Speaker 1: Hey everybody, it's time for another edition of the Dave
Speaker 1: Pash Podcast. I'm your host Dave Pash, long time ESPN
Speaker 1: play by play announcer and voice of the Arizona Cardinals.
Speaker 1: We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting
Speaker 1: partner of the Arizona Cardinals and Hila River Hotels and Casinos.
Speaker 1: You can also follow us on Twitter at Pash pod Well.
Speaker 1: Today we get a national take on the Arizona Cardinals
Speaker 1: and the upcoming NFL season as we sit down with
Speaker 1: two members of the ESPN Monday Night Football crew. Longtime
Speaker 1: SportsCenter anchor and play by play announcer Steve Levy and
Speaker 1: also former NFL quarterback Brian Greasy, who won a National
Speaker 1: championship when he played at Michigan also spent more than
Speaker 1: a decade as a quarterback in the NFL, including winning
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl playing behind John Elway with the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 1: Stephen Brian are going to talk about what it's like
Speaker 1: to call Monday Night football games, also what it's like
Speaker 1: working with Lewis Riddick, the third member of their booth.
Speaker 1: They're going to discuss the games they're looking forward to
Speaker 1: most in twenty twenty one, they'll talk Arizona Cardinals and
Speaker 1: in particular their thoughts on Kyler Murray. So I worked
Speaker 1: for four years with Greasy calling college football games. I
Speaker 1: could not have been happier when he got the call
Speaker 1: the promotion to do Monday Night Football, which certainly is
Speaker 1: one of the premier jobs in all of sports broadcasting.
Speaker 1: He Steve and Lewis had a tremendous year one under
Speaker 1: very challenging circumstances in twenty twenty, and I looked very
Speaker 1: much forward to their telecasts here in year two. So,
Speaker 1: without further ado from ESPN's Monday Night Football, Steve Levy
Speaker 1: and Brian Greasy, well, fellas, I appreciate you guys doing this,
Speaker 1: first of all, and I'm not just saying this because
Speaker 1: you're sitting here, because I believe I told you both
Speaker 1: last year. You guys are awesome. I really enjoyed the
Speaker 1: broadcast last year. I thought you two guys, and Lewis
Speaker 1: and Lisa, considering especially everything going on in the world,
Speaker 1: I got to imagine been very difficult testing every single game,
Speaker 1: doing all the meetings via Zoom, which we were doing
Speaker 1: for other sports as well. What was the biggest challenge
Speaker 1: for you guys last year in year one, kind of
Speaker 1: dealing with all the COVID protocols, not just for you guys,
Speaker 1: but for the teams, the coaches and the players. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so there's, uh, it's complicated to unpack, right, there's so
Speaker 1: much and and and couple that with the fact of
Speaker 1: all the attention that had been on the Monday night
Speaker 1: football booth, right, so we're trying to get all the
Speaker 1: attention off the booth and get it onto the field
Speaker 1: and let's focus on the game. And you know, Greece
Speaker 1: and I had worked together doing the college games together
Speaker 1: for four years, so we had that rapport. But you know,
Speaker 1: Lewis and Lisa didn't really know how we were going
Speaker 1: to fit in with that. And we couldn't hang out.
Speaker 1: I mean, there was no time that we were allowed
Speaker 1: to hang out. People are shocked, like, whatever hotel is
Speaker 1: ten minutes away from the stadium, we have to travel
Speaker 1: hotel to stadium separately, which is really weird. Weren't allowed
Speaker 1: on the field. We did not have a single drink
Speaker 1: or meal together. The four on air and the producer
Speaker 1: director and knew as well. Really Lisa Salters was the
Speaker 1: only one who'd done it on a regular basis, So
Speaker 1: there were a lot of things. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of challenges. I was really fortunate that I wasn't starting
Speaker 1: from scratch with Bryan too, like, you know, that might
Speaker 1: have been too much, right, new producer, new director. Three
Speaker 1: in the booth, which can be tricky, has its own
Speaker 1: sort of issues. But in a year where you're not
Speaker 1: laying out for crowd noise, that was the season to
Speaker 1: have three voices. Hey guys, let's fill some clock here.
Speaker 1: You know, after there's a touchdown, we need some people
Speaker 1: to start talking because there's no crowd shots. And so
Speaker 1: those are a handful of things, and you know, we
Speaker 1: tried to make it as good as possible, and we
Speaker 1: knew we knew we were going to be judged by
Speaker 1: whatever was coming through the television screen and the speakers.
Speaker 1: People didn't care that we didn't hang out right. People
Speaker 1: didn't care we came separately. They just want to enjoy
Speaker 1: their Monday night football at home. And we were comfortable
Speaker 1: being judged by that. It was the season of no excuses.
Speaker 1: You know, there was a lot of reasons that we
Speaker 1: could have put not as good of a product onto
Speaker 1: the air, but none of us approached it with, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, we're going to use this as an excuse.
Speaker 1: We wanted to overcome what challenges there were and get
Speaker 1: better every week. To Steve's point, you know, we had
Speaker 1: to get to know each other a little bit. And
Speaker 1: how we operated on the Air's a lot of air
Speaker 1: traffic control with three people in the booth and Lisa
Speaker 1: on the field and John Perry as well working from home,
Speaker 1: which was a challenge every time there was an officiating
Speaker 1: question to bring John and from his basement of his house.
Speaker 1: So there was a lot going on. But I was
Speaker 1: really proud of the way that we came together and
Speaker 1: in the most important year to bring the game home
Speaker 1: to fans because they weren't in the stands to do
Speaker 1: it in a I was professional. And the other thing is,
Speaker 1: so this might be two inside, but we replaced people
Speaker 1: in the booth with monitors. Okay, because in an effort
Speaker 1: to keep your six feet distance, no spotter standing next
Speaker 1: to us, there was a monitor in the spot it
Speaker 1: was in another booth, no statistician. Instead of statistician, we
Speaker 1: had another monitor in front of us. And so in essence,
Speaker 1: you know, you got to see the manicure of whoever
Speaker 1: was pointing to a place on the booth with their
Speaker 1: own camera. So it was a bizarre but we didn't
Speaker 1: know what to go off, right. It was our first
Speaker 1: year doing Monday night football together when I was still,
Speaker 1: you know, ready to jump out into space. I was
Speaker 1: so excited about it. I would have done it into
Speaker 1: a tape recorder myself. Well, I've always felt when people
Speaker 1: asked me, you know, what are the keys to a
Speaker 1: good broadcast? Chemistry is at the top of the list. Well,
Speaker 1: how do you build chemistry? You spend time together. And
Speaker 1: if you can't spend time together, especially when you're away
Speaker 1: from the production meetings, you're you're not sitting there watching
Speaker 1: take together. You're just having dinner, having a glass of wine.
