February 26, 2021 • 60 mins
In this episode, John discusses the fallout from Russell Wilson's emerging power struggle with Pete Carroll over the direction of the franchise, why the price for the NFL TV deal is going to keep getting crazier as Amazon enters the picture, and why the NFLPA should pony up for better representation. John also offers some somber thoughts on how much Tiger Woods has impacted his life as a sports fan, and looks at the latest on the JJ Watt watch and other top headlines from around the league. Follow John on Twitter and SUBSCRIBE now to get all the latest content!!
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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,
February Rock and Roll. Big news of the day, which
we will dive into off the top is our star
quarterback in Seattle, Well not hours, but just the the
star quarterback in Seattle, Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll. Articles coming out.
(00:33):
We got some stuff going on. I'll give you the
thoughts there. Uh, there was a good article. I actually
saw a couple of interesting articles. I thought this week.
Wickersham had a big article on the NFL, p A
and the NFL, and a couple of things jumped out
to me there another article on the negotiations, how they're
(00:53):
in the two minute warning for the new TV deal.
A couple of things jumped out to me there on
some of these net works and where football is kind
of headed. Uh, some Tiger Woods related. I have a
thought on maybe why I was such a big fan
and how there are a lot of parallels with the NFL.
Some other just little news could going around. Let's start
(01:16):
with the drama going on right now in Seattle, and
let's face it is big as the Deshaun Watson's story
is this one feels bigger. Russell Wilson's won a Super Bowl,
He's been to another. Seattle is become one of the stalwarts,
the powerhouses, the major franchises in the You know, this
(01:37):
country's number one sport and that's football. Seattle Seahawks in
the last decade of probably been a top three or
four franchise. You know, you'd say New England of the
last decade was number one. I I think you could
make a sound argument Seattle was number two. We can
nitpick that all day long, but you get the point.
It's a big fucking deal. Bottom line, it's the Hall
of Fame quarterback that Listen, We've all seen countless documentaries
(02:03):
on bands, on major companies, on basically major breakups, famous people,
uh that have these huge public lives, and I was
just thinking, like, what do they all have in common?
It does feel like most of them go their separate
ways or have issues because of ego and what usually
(02:27):
encompasses that, right, money or power. And you can argue
with power comes money. Well, I think when you look
at this situation, like we've all fought in our normal
lives and our normal jobs and our normal relationships, like
you have disagreements. Welcome to the real world. People disagree
every day. I mean I could drive down to McDonald's
(02:50):
right now to grab a burger and I would not
be happy with someone that didn't pull, you know, getting
a lane fast enough. We have disagreements with people were
not even talking to let alone. People were talking to
our wife, our business partner or boss, unemployee whatever. That
is human nature and not out of the REALWN possibility.
And then when you factor in competitive jobs right Wall Street,
(03:13):
any sales job, the NFL, a lot of alpha's, a
lot of contention, people butt heads again, not abnormal. If
you're not having that, I I think you're either you're
in denial or you're not successful. Now there is a
point where you you do you draw a line in
(03:35):
the sand, and the two people look at each other,
whether it's a football team, whether it's a marriage, whether
whether it's a business partnership, and say do we have
to go our separate ways? Because in this situation you'd go, well,
it's not money. Money is not the reason. And I
think if you read that athletic article, Schefter tweeted that
(03:56):
he gave his four teams or the four teams are
out there, and not that Seattle is looking to trade him.
But let's let's call it what it is. Let's call
a spade a spade. There is enough smoke to know,
you know what, there's a fire in the fucking building. Now,
is it a fire that's they're not it's not capable
to put out by the firefighters. It doesn't feel like that.
(04:19):
Is it a fire that's feels to be growing relatively
rapidly and if the firemen don't get there quick, it's
it's gonna burn down this quote unquote relationship. That's where
it feels like it's going. And it's all because of ego, right,
Pete Carroll who the last twenty years what I love
about social media? Everyone acts like pets the village idiot.
(04:39):
I watched him go to USC and kick the ship
out of everyone, absolutely dominate. Sorry for all the kids
in the cars excited about this topic. Don't mean to swear,
but as I told my mom, I talk like I talk,
you know, I just I'm not a Harvard grad. I
just speak like I speak. And clearly Pete Carroll is
viewed like an average coach. He's well above average. He's
(05:00):
he wins and dominates for these last two decades in
college and in the pros Now, if you want to
say a large percentage of his successes died to Russell Wilson,
I'd say, well, when they really won, and they've been
winning for the last five or six years, right, they
go to the playoffs every year they win the division,
they win a playoff game or two. But when they
(05:21):
were going to the Super Bowl and came within a
play off the Super Bowl, Pete Carroll won his way.
Defense run game hits you directly square in the teeth.
As Russell got paid, and they had to skimp at
other places. And they've played quote unquote a more offensive
brand of football. Right, their defense just hasn't been as good.
They had to let guys go, guys got old. They
(05:43):
have not been as dominant. And so Pete goes, well,
when you've listened to me, check out USC I dominated.
Check out when you first showed up, and I built
the team the way I wanted to build it, we dominated. Remember,
we had the number one scoring defense for four straight
years and we were one of the best rushing teams
in the league with Marshall Lynch in the last three
(06:04):
or four years. Every Booker eater on Twitter is like
let Ross cook and listen. I am not a Russell
Wilson Hayter in my lifetime. He's as just a consumer
of football. He is one of my favorite players to watch.
Though I think the way some fans social media talk
about him might be a little much. Right. They act
(06:28):
like he's as they said in the article, people think
he's Dan Marino. He ain't Dan Marino. Well, who knows that.
I don't know a guy who's seven years old and
been coaching football for forty five years. Pete Carroll now
is Russell Wilson the best quarterback Pete Carroll has probably
ever had as a head coach. Of course, so then
(06:49):
there's Russell where he goes, well, I'm a star. I
get paid like a star. I produced like a star.
I've helped carry this team, not partly because of my
contract or whatever. He ain't thinking like that, So I
think I should have more juice. And clearly they're butting heads,
and they're at a point right now of can we
fix this? Well, typically in a situation, who was going
(07:13):
to fix this problem? And you'd say in most NFL situations,
the Brady Belichick situation, there was a guy named Robert
Kraft and he could be an intermediary. He could talk
to both because he realized the value of both. And
I'm not saying Pete's Belichick and I'm just Tom, but
Paul Allen is no longer around, and there is not
(07:35):
anyone necessarily to fix this problem unless these two men
Russell's made hundreds of millions of dollars, Pete probably made
a hundred plus million dollars in the last decade, have
a lot of money, have enormous egos. So can one
of these two men put there and and really both
(07:58):
of them eventually put their he go to the side
and have productive conversations. Now you could argue John could
John Schneider Baby possibly, but he's also in a tough
position because he naturally is gonna lean at this point
in time. Probably Pete a little bit because he's an administrator,
he's an executive, like he's closer to a coach that
(08:19):
he's a player. Even though Russell, as everything we've ever
learned about his playing in Seattle was strictly because John
was pounding the table. He told Pete, who check his
teams at USC check his teams what he built in Seattle.
He does not like small players including the quarterback. And
(08:39):
remember when he was first introduced to Russell, he was
not into it because he was so small. John talked
him into it. They drafted the third round. The rest
is history. But there Peach type players, Marshawn Lynch, Jamal Adams,
Cam Chancellor, Richard Sherman, fuck DK Metcalf again. Excuse my language,
kids excited. He likes enormous blue chip guys. And Russell
(09:03):
is a better talent than he is. Like his physical attributes,
which are special right is keeping plays alive. But he's tiny.
And I wonder if there's part of Pete that has
never quite got over it, has never really just enabled
him to be Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen. And maybe
because deep down he doesn't believe he can or at
(09:24):
least sustain it. He did this year up until the
second half of the season when their offense was putrid.
But I don't see how this situation gets solved. How
many seven year old men. I'm pretty sure Pete's like
sixty nine, so he'll be seventy like at that age,
with an unlimited amount of money, with countless pelts on
the wall. Go you know what, and I get Pete
(09:47):
a lot of credit if he can do this, but
I don't think we can expect it. Older successful people
do not just I'll swallow my ego. I'll take it.
I can't see that happening. You know. The other person
that rarely saws zeg the young in his prime artist,
whether it's a lead singer, whether it's an actor storming
(10:08):
off a movie, whether it's a star quarterback or a
star shooting guard. Usually those guys once they get in
this I don't even want to say diva mindset. But
just in this tunnel of I am the best. And
I don't even blame Russell for thinking that I am untouchable.
I am greatness. He ain't swallowing his ego and the
(10:29):
owner ain't around. So who is fixing this problem? I
don't think the problem is fixable. Now. Do I think
that Seattle wants to trade Russell Wilson? Of course not.
Do I think though the more this goes, the more
Russell kind of puts this pr campaign out there of
you know, I don't want to go, but I'm kind
(10:50):
of open to it. I respect to Shawn Watson. He
just said I don't want to play here. Russell doesn't
want to do that. Why because he has this image
where he doesn't want to be viewed as the bad guy.
Go Hawks, right, So he honestly, I'd respect more of
Russell if he just said I want out. People like Okay,
he just wants out, even though I'd say, hey, listen,
(11:12):
I think a lot of times with deals, we always
think one side always wins. I think both sides one
on this. Russ is very very lucky to be drafted
to the Seattle Seahawks, a team when he showed up,
had a great defense in a run game, and gave
him a landing spot to become and blossom into the
star player, just like I think Pete as a coach
(11:34):
was very very lucky to have drafted Russell Wilson and
let him become the quarterback right away and then blossom
into the star. But to act like one side of
the ledger here is taking advantage of the other side
is just wrong. So I think you have these two
hardheaded people staring at each other big egoes. Money ain't
(11:54):
an issue. They're both have unlimited amounts. Russell has more,
but pizza coach coaches don't even need to buy. Peachs
been making huge money forever right coach multiple NFL teams,
USC for a decade, now Seattle for a decade, big
time coin. I don't see how this is fixed. I
don't see how Russell Wilson, if truly he wants out,
(12:16):
and I don't even think it's arguable that he wouldn't
mind leaving. He's ready for a change. That Russell Wilson
will be traded in the next couple of months, which
would have sounded insane if I would have said that
a month ago. But you can see the way Russell
is kind of scalpting this PR campaign to like try
(12:37):
to get out but under no circumstances, look like a
James Harden, looked like a Deshaun Watson. And my if
I was Russell's you know PR guy, say, listen, people
are numb to this Russell who even cares. Just go
where you want to go, make it known, and let's
just move on. Society. We don't remember two weeks ago,
no one remember. You'll move on now. What sucks is
(12:58):
being a Seattle fan. So I put myself in the
situation of a fan of this team. I don't care
how many first round picks we get. I don't care
Derek Carr, Dak Prescott, whoever is coming back. I'm not
trading the best player in the history of my franchise.
I would be furious there is you could give me
the next four Raiders drafts. I do not care. I
(13:22):
would not I would. I understand where the fans are
coming from. We cannot trade this guy, but I just
wonder what the owner gone, Pete Carroll having all this juice, Like,
I'm just honestly where I'm sitting right now, I don't
know who where he goes. I could see the list expanding. Uh,
(13:43):
I expect might be strong, but I will not be
shocked in the least, So I I I guess I'm
just awaiting a tweet that you know, there have been
uh legitimate talks of Russell Will and these three teams
about a potential deal. A couple of weeks ago, it
(14:04):
was like, you know, I don't know, it's up to Seattle.
A couple of weeks later, it's now like, yeah, you know,
he'd be open to moving, and Seattle be open to listening,
and these are the teams. So it just the snowball
is coming down the mountain and it's growing and I
think it all gets back to because neither one of
these guys are gonna flinch. You know why, because big
ego guys with big bank accounts typically don't do. They
(14:28):
don't flinch, they don't change, and they definitely don't give in.
I think you got a stalemate. Clear where this is headed. Now,
just where does he end up going? Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
(14:49):
R to listen live. Okay, let's dive into something that
I saw. I think Front Off the Sports is a
website and they're it on the business of sports and
specifically the business of the NFL. And there have been
information and I think someone reported to them that. And
(15:11):
let's get something we talked about a lot here, but
let's just hammer it home. The major difference between the
NFL and baseball and basketball, the team sports their business
models is the NFL is all in on television, right,
That's where they get the majority of their money. Now,
obviously the other sports make money on television. But when
(15:33):
you have eighty one home games as we saw last year,
if you followed Baseball the Corona issue when they only
played sixteen games. Depending on what Jeff Passon Haymand those
guys that like forty of their revenue came from the gate,
and the NBA is forty one home games, asked Joe
(15:54):
Lacob with the Warriors and v Veck of the Kings
who just got new arenas, they make a large percentage
of their revenue from the gate. The NFL, I think
last year. I guess we'll find out by the new
league year because like three million dollars might have been
slightly less from the media rights every single team. Think
(16:14):
about that, every single team gets a check. Well, it's
paid I think over the season for accounting for about
three million dollars. Well, we know what the salary cap
is in the NFL. Last year it was like a
million dollars, so they're over that by hundred. Literally, all
your players are paid for by the television money than
(16:36):
what's your coaching staff cost? Fifteen million dollars a year?
