On this episode of 3 & Out, John Middlekauff reacts to the Denver Broncos giving head coach Sean Payton a massive contract extension and what that means for the long-term success of the franchise.
He breaks down the Knicks historic come from behind win over the Spurs and what led to the Spurs incredible late collapse, and weighs in on Phil Mickelson being kicked out of his country club for inappropriate conduct toward a female employee of the club.
For his Fugazi Friday special, John explains why does NOT love owning a pool.
To wrap things up, it’s the Middlekauff Mailbag, with John answering your questions and covering a wide range of NFL and college football topics.
Follow John on Twitter, and Instagram for the latest.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. Today's show is brought to you by our
presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bet Florida Sportsbook. We talk a
lot of football on the show, but it's the NBA Finals.
Not gonna lie. I don't like the Knicks. I love
the Knicks. I got in on them probably ten days
ago at four to one. Now they're here. They are
currently on hard Rock Bet plus one sixty to win
(00:24):
the NBA Finals. They are also an underdog in Game
one in San Antonio on Wednesday night. They are four
and a half point underdog. You know, Victor Webman Yama's
favored to win the MVP. San Antonio's favorite to win
this series. I believe it's the next time, and obviously,
if you're gonna bet him to win the series, it's
hard to bet against Jalen Brunson being the MVP. We
(00:46):
have had some recent examples though, a couple of years ago,
Jalen Brown. I remember when Andrea Gudala won it. I think,
if you go, well, who could win the MVP if
it wasn't Jalen Brown. If you are Jalen Brunson, If
you wanted to get some odds, you know, Karl Anthony
Towns to one. OG's forty to one Bridges is one
hundred and fifty to one, so I think the safe
(01:07):
bet is Brunson, but they got a lot of firepower
defensively to throw at him. I can't wait for this
series again. I'm on the Knicks. I think the Knicks
win it. I think it's gonna be excellent. But I
think this is New York's time. So same game parlays.
You want to bet Victor Webbin Yama triple double or
Karl Anthony Towns, you know, double double With Jalen Brunson's
(01:30):
over on points, you can do whatever you want to do.
I think Jalen Brunston goes nuts and Victor goes no.
I think it's gonna be fantastic. So try your first
better on Hard Rock bet today and you can score
one hundred and fifteen bonus bets. If you win, just
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(01:51):
but you don't have to be in Florida. It's join
the party. It's all over the place. Arizona, Ohio, Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois, Colorado, Michigan,
dal app Today, Let's get the party started. What is
(02:12):
going on my people? John Middlecock Three and Now podcast.
How are we doing? Hopefully everyone is doing well, living life,
enjoying life. And uh Sean Payton is because he just
got it with Patrick Mahomes yesterday. Sean Payton today. How
about the Knicks? What a game? Phil Micholson not having
(02:33):
a great day on this fugazi Friday. I'll tell you
that much, not at all. We'll do some mailbag questions
as well at John Middlecoff at John midlecoff as the
Instagram fire in those dms? What a couple of days?
Whoa what a week? Propabs the NFL though stories have
been flying in June. Sometimes this time of year get tough.
(02:53):
It's we've had a little action. It's it's about to
come to a screeching halt though, I'll promise you that,
so you guys know the drill. Listen on Collins Feed,
make sure you subscribe to three and now if you
want to watch this, we're up on Netflix. Go go
hit the alert button. You'll never miss a show. Let's
let's talk some sports. I guess we can just start.
Sean Payton got an extension, and you know, baseball. I
(03:18):
was grew up a diehard Giants fan. They they've kind
of been lost on me because they're so terrible. I
just don't have time with a kid to follow baseball
on a daily basis. And they're definitely not interesting or
good enough that are worthy of my time. I mean,
they are horrendous. But in twenty ten and twenty twelve
and twenty fourteen, the Giants were never the best team
(03:41):
on paper. They had timely pitching, timely hitting, and an
incredible Hall of Fame manager in Bruce Bochie, and baseball
no longer views the manager position as important. It's why
a lot of guys, I know, people that are pretty
close with Aaron Boone that said early on in his
Yankee tenure he had to take a major discount from
(04:04):
leaving ESPN. You know, this is the New York Yankees.
Now he's doing pretty well financially, but early on, like
the going right for some of these first time managers
isn't very much. You have coordinators in college Ohio States
paying Matt Patricia like three point seven million dollars. Signetti's
two coordinators are making a huge coin and the power
(04:28):
of a football coach. No one argues it from high
school to college to the pros. And Sean Payton is
a great example. Are the Denver Broncos guaranteed to win
a Super Bowl during his tenure? They are not, but
they are guaranteed to be relevant and they are guaranteed
to be in the playoff mix every single year because
(04:50):
before he showed up, when the Koubiak Peyton Manning era
came to an end, the franchise became a joke. It
lost its way. They went five and eleven, six and ten,
seven and nine, five and eleven, seven and ten, five
and twelve with Vance, Joseph vic Vangio and the Nate
(05:12):
Hackett experiment, and they had kind of become a low
point and luckily they get this new ownership that has
unlimited money and Sean Payton. Let's face it, quit on
the Saints and was available, but hiring Sean Payton immediately
made them relevant and he was able to pivot off
a major problem in Russell Wilson in that contract and
(05:36):
within two years of that, they're hosting the AFC Championship.
I think we can all be realistic and Patriot fans
would probably agree if they had their starting quarterback. I
think the Denver Broncos win that game. It was would
have been an ugly situation, given there was the you know,
ice storm thing that came through. But Jared Stidham, I
(05:58):
know Sean Payton ducked him up. Most teams would be
in a very very precarious situation when your quarterback breaks
his ankle the last play of the game. But Sean
Payton shows you the power. We talk a lot about
this with quarterbacks. You're not gonna be able to find
a Joe Burrow of Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, Right,
(06:20):
But if you get a dak if you get a
Jared Goff, if you get a Jalen Hurts, if you
get a Brock Purty, and you do a good job
of building your team, like you're gonna be good. And
most people are not. Bill Walsh, Bill Belichick or Andy Reid, right,
and obviously Sean Payton I kind of lump him. I
know he's won a Super Bowl, but like there is
(06:41):
a strong value in getting a guy who just knows
what he's doing, and to me, that is Sean Payton.
He's obviously pretty cocky, rubs some people the wrong way right,
pisses a lot of people off all around the league
constantly can be Ilois Argon. You know, even if fired
what was said to be his best friend on the
(07:02):
staff last year, I think it's pretty clear because they
didn't want to lose Davis Webb. But you can't argue
that he immediately gets hired, they give him the keys
of the car, and three years later he's got them
in the Indy five hundred. And that is the value
of star coaching in college football and the NFL, because
(07:23):
I think if you're a Giants fan, you look at
the situation in Denver and that's all you want. That
there's no guarantee that you're ever going to win a
Super Bowl again and have those ELI runs with Tom Coughlin.
But if John Harbaugh can bring you the credibility and
within a couple of years get you to be I
don't know, thirty two and nineteen over his first three years,
(07:46):
you will sign the bleep up for that, right Because
let's face the other thing, Sean Payton, it's not like
he's struck oil with bo Nicks. We got a lot
of question marks on him as a player. He had
some incredible moments lat in games, he also in a
lot of those games look like one of the worst
quarterbacks in the league. So I think Sean Payton's he resurrected,
(08:10):
you know, the Broncos. There's no disputing it, and he
gets a massive contract extension, which I'm sure makes him
one of, if not the highest paid coaches in the league.
And I think if you're a Denver Bronco fan, you're
pretty happy with the way things are going because coming
into this season, there's a path for you to win
Super Bowl and that could not be said once Peyton
(08:31):
Manning's arms stopped working and you got Vance Joseph vic
Fangio and the Nate Hackets situation. You can say that
now and that feels good. And that's the power of
getting a star coach. And that's what the Denver Broncos have.
Speaking of stars, the New York Knicks, I've watched every
(08:52):
dribble of this series and I almost turned it off
last time, like they're gonna come back, And turns out,
my producer Shane Diehard, Nicks fan bet them at halftime
plus seventeen hundred. I said, honestly, Bro, that's one of
the best bets I've ever heard of, because one thing
to bet on a huge flyer. I've hit some golf
bets that are, you know, twenty thirty to one, but
(09:14):
like I'm betting them before the tournament starts. I usually
don't live bet guys who are ten shots back heading
into Saturday. I don't know. A soul would have been like, yeah,
I think the Knick's gonna win at halftime. But I
was thinking about you know, Bobby Knight had this famous
saying that dumb loses more game games than smart wins,
(09:36):
and I think there's a lot of truth to that,
and I think that was on full display in the
Knicks game. Right Let's face it, dearon Fox, you just
ran out the clock. And even he said after the game, like,
you know, I thought I could beat him down the
court and thought I'd get an easy layup. It's like, well,
you know, I get you're a great athlete, but last
time I checked, Oja Ananobe's pretty elite athlete. And when
(09:56):
you watch the replay of the block on the layup,
you watch that guy stride for stride. He is covering
some serious fucking ground, but they won the game. You know,
basketball has a lot of parallels to football. Chemistry matters,
toughness matters, role players matter, adjustments matter, playing smart matters.
(10:21):
You know team, you know the team. Basketball. Obviously, football
you're very dependent on other people. If I was an
NFL football coach, I would use that play of him
sprinting towards the basket, leaping in the air. That's I
haven't seen every tip in in the history of basketball.
(10:45):
If you factor in the finals, that's got to be
one of the greatest plays I've ever seen. I mean,
obviously there's been great shots or great defensive plays throughout
the history of the NBA, but just in terms of
tip ins and how that went down, I would show
that to my NFL team and be like, this is
(11:05):
what effort is. This is what not giving up on
a play is. This is the little things that we
talk about. Twenty four seven, three sixty five. Because the
Knicks won that game, huge reason, Darren Fox did one
of the dumbest things you'll ever see. But because one
of their best players, not their star player, that's Jalen Brunson,
(11:28):
not their highest paid player. That's Karl Anthony Towns, but
a guy that you know, the Golden State Warriors could
have had, but they refused to change. Jonathan kaminga for
him back in the day, just made an incredible playoff effort.
And I think sometimes you know, this is why coaches
going back to high school sports and they say it
even once you're a professional. We talk a lot about
(11:51):
real life here in business and different industries that we're
all in the amount of a gap that you can
make up against your competition, against people that you know
you're trying to pass within your own company or whatever,
just by sure consistent effort is pretty amazing. What's the
(12:13):
old adage, you know, half the battles just showing up.
You'll just pass people if you just consistently show up.
