Speaker 1: The season with Peter Schrager as a production of the
Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with my Heart Radio. What's off Everybody? Uh,
Speaker 1: this has been one of the wildest weeks I can
Speaker 1: remember in NFL history. Uh, And what started off as
Speaker 1: a Monday night catastrophe really that we all lived through together.
Speaker 1: I would say it was a traumatic event, sort of
Speaker 1: had a I hate to say happy ending, but gosh,
Speaker 1: Naim Heinz returns that kick to start the game in
Speaker 1: Buffalo on Sunday, and I think we all exhaled, celebrated,
Speaker 1: and even Patriots fans had to say that was pretty cool. Um.
Speaker 1: The week that we've had watching from Afar and covering
Speaker 1: it is one thing. The week that Buffalo Bills general
Speaker 1: manager has had is something entirely different. I wanted to
Speaker 1: have Brandon No. He has done a ton of media
Speaker 1: and he's gonna be so gracious to join us in
Speaker 1: a moment. Uh. It's one of my favorite guys in
Speaker 1: the league. He's a NFL Executive of the Year. He
Speaker 1: has built a juggernaut in Buffalo and Uh he was
Speaker 1: more or less bedside with DeMar hamlin Um in the
Speaker 1: most trying of times. He's He's given us a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes right here, and uh, why are we wasting
Speaker 1: any more time? Brandon Bean, GM and the Buffalo Bills
Speaker 1: right now? All right? As I mentioned, Uh, this next
Speaker 1: guest is a very special person to mean, we've become
Speaker 1: uh friends. You know, obviously we work in the same world,
Speaker 1: but we become friends. And most of our conversation, I'd
Speaker 1: say it is not about football and not about careers,
Speaker 1: and it's more about life and family and the important things.
Speaker 1: And I think, uh, everybody in America got a chance
Speaker 1: to get to know his name and sort of the
Speaker 1: stuff that he's about. As last week was one of
Speaker 1: the most trying weeks that our league has ever had,
Speaker 1: and uh, it comes out on the other end of it,
Speaker 1: and the person who is right there by, DeMar Hamlin's side,
Speaker 1: happens to be the team's general manager, and we've got
Speaker 1: him here on the podcast, Brandon being thanks for coming
Speaker 1: on the show man. Always uh, always good to chat
Speaker 1: with you, Peter, whether it's uh, um in Indianapolis at
Speaker 1: breakfast or or just uh wherever you think you had
Speaker 1: one of our games or this year the Dolphins game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. It was a Dolphins game the last time,
Speaker 1: the last time um for for wings and beer, so
Speaker 1: now always always gonna catch up money. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: the tone of this is a little different than it
Speaker 1: was last week where I started off the podcast and
Speaker 1: it was Tuesday, and it was gosh, like I just
Speaker 1: don't know what to say and my hopes and prayers
Speaker 1: and that things do work out. But you know a
Speaker 1: lot of the the initial raw reaction. We're now week
Speaker 1: removed from the hamlin Um play and Brandon like, it's
Speaker 1: been a week. I don't even know the question. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna serve it up to you, like where are
Speaker 1: you at now mentally, emotionally and gosh, take us take
Speaker 1: us there. Yeah, I mean it's definitely been a roller
Speaker 1: coaster um of a week, you know, just um, like anything,
Speaker 1: you go to a game and you know, you know,
Speaker 1: you always pray that no one gets hurt, um, but
Speaker 1: you're always more thinking of someone may hurt their knee
Speaker 1: or concussion or you know which you don't want those,
Speaker 1: but you're never you know, I've said I've been in
Speaker 1: the least since I've never seen anything like that. I've
Speaker 1: never even I thought that that was you know, really
Speaker 1: gonna ever happen, and you know, sitting and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting with Mr Pagoula in the box and we're
Speaker 1: watching the game, and it's just like you could see
Speaker 1: the stress. Um. You know, I grab my binoculars always
Speaker 1: doing somebody's injured. I'm trying to see what are they're
Speaker 1: working on and and I'm looking at my binoculars and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I see one of our medical person and
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, something, something's up. And then I'm seeing
Speaker 1: more and I'm just um. You know, a young lady
Speaker 1: named Kelsey Harkins who she works in our player engagement department,
Speaker 1: but she was actually a trainer for us, and she
Speaker 1: moved over just to try something different and we had
Speaker 1: a we had a full time spot for she was
Speaker 1: a two year long season in for intern. But on
Speaker 1: game days she kind of flips that hat and goes
Speaker 1: back to a trainer and she's a hustler and I
Speaker 1: just see her out there hustling and she's normally not
Speaker 1: doing stuff on the field. And so you know, I've
Speaker 1: never I've never come down from the box for a
Speaker 1: game since I've been here. And you know, ron Ricculia,
Speaker 1: who's our CEO. He solved my look and he went
Speaker 1: and grab security and it was like help him get down.
Speaker 1: And so I went running through the went a different
Speaker 1: way than you're even supposed to be, cutting down steps
Speaker 1: and a concourse to get down to that field. And
Speaker 1: you know, when I got out, there was probably about
Speaker 1: halfway through when they were still working on him, and
Speaker 1: it was just man eerily, eerily silent. When I kind
Speaker 1: of slow walked out of the um, you know, fast
Speaker 1: walked out of the tunnel to get on in the
Speaker 1: field and just you know, try and find out what's
Speaker 1: going on and try to console you know, some of
Speaker 1: our guys. At that point, I saw, I felt the
Speaker 1: emotion that was going on and and you know, obviously
Speaker 1: I couldn't ask all our doctors and everyone's so I'm
Speaker 1: just right there. I'm just saying prayers to myself of
Speaker 1: please let the mar b okay, Please let the marb okay.