Also all paid for what's your staff cost of your organization?
The media pays for everything. That's why the NFL is
such a cash count right now. Everything that Jerry you
name it, whatever owner you want to pick Jeffrey Leurie Kraft,
your cronky. What they make from, you know, the stadium,
(16:58):
the suites that tickets, the concessions is gravy. The NFL
is printing money, but it starts with the television product.
Because the television product right now now it's different because
the NFL doesn't have the inventory as the other sports.
But one thing we know when we put a game
on it, when we put an NFL game on television,
(17:20):
it dwarfs the other two. You know, uh, team sports,
right the NBA, the NBA Finals last year. Now granted
it was in a bubble, but it's been trending down
for a couple of years. It that that the number
they do is like putting the Jags and the Titans
on a Thursday night. Thursday Night Football does huge ratings.
(17:41):
Sunday Night Football, which I'm gonna talk about right now,
is the number one television show in America. Think about that.
The number one television show in America is an NFL
football game for me at five twenty one Today night,
if you live in New York, kicks off at eight
(18:02):
twenty whatever. That is the number one show in America.
When I was growing up, whether it was Seinfeld, my
dad was a huge fan of mash Uh. The major
television shows did like fifty two sixty to seventy million
people watched an episode. Well in two thousand one. Those
days are over. Those days are done. I just got
(18:24):
a new smart TV. I'll talk about this actually in
a minute. But Monday Night Football for the last decade, ESPN, Disney, ABC, whatever,
however you want to consider it, paid two billion dollars
for the rights for Monday Night Football, and for the
first half of that decade, right, they were getting crappy games.
The second half and definitely the last couple of years
(18:44):
they've been getting better inventory. You know, the best deal
you could argue, the best business deal for any media
company in America over this last decade was NBC's deal
with the NFL. NBC for Sunday Night Football for the
last decade paid less than half of what Disney paid
(19:07):
for Monday Night Football. They paid two billion. NBC paid
nine hundred and fifty million dollars for the number one
television show in America. Now, while the NFL, as they
wrote in this article, it's not like the NFL got screwed.
While clearly it was worth more than that. It's good
to have the exposure you want people watching like it
was a fruitful, uh you know deal, but it's a
(19:30):
deal that at the end of it, you go, if
you're the NFL, we're gonna double that thing. And as
they wrote in the article, expect that number to double.
And really NBC has no choice because, like I talked
about mash or Seinfeld or whatever the show is, there
are not hit television shows anymore on TV. They draw
(19:52):
millions upon millions upon millions of people. What was like
probably the biggest show of the last six months, the
Queen's Gambit? Where was that? Netflix? And back to my
smart TV forever? And maybe I'm a little weird. I
did not put a television in my room, and girls
I dated will always get mad or whatever, and I
(20:14):
would be like, you know, I had multiple televisions in
my living room. I got TV in my office. If
I needed to watch something in my room, I'd bring
an iPad. My thought process and in theory it made
a lot of sense to me. I was gonna use
my my room to sleep, to read and obviously do
the other thing. But mainly I didn't want a television
in there because I wanted to read. Now, I didn't
(20:37):
do much reading in there like I thought, so I
finally just had it installed. I put it up there,
hung it the other day with a buddy the other day,
and I had called Comcast because I'm one of these
crazy millennials that still has the cable box and I
go listen to I need to get another cable box,
and they said, actually, if you have a newer TV,
you're gonna have apps. I'm sure many people listening know this.
(20:57):
You can just download the Comcast streaming app and just
watch your normal cable box. All you have to do
is plug the television in and connected to WiFi. So Ever,
I turned on this new Samsung TV, which it's crazy
how cheap televisions are, or Samsung TV off Amazon for
like four bucks. It was four fift with this with
the soundbar came out to like less than six. It's
(21:20):
just what have I been waiting for? And I just
go to my apps, Netflix, Amazon Prime Streaming. I can
watch whatever I want. And part of this article said
also that Fox no longer wants Thursday night football. Well
who do they want involved in the NFL? A fellow
ball guy named Jeff Bezos, so expect Thursday night football,
(21:42):
and they kind of hinted this to be on Amazon,
which I think forever, it's like, we can't be on
one of these apps. In five years from now, it's
going to be more likely that everything is watched through
apps than it ever will be basic cable. It's clear
Basic cable is kind of like newspaper as were a
decade ago, not quite dead yet but gonna die fast, right.
(22:05):
Radio still kind of hanging on, doesn't have that much
longer of a shelf life. It's clear where we're going.
So the NFL is smart one. It's an easy one
for them. But it's also like even Jerry Jones or
Jeffrey Lurie or any of these old guys that go,
I don't want let's just keep it on these main channels. Well,
it's like, if I'm Stephen, I go, hey Dad, you
(22:26):
just press the home button, you click Amazon Prime, and boom,
you're there. And they did it this year I think
with a forty niner game. You press two buttons in
the game comes up. It's actually really really user friendly.
And what's the other thing. Forever it's like, well, I
don't want to deal with one of these tech companies,
Let's go with the blue bloods. They got all the cash.
Amazon's got more cash than all these companies combined. So
(22:50):
Thursday Night Football it looks like it's gonna be on Amazon.
NBC is gonna have to double their investment. But it's
an easy investment for them to make because they have
no choice because the mass is do not watch their
other content beside live sports and some news, so the
NFL is in complete control. It's always my issue when
I hear these NBA guys talk about, well, live rights
(23:12):
are so powerful the NBA, even as the consumer dips,
it's gonna be okay. I kind of call bullshit because
of the amounts of money these leagues are asking for,
and like the last NBA deal, for example, they got
a ton of cash from t n T from ESPN.
The ratings are plummeting. Now I'm not saying they're gonna
go away, but I'm saying they're gonna come back to earth.
(23:35):
The NFL is the opposite. They're gonna be about to
double down. And we'll talk about this article on the
NFL p A and what they fought for. But the
big cash is coming. And as a player who was
involved in negotiations last year said, why the owners were
so willing to negotiate early, be open minded and even
(23:56):
give a little. It's because they wanted labor peace, in
labor harmony. When they were at the negotiating table for this,
why because this to them is all that matters. This
is their number one thing in their business model, the
television rights or the streaming rights or whatever you want
to consider it. Right the verbiage is changing as our
(24:17):
world changes. But the money for them comes from us
watching it. The NFL is consumed by us sitting in
our couches and watching football. It's the number one television
show in America. And it's clear they're about to double
down on all these investments. They're gonna involve Amazon and
they're gonna print more money. Now, one thing, I'll be there.
(24:39):
I'm not gonna be arrogant or be naive enough to
know this is only in ten years. They're gonna double down.
Who knows things in society have never changed faster. And
I'm not gonna just sit up here and say football
is gonna dominate forever. But right now they're kicking everyone's
ass with as r V would say, attention and attention
(25:03):
is the most important thing because for the NFL, they
don't actually need you to hand them the cash. They
just need you indirectly to get Amazon Prime, to get
your cable subscriptions, and give them your time, which indirectly
is giving them your cash. It's like I always say,
the reason these leagues Basketball included Baseball, the PGA Tour
(25:26):
whoever can have money, and the players get paid, the
coaches get paid. The people involved get paid are the fans.
The fans are the consumer. And even if you never
attend an NFL game the rest of your life, if
you consistently watch football every Sunday, you're more important to them.
(25:46):
They would rather have you do that than show up
in the second deck one million percent. And as long
as you keep doing that. But honestly, once the deal assigned,
this is where the NBA. The NBA signed their big deal,
so their ratings are down, it really doesn't matter now
it screws their partners, it does not screw them. Luckily
for the NFL, the partners no. Currently their product is
(26:09):
important and people do watch now. Could that change over
the next decade, You never know, But right now, once
this deal is signed, the NFL is gonna have a
lot more money coming in, and they already had a
boatload to begin with. Okay, let's get into one other
kind of business e topic, and it's somewhat rehashing old stuff.
(26:31):
Seth Wickersham, who's an excellent journalist, wrote a long article
about Demorris Smith, the nfl p A union lead lawyer.
I guess he's the just lead guy, and the negotiations
stemming back from two thousand eleven to where they're at now.
They just obviously completed it before the season as new
(26:53):
c B A, and just some of the inner workings
of their business. And on the most basic level, if
one of you listening right now wasn't negotiating against me,
and you're negotiating against me and only me, yet you
have ten partners, so it's one verse ten. I have
an advantage because the only person I have to answer
(27:15):
to and the only uh vision I have for whatever
we're negotiating right is mine, and I know what I
want and don't want at least at the time of
the negotiation. Were you speaking for nine people, including yourself,
makes it ten. Could be a lot of visions maybe
(27:35):
three guys think alike, but then everyone else is fractured.
It's difficult. It is always easier to negotiate with less
amount of people. So I'll never hold it against the
players that they just have a shipload of them. Can
excuse my language to the kids, I'm in I'm in
a I'm in an excited mood today, and there are
(27:59):
a lot of There are dramatically more NFL players than
even baseball man roster. Well, there's more than double the
amount of NFL players on an actual roster in season,
and then you talk about offseason fringe guys, practice squad guys.
It's more than that. You have a ton of players,
and like in all sports, but the NFL, you have
(28:21):
a large percentage of the workforce that does not make
that much money. In the NBA, for example, the average
salaries seven and a half million dollars. Most NFL players
are making closer to the minimum. I think the average
salaries a couple of million bucks. But like in the NBA,
like in the NFL, the power for rich players have
(28:41):
the most juice, right, So just on the most basic level,
you get and you don't have thirty two owners negotiating
against the players. Let's face it, you got two or
three that speak for them all. Jerry Kraft, maybe Ziggy Wolf.
Right there, there's a group of them, and they're not
going back and forth, right Mark Davis, Jed Yorke, whoever.
(29:04):
Some of the guys that they're just like Jerry, You
and you, we trust you. Keep the money flowing. We'll
keep cashing them checks with the players. If I'm a
fringe backup linebacker, my views for what I want in
the c b A are probably a lot different than
Aaron Rodgers, who remember, I think it was last year
in the off season when they were negotiating the CBA
(29:25):
and was getting kind of ugly over the off season,
notoriously said he wanted to cancel the off season. Well,
of course, one of the greatest players of all time
wouldn't need the off season. You know who needs the
off season? The majority of the league. Why they need
that to impress coaches, to try to learn the scheme,
to try to make the team. So everyone is gonna
(29:47):
come at it from different angles, you know who. I
don't blame for thinking that. I don't necessarily blame Aaron
because if I was in erin shoes, I wouldn't really
want to practice in you know, uh April either, Like,
what what am I really getting out of it? Now?
There's a team aspect to it. I get it. But
if you've got a big gass house in Malibu, do
you think I want to be in Wisconsin in uh
(30:09):
in early June? No? I don't. But so it's complicated.
It's not an easy job, and you always gotta be
at least cognitive or or you know, And wonder where
and what angle this article why it was written? And
I honestly don't know, because there are parts that made
d smith look good, they're part that made them look bad.
(30:29):
They're part that made the owners look bad. Regardless, one
thing that really jumped out to me, I think the
players did themselves as disservice. One element of this article
is the players argued that d Smiths compensation was too much.
They're arguing over billions of dollars. And if you're gonna
(30:50):
sign a c B A let's say for a decade.
If the NFL right now is a ten to twelve
to fifteen billion dollars a year business, if you're talking
about a decade, you not even factoring in it going
up every year. If let's just say, we'll just pick
a number ten ten billion dollars a year. If I'm
signing a ten year deal, and let's just say in
this world where it stays, you know, it does not
(31:11):
go up, which is not the case. But just for
mass sake, that's a hundred billion dollar deal. De Morris
Smith was paid one point I think a little over
one point six million dollars, and some of the people
in the executive committee did not want to give him
a million dollar bonus to take his compensation up to
two point six million dollars a year. I read flag
(31:34):
the players might take you, guys are morons. If I
am going into a ten billion dollar a year negotiation,
and like I said, a hundred plus billion dollar deal,
my lawyer better be making ten to fifteen million dollars.
