers. Kyle Brant, my co host on Good Morning Football.
Speaker 1: So this might be the most important Bears game in
Speaker 1: twenty years, and they've played in multiple playoff games since then.
Speaker 1: Just that this feels like the NFC North is finally
Speaker 1: open for business. Now. I know that the Vikings won
Speaker 1: it last year and the Packers didn't even make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But with Aaron Rodgers out of Green Bay, Chicago sees
Speaker 1: a light here, a little light at the end of
Speaker 1: the tunnel that wait, maybe the next ten years, this
Speaker 1: could be our division. And Aaron Rodgers, who figuratively andler
Speaker 1: realistically owns the Bears is no longer there anymore, so
Speaker 1: Packers Bears. I think it's the game of the week
Speaker 1: on Sunday. I know Brady's being honored and they're playing
Speaker 1: the Eagles, and we can split hairs over which game
Speaker 1: is a better game. I'm personally most excited for this
Speaker 1: Bears versus Packers game and to see Fields versus Love
Speaker 1: and Jordan Love the mystery Man, and because that's the game,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for him. Because we're a big time
Speaker 1: podcast and because I've got the best relationships in the world,
Speaker 1: I was able to call up Greg Olsen, who's calling
Speaker 1: the game on Sunday for Fox fresh off his first
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. This will be the first time he's calling
Speaker 1: an actual non preseason football game since, and we've got
Speaker 1: him on the podcast. Let's welcome in our guest, a
Speaker 1: great friend of mine and the lead NFL announcer for
Speaker 1: Fox Sports. It's coming off a year in which not
Speaker 1: only called an NFC championship game, but then called an
Speaker 1: amazing Super Bowl. One of the best dudes as a
Speaker 1: player and now one of the best dudes in the
Speaker 1: media game, mister Greg Olsen. Welcome to the season with
Speaker 1: Peter Scheger.
Speaker 3: What's up, buddy. It's good to be on man. I
Speaker 3: feel like I've been waiting for my call to be
Speaker 3: on the show. It finally came.
Speaker 1: This is it. You got the call. You also got
Speaker 1: the call to call a Super Bowl last year. I
Speaker 1: think we were all blown away by your performance when
Speaker 1: you were a current player and you would jump in
Speaker 1: like I was a three man booth. Whether it was
Speaker 1: was Charles Davis, it was burkhard at the time, whoever
Speaker 1: it was. And then you get the full time assignment
Speaker 1: a couple of years back, and Aikman's the number one guy.
Speaker 1: Aikman leaves for Monday night football and you send to
Speaker 1: the number one chair in a Super Bowl year, and Greg,
Speaker 1: I don't think you need to hear from me, but
Speaker 1: you hit it out of the park. You were awesome.
Speaker 1: Your experience calling a Super Bowl in year number one
Speaker 1: as the lead Fox announcer.
Speaker 3: You know, it was hard. It was kind of hard
Speaker 3: to imagine everything playing out the way it did, you know.
Speaker 3: And you know, as you said, when I signed on,
Speaker 3: and you know, following the twenty twenty season, I retired
Speaker 3: and signed on in twenty one, you know, joined Kevin
Speaker 3: on the second crew and was really excited for that. Right,
Speaker 3: I thought, all right, you know, do this for a
Speaker 3: while and we'll see where it goes. Never in my
Speaker 3: wildest imagination did I think that next offseason, leading into
Speaker 3: last season, that the musical chairs that was sports media
Speaker 3: and especially with the top broadcast teams across all the
Speaker 3: different networks would change so quickly and the opportunity and
Speaker 3: the seat opened. And you know, I was fortunate that
Speaker 3: after just one year of really calling games, Burkhart and
Speaker 3: I found well not one year for Burkhart, one year
Speaker 3: for me, a long time for Burkhart, that the two
Speaker 3: of us found ourselves together again, albeit on a different crew,
Speaker 3: and just so happened to be a Super Bowl year.
Speaker 3: So it was. It was quite the ride. It was
Speaker 3: quite the experience, and you know, and one that I'm
Speaker 3: thankful for and excited to do it again this year.
Speaker 1: Did you treat it like any other game?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: I know, it's easy to say I approach it one
Speaker 1: week at a time, but god, there's two weeks to
Speaker 1: prepare and it's the Super Bowl and it goes from
Speaker 1: twenty million, which is no small potatoes, to like hundreds
Speaker 1: of millions watching. Did you go into it like I've
Speaker 1: got to have a catchphrase, or I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have the call of a lifetime where they're going to
Speaker 1: play this back on NFL films for thirty years, or
Speaker 1: do you just try to hone in and think, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's Week six, Tampa Bay taking Atlanta, and let's just
Speaker 1: treat it like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I got some really good advice from
Speaker 3: from a lot of people who had been kind of
Speaker 3: in it, you know, just you know, who had called
Speaker 3: super Bowls, especially just on our team, right with with
Speaker 3: Zee and Russo and Aaron and Tom and just and
Speaker 3: obviously first one for me and Kevin. So you know,
Speaker 3: just being on a team that had a lot of
Speaker 3: people that had called super Bowls and knew at the moment,
Speaker 3: felt like it was very similar to my you know,
Speaker 3: when I was a player and the weeks leading up
Speaker 3: to the Super Bowl felt like months and then the
Speaker 3: game felt like minutes. It really was exactly once the
Speaker 3: game started, right, We had two weeks of prep after
Speaker 3: the NFC Championship game, which was an interesting game then,
Speaker 3: you know, in its own right, and everything that went
Speaker 3: down with Purdy and there was no quarterback and it
Speaker 3: was a weird game. Then we kind of had this
Speaker 3: lull for the first week where you know, nothing really
Speaker 3: going on, and then we get to Arizona. Then we
Speaker 3: get to Arizona, we have super Bowl weeks. So it
Speaker 3: was very much as a player, where you know you're
Speaker 3: reading everything, you want to make sure you have your storylines,
Speaker 3: you're diving into the weeds, and then once the game started,
Speaker 3: just like as a player, it was over in a blur, right,
Speaker 3: the hours and hours of my board and these detailed notes.
Speaker 3: I think I went a quarter and a half and
Speaker 3: didn't even look down, right, like, you just get captured
Speaker 3: into the moment of the game, the energy of the game.
Speaker 3: All of your prep kind of plays out as the
Speaker 3: game unfolds on the screen. And we were very fortunate
Speaker 3: that the game was incredible, right. It came right down
Speaker 3: to the wire, came right down to the last possession,
Speaker 3: which is what all of us kind of cheer for.
Speaker 3: So the game cooperated, which makes it a lot easier
Speaker 3: for the broadcast team because there's so much exciting things
Speaker 3: to talk about in so many different personalities and storyline.
Speaker 3: So we got lucky with the teams, We got lucky
Speaker 3: with the game, and the game it felt like we
Speaker 3: started then Rihanna saying and then it was over, like
Speaker 3: that's really that was literally what happened.
Speaker 1: That's the memory and like the Rihanna thing, like so
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking, you know, I was on the studio
Speaker 1: show that morning, all afternoon into the night. Then we
Speaker 1: get to kick back and kind of just watch the
Speaker 1: game and a green room you guys are calling it.
Speaker 1: Rihanna goes on and Caris and I are like, all right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go and try to watch it on the field.
Speaker 1: We walk on out into the tunnel where with Sean Payton.
Speaker 1: Sean Payton stays out there, no one bothers him. They
Speaker 1: tell me and Chrissa, you guys have to go back.
Speaker 1: No one's allowed on the field, and like Sean Payton,
Speaker 1: they weren't gonna mess with So we go back and
Speaker 1: we watched Rihanna from the green room, which is like,
Speaker 1: did you watch Rihanna? Are you studying depth charts at me?
Speaker 1: And like is my home's coming out in the second half?
Speaker 1: Are you able to like enjoy the super Bowl? It?
Speaker 3: So I love Rihanna right, like I discussing songs. She's
Speaker 3: got so many good songs, so but it's really funny.
Speaker 3: So you and you said it. The Mahomes thing kind
Speaker 3: of changed my halftime plan. Like I was like, I
Speaker 3: can't wait till halftime. They always serve us food, you know,
Speaker 3: they bring up chicken fingers or whatever, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna make a play of food. I'm gonna go
Speaker 3: take I'm gonna go to the bathroom, I'm gonna come back,
Speaker 3: and I'm gonna watch Rihanna and enjoy it. Whatever. Well,
Speaker 3: Mahomes gets rolled up like right before halftime, right, so
Speaker 3: I'm like, holy shit, Like what what are we going
Speaker 3: to talk about if Mahomes can't play? Aside from Mahomes
Speaker 3: not playing, but like what are the other storylines? Like
Speaker 3: where do we go? We got to start talking about
Speaker 3: other people so I'll never forget it. I'm sitting like
Speaker 3: at on the little like there's like a little desk
Speaker 3: in our booth and I'm sitting there and I have
Speaker 3: my notebook which has like all my storylines and thoughts
Speaker 3: that I've kind of put together over the weeks, and
Speaker 3: I remember being like, you know, I don't like this song,
Speaker 3: and then I'm like then like it, and like I
Speaker 3: take a break, and I'm like, I love this song.
Speaker 1: I gotta listen. Okay, I'm sorry, I gotta listen.
Speaker 3: I was going in and out like based on what
Speaker 3: song she was singing, but now from the press box,
Speaker 3: like from our from our booth. When she got lifted
Speaker 3: onto those like convey like platforms, she was like, I
Speaker 3: level with us, so from where we are vantage points,
Speaker 3: She's like, ie level performing on the little platform. I'm
Speaker 3: like going through my my chart and my thing, like
Speaker 3: all right, what do we want? How are we going
Speaker 3: to pick up the second half of Mahomes does come
Speaker 3: out if he doesn't come out, but you know, all
Speaker 3: this stuff, And then like in between, I'm like, oh
Speaker 3: my god, I love this song and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: shared in this.
Speaker 1: Well, she's eye level. You don't want to be rude
Speaker 1: and not look at you can't be looking at notes
Speaker 1: about uh chat.
Speaker 3: I don't want to insult re Rea. And she's got
Speaker 3: a baby on board, which was a big announcement, and
Speaker 3: so I wanted to be respectful of the halftime performer.
Speaker 3: But then at the same time, I'm like, the whole
Speaker 3: world is expecting us to talk about this second half
Speaker 3: for the next two hours and the best player in
Speaker 3: the world may or may not be part of it. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: he came out and he was fine, and it was
Speaker 3: an unbelievable game. But like halftime was such a mix
Speaker 3: of like, man, I really want to watch this performance,
Speaker 3: but I got to make sure I get my shit
Speaker 3: right because if I'm not ready for the second half,
Speaker 3: one hundred million people are gonna let me know.
