Charles McDonald on Dolphins Tanking Disaster, Vikings' Kyler Murray Gamble, NFL Replacement Refs? | 03.19

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Right Time with Bomani Jones

Episode: Charles McDonald on Dolphins Tanking Disaster, Vikings' Kyler Murray Gamble, NFL Replacement Refs?
Date: March 19, 2026
Host: Bomani Jones
Guests: Charles Robinson, Charles McDonald

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into a whirlwind of current NFL narratives: the Miami Dolphins’ apparent tanking for 2026, the puzzling Kyler Murray trade saga and quarterback carousel in Minnesota, the return of NFL labor disputes with referees, and critical reflections on team management and union power (with plenty of signature wit and candor). The hosts and guests debate the rationale—as well as the underlying motives—behind these decisions, offering both sharp critique and playful banter.

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Main Discussion Topics & Insights

1. Miami Dolphins: The Tanking Disaster and the Malik Willis Quandary

[01:25 - 08:38]

• Dolphins trade Jaylen Waddle to Denver, Tyreek Hill gone, and stuck with massive dead cap (Tua, Waddle, Tyreek):
  "Tua is going to account for $67 million worth of dead cap this year. Put it all together, it's going to be $175 million worth of dead cap, which means... you can't field a team, dog." – Bomani Jones [03:36]

• Malik Willis as Miami's QB1:
  Malik Willis signed for $25–30 million/year starter money, but is stuck with a depleted supporting cast and enormous pressure.
  "If this is some sort of metaphor about being black in America...it's almost like someone decided he gotta work twice as hard." – Charles Robinson [02:45]
  "Congrats to that, brother. ...I doubt we'll see him start a game past next year." – Bomani Jones [04:27]

• Tanking and organizational strategy:
  The panel condemns the Dolphins for expecting to evaluate Willis with no weapons:
  "How the hell are you going to figure this out? Look at who he's throwing to..." – Bomani Jones [03:54]
  "He’s one of those, holier than thou types a little bit... if his faith is tested at all, it’s going to be this year because you got rewarded. But how much?" – Charles Robinson [08:03]

2. The Kyler Murray Cut & Vikings’ Wild QB Room

[08:44 - 16:59]

• Cardinals moving on from Kyler Murray, despite his still-high value:
  "At his best, Kyler... he's had multiple seasons where we're like halfway through the year: is this the MVP?" – Bomani Jones [09:04]
  "Even if you don’t think he’s going to bounce back, you’d think that this $30 million cap hit would be an incentive to work it out." – Charles Robinson [10:10]

• NFL’s tanking incentive problem:
  "There's no financial obligation for these guys to win outside of glory... in the future, with more hedge fund owners, there’s no incentive to field a legitimate team." – Bomani Jones [11:21]

• Vikings’ QB Room (Kyler Murray, Carson Wentz, J.J. McCarthy):
  "They brought him back. Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray. Carson [Wentz] and J.J. mcCarthy." – Bomani Jones [33:02]
  "No, you can’t (go back with McCarthy as starter). ... He was bad, like historically bad… from an operation [standpoint]... JJ is turning right and the other 10 are turning left." – Bomani Jones [34:00]
  "Sometimes people need to look at it as, if your job was on the line, would you sit there and say, we’re going to try and fix this J.J. McCarthy?" – Charles McDonald [36:12]

• Kyler’s reputation:
  "The gaming stuff really got out of hand... we started talking about this guy as if he didn't care about football, which I just vehemently don't think is accurate." – Bomani Jones [36:44]

• Minnesota’s challenge:
  "If those four guys (O’Connell, Murray, Flores, Jefferson) could get together before the season... there’s a lot riding on this year. We’re talking several hundred million dollars of future money on the line." – Bomani Jones [38:11]

3. NFL Labor Dispute: Replacement Referee Threat Returns

[42:06 - 48:33]

• NFL preparing for possible "replacement refs" amid a labor dispute:
  "There is no hollower threat... than 'we'll just go get replacement referees.' If you remember the last time... it was disaster." – Charles McDonald [42:06]
  "You think the refs are bad? That doesn’t mean they aren’t better than every other option in those games." – Charles Robinson [43:51]

• The iconic “Fail Mary” moment:
  "Both [replacement] refs are putting their hands above their heads... one was calling touchdown, the other touchback... It looked like a sitcom." – Charles Robinson [46:45]

• Underlying economics:
  "There aren’t enough good referees to go around in the NFL as it stands, and you’re going to break out a whole B team all at once..." – Charles Robinson [48:34]

4. Broader Riffs: NFL Labor, Management, and the Cycle of Dysfunction

[50:41 - End]

• Players’ & refs’ unions under pressure:
  “I believe in this stuff, but that ref union... I be looking at like a police union, man. And I know that’s too far... but it’s not stopping me from watching these games.” – Bomani Jones [47:19]

• Player union weakening, NFLPA criticism:
  "[The NFLPA] basically exists just so the NFL doesn't get sued right. That's the only really functioning power it has left." – Bomani Jones [51:45]
  "What's going on with the players, man, that's kind of scary... J.C. Tretter has basically destroyed his own union..." – Bomani Jones [53:08]

• Final thoughts on the perpetual GM cycle:
  "This off season has been the year all these billionaire owners got swindled. All these coaches got fired and none of these GMs got fired. That's a culture problem, man." – Bomani Jones [61:18]
  "That also means that all those GMs are next." – Charles Robinson [61:57]

• Steelers, Mike Tomlin, and the legacy question:
  "I would love to get Sean McDermott and Mike Tomlin to sit down… I think this is probably gonna be the first losing season in 20 years for the Steelers." – Bomani Jones [61:18]
  "I ain’t going back. ...20 years, no losing seasons. Why would I risk that?" – Bomani Jones [62:22]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Dolphins’ Tanking and Willis:
  "This is like, the ultimate black experience—you think you got something, but you’re holding it down for the next white man to come sit down in that chair." – Bomani Jones [03:05]

• On NFL tanking incentives:
  "Every team gets the same revenue cut, whether you win 17 games or whether you win zero... There’s no financial obligation for these guys to win outside of glory." – Bomani Jones [11:21]

• On replacement refs:
  "It looked like a sitcom—like if Homer Simpson was a referee." – Charles Robinson [46:50]

• On lazy quarterback hope:
  "Sometimes you just got to admit to yourself: no, this ain’t good enough. Let's try something else instead of doing this for, like, two years." – Bomani Jones [41:09]

• On GM survivorship:
  "All these coaches got fired, and none of these GMs got fired. That's a culture problem, man." – Bomani Jones [61:18]

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Key Timestamps

• Dolphins’ tanking, Willis situation: [01:25 – 08:38]
• Cardinals, Kyler Murray, and Vikings QB situation: [08:44 – 16:59], [32:18 – 39:25]
• Replacement ref history & labor threat: [42:06 – 48:33]
• NFL Union & management, franchise dysfunction: [50:41 – 61:59]
• Steelers, Tomlin, and NFL hot seats: [61:57 – end]

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Additional Noteworthy Moments

• Bijan Robinson as a “man stuck in the wrong time period” (and the Atlanta QB carousel): [15:42 – 16:09]
• The Ravens’ 'grimy' trade about-face: [17:55 – 26:29]
• Playful banter about local radio promotions (“let me get that DJ Quick CD...”) [27:22 – 28:09]

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains Bomani Jones’s signature balance of humor, intellect, and social critique, with all three speakers trading inside jokes and personal NFL experience stories. There’s candid, sometimes sharp criticism, but plenty of laughter and context that both informs and entertains.

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Recommended for: NFL fans eager for unvarnished analysis, labor politics nerds, anyone seeking deeper context on why NFL teams do what they do—even when it seems illogical. The episode is especially valuable for listeners interested in the intersection of race, labor, and business in pro sports.

Transcript

[Bomani Jones]

Foreign.

[Charles Robinson]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Right Time, A Wave original. My name is Bomani Jones. Thanks for listening. Wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe like, rate us, review us. Give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is Charles Robinson on a Thursday.

[Bomani Jones]

Did you do that on purpose?

