August 19, 2020 • 48 mins
Mike Blewitt and George Kurtz are back again for another edition of Football Full Circle! In this episode, the guys break down Travis Kelce's new contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. The guys discuss the COVID concerns for NFL coaches and how their routines have changed. Mike and George talk about the future of the Washington Football Team, focusing on Dan Snyder and Ron Rivera. The guys wrap up the show discussing some bad GMs in the NFL and some great GMs in the NFL.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Sports grid dot Com. Everybody, and welcome to Football Full Circle.
(00:23):
Mike and George coming at you right here on the grid.
What's going on, George? Are you gonna today? Bud? I'm
doing well, Michael. And before we start the show, I
must wish my oh, my room daughter, youngest daughter, what's
that oldest, my youngest daughter, happy birthday today. She turns
ten today, so we'll Happy birthday, Madison. Happy birthday Madison.
So we'll dedicate this show in her honor. And hopefully
(00:46):
one day she'll get a contract as or perhaps tomorrow
she'll get a gift as big as Travis Kelpsey got
from the Kansas City Chiefs. This week, he signs an
extension just the day after George Kittle signs his I
know we mentioned it in Saturday's program, Am, but uh
just what. We got a few more details as things
rolled in during the week. He regrees two terms, as
(01:08):
you can see here from Aaron Rappaport. Chiefs agreed in
terms of Travis Kelsey and a four year extension worth
between fourteen and fifteen million per year and new money
average big contract there. It's different from the Kidtle deal
and that Kelsey had two years laft, so the structure
isn't the same. That being said, he gets a good
extension here. The actual details are four years, fifty seven
(01:31):
point to five million dollars, includes twenty eight million in guarantees.
I think we usually gotta wait a couple of days
in order to see what the actual guarantees and how
frontloaded backloaded. This is George, but he's in Kansas City
for another six years based on this deal. Yeah, it's funny.
I mean when you think about it, did you find
(01:52):
it weird though, that we find out George Kittle in
the A M and a couple of hours later. It
may may not even been a couple of hours later, know,
so Kelsey gets his deal. I mean, maybe it's coincident.
This is also a strange to me. These both these
deals got done at the same time on the same day,
So I don't know what the age is talking to
each other, but how much they could get that deals
(02:12):
are somewhat similar as far as a A v uh.
You look at the contract though, and uh what. This
is one of the reason why I follow Andrew Brand.
He pretty much tells you it's two years and then
we'll see you know, you pretty much go by a
year by year basis. Like a lot of contracts. We
want to know what the structure is, where's the guarantee,
When did the guarantee start? When can a team rip
it up and move on? Should Kelsey get old quick?
(02:35):
So when they say twenty eight million in guarantees, that's great,
I just want to know how much it is fully guarantined.
What all George and I are looking at, and you,
as an NFL fan, should be at home, is when
can the team get out of the deal, What will
he reasonably and what will he have been paid to
that point. Guarantees against injury are obviously important for the
(02:56):
mega deals like Mahomes, so that if he got hurt
this year Pat Mahomes did, he'd still have a hundred
and forty million dollars to be able to collect it.
That's a big guarantee, sort of unusual. We actually, George
and I thought it would be higher. But nonetheless that's
why we usually say, well, we don't know quite how
great this deal is. But to your point, Ross Tucker,
(03:17):
longtime NFL player and member of the media right now,
had tweeted out right after the Kittle announcement that that
sound that you hear is the agents of Travis Kelsey
picking up the phone in order to get an extension.
And sure enough, twenty four hours later, Uh, that's the
deal and it's final. It's even less than twenty four hours.
So um, the chiefs who had a hundred and seventy
(03:40):
one dollars, not thousand, not millions in cap space out
we're conflicting, uh, conflicting values here earlier this spring now
have extended Pat Mahomes for five hundred million dollars, Travis
Kelsey for fifty seven million dollars, and Chris Owns with
the pay day I think in the eight five million
(04:02):
dollar range of memory serves. So uh, they've done a
really nice job being able to structure these contracts accordingly.
They obviously got a little bit of a bump with
in cap space due to the fact that Laurent Durna Tardif,
Damien Williams and missing one other player there's that opted out. Yeah, blanking,
(04:27):
but nonetheless those three opted out, giving them a little
bit of cap space for this year might have been
able to help. This structure gives more people some money
up front, but uh, good deal for him. And as
you can see from this stat from Jeremy Fowler VESPN,
Travis Kelsey has one hundred catches of fifteen or more
yards since that's thirty one more than that of any
(04:52):
other tight end during that span. As a smooth route
unner who doesn't take on a heavy blocking burden, his
game should age well. I think that's fair to say.
But a guy's his size playing a still physical position,
even though perhaps not as physical as Kittle or other
tight ends. Um, I'm not totally convinced that he can
(05:13):
make it to the end of this deal in good shape.
That being said, and Janelle Gates made it farther than that,
and I don't think he was quite the athlete that
Travis Kelsey was. I agree with you. I mean, Kelsey
is a different type of tight end. He is closer
to that wide receiver playing tight end. They don't ask
him to block all that much. Maybe they do this
year because of the couple of blindmen. I doubt it,
(05:35):
but maybe, But I think he will age better than most.
I think that is fair to say. Uh, he doesn't
seem to take the big hits like grunked it. Over
the years, it just seemed like whenever I saw a
grunt catch a pass, he always got leveled because people
are always taking his legs out. They never he was
trying to stay on his feet. Yeah, and he just
always got leveled. And he's such a big guy that
people always submarine him, right, always take out his knees
(05:56):
because he's too hard to get down from the show,
you know, from the waist on up. Just it's too
big a guy here. So I think Kelsey will age. Well,
it's funny you broke the same thing I was going
to bring up about that they had a hundred and
somewhat dollars of cap space. Good job by the capologist there,
I mean, mahomes sure, I took a crushing it team
friendly deal. You mentioned the players that opted out due
to COVID. That helped as well here. But to let
(06:18):
you know, when a team says they have no cap space,
they really do have cap space. Yeah, absolutely, as we
welcome in our radio audience to finish out this segment.
Thank you for listening. But Chief's definitely done a really
good job here. I think Brett Veach is really and
his staff are making are putting their stamp on this
league in a huge way. Look, Brett Beach was the
(06:39):
one that was standing on the table saying they needed
to draft Mahomes. That one decision is going to make
him immortal for many Kansas City fansy they he selected
the most valuable asset in the history of the NFL. Uh.
There are many gms that get things wrong get things right,
but him doing that and then being able to keep
(06:59):
this championship team together in a way that some didn't
expect they could. It's really fascinating. Some are trying to
compare it to the Rams being top heavy, and they
don't quite see it that way yet. George pat Holmes
signed a team friendly deal as big as it is.
We're talking about that more after the break. Sports grid
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(07:21):
real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks, and more.
Want the edge than get on the Grid sports grid
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grid TV. George can be found on Twitter at George
(07:42):
Kurtz on at Mike Flewett. I'm not gonna say anything
about the hate mail today, but well, you know what
hate mail for this show, send it directly to George.
So George, last thoughts on Kelsey. Um, people are trying
to say, ah, here it is Rams two point. They're
gonna be uh, they're gonna be underwater on these contracts,
(08:05):
and they're they're gonna be too top heavy. It doesn't
feel the same way to me. How about you? Well,
I mean we compare the Rams to the Chiefs. You're
comparing golf to my homes. I'll take my chances, but
with my homes. And he signed a team friendly deal
for what you and I are pretty much everybody thought
he was going to get. So No, I don't see
them as being too top heavy. I mentioned Kelsey is
(08:26):
two years and theyn't get out, and you're gonna want
Kelsey for at least two more years, if not three
more years before you really worry about him deteriorating Chris Jones. Yeah,
pass rogers could sometimes full up the planet real quick
for different reasons. You know, they don't play as well.
But no, I don't see this the same as the
rams here. Uh well, it's it's mainly because of my
homes there. He took home the best quarterback in the NFL.
(08:48):
Most us would agree with that. Golf, he's not top ten.
He mayn't have me top fifteen. So there's a big
difference there and where you're going on the water. Agreed, Agree,
So all right, more serious story to talk about as
I put on my spectacles. A little bit about coaches
that have come in contact with COVID. Front and center.
(09:10):
We saw on Hard Knocks. Really the first segment this
week was about Anthony Lynn telling his players that he
had actually corrected contracted coronavirus. ESPN. Tim McManus from ESPN
wrote a story about the number of coaches that have
been really subjected to this illness. A and B the
(09:33):
number of high risk guys that are still in coaching. George,
you and I both know, having tracked the sport for
a long time, is an extremely high stressed job. These
guys do not put their health first. Almost ever, despite
the fact that some of them were former players, they
worked themselves to the bone. They deal with all kinds
(09:55):
of stuff that probably would could have been preventative if
they put their health first. And a story starts out
talking about Philadelphia Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland. He's
fifty eight years old and when he's with the Miami
Hurricanes ten years ago, he was noticing discomfort during his
daily workouts. It turned out he had a nine blockage
in one of his arteries. It led to triple bypass surgery.
(10:19):
We bring up that story to say he is considered
a high risk individual having had this having this heart
cardiovascular issue. So he's one of many we now know
of coaches that have contracted the virus. You know about
Sean Payton, Anthony lynn Um, Doug Peterson. We have other
(10:39):
coaches out there that are older coaches as well. Romeo
Cornelli is seventy three, Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll or
Bruce arians sixty seven. Mike Zimmer sixty four, had major
eye surgery a few times. Chicago Bears d C. Chuck
Paganal fifty nine years of old, fifty nine years of
age in leukemia, in the way that they work, and
(11:03):
all this kind of stuff. People are starting to wonder
or any of these coaches going to opt out, and
to date nobody has no. I don't think they will.
I only think the coaches will opt out. And I'm
not saying they should, not saying they shouldn't. I just
don't think they will. And I think part of that
reason is fairly simple. Here, what do we know about
coaches throughout the years? I mean, they will work, he said,
(11:27):
work those to the bone. Somebody's coach to show up
before six am. Don't go and live at the midnight.
They get three four out of sleep. There's maybe more
old time Joe Gibbs. We've heard the story. He was
to sleep in the office. This wasn't worth going home anymore.
With Gary Kubiak situation. I was about to bring him up.
He was the next name. You know what happened with him?
Thought physically, I think, what, Well, A lot of times,
(11:47):
what they're doing here, you don't need to be doing that.
