Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Calls with Dean Blandino, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. This is a new podcast. This is
Speaker 1: gonna be your go to spot for everything officiating, rules, football,
Speaker 1: all sports. We're gonna talk about it all Excited to
Speaker 1: get going. Um, we're gonna talk We're gonna talk sports,
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk life, rules, We're gonna talk sports, gaming.
Speaker 1: I think that's the correct term. But there's a lot
Speaker 1: to get into. And want to introduce my, uh my
Speaker 1: partners in crime. Here, my my producer, Mr Travis Hanson. Travis,
Speaker 1: what's up? What's going on? Not much? Not much? Good
Speaker 1: first impression, Travis, America is gonna love you. It's what
Speaker 1: I'm here for. America is gonna love you. And our
Speaker 1: our audio guy, our handyman extraordinaire, Mr mcgiver himself, Joe Madrid, Joe,
Speaker 1: what's up now much? Dean, how you doing? Thanks for
Speaker 1: having me excited for the first show. See see Travis,
Speaker 1: that's how you That's just too much And exactly he's
Speaker 1: the audio guy and he's already trying to like sneak in.
Speaker 1: It's the name of the show is Good Calls with
Speaker 1: Dean Blandinos. Just remember that I know, I don't know
Speaker 1: if there remind I don't know if you remind you
Speaker 1: of that, Travis. But um, look, let's get week one.
Speaker 1: There was a ton of stuff. We were in the studio,
Speaker 1: UM Saturday for college football, yesterday for NFL, A ton
Speaker 1: of stuff. I want to jump right into it and
Speaker 1: also stick around because we got a pretty good interview
Speaker 1: with Troy Vincent, former NFL player and now the executive
Speaker 1: vice president for Football Operations, UM with the with the NFL.
Speaker 1: So we'll we'll play some excerpts from that interview later on.
Speaker 1: But week one, UM, you know, we got the new
Speaker 1: rule past interference, right, and that's what everybody's been talking about.
Speaker 1: And and we start yesterday, right, there was seven reviews
Speaker 1: for past interference and yeah, we saw it Thursday, Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur through one. I think everybody agreed that that that
Speaker 1: was not a great challenge. But again, first time head coach,
Speaker 1: first challenge didn't go very well, and the and the
Speaker 1: ruling on the field stood. But seven reviews and one
Speaker 1: of the things the concerns right with replays, how many
Speaker 1: times are we gonna stop the game? And uh, in
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen, one point three six reviews per game
Speaker 1: just through fourteen games in week one, we've got two.
Speaker 1: Tonight there were there were one point six four reviews
Speaker 1: per games. So they're up, and I think we anticipate
Speaker 1: they're gonna be up, at least initially. But seven reviews
Speaker 1: from past inference two created um in replay one in
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Jets game. And this is I think something
Speaker 1: we all have to live with right every time now
Speaker 1: there's a touchdown. In addition to looking at whether the
Speaker 1: receiver got his feet inbounds or did he did he
Speaker 1: control the past? Now we're gonna be looking at blocking
Speaker 1: down field? Travis? Is that something now? Is as a fan?
Speaker 1: Are you? Are you? Is that something we gotta get
Speaker 1: used to? I think you have to get used to
Speaker 1: it because this is the way it is. This is
Speaker 1: the new NFL we live in. And unfortunately you're you're
Speaker 1: gonna be looking for flags more. We're we're in the studio,
Speaker 1: we're looking for flags on every play. We're looking is
Speaker 1: it a clean touchdown? And then we're looking, oh is
Speaker 1: there a flag? Is our flag? Now at home, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be like, okay, where else may a flag come in?
Speaker 1: That we don't see on TV that that lands outside
Speaker 1: of the picture on your TV screen, and it almost
Speaker 1: it almost takes away the joy of the moment, right
Speaker 1: because you want to you want to celebrate that touchdown.
Speaker 1: But now you're like, wait a minute, is there a flag?
Speaker 1: Is there? You know? Is there gonna be a replay review?
Speaker 1: And what happened in the in the Jets game, there
Speaker 1: was a touchdown pass that was thrown and uh and
Speaker 1: the replay officials responsible for reviewing all all aspects of
Speaker 1: that play, all reviewable aspects, and they stopped the game
Speaker 1: and they created a foul for offensive past inference for
Speaker 1: blocking down feel more than a yard before the ball
Speaker 1: was was touched, and it was the correct call. But again,
Speaker 1: we are now living in this world where hold up,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, we um we are going to review this,
Speaker 1: and I do want to say I think it I'd
Speaker 1: be remiss in saying that we are we are recording.
Speaker 1: We're coming from our beautiful studios in Hermosa Beach, California.
Speaker 1: And I'm reminded of that because I have a great
Speaker 1: window to uh, what is that pure avenue right there?
Speaker 1: And the sights and sounds are unbelievable. But anyway, Jets
Speaker 1: Buffalo O p I first replay create the first past
Speaker 1: inference created by replay. But let's talk about Tampa San Francisco.
Speaker 1: That was our game. That was there was a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff in that game. And and Joe, you're shaking
Speaker 1: your head, You're you like you want to speak right now?
Speaker 1: What what? What ahead? It felt like there was a
Speaker 1: flag on every play of that game. It was every
Speaker 1: single time something good happened, there's that yellow graphic on
Speaker 1: the screen. It was just like enough, it was well,
Speaker 1: you know, when you know, we do want to talk
Speaker 1: about offensive holding that that has been a point of
Speaker 1: emphasis in the preseason. Offensive holding calls were up significantly,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know it was it was close to
Speaker 1: six a game, which is which would be a record
Speaker 1: for any season, the most, the most the NFL has
Speaker 1: ever had in the season was just under four offensive
Speaker 1: holding calls and that's total, that's that's accepted declined offset.
Speaker 1: And uh, and so it did feel in that in
Speaker 1: that forty niner buck game that I think there were
Speaker 1: four touchdowns brought back on penalties and and that that's
Speaker 1: a lot. There were There were just over five offensive
Speaker 1: holding penalties called UM per game in the first fourteen games,
Speaker 1: and that that is a big number. And and my
Speaker 1: concern is, look, if it's holding, it's holding. It's such
Speaker 1: a subjective call. But when you start thinking about what
Speaker 1: what makes the NFL so popular, what do people want
Speaker 1: to see? Ones got their fantasy. I mean, Travis is
Speaker 1: all about scoring. He he wants to score in all
Speaker 1: aspects of his life. But scoring, passing yards, all of that.
Speaker 1: Offensive holding penalties are big penalties. When you the number
Speaker 1: of drives that result in points, when there's an offensive
Speaker 1: holding call during that drive, it goes down you know,
Speaker 1: first and twenty second and twenty these are these are
Speaker 1: tough to overcome and uh and so when you have
Speaker 1: that many of holding calls and and that many penalties
Speaker 1: in general, it's tough to sustain drives. You look at
Speaker 1: scoring just through the first fourteen weeks, it wasn't down.
Speaker 1: Um we we averaged just over forty eight UH points
Speaker 1: per game in the first week. But what was significant
Speaker 1: about that though the margin of victory was was pretty big,
Speaker 1: the margin of victory was seventeen. We had a lot
Speaker 1: of blowouts. Miami Baltimore was a blowout, Tennessee Cleveland. You know,
Speaker 1: all that and we'll get into Cleveland in a second.
Speaker 1: But seventeen is a big that's a that's a big number,
Speaker 1: and where the league really wants to be is um.
Speaker 1: You know, if you can get under ten when you
Speaker 1: talk about margin of victory, that that is a good number.
Speaker 1: So high scoring, low margin of victory, that's where you
Speaker 1: want to be. Week one were we're at high scoring,
Speaker 1: but we're at a high margin of victory. And so
Speaker 1: that that's something to be concerned about. UM. But in
Speaker 1: that game, that that Tampa San Francisco game, there were
Speaker 1: two plays. UM and my my boy b A. Bruce
Speaker 1: Arians is the first head coach to win a past
Speaker 1: interference challenge and and b A is a kind of
Speaker 1: a trail He's a trailblazer. He's a trailblazer, UM, And look,
Speaker 1: in all seriousness, this is a guy that has been
Speaker 1: at the forefront of in terms of diversity and minority hiring.
