Speaker 1: Can be Around the NFL Podcast, smokes macanudos and tassus
Speaker 1: a disc around. Welcome to another edition of the Around
Speaker 1: the NFL Podcast. My name is Dan Hands and I
Speaker 1: am joined in a stadium filled with heroes, Mark Sessler,
Speaker 1: Chris Westling and Gregg girls adult what is up? Boys?
Speaker 1: As we get farther away from our home country, the
Speaker 1: intros by Matt money Smith become more mcguileing. I have
Speaker 1: Greg and I looked at each other. We have no
Speaker 1: idea what that meant, no idea at all. None of
Speaker 1: you also around something England related would have been nice.
Speaker 1: We are in the middle of London right now, famous
Speaker 1: new stadiums in the world. It's in office. Remember someone
Speaker 1: deemed me and all of us. We're talking about macannodos
Speaker 1: and throwing up, throwing a disc around and like we
Speaker 1: got thousands of men shows. Well there wasn't within the
Speaker 1: last forty eight hours. We don't remember it. But this
Speaker 1: place is not filled with heroes. It's empty. It's a
Speaker 1: little unnerving but also beautiful to be in a huge
Speaker 1: stadium with no people in it. This is Tottenham Hotspur
Speaker 1: Stadium and I have to get that right because, first
Speaker 1: of all I thought Sunday's game, so it was very busy.
Speaker 1: It was a whirlwind getting here. I thought the game
Speaker 1: was played in Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Took a little
Speaker 1: heat for that, I I saw. I did none of
Speaker 1: you notice me say that on the show once and
Speaker 1: correct me, you know gently Dan, By the way, game
Speaker 1: was at a different sometimes just like you. It's that
Speaker 1: was an effective shifting to blame right there. Um Uh.
Speaker 1: And then I called this place Tottenham Stadium. That is
Speaker 1: not good either. It's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Neil Reynolds got
Speaker 1: on my case about that, and uh, yes it's it's
Speaker 1: a beautiful new facility, just open in April, and it's
Speaker 1: a it has a field specially designed uh for the NFL.
Speaker 1: And uh, one day perhaps will be the home field
Speaker 1: of a team that calls London their home on a
Speaker 1: full time basis. One can dream. By the way, I
Speaker 1: want to try this again. I did it off my
Speaker 1: four It is empty. Uh. Nick Pike, who works at
Speaker 1: the UK office for the NFL, can I scream just
Speaker 1: to hear the echo? Okay, here we go. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's sounded. Probably will alert Uh, I mean
Speaker 1: this isn't just anyone stadium either. This is the Champions
Speaker 1: League finalist, Tottenham Hotspurs, second places, first loser. You gotta
Speaker 1: put it out. We we got a cab from our
Speaker 1: hotel and I'll get into the to the hotel in
Speaker 1: a second. Um and the guy driving us had a
Speaker 1: west Ham um air freshener hanging from his roo view mirror.
Speaker 1: And apparently that's the big rivalry west Ham and Tottenham Hotspurs.
Speaker 1: And he asked us if we were if we if
Speaker 1: we went for Tottenham, and I feel like if we
Speaker 1: answered him wrong, that was it. It just would be
Speaker 1: blood everywhere. Well, he had claimed that he in the
Speaker 1: past been to a number of matches where a lot
Speaker 1: of blood and guts were spilled. And you made the
Speaker 1: faux pa here in the UK of saying soccer to
Speaker 1: him where we are on their turf, Now it's football.
Speaker 1: What I'm doing is American football. I'm introducing my culture
Speaker 1: to him. It's a very American sentiment to back, Hey,
Speaker 1: what about the soccer matches here? Oh well, there will
Speaker 1: be more faux pause, I'm certain anyway. Yes, this is
Speaker 1: the first purpose built NFL stadium outside the US. World
Speaker 1: class facility just open and we are sitting in it
Speaker 1: as they are preparing for the second London game between
Speaker 1: the Panthers and the Bucks on Sunday. We will be
Speaker 1: here their preppy. It's a mad scramble that they are
Speaker 1: painting the end zones later this week. And we were
Speaker 1: walking on the field and we got to check out
Speaker 1: the locker rooms. Such a cool place, so really a
Speaker 1: thrill to be here. Locker room was nice, state of
Speaker 1: the art, like a club. I do feel like if
Speaker 1: you look up behind us, there's definitely like an assassin's
Speaker 1: perch up there somewhere, ready to take one of us out. Um.
Speaker 1: They were given a tour earlier to eight. Someone recognized
Speaker 1: Ricky Hollywood. Yeah, it was very cool, very cool, met
Speaker 1: leather jacket on. It was like perfect timing a large mail.
Speaker 1: You described him as very tall, very tall. Yes. Um,
Speaker 1: So today's show it's gonna be fun. We got a
Speaker 1: whole week lined up of great activities. Today's show will
Speaker 1: be focused on several things, kind of almost like a
Speaker 1: typical Tuesday show in a non typical location. We have
Speaker 1: Monday night football recap to get to market. It sounds
Speaker 1: like you picked up good time to fly across the
Speaker 1: world in MS Brown's game. Yeah, to say the least.
Speaker 1: And now I know why there's a bounce in your step,
Speaker 1: as we would say, is my team took a trouncing
Speaker 1: while I was asleep on an airplane. Um, you're a
Speaker 1: sick man. I'm excited to be in London. I don't
Speaker 1: care about your crappy team that much. We also will
Speaker 1: do a segment great moment on the plane, A couple
Speaker 1: of great moments on the plane. Greg and I are
Speaker 1: in the same row on Virgin Atlantic, which great job
Speaker 1: by you, Virgin Atlantic. Um. Greg turns the iPad to
Speaker 1: me to show me, UM an ESPN page that showed
Speaker 1: that my New York Yankees had swept their way to
Speaker 1: the ALCS. I was very excited to see that, and
Speaker 1: that the Browns had been trounced, which apparently I was
Speaker 1: very excited to see as well. And it was like
Speaker 1: it was like it was in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night and Dan just starts hooting and hollering and UM.
Speaker 1: So then that gave us the idea for a segment. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you were handed an iPad on a plane flying
Speaker 1: over the Atlantic Ocean, UH, and you had been out
Speaker 1: of the loop for instead of one night the first
Speaker 1: five weeks of the football season. What would what would
Speaker 1: stun you about what you were reading? So we'll do
Speaker 1: that Thursday night preview Giants at Patriots at Page. Are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? Now? The Patriots get both New York teams.
Speaker 1: Something spishy but uh. And we'll do some news, including
Speaker 1: the first firing of the twenty nineteen season and it
Speaker 1: probably won't be the last. Uh. But before we do that,
Speaker 1: let's talk Monday night football. And he's got this running
Speaker 1: game working at you see what Metta and look at
Speaker 1: the speed on Brita. What a way to start it?
Speaker 1: Free yard touchdown. Yes, Matt Brita got it going for
Speaker 1: the Niners and they never let up. An absolute trouncing
Speaker 1: at the Big Bell Bottom as the San Francisco forty
Speaker 1: Niners took it to marks Cleveland Browns a thirty one
Speaker 1: to three final, a game that could have been even
Speaker 1: worse than it was if not for some missed field
Speaker 1: goal attempts by the Niners um a game where Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield struggled mightily and the San Francisco running game piled
Speaker 1: up two D seventy five yards on the ground. And
Speaker 1: absolute whipping Um West, I know we were are flying.
Speaker 1: You got a chance to check out this game on
Speaker 1: game Pass in your hotel before we came over, And
Speaker 1: was it as bad as the box score and all
Speaker 1: the write ups seemed to indicate. Well, I was half
Speaker 1: delirious from lack of sleep, so take this with a
Speaker 1: grain of salt. But it reminded me quite a bit
Speaker 1: of the forty Niners Bengals game from earlier in the year,
Speaker 1: where it was just a wall to wall thumping, and
Speaker 1: it looked to me like the forty Niners were playing downhill.
