Speaker 1: Be Around the NFL Podcast, doesn't watch Grow. Welcome to
Speaker 1: another edition of the Around the NFL Podcast. My name
Speaker 1: is Dan Hansis, and I've joined in the room filled
Speaker 1: with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wesley, and Greg Rosenthal. What
Speaker 1: is up? Boys? Hey? Dan, don't you know what that open?
Speaker 1: I don't if you don't need to keep poking the
Speaker 1: bear on that. And by the way, it's not even
Speaker 1: correct West watches keep the Thrones. Yeah, he's our conduit. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not looking forward to the finale like I would.
Speaker 1: I'm seriously thinking about going to all eight seasons and
Speaker 1: then just not watching the last episode of that would
Speaker 1: be wild. I mean, anyone's ever done that? You? I
Speaker 1: watched I think four seasons and then for me right
Speaker 1: fell off. I fell off like it's and I blame
Speaker 1: only myself, but also the show. I don't judge. I
Speaker 1: don't judge anybody for loving the show. What did you say?
Speaker 1: I blame only myself but also the show. Well, I
Speaker 1: like it, um, but I think the last show that
Speaker 1: and this is a cultural phenomenon, a game of Thrones,
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. Um. The last show that I
Speaker 1: truly was head over heels for was Madmen, and I
Speaker 1: remember the final episodes not always thinking oh this is
Speaker 1: you know, this is going how I wanted to go,
Speaker 1: or they're not necessarily thinking they're sticking the landing, but
Speaker 1: enjoying all the final episodes because I'm gonna miss these characters.
Speaker 1: You just want to hang out with the characters longer,
Speaker 1: and you know you're not gonna get any more Roger
Speaker 1: Sterling in your life after these last three weeks or whatever. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't sense a similar thing or the same thing
Speaker 1: going on with Game of Thrones, and that might just
Speaker 1: be because the show itself is obviously so different. It's fantasy,
Speaker 1: it's war, it's bloody and violent, and I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people are getting killed. So there seems to
Speaker 1: be and we're gonna get into it on today's show
Speaker 1: a segment where we talk about what in the NFL,
Speaker 1: we're kind of as to use a Gregg term, wildly
Speaker 1: invested in, overly invested in the Game of Thrones fans,
Speaker 1: Greg are so upset, it seems about the direction of
Speaker 1: this last season because they're just so into the show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily blame them, but I think the after
Speaker 1: seventies six hours of investment. That that everyone's given Game
Speaker 1: of Thrones. You know, you're, you're. The emotional connection is
Speaker 1: just making people crazy. They're rooting for their rooting for
Speaker 1: certain things. It's just everyone's so invested. It's like it's
Speaker 1: like the super Bowl or something. It's like your team
Speaker 1: making it to the super Bowl, and this season is
Speaker 1: the super Bowl, and there's just emotions are high. I
Speaker 1: can't speak for everyone, but I went into the final
Speaker 1: season with the thought they had put so much time
Speaker 1: into this. They are so invested. They have brilliant people
Speaker 1: working on this, brilliant actors, they have technology the likes
Speaker 1: of TV shows have never had. So the expectation going in,
Speaker 1: especially with these mini movies every week they're an hour
Speaker 1: and a half. The expectation is we might see television history,
Speaker 1: This might go down as the greatest television show, a
Speaker 1: spectacle the likes of which we won't see for decades,
Speaker 1: and it hasn't been that expect Those expectations are almost
Speaker 1: impossible to match. That's part of what they were up against.
Speaker 1: But that's a good problem to have. Ultimately, well, there's
Speaker 1: also another thing going on. So you know, Shakespeare's Globe
Speaker 1: that featured players. That's what they're called players. Are we
Speaker 1: going back into like again? So like you have football players,
Speaker 1: but you also have players are actors. Both of them
Speaker 1: are dramas, right, one more stage than the other. They
Speaker 1: both rely on tension and release, mounting tension then resolution.
Speaker 1: In Game of Throws Thrones, the last episode Sunday Night,
Speaker 1: the resolution was unsatisfactory, much like the no call in
Speaker 1: the Ram Saints game. And I think this is the
Speaker 1: fallout you're seeing. It was a very unsatisfactory resolution for viewers.
Speaker 1: I think one huge winner is George RR. Martin because
Speaker 1: if they're one and I don't watch it, but I
Speaker 1: but it's impossible to even log onto Twitter for more
Speaker 1: than three minutes without hearing every single person you knows
Speaker 1: opinion on it. So I only call it from that.
Speaker 1: But the critique seems to be that since the books
Speaker 1: ended that the show is plot driven not character driven,
Speaker 1: that characters they spent all these time with are doing
Speaker 1: things they that they shouldn't be doing otherwise. And so
Speaker 1: if George R. Martin, who wrote the book, sitting back saying,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I nailed it, they let these two showrunners
Speaker 1: go and watch the ending that is a fair criticism.
Speaker 1: Well it's not my criticism. Well, it's also like seven No,
Speaker 1: nothing is meant to go on for seventies this conversation period. No,
Speaker 1: I mean it's fine. What about can happen? Well? That
Speaker 1: I don't agree with at all. I don't think ultimately
Speaker 1: it's kind of like uh an art. It's a form
Speaker 1: of art. On some level, it is a form of
Speaker 1: And so I think of all the greatest television shows
Speaker 1: of all time, almost none of them were as good
Speaker 1: as they were in the final season as they were
Speaker 1: all along, because like, what's you know, it's like eighty
Speaker 1: it would be like writing a four thousand page book,
Speaker 1: Like it's just too you can't keep it at that level.
Speaker 1: How many shows do stick? You can't stick the limiting,
Speaker 1: but that every single part of the show is at
Speaker 1: that same highlight. It's a lot to how many shows
Speaker 1: can you name that had a satisfactory the series finale?
Speaker 1: I love the Sopranos. At at the time, I wasn't
Speaker 1: trying to be Concerrian or anything. There wasn't like that
Speaker 1: public opinion. I love this bad ended very well. I
Speaker 1: thought I liked mad Men, and I thought, also what
Speaker 1: happened in the final season was an awesome final season's
Speaker 1: character arc for our boy. Yeah, and six ft Under
Speaker 1: I thought ended extremely well way back in second to
Speaker 1: last episode of six ft Under is one of the
Speaker 1: best hours of television. You mean the penultimate episode, penultimate
Speaker 1: jumping on the Alright, it's a fun wordt don't come
Speaker 1: at it. We don't pretend to be excellent. I hear
Speaker 1: it all this like these guys they don't know anything
Speaker 1: about pop culture. I am telling you, I don't pretend
Speaker 1: to know anything about Game of Thrones. Settled down right,
Speaker 1: Thank you for getting that out there. Mark, you heard
Speaker 1: Mark Seessler. Don't come at him at Mark Seiler. NFL
Speaker 1: any of us, Yes, we got a lot to get
Speaker 1: into it. Yeah, So what are we kinds so invested
Speaker 1: in uh in the NFL that we're going nuts. We
Speaker 1: can't even keep it together. And it is hot in here.
Speaker 1: Mark's doing that. He's got the vapor. Not just me
Speaker 1: this time. That should tell you something, that is you know,
Speaker 1: that tells me. Keep an eye on Ricky, keep an
Speaker 1: eye on Mark Sessler, because even when it's not hot,
Speaker 1: he's hot. When we are hot, he could pass out
Speaker 1: if we could put like some type of a feigning
Speaker 1: couch next to the chair. We gotta keep Mark alive.
