← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
What's Wright - SUPER BOWL SET: Darnold OUTDUELS Stafford, Patriots DYNASTY RENEWED? + Bills hire Joe Brady | Nick Wright NFL
01:14:50
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This is an iHeart podcast.
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Guaranteed Human.
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Welcome in what driving the grade episode 420 this episode as of what's Right with the Great as always is brought to you by our great friends at Boost Mobile. Good morning. Great to see you. Damanze. I have a little life tip. We're gonna start the show very quickly with a little something a little light and then something not light and then we're gonna get into conference championship weekend. But this is good advice for anyone out there in any type of long term relationship or anyone that might one day be in a long term relationship. So if there is something your significant other has asked you to do for a very long time and you haven't done it and they have just kind of stopped even bothering you about it, it's just, you know, like on a 1 to 10 scale it's like a 2 in the broiling resentment category, so to speak. It's just there, the worst possible. The absolute best way to fix it is to just do what they asked. The next best thing is to just keep ignoring it. The worst possible fix is to fix it because someone else needs it fixed and not because your significant other asked you to. So the reason I bring that up is the room I do this show in. You guys can't really see the floor behind me, but the floor behind me had just been scattered with memorabilia and paraphernalia and old shoeboxes and things that at some point, we're going to be a part of this set that I just haven't done. And yesterday, our friend Andrew Filippone, great radio host in Pittsburgh, was snowed into New York over the weekend, where he was spending his 40th birthday with me and Danny Parkins and kind of college reunion. And so he did his radio show from right here. And before he did his radio show, I cleaned everything up. And let me tell you, whatever happiness I thought to Monza, your mom would have gotten from, hey, look, the podcast room is finally clean. Yeah, that happiness flatly did not exist. In fact, it was quite the opposite, my friend.
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B
You might have. You should have just lied and said you cleaned it up the day before or something, not even knowing that was gonna happen.
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C
But, yeah, you know, I had a lot of ways that I could have approached it. This was the worst one. On the bright side, if I turn the camera a bit, I don't know if you guys can see, like, oh, let me move the boost mic. We have like, the cool shoes in the background there. Oh, I mean, the room does look better. We have a little, like, giant life size. Not life size, but like a LeBron James figurine. I should have done this a long time ago. I finally did it. All right, there's the light note. And then on the far heavier, more consequential note, it would be foolish for me to have done the show and the video I did a few weeks ago after the previous extrajudicial killing of a US Citizen in Minneapolis, and not acknowledge the latest extrajudicial killing of a US Citizen in Minneapolis. However, because I feel like there might be movement in Real Time on the response to that by the U.S. government. And whether or not we are actually going to see some tangible change in some of the things we discussed a few weeks ago, I'm going to hold off on dedicating Real Time on this platform to that today and maybe Thursday or Friday. We will discuss where we're at right now. But for some reason, you know, for a multitude of reasons, we're not going to do that today. It doesn't mean I don't think it's important. It doesn't mean that I don't think it's worth worthy of our time. Quite the contrary. But I also didn't want to and I don't want to bring us to a grinding halt here. I also didn't want you guys to think that I was ignoring something like that. So there's that. That's all covered. Now we can put, as I say, the clown noses back on and get to the, you know, one of the few playgrounds we have left, which is the sports world. We will start with straight to voicemail. Brought to you by our friends at Boost Mobile Philip Rivers pulls out of the Bills head coaching search. I don't think he was ever an actual head coaching candidate there. I do wonder if they are considering him maybe for an offensive coordinator job and they wanted to get, you know, his holistic view of everything. The most interesting offensive coordinator situation right now is that nobody seems to want to be the coordinator for the Eagles and I think that's because they feel like Sirianni might be dead man walking. So why would they want to take a job with a potential lame duck head coach? That's my read on it. I'm not certain everyone else's read on it, but that's mine. Alex Honnold Free Solos Taipei 101 I saw highlights of that. Here's the deal. All of these things can be true on that one is big time mountain climbers will tell you, oh that's way easier actually than a lot of the mountains he has climbed before. Certainly way easier than El Capitan, which he free soloed. The first person ever do it in the documentary Free solo. That can be true. It can also be true. However easy it is, it's wildly dangerous because it takes one mistake and you die. Also true when people are saying, you know he only got like half a million dollars for that. Jake Paul got this much for the fight. Why didn't he get more? My having done no research gut reaction on why Alex Honnold didn't get more money to do that. This because Netflix correctly realized this guy desperately wants to do this, would do it for free and is not going to be allowed to do it unless there is a production behind it. So we probably don't have to pay him a lot. So like all of that, like things can be true at the same time. So that's kind of my read on the situation. And last but not least, people should watch Free solo. The free solo doc is spectacular. I thought the scaling Taipei 101 was not as engrossing. And last but not least, Shador Sanders Named Pro bowl alternate which brings me to demons a my simplest, most obvious can we take that? I really just feel like can be fixed in a month. Nobody cares who Pro bowl or alternates are. It's fine. And anyone getting acting all bent out of shape that with Allan with Allen injured, Drake in the Super Bowl, Herbert injured, Mahomes injured, Daniel Jones injured like that, they ended up like, well, does Shador want to do it? And he said yes, fine. Nobody actually cares about that. What people care about is an archival record where we can look back in 30 years and say who were the Pro Bowlers? Who were the best quarterbacks that year. So can we just pass can Football Reference just on their own say from now on and we're going to retroactively fix it as best as we can. The only players who get actual Pro bowl designations are guys named to the initial ballot. Anyone that is named a Pro Bowler due to being an injury replacement, they can go to the games or the event, but they don't get the the official statistical designation. That is how we do contract stuff. Like if you have contract incentives, you have to be named the initial ballot. I just think that's how it should be for your career resume because otherwise we get these weird things where it's like Tyler Huntley, Mac Jones and now Shador Sanders have all been AFC Pro bowl quarterbacks and it just makes no sense. Does that make sense to everybody? Sound good. Sounds good to me. Reminder everybody Like Rate Subscribe Review to the podcast helps us out a ton on YouTube, on iTunes, on Spotify. All right, Demonte, let's get to the conference championship games.
