May 23, 2023 • 54 mins
John discusses the news that Thursday Night Football is flex eligible, and why the NFL will allow a third active QB on game days, the league awarding the Draft to Green Bay and the Super Bowl to San Francisco in 2025, Tom Brady buying an ownership stake in the Raiders, and why Big Ben admitting he initially wanted Kenny Pickett to fail is a terrible look. He also answers listener questions in the Middlekauff Mailbag.
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Transcript
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
and now podcasting back at it again. How are we doing?
(00:21):
My people? We had a lot of news coming out
of the owners meetings. The NFL owners love getting together
at some four seasons all across the country. It feels
like about every month to just create some headlines, pass
some rules, keep their keep the league in the in
the headlines, and keep people like me talking about them.
(00:43):
So a lot going on coming to day, from super
Bowls to drafts to Thursday night football flexing, third quarterback activity.
We will discuss it all as well as fellow podcaster
Big Ben Roethlisberger had some comments that you know, quite interesting.
We will dive into as well. And I will also
(01:05):
do a mailbag at John Middlecoff is the Instagram and
that's where you get in the mailbag. You just fire
in the dms and get your question answer on the mailbag.
Very very easy to do. Fire in those dms at
John Middlecoff, just my name do it. Very easy to
do podcasts on YouTube. I got a backwards hat on today,
(01:26):
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how coward allows you to do that. Like I said,
bald people. We follow different rules. You can hear us
live on AMP. Always had a podcast yesterday if you're
into golf and you missed it, reaction to Michael Block
and Kopka and everything that happened to the PGA Championship.
(01:48):
And yeah, the volume dot com check out the merch
got a go low Hat, go check that out. Let's
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app promo code. John Sure. Okay. The NFL held their
owners meeting for the seventeen time this year. It feels
like the owners meet like every three weeks. It's like, oh,
(02:49):
where do you want to go? Just pick a city,
run out the four seasons, and let's just be super
rich guys screwing around. That's what it feels like. I mean,
these owners meetings are just they're relentless with the things.
Feels like just the ultra rich hangout. Probably a pretty
fun thing to go do. But they're having another set
of meetings currently. I'm recording this on Monday afternoon, and
(03:10):
a bunch of things have just happened, I mean, pretty
some breaking news, future super Bowls, the future of the
NFL Draft, where it's going to go. We will dive
into all of it. Quarterback rule changed. But I think
the most eye opening thing is this Thursday Night story.
They can now flex Thursday Night football week thirteen to seventeen,
(03:31):
So that includes week thirteen is Seattle, a Dallas fourteen,
New England and Pittsburgh fifteen Chargers in Vegas, sixteen Saints
at Rams, and seventeen Jets at Cleveland are now flexible.
Now this rule does include you can't flex the week before.
You have to give a twenty eight day notice. It
(03:51):
passed twenty four to eight. To get anything done in
the NFL, you need twenty four plus votes. Clearly they
got it right on the number. Now, a ton of
owners have been outspoken. I give them a lot of credit.
John Mora hated this from the beginning. He had no
hesitation going public with not just his reservations but his anger,
(04:12):
and I think he was quoted today saying not shocked
at all. Mark Davis another guy, very very outspoken about this.
I thought it was very anti fan, and listen, having
been someone who's worked around Mark Davis, it's weird because
he didn't move his team. He tried to move to
like multiple different cities. He does care about fans. He's actually,
of all the owners, the closest in relation to the fans.
(04:36):
So these owners, clearly, I've been saying for a long time,
and this isn't like you don't need me to say it.
It's basic economics. If you're listening to this and you
are a season ticket holder, you are important to said
team and you helped generate them revenue. But on the
hierarchy me and everyone else listening that does not attend
(04:57):
many NFL games and watched it them all on television,
we are way more valuable through their business than you
are as a season ticket holder. And honestly, the gap
is only widening. Why because the NFL makes all of
them all the majority of their money from television slash
now streaming. So taking care when I hear like, just
(05:19):
taking care of their broadcast partners, that is the majority
of their revenue. So the reason when you see that headline, oh,
they're just taking care of the broadcast partners, that'd be
like you if you work for a Mercedes Benz dealership going,
they're just taking care of Mercedes. Well, yeah, that's where
the money comes from. That is and only going to
continue to be the most important thing when it comes
(05:41):
to the bottom line. And here's the other elements of this.
NFL teams their desires that are usually led by you know,
the coach or the GM and the desires of the
owners and the you know, front office of the league
office are not aligned. Right, owners and the league office.
Their number one goal is not winning, It's to make
(06:04):
money and to generate more and more money and have
it keep increasing. If I'm a general manager or a coach,
my goal is to improve my football team and win games.
And winning games and ideas when it comes to money
don't always align. Clearly, this is not aligned with the
health of football teams, because we already saw it happen
(06:25):
this year. There are several teams that are playing multiple
short week games like that. That makes no sense. But
the league told you they don't care. I've said forever,
I don't care what your industry is, what you are
as a human being, if you tweet or facebook post
or as a company put out statements that say one
(06:47):
thing and then live or operate the complete opposite way,
like I don't believe anything that you put out. It's
all fluff. And the NFL has said for a long
period of time, safety safety, safety first, and they've added
some rule changes right rightfully, so hits over the middle
protecting the quarterback, which can suck if you're gambling on
(07:11):
a game and you just get the worst you know,
roughing the passer you've ever seen, or some hit that
looked pretty legal and very just like a normal form
tackle and the guy gets flagged with hitting a defensive receiver.
I've still never understood that no one on the football
field is defenseless when they are running around like they
(07:31):
know the defenders are out there. But the reason they
did that was because they got sued, not because they
actually cared. So when they keep saying that, they actually
don't care. They care about their bottom line, which is
making money, and they continue to do it at a
pretty high rate. So when I see this Thursday night,
football got flex it was clear when these owners like
(07:52):
John Mora were talking down upon it the last owner's
meetings at some four Seasons in Arizona, that it was inevitable,
like this is where it was gonna go. This is
not politics where a bunch of buffoons are running things.
These are super rich, super wealthy, and the most successful
people in this country. Well some of them inherited it,
but others like the Waltons, the Joneses, I mean, these
(08:15):
people are very, very tempers important to the landscape of
their set industry separate from the sport of football. So
when something goes to a vote, it's pretty clear that
they know it's gonna pass. Something is gonna get done.
And so when this story came out a month ago
that this was on the table, You're like, yeah, this
is going down. Is this gonna hurt football? Is this
(08:36):
the beginning of the end? I don't know. I've said
forever football is not gonna stay on top forever. We've
seen the EBB and flows. Now I don't know if
I don't think baseball or basketball is going to pass them,
but they're dominance them. Having the market cornered on our
attention is I don't want to say short lived, but
there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Now.
Is that in thirty years, in twenty years and five
(08:58):
years and one hundred years, I don't know. But you
continue to do stuff strictly for financial reasons when you're
already making a ton, the league's having a lot of success,
and you hurt the product, because that's ultimately what this
could do. It could hurt the product if you're forcing
teams to play more Thursday night games and it's just
gonna be fascinating to watch because Thursday night football can
(09:20):
already be very hit or miss. But part of the
reason clearly flexing it is to get better teams involved. Now,
the Cowboys are not getting flexed out no matter what
brand's too big. The Steelers are not getting flexed out.
Also brands too big, Vegas at the Chargers. I would say,
if Jimmy Garoppolo and Herbert are playing, that's got a
pretty good chance to stick. This game's got a very
(09:41):
very good chance to be moved. The Saints playing the Rams,
I mean, the Rams could be really terrible, and who knows.
I mean, you're banking on Derek Carr and Dennis Allen.
Now it's also based on, well, what would you flex
it for? Right, Sunday Night's not giving up their game.
Monday Night clearly is not given up their game. Fox
and CBS have rights to their games. So it'll be
very fascinating and interesting how this whole thing plays out. Okay,
(10:07):
some other information to come out of the league meetings.
The third quarterback ak the Brock Party rule, and I
think this relates to the flexing of Thursday Night games
because it's a reflection of television television, television television. What
happened last year in the NFC Championship game. Does it
(10:28):
actually matter that it was Brock Party that got injured
or Josh Johnson? The league doesn't actually care about those individuals.
It was that the game was ruined, right if that
event had not happened and brock Purty had just been
healthy and the Eagles had won in a walk off
field goal, or the forty nine Ers had beaten the
Eagles by seven and it was just a normal NFC
(10:50):
championship game. It was not disrupted and basically unwatchable for
non Eagles fans, just in terms of it was just
a bad game. I mean, the Niners couldn't throw the game,
was the second half sucked? Just from an entertainment standpoint.
It's not my pro Niners side saying that. I'm just
saying that I would have been cool if the Eagles
win by ten as long as the game was competitive,
(11:11):
and that wasn't. Well. Non competitive game in an NFC
championship game is a television disaster. That is the reason
they changed that. So now teams will have the opportunity
to have a third quarterback active for game day, and
I would imagine most teams will do that. But here's
the thing. Some teams last year had three quarterbacks make
(11:37):
the team after training camp. The forty nine Ers were
one of them. Brock Purty made the fifty three man roster,
but in Week one before Trey Lance he was healthy,
Trey Lance was a starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo was the backup,
and Brock Purdy was just an inactive in sweats holding
(11:58):
a clipboard right. The same example goes for the Miami
Dolphins tuatongo IAI Loa, Teddy Bridgewater, and Skyler Thompson, who
like Perty, was a late seventh round pick made the team.
So some teams before this rule had guys they didn't
want to cut because they thought would be claimed they
kept on their fifty three man roster, even though both
(12:18):
of those teams never intended to play the two guys. Ironically,
Skyler started a playoff game and obviously Perty started a
bunch of games at the end of the season. Now
that individual will be able to be active for game day,
assuming all the other guys are healthy. Now where I
think the wrinkle comes in, and this is what I
think it really affects. I think there are two ripple
(12:38):
effects for this rule. Is one, I think teams are
going to be more inclined now to draft a fourth
to fifth sixth round quarterback, not that they weren't before,
like if they liked the player, but I think if
all else is equal, right, some teams like, we don't
really have a quarterback. Need we got two guys we like,
so let's take an offensive lineman. Now, if you like
a quarterback, if you like JK in the fourth, you go,
(13:01):
we could use an offensive lineman. But let's just lean
the quarterback because you will take a guy that you
think can inevitably be your backup quarterback and just keep
on your fifty three man roster. And then when you
have those individuals, you know that before you might have
had a Skylar Thompson or a rock party where you went,
you know, I can cut this guy on September first,
(13:22):
or whenever the date is that you cut down. The
it goes what ninety is it seventy five or seventy
to fifty three. When you have the big cut down before,
you know essentially week one that you are going to
be more inclined to hold on to a quarterback that
you go, you know this guy might get claimed, not
because we think he's a starting quarterback immediately, just because
(13:42):
some team might go, yeah, I view him as my
third quarterback. So it changes the you know, the kind
of the puz putting the puzzle together, for your roster.
It just impacts a little bit. Now, you're not going
to keep a guy on your fifty three man roster
just to say you have a third quarterback if the
guy can't play over some defensive linemen or offensive line.