Speaker 1: And and you know, from there, you kind of know,
Speaker 1: you know what's next as far as the game gets postponed,
Speaker 1: we get into the hospital and then you know, once
Speaker 1: we got all our ducks in a row, you know,
Speaker 1: we head over the hospital to be with him. You
Speaker 1: mentioned Kelsey Harkins. That's the first time I've heard Kelsey's
Speaker 1: name that I get that right, Kelsey Harkins. Yeah, Kelsey Harkins.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that's one of the beautiful things
Speaker 1: that's going to come out of this. Everyday employees that
Speaker 1: you work alongside became heroes in a moment where you know,
Speaker 1: they never thought they'd have to come to they did.
Speaker 1: They rose to the occasion. You see it. You were
Speaker 1: alongside these people. I'm gonna give you the platform here.
Speaker 1: Can you take us through some of the individuals in
Speaker 1: the Bills organization that you think deserve a little I
Speaker 1: don't know, National acclaim a little mentioned. They would never
Speaker 1: want it. They're not raising their hands. I even saw
Speaker 1: Denny Kellington get that ball and you could see he
Speaker 1: was embarrassed or almost bashful to get the ball from
Speaker 1: Nihim Heinz or from whoever gave it to him after
Speaker 1: that or there with John Brown. Um take a moment. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and UM, you're right. These people they love what they do.
Speaker 1: They don't want credit. Um, you want to talk about
Speaker 1: team And I told a bunch of them when I
Speaker 1: got back here from Cincinnati. I pulled some of them together.
Speaker 1: The docks were not here because they work somewhere else.
Speaker 1: But um, I said, listen, when good teams win games,
Speaker 1: it's when they execute at a high level at the
Speaker 1: most critical point in the game, the critical plays. And
Speaker 1: I said, you guys went out there without practice, without
Speaker 1: walk through. You do this once in a while, but
Speaker 1: it's not something they're repping every week. And you went
Speaker 1: out there and you had a plan and you executed
Speaker 1: at a very high level, such a high level that
Speaker 1: Damar is going to survive this thing. And they executed
Speaker 1: flawlessly at the most critical point of the game, which
Speaker 1: is the game of life, and they saved his life. So, um,
Speaker 1: it was cool for them as a team to have
Speaker 1: the team of trainers and you're you know, it's led
Speaker 1: by Nate Breski, or head athletic trainer. Um Nate did
Speaker 1: a great job. He's you know, he's leading that at first,
Speaker 1: before we get some of the medical doctors that show
Speaker 1: up at every game that the league has, the airway
Speaker 1: management guy and just all them. You know, we can
Speaker 1: get to them. But um Nate did a great job.
Speaker 1: You know, I know Denny's had a claim and you
Speaker 1: know of the CPR and but you know, and to
Speaker 1: be fair to all, multiple people did CPR. You know
Speaker 1: Dr White, who's one of our team internals, he rotated
Speaker 1: with Denny I thinking, along with another person Cincinnati, you know,
Speaker 1: given him CPR. So uh, Danny did a great Um. Um.
Speaker 1: Tobanni Richards, who Tabani has stayed with DeMar the whole time,
Speaker 1: flew back with him yesterday and he didn't win. Coach
Speaker 1: and I went over there yesterday to see tomorrow. To
Speaker 1: Banni is just so attached the situation and is just
Speaker 1: trying to protect He didn't. He's back in his home city.
Speaker 1: Would think you that man, Let me just go get
Speaker 1: the shower and mate, he had place and he's like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm I want to make sure he's good. I'm here.
Speaker 1: We were kind of getting updates from the medical doctors here. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, to Banni, you know he wrote the ambulance
Speaker 1: with him there. I mean, obviously he's he's right. He's
Speaker 1: been bear by the side the whole time. And Tabanni
Speaker 1: helps set up our zoom call with the team last week,
Speaker 1: which was amazing. Um. You want to talk about bone
Speaker 1: chilling hair stand up when he started giving signs and
Speaker 1: doing his thing, and just love man. It was uh
Speaker 1: tears of joy going going crazy. But our team kneed
Speaker 1: did that has been just you know, just such an
Speaker 1: up and down. But um, you know our Marissa uh
Speaker 1: figure oh she is, Remember I talked about Kelsey. Marissa
Speaker 1: is our two year intern and this is her second year.
Speaker 1: She was. She was right there as well. Just our
Speaker 1: docs Les Boissan, who's our head team position, right there
Speaker 1: with Nate making sure he didn't have a cervical issue.
