Transcript
John Middlekauff (0:00)
This is an I heart podcast. If you smoke or dip, I'm going to give you a few good reasons to try Zynn Zyn nicotine Pouches. First, it's America's number one nicotine pouch brand, and Zynn offers a robust rewards program. There's a lot of options for nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zyn. So if you go to zyn.com find that's z y n.com find to to find Zyn at a store near you. This product does contain nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.
Katie Couric (0:32)
On the latest episode of Next Question with me, Katie Couric. I sat down with Bernie Sanders. We've talked many times over the years, and today he even throws a few questions my way.
John Middlekauff (0:42)
All right, are you ready for another question? Go ahead, hit me, Bernie.
Katie Couric (0:47)
We talk about the billionaire class, the cost of living, and of course, the government shutdown. Listen to Next Question with me, Katie couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
John Middlekauff (1:03)
December 29, 1975, LaGuardia Airport.
Narrator (1:08)
The holiday rush. Parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then everything changed.
John Middlekauff (1:17)
There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Just a chaotic, chemical, chaotic scene.
Narrator (1:22)
In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged. Terrorism. Listen to the new season of law and criminal justice System on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Sad Oligarch Host (1:37)
The rich Russians falling out of windows podcast is back. Sad Oligarch Season 2 Since we left you in 2023 after season one, many politically motivated Russian millionaires continue to die in suspicious circumstances. Season two gets very weird. Listen to Sad Oligarch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
John Middlekauff (2:09)
The volume. What is going on, everybody? John Middlecoft three and out podcast. Hopefully everyone's doing well. Hopefully as well as Brian Kelly, who I. I just saw a stat. He's going to get $740,000 every month for the next six years. So pretty incredible gig if you can get it. But tonight we're going to talk about the. We're gonna talk about the Chiefs who just destroyed the commanders who are now 5 and 3 Mahomes throwing his hat in the ring for MVP. Commanders are just in a free fall right now. They're 3 and 5. They were in the NFC championship game last year. They beat the Lions on the road and now they play Seattle coming up, which is not going to go well. That's Sunday Night Football. Like Seattle in that spot. Then they play the Lions. It could get ugly and it could get ugly fast that they're going to need Jaden Daniels back real quick. And the Eagles, I mean it's the division already over. They got six wins. No one else has more than three. I don't think either Dallas or Washington, best case going to win eight. Eagles are going to cruise this division. So we'll talk about something I forgot to mention last night. It kind of hit me today when I was driving around run some errands about Guta Kins and lafleur. Some couple thoughts on Brian Kelly and RIP Nick Mangold who I forgot to mention last night who passed away this this weekend. Legendary former jets team captain, Ohio State, just stud all time great center and lost way too soon obviously. But I didn't want to hit on him as well as a mailbag at John Middlekopf At John Middlekopf is the Instagram fire in those DMs. Get your questions answered here on the podcast and you guys know the drill. Subscribe to the YouTube page. Never miss a thing. We go live Thursdays, Sundays, Monday nights and we'll have content all week as well. So go check that out. Obviously the podcast. If you listen on Collins feed, make sure you subscribe to three and out before we dive in to some football and a man named Patrick Mahomes. You know I got to tell you about my friends. You know I got to tell you about my partners. The official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time. Do you want to go to one of these football games? Do you want to go to an NFL game? Do you want to go to a college game? Well, here's the thing. Game Time has exclusive discounts like zone deals. You just pop up. Type in the team you want to see, type in the stadium you want to go to. You get flash deals. You get the ability when you click on the ticket. There are no hidden fees. It tells you the actual price. How often on one of these other ticketing sites do you find where you want to sit? Do you click on it? And then you go to check out and it adds 30%. You're like, what is going on? That's not here. No fooling around here. Great seat views. The lowest price is guaranteed. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Professional Football Ticket. Excuse me, let me reread that. That was not great by your boy. Take the guesswork out of buying Professional Football Tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use the code John for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again, create an account and redeem the code. John for $20 off. Swipe, tap Ticket. Go download the GameTime app today. You know, you guys never get to see the sausage being made. Sometimes when I'm reading ads here to send off to my people and there have been iPads thrown, Stanley's throne pens, notebooks. I get very angry sometimes. Some of these ad reads the game time one I do at the back of my hand. But it's, it's, it can be a challenge here. They're not as easy as they look. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. That was as easy as it looked. Very weird start to the game. I mean extremely weird. The first quarter is one of the more bizarre experiences I've had this year in a primetime game. We had a pick off Debo's face. We had Patrick Mahomes throwing a pick to Lattimore who I think would be considered like universally shot washed. Most people, even Troy Aikman was like, God, he really needed that one. And then Travis Kelsey had one like bounce off his hands be get intercepted. So we had like three interceptions within what felt like the first 20 minutes of, of game time. It's like, what is going on here? And then the game played out and the Kansas City Chiefs put the pedal to the metal. Mahomes threw three touchdowns. Rasheed Rice delay a game penalty, throwing the ball at someone's face. Coach Reed goes, what did you do? And he does the, he does the, you know, tries to show him what he did. And coach Reed didn't even say anything back. He's like, are you serious? He's like, you're actually telling me what you did. But he did and he got a delay game, but it didn't matter. He's, he's an elite player. Travis has the fountain of youth. Clearly all the wide receiver help. Marquis Brown playing all season long. Juju Smith, Adam, Rasheed Rice back Worthy's now healthy. The running games awesome. I mean they're missing their best two offensive linemen tonight. Trey Smith is one of the better interior offensive linemen in the NFL. I think they said on the broadcast he missed his second game of his five year career tonight. And Josh Simmons who's been gone for the last several games with a unknown personal matter. But I think people have reported that signs point to him coming back in the relatively near future. So they will get their starting left tackle back and their starting star guard back to go along with their high end center. It's like their offensive line is pretty solid now this team's coming. And it kind of hits you when you're watching them play like this team's going to be in the AFC championship game again. It had a feeling to that one Patriot team. I forget the year might have been 14, could have been 15. They started like 2 and 2. And I think Albert Brear asked a question in a press conference. It might have been on a Monday night game where they had lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. If Tom Brady was in, like, was there a threat for him to get benched and Jimmy Garoppolo to play? And Belichick's reaction was classic. But then the dust settled and they were in the Super Bowl. I think that was the year either they came back to Atlanta or beat. Beat the Rams. I don't remember the exact year, but kind of how it felt. You know, the Chiefs start owing to everyone's like they're done. You know, that looked a little weird. And even when they lost the Jags game, that is the game they always won. And obviously Mahomes throws the 99 yard pick six. Just it started to feel like it's not really their year. And then as we get to Halloween, it's like they're going to be especially if they win this weekend against the Bills. If they win this weekend against the Bills going on the road, take down the Bills who have played really well against them and beat them countless times in the regular season and you go six and three into the buy. I think depending on what happens over these next several weeks with the Colts and who knows, can the Colts maintain a 15 win pace, but maybe they can. I think the Chiefs immediately become a threat to be the number one seed. But most importantly, like this isn't just a playoff team. This is a contender and this is a Super bowl contender. And you know, they have the most important combination in the NFL, which I would say most people would say they have the number one version of this. The coach, the quarterback and the defensive coordinator, because their head coach is the offensive coordinator. So whoever your two coordinators are typically now in the NFL, one of them, for a lot of, you know, these teams, it's their offensive coordinator. McVeigh, Shanahan, Sean Payton, LaFleur, right. Kevin O'. Connell and then their defensive coordinator is extremely important. Flores, Shula, Sala, Spags