(14:04):
So guys that get cut because they're viewed as like
this guy's probably more off more likely than not right
now to be a practice squad guy. That will still happen.
But the guys that are much closer to the line
or that like earn their spot and go, you know what,
we're going to keep three quarterbacks. I think that is
more more likely to happen more now. I think you'll
(14:24):
see a ton of teams with three quarterbacks. But they're
still gonna be teams that carry two quarterbacks heading into
Week one on their fifty three men roster and have
the third quarterback you know, on the practice squad. But
I do believe that you know, this is going to
extend some careers. Just have got random players to be
able to play a couple of years longer, make a
(14:44):
couple more million dollars. I also think this brings more
into play some of these random leagues. You know. I've
seen some headlines over the last several weeks of players
you know from the UFL or the XFL, or shit,
I can't even keep up. I actually saw I was
at the gym the other day and there was again
the TV was on mute. I think it was the XFL.
(15:05):
It could have been the USFL, I whatever, one of
those leagues. You know, if I'm a general manager my
scouting department, we got to really lock in on those quarterbacks,
like is there a guy that could potentially be our
third guy? Because if it is, like mut's bring him
in for training camp before we dive into what's next.
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Angi dot com. The NFL, we gave them a lot
of credit for Kansas City, for Chicago, for Philly, all
(16:33):
these cities. The NFL Draft now is an event, and
it's an easy way for the league to give cities
that are not gonna host Super Bowls howd of a
big event. And I saw a lot of people in
the interwebs talking shit like why would you give the
NFL Draft to Green Bay? Why not? Who cares? It's
just an easy one. It's throwing them vone. You're not
(16:56):
going to have the Super Bowl February tenth at Lambeuf.
It's like an Arctic winner. You're never going to do that.
It was hard for them to do that in New York.
But one of the rules is you get a new
stadium done, you kind of get the super Bowl. It's
why Minnesota got the super Bowl. But for the most part,
there is a rotation of warm weather cities getting the
(17:17):
super Bowl. If you told me that the super Bowl
the market was cornered on Scottsdale, Vegas, Miami, and New Orleans,
I'd be good. Like, I don't think you have to
go to all these places, though I understand it. When
it comes to the Draft, all the cold weather city
should get it. It's fun, it's easy. Now I can't.
(17:37):
I've never been to Green Bay. Even in my scouting days,
I never went there. Logistically, it's probably not as easy
to operate as a Chicago, Philly or Kansas City in
terms of people, but I would guess that less people
are going to go to the Draft in Green Bay
then let's say Chicago or Philadelphia. I still think it
will be successful. It's just part of being in business,
(18:00):
regardless of the scope. Is whoever your partners with, whoever
is involved, like you got to take care of everybody.
Like the Green Bay Packers have helped make the league
a shit ton of money over the last thirty years
they've been on Fox, and they have been one of
the premium brands and one of been one of the
most successful franchises. So you're not gonna give them a
super Bowl, which makes sense. You're you're not gonna have Lambelle.
It's just too cold and it's not set up for
(18:23):
a super Bowl city. But the draft, like, isn't that
big a deal. I saw all these people complaining online, like, ultimately,
who cares. I was living in the Bay Area when
San Francisco got the twenty sixteen Super Bowl Denver versus Carolina.
I participated that week in radio row and I went
to the Super Bowl and it was awesome. I put
(18:44):
a couple of g's on the Denver Broncos Von Miller
Super Bowl MVP. I got pretty drunk. I cheered on
the Broncos and it was It was very, very enjoyable.
I won some money. It was awesome. But San Francisco
was a lot different place six seven years years ago,
and I haven't been to New York in the last
four or five years, but I listened to a lot
(19:05):
of financial podcasts of people based there. Everyone says that
obviously a lot like San Francisco in twenty twenty, it's
shut down. They're completely rocking and rolling. Now. San Francisco,
of all the major cities, has responded the worst to
coming back from all the shutdowns because in terms of workplace,
(19:27):
people have not returned to work. It's almost a forty
percent unoccupancy rate of commercial real estate in downtown San Francisco.
And when I lived there and when I used to
go out in San Francisco in the twenty tens, the
place was packed, you know, giants, games, all the tech companies, everyone.
It was hard to get the city because there were
so much traffic. City was booming. Now this had a
(19:48):
homeless problem, a drug problem. It's very pro criminal, but
now the city is empty. Besides, there's a lot of chaos.
There's a lot of crime. There's just not many laws
that have to be followed, and the city is kind
of the all in podcast, you know for successful venture capitalists.
Multiple that live in the city call it Gotham City
(20:08):
because it's kind of a fucked up place right now.
So ultimately, historically it's one of the great cities in America.
Right now, it's going through some shit and there's not
really a light at the end of the tunnel because
people ain't coming back to work like that's just there
every all these other cities rocking and rolling, people coming
back at least partial. People just are not showing up
cities and chambles. And I understand. I like the people
(20:29):
that run the forty nine Ers, obviously, I understand them
wanting a super Bowl. Their operation is actually forty five
minutes south of the city, but all the events for
the super Bowl are held in San Francisco. Was announced
today that San Francisco will get the super Bowl in
twenty twenty six. Two years ago, when the super Bowl
was in Los Angeles, I went down for like twenty
(20:54):
four hours because I went to the Volumes party and
wherever I stayed, I got an uber to the to
the house that coward you know, had rented out to
throw the party, and I was going on the uber.
I was talking to the guy and he's like, you
know what's crazy is clearly the NFL has cleaned up
a lot of certain areas around here, the homelessness, which
(21:14):
in California is a major problem and it's only getting worse.
He's like, they clearly move some people around because this area,
I don't know La that well in terms of like
what it had looked like recently. He's like, they cleared
this out, they cleared that out, and I was like, damn.
And so for the for the league to go to
San Francisco, which in theory should you know, not a
(21:36):
crazy place to host some Super Bowls, I think right
now it's they're going to have to do some serious
cleaning up, Like it's not really the safest place to
operate in Downtown. San Francisco is not really what it
was hell just seven eight years ago when they hosted
the Super Bowl. So I'm going to be very very
fascinating how the league handles this. Still got some time.
(22:01):
Obviously it's twenty twenty three, so we're three years away.
But there ain't gonna be major changes in that city.
I promise you that. Yeah. So who I guess for
the forty nine ers getting another Super Bowl, but I
think it's gonna be a little bit. It was logistically
a challenge just because everything was so spread out. The
(22:22):
game was forty five minutes away from where all the
festivities are. I think they're gonna have some other uphill
battles when it comes to that week, just given the
current state of the city. Last, but not least, I
got this one just kind of red flagged would be
the wrong way to put it, but just I'm keeping
an eye on this one. Tom Brady now owns a
(22:43):
piece of the Las Vegas Raiders. Mark Davis, i think,
said at the owners meetings he was very excited Tom,
who's already you know, had a little piece of the
Vegas Aces, the defending w NBA champions. Never forget Mark Davis,
owner of the Raiders, is a champion. He knows what
champions look like. The Las Vegas Aces, even though they
(23:04):
had to suspend their coach, Becky Hammond for treating pregnant
women not very nicely, and Mark Davis paying some players
under the table and bypassing the salary cap in the WNBA,
but he is a champion. They hosted whatever the hell
you call that trophy in the WNBA. He's added Tom Brady,
another champion to his operation. I do think the league
(23:27):
wouldn't mind having Tom Brady involved in that kind of area.
The problem was going to be Tom's worth hundreds of
millions of dollars to buy an NFL team, Even if
he was had people with him, he would need a
lot of money. Right, five hundred million in cash is
not getting it done. Look at some of these recent
sales for the Broncos and the Commanders. I do wonder
(23:52):
though the league like he's not in there just randomly,
even though he's the best player. It has some parallels,
at least to me, of when the league got Michael
Jordan involved. Now, clearly that went bad, and Michael Jordan
now is I think, selling his steak and is not
even going to own the Hornets or Bobcats or whatever
the hell they're called. But I do think Tom Brady
(24:15):
owning an NFL team one day, or at least being,
you know, own twenty five percent. I think I read
the day, just to own a couple percent would cost
him sixty seventy million dollars. So the price of entry
is a lot for a little tiny piece that when
you're a minority owner in the NFL. Tom Brady has
(24:35):
zero say in Josh McDaniels in players. Now, that doesn't
mean Mark wouldn't rely on him, you know, bring him
to games, listen to him, ask for his advice. Clearly,
his relationship with Josh McDaniels Ziegler, there's already some carryover
and commonality there obviously those guys' friendships and New England ties.
But keep an eye on that one because I think
(24:58):
one day Tom could continue to take a bigger role.
Let's face it, Mark Davis, the Davis family is not
long for the NFL. One day that will be in
different hands. I promise you that, Like the Jones family
not going away, the Lurry family, the Marra family, like
there were some families, the Hunt family going nowhere. That's
(25:20):
one that's like, yeah, they ain't gonna be forever. So
Tom Brady one day, does he have the funds? I
don't know. Clearly he doesn't have billions of dollars, especially
with FTX going under, but something to keep an eye on.
You know. The one thing with Michael Jordan, I remember
always reading or hearing people talk on podcasts how he
didn't actually have the cash to buy an NBA team.
(25:41):
And then when you watch air and I love movies
these days, like I just think like they're going theaters,
it won't be out for I was gonna say DVDs,
but who even owns DVDs? But just to watch, you know,
on our television for a long time, it felt like
Air was in theaters and then boom, it's on Amazon Prime.
I love that. Say what you want about streaming. I
love how fast it is to me. Movie theaters they're dead.
(26:01):
I'm sorry, they're just their shelf life. You talk about
something that's hold non for dear life. I turn on
you know, Amazon Prime a week after you know, the
opening of Air, and boom, it's right there. I watched
it in my bed on Saturday night. Fantastic and Michael
Jordan had to sign one of the great business deals
in the history of athletes to get a percentage of
(26:21):
his shoe in nineteen eighty four changed the landscape of everything,
and clearly financially, it's still doing billions of dollars in revenue.
It's said at the end of the movie that it's
it's reported or potentially the number is around four hundred
million dollars to Michael every single year. So so Michael
(26:41):
did pretty well, you know, getting some equity in that
shoe Air Jordan, that movie Shoe Dog is one of
the best books that I've ever listened to, and that
the movie's fantastic with a Flack and Matt Damon and yeah,
it's really really good. If you like, you know, it's
just I'd recommend it. Watch it easy. Watch another football
(27:06):
story I saw today that just made me shake my head.
I've always been a Roethlisberger guy. As a player. I
thought in his heyday, he's, you know, one of the
most unique players we've ever seen, right because he could move.
He wasn't quite as fast, but in terms of power
and keeping plays alive, he had like this Cam Newton ability,
(27:26):
but then he could throw it like he was fucking Brady,
And in the peak of his powers, he was just
an unstoppable force playing for just one of the sweet
brands and iconic operations in sports. He was sweet. I
loved Roethlisberger, those Steeler teams like they're everything I liked
about football. And then I saw today after he retired
(27:47):
because he couldn't play anymore, which happens when you're thirty eight,
thirty nine, forty years old in sports, he retires. I mean,
last year he could barely throw the football, you know
it was. It was worse than Drew Brees a couple
years ago. It was much closer to Peyton Manning his
last year for Denver Broncos. It was clear he could
not play football anymore. Like we could make arguments that
(28:09):
last year Philip Rivers for the Indianapolis Colts like he
had another year in him, right. Roethlisberger did not. He
could not continue to be a starting quarterback, so he retired.