There's a lot of truth to that now once you
get into competitive industries that there's a lot of other
successful and ambitious people everyone's showing up. So I don't
know if that always rings true, but if you just
consistently try hard at whatever you're doing, you might not
(12:37):
be the most talented. Obviously, there are certain vocations that
like you can try to go into music if you
can't sing like it's probably not gonna work out, but
for most of us, effort will take us a long way.
And in football, that is extremely true. Max Crosby became
one of the best players in the NFL. Not because
(12:58):
he's the fastest, not because he's the strongest. I mean,
he has high end attributes, but I wouldn't compare him
to like Miles Garrett. I wouldn't say that he could
bend the edge like von Miller. I wouldn't say that
he has the raw power of a Khalil Mack or
a Reggie White because when he is healthy, no guy,
and he has played the majority of his career on
(13:21):
a very shitty team, plays as consistently as hard. Before
Andy Reid came on the show, probably a month ago,
we were texting and I just brought up Max Crosby
because I think the trade had This was before he
got traded, and he was like, he's like my favorite
player in the league. And I bet if you just
asked offensive coaches around the league that just go up
(13:43):
against Max Crosby, they fucking love him because the number
one thing coaches And I'm gonna do this as a father,
it's just like try hard if you try hard. I
look back sometimes when I was a kid, like I
didn't try that hard. My parents my dad should have
kicked mind ass. It's like, what are you doing? What
a waste? Why are you even doing this? And you know,
(14:06):
and basketball during the regular season has a huge, huge,
you know, kind of uphill battle of the narrative that
people just don't try hard. I mean it's true. I
mean you ever just turn on a random NBA regular
season game in January. It don't look great all the time.
They definitely don't look like the playoffs. And that moment,
just from a sure athleticism standpoint, was just a beautiful
(14:27):
thing to watch. But it kind of all comes down
to effort and want to I mean, I mean truly.
And if you think about a lot of the guys
that thrive in football, like you watch Puka Nakua play,
I would say a huge part of this game is
like and I had a wide receiver coach, tell me
this is the combines thing. I don't think anyone in
(14:47):
the NFL. And this is why it's hard to project
like his fifteen year career, but like his greatest skills,
no one plays as hard every single snap as that
guy at wide receiver. It's George Kittle's extremely talented player.
His effort level is a ten out of ten. The
(15:08):
Texans and Will Anderson extremely talent. That guy plays as
hard as anyone in the league. And in part of
playing hard, because this goes back to a Jimmy Johnson
thing is fatigue makes cowards of us all, and I
think that works for I know sometimes you know, I've
(15:31):
seen it with this baby. I'm just not sleeping that much,
and sometimes I just have a bad mindset and kind
of just become like a pussy. I just maybe I'll
text him say I'm not gonna do a podcast today.
And it's not because I don't like what I'm doing.
It's not because I don't know if it takes this
because I'm exhausted, and when you are doing something physical,
if you are fatigued, the first time you tap out.
(15:54):
I was just talking to a dude in the sauna today.
Somehow UFC came up and I was talking to him
about this event this weekend at the White House, and
I'm like, is this thing outside? I'm like, is this
isn't DC? I've been there a couple of times. Isn't
it pretty hot and humid there. But he's fighting outside
and this guy was a big UFC guy. He's like yeah,
(16:16):
he's like, uh, some of the guys are gonna be gassed.
Like it's a big difference fighting in an arena where
it's sixty eight degrees than being outside in the heat
and the humidity. Could be wrong on that, but I'm
pretty sure I've seen some pictures not a big UFC guy,
pretty big factor, you know. Uh, And you just it's
amazing how far, even at the highest level of sports,
(16:41):
effort will go, Isn't it crazy? You know, eventually Jack
will play little league and flag football and golf or whatever,
you know, when he's young getting into sports, and the
number one thing all these coaches are gonna take just like,
hey man, you gotta work at it. You gotta try hard,
and a lot of it goes in one ear and
out the other, even going back to like once you
(17:01):
get to high school and if you think about it,
that never stops. I've been around coaches in college football
in the NFL, like everyone gets on to keep playing hard.
Run through the whistle, run through the ten yard line,
run through the tap, whatever, and you gotta keep harping
on it. Some guys just kind of naturally have it
in him, And you know, I think at this point
(17:24):
in time and safe say, the Knicks are going to
win this series, and it's all gonna come down to
of like their effort by one guy who didn't give
up a play on defense and obviously didn't give up
a play on offense in a real time it was
probably four or five minutes, but in the in the
course of fifteen seconds of the game and save their
(17:45):
fucking season purely on effort, purely on effort, little skill,
I mean, and obviously his physical attributy even if he
would have tried as hard if he had been a
six foot three player, wouldn't have been the same. But incredible,
that was That was awesome speaking of something that's not awesome.
(18:26):
You're like, John, this is a football podcast. I just
saw some other things I want to talk about. This
feels like one of the lowest moments I've ever seen
for a human being. I'm not like a I was
a Tiger Woods guy, but I was always pro Phil Mickelson.
You know, I would say the same thing early on.
I was more of a Peyton guy than a Tom guy.
(18:46):
But as I aged and got it more into football
and then worked in it, like I really admire and
appreciate both of them. It's like, who are you now
a Tom Brady or Peyton Mann and guy, it's like
love them both. I kind of felt that way about
Phil and Tiger, right, It's like, I'm not anti either,
you know. It's like I love Tiger, but I'm pro Phil.
I root for Phil. The story that came out today
(19:11):
is one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen
for one of the most legendary golfers in the history
of the sport, for his home country club in San Diego.
There was a report today that he did something in
the clubhouse to a woman that was inappropriate that worked
(19:35):
at the course and then went out to play golf,
and it was so bad that she started saying something.
They looked into it, and before his round ended, they
came and got him on the course and told him
he had to leave the property and then kicked him
out of the country club. This story broke probably six
(19:57):
seven hours ago. The more I've thought about today, it's
that's fucking insane. I've heard rumblings over the years by
different people of like so and so got kicked out
of a country club, which is really hard to do.
You have to do something really stupid. But for them
to pull the trigger on kicking the hometown superstar, all
(20:23):
time great player out of the club, I don't think
this is something random. And Phil is you know, his
career has been derailed once he went to live. Tiger's
gone through some shit. He rolled his car on a
residential street where I think the speed limb is like
twenty five thirty miles an hour while he's sucking down
(20:45):
Quaylude's percocet and who knows what else. I think this
is ten times worse when any factor entirely didn't anybody
and this couple car crashes victimless crime beside him obviously
more you know, people could died in Tiger's thing, but
given that no one got hit this last time, I
(21:06):
feel like this is way worse from how do you
ever shake this? You know? I think we all look
at Tiger and think, like, can the guy kick his pills?
When we look at Phil now you think all times scumbag.
You've always you know, I know enough people in the
golfing world. There have been rumors he has like a
little shoot him or gavin to him. Unless I've heard
(21:28):
the same thing about different football players over the years.
Sometimes you hear a story about a guy who is
poortrayed one way, you know, in any of these sports.
I mean, I've heard stories about people. I don't know
if they're true or not, but it's like you almost
want to believe it because you're like, that would be
insane if people found this out, but they you know,
(21:49):
NBA's I don't know, this is I just don't know
how you ever recover from this. You know, it's one thing,
and listen, this is sad, but all the you know,
there were like three different guys they got domestic violence
arrested over the last three weeks. You know, the tackle
over a couple of days ago with the RAMS, it's like,
(22:10):
oh tackle, It's like, well, maybe he's a scumbag whatever,
but I'm sure if he doesn't get in trouble, they'll
put him in left tackle. They won't care. The story
would have hit a little harder if it was MATD Stafford, right,
but you'd say it wouldn't be mad Stafford because it
wouldn't just like I would have been like, this gonna
be Phil Mickelson. Yeah. I almost had to read this
story twice. I just I don't see how you ever
(22:33):
shaked that, Like, how do you ever shake that you
got kicked out of a country club for doing whatever
you did before you went to play. It'd be one thing,
it's like, hey, man, they had this tournament, they had
this huge party, booze was flying. Phil fucking crossed the line.
(22:54):
It's like bad luck. You'd have been like, God, damn,
that ain't good. I was like, this is happen in
the middle of the day. The other thing is like, bro,
you're fifty five. Let's just assume younger woman. She might
have no fucking clue who you are. Besides, some old
creep probably didn't hesitate to turn you in because she
(23:14):
doesn't know who the fuck you are. This is I
don't know, man, that's that might be an Alzheimer for me.
Phil Mickelson got kicked out of his home course for
doing something with a chick that worked at the club
before he teed off. Did he show up at the
course drunk? He do this sober? I need to know
(23:38):
more details before we do the mailbag. My Feugazi Friday
is you know, before I met Maria. She she owned
a house in Chandler, Arizona, and she lived there. And
then by the time I met her, she had rented
it out and she had moved to Scottsdale because she
(23:59):
was doing the statement in this area and she was
just renting the place out. And since I've known her,
she's rented out through a property management company and she
gets calls once every like three four months. Pool issue,
pool issue, this broke, this broke, this needs is the
chemicals are off, pool needs to be drained. She's like,
(24:20):
this thing is such a pain in the ass. And
then since I've got here, we had to redo the pool,
which wasn't cheap. We didn't have to redo it, but
if we wanted to use especially the spa was broken.
The equipment didn't work, so it was kind of all intertwined.
We do that immediately, it looks cool. And then we
got a wasp problem. Might have found the wasp nest
(24:42):
in front of my house. We got a guy coming
out here to remove it. Hopefully that's them. Are they
flying around? I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But then the
other day my guy Dave, who's who did the pool reconstruction, comes,
you know, once a week to do the chemicals or whatever.
And I see him. I'm walking to the office and
he's like, John, I need to talk to you. I'm like,
(25:05):
you know, I'm just like I didn't pay the bill
or something. And he's like, filters down. Do not go
back to the equipment room. It can blow up. Like what.
He's like, yeah, He's like, your filter's broken. I'm like,
didn't we replace that with all the stuff? And then
he kind of reminded me. He's like, no, we didn't
(25:25):
replace it because it was relatively new, you know, within
four or five years old. I'm like, well, what's that
going to cost. He's like, oh, probably eighteen hundred two
grand I'm like what. And I was thinking about I
don't even use the pool that much. I live in Arizona. Now,
maybe I would more if Jack was a little bit older.
(25:49):
And I'm sure we will, but I saw someone on
Instagram say that like, pools are a little like boats
that you're so excited to get it, and then you
get it and you realize it is just really expensive.
Things can go wrong. Obviously, they're huge liabilities and something
goes wrong. I think if we got a growing family
(26:11):
and need to upsize a little bit for the house.
I'd be fine, would not getting pool? I mean that
they are a major pain. They and they are extremely expensive.
