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September 6, 2025 • 36 mins

Former NFL scout John Middlekauff is LIVE breaking down the NFL Brazil game of the 2025 season in which the Los Angeles Chargers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in São Paulo. John reacts to Justin Herbert dominating the Chiefs' defense, Patrick Mahomes' brilliance, Travis Kelce's ineffectiveness to get open, the biggest plays of the night, and much more!

3:12 - Chiefs-Chargers

27:15 - Youtube NFL Broadcast

33:43 - NFL RedZone 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecock three
Now podcast a rare Friday night appearance, but we had

(00:21):
a football game in Brazil on YouTube. Imagine in like
five years ago, be like, yeah, we're gonna have a
game on Friday night on YouTube in Brazil. They'd be like,
what is going on? I'm like, yeah, it's actually gonna
be pretty fun. Chargers Chiefs and Justin Herbert out duels Mahomes.

(00:43):
I mean, Justin Herbert, that's as good of a game
as you'll see him play. He was awesome slinging that
pill around. Keenan Allen back in the mix. You had
Phil Mickelson tweeting it's great to see Keenan Allen back,
and it is. He just fits right into that powder blue.
Chargers get a massive win. So we'll dive into some
thoughts in the Chargers on Herbert on just how they

(01:04):
build their team, because they kind of look like the Chiefs.
Mahomes tried to pull some plays to get the Chiefs
on the winning circle, but heck man, you had some injuries,
you got suspension, you got Travis Kelce being old, and
it's tough, but the Chiefs defense got shredded. A little bit.
I'm sure that'll be a point that Spags emphasizes over

(01:25):
the next week as they played the Eagles in their
home opener in Kansas City a week from Sunday, So
we'll dive into that game. We'll give some thoughts on
YouTube and the YouTube experience, and some thoughts I had
the night watching the YouTube broadcast and where we might
be headed with this entire thing. So we'll talk a
lot of football, just a little thirty minute weekend pod.

(01:48):
But make sure you subscribe to the podcast if you
listen on Collins Feed, and make sure you subscribe to
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it comes out on a podcast in the morning, so
if you're awake you live on the West Coast, we're
usually going live on the YouTube channel reacting to the game.

(02:08):
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(02:51):
There are certain things in sports I truly do not understand.
And every once in a while there's an argument that
doesn't seem to die, and it's like I just tap
out of it. I don't even really argue with it.
I don't have the energy, mainly because I just couldn't disagree.
More Like I've always said, I understand why Brock Purdy

(03:13):
is a polarizing player. Hell I understand why Jalen Hurts
is a polarizing player. Dak Prescott. A lot of these players,
and listen, quarterbacks are so much more famous than all
these other players. They obviously get the most money, we
talk about them the most. They get treated differently they're
treated differently from when we're young, like in high school,

(03:35):
definitely through college, and obviously when they become stars in
the NFL. But I've never understood the Justin Herbert discourse,
like you don't need to be Ron Wolf or Al
Davis to just sit there and go, God, this guy's
really good. Like, yeah, he's had bad games, he's had
rough moments in the playoffs. Welcome to the National Football League.

(03:57):
You know who was terrible early on in his career
in the playoffs? Peyton Manning. Do you know what, we
all universally considered Peyton Manning one of the best quarterbacks
we've ever witnessed. Lamar Jackson is currently not just one
of the best players in the NFL, he's one of
the most dynamic players in league history. He's won multiple MVPs. Hell,
he could have won the MVP last year. He has

(04:19):
dominated the NFL, and he's kind of been I don't know,
a disaster in the playoffs. Herbert was bad in the
playoffs last year. He threw a bunch of interceptions. It happens,
It's literally happened to most great players. Welcome to the
highest level of professional sports. But tonight and you know

