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What is going on everybody? John Middlekop three and Out Podcast hopefully you guys are all doing well out there in the real world today we will talk some football. We're going to do a big mailbag today. The majority of the podcast at John Middlekop at John Middlekopf is the Instagram. Obviously questions on the Belichick situation that has taken the nation by storm. Bill who has a lot of supporters out there in the world, fans, his former quarterback, his former owner Jimmy Johnson is pissed. So some of you guys asked me questions about that. We'll piggyback on what we talked about yesterday. We'll probably start with the Browns hired a coach. I want to say we didn't see it coming because he was one of the finalists. But some quick thoughts there. And other than that, just a lot of mailbag at John Middlecoft. Fire in those DMs in my Instagram. Just two Fs. Even my A good buddy of mine actually invited me to his wedding which he should have I use in my wedding. He's one of my best friends but he spelled my name with one F so we just still keeps a little chip on your shoulder. It's got two Fs and that will be the game plan today. So if you guys listen on Collins feed make sure you subscribe to three and out so you never miss. We have our own feed, Spotify, Apple, anywhere you listen. Our videos are all on Netflix. Our partners who actually sent me a nice little care package for my little man Jack. Nice blanket, nice. Some toys or like stuffy toys type things so that they are ingratiating themselves quickly in the Middlekopf household. Just banged out his and hers on Netflix too. Pretty good watch. Pretty pretty entertaining. Very bingeable for sure. Easy watch. And other than that, we'll just we'll talk some ball and we'll let's let's start with the Brown situation, which I don't really have many thoughts. Besides, someone asked me yesterday on a mailbag question if teams do bridge coaches like bridge quarterbacks and I do think that Todd Monkin would fall under that a little bit. He's basically 60 years old, has been a head coach in college, but longtime coordinator. I don't think he was getting a job anywhere else. It does feel like Bushadi was firing Harbaugh no matter what, but there were some initial conversations that he was we're going to refuse to fire him if that was going to enable him to keep his job, like be loyal to his coordinator. But I this does feel a little bit bridgy. You know, the top guys were not interested in the job. Obviously the process of forcing guys to write essays in a vocation that doesn't rely on you to write essays to do your gig. I did quite understand that. I think the Browns are viewed as pretty toxic and let's face it, they're not alone. Does anyone want the Cardinal job? So I think that situation is let's just keep our head above water for a couple years, hopefully kind of restock this roster, find a quarterback and then kind of turn it over a little bit like Casario did. You know, the ironic part is both these two teams had desean Watson, the stink of that, and there's a chance that he's still around because they're just stuck with that contract. So the Casario had to hire Cully, Lovey Smith and then finally got d'. Ameco. And maybe the Browns kind of have a mindset to do something like that. The difference is, is I I just think as long as they are kind of operating their coaching search the way they do, no one's touching. Feels like more likely they're trying to hire a university president than they are a football coach. And I'm not trying to just bag on them because I think that's the easiest thing to do. But you know, I Todd Monkin, why not just hire Jim Schwartz, who the players already like you already knew you clearly kind of liked. And now I think with Jim Schwartz, you know, Kyle Shanahan, he's dominated him over the years, you know, I know there have been some talk about making Gus Bradley the candidate just because he worked for the staff. I would hire Jim Schwartz if I'm Kyle Shanahan to replace Robert Sal. I'm hiring Jim Schwartz. I'm making him my defensive coordinator by the end of the day yesterday. So once he becomes available to me, keep an eye on that because I think Kyle Shanahan will go heavy, heavy on him. And then maybe Gus Bradley just follows Salah and becomes his pseudo defensive coordinator. Assuming that Sal is calling defense, which who knows. I haven't seen the press conference yet, but we'll dive into some questions now. A lot of questions about Bill, I'm sure. And there's a couple right off the bat. I talked about Shador yesterday, the Pro Bowl. The Pro bowl hasn't mattered in a long time. So anyone asking me about the, the importance or its credibility, like its credibility died years ago. The Pro bowl died the moment they stopped tackling, which I always understood. But to me, what I'm here to say is Shador Sanders making the Pro bowl and now Belichick not being the first ballot hall of Fame. What are we doing? How embarrassing for the NFL. The two are not, they're not connected at all. The Pro bowl is a joke. The hall of Fame should not be. And another question on Belichick came up short. Bill Belichick came up short on votes to be a first bout hall of Famer. All your Are you familiar with the criteria needed to vote on the hall of Fame? Is a drug test one of them? Here's what I think. Bill Polian, who originally was called, you know, there was a story written that Bill Poland led the charge that Bill Belichick had to pay a price, that he was not going to be a first bout hall of Famer because of 2007. Obviously Polian got rules changed. The way he defended the Indianapolis Colts. Hates Bill. Mortal enemies with Bill. And for those of you that don't know, when I got into the NFL poly and this was like 2010 already had won a Super bowl with the Colts, had been to a bunch with the Bills, was, was one of the most famous GMs in the history of the league. Besides like Al Davis and Jerry Jones, he would be right up there with like Ron Wolf. He was viewed internally in the league a lot like Bill, an angry curmudgeon asshole. And I say that with respect. Like I, I grew up around a lot of kind of old school. My dad was born in the 40s. He, he grew up a lot round, or he was, you know, around in his business, farming, a lot of old school. And Bill Belichick and Polian would fall under that category. And I, I, I'm saying that with reverence of that human being that doesn't exist as much anymore. And historically, in a lot of businesses, you kind of had to be like that, or people thought they had to be like that, or they were just raised like that. And Belichick and Polan have a lot more in common than I think either one would say about the other. You know, Polian was not easy to work for. It was not like a fun, happy place. You know, the Green Bay packers was always an organization, at least when I was around football a lot, in terms of working the business, like with Ted Thompson, that just seemed like a great place to work for that that became the Chiefs with Andy and Veach, like, that's just a place where people want to work. That was Napoleon. It would be good for your career. But it was dark, edgy, miserable place. A lot like New England. I've known a lot of people that played and worked in New England as scouts, as some assistant coaches. It's not a happy place. It ain't a fun fucking environment. Most people would say it's completely miserable now. It changes your life. Saying, hey, I work with Polyon and Peyton Manning. I work with Belichick and Brady. You went like a rocket ship, but you had to have thick skin and the ability to grind. And there weren't many smiles in that, in that organization, in that operation. So to me, Bill Polian hating Bill, like, okay, yeah, I'm not a huge, Like, I don't have that many mortal enemies. There were some people in my younger days, I guess you would consider I hated. But as you get older, like, I'm not really wired, like, like Dave Portnoy. Some people are just wired that way, and it keeps me going. I'm not, I, I can't kind of wallow in misery. I, I don't function at a high level when I'm like that. I'm much more, I'm better off when I'm a little more optimistic. I would say Polian and Belichick or not. So I don't blame Polian for hating Bill Belichick. You're allowed to do that. He ain't the first. And he won't be the last guy to despise another individual in his industry who's gotten the better of him in a world that's competitive. But the other people, for him to convince, you know, I don't know the criteria. Obviously there are a lot of, you know, media writers. For them to agree with him is an embarrassment. So Bill Polian, who clearly lied to the guy at Sports