[Charles Robinson]

I did.

[Bomani Jones]

I did.

[Charles Robinson]

Yahoo, Sport.

[Bomani Jones]

It's got to be a thing now. I know, I know.

[Charles Robinson]

I mean, I did it with such gusto that I was hoping that you would understand. I saw. I saw a glimmer in your eye, like, wait a minute.

[Charles McDonald]

This isn't real, is it?

[Bomani Jones]

I'm about to. I'm not about to fall for this

[Charles Robinson]

again, you know, this time it was an accident. The other times it was me. It was. I like Charles Robinson, so it wasn't a negative. Right. You know, and, like, I think I feel like Charles. Charles in the one that's. Oh, that's the R and B fan. But I feel like Charles got some tendencies. You know what I'm saying?

[Bomani Jones]

As I recall, he does. Little old Texas Democrat, you know?

[Charles Robinson]

So he's got some tendencies, inexplicably, living in Houston.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes. Not from Houston, you know.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah. But he loves it.

[Bomani Jones]

He loves it. Yeah. You think he was from Houston? Yeah.

[Charles Robinson]

Like. And that doesn't happen like that. Like, Jeff Van Gundy is the ultimate. Oh, you really just decided to stay because you love it. Oh, okay.

[Charles McDonald]

I didn't think that was coming.

[Charles Robinson]

Good for you, man. Look, we got a lot of NFL to talk about. Also, history is about to repeat itself in the dumbest way. That's what they call a tease in the business, baby. But first, I got a question for you, because the Dolphins traded Jaylen Waddle, right?

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Charles Robinson]

I'll be honest with you. I have already forgotten who they traded him to. Who they trade him to?

[Bomani Jones]

Denver Broncos first.

[Charles Robinson]

That's right. They traded him to Denver. Okay. And it didn't even matter to me where they traded him, because the big thing for me was I was like, do y' all even got a quarterback? Like, Tyreek Hill is out of there. Um, Jaylen Waddle. You just traded him. And I was trying to figure out, like, wait, wait, I don't even remember who your quarterback is. And then Ryan reminded me they had signed Malik Willis, right? Giving him, like, $30 million gar. Guaranteed. Malik Willis started with the Titans. He wound up Green Bay. He was Jordan Love's backup. The new coach in Miami, was it Halfley?

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah.

[Charles Robinson]

He came from Green Bay. So I'm assuming he has reason to think good things about Willis, or at the very least, he knows how to run the offense. They have. But we all acknowledge, man, he's not very big and he is untested. He is certainly talented.

[Bomani Jones]

Right.

[Charles Robinson]

But we still have questions about what he's going to do. And I don't know if this is some sort of metaphor about being black in America, but he thought he had his chance. And then they was like, yo, best receiver. What you need that for, partner? Show us. It's like, it's almost like somebody in there, like, decided out of nowhere. No, actually, he gotta work twice as hard. Hell, yeah. That's.

[Bomani Jones]

That, that's.

[Charles Robinson]

That's what they say, right? What are they doing?

[Bomani Jones]

I mean, like, working twice as hard is like, the idea that there is a chance of success here at all, you know? Like, like, you're, you're. This, this is like the ultimate black experience because you think you got something, but you just hold it. You're holding it down for the next white man to come sit down in that chair. Okay? Because I, I, I, When I saw that they traded Waddle, I would, I, I posted on, On Blue Sky, I was like, yo, why did they sign Malik Willis just to eat all this dead cap? It's like, like, because they had not just Tyreek, they had jalen waddle. Obviously, Tua is going to account for $67 million worth of dead cap this year. And I think we put it all together, it's going to be $175 million worth of dead cap, which means, like, in a, in a league, that's more

[Charles Robinson]

than half, more than half the salary cap.

[Bomani Jones]

Right? Right. The salary cap is $333 million. So if you don't have access to 175 million of that, you basically, you can't feel the team, dog. Like, like, you got, you got Malik Willis and you got rookies. Okay? So, you know, someone respond like, Dolphins fans, Dolphins fans respond to me like, oh, well, we're trying to figure out if he's got the stuff to be like, the next quarterback. How the hell are you going to figure this out? Look at, look at, look at who he's throwing. And I, and because people ask me, you know, what do you think of the Malik Willis deal? Like, man, congrats to that, brother.

[Charles Robinson]

He.

[Bomani Jones]

He's a lot better than he was in Tennessee. He, he turned all 35 of those past attempts he had last year into some real wealth for the future. So congrats. To him. And, yeah, I doubt we'll see him start a game past next year.

[Charles Robinson]

You know, I feel like his signing again, the devil don't need no advocate. But if I were trying to argue that racism was over, this was.

[Bomani Jones]

This.

[Charles Robinson]

This would have been a data point. And then he got to Miami and they was like, nah, dog. Counterpoint.

[Charles McDonald]

No counterpoint. And we did it like this.

[Bomani Jones]

And I think people like, you got to remember when you see the Malik Wills numbers, like, on the deal, I think it came out to, like, what it was like. Like in between, like, 25 and $30 million per year, bro. That's. That's just starter money now.

[Charles Robinson]

It's starter money. But you know what? Him even getting starter money.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah.

[Charles Robinson]

Is. I mean, it's. It is a. It is on one level, a show of faith.

[Bomani Jones]

And.

[Charles Robinson]

And you know what? Maybe that's the bright side. They're showing an incredible level of faith in him because they believe he doesn't need anything. They're treating him like he's Patrick Mahomes. Right. Like.

[Bomani Jones]

Right.

[Charles Robinson]

And that gets us back to the. Maybe it is racism, but if you. So if it. If it's so hard, how come Patrick Mahomes can do it?

[Bomani Jones]

You know? You know, I started thinking, you know, that. Remember when I think it was the first Trump run and there was this gif, like. Or a video going around one of his rallies where he was like, look at him. Look at my African American over there. And that's what this whole Dolphins season is going to be. Because if. If you're a Dolphins fan, like, look at that offensive roster. Who are you watching this for if not just to see Malik Willis run around like, oh, he's got strong arms. Run a four three. They're holding my man. My man. Hm Hostage, I think.

[Charles Robinson]

Well, that's what I said. They said they won't trade Hn. He's the one that's got to work. He's go. He the one that's going to be out there. His nickname might as well be eight man Bo, dude.

[Bomani Jones]

And. And you know, he's got to be hurting because he's. He's about to end the last year of his deal. He's like, y' all ate all this dead money for Tua. All this dead money for Waddle. The dead money for Tyreek. I can't. I can't get no dead cap. Love on a 19.

[Charles Robinson]

And here's the thing. They say they refuse to trade him. Right. Maybe they're waiting to do like a midseason Trade. But we all know the data indicates pretty clearly rushing yards is as much of is a function of offensive line more than anything else. Right. Like a great running back can. It's not that a great running back doesn't matter, but the idea that our running back is untouchable and is, is a chan. No, no, no, man. Somebody want to give you a three or two or three for that, go ahead and make it happen. Y' all gonna be sorry. Like we all know y' all gonna be sorry. Y' all gonna be sorry.

[Bomani Jones]

And hn he's one of those runners where it like the bad. There's a lot of bad. As much good as there is because he's gonna be the guy that eats a bunch of TFLs and you're just kind of waiting and wa. They pops an 80 yard touchdown and you feel a little bit better about it. That's the whole offense this year though. Like it's just all boom, bust. There's no consistency here. So shout out to Malik for getting paid. That money's going to go a long way, but yeah, that's, that's a, that's a pretty tough spot. And I, I, I, I just kind of don't understand like why not just throw, throw Scott Thompson out there again if this is what your offense is going to be. This is nothing. It's, it's legit nothing.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah, I just, I can't. Is. He is. I don't know what kind of young man Malik Willis is, but maybe he'll give us some of those glorious CARE award press conferences now. If we keep it, if we keep it at a buck.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes, if, if that happens. He's been broken because Malik's one. He's one of those, you know, holier than thou types a little bit.