Speaker 1: Them wheel it in maybe like one of those sprits bottles.
Speaker 1: We just have somebody I want to request too many,
Speaker 1: I think, alright, anyway, so what do we overly invested in?
Speaker 1: But before that, let's do some news. So they're gonna
Speaker 1: lose that last game, letting some younger guys play thirteen
Speaker 1: and three respectable for Sam Donald the second year. Good
Speaker 1: luck time to be right there. It is Greg. That
Speaker 1: is the Mark Sanchez on NFL Total Access here in
Speaker 1: NFL Network, predicting a not only the thirteen and three
Speaker 1: JET season, in that in that game they play where
Speaker 1: they at the Yeah, he went through every every game
Speaker 1: of the schedule. Uh they were thirteen and two and
Speaker 1: you know, rested all the starters against the bill. But
Speaker 1: that part is what I love the most. It was
Speaker 1: really great. He delivered it with a lot of panash
Speaker 1: and uh, I hope to see Marvin, I thought. David Carr,
Speaker 1: who we like. He's been on this show and he
Speaker 1: fostered a broker to peace between this show and Derek Carr,
Speaker 1: the Raider's quarterback, who had blocked Greg and I for
Speaker 1: a time and then unblocked us live on on broadcast,
Speaker 1: which I still got goose bumps just thinking about that moment.
Speaker 1: We liked David car but Carr was a little bit annoyed.
Speaker 1: I thought that Um Sanchez was making a farce of
Speaker 1: what to me is the most farcical exercise done on
Speaker 1: NFL network. Who he pitting the button w L for
Speaker 1: sixteen weeks. That's true, but it kind of made for
Speaker 1: better TV. He was kind of this straight man. It
Speaker 1: was like, what's going on here? We've lost the show.
Speaker 1: Mark Santes is taken over. Mark Sanchez is having fun.
Speaker 1: Stop him anyway? Good for you, Mark. I hope you
Speaker 1: get a He's not on a roster right now, right, Adam,
Speaker 1: why not? That's that's what we need on the He's
Speaker 1: one of those featured players at the Globe. He just
Speaker 1: is coming in every once in a while and trying
Speaker 1: to get that long term deal. I don't do it.
Speaker 1: I think people saw just how inept he was with
Speaker 1: the Redskins last year, and he's not getting them. With
Speaker 1: the NFL network, we're saying we moved on from I
Speaker 1: think everyone's right. Everyone was nailing. They all that different
Speaker 1: takes on what I have laid out, but you're all right,
Speaker 1: all right, let's get into a start with the Denver Broncos.
Speaker 1: Did that just have a cup of coffee in Denver? Yes? Uh.
Speaker 1: Big the head coach of the Broncos that Joe Flacco,
Speaker 1: the offseason trade acquisition, will get all first team reps
Speaker 1: in O T A s um. He addressed the media
Speaker 1: and made it clear that um Flacco will get those
Speaker 1: first team reps, then we have an open competition after
Speaker 1: that and will randomly play with the two isn't threes
Speaker 1: when we do our reps. O T s began on Monday.
Speaker 1: Of course, Drew lock is in the building. Uh, the
Speaker 1: draft pick by the Broncos. Uh. So, a lot of
Speaker 1: people are wondering how long unleashed Flack will have And
Speaker 1: speaking of Joe Flacco, um gentleman. He spoke to the
Speaker 1: media today Monday and made it clear that you know
Speaker 1: the old reality show thing, I didn't come here to
Speaker 1: make friends. Well, Joe Flacco says, I didn't come here
Speaker 1: to mentor let's listen it. I think that is like
Speaker 1: I said, it's kind of riches job, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's and it's and it's to be in that quarterback
Speaker 1: room and watch and that's how you can develop. Listen,
Speaker 1: I got so many things to worry about. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to go out there and play good football. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to go out there and play the best football in
Speaker 1: my life. Um So, as far as a time constraint
Speaker 1: and all that stuff, you know, I'm not worried about
Speaker 1: developing guys or any of that. You know. That is
Speaker 1: what it is. And like I said, I hope he
Speaker 1: does develop, but I don't look at that as my job.
Speaker 1: My job ago win football games for this football team. Ys.
Speaker 1: You like what you hear, I mean, I don't really
Speaker 1: have strong feelings on that that. I've heard that from
Speaker 1: so many different quarterbacks, veteran quarterbacks over the years that
Speaker 1: it's customary. That seems normal to me, customary. From Flacco,
Speaker 1: who said similar things last year, he does seem a
Speaker 1: little uncomfortable with the with the notion it may be
Speaker 1: annoyed and he's he's just a competitive guy. And you
Speaker 1: kind of got the same vibe from Eli Manning when
Speaker 1: they asked him those questions a few years ago that
Speaker 1: he wasn't ready to give that up at that point.
Speaker 1: I think he allies maybe more ready now I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't think Joe Flacco is gonna go out of
Speaker 1: his way to make it comfortable. I wonder if Flacco,
Speaker 1: when he got traded from Baltimore, thought one of the
Speaker 1: advantages of this move was that he wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: be answering these questions um this time of year, that
Speaker 1: he would have another young buck ready to take the throne.
Speaker 1: Probably was told that I look at the iron throne,
Speaker 1: mark the iron throne. I'm looking at a date here, October,
Speaker 1: which feels like the ideal date for Joe flat go
Speaker 1: to be benched. It is a evening game on Thursday, Chiefs.
Speaker 1: He will get benched. Drew Lock will step in with
Speaker 1: ten days to prepare and only a week before the
Speaker 1: bye as well, a nice cushion for the youngster to
Speaker 1: come in Joe Flacco. I'm not buying this idea in West.
Speaker 1: I don't mean to buckheads with you. I know you're
Speaker 1: all in on Joe Flacco that he's going sixteen weeks.
Speaker 1: I promise you if he goes sixteen weeks, I will
Speaker 1: give you you can come to my house and take
Speaker 1: anything out of my house outside of a human being
Speaker 1: anything in my house. Cut that, Ricky. We're gonna need
Speaker 1: to file that for potential. And if he doesn't, I'm
Speaker 1: going to West's house and taking anything I want out
Speaker 1: to West's house. Do you agree to that, Wes? No,
Speaker 1: I have some stuff I like. Yeah, I was like,
Speaker 1: why does marcalf that you would take you're not getting
Speaker 1: then I'll just do it the other way around. You
Speaker 1: don't have a car anymore while you share it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't take your car. I don't even want it.
