July 16, 2026 • 53 mins
Today on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe the guys talk about Argentina coming from behind to defeat England and advance to the World Cup Final, George Pickens officially playing under the franchise tag for the Cowboys, Albert Breer, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of two pros and a couple
(00:04):
Joe with Labar airings and Rady Winn and Jonas Knox
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Obviously, we've over the past couple of days been doing
something on the show where with the World Cup semi finals,
we decided, why don't we make a pick that has
nothing to do with soccer all right, based on the country,
and it could be anything from the quality of the food,
what sort of booze they're into, who's got the hottest fans.
(00:35):
It just it was a real in depth if you're
a big soccer aficionado, if you're one of these people
that's just groveling over soccer twenty four to seven, definitely
not the segment for you. But we LaVar and myself
have now gone to and zero. Okay, that's the type
of in depth analysis and professional broadcasting analysis that.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
You get on this show.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Because we had Spain in the first matchup against France
and then we had Argentina yesterday against England and LaVar
we are two and oh sitting pretty here as we
get ready for the World Cup final.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Hey, it was a lot of energy. I'll tell you that.
It was kind of crazy bro, but hey, I watched.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I didn't watch it, yeah, I mean, because there were
so many people and I was on the beach.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I did watch, but I couldn't find any energy off
of it. I mean, I watched it is what it is.
I mean, I know what I'm watching, but I don't know.
I don't know it. I don't know, I mean, and
I don't think I ever will.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So so well, let me ask you, now, what is
this scene like by the beach, because I know, listen
to my brother jam Pack.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, like people love it, man, Like, I.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Mean, it's it's funny because everyone knows what's going on,
so people aren't panicking when you hear the excessive screaming
where the whole entire beach is screaming, like that's crazy.
(02:17):
Like you're driving and this isn't just yesterday, but you're
driving while the games are going on. I was driving
one time while won the matches were going on, and
you just hear screaming as I'm driving. I can hear
the screaming going all the way down the street as
I'm driving.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's house house, house, house, house.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
House, apartment, apartment, whatever, and it's just screaming going all
the way down.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's just it's wild.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Man.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I didn't realize there was such a craze. I really didn't.
It's uh. That's the one thing that has been pretty noticeable.
The people have been like, you know what, why don't
we just all get together and watch this game. You know,
have a couple of cock.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's the middle of the week, it's a Mattine game,
and let's just get after it a little bit. I
think that's been like, if anything, for anybody that's worried about,
you know, the future of US soccer, I'm not. I
couldn't care less. Like, there's not a lot of things
I care less about than the future of US soccer. Sorry,
if that's insulting to anybody, Like, that's not my problem.
This is something that pops up every four years. I'll
(03:23):
deal with it in four years. I don't need to
deal with it now. But for anybody that's worried about
the future of US soccer, I would say this, yes,
nowhere close to being the best team on the pitch,
if you will, this entire tournament, But as far as
the celebratory atmosphere, the US should be proud of themselves.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Man.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
For anybody that's had a cocktail and licked a lid
or been on the liver loop during one of these
matches over the past month or whatever it's been.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
You ought to take a bow.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
You ought to be proud of yourself because you have
represented yourself nicely.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
All right.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
The Scottish fans blew into and put everybody on notice.
They set the tone. They went into Boston, they drank
that city dry, and all of a sudden, everybody listen,
woke up and realize, you know what, we got to
step up our game, like, we cannot let the Scots
roll in here and just do what they want to
do and then go back to Glasgow and talk about
(04:18):
how soft we are.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
We have showed up.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
We have shown out to the point to where you
got people on the beach on a beautiful day in
the middle of summer that are celebrating a soccer game
with a bunch of guys whose names they probably can't pronounce,
and that says something, Hey, you.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Know what's crazy about what you just said? I was
asking people where were they from? And most of them
were local. Most of them were local, So all this
he everybody's taking over. And there were some some like
different languages being spoken, and maybe it was just maybe
the coincidence was I only asked Americans. You may maybe
(05:00):
that's the potential of it, but I mean there was
just every every once, like you know, you move around,
you'd be like, hey, where are you from? You know,
because you're seeing who's rooting for who? And I didn't
hear their accent or if they even spoke English before
I asked them.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
They were just it was.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Just random, and they were all from them. In fact,
they were all local. They were all local.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Okay, Now what was the split of people cheering for
England or Argentina yesterday?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
If you had to probably more Argentine Argentina.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Oh interesting, yeah, because I feel like the Brits are
going to be at a pub more Inland, the Argentinans
are probably going to be Argentina.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I was at a rebel, rebel republic.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
I would assume at a rebel republic it would be
more well than maybe not. Then again, when you think
about maybe not, maybe not, here is more Argentina fans.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, and this look, this makes me, this probably makes
me sound like an a hole. And before I let
you know that, because I do want to get this
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Speaker 4 (06:24):
Hey, while you're using Granger, you're you're you're clicking and
doing all that at like a parking space. Think about
what what truck you're in, what vehicle you're in while
you're doing it? You know what I mean, Jonas, and listen,
I respect to pick up that's built to do the
job without making a fuss. And that's the niss On Frontier.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
That's right. Why you're calling Granger.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Make sure you're in a truck that's built for the
weekends because it earned it during the week You dig
what I'm saying, Load it up, get that tailgate going.
You do it in that twenty twenty six Nissan front
toob Yeah all right.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So I don't know if this makes me sound bad,
but there's something I call the sports morgue. And you know,
there's these certain organizations, these teams, these fan bases that
are used to failure that in the midst of it
happening again. It's just got this quiet eerie Oh my god,
(07:25):
we're gonna we're about to experience this again. And I
only say this growing up a Cubs fan, because you
just knew, hey, this is awesome and all. They're not
gonna win like this is like, it's just they're called
the lovable losers for a reason.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
They're never gonna win. Just accept it.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You've seen people come and go in life and never
see that team win. They finally did in twenty sixteen,
which nobody believed. And then they tried to screw that
up like that. That Game seven was a disaster. That's
a whole nother story for a whole nother day. But
so I grew up understanding the idea of what a
sports morgue looks like and these and you know, there's
other franchises that go through it. The Nicks went through
(08:06):
it for a long time, all right, so that they
broke that, you know, a trend in tradition recently, Like
you can just name the franchise the Browns. The Browns
Browns are another one for anybody that is not familiar
with the Browns. The ernest Byner fumble the drive by
John Elway, like there's just there's all sorts of stuff
that has gone on with the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
They even left the city entirely and then won.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Super Bowls like there's night yes, just you know, hey,
we gotta go man.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
We got a sweet new city with a cool name,
and we're gonna go off and we're gonna win.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
A couple of Super Bowls while you guys are still
dragging you and you know what's around looking trying to
find a quarterback like it did.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
The whole the whole thing's a mess, like the original Mayflower,
you know what I mean. Like, let me make Baltimore
landed on the Ravens man, the Ravens didn't land well,
actually they the Ravens did land on Baltimore. These shots
on the art.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
There's these teams and these organizations that have to go
through this, and when they get close, there's this feeling
of how are we gonna screw this up? And it
turns into a morgue and you can feel the vibe
in the stadium. You can feel like you just know
it's happening. And the soccer version of that is England.
(09:23):
I would have done anything to be at a pub
in downtown London yesterday while they were proceeding to defecate.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Down their lege. Oh wow, you talk about a gag job.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
They had the game dead to write, it's over, eighty
fourth minute whatever it was, they give up the equalizer
and then six you're probably figuring yourself, Hey, let's get
it to extra time. Let's gather ourselves. Six minutes later,
game deuces God, and they got to sit around and
(09:57):
look at each other, going, this is happening again. And
I don't know what that says about me. I find
enjoyment in that. I'm sorry, I think it's hilarious.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I really do.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Like I said, my daughter had beach volleyball lessons yesterday,
so we're watching the match and it was what it was,
and that was an exhilarating finish, as you mentioned, crazy, crazy, exciting.
But what was even more interesting was the way the beach.
It was so interesting that I told the story about
(10:31):
being in Barcelona, Spain and seeing the things that I
saw on that beach. Now, while I did not see
as much of the people you know that were on
the beach in Spain, and yesterday they were on the
beach and let me tell you something. You could tell
(10:53):
they were from somewhere from Argentina or it was South America,
and it was not even close. It is what I'll
tell you. I've never seen Manhattan Beach look like that ever.
For meting out that Argentinian food, I guess, I guess
(11:18):
whoa oh yeah they look And I was there with
Trish Bruh and it was like even Chrish was like, damn, damn, damn.
That beach was popping yay, b I mean popped out.
(11:39):
I can I can imagine, uh.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
You know, the all the way popped out.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Hey, listen, you get that close to the solar system
and you got to take a peek.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Say, I mean it's photo synthesis, you know when when
the sun gets all up in the the molecular structures
of all of those those molecules and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
They say, really, really really beautiful results come from it. Man,
And I gotta tell you it ain't a lie. By
the way, it's not a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
If you thought that was good, we got Spain Argentina
in the final that bro.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Let me tell you something, brother, I'm trying to decide.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
I'm like debating with myself because you know, I've been
a really good dude.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Man, I've been a really really, really really good dude.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
And in my mind, I'm just trying to decide where
I'm going to watch that game and who with who.
I almost feel like you and I need to.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Go to to.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
What's the spot because I still haven't been there yet,
And if I get invited by.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
You, then it's a legal out.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
You know, the spot that Cowherd always loves going to
with the screens and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Oh, Cosm, cosm. I think it would be a long
shot we could get in there for that game. It's
probably alay sold. Well, go look up tickets for you too,
right now, it's probably already sold.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Hey, by the way, the other thing on tickets, you know,
it's hilarious. So this game yesterday was in Atlanta, and
it's a really nice gesture that, you know, Arthur Blank
wanted to keep the concession prices at a reasonable price.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
You know, it's awesome. Probably kicking hisself in the ass though, now.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah, I mean, but you know he's looking at it going, hey, look,
you know, I'm proud of the fact that, you know,
if somebody wants a bag of funions it's only two
twenty five, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
The problem is the tickets were three grand to get in, Okay,
So I'm sorry, man, Well.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
He don't get them. He doesn't get that money. I know.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
But it's like if I'm paying three grand to get
into a game, like it's kind of insulting that you
would charge me, you know, two dollars for a bag
of rolled golds, like I don't need. I would rather
pay full price and just wear it all the way through.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
They probably Arthur Blank is probably like, look, I got
my money.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Up front, so I'm cool.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Like I'm not knowing nobody of his his acumen is
going to sacrifice their bottom line, Like you could go
play that's that stuff somewhere else. But he got his money.