You don't need the are twenty hours a day for football,
You just don't. I think they're just so. I think
it's just a show. They want to show the owner
how hard they're working. They want to show the media
how hard they're working. It's the culture. But we've sort
of seen that change right over the years, last couple
of years, four or fight, the younger coaches coming into
(12:07):
You know, you don't need to put in that kind
of time. It's really you're not doing anything different here.
It can be done easier. So I want to hope
that helps here. But you're absolutely right. I mean, they're
gonna be around all the sweating players. You know, great,
they're not going in the scrubs, but they'll be close
to it and practice, watching what's going on there. You
can't tell me they'll be no transference. So they would
absolutely be at risk. Listen, we've seen in baseball some
(12:28):
coaches out out some teams. I believe it was the
Milwaukee Brewis said hey, you'll get paid, but you're not
coaching this year. You know, we we think it's too
dangerous for you. Chili Davis, the Mets batting instructor, is
doing the instruction remotely. He will didn't didn't come because
of the COVID. So you can't tell me that football
coaches aren't at more risk to do it. But I
don't think you'll see any opt out because they'll be
(12:49):
afraid of a because football is such a violence but
tough man sport. They'll be afraid of a being you know,
you know you're weak, you know you're It is late,
but it's it's the macho mentality. So I think it's
really silly. And a lot of these guys do work
themselves into the hospital. Um, we've seen it a number
(13:11):
of times. John Fox had health issues obviously in the
middle of the season. Chuck Bogano had the most serious
of health issues which couldn't be prevented. But uh, nonetheless, Uh,
these guys do put themselves at risk. HERM. Edwards is
obviously a long time NFL coach and now at Arizona State.
Quote here in this article. When I go home at night,
I'm exhausted. We haven't even practiced yet, said Edwards. Uh
(13:33):
quote and I'm just tired because I'm thinking of all
the stuff. Oh, I didn't think about that. I didn't
think about that. Uh, stuff like how am I going
to safely hold the team meeting with one student athletes? Now,
obviously the PAC twelve is canceled for postponed for the fall.
I guess it's canceled for the fall, postponed potentially until spring.
But nonetheless, he's just another example. And I met her
(13:54):
Edwards in a it's like a corporate speaking situation. He's
one of my favorite speaker I've ever seen. And he
talked about his day, George, And this was a long time.
It was probably fifteen years ago before I started doing
any broadcasting, and he talked about his day. Now. He's
(14:15):
sixty six now, so call it fifteen years ago. He
was right on fifty fifty one. I was probably maybe
sixteen years ago, so that is some. But he said
he would get up at four o'clock in the morning.
His dad was in the military, so he's from a
military family too, so that that places into it. He
would not eat it. He would drink a cup of coffee,
(14:38):
get a workout in and her still to this day
looks unbelievable for his age, right, um like looks like
still has like a player's body physics. And he would
not eat all day. He eat one meal a day.
He was doing intermittent fasting before people knew what it was.
(15:00):
And he working himself like crazy. But he's got you
know him, he's got so much energy that I just
remember thinking, like, God, I'm twenty years younger than this guy,
and he's got more energy than me. Uh. And I
just think that we're talking about similar situations where that
mentality is ingrand in these players. Now. I don't know
(15:21):
if herm would yell at any coach that's underneath him
if he went home to try to have dinner with
his family, but we both know that football coaches families
don't see them during the season. Yeah, that's the way
it works, right. It's almost like, well, you work your
buddle off during the season. In the off season when
you get to relax, but even then, it's not much
(15:41):
of an offseason. No, you know, you've got you've got
mini camps, rookie mini camps, they've got training camp. That's
why we always I alway talked about players. What month
do we worry about players is generally end of June
to July because there's nothing going on. And that's why
the football news is quiet because the GM's are away,
everybody's away. You worry about people getting in trouble here.
So is it. It's a tough job coaching. I don't
(16:03):
think they doubted it. There's so much pressure on you.
All right, you're gonna hear about it from the owner,
maybe from the g M, maybe from the media. The
players are griping about this and that. You've got everybody
coming out from every which way, and generally you're the face, right,
you know, whatever he wants to talk to, you gotta
go to those news counts is every day or every
other day. Yeah, we all know how Belichick handles it. Yes, no, yes, no,
(16:25):
not a football but other coaches so coach you to
their advantage. Bill Parcels certainly over the years learn how
to have to get that get his message, of course
through the media. Jimmy Johnson was the same way with Dallas.
They're more psychologist than coaches, but other coaches, it's the
worst part of your day and you can just see
the blood pressure growing up, going up as soon as
they got to step into that conference room. Yeah. Eric Mats,
(16:47):
who represents about two dozen coaches at the pro and
college level, says, quote, the players have a union, the
coaches do not have a union. That's a tremendous problem.
They are, for lack of a better term, caught in
the middle. They're not management, they're not players and they
don't have anyone negotiating on their behalf to address certain
issues that they can have. This is regarding the opt outs.
There's zero no coaching opt outs to date the NFL
(17:08):
of any level of coach, head or underneath header system.
And here's the quote they should probably land the plane with.
There's no way I'd opt out. But I don't even
think they have opt out for coaches. Mike Zimmer said,
I think we love to do what we do so
much that this is important to us. I get it,
but I'm more in some ways, I'm more worried about
them than I am the players should come back, talk
(17:30):
a little bit more about the Washington Football Club. Sports
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(18:10):
and welcoming in our radio audience. Thank you for listening,
thanks for watching. Talking a little bit about just talking
about the coaches and how nobody's opted out as of yet.
George but how about the officials who do have a
union unlike the coaches. Turns out seven of NFL officials
have opted out of the season. NFL Networks Tom Pella
(18:31):
Sero reported Friday that five on field of and to
play since for the season. I've one officials out. None
of them is George our Line judge Jeff Bergman, back
judge Steve Freeman, field judge Greg Gatrow, field judge Joe
Larru and back judge Tony Statur assume related to Jean
(18:54):
in some way. Uh. The deadline for reps to opt
out was this past Thursday. According to the between the
NFL and for NFL Referees Association, any official with concerns
about COVID could voluntary elect to take a leave and
we'll receive thirty thousand dollars and guaranteed job protection for
the season. Any officially test positive during the season will
(19:14):
be treated as an injury sustained while performing leagues sanctioned
or required activity, and be entitled to injury pay, medical expenses,
and other benefits. So good news from the NFL that
so few reps have decided to take a year off,
but the league won't have to scramble to fill a
ton of spots, George. But so that's it. They were
protected in a way that the coaches weren't. Kind of
an interesting dynamic. Yeah. Now, I'm a little surprised here
(19:38):
that I told you during the break that more officials
didn't opt out here, mainly because a lot of the
officials are they're not just full time officials. We all
know that, but these guys who are well off, right,
that's that's the reason they're an official because theoretically they
can't be bribed because they're they've had their CEOs of
companies awards independently, wealthy have on that. Here we go.
(19:59):
So I was surprised more did not that because why
would you want to go through this? I mean, I
get it technically most officials are far away or further
away from the players, but still they're gonna mascot right
the man when when there's that fund, when you've got
that scrumble, you got that pile, those officials dive in
there to see who's got that ball? Right, you have
to do that this year As a result of all this,
(20:19):
and if if they are we've all heard the stories
of what goes on at the bottom of those piles
from eye gouging to uh, groin grabbing and everything else.
That of the belt stuff was giving this down there
and everything else. That was the greatest call every body
that referee in the Buffalo Bills Jets game. Was that
back in the nineties maybe the eighties when we heard
that good have some personality there giving them the business
(20:42):
down there. But you're gotta see that over and over
again if they if no one's getting in there, you
know you're getting in there. That's happening. We've all heard
those stories of what goes on there. But still they're
closer to the play. They're gonna touch the football all
the time too. You know they mean not spotted correctly,
they never do, but that's gonna be involved as well here.
I'm just surprised that we didn't have more for guys
who said, are independently wealthy who need to go through this.
(21:06):
You know that I travel somewhat too. I know they're
not gonna travel as much they used to. The rules
are being laxed as far as how many times you
can do one team being one stadium, but still, I
am officials are not allowed to do more than two
games a year of one team, they shuffle them around accordingly,
but that will not be the case this year. Just
(21:27):
to try to reduce travel for the referee cruise involved,
they're going to potentially you'll see a ref to three
or four games of a particular team. Someone get to
play that many. So uh as an aside, we'll go
to get to Dan Snyder in a minute. At this
very moment, all this fallout from college. Um, but the
(21:49):
NFL right now, we've had in fact we had I
had it up in the other article players that have
tested positive so far in the NFL is Let me
see if I can find it here real quick as
we as I scrolled through this, But nonetheless I'll find
the number as they go through it. Um, how are
(22:10):
you feeling right now about the season with the protocols instituted?
As we get a little bit closer, we're now inside
of four weeks until the Chiefs Texas. I mean, if
you're asking how I feel that the scene is going
to start on time, it's the NFL. They are so
they believe the virus is going to bend to them,
So I think they're going to start on time. They're
not going to admit they have any problems unless we
(22:31):
have a baseball situation breakout the Cardinals demmins what happened
with them, then they might have to postpone a little bit.
We do know they set up the schedule for the
first two weeks of the season just in case where
they can move those games around and not lose anything,
you know, so we know that's happening there. But I
think they're gonna try and go through with it. I
don't think the start is really what they're worried about,
because also they have to admit that they made a mistake,
(22:52):
and the Anvil doesn't like new deck a right, they
don't want to admit they made never they believe they're
God there. You know, everything's gonna been to that. They're
gonna do what they want to do. So I think
they'll start. It's really finished that. I'm more worried about
one two team staffords across the league of known positives
since June. Since June especially, it's not that long period
of time. That is compared to one seven players this
(23:14):
off season, sixty four of which have occurred since reporting
for training camp. Now, overall, the numbers have been really
good for the NFL, right intake testing I think was
around one percent George, perhaps even a little bit less
um But I get why somebody like the officials that
have this protection would want to would want to opt out.
(23:36):
But in terms of how I'm thinking the season is
going to go, look at I did a whole hour
with Jolisi earlier this week. We had Aaron torres On,
and they were both really fired up about college football.
I think the Big Ten made a huge mistake for
for other reasons, not not in just that like they
got to get out there and play. They just feel
(23:56):
like the players are still at risk going doing workouts,
being on campus. They're no safer from the coronavirus, in
their opinion, no safer for the coronavirus being on campus
and doing workouts, and they would if they're out there
playing games. So I understood the points that they were making.
But the reality is college football has crumbled to some extent.
(24:17):
We may have the three Power fives go out there.
SEV teams are still live as of this moment, but
you know, we got major risks there. They've already reduced
this season. We've lost almost sixty teams in the NFL.
