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Speaker 1: He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson one

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Speaker 1: home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio. Welcome

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

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Speaker 1: and Matt Uh. It's official. Tom Brady has now retired.

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Speaker 1: There's no questioning whether he has or has it now.

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Speaker 1: There reports over the weekend that Brady was going to retire,

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Speaker 1: and then well he said those are premature. They were

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Speaker 1: only premature by a couple of days. Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: my hunch all that was was didn't want to steal

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Speaker 1: the thunder from the championship games or whatever. Wait until

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Speaker 1: a little bit more in the middle of the week

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Speaker 1: when news calms down a little bit and it is

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Speaker 1: huge news. I mean, he's retiring after a really really

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Speaker 1: good season, you know. I mean he didn't have that

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Speaker 1: final season that Eli Peyton, and I know Peyton won

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Speaker 1: the Super well, but he was not a good player

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Speaker 1: at that point, or Breeze or even Ben you know,

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Speaker 1: like I think that Brady looked at those guys and said,

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Speaker 1: I don't want that final year where I'm kind of

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Speaker 1: just trudging along, you know. Yeah. He'd also you know,

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Speaker 1: said several years ago that he wanted to play until

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Speaker 1: he was forty five. Well he's gonna turn forty five

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Speaker 1: this offseason, so okay, yeah, that's all part of it

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Speaker 1: as well. I know we all kind of, I know

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Speaker 1: I did kind of scoffed at it at the time, like, oh,

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Speaker 1: there's no way he's playing until he's forty five. That's

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Speaker 1: nuts played until five. Right. Yeah, They're pretty good and

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Speaker 1: obviously just an amazing career. I mean, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: you know, we're not here to praise and you know,

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Speaker 1: tell them all of his accomplishments would be here for

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Speaker 1: hours and hours. It's it's unbelievable. Um. On my podcast,

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Speaker 1: we we just kind of talked about, you know, what's

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Speaker 1: one memory that really affected you from Brady from your

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Speaker 1: fandom or whatever, and I just flat out said, you know,

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Speaker 1: he's retiring pretty much the same year Kevin cole it

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Speaker 1: is and it's pretty much been you know, in the

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Speaker 1: league about as long as Kevin was the GM here

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Speaker 1: or in charge of personnel. And if Kevin was and

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Speaker 1: the Steelers were the second winning his team at that time,

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Speaker 1: you know, if it wasn't for Brady, what more could

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Speaker 1: have been possibly? You know, I mean, but a lot

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Speaker 1: to be, a lot to be proud of from both

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Speaker 1: those organizations. Obviously. Yeah, I can remember writing UM back

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Speaker 1: and maybe it was like two thousand and four when

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Speaker 1: the Steelers lost to the Patriots in the a f

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Speaker 1: C Championship Game, and I wrote that, you know, maybe

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Speaker 1: Steeler fans are getting a little taste of what it

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Speaker 1: felt like to be a Raiders fan, uh in the seventies.

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Speaker 1: You know, liked always talked about the Oilers late in

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Speaker 1: the seventies team, but you just can't get over the

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Speaker 1: top because there's another team there that you keep running into.

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Speaker 1: UM and that happens, I mean, you know, it just

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Speaker 1: but it's a testament to the Steelers that they then

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Speaker 1: still went in one three Super Bowls after that. I

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Speaker 1: find it kind of interesting, like, you know, the Patriots

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Speaker 1: have really been kind of two different little there were

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Speaker 1: two different kind of dynasties in the breedy people don't

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Speaker 1: look at it that way, but they won, you know

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Speaker 1: in uh two thousand one was one two and four,

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Speaker 1: and then they didn't win again for another decade. It's

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Speaker 1: funny you brought that up. I have one note, I

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Speaker 1: never you know you and I we do these live time.

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Speaker 1: I never have a note to all that often. I

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Speaker 1: have one note sitting here and all it says is

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Speaker 1: ten years. And I was gonna say the exact same thing.

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Speaker 1: And people forget Brady did not win a super Bowl

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Speaker 1: for ten years. I mean, I'm not saying, see he's overrated,

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Speaker 1: he stinks. It's just back to the point of bringing

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Speaker 1: around the Steelers. Ben got two, Breedies has one, Rogers

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Speaker 1: has one. Like Brady went a stretch where ten a

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Speaker 1: decade went by that he did not win a Super Bowl.

