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- [00:00]
John Middlecoff
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- [00:25]
Levar Arrington
It's Levar Arrington here from up on Game and I need you to listen for a moment. All right? Get serious. The hate in this country is getting out of control. It's at an all time high. It's going to take all of us to stop it. I mean, think about it. We're all on the same team in this country, right? Let's take a break from hate so our team can regroup. We need to take a timeout against hate. Visit standup to all hate.org to help and join me in calling for a timeout against hate by following or posting the Blue Square emoji this holiday season.
- [01:07]
John Middlecoff
Don't forget your number one fan. You so what's a gift you could use? Maybe go to more home games or even travel to some away games while rocking a new away team jersey? Well, they've got something for you. Discover automatically doubles all the cash back you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year. With cash back match with Discover you could turn 150 cash back to 300. That'll help with the swanky away jersey it pays to discover. See terms@discover.com credit card. You've almost certainly been prescribed a medication before, but did you understand how it worked? The way your medication works in your body shouldn't be a mystery. Learn how Vivgarti, Trullo, Fgartegamod, Alpha and Hyaluronidase QVFC works by visiting Vivgart.com MOA that's V-Y-V-G-A-R-T.com MOA brought to you by Argenics Thursday Night Football is on and it's only on Prime Video. This Thursday, the Seattle Seahawks traveled to the Windy City to face the Chicago Bears. Join Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreet and Kaylee Hartung for this exciting matchup. Coverage begins at 7pm Eastern with football's best party TNF tonight, live from Chicago. Not a Prime member? Not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial. You can cancel at any time. It's the Seahawks and Bears at 7pm Eastern on Thursday Night Football. And it's on Prime. Video restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details. The Volume. What is going on, everybody? How are we doing? I thought I'd do a little Saturday mailbag, but I, I also, I recorded the mailbag during the day, but I, I waited till we. Notre Dame absolutely beat down the Hoosiers. Don't let the 27 to 17 score fool you. So I did a little recap of what we all just witnessed. Notre Dame now headed to play Georgia. I want to say the semis, but it's actually the quarterfinals. It's hard to keep up with everything in this new playoff format, but we got three more games tomorrow, as well as NFL games, so we'll step up on YouTube, probably have a podcast out, combine the two of them as well. For Sunday, we've got so much content. The games on Sunday are not great. Saturday actually is dramatically better than Sunday. So I thought, you know, it's right around Christmas time, so we're going to chill a little next week. We might as well grind it hard. And when I say grind hard, watch football and talk about it. So I was actually really excited to watch this game. The pregame, you could argue, was cooler than the actual game. But. But for Notre Dame fans, you should be fired up. That's a big win. Get a playoff win for Marcus Freeman. And the little story that it was Indiana that we will have to. We might have to just talk about right off the bat, because that was bad and in a long, long mailbag. So at John Middlecoft, fire in those DMs. I have so many questions. I know a lot of you guys that have asked me questions haven't got your question answered yet. I'm not trying to avoid you or circumvent your question. I just have a lot. And there's no perfect way to do it on the Instagram. My guy Zuckerberg, you can't filter it like Excel spreadsheets or anything, so I just kind of go as they come in. So if I miss you, I promise you I am not avoiding you. And I'm trying to get your question, but it just comes with the territory. So make sure you subscribe to the podcast, subscribe to the YouTube page, and. And we're off and running. But first, you know, I said I was watching this game, like, I'm sure many of you and many people all over the country help. My buddy Michael Titus was there. And if you want to go to a game like this, if you want to go to any game, Christmas, Hanukkah. Get some presents right around the corner. The official ticketing app of this podcast has you covered. Concerts, games, you name it. You want a pair of tickets to any event. Use game time. They're the best. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets. Take just download the gametime app, create an account and use the code johan for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again, create an account and redeem the code Johan for $20 off down the Gametime app today. Last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. Well, I think we have to start tonight. You know this obviously, Notre Dame is one of the biggest brands in all of sports, college or pro. There's something powerful about the helmets. Just when you see that gold kind of shining in the light, how cool it was. And listen, before we get negative on anything, the this playoff is awesome. This home field game at Penn State, at Notre Dame, at Ohio, State, at Texas is badass. The only people that get kind of screwed are these teams with a buy because of the power of these New Year's six bowls that they also don't get a home game. If I was commissioner or czar of this entire thing, I would figure out a way. One, I would expand it to 16 teams and every single team, whether you play in the first round or get that home field by or you know, the first round by, you get a home game. That was very, very powerful. My buddy was there. He kept sending me pictures. It looked awesome. It's a special atmosphere. These college teams aren't used to getting home games in the middle of December, let alone late December or January 1st. So I'm pro Rose bowl and pro the Orange bowl like I like some of the Bulls. We can save that till the semifinals. And I think we got to find a way to have this happen more often because game day leading up on campus was Saban there. Dudes kicking the field goal with McAfee the lead in for like 10 minutes before kickoff. The band playing it was awesome. Sign me up. We're all on board with home playoff games. Now before we get to Notre Dame and they get a big win, they're off to play Georgia. We will dive into their potential hopes, not just against Georgia, but for the rest of this tournament. One of the biggest stories all year was India and I think we have to separate two things because in a vacuum, their season was incredible. They won 11 games. Go to their football reference record page. They had never won double digit games. They said at the beginning of the kickoff, no program in like Power 5 Division 1 history has had less success than Indiana. So what Sigdaddy and the program accomplished on a historic basketball program was awesome. I don't care who you're playing, you could be playing the Sisters of the Poor, the School of the Blind, Eastern Illinois, Nebraska, doesn't matter. You go, you win 11 games in Indiana. That is awesome. And then I think we have to factor in, we're in this college football playoffs, and we're not looking for cute stories. We're not looking for, this is awesome. Let's give them a shot. We're looking for the best teams. And in the NFL, even if you play in a crappy division, you play another division from the other conference, and you also play another division from your own conference. So it's also. It's almost unavoidable that you're playing a handful of really good teams. And if you end up with nine to 10 wins or obviously more, it's impossible to not have a couple good wins on your schedule. Plus, everybody in the pros is, wait for it, a pro. And I think there's become this big disconnect because everyone views the SECs as like the football elites. You can't talk any sense into them. They just believe to their soul that they are dramatically better than everyone else. And based on recent history, the NFL draft, national championships, and success in the playoffs, I think it speaks for itself. But, like, we have lumped in the Big Ten with the SEC almost like they are equals now with the sec, adding Oregon, obviously, that is a massive addition. One of the better programs in the country over the last 20 years. But on the whole, the teams Indiana was beating this year, no one cares that you destroyed Nebraska, honestly. And listen, Signetti is. I like big personalities in sports. They're fun to talk about, they're fun to watch, they create a lot of fun storylines. But football at that level and obviously the NFL level are extremely difficult. It's why I would say the two best NFL coaches of my adult life don't really talk that much when they're coaching about anyone else. Andy Reid and Bill Belichick, if anything, they're the opposite. They build you up. They could be playing a winless team. Belichick was classic for this. And if they're playing a really good team, they act like they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. And even in college, Saban was very careful with his words. Kirby, while very emotional, very hesitant to like on another program. Signetti, coaching at Indiana, runs around like he's Bear Bryant meets Bill Walsh combined with Vince Lombardi. And I'll promise you this next year I google their schedule. They're playing Penn State, Iowa and Oregon on the road. These teams in that conference are going to be looking to beat the living crap out of him because he never shuts up. Great season, incredible story. He had no business being in this game. He really didn't. And one thing we learned tonight, and I think anyone with a brain that has followed the sport, records aren't all equal. And trying to compare records in college football is kind of stupid. How? How could anyone compare Boise State's record of playing a Mountain west schedule to Ole Miss or South Carolina's records playing an SEC schedule? It's like comparing apples to cheeseburgers. In Indiana through 95% of this game, they didn't have 150 yards of offense with five minutes left to go in this game. And Notre Dame's good and who knows, maybe they could beat Georgia. But that's not exactly Lou Holtz Notre Dame team. I would imagine this team's not as good as some of Brian Kelly's Notre Dame team. It's a good team, but that was JV versus Varsity. Immediately it reminded me a little bit of the Bears Vikings game from Monday Night Football. I would say less than 10 minutes into actual play of the game, you knew right away they have no chance to win the game. And in games like this, I always laugh when people on social media was like I can't believe he punted down 17 points. Like guys, nothing he does matters. Absolutely nothing. It's like they got a really good quarterback. Well, yeah, he looks good playing Minnesota at home in September. How does he look against Ohio State or Notre Dame? He looks like a guy like his brother probably headed to the cfl. And there's nothing wrong with that. Had a great season. You can, you can make decent money in the cfl. But like when he plays real teams, doesn't look like a high end college quarterback, let alone an NFL prospect. I like Mel Kuiper. Having him six on your big board seems a little bold to me. And the team speed, the athletes. And that's what when people that argue about the SEC are simply saying on a weekly basis, even if we're playing a seven win team, they got three or four guys on defense alone that are going to be drafted in the top four rounds. Two defensive linemen, a linebacker and a safety. And those guys are hitting our players on a snap in snap out basis. That is different than playing a team with maybe one draftable player. That's a Right guard, it's not the same. And I think Indiana tonight, moving forward will really impact teams. If it doesn't look like they've beaten anybody, no one's going to give a shit what your record is. You know why? Because it does not matter. And there has to be some level of eye test. Are they good enough? Do they have any chance to compete? Right? Do they? It's much different in the NCAA tournament with college basketball because we allow 64 