Speaker 1: To be Around the Unit L Podcast, A big bad
Speaker 1: blogger boy. Welcome to another edition of the Around the
Speaker 1: NFL Podcast. My name is Greg Rosenthal, and I'm surrounded
Speaker 1: in a city filled with heroes. In Bunker's Mark Sessler,
Speaker 1: Ricky Hollywood, and Patrick Claibon coming through from What's Up?
Speaker 1: What's Up? Big day for Patrick's. I mean, the show
Speaker 1: got delayed because our Patrick, Patrick Claibn had to jump
Speaker 1: back back on television in his suit. He's wearing a
Speaker 1: tie right now, much uh much better dress than Marker,
Speaker 1: Ricky and I and U and had to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: had to report the big Patrick Mahomes contract which started
Speaker 1: right before we started taping, which I which I feel
Speaker 1: like is is good luck, you know, great great day
Speaker 1: for Patrick's. Yeah, I mean, yeah, We've had a few,
Speaker 1: I guess good ones, um since the last good one,
Speaker 1: which was when Patrick Mahains won the Super Bowl. But
Speaker 1: you know, like my daughter was born, I'm taking over
Speaker 1: her room to uh to do work stuff and talk
Speaker 1: to you guys, which is fun, but it's uh, it was.
Speaker 1: It was an interesting few minutes there because we had
Speaker 1: talked about, you know, to open up the kimono a
Speaker 1: little bit, uh, you know, trying to do this around
Speaker 1: noon and then I look at my Twitter time on
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, well, I guess they're gonna want
Speaker 1: to do this, so uh we had to wait for
Speaker 1: Mike Silver to get on the phone with somebody so
Speaker 1: we could do it. And it's like, yeah, they're gonna
Speaker 1: give him a lot of money. All right, cool, see
Speaker 1: you later. Watch Total Access tonight, and I mean it
Speaker 1: is assured that it's assured that this show. Um, we
Speaker 1: we float a starting time out there episode after episode
Speaker 1: and it's something we'll get in the way, and this
Speaker 1: time it was real news. I mean, I would say
Speaker 1: also just to uh on the celebration of Patrick, you
Speaker 1: have not that this is something that everyone celebrates sekily,
Speaker 1: but an annual holiday of an I wish based um
Speaker 1: platform celebrating Patrick's in March every year. So winning, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I pay homage to to you know, my Irish heritage.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't have a lot of stay in
Speaker 1: the matter, but yeah, you know, it's it's a it's
Speaker 1: it's a fun it's a fun shout out to you know,
Speaker 1: look back, yeah, our list, there's maybe wondering, you know
Speaker 1: where where's Dan Dan at you know? I believe he's
Speaker 1: either hanging out with his brother, our host Dan Hansas
Speaker 1: Um or he's you know, in day three of three
Speaker 1: part interview UM with The Gatesville Messenger and I just
Speaker 1: couldn't do the show. He will be back on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: We're still doing two shows a week until training camp starts,
Speaker 1: assuming it does start. And Uh, I feel like we
Speaker 1: were already into the news. Maybe maybe let's do the
Speaker 1: chit chat at the end. Well, we should. I do
Speaker 1: want to do a catch up. I do want to
Speaker 1: do a catch up because I want to see what
Speaker 1: like people were doing. This was the closest thing we
Speaker 1: had to like an NFL ish week off last week.
Speaker 1: But I feel like we're already into the into the news.
Speaker 1: So Ricky, let's let's do some news. I think we
Speaker 1: finally arrived at the moment in time where we're going
Speaker 1: to say goodbye to this nickname that uh clearly was
Speaker 1: racist and has been a blight on the league for
Speaker 1: a long long time. Well said there by Mike Silver
Speaker 1: talking about the Washington team name change that was on
Speaker 1: air just a few hours ago with Patrick Claiban. Again,
Speaker 1: what a day and We'll get to that news in
Speaker 1: just a minute, but we gotta start. We're gonna start
Speaker 1: with Mahomes. We already have and Silver was the one
Speaker 1: who confirmed the story UH for us at NFL Network.
Speaker 1: But Adam Schefter broke it. And since he broke it,
Speaker 1: he's broken a few more terms. First of all, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a twelve year contract. It's ten new years
Speaker 1: tacked on to the two already left on his rookie deal.
Speaker 1: It is expected to total more than four hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars UH in total. But we don't really know any
Speaker 1: more details as we are are taping this. First of all,
Speaker 1: I think Schefter and I was gonna, I honestly was
Speaker 1: gonna tweet about this last week. I wonder if Schefter
Speaker 1: and Ian keep track of when the other one is
Speaker 1: on vacation, because I think that they work harder in
Speaker 1: those weeks to try to get over on the other guy.
Speaker 1: I at least know our guy, Ian would do something
Speaker 1: like that. That's not a it's not even it's not
Speaker 1: even going after him. And I thought about that because
Speaker 1: the Cam Newton broke news broke. I did text with
Speaker 1: Ian a little bit last week. He was on vacation
Speaker 1: and you know, Schefter is loving dropping this bomb while
Speaker 1: Ian is wherever Ian is. I mean, it's a competition
Speaker 1: that I think UM is tracked heavily by about zero
Speaker 1: point three percent of the country. It's basically one of them,
Speaker 1: and you are definitely but you know, I think one
Speaker 1: of the privileges that just enjoying sports from a distance
Speaker 1: would be to not have to worry about when Ian
Speaker 1: is on vacation and Adam Schefter is dropping a bombs
Speaker 1: on a social media platform. But I only mentioned it
Speaker 1: because it took a while to confirm it, and that's
Speaker 1: just rare and today in in this media landscape, that
Speaker 1: someone actually has some exclusive news, uh for that long
Speaker 1: and it's ultimately news that you know, we expected at
Speaker 1: some point, but we just didn't know when it was
Speaker 1: going to happen. Patrick, And I think like in terms
Speaker 1: of the competition, it kind of plays into the way
Speaker 1: that we consumed it today, right because you mentioned how
Speaker 1: Schefter has kind of part and parceled this out, and
Speaker 1: I think he would if it were not for the climate,
Speaker 1: right of like what's he doing right now? That he
Speaker 1: would probably you know, kind of chill out and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: let's do it total terms, so it's gonna be twelve
Speaker 1: total years. They're tacking it on. This is the up
Speaker 1: to number. But it was just like, hey, ten years,
Speaker 1: ten years, patfrom Homes, Hey, what's up? Everybody reacted this,
Speaker 1: which is like cool, Like I'm not a reporter, like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not out of schefter. I've seen that got
Speaker 1: grind all the time. But you know, when we're talking
Speaker 1: about contracts, that initial part of the conversation like dominates
Speaker 1: so much of the perception where that the up to
Speaker 1: number gets out there and everybody's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: they're gonna give him. It's like, that's not what, that's
Speaker 1: not what. It's. Yeah, I've already seen a lot of
Speaker 1: takes and and when it comes to the money of
Speaker 1: it all, and none of them makes sense. It's a
Speaker 1: boring it's a boring, repetitive take that we've had on
Speaker 1: this show that you just you gotta wait and see
Speaker 1: um and and even the takes that are like why
Speaker 1: would Patrick Mahomes do this? Like why sign any tenure contract?
Speaker 1: You gotta you gotta see the deal. And Schefter did
Speaker 1: indicate it is believed that he'll have the contract tied
Speaker 1: to a percentage of the salary cap number, which we've
Speaker 1: heard talked about forever as a possibility, and it makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense for these really high level players,
Speaker 1: especially quarterbacks, And it sounds like that's exactly what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen here. I'm guessing, you know what, we'll find out
Speaker 1: what that percentages. Again, it could be the total deals.
Speaker 1: I think four twenties something million right now, but it
Speaker 1: could be more as the salary cap goes up. And
Speaker 1: my guesses and we'll see, you know, whatever percentage of
Speaker 1: the salary cap he's taken up in the next few years,
Speaker 1: you know, well that that's the percentage he's gonna want
Speaker 1: to be taking up in the future too. And so
Speaker 1: if you're Patrick Mahomes, any deal is a no brainer
Speaker 1: because why step on the field again until you just
Speaker 1: sign the contract that changes your life, your family's life forever.
Speaker 1: The key is the next few years after that, they'll
Speaker 1: figure it out. Things are gonna change, Patrick Mahomes, Uh,
Speaker 1: we'll change, the NFL will change. But he's locked in
Speaker 1: and and I'm assuming he's getting paid, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a fair amount of money for the next few seasons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's a deal that harks back to
Speaker 1: not pre this cb A, but kind of action that
Speaker 1: happened pre the previous cb A when you had guys
Speaker 1: like Donovan McNabb signing twelve year extensions drew BLEDSOE people
Speaker 1: mentioned but the tenure commitment in the league, and you know,
Speaker 1: we talked about it with John Gruden that that stands out.
