John Middelkoff (2:29)

What is going on everybody? How are we? John Middelkoff 3Now podcast not ideal lighting, less than ideal microphone situation Here I forgot something extremely important. My traveling operation is held together by a thing called a zoom recorder that plugs in my microphone to my computer and I left it on my desk and there's just no way one They've Come out with different models since it wouldn't be here for a couple days. And it's just. It wasn't going to happen. So I had to ad lib and get this USB mic. So the audio quality is not great, but I had to record a couple mail back here for business purposes. So I apologize for forcing you to sit through this quality because I pride myself on good audio quality, especially someone who listens to podcasts. Like, if you have bad audio quality, I'm out. So I screwed up. There's no way around it. And we'll just have to battle through and I'll be back here end of next week, potentially, because I don't know if I can do podcasts, even from Lake Tahoe with this microphone. It's just too terrible. It's an embarrassment, and it's an embarrassment that I caused. So it's like I'm a football coach at my press conference saying, put this on my shoulders, put this on my back. But before we dive into any mailbag, onmiddlekopf is the Instagram. You guys know the drill. Fire in those DMs. I got to tell you about my friends, my partners in the official ticketing app of this podcast, Game Time. Best ticketing app in America. Doesn't get any easier. So if you want to go to a game, if you want to go to a show, if you want to go to a comedy show, a concert, you name it, they got you covered. You can search by venue, you can search by arena, you can search by the team. It does not get any easier. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use the code John for $20 off. Your first purchase terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem the code JOHN for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. Okay, let's dive into the mailbag. Could you imagine Darren Waller's career if he played with Drew Brees Mahomes or Joe Burrow instead of Carr and Daniel Jones? I think morally, players should stop taking these massive contracts from bad teams that overpay because they suck and go to a place that will elevate them to new heights. I think that's easier said than done. When someone offers you millions of dollars, let's just say your team is offering you and you've never made any money. 30, 40, $50 million guaranteed, and you're playing at a high level, and that total contract is 80, 90 million dollars. And you're looking at yourself well, I'm probably going to make 80, 90 million dollars. It's easy to go. Well, I'll play this out another two years because I got to play out usually my. The year in which they. Last year my contract and then they're usually gonna franchise tag me if I'm a good player. So it doesn't. It's easier said than done. I know where you're coming from, but I think that's easier in theory than it is done in reality. And that's why it's never done in reality. I'm surprised the 49ers brought back Kyle Juszczyk. When they cut him, I thought it was justified. He's a 34 year old, expensive and. But what was the thinking behind it? Is it more based on intangibles? Yeah, I think it's. It's hard to find that position. Right. They don't really exist in the NFL that there aren't fullbacks, there aren't guys coming out of college that play that position. He knows the offense, he's a versatile player. He also, at this point in time, given that they've done a bunch of pay cuts, is a cheap player and he took a discount because he was offered more I think to go to Pittsburgh. And he values the 49ers. He likes playing McCaffrey, he likes Kyle Shanahan, he likes Purdy. Like that's Kittles, this guy. So there's a comfort level and cohesion just together, you know, I don't know, I don't have his total off the top of my head, but I think it's just a couple million dollars now he's going to go down as the highest paid fullback in the history of the league. I know you're a big Sopranos fan. Which moments episode is the funniest to you? When I first got into the show, I anticipated it being super serious crime drama, which at times it is, but most part it's like a comedy. A classic moment for me is when John gets escorted away crying at his daughter's wedding and the conversation all the guys have afterwards. I do think the all time episode is when they're in the woods freezing their ass off chasing that Russian spy who got confirmed 25 kills and they can't find him, they can't kill him and it's just they have no self service. To me that's got to be one of the more iconic moments in the show. I would say the best scene in the show is the intervention with Chrissy when they're all sitting around in his apartment. And I've watched that scene on YouTube probably 50 times in my life. It's hard to beat. I mean some of the comments by Paulie, it's pretty funny. Regard to the mailbag question about ufc, I had some additional thoughts. Not only is there a barrier to entry with pay per view, but the main car doesn't come on until 11 or 12 at night on the east coast. Let's be honest, most people don't have the energy to stay up till 1 or 2am watching. Also, you're right, it's very niche. I'm in the military and the UFC is very popular with us. And because of the violence, I would say a majority of Americans just don't have the stomach for it. I'm with you. I do think there are. There was a moment in the last fight where the dude KO'd him. He hit the ground. I might have knocked himself out on the ground as well. And then the guy hammer cocked him to his face. I mean it was like, Jesus. It's, it's a very, very violent whatever. 