Speaker 1: If it's greasy, smoking a cigar. I don't know if
Speaker 1: Levi you're in that group too. Or Cracker Barrel. We
Speaker 1: had pregame at Cracker Barrel. See Steve doesn't eat before
Speaker 1: the game, so you don't know, So passion, we had
Speaker 1: a pregame meal every single week and we'd always go
Speaker 1: to Cracker Barrel because we're in Tuscaloosa or we're in
Speaker 1: you know, Mississippi, somewhere it's Starkville. The only place to
Speaker 1: eat is Cracker Barrel, so that's where we would go
Speaker 1: have our pregame meal. Did a lot of eleven am
Speaker 1: Local games, eleven am Central game, so you know, it's
Speaker 1: six thirty in the morning and our suits at Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 1: But didn't stick out. But the time, because you've mentioned,
Speaker 1: didn't really had that time. But you obviously worked together
Speaker 1: for four years, right because you went with Steve. When
Speaker 1: Steve you came to college football, Spielman left for Fox,
Speaker 1: McElroy came with me, so it was four years. So
Speaker 1: you guys had four years together. But I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys knew Lewis. I mean obviously you know,
Speaker 1: watching respected Lewis. He's great on the air. But now
Speaker 1: you're working with a third person and you don't get
Speaker 1: that time together. How do you guys make up for
Speaker 1: that lost time to because it felt like you guys
Speaker 1: were like when I watched and listened, the chemistry was
Speaker 1: good with the three of you. I it seemed as
Speaker 1: if you were spending time together the way it came
Speaker 1: off on the air. Lewis hates you. First of all,
Speaker 1: he was wondering where his invite is by the way, okay,
Speaker 1: justosure here we go full disclosure. First of all, he
Speaker 1: couldn't care less, but I did email him several months ago,
Speaker 1: just him yeah before so Lewis will come on a
Speaker 1: future show, but we're not. But I figured, you know,
Speaker 1: I probably we're gonna spend the fourth quarter of the
Speaker 1: game talking about this. By the way, if I didn't
Speaker 1: get you guys now between Levy, you know, not answering
Speaker 1: his phone, greasy, not returning text, I figure, if I
Speaker 1: don't get these two guys now when they're here, it's
Speaker 1: never gonna We're in the communication business, as as you know.
Speaker 1: The key of that is no. So um, my experience
Speaker 1: with Lewis has been Sports Center. I'd been on the
Speaker 1: road a little bit with Lewis, you know, we do
Speaker 1: the Sports Center at the Super Bowl all week and
Speaker 1: done segments with him. But again not so so. It
Speaker 1: takes some time. It takes some time to figure out
Speaker 1: like we I mean as small as you know, can
Speaker 1: I call you lou kind of thing? Like no, he
Speaker 1: wants to be Lewis, Like you know, that's little stuff.
Speaker 1: We don't know. It's not really a nickname there and
Speaker 1: and the first you know, I just wanted to get
Speaker 1: him smiling, right, I wanted to get him cracking up,
Speaker 1: and uh, one of the highlights of the season. This
Speaker 1: is ridiculous, by the way, because it has nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the game. It's week three. We have Kansas
Speaker 1: City in Baltimore, which was when the schedule comes out
Speaker 1: of April. Yeah right, I'm sure you know Fox and
Speaker 1: NBC and say, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on there?
Speaker 1: How did we get that game? So we get that
Speaker 1: game and Lewis is Pat Mahomes, Pat Mahomes, Pat Mahomes,
Speaker 1: and Missus Mahomes winds up tweeting out something his name
Speaker 1: is Patrick in essence his mom. Yeah, yeah, sorry, yeah man, yeah,
Speaker 1: Missus Mahomes. Yeah, well here's another Missus Mahomes. Ok, he's married. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: so I knew what he was talking about. I just
Speaker 1: want to make sure the fans at home. No, apparently
Speaker 1: he might have been his fiancee at the time. I
Speaker 1: don't know anyway, you knew what I meant. But that's
Speaker 1: that's what he does. See four years of it, so exactly,
Speaker 1: maybe there's a shelf life to him, right, it's a
Speaker 1: four years self life we're on six now, but go
Speaker 1: ahead anyway. So, uh so we're in the break and
Speaker 1: and and it's being revealed to us to hey a
Speaker 1: Twitter social media. Patrick's mom is saying all this stuff,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, guys, we gotta throw it up on
Speaker 1: the screen. And you know, some people didn't want to
Speaker 1: do it. Hey, we're not making fun. Anyway, we wound
Speaker 1: up doing it. Lewis got hysterical, one of the maybe
Speaker 1: our best early moment of the season week three, and
Speaker 1: we loosened everybody up. We cracked up, and I remember saying,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, you want him to be uh he
Speaker 1: wants to be called Patrick or you want to be
Speaker 1: called Lewis, Right, nobody's calling you. So he was lou
Speaker 1: for the rest of the year. So so it's but
Speaker 1: it's moments like that. You can't fake the stuff. You can't.
Speaker 1: It has to happen organically. We didn't have any preseason
Speaker 1: games as well, but I thought that was a really
Speaker 1: good jumping off point for the three of us in
Speaker 1: the booth. Yeah, and I think that Lewis and I
Speaker 1: had no interaction or experience with Lewis prior to to
Speaker 1: last year other than playing against him. On the field.
Speaker 1: But I think that he brought a different perspective, obviously
Speaker 1: a defensive perspective and a general manager's perspective or not,
Speaker 1: or a front office perspective. I should say that was different.
Speaker 1: That was useful that in certain points in the game,
Speaker 1: it gave us an opportunity to go back and forth
Speaker 1: on a point, So maybe we peel the onion back
Speaker 1: a little bit deeper than we would normally if it
Speaker 1: was just the two of us up there. I can
Speaker 1: give an offensive perspective, he can give a defensive perspective,
Speaker 1: or in a game that was not a close game
Speaker 1: in the second half, like we had a game of
Speaker 1: Seattle in Philadelphia or the New England a game later
Speaker 1: in the year where we can dive in in the
Speaker 1: third and fourth quarters into some front office conversations the
Speaker 1: future of a team, how they should be built, you know,
Speaker 1: looking forward. Just conversations that went deeper than they would
Speaker 1: have otherwise had we only had two guys in the booth.
Speaker 1: What are some of the games as you look at
Speaker 1: this schedule for this year that you're excited about. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you're excited about all of them, but are there
Speaker 1: any particular to stick out You're like, man, I cannot
Speaker 1: wait for that. Or Steve, you brought up last year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you guys were surprised you got Baltimore, Kansas City any
Speaker 1: on this schedu You're like, oh man, we got this one.
Speaker 1: I think overall the schedule is better than it was
Speaker 1: a year ago. But I don't think there is the
Speaker 1: one bam stand out game. We've got a lot of
Speaker 1: really good, high end games, especially in the NFC West.
Speaker 1: I think, right, we've got Rams Cardinals, Rams Cardinals, and
Speaker 1: then we Rams forty nine ers like two weeks later
Speaker 1: or something like that. So so I think we're really
Speaker 1: strong in what is probably the best division in football.
Speaker 1: You know, little argument there, but so those are some
Speaker 1: of the games that jump out. I was really excited
Speaker 1: about Indie at Baltimore early on. I thought that was
Speaker 1: a sneaky, really good game, and now we have to
Speaker 1: see what happens. You know. I think Bill's Titans. I
Speaker 1: think it's Week three, maybe five. I think that's five
Speaker 1: or six. Week five is Baltimore Colts, Philly Dallas is
Speaker 1: week three? What was the one you just said, Bill's Titans?
Speaker 1: Maybe Tweks that's Week six. Yeah, so Bills Titans. I
Speaker 1: think that's gonna be a great game too. Obviously, playoff
Speaker 1: teams from a year ago and they're gonna be right
Speaker 1: back at their again this season. And um so yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a and then there's some really late, good late
Speaker 1: divisional games, like you said, in the NFC West, and
Speaker 1: we get to jump into the Flex for the first
Speaker 1: time every week. So we get a week eighteen and
Speaker 1: we have been you know, guarantee, we get two games, doubleheader,
Speaker 1: and we've never been in the Flex game before. It's
Speaker 1: kind of cool find out six days before we'll get
Speaker 1: a day game in a night game, I think on
Speaker 1: that Saturday, Yeah, Saturday. Yeah, So that's really cool. That's
Speaker 1: good for the network. Everybody back home at ESPN is
Speaker 1: really excited about that two hours of a week. Yep.
