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- [00:00]
John Middlekauff
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Microsoft Representative
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 or whatever challenge comes next, let Microsoft help you keep pushing forward. For more details, visit Microsoft.com challengers T.
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T-Mobile Representative
Mobile 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 4 lines via virtual prepaid card will have 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.
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Talkspace Representative
This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. May is Mental health Awareness Month and Talkspace, the leading virtual therapy provider, is telling everyone let's face it in therapy by talking or texting with a supportive licensed therapist at Talkspace, you can face whatever is holding you back, whether it's mental health symptoms, relationship drama, past trauma, bad habits or another challenge that you need support to work through. It's easy to sign up. Just go to talkspace.com and you'll be paired with a provider, typically within 48 hours. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule. Plus Talkspace is in network with most major insurers and most insured members have a zero dollar copay. Make your mental health a priority and start today. If you're not covered by insurance, get $80 off your first month with Talkspace when you go to talkspace.com or and enter promo code space80. That's S P A C E 80. To match with a licensed therapist today go to talkspace.com and enter promo code space80.
- [02:08]
John Middlekauff
The volume what is going on everybody? Happy Fugazi Friday. Hopefully everyone is doing and getting ready for a big nice weekend. Today we are just going to do a big mailbag at johnmittlecoff @john middlekop is the Instagram fire in those dms and get your questions answered on the show. We had Willie cologne on yesterday, so if you missed that podcast, you got to subscribe to three and out podcast. You got to subscribe. It's separate from Collins feed, obviously, as well as the YouTube, but today will be a mailbag only, so fire in those. Get those mailbag questions. Obviously, we got a long summer, so buckle up. The sun's shining. It's warm outside, and we will be mailbagging because this is your guy show, so we like to interact with the people. Well, I mean, technically, it's mine, but without you guys, it doesn't exist. It'd just be me talking to nobody. And, yeah, other than that, no plans beside mailbag today, so let's. Let's dive in. But first, you know, I got to tell you about my friends, my partners, and the official ticketing app of this podcast. Game Time. Here's the drill. Usually the afternoon NBA playoff game, the eastern game, I don't watch right away. I'm out doing stuff. Maybe I was taking the dog for a walk. Running errands. On Wednesday. Check my phone. The Knicks, it's the second half, and they're down. I'm like, oh, they're gonna lose by 20. Then I check again, like in the beginning of the fourth or maybe a couple minutes in, they're down, like, 15 points. I'm like, this game's over. And then I just don't even turn on the tv, which is unlike me. I mean, I probably watch as much TV as any human in America, especially. I do it for a living and try to always have a game on. On one of the televisions in the house. Didn't do it. Then I checked my phone. I got some burgers on the barbecue. Knicks have lost, obviously. Up to O. Going to the Garden. Probably the most expensive Knick ticket potentially ever. I mean, when you factor in inflation, everything. So if you live in that area, you want to watch your squad. Any playoff basketball game, any playoff hockey game. Baseball often running. Dodgers look good. The Padres look good. So you want to check out a baseball game, football game. Football's not that far away. It's not right around the corner, but it's not forever. So we've already passed the draft. We're just like, I mean, a couple months away from the 4th of July, and then, boom, training camp will be here. So if you want to get your. Your tickets early, you know, we got you covered. Take the guesswork out of buying 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 down the game. Time out today, last minute tickets, lowest prices, guarantee. I think I'll bang out some questions and I'll give my my fugazi Friday probably in the middle, and then I'll bang out some more. How do you survive the off season? I swear I'm losing my mind over here. Just don't say baseball or basketball. They don't even come close to filling the void. There is no fill in the void. But as someone that, I mean, I watch a lot of football, like many of you, I can take a deep breath for a couple months. I, once the sun comes out, play a little golf, enjoy some family time, just take a deep breath. Calm before the storm. So I like the buildup of the summer. I mean, I'm a