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Speaker 1: This is the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson

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Speaker 1: on Home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Drive. I'm Dale Alli here with Matt Williamson.

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Speaker 1: It is a Friday, and Friday before the Steelers game

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Speaker 1: Sunday against the New York Football Jets at the Yesterday

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Speaker 1: Football Jets. Yeah, you know it's a whole yeah. Uh

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Speaker 1: that's an Accreasher stadium of course, and and uh it's

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Speaker 1: alumni weekend as well, so the Steelers will have an

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Speaker 1: event uh later tonight. You can actually stay tuned right

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Speaker 1: here on the very air waves to hear that. That

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Speaker 1: starts at five thirty with Craig Wolfley and myself. See

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Speaker 1: who we can down there, uh to to talk about

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Speaker 1: all the good stuff. Um, how does the alumni weekend work?

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Speaker 1: I mean, is there? I mean obviously they're former players

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Speaker 1: involved then beat usually you guys and all that good

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Speaker 1: stuff too. Yeah, we'll get a bunch of different guys

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Speaker 1: sit down reminisce a little bit. I think that this

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Speaker 1: year is the nineties. Um, so wolf will have some

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Speaker 1: recollection of many of these guys. I'll just hand it

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Speaker 1: off to him and just stand back and yeah, I

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Speaker 1: would say I'd play point guard if I were you.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be dishing tonight,

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Speaker 1: dropping dimes all over the place. But speaking of of that, Um,

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Speaker 1: Josh Wilson uh not on the injury list now and

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Speaker 1: Robert Solid coming out today. What we talked about yesterday

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Speaker 1: where well Zach Wilson um declared that he's gonna go,

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Speaker 1: He's gonna be the starter and all that good stuff,

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Speaker 1: and um, you threw it out there yesterday and it's

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Speaker 1: been kicking around my cranium since. I mean, could they

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Speaker 1: have a Flacco package? Could there be a combination of

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Speaker 1: the two. I don't think Wilson will have a short

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Speaker 1: leash in terms of you know, getting pulled and you're

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Speaker 1: on the bench. Yah. Um. I tend to think the

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Speaker 1: more I think about it, and especially with this news,

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Speaker 1: I bet you're gonna get Wilson probably start to finish.

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Speaker 1: That's the way it seems. Um, you know the starter,

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Speaker 1: treat him like a starter, you know, Yeah, and they're

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Speaker 1: they're kind of married to the guy. So it is

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Speaker 1: what it is. Unless you know, something happens, Um, that

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Speaker 1: really on to me. Priority one for that franchise is Yes,

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Speaker 1: of course you want to win, but you need to

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Speaker 1: know who he is over these next three months or whatever. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and that needs to come to, you know, the surface

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Speaker 1: for them. So we did this last week. Let's let's

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Speaker 1: do this again. If the Steelers win on Monday, what

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Speaker 1: are we talking about? That they did well and what

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Speaker 1: what led to that victory. What I'm hoping for is

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Speaker 1: the offensive line holds its own against a pretty good front.

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Speaker 1: Robinsky makes good decisions, you know, distributes the ball well,

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Speaker 1: but maybe even more than that, I want to see

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Speaker 1: sustained offense. I mean, that's not the only way they

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Speaker 1: can win this game. That's what I'm hoping for is

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Speaker 1: time possession can be a little misleading with turnovers and

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Speaker 1: quick scores and things like that, but it's obviously a

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Speaker 1: good barometer. Um, I'd like to see the complementary football.

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Speaker 1: That's the word you said last week, and I think

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Speaker 1: that is ideal and the only thing. The only thing

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Speaker 1: changes that because the Jets actually don't have a bad

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Speaker 1: time of possession this year, and for a team that

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Speaker 1: that's only held a lead for passing because they give

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Speaker 1: up big plays, that's right, scores, you know, So if

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Speaker 1: the Steelers have the ball twenty four minutes in this game,

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Speaker 1: but score thirty one points. I'm not gonna kill him

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Speaker 1: because of that. You know, Dante wouldn't have had that

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Speaker 1: sixty five yard touchdown, you know, like, yeah, that's a

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Speaker 1: good point because their secondary is vulnerable. Uh, some coverage

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Speaker 1: errors as well. Any scores are fine. Yeah, so that's why.