Speaker 1: He's got he's the first head coach to have UM
Speaker 1: female assistant coaches on the staff. So this is a
Speaker 1: guy that is not afraid of change and is a
Speaker 1: guy that is progressive. But he's also a guy that
Speaker 1: has a masterful, masterful grasp on the on the English language.
Speaker 1: If you've ever had the privilege of talking to him
Speaker 1: off the record, you know, outside of you know, with
Speaker 1: a microphone. He doesn't have a microphone in his in
Speaker 1: his face. He uh, he uses some I've never I've
Speaker 1: never met a guy that could that could drop more
Speaker 1: f bombs in more creative ways and a shorter span
Speaker 1: than well. You remember on the Amazon show when they
Speaker 1: did that, he he had to apologize. He's unbelievable. He's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: But what I love about him is he's a guy
Speaker 1: that will He will m f you for twenty minutes
Speaker 1: on the phone, and then at the end of the conversation,
Speaker 1: you're You're back to being you know your boys. It's like,
Speaker 1: all right, talk to you, talk to you later. And
Speaker 1: we've got some good b a stories that will share
Speaker 1: over the course of the next couple of weeks. But
Speaker 1: Richard Sherman Mike Evans, that matchup, that is a physical matchup, right,
Speaker 1: Mike Evans is a big receiver, Richard Sherman is a
Speaker 1: big defensive back, a lot of hands, hand fighting um
Speaker 1: Earlier in the game ten minutes to go incomplete pass
Speaker 1: Bruce challenges and they create a out for pastive inference
Speaker 1: and replay end of the game. Tampa's last play from scrimmage. Um,
Speaker 1: they throw it out. A lot of contact on both sides.
Speaker 1: We were looking at it and I actually went on
Speaker 1: the air and and and the contact by Sherman at
Speaker 1: the end it look it is passive inference. What he did, right,
Speaker 1: He he basically had his arm across Evans arms. Evans
Speaker 1: couldn't get his arms up to make a play on
Speaker 1: the ball, So that is past inference. But the call
Speaker 1: on the field stood, and we were kind of thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: how is that possible? But you know, looking at it
Speaker 1: again and just talking to some people around the league
Speaker 1: where they've been and this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 1: Is what they're saying is if there's contact both ways,
Speaker 1: and if there's a lot of hand fighting and you're
Speaker 1: not sure who's doing what to who, um, then they're
Speaker 1: they're gonna let that go and and and that's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a bad thing, is it. It's not bad, But
Speaker 1: you could argue that was the same thing that happened
Speaker 1: on the on the first one, and it becomes so
Speaker 1: subjective and in in in the fourth quarter, is it
Speaker 1: more important to get a call or put a call
Speaker 1: on and it is earlier in the game or or
Speaker 1: not not as important. It's it becomes too subjective. And
Speaker 1: that's and and you make a good point because I
Speaker 1: like that standard, but we've got to be consistent, right
Speaker 1: And and we talked to coaches, and coaches understand that
Speaker 1: officials are gonna make mistakes. They're human. The game is
Speaker 1: it happens quickly, and it's amazing how right they are,
Speaker 1: you know, looking at it one time from their perspective.
Speaker 1: But coaches get that. What they don't like is when
Speaker 1: they're inconsistent and you apply one standard in one situation,
Speaker 1: then the same situation happens again and you apply a
Speaker 1: different standard. And that's I think that's that's the goal
Speaker 1: is to be consistent and uh and so you have that,
Speaker 1: and then the next thing I want to talk about
Speaker 1: is this ready, what am I doing? Clapping? Everyone knows
Speaker 1: that clapping. Have we created another gate? Have we created?
Speaker 1: We had spy gate, we had the flake gate, clap gate,
Speaker 1: we had I don't know, did the Miami thing, the
Speaker 1: bully gate? Did that ever catch on? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's but clap game, right, what is going on
Speaker 1: in obviously Kyler Murray in the preseason, it was this
Speaker 1: deal where and that's a college thing. You watched the
Speaker 1: college game and they allow it. Right. Um, it's it's
Speaker 1: whether it's a silent count, whatever it is. Clap the
Speaker 1: snap doesn't come. Um, as long as it's not something
Speaker 1: and this has been in the NFL game, it hasn't
Speaker 1: been an issue. As long as it's not quick, abrupt
Speaker 1: designed to draw the defense, it wasn't an issue. What
Speaker 1: the league said is, Okay, if you clap, you have
Speaker 1: to get the snap immediately. And and that's where we are.
Speaker 1: It was a play yesterday in the Lins. But well,
Speaker 1: you know, is it an exception that was me on
Speaker 1: the air yesterday? We Stafford. The lines on our ore
Speaker 1: are on offense. Stafford, the play clock is running down.
Speaker 1: Stafford is clapping like he he was clapping like he
Speaker 1: just he just witnessed Paul McCartney, Eric lapped in Andrea
Speaker 1: Butcelli all doing a one time only collaboration of like
Speaker 1: a llelujah right, Like that's how he was clapping that
Speaker 1: kind I went there. How about his boy kershot he
Speaker 1: did Matthew Stafford with Clayton Kersher. Really, I've never I've
Speaker 1: never heard that the actually sarcasm dean sarcasm. I never.
Speaker 1: You never hear that, ever that Clayton kersh from Matthew
Speaker 1: Stafford went to the same high school in Texas. Never
Speaker 1: you never see them. Here they are and in in
Speaker 1: peewee baseball, and they both became pro athletes. Whatever, we
Speaker 1: get it back, we get it to. Okay. Bottom line is,
Speaker 1: here's the deal. So Stafford is clapping, they don't they
Speaker 1: don't call, they don't throw a flag right away, and
Speaker 1: then the umpire throws a flag. They get together, the referee,
Speaker 1: Scott Novak gets on the mic and says, there's no
Speaker 1: foul for for a false start. Now you're in Arizona, Okay.
Speaker 1: So this thing been where the things started, and so
Speaker 1: Arizona is obviously upset, the fans are upset. Kingsbury is upset.
Speaker 1: I'm sure Kyler Murray was like, what the f um?
Speaker 1: You know, I go on the air and I'm trying
Speaker 1: to explain it, and I'm like, you know, well, maybe
Speaker 1: because the play clock was running down, they're gonna let that.
Speaker 1: They're gonna let that go. Look, we've seen that forever
Speaker 1: in the NFL. I hope the league gets this together.
Speaker 1: What where we are now is if you clap, you
Speaker 1: gotta get the snap immediately. If you don't, it's a
Speaker 1: false start. So that's where we are. We'll see where
Speaker 1: it goes. But but that's enough. On clapgate, um, head scratching,
Speaker 1: head Scratcher, call of the Week. We're trying to come
Speaker 1: up with a name, and and we like head scratcher.
Speaker 1: What was the other one? Joe that we things that
Speaker 1: make you go? Oh, things that make you go? Which
Speaker 1: was a school who wasn't seeing Saturday Night? Saturday night,
Speaker 1: we were in the studio. We started, Um, we had
Speaker 1: a game kickoff at nine am, right the big newon
Speaker 1: kickoff Army in Michigan. So we get there an hour early.
Speaker 1: We're there at it. Why wasn't there was? Actually but
Speaker 1: I was actually filming something for the kickoff, which was
Speaker 1: unbelievable if you haven't had a chance to. We were
Speaker 1: all I was. I was. I was filming with Charissa Thompson,
Speaker 1: a spoof on the nineties sitcom Clarissa tells all or
Speaker 1: explains it all But anyway, so we're there for the
Speaker 1: nine o'clock kickoff and we have our our dreaded pack
Speaker 1: twelve after dark, after dark, thirty Pacific kickoff. Who's watching
Speaker 1: that game on the East Coast? Joe Cambles, They're chasing,
Speaker 1: They're chasing money. These are the people that are watching it.