Speaker 1: You know, the last big play was the flag. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna toss to the sound right now so
Speaker 1: we could hear your call prior to the past, holding
Speaker 1: number twenty four pirod Pinnerley automatic first und.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's worst case scenario. You'll see James Bradburry. They're
Speaker 3: gonna say he grabs him. He's got his left hand
Speaker 3: on his back. I don't know, I'm Mike listen. I
Speaker 3: think on this stage, I think you'll let him play.
Speaker 3: Obviously Mahomes thought he saw it.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think you'll let him play. Finish
Speaker 3: this thing out. I don't love that call.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you got to see the whole thing.
Speaker 1: It seemed to me at the initial break time you
Speaker 1: were you were on it like there's a flag. Do
Speaker 1: we want that flag thrown there? Now? Were you thinking
Speaker 1: about going hard on that and saying, let's crush the
Speaker 1: refs here? Why are you throwing that flag? Or did
Speaker 1: you feel like just that was your natural reaction.
Speaker 3: No, A lot of people are like Man Olson's been
Speaker 3: waiting for that moment. I love officiating, like I would
Speaker 3: joke with Mike Pereira like and Blandino like. I liked officials.
Speaker 3: I was not one of those guys that had a
Speaker 3: lot of issues with refs. And you know, I'm sure
Speaker 3: I had my moments where I argued a PI ball
Speaker 3: or a whole you know whatever, But I was never
Speaker 3: like an anti ref. I've been on record. I think
Speaker 3: their job is extremely hard. I think if the average
Speaker 3: person went out there, they'd be like they were caught
Speaker 3: in like an interstate traffic jam. They went things are
Speaker 3: happening so fast, and I don't think anyone could process
Speaker 3: it as quickly as those guys do. My point in
Speaker 3: the game, and there was no like, that's just what
Speaker 3: I felt in the moment. I think unless you were
Speaker 3: a Chiefs fan, every the one hundred and fifteen million
Speaker 3: people watching that game would have loved to see. And
Speaker 3: all we are in the booth is fans. Right. I
Speaker 3: don't get he wins. I want a great game. I
Speaker 3: want a game with some action. I want a game
Speaker 3: that unfolds that allows us to really give a lot
Speaker 3: of fun insight to the fan. Right, that's what we
Speaker 3: all hope for, as you know, you know, people that
Speaker 3: cover this sport, how much how great would it have
Speaker 3: been if that ball gets put in Jalen hurts his
Speaker 3: hands and the MVP runner up has one more possession
Speaker 3: to beat the MVP and go down there and see
Speaker 3: where the game unfolds. It was back and forth, Kansas
Speaker 3: City comes back from behind.
Speaker 1: They let's see how.
Speaker 3: It unfolds, and then it just like was a big
Speaker 3: wet right, Like I know, they run the clock out,
Speaker 3: they slide before the goal line, they run the clock down,
Speaker 3: take a time out, walk off.
Speaker 1: It is so anti climactic, and that flag probably was
Speaker 1: the right call, but going back on it, you could
Speaker 1: make the argument not to throw that flag in that spot,
Speaker 1: and who knows if that's one of the all time
Speaker 1: greatest finishes of all.
Speaker 3: Here we are, and here we are, we're saying we
Speaker 3: could get the first overtime game in NFL history, right,
Speaker 3: we got to make sure, like in between breaks as
Speaker 3: we were getting there in the fourth quarter and we're like,
Speaker 3: you know it's you know, within three, it's within a
Speaker 3: one score that a tie is real, Right, We're thinking,
Speaker 3: all right, we got to make sure, like if this
Speaker 3: does go to overtime, everybody is clear on the new rule, right,
Speaker 3: Like everyone gets a possession. This is playoff.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, we're just we're having.
Speaker 3: Those conversations during the break to make sure if we
Speaker 3: do go to overtime, all right, who's gonna set the rules?
Speaker 3: How are we gonna bring it?
Speaker 1: Because you're talking and because the Patriots and Falcons did
Speaker 1: go to overtime. But this is the new rules. Where
Speaker 1: new rule, that's what I mean with the kickoff, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: with the kickoff changes and like you get one possession
Speaker 1: and then and it's not regular season rules, it's specific
Speaker 1: for the playoffs. And we hadn't seen one all playoffs,
Speaker 1: that's right.
Speaker 3: So we had never seen it since they implemented the
Speaker 3: new rule. It obviously was the big deal after the
Speaker 3: Bills Chiefs game when Mahomes and and Josh Allen had
Speaker 3: that epic back and forth and then you know, you
Speaker 3: know that both of them don't get a chance in
Speaker 3: the overtime to possess the ball, So they changed the rule,
Speaker 3: and we're like, could you imagine if it the first
Speaker 3: time it ever unfolds is in the Super Bowl? We
Speaker 3: were damn close. We were damn close. So I think
Speaker 3: we all had that moment like, man, we're really there,
Speaker 3: all right, even if they kicked this field goal. Now
Speaker 3: Jalen Hurts has a chance to go down and he
Speaker 3: can answer or potentially win whatever. And then obviously became
Speaker 3: kind of anti climactic. Bucker just lines up for a
Speaker 3: kind of a routine chip shot. Albeit it's the Super
Speaker 3: Bowl and the rest is history.
Speaker 1: We go back to the hotel afterwards after the postgame
Speaker 1: show wraps up their show. I'm doing my stuff on
Speaker 1: the field. You got the studio guys breaking down the game.
Speaker 1: You and Burt Cart take a ride back from the
Speaker 1: stadium to the hotel, and I'm going to put you
Speaker 1: in my perspective. My shoes, I get back, go change
Speaker 1: and there is a small little after party at the
Speaker 1: hotel and they're like, anyone who worked on this today,
Speaker 1: whether you're behind the scenes, you're on camera, you're in
Speaker 1: the booth. You're in the studio show Why don't you
Speaker 1: come and let's have a few drinks. Fox is gonna
Speaker 1: put the bill, and let's just appreciate the season and
Speaker 1: this amazing super Bowl that we've had. We all go there.
Speaker 1: You and I talked for about five minutes and then
Speaker 1: you say, Okay, I gotta go. Where you going? I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is everything you've worked for, your entire season and
Speaker 1: maybe your entire professional life, thinking about the super Bowl
Speaker 1: calling it. And you put on a cowboy hat, which
Speaker 1: I don't know why you were wearing, but you put
Speaker 1: on a cowboy hat or straw hat of some sort,
Speaker 1: and you stroll out and I see a roller bag
Speaker 1: suitcase with you. It was about ten o'clock Arizona time.
Speaker 1: Greg Olsen, Can you take it from here and tell
Speaker 1: us how you spent the night you called your first
Speaker 1: ever super Bowl?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is a really I think this is
Speaker 3: a story that everyone, not just you, enjoys the most
Speaker 3: and kind of is a perfect ending to what was
Speaker 3: a crazy year. So originally we were out of town
Speaker 3: the week before. My wife and I went on a
Speaker 3: little trip, so we were away from the kids, and
Speaker 3: then I went out the whole week in the Super Bowl,
Speaker 3: so I hadn't seen my kids. I saw my kids
Speaker 3: for like one day in ten twelve days. I was like,
Speaker 3: you know what, it's a long week. After the super Bowl.
Speaker 3: They opened up all these random flights from from Arizona
Speaker 3: to Charlotte, where I live, and there was like a
Speaker 3: two am or a one am local time flight that
Speaker 3: was like a mini red eye, like a you know whatever,
Speaker 3: back to Charlotte. I was like, I'm taking it. I'll
Speaker 3: get back from the hotel, I'll change, i'll shower, I'm
Speaker 3: getting out of here. And no, my original flight was
Speaker 3: like eleven thirty local times. My original flight was eleven
Speaker 3: thirty local times. So I wasn't even going to come back.
Speaker 3: I was going to go straight to the airport and
Speaker 3: get at it.
Speaker 1: From the game you're gonna call the Super Bowl, then
Speaker 1: go to the airport.
Speaker 3: I was like beating the crowd. A couple of years ago,
Speaker 3: I was working the Minnesota Super Bowl. I forget who played,
Speaker 3: maybe like Philly New England.
Speaker 1: Made New England. Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 3: I took I made the mistake of flying out Monday morning,
Speaker 3: and it was an absolute cluster. There was it was,
Speaker 3: so I'm like, I'm not doing that again. So I
Speaker 3: arrived and our boss, you know, our crew boss, our producer,
Speaker 3: Richie Z's like, hey, man, I gotta talk to you.
Speaker 3: He's like, you can't not come back to the hotel.
Speaker 3: I'm like, Wow, We're gonna be together all week. I'll
Speaker 3: have a dinner and drink with every single person all week.
Speaker 3: I'm like, after the game, man, I want to get
Speaker 3: out of here. He's like, you can't. I was like,
Speaker 3: all right, fine, So he told.
Speaker 1: Me, why do you think Why do you think that
Speaker 1: was because out of respect to the bosses, or like
Speaker 1: cause he knew you're gonna want I take a moment
Speaker 1: to just take competive.
Speaker 3: You're probably both, probably both. I get so long story short,
Speaker 3: I get talked into staying. I'm like, you know what,
Speaker 3: all right, I'm gonna come back. So the morning of
Speaker 3: the game, I go on and I'm like, all right,
Speaker 3: I gotta find like a perfect medium. I don't want
Speaker 3: to stay a whole nother day and take a red
Speaker 3: eye Monday night. Then I have like twenty four hours here.
Speaker 3: There's got to be so long story short. I quickly
Speaker 3: book a flight at breakfast morning of the super Bowl
Speaker 3: that leaves at like one thirty local time. So no,
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm gonna come back to the hotel. I'll
Speaker 3: see everyone have a drink. We had about five hundred bourbons.
Speaker 3: They made the big I guess mistake of saying everything
Speaker 3: on the is on these. I might be the only
Speaker 3: guy in history to ever make an old Fashioned with
Speaker 3: Pappy Van Winkle. It was great, and so I'm glad
Speaker 3: I came back. But the story just gets worse all
Speaker 3: the entire time. So not only was first class sold
Speaker 3: out by coach flight, not only did I have to
Speaker 3: take a coach flight, I had to connect in all.
Speaker 1: You called the super Bowl two hours earlier.
Speaker 3: So I got done calling the super Bowl. I had
Speaker 3: three Pappy Van Winkles with the guys back at the bar,
Speaker 3: drew on my hat, T shirt, shorts, roller back. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm out of here. I say goodbye to everyone. I
Speaker 3: go to the airport, but it won't let me check
Speaker 3: in for my second leg. So I thought that was weird,
Speaker 3: Like it only let me go from Arizona to Austin,
Speaker 3: but then the six am Austin flight to Charlotte, it
Speaker 3: wouldn't let me get my boarding pass. So I go
Speaker 3: to the ticketing agent and I'm like, hey, won't let
Speaker 3: me check in? Can you give me my boarding pass?