[Charles Robinson]

Oh yeah, he went to Liberty.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, he went to Liberty. Right. But I will say for he seems like an okay dude, you know. But you still have to the caveat. He did choose to go to Liberty after going to Auburn. So you know. But he seems like, he seems like a good enough guy if, if his faith is tested at all, it's going to be this year because you got rewarded. But how much?

[Charles Robinson]

Amen. His thing is going to be bright side Miami. Like I imagine that no team needs to fear like a 03 start more than the Dolphins because what a great city to quit in.

[Bomani Jones]

Oh man.

[Charles Robinson]

Like if you've just decided that you that they ain't no point, that city's for you.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah. I mean it could be worse. Like you could be. You could be in Phoenix where you've decided that you have no chance. Yeah. And what, what are they doing that, that to me is, is. Is like more inexplicable.

[Charles Robinson]

They got rid of, I still think a starting caliber quarterback dude for nothing with, with no solution.

[Bomani Jones]

Right. And, and I, I did. I feel like not enough people were talking about how crazy that was just to cut him, bro. You're in, in your division, you have Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDaniel. Okay. You're already starting behind the eight ball. Like really, really far behind the eight ball. You had something like. Because we see it at his best, Kyler, I know they haven't done it, but at his best, Kyler, he's had multiple seasons where we're like halfway through the years. Like, is this the MVP of the year of the league? Are. Are the Cardinals about to go to the Super Bowl? And I will say in 2024, his advanced metrics had him placed like a top 10 quarterback. So when you look at the whole totality of his career, last year was an outlier in a negative way. So, you know, if you're just looking at all everything added up, you should expect him to bounce back to a degree. I'm not saying he's going to go out there and, you know, have, have the, the season that Dak Prescott did when, when, when he came back last year, but it's, it's a lot better situation than the damn Arizona Cardinals. Right?

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah. But it's like this. Even if you don't think he's going to bounce back, you would think that this 30 something million dollars cap hit would be an incentive for you to figure out how to work it out. Because he's not terrible.

[Bomani Jones]

Right?

[Charles Robinson]

Right, Right. Like the, the system is built. The idea behind these contracts and these big cap numbers is to give the illusion of like the illusion that it's a guaranteed term of the deal. Like you can look at every contract and you can reasonably say, okay, this is when the deal is actually going to end. Right. When the guaranteed money isn't, isn't there. The cap hit is, has gone down. Like, this is the. Every time somebody says that there are no guaranteed contracts in the NFL and it's like, not really.

[Charles McDonald]

Right.

[Charles Robinson]

But there is a version. You get the upfront money. There are all these different things that come.

[Bomani Jones]

Exactly.

[Charles Robinson]

But having that cap hit is supposed to be like, all right, man, well, I guess we're just gonna work it out. It's the same way with buyouts with coaches in college, like, the idea is we're gonna have this buyout and we just gonna have to work this out. And then you see Brian Kelly, James Franklin, fifty million dollar buyouts and people are still canning them. Right? It's like, no, no, no. This is supposed to be built for you to behave in a different way.

[Bomani Jones]

So this is crazy. Like, yeah, the fact that and, and honestly, I will say you, you, you kind of got me going on this like maybe a month ago when that, or maybe a few weeks ago, when you talk about the NBA tanking and the idea that you would charge fans money to come see this, it's ridiculous. And, and, and not only that, but the idea in if, if you want to just be like the cold, like the coldest capitalist you want about this, there's no incentive to actually go out there and field a winning team if you don't want to. Because every team gets the same revenue cut, whether you win 17 games, whether you win zero games. So there's no financial obligation for these guys to win outside of glory. And I think we'll see some shifts in that as less and less football people own these teams and more finance and hedge fund people own these teams in the future. But the idea that, like, especially the Cardinals, man, you're in the NFC west and like, what I've been asking is, does Mike lafleur win a division game before he gets fired? Seriously, does he win a game in the division before he gets fired? Because you got three legit super bowl champions, probably three of the five, you know, best head coaches in the league. You're going to cut Kyler Murray so you can maybe, maybe get Arch and then maybe, maybe like two, three years after that. Like, maybe you're at a point where you can compete with the immediate threats in your division. Hell no, man. Like, like, go compete now. That's why, you know, like the Raiders, at least they, they got lucky and got their hands on the number one overall pick. But even them, like, shit, you still got Sean Payton and the Chiefs and Jim and your division. I, I, I, I, the older I get, I, I cannot stand like all tanking and the quitting because, yeah, because y' all are getting paid regardless. And I don't mean the players, I mean the teams.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah, well, let's stay with Miami. We talk so bad about Tua, but he's still a starting NFL quarterback, right? Like, he's never going to be great. I think that he has proven to be a disappointment to a degree. I think all of those things Are fair. Look at all that money Miami ate just to get him out of there. For a quarterback that we have no reason to assume is better than him.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, yeah, there it is. We've never seen that. He's like that much better than them, man. The two is starting quarterback stuff. That. That's going to test my faith this season.

[Charles Robinson]

Hey, yeah. By the way, speaking of that, Charles on that narcotic.

[Bomani Jones]

I know.

[Charles Robinson]

And now the Falcons, you know, you got. You got. You got the two lefties. You got Michael Penck whenever he comes back from his latest debilitating injury. And you got two of Tungava Loa. You still on that dope?

[Bomani Jones]

Okay.

[Charles Robinson]

By the way, I want to say again, Tua. This will be Tua with some weapons around him, right? London two with Kyle Pitts. If everything is going right, when he put his foot down for the fifth time on that drop, he gonna get the ball to where it need to go. Like, there are. There are good things, right? Like, there I could. I could see. I don't think it's the worst idea they ever had.

[Bomani Jones]

No, it's not the worst idea they ever had. But my question that I would posit to them is if the price is the same, why not just try and get Kyler? Because I didn't really see anything about them being interested in Kyler Murray. Because. Because you're like, you kind of add a similar spot as the Vikings. You know, you've got the supporting Castle offense at least to. Yeah, you know, you're not winning shit with that. But this is the thing with Atlanta, like, it's. It's flashy, no substance. But it did remind me when I was at the super bowl this year, we interviewed Bijan Robson at the Yahoo set. And, you know, I was chatting with him after, and I, you know, because I joked during the interview that I was a fan. He asked me afterwards, he was like, yo, you really a fan? I'm like, yeah. He's like, bro, we're going to get this right. I promise. Like, man, if there's one Falcon, I don't. I don't need an apology from. It's him. You know, I need one from. From. From. Blank. But Bijan, like, and they probably won't get it together, but all of us were still here. Accepted that a long time ago. I need my Sunday stretch. I'm gonna be mad for three hours. I'm gonna move on.

[Charles McDonald]

Dude, if Bijan played 20 years ago, he would be everybody's favorite player.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Charles McDonald]

Like, it is. This is a man stuck in the wrong time period. Like that's the guy you wanna pretend like you are when you are outside. Like that is. It is amazing to watch that guy play football. He'd been out there with one legged Kirk Cousins. He been out there with. Does Michael Penix have any legs?

[Bomani Jones]

I was about to say one arm.

[Charles McDonald]

I don't really know what a durag. A durag handed him the ball.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, the durag stuff is interesting because I expected Mike's hair to be in a lot worse space than the first time. I was like, bro, you've got your shit down to your eyebrows. Why are you wearing this all the time?

[Charles Robinson]

No, well, what he said was it got to be a thing.

[Bomani Jones]

That's right.

[Charles Robinson]

He was just fine. You'll never see me without the durag back then.

[Bomani Jones]

And we might never see him again either.

[Charles Robinson]

No, no, I.

[Bomani Jones]

No, I think I. And I personally, if he's healthy, I would much rather see Panics play. But it doesn't. It doesn't seem like anyone has really like broached the idea that he would be the starting quarterback this season. I know his injury was late and this is his third ACL tear in five years.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah. I'm assuming he's not going to play next year.

[Bomani Jones]

Right. But the fact that we're all just like, eh, all right, well, they did that and we're done. It's like, really?

[Charles Robinson]

Hey, man, they got. They got Tua for a dollar.