(04:40):
when Jim Harbaugh left Michigan, and let's face it, like
Jim Harbaugh chose the Chargers not because he just desperately
wanted to come back to the NFL. Obviously, he was
very interested in leaving Michigan. Things were getting cracked down,
like he was ready to bounce a lot like Pete
Carroll a long time ago with Seattle. But when Pete
Carroll left USC to Seattle, they had nothing. He was

(05:02):
just betting on the owner and the resources and his
ability to scout players and to build the thing from scratch.
Jim Harbaugh was choosing a team with a star quarterback,
and he told you from the jump and listen, sometimes
we need to be careful with Jim, who can be
a little hyperbolic, can get a little excited when he
discusses a player. But you watched tonight. He was twenty

(05:25):
five of thirty four through for three hundred and eighteen
yards three touchdowns, was running all over the field. That's
as good as you can play. Like that is if
you watch that game and you go, or if you
can't go, I get it, Like I understand, Like I'm
not just gonna be on the argue this guy's so overrated.

(05:45):
This guy sucks Like, no, he doesn't. He's really good.
And there's a reason when these people poll NFL coaches,
NFL executives, he's always way higher than the hipster media
that wants to go against the grain and acts like
this guy's really overrated. He's not even a top ten
quarterback like no guys, he's clearly just physical gifts like one.

(06:11):
I saw that there was something that went viral earlier
this week about generational talents at quarterback, and one like
Tom Brady can't be a generational talent relative to coming
out of college. He went in the sixth round, then
he can become the all time greatest player. But when
you go in the sixth round, no one views you
as a generational talent. I think one of the greatest

(06:33):
mistakes that I can ever remember and listen to has
ben solid when two has been on the field, at
least if it's not freezing cold outside, he could be
a productive player. Now when he plays better teams, it
gets a little more difficult. But Igat like to his
legitimate star NFL starting quarterback Justin Herberts in a different universe,
and while the Miami Dolphins screwed up that situation several

(06:55):
years ago when they had the opportunity, I don't know,
to just keep losing it. Get Joe Burrow. The bigger
mistake they made is when they could have just taken
Justin Herbert. And that's where the Chargers got extremely lucky
because it's been well documented they would have taken two
as well. But when you watch Justin Herbert, you go, wait,
this guy six foot six, he's got a massive arm.

(07:16):
He was like a four year starter at the University Oregon.
He's got touch. He's a super high character guy. He's
really coming into his own. It seems like as like
a personality. Obviously, he's got the perfect coach for him
to build him up. But watching the night against you know,
I don't know, Team mid Dynasty. They've been a five

(07:36):
to the last six Super Bowls. They are a defensive team.
Spags is not just one of the best defensive coordinators
in the NFL. Whenever his Chiefs run is over, it
will be considered one of the great defensive coordinator runs.
Like over the Internet era, and he was picking them
apart and you're like, well, you know what he's doing

(07:57):
it with a Randy Moss, Antonio Gates, and Jerry Rice. No,
actually he's doing it with Lad mcconkeee, really good player,
little short slot guy Keenan Allen who's like thirty five
years old and probably runs a five zho forty. Quentin Johnson,
who most people would say doesn't have great hands, also
dropped the touchdown to Night that hit him right in

(08:20):
the hands. That I mean was just a fantastic pass.
In his defense, he had a good night. What do
you have five catches for eighty rs in a couple touchdowns,
So listen, I had one drop. It happens as CD Lawn,
as CD Lamb. But I thought, justin Herbert tonight, that
that's as good as he's played an NFL game, especially

(08:40):
when you factor in that they're playing in freaking Brazil.
He's playing the team that wins his division literally every
year since he's been in the NFL, And that was
a really big moment and it was just fantastic. Now,
I thought Mahomes was excellent as well. One thing, you know,
I think that's I think these two teams are kind

(09:03):
of carbon copies of each other. Like ideally Andy Reid
would love to throw a bunch of bombs, and I
think that was the game plan when they drafted Xavier
Worthy in the first round. The problem was a night.
On the third play of the game, he runs into
Travis Kelce in a crossing route. I'm recording this right
after the game. I don't have the diagnosis of what
happened to him, but he urts his shoulder and he's