Speaker 1: They were just the faster team, playing at a different
Speaker 1: speed and intensity, and on both sides of the ball,
Speaker 1: on special teams, every area of the game. The forty
Speaker 1: Niners look like a superpower. They the forty Niners are
Speaker 1: the toughest running offense in the league to defend. And
Speaker 1: we'll get to the Browns, but to me, the forty
Speaker 1: Niners are weirdly the bigger story here because we've been
Speaker 1: waiting to find out who is right that I just
Speaker 1: mean maybe on this show, we've obviously been focused on
Speaker 1: the Browns, not just because of Mark, but also nationwide,
Speaker 1: people have been focused on the Browns all offseason. We
Speaker 1: weren't talking about the forty Ironers as kind of the
Speaker 1: cool rising team that's gonna take over the NFL, but
Speaker 1: they are. They're so hard to defend. I love on
Speaker 1: ESPN how they show who's on the field on offense
Speaker 1: in terms of the skill position players every play. And
Speaker 1: you could appreciate a Kyle Shanahan offense when they do
Speaker 1: that because you realize how often it's two tight ends
Speaker 1: in a fullback and one receiver, or it's one tight
Speaker 1: end a fullback kind of a blocking wide receiver. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of levine to Loylo in the In
Speaker 1: the game, there's of course a great game um by
Speaker 1: their entire defense, but on offense, it just feels like
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan is always one step ahead of the opposing
Speaker 1: defenses right now. And it's interesting because him and Sean
Speaker 1: McVeigh in theory kind of come from the same school
Speaker 1: and they do some similar things, but they do it
Speaker 1: in such different ways. You would never see two tight
Speaker 1: ends and a fullback in a Sean McVeigh. It's a
Speaker 1: huge This was the game where I think people were
Speaker 1: waiting on San Francisco to find out Oh, this will
Speaker 1: be the week you're legit it or you're not. And
Speaker 1: I'm not sure the Browns are actually a test at
Speaker 1: this point. I'm not. I'd come out very concerned about
Speaker 1: them for a variety of reasons, but to to thump
Speaker 1: Cleveland the way they did, and I haven't had a
Speaker 1: chance to watch it, and never will I watch it,
Speaker 1: But it's uh, it's it's encouraging because you know, the
Speaker 1: Niners weren't talked about this offseason, but they were talked
Speaker 1: about all off season last year. They were the team.
Speaker 1: You have always been a big Kyle Shanahan fan and
Speaker 1: a big forty Niners fan. By extension, I have just
Speaker 1: u it's a neat My wife is a Niners fan.
Speaker 1: I mean, it would create family unity. That wouldn't be
Speaker 1: the worst thing. So you know what I was thinking
Speaker 1: of during this game. I think it was Peter Schreeger
Speaker 1: when we had him on from the swimming pool, and
Speaker 1: it was him who said that the guy everyone in
Speaker 1: the NFL is talking about is the next head coaching
Speaker 1: candidate is forty Niners defensive coordinator Robert Sala and that
Speaker 1: they are right up there with the Patriots as the
Speaker 1: best and you know, throw the Bills in there. The
Speaker 1: best defenses in the NFL this year, and you could
Speaker 1: argue they have more talent on de guys. It's starting
Speaker 1: to rain, a lot of electronic equipment sitting on our laps,
Speaker 1: and Ricky has it in front of her. Very dangerous
Speaker 1: moment right now. Speaking of dangerous, the Cleveland Browns are
Speaker 1: supposed to be dangerous. They're supposed to be feeling dangerous,
Speaker 1: and we we have what's now a major issue. Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield eight of two hundred yards four and a half
Speaker 1: yards per attempt, two interceptions, um. He leads the NFL
Speaker 1: with eight picks this year. Odell Beckham two catches for
Speaker 1: fifteen yards three points total. This is one of the
Speaker 1: biggest uh surprises of the early season, right that this
Speaker 1: is happening right now with the I think it is,
Speaker 1: and I this is tangential to that. But when I
Speaker 1: read the story where before the game he refused to
Speaker 1: shake hands with Richard Sherman and a couple other Niners players,
Speaker 1: I know that a lot of Baker Mayfield stuff gets
Speaker 1: blown up and I and I kind of brushed almost
Speaker 1: all of it off. To me that that rubbed to
Speaker 1: me the wrong way and to go out and then
Speaker 1: lay a total egg. His career is still very young,
Speaker 1: and we want these guys to be fully developed products
Speaker 1: seven or eight games into their career. But it is
Speaker 1: concerning because the trajectory coming out of last year. Not
Speaker 1: unlike Jimmy g I thought after his little six game
Speaker 1: sample size where everyone thought he'd beat Joe Montana Part
Speaker 1: two and he struggled and got injured. It's it takes time.
Speaker 1: Reminds me a lot of as a Jets fan Rex
Speaker 1: Ryan when he started, he always ran his mouth. He always,
Speaker 1: you know, played to the media and clap back at
Speaker 1: people that came after him. And when you're winning, it
Speaker 1: works and it's fun. But when you're not playing well
Speaker 1: and you're losing, it just it turns ugly quickly. And
Speaker 1: you know the fact you had two issues with Mayfield
Speaker 1: outside the game. You had the handshake thing that Richard
Speaker 1: Sherman then came after him in UH interview with Mike Silver.
Speaker 1: After the game. You had Nick Bosa, who got a
Speaker 1: measure of revenge Mayfield during his college days at Oklahoma
Speaker 1: planting the flag at midfield against Bosa and Ohio State.
Speaker 1: So after Bosa gets to mayfield. He does a simulated
Speaker 1: plant flag and Bosa had an outrageous game. Uh two sacks,
Speaker 1: lived in the backfield, forced to fumble. Um, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it is starting down. We need to take a time out.
Speaker 1: All right, I need help. All right there. It is
Speaker 1: the first ever around the NFL podcast rain delay. It
Speaker 1: happened the first podcast rain delay period. Did we make history.
Speaker 1: It's about a twenty nine minute delay. It involved many
Speaker 1: unathletic man men scampering and carrying equipment through the rain
Speaker 1: inside and uh and Erica said, ain't all back up
Speaker 1: for us? Inside there are unanswered questions if I might
Speaker 1: have damaged a dollar lens. So if so, I will
Speaker 1: just also be leaving the company. I also take issue with,
Speaker 1: as usual, Greg's commentary, you know, making comments you know
Speaker 1: about other people. Uh did the least Greg did far
Speaker 1: the least amount of work. By far. Greg was grabbing
Speaker 1: two chairs at the time he was picking up. I
Speaker 1: went back out there three times. I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're talking about. You're actually actually you're totally in the roadway.
Speaker 1: You're staying keeping your hair dry. Give me a break.
Speaker 1: Once once we got outside, Greg was like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: enough of physical labor for the decade for me, I'm
Speaker 1: shutting it down. Well, you know, we're working with the wires,
Speaker 1: just trying to get when we're gonna try everything off,
Speaker 1: Why did it need to go into this direction. I
Speaker 1: was making a joke that we're all making a run
Speaker 1: run for it and you're taking shots when I'm the
Speaker 1: one out there getting things. Otherwise it was still sitting there.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just didn't think it was a
Speaker 1: complete effort by you. I thought it was happening. I mean,
Speaker 1: Mark picked up a case and then one of my
Speaker 1: extremely extremely expensive lens is just rolled out onto the
Speaker 1: rainy field. If I just mentioned, yeah, you did it,
Speaker 1: but you scurried right back up and picked it up,
Speaker 1: and it was it was amazing, very quick. Well, I
Speaker 1: also found your phone in the middle of a wet
Speaker 1: grassy field. Had that not happened. Let's get back in
Speaker 1: a chuck. We're now inside. We're right outside the Tottenham
Speaker 1: Hotspurs dressing locker room area. Yeah we are, which I
Speaker 1: would imagine there. You know, hundreds of thousands of people
Speaker 1: in this area that would die to be in this room,
Speaker 1: and here we are just viewing it as a place
Speaker 1: to get under a roof. Well, we were aware of
Speaker 1: how special it is to be here, and it's very exciting.