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Speaker 1: So if it's quick scores and the and the Jets

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Speaker 1: are you know, they're running these four team played field

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Speaker 1: goal drives five yards at a time. That's I'm not

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Speaker 1: going to kill the defense for that. I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: you know, they're they're yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good

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Speaker 1: because anybody can possess the football. Doing that doesn't necessarily

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Speaker 1: lead to scoring right right now. That that's a great point.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it would all be circumstantial, but I mean,

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Speaker 1: in general, I wouldn't I want to sus sustained offense.

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Speaker 1: And if that means big plays, fine, um, But if

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Speaker 1: it's boy can't get a first down they hit three

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Speaker 1: big plays that I don't think that's what we're happy.

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Speaker 1: But I mean I kind of danced around your question

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Speaker 1: because I think there's a lot of avenues that could

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Speaker 1: lead to a win. And some of them might aren't

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Speaker 1: even that ugly. I mean, some of them are kind

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Speaker 1: of ugly, you know. I mean, a couple of big

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Speaker 1: plays by the defense or special teams could be enough

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Speaker 1: to beat this team. It could be. And I think, um,

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Speaker 1: what I want to see. I want to see the Steelers,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think they jump out to a big lead,

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Speaker 1: or jump out to a lead. I guess the team

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Speaker 1: that you know, as much as everybody talks about the

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Speaker 1: Steelers struggling to score in the first quarter of the

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Speaker 1: last two seasons, the Jets were worse. Yeah, um, yeah, right,

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Speaker 1: So if you play like you did last week against

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Speaker 1: Cleveland in the first half and then sustain that, you know,

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Speaker 1: put sixty minutes together. So if you go out there

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Speaker 1: in your lead, you know, you you put four teen

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Speaker 1: points on the board in the first half. Chances are

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Speaker 1: the way that things have gone for the New York

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Speaker 1: Jets over the last year and a half, they're not

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Speaker 1: gonna it'll be fourteen to three or something like that.

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Speaker 1: And then just sustain that, you know, and then I'd

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Speaker 1: like to see if that does happen. How it matters,

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Speaker 1: no matter how it does. And then a consistent running

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Speaker 1: game to put or you know, if New York does

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Speaker 1: put together a score, and that's what they've done this

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Speaker 1: year's Uh, they've fallen behind and then and then kind

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Speaker 1: of chipped away to get back into it um at

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Speaker 1: least in one of their games. Uh. But if they

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Speaker 1: do that, can the offense and answer a score with

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Speaker 1: the score. That's that's again what I'm talking about, the

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Speaker 1: complementary stuff. Okay, the defense is not You're not gonna

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Speaker 1: shut anybody, but when the when the you know, when

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Speaker 1: the the offense is going going three and out or

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Speaker 1: something like that, the defense has gotta force one of

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Speaker 1: those themselves were a quick punt. Conversely, when the defense

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Speaker 1: does give up a drive, the offense has to answer it. Oh,

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Speaker 1: no doubt. I mean because in this league, and this

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Speaker 1: is gonna be very true in the coming weeks, you know,

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Speaker 1: is they're gonna the defense is gonna give up quick

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Speaker 1: scores people. I mean, Josh Allen is gonna make a

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Speaker 1: miraculous play and be superman out there that no defense

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Speaker 1: can defend. And you have to have the ability to CounterPunch.

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Speaker 1: And then you're playing Tom Brady in the in the

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Speaker 1: in the short and then you're playing. You know, just

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Speaker 1: the emails are very explosive, and you know you're gonna

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Speaker 1: give up explosive game changing plays. Can you withstand it

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Speaker 1: and answer it? You know, we'll see if that's in

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Speaker 1: the cards. Um mentioned it earlier, earlier in the week.

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Speaker 1: If this was a Jets show, I think we'd be

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Speaker 1: talking a lot more of Boy, we drafted this running

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Speaker 1: back high. Not sure what we're getting out of a

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Speaker 1: young quarterback. Running the ball is gonna be more important

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Speaker 1: than it has been. And of course you see the

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Speaker 1: production the Steelers gave up in the last five quarters. However,

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Speaker 1: I respect for Breefe Hall, and I like their guards

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Speaker 1: and all that. If the Jets run the ball successfully,

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Speaker 1: I will probably start to be pretty critical of this

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Speaker 1: run defense. Yeah, I don't know that that's going to happen.

