THE BEST OF

On a Monday edition of The Best Of The Doug Gottlieb Show: Dan and Monse discuss the Black Monday firings, specifically the Browns parting ways with Kevin Stefanski.

In this installment of Love AND Hate, Dan, Monse and the crew share what they loved most and hated most about the weekend.

Dan and Monse welcome former Chargers' GM Tom Telesco onto the show to talk about all of the firings around the NFL.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I wore black for a reason, Monzy. It's Black Friday
of the National Football League, and some head coaches learn
the hard way. We dive into that in so much more.
A Happy New Year to you. We could still say
it on January fifth.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Can we still say? I guess it is early, still right,
still in the first week. What's up everybody?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Do you think when Kevin Stefanski walked into Jimmy Haslam's
office to me, He's like, happy New Year.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Just to have a have you new year for me,
not so much for you.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Sit twenty twenty six not your year right now. Kevin
Stefanski one of the head coaches to lose their job today,
maybe the most notable. But as we look at the
landscape of the National Football League, it's this Cleveland Browns job, Monzi,
that rises to the level. Now we've had We've had

(01:00):
a variety of of oustings today. Isaac just ran down
some of them. So we had Jonathan Gannon in Arizona gone, okay,
Pete Carroll in Las Vegas.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Pig gone all right?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Uh, Kevin Stefanski.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
Haig gone.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
We had Raheem Morris last night, Brian day Ball earlier
in the season, Brian Callahan. I don't think made it
to week eight? Pig am I missing anyone? Isaac? Did
we miss anyone of our?

Speaker 6 (01:32):
Of our I think Tennessee, Yeah, Tennessee. That was the one.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
I was thinking, Yes, that was the That was the
last one. So that Sue's all gone. Right. Oh, the
question is now who is in in Cleveland? But before
we get to that, this was in the makings. Kevin
Stefanski's time in Cleveland is not just a one time,

(01:58):
one thing deal in it's not just should or Sanders,
but should or Sanders was the straw that broke the
camel's back. I truly feel it's a three strikes in
your out sort of deal. Aside from Miles Garrett getting
the sack record and having the Browns just not be
a good football team this year, I feel that there
were three key moments in Kevin Stefanski's six year tenure

(02:21):
that brought him to today, and the first one was
giving up on Baker Mayfield. I think that is a
really tough one to come back from considering Baker's success.
I know you're a big fan of the way that
Baker plays and the energy that he brings, and that
was actually one of the reasons why he was brought
into Cleveland. How the room responded even after a playoff

(02:42):
appearance with Baker Mayfield as you're starting quarterback. Kevin Stefanski
did not believe in Baker Mayfield and ushered his way
out of Cleveland. I think that was strike one. I
think strike two, fairly or unfairly, was that Deshaun Watson
was not the same quarterback after the scandal, after the
year sitting out, after all of his issues with the
Houston Texans coming to Cleveland, and just not being a

(03:05):
good quarterback. But the final strike three, right down, fastball
down the middle was ultimately how he handled this entire
Shador Sanders situation this season. I can remember on draft
Day looking at the shot of Kevin Stefanski and Andrew
Berry almost like they're being interrogated, sitting there with no

(03:25):
expression on their face, as the Browns just drafted shaud
Or Sanders in the fifth round, and we all said
had to be ownership. Ownership had to make that decision.
But then it was Shoudour not getting the reps, Shoudur
being put into a preseason game where he wasn't necessarily qualified,
seeing the other steps along the way, Dylan Gabriel's play,

(03:46):
Joe Flacco's play, and ultimately Shador's play that I think
was the ultimate reason that Kevin Stefanski lost his job.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Today, I don't disagree with you. I like how you
put it. It was the straw that broke the camel's back,
because yeah, it's hard to come back from the Baker
Mayfield although situation, although it was the best thing for
Baker Mayfield right like he needed to also get out
of that situation. And so it's like, Okay, bad for you,
but really good for Baker Mayfield. That Deshaun Watson bad
from top to bottom. All of that With Shador Sanders

(04:14):
from the beginning, it was just kind of like, Brown's
what are you doing? What exactly is your plan? I
really wish I could have been a fly on the
wall during those conversations, because sometimes I was wondering if
Kevin Stefanski himself throughout the season was just going through
the motions because he was upset with ownership, or was
he really in on it from the beginning, and then

(04:37):
he just didn't handle it well? Which one? You know
what I'm saying, Like, was he against it from the
beginning and kind of just going through the motions, or
was he in on this decision and then he did
not manage the entire season?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Right?

Speaker 3 (04:50):
I don't know what it is, but I thought when
I when they finally fired him, I don't think Kevin
Sevansky was surprised, if I'm being honest with you. He
saw how this season went back to back. He's being
last place right in the division. Aside from Miles Garrett,
as you mentioned, what have the Browns? What have you
done for me lately? Except people talk about us in
the most negative way possible. You needed to change, He

(05:10):
needed to change. I don't think he's surprised about it.
But all this says is that the Browns chose Shador
Sanders to move forward with. You could not keep them
together all season. The questions were, Shador, how do you
get along with Kevin? How do you get along with
your head coach? How are things with you and Kevin's
Every single time it was a question for Shador Sanders,
and he I thought handled them pretty well every single time.

(05:33):
He even would say, man, you guys are trying to
get me in trouble with these questions like that. People
were trying to stir the pot here. So you could
not continue with both, you could not. And so maybe
the Browns are like we are, we are going to
move forward with Shador Sanders give it. Give him the
number one, you know, the number one reps all season,
not just for a couple of weeks, and see what happens.

(05:53):
And Kevin Stefanski, thank you so much, Coach of the Year,
Thank you. Good luck somewhere else, ken I get it.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, Kevin Stefanski's resume isn't littered with success stories everywhere.
There are the case Keenum resurrection story with the Minnesota Vikings,
one of the reasons why Kevin Stefanski ended up being
where he was. But when you look at the failures,
and I would add a part C to your deal,

(06:19):
I don't think he was in on it. I think
that he on the drafting of Shador. I think that
he wanted to do his own way and his own thing.
I do believe he was probably in on the drafting
of Dylan Gabriel. And when you see how the two played.
Dylan Gabriel the one part that's not talked about a
lot is I think, well, we all know now it

(06:41):
was in extreme reach for Dylan Gabriel at that spot.
Even at the time of the drafts, some people were like,
Dylan Gabriel third, and then then while Shador' still on
the board, Dylan Gabriel went ahead of him. Dylan Gabriel
probably shouldn't have been a third round pick. And then
to have the plan that they had in Cleveland of
Gabriel being the backup when they let go and let
can he pick Itt leave and shipped him out of Cleveland.