Speaker 1: Let's get back think of all the history that's happened
Speaker 1: here in the last ten months. Let's um, let's get
Speaker 1: back to the game. And uh yes, so Nick Bosa.
Speaker 1: Listen to this stat line for Nick Bosa on Monday
Speaker 1: Night football get ready. Two sacks, two tackles for loss,
Speaker 1: four tackles, five quarterback hurries, a forced FuMB and a
Speaker 1: fumble recovery. He announced himself as an NFL star in
Speaker 1: prime time this week. I think it was a big
Speaker 1: deal to get the bye week for Nick Bosa. And
Speaker 1: this was healthy Nick Bosa. He had come back very
Speaker 1: quickly from a pretty serious ankle sprain, had been playing
Speaker 1: through it even in games, had gotten hurt kind of
Speaker 1: as the game went along. They get the bye week,
Speaker 1: he comes back out and he looks like a superstar.
Speaker 1: He looked like the best player on a field that
Speaker 1: included Odell Beckham and Baker Mayfield and plenty of other
Speaker 1: great players. I think it's the fascinating story going forward
Speaker 1: is the NFC West is loaded and bizarre, and there
Speaker 1: are a ton of NFC West head to head competitions
Speaker 1: coming up, Mark where's your peace scale? On the on
Speaker 1: the Browns one pants totally dry, weren't wasn't trying well.
Speaker 1: I'll put it this way because I think it's like
Speaker 1: one you you made one trip, brought one thing in
Speaker 1: your dan like or like three you made a three
Speaker 1: chip back out into the rain to get everything that
Speaker 1: makes sure everything was say something that actually gets Greg mad.
Speaker 1: You know you've you've done well. It's it's three plus trips.
Speaker 1: I know the feeling I had, And I think any
Speaker 1: whenever you're a fan and you're stuck in a place
Speaker 1: where you can't track a game of a team that
Speaker 1: you care about very much, and like I intentionally didn't
Speaker 1: want to go minute by minute with this thing on
Speaker 1: the airplane if it was going south. It's two, so
Speaker 1: I you know, I knew the game was over and
Speaker 1: long after after the fact, and I did the thing
Speaker 1: where I purchased the Internet, uh, you know, hour long
Speaker 1: service just to get the score. And you're that moment
Speaker 1: where I'm typing Browns forty Niners score, You're rolling the dice,
Speaker 1: a hundred side of dice. It could have ended in
Speaker 1: a billion ways had it had it ended forty five
Speaker 1: to seven Browns, I would have just stood up on
Speaker 1: the airplate and walk up and down the aisle and
Speaker 1: start slapping people five. But it's thirty two three. It's
Speaker 1: about as awful as a dice roll as you could
Speaker 1: have said. You understand the scale by now, but you
Speaker 1: didn't give me a one attach. I said initially it's
Speaker 1: three plus chairs. I brought into three plus trips because
Speaker 1: I got that wet, because there's that that much p
Speaker 1: on me. I guess the peak is coming down literally
Speaker 1: from the sky on me. It's not coming from me.
Speaker 1: So it's bad, yeah, and not sort of what's been
Speaker 1: the experience of a Browns fan for a long time
Speaker 1: at this time. I mean Baker Mayfield, you know, acts
Speaker 1: tough before the game. It felt like he had a
Speaker 1: little bit of a pace scale in this game. Very
Speaker 1: early on, has a wide open Odell Beckham for a
Speaker 1: big play, just overshoots him the first third down of
Speaker 1: the game, not really any pressure, he decides to try
Speaker 1: to go make a play on his own, ends up
Speaker 1: throwing up a pretty good throw, but Ricky Seals Jones
Speaker 1: can't come up with it. Ah, he fumbles in the
Speaker 1: game there is a lot of pressure on him, and
Speaker 1: the offensive line didn't play well. But some of that
Speaker 1: is the scheme. I think some of that's Mayfield. Some
Speaker 1: of that's the running backs and tight ends who got
Speaker 1: Mayfield and the running game blown up in this game
Speaker 1: when they were trying to protect. So it's a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything. But Baker is not playing well. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's pretty He's been one of the worst quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: the league this year. Statistically, You're right. In a league
Speaker 1: where it's where it's hardware right now, not many quarterbacks
Speaker 1: are truly struggling. You're right, I'm not just statistically like
Speaker 1: not being comfortable with what he's seen, seeing ghosts in
Speaker 1: the pocket. He hasn't been a good quarter And we
Speaker 1: went from oh, you know, his interceptions are playful, and
Speaker 1: Brett Farvelake because he's a Sea pirate throwing balls to
Speaker 1: mostly his guys too too. Now it's he's turning the
Speaker 1: ball over at a crazy race. But there's just no rhythm.
Speaker 1: There was no rhythm in this game. This is one
Speaker 1: reason why I always pushed back against when people said, well,
Speaker 1: though that doesn't count. You know, the Rams racked up
Speaker 1: numbers in garbage time or this team did in garbage
Speaker 1: there's no guarantee that you're gonna get anything in garbage time.
Speaker 1: The Browns were worse in the second half of this
Speaker 1: game than they were in the first half. They end
Speaker 1: up with, yeah, like a hundred yards. Beckham had his
Speaker 1: two catches for twenty seven with about twenty seven minutes
Speaker 1: left in the game, and it's twenty eight to three,
Speaker 1: and the Browns couldn't even do anything when there was
Speaker 1: nothing going on, when they had all the time in
Speaker 1: the world to just try to pass, and they couldn't
Speaker 1: do it this time. Let Jimmy j a little credit,
Speaker 1: though he's a difference. The difference between Baker and Jimmy
Speaker 1: G is Jimmy G's got a great defense and a
Speaker 1: great coaching staff, everything for him. His first read. He
Speaker 1: has not really had to do anything this year. And therefore,
Speaker 1: now Nick bose with the last word on his rival.
Speaker 1: I don't know how anybody thought he would be able
Speaker 1: to see over Eric Armstead and DeForrest Buckner. But he
Speaker 1: was panicking. He was double clutching, rolling back and forth.
Speaker 1: We had him rattled all game. And that's it. Mark.
Speaker 1: We won't talk about this game ever. Again, let's do
Speaker 1: some news. Oh, I'm so sorry, you need a UK
Speaker 1: passport to check those files. Therefore, British eyes ugly. Oh
Speaker 1: you need the song in there, the a song as
Speaker 1: what makes it? Well, we just got the song, all right.
Speaker 1: Let's get into the big news and the only really
Speaker 1: big news item here, which is Ja Gruden is out
Speaker 1: as Redskins head coach, falling an oh and five start
Speaker 1: uh and a thirty three to seven lost to the Patriots.