We're thirty two for thirty two going full boar in MLB.
(24:39):
We didn't lose any teams. We lost the Cardinals for
a couple of weeks. As you just said during the break,
they're gonna play eleven doubleheaders. So I'm just starting to
get to the point where I can't step in front
of the freight train they're going to play. I'm encouraged
by the fact that MLB hasn't completely fallen apart, which
I guess is a pretty low bar, but I've been
(25:00):
encouraged by that. I think they're gonna do this, and
I just hope that it doesn't fall apart. That's all
I can say. I mean, I think they're going to play.
I do uh start the season on time and all that.
I want the season to be played. I know I'm
a little negative on it, but I want the season
to be played. Listen, I set up my fantasy league
on the commissioner of my home LAK. I just set
up a draft September three. You know. I want that,
(25:23):
and I want that draft that were looking forward to.
At the fourth pick and away we go here. So
I want the season to be played. But what is
the NFL going to do? You can't tell me they're
gonna go through all seventeen weeks, Mike, every game being
played at the normal time, and everything's gonna go blah
blah blah. Fine, are they gonna be willing to do?
What are the team? Just let's bring up the first
game of the season between the Cowboys and Rams has
to be canceled for whatever COVID reason you want to
(25:45):
throw out there. They can't play that day. These two
teams may not have the same bye week. Are they
gonna be okay with making week eighteen make up week
for certain teams? You know, maybe they can do that.
I guess it pushed the players back. It has to
be part of the plan, right, you can do that.
But what if one team misses three games? Are you
okay now? With the And it's more, let's you know
(26:07):
it's a mare key team. It's not the Miami Marlins were.
No one cares saying those cars are a marquee team.
That's why they want these games made up. But let's
just say if the arguments like it is the Dallas
Cowboys or the Pittsburgh Steelers Patriots a marquee team? They
only played games? Yeah? Uh, what do you do there? Mike,
you can't. Haven't played three extra weeks and everybody has
(26:29):
all has a month off. That's not gonna work. Are
you gonna go by a winning percentage? Is a winning
percentage because Dallas went I don't know. Philadelphia goes eleven
and five, Dallas goes nine and four, So I think
by winning percentage I do the math to my head.
But if these Dallas will be ahead of Philadelphia, is
that enough? Even though Dallas then would have to win
two of their last three games, so they would have
played a full season to go ahead of Philadelphia. What
(26:51):
about a wild card? Yeah, that's why you just have
to assume that this season is not going to be
like other ones. The Cardinals are playing eleven seven inning
ol headers in the next six weeks. Uh in baseball.
In football, they can't have them. They can have them
do one makeup game. Realistically, would they bump back the
playoffs two weeks? Probably not, although it could get them
(27:14):
into you get them back a week. I don't think
it's a problem. Everybody gets by week. Everybody gets a
bye week except for the team that had to the makeup.
That's life. But then the number one seed is off
for like a couple of weeks. They don't want to
be off for two weeks. Probably, as you just said,
I'm gonna have to make allowances. I mean, is any
one game maybe that's not a big difference in might
(27:34):
the scenario I brought up. I don't think one game
is a huge thing, and maybe we get lucky. Maybe
that one game that's being made up between like the
Cowboys and Rams. I just threw it out there. Neither
teams in the playoff hunt, it doesn't matter, you don't
need to make it up. Or maybe both teams have
everything clinched. Cowboys already won the East, Rams are out,
or Rams have a wild card. It only matters for seating.
Maybe you don't make it up. Yeah, you know, I think.
(27:57):
I just think the NFL needs to be very clear
on what they have rules on bigger issue that could
come up. Georgia's all right. Let's say Dallas and Philly
both lose a couple of games. They finished nine and five.
They're both nine and five, but they both lost two games.
We're not going to do the makeups. But Philly, this
(28:17):
is a hypothetical. I'm not looking at their schedules right now.
Philly played more divisional games, and they ended up their
four and one in the division. Dallas is three and
one in the division, and they split head to head.
They can't use that. And there's there's a lot of wins.
Doesn't make any sense. There's there's a lot of Then
what's what's going to happen. Let's go happen in this
(28:39):
because I'm I'm of the belief in baseball, like treat
baseball as entertainment. Whatever happens, listen, happens. It's a games,
it's a it's a ridiculous situation. But we're let's go
but football, we're planning on playing a full season, not
playing in eleven game season. If they were to do that, okay,
then once again, whatever happens happens. But they bet iron
(29:00):
on all of these rules, all these possibilities, and you
and I just well just go to the top of
our head. There's many, many other possibilities. What have three
teams miss games and two of them against each other,
so you can't make it up in one weekend. We
need that second week to make them. You know, Dallas
misses two games, one against the Rams or one against
I don't know, Green Bay. You know, and you've got
(29:21):
to make these games up and it does matter. And
here's another thing. Let's say, you know Dallas, as I
mentioned against three games, that second game against Green Bay
doesn't mean anything with Dallas. They don't care. Are they
even gonna want to play this game? No, man, I
think these players, I think they've got a taste of
it from the NBA and how well it's going in
the NHL and well it's going, and how it can
(29:43):
go south in MLB. And I don't think there there's
gonna be a majority of guys that are being irresponsible.
But as we've seen, it just takes a couple and
you're asking to do it for five months, it's a
long time. It just is. Let's come back. We're talking
about Dan Snyder, Dalvin Cogen's mother, things right here on
the Grid. Will be right back on the uh with
(30:04):
more football. Full circle sports grid dot Com Betting insights
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(30:33):
the grid talking about Washington Football Club and George, You've
seen this story pop up before about the Wall Street
Journal breaking news earlier this week that the minority partners
have Washington's NFL team or pressuring Dan Snyder to sell
the franchise. People familiar with the matters say, now, realistically,
(30:56):
this is not going to happen. He has no intention
of actually selling the team. But when the minority owners
like Fred Smith of FedEx and others are putting pressure
on him in order to do something about this, or
putting pressure on the entire franchise, there's some been some
(31:17):
rumors that people are planning stories about him, trying to
make him look bad to try and get him out. Um.
People point to the Carolina Panthers as a way in
which the NFL forced him out, And I think Jerry
Richardson really kind of raised his hand quickly before it
got to that point. He was older, Uh, he was
(31:40):
probably looking to slow things down in his own way.
He had played in the NFL. He was the only
owner that had also. But it felt me like in
the moment that as much pressure as as was being
put on Jerry Richardson, he raised his hand to sell
the team before it even mushrooms, you know what I mean.
(32:00):
It just he was like, I'm out, I'm selling the team.
I get it. I'm just gonna retire, And that story
lost its legs as a result of him doing that.
In this instance, Dan Snyder was like, I'm not going anywhere. Plus,
he's young. He bought the team when he's a very
young man. He's a young owner still, and I just
(32:22):
don't see anyway that this is going to happen. But
it is an interesting dynamic that people seem to be
trying to force him to do so well. I think
there's a lot of layers here. Those minority owners were
also the ones who sort of got the ball really
going on changing the former nickname. Absolutely, they sort of
they sort of pushed that ball there were sort of
(32:43):
had no choice here. You bring up Richardson, he also
made a racial comment, so that really, you know, Snyder
hasn't done that. He's been a little what's the word
ignorant about the former nicknames, saying it's not racist when
we all know it is. I'm never going to change it,
blah blah blah. Has been a little silly about that,
But he's never said anything stupid where the Endvial could
(33:03):
use against him. I think it would be a bigger
fight for the NFL. I think Richison, but there's all
these sexual harassment issues that he happened on his watch. Now,
he wasn't directly implicated or accused in those, but you
could make the argument that it's like that they call
in the n c A an institutional control scenario. People
are running wild in that building. He didn't do anything
(33:25):
about it. I would agree, But does anybody truly believe
Washington and Snyder are the only organization that does this?
Which is why the other owners can't say anything right.
That's why I think the owners like, Okay, I'm worry
about my own backyard here, you know, and not do this.
I think you can make a case, but I think
it's harder case. I think Snyder will fight it. Richardson,
(33:47):
as you said, I think it was like he was
looking for a way out. Oh you want me to sell? Okay? Also,
you know that's fine, he went, he was gone. You
met the Snyder was much younger than Richardson. I think
he's egotistical. You're like, listen, a lot most Bill liionaires
are egotistical. They think they're right, they know everything. Either
he'd fight and that he may bring some things out
of the closet that the animal doesn't want out of
the closet. You know, wouldn't shot if he goes down,
(34:10):
you know, if he goes He's the kind of guy
was If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me.
You know. I think the anival would worry about that
to some degree here before pushing him out here. I
think what you brought up is interesting that he's he's
a little paranoid. He's only for twenty years. He said
he was a young billionaire, right, It's probably that's also
why he is the way he is. You got the
(34:31):
money at at an early age. He really didn't grow
up and yeah, yeah, yeah, And we've talked about this before.
Um where he is known or has been known. We'll
see if he just changed his tune to not really
taking counsel with other owners, which is rare. He's a
little bit of a lone wolf in that way. UM,
(34:54):
a lot of younger owners, they come in, they try
to make friends, they figure out how do we do this?
Like even somebody like David Tepp or need anybody to
tell him how to run a business right, sort of
like ten billion dollars, don't need help with That's what
the NFL is. It's my way. I'm gonna do it
my way, no no other thing to anybody, and we're
gonna do it this way. But look, how guys, how
(35:15):
any guys screwed up? Jimmy haslum it's lucky, frankly to
have in federal prison for his price fixing scenario. But
he's come in and run a already franchise that was
already beaten down further into the ground and there's no
signs of it turning around yet. Maybe Kevin Stefanski is
(35:36):
that savior. But it's not about smarts and money. It's
about how to do business in the terms of the NFL,
which is a fixed economy and a fixed way of
doing business. Yeah, it's it doesn't surprise me. It just doesn't,
you know, now, What's He's now paranoid? Right? He thinks
(35:58):
people are to are planting stories of about him. He's
saying things. I mean, I know Gabriel Morency talked about
this on his show that he could be suited for
Liabel for this and you won if that's coming next.
He wan't get he's Snyder's and somebody's giving the NFL
ammunition to try and get rid of him. Because if
he is sued on the sexual harass and that great.
He wasn't a part of it, but knew about it
and did nothing, and he's the owner, he can be
(36:19):
sued for that. He can be part of that lawsuit.
If there's a libel suit coming against what he keeps
saying about a certain I think secretary or whatever administrator
planning stories against him, and he can't prove that that's liabel,
and once again, the owners could then use that against
the word Goodell could use it against him. So listen,
we all know what Goodell's about protecting the shield, and
right now Schneider is he's soiling it. I don't think
(36:42):
there's any doubt he's soiling that. But I don't think that.