(07:03):
The other factor in this, and it probably has nothing
to do with Chador, was Joe Flacco played better when
he was out of Cleveland.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
Yeah, like, is you forget about that? That this season
for such a weird sort of feeling. Joe Flacco in Cincinnati,
even though they win any football games, looked like the
quarterback with the Browns two years ago that led them
to the playoffs. So if he's coming in this year
and is not having the success and then he goes
to Cincinnati on a trade and immediately goes in and

(07:31):
beats the Steelers, and throws for like, you're wondering what
is going on here? Is it just the talent around? Sure,
it's nice to have Jamar Chase and t Higgins, But
I think that Joe Flacco's success in Cincinnati probably wasn't
a good thing for Kevin Stefanski of why is Joe
Flacco now the guy that he was? And ultimately it
does come down to Shador. You hit it one hundred

(07:51):
percent nail on the head, But I don't think if
he didn't jettison Baker. By the way, if he didn't
jennison Baker, they may never needed Shad or Sanders. They
wouldn't have needed Deshaun Watson. If they didn't do any
of those things with Baker, we wouldn't have gotten to
this point. But if it was only Shador, I think
didn't maybe do another season to try to work it out,
try to figure things out and realize their mistakes. But

(08:13):
there were just too many mistakes leading up to it,
and at your point, it just became a fork in
the road. Do you go Shador, do you go Stefanski?
And I think they chose Shador.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, And then especially like let's compare the Raiders this
season right. What was good for the Raiders.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
Not much, not much right right?

Speaker 3 (08:31):
So not much with Cleveland, they've been good defensively, Like
it's like sure, so it's like, oh, we only need
to fix this part. We only need to plug this
guy in here, and then we can balance out and
we can put some wins together. And it hasn't happened
when you've had a good defensive team for your entire
tenure there pretty much, you know what I'm saying, And

(08:52):
it has not. You have not been able to put
the other side together, and then you've let go of
quarterbacks or got rid of quarter who have had success elsewhere. Like,
it's not as much of a good coach as Stefanski
is because he's gonna get picked up really easily. I think.
I don't think he's gonna be.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Giants were thought to be.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
And I bet you there's more Raiders.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
I bet you there's more. He's not gonna be a
free agent for very long. But you needed you needed
a change because you were providing what I feel like
teams wish they had a defense, as we are seeing
in this season how important it is to have a
defense that can stop a bleed. They were doing it all.
They were doing it all season, they were doing it
all last year, and then Stefanski just could not get

(09:33):
the offense going. For whatever it is, I don't know.
So I get moving on and I think you've hit
it on the head with all of the reasons why.
Probably they decided to move.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
On because I think there's gonna be a group of
people that say Shaudor got Kevin Stefanski fired, and I
don't think that that's no. I don't, And I think
that there's a bunch of stuff leading up to it.
I think that Shador is a part of it. Andrew Berry,
the GM stays right right. So so for as bad
as the Dylan Gabriel draft pick, they did keep their
GM and felt like they needed a new voice with

(10:04):
their players. To question now, Jason Stewart's our executive producer,
is who is that new voice for the Cleveland Browns.
Mike McDaniel's name has been tossed about if Stefanski were
to leave and the Dolphins ended up making a move,
But it doesn't seem like the Dolphins are going to
make a move. So now it's who's next.

Speaker 7 (10:20):
I want to know this. I want to know how
much work right now is being done in the back
channels by Dion Sanders. Could the Browns hire Dion Sanders
and would that not be the biggest marketing win for
the very shortest term ever.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
It would be league altering. The Browns would be back,
Not like they weren't the team that we focused on,
but it felt like when everything was even bad with Cleveland,
we were always talking about what was going on with
the Brons. We still were with Shador. They would be
the team. They would have twelve primetime games next year

(10:56):
coming off of a five win season if Dion ended
up being the head coach. And for those that may
say that's ridiculous, that's crazy to hire Dion Sanders as
the Browns head coach. The Arizona Cardinals took quite the
leap of faith in bringing in Cliff Kingsbury as their
head coach after a tenure at Texas Tech that did

(11:19):
not scream NFL head coach availability. In fact, he was
USC's offensive coordinator for about a day before he became
the Arizona Cardinals head coach. So you don't have to
have the full qualifications and resume in college football to
make the leap to the NFL, and one of the
reasons why Cliff Kingsbury was able to go and make

(11:40):
the jump was of his offense, and then his offense
was able to draft Kyler Murray. So then those two,
with their relationship in the past, were able to work
together in Arizona. Well, who's got a better relationship with
Shaidhor Sanders than his dad. I don't think it's as

(12:00):
crazy as it may sound when Jason says that there's
some underground talks going on, because it actually would make
more sense than other head coaching higres we've seen in
the National Football League.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
I would not be surprised if the Browns decided to
do that because it would be an instant win for
ticket sales, marketing for all of that. Now, could they
actually win a game? Could they turn the season around?
I don't. I mean, I don't know. I don't know.
Deon Sanders to me is Deon Sanders, so he doesn't

(12:39):
even need to have a resume. I feel like he's
just gonna get the job because of his name. But
does Deon Sanders want that? Does he want that? I
feel like he likes being the guy in Colorado. Yes,
he's the guy. Yes, he's a god there.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Oh well, yes to some extent.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
But in that small you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yes, started to dwindle the last couple of years and
Colorado went one and eight in conference.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Right, No, no, the egg and so let's make them
an NFL coach.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
That's that's the crazy part about it. And that's why
I bring up Cliff Kingsbury's because somebody would say, like
Colorado won three games this past year, how is he
going to be a head coach. If there's anybody to
get the most out of Shador, it is probably Dion.
And Dion wouldn't have to mess with the defense. Just
paid Jim Schwartz a lot of money to stay as
your defensive coordinator. Right, isn't that the ultimate move? Dion

(13:30):
has his CEO role, Find an offensive coordinator that Deon
sees fit to work with Shador. Let the defense be
the defense. That's fine, just be on their side of
the thing. It's it's not as crazy a of a thought,
considering I think a lot of the eggs are in
the basket of Shador, and there's no guarantee Deshaan Watson
is going to be ready or the same quarterback and

(13:53):
I'd rather have a young Shador than an aging and
aching Deshaun Watson coming off of an achilles in for
my quarterback in twenty twenty, twenty twenty six, to see
what's ahead. Dean doesn't have to have the job for
three years. If it doesn't work next year or the
year after, move on, you know, get a get a
new quarterback if he's if he's awful next year. Pete

(14:14):
Carroll got fired after one season. But I do think
that the Browns would have to look at Dean Sanders
if you're truly trying to figure out a way to
max up, maximize it or Sanders, you.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Know, no, absolutely the thing that stopped me in my
truck in my tracks right now, right now you were talking,
I had a glitch when you were like the Shawn Watson,
what we're really entertaining that?

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Well, he was, he's Are they going to be paying him?

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Manzie, Listen, the Raiders are paying a bunch of guys
to not coach, so they could continue to pay him
to just not play, because are they really entertaining the
idea that Deshaun Watson can be your starting quarterback?

Speaker 2 (14:46):
I just got an email that said I can't believe
you would entertain DeShawn Watt. Did you send this email
to me as well? No, I think he's a part
of the plans. I think he is. I think he
has to be by default. It's truly by default, because
you don't have all the answers with Shador. He is
a veteran, that's there. You have two first round picks.

(15:06):
I don't think you're gonna use one on a quarterback.
You could make the team better, you can build the
team around it. But yeah, I think he's I think
he's definitely an option to playing twenty.