summer guy, not a winter guy, so I'm a football guy through and through. But I do like to experience summer, even if where I'm at, it's 115 degrees. Question for the bag. How cool would it be if Arch ended up on the Colts? It's also a decent chance it's happening because the Colts are gonna stink. We talked about this the other day. Arch Manning gets discussed like he's Peyton's son, even more than Eli. It's like he's Peyton's guy. The crazy part is he's not Peyton's son. He's not Eli's son, he's Cooper's son. Obviously they're all synonymous with each other. I would say Peyton, you know, I guess if you're older, if you were like my dad, you knew that family from Archie. But Peyton has really taken the mantle of being the most famous man and he deserves it. Even though his brother had won multiple Super Bowls before. He had won multiple Super Bowls and won his first super bowl before Peyton won one. Or maybe I guess Peyton won one and then Eli won one. But regardless, I do think we talk and just the casual person. I'm sure I'm guilty of this. If we're having a cocktail just bullshitting about him, it's like, oh, man, he's going to be like Peyton. So, guys, he's Cooper's son. Like, you know, if I was going to argue with you, I'd say, why couldn't he go to the Giants? The Giants had Eli. They won multiple supers Super Bowls with Eli. Hell, Peyton only won the one super bowl with Indy. I think it would be cool if he went to either spot, but Again, he's not Peyton or Eli's son. He's Cooper's, who was a great athlete, was going to Ole Miss to play wide receiver before he got. I don't want to screw up whatever he had. But it forced him to retire from football. And if you've watched that special on the Mannings, it was a big driving force for Peyton and like kind of drove him through college and early on in his NFL career. It was like playing for Cooper. Huge Ravens fan here. Over the past few years, the opinions of Ravens fans have have increasingly grown sour on Harbaugh year after year. We are very dominant team in the regular season, but always seem unprepared for the big moments. For example, in the Bills divisional game this year, if you told me they didn't practice ball control the entire week or at halftime adjustments, I wouldn't bat an eye. I think we should have promoted Mike McDonald last year while he was still in house and clearly showed the Ravens mentality. What do you think about John's recent success during the Lamar era? I think anytime you're in a situation like him and Mike McCarthy was a little bit of a version of like this, when you win that super bowl early, it gains you a lot of equity with the franchise. So he won it, whatever against the 49ers, just like McCarthy wanted early against the Steelers. And that carries with you with some of your devastating losses. I think at this point in time, over the next two or three years, because listen, you guys consistently win. You're one of the better run organizations. He hires fantastic coaches. I mean, Mike McDonald's pretty good hire. Like you get credit for that. Jesse Mentor, his brother's guy. Like that was John Harbaugh's guy. Anthony Lynn son, who's now the USC defensive coordinator. Like that was a John Harbaugh hire. They are great at hiring defensive coaches. I mean, they really are. So he does a lot of good. But when you have a player this dominant, especially in the regular season, in a defense that is consistently pretty sweet, I mean, they're not always like two years ago, best defense in the league, but they, they are never. It doesn't feel like. I'm sure we could find some examples, but during the Lamar era, they've been really, really good. I would say these next couple years and I would say the same thing for the Bills. When you got Josh Allen, when you got Lamar Jackson, I mean, it's super bowl bust. You know, they are probably two of the only teams like Chiefs are truly the only team in the league. You can say the Eagles now because they got over the hump and they won it with Jalen. They're like, if you said right now the season ends and you lose in the super bowl, like, that is a major disappointment to the Chiefs, to the Eagles. And I think the Ravens and the Bills are two teams that, like, when you have a quarterback this freaking good, it's on your coach to get it done. You know, you want to become like, John Harbaugh can become a legend by winning another Super Bowl. But it also feels in a weird way like they're far away. I mean, two years ago, they get worked at home by the Chiefs, who, you know, it's like, scored 17 points. And then last year, they lose the Bills, who I think they were clearly better than. Now, I don't put Mark Andrews drops like that. Is that John's fault in ball security? Like, what's he supposed to tell Lamar? Hold on to the ball. He's not the offensive coordinator, so I don't know. I mean, I hear you. I just think beside, like, nitpicking Mark Andrews dropping the ball or Lamar fumbling the ball in the pocket. Regardless, like, John Harbaugh's