(09:25):
immediately out for the game. Obviously, where she Rice is suspended.
So whenever I hear like they're not doing a good
enough job around Mahomes, well, two things. They used a
twenty eighth overall pick on a guy that runs a
four to two that played in Texas. He had sixty
catches last year in six touchdowns, and as they were
saying on the broadcast, clearly Andy Reid told Kurt Warner,

(09:46):
we were gonna utilize this guy heavily in the game plan. Well,
he's out after three plays, so like, what are you
gonna do there? Your number one wide receiver is a
moron and crashes a Lamborghini and takes off and gets
suspended for what is it, six games? So he's gone
and you're depending on Hollywood Brown and Juju Smith Schuster,
who are solid players. If you had Rashi Rice and

(10:09):
Xavier Worthy stretching the field to go along with those
two guys, I do think the offense would look a
lot better. Look at the Chargers today, it's like we
were so critical like last year. It's like just lab
McConkey Adam. They bring Keenan back, who I don't care
how slow he is. He's gonna be able to get
open in a three or four yard radius until he's
sixty years old. He's a very dependable player. I would

(10:30):
call him like a route running savant and instinctive savant,
like that's what Keenan's been doing since he was really young.
And clearly Quentin Johnson that they are not giving up
on him. They keep building him up. There's no disputing
his physical talent. But when I look at the Chiefs,
like one kind of elephant in the room with them
is Travis is a shell of himself. Now, maybe he

(10:53):
gets it going again at the end of the season,
but like right now, week one, you don't see him
being a factor when it's like third and seven, Can
he just beat Derwin James one on one? And the
answer is no. Now, he does have the big touchdown catch.
But to me, that's an Andy Reid schemed up play
where he fakes blocking, leaks out and he's wide open

(11:14):
and Mahomes obviously does a great job of getting the ball.
But when they were in their peak and Mahomes was
putting up these crazy numbers, Travis Kelsey was an unstoppable force.
He's one of my favorite players to watch during that
time because it was just like football porn. Those two
guys knew each other, they were always on the same page.
And his ability to get open on anyone because he
was so fast and athletic, well, it's called father time.

(11:37):
It's called age. We slow down, and you see it
when he moves around, he does not move the same.
So they're depending on Juju Smith Schuster, not a Blazer.
Hollywood Brown, who actually is a good player, had a
good night tonight, and Travis Kelsey was just kind of slow. Now,
now I think they would say we're betting on the
end and this morning likely this is the last year
of his career. It's understandable that Travis is at the point.

(12:00):
But when you look at this version, especially once Worthy
went out, there was no comparison in which offense was
more explosive. It's why for them even to stay in
the game. Mahomes, you know, Herbert just got to drop
back and sling it to open guys and hit guys
cutting on out routes, cutting over the middle of the field,
you know, be lining it down the seam. Just got

(12:22):
to run a normal offense, and they had explosive play
after explosive play after explosive play. The only way Patrick
Mahomes gets an explosive play if Andy Reid scheme's a
great play to Travis or on like I guess the
last drive of the game, when Travis is being or
when Patrick's being chased by Khalil Mack and Hollywood Brown

(12:43):
gets behind the defense and he just slings at like
sixty yards down the field, which I do believe this.
Patrick is one of the greatest players I've ever seen,
and we know his physical attributes, his ability to run,
and he truck to dB tonight. I do think he
has to be much more cognizant when he's running down
the field to not avoid these big hits. You know,

(13:06):
this is the only time these defensive guys get to
hit the quarterback, and they're very amped up to do it.
Because you spend all week get and yelled at, spend
all week and practice with the guy wearing a different jersey,
and this is your sixty minutes. It's not even sixty
minutes because you're only on the field for half the time.
And a lot of defensive players, you know, rotate in