Illustrated that he tweeted out, like, I talked to him, he said he voted for him. And then like Wickersham and the ESPN guys followed up. He's like, I think I voted for him. It's like, bro, you are you like a 10 year old? Any guy could be like, that's a lie. I mean, it's like, you know, when your parents are on you, when you're young, you kind of get caught. Like, I think I did it. Like, no, you know exactly what you did. And you didn't vote for him, which, listen, that's on you. But for the other people to follow suit, the, the sheep herd mentality is an embarrassment for the league. And I think it's pretty rare where everyone. Players in the league, former players, Jimmy Johnson, I was at the gym earlier today. I saw his own McAfee and Colin just, he's pissed because Jimmy is boys with Bill. Because it's an embarrassment for football if Bill Belichick isn't the first ballot hall of Famer. Just shut down the fucking hall of Fame. Just shut it down. Like, we can hate them. We, we can say stealing signs. When I was a pro scout in the, in the early 2010s, people were stealing signs. Like, sign. Now, did he take it to another level with the guy on the, on the ground floor? Yeah, but it's like, welcome to competitive industries. People are always pushing the envelope. As Peter Goober says that Ethan Strauss, my guy on Substack, one of the best substackers, quotes him all the time. There are no rules, but break them at your own peril. And I, I think that's the way that most industries, where there's a lot on the line and a lot of competition operate. And Bill pushed the envelope, right? He pushed the envelope and he got caught. But didn't his team rattle off a bunch of victories after that happened and make it to the super bowl and beat the shit out of everybody? We all watch. Anyone that is, I would say, 35, 40 or older that watched the majority of the games of the Bill Brady dynasty, especially the big ones, which were all prime time games. He's the best coach I've ever seen, and I work for Andy Reid, who I would put right there behind him. But it is, it's hard to dispute, like, they needed to win with Brady Well, Andy, be the first to tell you, I want a lot more with Patrick than I did with Alex and McNabb. You know, I mean, Bill Walsh doesn't exist without a guy named Joe Montana. I hate this. Like. Well, he had Brady. Well, it's like Google Phil Jackson said Michael and Kobe, like most great coaches, have great players. It's pretty rare. It's like, you know, Eric Spolster is a great coach. Won a lot more with LeBron and D. Wade than he. That he does with this crew of characters. So it's like, you got to be a great coach. You're gonna. Joe Tory won a lot with hall of Famers. You know, I mean, it comes with the territory. So there's no way around it than just universal disdain now for this process. I've thought for a long time that I think we have diluted the people in the hall of Fame from players and some of these coaches that got in that. I no longer look at it the same. But after this moment, I mean, it's. It's not quite the Pro bowl level. I mean, the Pro bowl guys just quit. This does feel like I don't take it seriously anymore. Like, I'm also not a huge awards guy. I never have been. I saw the Golden Globes, did like a best podcast award, and Joe Rogan wasn't even on it. It's like, guys, you don't need to like him. But there is no disputing. He's a king right now, right? Taylor Sheridan, who's got all the biggest television shows that did Paramount just give him a. Or Warner Brothers, whoever just gave him a billion dollars to write shows for. He's the king of TV right now. None of his shows were up for awards. It's like, guys, but. But I'm not like, awards. I saw Big Cat Raining about this, about podcasts. Like, part of podcasts is there's a little counterculture. Like, this is not mainstream legacy media, right? So it's like, yeah, we don't want awards. Who cares about. They're meaningless. Whenever I see someone being interviewed, like an Emmy in the background, it's like, guys, no one cares. Cowards been on this rant forever. It's typically people inside baseball voting on these things, whether it's Hollywood, whether it's football, and there are certain people like Brady Manning, you can't. If you have to think about it for a Hall of Fame, to me, you're not in it. And that's why I've always been like the Deion Sanders, the Barry Sanders, the Lawrence Taylors, the Tom Brady's, the Peyton Mannings, the Aaron Rodgers, the Bill Belichicks. The Bill Walsh is the Andy Reid's no one thinks about. You make. It's like who's the best golf Tiger woods, you know, Michael Jordan, you know things there are certain. It's like, well, I think this guy's resume that there is no resume with Bill he's in but for these idiots, he's clearly not. And I think it's done a lot of harm to the hall of Fame that I can no longer look at the same. Speaking of coaches, Mike McCarthy. Why does everyone shit on Mike McCarthy yet John Harbaugh is treated like the savior? If you compare resumes, it's pretty similar. One super bowl piece coach good quarterbacks like Rogers and Lamar in their primes lost the playoff games they probably should have won. I just don't understand why he's talked about like he's under the bridge troll. I've been saying this for a while, man, I really have. He has a branding issue. His resume is the same as Tomlin and Harbaugh. It really is. And you could argue in 2026, his skill is more important than their skills. Because the one thing and I had a buddy that's he's on a different staff now, but kind of got into the NFL. He'd been a longtime college coach and was on the Ravens for a couple years. And two things he always told me and this is like in the peak of their powers with Mike McDonald, Lamar winning MVPs. He called Mike McDonald the boy genius. He loved Lamar Jackson. This was an offensive coach and he loved John Harbaugh. He said John Harbaugh's ability to rally the team the team meetings was just second to none. It was elite and Tomlin obviously falls under that category. So their ability to lead the group is just top notch. 10 out of 10, right? And like there's no one even bring like that's. That's their defining skill. Rally the troops into battle. Mike's skill really is coaching the quarterbacks, coaching the offense which never has mattered more. Like some like Sean McVeigh's a great leader, but like how many of some of these offensive guys like is Kyle Shanahan or LaFleur or Kevin O' Connell viewed as like Vince Lombardi? No, there's good offensive minds and Mike McCarthy is too. But he has this branding issue that he's. I listen, I don't agree with this but people, it's like people think he's dumb clearly he's really overweight, which, listen, I'm no one to judge. My weight fluctuates on about a 18 hour fast right now. I'm starving, but I just don't want to be a fat ass anymore. And like you watch him in that press conference, he's big. And that's the one thing. Like John Harbaugh's in great shape. At 63, Tomlins kind of looks. Tom's put on a little weight over the years, but he's kind of looked the same for, I don't know if you're like a decade plus. McCarthy's gotten bigger as he's gotten older, which is weird. Like Andy, I don't know. Andy's known as a genius and McCarthy's known as dumb. And there's a branding issue, which I disagree with because I'm with you. I, I don't think there's any difference. If you tell me in a couple years the Steelers are good and they found a quarterback, I would not, I, I, I would be like, yeah, I could see that now. I don't think Harb, I think Harbaugh and the Giants are going to be good too. Like Harbor's good, Tomlin's good, like Mike McCarthy's good. But those three, like two of them get talked about like equals. Tomlin and John. And then there's Mike. He's talked about in a weird way, like he's Freddie Kitchens or Jim Tomsula, which I think he'd tell you. Well, Jerry and the Rooneys don't believe that because they've hired me. I've coached the packers, the Steelers and the Cowboys. So, yeah, you can think Liam Cohen, some genius. He's got to coach the Jags. I'm coaching the Steelers, which have probably in the league. There's definitely not five teams in the league with more fans. And I mean actual humans that root for your team. They're probably a top three fan base. I don't mean passion stuff, which obviously they're passionate. I just mean actual people. Their fan base is huge. Huge. So props to McCarthy. Today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet. Florida's sportsbook, the big game matchup is set. And I can't wait to see Seattle take on New England. Hard Rock BET has all the different ways you can get in on Sunday's action here in a couple weeks. Here's what I'm liking right now. Think I'm gonna lean Seattle kind of big. I think that pass rush is going to overwhelm the offensive line. We'll have to check some touchdown parlays. I think Darnold's gonna keep humming, so if you haven't signed up yet, there's never been a better time. This week they are launching some brand new offers for new customers. Plus, Hard Rock is kicking off with $7 million big game bonus parlay available to all users. So if you're in Florida or Jersey, the Big Game energy doesn't just live exclusively on the app. Head to a Hard Rock casino property for drawings, giveaways, all the excitement leading to kickoff. That's Hard Rock bet. Download the Hard Rock Bet app today and make your first deposit payable and bonus bets. Not a cash offer. Offered by Seminole Tribe of Florida in Florida. Offered by Seminole Hard Rock Digital LLC in all other states. You must be 21 plus and physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia. To play, terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida? Call 1-833-PLAY-WISE in Indiana. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-9 with it gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. Is the bald guy reunion in Tennessee a secret play to try to hire you back as the lead scout for the Titans? You know, I got married in Nashville, and if life goes well, we would, we would love to have a little property there one day. I love Nashville. Little cold in the winters for me. Summer's actually pretty hot. But I just, there's something about, you know, I grew up in Davis, California. My dad was a farmer in the Sacramento area, which is much more expanded now, but just a lot of land, a lot of space. I mean, I didn't live on a lot of land, but I'm just saying there was a lot of, like, we, I got drunk in high school out on, you know, acres of land and farmland. It was, you know, it used to be like a cow town. Now it's, it's a little different now. It's actually kind of become like Berkeley, more like hippieville. But I, there's something special I think about Tennessee now. My, this is what I'm doing now. Those days are over. But I love it. I really do. And I'm a, I'm rooting for Robert Sala. You know, day ball, I think thrived as an offensive coordinator with Josh. Can do the same with Cam Ward. I think the jury's out on Cam a little bit, and I do think the jury's out, too. On sale As a head coach, like can he operate now? The. The expectations going to Tennessee are a little different in New York, which, which helps a ton. So I'm rooting for those guys. Borgonzi, who my guys in Kansas City love seems like a high level guy. I just that that owner is just. People aren't a huge fan. So we'll see. Can they overcome it? Time will tell but the end division's hard, but it's a great place to live. Find me anyone that lives in Nashville that doesn't like it. You'd be hard pressed because it doesn't really exist. Question for the bag. Joe Brady, question mark. The Bills hired Joe Brady and I can't help but wonder if a first time head coach is the right move for Josh. Prime of his career. And we're gonna go with a first time head coach. I would have preferred someone like Day Ball who at least has experience. It's pretty risky. It's pretty risky. But sometimes in life you got to take risks and people have done it before. I mean, I'm not saying he's going to be Steve Kerr, but Steve Kerr had never been a coach when the warriors hired him with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. And it's the best thing they've ever done because they started winning championships, so. And obviously landed Kevin Durant, which he played a big role in. He had never been a coach at any level. And you know, this is not apples to apples, but Sean McVeigh was hired at 30. You think the Rams regretted that. And it's not like he had just come off a season. The Commanders they were. The Redskins didn't make the playoffs, so you never know. That's the hard part about coaching. It's a little like the draft. There's going to be someone this year drafting like the third round that in two years would be like, I got the best player in the league. Happened with the Rams and Puka Nakua when, when the Rams drafted Puka Nakua. There's not a soul that follows college football that went like, this guy's going to be like Jerry Rice, right? And then a couple years later he's the best wide receiver in the league or one of them. So it happens all the time with coaches. I saw, I looked up this morning and McAfee, it's on like the main TV at the gym, put all the pictures of the different coaches that have been hired and it happens all the time is they're going to be, you know, some of these writers got to put out, like grade the coaching hires A, C, F, B plus. Like no one knows. No, no one has any freaking clue. So I just think that they felt comfortable with them. Josh felt comfortable with them. Now the. The pressure is immense. I mean, I would say none of these coaches, if you just do a pressure rankings going into 2026, he could be one. The pressure on Joe Brady to win could be one. Think about that. FYI, I was about to give up my Netflix podcast loop because I couldn't minimize the window and multitask on my phone. Then I accidentally swiped sideways and it totally allows users to do that. I've been saying this for a while. You can swipe and it just goes up and you can just close it and listen to it in your pocket. I did it a couple weeks ago on the Spitting Chiclets Tom Brady interview. So it's, it's consumer friendly. We like putting podcasts on our phone, walking around, doing stuff. I do it all the time. You can too. So you can minimize it on Netflix like you can on the other applications. God, I'm a great partner for the mailbag. My wife is pregnant and having a planned C section on Friday. Any tips for dads on what to expect, how to help your wife, beside the obvious things like being present, handy and ready to help? Any pro tips or advice on things of how to prepare for immediately, during and after when getting back home? I would say when you're there, you know, we pack snacks and bedding and stuff like that, which I'm sure you're doing. The doctors run point on the. On the situation. You really don't do much. You kind of stand there, you give support. So there's not much advice to give beside that. And then once the baby's out, they have to stitch her back and you kind of get to hold the baby. It is. There's a lot going on. It's. You kind of got. You just got to hold it together. You got to be strong, which is crazy. When you watch how strong they're being as their guts are cut open, it's intense. And even when you're at the hospital, the nurses and people are coming in every couple hours. So the amount and the way my hospital worked, I could walk right down to kind of their little conference area. If you ever have questions, they'll come right down and help you out. So the help you get in the first two days is pretty insane. Now make sure you know how to use the car seat. The car seats, because when you leave, they don't Help you with that. So you put the baby in the car seat and then you just take off. So we were very lucky. My mother in law stayed with us for like 10 plus days and it helped a lot. But it's, it's pretty intense. I mean you come home and it's just like it's on you. You know, I'm two weeks in now. It's become a lot easier. My guy Jack, we call him the Jack attack. It's when he goes that takes a. Or pisses and that happens a lot but it gets a little easier. The hardest part is you got to feed them every couple hours for you know, months on end so that, that your sleep is just like you have to. If you feed them at 8 o' clock at night, gotta feed him at 11, then you gotta feed him again at 2 or 3 in the morning. So that to me like he'll go to sleep but it's, you do have to wake him up usually change the diaper and then, and then feed him. But there's not much, there's not much advice to have besides just check in on her, how she's doing. It's, it's the emotions run high, you know, the hormones are pretty crazy. You just gotta, you know, people tell you patience with the child. I would say patience with her as well. You know this, it's, it's a pretty traumatic experience and then a come down on your body. So just try to be, I mean there are going to be times and listen, I've had to really kind of just take a deep breath, be extra nice. I would say that be extra nice because they're going through a lot physically, hormonally and something that you might normally argue about. We're human beings. Just you let things go. Just, just don't even, just smile on your face and keep chugging. That would probably be my best advice. What do you think of