got to win with these teams. He's got to win a Super Bowl. I mean, it's because this team is more dynamic than the team he won a Super bowl with the first time. Are the Steelers slowly becoming the Saints, where they probably would have blew it up and started their rebuild, but they're holding on to the super bowl hopes, so they just keep getting old and expensive. You know, I would say a major difference is the Saints have had some lulls, right? They've had the Luls the last couple years. They had them for in the middle of the Drew Brees era. The Steeler team has never lost, right? They have never been like, oh, the steelers just went 5 and 12. Like, that is not happening now. Their seasons feel like a disappointment because, you know, they're winning whatever, nine, 10 games and then getting rolled in the first round, and that's totally understandable, but I don't think they're comparable at all. And they're definitely not comparable franchises. I mean, the Saints, when I was a kid were called the Ain'ts. They were called the Ain't. People wore paper bags to the games. People get mad at Mike Tomlin because he keeps going 10 and 7. So it's. I don't think it's comparable at all now relative to, like, their situation for good teams. Like, yeah, they. This. They're just in A weird spot. They really are. And I don't really think anything gets better this year necessarily. Even though I like their draft. The defensive tackle is good. The running back from Iowa. I watched Iowa in a weird. I don't know why, but a couple times this year he was a stud. That's a good pick. How do you think the Patriots draft did with their draft? While giving draft grades immediately after the conclusion of their draft is silly, I feel like they did pretty well addressing needs while also adding value players in the mid to late rounds. Curious to hear your thoughts I've come around on not that I was ever down on them, but the Listen, you can nitpick arm length all you want, but talking to Willie Colon last week or not last week, I mean literally yesterday. I do think when you're wired the right way and you're just a smart tough guy, like, you're just not going to fail. He's just not going to fail. Now how good is he going to be? Because anytime you draft an offensive lineman in the top five, you want him to be a Pro Bowler. Time will tell, but I think we have a long history of like you don't bet around those type guys or you don't bet against those type guys. Will Campbell, you just don't like they're going to play in the NFL for a long time. Now how good it'll come down to does that arm length become an issue? But as Willie said, if you coach these guys the right way, like you can't play maybe like Jonathan Ogden or Trent Williams, your style is a little bit differently. And Josh McDaniels for a long period of his career, you know, I wouldn't say Matt Light is exactly Trent Williams, you know, or now I know Josh, you know, he was in the 2000s. He wasn't always the offensive coordinator. But my point is simple, is that you can figure it out. And if you have to attack your protections a little bit differently or coach the technique a little bit differently, that's what you got to do. But I think he's going to be a good player. And obviously Henderson, the Ohio State running backs a stud, I mean home run hitter. They drafted a guy, Kyle Williams, the wide receiver from Washington State in the second round. I did not love the Polk pick last year from Washington. I thought he was the third best wide receiver on his own college team. Now granted that college team was in the championship and they had good wide receivers, But I think McMillan for the Bucks is a better player and I think they realized they needed to Kind of restock the cupboard there. But you know I'm not going to break down your third day picks but other than that I'd be pretty bullish on the Patriots. This is a guy not happy because yesterday I said that the. I think Cowboys gave up a little too much. I mean I just thought that giving up a third round pick for a guy that is going to need a new contract that not a lot of other people wanted. I just didn't like the deal. And the comment was how he gave a third rounder for Dotson. We really needed a number two wide receiver. The Cowboys were going to draft McMillan but the Panthers took him at eight. The Cowboys were trying to trade for him during the draft but the Steelers wanted a first or second form. You take your take on this needs more context. Just like the Steelers will wait for Rogers because they are desperate for the Cowboys. Here's the thing. Let me, let me pull up the Eagles trade for Dotson. So the Eagles gave a third round pick and two seventh round picks in exchange for a fifth round pick. Yeah, it's not a good trade. I don't disagree. But I'd say Howie has a long history of making good trades and maybe he underestimated. I forget at the time like was someone injured, did they not like the rest of their room? Did they think he brought something