Speaker 1: I mean, Flacco is in a weird in a weird
Speaker 1: position because if you look at their talent, they might
Speaker 1: be the most rebuilding offense and the youngest offense in
Speaker 1: the NFL. They're running back as a second year player,
Speaker 1: their top three receivers until Emmanuel Sanders gets healthy, our
Speaker 1: second year players. They have a rookie tight end, they
Speaker 1: have a rookie offensive lineman uh starting. They have Drew
Speaker 1: Lock in place. So this is about as young as
Speaker 1: it gets. And then you have Flacco kind of leading
Speaker 1: all these young guys. Another Broncos news Chris Harris, the
Speaker 1: star cornerback. Well, it looks like the Broncos are gonna
Speaker 1: keep him around or do everything in our power to
Speaker 1: make sure he's playing in nineteen at Mile High, Mike
Speaker 1: Lease of nine News, Denver reported that the Broncos will
Speaker 1: not trade uh the cornerback. He's been a no show
Speaker 1: at offseason workouts trying to get a new contract. The
Speaker 1: Broncos are expected to present a counter offer next week. Uh,
Speaker 1: it might not be that money that Harris wants. Uh,
Speaker 1: So west Um this all pro corner. You know, he
Speaker 1: he doesn't have a lot of leverage here. I mean
Speaker 1: he could sit out mandatory mini camp and take a
Speaker 1: little pop there to continue to state his unhappiness. But
Speaker 1: if Denver doesn't want to trade him, it's probably gonna
Speaker 1: be playing with Denver. That's it. Everything was copacetic and hill.
Speaker 1: The Broncos went out and paid big bucks for Kareem
Speaker 1: Jackson and then Chris Harris had to watch a lesser
Speaker 1: cornerback get a better contract than him, and he's not
Speaker 1: happy about it. But if you're the Broncos, Chris Harris,
Speaker 1: outside of Von Miller, is your best defensive player and
Speaker 1: your secondary is night and day with him without him.
Speaker 1: As we saw down the stretch last year, they're just
Speaker 1: not nearly as good of a secondary if he's not there.
Speaker 1: But he's a you know guy, how old is he
Speaker 1: right now? Thirty? Coming off a major injury. It's always
Speaker 1: tricky to pay up like an aging player coming off
Speaker 1: an injury. And he was underpaid for so long. So
Speaker 1: do you pay on past performance because because you like
Speaker 1: the guy so much? Not many teams do that. I
Speaker 1: don't know if Vick Fungio thought that his first year
Speaker 1: on the job would be minus Chris Harris. I don't
Speaker 1: think that was part of the deal in his mind.
Speaker 1: So you'd like to think they would get something done here.
Speaker 1: Fondio's gonna get some business done. Let's move on and
Speaker 1: talk about Yeah. We we now have our second deep
Speaker 1: dive on the Green Bay Packers in the culture within.
Speaker 1: This one comes from Tom Silverstein of Packard News. He
Speaker 1: writes for the Milwaukee Journals Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Thank you, Greg,
Speaker 1: uh and a really interesting breakdown. So Ted Thompson um
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy fired obviously in December. Ted Thompson as this
Speaker 1: step down or has moved out of his position? Uh?
Speaker 1: And what's the letter you know revealed as because he's
Speaker 1: dealing with some serious health issues. Mark Murphy, the president
Speaker 1: of the team, UM had a decision to make how
Speaker 1: he wants this team to run, and and this team
Speaker 1: has run smoothly for decades now. It was um Ron
Speaker 1: wolf Uh during the Brett Favre era into Ted Thompson.
Speaker 1: It was always a clear line of power, who was
Speaker 1: making decisions, Who is the guy in charge? Well that's
Speaker 1: not so much the case anymore because Murphy greg Is
Speaker 1: is put into what's kind of a three headed monster
Speaker 1: here UM that puts the the the organization and a
Speaker 1: little bit of a tricky spot. Potentially. We haven't seen
Speaker 1: any outward sides of dysfunction, but when there's not a
Speaker 1: clear line of delineation of who's in charge, that can happen.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts on this piece, I though it's really fascinating
Speaker 1: and his worth reading in full if you're into the
Speaker 1: inner workings of front offices. And I would say it's
Speaker 1: dysfunctional because the two guys that theoretically are as important
Speaker 1: as anyone in the front office, Russ Ball and then
Speaker 1: the GM Brian Gouda Kunts, we're both on essentially unhappy
Speaker 1: with the job that they got. That they felt like
Speaker 1: they each separately felt like they were sold one job
Speaker 1: and maybe got another one where they don't really have
Speaker 1: the power they didn't. Guda Kunts thought he was getting
Speaker 1: Ted Thompson's job, and it's not because he has limited
Speaker 1: say for a general manager. Then you have Matt Lafleura
Speaker 1: over to the side, takes a little fire in this one,
Speaker 1: this piece too about whether he has a forceful personality,
Speaker 1: and you have these three competing areas of the team
Speaker 1: not on the same page necessarily. And then the thing
Speaker 1: that would worry me most about Packers fan is you
Speaker 1: have Mark Murphy getting in with the coaching staff and
Speaker 1: doing the types of things that bad owners do. He's
Speaker 1: not technically the owner, but he's acting like one. It's
Speaker 1: a lot. I think. One of the things that surprised
Speaker 1: me the most in our job over the past decade
Speaker 1: is the level of palace intrigue in these front offices,
Speaker 1: the level the lengths they go to keep and foster
Speaker 1: power for themselves versus you know, kind of contenders for
Speaker 1: power in the same front office. When guna cuts Um
Speaker 1: interviewed for the job is Greg references when what is
Speaker 1: this again? Then this is Brian Gooda cuts is on
Speaker 1: hold music. If you call Brian Goodacuts and you need
Speaker 1: to get through to him. If he if he's taken
Speaker 1: care of other business, this will be the song that plays.
Speaker 1: He's very proud of his armed herota, I mean a
Speaker 1: little off brand. If he essentially is a somewhat of
Speaker 1: a neutered figure inside the building compared to what we
Speaker 1: that sounds like someone very powerful, his dropping hammers on.
Speaker 1: Perhaps perhaps he picked that song before he found this out.
Speaker 1: But anyway, the interview, he went in for the interview,
Speaker 1: thought it was like Greg said, Ted Thompson's job he
Speaker 1: was gonna get, which was, you know, all powerful job,
Speaker 1: and then was told actually, no, it's not going to
Speaker 1: be that way, and he had to they had to
Speaker 1: wait for him to come back and say I still
Speaker 1: want the job, because it threw everything kind of out
Speaker 1: of whack. And then with uh Le Flora the head coach,
Speaker 1: there's questions about how much power he had to even
Speaker 1: pick his own coaching staff, and Mike Petton was, uh
Speaker 1: you could perhaps see it as pushed onto him a
Speaker 1: little bit. And then some other special teams coordinator that
Speaker 1: he quite liked quite a lot, and even the you
Speaker 1: know he flew in for the interview and then got
Speaker 1: apparently low balled in a contract offer and ended up
Speaker 1: being you know, going to New Orleans instead. A lot
Speaker 1: of cooks in the kitchen. It just seems like not everything.
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like anyone is particularly thrilled with things
Speaker 1: right now. Now. If they go in there, you know,
Speaker 1: eight and three in November, nobody's gonna even remember this anymore.
Speaker 1: But if a team that's sitting on back to back
Speaker 1: losing seasons, if this thing goes sideways, well, this is
Speaker 1: only I feel like this is only gonna fester and
Speaker 1: become a bigger story. But some of these things take
Speaker 1: years to really blow up to so even if they
Speaker 1: were eight and three, I'd still be concerned with the
Speaker 1: overall structure. These teams that have this sort of mix
Speaker 1: and match scenario where you don't really know who's in charge,
Speaker 1: and inside the building there's arguments over who's in charge,
Speaker 1: and there's all these hurt feelings. It can last for
Speaker 1: a year or two and then it utterly crumbles. The
Speaker 1: worst thing, like whether it's some sort of South American
Speaker 1: country or it's an NFL team, when there's a power
Speaker 1: void and everyone's rushing to fill the power it's really
Speaker 1: it's really important that it's done well in the NFL.
