Transcript
John Middlekauff (0:00)
AI is redefining what's possible for your business. With more unique challenges to solve and higher stakes than ever, Microsoft helps you stay ahead. Our trustworthy AI tools and guidance can empower leaders like you to drive greater impact. And with Azure's simplified platform management, we're helping businesses go further, faster, unlocking up to 150% improved output. Whatever challenge comes next, let Microsoft help you keep pushing forward. For more details, visit Microsoft.com challengers T.
T-Mobile Representative (0:32)
Mobile's stats are as impressive as your favorite athlete's highlight reel, because T Mobile helps keep you connected from the heart of Portland to right where you are on America's largest 5G network switch. Now keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off up to $800 per line via prepaid card. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com KeepAndSwitch up to four lines to be a virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualified unlock device, credit service port in 90 plus days device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required card is no cash access and expires in six months.
John Middlekauff (1:01)
Picture this. You're halfway through a DIY car fix, tools scattered everywhere, and boom. You realize you're missing a part. It's okay because you know whatever it is, it's on ebay. They've got everything. Brakes, headlights, cold air intakes. Whatever you need. And it's guaranteed to fit. Which means no more crossing your fingers and hoping you ordered the right thing. All the parts you need at prices you'll love. Guaranteed to fit every time. Ebay Things people love. Whether you're teeing off, headed into the office, or kicking back to watch the big game, Travis Matthew has you covered. They create versatile apparel designed to make you look and feel your best wherever life takes you. From performance driven styles to everyday essentials for men and women, Travis Matthew bridges the gap between style and comfort I was just in Nashville, got married and we had some parties to attend. I rocked the Travis Matthew jeans the entire time. Extremely versatile, can wear with tennis shoes, with dress shoes, with boots. The style makes me look better Ready to elevate your everyday? Visit travismathieu.com and get 20% off your first order when you sign up for email. The Volume Foreign what is going on everybody? How are we doing? Little weekend mailbag at John Middelkopf at John Middlekopf is the Instagram fire in those DMS get your questions answered right here on the show Again, DMS wide open fire in them. Football questions, life questions, you name it. We get everything in between so fire in those. The draft is, if you're listening or watching this, less than a week away. It's crazy. It drags there for a little bit in April, then all of a sudden you're like, whoa, it's draft week. That's how fast it happens. So let's dive into some of your questions. But before we do, you guys know there is not a better ticketing app I've ever used than my partners, my friends in the official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time. Listen, we got playoff basketball starting. We got baseball in full swing. Right now we have the NHL hockey playoffs are about to kick off. Concert season, comedy shows, you name it. Any event you want to go to, any place, any arena, any stadium, any team. You can search by them. Search by price point. If you want to go to a concert, you can search by the view of the stage. Used it countless times. Put me in great position because I could use the stage on the app. It doesn't get any easier to use. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets. With Game time down the Game Time app, create an account and use the code John. That's my name Johan. For $20 off, your first purchase terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem the code John, that's Johan. For $20 off, download the game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. K okay, let's dive into some of your questions. Ryan why does Bo Nix seem to be an afterthought compared to Williams and May? Is it purely pre draft hype or physical attributes? He threw for over 4,000 yards, 33 combined touchdowns, and had only one legitimate target in the passing game. Sutton nearly led the team in rushing and showed better physical tools than most thought. I know having Peyton makes a big difference, but Knicks did a lot of things with average skill talent. I'm expecting a big year in 2025. Thoughts? Totally agree. I think sometimes we get really caught up early on in a I would say a player that is controversial or polarizing and then he has a good season. And there are people that with much more hype that still get talked about more. It happens a lot in sports and obviously Bo Nix falls under that category. But why would you care? They can talk about Caleb Williams all they want. Your team was in the playoffs, right? Their team was not. You have an established coach. They're praying to God. Ben Johnson is 75% of Sean Payton. So I would be less caught up in like what people talk about. You guys have been really bad for a long time. He was the Last quarterback selected. It's part of the business. I mean the guy drafted number one overall is just going to get the majority of of just talk. And plus like they got two new head coaches in Ben Johnson and Mike Vrabel. So it's just a little sexier to