3 and Out - TNF Preview, Mike Tomlin's MVP, Deion Sanders - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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(01:40):
Another day, another podcast? Here's the Deal? Thursday Night Football,
Cowboys Seattle. A big game for the Cowboys. Mike Tomlin
calls TJ. Watt the best player in the league. Dave Tepper.
People think he's nuts for firing people. I'll defend him.
Your coach is terrible even if you hired, it's your fault.
You hired him. What are you supposed to do? As

(02:02):
well as Dion Sanders, who is taking some arrows right
now after going four and eight, We will dive into
that all. Subscribe to the podcast if you listen on
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(02:24):
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Before we dive into the Cowboys and some Mike Tomlin talk,
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promo code John, save yourself twenty dollars. You know what's
crazy is I was looking at the standings today and
I just went to the league standings and then I

(03:33):
filtered by point differential, which listen, I would say historically,
the bigger your point differential, the more dominant of a
team you are. And do you know who happened to
be the number one team in point differential with almost
one hundred points separating them from the ten to one
Philadelphia Eagles, A team that lost to the Philadelphia Eagles,

(03:55):
A team that goes by the Dallas Cowboys. They have
the best point differential in the National Football League. And
whenever I get asked how good is Dallas? How far
can they go? Hell, I picked him to win the division.
I think they're pretty good. But they've had two massive games.
You're allowed to blow a game to a random team,

(04:16):
and they did it early in the season. But they
got two swings, two bites at the Apple against the
forty nine ers on Sunday Night Football and against the
Philadelphia Eagles in front of thirty plus million people, and
they lost them both. One game they got their ass kick.
The other game, they're winning by ten points at halftime,
and then they find themselves down. They end up losing
the game and there were plays to be had to

(04:36):
win them the game, right, we all watched it, But
I do think there's a lot on the line for
the Cowboys one going into Seattle. Let's face it to me,
Seattle's not that good. And a huge reason I talked
about it with Colin the other day is Geno Smith.
He's solid, he's easy to root for, seems like a
great guy. If he's your starting quarterback for several years,
he limits your ceiling and I think we're kind of

(04:57):
seeing that this year. Their ceiling is limited now. They've
had offensive line issues, they don't have a great pass rush,
but ultimately, if you put a really good quarterback on
that team, it's eleven twelve one team, would you know?
You know? I think at best they're winning nine games
this year. And there's a reason the Cowboys are favored
by almost ten points. And this is not some random

(05:18):
Thursday night game. Both these two teams played on Thursday,
so this is basically a normal week for both teams,
and the NFL now has been doing this for a while.
They take two teams from the Thanksgiving Thursday games, which
now has become the Cowboys against someone else, and that's
your primetime game the week after Thanksgiving, and on paper
coming into the season, this game looks pretty good. Still

(05:38):
doesn't look bad now, I think the shitty part of
your fan of football in the state of Washington, right
especially in Seattle, and you root for the Huskies, and
you root for Seattle. A couple of weeks ago, you
were feeling pretty good, and now you go in two
of the biggest games of the year, obviously for the
Washington Huskies and the Seattle Seahawks, and you're combined almost
twenty point underdog, Like, what the hell is going on here?

(06:00):
But there's a reason the Cowboys have taken advantage of
every team beside the Arizona Cardinals, who's not very good,
and they don't just beat you, they beat the shit
out of you. Let's face it. The Eagles who have
just had an incredible season of finding ways to win games.
I mean, last week is an all timer, but you
got to give them credit. And I've seen some people
compare them like to last year's Minnesota team. Not talent wise,

(06:24):
but just it eventually catches up to you. I don't
know if it does when you have this talent, but
I think an individual game can catch up to you
and when you look at the Eagles like they're gonna
run out of gas here, And to me, if they
got beat by the forty nine ers by ten plus points,
I don't think that would be surprising, not because fully arrested,
normal schedules both teams. To me, it's a coin flip game.

(06:46):
But given the situation that played on Monday night, knockdown,
drag out on the road, fly home, get home really late,
have a short week, You play the Bills, you go
into overtime, you play a seventy minute game where a
lot of your defenders play, you know, eighty ninety snaps.
It's understandable. But if they lose to the Eagles and
the Cowboys take care of business like it's fucking wide

(07:08):
open for him. They play Philadelphia next week in Dallas,
all of a sudden, you'd be nine to three, they'd
be ten and two, and you would have a chance
if you beat them, to have the same exact record. So,
while look pretty dire, that devastating loss to the Eagles,
which we all said, the crazy thing is dak was

(07:28):
arguably one of the best, if not the best player
on the field. They played their best game in years
and they lost, Like there are no moral victories when
you're a team that's trying to win the Super Bowl.
But looking back, if you win this game, you're gonna
feel pretty good about your chances, specifically against the Eagles
come to the playoffs. So tomorrow is a good example.
And if you're listening to this on Thursday morning, like

(07:49):
I fully expect Dallas to boat race these guys, and
I don't. I think Seattle is just kind of running
out of juice and kind of that geno juice of
it has not been great down the stretch last year.
You watch them this year and now they've battled some injuries,
but they are a team and Colin and I that
needs a quarterback. So whether that's trading up in the draft,

(08:10):
there aren't really options in free agency. You've obviously paid
Gino Smith, so it's impossible really to upgrade there. But
to me, they're a team that looks to get a
young guy this offseason. This is a good game on
paper that I expect. To me, it's like Dallas thirty
eight Seattle seventeen, Like I fully expected to be an
ass kicking and all of a sudden you start looking

(08:31):
at Seattle. You're like, they're gonna have issues because they do.
I saw Mike Tomlin call TJ. Watt the best player
defensive player in the NFL, and I said, a couple
weeks ago, I thought that Miles Garrett I would vote
for him to be the MVP. Now he's injured. We'll see,
you know, if this derails this season a little bit.
You know, listen, these awards are fluid. You can be

(08:54):
the lead horse in the race and get passed like
it's not over till the fucking season ends. I love
seeing this. You just said a couple of weeks ago. Yeah,
things change. You said this team was good. Yeah, then
they lost three games in a row, so my opinion
changes on them, Like this is. Everything is very fluid
in sports. I never understand. But you said a month ago, well, yeah,
he's playing well and now he's playing bad. Like Baker

(09:15):
Mayfield through the first couple weeks of the season look good.
Now you watch him, doesn't look good. So it's like
your opinion changes as you watch them. It's like part
of evaluating players when you watch them on television. Right,
there are only so many guys like TJ. Watt, Steph Curry,
Patrick Mahomes whoever that usually play well every single week.
Most guys are kind of up and down, so it

(09:35):
ebbs and flows, you know, it's the way sports work. Now. TJ.
Watt one of the rare guys who was just incredible,
and I was really thinking, what could the Watt Father.
You know, in horse racing, when a guy wins, not
a guy, but the horse wins the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont, whatever,
one of those big races, if you ever win the
Triple Crown, the value is not in winning those races.

(09:57):
Obviously you make money if you own the horse when
they win the races, but it's in the value of
the horse's sperm to be able to create more horses
like that given horse. It's why it's so valuable to
own a championship level horse. What could like the Bosa
Father or the Watt Father like their ability. JJ Watt

(10:18):
is a first bout Hall of Famer. He is one
of the best players I've ever seen live and one
of the best NFL players of my lifetime. Like in
his peak, it doesn't get much better than that. So
to have one of those guys is an incredible accomplishment,
as a parent to have two of those guys like TJ.
Watt is trending to be a Hall of Famer as well.
To have two Hall of Fame sons at defensive end,

(10:42):
that's fucking nuts. Bosa same thing now Joey, because he's
injured all the time, his career is not gonna stack
up to it. But we all have to agree, like
Joey Bosa went healthy, legit top five pick and obviously
nick former Defensive Player of the Year. Preaty get incredible,
you know, even like think about Archie Manning who who
was produced Peyton and Eli Peyton one of the greatest

(11:03):
quarterbacks of all time. I mean, Eli had two incredible
playoff runs, but on the whole, like he's not as
hell we're debating and like Triitty actually be in the
Hall of Fame just because he won the two championships.
I think Eli's pretty good. But I also understand the
other side because I had been at games when Eli
has not played well and it can look really ugly.
But imagine being a father and having two sons, Like