(13:26):
and out, especially linemen, some linebackers even do, and DB's
so when they get the opportunity to take clean shot.
He took multiple shots, and no one questions his toughness.
He's a complete bad ass. But I've bet that's something
with Andy, like we got to be smart. I mean,
you are the franchise brother. And I thought we talked

(13:47):
so much about his arm strength, his ability to stretch
the field. I think the most underrated attribute, and honestly
the defining attribute for Patrick is his touch. You know,
think how many quarterbacks in college in the pros just
struggle with just touch on just basic wheel routes. And
that there was actually one on a screen pass to

(14:08):
night that I think he kind of he threw it
a little fast. But for the most part, Patrick is
so good. Clearly some of those remarkable plays when he's
in mid air, you know, heaving it over two defensive
linemen like it you would at Recess when you were,
you know, thirteen years old playing with the twenty guys
on a grass field that has a bunch of potholes.

(14:29):
There's this little kid in him that comes out that
is pretty special to watch because we have seen now
this exact version of the Chiefs. They looked exactly the
same once Worthy got kot as they have the last
couple of years. And finally tonight, you know, the streak
was broken. Their magic ran out, partly because Herbert was
so dominant. And listen, I've been hard. I thought Hampton

(14:50):
looked a little slow in the preseason. I thought he
looked pretty good tonight. I know he only averaged three
yards of carry, but he was running hard. He did
have the one moronic play at the end of the
first half where he goes out of bounds. The Chiefs
didn't have any timeouts. They get the ball back and
Mahomes leads him into a field goal. It was actually
just like, you know, crazy, They didn't have any timeouts,

(15:12):
they rushed on the field goal team and Butker hits
like a fifty eight yarder. It was actually a pretty
cool play, but I thought so you get Hampton, Like,
look at what the Chargers had the night on the field, Herbert,
top six pick in the draft, Hampton first round running back,
Quinn Johnson, first rounder, Lad McConkie High second rounder, Keenan Allen.
I mean, one of the great players in Charger history

(15:34):
and just a high end Pro Bowl level guy. So
and here's the other thing. And obviously the Chiefs draft
the left tackle from Ohio State. Who do you know
he started his career Josh Josh Simmons. He went to
Helix High School. I was looking at up tonight. That's
where Reggie Bush and Alex Smith went and went to
San Diego State out of out of high school, was

(15:56):
a thirteen you know, started every game as a true freshman.
Can you imagine what he did in practice and in
games to some of those people in the Mountain West
Because within six months of him graduating high school going
to San Diego State, he was at Ohio State. It
was like that. It was he didn't go to San
Diego State and then kind of work his way up.
It's like boom right to Ohio State. And you watch

(16:18):
them tonight, You're like, that is a pretty elite special
player and I think the Chiefs will be the first
to tell you we feel pretty grateful that a guy
with this talent, because typically, you know, a left tackle
with that much ability is not sitting there at the
end of the thirties or I mean, yeah, thirty thirty one,
thirty two right there, that guy goes really really high.
And I think even Jason Kelsey was saying it on

(16:40):
his podcast. He's like, this was the most talented player
in the draft. This guy had Jason Peters level physical
attributes and you saw it tonight. The problem is you
got you got the right Juan the right tackle who
is just jumping off sides every other play, and at
one moment at Travis it looked like was gonna swing

(17:02):
on them, like how is this happening? Because early on
in the game it was happening most multiple times and
they weren't calling it. And then they just started calling
it every single play. It's like this is this offensive
line has been a little bit of an issue for
the Chiefs. Now it feels like finally figured out at
left tackle and you got Juwan Taylor on the right tackle,

(17:24):
who is just it's one thing some people jump off sides.
It happens. It's football at any level, from pee wee's
to high school to college of pros. You're gonna be
You're just gonna brain, fart and jump. It happened like
three times in seven or eight plays. I mean, it
was crazy. And I think a lot of people have
been saying for a long time that there are certain
players in the league that do this and people are