Speaker 1: And this situation concerns me number one, based on every
Speaker 1: press conference we've seen so far out of Green Bay,
Speaker 1: where Mark Murphy is sort of treating Goody despite his
Speaker 1: on hold music and everything else, and or young new
Speaker 1: head coach as almost like young children or or people
Speaker 1: that need to be tutored into the rule and answering
Speaker 1: every question over them. This is your head coach, and
Speaker 1: you're at least media facing GM well in the and
Speaker 1: if you're read between the lines, I got the sense
Speaker 1: Goody might not even have been totally the guy on
Speaker 1: board or with the La Fleur hiring, and that he
Speaker 1: was on the side for that press conference, which is
Speaker 1: I mean that that's troubling. Uh, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I'm a lot of it is understandable, like you can
Speaker 1: see why, but it's how bad organizations start. And Ted
Speaker 1: Thompson having this automnemonic disorder which we didn't talk about,
Speaker 1: which is a pretty serious illness that he might have
Speaker 1: stayed with the job too long. And then McCarthy and
Speaker 1: Ball Mike McCarthy, the former coach, where apparently totally at
Speaker 1: odds and that created why his job is a certain way.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, it's a lot. It's been a
Speaker 1: lot of success because since ron Wolfe was there, but
Speaker 1: ron wolf is no longer participating in Packers events and
Speaker 1: kind of U is mad at the organization, partly because
Speaker 1: of how they treated his son. There there's a lot
Speaker 1: going on. I remember at the combine I um two
Speaker 1: years ago when it was Goody's first run. I random
Speaker 1: you know how you randomly see people in the elevator
Speaker 1: and like the twelve year old and you was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, that's Mike McCarthy, the Packers coach. But
Speaker 1: we were alone. I was like, yeah, I really think
Speaker 1: your new GM seems like a great higher and he
Speaker 1: just looked at me and like his door open, he
Speaker 1: goes It wasn't that bad. It was kind of like
Speaker 1: it wasn't like, hey man, I think he's awesome dude
Speaker 1: working around It was just like a and walked out
Speaker 1: of the other Okay, what hotel is this? We've got
Speaker 1: to see if there's footage somewhere. It's the one we
Speaker 1: always stay at an Indian Maria um Hilton. All right,
Speaker 1: I don't check hotel names Anyway, moving on, Greg, good news,
Speaker 1: Happy Monday for you. Some people got the case of
Speaker 1: the Monday's today, not you, Greg. You know, why do
Speaker 1: you know he's back? You knows back. The Seahawks sign
Speaker 1: the journeyman quarterback Um, the former second round pick of
Speaker 1: the Jets, spent last season doing nothing behind Philip Rivers
Speaker 1: with the Chargers. Uh, and now he is um going
Speaker 1: to be probably he'll probably be the number two behind
Speaker 1: Russell Willlsonbody's got some competition. You know who it is,
Speaker 1: Baxton Lynch, Lynch v Gino to back up Russ. I
Speaker 1: would call that totally speaking of palace intrigue, clip the coins. Sorry, Greg, Well,
Speaker 1: don't be sorry. I think what teams are better than
Speaker 1: Baxton Lynch even I'll say that, Yeah, I won't say
Speaker 1: that necessarily show to me. You know what's more important
Speaker 1: talker action. You know, you can a lot of funny
Speaker 1: talk about Gino over the years. Look at the action.
Speaker 1: What NFL You're not going to go back to the
Speaker 1: end of the team about leadership. What the NFL teams
Speaker 1: are telling us are like, if we want to pair
Speaker 1: someone with a quarterback who knows just about everything there
Speaker 1: is to know about the NFL, but needs a little
Speaker 1: something else behind him to really teach him the game.
Speaker 1: And Eli Manning of Philip Rivers, Russell Wilson, who do
Speaker 1: they bring in? They bring in Gino. They bring in
Speaker 1: Gino to help that veteran really be the best that
Speaker 1: he can be. Here's another way to look at it.
Speaker 1: If you have a quarterback who never misses his snap
Speaker 1: like Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson, feel free
Speaker 1: to bring in Geno Smith is your number two because
Speaker 1: he's never gonna play. We'll always defend that start Gino
Speaker 1: had as a Giant against the Raiders, and that will
Speaker 1: always Watch the tape. Watch the tape. Watch the tape
Speaker 1: when he runs down the sideline cheering against Ryan Fitz.
Speaker 1: He was the best on the same team. It was
Speaker 1: like the best game by a Giants quarterback gives his
Speaker 1: own teammate playing quarterback because he wanted to play. What
Speaker 1: a rotten teammate. I actually did give some a little
Speaker 1: bit of thought before the show when this, you know,
Speaker 1: I was putting together the rundown. Why does he keep
Speaker 1: getting jobs? He must be pretty good at picking up
Speaker 1: a playbook and he doesn't cost a lot he throws
Speaker 1: a pretty ball, throws a decent spiral. When he throws
Speaker 1: it to his own team, he throws a pretty ball. UM.
Speaker 1: Finally in the news some sad news, former Chiefs coach
Speaker 1: Gutrick Cunningham has died at the age of seventy two. UM.
Speaker 1: The Lions, whom Cunningham last worked as a decordinator two
Speaker 1: thousand nine through two thousand thirteen and he worked with
Speaker 1: them as an assistant through two thousand seventeen, announced the news.
Speaker 1: Born in Munich, Germany, Cunningham moved to the US at
Speaker 1: the age of ten and became a naturalized citizen UH
Speaker 1: two thousand ten. He attended the University of Oregon, where
Speaker 1: he played linebacker, but he was known as you know,
Speaker 1: a real lifer. As a coach in the NFL. UH
Speaker 1: started with the Baltimore Colts as an assistant, spent time
Speaker 1: with the Chargers and Raiders before moving to Casey as
Speaker 1: their d C from ninety eight. Some really good Chiefs
Speaker 1: teams in that mix. In ninety nine, he succeeded Marty
Speaker 1: Schottenheimer's the Chiefs had coach for two years when sixteen
Speaker 1: and sixteen. For more than thirty years, UH Cunningham was
Speaker 1: a figure in the NFL and Bucky Brooks. We joke
Speaker 1: about it a lot on this program about Daniel Jeremiah
Speaker 1: having or not having a podcast here at NFL Media. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk about this one. Uh. First of all,
Speaker 1: DJ wasn't on this episode. It was Rhett filling in
Speaker 1: with Bucky. But that I think that's a great combo, right,
Speaker 1: I think it's something to explore. But Bucky played under
Speaker 1: Gunther Cunningham UM for a phase of his career, and
Speaker 1: he had some words about Gunther. So let's listen in
Speaker 1: to Um the most recent episode of Move the Stings. Look,
Speaker 1: the NFL lost a great one because he's one of
Speaker 1: the best defensive minds, one of the more colorful personalities.