(11:25):
I don't even have children yet, I would imagine most
people listening to this that have young children just kind
of keep their fingers crossed, like I hope my son
is just does well in life, like treats people well.
Successful guy you know, has his head on straight, works
hard and can create a good life for his future
family and you know, do good by my name, right.
I would love if that guy becomes like maybe an

(11:46):
entrepreneur or a business owner and becomes really successful and
impacts the world in a positive way. Help. I mean,
ideally he'd become like some all time great in his field,
Like that's I would say, very very slim producing multiple
All Pro defensive lineman pretty nuts, and we've had some
pretty good ones. I mean the Diggs brothers. You know,
Stefan is obviously a really good player for the Bills,

(12:09):
and Trayvon with the Cowboys. I mean, it's just an
incredible playmaker. Obviously. The Bosa brothers, Travis and Jason Kelsey,
Like what a job by the Kelsey father to produce
those two guys to all of famers center and you
know a lot of times the same position, which makes sense, right,
You idolize your brother, you just copy them. Think about Jason,
he's a center. His brother is like one of the

(12:31):
great athletic tight ends of all time. Now, granted Jason
is an athletic center, but still, I'm just I'm fascinated by,
you know, genetics and the ability to create you know,
just incredible human beings. Because it's not like Lebron James,
Bronnie James, who I'm glad to see he's doing well
after the uh, you know, the scare when he was practicing.

(12:53):
But Bronnie James, like a short might not even start
as you know, even if he was fully healthy for USC.
And that's Lebron James. Michael Jordan. I mean, think of
what hell, we just hope Charlie Woods can like play
Division one golf. Random guys just producing TJ and JJ incredible.
But here's the one thing about the Steelers looking at
their schedule, because I've talked a lot of shit about them,

(13:17):
because I picked them to win the AFC, not to
win the AFC, but to win the division, win the
AFC North and be right there, like as an AFC
championship level team. I might not have been crazy. Now,
I did not think it was gonna look like this.
I thought they were gonna be much more potent on offense.
I expected them, you know, to be an explosive unit right,

(13:39):
and I was wrong. They have Hell. I think last
week's kind of embarrassing celebrating four hundred and twenty two
yards when you scored sixteen points. Like, you don't get
to celebrate moving the ball when you have sixteen points.
It would have been cool if you would have scored
twenty seven points and had the same excitement, but I
don't think you're allowed to do that when he scored
sixteen points. But here's our schedule coming up. They play

(14:03):
the Cardinals this week, Then they play the Patriots, who
I don't know if you've noticed, awful Cardinals are better
than the Patriots because Kyler Murray is, you know, scary player.
Then they play the Colts, which incredible story so far,
I do think is gonna come to a screeching halt.
And then Cincinnati with Jake Browning. There is a chance.

(14:25):
Then in about a month you look up and this
Pittsburgh Steelers who struggles to score twenty points is gonna
be eleven and four. There was a moment against the
Cincinnati Bengals when Jake Browning the starting quarterback and they
had the lead. I think hell, at one point in time,
I think it was seven to nothing or six nothing,
and I'm thinking, could Mike Tomlin get fired? And then

(14:47):
all of a sudden you kind of look at the schedule.
They find a way to win that game. Could they
be eleven and four? Like, ultimately the Eagles have won good,
you know, weird games. Could they be eight and three?
Could they be ten and one? We can argue till
we're blue in the face. They get a little lucky here,
they make some crazy plays here. They're a really good team,
Like they have an MVP level quarterback, they have really
good players. Even their defense has some holes. It's like, well,

(15:09):
their secondary, they still have James Bradberry and Darius slagh
like two corners that are starting on the majority of teams.
They trade for Buyer who listen a little long in
the tooth, but he's a legitimate starter. So yeah, they
got some question marks at linebacker, but like that's a
that's a real NFC championship level team. Even if they
didn't get some of their breaks, we'd all acknowledge that.
The Steelers, you watch them the majority of the season,

(15:30):
You're like, what the fuck is going on? How is this?
How is this happening? And then all of a sudden,
you look, I think, worst case scenario, they're ten and five.
I mean, unless they have some crazy injury. If I
would have told you three or four weeks ago the
Steelers gonna be ten and five, you'd have been like,
you're crazy, that's not that level team. And they've just
found a way. So this is where now if you're

(15:51):
one and done in the playoffs as a twelve and
five team, people are gonna be critical of Mike. But
this is how Mike fights off the criticism because you
watch all these guys like everyone loves Frank Reich, who
I saw Florio run an article that David Tepper can't
say his name. And in my defense, if I pay
you forty million dollars and you get the number one

(16:11):
overall draft pick and you go one to ten and
your offense is one of the worst offenses we've ever seen,
do I have to say your name right? Like I'm
paying you a premium. I'm literally paying you to go away.
I made you a head coach when let's face it,
no one else is making you a head coach, and
your name's kind of hard to say. Like for a
long time, I said, Frank Reich Frank Reich, and then

(16:32):
a bunch of people like, it's Reich, it's Rich, It's right, Okay,
I get it, but I kind of on tepper side
sometimes sometimes names, Remember when what's his name? With the
Washington football team commanders Redskins used to call him Kirk Cousins,
and it was like, bro, it's Kirk Cousins and he
couldn't say like that. It's like, come on, this is
your starting quarterback who's actually a pretty good player. Say

(16:52):
his name right this one. You know, it's kind of confusing,
you know, sometimes there's silent letters and different pronunciations. I
always thought it was a little weird. Now I've been
saying it right for a long time. No different. Eberflus.
I used to call him Uberflus, and my whole take
was until he becomes a credible head coach, do I
have to say his name right? Like if you're saying
Andy Reid now Belichick, I mean some of these names,

(17:13):
if you're screwing up, like that's kind of on you.
Do you kinda have to earn some respect to get
your name said right? People still, my girlfriend's mother who
have been dating are now well over a year. Just
send us a card for Thanksgiving and only put one F.
And in fairness to Jennifer More that she's not the
first person to do that. People have been doing that
to me. For I would say the majority of my

(17:36):
life when I worked with a Fresno State, I had
a name tag one F. When I got hired with
the Eagles, one F. When I got hired in radio,
one F. I just take it. You know, my name's
hard to spell a lot of letters. It's not you know, Johnson,
but it is what it is. The Steelers are coming
and on David Tepper because I've seen a lot of
people freak out about these owners like firing people, like

(18:00):
what a waste of money? How could they especially in college,
like how could they just blow all this cash because
they got a lot of cash, right, I mean, people
freak out about money that don't have money, right, but
no different like they treat a million dollars like you
treat seven dollars. Money is all relative, and when you

(18:20):
have a lot coming in, giving a lot out, the
door doesn't feel as big when you don't have a
lot coming in, the reason a lot of coaches and
players back in the day didn't get fired as quickly
or cut as quickly because there wasn't as much money. Well,
in this day and age, when you get close to
four hundred dollars from the media rights deals, I say

(18:42):
this all the time. The best part about the NFL
different the NBA. Like my take is, I saw Colin
thinks Mark Cuban's gonna run for president. I think he's
getting out. Not because he's running for president. I think
he knows the NBA's peaked. How are they ever going
to get a television deal? Honestly, They're next television deal
could be worse than the current one, and their expenses

(19:03):
have only gone up. They're paying the players more now
than ever. So if you get less money coming in
and more going out, you got problems business one oh one. Well,
what does the NFL have. Their salary cap is capped
right at about half the money that's just guaranteed from television. Well,
even if you are a winless team, you're still gonna
make money in ticket sales, suitees, merchandise. It's gonna be

(19:26):
impossible not to make a ton of net profit. And
then you factor in a guy like David Tepper is
rich as hell. So it's like he's got his own
independent money. This team that he now owns, which he
paid a boatload for, is generating a ton ton of
cash flow coming in if he screws up, which I
was thinking about this. I think the old adage is

(19:48):
take a while, you know, really vet when you hire,
and fire quickly, right, take your time hiring, but once
you know, get rid of that person. And I think
that works whether you're running a deli, whether you're running
a podcast operation, or whether you're running an NFL team. Now,
did he vet Frank Wright properly? Should he have hired