Speaker 3: She goes, well, mister Rolson, your second leg from Austin
Speaker 3: doesn't leave till tuesday. And I was like, I said no,
Speaker 3: I said I can't. She's like, I can rebook you.
Speaker 3: But I was supposed to be first class from Austin
Speaker 3: to Charlotte. Now, not only my coach. I'm coach from
Speaker 3: Austin to Charlotte now because I booked a flight for
Speaker 3: twenty four hours from when I was actually getting into
Speaker 3: So I literally get on the plane, I put my
Speaker 3: hat down, and I'm like, oh my god, what am
Speaker 3: I doing? I fly from Arizona to Austin. Get up,
Speaker 3: get off the plane, have like an hour, you know,
Speaker 3: layover back on. I'm like in row twenty one C.
Speaker 1: I'm like fighting hold the super Bowl last night.
Speaker 3: And everyone's walking by and they're like, hey, nice job
Speaker 3: on the super Bowl. Let's flying home, coach. You know,
Speaker 3: everyone else is out on private jets and I'm sitting
Speaker 3: on a private I want to say it was like Southwest.
Speaker 1: I think it was. Dude. I didn't want her to
Speaker 1: call out the airlines and whatever. But like, if I'm
Speaker 1: not mistaken, the story that you told me was like
Speaker 1: You're like, I'm on Southwest and I'm not in boarding group. A.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like it was. It was the worst
Speaker 3: knowing that I was going to call that game. I
Speaker 3: couldn't have done a worst job planning my departure if
Speaker 3: I tried to. So my I would say I have
Speaker 3: the most unique No one has. I'll just say this,
Speaker 3: No one has flown home from calling a super Bowl
Speaker 3: like me since like nineteen sixty five exactly.
Speaker 1: And that was on like a greyhound bus. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: to sum it up from my perspective, you're drinking Pappy
Speaker 1: van Winkle at the bar on top of the universe,
Speaker 1: hundred millions of people a lot. But there is nothing
Speaker 1: more humbling and more blue collar than you just get
Speaker 1: in your lunch pail, on your cowboy hat and you're
Speaker 1: getting on that board boarding group. See whatever. It was
Speaker 1: connecting in Austin waiting and then flying home. But you
Speaker 1: know what you saw your kids in the morning.
Speaker 3: Saw them they got off the school. I took like
Speaker 3: a six hour nap. I didn't participate in the in
Speaker 3: society for like forty eight hours, I rushed home to
Speaker 3: do nothing. But nonetheless it was, uh what was a great,
Speaker 3: busy but awesome week ended in very appropriate fashion.
Speaker 1: It's so fitting. It's it's the it's the walk we
Speaker 1: we walk, my friend, it's it. We are grinders, That's
Speaker 1: what we are. I wouldn't have flown coach in a million. No,
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. I actually, to be honest, if you know
Speaker 1: how often I'm flying, I would have like completely just
Speaker 1: obsessed over that flight and probably not even known any
Speaker 1: of the players is a plan on time? Am I
Speaker 1: getting upgraded? Like that's all I would have cared about
Speaker 1: during the game. That's why you're a better pro than me.
Speaker 3: Here's like a running joke, like even with our crew
Speaker 3: or like my wife. My wife's like, what hotel you at?
Speaker 3: I'm like, I have no idea whereinery is. I was like,
Speaker 3: I don't know. I'm like, I land, I get in
Speaker 3: the car, and wherever the car drops me off, that's
Speaker 3: my hotel. She's like, where are you eating dinner? I'm like,
Speaker 3: I don't know anything. What time we head into the
Speaker 3: game tomorrow. He's like, we're going to meet down upstairs
Speaker 3: at eleven. Yeah, done.
Speaker 1: He's dial he's got the restaurant, he's got the gluten
Speaker 1: free options, He's got it.
Speaker 3: I don't I always say I don't. I don't water.
Speaker 3: I don't bog myself down with the details.
Speaker 1: Yeah, big pole, big picture. Uh one more on that one,
Speaker 1: like before the game, because I think I always say this,
Speaker 1: I have the honor every three or four years whenever
Speaker 1: Fox is the Super Bowl. We get a credential and
Speaker 1: we're able to be on the field before the game,
Speaker 1: and I like taking a nice long lap and just
Speaker 1: soaking it in and being like, this is a once
Speaker 1: in a lifetime experience that I get to experience, and
Speaker 1: I'm not going to take it for granted. Did you
Speaker 1: get that moment at the Super Bowl? Able? I know
Speaker 1: he said Rihanna was performing, Like did you get a
Speaker 1: chance to enjoy the experience?
Speaker 3: Well, I actually have another amazing story that's gonna it's amazing.
Speaker 3: Like when I keep telling these stories, people are like,
Speaker 3: it's amazing this guy can like hold down a job
Speaker 3: because he's a disaster. So me and Burkhart all week
Speaker 3: we have we know that we have a hit with
Speaker 3: the pregame guys at whatever time, so we go down,
Speaker 3: so they bring us downstairs. We go up to the booth,
Speaker 3: we get set up and they're like, hey, we're going
Speaker 3: to bring you downstairs. I don't know whatever the time
Speaker 3: is locally, And they bring us to the green room,
Speaker 3: like where all you guys are down for the studio
Speaker 3: and the beating.
Speaker 1: Like CAVR and yeah it was pretty nice.
Speaker 3: I'm eating chicken fingers and and uh, stuffing my face
Speaker 3: with Jersey Mike sandwiches. You guys are reading like file.
Speaker 3: Me and Burkhart get escorted down by by our by
Speaker 3: our by our guide and we're sitting in the green
Speaker 3: room watching that pregame show and we finally after like
Speaker 3: a hectic morning, we're just like kicking back. They do
Speaker 3: our makeup and we're just sitting there. All of a sudden,
Speaker 3: Burkhart's phone starts blowing up and it's Russo Rich Russo,
Speaker 3: our director. He's like, where are you guys. You're about
Speaker 3: to miss your hit and we're like holy, So we
Speaker 3: grab our jackets. We run out of the green room.
Speaker 3: We get to the entrance to the tunnel. The players
Speaker 3: are taking the field like in pre pregame. They don't
Speaker 3: let us pass security. Yeah, so We're like no, no,
Speaker 3: Guys like we were.
Speaker 1: Call the game, We're like, we don't care.
Speaker 3: On the pregame show in like three minutes, they're like,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, the tunnel's closed until the players get back
Speaker 3: to the locker room. We're like no, no, no. So
Speaker 3: we're like asking. We're like those people like trying to
Speaker 3: talk their way into the bar. Yeah, yeah, that Johnny.
Speaker 3: You know, I got him. He told me I have
Speaker 3: a table. So we now get out to the field
Speaker 3: and there's no leisurely. We don't get the Peter Schrager
Speaker 3: leisurely walk around. We take off in a full on sprint,
Speaker 3: but we don't know which corner of the stadium. Long
Speaker 3: story short, we make it to wherever the hit is.
Speaker 3: They come meet us, They give us our IFBs. We're
Speaker 3: putting them in our ear. I plug it into my
Speaker 3: pack as I'm walking to my spot, and it's like
Speaker 3: and now down to Kevin, Burkhart and Gregg. We walk
Speaker 3: into the shot as the second it gets tossed to
Speaker 3: us from Kurt. I forget and I don't even know
Speaker 3: what we said.
Speaker 1: You're there though, you made we.
Speaker 3: So we we we go off of our hit. We
Speaker 3: look at each other. We're like, well, that was a
Speaker 3: horrible way to start calling you because we almost missed
Speaker 3: our pregame hit. So no, my pregame was not as
Speaker 3: leisurely and as.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm like, I'm like smelling the grass.
Speaker 3: I'm in a full sweat. I can't even see straight.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm like, oh my god, I just ruined
Speaker 3: the super Bowl because I almost missed my hit.
Speaker 1: Go I share my pregame story. I've got so many,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I did to get a chance
Speaker 1: to tell us on the podcast. You'll appreciate this. So
Speaker 1: I'm walking around with Peyton, Woodson and Vic. Now we're
Speaker 1: the we're the secondary pregame show. Obviously we're not how
Speaker 1: we tarry all those guys. Those guys are working. We
Speaker 1: are done for the day. We have about an hour
Speaker 1: until the post game, so we have a chance to
Speaker 1: just walk around. And now, Sean Payton's likely a Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame coach when he hangs it up, Charles Woodson
Speaker 1: one of the greatest football players to ever grace a field,
Speaker 1: and Michael Vick a cultural icon, and me. So we're
Speaker 1: walking around and there he is jay Z. Jay Z
Speaker 1: is staring us right in the eye, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: how is this gonna go down? First thing he does,
Speaker 1: he grabs Charles Woodson, brings him in for a giant hug,
Speaker 1: Then Michael Vick giant hug, then Sean Peyton giant hug.
Speaker 1: Then he locks eyes with me and he gives me
Speaker 1: a hug, and I'm like, okay, I'm in. Then he goes,
Speaker 1: let's get a picture, all right, I'm in. Jay Z
Speaker 1: then positions his body in a way where he can
Speaker 1: grab three different folks with his arms, and I knew
Speaker 1: my place. I quietly drifted out of this photo, and
Speaker 1: the photo is taken of jay Z, Woodson, Vic and Peyton,
Speaker 1: and I am like, so sheepishly just slinking out of
Speaker 1: the photo, but like also know that there could be
Speaker 1: some cultural relevance. Should I get in this photo? Should
Speaker 1: I slide backing? And I'm like, do I fly bacon?
Speaker 1: I sat out the photo and I did not make
Speaker 1: the photo, and sure enough the photo goes viral. Now
Speaker 1: a minute later, this is where I get my redemption.
Speaker 1: A minute Gordon Ramsey walks by Gordon Ramsey. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he knows football. He might think I'm Joe Montana.
Speaker 1: But he sees on with Fox and he sees me
Speaker 1: with all these other guys, and he sees Sean Payton
Speaker 1: and Gordon Ramsey comes over and Gordon Ramsey's like producers, like,
Speaker 1: why don't you three getting a photo? And it's me,
Speaker 1: Peyton and Ramsey And sure enough, Gordon Ramsey from his
Speaker 1: Instagram fee with one hundred million people is like Fox
Speaker 1: NFL Super Bowl crew and it's me, him and Sean Payton. So,
Speaker 1: Jay Z, I didn't want to be in your photo.