[Charles McDonald]

You know what I'm saying? Like. Like it was there.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah, Tua. Can they start doing. Can they. I guess he was already in Miami,

[Charles McDonald]

so they don't need to. They gonna.

[Charles Robinson]

Can they do with Tua like they did with Kirk Cousins and start making him wear all them chains and shit and try to act like he for the culture?

[Bomani Jones]

I hope not. Cause that was embarrassing.

[Charles McDonald]

It was the. That was the saddest.

[Bomani Jones]

That was sad, bro. I'm like, do y' all know who this man's daddy is? Like, do y' all know? Like, what about. You can Google? Like, there's, there's, there's Kirk Cousins commercials where, where he's doing stuff for the fake Donald Trump, like for car dealerships in Minnesota. This guy's not wearing chains. He's laughing at all this behind his back. He's gonna go give some money to Donald. Like, I. That's. That was so lame. I. I really can't get over it still sometimes.

[Charles McDonald]

It was. By the way, while I'm thinking about it, you got any thoughts on the Ravens? And they. Hey, we still got our Receipt. Let me get that back. Like I got a warranty.

[Charles Robinson]

They knew they were shopping, they knew

[Charles McDonald]

they was getting an open box special. And then they got, without touching the box, they looked deep in the box and they was like, ooh, I don't know about the price.

[Charles Robinson]

I mean, they did pay a lot for that muffler, I'll give them that. Especially for them to be getting it out the open box, that was a really high price. And somebody was like, what? You better go about.

[Charles McDonald]

You better go over there and talk to him.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, like the way Max calls it. It was what he said, like five minutes after they agreed to the, the contract extension that, that the deal was off. And look, I gotta say, this one, I think activated some of my, my previous inner scumbag tendencies because I was like, what's the big deal, bro? It's not official till 4:00pm and, and, and I, and I thought about it like, that's wrong because there was one person here, one entity here who, like, actually got hurt, and that was Max Crosby. Yeah, because you're, you're. If now you go back to the Raiders, it's just simple negotiation. You're not going to get the same deal that you were before. I'm sure when they were shopping him after the Raiders reneged, they weren't getting the same offers that they were before. So everyone just goes back. But I did find the amount of crying by, you know, my colleagues in the media in favor of the Raiders to be like, really? Y', all, y' all really, like, fired up about, like, the Raiders, like, getting. Look, but it was, it was so what? It was, it was grimy. It was grimy. But it was so one sided. It was so one sided that I started thinking, like, what, what happens if, if Max plays like six games this year, right?

[Charles Robinson]

No, so that's the thing. What if there really was something in the, in, in, in, like, so, yes, they know that he was, you know, he had an injury. They know he's supposed to be back before training camp. But what if there was something else, right? Like, what if they got in there and were like, oh, hey, I didn't know that was the thing, right? What I, I, what I found funny. And Crosby's been on his podcast talking about this as he said he was there for five hours before mentor the coach or DaCosta the GM cave and talked to him. And I am just imagining those two. You tell, you tell, you tell them. No, no, hey, hey, hey, look, look, hey, I got a meeting.

[Charles McDonald]

Let me know how it Goes right.

[Charles Robinson]

Like they are all. Does Max Crosby have any tattoos on his face?

[Bomani Jones]

If he does it, it's almost there.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah. If I say, if he does, I can see it. You know what I'm saying? They're like, yo, man, you go, hey,

[Charles McDonald]

you go talk to him, man. No, no, no, I ain't gonna do it. I ain't gonna do it.

[Charles Robinson]

And so the is, so. Yeah, it is. Was. It's not the end of the world. I think you are fair in terms

[Charles McDonald]

of making that present in, in that

[Charles Robinson]

it's not the end of the world. The question is whether the Ravens, like really needed to do it because he and Trey Hendrickson, you know, they both white, so it seemed like, it's not even that they seem like the same player, but if you tell somebody there's one good edge rusher and there's another good edge rusher, I don't think the,

[Charles McDonald]

the two, Unless one of them is like Miles Garrett.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, they basically, the Ravens, they decided that the extra run defense was not worth two first round picks. And honestly, I thought that this trade was very risky for the Ravens because coming off of, you know, a meniscus, a meniscus repair is not, it's not like some small thing especially.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah, like, that was, that was what really did it in for Derrick Rose. Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

I mean, J.J. mcCarthy missed all last season. Like, they didn't even bother putting him out there after he tore his meniscus. Yeah. And, and, and it's not just like that. Max plays defensive end. It. And he's, he's, you know, he's, he's, he's going to be 30 next year. Like, he, he's someone that's played over 90% of snaps in over half of his games in the NFL. Yeah, because I was looking it up. Since he was drafted in 2019, he's played 12th most snaps of any defense player in the NFL. The next highest, like defensive lineman or edge rusher is TJ Watt, like, close to 30. So that's a lot of mileage. And I, I just, I, I, I just found it interesting that we couldn't pause and say, okay, this was some dirty shit. Yes, it was not, not a good look by the Ravens, you know, clearly, by the way that they handled it when Max got there, they sent his ass to D.C. and then drove him.

[Charles Robinson]

Yo, that was, that, that, to me, that was crazy. So that's an underrated thing about NFL teams and free agency and stuff, is that that sort of thing, Right? Like people getting your flight reservations. Right. Right. Whether they put. What class of. What class of ticket they give you so. So forth and so on. And there are teams that are like, the team that'll put you. I'm using that as a direct example, but the team that'll put you on Spirit. There are those teams. And so one of the things I think that made the. The. The backlash against the move so strong is that people have been looking for a reason to take the Baltimore Ravens, this organization that we all thought so highly about. And apparently, behind the scenes, it's descended more and more into an amateur hour. And there were a lot of people who. There were a lot of people in the league who I think were happy to celebrate that and then use media members to say that. And then everybody figured out that the people who know were saying this sort of thing, and then it goes. But flying somebody into D.C. rather than Baltimore, that feels like amateur hour.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah. And as someone who. Who spent a lot of time growing up, you know, near Baltimore, that's a. Not a close drive. Depending on the traffic, that could be a very far Drive. And BWI, it's an international airport, you know. Right. It's probably 15 minutes away from the Raven Stadium, maybe 20 minutes from their practice facility. Like, I. I don't. I don't know what happened there, but really did seem like amateur hour. And the. Like, the. The piece that I guess I'm. I'm kind of stuck on as far as, like, how I feel towards this in relation to Max, is when did the Ravens know that they weren't going to go through with this? Because if it's. If it's any time, like, other than, like, the time frame in which he was at or, you know, NBC headed to Baltimore, like, in this time frame, that's grimy because you didn't have to fly them out there.

[Charles Robinson]

Well, what if they had.

[Charles McDonald]

I think what probably happened was they decided before he got on the plane, but there was somebody in the office that was still a holdout and was like, well, look, let's just get the mri and then we decide. Right.

[Charles Robinson]

Hoping that it's almost be like somebody else's mri.

[Charles McDonald]

Right. Like they're gonna get in there and

[Charles Robinson]

be like, oh, man, it don't even look like he had no surgery.

[Charles McDonald]

Right. Like, that's. That's.

[Bomani Jones]

That's kind of what it does. Exactly. That's exactly what it is, though, because. Because I was. I was. I was. I was talking to a friend of mine, and he was like, okay, so what. What is this? Like, is Max done Like. Like is. Is like he can't pass a physical. I was like, no, no, no, no, no. He can't pass a two. First round pick. Physical, yes. Third round pick.

[Charles Robinson]

Well, that. That's where I was surprised, and I think I said this.

[Charles McDonald]

When we talked about this with Danny Parkins last week, I was surprised that the terms just didn't change, because this does happen.

[Charles Robinson]

That somebody looked at the mri is like, no, no, no, this ain't gonna work.

[Charles McDonald]

So how about we make this a

[Charles Robinson]

one and a three, right? Or one and a two. No, they decided they wanted out on the whole thing.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah.

[Charles Robinson]

And. And if you believe what the story people are telling wasn't the story that they were going to try to give both Crosby and Trey Hendrickson, now, that's a damn lie. Yeah. As. As Dominique, As Dominique put it, the. The Ravens try to go to season two the Wire. We going to the dots, baby. We going to the docks.