and the quarterback, well, they got arguably one of the best quarterbacks of all time that I would have told you you were probably need to put down the drugs maybe a month ago. But you watch him tonight and you've watched in the last several games now that he's got his arsenal of weapons back, and you go, that's the best player in the league. And the MVP odds have shown, like, how is Patrick so high in the MVP odds? How is Patrick so high in the MVP odds? Kind of hit me tonight like, well, he wins next week in Buffalo, and he ends up throwing several touchdowns a game. Moving forward, this guy's going to win the MVP of the league. And here's what he has going for him, because sometimes narratives matter. It really helped Josh last year, right? Because in fairness, he had never won it. And he was clearly one of the best players in the league. He was in that trio or quattro of Burrow, Lamar Mahomes and him, they were the leaders of the pack, and he was playing great. He probably could have won it previous years, but, like, there was a lot of momentum for him. Just like early in his career, there was a lot of momentum for Patrick. Then we completely shifted. We had gone all in with Josh and Lamar, rightfully so. You could argue there were times those guys were playing better than Patrick Mahomes. It wasn't really debatable. Now he flipped a switch in the playoffs, so did his team, and they would beat them in the playoffs. But it's a regular season award, and those other guys earned it. Well, this year, especially after the 02 start, everyone kind of wrote them off. I was probably. I don't know if I want to say I'm guilty, but I definitely thought, like, yeah, this could just be a 9 and 8 season. Understandable. You got some injuries, little transition, you're missing some players. Xavier Worthy gets hurt the first game. You know, your defense has some holes. You know, Chris Jones is going to pick his spots. No, that. That's not what's going to happen. And this is why when you have Josh Allen, when you have Lamar Jackson, when you have Patrick Mahomes, when you have Joe Burrow, your chips all going to be in the middle of the table every single year, because as long as they're on the field, they give you a chance. And this guy, the reason we talk about him in such a high regard, like, I love football. I love watching good quarterback play. I loved watching Marcel Reed on Saturday night in Louisiana with that performance. It was just spectacular. I admire it. I appreciate how difficult it is on the road in these environments, understand the pressure of playing in these primetime games and to watch Mahomes. And this is what, you know, being critical of Some young quarterbacks and stuff, you have to do the easy stuff. Well, right? Like when you're running back hits a wheel route and it's third and five and that is schemed up and he will walk to a first down, you not only need to hit him, you need to hit him in stride. Patrick Mahomes does that shit with his eyes closed. Quick out slants, timing routes on second and eight, third nine, stuff that is going to get you the first down or not a first down. The difference in punting and keeping the chains and the drive going, that's what he, he majors in that. But his ability and what he's really shown over the last couple weeks is like kind of feels like we're getting that throwback. What made the guy kind of legendary. We called him Farveen. We called him like the Steph Curry of football. And he's doing that again. And it's harder to do that when you don't have players to throw it to. And Stucky was on my podcast a couple weeks ago and he brought up a good point. He's like, I, I think Travis was just a product of the receivers were injured and everyone kind of condensed in the middle of the field and took that away from well, when you got Hollywood Brown playing well, when you got juju Smith playing well, when you bring back Rice, you got the speed of worthy. When your running backs can catch the ball, it just opens the field a little bit. So all of a sudden you're watching Travis Kelsey. He just looks a little bit younger than he did previous years. Maybe he's not. Maybe it's just simply he has more room to operate. And listen, is he as quick and explosive as he was four or five years ago? Of course not. But he's so smart, even on the one big play today. What's he doing? He's in on pass protection. What does Mahomes do? He's looking around, he's looking around, nothing's there. All of a sudden Travis realizes there's no one there. Slip out. Mahomes elite instincts looks dump some the ball off. Huge game. Maybe in his younger years he scores a touchdown on that play. But I'm watching Patrick Mahomes and I go, that's mvp. I mean, that's so the Chiefs, can they win the afc? I think we all acknowledge, yes, they can. This version of them. When you have Andy Reid, when you got spag