And it's almost like a car because I've heard some
people say this that I was asking my brother about
this that car warranties. You know, back in the day.
(26:32):
I still have a twenty eleven Tahoe. I never have
issues with it. Well now, all the cars, well Maria has.
Somehow my wife got a brand new car before I did,
which she needs. We got to keep her safe. These
new cars are basically a computer, right, so you get
it in twenty twenty six, Taho, you get in twenty
twenty six, twenty five, twenty four, twenty three, any of
(26:54):
these cars. They are very computer based, So lifetime warranties
on these cars. Her brother, who had like a twenty
twenty two, you know, Chevy ES seventy one or you
know Sierra truck, had an issue and his warranty had
just ended and he didn't get the extended warranty because
I didn't get I didn't. I'd always denied extended warranties too,
(27:16):
Like this is gonna cost seventeen thousand dollars. So all
these cars are so expensive. You need these extended warranties
because they're all computers. So you go into some of
these maintenance shops. The dude that used to have no
problem getting under the Ford f one fifty and nineteen
ninety seven, you need to call like Elon and Company
to figure out some of these cars and their the
(27:37):
fucking price has skyrocketed to fix them. So it's like,
be careful out there, man. You want to pool, and
in theory, they're awesome and they kind of look good.
I'm like the Zillo picks. That's where they really hit hard.
Look good on a Zilo pick. If I just did
like an Instagram live and sat in my outdoor patio
(27:58):
with the pool behind and my my Baja shelf chairs
and the umbrella up, you'd be like, middle coff, pool
looks sweet. I'm like, yeah, you want me to send
you the fucking invoice, and you get attacked by wass
trying to get in this bad boy. So I sometimes
things are overrated. I remember being a kid, I was like,
what our backyard wasn't was was long, it wasn't that wide,
(28:22):
so it would have been hard to put a pool.
But I remember being kind of young and thinking like
got it be? I wish we had a pool, And
then I remember like my friends that did we go
over there, go up to like whatever the main pools
that we used. My parents were probably smart, but I
never even they never would have. But it's like makes
(28:42):
life a lot easier. It really does. Let's do some
mailbag questions at John Middlecoff at John Middlecoff is the
Instagram fire in those DMS question here on the podcast.
Everything's so expensive these days scene. I don't even want
to say what's going to cost to get this wasp
(29:04):
ness removed? I would do it myself, but it's it's
on my front walkway, like twenty five feet in the air,
so there is no way. Even the tallest ladder I own,
I don't even think i'd get remotely close. I if
I did, if they attacked, I jump fall, break a leg.
(29:27):
How you know we got a young child? How can
I carry him around if I go down injured? I
even think the powerful raid stuff I have, I'm not
even sure it'll hit it. It couldn't be in a
worse spot. I mean I had to call and get
help to get it removed because it's so high up there.
(29:48):
Love the show. Have a quick mailbag question. You think
Mahomes plus one seventy five to win Comeback Player of
the Year is the biggest lock of all locks, considering
he can stay healthy. The league loves him and favors quarterbacks.
I think they changed the rule pretty recently to if
you just suck now he doesn't suck, but for his
(30:09):
standards was not good last year, and then are good.
It's they want you to vote for a guy that
was injured and missed the season. You know, Mahomes played
the majority of the season. To me, Mahomes would be
a lock, or I mean a heavy heavy, like it
would be a smart bet if you told me he
got hurt Week two and they went six and eleven
(30:29):
because they had no quarterback. A lot of those losses.
I mean he was a part of I think I'd
have to look around the league. Of all the injured
guys returning like George Kittle, George Kittle towards Achilles the
last game of a season, I would say Bosa would
be a guy that missed the majority of the season.
Malak neighbors a little bit of a risky because he
(30:52):
might not be healthy, but to me, it's got to
be a guy that missed the majority of the year
with an injury. Rashawn Slater, like, what if he's just
like the best tackle in football miss the entire season.
To me, it's harder for offensive linemen, but it's in
that world. I don't think Mahomes missed enough time with
(31:13):
an injury. You said the NFL can't expand because they're
not enough quarterbacks. I disagree. There are less than ten
elite quarterbacks today, but nobody suggests shrinking to ten teams.
College football is slightly hugely entertaining despite having much less
quarterback talent, and the talent market already balances itself out.
(31:34):
Elite quarterbacks take up a huge shriff salary cap, leaving
less talent elsewhere. And it's not just quarterback talent to
get spread out. Defensive talent does too. Quarterback play might
decline slightly, but so would pass rushers and secondaries. Expansion
also creates opportunities for more players like the Brady's Dax
Purdies who weren't expected to become stars. Let me piggyback
(31:59):
on what you're saying. If they added two teams there
would be enough players to go around. I think the
better argument there are enough quarterbacks, and they're currently aren't.
I mean, there are gonna be a lot of bad
teams that don't have good quarterbacks this year. What cities
are gonna put them in? There's not a major city
(32:19):
that we're not a part of. In some of the
major cities, we have multiple teams, So I don't see
an area, you know, for basketball that is thirty teams.
There are a couple of markets that the NFL is
in that they're not Seattle, Vegas, Nashville, So you could
(32:40):
easily pivot. Now you could, I guess you could move Memphis.
Who Lebron got fucking skewered for telling Bodda's Sports that
he hates Memphis. I forwarded this article that Ethan Strauss
when I saw it. The Athletic a couple of weeks ago,
(33:01):
or maybe like a month ago did a poll of like,
you know, your favorite cities, favorite places to eat, best
players in the league, of just a player's poll in
the NBA, Memphis was by far their least favorite city.
They hated Memphis. It's like, guys, we're allowed to say
what everyone thinks out loud. We don't have to pretend
(33:21):
all the fucking time Lebron getting killed for that was
a fucking joke. The entire league hates playing there. It's
okay to say that out loud. The players had no
problem telling the Athletic because it was an anonymous survey.
At this point, Lebron doesn't give a shit either. I
also a story that the Warriors might let they want
Lebron to sign, they might let him live in LA
(33:43):
and commute. Now it's like, yeah, on a private jet
or taking forty five minutes that it sounds way crazier
than it is to me. It's the cities. There aren't
cities that the that the NFL wants in on unless
you wanted to go international. And then the argument international
is logistics, but you are I won't argue with there
(34:08):
are enough players to go around. There would be obviously
probably shittier teams, But yeah, the biggest issue is the
cities if you're not going international. Just question for the pod,
just curious. Do you prep for questions you answer or
is everything off the top of your head. I feel
(34:30):
like the Pro Bowl is the biggest fugazi in the NFL.
If you get into the Pro Bowl just because another
player declined doesn't still count as making it. Who'd I
see the other day it might have been Andrew Berry
with verse talking about his two Pro Bowls being real
Pro Bowls. I think in the league and I try
(34:52):
to do this. Shador Sanders wasn't a Pro bowler, right,
Josh Allen was a Pro bowler, So even though both
guys went to the Pro Bowl, but I mean Josh
didn't play in it. I think you're viewed now if
you're an original Pro bowler Miles Garrett, right, JSN Puka whoever,
(35:14):
that is not the same as the guys that end
up playing the flag football game. So if you count that,
the problem is Wikipedia it does not like, for example,
I think you can find quarterbacks, cousins, car guys like
that who've been to the Pro Bowl like four or
five times. I was like, they weren't actually first ballot
Pro Bowlers. One of the things is, and that shows
(35:40):
you when guys get this rich is twenty thirty years ago,
if you did not make the Super Bowl, you went
to the Pro Bowl because it was a free vacation
to Hawaii for your family. It was fun. Google the
Pro Bowl rosters in like ninety seven, two thousand and two,
they all went, oh, Steve Young, Brett Farv, you know,
(36:02):
Deon Sanders. They didn't skip the Pro Bowl. Now you
can't pay guys to show up, Well you can, and
they just go to radio row. They don't play in
the Pro Bowl game. When you become rich, you can
say no to a lot of things. Prep for the
I do it, you know, like I screenshot the question
(36:22):
so something I don't know, like the question about the
comeback player of the Year. I googled that before because
I'm like, then they changed the rule and they did
this next question I had looked up previously. A lot
of these I just they're just kind of asking my opinion,
and if I don't know, if they ask a specific question,
I'll pull it up while I'm answering the question. But yeah,
(36:45):
most of it is off the top of my head. Again,
I don't know that much in life besides sports football,
so it's pretty easy for me to kind of just
rift on something question about what do you think about
the backers? You know, I'm not being like what he
aerospace engineering questionnaire? When you watched Bezos's rocket? What degree
(37:12):
you know this isn't this isn't that serious? See, this
was a question that I've been asked because I had
looked it up recently after he got the contract. Is
question for the bag? Is it me? Or is this
the greatest time in history to be a wide receiver?
Christian Watson just got one hundred and ten million dollars
(37:34):
and he has two hundred He has twenty two hundred
yards and twenty touchdowns in four years. One hundred and
ten million to a guy who, if he sneezes too hard,
will rip a hamstring or sprain. I'm not gonna say
the word, he said out loud. Make it make sense. Please.
You know what's funny is when he signed this contract,
I was like, what are his stats? I don't remember
(37:56):
him being like a seventy five catch guy his career year.
Now his contract, it's not one hundred and ten million dollars,
you know. I think the guaranteed wise, it was much
smaller than that. Let me see if I can pull
up the numbers. He got a thirty one million dollars
(38:18):
signing bonus, so his guarantee is much much smaller than
one hundred and ten million dollars. But his career year
was twenty twenty two, forty one catches and seven touchdowns.
He's been banged up a lot, like twenty eight, twenty
(38:39):
nine to thirty five. Those aren't the ages of the
women he's dating. Those are his receptions in the last
three years. He there is no disputing his speed when healthy,
and he changes their offense. Some of these contracts that
are given out are kind of a projection in bold.
(39:01):
Even like her Big, I like him a lot with
the Steelers. He's never been a full time starter. He's
a backup now, I get it. But it also shows
you this. If I was an older NFL player, like
a guy that was like sixty, I might be kind
of bitter and resentful these guys. It's why it's like
(39:21):
these old NBA guys are so angry. It's like, yeah,
they see you getting two hundred and fifty million dollars.
The fucking guys who can't even make an All Star team.
I would be too. It's just it's just human nature.
Some of these contracts get they gotta pay some guys.
They clearly like the guy, and I think you know,
in the Shanahan offense, if you can get the guy
(39:45):
to spread the field as a speed guy. It really
opens up some stuff. But I mean his last two
years he has twenty nine and thirty five catches, eight
total touchdowns. He's fast. Holy no, great time to be
(40:05):
in the NFL. Man giving it the Rams front office
does not take no for an answer. What are your
thoughts regarding them potentially bringing Aaron Donald out of retirement.