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All right. The Seahawks are headed to the super bowl and that is not despite Darnold. That's with Darnold. He continues to play the best football of his life. Who could have saw this coming outside of maybe like Colin Coward?
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C
Yeah. So this is from the this is not stunning. Once the season started being played and again I picked the Rams, but everybody, by the time we got to the playoffs, we knew Seattle was excellent and Seattle could get to the Super Bowl. And by the time we were midway through the season, we knew Seattle was a really, really good team. This is stunning in the context of the feelings on the Seahawks from before the year and that I will go hand up in that regard. Where I was as loud as anybody, saying I thought they got worse at quarterback, that I thought Gino was a better player than Darnold. They were moving on from Geno to go to Darnold, where I last year gave basically all of the credit that Darnold otherwise, you know, deserved to Kevin OConnell and to Justin Jefferson and to the operation in with the Vikings and said the 14 wins and 4,000 yards were basically phony. And because of that, I didn't, I shouldn't say I thought they were phony as much as I thought they were. I, I, as much as I thought they were more of, more of his coaching, his team, the infrastructure, and less of him. And the fact that he played so poorly in the Week 18 game to get the one seed and then so poorly in the playoff game, it confirmed every Sam Darnold concern or skepticism any of us had. At least it felt like it did. And then this year when he was absolutely rolling until they played the Rams the first time, and in that game he threw four interceptions. It was double stamped, triple stamped, pumpkin mode. The lights are too bright for this guy. And then something interesting happened. When they played the Rams a second time, which was the first three quarters of that, he was about as bad as he was the first time they played. He had two turnovers instead of four. They seemed to be afraid to really cut him loose. And then in the fourth quarter and then that drive in overtime, he was excellent. And he didn't really like build on that momentum because after that game, he didn't have any great statistical games. He just kind of stayed out of the way. But it did seem like that was a moment for him. And then week one of the playoffs, he didn't make any mistakes. They won by 35 points, but he didn't have to do much. And then Sunday night to go to the super bowl, he went throw for throw with Matthew Stafford and the team. I thought it was really interesting that by the end of that game you, you saw how much his play caller, Clint Kubiak, and his head coach, who has to sign off on those decisions, how much those guys believed in Darnold on that last drive. I'm trying to pull up the play by play, which really weird right now. Really weird. I always go to box scores and play by play on ESPN.com ESPN does not have for the Rams or the Seahawks on their sketch page. I have it now here. It's just, it doesn't have it listed as a game having been played, but I've got It now on the final drive of the game for the Seahawks, this is what they did when they could have been in just grind clock mode. Second and seven with 3:26 left. Sam Darnold pass. Third and seven after an incompletion. Sam Darnold pass. That was the Cooper cup play. On that play, by the way, McVeigh, who has some game management issues, that's the one where he called the timeout and then was asking them about challenging it. I just want to like clarify to everyone what was going on there. That the problem for McVeigh was. I don't think they were telling him you're not allowed to challenge. I think they were telling him because you have already called timeout. If you challenge this and lose, that will cost you an additional timeout. That is not on the officials. That is on McVeigh to recognize in real time that he had both of his challenges left. He was going, there was three minutes left. But you could only use your challenges until the two minute warning. That was a spot. And I, and I just, I'm not trying to give myself too much credit, but it's not second guessing because I said it in real time. What McVeigh should have done in that moment after the Cooper cup play instead of calling timeout to then look at it and see if you want a challenge, snap challenge. Because in that specific spot, a challenge is the exact same as a timeout. If it's going to stop the clock. If you're right about it and you win it or whatever, you get your timeout back. If you're wrong, it costs you the exact same thing as using a timeout would. You don't have to conserve your challenges anymore because there's only a minute remaining. You haven't used any. So he made a mistake there. Flatly, he just made a mistake. It probably wouldn't have changed anything. Cause I don't think that play was being overturned but that he made a mistake there. But to the point I'm making. Second down, they let Darnold pass with 3:26 left. Third down, they let Darnold Pass with 3:20 left. Second and 10 with 305 left. They let Darnold pass second and seven with 2:17 left. And. And the Rams out of timeouts. They let Darnold pass and so they put real faith in him that second and seven play when he threw it incomplete. But there was defensive holding called just to give context. The Rams are out of timeouts if they run the ball there. If they just go into like Take knees mode. That play runs it down to the two minute warning. The next play runs it down to 115 and the Rams are getting the ball back. Best case scenario, with like 105 left. By throwing the ball, you really took a big risk, not only of turnover, but incompletion where the Rams would have real time. They trusted Darnold. Now he did throw an incompletion, but there was a penalty away from the play. But still it shows. They did not feel like they have to coach around Darnold in this spot and they shouldn't have. In the biggest game of his life, the guy had the best game of his life. And if you can't give someone credit for that, then I don't know what the point of playing the games is. Like if Sam Darnold isn't at least on the precipice of potentially. I don't even know if I should say potentially of being a top 10 quarterback, then we're just saying he's ineligible because of the beginning of his career. Because last year he was exceptional all year until the biggest games. And then this year he wasn't quite as good as last year, but he was really good all year and then he played the best game of his career in the biggest game. You have to give the guy credit. And I don't know who demands they. Who should feel sicker about Darnold turning into this guy, the jets or the Vikings? The jets drafted him and had him for years and just gave up on him. Or the Vikings who had him for one year and saw what happened and then moved on to go to jj.