Speaker 1: I got in the Gordon Ramsey photo. Let's go.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: I can picture when you're telling that story, is that
Speaker 3: he'll skit where he pumps down off the podium and
Speaker 3: he's like giving everybody hugs, but then he like shapes
Speaker 3: the random white guy's hands like that was you, that.
Speaker 1: Was me one hundred percent, and I knew my place.
Speaker 1: I knew my place.
Speaker 3: The only thing that would have made that story worse
Speaker 3: is if he handed you his phone, who was like a.
Speaker 1: Seriously, can you take it. I've had that happen plenty.
Speaker 1: I've had that. Trust me great, I've had that happen
Speaker 1: all right. Now we turn the pig and it's like
Speaker 1: the come down from the Super Bowl and there's nothing
Speaker 1: more humbling than your first game back being assigned Saints
Speaker 1: Texans preseason? How'd that go?
Speaker 3: You know what? Prep for it was a little challenging,
Speaker 3: especially when we talked to Dennis Allen and he told
Speaker 3: us that literally not one was played. The Texans at
Speaker 3: least did us the favor and played like the first
Speaker 3: two drives with most of their starters. So at least
Speaker 3: got we got like a good quarter and change out
Speaker 3: of c. J. Stroud and the stations.
Speaker 1: Got your Nico Collins for the year. He checked it off.
Speaker 3: Good. Yeah, the Saints did us no favors. They did
Speaker 3: not play a single starter a minute, a play a second.
Speaker 3: They didn't even put a uniform on.
Speaker 1: But how to feel get it back in the booth though?
Speaker 3: It was good? You know what? I actually, as much
Speaker 3: as you're like a preseason game, it's actually really good.
Speaker 1: It's great.
Speaker 3: Just get one out of the way, grind on fifty
Speaker 3: five different wide receivers and forty different linemen and just
Speaker 3: put the prep in and just get yourself back in
Speaker 3: the in the floor, like all right, this is what
Speaker 3: a normal week's going to feel like for me. For
Speaker 3: the next five months. You better wrap your head around it,
Speaker 3: you know. But it was fun. It's always good to
Speaker 3: be around the crew that I always liked going to
Speaker 3: New Orleans. I got a good energy. It didn't feel
Speaker 3: like a preseason game, so it was a nice warm up.
Speaker 3: It was a good kind of rehearsal to get the
Speaker 3: bugs out, and we got a good one for Week
Speaker 3: one with Bears Packers.
Speaker 1: You sure do, which is to me the most intriguing
Speaker 1: matchup in the entire NFL slate. There's bigger names elsewhere,
Speaker 1: but like, I don't know what to make of the Bears,
Speaker 1: and I did not know what to make of the Packers.
Speaker 1: As we turned the page towards this weekend, have you
Speaker 1: dug in on your prep for that game and really
Speaker 1: what are your immediate takeaways on Justin Fields and Jordan Love.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been. I started diving in over the weekend
Speaker 3: and just kind of reading some of the clips and
Speaker 3: you know, knowing we had them, you know, for the
Speaker 3: first game, you know, just following in preseason, following guys,
Speaker 3: you know, some of the beat writers on Twitter and
Speaker 3: who are the surprise guys at training camp and all that.
Speaker 3: But now that the rosters are set and you can
Speaker 3: really dive in. I'm with you, I think there's a
Speaker 3: lot of unknown. I think it's hard to really prepare
Speaker 3: for Jordan Love firstly, you know, first off with the
Speaker 3: Packers because you know, we've seen him spot play, We've
Speaker 3: seen him come in at times for Rogers in various situations,
Speaker 3: but we've never really seen him operate. An offense tailor
Speaker 3: made for him, a system tailor made, you know, for
Speaker 3: his strengths, and Matt Lafleur and him work closely at
Speaker 3: weekend week out. So I'm with everyone else, everyone like,
Speaker 3: how are they going to be? I'm like, I don't
Speaker 3: know how anybody can really make an assessment of Jordan
Speaker 3: Love fairly go to our bad until we see him play,
Speaker 3: until we see him operate behind center. And then compounding that,
Speaker 3: they're the youngest team in the league, right. I was
Speaker 3: just spending some time with both the Bears and the
Speaker 3: Packers roster, and you know, they got some vets at
Speaker 3: the offensive line and on defense, they got a lot
Speaker 3: of vets returning, a lot of names that we're all
Speaker 3: familiar with, Kenny Clark and you know, Rashan Gary hopefully
Speaker 3: coming back healthy. From his ACL but like on offense,
Speaker 3: it's Bachtiari and some offensive Elton Tenkins, Well.
Speaker 1: It's not offensive linemen. Yeah, and then.
Speaker 3: It's like rookie rookie, rookie second year Christian Watson, second
Speaker 3: year Romeo Dobbs. You know, they got the vet running backs,
Speaker 3: but it's kind of a funny team, like they either
Speaker 3: got veteran guys at offensive line and running back and
Speaker 3: then everyone else is first and second year at all
Speaker 3: the rest of the offensive skills. So I think there's
Speaker 3: a lot of interesting storylines for the Packers and then
Speaker 3: the Bears. Their roster looks more like an NFL roster
Speaker 3: now at least on paper than it did. And I
Speaker 3: think with Dj Moore on offense and you know, investing
Speaker 3: in a top ten pick at tackle and Nate Davis
Speaker 3: they invested him in free agency, like they got some dudes.
Speaker 3: They got some guys now on offense to hopefully help
Speaker 3: justin out a little bit. And I think they're going
Speaker 3: to be better. And again how much better, I don't know,
Speaker 3: but obviously all eyes are on the two young quarterbacks
Speaker 3: and that makes it for a fun week. One.
Speaker 1: I said it on the show today on Good Morning
Speaker 1: football that it feels like a case study almost of
Speaker 1: nature versus their Like Justin Fields was just thrown out
Speaker 1: into the fire and two years was just under siege,
Speaker 1: and it's like, all right, you've got two years under
Speaker 1: your belt. It's year three. You've seen the as dark
Speaker 1: as it can get. You've been there, you know, ten
Speaker 1: straight losses last year, you've done. On the other end,
Speaker 1: Jordan Love's been sitting on the bench and watching and
Speaker 1: having this really nurtured and I wouldn't say coddled, but
Speaker 1: like that is the dream situation that you get three
Speaker 1: years to learn an offense and three years to grow.
Speaker 1: And then he's almost been in a lab for three
Speaker 1: years and it's like, okay, it's one situation which is
Speaker 1: a philosophy of throwing the guy out there, and the
Speaker 1: other philosophy is let's let him learn. And this is
Speaker 1: most extreme sense. I'm curious to see who comes out
Speaker 1: and who's got jitters to start.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's such an interesting topic because it's
Speaker 3: really what everyone talks about, right, you know, mahomes Oh,
Speaker 3: he Mahomes sat. So if Mahome sat, everybody should sit
Speaker 3: the rookie year. And I'm I'm a big believer that
Speaker 3: if you're gonna be good, you're gonna be good, and
Speaker 3: if you're gonna be s, you're gonna be I personally
Speaker 3: think we use these like anecdotal examples based on whatever
Speaker 3: you think to like support one way or another. I
Speaker 3: think Patrick Mahomes was going to be Patrick Mahomes whether
Speaker 3: Andy Reid played him week one of his rookie year
Speaker 3: year or he sat behind Alex Smith and then eventually
Speaker 3: took over. I think how Justin Fields ends up his career,
Speaker 3: whether he went through the fires of playing as a
Speaker 3: young kid. You know, he didn't technically start game one,
Speaker 3: he took over for Andy Dalton. You could say in
Speaker 3: Essen started as a rookie because it only took a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks. His career, in my mind, is going
Speaker 3: to be the same. It's all about the structure. Who's
Speaker 3: the coach, what do they surround him with, Whether they
Speaker 3: surround you with a good system and good supporting players
Speaker 3: day one as a rookie or in Jordan Love's case,
Speaker 3: year four, I think your career is going to be
Speaker 3: what your career is going to be, regardless of when
Speaker 3: the journey starts.
Speaker 1: I just interesting.
Speaker 3: I think we see so many examples. Cam Newton played
Speaker 3: Day one, that.
Speaker 1: Was on your team. I was gonna mention him, and
Speaker 1: that was with Ron in his first season.
Speaker 3: Right. So do I think Cam Newton's career would have
Speaker 3: been better or worse if he waited till year three?
Speaker 3: I don't. I think his career was as was the
Speaker 3: great career that it was. He was going to have
Speaker 3: a great career whether he started game one, Game six,
Speaker 3: or year two. Same with Mahomes his career. He was
Speaker 3: still going to be the same player as long as
Speaker 3: Andy Reid was his coach and the system, and he's
Speaker 3: the player that he is. I just believe in all
Speaker 3: my heart, like we make too much about this guy
Speaker 3: was only good because he sat, This guy was only
Speaker 3: good because he played Game one. I really don't think
Speaker 3: a lot of that is as important as everyone makes
Speaker 3: it out to be.
Speaker 1: In your research. Can you give me one nugget on
Speaker 1: Jordan Love that you have found that I don't, because,
Speaker 1: like we did a test in our show where it's like,
Speaker 1: if I show you a silhouette of these young quarterbacks scoring,
Speaker 1: can you identify it? And we went zero for four
Speaker 1: on Jordan Love's throwing motion. He played one game against
Speaker 1: the Chiefs with his mom and dad, and we're sitting
Speaker 1: in the ninetieth row at Arrowhead. I remember that and
Speaker 1: Jordan Love looked terrible that game and looked ill equipped,
Speaker 1: And then we've heard great things this summer, Like, is
Speaker 1: there one thing you've learned in doing your weeks of
Speaker 1: research leading up to this game that you could share
Speaker 1: with us?
Speaker 3: You know what, I think, I'm like everybody else. You
Speaker 3: know every everything you read, and whether it's fair or unfair,
Speaker 3: it's just the nature of the beast. Everything you read
Speaker 3: is him at this stage versus Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 3: first year starting when he took over for Farv. Okay,
Speaker 3: what does that mean for Jordan Love taking over for
Speaker 3: Rogers and kind of passing that torch? So like he's
Speaker 3: going to operate right now in that world. Whether it's right,
Speaker 3: wrong or in different it doesn't matter. That is the
Speaker 3: reality when you follow a guy like Rogers, just like
Speaker 3: it was for Rogers when he followed far If you're
Speaker 3: not going to escape that, I think the thing that
Speaker 3: I'm most curious about is, like I know, and I
Speaker 3: know Matt Leafloor kind of or the GM kind of
Speaker 3: like this, you know, downplayed this idea. I think for
Speaker 3: the first time, Matt Leafloor's offense now in Green Bay
Speaker 3: is going to be Matt flofense.