12 minutes, I guess 3, 5 minute, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, however long the fight lasts. I do think though the human humans are drawn to fights going back to like when we're kids in junior high and high school. If there's a fight, everyone surrounds it. It's just a natural instincts of human beings. But you could argue with how civilized culture has got, especially in America, how soft certain regions have gotten. They're not around fighting ever. So like you said, it's going to turn certain people off. It's going to be too much for other people. There's just going to be people like me who I love violence. I mean I miss it in the NFL, I miss fighting in the NBA. I'm drawn to violence, I'm drawn to sports and I don't watch. So it's hard to get people's attention. It just is. Even people like me that should be in the demo. 40 year old guy who watches sports and likes violence and they can't get me to buy the pay per views. And I like Dana White. Julio Jones retired after the off season and a great career had me thinking there are only three wide receivers I'd have on my team over Julio. Rice Moss and Calvin Johnson. I have Julio as the fourth best wide receiver of all time. What do you think? Where would you put Julio? Probably a little rich for me. You know, I think many people would say Terrell Owens, Terrell Owens was a more dominant player than Julio Jones, I would say. I mean there are a lot of guys over the course of the last 25 years, you know, Marvin Harrison was pretty elite, pretty unstoppable. I would say that. Tyreek Hill, pretty elite, pretty unstoppable. I would say that. Try not to think that's a good question. I don't know. But to me he's probably top 10 talent of all time. But it just in terms of production, I mean, you know, when you look, he had some weird years where he didn't score touchdowns. I mean, Antonio Brown had a six year stretch where he was better than Julio Jones. I mean, Antonio Brown had one of the greatest six year stretches in the history of the league. But yeah, I'd say he's one of the great talents. He's one of the great stories of elite blue chip prospect, right? He was the number one overall recruit. He then becomes a top six or seven draft pick and then he goes on to become a Hall of Fame level career. I do think sometimes when these player podcasts, you know, I saw a clip the other day, he's. Does he do a podcast with Roddy White? I mean, both those guys are bitching and moaning about a lot of stuff. It's like, Julio, you were a great player, then you got old and they got rid of you. Like, welcome to the league. How many of your teammates did they get rid of? They got rid of Matt Ryan. They got rid of basically every single guy you played with beside you and Matt Ryan before you both were discarded. They're always so offended when like, yeah, we had a new coach come in and I called Arthur Blank and he's like, the coach is going to get to decide. He's like, bullshit, Arthur. No, Arthur Blank hired these guys. He's not a football guy. He's going to let them decide. And he's paid you a premium for your services. These players get so offended, like, well, you know why? Because they're treated so well. They're paid premium amounts of money, they get everything handed to them and then the moment they're not great anymore, it's like kind of you see it with LeBron James right now for the first time in LeBron James career. It's like, yeah, we don't, we're not really worried about what you think. Like, we're not going through you. You don't have any leverage anymore. We're on. We have a new beautiful girl on the team now and her name is Luka. And he's very offended by it. You could tell we're going to weigh our option. LeBron, shut up. Take your 50 million. Play for the Lakers. Welcome to the NBA. This happens to literally every player. And I think the great players really struggle with that transition of like, wait, you're not just kissing my ass, jerking me off and tickling my taint. No, we're not anymore. We're just, we're over you. And sometimes I see these player podcasts, it's like, geez, these guys lived in a different world than the rest of the NFL. Even the. Because most NFL players are kind of like on their toes about stuff. Like, at any moment, anything could go on. I have a question about Justin Herbert. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like success during his rookie season may have raised the bar for incoming quarterbacks. Ever since his historic debut, it feels like teams expect their rookie quarterbacks to start right away in week one. When you look at a trend of rookie quarterbacks since Herbert, the expectations to start week one seem noticeably higher than they used to used to be when quarterbacks sat their first year to learn the new system. Yeah, listen, man, expectations. People have been drafting quarterbacks now for six to seven years, hoping to find the next Patrick Mahomes. When I draft a player really high at quarterback, especially in the top, I don't know, 10 picks, my expectations are high. Whether you're compared to Justin Herbert, whether you're compared to Patrick Mahomes, whether you're compared to Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, or Tom Brady, you're expecting you're trying to hit a star quarterback. And fear or not. Like, the expectations are never, like, yeah, it'd be cool if he's Dak Prescott. Even though if you drafted a guy and he turned in a Dak Prescott or Kirk Cousins, you know, pick five, would it be ideal? No. But like, would you keep your job for a long time and have just a successful team? Potentially, yes. And I think the expectations for high draft picks are always really high when it comes to quarterbacks, especially with people starting right away. And the other expectation, like you said, is like, people don't want people to sit. The Aaron Rodgers, the Jordan Love. That is not the norm. Even Patrick Mahomes sitting for a year is definitely not ever going to be the norm with rookie contracts. With how much these guys have played now in seven on seven and in college, people want to see these guys play. Should the NFL add overtime kickoff decision to the opening coin toss? For example, if you win the coin toss, you get to choose three options. Kick receive for the game. Kick receive for overtime. Three field direction. This way everyone knows ahead of time who gets the first ball first in overtime, so no team doesn't feel screwed after the coin toss. Also, teams could play more aggressively at the end of games if they knew they had to kick off in overtime. I don't hate this, but I don't think at the start of the game you're even thinking about overtime. Really the decision to defer or not is based on the start of the second half, which there's still 30 minutes of football left. So I think that would be an element coaches wouldn't want to mess with. I think they would rather just kind of stay focused on the present and at worst, the start of the second half. I don't hate the idea. I think you're actually kind of thinking outside the box here. But I think if you went to the owners meetings and threw that kind of idea out there, it would get kicked back pretty fast. The Texans and Browns seem to be fully guaranteeing way more money than everyone else. There are only two teams to guarantee their second round picks. And then Watson fully guaranteed with the Browns and Stingley got 89 of $90 million guaranteed with the Texans. Do you think they're doing this on purpose to screw with everyone else's negotiations? If one, if no one else's second round picks, that'd be a huge blow. All the Cardinal media keeps bring. I didn't see that they guaranteed their second round picks fully guaranteed contract. I didn't see that. I do wonder, you know, you could argue Derek stingley giving him $89 million of $90 million guaranteed. Because if I was a star corner, I'd be like, why am I getting way. Why is Justin Jefferson and nick Bosa getting $125 million guaranteed and I'm only getting 80 or 90. Why wouldn't I get the same amount guaranteed as those guys? I play premium position. I am covering the highest paid guy in the league, right? The reason you give these pass rushers so much money is because they go, well, I'm going up against Lane Johnson, Trent Williams, Tristan Wirst. These guys are making $30 million a year. If I'm beating them, why am I not getting $30 million a year? So if I'm Derek Stingley and I'm covering the guy making $30 million a year, why wouldn't I make $30 million a year, right? Why am I making 20? So I think it's a way to kind of actually give him a little less. But you're right, they have, and it gives a Shorter term contract. Right. Like what do they give him? Four years, $90 million. What did they give Janelle Hunter two years ago? I think two years, $50 million and guaranteed 49 of it. So you actually keep yourself more flexible instead of giving like these six or seven year deals. Maybe you'd have to ask Casario. That's a good question because I don't view the Texans and the Browns as the same. I mean, they gave Desean Watson $230 million to make sure that he joined the team. I don't know why they did it. Honestly. That's a great question. Why isn't the Giants GM fired? Especially after the hard knocks he would be on the hot seat. But now since Barkley won a championship with the Eagles, I'm surprised John didn't fire him already. Is it hard to find a proper gm? Even the NFL fan knows that it's a bad idea and I doubt he would get another GM job. By the way, love the pod. Appreciate it. I. I don't know. I mean, your guess as good as mine. I think it's pretty clear the Giants ownership has hesitated when it came to making a major, major change. They want no part of it. So I would guess that that's a major reason that they just don't want to. They don't want to. They don't want to fire anybody because he doesn't want to go in a situation where he has to interview new people. That sucks. That is the last thing these owners want to do. They're printing money. Life's good. They're all. They all in yachts. They all own seven houses all around the world. They've never had more money. And win or lose, they're still making the money. The last thing they want to do is spend all January interviewing a bunch of potential GMs. And then typically you got to listen to that guy to see what coach does he want to hire. That. That does suck. Now you could argue, well, yeah, it sucks, but would you rather win? Of course, I think you'd just rather win with the guys you have, especially if you like them. But I don't think he has like naked pictures of any of these guys.