You know who Listen. I don't claim to be like
super successful in business doing pretty well. Know some people
(31:55):
that are multi millionaires crushing it. The first thing they
always tell you, don't skip on accountant, skimp, and don't
skimp on a lawyer, because those guys can do things
for you that you can't do for yourself. And there's
a reason that the big time lawyers and the big
time accountants. When you roll into the nice neighborhoods and
the country clubs, they tend to have some of the
(32:17):
big houses in those neighborhoods because they're worth their weight
in gold. And the players were arguing over a million
dollars to a lawyer. To me GANE. Upshaw, who obviously
was a former player, made six for me to feel comfortable.
How did none of these players that make a ton
(32:37):
of money. They have a ton of powerful people around him.
I'm sure have some powerful lawyers not realize you know,
what we need is a like a ten million dollar
lawyer to go into war with these men that have
unlimited resources and money. So the players did themselves a
disservice by not getting the best of the best. And
d Smith might be good. I mean, the owners claim
(32:59):
to love them, which is not an ideal thing. But
to me, when I read that their their union chief
makes under two million dollars, I'm sorry I read flag
that thing because, like I talked about earlier this week,
money is all relative. And if we're talking billions of
dollars and basically well over a hundred billion dollars, that
we're gonna sign a deal, I better have an elite lawyer.
(33:19):
And guess what elite lawyers do. They cost a lot
of money and their guy doesn't cost enough for my liking.
Would you like, what if I told you this? What
if I told you know, Aaron Rodgers, this your best
wide receiver, he's a million dollar player, your best uh safety,
million dollar player? They'd be like, what, we can't get
a blue chipper? Davanta Adams underpaid like fifteen million dollars.
(33:39):
Like your money in your industry does represent how good
you are eventually. Now, obviously guys on rookie contracts, but
there are no rookie contracts on you're hiring a lawyer.
You guys have big cash, hire the best of the best.
So they did themselves a disservice there. The other thing
I'll never forget, I think players, because the only thing
the owners have ever thought about is the money. They
(34:01):
do not care about practices, They do not care about
preparation time, They do not care about the off season.
Like we had just discussed with the business of the NFL,
is predicated off television product. As long as they play games,
no matter how you get to that game, you can
practice once you can practice ten times. They just need
the game to happen because they know right now there's
(34:22):
nothing lasts forever. As NBC would know, they just had
one of the greatest deals in American history. We just
need the game to happen. So however you get there,
we don't care if you take no snaps during the
week or take whatever. And the players were adamant, too
many double days, too many practices during the season, making
us where pads during the seasons. The owners were like,
have added d tell them all, no more paths during
(34:44):
the season, no more double days. I'll never forget. In
two thousand ten, when I was hired, my first year
was before the lockout, and that first year we had
double days. We had physical practices, and I vividly remember
do Staley love Deuce and you know, being an older guy, right,
and he was a young coach. It was his first year.
Is like an intern coach. He's like, when I first
(35:04):
got here, our practice were way more physical. And I
remember people telling me coaches on the staff and scouts
on the staff, we have one of the more physical
practices in the league with coach read I mean running
goal line drills and I had come from pat Hill,
where pads were always on, so it just felt like
a real physical practice, right, It was legit, but I
think for NFL standards it was headed toward a you
know nowhere what it was, and like the nineties, right,
(35:27):
the following year is when the lockout happened, and when
finally the go ahead and the lockouts lifted and everyone
comes back. Double days were no longer allowed. And I
remember was my second year with the team, and usually
as a scout you go to all the practice training camp. Well,
with no more double days, the afternoon was a walkthrough.
We didn't even go because there was pointless, right, We
(35:49):
just stay in our room and work, and I just remember,
honestly didn't. I couldn't even fathom what was going on.
I was like, oh, this is way easier for the
players than than the last year that I saw. All
the players are really happy. You know who the happiest though,
we're the owners, because they got way more money in
the deal. They traded money for that. And part of
the reason is that the players had a had a
(36:11):
union chief and a lead lawyer that just not highly
paid enough, Like you get what you pay for in life.
At the highest level, and you could argue even at
the lower levels. My dad always taught me this when
you go when you're buying something nice, I'll just use
a golf analogy. Like if you buy some used cheap
golf club for a hundred dollars instead of buying a nice,
(36:32):
brand new golf club for four you can't get mad
when that golf club snaps the cheap one in a month.
You can use the car analogy. What's more expensive when
you buy a used clunker because you're you're trying to,
you know, keep some cash. When that car breaks down
in six months, when you could have spent five thousand
more ten thousand more got a newer car that would
(36:53):
have a warranty, you can't complain when you end up
spending more money for that. And now the players are
complaining they're not their fair share. Well, you guys traded
the wrong things. And the one thing the owners always
have is they only care about one thing. They don't
even care necessarily about the product, because they are arrogant
(37:13):
enough to think that fans and listen, all you guys
listening are clearly big football fans are never gonna stop watching.
And I know this like it. It pays my bills.
I haven't worked in the NFL since two and I've
made money for seven straight years because of the power,
you know, predicated on talking about the sport, because the
sport's so popular. If I had worked in baseball instead
(37:35):
of football and been out of you know, baseball, I
would not have been able to do this did The
interest just would not have been there. I'm lucky, and
a lot of people profit off this sport just because
it's so big, and no one profits born in these
owners and they know it. Okay, I want to talk
about Tiger for a second. He obviously gotten the terrible crash,
(37:56):
and I think it's fair to say his legs are
pretty screwed up. He's in pretty bad shape. And one thing,
I I'm very jealous of a lot of you guys
that listen and shoot me d m s something that
I can't relate to anymore. Growing up, I was a
massive forty fan. I'm saying, just like any one of you,
whoever your team is, they were my squad. And then
(38:19):
as I worked in football and even through college, they
started sucking and I became probably more of just a
fan of the league and Peyton, Manning and Brady. But
then once I worked in football and ultimately got to
the league, it kind of left me my days of
being a fan. I'm numb to it and for the
last you know, five six years. But ever since I've
(38:40):
been in the podcast space with my other podcast with Guy,
we talked a lot about forty and doing this, like,
I'm very numbed who wins and loses? Even the Niners
now I make I care about the Niners. I just
need them to be interesting so I can profit. Ideally,
I love it when they make Super Bowl runs because
I can make more money. But it's become it's all
money related. My days of being tied as a fan
(39:03):
are died with football. I mean are absolutely dead. And
part of it is I know people in the league,
so you just root for them. And I'm like that
in life now when I meet someone and I become
friends with them or even acquaintances or hell we might
follow each other on Twitter, Instagram, if we go back
and forth, I'm just gonna root for you. Lucky enough,
in my position I get to know meet some of
these people. It's fucking cool. I'm still a fan of that,
(39:27):
but my my fan of the sport died. I don't
really deep inside even any of the sports, like the
San Francisco Giants, probably the last team I was a
fan of, and I really don't care anymore, partly because
I just hate Gabe Kapler and I missed Bruce Bocci,
like I can't even take the franchise that seriously anymore.
Like I like the I'm I guess I would consider
myself a Warriors fan, but I'm only there because I'm
(39:49):
a Steph Curry guy. If you remove Steph Curry and
you brought in James Harden, I wouldn't care. I am
jealous of any fan out there now. I all my
friends are fans, like I still relate very well the fan.
I still like going to games and sitting in the stands.
At least I gained a love of that the last
couple of years because I hated sitting with the media
so stiff and honestly, when everyone when anyone says like
(40:12):
middle if he's a member of the media, honestly, it
makes me cringe. Like I maybe I once was, but
I pay for tickets now, you know, I guess the
only thing I would get a credential now is go
to like a training camp the Niners and the Raiders,
and the Raiders eventually stopped letting me show up to theirs,
so I can only go to the Niners. And I
obviously I could travel around if I want to do
and go see other teams, which is cool. So I
(40:32):
I guess I still have some media there, but that
if I go to a game, I'm not sitting with
the media. I'm gonna pay for a ticket. So I
I I'm jealous of anyone who's a fan, and I
think I understood. In high school, I played football and
I played golf. I was not a good football player.
I was a right guarden who who played you know,
(40:52):
started a little bit of senior year and played a
little bit on JV in and out of the lineup.
It was one five ten, not a great athlete, not strong.
We ran the wink tea. But I loved playing football,
loved it. All my friends played football, and it was
it's still it's awesome. It was some of my best
memories as a kid playing high school football, which I
(41:13):
can imagine many people listening that never made it past
high school football. It's a fucking blast, right, especially if
your friends are on the team. Even I think my
senior year, like five and five, it doesn't even matter,
at least it didn't for us. I mean, I like
Daylys sud down the street from my my house right now.
It does. But I was way better at golf, and
I've always loved the sport of golf, and if you
(41:33):
follow me on social media, you know I like golf
a lot. I'm a huge Tiger Woods fan. And I
was thinking, he's probably the last person before I became
numb to everything over the last decade that like still competed,
that I still have that high school, junior high version
of me that's still a fan of And when I
got the tweet and looked at the TV that I mean,
(41:55):
when I just saw the picture, I was hoping he
didn't die. And the information coming out there's legs are shat.
I think it's fair to take an educated guest that
we might never see Tiger Woods competitively again, which sucks,
And honestly, I was I was pretty rattled when he
got into the car, and it's like, I don't know
the guy, right, I mean, we would probably never be friends.
(42:17):
I hope, I hope if we met, we'd be cool.
I mean, I know he's a big Raider fan. I
definitely can talk Raiders with him, but I never met
the guy stood next to him in a bathroom once,
partly because I was at for the Pebble Beach pro
am he was putting at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. He
went in to take a leak and like me and
my cousin waited like five seconds and a couple other
(42:38):
guys and like follow them into the bathroom. No eye contact,
but uh, we're about five feet away. That was cool. Uh,
But I understand, Like, yeah, and I think the media
consistently ships on fans because you become numb to it,
you you lose that. And luckily, like I'm not friends
with media people. My friends are normal people. My friends
are season ticket holders with the Raiders when they are here,
(43:00):
definitely with the forty nine now. And I understand it
because like it feels like Tigers over and it sucks,
like it's pretty devastating. And I also think he has
a lot of parallels even though he's a golfer and
obviously it's not a physical sport. Before the car crash,
he had like football level injuries. Right in two thousand
(43:24):
and eight. I remember I was just about to move
because the US opens in June, and my mom and
my brother and my dad were coming with a trailer
and we're gonna pack all my stuff and San Louis
Obispo and take it to Fresno, where I was about
to become a graduate assistant. And clearly he's about to
change my life. I didn't know what I mean. I
had a decent idea it was gonna be a pretty
(43:44):
impactful time, but I didn't know what was coming. But
I had a couple of days to wait, and I
remember he was it was the U s open and
it was the US opening one with a torn a
c L basically a crack knee, like just stuff that
when you hear Emmett Smith played an inn C Championship
game with a separated shoulder, like it's just it's legendary shit.
(44:05):
It's why when you saw Tiger Woods play the match
with Peyton Manning and and Tom Brady, those guys act
like Tigers. They're equal because they think as just in
terms of greatness, in terms of mental toughness. Because he
was and I listen, I don't know if you're listening
to this, you're not a big golf guy. I think
we all respect the ship out of this human being
(44:26):
and the thing I admire most, and I definitely Brady
has this. And it's actually different because Brady has never
had He had the one injury three or four years
ago before Tiger just won that Masters. I think it
was what's his name, right, Thompson of ESPN had wrote
that long article about Tiger Woods and he's in his
(44:47):
backyard is when he's having all the back problems and
he'd hit the ground and he couldn't walk, and he'd
have to call for his daughter to call for help,
to maybe like get Notable Gaye to come over and
pick him up. I mean, these are stories you read
about guys that played in like the seventies for the
Steelers or the Dolphins or the Raiders. Not a golfer
(45:08):
in his early forties couldn't walk. Here's the other thing,
and this this is where it parallels Tom. If you
go to Tiger's bank account five years ago, ten years ago,
when he's having all these health problems, he has more
money than God. He does not need to do it anymore.
But his drive Tiger Woods, like Tom Brady, Tiger got
(45:28):
into golf. Tom got into football, and I think Belichick
and I know Coach Read is like this, And this
is why I admire the hell out of Coach Read.
They didn't get into it for the money. On the
money impacts them, it changes like the way where they
live and what car they drive. It does not change
their love and their driving, their addiction to the sport
and the thing I admire most I saw with Coach Read.
(45:48):
By the time I started working for the Eagles, he
was rich, he was making a ton of money. Now,
he had never won a Super Bowl, but I'll never
forget his work ethic was unlike anything I'd ever seen.
And then when I'd go to the Combine these last
up of years and Bi, you know Coach Ready still
just working away. His work atic is incredible, And Tiger
and Brady, these guys dedication to their craft is just unparalleled.