Speaker 1: Mark Murphy's the president of the team, and he speaks.
Speaker 1: I always listen because it comes from the top, and
Speaker 1: he said, we're gonna see what Matt's offense looks like
Speaker 1: for the first time, and that was taken as a
Speaker 1: slight of Aaron Rodgers like it run Laflor's offense. Now
Speaker 1: it Rogers gets in there, it opens up a world
Speaker 1: of possibilities you can do. This is the offense that
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleoor was planned to run, where the quarterback is
Speaker 1: just gonna operate it and not audible out and do
Speaker 1: his own thing.
Speaker 3: Right, It's gonna be more. It's gonna be more reminiscent
Speaker 3: of Shanahan's forty nine, Ers mcveigh's, you know, even though
Speaker 3: when Stafford got there, they kind of evolved into a
Speaker 3: little bit of a different iteration of that offense. But
Speaker 3: you know, maybe the Jared Goff version of the Rams
Speaker 3: offense where it was really the system and operate within it.
Speaker 3: I think we're gonna see that really for the first
Speaker 3: time since Lafloor's come in, and and that's not a
Speaker 3: knock on anyone. I just think that's the nature of
Speaker 3: when you don't have a Hall of Fame quarterback and
Speaker 3: you have a young kid. Okay, now we hired Matt
Speaker 3: Lafloor because of his offensive creativity in his mind and
Speaker 3: his system. Okay, now we're gonna it's gonna be more
Speaker 3: on the forefront because he doesn't have a Hall of
Speaker 3: Fame quarterback who had done it at a high level,
Speaker 3: you know, for over a decade before he came in.
Speaker 3: It would it makes sense for Aaron Rodgers to do
Speaker 3: things he's comfortable with. You don't just come in and
Speaker 3: revolutionize a player like that and make them and make
Speaker 3: them change his game. So I think that's gonna be interesting.
Speaker 3: But I think everything we all know is a very
Speaker 3: small sample size, which I never try to judge anyone
Speaker 3: by their best game or their worst game. So when
Speaker 3: a guy like Jordan Love, you really don't have anything
Speaker 3: in between. And I really take everything that comes out
Speaker 3: of training camp with a grain of salt, because every
Speaker 3: single player in training camp has the best training camp
Speaker 3: they've ever had.
Speaker 1: They look amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm really not really making any big predictions as
Speaker 3: far as Jordan Love goes, because he's wildly talented. He's athletic,
Speaker 3: he's big, he's strong, he's got all the measurables. The
Speaker 3: kid deserves the right to go out there and play
Speaker 3: before anyone passes judgment good or bad on him.
Speaker 1: This is the game of the week for Fox, which
Speaker 1: is a big title for two teams that I don't
Speaker 1: think many people have going to the playoffs. Honestly, the
Speaker 1: Vikings were the defending division champions, the Lions of the
Speaker 1: hot team of the NFC North Bears could have a
Speaker 1: jump and the Packers obviously could keep it going and
Speaker 1: be great. But to put that crown on this game
Speaker 1: says a lot about the fan bases and the traditions,
Speaker 1: and it says a lot about you guys going up
Speaker 1: there and doing it. Now, one more sports broadcasting question,
Speaker 1: and I know you said you don't know the itinerary,
Speaker 1: but like, take us through the days leading up to it.
Speaker 1: If you're a listener and you know you're going to
Speaker 1: see Greg and obviously Kevin Burkhard on the call, when
Speaker 1: do you guys get in, what are the meetings? And
Speaker 1: now in a post COVID world. Are we back to
Speaker 1: production meetings? It is still on zoom. What can you
Speaker 1: share with us as far as from your chair, what
Speaker 1: your next two days are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So on a typical week, this week week one,
Speaker 3: we start a little bit earlier, just because you know
Speaker 3: the anticipation of opening week. But on a normal week
Speaker 3: where you have a game on the previous Sunday, Monday,
Speaker 3: I don't really do a lot. I kind of take
Speaker 3: it as a personal day, catch up on some things
Speaker 3: at home, do stuff with the kids and my wife.
Speaker 3: And Tuesday I'll really dive in. So Tuesday I start
Speaker 3: with the team I know the least. So if I'm
Speaker 3: calling a game with an AFC you know team, or
Speaker 3: you know a team we just don't see very often,
Speaker 3: I'll start with them on Tuesday, Like what do they
Speaker 3: look like, who do they have on the team, what
Speaker 3: numbers do they wear, what do the jerseys look like like?
Speaker 3: Just familiarize yourself with something that might not just be
Speaker 3: top of mind. Like maybe if I'm calling a Cowboys
Speaker 3: game or a Philly game, which we see a lot,
Speaker 3: we kind of know those teams pretty well, you know.
Speaker 3: And then Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday is really just familiarizing yourself
Speaker 3: with the players, the schemes, the storylines, you know, reading
Speaker 3: all the clips coming out. They send us all sorts
Speaker 3: of information and stats and you know, analytics and some
Speaker 3: really interesting things that you can build some context into
Speaker 3: game plan and personnel adjustments and you know, tendencies of
Speaker 3: each team. And really that's where for me, I build
Speaker 3: a lot of my storylines that I want to talk
Speaker 3: about for the game. Like a great example is Philadelphia
Speaker 3: last year. Towards the end of the year. We obviously
Speaker 3: had them a lot throughout the playoffs and through the
Speaker 3: regular season. They became one of the big stories of
Speaker 3: the year. So we're calling them a lot and everyone's
Speaker 3: just fascinated with fourth down, right, Everyone's fascinated with fourth down.
Speaker 3: But all this information that we get aside from just
Speaker 3: watching us, so yes, they go on fourth down, everyone
Speaker 3: in the world knows that.
Speaker 1: Like that, that's not what can we add? What can
Speaker 1: I act that.
Speaker 3: The Fox researchers and the team they send really really
Speaker 3: good data that dives into all the tendencies and the
Speaker 3: percentages and all that. Not that any of that would
Speaker 3: make the roster, would make the broadcast, but through our
Speaker 3: prep of the week and my conversations with Kevin. Some
Speaker 3: of our best conversations come from those midweek great calls, right,
Speaker 3: and I'll call Kevin and be like, keV, how can
Speaker 3: we in the middle of the game, everyone's talking about
Speaker 3: them going for fourth down? How do we talk about
Speaker 3: fourth down? On second down? How do we talk about
Speaker 3: fourth down? On third down? Saying, hey, keV, it's third
Speaker 3: and four balls at the forty two yard line. We
Speaker 3: will know whether Nick Sirianni's going for it on fourth
Speaker 3: down based on what call they have here. And Kevin
Speaker 3: will do He's like the master at like setting all
Speaker 3: that up. And he leads me right into him and say, Kevin,
Speaker 3: if they turn around and hand this ball to Miles
Speaker 3: Sanders and then we know, you know they're going for
Speaker 3: it on fourth down, because if not, they would attempt
Speaker 3: to pass. So to answer your question, like our midweek
Speaker 3: conversations as a crew and emails, and Kevin and I
Speaker 3: spend a lot of time just talking things through. Sometimes
Speaker 3: the things we talk through don't ever make air because
Speaker 3: it sounded great on Tuesday, and come Saturday, it just
Speaker 3: didn't make any sense really. But like that's one example
Speaker 3: like those cool conversations, those moments that align on game
Speaker 3: day that just really work in the broadcast, really just
Speaker 3: come from a week of throwing things against the wall,
Speaker 3: reading between the lines, the context, the articles, and trying
Speaker 3: to say, like, how can we take this conversation maybe
Speaker 3: deeper to the viewer than just give them the surface
Speaker 3: level context. They go for fourth down three times more
Speaker 3: than the other team if no one gives about.
Speaker 1: The stack stats. You can't. There's only so many stats
Speaker 1: the human brain can take.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So like so like that's a big part of
Speaker 3: our process. We go in on Saturdays. We do all
Speaker 3: of our calls with the team via Zoom. That's worked
Speaker 3: for Kevin and I since because we were The season
Speaker 3: Kevin and I first started working together was postponed. We
Speaker 3: weren't allowed in the building, and it worked for us.
Speaker 3: We felt like we got more people because we got
Speaker 3: them on Zoom's. We felt like they were very open.
Speaker 3: It worked for travel, it worked for our schedule, so
Speaker 3: we've kept it. It's worked great for our team. And
Speaker 3: we go to a group dinner on Saturday night, we
Speaker 3: have a production meeting, we get together, we kind of
Speaker 3: put all the final touches on the broadcast plan, and
Speaker 3: then Sunday morning we get up and let the game unfold.
Speaker 1: All right, These are the inside the weeds questions. The
Speaker 1: group dinner. Is that out at a restaurant or are
Speaker 1: we eating in the hotel banquet room?
Speaker 3: Now, we try at all costs to get Now, we
Speaker 3: might eat in the hotel restaurant if it's a nice restaurant.
Speaker 3: We're trying to get out of the We'll do our
Speaker 3: production meeting first, handle business, go through graphics, go through
Speaker 3: any of the highlights, the bumps, the in and out
Speaker 3: of the stuff, storylines, talk through the game. Once we
Speaker 3: feel we're in a good place, we make it a
Speaker 3: point as a crew. Everybody, we make it a point
Speaker 3: as a crew, and overall sometimes twelve fourteen people deep,
Speaker 3: and it's really I think it's the highlight of the week.
Speaker 3: I think everyone looks forward to it. I think there's
Speaker 3: great banter. I think is great camaraderie. I think people
Speaker 3: like book their travel to make sure they're done with
Speaker 3: their work and done at the trucks or whatever they're doing,
Speaker 3: to like make dinner. And I just believe in that
Speaker 3: Kevin and I have really tried to make that a
Speaker 3: point with Aaron and Tom and everyone's bought in and
Speaker 3: Aaron usually kind of spearheads where we go. A lot
Speaker 3: of times, she has great contacts. She knows a lot
Speaker 3: of good restaurants around around the around you know, around
Speaker 3: the country and whatnot. Or everyone kind of chips in
Speaker 3: where they where they have a insight and it's a
Speaker 3: highlight of the week. We love it. It's a good
Speaker 3: way to kind of start off the weekend. And then
Speaker 3: we know Sunday morning, we wake up, we get ready
Speaker 3: to roll, we go to the stadium and game time.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make a pitch right now to to be
Speaker 1: or Fox Sports one or NFL Plus. We love Anthony Bourdain, right,
Speaker 1: We love his journeys, his travels. We love football. I
Speaker 1: would love a show where it's not about the games.
Speaker 1: We just go on with these crews to their Friday night,
Speaker 1: Saturday night dinners and we spend a different night with
Speaker 1: a crew each week. Is that not a great content?