He made his money off the top. So to sit
there and act as though he was doing the people
a favor by not raising the prices, it's a little
(14:27):
bit misleading. It's just a tad bit misleading man. In fact,
in fact, you know what I would do, Jonas, because
that might have become more of a storyline.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I'm overstocking. I'm stock.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
If I did three hundred bags of this, I'm doing
six hundred bags of it.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
And what I would have charged you for one.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
I'm making it with two, and you're gonna buy the
two because you thought you got over because you got
the ticket for the price that you did and didn't
have to pay his money much as you had to
pay for the products on the inside. So, Arthur Blank,
I take my hat off to you, and I salute you, sir,
for brilliant marketing or whoever it is that told you
(15:12):
for brilliant strategy and planning for sympathy and apathetic buying.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Good for you. Hey, honey, why the target repode?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I don't know, but never mind that, because I just
got myself a corn dog and some Jugi fruits for
two point fifty and a soccer games.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I got me a corn dog. Here's what you do.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Here's what you do when the prices are too hot
and you had to get the too high priced ticket
to get in there. You share the corn dog, and
you share the drink, and you share the other snacks
that you got. You share them. You know what you
do when you do sympathetic. I'm happy that it's affordable.
This is so amazing. You not only got yourself a
(15:55):
corn dog, you rewarded your girl friend and your wife
with one as well, with mustard and ketchup on it.
Condiments were free, and I got you a cold one
to wash it down with, and I got you something
sweet to eat after you were finished.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
And oh, by the way, by the way, one was
just not enough.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
So that one that we were going to share because
we couldn't afford it, which you still can't afford it,
because that that third one that you bought made it
worth while for him. The lower the price he got
you y'all got a third one to share just in
case somebody's still hungry after the first corn dog that
(16:42):
you took.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
We paid sixty five hundred dollars for Nosebleeds to watch
England urinate on themselves. But don't worry about it, everybody,
because we were we didn't have to sneak in that
box of Mike and ikes. Arthur Blank was charging ninety
nine cents for it.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
At the stage. There you go, what are we talking about?
There you go?
Speaker 4 (16:58):
So nonsent, my guy. It was still going to be
it was still going to be some. So the prices
was going to be the prices, the uh.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
The ticket prices I've seen early on for the World
Cup final. Man crazy like over seven grand like. So look,
if you got it, go for it, man, enjoy it,
experience it. Who knows when the World Cup's going to
be back here, but I would I would take the
LeVar approach. I'd go someplace that's got great scenery by
(17:27):
the beach.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
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(18:05):
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Speaker 2 (18:12):
I was speaking of money and money being involved in
a conversation here. This became official yesterday. George Pickens is
going to play the twenty twenty sixth season on his
twenty seven point three million dollar franchise Tag. So the
deadline for Tag players do agree to long term contracts
(18:34):
was yesterday at four Eastern time. The deadline pass. So
George Pickens is going to be playing on the Tag
this upcoming season, and I think that people should start
to come to terms with the idea that there's a
real good chance. And if I were betting on this
right now currently, I would bet this direction. George Pickens
(18:57):
is not a cowboy after the upcoming season. I think
that Dallas brought him in. I think they paid a
hefty price to do so. This was very similar to
the Amari Cooper trade years ago when they traded away
a first round pick to Amari Cooper. Once you gave
up that capital, it was almost a foregone conclusion you
were going to get him a long term deal, which
they did. I think they looked at George Pickens. He
(19:20):
produced last year, for the most part, behaved. There was
that curfew issue that took place in Vegas. For the
most part, there was some other fines that were assessed
that came out. But George Pickens, I think played nice.
I think he'll play nice. Now he's going to get
his twenty seven million dollars, which is a nice little paycheck.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
For one year of service.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
And I think he's probably going to be elsewhere next
year because I can't imagine Dallas looks at this and
says we're going to pay and make our top three
highest paid players, our quarterback and two wide receivers.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
It does if they want to win. You figure it
out if you want to if you want to win,
and they do spend money on their offensive players. But again,
I think this one goes back to the conversation and
the idea of allowing your conduct, as you mentioned behavior.
I think it's always strange when another adult has to
(20:18):
reference another adult by using that terminology. It just doesn't
sit right with me. You know, if you've done, if
you've done things that requires people when they're talking about
you to say, oh and think about this.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Right.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
The amount of money that he's making makes it even
more egregious to have to have the conversation when someone
who is going to make twenty seven million dollars is
talked about in a way where, well, he would make more,
he would have a longer term contract, he would be
more stable. In fact, he would still be in Pittsburgh
(21:00):
if he just behaved himself. His behavior is the reason
why he's making twenty seven million dollars. Sounds weird, man,
it sounds weird. And that's point in time that es
has got to stop. When you're a professional, be a professional.
(21:22):
Whatever it is you had to do to get to
being a college player, that's hard, super hard. The odds
are stacked against you. Then you make it to being
a college player, it's it's hard to make it to
the league, and the odds are even more stacked against you.
The numbers dropped off traumatically. I mean just an astronomical
(21:45):
number of what the numbers of participation from high school
to college is. And nonetheless the amount of pressure and
the how hard it is difficult you name it to
make it from college and to the pros. I mean again,
they say you're more you're more likely to win the
(22:05):
lottery than you are to make it into the NFL draft.
You make it into the NFL, and you make a
name for yourself, you establish yourself as an elite football player.
The idea that you can't control your personal urges that
(22:27):
generate drama and generate trouble you can't stay away from that.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Is beyond me.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
It is beyond me, and people blame it on Oh
as fatherless homes probably does play a part in it. Oh,
you got guys that don't know how to be men
to being raised by their moms.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Maybe that's what it is.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
I don't think that you can totally just get lost
on the idea that acting out is based off of
anything other than you don't possess the self awareness, the
(23:11):
self confidence, the self control to make sure that you
do something as simple as get up, get out of
the house, be on time. Let's just start there and
don't say you didn't. Don't say I never was taught that,
(23:32):
I never learned it. You made it through high school,
then you made it through college, and now you're in
the league. For a guy to be on a franchise
tag because of his air quotes behavior, it's just time
out for that man. It's time out for that. If
(23:52):
you're able to make it into a profession where you're
and you've performed.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
At the level where you can get a tag.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
You could get a contract and pay a compensation of
twenty seven million for one year. I have twenty seven
million reasons why you can get up. You could be
on time, You could be a good teammate, twenty seven million,
even if you don't want to. I don't always want
(24:20):
to get up at one am. I don't always want
to leave my house by two am. I don't always
want to crack this, Yeah I do. I do always
want to crack the microphone. Actually, even if I didn't,
and I don't make anywhere near I don't make anywhere
near the lowest part.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Of his contract with what I do.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
I just don't understand why my behavior would cause me
the ability to do what I do, let alone, if
I were playing ball and I'm getting twenty seven million dollars.
So there's that, jonas the idea that we have to
have the converation with a person that makes more than
you and I probably I don't know, probably five four
(25:08):
times more than what we do combined, and yet we're
sitting here and we had to have a conversation about
this person and his behavior.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
What kind of wow man.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Well, if you actually look at it in totality, it's wild.
It's also wild the fact that he probably feels fortunate
that he's got the tag coming up and he's getting
paid what he's getting paid, because yeah, man.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Look Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
It's not like Pittsburgh misses on wide receivers they decide
to part with. It's not like if you want to
go back to Antonio Brown or Mike Wallace or Claypool's
another one, the fact that they walked away from him,
that they kept everything in house, and then you started
to hear reports and rumblings after the fact about you know,
his tardiness and his issues with the team. The fact
(25:59):
that they were ready to walk away from a guy
with that much talent was pretty telling. And I wonder
because I kind of get the vibe from the way
that George Pickens has talked about it, because there was
some conversation that well, you know, they'll place the tag
on him, maybe they'll trade him.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Maybe he would be a guy that would get dealt.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
And Dallas has been very adamant about this this entire time. No,
we plan on keeping him. We're not interested in talking
long term deal. He'll play on the tag off he
plays for US this year, and George Pickens seems like
he's pretty open to that as well too. And I
wonder if part of his thought is maybe it clicked.
Hey man, I'm lucky I've got this. Maybe I don't
(26:38):
have the long term, multiple year deal that I was
looking for, but the fact that I've got this with
an opportunity to prove it at twenty seven million dollars
this upcoming year. If he can't figure it out at
this point, I'm with, I.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Don't know what at that I gotta know what.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
You do from that point moving forward, because then then
you're scrammed to find one year prove it deals.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Again.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
This is a golden opportunity with a team that once
you involved in the offense, makes you involved in the offense.
Is one of the teams in the NFL, most covered
team in the NFL. This is an opportunity for him
to strike it rich literally on a twenty seven million
dollar deal moving forward. If he can't figure it out, now, dude,
(27:25):
it's over. Like you got to call it.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
It's over. I just said.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
But it happens more often than it should, is all
I'm saying. And and again, twenty seven million dollars. God
bless like take a good long heart. Look at you
by the way. In Texas, by the way, yeah yeah,
yeah yeah, lower cost of living. The state taxes there
(27:51):
there are none, I don't believe, right, no, no state.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah. Listen.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
All I would say is outside of there being a
mental diegnosis where you were clinically diagnosed with having something
that plays a part and why you could be like
self destructive. I cannot impress upon it enough the idea
(28:17):
of first being humble enough to be a professional, but
then being being actually entry level smart enough to be
to be a professional. And in this scenario, I think
(28:38):
he did well.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Last year.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
He was quiet there. There wasn't any real reports. I mean,
there were a couple conversations, but nothing that I remember
or recall of real significance. Just just do your job,
how about that? If you humble yourself. So yesterday, and
it's interesting because this makes it timely. I know we're
(29:00):
up on a break, but I interviewed Pat Fitzgerald yesterday.