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Speaker 1: And everybody's looking at those last five quarters. Well, first

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Speaker 1: of all, four of those came against maybe the best

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Speaker 1: running team in the league, I think the number one. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And actually the first half in that game wasn't that bad. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, the fourth quarter against the Patriots was bad

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Speaker 1: because they were able to sustain some things. Um, But

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Speaker 1: if if you look at the first three quarters. Again,

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Speaker 1: they had sixty yards rushing through three quarters. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean you'll take that. What's funny is we just mentioned

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Speaker 1: you said it better than me. I mean I said

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Speaker 1: the last five quarters of run defense, Well it's really

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Speaker 1: three of five. And if you if we talk about

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Speaker 1: fifteen quarters of football, it's three fifty. Defense as a

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Speaker 1: whole has them about what they can't do. What what's

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Speaker 1: hurt the run defense, I think is some of the

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Speaker 1: chunk games that they've given up. I do think there's

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Speaker 1: a fatigue factor on Thursday, sloppy tackling and you know,

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Speaker 1: just beat up and on the field too much over

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Speaker 1: the course of three games on a short week. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I don't expect that to happen this week. Um. You

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Speaker 1: know there was an emphasis put on in tarall. Austin

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Speaker 1: talked about it on Thursday. Um, you know, telling guys, hey,

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Speaker 1: when you when you tackle somebody, we gotta wrap them up.

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Speaker 1: You can't just shoulder tackle, you can't reach those kind

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Speaker 1: of things and everybody gets the ball. Just fundamental stuff

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Speaker 1: that you know, again, when when fatigue sets in, the

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Speaker 1: fundamentals do tend to go out the window a little bit.

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Speaker 1: I thought that happened in Cleveland. Yeah, and fatigues an

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Speaker 1: issue in every football game. I mean, playing sixty minutes

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Speaker 1: of NFL football is hard on human beings. You a

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Speaker 1: little nnoying it twice in four days exactly. But they

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Speaker 1: are the more rested team. I mean there's two starters

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Speaker 1: on defense out. I assume Witherspoon is not gonna play. Um,

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Speaker 1: but to me, that's not enough of use that you

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Speaker 1: should be very, very competitive or win the battle of

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Speaker 1: the Jets run game. Yeah. The other thing I want

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Speaker 1: to see is them get after Zack Wilson. Yeah, force

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Speaker 1: him into some mayors. Um. You know, I think they

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Speaker 1: can attack those tackles and have success doing so. Um.

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Speaker 1: I would, I would throw some exotics at the young quarterback,

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Speaker 1: some things that he hasn't seen before, because there's a lot, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, work some stuff in there that that you know,

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Speaker 1: you you you have in your back pocket. Because this

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Speaker 1: this really is a must you know, you hate to

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Speaker 1: say must win in September, and nobody in that locker room,

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Speaker 1: nobody in the coaching staff would say this is a

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Speaker 1: must win game. But it kind of is it kind

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Speaker 1: of is I mean kind of was for the Bengals

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Speaker 1: last night. I mean, one in three is real, tough.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure there's many success stories of teams

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Speaker 1: that started one in three in NFL history, but not many,

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Speaker 1: not many. It's rare. And you know, I mean the

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Speaker 1: teams on the horizon are very real, especially to me

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Speaker 1: the Eagles Bills that I mean, you're not gonna probably

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Speaker 1: get them on their worst day. I mean, that's unlikely

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Speaker 1: that the league can change. Who knows, um, but I'm

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Speaker 1: with you. I mean it must win is a strong

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Speaker 1: word for September because you still have thirteen left. That's why,

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Speaker 1: you know, when people talk about must wins in the NFL,

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Speaker 1: that's a college football thing because you have to win

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Speaker 1: every week to keep your spot in the rankings. Well,

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Speaker 1: there are no rankings in the NFL. So when you

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Speaker 1: have thirteen games left, they look at it as well,

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Speaker 1: we have thirteen left, we can win. If we don't