Speaker 7 (15:15):
Do you guys remember in the spring when I think
Jimmy has them gave an interview to the local paper
and he said about Deshaun Watson that it was a
big swing and miss. And I remember in the immediate
aftermath of that was that means Deshaun Watson's never put
in on a Browns uniform again. And then this entire
seasons to fans gain everybody else, we're entertaining questions about DeShawn.

(15:39):
You know, will he be practicing, will he be playing
by the end of the year. The whole thing just
doesn't add up. It was a big swing in the
miss by the owner back in the spring. But I
guess DeShawn were led to believe it's still in play
for the quarterback position.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh, I just I don't think it's an awful option
if Shador is your main guy, and to see Deshaun
Watson travel with the team and be available to the
team where he was basically behind the seat. We hadn't
seen anything during his rehab, but then he starts traveling
with the team and is on the sideline, tells me
that he's a bit more a part of the team

(16:12):
than maybe we had realized. And so now if he
comes back in a backup situation, I mean maybe should
or shouldn't be handed the job. Maybe he should be.
I don't know. But instead of going out and trying
to find someone else and paying the money that you
have for Deshaun Watson, why don't you just utilize them
and have him be the backup.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
I just think that's by default. Yeah, I think that's
that's probably the right way to put it. By default,
And it isn't a bad thing to have should do
or have some competition. You're right, You're right. I just
it's crazy that I feel like I'm in the upside down.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
I know it is. It is crazy. I don't know
if you're looking at the jobs, like the Raiders job
is the is the job where there the cupboards are empty,
the caroline or they excuse you. The Arizona job, it's
a mix. Like I thought they fought hard for Jonathan Gannon,
like they had running back injuries throughout the year, then

(17:08):
at the end of the season it just kind of
all just fell apart. I'm not sure that there's tons there.
It doesn't seem like Carler Murray's feature is in Arizona.
I don't know about Marvin Harrison's junior, Marvin Arison Junior's
future in Arizona. He's gotten off to a rough start
in his first two years, so I don't know if
that's really appealing. But when you have a defense like Cleveland, yeah, yeah,

(17:29):
I think that there there may be and you look
at that division, there may be more opportunities. But if
they really want to make Shaduur work, I think you
have to give Diana chance. Wow, she's Watty Belaio. So
I'm Dan Pyer. This is Fox Sports Radio. Jason Stewart's here,
Iowa Sam is here and Isaac Lohenkron.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Fox Sports Radio had the best sports talk lineup in
the nation yet. Catch all of our shows at Fox
Sports Radio dot Com and within the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
A happy Monday to you unless your are the head
coach of the Raiders, Cardinals, Browns, Falcons. We found out
last night. Tough day for some NFL head coaches, as
you heard from Isaac loh and cromb. But Manzi, we're
gonna power through.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
Oh yeah, We're gonna power it through. Sorry to those guys.
Pete Carroll's fine though, as I see him on my screen,
he's fine. I think he wanted out of there. He
was like, listen, if you don't fire me, I am
just gonna fire myself.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
This is how I look at Pete Carroll. Your job
was to go in there and win right away. Not
only did he do that, not only did he not
plan for the future, he left the place in a
worse spot than it was. So he was a no brainer. Yeah,
out the door.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
And with his history, it's like, like you said, we
wanted to change now right Like it's like you know
exactly who he is and what he brings to the
table and doesn't work.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
I the Raiders took a risk. I mean he was
when you removed from coaching in Seattle, you know, up
there in Age. I heard they may be interested in
Dick van Dyke as the next head coach. I assume
have you heard those you hear those ms? I was
trying to think of an old guy living in Yes, yeah,

(19:07):
a month ago, Happy birthday.

Speaker 7 (19:08):
It's the challenge, right, because you saying, Dick van Dyke,
you've already lost more than half our audience. I was thinking,
but I almost thinking George Burns, and that would have
really disconnected.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Oh he liked that one. You got him, You got him?

Speaker 2 (19:25):
There's Yeah, I liked it. It was very good, very
good because he's he's and he's been gone long enough
where it's we're not like like we're not being insensitive
to his passing. Right, he was one hundred for fifty years?

Speaker 4 (19:38):
Yeah, oh good line, very good. I don't even know
if he got to a hundred, but he was old
for a long time. Let's go to the statman, Isaac
Lohenkron George Burns, how old was he when he died?
In When did he die?

Speaker 6 (19:52):
Okay, he actually made it past a hundred. Okay, born
in January of eighteen ninety six, passed away in March
of nineteen ninety six. Well done, all right.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
So twenty years. What day in January in eighteen ninety six.

Speaker 6 (20:08):
January twentieth, so inauguration day. So I'm sure there was
a president inaugurated Andrew Jackson.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
I know it wasn't William McKinley. It's pretty close.

Speaker 6 (20:19):
No, you got it. Good old Billy McKinley.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Good job, good job, impress it.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
He didn't make it very long, poor William McKinley. Yeah,
left stage left a few years.

Speaker 6 (20:32):
I think he had a rough day at the train
station one day.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah. Yeah, well great, great knowledge there the Raiders. How
we got from Pete Carroll to President McKinley. It's what
we do here on Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 6 (20:45):
Even Dennis Miller is being like, wow, that's a lot,
even for me.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Well, we did hit the eighty five to one hundred
and five demographic, at least with our listening audience. Love
it or hate it, it's what we bring you on
a Monday.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
What did you love?

Speaker 5 (21:00):
God? I love you?

Speaker 1 (21:01):
And what did you hate?

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Meet these player hays. A couple of weeks. You can
hear a radio station. Say, and a happy birthday to
George Burns. It would have been one hundred and thirty today,
A very very happy birthday, all right, Jason Stewart, you
you are our you are our thoughtful skeptic here. Yes,

(21:24):
So when it comes to the love and hate, I'm
actually just going to have you lead off the first
love of twenty twenty six.

Speaker 7 (21:29):
Well, thank you, Dan. I haven't loved a sports story
like this in quite some time. I sent you you
and Masca text yesterday that you didn't respond to, But
that's no big deal. I was working, Yeah, that's fine.
I was openly rooting for Mitch Trubisky to not throw
an interception yesterday and finish the perfect season by the Jets,

(21:51):
and it happened, and I was so happy. Aaron Glenn,
to me, has been such an entertaining part of the season,
and it's looking like, if you're reading the tea, he's
going to keep his job. So that's good for us,
the people that work in sports talk content. It's good
that Aaron Glen's going to keep his job because remember
I O don't know eleven months ago, remember he provided

(22:12):
this at his opening press conference to any.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Players that's here.

Speaker 4 (22:15):
Now put your seat belts on and get ready for
the ride. Put your seatbeltszone and get ready for the ride.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Listen.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
There are going to be some challenges, but what challenges
becomes opportunity gets opportunity.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
But here's what I do know.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
We're the freaking New York Jets, so we're built.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
For the now.

Speaker 7 (22:29):
What the the listeners don't know is that I had
the editing department beep out the last part and what
he actually says is we aren't built for picks. We
aren't built for picks. By the way, courtesy to Sam
for dropping that one. I stole his line.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
I was trying to pretend.