Speaker 1: UM also helping with you know, the airway and holding
Speaker 1: his head the right way. And Mark Feinberg I mentioned
Speaker 1: Tom White earlier who was helping Denny Rotating doing the
Speaker 1: compressions on the CPR UM. Mark Kim is another intern
Speaker 1: as Dr Mark Kim. He was He was there as well,
Speaker 1: and he also was in the ambulance with Tabani UM
Speaker 1: initially to go there to Mark did fly back with
Speaker 1: the team, but he was there when he got to
Speaker 1: you know, do you see medical center to you know,
Speaker 1: to the trauma center. UM. And then one other guy
Speaker 1: who's not in our training room, but he's an equipment
Speaker 1: guy names Corey Reblin. And Corey had to get his
Speaker 1: face mask off and you want to talk about I
Speaker 1: mentioned it last week and my press like he had
Speaker 1: to get that also, that they can get the airways
Speaker 1: going in and think about the pressure on him, I mean,
Speaker 1: think up out in that moment you're talking about kicking
Speaker 1: a field goal from sixty yards. Yeah, what's his name again,
Speaker 1: it's it's Corey Reblin. And we we you know, this
Speaker 1: weekend's game, we honored the medical staff, but we also
Speaker 1: honored Corey because you've got those little fine tools, you're
Speaker 1: trying to get the screws out, and you're watching a
Speaker 1: man right on the other side of your hands. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's struggling for life. And to do that as flawlessly
Speaker 1: and quickly as Corey did, Um, he's a he wrote
Speaker 1: to he he handled the moment, a critical moment, one
Speaker 1: he didn't expect to have and and and did a
Speaker 1: great job. So, um, you know a lot of people
Speaker 1: in our organization, you know, did great things. But um,
Speaker 1: Joe Collins on our staff, Joe Mika, some other trainers, Chiro,
Speaker 1: you know, they do all sorts of stuff. Worse, they
Speaker 1: were there as well, helping with whatever was needed, you know,
Speaker 1: right by his side. So it was it was a
Speaker 1: group effort. Um, here and then you know, at some
Speaker 1: point here, Peter, you know, I'll take your lead, but
Speaker 1: we need to acknowledge all the people in in Cincinnati
Speaker 1: and what a job they did from the time we
Speaker 1: got him. They you know, the people that helped get
Speaker 1: him intubated, get him oxygen um, get his pulse back,
Speaker 1: get his you know, the a D the heart restarted,
Speaker 1: to the ambulance, the paramedics, and then obviously the team
Speaker 1: waiting for him, you know, in the trauma room. And
Speaker 1: and again we're talking about a week ago. We were
Speaker 1: worried about him, you know, whether he would make it
Speaker 1: or not. And now today he's he's back in a
Speaker 1: Buffalo hospital, which is uh, which is a blessing. And Uh,
Speaker 1: as I've told many people, got is good and prayer
Speaker 1: is powerful thing. You You are amazing man, Like I
Speaker 1: just I feel it. I hear the exhaustion in your
Speaker 1: voice first of all, but I also the pride is
Speaker 1: so real. And these are people you work with every day.
Speaker 1: And you haven't even mentioned the players are the coaches
Speaker 1: who have been outstanding, but the people that were on
Speaker 1: the ground and reacted and we're able to do so
Speaker 1: in such an amazing fashion. Uh, you want Executive of
Speaker 1: the Year, You've had personal accolades. You go back this
Speaker 1: last week, though, Has this changed your perspective on the
Speaker 1: NFL and football as all? Well? I think, um, the
Speaker 1: NFL family, um, as much as we go after each
Speaker 1: other and we compete, and you know, things can get
Speaker 1: said and obviously you can get physical on the field,
Speaker 1: but you know, behind the scenes, I think, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: you saw unity across the league and across our country
Speaker 1: and what sport We always talked about what sports can
Speaker 1: unite people. And you know, I can say I've never seen,
Speaker 1: as I was telling Tomar's dad this, I've never seen that.
Speaker 1: I can remember all thirty two teams celebrating one player
Speaker 1: on another team, you know, with their social media lighting
Speaker 1: their cities and their stadiums and scoreboards pray for Tamar
Speaker 1: and three and um, maybe I've forgot about it or
Speaker 1: I was not aware, but I mean every social media
Speaker 1: thing had that thing of pray for tomorrow three and
Speaker 1: just um teams we compete against every week, and who
Speaker 1: would have thought something like that would have happened. And
Speaker 1: it's not what you want, but you know, and his
Speaker 1: dad really and there is some positive that's really come
Speaker 1: out of this. And and I think the other part
Speaker 1: of that is, you know, for fans to see that, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, this is a band of brothers. You saw
Speaker 1: our team the emotion of and I'm gonna get choked up.
Speaker 1: I talked about too much, but the emotion of our
Speaker 1: players seeing a brother whose life is in the balance
Speaker 1: and you know what it was doing to him. And
Speaker 1: I've never seen a game not played for an injury
Speaker 1: like this. I'm not saying it hasn't in the history
Speaker 1: of the game, but in my lifetime, I've never seen
Speaker 1: a game that you can't play. But we we knew
Speaker 1: you can't put these players back out there for really
Speaker 1: for either team after what they've all witnessed. And so, um,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's there's again. These are not robots,
Speaker 1: These are people down there, and they're not glad. I mean,
Speaker 1: there is a gladiator sport, but um, these are people
Speaker 1: that have normal human problems and human lives and and
Speaker 1: hopefully you know fans saw that. Yeah, they bleed, they hurt,
Speaker 1: just like the rest of us as we go through
Speaker 1: life struggles. Tell me real quick or as long as
Speaker 1: you want to through about the Hamlin family. I know
Speaker 1: that the uncle was there. I know that the mother
Speaker 1: and father were there, Like, we don't really have a
Speaker 1: window into that you were there at the hospital with them.
Speaker 1: Who are the Hamlins? Yeah, I mean, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to start with you get to know your players.