Philip Rivers potential as a head coach? Seeing the success of Rabel, I think Rivers could be a future head coach if the Colts Stichen doesn't work out and maybe he knows that. Maybe he thinks that he will be the next head coach. But Shane Sikens is guy. I do wonder if he kind of got wind like we're probably not going to hire you. I also wonder if there's a chance. I know his son I think is going to be a senior gunner. Rivers, which is an incredible name. Would he take an offensive coordinator job? I mean offensive coordinator jobs pay millions of dollars, so. And I know Phillips made a Lot of money, but someone offers you three years, $10 million to be their offensive coordinator. If Philip Rivers had a good season as an offensive coordinator, he would interview every single place. He would get hired immediately. My guess is Philip Rivers is a head coach in the next five years, and I would say there's a 50, 50 chance if he feels comfortable enough with a spot. Wouldn't shock me at all. If he became an NFL offensive coordinator, he might be able to skip the step, though, and become a head coach, which I think he would be kind of uniquely equipped to handle being the quarterback, handling the whole team, calling the offense. It still would be challenge. If he asked me for advice, I would just say, I. I don't think if you feel comfortable with the spot, I don't think doing the. Being an offensive coordinator for a year one is twofold. Like, do you really want to do this at the NFL level? Like, are you cool with the. You put in a lot of hours as a player. There's a lot more hours as a coach. So it's a really kind of a way to wet your beak, see if, like, you're cool with doing that with your family and because if you are, then just go all in. You'll be a head coach. I think you'd be good if you told me Philip Rivers became a head coach. My bet would on him being good at the gig. What are your thoughts on Koepka coming back to the PGA and do you think the plan they have in place is to make former live guys pair pay their way back on? I think it's a great for the game and expect more guys to come back. We go low will probably start after the Super Bowl. There's a lot going on. Koepka's back. Patrick Reed just announced today he's coming back. They desperately want Bryson to come back and live. We did business with Live last year and I went to it in person. It's really cool. But I do like, no one cares. So they're playing all these guys got a ton of money. They made a ton, which they took a huge risk and they got on for. So I. I never had a problem with, like, letting them back on. It's like, well, they get to have their cake and eat it too. Well, you could have too that they made a tough decision. Now some of the guys that sued the PGA Tour, I totally understand. But Koepka didn't. Patrick Reed didn't. Phil did. Phil's never coming back. Dustin Johnson doesn't care. I also think Koepka's won nine times in his career. Five of those were majors. So it's not that you're not getting back Dustin Johnson that has 20 career wins. This guy didn't win that much. He famously said that he didn't really care about regular events, but watched his press conference yesterday. I do think becoming a dad, some of your priorities obviously financially set now. I wonder if we get a new version of him taking these events more seriously. Next week when I'm in San Francisco, waste management will be going on in my backyard. As you can see, TBC Scottsdale. For those of you watching, he's won that event twice. So two of his four wins in regular events have come here. He's a bright lights guy, I would imagine if he's playing well, which we'll find out this week in Tory. He. He looks good to me. They get Bryson coming back, lives over like it ends and then Rom eventually comes back. I think Liv is clearly teetering a little bit. There's no doubt about it. Because at the end of the day, the reason a lot of these startup leagues in other sports, we've seen it happen in football, you know, basketball, LeBron thought about going to Saudi Arabia. One our attention span's never been shorter and it's hard to get us into something if we don't think it matters. And like, why do PGA tournaments matter? Like, why does it matter playing at the players or the waste management? Because there's history. Why does winning the second round of the playoff for Josh Allen matter? Because we've watched a million playoff games. We have context. When you just start a league, it doesn't feel like it matters at all. And I listen, I give Adam Silver credit for trying things. But like, it's hard for the casual consumer to take the NBA cup seriously. Because I go, why does this matter? And no one can answer that for me, it's like, well, they do it international soccer. Well, how long have they been doing those type cups? And I'm not a soccer guy, but I would guess a long time. So you could argue that you got to start somewhere. True. But it's just difficult. And this notion like, golf's an individual sport. I went to the Ryder cup this year. It was awesome. Kind of feels right to have it like once or twice a year. No one cares about the team. People want to watch individuals. I want to watch Scotty Scheffler try to win every week. You following the Big Jays are saying about the Washington Post, there cannot be that many people getting their sports news from physical newspaper Just complain to complain. Question is, what percent of sports news content comes from the written newspaper? Today I'm incredibly saddened about what is happening at the Washington Post. Going back to my time at the Baltimore Sun, I've admired and advised the Post riders, and not just in sports. Bezos destruction, Ken Rosenthal. I. I think one problem legacy media has had is they've taken on some of them. I mean, I know a lot of people, quote unquote, legacy media, and I think they're really good at their job and I consume them and I enjoy them. But I think one fall of legacy media has been a self importance. I've never not thought that like I do this, this, none of this exists. If I don't, people don't like me and find me entertaining and consume my product. The most important part about my operation is the people listening. And luckily we've grown dramatically as an audio podcast over the last six, seven years. Right? But like, without my consumer, I'm nothing. So whether I was on the radio, whether I'm a podcaster, whether, whatever, I do, like, the consumer has to come first. And if they change and I have to try to adapt to them. And you know, people got mad over the move to Netflix, but like, I'm betting on it working and if it doesn't, we'll adapt. But I'm, I'm all in because I saw the vision I was sold. I was like, okay, how many people have Netflix? Oh, a lot. What percentage of people that are in my audience? Oh, high number. So it's like, it's about them and newspapers. I'm, I'm a diehard sports guy, 40 years old. I grew up on newspapers. I haven't read a newspaper beside the Wall Street Journal, which I pay for in a decade. Plus, I pay for none of them. The athletic I pay for, which is technically owned by the New York Times, but I don't, I don't view that as a newspaper. So these people getting mad, like Ken Rosenthal, it's like, bro, newspapers didn't die yesterday when Bezos cut out the sports section, they died 10, 15 years ago. Remember when everyone in the media got really mad, like in the mid 2010s, when it's like, we're going to video and they're like, no, we're going where the consumer is because we're in the business of the consumer, not of your content. The content matters because people will consume. I read newspapers in College in 2004 because that's the only place I could get my information. Now I have choices, and I choose not to read them. So the consumer killed them, not Jeff Bezos. And I. I've never read the Washington Post in my life, but just because it's like I've ever lived there. I didn't care about the teams, but when I see reactions like that, I go, you're getting mad at the wrong guy. The person that killed the sports section was not Jeff Bezos. It was John Middelkoff that lives in Washington, D.C. or grew up in Washington, D.C. and now lives in Texas. That read the Washington post the first 25 years of his life and now doesn't, because one, he doesn't think the product's any good, and two, he's got a million other options. He consumes other stuff. The consumer changed and you didn't adapt fast enough and you got obliterated. Welcome to the real world. What happened to Blockbuster? You ever heard the story of Netflix trying to sell to Blockbuster and they laughed at him? How'd that work out? Newspapers had a head start. They had the consumer, and they got fat, happy. And