(40:27):
He seems to have stayed in decent shape based on
workout videos and not having to wear and tear in
his body from the past few seasons could serve him well,
kind of like boxers who do a stit in prison
and come out fresher than when they went in. Also,
could they structure a contract with deferred payments to avoid
the short term capit or having to dump other salaries
(40:49):
like the Dodgers did with o'tani. I think this is
kind of out of their hands, you know this they
didn't want him to retire in the first place. Like
this is one of those they controlled, some of the
Miles Garrett thing because they could keep calling, they could
keep offering more. This kind of comes down to does
he want to do it or not? And it you know,
(41:11):
Schefter said this week he does you know some of
those videos that come out of his home gym of
him just like Incline pressing freeways like two hundred pounds each, guys,
fucking bricks. Shitouse he comes back. Shit, I don't know.
(41:32):
Kind of leads into this next question. I'm from Seattle
and trust John and Mike. Do you think they need
to make some moves after Miles Garrett trade and turn
the NFC West into an arms race, maybe picking up
someone like Joey Bosa. I think the forty nine ers
Seattle will do the same thing. I think they will
slow play it through the season, and you know, Seattle
(41:55):
plans on competing for the one seed. I think the
Niners are more of a wildcard team. But if you're
in the mix, you know exactly what you need. And
they pounced the trade deadline. Seattle did it last year
with Rashid's Shahid, who they re signed. I think they
will do that again at whatever position that they'll be
in the mix to get. And I think the forty
nine ers have proven over the years like they've made
(42:17):
a lot of trade deadline trades, but I think at
this point in time you can't really match them. It's
like what you know, Joey Bosa. Joey Bosa wasn't that
good last year. I think you're just kind of in
a wait and see mode. You gotta be kind of careful.
(42:40):
You kind of got to trust your own process. To me,
that's the key. You got to just kind of let
it ride and ease into it and then kind of
check out the landscape maybe five six games in, because
they're gonna be both be fun, especially Seattle unless the
offensive coordinators off, which is not nothing. Lifelong Cheese fan,
(43:06):
Are we seeing a Mahomes fall off? I get he's
been I guess there's been some personnel and scheme issues,
but it seemed like Brady could perform with anybody at
wide receiver. Patrick did not play well last year, but
I think a lot got put on his shoulders. Their
personnel was hit or miss and it kind of snowballed.
(43:27):
And a couple of years ago he was not playing
that well. Was it twenty twenty three? Remember they had
lost a bunch of games. He had thrown a bunch
of interceptions. They lost the Raiders on like Christmas Eve
or Christmas. It was Christmas. I was really hungover that day.
I remember watching in bed. I was deathly hungover, the
most hungover I've been in I mean, I don't really
get hungover as much anymore because I'm not drinking, not
(43:50):
by choice, just because I'm terrified to be hungover and
having to wake up in the middle of the night.
But I remember watching that game, like in the fetal
position of my back at my mom's house, and he
threw a pick six to h who was not Jason Jones,
but the corner who got in some trouble from Arizona State,
(44:12):
and then he kind of figured it out and they
won the playoff run and they beat the Bills in
the Ravens they win the Super Bowl. So I think
they have a lot of given why they gave that extension,
they have a lot of trust in him figuring it out,
and I think the easiest way to get him back
on track. You see the picture of Josh Simmons, the
dude they drafted from Ohio State. Guy looks like a
UFC fighter, right. He is jacked, and he's a guy
(44:35):
that would have been a top ten pick. There were
some question marks with him, you know, I think off
the field a little nothing terrible, not you know, Andy's
pretty liberal that way. But this wasn't that bad. It
wasn't Tyreek Hill or Shee Rice. But then he tore
his knee. He's got a chance to be Their offensive
line's got a chance to be good, and you get
the enemy back there with Kenneth Walker to me run
(44:57):
the ball, I asked, Andy, you're gonna lead the league
in rushing. He laughed because he knows I'm messing with
him because he likes to pass. I think they really
need to lean into the run, lean into the run
and let Spags get these young guys on defense. They'll
be back because double digital win team. But they need
Patrick to me. One thing Peyton and Tom could really do,
(45:18):
and this is sometimes a strength can turn into a
weakness because you know you have that in your back
pocket and that scramble ability, pull something out of your
ass and make a play. Tom Brady and Peyton Mannon
could not play like that. They didn't have the capability.
So they always had to be want to get rid
of the ball. If my offensive line's playing bad, if
(45:40):
I got shitty personnel, we just got to figure it out.
Patrick can just past the ball, run around, and I
think he just kind of got into some bad habits
last year, and Travis didn't play well. I mean, this
didn't play well. I wouldn't bet against Patrick Mahomes. If
(46:01):
you switch Stafford and Rogers with the Packers and the Lions,
does Stafford get more than one ring? And does Aaron
fall off a cliff when you mix in the type
of person he is with the dysfunction back when he
was in Detroit. I think the answer is yes to both.
I'll defend Aaron here in a lot of those years
(46:22):
with McCarthy when they had really, really good teams and
he was winning. You know, he won in ten, I
think he won what he win the MVP and eleven
in like fourteen, their defenses in eleven they lost to Kaepernick.
In the forty nine ers, their defense was atrocious. Their
defense was really bad. And I think the play calling
(46:43):
in the fourteen game against Seattle was pretty shitty too. Now,
I do think Aaron underachieved that year. The year they
should have won. It was against Tom in that NFC
championship game. That was bad. Those couple of years twenty
and twenty one. Where did Aaron win the MVP those
(47:04):
two years or twenty one and twenty two? I might
have my years a little off. That feels pretty disappointing.
But I Aaron, you know, I don't know if he's
always I think you change as a guy. So I
would say Stafford feels like he's been relatively consistent over
(47:25):
his career as a human being. But he had bad
habits too. You know, he got turnover Happy a couple
of years ago with Sean, So I think Aaron always
protected the ball a little bit better. But you could
make the argument he had better coaching. I mean he
had the Packers' infrastructure. Ed McCarthy, I think this under
sells Rogers a little bit. I think he would have
(47:47):
been pretty freaking good. You know, now, do they ever
change the mechanics and get him going right that McCarthy did,
he wouldn't have got to sit because coming out of
college is not even close. Stafford was infinitely better. I
mean Stafford. In my lifetime of watching football, like go
(48:09):
mid nineties to now, I would say the best prospect
over that time was Andrew Luck. I would say Peyton
Manning was pretty hype prospect, Caleb pretty freaking high. Crazy
is like Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes were not viewed
that way right. Roethlisberger was not viewed Tom Brady was
(48:30):
not viewed that way. I would say Stafford as a
prospect was viewed better as like Caleb cam Newton. Trying
to think of other years they had some big time guys.
I think he's viewed as one of the best prospects
(48:52):
of the Internet era coming out of Georgia. So yeah,
I think you put him with the Packers. I think
he equals Aaron's career, no doubt about it. Could it
be better maybe, but offense a lot of times was
not the Packers problem. I want to get your thoughts
(49:13):
on how well the Rams have kept these big moves
Simpson and Garrett under wraps, watching my Eagles be a
constant talking point everywhere, waiting for the Brown trade and
now it's not even quote the trade of the day.
I think the two situations are very unrelated, but somehow
have polar opposite media investigations despite us knowing the Browns
(49:33):
restructured Garrett's contract to move him. Is it just props
Rams and the Browns. Well, Aja became a huge story
because of him. He kept talking, he kept reading the books.
I respect I'm not the biggest Jalen Hurts fan. As
(49:55):
a player, he is as good at the podium as
anyone in the LEA history, cause he's kind of he
can kind of talk, but he doesn't really break character.
He's a more personable like Belichick. He doesn't give you anything.
And he was asked specifically about the AJ Brown situation.
It's like, God, this guy's it's like he's very serious.
(50:19):
He's not really gonna smile, but he's never gonna give
in and just allow. He was even asked about the
article that came out after the season about him fucking
up the plays or whatever, and he's like, yeah, I'm
just gonna let him live. And it'd be most guys.
I might have taken the bait I might have thrown.
(50:41):
I might have said, fuck these guys. Yeah, I got
some takes on this. I've been stewing. I'm sure he has,
but he doesn't. He's really good at the podium for
what a coach in an organization would want, but AJ
made it a big story. Miles Garrett was a huge
story last year when he begged to get traded and
they put a one hundred million dollars in front of
him and he signed it. So I think the Rams
(51:04):
and the Browns deserve a lot of credit. Being quiet
about moves that can blow up in your face matters.
You know, we talked to Andy about it last week.
I didn't hear I didn't hear a soul talk about
delaying to the Chiefs. Not a soul. No one talked
(51:24):
about Tys Simpson of the Rams, the Miles Garrett thing.
You know, Miles wanted to get traded. You know, once
he found out to go to the Rams, he wasn't
gonna tell a soul. Probably told his agent, you want
to make percentage off of my deal. You keep quiet, too, buddy,
because that's how a lot of stories get out. It's typically,
(51:46):
you know, not Howie or less Need calling Adam Schefter,
not saying they wouldn't to break a story. A lot
of time, the agents they'd be talking so and the
It's not often the players are hitting up like rap
sheet like, Hey, I think I might get traded, but
I don't want to go there leak this. I'm not
saying that has never happened. But yeah, I don't think
(52:13):
it's an indictment on the Eagles. With the AJ Brown situation,
he's the most traded player who ever lasted on a
team six months of the offseason that we'll ever see
because of the these gave him a huge extension. If
they hadn't, they would have traded him six months ago.
I know you've been fairly lukewarm on the twenty fourteen playoff.
(52:36):
One of your main points is the blowouts in the
first round. My pushback would be this, most twenty four
team playoff models have top eight with a buye. I
think this would actually make the first round more palatable
and weed out the weaker team for the second round.
A two way in for instance, and last year might
have gotten a BYU type team, which isn't super exciting,
(52:58):
but in a way more competitive than watching them play
Old miss or Oregon. Losing out on some solid fringe
top ten teams this year, like Vandy Notre Dame Texas
was disappointing. The bull system is so unwatchable at this
point that I think you got to lean in the
expanded playoff Listen. You bring up some good points. Notre
(53:19):
Dame was clearly one of the top five teams in
the country this year. I don't feel as much sympathy
for Texas Vandy. You go ten and two. They were
really good. Sixteen teams to me is enough. These teams
are all playing each other during the season. We do
(53:41):
not need twenty four teams. We just don't. I think
that's too many, especially in a world that is as
slanted as it is now with the money for the
big programs. So it's not a fair fight. You've seen
this recently in college basketball last couple of years. The
(54:03):
best teams have with all the money, are winning most
of the games in the tournament. They have a huge advantage.