talk about. Like let's not forget now it wasn't a good thing. But we talked a lot about the Broncos, you know, two years ago with Peyton and Russell Wilson. So it just, you know, the momentum of a headline but you know the best way to get in the headlines, win. And if they have another good season like they just did last year and they take another step and they have a good draft, who cares? I would get way less caught up than like who first take is talking about. Could you do a breakdown of different factors separating scouting departments across the league? We always hear that the Eagles have a Great Scouting Department vs the Bengals are always shit on for their small scouting department. Is it just size of the department? Are there certain teams that have heavy hitters when it comes to scouts? A league wide ranking tier list would be really interesting from your perspective. I'll be honest. Like I'm not versed enough. Like I don't know people with every team. So I think the hard part about scouting is I'm sure there are guys on every, in every organization that are really good and are prominent figures to that team that we don't hear that much about. And until you like become the number two, right, and we start kind of learning about you. Like Ryan Poles the beach before he got the job. Chris Ballard forever in Kansas City. You see Ian Cunningham now with Ryan Poles who was in Philadelphia, in Baltimore, until you become that number two unless you have a relationship with them. I mean I have a relationship with guys, I mean good, really close relationships on four or five teams. But I can't speak to the entire league in terms of like under the radar scouts. Now I think most teams have somewhat of a similar setup in the sense of you have a gm, you have essentially a number two and the number two, like the GM is in charge of pro players. That means free agency, help with trades. The entire practice squad knows the league really well. This was a big thing for Spy Tech. Like he really knew the league. But then you also play a prominent role in the college. But you know, if you usually that guy, it probably depends a little team to team, but for the most part that guy is in house. He is not like canvassing going into different college programs throughout the year. Right now he's watching Those guys, but it's usually more from like a, you know, more of a 20,000 foot view. Now not saying that those guys don't do some school quote unquote calls, but they spend a lot of time in the office with the, with the gm. Now most teams have a director of pro personnel and that guy is in charge of pros, right? So basically him and his staff. Some teams have one or two guys, some teams have four or five guys evaluating the entire league. So every single year, every single player in the league is written up. So you have updated grades on every single player in the league. That includes practice squad, that includes backups, which is easy to do for the teams that you play because you're going to do advanced reports for those teams. But you also have to watch every team in the league that you don't play in. Teams in different conferences. So when those guys become free agency, free agents, when they get cut, when they become available in trade, you're not having to do a bunch of, bunch of work, right? You're not being, you're being proactive, you're not being reactive. Now the GM doesn't watch all those guys, but like, hey, so and so is available for trade. These are the two grades. Here's some cut ups that you can watch in 30, 40 minutes with, you know, the position coach and the coordinator and the head coach if we're interested in trading for this guy. But I think the Bengals thing was like they're scouting department, the Eagles, probably the biggest scouting department in the league. Which shows, you know, Jeffrey Lurie spends a lot of money. But I think the Bengals, they have always utilized their coaches as scouts. But again, like they're cheap. Not necessarily just because of the scouting department. It's been, you know, this goes back to the Carson Palmer, Mike Brown kind of button heads. But I think most teams, you know, have a college side. You get four, five, six scouts that are on the road doing west coast, the south, the Midwest, the Northeast. And then you kind of have a guy overlooking him. So you usually have multiple executives. One's the gm, one's the assistant gm. You have a pro director, he's in charge of pro. You have a college director, he's in charge of college. But obviously the GM and the number two guy are in charge of them all. So it's just, I mean a lot of cooks in the kitchen, but ultimately there's only one decision maker. But like for example, the Gladstone guy that was just hired by the Jacks, I didn't really know much about him, and clearly he played a very, very prominent role for the Rams. So we kind of all learn about him on the fly. Now, obviously there are some people in the media I'm sure that knew about him, but for the most part, there's typically like a groundswell for certain human beings. So before Adam Peters got the GM job with Washington, most people that follow football, maybe not casually, but you know, if you, if you're a pretty big NFL fan, you had heard that name, he was like this up and coming. Next gm, Spy Tech, same thing. Ian Cunningham is now one of those guys. There are typically four or five guys. Ed Dodds has been talked about for a long time, you know, but