different? I think it's. He would say he would like that one back just because someone else paid something like he doesn't like that trade and he has a long history of making sweet trades. In your most recent history of Jerry Jones making two big trades, a fourth and a third round pick which are valuable picks for a team that is very like three or four players at the top of their org chart. The Trey Lance thing was a disaster and you just gave away a fourth round pick. This third round pick, I just can't get behind it for a guy. I thought the Datsun trade was weird too, but I gave Howie the benefit of the doubt. Like Jerry recently hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt based on his recent moves in the trade world. And you go wait. Especially when you factor in, you know how he bet on their draft grade. It was a local kid and again they regretted it. You know this cowboy thing was like we're desperate for this elite town. Well, it's like that is the team that's punting on this guy. I wouldn't have done a deal with him. I'm sorry. Now I hear you. I don't disagree that you need offensive help but I Just think that's a steep price to pay for a guy that is a one year rental that you're a team that is very desperate for picks your owners proven to be cheap. The other thing is like Jeffrey has proven over like a three or four year period like he'll spend the most cash in the league right behind Jimmy Haslam. Your guy won't even though he's really rich. Like that's a fact. And I've always just, I'm guilty of being like, oh, Jerry's rich. He's wheeling and dealing kind of cheap. Crafts were like that forever too. We talked about that yesterday. So I hear you. Listen, if he's good, no one will really care. Been watching your videos for the past seven hours. Good stuff. That's a lot of watching me I, I give you credit because I, I don't think I could do that. Well, I can't. I mean when I, when I get shared like my Instagram like the reels and Twitter videos, I just press repost. I can't even. I hate watching myself. But I appreciate that. Wondering your thoughts on the Broncos is upcoming season. Keep up the hard work. I think I said it last year that that was going to be the worst version of the Chargers and the Broncos. There's going to be their worst teams from a roster standpoint. Now you can win 11, 12 games and have a better team and win, win a game or two less. You write a fumble doesn't go right here. An injury happens, but your team's going to be better. Now Sean Payton really liked that. Was it the UCF running back? You know, like they were. He talked about it after the draft. Who did the Broncos draft? There should just be a page where I can pull it up really quick. The Texas DB was one of those guys that during the season people weren't talking about him as a first round pick. And then the playoffs happen and the combine and everything happens and he, I wouldn't say he's a riser because he's viewed as a really good player. But I asked a buddy in the league because some of my friends were definitely lukewarm on him where he was drafted. And then some of the pundits loved him. Right? People were really high on him. Clearly teams were high. The Broncos are high on him. I said Brian Branch, the kind of safety, hybrid nickel from the, from the Lions who was people coming out. The reason he went in the mid second round is because like kind of small. What position does he play? And it's like he's Clearly a first round pick. I said, well is this guy that. And I had some friends that said I like Branch more. So you know, this is a nickel, which is a starting corner position in the league. Like if you can play the slot, you are a starter and if you can kind of play that hybrid role, like I can play safety, I can play corner in a pinch on the outside, I can do a lot of different things. There's a lot of value there. So I think depending on who you talk to, people really high on them. Some people thought it's a little bit of an overdraft. Clearly they liked Genty a lot and it was clear that Genty wasn't going to be there and that they weren't going to be able to trade up and that's not a good move. So they take RJ Harvey in the second round, who Sean Payton loved. So I listen, I give him the benefit of the doubt when he's evaluating that player because he has a pretty good track record. I think the only question is going to be, specifically because it's going to be one of their rivals is they could have taken Hampton in the first round. They could have just taken the guy the Chargers took. So if it we're going to going to judge those two players like you could have had Hampton. If Hampton becomes one of the best running backs in the league, there's a lot of pressure on Baron there to be an impact player. And if he doesn't and Harvey does, then he'll look like a genius, right? And it'll look like the Chargers overdrafted him. So sometimes it doesn't necessarily like if a running back had gone two spots later, but it had gone to like the Cardinals, like whatever, but like it's going to a team in your division that you're going to play twice and just going to have a huge impact on every year you play. So it's going to be fascinating to watch. I think the Broncos are going to be pretty good and like I said, he's earned the benefit of the doubt because Harvey's another guy depending on who you talk to. But catch the ball, get him in space, he's fast, 48 touchdowns, I mean yeah, he's just, he's talented player. Big 12 kind of sucks, but he dominated him. 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- [22:28]