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I'm sorry, I think, I think it's got to be the Vikings. I mean, you just.
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C
Why are you apologizing?
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B
Yeah, because I know Paul. Paul. We were just talking about this.
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C
Our producer. Paul's a Vikings fan. Fair enough, but go ahead.
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B
Yeah, I mean, he just came off of 14 wins last year, so I mean, they saw it. The jets just drafted him. In the beginning, I think it's easy to say that in like hindsight, but with the, with the Vikings, you literally just saw it last year and you dropped him. But that's.
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C
Yeah, so. And, and the Vikings kind of tepidly wanted to bring him back, but not for the money he got from Seattle. And now he's one of the best bargains in the whole sport. And so I just. And to be clear, I think everyone has acknowledged throughout the course of the year that if you remove quarterback and just evaluate teams based on everything that you know everything they have aside from quarterback that the Seahawks had an argument that they were head and shoulders better than everybody else.
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Yeah.
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And so and their defense, even though Stafford was. And listen, Stafford's a great player. He's a great player and he was great in that game. The and so I'm not holding that loss against him and we'll get to the Stafford side of things in a minute. But the reason I liked the Rams in that game was because, yeah, I thought the Seahawks had the slightly better roster, but the Rams had the far, far better quarterback. And Sunday night Darnold went throw for throw with Stafford. And if Stafford can play, doesn't have to play at that level, just a minus level quarterback, then Seahawks are head and shoulders best team in the league because they have an excellent D line, they have excellent backers, they might have the best secondary in football. They have maybe the best receiver in the NFL. They have a good running game. They've built their offensive line. That is a great, great team. And they're now 15 and I'm sorry 16 and three. And their three losses to Monze are week one of the season by four, a 3835 loss to Tampa where they had a touchdown lead with 230 left and 2119 to a Rams team that they then beat the next two times. Just a great, I mean they have had a great season. Let's talk js. Let's talk receivers.
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Oh yeah, JSN and Puka put up big games. Where do you think they rank among top receivers or league's best receivers?
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I think they got to be the two best.
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Yeah, I was about to say one and two.
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Yeah, I, I think so. I think it's JSN1 Puka 2 and I mean it's with respect to Justin Jefferson, but I just think those two guys are two best receivers in the.
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B
League and Justin Jefferson had a little bit of a weird situation this year. I do think it's a little, it might be a little bit too hasty get putting Justin, Justin Jefferson behind but.
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C
I just don't know. Like, I mean just Justin Jefferson's unbelievable. He's a future hall of Famer and he is an all time great receiver. I, I don't know. So Justin Jefferson last year with Darnold, I mean it feels like it's kind of apples to apples. Last year with Darnold, 1500 yards, 10 touchdowns. Jackson, Smith and Jigba this year with Darnold, 1800 yards, 10 touchdowns. I JSN had 119 catches Justin Jefferson had 103. I don't know. It's really close, but I think, I think JSN and Puka have supplanted Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase. I think it's JS and Puko 1, 2, Jefferson Chase 3, 4. And I mean, there's no shame in that. They are all building their own all time great careers and resumes. But that, that's where I have it. All right, one more on this.
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B
Are you a full Darnold believer at this point?
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C
I. Think he's really good. I, that's the. I think he's really good. I think that you can't have that type of game in a conference championship game. And I know people love to say that quarterbacks aren't going head to head with other quarterbacks. I get that. But I do think there's additional pressure on a quarterback if they're standing across the field from another guy who, from a guy who's great and who they know is going to be able to do damage. And so doing that in that spot against Stafford I think is pretty remarkable. And so I got to put like, I can't say that I believe in Trevor more than I believe in Darnold. That's not fair. They both have great pedigrees. They, they, you know, Trevor showed flashes earlier than Darnold, but Trevor hasn't reached the heights Darnold. Darnold's reached. And so I don't, I don't necessarily trust Jared Goff more than I trust Darnold. And those are two guys in Trevor and Golf that I consider top 10 quarterbacks. And so I mean, if that, do I, do I have him in the top five? No, I don't. And the top five, by the way, top five is going to be awful tricky because top six is easy. The big four that it's been, Mahomes Allen, Lamar Burrow had been the top four, I should say. Matt Stafford's got to be there and Drake May's got to be there and we'll get to Drake May. I know he hasn't been great this postseason, but what he did over the course of the regular season, now they're in the Super Bowl. It kind of stamps it. Even though he hasn't individually been great this postseason. I don't know which of those six were kicking out of the top five, but one of you can't have six guys in your top five. Do you have a gut reaction on that, Demase?
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B
I mean, I feel like I know who you're going to pick, but I mean, I think.
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C
Who do you think I'm going to pick?
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B
Oh, well, actually, you know what?
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C
It's good.
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B
It's got to be Lamar Allen. I feel like it's one of the. I don't know. It's actually pretty tricky because Burrow didn't, you know, he had, I think.
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C
I think gun to my head. I would. Burrow would be out.
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B
Yeah. I just. With the injuries and him not really being in the playoff picture at all in the last couple years. Yeah.
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C
Yeah. I think Gundo. I can't.
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B
The.
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C
It would. It's not. And again, I know people think that I'm just, you know, wildly unfair to guys that aren't my guys or whatever. And I. I can't ding Lamar for injuries and not and be like, Burrow's not dinged for it. I can't ding Lamar for missing the playoffs once and ignore Burrow missing it three years in a row. And so whatever the circumstances are. And so for me, I think Burrow would be on the outside looking in. I think it would be like if I were. If I. And now what I will say about May versus Lamar is this. And maybe you'll think this is unfair if you were to ask me. League disbands, new league starts. Who do you want? You know, you. It's fantasy draft time, but for an actual team number. My number one overall pick. So this is where age matters.