Speaker 1: There is such an unusual deal between the Raiders and
Speaker 1: their coach, but us, like from an NFL standpoint, ten
Speaker 1: years ago, um, we were weeks away from Sam Bradford
Speaker 1: signing his rookie deal with the St. Louis Rams. So
Speaker 1: it's just such an incredible amount of time that I'm
Speaker 1: I'm glad for both parties. Why not lock mahomes down
Speaker 1: for as long as you can? Uh? I simply don't
Speaker 1: concern myself with the numbers and the contract beyond you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of years from now, as you said, Greg,
Speaker 1: because none of those contracts that they mentioned that go
Speaker 1: on for ten plus years lived to see the light
Speaker 1: of day. I mean, it's sort of just a it's
Speaker 1: a huge commitment and I think that matters a lot.
Speaker 1: And you've got a wiggle room there but the idea
Speaker 1: that my Homes is going to be there on these
Speaker 1: terms ten years now would would be shocking to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's something that we even see with like three
Speaker 1: and four year deals, where we're reporting a three and
Speaker 1: four year deal and then turns out two years after that, Uh,
Speaker 1: somebody's on their way out, and it's like, well, that
Speaker 1: three year, forty million dollar contract turned out to be
Speaker 1: neither of of of neither one of those um and
Speaker 1: so like, yeah, I'm happy for Patrick Mahomes, and you know,
Speaker 1: once we find out more, you know, good, but this
Speaker 1: is arguably the best player in the NFL. So yeah,
Speaker 1: he should get a lot of money and we shouldn't
Speaker 1: pay any edge that people who have complained about it,
Speaker 1: they do seem to agree with Greg's you know, Greg,
Speaker 1: you've floated out there that you think that Mahomes could
Speaker 1: go down is the greatest quarterback of all time, which
Speaker 1: you know you said that before even the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: doesn't feel that much of a stretch at this point.
Speaker 1: But they it's basically then saying and they told us
Speaker 1: before Mahomes in that combine, before Mahomes took the starting role,
Speaker 1: that behind the scenes they were just in love with him,
Speaker 1: and they've been on board all along. And and obviously
Speaker 1: the other Twitter reaction is the the high like the
Speaker 1: spotlight that it points on every team, the Jaguars, the Bears,
Speaker 1: everyone else that passed on this guy, that he's not
Speaker 1: going away. He's gonna haunt that narrative for a decade
Speaker 1: to come. Right. He he has played better in his
Speaker 1: first two seasons as a starter than any football player,
Speaker 1: any quarterback I've ever seen, and I don't think it's
Speaker 1: that close. And just what he can do as a player,
Speaker 1: you know, I would we were saying that after eight games.
Speaker 1: I don't think we needed to see these full two years.
Speaker 1: I think this is a tenure deal that he could
Speaker 1: get to the end of. In theory, like I can
Speaker 1: still imagine being on the Chiefs in ten years, but
Speaker 1: I imagine it will be more like Aaron Rodgers who
Speaker 1: has signed um some contracts which at the time we're
Speaker 1: record setting, market setting deals, and then he's just, you know,
Speaker 1: signed a bunch of contracts since well before those those
Speaker 1: deals ended. And you do think, you know, if we're
Speaker 1: doing the winners and losers here, it's like it is
Speaker 1: great to be a Chiefs fan. And it's great to
Speaker 1: be Andy Reid. It's great to be Patrick Mahomes. Teammates
Speaker 1: that are gonna play with him too. It's great to
Speaker 1: be you know, Patrick Mahomes is wife or fiance, I'm
Speaker 1: not just married, you know. It's great to a lot
Speaker 1: of people, but especially Andy Reid, who who you followed around.
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think that is it is such
Speaker 1: an important part of the story is that think Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes would have been a transcendent player no matter what,
Speaker 1: but he did happen to end up with like the
Speaker 1: one of if you know, the greatest play callers I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. The fact that those two guys are gonna
Speaker 1: be together probably about as long as Andy Reid wants
Speaker 1: to be together, is is something and they're gonna You're
Speaker 1: gonna have to deal with that for for for as
Speaker 1: long as Patrick Mahomes is healthy. It's symbiotic because certainly,
Speaker 1: if you're Andy Reid and you were thinking about maybe
Speaker 1: a third stop as a coach at some point, if
Speaker 1: Alex Smith were still your quarterback, um, this ties you
Speaker 1: to Kansas City for the long haul two and you
Speaker 1: could have a Bill Belichicken career. If Mahomes lives up
Speaker 1: to You know. I also I always think back to,
Speaker 1: like the Aaron Rodgers team that knocked out the Steelers
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl, and back when that happened ten
Speaker 1: years ago, we were thinking, of course, Aaron Rodgers and
Speaker 1: the Packers will win five more of those, and of
Speaker 1: course you'd lock them down for ten years. And they
Speaker 1: have not won one since. So it just doesn't always
Speaker 1: go quite as smoothly. But why this feels like a
Speaker 1: no brainer Other than that, yeah, it's it's so like
Speaker 1: the idea of success in fact, like so fleeting that
Speaker 1: you go back to a moment early on last season
Speaker 1: where Patrick mahomes Is knee is bent backwards and a
Speaker 1: fraction of an inch could have determined whether or not
Speaker 1: they won the Super Bowl at all or he even
Speaker 1: played football for the rest of the year. And and
Speaker 1: you look at the way things have progressed since then. Um,
Speaker 1: here he's got this mega contract which could balance on
Speaker 1: a needle in terms of whether or not it happened. Uh.
Speaker 1: And here we are, we're in a situation where the
Speaker 1: season could be balancing on a needle, and it's like
Speaker 1: people have to make decisions. Uh. And like the Chiefs
Speaker 1: and Patrick Mahomes both bet on football existing in ten
Speaker 1: years and Patrick Mames still being good audit. So that's
Speaker 1: the thing, and we're going to get to um all
Speaker 1: the latest on what the NFL and the NFL p
Speaker 1: A are negotiating when it comes to the pandemic. But
Speaker 1: I do think getting paid in the pandemic is tricky,
Speaker 1: Like only only the most value of people are getting
Speaker 1: new big money and I and I mean that somewhat
Speaker 1: for NFL players, I mean that more just everywhere. I
Speaker 1: sort of made a a half joking tweet about Baumani
Speaker 1: Jones from ESPN getting a new contract during the pandemics, like, Hey,
Speaker 1: if you're getting a new contract during the pandemic, that's
Speaker 1: for the That's for like the upper Show, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. That's that's for like everyone's great that
Speaker 1: you know works there and blah blah blah. But you're
Speaker 1: only getting it if you're the like the near the
Speaker 1: cream of the crop. That's Patrick Mahomes. That has to
Speaker 1: be the most Greig Esque storyline of the entire offseason.
Speaker 1: I don't tracking people's contracts and different networks. I mean
Speaker 1: I I don't know anyone who would be more not
Speaker 1: dipped in intrigue with that than Greg, Well, we have
Speaker 1: we have some personal like, hey, this is our industry,
Speaker 1: so I'm curious out I'm not banking on a new contract,
Speaker 1: and I'm curious about how Look, all of the fallout
Speaker 1: and repercussions from this is gonna be for for everyone
Speaker 1: in every industry, but are selfishly I'll absolve Greg on
Speaker 1: the meat peeping situation of watching other people's media contracts
Speaker 1: because you know, it kind of ties into everything right now.
Speaker 1: To Greg's point, like, we there's so much uncertainty everywhere
Speaker 1: and we've watched our industry kind of will first of
Speaker 1: all be undermined and undercut and destroyed by vulture capitalists.
Speaker 1: But aside from that, you know, just folks not wanting
Speaker 1: to pay for good work and so like if somebody's
Speaker 1: worth it now, uh, if if companies feel good about it,
Speaker 1: then yeah, it's not it's not necessarily Greg being like,
Speaker 1: oh like those blogs that are like Katie Nolan got
Speaker 1: sixty three. It was a sweet spot for Greg. It
Speaker 1: was the feeling it is it is, but it also
Speaker 1: is the feeling a we're seeing some people getting treated
Speaker 1: cold during this pandemic. We we know about that and that,
Speaker 1: and that's that's the case maybe any year in this business.
Speaker 1: So it's not just now, but is long, right, especially now.
Speaker 1: And the second is I like bou monies, you know podcast,
Speaker 1: So I was just you know, that was giving him
Speaker 1: a shout out, a little compliment. That's all ten years
Speaker 1: is long. You're doubting you're one of those people that
Speaker 1: that is like because there is like the salary cap
Speaker 1: people it's like, well, how is how are they gonna win?