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Speaker 1: People forget that. And if you if you actually, if

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Speaker 1: you look at that decade, yeah, the dominant team in

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Speaker 1: the lead, get that point. It's probably the Steelers. Probably

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Speaker 1: they went they won two super Bowls and went to

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Speaker 1: a third, and that in that ten years spam when

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Speaker 1: Brady wasn't going, you know, the Patriots didn't have It's

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Speaker 1: that It's that magic thing that you have to find

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Speaker 1: once a quarterback gets done with his with his rookie contract.

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Speaker 1: Brady was still on his rookie deal when they were

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Speaker 1: winning and you know one, two and three, four, I

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Speaker 1: should say, still largely as a cheap rookie quarterback. And

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Speaker 1: then they had to start paying him like a three

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Speaker 1: time super Bowl winning quarterback. Now they didn't pay him

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Speaker 1: as much as some other you know, guys were making.

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Speaker 1: He took some some hometown discounts, but but it was

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Speaker 1: still difficult to win, to maintain, to maintain that because

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Speaker 1: you you know, a large chunk of your your salary

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Speaker 1: cap has eaten up by the quarterback. Yeah, and I

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Speaker 1: think that this CBA makes it even harder. I mean,

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Speaker 1: quarterbacks are making more and more and more, um you know.

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Speaker 1: And again it kind of brings me to my homes

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Speaker 1: a little bit too. Like I was listening to a

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Speaker 1: podcast today and I guess you can bet in Vegas

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Speaker 1: on how many Super Bowls will pat my homes win,

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Speaker 1: And the line is two and a half. You know,

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Speaker 1: Like you think about it, like, oh, he'll go to

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Speaker 1: ten in his career. I don't know about that, you know.

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Speaker 1: I mean, he missed a shot here. The Chiefs all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden are gonna have to start paying people that,

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Speaker 1: you know, Kansas City can't do things like we don't

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Speaker 1: really like this offensive line. Let's go get a new one,

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Speaker 1: you know, and like those days are done, you know,

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Speaker 1: So the same thing is gonna happen to Buffalo in

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Speaker 1: a year or two. Frankly, you know, the Browns and

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Speaker 1: Ravens are about to experience that too, without quite the

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Speaker 1: same level of success, you know, like where the Steelers

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Speaker 1: are starting over at that position. Yeah, it's always interesting

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Speaker 1: and I think you know when people uh talk about

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Speaker 1: the you know that, look at the a f C

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Speaker 1: right now. For the next ten years. These guys are

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Speaker 1: gonna dominate it. Well, yeah, they will and they might not. Uh.

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Speaker 1: You know what kind of team are you gonna be

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Speaker 1: able to build around? Uh? You know, Patrick Mahomes To

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Speaker 1: your point, they got twenty four free agents after this year. Um,

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Speaker 1: they don't have any enough cap space to sign them

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Speaker 1: on and keep some of the guys, you know, the

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Speaker 1: Tyreek Hills, um Ne Orlando Brown's, guys of that nature

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Speaker 1: uh and stature. Um. You know, I mean even just

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Speaker 1: in recent memory. I know this as an AFC related

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Speaker 1: but the Packers box when Brady got their Seattle, those

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Speaker 1: teams look like they were set up for a decade success,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean eight ten years ago. Russell Wilson, Oh,

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Speaker 1: he's Russell Wilson's gonna win seven. You know, He's gonna

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Speaker 1: win seven Super Bowl they're gonna be They're gonna mean

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Speaker 1: the Super Bowl every year, and then every everybody got

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Speaker 1: too expensive, exactly legion of Boom and it isn't gonna

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Speaker 1: play for free, you know. I mean what the Steelers

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Speaker 1: did in the seventies is almost impossible now. I mean

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Speaker 1: you had up pay Lambert and Green, and I mean

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Speaker 1: there's so many guys. Think about this seventy four draft class.

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Speaker 1: Those all those guys will be up at the same time. Like,

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Speaker 1: Cincinnati's gonna have this problem because you got Higgins, You've

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Speaker 1: got Burrow and Higgins are in the same draft class. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and you've got Chase. Are you gonna be able to

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Speaker 1: afford to keep them all? Cleveland's gonna have some of

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Speaker 1: that too. I mean yeah, Frankly, that's one of the

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Speaker 1: big problems of tanking, you know. I mean, I think

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Speaker 1: there's so many problems with tanking, but that's one of them.