Speaker 1: So you guys were at practice, and you guys follow
Speaker 1: the Cardinals closely last year, do you feel like this
Speaker 1: team's better? Last year they were six and three and
Speaker 1: they missed the playoffs. I said, this is my twentieth year,
Speaker 1: and I said, in nineteen years of doing this, that
Speaker 1: was the most disappointed I've ever been. And that's I mean, look,
Speaker 1: there were teams here, they weren't good, weren't competitive, and
Speaker 1: then there were teams like the team that went to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl that exceeded expectations. Last year, through nine games,
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray was an MVP candidate. The Cardinals seemed to
Speaker 1: have the the it factor with the Hail Mary to
Speaker 1: beat a really good Buffalo team here, and then at
Speaker 1: the end of the season they just ran out of gas.
Speaker 1: It's injuries, obviously, but just fell apart the home loss
Speaker 1: to the forty nine ers, which I missed because of COVID,
Speaker 1: and then the loss at the Rams, Kyler gets hurt,
Speaker 1: and it just was an extremely disappointing way to end
Speaker 1: the year. But they were a playoff team for most
Speaker 1: of the year and didn't make the playoffs. Do you
Speaker 1: guys see them as a playoff team in twenty twenty one?
Speaker 1: I do, and I you know, we just talked with
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray and I asked them about how the last
Speaker 1: two games and how they went down felt and what
Speaker 1: it meant and how it informed how the off season
Speaker 1: was going to play out. And he said it was miserable,
Speaker 1: and that's that you want to hear from your quarterback.
Speaker 1: And he was right off the tip of his tongue. Listen,
Speaker 1: you can't lose to you know, two division opponents that
Speaker 1: are playing back up in third string quarterbacks with the
Speaker 1: playoffs on the line. If you lose like that, that's
Speaker 1: going to leave a mark. That's gonna leave a stain,
Speaker 1: and it should on this organization. And I think there's
Speaker 1: a bigger sense of urgency this year because of that.
Speaker 1: I think you see them going out and trying to
Speaker 1: find free agent players that bring leadership. Obviously, JJ Watt
Speaker 1: is at the top of that food chain, one of
Speaker 1: the best players to ever play the game and one
Speaker 1: of the best leaders to ever be a part of
Speaker 1: the National Football League. And we talked with him as
Speaker 1: well and in his attitude, his approach for one second,
Speaker 1: take on the field, stuff away with JJ okay, and
Speaker 1: let's just talk about how he's going to impact this
Speaker 1: team off the field. I don't think that you can
Speaker 1: measure that. I don't think that you can measure the
Speaker 1: way that he interacts with guys, you know, like Zavan Collins,
Speaker 1: like Kyler Murray, young wide receivers, Rondeo Moore. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't put a value on that, and I think
Speaker 1: this team needs that. I think that they wilted down
Speaker 1: the stretch a year ago, and we can there's a
Speaker 1: number of reasons why, lack of a consistent running game,
Speaker 1: Kyler's nicked up, so on and so forth. Defense, But
Speaker 1: I think what they've done in the offseason as at
Speaker 1: least give themselves a chance to create the right chemistry.
Speaker 1: So there's no complacency in the first half of the
Speaker 1: season when you go six and three and you think
Speaker 1: that you've arrived and made it, and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you don't work as hard maybe in the second
Speaker 1: half of the season. The leadership piece of it on
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball. You bring in a guy
Speaker 1: like Rodney Hudson, unbelievable player at the center position, is
Speaker 1: still a top five center in the league, and he's
Speaker 1: interacting day to day with Kyler Murray and taking stuff
Speaker 1: off of Kyler's play from a protection standpoint, taking care
Speaker 1: of the entire offensive line. I mean, so you asked me,
Speaker 1: are they better? I do think they're better, But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, they're in the toughest division football.
Speaker 1: You have to have a quarterback that's going to take
Speaker 1: that next step. And what is that next step for Kyler?
Speaker 1: We know he's athletic, he can throw the football, he
Speaker 1: can run. It's getting to the playoffs. It's being able
Speaker 1: to grind through adversity, is being able to be detail
Speaker 1: oriented and lead. Now that Larry Fitzgerald is gone, he
Speaker 1: has to take that vacuum and run with it and
Speaker 1: be the leader on this team when the time is tough.
Speaker 1: Not just when things are going well, but when there's adversity,
Speaker 1: which is the thing he hasn't faced in his life
Speaker 1: in high school or college. He's now facing it now.
Speaker 1: Good thing this is a podcast, because this is a
Speaker 1: game broadcast. The other team would half the ball by
Speaker 1: Now there's four and a half minute in these preseason
Speaker 1: games were good. We're good with that. Eat some clock.
Speaker 1: Let's go down to Lisa Salters. Let's talk to some
Speaker 1: of the fans that stands listen. I think that veteran
Speaker 1: leadership is very important. I remember seeing, you know, all
Speaker 1: the offseason transactions like the Cardinal stool, these big name
Speaker 1: household household names. Now, how much do they have left
Speaker 1: in the tank? How much you know? Will they perform
Speaker 1: the field is one thing, but you get all these
Speaker 1: in I thought the Cardinals were going to dominate the
Speaker 1: national TV schedule. I thought they'd be in primetime even
Speaker 1: more than they actually are because of that. There's a
Speaker 1: star studded roster, it really is so so I think
Speaker 1: the veteran leadership will help this team through the through
Speaker 1: the rough patches, which are inevitable for every team around
Speaker 1: the league. It sounds silly to say that health is
Speaker 1: such a factor because also that's you know, that's league
Speaker 1: wide as well. But you know, if Kyler's one hundred
Speaker 1: percent at the end of the season last year, they're
Speaker 1: probably in the playoffs, probably are a playoff team. So
Speaker 1: maybe that offensive line improvements will help his protection, actually
Speaker 1: protect him physically, not pass protect, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: keep him, keep him healthy. We'll see how much he's
Speaker 1: gonna run explosive wide receivers. I think the running game
Speaker 1: remains a question mark as well. But I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna find out something about the Cardinals this year, and
Speaker 1: if it's not a playoff team, Bud, I think this
Speaker 1: team could look very, very different the following season. Sure,
Speaker 1: I think coach coach Kingsbury knows this is a big year.
Speaker 1: The team him is not one he hasn't won. By
Speaker 1: the way, I think he's got five years dating back
Speaker 1: to you know, Texas Tech without a winning season. So
Speaker 1: I think this is kind of a proven year for
Speaker 1: the Cardinals. And that goes for Kyler too. He's got
Speaker 1: to step out now. He's not just a kid anymore.
Speaker 1: Right now, It's time year three to step up and
Speaker 1: show everybody, and you can do it for the whole season.