(17:46):
tired of it. So I don't think anyone felt sorry
for them. But on the flip side, I'll never forget
when the Chargers were to have the fifth overall pick
in the draft, when Harbaugh took over, and everyone's like, hey,
he's gonna take it. He's gonna take a wide receiver.
They don't have any wide receivers. He's got the start
young quarterback. He's gonna take a wide receiver. So, guys,
have you followed this guy's career? Did you understand the

(18:06):
way this individual thinks? Jim Harbaugh if he could choose
what every single game would be like seventeen to fifteen. Honestly,
it was glaring to watch tonight him let Herbert and
Greg Roman keep calling pass plays. They were extremely comfortable
calling pass plays, even on that final drive on the
third and fourteen where Herbert ends up running for the

(18:28):
first down that they let him throw him like second down,
and even Kurt Warner's like, that's a little crazy run
the ball. They have so much trust in this player
if you've watched him coach throughout the course of his career,
from JJ McCarthy to all the guys in Michigan to
Kaepernick and Alex Smith to Luck like that's not his
go too. Watching a guy of thirty four pass attempts

(18:50):
when you've had the lead throughout the game is kind
of un harrball like, it shows you how much belief.
It's very Andy Reid. He just kept calling pass plays.
I'm like, God, he's changing a little bit. Maybe he's adapting.
I know everyone thinks Greg Romans the village idiot. Greg
Romans been on offensive coordinator for a lot of good teams,
has a lot of wins with especially with both Harbab brothers,

(19:12):
but specifically Jim So when you look at the Chargers,
they lose their star left tackle in training camp, that's
typically that that would derail the overwhelming majority of teams.
Losing a guy like Slater mentally, you just couldn't overcome
it because everyone we're dealing with human beings here, they'd go,

(19:32):
what are we gonna do? And they just take jolt.
They move him to left tackle, and you go, yeah,
this guy's gonna be one of the best left tackles
in the league right away. And let's face it, I've
had some people DM me that have had similar injuries
to Slater obviously that aren't NFL players, just normal human beings.
It happened to my dad, now Grant. At the time,

(19:52):
my dad was probably fifty years old. But I think
that injury is extremely scary, and they are equipped. If
he's never able to come back, if he's just a
shell of himself, it won't really matter. I mean, it's
not ideal. You'd rather just have two sweet left tackles,
but typically when your star young left tackle rips up
his knee, you would be screwed. And the Chargers just

(20:15):
simply are not. And you look at their offensive talent
like they actually have. It felt like a lot more.
And we know defensively, one thing Jim Harbaugh does as
well as anyone is higher defensive coaches. Going back to
when he was a stand fer in the forty nine
Ers with Vic Fangio Mike McDonald to mentor who came
with him from Michigan, like, they're just good. And that's

(20:36):
where I said, when they're the carbon copy of the Chiefs.
The one thing the Chiefs do, the one thing both
these teams do is they tackle. They are physical teams.
Their DB's hit, they fill in the run game. If
you're gonna play linebacker for these teams, you are going
to be a physical tackler. You're gonna be like a
heat seeking missile. All the defensive linemen are tough guys.

(20:57):
And that mentor, I mean, their defense good last year
and everyone's like, oh, they're not playing any quarterbacks. They'm
not playing any quarterbacks. Well, they paid Patrick Mahomes a
night and if it wasn't for it was forty nine
yards to Hollywood Brown, he barely would have been over
two hundred yards. I mean kind it was kind of going,
You're like, God, is this the Patrick Mahomes kind of
games from last year, like in the high one eighties

(21:19):
one nineties, and then he pulls that play out of
as you know what, and you know he gets to
two sixty. But their offense, you can tell it's hard
to get guys open Travis not really happening. But that
was a really, really enjoyable game, and I might have
to rethink my Chargers missing the playoffs. That's gonna be
a tough team. They have an elite coach, they have