(46:11):
At the highest level, where the competition is the highest.
They are the one percent of the one per centers.
And this guy's drive to come back and ultimately win
that Masters after all the injuries and all the ship
he'd been through. Some of it self inflicted, definitely, but
the injuries to a golfer more like a middle linebacker.
It's insane. We'll never see anything like it again. And
(46:33):
unlike Brady, I don't think his fame will ever be
matched because this guy is the world famous. This guy's
fame is like and I say the same thing about
Michael Jordan's. If you became super famous before the Internet,
you are stupid famous. Remember growing up, like how famous
like Michael Jackson was, or Mike Tyson or some of
these people that were just like God, the Beatles, like
(46:54):
the fame now like Lebron is really famous. But he
said the Internet and social media, like obviously Tiger's had
two but we all know Tiger was famous like nineties
seven when he went Hello World and Nike signed him.
And back to what I was saying about being a fan,
I think he's one of the last guys I'm like
a true fan of. This might sound corny, but I
kind of got emotional when he won the Masters. I
(47:15):
really did, because he kind of like connects me to
my childhood. It's and that is dead for me. And
I think if you listen to me long enough, it's
why I think I'm pretty good at talking about football,
because I'm not I'm biased. Maybe to a couple of
guys I know, but just with the players and the teams,
I don't care it. It takes me to gamble on
(47:35):
sports now to get the juice that I used to
have when I was fourteen and I could watch sports seven.
I can't really anymore. And I still watch a ton,
but I profit off of of it. If I wasn't
making money off it, I would not watch nearly as
much as I do. And I I just this week
(47:58):
was it sucks because I think we saw I just
don't see how this guy ever comes back from this
um and if I had to google some of the
words and the statements about his bones being shattered. But
I'm just glad as a big sports fan at my
heart and who I was growing up. Like the last
three years, we got some badass moments with the guy.
(48:20):
I remember when he was making his comeback two thousand eighteen,
almost won the British that he won the Tour championship.
Who my guy Habrman, who I do the other podcast with,
was there calling it for virtual reality, called it for
virtually he was in the ability. He said it was incredible.
Remember there's that visual of all the fans falling Tiger,
then six months later or less than that, he wins
(48:41):
the Masters, and then just this year in Corona, my
least favorite time in the history of my life, besides
like you know, non deaths in my family or something.
I mean, it was the most miserable year ever. I
think we'd all tend to agree there is him him, uh,
Peyton Manning and Tom Brady like that that event was
(49:04):
made for me. I don't know what you thought of
that event. I that that's that's one of my favorite
viewing experiences of my lifetime. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Tiger
was PHILM. Micholson. So you know, I just think we're
addicted to athletes that are addicted to their craft. And
I think you hear so often guys talk about like
(49:24):
I want to be a brand, I want to do this.
I maybe I grew up on guys that became a
brand because they dominated. Michael Jordan. The Jordan brand happened
because Michael Jordan won six championships. The t W hats
and the Nike polos got you know, Phil Knight was
(49:46):
slinging those things like they were drugs because Tiger was dominating.
Now everyone has a logo before they win a game
or like we're starting to business, like what have you done?
Like I grew up on Tiger Ti or in Michael,
and you know, I remember my dad. We'd always argue
about great Joe Montana was when you grow up on someone,
(50:06):
I do understand. I will go to my grave arguing
the Tiger, Michael and probably now Tom Brady, like I
don't see how they're being topped when I'm seven years
old arguing with my hopefully like my grandkids about you know,
they're up and coming. Whoever, none of these guys are
getting knocked off my perch. Okay, let's bang out a
(50:29):
couple quick, just stories that are kind of going around,
and I think what we'll do because we're almost at
or getting close to an hour plus. Once they put
in ads here, I'll put the Middlecoff mail bag. I'm
just gonna put it on YouTube. I think I did
that last week. I'll record that, uh either than I
the first thing in the morning and put it on
(50:49):
my YouTube page. John Middlecoff, have a YouTube page, John Middlecoff,
go check that out. Have just different content up there, football,
little golf, Uh, mainly just football and golf. I'm a
full ball, golf, guay a Brady extension, you know, crazy?
It is like, listen, you might be as big of
a Tiger or I mean Tom Brady homer as like
(51:11):
as a Tiger Woods Homer. It's pretty nuts that we're
talking Tom Brady extension going into the year that he's
gonna be forty four. And it's really not even that weird. Right,
they gave him two years fifty million dollars. He's got
twenty five million dollars guaranteed this year. Uh, and is
it crazy? Just give him like a twenty million dollar
extension and basically just kind of kick the can down
(51:33):
the road. I mean, what's is this ever gonna stop?
Do you guys ever just think about that, like, is
this ever gonna stop? Because I think at this point
in time you'd be saying, well, maybe not. Eventually it
will and it will probably take an injury because his
arm looks normal and he moves like he's always moved.
(51:54):
It's not like he moves great anyway. It's just it's
basically I think at this point time, is gonna take
an injury to end career because that happen to Peyton, right,
was his shoulder or his arm. Remember its just it
fell off. He couldn't throw. We think Drew Brees arms
struggled this year, that Peyton year, I attended a mid
season game against the Raiders. It was it was embarrassingly bad.
(52:16):
I remember going to that that game. The irony actually
is because they both go into the Hall of Fame
this year, because they retired the same year as Charles
Woodson had never picked off Peyton Manning. He got him
twice in that game. The ball just floated in the air.
He had no zip. That's not the case with Tom.
I just where's Tom going? I would just keep paying
him thirty million dollars a year, keep having to be
(52:38):
the quarterback until he can't. Just keep on like one
year deals, keep building the team around him. Let him
live in Florida, no state income taxes, hang out of
Jeter's pad, get wasteed the offseason, TV twelve in the
regular season, and keep kicking ass and taking names. J J. Watt.
Diana Russini, uh she used to be NBC Diana that
(53:00):
she works. ESPN wrote that he has an offer between
like fifteen and sixteen million dollars. That's crazy. Now, I
don't blame him if someone's gonna give him like two
years thirty million dollars and guarantee twenty million of it.
He has to take. That's he doesn't have to take
the deal, but that's a massive deal for him. Like
to me, I view him as like six seven million
(53:21):
dollar player on real locker room guy, great, like rotational
defensive end. Ideally just kicks ass on third down. It's
like a team captain and just big part of my squad. Right,
But I don't want to depend on him every snap
like I would Aaron Donald or J. J. Watt five
years ago, partly because he gets hurt, hurt a lot,
(53:42):
Like I don't know, I I won't be able to
blame him if he goes to Browns or something for
like two years, thirty five million dollars and they guarantee
twenty five of it, Like that's a lot of money
to turn down, or the Raiders or whatever. If I
was him, it's easy for me to say. But he's
got He's made a hundred million dollars on the field.
He was one of the most marketed athletes of the
(54:04):
last seven eight years. I'd imagine he's made millions off
the field. Can you imagine We've talked about this before.
If when I introduced J. J. Watton ten years, I'm
running an Oracle or whatever company and I'm not bringing
J J. Watt to talk to my employees and I go,
I'd like to welcome Super Bowl champion J J. Watt
(54:27):
changes your career man, So I mean Tampa Kansas City. Now,
obviously those type teams is gonna be way less money Buffalo.
They make a lot of sense, but it's still pretty risky.
Like they got as far as they've been in basically
thirty years this year to the NFC Championship and they
get their ass kicked by the Chiefs. If I was
in my i'd probably go to the Chiefs for a
(54:50):
million bucks or whatever. His minimum is easy for me
to say. If he's turning down twenty million dollars, that's
a lot of money. I'm not and I'm I'm as
pro money as anybody. But when you already have a
lot of money, you can operate from a position to strength.
Now there are other variable This is the last contract
he'll probably ever have. If he has a major injury,
(55:10):
like his career would be over. So I get it,
But like he's gonna go to the Hall of Fame,
So it's gonna be a Hall of Famer. Can you
get the Super Bowl? Like that would change his career
super Bowl Champion because then you make money the rest
of your life in whatever town. And just I just
think he's way more marketable. That would be my recommendation.
Assuming he saved well, which he seems like a smart guy.
(55:31):
I think he's gonna be fine financially. He's got generational wealth.
I would prioritize winning one, two, and three and then money.
I'd be thinking Chiefs, I'd be thinking Bucks. I'd be
thinking Packers, Ben Big Ben. I think the Steelers are
kind of stuck. You know, I do not think they
want Ben Roethlisberger back. I just don't think they really
(55:53):
have a choice. You know, they're drafting in the twenties
because they made the playoffs. He makes huge money. I
think in a perfect world, at there was no dead
cap space, they'd cut him. I even bet they've probably
contemplated cutting him, but he's probably agreed to maybe give
some money back or something to facilitate him staying on
the team. But to me, you just short Ben Roethlisberger
(56:16):
like a stock just because he saw him last year,
he just kind of fell apart, and that's normal. He's
thirty nine years old, he was coming off a terrible
elbow injury. I don't think he's just gonna get better
with age as this. As it gets cold. They play
in a cold weather city, they play cold weather teams
in their division. It's it's hard for him to avoid that.
(56:38):
They've got really good defenses in their division in Cleveland
and Baltimore. It's gonna be it's gonna be difficult for
an old guy that can't move anymore and just kind
of breaking down, you know. And his people have alluded
to on different shows. He's not Mr. He ain't Tiger
Tom Brady. In the off season, he's not doing TV twelve.
(57:00):
There's not much pliability. He's doing twelve bounced curls, which listen.
I like twelve bounced curls as much as the next guy,
you know. And I don't mind my quarterback drinking like
I'm pro drinking. But Roethlisberger, like you know, he's he's
aged hard. He really has kJ Wright, who's been just
(57:20):
an ass kicker for Seattle, and I don't blame him.
I don't blame any of these players for saying this,
I'm not taking a hometown discount because you have a
position of power when you've won before, like kJ White's
a winner. I'm pretty sure kJ Right won a super Bowl.
To me, once you've won a super Bowl, like the
Dominican Sioux, to me, he loves money. He finally won,
(57:44):
like it's to me if I'm the Dominican Sioux, I'm
trying to get paid again, trying to get some cash flow.
Already I got my ring. kJ Right super Bowl champion.
Of course, he's not taking a hometown discount. Time to
get paid when you've won and you've made money, kJ
writes in the ultimate position, Right, he's one, he's he's one.
That he's got a ring. He's been a part of
(58:06):
awesome teams. He's been. He just wins all every year.
Like you could argue, just whoever offers you the most bread,
just take it. He's thirty one years old. He'll probably
get like a two or three year deal. Try to
get as much money as you can, and if that
means going to the jacks, you go to the jacks.
You just can't. And sometimes remember Klais Campbell is like God.
Clais Campbell going to the Jags. What he's kind of crazy.
(58:29):
What happened? The Jacks were sweet, say Malik Jacks Like
Malik Jackson just all that money, Yeah, because he had
one and then all of a sudden they're good. So
you never know. You take the money when you've won big.
That's back to J. J. Watt. When you haven't won
and you're already really rich. Like once you're really rich
in business, you don't just take every business deal, or
especially every business deal just because it's the most money.
You can kind of pick and choose. You have different priorities.
(58:52):
Now it's hard like most in the business world. You know,
I'm thirty six. I hopefully I lived till a long time.
Got time on my side. JJ's career, you know, it's
coming down the home stretcher. But I would love to
see a player of his caliber. You know. I think
the Patriots if Belichick was still in New you know,
(59:13):
I'm excused me. If Brady was still in New England
and they had just won the Super Bowl, we would
all be saying that JJ go to New England, right.
I think I think J. J. Watt would have been
the biggest lock Patriot of the last two decades. It's
gonna be a Patriot, take a little less money to
go there win a championship. Now it's like a little
more open ended, packers a little risky, you know that.
That makes a lot of sense. From there, they're good.
(59:35):
They've only been in one Super Bowl in a decade.
At least Chiefs been back back Tampa. Feels like they're
gonna be right in the mix. I'm a J. J.
Watt fan. I'll never forget seeing him live at the
Colosseum in the in the peak of his powers. It
was stupid how good he was stupid. You know how
we talked about Aaron Donald, That was j J. They
(59:56):
were equals, unblockable, unstoppable, made every play. I mean it was.
I think both those two guys best two players the
last decade on defense, Like even Khalil Mack wasn't quite
that good. What Aaron Donald has become these last couple
of years and what J. J. Watt was for like
two or three years in his peak it was it was.