(20:08):
him in the first place? We definitely can argue that
would he like a redew on that one? Of course,
I think that's pretty clear. Rumors and everyone said that
he wanted to hire the guy from the Lions. Well,
guess what. That guy wouldn't take the job. I've heard
from some people in the NFL. It wasn't even that
he was scared off by Tepper. He just didn't feel
ready and didn't feel comfortable in that situation with a

(20:31):
new owner. And whatever the variables are, I think Johnson
the Lions feels pretty good about that decision, because one
thing with Tepper is he has a quick trigger when
he doesn't respect you. But here's what I will say,
if I'm sitting in David Tepper's shoes, right, if I
don't think you know what you're doing, and listen, if
you watch the Panthers, how could you feel confident this

(20:52):
guy knows what he's doing. He fired himself from being
the play caller, then he named himself the play caller,
Then he fired himself being the play caller. And maybe
Frank was over. Like I've been at a job when
I was in radio. I hated it. I was like,
I don't want to do this anymore. I hate working
with the guy I was working for, and I was like,
this is not fun. I don't want to do this
job anymore. We were miserable, right, But it's like, you know,

(21:12):
I'm not gonna fire myself. I want the money going out.
I hated it, right, And I think a lot of
people get like that in jobs. And I think Frank
was a good example of someone that like was miserable
doing the job. Now that's on temper him, a guy
who probably just couldn't turn down the money. I think
I saw a headline that this will probably be his

(21:33):
last job. And he'll retire and basically go off to
the sunset. But I do not blame Dave Temper for firing,
just like I don't blame Mark Davis. Whenever I see
these people like, you know, these owners are getting too quick. Well,
Josh McDaniels was fucking terrible. Was he supposed to just
let Josh McDaniel's coach for a couple more years and
keep losing a bunch of games and everyone hate him? Right?
I understand there are some difficult decisions. When the forty

(21:54):
nine ers mutually departed with Harbaugh, that was an embarrassment.
When Dean Spanos and the Herders chose aj Smith over
Marty Schottenheimer, that was clearly the wrong decision. When the
Washington Redskins at the time didn't realize that they had
Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Lafloor and all these guys like
you should probably not hate these guys but build around them.

(22:15):
That's on them. But when you're in a situation where
the guy is the head coach and he is torpedoing
your franchise to embarrassment embarrassing levels, and your team sucks,
and then you don't feel he knows what he's doing.
She'd be like, well, just be patient. Part of the
reason the Roonies are patient with Mike Tomlin he wins.

(22:36):
Andy Reid got a long time in Philly. Well, yeah,
he was going to do NFC championship games. He was
winning double digit games. They were printing cash for their
owner on top of the media deal. They were constantly
in the mix. So it's like, I never have a
problem with an owner being impatient when I don't think
the guy's any good and literally his record is not good,

(22:57):
and it's easy to think the interim coach, right, like
Rich Pashacia with the Raiders a couple of years ago,
Steve Wilkes last year, that's a risky move too, Like
you're usually not gonna find the next Belichick or Andy
that way. Now, maybe you can, but I never fault
the team for not going that way either. This is
hard hiring people, just like drafting people is very, very difficult,

(23:21):
and when you make a bad decision, luckily as a fan,
like ultimately, if you're a Panther fan, this guy's nuts,
Like he's a maniac. What I don't like reading is
him telling play callers what plays to run Monday through Friday.
Him telling you who to draft like that is a
major problem. If that's the case, which everyone seems to

(23:42):
feel like it is, that's fucked. You got issues. But
you can't blame him for getting rid of Frank, just
like you can't blame him for getting rid of Matt Rule.
You need to upgrade as coach. Now. I had some
people in the NFL like, the only way he's gonna
get his pick of the litter, he's gonna have to
overpay by such a high amount. Well, he's got the money, right.

(24:04):
Steve Valmer can be nuts. He can cut checks other
people can't. Mark Cuban was nuts for a long time,
can cut checks that other people can't. Joe lacub is crazy,
has a big checkbook. George Steinbrenner, I mean, look around sports.
When I have a bigger bank than you, I can
be a little crazy and still make up for it.
To me what you can't do. Like, here's the one
thing about the Cowboys. Jerry's been the general manager for

(24:27):
a while, right, and his son plays a big role
as well. With the scouting staff. Kind of feels like
they know what they're doing, doesn't it? Like Jerry say
what you want about Jerry big Ego likes being in
the forefront, likes being a star. He likes being no
different than the coach or the star quarterback. But they
kind of know what they're doing when they're picking players.

(24:48):
That's not even debatable anymore. The problem for a lot
of these owners. You know, Jimmy Haslum's currently getting sued
by Warren Buffett, that guy. Someone hit me like, well,
you said, pushing the envelope is a good thing, agreed,
But Jimmy Haslam is always into stuff, always causing problems,
screwing the truckers, pissing off Warren Buffett, all four, doing

(25:09):
what you got to do to make it a little
extra coin at this one. I don't know. Something's a
little off about him. But some of these owners, man,
there is no point in how It's one thing. If
I'm David Tepper and I have a hedge fund, right,
and I hire three guys, or I'm Steve Cohen, the
guys owns the Mets to run my money, to give

(25:30):
them advice or to tell them, hey, buy more of this,
because that's what I do. That's the craft that I
created myself. Right. If you hit me up, like ask
me for some advice podcasting, or how to become a
scout or recruiter recruiter in college, Like I give you
some advice if you ask me for advice, like how

(25:50):
do you get into you know, how do you get
into Wells Fargo Banking or Chase Banking. I wouldn't know
what to tell you, right, So these guys get in
the football. Just because you're a football fan doesn't mean
you know what you're talking about in terms of who
to pick, who not to pick, who to hire, who
not to hire. Doesn't mean you can't have opinions. When
these guys become the owner and he's paid so much money,

(26:12):
clearly he's just telling them what to do, and that's
been the bigger disaster. But even if you told Frank
what to do correctly, it might not matter because he
clearly doesn't look good enough and massaging the egos of coaches,
like for example, I saw Florio. I don't know if
you put it on Instagram or he said it on
maybe some one of his television show things YouTube. I

(26:36):
don't know where I saw it, but he said, I
think we're all looking at Mike Vrabel's situation. Wrong. Everyone
thinks that the Titans might break up with Mike Vrabel.
He's like, I think it's more he might want to
break up with them, and you know, he's got some ideas.
Maybe he's you know, the owner, the resources whatever. I
don't know the details, but I was like, yeah, that's

(26:56):
very plausible. But if you want to get a guy,
let's just say Mike Vrabel was available, or in a
Sean McVay goes to Amazon in like three years, he's available.
You want to have those guys. The way to keep
them happy is go listen, Sean, I'm here to do
one or Mike, I'm here to do one thing, and
one thing only for you. This is what Robert Kraft
did for twenty years with Bill. Hell he's still doing

(27:19):
with Bill. You win games, You fucking you win games,
playoff games. You make us really important in this league.
I'll sign my name on any check you need, trades, signings,
draft picks, whatever you want to do, you gotta thumb
those up for me. You do not need to ask

(27:39):
me ever for a player transaction. Unless there's character involved,
then run it by me. But in terms of trading players,
trading draft picks, that is what you're coaching the team
during the season, you do that. I am here to
support you financially, to wear a good looking suit on
Sunday and have my mistress. She's not my mistress anymore.