Now ideally did he want to retire. Most athletes probably
don't want to retire. But he could see the riding
on the wall. His agents starts sniffing around. No one
else was gonna sign him. It was over. That happens.
(28:32):
That's part of the business of being a pro athlete.
It ends. It literally ends for everybody. Right. No one
gets to like, yeah, I'm still playing football. I'm sixty
seven years old. That's not the way it works. Where
a lot of times, and specifically in football, you get cut, right,
Peyton Manning was cut or traded, Joe Montana was traded.
Tom Brady was essentially told by Belichick, you're not wanted
(28:53):
here anymore. Those are like three of the greatest quarterbacks
of all time. Joe Montana traded, Brady told get out
Peyton Manning your cut. Roethlisberger none of those happened to him.
It was like, bro, it's over. Ben's like, I know,
it's over. So when Kenny Pickett was drafted, I don't
view Kenny Pickett replacing Roethlisberger. They just needed a quarterback
(29:16):
to be a starting quarterback because their starting quarterback retire.
When Andrew Luck was drafted by the Colts, they replaced
Peyton Manning with Andrew Luck. They replaced Steve Young for
Jo when they traded Joe Montana right and Roethlisberger said
on his podcast, I didn't know he was a fellow podcaster,
but glad to have him in the biz. I'll be honest.
(29:38):
I'm gonna get blasted for this, but early on I
didn't want you to succeed talking about Kenny Pickett. That's
selfish of me, and I feel sorry for that. So
I'll give Roethlisberger credit for this. He's saying something that
is just kind of insane, given that Kenny Pickett didn't
show up, and then they cut Roethlisberger or traded Roethlisberger tired.
(30:00):
They drafted a quarterback Roethlisberger while being honest and candid
and telling his true feelings, which is all we want
out of any human being, in any anyone that's talking
for a living. But what he says to me is
really stupid, Like Ben, Yeah, why would you? I just
(30:21):
I can't quite fathom that. One can't grasp that. One
doesn't make any sense to me. Very very poor reflection,
as Roethlisberger knows, saying Listen, probably shouldn't be dishonest. No,
I'm gonna get blasted for it. You should get blasted
for it. I would completely understand. If you get dumped
by a girl and then she starts dating some other guy,
(30:42):
you're probably gonna root for that relationship to fail. If
you get fired I have and replaced on radio by someone,
you're gonna You're gonna root for that radio show to fail.
It did I completely understand. But if I turn in
my two weeks and say hey, I'm leaving or I
(31:04):
dump you, if I'm bitter in rooting against you after
I go on and do whatever I'm doing because I
chose that, that's a poor reflection of me, and it
kind of shows your true colors. And Listen, we all
have a pettiness to us. We all have parts of
us that you know are not perfect. Right, But that one,
(31:26):
to me reflects a little bit of the big Ben experience,
kind of all about him, right, kind of just like
it was always about Big Ben always had to be
on his terms. And again I'm a fan. I rooted
for him. I really enjoyed watching him. I thought that
one's a pretty tough look. Okay, mail bag at John
(31:48):
middlecov Instagram. Firing those dms, easy to do, fire in them.
DM's wide open question on the show. Let's start with Ricky. Hey, John,
I got a question. In some of your most recent podcasts,
you have talked about the NFL and their relationship with
Amazon and the other streaming services and how they want
(32:09):
to make as much money as possible. Why doesn't the
NFL make it easier for consumers and make their own
streaming platform or their own like where we as consumers
can pay a certain amount for all the games on Sunday,
Monday and Thursday. Curious as to why they can't make
it easier for us but still generate a bunch of revenue. Basically,
(32:30):
why can't they put all the games on one service
and we just pay directly to the NFL. That might
be inevitable, but I would say this, if you can
have someone pay you to do work that you don't
want to do, right, the NFL doesn't want to set
up cameras, create the production, hire people to call the
(32:51):
games that's on CBS, Fox, NBC, Amazon Prime. They do
all that work and they pay the leak. So the
league all they have to worry about is the games,
which are gonna happen no matter what. And the more
people you have involved in the payment for all those games,
the more the money goes up. Because right now, for example,
(33:14):
thing of the company with the most money, right Amazon, Well,
in twenty twenty three, Amazon is not going to pay
basically what the league gets from every single Fox, CBS
and whatever that number is on a yearly basis. Amazon's
not going to pay that number and host all the games,
right They've got to figure out how to make it
(33:36):
work first. They're doing that same with you know, all
the streaming services Netflix, whoever might be Apple, but eventually
one day could Apple. Like YouTube TV bought the NFL
Sunday ticket, which I've read is actually much more niche
than you thought. If you said NFL Sunday ticket, how
many people get it? You'd be like, oh, fifteen million people.
(33:58):
I think the numbers really I don't want to say
it off the top of my head because I feel
I'll be off, but I thought it was like one
and a half million people, so it's not nearly as
big as I assumed it was. But I think it's
just simply no one's willing to pay them what they
get from all these people combined, And given what all
these people pay them combined is such a large number,
(34:19):
you might as well just keep going like they're going.
And the other reality is this is some big companies,
like what made Amazon such a bohemoth customer first, customer first,
customer first for a long period of time, like they
weren't even making money on the website, right they'd have
free returns. It was just to get your loyalty as
(34:41):
a consumer. And now what do we all do? I
do not know a soul that doesn't use Amazon. If
you're not using it, unless you're out in some area
that doesn't get it, you're wasting energy going to the
store to buy shit because you can just order it
and then if you ever don't want something, you can
just return it for free, which I also read might
change someday, like it might not be free returns forever,
(35:04):
which would make sense because I send a lot of
stuff back. But I think it's just that simple. They're
getting so much money from so many people and it
just doesn't pencil, and no one can afford to give
them what they would need to give them to get
all the games. Okay, Nick, I just finished my first
year of law school at Marquette and I'm in the
process of pursuing a certificate in sports law program here.
(35:27):
Congratulations smart guy, Nick. One day, my dream job is
to work in the NFL in the front office. In
the past few years, I got really into scouting and
the draft side of football, following guys like Brugler Brett Coleman.
As a former NFL scout, Do you have any advice
on getting a foot in the door. What were some
(35:48):
of the first steps you took to familiarize yourself with
breaking down film and learning logistical x's and o's. I'm
still learning to lay the land as it pertains the
football space. Any advice you would lend is helpful. I'm
clerking at a firm up in Milwaukee this summer, but
I have friends and family in Indy. I frequently visit,
so I've been bringing out three and out on road trips.
(36:09):
Appreciate you. I would say that I learned through people
teaching me. And I actually talked to a guy that
listened to the podcast that has similar aspirations to you
earlier today. And he's working in football right now and
he's in college and he's trying to get his foot
in the door. And my advice always is, and again,
this is just what worked for me. Certain things work
(36:32):
for other people. It's very, very difficult just to get
your foot in the door in the NFL. I didn't
know anyone in the NFL until I worked in college football.
I had never met a coach in the NFL. I
had never met a scout in the NFL. And I
wouldn't have had any access to NFL people if it
was not for Fresno State, and I would not have
(36:53):
worked for the Eagles if Pat Hill did not pick
up the phone and call his buddy Andy Reid that
he had known for twenty five years and say that
you should give this guy an interview, right And the
reason that I told him to do that was because
Anthony Patch, who still works for the Eagles, said you
should have, like, we have a spot. If you have
(37:14):
Coach Hill call you know, coach Reid, it will go
a long way. And it did so it was like
I didn't just randomly fall into place. But I did
that because I worked in college football for two years.
And the difference is when I worked in college football
in two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine,
no program, including Alabama maybe just started to have like
(37:38):
gms and personnel people like I worked. I was a
GA for the head of football administration, who also was
essentially the head of recruiting, and we broke down film
and Coach Hill loved recruiting, so I watched a lot
of recruiting film with him and the other coaches. And
then you just learn, you know, through the guy on
(38:00):
your own team that end up making the NFL, the
guys that you play that end up making the NFL.
Kind of what it looks like. I didn't learn it
through a book. I learned it through other people. And
then when I got to the NFL, I learned it
through you know, being around guys like Lewis and Veach
and Howie. You're just around personnel people and you just
pick up on things. So I learned by doing I
(38:22):
don't learn probably why I was a bad student. I'm
not a big like read a book and then put
it into practice right, I fail by doing. I learned
by doing. I succeed by doing. I have to do
it and be around people that are doing it and
see how it's done, and then do it myself. So
I would recommend anyone because it's very, very difficult. Maybe
it's different if you're a lawyer. You know you can
(38:45):
talk to the guy that runs you know, the contracts,
maybe you have the better access to that. But getting
a hold of a GM or an assistant GM, if
you don't know them and don't work in football, is
very hard. Now you can hit link in and do that,
but it's very difficult to get someone to call you
back or email you back. It just is you Usually
(39:07):
in this type business, you got to know someone that
can get you an introduction, and I don't. For me,
it was just college football. Now you're already working, you
know in right, you're getting your law degree, which congratulations,
sound like a very smart guy. Maybe you can use
that to your benefit to talk to maybe a contract
(39:28):
negotiator or a team president. I would say, in your shoes,
a team president, given that you're getting your law degree,
is an easier guy to get to get an email back.
So like if you're at where you're at Marquette. You know,
if you can get the dude that runs the Packers
or the dude that runs the Bears, right, maybe you
have shoot them an email on LinkedIn and maybe because
(39:50):
of a law background, and don't attack it football wise,
don't go I want to be a scout. Just say hey,
I want to work in the front office. I will
do whatever it takes. Like the way Howie Rosemand got
his foot in the door was like, I'll do whatever
I have to do, contracts, you name it now, and
like you he had his law degree and then over
time he just got more involved, more involved, more involved,
(40:11):
was to do whatever it takes, or writing up teams
right as he's doing contracts and then becomes a GM.
There are a lot of different ways to move up
once you're in. The hardest part is getting in from Joseph.
I don't get it. Justin Fields is every bit the
athlete is Anthony Richardson. Justin is an inch shorter and
(40:33):
ten pounds later, but just as fast and just as athletic.
His arm might be just as strong, but it's plenty strong,
and he throws an incredible deep ball. Justin had much
more productive career to House State, he was certainly more accurate.
So why is Richardson being treated like he rose on
the third day and Fields was the fourth quarterback taking
(40:54):
in the draft? It just doesn't make sense to me. Well,
I'll say this, I never understood why Justin Fields wasn't
the second quarterback in that draft. To me, for him
not to go to the Jets at number two was insane. Now,
I do think there are a lot of parallels. Blue
chip athletes, great runners. Like you said, Fields was much
(41:15):
more productive in college. Fields also played at Georgia Ohio State. Right,
pretty well run, just well oiled machines. Right now, I
would say Florida, you know, kind of has some issues.
And this isn't scouting where you know, like, is mac
Jones a great player? It was too awesome? Or are
(41:35):
they just throwing it to four star players? Is c J. Stroudistud?