Speaker 1: On Sunday, Gruden was fired. The team confirmed a report
Speaker 1: that was out there. Gruden uh spoke out on Monday
Speaker 1: saying that you know he has he's not bitter. He
Speaker 1: had time to get things done, but it just never
Speaker 1: happened over five and a half years. He did also
Speaker 1: add though, that he wished he had a little more
Speaker 1: control over who came into the building and who he
Speaker 1: was coaching, which is at the heart or one of
Speaker 1: the main issues around why Washington has been irrelevant for
Speaker 1: years now and the idea that under Dan Snyder and
Speaker 1: Bruce Allen, the team president, I believe, uh, this is
Speaker 1: an organization that has not been cohesive. And as Jay
Speaker 1: Gruden goes out the door and Jake Gruden. I think
Speaker 1: we'll be fine. Jake Gruden will get another job as
Speaker 1: an o C and maybe even get a second chance
Speaker 1: as a head coach. You look ahead to the Redskins
Speaker 1: West and when you look to find a new head coach,
Speaker 1: and right now the interim coaches Bill Callahan. I don't
Speaker 1: imagine he'll be the long term answer. There isn't it
Speaker 1: a scary job for any coach to look at. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've been through this with the Bengals going back to
Speaker 1: the nine nineties, where you know there's only thirty two
Speaker 1: of these in your life. Is better when you're head
Speaker 1: coach than it is when when you're a coordinator most
Speaker 1: of the time. So I think people are gonna want it,
Speaker 1: but maybe they don't get the first or second choice.
Speaker 1: Maybe they get the third or fourth choice. They apparently
Speaker 1: want Mike Tomlin. I mean that is the the coach
Speaker 1: that Dan Snyder wants, which is great. Why would Mike
Speaker 1: Tomlin want to go from one of the most stable,
Speaker 1: well run organizations to an organization that hasn't settled on
Speaker 1: a way to run things really since this ownership took over.
Speaker 1: I mean they've they've played two playoff games in the
Speaker 1: last eleven years. They've won two playoff games since Dan
Speaker 1: Snyder took over, and one of those was in his
Speaker 1: first year. And you look at the structure that they
Speaker 1: always have. Bruce Allen took over this team in two
Speaker 1: thousand ten. Back then he was the president and general manager,
Speaker 1: and then he wasn't the general manager and they hired
Speaker 1: Scott mcglewen and he lost it his job, and then
Speaker 1: Alan is somehow taking over again, but Doug Williams is involved,
Speaker 1: but the owners picking the quarterback. They let j Gruden
Speaker 1: coach one more game, I think, to let him coach
Speaker 1: Colt McCoy. I really believe that, because Gruden had sounded
Speaker 1: like knew he was about to be fired, and this
Speaker 1: was kind of like I didn't choose r G three.
Speaker 1: I never really wanted him. I was always ambivalent about
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins. Uh, And here I am with Dwayne Haskins,
Speaker 1: who I didn't really want anyone. They're like, here have
Speaker 1: Colte McCoy for one game, You're gonna stink and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna fin thought they had something going when McCluin
Speaker 1: was picking players and turning the Redskins. There was a
Speaker 1: season or two where they had a toughness vibe to them,
Speaker 1: where they'd occasionally go and beat teams up, and they
Speaker 1: were an enjoyable watch when they were on right West.
Speaker 1: You agree with that. I remember you and I there
Speaker 1: were weeks where we would just get fired up about
Speaker 1: the Redskins imposing their will on other teams. But they
Speaker 1: didn't just beat other teams up, they beat themselves up.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the reasons why after five and
Speaker 1: a half years, I still don't know if Jake Bruden's
Speaker 1: a good coach, you're a bad coach. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's a bad coach because of how much that was
Speaker 1: working against him, including the litany of injuries, which were
Speaker 1: you know, up there with the Chargers as the biggest
Speaker 1: plague in the league. There's here's part of the problem
Speaker 1: with Bruce Allen here because they asked him uh and
Speaker 1: his press conference about you know, is their culture issue
Speaker 1: with this team? He responds, you know, the culture is
Speaker 1: actually damn good. These people care. We have a very
Speaker 1: young core of players that we have brought in here
Speaker 1: or accustomed to winning. If you look at the record
Speaker 1: of these guys, they're accustomed to winning. They want to
Speaker 1: win some of that is just GM speak and presidents speak,
Speaker 1: but also there's a lack of accountability and the understanding
Speaker 1: that maybe it's time to shift the dynamic of how
Speaker 1: things are operated with the organization. I was on the
Speaker 1: airplane and had a chance to watch this press conference,
Speaker 1: and first of all, this this is the guy you
Speaker 1: have to wheel out to answer what I thought were
Speaker 1: some tough questions by some very frustrated Redskins beat writers
Speaker 1: try to ask the questions that this extremely frustrated fan
Speaker 1: base wants to ask of their owner and of Bruce Allen,
Speaker 1: and it felt to me answer after answer like fraudulent
Speaker 1: soft sell military industrial complex solutions to stuff that will
Speaker 1: never actually get a real answer on. It was impossible
Speaker 1: for me to take it seriously and it was offensive,
Speaker 1: to be honest. Sometimes these NFL press conferences are really
Speaker 1: tough to watch because you can see through it. You
Speaker 1: can see through it, and this fan base is one
Speaker 1: that I think has less hope than almost any in
Speaker 1: the league. Because even if you're a Dolphins fan, you
Speaker 1: can say there's some vision here, what is the Redskins vision?
Speaker 1: And Bruce Allen basically said I couldn't be happier with
Speaker 1: what I've done up till now, I thought he took
Speaker 1: no accountability at all. I think it's the toughest job
Speaker 1: in the NFL, even tougher than then the Bengals, you know,
Speaker 1: for a head coach. And I think they're a great
Speaker 1: example of what a golden goose the NFL is. You know,
Speaker 1: their situation and on game day is not very popular.
Speaker 1: Fans are not showing up, The stadium experience isn't great.
Speaker 1: The team has been, you know, one of the very worst,
Speaker 1: and the franchise only keeps increasing in value. They keep
Speaker 1: printing money like owning and running the Redskins is about
Speaker 1: as profitable and you know, risk free of business as possible,
Speaker 1: even though compared to the other thirty thirty one franchises
Speaker 1: in the league, they're run poorly. To your point, one
Speaker 1: quick thing about Bruce Allen was asked, why what was
Speaker 1: your response to against the Patriots? More than half the
Speaker 1: stadium was Patriots fans who were drowning out the Redskins
Speaker 1: and cheering on Tom Brady. And that's happening in other
Speaker 1: stadiums too. But Bruce Allen, instead of saying this is
Speaker 1: a you know something and I understand looks bad and
Speaker 1: we need to bring our fan, this proud fan base back.
Speaker 1: Basically put it on the fans for selling the tickets
Speaker 1: on the second market. He basically said, this is on
Speaker 1: the fans for creating that environment. This is on you.
Speaker 1: This is on a team that has coasted forever in
Speaker 1: terms of team building. Okay, and one last note before
Speaker 1: we move on Callaghan, as I said, the new interim
Speaker 1: head coach, so that Dwayne Haskins won't be starting, uh
Speaker 1: anytime soon. So it'll be Colt McCoy, or it will
Speaker 1: be case Keenum. Uh. So get excited, Washington, But probably
Speaker 1: the right move based on what we've seen and what
Speaker 1: we've heard about the first round pick so far. I
Speaker 1: thought there was a subtle departure from j Gruden in
Speaker 1: that Bill Callahan seemed to go out of his way
Speaker 1: to say Haskins isn't an option now, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean he won't be an option later in the year,
Speaker 1: whereas Gruden seemed to be going out of his way
Speaker 1: to say, this guy is just not ready. You know,
Speaker 1: we we can't put him out there. You know, there
Speaker 1: was all these reasons. It just seemed like Gruden was
Speaker 1: at wits end. Basically, he didn't want Haskins, and now
Speaker 1: you know he knew he was a dead man walking.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, now I'm gonna put in your quarterback
Speaker 1: because I fired a struggle. That's all right, which goes
Speaker 1: to what we're talking about. I I, you know, that's
Speaker 1: not a good look for Gruden, but what are you
Speaker 1: doing letting your coach in first round pick go into
Speaker 1: a season when they don't want each other. Gruden is
Speaker 1: gonna be the head coach of the Jets in January.