Speaker 7 (22:49):
So anyways, my favorite story of the seasons has now
come full circle. I loved it. Thank you Aaron Gwen.
I love that from the weekend.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
I'd also like to say Jason wanted to me to
jump off the ship of Aaron Glenn staying next year.
He actually tried to bully me a few weeks ago
in trying to move off of that and he it
was close, honestly it was. But in the end, I said,
Aaron Glenn stays. And again, since the last time that
I checked the stat Both the Cowboys, Titans, and Niners

(23:21):
each added interceptions, so the gap was zero and then
the next worst was six interceptions in the NFL.

Speaker 7 (23:28):
How hard is it like, It's almost like you have
to try to not fall into Yeah, there was an
interception yesterday. I think that went off of an offensive lineman.
It just fell into the stomach of a defensive lineman.
There's no skill to that. It was just so strained.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Drake Thomas's interception of brock Perty on the Christian McCaffrey
play on Saturday night. By the way, it leads me
to my love, I did love it. I'm not going
over with the Seahawks win. I think that they just
as well could be bounced in the divisional playoffs, especially
if the Rams come to town. If the Rams end
up beating the Panthers and that's the matchup in the

(24:08):
second round of the playoffs. But there was something great
about seeing them go to San Francisco and take an
offense again. Brock Perty accounted for ten touchdowns in the
last two games. He had eight touchdown passes in two
rushing five in each of the games against the Colts
and the Bears. And I know they didn't have Trent Williams,
and that was a big part of it. Not lost
on me. But to see the defense just absolutely swarm

(24:31):
and take over and win in San Francisco and avenge
the loss from earlier in the season and to grab
the number one overall seed. As a Seahawks fan, it
was very, very satisfying on Saturday night. But again, it's
Kobe Bryant once told Ted Sobel, I'm sure to be
happy about job's not finished. When our boss texted me congratulations,

(24:55):
I had to use that meme. I said it yesterday
and it fell flat here, so I'm hoping that. But
I was happy on Saturday. But now there's other business.
But it was great to see the Seahawks top the Niners.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
No, they convincingly won. It should have been twenty eight
to three.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, and that's like the Seahawks offense. They ran the
ball better than they had in previous situations. But it
has been a Seahawk thing and one of the reasons
why I think people don't buy into them because they
should have been by twenty three to three. However, you
wanted to put a bunch of situations that they let
go through their grasp and in the playoffs, you can't

(25:33):
have those.

Speaker 7 (25:34):
Hopefully they can avoid them now. On Friday, we spent
some real estate. I forget if I think it was
during the coveno in Rich hours on the fact that
Dan turned down Rich Davis's invite to go watch the
game on Saturday night with a bunch of people, A
few of them will be rooting for the Niners. So
are you Are you very glad that you did not

(25:56):
join that party on Saturday night, that just sitting there
alone being able to watch every single play one.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
Hundred because it would have been frustrating, especially too, like
if the forty nine er fans were cheering in the
fourth quarter where they had momentum up until that interception,
and if they would have scored, Like I don't know,
if the Seahawks win that game, if it's thirteen to ten,
the offense hadn't been doing a ton, forty nine ers
had seemed to find their you know, found their rhythm.
The amazing thing about what Seattle did was when they

(26:24):
then got the football is they did have a drive
that went the entire length of the field to kind
of take the air out of everything. But I would
not have enjoyed it, I would not have enjoyed the
comeback forty nine or cheers. I am so glad I
was at home. And I think I've told you this.
My son loves the animals of the NFL. Like if
there's two teams playing, he's good cheer for the animal
over anything else. He's on this Rams kick and it

(26:45):
really ticks me off, and I'm trying to tell him
to not cheer for the Rams, but he also considers
it kind of a farm animal, which, all right, whatever,
he doesn't like the forty nine ers because I was
at least able to convince him yes, And then he goes,
if the Rams play the forty nine ers, do we
cheer for the Rams? And I'm like, sure, yes, okay,
it's technically sheep. I guess yes, yeah, yeah, right, yeah,

(27:06):
I'm not gonna fight. I haven't won an argument yet
in this four and a half years.

Speaker 6 (27:10):
On a related story with our Mancy Bolanos having being
snubbed from being invited to this get together, Camino and
Rich will be in at the top of the hour,
will there be a confrontation?

Speaker 3 (27:22):
They're dead to me, I'm not speaking to them.

Speaker 6 (27:23):
Yeah, I agree, yeah, like I didn't get invited. But
I'm actually not upset about that. I'm upset that they
did not invite.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
You as you should be. No, no, no, they're dead to me.
They're dead to me. I may trip them as I
see them walk by.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
Dan, you could have ultimately observed Rich observing his team
get the air squeezed out of him, which may have
been gratifying at the very end of it, maybe not fun.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Until that sounds really selfish, But I think every fan
should realize it. It's not about him. It's about me.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
Yeah, it was about me, It's true.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
And and that's what it was about.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
Your pleasure not richest pain, right, that's it?

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah? Here, absolutely my joy rather joy. Yeah, pleasure kind
of hit weird. Hit your ear weird too.

Speaker 4 (28:03):
Jason's trying to a pain for Yeah, I know, I know,
I know, I know where you're going.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
I totally get it. But it did I guess it did?

Speaker 5 (28:10):
It?

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Did? It? Is the keat on? Am I sweating? Love
and hate? Yeah? Why are the windows fogging up? What's
what's going on here? Sam? All right? Sorry? Matzi? What
did you love from the weekend?

Speaker 3 (28:19):
I'll keep it quick. Here what I loved about the
weekend is all the memes and gifts I saw of
Kurt Signetti after they beat Alabama, that video of him
walking up and down the inspection.

Speaker 4 (28:36):
Inspecting the car after your son used it for the night.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
But it's that's the best. That's a good one. But
all of those clever people, I wish I could have
thought of something clever. I'm like wondering, what could I say.
I'm doing, just like Kurt Signetti is up and down
so good inspection. I literally have been on social media
all weekend just to see what people are reposting with
that Kurt Signetti. Hilarious. Loved it, loved it. Keep pulling them.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
Out, guys again.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
I just love how college football was thought to be
built on the shoulders of all of these blue bloods,
if you will. And Indiana has become so much of
a story that I think they're now naturally becoming Manci's
college football team.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
Naturally.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
It's like starting to evolve, and it's truly one of
the best things that has happened to college football. And
is someone who is a fan of a school that
is a now rival of Indiana, I don't enjoy it
as much, but it's truly fascinating as a college football
fan to watch it to see how it's taken over,
honestly in such a positive way, like like we hate

(29:40):
transfer portal and people are celebrating, Hey, let who are
you landed on the transfer bort like you even know
they were three months ago. And it's completely taken over
college football in a good way.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
It really has. And Kurt Signetti and Fernana Mendoza that
people are saying, he's the old guy in up and
then the kid is Banano Mendoza and there's it's exactly
what they are, complete opposite, you know. The old guy
is always like grumpy and then the kid is in
the background like like.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
It's a good ying ying, so good y y whatever
it is. You balance the balance, the fung Schwei, the.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
The gun, Pat McAfee. It's just so it was great.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Loved it.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
I was sam, would you love from the weekend? Well?