teams in. So. So even if you go, is this team really that good? Who cares? There are seven seed when there's only 12 teams going and obviously five teams because of automatic qualifiers get in. There aren't that many at large bids. And everyone was making this big deal. It was like, how could, how are we even discussing Alabama or South Carolina with their, you know, with their three losses or two losses or whatever? It's like, guys just watch the talent on one team and, and watch the talent on the other team. I just looked at the top 25 and once you pass Indiana and you get out of the top, the teams in the dance, Alabama, they're better than Ole Miss is better. South Carolina is better. Missouri is better. They didn't play Illinois this year. I would bet on Illinois straight up against Indiana. Colorado, who's barely in the top 25, is a better team than Indiana simply because they have better players. Their quarterback, top five guy, their best player, top five guy. They have two guys on their team that are top five draft picks, easily could go number one and two in the draft. I'm watching Indiana, like, do they got a guy going in the first two rounds? Meanwhile, Notre Dame, they have a rotational pass rusher, Bryant Young, who is a special place in my heart because when I was a kid, the 49ers could not beat the Cowboys. And then in 1994, they drafted a defensive tackle from Brigham Young or from Notre Dame. And he came and his name was Bryant Young. And now his son's at Notre dame and he's 6 foot 7 and comes off the edge. You're like, holy shit. That guy's got a chance to be a first rounder. I promise you that he'd get drafted right now just off his measurables. It's like, you think Indiana has a guy like that on their team? Let alone all the starters, all the stalwarts for this, you know, program the last couple years. Notre Dame every single year is pumping guys into the league. Indiana is the worst program in the history of college football. And this is why, well, it's like, how can we look at what's happened in previous years? Now, obviously that has become more difficult with the transfer portal, with the movement. But if, like this program every year is pumping out X number of players in the top three rounds to the NFL draft, that has to matter. Because this game, especially college football, it's about the X's and the O's. But on Saturdays, it's a lot about the Jimmy's and the Joes. And how many guys on Indiana would start for Notre Dame. It's not like I'm balls deep into every single roster in college football, but I can watch a couple games. I can watch Indiana play four games. I can watch Notre Dame play four games and have a pretty good idea. And I would imagine everyone sitting on their couch goes, yeah, they maybe got a couple guys. So out of the 22 starters, how many of the 22 guys on Indiana would go to Notre Dame? Who is probably like, you know, we're going to find out against Georgia, a fringe top 10, eight team in the country. I think if you're being aggressive, you would say five. Probably have a couple defensive linemen, they clearly have a solid defense. Offensively, can't be many. And if you're being conservative, you can say like two or three. That's a enormous talent discrepancy. And what we just had to witness was because, like, they factored in and Sean McDonough, and I'll give him credit, in slow games, and he used to do this on Monday Night Football, he can turn the broadcast into a podcast and he can just start slinging takes. And he essentially, I thought, summed it up perfectly, like, we need to stop assuming there are two power conferences, right? Because in the last 20 years there's been one, and that's the SEC. That doesn't mean on given years, the Big Ten is not really good. Last year is a good example. At the, at their peak, like Ohio State and Michigan go toe to toe with anybody. But this year, like, we'll find out they got potentially two really good teams, maybe three. But let's not act like they go five, six deep, and their middle and their bottom is simply not nearly as good as the middle of the SEC when it comes to talent on the roster. So being seven and five in the SEC and being seven and five in the Big Ten, those are not equals. Just like going nine and three in the Mountain west and going six and six in the sec, it doesn't mean just because the team's got nine wins, it's way More impressive than going six and six. We're playing a. We're hiking two different mountains here. One person's hiking Everest, the other guy's hiking the hill in their backyard. That doesn't mean that playing football is not hard. That doesn't mean that Indiana shouldn't be proud of their season. But I think we learned a lesson really quick. Indiana had no business being in this dance. None. And that was as easy of a game as they could have. They had a fucking bus ride to the stadium and they got Molly whopped that. That was embarrassing. You look at, if you didn't watch the game, you look at the final score like, oh, probably decent game. No, it was terrible. It was awful. It was really, really bad. And I don't think Indiana should be embarrassed. They are who they are. They played two good teams and they got worked in, both of them. And we, all of us, because we. There was so much hype leading in because they had created this like fraudulent standing. We kind of were like, oh, so could something happen? And then obviously nothing did. And on the flip side, Notre Dame, like if this was the NFL and let's say they were in the AFC and they had a couple home games or every team they were going to play was going to be in cold weather, I'd say they could beat a lot of teams. I'd say, honestly, they could compete for a national championship. I'm not saying they could win it, but what they do well does work. They have two really good running backs. They ran for, I think almost 200 yards tonight. Now, one of the runs, he actually took the handoff like two yards deep, but it was a 98 yard run. But he ran like 104 yards. It was sweet. But they're going to be able to run for. Should be able to run for 100 yards against good teams or just could have some success on the ground. And defensively they're really good. They have a really good defensive line. Obviously they got feisty DBs, they're well coached, they're physical, they're tough. Like that translates. And in games in the teens or the twenties where it's hard to throw the ball around, I would say they have a very good chance. The problem is, is their next game is in New Orleans in a dome against Georgia. So it does neutralize the strength of obviously they're playing. I mean, comparing Indiana to Georgia would be like comparing an NFL team to modern day high school in Southern California who's obviously really good. But I was pretty impressed. I think they're pretty solid if they can play their way. Their one downfall is going to be. And there was a lot of hype on this player coming in. And he seems like an incredible guy. He's obviously a really tough. I mean, you watch the way the guy competes. He's just a fantastic kind of playmaker runner. Can he throw the ball well enough? And they obviously went all in on him. They paid him a lot of money. His numbers don't look terrible tonight. 23, 32. Had a couple nice deep passes, made some nice plays on the run, throwing the ball. I just don't know if he's going to be a good enough passer to beat the Georgia defense. Now there's a big wild card. Kirby Smart was on game day and basically acknowledged like Carson Beck. I, you know, in college football, unlike the pros, you don't have to. There's no injury reports, so you can be very mysterious about what's going on. Like, did he get the Brock Purdy UCL injury? Is he out for the season? Is he not? I, Kirby Smart, essentially, I would say, acknowledge, like, yeah, he's gone. He's not. He's not here anymore. Like, his season's over. We'll find out more and more as we get closer to the combine. Like, what the hell is going on. Schefter and those guys, I'm sure will break the news sooner than later. But playing a backup quarterback, you never know. Now, Indiana's defense is solid, and it's actually. It's actually not bad at all. Georgia's defense on a completely different level. And when they bring their A game, as we've seen, you know, against Texas, they're going to be tough. So can Notre Dame run the ball effectively against them? Can they pass it well enough to just keep them honest? But that is a fantastic game. I mean, this tonight was underwhelming. I mean, I'm glad and happy that we all experienced. The first night of the playoffs at Notre Dame felt cool, felt big. But Indiana playing a part in that was a little bit of a letdown. Georgia, Notre Dame is a fantastic game on paper. I also think it's a big game for Notre Dame. Right. I would say in the Brian Kelly era, up until this upcoming game, they've had some of these moments and it felt like they've come up a little short. This would be as big of a win as I can remember to beat Kirby Smart to beat Georgia, obviously Georgia gets the extra rest even with the backup quarterback. I mean, Georgia's got three or four Guys on defense that are going to go, I don't know, in the top 30 picks and Notre Dame, I, I was impressed because the toughness, the defense, the running game loves run was sweet. The crazy thing is he had a 98 yard run and he had 108 yards total on eight carries. So it's always good. I thought McElroy had a good point. He's like coaches love doing, you know, if you just take out that one run, we did a pretty good job, right? If you remove that one run, Notre Dame actually ran for under 100 yards. But that's not the way it works, right? It's like, no, that that run actually happened and that was seven points. That's part of the total. It's like, well, if we just didn't have the two go routes that Randy Moss took for a total of 140 yards, you know, we would have done pretty well on defense. Well, those two things happened. So I'm fired up for that game already. I came in, actually parlayed Notre Dame tonight with the three games tomorrow. I took Penn State, I took Clemson, Moneyline and I took Tennessee. I think I took Tennessee in the points also. I got a little bowl. I had like 100 bucks left. I think I also threw the Texans plus three and a half. So we got a long way to go. But we're one down, four to go. But nice win for Notre Dame. Cool moment in Indiana. Nice knowing you. I would say if you go 6 and 6 next year, I'd be impressed. It's the most wonderful time of year for getting in on all the hoops, football and hockey action at the DraftKings sportsbook. It's the season of giving and we're being gifted. College football and basketball, pro football and basketball and pro hockey too. Almost 24 7. So many games every day. So many opportunities to blace your first bet. Try betting on something simple like picking a team to win. Go to DraftKings sportsbook app and place your bet. And here's a gift for all new customers. Bet 5 bucks to get 150 in bonus bets. If your bet wins, download the DraftKings sportsbook app and use the code John. That's Code Johan for new customers to get 150 in bonus bets. If your first bet wins when you bet just five bucks. Happy holidays from DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER in New York. Call 877-8-HOPENY or text hopeny467-369 in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please police play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Kansas 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Boyden, Ontario 1 bonus bet per customer based on amount of initial touchdown bet and expires 168 hours after issuance. One single use boost per customer that only applies to winnings. See sportsbook.draftkings.com promos for additional terms and responsible gaming resources this holiday season. Don't forget your number one fan you so what's a gift you could use? Maybe go to more home games or even travel to some away games while rocking a new away team jersey? Well, they've got something for you. Discover automatically doubles all the cash back you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year. With cash back match with Discover, you could turn 150 cash back to 300. That'll help with the swanky away jersey it pays to Discover. See terms@discover.com credit card congratulations to CBS.