Speaker 1: That's my pro I think offensive coordinator for the Raiders
Speaker 1: the Gruden boys. All right, let's uh now move on.
Speaker 1: Before we move on, we checked into our hotel right
Speaker 1: before we got in a cabin headed over here to
Speaker 1: the stadium, and um, you know, as I was getting
Speaker 1: getting my things together my room, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you guys have there's a bit of a weird energy
Speaker 1: to the hotel rooms. Anybody else picking that up? Well,
Speaker 1: this just like the vibe to it a little bit. Yes,
Speaker 1: I agree with you, and m and I started, I
Speaker 1: took out my phone and hit record because honestly, listen
Speaker 1: to what happened in my room as I was getting
Speaker 1: ready to meet you guys downstairs in the lobby. That's
Speaker 1: the sink. Yes, when I shaved. Wait, wait, who are you?
Speaker 1: Are you that it's talking back? What are you trying
Speaker 1: to tell me? Now? Listen to this part? Am I
Speaker 1: in danger? See how the pitch went up like it's
Speaker 1: you're having a conversation. It sounds like a woman, maybe
Speaker 1: one of Jack the Rippers victims. We're on the east
Speaker 1: side of London and and she's trying to tell me something.
Speaker 1: It's a clear cut poultr geist. And Erica asked, are
Speaker 1: you gonna ask to move rooms? And absolutely not. I
Speaker 1: want to try to help her. I've got the same
Speaker 1: situation going on, and my pipes are singing. All right,
Speaker 1: so get the phone out and we'll track this day.
Speaker 1: They put me up on the top floor and I
Speaker 1: have a number one, a beautiful view of the city
Speaker 1: and it's an enormous room. Just jike in it, really beautiful, huge,
Speaker 1: multiple bathrooms. All right, let's uh, let's get to it now. Yes,
Speaker 1: Greg takes out the iPad. He shows me the sports
Speaker 1: update and it was an exciting moment um and you know,
Speaker 1: also Greg the spill on the guy, Oh that was tough.
Speaker 1: Because Greg. It was a minor spell. Greg is a
Speaker 1: guy that you know when he's in his in his
Speaker 1: realm and he's in his world and he's got his
Speaker 1: book and he's relaxing on the plane, he doesn't want
Speaker 1: people messing with him. You know a lot of people
Speaker 1: aren't like that. You know. Um And the last thing,
Speaker 1: you never wanted somebody to spill on you. When you
Speaker 1: accidentally spilled on this gentleman who was very nice about it,
Speaker 1: I I felt very badly for you because that's the
Speaker 1: guy made. The guy made a real big like he
Speaker 1: kind of he was nice about it, but he kind
Speaker 1: of made a big scene. He like stood up and
Speaker 1: he's wiping down. And then as he's going to use
Speaker 1: the rest room to wipe himself off some more, he
Speaker 1: knocks Greg's drink over and it's it's basically a giant disaster.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I was next to both of them.
Speaker 1: Was kind of a fun show. But I also did
Speaker 1: feel for Greg. He was early man. Now he was
Speaker 1: not he was he was a petite young man. He
Speaker 1: was a man. He was a man who watched Mrs
Speaker 1: Doubtfire I think twice. He might not have been twice,
Speaker 1: but it seems to be going on for a long time.
Speaker 1: He just he you have a two hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: five entertainment options, and you go straight for the doubt fire,
Speaker 1: like right off the top while the plane was still
Speaker 1: on the runway. It was only about an eighth of
Speaker 1: the water. That plane hadn't even taken off. And then
Speaker 1: he knocked his whole thing over. But I wasn't sitting there.
Speaker 1: You know, we all we all avoided me. Anyway, Greg
Speaker 1: hands the iPad over, I get the update on my
Speaker 1: baseball team, and they got got us thinking. Uh, Like
Speaker 1: I said before, what if the iPad got handed to
Speaker 1: you on that plane and you have not seen anything
Speaker 1: about the NFL until that very moment, what would be
Speaker 1: the biggest surprise to you to see on that iPad?
Speaker 1: You look at this guy would be like, give it
Speaker 1: to me. I want some more doubt fire need it.
Speaker 1: And also the guy Greg was nice enough to hand
Speaker 1: over the iPad. He had a hand it over, this gentleman,
Speaker 1: and I could read his mind. Like I asked at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the Floyd if you if you guys
Speaker 1: want to switch seats. He got me the middle of
Speaker 1: this mess. Now we see what you're doing guy. You
Speaker 1: just wanted anile seat, which you know. I don't blame play.
Speaker 1: It was going to happen. Didn't work out eat the
Speaker 1: middle seat. In fact, when I checked in my bag,
Speaker 1: the woman said to me, oh, you could be a
Speaker 1: look the seats empty right now, and it got me
Speaker 1: all excited. And then you see him there, so he
Speaker 1: got well. I was told that too. You're fine. Listen,
Speaker 1: there's a gaping wide middle seat. Where did you check
Speaker 1: end in Los Angeles? And they were British. Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: You haven't You haven't noticed sometimes foreign airlines that they're
Speaker 1: often employed by the countries in which they served. Greg
Speaker 1: dunking in the States only slightly condescending, Yeah, Greg towards America.
Speaker 1: But Eric was being condescending and judging me. But that
Speaker 1: was the I just thought you were stuck in the
Speaker 1: that's the norm. So Greg was defending Dan by being
Speaker 1: viciously condescending, coming coming back at her in the same time.
Speaker 1: This jet lacks hit. Okay, let's get to it, Greg,
Speaker 1: I hand you the iPad. I'm stunned to see that
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers lost their starting
Speaker 1: quarterbacks Drew Brees and Cam Newton, and they've gone three
Speaker 1: and o since that, They've each won three straight games
Speaker 1: against pretty good competition. Of all the things that have
Speaker 1: happened this season, that seems the most remarkable to me.
Speaker 1: We did not give the Saints much hope of running
Speaker 1: the gauntlet of these last three weeks. When Teddy Bridgewater
Speaker 1: took over, none of us even thought they were gonna win.
Speaker 1: In Seattle. We you know, West locked him up and
Speaker 1: we all agreed with him in the room like that
Speaker 1: was a game that they were not gonna win. That
Speaker 1: seems a little less surprising for the Panthers to rally
Speaker 1: around uh Kyle Allen, who's had his moments, and certainly
Speaker 1: the rest of the team has to that. That to
Speaker 1: me is as stunning it as anything, and it proves
Speaker 1: in the NFL like it really it's such a cliche,
Speaker 1: but it's such a team game. Even if this uh
Speaker 1: coma that we're in for the first part of the
Speaker 1: season began after that Thursday Night lost to the Bucks,
Speaker 1: we'd be surprised that the Panthers did this. We were
Speaker 1: talking about the coach being flushed out, Cam Newton gone forever,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Let we get a little Kyle Allen here.
Speaker 1: We got a panther's helmet, right, and I mean the team, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Kyle Allen has had some moments, really the first game,
Speaker 1: but they really rallied around the greatness of Christian McCaffrey.
Speaker 1: And with the Saints, well, I guess what surprises me
Speaker 1: or is what's been the most impressive is they're getting
Speaker 1: better every week. They they you know, from the Seattle
Speaker 1: game to the Dallas game and now what we saw
Speaker 1: on Sunday against the Bucks. They're just I mean, they
Speaker 1: are scared. There's no lower The Falcons and fans have
Speaker 1: had some low moments, and certainly the Super Bowl is
Speaker 1: the lowest. But when when Drew Brees went out and
Speaker 1: the Falcons are coming off a Sunday night win against Atlanta,
Speaker 1: the talk was can the Falcons open up a little
Speaker 1: bit of a lead there in the NFC South before
Speaker 1: Breeze gets back. Fast forward just three weeks and they're
Speaker 1: buried in last place. Yeah, West, I'm heading you the iPad. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at this is let's let's say I'm a
Speaker 1: Steelers fan. I look at this iPad. My team is
Speaker 1: one and four with an undrafted four string rookie quarterback
Speaker 1: about to make his first NFL starting The Dolphins have
Speaker 1: my non lottery protective first round draft pick, rough Sitch.