Speaker 1: It's like, I'm not doubt you can figure it out
Speaker 1: how to win around Patrick Mahomes. But what if he
Speaker 1: in ten years? Like what if in four years he
Speaker 1: has like an Alex Smith type injury and like ten years.
Speaker 1: I mean maybe it's just me being afraid of commitment
Speaker 1: in general, but ten years is like a long time.
Speaker 1: Well that's the thing, and it's probably a thing that
Speaker 1: you need to you know, you know, therapy. It's just
Speaker 1: it's just writing contracts with people that are close and
Speaker 1: personal to you have it out like in two to
Speaker 1: three months maybe or you know, if you um, you know,
Speaker 1: have an opinion on Shawshank redemption, that doesn't necessarily drive
Speaker 1: with the way that I feel about it. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we will talk to each other anymore. Well, I do
Speaker 1: that with my friends and in wife. You know, it's
Speaker 1: it's all about the guaranteed money. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's all about the guaranteed money in front because like
Speaker 1: maybe maybe the friendship or you know, the relationship it
Speaker 1: ends after four or five years, but at that point
Speaker 1: you can get out without as much. I'm right. I mean,
Speaker 1: how much guaranteed money have you offered your wife? I
Speaker 1: think you should know the figure you could break that
Speaker 1: it was you know, it was a joke. It was
Speaker 1: it was not to be taken seriously. But to answer
Speaker 1: your question seriously, Erica, when we find out the details
Speaker 1: that you know, it'll be like any contract where the
Speaker 1: guarantees are not throughout the deal. It'll be complicated, but
Speaker 1: they'll you know, if first, if if something terrible happened,
Speaker 1: you can always get out of it. And if not,
Speaker 1: then you're just you know, gonna have some salary cap
Speaker 1: hits for a couple of years, like like the Washington
Speaker 1: team does with Alex Smith for the last few years,
Speaker 1: which which I think provides our segue here. Let's get
Speaker 1: to I can't believe this is not the top story
Speaker 1: of the day. That shows what a what a solid
Speaker 1: day of news. It is that while we were gone
Speaker 1: last week over the UH fourth of July holiday, UM,
Speaker 1: the Washington football team released the statement after really interesting
Speaker 1: and UH in intense pressure from corporations that they would
Speaker 1: stop working with their team unless they change their team nickname.
Speaker 1: The Washington Football Team released the statement. I never thought
Speaker 1: i'd see the day. Actually I did think i'd see
Speaker 1: the day, but maybe not this soon, and and not
Speaker 1: under this ownership that they are going under a review
Speaker 1: UH to change their team name. And our guy, you rapport,
Speaker 1: this was what he got called in on vacation about
Speaker 1: UM reported it is it is likely they are changing
Speaker 1: the team name. There there's no way that they're gonna
Speaker 1: go through this review and stick with it. And I
Speaker 1: think the only question is how does UH how quickly
Speaker 1: does it happen? Is it happening before this season, which
Speaker 1: their coach Ron Rivera says he hopes and and I
Speaker 1: think is probably realistic, and how that affects the uniform
Speaker 1: and everything. But UM, you know, a pretty I would say,
Speaker 1: exciting day for the NFL. I you know, Roger Goodell
Speaker 1: said he he was fully supporting it, and to me,
Speaker 1: this has been one of those third rail topics on
Speaker 1: this podcast and and with the NFL in general for decades,
Speaker 1: and it's nice to know that it's that discussion is
Speaker 1: going away. Patrick. And it's been so freeing, right because
Speaker 1: you've called it the Washington football team a few times.
Speaker 1: There's been times where I've felt pressure, right because if
Speaker 1: you're on the show. I've maintained my entire career working
Speaker 1: for the NFL that I don't want to say the
Speaker 1: name just from a standpoint of it's a slur and
Speaker 1: that's that's how I've always felt about it. But you know,
Speaker 1: you get emails, um, you get tweets, it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: you gotta say the name. Why aren't you saying the name?
Speaker 1: And it's like one because I don't. I don't want to.
Speaker 1: I've I've felt like I need to because somebody who
Speaker 1: has power might tell me that, you know, this is
Speaker 1: something that that we need to do. And so it's
Speaker 1: just it's very relieving. It's very freeing to be able
Speaker 1: to have the conversation Mike with Mike's over where I
Speaker 1: don't feel like I'm as bullet proof as Mike, but
Speaker 1: I can be on TV while Mike calls it racist
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm not gonna push back on that
Speaker 1: because it's a slur. So yeah, like considering the structure
Speaker 1: of America and uh, you know what what a lot
Speaker 1: of people have come to realize in in the year, Uh,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't really have a place if you're gonna
Speaker 1: name the team now, nobody in their right mind and
Speaker 1: be like, oh yeah, let's let's name it the slur
Speaker 1: So then why why would we still have it? And
Speaker 1: it sucks that it it took you know, multiple people
Speaker 1: being murdered and millions of people to get in the
Speaker 1: streets for it to happen, but it's happened. So I'm
Speaker 1: glad that we can move on. And you know, people
Speaker 1: who haven't been able to buy apparel, people who haven't
Speaker 1: been able to say the name of the team, they
Speaker 1: can embrace it now. And and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm thinking people are starting to realize that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's I think it's very evident to all
Speaker 1: that the Redskins did not lead the charge here, um
Speaker 1: are world in our society led the charge and put
Speaker 1: Daniel Snyder, who in really when this podcast started, and
Speaker 1: it's been a topic that we've touched on through the
Speaker 1: duration of this show. Um basically for a while. It
Speaker 1: was really hot at the beginning. I remember in our
Speaker 1: news room it was it was kind of the the
Speaker 1: the controversial topic for quite a long time. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I you know, this is one of the few teams
Speaker 1: that in sports that did not put out a statement
Speaker 1: after the George Floyd incident. And I think one of
Speaker 1: the reasons. Reading an athletic article, they said basically that
Speaker 1: the issue is when the when they go and do that,
Speaker 1: then their name becomes the focal point of that tweet
Speaker 1: because it's hanging out there is something that is um
Speaker 1: out of joint with where we're going. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I think plenty of plenty of players supported a change
Speaker 1: years ago, but there is certainly um even now. You
Speaker 1: look at some of the old school Washington Stars, who
Speaker 1: probably because that was just the team they were on,
Speaker 1: were more open my did or I should say, just
Speaker 1: open to the idea that that was their tradition, saying
Speaker 1: get rid of it now because we are in a
Speaker 1: polar shift, as we should be, and this should have
Speaker 1: happened a long time ago, but this organization has struggled Um,
Speaker 1: and we've studied with other things this offseason. They've struggled
Speaker 1: with things that should have happened a long time ago.
Speaker 1: It's a really fascinating story on on a few levels.
Speaker 1: But I do want to read the words of of
Speaker 1: the the National Congress of American Indians, who who have
Speaker 1: been you know, fighting this for a while, and they
Speaker 1: wrote in a statement, this moment has been eighty seven
Speaker 1: years in the making, and we have reached this moment
Speaker 1: thanks to decades of tireless efforts by tribal leaders, advocate, citizens,
Speaker 1: and partners to educate America about the origins and meaning
Speaker 1: of the r word um. The n c i A
Speaker 1: looks forward to immediately commencing discussions with the league and
Speaker 1: team how they will change the team's name in mascot Um.
Speaker 1: Indian country deserves nothing less. The time to change is now,
Speaker 1: and that leads us to, you know, what they will
Speaker 1: do with the the name. And supposedly there's two names
Speaker 1: that have you know, come to the forefront. And the
Speaker 1: statement by um Ron Rivera was the one quoted in
Speaker 1: it uh not not ownership. Um did mention um native history,
Speaker 1: but also mentioned military history and and supposedly, and we
Speaker 1: don't know that these are the two names, but these
Speaker 1: are the two that keep getting floated out there, so
Speaker 1: I'm guessing these are the two names that Ron Rivera
Speaker 1: mentioned that he likes. Two names that are being talked
Speaker 1: about are the Red Tails Um which uh, you know,
Speaker 1: has a World War Two Black air fighting background, and
Speaker 1: then the Warriors, which would be more of like a
Speaker 1: native background, And those are those are the two. Those
Speaker 1: are the two that that they're thinking about. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I have a take on like which which
Speaker 1: they should do or whatever, but it's really it's really
Speaker 1: interesting to see Ron Rivera be so front and center.