Speaker 1: You know, at this level, you don't always know the
Speaker 1: parents as well. We meet him some here and there,
Speaker 1: but you don't spend you know, you don't spend that
Speaker 1: much time with him, whereas maybe you did if you
Speaker 1: were recruiting them in college. And so going back to
Speaker 1: Damar and you know who he is and who we've
Speaker 1: gotten to know, and we obviously we heard great things
Speaker 1: out of him. His pit from coaching, our doozy and
Speaker 1: the staff, they're a pit. But then you get to
Speaker 1: know him, he's yours and and being around him this
Speaker 1: last you know, a year and nine months since we
Speaker 1: drafted him. You know, in the previous draft, you just
Speaker 1: see a you know, a smiling, refreshing face kid who's excited.
Speaker 1: You tell him to be on special teams. He's gonna
Speaker 1: do special teams. You tell him you need him to
Speaker 1: go out and filling from Micah Hyde. He's gonna be
Speaker 1: ready for his team. And you just He's a kid
Speaker 1: that you you don't see negative energy from him, You don't,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, if he's having a bad day,
Speaker 1: which every all, we're all humans, Um, he doesn't show it.
Speaker 1: He's always walking with a good vibe, a good feeling.
Speaker 1: And so that takes me to Mario and Nina, his parents,
Speaker 1: and salt of the earth. Um, you know, I said
Speaker 1: at my press comes the other day, they should write
Speaker 1: a manual on how to handle, you know, a situation
Speaker 1: to where your child is in a life threatening situation,
Speaker 1: because they were you know, I got two boys, and
Speaker 1: as I was in there, I was thinking, Man, how
Speaker 1: would I be if I was in Mario and need
Speaker 1: issues right now? If that was one of my boys
Speaker 1: in the condition that that themar was in and the
Speaker 1: strength that they showed, Because when doctors come out, Peter,
Speaker 1: you know this, and we've all had loved ones that
Speaker 1: have been in tough situations. They give you best case
Speaker 1: and they give you worst case. And every day, even
Speaker 1: though it was getting better, there was always worst case.
Speaker 1: And so you know, I'm sitting there and some of
Speaker 1: these medical means with the docs. Sometimes they were with us,
Speaker 1: sometimes they weren't, but they were getting the same information
Speaker 1: and just sometimes you look over at him like how
Speaker 1: they're doing, how they you know it, should I go
Speaker 1: over and get a hug, like whatever, Like just the
Speaker 1: strength and Mario especially he would always once it he
Speaker 1: digested it. I always noticed that he would start a
Speaker 1: conversation again, and just it was always about the positive.
Speaker 1: Themar is gonna be this to mars not like he's
Speaker 1: he's got that, He's gonna be fine. And you know,
Speaker 1: the funniest thing of all this thing was Mario said
Speaker 1: the next morning, so we we were that was Monday
Speaker 1: night game, Tuesday, middle of the night. We went home
Speaker 1: and slept for a few hours. You know, what's home hotel,
Speaker 1: rumor on the floor in the hospital hotel. So we left,
Speaker 1: me and Nate and Mario and his parents stayed the
Speaker 1: whole night. Me and Nate and Tobanni left about three thirty.
Speaker 1: They got us a room at a hotel across the street,
Speaker 1: and so we we we went over there, um and
Speaker 1: we didn't get great sleep, but laid down for a
Speaker 1: little bit. You know, you keep checking your phone. Everything
Speaker 1: good and uh, so we came back over there early
Speaker 1: next morning to get an update. How's he doing? Got in.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll never forget. At some point that morning,
Speaker 1: Mario saying, you know what he's gonna say when he
Speaker 1: wakes up. You know, he gonna asked somebody if we
Speaker 1: want the game, and I was like, we were laughing
Speaker 1: about I was like, you're probably right, but you really don't.
Speaker 1: And a night nurse who was not proving to this conversation,
Speaker 1: who none of us really saw much because it's not
Speaker 1: visiting hours, told the docks the next morning. By the way,
Speaker 1: he wanted to know who won the game, and she
Speaker 1: didn't even know that he had said that already. She
Speaker 1: didn't know that Mario had said that. We didn't even
Speaker 1: really get to interact with her because again, she was
Speaker 1: there generally during non visiting hours, so she was unaware
Speaker 1: of that. It's been an incredible we can I'd say
Speaker 1: a roller coaster. I but that's almost too simple. To
Speaker 1: put you through this um. Just to cap this off,
Speaker 1: take me through Hines returning the opening kick off and
Speaker 1: what was going on, sir? Come on, I look, I've
Speaker 1: worked for the NFL. I said to my wife, the
Speaker 1: fix is in. There's no way it's it's uh. If
Speaker 1: if you had any questions that God is real. Um
Speaker 1: that play man, And here's Hines on the run back,
Speaker 1: gonna tackle and taking it past mid field and down
Speaker 1: the side. He goes, this is story pot. They don't
Speaker 1: Putty kickoff re Terry for tomorrow. Hamlet in this place
Speaker 1: is absolutely going wild. I literally when when I knew
Speaker 1: he was gone, like I felt a tear count down
Speaker 1: the right side of my face, like, and I just
Speaker 1: I didn't know what to say, Like I'm in there
Speaker 1: with Terry Babula and Brian Gaine and Terence Gray and
Speaker 1: and I you know, I could hear them cheering, but
Speaker 1: I was just like, man, I couldn't even talk, Like
Speaker 1: it was just like nothing was coming out. I was like,
Speaker 1: I can't I can't believe it. I literally like, am
Speaker 1: I dreaming here? This just and I can't hear anything,
Speaker 1: you know, we we ever went to It's it was
Speaker 1: chaos and and somebody posted on Twitter yesterday they got
Speaker 1: sent to me. Um one of the local reporters who
Speaker 1: films the game from you know, the local news stations.