Speaker 1: That's a surprise when I look at that that iPad
Speaker 1: with a lot of turmoil. That's beyond the worst case scenario.
Speaker 1: At the time, Josh Dobbs would have been your third
Speaker 1: string quarterback. So instead you have a guy named deviled
Speaker 1: eggs Hodges here who's starting on. His name is Duck.
Speaker 1: His nickname is Duck. He's like a nineteen quarterback with
Speaker 1: a leather helmet. Here's the hell of it. That's the
Speaker 1: straight the dire straits you're in. But if Marlon Humphrey
Speaker 1: doesn't push punch that ball out, that same undrafted four
Speaker 1: string rookie quarterback might have just led you into first
Speaker 1: place in the f C North last week. Close and
Speaker 1: let me see that. I pad a second. We're not
Speaker 1: going to dwell on it, but it is pretty stunning.
Speaker 1: At the Browns have a quarterback that leads the NFL
Speaker 1: interceptions and their offense isn't moving the ball. We knew
Speaker 1: Cincinnati was bad, maybe not quite this bad. And I mentioned, uh,
Speaker 1: the Steelers and the Ravens. Maybe they're the only team
Speaker 1: in that division where I'd be like, Okay, this makes sense,
Speaker 1: that's what I expected. Said they just got bombed by
Speaker 1: Cleveland a week ago. That division is all over the place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you kind of could see them being maybe up
Speaker 1: and down, um hot and cold. But the rest of
Speaker 1: the division is really wacky. Mark, take the iPad, what
Speaker 1: do you see? The story that I would be clicking
Speaker 1: into article after article after article as an odyssey that
Speaker 1: took us to such bizarre places, but that I don't
Speaker 1: want to rehash entirely right now because everyone knows so
Speaker 1: much about it is the odyssey of Antonio Brown and
Speaker 1: what happened if you went to bed in August and
Speaker 1: you woke up. Now the fact that at any point
Speaker 1: he went to the Patriots and things got even worse
Speaker 1: from everything that you knew about, and hard knocks and
Speaker 1: the way it ended with Oakland all that, But I
Speaker 1: want to spend it more positively that a team that
Speaker 1: has changed the way I feel about them, that I
Speaker 1: can't wait for them to play each week to check
Speaker 1: them out is the Lions. And I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: they have a a roster filled with magical parts like
Speaker 1: some of these teams that are leading the division and
Speaker 1: staring towards the playoffs. But the Lions to me have
Speaker 1: been deadweight for a decade plus dating back forever, and
Speaker 1: have never had any belief in them. And I can't
Speaker 1: stand their dome and all this other stuff that I
Speaker 1: railed against them, their uniforms, everything from from start to finish.
Speaker 1: Matt Patricia, who I thought had come close to a
Speaker 1: player revolt at points in his first year, has instilled
Speaker 1: some different type of culture in Detroit where he's got
Speaker 1: the right type of players and that that meant bringing
Speaker 1: in some Patriots guys, some known products, and that is
Speaker 1: it is. It has turned the NFC North to me
Speaker 1: into a much more interesting division because it isn't just
Speaker 1: green Bay and it isn't just Chicago. The other quick
Speaker 1: thing I would notice is green Bay's defense, another team.
Speaker 1: I've always been down on green Bay their defense, and
Speaker 1: they're not perfect either, but the way that they can
Speaker 1: hassle a quarterback and you're cheating right now? Why Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: the NFC North being one a division that I enjoy
Speaker 1: when I I really disliked the NFC North and I
Speaker 1: can't explain why Antonio Brown thing. This guy is not
Speaker 1: even in the league. I haven't. Haven't we spit through that.
Speaker 1: The Antonio Brown thing is outrageous. The Patricia thing. I agree.
Speaker 1: I'm totally surprised because it seemed like after year one
Speaker 1: I hogged the iPad. He was going. He was going
Speaker 1: the way of so many other Bellcheck disciples, where you
Speaker 1: go it along and go it alone and flame out.
Speaker 1: Darryl Bello was a great higher by him. If you
Speaker 1: look at their them, the way they're producing on offense,
Speaker 1: they you know, things went so well Jim Bob Cooter
Speaker 1: initially and then that stopped working last year. They're running
Speaker 1: game is up um seventeen yards of game. And Matthew
Speaker 1: Stafford who before the season West, I remember I was
Speaker 1: talking about, who is Matthew Stafford? What is he um?
Speaker 1: Through four weeks, he's he's got career best rates and
Speaker 1: yards per attempt adjusted, yards per TEMP, yards per completion uh.
Speaker 1: And he's attempting the ball down the field more than
Speaker 1: any quarterback this year on average. He's throwing deeper passes. Well.
Speaker 1: They they've gone up in one of the most crucial stats.
Speaker 1: I think that every NFL team tracks which is the
Speaker 1: around the NFL podcast usage rate. The Detroit Lions barely
Speaker 1: mentioned for many months in the off season. Now we
Speaker 1: can't get through a show without talking about the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 1: We love them. If we had a team of a
Speaker 1: year not fun to watch, They've got a better point
Speaker 1: differential than the four and one first place New Orleans Saints.
Speaker 1: Do we have a team of a T N whoa
Speaker 1: out of nowhere? Is it coming naturally? The team wants
Speaker 1: to shine up t This is a very special higher
Speaker 1: It's always better when it comes naturally. All right, I'll
Speaker 1: close it out, Mark, I thought you were going when
Speaker 1: you mentioned Antonio Brown during your winding narrative there. Um,
Speaker 1: I thought you're gonna give the Raiders some shine and
Speaker 1: John Gruden specifically because if you went out of pocket
Speaker 1: at the end of training camp, right after Hard Knocks ended,
Speaker 1: and right when Antonio Brown was hiring a social media
Speaker 1: expert to craft tweets that would get him fired by
Speaker 1: his team, and the Raiders got absolutely savaged for the experiment,
Speaker 1: which you know is fair in the moment to do that.
Speaker 1: There was nobody that said, well, the Raiders, not only
Speaker 1: are they going to survive without Antonio Brown. They are
Speaker 1: gonna be absolutely in the mix, and they're even gonna
Speaker 1: go to London and beat up the Bears and win
Speaker 1: a game. They are three and two heading into their
Speaker 1: bye week, and uh, they are not a great team.
Speaker 1: I don't think they are going to be someone that
Speaker 1: puts a scare into any a f C superpower, but
Speaker 1: it is undeniable thus far from what we've seen that
Speaker 1: there is progress in the John Gruden uh empire here
Speaker 1: from year one to year two, and there was a
Speaker 1: lot of writing grudening off immediately. We had to give
Speaker 1: him time to start building something and they could finish
Speaker 1: five and eleven. It's certainly possible. But where we stand
Speaker 1: right now, they are they they are success story. Uh.
Speaker 1: In the NFL, Sara, I thought you were going to
Speaker 1: mention that we lost a quarterback to a teen kissing illness.
Speaker 1: I don't need to talk about that anymore, but that
Speaker 1: would surprise you if you read that on an iPad.
Speaker 1: That team, though, the Jets, and we forget about it now,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of this is going to bloom
Speaker 1: into something very watchable too. Forget about that. There was
Speaker 1: a very favorable shine to them. Yeah, the Raiders. Even
Speaker 1: two weeks ago we had given up on I mean
Speaker 1: they had just gotten beaten up on the Chiefs and
Speaker 1: the Vikings and back to back weeks, and they were
Speaker 1: in the middle of what appeared to be the toughest
Speaker 1: road trip in NFL history and they still have a
Speaker 1: while to go on it. But they just won an
Speaker 1: Indian and they just beat the Bears in London. It
Speaker 1: is shocking to me because you look up and down,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really makes sense in terms of their talent.