Speaker 1: I feel like that's something I would love to watch.
Speaker 3: I think people would love to see. Our dinners are
Speaker 3: a lot of times are hysterical and we get great
Speaker 3: stories and just I think it's great. We try to
Speaker 3: go somewhere different. We try to go to good places
Speaker 3: and try new things. And I'll be honest, it's really
Speaker 3: a highlight of the week. I think it's something that
Speaker 3: everyone really looks forward to, and I think it's a
Speaker 3: great idea. I'd be happy.
Speaker 1: I think honestly, it's like last for years, I would
Speaker 1: come in for Fox on the Sunday pregame show and
Speaker 1: I would just eat at the hotel and maybe I'd
Speaker 1: get a drink with Woodson. Last year, Sean Payton' spearheaded
Speaker 1: and he's like, let's go out on Saturday nights. Let's
Speaker 1: go out, not too late, Let's go out. And that's
Speaker 1: where the camaraderie forms. That's where the chemistry boy and
Speaker 1: it really I think it led to a better product
Speaker 1: on air.
Speaker 3: Oh, I definitely think. And we have some of our
Speaker 3: best I mean, we cover a lot of topics at
Speaker 3: these dinners, right, but I would say some of our
Speaker 3: best ideas that have made air and made the broadcast
Speaker 3: come from just impromptu debate, impromptu arguments, conversations, whatever you
Speaker 3: want to call it. Over a crab leg, over a stake,
Speaker 3: over a you know, over a bourbon, just you just
Speaker 3: once everyone feels comfortable that they can be a part
Speaker 3: of the conversation. And this is not just three or
Speaker 3: four of us that run the show and everyone else
Speaker 3: shut up like this is a collaborative event, right, This
Speaker 3: is a collaborative crew. We are open to all in
Speaker 3: any suggestions. And some of our best conversations that Kevin
Speaker 3: and I have gotten on air, or stories that that
Speaker 3: Aaron and Tom have shared on a sideline hit have
Speaker 3: come from just an organic conversation at a dinner or
Speaker 3: casually in a social environment where it's like, guys, that
Speaker 3: would be great conversation to have tomorrow, you know, in
Speaker 3: the second half, if the game's at a whack or
Speaker 3: you know, whatever it is. And sure enough, sometimes you know,
Speaker 3: not always, but sometimes it lines up and that dinner
Speaker 3: conversation makes its way on air with maybe a few
Speaker 3: more PG PG related language.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, this is awesome. We're gonna do a
Speaker 1: quick exercise right now. I like always having fun with
Speaker 1: a guest and do like a game of some sort.
Speaker 1: And as as we're previewing the entire season as a whole,
Speaker 1: and knowing that you've got a full fox late ahead
Speaker 1: of you at the a game, I thought it would
Speaker 1: be fun to do an exercise with you where we're
Speaker 1: picking three different breakout teams each Now, breakout could mean
Speaker 1: anything but a team that shows great improvement from last year,
Speaker 1: and it might not as not necessarily be a playoff
Speaker 1: or non playoff team. But every year we know that
Speaker 1: there are teams that go from the bottom to the top,
Speaker 1: and there are teams they're so puch parody. We're into
Speaker 1: a little draft. You're gonna go first, give me your
Speaker 1: first breakout team out of all the thirty two that
Speaker 1: you think is going to make the leap this year.
Speaker 3: I think a team that comes to mind right off
Speaker 3: the bat that I think was was worse. Their record
Speaker 3: was worse than maybe how they were, so they probably
Speaker 3: have the most built in equity as far as the
Speaker 3: upside would be a team like New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Okay, go on.
Speaker 3: I think the Saints obviously adding Derek Carr makes a
Speaker 3: big difference, but I think they were better than the
Speaker 3: record was last year. Their offense was horrible, but I
Speaker 3: you know Michael Thomas, the injuries to him, if he's
Speaker 3: back anything, like you know you mentioned. We were with
Speaker 3: them two weeks ago for the preseason game, and they're
Speaker 3: raving about what he looks like. So let's hope that's
Speaker 3: true and that's the case they get him back. I
Speaker 3: know Kamara is going to miss a couple of games.
Speaker 3: They say he looks good, he'll be back. They should be,
Speaker 3: even if they're just marginally improved on offense. Their defense
Speaker 3: last year down the stretch, the last ten twelve games,
Speaker 3: I remember, it was one of the best defenses in
Speaker 3: the league. They were giving up sixteen points a game
Speaker 3: and losing. So, like, I think between just coming resorting
Speaker 3: back to the mean of just media, even if they're
Speaker 3: just okay on offense, that's an improvement if the defense
Speaker 3: just holds, serve and stays top ten, not asking them
Speaker 3: to make a huge leap, just be what they have been.
Speaker 3: And then in fact they're in the division is going
Speaker 3: through a little bit of a rebuild. There's new quarterbacks everywhere.
Speaker 3: Carolina's got a rookie, you know, Atlanta still figuring out
Speaker 3: what they want to do, Desmond ridd or whatnot. And
Speaker 3: then Tampa obviously with Baker, you know, replaced Brady. Their
Speaker 3: schedule is very easy. I don't think they play it.
Speaker 3: I think they play like one playoff team. In the
Speaker 3: first you seven eight games. Like, I just think all
Speaker 3: the ingredients are there that they could be a team
Speaker 3: that we'd looked that says oh Man. Not only did
Speaker 3: they win the South, but you know they're the three
Speaker 3: seed or they're the four. I don't think that would
Speaker 3: be completely out of the picture.
Speaker 1: Okay, Saints are off the board. I love that pick.
Speaker 1: I picked them to win the division today on Good
Speaker 1: Morning Football. I think that their defense is very good,
Speaker 1: and they have an upgraded quarterback. They should be able
Speaker 1: to handle that. I'm going to go with a team
Speaker 1: that's gotten so much hype and so much buzz, and
Speaker 1: I've I don't know if it's just considered in my backyard.
Speaker 1: And then I but I think the Jets are gonna
Speaker 1: be really good this year. Like I look at their
Speaker 1: defense last year, they're the number four defense in the league.
Speaker 1: They added talent on defense, they got a first round
Speaker 1: pick in McDonald. I love Tony Adams, their undrafted safety
Speaker 1: who's been having an outstanding training camp. And then you
Speaker 1: add Aaron Freakin Rodgers. Like, I'm a believer and I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people are waiting to pop a
Speaker 1: pin into this balloon and just see it go whoo
Speaker 1: and come down. I don't know, and I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: shocked if we wake up Tuesday morning and they put
Speaker 1: a licking on the Buffalo Bills. Am I crazy and
Speaker 1: saying that I'm in on the Jets? Man?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hard not to write. I think the Jets
Speaker 3: are the no brainer. I think the I think all
Speaker 3: your points are so spun on. I think the lazy
Speaker 3: national thing is, oh, do you get Rogers, You're automatically good.
Speaker 3: I don't think people realized how good they were last year.
Speaker 3: They went through some injuries, they lost Breeze Hall, the
Speaker 3: running back. I mean, we called that game when no
Speaker 3: one gave them a shot, and albeit the Packers weren't
Speaker 3: maybe the Packers, but they went into Lambo, and w
Speaker 3: went into Lambo and didn't just beat them, they beat
Speaker 3: them soundly. We walked out of We walked out of
Speaker 3: Lambo that day and we were like, I don't know
Speaker 3: what the Jets are going to accomplish this year. But
Speaker 3: they're young, they're athletic, they're they're aggressive, they're talented, and
Speaker 3: they're pretty damn and Robert sala is a damn good coach.
Speaker 3: So I think I'm with you. I think you know,
Speaker 3: the addition to Rodgers is the obvious choice, but I
Speaker 3: think aside from him, it's a good team. Aside from Rogers.
Speaker 1: I've got the Jets winning that the all right, Greg,
Speaker 1: your second team, what do you got?
Speaker 3: So I'm glad you gave me the caveat of like
Speaker 3: it could still be a playoff team because I think
Speaker 3: a playoff team that if the average fan, Like, I
Speaker 3: don't even know if people realized. Last year Jacksonville got
Speaker 3: so hot at the end upset Dallas. We called that game.
Speaker 3: They went on a walk off pick six and over.
Speaker 3: I think it was overtime, Yeah, it was. Yea, it
Speaker 3: was overtime, walk off pick six and overtime. But like
Speaker 3: they were kind of under the radar the year before,
Speaker 3: they were a disaster. Doug Peterson comes in, people were
Speaker 3: expecting a little bit of improvement. Trevor Lawrence, you could say,
Speaker 3: has his breakout year, really kind of establishes himself with
Speaker 3: that AFC young group of quarterbacks, and then they go
Speaker 3: on to win a playoff game. I know they won
Speaker 3: a playoff game last year. I think this year again
Speaker 3: very similar to the Saints division record, good young quarterback stability.
Speaker 3: I don't think there was any I think we could
Speaker 3: look up in December when the playoff seedings are getting
Speaker 3: set and we could say, yeah, they win, they win
Speaker 3: their division, the division's kind of down, they win their division,
Speaker 3: and they could be fighting for a buye right, they
Speaker 3: could be.
Speaker 1: Absolutely they have the fifth easiest schedule in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I saw.
Speaker 3: So I think again that the prospects of your season
Speaker 3: is not always just okay, how good are you as
Speaker 3: a team. I think there's gonna be some really really
Speaker 3: good teams who go eight and nine, who go nine
Speaker 3: and eight just because.
Speaker 1: They play a brutal schedule.
Speaker 3: They're at a conference teams or brutal they they got
Speaker 3: to cross their division the ground. Maybe they won the
Speaker 3: division last year, so they play every division winner in conference. Like,
Speaker 3: there's so many factors to success year over year that
Speaker 3: you could not get any better and the next year
Speaker 3: be a three game be three games better win win
Speaker 3: loss record, just because your scheduled, just because your division sucked,
Speaker 3: just because a couple of things went your way. There's
Speaker 3: so I think, and you don't apologize. I think that's
Speaker 3: the nature of the NFL. So I think Jacksonville has
Speaker 3: a shot as crazy as it sounds. The other guys
Speaker 3: all beat up on each other, and they're sitting there
Speaker 3: at the end of the year fighting for a top
Speaker 3: spot in playoffs.
Speaker 1: My number two team of the Detroit Lions. I'm a believer. Again,
Speaker 1: Maybe I do this show too often on the mornings
Speaker 1: that we did it since May and June and July
Speaker 1: that eventually you're just like, all right, we've been hyping
Speaker 1: this team so much that I can't go against it.
Speaker 1: I think their offensive coordinator is really good, this Ben Johnson.
Speaker 1: Did you guys call any Lions games last year to
Speaker 1: get a chance to.