- [26:56]
Doug Gottlieb
Sports and Sony Electronics for their first place wins for innovation in industry at this year's unconventional awards by T Mobile for Business. In a collaboration that was clearly built on breaking new ground, CBS and Sony created a first of its kind broadcast for the PGA Championship. Using a custom built T Mobile Private 5G network to power the live production, they deployed a 5G wireless camera system throughout the event. The network speed combined with Sony's innovative ultra low latency video codec allowed for seamless, high quality footage without disruption. With that innovative approach, CBS gave broadcasters the tools they need to do what they do best. Take their coverage to entirely new places. These innovations will shape the way live sports are covered moving forward. And for that, T Mobile congratulates Sony and CBS for their unconventional thinking.
- [27:57]
Levar Arrington
Hey, this is Levar Arrington here from up on Game and listen, I want to talk to you about something very serious for a minute, all right? Something personal to me and right now something that should be personal to you as well. In our country, the hate is at an all time high and it's like we're going backward. The hate is winning. We can't allow that, all right? It's out of control. So many different people, so many different groups are facing too much hate and it's enough. It's time for it to stop. We need to stop, regroup, change the momentum as a team because that's what we are. Everyone in this country is on the same team. So let's act like it. And when a team can't get it together, what do you do? You call a timeout. And that's what we need to do. Call a timeout against hate. Let's think about what we say and do. And when we see hate, when we see someone doing or saying those things we know are wrong and hateful, we need to call it out. I'mma call it out. You need to do the same thing. Visit Stand up to all hate.org to help. And join me in calling for a timeout against hate by following at what's up with Hate? Or posting the blue square emoji.
- [29:14]
John Middlecoff
Picture this. You're in the garage, your favorite room in the house, and you're tuning up your engine with parts you found on ebay. Every piece is just locking perfectly into place. You step back to admire your work, hands covered in grease. And because you're committed to driving that thing further than the odometer can even handle, you start thinking to yourself, you know what? I could probably use some new brakes, some shocks and struts. This baby deserves a new air filter. So you head right back to ebay. You can find any part you need. It's unreal. From wipers and headlights to cold air intakes, exhaust systems, and even that turbo you've had on your mind. Ebay is that stock garage of your dreams. And you've got ebay guaranteed fit. Because ebay knows deal. DIY fixes can be major, and mods are also intense. So you need to know those parts are guaranteed to fit every time before you dive in. Wrench first. And in the off chance you order a part and it doesn't fit, send it back. 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You can order delivery straight from the Crumbl app. Ready to treat yourself? Visit your nearest Crumbl or download the Crumbl app and dive into dessert bliss today. Okay, let's do a little mailbag. Onmiddlekopf is the Instagram fire in those DMs? Get your question answered here on this little thing called the Powcast. Okay, start with with a question. If you had to pick one player from this draft class to be in the hall of Fame, who would it be? Personally, I would say Alt with an honorable mention for Bowers. I think the hard part about skill guys, you know, Bowers neighbors, Rome running backs, whoever is so much is out of their control. You know Bowers for as awesome as he is, what if his quarterback play for like the first five years of his career is a disaster? It's hard to overcome that to get true greatness. Now, if you told me Bowers was playing with like Herbert, I'd be like, hell yeah. I would say Alt is a pretty good choice. I would say Mitchell, the Eagles corner has a chance to be pretty freaking good. You know, like a four or five, six time all. Probably one of the defensive linemen. Whether it's first, whether it's Dallas Turner, Byron Murphy, one of those guys I think could be pretty good. But I like your Alt pick. I would probably go with the corner Mitchell for the Eagles because some of those guys, like if you're an elite offensive tackle or an elite corner, you can overcome no matter what, even a quarterback? Like, what if Cliff Kingsbury leaves and that derails Jaden Bo Nix. It's so hard with quarterbacks. But his coach is going to be there, you think? For a while. Last mailbag, you had a question about your gym routine. I was wondering if I wrote you up a routine, if you'd give it a shot for a few months and see how you liked it. I played low level college football and once I was done, I shifted my focus to lifting since I didn't need to block defensive ends anymore. I wanted to lose some weight. I lost 20 pounds in six months and kept my strength. Let me know if you'd be interested. Yeah, I'll shoot you my email. You send me some circuits, I'll bang those out. I'm just looking to tighten up the bod. Not, not looking to, you know, deadlift heavy weight or anything, but fire me. Fire me an email for the bag. If Kyle could have a do over, do you think they would have elected to roll with Darnold over Purdy? I understand they went to the super bowl last year, but we saw Tomlin bench fields this year at four and one feels like a whiff that they had Sam in the building. Now I, I mean, Brock Purdy is in a different universe. Brock Purdy's better player, Russell Wilson, like the Steelers would die to have Brock Purdy. I think if they had to do over, what they would have done is Brandon Iuk would not be on this team. They would have traded Brandon Iuk around the draft and even if that meant like they didn't want to eat, not getting a first round pick, I think if they could do it over again, they would have traded him for a second and a third round pick and freed up their money and giving them a lot more flexibility. I think that's one move that they would like to do over because that thing became just a disaster situation for them. And my guy Kawakami, who knows Kyle and John and that organization well, who covers the 49ers and the warriors and the Bay Area guy said they will never go through that again. And that was an experience of like talking to a wall. You know, I think any one of you listening with little kids when you're trying to reason with a little kid and it's just, it's like, what? This is pointless. That's what I think it felt like with the 49ers dealing with Brandon Iuk. Like, bro, we are offering you a lot of money. What are we doing? These fake trades that you Keep saying no to. It was a low level negotiation. It really was. And I think they regret it. They really do. And I'm not even talking about the injury. You can never know. Who knows, he might never be the same. And even if he's fully healthy, I just think, why are you paying that guy that much money? It didn't make that much sense to me at the time. He's never going to catch more than 75, 80 balls in your offense. I just, at least Debo in theory was a very versatile player when they extended him and could do a lot like, I don't know, I just invest in the line of scrimmage. I went to UC Davis. I can't believe you grew up in that college town. I don't know how old you are, but when I go back and I'm, I'm actually flying back on Monday for the week and then we'll come back on Saturday, the town. And maybe it's when you're growing up, there's a youthful naivete. There's just. You're not really thinking about life when you're 13, 14, 15, 16 like you do as you age. You're just trying to play football, hang out with your buddies, you know, chasing babes, just trying to enjoy, hang out, have your parents off your back that you, you go back in. The town seems a lot different. You know, I honestly, when I go back to downtown Davis, it feels a lot different than the town that I grew up in. Now granted, I graduated high school in 2003, so I mean, we're talking 20 years is a long, long time. And I haven't lived there since I left high school to go to college. But it definitely feels dramatically different. But it was a cool place to grow up. I'm curious what your thoughts are on a blockbuster trade. The Bengals trade Burrow for Hurts and some picks similar to what the Rams did with Goff and Stafford. Howie Roseman seems like he's always looking to improve. I mean, the Eagles move on from Wentz, Foles, Doug Peterson pretty damn quick. Plus, I assume Burrow is getting tired of the Bengals. There's just how he would do that trade so fast. He would drive Jalen Hurts to Cincinnati. The Bengals are not trading Joe Burrow. It makes no sense for them to trade Joe Burrow. I mean, they got into a knockdown drag out with Carson Palmer years ago and he like had to sit out. It's just not going to happen. Not now. I'm not saying ever, but he's just, he's Going to be on the Bengals. He just is talking in 2025, if you are. Can you imagine being a Cincinnati Bengal fan and trading Joe Burrow for shitty as this season is? And it sucks technically they're still alive. Pretty big game coming up against the Broncos. Actually, I kept acting