September 2, 2026 • 41 mins
DP and the Danettes talk about some of the most dynamic duos in NFL history as they prepare to watch Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald play together for the Rams. And former NFL QB Ryan Leaf drops by, and they dive deep on Tony Romo and his experience with opioids during and after his own NFL career.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to The Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio. Hour two on this Wednesday. It's a pizza Wednesday,
so morale is high. Dylan, who's responsible for the menu,
what are the pies today on the Rec Tech Grills?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We have a hot Italian sausage pizza. New Haven-style tomato pie. And,
of course, Todd's world-famous classic cheese pizza.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Who has it better than we do? Nobody. Stat of
the Day brought to you by Panini America, the official
trading cards of the program. Labor Day weekend on NBC
and Peacock. Back-to-back days of baseball action. Braves, Phillies, Twins,
White Sox. Then Monday, Cardinals, Giants. Labor Day weekend on
NBC and Peacock, which is where you can see this
(00:45):
program Monday through Friday. Ryan Leaf, former NFL quarterback, now
the lead analyst for the Pac-12. He will join us
coming up a little bit. The Heisman Trophy winner, Robert
Griffin Jr. III, will stop by as well. Phone calls, 877-3DP-SHOW.
Tyler's sitting by. He'll take your calls. I've been in
(01:05):
on Kyler Murray with the Vikings.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
I have.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
For some reason, I think Kevin O'Connell will get him going.
He's got some good wide receivers. He might have the
best receiver in football. Maybe you could get him out
in space, as they like to say. Hot take draft? Well,
here's the problem. I just saw the over-under for passing
touchdowns for Kyler Murray. Now I'm a little concerned about
(01:31):
the Vikings. Over-under is 18.5 touchdown passes. That's lower than
Bryce Young and Cam Ward, who are both at 20.5.
Here's my problem with the Vikings. The Vikings, since 2022,
are averaging just under 23 points per game. So they're
(01:52):
14th in the NFL over that period. Well, you've got
a great defense. Since 2023, the Vikings are allowing around
20 points per game. That ranks 3rd. in the NFL
over that time span. What's amazing is they won nine
(02:20):
games last year. And they had an offense that was
at the bottom of the NFL and a defense that
was top ten. Brian Flores, he can dial something up.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Go ahead, go ahead. Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
If I said to Kirk Herbstreet, you're not allowed to
use the expression dial up because Brent Venables, man, could
he dial some stuff up at Clemson? Todd Munkin, man,
could he dial something up for the Ravens? Brian Flores,
you know, he can dial some. Spags, Steve Spagnola, he's
(02:57):
going to dial something up.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yes, Marv.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
He was a big fan of Mike Stoops at Oklahoma also.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh, Mike Stoops could dial something up. Yeah, Paul.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
A couple years ago in the NFL, it was the Bengals.
Lou Anarumo, the defensive coordinator, was dialing up stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Oh. Big popular. You got to have somebody who can
dial some stuff up there. Yes, Dylan.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Can you only dial stuff up on defense? You can't
dial anything up on offense?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
It feels like it is defense heavy with dialing things up.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
It does.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, because you're going to be like, what spag's going
to dial up here?
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Yes, Marvin. Marvin Lewis, when he was with the Ravens?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Did he have to dial anything up?
Speaker 5 (03:41):
But he definitely got a lot of play.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
You know, speaking of great defense, defensive duos, Aaron Donald,
when he makes his debut– certainly with Miles Garrett. And
I started to wonder, and you guys, the audience, you
can fill in the blanks here as well with your
favorite duos, like LT and Harry Carson, both Hall of Famers.
Zach Thomas, Jason Taylor, Hall of Famers. Von Miller, DeMarcus Ware,
(04:07):
Hall of Famers. Mike Haynes, Lester Hayes, Haynes, Hall of Famer.
Ed Reed, Ray Lewis. I might go right there and
say that is the greatest duo, defensive duo, And they
were there together a long time. Now, Derek Brooks, Warren Sapp,
Alan Page, Carl Eller, Mel Blunt, Mean Joe Green would
(04:29):
be up there as well. Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier, back
with the Kansas City Chiefs, Merlin Olson, Deacon Jones, Ronnie Lott,
Charles Haley. Those are just some names that we wrote
down earlier this morning. Ed Reed, Ray Lewis might be
the best duo. If you think about... I mean, all pros. Um,
(04:56):
and I do think Ed Reed's underrated. You know, because
that defense was so good, but when Ed got an interception,
Ed was going to make you pay. He wanted to score.
He was like Dion. He wanted to, he wanted to
score on you. Mel Blunt and Mean Joe Green, Steel Curtain.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Damn.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You could throw Jack Lambert in there if you wanted.
Jack Hamm in there if you wanted. Um, Elsie Greenwood
in there. If you want it, that's a cheat code
right there. How about Jerome Brown and Reggie white, but
Jerome Brown passed away, you know, too soon in his career, obviously,
(05:35):
but that was a duo up front. This is, you know,
the Rams have a duo there, you know, that's up
front here. I just thought taking two defensive players from
the same team at the same time, um, You know,
Harry Carson got into the Hall of Fame, had LT there.
Derek Brooks, Warren Sapp. John Lynch, throw in there as well. Yeah, Paulie.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
You mentioned Jerome Brown and Reggie White. In 90 and 91,
they were both first-team All-Pros lining up next to each other.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
That's as rare as it gets.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
And I don't know other ones. There's other ones that
I've forgotten. But these ones are just off the top
of my brain. Yes, Marvin.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
What about James Harrison and Troy Palamalu?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yes, Dylan?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Did you say Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I did not.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
It's a good one. Patrick Willis, he obviously didn't have
the longest career, but he was reminiscent of Ray Lewis,
to be honest.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yes, Paul?
Speaker 6 (06:39):
I got a deeper cut I just got emailed in.
Neil Smith and Derek Thomas together with the Kansas City Chiefs.
They went to five straight Pro Bowls together and a
couple first-team All-Pros.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah. I'm fine with that. There's no wrong answer here.
I'm just saying, in my opinion, if it's not Ed
Reed and Ray Lewis, it might be Mel Blunt and
Mean Joe Green. Yes, Marvin.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Ronnie Lott and Charles Haley.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
I like that one, too. I mentioned that one. Yeah, Dylan.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
We'll give the defending champs some love. What about Earl
Thomas and Bobby Wagner?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, Hall of Famers. Throwing Richard Sherman in there.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah, and Richard Sherman.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Trifecta.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Cam Chancellor is one of my favorites. I can still
hear Cam Chancellor. Hit Julian Edelman.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Oh, man.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
That sounded like a ball coming off the bat of Otani.
And Edelman still held on to the ball. And stumbled
and got a first down. Edelman's had two of the
greatest plays in Super Bowl history.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
Ooh, new topic.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Two of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history. The
catch against Atlanta defied all probability. And then that hit
against Cam Chancellor.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Oh, man.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And then he still, I still, whenever I see Edelman,
I've said, dude, you had to be knocked out on
your feet. And I've been around Cam Chancellor. He's a man.
He's big. And you're around Edelman, and you go, how
did you survive that? Like, I'm thinking death. He got
hit so hard. I'm thinking, he's not getting up anytime soon. Yeah, Paul.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
I'm watching the replay of the Edelman hit by Cam Chancellor.