let's face it, a lot of people, a lot of people in the media world don't understand business and in a weird way, resent it. If you resent business, and honestly, if you resent money, you're probably not going to make it. I believe that to my soul. And I think when you resent it, you resent the way the world works, which is you got to think about the consumer. I just read this article the other day. I had a buddy named Scotty that works in Southern California, and he's now working for a big bank down there, but he loves golf. And he was caddying a little at the side at this huge country club in Newport beach, and he caddied for this guy. He's like, I just caddied for the CEO of Chipotle. He's like, here's what I would say about him. Spend 18 holes with him carrying his bag. I would bet on that guy. He was just blew me away. And then like a year later, the guy gets hired at Starbucks. And I'm reading this article about Starbucks, how he's attempting to change all these things and who knows if it'll work, but it's like he had to adapt because Starbucks was getting crushed. And it still kind of is. I mean, they're overpriced, but he's making subtle changes. There's a long article in the. In the Wall Street Journal about it. And it's like, if you don't adapt and Then you complain about it like you're a loser. I hate people to just. We all complain. We're human beings. But if you just complain over and over, if you complain about something today, January 28, 2026, and you're complaining about the same thing five years later, like, that's a you problem. And it feels like these newspaper guys have been complaining about this for a decade plus. It's like, guys, move on, Adapt. Ken Rosenthal, you're on TV now. Why? Because your written world became irrelevant. What are we talking about? As someone that grew up on sports sections, I'm embarrassed for these guys, but honestly not shocked because most of them don't get it. The ones that did, pivoted, no problem. Pivoted, no problem. Have. Have sub stacks or wrote for different startups or got into the audio, you know, who knows? I. People, what are you gonna be doing five years? I don't know. The world changes rapidly now. And if I gotta adapt, I gotta adapt or else this thing will die. It's really that simple. And I'm invested. This is my baby. This is my life. This is my profession. This is the only company that I have ownership in is my own podcast, you know, beside, like, some stocks. And I have to do whatever it takes to make it survive. Not gonna be right on every decision, but I will never, ever go down like, this is the only way to do it in a decade. Still complaining about the same things. I think you're a loser and you deserve to lose in business. Because historically, people that lose in business complain about the same things for decades. And I've been around a lot of farmers. They can be really angry. Some of them go down because they're still bitching and moaning about the same things 20 years later. It's like, guys, adapt. Do assistant coaches have to be vetted by HR, go through an interview process, check references, etc. Or does the head coach have enough juice to simply hire with no questions asked? I think it depends. I. I think if you fall into the category of been, like DUIs, obviously any police activity, you definitely get vetted. There is a vetting scenario, but some guys, like, if you've never been in any trouble, what's there really to vet? And the coach is vouching for you, that's enough. But if you have a history, like if you had a domestic violence thing in your past or something like that, yeah, it's definitely going to come up and they're going to have information on it. But most coaches, right, if I'm John Harbaugh, and I'm bringing over people from the Ravens, like they've already been vetted. You trust them, you're Good. Or Mike McCarthy. Like you have a long history with guys, but then there are some guys that, yeah, I mean I, I bet every individual is a little different. But you get to the point, like, is there vetting to go like off the field on Jim Schwartz? Like if Kyle Shanahan wants to hire Jim Schwartz, was he to vet been hired by all these teams over the last couple decades. So I think it's probably more younger coaches or individuals if they've had issues. Everyone loves talking about rookie contracts, so I went and looked. Who has won a Super bowl with a rookie contract? Here's the list. Brady Roethlisberger, Eli Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes, Carson Wentz, hurt mid season. So it appears it isn't a rookie contract. Is finding a Hall of Fame quarterback on a rookie contract? I'll grant you Eli and Wilson might be borderline, but they're close. I think it's really, really hard to win a Super bowl without a really good team. So to me, a huge element of winning the super bowl is like, you got to have a good, well rounded team. So if you have a Josh Allen situation, like is your defense good enough? He didn't play well. But like, I think part of it is like their team's not quite good enough and if it's not, he has to dominate and he didn't. You know Mahomes, they had those couple of years in 22 and 23 his team or even last year when they made the super bowl. Teams weren't quite as good, but he played pretty flawless in big, in big spots. So if you're gonna have a high priced quarterback, you either gotta nail some draft picks or have that quarterback play at like top two or three level, right? Look at, look at Seattle. They have one of the best teams in the league and their quarterback in the NFC championship just threw three touchdowns, no interceptions and 350 yards. Sometimes life isn't fair. Our Niners face Mahomes twice in the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Seahawks get a face and unproven Pats team with a mediocre O line. Beside getting healthy, what do you think the Niners need to finally get over the hump? I saw my guy, Dante Whitner say this. Like to me, the number one thing this offseason, they got to stay healthy. I don't know what that means. I don't know if it's removing substations. I don't know if it's changing doctors but if no healthy players, no chance. It's the football. You're going to get some guys injured, but the amount of injuries is not a sustainable fact. They will never win the Super Bowl. The amount of injuries they've had the majority of these seasons. That to me is the most important thing. Clearly the offseason. Got to make some smart moves, improve. But none of that matters if Kittle, if Fred Warner, if Nick Bosa. Think about that. Nick Bosa makes $30 million a year. Kiddo make Kittle and Warner make 20 each. Seattle fan looking forward to the Super Bowl. It's got to be a great feeling. It's. Well, I mean I. When the Niners make the Super Bowl I get pretty excited even though I've actually bet against them. Actually I bet on them against the Chiefs and I lost. I bet on him twice actually and lost both times. So I'm never doing that again. But if you are Seattle fan, I think part of making a Super bowl too. And the Patriots fall under this a little bit when it's unexpected. Like if you're the Chiefs you just. It's like the Chiefs Invitational, right? If you're even the Eagles like this year they just assumed they were going back. No one in Seattle like oh, we think it would be pretty good. And now you're in the super bowl. You just beat the Rams and McVeigh. It's got to be really sweet for Seattle actually. It's like, yeah. How'd you get to the Super Bowl? Oh, we just beat Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVeigh in Seattle. That's pretty sweet. There's no dispute that's. That's pretty badass. Do we need to fully abolish the Pro Bowl? It's been abolished. Whatever's going on is not. I don't watch. Most of you don't watch. It still gets a couple million people whatever the situation is, which is more than all the other sports. So that's why it's not going to die. But this. We need to rename it the. The super bowl games or I don't know the. I don't even know what you call it but stop calling it the Pro bowl because it no longer is. Just call it something else. And I don't think they will rebrand because it gets eyeballs. Would love to hear your opinion on him now. Josh Allen's guy. So this was a question. Just realize Joe Brady, what are your NFL buddies opinions on him as a coach? Haven't heard much Hype since the national championship days. I will say this about Joe Brady is Cook has become a star under his watch. So philosophically like he does believe in running the ball and utilizing the running back. And clearly because of their personnel, they have utilized the tight ends as well. I enjoy watching him call an offensive game. It's not his fault