Speaker 1: If you went to either school and you're you're a
Speaker 1: big fan the degenerate gamblers. Okay, sorry, is that illowed
Speaker 1: to say that? And my mom because she's hoping that
Speaker 1: I can get on the air to explain a target.
Speaker 1: So anyway, we go into a lightning delay for two
Speaker 1: hours and forty minutes, so the game kicks off in
Speaker 1: seven Pacific. So during the lightning like we had an
Speaker 1: impromptu nineties hip hop dance music like festival. It was
Speaker 1: a fest. It was dancing, singing, karaoke and C and
Speaker 1: C Music Factory made an appearance. Things that make you
Speaker 1: go and uh, And that's where we came up with
Speaker 1: the name. But I think we're gonna stick with head Scratcher.
Speaker 1: I know we got off topic there, um the heads
Speaker 1: while like head Scratcher called the weakest because we can
Speaker 1: we can work out we can work an endorsement deal
Speaker 1: with maybe a hair product, and the hair product I
Speaker 1: was thinking of going after is the hair product that
Speaker 1: my my, my producer here Travis uses, Travis, you want
Speaker 1: to share with the audience, you know, the hair product
Speaker 1: that use I use a product that's commonly um used
Speaker 1: by folks that don't look like me. Uh, It's called Murray's.
Speaker 1: I had to look it up. But Travis, so you
Speaker 1: use it's a palm aid and and I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't even really know what I should
Speaker 1: say about this. But Michael Strahan came in and we
Speaker 1: told him that I use that, and he said, what
Speaker 1: the after you use that product for? So we should
Speaker 1: probably explain how Travis looks. So I just saying it's Travis.
Speaker 1: Travis is not your your average Murray's user. So Travis
Speaker 1: is from Wyoming, Travis grew up kind of farm country. Um,
Speaker 1: Travis is how do I put this? Travis is rollerblade
Speaker 1: to work white. I don't blades. For the record, I
Speaker 1: don't that's what Travis is. And so he's not your
Speaker 1: typical Murray's user. But I use seventy son block and
Speaker 1: I go to the beach. Yeah, exactly, Travis, I don't
Speaker 1: even know such a Travis gets a Travis gets a
Speaker 1: Tannent Tanna Trader Joe's and like the produce aisle. But
Speaker 1: I don't know why, I don't know what what That
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense anyway. Um, so I think we need
Speaker 1: to go after Murray's. So Murray's, if anybody a Murray's
Speaker 1: is listening, we will go. We'll call it the head Scratchers,
Speaker 1: call the week brought to you by Murray's palm aide um.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Murray's won't leave your head scratch and they'll
Speaker 1: leave your hair perfect all day. That's just happy. We
Speaker 1: already were writing. Like literally the people at Murray's are
Speaker 1: scrambling right now, like we have to trademark that. Okay,
Speaker 1: So Rams, Panthers and we were all So it's a
Speaker 1: play where the past the Rams have the ball, the
Speaker 1: passers ruled incomplete on the field, the ball comes loose,
Speaker 1: the Panthers jump on it. It's outside two minutes. So
Speaker 1: it's a coach's challenge situation. The fishers on the field
Speaker 1: rule incomplete. Coach Ron Rivera, the Panthers coach challenges that
Speaker 1: it was a catch and he fumbled with a clear recovery. Um,
Speaker 1: I go on the air and explain that. Look, here's
Speaker 1: the process of the catch. Uh. I know, cowboy fans
Speaker 1: don't think I know what it catches, but I do.
Speaker 1: And uh, look catches control body part down in time.
Speaker 1: You gotta have it long enough. I didn't think he
Speaker 1: had it long enough. I thought he got hit immediately.
Speaker 1: I didn't think he performed a football move. He's going
Speaker 1: to the ground, the ball came loose. I thought it
Speaker 1: was a good call on the field. Referee Shawn Hockeyley
Speaker 1: comes on the mic, and what did he say, Travis?
Speaker 1: What was the explanation. I don't remember exactly what he said,
Speaker 1: but he just he talked far too much. He could
Speaker 1: have just said the call in the field stands incomplete.
Speaker 1: That's what he should have said. No, he said it
Speaker 1: was a catch and he was down by contact. Now, okay,
Speaker 1: so what Shawn said. Now, Sean is an excellent referee,
Speaker 1: and Shawan is going to be one of the one
Speaker 1: of the better NFL referees for a long time. And
Speaker 1: obviously you know the name hockey Le. He went a
Speaker 1: little hockey, he went a little hockeyly. He's Ed hockey
Speaker 1: Lee's son, Ed Hockeyley, is was one of the best
Speaker 1: referees of all time. And I know Ed very well,
Speaker 1: Um and I have a lot of respect for Ed,
Speaker 1: but Ed could could get a little verbose on the microphone,
Speaker 1: and and so Sean and I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was a homage to his dad or whatever, he went
Speaker 1: a little too far during the during the the announcement,
Speaker 1: what he said was he said, it is a catch,
Speaker 1: but since we couldn't determine whether the receiver's knee was
Speaker 1: down with control of the ball, um, the call on
Speaker 1: the field stands it is an incomplete pass. So so
Speaker 1: we kind of all scratched our heads. You know, Travis
Speaker 1: is very well quaffed Murray Um Murray had But so
Speaker 1: in essence, what happened is he really should have just
Speaker 1: said incomplete ruling on the field stands incomplete. But again
Speaker 1: it was one of those deals where because of the
Speaker 1: new catch rule, and I like the new catch rule
Speaker 1: in certain instances, but we have, in my opinion, we
Speaker 1: have we have overcomplicated this and I think the old
Speaker 1: rule was a more simple rule. I think people understood it.
Speaker 1: They just didn't want to understand it when it went
Speaker 1: against their team. But anyway, that's I'll get off the soapbox. There,
Speaker 1: but it was the head scratcher um call of the
Speaker 1: week because that sounds like it was a catch, but
Speaker 1: it's not a catch. Well, yeah it was a catch,
Speaker 1: but it was incomplete and and you know and again
Speaker 1: and I and I get it. And maybe you know
Speaker 1: because there were things like my dad used to say.
Speaker 1: When my dad used to get frustrated, he would he
Speaker 1: would he had this phrase that he would say, he
Speaker 1: would go your sister's ass. Right. We didn't know what
Speaker 1: that was, we didn't know what it meant, but he
Speaker 1: would say it whenever he got frustrated. So now when
Speaker 1: I get frustrated, I say, and my sons are gonna
Speaker 1: say it. So you know, Sean comes from the hockey
Speaker 1: league tree, and he got you know, he got stuck
Speaker 1: in that you know, your sister's ass triangle. Basically, I
Speaker 1: always thought Ed just did it because he wanted to
Speaker 1: show up his guns for as long as he could.
Speaker 1: That just shows how level headed you are, because in
Speaker 1: ten years of friendship, I've never heard that. It's more
Speaker 1: I say it to myself. I say in the car,
Speaker 1: I am very level headed. I don't I don't get
Speaker 1: too excited about too many things we have heard about
Speaker 1: your road rage. I've never been in the car with
Speaker 1: you and you've had road rage, but you have the
Speaker 1: East Coast road rage. Is what you say. It's the
Speaker 1: people out here. I don't whatever. Anyway, Um, Cincinnati Seattle.
Speaker 1: End of the game. You guys were you guys were
Speaker 1: sweating it out. It was so good. We're doing a
Speaker 1: we're doing a suicide pool, survivor pool. Sorry, survivor pool.
Speaker 1: And um, you guys had Seattle in the survivor pool.
Speaker 1: I had, I was, I was skating easy. I took
Speaker 1: the Eagles. It was no problem. Eagles. They were down
Speaker 1: seventeen nothing. I was already done, but they came back.
Speaker 1: You guys had Seattle had to sweat it out. Great.
Speaker 1: I mean, Cincinnati new head coach. You know, not a
Speaker 1: lot of people thinking, you know, I think right, I
Speaker 1: think the most people picked Seattle. And in our pool.