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Speaker 1: Is when you eventually get good, all your guys are,

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Speaker 1: you know, on the market at the same time. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's that's not a good thing because you're just you

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Speaker 1: can't afford them. And oh, by the way, the other

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Speaker 1: the other part of the equation is you're winning and

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Speaker 1: so therefore the draft, you're not getting high draft picks

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Speaker 1: to replace these guys, right right, you know, So, so

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Speaker 1: you're you're taking you're drafting later in the in the

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Speaker 1: first round, you're drafting later in the other the rounds

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Speaker 1: after that, So you better have a good system in

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Speaker 1: place to replenish that. Yeah, I mean, really how that

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Speaker 1: this reflects so strongly on Brady Belichick, Tomlin, Colbert Ben

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Speaker 1: you know, and there's others, don't get me wrong, that

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Speaker 1: have withstood the test of time as things get better

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Speaker 1: and worse around them. I mean, that is really hard

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Speaker 1: in this sport. And I don't know as much about

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Speaker 1: other sports, but my hunches, if you have Jordan or

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Speaker 1: Lebron or Lemieux or gret Sky or whatever, you can

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Speaker 1: lose pieces left and right and still be pretty darn good.

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Speaker 1: You know, we're in lose your center and left tackle.

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Speaker 1: I mean that's a problem. Yeah. You know football, Um,

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Speaker 1: basketball especially, you can you can get by. Okay, you've

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Speaker 1: gotta you've got a great player. Uh, he can win

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Speaker 1: games for you. You gotta you know in in in

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Speaker 1: you know, let's say it's baseball, Um, you know, you

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Speaker 1: got it's it's a little less so in baseball. Hockey

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Speaker 1: is a perfect example as well, kind of like basketball,

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Speaker 1: because that if a guy goes out there and can

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Speaker 1: score two goals a night, set two goals a night up,

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Speaker 1: whether he scores him or somebody else scores him, I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's you're gonna win a lot of games with that.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who else is out there with him.

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Speaker 1: Whereas in football, it's a team sport and and you

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Speaker 1: know you're one of eleven. The quarterback obviously is the

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Speaker 1: most important piece. There's no if ins or butts about that.

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Speaker 1: But if you can't surround the quarterback with talent, look

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Speaker 1: at Russell Wilson this year, right, yeah, I mean, no

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Speaker 1: no doubt, or you know the young guys that lose

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Speaker 1: a little like I mean, sure baseball a dominant picture,

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Speaker 1: come might come, might come out and win every four

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Speaker 1: or five days for you, but then there's you know,

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Speaker 1: three or four other days that he can't play. Steve

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Speaker 1: Carlton had a year back in the seventies, I believe

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Speaker 1: where he won thirty games in the Phillies I think

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Speaker 1: won sixty games as a team or something like that,

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Speaker 1: Like they won every time he took the mound but

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Speaker 1: they just didn't They couldn't win the other games. Or

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Speaker 1: if you're the best hitter in the league, he only

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Speaker 1: comes to plate one on a nine times, you know,

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Speaker 1: and you can walk him and you can walk him right,

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Speaker 1: it's around him. Football is sort of in the middle.

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Speaker 1: But hockey and especially basketball, you can you inbound the ball.

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Speaker 1: You say, give it to Jordan's and you're there. Yeah, right,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna care to You're gonna hold the ball for

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Speaker 1: a high percentage of the game, you know, and the

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Speaker 1: quarterback does have that advantaged students to touch the ball

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Speaker 1: every play. But if nobody there's eleven guys on the field,

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Speaker 1: about five right? Yeah? Um. I had Tom Reid uh

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Speaker 1: check into uh with some of his contacts at the

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Speaker 1: Pro Football Hall of Fame. But what this whole Roethlisberger

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Speaker 1: Brady thing might mean? Um, And they seem to think. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He talked to Joe Horrigan, who's been a long time

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Speaker 1: associated with the football Pro Football Hall of Fame for

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Speaker 1: a long time. He thinks he thinks this might be

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Speaker 1: the best draft class of all time because the assumption

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Speaker 1: is that Gronk is now going to retire Adrian Peterson

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Speaker 1: if he doesn't play again, he would be eligible as well. Uh.

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Speaker 1: You you're looking at four guys in Brady, Roethlisberger, Gronkowski,

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Speaker 1: and Adrian Peterson who are among the top five. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Roethlisberger and Brady are among the top five in all

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Speaker 1: time passing yards right now. Uh. You know, they've got

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Speaker 1: what nine Super Bowl wins between them as quarterbacks. And

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Speaker 1: then you're looking at a guy in Gronk who's many

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Speaker 1: considered the top tight end of all time, or at

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Speaker 1: least the modern version of it. And then Adrian Peterson

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Speaker 1: is one of the best running backs of all time.

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Speaker 1: That's what I was about to say, is my opinion.

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Speaker 1: And I don't think I'm going out too much on

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Speaker 1: a limb here. Brady's the number one quarterback that ever lived.