Great great interview, great conversation. And during the interview, you
know we were talking about you know, what made him,
you know, the player that he was. You know, he's
like the first player in the history of college football
(29:20):
to ever win the Benerican and the Girsky two times
in a row in back to back seasons.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Which is crazy. That is a crazy.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Accomplishment to be considered the best defensive player by two
different organizations of a prestigious award two years in a row,
back to back on a team where in theory they
should have been getting spanked by the Michigans, they should
have been getting spanked by the Ohio.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
States and the Penn States.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
And you know what, they didn't when he was there,
and it was his mindset that made him.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
The leader that he was.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
It was his approach that made him as successful as
he was, and that was infectious to your team. You
want to get out of being considered to be a
pariah or being a problem or anything like that, all
you have to do is bring a humbleness that allows
(30:17):
for you to work your ass off every day and
be grateful for the teammates that you have. And you
know what happens, Jonas, Then they become grateful to be
your teammate, and then they offer things to you that
make you better. And then there's this thing called value
value between teammates, which creates value in the culture, which
(30:39):
makes the culture better, the levels of accomplishment become better.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
And that outside of the obvious.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Because his talent says, pay them, that doesn't necessarily mean
you're going to get paid or awarded the contract that
you think you're going to get. But when you bring
a value to an organization, to the locker room, to
the community and the fans, they pay you, and they
(31:09):
pay you handsomely, and they're happy to pay you. And
that's the problem here. The problem is not his talent.
The problem is is that even with a twenty seven
million dollar opportunity for one year to prove it, the
problem is that he's on a twenty seven million dollar
(31:30):
contract to have to prove it because he has proven
otherwise that this is a trust factor. We don't trust you.
We're gonna pay you all this money. We're gonna compensate
you all this money. And even for the amount of
money that that is, there is a lack of trust
and buy in. And that's why we're not going to
(31:51):
make an investment in you. That doesn't go away. So
even if he does clean hisself up and doesn't do
anything and doesn't bringing the attention his way that doesn't
go away. And so the only thing you can do
is be that person every day. That's that's really all.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It comes down to.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
And look, you don't obviously dealing with negotiations, even if
he does play nice and performs well, because he was
great last year for Dallas, career year for him. Even
if he plays nice and performs well, when he does
enter free agency next year and he's having conversations with
teams him or his agent, you know they're going to
go back to his Pittsburgh years. You know they're going
to go back to the tardiness, They're going to go
(32:31):
back to all that stuff. So yeah, he's going to
carry this with him for a while. I just think
he's looking at this going and if he can't see
this now a man like feel fortunate that you've got
what you've got, because there's a lot of teams who
would have been like, no, man, we're good here, like
we're good, including the one that drafted you, the Pittsburgh
(32:51):
Steelers who walked away.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
So well, I'll say this, twenty seven million dollars for
doing some things that have been self destructive to yourself.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Is not a bad compensation, So.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Just do what you need to do. Walk your talk
and talk your walk and stay out of the way.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
No Brady Quinn, but we do have the great Albert Brier,
Senior NFL reporter, lead content strategist at the MMQB. You
can get them on x at Albetbrier and it is
a Thursday tradition each and every week.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
AB, good morning.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
Wow, LeVar is threatening violence this early in the morning.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
People believe that, you.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Know, I'm just having fun. Ab, you know what I mean.
That's the cool thing about talk radio. You could just talk,
you know, say anything.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
You can just threaten people physically and sorry, yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
You can just say anything. Yeah. I mean, you know,
albut you.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Know it's great, you know it's great.
Speaker 7 (34:00):
I don't know if you guys caught this.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
I caught a clip of British talk radio this morning
after what happened to the UH after what happened to
England yesterday, and.
Speaker 7 (34:12):
It was I'll send it.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
To you guys.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
It was fantastic. It was like Wip and Philly worthy.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
It was amazing because you know I was talking about
this earlier.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
They're one of those It's like, you know, for a
long time, the Cubs, the Knicks, just one of those franchises.
Look Albert, you know this is the Red Sox for
years until they finally won it. You're just waiting for
something bad to happen. And England's English soccer when they
get to this point, you're just assuming the worst, just
assuming it to something bad's gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
And that was bad.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
Oh yeah, I can't imagine.
Speaker 7 (34:48):
I mean, like if that was my team and.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
They had I think the last time they were even
in the finals was nineteen sixty six, right, It's been
that long, so like for them to even like to
be that close and like all you gotta do is
hang on for another ten minutes and for it to
fall apart like that, it's just I mean.
Speaker 7 (35:09):
I can't imagine what it would.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
Have been like to be rooting for that team yesterday.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I mean it's shoes or just being in a pub
in London and you had money on Argentina.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Oh god, oh you know what.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
I didn't even think about this. There are probably some great.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Oh no, great, what maybe one more time some great.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Life Well you just said like there's got to be
some great fight videos from like afterwards. It has to
be there fight videos out.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
There, like police cars out yesterday London, right, no, no,
in the streets of Rodondo, there were some people, there
were some people getting uh.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
I don't know the police officers.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
I think they were being a little lenient because of
what took place and probably again in the nature and
which one team loss. But they definitely looked like it
could have gone either way, like you can get detained
or you could stand down. But it looked like they
was getting a satation anyway. But yeah, man, it got
(36:16):
a little, it got a little fights. There was there
was cop cars, a few cop cars.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Albert.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
I did want to ask you this because we were
talking earlier about you know, Patrick Mahomes eyeing week one
as his return, talking to Yahoo's Sports and saying, look,
that's you know, that's the plan, and you know obviously
you know they're going to play it safe here. But
I think it was you when we had a conversation
a couple of months back where I asked, Hey, who's
more likely to return week one, Patrick Mahomes or Daniel Jones,
(36:44):
and you kind of, in so many words, said, well,
maybe both, because Daniel Jones feels.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Like he can do everything.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Patrick Mahomes, Like there's real optimism this is going to happen.
When when was the belief that and and and what
was the what gave them the impressed that maybe he
doesn't need to start the year on the pub.
Speaker 7 (37:02):
List with Mahomes are saying specifically.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yeah, Mahome specifically yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
I mean I think it's like he's been consistently way
ahead to the point where in the spring. I mean,
you know what happens with guys like this when they're
coming back from those sorts of injuries. A lot of
times you have to like sort of hold them back,
you know, because they feel good and they feel like
they're ready to go.
Speaker 7 (37:25):
And you know, I'm sure you.
Speaker 5 (37:27):
Experienced that LeVar at some point with an injury where
like you know, like it's okay, I'm making great progress
and I want to keep taking steps. And you know
I kind of got the idea, like I was talking
to some mean it was probably like middle of May,
and you know he's still Mahomes is still in whatever
five months off the injury at that point, and I said,
(37:49):
I asked, like, is he canna be able to do
everything in training camp? And the answer I got back
with interesting, it was based on where he is. Definitely,
like he'll be able to do everything, definitely, but like
we may have to be careful with him, just because
once you tell him go, he's going to go. And
so you know, we need to be smart about that
(38:11):
part of it and like being judicious about how, you know,
we handle this going forward, because you know, for us,
the priority is making sure that we have the best
version of him from September through February. You know, it's
not like, oh wow, how impressive was that in July?
(38:32):
It's how can we get there? So that's the balance.
I think.
Speaker 7 (38:35):
When I heard that, it's like, okay, Like.
Speaker 5 (38:37):
So you're now at the point where it's like like
he probably he probably a plan and game right now,
you know, but like you have to protect him against himself.
When you start to hear those things, you know it's
in a good place. And so, you know, I think
for a while now they felt like but he would
be you know, pretty whole physically, I mean, not all
(38:59):
the way there pretty whole physically for training camp, and
that would.
Speaker 7 (39:03):
Set the stage for him to be out there we're
going now, there are.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
Other stages to this sort of injury too, which you know,
like that part of it, it's you know, like kind
of getting used to it and getting used to having
bodies around your legs and getting in live action and
so you know, is is it going to be the
full version of my homes that we've gotten used to
watching over the last you know, eight years. That part,
(39:26):
I think is like a little bit more remains to
be seen because it's just everybody comes back off off
of this specific injury a little bit differently, but physically
he's in a really good spot.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
It'll be interesting to see from I was telling Jonas earlier.
Ab you know, I know DeMarco Murray, I know Sean
Barber very very well. Shan Barber is my former teammates,
super close buddy of mine, and they were telling me
how phenomenal he's moving and how phenomenal he looks, and
it just seems as though, you know, at the quarterback's
(39:59):
position that you know, you could potentially pull this off.
Now with that being said, he is a runner, so
what have the conversations been about that, Abe, Because the
one thing about like what you mentioned and you you
said that I may have experienced.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
I did.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
I did feel good coming back from a torn meniscus injury,
and I did go out there too early and I
did slip and bone bruise my knee and set myself back.
So that does really exist where you can set yourself
back by coming back a little bit too early in
this scenario, do you I think the biggest thing is
(40:39):
is how do you think they're handling or how you
think he feels about the idea of having to be
a less mobile quarterback based off of the idea of
what that could create in terms of danger for him.
Speaker 5 (40:53):
Well, it's interesting because I had this conversation with him,
you know, last last year because he was thirty, right,
and I remember like asking him, like, do you feel
like you know you've got to adjust.
Speaker 7 (41:06):
The way you play? And his answer was really interesting.
Speaker 5 (41:10):
He said, like I'm always working on that, you know,
and like his it's it's fascinating with him because like
if you look like his his the amount of times
he runs, the frequency of that it goes up in
the bigger games and he's really always been cognizant of that,
you know, and really smart about that, and like, I know,
(41:33):
you know the points of the year, the games where
I got to just kind of keep a governor on that,
and I know where there are the situations where I take.
Speaker 7 (41:43):
The governor off. And we've seen it in the playoffs, right,
Like he.
Speaker 5 (41:47):
Very clearly like is more aggressive as a runner in
the playoffs, which changes the dynamic a little bit for
everyone around him. So it's something like I think he's
always been cognizant of. I think it's something he's always
working on.
Speaker 7 (42:00):
And you know, the cool thing is, like I think as.
Speaker 5 (42:04):
As the years have gone on, you know, and he's
had a bunch of like lower leg injuries and there
was some concern over that too, but it's forced him
to think about these things. And so you know, I
always use Ben Roethlisberger as the example and the reason why.
You know, I remember when Todd Haley got there, and
that was in I think two thousand, I want to
say it was like two thousand and thirteen, maybe twenty twelve,
(42:27):
somewhere in there. But when Todd Haley got there as
the offensive coordinator for for Mike Tomlin. Basically, Haley's point
to Ben was, look like, you know, you're deeper into
your career. Now, just let us make this easier on you.
You know. And you got Antonio Brown, and you got
(42:48):
Mike Wallace, and you got Emmanuel Sanders. Let us take
that weight off of you. You don't need to be
superman all the time. And you know, Ben, I think
effectively almost created second phase of his career. And if
you look like he was putting himself at risk a
whole lot less, you know, over the back half of
his career. So I think that's something a lot of
(43:10):
quarterbacks I just have to consider. It's something I know
Josh Allen has.