scheming it up and you got quarterback play at this level, even if you're going to be, let's let's say Denver wins the division and they're a 12 win team and Denver's a 13 win team and you're the 5 seed. You think you're worried if you're Kansas City about going on the road and take care of business? You think you're scared to go on the road to play the Pittsburgh Steelers? Of course not. So I think the Chiefs have really figured it out and I think it starts and really ends with this quarterback. I feel like he flipped a switch, I really do. And it's easier to make plays when you have more talent around you. But he feels a little just more dialed in than and he's just playing at a higher level. He does this in the playoffs, but over the last couple years in the regular season, it could just be a little hit or miss in the version we're seeing right now. Like this is the first couple years when he started like doing the miraculous stuff and the talent around him is really good and they're just playing at a high level now. I obviously Washington's not very good. Like I look at Washington like a six or seven win team. But what does a good team do to a bad team? They destroy them. And that's exactly what happened tonight, 28 to 7. Let's just pick up some stats here. Chiefs 26 first downs, Washington 14. You know the Chiefs could be a little bit better on third down. They were 410 but good on, good on fourth down. That's another thing with Washington and we talked about this over the course of the season with Stuckey on the gambling aspect. They were so good on fourth down last year they were like 22 of 24 or 22 of 25, whatever the number was, it was, it was insane because of the quantity of the times they went for it, but of obviously the times that they executed it. And you watch them now and obviously with Mariota, there's a big difference with Jaden Daniels, but the magic's just kind of gone. And this is what's so difficult. I was thinking this on Saturday watching Alabama play. Think how many years that program has been the game that every team on their schedule circles. I mean we're going on easily over 15 like once Nick Saban really established the program in like 2010. So for all the 2000 and tens and this entire decade, including right now, every single team that plays them, every non conference team and every SEC team circles them for the Chiefs now since Patrick Mahomes, like they were a good team before Patrick got there. When Patrick got there they accelerated to just an elite operation. So for the last six or seven years, every team on the schedule, obviously divisional teams, but every non divisional team you play, it's arguably the biggest regular season game of their season. You are getting everyone's best fight. You are walking into the ring and they are going to give you however many Mike Tyson rights they have. And some might have more than others, right? Obviously, Washington doesn't have much tonight, but tonight, if you're Washington, even with your backup quarterback, you're three and four. This was a kitchen sink game, and this would have been even if they were a fully loaded team. It's a really big deal to play the Kansas City Chiefs when you are forever LeBron James or Steph Curry or Tiger woods. You're getting everyone's best shot every single time you play them because you are their biggest deal. And I'm watching the Chiefs tonight just thinking, like, that's really hard. That's why I always say, like, it's, it's really hard to maintain a high level of play as a team, as an individual player, as a coach. Like anyone at the highest level can have a good game. Hell, most guys can have a good season. But being a great player is doing it year in, year out. What they say tonight, Travis Kelsey, that was his hundredth career touchdown, including the playoffs. I think it was like his 83rd during the regular season. You know how long that guy has been a good player? I mean, we're going on well over a decade of basically every year you're getting. I, I would say on average, 85 catches. And I bet he had a stretch where he was scoring seven, eight touchdowns a year. I, I mean, basically since he didn't really play as a rookie his second year, 67 catches, 72 catches, 85 catches, 83 catches, 100 catches, 97 catches, 105 catches, 92 catches, 100110 catches, 93 catches, 97 catches last year. Every single year, he's clocking in to kick ass. Even when people like me, he's lost a step. I lost a step. 97 catches, 97 catches. Now I get it. There's an extra game, we throw the ball more. Especially with a coach like Andy Reid. It's going to be different than playing for some of his coaches. But still, do you know how difficult that is? And I, I watched. This is what makes the league so, so hard. Washington. I, I'm guilty of this. It's like they got Jane Daniels, incredible player. It's like I, I like C.J. stroud. A lot