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Speaker 1: win all thirteen, does does this matter? You know? Fans

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Speaker 1: look at it as well. You know, the reality is

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Speaker 1: you're you know, you're not gonna be favored in any

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Speaker 1: of these next four games, and even at home again,

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Speaker 1: you're not gonna be favored at home against Tampa. No,

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Speaker 1: you probably won't be favored. Uh, you're not gonna be

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Speaker 1: favored against Buffalo or the Eagles. And you're not gonna

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Speaker 1: be favored in Miami. Very unlikely, unless I mean even

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Speaker 1: a Bridgewater starts. Right now, I still think that's you know,

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Speaker 1: probably the Fins are favored, but their season could change too.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not saying they were a fraud, but

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Speaker 1: I didn't think they were the best team in the

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Speaker 1: league before. No, no, no, no no, no, And yeah, let's

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Speaker 1: let's talk about the to a thing real quickly. We're

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Speaker 1: on the subject of the Dolphins. I see a lot

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Speaker 1: of stuff out there, um, people pointing fingers at the Dolphins,

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Speaker 1: and well they should not they shouldn't let him play, folks.

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Speaker 1: The way this works, when a guy is it has

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Speaker 1: a possible concussion, they bring it. There's an independent neurologist

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Speaker 1: at every game. Now he's hired by the NFL. But

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Speaker 1: he's not a Dolphins but he's not a Dolphins employee's

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Speaker 1: and he's not an employee or the other tee franchise.

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Speaker 1: He's an employee of the league itself. They bring these

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Speaker 1: guys in and their doctors. This is what they do.

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Speaker 1: And they're not going to send a player. They're not

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Speaker 1: going to give the stamp of approval to a player

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Speaker 1: who has a concussion. They're not gonna say, well he's yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's not concussion. You know, Mike McDaniels giving, you know,

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Speaker 1: talking to the guy, said hey, can't you just please

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Speaker 1: clean clear him here? Doesn't work that way. I mean,

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Speaker 1: is there a chance funny business has gone on in

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Speaker 1: the history of this process? Probably, but I doubt that.

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Speaker 1: Is there a chance the neurologists might have been wrong?

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Speaker 1: Maybe that's possible, right, Um, you know, we we saw

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Speaker 1: it this week with Makea Fitzpatrick for example, that you know,

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Speaker 1: he he developed concussion symptoms after a game that he

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Speaker 1: played the full thing that happens as well. Um, there's

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Speaker 1: so much about the brain that we don't know. But

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Speaker 1: to suggest more than we did ten years ago, more

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Speaker 1: ten years from now, you know what I mean? Right? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: to suggest that there was some kind of mouthfeasance here

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Speaker 1: and that the Dolphins put him on the field knowing

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Speaker 1: that he had a concussion on Sunday and well they

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Speaker 1: just ignored the doctors. It's not it's not what happened.

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Speaker 1: It can't happen. There's rule, there's checks and balances, Like

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Speaker 1: even if they wanted to, which I don't think they did,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's still an impossible thing to do. The

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Speaker 1: bottom line is to a tug Levoa would have suffered

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Speaker 1: a concussion on that play if he had never had

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Speaker 1: a concussion. That was a violent play where he was

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Speaker 1: slammed to the ground, owned and hit basically had not

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Speaker 1: head first, his shoulder hit first, but the head snapped

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Speaker 1: against the ground and that caused a concussion. Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: was it worse because of what happened to him Sunday?

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean I think nobody does. But

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Speaker 1: we have all these things. I want to be Internet

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Speaker 1: doctors out there. This is obvious. No, it's not. It's

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Speaker 1: not right. I mean, it's a bad optic. And I

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Speaker 1: feel for him, I mean obviously, and what happened to

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Speaker 1: his hands and things makes it ugly. That's always a

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Speaker 1: bad optic when something like that happens. I've seen that

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Speaker 1: happen before, so you know it's a bad optic. When

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Speaker 1: when Ryan Shazier suffers a severe spinal injury and that

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Speaker 1: same stadium, that's a bad optic for the league. But

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Speaker 1: this is a violent game played by big, fast individuals,

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Speaker 1: and guys are going to get injured at times and

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Speaker 1: they're going to suffer concussions. Um. But to suggest that

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Speaker 1: somehow the Dolphins uh you know, did something wrong here

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Speaker 1: when they followed the advice of the doctor Mike McDaniels

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Speaker 1: is not a doctor here, Pople say, McDaniels should have

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Speaker 1: you stepped in and held him out. If the doctors

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Speaker 1: are telling you the guy's cleared, you're gonna play him.