I just don't think the NFL is gonna be all,
let's get him out of here, not without a smoking
gun where they have no choice, because I think they're
worried about their backyard too. I just don't think this
is the only team this stuff happens. And I just wondered, like,
at one point, are you just are you at home
by yourself or with your family, and you're like, this
(37:04):
isn't worth it. Doing this for twenty years, I'm getting pounded,
and I know, and you think you know better. I
still think I know better just by the fact that
I've been a total failure at this for twenty years.
I know better in these people because I made a
billion dollars by the time I was thirty four years old.
So but I I don't know, like the one family
(37:25):
that gets crushed that you know, they're just never gonna
sell because their family business is the Brown family with
the Bengals. It's their family business, that's their money, that's
how their money was made. Uh. These other guys have
had different business ventures and have made money. Is now
the Brown family could obviously for entire based on whatever
they sell the Bengals for, which would be north of
(37:47):
two billion dollars, yes, even the Bengals. But um, you
just wonder how long he's going to take it. Obviously
he's going to take it on the chin for a
lot longer. Like he's gotten to the point where he's
actually changing the name. It's fast aiding in that way.
I mean he's changing the name after he said he
would never do that. He's had all these problems going on.
(38:08):
I mean, and he's not very good. I mean, let's
face a Washington Football Club, football team, whatever you want
to call this, they've been bad for a long time.
Two playoff wins in his ownership tenure, one in the
last fifteen years, and they won one in two thousand
five the last time. That's wow, that's terrible. That's just terrible.
It's awful, you know, And uh, as I like to
(38:29):
say with Jerry Jones, eventually that comes down to you.
You're the problem. You're the one constant to keep hirting
different coaches, different players, but you're the one that's still there.
Right it doesn't work. You got issues there, and the
phases comes down to sort of what you said before.
I'm a billionaire. Why am I putting up with his aggravation?
I mean, I would love to own the New York Yankees.
But if I'm gonna yelled at all the time here
(38:49):
I got a gazillion dollars here, I'm gone, I'm going
to live the good life, or I just step out
of the way. I mean, you know, I just stay
in the owner's box and just not like just not
do anything about it. Ring in the Ron Rivera thing
that might actually have legs for this team to at
least get them back to respectability so they're not getting
kicked in the teeth all the time. Ron Rivera obviously
(39:11):
did a good job in Carolina. Maybe he's got an
opportunity to do it here. Anyway, next story, before you
go there, before you ask your question, yes, if Ron
Rivera had to do it all over again, do you
think he accepts this job knowing everything that's happening here,
all the stuff with the team, I mean, Darius Geissman
and they had to release him now and everything that's
(39:32):
going on. Ron Rivera, who probably could have waited for
another job. I thought he was going to so did
I so did I. Do you think he's going to
take that job? Do you think, all things being equal,
if he had to do it all over again, He's like,
no way, I'm Ron Rivera, I will get another job.
I don't think so. Because of the guy that everybody
(39:53):
talks about that he is, he's so well respected, is
another guy with the military background. I think he just
sees this as getting past hurdles. If I you know,
I'm trying to psychoanalyze the guy. But he's such a
football lifer. I think he's just kind of blocking and tackling,
to use a terrible um cliche, and trying to get
(40:16):
through all of this. It's can be this abstraction, but
for him and the players, whatever, guy from a job,
I have no I think I think SNEI got very lucky.
He hired the right guy by accident. Really should get
a bonus already. Oh he should. He's actually get a
hell of a bonus a new contract. But if I'm
Ron Rivera, I'm thinking the same thing is I think
about Schneidol on the team. I'm Ron Rivera, I would
(40:37):
have gotten another job if I had to wait another
year to go get a job next year. That's the thing.
They don't want to sit out. They don't The coaches
don't want to sit out, And you're right, they're staring
coronavirus in the face. They can't. They can't stand to
be at home washing different people. You know, if you're
from rare washingt dealing with all this craft for a
team that hasn't been good and forever, you're playing against
(40:57):
the cowboy team, an egal team that you know what
better with you, and they're not going anywhere anytime soon.
He's he can make them that they can be the
acorn that becomes the giant oak. That's the way he's
looking at it. I think they're I'm trying to figure
how many owners in the NFL I wouldn't want to
work for. Snyder Jones are probably my top two, maybe
(41:19):
Davis out in uh Vegas. Now I'm not working for them.
Not if I'm Ron Rivera, I'm not dealing unless I
have written writing it was seeing that's really not worthless
too and write it. You will not in the fear
you will leave me alone. Blah blah blah blah blah.
The other than that, no, thank you. I'm I just
keep going back to East. Ron Rivera could have got
another job. There's no way I would have taken this job.
(41:39):
I got it. Uh so well close it out. We've
got three minutes. As speaking to reporters for the first
time in training camp is according to Ben Gosling from
the Minia from the Star Tribune in Minneapolis added, it
was never a consideration not to come to training camp.
This that was never coming from me. I love being
around the guys. Football is like a stress reliever for me.
(42:00):
I'm clad it's a stress reliever, but it's a pretty
stressful job. But in an in any event, that's not
what we heard from other people, George, listen. Maybe these
guys who work a whole looks and maybe staying at
home and not being able to you know, look at film,
look at plays, you know, coach he people up. Maybe
that is stressful. Maybe a drive you insane being at home.
(42:21):
Maybe your wife wants to strangle you being at home,
you know, in your home all the time, right, and
maybe you do need to go to work. Maybe that
is how you will you feel at home when you
feel comfortable, deal with football, deal with players, whatever it
might be. It sounds strange to me, Mike, but we
all know that some people don't know how to relax.
I don't know how to go outside. You you all
to go sit on a hammock and have a drink
and listen to music. Oh, watch a game on TV, O,
(42:44):
whatever it is, go out with the family, go to
an amusement, whatever it might be. I've known people in
regular jobs who can't relax, who are always on the go.
Here and maybe that's what these how these guys have built.
Maybe that's why they're good at what they do. Yeah, possible.
So we'll talk a little bit more. We got a
couple of minutes left. We'll talk a little bit more
about Dalvin Cook. On the other side, we were I
(43:04):
was sure you was gonna hold out. Now he's saying that. Uh,
that was never coming from me. I just find the
whole thing odd, George, we're worried about him holding out.
So we got another minute left. Uh so, yeah, comment
on it real quick. Dalvin Cook, did you believe that
he was gonna hold out? Or he just decided, you
know what, I can't sit at home. I gotta be
out there. I think he wants to hold out all
(43:26):
he was seeing this now. I think it's gonna be
a new thing in football. By the way, with these
top running backs realizing there's a short shelf life. I'm
gonna have to start to hold out. Do what Zeke
did you know, do what Melvin Gordon did in others
to get that contracts. I think we're gonna see it
more often. Cook. I guess he was talked at the
coming back or it wasn't a good idea here. But
I think they want they truly want to get this contract,
(43:46):
they might have to sit out a game or two.
If you're two or three years away from free agency.
All you're ready about the franchise take, which isn't gonna
benefit you either. And I think you may have sort
of forced the owner's hand. Not quite what Jamal Adams did,
mind you, but maybe you at the fourth dealers. Hey,
you're not gonna payb I'm not gonna play guy with
an injury history, obviously about very productive season in nineteen.
(44:09):
So Dalvin Cocoby one of those top players off the
board in your fantasy draft, George, right, like the top
five RBS. Did you get Madison to Yeah? So, George,
and I'll come back to close out this hour and
Football Full Circle on the Grid will be right back
sports grid dot Com Betting Insights and entertainment at your
fingertips seven as our team covers the most important topics
(44:30):
in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks,
and more. Want the edge, then get on the grid
sports grid dot Com. Alright, closing out this hour of
Football Full Circle. I've got a question for you, George,
since you were talking about Dan Sneider and mentioning that
(44:52):
you wouldn't want to play for him or Jerry Jones
or I don't know if you threw anybody else out there.
So it made me inc of what is the owner
you would most want to play for or coach for
in the NFL. I guess I'll have to limit it
to coaching. Don't have any playing ability, so and that's
(45:13):
players play. Players need a roster spot and they're getting
paid for their services no matter what. But coach because
the coaching dynamic, we all agree that it was difficult.
You said Jerry Jones is one of the guys you
want out to play for. Look how difficult that dynamic
was for Jason Garrett. You can pile on Jason Garrett
all you want, but the dynamic was difficult. So who
is the coach? Who is the owner that you would
(45:34):
like to coach for the most. And now when I
said this, I did mean, uh, coaching part, not playing
part play. You don't you don't have a choice but
you And with Jerry Jones, you know he's not staying
out of your way. He's gonna be involved, he's making
the press contents. He's gonna make you look silly and
as I used like the joke that you could see
the strings in the back of Jason Garrett's press conferences
because Jerry Jones they're pulling them. Uh you think of Anna.
(45:56):
You want an absent to Ona. Guys will leave you alone.
Let you do your but we'll spend money. That's the
key there, right, you want to spend money, give you
a budget there, but he's going to leave you alone.
I think you go to your team as the first
guy comes to mind the Rooney's. Not only do they
leave you, they give you time. They don't overreact to
(46:19):
one bad year. If you're fifty years old, can see
two coaching changes for the Steelers. If you're fifty, you're
going to chuck no to Cower to Tom two. I mean,
I don't know if I can think. I'm looking through
the teams and I don't know if I can think
of a better place. I mean, you don't want her
(46:41):
say in Indianapolis, no thanks. But this is what this
sort of goes back to what we're saying. It's why
if you're a young owner, and that's why it's why
I've said all along, I think Caroline will be successful.
David Tepper wasn't an already owner with the Steelers, and
he sort of learned, all right, this is how you
get things done here. That's why I trust that he
(47:01):
might be able to do it now. Maybe he becomes
a traantical owner starts firing, hiring and all this other
kind of stuff. Maybe, But he made one coaching change
so far, and you know, they changed personnel around. But
I think he's got a shop to really learn how
to run his team the right way, not just because
he has a lot of money or successful at his
hedge fund. But the reality is, I think you're right.
(47:23):
I think being able, they know how to run the
business of football. UM giants used to be an answer
and they're just not anymore. But it's a conversation for
us to talk about another time. That's it for this
hour and behalf of George Kurtz and producer Brian Rickowski
on Mike Bluett. Thanks for watching Football Full Circle. We
see you next time. Sports grid dot Com betting insights
(47:44):
and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the
most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive
betting models, expert picks, and more. Want the edge than
get on the grid. Sports grid dot Com two
Sports grid dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your
fingertips as our team covers the most important topics in
sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks,
and more. Want the edge than get on the grid.