Speaker 1: There's reporting that Dan Snyder that the owner has been
Speaker 1: out of the country, and look, Rivera, just like he
Speaker 1: did with with kind of representing the team after the
Speaker 1: murder of George Floyd, Um is doing the same now,
Speaker 1: you know, is the one kind of representing them. And
Speaker 1: so when you sign up for that coaching job, especially
Speaker 1: right now because there's no executives there like Bruce Allen,
Speaker 1: that's part of what you're signing up for. It's a
Speaker 1: little different than than other teams, and it's it's unfortunate that,
Speaker 1: you know, over the course of the franchise's history, once
Speaker 1: they started allowing minorities to play on the team. UM
Speaker 1: that minority players, UM fans have kind of bore the
Speaker 1: brunt of this conversation. And that's it's unfortunate that Ron Rivera,
Speaker 1: who want to four minority coaches in the NFL, UM
Speaker 1: is kind of tasked with handling this. But you feel
Speaker 1: better I guess with him in that position than the
Speaker 1: person who has maintained over the course is that he
Speaker 1: is not changing the name and so UM it took
Speaker 1: a lot to get Dan Snyder where where he is now.
Speaker 1: I don't know what role other people will play in
Speaker 1: making a name change. I know personally my my father's
Speaker 1: from Tuskegee. UM. I've tried to meet every Tuskegee Airman
Speaker 1: that I could for our listeners, especially overseas. But anywhere,
Speaker 1: what do you what can you give us a little
Speaker 1: background that might not be figuring? Red Tales is a
Speaker 1: reference to a fighter squadron UM flue P fifty one
Speaker 1: Mustangs the Tuskegee Airmen in World War Two. They were
Speaker 1: mainly a bomber escort group at a time where UM,
Speaker 1: you know the power structure of the American military didn't
Speaker 1: necessarily allow black men or women to be in leadership
Speaker 1: roles or even be in the same platoons or divisions
Speaker 1: as white soldiers. And they had a sterling record as
Speaker 1: far as escort and bombers, never losing one over the
Speaker 1: course of their years in Germany. And you know they
Speaker 1: came home, Um, you know it should have been heroes,
Speaker 1: but were did not access to a lot of the
Speaker 1: programs that that made you know, that era of America
Speaker 1: quote on great. Uh, you know, your access to the
Speaker 1: g I Bill wasn't the same as a black American
Speaker 1: And so there's there's so much American history tied into that.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, for me personally, any name is
Speaker 1: an upgrade over a slur um. But for for me personally, um,
Speaker 1: you know, the small handful of those men that we
Speaker 1: have left, I'd want to hear from them because if
Speaker 1: if we can honor their legacy and history with the
Speaker 1: name and then they feel good with it, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: all for it. But I would hate to see those
Speaker 1: men in the sacrifices and what they did, um, and
Speaker 1: what they had to deal with when they returned home.
Speaker 1: I would hate to see them reduced to a mascot.
Speaker 1: But if they're okay with it, I'm okay with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if they're okay with it, that would be my preference too,
Speaker 1: because if the only if the other option, and that
Speaker 1: probably will be others out there, but Warriors to me, obviously,
Speaker 1: I think of the NBA team, and I think of
Speaker 1: like eight hundred and fifty high school scattered across the
Speaker 1: country with the same very um well tread nicknames. So
Speaker 1: I would prefer the previous and um if it to me,
Speaker 1: it feels original, it works, and it would be quite
Speaker 1: a spectrum shift from what's name previously well and and
Speaker 1: I don't want to spend the whole show on this,
Speaker 1: but it really is like worth going back and looking
Speaker 1: how this happened, because last week there was a report
Speaker 1: that eight seven investment firms. At least this was the
Speaker 1: first that I saw of it. And if either of
Speaker 1: you want to correct me, um eighty seven investment from
Speaker 1: sent letters to FedEx and PEPSI, some of the biggest
Speaker 1: sponsors of watching of the of the football team, and
Speaker 1: said if you don't, um, if they don't change the name,
Speaker 1: like we're gonna, you know, stop supporting you, and then
Speaker 1: pretty quickly Pepsi, FedEx, and Nike, you know, within days,
Speaker 1: all threatened UM to remove their sponsorship from the team.
Speaker 1: Now FedEx, it's his owner is a minority owner of
Speaker 1: the team, and their name is on the field. And
Speaker 1: Nike right now took all the Washington you know, apparel offline,
Speaker 1: and they did that even before uh you know what,
Speaker 1: you know, they announced that they they're going to look
Speaker 1: into changing the name and and it's it's still offline.
Speaker 1: And on top of that, there's been reports that these
Speaker 1: minority owners, including UM, you know, the owner of FedEx,
Speaker 1: all want to sell their their shares of the team too,
Speaker 1: which is which is another part of it. I think
Speaker 1: even whether it means to be seen whether that changes
Speaker 1: based on the name change or not, but that that's
Speaker 1: been the reporting that that's going to be part of
Speaker 1: this story too. So I can't help but think back
Speaker 1: we were just talking about this, I think it was
Speaker 1: the last time you were on the show. Patrick. It's
Speaker 1: very similar to how the government threatened this team UM
Speaker 1: with finances basically unless they allowed black players onto the team,
Speaker 1: that they would have problems with their stadium in Washington.
Speaker 1: And again here. It wasn't the government, it was corporation
Speaker 1: saying basically, we're gonna take away your money, and the
Speaker 1: decision was almost made for them. It's just sort of fascinating,
Speaker 1: how what is its sixty almost sixty years later it
Speaker 1: repeats itself and it's it's kind of you know, free
Speaker 1: Dan Snyder from having to say that he made the
Speaker 1: decision himself, um, because he's he's maintained it the entire
Speaker 1: time that he's owned the football team, that he's not
Speaker 1: changing the name. Um. And i'd like to think that, well,
Speaker 1: it's not that i'd like to think, it's what I
Speaker 1: think in terms of, like, you know, we we're gonna
Speaker 1: sell our shares in the team. That might be something
Speaker 1: to you know, give Dan Snyder a little more freedom,
Speaker 1: because I would hesitate to believe that these men who
Speaker 1: have made a lot of money, uh, would short the
Speaker 1: value of the thing that they're trying to sell before
Speaker 1: they sell it right, right, And it's of the team.
Speaker 1: So it's not like it's not like, um, you know,
Speaker 1: Venus and Serena Williams and Gloria estef On selling their
Speaker 1: shares of the Dolphin. This is like this is like
Speaker 1: is like you know, NFL ownership is to have to
Speaker 1: approve all that like that, that is a big chunk.
Speaker 1: Well and behind the scenes, I mean, the the FedEx
Speaker 1: CEO Fred Smith is um Dan Dan Snyder reported looks
Speaker 1: looks up to him and thinks very highly of him.
Speaker 1: So I think that this created a tectonic shift. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know, but it's not not so long ago that. Uh,
Speaker 1: corporate interests were one of the reasons and money attached
Speaker 1: to that and lost money were the reasons that Colin
Speaker 1: Kaepernick was not getting jobs with all sorts of teams.
Speaker 1: I mean, so now look how much is how much
Speaker 1: has changed now he's signing production deals with Disney, which
Speaker 1: is not part of our news rundown, but uh, but
Speaker 1: it is fascinating. You're right, it is. It is a
Speaker 1: changing world and and part of that is the pandemic.
Speaker 1: And so let's get into like this week in COVID news,
Speaker 1: which which is tough. It's been it's been a while
Speaker 1: since we've talked, and I feel like there's been a
Speaker 1: lot that's happened on this front. And and Mark and
Speaker 1: I were talking about this and you could almost you
Speaker 1: like put the lot you part of the last minutes
Speaker 1: of the show, not with an asterix, but I just
Speaker 1: feel like everything almost right now. And the Washington team
Speaker 1: name is is a great? Um is a great? Uh
Speaker 1: you know the reason that this proves this rule. But
Speaker 1: like almost anything we talk about football wives feels beside
Speaker 1: the point to talking about, like how is the coronavirus
Speaker 1: gonna impact this season? As we get closer to the season,
Speaker 1: it just feels like that's the conversation and that's what
Speaker 1: part and it might not be fun, and of course
Speaker 1: we're gonna be previewing the season and talking about other
Speaker 1: stuff too, but it's like that's that's the conversation because
Speaker 1: that's the world where that's the world we're living in
Speaker 1: terms of this football league, and that it kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me a little bit of the lockout, where it's
Speaker 1: like the only thing you could talk about until the
Speaker 1: lockout was over, it was the lockout. It's like almost
Speaker 1: everything we're gonna be able to talk about on this show,
Speaker 1: it's gonna have to be related um to how the
Speaker 1: NFL is moving forward, and so there's a lot to
Speaker 1: get to. But basically, the NFL and the NFL p
Speaker 1: A are going back and forth and trying UH to
Speaker 1: figure out the rules UH in which they are going
Speaker 1: to do. So the NFL sent out UH some rules
Speaker 1: and and we'll talk about those, but I'll start the
Speaker 1: start it with UM just to talk about the preseason.