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Speaker 1: I know that makes me crazy. I've been criticized at times.

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Speaker 1: You know, I've been on doing media stuff now for

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Speaker 1: twenty years. Boy, you try to avoid injuries, like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I didn't go to law school. I mean it's I

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Speaker 1: know no more than anyone out there about injuries. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's why team doctors. It's frustrating for coaches at times.

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Speaker 1: I've been in those meetings the team doctor comes in

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Speaker 1: and says he can't play, or I don't think he's

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Speaker 1: gonna be ready. Man. You know they're like hearing it,

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Speaker 1: you know, behind the scenes, but nobody says play him anyways. Right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's the doctors have nowadays. Yeah, the doctors

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Speaker 1: that's why they have malpractice insurance. They don't do this

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Speaker 1: just they don't spin a wheel and say, oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's good, and wheel says magic. It's on a magic

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Speaker 1: eight ball where they shake and said, oh yeah, he's good.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they look at this. They they have baselines

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Speaker 1: that they test these guys on and when you know,

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Speaker 1: if he doesn't reach the threshold of the of the

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Speaker 1: baseline and he doesn't play, I mean there are rules

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Speaker 1: in place. This is a little different, but like there's

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Speaker 1: a reason every team sends their doctors to the combine.

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Speaker 1: They all look at the same knee and thirty of

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Speaker 1: them might say it's fine, and two might say it's not.

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Speaker 1: You know, and if your doctor is one of the

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Speaker 1: two that says it's not, you're probably gonna air on

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Speaker 1: that not drafting a guy. And I bring this up

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Speaker 1: because like a doctor telling a coach, a coach making

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Speaker 1: Fitzpatrick is in the concussion protocol. Now, he practiced in

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Speaker 1: full all this week, but that doesn't mean he's cleared

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Speaker 1: to play on Sunday. Yet. Something could pop up. He

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Speaker 1: could he could take the neurological test, and they usually

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Speaker 1: I think they do that Saturday. They had with the

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Speaker 1: independent neurologist, and if he doesn't pass that that test,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't matter that he practiced all week long. He's

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Speaker 1: not able to play. Did that happen to Antonio Brown

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Speaker 1: one point? There was something similar to that. I can

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Speaker 1: remember it happening at one Yeah, yeah, I remember it

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Speaker 1: happening one time. This is prior to the things that

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Speaker 1: are set in place now where Ben Roethlisberger practiced all

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Speaker 1: week long and then on Friday it was either Friday

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Speaker 1: or Saturday. Um, experience a setback and didn't play on

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Speaker 1: Sunday and hinds Ward it wasn't like the head and

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Speaker 1: practice right, yeah, just hines Ward was like, when he

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Speaker 1: practiced all week, he should play. Well, that's not the

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Speaker 1: way this works anymore. That's nice, Hins. And you may

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Speaker 1: seem fine sitting there talking to him or throwing your passes,

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Speaker 1: but there's tests in place that from people that know

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Speaker 1: more about this than you. And the Steelers have been

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Speaker 1: one of the teams that are to forefront of this

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Speaker 1: with Dr Maroon. Uh you know in the concussion you

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Speaker 1: know studies that he has done. I did a big

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Speaker 1: story on it last year. Um, you know the stuff

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Speaker 1: that they do with concussions is groundbreaking to the point

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Speaker 1: now where it's trickled down to to the high schools

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Speaker 1: are doing a lot of this stuff now, making this

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Speaker 1: the sport much safer than it than it is. It's

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Speaker 1: never gonna be a d percent safe. It's all a

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Speaker 1: safe act. When you step on a football field and

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Speaker 1: guys run at each other at full speed and hit

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Speaker 1: each other, stuff happens. Nascar is gonna have crashes three

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Speaker 1: years from now too. You know, you know, if you

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Speaker 1: want to you want to play. I I used to