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B
Yeah.
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C
My number one overall pick would be Patrick. My number two overall pick would be Allen, and my number three overall pick would be Drake May. That. That's where I would have him ahead of Lamar. That the. And so. But that's incorporating age and durability stuff and those things and where. You know, that question. The most interesting person involved in that is where do Caleb and Jaden slide in in reference to Lamar and Burrow? Stafford's an easy one because Stafford's just like out of it.
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B
Right.
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Because he probably only has one or two years left. But the other guys who are right around 30, you know, 30. And all four of those guys that are right around 30 or at 30 have interesting longevity questions right now. Yeah, Mahomes we would think will age the best. And you know, he's been the health. Coming off his worst Allen. But he's right. But he's coming off a devastating injury. So there's a little. Yeah, but there. Allen's never missed a game due to injury. But man, oh man, he plays such a punishing style. Lamar is dealing with his most injury riddled season of his career and does. You know, it seems like age has taken away from some running ability. Yes, is and Burrow has been an injury concern since he came into the league. So all those guys have their own little yeah, buts if we're being fair about projecting it. And while I'm wearing a sweatshirt that says Kansas City versus Everybody, I am shockingly fair when it comes to how we're kind of trying to logically look at these things. All right, before we get to the other stuff, let me remind you guys, Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet, Florida's sportsbook. The Big Game matchup is set and I cannot wait to see the Patriots versus The Seahawks. Hard Rock Bet has all the different ways you can get in on next a week from Sunday's action. Here is what I'm liking right now. I feel like a JSN anytime touchdown sitting right around even money minus 115 feels pretty good to me. If you haven't signed up with Hard Rock Bet, there's never been a better time. This week they're launching a brand new welcome offer for new customers. Plus, Hard Rock Bet is kicking off at $7 million big game bonus Party available to all users. You're definitely not going to want to miss that. And if you're in Florida or Jersey, the Big Game Energy doesn't just live exclusively on the app. Head to a Hard Rock Casino property for drawings, giveaways and all the excitement leading up to kickoff. Hard Rock Bet also offers new promos every day, so if you're listening to this later, just open the app and check out what you've got any day of the week. That's Hard Rock Bet. Download the Hard Rock Bet app and make your first deposit today. Payable and bonus bets. Not a cash offer. Offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in Florida. Offered by Seminole Hard Rock Digital LLC in all other states. Must be 21 plus and physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee or Virginia to play. Terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida? Call 1833 play wise in Indiana. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem wants help, call 1-800-9 with it gambling problem call 1-800- gambler Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia all right, Demonte, let's keep going.
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B
The 282018 draft class quarterbacks One of the best we've seen in recent years with Josh Allen, Lamar and Baker Mayfield. Yet the first quarterback to start a Super bowl was Sam Darnold who would have saw that? Isn't that kind of crazy?
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C
Well, so here's the other piece of it. There have been three draft classes with quarterbacks that had at least three quarterbacks all get 50 or more wins. Okay, so you follow what I'm saying there where the. The 1984 draft, which is pretty famously regarded as the best QB class ever, which had. Am I going to get. Did I say 84? You just 83. Yeah. So hold on. 83 is what I needed to do there. My apologies. So 83 had Elway, had Marino, had Todd Blackledge, who of course the Chiefs took Jim Kelly, Ken O', Brien, some others. But Elway, Marino, Kelly, those three guys all had 50 plus wins. Those three guys went to a combined 10 Super Bowls. The next draft class that had three guys with 50 plus wins was 04, which had Eli Rivers and Big Ben. Those three guys went to five Super Bowls. The only other draft class with three guys to have 50 plus wins and those and it actually has four guys with 50 plus wins is this one we're talking about Josh, Lamar, Baker and Darnold. And the only one to make a Super bowl is Darnold. It's pretty remarkable. And I, I don't think this, I don't think oddly I don't think Darnold is the quarterback who him making a Super bowl is toughest for Allen and Lamar. I actually think it's Drake May just even though again and we'll get to May. I don't think he's played great in this playoff run but just because it's now another AFC quarterback other than Burrow who's made it during the Mahomes era and it's neither one of them. I don't really think people look at Darnold at the moment at least we'll see how the next, you know, the super bowl turns out and the next few years of his career turnout. I don't think they look at it as, you know, Darnold is competing with Allen and Lamar. He's not, you know, that caliber at the moment. It does however make you wonder would Allen or Lamar have had wildly different careers if they were the quarterback? The woe begone. Awful jets took that. I think Demons A is a fair question to ask that could those guys because Allen and Lamar also keep in mind were very raw prospects, right? And very unique prospects. It took Allen a year and a half to be able to complete 60% of his passes. And Lamar, even though by his second year in the league he was the unanimous MVP. It took a forward thinking franchise to be like, we're not going to square peg round hole this. We're going to do what this kid is amazing at and then reverse engineer the rest of it. Could the jets have screwed them up at least temporarily? Because now it does look like that every other team Darnold was on after the jets got more out of him and saw more in him than the jets did. So Carolina was an interesting one because in Carolina he what, what did he lost the competition to Baker or want it from Baker? He lost the competition to Baker. I think it went like this and then replaced Baker. And then in 2022 there were. Darnold had a decent stretch at the end of the season for them but wasn't enough. They move on. That's when they did. Is that when they did the Bryce Young trade? Bryce, yeah. They end up trading for Bryce Young. Darnold goes and he's a backup for the Niners. The Niners, however, claim to love him. Obviously the Vikings and you know, got a lot out of him. The Seahawks are in the Super Bowl. I so I don't think Darnold making a Super bowl before Josh, Lamar and Baker is some big indictment on those three players. I do think it's a huge indictment on the jets and like that's, that that's more or less my take to.