Speaker 1: He has a great I'm gonna send it to you.
Speaker 1: He has a great camera view. He's kind of towards
Speaker 1: the opposite ends on a where Nahim caught that kickoff
Speaker 1: and he's got the whole thing. And so there's there's
Speaker 1: no announcer, there's no gym um, you know, nancer, Tony Romo,
Speaker 1: it's just the announcing is the electricity of the stadium.
Speaker 1: And when when the people realized he was gonna go home, man,
Speaker 1: it was you can feel it on the phone and
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's I. I sent it to my family
Speaker 1: and I've sent it to a few people. But uh,
Speaker 1: if if that doesn't you know, you're not living and
Speaker 1: you're not alive. If that thing doesn't move you, it's
Speaker 1: pretty it's pretty cool. So what a moment? Um? Mario
Speaker 1: texted me Um as soon as that happened. Uh, and
Speaker 1: he said, tomorrow was you know, tomorrow was going nuts.
Speaker 1: But what I guess the doctors yesterday and the press
Speaker 1: conference said that he was sitting in a chair and
Speaker 1: all the alarm arms and bells went off because he
Speaker 1: jumped up and was his heart beating, his heartbeating. Everything nuts.
Speaker 1: But you wouldn't believe it. You know, if if somebody
Speaker 1: was writing a script, you'd say you can't, you can't
Speaker 1: go that far and say they're gonna return the opening kick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe it's a third down conversion, but no, we can't
Speaker 1: start the script off of it the opening kick. I
Speaker 1: think that's not you know, people don't believe it. Um,
Speaker 1: you're awesome, dude. I'm gonna let you go. You guys
Speaker 1: have a week, you know, have to play the Dolphins
Speaker 1: in a playoff game. I don't even want to get
Speaker 1: into it. I just mylae, like, do you have I mean,
Speaker 1: I know we were riding on high emotions here, what
Speaker 1: do you personally have left in the tank? And I
Speaker 1: guess my thought is just are are you I mean,
Speaker 1: are you ready for this? You might go on like
Speaker 1: this might be the ride right now after already you
Speaker 1: guys have already been through you personally as the guy
Speaker 1: who built this team? Are you ready for this? Like
Speaker 1: this is a crazy month ahead? Yeah, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just it's one week at a time and it's just
Speaker 1: trying to re recalibrate. And there's definitely people that are
Speaker 1: you know, it's it was a draining thing. Anytime your
Speaker 1: emotions are moved up and down kind of the way
Speaker 1: they were last week, that can be draining. But that's
Speaker 1: why we we gave our players off yesterday and today.
Speaker 1: Just just kinda get your rest, get your sleep, clear
Speaker 1: your head. You know, big, big game. Third time you're
Speaker 1: playing you know a division opponent, so they know you,
Speaker 1: you know them. Both games were very close and and
Speaker 1: we expect, um, we expect a similar battle this week.
Speaker 1: And um, so one week at a time and we'll
Speaker 1: see what happens, all right, buddy, UM, thank you. Brendan
Speaker 1: being GM of the Bills has a million things going on,
Speaker 1: has not slept in seven days, and was kind enough
Speaker 1: to join us here on the season with Peter Schraeger.
Speaker 1: I look forward to breaking bread with you, whether that
Speaker 1: is at Cafe Patta Chew in Indianapolis at the Combine,
Speaker 1: or if it's up in Buffalo and one of these
Speaker 1: playoff games, if I'm sent down assignment, we will have
Speaker 1: some wings and I will devour a pizza, and you
Speaker 1: and your wife will look at me and say you
Speaker 1: are one disgusting human being, and I will hug you
Speaker 1: as a response. I look forward to water both those occasions. Uh,
Speaker 1: Cafe Patache is always a staple I look forward to
Speaker 1: every year. And INDI you're the best Brandon Bean GM
Speaker 1: of the Buffalo Bills. Godspeed, my friend. You're an awesome guy.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you, buddy. Thanks for having on Peter. All right,
Speaker 1: here we are at the final portion of this podcast,
Speaker 1: and we've had quite an emotional one. I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: you start off with the monologue and I'm talking about
Speaker 1: coaching hires. Then Brandon Bean comes on and goes moment
Speaker 1: by moment, second by second of what his last week
Speaker 1: was at the Moore Hamlin's bedside, as as he went
Speaker 1: through what was maybe the most traumatic week of anyone's lives.
Speaker 1: Who has been a part of the Buffalo Bills organization. Uh.
Speaker 1: And now I'm bringing in my friend Todd, who is
Speaker 1: gonna take it to a totally different place because Todd
Speaker 1: is a lifelong Giants fan and his Giants are in
Speaker 1: the playoffs for the first time since and I feel
Speaker 1: there's a lot of optimism. I feel like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of juice. But I am not one to speak
Speaker 1: on behalf of Giants is and ticket holders, but this
Speaker 1: man is Todd. Welcome to the podcast, Peter Schraeger, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for having me. Uh. I first just
Speaker 1: want to make a quick note last week when you
Speaker 1: were talking about maybe having me on it, became a
Speaker 1: you know what, we're gonna do the full hour with
Speaker 1: Sean Payton, who happens to be the hottest ticket in
Speaker 1: coaching right now. Okay, no problem, I don't have to
Speaker 1: come on this week. Talk about following up someone after
Speaker 1: what you just discussed, and now you're like, hey, you
Speaker 1: want to come on and scream about the giants? And
Speaker 1: then it's I'm expecting next week for you to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna have Pope Francis on before you, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna be discussing Pope Benedict and him having just
Speaker 1: recently passed away and all that. But then come on
Speaker 1: after him and say, thanks a lot, your holiness. Now
Speaker 1: we're gonna have Todd. I'll screw me about the giants.