It was awesome to watch live unless that day day
(01:00:18):
you were a Raider fan. I remember he scored a
touchdown that day, not by like a fumble because they
threw him a touchdown. He was a tight end. It
was sweet. He was in his peak and he's still
damn good. He's he's a baller. Okay, I'm gonna put
me middcoff mail bag when I put up on the
YouTube page, John Middlecoff, check it out and uh have
a great weekend. Peace,
What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecop three and Out podcast,
February Rock and Roll. Big news of the day, which
we will dive into off the top is our star
quarterback in Seattle, Well not hours, but just the the
star quarterback in Seattle, Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll. Articles coming out.
(00:33):
We got some stuff going on. I'll give you the
thoughts there. Uh, there was a good article. I actually
saw a couple of interesting articles. I thought this week.
Wickersham had a big article on the NFL, p A
and the NFL, and a couple of things jumped out
to me there another article on the negotiations, how they're
(00:53):
in the two minute warning for the new TV deal.
A couple of things jumped out to me there on
some of these net works and where football is kind
of headed. Uh, some Tiger Woods related. I have a
thought on maybe why I was such a big fan
and how there are a lot of parallels with the NFL.
Some other just little news could going around. Let's start
(01:16):
with the drama going on right now in Seattle, and
let's face it is big as the Deshaun Watson's story
is this one feels bigger. Russell Wilson's won a Super Bowl,
He's been to another. Seattle is become one of the stalwarts,
the powerhouses, the major franchises in the You know, this
(01:37):
country's number one sport and that's football. Seattle Seahawks in
the last decade of probably been a top three or
four franchise. You know, you'd say New England of the
last decade was number one. I I think you could
make a sound argument Seattle was number two. We can
nitpick that all day long, but you get the point.
It's a big fucking deal. Bottom line, it's the Hall
of Fame quarterback that Listen, We've all seen countless documentaries
(02:03):
on bands, on major companies, on basically major breakups, famous people,
uh that have these huge public lives, and I was
just thinking, like, what do they all have in common?
It does feel like most of them go their separate
ways or have issues because of ego and what usually
(02:27):
encompasses that, right, money or power. And you can argue
with power comes money. Well, I think when you look
at this situation, like we've all fought in our normal
lives and our normal jobs and our normal relationships, like
you have disagreements. Welcome to the real world. People disagree
every day. I mean I could drive down to McDonald's
(02:50):
right now to grab a burger and I would not
be happy with someone that didn't pull, you know, getting
a lane fast enough. We have disagreements with people were
not even talking to let alone. People were talking to
our wife, our business partner or boss, unemployee whatever. That
is human nature and not out of the REALWN possibility.
And then when you factor in competitive jobs right Wall Street,
(03:13):
any sales job, the NFL, a lot of alpha's, a
lot of contention, people butt heads again, not abnormal. If
you're not having that, I I think you're either you're
in denial or you're not successful. Now there is a
point where you you do you draw a line in
(03:35):
the sand, and the two people look at each other,
whether it's a football team, whether it's a marriage, whether
whether it's a business partnership, and say do we have
to go our separate ways? Because in this situation you'd go, well,
it's not money. Money is not the reason. And I
think if you read that athletic article, Schefter tweeted that
(03:56):
he gave his four teams or the four teams are
out there, and not that Seattle is looking to trade him.
But let's let's call it what it is. Let's call
a spade a spade. There is enough smoke to know,
you know what, there's a fire in the fucking building. Now,
is it a fire that's they're not it's not capable
to put out by the firefighters. It doesn't feel like that.
(04:19):
Is it a fire that's feels to be growing relatively
rapidly and if the firemen don't get there quick, it's
it's gonna burn down this quote unquote relationship. That's where
it feels like it's going. And it's all because of ego, right,
Pete Carroll who the last twenty years what I love
about social media? Everyone acts like pets the village idiot.
(04:39):
I watched him go to USC and kick the ship
out of everyone, absolutely dominate. Sorry for all the kids
in the cars excited about this topic. Don't mean to swear,
but as I told my mom, I talk like I talk,
you know, I just I'm not a Harvard grad. I
just speak like I speak. And clearly Pete Carroll is
viewed like an average coach. He's well above average. He's
(05:00):
he wins and dominates for these last two decades in
college and in the pros Now, if you want to
say a large percentage of his successes died to Russell Wilson,
I'd say, well, when they really won, and they've been
winning for the last five or six years, right, they
go to the playoffs every year they win the division,
they win a playoff game or two. But when they
(05:21):
were going to the Super Bowl and came within a
play off the Super Bowl, Pete Carroll won his way.
Defense run game hits you directly square in the teeth.
As Russell got paid, and they had to skimp at
other places. And they've played quote unquote a more offensive
brand of football. Right, their defense just hasn't been as good.
They had to let guys go, guys got old. They
(05:43):
have not been as dominant. And so Pete goes, well,
when you've listened to me, check out USC I dominated.
Check out when you first showed up, and I built
the team the way I wanted to build it, we dominated. Remember,
we had the number one scoring defense for four straight
years and we were one of the best rushing teams
in the league with Marshall Lynch in the last three
(06:04):
or four years. Every Booker eater on Twitter is like
let Ross cook and listen. I am not a Russell
Wilson Hayter in my lifetime. He's as just a consumer
of football. He is one of my favorite players to watch.
Though I think the way some fans social media talk
about him might be a little much. Right. They act
(06:28):
like he's as they said in the article, people think
he's Dan Marino. He ain't Dan Marino. Well, who knows that.
I don't know a guy who's seven years old and
been coaching football for forty five years. Pete Carroll now
is Russell Wilson the best quarterback Pete Carroll has probably
ever had as a head coach. Of course, so then
(06:49):
there's Russell where he goes, well, I'm a star. I
get paid like a star. I produced like a star.
I've helped carry this team, not partly because of my
contract or whatever. He ain't thinking like that, So I
think I should have more juice. And clearly they're butting heads,
and they're at a point right now of can we
fix this? Well, typically in a situation, who was going
(07:13):
to fix this problem? And you'd say in most NFL situations,
the Brady Belichick situation, there was a guy named Robert
Kraft and he could be an intermediary. He could talk
to both because he realized the value of both. And
I'm not saying Pete's Belichick and I'm just Tom, but
Paul Allen is no longer around, and there is not
(07:35):
anyone necessarily to fix this problem unless these two men
Russell's made hundreds of millions of dollars, Pete probably made
a hundred plus million dollars in the last decade, have
a lot of money, have enormous egos. So can one
of these two men put there and and really both
(07:58):
of them eventually put their he go to the side
and have productive conversations. Now you could argue John could
John Schneider Baby possibly, but he's also in a tough
position because he naturally is gonna lean at this point
in time. Probably Pete a little bit because he's an administrator,
he's an executive, like he's closer to a coach that
(08:19):
he's a player. Even though Russell, as everything we've ever
learned about his playing in Seattle was strictly because John
was pounding the table. He told Pete, who check his
teams at USC check his teams what he built in Seattle.
He does not like small players including the quarterback. And
(08:39):
remember when he was first introduced to Russell, he was
not into it because he was so small. John talked
him into it. They drafted the third round. The rest
is history. But there Peach type players, Marshawn Lynch, Jamal Adams,
Cam Chancellor, Richard Sherman, fuck DK Metcalf again. Excuse my language,
kids excited. He likes enormous blue chip guys. And Russell
(09:03):
is a better talent than he is. Like his physical attributes,
which are special right is keeping plays alive. But he's tiny.
And I wonder if there's part of Pete that has
never quite got over it, has never really just enabled
him to be Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen. And maybe
because deep down he doesn't believe he can or at
(09:24):
least sustain it. He did this year up until the
second half of the season when their offense was putrid.
But I don't see how this situation gets solved. How
many seven year old men. I'm pretty sure Pete's like
sixty nine, so he'll be seventy like at that age,
with an unlimited amount of money, with countless pelts on
the wall. Go you know what, and I get Pete
(09:47):
a lot of credit if he can do this, but
I don't think we can expect it. Older successful people
do not just I'll swallow my ego. I'll take it.
I can't see that happening. You know. The other person
that rarely saws zeg the young in his prime artist,
whether it's a lead singer, whether it's an actor storming
(10:08):
off a movie, whether it's a star quarterback or a
star shooting guard. Usually those guys once they get in
this I don't even want to say diva mindset. But
just in this tunnel of I am the best. And
I don't even blame Russell for thinking that I am untouchable.
I am greatness. He ain't swallowing his ego and the
(10:29):
owner ain't around. So who is fixing this problem? I
don't think the problem is fixable. Now. Do I think
that Seattle wants to trade Russell Wilson? Of course not.
Do I think though the more this goes, the more
Russell kind of puts this pr campaign out there of
you know, I don't want to go, but I'm kind
(10:50):
of open to it. I respect to Shawn Watson. He
just said I don't want to play here. Russell doesn't
want to do that. Why because he has this image
where he doesn't want to be viewed as the bad guy.
Go Hawks, right, So he honestly, I'd respect more of
Russell if he just said I want out. People like Okay,
he just wants out, even though I'd say, hey, listen,
(11:12):
I think a lot of times with deals, we always
think one side always wins. I think both sides one
on this. Russ is very very lucky to be drafted
to the Seattle Seahawks, a team when he showed up,
had a great defense in a run game, and gave
him a landing spot to become and blossom into the
star player, just like I think Pete as a coach
(11:34):
was very very lucky to have drafted Russell Wilson and
let him become the quarterback right away and then blossom
into the star. But to act like one side of
the ledger here is taking advantage of the other side
is just wrong. So I think you have these two
hardheaded people staring at each other big egoes. Money ain't
(11:54):
an issue. They're both have unlimited amounts. Russell has more,
but pizza coach coaches don't even need to buy. Peachs
been making huge money forever right coach multiple NFL teams,
USC for a decade, now Seattle for a decade, big
time coin. I don't see how this is fixed. I
don't see how Russell Wilson, if truly he wants out,
(12:16):
and I don't even think it's arguable that he wouldn't
mind leaving. He's ready for a change. That Russell Wilson
will be traded in the next couple of months, which
would have sounded insane if I would have said that
a month ago. But you can see the way Russell
is kind of scalpting this PR campaign to like try
(12:37):
to get out but under no circumstances, look like a
James Harden, looked like a Deshaun Watson. And my if
I was Russell's you know PR guy, say, listen, people
are numb to this Russell who even cares. Just go
where you want to go, make it known, and let's
just move on. Society. We don't remember two weeks ago,
no one remember. You'll move on now. What sucks is
(12:58):
being a Seattle fan. So I put myself in the
situation of a fan of this team. I don't care
how many first round picks we get. I don't care
Derek Carr, Dak Prescott, whoever is coming back. I'm not
trading the best player in the history of my franchise.
I would be furious there is you could give me
the next four Raiders drafts. I do not care. I
(13:22):
would not I would. I understand where the fans are
coming from. We cannot trade this guy, but I just
wonder what the owner gone, Pete Carroll having all this juice, Like,
I'm just honestly where I'm sitting right now, I don't
know who where he goes. I could see the list expanding. Uh,
(13:43):
I expect might be strong, but I will not be
shocked in the least, So I I I guess I'm
just awaiting a tweet that you know, there have been
uh legitimate talks of Russell Will and these three teams
about a potential deal. A couple of weeks ago, it
(14:04):
was like, you know, I don't know, it's up to Seattle.
A couple of weeks later, it's now like, yeah, you know,
he'd be open to moving, and Seattle be open to listening,
and these are the teams. So it just the snowball
is coming down the mountain and it's growing and I
think it all gets back to because neither one of
these guys are gonna flinch. You know why, because big
ego guys with big bank accounts typically don't do. They
(14:28):
don't flinch, they don't change, and they definitely don't give in.
I think you got a stalemate. Clear where this is headed. Now,
just where does he end up going? Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
(14:49):
R to listen live. Okay, let's dive into something that
I saw. I think Front Off the Sports is a
website and they're it on the business of sports and
specifically the business of the NFL. And there have been
information and I think someone reported to them that. And
(15:11):
let's get something we talked about a lot here, but
let's just hammer it home. The major difference between the
NFL and baseball and basketball, the team sports their business
models is the NFL is all in on television, right,
That's where they get the majority of their money. Now,
obviously the other sports make money on television. But when
(15:33):
you have eighty one home games as we saw last year,
if you followed Baseball the Corona issue when they only
played sixteen games. Depending on what Jeff Passon Haymand those
guys that like forty of their revenue came from the gate,
and the NBA is forty one home games, asked Joe
(15:54):
Lacob with the Warriors and v Veck of the Kings
who just got new arenas, they make a large percentage
of their revenue from the gate. The NFL, I think
last year. I guess we'll find out by the new
league year because like three million dollars might have been
slightly less from the media rights every single team. Think
(16:14):
about that, every single team gets a check. Well, it's
paid I think over the season for accounting for about
three million dollars. Well, we know what the salary cap
is in the NFL. Last year it was like a
million dollars, so they're over that by hundred. Literally, all
your players are paid for by the television money than
(16:36):
what's your coaching staff cost? Fifteen million dollars a year?