Speaker 1: I mean this is that that Sean McVeigh. If you
Speaker 1: know Sean McVeigh, you shake. If you're shaking his hand
Speaker 1: in the league and you've worked for him, you're gonna
Speaker 1: get an offense that you're gonna get a job as
Speaker 1: an offensive coach. And and Dalton had his best passing
Speaker 1: day of his career, he had the most yards and
Speaker 1: he had a great day. But so the end of
Speaker 1: the game, Dalton gets it there, down by one, they
Speaker 1: have the ball, Dalton gets hit from behind, Um the
Speaker 1: ball comes loose. There's some confusion initially as to what
Speaker 1: they ruled on the field, but they ruled fumble recovered
Speaker 1: by the Seahawks. Game over, they go to review. We
Speaker 1: looked at it and it's a pass. The empty hand.
Speaker 1: The hand comes forward with the empty hand would be
Speaker 1: a fumble. Um hand comes forward with control. Hand coming
Speaker 1: forward with control of the football constitutes a forward pass
Speaker 1: until he starts to bring the ball back to his body.
Speaker 1: So the hand comes forward with control, the ball is out. Uh.
Speaker 1: Jeans Terator, who who is on CBS as a rules analyst,
Speaker 1: said as much that it was a pass. He thought
Speaker 1: it was gonna be overturned and uh. And they come
Speaker 1: out and they announced the ruling on the field has
Speaker 1: been confirmed. And so we were all, well, the graphic
Speaker 1: initially set incomplete, and then they came back out of
Speaker 1: that and the saying it was yeah, and it's so
Speaker 1: we were all kind of shocked at you know, it
Speaker 1: would be a stretch to go stands on that and
Speaker 1: to say confirmed, you're saying no, it's indisputable, it's clear
Speaker 1: and obvious that it was a past which it clearly wasn't.
Speaker 1: Now I've since learned that, Um, the the decision was
Speaker 1: actually stands and and the the announcement was incorrect. But
Speaker 1: even a stands you know that that's a play. Look
Speaker 1: is since then I'm gonna win the game because you know,
Speaker 1: did they lose the game because of that play? No?
Speaker 1: They would they have had a chance one more snap. Yes, UM,
Speaker 1: chances are it's not. It doesn't make the difference, but
Speaker 1: it's just one of those plays where it does illustrate
Speaker 1: the the subjectivity in replay. Replay was initially put in
Speaker 1: to correct the obvious are in a significant situation? That's
Speaker 1: that was the tagline in And there were people at
Speaker 1: that time UM around the league. And I give Mike
Speaker 1: Brown UM from the Cincinnati Bengals credit because Mike Brown,
Speaker 1: who's the owner of the Bengals, UM was against replay
Speaker 1: then because of the potential of where it could go to.
Speaker 1: And he's still against replay and he's stuck to his
Speaker 1: principles because he was the only owner the Bengals were
Speaker 1: the only team that voted against the past inference review
Speaker 1: um proposal and UH and so. But there were a
Speaker 1: lot around the league at that time that we're concerned about. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're putting the system in to fix the obvious error
Speaker 1: in the significant situation with objective facts, the ball touching
Speaker 1: the ground, the foot touching the sideline. Now we are
Speaker 1: not in that world. We are not just fixing obvious
Speaker 1: errors in significant situations, and we are no longer dealing
Speaker 1: with just objective fact. We're dealing with subjectivity. You were
Speaker 1: in the league office. What was your position then? Yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: my position was, you know, I was obviously you know,
Speaker 1: I felt that we needed replay. I mean, you look
Speaker 1: at the season and there were calls that were made
Speaker 1: that that impacted not only games, but playoffs and livelihoods.
Speaker 1: You have the mini test of averdie play, which was
Speaker 1: the Jets and Seahawks fourth and fourth and goal. Uh,
Speaker 1: Jets are down by five test of averdie. Run up
Speaker 1: the middle, he's clearly down short of the goal line.
Speaker 1: The officials will touchdown. Seahawks lose the game. They don't
Speaker 1: make the playoffs by one game. Dennis Erickson and his
Speaker 1: staff lose their jobs. So so I think that was
Speaker 1: the tipping point and where we said we need we
Speaker 1: need a vehicle to be able to fix that. And
Speaker 1: but that's the thing about that's the standard, that's that's
Speaker 1: where we are. That's the poster child that play. And
Speaker 1: think about the calls just on Saturday and Sunday that
Speaker 1: are being reviewed, which about seven yard passes in the
Speaker 1: first quarter. Right, we're talking about line the game plays
Speaker 1: on second nd right blocking down field. So so we
Speaker 1: are officiating via replay now? And is that the world
Speaker 1: we want to live in? You know? Is it? I'm
Speaker 1: asking you guys? And is that what people want to see?
Speaker 1: I don't think so, I don't. I don't think yeah,
Speaker 1: And and what is the saturation point? When when do
Speaker 1: we reach as a as a as a a fan base,
Speaker 1: as a league, as the clubs. When do we reach
Speaker 1: the point where we say enough is enough with replay?
Speaker 1: Look replay like like Sammy Sosa, baseball is very good
Speaker 1: to him. Replay has been very good to me. But
Speaker 1: there's a point where we have to say, the rules
Speaker 1: are written for on field officials to make calls in
Speaker 1: real time and we can't officiate via replay. The significant plays.
Speaker 1: You want to see them right? Do you want to
Speaker 1: see them get them right? And if that's what replay,
Speaker 1: then then we're good with it. But the other stuff,
Speaker 1: the subjective calls, I don't like that. I agree because
Speaker 1: I mean, when does it end? When is it every
Speaker 1: there's a there's an official in the booth looking at
Speaker 1: every single play. Oh, there was a guy two yards downfield.
Speaker 1: Here's where we're going. We are going to we are
Speaker 1: going to a video official sky judge whatever. And and
Speaker 1: and I talked to Troy about that in the interview
Speaker 1: Troy Vincent, We're gonna We're gonna talk to um play
Speaker 1: excerpts from that interview, Executive vice president of Football Operations
Speaker 1: for the NFL, and we talked about that concept. That
Speaker 1: is where the league is going eventually because the technology
Speaker 1: has gotten so good and the fan at home or
Speaker 1: in the sports bar or on their phone can see
Speaker 1: things that the human I can't see on the field.
Speaker 1: And we are going to go to a video official
Speaker 1: sky judge concept. And we are gonna be sitting there
Speaker 1: and we're gonna be waiting with bated breath after every play.
Speaker 1: And I'm exaggerating to some extent, but just to make
Speaker 1: the point is that where we want to be. Because
Speaker 1: momentum in football is real, it's real. And we had
Speaker 1: plays yesterday, we had placed Saturday where teams are moving.
Speaker 1: You look at Arizona and the Lions weren't. Overtime, teams
Speaker 1: are moving momentum, you know, big game. It was the Lions.
Speaker 1: It was a catch. Remember the Lions had had gone
Speaker 1: down by three and overtime there was a close catch
Speaker 1: um in the middle of the field. It looked like
Speaker 1: it was good. The Lions have to you know, have
Speaker 1: to run down the field. They've got the defense on
Speaker 1: their heels and uh and replace stops it to look
Speaker 1: at it. That's real. That's that That changes momentum, that
Speaker 1: changes the flow. And and I think that's what we
Speaker 1: have to be just And yeah, I thought it was
Speaker 1: a catch and and I look, I get it because
Speaker 1: you can't confirm it a d percent. You let a
Speaker 1: play go and then and then the network comes back
Speaker 1: with a shot and shows the ball on the ground.