Sports grid dot Com. Everybody, and welcome to Football Full Circle.
(00:23):
Mike and George coming at you right here on the grid.
What's going on, George? Are you gonna today? Bud? I'm
doing well, Michael. And before we start the show, I
must wish my oh, my room daughter, youngest daughter, what's
that oldest, my youngest daughter, happy birthday today. She turns
ten today, so we'll Happy birthday, Madison. Happy birthday Madison.
So we'll dedicate this show in her honor. And hopefully
(00:46):
one day she'll get a contract as or perhaps tomorrow
she'll get a gift as big as Travis Kelpsey got
from the Kansas City Chiefs. This week, he signs an
extension just the day after George Kittle signs his I
know we mentioned it in Saturday's program, Am, but uh
just what. We got a few more details as things
rolled in during the week. He regrees two terms, as
(01:08):
you can see here from Aaron Rappaport. Chiefs agreed in
terms of Travis Kelsey and a four year extension worth
between fourteen and fifteen million per year and new money
average big contract there. It's different from the Kidtle deal
and that Kelsey had two years laft, so the structure
isn't the same. That being said, he gets a good
extension here. The actual details are four years, fifty seven
(01:31):
point to five million dollars, includes twenty eight million in guarantees.
I think we usually gotta wait a couple of days
in order to see what the actual guarantees and how
frontloaded backloaded. This is George, but he's in Kansas City
for another six years based on this deal. Yeah, it's funny.
I mean when you think about it, did you find
(01:52):
it weird though, that we find out George Kittle in
the A M and a couple of hours later. It
may may not even been a couple of hours later, know,
so Kelsey gets his deal. I mean, maybe it's coincident.
This is also a strange to me. These both these
deals got done at the same time on the same day,
So I don't know what the age is talking to
each other, but how much they could get that deals
(02:12):
are somewhat similar as far as a A v uh.
You look at the contract though, and uh what. This
is one of the reason why I follow Andrew Brand.
He pretty much tells you it's two years and then
we'll see you know, you pretty much go by a
year by year basis. Like a lot of contracts. We
want to know what the structure is, where's the guarantee,
When did the guarantee start? When can a team rip
it up and move on? Should Kelsey get old quick?
(02:35):
So when they say twenty eight million in guarantees, that's great,
I just want to know how much it is fully guarantined.
What all George and I are looking at, and you,
as an NFL fan, should be at home, is when
can the team get out of the deal, What will
he reasonably and what will he have been paid to
that point. Guarantees against injury are obviously important for the
(02:56):
mega deals like Mahomes, so that if he got hurt
this year Pat Mahomes did, he'd still have a hundred
and forty million dollars to be able to collect it.
That's a big guarantee, sort of unusual. We actually, George
and I thought it would be higher. But nonetheless that's
why we usually say, well, we don't know quite how
great this deal is. But to your point, Ross Tucker,
(03:17):
longtime NFL player and member of the media right now,
had tweeted out right after the Kittle announcement that that
sound that you hear is the agents of Travis Kelsey
picking up the phone in order to get an extension.
And sure enough, twenty four hours later, Uh, that's the
deal and it's final. It's even less than twenty four hours.
So um, the chiefs who had a hundred and seventy
(03:40):
one dollars, not thousand, not millions in cap space out
we're conflicting, uh, conflicting values here earlier this spring now
have extended Pat Mahomes for five hundred million dollars, Travis
Kelsey for fifty seven million dollars, and Chris Owns with
the pay day I think in the eight five million
(04:02):
dollar range of memory serves. So uh, they've done a
really nice job being able to structure these contracts accordingly.
They obviously got a little bit of a bump with
in cap space due to the fact that Laurent Durna Tardif,
Damien Williams and missing one other player there's that opted out. Yeah, blanking,
(04:27):
but nonetheless those three opted out, giving them a little
bit of cap space for this year might have been
able to help. This structure gives more people some money
up front, but uh, good deal for him. And as
you can see from this stat from Jeremy Fowler VESPN,
Travis Kelsey has one hundred catches of fifteen or more
yards since that's thirty one more than that of any
(04:52):
other tight end during that span. As a smooth route
unner who doesn't take on a heavy blocking burden, his
game should age well. I think that's fair to say.
But a guy's his size playing a still physical position,
even though perhaps not as physical as Kittle or other
tight ends. Um, I'm not totally convinced that he can
(05:13):
make it to the end of this deal in good shape.
That being said, and Janelle Gates made it farther than that,
and I don't think he was quite the athlete that
Travis Kelsey was. I agree with you. I mean, Kelsey
is a different type of tight end. He is closer
to that wide receiver playing tight end. They don't ask
him to block all that much. Maybe they do this
year because of the couple of blindmen. I doubt it,
(05:35):
but maybe, But I think he will age better than most.
I think that is fair to say. Uh, he doesn't
seem to take the big hits like grunked it. Over
the years, it just seemed like whenever I saw a
grunt catch a pass, he always got leveled because people
are always taking his legs out. They never he was
trying to stay on his feet. Yeah, and he just
always got leveled. And he's such a big guy that
people always submarine him, right, always take out his knees
(05:56):
because he's too hard to get down from the show,
you know, from the waist on up. Just it's too
big a guy here. So I think Kelsey will age. Well,
it's funny you broke the same thing I was going
to bring up about that they had a hundred and
somewhat dollars of cap space. Good job by the capologist there,
I mean, mahomes sure, I took a crushing it team
friendly deal. You mentioned the players that opted out due
to COVID. That helped as well here. But to let
(06:18):
you know, when a team says they have no cap space,
they really do have cap space. Yeah, absolutely, as we
welcome in our radio audience to finish out this segment.
Thank you for listening. But Chief's definitely done a really
good job here. I think Brett Veach is really and
his staff are making are putting their stamp on this
league in a huge way. Look, Brett Beach was the
(06:39):
one that was standing on the table saying they needed
to draft Mahomes. That one decision is going to make
him immortal for many Kansas City fansy they he selected
the most valuable asset in the history of the NFL. Uh.
There are many gms that get things wrong get things right,
but him doing that and then being able to keep
(06:59):
this championship team together in a way that some didn't
expect they could. It's really fascinating. Some are trying to
compare it to the Rams being top heavy, and they
don't quite see it that way yet. George pat Holmes
signed a team friendly deal as big as it is.
We're talking about that more after the break. Sports grid
dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your fingertips as
our team covers the most important topics in sports wagering,
(07:21):
real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks, and more.
Want the edge than get on the Grid sports grid
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grid TV. George can be found on Twitter at George
(07:42):
Kurtz on at Mike Flewett. I'm not gonna say anything
about the hate mail today, but well, you know what
hate mail for this show, send it directly to George.
So George, last thoughts on Kelsey. Um, people are trying
to say, ah, here it is Rams two point. They're
gonna be uh, they're gonna be underwater on these contracts,
(08:05):
and they're they're gonna be too top heavy. It doesn't
feel the same way to me. How about you? Well,
I mean we compare the Rams to the Chiefs. You're
comparing golf to my homes. I'll take my chances, but
with my homes. And he signed a team friendly deal
for what you and I are pretty much everybody thought
he was going to get. So No, I don't see
them as being too top heavy. I mentioned Kelsey is
(08:26):
two years and theyn't get out, and you're gonna want
Kelsey for at least two more years, if not three
more years before you really worry about him deteriorating Chris Jones. Yeah,
pass rogers could sometimes full up the planet real quick
for different reasons. You know, they don't play as well.
But no, I don't see this the same as the
rams here. Uh well, it's it's mainly because of my
homes there. He took home the best quarterback in the NFL.
(08:48):
Most us would agree with that. Golf, he's not top ten.
He mayn't have me top fifteen. So there's a big
difference there and where you're going on the water. Agreed, Agree,
So all right, more serious story to talk about as
I put on my spectacles. A little bit about coaches
that have come in contact with COVID. Front and center.
(09:10):
We saw on Hard Knocks. Really the first segment this
week was about Anthony Lynn telling his players that he
had actually corrected contracted coronavirus. ESPN. Tim McManus from ESPN
wrote a story about the number of coaches that have
been really subjected to this illness. A and B the
(09:33):
number of high risk guys that are still in coaching. George,
you and I both know, having tracked the sport for
a long time, is an extremely high stressed job. These
guys do not put their health first. Almost ever, despite
the fact that some of them were former players, they
worked themselves to the bone. They deal with all kinds
(09:55):
of stuff that probably would could have been preventative if
they put their health first. And a story starts out
talking about Philadelphia Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland. He's
fifty eight years old and when he's with the Miami
Hurricanes ten years ago, he was noticing discomfort during his
daily workouts. It turned out he had a nine blockage
in one of his arteries. It led to triple bypass surgery.
(10:19):
We bring up that story to say he is considered
a high risk individual having had this having this heart
cardiovascular issue. So he's one of many we now know
of coaches that have contracted the virus. You know about
Sean Payton, Anthony lynn Um, Doug Peterson. We have other
(10:39):
coaches out there that are older coaches as well. Romeo
Cornelli is seventy three, Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll or
Bruce arians sixty seven. Mike Zimmer sixty four, had major
eye surgery a few times. Chicago Bears d C. Chuck
Paganal fifty nine years of old, fifty nine years of
age in leukemia, in the way that they work, and
(11:03):
all this kind of stuff. People are starting to wonder
or any of these coaches going to opt out, and
to date nobody has no. I don't think they will.
I only think the coaches will opt out. And I'm
not saying they should, not saying they shouldn't. I just
don't think they will. And I think part of that
reason is fairly simple. Here, what do we know about
coaches throughout the years? I mean, they will work, he said,
(11:27):
work those to the bone. Somebody's coach to show up
before six am. Don't go and live at the midnight.
They get three four out of sleep. There's maybe more
old time Joe Gibbs. We've heard the story. He was
to sleep in the office. This wasn't worth going home anymore.
With Gary Kubiak situation. I was about to bring him up.
He was the next name. You know what happened with him?
Thought physically, I think, what, Well, A lot of times,
(11:47):
what they're doing here, you don't need to be doing that.
You don't need the are twenty hours a day for football,
You just don't. I think they're just so. I think
it's just a show. They want to show the owner
how hard they're working. They want to show the media
how hard they're working. It's the culture. But we've sort
of seen that change right over the years, last couple
of years, four or fight, the younger coaches coming into
(12:07):
You know, you don't need to put in that kind
of time. It's really you're not doing anything different here.