Also all paid for what's your staff cost of your organization?
The media pays for everything. That's why the NFL is
such a cash count right now. Everything that Jerry you
name it, whatever owner you want to pick Jeffrey Leurie Kraft,
your cronky. What they make from, you know, the stadium,
(16:58):
the suites that tickets, the concessions is gravy. The NFL
is printing money, but it starts with the television product.
Because the television product right now now it's different because
the NFL doesn't have the inventory as the other sports.
But one thing we know when we put a game
on it, when we put an NFL game on television,
(17:20):
it dwarfs the other two. You know, uh, team sports,
right the NBA, the NBA Finals last year. Now granted
it was in a bubble, but it's been trending down
for a couple of years. It that that the number
they do is like putting the Jags and the Titans
on a Thursday night. Thursday Night Football does huge ratings.
(17:41):
Sunday Night Football, which I'm gonna talk about right now,
is the number one television show in America. Think about that.
The number one television show in America is an NFL
football game for me at five twenty one Today night,
if you live in New York, kicks off at eight
(18:02):
twenty whatever. That is the number one show in America.
When I was growing up, whether it was Seinfeld, my
dad was a huge fan of mash Uh. The major
television shows did like fifty two sixty to seventy million
people watched an episode. Well in two thousand one. Those
days are over. Those days are done. I just got
(18:24):
a new smart TV. I'll talk about this actually in
a minute. But Monday Night Football for the last decade, ESPN, Disney, ABC, whatever,
however you want to consider it, paid two billion dollars
for the rights for Monday Night Football, and for the
first half of that decade, right, they were getting crappy games.
The second half and definitely the last couple of years
(18:44):
they've been getting better inventory. You know, the best deal
you could argue, the best business deal for any media
company in America over this last decade was NBC's deal
with the NFL. NBC for Sunday Night Football for the
last decade paid less than half of what Disney paid
(19:07):
for Monday Night Football. They paid two billion. NBC paid
nine hundred and fifty million dollars for the number one
television show in America. Now, while the NFL, as they
wrote in this article, it's not like the NFL got screwed.
While clearly it was worth more than that. It's good
to have the exposure you want people watching like it
was a fruitful, uh you know deal, but it's a
(19:30):
deal that at the end of it, you go, if
you're the NFL, we're gonna double that thing. And as
they wrote in the article, expect that number to double.
And really NBC has no choice because, like I talked
about mash or Seinfeld or whatever the show is, there
are not hit television shows anymore on TV. They draw
(19:52):
millions upon millions upon millions of people. What was like
probably the biggest show of the last six months, the
Queen's Gambit? Where was that? Netflix? And back to my
smart TV forever? And maybe I'm a little weird. I
did not put a television in my room, and girls
I dated will always get mad or whatever, and I
(20:14):
would be like, you know, I had multiple televisions in
my living room. I got TV in my office. If
I needed to watch something in my room, I'd bring
an iPad. My thought process and in theory it made
a lot of sense to me. I was gonna use
my my room to sleep, to read and obviously do
the other thing. But mainly I didn't want a television
in there because I wanted to read. Now, I didn't
(20:37):
do much reading in there like I thought, so I
finally just had it installed. I put it up there,
hung it the other day with a buddy the other day,
and I had called Comcast because I'm one of these
crazy millennials that still has the cable box and I
go listen to I need to get another cable box,
and they said, actually, if you have a newer TV,
you're gonna have apps. I'm sure many people listening know this.
(20:57):
You can just download the Comcast streaming app and just
watch your normal cable box. All you have to do
is plug the television in and connected to WiFi. So Ever,
I turned on this new Samsung TV, which it's crazy
how cheap televisions are, or Samsung TV off Amazon for
like four bucks. It was four fift with this with
the soundbar came out to like less than six. It's
(21:20):
just what have I been waiting for? And I just
go to my apps, Netflix, Amazon Prime Streaming. I can
watch whatever I want. And part of this article said
also that Fox no longer wants Thursday night football. Well
who do they want involved in the NFL? A fellow
ball guy named Jeff Bezos, so expect Thursday night football,
(21:42):
and they kind of hinted this to be on Amazon,
which I think forever, it's like, we can't be on
one of these apps. In five years from now, it's
going to be more likely that everything is watched through
apps than it ever will be basic cable. It's clear
Basic cable is kind of like newspaper as were a
decade ago, not quite dead yet but gonna die fast, right.
(22:05):
Radio still kind of hanging on, doesn't have that much
longer of a shelf life. It's clear where we're going.
So the NFL is smart one. It's an easy one
for them. But it's also like even Jerry Jones or
Jeffrey Lurie or any of these old guys that go,
I don't want let's just keep it on these main channels. Well,
it's like, if I'm Stephen, I go, hey Dad, you
(22:26):
just press the home button, you click Amazon Prime, and boom,
you're there. And they did it this year I think
with a forty niner game. You press two buttons in
the game comes up. It's actually really really user friendly.
And what's the other thing. Forever it's like, well, I
don't want to deal with one of these tech companies,
Let's go with the blue bloods. They got all the cash.
Amazon's got more cash than all these companies combined. So
(22:50):
Thursday Night Football it looks like it's gonna be on Amazon.
NBC is gonna have to double their investment. But it's
an easy investment for them to make because they have
no choice because the mass is do not watch their
other content beside live sports and some news, so the
NFL is in complete control. It's always my issue when
I hear these NBA guys talk about, well, live rights
(23:12):
are so powerful the NBA, even as the consumer dips,
it's gonna be okay. I kind of call bullshit because
of the amounts of money these leagues are asking for,
and like the last NBA deal, for example, they got
a ton of cash from t n T from ESPN.
The ratings are plummeting. Now I'm not saying they're gonna
go away, but I'm saying they're gonna come back to earth.
(23:35):
The NFL is the opposite. They're gonna be about to
double down. And we'll talk about this article on the
NFL p A and what they fought for. But the
big cash is coming. And as a player who was
involved in negotiations last year said, why the owners were
so willing to negotiate early, be open minded and even
(23:56):
give a little. It's because they wanted labor peace, in
labor harmony. When they were at the negotiating table for this,
why because this to them is all that matters. This
is their number one thing in their business model, the
television rights or the streaming rights or whatever you want
to consider it. Right the verbiage is changing as our
(24:17):
world changes. But the money for them comes from us
watching it. The NFL is consumed by us sitting in
our couches and watching football. It's the number one television
show in America. And it's clear they're about to double
down on all these investments. They're gonna involve Amazon and
they're gonna print more money. Now, one thing, I'll be there.
(24:39):
I'm not gonna be arrogant or be naive enough to
know this is only in ten years. They're gonna double down.
Who knows things in society have never changed faster. And
I'm not gonna just sit up here and say football
is gonna dominate forever. But right now they're kicking everyone's
ass with as r V would say, attention and attention
(25:03):
is the most important thing because for the NFL, they
don't actually need you to hand them the cash. They
just need you indirectly to get Amazon Prime, to get
your cable subscriptions, and give them your time, which indirectly
is giving them your cash. It's like I always say,
the reason these leagues Basketball included Baseball, the PGA Tour
(25:26):
whoever can have money, and the players get paid, the
coaches get paid. The people involved get paid are the fans.
The fans are the consumer. And even if you never
attend an NFL game the rest of your life, if
you consistently watch football every Sunday, you're more important to them.
(25:46):
They would rather have you do that than show up
in the second deck one million percent. And as long
as you keep doing that. But honestly, once the deal assigned,
this is where the NBA. The NBA signed their big deal,
so their ratings are down, it really doesn't matter now
it screws their partners, it does not screw them. Luckily
for the NFL, the partners no. Currently their product is
(26:09):
important and people do watch now. Could that change over
the next decade, You never know, But right now, once
this deal is signed, the NFL is gonna have a
lot more money coming in, and they already had a
boatload to begin with. Okay, let's get into one other
kind of business e topic, and it's somewhat rehashing old stuff.
(26:31):
Seth Wickersham, who's an excellent journalist, wrote a long article
about Demorris Smith, the nfl p A union lead lawyer.
I guess he's the just lead guy, and the negotiations
stemming back from two thousand eleven to where they're at now.
They just obviously completed it before the season as new
(26:53):
c B A, and just some of the inner workings
of their business. And on the most basic level, if
one of you listening right now wasn't negotiating against me,
and you're negotiating against me and only me, yet you
have ten partners, so it's one verse ten. I have
an advantage because the only person I have to answer
(27:15):
to and the only uh vision I have for whatever
we're negotiating right is mine, and I know what I
want and don't want at least at the time of
the negotiation. Were you speaking for nine people, including yourself,
makes it ten. Could be a lot of visions maybe
(27:35):
three guys think alike, but then everyone else is fractured.
It's difficult. It is always easier to negotiate with less
amount of people. So I'll never hold it against the
players that they just have a shipload of them. Can
excuse my language to the kids, I'm in I'm in
a I'm in an excited mood today, and there are
(27:59):
a lot of There are dramatically more NFL players than
even baseball man roster. Well, there's more than double the
amount of NFL players on an actual roster in season,
and then you talk about offseason fringe guys, practice squad guys.
It's more than that. You have a ton of players,
and like in all sports, but the NFL, you have
(28:21):
a large percentage of the workforce that does not make
that much money. In the NBA, for example, the average
salaries seven and a half million dollars. Most NFL players
are making closer to the minimum. I think the average
salaries a couple of million bucks. But like in the NBA,
like in the NFL, the power for rich players have
(28:41):
the most juice, right, So just on the most basic level,
you get and you don't have thirty two owners negotiating
against the players. Let's face it, you got two or
three that speak for them all. Jerry Kraft, maybe Ziggy Wolf.
Right there, there's a group of them, and they're not
going back and forth, right Mark Davis, Jed Yorke, whoever.
(29:04):
Some of the guys that they're just like Jerry, You
and you, we trust you. Keep the money flowing. We'll
keep cashing them checks with the players. If I'm a
fringe backup linebacker, my views for what I want in
the c b A are probably a lot different than
Aaron Rodgers, who remember, I think it was last year
in the off season when they were negotiating the CBA
(29:25):
and was getting kind of ugly over the off season,
notoriously said he wanted to cancel the off season. Well,
of course, one of the greatest players of all time
wouldn't need the off season. You know who needs the
off season? The majority of the league. Why they need
that to impress coaches, to try to learn the scheme,
to try to make the team. So everyone is gonna
(29:47):
come at it from different angles, you know who. I
don't blame for thinking that. I don't necessarily blame Aaron
because if I was in erin shoes, I wouldn't really
want to practice in you know, uh April either, Like,
what what am I really getting out of it? Now?
There's a team aspect to it. I get it. But
if you've got a big gass house in Malibu, do
you think I want to be in Wisconsin in uh
(30:09):
in early June? No? I don't. But so it's complicated.
It's not an easy job, and you always gotta be
at least cognitive or or you know, And wonder where
and what angle this article why it was written? And
I honestly don't know, because there are parts that made
d smith look good, they're part that made them look bad.
(30:29):
They're part that made the owners look bad. Regardless, one
thing that really jumped out to me, I think the
players did themselves as disservice. One element of this article
is the players argued that d Smiths compensation was too much.
They're arguing over billions of dollars. And if you're gonna
(30:50):
sign a c B A let's say for a decade.
If the NFL right now is a ten to twelve
to fifteen billion dollars a year business, if you're talking
about a decade, you not even factoring in it going
up every year. If let's just say, we'll just pick
a number ten ten billion dollars a year. If I'm
signing a ten year deal, and let's just say in
this world where it stays, you know, it does not
(31:11):
go up, which is not the case. But just for
mass sake, that's a hundred billion dollar deal. De Morris
Smith was paid one point I think a little over
one point six million dollars, and some of the people
in the executive committee did not want to give him
a million dollar bonus to take his compensation up to
two point six million dollars a year. I read flag
(31:34):
the players might take you, guys are morons. If I
am going into a ten billion dollar a year negotiation,
and like I said, a hundred plus billion dollar deal,
my lawyer better be making ten to fifteen million dollars.
You know who Listen. I don't claim to be like
super successful in business doing pretty well. Know some people
(31:55):
that are multi millionaires crushing it. The first thing they
always tell you, don't skip on accountant, skimp, and don't
skimp on a lawyer, because those guys can do things
for you that you can't do for yourself. And there's
a reason that the big time lawyers and the big
time accountants. When you roll into the nice neighborhoods and
the country clubs, they tend to have some of the
(32:17):
big houses in those neighborhoods because they're worth their weight
in gold. And the players were arguing over a million
dollars to a lawyer. To me GANE. Upshaw, who obviously
was a former player, made six for me to feel comfortable.