Katie Couric (18:59)

Foreign.

John Middelkoff (19:07)

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John Middelkoff (20:43)

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John Middelkoff (20:57)

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John Middelkoff (21:13)

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John Middelkoff (21:54)

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Candace Parker (23:17)

I never envisioned being with a woman. I'll just be honest.

Jemele Hill (23:20)

I'm Jemele Hill, host of the Sports and Politics podcast for Politics. On this week's episode, I'm joined by basketball legend Candace Parker, who stops by to discuss her candid new book, the Can Do Mindset, in which she shares why she waited two years into marriage to come out.

Candace Parker (23:36)

Like when I close my eyes at night, every night, I was like, I need to find my prince charming. Like it was never a princess. Like that never entered into my mind. But you know, as I learned, sometimes life gives you things wrapped in a package that you didn't expect it. And that was just, you know. And honestly, it took me a long time to be okay with myself.

Jemele Hill (24:01)

Make sure to listen to this week's episode of spalatix on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

Greg Rosenthal (24:12)

25 years, 25 players before training camp kickstarts a new NFL season, NFL Daily is going to back. It is a special six episode series where myself, Greg Rosenthal and some of the top NFL minds like Kevin Harland, Mina Kimes and Bill Barnwell make the case. For each player, we're taking a look back giving you NFL Daily's top 25 players of the last 25 years. So who made the list? You know, Tom Brady's on it. Where's Patrick Mahomes?

John Middelkoff (24:42)

Mahomes is into the end zone. Touchdown K A City. He's on it.

Greg Rosenthal (24:48)

How about Lamar Jackson?

John Middelkoff (24:49)

Jackson takes it himself. Look at him. Dirt back and forth. Oh, he broke his ankles. And he's got a touchdown. He is Houdini.

Greg Rosenthal (24:58)

You are going to have to listen. To find out, listen to NFL Daily's top 25 players of the last 25 years, starting on June 30 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

John Middelkoff (25:19)