Speaker 1: Hey to, how you doing? But but thanks for having
Speaker 1: me on. Yeah, I've got this. This little done guy
Speaker 1: named Elon must coming on. Um, Todd, do you mind
Speaker 1: following him on the podcast? Who would be who would
Speaker 1: be the podcast guest that you at least want to follow?
Speaker 1: And I put you on the spot right there. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be anybody. I feel like that you
Speaker 1: nailed it with the Pope. But I've got to think
Speaker 1: that there's you know, like, okay, we're on here and
Speaker 1: we've got Megan Markle on. Okay, Todd, let's talk about
Speaker 1: the Commander's offensive line. It's I'm putting that tough spot here,
Speaker 1: aren't I. I mean, you nailed it. If you said, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have you on after we do an absolute
Speaker 1: no holds barred Tello with Prince Harry, then then we're
Speaker 1: gonna have you on. And like, all right, I guess
Speaker 1: I'm well about Daniel Jones for a little while. But
Speaker 1: you know who am I following? Yeah? Alright, So Giants
Speaker 1: of a playoff games Sunday, I said on Good Morning
Speaker 1: Football there in the Madden Summer All spot for thirty
Speaker 1: on Fox, it's almost surreal considering where we were in August.
Speaker 1: What's your approach to this game as a Giants fan?
Speaker 1: Is it like house money or are we like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's let's go and do this thing. So that that's
Speaker 1: a great question. How you house money there? Because when
Speaker 1: the season starts, obviously and you're like, all right, we've
Speaker 1: been the worst team in the league for five years.
Speaker 1: Let's just let's get some player development going. Let's see
Speaker 1: how we do we got a new coaching staff, new GM,
Speaker 1: everything's brand new. See what we're gonna do about Daniel Jones.
Speaker 1: You know, let's let's see how the season unfolds. And
Speaker 1: then as the season starts to unfold and you start
Speaker 1: winning games, I don't care what fan base you are with,
Speaker 1: I don't care what team you're rooting for. When you
Speaker 1: look up and all of a sudden, your team is
Speaker 1: winning football games and you're rolling off win if the win,
Speaker 1: if the win, and you look up and maybe you know,
Speaker 1: if you're you're six and one or seven and two,
Speaker 1: house money goes out the window. You know, we're seen
Speaker 1: in two. The conference seems kind of wide open. The
Speaker 1: Kansas City Chiefs don't play in the NFC, The Buffalo
Speaker 1: Bills don't play in the NFC. Like, let's go for
Speaker 1: this right now. There's no more house money. Like here
Speaker 1: we are. We're here. I know what it's like to
Speaker 1: stink for five years and have no hope of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Here we are. It looks like we might be able
Speaker 1: to win a couple of games or make a little
Speaker 1: bit of noise forget out money. Let's go out and
Speaker 1: win Vikings I said today, they're thirteen and four on
Speaker 1: the season, but they gave up more points than they scored.
Speaker 1: Do you look at them as paper tigers? Are you like,
Speaker 1: all right, here comes Jefferson. This guy beat us once before.
Speaker 1: Do you look at the Vikings? Is like, thank god,
Speaker 1: at the Vikings. We're not going to San Francisco. The
Speaker 1: amazing thing is, if the Vikings were playing any other
Speaker 1: team in the playoff tournament right now, I'd say, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're paper tigers. They're not getting out of the first round.
Speaker 1: But because they're playing the Giants, I can't just come
Speaker 1: on and thump my chest and say all right, they're
Speaker 1: paper tigers. We're gonna go on the road and absolutely
Speaker 1: hammered them. I mean we we did just lose to
Speaker 1: them three weeks ago. All right, it was a back
Speaker 1: and fourth game and we lost on you know, a
Speaker 1: ridiculous sixty one yard field. Go at the gun. But
Speaker 1: you know, there's no team of thirteen wins out there
Speaker 1: that has the best player on the field of Jefferson.
Speaker 1: I can't just sit here and save paper tigers because
Speaker 1: they're playing the Giants. But if they're playing anybody else,
Speaker 1: I'd say, you know, thanks for coming out, Keys, we'll
Speaker 1: see you next season. All right, that's a good game preview.
Speaker 1: What we come to you for is some advice on
Speaker 1: how to handle the weekend. This is a three day extravaganza.
Speaker 1: It starts on Saturday late afternoon and it's not over
Speaker 1: until the wee hours Monday night. How am I supposed
Speaker 1: to do this? If I'm an NFL fan? How do
Speaker 1: I pace myself? And I know that you've got things
Speaker 1: going on in the household in the next couple of
Speaker 1: weeks and you've got to focus on other things. How's
Speaker 1: the American sports fans supposed to handle this weekend and
Speaker 1: still be an attentive parent, father, husband, and friend. Fantastic question.
Speaker 1: And and for those of your listeners out there that
Speaker 1: have listened along the way, they'll remember what the journey
Speaker 1: we went on right around Thanksgiving for that entire week
Speaker 1: long stretch. This isn't quite the same, but this gets
Speaker 1: you a sort of forty eight seventy two hour window
Speaker 1: right in the middle of January. This is between this
Speaker 1: weekend and next weekend to the divisional round of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: To the NFL. This is it, guys, Your your conference championship.