[Bomani Jones]

See, See, my. And I know, I know, like, I, I. My brain's not wired right, because my immediate thing was, why are the Ravens saying anything at all? Like, why is Eric Costa going on TV talking about this? Like, yeah, I would say, man, Max Crosby technically was never a Baltimore Raven. Never. He's never had a contract signed with our team. I'm not answering questions about this. I'm not.

[Charles Robinson]

We don't talk. We don't talk about other players.

[Bomani Jones]

We can't talk about other teams. Players say all the time, like, and. And. And then, guess what? Like, there's so much shit going on outside, people forget. By the end of the weekend, you don't have to say anything.

[Charles Robinson]

It's a war going on outside. No man is safe.

[Bomani Jones]

And then there's people like, oh, you know, no one was ever going to do business. Ravens again. Well, I know that's not true because Trey Henderson just did.

[Charles Robinson]

So, yeah, they called him, and he was like, shit.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Charles Robinson]

My name is Paul, and that's between y'.

[Bomani Jones]

All.

[Charles Robinson]

He was like, y'. All. Y' all got that money, though. All right, I'll take it. I'll take it. So when I was. I remember when I was little, there was a. This is very interesting how radio stations

[Charles McDonald]

get kind of traffic again in the early 90s.

[Charles Robinson]

I want to say Luther Vandross was

[Charles McDonald]

coming to town in Houston to do a show, and they was giving away tickets for Luther Vandross. If you heard the song or whatever it was, you know, or I forget

[Charles Robinson]

exactly what the gimmick was to get

[Charles McDonald]

the Luther Vandross tickets, but they Weren't only giving away Luther Vandross tickets. So anyway, somebody called up once and

[Charles Robinson]

she had won a new DJ Quick. The new DJ Quick tape. I think it was way too funky. The one with Just Like Compton on it.

[Bomani Jones]

Great albums the past few weeks.

[Charles Robinson]

So she calls up and she's like, yo. They're like, congratulations, you just won a DJ Quick cd. And she was like, okay, I was trying to win these tickets. Cause let's be honest, if you calling to win Luther Van Joe's tickets, you're not. You're not. You're not giving that up for a DJ Quick cd. Right? Like you got. Yeah, this is not the same exact roles that she hung up. A couple songs played on the radio. They come back, somebody's like, yo, 97. 9, what's your name? And he was like, yo, man, my name is whatever. She don't want that DJ Quick cd. I want it.

[Bomani Jones]

I want it.

[Charles Robinson]

And so he went and came up to the radio station and picked up that DJ Quick cd. Trey Henderson was like, hey, let me get that DJ Quick cd.

[Bomani Jones]

Absolutely. And it's the same DJ Quick CD that she was gonna get. Yeah, yeah. And he's been looking for a DJ Quick CD for about three years now. So.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah. Remember two dogs. Remember two dogs, One bone with the Steelers. Mike Tomlin, Mike Wallace at Antonio Brown. Only one of them was gonna get the extension I think Mike Wallace was offered. He said no. Antonio Brown was like, let me get that.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, yeah. Steelers. Another interesting team. What the hell are they doing?

[Charles McDonald]

Oh, well, coming up next, we could talk about what they're doing. And I have a fun, fun, fun Minnesota Vikings detail for you.

[Bomani Jones]

Okay.

[Charles Robinson]

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[Charles Robinson]

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[Charles McDonald]

We are back with Charles McDonald of Yahoo. With the Vikings. I want to bring this up to you now. We have talked a lot about the fact that Kevin O' Connell already has JJ McCarthy, who he clearly loathes. Yes, he has picked up.

[Charles Robinson]

Yes, he has picked up Kyler Murray, who was not well liked at his last stop. And people with no quarterback traded his. Gave his talented ass away or taking

[Charles McDonald]

a $37 million cap hit to have him.

[Charles Robinson]

And so, like, you would think that maybe you need to get like a Charlie Batch in that quarterback room. A Josh McCown.

[Charles McDonald]

Right. Somebody that people really like. It's smooth things out. But the Vikings said, no, we'll get Carson Wentz.

[Bomani Jones]

They brought him back. Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray. Carson west and J.J. mcCarthy.

[Charles McDonald]

That's the quarterback room.

[Bomani Jones]

Quarterback room, yeah. Because I. I've seen people like, oh, will someone trade for J.J. mcCarthy? Hell no. No. Like I. Cuz. Cuz I. This is something that is not always fun to do, but you have to be honest with yourself. I think when it's going on and because Nate and I, like, we were labeled like state terrorists by Vikings fans last year for, you know, as. Because. Because they finished 9 and 8 shout out, you know, to everything that. Wasn't JJ McCarthy on that team last year to get to 9 and 8. They finished the season by, you know, beating your Detroit Lions in a game where they had like, less than 10 passing yards. Yeah, like. Like that's a good team. I mean, sure, they won 14 games a year before, and now we got people saying stuff like, you know, Kyler Murray's no Sam Darnold, which is like. Okay, I wouldn't say no.

[Charles Robinson]

We've. We've talked about this. He was never down that bad.

[Bomani Jones]

Never, never. Because if he was, he wouldn't be in the NFL anymore. I promise you. Ever, Ever.

[Charles Robinson]

He'd be. So. He'd be somewhere Turner, that four, six, three double play.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, man. I have a conspiracy theory about that. The A's definitely drafted him so they wouldn't have to pay anybody that year. That. That seems pretty clear now that. That how things have gone there. But it. It's like the idea that, like, you. You. You could go back into this season with JJ McCarthy as your starting quarterback. No, you can't. You absolutely could not. And it's. It's not just because he was bad and he was bad, like historically bad. And I. I don't even mean that. Like, just From a number standpoint, I mean like from an operation, you know, you're, you're in the first like half of the season and you know, they call a run play and JJ is turning right and the whole other 10 players are turning left. You didn't play last year. All you have to do is read. You still don't know like the plays. Okay, that's, that's a huge red flag there. And then I knew it was over. When he had, do you remember his gridding escapade from last year?

[Charles McDonald]

And they told him not to, right?

[Bomani Jones]

And, and he said, he came out, he said, you know, I'm, you know, when I'm feeling myself, it made me want to gritty more because they told me not to do it. And I was like, I know exactly what kind of motherfucker you are and you're not going to be here next year because yeah, you won't be around and they don't like you. Right. And, and when they got, they played Green Bay, at Green Bay in back half the season and Micah Parsons, scary guy, but I don't really see many quarterbacks play and I can feel how scared they are. Like we can't come back from that. So sure. Is Kyler Murray, you know, the best quarterback in the league? No, but he's probably about three times better than what you had for a million dollars a year. And now this is a spot where if things work out, boom, there's your quarterback for the next four or five years. But sometimes, sometimes like people need to look at it as in terms of if your job was on the line, would you sit there and say, we're going to try and fix this J.J. mcCarthy. Right, right. Because the answer is a big fat hell no.

[Charles Robinson]

Well, let me ask this though, because those Shanahan McVeigh types are very similar to Bill Walsh types.

[Charles McDonald]

They just want you to run the system.

[Charles Robinson]

Do what I said. Kyler Murray is not typically that type of quarterback, but at the same time he wasn't the only option that was out there. And they still said, yeah, gimme that. Like how do you think that he and Okaddle work together?

[Bomani Jones]

If it's better than last year, I think that Kevin will be feeling pretty good. And as long as one of them's feeling pretty good, then you can, you can kind of mitigate that. Although I, I, I, I do wonder sometimes if the Kyler stuff has jumped the Shark to a degree only because like, like, like the cult, like the gaming stuff really got out of hand. I thought with, with the way that some of us were talking about it. And I know that look, when it's in your contract, it's obviously real to a degree. Right? But man, it kind of felt like we started talking about this guy as if he didn't care about football, which I just vehemently don't think is accurate. Obviously. Like it didn't, it didn't end well, but it didn't. It also didn't end so bad they need to cut him for nothing. Like.