I don't know. We're about to find out. But he
was throwing to receivers a lot like Tua in mac
Jones that are way better than every team they ever
played in college, and against corners that cannot cover any
of those guys. Because there were a bunch of first
round players. Marvin Harrison's gonna go like fifth overall, and
(41:58):
Jig Bow went twentieth. He didn't even play right. All
the guys that played at Alabama were unstoppable. So I
do think that when you're judging these quarterbacks coming out,
it's not just about production, and it's how it translates.
I think a lot. He has a lot of parallels.
Like fields is if you can mold this, the ceiling
(42:20):
is really high. Now, let's face it. Through a couple
of years, the questions on fields, and I was a
huge proponent. I thought the Niners should have drafted him
over Trey Lance. But I do think there are some
question marks with him as a thrower. Obviously there are
question marks for Trey too. So I would rather just
have justin fields, but because at least he can run.
But I hear you, I think most years, you know,
(42:44):
Justin Fields goes higher than he did. I think it's
still kind of crazy that he fell where he fell.
And when I say fell, you know the guy. Sometimes
we talk about like how this guy falls. It's like, bro,
you went thirty third in the draft. I mean this
is pretty high. Right, you play wide receiver. There are
offensive Linemen, there are other positions at quarterback. You know
(43:04):
you should go much higher when you're a blue chip prospect,
which I thought he was, but some people didn't agree
with me. Hey, John, love listening since my internship in
twenty nineteen, somehow old and in my mind now somehow
old and in my mind to the late twenties. You're
the best at dissecting the intersection of business sports. But
(43:27):
that's neither here nor there. Here are my top three
next cities to move to after Chicago, in no order, Tampa,
Saint Pete, Clearwater, Austin, Texas, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Arizona. Thoughts on
which route is best to go, especially with someone who
values good games to attend in their city of choice, Well,
(43:51):
I would say this for Scottsdale, Arizona, if you're coming
for the sports, doesn't really have it here. Diamondback, Stink
Sun should be pretty good. The Cards are gonna be
awful though you can watch other NFL teams, but they're
gonna be pretty bad. I would not call this like
when I lived in the Bay Area. It has a
(44:12):
very similar feel like when I lived in Philly. Like
everywhere you go, it's about the Giants, the forty nine Ers,
and the Warriors. Pro sports are very meaningful there, just
like Chicago win loser, draw, like the Bears, the Bulls,
the Blackhawks, the Cubs. That shit's important in Philly, all
the teams. Obviously, when you're winning, it matters more. But
you know what I mean, there's a sense of community there.
(44:35):
It's not really like that here at all, which is cool,
Like to me, it's kinda honestly, this has more of
an La meets Vegas type feel of just people from
all over a lot of sports fans, but they're rooting
for their team, you know, like me, I'm watching a
Niner game right watching the Warriors. Some guy you might
meet watching the big Knicks fan. I've met so many
(44:57):
people that are like, I'm a big Vikings fan, I'm
a big Yankees fan. La kind of has that. Vegas
kind of has that in the Bay like it was
like you're watching the Niners, watching the Giants. So that's
not here. Austin Texas the college I've never been there,
have a buddy that lives there. You know, Texas is
king you just kind of gravitate toward go to UT
(45:17):
football games. That'd be cool. My one time there, I
didn't love it, though I was only there for a
couple of days. I would probably prefer Dallas over Austin,
but again that's just me. Tampa, Saint Pete's Clearwater. Never
been to Saint Pete's or Clearwater. Been to Tampa one time,
didn't hate it, didn't hate it one thing. Texas and
(45:40):
Tampa in that area has, you know, better taxes. I
would say Arizona like those other two places, it's really hot,
which I like the heat. Now it's gonna be one
hundred and fifteen degrees here sometimes in the summer. Now
in those two places, very very humid. It just depends
what you like. I think you're gonna have much more
(46:01):
people from the Northeast in places in Florida. Right So,
I don't know where you're from, but if you're a
Northeast you know, even Midwest guye, maybe that's more your vibe.
Arizona is much more of a West Coast vibe, which
I like being a West Coast guy, but has way
less taxes, and even while it's booming here is still
(46:21):
way more affordable than like La or San Francisco. If
you like golf, this is a good area. So I
don't know. I mean for me, i'd rank it. I
would go Scottsdale, then I'd go Florida, then I'd go Austin.
But that's just me moving. It's crazy what moving does
for you. And I don't recommend move just to move,
(46:43):
but if you're thinking about it and you can do it,
whether you know you can change a job, you know
you can pick up and move your family. Obviously, we
all have a lot of different variables in our life
with children, with whatever. So it's not it was a
I could work from wherever. You know, I wasn't don't
have children, I'm not divorced. You know, I have split custody.
(47:05):
We all got different things, have a you know, family business.
It's not easy to do. If you can do it
and you are thinking about it, I do highly recommend
it because it really is I'm trying to think of
the right way to describe it. It just gets some
more just juice back in your life. It's I saw
(47:27):
this clip of Aaron Rodgers today the Jets, I mean
tweet out and instagram about more clips of Aaron Rodgers
at OTA's and it's pretty amazing, right. The packers gave
him one hundred and fifty million dollars last year and
he still wouldn't be inconvenience to show up goes to
the Jets. He is having the time of his life.
And I do understand it, man. I think sometimes change
(47:48):
the scenery if if you kind of feel it in
your gut. Now, if you don't feel it and things
are going well, I don't don't just do it to
do it. But if you're thinking it and you can
do it, it's a powerful thing works, man, And you
can see it in his face. Now. Is that going
to translate to a Super Bowl? I'm not saying that.
I'm telling you I think they're going to be successful
because I think he's going to be just so energized,
(48:09):
so reinvigorated. I want to know if you think that
the Washington can become the new Jets, Bucks or Broncos
hopefully not, and be the team that just needs a quarterback,
especially now that Snyder sold. I saw that it's not
official yet, and there was a clip going viral on
the internet of Jerry Jones at the owners meetings talking
to Snyder's lawyer. You know, Jerry's trying to get this
(48:32):
deal done. Get Snyder out of there. We have McLaurin, Dotson,
Curtis Samuel, Brian Robinson, Antonio Gibson and a good defense.
There aren't many holes in our roster, and I think
they will all fire, and think they will fire Ron
for the enemy. Yes, yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't
(48:54):
go that far because let's just say you have an
underwhelming year, but the offense looks good. I don't think
you know. New owner, he's going to hire whoever he
wants to hire. And most new owners go after big names.
Look at the Broncos one down year, boom eighteen million
dollars a year. What did you know Harris do whenever
he was with the Sixers. They're always going after big names,
(49:16):
Doc Rivers, Darryl Morey, James Harden. Like new owners, new
owners with money, I mean they swing dick. So to me,
Eric Bienemy, if Ron Rivera gets fired, that means it's
probably pretty ugly. Now. The one thing for bne Mey.
If Sam Howell looks good, who know what? If Sam
(49:36):
Howell is just solid, right, we saw Brock Purdy be good.
We've seen guys over the years. Mid round picks have
success from Russell Wilson to Dak Prescott to Kirk Cousins.
So just because you're not a first round pick does
not mean you can't be a high end starting quarterback.
One difficult uphill battle. They have division's good, right, and
(50:00):
Eagles are really really good. And the Giants, I mean
a coach is good. At least he proved one year
to be really solid. Now you could argue just guy
for guy. The rosters. Washington would have an argument like
if you put Daniel Jones on Washington and just gave
the Giants snow quarterback, you know, I think you would
(50:20):
immediately take the Commanders over the Giants. But I don't know.
We'll see. I think anytime, though, you get a new owner,
it's very very hard to assume what will happen if
things get ugly, if things go well, everything's always on
the table, because I mean, even though money's all relative,
(50:40):
when you pay five six billion dollars for a team,
you're gonna want to make your own decisions. Hell, you
might even like Ron Rivera the guy, and he might
make the Ron Rivera could make the playoffs this year,
get KOed in the first round and still get fired
and just simply like I want to hire my own coach.
Because think about this. Let's say me and you were
(51:02):
partners and we just bought the Washington Commanders and we
pulled together our six and a half seven billion dollars.
Do you think words like, eh, let's just see how
it goes, just or we're gonna want to hire the
coach we're gonna want to hire. What if I came
in like I want to hire Lincoln Riley, Right, I
want to hire whoever. You're just gonna want to hire
(51:22):
your own coach. Okay, last one, here's one for the
mailbag from my work account. I'm a Colts fan from Germany.
The Colts had the fourth pick of the draft, and
the Colts wanted Anthony Richardson. The thing was a quarterback
needy team could have made a trade with the Cardinals
at three and scooped up Anthony Richardson. The trade happened,
but it was the Texans, so nothing bad happened for
(51:44):
the Colts. My question for the mailbag is, I thought
the ballard the Colts GM would have asked the Cardinals
GM to call him once a trade with a quarterback
needy team was more or less imminent and the Colts
would top that offer. Is something like that possible or
does the team with the earlier pick that does not
care about something like that? Thanks greetings from Germany. Well,
(52:07):
I think if you are the Cardinals, you're completely indifferent
to who trades for him, right, So you would one
hundred percent tell Ballard listen, if someone is going to
trade for this pick, we have no problem coming back
to you. It's like an offer for a home, right.
It's like, hey, we got a one million dollar offer
(52:29):
on the table. We had you called earlier and offered
us nine to eighty. Are you willing to pay one
point one or one point zero five? So of course
it would be in your best interest as the Cardinals
to shop that pick around and see if you can
get more. Now, like you said, the moment the Texans call,
you know they're not gonna take quarterbacks back to the
(52:49):
back picks, so you might not even need to call
Chris Ballard back. But if you know team the Titans
or whoever was calling and say hey, Chris, this is
the offer they're giving us, they're clearly gonna come up.
I don't know who they're gonna take, but they're clearly
gonna take a quarterback. If you don't want them to
take your guy, you got to give us, you know,
ten percent more than they're giving us, or we're gonna
(53:10):
accept this trade. So I yeah, I think that happens
all the time in these trades, because it'd be stupid
for the team that's pulling the trigger on trading back
to not always shop offers around. Part of now, Sometimes
an offer, you know, like the Bears and the Panthers,
you get to a point where the offer is so
big you're like, no one's paying this weight. You're gonna
(53:31):
give us two first rounders DJ Moore a third rounder? Like,
are you serious? It will take it. So I think
sometimes when that happens, you just pull the trigger. But
on some of these where it's like, hey, we'll give
you a second to third, Well can I get a
second in two threes? Can I get a second third
and a fifth? You know? Can I get We'll give
(53:53):
you a one in two? Well can I get a
one to two? And next year's two? So one ndred percent?
I think you're always shopping around. Appreciate everyone listening, have
a great week. Appreciate my guy hosts on the audio
James on the video and all the people at the
Volume crushing it watching the Lakers lose. I'm actually recording
this before the Laker game, but you know, they'll probably lose,
(54:14):
And for you Laker fans, hell, pretty good run. Sucks
getting swept audios. Talk soon, See you the Volume
The volume. What is going on everybody? John Middlecock three
and now podcasting back at it again. How are we doing?