as rookie year. Who didn't? I felt like Jaden was on a different level. When you factored in the dual threat. It was just like they got Dan Quinn, this established coach. They got Adam Peters, who's been groomed to be this great gm. You got Bob Myers, who's in there giving tips. You got Magic Johnson hanging out with Josh Harrison. Like this thing's a rocket ship. Year two, they'll probably go like 6 and 11 or 7 and 10. I get it. They had some injuries, but still, it's like that's how fast it can. The Chiefs now since Andy Reid has got there, I think they've had one down year where they missed the playoffs. They went 9 and 7 1. It is really difficult because last year Washington didn't have this. They got to fly under the radar. They had been one of the shittiest franchises in the league for two decades. So no one takes them that seriously. Even if they have this special quarterback now, by the end of the year, you're kind of okay. This team's got a winning record. Then all of a sudden you look, you're in the NFC championship game. It's one of the great seasons in like franchises had in 30 years. It's like all the hype coming back this year and now you're just getting throttled. And in fairness, like, it's not. I, I'm not blaming these guys for like feeling themselves or, or getting the disease of me. Some of it's just, you know, Jaden's been banged up. Obviously, McLaren's missed some games. I have nothing but respect for Bobby Wagner. Absolute badass. He's a liability now. I mean, you see his speed trying to cover guys. I mean, he used to be one of the best line. He's a Hall of Famer. He's one of the great players of his generation. But this thing in football, you know, and once you're. You lose a step at linebacker in the way the league is played now, Space League, they, they use running backs in the passing game. You got to cover people and you just feel like Dan Quinn talked about it, like, we don't feel as fast. Well, your middle linebacker is not as fast and your pass rush isn't as good. Like you're depending on Javon Kinlaw, who's solid player, but like that's one of your main guys on defense. Lattimore, who's had a really bad season. They, they've depended on some guys who fallen off. Now McLaren, you saw tonight, made like two of the better catches of the year. I mean the catch on the sideline where Mariota throws the lollipop to keep his foot one, it's just incredible touch on the pass, but to slow his feet down like he's Chris Carter and catch that thing, that was awesome. It was so good. The referee was literally standing there and was like out of bounds, out of bounds. They showed the replays like that's pretty easily inbounds. But honestly when it happened in real time, like ah, that he didn't catch that. No chance. Then he did same thing on the one down the sideline. You're like, that's, that's out of bounds. Then you see, no, he caught it. I, I, I, this is where I defended Terry McLaurin. It's like, listen, there is no way that I'm going to make the same money as Debo Samuel on this team because I, I'm a dynamic outside wide receiver and there's no shade of Debo. I have a lot of respect for him, but like, if you are building a team based on who's better, gets paid more, you got to pay Terry McLaurin more. And I thought Debo would have a big impact for him. Doesn't quite feel like he hasn't been terrible, but you know, they're just missing a little juice at the end of the day. Like Mahomes doesn't miss games. And that's the other thing with Jaden and this is, we talked about this last week. You know, they get back to the Herm Edwards thing. Like the best ability is availability. And that's obviously not true. The best ability is like your actual ability. Right? Like some guys have way less ability than Chris Jones. So it's like, yeah, you can put them at defensive tackle, they're going to get stoned by centers and guards. So like you got to have ability. But at that level, like most guys have a lot of ability, but then if you're not available, like Brock Purdy might end up playing like three games this season. They just paid him $200 million. Like, that's a disaster. It's no one's fault. Like, obviously no one's trying to get injured, but it's just that's a problem, you know, and especially it's one thing when you have catastrophic injuries. Nothing you can do when it's just these injuries. Like, what, what's the reason for this? Is it something you're doing, putting yourself in harm's way? Because you're. All of our jobs now, coaching staff, front office, a Lot of players on the team are tied to you. Like we go as you go. Ask everyone in Kansas City what it's like to have Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid in the front seat driving that bus. It's been glorious financially, wins and loss wise the moments they've had to just everything about it. But like you got to be able to depend