(28:02):
She's now my girlfriend because I've divorced my wife right
next to my side, and we're gonna root you on
with some of our famous friends. You win his fucking games,
you make us money. I'll keep paying you money. Do
whatever you want. Treat this team as your baby, as
you own it. And Belichick, you know, brought a lot
to the table with Kraft, right because he won a lot,

(28:24):
and Craft never overcept his boundaries. He let him let
Tom Brady walk. Now that's ultimately probably the wrong decision.
Should have got involved there. But in fairness to Roberts,
like everything I've ever let Bill do, he's been right about.
So now, are you gonna get Bill Belichick? Probably not,
But if you just get a solid coach. One thing
the Rams did, what the forty nine ers did, what

(28:45):
even with Lafleura and the Packers. Empower the guy. You
have to empower the guy if you're holding his hand
like Steve Cohen would or like you would on the
trading floor. It's not gonna work that. This is not
You have no expertise, know nothing about any of this.
When it comes to actual football. Now about like signs
in the building, you know, hiring cafeteriuss. I'm not saying

(29:09):
you can't have input on things inside the building of
your football team, but when it comes to the football
players and the coaching staff and the acquisitions in March
around free agency and the draft, you have to let
those guys cook because if you don't let them cook,
you can't complain about the fucking meal. And David Tepper's
up there screaming the F word, going up and down.
It's like, bro, you keep getting it. This is partly you.

(29:31):
And one article I read today from Albert Breer is
like he kind of shows up periodically and it throws
like he's got ideas, and then he disappears. Like the
football players and the coaches, they're there all day every day,
you know, during the season, so you come in and out.
That's not the way the world wars. You can operate
other businesses like that, you cannot operate this business like that.
So I think these these new big time owners, it's

(29:54):
gonna be difficult for him. Deion Sanders, I have no
problem with any co coach or player talking shit. I mean,
that's if you want to talk shit. Ultimately, you got
a player coach against the other team. And Dion has
been one of the loudest individuals of my lifetime as
an athlete. Always backed it up easily, one of the

(30:15):
greatest football players of all time and probably a top
two or three athlete. I mean, definitely of my life.
You could argue, ever, it's harder as a coach when
you're talking a big game and you don't get to play.
And it's one thing to do it at Alabama or
Georgia when you have a stack Ohio State Michigan. His
team's not very good. They went four and eight, and
I watched them a lot second half of the year.

(30:37):
They were fucking terrible and their offensive and defensive lines
look awful. There was an article on The Athletic by
Bruce Feldman and several other people, and they basically interviewed
all these assistant coaches, a lot of coordinators in the
Pac twelve, and they all just gave their opinions. And
one main opinion that I've read that was just a

(30:57):
good quote like you know, it was all hugs and
kiss is in the beginning in the off season, and
then early on when they won a couple of games.
Get ready for the horror stories to come out. Now.
One thing I was told by a scout a while
back is he had heard that there when you work
for the program, when you work for Dion, you sign
an NDA. Now maybe part of that is, like because

(31:19):
everything's being filmed. I don't know, that's just what I heard.
I don't know that. But ultimately, if I sign an
NDA and I go somewhere else and I tell you
one of the reporters for the Athletic or whoever, how
are you going to prove that I said it. One
thing I think is clear and listen. I respect Dion
for saying we're not going to be an ATM machine.
And I think he was talking about recruits. I would

(31:40):
never pay high school recruits big money. I think that's stupid.
I would pay transfer portal guys money. The PAC twelve
was good this year, and their team was awful on
the line of scrimmage, so they got fucking worked. They
got embarrassed. I mean, Washington State, who's not that great,
beat him like fifty six to fourteen. That was the
second last. They got Molly woke, they got embarrassed, and

(32:03):
they ended shador season. You gotta get better at the
line of scrimmage. And that's to me a question big
picture about Deon Sanders, who, let's face it, we all thought,
could Deon Sanders go to to be the NFL coach,
Could he coach like Florida or Texas A and m
or could he get some enormous job. I think he's
a long way away from that because ultimately, for as
much as like the recruiting, a lot of those big

(32:24):
schools kind of recruit themselves, and Deon's recruiting class right
now is not great, and he hasn't proven that he
can win, right and he's got to prove to me
next year for him to be like kind of validate everything,
I think he gotta win seven eight games. You look
at the Big twelve, it's gonna be awful. It's not
very good period, point blank, end of story. Right. I mean, honestly,

(32:45):
two of the best teams are gonna be like Arizona
and Utah, like Kansas State. I mean, Texa, Oklahoma are gone, UCF, Cincinnati,
I don't think they're a lock unless Shador gets dramatically better. Now,
it's not all his fault. One of the coordinators in
this art said, when we played Shador, he got massacred.
And you watch the games a lot like Caleb running
for his life. But as well as he played in

(33:07):
that TCU game, in that Colorado State game down the stretch,
you watched him, maybe he's getting a little gun shot.
He did not look as good. Now he's young, he's
raw for you know, big jump in competition. But there's
gonna be a lot of pressure on him. And I
also think that Deon Sanders is an outlier. He could
play both ways and be kind of unfazed. I think

(33:27):
Travis Hunter needs to kind of pick a position, and
to me, it's on Dion, not on him. Of course,
Travis Hunter is gonna want to play both ways, kind
of go all in. If he can be a top
twenty corner, like a top twenty pick as a corner,
become a corner and then play periodically on offense. If
you're a top fifteen to twenty pick at wide receiver,
do that and then play periodically on defense. But to

(33:49):
go both ways one hundred one hundred and twenty snaps.
That's not realistic, and you're gonna get diminishing returns against
better teams with your best player. No One in Alabama.
I'm a Georgia, you know. Fuck even like the Oregon States,
Washington State's like the mid tier powerfile ever has a
guy go both ways. It's not possible. It's too hard,

(34:11):
And in fairness of Dion, he's like, fuck, I did
it kinda. I mean Dion obviously, you know, didn't play
full time wide receiver. But what they asked him to do.
I've been watching college football thirty years. It's very, very difficult.
It really. Charles Woodson had some moments on offense and
obviously would return, But to ask a guy to go
both ways, it just there were times when he just
wore down. And there was a play that Sanford game

(34:33):
they lost where the dude moss it over his head
on Friday night. He had to be just gassed. So
I think there's pressure on Dion, and listen, in fairness
to Dion, a lot of people are pussy's in life,
and they're scared to put the spotlight on him because
they don't want the heat. Dion's not scared of that,
and he put the spotlight on him and he got
humbled a little bit. The whole program did. And you know,

(34:54):
you hire this guy from Kent State, he's the head coach,
he leaves to come to the offensive coordinator, and you
demote him for Pat Sherman. You demoted it for Pat Schrmer.
Can't do that. As one quote in the article regarding that,
that's an embarrassment, and I completely agree that guy's now
the head coach at San Diego State, Like if you

(35:15):
had demoted him for like, I don't know, Sean McVay
or something. Okay, Pat Schrmer, are we serious? I do
wonder like part of being a head coach we've talked,
We've given Sean Payton a lot of credit on this one,
is like you gotta be able to handle the rough
seas and just kind of make it through without craziness
and Dion, you know, they hit some bumps in the

(35:37):
road and it got ugly, and it got ugly quick.
One thing I wanted to do is a little segment
called can't be Serious. I just chose some headlines and
my first reaction to those headlines was like, this can't
be serious? I mean I read to this earlier today
and I was like, this can't be serious. Are you
kidding me? Is this a joke? And when I saw

(35:58):
a headline of Klee Lib Williams will be a game
time decision whether he's going to the NFL, now, I'm
all for, Like, listen, I negotiate my contracts. I understand
there is a level of when you're negotiating against two people.
You're not negotiating against the NFL because of the number
one pick. Your contract is set, but you're probably trying
to get like, hey, could USC get you twenty million

(36:20):
dollars for a season? And maybe he's waiting on that.
So I understand throwing it out there, but this can't
be serious. Like, bro, the NFL pays you forty million
dollars the moment you go to the league, plus your
clock starts toward you know, your second contract. Here's the
other thing. Your team stinks. I mean, so your team

(36:41):
in the NFL is gonna be bad. Your college team
is bad. I understand it. Like Matt Lioner in the
peak of his dynasty, Tim Tebow in the peak of
his dynasty. I'm not saying those players where the prospects,
Caleb is, but I understand those guys returning when their
team is decked. Your team is you just got your
asking by UCLA, like you're gonna game time decision. Give
me a break. The Rogers twenty one day window, what

(37:04):
are we doing? What? Maybe he's defying modern medicine by
returning on Achilles is he. I've always defended Aaron. I've
thought a lot of stuff. The immunization was always so stupid,
Like do you understand no one in the NFL cares.
If the NFL players could have chose whether they got
the JAB or not and it wasn't mandated to play,