How did none of these players that make a ton
(32:37):
of money. They have a ton of powerful people around him.
I'm sure have some powerful lawyers not realize you know,
what we need is a like a ten million dollar
lawyer to go into war with these men that have
unlimited resources and money. So the players did themselves a
disservice by not getting the best of the best. And
d Smith might be good. I mean, the owners claim
(32:59):
to love them, which is not an ideal thing. But
to me, when I read that their their union chief
makes under two million dollars, I'm sorry I read flag
that thing because, like I talked about earlier this week,
money is all relative. And if we're talking billions of
dollars and basically well over a hundred billion dollars, that
we're gonna sign a deal, I better have an elite lawyer.
(33:19):
And guess what elite lawyers do. They cost a lot
of money and their guy doesn't cost enough for my liking.
Would you like, what if I told you this? What
if I told you know, Aaron Rodgers, this your best
wide receiver, he's a million dollar player, your best uh safety,
million dollar player? They'd be like, what, we can't get
a blue chipper? Davanta Adams underpaid like fifteen million dollars.
(33:39):
Like your money in your industry does represent how good
you are eventually. Now, obviously guys on rookie contracts, but
there are no rookie contracts on you're hiring a lawyer.
You guys have big cash, hire the best of the best.
So they did themselves a disservice there. The other thing
I'll never forget, I think players, because the only thing
the owners have ever thought about is the money. They
(34:01):
do not care about practices, They do not care about
preparation time, They do not care about the off season.
Like we had just discussed with the business of the NFL,
is predicated off television product. As long as they play games,
no matter how you get to that game, you can
practice once you can practice ten times. They just need
the game to happen because they know right now there's
(34:22):
nothing lasts forever. As NBC would know, they just had
one of the greatest deals in American history. We just
need the game to happen. So however you get there,
we don't care if you take no snaps during the
week or take whatever. And the players were adamant, too
many double days, too many practices during the season, making
us where pads during the seasons. The owners were like,
have added d tell them all, no more paths during
(34:44):
the season, no more double days. I'll never forget. In
two thousand ten, when I was hired, my first year
was before the lockout, and that first year we had
double days. We had physical practices, and I vividly remember
do Staley love Deuce and you know, being an older guy, right,
and he was a young coach. It was his first year.
Is like an intern coach. He's like, when I first
(35:04):
got here, our practice were way more physical. And I
remember people telling me coaches on the staff and scouts
on the staff, we have one of the more physical
practices in the league with coach read I mean running
goal line drills and I had come from pat Hill,
where pads were always on, so it just felt like
a real physical practice, right, It was legit, but I
think for NFL standards it was headed toward a you
know nowhere what it was, and like the nineties, right,
(35:27):
the following year is when the lockout happened, and when
finally the go ahead and the lockouts lifted and everyone
comes back. Double days were no longer allowed. And I
remember was my second year with the team, and usually
as a scout you go to all the practice training camp. Well,
with no more double days, the afternoon was a walkthrough.
We didn't even go because there was pointless, right, We
(35:49):
just stay in our room and work, and I just remember,
honestly didn't. I couldn't even fathom what was going on.
I was like, oh, this is way easier for the
players than than the last year that I saw. All
the players are really happy. You know who the happiest though,
we're the owners, because they got way more money in
the deal. They traded money for that. And part of
the reason is that the players had a had a
(36:11):
union chief and a lead lawyer that just not highly
paid enough, Like you get what you pay for in life.
At the highest level, and you could argue even at
the lower levels. My dad always taught me this when
you go when you're buying something nice, I'll just use
a golf analogy. Like if you buy some used cheap
golf club for a hundred dollars instead of buying a nice,
(36:32):
brand new golf club for four you can't get mad
when that golf club snaps the cheap one in a month.
You can use the car analogy. What's more expensive when
you buy a used clunker because you're you're trying to,
you know, keep some cash. When that car breaks down
in six months, when you could have spent five thousand
more ten thousand more got a newer car that would
(36:53):
have a warranty, you can't complain when you end up
spending more money for that. And now the players are
complaining they're not their fair share. Well, you guys traded
the wrong things. And the one thing the owners always
have is they only care about one thing. They don't
even care necessarily about the product, because they are arrogant
(37:13):
enough to think that fans and listen, all you guys
listening are clearly big football fans are never gonna stop watching.
And I know this like it. It pays my bills.
I haven't worked in the NFL since two and I've
made money for seven straight years because of the power,
you know, predicated on talking about the sport, because the
sport's so popular. If I had worked in baseball instead
(37:35):
of football and been out of you know, baseball, I
would not have been able to do this did The
interest just would not have been there. I'm lucky, and
a lot of people profit off this sport just because
it's so big, and no one profits born in these
owners and they know it. Okay, I want to talk
about Tiger for a second. He obviously gotten the terrible crash,
(37:56):
and I think it's fair to say his legs are
pretty screwed up. He's in pretty bad shape. And one thing,
I I'm very jealous of a lot of you guys
that listen and shoot me d m s something that
I can't relate to anymore. Growing up, I was a
massive forty fan. I'm saying, just like any one of you,
whoever your team is, they were my squad. And then
(38:19):
as I worked in football and even through college, they
started sucking and I became probably more of just a
fan of the league and Peyton, Manning and Brady. But
then once I worked in football and ultimately got to
the league, it kind of left me my days of
being a fan. I'm numb to it and for the
last you know, five six years. But ever since I've
(38:40):
been in the podcast space with my other podcast with Guy,
we talked a lot about forty and doing this, like,
I'm very numbed who wins and loses? Even the Niners
now I make I care about the Niners. I just
need them to be interesting so I can profit. Ideally,
I love it when they make Super Bowl runs because
I can make more money. But it's become it's all
money related. My days of being tied as a fan
(39:03):
are died with football. I mean are absolutely dead. And
part of it is I know people in the league,
so you just root for them. And I'm like that
in life now when I meet someone and I become
friends with them or even acquaintances or hell we might
follow each other on Twitter, Instagram, if we go back
and forth, I'm just gonna root for you. Lucky enough,
in my position I get to know meet some of
these people. It's fucking cool. I'm still a fan of that,
(39:27):
but my my fan of the sport died. I don't
really deep inside even any of the sports, like the
San Francisco Giants, probably the last team I was a
fan of, and I really don't care anymore, partly because
I just hate Gabe Kapler and I missed Bruce Bocci,
like I can't even take the franchise that seriously anymore.
Like I like the I'm I guess I would consider
myself a Warriors fan, but I'm only there because I'm
(39:49):
a Steph Curry guy. If you remove Steph Curry and
you brought in James Harden, I wouldn't care. I am
jealous of any fan out there now. I all my
friends are fans, like I still relate very well the fan.
I still like going to games and sitting in the stands.
At least I gained a love of that the last
couple of years because I hated sitting with the media
so stiff and honestly, when everyone when anyone says like
(40:12):
middle if he's a member of the media, honestly, it
makes me cringe. Like I maybe I once was, but
I pay for tickets now, you know, I guess the
only thing I would get a credential now is go
to like a training camp the Niners and the Raiders,
and the Raiders eventually stopped letting me show up to theirs,
so I can only go to the Niners. And I
obviously I could travel around if I want to do
and go see other teams, which is cool. So I
(40:32):
I guess I still have some media there, but that
if I go to a game, I'm not sitting with
the media. I'm gonna pay for a ticket. So I
I I'm jealous of anyone who's a fan, and I
think I understood. In high school, I played football and
I played golf. I was not a good football player.
I was a right guarden who who played you know,
(40:52):
started a little bit of senior year and played a
little bit on JV in and out of the lineup.
It was one five ten, not a great athlete, not strong.
We ran the wink tea. But I loved playing football,
loved it. All my friends played football, and it was
it's still it's awesome. It was some of my best
memories as a kid playing high school football, which I
(41:13):
can imagine many people listening that never made it past
high school football. It's a fucking blast, right, especially if
your friends are on the team. Even I think my
senior year, like five and five, it doesn't even matter,
at least it didn't for us. I mean, I like
Daylys sud down the street from my my house right now.
It does. But I was way better at golf, and
I've always loved the sport of golf, and if you
(41:33):
follow me on social media, you know I like golf
a lot. I'm a huge Tiger Woods fan. And I
was thinking, he's probably the last person before I became
numb to everything over the last decade that like still competed,
that I still have that high school, junior high version
of me that's still a fan of And when I
got the tweet and looked at the TV that I mean,
(41:55):
when I just saw the picture, I was hoping he
didn't die. And the information coming out there's legs are shat.
I think it's fair to take an educated guest that
we might never see Tiger Woods competitively again, which sucks,
And honestly, I was I was pretty rattled when he
got into the car, and it's like, I don't know
the guy, right, I mean, we would probably never be friends.
(42:17):
I hope, I hope if we met, we'd be cool.
I mean, I know he's a big Raider fan. I
definitely can talk Raiders with him, but I never met
the guy stood next to him in a bathroom once,
partly because I was at for the Pebble Beach pro
am he was putting at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. He
went in to take a leak and like me and
my cousin waited like five seconds and a couple other
(42:38):
guys and like follow them into the bathroom. No eye contact,
but uh, we're about five feet away. That was cool. Uh,
But I understand, Like, yeah, and I think the media
consistently ships on fans because you become numb to it,
you you lose that. And luckily, like I'm not friends
with media people. My friends are normal people. My friends
are season ticket holders with the Raiders when they are here,
(43:00):
definitely with the forty nine now. And I understand it
because like it feels like Tigers over and it sucks,
like it's pretty devastating. And I also think he has
a lot of parallels even though he's a golfer and
obviously it's not a physical sport. Before the car crash,
he had like football level injuries. Right in two thousand
(43:24):
and eight. I remember I was just about to move
because the US opens in June, and my mom and
my brother and my dad were coming with a trailer
and we're gonna pack all my stuff and San Louis
Obispo and take it to Fresno, where I was about
to become a graduate assistant. And clearly he's about to
change my life. I didn't know what I mean. I
had a decent idea it was gonna be a pretty
(43:44):
impactful time, but I didn't know what was coming. But
I had a couple of days to wait, and I
remember he was it was the U s open and
it was the US opening one with a torn a
c L basically a crack knee, like just stuff that
when you hear Emmett Smith played an inn C Championship
game with a separated shoulder, like it's just it's legendary shit.
(44:05):
It's why when you saw Tiger Woods play the match
with Peyton Manning and and Tom Brady, those guys act
like Tigers. They're equal because they think as just in
terms of greatness, in terms of mental toughness. Because he
was and I listen, I don't know if you're listening
to this, you're not a big golf guy. I think
we all respect the ship out of this human being
(44:26):
and the thing I admire most, and I definitely Brady
has this. And it's actually different because Brady has never
had He had the one injury three or four years
ago before Tiger just won that Masters. I think it
was what's his name, right, Thompson of ESPN had wrote
that long article about Tiger Woods and he's in his
(44:47):
backyard is when he's having all the back problems and
he'd hit the ground and he couldn't walk, and he'd
have to call for his daughter to call for help,
to maybe like get Notable Gaye to come over and
pick him up. I mean, these are stories you read
about guys that played in like the seventies for the
Steelers or the Dolphins or the Raiders. Not a golfer
(45:08):
in his early forties couldn't walk. Here's the other thing,
and this this is where it parallels Tom. If you
go to Tiger's bank account five years ago, ten years ago,
when he's having all these health problems, he has more
money than God. He does not need to do it anymore.
But his drive Tiger Woods, like Tom Brady, Tiger got
(45:28):
into golf. Tom got into football, and I think Belichick
and I know Coach Read is like this, And this
is why I admire the hell out of Coach Read.
They didn't get into it for the money. On the
money impacts them, it changes like the way where they
live and what car they drive. It does not change
their love and their driving, their addiction to the sport
and the thing I admire most I saw with Coach Read.
(45:48):
By the time I started working for the Eagles, he
was rich, he was making a ton of money. Now,
he had never won a Super Bowl, but I'll never
forget his work ethic was unlike anything I'd ever seen.
And then when I'd go to the Combine these last
up of years and Bi, you know Coach Ready still
just working away. His work atic is incredible, And Tiger
and Brady, these guys dedication to their craft is just unparalleled.
(46:11):
At the highest level, where the competition is the highest.
They are the one percent of the one per centers.
And this guy's drive to come back and ultimately win
that Masters after all the injuries and all the ship
he'd been through. Some of it self inflicted, definitely, but
the injuries to a golfer more like a middle linebacker.