(21:41):
a fantastic defensive coordinator. They have a top five to
six quarterback. I mean tonight he played like, I don't know,
best quarterback in the league. They have really dependable offensive
pieces in lad mccaukeee and Keenan Allen. Get the young
running back Hampton, who's just gonna be solid. You know.
Part of it tonight is Beckton's sick, so he's coming
in and out of the game, maybe gets food poisoning

(22:02):
in Brazil. He's gonna be I mean, that's a huge
addition for them. Just a mauler in the run game.
The Chargers is gonna be good. I think I overthought
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(23:47):
flipped is when when Butt Kerr did he miss the
extra point? Yeah, he missed the extra point, so it
made it what was it thirteen to six, So it
made it thirteen to twelve, and then the Chiefs missed
that two point conversion where the ball got batted down.
So they were always kind of chasing, and last year

(24:08):
they would be in that chase mode and then they
would just figure it out at some point in time
in the fourth quarter and then they take the lead
and be like, oh, they're gonna win, and then you
get the ball back and you'd miss the field goal
or whatever. It's what you kind of felt like tonight.
But every time it would start to creep in, like, oh,
the Chiefs are gonna pull another game out of the
crevice of like something. How are they doing this? And

(24:29):
Herbert would just make a big pass. Herbert would make
a big pass, keenan Allen would get a first down,
and honestly, it wouldn't even just be on third down.
It'd be like it'd be first and ten and they
would get like seven yards. It would be second and
eight and they would get you know, nine yards. They
were just extremely efficient tonight on offense. What were they
tonight on third down? The Chargers were seven to thirteen

(24:51):
on third down. I mean they were just and obviously
they got a fourth down as well. The Chiefs were
awful on third down early in the game. But then
Richard said, like they got a in the second half
where they were like five to five as they were
kind of coming storming back, so that they were really
bad on third down early in the game. And the
penalties for the Chiefs, I mean, you had ten. I

(25:12):
feel like the right tackle had ten of them. I
feel like he had the majority of them. So he's
got to get that cleaned up. I mean, Andy's an
offensive lineman at heart, so I'm sure they will attempt
to figure that out. You got to feel good about
the left tackle first game, Brazil. Now next week's big, right,
You're playing the Eagles at home. If you look at

(25:34):
the chief schedule, so this is you know, you lose
a division game. Now, granted you still get the Chargers
later this year at home, but you play the Eagles,
then you got to go to New York Sunday Night
football and then you play the Ravens. So I don't
want to say the Eagles is must win. But even
if you were to lose to the Eagles, then let's

(25:54):
say you beat the Giants, then that there'd be a
lot of pressure on that Ravens game to obviously win
you get him at home, but to not fall to
one and three. I mean, the Chiefs, when you're winning
the division all the time, you just that first play schedule.
You're always gonna be playing the Bills, You're always gonna
be playing the Ravens, depending on how the schedule shakes up.
You're playing the Texans this year, playing the Lions. So

(26:16):
they just played tough games. I mean, he's it's hard
and everyone's gunning for you when you have been the
big dog for this long. You know. The one thing
I will say about the Patriots in their heyday before
Bill started losing it and they kind of fell off
a cliff is for twenty plus years, and remember when
they would play a team that was like two and

(26:38):
eight or one and eleven, and Bill would go on
some long like diatribe at the start of a press
conference about you know, this team might be one and
twenty seven, over their last twenty eight games, but they
have the best punt coverage unit you've ever seen. And
he would try to manipulate in like four force his

(27:00):
team to have somewhat of a respect for the worst
team in the league history. Because even when you were
playing the shittiest of opponents, it was that team super Bowl,
let alone, when you played the good teams, it was
that team super Bowl as well. And that's you know,
the Chiefs just getting everyone's best fight. And the other
thing is these teams in their division right now, Herbert Derwin, James,

(27:23):
you know, Keenan Allen's been playing them forever. Obviously, the Broncos.
Some of the guys in the Raiders like Max Crosby,
Colton Miller like that that they're the most comfortable seeing them.
That's why thinking about I thought about the Cowboy Eagle
game the night. You know, one area, the Eagles are
just gonna out talent and intimidate some teams, especially at home.