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Speaker 1: Gronk is the number one tight end that ever ever lived.

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Speaker 1: And I think Peterson and Ben are probably somewhere from

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Speaker 1: eight to twelve at their position. That's just loaded with talent,

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Speaker 1: you know. I mean, that's unbelievable. I mean, and we

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Speaker 1: might not be done. I mean I'm just thinking, like,

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Speaker 1: could someone's surprise retire like J. J. Watt or you

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Speaker 1: know somebody else. Trent Williams you know, yeah, yeah, some

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Speaker 1: time run Smith or somebody, yes, that you don't expect.

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Speaker 1: And so it's it's setting up like it could just

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Speaker 1: be unbelievable. Or again brought up an interesting point. Um

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Speaker 1: he said, wouldn't it be interesting if in that seven class, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, when when you're when you're putting in Brady

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Speaker 1: and Gronk in Roethlisberger and Adrian Peterson, that if the

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Speaker 1: voters said, you know what this is the r Heinz

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Speaker 1: word has to go in. Let's make it two of

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Speaker 1: each in terms of the uh you know, Steelers and

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Speaker 1: and Patriots and just make it you know, a Steeler

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Speaker 1: Patriots centric weekend m And he's a guy, I mean, yeah,

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Speaker 1: he's done this forever. He I mean, he's been there there,

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Speaker 1: pr guy for a number of years. He stepped down,

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Speaker 1: but he's not back. Um, you know with that and

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Speaker 1: and uh he just uh he said, that's a possibility.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you got five years to think about it.

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Speaker 1: You know who's gonna be out. But it's not gonna

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Speaker 1: be a surprise. And I mean I guess you could

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Speaker 1: look at it a little differently, you know, kind of

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Speaker 1: plan for it in advance, but to be honest, I'm

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Speaker 1: happy that you didn't get any kind of word of well,

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Speaker 1: we'll probably just let Ben Wade extra year. Like. In fact,

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Speaker 1: Tom talked to a couple of different a couple of voters, Uh,

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Speaker 1: Tony Grossi who's from Cleveland, and then Bob Glauber from Newsday,

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Speaker 1: and they both they both think Roethlisberger's a slam dunk. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's the They think that's gonna be one of the

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Speaker 1: greatest classes of all time. So, um, you know, we'll

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Speaker 1: see what happens. Yeah, we'll see what happens with some

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Speaker 1: other people. Um, you know, does J. J. Watt come back?

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Speaker 1: They got I mean there could be some men, as

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Speaker 1: you mentioned, it could be a surprise here there. But

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Speaker 1: holy mackerel, I mean, just a just a ridiculous amount

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Speaker 1: of talent uh in that group that uh it could

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Speaker 1: be eligible. And and I you know, the class in

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Speaker 1: six when you when you look at that, I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know obviously you're you're gonna breeze and some of

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Speaker 1: those guys. Um, it's it's gonna be interesting here over

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Speaker 1: the next few years to see how this all breaks down. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And the more I think about it, if we're gonna

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Speaker 1: have a couple of these. Yeah, Larry was a recent one. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but if we have more slam dunks in the coming years,

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Speaker 1: I wonder if the borderline guys are gonna go a

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Speaker 1: much longer stretch than they would have or did Did

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Speaker 1: the committee even know this was coming and put all

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Speaker 1: those guys in that the backlog was, you know, a

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Speaker 1: year or two ago, you know, knowing that we don't

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Speaker 1: want too many of these guys to get stuck, you know,

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Speaker 1: dragging their feet because there's just so many slam dunks

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Speaker 1: coming up. Yeah, I don't I don't know. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: don't know either. I think that that was part of it,

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Speaker 1: you know. I know when I when I did the

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Speaker 1: vote with with Troy paulamalu Um a couple of years ago,

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Speaker 1: some of the people, some of the voters, some of

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Speaker 1: the other voters talked about how they were getting too

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Speaker 1: many first time guys and they wanted to take care

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Speaker 1: of some of that backlog. And I think that maybe

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Speaker 1: that was with an eye towards some of this happened. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: because you know that, you know, these guys are are

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Speaker 1: going in UM probably starting with Peyton Manning and maybe

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Speaker 1: the Nieli and you know, I mean just ones that

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Speaker 1: are easy. I mean, there was a golden age there

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Speaker 1: of quarterbacks from I guess probably from the day Peyton

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Speaker 1: retired to the day Rogers retires. Because even just the

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Speaker 1: last couple of years just kind of ranking the quarterbacks,

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Speaker 1: I always felt like there was an old group and

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Speaker 1: a young group, and there wasn't a much in between.