Speaker 1: So Cliff was on this podcast and I asked him,
Speaker 1: you know, this is an important year for everybody in
Speaker 1: the organization. How do you handle those expectations? And he
Speaker 1: told us. I thought it was a great answer. He said,
Speaker 1: you know, looking back, and Cliff's always been very humble,
Speaker 1: and actually brought up a time I think you and
Speaker 1: I were doing the game when Johnny Manziel was playing
Speaker 1: at B and M and he was the offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: and you walked out of the meeting with Cliff and
Speaker 1: you're like, that guy's a head coach. Like his presence,
Speaker 1: how intelligent he is, but also just his humility. And
Speaker 1: he told me during our interview for the podcast that
Speaker 1: getting fired at Texas Tech was the best thing that
Speaker 1: happened to him because and when you get fired at
Speaker 1: a place where you played and you're from Texas and
Speaker 1: everybody knows you there, so there's no escape, there's no hiding. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have to deal with it every day for a while.
Speaker 1: He said that helped him become better and be prepared
Speaker 1: for an NFL job. I thought that was a really
Speaker 1: interesting answer. You guys brought up Kyler Murray, and look,
Speaker 1: we all know how talented Kyler is. He said, he
Speaker 1: needs to grow and mature as a leader, and he's
Speaker 1: going to get that opportunity. Larry Fitzgerald is in here,
Speaker 1: at least not right now. One thing that a couple
Speaker 1: of players have brought up to me that I thought
Speaker 1: was interesting And I don't know if you can tell
Speaker 1: when you watch him and from your standpoint, Brian, it
Speaker 1: may not even matter based on our history together and
Speaker 1: hearing what you think about quarterback play. But they said,
Speaker 1: when asked where is Kyler better? They said, his arm
Speaker 1: is stronger and it's a difference maker compared to last year.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how you feel about that, if
Speaker 1: you guys agree with that or if you think you
Speaker 1: know what that's I'm a list of important things for
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray to work on and become a franchise quarterback
Speaker 1: and an MVP caliber player. Arm strength is at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the list. It's all about the intangibles. It's
Speaker 1: about growing as a leader. It's about being the guy
Speaker 1: in the huddle that people look to. It's about being
Speaker 1: the guy that runs the locker room. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: say you're accurate in that and saying that I haven't
Speaker 1: changed from four years ago. On the list of things
Speaker 1: that Kyler needed to improve, arm strength was not one
Speaker 1: of them. He's got plenty of arm In fact, he
Speaker 1: throws one of the prettiest balls in the NFL. There's
Speaker 1: no question about that. I'll give you something to chew
Speaker 1: on here. And maybe you've heard this or maybe you've
Speaker 1: seen it. Of all the free agent acquisitions that this
Speaker 1: team brought in in the off season, and I confirmed
Speaker 1: this with Cliff, I think that Colt McCoy might be
Speaker 1: the most important and and the reasons why we've talked
Speaker 1: about this a little bit, Dave, is the relationship between
Speaker 1: Colt and Kyler Murray. And Kyler Murray grew up in
Speaker 1: Texas kind of idolizing Colt McCoy, and I think when
Speaker 1: we talked with him about it, he says, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that was the guy he was at Texas. Kyler's dad
Speaker 1: went to an A and M obviously, so he couldn't,
Speaker 1: you know, put a poster of him on the wall
Speaker 1: all but but it was it was definitely a he
Speaker 1: looked up to him. And now that he's in the room,
Speaker 1: he says, listen, that's Colt McCoy And he's in the
Speaker 1: room and he's helping me, and he's listening to me,
Speaker 1: asking me how I read things and how I do things,
Speaker 1: and he's giving me feedback on how other offensive coordinators
Speaker 1: that he's been around have operated in the NFL, and
Speaker 1: how how he's learned over time, and and he's a
Speaker 1: buffer between Cliff at times and Kyler. And we know
Speaker 1: that Kyler is not, you know, the most communicative quarterback
Speaker 1: in the history of the game. UH. And I think
Speaker 1: there's an opportunity for Cole to impact his team both
Speaker 1: on and off the field in ways that I don't
Speaker 1: think the average fan at home might see. And so um,
Speaker 1: but that is it is true. Kyler. I think uh
Speaker 1: needs to grow. He needs to grow off the field.
Speaker 1: He needs to grow mentally. UH, he needs to grow
Speaker 1: from a leadership standpoint. And those are all things we
Speaker 1: know and by the way, every young quarterback needs to
Speaker 1: do that. So, um, I think sometimes we want a
Speaker 1: microwave Kyler Murray into you know, a Patrick Holmes kind
Speaker 1: of player, because he is so talented and it is
Speaker 1: so unique and we haven't seen anything like it. But
Speaker 1: I think this is just a normal growing process. Now
Speaker 1: there will come a time when you know, you either
Speaker 1: put up a shut up, and we're approaching that time.
Speaker 1: But I don't think we're there yet. He's not. He's
Speaker 1: not stuck in the mud like we've all seen the process.
Speaker 1: We saw him in college right, also in college, so
Speaker 1: how he acted there. We've seen him in his three
Speaker 1: years in the NFL too. He looks a year more
Speaker 1: mature to me every time I see him. So he
Speaker 1: is making the move. Is it going to be quick
Speaker 1: enough to satisfy some people? Is it going to translate
Speaker 1: to more victories on the field. We'll see. And uh,
Speaker 1: the backup quarterback Colt McCoy think is really interesting to
Speaker 1: me because you know, that's that's a great headline, right,
Speaker 1: biggest free agent acquisition, and nobody's thinking Colton McCoy. But
Speaker 1: maybe cult McCoy wins one of those two games late
Speaker 1: in the season last year. Maybe you're in a better
Speaker 1: spot actually on the field too. Yeah, there's no question
Speaker 1: over Straveler, right of course. Yeah, so that's another reason
Speaker 1: to backup quarterback extremely underrated position or around the league. Steve,
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier, and I agree that the NFC West
Speaker 1: is the best division. I'm not saying that just because
Speaker 1: the Cardinals announcer. I think it's the best division. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's close. I think you've got four teams,
Speaker 1: assuming San Francisco is healthy and Matthew Stafford is without
Speaker 1: question an upgrade from Jared Goff. Now Seattle they always
Speaker 1: seem to be there because of Russell Wilson. But you
Speaker 1: have to wonder with this past offseason, are they growing
Speaker 1: tired of one another? And maybe is this the year
Speaker 1: that it just disbands. But as you look at the
Speaker 1: NFC West, do you have a team and Brian, do
Speaker 1: you have a team that you say that's the team
Speaker 1: to beat or is it you know what, I could
Speaker 1: see one of three or one of four teams winning
Speaker 1: the division. I think the forty nine ers are the
Speaker 1: most interesting team in the division. No team got beaten
Speaker 1: up injury wise at the most critical positions that San
Speaker 1: Francisco did a season ago, so we're going to see
Speaker 1: how the quarterback position plays out. I am fascinated by
Speaker 1: the forty nine ers, though they to be healthy coming
Speaker 1: into into the season now. But you know, everybody was
Speaker 1: wow on Trey Lance. But I think people are just
Speaker 1: forgetting about Jimmy Garoppolo a little too quickly. And to me,
Speaker 1: the best case scenario is Garoppolo gets them, you know,
Speaker 1: five six weeks in seven weeks in keeps them in
Speaker 1: the race, and then if they think Trey Lance is
Speaker 1: ready to go. But I don't know if they're the
Speaker 1: best team. That's probably for Brian to say. But I
Speaker 1: think the forty nine Ers are among the most interesting
Speaker 1: stories league wide. There'll be a fun team to watch.