(27:43):
But when you play your divisional opponents, and this is
why gambling early in the season, you know, you take
the divisional doc because they're not intimidated no matter how big.
In theory, the talent gap is or the win loss
gap is it's like that they're gonna be comfortable lining
up against these guys. And sat to night, the Chargers
just from the jump said where you're equal, We're every

(28:04):
bit as good as you. And whether that's true or
not as the season plays out, they sure as hell
believed it tonight, and it showed. I was. I was
really impressed with the Chargers. One thing I wasn't super
impressed with was the YouTube broadcast. I mean, it's Rich
Eisen's a tough listen. It's just it's not very good.
It just we just gotta be we gotta be honest

(28:26):
and real. Now, in fairness to him, it's not like
he is a normal play by play guy. He's just
a TV broadcaster, radio show host. Like I don't I
do think most of these NFL broadcasts, beside obviously, Mike
Turrico is excellent, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman is really good.
You know, Al probably losing his fastball, but he's Al Michaels,

(28:48):
so I can handle it. There's just a lot of
bad broadcasts, and it's one of those where you're watching
it it's like, I love football, but this is just
really hard to listen to and I did also think
that a lot of stuff with YouTube. You know, they
had the Destroyer who Jackson alerted me. And I remember

(29:08):
because I had gone on his page probably a week ago,
that you know he was he had been a former
kicker in college and this was before nil and they
basically made him choose because he was making a ton
of money off YouTube. He was huge. I went to
his page a little while ago, probably within the last
whenever it was announced that he was going to be

(29:29):
a part of this. I remember clicking on something and
his videos like he's good at what he does. But
one thing they clearly try to do tonight with the
creators like this is not for me, And you know what,
not everything when it comes to football broadcasts or golf
broadcasts or basketball broadcasts, when they try to be innovative
and do different, things have to be for us, like loyal,

(29:52):
diehard sports fans that just want to watch the game,
that just want to get into the nitty gritty, like
I get. I mean, I do underst stand on the
draft why they do have the cheesy ass broadcast. It's
not for me. I don't want to watch, but I
understand my mom will probably shed some tears for that stuff.
So like I understood the creator the different angles they're doing.

(30:12):
It's not for me, but it also crossed my mind
the night that probably within the last six months, I
listen to a couple of finance podcasts, and one of
the guys on one of them said that if YouTube
was a standalone company, right, if they weren't under the
Google umbrella, they would potentially be a top twenty twenty
five company in the world. Like that's how big there

(30:35):
they are, and they are trending up like this thing
is a monster, and clearly last year, which I'm glad
they did because I'm a YouTube TV guy, got the
package right, so you get all the games on YouTube TV.
It's easy, the four box, this is fantastic. But the
tonight pretty innovative idea just going YouTube only, which was

(30:57):
easy on my TV. Just bring up YouTube, press the button,
watch the game. If they truly wanted to, when this
television deal comes up here in four or five years,
they could outbid every single person whatever the bids were
for Fox, ABC, CBS put together. They could three exit
if they wanted, not saying they're going to, but if

(31:18):
they truly wanted just to monopolize the NFL games and
everything under their umbrella and then maybe resell the Foxy.
Hey you can play it on your YouTube channel, or CBS,
you can play it on your YouTube channel. However, they
wanted to distribute it, but they could get into a
bidding war, same thing with Amazon and just wipe every