Ohio State is gonna be fucking awesome every single year.
Oregon is gonna be awesome every single year. Now, they
might not win the championship, but they are locked playoff teams.
They're just spending too much money on their roster. Texas,
if their quarterback just plays decent, is gonna be in
(54:25):
the playoffs. They have more money than every team in
the SEC. So I hear Miami, same thing. They have
huge cash buying all these players. Twenty four to me
feels high because there's more. I think the D ONEA
does twenty four right in this scenario, you're saying, probably
(54:47):
fifteen teams can win it. I just don't believe that's
the case in college football right now. Good question. Appreciate everybody.
Have a great weekend doctor soon so you the volume
The volume. Today's show is brought to you by our
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Not gonna lie. I don't like the Knicks. I love
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currently on hard Rock Bet plus one sixty to win
(00:24):
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this series. I believe it's the next time, and obviously,
if you're gonna bet him to win the series, it's
hard to bet against Jalen Brunson being the MVP. We
(00:46):
have had some recent examples though, a couple of years ago,
Jalen Brown. I remember when Andrea Gudala won it. I think,
if you go, well, who could win the MVP if
it wasn't Jalen Brown. If you are Jalen Brunson, If
you wanted to get some odds, you know, Karl Anthony
Towns to one. OG's forty to one Bridges is one
hundred and fifty to one, so I think the safe
(01:07):
bet is Brunson, but they got a lot of firepower
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think this is New York's time. So same game parlays.
You want to bet Victor Webbin Yama triple double or
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(01:30):
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dal app Today, Let's get the party started. What is
(02:12):
going on my people? John Middlecock Three and Now podcast.
How are we doing? Hopefully everyone is doing well, living life,
enjoying life. And uh Sean Payton is because he just
got it with Patrick Mahomes yesterday. Sean Payton today. How
about the Knicks? What a game? Phil Micholson not having
(02:33):
a great day on this fugazi Friday. I'll tell you
that much, not at all. We'll do some mailbag questions
as well at John Middlecoff at John midlecoff as the
Instagram fire in those dms? What a couple of days?
Whoa what a week? Propabs the NFL though stories have
been flying in June. Sometimes this time of year get tough.
(02:53):
It's we've had a little action. It's it's about to
come to a screeching halt though, I'll promise you that,
so you guys know the drill. Listen on Collins Feed,
make sure you subscribe to three and now if you
want to watch this, we're up on Netflix. Go go
hit the alert button. You'll never miss a show. Let's
let's talk some sports. I guess we can just start.
Sean Payton got an extension, and you know, baseball. I
(03:18):
was grew up a diehard Giants fan. They they've kind
of been lost on me because they're so terrible. I
just don't have time with a kid to follow baseball
on a daily basis. And they're definitely not interesting or
good enough that are worthy of my time. I mean,
they are horrendous. But in twenty ten and twenty twelve
and twenty fourteen, the Giants were never the best team
(03:41):
on paper. They had timely pitching, timely hitting, and an
incredible Hall of Fame manager in Bruce Bochie, and baseball
no longer views the manager position as important. It's why
a lot of guys, I know, people that are pretty
close with Aaron Boone that said early on in his
Yankee tenure he had to take a major discount from
(04:04):
leaving ESPN. You know, this is the New York Yankees.
Now he's doing pretty well financially, but early on, like
the going right for some of these first time managers
isn't very much. You have coordinators in college Ohio States
paying Matt Patricia like three point seven million dollars. Signetti's
two coordinators are making a huge coin and the power
(04:28):
of a football coach. No one argues it from high
school to college to the pros. And Sean Payton is
a great example. Are the Denver Broncos guaranteed to win
a Super Bowl during his tenure? They are not, but
they are guaranteed to be relevant and they are guaranteed
to be in the playoff mix every single year because
(04:50):
before he showed up, when the Koubiak Peyton Manning era
came to an end, the franchise became a joke. It
lost its way. They went five and eleven, six and ten,
seven and nine, five and eleven, seven and ten, five
and twelve with Vance, Joseph vic Vangio and the Nate
(05:12):
Hackett experiment, and they had kind of become a low
point and luckily they get this new ownership that has
unlimited money and Sean Payton. Let's face it, quit on
the Saints and was available, but hiring Sean Payton immediately
made them relevant and he was able to pivot off
a major problem in Russell Wilson in that contract and
(05:36):
within two years of that, they're hosting the AFC Championship.
I think we can all be realistic and Patriot fans
would probably agree if they had their starting quarterback. I
think the Denver Broncos win that game. It was would
have been an ugly situation, given there was the you know,
ice storm thing that came through. But Jared Stidham, I
(05:58):
know Sean Payton ducked him up. Most teams would be
in a very very precarious situation when your quarterback breaks
his ankle the last play of the game. But Sean
Payton shows you the power. We talk a lot about
this with quarterbacks. You're not gonna be able to find
a Joe Burrow of Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, Right,
(06:20):
But if you get a dak if you get a
Jared Goff, if you get a Jalen Hurts, if you
get a Brock Purty, and you do a good job
of building your team, like you're gonna be good. And
most people are not. Bill Walsh, Bill Belichick or Andy Reid, right,
and obviously Sean Payton I kind of lump him. I
know he's won a Super Bowl, but like there is
(06:41):
a strong value in getting a guy who just knows
what he's doing, and to me, that is Sean Payton.
He's obviously pretty cocky, rubs some people the wrong way right,
pisses a lot of people off all around the league
constantly can be Ilois Argon. You know, even if fired
what was said to be his best friend on the
(07:02):
staff last year, I think it's pretty clear because they
didn't want to lose Davis Webb. But you can't argue
that he immediately gets hired, they give him the keys
of the car, and three years later he's got them
in the Indy five hundred. And that is the value
of star coaching in college football and the NFL, because
(07:23):
I think if you're a Giants fan, you look at
the situation in Denver and that's all you want. That
there's no guarantee that you're ever going to win a
Super Bowl again and have those ELI runs with Tom Coughlin.
But if John Harbaugh can bring you the credibility and
within a couple of years get you to be I
don't know, thirty two and nineteen over his first three years,
(07:46):
you will sign the bleep up for that, right Because
let's face the other thing, Sean Payton, it's not like
he's struck oil with bo Nicks. We got a lot
of question marks on him as a player. He had
some incredible moments lat in games, he also in a
lot of those games look like one of the worst
quarterbacks in the league. So I think Sean Payton's he resurrected,
(08:10):
you know, the Broncos. There's no disputing it, and he
gets a massive contract extension, which I'm sure makes him
one of, if not the highest paid coaches in the league.
And I think if you're a Denver Bronco fan, you're
pretty happy with the way things are going because coming
into this season, there's a path for you to win
Super Bowl and that could not be said once Peyton
(08:31):
Manning's arms stopped working and you got Vance Joseph vic
Fangio and the Nate Hackets situation. You can say that
now and that feels good. And that's the power of
getting a star coach. And that's what the Denver Broncos have.
Speaking of stars, the New York Knicks, I've watched every
(08:52):
dribble of this series and I almost turned it off
last time, like they're gonna come back, And turns out,
my producer Shane Diehard, Nicks fan bet them at halftime
plus seventeen hundred. I said, honestly, Bro, that's one of
the best bets I've ever heard of, because one thing
to bet on a huge flyer. I've hit some golf
bets that are, you know, twenty thirty to one, but
(09:14):
like I'm betting them before the tournament starts. I usually
don't live bet guys who are ten shots back heading
into Saturday. I don't know. A soul would have been like, yeah,
I think the Knick's gonna win at halftime. But I
was thinking about you know, Bobby Knight had this famous
saying that dumb loses more game games than smart wins,
(09:36):
and I think there's a lot of truth to that,
and I think that was on full display in the
Knicks game. Right Let's face it, dearon Fox, you just
ran out the clock. And even he said after the game, like,
you know, I thought I could beat him down the
court and thought I'd get an easy layup. It's like, well,
you know, I get you're a great athlete, but last
time I checked, Oja Ananobe's pretty elite athlete. And when
(09:56):
you watch the replay of the block on the layup,
you watch that guy stride for stride. He is covering
some serious fucking ground, but they won the game. You know,
basketball has a lot of parallels to football. Chemistry matters,
toughness matters, role players matter, adjustments matter, playing smart matters.
(10:21):
You know team, you know the team. Basketball. Obviously, football
you're very dependent on other people. If I was an
NFL football coach, I would use that play of him
sprinting towards the basket, leaping in the air. That's I
haven't seen every tip in in the history of basketball.
(10:45):
If you factor in the finals, that's got to be
one of the greatest plays I've ever seen. I mean,
obviously there's been great shots or great defensive plays throughout
the history of the NBA, but just in terms of
tip ins and how that went down, I would show
that to my NFL team and be like, this is
(11:05):
what effort is. This is what not giving up on
a play is. This is the little things that we
talk about. Twenty four seven, three sixty five. Because the
Knicks won that game, huge reason, Darren Fox did one
of the dumbest things you'll ever see. But because one
of their best players, not their star player, that's Jalen Brunson,
(11:28):
not their highest paid player. That's Karl Anthony Towns, but
a guy that you know, the Golden State Warriors could
have had, but they refused to change. Jonathan kaminga for
him back in the day, just made an incredible playoff effort.
And I think sometimes you know, this is why coaches
going back to high school sports and they say it
even once you're a professional. We talk a lot about
(11:51):
real life here in business and different industries that we're
all in the amount of a gap that you can
make up against your competition, against people that you know
you're trying to pass within your own company or whatever,
just by sure consistent effort is pretty amazing. What's the
(12:13):
old adage, you know, half the battles just showing up.
You'll just pass people if you just consistently show up.
There's a lot of truth to that now once you
get into competitive industries that there's a lot of other
successful and ambitious people everyone's showing up. So I don't
know if that always rings true, but if you just
consistently try hard at whatever you're doing, you might not
(12:37):
be the most talented. Obviously, there are certain vocations that
like you can try to go into music if you
can't sing like it's probably not gonna work out, but
for most of us, effort will take us a long way.