Speaker 7 (43:13):
To consider now, you know.
Speaker 5 (43:16):
And I think the good news for for Chief Stands
and looking at this is that it's something that I
think Patrick has always been cognizant of, and I think
he'll be able to adjust that as he needs too
coming off the knee.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Albert Brier joining us here on Fox Sports Radio, senior
NFL reporter, lead content strategist.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
For the MMQ Beat and get him on x at.
Albert Breer.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
We were talking earlier about you know, Aaron Donald. He
works out at the team facility. There's all these rumors
and hints on social media. Is this a fore gone
conclusion that he's.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
Going to come back from people you've talked to.
Speaker 7 (43:51):
I don't know about that.
Speaker 5 (43:52):
I don't know about fore gone conclusion, but it does
feel like it's turning that way for sure, And I think,
like the the interesting part about this for me is
going to be like what the plan actually is?
Speaker 7 (44:03):
You know, And I've mentioned this a few different places now,
but like.
Speaker 5 (44:07):
I had a conversation with Eric Weddle about this a
couple of our last months. When the news first when
when when when when the mcaffee thing happened, and you know,
like the the news start news cycle started up on
the idea that Aaron Donald could come back after the
Miles Garrett.
Speaker 7 (44:24):
Trade, and you know, I thought, I think what was.
Speaker 5 (44:27):
Was really interesting about what Eric said to me was like,
you know, when he first came back and he had
been out for two years, right, so he comes back
to that playoff run and the idea was, Okay, I'm
gonna play in the nickel, but they weren't such dire
straits and safety that within a week he became a
full time player. And he told me a story about
Raheem and Sean coming over to him in a practice
(44:48):
and saying, okay, well you're full code now, right.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
He's like what?
Speaker 7 (44:51):
And then he wound up playing every snap in the
divisional round, you know, and he he.
Speaker 5 (44:56):
Wound up hurting his hamstring against the Niners in the
Championship game, tearing as pack against the Bengals in the
Super Bowl, and like easily feels still feel those injuries,
you know, five years later, and you know it's it's
just you know, I think the interesting thing about the
Donald situation that's different than that, right is, yes, you
(45:17):
have to consider all those things. But Wedell was there
in an emergency situation, and that's not what this is
for the Rams. Like if Donald is back, then you
know we're talking about they have Kelbe Turner.
Speaker 7 (45:29):
They have Braydon Fisk, they have Puna.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
Ford, they have Ty Hamilton, and they drafted last year,
like they have real depth to detackle, so they don't
have to play him sixty or seventy plays a snaps
the game the way they did with Weddell during that
Super Bowl run. So like, okay, if you can come
in and you can manage it that way, that could
be a real nightmare for offenses who have to block
(45:54):
all those big men and then all of a sudden,
third down, here comes Aaron Donald, you know, you know.
And then I think there's the other piece of it,
which is like, what's the best plan? Is the best
plan to put him through a full training camp and
you know.
Speaker 7 (46:09):
Then you get to the you know, you get to
the regular.
Speaker 5 (46:12):
Season and you're playing him on a limited basis? Is
the best plan to have like a wink wink deal
and you sign him in October and then you ramp
them up and you have them for a Super Bowl run.
I think that's probably the most interesting piece now is
how they formulate that plan.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
Abe talk to me. We were talking about Pickens earlier
and him being on the franchise tag, them keeping him
on on the tag. Now, you can't negotiate or redo
or sign a long term extension during regular season once
that tag is signed, so he's going to have to.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Go through the entire year.
Speaker 4 (46:56):
I believe that whole situation takes place next next offseason.
But you can, however, make sure that that player knows
that you have every intentions of extending them or creating
a new contract for that player. Jonas seems to think
(47:16):
this is it. It's a one and done for Pickens.
I'm not certain of that. I think he was quiet
enough last year as a Dallas cowboyn And honestly, if
we're being honest, earlier part of the year, he was
the best receiver on the team, maybe the best receiver
in all of pro football. In the conversation now kind
of tailed off at the end, But how do you
(47:39):
see this situation kind of developing in Dallas with Pickens?
Speaker 7 (47:45):
Yeah, I think the best way to describe this is, like,
you know, I think it's kind.
Speaker 3 (47:51):
Of that was great.
Speaker 7 (47:53):
We want to see more, you know, And like Pickens'.
Speaker 5 (47:57):
History was checkered enough Georgia that helped the contribute him
following in the draft. Talent as he is, I don't
think anybody ever questioned his talent.
Speaker 7 (48:07):
And then, you know, after three.
Speaker 5 (48:09):
Years, when Mike Tomlin gives up on a guy for
character reasons, like that's always been like a red flag
for me, you know, like when he was willing to
walk away from Antonio Brown or Mike Wallace or Le'Veon Bell,
Like when he's willing to walk away.
Speaker 7 (48:24):
From a guy like he's as good at managing.
Speaker 5 (48:27):
Personalities as anybody I've ever seen, you know, and being
able to allowing the personnel department to cast a wide
net because he can handle people. And so when when
the Steelers with Mike, when Mike Tomlin was the coach,
come to a decision that, yeah, that's it, that's a
pretty serious red flag.
Speaker 7 (48:47):
So you have all that history there, you.
Speaker 5 (48:49):
Know, and then he comes in and he's arguably the
second or third best receiver in all of football last year, right,
like I think, maybe behind of the guys last year,
maybe behind Chase and JSN and pukin Nakula. He's somewhere
in there and did a great job. When when when
when Ceedee Lamb was hurt and so and he was
(49:12):
he was a good citizen.
Speaker 7 (49:13):
Too, So, like I think, as much as anything.
Speaker 5 (49:16):
Else, it's like before we commit the truly big money.
Speaker 7 (49:19):
To you, we need to see it again, you know.
Speaker 5 (49:23):
And the franchise tag effectively allowed them to do that. Now,
the flip side is.
Speaker 7 (49:28):
That, like you know, it's going to be more expensive
to tag him.
Speaker 5 (49:30):
Again next year if you want to do that. And
then if you tag him again next year, then he's
got a ton of leverage on the negotiation for a
long term deal. If you don't tag him and he
walks straight in the arrow and has another year like
he had, well then he's a you know, going to
be a.
Speaker 7 (49:44):
Very very expensive free agent.
Speaker 5 (49:46):
So no matter how you slice this, there's great opportunity
there for George Pickens.
Speaker 7 (49:52):
But I mean, I think you know, he also made
his bed just as.
Speaker 5 (49:56):
Far as you know the reasons why they're not signing
him to a long.
Speaker 7 (49:59):
Term deal on that.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Albert Breer, before I let you go, is this sort
of the and I don't know, maybe last weekend was,
but is this the final weekend of quote unquote freedom
for you before you start the training camp, tours and
all that.
Speaker 7 (50:14):
Yeah, yeah, so I'll be I'll be going out west.
Speaker 5 (50:19):
I think I think it gonna be a flight on
a flight to seeat all week and Sunday. So whenever
that is, we're geared up and ready to go. It's
hard to believe it's here.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
But yeah, that.
Speaker 7 (50:29):
Means six six months of I mean, I'm not climbing.
Speaker 5 (50:32):
Up telephone poles or digging ditches here, don't get me wrong,
but like that's six six months of no more real
weekends so yeah, I'm ready to roll.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
So how do you how do you map out your
training camp tour? Like who does that? Who's who's in.
Speaker 3 (50:46):
Charge of me? So you do it like you do
it all yourself.
Speaker 5 (50:51):
Yeah, So I like this week for example, so I
decide where I'm going to start, right like, so sometimes.
Speaker 7 (50:56):
I'll start in the Midwest, sometimes I'll start in the South.
Speaker 5 (50:59):
This year, I'm starting on the coast, and usually that
will depend on like, you know, okay, like where do
I want to be to begin? And Seattle made sense
this year.
Speaker 7 (51:07):
The team just got sold. They obviously it's one championship.
So and then I kind.
Speaker 5 (51:13):
Of work out from there.
Speaker 7 (51:14):
So it'll you know, I'll start in Seattle, and then
you know, I'll hit all.
Speaker 5 (51:19):
The teams that are west of you know, and that's
like I guess the two western time zones right like
in the Pacific or.
Speaker 7 (51:28):
The Mountain time zones, and then and then kind.
Speaker 5 (51:30):
Of work east from there. So what I'm trying to
do now the next two days is schedule that out.
And where it gets tricky is because they have all
these mandated days off.
Speaker 7 (51:40):
Now you kind of have.
Speaker 5 (51:42):
To work around where teams are off, you know, So
that can be a little tricky too, just as far
as like going from city to city, and it's it's
actually like more complicated when I'm in the Midwest because
I'm driving from city to city because those.
Speaker 7 (51:57):
Cities are all, you know, three four hour hours.
Speaker 5 (52:00):
Apart, so it's much easier to drive because there are
no direct flights from those plays, you know, in those
in those areas. So yeah, it's complicated, but you know,
I'm looking forward to it, and then you know, once
you get home from it, you feel like you're really
ready for the season, which is great, awesome.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
Well, ab, thanks so much as always, man, we will
do it again next week.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
You can get them on x at.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
Albert Breer, Senior NFL reporter of Lead Content Strategies at
the m MQB. And we didn't want to ask you
your thoughts. We know you are heartbroken to hear all
the all the stuff going on at Michigan with Ward
Manual maybe being out.
Speaker 7 (52:33):
So yeah, something happening today is like there's some sort
of meeting.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
Today or something. I think so, but it feels like
I was done.
Speaker 7 (52:42):
I was done to hear that there was knowledge of of.
Speaker 5 (52:44):
Of the situation going back before last November.
Speaker 7 (52:47):
That was really surprising. I thought they I you know,
I've been I've been.
Speaker 5 (52:52):
Led to believe over the years that the integrity in
that place was beyond approach.
Speaker 7 (52:58):
It's very, very very surprising.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
That there we go, so Albert Brier that.
Speaker 7 (53:07):
That I'm just asking questions for I.
Speaker 3 (53:10):
Got you asking for a friend. Yeah, it's a question. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
So before you got to Seattle, stopped off at ann
Arbor there and just unloaded and then now yeah, AB
always appreciate it, man, Thank you, all right, Thanks guys,
This is the best of two pros and a couple
(00:04):
Joe with Labar airings and Rady Winn and Jonas Knox
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Obviously, we've over the past couple of days been doing
something on the show where with the World Cup semi finals,
we decided, why don't we make a pick that has
nothing to do with soccer all right, based on the country,
and it could be anything from the quality of the food,
what sort of booze they're into, who's got the hottest fans.