(37:26):
five percent of them would have got it. So it's
like a lot of the stuff that Aaron became polarizing
for the ayahuasca, that stuff, like the media is like
he's doing drugs. He put drugs in the system. Now
not saying that I would do ayahuasca more intimidated by
it then maybe I'm just not enlightened enough. But like
some of the stuff doesn't bother me as much as
did a lot of other people. The twenty one day window,

(37:48):
I'm gonna return is one of the most ludicrous things
I've ever heard the team is done. You're done? Can
we stop talking about it? Really? I think this story
has been for the first time I've come around. Dude,
this guy might be a little addicted to the headlines,
and I've always supported him. I always think he's one
of the best players I've ever seen. I'm okay with

(38:08):
my great players having a little bit of an ego,
but this is this is ridiculous. And then the last
thing is, remember Tyreek, he scored that touchdown, he grabbed
the phone and he did the backflip. The camera guy
who handed him the camera was in on it. I
think Tyreek had given him the camera before. Obviously went

(38:29):
viral on social media. The video of him doing the backflip.
That guy was fired by the NFL because ultimately he
was like an independent contractor working for the NFL. Come on,
what are we doing? I see JJ Watt posting these
videos about the NFL stealing money. They have a lot
of parallels now with our government, where they just take
take takes like where's his money? Get what are you

(38:50):
taking this for? Where's it going? Who's it helping? How
does this make any sense? And they're just like a
guy will just make a tackle and be like, oh,
it's fifty thousand dollars. Fine for what one of the
Saint Brown Brothers got into a just a block last
week was find like forty three thousand dollars. It's just like,
what's happening Tyreek Hills. This guy was really fired because
he handed him my phone like they're listen, I'm all

(39:12):
for trying to corral some of these big hits across
the middle, but like the No Fun League, that's what
are we doing. Let's be better than that. You just
slide into my DMS Instagram at John Middlecoff fire in them.

(39:33):
Very very easy to do. We like interacting with the
people here from Calvin love your takes. I already liked
this guy. I'm a Diar Charger fan product of being
born in San Diego. Never turn my back on them.
You already know and have mentioned before the state of
the organization. What do you think the Chargers need to

(39:55):
do to change the current narrative of the choking Charger Chargers? Well,
I think it starts with paying for a real coach
and listen, it's sports. You're gonna lose some heartbreaking games, right,
think of guys that have not won a Super Bowl,
Kyle Shanahan. That are viewed as good coaches, right, Jim

(40:20):
Harbaugh Kirby smart for a long time before he won
the national championship. You lose some gut punch games, but
if we all view you as a good coach, it's like, yeah,
he's gonna figure it out. Like if you're betting on Harball,
he might not win it this year, but he's eventually.
I would bet on Jim Harbaugh winning a championship, whether

(40:41):
that's a national championship, whether that's when he comes back
to the super Bowl. Why he's good, and when you're
good and you're always in the mix, eventually things are
gonna go. Right. What happened to Andy Reid? He was
good for a long time, couldn't win a Super Bowl? Well,
Donovan mcdapp good player, you know, pro Bowl level guy.
Michael Vick had a year for him. Alex Smith not

(41:02):
as good as Donovan, but just solid star gets you
the playoffs. Then he gets his Tom Brady rest is history.
He's been three Super Bowls five years, won a couple
of them, might be back in it again this year,
might be in his four super Bowl in five years. Right,
that's what happens. So I think it's the coach, you know.

(41:23):
I really think it's that simple. You get a coach
that knows what they're doing. I have faith that you
won't be the Chargers anymore, or charger ring, as you
guys call it. I'm a Lions fan and it has
been an embarrassment of a franchise my entire life. But
since Sheila hamp took over and she made smart moves,

(41:46):
fired Patricia and Quinn and hired Brad Holmes, do you
think the Lions are turning into a well organized franchise
that can win a playoff game or two in a year.
We will be the pit of mediocrity until we get
a better quarterback. I like Goff, but he clearly can't
handle pressure, and any playoff team will have a good
enough pass rush to disrupt him. Well, if GoF can

(42:09):
win you a playoff game, You guys haven't won a
playoff game in a long long time. I think it's
several decades, right, Like, I don't think you've wont a
playoff game since the eighties. You definitely haven't won one
in ninety one, the last year you want a playoff game,
definitely not in my lifetime that I can remember, and
I could be wrong on that ninety one number. I
don't know why I'm throwing that out there, but here's
the key to be a good organization right and a

(42:32):
successful owner. Hire the right people and let them cook.
Robert Kraft owned the Patriots. The Patriots were viewed as
not a top fifteen brand in the NFL. They had
a moment with Parcels in the nineties, but I would
say historically they were a joke too. Hires Belichick, lets

(42:52):
him go to work. Obviously they got a little lucky
finding Brady in the sixth round or whatever, but then
he just let him cook for twenty years. Clark Hunt
hired Andy Reid, has let him cook now for a decade.
And Jeffrey Learie smartest thing he ever did, get Chip
Kelly out of the building. Let how we run it.
When you hire good people in a business that's kind

(43:14):
of unique, you can't impact it as an owner. All
you can do is cut the checks and support them
and give them thumbs up when they want to do something. Now,
the character stuff, I always say, I have no problem
if you have some non negotiables hitting women, you know,
any violent offenses. Totally get that. It's I would have
no problem. I don't know where I would fall if

(43:38):
they said, John, you're worth fifty billion. The next team
that comes for sale, the NFL is going to sell
it to you for eight Like, okay, I'll take it.
Where would I fall on the morality of character stuff?
You know, I probably have a little moral Davis and
Jerry Jones because I like to win. But I'm a
big high character guy. I don't know that'd be. Who
knows until I was, you know, in the firing line

(44:00):
and had to make the decision. But when it comes
to like should we make this trade trade up to
the second round or trade down from the second for
next year's one or whatever, you should never get involved
in that because if you are, then you got the
wrong people. And I think what they did when Brad
Holmes and Dan Campbell is they hire two very capable guys. Now,

(44:20):
are they gonna be like all time great guys. I
don't know. Time will tell, because they're gonna have to
make another move at quarterback in the next couple of years.
You think, unless Hennon Hooker turns out to be some star.
But I think their key is just let them go.
And you know why a lot of owners fail, Like
most owners aren't Dan Snyder and Dave Tepper, A lot
of owners just can't hire the right guys. I really

(44:42):
think it's as simple as that. When you hire the
right people, like it's a game changer. From Jackson, I
know you have said there is no chance Rogers comes
back this season, but since he is now practicing, do
you think he comes back? They open the window. There's
a difference between open the window and fully participating in practice.

(45:02):
Just because a window opens doesn't mean you automatically practice.
I think we all do acknowledge what are we doing.
If I'm the Jets, I'm sorry this season is down
the drain. Your team stinks it with your quarterback situation,
I mean, really does you just played a guy Tim Boyle,

(45:23):
who if you ever have to go like we're sticking
with Tim Boyle. Your teams and chambles, no offense, Tim Boyle,
I mean, incredible accomplishment to make it in the NFL,
but you just you're not a starting quarterback. Just like
Zach Wilson I started quarterback. There's nothing you can do,
so I think bringing him back one is insanity. Two

(45:44):
is just moronic. Part of being good at business is
balancing shortened big picture stuff, right, Everyone listening to this.
No matter what you do, whether you sell cars, sell insurance,
run a bakery, there's a balance of short term profits
and what will lead to big picture you know, success

(46:05):
with your customers. Right, And sometimes you gotta take less
money at the beginning. Sometimes you gotta lose money in
the grand scheme of things, Like you kind of just
got the moment he went down. You just got to
take it on the chin. To even allow him to practice,
I think is borderline crazy. What if he reinjures it.