Speaker 1: Sunday is a completely different beast to get one day
Speaker 1: to find out who's going to the Super Bol, But
Speaker 1: this weekend and next weekend. I hate to just say, hey,
Speaker 1: you have to embrace it, but you really just have
Speaker 1: to embrace the fact that you get six really good
Speaker 1: NFL games. The NFL, that's the schedule makers. They know
Speaker 1: what they're doing right now. They know that have to
Speaker 1: sort of ease you into the wild card weekend. They
Speaker 1: give you a Seattle San Francisco for thirty Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 1: That's the old Texans Bangles window right there, that was
Speaker 1: always on j Yates exactly. I'll watch this wild Card
Speaker 1: game because I'm home on the couch. But if my
Speaker 1: wife says, hey, do you want to grab an early dinner,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll go out and and I'll be able to
Speaker 1: see the game like a last year, and last year
Speaker 1: it was Raiders Bangles. But for years it was like NBC,
Speaker 1: or it was like Mike Mayock on the call, Andrew
Speaker 1: Breeze was on the call. This year, I think it's
Speaker 1: like Atlas Fox. I think it's Moose and and Joe Davis,
Speaker 1: which would be great, but like and then you get
Speaker 1: that that second crew or you get that crew that
Speaker 1: hasn't done NFL, but they've got another game on the network.
Speaker 1: You're like, okay, let's se who else NBC has got
Speaker 1: on the bench. Oh yeah, before that would be Tom Hammonds.
Speaker 1: They would call it a NBC and before that they
Speaker 1: would send out Mike Patrick and Paul McGuire to call me.
Speaker 1: And you know, all right, I'll watch it because I'm home.
Speaker 1: It's the middle of January and it's freezing outside. But
Speaker 1: I'm not dying to get into a game like that.
Speaker 1: It'll be similar in this sense, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: the forty nine is should probably steam roll them, and
Speaker 1: and you know, it is what it is. But it's
Speaker 1: NFL playoff football and there's only a finite amount of
Speaker 1: games left for that, so you have to just sit
Speaker 1: and enjoy it. You have all day to run your errands.
Speaker 1: The game doesn't start until four thirty, So what you
Speaker 1: have to do run your errands. Don't tell me you're
Speaker 1: not running errands on a Saturday in January. Everybody's running
Speaker 1: errands on a Saturday boarding in January. They're they're lying
Speaker 1: to themselves if they say that they're not. Take us
Speaker 1: then from there to a Jaguars Chargers Sunday Night, Lawrence
Speaker 1: and Herbert, most of them. America watching for the first
Speaker 1: time has never seen any of these guys exactly. Imagine that.
Speaker 1: Here we are a wild card weekend and you're gonna
Speaker 1: turn the game on, and unless you're tired NFL, then
Speaker 1: you're gonna look at the Jags and say, Wow, the
Speaker 1: Jags made it to the playoffs. Yeah, the Jags are
Speaker 1: a playoff team. Like that, That's how it goes. This
Speaker 1: is your another typical sort of Saturday night wild card game.
Speaker 1: But again, it's Saturday night in January. You don't have
Speaker 1: to go you don't have to go out for some
Speaker 1: crazy party or do anything. We're real obligation. Stay home,
Speaker 1: ordering get a couple of large fives, and to lead
Speaker 1: a bottle of soda. Settling this. This is what you
Speaker 1: wait for Saturday night prime time playoff games. Because that's it.
Speaker 1: I got news for you. You don't have many more
Speaker 1: after this, so just and enjoy the favorite. And then
Speaker 1: we have the three the three games in a row.
Speaker 1: You've got an emotional opening to that Bill's Dolphins game,
Speaker 1: then you got Vikings Giants, and then you got the
Speaker 1: nightcap with Bengals Ravens and can you could take me
Speaker 1: through it. But I'm also curious what's your thoughts on
Speaker 1: the Lamar situation as we record this. He hasn't practiced
Speaker 1: in five weeks. They don't know if he's gonna play.
Speaker 1: Is this a power played by Lamar tod or is
Speaker 1: this just you know, he's gonna try to play, just
Speaker 1: physically can't do it. It's weird when you really think
Speaker 1: about it. When when you think about a quarterback in
Speaker 1: this league that has been a league m v P,
Speaker 1: that is the face of the franchise. He's taking his
Speaker 1: team to the playoffs multiple times, you know, everything that
Speaker 1: that you'd want. It's very weird to hear that that
Speaker 1: quarterback has been injured, let's say, you know, for the
Speaker 1: past five or six weeks right now, and there's no
Speaker 1: update on anything. Usually it's oh, no, that this guy
Speaker 1: has a broken collar bone. He's gonna be out another
Speaker 1: eight weeks or you know, torn MCL whatever it might be.
Speaker 1: He's done for the season. But this is thoughways just
Speaker 1: been Yeah, he's got this sprain. We're not really sure
Speaker 1: when he's coming back. We don't even know when he's
Speaker 1: gonna be practicing. I don't understand what's happening here. From
Speaker 1: an informational standpoint, it can't just be gamesmanship where all
Speaker 1: of a sudden Sunday night, NBC opens up and Mike
Speaker 1: Tarito is, you know, narrating something and Lamar Jackson shuited
Speaker 1: up and he's throwing passes and there it is like
Speaker 1: that that can't possibly be it that they've decided that
Speaker 1: he wouldn't play until the wild card round against the Bengals.
Speaker 1: That that can't be. It's fascinating that there's been no
Speaker 1: leaks of any information from any side about how he's doing.