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Speaker 1: tell when I coach basketball, Um, you know, I said, look,

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Speaker 1: if if you're playing basketball because you thought this was

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Speaker 1: a non contact sport, you're in the wrong. You're in

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Speaker 1: the wrong gym because that's not the way I play,

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Speaker 1: and that's not what I teach here. We're gonna we're

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Speaker 1: going to be contact and and that's that's inherent in

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Speaker 1: any sporting event that everyone knows there's a risk when

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Speaker 1: you walk in the field. I mean, I've seen kids

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Speaker 1: get concussions playing baseball. If you see a lot in soccer,

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Speaker 1: you know, you see it. Even you know tennis players

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Speaker 1: can suffer concussion, you know, depending on how you land

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Speaker 1: that sports has those that inherent danger with it. I mean,

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Speaker 1: even like when my son was super young, I helped

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Speaker 1: kind of build the Upper Saint Clair Flag Football League,

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Speaker 1: and that was one of the biggest concerns was this

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Speaker 1: is great for guys that don't want full contact football,

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Speaker 1: but no one's gonna helmet on and they can head.

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Speaker 1: They can run into each other. There's stuff happens and

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Speaker 1: you know, somebody's looking for the back, they're both looking

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Speaker 1: for the ball and they run into each other and

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Speaker 1: they bang heads like yeah, you know, right, can happen,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean, what I find interesting is that, well,

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Speaker 1: what I find annoying is everyone thinks that they're they

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Speaker 1: know more than the dolphins or the independent neurologists, which

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Speaker 1: is comical to me. And I don't know if this

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Speaker 1: has happened, it happened or not, but it sounds like

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Speaker 1: some of the reports are better than they looked on

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Speaker 1: to us so far. If it comes out he's playing

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Speaker 1: next week, it's not because the Dolphins are evil people.

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Speaker 1: It's because he passed tests. You know, whenever he gets

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Speaker 1: back on the field, it is because he's been clear.

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Speaker 1: Now would I be surprised if that happened based on

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Speaker 1: what I saw. Yeah, but I'm not a doctor. And then,

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Speaker 1: and I've been a big proponent to that, I very

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Speaker 1: much believe Thursday night football is more dangerous than other

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Speaker 1: other you know situations. Um that would have this been

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Speaker 1: the same on a Sunday probably, but you know, it

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Speaker 1: just reinforces to me that I think Thursday is a

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Speaker 1: little more dangerous than a normal game. But just the

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Speaker 1: act of of how he was tackled and how he

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Speaker 1: was slammed to the ground was gonna have an effect

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Speaker 1: on It's gonna I don't care who it was. When

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Speaker 1: on guy grabs you and whirlwinds you around and throws

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Speaker 1: you to it. It was almost the Terry Bradshaw Turkey

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Speaker 1: Jones hit, except Bradshaw landed on his head, you know,

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Speaker 1: to a landed on his shoulder, but his head's you know,

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Speaker 1: when when you drove somebody drives you into the ground

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Speaker 1: like that, you're probably gonna get hurt. Yeah, right, all right.

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Speaker 1: I mean it was a violent pile at that. Bodies

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Speaker 1: don't recouper it well from but um, enough of that.

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Speaker 1: It was an ugly situation obviously, and from national audience

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Speaker 1: and bad timing for the Dolphins for sure, because one

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Speaker 1: week later and you know they've been kind of in

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Speaker 1: the doghouse too for tampering and you know, little things

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Speaker 1: like that, Little things like that, losing their first round

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Speaker 1: pick and their owners suspended has been sweaching for them.

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Speaker 1: For the other owners, absolutely not. But we'll continue talking

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Speaker 1: about the Steelers and well the other games coming up

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Speaker 1: this week. Um when we come back. You can subscribe

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Speaker 1: to the Mike Tomlin Game Day podcast Dealers Digest editor

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Speaker 1: Bob Blabriol that talks with head coach Mike Tomlin about

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Speaker 1: at the upcoming game. New episodes drop every game day

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Speaker 1: that's available on the Steelers mobile app, the I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, and wherever you get your podcast. He is

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Speaker 1: Matt Williamson. I'm dale Ally we'll be back with more

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Speaker 1: in the Drive right after this