Not only does he get up, his teammates are, like,
tending to him. He doesn't go to the sidelines. There's
someone waving him over. He's shaking them off. He goes
right back to the huddle.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
I'm double-checking.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
I think he caught the next play.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Oh, my goodness. They're just guys who are built different
and taking that punishment. But, you know, these defensive players,
like Ronnie Lott would just– now, it was different when
Ronnie was playing and Mel Blount and some of these
other guys. But, boy, if they got a free run
at you, they were taking you out. It wasn't one
(09:02):
of those, hey, I'm going to ease up on you.
This is going to hurt. And the fact the NFL
used to celebrate these hits, you know, you'd get those
greatest hits of the NFL. Yes, Dylan. I thought about
this one too.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I know this is one of your favorites, but the,
the New York sack exchange for defensive tandem, maybe a short, like,
I mean a great couple of seasons.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, Gastineau and Klecko were great. Klecko was the great player,
you know, Gastineau got credit in a sack dance and,
you know, dating Brigitte Nielsen and drove a Rolls Royce.
I remember when I would go out to Hofstra where
the Jets practice and you'd go into the parking lot
and you'd see Gastineau's Rolls Royce there. He was always
(09:50):
friendly to me and I was working at CNN. So
not exactly, you know, we we weren't a sports network,
but I think he liked the fact that CNN went worldwide.
and when you interviewed him, the other guys didn't like
him because he was getting all the attention. He was flashy,
(10:10):
sack dance. Klecko, to me, was workmanlike. That dude was
strongest guy on the team, and he... He was the
one who did the dirty work. He was sort of
the Aaron Donald of the New York SAC exchange. Yeah, Pauline.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
I felt that way a little bit as a kid
watching the Steelers. Jack Lambert was a star. Joe Green
got commercials. Mel Blunt, to me, was scary when I
was a kid. I was like, that guy's too big
to play cornerback.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Well, and I think the Steelers' defense, it felt like
everything was funneled to Lambert there. You see this with
a lot of linebackers. Mike Singletary, it's funneled to you. Golly,
when you think about it, I didn't even put the
Bears in there, Pauly. You got Singletary and Richard Dent?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Beyond Hampton?
Speaker 6 (10:56):
More of an ensemble. But yeah, I mean, Richard Dent,
probably a little underrated historically.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Hall of Famer. Yes, Marvin.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Kind of in that same vein. I know they were
an ensemble, but Ty Law and Rodney Harrison.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Ties in the Hall of Fame. Rodney should be in.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
The Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
I think Rodney will eventually get into the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Yeah, Paul.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
J.J.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Watt, anyone?
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Oh! Forgot J.J., sorry. Justin.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
J.J. Watt.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Paulie went through a bad stretch where he couldn't help
himself mentioning J.J.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Watt.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
It's not over. Even when the season was over, he'd
be like, I got a text from J.J.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
I don't know. I reached out, you know, he and
his wife had a baby boy.
Speaker 6 (11:43):
Not invited to the wedding.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So Paulie went from J.J. Watt to Sam Darnold. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
and then Paulie just can't help himself. Whenever you talk
about Seahawks, yeah, Sam Darnold. We're aware of that. Sam
and I did it.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
We did it.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Yeah, Sam.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, Sam. Yes, Todd?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Is Carl Mecklenburg and Steve Atwater a stretch? I know
it's a Bronco thing. They played five years together. Those
are two pretty big guys.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
We were talking about Paul.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
I was just adding a name to the list of
the duos.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Well, Paul, you got your own show with Perloff, so
maybe you can mention that. Not so fast. Not so fast.
Let's see. What do we have here? Jared in Tampa. Hi, Jared.
What do you have for me today?
Speaker 8 (12:32):
Hey, Dan. Six foot, 170. Hey, I just I wanted
to call. I was listening to the podcast late last
evening with my kids in the car.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
Right.
Speaker 8 (12:45):
And you were going through those NFL surveys of fan bases.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Right.
Speaker 8 (12:50):
And I've got a bunch of young Buccaneers fans in
the car. You gave us a really good moment yesterday
when you started counting down.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
What was it?
Speaker 8 (12:57):
The the most positive.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Teams, fan bases.
Speaker 7 (13:01):
You got to the.
Speaker 8 (13:02):
Yeah, and you got to the Bucs, and my kids
let loose in the back. It was cool. Just wanted
to call and say thank you. I got a good
dad moment yesterday.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
You're welcome, Jared. You're welcome. And to your kids, good
luck with the Buccaneers. But, yes, they ranked number one
in positivity for their fan base. Jacob in Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Hi, Jake.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
What do you have for me today?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Hey, Dan.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Second time, long time.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
5'8, hefty 195s. Um, thank you.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
Hey, man, I just wanted to say thank you. You always,
you know, shine a light on addiction and bring it,
you know, a lot of mental health issues and bring
it to the surface. I think that's really important. And,
you know, really helped me in my life. The Ryan
Leaf interview in 2016 was actually right around a big
turning point for me. I struggled a lot with opiate
(13:55):
addiction back then and had been for years and trying to,
you know, figure it out. And then That interview came on,
and for some reason, it really affected me. I listen
to you every day and have for a very long time.
Over that year, I listened to it probably five times
or more. It really just helped get the ball rolling
(14:15):
for me a lot, and I really appreciated it. I
actually got to meet Ryan at the Regents Pro-Damn. And
I just really wanted to call to say thank you
to you and to him because I wasn't able to
tell him what that interview meant to me at the
time because I was standing in front of my boss
while I was working. So I said, hey, thanks, man.
But just wanted to say thank you to both you guys.
Sorry I ran on for a minute.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
That's okay. Ryan Leaf will join us coming up in
about 10 minutes. But thank you for the phone call there.
Bill in Chicago. And we'll take a break.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Hi, Bill.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Hey, morning, Dan.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
6'2 and a Gilgis 190. Gilgis. I constantly am thinking
about your death trip bike ride you took with your
wife from Atlanta to New Orleans. And having done those
kinds of trips, I know how hard that is. And
(15:10):
I wondered how your wife's trial hike went. On the
Appalachian Trail went, and I was hoping you could cash
in your credits from that bike ride and maybe do
a supported hike.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
No, no, no, no. There's no supportive hike there. My
wife went and picked up the trail in New Hampshire,
and she loved it. She wants to do the Appalachian Trail.
And I have retired from hiking.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah. That was my first retirement.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
You're hanging up your boots?
Speaker 3 (15:46):
From hiking and biking. And by the way, we did
open up the envelope last night for the cost of
the wedding. We had sealed it. My wife said she
told the hotel clerk, just seal it up. And then
she put it in her bag when we traveled home
from California. And I said, you know, we don't have
(16:09):
to open it up. I mean, we can put it
in a time capsule and send it to Mars if
you want. Like, I don't care. I mean, I still
have to pay it. So let's pay it. And you
don't have to tell me what it costs. I don't care.
You know, it was a great moment, you know. And
so it was, you know, when you open it up
and it's real slow. And then I was curious how
(16:33):
many pages we're going to be. And then I'm like,
And I mean, I've gotten Sandler scripts that weren't as
long as this. And all of a sudden and I
always start at the bottom. You know, when I get
fan mail, I always start at the bottom because if
they say, like, I hate your guts, then there's no
need to read the other stuff. But if it says
(16:54):
have a blessed day or sincerely, then I go, OK.