(00:35):
It just it was a real in depth if you're
a big soccer aficionado, if you're one of these people
that's just groveling over soccer twenty four to seven, definitely
not the segment for you. But we LaVar and myself
have now gone to and zero. Okay, that's the type
of in depth analysis and professional broadcasting analysis that.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
You get on this show.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Because we had Spain in the first matchup against France
and then we had Argentina yesterday against England and LaVar
we are two and oh sitting pretty here as we
get ready for the World Cup final.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Hey, it was a lot of energy. I'll tell you that.
It was kind of crazy bro, but hey, I watched.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I didn't watch it, yeah, I mean, because there were
so many people and I was on the beach.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I did watch, but I couldn't find any energy off
of it. I mean, I watched it is what it is.
I mean, I know what I'm watching, but I don't know.
I don't know it. I don't know, I mean, and
I don't think I ever will.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So so well, let me ask you, now, what is
this scene like by the beach, because I know, listen
to my brother jam Pack.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yeah, like people love it, man, Like, I.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Mean, it's it's funny because everyone knows what's going on,
so people aren't panicking when you hear the excessive screaming
where the whole entire beach is screaming, like that's crazy.
(02:17):
Like you're driving and this isn't just yesterday, but you're
driving while the games are going on. I was driving
one time while won the matches were going on, and
you just hear screaming as I'm driving. I can hear
the screaming going all the way down the street as
I'm driving.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's house house, house, house, house.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
House, apartment, apartment, whatever, and it's just screaming going all
the way down.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's just it's wild.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Man.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
I didn't realize there was such a craze. I really didn't.
It's uh. That's the one thing that has been pretty noticeable.
The people have been like, you know what, why don't
we just all get together and watch this game. You know,
have a couple of cock.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's the middle of the week, it's a Mattine game,
and let's just get after it a little bit. I
think that's been like, if anything, for anybody that's worried about,
you know, the future of US soccer, I'm not. I
couldn't care less. Like, there's not a lot of things
I care less about than the future of US soccer. Sorry,
if that's insulting to anybody, Like, that's not my problem.
This is something that pops up every four years. I'll
(03:23):
deal with it in four years. I don't need to
deal with it now. But for anybody that's worried about
the future of US soccer, I would say this, yes,
nowhere close to being the best team on the pitch,
if you will, this entire tournament, But as far as
the celebratory atmosphere, the US should be proud of themselves.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Man.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
For anybody that's had a cocktail and licked a lid
or been on the liver loop during one of these
matches over the past month or whatever it's been.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
You ought to take a bow.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
You ought to be proud of yourself because you have
represented yourself nicely.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
All right.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
The Scottish fans blew into and put everybody on notice.
They set the tone. They went into Boston, they drank
that city dry, and all of a sudden, everybody listen,
woke up and realize, you know what, we got to
step up our game, like, we cannot let the Scots
roll in here and just do what they want to
do and then go back to Glasgow and talk about
(04:18):
how soft we are.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
We have showed up.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
We have shown out to the point to where you
got people on the beach on a beautiful day in
the middle of summer that are celebrating a soccer game
with a bunch of guys whose names they probably can't pronounce,
and that says something, Hey, you.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Know what's crazy about what you just said? I was
asking people where were they from? And most of them
were local. Most of them were local, So all this
he everybody's taking over. And there were some some like
different languages being spoken, and maybe it was just maybe
the coincidence was I only asked Americans. You may maybe
(05:00):
that's the potential of it, but I mean there was
just every every once, like you know, you move around,
you'd be like, hey, where are you from? You know,
because you're seeing who's rooting for who? And I didn't
hear their accent or if they even spoke English before
I asked them.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
They were just it was.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Just random, and they were all from them. In fact,
they were all local. They were all local.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Okay, Now what was the split of people cheering for
England or Argentina yesterday?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
If you had to probably more Argentine Argentina.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Oh interesting, yeah, because I feel like the Brits are
going to be at a pub more Inland, the Argentinans
are probably going to be Argentina.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I was at a rebel, rebel republic.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
I would assume at a rebel republic it would be
more well than maybe not. Then again, when you think
about maybe not, maybe not, here is more Argentina fans.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, and this look, this makes me, this probably makes
me sound like an a hole. And before I let
you know that, because I do want to get this
done and get this going here. But before we do that,
I want to let you know that for the ones
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Speaker 4 (06:24):
Hey, while you're using Granger, you're you're you're clicking and
doing all that at like a parking space. Think about
what what truck you're in, what vehicle you're in while
you're doing it? You know what I mean, Jonas, and listen,
I respect to pick up that's built to do the
job without making a fuss. And that's the niss On Frontier.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
That's right. Why you're calling Granger.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Make sure you're in a truck that's built for the
weekends because it earned it during the week You dig
what I'm saying, Load it up, get that tailgate going.
You do it in that twenty twenty six Nissan front
toob Yeah all right.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So I don't know if this makes me sound bad,
but there's something I call the sports morgue. And you know,
there's these certain organizations, these teams, these fan bases that
are used to failure that in the midst of it
happening again. It's just got this quiet eerie Oh my god,
(07:25):
we're gonna we're about to experience this again. And I
only say this growing up a Cubs fan, because you
just knew, hey, this is awesome and all. They're not
gonna win like this is like, it's just they're called
the lovable losers for a reason.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
They're never gonna win. Just accept it.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
You've seen people come and go in life and never
see that team win. They finally did in twenty sixteen,
which nobody believed. And then they tried to screw that
up like that. That Game seven was a disaster. That's
a whole nother story for a whole nother day. But
so I grew up understanding the idea of what a
sports morgue looks like and these and you know, there's
other franchises that go through it. The Nicks went through
(08:06):
it for a long time, all right, so that they
broke that, you know, a trend in tradition recently, Like
you can just name the franchise the Browns. The Browns
Browns are another one for anybody that is not familiar
with the Browns. The ernest Byner fumble the drive by
John Elway, like there's just there's all sorts of stuff
that has gone on with the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
They even left the city entirely and then won.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Super Bowls like there's night yes, just you know, hey,
we gotta go man.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
We got a sweet new city with a cool name,
and we're gonna go off and we're gonna win.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
A couple of Super Bowls while you guys are still
dragging you and you know what's around looking trying to
find a quarterback like it did.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
The whole the whole thing's a mess, like the original Mayflower,
you know what I mean. Like, let me make Baltimore
landed on the Ravens man, the Ravens didn't land well,
actually they the Ravens did land on Baltimore. These shots
on the art.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
There's these teams and these organizations that have to go
through this, and when they get close, there's this feeling
of how are we gonna screw this up? And it
turns into a morgue and you can feel the vibe
in the stadium. You can feel like you just know
it's happening. And the soccer version of that is England.
(09:23):
I would have done anything to be at a pub
in downtown London yesterday while they were proceeding to defecate.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Down their lege. Oh wow, you talk about a gag job.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
They had the game dead to write, it's over, eighty
fourth minute whatever it was, they give up the equalizer
and then six you're probably figuring yourself, Hey, let's get
it to extra time. Let's gather ourselves. Six minutes later,
game deuces God, and they got to sit around and
(09:57):
look at each other, going, this is happening again. And
I don't know what that says about me. I find
enjoyment in that. I'm sorry, I think it's hilarious.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
I really do.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Like I said, my daughter had beach volleyball lessons yesterday,
so we're watching the match and it was what it was,
and that was an exhilarating finish, as you mentioned, crazy, crazy, exciting.
But what was even more interesting was the way the beach.
It was so interesting that I told the story about
(10:31):
being in Barcelona, Spain and seeing the things that I
saw on that beach. Now, while I did not see
as much of the people you know that were on
the beach in Spain, and yesterday they were on the
beach and let me tell you something. You could tell
(10:53):
they were from somewhere from Argentina or it was South America,
and it was not even close. It is what I'll
tell you. I've never seen Manhattan Beach look like that ever.
For meting out that Argentinian food, I guess, I guess
(11:18):
whoa oh yeah they look And I was there with
Trish Bruh and it was like even Chrish was like, damn, damn, damn.
That beach was popping yay, b I mean popped out.
(11:39):
I can I can imagine, uh.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
You know, the all the way popped out.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Hey, listen, you get that close to the solar system
and you got to take a peek.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Say, I mean it's photo synthesis, you know when when
the sun gets all up in the the molecular structures
of all of those those molecules and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
They say, really, really really beautiful results come from it. Man,
And I gotta tell you it ain't a lie. By
the way, it's not a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
If you thought that was good, we got Spain Argentina
in the final that bro.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Let me tell you something, brother, I'm trying to decide.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
I'm like debating with myself because you know, I've been
a really good dude.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Man, I've been a really really, really really good dude.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
And in my mind, I'm just trying to decide where
I'm going to watch that game and who with who.
I almost feel like you and I need to.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Go to to.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
What's the spot because I still haven't been there yet,
And if I get invited by.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
You, then it's a legal out.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
You know, the spot that Cowherd always loves going to
with the screens and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Oh, Cosm, cosm. I think it would be a long
shot we could get in there for that game. It's
probably alay sold. Well, go look up tickets for you too,
right now, it's probably already sold.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Hey, by the way, the other thing on tickets, you know,
it's hilarious. So this game yesterday was in Atlanta, and
it's a really nice gesture that, you know, Arthur Blank
wanted to keep the concession prices at a reasonable price.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
You know, it's awesome. Probably kicking hisself in the ass though, now.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yeah, I mean, but you know he's looking at it going, hey, look,
you know, I'm proud of the fact that, you know,
if somebody wants a bag of funions it's only two
twenty five, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
The problem is the tickets were three grand to get in, Okay,
So I'm sorry, man, Well.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
He don't get them. He doesn't get that money. I know.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
But it's like if I'm paying three grand to get
into a game, like it's kind of insulting that you
would charge me, you know, two dollars for a bag
of rolled golds, like I don't need. I would rather
pay full price and just wear it all the way through.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
They probably Arthur Blank is probably like, look, I got
my money.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Up front, so I'm cool.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Like I'm not knowing nobody of his his acumen is
going to sacrifice their bottom line, Like you could go
play that's that stuff somewhere else. But he got his money.