like the Broncos are a lock playoff team. They do need to probably win one of these last two games if Cincinnati wins out. But like you can't even entertain, if you would even entertain that you should sell the franchise, which stupid. They're not going to sell the franchise. But you know what I mean? Like, he's just. You don't trade. He's the best. I think he's the most talented player they've ever had. Now the Broncos finish with Cincinnati in a, in a week. Now they get that extra rest and Cincinnati play who they play this week, the Browns. So I think Denver could really, if Denver loses that game, they're in pretty good shape. If Joe Burrow was available. I don't even think you can. I don't think any of us can fathom the aggression by the NFL and I mean individual teams, general managers and coaches to get in on that. That would be like, it'd be like, you know, Giannis is available, right? Or you know, like when Ohtani or Juan Soto was available and like five teams were lined up to pay 650 to $700 million. That would be the equivalent of a trade. It may be hard to predict just because a lot depends on coaching and quarterback, but who do you think the next great dynasty in the NFL, like the Patriots, beside the Chiefs. Some might consider the Chiefs a dynasty. And I agree. If they win it this year, well, they already got a mini dynasty. They've been to four Super Bowls and whatever, six years. They've won three of them. They are currently the number one overall seed. I mean it's them, their coach, quarterback, their general manager, their infrastructure is not going. Their defensive coordinator. They're just not going to go away now. Not every year they're going to be 13, 12 and one or the number one seed. Some one year they're going to be 11 and six. I think they were last year and they won the like just. They are the dynasty. Like there. There is no other even remotely close team in a conversation. So I, I think it's just them. We're in the middle of their dynasty, which is cool. Longtime listener, lifelong Eagles fan, although I'm not the biggest Sirianni guy. I'm wondering why he seems to be treated more unfairly by the media and in the league than other coaches. So many are quick to say, what does he do? No. One hand while totally glazing the other. Leader of men, CEO type coaches like Harbaughs, Campbell, etc. I just don't think the media are quick to dump all the blame on his on him and none of the credit for the team's achievement. It can't be both. Fact is he's 46 and 19 as the Eagles coach and has them on the franchise's longest winning streak after being on the hot seat. And he's not even remotely in the discussion for coach of the year. I think his awkward personality may just be off putting. Yeah, I think there are a lot of factors. I think last year was pretty glaring. I think anytime he's a pretty big front runner, at least he was before this year. And I think that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. There were articles like the. The quarterback wouldn't even talk to him last year. It doesn't feel like he was behind Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio. Right. The organization hired them. I would also say the organization when. When you say like Howie and Jeffrey Lurie almost feel bigger than the coach. Right. Like they had Doug Peterson and they won a Super bowl and they beat Bill Belichick and Tom Brady and then they ran him out of town. And I like Doug a lot. Like, he's been very cool to me. I enjoy Doug Peterson. Anyone that knows Doug likes Doug, but like, watch him in Jacksonville, he's not very good. Like, if you remove Sirianni from the infrastructure that Lurie and Howie provide and put him on the Giants, it. No one has any faith that he knows what he's doing. I think. And when I say knows what he's doing, I meant like, is the guy driving this bus? Does he do something? For sure. Obviously he like leads the team meeting, talks to guys at practice, calls up the huddle after a win. But I think you know, Harbaugh, his. Let's use Jim Harbaugh. Like, it's tangible what he does. We've seen him six different places. They all win big. Just look at the Thursday night game. Jim Harbaugh's impact is undeniable. Michigan, Stanford, Niners, San Diego, now the Chargers. Like, it's honestly pretty crazy how good he is. And then you watch Sean Payton. There's just also no denying what he does. Well, he calls the offensive game and he coaches the quarterback. And I think you go around like Dan Campbell brought life. People use Campbell as an example here he took over the Lions. Do you know how insane that is to take over the Lions and have them this good, this fast? It's one of the craziest things I've ever seen in sports. Hey, John, I wanted to give you a heads up. The word salacious does not mean what you think it means. I've been hearing you use it a lot. Here's the definition. Having or conveying undue or inappropriate interest in sexual manners. The context I've heard you is the guy took a salacious hit. Woody Johnson's story was salacious. Not trying to be the vocab police, but wanted to give you a heads up. Well, the. I hear what you're saying. We could have used a better adjective there than salacious. The Woody Johnson. Mike White was naked in the shower and slamming his helmet. And that's when Woody was saying that you should slam your helmet. You suck. We could use a different word for big hits, but I hear what you're saying. Listen, I'm not acting. I'm not your typical big J here. Well, read. I don't know if that's something someone would put right in front of my name. Probably should. Read more I use your game time code to buy tickets to Jerry's World to see Baker play Sunday Night Football. I'm a lifelong Sooner fan and this will be the first time I get to see Baker play live. I had a comp for Baker I was curious to hear your opinion of. I told my friends recently that I thought he is an upgrade version of Jeff Garcia. He's a little bit thicker with a stronger arm. They both have ended up in Tampa after bouncing around their first successful spot and even have close to the same career record. Baker just passed Garcia in career touchdown passes this past weekend, which I didn't even know until I looked it up. But I also was curious to hear your thoughts on your opinion on the question. I tune into Cleveland media periodically to hear them cope about Baker's success and they still say he was a bust. What do you think the number one draft pick has to achieve? Not to. BAKER Mayfield is 1 million percent not a bust. You can't be a bust when you sign second contracts for $100 million. I mean, I mean, bus or leaf, Achilles Smith, Jamarcus Russell. I mean, it's got Trey, Lance. It is just guys that just, you know, whether it's character stuff or whether it's ability just can't play in the NFL. I mean, Baker Mayfield's about to lead a team back to back years to the playoffs. Baker Mayfield's a really good player. I mean, Jeff Garcia. I do think their styles are a little different. I would say Jeff Garcia. Trying to think of a Jeff Garcia comp. Jalen Hurts. Not a. Not perfect. Jeff Garcia was like a movement, run around, make throws guy. I felt kind of undersized. Not a huge arm, just kind of a gamer. So he does have some similarities to. To Baker. Their play is very salacious now. Just kidding. Well, let's talk about Cleveland. That's a salacious story. Yeah, I don't know. I. I guess I don't even know what the question. Cleveland. Sometimes I think you see this a lot. Like when a guy leaves a company or people break up, that they go on somewhere else to start their own thing or go work for someone else and have a lot of success, maybe more success that they previously had at their old spot or that, you know, you see this a lot, you know, on Instagram, someone breaks up with someone, two people, you know, and then she, like, starts dating this really successful guy. And maybe they get married and, like, have kids. You're like, damn, shit. But maybe there, those actions are independent of each other. It was like the previous relationship was not going to work. So whether she went and dated the next Jeff Bezos or dated, you know, the local plumber, Shout out to plumber. I actually probably need one right now. My water pressure is kind of weak. But, like, it had nothing to do with the. Like, that relationship had to end. And once something ends, you don't control what happens to them. It's no different football. It's like if the. If a guy's playing for me in the NFL, you see this, I guess now in college, too, with the transfer portal, and I'm going to cut you, or I'm going to tell you, like, you're not going to play here. You should hit the transfer portal. You might go on and become an incredible player, and there's nothing I can do about it. It was like you weren't. It wasn't working out here. And sometimes, you know, whether it's freedom, whether it's a newfound perspective, you're able to, I don't know, like, you know, get like, a new lease on life. And then opportunities that wouldn't have arose previously are available. So I think the Baker thing, like, Kim and Cleveland just weren't going to work after a while. Like, it had to end now. They didn't have to give desean that money, but they did. Would you agree that Herbert is today's version of Stafford I say this because everyone knows the difference between a football and a ball gown. Can