Speaker 1: But I think their offensive line is good, and I
Speaker 1: think John Gruden has done a very nice job coaching
Speaker 1: that offense to be about as efficient as it can be.
Speaker 1: And Josh Jacob is one of those players that they
Speaker 1: got essentially for Khalil Mctrade, which I'm not defending that trade,
Speaker 1: but it should be noted that he looks like a
Speaker 1: young start running back and and this team has some pieces. Now, uh,
Speaker 1: they're they're a team that could be on the rise,
Speaker 1: could be. How about you hand me the iPad and
Speaker 1: I check out the NFC West standings and the Rams
Speaker 1: are in three and two, but they're in third place.
Speaker 1: This is the best division of football. Forget the NFC,
Speaker 1: NFC North. These are three teams that I find all
Speaker 1: of them really fascinating. The forty Niners, Seahawks, and Rams.
Speaker 1: I think they're all legit contenders. I don't know where
Speaker 1: they're going, but I think the Rams with the forty
Speaker 1: Niners coming in this week, and we can talk about
Speaker 1: that on the previous show, obviously they have to be
Speaker 1: a little worried here because you do not want to
Speaker 1: be third place in your own division. This becomes a
Speaker 1: monster game this week, and all three I don't think
Speaker 1: they're flukey. I think they're talented, and I just I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to watching these three teams played each other
Speaker 1: all season. I point to one thing too that I
Speaker 1: I the Niners coming off that game, you're four No
Speaker 1: see you? But there isn't one clear cut dominant team
Speaker 1: in my mind, just because I have sudden ling green
Speaker 1: questions about the Patriots offense, but they'll probably go fourteen
Speaker 1: and two. I think that's especially true. Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: In the NFC, how many teams could go to the
Speaker 1: super Bowl? You love my mind? My brain. I mean,
Speaker 1: she's contractually obligated. Let me see that I've paid. Okay,
Speaker 1: last one we gotta we gotta keep moving. But go ahead, West.
Speaker 1: It says here Aaron Jones has more tds than Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers this year, and yet only Bill Belichick has more
Speaker 1: wins than at the flower As Mark like, there's a
Speaker 1: lot going on there, a lot going on there that's
Speaker 1: pretty special. I did think. I did think that. I
Speaker 1: always because you know, you know, a quarterback Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: looked happy obviously most of that game against the Cowboys,
Speaker 1: but not throwing a touchdown pass. You know, he's Aaron Jones,
Speaker 1: you know, score all four of the touchdowns. It's like
Speaker 1: Walter Payton and the Bear Super Bowl when didn't he
Speaker 1: didn't score, He never got over went and hid in
Speaker 1: the closet that they get They gave the fridge the
Speaker 1: ball at the goal line that had give him Walter
Speaker 1: the hard earned uh super Bowl touchdown that he always
Speaker 1: prayed that might have been a higher instance than this
Speaker 1: random regular season. Shouldn't it shouldn't be considered a shocker.
Speaker 1: That glory boy Mike Dicka was wasn't thinking about people.
Speaker 1: How about that Gregg. It's got to take the dicker
Speaker 1: shot Dicka got bang oh two at that Super Bowl
Speaker 1: twenty probably dominant win, a dominant win for the Bears.
Speaker 1: Of course, it was not Dicka who got carried off
Speaker 1: the field. It was Buddy Ryan. Yes, it was the
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator that team. You could feel the implosion coming.
Speaker 1: Why are we expanding into a deep look at the
Speaker 1: You know, I was about the second. Dick's got the steakhouses,
Speaker 1: so he won in the end. Uh. And he's got
Speaker 1: the Dicka and uh and Dwarsky cigar bash that happens
Speaker 1: every Super Bowl week. That's a big thing. He's got
Speaker 1: the Saturday Night Live skit. No one's done more about
Speaker 1: Dick tam pose he's gonna kill that was done more
Speaker 1: with one Super Bowl than well here in England. Here
Speaker 1: in England, from what we can gather, the love of
Speaker 1: the NFL really started to bloom in the eighties. I've
Speaker 1: talked to had many conversations with Handsome Hank about this.
Speaker 1: And the Dolphins, Dan Marino and the Bears, that famous
Speaker 1: five Bears team are are teams that captured the imagination
Speaker 1: of this region. And that's why you heard so many
Speaker 1: Bear fans going nuts during their comeback against the Raiders
Speaker 1: last Sunday. Uh. And then they let them down because
Speaker 1: of the curse. The curse I call it of Walter Payton.
Speaker 1: How many Super Bowl titles since they didn't let him
Speaker 1: go into the end zone? Big old zero. That's a
Speaker 1: good talk. Maybe that's the Maybe that's who's in my hotel.
Speaker 1: Forget the billy, go set them free, Walter. We did
Speaker 1: not need to fashion that. All right, let's before we
Speaker 1: get out of here, Thursday night football, which uh man,
Speaker 1: that game is gonna start late here, huhne in the morning.
Speaker 1: The New York Giants dream. Mark Brady said he's staying
Speaker 1: up for it until four thirty to make sure the
Speaker 1: editing processes goes smoothly. Lying he's gonna say that to
Speaker 1: his bosses, but they'll be asleep. I have it demon
Speaker 1: travel to Foxborough the Pats. Let's go over the path
Speaker 1: the records of the New England Patriots opponents so far
Speaker 1: this year. Week one, they got the Dolphins, right, No, Steelers,
Speaker 1: Steelers one and four. Week two they got the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: They got the Dolphins, yeah, oh and five. Week three
Speaker 1: they get the Jets, oh and four. Week four they
Speaker 1: get the Bills four and one. Nice. Week five the Redskins,
Speaker 1: oh and five. Week six, the Giants two and three.
Speaker 1: Week seven, the Jets oh and four. That's nice. That's
Speaker 1: a nice setup for the Pats. It seems a little crooked.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie a little bit crooked, Greg, it's
Speaker 1: been a little lucky, I mean, especially defensively that even
Speaker 1: the good team you played, the Bills, do not have
Speaker 1: a good offense. All these numbers. Let's calm down, Patriots fan,
Speaker 1: they've seen these articles. This is is this the best
Speaker 1: Patriots defense ever? Are you kidding me? Did anyone watch
Speaker 1: football in the beginning of the Those teams were insanely
Speaker 1: talented on all three levels, dominated opponents, and did it
Speaker 1: throughout the playoffs. This team is dominating cream puffs. It's
Speaker 1: the it's the season. I'm not sure if they're top
Speaker 1: five defense. I think they probably are. But let's calm down.
Speaker 1: With the combined records so far of New Englands opponents
Speaker 1: five and nineteen, whoa, all right, let's get to this game.
Speaker 1: Five of those losses came from the Pats. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: gotta take those apps, alright, Alright, let's get to it.
Speaker 1: Danny Dimes, Greg, once upon a time you hoped that
Speaker 1: you could end Eli Manning's career as if that would
Speaker 1: take away the agony of those two Super Bowl defeats
Speaker 1: at the hands of the great Elijah Manning. But instead
Speaker 1: he's a long gone now he's he's in the rear
Speaker 1: view mirror. It's Daniel Jones against Tom Brady. Uh. Interesting
Speaker 1: matchup between a twenty two year old passer and a
Speaker 1: forty two year old passer. Who will last longer in
Speaker 1: the league not clear at this point. Uh do we
Speaker 1: expect the game at Foxborough? You know? The people in
Speaker 1: the desert don't um and I and I can see why,
Speaker 1: because the Giants are gonna be without Sterling Shepherd. It
Speaker 1: sounds like Sae Kwon Barkley is still a long shot
Speaker 1: to play. Wayne Gallman might not play. And I think
Speaker 1: we saw last week against the Vikings what can happen
Speaker 1: when this Giant's offense plays a more talented defense with
Speaker 1: a coordinator who knows how to attack a rookie Daniel Jones,
Speaker 1: And it certainly wasn't all on him, But he's not
Speaker 1: enough to save this organization right now? Well, no, and
Speaker 1: then you lose Sterling Shepherd, you lose se Kwon Barkley.