So I went down to the bottom and I said
to my wife, how many numbers? And she goes, I said,
more than five. What's the first number? So she told me,
(17:18):
and then she showed me the price of it. And
I go, great. And she goes, great. I said, yeah,
I'm good. I probably wouldn't have been ready as we're
checking out after the wedding To look at that number. But,
(17:38):
you know, we're removed a couple of weeks. I'm like,
you know, it's okay.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
All right.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
We did it. She had a great time. Got to
have family and friends. That's what it's about. So I
was fine with that. I did tell my other two daughters,
don't be afraid to do something a little more frugal.
Does anybody want to get married at the house? You know,
my wife keeps saying it'd be nice if somebody wanted
(18:04):
to get married at the house. Get married at Paul's house. Like,
you know.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
We're in a side yard.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Save me a little bit of money. Yeah, True Green
came in and made your lawn look great.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
Yeah, come on over. Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
More phone calls coming up. Ryan Leaf will join us
next here, Dan Patrick Show.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Be sure to catch the live edition of the Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern, 6 a.m. Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Hey, it's Covino and Riff from Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 9 (18:33):
Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5
to 7 p.m. Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio, we're excited to announce a brand new YouTube
channel for the show.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yup, that's right.
Speaker 9 (18:44):
You can now watch Covino & Rich live on YouTube
every day. All you gotta do, search Covino & Rich
FSR on YouTube. Again, go to YouTube, search Covino &
Rich FSR. fsr check us out on youtube subscribe hit
that thumbs up icon and comment away.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Robert griffin jr the third as mclovin would say he'll
join us coming up next hour the heisman winner the
fact that mclovin called him robert griffith jr the third
i went well you screwed up the griffith and the
jr But he said it in a convincing manner. Yes, Paul.
Speaker 6 (19:20):
Do you remember we played it so many times in
the weeks after that that Sal Palantonio accidentally said it
on Countdown?
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
And let's go out to Sal Palantonio. Robert Griffith Jr.
III will be available. And I'm like, oh, my gosh.
I apologize to Sal Pal for that. Ryan Leaf, USA
lead Pac-12 analyst, former NFL quarterback, and the number two
overall pick by the Chargers back in 1998. How many
(19:51):
teams are in the Pac-12? Eight football, nine basketball. Okay.
The opportunity to expand. Where are you getting those? Everybody
wants expansion. So where are we getting other teams, other schools?
Speaker 5 (20:06):
I think what.
Speaker 10 (20:07):
Teresa Gould, who's the Pac-12 commissioner, I think her vision
has really kind of become a reality. You know, there
was a time where there were the two teams where
everybody else vacated. And I don't think there was a
moment after she went and spoke to the presidents of
the university where she had a plan in place that
either one of those teams waver. If an ACC team
had come in or an ACC conference would have come
(20:29):
in or a Big 12 conference would have came, I
don't think Washington State or Oregon State would have left.
They were going to build this new Pac-12, rebrand it,
and release it to the public here in July. And
I think it's going to be highly competitive, a lot
of fun. But I do think they want to keep
looking outside to build the brand and build something bigger
(20:50):
down the stretch. But right now, they're really happy with
the eight participants.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
So now we only have power four. They're four power
four conferences, right?
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Which would make sense if it's a power four then.
Speaker 10 (21:02):
It's... I don't really buy into it outside the college
football playoff saying this year that the four power four
conference champions are going to get an automatic bid into
the college football playoff. That allows for, let's say the
PAC 12, if they're the fifth best ranked conference, which
I think it is going into the season. This gives
(21:24):
my alma mater and a lot of these teams in
this conference, maybe their best chance to go to the
college football playoff ever. Washington state hasn't won a championship
since 2003. So, This is going to give them a
much better chance to get to the playoff and be
a part of the conversation than they ever would have
had in the old Pac-12.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
How did we get to the point where you can
go to the NFL and put on an NFL uniform
and go through training camp, get cut, and then be
allowed to go back and play college football?
Speaker 10 (21:52):
Okay, so this is something I've been a little bit
annoyed with, the way the talking heads have been. You
heard Dan Orlovsky go on Get Up and say– this
is going to open up the floodgates.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
It's not going to open up the floodgates.
Speaker 10 (22:05):
He said they're going to play three years in college
and get drafted in the second round and play two
years and want to come back.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
No, that can't happen.
Speaker 10 (22:13):
It's now a rule. It's five for five. You get
five years to play five. This rule, which was injuncted
in the courts, is being applied retroactively. So this only
affects the class of 2022 of these players. None of
them were drafted. They did not make a roster. They
have a chance to come back and do everything else
that everybody is through this five-for-five thing. So it's not
(22:34):
something that's going to be ongoing. I don't know where
the story got so out of hand this week. It
just became this bomb. Well, it's Lane Kiffin. Well, because
he's using it to his advantage. And all these other
teams should too. These are players that are due their
final year of eligibility. It's not something that's going to
affect it next year or the year after that. But
then you even have head coaches like Steve Sarkeesian go
(22:55):
on there and start talking about morality and things like that.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
And I'm like.
Speaker 10 (22:58):
Are you kidding me? I mean, I don't know if
they're informed at the actual court ruling.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
No, it's the concept of it, Ryan, that we think, oh,
my God, this is going to be an avalanche. The
floodgates are open, and now we're going to have 50
guys go to the NFL, get cut, and then come
back and play wherever they want to. No, never happened.
Won't happen. This is a.
Speaker 10 (23:19):
an injunction in the courts that is being retroactively instituted
for these players that are due their final year of eligibility.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
That's it.
Speaker 10 (23:27):
And if they fall between these parameters, and we're talking
about maybe, what, six, seven, eight players? Like, that's it.
It's like the bigger conversation around all the things that
make it so subjective, and it's not. It's going to
piss off some other coaches, because guess what? It seemingly
feels like a lot of these players want to come
back and play for Lane Kiffin.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
I don't have any problem if Lane Kiffin wants to
take advantage of this. I don't have the morality, please,
going to LSU. He didn't invent this. If he takes
advantage of this, then fine. I'm okay with it. I
think if it was with another program and another coach,
I don't think we would have this. It was like, oh,
(24:07):
here's Lane. He'll do anything to win. If I'm in
his position, and as long as my AD is fine
with this, And I know these kids, I would open
the door if they're allowed to do this legally, then
I get it. I don't like it, but I get it.
Speaker 10 (24:24):
Yeah, I'm not even against liking it. These guys did
not make an NFL roster. You know, this is an
opportunity for them to maybe play football for the last
time and make name, image, and likeness money to help them.
It may be their best opportunity to do so. I
think a lot of these coaches are talking about, I'm
not going to give a kid who's busted his butt
(24:45):
for seven months, give away his spot. Well, they're not
giving away a spot. There's 105 roster spots. None of
those have been completely met. They're going to play within
this roster. And I know Lane really well. Lane's had
me come speak to three of his programs since he
was at Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss. And I suspect
I'll be down to Baton Rouge pretty soon. Um, I,
(25:05):
I simply love the guy. I think that he has
really reinvented himself. I thought we saw the best possible
version of him at Ole Miss. I even told him
that I said, this is the best possible version of you.
You have that at Ole Miss. Um, but he felt
like this was something he needed to do. And so
I supported him on it. I didn't necessarily think it
was the right move, but, uh, we'll see how it
(25:26):
plays out.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Um, what does he have you tell his team?
Speaker 10 (25:30):
Well, I go in and speak to, uh, you know, consequences.
You know, a big part of it. Also, you know,
a huge part of it is I'm exactly where they
were 25 years ago.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Right.