How do you golf in Arizona in the heat? Do you golf in the middle of the day or go early and try to beat the heat? Listen, I don't understand. Like, it's hot, it's 110 degrees. You drink fucking water and Gatorade. How could anyone like, I've lived in the heat my whole life. I grew up, I'm actually down the street in a hotel because my brother and his kids are living at my mom's house because they're remodeling their house. So we stayed at a hotel down the street. I mean it was, we landed yesterday. It was 102 degrees in Davis, California and it was humid. It sure felt humid to me. Like it's hot. So summers are hot. You play golf. Not gonna kill you. How could anyone function in zero degrees? All you guys in the Midwest or the Northeast live in the snow. You couldn't pay me to do that. So everyone's always like, how do you live in the heat? I don't know. You drink some water, you put on a hat. It's not that complicated, okay? When you look at recent history, none of the offensive play calling head coaches hired in the past five years have won, have won more than one playoff game. Yet CEO coaches like Sirianni, Dan Campbell, d', Amico, Ryan, Stan Quinn have won multiple playoff games. It seems like there are more distractions now than ever to manage as a head coach. Long schedules, more weekday games, more primetime games, more international games. Social media and podcast gives players an outlet. Analytics have contributed to the unconventional in game decision making. A lot of this is new over the last 5ish years. Do you think expectations are too high for Ben Johnson, the Bears this year given that he's a first year head coach? Yeah, man, I think it's really, really hard to be a head coach, especially when your bread and butter is like calling the game. And that's why Ben Johnson, that's why Sean McVeigh that's why Kyle Shanahan and when you're young, you have a million things going on. Sometimes you get to go to a crappy team, right? You just get to go to a team that has no expectations. People just think it's going to suck, right? Like I'm going to win, I'm going to win three or four games. It's like whatever. You win six or seven, everyone's happy. Then there's a guy like Ben Johnson who is just anointed the next great play caller. It's like, next Mike Shanahan, next Mike Holmgren, next Andy Reid. And listen, he was incredible in Detroit. When he goes to a team whose expectation I would say this year, anything less than 9, 10 wins enemy, like he went 7, 8, it's going to get weird. And that's not a normal landing spot for a first time head coach. So Godspeed. I'm with you. I think there's a lot going on. Like Sirianni is a good example. Young guy, ton of help, ton of help. Right when he first got there. His two coordinators, Jonathan Gannon and Shane Steichen, two head coaches. Now how good they are as head coach, I don't know. But like legit head coaching candidates and really good. Like Jonathan Gannon is a good leader. Shane Siken's an excellent like offensive innovator. He's got Howie Roseman, the best gm. Like that's Ben Johnson's got Ryan Pulse, which seems like a nice guy. No clue if he knows what's going on. He's got. He's the offensive play caller. I guess Dennis Allen's defense coordinator, that will help. I hear you. I've been beating this drum for a long time. I was wondering why some NFL organizations the head coach outranks the gm, but in others it doesn't. How does the hierarchy work? Doesn't the head coach make more than GMs? I can. There can't be many teams where the GM makes more than the head coach. Maybe Philly, but Sirianni just got a raise. So I mean listen, Howie probably should make 15 or 20 million, but let's say he's making 10. That'd be one of the highest paid GMs. If Sirianni is making 10, he's lower half of the NFL and head coach salary. So we're definitely, you know, he wouldn't be in the top 12 or 14. A guy just won a Super bowl. So I think it just gets to money. It's also in the contract. So like when Kyle Shanahan was hired. He gets final say on everything. Now, that doesn't mean like in a draft room he might let John lynch do it, but it is in his contract. If he wants something, he gets it. And that's how it works with a lot of these. Like when Ben Johnson got hired, Ben Johnson had all the leverage. So if Ben Johnson wanted in his contract, he'd get basically whatever he wanted in his contract. Mike Frable hired in New England. Well, who do you think had all the juice? Liam Cohen. Remember, they were desperately trying to hire him. So sometimes coaches, even if they don't have experience, like Vrabel or Pete Carroll or whatever, that a guy like Liam Cohen has, has leverage because you need. You're desperate to hire him. So he has all the leverage of like, I need this in my contract. I get the final say. That's where I think that happens a lot. It's not like a. There's not a set hierarchy. Like there are in a lot of your guys, jobs that, let's just say in a corporate structure, like if you went to Chase bank or you went to Oracle or you went to, you know, some of these major companies, like if you were at a retailer like Safeway and you were, or an alcohol company, a distributor, there's very clear org chart. The org chart. Sometimes in football it's like, well, who had all the juice? Like, if I'm desperately trying to hire, let's say, Adam Peters to be my gm, well, if he's hired before the coach and I had a bunch of leverage, if I'm Adam Peters, I get it in my contract that I get to run the draft and I get to run free agency and maybe I get to pick the final 53. Now, it doesn't mean that I don't let my coach do a lot of that, but it's in my contract that I do. And it's just based on which one of those guys, when you hired them, either had the leverage, slash use the leverage to make sure that was written in stone. Now, ideally, like John Schneider was hired by Pete Carroll by the middle of their run. Like, Pete Carroll relied on him a lot. Brett Veach was hired by Andy Reid. Right. Well, Andy trusts Brett and lets him operate. So, you know, Sean McVay makes more money than Les need. McVay lets less need pick the players.