that Dalvin or not Dalvin, James Dalvin's brother, cousin, fumbles a lot. Like that's not his fault or you know, he didn't draft Keon Coleman who I actually think Keon Coleman should be excited for this decision. But I think Joe Brady's been good. Being a head coach, that was a lot different than just being the coordinator. So now he has to set the tone for the defense. He has to set the tone for the team. He has to set the tone for practice. That to me is the only question. Like just Joe Brady calling offensive plays clearly fine. Look how good they've been on offense since he's been there. I that's not my worry now. Like who's running the operation? Jim Leonard. A lot of rumors about him being the defensive coordinator. Like those are two pretty hotshot names. Joe Brady, Jim Letter if you tell me Jim letters calling the D, he's calling the O. That's pretty good coordinator situation. But like handling the team because even though the GM has a ton of juice like the GM talks to the team every week, Broncos fan here was at the championship game and as one of the 76 screaming faithful freezing our collective asses off for a proud franchise. This goes down as one of the the what if games and missed opportunity seasons with the athleticism of Bo. The Broncos win that game, the season falls. With 96, 05, 12, 13 and 14 Broncos teams over the last 30 years, the legacy of this game will be the one iconic sliding doors moment for the NFL in this franchise based on Bo played or not. P.S. while I'm planning on sitting out watching the super bowl as I lick my wounds, can we get some go low podcasts? We will. I just. I just had a limited amount of time to keep grinding these podcasts. I just I've watched the I watched last week golf tournament with Jack in my arms but and I plan on watching this tournament as well. Might even throw a little money on like Homa Cam Young. But Sean Payton said yesterday that the doctor said that this was inevitable, that there was some predisposed condition I guess to the bone. So while it sucks that he got injured, it's better to have this injury happen now and fix this problem, assuming you can than have it be an issue moving forward and you guys are going to be good next year. But yeah, it sucks. And I think it just shows you. I think people just are so tired of being lied to and being just told like something is true when it's not true. Like it's just. Especially over the last five years. I mean it's like Jesus Christ. Like we have eyes and ears, like we know what's going on. Like we know what a fugazi is. And when Sean Payton tried to sell us Jared Stidham, it's like, sean, come on, bro, this is the AFC championship game. You're not going to win the game with Jared Stidham. And what happened? The guy melted. Which I don't even blame him. I'm not even blaming Jared Stidham. But don't convince me that Jared Situm is going to be like some savior for your franchise. Give me a break. Long time listener and new dad as well. I was just listening to the last podcast and you talked about Mike falling onto. Falling onto the Patriots after exiting the Titans and coaching with Cleveland for a year. It blows my mind that he coached with the Browns under Stefanski and a year later he's in the Super Bowl. Like the Browns had him on staff and didn't do anything with him. I'm a Browns fan and I just can't with them anymore. I agree, bro. He's Ohio guy too. He wasn't coaching the Browns, so it's just one of those things. Hey, I. Sometimes we don't pick. You know, you're just kind of born into it. Like if you're just born into being a fan of Team X and that team is the jets or the Browns, it sucks. And football's so popular and so many people care and it's like, how is this possible? How is this. And it's one thing if you're like a 40 year old guy and you're like a USC fan right now, it's like you still have the 2000s and if just it goes semi. Well, it's not that I would say much of an uphill battle to at least just get back in the playoffs, but you've had great times. You got to live through the Pete Carroll era, right? But then there's just like Brown's like, what was our era? Like what was. What do I have if I'm a 50 year old fan over the last 25? Like what do I, what do I go back to? This sucks. I would say. Yeah, it does. Congrats on the baby. I'm also a new dad. We have a. We have a strong contingent of men in their 30s. That's why advertisers like us, men in their 30s high hai hhi which would be household income. We do well. We have a. We have a high level consumer that's. That's for sure. A lot of new fathers out there hopefully doing well. It's a grind, bro. I haven't seen anyone place any blame on Stafford for the loss on Sunday, particularly because he had the ball in the final two minutes of the first half. At the time, the Rams were three points up and they ended the half four points behind. Then he couldn't get it done on the two goal line attempts. Obviously the fumble is bad, but Stafford had chances to make up for it. The goal line attempts. I put more on McVeigh. I thought those plays, they just didn't work. I think he'd be the first to tell you they were just bad play calls. Now you could argue that Stafford has to force feed it to either Nakua on Devonte on one of those two, which I would agree. But I think there's gotta be and I don't pretend to be Joe Brady here or Andy Reid or Davis Webb who fucking everyone's just given a reach around to that who might be a good coach. But holy moly, the guy's been coaching for like three years. He's Sean McVeigh. Sean McVeigh, coach for like a decade before he got hired. Had worked for John Gruden, Mike Shanahan and Jay Gruden. Like had a lot of experience as a young coach. And I'm not trying to hate on Davis Webb seems like an impressive guy. I remember Washington, Macau. I'm not anti him but this notion that like you can just even the. The Rams guy. Shield House or what. I can't say his name. So much easier when your name's just like McVeigh or Shanahan. He had coached under what's his name. That's with Penn State now, like experience matters. As a coach, Rivers is somewhat of a unique case because instead of coaching he was just playing and he played the position that basically is a coach. But I, whenever I see these guys, it's like what are we talking about? I back to Sean. I. I just think the play calls were bad. You got to run some sort of like, I don't even know, like some sort of bunch formation where you could just get Puka or devonte on a free release. You just force Stafford like hey go to him no matter what. I, I just thought I, I put that on McVeigh more than, more than Stafford. I, I really do. On the, on the fourth, on the third and four and fourth and four. Out of all the teams that fired a coach, which team do you think will fire fare the best out of them? As a Ravens fan, I feel like the Ravens will because they have a good hire and are run so well because they made a good hire in the run so well. Also I would expect the Bills to come out of it worse. I just think the Ravens are going to be solid. You know is Mike Minter. If Mike Minter is just the next Mike McDonald, you're telling me the Ravens just had these two boy geniuses on their team which clearly mentor is highly thought of and his dad's a longtime coach. So if he's Mike McDonald, the Ravens will be elite. If he's just solid, they're so well run the team will just be in the playoff mix and then it'll come down to like how Lamar plays and who their offensive coordinator is. Maybe I've missed that but as of recording this, I haven't seen his his offensive coordinator higher. I think Mike McCarthy is going to be solid. Like the Steelers are not going to be bad. I think there are some major wild cards. Like the solid thing I do think that is there's no guarantee Harbaugh is going to work in New York. Some of them are just going to be solid now. Are they going to be great teams? I don't know. But the Browns thing is not going to work. The solid thing to me is a massive could go either way. Who am I missing? I mean the Raiders and Cardinals don't even have a coach yet. I would assume the Raiders are going to hire Kubiak in Seattle would be my guess and put him in that offense with Mendoza which would make a lot of sense as a Ravens fan. Lamar and Harbaugh debate on who is more responsible for the postseason failures reminds me a lot of Brady and Bill. In your opinion, who will have more of a chance to make the super bowl in the next five years? Harbaugh turning around the Giants or Lamar's new coaching staff with the Ravens. 