Speaker 1: That's the worst results. So it's just the nature of
Speaker 1: the system and that's and that's part of it. And
Speaker 1: and again where do we draw the line? Last thing
Speaker 1: I do want to touch on from an NFL perspective,
Speaker 1: is um the the ejections yesterday we had we had
Speaker 1: three ejections, um Um. I know one for sure came
Speaker 1: from New York. And and the new rule this year. Uh,
Speaker 1: in terms of the folks in New York, the designated
Speaker 1: personnel in the league office can get involved if flagonstorone
Speaker 1: on the field for a football or non football act
Speaker 1: and and the officials on the field penalize it, and uh,
Speaker 1: but they're not going to eject. Then New York can
Speaker 1: look at it and they can eject. So um this
Speaker 1: year they added the football part of that. And so
Speaker 1: I hit on a receiver that type of thing. So
Speaker 1: Greg Robinson from the Browns, and I do want to
Speaker 1: talk about the Browns, and you guys gotta back me
Speaker 1: up on this. I was not on the Browns hype
Speaker 1: band wagon, okay, And and I will repeat right now,
Speaker 1: the Browns will not win that division. Okay. Everybody's sleeping
Speaker 1: on Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Obviously, Pittsburgh took their lumps last
Speaker 1: night against New England. Baltimore looks legit. I know, Miami,
Speaker 1: not a lot of people are expecting things out of
Speaker 1: Miami this year. But I was not a Brown's hype bandwagon.
Speaker 1: So after all this height to lose at home like
Speaker 1: that smashed, that was a tough loss, right, I mean?
Speaker 1: Is that it is that all no one's gonna give
Speaker 1: me any credit for. I get it's one game. You
Speaker 1: did call that you you said Brown's third in the division.
Speaker 1: You also, however, said yeah, I don't know if my other,
Speaker 1: my other prediction is gonna be I said, the Giants
Speaker 1: will win more games in the Browns. If you're gonna
Speaker 1: take credit for the one you have, yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: think that's gonna happen. Look, I think the Browns are
Speaker 1: gonna be. We we were, we were rooting for the
Speaker 1: Browns last year. I just think there's so much hype,
Speaker 1: and there's so much when you bring a team like
Speaker 1: that together, a very talented team, a new head coach,
Speaker 1: you don't know how all those pieces are gonna fit.
Speaker 1: You really don't. And uh and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: dynamics there. So again they've got they've got their work
Speaker 1: cut out for them. I'm not, like I said, I'm
Speaker 1: not anti Brown, but I just it's it's the hype
Speaker 1: was what was getting to me and then but did
Speaker 1: have that best jewelry on? What was was that dollar watch?
Speaker 1: Who wears a three allar watch on the field? Are
Speaker 1: you concerned that it's gonna get like nicked up? If
Speaker 1: if I'm a defender on that, I'm going like I'm
Speaker 1: going at him like a keep to lead when after
Speaker 1: Michael Crabtree, I'm trying to snag that thing every chance
Speaker 1: I can. I just what is the is he getting?
Speaker 1: What is he doing? Jo's getting like a lot of
Speaker 1: little side endorsement deal the league has. The league has
Speaker 1: has strict policies on that in terms of on field
Speaker 1: and what you can what you can you can wear,
Speaker 1: and things like that. So I'm sure that will be addressed,
Speaker 1: but it was. It's all publicity stuff and it makes
Speaker 1: them unlikable to the average person because they can't relate.
Speaker 1: Some that's more than a house in most places where
Speaker 1: I grew up, that's three houses where you grew up,
Speaker 1: old cheez, where you grew up, you could buy the
Speaker 1: whole town. Town is not buying towns and wyoming guys.
Speaker 1: All right, but let's get let's get back to the
Speaker 1: rules of the ejections. Yeah, so so Greg Robinson was
Speaker 1: ejected and if you watch the play, it is he
Speaker 1: it's actually a pretty nice up kick. You know, I
Speaker 1: think in two there in m m A. You know,
Speaker 1: had that been, had that been? We watched we actually
Speaker 1: watched the We watched the Kobe poor A fight in
Speaker 1: the studio as well Saturday. Um had been used in
Speaker 1: that fight. That's actually a pretty good legal he's on
Speaker 1: his feet, totally legal, but in the NFL that is
Speaker 1: not legal. And uh, and so Mr Robinson was ejected
Speaker 1: from the game. The original announcement from the referee was
Speaker 1: unnecessary roughness and then they did eject him and uh.
Speaker 1: And then we had two other ejections we had We
Speaker 1: had Kwan Alexander for a hit on Jamis Winston. Winston
Speaker 1: went into a slide, Alexander hit him in the head
Speaker 1: neck area. And then we had Miles jack from Jackson
Speaker 1: with a kind of a punch open hand shot was ejected.
Speaker 1: So something just to be mindful of three ejections typically
Speaker 1: don't see maybe if if there's if there's ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen ejections a season, and that's a lot. So obviously
Speaker 1: to have three in one week is is significant and
Speaker 1: the theory and in football is Look, in baseball, you
Speaker 1: get ejected, there's a hundred and sixty two games, and
Speaker 1: basketball there's there's eighty two games, whatever it is. In
Speaker 1: football there's sixteen games. So you're losing a significant amount
Speaker 1: of playing time with an ejection. And so we've always
Speaker 1: been for for many years, we've always been hesitant to
Speaker 1: eject players unless it's absolutely warranted. But I think look,
Speaker 1: the league is is saying health and safety is important,
Speaker 1: especially when you look at the the jack thing, throwing
Speaker 1: a punch, the the up kick, those have always been ejections.
Speaker 1: When you look at the Alexander hit five years ago,
Speaker 1: that was not an ejection. Okay, it was a penalty,
Speaker 1: but that was not an ejection. Where we are today
Speaker 1: with health and say t um that that you're gonna
Speaker 1: miss playing time and you're gonna get fined and and
Speaker 1: you're potentially gonna get suspended, And I think that's that's
Speaker 1: that's the sea change that that we've we've seen over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. Explain more how New York
Speaker 1: gets involved with the The officials on the field will
Speaker 1: make the call, they'll get together, There'll be a covering
Speaker 1: official that will go to the referee if the referee
Speaker 1: was not the one that made the call and uh,
Speaker 1: and we'll say, look, I've got I've got seventy three
Speaker 1: kicking kicking the defensive player, it's unnecessary roughness. And then
Speaker 1: they'll have a discussion is it enough to eject him?
Speaker 1: They may make that decision on the field. New York
Speaker 1: is listening in. All of the officials have a wireless
Speaker 1: communications system. They have an earpiece, they have a microphone.
Speaker 1: New York can communicate with several members of the crew
Speaker 1: and so whether it's our River n or Russell, York
Speaker 1: will get on the headset and communicate directly with the
Speaker 1: referee and say, we're looking at the video this this
Speaker 1: is a play where we we deem this enough to
Speaker 1: eject the play, and they'll communicate that to the referee.
Speaker 1: The referee will then make a second announcement um if
Speaker 1: he has already made one, and the player will will
Speaker 1: be thrown out of the game. That's great insight, thanks Travis.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's the type of insight you're gonna get
Speaker 1: on Goods with I'm trying to do the tagline. That's
Speaker 1: the kind of insight you're gonna get on good calls
Speaker 1: with Dean Blandino. Can you maybe play a little the
Speaker 1: music there, Joe maybe? Okay, all right, back to the show,
Speaker 1: you know, and there was a ton of NFL stuff,
Speaker 1: but I do want to touch on one quick play
Speaker 1: from college. And trust me, we're gonna talk a lot
Speaker 1: of college football on this podcast. Going forward, Army Michigan.
Speaker 1: That was our big game on Fox and uh and
Speaker 1: Army played him tough and going to overtime. But there
Speaker 1: was a player earlier in the game that went against
Speaker 1: Michigan and where we came up with the head scratch
Speaker 1: head scratcher. Yeah, and and so it was Army. You know,
Speaker 1: they run the option. They run an option with the pitch.
Speaker 1: It's a backward pass, Michigan picks it up, the ball
Speaker 1: hits the ground, Michigan picks it up, and they go
Speaker 1: in for an apparent score. And the officials came back
Speaker 1: and ruled that the defender after he recovered it, he
Speaker 1: was down and and so um and we looked at
Speaker 1: it and unfortunately he wasn't down when when his knee
Speaker 1: was on the ground, he didn't have possession of the football.