And in football, that is extremely true. Max Crosby became
one of the best players in the NFL. Not because
(12:58):
he's the fastest, not because he's the strongest. I mean,
he has high end attributes, but I wouldn't compare him
to like Miles Garrett. I wouldn't say that he could
bend the edge like von Miller. I wouldn't say that
he has the raw power of a Khalil Mack or
a Reggie White because when he is healthy, no guy,
and he has played the majority of his career on
(13:21):
a very shitty team, plays as consistently as hard. Before
Andy Reid came on the show, probably a month ago,
we were texting and I just brought up Max Crosby
because I think the trade had This was before he
got traded, and he was like, he's like my favorite
player in the league. And I bet if you just
asked offensive coaches around the league that just go up
(13:43):
against Max Crosby, they fucking love him because the number
one thing coaches And I'm gonna do this as a father,
it's just like try hard if you try hard. I
look back sometimes when I was a kid, like I
didn't try that hard. My parents my dad should have
kicked mind ass. It's like, what are you doing? What
a waste? Why are you even doing this? And you know,
(14:06):
and basketball during the regular season has a huge, huge,
you know, kind of uphill battle of the narrative that
people just don't try hard. I mean it's true. I
mean you ever just turn on a random NBA regular
season game in January. It don't look great all the time.
They definitely don't look like the playoffs. And that moment,
just from a sure athleticism standpoint, was just a beautiful
(14:27):
thing to watch. But it kind of all comes down
to effort and want to I mean, I mean truly.
And if you think about a lot of the guys
that thrive in football, like you watch Puka Nakua play,
I would say a huge part of this game is
like and I had a wide receiver coach, tell me
this is the combines thing. I don't think anyone in
(14:47):
the NFL. And this is why it's hard to project
like his fifteen year career, but like his greatest skills,
no one plays as hard every single snap as that
guy at wide receiver. It's George Kittle's extremely talented player.
His effort level is a ten out of ten. The
(15:08):
Texans and Will Anderson extremely talent. That guy plays as
hard as anyone in the league. And in part of
playing hard, because this goes back to a Jimmy Johnson
thing is fatigue makes cowards of us all, and I
think that works for I know sometimes you know, I've
(15:31):
seen it with this baby. I'm just not sleeping that much,
and sometimes I just have a bad mindset and kind
of just become like a pussy. I just maybe I'll
text him say I'm not gonna do a podcast today.
And it's not because I don't like what I'm doing.
It's not because I don't know if it takes this
because I'm exhausted, and when you are doing something physical,
if you are fatigued, the first time you tap out.
(15:54):
I was just talking to a dude in the sauna today.
Somehow UFC came up and I was talking to him
about this event this weekend at the White House, and
I'm like, is this thing outside? I'm like, is this
isn't DC? I've been there a couple of times. Isn't
it pretty hot and humid there. But he's fighting outside
and this guy was a big UFC guy. He's like yeah,
(16:16):
he's like, uh, some of the guys are gonna be gassed.
Like it's a big difference fighting in an arena where
it's sixty eight degrees than being outside in the heat
and the humidity. Could be wrong on that, but I'm
pretty sure I've seen some pictures not a big UFC guy,
pretty big factor, you know. Uh, And you just it's
amazing how far, even at the highest level of sports,
(16:41):
effort will go, Isn't it crazy? You know, eventually Jack
will play little league and flag football and golf or whatever,
you know, when he's young getting into sports, and the
number one thing all these coaches are gonna take just like,
hey man, you gotta work at it. You gotta try hard,
and a lot of it goes in one ear and
out the other, even going back to like once you
(17:01):
get to high school and if you think about it,
that never stops. I've been around coaches in college football
in the NFL, like everyone gets on to keep playing hard.
Run through the whistle, run through the ten yard line,
run through the tap, whatever, and you gotta keep harping
on it. Some guys just kind of naturally have it
in him, And you know, I think at this point
(17:24):
in time and safe say, the Knicks are going to
win this series, and it's all gonna come down to
of like their effort by one guy who didn't give
up a play on defense and obviously didn't give up
a play on offense in a real time it was
probably four or five minutes, but in the in the
course of fifteen seconds of the game and save their
(17:45):
fucking season purely on effort, purely on effort, little skill,
I mean, and obviously his physical attributy even if he
would have tried as hard if he had been a
six foot three player, wouldn't have been the same. But incredible,
that was That was awesome speaking of something that's not awesome.
(18:26):
You're like, John, this is a football podcast. I just
saw some other things I want to talk about. This
feels like one of the lowest moments I've ever seen
for a human being. I'm not like a I was
a Tiger Woods guy, but I was always pro Phil Mickelson.
You know, I would say the same thing early on.
I was more of a Peyton guy than a Tom guy.
(18:46):
But as I aged and got it more into football
and then worked in it, like I really admire and
appreciate both of them. It's like, who are you now
a Tom Brady or Peyton Mann and guy, it's like
love them both. I kind of felt that way about
Phil and Tiger, right, It's like, I'm not anti either,
you know. It's like I love Tiger, but I'm pro Phil.
I root for Phil. The story that came out today
(19:11):
is one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen
for one of the most legendary golfers in the history
of the sport, for his home country club in San Diego.
There was a report today that he did something in
the clubhouse to a woman that was inappropriate that worked
(19:35):
at the course and then went out to play golf,
and it was so bad that she started saying something.
They looked into it, and before his round ended, they
came and got him on the course and told him
he had to leave the property and then kicked him
out of the country club. This story broke probably six
(19:57):
seven hours ago. The more I've thought about today, it's
that's fucking insane. I've heard rumblings over the years by
different people of like so and so got kicked out
of a country club, which is really hard to do.
You have to do something really stupid. But for them
to pull the trigger on kicking the hometown superstar, all
(20:23):
time great player out of the club, I don't think
this is something random. And Phil is you know, his
career has been derailed once he went to live. Tiger's
gone through some shit. He rolled his car on a
residential street where I think the speed limb is like
twenty five thirty miles an hour while he's sucking down
(20:45):
Quaylude's percocet and who knows what else. I think this
is ten times worse when any factor entirely didn't anybody
and this couple car crashes victimless crime beside him obviously
more you know, people could died in Tiger's thing, but
given that no one got hit this last time, I
(21:06):
feel like this is way worse from how do you
ever shake this? You know? I think we all look
at Tiger and think, like, can the guy kick his pills?
When we look at Phil now you think all times scumbag.
You've always you know, I know enough people in the
golfing world. There have been rumors he has like a
little shoot him or gavin to him. Unless I've heard
(21:28):
the same thing about different football players over the years.
Sometimes you hear a story about a guy who is
poortrayed one way, you know, in any of these sports.
I mean, I've heard stories about people. I don't know
if they're true or not, but it's like you almost
want to believe it because you're like, that would be
insane if people found this out, but they you know,
(21:49):
NBA's I don't know, this is I just don't know
how you ever recover from this. You know, it's one thing,
and listen, this is sad, but all the you know,
there were like three different guys they got domestic violence
arrested over the last three weeks. You know, the tackle
over a couple of days ago with the RAMS, it's like,
(22:10):
oh tackle, It's like, well, maybe he's a scumbag whatever,
but I'm sure if he doesn't get in trouble, they'll
put him in left tackle. They won't care. The story
would have hit a little harder if it was MATD Stafford, right,
but you'd say it wouldn't be mad Stafford because it
wouldn't just like I would have been like, this gonna
be Phil Mickelson. Yeah. I almost had to read this
story twice. I just I don't see how you ever
(22:33):
shaked that, Like, how do you ever shake that you
got kicked out of a country club for doing whatever
you did before you went to play. It'd be one thing,
it's like, hey, man, they had this tournament, they had
this huge party, booze was flying. Phil fucking crossed the line.
(22:54):
It's like bad luck. You'd have been like, God, damn,
that ain't good. I was like, this is happen in
the middle of the day. The other thing is like, bro,
you're fifty five. Let's just assume younger woman. She might
have no fucking clue who you are. Besides, some old
creep probably didn't hesitate to turn you in because she
(23:14):
doesn't know who the fuck you are. This is I
don't know, man, that's that might be an Alzheimer for me.
Phil Mickelson got kicked out of his home course for
doing something with a chick that worked at the club
before he teed off. Did he show up at the
course drunk? He do this sober? I need to know
(23:38):
more details before we do the mailbag. My Feugazi Friday
is you know, before I met Maria. She she owned
a house in Chandler, Arizona, and she lived there. And
then by the time I met her, she had rented
it out and she had moved to Scottsdale because she
(23:59):
was doing the statement in this area and she was
just renting the place out. And since I've known her,
she's rented out through a property management company and she
gets calls once every like three four months. Pool issue,
pool issue, this broke, this broke, this needs is the
chemicals are off, pool needs to be drained. She's like,
(24:20):
this thing is such a pain in the ass. And
then since I've got here, we had to redo the pool,
which wasn't cheap. We didn't have to redo it, but
if we wanted to use especially the spa was broken.
The equipment didn't work, so it was kind of all intertwined.
We do that immediately, it looks cool. And then we
got a wasp problem. Might have found the wasp nest
(24:42):
in front of my house. We got a guy coming
out here to remove it. Hopefully that's them. Are they
flying around? I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But then the
other day my guy Dave, who's who did the pool reconstruction, comes,
you know, once a week to do the chemicals or whatever.
And I see him. I'm walking to the office and
he's like, John, I need to talk to you. I'm like,
(25:05):
you know, I'm just like I didn't pay the bill
or something. And he's like, filters down. Do not go
back to the equipment room. It can blow up. Like what.
He's like, yeah, He's like, your filter's broken. I'm like,
didn't we replace that with all the stuff? And then
he kind of reminded me. He's like, no, we didn't
(25:25):
replace it because it was relatively new, you know, within
four or five years old. I'm like, well, what's that
going to cost. He's like, oh, probably eighteen hundred two
grand I'm like what. And I was thinking about I
don't even use the pool that much. I live in Arizona. Now,
maybe I would more if Jack was a little bit older.
(25:49):
And I'm sure we will, but I saw someone on
Instagram say that like, pools are a little like boats
that you're so excited to get it, and then you
get it and you realize it is just really expensive.
Things can go wrong. Obviously, they're huge liabilities and something
goes wrong. I think if we got a growing family
(26:11):
and need to upsize a little bit for the house.
I'd be fine, would not getting pool? I mean that
they are a major pain. They and they are extremely expensive.
And it's almost like a car because I've heard some
people say this that I was asking my brother about
this that car warranties. You know, back in the day.
(26:32):
I still have a twenty eleven Tahoe. I never have
issues with it. Well now, all the cars, well Maria has.