see that he's a talented and very good quarterback because he because of lack of coaching in front office and aptitude, he hasn't had success. I would say the main difference is is Stafford never got his Jim Harbaugh and now that he gets his Jim Harbaugh, I would anyone be shocked if in like you know, three or four years that team is in the playoffs Unless there's some salacious story that comes out that derails everything. Thanks for the game time plug. I was always able to score tickets to see whatever is left of Linkin park that spring for a hell of a deal. My issue with going to see Linkin park which I'm glad thanks for using the promo code. Well, I guess game time thanks you but we appreciate, you know the transaction. I mean part of Lincoln Park, I mean not having Chester. Isn't that you know, kind of the key to the band but hope they were good. Mailbag Question I want to know your thoughts on the Lions chances to win the super bowl are truly over due to injuries. It looks like they are planning on getting some significant players over the coming weeks and throughout the playoffs. They do seem like a shell of themselves defensively with losing Davis and McNeil, but they should be getting Jalen Reeves Maven back for the Bears as well as another DB with Anzalone coming back as well for the playoffs. I'm not a huge I think you got to be care it's one thing it's like hey this guy's going to be back in a week or two. Okay. Right. And then some of those like hey this guy could be back for the second round or the NFC like that's a pretty big question mark when you have a guy like coming back off a hamstring or an injury that's now been three or four weeks and he's going to and then some of these he should make it back for the playoffs. And that's a Hutchinson thing like maybe he could make the NFC maybe. But I, I don't know. I mean I think that it's really, really hard to overcome what they're having to overcome. I think the best case scenario for them and it's going to be difficult because I mean they're just, you know, the Vikings control their own destiny. Now granted the Lions play the Vikings but that number one seed is pretty big. I would say it means more to them than anybody because of how many guys are on the shelf. Love the pod Tonight. I'm a lifelong Chargers fan and this was one of the best wins that I can remember. I agree it was pretty big time. Partly because as a Chargers fan and those of us that live on the west coast that watch so many of their games over the last like two decades, I guess some of the LT Rivers teams were closing the deal on a lot of games. But it does feel like the second half of Rivers career and then the Herbert run was just filled with games like last night because every game they play in for like 20 years is relatively close in the regular season. And The Anthony Lynn McCoy and then Brandon Staley, God they lost a lot of them. This is a strange question. Can I work for free for you? Just as simple as sending you stat breakdowns or anything like that. I have two kids in no life other than football watching. I spend 8 hours a day, 12 hour shift watching football. I appreciate you reaching out, Zach. Sounds like you watch a lot of football. I just really don't need anything right now. That's, you know, I get asked that question a lot. I just. There's not many needs I have honestly. Maybe it's just I should read the Websters a little more. My dad would be not proud of my ability to nail a vocabulary word. I was wondering how you would approach this upcoming draft if you were the GM of the Chargers. I think you have to look at their defensive line. Khalil Mack still looks pretty good. I mean he last night against now granted McGlinchey when you get on, I mean boast of Smoke McGlinchey. The crazy part about McGlinchey is he's going to be a 12 year starter where he, if he's healthy, he literally starts for just five year starter for the 49ers. He's going to start every game for Sean Payton and he'll have made $100 million and there is no one I have less confidence if he's one on one in a passing down. You know, second and third and long against a higher end pass rusher. It feels more likely that you're going to get a watch out. Right. He's got a lot of lookout blocks and he had one last night when Bosa smoked him. But I, I do think both those guys. Obviously Joey Bose is younger than Khalil. It's kind of crazy that Khalil Mack has been in the NFL for 11 years. Makes me feel really old. And he was like a fifth year guy coming out of Buffalo. Joey Bose is 29. I bet Khalil is 32 at least. Khalil is 33, so I mean, you got two guys. A lot of wear and tear. You know, I think defensive line, pass rusher, db. I, I think defense. And then I think Harbaugh is going to draft a running back on the second day because there are some sweet running backs and you know, I think ideally what he had in Blake Corum at Michigan, what he had at Frank Gore at with the 49ers, he always had really, really good running backs with Stanford. I think he'll look to get a bell cow running back and then honestly, maybe he. I don't know how good the tight end draft is. It was actually good last year. I'm not sure it's good this year. I've noticed you speak very highly of Jim Harbaugh and rightfully so. He's an excellent and well accomplished coach with a national championship. As a Ravens fan though, I never heard you have the same energy for Harbaugh when he's three and oh, against his brother and wins being the super bowl. Who do you think is the better coach? Well, I think Jim is now. Jim has proven it, you know, multiple places. I just think Jim, I think John, like Mike Tomlin, falls under the category of just same place. So long. We both acknowledge they're both really good. And I would say John's lost some really bad playoff games in recent memory. The game last year was atrocious. I mean, really bad. I would say the game several years ago against the Ravens, I was listening to Luan and Compton had on Gruden and Gruden asked them like, what was your finest memory as a, as a player when you in the NFL? And I think his example was playing, you know, New England and playing Baltimore and those two playoff games as big underdogs and running the ball down their throat. And I, you know, when I think of John Harbaugh, I think of pretty big disappointments in the games that have mattered with Lamar Jackson. Obviously, John Harbaugh is really good and I actually know a guy who recently worked for him who just said it's remarkable. So I'm not trying to diminish him. I just think, you know, I mean, I've seen Jim do it like four different places. John's been in one of the best organizations in the NFL and won and now he has one of the best quarterbacks, you know, I've ever seen. And it's like, can he, can he finally get it done? It's a big couple days coming up for John Harbaugh. They could either win the division or they kind of be locked in as a wild card now also, as we saw last year, like I would put them in the category that if their defense plays better they could win on the road this holiday season. Don't forget your number one fan you so what's a gift you could use? Maybe go to more home games or even travel to some away games while rocking a new away team jersey? Well, they've got something for you. Discover automatically doubles all the cash back you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year. With cash back match with Discover, you could turn 150 cash back to 300. That'll help with the swanky away jersey. It pays to Discover see terms@discover.com Credit.
- [58:38]
Doug Gottlieb
Card Congratulations to 3am Innovations on their first place win for innovation in community at this year's unconventional Awards by T mobile for business, 3am used T Mobile 5G to enable Florian, the first AI enabled incident command platform for first responders. Florian's features include real time tracking of personnel on a 3D map and voice activation. AI is used to filter out background noise until it hears a trigger word such as Mayday, increasing situational awareness on the ground and improving on site safety. This will shape rapid response moving forward. And for that, T Mobile congratulates 3am for their unconventional thinking.
- [59:24]
Levar Arrington
Hey, this is Levar Arrington here from up on Game and listen, I want to talk to you about something very serious for a minute, all right? Something personal to me and right now something that should be personal to you as well. In our country, the hate is at an all time high and it's like we're going backward. The hate is winning. We can't allow that, all right? It's out of control. So many different people, so many different groups are facing too much hate and it's enough. It's time for it to stop. We need to stop, regroup, change the momentum as a team because that's what we are. Everyone in this country is on the same team, so let's act like it. And when a team can't get it together, what do you do? You call a timeout. And that's what we need to do. Call a timeout against hate. Let's think about what we say and do. And when we see hate, when we see someone doing or saying those things we know are wrong and hateful, we need to call it out. Imma call it out. You need to do the same thing. Visit, Stand up to all hate.org to help and join me in Calling for a timeout against hate by following at what's up with Hate? Or posting the blue square emoji.