Speaker 1: Then he got up picked it up and he really
Speaker 1: should have been a touchdown from Michigan, but unfortunately, the
Speaker 1: officials killed the play. They ruled him down and there's
Speaker 1: nothing replay can do in that situation. So and and
Speaker 1: the theory is is the officials have killed the play.
Speaker 1: They're blowing whistles. So it's impossible to say where would
Speaker 1: that Michigan defender have have advanced too, players stopped they
Speaker 1: hear the whistle. Would he have gotten five yards downfield?
Speaker 1: Would he have gotten ten yards? Would he have gotten
Speaker 1: into the end zone? You can't, You don't know. So
Speaker 1: the theory is, look, if they blow it dead on
Speaker 1: the field, you can't give an advance and replay and
Speaker 1: and that's just one of those deals. So there's nothing
Speaker 1: replay can do. And the officials are taught if there
Speaker 1: is a question, you don't want to officiate to replay.
Speaker 1: You want to call what you see and don't think
Speaker 1: about replay. But if there's a doubt in your mind,
Speaker 1: let the play go because replay can always come back.
Speaker 1: And I think that is where, um, you know, you
Speaker 1: you kind of wish that's what the officials had done
Speaker 1: in that which that's what they did in the Bengals
Speaker 1: in Seahawks game, yesterday we were wondering why didn't they
Speaker 1: stop it? And And they gotta blow the whistle of the
Speaker 1: clock is still running, correct and that and again, if
Speaker 1: there if there's some uncertainty, you you you make it
Speaker 1: a fumble or you let the defender advance it because
Speaker 1: replay can always come back. And I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's part of the just the nuance when it comes
Speaker 1: to replay and officiating on the field. And and so
Speaker 1: that was our that was our head scratcher um of
Speaker 1: the week. In Army pulled that win off, that would
Speaker 1: have been a major call. We'd have been talking about
Speaker 1: car Ball would would probably and I know coach Hardball
Speaker 1: and and he would probably be still he might be
Speaker 1: camped out at the Big Ten office if that was
Speaker 1: the case, if they had won that game. But let's uh,
Speaker 1: and you know, hey, talking about officials and and this
Speaker 1: isn't a show about Look, the officials are really good
Speaker 1: at the professional level. At the college level, they're really good.
Speaker 1: But imagine they are rated on every game. They're they're
Speaker 1: rated on every call of every game, every play. Imagine
Speaker 1: in your everyday life that at the end of your
Speaker 1: work day, your your superior whoever that is basically handed
Speaker 1: you a sheet and it was your rating for the day,
Speaker 1: and it was everything you did good, everything you did bad,
Speaker 1: You spent twenty minutes too long at the water cooler,
Speaker 1: you know, you you whatever. This is what officials go through,
Speaker 1: all right. They get a report every play, every game
Speaker 1: that is cumulative throughout the season and UH, and that
Speaker 1: leads to their postseason assignments or lack of assignment. It
Speaker 1: also leads to them whether they're retained UM the following year.
Speaker 1: So so they're under more scrutiny than than most professions.
Speaker 1: And UH. And obviously the scrutiny just from the meat
Speaker 1: and the fans and the coaches, but from their own
Speaker 1: UM superiors and the people that that managed them. And
Speaker 1: it's it's a difficult, difficult profession. And but speaking of ratings,
Speaker 1: how how did you get here? Travis? Did you? Did you?
Speaker 1: Did you drive? You take your civic? Civic three thousand strong?
Speaker 1: Still civic? There you go, Honda, Hey, we're looking for sponsors.
Speaker 1: But um, so you didn't take an uber didn't take
Speaker 1: We had this discussion in the in the studio and
Speaker 1: and so we talked a little bit about it, and
Speaker 1: you know, and on this show, we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: rules in other areas of the sports, and so we
Speaker 1: talked about Uber and it got on like who had
Speaker 1: the highest Uber rating? And sadly, unfortunately Joe, and have
Speaker 1: you taken the Uber since Saturday? I have not? Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, So sadly Joe has the highest rating at
Speaker 1: four point eight seven. I'm at four point eight five.
Speaker 1: Travises at four point eight four. And we started to
Speaker 1: start talking about Uber drivers and ratings and things like that,
Speaker 1: and Joe has some very unique takes on you. What
Speaker 1: are the rules? And I'm surprised because this is a
Speaker 1: guy that got banned from Uber and and the other
Speaker 1: The other rule is, though you have to have a
Speaker 1: minimum of So we are we are gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: have an ongoing wager at the end of this season,
Speaker 1: the football season, who has the highest Uber rating. But
Speaker 1: you have to have a minimum of twenty five rides.
Speaker 1: It should be noted that Dean only rides Uber black,
Speaker 1: and so my four eight five should should count higher
Speaker 1: than your four eight seven. Completely disagree with why you're
Speaker 1: spending more money, They're more likely to want to rate you.
Speaker 1: Hire No, it's a higher standard. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: the drivers don't hired standard. They want they they're expecting.
Speaker 1: I'm expecting a a a better experience and and higher
Speaker 1: quality They're experience there, expecting a better quality of customer.
Speaker 1: What do you? What do you think about? That's all
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Travis is like time was like I grew
Speaker 1: up Uber what I don't know. We used to ride
Speaker 1: horses everywhere. I took an Uber one time and the
Speaker 1: guy was like, hey, I was a little hesitant in
Speaker 1: picking you up, and you seem like a pretty cool
Speaker 1: guys with with my wife and and three friends. And
Speaker 1: he's like he's trying a pretty cool guy. And he's like,
Speaker 1: you seem like a pretty cool guy. I just didn't
Speaker 1: want to pick you up because you had a zero
Speaker 1: rating on Uber. I did you have a zero rating?
Speaker 1: I was, I didn't even know you get raided. I
Speaker 1: was like, you get raided to take a car like,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. I didn't know that, so you
Speaker 1: weren't rating them and they were like, screw that. I
Speaker 1: guess it must have been and the guys like you
Speaker 1: seem cool, but you have such a low rating. I
Speaker 1: was scared to pick you up. Quickly Uber rules you
Speaker 1: rate every time. I think it's important and I think
Speaker 1: this is something and tipping as well. Um, it shouldn't
Speaker 1: just be a standard. I think we have a I
Speaker 1: think we have a responsibility as consumers to rate according
Speaker 1: to performance, because if you give everybody a five, joke,
Speaker 1: you give five because you want people to give you
Speaker 1: five so you can have the highest ranging do they
Speaker 1: see for the next rider? You give him a five
Speaker 1: and he's and he's crap. The next rider is going
Speaker 1: to get have a crappy experience because you just want
Speaker 1: to hire rating and you want everybody to like I'm not.
Speaker 1: This is my way. You want everybody to like. I
Speaker 1: just want to give everyone exactly. Everybody gets a five
Speaker 1: in Joe's world, everybody particulation. I'll tell you how you
Speaker 1: get a better him according to how they do. You
Speaker 1: give him a five dollar spot after the after the ride,
Speaker 1: and then you get to cash, and then they'll tip
Speaker 1: you a five. And I tip. I do tip. You
Speaker 1: don't even tip on they don't you don't tip. I
Speaker 1: tip all the time. You tip everywhere. I tip everywhere
Speaker 1: the world. I will say, Dean Blending knows a very
Speaker 1: good tipper. Thank you. But and I got important but
Speaker 1: life tips with landing. That's that'll be say they don't
Speaker 1: know if you so that doesn't that doesn't have an impact.
Speaker 1: I think the reason that my rating is the highest
Speaker 1: is because I'm I'm personal and I'm social exactly and
Speaker 1: you just kidding everybody. But it's one it's a one time.
Speaker 1: It's a one off deal. So you're enjoyable for one ride,
Speaker 1: have that guy pick you up seventeen times, like, oh
Speaker 1: this guy again, I'm giving him a two. I've never
Speaker 1: had the same Uber driver twice exactly exactly, but that's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You always get the new person, so
Speaker 1: you're the job Madrid experience. It's great the first time,
Speaker 1: it's great. It's like going to go to Disneyland once,
Speaker 1: like all this is amazing. Go there five times a
Speaker 1: week you're like, uh, the four show it all right?