He made his money off the top. So to sit
there and act as though he was doing the people
a favor by not raising the prices, it's a little
(14:27):
bit misleading. It's just a tad bit misleading man. In fact,
in fact, you know what I would do, Jonas, because
that might have become more of a storyline.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I'm overstocking. I'm stock.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
If I did three hundred bags of this, I'm doing
six hundred bags of it.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
And what I would have charged you for one.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
I'm making it with two, and you're gonna buy the
two because you thought you got over because you got
the ticket for the price that you did and didn't
have to pay his money much as you had to
pay for the products on the inside. So, Arthur Blank,
I take my hat off to you, and I salute you, sir,
for brilliant marketing or whoever it is that told you
(15:12):
for brilliant strategy and planning for sympathy and apathetic buying.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Good for you. Hey, honey, why the target repode?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I don't know, but never mind that, because I just
got myself a corn dog and some Jugi fruits for
two point fifty and a soccer games.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I got me a corn dog. Here's what you do.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Here's what you do when the prices are too hot
and you had to get the too high priced ticket
to get in there. You share the corn dog, and
you share the drink, and you share the other snacks
that you got. You share them. You know what you
do when you do sympathetic. I'm happy that it's affordable.
This is so amazing. You not only got yourself a
(15:55):
corn dog, you rewarded your girl friend and your wife
with one as well, with mustard and ketchup on it.
Condiments were free, and I got you a cold one
to wash it down with, and I got you something
sweet to eat after you were finished.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
And oh, by the way, by the way, one was
just not enough.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
So that one that we were going to share because
we couldn't afford it, which you still can't afford it,
because that that third one that you bought made it
worth while for him. The lower the price he got
you y'all got a third one to share just in
case somebody's still hungry after the first corn dog that
(16:42):
you took.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
We paid sixty five hundred dollars for Nosebleeds to watch
England urinate on themselves. But don't worry about it, everybody,
because we were we didn't have to sneak in that
box of Mike and ikes. Arthur Blank was charging ninety
nine cents for it.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
At the stage. There you go, what are we talking about?
There you go?
Speaker 4 (16:58):
So nonsent, my guy. It was still going to be
it was still going to be some. So the prices
was going to be the prices, the uh.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
The ticket prices I've seen early on for the World
Cup final. Man crazy like over seven grand like. So look,
if you got it, go for it, man, enjoy it,
experience it. Who knows when the World Cup's going to
be back here, but I would I would take the
LeVar approach. I'd go someplace that's got great scenery by
(17:27):
the beach.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (17:42):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller.
Would mean a lot to have you join us on
our weekly auditory journey. You're asking what in God's name
is the Fifth Hour, I'll tell you it's a spin
off of it. Ben Maler show a Colt hit overnights
on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if you will
a world will We chat with captains of industry in media, sports,
and more every week explore some amazing facts about human
(18:05):
nature and more. Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben
Matther or the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you
get your podcast now.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I was speaking of money and money being involved in
a conversation here. This became official yesterday. George Pickens is
going to play the twenty twenty sixth season on his
twenty seven point three million dollar franchise Tag. So the
deadline for Tag players do agree to long term contracts
(18:34):
was yesterday at four Eastern time. The deadline pass. So
George Pickens is going to be playing on the Tag
this upcoming season, and I think that people should start
to come to terms with the idea that there's a
real good chance. And if I were betting on this
right now currently, I would bet this direction. George Pickens
(18:57):
is not a cowboy after the upcoming season. I think
that Dallas brought him in. I think they paid a
hefty price to do so. This was very similar to
the Amari Cooper trade years ago when they traded away
a first round pick to Amari Cooper. Once you gave
up that capital, it was almost a foregone conclusion you
were going to get him a long term deal, which
they did. I think they looked at George Pickens. He
(19:20):
produced last year, for the most part, behaved. There was
that curfew issue that took place in Vegas. For the
most part, there was some other fines that were assessed
that came out. But George Pickens, I think played nice.
I think he'll play nice. Now he's going to get
his twenty seven million dollars, which is a nice little paycheck.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
For one year of service.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
And I think he's probably going to be elsewhere next
year because I can't imagine Dallas looks at this and
says we're going to pay and make our top three
highest paid players, our quarterback and two wide receivers.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
It does if they want to win. You figure it
out if you want to if you want to win,
and they do spend money on their offensive players. But again,
I think this one goes back to the conversation and
the idea of allowing your conduct, as you mentioned behavior.
I think it's always strange when another adult has to
(20:18):
reference another adult by using that terminology. It just doesn't
sit right with me. You know, if you've done, if
you've done things that requires people when they're talking about
you to say, oh and think about this.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Right.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
The amount of money that he's making makes it even
more egregious to have to have the conversation when someone
who is going to make twenty seven million dollars is
talked about in a way where, well, he would make more,
he would have a longer term contract, he would be
more stable. In fact, he would still be in Pittsburgh
(21:00):
if he just behaved himself. His behavior is the reason
why he's making twenty seven million dollars. Sounds weird, man,
it sounds weird. And that's point in time that es
has got to stop. When you're a professional, be a professional.
(21:22):
Whatever it is you had to do to get to
being a college player, that's hard, super hard. The odds
are stacked against you. Then you make it to being
a college player, it's it's hard to make it to
the league, and the odds are even more stacked against you.
The numbers dropped off traumatically. I mean just an astronomical
(21:45):
number of what the numbers of participation from high school
to college is. And nonetheless the amount of pressure and
the how hard it is difficult you name it to
make it from college and to the pros. I mean again,
they say you're more you're more likely to win the
(22:05):
lottery than you are to make it into the NFL draft.
You make it into the NFL, and you make a
name for yourself, you establish yourself as an elite football player.
The idea that you can't control your personal urges that
(22:27):
generate drama and generate trouble you can't stay away from that.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Is beyond me.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
It is beyond me, and people blame it on Oh
as fatherless homes probably does play a part in it. Oh,
you got guys that don't know how to be men
to being raised by their moms.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Maybe that's what it is.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
I don't think that you can totally just get lost
on the idea that acting out is based off of
anything other than you don't possess the self awareness, the
(23:11):
self confidence, the self control to make sure that you
do something as simple as get up, get out of
the house, be on time. Let's just start there and
don't say you didn't. Don't say I never was taught that,
(23:32):
I never learned it. You made it through high school,
then you made it through college, and now you're in
the league. For a guy to be on a franchise
tag because of his air quotes behavior, it's just time
out for that man. It's time out for that. If
(23:52):
you're able to make it into a profession where you're
and you've performed.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
At the level where you can get a tag.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
You could get a contract and pay a compensation of
twenty seven million for one year. I have twenty seven
million reasons why you can get up. You could be
on time, You could be a good teammate, twenty seven million,
even if you don't want to. I don't always want
(24:20):
to get up at one am. I don't always want
to leave my house by two am. I don't always
want to crack this, Yeah I do. I do always
want to crack the microphone. Actually, even if I didn't,
and I don't make anywhere near I don't make anywhere
near the lowest part.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Of his contract with what I do.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
I just don't understand why my behavior would cause me
the ability to do what I do, let alone, if
I were playing ball and I'm getting twenty seven million dollars.
So there's that, jonas the idea that we have to
have the converation with a person that makes more than
you and I probably I don't know, probably five four
(25:08):
times more than what we do combined, and yet we're
sitting here and we had to have a conversation about
this person and his behavior.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
What kind of wow man.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Well, if you actually look at it in totality, it's wild.
It's also wild the fact that he probably feels fortunate
that he's got the tag coming up and he's getting
paid what he's getting paid, because yeah, man.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Look Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
It's not like Pittsburgh misses on wide receivers they decide
to part with. It's not like if you want to
go back to Antonio Brown or Mike Wallace or Claypool's
another one, the fact that they walked away from him,
that they kept everything in house, and then you started
to hear reports and rumblings after the fact about you know,
his tardiness and his issues with the team. The fact
(25:59):
that they were ready to walk away from a guy
with that much talent was pretty telling. And I wonder
because I kind of get the vibe from the way
that George Pickens has talked about it, because there was
some conversation that well, you know, they'll place the tag
on him, maybe they'll trade him.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Maybe he would be a guy that would get dealt.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
And Dallas has been very adamant about this this entire time. No,
we plan on keeping him. We're not interested in talking
long term deal. He'll play on the tag off he
plays for US this year, and George Pickens seems like
he's pretty open to that as well too. And I
wonder if part of his thought is maybe it clicked.
Hey man, I'm lucky I've got this. Maybe I don't
(26:38):
have the long term, multiple year deal that I was
looking for, but the fact that I've got this with
an opportunity to prove it at twenty seven million dollars
this upcoming year. If he can't figure it out at
this point, I'm with, I.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Don't know what at that I gotta know what.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
You do from that point moving forward, because then then
you're scrammed to find one year prove it deals.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Again.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
This is a golden opportunity with a team that once
you involved in the offense, makes you involved in the offense.
Is one of the teams in the NFL, most covered
team in the NFL. This is an opportunity for him
to strike it rich literally on a twenty seven million
dollar deal moving forward. If he can't figure it out, now, dude,
(27:25):
it's over. Like you got to call it.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
It's over. I just said.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
But it happens more often than it should, is all
I'm saying. And and again, twenty seven million dollars. God
bless like take a good long heart. Look at you
by the way. In Texas, by the way, yeah yeah,
yeah yeah, lower cost of living. The state taxes there
(27:51):
there are none, I don't believe, right, no, no state.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah. Listen.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
All I would say is outside of there being a
mental diegnosis where you were clinically diagnosed with having something
that plays a part and why you could be like
self destructive. I cannot impress upon it enough the idea
(28:17):
of first being humble enough to be a professional, but
then being being actually entry level smart enough to be
to be a professional. And in this scenario, I think
(28:38):
he did well.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Last year.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
He was quiet there. There wasn't any real reports. I mean,
there were a couple conversations, but nothing that I remember
or recall of real significance. Just just do your job,
how about that? If you humble yourself. So yesterday, and
it's interesting because this makes it timely. I know we're
(29:00):
up on a break, but I interviewed Pat Fitzgerald yesterday.