Speaker 1: That the NFL p A reportedly doesn't want to play
Speaker 1: a preseason, and the NFL, you know, was expected to
Speaker 1: announce that it was gonna be reduced to two games.
Speaker 1: They never did announce that. You know, a lot of
Speaker 1: reporters said this is gonna be announced Thursday last week,
Speaker 1: and it never happened. So the NFL p A is
Speaker 1: UM pushing back against that. And I think Devin and
Speaker 1: Jason mccordy you have a podcast, said it pretty well
Speaker 1: like they're not even worried about four games two games
Speaker 1: of preseason. They're worried about the on roting on ramp
Speaker 1: process to the start of training camp, and like we'll
Speaker 1: worry about preseason when we get there because we have
Speaker 1: to worry about all these rules and how we're gonna
Speaker 1: even start getting back safely because it's pretty soon. The
Speaker 1: initial proposal from the NFL not to keep honking, but
Speaker 1: UH is for the rookies, some rookies to show up
Speaker 1: July nine, so that's thirteen days from when we're taping this.
Speaker 1: That is that is pretty soon UM. And in the
Speaker 1: rules of how they're going to figure that all out, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, are changeable. But the NFL did put some
Speaker 1: things out there. Mark, I don't know what stood out
Speaker 1: to you from from what's been out there. Well, I
Speaker 1: think it's the that to me, the players need to
Speaker 1: be taken very seriously. And if you look at the
Speaker 1: letter that UM the NFL p A President J C.
Speaker 1: Tread Or the Brown Center wrote, I think it's UM
Speaker 1: and this. I've never really seen the NFL and all
Speaker 1: the sports linked together UM this way ever in our lifetime,
Speaker 1: where you're monitoring how athletes and other leagues are taking
Speaker 1: charge and taking stands in a stance on UM the
Speaker 1: seasons to come, and the NFL the players seem to
Speaker 1: favor the idea of a forty eight day run up
Speaker 1: minus games that would get them better prepared for Week one.
Speaker 1: But you know, as Mike Garrifoe tweeted last week about
Speaker 1: UM comments from some of the players, it's sort of
Speaker 1: more like, if there's so much concern nationally about this
Speaker 1: virus and it's rising the way it is. Why are
Speaker 1: and this is the question they're asking, why are we
Speaker 1: returning to work to begin with? And where I think
Speaker 1: about a month ago, we felt in a place where, um,
Speaker 1: we were thinking, hey, you know what, the ramp up
Speaker 1: is happening, and you can you can kind of see
Speaker 1: society shifting and opening up again. And there were issues
Speaker 1: with that, but you could you could you could see
Speaker 1: a way for sports to happen if things continued on
Speaker 1: that path. Well, the path has been utterly imploded. The
Speaker 1: path doesn't exist right now. Where the loan country UM
Speaker 1: in the world that decided in various pockets to treat
Speaker 1: this um politically and completely different. And I just you know,
Speaker 1: the some of the whispers now and some of the
Speaker 1: issues coming out of some sources, and some of this
Speaker 1: is on the athletics reported elsewhere, is that people inside
Speaker 1: teams are saying, we have not been given detailed, detailed
Speaker 1: enough ideas on how we get from today to a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks from now when we have peep there
Speaker 1: all the time that in other sports, testing is not
Speaker 1: happening as quickly as it should. Teams are having in
Speaker 1: baseball to take it out on their own to get
Speaker 1: stuff done. I just think that you're talking about an
Speaker 1: immense labyrinth um um. And and by the other thing
Speaker 1: they would talk about that this is not a bubble
Speaker 1: situation like the NFL. They've used the word ecosystem, but
Speaker 1: the ecosystem has not worked um anywhere else in this
Speaker 1: country outside of the ecosystem being in your own home
Speaker 1: for the most part. Yeah, there's so many questions to
Speaker 1: to answer. And Alan Sill's as always as maintained throughout
Speaker 1: this that you know, we're going to change this process
Speaker 1: as new information becomes available. There's this constant flow of
Speaker 1: new information about a virus that don't know, um, something
Speaker 1: that didn't exist this this time a year ago, and
Speaker 1: if it did, nobody knew about it. And you know,
Speaker 1: you have to wonder, well, if players are gonna report,
Speaker 1: if rookies are gonna report, how are they going to
Speaker 1: get there, how are they going to apple to the team?
Speaker 1: Are we going to test them before or after they
Speaker 1: get there? And are they going to be quarantined after
Speaker 1: they get there? And at what point does everybody get
Speaker 1: on the field. It's like a situation in a locker
Speaker 1: room where you're only going to be as safe as
Speaker 1: the least safe person in your entire franchise, and how
Speaker 1: do you how do you run up to that? And
Speaker 1: I think, like when Greg was starting the segment in
Speaker 1: terms of you know, COVID nineteen tying into everything, it
Speaker 1: just does you know, I'm not sure that we would
Speaker 1: be that we would have talked about Washington changing their
Speaker 1: name if not for COVID nineteen, if not for the
Speaker 1: circumstances that led to millions of people getting into the street,
Speaker 1: because they realize the inequities that they've experienced a lot
Speaker 1: of other people in this country have been experiencing for
Speaker 1: a long time, a long time before the disease, and
Speaker 1: so it's just it. It's it's made for this situation
Speaker 1: of heightened awareness about everything, where a league that is
Speaker 1: so firm and its decisions that you know, it's basically
Speaker 1: the word of God three time that they have some
Speaker 1: edict is now in a situation where there's pushback and
Speaker 1: they're reacting to it like, oh yeah, that that pushback
Speaker 1: is probably right right. They're negotiating their negotiating with the NFLPA.
Speaker 1: To their credit, I you know, they don't in theory,
Speaker 1: they don't have to according to the terms of the
Speaker 1: c b A. They could, they could make their own
Speaker 1: terms and and just say it. But I actually almost
Speaker 1: pushed back a little bit against all the criticism of
Speaker 1: all the leagues in the States that are coming back. Okay,
Speaker 1: so MLS has been trying to come back. They've already
Speaker 1: had some games canceled, they've had outbreaks, they've had troubles
Speaker 1: in different pockets. The NBA is trying to come back.
Speaker 1: Some of the players don't want to come back. So
Speaker 1: that that's one thing that'll happen in the NFL too.
Speaker 1: You you would you would think, um. But more importantly,
Speaker 1: like flights are getting delayed and some people are getting
Speaker 1: tested positive like you mentioned Patrick before you get on
Speaker 1: the flight, and they're trying to figure that out with
Speaker 1: the bubble. Baseball is having similar shoes and these these
Speaker 1: are the leagues that are just starting to even start
Speaker 1: the process to coming back. And I see a lot
Speaker 1: of fan reaction that's like, how can they not handle
Speaker 1: you know, the MLS, you know, and people are just
Speaker 1: like really upset and I and I just think like
Speaker 1: they're not built for this, and like, and we've said it,
Speaker 1: we if the country's a mess, if the citizens and
Speaker 1: the government of this country can't handle it. Why why
Speaker 1: do you expect the league that is basically built to
Speaker 1: put on the field an incredible product that I love
Speaker 1: professional football and print money. Those are the two things
Speaker 1: that the NFL does incredibly well. There's no reason for
Speaker 1: me to think that the NFL or all these other
Speaker 1: leagues are gonna be able to handle much less college football.
Speaker 1: That's another conversation. Are going to be able to handle
Speaker 1: the myriad of issues that come up? J C. Treader,
Speaker 1: who you mentioned Mark Um you know, said kind of
Speaker 1: like when you solve one little thing, it's like three
Speaker 1: other things pop up that that you think of. Right.
Speaker 1: I think if you look at college football where it's
Speaker 1: it's not as UM, you know, you've got completely separate
Speaker 1: conferences act, acting and operating their own way that what happens,
Speaker 1: and people will know by the time they listen to this.
Speaker 1: To some degree, the IVY League is talking about maybe
Speaker 1: being the conference that says we're out of this. We're
Speaker 1: not doing this. We we either you delay it or
Speaker 1: we play in the spring, but we're not jumping into
Speaker 1: this two weeks from now. And they were the first
Speaker 1: UM group back way back when to say we're shutting
Speaker 1: down sports when a bunch of other conferences refused to
Speaker 1: do that, and they were prophetic and correct in that choice.
Speaker 1: And so if that happens, I wonder if because you
Speaker 1: have to look at how college football operates a little bit,
Speaker 1: and if that became a way for other, maybe more
Speaker 1: conferences that didn't want to mention, hey, we'll do it first,
Speaker 1: UM to follow suit that if college football decided to
Speaker 1: make this choice, because the problem is the spread of
Speaker 1: the virus would be the same for both and even
Speaker 1: worse for college because you're on college campuses and stuff.