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- [22:59]
John Middlekauff
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I picked this one up from Nick Wright, but I thought it was interesting and wanted to get your opinion. Nick was asked about how some new ideas for the NFL that said one or two more weeks on the schedule with an additional bye week. He talked about an altogether one week of international games overseas where 16 games are played in different cities across the world and a bye week given before or after the week. Well, what would be on television? The NFL during the season is never going to have a bi week for everybody. That's never going to happen at the same time because television pays the bills. So it's like if I don't have advertisers on the show, like there's no food on the table. Right? The way the reason in 2020 the NFL is like there's absolutely zero chance we're not playing football. Same with the sec. There's zero chance we're not playing football. Why? Because the games on television literally pay for everything. So they will never have a bye week where nobody's playing. Now the second bye week is something the media never shuts up about. Ever. And the players talk about it too. I've never seen the league. I don't care if they want to institute it. I'm not going to complain. And honestly I like as the season gets going when there are weeks where there's way less games to watch. So I, it's, it's easier for me. I'm. It's. This is a selfish thing to say, but when there are only three or four games on TV in the morning and then two afternoon games and then all the primetime games, it's much easier for me to work. But you know, the league has never felt inclined, the league office with Raj, to do that for whatever reason. And I don't care enough to, like, look into it. But until it feels like the league is ever entertaining that thought, it's kind of pointless to talk about just one of those things that the media talks about constantly. That is now if the. If the players want to negotiate it in the next collective bargaining agreement, maybe it can happen. But if. If they don't, it's. It doesn't feel like it's ever going to happen. Question for you. Having played in Arizona a number of times, why does the Phoenician not get more respect in the course rankings? Personally, it's in my top three in the Scottsdale area, and it never seems to get ranked high on any list. I've only played it one time, and like you said, I liked it a lot. It goes right up through Camelback. It's beautiful. The hotel, again, never stayed there, but I know, like, the San Francisco Giants stay there. I think a lot of the Major League baseball teams stay there. It's really nice. It's. It's a pretty famous hotel. I don't know. Good. Good question. Gets lost in the shuffle a little bit. I can't exactly tell you why, but. Yeah, I've never heard anyone stay at the Phoenician that didn't like it quick. I'll hit on the couple Fugazi's really quick. I started because it's supposed to be healthy for you. Taking fish oil and just like anything you would take, right? Like antioxidants and Advil or whatever, you just take and don't even think about it. After a couple days of taking it straight in an Arizona, if you're outside, you're working out, you're going to sweat. I started sweating and I started smelling like a sushi restaurant. I could smell like the salmon on me. And then I googled it. And it's like, you got to be careful. If you take too much of it, you will smell like a fish. And even when I wasn't sweating, I could, like, smell it, like, on my mustache. I don't have a mustache, but, like, if I hadn't shaved. And then I sweated on my clothes, and I was just. I put on clothes this morning and I was like, where's this fish smell coming from? And I'm smelling my. My shirt. I'm like, my shirt doesn't smell like it. And then I realize I take off my shorts, so I'm in my underwear and I walk out to the kitchen and Maria's there and I say, can you smell my shorts and tell me what they smell like? And she takes one whiff and she starts laughing. And obviously it smelled like fish. And it's just. I would never have taken. Because it's supposed to be healthy for you, supposed to be good for a lot of different elements of your life. But if you are going to smell like a fucking fish, if you have to take the supplement, I just don't think that is a workable solution for whatever