(31:38):
traditional broadcast partner out. And I know a lot of
people think that the owners there's a loyalty aspect to
the broadcast partners that have been with them from the beginning,
and I think there's a lot of truth to that.
But we're at a point now where we're talking numbers
that are so outrageously high it sometimes you go, hey, listen,

(32:02):
we have enjoyed our partnership and without your help we
would never be here. And I'm glad we have made
a lot of money together. But this business deals, we're
going in a different direction. You know. Adam Silver just
did something like that right when he got rid of
TNT and he went heavily with Amazon. They're going to
be way less people this year on certain nights consuming

(32:25):
the NBA that have over the last couple of years,
and obviously ratings are down, you know, what he said.
I don't give a shit. They are tripling our media
rights deal. We are going to make so much money.
I don't care if ten people watch because of the
number that they're guaranteeing us. It just it would be

(32:47):
a fireable offense if we didn't sign this, and I do.
You're starting to see, you know, YouTube get heavily involved.
Obviously Netflix is getting involved. Amazon has been involved. These
people have so much more money than all these networks combined.
It's not even a fair fight. And if they truly
want to get aggressive, which how would they not? Because

(33:10):
YouTube's gonna see how many people went to their page
and clicked this game, then I'll promise you it was
a lot they see every single weekend when people like
me on YouTube TV are doing four boxes, are are
streaming games through their platform. They understand the power of
it because that's the business they're in, and the power

(33:31):
of YouTube that is only growing in popularity, it's already massive.
So listen for the broadcast little weird uh you know,
Cam Newton, ca Adams. Well, there's just a lot going on,
and not everything has to be for me, Like I'm
gonna like broadcasters that you're not gonna like, you're gonna
like broadcasters that I'm not gonna like you're gonna you're

(33:54):
gonna subscribe to YouTube pages that you couldn't pay me
to watch, and vice versa. That's the way the world works.
But I think most of us agree that like football,
when a good football games on like tonight, it's just
an enjoyable experience. And obviously there's a power in the
upload speed when you're streaming stuff like this. But I've

(34:15):
been saying this for a while back when everyone was
freaking out about Amazon Prime getting Thursday Night Football, It's like,
I don't know anyone that doesn't have Amazon. Yes, there
are people in rural communities that don't have the capability
of streaming. I'm sorry. The NFL isn't spending that much
time worrying about you if you don't account for a
large percentage of people. This is just a business which

(34:38):
is a numbers game, and clearly the numbers game is
in their favor. I think I saw a good quote
actually today from Nick Wright. I don't even know if
this was a real quote because it was on like
an aggregated page that basically said of everyone bitching and
moaning about the ads on Red Zone. I hope it
was a real quote be an adult and just watch

(34:59):
the actual game. I'm like, I actually kind of relate
to that. I've never been a huge Red Zone guy
because I'm watching the actual game or two flipping back
and forth, though I understand, like I enjoy Red Zone,
like I got seven TVs in a room, like it's
on one of them, but like the volume, and my
attention typically is always on the game, and then I

(35:20):
flip over to red Zone once something happens, especially a
scoring play, to just essentially see the replay on that
and it feels like live. But you know, people are
gonna bitch and moan about everything, and I'm sure and
I'm not trying to complain about this tonight because it
was an easy experience to watch the game, not factoring
in the audio. And now the audio, you know, Marie

(35:42):
at one time she's like, turn it up, and I realized,
I'm like, we are way louder than normal TV. So
I maybe there's something in the audio when they the
way they streamed it, But I thought overall, in terms
of the broadcast quality visually, you know, it was completely normal.
To me. It was like I give you an A.
I had no streaming issues, felt normal, nothing flashing, just

(36:05):
felt like I was watching a normal game on one
of the broadcast networks. But it definitely crossed my mind
the night that this is something that could be like
a major talking point in years to come with them
getting heavily heavily involved in terms of buying more of

(36:26):
the NFL audios see a Sunday The volume
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Colin Cowherd

Colin Cowherd

Jason McIntyre

Jason McIntyre

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