Speaker 1: But the NFL has a long list of players that
Speaker 1: fall under the category of being susceptible to symptoms from coronavirus,
Speaker 1: body mass index issues, UM, players with blood clout issues,
Speaker 1: players with all sorts of stuff where I just wonder
Speaker 1: if you're an NFL player, there's a lot of pressure,
Speaker 1: probably universally to jump back in and we want to play.
Speaker 1: Everyone wants the games, but also your safety, your family safety.
Speaker 1: We could be in a situation where everyone's kids are
Speaker 1: home again next fall, and who is assessing the mental
Speaker 1: health of what all people have been through over the
Speaker 1: past four or five months. Just because you're a twenty
Speaker 1: three year old athlete, you need to run into the
Speaker 1: fray and play this season. We're seeing empowered athletes for
Speaker 1: other sports saying no, not so fast, or you can,
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna and I'm not going to be
Speaker 1: penalized for it. And will there be NFL players of
Speaker 1: note who make the same choice because their risk is
Speaker 1: higher than going out there and playing eighteen holes of golf.
Speaker 1: And we've already seen. I saw, um, you know, Adam
Speaker 1: Shine had an article on NFL dot com of the
Speaker 1: players under the most pressure, and I saw von Miller
Speaker 1: are on there, and and I'm like, von Miller is
Speaker 1: a and asthmatic, B is going to play a majority
Speaker 1: of his games at altitude, and C is recovering from
Speaker 1: a respiratory disease. It's killed a hundred twenty thousand plus
Speaker 1: thousand people. So when we're talking about pressure, like the
Speaker 1: pressure should be first of all, as Greg was saying
Speaker 1: on a federal government that hassed with doing these things,
Speaker 1: because preparing for a pandemic, you can't do that. Business
Speaker 1: isn't built to prepare for something that they don't know
Speaker 1: what's happened. Bull businesses are built to make money. And
Speaker 1: so as Greg was saying, like the NFL, major League Baseball,
Speaker 1: all of these organizations, how how are they supposed to
Speaker 1: handle something that specifically should be tasked by a competent
Speaker 1: federal government. Unfortunately, you know, we had a movement in
Speaker 1: this country for about thirty years to dismantle and undermine
Speaker 1: every action that a federal government might take because supposedly
Speaker 1: it's bad. But here we are with you know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna come up on half a million people dying and
Speaker 1: people might finally start to realize that that's probably not
Speaker 1: the way to go. And it's it's it's frustrating, uh
Speaker 1: to see you know, players, players, families and just general
Speaker 1: Americans being put in the situation, um when we could
Speaker 1: have taken an example from almost every other country before. Right.
Speaker 1: I know, I'm thinking of our our listeners overseas who
Speaker 1: are listening to us and and they just know and
Speaker 1: they want to get their football too, but they have
Speaker 1: to be just thinking, you guys are a mess. You know,
Speaker 1: we're in the middle of it right now. We're we're
Speaker 1: all in California, everyone on this show right now, and
Speaker 1: like we're we're in the middle of it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's the cases are as high as they've
Speaker 1: ever been and and just information is coming out, knowledge
Speaker 1: about the virus is coming out about how it's more
Speaker 1: of a blood vessel disease. You mentioned blood clots and
Speaker 1: markets just it's like there's just so much that you
Speaker 1: you don't know, but the things like we're trying to
Speaker 1: figure out that that we do know. It's like everything
Speaker 1: needs to have a have an asterick of like if
Speaker 1: this happened. So I am going to go through some
Speaker 1: of some of the proposals and like what's out there,
Speaker 1: Like players players want to show up with E D
Speaker 1: players instead of ninety That sounds like that could happen.
Speaker 1: So it's like ten ten less players UM players want
Speaker 1: and and this is a really interesting no more than
Speaker 1: twenty players in a given facility at one time during
Speaker 1: the initial period training conditioning, covering the first three weeks
Speaker 1: of camp. So I I had talked to some people
Speaker 1: that worked for teams and they had said they thought
Speaker 1: the first couple of weeks, we're gonna be like O
Speaker 1: T S. And that's why they never expected the preseason
Speaker 1: to really happen. That in the best case scenario, they're
Speaker 1: gonna do ot S mini camps the first couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: So the players are saying they just they only want
Speaker 1: virtual meetings. Um, they want to sort of a maybe
Speaker 1: it's like multiple squads of the team that show up
Speaker 1: a maximum of forty players at a time, even later
Speaker 1: in training camp. Again, these rules are all gonna be
Speaker 1: negotiate and change, but it does just get you thinking
Speaker 1: a little bit um about how even in the best
Speaker 1: case scenario for this going really well. Um, look, the
Speaker 1: Premier League just tested almost two thousand players no one,
Speaker 1: no one tested positive. I mean, no one would expect
Speaker 1: anything close to that happening here right now because of
Speaker 1: what's going on in our country. But like people are,
Speaker 1: they are playing professional sports elsewhere. But it is worth
Speaker 1: thinking with these rule changes. Mark Murphy mentioned he thinks
Speaker 1: practice squads are gonna get expanded a lot and maybe
Speaker 1: include veteran players so it doesn't just have to be
Speaker 1: young young players. These are some of the rules they're
Speaker 1: talking about, and even in the best case scenario, it's
Speaker 1: it's worth thinking about. Okay, August is gonna be very different, uh,
Speaker 1: of how the teams are ramping up. Even even in
Speaker 1: like the NFL's dream scenario that everything stays on track,
Speaker 1: Uh to week one, it's gonna be very different. Well,
Speaker 1: then they and you know, the other guidelines talk about
Speaker 1: symptomatic players would be sidelined for minimum of ten days.
Speaker 1: Asymptomatic would be um as as little as five days
Speaker 1: if you pass two positive tests, and Philip Rivers on
Speaker 1: a call asked the question, you know what if someone
Speaker 1: gets it and has zero symptoms and feels fine, uh,
Speaker 1: days before the super Bowl, they would be out And like,
Speaker 1: that's fine, that's the super Bowl, and who knows if
Speaker 1: we'll even experience the super Bowl this year. But let's
Speaker 1: say you get into these early season games because they
Speaker 1: seem determined to have this week one. I mean that
Speaker 1: that to see you've literally never heard anything else. Um,
Speaker 1: we'll see if that happens too. But like the concept
Speaker 1: of being someone who plays fantasy football the least of
Speaker 1: my concerns at this point. But like you could have
Speaker 1: people like major brand name stars um in and out
Speaker 1: of the lineup left and right, and you could lose
Speaker 1: half your offensive line and you could face a fully
Speaker 1: healthy defensive line. It just seems that, um, I don't
Speaker 1: hear a lot about that what is what happens in
Speaker 1: mid October when rosters are reduced and in shambles there,
Speaker 1: they're just doesn't seemed to be much of um that
Speaker 1: we're hearing, and we're kept in the dark as to
Speaker 1: what the continuity plan is when this stuff actually gets
Speaker 1: the hope that they hope all along and it's just
Speaker 1: been a hope, not a plan, is that this country
Speaker 1: gets the virus under control. You know, as as the
Speaker 1: governor of South Carolina, that right, the governor of South Carolina,
Speaker 1: of all places, said it. He said, you know, if
Speaker 1: you want to see football Clemson in South Carolina, you know,
Speaker 1: put on your masks because right now there's no chance
Speaker 1: they're playing football. He used those words, and I think
Speaker 1: that it's a it's a larger thing that if you
Speaker 1: if you go back even reading the Pro Football Talk
Speaker 1: articles from March, like the thought was daily testing was
Speaker 1: going to be simple by the time we get the
Speaker 1: training camp and that the virus would be under control.
Speaker 1: But it's not so. Obviously the league is going to
Speaker 1: have to adjust and there's there's still a chance that
Speaker 1: we can have a better UH test with a more
Speaker 1: quick turnaround. You know that Tom Pellisera was hoping that
Speaker 1: there was saying that they the league's thought was that
Speaker 1: they could turn a test around in less than a day,
Speaker 1: and so once once we lose that window where there's
Speaker 1: three to four days, um, you know, there's a hope,
Speaker 1: right that we could get better at this, you know,
Speaker 1: and they want daily testing. The league said every other day,
Speaker 1: but that the union would like daily testing. And I
Speaker 1: mean honestly, because the spread of this virus happens before
Speaker 1: symptoms start. That's one thing that has been consistent. I
Speaker 1: think the CDC said of the virus spread comes from
Speaker 1: people who have the virus, but they're not showing symptoms yet,
Speaker 1: but they're still shedding virus. And so it's of course
Speaker 1: like people and players should protect themselves, but it's it's
Speaker 1: I hate to keep coming back to it, as much
Speaker 1: as I would like to just shame everybody that's not
Speaker 1: wearing a mask. This this is something that requires who
Speaker 1: requires confident it would be the guy to do it,
Speaker 1: don't you think, like, you know, like if if if
Speaker 1: the federal government was like we've been reading some of
Speaker 1: your tweets, Claybon, You've been pretty off on us, but
Speaker 1: you we actually think you're the guy to shame everyone
Speaker 1: into wearing masks. I feel like you would be a stronger.