Speaker 1: I think anyone on the four teams could win the division.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if he would have said that
Speaker 1: last year. Yeah, I guess everybody was hoping that Arizona
Speaker 1: would be there at the end, but I don't know
Speaker 1: that how many people have actually believed it. I believe
Speaker 1: they could be there at the end. I watched this
Speaker 1: team play San Francisco Week one last year and they
Speaker 1: handled them. Now you watch the last two games, of
Speaker 1: the year and the Rams hold this offense to seven points.
Speaker 1: So I do think that that did Cardinals offensively are
Speaker 1: going to have to continue to evolve and get better
Speaker 1: because the de defensive coordinators in this conference, in this
Speaker 1: division or now have a book on Kyler Murray and
Speaker 1: they're not going to allow him to run around and
Speaker 1: do all the things that he liked to do in college. Um,
Speaker 1: So I think you're gonna have to continue to evolve.
Speaker 1: But I think there's no question the Rams, in my
Speaker 1: mind right now, with the addition of Matthew Stafford, are
Speaker 1: the cream of the crop in in the division. Can
Speaker 1: anybody see Seattle in the last place? I mean in
Speaker 1: your head you can, right, but it would look weird
Speaker 1: on paper right to see the standings see Seattle Seahawks
Speaker 1: last place in that division. But could absolutely could happen.
Speaker 1: You guys, did some Trevor Lawrence's games at Clemson. I've
Speaker 1: done Trevor Lawrence's games, and Brian's probably gonna hate this,
Speaker 1: but like what else, I don't even know what you say.
Speaker 1: He's gonna hate it. He's happy, he has it all right,
Speaker 1: he has it all he looks, but as a guy too,
Speaker 1: not just as a player he made you know, Brian
Speaker 1: Greasy man, I look like Trevor Lawrence, but Trevor Lawrence
Speaker 1: by all the measurables a plus. Do you guys anyway,
Speaker 1: this guy is not an absolute superstar in the NFL. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's always a way. I mean, JaMarcus Russell look like
Speaker 1: an unbelievable player, right, I mean Ryan Leaf. I mean
Speaker 1: there's there's been a lot of them. I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that this kid is gonna be that, but
Speaker 1: there are no slam dunks when you come to quarterbacks
Speaker 1: making a transition from college to the NFL. And uh,
Speaker 1: I love what Trevor Lawrence brings to the table. Um.
Speaker 1: I think it's like, just like Kyler is unique, this
Speaker 1: kid's unique. We have never seen a guy that tall
Speaker 1: with that kind of speed, right. I mean you maybe
Speaker 1: you talk about Josh Allen being the only real comparison,
Speaker 1: but listen, I've reserved judgment until I see a guy
Speaker 1: get hit in the mouth repeatedly. And he's gonna be
Speaker 1: on a team that's not gonna be as good from
Speaker 1: a talent standpoint. He's gonna get knocked down in the
Speaker 1: dirt time after time after time, and can he answer
Speaker 1: that bell? Can he do what Peyton did? Okay in
Speaker 1: his first year at the Indianapolis Colts and they were
Speaker 1: god off and he threw more interceptions and any quarterback
Speaker 1: in the history of the game. Could he have that
Speaker 1: kind of a season and come back because it's not
Speaker 1: gonna go you know, all Roses and Champagne in Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: I want to see after that first year, how does
Speaker 1: he come back in year two? But he has all
Speaker 1: the talent, no question, there's some Kyler's stuff there for
Speaker 1: me too, right, and obviously not the size and the
Speaker 1: way they play the game, but having no track record
Speaker 1: of losing, right, I mean, you know, I mean Trevor
Speaker 1: Lawrence in college, they're just killing everybody, right, there's no
Speaker 1: adversity for him, And I had that one stretch early
Speaker 1: on through a couple of interceptions. They clicked dabble, cleaned
Speaker 1: that up and they went on from there. So, yes,
Speaker 1: how does he do when things will not go well
Speaker 1: and they could be a last place team in that division?
Speaker 1: You know, I know they've improved some of the talent
Speaker 1: around him or Houston's in that division, so they'll probably
Speaker 1: be second second. I sort of forgot about the Texas there.
Speaker 1: They've sort of dropped off the map a little bit.
Speaker 1: I don't know, and I don't know Coach Cully's putting together,
Speaker 1: but he feel like I feel like Trevor. If anyone
Speaker 1: has been groomed to be the man, Trevor Lawrence has
Speaker 1: been that guy for a long time on everybody's radar,
Speaker 1: you know, since coming out of the womb. Lucan Bill's
Speaker 1: talking about him ten years ago exactly. And so let's
Speaker 1: see how they do coming out. But at least there's
Speaker 1: some buzz that's good for the league. Right, Let's get
Speaker 1: Jack you know, we're talking about Euston falling off the page.
Speaker 1: Let's get Jacksonville back on the NFL map. Give him
Speaker 1: a little buzz leaves before you were doing Monday Night
Speaker 1: Football in addition to your college football played by play duties.
Speaker 1: You're doing Monday Night Countdown. Obviously you're still doing Sports Center.
Speaker 1: You've been doing Sports Center forever. So I assume you've
Speaker 1: known Tom Brady over the last couple of decades. Brian
Speaker 1: obviously played with Tom. It tells you how old Brady is.
Speaker 1: He played with Greasy, who played more than a decade
Speaker 1: in the NFL. Brian's been broadcasting now for what thirteen
Speaker 1: fourteen years? And Tom's still playing? How long do you
Speaker 1: think this is gonna go? Because Brady wants to play
Speaker 1: till he dies? So how long is this was just
Speaker 1: forty five? Now it's till he dies? Isn't he forty five?
Speaker 1: Right now? It's two years younger than me. That's how
Speaker 1: I keep tracking. Listen, you know who's gonna doubt Tom Brady? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, I don't think there's any Super Bowl hangover
Speaker 1: in Tampa, not with him. I don't think he'll allow that.
Speaker 1: I think he's figured it out. I think I think
Speaker 1: he's got a master plan that is better than everyone else's.
Speaker 1: And obviously that speaks to his talent, but I think
Speaker 1: the mental aspect, I think he knows how to lead.
Speaker 1: I think he's proven that. You talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: going through some adversity early on in the season, right,
Speaker 1: they didn't look great coming on in the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season, and we were there and there's a point like,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't throw the deep ball anymore? Remember that, right,
Speaker 1: twenty five consecutive pass attempts of twenty or more yards
Speaker 1: without a completion or whatever like that. So you were
Speaker 1: throwing dirt on Drew Brees and Tom Brady in the
Speaker 1: first quarter of last year, remember, at the same time.
Speaker 1: So uh yeah, I think he can do it for
Speaker 1: as long as he wants. And he rounded by the
Speaker 1: right cast on the field and the correct head coach,
Speaker 1: which wasn't Bill Belichick, which is Brusarians. I think. Let
Speaker 1: me ask you this question, if if you felt good
Speaker 1: and you could still do your job broadcasting, and you
Speaker 1: were around a great team, why the heck would you
Speaker 1: give it up? You know? So's Tom. I guarantee this.
Speaker 1: Tom's not even thinking about retirement. Is he the same
Speaker 1: guy like when you talked to him now Greece? Is
Speaker 1: he the same as he was in college? When I
Speaker 1: say that, obviously we all grow and mature, but generally speaking, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's the same guy. No, he is the same guy.