Unknown (31:29)

Now, here's the other thing.

John Middelkoff (31:30)

Even if you are an equal with the coach, you don't want to pick a player. Let's say I, I'm scouting and I love this this, this badass linebacker named John Middelkoff. This guy, John Middlekoff, what is this? Is this Patrick Willis 2.0? And my coach hates him. He's like, I don't like him. I don't think he fits my scheme. Maybe he meets him at the combine and it's like turned him off. I don't like this cat. Well, even if you love the player, are you going to force that on your coach knowing he hates him? That's not a fun way to work. So I think a lot of that stuff works itself out. So I think overall there's not like there's not a set org chart. The only org chart in football that stays the same is whenever the GM and head coach is hired. The coaching staff and the scouting staff are both under those guys. My bad. If you already answered this question, but who would you say is the greatest college prospect ever? And if there was an all time draft, would that same prospect go first overall like a quarterback? I think many would argue that Elway was the best prospect of all time. I mean he's six' three, six' four, he could run, he had a huge arm and he was a Stanford intellect guy who was, whose dad was a coach. I think it'd be hard, you'd be hard pressed to call John Elway the greatest quarterback prospect of all time. And if the greatest quarterback prospect of all time, that means you're the greatest prospect of all time. Because even if you're, I'm trying to think, you know, you know what's funny is some of the great tackles in the history of the league like Jonathan Ogden, let's, let's use him as an example. Jonathan Ogden, I think he was like the 12th pick in the draft. He was a fourth pick. I'd say Jonathan Ogden be pretty high. Nine time first or second team all pro. I mean guys like that. But Trent Williams, Jonathan Ogden, you know, Lane Johnson is going to be a first bout hall of Famer. A lot of these tackles, they were the fourth overall pick. So it's hard for me to call some of these tackles the greatest prospect of all time if they're the fourth overall pick. I'd imagine Reggie White a little before my time, but he's probably going to be one of the great prospects of all time. Lawrence Taylor would probably be up there. But Reggie White was technically, yeah, he was in the supplemental draft. I forget the exact details on that one. But he was the fourth overall pick. Lawrence Taylor was the second overall pick. So you know, I'd say Elway would be hard to beat. I'd say the two best quarterback prospects in my life would be Elway, Payton and then a lot of these other guys. You know, Lawrence Taylor, you know Reggie White, played in the usfl. I'll tell you, he was a fucking sweet prospect. Von Miller was pretty sweet. He went too. Overall. You briefly mentioned it when you were on with Colin a few weeks ago that you spent some time in San Sebastian when you were younger. Wondering what your thoughts were on the place, if so. I went back a few years ago for my 30th and was blown away by the food. What's your thoughts on international fixtures, even possibly future teams in Europe? As a European fan, I can say for certain that I wouldn't like any team based outside of the America, even in London. If you're a European fan, in my opinion, you don't want to support watch one of the established 32American teams. You want to watch the other based in Europe. That's a good question. When I went to San Sebastian I was. That's almost 20 years ago now. What's funny is we went to the beach. I was there for like a month. Went to the beach like every single day. It was incredible. The water was warm, the food. I just remember there being a lot of tapas. I remember eating tapas every day, was drinking a lot. We'd go for runs along the beach. We went to class I think like twice a week, which was stupid. I don't remember anything that was said. We actually went out drinking one night with the teacher who didn't speak great English, but he was cool guy. I just remember screwing around there. I didn't surf, but it was. It's technically that beach, you know, has decent surf. I just remember swimming and going to the beach and I was just. I've never been more tan in my life. It's absolutely beautiful there. Remember being hot and humid, but it was. It's been a long time and that was a time too, you know. We didn't have cell phone with a camera so I don't even have that many pictures. I have a couple that are on like a buddy, probably someone else that I went with Facebook page back in the day. It's like a completely different time in life. I remember having a Nokia flip phone with me so I could like call my parents. But it was, it was fun, not gonna lie. Question for the pod. I'm a die hard app state football fan and truly believe on any given Sunday we could beat anyone in the country. That being said, I Realize we are tremendously outclassed in talent with the portal and turned G5 schools into breeding grounds for Power 5. What does the future of G5 football look like to you? And is there a G5 school from their own league? Is there any world where the G5 schools form their own league? It kind of hit me when we were talking about Simmons the other day because someone asked a question about Jason Kelsey comparing Josh Simmons to the best, you know, a prospect with his physical capabilities, like a Jason Peters or Trent Williams. And then I didn't realize this because again, I'm not living and dying in this world anymore. I just assumed if you're just starting left tackle for Ohio State, that you went to Ohio State out of high school and you were just some blue chip guy, right? Like you're CJ Stroud or you're Jeremiah Smith or your even Caleb Downs, right? Alabama, Ohio State. Blue chipper Simmons was at San Diego State. I mean, a couple years ago, San Diego State was pretty good. You know, UNLV had a moment last year. Obviously you guys had some moments. Those days are done when you get a Josh Simmons. Now when you get at San Diego State, a legitimate NFL