Speaker 4 (30:23):
I do love bowling, Mancey Bolanos and uh I was
There's you know, I don't do enough bowling in LA.
I've gone bowling like twice in the last couple of years,
once with Ryan Berschinger who works here, and for his birthday.
But it takes a lot to coax me out of
my apartment when I'm under the weather a little bit.
I just was gonna have some dinner, watch the Holiday Bowl,
go to bed, get some rest. But Moncey calls me

(30:45):
up at like seven, and she's like, hey, coming this
Friday night. So this is this was weekend love here,
so it still counts. So she she calls me up
at like seven, and I'm like exhausted. I'm like, oh,
my voice is crap. You know, I just wanted to
go to sleep. She's like, We're going in his place
right down the street, right down Ventura Boulevard, and it's
really like a ten minute drive for me. So I'm like, oh, bowling,

(31:05):
I don't bowl enough here. And you know, it's just
she coaxed me out of my apartment even though I
was kind of under the weather. I wasn't it was
my uh it was my Michael Jordan a bowling flu game.
I don't know, just to at least get me out
there and get me going. So we went, and uh
it was it was a lot of fun. I love bowling,
and so the only not a lot of things can
get me out on Friday night if I'm under the weather.
But Monci calling me to go bowling. I yelled at him,

(31:28):
was like, we need you saw like crap today. Still, well,
I worked. I'm not gonna lie. It was like speed bowling.
I worked up a sweat. Yeah, and I'm kind of
embarrassed to admit that, but I was sweating because we
were going so fast and we bowled so much in
two hours.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
I don't know. I don't know if it's payback for
the non Caveno and Rich invite, but I think you're
even I don't think you guys have a reason to
be mad. You guys had your own bowling d.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
This was not planned at all.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
No, they never are.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
They never are. I was gonna go bowling with just
the boyfriend, and then when we booked two hours, we
were like, oh that's a long time.

Speaker 4 (32:00):
So you just go back and forth between two people.
We need like a group.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
The boyfriend I were at the bar drinking and then
we like booked a lane. I called him because he
lives down the street, and I called Brie because I
knew she was staying at a hotel down the street.
And I yelled at both of them to get out,
and I was like, I booked it in thirty minutes.
Get to the bar valley right now.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
I was pouring rain.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
I couldn't see the road, but I was like, okay,
I actually got here pretty quick. So I worked out
and then so I loved it. It was a great time.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah, not planning it worked out.

Speaker 7 (32:26):
By the way, A great way to not go back
to back sickness. When you're recovering from a cold, go
to the bowling alley right, use the holes that other
people were used, and then you won't get sick again.

Speaker 4 (32:39):
It's a perfect remedy. I was like, I've been dealing
with this chess cold for like a week. I've gone
to some of those German fested places in La Universal Studios. Yes,
German infested, so what German's there vacation But like I've
just like I've run the gamut of of the Petri dish.
So but you know what, we you got to live life.

(33:00):
So it was great time Friday night, all right, top that,
Isaac Low and crown with what you love from that?

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Isaac.

Speaker 6 (33:05):
I can't, There's there's no way. I just am kind
of contemplating in my mind some sort of Monsey bowl.
Lanio's endorsement deal for Bowling Alley. Yes, where you're come here,
come bowling wrong, kill you.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
That's literally with me on the phone. I didn't even give.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
I love it.

Speaker 6 (33:29):
Well, we'll have our marketing department get on that stat Yes,
you're right, I cannot compete. Uh, it's merely Miles Garrett
breaking the NFL all time sack record for the Cleveland
brown So much respect for him for breaking the record,
especially considering the relatively low amount of pass attempts by

(33:51):
the Browns opponents compared to other teams, which means that
he has a lot fewer opportunities than typical two the quarterback,
and the guy still broke the record. I would encourage everybody.
After the show on YouTube, they put together a couple
of videos on there the NFL of Miles garrett off
season conditioning routine and how he has a whole team

(34:14):
of specialists for every aspect of his training, nutrition, massage,
tissue recovery, et cetera, et cetera. They have this one drill.
They have an influencer who's like the only influencer that
I actually think is cool at our DC World one
and he goes through a workout with Miles Garrett, and

(34:35):
as part of the drill, Miles Garrett is laterally pulling
a sled, so he's not going up and down, he's
going laterally back and forth. And he's so strong he's
literally pulling this guy with his body weight on the sled.
So hats off to Miles Garrett.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
Quite the record. I already used it my love, but
if I had another. I love how the Bengals accepted
that with class yesterday. Let's get to our hate for
the week end. Maybe that is Isaac Longcron's hate. Isaac,
I'll throw it back to you.

Speaker 6 (35:06):
That's exactly what my hate was. So the Bengals, Zach
Taylor and Jamar Chase were upset because the officials stopped
play after Miles Garrett's record breaking sack. They're down seventeen
to twelve in the fourth quarter about five minutes ago
they stopped the game, and Zach Taylor and Jamar Chase

(35:27):
are complaining. Taylor says he was not informed of it
before the game, which is understandable, but he had his
undies in a bundle because he wanted to go with
a quick tempo and not sub after the sack, and
that allowed the Browns the opportunity to match up with
the game stoppage when they wanted to go quick tempo,

(35:49):
and among other things, he said, we're fighting for our
lives here. We're playing for our lives here. And I'm like, dude,
First of all, that's essentially an extra timeout for your team.
You're down seventeen to twelve or five minutes ago, and
it'll be another thing if you were in playoff contention.
But come on, you've long since been eliminated from the playoffs.

(36:12):
It's an all time NFL record. It's not like a
guy moving into seventh place in franchise history on the
all time passes defense list. They only stop the game
if you break a prominent NFL record. So in that situation,
saying that you're playing for our lives here, no soft,

(36:36):
soft soft and unlikable.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yes, swaft you and Jamar Chase for saying that.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
What did you hate, Monci?

Speaker 3 (36:42):
What did I hate?

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Well?

Speaker 3 (36:43):
I hated that the Clippers lost to the Celtics, but
more importantly, I hated that Derek Jones Junior, who just
came back from an injury that he suffered against the
Boston Celtics, where Jalen Brown dives for a ball, goes
into his knee, and the exact same thing happens with
Peyton Pritchard who dives for a ball, goes towards the
knee of the same me for Derek Jones Junior, and
now he's out. That's what I.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Hated, deja vous all over again.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
With the same thing. It was like, you put the
plays back to back and you're like, how how does
this happen against the same team teaching that?

Speaker 2 (37:12):
Right, they teach it's a Celtics thing. It's a journey, right,
those darn Celtics.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
I'm I was so mad. I was so the minute
I saw it. I said, he's out. He's out again,
same same knee, same injury, out again.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
I'll tell you what I hated, and I hated that
Riley Leonard played well yesterday because it took a little
bit of shine off of the Philip Rivers experiment. And
that makes you wonder maybe the cult should have just
gone with Riley Leonard over the last couple of weeks.
I hope it didn't take away from Philip Rivers, but
I guess in a way, Kudos to Riley Leonard for
competing and playing well against the Houston Texans. He did

(37:51):
fill in for Daniel Jones and played well in that
loss to Jacksonville a few weeks ago. But we had
loved Philip Rivers over the previous three weeks. Unfortunately they
went oh three, Riley Leonard held his own and then
some against Houston. Maybe they should have just played him
those three games. I don't know. I didn't wish any

(38:11):
ill will for Riley Leonard, but to see how well
he played, then you're thinking, like, all right, maybe they
shouldn't have gone to Philip Rivers.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
Was Riley Leonard sorry injured me?