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Speaker 1: Like Russell Wilson was one of the only ones in

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Speaker 1: between that I would say has been a top five

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Speaker 1: to ten quarterback consistently over the last couple of years,

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Speaker 1: like I think Andrew Luck would have been, but he retired.

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Speaker 1: And you know, there was a lot of busts and

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Speaker 1: that those drafts in that era right around when Luck

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Speaker 1: was drafted. Yeah, there really were if you look at

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Speaker 1: some of those, uh draft classes, those draft classes were

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Speaker 1: just atrocious when it comes to quarterback drafts and really

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Speaker 1: at the top of the drafts in general. Uh, there

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Speaker 1: were some misses. Um. You know, I think everybody we

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Speaker 1: all talk about the two thousand and eleven drafts and

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Speaker 1: how great it was. Some of the drafts around that

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Speaker 1: were not nearly as good. No, guys like Luke Joke

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Speaker 1: will go in second overall and yeah, real quick washouts. Um.

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Speaker 1: I actually have a quick call of Fame question for you.

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Speaker 1: I've been meeting to ask you, but I think it's

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Speaker 1: relevant now. If Stafford wins next Sunday, do you think

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Speaker 1: he goes? I think it certainly helps his cause because

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Speaker 1: he's gonna, yeah, he's gonna be you know, rising up

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Speaker 1: the ranks here in the all time passing numbers and

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Speaker 1: things of that nature. Um, yeah, I think it's I

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Speaker 1: think it It certainly helps it, you know, much the

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Speaker 1: same way that it hurts Matt Ryan that he didn't

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Speaker 1: bring him up. Yeah, he didn't win. He got there

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Speaker 1: once and didn't win. Um, you know, if Stafford wins

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Speaker 1: that Super Bowl, that's a that's a nice feather in

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Speaker 1: his cap. Yeah. I always kind of looked at it

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Speaker 1: like I think Rivers should go. I don't think Eli

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Speaker 1: should go. But that's almost a different conversation. I never

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Speaker 1: looked at Ryan or Stafford in the Hall of Fame light,

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Speaker 1: but on bad teams and does it for three or

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Speaker 1: four more years, I think he's gonna shot. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: you know, it's funny. Um. You hear people talk about

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Speaker 1: all the time that it's not necessarily on the quarterback. Um,

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Speaker 1: they have no choice on where they land, and so

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Speaker 1: sometimes you get stuck in a bad situation. I think,

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Speaker 1: you know, Stafford is probably the poster boy for that. Uh.

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Speaker 1: They just never, you know, consistently put a good team

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Speaker 1: around him. Um, you know, now he's you know he

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Speaker 1: had that stigma. Well he's never won a playoff game.

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Speaker 1: Well now he has. And not only is he won

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Speaker 1: a playoff game, he's going to the super Bowl, you

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Speaker 1: know if he wins US. When I was asked this week,

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Speaker 1: um in my life cues on d K Pittsburgh Sports, Uh,

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Speaker 1: how would you who would you give the edge at

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Speaker 1: quarterback in the super Bowl? That's actually my next question,

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Speaker 1: And I said would I would probably give it to

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Speaker 1: Stafford because of the experience they're both. They're both in

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Speaker 1: their first playoffs, the first time winning in the playoffs.

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Speaker 1: Stafford has just seen so much more. I think the

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Speaker 1: same thing I I brought this. I forget who I

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Speaker 1: was talking to. I think it's a group, but but

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Speaker 1: he's actually and I mentioned, if I have to give

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Speaker 1: the quarterback edge, I think I'm giving it to the Rams.

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Speaker 1: Not by leaps and bounds, but boy, I caught arrows.

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Speaker 1: Bro special. He's got the Brady factor. He might. I know,

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Speaker 1: he won the National Championship. He's winning every big game,

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Speaker 1: but he's only played like twenty five NFL games, and frankly,

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Speaker 1: in the playoffs, Stafford has been better than Burrow. You know.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think people just assume Stafford's gonna throw

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Speaker 1: this terrible pick. Well, Burrow takes a lot of bad

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Speaker 1: sacks and he's throwing some picks two. Yeah, I agree,

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Speaker 1: I think Uh, I think the future is awesome. I'm

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Speaker 1: not right. I just said, you know, right now, I

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Speaker 1: give the edge to Stafford just because of his experience.

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Speaker 1: He's seen more. You know, that's just the reality of it. Uh,

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Speaker 1: let's take a break. Matt he is Williamson. I'm Dale Lalla.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to the drive here on Steelers Nation Radio.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back with more right after this