Speaker 1: But Uber ratings that those are the rules on Umber ratings. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, next up, I wanna I want to play
Speaker 1: our interview. I was really excited. I worked with Troy
Speaker 1: Vincent at the NFL for a long time. Former player, UM,
Speaker 1: former college great at Wisconsin, former NFL player, Pro Bowl player,
Speaker 1: and uh, former president of the NFL Players Association, a
Speaker 1: lot of player in his title, and he's now the
Speaker 1: executive vice president for football Operations for the National Football League.
Speaker 1: And uh and so let's uh, let's hear from Troy,
Speaker 1: and let's play a little bit from that interview. Okay,
Speaker 1: now we are joined by Troy Vincent, executive vice president
Speaker 1: of football Operations for the NFL, and really excited to
Speaker 1: have him. Troy, Thanks, thanks for joining us. How are
Speaker 1: you doing. I'm doing great, Ready to kick this thing off.
Speaker 1: Got a handful of place today and great day, great
Speaker 1: day yesterday. Do you know I was in Columbus watch
Speaker 1: the buck Eyes pound Cincinnati Bearcat in my Badgers they
Speaker 1: just demolished. I'm not even sure who they played yesterday.
Speaker 1: We just it doesn't really doesn't matter. We just was
Speaker 1: so dominant. Well, yes, we kick off today hundred seasons,
Speaker 1: so I know everybody's excited about that. But before we
Speaker 1: get into that, yeah, let's talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: college football. So, uh, you know, we get we get Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: You were you were a star there. They're looking pretty good.
Speaker 1: I think it was sixty years you're actually acknowledging that
Speaker 1: I'm acknowledging that. You know, I'm acknowledging that you're a
Speaker 1: pretty decent player in college. Uh. You know, I was
Speaker 1: in I was at Madison UM over the summer for
Speaker 1: for a wedding. And you know, you've got a big
Speaker 1: picture of yourself over there by the stadium, so they
Speaker 1: like you a little bit over there. So I'll give
Speaker 1: you a little credit for that. This is a special
Speaker 1: day if you're acknowledging that. But thank you. I will,
Speaker 1: I will, but Ohio States, So you know, I know
Speaker 1: you've got you've got two You've got two sons playing
Speaker 1: college football. Um, so is that what you were doing in? Uh?
Speaker 1: In Columbus. Yes, Our middle boy, Tehran, and a sophomore there,
Speaker 1: and he's a defensive tackle. So wife and I we alternate.
Speaker 1: One goes to Columbus and Troy Troy Jr. He's in
Speaker 1: graduate school down of towns and they were home yesterday
Speaker 1: playing North Carolina Central. So we each week and yesterday
Speaker 1: was my turn to be in Columbus. Okay, good, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I want. I wanna talk a little bit about that later,
Speaker 1: but let's let's get into it a little before we
Speaker 1: get into the rules changes. And I definitely want to
Speaker 1: talk about past inference, but I have to ask, you know,
Speaker 1: two biggest stories of the offseason. I just want to
Speaker 1: get your you know, get your take on it. Obviously
Speaker 1: you've got Andrew Luck and you got Antonio Brown. I
Speaker 1: want to start with Antonio. You know, this is a player,
Speaker 1: talented player. Um, we saw what happened with with the Steelers,
Speaker 1: gets to the Raiders, doesn't I mean, doesn't play a
Speaker 1: snap of meaningful football. And and so from your perspective
Speaker 1: and from the league's perspective, you know, what what is
Speaker 1: going on in terms of here's a player that it's
Speaker 1: almost as if he's kind of making his way off
Speaker 1: the team that that you know, wanted to get real
Speaker 1: lease from the Raiders, gets his release, Now he signs
Speaker 1: with the Patriots. You know, are you concerned about this
Speaker 1: whole situation? You know what what's your take on a
Speaker 1: v and and and the future you know for him,
Speaker 1: and you know, any any impact that this has you
Speaker 1: know on the league. Well, it was isolated to the team.
Speaker 1: Let's start with with that. And it's been a circus.
Speaker 1: It's something that you'd rather talk you know, it's like
Speaker 1: we're going into the hundred seasons coach Grood and Mike Mayott.
Speaker 1: You know, they're trying to get the franchise turned around.
Speaker 1: They identify which we all know as a dynamic player,
Speaker 1: and then there's just a series of these something's going
Speaker 1: on every day and you're almost tired of talking about it.
Speaker 1: It's been a circus. It's one where we really have
Speaker 1: to think about where we are, where does actually production
Speaker 1: equal power? People do what we allow them to do,
Speaker 1: and at some point, and maybe that'll change now that
Speaker 1: he's in New England, to compromise the tolerance level what
Speaker 1: we accept. It's Uh, it's very disturbing. I think I
Speaker 1: really believe. I'm not speaking from a league standpoint, is
Speaker 1: my personal view. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing to the sport,
Speaker 1: the antics that we continue, and from a leadership standpoint,
Speaker 1: find leadership said enough is enough and they moved on.
Speaker 1: Well about it's about God. Everyone wants to go back
Speaker 1: to playing football. The teammates are looking for who's gonna
Speaker 1: be ready, who's gonna line up, who's gonna be healthy,
Speaker 1: ready to play, and for for his teammates to have
Speaker 1: to talk about where he is and where he isn't
Speaker 1: During the season I mean during a weekend and week out,
Speaker 1: day in and day out, that's not why the guys
Speaker 1: played the game. I mean, so I hope this comes
Speaker 1: to an end, so we could just focus and report
Speaker 1: on the game and not some of the things that
Speaker 1: we saw with well what continues to keep happening. So
Speaker 1: do you feel like you know, as a league and
Speaker 1: sometimes we we we tend to enable some of these
Speaker 1: some of these guys when they do produce, you know,
Speaker 1: is that a problem? Is that something you saw during
Speaker 1: your playing days? And what can we do? What can
Speaker 1: we do? I think it's important that we got it's important.
Speaker 1: This is not league issues. These issues are isolated to
Speaker 1: the club and leadership at the club, whether that's your
Speaker 1: from owner, general manager, head coach. This is a locker room,
Speaker 1: head coach, general manager, and player accountability. So this is
Speaker 1: not a not a league issue. It's how are you
Speaker 1: gonna run your house? What are you going to accept?
Speaker 1: What would you tolerate? And there we've this scene, this
Speaker 1: play out and it's just not good for football. Not
Speaker 1: good when you try to rate, you're trying to look
Speaker 1: and set examples for young men and women across the country.
Speaker 1: This is something that. You know, you hope that eventually
Speaker 1: a b gets his stuff together, he could focus in
Speaker 1: on football and we could report on on the game
Speaker 1: and things that are happening around the game. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: shift gears a little bit now. Obviously you've got a
Speaker 1: guy and Andrew Luck that is is one of the
Speaker 1: one of the faces of the league and and retiring
Speaker 1: in his prime due to some of the injuries that
Speaker 1: he's had. We've seen other players retire in their prime.
Speaker 1: You know Rob Gronkowski making comments about after the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl he was in tears because of the pain he
Speaker 1: was in. You know what what from a from a
Speaker 1: league perspective, You know, you and I have worked closely
Speaker 1: together in the past terms of health and safety, and
Speaker 1: then that is always the top priority. You know, are
Speaker 1: are you concerned about some of these players walking away
Speaker 1: you know, really before there before their time? And you know,
Speaker 1: what can the league do to ensure the health and
Speaker 1: safety of these players? Because you know, we know that
Speaker 1: there's you know, for some players, it is a short window.
Speaker 1: But when you see a guy like like Gronk or
Speaker 1: Andrew walk away so young, um, does that concern you?