Speaker 2 (38:21):
He was?

Speaker 3 (38:21):
He was.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
He got hurt in that Jacksonville game where he was
questionable to play. So you bring in Philip Rivers, you
don't know if he's going to be able to play
against Seattle. He ultimately was ready to play against Seattle,
but they had brought Philip Rivers in, and when you
bring him in, you're not gonna be like, hey, you're
in a quarterback competition. You give him the job.

Speaker 7 (38:37):
But yes, by the way, Ryan Clark, who was the
most outspoken against Philip Rivers over the last couple of weeks,
he was taking victory WAPs yesterday after that was he
kind of the opposite of what you're feeling right now?

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, yeah, but hey, I loved what Philip Rivers gave
us and Riley Leonard hopefully le have a long career
in the NFL. Yeah, all right, Iowa, Sam, would you hate?

Speaker 4 (38:59):
I think j should go first because mine sort of related,
but I don't want to step on his. He why
don't we go to Jason first?

Speaker 7 (39:05):
Sam doesn't want to Sam up?

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (39:07):
It's interesting the spins on Press your Luck. I think
we've taught Sam Well. He's stopping himself from Sam and up.
It's pretty amazing.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
Sam Well.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
That was my Spanish name in the Spanish Calart, Samuell.

Speaker 7 (39:18):
I've often said on this show that I care less
about what happens in sports than I do about how
it's covered. And this is what I mean. Uh, the
Steelers win last night on the missfield goal by what's
the name loot poot poop, and uh, everyone goes nuts
about Mike to Rico's call. Now, most of it was positive.

(39:41):
How to Rico's amazing he got wrapped up in a
great emotion, and then there was a sub section of people,
dare I say, Sam superstitious people, Ravens fans who did
not appreciate Mike to Rico saying this before the kick.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
They went around the country and spoke to a lot
of kickers who are.

Speaker 7 (40:01):
Coming out, and they decided Tyler Luke was made of
the right stuff for moments like this.

Speaker 6 (40:08):
He now has a chance to win the division for the.

Speaker 7 (40:11):
Ravens the final playoff the regular season for the final.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
Spot in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Tyler Luke from forty.

Speaker 6 (40:19):
Four still good.

Speaker 4 (40:26):
I'm the feelers, I'm a jacket to the north.

Speaker 7 (40:31):
Now you notice Mike has set up the kick by
saying they went out and got this guy. He's built
for moments like this, And I hated that moment for
Ravens fans. I'm the guy who's sitting there on my
couch saying, did Terarico just say that? That's the last
thing you want to hear if you're a Ravens fan
for a basically just.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
An easy scene. Does he missed? Everything is just easy
as it goes, just throwing along, just like the Holy Water.
And then when they showed the clip, it was the
wrong end zone. This was the kick. This was the
end zone. Now there was a clip that surfaced later
on of the priest putting the holy water in that

(41:12):
end zone, but it wasn't the ones shown on NBC,
and I think Tarico realized that midkick that his feel
good story with the video that they were showing did
not add up. Some people caught to it online. It's
an open ended stadium, so you know, one end over
the other, and he was doing it in the far
end zone at the one that they were showing on NBC. Yeah,

(41:35):
maybe maybe not a good night for NBC in that
Pittsburgh Steelers Ravens game. Tough one for Melissa Stark, tough
one for Mike Trico and Iowa Sam wrap it up
with it.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
Whatever is to blame for Tyler Loops miss I do hate.
I do hate kickers having to deal with moments like that.
And Chris Boswell was just in that position, you know,
of whatever, ten minutes prior, five minutes prior, and it's
just such a kicking is such a weird thing, like
it's a specialty. You're you're treated differently, You're you're sort
of like a different section of the football team, and

(42:08):
you're like the guys always say you got one job,
but there is something odds about a sequence of snapping
the ball, holding it, setting it, and kicking it through
the uprights. It it can things can go sideways, literally,
and no matter if you're nine of ten or ten
of ten from that distance through the season or whatever.
It's just like, I feel for these guys because obviously
they want to make it, but it's like it's like, Okay,

(42:31):
you're gonna sign this contract. Here, we're gonna give you
ten million dollars. And then I signed my name or
whatever someone signs their name. They didn't dot the lowercase J,
and they say, oh, it's invalid. Now you did everything
up until this point, but you didn't do that one
little bit, the little whether it's Boswell's extra point missed
or the field goal. And you were like, and then like,
how does Isaiah likely feel after that after making that

(42:52):
amazing catch to put them in position? And so like
I saw John Hartblock consoling Tyler Loop after the game
on the in the tunnel, and I just like, I
hate it. I feel for him because you know, these guys,
they just kick over and over hundreds, they's got thousands
of practice kicks and then it goes it goes like this.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
Unfortunately, for you. You were in a lose lose situation because
if Loop makes it, you're feeling bad for Chris Boswell.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
So there, Yeah, there was two kickers. There were sports.

Speaker 4 (43:17):
Yeah, that's sports.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Baby.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
They literally showed Chris Boswell right before the kick on
the sideline because he knew. He was like, they're about
to win.

Speaker 4 (43:26):
And they have just cast us to gut. His guts were,
you know, all wrenched up.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
So he also went from like agony to ecstasy too,
and then poor Tyler Loop went the other way.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
All right. There it is our first edition in twenty
twenty six of Love and Hate.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Fox Sports Radio had the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
She's Marcy Belango, So I'm Dan Byer. It is Fox
Sports Radio. For over forty years, Tyrak has Penelopic customers
find the right tires for how, what and where they drive,
ship fast and free back by free road hazard protection
with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation. Tyrec dot
com the way tire buying should be. Find Monty at
Monte Blanos. You can find me at Dan Byer on Fox.

(44:11):
Isaac Lohin Crown will be with us in about ten
minutes or so. He'll give us the latest of what's
happening on a busy day in the NFL, and I
know it's probably the worst of the three hundred and
sixty five for gms and front offices around the NFL.
We are now joined by Tom Telaskill, former GM of
the Chargers and Raiders, joining us now give us some
of the emotions of what these front offices are dealing

(44:33):
with today. Tom, Happy New Year, I should say, And
now to the bad news. It is Black Monday in
the NFL. What is this like around the National Football League?