Speaker 10 (25:42):
I'm sitting in the exact same chair and I was
in a much better position than all of those people
in that room. I was about to be the second
or first pick in the NFL draft. You know, and
I give them that image. I go, how many of
you would give right now? Five-year career in the NFL,
the second pick in the NFL draft, $ 31 million, a
Heisman Trophy finalist. How many of you would give for
that right now? And every single one of them raises
(26:03):
their hand because you forget because of how poor my
professional career was, how much sacrifice and how much greatness
went into the first 22 years of my life.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
It's always thrown to the.
Speaker 10 (26:15):
Side because of what the professional thing happens. People always
ask me the question, do you wish you would have
never played professional football? Because then you would have this
great legacy. And I'm like, why would I have wanted that?
I wanted to be the best. I wanted to get
to the NFL. It's just how it happens.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
It's life. But when you tell them what happened to
you after football, and I don't know if they look
at you like, well, that's not going to impact me.
You know how kids are. They look at you like that.
They look like, that's not going to happen to me. Yes.
Which part I say.
Speaker 10 (26:44):
The part where you're going to be the second pick
in the NFL draft or the part where you're going
to end up in a prison cell. It can happen
to anybody at any point. We just had the young
man who called in to you. I mean, I'm sitting
in your green room. That was 10 years ago that
I came on this show. And that guy heard that
that day. You talked about it just a little bit
ago in your confessional about that platform. And maybe you
(27:06):
weren't ready to talk about it. But you had me
on your show.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yes.
Speaker 10 (27:10):
And I was talking about it. And that allowed it
to grow and become something. And you then took hold
of that. And now you can speak to that. And
so I think the impact that I am having would
have never been the case if I had been a
Super Bowl winning quarterback that didn't get that education.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
But would winning have kept you away from prescription drugs?
Speaker 5 (27:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 10 (27:39):
I mean, the failure and the judgment led to that.
I didn't use it while I was playing. It was
a coping mechanism, like you talked about with the Tony
Romo and Tiger Woods conversation. You're trying to hide something.
And so I never had that problem while I was
(27:59):
playing in college. You were never interested in payment. I
never took a drug. The only drug I've ever taken
in my life is Vicodin. I didn't have my first
drink until my 18th birthday. I probably can count on
two hands how many times I've been drunk in my life.
Like it's not, you know, competition was my drug of choice.
I competed at everything. And now I've found that later
in life. And, you know, I was talking to Andrew
(28:20):
Perloff back there and I've been sober longer now than
I ever was using, which is, that kind.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Of snuck up on me. How many years?
Speaker 4 (28:28):
14 years.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah. And previous, in my using years, it was, I think,
I don't know, 12, 8 to 12.
Speaker 10 (28:33):
I think it was. So- you know, we're even past
that point. It's not something I think about on a
daily basis.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
It's a, there's no reminder or something that you know,
that feeling, you know, or that you get that feeling
and then you have to like coping mechanism behavior.
Speaker 10 (28:52):
I think behavior is a real telling sign of that.
If you see old Ryan behavior, you know, entitlement, um,
you know, um, But that's not a smell or a
situation or anything? Movies was a thing for me. I
would always go to movies and I would take them.
You'd take Vicodin and go? And I would disappear. I
(29:12):
would just numb myself out. And so I always thought
it was going to be hard to go see movies again.
And I love to go see movies. And so when
I got into treatment, one of the things that the
therapist had me do was we all went to a
movie as a group and I got to see it
in a sober environment. and it was still the greatest, right?
And I remembered that. And so, you know, I take
(29:35):
my kid to the movies, my wife and I go
all the time. That was the one thing I thought
was going to trigger. And you find a way to
get past all that stuff. And then you use the
tools that you learn through the process to not be
influenced by those things. And, you know, I've had a
couple surgeries since I got sober, and there's been a
(29:57):
plan in place. It's always about transparency, talking to your doctors,
talking to people. My wife says I've built my house
out of glass over the last 12 years. And she's
got a point. Everybody knows my stuff. I'm not afraid
or worried that somebody may know it. And this has
zero to do with any sort of redemption for me.
Like there are so many people who have been infected
(30:18):
by the justice system, mental health or substance use that
have gone through this, conquered it and are thriving, but
no one has them on the Dan Patrick show. No
one has them on a podcast, and certainly not on
the platforms.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
It's life. And it just was public for me, and
that's it. What was that feeling like when you took
a pain med for your surgery? It was great, right?
Speaker 10 (30:43):
I mean, it's... Dangerously great? Dangerously great, yeah. I remember, oh, God, yeah.
I remember how this feels. I love this. I love
not feeling, you know, negative feelings, painful feelings. the things
that you're supposed to feel as a human being. But,
you know, we just had a plan in place, you know,
(31:04):
my wife handled them. We took them for a couple
of days and then we didn't think about it again.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
I had knee replacement surgery and I said to my wife,
you know, they gave me a boatload of Percocet and
I said, I don't want to take it. You know,
I have an addictive person. I just, I said, no,
I don't want to. She said, you haven't had problems
with this before. I said, I know that, but this
is knee replacement, and I was in terrible pain.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
That's smart.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
And I caved in. I said, Hundlon, let me have half. Listen,
they're invented for a reason, right?
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Yes.
Speaker 10 (31:42):
They're for acute physical pain. There's a reason why there's–
that's a me problem. That's not a pill problem. I
used to think football was the problem. No, it's a
me problem. Football was never the problem. Football gave me everything.
I had to figure it out. That's why with the
Tony Romo statement that we just saw, I thought it
was a very good statement. Didn't need the part about
(32:05):
having debilitating back pain and stuff like that. Take that
whole paragraph out.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
You don't need any of that.
Speaker 10 (32:09):
You chose to do this, and it's cost you this,
and you're going to admit to it, and you're going
to find a way to get better. That's It's almost
like the saying when you say something, but.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (32:21):
Everything after the but is meaningless to me. And I
was reading it with my wife yesterday and I was
just like, oh no, you don't have to say that part.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Everybody's had surgeries.
Speaker 10 (32:30):
Everybody who's going through debilitating pain, you know, don't, you know,
I play on a golf tour with him. He was
always out there on a golf tour playing. So I'm like,
if you're in such pain, why the hell are you
out there playing golf all the time then? That's not
helping things.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
You know, and to your.
Speaker 10 (32:43):
Point, you know, you could see, you could see the
thing starting to unravel. You know, being around people outside
the celebrity in the game of football.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
But don't mask what the problem is by telling me
that you've gone through surgeries.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Same thing with Tiger Woods.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
You're masking these things.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
You know. Let me bring you back. I'm going to
talk some actual football here. Yeah, let's do that. We'll
continue with Ryan Leaf right after this.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsportsradio.com. And
within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Continuing our conversation with Ryan Leaf, he's the lead Pac-12
analyst for USA Sports. And he'll be in the booth
on Saturday, Colorado State hosting Wyoming, the border war rivalry,
6.30 Eastern on USA Network. And then you got Memphis
at Boise State the following week. You look at the
(33:43):
number of teams that can win the national title. How
many would you say, let's say, get to a national
title game?
Speaker 10 (33:51):
As of right now, I would argue there's many more
than what we think because I don't think anybody has
any idea what's about to trot onto the field this Saturday.