Somehow my wife got a brand new car before I did,
which she needs. We got to keep her safe. These
new cars are basically a computer, right, so you get
it in twenty twenty six, Taho, you get in twenty
twenty six, twenty five, twenty four, twenty three, any of
(26:54):
these cars. They are very computer based, So lifetime warranties
on these cars. Her brother, who had like a twenty
twenty two, you know, Chevy ES seventy one or you
know Sierra truck, had an issue and his warranty had
just ended and he didn't get the extended warranty because
I didn't get I didn't. I'd always denied extended warranties too,
(27:16):
Like this is gonna cost seventeen thousand dollars. So all
these cars are so expensive. You need these extended warranties
because they're all computers. So you go into some of
these maintenance shops. The dude that used to have no
problem getting under the Ford f one fifty and nineteen
ninety seven, you need to call like Elon and Company
to figure out some of these cars and their the
(27:37):
fucking price has skyrocketed to fix them. So it's like,
be careful out there, man. You want to pool, and
in theory, they're awesome and they kind of look good.
I'm like the Zillo picks. That's where they really hit hard.
Look good on a Zilo pick. If I just did
like an Instagram live and sat in my outdoor patio
(27:58):
with the pool behind and my my Baja shelf chairs
and the umbrella up, you'd be like, middle coff, pool
looks sweet. I'm like, yeah, you want me to send
you the fucking invoice, and you get attacked by wass
trying to get in this bad boy. So I sometimes
things are overrated. I remember being a kid, I was like,
what our backyard wasn't was was long, it wasn't that wide,
(28:22):
so it would have been hard to put a pool.
But I remember being kind of young and thinking like
got it be? I wish we had a pool, And
then I remember like my friends that did we go
over there, go up to like whatever the main pools
that we used. My parents were probably smart, but I
never even they never would have. But it's like makes
(28:42):
life a lot easier. It really does. Let's do some
mailbag questions at John Middlecoff at John Middlecoff is the
Instagram fire in those DMS question here on the podcast.
Everything's so expensive these days scene. I don't even want
to say what's going to cost to get this wasp
(29:04):
ness removed? I would do it myself, but it's it's
on my front walkway, like twenty five feet in the air,
so there is no way. Even the tallest ladder I own,
I don't even think i'd get remotely close. I if
I did, if they attacked, I jump fall, break a leg.
(29:27):
How you know we got a young child? How can
I carry him around if I go down injured? I
even think the powerful raid stuff I have, I'm not
even sure it'll hit it. It couldn't be in a
worse spot. I mean I had to call and get
help to get it removed because it's so high up there.
(29:48):
Love the show. Have a quick mailbag question. You think
Mahomes plus one seventy five to win Comeback Player of
the Year is the biggest lock of all locks, considering
he can stay healthy. The league loves him and favors quarterbacks.
I think they changed the rule pretty recently to if
you just suck now he doesn't suck, but for his
(30:09):
standards was not good last year, and then are good.
It's they want you to vote for a guy that
was injured and missed the season. You know, Mahomes played
the majority of the season. To me, Mahomes would be
a lock, or I mean a heavy heavy, like it
would be a smart bet if you told me he
got hurt Week two and they went six and eleven
(30:29):
because they had no quarterback. A lot of those losses.
I mean he was a part of I think I'd
have to look around the league. Of all the injured
guys returning like George Kittle, George Kittle towards Achilles the
last game of a season, I would say Bosa would
be a guy that missed the majority of the season.
Malak neighbors a little bit of a risky because he
(30:52):
might not be healthy, but to me, it's got to
be a guy that missed the majority of the year
with an injury. Rashawn Slater, like, what if he's just
like the best tackle in football miss the entire season.
To me, it's harder for offensive linemen, but it's in
that world. I don't think Mahomes missed enough time with
(31:13):
an injury. You said the NFL can't expand because they're
not enough quarterbacks. I disagree. There are less than ten
elite quarterbacks today, but nobody suggests shrinking to ten teams.
College football is slightly hugely entertaining despite having much less
quarterback talent, and the talent market already balances itself out.
(31:34):
Elite quarterbacks take up a huge shriff salary cap, leaving
less talent elsewhere. And it's not just quarterback talent to
get spread out. Defensive talent does too. Quarterback play might
decline slightly, but so would pass rushers and secondaries. Expansion
also creates opportunities for more players like the Brady's Dax
Purdies who weren't expected to become stars. Let me piggyback
(31:59):
on what you're saying. If they added two teams there
would be enough players to go around. I think the
better argument there are enough quarterbacks, and they're currently aren't.
I mean, there are gonna be a lot of bad
teams that don't have good quarterbacks this year. What cities
are gonna put them in? There's not a major city
(32:19):
that we're not a part of. In some of the
major cities, we have multiple teams, So I don't see
an area, you know, for basketball that is thirty teams.
There are a couple of markets that the NFL is
in that they're not Seattle, Vegas, Nashville, So you could
(32:40):
easily pivot. Now you could, I guess you could move Memphis.
Who Lebron got fucking skewered for telling Bodda's Sports that
he hates Memphis. I forwarded this article that Ethan Strauss
when I saw it. The Athletic a couple of weeks ago,
(33:01):
or maybe like a month ago did a poll of like,
you know, your favorite cities, favorite places to eat, best
players in the league, of just a player's poll in
the NBA, Memphis was by far their least favorite city.
They hated Memphis. It's like, guys, we're allowed to say
what everyone thinks out loud. We don't have to pretend
(33:21):
all the fucking time Lebron getting killed for that was
a fucking joke. The entire league hates playing there. It's
okay to say that out loud. The players had no
problem telling the Athletic because it was an anonymous survey.
At this point, Lebron doesn't give a shit either. I
also a story that the Warriors might let they want
Lebron to sign, they might let him live in LA
(33:43):
and commute. Now it's like, yeah, on a private jet
or taking forty five minutes that it sounds way crazier
than it is to me. It's the cities. There aren't
cities that the that the NFL wants in on unless
you wanted to go international. And then the argument international
is logistics, but you are I won't argue with there
(34:08):
are enough players to go around. There would be obviously
probably shittier teams, But yeah, the biggest issue is the
cities if you're not going international. Just question for the pod,
just curious. Do you prep for questions you answer or
is everything off the top of your head. I feel
(34:30):
like the Pro Bowl is the biggest fugazi in the NFL.
If you get into the Pro Bowl just because another
player declined doesn't still count as making it. Who'd I
see the other day it might have been Andrew Berry
with verse talking about his two Pro Bowls being real
Pro Bowls. I think in the league and I try
(34:52):
to do this. Shador Sanders wasn't a Pro bowler, right,
Josh Allen was a Pro bowler, So even though both
guys went to the Pro Bowl, but I mean Josh
didn't play in it. I think you're viewed now if
you're an original Pro bowler Miles Garrett, right, JSN Puka whoever,
(35:14):
that is not the same as the guys that end
up playing the flag football game. So if you count that,
the problem is Wikipedia it does not like, for example,
I think you can find quarterbacks, cousins, car guys like
that who've been to the Pro Bowl like four or
five times. I was like, they weren't actually first ballot
Pro Bowlers. One of the things is, and that shows
(35:40):
you when guys get this rich is twenty thirty years ago,
if you did not make the Super Bowl, you went
to the Pro Bowl because it was a free vacation
to Hawaii for your family. It was fun. Google the
Pro Bowl rosters in like ninety seven, two thousand and two,
they all went, oh, Steve Young, Brett Farv, you know,
(36:02):
Deon Sanders. They didn't skip the Pro Bowl. Now you
can't pay guys to show up, Well you can, and
they just go to radio row. They don't play in
the Pro Bowl game. When you become rich, you can
say no to a lot of things. Prep for the
I do it, you know, like I screenshot the question
(36:22):
so something I don't know, like the question about the
comeback player of the Year. I googled that before because
I'm like, then they changed the rule and they did
this next question I had looked up previously. A lot
of these I just they're just kind of asking my opinion,
and if I don't know, if they ask a specific question,
I'll pull it up while I'm answering the question. But yeah,
(36:45):
most of it is off the top of my head. Again,
I don't know that much in life besides sports football,
so it's pretty easy for me to kind of just
rift on something question about what do you think about
the backers? You know, I'm not being like what he
aerospace engineering questionnaire? When you watched Bezos's rocket? What degree
(37:12):
you know this isn't this isn't that serious? See, this
was a question that I've been asked because I had
looked it up recently after he got the contract. Is
question for the bag? Is it me? Or is this
the greatest time in history to be a wide receiver?
Christian Watson just got one hundred and ten million dollars
(37:34):
and he has two hundred He has twenty two hundred
yards and twenty touchdowns in four years. One hundred and
ten million to a guy who, if he sneezes too hard,
will rip a hamstring or sprain. I'm not gonna say
the word, he said out loud. Make it make sense. Please.
You know what's funny is when he signed this contract,
I was like, what are his stats? I don't remember
(37:56):
him being like a seventy five catch guy his career year.
Now his contract, it's not one hundred and ten million dollars,
you know. I think the guaranteed wise, it was much
smaller than that. Let me see if I can pull
up the numbers. He got a thirty one million dollars
(38:18):
signing bonus, so his guarantee is much much smaller than
one hundred and ten million dollars. But his career year
was twenty twenty two, forty one catches and seven touchdowns.
He's been banged up a lot, like twenty eight, twenty
(38:39):
nine to thirty five. Those aren't the ages of the
women he's dating. Those are his receptions in the last
three years. He there is no disputing his speed when healthy,
and he changes their offense. Some of these contracts that
are given out are kind of a projection in bold.
(39:01):
Even like her Big, I like him a lot with
the Steelers. He's never been a full time starter. He's
a backup now, I get it. But it also shows
you this. If I was an older NFL player, like
a guy that was like sixty, I might be kind
of bitter and resentful these guys. It's why it's like
(39:21):
these old NBA guys are so angry. It's like, yeah,
they see you getting two hundred and fifty million dollars.
The fucking guys who can't even make an All Star team.
I would be too. It's just it's just human nature.
Some of these contracts get they gotta pay some guys.
They clearly like the guy, and I think you know,
in the Shanahan offense, if you can get the guy
(39:45):
to spread the field as a speed guy. It really
opens up some stuff. But I mean his last two
years he has twenty nine and thirty five catches, eight
total touchdowns. He's fast. Holy no, great time to be
(40:05):
in the NFL. Man giving it the Rams front office
does not take no for an answer. What are your
thoughts regarding them potentially bringing Aaron Donald out of retirement.
(40:27):
He seems to have stayed in decent shape based on
workout videos and not having to wear and tear in
his body from the past few seasons could serve him well,
kind of like boxers who do a stit in prison
and come out fresher than when they went in. Also,
could they structure a contract with deferred payments to avoid
the short term capit or having to dump other salaries
(40:49):
like the Dodgers did with o'tani. I think this is
kind of out of their hands, you know this they
didn't want him to retire in the first place. Like
this is one of those they controlled, some of the
Miles Garrett thing because they could keep calling, they could
keep offering more. This kind of comes down to does
he want to do it or not? And it you know,
(41:11):
Schefter said this week he does you know some of
those videos that come out of his home gym of
him just like Incline pressing freeways like two hundred pounds each, guys,
fucking bricks. Shitouse he comes back. Shit, I don't know.