that's like Adam Peters deserved it, right? Some of these guys. So same with spy Tech. Some of these guys use like a media campaign blitzkrieg to kind of create. I mean, I know guys, I know multiple guys in the NFL that I wouldn't hesitate hiring that aren't just out there pounding, you know, PR directors slash agents to push narratives through the media, right? And now both these guys are under 40 and they'll be just fine. And they're doing well, really well financially. But like, you know, some of these guys in coaching, you can't fake it, really. Right? You can use a quote unquote media PR stream, but like, if you're a coordinator and your unit sucks, you're not going to get a job. Right? Whereas a gm, or, excuse me, an assistant GM or the number three guy, what are they actually doing? No one really knows except that coaching staff and that gm. So it can become complicated that way. But I think every team's a little bit different. There's not like a right and wrong way to operate in terms of that. But the one thing with becoming a GM is, as my guy Phil Savage told me a long time ago, we're not coaches. We get one shot, typically one shot. So most coaches, Dan Quinn, Pete Carroll, you know, whoever, you just go around Andy Reid, you have good and bad moments, you get a second opportunity. Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVeigh, LaFleur, Kevin O'Connell, all these guys will probably inevitably be fired. Like, I mean, those guys are all early mid-40s. Are they going to coach for 20, 25 more years for that team? Probably not. I guarantee you they will all be head coaches somewhere else. Mike Vrabel, second time head coach. Boom. Robert Sala will probably become a head coach again, just the way it works, you know, Liam Cohen, unless it's an all time flame out, will probably get Another shot. It's why a coach told me a long time ago an assistant coach was like, why are you taking this coordinator job? And he's like, because once you get into the mix of coordinators, you're viewed as a coordinator, not as a position coach. And financially. And this was at the time when coordinators were just starting to make close to a million dollars. He's like, I get a multi year, million dollar contract, so I get like two or three years, like a million dollars a year. This was probably seven, eight years ago. He's like, it changes my whole family's life. Now that number as a coordinator might be three years, $9 million. So it's like, and obviously being a head coach, Sirianni's a low paid head coach. What's he making, six, seven million dollars a year now he's about to get an extension. But you know what I mean? It's like as an assistant gm, the money's a lot different. That's why the money for assistant coaches is pretty, it's a lot. I mean these guys are making huge money. But you could be the west coast scout and worked in the league for 10 years and be making 120 grand, right? Where the equivalent of that guy as a quarterback Coach is making $950,000. Which sucks for the scouts. Now some of them, you know, are doing well and if you become the number two, you're usually making 700 to a million dollars. So it's, it's a very lucrative profession. But like there's a big difference of like you become an O line coach, even if you're like 35 years old, I would imagine minimum you're making three quarters of a million dollars. Running back coaches in the SEC make $500,000. I mean the money for coaches is huge. Scout, you kind of got to fight a little bit more. And there is, you know, you overworked, underpaid, right? Relative to how much? Like the equivalent. I remember talking with BS and with Adam Peters like six, seven years ago about like how many hours you have to put in. And he was a UCLA grad and you know, all my Cal Poly guy, you know, state school, but it's kind of a high level state school. The equivalent if you work for a billion dollar corporation like a bank, a company, and you were working the 80, 90 hours and you had been there for a while, San Francisco and New York and Chicago, you'd be making a lot of money as a scout. Like you might not make six figures for a while as you're working your way up, it might take you a little while in the private sector you'd be hitting that pretty quickly given how much you're working. But coaches and listen coaches during the season work way more than scouts and even the GMs, but the off season for them is pretty chill. So it's six months heavily and then six months for assistant coaches. Kind of hit or miss. Probably went on a tangent there about things you didn't even ask me, but hopefully that answers some of your questions. Question for the Mailbag. Why do you think it took you until 40 to get married? And did you ever have the thought in your twenties when your friends were getting married, like, damn, will this ever happen for me, I'm in this boat right now and thought it was fitting considering your recent marriage. I have a lot of downfalls and a lot of issues, like probably most people. One strength of mine though is I'm very secure about not judging myself compared to others. And that's personally and professionally I truly don't give a shit. And I think when you're not as consumed of what like whether it's family member, whether it's friends, whether it's people around you in life, professionally, even what they're doing with their personal life do I'm very unfazed. You want to get married, you want to have children, you want to work