It can be done easier. So I want to hope
that helps here. But you're absolutely right. I mean, they're
gonna be around all the sweating players. You know, great,
they're not going in the scrubs, but they'll be close
to it and practice, watching what's going on there. You
can't tell me they'll be no transference. So they would
absolutely be at risk. Listen, we've seen in baseball some
(12:28):
coaches out out some teams. I believe it was the
Milwaukee Brewis said hey, you'll get paid, but you're not
coaching this year. You know, we we think it's too
dangerous for you. Chili Davis, the Mets batting instructor, is
doing the instruction remotely. He will didn't didn't come because
of the COVID. So you can't tell me that football
coaches aren't at more risk to do it. But I
don't think you'll see any opt out because they'll be
(12:49):
afraid of a because football is such a violence but
tough man sport. They'll be afraid of a being you know,
you know you're weak, you know you're It is late,
but it's it's the macho mentality. So I think it's
really silly. And a lot of these guys do work
themselves into the hospital. Um, we've seen it a number
(13:11):
of times. John Fox had health issues obviously in the
middle of the season. Chuck Bogano had the most serious
of health issues which couldn't be prevented. But uh, nonetheless, Uh,
these guys do put themselves at risk. HERM. Edwards is
obviously a long time NFL coach and now at Arizona State.
Quote here in this article. When I go home at night,
I'm exhausted. We haven't even practiced yet, said Edwards. Uh
(13:33):
quote and I'm just tired because I'm thinking of all
the stuff. Oh, I didn't think about that. I didn't
think about that. Uh, stuff like how am I going
to safely hold the team meeting with one student athletes? Now,
obviously the PAC twelve is canceled for postponed for the fall.
I guess it's canceled for the fall, postponed potentially until spring.
But nonetheless, he's just another example. And I met her
(13:54):
Edwards in a it's like a corporate speaking situation. He's
one of my favorite speaker I've ever seen. And he
talked about his day, George, And this was a long time.
It was probably fifteen years ago before I started doing
any broadcasting, and he talked about his day. Now. He's
(14:15):
sixty six now, so call it fifteen years ago. He
was right on fifty fifty one. I was probably maybe
sixteen years ago, so that is some. But he said
he would get up at four o'clock in the morning.
His dad was in the military, so he's from a
military family too, so that that places into it. He
would not eat it. He would drink a cup of coffee,
(14:38):
get a workout in and her still to this day
looks unbelievable for his age, right, um like looks like
still has like a player's body physics. And he would
not eat all day. He eat one meal a day.
He was doing intermittent fasting before people knew what it was.
(15:00):
And he working himself like crazy. But he's got you
know him, he's got so much energy that I just
remember thinking, like, God, I'm twenty years younger than this guy,
and he's got more energy than me. Uh. And I
just think that we're talking about similar situations where that
mentality is ingrand in these players. Now. I don't know
(15:21):
if herm would yell at any coach that's underneath him
if he went home to try to have dinner with
his family, but we both know that football coaches families
don't see them during the season. Yeah, that's the way
it works, right. It's almost like, well, you work your
buddle off during the season. In the off season when
you get to relax, but even then, it's not much
(15:41):
of an offseason. No, you know, you've got you've got
mini camps, rookie mini camps, they've got training camp. That's
why we always I alway talked about players. What month
do we worry about players is generally end of June
to July because there's nothing going on. And that's why
the football news is quiet because the GM's are away,
everybody's away. You worry about people getting in trouble here.
So is it. It's a tough job coaching. I don't
(16:03):
think they doubted it. There's so much pressure on you.
All right, you're gonna hear about it from the owner,
maybe from the g M, maybe from the media. The
players are griping about this and that. You've got everybody
coming out from every which way, and generally you're the face, right,
you know, whatever he wants to talk to, you gotta
go to those news counts is every day or every
other day. Yeah, we all know how Belichick handles it. Yes, no, yes, no,
(16:25):
not a football but other coaches so coach you to
their advantage. Bill Parcels certainly over the years learn how
to have to get that get his message, of course
through the media. Jimmy Johnson was the same way with Dallas.
They're more psychologist than coaches, but other coaches, it's the
worst part of your day and you can just see
the blood pressure growing up, going up as soon as
they got to step into that conference room. Yeah. Eric Mats,
(16:47):
who represents about two dozen coaches at the pro and
college level, says, quote, the players have a union, the
coaches do not have a union. That's a tremendous problem.
They are, for lack of a better term, caught in
the middle. They're not management, they're not players and they
don't have anyone negotiating on their behalf to address certain
issues that they can have. This is regarding the opt outs.
There's zero no coaching opt outs to date the NFL
(17:08):
of any level of coach, head or underneath header system.
And here's the quote they should probably land the plane with.
There's no way I'd opt out. But I don't even
think they have opt out for coaches. Mike Zimmer said,
I think we love to do what we do so
much that this is important to us. I get it,
but I'm more in some ways, I'm more worried about
them than I am the players should come back, talk
(17:30):
a little bit more about the Washington Football Club. Sports
grid dot Com betting insights and entertainment at your fingertips
as our team covers the most important topics in sports wagering,
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want the edge than get on the grid sports grid
dot Com. You're watching Sports Grade back on the grid
(18:10):
and welcoming in our radio audience. Thank you for listening,
thanks for watching. Talking a little bit about just talking
about the coaches and how nobody's opted out as of yet.
George but how about the officials who do have a
union unlike the coaches. Turns out seven of NFL officials
have opted out of the season. NFL Networks Tom Pella
(18:31):
Sero reported Friday that five on field of and to
play since for the season. I've one officials out. None
of them is George our Line judge Jeff Bergman, back
judge Steve Freeman, field judge Greg Gatrow, field judge Joe
Larru and back judge Tony Statur assume related to Jean
(18:54):
in some way. Uh. The deadline for reps to opt
out was this past Thursday. According to the between the
NFL and for NFL Referees Association, any official with concerns
about COVID could voluntary elect to take a leave and
we'll receive thirty thousand dollars and guaranteed job protection for
the season. Any officially test positive during the season will
(19:14):
be treated as an injury sustained while performing leagues sanctioned
or required activity, and be entitled to injury pay, medical expenses,
and other benefits. So good news from the NFL that
so few reps have decided to take a year off,
but the league won't have to scramble to fill a
ton of spots, George. But so that's it. They were
protected in a way that the coaches weren't. Kind of
an interesting dynamic. Yeah. Now, I'm a little surprised here
(19:38):
that I told you during the break that more officials
didn't opt out here, mainly because a lot of the
officials are they're not just full time officials. We all
know that, but these guys who are well off, right,
that's that's the reason they're an official because theoretically they
can't be bribed because they're they've had their CEOs of
companies awards independently, wealthy have on that. Here we go.
(19:59):
So I was surprised more did not that because why
would you want to go through this? I mean, I
get it technically most officials are far away or further
away from the players, but still they're gonna mascot right
the man when when there's that fund, when you've got
that scrumble, you got that pile, those officials dive in
there to see who's got that ball? Right, you have
to do that this year As a result of all this,
(20:19):
and if if they are we've all heard the stories
of what goes on at the bottom of those piles
from eye gouging to uh, groin grabbing and everything else.
That of the belt stuff was giving this down there
and everything else. That was the greatest call every body
that referee in the Buffalo Bills Jets game. Was that
back in the nineties maybe the eighties when we heard
that good have some personality there giving them the business
(20:42):
down there. But you're gotta see that over and over
again if they if no one's getting in there, you
know you're getting in there. That's happening. We've all heard
those stories of what goes on there. But still they're
closer to the play. They're gonna touch the football all
the time too. You know they mean not spotted correctly,
they never do, but that's gonna be involved as well here.
I'm just surprised that we didn't have more for guys
who said, are independently wealthy who need to go through this.
(21:06):
You know that I travel somewhat too. I know they're
not gonna travel as much they used to. The rules
are being laxed as far as how many times you
can do one team being one stadium, but still, I
am officials are not allowed to do more than two
games a year of one team, they shuffle them around accordingly,
but that will not be the case this year. Just
(21:27):
to try to reduce travel for the referee cruise involved,
they're going to potentially you'll see a ref to three
or four games of a particular team. Someone get to
play that many. So uh as an aside, we'll go
to get to Dan Snyder in a minute. At this
very moment, all this fallout from college. Um, but the
(21:49):
NFL right now, we've had in fact we had I
had it up in the other article players that have
tested positive so far in the NFL is Let me
see if I can find it here real quick as
we as I scrolled through this, But nonetheless I'll find
the number as they go through it. Um, how are
(22:10):
you feeling right now about the season with the protocols instituted?
As we get a little bit closer, we're now inside
of four weeks until the Chiefs Texas. I mean, if
you're asking how I feel that the scene is going
to start on time, it's the NFL. They are so
they believe the virus is going to bend to them,
So I think they're going to start on time. They're
not going to admit they have any problems unless we
(22:31):
have a baseball situation breakout the Cardinals demmins what happened
with them, then they might have to postpone a little bit.
We do know they set up the schedule for the
first two weeks of the season just in case where
they can move those games around and not lose anything,
you know, so we know that's happening there. But I
think they're gonna try and go through with it. I
don't think the start is really what they're worried about,
because also they have to admit that they made a mistake,
(22:52):
and the Anvil doesn't like new deck a right, they
don't want to admit they made never they believe they're
God there. You know, everything's gonna been to that. They're
gonna do what they want to do. So I think
they'll start. It's really finished that. I'm more worried about
one two team staffords across the league of known positives
since June. Since June especially, it's not that long period
of time. That is compared to one seven players this
(23:14):
off season, sixty four of which have occurred since reporting
for training camp. Now, overall, the numbers have been really
good for the NFL, right intake testing I think was
around one percent George, perhaps even a little bit less
um But I get why somebody like the officials that
have this protection would want to would want to opt out.
(23:36):
But in terms of how I'm thinking the season is
going to go, look at I did a whole hour
with Jolisi earlier this week. We had Aaron torres On,
and they were both really fired up about college football.
I think the Big Ten made a huge mistake for
for other reasons, not not in just that like they
got to get out there and play. They just feel
(23:56):
like the players are still at risk going doing workouts,
being on campus. They're no safer from the coronavirus, in
their opinion, no safer for the coronavirus being on campus
and doing workouts, and they would if they're out there
playing games. So I understood the points that they were making.
But the reality is college football has crumbled to some extent.
(24:17):
We may have the three Power fives go out there.
SEV teams are still live as of this moment, but
you know, we got major risks there. They've already reduced
this season. We've lost almost sixty teams in the NFL.