Speaker 1: That doesn't make me sense to me, I know, and
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm doing a bad job as a
Speaker 1: reporter because I'm coming on Good Morning Football. I'm like,
Speaker 1: not only is there not a report, I don't think
Speaker 1: harbor those and what kind of it can't be Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson saying you know what, Hey, if you guys don't
Speaker 1: want to pay me the money, this is what your
Speaker 1: offense looks like. There are fifty two other guys in
Speaker 1: that locker room right now, and if you're just gonna
Speaker 1: look at them and say hey, sorry, guys, go out
Speaker 1: there without me and see what you can do. How
Speaker 1: are you supposed to come back Sunday or next year
Speaker 1: and say, yeah, I know I abandoned you guys for
Speaker 1: a month, but now I'm making Jordian fifty millions. So
Speaker 1: you know, everybody line up and let's play. How do
Speaker 1: you earn their trust and respect back? These are guys.
Speaker 1: They count on you to be out there running backs
Speaker 1: to receivers. Everybody counts on you to be out there
Speaker 1: on offense because you make everybody better, which, of course
Speaker 1: that means everybody eats, which means everybody can go in
Speaker 1: and negotiate for more money and all sorts of new contracts.
Speaker 1: When you're not out there and no one's catching touchdown
Speaker 1: passes and no one's freaking long runs, and you look
Speaker 1: like the offense is stuck in the mud and no
Speaker 1: one has the actual statistics to back up what they
Speaker 1: want to be paid accordingly for. It really is a
Speaker 1: bad look for you that that can't be what he's doing.
Speaker 1: This is tasty, and let's end it with Buccaneers Cowboys
Speaker 1: your approach. Monday, I gotta pace myself. I'll be exhausted.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be flying back from l A. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do a whole show Good Morning Football, and then we've
Speaker 1: got like the best playoff game of of the entire
Speaker 1: weekend on Monday night. I'm still not used to it.
Speaker 1: I think I'll tell it like it is. Last year
Speaker 1: it was Rams Cardinals. I was like, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna stay up. Rams started blowing him out. I think
Speaker 1: I went to bed in the third quarter and I
Speaker 1: was no worse for the wear. This year, I can't
Speaker 1: do that. I completely agree with you. And and look,
Speaker 1: let's let's just look at the big shining obviously can
Speaker 1: in front of us. On one hand, Okay, you got
Speaker 1: Brady at home, prime time under the lights, you're watching.
Speaker 1: On the other side of the ball, you have the
Speaker 1: Cowboys on the road in prime time in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: You know you're gonna gear up and tune in to
Speaker 1: watch that whole game, whether they're winning or they're losing.
Speaker 1: If it's a Cowboy blowout of the Cowboys are winning,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're sort of hate watching it, unless you're
Speaker 1: a Cowboy fan. And if you're watching that game and
Speaker 1: the Bucks are up in the Bucks are winning and
Speaker 1: the Cowboys laying egg like they did this past week
Speaker 1: against the Red Sox. You're watching that game the Socks,
Speaker 1: not the Commanders, the Red Sox. You called him the
Speaker 1: Red Sox. Unle, you caught me right there. This is
Speaker 1: what happens when I start going so crazy, Like you know,
Speaker 1: if the Cowboys got lay another egg like they just
Speaker 1: did last week. You're watching that game really happily, and
Speaker 1: you're laughing, and you know that throws the pick six
Speaker 1: year and McCarty blows all three time outs early. You're
Speaker 1: he's challenging places that shouldn't be challenging for we're going
Speaker 1: forward from his own thirty anything like that. You're watching
Speaker 1: that game and you're laughing and you're enjoying it. So
Speaker 1: there really are two sides here that are pulling you
Speaker 1: into this incredibly intriguing game. You've gotta be sitting down
Speaker 1: to watch this because that's it. After this game is over,
Speaker 1: you don't either you don't have Brady next weekend or
Speaker 1: you don't have the Cowboys next weekend. And those are
Speaker 1: two big chess pieces taken off the board for next weekend.
Speaker 1: Yeah alright, And closing, Todd, thank you. I just want
Speaker 1: to tell you we have a new sponsor. And guess
Speaker 1: what the sponsor is Draft Kings. Let's go love it,
Speaker 1: love it. I'm in go for those moonshots on DraftKings.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's the only that's the only way that
Speaker 1: I hate to say, that's the only way you should
Speaker 1: be gambling. But go ahead and find yourself one of
Speaker 1: those twenty leg parlays that dollars of it is. There
Speaker 1: are a lot more fun than watching one game hoping
Speaker 1: that one team covers No, no, no, take the moon shot.
Speaker 1: It sounds like we've got a show that you might
Speaker 1: have to have a spinoff podcast where we talk moon shots. Uh.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, Todd, and I appreciate everybody listening to
Speaker 1: the podcast this week on behalf of Todd on behalf
Speaker 1: of Brandon being the general manager of the Buffalo Bills,
Speaker 1: Jason English, Aaron Wong Kaufman, our guy, Jason Kleinman, who
Speaker 1: does such a great job on the digital side pumping
Speaker 1: out these clips from l A who gets them up there,
Speaker 1: Jack RhoD Our music man. Everybody, thank you for listening,
Speaker 1: and uh, we're kicking but over here on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Tell your friends about it and let's keep on building
Speaker 1: until next week. Enjoy wild Card Weekend. Everyone. The Season
Speaker 1: with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL and
Speaker 1: partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.