the fish try to give you. Maybe I just need to eat more salmon. But I think I'm done with fish oil because it has made my clothes all my workout. I had to throw away a bunch of workout clothes. Now, granted, they were old stuff from Fresno State, dry fits from Nike from 06, but they reeked of. They smell like a salmon swimming through the. Swimming through the Atlantic. And my other. This isn't necessarily fugazi, but it's definitely just a little rant. I. One of the best things I ever did was. Was leaving California and living in Arizona and I really can't love it anymore. And this place is freaking awesome. And every single person that I meet or know that is also from California, we just laugh. Like, God, we. We hacked the system here. This is. And whenever we go back, because again, Northern California is not exactly Newport beach or San Diego. And you go, you're like, God, this place is old. I can't even imagine living here. My family still lives there and. But I love being here. The one thing that's tough is like, we're going somewhere maybe for Memorial Day and over the summer, it's like my brother has my mom, so like when he leaves somewhere, he can just leave the dog there. They can have my mom watched the kids, right? And a lot of you that live wherever you live, that have family around you for just little things, right? It's like, hey, we're leaving for a couple days. Can you just. Can we just drop the dog at your house? Yeah, no problem. Bring. Bring little Fifi over and finding somewhere and some people to watch your dog is more challenging than you would think. And we have tried many places. We tried one place one time and she got into a little tussle, lost a tooth, little brawl. Hopefully she won, but you know, she lost the two. So fought this dog named Lionel. So you know, Lionel can hold her head eye as well, or his hide. But you know, there's this other place that's like a dog hotel. It might as well Just be like the four seasons for dogs. Like, I'm paying this. It's like get shoved into a little locker. Like, what's going on here? It's just a challenge. So any of you guys that have family around or people that live around you, listen, there are those benefits are something that I'm definitely jealous of because it makes life a lot easier. And we don't even have kids yet, which, you know, Godspeed to that process once we got to figure that one out. Question. Is there anything you hear from someone that will reveal that they know nothing about ball? Like, for example, in basketball, I'm a lifelong Laker fan, but when someone tries to tell me Kobe top three all time, I immediately know they know nothing about the sport. With football, it's more rare. But when they say Dak is one of the league's best or Herbert is one of the league's worst, I immediately know they don't know what they're talking about. Are there takes you hear that make you go, this guy doesn't know the sport at all. That's a good question. I. I think the. I will say this, like, to me, let's use Steph Curry. Like, is Steph Curry a better player than LeBron? No. Like, obviously LeBron, pound for pound in his prime, is just a better player, two way player than Steph Curry. But anyone that argues that Steph Curry isn't more important to the sport and more enjoyable for the casual fan to watch over the course of his career, I think would kind of be on like, crack. And I think LeBron has this like, hive, like Beyonce or Taylor Swift on the Internet. It's like, yeah, always arguing that he's better than Jordan or whatever. It's like, you're not changing. It's like politics. There is nothing you can ever do to convince me that LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan. It will never happen. And literally most people in my life that are my age or older are never budging either. Like, they are never budging. And I think sometimes we argue like that. But listen, if you want to argue over, you know, if you love Kobe Bryant, like, yeah, maybe you're not like Phil Jackson or Tom Thibodeau when it comes to basketball schematics and ranking players. You're not exactly Jerry west there. But that doesn't bother me as much. I think sometimes, and I see this on Twitter a lot, Football breaking down the all 22. Everyone wants to pretend that they know so much. It's like, guys, at the end of the day, this is football. We're not developing a rocket here. We're not developing the ability to build a skyscraper. This isn't that complicated. Now we can argue whether this guy's better than that guy. Like, that's a normal, healthy debate. But I think sometimes that you see some of these film guys, it's like, guys, this, this isn't that big a deal. Just fucking get your best player the ball in space. Figure it out, you know, And I think we spend so much time arguing over these, like, nuances of the sport. It's like gets back to Belichick, what he said. It's like this sport, a lot of people over complicate this thing. Get your best players against their worst players and get your