prospect. I got my start at Fresno State. We had Ryan Matthews. When I got there, Ryan Matthews was a top 15 pick. And at running back, the Chargers drafted Bryant Matthews to literally replace Ladanian Tomlinson, who's one of the greatest players ever. Ryan Matthews, at point in time in his childhood, grew up in a car. His mom and him lived out of a car. It was an incredible story. And Ryan has gone on now to everyone that's ever met, Ryan loved him. He's gone on to coach, I think, high school football at Bakersfield. Ryan Matthews was so loyal to Coach Hill because he did not academically qualify when he was being recruited by the big boys. And then last second to get into Fresno State, he academically qualifies. And Pete Carroll, and this is like 07 in the peak of the USC dynasty, offers Ryan Matthews a scholarship. And Ryan says no and goes to Fresno State. Well, maybe he would have still done that, but after a year or two, the nil, he would have been offered too much money and he wouldn't have been able to stay at Fresno State. And financially, people would have had to look at him and say, bro, you got to take $800,000 to go play at SC or play at Oregon. No one would. Texas, wherever. And I think that's where you just don't. Even if the guy is loyal, it's really, really Hard to turn that and no one would even blame you. The NFL has always had an edge over other sports, in part because the regular season games carry far more weight than any other league. Is the NFL diluting its product by adding an 18th game? There's a reason NBA ratings are average. Their product is watered down. Would love to hear your thoughts. Yeah, I mean, listen, the NFL product at this point in time is a little watered down. Based on they play on Thursday Night Football, they've added the extra game. They force games in constantly on short weeks. It is not the same as it was 20 years ago and the league has never been more popular. Now part of that is still like, even if I force a game in on Thursday, there still is a lack of inventory. And the greatest thing the NFL has going for it is the setup of the sport is built for short attention spans. It's literally built for modern day people because there's only one game a week for your team. And in basketball, especially baseball, there are just a ton of games, but there always have been a ton of games. But 20, 30, 40 years ago, our attention spans were shorter. There was. We were allowed to be bored. Think about this. When was the last time I remember thinking all the time when I was a kid, like, I'm bored. I was just with swimming with my nephews. Do you know what they're probably never ever going to say in their entire life? I'm bored. Which is, you could argue, sad because I think some of the most creative people, some of the best ideas have come when you just get to spend time with your thoughts and think and create. Maria was telling me something yesterday that she on Instagram about scrolling. I don't even know if this is true, but has some impact on part of your brain that helps with problem solving. I wonder if that's true because I was actually taking the trash out the other day and there was a rip in the trash bag and we were both looking at each other in the kitchen and there's just like coffee spilling all and I just froze. It's like, what do I do? She's like, I don't know, run outside. And I was like, does, does my problem solving part of my brain not work anymore because I've scrolled too much? I hope not, but I can't discount that possibility. But overall, listen, I think the 18th game, I'm not for it. I wasn't for the 17th game. But it's coming. It's, it's inevitable. So I don't know what else to tell you. I was re watching the Sopranos, and there was a scene where Sylvia steps in as the acting boss while Tony is in the hospital. He tells his wife he's better as a number two. And I really believe that's a real thing. Some people thrive in that role, and putting them out can be risky. When coaching moves, with coaching moves. The last couple of years, we've seen a lot of former head coaches go back to coordinator roles. I think this could possibly raise the quality of football this season alone. We've got Sala, Dennis Allen, Eberfluss, all these guys. Josh McDaniels, Chip Kelly. Curious to hear your take. Yeah, you could argue, though, I mean, what if Ben Johnson is, you know, fails at his position, taking over as a head coach, leaving as a coordinator. I think there's always ebb and flows in this business in terms of people being a head coach, people being a coordinator. It kind of goes in circles. But you could argue definitely from a defensive coordinator standpoint, sale of being a defensive coordinator is a plus. Eberfluss being a defensive coordinator, in theory, is a plus. Dennis Allen for sure. Robert Salla, Dennis Allen are big additions to the league. Who defensively, I mean, it's a shitty coach league. So there's a small percentage of guys that know what they're doing. I think in fairness, it's hard to coach defense. The rules are not on your side. It is basically officiated against you. So you have to be so freaking good. There's always been a huge advantage with, you know, great defensive coaches because it's like a great combination of. Of motivation of like the academic motive, the. The academic schematic, coaching, developing a scheme, teaching your players that with like a level of craziness and violence, that offense, it's just. It's basically just out thinking you playing chess. There is a level of like being kind of a crazy asshole on defense, which is always resonated with the consumer, with fans. Watching defensive coordinators, like watching Kirby Smart or Nick Saban kind of address the team. That's what made Belichick kind of unique, is he was like this academic, but he was a defensive guy, but he wasn't like a huge, you know, Belichick wasn't giving rah rah speeches right, like Tomlin or Harbaugh can. So I think a rah rah speech is a big part of a defensive coordinator for most of them, not named Belichick, but I like where you're coming from there.