100% the Ravens. Jackson darts an interesting player. We have no clue if he's like a high end guy. 0 like just to make the playoffs as a quarterback you got to be pretty good. So can he stay healthy? Can he play well against good teams? Like we got a long way to go with Jackson Dart if The Ravens just shore up the defense, get a good offensive coordinator. They could win 12, 13 games last year. Next year, hell, they could be the one seed. So to me it would be definitely the Ravens. If you tell me Jackson darts a star, which I could not say that right now, then yeah, they would be. It would be equal because John's gonna, it's gonna be a high level run operation. We have no clue on the quarterback. None. And the one thing you would say about that division is like Jaden has proven way more. He's got to stay healthy as well. Dax a much better player than Jackson Dart. And same with Jalen. Hurts got flaws. Doesn't seem like anyone wants to coach him now, but he's a better player in Jackson Dart. Why don't more teams need a bridge quarterback like the Cardinals try to get Shador Sanders. His rookie year was rough, but a lot of teams had a first round grade on him coming out. They didn't. I mean that's why he went the fifth, I think. I don't think anyone had a first run grade on him. I would also say this. The I can't even. The Cardinals don't have a Does anyone want their job? Like who are they going to hire? So until we see them hire somebody, if I was them, I'd try to bring Jacoby Brissette back. I really don't know what the Cardinals are going to do. To me, they are the uphill battle. They're actually building a practice facility relatively close to my house. That'd be awesome. If they sold to a real ownership and a buddy of mine got the GM job then I would just, I'd become like a sneaky little Cardinal fan. I'd go to practices but the way they run right now, I can't even take them seriously. So to me, if you're a Cardinal fan, the number one thing you should root for. How do we get Michael Bidwell to sell the team? What do we have to do to get Michael Bidwell to sell the team? Because until that happens, I don't know if much is going to change. I really don't. So from Shador Sanders to Jacoby Brissette to no coach to none of it matters. You're going to be Kyle, Sean and Mike McDonald with that owner. No chance. Heading down to Phoenix next week for a golf trip. Curious to know your opinion on two things. Best casino to hit up and best restaurants to hit up. Nothing too expensive. Balling on a budget. What if you're staying in Scottsdale now I can't speak to Phoenix. I have never. I've only been there like twice, honestly, since I've lived here on and off for about four years. Casinos talking stick, which is kind of in the middle of Scottsdale. It's got golf courses behind it. It's. It's pretty impressive casino. It's been a lot of late nights there back in my younger days. Haven't been there in a long time. But I. That would be the casino to go to if you want to play the golf courses, have drinks and then go play or vice versa, gamble, then go play. Restaurant 1 that's not crazy expensive. There are some, you know, Mastros is a great steak. Dominic's to me is. It's really expensive, but it's my favorite steakhouse on the west coast. I would say Houston's. It's that restaurant where Biz Nasty, the TNT barstool hockey player, got in the fight with like the seven traveling gypsies. I used to live kind of down in that area. It's in Paradise Valley. It used to be like my favorite. I would just go there by myself if like Maria was gone for the week. I, I went, I, I ate there with her and by myself probably 20 times. Even biz said like part of the reason he fought those guys is he was so offended because he loves that restaurant. I love Houston's. I guess they're a chain. I've never been to it outside of that. The Scottsdale location place is bomb. And it's not like it's a nicer restaurant, but it's not some crazy Fleming steakhouse. Congrats on becoming a dad. I'm 32 year old dad of three. Congratulations, bro. Welcome to the cult. Insanely difficult to raise children, but with the right woman, it is the most satisfying role you will ever play. You deserve a ton of credit because despite your newfound lack of sleep, the quality of your show has not dropped off one bit. I'm very lucky. My job is one, my commute to my office is out the back door to the backyard. And two, I'm not exactly digging ditches here. And I don't. This is not a gig where, you know, I got. My brother's a farmer. Like he's had a couple kids. Like if it's during harvest, like he's got shit to do, he's got to leave. You know, he's got a. He can be gone for a while. I got buddies in construction, you know, the industry. I'm in my business. I'm very, very fortunate to be able to kind of continue to do this while we're doing this because the whole setup I I'm this is not difficult. I I have no room to complain seeing people that juggle both. But I asked my boss, John Middlekoff, if he'd get maternity leave and he said no. Gotta keep cranking. Maybe take a couple weeks off in the summer. We'll relax. There's just too much to talk about too, too much good stuff. Like I'm not gonna not do podcasts during AFC NFC Championship Week and people getting hired and fired. As someone with three kids, there's nothing more challenging yet rewarding in life. A bit of advice. Kids will play with literally anything the first few years of life, so you don't need to go crazy. My football question is this good advice? I agree. I I haven't bought one toy. The only toys we got are toys we've been given either. Her mom brought two suitcases of stuff and Maria sabbatical retirement. Not quite sure right now but the she was in luxury real estate and she was at this, I think, one of the most expensive houses that's ever been sold in in Arizona. The people were so cool and they, they had grandkids and they had all this stuff like expensive toys. Diaper Genies. She she pulled in one day, her back of her car was just full for these people that were selling this like $35 million home just gave her, I mean a carload of shit. And we've been, we've been utilizing it. It's been awesome. So I mean I we take a lot of give me stuff. I'm not buying toys. I mean one, he's two, he's two weeks. So I can't even. You can barely grab my finger. The narrative around the Bengals is they are wasting Burrow. Is that overblown. They've gotten him good players and they've spent capital on the O line. Doesn't seem like the picks have worked out, but even if he had a good O line, he's still going to get sacked and he still may get hurt. I think it's just as many Bengal issues come down to Burrow being injury prone. However you wanted to find that. I had a buddy, a scouting buddy in that division that has watched him really closely and is has done pro advances on him. He's like, obviously Joe when he's on is as good as any quarterback in the league, is an elite player, hall of Fame level guy. But he does have a deficiency is he will hold on to the ball a little bit too long trying to make the perfect play. And that gets him sacked a lot. And that just creates some chaos. And the. Oh, he said the O line gets a bad rap and the injuries, there's some randomness to it, but like, yeah, I mean, that's kind of a knock on him right now, but he does hold on to the ball a little bit longer than like, Brady and Manning would. So it's like now when he's on, he'll. He'll look like the best player in the league. But he was just saying, you know, some of his teammates, he's better than Russell when he's on, than prime Russell, who was damn good too. But remember how often Seattle's offensive line would just get on like, these guys suck. These guys look like they should be in the ufl. And then like offensive linemen would do like, TV hits like Schlerith or Joe Thomas and they'd. I remember who was. Was a guy in the league who was offended. He's like, that was not on the left. Russell ran right into him. Maybe it was Joe Staley. I forget who it was. But I think sometimes some of these quarterbacks, the scrambling ones, run into sacks and the guys like Burrow will just hold onto the ball trying to make the perfect play. But I'm with you. It's like this team will. What they signed the number two wide receiver to a big contract. How many teams would have done that? So there's no perfect team. There's no perfect way to build the team. But I think they've done a better job than they get credit for. I'm with you there, Lions fan. Is it crazy to think that 9 and 8 is an utter disaster of a season? Five years ago, I would have signed up for a single season at 9 and 8 and called MCDC a major success. I do think there is some perspective on the season going the way that it did. Finishing above.500 with a force play schedule on the horizon. That's pretty crazy. You went nine and eight and you finished