worst players to avoid their best players and their strengths. You know, try to have your weaknesses go the other way and whatever their weaknesses are, find a way to exploit them. It's just basic. Like this, this just is not that complicated. Even though it is complicated in the sense of like the verbiage of a play. And obviously there are adaptations of being able to ad lib a play with whether it's audible ing at the line of scrimmage, whether it's just knowing based on different. I'm not saying the game overall is not complicated, but I think so many people that like cover the sport want to prove how smart they are. It's like, guys, you don't need to talk like you're Sean Payton here. In a weird way, Kobe is underrated, like his movement and his power. And maybe it's changed once he passed away and in that accident with a helicopter. I, I do think it, like, put it into perspective how his cultural impact, like how famous he was on the biggest team in the league and the impact he had on players. But in a weird way, he's kind of overrated as a player because like you said, some people are like, he's like one of the two or three best players of all time. It's like he wasn't even the best player of his generation. That was Tim Dungan. We haven't had the coffee. I know they paid him a ton of money, but he can't win big games and can't stay healthy. If he feels like the Cowboys, if it feels like the Cowboys are always right there, but somehow can't get over or pass the wild card. Do you think Dak can get the Cowboys to Super Bowl? If not, what do they have to do to get there? I've said this for a long time. I do think he's good enough to just go on a run, a three or four game run because we've seen him have these games that are worthy of like a winning big right in the regular season. I remember a couple of years ago he had it against the Eagles. Last year that game winning drive against the Steelers, he's had these moments yet in the playoffs he plays terribly. So I would say yeah, he is good enough to have like a three game stretch in the playoffs assuming their team is good enough. But every year that goes by now he's coming off a hamstring injury. You'd probably bet against it. Thoughts on McCarthy and his likely readiness to lead the Vikings offense? Did the Vikings do enough with their own line to protect him? Well, unlike Cousins, he can move. So he's not Lamar Jackson or Kyler Murray, but he's, he's a good athlete. So their offensive line, they signed some guys in free agency which obviously will help. They'll get their left tackle back off injury which will clearly help. But he is like looking at some of his I guess he didn't run the 40 here but his short shuttle was fast three count. Like he's a good athlete so I wouldn't worry about his movement. Like he can do things. I guess Sam was too. Sam ran into some sacks down the stretch, but Sam could move keep plays alive. That's jj. Jj, like Sam is going to be able to play like that. Cousins couldn't. Cousins was a sitting duck. That's not the case here. As a Dolphins fan, I've come to accept that we will always be middle of the pack. I've never seen us win a playoff game. My question is why do teams accept mediocrity for long? Love the podcast. Because it's pretty simple. The NFL pays you whether you win or lose. So if you're Steven Ross, you're any, any owner, right? You don't need to fire people all the time and pay them to go away. You say yeah, we'll ride it out because no matter what, you're not only making money, you're making a lot of money. So it's one of the few businesses in America. It's like insurance. You know how many of these insurance companies we all deal with it. You know, I pay for car insurance, pay for health insurance, pay for all these insurances, pay for home insurance. If my house were to burn down or I were to get into a car wreck or whatever, I have been paying them consistently for X number of years, right? Yet when I need the money I gotta like Fight them for the money. It's like, what am I paying when it's part of the business. But it's an incredible business. Why Warren Buffett invested in the insurance companies because guaranteed cash rev. I mean, it's like tv. The, the cable bundle was like that forever. The Comcast and the Cox and whatever your cable company was, everyone had to have cable to watch television. We're just giving them 100, 150, whatever it was a month. And then eventually you're like, I'm not paying for this anymore. And that business model's fucked the NFL business model. As long as the league is willing to pay huge amounts of money or, excuse me, the television networks for the league that you are making so much, 400 plus million dollars guaranteed just from the television networks, that is, that has nothing to do with any ticket sales, that has nothing to do with any merchandise, that has nothing to do with anything else. Just the television network which the Cowboys make the same as the Cardinals make the same as the Dolphins. Well, your, your