Candace Parker (44:24)

The volume.

Katie Couric (44:28)

On the latest episode of Next Question with me, Katie Couric I sat down with Jasmine Crockett, Democratic representative of Texas. She's holding down the fort for her party in one of the most conservative states in the union.

Jasmine Crockett (44:42)

I think that ultimately who will become the Democratic nominee for president will be someone that has been out there and has shown that they won't allow themselves to be punched and just say thank you like they will punch back.

Katie Couric (44:55)

Listen to Next Question with me, Katie Couric on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Greg Rosenthal (45:03)

Who are the 25 greatest football players to grace the gridiron since the year 2000? Introducing the NFL Daily's top 25 players of the last 25 years. Join me, Greg Rosenthal and an all star cast of media personalities including Mina Kimes, Steve Wise, Kevin Harlan and more for a look at football's best since the turn of the century. Listen to NFL Daily's top 25 players of the last 25 years starting on June 30th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or or wherever you get your podcast.

iHeart Podcast (45:39)

Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebony, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebony and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Jemele Hill (46:07)

I'm Jemele Hill, host of the sports and politics podcast Spolitics. On this week's episode I'm joined by all time great Hooper and basketball analyst Candace Parker, who gives insight into her candid new book including why she waited two years into marriage to come out.

Candace Parker (46:21)

I never envisioned being with a woman. I'll just be honest. Like when I close my eyes at night every night I was like I need to find my prince Charming. Like it was never a princess.

Jemele Hill (46:31)

Make sure you listen to this episode of Spolitix on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

iHeart Podcast (46:38)

This is an iHeart podcast.