Speaker 1: He is a guy that UM, I think everybody has
Speaker 1: a story when it comes to Gunther, because he felt
Speaker 1: like he was the toughest guy in the room and
Speaker 1: anyone who was around him, anyone who was on his team,
Speaker 1: had to take on that personality because look, teams are
Speaker 1: really there, they take on the persona of their coach,
Speaker 1: and so having played for him, you walk out with
Speaker 1: a level of confidence and a level of kind of
Speaker 1: that bully nous that uh goes on. So look, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna miss him. I'm missing dearly. He did so much
Speaker 1: for canc CD and the rest of the league the
Speaker 1: way he impacted it. Um, it's sad to see a
Speaker 1: great one pathway. I just remember those late nineties teams.
Speaker 1: His defense, you know, Marty Shotton ever got away with
Speaker 1: running the batt of the time because Gunther Cunningham's defense
Speaker 1: was number one in the league and points allowed two
Speaker 1: out of three years when they went thirteen and three.
Speaker 1: I always feeling Chiefs fans have had some great teams
Speaker 1: over the years that that didn't get quite over the hump,
Speaker 1: but his defenses were awesome. He is one of the
Speaker 1: rare guys that was defensive coordinator for the Chiefs, became
Speaker 1: head coach, went to another team, then return How many
Speaker 1: head coaches return to their previous team as a coordinator.
Speaker 1: I cannot think of any other than him in these
Speaker 1: last twenty five years. Secondly, if we love hard Knocks
Speaker 1: for what it teaches us about the coordinators and the
Speaker 1: coaches and the personalities running the two thousand and seven Chiefs,
Speaker 1: hard Knocks, there is no bigger star on that entire
Speaker 1: show than Gunther Cunningham, who I had no idea who
Speaker 1: the guy was before it, and he is a raging
Speaker 1: badass through the entire He's unbelievably enjoyable to watch. He's
Speaker 1: the same dude on Thanksgiving when justin Force set way
Speaker 1: back when against the Texans, he was with he was
Speaker 1: with the lines at that point ran for that eight
Speaker 1: one yard touchdown that couldn't be uh, it couldn't be
Speaker 1: reviewed because Schwartz through the red flag during it and
Speaker 1: it was a scoring place, so they're said, sorry, it
Speaker 1: was clearly he was tackled to the ground, and they
Speaker 1: just show cunning him taking the playbook and throwing it
Speaker 1: in the air like an old man and picking it
Speaker 1: with his foot. Then a couple of a couple, it
Speaker 1: was either a year or two after Monday Night Football
Speaker 1: shows him up in this up in the coordinator's booth,
Speaker 1: chewing out fans that are like like ten feet away
Speaker 1: who were giving him he was he was to me
Speaker 1: one of the I can see why Bucky feels a
Speaker 1: way would be hard forget him. Got Cunningham dead at
Speaker 1: the age of seventy two, That's what's happening in the news.
Speaker 1: Hey guys, Lisa knows how important rest is to a
Speaker 1: better life. How are you sleeping lately? Mark? Much better?
Speaker 1: Good I had. I'm watching both my boys. My wife
Speaker 1: is away on business right now, and uh, they both
Speaker 1: slept in bed with me last night. Not a great
Speaker 1: night sleep that doesn't a lot of little legs kicking
Speaker 1: you repeatedly. Kind also have to protect your body, even
Speaker 1: awake or not, when your little children in the bed,
Speaker 1: because they're gonna kick you. Well, they're a little body.
Speaker 1: They're like little body heaters, like space heaters. You don't
Speaker 1: need that. It's like what it feels like in here
Speaker 1: right now. I wouldn't be surprised they're like crawling on
Speaker 1: the floor somewhere right now. Anyway, Lisa is the foundation
Speaker 1: of a healthy, healthier, happier you. All Lisa products have
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Speaker 1: slash around and guys, one more thing. I'm not going
Speaker 1: very far. I'm in a rush. It's too uncomfortable. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I just forget. Don't kid yourself. There's no such thing
Speaker 1: as a good excuse for not buckling up. If you've
Speaker 1: used any of these excuses or others, you're putting yourself
Speaker 1: at risk of injury or death. In two thousand seventeen,
Speaker 1: more than ten thousand people were unbuckled when they were
Speaker 1: killed and crashes. That's people killed in motor vehicle crashes
Speaker 1: that were not wearing seatbelts. No matter what kind of
Speaker 1: vehicle you drive, wearing your seat belt is the best
Speaker 1: defense in a crash. Greg, do you buckle up? Of
Speaker 1: course every time me buckle up. It's not cool not to.
Speaker 1: It used to be not anymore. And I used to
Speaker 1: not buckle up in the back seat. And then one
Speaker 1: day I smartened up. I said, you know what, the
Speaker 1: buckles buckling back here too. I grew up in a
Speaker 1: live and let live house where you didn't have to
Speaker 1: buckle your seat, But since I've been an adult, always
Speaker 1: buckle my seat. Absolutelyn't remember, but west Uh, I was
Speaker 1: called you bob. Bob's not on the show. There you go.
Speaker 1: Cops are on the lookout and writing tickets, so why
Speaker 1: take the risk. So do the smart thing and buckle
Speaker 1: up every trip, day or night, front seat or back seat.
Speaker 1: I added that in just to reminder, buckle up in
Speaker 1: the back seat, click it or ticket. Nailed it, alright,
Speaker 1: I should add in my mom's defense, that were like
Speaker 1: nine of us trying to fit in a firebird. The
Speaker 1: seat belts kind of where you know. My My mom
Speaker 1: also came from a large Catholic family where there were
Speaker 1: six children. She tells the story when they would drive
Speaker 1: to the beach in the summer. They'd be packed into
Speaker 1: the back of the station wagon. There'd be a dog
Speaker 1: in there as well. And then Poppy, my late grandfather
Speaker 1: smoking a big cigar. There's no air conditioning. It character
Speaker 1: well less helicoptery parental scenarios back then. Yes, um, all right,
Speaker 1: there we go. Let's talk about it. What are we
Speaker 1: overly invested in as we look ahead to two thousand
Speaker 1: nineteen at a level where, yeah, this is what we
Speaker 1: do for a living, we should be invested in a
Speaker 1: lot of the subplots that surround the season as we
Speaker 1: look ahead. But for whatever reason, these subplots have really
Speaker 1: kind of wormed their way into our old brains. And uh,
Speaker 1: I was gonna mention like a part of a brain,
Speaker 1: to just dress it up a little bit. But then
Speaker 1: I didn't know if it would be mentioning the right
Speaker 1: part of the brain, the north cortex, cortex would have
Speaker 1: been good. I was thinking of that. What was the
Speaker 1: m Gambada thing? What was that part? I almost did that,
Speaker 1: but I didn't want to stump all over the word.
Speaker 1: I might have stumbled upon it myself. Well, m Greg,
Speaker 1: why don't you get us going? Maybe sometimes I don't
Speaker 1: have to, you know, externalize these internal thoughts. Well, so
Speaker 1: I think that's your job as the host. And this
Speaker 1: is a you know, somewhat confusing segment, and so I
Speaker 1: think it's it's good to set it up. It's really
Speaker 1: it really is inspired by Game of Thrones. We sort
Speaker 1: of did the intro already right off the top, but
Speaker 1: just that people they're in too deep. They've they've committed
Speaker 1: so long with Game of Thrones that they're just losing
Speaker 1: perspective on things. That's a little bit how I feel
Speaker 1: with the Los Angeles Chargers at this point. I've been
Speaker 1: predicting that this team is gonna be one of the
Speaker 1: best teams in the a f C, that it's going
Speaker 1: to go to the super Bowl, that it's got one
Speaker 1: of the best rosters in the league from for so
Speaker 1: long that there's no there's no backing off at this point, Like,
Speaker 1: there's no I can't go off of that when they
Speaker 1: went twelve and four a year ago. But part of
Speaker 1: me does, you know, the part of me that's not
Speaker 1: as invested, kind of looks at it from the outside
Speaker 1: and and looks at that offensive line and it's garbage
Speaker 1: for the most part. Uh. And there it was at
Speaker 1: the end of last season. And it's basically the same
Speaker 1: group coming back. And it's an it's an older quarterback
Speaker 1: and as loaded as that defense looks, and uh, and
Speaker 1: it's really good overall. I I do worry about a
Speaker 1: team that doesn't really have much of a home field advantage.