Speaker 5 (44:43):
Yeah, Happy New Year to you guys too. Yeah, always
a very difficult day. I've been on all sides of
this before. You know, it's tough. When you're at the
GM and you're working with your head coach. You're working
side by side every single day, every hour. You end
up spending more time with the with the head coach
they do with your own family and your wife throughout
the fall, so you know, you're working constantly with that

(45:05):
person and then all of a sudden the season stops.
You know, usual if you don't make the playoffs. Everything.
It's like the train that comes to a whole and
then if you have to make a decision and make it,
make a change. It's difficult as a GM if you're
letting your head coach go because you know, look, you're
part of this, You're part of the reason why the
team isn't doing as well as it is. But there's
certainly situations where maybe a new voice is needed, something refreshing,

(45:28):
a different approach, and you move on. But like every
head coach, every GM, when you take the job, you
know nine to nine percent of time it's not going
to end the way you want it to end. And
we all know that going in. It's a very difficult business.
It's a pressurized business, but it's what we love to
do and you love the challenge, you love the competitive
competitiveness part of it, but you know this day is
coming for everybody at some point. It's just the nature

(45:50):
of the business.

Speaker 3 (45:52):
One team that decided they needed a new voice was
the Cleveland Browns. Were you surprised that they parted ways
with Kevin Stefanski. Do you think there was something in
particular that caused them to part ways with Kevin Stefanski.

Speaker 5 (46:06):
Yeah, I think he's an he's an excellent coach. He's
he's shown that. I mean he's you know, if you've
one place for it for six years, I means you're
doing something right. And he's a really outstanding offensive mind.
He's shown that and he can lead a football He
won't be out of work for long, I can tell
you that. But I think, like a lot of organizations,
sometimes it's just time for a fresh, new approach. Obviously,

(46:27):
they are a team that's going through a lot of
transition with their roster coming off that the Deshaun Watson
trade where they just lost a lot of assets, not
only draft picks, but but a lot of cash and
cap space. So if a team in transition, the defense
is actually really strong. But you know, they didn't played
expectations this year, and you know the head coach usually
takes the fall for that. But I think he'll definitely

(46:51):
if he wants interviews, I think he'll have plenty. I
think he's shown a lot. I love his leadership, Abilly.
I love how he handled this year. This has not
been an easy year for the Browns. He handled a
publicly extremely well. Even it's the press conference yesterday that
I was watching just handled everything. That's what you need
as a head coach and someone a leader that can
handle adversity. He's shown he can do that, so I
think he's gonna be okay in the end.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Tom Telasco joining us here on Fox Sports Radio. She's
Monzy Blanios. I'm Dan Bayer, Tom the former GM of
the Chargers and Raiders. So I understand the sensitivity with
this question from the move that was made in Las
Vegas today, But what are some of the challenges for
a Raiders organization who now will have the first overall
pick of the draft coming up this spring? What are

(47:32):
the challenges that you face? I guess in that building
and trying to make this team a playoff contender.

Speaker 5 (47:39):
Look, there's a lot of good resources there and they
just have to get to the point where you get
some stability. I know they haven't had that in a
number of years. I do believe at this point, and
I know the fans will probably get tired of hearing
of this, but I think at this point they're going
to get the right person with the right alignment going
into next year and any built from there. You've got
the first round pick it's going to be a quarterback.

(48:00):
That's the person they've struggled to find in clearly when
I was there, as far as a young quarterback to
build around. But you have to get some stability. And
it's been the last three drafts the team that's drafted
for head coaches that are no longer there, so this
will be the fourth one. So that kind of stunts
the rebuild because you're drafting players for a certain head
coach and a certain scheme and then all of a

(48:21):
sudden the scheme changes or the philosophy changes, and that's
changed for four consecutive years. I do feel like at
this point there get the point where they're all aligned
moving forward, to have a quarterback, to have some pieces
on offense that the offensive line, they get Colton Miller back,
they get JPJ. Jackson, Powers Johnson back, They're going to
have some players. It's going to take a little bit
of time, and I know nobody wants patience, but for

(48:42):
the next head coach, there are some pieces there to
work around. But I know it's just been a long
haul for everybody there.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
Out of all, out of all of the teams looking
for a head coach, which one do you think seems
the most appealing.

Speaker 5 (48:55):
Oh, that's a tough question. Look, there's only thirty through
these jobs. They all have their positives, whether people you
know see it or not. But obviously you want to
look for a job if you already have a quarterback
in place, like the Giants had with Jackson Dirt, you
know that's gonna be the appealing part of it. That's
the hardest piece to find is the franchise quarterback. The
Giants have that with Jackson Dirt. They have a really

(49:17):
good front office with Joe Shane and Kevin Abrams and
Tim McDonald, so they have some stability and some experience there,
and they had some pieces. But their defense has players.
I can't quite figure out why they hadn't didn't play
as well as they should have this year, and that's
something they're gonna have to work through. And that's gonna
be a big part of the interview process is what's
the plan for the defense as well? Not only Jackson Dart,
but how do we get some of these talented defensive

(49:39):
players that play to their abilities. But New York's a
big market, they have a quarterback that'd be a really
interesting job for head coach.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Tom deelasco joining us here on Fox Sports Radio. My
question now shifts not from the teams that are looking
for coaches, but teams that are looking to advance in
the playoffs, and specifically about the Philadelphia Eagles, because they
obviously made a decision yesterday to rest their starters. They
ended up being the three seed, but they got some

(50:06):
help from the Lions and beating the Bears, but the
Egles didn't take care of their end of the bit,
so they're gonna end up being the three seed. How
much is the general manager in that conversation with a
coach on how to approach week eighteen? What approaches did
you like when you were in that seat if Week
eighteen mattered or maybe didn't matter for a team that
was going into the playoffs. What's the GM's role in

(50:28):
those sort of discussions.

Speaker 5 (50:30):
It's certainly an organizational decision that you would sit down
with the head coach and discuss it and certainly be
a sounding board for the head coach. And I've been
through a situation before, and I gotta say most gms
would rather go on a side of the rest and
not putting players out there that could with risk the injury,
because at this point of the year, if one of
your main starters goes down, there's nowhere to go. Pass

(50:53):
the trade deadline, there's obviously no free agents in the street.
They're going to come in and start for you. So
as a GM you're you're always worried about that, and
usually the head hoas is more worried about well. I
don't want to get rusty, but I will say I've
seen teams do it both ways. There's no one single
way to do it. I've always been on the more side.
If you have a chance to get players some resk
and pull away the risk of getting hurt in that

(51:13):
last game, that doesn't mean anything. That's the way to go.
There's rather teams that have gone the other way and say,
he look, we need to keep playing to stay sharp,
like the Rams did the other day. I think each
situation is unique. I think for the Eagles this works
for them, and they've played a lot of games the
last couple of years, so I do think just trying
to get some fresh lays going into playoffs, but don't
play anybody anywhere. I don't think they're worried about who

(51:35):
they played, So I was I was fine with the decision.

Speaker 3 (51:39):
Is there any team that is in the playoffs right
now that has surprised you. I'm looking at the Jaguars
and how they ended the season on an eight game
winning streak. You know, any team like the Jaguars or
another team that surprises you, well.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
I think the first I mean the Jaguars jump out immediately,
and just how they've played the last points and a half,
which is the most important part of the season. But
I have been impressed with it with their head coach,
how they've handled the whole situation and just how he's
handled even even Trevor Lawrence with the inconsistencies of what
he's He's shown some really high highs, but he also
had the low of the lows. But he's really even

(52:14):
out of play and played at a high level. They've
turned that around quickly, And I think if you're a
team right now you're looking for a head coach and
you look at what the Jaguars have done, like what
the Patriots did, he kind of gives you some hope
that you know, these are not This isn't like baseball.
We have three or four and five year rebuilds and turnarounds.
Like you can do it quickly.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Now.