With the way that rosters change so much in the offseason,
the preseason rankings are absolutely bunk in my mind. Should
be ripped up completely after week one. You know, when
(34:13):
my Cougars go beat Washington in week one and Washington's
a 15, you know, whatever, they're 15 ranked, it.
Speaker 5 (34:19):
Gets ripped up.
Speaker 10 (34:21):
And Washington State probably should be in the top 25
then if you look at it that way. Yeah, but
this is for TV. I understand why we do it.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
I get it.
Speaker 10 (34:26):
But the point about this is that I don't think
you could have any rational conclusion on how many teams
are viable options for a national championship right now.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
But give me a ballpark. 30. 30 have a chance
to go to the national title? Yes, I believe so.
30 for the playoffs, not national title game. I would
say you probably have.
Speaker 10 (34:48):
I think when you get into that playoff, you have
a chance.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Wait, well, are you suggesting that we could have another
Indiana this year? Um, definitely. But who would be Indiana
this year besides Indiana? Ole Miss.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
Okay.
Speaker 10 (35:04):
Oh, Ole Miss. I, I think Trinidad Chambliss is maybe
arguably the best in the business. Um, my Heisman front
runner is, is John Mateer at Oklahoma. Maybe Oklahoma could
be that team that comes out of nowhere. Um, because
I think they have the best quarterback and, you know, realistically,
if you have the best quarterback in, At any level,
you have a really good shot of making that. So
(35:26):
I think there is definitely a team out there that
could win the national championship that you are not talking.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
About right now. I think Miami has a really good
chance of going back to the national title.
Speaker 10 (35:36):
I think Mario Cristobal, I've known him for a long time.
He's been an incredible coach, a recruiter. He's back home.
He got to taste a little bit of it last year.
He continues to build a program that is rooted in winning.
So I wouldn't be surprised at all if they're back
in that That realm, once again, the ACC is such
a foreign conference than what the other three are when
(36:00):
you're talking about the power four. So, yeah, I suspect
that they could be right in the mix again.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
And Mensah, they get a really good quarterback who would
be a Heisman Trophy candidate. The number of analysts who
think C.J. Carr is the best quarterback in college football. Yeah,
water's wet. You know, they're not going out on a
very far limb there to make that. Well, but Arch
Manning was the anointed and even Dante Moore. But I
(36:31):
think that you say Notre Dame, CJ Carr, I think
Arch Manning, Dante Moore. I think all those guys can
could be in that that that realm. I like I said,
I think John Mateer is the. You think he's the
best quarterback in college football?
Speaker 10 (36:45):
Yeah, I think if he doesn't get hurt a year ago,
there's a much different conversation being had. He was the
best quarterback in all of college football his final year
at Washington State. He just was stuck in Pullman and
not playing against the right kind of opponents. So, yeah,
I think he's the best player. I think he's got
one of the best play callers in all of football,
and Ben Arbuckle calling plays that he's very familiar with.
(37:05):
So they've got to be good on defense, and that's
Brent Venable's area, so hopefully that makes Oklahoma– They've got
a difficult schedule, but yeah, that's my guy. The prep
work leading up to being drafted now, because these kids
are programmed when they're in grade school, high school, seven-on-seven,
(37:26):
all of these things. But we're getting back to quarterbacks
being under center in the NFL, which I kept thinking,
why would you take that away? that the defense doesn't
know what I'm doing in those seven steps. If they
just see me in the shotgun, I've taken away, I
think a weapon of deception here. And so why are
(37:48):
we getting back to these quarterback? Like Mendoza has never
taken a snap under center. I've taken more snaps under
center than Mendoza.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
So why are we getting back to quarterbacks under center?
Speaker 10 (38:01):
Well, I think college coaches didn't care that, they weren't
preparing them for the NFL. They were trying to win
a national championship and get themselves paid in the process.
Now these players are being paid a lot of money.
So what the coaches have had to shift and pivot
to is that you come play for us. Not only
will you get paid this, that, or the other, we'll
make you and get you ready to be an NFL quarterback.
(38:22):
And to be a great NFL quarterback, you better be
knowledgeable and you have the ability to be under center,
to read a defense while you drop back, and make
things difficult when you run play action. That's what a
pro-style quarterback who has success in the NFL is able
to do. But why wouldn't that help you in college
if you're a coach? Because I think a lot of
(38:42):
college coaches, and I think this was stemmed by Chip Kelly,
it was speed and it was basketball on turf. It
was not necessarily.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
So like Loyola Marymount basketball back in the 90s.
Speaker 10 (38:55):
Chip believed that if we could outrun you to the perimeter,
if we could outleverage you with numbers, that was the difference.
And it still is that way. I mean, when you
scheme up an offense, that's what you're up against. You're
running into the A gap or the B gap on
the defense. And if you can get a double team
and get to the linebacker and the safety all in one,
you're going to have leverage.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
You're going to have the victory there. But when you
put a quarterback.
Speaker 10 (39:16):
Under center and remove him from that and put him
in the shotgun, especially if you put a back to
the right of him, or the left of him, you
pretty much, for a defensive coordinator, you're giving him so
much leeway. Now, that's why when the pistol came in,
I really liked that, because at least you put the
back behind you in that and you made it difficult
for the defensive coordinator to scheme that up. You in
the shotgun and put a running back to one side,
(39:39):
like you are cutting the field in half in terms
of what a defensive coordinator can do, and he's going
to thank you in his postgame speech.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
How did J.J. McCarthy fall?
Speaker 10 (39:48):
Well, I think he got injured. I don't think he
played all that bad last year, to be honest with you.
I don't think that they were very good offensively, unfortunately.
Having one of the best wide receivers out there and
not getting into the football, that's something else. I think
a lot of it goes into what Sam Darnall was
(40:10):
able to do a year ago, what Daniel Jones has
been able to do, two guys that were on that
roster and a decision by the you know, by the
Vikings organization to go with JJ McCarthy. And in this
day and age, like if you don't go out and
have an immediate success, people are ready to throw you
out with the bathwater. And that's just something that I don't,
I don't really appreciate. I wanted a competition. Kyler clearly
(40:30):
walked in there and won it.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
I will say this.
Speaker 10 (40:33):
I love Kevin O'Connell, but I'm telling you right now,
if this team doesn't win this year with Brian Flores
as the defensive coordinator, there's gotta be a real conversation
that maybe he's better as an offensive coordinator, as a
quarterback whisperer than he is as a, a guy overseeing
an entire organization when this is all said and done.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
They have to win this year. Plain and simple. Ryan Leaf,
USA Sports lead, Pac-12 analyst, and he'll be in the
booth on Saturday at Colorado State in Wyoming. That'll be
6.30 Eastern on USA Network. And then the following week,
Memphis at Boise State. Great to see you. Thank you
for sharing, as always. Robert Griffin Jr. III will join
(41:10):
us coming up in about 25 minutes. Marvin will be
in the confessional today. So two hours in the books
on this Wednesday, one more to go. Todd is here,
bandage and all, incredible. Dylan, Marv, Paula, yours truly in
the back room, guys. We say goodbye to Ryan Leaf.
We'll say hello to you coming up next hour.