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B
Be said with like amount of money that Darnold makes compared to Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson and like maybe the team around him, I think, oh yes, in the super bowl he's not getting paid crap right now.
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C
So yeah, so there is, it is it becomes the easiest way to make a Super bowl and history shows us this repeatedly is have a quarterback become a franchise quarterback while on his rookie scale. That's the easiest way. The next easiest might be but, and we can say this, but we don't have a ton of examples of it. What the Seahawks are trying to pull off, which is have a legit franchise level quarterback who's not on his rookie scale but nobody thought was a legit franchise level quarterback. And because of that he's not getting paid like that. Like what I thought the Bucks were going to do with Baker this year.
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B
Right.
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C
And now Darnold does become the gold standard for quarterback reclamation of the era that had been Baker. It's now Darnold.
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B
Yeah. And do you think he got old Baker's thunder?
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C
Yeah, I mean he did Story. Yeah, yeah, I, I, I mean he did a little bit. Like it was remarkable that Baker had become legitimate top 10ish. You know, momentary MVP candidate had the awesome year last year. Nobody's questioning is he going to get benched, but he hasn't done anything like what Darnold just did. And so, yeah, like, Darnold becomes the, I think the, you know, the path that Daniel Jones is trying to walk is now no longer like he's trying to be the next Baker Mayfield. He's trying to be the next Sam Darnold.
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B
Yeah.
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C
And listen, maybe he would have been if he didn't, you know, you guys know my skepticism there. But maybe he would have been if he didn't end up getting hurt. All right, let's talk Rams before we get to the AFC game.
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B
Did the Rams let Stafford down?
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C
I. So I don't think that. I don't think the Rams let Stafford down. I do think that Stafford did everything he could have done. But I think that these games.
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B
Are.
- [40:45]
C
And this is what is so great about professional football, man. Every little moment matters so much. And the Rams had. And I. People have been, you know, listening to me about this team and these games for the last few weeks and yesterday on TV are probably sick of me talking about this. But the Rams had two special teams gaffes that flipped their season. And special teams have bedeviled this team repeatedly over the years. And the Rams are beating the Seahawks 30 to 14 with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter when the Rams are playing for the one seed, trying to get the tiebreaker with Seattle to get to 12 and 4. And the Rams punt the ball. They don't cover it well. Rasheed Shahid returns it for a touchdown. They get the two point conversion. And all of a sudden, instead of 30 to 14 with Sam Darnold, who had just thrown an interception on his previous pass, taking the field with eight minutes left. The next time Darnold touches the ball, it is. He's damn near in the red zone with six minutes left, down eight and they end up, you guys, obviously he makes a play, they get the weird two point conversion attempt, they're then awesome in overtime and that's that. But that play is why this game was in Seattle and not in Los Angeles. And then in this game, the Rams get a stop on the opening drive of the half, are going to get the ball back down 17, 13. And the punt returner stumbles and muffs it. And all of a sudden Seattle's up 11 and the Rams are playing on their back foot the rest of the way. I'm not going to call that them letting Stafford down was Stafford good enough for them to win the super bowl this year? Obviously. Did Stafford have the best season of anyone in the NFL this year? I think so. Was he brilliant in his final two games against Seattle, both of which were losses where he threw for a combined 830 yard, six touchdowns and no turnovers with a rating of 1 20? Yeah, but it's a 53 man team for a reason. And those little miscues, Costa. And so the trade for Stafford has been an unquestionable success. And you can't say that they have underachieved because they won a Super Bowl. They made the playoffs three of the other four years. They may, you know, they went out and round in the five years with Stafford. They won, they, they've done everything but lose a Super Bowl. They have missed the playoffs. They have lost in round one in a heartbreaker, I think 24, 23 to Detroit. They have lost in round two to Philly in a heartbreaker. 28, 22. Ball inside the red zone and Stafford gets sacked. They have lost in the conference championship game in a heartbreaker. 31, 27 to Seattle and they have won the super bowl in a heartbreaker for the other team. And McVay's an awesome coach. No coaches are perfect. I did not think he should have gone for two when they scored the touchdown to make it 31:20. The scored touchdown, make it 31:26 with three minutes left in the third quarter. I didn't think they should go for two because there had been so much scoring. I'm like, no, it's too early. As it turns out. There would be no more scoring after that. And had they gone for two, then maybe at the end, you know, when they have that fourth and four with five minutes left, they kick a field goal. But I didn't think that was like a mistake by McVeigh. But they, the margins are really, really slim. And it is, it's really hard to win one, let alone win multiple. I thought this Rams team was the best team in the league this year. I was wrong. Seattle is better than them by this much. And the special team stuff that has bedeviled McVeigh a lot of his career continued to this year in those games against Seattle. All right, I know you have a few follow ups here.
- [46:41]
B
If, if staffer returns. Is this the number one super bowl or bus team heading into next year?
- [46:49]
C
I mean, it will feel like it's the only team whose window is next year alone. So I think that there is, I think there is a different level of pressure for teams that for really the Ravens and the Bills, the two teams that have these superstar quarterbacks who haven't been to a Super bowl, let alone one one but the Rams are the only team that we will feel like next year if they don't win it the windows probably closed because the quarterback's probably going to retire and I think it's on the board. Even if it's unlikely that that Stafford retires this off season. I'll tell you this much, if he doesn't retire to Monze, you're going to be hard pressed convincing that guy he's got to participate in training camp. He hung out this training camp in the immortal chamber with that bad back and had the year of his life. So I would say go ahead and keep that plan.
- [47:53]
B
Bring it back out.