on the guy and that's going to be something. Like if Jaden wants to have this great career, which he has the physical capabilities, he's got to be on the field. And you watch Mariota, who I looked up, fascinating career right when he came out of college. And I always give like the college guys a little grace on this. You know, I remember having Joel Klatt on the radio show and Rick Neuheisel too. They both thought he was like the next Steve Young. It's like, I don't know. I like Mariota, who doesn't. He's like all time great character guy could be a little inaccurate, you know, when you really watch them. At Oregon, guys weren't wide open, but he was the easy guy to root for. But he's a good example. I looked it up today. He's made $83 million and he hasn't been a starter in years. If you are a good guy, right, and you're on that tier that like, you know, I'm not going to be a top 12, 15 quarterback but people are going to love me. You can make a lot of money in the NFL and like at the end of the day, if Mario to start a lot of games, you're going to lose a lot of them. But he's got another year after this, maybe a couple. When it's all said and done, he might get a couple more five million dollar contracts. He might make a hundred million dollars by the time he's 36, 37 years old as a backup quarterback. And I think that's a good lesson for life. Like be a good person, treat people well, be someone. Like part of being valuable in certain industries is like be a guy that other people want to be around. Ask Joe Flacco or people that have employed Joe Flacco what that means. They like being around Joe Flacco. Well, I said this about Mark Sanchez. I always heard that Mark Sanchez, remember he had a long career as a backup. People loved him. And there's a chase. Daniel was a guy that played for like 15 years in the NFL. I think he had like four career starts made like $40 million. So the value of Mariota is Not that he's a good player, because most guys, if you have to, if you have to become a starter when you're the backup and Mariota has to start eight games this year, they're going to lose the majority of them, right? And they basically pay him to not play. You know, there are some guys like Mac Jones you can win some games with, and Mac Jones is a good example of that. Mac Jones can become a guy that can just have a long career making 8 to 10 million dollars as the best backup in the league. And maybe one team, one year will give him like one year, $20 million to be a bridge quarterback so he can inflate his overall earnings over the course of his career. And you can't turn that down. But like, if you're one of those guys. I love this guy in the quarterback room. I want this guy around my young quarterback because most bad teams are always looking to draft young quarterbacks. Well, who do you want around a young quarterback? A high level guy. What did the Chiefs do when they basically inserted Patrick Mahomes? When they traded Alex Smith, Brett Veach and Andy Reid had a goal to find a backup quarterback. The guy had to be married. They wanted a mature guy around their young quarterback. Who'd they, who'd they sign and hire? Chad Henny. What Chad Henny do make millions of dollars for years being the backup for Patrick Mahomes. And it's beloved in that building. And I remember hearing a story that when Chad Henny was like, I'm retiring. They're like, hey, Chad, can you help us find a backup quarterback? So I think he did some interviewing for them. Like that's, that's the type guy like when you watch Flacco. Now Flacco's, you know, probably shouldn't be starting, but he's another one of those guys, you just want him around Jamis. Look at the career Jamis has kind of cut out for. Look at Gardner Minchu. People just like Gardner Menu. Now if Gardner Menu's got to start for you, you got problems. But I bet if you ask Andy and Patrick and Nagy like, oh, we love Gardner. He's awesome. Great vibes in the, in the meeting room. Helps everyone study. Good film breakdown guy. We like him around. We are extremely excited to announce our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet. Everyone knows and loves their hotels and casinos. But now you can use the top rated Hard Rock BET sportsbook to place all your NFL bets this season. Hard Rock BET is the only legal sports book in the state of Florida and is also available in Arizona, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois and Colorado, with more states to come. You can also play on Hard Rock Bets Online Casino if you are in New Jersey as we gear up for the NFL season, sign up for Hard Rock Bet and make a $5 bet and you'll get 150 in bonus bets. If you win, head over to Hard Rock Bet, sign up and make your first deposit today. Payable in bonus bets. Not a cash offer. Offered by the Seminole Tribe in Florida. 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