You are listening to The Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio. Hour two on this Wednesday. It's a pizza Wednesday,
so morale is high. Dylan, who's responsible for the menu,
what are the pies today on the Rec Tech Grills?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We have a hot Italian sausage pizza. New Haven-style tomato pie. And,
of course, Todd's world-famous classic cheese pizza.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Who has it better than we do? Nobody. Stat of
the Day brought to you by Panini America, the official
trading cards of the program. Labor Day weekend on NBC
and Peacock. Back-to-back days of baseball action. Braves, Phillies, Twins,
White Sox. Then Monday, Cardinals, Giants. Labor Day weekend on
NBC and Peacock, which is where you can see this
(00:45):
program Monday through Friday. Ryan Leaf, former NFL quarterback, now
the lead analyst for the Pac-12. He will join us
coming up a little bit. The Heisman Trophy winner, Robert
Griffin Jr. III, will stop by as well. Phone calls, 877-3DP-SHOW.
Tyler's sitting by. He'll take your calls. I've been in
(01:05):
on Kyler Murray with the Vikings.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
I have.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
For some reason, I think Kevin O'Connell will get him going.
He's got some good wide receivers. He might have the
best receiver in football. Maybe you could get him out
in space, as they like to say. Hot take draft? Well,
here's the problem. I just saw the over-under for passing
touchdowns for Kyler Murray. Now I'm a little concerned about
(01:31):
the Vikings. Over-under is 18.5 touchdown passes. That's lower than
Bryce Young and Cam Ward, who are both at 20.5.
Here's my problem with the Vikings. The Vikings, since 2022,
are averaging just under 23 points per game. So they're
(01:52):
14th in the NFL over that period. Well, you've got
a great defense. Since 2023, the Vikings are allowing around
20 points per game. That ranks 3rd. in the NFL
over that time span. What's amazing is they won nine
(02:20):
games last year. And they had an offense that was
at the bottom of the NFL and a defense that
was top ten. Brian Flores, he can dial something up.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Go ahead, go ahead. Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
If I said to Kirk Herbstreet, you're not allowed to
use the expression dial up because Brent Venables, man, could
he dial some stuff up at Clemson? Todd Munkin, man,
could he dial something up for the Ravens? Brian Flores,
you know, he can dial some. Spags, Steve Spagnola, he's
(02:57):
going to dial something up.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Yes, Marv.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
He was a big fan of Mike Stoops at Oklahoma also.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh, Mike Stoops could dial something up. Yeah, Paul.
Speaker 6 (03:11):
A couple years ago in the NFL, it was the Bengals.
Lou Anarumo, the defensive coordinator, was dialing up stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Oh. Big popular. You got to have somebody who can
dial some stuff up there. Yes, Dylan.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Can you only dial stuff up on defense? You can't
dial anything up on offense?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
It feels like it is defense heavy with dialing things up.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
It does.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, because you're going to be like, what spag's going
to dial up here?
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Yes, Marvin. Marvin Lewis, when he was with the Ravens?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Did he have to dial anything up?
Speaker 5 (03:41):
But he definitely got a lot of play.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
You know, speaking of great defense, defensive duos, Aaron Donald,
when he makes his debut– certainly with Miles Garrett. And
I started to wonder, and you guys, the audience, you
can fill in the blanks here as well with your
favorite duos, like LT and Harry Carson, both Hall of Famers.
Zach Thomas, Jason Taylor, Hall of Famers. Von Miller, DeMarcus Ware,
(04:07):
Hall of Famers. Mike Haynes, Lester Hayes, Haynes, Hall of Famer.
Ed Reed, Ray Lewis. I might go right there and
say that is the greatest duo, defensive duo, And they
were there together a long time. Now, Derek Brooks, Warren Sapp,
Alan Page, Carl Eller, Mel Blunt, Mean Joe Green would
(04:29):
be up there as well. Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier, back
with the Kansas City Chiefs, Merlin Olson, Deacon Jones, Ronnie Lott,
Charles Haley. Those are just some names that we wrote
down earlier this morning. Ed Reed, Ray Lewis might be
the best duo. If you think about... I mean, all pros. Um,
(04:56):
and I do think Ed Reed's underrated. You know, because
that defense was so good, but when Ed got an interception,
Ed was going to make you pay. He wanted to score.
He was like Dion. He wanted to, he wanted to
score on you. Mel Blunt and Mean Joe Green, Steel Curtain.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Damn.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You could throw Jack Lambert in there if you wanted.
Jack Hamm in there if you wanted. Um, Elsie Greenwood
in there. If you want it, that's a cheat code
right there. How about Jerome Brown and Reggie white, but
Jerome Brown passed away, you know, too soon in his career, obviously,
(05:35):
but that was a duo up front. This is, you know,
the Rams have a duo there, you know, that's up
front here. I just thought taking two defensive players from
the same team at the same time, um, You know,
Harry Carson got into the Hall of Fame, had LT there.
Derek Brooks, Warren Sapp. John Lynch, throw in there as well. Yeah, Paulie.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
You mentioned Jerome Brown and Reggie White. In 90 and 91,
they were both first-team All-Pros lining up next to each other.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
That's as rare as it gets.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
And I don't know other ones. There's other ones that
I've forgotten. But these ones are just off the top
of my brain. Yes, Marvin.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
What about James Harrison and Troy Palamalu?
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yes, Dylan?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Did you say Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I did not.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
It's a good one. Patrick Willis, he obviously didn't have
the longest career, but he was reminiscent of Ray Lewis,
to be honest.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yes, Paul?
Speaker 6 (06:39):
I got a deeper cut I just got emailed in.
Neil Smith and Derek Thomas together with the Kansas City Chiefs.
They went to five straight Pro Bowls together and a
couple first-team All-Pros.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah. I'm fine with that. There's no wrong answer here.
I'm just saying, in my opinion, if it's not Ed
Reed and Ray Lewis, it might be Mel Blunt and
Mean Joe Green. Yes, Marvin.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Ronnie Lott and Charles Haley.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
I like that one, too. I mentioned that one. Yeah, Dylan.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
We'll give the defending champs some love. What about Earl
Thomas and Bobby Wagner?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, Hall of Famers. Throwing Richard Sherman in there.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah, and Richard Sherman.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Trifecta.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Cam Chancellor is one of my favorites. I can still
hear Cam Chancellor. Hit Julian Edelman.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Oh, man.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
That sounded like a ball coming off the bat of Otani.
And Edelman still held on to the ball. And stumbled
and got a first down. Edelman's had two of the
greatest plays in Super Bowl history.
Speaker 5 (07:43):
Ooh, new topic.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Two of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history. The
catch against Atlanta defied all probability. And then that hit
against Cam Chancellor.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Oh, man.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And then he still, I still, whenever I see Edelman,
I've said, dude, you had to be knocked out on
your feet. And I've been around Cam Chancellor. He's a man.
He's big. And you're around Edelman, and you go, how
did you survive that? Like, I'm thinking death. He got
hit so hard. I'm thinking, he's not getting up anytime soon. Yeah, Paul.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
I'm watching the replay of the Edelman hit by Cam Chancellor.
Not only does he get up, his teammates are, like,
tending to him. He doesn't go to the sidelines. There's
someone waving him over. He's shaking them off. He goes
right back to the huddle.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
I'm double-checking.
Speaker 6 (08:39):
I think he caught the next play.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Oh, my goodness. They're just guys who are built different
and taking that punishment. But, you know, these defensive players,
like Ronnie Lott would just– now, it was different when
Ronnie was playing and Mel Blount and some of these
other guys. But, boy, if they got a free run
at you, they were taking you out. It wasn't one
(09:02):
of those, hey, I'm going to ease up on you.