player salary cap, which is by far your biggest expense is, you know, like 60% of that. So even though you pay your coaches a lot, it's not that much. You're not paying that many other people in the building that much money. So you're probably guaranteed, give or take $100 million profit guaranteed at the beginning of the year. And then you factor in everything else like the merchandise. So you're just, you're never going to be in the red. You can't even really even have a recessionary year. The only thing that's ever threatened that was 2020 and they plowed right through. Love listening to the podcast. I was listening to Colin today and he was talking about he sees it better for the Rams to use their two first rounders next year to support Stafford instead of getting his replacement. What's your take on this? I believe it would be better to take a quarterback because with the ability to trade up with those picks, you may not have the future that in the future drafts you could possibly end up like the Steelers having a major loss at quarterback. I think we are so far away and Collins better at this than me. Like talking about next year's draft class is completely pointless. Like we got some names. That's interesting. We'll have to see how they all play. From Sellers at South Carolina to Arch to just go around the country. Whoever the top four or five quarterbacks are, there are going to be a couple guys, Baker Mayfield, Joe Burrow, Cam Ward, Jaden Daniels that have incredible Seasons and they're like, God, this guy's a top five pick. Might like Joe Burrow or Jaden Daniels, like this guy's top one or two pick. Baker Mayfield, top pick. So that's going to happen. So we don't know that right now. The other thing is what does Stafford look like? Because the last couple of years he's had stretches where it's like, it kind of looks old. Then he has stretches where it's like he's top five quarterback right now. So I think you got to play that out. And I think the kicker is the Rams have proven you'd be kind of crazy to not think they're going to be a playoff team in 2020, like this upcoming fall. So like in January of 2026. But I think the Falcons are a pretty big wild guard. Like, what if that pick is 15? So then if that picks 15 like it was this year, could you take 15 and 25 and move up to 4 or 5? Because some of these teams that already have quarterbacks are going to be bad this year or you know, have young quarterbacks and take one of the guys. So I think that would definitely be on the table. But what if Stafford, you could argue, even if he like wins the MVP, what is he, 37 years old? I think that everything's on the table and I would be stunned if less. If I was less need, I would mandate that every one of my area scouts, if you have a top quarterback in your area, a guy that's going to get drafted in the top, I would say 75 picks, a guy coming into the year that's viewed as like a top first or second day quarterback, you have to see that guy live. And if I was less need, you know, depending on how my schedule played out, I guess we'll find out with the NFL schedules here in a couple weeks. I guess maybe next week or two weeks, I would try to hit three or four of them. So I would make a scouting effort where, you know, if you're the Ravens, you're not. It's not the end all be all to see all these quarterbacks live. But I do believe now you could argue it should just be a yearly thing. If you have a top quarterback in your area as a scout, you should see the guy. And I mean, look at the Eagles, right? I mean the Eagles went from Carson Wentz and they drafted Jalen Hurts and they traded for Kenny Pickett. They've had Mariota. So like, you never know when a quarterback that gets drafted in the first round or even really high, even if you're not in the quarterback world becomes available a couple years later. So you might as well. This is why when people ask like, do you even spend that much time? Well, if he's in your area, you spend a lot of time on the player because in a couple of years you want to know that guy really well, even after he's been in the NFL. So I would say the Rams just like the Browns, I mean the Giants did it this year. You are going to be in the quarterback scouting business. Now, it doesn't mean you end up taking one, but you're going to know everything about these guys before the combine because you are going to do, done, have done a lot of effort that maybe you wouldn't have done two or three years ago. Now, does that mean you actually pull the trigger? I don't know, but I think it definitely means that you have, you have had a detailed operation during the fall of paying attention to what's going on with these guys.
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T-Mobile Representative
The volume.
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John Middlekauff
You keep pushing forward.
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John Middlekauff
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