Speaker 1: He was raised his parents. Um, I got to know
Speaker 1: them a little bit in college. They are wonderful people,
Speaker 1: and they grounded him. He had four old He has
Speaker 1: four older sisters. Who you know, any boy who grows
Speaker 1: up with four older sisters, you're gonna have, um some
Speaker 1: some tough days and nights. You know, but I think
Speaker 1: that he uh, he was raised the right way and
Speaker 1: he's got values. Listen, there's been so many, you know,
Speaker 1: stories and articles written about Tom Brady. I'm not telling
Speaker 1: anything you don't know, but he is the same guy.
Speaker 1: He's genuine, He cares about his friends and the people
Speaker 1: that are in his inner circle, and he has an
Speaker 1: ability to compartmentalize and really loves is passionate about the game.
Speaker 1: More so, we talked with players every week. Rarely do
Speaker 1: you find a player as passionate about the process and
Speaker 1: playing football as you do Tom Brady. And that's why
Speaker 1: he's doing what he's doing. He is willing to sacrifice
Speaker 1: more than the guy he's playing against. And if you
Speaker 1: want to boil it all down, like, that's why Tom
Speaker 1: Brady is who he is. And it is the football, right.
Speaker 1: He still loves the game like they don't need the money, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not about the cash, it's not about
Speaker 1: the glory. He's already the goat. We all know people
Speaker 1: will be chasing him forever, so he must still love
Speaker 1: the game and the competition. You think that would wane
Speaker 1: on some people, not on him. I remember being in
Speaker 1: the bubble for the NBA a year ago or two
Speaker 1: whenever it was. It feels like thirty years ago. But
Speaker 1: I remember being in the bubble a year ago and
Speaker 1: Mark Jackson, who is you know, the top ESPN NBA
Speaker 1: analyst long with Jeff Van Gundy. Mark is a Brady fan,
Speaker 1: so he became a Buccaneers fan when Tom left New
Speaker 1: England and went to Tampa. And I'm sitting there having
Speaker 1: a meal with Mark and Jeff and Breen and some
Speaker 1: of the other people down in the bubble, and we're
Speaker 1: talking about Bruce Arians and I said, you watch, it'll
Speaker 1: be at the most. Week three will be the latest,
Speaker 1: and BA will throw him under the bus to the
Speaker 1: media and it will work. Yeah, And they're like, no way,
Speaker 1: he's not going to do that. To Bray said no,
Speaker 1: he will, and it will work a week two I
Speaker 1: think it was week one after they lost multiple games
Speaker 1: last year publicly whoa Nobody talks about Tom like that.
Speaker 1: But it worked perfect. When we do games for people
Speaker 1: that are listening to don't know the mechanics of the
Speaker 1: week leading up to a game of people think you'd
Speaker 1: just show up, put the headset on, do the game,
Speaker 1: and that's it and you go home. That's a big
Speaker 1: part of it. But part of the preparation is having
Speaker 1: a meeting with the There are some people that just
Speaker 1: do you know, we're not going to talk about him
Speaker 1: and save their names, just name Water one guy's initials
Speaker 1: or b W work with on basketball Dot kidding. He
Speaker 1: actually does prep, but he does prep for things that
Speaker 1: Bill Walton we're talking about that have nothing to do
Speaker 1: with the game. They have to do with the city
Speaker 1: or you know, he calls Pullman, Washington the realm of
Speaker 1: the Northwest. You know, seven hills versus four hills. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So one of the things we do is we sit
Speaker 1: down with coaches and talk about the game, talk about
Speaker 1: scheme strategy, talk about player evaluation. What are your production
Speaker 1: meetings like? With Bruce Arians, a lot of swearing, And
Speaker 1: that's been one of the really cool things for me,
Speaker 1: Dave being in the NFL, right, exposing yourself to professional
Speaker 1: coaches and Arians is right up there with my favorite
Speaker 1: Zoom of all the heads. He's like a regular guy
Speaker 1: off the street in a lot of ways. Right, if
Speaker 1: I could have a beer with one guy, one head coach,
Speaker 1: I always had wanted to be ba of the current
Speaker 1: head coaches. I feel like he would have it with you.
Speaker 1: But when I texted him after they won the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: the text I got back was the cocktail emoji. And
Speaker 1: then I texted him like a week later about something else,
Speaker 1: two cocktail emojis. He upped. Cool. That makes him regular guy, right,
Speaker 1: that makes him the common man. That's what everybody does
Speaker 1: or should be doing after celebration or after a hard
Speaker 1: day's work. Um, I really respected Listen. I can get
Speaker 1: you know. I try not to get hung up on
Speaker 1: the xs and os, on these things like frees and
Speaker 1: Lewis ridd a candle. That stuff's wig over my head.
Speaker 1: I try to pick up, you know, maybe one thing
Speaker 1: a week. H And I'm interested in some of the
Speaker 1: other things. And that's sort of you know, some of
Speaker 1: the fields and how you treat people and coach, how
Speaker 1: you coach players, and your philosophies on certain things, and
Speaker 1: so arians is one of the guys I really enjoyed
Speaker 1: talking to. All Right, I promised it would be thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: It's thirty five, but I got a couple more or
Speaker 1: gift certificate or something. Oh yeah, yeah, we've got dinneral
Speaker 1: end up. I guess I'm paying for it. Now, um,
Speaker 1: two more things for you, Steve. I don't know do
Speaker 1: you have any idiosyncrasies that Greasy has made you aware
Speaker 1: of in terms of what you do when you call
Speaker 1: the game? Because he made me so self conscious working
Speaker 1: with him for four years. He claims, yeah, And I
Speaker 1: have not had another analyst confirmed this. Although we're gonna
Speaker 1: get Wolflee, We're gonna get Jim Almahndro, the producer who
Speaker 1: has been my producer for the Cardinals now for twenty years.
Speaker 1: He says that it's true, but I have a hard
Speaker 1: time believing that it's true that when I make a call,
Speaker 1: I push away from the table. I throw myself back
Speaker 1: every play. No, no, big do you have because he
Speaker 1: does all these voice things. He's projecting his voice and
Speaker 1: does these voice warm ups and all these things and
Speaker 1: the diaphragm and all this kind of stuff. Todd Christensen,
Speaker 1: My one of my first college fool part is he
Speaker 1: would belt out the national anthem during the actual anthem,
Speaker 1: and I mean belt it out, scream it out, and
Speaker 1: he did that for his vocal cord. What do you
Speaker 1: do exactly? He's making this up. I've never done anything
Speaker 1: that I don't think. I don't think I have anything again,
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to figure out this whole play by
Speaker 1: play guy thing. As you know, I'm really a studio guy.
Speaker 1: Hey man, you've been doing play by play between NHL. Yeah,
Speaker 1: two stints of college football by football for twenty five years.
Speaker 1: So when people say leave, he's a studio gay sports
Speaker 1: o a guy. Just so you know everybody, No, he's
Speaker 1: not doing play by play for twenty five years. Thank
Speaker 1: you for that. I don't think. Listen when I get
Speaker 1: to the booth. I like to have a hot cup
Speaker 1: of black coffee, and in our four years to college,
Speaker 1: God help you if it's not hot, like you would think.
Speaker 1: I was asking for something outlanders, like a quarter cup
Speaker 1: of splendor. I just wanted the black coffee to be hot.