We're thirty two for thirty two going full boar in MLB.
(24:39):
We didn't lose any teams. We lost the Cardinals for
a couple of weeks. As you just said during the break,
they're gonna play eleven doubleheaders. So I'm just starting to
get to the point where I can't step in front
of the freight train they're going to play. I'm encouraged
by the fact that MLB hasn't completely fallen apart, which
I guess is a pretty low bar, but I've been
(25:00):
encouraged by that. I think they're gonna do this, and
I just hope that it doesn't fall apart. That's all
I can say. I mean, I think they're going to play.
I do uh start the season on time and all that.
I want the season to be played. I know I'm
a little negative on it, but I want the season
to be played. Listen, I set up my fantasy league
on the commissioner of my home LAK. I just set
up a draft September three. You know. I want that,
(25:23):
and I want that draft that were looking forward to.
At the fourth pick and away we go here. So
I want the season to be played. But what is
the NFL going to do? You can't tell me they're
gonna go through all seventeen weeks, Mike, every game being
played at the normal time, and everything's gonna go blah
blah blah. Fine, are they gonna be willing to do?
What are the team? Just let's bring up the first
game of the season between the Cowboys and Rams has
to be canceled for whatever COVID reason you want to
(25:45):
throw out there. They can't play that day. These two
teams may not have the same bye week. Are they
gonna be okay with making week eighteen make up week
for certain teams? You know, maybe they can do that.
I guess it pushed the players back. It has to
be part of the plan, right, you can do that.
But what if one team misses three games? Are you
okay now? With the And it's more, let's you know
(26:07):
it's a mare key team. It's not the Miami Marlins were.
No one cares saying those cars are a marquee team.
That's why they want these games made up. But let's
just say if the arguments like it is the Dallas
Cowboys or the Pittsburgh Steelers Patriots a marquee team? They
only played games? Yeah? Uh, what do you do there? Mike,
you can't. Haven't played three extra weeks and everybody has
(26:29):
all has a month off. That's not gonna work. Are
you gonna go by a winning percentage? Is a winning
percentage because Dallas went I don't know. Philadelphia goes eleven
and five, Dallas goes nine and four, So I think
by winning percentage I do the math to my head.
But if these Dallas will be ahead of Philadelphia, is
that enough? Even though Dallas then would have to win
two of their last three games, so they would have
played a full season to go ahead of Philadelphia. What
(26:51):
about a wild card? Yeah, that's why you just have
to assume that this season is not going to be
like other ones. The Cardinals are playing eleven seven inning
ol headers in the next six weeks. Uh in baseball.
In football, they can't have them. They can have them
do one makeup game. Realistically, would they bump back the
playoffs two weeks? Probably not, although it could get them
(27:14):
into you get them back a week. I don't think
it's a problem. Everybody gets by week. Everybody gets a
bye week except for the team that had to the makeup.
That's life. But then the number one seed is off
for like a couple of weeks. They don't want to
be off for two weeks. Probably, as you just said,
I'm gonna have to make allowances. I mean, is any
one game maybe that's not a big difference in might
(27:34):
the scenario I brought up. I don't think one game
is a huge thing, and maybe we get lucky. Maybe
that one game that's being made up between like the
Cowboys and Rams. I just threw it out there. Neither
teams in the playoff hunt, it doesn't matter, you don't
need to make it up. Or maybe both teams have
everything clinched. Cowboys already won the East, Rams are out,
or Rams have a wild card. It only matters for seating.
Maybe you don't make it up. Yeah, you know, I think.
(27:57):
I just think the NFL needs to be very clear
on what they have rules on bigger issue that could
come up. Georgia's all right. Let's say Dallas and Philly
both lose a couple of games. They finished nine and five.
They're both nine and five, but they both lost two games.
We're not going to do the makeups. But Philly, this
(28:17):
is a hypothetical. I'm not looking at their schedules right now.
Philly played more divisional games, and they ended up their
four and one in the division. Dallas is three and
one in the division, and they split head to head.
They can't use that. And there's there's a lot of wins.
Doesn't make any sense. There's there's a lot of Then
what's what's going to happen. Let's go happen in this
(28:39):
because I'm I'm of the belief in baseball, like treat
baseball as entertainment. Whatever happens, listen, happens. It's a games,
it's a it's a ridiculous situation. But we're let's go
but football, we're planning on playing a full season, not
playing in eleven game season. If they were to do that, okay,
then once again, whatever happens happens. But they bet iron
(29:00):
on all of these rules, all these possibilities, and you
and I just well just go to the top of
our head. There's many, many other possibilities. What have three
teams miss games and two of them against each other,
so you can't make it up in one weekend. We
need that second week to make them. You know, Dallas
misses two games, one against the Rams or one against
I don't know, Green Bay. You know, and you've got
(29:21):
to make these games up and it does matter. And
here's another thing. Let's say, you know Dallas, as I
mentioned against three games, that second game against Green Bay
doesn't mean anything with Dallas. They don't care. Are they
even gonna want to play this game? No, man, I
think these players, I think they've got a taste of
it from the NBA and how well it's going in
the NHL and well it's going, and how it can
(29:43):
go south in MLB. And I don't think there there's
gonna be a majority of guys that are being irresponsible.
But as we've seen, it just takes a couple and
you're asking to do it for five months, it's a
long time. It just is. Let's come back. We're talking
about Dan Snyder, Dalvin Cogen's mother, things right here on
the Grid. Will be right back on the uh with
(30:04):
more football. Full circle sports grid dot Com Betting insights
and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the
most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive
betting models, expert picks, and more. Want the edge than
get on the grid. Sports grid dot Com Back on
(30:33):
the grid talking about Washington Football Club and George, You've
seen this story pop up before about the Wall Street
Journal breaking news earlier this week that the minority partners
have Washington's NFL team or pressuring Dan Snyder to sell
the franchise. People familiar with the matters say, now, realistically,
(30:56):
this is not going to happen. He has no intention
of actually selling the team. But when the minority owners
like Fred Smith of FedEx and others are putting pressure
on him in order to do something about this, or
putting pressure on the entire franchise, there's some been some
(31:17):
rumors that people are planning stories about him, trying to
make him look bad to try and get him out. Um.
People point to the Carolina Panthers as a way in
which the NFL forced him out, And I think Jerry
Richardson really kind of raised his hand quickly before it
got to that point. He was older, Uh, he was
(31:40):
probably looking to slow things down in his own way.
He had played in the NFL. He was the only
owner that had also. But it felt me like in
the moment that as much pressure as as was being
put on Jerry Richardson, he raised his hand to sell
the team before it even mushrooms, you know what I mean.
(32:00):
It just he was like, I'm out, I'm selling the team.
I get it. I'm just gonna retire, And that story
lost its legs as a result of him doing that.
In this instance, Dan Snyder was like, I'm not going anywhere. Plus,
he's young. He bought the team when he's a very
young man. He's a young owner still, and I just
(32:22):
don't see anyway that this is going to happen. But
it is an interesting dynamic that people seem to be
trying to force him to do so well. I think
there's a lot of layers here. Those minority owners were
also the ones who sort of got the ball really
going on changing the former nickname. Absolutely, they sort of
they sort of pushed that ball there were sort of
(32:43):
had no choice here. You bring up Richardson, he also
made a racial comment, so that really, you know, Snyder
hasn't done that. He's been a little what's the word
ignorant about the former nicknames, saying it's not racist when
we all know it is. I'm never going to change it,
blah blah blah. Has been a little silly about that,
But he's never said anything stupid where the Endvial could
(33:03):
use against him. I think it would be a bigger
fight for the NFL. I think Richison, but there's all
these sexual harassment issues that he happened on his watch. Now,
he wasn't directly implicated or accused in those, but you
could make the argument that it's like that they call
in the n c A an institutional control scenario. People
are running wild in that building. He didn't do anything
(33:25):
about it. I would agree, But does anybody truly believe
Washington and Snyder are the only organization that does this?
Which is why the other owners can't say anything right.
That's why I think the owners like, Okay, I'm worry
about my own backyard here, you know, and not do this.
I think you can make a case, but I think
it's harder case. I think Snyder will fight it. Richardson,
(33:47):
as you said, I think it was like he was
looking for a way out. Oh you want me to sell? Okay? Also,
you know that's fine, he went, he was gone. You
met the Snyder was much younger than Richardson. I think
he's egotistical. You're like, listen, a lot most Bill liionaires
are egotistical. They think they're right, they know everything. Either
he'd fight and that he may bring some things out
of the closet that the animal doesn't want out of
the closet. You know, wouldn't shot if he goes down,
(34:10):
you know, if he goes He's the kind of guy
was If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me.
You know. I think the anival would worry about that
to some degree here before pushing him out here. I
think what you brought up is interesting that he's he's
a little paranoid. He's only for twenty years. He said
he was a young billionaire, right, It's probably that's also
why he is the way he is. You got the
(34:31):
money at at an early age. He really didn't grow
up and yeah, yeah, yeah, And we've talked about this before.
Um where he is known or has been known. We'll
see if he just changed his tune to not really
taking counsel with other owners, which is rare. He's a
little bit of a lone wolf in that way. UM,
(34:54):
a lot of younger owners, they come in, they try
to make friends, they figure out how do we do this?
Like even somebody like David Tepp or need anybody to
tell him how to run a business right, sort of
like ten billion dollars, don't need help with That's what
the NFL is. It's my way. I'm gonna do it
my way, no no other thing to anybody, and we're
gonna do it this way. But look, how guys, how
(35:15):
any guys screwed up? Jimmy haslum it's lucky, frankly to
have in federal prison for his price fixing scenario. But
he's come in and run a already franchise that was
already beaten down further into the ground and there's no
signs of it turning around yet. Maybe Kevin Stefanski is
(35:36):
that savior. But it's not about smarts and money. It's
about how to do business in the terms of the NFL,
which is a fixed economy and a fixed way of
doing business. Yeah, it's it doesn't surprise me. It just doesn't,
you know, now, What's He's now paranoid? Right? He thinks
(35:58):
people are to are planting stories of about him. He's
saying things. I mean, I know Gabriel Morency talked about
this on his show that he could be suited for
Liabel for this and you won if that's coming next.
He wan't get he's Snyder's and somebody's giving the NFL
ammunition to try and get rid of him. Because if
he is sued on the sexual harass and that great.
He wasn't a part of it, but knew about it
and did nothing, and he's the owner, he can be
(36:19):
sued for that. He can be part of that lawsuit.