Great great interview, great conversation. And during the interview, you
know we were talking about you know, what made him,
you know, the player that he was. You know, he's
like the first player in the history of college football
(29:20):
to ever win the Benerican and the Girsky two times
in a row in back to back seasons.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Which is crazy. That is a crazy.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Accomplishment to be considered the best defensive player by two
different organizations of a prestigious award two years in a row,
back to back on a team where in theory they
should have been getting spanked by the Michigans, they should
have been getting spanked by the Ohio.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
States and the Penn States.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
And you know what, they didn't when he was there,
and it was his mindset that made him.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
The leader that he was.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
It was his approach that made him as successful as
he was, and that was infectious to your team. You
want to get out of being considered to be a
pariah or being a problem or anything like that, all
you have to do is bring a humbleness that allows
(30:17):
for you to work your ass off every day and
be grateful for the teammates that you have. And you
know what happens, Jonas, Then they become grateful to be
your teammate, and then they offer things to you that
make you better. And then there's this thing called value
value between teammates, which creates value in the culture, which
(30:39):
makes the culture better, the levels of accomplishment become better.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
And that outside of the obvious.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Because his talent says, pay them, that doesn't necessarily mean
you're going to get paid or awarded the contract that
you think you're going to get. But when you bring
a value to an organization, to the locker room, to
the community and the fans, they pay you, and they
(31:09):
pay you handsomely, and they're happy to pay you. And
that's the problem here. The problem is not his talent.
The problem is is that even with a twenty seven
million dollar opportunity for one year to prove it, the
problem is that he's on a twenty seven million dollar
(31:30):
contract to have to prove it because he has proven
otherwise that this is a trust factor. We don't trust you.
We're gonna pay you all this money. We're gonna compensate
you all this money. And even for the amount of
money that that is, there is a lack of trust
and buy in. And that's why we're not going to
(31:51):
make an investment in you. That doesn't go away. So
even if he does clean hisself up and doesn't do
anything and doesn't bringing the attention his way that doesn't
go away. And so the only thing you can do
is be that person every day. That's that's really all.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
It comes down to.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
And look, you don't obviously dealing with negotiations, even if
he does play nice and performs well, because he was
great last year for Dallas, career year for him. Even
if he plays nice and performs well, when he does
enter free agency next year and he's having conversations with
teams him or his agent, you know they're going to
go back to his Pittsburgh years. You know they're going
to go back to the tardiness, They're going to go
(32:31):
back to all that stuff. So yeah, he's going to
carry this with him for a while. I just think
he's looking at this going and if he can't see
this now a man like feel fortunate that you've got
what you've got, because there's a lot of teams who
would have been like, no, man, we're good here, like
we're good, including the one that drafted you, the Pittsburgh
(32:51):
Steelers who walked away.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
So well, I'll say this, twenty seven million dollars for
doing some things that have been self destructive to yourself.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Is not a bad compensation, So.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Just do what you need to do. Walk your talk
and talk your walk and stay out of the way.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
No Brady Quinn, but we do have the great Albert Brier,
Senior NFL reporter, lead content strategist at the MMQB. You
can get them on x at Albetbrier and it is
a Thursday tradition each and every week.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
AB, good morning.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
Wow, LeVar is threatening violence this early in the morning.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
People believe that, you.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Know, I'm just having fun. Ab, you know what I mean.
That's the cool thing about talk radio. You could just talk,
you know, say anything.
Speaker 5 (33:52):
You can just threaten people physically and sorry, yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
You can just say anything. Yeah. I mean, you know,
albut you.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Know it's great, you know it's great.
Speaker 7 (34:00):
I don't know if you guys caught this.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
I caught a clip of British talk radio this morning
after what happened to the UH after what happened to
England yesterday, and.
Speaker 7 (34:12):
It was I'll send it.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
To you guys.
Speaker 5 (34:14):
It was fantastic. It was like Wip and Philly worthy.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
It was amazing because you know I was talking about
this earlier.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
They're one of those It's like, you know, for a
long time, the Cubs, the Knicks, just one of those franchises.
Look Albert, you know this is the Red Sox for
years until they finally won it. You're just waiting for
something bad to happen. And England's English soccer when they
get to this point, you're just assuming the worst, just
assuming it to something bad's gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
And that was bad.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
Oh yeah, I can't imagine.
Speaker 7 (34:48):
I mean, like if that was my team and.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
They had I think the last time they were even
in the finals was nineteen sixty six, right, It's been
that long, so like for them to even like to
be that close and like all you gotta do is
hang on for another ten minutes and for it to
fall apart like that, it's just I mean.
Speaker 7 (35:09):
I can't imagine what it would.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
Have been like to be rooting for that team yesterday.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I mean it's shoes or just being in a pub
in London and you had money on Argentina.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Oh god, oh you know what.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
I didn't even think about this. There are probably some great.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Oh no, great, what maybe one more time some great.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Life Well you just said like there's got to be
some great fight videos from like afterwards. It has to
be there fight videos out.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
There, like police cars out yesterday London, right, no, no,
in the streets of Rodondo, there were some people, there
were some people getting uh.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
I don't know the police officers.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
I think they were being a little lenient because of
what took place and probably again in the nature and
which one team loss. But they definitely looked like it
could have gone either way, like you can get detained
or you could stand down. But it looked like they
was getting a satation anyway. But yeah, man, it got
(36:16):
a little, it got a little fights. There was there
was cop cars, a few cop cars.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Albert.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
I did want to ask you this because we were
talking earlier about you know, Patrick Mahomes eyeing week one
as his return, talking to Yahoo's Sports and saying, look,
that's you know, that's the plan, and you know obviously
you know they're going to play it safe here. But
I think it was you when we had a conversation
a couple of months back where I asked, Hey, who's
more likely to return week one, Patrick Mahomes or Daniel Jones,
(36:44):
and you kind of, in so many words, said, well,
maybe both, because Daniel Jones feels.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Like he can do everything.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Patrick Mahomes, Like there's real optimism this is going to happen.
When when was the belief that and and and what
was the what gave them the impressed that maybe he
doesn't need to start the year on the pub.
Speaker 7 (37:02):
List with Mahomes are saying specifically.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yeah, Mahome specifically yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
I mean I think it's like he's been consistently way
ahead to the point where in the spring. I mean,
you know what happens with guys like this when they're
coming back from those sorts of injuries. A lot of
times you have to like sort of hold them back,
you know, because they feel good and they feel like
they're ready to go.
Speaker 7 (37:25):
And you know, I'm sure you.
Speaker 5 (37:27):
Experienced that LeVar at some point with an injury where
like you know, like it's okay, I'm making great progress
and I want to keep taking steps. And you know
I kind of got the idea, like I was talking
to some mean it was probably like middle of May,
and you know he's still Mahomes is still in whatever
five months off the injury at that point, and I said,
(37:49):
I asked, like, is he canna be able to do
everything in training camp? And the answer I got back
with interesting, it was based on where he is. Definitely,
like he'll be able to do everything, definitely, but like
we may have to be careful with him, just because
once you tell him go, he's going to go. And
so you know, we need to be smart about that
(38:11):
part of it and like being judicious about how, you know,
we handle this going forward, because you know, for us,
the priority is making sure that we have the best
version of him from September through February. You know, it's
not like, oh wow, how impressive was that in July?
(38:32):
It's how can we get there? So that's the balance.
I think.
Speaker 7 (38:35):
When I heard that, it's like, okay, Like.
Speaker 5 (38:37):
So you're now at the point where it's like like
he probably he probably a plan and game right now,
you know, but like you have to protect him against himself.
When you start to hear those things, you know it's
in a good place. And so, you know, I think
for a while now they felt like but he would
be you know, pretty whole physically, I mean, not all
(38:59):
the way there pretty whole physically for training camp, and
that would.
Speaker 7 (39:03):
Set the stage for him to be out there we're
going now, there are.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
Other stages to this sort of injury too, which you know,
like that part of it, it's you know, like kind
of getting used to it and getting used to having
bodies around your legs and getting in live action and
so you know, is is it going to be the
full version of my homes that we've gotten used to
watching over the last you know, eight years. That part,
(39:26):
I think is like a little bit more remains to
be seen because it's just everybody comes back off off
of this specific injury a little bit differently, but physically
he's in a really good spot.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
It'll be interesting to see from I was telling Jonas earlier.
Ab you know, I know DeMarco Murray, I know Sean
Barber very very well. Shan Barber is my former teammates,
super close buddy of mine, and they were telling me
how phenomenal he's moving and how phenomenal he looks, and
it just seems as though, you know, at the quarterback's
(39:59):
position that you know, you could potentially pull this off.
Now with that being said, he is a runner, so
what have the conversations been about that, Abe, Because the
one thing about like what you mentioned and you you
said that I may have experienced.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
I did.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
I did feel good coming back from a torn meniscus injury,
and I did go out there too early and I
did slip and bone bruise my knee and set myself back.
So that does really exist where you can set yourself
back by coming back a little bit too early in
this scenario, do you I think the biggest thing is
(40:39):
is how do you think they're handling or how you
think he feels about the idea of having to be
a less mobile quarterback based off of the idea of
what that could create in terms of danger for him.
Speaker 5 (40:53):
Well, it's interesting because I had this conversation with him,
you know, last last year because he was thirty, right,
and I remember like asking him, like, do you feel
like you know you've got to adjust.
Speaker 7 (41:06):
The way you play? And his answer was really interesting.
Speaker 5 (41:10):
He said, like I'm always working on that, you know,
and like his it's it's fascinating with him because like
if you look like his his the amount of times
he runs, the frequency of that it goes up in
the bigger games and he's really always been cognizant of that,
you know, and really smart about that, and like, I know,
(41:33):
you know the points of the year, the games where
I got to just kind of keep a governor on that,
and I know where there are the situations where I take.
Speaker 7 (41:43):
The governor off. And we've seen it in the playoffs, right,
Like he.
Speaker 5 (41:47):
Very clearly like is more aggressive as a runner in
the playoffs, which changes the dynamic a little bit for
everyone around him. So it's something like I think he's
always been cognizant of. I think it's something he's always
working on.
Speaker 7 (42:00):
And you know, the cool thing is, like I think as.
Speaker 5 (42:04):
As the years have gone on, you know, and he's
had a bunch of like lower leg injuries and there
was some concern over that too, but it's forced him
to think about these things. And so you know, I
always use Ben Roethlisberger as the example and the reason why.
You know, I remember when Todd Haley got there, and
that was in I think two thousand, I want to
say it was like two thousand and thirteen, maybe twenty twelve,
(42:27):
somewhere in there. But when Todd Haley got there as
the offensive coordinator for for Mike Tomlin. Basically, Haley's point
to Ben was, look like, you know, you're deeper into
your career. Now, just let us make this easier on you.