Speaker 1: Is that a lot to ask? And it became a
Speaker 1: thing every week, and I thought they were doing it
Speaker 1: to me on purpose. Now you know, lukewarm or it
Speaker 1: would be hot, it would be a quarter of the
Speaker 1: cup full. You know, no top bot it. So it
Speaker 1: became a thing. But same with soup, by the way,
Speaker 1: you know the soup has to be piping. I'm a
Speaker 1: temperature guy. Cold food should be cold hot. Do you
Speaker 1: tell me Grease, do I have something other than the
Speaker 1: coffee and the soup. I'm just saying I don't think
Speaker 1: I have any traditions. I don't you know. I don't
Speaker 1: put my jacket on one way. The headset could go
Speaker 1: either way. On the microphone, I like my space in
Speaker 1: the booth. Yeah, he doesn't want he doesn't like to
Speaker 1: be touched. I don't like to be touched or people
Speaker 1: tapping you on the shoulder. I'm trying to do the
Speaker 1: game over here. We did have the line of demarcation
Speaker 1: Ben Boma or an executive spotter he would put used
Speaker 1: to put We used to put tape down in between us,
Speaker 1: and I did not want Greasy crossing over. My charts
Speaker 1: are really big, and they're a mess, and I need
Speaker 1: my space and Grease he's not looking down right, he's
Speaker 1: watching the field right, He's doing the football. I need,
Speaker 1: I need the other stuff. So but I don't think
Speaker 1: I have a push off. I don't think I'm paid
Speaker 1: enough to do this job next to the Do you
Speaker 1: know how lucky you already had the two of us consecutively.
Speaker 1: The charts are important, like the spotting broadcast boards, like
Speaker 1: when I worked with Macroyd always always asked him, if
Speaker 1: I left my bag in the car, did you lock
Speaker 1: the car? My boards are in there. I feel like
Speaker 1: I don't care about the computer. I don't that can
Speaker 1: all be replaced. The game board cannot be replaced a
Speaker 1: whole week with your life, right, and if it's gone, listen,
Speaker 1: I don't know what your memories like, but I'm not
Speaker 1: remembering any of that stuff. So I'm just glad he
Speaker 1: stopped writing so much stuff on his board. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you look at his board two or three years ago,
Speaker 1: I mean, there wasn't a centimeter of white space on
Speaker 1: the board, every piece of it. And then and then
Speaker 1: you get to the end of the game, you feel
Speaker 1: like you feel bad because you put all this stuff
Speaker 1: on your board and you didn't get it in. Um.
Speaker 1: So he's he's I mean, listen, I think the thing
Speaker 1: that makes our duo work is we don't bring the
Speaker 1: ego into the booth, right. We're there to call the game,
Speaker 1: and we have a respect for each other, and we
Speaker 1: bring different opinions and ways of broadcasting a game and
Speaker 1: what we find interesting. And I told him, which is great.
Speaker 1: He never hesitates to ask me a question about anything,
Speaker 1: because if if he has the question, then the fan
Speaker 1: at home has the question too, And and Steve brings
Speaker 1: a joviality to the booth that is, you know, second
Speaker 1: to nine, and it lightens things up and has a
Speaker 1: great way about him. So I'll get over the line
Speaker 1: of demarcation and the touching and the hot coffee and
Speaker 1: the hot soup. As I said, you guys are awesome
Speaker 1: last year, and I'm looking forward to year two of
Speaker 1: hopefully a ton for you guys together. The guy that
Speaker 1: I think of that had the strangest other than Bill
Speaker 1: Walden idiosyncrasies working with and Steve. You may have worked
Speaker 1: with him, I can't remember. It was Chris Spielman. Chris would,
Speaker 1: first of all, he'd have Kleenex stuck to like under
Speaker 1: his nose where he blues nose. He'd come into the
Speaker 1: boot purpose he'd take it. So I worked with Chris
Speaker 1: and Brian's dad. So I've worked with Brian. I worked
Speaker 1: with Brian's dad, Bob for two years. And I did
Speaker 1: a game with Brian and Bob. The only game what year?
Speaker 1: That was two thousand and nine. It was at Purdue, Yeah,
Speaker 1: at Perdue like Minnesota Purdue, and I reached out and
Speaker 1: I said, hey, I'd love to do a game with
Speaker 1: my dad. Knew my dad was going to retire, and
Speaker 1: so we did a game at Purdue, my dad's alma mater,
Speaker 1: and uh, and Dave was the lucky one that was
Speaker 1: stuck in between dad and his and his son and uh,
Speaker 1: it was awesome. I still have the photograph. We went
Speaker 1: down on the field before the game and did a
Speaker 1: Sports Center hit before on the field. Really cool, it was,
Speaker 1: really But but Spielman was a mess. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: Did did the picture? Was I in the picture? And
Speaker 1: so did? I? Adhere and proof of it. We went
Speaker 1: to some restaurant and apparently it was. It was a bar,
Speaker 1: and there was an apartment right above the bar. And
Speaker 1: that's where Kyle Orton lived. Yeah. The chocolate shop is
Speaker 1: the chocolate shop in West Lafayette. I have heard of
Speaker 1: that place. They call it the chocolate Shop. It's really
Speaker 1: a bar. But you know, when you call home to moms,
Speaker 1: she asked where you are you at the chocolate shop?
Speaker 1: The Library college bar? Yeah? Yeah, um, but yeah, Spielman
Speaker 1: would take his but your dad, Bob Greasy would always
Speaker 1: just he laughed, he couldn't stop laughing, like Spielman would
Speaker 1: be dragging his suitcase and the coat would be stuck
Speaker 1: under the suitcase and just dragging on the ground. He
Speaker 1: coming to the he throw his coat. You know you
Speaker 1: they have hangers for us, and then you hang up
Speaker 1: your coat. He'd take it and throw in the corner.
Speaker 1: He'd be. You'd hear during production meetings you start to
Speaker 1: hear this rustling in his pockets. And he'd have candy
Speaker 1: bars and he and when he eats food, he and
Speaker 1: golfs it. One year it was me Chris and Urban Meyern.
Speaker 1: Urban nicknamed him the addict, cos there goes the addict
Speaker 1: every thirty seven seconds, something's going in. Listen. You know
Speaker 1: you're how close I came to that Spielman experience. So
Speaker 1: I get back in the college game, I guess five
Speaker 1: years ago, whatever it six years ago, and I'm told
Speaker 1: Chris Spielman's my partner for college football, and I mean
Speaker 1: the next day, Mark Rose calls me Spielman's out. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything like it's one day. You know,
Speaker 1: I've already googled him, I've researched, and now, okay is
Speaker 1: my next partner. And I was told, well, who am
Speaker 1: I getting We'll get well, we'll give you a greasy
Speaker 1: I'm like, do you have to say it like that? Wait,
Speaker 1: Greasey's getting promoted that high up though? That was quick.
Speaker 1: Look at how much you avoided a Spielman dip spit
Speaker 1: on your boards. Oh yeah, boards were finished, They had
Speaker 1: no shot. Those lines of demarcation would never have been
Speaker 1: placed in. All right. The last thing, because I have
Speaker 1: to ask you this, grease and Steve, maybe you have
Speaker 1: a memory. You may have been doing Monday inn accountwn.
Speaker 1: You may have actually been here for the Monday Night
Speaker 1: meltdown in two thousand and six Bears Cardinals Brian was
Speaker 1: the backup quarterback to Rex Grossman and the Arizona Cardinals
Speaker 1: are doing something called cards folk Tales, telling stories from
Speaker 1: some of the great moments in Cardinals history, going back
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl year Pat Tillman a lot of
Speaker 1: different things, and one of them is the Monday Night meltdown,
Speaker 1: not just the game, but the post game, because that's
Speaker 1: when Denny Green did the whole thing of the Bears.