- [60:41]
John Middlecoff
Picture this. You're in the garage, your favorite room in the house, and you're tuning up your engine with parts you found on ebay. Every piece is just locking perfectly into place. You step back to admire your work, hands covered in grease. And because you're committed to driving that thing further than the odometer can even handle, you start thinking to yourself, you know what? I could probably use some new brakes, some shocks and struts. This baby deserves a new air filter. So you head right back to ebay. You can find any part you need. It's unreal. From wipers and headlights to cold air intakes, exhaust systems, and even that turbo you've had on your mind. Ebay is that stock garage of your dreams. And you've got ebay guaranteed fit. Because ebay knows deal. DIY fixes can be major, and mods are also intense. So you need to know those parts are guaranteed to fit every time before you dive in. Wrench first, and in the off chance you order a part and it doesn't fit, send it back. Simple as that. You know what you love more than the car itself is driving it. You're serious when it comes to engine maintenance and locked in when you're headed into a build. And that's exactly why you start with ebay. Minor fix or complete overhaul? You want to get your ride back on the road, and you've got ebay guaranteed fit. So ebay created my garage, where all you had to do is add your ride's info to get exact parts that fit. When you see that green check, you're a click away from that part, clicking perfectly into place. So now that you know all that, imagine standing at that open garage door, looking at the car you love more than anything, knowing that anything is possible, whether it's keeping it on the road forever or turning it into something that's never been on the road before. Because with ebay, your garage just got a whole lot bigger. Get all the parts you need at prices you'll love. Guaranteed to fit every time. Ebay things people love Imagine walking into a bakery where the sweet aroma of freshly baked desserts fills the air. And a friendly welcome to Crumbl Echoes. That's Crumbl, a gourmet bakery founded by two crazy cousins on a mission to bake the best chocolate chip cookie in the world. Since 2017, that mission has grown into a delicious Sensation with over 1000 locations all rooted in the perfect combination of ingredients with their iconic pink box, each dessert is beautifully packaged and ready for sharing with friends and family. Crumbl's rotating menu features an exciting mix of desserts like snickerdoodle and raspberry cheesecake, so there's always a new flavor to try. They offer four packs, six packs and even party packs for fun occasions each week. A freshly imagined menu is waiting to be discovered, and with an open kitchen concept, you can watch bakers whip up these treats right before your eyes for those cozy nights in. You can order delivery straight from the Crumbl app. Ready to treat yourself? Visit your nearest crumble or download the Crumble app and dive into dessert bliss today. The Falcons make me laugh. They finally last January stopped Rich McKay from doing a Kevin Warren. That's the official word and controlling everything behind the scenes. And they're still useless. Font no has got to go and so does Raheem. I'd love to see them hire someone different. They seem to cherry pick Tampa and the Saints personnel quite a lot. I'd be tempted to try Joe Brady if you can get the right gm. Bad news for Raheem. Fans are already thinking about the next coach. I think these last couple weeks are pretty big, man. I mean if they were to lose a couple of these games down the stretch and Penix looks bad and I'm a Michael Penix guy, but that situation could be a disastrous offseason, right? The Cousins thing was a failure, right? If you could have a do over that, you 100% would not have given him that money. And now there's all this pressure on putting Michael Penix making his first start basically at Christmas when the season's on the line. That's pretty crazy. Why didn't they start him two weeks ago? That's what I don't understand. Why didn't they start him two weeks ago at minimum start them against the Raiders, but now you start them and I get the the Giants stink. But man, earlier in the video you said Quinn Johnson or whatever his name is and how he physically can't catch. How is that someone hasn't tried to move him to db. He has never once been able to catch. Today for the one big drop. You can see at least he is trying to use his hands but he still has the habit of jumping like you would try to catch it in your gut. The guy has no chance to have ever having hands. What could be his route to redemption as a db? I would say at the NFL level that's A pretty big transition. I don't think you can necessarily just move him to safety because I. Is he a. He's probably too big to play corner. I mean how much does he weigh? 210 pounds. Let me see his measurables. He's 6 foot. He's basically 6, 3, 2, 10. He's got long ass arms. You're in a 4, 5. I think he'd have to play safety but I don't know if he ever played defense in his high school career. His hands, he just, you can feel it. And some guys battle that. You know, Terrell Owens famously, you know, didn't have Chris Carter or Marvin Harrison's hands. I would say the modern day guy who doesn't have natural hands and is still a big time player is DK Metcalf. To me that he would have to be kind of in that category of being this version of like after the catch break, tackles, go routes but every time you throw him the ball it's just a coin flip whether he's going to come down with it. I recently watched the old 30 for 30 doc on SMU receiving death penalty tied to the Pony Express and how guilty the NCAA felt over crushing the program. Any chance the decision still loomed in the back of the mind of the committee in picking SMU over Bama. I think I, I would really doubt it because yeah, I'd have a hard time. So they got the death penalty in what year? 84 year was the death penal? 90. When does their season go away? Doesn't even look like so from 86 to 89. I don't think it did had any factor at all to be honest with you. Pretty crazy. Think about the world we're living in now where it's like they even try to deny that it's pay to play. It's supposed to be nil, right? Like if I'm Yeti Coolers or Stanley or you name it, TaylorMade or Chevrolet, I give these guys an ad which clearly they're just paying guys like your name, image and likeness. Well, here's this 500 grand. It's like well what's his. Is this like is he getting an advertisement? No, it's just money. Just pay to play, which I'm fine with. But that was basically. I don't remember. I'm pretty sure I watched it years ago. But wasn't that just because the two running backs, Craig James and who was the other running back? The Pony Express got like cars and money. A couple hundred thousand dollars back then which obviously was a Lot of money. The pony express smu. Who was the second running back? Eric Dickerson. Think how stupid that sounds. Like you have the death penalty for paying players. What a world we live in. As a Jags fan, I really like Lawrence and think he can be the guy. But he has not been consistent and he was overpaid. What are your thoughts on the situation assuming Doug gets fired? I think that's a fair assumption. How do you think head coaching candidates view Trevor Lawrence? While the contract might be concerning, do you think potential head coaches believe they can win with Trevor and that they can make him elite? Quarterback? Given his talent, would a younger offensive coach like Ben Johnson, Joe Brady or Liam Cohen be able to build and would they be interested in the job? I think all these guys are going to be interested in the job now. I think one problem is is Trevor Lawrence now has had poor play and injuries. So it's not just a guy that might need some help to break out of his poor play. His injuries, I mean he was banged up last year, missed games and now he is missing the season getting shoulder surgery I think. Correct. So I just pulled up his contract. His contract basically starts next year. So his cap hit like the dead money. In 25 he the next two years he's basically on the team. His dead cap this year is 150. Okay, got that over with.25, his dead cap is $133 million. In 26 it is 88.5. God, they paid him a lot of money. I mean the way that the spot track has it, the potential out is in 2028. Now we've seen teams move before that, but I think for the health of the franchise, he's on the team for the next couple years. So you would have to have some belief that you can make him play better. I don't know, probably stay away from me. Now it is, you know, the division is not great. Florida, no state income tax. So if I pay you $10 million a year, that's a lot of money. Desirable place to live, I guess. Jacksonville people seem to like it, but I don't know. That seems like a very, very difficult job with everything coming out regarding the jets ownership this season. Dysfunctional ownership. It got me wondering about the other owners in the league. Could you share a tier list or rank the owners in the league? I actually have been working on this theory I was going to bring up with Coward on Sunday. Is that when I was a kid and honestly at the creation of the of the NFL right in the 70s when the AFL NFL merged and the super bowl was created. For decades, winning meant such a strong financial windfall, the difference of losing because for a long period of time getting people to attend your game was a big deal. Well over the the power of television, the advent of these of the streaming services and the booming amount of money behind the television contracts. You don't need to win anymore. As an owner, you're guaranteed to make money whether you win zero games or whether you win 17 games in the Super Bowl. Now you make more through, you know, the different revenue streams when you win. Obviously the Chiefs make more money now than if they were a four or five win team, but he would still make a astronomical a, a massive amount of cash. I think I got a mix in a new word for astronomical. So if you got a good adjective to replace that one with fire it in my DMs. You're basically foolproof. You are recession proof in the NFL. So as an owner, if you think about it like one thing that's in vogue are no Belichick, right? Even Vrabel last year. It's like, yeah, we don't really want a guy that's not going to listen to us, whose ego is going to be as big as ours. We want a guy that we can tell what to do. And I do wonder if a lot of owners like having a guy that they can, that will listen to them, that will take their dumb ass ideas because back in the day, like hiring Mike Holmgren or Bill Parcells or you know, whoever the big personality coach was, you just let them do it because you'd hope they'd win, it'd be more money for you. Now it's like let him, let him kick ass and take names or listen to me, either way I'm making money. So the Chiefs, those guys have been so good. Clark Hunt lets them do whatever they want. I would say the Bill, same thing. They are winning at such a consistent clip now, they get a lot of juice. The Steelers have had the same owner forever. The Ravens are a good example. Like he listens to Dacosta and obviously Ozzy and John's been there for a long ass time. You know, I think the Chargers kind of battled this over the years and now they got Jim, they kind of let him cook. Denver, new owners, they pay Sean a bunch of money. They just like let him cook. But you see, like the Patriots, I think they kind of like telling Gerard Mayo what to do because for 25 years Bill told them