there, you want like I'm a huge believer in like you do you, I'll do me. And again, I am by no means perfect. Got a lot of flaws, a lot of issues. That is one of my biggest strengths. So I would say in my 20s it never, I mean I was so dead set and ambitious and like the football world working my way up. It just never even I just very, very casually dated people. And I say once you get in your 30s and you start definitely having people in your life, get married. My brother got married in 2018. He's five years younger than me. Again, it takes two to tango. So you don't meet anyone that you want to marry. Maybe I've been around enough people that have been in bad divorces. Family, friends, people close to me. I mean I've had countless friends and no people I went to college with or high school with. That divorce well before 40 years old. So it's like I'm not just getting married to get married so that I don't know, I just never felt I was unfazed by it. And you meet people and I think as you start dating seriously in your 30s, I definitely did not date seriously in my 20s, got more serious in my 30s, you realize like, yeah, I'm not marrying this, this ain't gonna happen. But you start dating people somewhat your age, right? I mean women take this shit very, very seriously once they get into the 30s. And as a guy, if you're not, you can be, it'd be like, whoa, this is, I don't want this. And I just think it's a learning experience. It doesn't mean, you know these people that you're dating like you like a lot and you respect the shit out of and you have a great time when you're dating them. You just are, are not going to marry them. And hell they maybe they're not going to marry you, but it's just not the right timing. But again, like I think the faster you can get over comparing yourself to others, whether that's family, friends, and I'm not saying that's easy for some people, the easier it is to live life because those people don't wake up in bed with you every day. Those people don't, you know, directly deal with your everyday issues, with your children, with your complaints internally in your home. So I, and I think I listen, I understand a lot of people deal with that. Especially if you live around family. It can, it can be tough. Pressure is coming from family or close friends. But I don't know, maybe I was just selfish. I just didn't care. It's so, just completely unfazed that way. I'm not saying I did the right way to do it. I mean there is no right or wrong way to do it. There's only what individuals and their own situations are. And every single human being on this earth has a different situation when it comes to that. If you're golfing at the Masters, who Are your pick? 3 other players from NFL players and coaches and why? I think someone asked me a similar question the other day and I think I went with like the star young quarterbacks because from a business standpoint it'd be a no brainer. There's not an easier place to get to know someone than spending three, four, five hours having a couple cocktails in a golf cart with them talking about and listen, when you're playing golf, I end up in a lot of football situation or conversations. So I mean I think it'd be a couple of the star quarterbacks. I mean Mahomes isn't going anywhere. Josh Allen loves is a golf junkie. So to me he'd have to be in it. If I wanted to add a coach again, I look at it more from a business standpoint, so I'd want to go. I already know Andy, so I don't need to start a real like I don't know, you know, I don't think Kyle, you know, he could be in a bad mood. I think. I don't even know if Sean McVay plays golf, but probably wouldn't be a terrible guy to know. Trying to think any up and comers, you know, if you could buy buy it like a stock. I don't know if Jaden Daniels plays golf, but if Jaden Daniels likes golf, if he's going to have a long career and be a star, that wouldn't be a bad guy to have in your golf cart and get to know. So I think it'd have to be the quarterbacks or younger coaches to bet the house in like Ben Johnson. The NBA 82 game grind is done and now the real fun begins. The NBA playoffs are here and it's time for the high stakes drama, clutch moments and jaw dropping plays. Can't wait if you're looking to make the playoffs even more exciting. DraftKings sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting partner of the NBA. From the play in games all the way through the finals. Now the time to back your favorite players and teams and as they chase glory. All season long, DraftKings has been your go to spot for NBA player props. And that doesn't stop now. Want to make your playoff experience even more intense? Try placing a bet on your favorite player's performance. Will Curry drop 30? Will LeBron drop 40 or more? It's your call. Ready to place your first bet? Download the DraftKings sportsbook app now. Lock in your bets and let's make the playoff run unforgettable. Here's something special for first timers. New DraftKings customers bet 5 to get 200 in bonus bets instantly. Make it a playoff run to remember with DraftKings. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app and use the code JOHN. That's code JOHN for new customers to get 200 bonus bets. When you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER in New York. Call 877-8-HOPENY or text Hopeny 467-369 in Connecticut. Help is available for a problem gambling 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG Co Audio.