Speaker 1: And did they Was that their best chance last year
Speaker 1: twelve and four? I don't really know. I can't tell
Speaker 1: because I'm in so I'm in so dear into deep.
Speaker 1: I'm in too deep. I can't see it. You're blinded.
Speaker 1: What about the idea of building into those things? And
Speaker 1: maybe be worried about the way the offense played down
Speaker 1: the stretch. Yes, you know, after that amazing they peaked
Speaker 1: as a team one of the great moments in Chargers history,
Speaker 1: at least regular season. But maybe you can go the
Speaker 1: whole you know, Kit and Caboodle is when they went
Speaker 1: to Arrowhead and the buzzer beater win on Thursday Night football,
Speaker 1: And from that point on, I don't remember that offense
Speaker 1: being close to the same. What is it? Right? I
Speaker 1: do worry about that there little thin Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: they have two great receivers. I believe in Keenan allen
Speaker 1: Um and Mike Williams is coming up, but after that
Speaker 1: it's Travis Benjamin and then there's a pretty big fall off.
Speaker 1: It's just a team that you're nervous. I'm not nervous.
Speaker 1: I'm not nervous. It just looks so good on paper
Speaker 1: that actually think now I've been rooting for the Charges
Speaker 1: to do well for so long. I'm getting some Charger
Speaker 1: fans thoughts in my head, which is like, it almost
Speaker 1: looks too good. Something's gonna get funky. It felt like
Speaker 1: at the end of the year the problems were twofold,
Speaker 1: that their running backs were injured and they have one
Speaker 1: of the best, most productive back fields all year, and
Speaker 1: then the right side of the offensive line just fell
Speaker 1: apart and got exploited almost after. The offensive line was
Speaker 1: so bad the last four or five six weeks, and
Speaker 1: that was what I think separated this team. And the
Speaker 1: defense is really good. I hope Gus Bradley can take
Speaker 1: advantage of all the talent that he has. It looks
Speaker 1: great on paper. This is an organization where it hasn't
Speaker 1: always translated from paper, uh to reality. Kind of like
Speaker 1: the last season of Game of Throw and talk about
Speaker 1: that I brought it back. I ound and Rodgers was
Speaker 1: the latest celebrity to make a camo on the show.
Speaker 1: I think he gets you know West, did you see?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it wasn't that going to be in the news.
Speaker 1: I forgot. I mean I wasn't looking for him because
Speaker 1: it was about Game of Thrones, not some quarterback for
Speaker 1: the Packers. But no, I didn't see him. Well quarterback
Speaker 1: for the Packers. This is an all time great Why yeah,
Speaker 1: but he plays football. A football player has no place
Speaker 1: in Game of Thrones. Like, that's a whole different world.
Speaker 1: That's mid Earth. Are just guys that hang out in
Speaker 1: l A and work on their screen plays. Willing suspension
Speaker 1: of disbelief matters more for me than most people. It's
Speaker 1: hard to pick him out. There's a scene according to
Speaker 1: some again don't watch it, but he obviously should have
Speaker 1: been doing But he comes, he comes, burning hound. You
Speaker 1: spent four or five scenes. He comes, burning down like
Speaker 1: a left turn as the dragon is like touch Rodgers
Speaker 1: and burning everyone up. According on Twitter, that's I don't
Speaker 1: think anybody watching this would have seen that as Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: And even if they were looking for you'd have to
Speaker 1: go back. So Why am I the one defend Aaron Rodgers? Finally,
Speaker 1: why are we so negative about him appearing on it
Speaker 1: on a television He's a huge just missed it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, it's like a little he's a quarter if
Speaker 1: he's scene that they showed he did a nice job.
Speaker 1: Money and watch it. You know what's happening right now? There?
Speaker 1: He gets torched, It gets hot in here. It is.
Speaker 1: And it's funny you say that because I'm watching Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers get incinerated on Game of Thrones. And yes, it
Speaker 1: happens so quickly that it's very easy to miss. And
Speaker 1: west obviously that's something you can miss as we completely
Speaker 1: bring the show to I mean, how would I know
Speaker 1: that's are on site watching it? In no way, it's
Speaker 1: only because it's been by you got killed. That's the point.
Speaker 1: You're not supposed to know. I'm I'm not supposed to
Speaker 1: know that it's him, and I'm I'm not saying there's
Speaker 1: anything wrong with I'm just saying nobody should be expected
Speaker 1: to notice that's Aaron Rodgers during this. I also think
Speaker 1: maybe they shouldn't have had him in shoulder pads in
Speaker 1: a number twelve jersey. It just took me out Like
Speaker 1: the coffee cup thing didn't help, took me out of
Speaker 1: the moment, all right. Anyway, what am I wildly overly
Speaker 1: invested in? Well, I'm gonna keep it real. It's got
Speaker 1: to be involving my favorite team, but it's a it's
Speaker 1: a bigger picture as well. I am two invested in
Speaker 1: the year two of the two thousand eighteen quarterback draft class, UM,
Speaker 1: just to see how this all shakes out. It starts,
Speaker 1: of course, with my boy Sam Donald, who I'm really excited.
Speaker 1: I feel like he's kind of in a good spot where, um, nobody,
Speaker 1: despite the additions, people still don't really think the Jets
Speaker 1: gonna be any good, So he doesn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of this. I don't think there's a lot of expectations
Speaker 1: really built up around Donald, which is probably not the
Speaker 1: worst thing. But when I look at the roster and
Speaker 1: Greg you hit the Jets in the roster reseat, they're
Speaker 1: better in almost every phase of UM. Their team from
Speaker 1: last year now. Last year's team is a bad four
Speaker 1: and twelve outfits. So that doesn't mean now they're gonna
Speaker 1: go twelve and four. But I'm really excited, especially but
Speaker 1: beyond Levy on Bell and jameson James and crowder Um,
Speaker 1: the Adam Gaze angle, which as a Jets fan, you
Speaker 1: just have no it's been so long since they've tried
Speaker 1: to build an offense with Um, a coach that has
Speaker 1: an offensive mind. I'm excited to see how Gays and
Speaker 1: Donald worked together. Mayfield and the Browns. We've talked about
Speaker 1: that a lot, but you want to see is he
Speaker 1: gonna be a superstar? Is he gonna be an m
Speaker 1: v P level guy? Unlike Donald? Obviously, the Browns have
Speaker 1: a ton of expectations, so I'm interested to see how
Speaker 1: um he fares facing that type of UM scrutiny. And
Speaker 1: then the other guy is Josh Rosen. I'm focusing on
Speaker 1: the first round obviously, Josh Rosen. What happens in Miami.