It's insane. We'll never see anything like it again. And
(46:33):
unlike Brady, I don't think his fame will ever be
matched because this guy is the world famous. This guy's
fame is like and I say the same thing about
Michael Jordan's. If you became super famous before the Internet,
you are stupid famous. Remember growing up, like how famous
like Michael Jackson was, or Mike Tyson or some of
these people that were just like God, the Beatles, like
(46:54):
the fame now like Lebron is really famous. But he
said the Internet and social media, like obviously Tiger's had
two but we all know Tiger was famous like nineties
seven when he went Hello World and Nike signed him.
And back to what I was saying about being a fan,
I think he's one of the last guys I'm like
a true fan of. This might sound corny, but I
kind of got emotional when he won the Masters. I
(47:15):
really did, because he kind of like connects me to
my childhood. It's and that is dead for me. And
I think if you listen to me long enough, it's
why I think I'm pretty good at talking about football,
because I'm not I'm biased. Maybe to a couple of
guys I know, but just with the players and the teams,
I don't care it. It takes me to gamble on
(47:35):
sports now to get the juice that I used to
have when I was fourteen and I could watch sports seven.
I can't really anymore. And I still watch a ton,
but I profit off of of it. If I wasn't
making money off it, I would not watch nearly as
much as I do. And I I just this week
(47:58):
was it sucks because I think we saw I just
don't see how this guy ever comes back from this
um and if I had to google some of the
words and the statements about his bones being shattered. But
I'm just glad as a big sports fan at my
heart and who I was growing up. Like the last
three years, we got some badass moments with the guy.
(48:20):
I remember when he was making his comeback two thousand eighteen,
almost won the British that he won the Tour championship.
Who my guy Habrman, who I do the other podcast with,
was there calling it for virtual reality, called it for
virtually he was in the ability. He said it was incredible.
Remember there's that visual of all the fans falling Tiger,
then six months later or less than that, he wins
(48:41):
the Masters, and then just this year in Corona, my
least favorite time in the history of my life, besides
like you know, non deaths in my family or something.
I mean, it was the most miserable year ever. I
think we'd all tend to agree there is him him, uh,
Peyton Manning and Tom Brady like that that event was
(49:04):
made for me. I don't know what you thought of
that event. I that that's that's one of my favorite
viewing experiences of my lifetime. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Tiger
was PHILM. Micholson. So you know, I just think we're
addicted to athletes that are addicted to their craft. And
I think you hear so often guys talk about like
(49:24):
I want to be a brand, I want to do this.
I maybe I grew up on guys that became a
brand because they dominated. Michael Jordan. The Jordan brand happened
because Michael Jordan won six championships. The t W hats
and the Nike polos got you know, Phil Knight was
(49:46):
slinging those things like they were drugs because Tiger was dominating.
Now everyone has a logo before they win a game
or like we're starting to business, like what have you done?
Like I grew up on Tiger Ti or in Michael,
and you know, I remember my dad. We'd always argue
about great Joe Montana was when you grow up on someone,
(50:06):
I do understand. I will go to my grave arguing
the Tiger, Michael and probably now Tom Brady, like I
don't see how they're being topped when I'm seven years
old arguing with my hopefully like my grandkids about you know,
they're up and coming. Whoever, none of these guys are
getting knocked off my perch. Okay, let's bang out a
(50:29):
couple quick, just stories that are kind of going around,
and I think what we'll do because we're almost at
or getting close to an hour plus. Once they put
in ads here, I'll put the Middlecoff mail bag. I'm
just gonna put it on YouTube. I think I did
that last week. I'll record that, uh either than I
the first thing in the morning and put it on
(50:49):
my YouTube page. John Middlecoff, have a YouTube page, John Middlecoff,
go check that out. Have just different content up there, football,
little golf, Uh, mainly just football and golf. I'm a
full ball, golf, guay a Brady extension, you know, crazy?
It is like, listen, you might be as big of
a Tiger or I mean Tom Brady homer as like
(51:11):
as a Tiger Woods Homer. It's pretty nuts that we're
talking Tom Brady extension going into the year that he's
gonna be forty four. And it's really not even that weird. Right,
they gave him two years fifty million dollars. He's got
twenty five million dollars guaranteed this year. Uh, and is
it crazy? Just give him like a twenty million dollar
extension and basically just kind of kick the can down
(51:33):
the road. I mean, what's is this ever gonna stop?
Do you guys ever just think about that, like, is
this ever gonna stop? Because I think at this point
in time you'd be saying, well, maybe not. Eventually it
will and it will probably take an injury because his
arm looks normal and he moves like he's always moved.
(51:54):
It's not like he moves great anyway. It's just it's
basically I think at this point time, is gonna take
an injury to end career because that happen to Peyton, right,
was his shoulder or his arm. Remember its just it
fell off. He couldn't throw. We think Drew Brees arms
struggled this year, that Peyton year, I attended a mid
season game against the Raiders. It was it was embarrassingly bad.
(52:16):
I remember going to that that game. The irony actually
is because they both go into the Hall of Fame
this year, because they retired the same year as Charles
Woodson had never picked off Peyton Manning. He got him
twice in that game. The ball just floated in the air.
He had no zip. That's not the case with Tom.
I just where's Tom going? I would just keep paying
him thirty million dollars a year, keep having to be
(52:38):
the quarterback until he can't. Just keep on like one
year deals, keep building the team around him. Let him
live in Florida, no state income taxes, hang out of
Jeter's pad, get wasteed the offseason, TV twelve in the
regular season, and keep kicking ass and taking names. J J. Watt.
Diana Russini, uh she used to be NBC Diana that
(53:00):
she works. ESPN wrote that he has an offer between
like fifteen and sixteen million dollars. That's crazy. Now, I
don't blame him if someone's gonna give him like two
years thirty million dollars and guarantee twenty million of it.
He has to take. That's he doesn't have to take
the deal, but that's a massive deal for him. Like
to me, I view him as like six seven million
(53:21):
dollar player on real locker room guy, great, like rotational
defensive end. Ideally just kicks ass on third down. It's
like a team captain and just big part of my squad. Right,
But I don't want to depend on him every snap
like I would Aaron Donald or J. J. Watt five
years ago, partly because he gets hurt, hurt a lot,
(53:42):
Like I don't know, I I won't be able to
blame him if he goes to Browns or something for
like two years, thirty five million dollars and they guarantee
twenty five of it, Like that's a lot of money
to turn down, or the Raiders or whatever. If I
was him, it's easy for me to say. But he's
got He's made a hundred million dollars on the field.
He was one of the most marketed athletes of the
(54:04):
last seven eight years. I'd imagine he's made millions off
the field. Can you imagine We've talked about this before.
If when I introduced J. J. Watton ten years, I'm
running an Oracle or whatever company and I'm not bringing
J J. Watt to talk to my employees and I go,
I'd like to welcome Super Bowl champion J J. Watt
(54:27):
changes your career man, So I mean Tampa Kansas City. Now,
obviously those type teams is gonna be way less money Buffalo.
They make a lot of sense, but it's still pretty risky.
Like they got as far as they've been in basically
thirty years this year to the NFC Championship and they
get their ass kicked by the Chiefs. If I was
in my i'd probably go to the Chiefs for a
(54:50):
million bucks or whatever. His minimum is easy for me
to say. If he's turning down twenty million dollars, that's
a lot of money. I'm not and I'm I'm as
pro money as anybody. But when you already have a
lot of money, you can operate from a position to strength.
Now there are other variable This is the last contract
he'll probably ever have. If he has a major injury,
(55:10):
like his career would be over. So I get it,
But like he's gonna go to the Hall of Fame,
So it's gonna be a Hall of Famer. Can you
get the Super Bowl? Like that would change his career
super Bowl Champion because then you make money the rest
of your life in whatever town. And just I just
think he's way more marketable. That would be my recommendation.
Assuming he saved well, which he seems like a smart guy.
(55:31):
I think he's gonna be fine financially. He's got generational wealth.
I would prioritize winning one, two, and three and then money.
I'd be thinking Chiefs, I'd be thinking Bucks. I'd be
thinking Packers, Ben Big Ben. I think the Steelers are
kind of stuck. You know, I do not think they
want Ben Roethlisberger back. I just don't think they really
(55:53):
have a choice. You know, they're drafting in the twenties
because they made the playoffs. He makes huge money. I
think in a perfect world, at there was no dead
cap space, they'd cut him. I even bet they've probably
contemplated cutting him, but he's probably agreed to maybe give
some money back or something to facilitate him staying on
the team. But to me, you just short Ben Roethlisberger
(56:16):
like a stock just because he saw him last year,
he just kind of fell apart, and that's normal. He's
thirty nine years old, he was coming off a terrible
elbow injury. I don't think he's just gonna get better
with age as this. As it gets cold. They play
in a cold weather city, they play cold weather teams
in their division. It's it's hard for him to avoid that.
(56:38):
They've got really good defenses in their division in Cleveland
and Baltimore. It's gonna be it's gonna be difficult for
an old guy that can't move anymore and just kind
of breaking down, you know. And his people have alluded
to on different shows. He's not Mr. He ain't Tiger
Tom Brady. In the off season, he's not doing TV twelve.
(57:00):
There's not much pliability. He's doing twelve bounced curls, which listen.
I like twelve bounced curls as much as the next guy,
you know. And I don't mind my quarterback drinking like
I'm pro drinking. But Roethlisberger, like you know, he's he's
aged hard. He really has kJ Wright, who's been just
(57:20):
an ass kicker for Seattle, and I don't blame him.
I don't blame any of these players for saying this,
I'm not taking a hometown discount because you have a
position of power when you've won before, like kJ White's
a winner. I'm pretty sure kJ Right won a super Bowl.
To me, once you've won a super Bowl, like the
Dominican Sioux, to me, he loves money. He finally won,
(57:44):
like it's to me if I'm the Dominican Sioux, I'm
trying to get paid again, trying to get some cash flow.
Already I got my ring. kJ Right super Bowl champion.
Of course, he's not taking a hometown discount. Time to
get paid when you've won and you've made money, kJ
writes in the ultimate position, Right, he's one, he's he's one.
That he's got a ring. He's been a part of
(58:06):
awesome teams. He's been. He just wins all every year.
Like you could argue, just whoever offers you the most bread,
just take it. He's thirty one years old. He'll probably
get like a two or three year deal. Try to
get as much money as you can, and if that
means going to the jacks, you go to the jacks.
You just can't. And sometimes remember Klais Campbell is like God.
Clais Campbell going to the Jags. What he's kind of crazy.
(58:29):
What happened? The Jacks were sweet, say Malik Jacks Like
Malik Jackson just all that money, Yeah, because he had
one and then all of a sudden they're good. So
you never know. You take the money when you've won big.
That's back to J. J. Watt. When you haven't won
and you're already really rich. Like once you're really rich
in business, you don't just take every business deal, or
especially every business deal just because it's the most money.
You can kind of pick and choose. You have different priorities.
(58:52):
Now it's hard like most in the business world. You know,
I'm thirty six. I hopefully I lived till a long time.
Got time on my side. JJ's career, you know, it's
coming down the home stretcher. But I would love to
see a player of his caliber. You know. I think
the Patriots if Belichick was still in New you know,
(59:13):
I'm excused me. If Brady was still in New England
and they had just won the Super Bowl, we would
all be saying that JJ go to New England, right.
I think I think J. J. Watt would have been
the biggest lock Patriot of the last two decades. It's
gonna be a Patriot, take a little less money to
go there win a championship. Now it's like a little
more open ended, packers a little risky, you know that.
That makes a lot of sense. From there, they're good.
(59:35):
They've only been in one Super Bowl in a decade.
At least Chiefs been back back Tampa. Feels like they're
gonna be right in the mix. I'm a J. J.
Watt fan. I'll never forget seeing him live at the
Colosseum in the in the peak of his powers. It
was stupid how good he was stupid. You know how
we talked about Aaron Donald, That was j J. They
(59:56):
were equals, unblockable, unstoppable, made every play. I mean it was.
I think both those two guys best two players the
last decade on defense, Like even Khalil Mack wasn't quite
that good. What Aaron Donald has become these last couple
of years and what J. J. Watt was for like
two or three years in his peak it was it was.
It was awesome to watch live unless that day day
(01:00:18):
you were a Raider fan. I remember he scored a
touchdown that day, not by like a fumble because they
threw him a touchdown. He was a tight end. It
was sweet. He was in his peak and he's still
damn good. He's he's a baller. Okay, I'm gonna put
me middcoff mail bag when I put up on the
YouTube page, John Middlecoff, check it out and uh have
a great weekend. Peace,
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