Speaker 1: Ricky would be pretty good too, Greg. You know, if
Speaker 1: this rendition of the federal government asked me to do anything,
Speaker 1: I would promptly, uh, you know, send something back that
Speaker 1: would likely cost me. All right, how about maybe the
Speaker 1: next for California. You know, just do it for California.
Speaker 1: We're our own. Little Ricky would be good at that.
Speaker 1: She would, she would get after people. I think she
Speaker 1: would too. But I have to say that things went
Speaker 1: south after on our NFL Network show right around Memorial
Speaker 1: Day that um Ricky suggested that everyone get on the
Speaker 1: outside and go outside and enjoy yourselves. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's a little bit what I said. I said, wear
Speaker 1: a mask, but get some fresh air because everyone's mental
Speaker 1: health is deteriorating at a rapid pace. There's the way
Speaker 1: to live. There's a way to listen. We've been doing
Speaker 1: it for a couple of months. We've been going out
Speaker 1: and been wearing a mask since this all started, and
Speaker 1: been doing doing things. There's a way to be safe,
Speaker 1: like many countries around the world have been doing it.
Speaker 1: But it back to that ecosystem part of it because
Speaker 1: it's not in a it's not above in Disney World.
Speaker 1: Um and I could even see players sneaking out of
Speaker 1: that bubble. Give me a break. But uh, you're you're
Speaker 1: asking like vast amounts of people within every organization, many
Speaker 1: of them, you know. I'm not just saying every player
Speaker 1: is young and thinks they're invincible, nonsense. Plenty want to
Speaker 1: stay safe. But you're going to have to culturally get
Speaker 1: everyone on that team to say we will not take
Speaker 1: a risk, and no one in our family will. They
Speaker 1: want to test all their family members. It's just a
Speaker 1: spider web. I mean, you're asking for um, complete and
Speaker 1: clear uh, you know, following those rules, and that's that
Speaker 1: is goes completely against the blueprint of what we're seeing,
Speaker 1: um in all fifty states, in various places, right. I
Speaker 1: mean there was talk of maybe even you know, finding
Speaker 1: players who act irresponsibly, which people got on and I
Speaker 1: took that to men. They're reserving the right to it,
Speaker 1: you know, just as almost as a threat. But it
Speaker 1: all gets it all gets really murky. It's complicated. It's
Speaker 1: going to be part of the discussion. Sorry to all
Speaker 1: our listeners of you know, but we've ship you sticking out.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like if we you know it's it
Speaker 1: is what it is, but they're there. Um. The last
Speaker 1: thing I want to mention on on this was just
Speaker 1: the change, uh in the proposal of how the media
Speaker 1: is going to cover it, because a lot of people
Speaker 1: probably don't know this. They were away from their computer
Speaker 1: and uh, I know it caught your eye. Mark that
Speaker 1: that four. I think it's gonna be like four reporters
Speaker 1: will have access uh to the team and their daily practices,
Speaker 1: but they can't. It will be very limited. They can't
Speaker 1: tweet out during practice. Um. It's almost gonna be like
Speaker 1: a pool report situation like at the Super Bowl, where
Speaker 1: one person gets to kind of provide um, you know,
Speaker 1: somewhat generic report for the rest of um, the football
Speaker 1: world to to know what happened there that day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean in the in the in the sort of
Speaker 1: instant cynical um analysis and reply from a lot of
Speaker 1: old school FEAT writers is that the NFL has wanted
Speaker 1: to do this for a long time or get closer
Speaker 1: to this and merely like for instance, I mean the
Speaker 1: All European Soccer they are so much more restrictive on
Speaker 1: the media than than the NFL or any American sport
Speaker 1: is right, and we've been arching towards that for a
Speaker 1: long time. Long gone in the days of you know,
Speaker 1: a general manager hanging out with one reporter and having
Speaker 1: like a four hour dinner. It's like those all those
Speaker 1: media times are now so stripped down in um bare
Speaker 1: bones that you just wonder when we get back to
Speaker 1: normal if and when, um what the will the easing
Speaker 1: go back to full media um sweaty piles of like
Speaker 1: eighteen guys surrounding one player, or is that is that
Speaker 1: a thing of the past, because I mean it's text coverage,
Speaker 1: I mean exactly. The part of me is like, do
Speaker 1: I need media day at the Super Bowl? Well? I don't,
Speaker 1: but the league would like that to happen, so, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's going to affect this season in
Speaker 1: ways that it will be the freakiest campaign whatever part
Speaker 1: of it exists. Ever, And if you're a media person,
Speaker 1: you're a lot of them are going to be shut
Speaker 1: out from doing their jobs. The way that they travel.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's very it's hard to think about. We
Speaker 1: we do something NFL Network called inside Training Camp, which
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're trying to plan Um. But that involves
Speaker 1: you know, reporters flying all around the country to different
Speaker 1: in these shirts left and right marks. Yeah, wearing the
Speaker 1: shirt that's that that can't happen, uh the same way
Speaker 1: I can. I can anticipate though, if NFL network keeps
Speaker 1: getting like one of those four spots, like are they
Speaker 1: exempt from that rule? It's all you know, or as
Speaker 1: TV examp. I don't even like the details are a
Speaker 1: little uh murky right now, but I can already imagine
Speaker 1: the pushback of like how come Gara Folo gets every
Speaker 1: day and the Eagles camp, you know, from the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: and Choirer reporters and everything. Yeah, I just the the
Speaker 1: provisions of the media policy that don't have anything to
Speaker 1: do with the virus. Um. You know, those those kind
Speaker 1: of jump out to me in terms of what what
Speaker 1: what what was that? What what are we looking for?
Speaker 1: Like tweeting during practice? Um? And like the specifics of
Speaker 1: like does does specific plays include whether or not a
Speaker 1: quarterback is getting second team reps? Because that's like basically
Speaker 1: the only story that we have, right You're not supposed
Speaker 1: to I thought they said you're not supposed to mention
Speaker 1: their teams players. Some teams already were pretty restrictive, you know,
Speaker 1: so different teams have different rules, Like I can think
Speaker 1: of some teams have have adopted those rules already, and
Speaker 1: then some teams like the Cowboys, are like, please give
Speaker 1: away as much as you can. We want you to
Speaker 1: talk to us please, like we love it. We're gonna
Speaker 1: trot out. We're gonna trot out, Sean Lee, you know,
Speaker 1: to come talk to you guys. Right after Briant called
Speaker 1: them like a name on Twitter, like come back over here.
Speaker 1: You know, we we love it. I just love the
Speaker 1: idea that, like, you know, Bill Belichick is sitting there
Speaker 1: taking notes watching NFL Network like, oh, I'm more, it's
Speaker 1: Blowbinger took six reps, you know with the third team.
Speaker 1: It's just like, no, I can't believe Mobo got brought
Speaker 1: up on a show that Dan. We do have before
Speaker 1: we go, we have a couple of very quick just
Speaker 1: Football league items, um and one involves your team, Mark.
Speaker 1: So I was curious what your thought was when you
Speaker 1: heard David and Joku the Browns tight end, asked for
Speaker 1: a trade. Well, I'm not I'm not that surprised. I
Speaker 1: kind of think what what I looked at that tight
Speaker 1: end group. They went out and signed Austin Hooper and
Speaker 1: then they used a fourth round pick on Harrison Bryant.
Speaker 1: And you know, we aren't college heads, and so around
Speaker 1: draft time people will tweet us and say, you're gonna
Speaker 1: love this player. I did not. I I got like
Speaker 1: twenty five people reaching out saying Harrison Bryant is going
Speaker 1: to be the dude like a year or two from now.
Speaker 1: So if you're David and Joko, you're thinking, how do
Speaker 1: I fit into this? It's gotten. I was the lead
Speaker 1: guy here last year, was injury written um thumb injury
Speaker 1: out for twelve weeks. But I would say this that
Speaker 1: they they seem committed to them, and I don't think
Speaker 1: that they're bouncing off of this just to move them
Speaker 1: for what are you gonna get for him right now?
Speaker 1: Not not enough value right nothing. So and I would
Speaker 1: say this Kevin Stefanski in Minnesota last year, no team
Speaker 1: in a league of the time they ran two tight
Speaker 1: end sets. No other team in the league came close.