[Charles Robinson]

No, I just think people don't like him. Yeah, like, I think the, I mean, look, the gaming thing was an issue. Yes, but my thing was. But, but you kept him, right? Yeah, right. Like, like that was.

[Bomani Jones]

He did pay the money.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah, you did pay him the money. The reason I had a problem with the cause is that all it did was embarrass everybody. And I don't know if it made him stop playing video games.

[Charles McDonald]

Right?

[Charles Robinson]

But in the end, how he get, how he gets there is how he gets there. You know what I mean? But okay, I just. And they got Brian Flores up there too. People don't like him either. Like they just, It's a real Joe Friday. Just the fact shit up there in Minnesota, they just like, man, just do your job, man.

[Charles McDonald]

Don't talk to me, man. Just do your job, man.

[Bomani Jones]

Right, exactly. But they all know if the three of those guys. Kevin o'. Connell, you know what, I'll throw Justin Jefferson in there too. Because Justin Jefferson, like, he's like character wise, he's about as good against the NFL. He will admit to you, last year was not his best season. On top of the JJ McCarthy stuff, like he did have some very uncharacteristic drafts. But if those four guys could get together before the season and say, hey look, Justin, like we're going to need your positivity to be the glue on this sometimes. But like we've got a lot of potential to make a fuck ton of money here if we get this season. Right, because you're going to get Kevin Connell extension. You're going to get a Kyler Murray extension. Maybe Beef Low can, you know, maybe he, he, he gets the monkey off his back and, and gets to go, to go do something else, then just Jefferson's happy. Like there's a lot riding on this year. Like we're talking, you know, several hundred million dollars worth of potential future money on the line. So I think that'll get him to, to, you know, just behave a little bit. And I also think like there's, you don't want to watch your bad quarterback gritting out there when you just ask them not to, you know, like, just don't be that. And I think that that will be a big improvement for them.

[Charles McDonald]

They like, oh, you want to dance like one of them blacks, huh? Okay, guess we got. Guess we gonna have to treat you like one.

[Charles Robinson]

They bailed on him. They bailed on him like he was raised of the fist during the national anthem.

[Bomani Jones]

And, you know, people got. Remember?

[Charles Robinson]

And I've watched them talk themselves into a lot of white boys, man. A lot of them. They look. Hey, once again, the devil don't need no advocate. Right?

[Bomani Jones]

Exactly.

[Charles Robinson]

There's. There's. There's one right there for you. And I'm like, man, you'll get this white boy out of my face. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

Go.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah, yeah, Go, go. Tell this little black ass to come on up here. We got a spot for him.

[Bomani Jones]

Well, okay, so now that I'm not on Twitter anymore, like, one of my. One of my favorite things to do, like, to just get my, my, my, my hater quench fulfilled, is to go on Reddit and just look at team fans, like, after, you know, either a weird win or a bad loss, just see how they're responding. And, you know, just like, tracking Vikings fans during the season. Oh, man, they don't get it, man. Like, they're not watching these games like we're watching. Yeah, yeah, I am, because I got to pay rent, so I promise you, I'm watching these games, dog. They're not watching these games. They don't understand to. Oh, man. Like, you think you see a little something more than JJ to the end of season. Is JJ going to be a star next year? No, he's not going to be the starter, and you shouldn't want him to be the starter either. Like, you really want to see if you can fix the reclamation project on this, or would you rather just try something else? And I think more fans need to think about that. Sometimes, like, you get so caught up in, like, oh, like, do I have the right qb? Well, we picked a quarterback, and it's going to feel bad if we don't have the right quarterback. So I'm going to feel like this is the right quarterback, but it's a lot faster if you just admit to yourself, no, this ain't good enough. Let's try something else instead of doing this for, like, two years.

[Charles Robinson]

I just can't.

[Charles McDonald]

Like, I didn't watch enough to realize that he was so bad that it was like, nah, can't no, can't.

[Bomani Jones]

Literally cannot do this again.

[Charles Robinson]

No, like, that is the, Like, I remember when that happened with E.J. manuel and it was clear that he was throwing him hospital balls. And like, so my buddy Steve White, God rest his soul, he was like, man, they gotta get him out here before he gets somebody hurt.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, seriously. I mean, like, like J.J. mcCarthy. Oh, man, I'm about to say his numbers were about on par with Shador Sanders in my head, but no, he's. He's about twice as good in terms of.

[Charles Robinson]

You couldn't help it. You couldn't help it.

[Bomani Jones]

No, no, no, because during the season, like, that was like my thing. I was like, bro, like, you traded up in the first round to get this quarterback who was playing as bad as, you know, a fifth round rookie. But no, his, his QBR was twice as. That was twice. Never mind.

[Charles McDonald]

Hey, right, fast, man, before we get out of here, I want to talk to the people about this. I don't know if they know this is going on. There's currently a labor dispute between the National Football League and the refs. Referees, zebras, the hall monitors, snitches. Anyway, I don't know what's going to happen before the season starts, but a report has emerged that the NFL is already beginning to look into hiring replacement refs. Scabs is what people call. And regardless of your feelings about organized labor and solidarity within those fronts and so forth and so on, I would assume that the leak about replacement referees came from the NFL as a tactic to try to get the referees to bow down. Cause they're like, yo, we'll just go get another set of you and Charles, I'm just curious if you remember the last time we had replacement referees, because I feel like anyone who remembers the last time we had replacement referees would understand that there is no hollower threat that the NFL could send the referees other than, well, we'll just go get replacement referees because what was it, four

[Charles Robinson]

weeks that we had the replacement refs? I want to say it was in 2012 that we had those replacement refs. Oh my God. Play the yakety sacks. That was a, that was a learning lesson for everybody.

[Bomani Jones]

It was.

[Charles Robinson]

You think the refs are bad? That doesn't mean they aren't better than every other option in those games.

[FanDuel Announcer]

Yeah, sucked, man.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah. And I, I, and, But here's, here's like, where I've, where I've been thinking about since you. Because I didn't, I honestly, I didn't even notice until we, we were Talking about this before the show, but so that the replacement ref thing was disaster. How much of it do you remember? Because I remember one play, you know, like, I remember.

[Charles Robinson]

I remember consistently that it was like, hey, we got a problem here. But, of course, the play we all remember, I always talk about on this show Monday, like, national television exposes everything. So for those who don't remember, it was the packers against the Seahawks. And I want to say the packers had thrown a Hail Mary into the end zone. Right. It was ultimately called the Fail Mary. And it was one of those kind of sort of simultaneous possession situations. And so it was the. Yeah, it was the packers that threw it in. Okay. It seemed very clearly, after all was said and done, that the packers had made the catch and that they won the game. If. Yeah, it was because Mike Silver. That picture of Mike Silver talking to Aaron Rodgers on the field after the game.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Charles Robinson]

Okay. So it was very. It seemed clear that that had happened, but the refs weren't sure because it was a simultaneous possession situation. So two refs start running toward the play, and both of them are putting their hands above their heads in order to make the signal. One of them, I think the one that was from farther away was going to come in and had his hands going up to call touchdown. But the other one, who was closer was putting his hands over his head to do the thing where you cross your hands. So you begin to say it was a touchback, and the Possessor's going the other way. The dude that was going to call the touchdown saw the other dude cross his hands over his head. And so touchdown down, man. Played follow the leader because he didn't have no confidence in his call. And then he went and did it. And then a third ref came in and he was all lost on what to do. And then they huddled, and then they decided, okay, we'll just call this an interception. And there were professional refs out there. The. The next games.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, yeah.

[Charles Robinson]

Because it had to be fixed because it was so embarrassing how bad the replacement reps were.

[Bomani Jones]

No, and they were bad. And I, like, I remember that play, like, specifically the huddle up. Because I was watching that, you know, because. Because I was like, 2012. So I was. I was like, 18, 19, man. I was like, I'm watching that game with some friends and like, we've been there before. We're huddled up. Okay, hold on.

[Charles Robinson]

My bad. Yeah, yeah, it was my bad. It was Russell Wilson.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah.