- [47:55]
C
Yeah. Because he is unbelievable. All right guys, before we get to the AFC new sponsor and hey, this damanze like you said the other day, you're staring 30 in the eye. 30's around the corner. So this is something that applied apply to you in short order. Most men start losing testosterone around age 30, about 1% every year. After that 1% doesn't sound like a lot but then all of a sudden you're my age or 40, you're like wait, so I lost about 10% of my testosterone. Same workout, same diet, but it just feels like you're not moving quite as crisply. And when the new year hits, it's a great time for a reset so you can feel energized again and not as worn down. So keep it simple, do some natural helps and support your body. With our new sponsor Mars Men helps your body unlock usable testosterone so you can feel like yourself again. Marsman supports healthy T levels, energy and stamina. Eight natural clinically dosed ingredients including vitamin D, zinc, boron. I didn't even know you needed boron. And more 90 day money back guarantee so there's no risk. Worst case, you don't absolutely love it and you get your money back. But over 91% of users report higher energy levels. Thousands of guys are feeling incredible results. Just check out the reviews on the website for yourself. For a limited time our listeners get 50% off for life plus free shipping and three gifts at men go to mars.com it's a perfect way to kick off the new year. Strong men go to mars.com for 50% off and three free gifts at checkout. After the purchase they're going to ask you where you heard about them. It would help us a ton if you tell them it was what's right with Nick Wright. Again, for a limited time our listeners get 50% off for life plus free shipping and three gifts at checkout. Go to MengotoMars.com perfect way to kick off the new year. Strong men. Go to mars.com for 50% off and three gifts at checkout. And please do tell them we sent you all right Damanze, let's talk Pat's.
- [50:02]
B
Broncos all right, so the Patriots escaped the the blizzard in Denver. They have the coach and the quarterback house nervous of the AFC be moving forward.
- [50:12]
C
Listen, there are four major factors that have led to the Patriots being in the Super Bowl. Factor one is they hired the right head coach and he's exceptional. Factor two is throughout the regular season they got MVP level play from their quarterback and he is undoubtedly their franchise quarterback for the next decade. Factor three is a very stout, well coached, buttoned up defense. And factor four was little schedule luck, a little circumstance luck on their path to the playoffs. Those first three factors the coach, the quarterback, the defense are here to stay. So when you are discussing Tier 1 AFC contenders moving forward with the Chiefs, the Bills and the Ravens, the Patriots must be included. That's just what it is. There is nothing about this that feels fluky and last like for example the Monze last year the Commanders got to the conference championship game right?
- [51:42]
B
Yep.
- [51:44]
C
But the defense was not good at all all year and the coach Dan Quinn you have some little questions about so even if Jaden had stayed fully healthy that felt a little flimsier.
- [52:02]
B
Yeah right.
- [52:04]
C
The Broncos got to the conference championship game this year. The coach was is obviously excellent and the defense was great. And listen the biggest Bo Nick supporters will say that conference championship game was confirmation on how much Bonix mattered to our team. Scored 7 points without him offense couldn't move the ball that is if I were a Boninks guy I would be making that same argument. So I understand that but that doesn't he is not the sure thing that Drake May is the Bears who got to round two. You feel great about the coach, you feel really really good about the quarterback but the defense you don't know if it's going to be their year to year and they don't have a defensive minded head coach. The Patriots have checked the box of the three most important things to long term contention.
- [53:18]
B
So yeah like seems like their ownership is great huh?
- [53:22]
C
Oh it's pretty amazing.
- [53:23]
B
On top of all that I feel like that was one of the things you were saying like you don't want to have a meddling GM or owner or whatever. And it seems like he makes the right moves.
- [53:32]
C
Well, I mean, There have been 60 Super Bowls, and Robert Kraft has owned a team in. In 12 of them. That's 20% of the super Bowls. Now, there's a lot of factors that go into that, but you can't say it's anything other than it's been excellent ownership. And I don't. Listen, I'm not a. Not the biggest Robert Kraft guy at all times, but you give credit as far as how he's handled running the team. And so I. So I give the Patriots a ton of credit. Okay. And I think I would be surprised if I end up picking them to win the Super Bowl. And I know that I picked them to lose the AFC title game because I thought that. That the crowd and the circumstances could get to May. And I think I was a little vindicated on that. But it wouldn't be stunning if they won the Super Bowl. And they have had a spectacular year. You can say all of that and acknowledge that while they have gone up against outstanding defenses this postseason, their quarterback has struggled because flatly he has. And that's fine. Nobody cares about style points in the playoffs. All right? And the Wild said it, and I don't necessarily think he's crazy for saying it. It kind of feels like Drake May is due for an awesome game, and that's because he hasn't played one yet this postseason. The. The best game he played this postseason. He fumbled the ball four times, lost two of them, and threw a pick that was his best game. And people are going to try to revisionist history, the AFC Championship game, and say, oh, that whole thing was just a blizzard. That was perfect conditions. With 10 minutes left in the third quarter and the Patriots had 40 yards, that offense was really, really struggling. But where May deserves credit is didn't turn the ball over. And two great plays with his legs. The quarterback draw to score their only touchdown after the Stidham fumble. And. And now we are getting the real story on the third down. Quarterback keeper, which it was not that Drake May called his own number. Josh McDaniels told Drake May, I want you to keep it. And they didn't tell anybody else. Which is interesting that McDaniels told Drake, don't tell anybody else because they wanted the other guys sell the fake. Even better. Yeah. And be more natural. But right after the game, the story was that Drake May went rogue. And even when I read that, I'm like, that would be pretty Wild be insane. Like especially. And now credit to him, great athlete, but he almost like, it took a really great play by him not to get run down.
- [57:24]
B
Yeah.
- [57:25]
C
And so it would have just been stunning if he had just been like, nabro, you called a handoff, but I'm keeping it now.
- [57:34]
B
Also didn't strike me as.