Speaker 1: Doesn't concern me? And actually it's the position that every
Speaker 1: player wants to be in, to make the choice to
Speaker 1: walk away from the game on your terms. I was
Speaker 1: happy for Andrew. I was happy for Rob and all
Speaker 1: those other players who have decided, from Jim Brown to
Speaker 1: Barry Sanders, everybody, every every athlete's body has an expiration date.
Speaker 1: This game typically tells you, by way of you being cut,
Speaker 1: being bound Darron, that it's time for you to that
Speaker 1: you are transitioning away from the game. Very seldomly does
Speaker 1: the player have the choice or the option to say
Speaker 1: I'm done. So I was happy for him, Drew, and
Speaker 1: it's it's it's there was the player's option, and he
Speaker 1: decided that he's had enough. And it's not where we
Speaker 1: as fans and teammates and on and so over, we
Speaker 1: all have the an opinion about it. But he made
Speaker 1: an individual decision which he felt like was best for him,
Speaker 1: and typically the player at the time, the players not
Speaker 1: making that choice for himself. Okay, let's let's talk about
Speaker 1: Let's go back and from your perspective, Saints Rams, you
Speaker 1: know we're moving into the season, and but I do
Speaker 1: want to go back and talk about that play from
Speaker 1: last year. The NFC championship game, and so Saints Rams,
Speaker 1: you know, where were you when it happened in in
Speaker 1: terms of the miss past defrench call? And then how
Speaker 1: quickly after that game did did you start thinking about,
Speaker 1: you know, potential rules changes, how are we going to
Speaker 1: address this, how are we going to prevent this from
Speaker 1: happening going forward? And just walk us through that that process,
Speaker 1: that competition committee process a little bit. So that was
Speaker 1: the game, the championship game that I was in attendance.
Speaker 1: So I was actually at this at the at a
Speaker 1: Mercedes events at the Superdome, so I was there. I
Speaker 1: watched it play out, and again it was man miscall.
Speaker 1: You didn't think it was going to go to the
Speaker 1: level of the magnitude of which it was. It was clear,
Speaker 1: it was obvious that was a miscall. And then one
Speaker 1: thing that the game ended, one thing transpired after another
Speaker 1: headed back to the train, I mean to the airport.
Speaker 1: It just became this, It just got out of control.
Speaker 1: I was never never thought, you know, that we would
Speaker 1: look at it. You think about, how do you make
Speaker 1: that correction? It was a human error. What are some
Speaker 1: safeguards that we can put in from an overall league
Speaker 1: standpoint to minimize things of that nature. But typically we
Speaker 1: don't move in a direction where one single play really
Speaker 1: alters the way you want to implement new rules, and
Speaker 1: it did in this particular case. It was I felt
Speaker 1: like just based off of the magnitude of the play
Speaker 1: and what has happened, we've seen those plays through through
Speaker 1: the duration and the history of our game. We analyzed,
Speaker 1: we looked at data, and the data said, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is this particular foul path in appearance has the most impact.
Speaker 1: How do we put some safeguards in it? And that's
Speaker 1: how we came up with playing route proposal six I
Speaker 1: think of six CE and we just discussed it, watch
Speaker 1: video and now we're gonna see so very comfortable about
Speaker 1: the implementation, just working with our head coaches, working with
Speaker 1: the officials. Through the off season, we had you know,
Speaker 1: Thursday night games, so we saw come in to play there.
Speaker 1: And now we're in the true week one where we
Speaker 1: have multiple games going on at one time. We'll see
Speaker 1: multiple games inside of two minutes and we'll see how
Speaker 1: that plays out. But that is that's kind of how
Speaker 1: it took place, the progression of it, and but we
Speaker 1: feel very very comfortable about where we are about the
Speaker 1: standard of that call, about that process of how that
Speaker 1: a play out UM doesn't change the replay system. So
Speaker 1: that's that's just important, I think for fans and everyone
Speaker 1: to know that the system, there's no changing the replay system.
Speaker 1: You just with this particular foul type there is a
Speaker 1: higher standard. So, you know, I talked a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of coaches around the league, and at the
Speaker 1: time I'm during during the league meeting, you know, they
Speaker 1: they had discussed the concept of and I know you
Speaker 1: and I have talked about it a little bit, the
Speaker 1: sky judge, right, the video official that can fix any
Speaker 1: any egregious mistake, and a lot of the coaches were
Speaker 1: leaning in that direction. And you know, the coaches got
Speaker 1: together had their own meeting and and from what I
Speaker 1: know is that during that meeting they had discussed that
Speaker 1: concept and they were in favor of that UM. But
Speaker 1: then competition committee got together and ended up with past deference.
Speaker 1: How how close was that ever a realistic possibility UM
Speaker 1: for this season? It was, and it was talked about
Speaker 1: at length at the combine and the concept of the
Speaker 1: sky judge really it's that's the replay official inside the stadium.
Speaker 1: So when we got into March meeting. You know, coach reading,
Speaker 1: coach hardball really took the lead in this particular area
Speaker 1: between between the two and let's say, okay, let's rather
Speaker 1: than try where does this sky judge come from? But
Speaker 1: that was the term that was used, what does this
Speaker 1: sky judge? Who is here? She? Are they in the pipeline?
Speaker 1: And then really think about should we just be looking
Speaker 1: at increasing possibly the responsibilities of the replay of Fisher
Speaker 1: that's already in the stadium. That's so that was the
Speaker 1: direction that we were headed. Continue to kept kept watching
Speaker 1: video at that time in March. As you well know,
Speaker 1: playing route proposals are already in So what your you
Speaker 1: may do is we're amending a club proposal or one
Speaker 1: of the competition committee proposals, and then it will start out. Hey,
Speaker 1: the competition committee at just at the juncture they felt
Speaker 1: comfortable with what the data and where we were things
Speaker 1: that we can control in New York that we had
Speaker 1: a better better handle on that playing route proposal that
Speaker 1: was submitted. That will be the one the one year
Speaker 1: proposed that we're saying this season was a good place
Speaker 1: to start. I would say that that sky judge concept
Speaker 1: we'll see if that has life at the end of
Speaker 1: the season. As as we see playing with proposal stich
Speaker 1: play out this season. Do you do you worry at
Speaker 1: all about you know, we've talked about this when we
Speaker 1: brought replay back in, but that that creep concept of
Speaker 1: we add we had one thing one year and now
Speaker 1: we're gonna add another thing. So do you worry at
Speaker 1: some point about a call this season? Let's say it's
Speaker 1: rough in the past er or it's a face mask
Speaker 1: and it's a big time call similar to that play
Speaker 1: in the NFC Championship game, and now everyone saying, well,
Speaker 1: we got to review that and then and adding that
Speaker 1: and doing that every year. Is that Does that concern you? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: It gets into you start here, which is past in apearance.
Speaker 1: Are you opening up the Pandora's box? Is this wee
Speaker 1: you want the sport and this is where you really
Speaker 1: want replay to go. When pace of play for all
Speaker 1: professional sports leagues is critical, and we talk about this
Speaker 1: team when we were working side by side by one another,
Speaker 1: you know, you're trying to take a you know, we're
Speaker 1: trying to eliminate the extra We would say that what's
Speaker 1: that wasted time that we need to be eliminating, not
Speaker 1: not snap the snap. And when you start adding on
Speaker 1: thousand to the system, man, we're the excessive stoppages. Think
Speaker 1: about the game and last year we came in at
Speaker 1: three or four game time. You start adding in additional
Speaker 1: fouls into what a coach can challenge into that replay system,
Speaker 1: that's a slippery slope. And I'm not sure if the coaches,
Speaker 1: that's those unintended consequences of coaches. Definitely the fans. It's
Speaker 1: not going to sit around and be watching three and
Speaker 1: a half four our games. That's not where we want
Speaker 1: the sport. Thanks again to Troy for spending some time
Speaker 1: with us and sharing his thoughts on some you know,
Speaker 1: pretty interesting topics around the league. And that's it. That's
Speaker 1: it for episode one. Thanks for joining us, and uh
Speaker 1: good Calls with Dean Blandino is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Follow me on Twitter at Dean Blandino for
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