(46:26):
I remember when I was was with the Eagles, Jason
Peters tore his achilles, and I think he was at
home on the scooter and like fell or something happened
and he retore it. Like how could you even risk
another injury? Like, let's just get you fully healthy. Say
this about the Cardinals and Kyler Murray situation. They waited,

(46:49):
they let him get back. He had been nine to
ten whatever however many months out, and then they eased
them in. Aaron Rodgers tore's achilles, uh September eleventh. It's
November twenty ninth. The fuck are we doing. I'm not
even a doctor. I've never even torn a knee or
an achilles, and I know that's insane because there's nothing

(47:13):
on the line, Like, it just doesn't that up. I
don't see how it makes any sense. How much did
you hear guys in the NFL doing steroids. I'm sure
guys like Miles Garrett or Nick Bosa may be using them.
I've never heard of it. One thing, when you get
to the NFL. Even I saw this in college. There
are certain people that are genetic freaks. There are certain

(47:35):
people that are like were the same human species here,
Like Ryan Matthews, the running back that played for the
Chargers and then the Eagles. He was so fucking jacked.
The dude grew up homeless, he barely had food to eat.
God created that man differently than everyone else. Saw my

(47:57):
own eyes, I was like this guy. There are levels
of genetics like Shaquille O'Neills. I mean, some of these
people at the highest level of sports are built different. Now,
obviously people use PDEs right, people are using them in baseball,
People are using them in baseball, and people are using football.
But I think you'd be surprised how often some of

(48:18):
these guys, like you know, the Trent Williams of the world.
I mean, they're just Jason Peters. Some guys just are different,
they really are. That's why there's such a small percentage
of these people that are at the highest level. Logically,
why can't Stroud be considered the MVP. Is there a

(48:39):
player who not only puts up huge stats but also
is vital to his team? When we talk valuable in
all quotes, who's more valuable than Stroud? And Mahomes, Dak
Perdy toa, etc. Are playing awesome, but look at the
cards they're dealt compared to CJ. With Hurts, the value
he holds not only as a player but for real

(49:00):
morale and leadership is immense. But the stats are eh.
I do think the stats on Hurts one thing we
overlook because I get this a lot. With Hurts and Party,
It's like their stats are kind of identical as passers.
You know, Purty is less picks and right around the
same touchdowns. Jalen also has eleven rushing touchdowns. He gets
four hundred yards rushing, so if he throws twenty eight touchdowns,

(49:21):
which is not you know, typical MVP type quarterback. If
he gives you seventeen on the ground, I mean we're
talking forty five touchdowns accounted for it, and he'd be like, well,
half of them are the touch push. Well, he's part
of the touchbush. Like that play a huge part of
the reason it exists. It's fucking him to me. If
he has a big game beats the Niners, like, I

(49:43):
think he's gonna trend toward winning it. Really, how often
does a guy on like a fifteen to two team
that accounts for forty plus touchdowns not win the MVP?
But I hear you, I just think it's it's fair
or not that the rookie's not winning it. Love the
show been listening for a few years. Saw mock draft

(50:05):
where Pennix goes to the Vikings in the twenties. Obviously
they will probably end up in the mid teens. Would
this be possible or is quarterback inflation moving Pennix up?
And would this be a good pick for the Vikings?
I think the hard part about Penix is when you
look at all the top quarterbacks. Caleb very athletic, moves

(50:26):
around great I mean great movement, Drake May really good athlete,
Bo Nicks fantastic athlete, Jayden Daniels elite athlete. I mean
all these guys, movement is a big part of their game.
You watch Penix play, and I've watched him play a
lot of games last couple years. He's kind of a
throwback pocket baser. You know, he's he's he's like a

(50:46):
bigger TUA. Really, I mean, who is not mobile? Who
is a pocket player? That's Penix, which, let's face it,
in twenty twenty three and beyond, like you want mobility.
Part of why CJ looks really good is like, God,
Cg's pretty, He's a good playmaker. Pennix is a between
the tackles pass guy, so I there's a risk there.

(51:07):
I love him as a college player, but I understand
the question marks, can you have a guy that's not
that mobile? In this modern game, offensive linemen have never
been worse. There's never been more pass rushers. Kind of
a sitting duck. Now you'd say, well, the greatest players
of all time were all non mobile guys, right, I mean,
Montana was a good athlete, but he was a pocket passer.

(51:28):
Brady Manning pocket guys, Marino pocket guys, l Way mobile,
Rogers mobile, I always lean mobile have a question about
the Birds. If the Eagles were to win the next
three games against the Niners, the Cowboys, and the Seahawks,
their one seed would be pretty much clinched. Agreed, Honestly,

(51:51):
they win the next two games the Cowboys and the Niners,
it's a rap. I'd argue they win this week, it's
probably over the one seed. If that happens, do you
think they would for the next three games try to
rest Jalen? I think they would one rest Jalen in
a meaningless game, whether that's the last game of the season,

(52:13):
whether that's you know, they rest them like the second
to the last game of the season, and then let
them play the following week because they're going to get
a buye. You would like they're not chasing undefeated, you know,
all time great status as a team now that one
loss actually makes it easier to do stuff like that.
So yes, if they clinched the one seed very early,

(52:35):
I could definitely see them doing something and they should
right if it's possible to take care of them. Okay,
this is coach K, not Mike Krzyzewski, but just another
coach K. He is God, He's got a lot of
the US on YouTube, he says, Okay, coach k love
the show and love the communication with the listeners. I
believe that the Bears have the number one pick they

(52:57):
should draft Marvin Harrison. Fields has shown he can excel
when they just let him play and not call fifteen
screens or take the ball out of his hands like
they did in Detroit, Denver and many other games. Fields
may have a fumbling problem, but Caleb leads the league
or the country in fumbles. He plays backyard football for me.

(53:20):
He's not a can't mess. Plus, I don't think his
attitude would translate well to losing. Get to the best
player in the draft. Roll back with Fields. In worst
case scenario, you bring in a rookie who gets Marvin Harrison,
DJ Moore and maybe Mooney and a better overall team
around him. Build the team up the way the Lions did.

(53:40):
Ps check. Caleb isn't number one in fumbles, but he's
up there with nine. Justin Field is not gonna be
your quarterback next year. Ibra Flus is not gonna be
your coach. It's over like It's just we can argue
it till we're blue in the face. Part of what
the Lions did is Jared Goff had proven that you
could win with him. He proven that he could be

(54:04):
a capable quarterback in the pocket as a passer if
you had a good team, justin fields. If you just
watch him, you're right. He can make some plays when
you quote unquote let it fly when he's running around,
when he's in the pocket, even if there is time,
he definitely holds onto the ball too long. And listen,

(54:24):
I disagreed. Now he was proven right. One of the
reasons the forty nine ers and when I say the
forty nine er Kyle Shanahan did not consider him when
they traded up to three cause he did not think
he saw the field and didn't think he process holding
onto the ball is a major problem. Now it turns
out so to tray. But when you watch Purdy, he
gets rid of the ball fast. Part of processing quick

(54:47):
is like, can you like Kirk Cousins, Dak Prescott, all
the top guys if they have to, can you get
rid of the ball quickly? Can you see everything in
boom get rid of it that is not feels? Now?
Is his team kind of suck? Offensive coordinator? Sure, we
can argue that till we're blue in the face. I
love Justin Fields coming out of college. I thought Trevor
Lawrence should be one. He should be a closer too

(55:08):
than the way we were talking. Turns out I was wrong.
All those guys suck. I wouldn't want any of them,
Mac Jones, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields now, I
would want Justin Fields over that group. But that's not
saying much. So I would just take a quarterback and
I would trade Fields for It's just time. He needs

(55:29):
to change the scenery. It's not gonna work. These is
not good enough. I don't know what else say, and
I'm not a Justin Fields hater, big fan of the pod.
I had a question, maybe you can answer on the
episode being a bit of Homer here, I admittedly, but
why are the Steelers being able to win ugly? A
knock on them. On the flip side, Philly's ability to
sneak out wins is praise. Not trying to say we're

(55:51):
a contender, but I believe we'll make the playoffs and
give the team we play some trouble. We moved the
ball fluidly on Sunday and it looked like we have
in roof side of the ball. One four in the
red zone will cut it. Here's the difference. I hear
what you're saying, because like if you're just making the
argument and you hadn't watched them, like, well, they're both
winning these tight games. Fox the difference. We're seven and four,

(56:14):
We're gonna rattle off a bunch of wins because our schedule,
we're gonna be like twelve and five. How many teams
go twelve and five every year? The difference with the
Eagles is one. They score a lot of points, So
it's like, I have a lot more faith when your
quarterback can account for four or five touchdowns on any
given game and you can get within twenty five to
thirty five points with your eyes closed. You can't do that.