- [57:36]
C
So it made more sense what the real story was and why. You understand why his teammates thought that's what he did because he told them one play. And it was another. But it was another because Josh McDaniels, who's been excellent, told him to keep it. But we don't. So here is, here is the. The Patriots defense has been unreal, unreal in this postseason. And they didn't just play Stidham, they played CJ Who I know had had an up and down year, but they forced him the worst game of his career. They played Herbert, who people love, and they made Herbert look even worse than the playoff game when he threw four interceptions. So the Patriots defense has been exceptional. What I push back against is folks making the argument of, man, look at these awesome defenses the Patriots have over have beaten, which they have. The charge defense was really good. Texans defense, great. Broncos defense, great. But they have beaten those defenses despite their offensive performance. Right. It's not like they, they've gone against those defenses and lit them up. Their offense has looked like they're going up against great defenses, but their defense has looked like we're actually the best defense in football. So it's not stealing credit from anyone to just do an accurate telling of how they got here. And that, to me, is how they got here. And so they're going to need Drake May to play exponentially better in the super bowl than he has played up to this point in the playoffs. But we know he can do it. He has been. He was excellent throughout the entirety of the year. Go ahead, pal.
- [59:26]
B
But you think with all those, like with, with their last play schedule or whatever it was, they haven't really ran into this situation. And Drake May is. He's played bad since he's seen the good defenses. What's going to happen when he sees a good defense and a good offense? Well, so listen, and I'm not trying to pile on Drake May. I just think given the year, this, the year in, in this situation, it's not, it's not looking great to me.
- [59:50]
C
Well, I think that they're going to be up against it. But one of the things I think works in the Patriots favor is had The Rams won McVeigh and Stafford have been through Super Bowls together. McVeigh's been to 2. One with Stafford. They know kind of the rhythm of the week, all of that. And while Vrabel had been to a bunch as a player, he'd never been there as a coach. But they didn't run into McVeigh and Stafford. They ran into Mike McDonald, who's never coached in a Super Bowl. Sam Darnold has never played in a Super Bowl. And so. Oh, you know what is interesting? I guess I will say this. No. Darnold was. Do I have this right? Don't I? Darnold was.
- [60:48]
B
Oh, with San Francisco.
- [60:50]
C
Yeah, he did go through super bowl week with San Francisco, which, again, I don't think is nothing. I do think there is something to having experienced the rhythm of the week and the rhythm of the halftime and all of that. So I think that is in a tiny way relevant, but I just don't think Vrabel is going to have, be it a preparation deficit against McDonald. And McDonald's a great coach, but because McDonald hasn't been there yet. And so here's the thing. On the Patriots schedule and Pat's fans, you can love this or you can hate this, but this is just the, in my opinion, the reality of it, if you win the super bowl, literally no one will remember or care that in the regular season you had a soft schedule. The 99 Rams had a soft schedule in the regular season, nobody cared. The 2019 Chiefs en route to the super bowl, beat the Texans and the Titans. Nobody cared. Right. Like the. Now my pal Bill Simmons keeps bringing up to that team. And then in the super bowl play, Jimmy Garoppolo. In the super bowl, they played the Niners, who were considered the best team in the league that year. And that was back when people thought Jimmy G. Was good. But regardless, if you win it, nobody cares. If you lose a close, great game, people will just be like, amazing year. Seattle was the best team. You know, no shame. Obviously. No shame you got to the super bowl, but great year. Look out for the Patriots next season. However, under the scenario of you lose badly, then people will start, yeah, budding your season fair. Just like had. Nobody cares that you won an ugly game against the Broncos to get to the Super Bowl. But had you lost it, people would have been like, man, soft schedule. Plus CJ Stroud turning the ball over. That's. That's what would have happened. If you get trounced, then people will, yeah, but your path. But I don't. First of all, I don't think a trouncing is likely. And second of all, who really cares? Nobody will ever mention or bring up in any real capacity an easy path to the super bowl if you win it. And you can win it. All right, let's. But we're going to talk about the Broncos in a second. But first, you ever notice everything keeps going up? Rents going up? Streaming services going up? Your favorite burritos place charging you extra for salsa? Not with Boost Mobile. With Boost Mobile, you and your phone bill don't have to play the Will this go up soon Game. Why? Because Boost Mobile has unlimited talk, text and data plan at a price that'll never go up. In fact, it's the same price you'll pay for life. So switch now for unlimited wireless at a price that'll never go up. Only at boost mobile. After 30 gigs, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $2025 per month as long as they remain active on the Boost Unlimited plan. All right, Damanze, let's talk Broncos.
- [64:28]
B
The Patriots did win this game, but they got a lot of help from the Broncos with going forward on fourth, the turnovers by Stidham and also Bonick's not being being in the game. How sick should Denver fans be right now? I mean, they were there even without them.