Speaker 3: We called Lions when they beat the Packers in Detroit?
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, because there was Big eighteen that was on
Speaker 1: Sunday night. So yeah, yeah. This kid is thirty seven
Speaker 1: years old, not a household name, but I could tell
Speaker 1: you he took his name out of the head coaching carousel,
Speaker 1: and so I'm coming back to Detroit early on in
Speaker 1: the process. I think he would have been a head
Speaker 1: coach at one of these teams that hired new head coaches.
Speaker 1: He was that hot a name. I think Week eighteen
Speaker 1: was like his coup de gras with Colin Hook and
Speaker 1: ladders and crazy stuff in the fourth quarter. I think
Speaker 1: he's awesome, and I think their defense has gotten a
Speaker 1: lot better with Campbell and Branch And they go in
Speaker 1: and signed Chauncey Ardner Johnson like, I've got the Lions
Speaker 1: winning the NFC North. I think they're going to be
Speaker 1: hosting a playoff game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. I think you're spot on. I'm excited.
Speaker 3: I mean two days from, you know, two days from
Speaker 3: as we sit here recording this pod, the whole world
Speaker 3: is going to see and they have and Dan Campbell
Speaker 3: has not shied away from it. He's like, give us
Speaker 3: the spotlight. He's like, for the first time, and I
Speaker 3: thought I thought I heard I forget where I heard
Speaker 3: him say it, but I thought it was so cool.
Speaker 3: He's like people were asking him, is it is it
Speaker 3: hard to have expectations? Is it hard to shoulder like
Speaker 3: for the first time in a long time, And he's like,
Speaker 3: hell no, He's like, you know how hard I've worked
Speaker 3: for us to have expectations. Like when you go into
Speaker 3: a season with no expectations, that means you've been a failure.
Speaker 3: He's like, we're not only accepting it, He's like, we're
Speaker 3: leaning into it. We we are so thrilled that finally
Speaker 3: people expect us to do something. Why would we shy
Speaker 3: away and under and downplay it. He's like, so, I
Speaker 3: mean they got their shot. They got the World champce
Speaker 3: Thursdays night off the season, and they got their shot.
Speaker 1: All right, your third team, you've already done the Saints
Speaker 1: and the Jaguars. Do you think it's going to take
Speaker 1: a leap in twenty twenty three?
Speaker 3: You know, again, another playoff team, but maybe a team
Speaker 3: that no one last year, even though they were a
Speaker 3: playoff team, very similar to the Giants, right, Like, I
Speaker 3: think when the Giants made the playoffs last year, people
Speaker 3: were like, great story, Brian Dable, great job first year.
Speaker 3: You know, Daniel Jones had a great season, ended up
Speaker 3: getting a contract off of it. But I don't know
Speaker 3: if anyone was like, man, they're going to make a
Speaker 3: deep run. I don't know if they were at that point.
Speaker 3: I think Seattle was kind of in the same boat
Speaker 3: last year.
Speaker 1: I'm in on the Seahawks too, talk about it.
Speaker 3: So even though they did squeak in and they made
Speaker 3: the playoffs and whatnot, I don't know if anyone ever
Speaker 3: considered first year with Gino. How they're going to replace.
Speaker 3: I think they have gotten young. I think they've gotten talented.
Speaker 3: I think they've hit on a lot of these draft picks.
Speaker 3: I think I know it's m Smith and Jigba is
Speaker 3: gonna be He's gonna miss some time with that. What
Speaker 3: did he hurt? He hurt something? Yeah, Anyway, I think
Speaker 3: they hit on the running back. I think they're young.
Speaker 3: I think they're talented. I think Gino has far exceeded
Speaker 3: everyone's expectations, at least nationally. I think internally there they
Speaker 3: always thought he was pretty good. I think they got
Speaker 3: a shot again. It's gonna be them in the forty
Speaker 3: nine ers. We'll see what happens with the Rams. Can
Speaker 3: they get back a little bit from last year's down year?
Speaker 3: And I think Arizona has a has a long uphill
Speaker 3: battle right now to be relevant again. So I think
Speaker 3: schedule wise, they're okay in the division. And I think
Speaker 3: when we I think they're a team that has a
Speaker 3: chance to make some noise.
Speaker 1: My last team that I think is gonna make a leap,
Speaker 1: and it's on just Bravado and Gusto and leadership alone.
Speaker 1: I'm going to Broncos. I know they play a brutal schedule.
Speaker 1: I know the AFC West is not getting any easier,
Speaker 1: but like I'm a Hackett guy. As far as ex's
Speaker 1: and osgo, clearly it didn't work. And now you put
Speaker 1: Sean Payton, which is such a cult personality, and again
Speaker 1: I'm biased. I watched the man for a year as
Speaker 1: my colleague on a show, and I saw how he operates.
Speaker 1: He's a genius, beautiful mind and when it comes to football,
Speaker 1: and he's one of these guys that doesn't stop. He's
Speaker 1: also a late guy. He's not into the office at
Speaker 1: six am. He's in the office till two am, and
Speaker 1: that's where his mind is festering and he's coming up
Speaker 1: with creative ideas. I just think, on Sean Payton alone,
Speaker 1: this Broncos team is not going to be any worse.
Speaker 1: They're going to be at least two to three games better,
Speaker 1: and I think they might be fighting for a playoff spot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree. I think we saw the worst of
Speaker 3: Russ last year. I think he has too much pride
Speaker 3: to allow it to happen again. I think that team
Speaker 3: again was better than their record, and they had a
Speaker 3: you know, between injuries and poor play and dysfunction, whatever
Speaker 3: you want to call it. I think again, like certain teams,
Speaker 3: there's like an equity built in that last year, if
Speaker 3: like a couple of things, there are a two or
Speaker 3: three win better team than they were the year before.
Speaker 3: So like you almost carry that over with you and
Speaker 3: you know, and then it also works on the other way, right,
Speaker 3: Like I think a lot of people are saying, Minnesota,
Speaker 3: you go eleven and zero in one score games. How
Speaker 3: realistic is that? Although I thought Kevin O'Connell did a
Speaker 3: great job. You know, we called their playoff game against
Speaker 3: the Giants. They were a great story. But equity could
Speaker 3: work both ways, right. I think some teams have upside
Speaker 3: equity built in, and I think some people have a
Speaker 3: little built in depreciation that can we expect every bounce
Speaker 3: to go your way again? I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think that's what makes every year so exciting.
Speaker 1: So excited to see you on Sunday again. I will reiterate,
Speaker 1: this is a great idea that we have come up with.
Speaker 1: This is Anthony Bourdaine meets John Madden meets Guy Fieri
Speaker 1: meets Gordon Ramsey. It is going to be I think
Speaker 1: we pitch it to like Bill Richards and Joel Santos
Speaker 1: and skip their amazing like cinematographer, and we say just
Speaker 1: pick a random crew and you follow them and you
Speaker 1: just eavesdrop on their dinner and we throw that up
Speaker 1: on two b or FS one or Fox Sports dot com. Greg,
Speaker 1: are you in it? Executive produce this thing?
Speaker 3: Make it work? Executive producer, Peter Schreger.
Speaker 1: That's it. I'll take it at that. To list the jobs, yes,
Speaker 1: we will take it. Greg. Good luck on Sunday. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Really quick before we leave, can you
Speaker 1: talk about the amazing work you guys are doing in
Speaker 1: Charlotte and how the foundation's going and all the latest there.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. It's going great. We you know, we
Speaker 3: are very passionate. Actually just spoke at the World the
Speaker 3: Congress of Pediatric Cardiology, which is like a world summit.
Speaker 3: It was in Washington, d C. Last week, so I
Speaker 3: was actually out there. So it's something that we live with,
Speaker 3: something that we live and breathe and with our son
Speaker 3: TJ and what he's been through. But we take a
Speaker 3: lot of pride in our foundation. It's called the Hardy Shard.
Speaker 3: We we launched a pretty extensive program here in Charlotte,
Speaker 3: both in patient outpatient, new new heart center that we
Speaker 3: were able to help build and whatnot. So we actually
Speaker 3: just branched to our second location down in Charleston at
Speaker 3: MUSC Children's Hospice, so were able to expand to a
Speaker 3: second so we get a little more regional kind of footprints.
Speaker 3: So it's something that we love. It's something that we're
Speaker 3: very passionate about. And you know, our goal is to
Speaker 3: try to make the path of a lot of people
Speaker 3: that find themselves where we were ten years ago, have
Speaker 3: a little bit of an easier path than our son did.
Speaker 3: And if we do that, did mission accomplished. But it's
Speaker 3: something that we love doing and we take a lot
Speaker 3: of pride and I appreciate you let me talk about it.
Speaker 1: What a blessing, dude. Thank you, Good luck on Sunday.
Speaker 1: I'll be rooting you on all season. And of course
Speaker 1: the listeners here have gotten to know a different side
Speaker 1: of you that I think they'll enjoy, and you and
Speaker 1: Kevin are going to kick ass and send the best
Speaker 1: to Bruce and Zions and Aaron and Tom of course.
Speaker 3: Hi Will buddy, it's always good chat with you man.
Speaker 4: Thanks that was awesome.
Speaker 1: Greg Olsen the week of NFL kickoff, and he's probably
Speaker 1: got so many things on his plate, gave us an hour.
Speaker 1: We so appreciate it. Again, Greg and Kevin Burkhart two
Speaker 1: the best guys you'll ever meet. I say that about
Speaker 1: all my guests, I really mean it this time. I
Speaker 1: usually am saying that with just my hopes of them
Speaker 1: coming back on the pod in the future. This week,
Speaker 1: for the monologue, we just kicked it off, but for
Speaker 1: the post interview, I really wanted to give a quick
Speaker 1: little essay of sorts and bring in a different guest
Speaker 1: on the microphone. You guys have heard me reference the
Speaker 1: name Jason English. He works for iHeartMedia and he helped
Speaker 1: put together this podcast and has been such an important
Speaker 1: piece of the success of the season with Peter Scheger.
Speaker 1: But he's also become a friend. And you know, I
Speaker 1: was really shookn up, and I was a little surprised
Speaker 1: by how shaken up I was by the passing of
Speaker 1: Jimmy Buffett this weekend. And I am not a parrothead.
Speaker 1: I did not go to the shows. I you know,
Speaker 1: don't live and breathe all the lyrics. But I love
Speaker 1: what Jimmy Buffett stood for Jimmy Buffett, obviously the musician.
Speaker 1: It was a diehard NFL fan as well, And as
Speaker 1: the story goes, he was performing as a native of Mississippi.