You know. And you got Antonio Brown, and you got
(42:48):
Mike Wallace, and you got Emmanuel Sanders. Let us take
that weight off of you. You don't need to be
superman all the time. And you know, Ben, I think
effectively almost created second phase of his career. And if
you look like he was putting himself at risk a
whole lot less, you know, over the back half of
his career. So I think that's something a lot of
(43:10):
quarterbacks I just have to consider. It's something I know
Josh Allen has.
Speaker 7 (43:13):
To consider now, you know.
Speaker 5 (43:16):
And I think the good news for for Chief Stands
and looking at this is that it's something that I
think Patrick has always been cognizant of, and I think
he'll be able to adjust that as he needs too
coming off the knee.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Albert Brier joining us here on Fox Sports Radio, senior
NFL reporter, lead content strategist.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
For the MMQ Beat and get him on x at.
Albert Breer.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
We were talking earlier about you know, Aaron Donald. He
works out at the team facility. There's all these rumors
and hints on social media. Is this a fore gone
conclusion that he's.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
Going to come back from people you've talked to.
Speaker 7 (43:51):
I don't know about that.
Speaker 5 (43:52):
I don't know about fore gone conclusion, but it does
feel like it's turning that way for sure, And I think,
like the the interesting part about this for me is
going to be like what the plan actually is?
Speaker 7 (44:03):
You know, And I've mentioned this a few different places now,
but like.
Speaker 5 (44:07):
I had a conversation with Eric Weddle about this a
couple of our last months. When the news first when
when when when when the mcaffee thing happened, and you know,
like the the news start news cycle started up on
the idea that Aaron Donald could come back after the
Miles Garrett.
Speaker 7 (44:24):
Trade, and you know, I thought, I think what was.
Speaker 5 (44:27):
Was really interesting about what Eric said to me was like,
you know, when he first came back and he had
been out for two years, right, so he comes back
to that playoff run and the idea was, Okay, I'm
gonna play in the nickel, but they weren't such dire
straits and safety that within a week he became a
full time player. And he told me a story about
Raheem and Sean coming over to him in a practice
(44:48):
and saying, okay, well you're full code now, right.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
He's like what?
Speaker 7 (44:51):
And then he wound up playing every snap in the
divisional round, you know, and he he.
Speaker 5 (44:56):
Wound up hurting his hamstring against the Niners in the
Championship game, tearing as pack against the Bengals in the
Super Bowl, and like easily feels still feel those injuries,
you know, five years later, and you know it's it's
just you know, I think the interesting thing about the
Donald situation that's different than that, right is, yes, you
(45:17):
have to consider all those things. But Wedell was there
in an emergency situation, and that's not what this is
for the Rams. Like if Donald is back, then you
know we're talking about they have Kelbe Turner.
Speaker 7 (45:29):
They have Braydon Fisk, they have Puna.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
Ford, they have Ty Hamilton, and they drafted last year,
like they have real depth to detackle, so they don't
have to play him sixty or seventy plays a snaps
the game the way they did with Weddell during that
Super Bowl run. So like, okay, if you can come
in and you can manage it that way, that could
be a real nightmare for offenses who have to block
(45:54):
all those big men and then all of a sudden,
third down, here comes Aaron Donald, you know, you know.
And then I think there's the other piece of it,
which is like, what's the best plan? Is the best
plan to put him through a full training camp and
you know.
Speaker 7 (46:09):
Then you get to the you know, you get to
the regular.
Speaker 5 (46:12):
Season and you're playing him on a limited basis? Is
the best plan to have like a wink wink deal
and you sign him in October and then you ramp
them up and you have them for a Super Bowl run.
I think that's probably the most interesting piece now is
how they formulate that plan.
Speaker 4 (46:32):
Abe talk to me. We were talking about Pickens earlier
and him being on the franchise tag, them keeping him
on on the tag. Now, you can't negotiate or redo
or sign a long term extension during regular season once
that tag is signed, so he's going to have to.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Go through the entire year.
Speaker 4 (46:56):
I believe that whole situation takes place next next offseason.
But you can, however, make sure that that player knows
that you have every intentions of extending them or creating
a new contract for that player. Jonas seems to think
(47:16):
this is it. It's a one and done for Pickens.
I'm not certain of that. I think he was quiet
enough last year as a Dallas cowboyn And honestly, if
we're being honest, earlier part of the year, he was
the best receiver on the team, maybe the best receiver
in all of pro football. In the conversation now kind
of tailed off at the end, But how do you
(47:39):
see this situation kind of developing in Dallas with Pickens?
Speaker 7 (47:45):
Yeah, I think the best way to describe this is, like,
you know, I think it's kind.
Speaker 3 (47:51):
Of that was great.
Speaker 7 (47:53):
We want to see more, you know, And like Pickens'.
Speaker 5 (47:57):
History was checkered enough Georgia that helped the contribute him
following in the draft. Talent as he is, I don't
think anybody ever questioned his talent.
Speaker 7 (48:07):
And then, you know, after three.
Speaker 5 (48:09):
Years, when Mike Tomlin gives up on a guy for
character reasons, like that's always been like a red flag
for me, you know, like when he was willing to
walk away from Antonio Brown or Mike Wallace or Le'Veon Bell,
Like when he's willing to walk away.
Speaker 7 (48:24):
From a guy like he's as good at managing.
Speaker 5 (48:27):
Personalities as anybody I've ever seen, you know, and being
able to allowing the personnel department to cast a wide
net because he can handle people. And so when when
the Steelers with Mike, when Mike Tomlin was the coach,
come to a decision that, yeah, that's it, that's a
pretty serious red flag.
Speaker 7 (48:47):
So you have all that history there, you.
Speaker 5 (48:49):
Know, and then he comes in and he's arguably the
second or third best receiver in all of football last year, right,
like I think, maybe behind of the guys last year,
maybe behind Chase and JSN and pukin Nakula. He's somewhere
in there and did a great job. When when when
when Ceedee Lamb was hurt and so and he was
(49:12):
he was a good citizen.
Speaker 7 (49:13):
Too, So, like I think, as much as anything.
Speaker 5 (49:16):
Else, it's like before we commit the truly big money.
Speaker 7 (49:19):
To you, we need to see it again, you know.
Speaker 5 (49:23):
And the franchise tag effectively allowed them to do that. Now,
the flip side is.
Speaker 7 (49:28):
That, like you know, it's going to be more expensive
to tag him.
Speaker 5 (49:30):
Again next year if you want to do that. And
then if you tag him again next year, then he's
got a ton of leverage on the negotiation for a
long term deal. If you don't tag him and he
walks straight in the arrow and has another year like
he had, well then he's a you know, going to
be a.
Speaker 7 (49:44):
Very very expensive free agent.
Speaker 5 (49:46):
So no matter how you slice this, there's great opportunity
there for George Pickens.
Speaker 7 (49:52):
But I mean, I think you know, he also made
his bed just as.
Speaker 5 (49:56):
Far as you know the reasons why they're not signing
him to a long.
Speaker 7 (49:59):
Term deal on that.
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Albert Breer, before I let you go, is this sort
of the and I don't know, maybe last weekend was,
but is this the final weekend of quote unquote freedom
for you before you start the training camp, tours and
all that.
Speaker 7 (50:14):
Yeah, yeah, so I'll be I'll be going out west.
Speaker 5 (50:19):
I think I think it gonna be a flight on
a flight to seeat all week and Sunday. So whenever
that is, we're geared up and ready to go. It's
hard to believe it's here.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
But yeah, that.
Speaker 7 (50:29):
Means six six months of I mean, I'm not climbing.
Speaker 5 (50:32):
Up telephone poles or digging ditches here, don't get me wrong,
but like that's six six months of no more real
weekends so yeah, I'm ready to roll.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
So how do you how do you map out your
training camp tour? Like who does that? Who's who's in.
Speaker 3 (50:46):
Charge of me? So you do it like you do
it all yourself.
Speaker 5 (50:51):
Yeah, So I like this week for example, so I
decide where I'm going to start, right like, so sometimes.
Speaker 7 (50:56):
I'll start in the Midwest, sometimes I'll start in the South.
Speaker 5 (50:59):
This year, I'm starting on the coast, and usually that
will depend on like, you know, okay, like where do
I want to be to begin? And Seattle made sense
this year.
Speaker 7 (51:07):
The team just got sold. They obviously it's one championship.
So and then I kind.
Speaker 5 (51:13):
Of work out from there.
Speaker 7 (51:14):
So it'll you know, I'll start in Seattle, and then
you know, I'll hit all.
Speaker 5 (51:19):
The teams that are west of you know, and that's
like I guess the two western time zones right like
in the Pacific or.
Speaker 7 (51:28):
The Mountain time zones, and then and then kind.
Speaker 5 (51:30):
Of work east from there. So what I'm trying to
do now the next two days is schedule that out.
And where it gets tricky is because they have all
these mandated days off.
Speaker 7 (51:40):
Now you kind of have.
Speaker 5 (51:42):
To work around where teams are off, you know, So
that can be a little tricky too, just as far
as like going from city to city, and it's it's
actually like more complicated when I'm in the Midwest because
I'm driving from city to city because those.
Speaker 7 (51:57):
Cities are all, you know, three four hour hours.
Speaker 5 (52:00):
Apart, so it's much easier to drive because there are
no direct flights from those plays, you know, in those
in those areas. So yeah, it's complicated, but you know,
I'm looking forward to it, and then you know, once
you get home from it, you feel like you're really
ready for the season, which is great, awesome.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
Well, ab, thanks so much as always, man, we will
do it again next week.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
You can get them on x at.
Speaker 2 (52:22):
Albert Breer, Senior NFL reporter of Lead Content Strategies at
the m MQB. And we didn't want to ask you
your thoughts. We know you are heartbroken to hear all
the all the stuff going on at Michigan with Ward
Manual maybe being out.
Speaker 7 (52:33):
So yeah, something happening today is like there's some sort
of meeting.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
Today or something. I think so, but it feels like
I was done.
Speaker 7 (52:42):
I was done to hear that there was knowledge of of.
Speaker 5 (52:44):
Of the situation going back before last November.
Speaker 7 (52:47):
That was really surprising. I thought they I you know,
I've been I've been.
Speaker 5 (52:52):
Led to believe over the years that the integrity in
that place was beyond approach.
Speaker 7 (52:58):
It's very, very very surprising.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
That there we go, so Albert Brier that.
Speaker 7 (53:07):
That I'm just asking questions for I.
Speaker 3 (53:10):
Got you asking for a friend. Yeah, it's a question. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
So before you got to Seattle, stopped off at ann
Arbor there and just unloaded and then now yeah, AB
always appreciate it, man, Thank you, all right, Thanks guys,
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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