This is going to hurt. And the fact the NFL
used to celebrate these hits, you know, you'd get those
greatest hits of the NFL. Yes, Dylan. I thought about
this one too.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I know this is one of your favorites, but the,
the New York sack exchange for defensive tandem, maybe a short, like,
I mean a great couple of seasons.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, Gastineau and Klecko were great. Klecko was the great player,
you know, Gastineau got credit in a sack dance and,
you know, dating Brigitte Nielsen and drove a Rolls Royce.
I remember when I would go out to Hofstra where
the Jets practice and you'd go into the parking lot
and you'd see Gastineau's Rolls Royce there. He was always
(09:50):
friendly to me and I was working at CNN. So
not exactly, you know, we we weren't a sports network,
but I think he liked the fact that CNN went worldwide.
and when you interviewed him, the other guys didn't like
him because he was getting all the attention. He was flashy,
(10:10):
sack dance. Klecko, to me, was workmanlike. That dude was
strongest guy on the team, and he... He was the
one who did the dirty work. He was sort of
the Aaron Donald of the New York SAC exchange. Yeah, Pauline.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
I felt that way a little bit as a kid
watching the Steelers. Jack Lambert was a star. Joe Green
got commercials. Mel Blunt, to me, was scary when I
was a kid. I was like, that guy's too big
to play cornerback.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Well, and I think the Steelers' defense, it felt like
everything was funneled to Lambert there. You see this with
a lot of linebackers. Mike Singletary, it's funneled to you. Golly,
when you think about it, I didn't even put the
Bears in there, Pauly. You got Singletary and Richard Dent?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Beyond Hampton?
Speaker 6 (10:56):
More of an ensemble. But yeah, I mean, Richard Dent,
probably a little underrated historically.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Hall of Famer. Yes, Marvin.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Kind of in that same vein. I know they were
an ensemble, but Ty Law and Rodney Harrison.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Ties in the Hall of Fame. Rodney should be in.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
The Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
I think Rodney will eventually get into the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Yeah, Paul.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
J.J.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Watt, anyone?
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Oh! Forgot J.J., sorry. Justin.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
J.J. Watt.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Paulie went through a bad stretch where he couldn't help
himself mentioning J.J.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Watt.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
It's not over. Even when the season was over, he'd
be like, I got a text from J.J.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
I don't know. I reached out, you know, he and
his wife had a baby boy.
Speaker 6 (11:43):
Not invited to the wedding.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So Paulie went from J.J. Watt to Sam Darnold. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
and then Paulie just can't help himself. Whenever you talk
about Seahawks, yeah, Sam Darnold. We're aware of that. Sam
and I did it.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
We did it.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Yeah, Sam.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, Sam. Yes, Todd?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Is Carl Mecklenburg and Steve Atwater a stretch? I know
it's a Bronco thing. They played five years together. Those
are two pretty big guys.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
We were talking about Paul.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
I was just adding a name to the list of
the duos.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
Well, Paul, you got your own show with Perloff, so
maybe you can mention that. Not so fast. Not so fast.
Let's see. What do we have here? Jared in Tampa. Hi, Jared.
What do you have for me today?
Speaker 8 (12:32):
Hey, Dan. Six foot, 170. Hey, I just I wanted
to call. I was listening to the podcast late last
evening with my kids in the car.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
Right.
Speaker 8 (12:45):
And you were going through those NFL surveys of fan bases.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Right.
Speaker 8 (12:50):
And I've got a bunch of young Buccaneers fans in
the car. You gave us a really good moment yesterday
when you started counting down.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
What was it?
Speaker 8 (12:57):
The the most positive.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Teams, fan bases.
Speaker 7 (13:01):
You got to the.
Speaker 8 (13:02):
Yeah, and you got to the Bucs, and my kids
let loose in the back. It was cool. Just wanted
to call and say thank you. I got a good
dad moment yesterday.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
You're welcome, Jared. You're welcome. And to your kids, good
luck with the Buccaneers. But, yes, they ranked number one
in positivity for their fan base. Jacob in Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Hi, Jake.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
What do you have for me today?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Hey, Dan.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Second time, long time.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
5'8, hefty 195s. Um, thank you.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
Hey, man, I just wanted to say thank you. You always,
you know, shine a light on addiction and bring it,
you know, a lot of mental health issues and bring
it to the surface. I think that's really important. And,
you know, really helped me in my life. The Ryan
Leaf interview in 2016 was actually right around a big
turning point for me. I struggled a lot with opiate
(13:55):
addiction back then and had been for years and trying to,
you know, figure it out. And then That interview came on,
and for some reason, it really affected me. I listen
to you every day and have for a very long time.
Over that year, I listened to it probably five times
or more. It really just helped get the ball rolling
(14:15):
for me a lot, and I really appreciated it. I
actually got to meet Ryan at the Regents Pro-Damn. And
I just really wanted to call to say thank you
to you and to him because I wasn't able to
tell him what that interview meant to me at the
time because I was standing in front of my boss
while I was working. So I said, hey, thanks, man.
But just wanted to say thank you to both you guys.
Sorry I ran on for a minute.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
That's okay. Ryan Leaf will join us coming up in
about 10 minutes. But thank you for the phone call there.
Bill in Chicago. And we'll take a break.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Hi, Bill.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Hey, morning, Dan.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
6'2 and a Gilgis 190. Gilgis. I constantly am thinking
about your death trip bike ride you took with your
wife from Atlanta to New Orleans. And having done those
kinds of trips, I know how hard that is. And
(15:10):
I wondered how your wife's trial hike went. On the
Appalachian Trail went, and I was hoping you could cash
in your credits from that bike ride and maybe do
a supported hike.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
No, no, no, no. There's no supportive hike there. My
wife went and picked up the trail in New Hampshire,
and she loved it. She wants to do the Appalachian Trail.
And I have retired from hiking.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah. That was my first retirement.
Speaker 6 (15:45):
You're hanging up your boots?
Speaker 3 (15:46):
From hiking and biking. And by the way, we did
open up the envelope last night for the cost of
the wedding. We had sealed it. My wife said she
told the hotel clerk, just seal it up. And then
she put it in her bag when we traveled home
from California. And I said, you know, we don't have
(16:09):
to open it up. I mean, we can put it
in a time capsule and send it to Mars if
you want. Like, I don't care. I mean, I still
have to pay it. So let's pay it. And you
don't have to tell me what it costs. I don't care.
You know, it was a great moment, you know. And
so it was, you know, when you open it up
and it's real slow. And then I was curious how
(16:33):
many pages we're going to be. And then I'm like,
And I mean, I've gotten Sandler scripts that weren't as
long as this. And all of a sudden and I
always start at the bottom. You know, when I get
fan mail, I always start at the bottom because if
they say, like, I hate your guts, then there's no
need to read the other stuff. But if it says
(16:54):
have a blessed day or sincerely, then I go, OK.
So I went down to the bottom and I said
to my wife, how many numbers? And she goes, I said,
more than five. What's the first number? So she told me,
(17:18):
and then she showed me the price of it. And
I go, great. And she goes, great. I said, yeah,
I'm good. I probably wouldn't have been ready as we're
checking out after the wedding To look at that number. But,
(17:38):
you know, we're removed a couple of weeks. I'm like,
you know, it's okay.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
All right.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
We did it. She had a great time. Got to
have family and friends. That's what it's about. So I
was fine with that. I did tell my other two daughters,
don't be afraid to do something a little more frugal.