Speaker 1: He was performing in New Orleans in the late sixties,
Speaker 1: and it was the same time the Saints were starting
Speaker 1: off as an expansion NFL team, and it was as
Speaker 1: casual as he was a performer in the local bars
Speaker 1: in the French Quarter and the players would come in
Speaker 1: to drink and have dinners, and he drew up friendships
Speaker 1: with these guys, and sure enough, the first ever Saints
Speaker 1: game in nineteen sixty seven at tu Lane Stadium, Jimmy
Speaker 1: Buffett was there. He was there, and he's been a
Speaker 1: ever since. And he passed away on late Friday night
Speaker 1: of cancer that he was battling and had not announced publicly,
Speaker 1: but close friends apparently knew. And I was really shaken
Speaker 1: up by it because here's just always been a fixture
Speaker 1: in my life, and Jimmy Buffett brings positivity and brings joy.
Speaker 1: And you know, you sit out at the pool, you
Speaker 1: could put on a few different sets of playlists, and
Speaker 1: I think the Jimmy Buffett playlist is one of those
Speaker 1: that's probably played at fifty percent of every pool's backyards
Speaker 1: and barbecues that you can find in summer. And I
Speaker 1: thought it was almost fitting that Jimmy Buffett waited till
Speaker 1: after the summer to finally say farewell. It was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna get you all one last summer
Speaker 1: and then on Labor Day weekend, that's where we're going
Speaker 1: to ride off into the sky. I spoke to Sean
Speaker 1: Payton this weekend because he and Buffett had a really
Speaker 1: close relationship and we were exchanging texts about it. Peyton
Speaker 1: had shot had Jimmy Buffett in the locker room after
Speaker 1: they won the NFC Championship. Came over the Vikings and
Speaker 1: Brett Farv in two thousand and nine, one of the
Speaker 1: most epic NFC Championship games ever, and there was Jimmy
Speaker 1: Buffett amongst all the players, celebrating as if he was
Speaker 1: part of the team, and Peyton said there was no
Speaker 1: way he wasn't having Jimmy in there. And Buffett's story,
Speaker 1: as the legend goes, is that he got there the
Speaker 1: day before from a private flight from Bora Bora. But
Speaker 1: on the way from that private flight, they had to
Speaker 1: stop because the tire blew out on that private plane.
Speaker 1: And if that's not the most Jimmy Buffett story ever,
Speaker 1: I don't know what is. Ten years later, the Saints
Speaker 1: go back to the NFC Championship game. They're hosting the
Speaker 1: La Rams and Sean Payton flew in you know who,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Buffett to sing the national anthem. Over the last
Speaker 1: several days, we have seen tweets from JJ Watt, who
Speaker 1: apparently has seen Buffett multiple times in concert, and it's
Speaker 1: one of them. Greg Bentzel, who is the pr chief
Speaker 1: for a long time for the Saints, had a really
Speaker 1: strong connection with him and then one that blew me away.
Speaker 1: And if he wasn't calling the game on Thursday night,
Speaker 1: I think I was going to bring him on and
Speaker 1: just talk about his connection to Jimmy Buffet. Chris Collinsworth
Speaker 1: had a flurry of tweets and as a University of
Speaker 1: Florida graduate, I think he Andmmy Buffett had a forty
Speaker 1: or fifty year friendship where you know, he had multiple
Speaker 1: multiple tweets morning the passing of Jimmy Buffett. I mentioned
Speaker 1: the philosophy and the approach to life like don't get
Speaker 1: it straight, don't get it twisted. Jimmy Buffett was a businessman.
Speaker 1: This guy's a billionaire, and no one branded himself better
Speaker 1: than Jimmy Buffett in this laid back, cool Caribbean vibe
Speaker 1: with Margarita Phlle. But that Key West thing, I think
Speaker 1: he lived and breathed that he had multiple homes. He
Speaker 1: was living out in California for a long time. Obviously
Speaker 1: has the New Orleans, He's got the Key West. He
Speaker 1: had a place in North Haven, New York, which is
Speaker 1: on the eastern tip of Long Island, where he would
Speaker 1: spend his summers and spent COVID And I think the
Speaker 1: message that you get from Jimmy Buffett is like, enjoy
Speaker 1: every single day, and yes there's work to be done,
Speaker 1: but when you're not working, enjoy it, relish in it,
Speaker 1: relish it and really savor it. And gosh, as we
Speaker 1: start the NFL season and what we have going, I
Speaker 1: just thought it'd be cool to bring Jimmy Buffett up
Speaker 1: and kind of give him a little bit of an
Speaker 1: obituary on the season with Peter Schrager. And as we're
Speaker 1: talking about it, Jason English is here, and Jason's been
Speaker 1: a great friend for the last year, and you mentioned
Speaker 1: Jason that you yourself were like prey taking aback and
Speaker 1: obviously had a connection to Buffett as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there are some of these celebrity deaths that just
Speaker 5: hit a little different. I'd say Tim Russert was one
Speaker 5: many years ago. Anthony Bourdain, who you mentioned earlier, Jimmy
Speaker 5: Buffett was the same. It just feels like the world's
Speaker 5: a little a little less fun without him in it.
Speaker 5: My parents were big Jimmy Buffett fans. We'd go down
Speaker 5: to Sarasota, Florida. We wouldn't listen to Jimmy Buffett at
Speaker 5: any other time of the year, but during those trips
Speaker 5: we'd have the Floridays. These were with These were tapes
Speaker 5: when I when I was a kid, Floridays off to
Speaker 5: see the Lizard. We of course had the greatest hits, the.
Speaker 1: Songs that you know by heart.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, the Yellow Yellow Album. I got to see
Speaker 5: Jimmy Buffett a couple times. I'm glad I ticked that off.
Speaker 5: When my father passed away. We actually used the Jimmy
Speaker 5: Buffett quote in the in the you know the little
Speaker 5: card with the obituary, a quote from he went to Paris,
Speaker 5: which was some of his magic, some of it tragic.
Speaker 1: But I had a.
Speaker 5: Good life all the way, which you know, Jimmy Buffett
Speaker 5: definitely lived a full life, great life. These tributes coming in.
Speaker 5: Paul McCartney. The Colin jo Just book has a Jimmy
Speaker 5: Buffett story in it, so you figure those will just
Speaker 5: keep pouring out. And Jimmy Buffett, the legend will never die,
Speaker 5: the music will never die, and memories I have of
Speaker 5: listening to him with my father certainly never die.
Speaker 1: Oh dude, that was beautiful. Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1: You mentioned, Paul McCartney. I thought Cheryl Crow had a
Speaker 1: really amazing thing. And then on CBS Sunday morning, one
Speaker 1: of the commentators was close with him, and you know,
Speaker 1: he was telling a story about Buffett's last days and
Speaker 1: those who knew him knew he's going through. But the
Speaker 1: name of his most recent single, I believe, is something
Speaker 1: about taking a gummy right. Did you read this from McCartney.
Speaker 1: And the story goes is that he was having a
Speaker 1: small private dinner in the Hamptons and invited was Paul
Speaker 1: and Linda McCartney and they're there and she trips and
Speaker 1: like stumbles and she says, oh, I think the Gummy's
Speaker 1: kicking in. And he says, that's the name of a song.
Speaker 1: And Paul mccartny's on the other side of the table
Speaker 1: saying what, Like, what do you mean that's the name
Speaker 1: of a song. He's like, that's the name of a song.
Speaker 1: So before he passed, Jimmy Buffett, I believe, wrote and
Speaker 1: performed a song saying that's the gummy kicking in, and
Speaker 1: you know that's that says a lot about where his
Speaker 1: inspiration for lyrics comes. But all the readings that I've
Speaker 1: done and all the stuff that I've done this deep time,
Speaker 1: and I better believe. On Sunday I was blasting, you know,
Speaker 1: everything from Finn's It's the Cheeseburger in Paradise to Monday
Speaker 1: Morning Again. My father was more, you know, Steely Dan
Speaker 1: in the House and the Doobie Brothers and Spencer Davis
Speaker 1: Group and some of that classic rock and not so
Speaker 1: much the Margaritaville and the Jimmy Buffett style. But I
Speaker 1: have grown to appreciate the Buffet approach to life and
Speaker 1: hopefully hopefully can keep that going where when you're off
Speaker 1: the clock, it's okay to be off the clock. You
Speaker 1: don't have to live online. You can just have fun
Speaker 1: and enjoy. And I think that's a beautiful message at
Speaker 1: you said your father brought that to you and that
Speaker 1: you gave that quote at his funeral. That's beautiful.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me on it. Du A ten
Speaker 5: second shout out to the Duke football team. We have
Speaker 5: my Riley Leonard Heisman trophy stock looking good after night.
Speaker 1: Off off camera. You and I are off Mike. You
Speaker 1: and I have talked about Riley Leonard way too much.
Speaker 1: What is your connection to Riley Leonard the Duke quarterback?
Speaker 5: I get the Phil Steele season preview every July, and
Speaker 5: I'm as a Duke fans often not don't ever see Duke.
Speaker 1: You see coach k and you see Carlos Boozer and
Speaker 1: Trech and Langdon. You don't see these guys.
Speaker 5: And I'm looking at the quarterback projections and it's Caleb Williams,
Speaker 5: it's the Drake may from unc NNIX in Washington, but
Speaker 5: it's Riley Leonard number three.
Speaker 1: So I did not realize what we had going into
Speaker 1: this season.
Speaker 5: So I'm jumping on the bandwagon and uh, good good
Speaker 5: win last night.
Speaker 1: Great win. Against Clemson. Although I want to mention for
Speaker 1: our listeners Arizona thirty eight to three of the Northern
Speaker 1: Arizona and they are the official team of the season
Speaker 1: picture Matt Rule was also they lost, so they're done.
Speaker 1: It's like survival. Like Matt Rule, you can go kick
Speaker 1: Rocks at this point. I know you came on our show,
Speaker 1: but you can't lose to Minnesota in the first week
Speaker 1: after you come on the season. So Jed Fish and
Speaker 1: the Arizona Wildcats and you're Duke Blue Devils and Aaron,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what Aaron's what do you Carlton
Speaker 1: College in college? There we go the Knights no nights
Speaker 1: nights there as well. Okay, season starting here we go.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have one more podcast I think before they
Speaker 1: kick off. Might want to post this on Tuesday, and
Speaker 1: that one might go up Thursday with just my predictions.
Speaker 1: But I'm not even sure we want to cut this one.
Speaker 1: Sure we might want this one to live as the
Speaker 1: top of your feed for the entire weekend. It was
Speaker 1: that good. We'll figure it out on behalf of Jason, Aaron,
Speaker 1: all the folks in La Greg Olsen awesome as always,
Speaker 1: and put on some Jimmy Buffett folks. The summer's over,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't mean you can't keep listening to his message.
Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
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Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts.