In this episode, Middlekauff gives his first impressions of the newly released NFL Schedule, his favorite matchups; expectations, why the NFL is going to be aggressive trying to own what has traditionally been NBA's Christmas Day, the recent Earl Thomas wife drama, and Brett Favre getting money for speeches he never gave. He also answers questions in the Middlekauff Mailbag. Follow John on twitter @JohnMiddlekauff and go to theherdnow.com to find the latest content. Subscribe now!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecop three and Out podcast,
appreciate everyone listening. Recording this a little later than I
typically do on a Thursday, because we have this little
thing called schedule release. We know who everyone's playing, and
I realized I got a lot of respect now for
like the national guys that kind of have to talk
(00:30):
about everyone, and let's face it, a lot of them
will just talk about like the Patriots and the and
the Cowboys. But there's a lot going on with the
schedule release, there's a lot of I didn't I haven't
done the math, but sixteen times whatever, it's a lot
of games. I mean a lot of games, a lot
going on. I'll try to give a big overview of
just several things that jumped out to me. There is
one specific game that stood out to me like a
(00:54):
sore thumb that is just like Wow, this this is
a a transcendent, potentially moment for the NFL to kind
of put a stake in the back of the NBA
playing on Christmas Day. Will dive deep into that. Earl Thomas,
you know, has just has a crazy story. Brett Farve Fraud.
(01:17):
I'll dive into those two stories that were just like,
what the hell is going on? Then, of course, the
Middlecoff mail bag at John Middlecoff is my Instagram handle.
The direct messages are wide open. You slide up in
there and ask any question you want over the weekend
in the next several days, I'm not gonna go team
by team here, so you've got specific questions feel free
(01:37):
slide up in those d m s about specific games, teams,
how do you think the schedule? And then I can
answer it. It's just it's too difficult to go team
by team, right, it just take too long. And honestly,
what's the point of that exercise. Let's start with opening
weekend and just the opening game. In general, I think
the NFL did a good job. They have the chief
(01:59):
so when you have homes you can't lose. But giving
them the Texans, it's like, to me, that's solid. You
do two things. One you get a pretty polarizing team.
I think most football fans laugh and make fun of
Billy O'Brien. Some of it justified. I think some of
it is a little extreme. He's treated like Freddy Kitchens
when he goes to the playoffs every year. He's not
(02:19):
the loser that he's portrayed on Twitter. You know, every
guy with a Twitter account thinks Bill O'Brien is the
village idiot. Now is he a good GM? No? But
does he win? Yes? You give me Watson, you give
me my homes solid, you know, Thursday night game. And
then I think the overall theme is a lot of
(02:40):
teams got a lot of prime time games. Peter Schraeger
tweet tweeted out that eight teams have five prime time games.
That's a lot and that doesn't include the Saints. Now
is it a little inflated? Yes, because a lot of
the Sunday night games, as we've seen the last several years.
Like I think it's the second half of the season.
Maybe it's after week nine or ten. They can flex, right,
Like the one thing when you're on Monday night or
(03:01):
Thursday night, there's no flexing if you're if you get
a Thursday night game or you get a Monday night game,
you're playing that game logistically. You just can't move it.
The Sunday I think, is all I gotta do is
bump you back three hours or bumpy four or three hours.
It's an easy move. You're already traveling to that place. Anyway,
it doesn't change the thing. So if you have the
Sunday night games, definitely week ten to week seventeen. There's
(03:24):
no sure thing, but one thing is pretty clear. They
got pretty aggressive, and they got aggressive with teams like
the Rams and the Raiders because they're moving into new stadiums.
And I think the Raiders getting to a Monday night
in a Sunday night game right off the bat Jon
Gruden against Drew Brees week two and Tom Brady week seven, like,
(03:46):
that's risky for the NFL. I get there, moving into
a new stadium, but they haven't been very good for
the last seventeen years. Now. There are a lot of
other teams that I just don't know. Now, maybe the
Raiders are good. Maybe I think Camp is gonna be
pretty good, and we'll dive into them here in a second.
But I know one team might still take pretty seriously.
I know, right The first team I looked at their
schedule was the Niners, and they go to at New
(04:08):
England at Foxboro. The Raiders actually go to Foxboro too.
When you go to Foxboro, I get Tom's not there,
and I get this team is not going to be
the same. They're not gonna win eleven twelve games, but
they're not gonna win five or six. I think there's
like seven or eight, and they are gonna be a
mother at home. They're gonna be tough. They have an
elite coach, they still have a good defense, they have
(04:31):
good coaches. They are not just gonna be some shitty team.
They're not gonna be the Jags. They're not gonna be
what the cards have been. They're not gonna be the Lions.
I just think a lot of people I think this
year are gonna be win when we just look at
the schedule and listen, we all do that. Think how
often you go, oh, ten and six or god, this
schedule looks hard and then things change. That's why I
(04:51):
think it's very, very difficult for the schedule is every
year a couple of quarterbacks go down. Every year, even
if a quarterback doesn't go down all season, they may
miss a specific game. And you're playing the Packers against
Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love is a big deal, right
you playing You just picked the team. You playing Kyler
Murray or Brett Hunley. Brett even still all the team
(05:15):
but gets my draft. So the eight teams, five prime
time games. I think there's more parody because of Corona
and no off season. I don't know if we're gonna
see many fourteen fifteen, you know, obviously not sixteen, but
like even like thirteen wins. I think this year eleven
twelve wins is going to actually be like fourteen, even
with teams like the Chiefs. They're returning twenty of twenty
(05:38):
two starters, they had the best quarterback in the world,
they had a really good draft. If this was a
normal year, I'd be like, you know what, Kansas City
is probably gonna go fifteen and one. They're gonna dominate.
They're they're gonna be like remember the season after the
Packers won the Super Bowl in two thousand and two
thousand eleven, they went fifteen and one. Now, ironically they
got beat remember by Eli Manning uh in the playoffs.
(06:00):
What you know what you catch my drift that they
came back even better after they do. I think that
is gonna be the Chiefs. But with no offseason, also
factoring and all these guys like dudes trying pelotons and
lifting at home, it's not the same. This is not
you're not playing baseball where you gotta do calistenics or
even being Tom Brady pliability. If you're a twenty three
(06:20):
year old linebacker, you're trying to build some muscle mass
and it's probably pretty difficult to do that right now.
So I think it's gonna dramatically change big picture just
a win or two for even good teams. Now here's
one thing with Tom Brady. When you think Tom Brady
and the Pats, you think, well, down the stretch, they
always win between twelve and fourteen games. They win so
(06:42):
many games in Foxboro when it's really really cold, and
we we've all watched the games over the last you know,
decade and a half Sunday night, Monday night football down
the home stretch of November and December of the season,
and it's the Patriots playing a lot of games because
they have been the best team in the league over
the you know, the last two decades. They deserved it.
But one thing, as you get older, even a guy
(07:03):
that has lived in the cold for a long long time,
not me, Tom, and I think Aaron too, you do
benefit from getting away from that. I'm thirty five right now.
If I during a winter cold, like if I go,
if I work out hard. The next day, I kind
of feel tight. I can't imagine being a professional athlete
being in the warm weather. Have you ever tried to
go for a jog in a hundred degrees or go
(07:24):
for a jog in forty degrees? It's now, it's hotter
in the hundred, but it's much easier to run once
you start sweating in hundred degrees. No different golf, no
different any activity. It's just easier to get loose. And
Brady's final seven weeks of the season home home by home, indoors,
indoors home. That has a huge impact to me, Like,
(07:45):
I think Tampa is gonna be really good. I think
Tampa is gonna be really really good. And when I
say that, like ten or eleven wins, but once it
comes to playoff time, like they can win the Super Bowl.
Another thing that stood out to me over the last
handful of years, definitely probably the last decade, the Monday
night schedule has been awful. Sunday night football has been
(08:08):
the best games. When I when I closed my eyes
and think Sunday night football, I think like Eagles, Cowboys,
Raven Steelers, you know, Pat's Chiefs, Niner, Seattle, I just
think great game. Packers, Bears, I just think Packers, New England.
I just think great games. Sunday Night football, you name it,
Cam Newton, Saints, whatever, just star power, elite game, million
(08:31):
people watching. And then Monday Night which as a thirty
five year old, I still have a soft spot for.
When I was getting into sports, like anyone close to
my age in the nineties, Monday Night football was the ship.
I love Monday Night Football. I I'll never forget, like,
Uh Schottenheimer's teams playing like the Raiders and the Broncos,
Verse Shanahan and just some of the FARV games and
(08:53):
it was awesome. My night football game has lost its luster.
Part of it is, you know, once Gruden left, they've
had a disaster in terms of the booth, but their
games have been bad and be like God, Jags, Titans, Uh, Cardinals, Lions.
Like what am I watching? But it's football. I watched it,
and you know, I kind of enjoyed it because again,
(09:13):
I'll watch any pro football game. But when I think
Monday Night football, I think big games. And that's what
we've seen in the last several years with Thursday Night
football games. The Thursday Night football games once Fox got involved,
kind of trumped the Monday night games. A big part
of that, let's call spade a spade. ESPN became very
anti NFL, and there was like a political element to it.
(09:35):
You know, the NFL's kind of the conservative league. The
NBA is the progressive league. Even though the NFL is
the league that everyone watches. In the NBA now ratings
wise will dive into it with the Christmas Game, is
the league that actually not that manybe people watch, but
politically a lot of reporters who lean extreme left kind
of lean to that league. Even though the NFL and
the NBA are exactly the same, they're trying to make
as much money as humanly possible. One league gets kind
(09:57):
of pigeonholed as the assholes. The other league gets pigeonholed.
Is like all they care about us, even though it's
it's all kind of fraudulent. I think they're exactly the same.
Roger just doesn't really care what you think about him.
Adam Silver, as I think Colin talked about it this week,
is consumed about that. Well. I'll give ESPN credit, they
got rid of a lot of the anti football people
(10:17):
you can be. I'm critical about football. Collin's critical about
football schefters. You can be critical about things that happened,
but when it feels like you hate football, and remember
they're countless people on on ESPN that said I do
not like football, Well then why are you here? Football
pays the Bills, so get away. And you know what
ESPN said, Bye bye, You're fired. And this year, for
(10:38):
the first time ever, I looked down the schedule. Week
one is always weird, right because you've got the double header,
and let's the reality is a Week one, right, you
could throw any team. You could throw Jaguars playing the
Jaguars and we will watch it. So it's the Giants
against the Steelers and the Titans against the Broncos. But
after Week one it really gets going. Saints opening up
(10:59):
the Vegas Stadium, which will be cool, Chiefs, Ravens, Falcons, Packers, Chargers, Saints, Cardinals, Cowboys,
which I actually think the Cardinals are gonna be a
really good watch this year. Bears, Chargers, Tom Brady, Giants,
UH New England, Jets, Vikings, Bears, Chargers, Tampa, Seattle, Philly, Buffalo,
San Francisco, Ravens, Baker Mayfield. Like, we just got some
(11:22):
pretty good games. You know, it's not not great still
probably not Sunday night football and not Thursday night football,
but ESPN you know, they're starting to be a little
not hate the NFL and you get better product, you know,
and it's it's all kind of a team effort here.
But you know, whatever, you're looking at the schedule. To me,
the key is is this, how many teams do you
(11:43):
play that are coming off buys? How many teams do
you play there when they're coming off buys? Are you
coming off a road game? Where are you when you're
playing the Thursday night game? Like if you're playing if
you get a home Thursday night game and you're coming
off a road game, that's difficult. If you get a
home Thursday night game and you're at home, makes a
(12:03):
little easier. If you're at home and you got a
road Thursday night game, not as bad. But the Thursday
night game can always get a little weird. And who
do you play after your bye week? Who do you
play after your Thursday night game? Because that's usually a
must win because you get a longer break. Those are
key and depending on your divisional games. You know, I
(12:25):
don't think it's imperative like last year, for example, the
Niners went five and one and won the division by
one game. You know, going five and one in division
is really really difficult. If you can go four and
two in your division, that means typically you're gonna be
a good team. If you go four and two in
your division and you can win six games outside of
your division, you'll be ten and six and be a
(12:47):
lock playoff team. Hell, if you go four and two
in your division and you go five and five with
seven playoff teams, you'll be nine and seven. I think
nine and seven this year. The NFC, it might be
a little are difficult. I think it's much deeper. When
you look Philly, Dallas should be good. The Packers, the
Bears and many could all be solid. The Niners, Seattle
(13:09):
are gonna be good, Cardinals could be feisty. I kind
of got the Rams red flagged. And then you look
at the Saints, Tampa, even Atlanta. Hell they went Remember
they started really slow, but they ended up winning seven games.
To me, the key is you just gotta win the
divisional games. And anytime I see a divisional game road
or home, I take it very seriously. And I learned
(13:30):
this when I was with the Eagles. A team in
your division. Like if if you're let's say the NFC East,
and if you're a Philly or Dallas fan, you go, well,
the Giants and the Redskins are gonna suck. Well, we
know that's not usually the way it goes down, because
even if they do suck, that one of the two
games that you play them, it's gonna be a tie
game in the fourth quarter. And that's what makes football cool.
(13:50):
That's why football is kick because even when teams suck,
like we got great games on Sunday, we get like
you're on the edge of your seat, like, how are
we gonna lose these guys? It happens. That's it's the
best part. Like in basketball, it doesn't You've got Kevin Duranny,
you got Lebron. If they try, you're gonna destroy terrible teams.
In football, you can try and still be a tight
game just because nature of the sport. So I you know,
(14:13):
I got to give the NFL credit. Man, They've had
free agency, they've had the draft, and they've gone schedule release,
and during this pandemic, which is the shittiest time ever,
they've had complete ownage of everything we've talked about of
what fans think about, they've been the only thing cool
that's been going on. Now there's an element of luck
because I talked about earlier this week. It just happened
to fall in their off season. But you gotta give
(14:36):
Roger Goodell credit. He's kept his pedal to the floor,
not flinched at all, kept everything coming. We don't even
know if we can play these games. You know, Roger said,
I don't care. Put this bad boy out, get the
people talking. Let's own this real estate like I think
he's gonna try to do with Christmas dayless. Dive into that. Okay,
(14:57):
let's dive into a game that really he jumped out
to me on the schedule, and it made me think
of a quote in the book The Shoe Doog about
Phil Knight, the guy that started Nike, created Nike, and
ran Nike. You legend. I mean, if you're listening to podcast,
you know who he is. I recommend the book, and
(15:18):
when I say I read it, I listen. I'm an
audio book guy. I listened to it. Great, great listen.
He had a quote that I immediately wrote down because
it's so right. Business is a war without bullets. I
would imagine many of you listening are in countless different industries,
and if you and I were sitting there with beers,
whether you're in the food business, whether you're in football,
(15:40):
whether you're in tech, whatever you're in, we're just bullshit.
And you would tell me horror stories about how cutthroat
your businesses and the competition, because at the end of
the day, every business wants to wipe out their competition.
Now they may not say it, they may not tweet it.
I mean, if you like fall Facebook, you know Zuckerberg
like for the people. This is about the community. He's
(16:03):
been wiping people out since he since they really hit
it big. Just then, I see in Silicon Valley all
the time talk a big game. But the business, the
model is to try to gain all the market share
as much as you they'll the government will legally allow
you to make. And I just time's changed so fast now.
I you know, I talked about trading stocks and screwing around,
(16:25):
and I got rid of some of my Square stock
as the pandemic hit. And what square is and I've
been a lot of you guys know what it is.
It's just like the portable thing you put your credit
card in when you go to like a small business. Hell,
even some bigger businesses have them. But my rationale was, well,
during the pandemic, all these businesses are closed. This this
(16:48):
this stock is gonna tank. I was wrong. It actually
has gone up a lot. And on the day I'm
recording this up, it went up like a lot. And
I'm kicking myself because I'm reading, Oh, they also have
the cash app. And someone last week told me about this.
You know this girl who runs this business, and she's like, uh,
She's like, you know, actually I got a Venmo credit card.
(17:11):
And you realize that like cash app and Venmo are
starting to operate like a bank, and so of course
square Yeah in theory there they've lost revenue with the
percentage they were making on the small businesses, but they've
made so much money on the way people trade and
pay people through the cash app, which they owned. They
were like, it's no different like Venmo, and I'm just
(17:32):
kicking myself, and my god, I should have been more
forward thinking because I'll never forget. When I flew home
from Hawaii, the biggest film in America, The Irishman, essentially
went straight to Netflix. I pressed a button. Ten minutes
later it was on my iPad and I watched on
the flight home. My god, if I could have told
ten years ago John Middlecoff that you'd be able to
do this, that you know, movie theaters would be essentially dead,
(17:54):
I wouldn't have believed you. But times change, because forever
my entire life. Born in eighty four Michael Jordan's rookie
Yere by the time I came to my own as
a sports fan, there were two things that really made
the I mean, well, baseball was huge. I mean, I
would say baseball was as big as any sport when
I was growing up up until the strike. kN Griffe Jr.
(18:16):
Barry Bonds, Cal Ripken, Roger Klemens, you name it. The
big baseball players were every bit as famous as you
know what Tom Brady or James Harden and Lebron James,
I mean, they were, they were rock stars. Changed after
never was quite the same, and you could argue the
NBA hasn't been quite the same since Jordan's but they
(18:37):
were still really really relevant with Kobe and Shack and
then again with Coe the late Kobe, and you know
a large percentage of Lebron. But the last five or
six years, they've fallen off a cliff and they're they're
taking on. I mean, they're like the Titanic right now,
literally because they leak all their plans to reporters and
then whenever Adam Silver has asked about it, he refused
(18:58):
to say anything. You know why, because he's scared. He's
terrified of this quote unquote backlash, which I was thinking
about the other day, Like, imagine if you ran a
business and are terrified of quote unquote backlash, what does
that mean? Now? I think we're all terrified of like
losing consumers, we're going out of business. But what does
just backlash mean? If it doesn't cost you any money?
Who gives a ship? Why does it? Why does that
(19:18):
even matter? It doesn't in the NFL isn't scared of backlash.
But they also see that they're like a Great White shark,
and the NBA right now is like a seal that's
leaking a little blood, and the Great White sharks hungry
for dinner because they put a game on Christmas this year,
Christmas doesn't fall on a Saturday or Sunday, falls on
a Friday. Well, the NBA forever has owned Christmas when
(19:42):
I think Christmas, I think Jordan's, I think Kobe, I
think Shack. I think Kobe again, I think some of
those Celtics teams, Lebron, Steph Curry. The NFL goes, you
know what, because this year their ratings on Christmas weren't
even very good. There. The NBA ratings this year were
a herocious awful. I'm being terrible. The NFL ratings are massive,
(20:06):
and I think Roger Goodell realized, why don't we take
some of that real estate, Why why don't we stake
our claim there and take that kind of over and
then yeah, for the next several years, it kind of
lines up in our favor. Friday this year, Saturday next year,
Sunday next year, and then Monday the following year. So
like in a in a four year stretch, you know,
(20:26):
just pushes back one year. Why not in like four
or five years, why don't we just keep motioning to
Tuesday Wednesday. Why don't we just compete with him and
set up a bye some way, because it won't be
any competing. We will dominate because the NFL's competition is
not the NBA anymore. They've lacked the NBA. You could
argue the NBA if they don't play this pandemic right,
(20:47):
and they're gonna be last to come back. Clearly, Baseball
is coming back, UFC is fighting this weekend, Golf's coming back,
help Phil Tiger, Payton Manning, Tom bradyer plan, everything's coming back.
The NBA is gonna be last. That they might actually
be going through with this pandemic their version of the
ninety four strike, because the fans have already been tapping
out anyway, and now if they just take the rest
(21:08):
of the year off or don't come back, or come
out back in a weird way, and then who knows
it could it could really hurt the brand. Maybe the
NFL is thinking we can step on their throat because
who's owned the conversation for the last during the pandemic. Now,
part of it was just they were set up. The
NFL has owned the entire conversation. Now, you could argue
(21:29):
during free agency in the draft they would anyway, But
because the NBA hasn't done anything or even attempted to
do anything, the NFL has just talked about. I mean,
this is a football show, but every time you turn
on television, every show or most podcasts talking football because
there's a lot of football stories going on. Because the
football despite having to kind of you know, work around
(21:50):
the pandemic while their season wasn't going on, they still
had to you know, shut down buildings, do everything. They
just kept adapting. And the the NBA can't figure it out.
They cannot adapt. And their quote unquote the most progressive
league yet, the NFL that if you just watch the
media's takes over the last decade, losers Goodell's incompetent, just greedy.
(22:12):
The irony is the NBA was in bed with China
in the moment it got a little weird. They refused
to say anything bad about him. It's like every business
is quote unquote greedy. Greed is what pays the bills,
you know. I mean that there's not a more overused
word in pro sports than greed. Their expenses in all
these pro leagues are insanely high. No workforce in world
(22:35):
history costs as much as professional sports, right, the amount
of money you pay players, So you have to be greedy.
It literally pays for things. Think about like the teams
in baseball that aren't quote unquote greedy and don't do
everything possible to make money but just make money for themselves,
like the Oakland A's. I take all that moronic, it's
just poor business. Luckily, Billy Bean is a dynamic general
(22:57):
manager and talent evaluator. The he can keep them above
you know, their head above water and actually win while
their owner just pockets all the profits. But the NFL,
I just think SE's opportunity and this could be a moment.
I'm not trying to overreact and say it's gonna change forever,
but who knows. I mean, once upon a time when
(23:18):
I was growing up, you wanted to get a movie,
you had to go to Blockbuster. Then all of a sudden,
Blockbuster was dead and you got your DVDs delivered to you.
And then several years later, I downloaded an app, press
a button and watched the number one movie in America
on my flight home. So the NBA owned Christmas for
thirty four years of my life. When I thought Christmas
(23:40):
and sports, I thought National Basketball Association. Who's to say
my unborn child will will think that. Who knows, maybe
in fifteen years. I'm playing on having a kid anytime soon,
but you never know, and Uh, all of a sudden,
he's like the NFL is Christmas. That's just how just
aiety has never changed fast as fast as it does now.
(24:03):
And like Phil Knight says, business, these big especially big business,
they are so aggressive and they will do anything to
get them an extra percentage point. Because once you get
to that level, like if if you're you know, doing
six figures in revenue or whatever, every percentage isn't that huge.
(24:23):
It gets bigger. Like if you go from five hundred
thousand dollars to a million dollars than a million to
two million, But once you get to like a hundred million,
there's a big difference between a hundred and a hundred
fifty million dollars or a billion and two billion. You know,
it's money is all relevant relative, right, And I think
they see kind of a sinking ship, you know Lebron's career. Well,
(24:46):
he's actually still going strong. He looks fantastic. But I
do think humans are somewhat numb to Lebron. I mean,
we've heard his name for so long. He just we
know everything about him. We know all those kids. There's
nothing to learn, Like there was a lot of mystery
with Michael jo. I'm watching this, I'm about die hard.
Michael Jordan Fan. I don't know that much about him.
I think Tiger Woods is kind of like that. Like,
I don't know that much about Tiger Woods. I mean,
(25:07):
I've learned it as years ago, but I know everything,
and to know about Lebron, you know it all he's
told me at all, So all of shows, I don't.
I do I know that much about Tom Brady or
even Peyton Manning. Not really Like the NFL does a
pretty good job of balancing this kind of mysterious act.
I've said it all the time. I'm not there. They
have a built in advantage with society that when you
(25:29):
get the amount of games that baseball and basketball have,
we don't need to pay attention is much and we
have more options to entertain us. We're football. It's just
once a week. So whoever your team is, we all
if you're just used to Sunday just kind of chilling.
It's built in and now with fantasy football, with gambling,
can keep you engaged even if you don't care about
the teams. But don't be shocked in ten years if
(25:52):
when when I say Christmas Day and associated with sports,
you think football not basketball. Okay, I'm gonna dive into
a couple of stories that I'll be completely honest, mid pandemic,
you never know exactly what you're gonna get. But I
didn't expect either one of these two. And it reminds
me of this when I was my freshman. I graduated
(26:14):
high school in two thousand three, so in the fall
of two thousand three, I was in college and I'm
pretty sure I am sure. I don't know if it
was the first season. It might have been of the
show playmakers remember on ESPN that had dudes just doing
everything under the sun. It was crazy. It was NFL,
but it was based on like from Free Basing, drugs,
(26:35):
the sex too. Just it was awesome. I mean it
was everything I like in a television show, had sports,
had violence, had drugs, had nudity. It was great. I mean,
it's it's what moves the needle for a young consumer.
But the NFL, because they were in partnership with ESPN,
like Goodell wouldn't even have been the commissioner then, I
(26:56):
guess it would have been Tagliaboo caused a huge stink
because it portrayed the NFL in a bad light, right
because it was pretty nuts. Though several years later, now
they're not a partner, but HBO with the rock and
UH and his show is kind of the same thing.
But I you could argue playmakers probably just as bad,
if not worse. The reality is, over the last fifteen years,
(27:17):
we've literally experienced everything and over the twenty year plus
period of the NFL for murder, UH two, suicide, to
domestic violence, to drugs, to drug trafficking, to fraud, UH
to cheating. There's literally not a story that a movie
has been made about that the NFL in some weird
(27:40):
way hasn't been interconnected. Or it could just say, yeah,
we we had a coach, a coach do blow, we
had a player go get drugs, we had a player
shoot someone else, we had a player you know, do
this and that. It's it's all happened everything under the
sun in the last twenty years. There's probably not an
incident that you can't find. And I'm not I'm not
(28:01):
And don't get me wrong, the majority, the heavy majority,
most guys in the NFL are really really high level.
The percentage of these guys doing crazy stuff is small
that are definitely getting in trouble. Now, there might be
a percentage that aren't getting in trouble that are pushing
the envelope. But welcome to society. Well, I got two
stories for you. I'm gonna start with Earl Thomas. Earl
(28:23):
Thomas got into an argument with his wife earlier this month,
I guess it was actually in April, and left with
his brother Seth. His wife who actually was his high
school sweetheart. You snapchat and was somehow I don't even
know how this works. Now, I've always been actually a
believer in Snapchat. My younger brother when he sends me
(28:43):
pictures like of his newborn baby, of him, you know,
playing golf, of whatever he's doing, he sends him via Snapchat.
And all of his friends utilized Snapchat. And I never
pulled the trigger to buy the stock. But I'm telling you,
Snapchat the youth, they love it. Clearly Thomas and his
wife do too, because she was able to like hack
into a Snapchat find out where he was. And when
(29:04):
she got there, Earl Thomas was having an orgy with
his brother and several women. And he also owns a
nine millimeter which she had had in her hands. Now
she was gonna try to scare him, so she took
out the clip but clearly doesn't have much experience with
a gun, knowing there's also one in the chamber and
(29:24):
they're they're all naked. It sure sounds like I'm sure
in the next couple of weeks, if not sooner, the
video will come out on t MZ and it'll look
like a scene in Playmakers. And she puts the gun
to his head. Now, I don't think he knew whether
it was loaded or not. I would guess he just
assumed it was. I mean, your first reaction we see
someone pointing a gun at You've never had a gun
(29:46):
pointed at me, at least a you know, an actual gun.
I mean, I've had paintball guns and BB guns point
at You always assume it's loaded. That's why you always
turn Uh. Now, he I guess fought it off again
having an orgy with his brother. Imagine a lot of
commotion when she comes storming in with a couple of
her friends. Again, you can't make this up, even though
(30:06):
Playmakers kind of did over the years. And uh, he's
lucky didn't die. So, I mean, for as funny as
the story is, there was a bullet in there. If
she pulled it, it would have been one of the
great NFL tragedies like it would have been. I can't
even imagine what that. You know, you guy as a
Hall of Fame player has head blown off by his wife. Uh, now,
you could argue, shouldn't be cheating on your wife. That's
(30:26):
their own issues. I just know the heard enough stories,
the young, the elites, the rich. They don't live like
you and I so like I make when I say
the word orgy, it's kind of funny, but like I
think it's probably normal vernacular for some people. NFL Hollywood.
They we we don't relate us us peons a normal society,
(30:48):
but we do. Like you piss off a wife or
your husband or whatever, like you never know, now you
put a gun. You know. I'm not a lawyer. I'm
pretty sure even if Earl doesn't press charges, it's out
of his hands like a tempted murder, right, or at
least I don't know the exact term. But she's gonna
get in trouble. I think it'll be hard for her
to avoid jail time. But what a crazy story Only
(31:10):
in the NFL could you have? You know, a borderline
future Hall of Fame player having an orgy with his
brother having his wife storm into the house he's at
some other house or hotel or wherever, and with her
friends kick the door open, find them all naked, point
a gun at him, have an altercation where he fights
off the weapon, and then the police come and arrest heurant.
(31:31):
I mean, yeah, I if I made that up about
a player, you would be like, middle cooff, are you
on drugs? Put down the tequila and this this really happens.
It's just it's we can laugh at it because no
one got injured. But it's just like when you're kind
of reading it, your jaws hitting the floor. When I'm
reading this TMZ article, I'm like this, this ship is nuts.
(31:52):
This is this is crazy. I mean, this is you
can't make this up. The Brett Farve story. We've seen
this song and dance before. A lot of rich people
have defrauded other people. Uh. The story is that Brett
Farve in Mississippi has this thing called Farve Enterprises, which
I would imagine a lot of you know, former athletes,
(32:14):
famous people in Hollywood whatever that use their individual quote
unquote likeness as their money making you know, uh vehicle
just far of enterprises, Lebron Enterprises, Curry whatever, right, Tom
TV twelve, it's all you know, it's all the same ship,
just different pile. But here's what Brett Farve, here's the
problem with Brett Farve did. And I gotta I got
(32:37):
a big red flag on this Brett Farve. I guess
give speeches and to get Brett Farve to speak, it's
clearly not cheap because he got paid for two separate speeches,
won five hundred thousand dollars and one six thousand dollars. Now,
I've read some articles which I'm sure many of you
have stumbled upon, like I don't think you quite understand,
and I definitely didn't until you read an article like damn,
(32:58):
they paid that guy to speak? They pay him? How
much they pay? Who? I get like paying a former president.
But you see some of these stories about former athletes
that get paid just paid appearances. You can rack up
some cash. Brett Farve in his hometown, Mississippi or his
home state in Mississippi. I don't know if it's actually
Hattiesburger wherever he grew up, but charge this, you know, uh,
(33:22):
Mississippi some sort of entity multiple times and got paid
one point one million dollars. Well, here's a kicker. He
didn't actually give a speech either, time got free money. Now,
I've seen enough true crime shows. I've known enough people
that have done some shady stuff, or at least family friends,
not actually my friends. We haven't made enough money yet.
(33:43):
But this is either two things. Either Brett is full
on defrauding these people and he was actively doing this,
or he had an employee go rogue, which also I
could see be very possible. Do I envision Brett Farve
the books at far of enterprises? No? I do not.
Do I envision Brett Farve uh scheduling the speaking engagements
(34:08):
at five enterprises, No I do not. Would it probably
be a pretty easy place to go rogue, just like
a lot of famous athletes, charities. We we've seen these
stories over the years where it's easy for a family member,
a trusted associate to take advantage of the situation. But
here's where I kind of wonder, because Brett Farve immediately
(34:29):
immediately like to me, if we were defrauding someone and
I was not involved, I would go, WHOA pump the
brakes here. I would say, let's just stop everything. I
would not move any money, I would not pay anyone back.
I would just start asking questions. Well, five Enterprise immediately
paid five thousand dollars of the one point one million
dollars back to me. That's the classic, like nothing to
(34:52):
see here, just giving the money back. So I would
lean again educated guests that Far of Mine had known something.
Now I'm a big Brett Farve guy. He's one of
my favorite athletes of all time. I got to meet
him months once when I worked in Philly. He was
up seeing Marty and Andy. I was I've met some
famous people over my life. I don't remember kind of
my heart beating, kind of getting shell shocked. Now I
(35:13):
wasn't my mid twenties or whatever, but it was still
it was still pretty cool getting to meet Brett Farr
walking right by him in the hallway. So I hope
this isn't true, and I hope that he had an
employee that went rogue. But any time that you immediately
pay someone back after you get caught and just go, oh,
nothing nothing to see here, we're just paying back. My
bad are bad. We'll figure this out. I don't know.
(35:35):
I'm gonna lean that he might have known a little something,
because clearly Far of Enterprises was defrauding people and you
just now do I think Brett Farve's gonna go to
jail or anything? Of course not uh, no chance. Definitely
not missed it either, but it shows you. You know,
what's the famous saying that don't don't meet your heroes.
(35:56):
This would be sad if Farv was really behind this
for just a little point one million dollar kicker to
do nothing. Okay, let's dive into the Middlecoff mail bag.
But before we dive in, I gotta remind everybody. If
you guys like the show, go to the Apple iTunes
three and out podcast and leave a review. You can
leave a review on the Apple iTunes podcast. I don't
(36:17):
know a lot of people have trying to get to
four figures. I think last time I checked, it was
like reviews, like to get to a thousand and then
then we'll shoot for more. But appreciate everyone that's been
doing that and keep doing that at John Middlecoff is
my Instagram handle, same as my Twitter handle. That's my
name full name. Actually my full name is John David Middlecoff,
(36:38):
but my Twitter and my Instagram go by John Middlecoff.
Two f's unlike this, uh in the when you work
in the NFL, and you like win a division, or
you win the NFC or a f C. You get
like a ball. You know, it says like NFC East Champs,
and then it says your name and it's like the
score of the game that you won the division the
game on they spelled my name wrong. But you know,
(36:59):
builds care after. Uh but I got that. I got
that in my in my office right now. Agile mental
coop Instagram. Hit me with your questions. I'm gonna need
a bunch because I don't think I have that many left. Hey, John,
I listen to a ton of sports talk radio and
I've been putting you on my rotation lately. Keep getting better.
You haven't peaked yet. Appreciate it. Here's my question, what
is the long term future for the Big Twelve? Sub questions?
(37:23):
Can Texas survive as an independent like Notre Dame. What's
your opinion of the Longhorn Network? Can the remaining Big
Twelve survived without Texas and Oklahoma. I'll start at the
end and work backwards. The first answer to be, no, Texas,
Oklahoma carry it. I don't watch the Longhorn Network. I
think Texas should stay in the Big Twelve, you have
(37:43):
built in rivalries right there. It works. Texas playing Oklahoma
State playing obviously Oklahoma, it's one of the best games
of the year. Texas Tech feels like a big game, Uh,
Iowa State, there's no reason to leave. I think the
problem with the Big Twelve right now is they have
one legit powerhouse in Oklahoma, and even Oklahoma is somewhat
(38:05):
flawed because you have to build this spread defense to
play all the spread offenses. And then, as we've seen
the last several years, when they get into the playoffs,
it's hard for them to hang with Georgia, Clemson, Bama, whatever,
And they have unreal offenses. And I think Lincoln is
fair to say is a stud But to me, for
the Big Twelve to be legit, they need Texas to
(38:28):
be good with Oklahoma and then to have just some
you know, some of the extra teams just be eight
nine wins, whether it's Texas Tech, whether it's Iowa State,
whether it's Kansas State. Teams Oklahoma State and just be
kind of nationally in the top twenty. But you need
Oklahoma and Texas to be your lead dogs competing to
make the playoffs. And right now it's Oklahoma or bust
(38:50):
Tom Herman. It's just kind of been a disaster. You
know that they haven't sniffed being what they were under
mac in the mid two thousand's just to our house
producing NFL players and ranked in the top ten. Anytime
they've been ranked in the top ten recently, it's been fake.
It's been fraudulent. They're quickly out of it. They need
(39:11):
to I don't know. I don't know. I don't have
the answer, but it's clearer. They get enough recruits coming
out of Texas. The brand's big enough where you can
go just in that general area in the Midwest. You
can see a couple of kids out of California. Austin
is a cool city. It has history, You've won a
national championship. You've got a lot of guys over the
years in the NFL, not recently, like think about how
(39:32):
much cooler it is to be at Oklahoma alone. How
many more guys in the last five years are in
the NFL from Oklahoma in Texas. So it's one thing
to go. I remember Vince Young, No, actually I don't.
I'm eighteen years old. It's two thousand twenty, So in
two thousand five. I was what three you do the math?
I mean, what's you would be born in two thousand
(39:53):
two right now? I don't remember Finch young, remember Ricky Williams. No,
I wasn't alive some of the cool players that I
grew up on, like Roy Williams. Um trying to think
of just some of the Jamal Charles, no one remembers
these guys think of think of like, oh you watch Oklahoma?
Oh yeah, Joe Mixon, uh ceedee, Lamb Sterling Shepherd, all
(40:15):
the offensive Lineman, Kenneth Murray, Baker, Mayfield, Kyler Murray, right,
Jalen Hurts, Lincoln Riley, Bob Stoops just feels way sweeter,
producing way more. NFL played Mark Andrews Oh I love
Lamar Jack's I wrote to him on Madden all the time.
Who are you doing that with Texas? That's a that's
a problem. Hell, you could argue Texas Tech is more
(40:36):
relevant right now in the NFL because I got my
homes and even Baker played there for split second, and
Cliff Kingsbury's an NFL coach with Dallas signing Dalton. I'm
hearing mix takes some say no trouble for Dak Others
say it takes pressures off the Cowboys to make a
deal and happen with Dak. Am I rohnd to hope
for an open competition between Dak and Dalton. There's Zach
deserve to show up and be the quarterback one with
(40:58):
a new coach and show up, show us his worth.
Well if Dak is there, whether it's on the franchise
tag or whether it's on a new contract. And I
trying to think, Oh I saw schefter during like ESPN
schedule release show. Say one point of contention right now
is the Cowboys want to sign him to a long
(41:19):
term deal, like five years. And I guess Kirk Cousins
had talked to Dak Prescott. It's like, Kirk, why are
you talking to anybody like you're not You're not good
enough to be given advice to people. But he told
Dak Prescott used this at the the franchise tag, it
to your advantage. And Dak Prescott wants to sign a
shorter term deal three or four years. We'll find the Cowboys.
(41:43):
I'm not signing you unless I own your rights for
a long period of time. Irony is I don't love
doing that for Dak Prescott. I actually wouldn't mind going
short term. Clearly, I think Dak Prescott is trying to
go Kirk Cousins, Like, Dak, you're overthinking this. You can
win games with Dallas. You could help their team to
be good enough the next couple of years, maybe win
a Super Bowl. Be a legend. All Cousins are gonna
(42:04):
be know for is having made a ton of money.
No one will ever go, you know what, Kirk Cousins
was pretty good at football, though he's not bad. But
no one is gonna talk like that. No one's gonna
think like that. People are gonna be like, yeah, that
overpaid guy, the guy that I got, that guy, the
guy that made three hundred million dollars and then to
make that much. But you know what I'm saying, he made.
I think how much money Kirk Cousins made. He got
(42:25):
franchise twice. I think what that number add up to,
Like forty seven million. The Vikings gave him eighty five
million purely guaranteed, So we're already at like a hundred
and thirty million. The Vikings just gave him another sixty million.
I mean, Kirk Cousins already like a hundred and ninety
million dollars won one playoff game. There is no player
that's in the upper echelon a quarterbacks like top fifteen
(42:48):
that I would feel less confident in in a big
game than that guy. He's made a hundred and ninety
million dollars, give or take in the next couple of years.
That's insanity. Like there's a Allen stack. You're gonna be
worth easily that much. If you just play it right
here and win big with the Dallas Cowboys, you'll be
(43:09):
a legend. You will be a legend. Kirk Cousins will
not be a legend. He'll be rich. But that's the
guy that everyone said, oh yeah, guy's kind of average.
Uh hey, John, after taking Chase Young, that Redskins defense
is looking very underrated. Is it just me? Or or
is the five game over under an easy over? Well,
(43:30):
the defense should be good and Jack and Ron defensive guys.
They'll be physical upfront. Their front seven is good. I
just wonder about the offense, you know, I mean, I
think Dwayne Haskins was was really shitty last year. Kyle
Allen's actually okay, But you know what do they have?
They got Darius guys to bring back Adrian Peterson. You
(43:50):
don't have Trent Williams, but you didn't have them last
year either. You have the young kid Terry McLaren am
I saying his name right, the rookiett Ohio State, Like
they actually could be good and be five and eleven,
be like much improved. But yeah, I mean, if I
was gonna bet an over under on the Redskins, I'd
probably take the over just and that's probably just Ron Rivera.
(44:11):
Ron Rivera is a good coach. I just the quarterback play.
I think there's a lot of unknown I don't think
the Redskins, no, but defensively they could be good. The division,
you know, the Giants are gonna be better, The Eagles
should be better, and the Cowboys should be better. So
the division actually, which was bad last year, should be
much improved. Love the show. What are your thoughts on
(44:32):
Justin Herbert? Do you think he will be successful in
the league in the charge of franchise quarterback? Does he
start this season or red shirt in two you know,
in two thousand twenty. I don't think you're red shirt
players unless you're like Jordan's love situation. But if I
draft a guy in the top ten. I'm drafting him
to play him, and I get Jordan's love is not
(44:53):
like Burrow or Twa in terms of being this finished
product can like red defenses and pick you apart. Let
him learn on the job. Your team is so talented enough,
you know, I think a good A good uh. Kind
of comparison is when Roethlisberger took over, the team had
so many premium players. And that's what this team has, right.
They had Kenneth Murray to go with Derwin James, to
go with Bosta, to go with Ingram, to go with Hayward.
(45:15):
They have a good secondary. They got Gus Bradley. Offensively,
they got Eckler, they got Mike Williams, I got Hunter Henry,
they at Keenan Allen. Just you know, I'm a big believer.
Is you know, once a kid gets to a certain age,
throw him in the deep end, let him swim a
little bit. Now stand right there and don't let him drowned,
but put him in position to swim. You know you've
taught him. He's put some floaties on, he's gonna have
(45:37):
the opposite. Maybe don't even need to start a week one.
But I'm not writing Tyrod Taylor out long. You know
this is the the NFL has changed. This guy's a
four year starter. Four year starter. It would be one
thing right if he was. You know, he's just one
year starter into at Oregon, kind of like a Mr
BIS because he's been starting for four years. Four I
(45:57):
I gotta play Herbert. I think he has a chance
to be a really good player, and I think worst case,
he's just kind of like what Josh Allen has been
the last couple of years, kind of hit or miss.
But his talent so immense, and their talent on the
team is good. Now. One issue I have is I
don't love the head coach. I don't think that highly
of Anthony Lant. I think he's pretty average. But they're
(46:17):
they're defensing. I think I think highly if Gus Bradley
is a defensive coordinator, and I think highly of their personnel.
So anytime you can put a young quarterback on a
team that has good personnel, you have a chance to succeed.
If I put any young individual in any job, and
I put you in a job with it has no
clue what they're going and bad you know employees around you,
(46:39):
the thing's gonna suck. Right. If I take some young
producer and I throw him on Coward Show, he's got
a shot. If I take some young producer and throw
him on some dude YouTube channel that's has one follower,
it's probably not gonna be any good. So if I
take this young guy that actually does have some talent
and I put him around a bunch of outon people,
(47:00):
I think he's got a shot to be a pretty
good player. Chris Ballard hit the motherload with Nelson and Leonard,
but his first draft doesn't look so good these days. Hooker, Wilson,
Bosham and Banner three are gone and one has a
foot out the door. Are these players not living up
to expectations of function of Ballard just missing on players?
Or does going from Chuck Pangana's three four defense to
(47:21):
uber Fluss Tampa to requires so much of a different
skill set that players drafted for the old coaching staff
would have a hard time translating. Well, I'll be honestly,
I'd have to text around and get more of an
in depth scouting your port on Mully Cooker, because I
like Mulle Cooker when he was young and then he
got injured and he clearly hasn't been the same Banner
(47:43):
the tackle from USC I was never a big fan
of I. I don't like unathletic tackles that don't move
very well. It's just a bad fit. The other two guys,
I can't pretend to have that good of a feel on.
I just think the first time you ever draft, and
anytime you go through a draft when you have have
I mean, let's be real, a coach that was gonna
(48:04):
get fired at the end of the season, you're kind
of wasting a year. I always like just pulling the
trigger firing a guy and starting and just get going.
Now they didn't, and I think he's made up for it.
I think he's proven. You see it again in this draft.
You get Deforce Buckner, you get Jonathan Taylor, you get
Michael Pittman, you land Philip Rivers. Like they're just a
high level organization. I believe in Chris Ballard great John
(48:26):
Snyder has just some terrible draft picks. Awful you know,
look at John Lynchen cow Shanahan, who went thirteen and
three and dominated the NFC last year, drafted Solomon Thomas
the third overall. It happens how he's missed on some guys.
Coach reads missed on some guys, Sean Payton's missed on guy.
It happens. It's hard, it's hard. But I'm a huge
(48:49):
Chris Ballard guy, as anyone that listens to the show knows,
just because And I'm not like I know him like Coward,
just knowing him through my friends in the league, like
I know Naggie and Veach and Andy. Those guys love him.
Just watch the way he operates. Think about Chris Ballard
takes over. Think of what happened has what what has
happened to Chris Ballard in his tenure. Uh, he gets there,
(49:12):
he's got a fire coach. Then he hires Josh McDaniels
and he's left at the altar, and then he has
to scramble. He gets Frank Andrew Luck retires on him,
just quits. No one sees it coming now, I mean
they they had no clue. He just quits. It's over.
And they've done a pretty good job pivoting every time
and not being an embarrassment. I think Chris is a really,
(49:33):
really impressive guy. And at the end of the day,
you're gonna miss I mean, you're gonna miss on. You
know of your first round picks, let alone. As the
draft goes on, it only gets more difficult. So if
I was a Colts fan, I would feel good about it.
I wouldn't even worry about that first draft and just go.
We got a team this year that can win ten
games and in the a f C. If we can
(49:54):
just avoid Kansas City until the a f C Championship game,
just take our chances, we're gonna be pretty good. Now.
The big question, and I and I don't know the
answer to this is Philip Rivers. Like the Philip Rivers
I saw last year, and being on the West Coast,
I just watch a lot of Rivers games against the Raiders,
against the Broncos. I thought he was bad. And I
love Philip Rivers. I think Philip Rivers gonna be a
(50:15):
star and television one day if he so chooses to.
But his physical ability last year felt to me like
he fell off a cliff. He's never been able to move,
but his arms, it was just bad. Maybe it was
just an outlier season. Maybe he knew he was leaving
the Chargers weird spot, but he he did some things
last year that was like, what the hell is going on?
So I listen, I'm rooting for Rivers. I hope he's
(50:37):
still good, but there is a chance he's bad. Now
you have, you have a backup like Jacobe if he's healthy,
can win you some games Easton could not. I just
watched the Niners versus the Bucks from Week one last season. God,
the NFL geek here passing the time in lockdown, and
it's hard to believe the team ended up in the
super Bowl. They looked horrible. The amount they improved was unreal,
(51:00):
very very belichick in. You know, whenever you look at
this the week one games, I I don't think they
mean much at all. You know, when you look at
week one and you look back like week nine or ten,
you see a lot of teams that are two and
eight in week ten that look good in week one,
and you see a lot of super Bowl level teams
(51:21):
that look completely different. I put no stock into week
one besides you win or you to lose. Especially this season,
you're gonna be coming off a who knows how long
training camp is gonna be. There's gonna be no offseason.
Um I I I personally and I try to do this.
In college is a little different because you've got to
(51:41):
kind of win Week one. You can throw off your
playoff chances in the NFL. You could lay an egg
as long as you win. Whatever. I think in that
game Jamis, I think he threw two picks and one
was a pick six. So yeah, they benefited from Jamis,
that's for sure. I've been listening to your podcast ever
since I heard about you through Colin Show and learned
(52:01):
you were at cal POLYI alumni. I'm about to graduate,
cow Polly. During the shelter in place with my BSA
mechanical engineering I see you go Mustangs. I was wondering
what opportunities exist for engineers in the NFL and surrounding media.
It would be awesome to combine two things I love well.
First and foremost, you are way smarter than me, because
(52:23):
not in a trillion years could I have gotten a
cal polity with an engineering degree, And even if they
would have allowed me in, I would have lasted about
one class. So for those who don't know cow Polly,
we kind of consider ourselves Harvard to the West Coast,
and the engineering school is big time s where the
smart kids go. So Alex, you're smart. I I don't
know what the combination of engineering or mechanical engineering and
(52:48):
UH in the NFL. But I'll say this, what your
major is in college, if you do want to get
into sports, you might have to leave the mechanical engineering
element of it, at least originally. And clearly you're a
really intelligent guy. You could figure it out. Now. What
I'd recommend is I would go mechanical engineering and just
(53:08):
crush it and make a ton of cash and just
and just dominate the world and UH, you know, be
able to watch football on Saturdays and Sundays and chill.
But that's just me. But I I don't necessarily know
the connection of mechanical engineering and UH and football or
just sports in general. But you're you're talking to a
guy that's not smart enough to I wouldn't have lasted
(53:29):
with you. See, I appreciate what you've been doing to
help us get through quarantine. Question from your position, what
will it take for the Jaguars to become a respected
organization like you? I've gotten a lot less of a
fanatic I've become and just more of a lover of
the sport itself, the business, the game. Of course, I
(53:51):
want to see the Jacks win one day, I mean,
that's why we play and why we're close to a
few years back. But truthfully, I'd rather see them involved
into an organization. The Ravens that by Kings, the Niners,
the Eagles teams they may not win the Super Bowl
every year, but they're always in the conversation, exude excellence
from the top down. Regarding your experience with the Eagles,
what do you think what starts with the owner? With Philly? Uh?
(54:12):
And you know, in fairness, like I wouldn't quite put
the Niners there yet. They had one good season though.
I think Lynch and Shannan are really good. I think
like the Eagles, the Patch, the Steelers, and it all
starts with the owner, and it starts with the consistency
of top and there's just a consistent vision within the organization.
I think the problem for the Jags is they got
this new owner, shot Con. They're trying to be like innovative,
(54:34):
but they don't really know what they're doing, and then
they don't understand what's going on, and they always missing
on these draft picks, and when they do hit on
the draft picks, the players end up not liking the place.
Just kind of a bizarre place. And maybe there's an
element of it. As a football player, you feel like
you're kind of irrelevant in Jacksonville. That's why a lot
of guys kind of forced their way out or get unhappy.
I'm just I don't know. I'm just throwing this kind
(54:55):
of out of my ass and I'm not quite sure.
But I also think if you win in foot all
people like it and you become a star. Right, It's
kind of like the NBA, like Russell Westbrook and Kevin
Durant became superstars in Oklahoma City, Like you could become
a star in Jacksonville. You know, if if Leonard Fournette
had been Christian McCaffrey, he would be a really big deal.
Jalen Ramsey became a star right uh Yannick and dock Ways,
(55:18):
he's maybe a little under the radar, but he's a
pretty big deal. Players over, you can become a big
deal there. Just look at like Carolina. Uh now, Carolina,
the market size is bigger. But you get to my drift.
I think they just need to get a good coach,
and they need to get a good general manager, and
they just need to let it play out. Right now,
they've Dave Caldwell has been there forever. They draft in
the top ten every year, so I would say he's
(55:41):
not the guy. I would say Doug Moron not the
guy either. So can you just fire everyone at the
end of the season and get a good general manager
and a good head coach in there. That that would
be what I would attempt to do and be my
goal if I were them, because right now they're they're
constantly turning over coaches. Tom Coflin and they fired Tom Coughlin.
It's just it's kind of feel like a rudderless ship.
(56:02):
The Steelers never feel like that. The Eagles. The Eagles
have one weird year. Chip Kelly's acting weird. Jeffrey Leary's
like packers ship up and get out of here. You
get it, You're not welcome here anymore. And they haven't
looked back since. Two years later and win Super Bowl.
The Chiefs, it's like, God, Scott Pioli's leaving Snickers bars
and in the uh, you know, in the staircase, get
out of here. Hire Andy Reid never looked back. Pete Carroll,
(56:25):
John Schneider Boom kicking everyone's ass. You know. The Steelers
and Rooneys, they just keep the same coaches and and
are just consistent every year. I think you just gotta
attempt to be consistent. It just starts at the top owner,
head coach. You could argue the head coach is more
important the quarterback, because if you've got a good head coach,
you'll find a quarterback. You know, we all would love
to have Tom Brady Aaron Rodgers, but both those got
(56:47):
one guy went twenty four, the other guy went on right.
So like, look at the top quarterbacks in the league,
just go west to east. Russell Wilson third round pick,
Jimmy Garoppolos second round pick, Dak Prescott fourth round pick.
You can find really good players, you know, the say
what you want about Cousins. The Vikings won a playoff
(57:07):
game last year. He's a fourth round pick. Now, he
costs a lot of money. But you guys might drift,
so you don't always need to be draft the number
one overall to get your quarterback garnerment. You might turn
out to just be like a top fifteen, top twenty quarterback.
You can win with him if you have a good organization.
I don't mean win big, but you could win eight
nine games. It feels like they're their leadership is always
just out of it. Appreciate everyone listening. Damn, this thing
(57:30):
already went an hour. Basically, Uh, enjoy the weekend. Hope
I entertained you, and uh keep I guess quarantine at
hell some of where some of you guys living. You know,
we're reopening the economy. You guys might be out and
about this weekend. Uh, happy Mother's Day. Tell your mom.
I say hello, and uh, I don't know or anything,
but I'm just trying to be friendly. I didn't mean
(57:50):
that in a in a weird way. And um, yeah,
thanks for listening again. Leave those reviews Apple iTunes, leave
the review and
What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecop three and Out podcast,
appreciate everyone listening. Recording this a little later than I
typically do on a Thursday, because we have this little
thing called schedule release. We know who everyone's playing, and
I realized I got a lot of respect now for
like the national guys that kind of have to talk
(00:30):
about everyone, and let's face it, a lot of them
will just talk about like the Patriots and the and
the Cowboys. But there's a lot going on with the
schedule release, there's a lot of I didn't I haven't
done the math, but sixteen times whatever, it's a lot
of games. I mean a lot of games, a lot
going on. I'll try to give a big overview of
just several things that jumped out to me. There is
one specific game that stood out to me like a
(00:54):
sore thumb that is just like Wow, this this is
a a transcendent, potentially moment for the NFL to kind
of put a stake in the back of the NBA
playing on Christmas Day. Will dive deep into that. Earl Thomas,
you know, has just has a crazy story. Brett Farve Fraud.
(01:17):
I'll dive into those two stories that were just like,
what the hell is going on? Then, of course, the
Middlecoff mail bag at John Middlecoff is my Instagram handle.
The direct messages are wide open. You slide up in
there and ask any question you want over the weekend
in the next several days, I'm not gonna go team
by team here, so you've got specific questions feel free
(01:37):
slide up in those d m s about specific games, teams,
how do you think the schedule? And then I can
answer it. It's just it's too difficult to go team
by team, right, it just take too long. And honestly,
what's the point of that exercise. Let's start with opening
weekend and just the opening game. In general, I think
the NFL did a good job. They have the chief
(01:59):
so when you have homes you can't lose. But giving
them the Texans, it's like, to me, that's solid. You
do two things. One you get a pretty polarizing team.
I think most football fans laugh and make fun of
Billy O'Brien. Some of it justified. I think some of
it is a little extreme. He's treated like Freddy Kitchens
when he goes to the playoffs every year. He's not
(02:19):
the loser that he's portrayed on Twitter. You know, every
guy with a Twitter account thinks Bill O'Brien is the
village idiot. Now is he a good GM? No? But
does he win? Yes? You give me Watson, you give
me my homes solid, you know, Thursday night game. And
then I think the overall theme is a lot of
(02:40):
teams got a lot of prime time games. Peter Schraeger
tweet tweeted out that eight teams have five prime time games.
That's a lot and that doesn't include the Saints. Now
is it a little inflated? Yes, because a lot of
the Sunday night games, as we've seen the last several years.
Like I think it's the second half of the season.
Maybe it's after week nine or ten. They can flex, right,
Like the one thing when you're on Monday night or
(03:01):
Thursday night, there's no flexing if you're if you get
a Thursday night game or you get a Monday night game,
you're playing that game logistically. You just can't move it.
The Sunday I think, is all I gotta do is
bump you back three hours or bumpy four or three hours.
It's an easy move. You're already traveling to that place. Anyway,
it doesn't change the thing. So if you have the
Sunday night games, definitely week ten to week seventeen. There's
(03:24):
no sure thing, but one thing is pretty clear. They
got pretty aggressive, and they got aggressive with teams like
the Rams and the Raiders because they're moving into new stadiums.
And I think the Raiders getting to a Monday night
in a Sunday night game right off the bat Jon
Gruden against Drew Brees week two and Tom Brady week seven, like,
(03:46):
that's risky for the NFL. I get there, moving into
a new stadium, but they haven't been very good for
the last seventeen years. Now. There are a lot of
other teams that I just don't know. Now, maybe the
Raiders are good. Maybe I think Camp is gonna be
pretty good, and we'll dive into them here in a second.
But I know one team might still take pretty seriously.
I know, right The first team I looked at their
schedule was the Niners, and they go to at New
(04:08):
England at Foxboro. The Raiders actually go to Foxboro too.
When you go to Foxboro, I get Tom's not there,
and I get this team is not going to be
the same. They're not gonna win eleven twelve games, but
they're not gonna win five or six. I think there's
like seven or eight, and they are gonna be a
mother at home. They're gonna be tough. They have an
elite coach, they still have a good defense, they have
(04:31):
good coaches. They are not just gonna be some shitty team.
They're not gonna be the Jags. They're not gonna be
what the cards have been. They're not gonna be the Lions.
I just think a lot of people I think this
year are gonna be win when we just look at
the schedule and listen, we all do that. Think how
often you go, oh, ten and six or god, this
schedule looks hard and then things change. That's why I
(04:51):
think it's very, very difficult for the schedule is every
year a couple of quarterbacks go down. Every year, even
if a quarterback doesn't go down all season, they may
miss a specific game. And you're playing the Packers against
Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love is a big deal, right
you playing You just picked the team. You playing Kyler
Murray or Brett Hunley. Brett even still all the team
(05:15):
but gets my draft. So the eight teams, five prime
time games. I think there's more parody because of Corona
and no off season. I don't know if we're gonna
see many fourteen fifteen, you know, obviously not sixteen, but
like even like thirteen wins. I think this year eleven
twelve wins is going to actually be like fourteen, even
with teams like the Chiefs. They're returning twenty of twenty
(05:38):
two starters, they had the best quarterback in the world,
they had a really good draft. If this was a
normal year, I'd be like, you know what, Kansas City
is probably gonna go fifteen and one. They're gonna dominate.
They're they're gonna be like remember the season after the
Packers won the Super Bowl in two thousand and two
thousand eleven, they went fifteen and one. Now, ironically they
got beat remember by Eli Manning uh in the playoffs.
(06:00):
What you know what you catch my drift that they
came back even better after they do. I think that
is gonna be the Chiefs. But with no offseason, also
factoring and all these guys like dudes trying pelotons and
lifting at home, it's not the same. This is not
you're not playing baseball where you gotta do calistenics or
even being Tom Brady pliability. If you're a twenty three
(06:20):
year old linebacker, you're trying to build some muscle mass
and it's probably pretty difficult to do that right now.
So I think it's gonna dramatically change big picture just
a win or two for even good teams. Now here's
one thing with Tom Brady. When you think Tom Brady
and the Pats, you think, well, down the stretch, they
always win between twelve and fourteen games. They win so
(06:42):
many games in Foxboro when it's really really cold, and
we we've all watched the games over the last you know,
decade and a half Sunday night, Monday night football down
the home stretch of November and December of the season,
and it's the Patriots playing a lot of games because
they have been the best team in the league over
the you know, the last two decades. They deserved it.
But one thing, as you get older, even a guy
(07:03):
that has lived in the cold for a long long time,
not me, Tom, and I think Aaron too, you do
benefit from getting away from that. I'm thirty five right now.
If I during a winter cold, like if I go,
if I work out hard. The next day, I kind
of feel tight. I can't imagine being a professional athlete
being in the warm weather. Have you ever tried to
go for a jog in a hundred degrees or go
(07:24):
for a jog in forty degrees? It's now, it's hotter
in the hundred, but it's much easier to run once
you start sweating in hundred degrees. No different golf, no
different any activity. It's just easier to get loose. And
Brady's final seven weeks of the season home home by home, indoors,
indoors home. That has a huge impact to me, Like,
(07:45):
I think Tampa is gonna be really good. I think
Tampa is gonna be really really good. And when I
say that, like ten or eleven wins, but once it
comes to playoff time, like they can win the Super Bowl.
Another thing that stood out to me over the last
handful of years, definitely probably the last decade, the Monday
night schedule has been awful. Sunday night football has been
(08:08):
the best games. When I when I closed my eyes
and think Sunday night football, I think like Eagles, Cowboys,
Raven Steelers, you know, Pat's Chiefs, Niner, Seattle, I just
think great game. Packers, Bears, I just think Packers, New England.
I just think great games. Sunday Night football, you name it,
Cam Newton, Saints, whatever, just star power, elite game, million
(08:31):
people watching. And then Monday Night which as a thirty
five year old, I still have a soft spot for.
When I was getting into sports, like anyone close to
my age in the nineties, Monday Night football was the ship.
I love Monday Night Football. I I'll never forget, like,
Uh Schottenheimer's teams playing like the Raiders and the Broncos,
Verse Shanahan and just some of the FARV games and
(08:53):
it was awesome. My night football game has lost its luster.
Part of it is, you know, once Gruden left, they've
had a disaster in terms of the booth, but their
games have been bad and be like God, Jags, Titans, Uh, Cardinals, Lions.
Like what am I watching? But it's football. I watched it,
and you know, I kind of enjoyed it because again,
(09:13):
I'll watch any pro football game. But when I think
Monday Night football, I think big games. And that's what
we've seen in the last several years with Thursday Night
football games. The Thursday Night football games once Fox got involved,
kind of trumped the Monday night games. A big part
of that, let's call spade a spade. ESPN became very
anti NFL, and there was like a political element to it.
(09:35):
You know, the NFL's kind of the conservative league. The
NBA is the progressive league. Even though the NFL is
the league that everyone watches. In the NBA now ratings
wise will dive into it with the Christmas Game, is
the league that actually not that manybe people watch, but
politically a lot of reporters who lean extreme left kind
of lean to that league. Even though the NFL and
the NBA are exactly the same, they're trying to make
as much money as humanly possible. One league gets kind
(09:57):
of pigeonholed as the assholes. The other league gets pigeonholed.
Is like all they care about us, even though it's
it's all kind of fraudulent. I think they're exactly the same.
Roger just doesn't really care what you think about him.
Adam Silver, as I think Colin talked about it this week,
is consumed about that. Well. I'll give ESPN credit, they
got rid of a lot of the anti football people
(10:17):
you can be. I'm critical about football. Collin's critical about
football schefters. You can be critical about things that happened,
but when it feels like you hate football, and remember
they're countless people on on ESPN that said I do
not like football, Well then why are you here? Football
pays the Bills, so get away. And you know what
ESPN said, Bye bye, You're fired. And this year, for
(10:38):
the first time ever, I looked down the schedule. Week
one is always weird, right because you've got the double header,
and let's the reality is a Week one, right, you
could throw any team. You could throw Jaguars playing the
Jaguars and we will watch it. So it's the Giants
against the Steelers and the Titans against the Broncos. But
after Week one it really gets going. Saints opening up
(10:59):
the Vegas Stadium, which will be cool, Chiefs, Ravens, Falcons, Packers, Chargers, Saints, Cardinals, Cowboys,
which I actually think the Cardinals are gonna be a
really good watch this year. Bears, Chargers, Tom Brady, Giants,
UH New England, Jets, Vikings, Bears, Chargers, Tampa, Seattle, Philly, Buffalo,
San Francisco, Ravens, Baker Mayfield. Like, we just got some
(11:22):
pretty good games. You know, it's not not great still
probably not Sunday night football and not Thursday night football,
but ESPN you know, they're starting to be a little
not hate the NFL and you get better product, you know,
and it's it's all kind of a team effort here.
But you know, whatever, you're looking at the schedule. To me,
the key is is this, how many teams do you
(11:43):
play that are coming off buys? How many teams do
you play there when they're coming off buys? Are you
coming off a road game? Where are you when you're
playing the Thursday night game? Like if you're playing if
you get a home Thursday night game and you're coming
off a road game, that's difficult. If you get a
home Thursday night game and you're at home, makes a
(12:03):
little easier. If you're at home and you got a
road Thursday night game, not as bad. But the Thursday
night game can always get a little weird. And who
do you play after your bye week? Who do you
play after your Thursday night game? Because that's usually a
must win because you get a longer break. Those are
key and depending on your divisional games. You know, I
(12:25):
don't think it's imperative like last year, for example, the
Niners went five and one and won the division by
one game. You know, going five and one in division
is really really difficult. If you can go four and
two in your division, that means typically you're gonna be
a good team. If you go four and two in
your division and you can win six games outside of
your division, you'll be ten and six and be a
(12:47):
lock playoff team. Hell, if you go four and two
in your division and you go five and five with
seven playoff teams, you'll be nine and seven. I think
nine and seven this year. The NFC, it might be
a little are difficult. I think it's much deeper. When
you look Philly, Dallas should be good. The Packers, the
Bears and many could all be solid. The Niners, Seattle
(13:09):
are gonna be good, Cardinals could be feisty. I kind
of got the Rams red flagged. And then you look
at the Saints, Tampa, even Atlanta. Hell they went Remember
they started really slow, but they ended up winning seven games.
To me, the key is you just gotta win the
divisional games. And anytime I see a divisional game road
or home, I take it very seriously. And I learned
(13:30):
this when I was with the Eagles. A team in
your division. Like if if you're let's say the NFC East,
and if you're a Philly or Dallas fan, you go, well,
the Giants and the Redskins are gonna suck. Well, we
know that's not usually the way it goes down, because
even if they do suck, that one of the two
games that you play them, it's gonna be a tie
game in the fourth quarter. And that's what makes football cool.
(13:50):
That's why football is kick because even when teams suck,
like we got great games on Sunday, we get like
you're on the edge of your seat, like, how are
we gonna lose these guys? It happens. That's it's the
best part. Like in basketball, it doesn't You've got Kevin Duranny,
you got Lebron. If they try, you're gonna destroy terrible teams.
In football, you can try and still be a tight
game just because nature of the sport. So I you know,
(14:13):
I got to give the NFL credit. Man, They've had
free agency, they've had the draft, and they've gone schedule release,
and during this pandemic, which is the shittiest time ever,
they've had complete ownage of everything we've talked about of
what fans think about, they've been the only thing cool
that's been going on. Now there's an element of luck
because I talked about earlier this week. It just happened
to fall in their off season. But you gotta give
(14:36):
Roger Goodell credit. He's kept his pedal to the floor,
not flinched at all, kept everything coming. We don't even
know if we can play these games. You know, Roger said,
I don't care. Put this bad boy out, get the
people talking. Let's own this real estate like I think
he's gonna try to do with Christmas dayless. Dive into that. Okay,
(14:57):
let's dive into a game that really he jumped out
to me on the schedule, and it made me think
of a quote in the book The Shoe Doog about
Phil Knight, the guy that started Nike, created Nike, and
ran Nike. You legend. I mean, if you're listening to podcast,
you know who he is. I recommend the book, and
(15:18):
when I say I read it, I listen. I'm an
audio book guy. I listened to it. Great, great listen.
He had a quote that I immediately wrote down because
it's so right. Business is a war without bullets. I
would imagine many of you listening are in countless different industries,
and if you and I were sitting there with beers,
whether you're in the food business, whether you're in football,
(15:40):
whether you're in tech, whatever you're in, we're just bullshit.
And you would tell me horror stories about how cutthroat
your businesses and the competition, because at the end of
the day, every business wants to wipe out their competition.
Now they may not say it, they may not tweet it.
I mean, if you like fall Facebook, you know Zuckerberg
like for the people. This is about the community. He's
(16:03):
been wiping people out since he since they really hit
it big. Just then, I see in Silicon Valley all
the time talk a big game. But the business, the
model is to try to gain all the market share
as much as you they'll the government will legally allow
you to make. And I just time's changed so fast now.
I you know, I talked about trading stocks and screwing around,
(16:25):
and I got rid of some of my Square stock
as the pandemic hit. And what square is and I've
been a lot of you guys know what it is.
It's just like the portable thing you put your credit
card in when you go to like a small business. Hell,
even some bigger businesses have them. But my rationale was, well,
during the pandemic, all these businesses are closed. This this
(16:48):
this stock is gonna tank. I was wrong. It actually
has gone up a lot. And on the day I'm
recording this up, it went up like a lot. And
I'm kicking myself because I'm reading, Oh, they also have
the cash app. And someone last week told me about this.
You know this girl who runs this business, and she's like, uh,
She's like, you know, actually I got a Venmo credit card.
(17:11):
And you realize that like cash app and Venmo are
starting to operate like a bank, and so of course
square Yeah in theory there they've lost revenue with the
percentage they were making on the small businesses, but they've
made so much money on the way people trade and
pay people through the cash app, which they owned. They
were like, it's no different like Venmo, and I'm just
(17:32):
kicking myself, and my god, I should have been more
forward thinking because I'll never forget. When I flew home
from Hawaii, the biggest film in America, The Irishman, essentially
went straight to Netflix. I pressed a button. Ten minutes
later it was on my iPad and I watched on
the flight home. My god, if I could have told
ten years ago John Middlecoff that you'd be able to
do this, that you know, movie theaters would be essentially dead,
(17:54):
I wouldn't have believed you. But times change, because forever
my entire life. Born in eighty four Michael Jordan's rookie
Yere by the time I came to my own as
a sports fan, there were two things that really made
the I mean, well, baseball was huge. I mean, I
would say baseball was as big as any sport when
I was growing up up until the strike. kN Griffe Jr.
(18:16):
Barry Bonds, Cal Ripken, Roger Klemens, you name it. The
big baseball players were every bit as famous as you
know what Tom Brady or James Harden and Lebron James,
I mean, they were, they were rock stars. Changed after
never was quite the same, and you could argue the
NBA hasn't been quite the same since Jordan's but they
(18:37):
were still really really relevant with Kobe and Shack and
then again with Coe the late Kobe, and you know
a large percentage of Lebron. But the last five or
six years, they've fallen off a cliff and they're they're
taking on. I mean, they're like the Titanic right now,
literally because they leak all their plans to reporters and
then whenever Adam Silver has asked about it, he refused
(18:58):
to say anything. You know why, because he's scared. He's
terrified of this quote unquote backlash, which I was thinking
about the other day, Like, imagine if you ran a
business and are terrified of quote unquote backlash, what does
that mean? Now? I think we're all terrified of like
losing consumers, we're going out of business. But what does
just backlash mean? If it doesn't cost you any money?
Who gives a ship? Why does it? Why does that
(19:18):
even matter? It doesn't in the NFL isn't scared of backlash.
But they also see that they're like a Great White shark,
and the NBA right now is like a seal that's
leaking a little blood, and the Great White sharks hungry
for dinner because they put a game on Christmas this year,
Christmas doesn't fall on a Saturday or Sunday, falls on
a Friday. Well, the NBA forever has owned Christmas when
(19:42):
I think Christmas, I think Jordan's, I think Kobe, I
think Shack. I think Kobe again, I think some of
those Celtics teams, Lebron, Steph Curry. The NFL goes, you
know what, because this year their ratings on Christmas weren't
even very good. There. The NBA ratings this year were
a herocious awful. I'm being terrible. The NFL ratings are massive,
(20:06):
and I think Roger Goodell realized, why don't we take
some of that real estate, Why why don't we stake
our claim there and take that kind of over and
then yeah, for the next several years, it kind of
lines up in our favor. Friday this year, Saturday next year,
Sunday next year, and then Monday the following year. So
like in a in a four year stretch, you know,
(20:26):
just pushes back one year. Why not in like four
or five years, why don't we just keep motioning to
Tuesday Wednesday. Why don't we just compete with him and
set up a bye some way, because it won't be
any competing. We will dominate because the NFL's competition is
not the NBA anymore. They've lacked the NBA. You could
argue the NBA if they don't play this pandemic right,
(20:47):
and they're gonna be last to come back. Clearly, Baseball
is coming back, UFC is fighting this weekend, Golf's coming back,
help Phil Tiger, Payton Manning, Tom bradyer plan, everything's coming back.
The NBA is gonna be last. That they might actually
be going through with this pandemic their version of the
ninety four strike, because the fans have already been tapping
out anyway, and now if they just take the rest
(21:08):
of the year off or don't come back, or come
out back in a weird way, and then who knows
it could it could really hurt the brand. Maybe the
NFL is thinking we can step on their throat because
who's owned the conversation for the last during the pandemic. Now,
part of it was just they were set up. The
NFL has owned the entire conversation. Now, you could argue
(21:29):
during free agency in the draft they would anyway, But
because the NBA hasn't done anything or even attempted to
do anything, the NFL has just talked about. I mean,
this is a football show, but every time you turn
on television, every show or most podcasts talking football because
there's a lot of football stories going on. Because the
football despite having to kind of you know, work around
(21:50):
the pandemic while their season wasn't going on, they still
had to you know, shut down buildings, do everything. They
just kept adapting. And the the NBA can't figure it out.
They cannot adapt. And their quote unquote the most progressive
league yet, the NFL that if you just watch the
media's takes over the last decade, losers Goodell's incompetent, just greedy.
(22:12):
The irony is the NBA was in bed with China
in the moment it got a little weird. They refused
to say anything bad about him. It's like every business
is quote unquote greedy. Greed is what pays the bills,
you know. I mean that there's not a more overused
word in pro sports than greed. Their expenses in all
these pro leagues are insanely high. No workforce in world
(22:35):
history costs as much as professional sports, right, the amount
of money you pay players, So you have to be greedy.
It literally pays for things. Think about like the teams
in baseball that aren't quote unquote greedy and don't do
everything possible to make money but just make money for themselves,
like the Oakland A's. I take all that moronic, it's
just poor business. Luckily, Billy Bean is a dynamic general
(22:57):
manager and talent evaluator. The he can keep them above
you know, their head above water and actually win while
their owner just pockets all the profits. But the NFL,
I just think SE's opportunity and this could be a moment.
I'm not trying to overreact and say it's gonna change forever,
but who knows. I mean, once upon a time when
(23:18):
I was growing up, you wanted to get a movie,
you had to go to Blockbuster. Then all of a sudden,
Blockbuster was dead and you got your DVDs delivered to you.
And then several years later, I downloaded an app, press
a button and watched the number one movie in America
on my flight home. So the NBA owned Christmas for
thirty four years of my life. When I thought Christmas
(23:40):
and sports, I thought National Basketball Association. Who's to say
my unborn child will will think that. Who knows, maybe
in fifteen years. I'm playing on having a kid anytime soon,
but you never know, and Uh, all of a sudden,
he's like the NFL is Christmas. That's just how just
aiety has never changed fast as fast as it does now.
(24:03):
And like Phil Knight says, business, these big especially big business,
they are so aggressive and they will do anything to
get them an extra percentage point. Because once you get
to that level, like if if you're you know, doing
six figures in revenue or whatever, every percentage isn't that huge.
(24:23):
It gets bigger. Like if you go from five hundred
thousand dollars to a million dollars than a million to
two million, But once you get to like a hundred million,
there's a big difference between a hundred and a hundred
fifty million dollars or a billion and two billion. You know,
it's money is all relevant relative, right, And I think
they see kind of a sinking ship, you know Lebron's career. Well,
(24:46):
he's actually still going strong. He looks fantastic. But I
do think humans are somewhat numb to Lebron. I mean,
we've heard his name for so long. He just we
know everything about him. We know all those kids. There's
nothing to learn, Like there was a lot of mystery
with Michael jo. I'm watching this, I'm about die hard.
Michael Jordan Fan. I don't know that much about him.
I think Tiger Woods is kind of like that. Like,
I don't know that much about Tiger Woods. I mean,
(25:07):
I've learned it as years ago, but I know everything,
and to know about Lebron, you know it all he's
told me at all, So all of shows, I don't.
I do I know that much about Tom Brady or
even Peyton Manning. Not really Like the NFL does a
pretty good job of balancing this kind of mysterious act.
I've said it all the time. I'm not there. They
have a built in advantage with society that when you
(25:29):
get the amount of games that baseball and basketball have,
we don't need to pay attention is much and we
have more options to entertain us. We're football. It's just
once a week. So whoever your team is, we all
if you're just used to Sunday just kind of chilling.
It's built in and now with fantasy football, with gambling,
can keep you engaged even if you don't care about
the teams. But don't be shocked in ten years if
(25:52):
when when I say Christmas Day and associated with sports,
you think football not basketball. Okay, I'm gonna dive into
a couple of stories that I'll be completely honest, mid pandemic,
you never know exactly what you're gonna get. But I
didn't expect either one of these two. And it reminds
me of this when I was my freshman. I graduated
(26:14):
high school in two thousand three, so in the fall
of two thousand three, I was in college and I'm
pretty sure I am sure. I don't know if it
was the first season. It might have been of the
show playmakers remember on ESPN that had dudes just doing
everything under the sun. It was crazy. It was NFL,
but it was based on like from Free Basing, drugs,
(26:35):
the sex too. Just it was awesome. I mean it
was everything I like in a television show, had sports,
had violence, had drugs, had nudity. It was great. I mean,
it's it's what moves the needle for a young consumer.
But the NFL, because they were in partnership with ESPN,
like Goodell wouldn't even have been the commissioner then, I
(26:56):
guess it would have been Tagliaboo caused a huge stink
because it portrayed the NFL in a bad light, right
because it was pretty nuts. Though several years later, now
they're not a partner, but HBO with the rock and
UH and his show is kind of the same thing.
But I you could argue playmakers probably just as bad,
if not worse. The reality is, over the last fifteen years,
(27:17):
we've literally experienced everything and over the twenty year plus
period of the NFL for murder, UH two, suicide, to
domestic violence, to drugs, to drug trafficking, to fraud, UH
to cheating. There's literally not a story that a movie
has been made about that the NFL in some weird
(27:40):
way hasn't been interconnected. Or it could just say, yeah,
we we had a coach, a coach do blow, we
had a player go get drugs, we had a player
shoot someone else, we had a player you know, do
this and that. It's it's all happened everything under the
sun in the last twenty years. There's probably not an
incident that you can't find. And I'm not I'm not
(28:01):
And don't get me wrong, the majority, the heavy majority,
most guys in the NFL are really really high level.
The percentage of these guys doing crazy stuff is small
that are definitely getting in trouble. Now, there might be
a percentage that aren't getting in trouble that are pushing
the envelope. But welcome to society. Well, I got two
stories for you. I'm gonna start with Earl Thomas. Earl
(28:23):
Thomas got into an argument with his wife earlier this month,
I guess it was actually in April, and left with
his brother Seth. His wife who actually was his high
school sweetheart. You snapchat and was somehow I don't even
know how this works. Now, I've always been actually a
believer in Snapchat. My younger brother when he sends me
(28:43):
pictures like of his newborn baby, of him, you know,
playing golf, of whatever he's doing, he sends him via Snapchat.
And all of his friends utilized Snapchat. And I never
pulled the trigger to buy the stock. But I'm telling you,
Snapchat the youth, they love it. Clearly Thomas and his
wife do too, because she was able to like hack
into a Snapchat find out where he was. And when
(29:04):
she got there, Earl Thomas was having an orgy with
his brother and several women. And he also owns a
nine millimeter which she had had in her hands. Now
she was gonna try to scare him, so she took
out the clip but clearly doesn't have much experience with
a gun, knowing there's also one in the chamber and
(29:24):
they're they're all naked. It sure sounds like I'm sure
in the next couple of weeks, if not sooner, the
video will come out on t MZ and it'll look
like a scene in Playmakers. And she puts the gun
to his head. Now, I don't think he knew whether
it was loaded or not. I would guess he just
assumed it was. I mean, your first reaction we see
someone pointing a gun at You've never had a gun
(29:46):
pointed at me, at least a you know, an actual gun.
I mean, I've had paintball guns and BB guns point
at You always assume it's loaded. That's why you always
turn Uh. Now, he I guess fought it off again
having an orgy with his brother. Imagine a lot of
commotion when she comes storming in with a couple of
her friends. Again, you can't make this up, even though
(30:06):
Playmakers kind of did over the years. And uh, he's
lucky didn't die. So, I mean, for as funny as
the story is, there was a bullet in there. If
she pulled it, it would have been one of the
great NFL tragedies like it would have been. I can't
even imagine what that. You know, you guy as a
Hall of Fame player has head blown off by his wife. Uh, now,
you could argue, shouldn't be cheating on your wife. That's
(30:26):
their own issues. I just know the heard enough stories,
the young, the elites, the rich. They don't live like
you and I so like I make when I say
the word orgy, it's kind of funny, but like I
think it's probably normal vernacular for some people. NFL Hollywood.
They we we don't relate us us peons a normal society,
(30:48):
but we do. Like you piss off a wife or
your husband or whatever, like you never know, now you
put a gun. You know. I'm not a lawyer. I'm
pretty sure even if Earl doesn't press charges, it's out
of his hands like a tempted murder, right, or at
least I don't know the exact term. But she's gonna
get in trouble. I think it'll be hard for her
to avoid jail time. But what a crazy story Only
(31:10):
in the NFL could you have? You know, a borderline
future Hall of Fame player having an orgy with his
brother having his wife storm into the house he's at
some other house or hotel or wherever, and with her
friends kick the door open, find them all naked, point
a gun at him, have an altercation where he fights
off the weapon, and then the police come and arrest heurant.
(31:31):
I mean, yeah, I if I made that up about
a player, you would be like, middle cooff, are you
on drugs? Put down the tequila and this this really happens.
It's just it's we can laugh at it because no
one got injured. But it's just like when you're kind
of reading it, your jaws hitting the floor. When I'm
reading this TMZ article, I'm like this, this ship is nuts.
(31:52):
This is this is crazy. I mean, this is you
can't make this up. The Brett Farve story. We've seen
this song and dance before. A lot of rich people
have defrauded other people. Uh. The story is that Brett
Farve in Mississippi has this thing called Farve Enterprises, which
I would imagine a lot of you know, former athletes,
(32:14):
famous people in Hollywood whatever that use their individual quote
unquote likeness as their money making you know, uh vehicle
just far of enterprises, Lebron Enterprises, Curry whatever, right, Tom
TV twelve, it's all you know, it's all the same ship,
just different pile. But here's what Brett Farve, here's the
problem with Brett Farve did. And I gotta I got
(32:37):
a big red flag on this Brett Farve. I guess
give speeches and to get Brett Farve to speak, it's
clearly not cheap because he got paid for two separate speeches,
won five hundred thousand dollars and one six thousand dollars. Now,
I've read some articles which I'm sure many of you
have stumbled upon, like I don't think you quite understand,
and I definitely didn't until you read an article like damn,
(32:58):
they paid that guy to speak? They pay him? How
much they pay? Who? I get like paying a former president.
But you see some of these stories about former athletes
that get paid just paid appearances. You can rack up
some cash. Brett Farve in his hometown, Mississippi or his
home state in Mississippi. I don't know if it's actually
Hattiesburger wherever he grew up, but charge this, you know, uh,
(33:22):
Mississippi some sort of entity multiple times and got paid
one point one million dollars. Well, here's a kicker. He
didn't actually give a speech either, time got free money. Now,
I've seen enough true crime shows. I've known enough people
that have done some shady stuff, or at least family friends,
not actually my friends. We haven't made enough money yet.
(33:43):
But this is either two things. Either Brett is full
on defrauding these people and he was actively doing this,
or he had an employee go rogue, which also I
could see be very possible. Do I envision Brett Farve
the books at far of enterprises? No? I do not.
Do I envision Brett Farve uh scheduling the speaking engagements
(34:08):
at five enterprises, No I do not. Would it probably
be a pretty easy place to go rogue, just like
a lot of famous athletes, charities. We we've seen these
stories over the years where it's easy for a family member,
a trusted associate to take advantage of the situation. But
here's where I kind of wonder, because Brett Farve immediately
(34:29):
immediately like to me, if we were defrauding someone and
I was not involved, I would go, WHOA pump the
brakes here. I would say, let's just stop everything. I
would not move any money, I would not pay anyone back.
I would just start asking questions. Well, five Enterprise immediately
paid five thousand dollars of the one point one million
dollars back to me. That's the classic, like nothing to
(34:52):
see here, just giving the money back. So I would
lean again educated guests that Far of Mine had known something.
Now I'm a big Brett Farve guy. He's one of
my favorite athletes of all time. I got to meet
him months once when I worked in Philly. He was
up seeing Marty and Andy. I was I've met some
famous people over my life. I don't remember kind of
my heart beating, kind of getting shell shocked. Now I
(35:13):
wasn't my mid twenties or whatever, but it was still
it was still pretty cool getting to meet Brett Farr
walking right by him in the hallway. So I hope
this isn't true, and I hope that he had an
employee that went rogue. But any time that you immediately
pay someone back after you get caught and just go, oh,
nothing nothing to see here, we're just paying back. My
bad are bad. We'll figure this out. I don't know.
(35:35):
I'm gonna lean that he might have known a little something,
because clearly Far of Enterprises was defrauding people and you
just now do I think Brett Farve's gonna go to
jail or anything? Of course not uh, no chance. Definitely
not missed it either, but it shows you. You know,
what's the famous saying that don't don't meet your heroes.
(35:56):
This would be sad if Farv was really behind this
for just a little point one million dollar kicker to
do nothing. Okay, let's dive into the Middlecoff mail bag.
But before we dive in, I gotta remind everybody. If
you guys like the show, go to the Apple iTunes
three and out podcast and leave a review. You can
leave a review on the Apple iTunes podcast. I don't
(36:17):
know a lot of people have trying to get to
four figures. I think last time I checked, it was
like reviews, like to get to a thousand and then
then we'll shoot for more. But appreciate everyone that's been
doing that and keep doing that at John Middlecoff is
my Instagram handle, same as my Twitter handle. That's my
name full name. Actually my full name is John David Middlecoff,
(36:38):
but my Twitter and my Instagram go by John Middlecoff.
Two f's unlike this, uh in the when you work
in the NFL, and you like win a division, or
you win the NFC or a f C. You get
like a ball. You know, it says like NFC East Champs,
and then it says your name and it's like the
score of the game that you won the division the
game on they spelled my name wrong. But you know,
(36:59):
builds care after. Uh but I got that. I got
that in my in my office right now. Agile mental
coop Instagram. Hit me with your questions. I'm gonna need
a bunch because I don't think I have that many left. Hey, John,
I listen to a ton of sports talk radio and
I've been putting you on my rotation lately. Keep getting better.
You haven't peaked yet. Appreciate it. Here's my question, what
is the long term future for the Big Twelve? Sub questions?
(37:23):
Can Texas survive as an independent like Notre Dame. What's
your opinion of the Longhorn Network? Can the remaining Big
Twelve survived without Texas and Oklahoma. I'll start at the
end and work backwards. The first answer to be, no, Texas,
Oklahoma carry it. I don't watch the Longhorn Network. I
think Texas should stay in the Big Twelve, you have
(37:43):
built in rivalries right there. It works. Texas playing Oklahoma
State playing obviously Oklahoma, it's one of the best games
of the year. Texas Tech feels like a big game, Uh,
Iowa State, there's no reason to leave. I think the
problem with the Big Twelve right now is they have
one legit powerhouse in Oklahoma, and even Oklahoma is somewhat
(38:05):
flawed because you have to build this spread defense to
play all the spread offenses. And then, as we've seen
the last several years, when they get into the playoffs,
it's hard for them to hang with Georgia, Clemson, Bama, whatever,
And they have unreal offenses. And I think Lincoln is
fair to say is a stud But to me, for
the Big Twelve to be legit, they need Texas to
(38:28):
be good with Oklahoma and then to have just some
you know, some of the extra teams just be eight
nine wins, whether it's Texas Tech, whether it's Iowa State,
whether it's Kansas State. Teams Oklahoma State and just be
kind of nationally in the top twenty. But you need
Oklahoma and Texas to be your lead dogs competing to
make the playoffs. And right now it's Oklahoma or bust
(38:50):
Tom Herman. It's just kind of been a disaster. You
know that they haven't sniffed being what they were under
mac in the mid two thousand's just to our house
producing NFL players and ranked in the top ten. Anytime
they've been ranked in the top ten recently, it's been fake.
It's been fraudulent. They're quickly out of it. They need
(39:11):
to I don't know. I don't know. I don't have
the answer, but it's clearer. They get enough recruits coming
out of Texas. The brand's big enough where you can
go just in that general area in the Midwest. You
can see a couple of kids out of California. Austin
is a cool city. It has history, You've won a
national championship. You've got a lot of guys over the
years in the NFL, not recently, like think about how
(39:32):
much cooler it is to be at Oklahoma alone. How
many more guys in the last five years are in
the NFL from Oklahoma in Texas. So it's one thing
to go. I remember Vince Young, No, actually I don't.
I'm eighteen years old. It's two thousand twenty, So in
two thousand five. I was what three you do the math?
I mean, what's you would be born in two thousand
(39:53):
two right now? I don't remember Finch young, remember Ricky Williams. No,
I wasn't alive some of the cool players that I
grew up on, like Roy Williams. Um trying to think
of just some of the Jamal Charles, no one remembers
these guys think of think of like, oh you watch Oklahoma?
Oh yeah, Joe Mixon, uh ceedee, Lamb Sterling Shepherd, all
(40:15):
the offensive Lineman, Kenneth Murray, Baker, Mayfield, Kyler Murray, right,
Jalen Hurts, Lincoln Riley, Bob Stoops just feels way sweeter,
producing way more. NFL played Mark Andrews Oh I love
Lamar Jack's I wrote to him on Madden all the time.
Who are you doing that with Texas? That's a that's
a problem. Hell, you could argue Texas Tech is more
(40:36):
relevant right now in the NFL because I got my
homes and even Baker played there for split second, and
Cliff Kingsbury's an NFL coach with Dallas signing Dalton. I'm
hearing mix takes some say no trouble for Dak Others
say it takes pressures off the Cowboys to make a
deal and happen with Dak. Am I rohnd to hope
for an open competition between Dak and Dalton. There's Zach
deserve to show up and be the quarterback one with
(40:58):
a new coach and show up, show us his worth.
Well if Dak is there, whether it's on the franchise
tag or whether it's on a new contract. And I
trying to think, Oh I saw schefter during like ESPN
schedule release show. Say one point of contention right now
is the Cowboys want to sign him to a long
(41:19):
term deal, like five years. And I guess Kirk Cousins
had talked to Dak Prescott. It's like, Kirk, why are
you talking to anybody like you're not You're not good
enough to be given advice to people. But he told
Dak Prescott used this at the the franchise tag, it
to your advantage. And Dak Prescott wants to sign a
shorter term deal three or four years. We'll find the Cowboys.
(41:43):
I'm not signing you unless I own your rights for
a long period of time. Irony is I don't love
doing that for Dak Prescott. I actually wouldn't mind going
short term. Clearly, I think Dak Prescott is trying to
go Kirk Cousins, Like, Dak, you're overthinking this. You can
win games with Dallas. You could help their team to
be good enough the next couple of years, maybe win
a Super Bowl. Be a legend. All Cousins are gonna
(42:04):
be know for is having made a ton of money.
No one will ever go, you know what, Kirk Cousins
was pretty good at football, though he's not bad. But
no one is gonna talk like that. No one's gonna
think like that. People are gonna be like, yeah, that
overpaid guy, the guy that I got, that guy, the
guy that made three hundred million dollars and then to
make that much. But you know what I'm saying, he made.
I think how much money Kirk Cousins made. He got
(42:25):
franchise twice. I think what that number add up to,
Like forty seven million. The Vikings gave him eighty five
million purely guaranteed, So we're already at like a hundred
and thirty million. The Vikings just gave him another sixty million.
I mean, Kirk Cousins already like a hundred and ninety
million dollars won one playoff game. There is no player
that's in the upper echelon a quarterbacks like top fifteen
(42:48):
that I would feel less confident in in a big
game than that guy. He's made a hundred and ninety
million dollars, give or take in the next couple of years.
That's insanity. Like there's a Allen stack. You're gonna be
worth easily that much. If you just play it right
here and win big with the Dallas Cowboys, you'll be
(43:09):
a legend. You will be a legend. Kirk Cousins will
not be a legend. He'll be rich. But that's the
guy that everyone said, oh yeah, guy's kind of average.
Uh hey, John, after taking Chase Young, that Redskins defense
is looking very underrated. Is it just me? Or or
is the five game over under an easy over? Well,
(43:30):
the defense should be good and Jack and Ron defensive guys.
They'll be physical upfront. Their front seven is good. I
just wonder about the offense, you know, I mean, I
think Dwayne Haskins was was really shitty last year. Kyle
Allen's actually okay, But you know what do they have?
They got Darius guys to bring back Adrian Peterson. You
(43:50):
don't have Trent Williams, but you didn't have them last
year either. You have the young kid Terry McLaren am
I saying his name right, the rookiett Ohio State, Like
they actually could be good and be five and eleven,
be like much improved. But yeah, I mean, if I
was gonna bet an over under on the Redskins, I'd
probably take the over just and that's probably just Ron Rivera.
(44:11):
Ron Rivera is a good coach. I just the quarterback play.
I think there's a lot of unknown I don't think
the Redskins, no, but defensively they could be good. The division,
you know, the Giants are gonna be better, The Eagles
should be better, and the Cowboys should be better. So
the division actually, which was bad last year, should be
much improved. Love the show. What are your thoughts on
(44:32):
Justin Herbert? Do you think he will be successful in
the league in the charge of franchise quarterback? Does he
start this season or red shirt in two you know,
in two thousand twenty. I don't think you're red shirt
players unless you're like Jordan's love situation. But if I
draft a guy in the top ten. I'm drafting him
to play him, and I get Jordan's love is not
(44:53):
like Burrow or Twa in terms of being this finished
product can like red defenses and pick you apart. Let
him learn on the job. Your team is so talented enough,
you know, I think a good A good uh. Kind
of comparison is when Roethlisberger took over, the team had
so many premium players. And that's what this team has, right.
They had Kenneth Murray to go with Derwin James, to
go with Bosta, to go with Ingram, to go with Hayward.
(45:15):
They have a good secondary. They got Gus Bradley. Offensively,
they got Eckler, they got Mike Williams, I got Hunter Henry,
they at Keenan Allen. Just you know, I'm a big believer.
Is you know, once a kid gets to a certain age,
throw him in the deep end, let him swim a
little bit. Now stand right there and don't let him drowned,
but put him in position to swim. You know you've
taught him. He's put some floaties on, he's gonna have
(45:37):
the opposite. Maybe don't even need to start a week one.
But I'm not writing Tyrod Taylor out long. You know
this is the the NFL has changed. This guy's a
four year starter. Four year starter. It would be one
thing right if he was. You know, he's just one
year starter into at Oregon, kind of like a Mr
BIS because he's been starting for four years. Four I
(45:57):
I gotta play Herbert. I think he has a chance
to be a really good player, and I think worst case,
he's just kind of like what Josh Allen has been
the last couple of years, kind of hit or miss.
But his talent so immense, and their talent on the
team is good. Now. One issue I have is I
don't love the head coach. I don't think that highly
of Anthony Lant. I think he's pretty average. But they're
(46:17):
they're defensing. I think I think highly if Gus Bradley
is a defensive coordinator, and I think highly of their personnel.
So anytime you can put a young quarterback on a
team that has good personnel, you have a chance to succeed.
If I put any young individual in any job, and
I put you in a job with it has no
clue what they're going and bad you know employees around you,
(46:39):
the thing's gonna suck. Right. If I take some young
producer and I throw him on Coward Show, he's got
a shot. If I take some young producer and throw
him on some dude YouTube channel that's has one follower,
it's probably not gonna be any good. So if I
take this young guy that actually does have some talent
and I put him around a bunch of outon people,
(47:00):
I think he's got a shot to be a pretty
good player. Chris Ballard hit the motherload with Nelson and Leonard,
but his first draft doesn't look so good these days. Hooker, Wilson,
Bosham and Banner three are gone and one has a
foot out the door. Are these players not living up
to expectations of function of Ballard just missing on players?
Or does going from Chuck Pangana's three four defense to
(47:21):
uber Fluss Tampa to requires so much of a different
skill set that players drafted for the old coaching staff
would have a hard time translating. Well, I'll be honestly,
I'd have to text around and get more of an
in depth scouting your port on Mully Cooker, because I
like Mulle Cooker when he was young and then he
got injured and he clearly hasn't been the same Banner
(47:43):
the tackle from USC I was never a big fan
of I. I don't like unathletic tackles that don't move
very well. It's just a bad fit. The other two guys,
I can't pretend to have that good of a feel on.
I just think the first time you ever draft, and
anytime you go through a draft when you have have
I mean, let's be real, a coach that was gonna
(48:04):
get fired at the end of the season, you're kind
of wasting a year. I always like just pulling the
trigger firing a guy and starting and just get going.
Now they didn't, and I think he's made up for it.
I think he's proven. You see it again in this draft.
You get Deforce Buckner, you get Jonathan Taylor, you get
Michael Pittman, you land Philip Rivers. Like they're just a
high level organization. I believe in Chris Ballard great John
(48:26):
Snyder has just some terrible draft picks. Awful you know,
look at John Lynchen cow Shanahan, who went thirteen and
three and dominated the NFC last year, drafted Solomon Thomas
the third overall. It happens how he's missed on some guys.
Coach reads missed on some guys, Sean Payton's missed on guy.
It happens. It's hard, it's hard. But I'm a huge
(48:49):
Chris Ballard guy, as anyone that listens to the show knows,
just because And I'm not like I know him like Coward,
just knowing him through my friends in the league, like
I know Naggie and Veach and Andy. Those guys love him.
Just watch the way he operates. Think about Chris Ballard
takes over. Think of what happened has what what has
happened to Chris Ballard in his tenure. Uh, he gets there,
(49:12):
he's got a fire coach. Then he hires Josh McDaniels
and he's left at the altar, and then he has
to scramble. He gets Frank Andrew Luck retires on him,
just quits. No one sees it coming now, I mean
they they had no clue. He just quits. It's over.
And they've done a pretty good job pivoting every time
and not being an embarrassment. I think Chris is a really,
(49:33):
really impressive guy. And at the end of the day,
you're gonna miss I mean, you're gonna miss on. You
know of your first round picks, let alone. As the
draft goes on, it only gets more difficult. So if
I was a Colts fan, I would feel good about it.
I wouldn't even worry about that first draft and just go.
We got a team this year that can win ten
games and in the a f C. If we can
(49:54):
just avoid Kansas City until the a f C Championship game,
just take our chances, we're gonna be pretty good. Now.
The big question, and I and I don't know the
answer to this is Philip Rivers. Like the Philip Rivers
I saw last year, and being on the West Coast,
I just watch a lot of Rivers games against the Raiders,
against the Broncos. I thought he was bad. And I
love Philip Rivers. I think Philip Rivers gonna be a
(50:15):
star and television one day if he so chooses to.
But his physical ability last year felt to me like
he fell off a cliff. He's never been able to move,
but his arms, it was just bad. Maybe it was
just an outlier season. Maybe he knew he was leaving
the Chargers weird spot, but he he did some things
last year that was like, what the hell is going on?
So I listen, I'm rooting for Rivers. I hope he's
(50:37):
still good, but there is a chance he's bad. Now
you have, you have a backup like Jacobe if he's healthy,
can win you some games Easton could not. I just
watched the Niners versus the Bucks from Week one last season. God,
the NFL geek here passing the time in lockdown, and
it's hard to believe the team ended up in the
super Bowl. They looked horrible. The amount they improved was unreal,
(51:00):
very very belichick in. You know, whenever you look at
this the week one games, I I don't think they
mean much at all. You know, when you look at
week one and you look back like week nine or ten,
you see a lot of teams that are two and
eight in week ten that look good in week one,
and you see a lot of super Bowl level teams
(51:21):
that look completely different. I put no stock into week
one besides you win or you to lose. Especially this season,
you're gonna be coming off a who knows how long
training camp is gonna be. There's gonna be no offseason.
Um I I I personally and I try to do this.
In college is a little different because you've got to
(51:41):
kind of win Week one. You can throw off your
playoff chances in the NFL. You could lay an egg
as long as you win. Whatever. I think in that
game Jamis, I think he threw two picks and one
was a pick six. So yeah, they benefited from Jamis,
that's for sure. I've been listening to your podcast ever
since I heard about you through Colin Show and learned
(52:01):
you were at cal POLYI alumni. I'm about to graduate,
cow Polly. During the shelter in place with my BSA
mechanical engineering I see you go Mustangs. I was wondering
what opportunities exist for engineers in the NFL and surrounding media.
It would be awesome to combine two things I love well.
First and foremost, you are way smarter than me, because
(52:23):
not in a trillion years could I have gotten a
cal polity with an engineering degree, And even if they
would have allowed me in, I would have lasted about
one class. So for those who don't know cow Polly,
we kind of consider ourselves Harvard to the West Coast,
and the engineering school is big time s where the
smart kids go. So Alex, you're smart. I I don't
know what the combination of engineering or mechanical engineering and
(52:48):
UH in the NFL. But I'll say this, what your
major is in college, if you do want to get
into sports, you might have to leave the mechanical engineering
element of it, at least originally. And clearly you're a
really intelligent guy. You could figure it out. Now. What
I'd recommend is I would go mechanical engineering and just
(53:08):
crush it and make a ton of cash and just
and just dominate the world and UH, you know, be
able to watch football on Saturdays and Sundays and chill.
But that's just me. But I I don't necessarily know
the connection of mechanical engineering and UH and football or
just sports in general. But you're you're talking to a
guy that's not smart enough to I wouldn't have lasted
(53:29):
with you. See, I appreciate what you've been doing to
help us get through quarantine. Question from your position, what
will it take for the Jaguars to become a respected
organization like you? I've gotten a lot less of a
fanatic I've become and just more of a lover of
the sport itself, the business, the game. Of course, I
(53:51):
want to see the Jacks win one day, I mean,
that's why we play and why we're close to a
few years back. But truthfully, I'd rather see them involved
into an organization. The Ravens that by Kings, the Niners,
the Eagles teams they may not win the Super Bowl
every year, but they're always in the conversation, exude excellence
from the top down. Regarding your experience with the Eagles,
what do you think what starts with the owner? With Philly? Uh?
(54:12):
And you know, in fairness, like I wouldn't quite put
the Niners there yet. They had one good season though.
I think Lynch and Shannan are really good. I think
like the Eagles, the Patch, the Steelers, and it all
starts with the owner, and it starts with the consistency
of top and there's just a consistent vision within the organization.
I think the problem for the Jags is they got
this new owner, shot Con. They're trying to be like innovative,
(54:34):
but they don't really know what they're doing, and then
they don't understand what's going on, and they always missing
on these draft picks, and when they do hit on
the draft picks, the players end up not liking the place.
Just kind of a bizarre place. And maybe there's an
element of it. As a football player, you feel like
you're kind of irrelevant in Jacksonville. That's why a lot
of guys kind of forced their way out or get unhappy.
I'm just I don't know. I'm just throwing this kind
(54:55):
of out of my ass and I'm not quite sure.
But I also think if you win in foot all
people like it and you become a star. Right, It's
kind of like the NBA, like Russell Westbrook and Kevin
Durant became superstars in Oklahoma City, Like you could become
a star in Jacksonville. You know, if if Leonard Fournette
had been Christian McCaffrey, he would be a really big deal.
Jalen Ramsey became a star right uh Yannick and dock Ways,
(55:18):
he's maybe a little under the radar, but he's a
pretty big deal. Players over, you can become a big
deal there. Just look at like Carolina. Uh now, Carolina,
the market size is bigger. But you get to my drift.
I think they just need to get a good coach,
and they need to get a good general manager, and
they just need to let it play out. Right now,
they've Dave Caldwell has been there forever. They draft in
the top ten every year, so I would say he's
(55:41):
not the guy. I would say Doug Moron not the
guy either. So can you just fire everyone at the
end of the season and get a good general manager
and a good head coach in there. That that would
be what I would attempt to do and be my
goal if I were them, because right now they're they're
constantly turning over coaches. Tom Coflin and they fired Tom Coughlin.
It's just it's kind of feel like a rudderless ship.
(56:02):
The Steelers never feel like that. The Eagles. The Eagles
have one weird year. Chip Kelly's acting weird. Jeffrey Leary's
like packers ship up and get out of here. You
get it, You're not welcome here anymore. And they haven't
looked back since. Two years later and win Super Bowl.
The Chiefs, it's like, God, Scott Pioli's leaving Snickers bars
and in the uh, you know, in the staircase, get
out of here. Hire Andy Reid never looked back. Pete Carroll,
(56:25):
John Schneider Boom kicking everyone's ass. You know. The Steelers
and Rooneys, they just keep the same coaches and and
are just consistent every year. I think you just gotta
attempt to be consistent. It just starts at the top owner,
head coach. You could argue the head coach is more
important the quarterback, because if you've got a good head coach,
you'll find a quarterback. You know, we all would love
to have Tom Brady Aaron Rodgers, but both those got
(56:47):
one guy went twenty four, the other guy went on right.
So like, look at the top quarterbacks in the league,
just go west to east. Russell Wilson third round pick,
Jimmy Garoppolos second round pick, Dak Prescott fourth round pick.
You can find really good players, you know, the say
what you want about Cousins. The Vikings won a playoff
(57:07):
game last year. He's a fourth round pick. Now, he
costs a lot of money. But you guys might drift,
so you don't always need to be draft the number
one overall to get your quarterback garnerment. You might turn
out to just be like a top fifteen, top twenty quarterback.
You can win with him if you have a good organization.
I don't mean win big, but you could win eight
nine games. It feels like they're their leadership is always
just out of it. Appreciate everyone listening. Damn, this thing
(57:30):
already went an hour. Basically, Uh, enjoy the weekend. Hope
I entertained you, and uh keep I guess quarantine at
hell some of where some of you guys living. You know,
we're reopening the economy. You guys might be out and
about this weekend. Uh, happy Mother's Day. Tell your mom.
I say hello, and uh, I don't know or anything,
but I'm just trying to be friendly. I didn't mean
(57:50):
that in a in a weird way. And um, yeah,
thanks for listening again. Leave those reviews Apple iTunes, leave
the review and
Host
John Middlekauff
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