- [64:48]
C
I'd have a real hard time getting over this if I were a Broncos fan. Yeah, because if you're a Broncos fan, you believe in Bo Nicks. You know, and again, I have to be fair because I have not believed in Bo Nix. The last game we saw Bo Nix play, he outplayed Josh Allen soundly to get to the conference championship game. They were 14 and three. And while he was decidedly mediocre for giant stretches of the season, he was clutch. And I know everything about that game would have been different if the quarter if Bo Nicks is there, not Stidham. But man, it sure felt like if they had just average starting NFL quarterback, they would have won that game. So that would make me sick that did we leave not just super bowl appearance, but maybe a championship on the table because our guy broke his ankle on a fluke play. And that is like when I said as as sick as I was for Patrick and for the Chiefs and everything when Patrick got hurt, the real sickness about it was I just felt bad for Patrick personally that his off season was stolen from him and that he was going to have to go through this brutal rehab. But I didn't feel that sick for the Chiefs or as a Chiefs fan because it was pretty Clear. This Chiefs team didn't have it by that point. Patrick went down. They were 6 and 7 and losing a game that they had to win after losing, they were already on a two game losing streak and you know, had looked more than shaky. That what what the devastating injuries are the ones where it feels like did that maybe cost us a championship and that's how Broncos fans are going to feel. And I do feel for him on that, man. I swear I do. And what makes this game even kind of a twist of the knife, is even without Knicks. Sure feels like you could have won this one. The it is I. It is Sean Payton's job to know the weather forecast better than I do, better than you do and better even than Nance and Romo do. And to not factor in to your fourth down decision that there is a chance that in an hour a blizzard is coming is. A disaster. That would have been. That was E, by the way, even if they thought it was going to be perfect weather. That was a shaky decision because you have an opportunity to put all the pressure on the bats who at that point Demand had gained 12 yards on 12 plays. Pardon me. And even if you pick up the first down, it's not fourth and goal from the one, it's fourth and one from the 13. Even if you pick it up, you still then need to for Stidham to execute a touchdown drive. And there is like the Patriots later in the game went for that fourth down that I don't know if they got or not on the quarterback sneaky instead of taking a field goal and ended up kicking a field goal anyway. But the difference between it's 4th and inches and we're sneaking it and it's 4th and a full one and we're calling a quarterback rollout. That's crazy with a backup. And then when you factor in that there was a chance that a blizzard was coming makes it in my opinion all the crazier. Now I know some people would argue if you knew the blizzard was coming, then the opportunity to go up 14 is even more valuable. But I don't know about that. Now the other piece of it is this Stidham's fumble was an abomination. You don't want to kill the guy because he's a backup. But there are and here's why. Damanze, do you want to say something here?
- [69:36]
B
No. No, it did look. It was, yeah, it wasn't great. It looked unathletic.
- [69:42]
C
But the, the context of it is what matters. Okay, let's say it's third and four from the opponent's 30. So you're staring at a 47 yard field goal and you take the snap, you drop back, and oh, my God, I'm about to get sacked and take an eight yard loss. So you retreat to try to buy yourself time to then try to get off a pass just so you stay in field goal range.
- [70:13]
B
Right.
- [70:14]
C
And it turns into disaster. Not good. But you understand the reason I'm taking the risk here instead of just taking the sack is a sack costs us points, takes us out of field goal range. Obviously, on fourth downs, you are. Who cares what. You just got to get the ball out of your hands. Got to do something. This was the opposite of that. When Knicks first saw the play, was dead. The upside of. I'm sorry, Stidham. The upside of an incomplete pass versus a sack is tiny.
- [70:52]
B
Yeah.
- [70:52]
C
You're inside your own 20. You're punting no matter what.
- [70:56]
B
All right?
- [70:57]
C
Even if you, Even if you get the. The incomplete pass off, it doesn't matter. You're punting. And so taking a sack is just. You're going to punt from eight yards further back. That was just a huge, huge mistake. And then a little bit of bad luck like the field goal goes in if it's not blocked, it's probably not blocked if they line up 8 yards deep instead of 7 yards deep. And they screwed that up. And so all those things came together. And then the last drive of the game, they have more than two minutes left, they're down three, and they're with the wind, and Stidham throws up a prayer. So that's just brutal. All right. I was about to wrap the show, but it looks like. Damonte, we have breaking breaking news here.
- [71:55]
B
Yeah. So sources from Adam Schefter. The Bills are working to finalize a deal to make offensive coordinator Joe Brady their new head coach.
- [72:05]
C
I don't love that. If the argument of this is just my gut reaction, if the argument of firing McDermott was we essentially needed a team exorcism, that the team was too broken by too many just devastating postseason losses, then I do not know that bringing in a guy who's been there for the last four years is a fix now. I guess the bright side is he was not there for the 13 seconds game, which seems to still have a long tail for that organization, but he was there for all the other devastating postseason losses. He was the offensive coordinator the last two and a half years. And that is. That doesn't. To me, that's a little uninspiring I would say now he's the offensive coordinator for Josh's MVP year. I get that. I wonder what it means for Brian Dable. It would be, I guess, a little awkward for Dable if when was. Hold on, let me make sure I have this right. Dable left the Bills, so Dable and Joe Brady never crossed. When Dable left the Bills is when the same off season. Joe Brady came to the Bills as the quarterback coach, but the way he got to the quarterback coach was they fired Ken Dorsey after a 5 and 5 start. They put in Brady and they became a more well balanced team running the football. But it sure seemed like the reason they were Moving on from McDermott McDermott was because of the emotional carnage of the last years. Promoting a guy within the building is. I don't know how that fixes it.
- [74:43]
B
How much more stuff is available or coaches, should I say?
- [74:48]
C
Well, I'll tell you this much. I do wonder. Did Clint Kubiak. Did the Seahawks making the super bowl cost Clint Kubiak the Bills head coaching job because they didn't want to wait, you know, another few weeks? And so I don't know. This is. This is. That's a. We'll obviously have more on this. I'm on with Colin and in a little over an hour. But that is a, I would say, uninspiring hire and an interesting one. All right, thank you to Blue Duck and to the Volume. As always, thank you so much to our great sponsors at Boost, Hard Rock and our new sponsor, Mars Men. We will be back here on Thursday and for everybody out there, keep fighting the good fight. And as. As no matter how helpless and awful things not just seem, but sometimes just actually are, we might be finding out this week and in days, the coming days, that if the, if the public can unite as much as we are able to unite these days on anything about something objectively being wrong, heinous and immoral, that even the most seemingly unmovable participants might be moved a bit. Talk to you guys soon. We'll try.
- [76:38]
A
This is an I Heart podcast.
- [76:41]
B
Guaranteed human.