Speaker 1: Does he have a chance to sell well, he will
Speaker 1: get a chance to salvage his career. What does he
Speaker 1: do with it? So I'm kind of really interested in
Speaker 1: how that shakes out. Josh Allen? Is he any good?
Speaker 1: I think there's some people that think Josh Allen is
Speaker 1: really good, and then there's some people that didn't see
Speaker 1: enough to get excited about him. I Uh, he seems
Speaker 1: very scattershot to me and an amazing athlete. And finally,
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson. I feel like Donald has helped out a
Speaker 1: little bit in terms of what you mentioned with lower
Speaker 1: expectations by the fact that by the end of last year,
Speaker 1: I think Baker Mayfield and you could argue Lamar Jackson
Speaker 1: became bigger stories than Arnold tucked away on a lost
Speaker 1: Jets team. But I would not say on any level
Speaker 1: that we're far away from it out here. On some level,
Speaker 1: but there is no way that Sam Donald does not
Speaker 1: have high expectations around him, and he should. He should
Speaker 1: have high expectations. There are high expectations, but a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure, the scrutiny of the team being I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about him, I'm talking about the team. People aren't
Speaker 1: expecting the Jets to go eleven and five and knock
Speaker 1: off the Patriots. It's a different people aren't buying into now.
Speaker 1: I get that, But I do think there is a
Speaker 1: lot of expectation for a first year head coach and
Speaker 1: second year quarterbacks just because the talent around him is
Speaker 1: so good that Levi on Bell, you think Chris Herndon's
Speaker 1: gonna make a big leap, You got a nice receiver
Speaker 1: crew and Anderson uh in the noon noir and who
Speaker 1: am I forgetting there? Jamison Crowder. I mean that's like
Speaker 1: a good He should be expected to have a good
Speaker 1: season this year. Coaches should be better too. I'm the
Speaker 1: I would say this is um the most excited I've
Speaker 1: been about a Jet season in a long long time.
Speaker 1: You might have to go back to two thousand eleven
Speaker 1: after their second a f C title game, where I
Speaker 1: just not necessarily because I think they're ready to make
Speaker 1: them make the move to be a contender, but just
Speaker 1: to see how the team plays and see how Donald develops.
Speaker 1: I've never had a quarterback in my life. Well, and
Speaker 1: you're not forcing that, You're not forced to quietly back
Speaker 1: a total sham quarterback, which has been the exercise when
Speaker 1: you root for these quarterback free, crappy teams for a
Speaker 1: decade plus. As you know, well, Mark all right, um,
Speaker 1: Chris Westling, I'm gonna invite Mark to go ahead of
Speaker 1: me if he wants to, because mine is more of
Speaker 1: a macro view of the sport itself. Bullet involves Shakespeare mythology. No,
Speaker 1: mine is very microt I will I will go first
Speaker 1: here with with my thing because it is based on
Speaker 1: a smaller topic than the entire sport. Uh. For me,
Speaker 1: I feel like when I get way too deep, I
Speaker 1: cannot change my opinion on something, even if it is changing.
Speaker 1: And for me, I am in way too deep when
Speaker 1: I look at the Detroit Lions and I see nothing
Speaker 1: but their immense, profound, untouchable dullness. I wanted to try
Speaker 1: to explain this to me. I think I had perceived
Speaker 1: them as boring for years on end correctly, and I
Speaker 1: need the team to pull off something dramatic to alter
Speaker 1: my worldview. When I'm flipping through games, whether they're live,
Speaker 1: run game pass, I want to feel something other than
Speaker 1: when I land on the Detroit Lions and think to
Speaker 1: myself next, the Lions arguably have one of the top
Speaker 1: run stuffing lines in the NFC right now, led by
Speaker 1: Damon Harrison. They have a competent quarterback in Matthew Stafford.
Speaker 1: I like Carrie on Johnson Kenny Golladay. I kind of
Speaker 1: can get behind the Matt Patricia thing. But still I
Speaker 1: cannot see my way out of this conundrum. Here are
Speaker 1: a few ideas to change my opinion. How about win
Speaker 1: a playoff game for the first time since a longer
Speaker 1: streak than the Browns. How about stop being the least
Speaker 1: interesting team in your division for one in my lifetime.
Speaker 1: How about consider the concept of not feeling aesthetically like
Speaker 1: the same exact dull trinket year after year after year,
Speaker 1: and before any ham and Egger Lion fans come after me,
Speaker 1: you should be ten times more steamed than I am.
Speaker 1: How many sundays have you wasted? Would you prefer to
Speaker 1: sip the most expensive champagne as the NFL crown is
Speaker 1: laid upon your brow or deal with another raging bowl
Speaker 1: of vanilla ice cream comes September. It's gonna take a
Speaker 1: lot to change my feelings. I'm way too deep in
Speaker 1: on this one. It's like Saigon sixty eight. Who knows
Speaker 1: when any of us will get out of the ship.
Speaker 1: I agree with every word you said, and I totally
Speaker 1: get what you're saying that this could be the year
Speaker 1: the Lions are exciting, but you're too close to it.
Speaker 1: You're too too close, too invested in this marriage and
Speaker 1: not rooting for myself to feel that way. Year from now,
Speaker 1: I would love to feel different. The rest of the
Speaker 1: league is because it's coming to the point where there
Speaker 1: aren't that many super boring teams left. A lot of
Speaker 1: them have gone out of the way to fix some
Speaker 1: of the issues. It should be the the solve really
Speaker 1: for the UH for their you know, boring nature. Because
Speaker 1: when he came in and at least was thankful that
Speaker 1: I thought he would say Thanksgiving the early game, I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, finally we're we're done with these
Speaker 1: Lions quarterbacks that are allowsy. We get Stafford in the
Speaker 1: nine thirty whole for the next decade. But I don't
Speaker 1: know you're you're right. I mean, that's an underrated Mark
Speaker 1: Sessler storyline his feelings about the Lions. But I'm glad
Speaker 1: we explored it. Okay, Wes, I just don't know how
Speaker 1: I believe it. But I have something that I'm passionate about.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna be like I just can't stop thinking
Speaker 1: about the Miami Dolphins in their team building process. Like
Speaker 1: I don't spend time thinking about that and getting all
Speaker 1: hot and bothered over it. But the Lions that annoying.
Speaker 1: I will say when I think about something that I
Speaker 1: felt passionately about this take since the minute this podcast started.
Speaker 1: And I'm not alone West because of the way we're
Speaker 1: indoctrinated in this country. We our minds tend to set
Speaker 1: and entrench as liberal or conservative, right or left, business
Speaker 1: or labor. That's the bias we bring into sports, and
Speaker 1: the people who follow football closes tend to break down
Speaker 1: into two separate camps, pro owners or pro players, and
Speaker 1: we lose perspective. We get into deep when we view
Speaker 1: the league's issues through one of those lenses, instead of
Speaker 1: taking a broader view about what's good for the sport
Speaker 1: itself short term or long term, as well as the
Speaker 1: most rewarding entertainment experience for the fan, more fans, more
Speaker 1: writers should be thinking about what's good for writers and fans,
Speaker 1: not what's good for players or owners. M hmm, what
Speaker 1: are some I think that's a thought provoking uh idea there?