what to do. Tennessee clearly wanted that. That's why they got rid of Rabel, you know, the Browns, like he tells everyone what to do constantly. It's not an easy place to work. The Bengals owner is essentially the gm. You know, the Panthers teppers all over that. The Bears are a good example. Like their family isn't that confident to run the show, so they hire Kevin Warren. It's just too many cooks in the kitchen. Cowboys. It's hard to overcome Jerry. He's always, you know, giving you stupid ideas. When it comes to football. The Arizona Cardinals owner, like the Bidwell family, has a long history of having no clue what they're doing and being cheap. I don't even know about the Falcons, but I think most of the teams that are good Eagles are somewhat of an exception because their GM and owner has a lot of juice. But like, like Kevin O'Connell, LaFleur, like they don't. They get to do whatever they want. Dan Campbell, Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay, like people aren't fucking with them. But like I said the other night, if you're a super rich guy, you're gonna listen to your kids a lot. And let's face it, if, you know, if I was 17, 18, 19 years old and an owner's kid, my ideas would probably be pretty stupid too. I would be, but I'd be talking to my dad constantly about the team. We need to get this guy, we need to get rid of this guy, we need to hire this coach. Think how many takes. If you were born into an NFL family, your dad owned the team and by the time you came, like 16, 17, 18, freshman in college, the amount of takes and thoughts on football you'd be giving him. And unlike everyone else in his life who is on the payroll and terrified to upset the apple card, which is his checkbook as a kid, you don't give a shit because you know he's got your kid. So you, you can give him just unfiltered opinions, which is not the case with basically everyone else in his life, which he probably appreciates and some of them he uses. So I think that story sounds really crazy because it is. If he actually told Joe Douglas he has a bad matting Madden rating like that is, that's. You can't even begin to explain that one away. Like that feels really low level. But if you don't think, I guess this is the best way to put it, there is no way another team in the NFL has not had, or the their owner had not had an idea pitched to them by one of their younger Children, assuming they have younger children, you know, that are in their teens, that Madden played a part of. Personally, this is basically asking me the question, what's your opinion on the Madden ratings? To evaluate the players, he nixed a trade and didn't want the team to sign guard Joe Simpson. I almost busted a gut laughing when I read it was funny. It just, It's a funny story. And I mean, it's just, it's hilarious, actually, because the jets are at the point where everything is believable. Like, if it came out that they hired, you know, you pick a coach, let's say it's like the jets have hired Aaron Glenn. And then Rossini and Michael Silver do an article about the process. And it was like, what they did is they took like the wheel of fortune and they put 10 names of guys they liked and they just spun the wheel and it landed on Aaron Glenn. And that's why they chose him. If you wrote that down after whoever's hired and said this is why they chose him, everyone would believe you. So the jets are at the point now, like, and I heard Schrager saying this, that like, the. Everyone is talking a bunch of. About the. Woody Johnson's kids. And here's where I do agree. Like, if I was his, if I was Woody Johnson's kids, I would be throwing dumbass ideas, surely. Because when I was 20 years old now, I didn't know anyone in the NFL, let alone an NFL owner. The ideas I'm sure I had for, like, team building would have been moronic. So it's like, yeah, the guy listens to his kids now. Does he listen to his kids and not his gm? Then that's a problem. Or my other thing, like, are we sure Joe Douglas is like the best thing since Ozzie Newsom? Yeah, he's okay. He also drafted Zach Wilson, who stinks like his entire career came down to drafting that guy. Couple questions. Do you think it was the right move to go to Penix this year? And Judon did not produce like I thought he would. Does it make sense for the Falcons to go after Micah Parsons or are we so bad it won't make a difference? I would imagine. Last time I heard, Matt Judon, this is probably a month ago, had like two sacks. He has three and a half sacks on the season. So, yeah, it's not going great. Listen, you couldn't keep rolling out Cousins. I think the question with Pennix and Cousins is why didn't we do this like two or three weeks ago? But watching him in that Raider game. He. You couldn't keep playing him. You could not. I do think it makes a lot easier that you're playing a bad team this week. Now I think if you could look back and do it all over again, at minimum you would have started him in the Raider game. But the time is now. Part of the reason I liked why I hated the move of drafting him to sit behind Cousins which looked like it was going to be a couple years before they started playing games is Michael Penix is a 24 year old, 6 year NFL or college starter. He's not a project. Now is he going to be good or bad in the NFL? Who knows? No one does. But he's also the type player that like just put him in like he's, he's ready to go. He's not J.J. mcCarthy where you got to work on some stuff. Not saying that he doesn't need to work on stuff but like he's a plug and play guy and so maybe that serves them well. Maybe, maybe he'll hit the ground running. It wouldn't shock me if come Sunday that he throws. I mean they're playing the Giants like three touchdowns. Saints fan here, an even bigger three and out fan. I like this guy. I was fine with the front office pushing contracts down the road with the breeze later years but it seems like they never got the memo they he retired. If you were the GM of the Saints this off season, what would your plan be? I think the move, remember at the end of like the Cam Newton era, Tepper bought the team and then basically they just gutted everything. I think it might just be time for a gut job now. They extended Alvin Kamara. I don't even know what would their big time assets be? You know if he was under contract he would be an asset defensively. They already traded Lattimore, you know Cam Jordan. Cam Jordan, like 35 years old. He's pretty old. Obviously Derek has little to no value. Cam Jordan, yeah, he's 35 years old so I mean he doesn't have much. Chandler, Arizona, that's where camp's from. I think you just blow it up, start over and just kind of eat it. You guys are in trouble and let's face it, he kind of did you dirty. But Sean knew it. Sean could see the writing on the wall with the financial situation. No quarterback and he jumped off the ship before it sunk, which I don't blame him but sucks to be a fan to be like, well Sean Payton, I mean the chances of you replacing that, it's going to be very difficult even this offseason. And I think because of your, your financial situation as a franchise, it's hard to get people to go there because you don't have any flexibility. I'm not sure if this is the right spot, but I had a question for the mailbag. What are your thoughts on Darnold to the Seahawks? I'm a diehard Seahawks fan for 30 years and I think Sam would be a great fit. I don't think he'd be a bad fit. I mean, when you look at you got a deep threat in dk, he can throw bombs, you got guys, you know, Tyler Lockett is getting up there in age, but Jackson Smith is just a fantastic elite talent. And you got multiple running backs in Charbonne and Walker. The offensive line stinks, but you don't have to give up any assets to get them. So you can just. Why don't you just draft offensive linemen? I'd be all for it. I would say the 49ers do not want that to happen. I'm a big Colts fan. What do you think the Colts should do at GM head coach and quarterback in 25? I think Ballard should be fired because of the last of success. Lack of success for the last eight years. The last time the Colts won The division was 2014. Jesus. The Texans have won six times since then. The Jags have won it two times and the Titans have won it two times. I want the Colts to keep Steichen and pair with the gm. He knows well Alec Halaby on the Eagles would be a good fit. He has been with the Eagles for 17 years and has a strong emphasis on analytics. I also think Richardson should get one more year but they should sign Fields running quarterback to compete in training camp. Richardson has been poor, but if you suck next year you can draft a quarterback high in 26 like Arch Manning. What our owner would love to do. It's a good question, you know, ironically about Alex is he text me. I hadn't talked to him in a long, long time and he text me probably within the last couple months that he just enjoys my stuff and then I text him back and he never responded. But yeah, Alex is. When I was with the Eagles, if you looked at Alec Halaby's computer it would probably look like something you would see it like the Pentagon meets like the CIA meets like you know, Elon Musk and Tesla. I mean it was like I, I have no clue what's going on here. He's brilliant, he's really, really smart. I don't know. I can't speak to the relationship between Steichen and Halaby, but I want to root for Ballard like I want him. I don't know him, but everyone I know that knows him loves the guy. But it's, it's a disaster. It really is. I mean, they, they waited and they waited and they waited on a quarterback and his whole thing was always, I can't just take a quarterback because you guys want me to take quarterback. I have to love the quarterback. If we're going to take quarterback in one of these high rounds, like, we got to like him too. We can't just take quarterback because we need a quarterback. And then finally he goes all in on this guy who. And it's just, it's bad. I mean, it really is because he has fundamental flaws that I don't know if you can overcome. And when you can't accurately throw the football and you have little to no touch, it's a problem. And I think because of his immense talent, he's one of those guys you hold on to. So it's like, do you bring in like, would you sign Sam Darnold this off season? Well, if you do, then you just get rid of Anthony Richardson. But does Anthony Richardson has any value? He's the fourth overall pick. He was drafted two years ago. So next year, I'm just thinking off the top of my head, he probably makes like 7, 8 million dollars. Someone trading for that is their backup quarterback. Could you move him to like tight end or running back? Yeah, I don't know. I don't believe Ballard will be fired until he's actually fired. So I, I think that he will keep his job. I would expect all these guys to be back. I would say Anthony Richardson would be the guy to go. Now you'd go. So Ballard gets multiple coaches. He gets all these quarterbacks. He just can't get the quarterback right. He really can't. It's kind of crazy. Why did the Niners release Darnold last season? They had great quarterback on the roster. Knowing Purdy would be negotiating his contract, they would have some leverage there. Follow up, why don't the Niners go get Darnold if he's not retained by the Vikings, he's not going to cost as much as Purdy and has a lot of potential. Well, he was a free agent, so he was on a one year contract to be the backup. I think they paid him. I forget the number off top of my head. Like three million bucks, two and a half million bucks. Then the. They wanted to keep him. The vikings offered him $10 million. And it's