(41:32):
Kind of leads into this next question. I'm from Seattle
and trust John and Mike. Do you think they need
to make some moves after Miles Garrett trade and turn
the NFC West into an arms race, maybe picking up
someone like Joey Bosa. I think the forty nine ers
Seattle will do the same thing. I think they will
slow play it through the season, and you know, Seattle
(41:55):
plans on competing for the one seed. I think the
Niners are more of a wildcard team. But if you're
in the mix, you know exactly what you need. And
they pounced the trade deadline. Seattle did it last year
with Rashid's Shahid, who they re signed. I think they
will do that again at whatever position that they'll be
in the mix to get. And I think the forty
nine ers have proven over the years like they've made
(42:17):
a lot of trade deadline trades, but I think at
this point in time you can't really match them. It's
like what you know, Joey Bosa. Joey Bosa wasn't that
good last year. I think you're just kind of in
a wait and see mode. You gotta be kind of careful.
(42:40):
You kind of got to trust your own process. To me,
that's the key. You got to just kind of let
it ride and ease into it and then kind of
check out the landscape maybe five six games in, because
they're gonna be both be fun, especially Seattle unless the
offensive coordinators off, which is not nothing. Lifelong Cheese fan,
(43:06):
Are we seeing a Mahomes fall off? I get he's
been I guess there's been some personnel and scheme issues,
but it seemed like Brady could perform with anybody at
wide receiver. Patrick did not play well last year, but
I think a lot got put on his shoulders. Their
personnel was hit or miss and it kind of snowballed.
(43:27):
And a couple of years ago he was not playing
that well. Was it twenty twenty three? Remember they had
lost a bunch of games. He had thrown a bunch
of interceptions. They lost the Raiders on like Christmas Eve
or Christmas. It was Christmas. I was really hungover that day.
I remember watching in bed. I was deathly hungover, the
most hungover I've been in I mean, I don't really
get hungover as much anymore because I'm not drinking, not
(43:50):
by choice, just because I'm terrified to be hungover and
having to wake up in the middle of the night.
But I remember watching that game, like in the fetal
position of my back at my mom's house, and he
threw a pick six to h who was not Jason Jones,
but the corner who got in some trouble from Arizona State,
(44:12):
and then he kind of figured it out and they
won the playoff run and they beat the Bills in
the Ravens they win the Super Bowl. So I think
they have a lot of given why they gave that extension,
they have a lot of trust in him figuring it out,
and I think the easiest way to get him back
on track. You see the picture of Josh Simmons, the
dude they drafted from Ohio State. Guy looks like a
UFC fighter, right. He is jacked, and he's a guy
(44:35):
that would have been a top ten pick. There were
some question marks with him, you know, I think off
the field a little nothing terrible, not you know, Andy's
pretty liberal that way. But this wasn't that bad. It
wasn't Tyreek Hill or Shee Rice. But then he tore
his knee. He's got a chance to be Their offensive
line's got a chance to be good, and you get
the enemy back there with Kenneth Walker to me run
(44:57):
the ball, I asked, Andy, you're gonna lead the league
in rushing. He laughed because he knows I'm messing with
him because he likes to pass. I think they really
need to lean into the run, lean into the run
and let Spags get these young guys on defense. They'll
be back because double digital win team. But they need
Patrick to me. One thing Peyton and Tom could really do,
(45:18):
and this is sometimes a strength can turn into a
weakness because you know you have that in your back
pocket and that scramble ability, pull something out of your
ass and make a play. Tom Brady and Peyton Mannon
could not play like that. They didn't have the capability.
So they always had to be want to get rid
of the ball. If my offensive line's playing bad, if
(45:40):
I got shitty personnel, we just got to figure it out.
Patrick can just past the ball, run around, and I
think he just kind of got into some bad habits
last year, and Travis didn't play well. I mean, this
didn't play well. I wouldn't bet against Patrick Mahomes. If
(46:01):
you switch Stafford and Rogers with the Packers and the Lions,
does Stafford get more than one ring? And does Aaron
fall off a cliff when you mix in the type
of person he is with the dysfunction back when he
was in Detroit. I think the answer is yes to both.
I'll defend Aaron here in a lot of those years
(46:22):
with McCarthy when they had really, really good teams and
he was winning. You know, he won in ten, I
think he won what he win the MVP and eleven
in like fourteen, their defenses in eleven they lost to Kaepernick.
In the forty nine ers, their defense was atrocious. Their
defense was really bad. And I think the play calling
(46:43):
in the fourteen game against Seattle was pretty shitty too. Now,
I do think Aaron underachieved that year. The year they
should have won. It was against Tom in that NFC
championship game. That was bad. Those couple of years twenty
and twenty one. Where did Aaron win the MVP those
(47:04):
two years or twenty one and twenty two? I might
have my years a little off. That feels pretty disappointing.
But I Aaron, you know, I don't know if he's
always I think you change as a guy. So I
would say Stafford feels like he's been relatively consistent over
(47:25):
his career as a human being. But he had bad
habits too. You know, he got turnover Happy a couple
of years ago with Sean, So I think Aaron always
protected the ball a little bit better. But you could
make the argument he had better coaching. I mean he
had the Packers' infrastructure. Ed McCarthy, I think this under
sells Rogers a little bit. I think he would have
(47:47):
been pretty freaking good. You know, now, do they ever
change the mechanics and get him going right that McCarthy did,
he wouldn't have got to sit because coming out of
college is not even close. Stafford was infinitely better. I
mean Stafford. In my lifetime of watching football, like go
(48:09):
mid nineties to now, I would say the best prospect
over that time was Andrew Luck. I would say Peyton
Manning was pretty hype prospect, Caleb pretty freaking high. Crazy
is like Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes were not viewed
that way right. Roethlisberger was not viewed Tom Brady was
(48:30):
not viewed that way. I would say Stafford as a
prospect was viewed better as like Caleb cam Newton. Trying
to think of other years they had some big time guys.
I think he's viewed as one of the best prospects
(48:52):
of the Internet era coming out of Georgia. So yeah,
I think you put him with the Packers. I think
he equals Aaron's career, no doubt about it. Could it
be better maybe, but offense a lot of times was
not the Packers problem. I want to get your thoughts
(49:13):
on how well the Rams have kept these big moves
Simpson and Garrett under wraps, watching my Eagles be a
constant talking point everywhere, waiting for the Brown trade and
now it's not even quote the trade of the day.
I think the two situations are very unrelated, but somehow
have polar opposite media investigations despite us knowing the Browns
(49:33):
restructured Garrett's contract to move him. Is it just props
Rams and the Browns. Well, Aja became a huge story
because of him. He kept talking, he kept reading the books.
I respect I'm not the biggest Jalen Hurts fan. As
(49:55):
a player, he is as good at the podium as
anyone in the LEA history, cause he's kind of he
can kind of talk, but he doesn't really break character.
He's a more personable like Belichick. He doesn't give you anything.
And he was asked specifically about the AJ Brown situation.
It's like, God, this guy's it's like he's very serious.
(50:19):
He's not really gonna smile, but he's never gonna give
in and just allow. He was even asked about the
article that came out after the season about him fucking
up the plays or whatever, and he's like, yeah, I'm
just gonna let him live. And it'd be most guys.
I might have taken the bait I might have thrown.
(50:41):
I might have said, fuck these guys. Yeah, I got
some takes on this. I've been stewing. I'm sure he has,
but he doesn't. He's really good at the podium for
what a coach in an organization would want, but AJ
made it a big story. Miles Garrett was a huge
story last year when he begged to get traded and
they put a one hundred million dollars in front of
him and he signed it. So I think the Rams
(51:04):
and the Browns deserve a lot of credit. Being quiet
about moves that can blow up in your face matters.
You know, we talked to Andy about it last week.
I didn't hear I didn't hear a soul talk about
delaying to the Chiefs. Not a soul. No one talked
(51:24):
about Tys Simpson of the Rams, the Miles Garrett thing.
You know, Miles wanted to get traded. You know, once
he found out to go to the Rams, he wasn't
gonna tell a soul. Probably told his agent, you want
to make percentage off of my deal. You keep quiet, too, buddy,
because that's how a lot of stories get out. It's typically,
(51:46):
you know, not Howie or less Need calling Adam Schefter,
not saying they wouldn't to break a story. A lot
of time, the agents they'd be talking so and the
It's not often the players are hitting up like rap
sheet like, Hey, I think I might get traded, but
I don't want to go there leak this. I'm not
saying that has never happened. But yeah, I don't think
(52:13):
it's an indictment on the Eagles. With the AJ Brown situation,
he's the most traded player who ever lasted on a
team six months of the offseason that we'll ever see
because of the these gave him a huge extension. If
they hadn't, they would have traded him six months ago.
I know you've been fairly lukewarm on the twenty fourteen playoff.
(52:36):
One of your main points is the blowouts in the
first round. My pushback would be this, most twenty four
team playoff models have top eight with a buye. I
think this would actually make the first round more palatable
and weed out the weaker team for the second round.
A two way in for instance, and last year might
have gotten a BYU type team, which isn't super exciting,
(52:58):
but in a way more competitive than watching them play
Old miss or Oregon. Losing out on some solid fringe
top ten teams this year, like Vandy Notre Dame Texas
was disappointing. The bull system is so unwatchable at this
point that I think you got to lean in the
expanded playoff Listen. You bring up some good points. Notre
(53:19):
Dame was clearly one of the top five teams in
the country this year. I don't feel as much sympathy
for Texas Vandy. You go ten and two. They were
really good. Sixteen teams to me is enough. These teams
are all playing each other during the season. We do
(53:41):
not need twenty four teams. We just don't. I think
that's too many, especially in a world that is as
slanted as it is now with the money for the
big programs. So it's not a fair fight. You've seen
this recently in college basketball last couple of years. The
(54:03):
best teams have with all the money, are winning most
of the games in the tournament. They have a huge advantage.
Ohio State is gonna be fucking awesome every single year.
Oregon is gonna be awesome every single year. Now, they
might not win the championship, but they are locked playoff teams.
They're just spending too much money on their roster. Texas,
if their quarterback just plays decent, is gonna be in
(54:25):
the playoffs. They have more money than every team in
the SEC. So I hear Miami, same thing. They have
huge cash buying all these players. Twenty four to me
feels high because there's more. I think the D ONEA
does twenty four right in this scenario, you're saying, probably
(54:47):
fifteen teams can win it. I just don't believe that's
the case in college football right now. Good question. Appreciate everybody.
Have a great weekend doctor soon so you the volume
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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