fourth place. What position would you target in the upcoming draft? I think there is a similarity with the Niners and the and the Lions. Like they got to find a way to stay healthy. Too often late in the season it's like all their players are injured. So you get Branch back. Their corners feels like have been a little underwhelming. You could always use another defensive lineman to go with Aiden Hutchinson. The offensive line this year wasn't quite as good. You get laporta back off the back injury. So offensively, skill wise you're gonna have Laporta who lets hopes healthy to go with your receivers, the running backs golf to me just go line. I I would just go defensive and offensive line the first couple rounds. Big Niner fan, but I'm with you like your team. I knew they would try that last game of the season against the Bears. Like this is Dan Campbell. He's wired like a hardball. There's no way he's just going to punt on this and he didn't. So to me they got to figure out the offensive coordinator job. Have they. Have they hired one yet? Maybe I missed it. I've had a lot going on. But the offensive situation last year I know he fired the guy after the he fired the guy in the middle of the season when he took over. Big Niner fan Shanahan is undoubtedly an elite coach and somewhere around top five in the league. But how does McVay scheme open Puka over and over against McDonald, yet the Niners struggle to gain a yard. It seems like there's some DCs that just understand Kyle's system. Well. Kyle's passing game is predicated on the run game and he can't run it against Mike McDonald. So then his drop back passing game is not nearly as good as the Rams. That's not how he wants to play. He wants to run the play action stuff to get scheme guys open partly because he doesn't have Puk Nakua on his team. Puka Nakua's minimum top three wide receiver in the league, so he's getting open on anybody. And he's gone for 350 yards against Seattle this year in the last two games. Went for 225 against Thursday on Thursday night and went for whatever 160 a couple days ago. So it's like the 49ers are depending on DeMarcus Robinson like so the the skill wise it's not quite the same but they don't. One way to get after Seattle a little bit is like Richard Sherman and Darrell Revis. The corners are good but it's not. They're not unstoppable but you can't run it at these guys. And then if you do pass the way that the 49ers do the play action stuff, their pass rush gets to them because it's kind of delayed pass. The Rams offense, the way they play is much more equipped to have success against Seattle than the 49ers. It's a bad matchup for 49ers because he will stop the run and his DB's all tackle. So like there's nowhere for the running backs to go. And then Kyle's offense is not just a drop back. Throw it 45 times a game. They're not a come from behind. Like he doesn't. He's not going to be down 20 nothing come storming back. Like the Rams can come storming back because their dropout passing game is their offense. The 49ers are not a drop back passing game offense. Kevin O' Connell is. Andy Reid is. The 49ers are a run first offense like the Indiana Hoosiers. It's how Kyle wants to play and that's how he coaches. Their offensive line's not that great. So if like if it's. If I'm down 17 nothing and you know, I got a pass like Trent Williams at 40 years old can neutralize some people, but the other guys can't. But when they're playing, when the run game's working and the pass game's off the play action, their offensive line looks fine. Okay, couple more Help me get through cleaning out my driveway multiple times up here in New England. I saw the robot. There's a robot snowblower now this guy used. I saw it on Instagram. Like that that'd be a. If if I owned one, I would never live in the snow. I heard this argument the other day by somebody like I would much rather live in these freezing cold temperatures and bundle up than those of you that live in the heat. I could not disagree anymore. I can't even imagine how you guys do it. I get you hate the heat. I we hate the cold. And your misery in the winter is. It's actually a little overcast today, 68 degrees. But I just. There's a give and take. But there's no perfect unless you live in Newport beach, right? Most places aren't 75 year round. So it's like you either got to take the cold winters or the hot summers. And I will choose the hot summers every day of the week and 50 times on Sunday over the cold winters. Some of you that grow up in the Northeast, like when I lived in Philly, people like the winters. Still hot there too. It's humid in the summer, not quite 115, but I don't know how I get on that tangent. My question for the mailbag is with two defensive coach in the super bowl, does that change the landscape of hiring moving forward? Everyone was looking for the hot young offensive coordinator. I mean the Mike McDonald just got hired. His name's just his name's Jesse mentor. And Mike Vrabel is kind of a. He's like Philip Rivers, that type guy doesn't. It's like, yeah, that guy. Former player, high level player. Just impressive dude. Just a dude. An Alpha. An Alpha's Alpha. What is that? Mike Vrabel would get hired in any cycle. Offense, defense, special teams. Doesn't give a what you're looking for. You'd hire Mike Frable. No better job than being a dad. My best piece of advice, Patience. Patience, patience. Because kids have none. Patience is not something I've ever had, but once you get married, you kind of work on it. Once you have a child, you don't really have a choice. I wanted to hear your thoughts on Jonathan Gannon being hired as the packers defensive coordinator. I remember when he got hired by Arizona and he like the pew pew and everyone was making fun of him at the time. I actually knew probably more people in Philly. I did not know one of my guys that worked for Philly scouting department that didn't love Jonathan Gannon and they said, honestly, I think he's going to be a better head coach than he was a defensive coordinator. The downfall of Jonathan Gannon was he signed up for a franchise with a joke. Owner Kyler Murray is the quarterback and this year they had a million injuries. I think John again is pretty good. I, I really do. I, I actually kind of came around on him. I met him at the combine a couple years ago. One of my buddies introduced me to him. See, just a high level cat now. Is he going to be as good as Halfley? I don't know. I feel, you know, you go back to Philly, Jonathan Gannon's probably and maybe this is unfair but, but a little more vanilla than Halfley. Halfley was really good. Like if you told me I could get a defensive coordinator, like he would be on my short list of people I would have wanted in the NFL head coach or defensive coordinator. I think Jonathan Gannon's probably higher than most, but I, it might be a little bit of a drop off, but he's still going to be good. Your Joe Berry days are not going to be there. I mean, look at Jonathan Gannon when he was there in Philly a couple of years ago and they like led the league in sacks. So you get Gary, you get Micah back, draft more defensive players. It's a good hire, solid hire with a guy with a ton of experience. I mean, let's face it. Pressure on Joe Brady, pressure on the packers. Like there's no like, can't just have a nine and eight season. Like people are going to want like an NFC championship, Super bowl level run and you make this trade for Micah, which was the right move. I, I don't. I would have made that move as well. So would everybody. But you got to come through when you make those moves. And so the pressure. I think that's probably why they didn't go. I had someone text me. They thought Jim Leonard was going to be the guy with Jonathan Gannon. You know, you're getting a guy that can coordinate at the NFL level. He's done it at the highest level against the best teams right in Philly. So. And he can handle the pressure. So I get why they did it and I think it's a good hire. I do think he's got a tough guy to replace because I think Halfley's a stud, but totally understand it. And I, I've never heard a bad word about Jonathan Gannon. I actually think more people around the league like him more. Seeing what he went through in Arizona. I actually think he hired a pretty good staff too. Like the guy he. Oh, the Lions hired the bald dude from Arizona who's highly thought of. Everyone I know in the league, like, likes him. Like, thinks they think highly of these guys. They think lowly of the organization, not of Gannon. Great head coach, clearly not the most dynamic guy, but I think that was a good hire. On defense Audios the Volume this is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.