If there's a libel suit coming against what he keeps
saying about a certain I think secretary or whatever administrator
planning stories against him, and he can't prove that that's liabel,
and once again, the owners could then use that against
the word Goodell could use it against him. So listen,
we all know what Goodell's about protecting the shield, and
right now Schneider is he's soiling it. I don't think
(36:42):
there's any doubt he's soiling that. But I don't think that.
I just don't think the NFL is gonna be all,
let's get him out of here, not without a smoking
gun where they have no choice, because I think they're
worried about their backyard too. I just don't think this
is the only team this stuff happens. And I just wondered, like,
at one point, are you just are you at home
by yourself or with your family, and you're like, this
(37:04):
isn't worth it. Doing this for twenty years, I'm getting pounded,
and I know, and you think you know better. I
still think I know better just by the fact that
I've been a total failure at this for twenty years.
I know better in these people because I made a
billion dollars by the time I was thirty four years old.
So but I I don't know, like the one family
(37:25):
that gets crushed that you know, they're just never gonna
sell because their family business is the Brown family with
the Bengals. It's their family business, that's their money, that's
how their money was made. Uh. These other guys have
had different business ventures and have made money. Is now
the Brown family could obviously for entire based on whatever
they sell the Bengals for, which would be north of
(37:47):
two billion dollars, yes, even the Bengals. But um, you
just wonder how long he's going to take it. Obviously
he's going to take it on the chin for a
lot longer. Like he's gotten to the point where he's
actually changing the name. It's fast aiding in that way.
I mean he's changing the name after he said he
would never do that. He's had all these problems going on.
(38:08):
I mean, and he's not very good. I mean, let's
face a Washington Football Club, football team, whatever you want
to call this, they've been bad for a long time.
Two playoff wins in his ownership tenure, one in the
last fifteen years, and they won one in two thousand
five the last time. That's wow, that's terrible. That's just terrible.
It's awful, you know, And uh, as I like to
(38:29):
say with Jerry Jones, eventually that comes down to you.
You're the problem. You're the one constant to keep hirting
different coaches, different players, but you're the one that's still there.
Right it doesn't work. You got issues there, and the
phases comes down to sort of what you said before.
I'm a billionaire. Why am I putting up with his aggravation?
I mean, I would love to own the New York Yankees.
But if I'm gonna yelled at all the time here
(38:49):
I got a gazillion dollars here, I'm gone, I'm going
to live the good life, or I just step out
of the way. I mean, you know, I just stay
in the owner's box and just not like just not
do anything about it. Ring in the Ron Rivera thing
that might actually have legs for this team to at
least get them back to respectability so they're not getting
kicked in the teeth all the time. Ron Rivera obviously
(39:11):
did a good job in Carolina. Maybe he's got an
opportunity to do it here. Anyway, next story, before you
go there, before you ask your question, yes, if Ron
Rivera had to do it all over again, do you
think he accepts this job knowing everything that's happening here,
all the stuff with the team, I mean, Darius Geissman
and they had to release him now and everything that's
(39:32):
going on. Ron Rivera, who probably could have waited for
another job. I thought he was going to so did
I so did I. Do you think he's going to
take that job? Do you think, all things being equal,
if he had to do it all over again, He's like,
no way, I'm Ron Rivera, I will get another job.
I don't think so. Because of the guy that everybody
(39:53):
talks about that he is, he's so well respected, is
another guy with the military background. I think he just
sees this as getting past hurdles. If I you know,
I'm trying to psychoanalyze the guy. But he's such a
football lifer. I think he's just kind of blocking and tackling,
to use a terrible um cliche, and trying to get
(40:16):
through all of this. It's can be this abstraction, but
for him and the players, whatever, guy from a job,
I have no I think I think SNEI got very lucky.
He hired the right guy by accident. Really should get
a bonus already. Oh he should. He's actually get a
hell of a bonus a new contract. But if I'm
Ron Rivera, I'm thinking the same thing is I think
about Schneidol on the team. I'm Ron Rivera, I would
(40:37):
have gotten another job if I had to wait another
year to go get a job next year. That's the thing.
They don't want to sit out. They don't The coaches
don't want to sit out, And you're right, they're staring
coronavirus in the face. They can't. They can't stand to
be at home washing different people. You know, if you're
from rare washingt dealing with all this craft for a
team that hasn't been good and forever, you're playing against
(40:57):
the cowboy team, an egal team that you know what
better with you, and they're not going anywhere anytime soon.
He's he can make them that they can be the
acorn that becomes the giant oak. That's the way he's
looking at it. I think they're I'm trying to figure
how many owners in the NFL I wouldn't want to
work for. Snyder Jones are probably my top two, maybe
(41:19):
Davis out in uh Vegas. Now I'm not working for them.
Not if I'm Ron Rivera, I'm not dealing unless I
have written writing it was seeing that's really not worthless
too and write it. You will not in the fear
you will leave me alone. Blah blah blah blah blah.
The other than that, no, thank you. I'm I just
keep going back to East. Ron Rivera could have got
another job. There's no way I would have taken this job.
(41:39):
I got it. Uh so well close it out. We've
got three minutes. As speaking to reporters for the first
time in training camp is according to Ben Gosling from
the Minia from the Star Tribune in Minneapolis added, it
was never a consideration not to come to training camp.
This that was never coming from me. I love being
around the guys. Football is like a stress reliever for me.
(42:00):
I'm clad it's a stress reliever, but it's a pretty
stressful job. But in an in any event, that's not
what we heard from other people, George, listen. Maybe these
guys who work a whole looks and maybe staying at
home and not being able to you know, look at film,
look at plays, you know, coach he people up. Maybe
that is stressful. Maybe a drive you insane being at home.
(42:21):
Maybe your wife wants to strangle you being at home,
you know, in your home all the time, right, and
maybe you do need to go to work. Maybe that
is how you will you feel at home when you
feel comfortable, deal with football, deal with players, whatever it
might be. It sounds strange to me, Mike, but we
all know that some people don't know how to relax.
I don't know how to go outside. You you all
to go sit on a hammock and have a drink
and listen to music. Oh, watch a game on TV, O,
(42:44):
whatever it is, go out with the family, go to
an amusement, whatever it might be. I've known people in
regular jobs who can't relax, who are always on the go.
Here and maybe that's what these how these guys have built.
Maybe that's why they're good at what they do. Yeah, possible.
So we'll talk a little bit more. We got a
couple of minutes left. We'll talk a little bit more
about Dalvin Cook. On the other side, we were I
(43:04):
was sure you was gonna hold out. Now he's saying that. Uh,
that was never coming from me. I just find the
whole thing odd, George, we're worried about him holding out.
So we got another minute left. Uh so, yeah, comment
on it real quick. Dalvin Cook, did you believe that
he was gonna hold out? Or he just decided, you
know what, I can't sit at home. I gotta be
out there. I think he wants to hold out all
(43:26):
he was seeing this now. I think it's gonna be
a new thing in football. By the way, with these
top running backs realizing there's a short shelf life. I'm
gonna have to start to hold out. Do what Zeke
did you know, do what Melvin Gordon did in others
to get that contracts. I think we're gonna see it
more often. Cook. I guess he was talked at the
coming back or it wasn't a good idea here. But
I think they want they truly want to get this contract,
(43:46):
they might have to sit out a game or two.
If you're two or three years away from free agency.
All you're ready about the franchise take, which isn't gonna
benefit you either. And I think you may have sort
of forced the owner's hand. Not quite what Jamal Adams did,
mind you, but maybe you at the fourth dealers. Hey,
you're not gonna payb I'm not gonna play guy with
an injury history, obviously about very productive season in nineteen.
(44:09):
So Dalvin Cocoby one of those top players off the
board in your fantasy draft, George, right, like the top
five RBS. Did you get Madison to Yeah? So, George,
and I'll come back to close out this hour and
Football Full Circle on the Grid will be right back
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(44:30):
in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks,
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sports grid dot Com. Alright, closing out this hour of
Football Full Circle. I've got a question for you, George,
since you were talking about Dan Sneider and mentioning that
(44:52):
you wouldn't want to play for him or Jerry Jones
or I don't know if you threw anybody else out there.
So it made me inc of what is the owner
you would most want to play for or coach for
in the NFL. I guess I'll have to limit it
to coaching. Don't have any playing ability, so and that's
(45:13):
players play. Players need a roster spot and they're getting
paid for their services no matter what. But coach because
the coaching dynamic, we all agree that it was difficult.
You said Jerry Jones is one of the guys you
want out to play for. Look how difficult that dynamic
was for Jason Garrett. You can pile on Jason Garrett
all you want, but the dynamic was difficult. So who
is the coach? Who is the owner that you would
(45:34):
like to coach for the most. And now when I
said this, I did mean, uh, coaching part, not playing
part play. You don't you don't have a choice but
you And with Jerry Jones, you know he's not staying
out of your way. He's gonna be involved, he's making
the press contents. He's gonna make you look silly and
as I used like the joke that you could see
the strings in the back of Jason Garrett's press conferences
because Jerry Jones they're pulling them. Uh you think of Anna.
(45:56):
You want an absent to Ona. Guys will leave you alone.
Let you do your but we'll spend money. That's the
key there, right, you want to spend money, give you
a budget there, but he's going to leave you alone.
I think you go to your team as the first
guy comes to mind the Rooney's. Not only do they
leave you, they give you time. They don't overreact to
(46:19):
one bad year. If you're fifty years old, can see
two coaching changes for the Steelers. If you're fifty, you're
going to chuck no to Cower to Tom two. I mean,
I don't know if I can think. I'm looking through
the teams and I don't know if I can think
of a better place. I mean, you don't want her
(46:41):
say in Indianapolis, no thanks. But this is what this
sort of goes back to what we're saying. It's why
if you're a young owner, and that's why it's why
I've said all along, I think Caroline will be successful.
David Tepper wasn't an already owner with the Steelers, and
he sort of learned, all right, this is how you
get things done here. That's why I trust that he
(47:01):
might be able to do it now. Maybe he becomes
a traantical owner starts firing, hiring and all this other
kind of stuff. Maybe, But he made one coaching change
so far, and you know, they changed personnel around. But
I think he's got a shop to really learn how
to run his team the right way, not just because
he has a lot of money or successful at his
hedge fund. But the reality is, I think you're right.
(47:23):
I think being able, they know how to run the
business of football. UM giants used to be an answer
and they're just not anymore. But it's a conversation for
us to talk about another time. That's it for this
hour and behalf of George Kurtz and producer Brian Rickowski
on Mike Bluett. Thanks for watching Football Full Circle. We
see you next time. Sports grid dot Com betting insights
(47:44):
and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the
most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive
betting models, expert picks, and more. Want the edge than
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