[Charles Robinson]

Okay, so Seattle scored. Yeah, I got it backwards. The one guy was coming that's right. The one guy was coming in to make the right call that it was a touchback.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah.

[Charles Robinson]

But the other ref did the, it looked like a sitcom.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes, sitcom.

[Charles Robinson]

Like it looked like Homer Simpson would have been like, what if Homer was a referee?

[Bomani Jones]

And, and ultimately like you're exhibiting the behavior of like shitty, like 18, 19 year old boys in that situation. Okay, okay, we got caught. So what's you. Yes, yes, I did see you talking to her, but we're gonna say this. We're gonna run a play to get her out of it. No, but the problem is we know, we, we know that this happened because we were still all watching these games, you know, like that, that's the problem. And, and this I know. Like I'm still a little bit, I still got sports sometimes weighing too heavy on my soul because I functionally treat the referee unions and I like my first job at vox, I was there when the vox union got started. You know, I've been at other workplaces where we started to start unions. Like I, I believe in this stuff, but that ref union, I'd be looking at like a police union, man. It's like, man, and I know that that's too far. It's obviously way too far, but man, I, I, it's, it's just not stopping me from, you know, watching these games. And that's my, my moral cross to bear. I'm still working on it. But you know, I, it's funny, I

[Charles Robinson]

mean we still go watch them, of course.

[Bomani Jones]

Of course.

[Charles Robinson]

But, but the refs are going to win again.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes, they are.

[Charles Robinson]

The refs have learned. All we got to do is wait for these bums. Look, this is the thing about levels of expansion of football and what I mean by expansion in this case, I'm using like the, the, the UFL or whatever it is, or the xfl, whichever one of them FL autom. The issue that those leagues have and why none of them will ever be any good is there aren't enough good quarterbacks to go around for the NFL.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah.

[Charles Robinson]

Let alone for those lower levels. Like there are good enough players and maybe not offensive linemen, but they're generally good enough players on those levels to put together an entertaining football game because we see it in college. But there aren't enough good quarterbacks to make it work. And so the games always wind up being terrible. There aren't enough good referees to go around in the NFL as it stands. And you're going to break out a whole, like the whole B team all at once and by the way, a B team that doesn't really practice to be the B team. No, these cats just showed up. This shit is like one of them Keanu Reeves movies. They got.

[Bomani Jones]

They got. They got real jobs, you know, because. Because my. My girl, she. She's been watching football for the first time for the past couple years, and, you know, she started Googling, like, the referees, like, when she sees them on tv, and she's like, all these guys are, like, lawyers or, like, you know, they have, like, big businesses, like, outside of this referee job, which also, I think plays into why people don't really care about this, because we know, like, like, like, seriously, next time you're watching the NFL game and you see the referees, just Google their name. They all got some sign, some side. The. The referee is the side business. The referee is the side business. Right? Like, they got law firms, like, investment firms, like, big money stuff. So, you know, when you start getting to, like, the labor relations where these guys are making a whole lot of money, and we see it on, like, the player side with the apathy. I mean. I mean, I could. I could do a whole podcast on that shit with JC Treader. But we see it, like, when. When the money gets to the point where it's kind of hard to. To, like, actually hurt people from taking their jobs away. They're. They're willing to take that risk and say, no, we'll wait you out and give it a month, and we'll get to ref fewer games, and the product will be better by the end of the season, and everybody will be happy. But the fact that, like, we could do this again for the people who weren't watching football or football conscious last time this went around, you're in for a treat. And it's going to be excruciating. But guess what? I'll see you next Sunday, too.

[Charles Robinson]

Staring down the people that beat you the last time we did this, like, you would think that they would understand.

[Charles McDonald]

All right. Hey, man. Hey, man. We'll get it right. You know what I'm saying?

[Charles Robinson]

Let's just. Let's just, like, we know we got to get this done. Nah, man. They greedy asses just can't help it. And they will. They as they will let this product suffer so many ways over and over again. Me and my man Rod have talked about this, that the NBA has to answer for everything it does or does

[Charles McDonald]

not do in the name of the quality of the product.

[Bomani Jones]

Right?

[Charles McDonald]

The NFL rarely, if ever does.

[Charles Robinson]

And this is the clearest sign that you don't care about the actual quality of the product.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah.

[Charles Robinson]

Or, or another example that you don't care much about the safety of the players.

[Bomani Jones]

No, seriously. And it kind of goes back to what we were talking about at the, at the start. Like when there's no financial incentive to like behave properly. Properly, then like why, why, why would we rush on anything? And you know, this is funny because, because last year I feel like I've been having deja vu this off season because last year when the NFL PA stuff was going on.

[Charles McDonald]

Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

I was having a, a conversation with my colleagues and he's like, you know, like why, why, why does anyone care about this? I'm like what, what do you mean? Because, because if that. Because, because. Okay. Yeah. At this point the NFL PA it basically exists just so the NFL doesn't get suit right. That that's the only really functioning power has left. But it can always get worse. Dog. They were out here playing preseason in games for free. Training camp wasn't paid back in the day. You know it, you, it can get so much worse. And, and if, if they didn't have that union or we didn't have the referee union, I can promise you guys this would be a much worse product every Sunday.

[Charles McDonald]

Would it ever?

[Bomani Jones]

Much worse. And, and, and we're about to see this capitulate to 18 games in a couple years because we all know that that's where it's headed now that J.C. trevor is back in it. I think we got to think a little more critically and harder about like what has actually happened to the sport in terms of like the labor movement here. Because like what's going on with the players, man, that, that's, that's kind of scary man. Like to see these people and my state's feeling, I mean specifically like Lloyd Howe, J.C. treader, they, they studied labor relations and have gotten into the business of busting unions. Like Jason Trey has basically destroyed his own union, Lloyd Howell in the past. Like part of the reason they hired

[Charles McDonald]

him was that was the wild one, right? Like because, because he wasn't a union guy. They hired him because he was a businessman.

[Bomani Jones]

They wanted one of those, an anti union guy and they were like, oh well, he can change from the inside man. That's bullshit. So you know, you definitely want these to be protected but you know, I got to work on myself and not look at the referees as police units. They're just a step down.

[Charles McDonald]

By the way. I don't know if you saw this and I'll just say this as we as we head out that the Cardinal signed Trey Lance for 6.1 year deal worth up to 6.75 million dollars.

[Bomani Jones]

Why are they signing quarterbacks?

[Charles McDonald]

Because I. I'm just telling you, somebody's going to get a hold of that Trey Lance and it's going to work. I don't know who. I don't know when.

[Charles Robinson]

He did not get a. He did not get a real opportunity to do this.

[Bomani Jones]

He did like that. That's. That. That's my. My stance on Trey. Like, y' all making fun of him like he broke his leg, man.

[Charles Robinson]

Like, yeah, he broke his leg. And Kyle Shanahan for the second time treated a quarterback like a running back. I got him out here running power and stuff like this. Right. Like something. Something happened. Right. But we have not. We have not seen. And if there's anybody that I feel like could get somebody up to snuff, Jim Harbaugh seems to be sort of dude who could figure that out. And that's why it's somewhat amazing to me that some of these moves the

[Charles McDonald]

teams have made and not one has

[Charles Robinson]

made, like, a real Trey Lance push. I would look. So Anthony Richards is going to get another chance, too. I don't know where, like, somebody's going to get a hold of them.

[Bomani Jones]

It's going to be in Indianapolis.

[Charles Robinson]

You and I are the same page on that one.

[Bomani Jones]

I mean, that. The. Yeah. The Daniel Jones thing. I. Again, again, that's like. Like the collar thing. I was sitting. I was sitting. Like, does no one think this is ridiculous? Like, and the fact. You know it's ridiculous because ain't nobody tried to sign him on the transition tag. Any team could have. And the way that it works is if he agreed to a deal, the team assigned wouldn't even have to send picks back. And nobody bid on that. So you negotiate against yourself for Daniel Jones and not remember, not only did he tear his Achilles last year, he was playing on a broken leg, too.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah. And he's already had a torn acl.

[Bomani Jones]

Right. So you're like.