(00:21):
My people? We had a lot of news coming out
of the owners meetings. The NFL owners love getting together
at some four seasons all across the country. It feels
like about every month to just create some headlines, pass
some rules, keep their keep the league in the in
the headlines, and keep people like me talking about them.
(00:43):
So a lot going on coming to day, from super
Bowls to drafts to Thursday night football flexing, third quarterback activity.
We will discuss it all as well as fellow podcaster
Big Ben Roethlisberger had some comments that you know, quite interesting.
We will dive into as well. And I will also
(01:05):
do a mailbag at John Middlecoff is the Instagram and
that's where you get in the mailbag. You just fire
in the dms and get your question answer on the mailbag.
Very very easy to do. Fire in those dms at
John Middlecoff, just my name do it. Very easy to
do podcasts on YouTube. I got a backwards hat on today,
(01:26):
so all those people like middle cough, I don't understand
how coward allows you to do that. Like I said,
bald people. We follow different rules. You can hear us
live on AMP. Always had a podcast yesterday if you're
into golf and you missed it, reaction to Michael Block
and Kopka and everything that happened to the PGA Championship.
(01:48):
And yeah, the volume dot com check out the merch
got a go low Hat, go check that out. Let's
keep rocking and rolling. But if you want to lock
in your NFL tickets, and I've gotten some dms of
people that have done that, you know why because they've
used the official ticketing app of this podcast. It's game Time,
so download the game Time app. Just go to your
(02:08):
app store, download game Time and type in the promo
code John. When you buy your first pair of tickets
NFL games, Major League Baseball games, you want to go
to the NBA Finals heat versus the Nuggets. You live
in Denver, You want a little to watch your team
win a championship, because they're going to win the championship.
Download game Time promo code John twenty dollars off any
(02:28):
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just hammer that promo code. I appreciate everyone that has comedies, concerts,
you name it. They got you covered. Just search the
app promo code. John Sure. Okay. The NFL held their
owners meeting for the seventeen time this year. It feels
like the owners meet like every three weeks. It's like, oh,
(02:49):
where do you want to go? Just pick a city,
run out the four seasons, and let's just be super
rich guys screwing around. That's what it feels like. I mean,
these owners meetings are just they're relentless with the things.
Feels like just the ultra rich hangout. Probably a pretty
fun thing to go do. But they're having another set
of meetings currently. I'm recording this on Monday afternoon, and
(03:10):
a bunch of things have just happened, I mean, pretty
some breaking news, future super Bowls, the future of the
NFL Draft, where it's going to go. We will dive
into all of it. Quarterback rule changed. But I think
the most eye opening thing is this Thursday Night story.
They can now flex Thursday Night football week thirteen to seventeen,
(03:31):
So that includes week thirteen is Seattle, a Dallas fourteen,
New England and Pittsburgh fifteen Chargers in Vegas, sixteen Saints
at Rams, and seventeen Jets at Cleveland are now flexible.
Now this rule does include you can't flex the week before.
You have to give a twenty eight day notice. It
(03:51):
passed twenty four to eight. To get anything done in
the NFL, you need twenty four plus votes. Clearly they
got it right on the number. Now, a ton of
owners have been outspoken. I give them a lot of credit.
John Mora hated this from the beginning. He had no
hesitation going public with not just his reservations but his anger,
(04:12):
and I think he was quoted today saying not shocked
at all. Mark Davis another guy, very very outspoken about this.
I thought it was very anti fan, and listen, having
been someone who's worked around Mark Davis, it's weird because
he didn't move his team. He tried to move to
like multiple different cities. He does care about fans. He's actually,
of all the owners, the closest in relation to the fans.
(04:36):
So these owners, clearly, I've been saying for a long time,
and this isn't like you don't need me to say it.
It's basic economics. If you're listening to this and you
are a season ticket holder, you are important to said
team and you helped generate them revenue. But on the
hierarchy me and everyone else listening that does not attend
(04:57):
many NFL games and watched it them all on television,
we are way more valuable through their business than you
are as a season ticket holder. And honestly, the gap
is only widening. Why because the NFL makes all of
them all the majority of their money from television slash
now streaming. So taking care when I hear like, just
(05:19):
taking care of their broadcast partners, that is the majority
of their revenue. So the reason when you see that headline, oh,
they're just taking care of the broadcast partners, that'd be
like you if you work for a Mercedes Benz dealership going,
they're just taking care of Mercedes. Well, yeah, that's where
the money comes from. That is and only going to
continue to be the most important thing when it comes
(05:41):
to the bottom line. And here's the other elements of this.
NFL teams their desires that are usually led by you know,
the coach or the GM and the desires of the
owners and the you know, front office of the league
office are not aligned. Right, owners and the league office.
Their number one goal is not winning, It's to make
(06:04):
money and to generate more and more money and have
it keep increasing. If I'm a general manager or a coach,
my goal is to improve my football team and win games.
And winning games and ideas when it comes to money
don't always align. Clearly, this is not aligned with the
health of football teams, because we already saw it happen
(06:25):
this year. There are several teams that are playing multiple
short week games like that. That makes no sense. But
the league told you they don't care. I've said forever,
I don't care what your industry is, what you are
as a human being, if you tweet or facebook post
or as a company put out statements that say one
(06:47):
thing and then live or operate the complete opposite way,
like I don't believe anything that you put out. It's
all fluff. And the NFL has said for a long
period of time, safety safety, safety first, and they've added
some rule changes right rightfully, so hits over the middle
protecting the quarterback, which can suck if you're gambling on
(07:11):
a game and you just get the worst you know,
roughing the passer you've ever seen, or some hit that
looked pretty legal and very just like a normal form
tackle and the guy gets flagged with hitting a defensive receiver.
I've still never understood that no one on the football
field is defenseless when they are running around like they
(07:31):
know the defenders are out there. But the reason they
did that was because they got sued, not because they
actually cared. So when they keep saying that, they actually
don't care. They care about their bottom line, which is
making money, and they continue to do it at a
pretty high rate. So when I see this Thursday night,
football got flex it was clear when these owners like
(07:52):
John Mora were talking down upon it the last owner's
meetings at some four Seasons in Arizona, that it was inevitable,
like this is where it was gonna go. This is
not politics where a bunch of buffoons are running things.
These are super rich, super wealthy, and the most successful
people in this country. Well some of them inherited it,
but others like the Waltons, the Joneses, I mean, these
(08:15):
people are very, very tempers important to the landscape of
their set industry separate from the sport of football. So
when something goes to a vote, it's pretty clear that
they know it's gonna pass. Something is gonna get done.
And so when this story came out a month ago
that this was on the table, You're like, yeah, this
is going down. Is this gonna hurt football? Is this
(08:36):
the beginning of the end? I don't know. I've said
forever football is not gonna stay on top forever. We've
seen the EBB and flows. Now I don't know if
I don't think baseball or basketball is going to pass them,
but they're dominance them. Having the market cornered on our
attention is I don't want to say short lived, but
there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Now.
Is that in thirty years, in twenty years and five
(08:58):
years and one hundred years, I don't know. But you
continue to do stuff strictly for financial reasons when you're
already making a ton, the league's having a lot of success,
and you hurt the product, because that's ultimately what this
could do. It could hurt the product if you're forcing
teams to play more Thursday night games and it's just
gonna be fascinating to watch because Thursday night football can
(09:20):
already be very hit or miss. But part of the
reason clearly flexing it is to get better teams involved. Now,
the Cowboys are not getting flexed out no matter what
brand's too big. The Steelers are not getting flexed out.
Also brands too big, Vegas at the Chargers. I would say,
if Jimmy Garoppolo and Herbert are playing, that's got a
pretty good chance to stick. This game's got a very
(09:41):
very good chance to be moved. The Saints playing the Rams,
I mean, the Rams could be really terrible, and who knows.
I mean, you're banking on Derek Carr and Dennis Allen.
Now it's also based on, well, what would you flex
it for? Right, Sunday Night's not giving up their game.
Monday Night clearly is not given up their game. Fox
and CBS have rights to their games. So it'll be
very fascinating and interesting how this whole thing plays out. Okay,
(10:07):
some other information to come out of the league meetings.
The third quarterback ak the Brock Party rule, and I
think this relates to the flexing of Thursday Night games
because it's a reflection of television television, television television. What
happened last year in the NFC Championship game. Does it
(10:28):
actually matter that it was Brock Party that got injured
or Josh Johnson? The league doesn't actually care about those individuals.
It was that the game was ruined, right if that
event had not happened and brock Purty had just been
healthy and the Eagles had won in a walk off
field goal, or the forty nine Ers had beaten the
Eagles by seven and it was just a normal NFC
(10:50):
championship game. It was not disrupted and basically unwatchable for
non Eagles fans, just in terms of it was just
a bad game. I mean, the Niners couldn't throw the game,
was the second half sucked? Just from an entertainment standpoint.
It's not my pro Niners side saying that. I'm just
saying that I would have been cool if the Eagles
win by ten as long as the game was competitive,
(11:11):
and that wasn't. Well. Non competitive game in an NFC
championship game is a television disaster. That is the reason
they changed that. So now teams will have the opportunity
to have a third quarterback active for game day, and
I would imagine most teams will do that. But here's
the thing. Some teams last year had three quarterbacks make
(11:37):
the team after training camp. The forty nine Ers were
one of them. Brock Purty made the fifty three man roster,
but in Week one before Trey Lance he was healthy,
Trey Lance was a starting quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo was the backup,
and Brock Purdy was just an inactive in sweats holding
(11:58):
a clipboard right. The same example goes for the Miami
Dolphins tuatongo IAI Loa, Teddy Bridgewater, and Skyler Thompson, who
like Perty, was a late seventh round pick made the team.
So some teams before this rule had guys they didn't
want to cut because they thought would be claimed they
kept on their fifty three man roster, even though both
(12:18):
of those teams never intended to play the two guys. Ironically,
Skyler started a playoff game and obviously Perty started a
bunch of games at the end of the season. Now
that individual will be able to be active for game day,
assuming all the other guys are healthy. Now where I
think the wrinkle comes in, and this is what I
think it really affects. I think there are two ripple
(12:38):
effects for this rule. Is one, I think teams are
going to be more inclined now to draft a fourth
to fifth sixth round quarterback, not that they weren't before,
like if they liked the player, but I think if
all else is equal, right, some teams like, we don't
really have a quarterback. Need we got two guys we like,
so let's take an offensive lineman. Now, if you like
a quarterback, if you like JK in the fourth, you go,
(13:01):
we could use an offensive lineman. But let's just lean
the quarterback because you will take a guy that you
think can inevitably be your backup quarterback and just keep
on your fifty three man roster. And then when you
have those individuals, you know that before you might have
had a Skylar Thompson or a rock party where you went,
you know, I can cut this guy on September first,
(13:22):
or whenever the date is that you cut down. The
it goes what ninety is it seventy five or seventy
to fifty three. When you have the big cut down before,
you know essentially week one that you are going to
be more inclined to hold on to a quarterback that
you go, you know this guy might get claimed, not
because we think he's a starting quarterback immediately, just because
(13:42):
some team might go, yeah, I view him as my
third quarterback. So it changes the you know, the kind
of the puz putting the puzzle together, for your roster.
It just impacts a little bit. Now, you're not going
to keep a guy on your fifty three man roster
just to say you have a third quarterback if the
guy can't play over some defensive linemen or offensive line.