Speaker 1: What are some what? What are some examples? Like what
Speaker 1: made you think about this? Uh one thing a topic
Speaker 1: that came up a week or two ago, the franchise tag.
Speaker 1: When you were talking like that might be an issue
Speaker 1: that the players, the NFL P we'll get rid of.
Speaker 1: There's no chance of that happening, because the sport itself
Speaker 1: needs the franchise tag. It will be an awful awful
Speaker 1: sport if quarterbacks can just go wherever they want, like
Speaker 1: the NBA where you have these power teams and dream
Speaker 1: teams and only two teams or three teams are relevant
Speaker 1: every year. You can't do that in football. That's one thing.
Speaker 1: But I also think replay is another one. M Yeah,
Speaker 1: replay I could. I could totally see the franchise tag
Speaker 1: and player movement is is a double edged sword. With
Speaker 1: the NFL and the way talents dispersed in the salary cap.
Speaker 1: You know, good quarterbacks are almost getting there, like Kirk
Speaker 1: Cousins kind of put a no trade, no tag, you know,
Speaker 1: clause on his contract, and theory Wilson could do that.
Speaker 1: I don't mind getting rid of it. I don't mind
Speaker 1: a little more player movement. I think actually the NFL
Speaker 1: that might make it interesting that if better players got
Speaker 1: to free agency. But I think you're you're right about
Speaker 1: the replays that and this is across a lot of sports,
Speaker 1: so that I think you're losing the forest for the
Speaker 1: tree that someone that hasn't watched a lot of NBA
Speaker 1: in recent years, but tuning in for these game sevens,
Speaker 1: I mean to see like a two minute delay to
Speaker 1: see if Joel, I'm Joel Embiid was acting or not
Speaker 1: when his eye got hurt with six minutes left in
Speaker 1: the game, It's like, come on, you're also let's let's
Speaker 1: wake up here. You're also allowed to look at the
Speaker 1: Levy on Bell situation and say, hey, the Steelers offered
Speaker 1: him a fair deal. Um, he hates the franchise tag,
Speaker 1: but the franchise tag actually would have been good for
Speaker 1: him had he accepted it. And as a fan of
Speaker 1: the game, I would have had a much better experience
Speaker 1: if he was playing for the Steelers instead of sitting
Speaker 1: out all year. Let me ask you one quite like
Speaker 1: when when it comes to replay, because I like your
Speaker 1: argument that everyone it's great in in in March and
Speaker 1: April when we reconstruct replay and it becomes more expansive
Speaker 1: and it's going to address the stuff that hurt everyone's
Speaker 1: feelings a couple of months ago, rightly so, But then
Speaker 1: the game suddenly when it's if if they are going
Speaker 1: to become longer, We don't really know, because I think
Speaker 1: there's arguments to suggest that won't happen, Like I don't
Speaker 1: know if any of this would be happening at all.
Speaker 1: If it weren't for Twitter and stuff like that, because
Speaker 1: in if this were like the expansion hubbub over Minnesota
Speaker 1: and New Orleans would have died down about ten days
Speaker 1: later and been largely something people wouldn't even be communicating
Speaker 1: about publicly. It stayed such a fervor and the owners
Speaker 1: have to react, and the owners and everyone else had
Speaker 1: to vote that in like when you say pro owner
Speaker 1: or pro player, I mean some of these issues are
Speaker 1: right in the middle with with replay, Like do you
Speaker 1: want them to not be responsive to that kind of thing?
Speaker 1: The owners, I thought they did at least they tried
Speaker 1: to make the game. I don't know. For me, it's
Speaker 1: confusing because their owners, to me, they tried to address
Speaker 1: what was a truly big guiling issue for the league
Speaker 1: going forward. I don't think you haven't a lot of
Speaker 1: owners or right now, like looking at the health of
Speaker 1: the league is the most important thing, which is it
Speaker 1: doesn't help that in almost every American sport the commissioners
Speaker 1: essentially powerless and he's just a lackey for the owners
Speaker 1: getting hot in here again. I mean that's the way.
Speaker 1: That's the way it's evolved over the years. That like
Speaker 1: if you're an owner of the sport. The commissioner is
Speaker 1: under your employee. That's just the way it is. Um, good, say, guys,
Speaker 1: we have one more show before the Chris Westling Lakeisha
Speaker 1: Jackson Jackson nuptials. By the way, your brother, Nick, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I got him triggered. He is. He is
Speaker 1: all up in his feelings. He's what happened now. He's
Speaker 1: sending me private text now saying how you know how
Speaker 1: badly wants to beat me. And he was gonna play
Speaker 1: left hand, but now he's gonna play right. Heber, he
Speaker 1: got my number to teach me a lesson. And it's
Speaker 1: just like, bro, I love it up here living rent
Speaker 1: free in your head, Nick, and it's nice up here
Speaker 1: and roomy. And let me tell you something. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna like what happens this weekend. It's noisy though up
Speaker 1: in his head. It's a lot of chatter, a lot
Speaker 1: of chatter. But um, just realize the pressures on you, buddy,
Speaker 1: the pressures on you, let's say, And he's listening right now,
Speaker 1: right Nick, You remember I'm the one with the microphone.
Speaker 1: And if you don't beat me this weekend, next week
Speaker 1: will be one of the lowest points of your life.
Speaker 1: Well you and Nick is is um and if we
Speaker 1: hear no updates about the game at all, you know
Speaker 1: that Nick fared. Well here's here's the problem though, Nick,
Speaker 1: it's not a one on Well maybe you will do
Speaker 1: a one on one thing, but the problem is like
Speaker 1: if you and Nick are a close battle, that leaves
Speaker 1: you know, me and west too to decide that the wind.
Speaker 1: My feeling is clear, I care less now about the
Speaker 1: two on two? Is there a one on one? And
Speaker 1: and just um, Nick and I I guess a little
Speaker 1: concerned about the top heavy nature of the Wesley and
Speaker 1: Westling team. Well here's the We're we're big time underdogs.
Speaker 1: I I don't mind it. It'll just uh, it'll just
Speaker 1: you know, make everyone more surprised when we shot the world.
Speaker 1: But that's just the reality is we're big. It also
Speaker 1: feels great, as all mentioned, two shows in a row
Speaker 1: just to be completely knocked out of the lineup at
Speaker 1: whim by you hobby horses. Enjoy yourself. Here's the tail
Speaker 1: of the tape. Um. Nick clearly a better cornhole player
Speaker 1: than Dane. But here's what I say, Nick not even
Speaker 1: in the same league as Dan when it comes to
Speaker 1: psychological warfare. And this could backfire on Nick if he's
Speaker 1: talking about throwing left handed, because Dan might then force
Speaker 1: him to throw left handed. Nick Willet obliterated. We'll see,
Speaker 1: We'll see. I wouldn't. I wouldn't, you said clearly better.
Speaker 1: We'll see because he's got to perform. It's easy to
Speaker 1: do it when you're alone in Cincinnati in the backyard.
Speaker 1: But when the lights are on and when people are
Speaker 1: watching it, and when it counts, we'll see what Nick
Speaker 1: Westling's got. We'll see if he's got anything in the heart.
Speaker 1: I'll leave it on that note. Let's go. Stan has
Speaker 1: a signing off four quiet Storm, the mail man, your boss,
Speaker 1: and Ricky Hollywood behind the glass. I want you, Nick Westley,
Speaker 1: I want you till Thursday m