Speaker 5 (52:31):
Obviously those two teams I mentioned already have franchise quarterbacks
that are young. But I've been really impressed with the Jaguars,
you know, their defense and how aggressive they've been, how
they create turnovers. I'm sure everybody's gonna be picking the
Bills in this game because Jacksonville. You know, as Sean
Payton said, you know, it's a small market and they're
not on national TV as much, but they've got this
home game for a reason. They're really strong on both

(52:53):
sides of the ball, and they're a really interesting football
team for the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
I got one last one for you, Tom telasco joining
us here on Fox Sports Radio. The Falcons, a lot
of things are open. Terry Fott knows out or he
Morris dismissed last night as head coach. It seems like
Matt Ryan has a sort of role there. Would you
look at the Falcons situation as one that is appealing
because you could do coach GM sort of deal the

(53:18):
quarterback situation. You do have Michael Pennick's junior there, but
he's coming off of his knee injury. How do you
assess what Atlanta has done after dismissing both GM and
head coach.

Speaker 5 (53:28):
Well, it's gonna be a lot of change. You know,
I've been around a lot of search firms. I've never
seen it before. We have two different search firms looking concurrently.
And even when they brought in a consultants to kind
of audit the football operations, you kind of knew where
that was going to go because I can never see
a consulting from coming in to look at football operations

(53:48):
and going back to the owner saying, hey, everything's great.
Just kind of keep going.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Sure, you know that's not going to happen.

Speaker 5 (53:54):
There's going to be major change, and there's a major
change now between not only GM and head coach but
also resident as far as moving Rich McKay into a
different role. Rich McKay is outstanding of what he does,
but he's gonna guess he's gonna take on a different role.
So so I guess you have a blank canvas there
to start fresh. They do have some talent on offense,
but there's a lot of questions at the quarterback position. Now.

(54:16):
They've put a lot of assets into it, but right
now you've got Kirk Cousins, who you know, who knows
he may retire, but he's up there in age, and
you got Michael Penks coming off of major knee injury
who's had durabillity derbilly issues going back to college. So
that is certainly an uncertain situation. It's the most important position,
but you're walking into a team that has some talent
on both sides of the ball, and it's you know,

(54:37):
a clean slate to work with with a GM a
head coach, and you know wherever the president's going to be.
I've heard great things about Matt Ryan, So I guess
what we shall see.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Did you like draft cams? Because I feel that's what
got Terry font knows we've seen over the last twenty
four hours him explaining to Arthur Blank why they took
Michael Pennock junior. Did you like the draft cam when
you were in the hot seat as.

Speaker 5 (54:56):
A GM honestly, not really, but it was it was
a two way street because look, if you want to
get something back to your fans, they kind of show
them what goes on in the draft room. And there
was just a lot of a lot of hunger see
how things are done, how the decisions are made. So
whether it was recording the phone call to the player
drafting to having a camera and a microphone in there.

(55:17):
I kind of got used to it. I was old school.
I came up in the Bill Polly and he would
never have a camera in the draft room. I had
to change and evolve, and I did. But sure comfortable.
They always say, hey, don't worry about it. You won't
even know what's in there. So yeah, that's part of
the problem. I don't even know it's on. God knows
what I'm going to do. So but look, it's part
of the NFL nowadays, and I think it's something to
get back to your fancy just for content. But look, yeah,

(55:40):
this is the downside to it. They see it all,
but that's part of being a GM.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
Great stuff, Tom, We appreciated. Best of luck in twenty
twenty six. Enjoy the NFL playoffs. We'll talk to you
again soon.

Speaker 5 (55:51):
Sounds good. Thanks for both you. Take care.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
Tom Telasco joining us here at Fox Sports Radio. She's
Manzi Blaio, So I'm Dan Bio. Let's go to the
news deck. News desk, guys. A glowing cron joining us.

Speaker 6 (56:01):
An odd situation involving New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson.
He revealed today that he tore his hamstring prior to
Week two of the regular season. He would start in
two more games after that and appear in three additional games.
Of course, NFL teams are supposed to, you know, disclose injuries. However,

(56:24):
Wilson tweeted on social media a short time ago and
I quote not the Giant's fault. They didn't know because
I didn't want to tell anyone because of the circumstances.
I just had to play through it to try and
go ball. Thought we were going to win that wild,
crazy game unquote. So apparently, kudos to Russell Wilson for

(56:47):
successfully hiding a torn.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
Ham stringing yeah, Sam and Jason.

Speaker 4 (56:54):
Listener tell anybody.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
On his feet standy novation for the former Seahawk.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
Yet he was able to climb up probably for uh
for four pieces of scaffolding to be there on New
Year's Eve with Siarra on UH with Ryan Seacrest on stage,
all with the torn hamstring, please clap.

Speaker 3 (57:22):
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Speaker 2 (57:40):
Yeah, don't blame the giants. I didn't tell him.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
I didn't tell them.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
I didn't tell him. I'm sure Brian Davills like great.
I had a one legged quarterback out at all time.
Now I don't have a job.

Speaker 4 (57:49):
Ye, unbelievable. This guy, seriously, this guy.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
So he tore it in that overtime game? Is that
what it is?

Speaker 7 (57:57):
That?

Speaker 4 (57:58):
What it is?

Speaker 6 (57:58):
He tore it during the week before for the week
two game.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Okay, so he threw for four hundred and fifty yards
on one leg on one leg and then didn't then
couldn't do anything else the rest of the season.

Speaker 7 (58:09):
But why is it a story? Why has the NFL
been informed of this? Like why is this a thing?

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Well, because he would need to be reported on the
injury report. But Russell Wilson, which I don't know how
many of us actually believe he tours hamstring, which I
that's part of the problem as well. He's now coming
out and saying what a great guy he was by
not telling anyone he was hurt and by the way,
don't blame the Giants.

Speaker 6 (58:33):
So he revealed it this morning during you know, locker
room clean out day. Then when the media got a
hold of it, they're like, wait a minute, this is
kind of this should be investigated because you're literally supposed
to report injuries. And then after that he issued that
dosha Ok.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
Yeah, So Russell Wilson did no one any favors except
himself today, truly, like that's what he did. He made
himself look better, like he played hurt well.

Speaker 4 (58:59):
He also he also makes himself look kind of like, oh,
I wasn't healthy when I was playing, Like I'll be
healthy in the future.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Maybe that aids Russell Wilson. It does no good for
the Giants. But but do you really think that it's
the hamstring why he's stunk. He hasn't been good for
four years. It's not the hamstring. It's Russell Wilson that's
the issue. But hey, let's make it about me. Went
in doubt and make it about me. That's the Russell

(59:26):
Wilson motto. All on Russell Wilson's hamstring tour. But did
you did your chair fall apart? My chair broke well,
the arm did I don't know chairs hamstring break or tear.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
Literally, that's the hamstring of them.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Apparently this has been broken since week two and until
it just fell apart today