(14:04):
So guys that get cut because they're viewed as like
this guy's probably more off more likely than not right
now to be a practice squad guy. That will still happen.
But the guys that are much closer to the line
or that like earn their spot and go, you know what,
we're going to keep three quarterbacks. I think that is
more more likely to happen more now. I think you'll
(14:24):
see a ton of teams with three quarterbacks. But they're
still gonna be teams that carry two quarterbacks heading into
Week one on their fifty three men roster and have
the third quarterback you know, on the practice squad. But
I do believe that you know, this is going to
extend some careers. Just have got random players to be
able to play a couple of years longer, make a
(14:44):
couple more million dollars. I also think this brings more
into play some of these random leagues. You know. I've
seen some headlines over the last several weeks of players
you know from the UFL or the XFL, or shit,
I can't even keep up. I actually saw I was
at the gym the other day and there was again
the TV was on mute. I think it was the XFL.
(15:05):
It could have been the USFL, I whatever, one of
those leagues. You know, if I'm a general manager my
scouting department, we got to really lock in on those quarterbacks,
like is there a guy that could potentially be our
third guy? Because if it is, like mut's bring him
in for training camp before we dive into what's next.
Do you know that Angie's list is now, Angie your
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Angi dot com. The NFL, we gave them a lot
of credit for Kansas City, for Chicago, for Philly, all
(16:33):
these cities. The NFL Draft now is an event, and
it's an easy way for the league to give cities
that are not gonna host Super Bowls howd of a
big event. And I saw a lot of people in
the interwebs talking shit like why would you give the
NFL Draft to Green Bay? Why not? Who cares? It's
just an easy one. It's throwing them vone. You're not
(16:56):
going to have the Super Bowl February tenth at Lambeuf.
It's like an Arctic winner. You're never going to do that.
It was hard for them to do that in New York.
But one of the rules is you get a new
stadium done, you kind of get the super Bowl. It's
why Minnesota got the super Bowl. But for the most part,
there is a rotation of warm weather cities getting the
(17:17):
super Bowl. If you told me that the super Bowl
the market was cornered on Scottsdale, Vegas, Miami, and New Orleans,
I'd be good. Like, I don't think you have to
go to all these places, though I understand it. When
it comes to the Draft, all the cold weather city
should get it. It's fun, it's easy. Now I can't.
(17:37):
I've never been to Green Bay. Even in my scouting days,
I never went there. Logistically, it's probably not as easy
to operate as a Chicago, Philly or Kansas City in
terms of people, but I would guess that less people
are going to go to the Draft in Green Bay
then let's say Chicago or Philadelphia. I still think it
will be successful. It's just part of being in business,
(18:00):
regardless of the scope. Is whoever your partners with, whoever
is involved, like you got to take care of everybody.
Like the Green Bay Packers have helped make the league
a shit ton of money over the last thirty years
they've been on Fox, and they have been one of
the premium brands and one of been one of the
most successful franchises. So you're not gonna give them a
super Bowl, which makes sense. You're you're not gonna have Lambelle.
It's just too cold and it's not set up for
(18:23):
a super Bowl city. But the draft, like, isn't that
big a deal. I saw all these people complaining online, like, ultimately,
who cares. I was living in the Bay Area when
San Francisco got the twenty sixteen Super Bowl Denver versus Carolina.
I participated that week in radio row and I went
to the Super Bowl and it was awesome. I put
(18:44):
a couple of g's on the Denver Broncos Von Miller
Super Bowl MVP. I got pretty drunk. I cheered on
the Broncos and it was It was very, very enjoyable.
I won some money. It was awesome. But San Francisco
was a lot different place six seven years years ago,
and I haven't been to New York in the last
four or five years, but I listened to a lot
(19:05):
of financial podcasts of people based there. Everyone says that
obviously a lot like San Francisco in twenty twenty, it's
shut down. They're completely rocking and rolling. Now. San Francisco,
of all the major cities, has responded the worst to
coming back from all the shutdowns because in terms of workplace,
(19:27):
people have not returned to work. It's almost a forty
percent unoccupancy rate of commercial real estate in downtown San Francisco.
And when I lived there and when I used to
go out in San Francisco in the twenty tens, the
place was packed, you know, giants, games, all the tech companies, everyone.
It was hard to get the city because there were
so much traffic. City was booming. Now this had a
(19:48):
homeless problem, a drug problem. It's very pro criminal, but
now the city is empty. Besides, there's a lot of chaos.
There's a lot of crime. There's just not many laws
that have to be followed, and the city is kind
of the all in podcast, you know for successful venture capitalists.
Multiple that live in the city call it Gotham City
(20:08):
because it's kind of a fucked up place right now.
So ultimately, historically it's one of the great cities in America.
Right now, it's going through some shit and there's not
really a light at the end of the tunnel because
people ain't coming back to work like that's just there
every all these other cities rocking and rolling, people coming
back at least partial. People just are not showing up
cities and chambles. And I understand. I like the people
(20:29):
that run the forty nine Ers, obviously, I understand them
wanting a super Bowl. Their operation is actually forty five
minutes south of the city, but all the events for
the super Bowl are held in San Francisco. Was announced
today that San Francisco will get the super Bowl in
twenty twenty six. Two years ago, when the super Bowl
was in Los Angeles, I went down for like twenty
(20:54):
four hours because I went to the Volumes party and
wherever I stayed, I got an uber to the to
the house that coward you know, had rented out to
throw the party, and I was going on the uber.
I was talking to the guy and he's like, you
know what's crazy is clearly the NFL has cleaned up
a lot of certain areas around here, the homelessness, which
(21:14):
in California is a major problem and it's only getting worse.
He's like, they clearly move some people around because this area,
I don't know La that well in terms of like
what it had looked like recently. He's like, they cleared
this out, they cleared that out, and I was like, damn.
And so for the for the league to go to
San Francisco, which in theory should you know, not a
(21:36):
crazy place to host some Super Bowls, I think right
now it's they're going to have to do some serious
cleaning up, Like it's not really the safest place to
operate in Downtown. San Francisco is not really what it
was hell just seven eight years ago when they hosted
the Super Bowl. So I'm going to be very very
fascinating how the league handles this. Still got some time.
(22:01):
Obviously it's twenty twenty three, so we're three years away.
But there ain't gonna be major changes in that city.
I promise you that. Yeah. So who I guess for
the forty nine ers getting another Super Bowl, but I
think it's gonna be a little bit. It was logistically
a challenge just because everything was so spread out. The
(22:22):
game was forty five minutes away from where all the
festivities are. I think they're gonna have some other uphill
battles when it comes to that week, just given the
current state of the city. Last, but not least, I
got this one just kind of red flagged would be
the wrong way to put it, but just I'm keeping
an eye on this one. Tom Brady now owns a
(22:43):
piece of the Las Vegas Raiders. Mark Davis, i think,
said at the owners meetings he was very excited Tom,
who's already you know, had a little piece of the
Vegas Aces, the defending w NBA champions. Never forget Mark Davis,
owner of the Raiders, is a champion. He knows what
champions look like. The Las Vegas Aces, even though they
(23:04):
had to suspend their coach, Becky Hammond for treating pregnant
women not very nicely, and Mark Davis paying some players
under the table and bypassing the salary cap in the WNBA,
but he is a champion. They hosted whatever the hell
you call that trophy in the WNBA. He's added Tom Brady,
another champion to his operation. I do think the league
(23:27):
wouldn't mind having Tom Brady involved in that kind of area.
The problem was going to be Tom's worth hundreds of
millions of dollars to buy an NFL team, Even if
he was had people with him, he would need a
lot of money. Right, five hundred million in cash is
not getting it done. Look at some of these recent
sales for the Broncos and the Commanders. I do wonder
(23:52):
though the league like he's not in there just randomly,
even though he's the best player. It has some parallels,
at least to me, of when the league got Michael
Jordan involved. Now, clearly that went bad, and Michael Jordan
now is I think, selling his steak and is not
even going to own the Hornets or Bobcats or whatever
the hell they're called. But I do think Tom Brady
(24:15):
owning an NFL team one day, or at least being,
you know, own twenty five percent. I think I read
the day, just to own a couple percent would cost
him sixty seventy million dollars. So the price of entry
is a lot for a little tiny piece that when
you're a minority owner in the NFL. Tom Brady has
(24:35):
zero say in Josh McDaniels in players. Now, that doesn't
mean Mark wouldn't rely on him, you know, bring him
to games, listen to him, ask for his advice. Clearly,
his relationship with Josh McDaniels Ziegler, there's already some carryover
and commonality there obviously those guys' friendships and New England ties.
But keep an eye on that one because I think
(24:58):
one day Tom could continue to take a bigger role.
Let's face it, Mark Davis, the Davis family is not
long for the NFL. One day that will be in
different hands. I promise you that, Like the Jones family
not going away, the Lurry family, the Marra family, like
there were some families, the Hunt family going nowhere. That's
(25:20):
one that's like, yeah, they ain't gonna be forever. So
Tom Brady one day, does he have the funds? I
don't know. Clearly he doesn't have billions of dollars, especially
with FTX going under, but something to keep an eye on.
You know. The one thing with Michael Jordan, I remember
always reading or hearing people talk on podcasts how he
didn't actually have the cash to buy an NBA team.
(25:41):
And then when you watch air and I love movies
these days, like I just think like they're going theaters,
it won't be out for I was gonna say DVDs,
but who even owns DVDs? But just to watch, you know,
on our television for a long time, it felt like
Air was in theaters and then boom, it's on Amazon Prime.
I love that. Say what you want about streaming. I
love how fast it is to me. Movie theaters they're dead.
(26:01):
I'm sorry, they're just their shelf life. You talk about
something that's hold non for dear life. I turn on
you know, Amazon Prime a week after you know, the
opening of Air, and boom, it's right there. I watched
it in my bed on Saturday night. Fantastic and Michael
Jordan had to sign one of the great business deals
in the history of athletes to get a percentage of
(26:21):
his shoe in nineteen eighty four changed the landscape of everything,
and clearly financially, it's still doing billions of dollars in revenue.
It's said at the end of the movie that it's
it's reported or potentially the number is around four hundred
million dollars to Michael every single year. So so Michael
(26:41):
did pretty well, you know, getting some equity in that
shoe Air Jordan, that movie Shoe Dog is one of
the best books that I've ever listened to, and that
the movie's fantastic with a Flack and Matt Damon and yeah,
it's really really good. If you like, you know, it's
just I'd recommend it. Watch it easy. Watch another football
(27:06):
story I saw today that just made me shake my head.
I've always been a Roethlisberger guy. As a player. I
thought in his heyday, he's, you know, one of the
most unique players we've ever seen, right because he could move.
He wasn't quite as fast, but in terms of power
and keeping plays alive, he had like this Cam Newton ability,
(27:26):
but then he could throw it like he was fucking Brady,
And in the peak of his powers, he was just
an unstoppable force playing for just one of the sweet
brands and iconic operations in sports. He was sweet. I
loved Roethlisberger, those Steeler teams like they're everything I liked
about football. And then I saw today after he retired
(27:47):
because he couldn't play anymore, which happens when you're thirty eight,
thirty nine, forty years old in sports, he retires. I mean,
last year he could barely throw the football, you know
it was. It was worse than Drew Brees a couple
years ago. It was much closer to Peyton Manning his
last year for Denver Broncos. It was clear he could
not play football anymore. Like we could make arguments that
(28:09):
last year Philip Rivers for the Indianapolis Colts like he
had another year in him, right. Roethlisberger did not. He
could not continue to be a starting quarterback, so he retired.
Now ideally did he want to retire. Most athletes probably
don't want to retire. But he could see the riding
on the wall. His agents starts sniffing around. No one
else was gonna sign him. It was over. That happens.
(28:32):
That's part of the business of being a pro athlete.
It ends. It literally ends for everybody. Right. No one
gets to like, yeah, I'm still playing football. I'm sixty
seven years old. That's not the way it works. Where
a lot of times, and specifically in football, you get cut, right,
Peyton Manning was cut or traded, Joe Montana was traded.
Tom Brady was essentially told by Belichick, you're not wanted
(28:53):
here anymore. Those are like three of the greatest quarterbacks
of all time. Joe Montana traded, Brady told get out
Peyton Manning your cut. Roethlisberger none of those happened to him.
It was like, bro, it's over. Ben's like, I know,
it's over. So when Kenny Pickett was drafted, I don't
view Kenny Pickett replacing Roethlisberger. They just needed a quarterback
(29:16):
to be a starting quarterback because their starting quarterback retire.
When Andrew Luck was drafted by the Colts, they replaced
Peyton Manning with Andrew Luck. They replaced Steve Young for
Jo when they traded Joe Montana right and Roethlisberger said
on his podcast, I didn't know he was a fellow podcaster,
but glad to have him in the biz. I'll be honest.
(29:38):
I'm gonna get blasted for this, but early on I
didn't want you to succeed talking about Kenny Pickett. That's
selfish of me, and I feel sorry for that. So
I'll give Roethlisberger credit for this. He's saying something that
is just kind of insane, given that Kenny Pickett didn't
show up, and then they cut Roethlisberger or traded Roethlisberger tired.
(30:00):
They drafted a quarterback Roethlisberger while being honest and candid
and telling his true feelings, which is all we want
out of any human being, in any anyone that's talking
for a living. But what he says to me is
really stupid, Like Ben, Yeah, why would you? I just
(30:21):
I can't quite fathom that. One can't grasp that. One
doesn't make any sense to me. Very very poor reflection,
as Roethlisberger knows, saying Listen, probably shouldn't be dishonest. No,
I'm gonna get blasted for it. You should get blasted
for it. I would completely understand. If you get dumped
by a girl and then she starts dating some other guy,
(30:42):
you're probably gonna root for that relationship to fail. If
you get fired I have and replaced on radio by someone,
you're gonna You're gonna root for that radio show to fail.
It did I completely understand. But if I turn in
my two weeks and say hey, I'm leaving or I
(31:04):
dump you, if I'm bitter in rooting against you after
I go on and do whatever I'm doing because I
chose that, that's a poor reflection of me, and it
kind of shows your true colors. And Listen, we all
have a pettiness to us. We all have parts of
us that you know are not perfect. Right, But that one,
(31:26):
to me reflects a little bit of the big Ben experience,
kind of all about him, right, kind of just like
it was always about Big Ben always had to be
on his terms. And again I'm a fan. I rooted
for him. I really enjoyed watching him. I thought that
one's a pretty tough look. Okay, mail bag at John
(31:48):
middlecov Instagram. Firing those dms, easy to do, fire in them.
DM's wide open question on the show. Let's start with Ricky. Hey, John,
I got a question. In some of your most recent podcasts,
you have talked about the NFL and their relationship with
Amazon and the other streaming services and how they want
(32:09):
to make as much money as possible. Why doesn't the
NFL make it easier for consumers and make their own
streaming platform or their own like where we as consumers
can pay a certain amount for all the games on Sunday,
Monday and Thursday. Curious as to why they can't make
it easier for us but still generate a bunch of revenue. Basically,
(32:30):
why can't they put all the games on one service
and we just pay directly to the NFL. That might
be inevitable, but I would say this, if you can
have someone pay you to do work that you don't
want to do, right, the NFL doesn't want to set
up cameras, create the production, hire people to call the
(32:51):
games that's on CBS, Fox, NBC, Amazon Prime. They do
all that work and they pay the leak. So the
league all they have to worry about is the games,
which are gonna happen no matter what. And the more
people you have involved in the payment for all those games,
the more the money goes up. Because right now, for example,
(33:14):
thing of the company with the most money, right Amazon, Well,
in twenty twenty three, Amazon is not going to pay
basically what the league gets from every single Fox, CBS
and whatever that number is on a yearly basis. Amazon's
not going to pay that number and host all the games,
right They've got to figure out how to make it
(33:36):
work first. They're doing that same with you know, all
the streaming services Netflix, whoever might be Apple, but eventually
one day could Apple. Like YouTube TV bought the NFL
Sunday ticket, which I've read is actually much more niche
than you thought. If you said NFL Sunday ticket, how
many people get it? You'd be like, oh, fifteen million people.
(33:58):
I think the numbers really I don't want to say
it off the top of my head because I feel
I'll be off, but I thought it was like one
and a half million people, so it's not nearly as
big as I assumed it was. But I think it's
just simply no one's willing to pay them what they
get from all these people combined, And given what all
these people pay them combined is such a large number,
(34:19):
you might as well just keep going like they're going.
And the other reality is this is some big companies,
like what made Amazon such a bohemoth customer first, customer first,
customer first for a long period of time, like they
weren't even making money on the website, right they'd have
free returns. It was just to get your loyalty as
(34:41):
a consumer. And now what do we all do? I
do not know a soul that doesn't use Amazon. If
you're not using it, unless you're out in some area
that doesn't get it, you're wasting energy going to the
store to buy shit because you can just order it
and then if you ever don't want something, you can
just return it for free, which I also read might
change someday, like it might not be free returns forever,
(35:04):
which would make sense because I send a lot of
stuff back. But I think it's just that simple. They're
getting so much money from so many people and it
just doesn't pencil, and no one can afford to give
them what they would need to give them to get
all the games. Okay, Nick, I just finished my first
year of law school at Marquette and I'm in the
process of pursuing a certificate in sports law program here.
(35:27):
Congratulations smart guy, Nick. One day, my dream job is
to work in the NFL in the front office. In
the past few years, I got really into scouting and
the draft side of football, following guys like Brugler Brett Coleman.
As a former NFL scout, Do you have any advice
on getting a foot in the door. What were some
(35:48):
of the first steps you took to familiarize yourself with
breaking down film and learning logistical x's and o's. I'm
still learning to lay the land as it pertains the
football space. Any advice you would lend is helpful. I'm
clerking at a firm up in Milwaukee this summer, but
I have friends and family in Indy. I frequently visit,
so I've been bringing out three and out on road trips.
(36:09):
Appreciate you. I would say that I learned through people
teaching me. And I actually talked to a guy that
listened to the podcast that has similar aspirations to you
earlier today. And he's working in football right now and
he's in college and he's trying to get his foot
in the door. And my advice always is, and again,
this is just what worked for me. Certain things work
(36:32):
for other people. It's very, very difficult just to get
your foot in the door in the NFL. I didn't
know anyone in the NFL until I worked in college football.
I had never met a coach in the NFL. I
had never met a scout in the NFL. And I
wouldn't have had any access to NFL people if it
was not for Fresno State, and I would not have
(36:53):
worked for the Eagles if Pat Hill did not pick
up the phone and call his buddy Andy Reid that
he had known for twenty five years and say that
you should give this guy an interview, right And the
reason that I told him to do that was because
Anthony Patch, who still works for the Eagles, said you
should have, like, we have a spot. If you have
(37:14):
Coach Hill call you know, coach Reid, it will go
a long way. And it did so it was like
I didn't just randomly fall into place. But I did
that because I worked in college football for two years.
And the difference is when I worked in college football
in two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine,
no program, including Alabama maybe just started to have like
(37:38):
gms and personnel people like I worked. I was a
GA for the head of football administration, who also was
essentially the head of recruiting, and we broke down film
and Coach Hill loved recruiting, so I watched a lot
of recruiting film with him and the other coaches. And
then you just learn, you know, through the guy on
(38:00):
your own team that end up making the NFL, the
guys that you play that end up making the NFL.
Kind of what it looks like. I didn't learn it
through a book. I learned it through other people. And
then when I got to the NFL, I learned it
through you know, being around guys like Lewis and Veach
and Howie. You're just around personnel people and you just
pick up on things. So I learned by doing I
(38:22):
don't learn probably why I was a bad student. I'm
not a big like read a book and then put
it into practice right, I fail by doing. I learned
by doing. I succeed by doing. I have to do
it and be around people that are doing it and
see how it's done, and then do it myself. So
I would recommend anyone because it's very, very difficult. Maybe
it's different if you're a lawyer. You know you can
(38:45):
talk to the guy that runs you know, the contracts,
maybe you have the better access to that. But getting
a hold of a GM or an assistant GM, if
you don't know them and don't work in football, is
very hard. Now you can hit link in and do that,
but it's very difficult to get someone to call you
back or email you back. It just is you Usually
(39:07):
in this type business, you got to know someone that
can get you an introduction, and I don't. For me,
it was just college football. Now you're already working, you
know in right, you're getting your law degree, which congratulations,
sound like a very smart guy. Maybe you can use
that to your benefit to talk to maybe a contract
(39:28):
negotiator or a team president. I would say, in your shoes,
a team president, given that you're getting your law degree,
is an easier guy to get to get an email back.
So like if you're at where you're at Marquette. You know,
if you can get the dude that runs the Packers
or the dude that runs the Bears, right, maybe you
have shoot them an email on LinkedIn and maybe because
(39:50):
of a law background, and don't attack it football wise,
don't go I want to be a scout. Just say hey,
I want to work in the front office. I will
do whatever it takes. Like the way Howie Rosemand got
his foot in the door was like, I'll do whatever
I have to do, contracts, you name it now, and
like you he had his law degree and then over
time he just got more involved, more involved, more involved,
(40:11):
was to do whatever it takes, or writing up teams
right as he's doing contracts and then becomes a GM.
There are a lot of different ways to move up
once you're in. The hardest part is getting in from Joseph.
I don't get it. Justin Fields is every bit the
athlete is Anthony Richardson. Justin is an inch shorter and
(40:33):
ten pounds later, but just as fast and just as athletic.
His arm might be just as strong, but it's plenty strong,
and he throws an incredible deep ball. Justin had much
more productive career to House State, he was certainly more accurate.
So why is Richardson being treated like he rose on
the third day and Fields was the fourth quarterback taking
(40:54):
in the draft? It just doesn't make sense to me. Well,
I'll say this, I never understood why Justin Fields wasn't
the second quarterback in that draft. To me, for him
not to go to the Jets at number two was insane. Now,
I do think there are a lot of parallels. Blue
chip athletes, great runners. Like you said, Fields was much
(41:15):
more productive in college. Fields also played at Georgia Ohio State. Right,
pretty well run, just well oiled machines. Right now, I
would say Florida, you know, kind of has some issues.