Speaker 1: So he's been playing without some of their best players,
Speaker 1: and you're expecting him to repeat these heroics that he
Speaker 1: did against the Buccaneers. This is a bad team and
Speaker 1: they've been playing like and the bigger thing is they
Speaker 1: never have the ball because their defense can't get us.
Speaker 1: Belichick absolutely adores facing young rookie quarterbacks, and this is
Speaker 1: a good matchup for him. I meant it. I put
Speaker 1: it at the level of I would be utterly, humanly
Speaker 1: shocked if the Giants won this game, humanly shocked if
Speaker 1: it was in the Metal Lands, maybe in prime time,
Speaker 1: and I don't care if it's I don't care if
Speaker 1: it's played in Eli Manning's backyard. The Patriots have a
Speaker 1: lot to work on, but I don't think on both
Speaker 1: sides of the ball, especially on offense. But you look
Speaker 1: at this Giant's defense and it's you know, it's still
Speaker 1: right there with the very worst in the league. If
Speaker 1: the Patriots can't get healthy in terms of running the
Speaker 1: ball and being having a little more rhythm on offense,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna have Philip door set in this game.
Speaker 1: Then that's caused for concern at this stage of the season.
Speaker 1: But you you said it. They have the Jets and
Speaker 1: then they finally kind of face the meat of their schedule.
Speaker 1: They have about a six or seven weeks stretch against
Speaker 1: a bunch of playoff type of maybe through the ball
Speaker 1: thirty one times in the first half on Sunday, and
Speaker 1: they were not doing much. It wasn't until they really
Speaker 1: started moving the ball on the ground that Brady was
Speaker 1: able to get loose. And uh, they opened the floodgates
Speaker 1: on the red skin. They intentionally abandoned the run and
Speaker 1: they I came out of that game they by in
Speaker 1: the end. They did everything you would have thought, and
Speaker 1: you look at the box score, it looked fine. But
Speaker 1: they if they get tangled with an opponent that forces
Speaker 1: them to make explosive plays, the Patriots don't have that
Speaker 1: right now. They missed Gronkowski and Josh Gordon and and Brady.
Speaker 1: There was a deep connection where Brady just completely overthrow.
Speaker 1: They're not completely in sync. No, he doesn't know what
Speaker 1: Gordon is gonna do. That's the key to being of
Speaker 1: Tom Brady receiver is you have to see the defense
Speaker 1: the same way he does, and Gordon doesn't. Breaking news
Speaker 1: speak of the devil, speak of the sentient keg Rob
Speaker 1: Gronkowski will make his Network debut this week on Fox
Speaker 1: NFL Thursday. And let me tell you something that is
Speaker 1: all that is. Don't worry about the debut one as
Speaker 1: an analyst. That's not his future. We all know that's
Speaker 1: not what he's gonna be doing. That just takes him
Speaker 1: one step closer to the game, one step closer to
Speaker 1: the field, and the Patriots, who do not have a
Speaker 1: tight end they could rely on. Right now, get ready, everybody,
Speaker 1: it's happening, and this is the first step toward his
Speaker 1: return in December, which will not only um, you know,
Speaker 1: really helped the Patriots win another super Bowl, it will
Speaker 1: get me sandwiches. And that's the great thing. I um,
Speaker 1: I still think it's about on that whole sandwich thing.
Speaker 1: But I don't know how you got. This moves him
Speaker 1: closer to the field by him moving into these remember
Speaker 1: distinctive away Remember but he was at like a taco
Speaker 1: hut opening and he was getting choked up and he
Speaker 1: said he you know, he couldn't play and he was hurt. Uh,
Speaker 1: and he was trying to get away from football. Well,
Speaker 1: now he's talking about football. He's gonna be on the
Speaker 1: football field. He's gonna be talking to Terry Bradshaw he's
Speaker 1: gonna be reminiscing about the good old day and it's
Speaker 1: coming back. Here comes the I think Taco Hut would
Speaker 1: bring him closer than actually broadcasting the games. I would
Speaker 1: hope if they do bring him back, it goes better
Speaker 1: than the Ben Watson reunion, who they had to release
Speaker 1: this week after he came up suspension. It is a
Speaker 1: very w w E move, and Gronk is very much
Speaker 1: a w w E guy and fan to kind of
Speaker 1: come back late in the season. It's happening, do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, Ryan is oh ways, and the
Speaker 1: analysis of this, let's not glaze over this. Rob Gronkowski
Speaker 1: is going to be an analyst, okay, because we are
Speaker 1: definitely coming back. What are half of these hires. It's personality,
Speaker 1: it's charisma, it's shouting at the camera, you know, that's
Speaker 1: It's not I wouldn't. I wouldn't. We're not getting mathematical.
Speaker 1: He's you know, camera magic when it comes to you know,
Speaker 1: thinking of his feet and breaking things down or in
Speaker 1: a funny joke I just thought. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: a certain skill set to thrive in the job that
Speaker 1: he's taking. That's all A bunch of regular stand up
Speaker 1: comedians in the Fox Sports broadcasting group. Please all right,
Speaker 1: let's get out of here. Um. Yes, here's what's coming
Speaker 1: up this week Thursday, Hey, Moose and Goose, let's go
Speaker 1: down to the chuckle Hot the Taco our Thursday preview.
Speaker 1: You'll get that a video show. We'll go up at
Speaker 1: noon Pacific, three m Eastern, three pm Eastern eight pm BT.
Speaker 1: I guess that's the time zone. News to me. UH,
Speaker 1: Sky will be at Sky Sports on Wednesday, so if
Speaker 1: you're UH from this region, check that out. Inside the
Speaker 1: Huddle Show airing on Sky Sports, hosted by Neil the
Speaker 1: Great Neil Reynolds. A venue show at Tottenham Stadium shop
Speaker 1: coming up exclusively to Game pass subscribers. Can we share
Speaker 1: the number of the people that the number of people
Speaker 1: that try to get tickets to this? Eighteen thousand people
Speaker 1: UH signed up to get the tickets we had to
Speaker 1: turn away roughly seventeen thousand, nine fourteen. Mark. Are we
Speaker 1: sending those notess back to Culver City for various bosses
Speaker 1: and higher ups to just so we have a shadowy
Speaker 1: late figure is confirming this figure. It felt like maybe
Speaker 1: an extra zero had gotten put on there by a
Speaker 1: type of that seems outrageous. No, I asked the guy
Speaker 1: to repeat himself. I said, I'm sorry, you said thousands.
Speaker 1: I mean the Charlotte Hornets don't draw that much. I'm
Speaker 1: starting to think we gotta the venue was too small
Speaker 1: that we booked for our Friday live show. How well,
Speaker 1: all right, that's it. We let's catch up on some sleep,
Speaker 1: Let's get some room service. Let's let's snuggle under the
Speaker 1: blankets together. Boys, all of us in the same room.
Speaker 1: You in this female ghost in your room. Let's go
Speaker 1: jealous of your female ghost. You have a robot in
Speaker 1: your garage. You got a female ghost signing off for
Speaker 1: the Quiet Star on the mail Man. Bill Voss, Ricky
Speaker 1: Hollywood on the scene until Thursday m