(56:38):
So it's like you have to win these ugly games.
That was the Browns for a while. It's like, yeah,
you can win the game seventeen to sixteen. The Eagles
have no problem getting to twenty five to twenty eight
to thirty points. So yeah, if I gotta win a
shoot out, how do you win a shoot at It's impossible?
So I think Plus they won playoff. They were winning

(57:00):
in the Super Bowl you guys haven't won a playoff
game since January of twenty seventeen, twenty twenty three. Do
you think Jay billis standing on the table yelling about
college hoopers needing to get paid has been calculated move?
Has it been his way of deflecting and hiding the
fact that Duke's clean cut, scholarly image is bullshit and

(57:22):
they have paid players under the table for decades. No.
I saw Matt Rule today. I think he's clearly getting peppered,
Like how do they improve? Right? They went five and seven,
they didn't go to a bowl, and they need a quarterback.
And he's like, I just want everyone to know. I
just want everyone to know, cause there're gonna be some
quarterbacks that you're like, why didn't you get that guy?
The going rate for a good quarterback like cam Ward

(57:45):
right now, who reportedly has offers for one to two
million dollars from Ohio State, from Miami, Washington. Cam Ward's
a he's gonna be an NFL player one day. The
going rate for a good quarterback, a guy that like,
we can win with this guy is like one and
a half two million dollars. And my first thought was, Oh,
that's what basketball players have been going for for the

(58:05):
last decade. Well, who's got most of the one and dones.
It's not just Kentucky, it's not just Arizona. Duke's got
a lot of them. I'm a coach k guy, but
anyone acting like the players you want. Some college football
players got fucked well over the last couple decades. For sure.
The top you know who's never complained ever, the elite
hoopers because they were paid a premium, and I'm all

(58:27):
for it. Pay him cap I had never never bothered me.
But the notion that these people in the media talk
about these guys getting screwed, Give me a break, these guys.
And you know what's crazy about getting paid under the table?
Maybe there's tax implications. Why you just they keep their
mouth shut, like the mob, never talk about it. All
these player podcasts. Everyone keeps their mouth shut. In hoops

(58:51):
makes sense because to get one of the top five
or six basketball players changes the landscape of your season.
You get a one and done guy leads you to
the lead eight, it's huge your program. In football, it's
not worth doing that. These quarter like a high school quarterback.
It's not like Arch Manning or Trevor Lawrence is not
worth paying a lot of money to UCLA. Did it

(59:12):
with this more kid who has a five star recruit
stole them from Oregon? Does not look good. It's risky.
You never know. There's been a million five star can't
miss guys who can't play in basketball. It usually translates
if you're a top high school guy. You know the
Anthony Davis' z ion. I mean, you list the names,
they're usually pretty freaking good, and they get drafted. I

(59:35):
these guys don't come cheap, which I'm all for. But
Billis has always been like, oh my god, none of
these guys are eating peanut butter and jellies. Meanwhile, they're
driving their g wagon, you know, living luxurious for they
don't have to go to class, which I'd argue class
in college is pretty overrated unless you're like an engineer
lifetime stealer fan. Here, I think you're missing something. This

(59:59):
is about the foreigner. You yard after watching how easy
it was all these teams and great quarterbacks to put
up four hund yards passing every game, it makes us
an easy when we could not do it one time
over three to four years. I think the sixteen points
comes from a divisional game in which, listen, I'm not
saying it's not a positive. You guys didn't take a
step in the positive direction. I've just never seen such

(01:00:21):
a crazy reaction to yards to yards. It's like, I
would totally understand the celebration if, like, God, you know,
you just we won twenty eight to ten, four touchdowns.
Pick it through a couple Warren had a couple on
the ground, were coming, no doubt. It's been damn near

(01:00:41):
two years since you had a take. I disagreed with it.
What about Ryan Day's loss to He put an X
and then Ischigan was impressive. He lost to an assistant coach. God,
I loved the fire of college football. Twenty million people
watch this game. Props to college football. You are I mean,
you've been this for a while. The hierarchy in sports

(01:01:04):
goes right now, and the NFL is the biggest, by far,
the number one television show in America. The number two
is college football, and then there's a gap of everyone
fighting for scraps. College football is a bohemoth. He lost
to an assistant coach after trying to get the game
canceled three straight losses to a team up North is unacceptable.
You even talked about how Ohio State is pulling from

(01:01:26):
one of the largest salary bases, the largest salary base.
Almost beating Georgia in the college football playoffs is the
pinnacle of ryan days run as the head coach. Listen,
if you fired him, I would not I'd have no
problem with it. I'm not one of those guys that
thinks you're a bunch of village idiots for saying that.
There is no doubt in my mind what Harbaugh said

(01:01:47):
is not wrong. He was hand he landed on third base.
Usually to get the Ohio State job, or to get
a job like that, you have to prove yourself as
a head coach. He clearly did not, and he inherited
a program that is freaking rolling, and he's a good recruiter.
But the last couple of years were an embarrassment. I
just thought his team was much better. Why I gave

(01:02:09):
him praise is the last two years Harball bent him
over and made him say uncle, and he said uncle
over and over, and Harbaugh didn't stop. He punked him.
This year, they did not get pumped. You're right. They
lost to an assistant coach, which, like I said, if
you wanted to run him out of town, I'm not
gonna be crying for him. I don't think he would
get screwed. Now. I don't think like Chip Kelly to me,

(01:02:30):
is stealing from UCLA. I don't think the guy cares.
I think his programs in fucking shambles. I think he's
gonna go to the Big ten and get worked. Here's
what I will say, Like Ryan Day runs a real program,
Like you guys are clearly one of the better teams
in the country. Michigan's is better. Right now, Harbaugh is
better than Ryan Day. There is no here's the thing
in no world, like in a vacuum. Now, Ryan Day

(01:02:53):
might be a nicer guy, easier to deal with whatever.
Harball is better than Ryan Day seven days a week,
every fucking day of the week, three sixty five. No
one in football thinks that Ryan Day is better than
Jim Harbaugh. Because it's a fact. Jim Harbaugh is better.
Look at the two resumes. I mean Jim Harbaugh. I
know he hasn't won a championship. He's got to be
like the Colin Montgomery then of football right now, because

(01:03:15):
he's like the new Andy Reider. You know, whatever it is.
But like, Ryan Day's not better than him, he's just not.
Ryan Day's not as tough as him. And when you're
not a tough guy, it's hard to run a tough program.
The reason Lincoln Riley's program is not tough, he's not tough,
the reason Dan Lanning's programer Kirby Smarter, Nick Saban because
those guys's defensive guys are tough guys. That's the way

(01:03:37):
they think, that's the way they're wired, that's their ethos. Right,
It's like, why do you I like talking about business
because I like business. It interests me. I listen to
more business podcasts than I new sports podcast I like
the soccer market. That gets my brain going. Defensive guys,
like some people, we're all wired differently and that shapes
who we are. And as a football coach, like Harbaugh

(01:04:00):
is unique because he's a quarterbacks. He'd be like, got
he's for this offensive No, Harbaugh's wired like a linebacker.
Ryan Day's an offensive guy. That's who he is. He's
a Chip Kelly mentee, Like that's his style. But I
gave him credit because his team could have won that game.
Now you're right, they're at the level of like you
don't get style, there's no style points here. You're paid

(01:04:21):
a premium to win that fucking game. And when Harba's
at his house and they got, you know, a thirty
seven year old O line coach rallying the troops. Who,
let's face this pretty impressive guy. And maybe as we
in ten years, we look back and Sharon Moore is
a better coach than Ryan day one day he gets
big program and dominates, So that might age. Well, I

(01:04:45):
don't think it's just a lock that age is poorly.
But you didn't get embarrassed. Now that's not the bar.
But I saw someone maybe it was Dan Dakich on
my Twitter timeline today he's like everyone always thinks that,
like Bo scham Bleckler or Woody Hayes, like all these

(01:05:05):
guys went undefeated against their rival, like Nick Saban easily
could have lost against Auburn. Nick Saban has lost against Auburn,
Woody Hayes, Bo shamb Black, they lost against the Fox.
The only guy who was undefeated was Urban Meyer, Who's
the only guy. And let's face it, like some of
Urban's teams, it would have been harder against this version
of Harbaugh. Pretty sure he got when he got there, right?