[Charles Robinson]

And he's never been good, not even last year.

[Bomani Jones]

That's Nate's. That's Nate's point. Which is also correct. You've bet on Daniel Jones to be good and healthy. Two things he's notoriously never been. Like, like, what, What. What is this? I gotta say, Chris Ballard. Chris Ballard. He should hold seminars whenever this, this, this GM run ends because he's on year 10. And. And how. How?

[Charles Robinson]

Well, well, here's my thing.

[Bomani Jones]

What did he say to keep this job After Jim died. That's why I want to know.

[Charles Robinson]

Here's my thing. So Mrs. Gordon, them clips of her on the sideline with the headset on, which is going to be cute until it's not. Yes, right. I understand the argument, but that's, that's meddlesome behavior. Right?

[Charles McDonald]

Like, like, like if you, if you

[Charles Robinson]

don't like the story, you don't like the person, let Jerry Jones be sitting up there in the booth with the headphones on talking about. I just want to know what. I just want to know. I just want to know what's happening.

[Bomani Jones]

Tom Brady was on the headset with Chip Kelly and we were looking at that last. It's kind of strange.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, you know, some of them accused. Yeah, but I tell you this, what she need to be doing is sitting there next to Chris Ballard. That's the person. That's the person. They need to feel like the eye in the sky don't lie.

[Bomani Jones]

I feel like Chris has probably like, ingratiated himself into the family at this point because my, my very cynical take when Jim passed away was, oh, he's gonna figure out a way to keep his job through this, man. I'm one of you, like, at this point. Like, I've been here looking for this Andrew Luck successor for about 10 years now. Like, it's. I thought we had something here and they're letting me do it one more time because also I guess they're probably looking at him like this, what the fuck else are we going to do? We traded two first round picks for Sauce Gardner. So I guess this is it, you know. Yeah, they did do that. That's because that, that's hopefully why you have. Why they felt like they had to pay Dion Jones, probably because.

[Charles Robinson]

Well, no, because they thought they had Daniel. They thought they had a. They thought they had a quarterback because they had Daniel Jones. Right. And you're right. At some point, Anthony Richardson is over there being big, strong and fast and.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, and, and he's. You're going to see him, you know, overthrowing Alec Pierce again at some point this season. Shoot. I don't know, maybe even week one.

[Charles Robinson]

But I, I will say this, though. After he came back from that de facto suspension, he wasn't bad.

[Bomani Jones]

No, he wasn't.

[Charles Robinson]

He wasn't like they, they, They've given. I feel like they've given up on him as a man.

[Bomani Jones]

Yeah, that. I agree. I would agree with that assessment. And I do think it's. It's interesting that you draft a guy Like Anthony Richardson, and don't commit to, like, the thing you have to do, which is suck. Like, you're going to suck. It's going to be tough for a while. I mean, dude, Josh Allen was bad for what, like, 20 years? Two years. Yeah. Two years before it started getting going. And. And ultimately, no one. No one really remembers that, you know, outside people like me who say there was reason enough to doubt that he would ever be this.

[Charles Robinson]

I gotta. I got. I gotta. I got. I gotta let go.

[Bomani Jones]

I've let it go because I love watching it play.

[Charles Robinson]

Right, right, right, right, right. I have had no problem with that part. The part that I have trouble letting go of is I was right when I was right.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Charles Robinson]

Now, was I wrong? I was wrong to say he was going to get everybody fired.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes.

[Charles Robinson]

But I was right to say he. No, when I said he was going to get everybody fired, I was wrong, but I was not wrong to say that he was going to get everybody fired.

[Bomani Jones]

It was just a different reason.

[Charles Robinson]

Does that make sense? All the sides were there. All the evidence was there.

[Bomani Jones]

And that team is fascinating because what they have signaled is all of that, all of that was one man's fault. One person, Sean McDermott, that was all his fault. And, you know, it's not passing the sniff test because we all watch that game.

[Charles Robinson]

Yeah.

[Bomani Jones]

Okay.

[Charles Robinson]

To be fair. And this happens when people get fired, and this is the way. I don't know if you've ever been fired before, but almost a few times I got some. I got some stripes in the game. Right. And what people typically do when they get fired, and I say they, because I do not, is they personalize it very much so, as though you are saying that I was what was wrong. And in reality, what you're saying normally

[Charles McDonald]

is

[Charles Robinson]

we don't want to fire you for whatever the reason may be. We've decided that we don't want you to be there. It does signal as though they're saying McDermott was the problem, but. No, it really was. McDermott was a problem. No, the thing was, Brandon B. Figured out how to get a promotion out of it, and Joe Brady, too. Right. Which means that he definitely told the world that McDermott was the problem.

[Bomani Jones]

Yes. And the world, Terry Pula, you know, that's the world that matters in this scenario. But I thought one of the funniest things about that escapade was, I think an underrated piece of it was when Terry said the weird stuff about Keon Coleman and how, oh, you know, that was a coaching staff pick. Like, not a, you know, Brandon Bean pick. And then as soon as that press conference is over, they announced that they had just interviewed Joe Brady for the head coaching job. Like, you just trashed the man that you just interviewed, who you ended up hiring to run the whole thing. I would love to know, like, if I could get. If I. If I could talk to two people right now, honestly, about just football shit, I would love to get Sean McDermott and Mike Thomas sit down and be like, how y' all feeling? How are you? I know Mike's probably. Mike's probably feeling pretty good because I can't imagine that. That. I think that this is probably gonna be the first losing season in 20 years for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But Sean, like, Sean's way looked like, dude, what.

[Charles Robinson]

What.

[Bomani Jones]

What did he do so terribly here? Especially considering as a defensive guy? Like, the defense was not talented as they got into the stretch, but they still played okay, and they were putting some bad spots in that Denver game. Yeah, that's Brandon Bean's job to get those guys this year. I think this off season has been the year all these billionaire owners got swindled. Because how are you going to tell me Brandon Beane kept his job, Andrew Barrett kept his job in Cleveland, John Spytack kept his job in Las Vegas. All these other guys got fired. Like, all these coaches got fired, and none of these GMs got fired. That's a culture problem, man.

[Charles Robinson]

Yes, but that also means that all those GMs are next.

[Bomani Jones]

Right?

[Charles Robinson]

As for Mike Tomlin, I need everybody to understand this.

[Charles McDonald]

If they don't, none of those other two coaches that the Steelers had in my lifetime went and coached anywhere ever again. Tyler got his bread.

[Charles Robinson]

Maybe he'll do television. Or maybe not. He made a lot more. I bet he made a lot more money coaching than Bill Coward did.

[Bomani Jones]

Oh, for sure. And also, if I'm like, I ain't going back. Cause I'm not risking getting a losing season. What do you mean? I did 20 years. 20 years, no losing seasons. Why would I risk that? You know, just to come back. For what?

[Charles McDonald]

And don't tell nobody I said this, but what if he cooked anyway? Probably like, it's. It's. There are criticism of him as a coach that we do not make because we like him.

[Bomani Jones]

Right, right. You know, I literally just said to my boy yesterday, like, I can be honest about the Steelers now because it's Mike's throne.

[Charles Robinson]

No, let me tell you something, you know, so that I would love to hear an honest conversation about one guy over another.

[Charles McDonald]

Can you imagine what Bill Belichick would have to say about Mike Tomlin, given the way Bill Belichick would hand his

[Charles Robinson]

ass to him every single time.

[Bomani Jones]

And Mike will be looking at him saying, wouldn't let that happen to me, though. He gonna be a Duke coach. Do you think my house will be coaching Duke, you know, sir,

[Charles Robinson]

not me. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Charles McDonald. Check him out at Yahoo Sports. Cover the NFL, my brother. I appreciate you.

[Bomani Jones]

Appreciate it, man.

[Charles McDonald]

All right, now, ladies and gentlemen, thanks

[Charles Robinson]

so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this four days a week. It's now Monday through.

[Charles McDonald]

Ryan Brumley handled everything behind the scenes.

[Charles Robinson]

Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line.

[Charles McDonald]

323-59-67767.

[Charles Robinson]

Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.