And this isn't scouting where you know, like, is mac
Jones a great player? It was too awesome? Or are
(41:35):
they just throwing it to four star players? Is c J. Stroudistud?
I don't know. We're about to find out. But he
was throwing to receivers a lot like Tua in mac
Jones that are way better than every team they ever
played in college, and against corners that cannot cover any
of those guys. Because there were a bunch of first
round players. Marvin Harrison's gonna go like fifth overall, and
(41:58):
Jig Bow went twentieth. He didn't even play right. All
the guys that played at Alabama were unstoppable. So I
do think that when you're judging these quarterbacks coming out,
it's not just about production, and it's how it translates.
I think a lot. He has a lot of parallels.
Like fields is if you can mold this, the ceiling
(42:20):
is really high. Now, let's face it. Through a couple
of years, the questions on fields, and I was a
huge proponent. I thought the Niners should have drafted him
over Trey Lance. But I do think there are some
question marks with him as a thrower. Obviously there are
question marks for Trey too. So I would rather just
have justin fields, but because at least he can run.
But I hear you, I think most years, you know,
(42:44):
Justin Fields goes higher than he did. I think it's
still kind of crazy that he fell where he fell.
And when I say fell, you know the guy. Sometimes
we talk about like how this guy falls. It's like, bro,
you went thirty third in the draft. I mean this
is pretty high. Right, you play wide receiver. There are
offensive Linemen, there are other positions at quarterback. You know
(43:04):
you should go much higher when you're a blue chip prospect,
which I thought he was, but some people didn't agree
with me. Hey, John, love listening since my internship in
twenty nineteen, somehow old and in my mind now somehow
old and in my mind to the late twenties. You're
the best at dissecting the intersection of business sports. But
(43:27):
that's neither here nor there. Here are my top three
next cities to move to after Chicago, in no order, Tampa,
Saint Pete, Clearwater, Austin, Texas, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Arizona. Thoughts on
which route is best to go, especially with someone who
values good games to attend in their city of choice, Well,
(43:51):
I would say this for Scottsdale, Arizona, if you're coming
for the sports, doesn't really have it here. Diamondback, Stink
Sun should be pretty good. The Cards are gonna be
awful though you can watch other NFL teams, but they're
gonna be pretty bad. I would not call this like
when I lived in the Bay Area. It has a
(44:12):
very similar feel like when I lived in Philly. Like
everywhere you go, it's about the Giants, the forty nine Ers,
and the Warriors. Pro sports are very meaningful there, just
like Chicago win loser, draw, like the Bears, the Bulls,
the Blackhawks, the Cubs. That shit's important in Philly, all
the teams. Obviously, when you're winning, it matters more. But
you know what I mean, there's a sense of community there.
(44:35):
It's not really like that here at all, which is cool,
Like to me, it's kinda honestly, this has more of
an La meets Vegas type feel of just people from
all over a lot of sports fans, but they're rooting
for their team, you know, like me, I'm watching a
Niner game right watching the Warriors. Some guy you might
meet watching the big Knicks fan. I've met so many
(44:57):
people that are like, I'm a big Vikings fan, I'm
a big Yankees fan. La kind of has that. Vegas
kind of has that in the Bay like it was
like you're watching the Niners, watching the Giants. So that's
not here. Austin Texas the college I've never been there,
have a buddy that lives there. You know, Texas is
king you just kind of gravitate toward go to UT
(45:17):
football games. That'd be cool. My one time there, I
didn't love it, though I was only there for a
couple of days. I would probably prefer Dallas over Austin,
but again that's just me. Tampa, Saint Pete's Clearwater. Never
been to Saint Pete's or Clearwater. Been to Tampa one time,
didn't hate it, didn't hate it one thing. Texas and
(45:40):
Tampa in that area has, you know, better taxes. I
would say Arizona like those other two places, it's really hot,
which I like the heat. Now it's gonna be one
hundred and fifteen degrees here sometimes in the summer. Now
in those two places, very very humid. It just depends
what you like. I think you're gonna have much more
(46:01):
people from the Northeast in places in Florida. Right So,
I don't know where you're from, but if you're a
Northeast you know, even Midwest guye, maybe that's more your vibe.
Arizona is much more of a West Coast vibe, which
I like being a West Coast guy, but has way
less taxes, and even while it's booming here is still
(46:21):
way more affordable than like La or San Francisco. If
you like golf, this is a good area. So I
don't know. I mean for me, i'd rank it. I
would go Scottsdale, then I'd go Florida, then I'd go Austin.
But that's just me moving. It's crazy what moving does
for you. And I don't recommend move just to move,
(46:43):
but if you're thinking about it and you can do it,
whether you know you can change a job, you know
you can pick up and move your family. Obviously, we
all have a lot of different variables in our life
with children, with whatever. So it's not it was a
I could work from wherever. You know, I wasn't don't
have children, I'm not divorced. You know, I have split custody.
(47:05):
We all got different things, have a you know, family business.
It's not easy to do. If you can do it
and you are thinking about it, I do highly recommend
it because it really is I'm trying to think of
the right way to describe it. It just gets some
more just juice back in your life. It's I saw
(47:27):
this clip of Aaron Rodgers today the Jets, I mean
tweet out and instagram about more clips of Aaron Rodgers
at OTA's and it's pretty amazing, right. The packers gave
him one hundred and fifty million dollars last year and
he still wouldn't be inconvenience to show up goes to
the Jets. He is having the time of his life.
And I do understand it, man. I think sometimes change
(47:48):
the scenery if if you kind of feel it in
your gut. Now, if you don't feel it and things
are going well, I don't don't just do it to
do it. But if you're thinking it and you can
do it, it's a powerful thing works, man, And you
can see it in his face. Now. Is that going
to translate to a Super Bowl? I'm not saying that.
I'm telling you I think they're going to be successful
because I think he's going to be just so energized,
(48:09):
so reinvigorated. I want to know if you think that
the Washington can become the new Jets, Bucks or Broncos
hopefully not, and be the team that just needs a quarterback,
especially now that Snyder sold. I saw that it's not
official yet, and there was a clip going viral on
the internet of Jerry Jones at the owners meetings talking
to Snyder's lawyer. You know, Jerry's trying to get this
(48:32):
deal done. Get Snyder out of there. We have McLaurin, Dotson,
Curtis Samuel, Brian Robinson, Antonio Gibson and a good defense.
There aren't many holes in our roster, and I think
they will all fire, and think they will fire Ron
for the enemy. Yes, yeah, I don't know. I wouldn't
(48:54):
go that far because let's just say you have an
underwhelming year, but the offense looks good. I don't think
you know. New owner, he's going to hire whoever he
wants to hire. And most new owners go after big names.
Look at the Broncos one down year, boom eighteen million
dollars a year. What did you know Harris do whenever
he was with the Sixers. They're always going after big names,
(49:16):
Doc Rivers, Darryl Morey, James Harden. Like new owners, new
owners with money, I mean they swing dick. So to me,
Eric Bienemy, if Ron Rivera gets fired, that means it's
probably pretty ugly. Now. The one thing for bne Mey.
If Sam Howell looks good, who know what? If Sam
(49:36):
Howell is just solid, right, we saw Brock Purdy be good.
We've seen guys over the years. Mid round picks have
success from Russell Wilson to Dak Prescott to Kirk Cousins.
So just because you're not a first round pick does
not mean you can't be a high end starting quarterback.
One difficult uphill battle. They have division's good, right, and
(50:00):
Eagles are really really good. And the Giants, I mean
a coach is good. At least he proved one year
to be really solid. Now you could argue just guy
for guy. The rosters. Washington would have an argument like
if you put Daniel Jones on Washington and just gave
the Giants snow quarterback, you know, I think you would
(50:20):
immediately take the Commanders over the Giants. But I don't know.
We'll see. I think anytime, though, you get a new owner,
it's very very hard to assume what will happen if
things get ugly, if things go well, everything's always on
the table, because I mean, even though money's all relative,
(50:40):
when you pay five six billion dollars for a team,
you're gonna want to make your own decisions. Hell, you
might even like Ron Rivera the guy, and he might
make the Ron Rivera could make the playoffs this year,
get KOed in the first round and still get fired
and just simply like I want to hire my own coach.
Because think about this. Let's say me and you were
(51:02):
partners and we just bought the Washington Commanders and we
pulled together our six and a half seven billion dollars.
Do you think words like, eh, let's just see how
it goes, just or we're gonna want to hire the
coach we're gonna want to hire. What if I came
in like I want to hire Lincoln Riley, Right, I
want to hire whoever. You're just gonna want to hire
(51:22):
your own coach. Okay, last one, here's one for the
mailbag from my work account. I'm a Colts fan from Germany.
The Colts had the fourth pick of the draft, and
the Colts wanted Anthony Richardson. The thing was a quarterback
needy team could have made a trade with the Cardinals
at three and scooped up Anthony Richardson. The trade happened,
but it was the Texans, so nothing bad happened for
(51:44):
the Colts. My question for the mailbag is, I thought
the ballard the Colts GM would have asked the Cardinals
GM to call him once a trade with a quarterback
needy team was more or less imminent and the Colts
would top that offer. Is something like that possible or
does the team with the earlier pick that does not
care about something like that? Thanks greetings from Germany. Well,
(52:07):
I think if you are the Cardinals, you're completely indifferent
to who trades for him, right, So you would one
hundred percent tell Ballard listen, if someone is going to
trade for this pick, we have no problem coming back
to you. It's like an offer for a home, right.
It's like, hey, we got a one million dollar offer
(52:29):
on the table. We had you called earlier and offered
us nine to eighty. Are you willing to pay one
point one or one point zero five? So of course
it would be in your best interest as the Cardinals
to shop that pick around and see if you can
get more. Now, like you said, the moment the Texans call,
you know they're not gonna take quarterbacks back to the
(52:49):
back picks, so you might not even need to call
Chris Ballard back. But if you know team the Titans
or whoever was calling and say hey, Chris, this is
the offer they're giving us, they're clearly gonna come up.
I don't know who they're gonna take, but they're clearly
gonna take a quarterback. If you don't want them to
take your guy, you got to give us, you know,
ten percent more than they're giving us, or we're gonna
(53:10):
accept this trade. So I yeah, I think that happens
all the time in these trades, because it'd be stupid
for the team that's pulling the trigger on trading back
to not always shop offers around. Part of now, Sometimes
an offer, you know, like the Bears and the Panthers,
you get to a point where the offer is so
big you're like, no one's paying this weight. You're gonna
(53:31):
give us two first rounders DJ Moore a third rounder? Like,
are you serious? It will take it. So I think
sometimes when that happens, you just pull the trigger. But
on some of these where it's like, hey, we'll give
you a second to third, Well can I get a
second in two threes? Can I get a second third
and a fifth? You know? Can I get We'll give
(53:53):
you a one in two? Well can I get a
one to two? And next year's two? So one ndred percent?
I think you're always shopping around. Appreciate everyone listening, have
a great week. Appreciate my guy hosts on the audio
James on the video and all the people at the
Volume crushing it watching the Lakers lose. I'm actually recording
this before the Laker game, but you know, they'll probably lose,
(54:14):
And for you Laker fans, hell, pretty good run. Sucks
getting swept audios. Talk soon, See you the Volume
Host
John Middlekauff
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