not like he played. I mean, I guess he played. Maybe he played week 18 against Carson Wentz. I can't even remember now. I'm barely watching that game. But he didn't play any meaningful snaps. So you're basically just going, you're buying this new mindset, but not because he had started half the games. I think when you look at Purdy, I think Kyle loves Purdy by everything that I know. And everyone in the loop, like, Kyle is very, very invested in Brock Purdy. So as long as Kyle is around Brock, Purdy's going to be their quarterback. Like, I'm not opposed to doing something like, would I rather have Sam Darnold for 28 million than Purdy at 55 million? Well, yeah, but I rather give Sam Darnold $70 million guaranteed than Purdy $180 million. Of course. But the guy that's pulling the trigger on that is Kyle Shanahan. He's the boss. First and foremost, my heart goes out to Chubb. I think he's talking about Nick Chubb. Two questions. Should Nick Chubb think about retirement? Given his injury history, and with this in mind, should Cleveland draft Genti? Sometimes you just. You know this. I do understand the mindset of Andrew Luck, who said that just after a while, that rehab table in that training room made him, like, question his own sanity. And if you're Nick Chubb and you have this devastating knee injury and you come battling back and then you're coming back and you're working your way through it, you're playing, and then all of a sudden you shatter a bone. You're like, what is happening to me? I would say, given that just a broken bone, maybe, maybe I'm missing some information, but he can come back from that now. Nick Chubb is going to impact. I'm trying to read. Doesn't sound like it's too bad. If Nick Chubb wants to be a Brown, he'll be a Brown next year. This is teammate talking. He's a free agent. Yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't. I don't think he retires, and I would doubt Cleveland, which is pretty analytically driven, would take a running back in the first round. Because part of this draft is supply, demand. There are probably 10 guys that are going to get drafted in the first three rounds. So aren't you better off drafting another position that's harder to find? You know, maybe a pass rusher, maybe an offensive Lineman, maybe quarterback. And then drafting a running back in the second or third round. I mean, where would Nick Chubb get drafted? Remember, Nick Chubb wasn't even the first running back off his own college team. That was trivia. Sony Michelle. Not a great pick by Bill Belichick, lifelong Longhorn fan. With the way Quinn has been playing, do you think there's a chance he returns for another year or should he go pro? If he has a good playoff run, is there any reason he couldn't be the third quarterback taken after Sanders and Ward maybe fall into a better situation? I saw a headline like two weeks ago that his status is up in the air in terms of maybe he would go the transfer portal. Because if, if people are like, hey, you're going to get drafted like the fifth round, maybe he would just go to another school. I don't see any scenario in which he returns to Texas. Arch Manning is going to be the quarterback for the Longhorns in 2025. Like that's a fact. Obviously, if he's healthy. So yours has two options. Does he go pro or does he transfer to another school? Now the question is who would want him, right? Like the top, top teams. Like, would Deborah want him? Would Georgia want him? Like, because if he could go to one of those schools, then you'd have to entertain it. You could make millions of dollars. But if you have to level down, that's pretty risky. You might as well just go pro now. You know, I think. Was it Stuckey that said that he might go to Michigan State? Maybe it was. Maybe it was my guy Jackson. That'd be be a lot of risk there. I'm 27 and going back to college and have my AA in business management. I saw Arizona State as a sports business major. I watched sports my whole life, but around high school became fascinated with the business of sports. I'm married with two kids and I am wondering if you have advice about this being a good potential career option. If I went with this degree, I would aspire to be in a finance department or front office in some way. I live in Orange county, so there are pro sports teams here, everywhere around me. I got a master's when I was a GA at Fresno State in sports administration in and it had little to no impact. It literally had no impact on the rest of my life. Now I didn't have the time and I would not have been able to study enough to get like a true mba, just a business degree. But I would say a business degree, an MBA or an undergraduate degree. I Don't know where you're going to school. But to just get into the business school would be more impactful, better off for your future than the sports business degree. Because if you wanted to get involved in a front office from a finance side, I think you would have probably an easier entry with just a general finance degree from, you know, UC Riverside or UCLA or whatever than a sports business degree. Because it's not like a sports business degree, I guess even at a. Maybe at asu. I don't know enough about that. But I don't think they're just funneling you into the Arizona Cardinals because if you were had a undergraduate business degree at asu, I think you could get hired there just as easy. Or with the Lakers or whoever you were trying to work with. 27, two kids, married. Seem like you got your shit together. Everyone keeps talking about Vrabel and all these other coaches. What about Pete Carroll to the Chicago Bears? He says he still has the energy and he knows how to build a culture. You know, I think when you look at historically makes a lot of defensive guy. We know Chicago likes defense. You know, he is a little desperate. He might be willing to listen to Kevin Warren, unlike Belichick and Vrabel, because it kind of looks like no one's ever going to hire him to do anything ever again. So I think you could do a lot worse. Now I've heard a lot of people say they have to go offense. It's like, okay, but I think they just need to get the right coach. Even if you get an offensive guy, then your defense sucks. And what if he's not great with the entire team? I just think they need to hire the right coach. They could do a lot worse than Pete Carroll. A lot worse, that's for sure. Do I think they were hire Pete Carroll? I don't. My gut says Pete Carroll's not their next coach. Okay, last question was listening to you talk about Purdy's contract, comparing him to Dakota Trevor Tua. And I agree though I like him as my quarterback. I think 50 plus million average per year to be reserved for future hall of Famers. But with the quarterback market looking like it just keeps growing exponentially. What do you think gets it to stop or slow down? I feel like we're looking at the 2008 housing bubble with quarterback contracts. One main difference in that analogy is in 08. Well, let's use the big short, the movie, the scene when they're in Miami. I think they're at the strip club and the strippers are all buying a bunch of homes. They're not putting any money down. They're not getting their income checked. It was kind of fake. I mean, it was a giant house of cars. It was a fugazi. You didn't need anything to get approved to get a mortgage. Where these teams are actually giving these people cold hard cash and they just feel like these other quarterbacks don't exist or that once I have one, it's a very big risk to try to upgrade when I'm in that kind of non top 56 guy. But you know, my guy's good enough to win me the division and compete in the playoffs. But we all agree, like he's not the best. He's not going the hall of fame. He's not some like all time great talent. I also think the incoming crop, like there's a bad quarterback class in the draft. So you're like, are even better quarterbacks coming in the draft for the next couple years? Like, look around college football. It's like, who's the best prospect besides Shador Sanders for the next couple years? It's like Arch Manning. He started like two games in his life and if his name was Arch Middlekop, we would never be talking about him. So I think there's more substance behind this. No one ever just lets a guy leave. Ever. It took Cousins tearing his Achilles. If Cousins hadn't torn his Achilles and they had ended up with 10 wins in a wild card spot, I wonder if there's a decent chance he's still on the Minnesota Vikings. It was easy once he tore his Achilles. It was like, yeah, we'll just move on. So I think a lot has to do with teams terrified of the unknown. And it's like they have so much money that they're like, yeah, we'll just ride with tua. We'll just keep rolling with Purdy. And obviously Purdy's a better player than two and accomplish more, but you know what I mean, the 08 housing market was just, it was all fake. This is not fake. Trevor Lawrence is getting real money and they're just going, how are we going to upgrade over Trevor Lawrence now? I do think the negotiation that was there, it's like you did not need to give that much money. Like part of whatever happened to like, you know, when ebay first started and you'd find something cool that you'd want to buy and you'd be like, I got $200. And once you hit a certain number, you're like, well, I'm out I'm not getting that. Sometimes you would just. No one else would bid. You're like, I just got this, you know, signed. Lorenzo Neil, Fresno State. Picture that I can put in my college Dorm room for $7. Hell yeah. I just got Larry Bird's underwear for $17 that are signed. I mean, the shit on ebay was incredible. And every once in a while you just throw in a bid and no one else would bid and you'd get it. Like, whatever happened to like, hey, we're not getting into a bidding war with you. We're not even. We're not negotiating against ourselves. The market is the market now. This is what we're offering you. We have you under contract for several years. We're ready to play ball here in terms of. We're not afraid. Like, this is what. We're not budging off this. Teams get so scared now. Back in the day, you would just battle it out for a couple years. Like, whatever happened to that? It's like, yeah, we're not gonna be the victim here. We're offering you $150 million guaranteed. Why? Want 200? No. When did that stop? It happens all the time. Anyone that's bid on a house, it happens. You're like, yeah, we're not going over that number. Okay. We're not doing a deal. Okay, see you later. The difference is you already have that person under contract. Trevor Lawrence was under contract for two more years, his fourth year and his fifth year option. And they're like, here's $200 million guarantees. Like, what are you guys doing? Maybe I'm just clueless, but I don't get it. I feel like these agents really, really take advantage. It's one thing if Justin Jefferson, right, Or some all time great talent. You're like, yeah, Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson. Another thing, when these guys are clearly in the second or third tier. I just don't get it. Now I get it, you got to pay somebody. But I think a lot of money right now in the NFL is getting wasted on closer to average players getting paid like they're pro bowlers and they are simply just not pretty. Everyone listening. Thanks, everybody for coming in the DMs. I just. There's just not enough time in the day to respond to all you guys. So just keep banging it out. Probably keep banging them out as we go next week as well. And have a good weekend, enjoy the games and I will talk to you soon. 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