Speaker 1: Who thought yes from your perspective, because I've told the
Speaker 1: story when they interviewed me and talking about the game,
Speaker 1: I told the story, but I want you to tell
Speaker 1: the story of what it was like at halftime when
Speaker 1: you guys are down and did you think you were
Speaker 1: going in the game. Oh yes, I was, like I mean,
Speaker 1: I was ready to go on the game. Just so
Speaker 1: to refresh people's memory. This was Rex Grossman was the
Speaker 1: quarterback for the Bears, and we had ultimately end up
Speaker 1: going to the Super Bowl that year. We had an
Speaker 1: unbelievable defense, top two or three defense in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and we had Devin Hester and and so that was
Speaker 1: we All we had to do on offense was just
Speaker 1: not mess it up and get out of the way. Um.
Speaker 1: And Rex had a a an awful game. UM, and
Speaker 1: I think that I think that what was the score
Speaker 1: at halftime? We were down at least at least three touchdowns.
Speaker 1: That's what I that I remember. And I was Matt,
Speaker 1: by the way, was starting a quarterback. Kurt Warner was
Speaker 1: the backup rup day anyway, and I'm and I'm thinking
Speaker 1: to myself at halftime, like like this is this has
Speaker 1: got to be it. And you know, Lovey Smith was
Speaker 1: our was our coach, and he had a commitment to Rex,
Speaker 1: and I think what he said at halftime he said, listen,
Speaker 1: you know, get ready if if things don't work in
Speaker 1: the first drive, you're going to go in and um.
Speaker 1: And so I'm just thinking, there's no way that we
Speaker 1: can come back in this game if if we don't
Speaker 1: score at least twenty eight points, you think on offense
Speaker 1: and our defense holds them to one touchdown. But the
Speaker 1: way that the game ended up being decided is we
Speaker 1: didn't score an offensive touchdown and we still came back
Speaker 1: and won the game, which is just like defensive scores.
Speaker 1: Devin Hester, I mean, and and Denny Green was right
Speaker 1: after the game to say the Bears are who he
Speaker 1: thought they were. He thought they were good defense, great
Speaker 1: special teams, and the offense couldn't get out of the way.
Speaker 1: And that's who that's who we were, that's who we
Speaker 1: ended up being. And um, but that is still to
Speaker 1: this day the most unbelievable crazy game that I've ever
Speaker 1: been a part of playing or calling a game up.
Speaker 1: To think that we would come back without scoring, you know,
Speaker 1: on offense and win that game, it just mean if
Speaker 1: I was a Cardinals fan, I would I would be
Speaker 1: pulling my hair out. It was twenty nothing at halftime.
Speaker 1: It was twenty three to ten going into the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: Edrin James fumble Charles Tillman returns at forty yards for
Speaker 1: a touchdown, and then two minutes later Scott Player punt
Speaker 1: returned Devin Hester eighty three yards Devin Hester for a
Speaker 1: touchdown twenty four twenty three. That sounds like twenty eight
Speaker 1: three in the Super Bowl, right, the Patriots coming back
Speaker 1: against you know, the Falcons. In that kind of game,
Speaker 1: you just need everything. I mean, that's even worse. And
Speaker 1: that was I think late third quarter at twenty eight
Speaker 1: to three. So I was not here for that, but
Speaker 1: Brian has has told me that story multiple times. I
Speaker 1: think every time we walk around on the field down here,
Speaker 1: oh that night, that's great comeback. So it's a good
Speaker 1: story for sure. I don't know why Cardinal fans will
Speaker 1: want to relive that. I know it was awful. I
Speaker 1: remember I think that was Mike. I think it was
Speaker 1: a first year ESPN had Monday Night Football and it
Speaker 1: was Mike Tariko. But we can't end on that story.
Speaker 1: One of my positive stories about coming here was after
Speaker 1: September eleventh, two thousand and one. The first game that
Speaker 1: we played after nine eleven was was here in Arizona
Speaker 1: and to see the fans in the stands and Pat
Speaker 1: Tillman was still on the team at the time, obviously,
Speaker 1: and so that that memory is also seared, uh into
Speaker 1: my memory banks about being being here and the other
Speaker 1: one about Arizona. While I'm dumping them all out. We
Speaker 1: were supposed to play I was playing with the Dolphins,
Speaker 1: were playing the Chargers on a Monday, on a Monday.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a Monday, it was a Sunday game that
Speaker 1: was canceled due to fires UH in San Diego, and
Speaker 1: so we went to Tempe UH to play the Chargers
Speaker 1: it turned out being a Monday night game and that
Speaker 1: the stands were open. You guys, remember this is stands
Speaker 1: were open to all the ASU UH students and that's
Speaker 1: still to this day was probably one of the most
Speaker 1: raucous and rowdy fan bases because as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: all those college students coming straight from the UH fraternity
Speaker 1: house without having to pay to get in. I think
Speaker 1: all the tickets were free if I recorded correctly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like anybody could go. So, yeah, it was. It was
Speaker 1: pretty crazy. Did Tillman light you up in that game,
Speaker 1: by the way, Uh? Probably, Yeah, yes, sure, a good chair.
Speaker 1: Yeah he was, man, just a canned answer. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: when I asked you if something me he was? He was.
Speaker 1: He was unbelievable. He was. You know, even before he
Speaker 1: gave up football and went into the military, he was
Speaker 1: so well respected across the league, not only from his
Speaker 1: team but from opponents. And so you just knew about
Speaker 1: Pat Tillman. Everybody knew his story. And then when he
Speaker 1: did what he did, obviously it just went to another level.
Speaker 1: Go eat lunch. Thanks guys for doing this. Really appreciate
Speaker 1: you both. And yeah, man, let's speaking of lunch, you know,
Speaker 1: continue to get your free lunch or doing these podcasts
Speaker 1: from the Cardinals. That's that's awesome. Let's do this every day.
Speaker 1: What are you doing tomorrow? It's fine by me. I
Speaker 1: gotta record like fifty of these, So all right, tellas,
Speaker 1: thank you, Yeah man, have a good season. Good luck
Speaker 1: to the Cardinals in the playoffs. Pretty strong takes from
Speaker 1: Greasy and leaving on Kyler Murray, the Cardinals and the
Speaker 1: NFC West. Can't wait to watch my friends called Monday
Speaker 1: night football games again this season. Also, how about the
Speaker 1: perspective that Greasy had on the Monday night meltdown. Just think,
Speaker 1: if the Cardinals beat the Bears in two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: Greasy probably replaces Rex Grossman and maybe leads the Bears
Speaker 1: beyond what they accomplished that year. And remember they went
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl that year, losing to Peyton Manning
Speaker 1: and the Colts. Instead, Greasy stayed the backup thanks to
Speaker 1: the bears miraculous comeback. That'll do it for today's edition
Speaker 1: of the Dave Pash Podcast. You can follow us on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Pash Pod to get the latest on upcoming
Speaker 1: podcasts and also a look back at previous episodes of
Speaker 1: the Dave Pash Podcast, which include guests Cliff Kingsbury, Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, Pro Bowl safety Buddha Baker,
Speaker 1: and ESPN analyst Mina Kimes. We are presented by bet MGM,
Speaker 1: the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, as
Speaker 1: well as Hila River Hotels and Casinos. Until next time,
Speaker 1: I'm Dave Pash. Thanks for listening to Dave Pash Podcast.
Speaker 1: The rep do be listing limp