Speaker 1: So there is a chance here for David A. Joku,
Speaker 1: who is going to start over Harrison Bryant this year,
Speaker 1: to say you want to trade me, trade me? After
Speaker 1: a great season um or like if you're Cleveland, like,
Speaker 1: there's a space for you. I don't think that he's
Speaker 1: necessarily the odd man out as some would think. And
Speaker 1: a lot of people close to the team think that
Speaker 1: the Joku like they believe in the potential because he
Speaker 1: looks like he looks the part and he's had he's
Speaker 1: not reached it yet, So do you go and like
Speaker 1: it's sort of like Jamal Adams, do you go and
Speaker 1: trade him for something less than you'd want to just
Speaker 1: because he's got a new agent and he's making demands.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's a good look for UM, a
Speaker 1: struggling organization trying to become something better. I think like
Speaker 1: in terms of in Joku, he just wants to see
Speaker 1: the potential come to fruition with how the Browns could
Speaker 1: utilize him. And he's looking at a situation where he's
Speaker 1: going into a contract and he would like to show,
Speaker 1: you know, he would like to be somewhere where a
Speaker 1: team is going to utilize him. And I just don't
Speaker 1: think that they've done enough to show him that, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna feature you, You're gonna be a big part
Speaker 1: of our offense. And last year he was hurt for
Speaker 1: he was out for like three quarters of the season.
Speaker 1: And I think the plan changes every year. I mean
Speaker 1: they're coach their offensive Steff changes literally every single season.
Speaker 1: I think that was a great it's a great point.
Speaker 1: And Stefancy's offense, I mean that should be their base offense.
Speaker 1: That's their four best receivers. They don't really have a
Speaker 1: third wide receiver, so that they're they're pretty thin actually
Speaker 1: at wide how everyone thinks that's a huge strength for them,
Speaker 1: but they're an injury away, you know, from Landry or
Speaker 1: or O'Dell to being like really thin there. So yeah,
Speaker 1: have Hooper and the joke go on the field most
Speaker 1: of the time. Why not. That's gonna create a lot
Speaker 1: of problems. Another player that we're not sure is going
Speaker 1: to be on the field is Chris Jones. I did
Speaker 1: want to just mention um that, you know, he tweeted
Speaker 1: out some doubt that he would play at all this year,
Speaker 1: and maybe people were reading into the tweets a little
Speaker 1: too much, but the threat is out there. He's one
Speaker 1: of the players um that is uh you know, franchise
Speaker 1: tag and has until July fifteen to sign a new contract.
Speaker 1: There are no contracts expected maybe really for any of
Speaker 1: those guys, and Jones seems to be very far away,
Speaker 1: and you wouldn't think that the Patrick Mahomes contract would
Speaker 1: would make the Chiefs any closer to signing Jones. So
Speaker 1: that's it's just a situation to watch for h for
Speaker 1: a really really good player, I mean, one of the
Speaker 1: best five interior rush guys in the entire NFL. I
Speaker 1: would say that's it. I just want to mention Christians.
Speaker 1: Let's wrap up with Cam Newton. Um. Kim Newton had
Speaker 1: a quote um this last weekend where he expressed that
Speaker 1: no longer time to be humble. I'm tired of being
Speaker 1: humble because if you're humble, they're just gonna If you're
Speaker 1: humble and you're staying quiet, they're just gonna dog you
Speaker 1: like they have been. Anyways, Um, Ricky as someone who
Speaker 1: probably doesn't get called humble too often, and the Patriots
Speaker 1: and what what was your your reaction here? Um, let
Speaker 1: me just process that you have to throw a dig
Speaker 1: at me before I get to say, like than you
Speaker 1: think great Instagram game, you know, big personality, flashy, like
Speaker 1: you know, I think this is this is you guys
Speaker 1: are sympathica, Yeah, I've been called humble a lot. F
Speaker 1: y I um, but you know, I think that he
Speaker 1: has sort of like as much as I I do
Speaker 1: dislike him a little bit from some some past previous stuff,
Speaker 1: I do think that like he was completely you know,
Speaker 1: ripped around this this offseason, and and I think he
Speaker 1: deserves to be able to say, hey, look, I'm freaking
Speaker 1: Cam Newton. Like it's I'm not gonna just sit back
Speaker 1: and just be grateful that all of a sudden a
Speaker 1: team wants me. Like he's going to turn that into
Speaker 1: into something good. And I and I hope he goes
Speaker 1: out there and kicks ask for the Patriots. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: do Greg good. It's an edge to that. I like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love the idea of I mean, Cam
Speaker 1: Newton is never gonna be uh, you know, a boring
Speaker 1: starting quarterback like that was never gonna happen. So I
Speaker 1: don't know, I love I love the like Cam Newton
Speaker 1: logo of the Patriots. I don't know if you've seen that,
Speaker 1: where he's the flying Elvis with the with the hit.
Speaker 1: It's the whole thing. I'm looking forward to this experience.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I quite expressed that as much.
Speaker 1: On the episode that we had of him. I mean,
Speaker 1: no matter what all of it, I'm just with it
Speaker 1: that this Cam Newton Patriots thing is gonna be even
Speaker 1: if it doesn't go well, it's gonna be fascinating. Go ahead,
Speaker 1: go ahead. Well, I was just gonna say to Erica
Speaker 1: and Greg and everybody else who likes the Patriots, I
Speaker 1: hope you can come to terms with accepting a quarterback
Speaker 1: who routinely puts himself as him against the world, who
Speaker 1: has his own logo, who has his own brand, who
Speaker 1: makes cryptic Instagram posts and it's kind of weird. I
Speaker 1: hope you can adjust to having a quarterback that meets
Speaker 1: all of those things. Yeah, it'll be It'll be an
Speaker 1: adjustment for sure. And you know, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people wondering, what does this mean we'll never hear
Speaker 1: from Cam Newton again, that he'll become, you know, another
Speaker 1: sort of synthetic robot that you seem to just plug
Speaker 1: into a wall for six days and he goes out
Speaker 1: and destroys people on Sunday. No, I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: let him. This is even though everyone's gonna say it's
Speaker 1: Belichick and nothing will change there. Um, there might be
Speaker 1: a little bit of a culture shift to some degree.
Speaker 1: If when you have Cam Newton at quarterback, I mean,
Speaker 1: is he gonna be allowed to whether I like it
Speaker 1: or not, it's gonna be allowed to dress as you know,
Speaker 1: the on the run during postgame press conferences. I hope
Speaker 1: he is, like why let him be him? So of course,
Speaker 1: of course, all right, Patrick's batteries at three percent. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that. I don't know if that's like
Speaker 1: rhetorical or like literal, because you've been when did you
Speaker 1: start taping NFL now this morning? I know they start
Speaker 1: pre taping a very good time for follow up questions
Speaker 1: if it says it now veers towards two percent. But okay, um,
Speaker 1: it's it's been about a couple of hours because I
Speaker 1: had this thing out. This is my wife's laptop, and
Speaker 1: I don't really know a lot about it. Apparently I
Speaker 1: don't know how to plug it in. So I just
Speaker 1: the time the day last week I did it like Andrew,
Speaker 1: and we we started taping that thing at seven twenty
Speaker 1: in the morning. So you've been doing this now it's
Speaker 1: now too in the afternoon. We should let you go.
Speaker 1: We should go. This show is long we had a
Speaker 1: whole segment planned, um, but you know we're scrapping it
Speaker 1: because we're gonna save it. And the news was just
Speaker 1: beautiful today. It was not beautiful actually, but uh it was.
Speaker 1: It was. I'm just laughing real quick. Mark, you said
Speaker 1: sweaty um you know, reporters or whatever. When I was
Speaker 1: home back visiting um my brothers, my two younger brothers,
Speaker 1: they call people like, instead of saying loser or like
Speaker 1: making fun of someone, they call people sweaty nerds. So
Speaker 1: I think that I think that you could use it
Speaker 1: in your vocabulary first. And I've got some breaking news too.
Speaker 1: We are gonna for the first time ever spin the
Speaker 1: wheel of teams on our Instagram hand though. Well you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to go there and find that out. That
Speaker 1: was just news to me. Okay, We're just breaking news
Speaker 1: all over the place. You can check it out there
Speaker 1: and we will will find out what team uh that
Speaker 1: is talk about them on Wednesday, who knows. Um, that's it.
Speaker 1: Thank you Patrick for for jumping on on a day
Speaker 1: you were you were busy. Thank you guys, and uh
Speaker 1: for Patrick Clayban for Dan Hanss you know in the
Speaker 1: Gatesville Messenger out there in Texas for West and Kisha.
Speaker 1: Why not uh Mark Sessler, Ricky Hollywood, I'm Greg. We
Speaker 1: will see a Wednesday sweaty nerd. Just sweaty nerds. S