(01:05:26):
Who was was Harbaugh there the whole time? Maybe he was,
but he kicked Harbu's asked for a while, and it
was embarrassing for Harbaugh. I would say this, he can't
lose four in a row. He loses four games in
a row, especially at home, that'd be two home losses
fireball fence. Now here's what I will say about Ryan Day.
And I'm not some Ryan Day supporter. I'm not some

(01:05:46):
guy banging the table like Ryan Day's some superstar. Who
would you hire? Like right now? Now you can get
people to come like you would steal basically any coach
except like Nick Saban. Obviously Dabbo doesn't make that much
sense for you because he's other guy. But like in Kirby,
other than that, like you, obviously Hardball wouldn't come, But like,
who who are your options? You'd be like Rabel prabably

(01:06:09):
leaving the NFL for fucking nil and kissing eighteen year olds.
Ass The NFL is all about capitalism. You don't have
to fake it and pretend and live in this giant fugazi.
I pick you and I cut you. College is like
you gotta play both sides. So you're not getting Mike Rabel, Like,
who are you getting Mike Tomlin? No, these are the

(01:06:29):
names you're gonna throw out because like, who are your
college options? Seriously, who are your college options? Dan Lanning,
Kaylin Duboor, some of those type guys? Are they a
lot to do better beat Michigan? I don't know. Now,
maybe your guys standards are just like, we gotta get better.
I don't know. Have you checked out the season of
Hard Knocks yet? I love McDaniel before, but getting to

(01:06:51):
see more of the real hymn around the team has
made me love him even more. I have not watched
Hard Knocks. I want to watch in season Hard Knocks.
I want to watch the Barry Sanders documentary. I'm watching this.
I don't know how I got into it. I mean,
I didn't she chose it, but this documentary not a documentary.
This show on Apple Plus. This girl is like a

(01:07:13):
scientist as a cook. I forget the name. It's one
of the trending shows on Apple Plus. I'm two episodes in.
Not bad, not bad. There's some limitations on what to watch.
You know. The hard part is when you do this
for a living, When I was a single guy. I
just watched whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. So it's
like all this football, all the sports, and then like
what do you want to watch your free time? I'll

(01:07:33):
just watch in season Hard Knocks. She does like Mike
McDaniel calls him the funny guy, the name we call
him in the house. It'd just be hard at night
at like nine o'clock, you kind of get in bed
to relax, to be like you want to watch in
season Hard Knocks, you know. So it's gets as you
age your sports consumption. Even when you do this for

(01:07:54):
a living, you get you don't get the full control
Wednesday day, Tuesday and Friday night. Sometimes you gotta relent.
But words of advice to min youngins not even words
of advice, it's a word of reality question. Why would
Jalen Hurts be on the top of the MVP conversation

(01:08:14):
and not Dak Prescott? Last year all we heard about
was Prescott throwing picks and now and how he had
regressed and the talks of the Cowboys is beating up
sub five hundred teams. Last year, Hurts was dominating on
a week schedule and was in the MVP talk and
now again he's in the MVP talk and has ten
picks and is on track for fifteen. Can you make

(01:08:35):
it make sense? Well, he has eleven eighteen, so he
has twenty nine total touchdowns and his team is ten
and one. And they played you and Dak was awesome,
and Dak kind of fucked up. He just did took
some bad sacks, stepped out of bounds, and that was
kind of the difference in the game. We all watched it,

(01:08:57):
and we saw Dak play the forty nine ers and
get Curbston. Now Jalen plays bad against the Niners, Dak
out plays him again against the Cowboys. We can have
a new conversation. But, like Dak, I'm sorry, you just
don't get that much credit, you know, destroying some of
these teams. You just don't when you lose the games

(01:09:18):
that you have to win to like make it a
no brainer. I'm with you. Like Dak is, he's definitely
alive for the Most Valuable Player. He goes off Thursday
night football against Seattle against with all of us watching,
beats the Eagles the following week. I have no problem
having the conversation, but you can't lose that game. At home,
and you know, if Jalen has a couple of touchdowns

(01:09:41):
against you and he beats you, like, I'm sorry, the
Eagles defense is exactly the eighty five Bears. Reggie White
and Jerome Brown ain't walking through that door. Even though
the d line is good, there's you know, I mean,
their linebacking corps is a problem right now. They're EPA,
They're estimated, you know, yards per play. It's not ideal

(01:10:01):
right now. I'm not the biggest analytical breakdown guy on defense,
but I just I saw some stats online that were like, yeah,
I mean, you just watch them play. I mean, their
defense is not great? Is the Bears Panthers trade potentially
the worst trade in the history of Carolina. You trade
up and get a quarterback who's certainly behind Stroud and

(01:10:22):
maybe behind Richardson in terms of what you saw early
in the season. You also trade a bona fide number
one two second round picks, worst of all, the number
one overall pick. Hard to recall a trade that set
a franchise behind in such a variety of ways. Here's

(01:10:43):
the biggest kick in the balls is clearly you would
have been just as shitty with most quarterbacks so you
could have just drafted someone at nine, been terrible with
quarterback whoever potentially got the number one pick, and just
got Caleb who would have been the number one pick
in last year's draft. So yeah, I mean, now these

(01:11:03):
things change, right A year ago? How two months ago
Russell Wilson trade looked like the craziest trade of all time.
It's still a massive, massive win for Seattle and still
one that Denver would do over if they could. The
Houston Texans trade to the Browns, It's hard to not
see them winning it overwhelmingly. This one. We got a

(01:11:27):
ways to go. Bryce is, you know, in a disastrous situation,
but it looks pretty shitty. I was reading maybe Albert
Breer wrote an article about David Tepper, Like, think about this.
I mean, if Trent Williams, Nick Bosa, Christian McCaffrey, I mean,
Christian McAffrey is one of the best players, one of
the best teams, a fucking superstar. They traded him for
a second and a third. Right, Dj Moore was part

(01:11:48):
of this package. You had those two guys in your team,
you know you did. Now, I got trading Christian, But like, listen,
you do something at the time, like, yeah, I sold
my house, man, I made a lot of money, million dollars. Well,
if two years later that million dollar house worth four
million dollars, you might have a regret on that one.
You don't think the Panthers would want Christian McCaffrey over

(01:12:10):
what's his name from Penn State. You don't think they
want Dj Moore back. I said at the time, like,
you're not extending these defensive linemen, especially Brian Burns. Why
didn't you just give them Brian Burns and keep Dj
Moore for your young quarterback. You got the defensive tackle
draft to some more pass rushers to sign a pass rusher,
I think that's one they'd like back. If you could

(01:12:31):
redo that trade, you would keep Dj Moore who's under contract,
and trade Brian Burns, and maybe you wouldn't have to
trade as much. You're like, I'm trading you a premium
pass rusher who you're gonna pay. It actually would have
been a win win for everybody. Obviously Dj Moore is
a really good player in the Bears. But maybe they
wouldn't have to do the sweat deal. They could. I
don't know it just I think it was all off.

(01:12:52):
But yeah, I think the Carolina Panthers trade is easily
right as we sit here right now, looks like one
of the worst deals of all time. Now, the world's fluid,
just like trades. Things age better, things age poorly. What
to see I would probably bet I don't know if
this will age as bad as it looks right now.
I have a hard time ever seeing like, oh, win win,

(01:13:15):
you know, like when the Vikings traded Digs to the
Buffalo Bills and then they drafted justin Jefferson's like win win,
like one of the rares, like oh, I love this trade.
Bills are happy they got a sweet player, Vikings are
happy they got a superstar just like every it just
worked out. Does not feel like that has any chance
of happening with this so worst trade in Carolina Panthers history.
I don't have the the wiki up of all their trades.

(01:13:39):
It feels like it'd be up there, though definitely appreciate
everyone listening audios the volume

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