Does anybody want to get married at the house? You know,
my wife keeps saying it'd be nice if somebody wanted
(18:04):
to get married at the house. Get married at Paul's house. Like,
you know.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
We're in a side yard.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Save me a little bit of money. Yeah, True Green
came in and made your lawn look great.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
Yeah, come on over. Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
More phone calls coming up. Ryan Leaf will join us
next here, Dan Patrick Show.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Be sure to catch the live edition of the Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern, 6 a.m. Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Hey, it's Covino and Riff from Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 9 (18:33):
Now, in addition to hearing us live weekdays from 5
to 7 p.m. Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio, we're excited to announce a brand new YouTube
channel for the show.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Yup, that's right.
Speaker 9 (18:44):
You can now watch Covino & Rich live on YouTube
every day. All you gotta do, search Covino & Rich
FSR on YouTube. Again, go to YouTube, search Covino &
Rich FSR. fsr check us out on youtube subscribe hit
that thumbs up icon and comment away.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Robert griffin jr the third as mclovin would say he'll
join us coming up next hour the heisman winner the
fact that mclovin called him robert griffith jr the third
i went well you screwed up the griffith and the
jr But he said it in a convincing manner. Yes, Paul.
Speaker 6 (19:20):
Do you remember we played it so many times in
the weeks after that that Sal Palantonio accidentally said it
on Countdown?
Speaker 4 (19:27):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
And let's go out to Sal Palantonio. Robert Griffith Jr.
III will be available. And I'm like, oh, my gosh.
I apologize to Sal Pal for that. Ryan Leaf, USA
lead Pac-12 analyst, former NFL quarterback, and the number two
overall pick by the Chargers back in 1998. How many
(19:51):
teams are in the Pac-12? Eight football, nine basketball. Okay.
The opportunity to expand. Where are you getting those? Everybody
wants expansion. So where are we getting other teams, other schools?
Speaker 5 (20:06):
I think what.
Speaker 10 (20:07):
Teresa Gould, who's the Pac-12 commissioner, I think her vision
has really kind of become a reality. You know, there
was a time where there were the two teams where
everybody else vacated. And I don't think there was a
moment after she went and spoke to the presidents of
the university where she had a plan in place that
either one of those teams waver. If an ACC team
had come in or an ACC conference would have come
(20:29):
in or a Big 12 conference would have came, I
don't think Washington State or Oregon State would have left.
They were going to build this new Pac-12, rebrand it,
and release it to the public here in July. And
I think it's going to be highly competitive, a lot
of fun. But I do think they want to keep
looking outside to build the brand and build something bigger
(20:50):
down the stretch. But right now, they're really happy with
the eight participants.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
So now we only have power four. They're four power
four conferences, right?
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Which would make sense if it's a power four then.
Speaker 10 (21:02):
It's... I don't really buy into it outside the college
football playoff saying this year that the four power four
conference champions are going to get an automatic bid into
the college football playoff. That allows for, let's say the
PAC 12, if they're the fifth best ranked conference, which
I think it is going into the season. This gives
(21:24):
my alma mater and a lot of these teams in
this conference, maybe their best chance to go to the
college football playoff ever. Washington state hasn't won a championship
since 2003. So, This is going to give them a
much better chance to get to the playoff and be
a part of the conversation than they ever would have
had in the old Pac-12.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
How did we get to the point where you can
go to the NFL and put on an NFL uniform
and go through training camp, get cut, and then be
allowed to go back and play college football?
Speaker 10 (21:52):
Okay, so this is something I've been a little bit
annoyed with, the way the talking heads have been. You
heard Dan Orlovsky go on Get Up and say– this
is going to open up the floodgates.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
It's not going to open up the floodgates.
Speaker 10 (22:05):
He said they're going to play three years in college
and get drafted in the second round and play two
years and want to come back.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
No, that can't happen.
Speaker 10 (22:13):
It's now a rule. It's five for five. You get
five years to play five. This rule, which was injuncted
in the courts, is being applied retroactively. So this only
affects the class of 2022 of these players. None of
them were drafted. They did not make a roster. They
have a chance to come back and do everything else
that everybody is through this five-for-five thing. So it's not
(22:34):
something that's going to be ongoing. I don't know where
the story got so out of hand this week. It
just became this bomb. Well, it's Lane Kiffin. Well, because
he's using it to his advantage. And all these other
teams should too. These are players that are due their
final year of eligibility. It's not something that's going to
affect it next year or the year after that. But
then you even have head coaches like Steve Sarkeesian go
(22:55):
on there and start talking about morality and things like that.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
And I'm like.
Speaker 10 (22:58):
Are you kidding me? I mean, I don't know if
they're informed at the actual court ruling.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
No, it's the concept of it, Ryan, that we think, oh,
my God, this is going to be an avalanche. The
floodgates are open, and now we're going to have 50
guys go to the NFL, get cut, and then come
back and play wherever they want to. No, never happened.
Won't happen. This is a.
Speaker 10 (23:19):
an injunction in the courts that is being retroactively instituted
for these players that are due their final year of eligibility.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
That's it.
Speaker 10 (23:27):
And if they fall between these parameters, and we're talking
about maybe, what, six, seven, eight players? Like, that's it.
It's like the bigger conversation around all the things that
make it so subjective, and it's not. It's going to
piss off some other coaches, because guess what? It seemingly
feels like a lot of these players want to come
back and play for Lane Kiffin.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
I don't have any problem if Lane Kiffin wants to
take advantage of this. I don't have the morality, please,
going to LSU. He didn't invent this. If he takes
advantage of this, then fine. I'm okay with it. I
think if it was with another program and another coach,
I don't think we would have this. It was like, oh,
(24:07):
here's Lane. He'll do anything to win. If I'm in
his position, and as long as my AD is fine
with this, And I know these kids, I would open
the door if they're allowed to do this legally, then
I get it. I don't like it, but I get it.
Speaker 10 (24:24):
Yeah, I'm not even against liking it. These guys did
not make an NFL roster. You know, this is an
opportunity for them to maybe play football for the last
time and make name, image, and likeness money to help them.
It may be their best opportunity to do so. I
think a lot of these coaches are talking about, I'm
not going to give a kid who's busted his butt
(24:45):
for seven months, give away his spot. Well, they're not
giving away a spot. There's 105 roster spots. None of
those have been completely met. They're going to play within
this roster. And I know Lane really well. Lane's had
me come speak to three of his programs since he
was at Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss. And I suspect
I'll be down to Baton Rouge pretty soon. Um, I,
(25:05):
I simply love the guy. I think that he has
really reinvented himself. I thought we saw the best possible
version of him at Ole Miss. I even told him
that I said, this is the best possible version of you.
You have that at Ole Miss. Um, but he felt
like this was something he needed to do. And so
I supported him on it. I didn't necessarily think it
was the right move, but, uh, we'll see how it
(25:26):
plays out.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Um, what does he have you tell his team?
Speaker 10 (25:30):
Well, I go in and speak to, uh, you know, consequences.
You know, a big part of it. Also, you know,
a huge part of it is I'm exactly where they
were 25 years ago.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Right.
Speaker 10 (25:42):
I'm sitting in the exact same chair and I was
in a much better position than all of those people
in that room. I was about to be the second
or first pick in the NFL draft. You know, and
I give them that image. I go, how many of
you would give right now? Five-year career in the NFL,
the second pick in the NFL draft, $ 31 million, a
Heisman Trophy finalist. How many of you would give for
that right now? And every single one of them raises
(26:03):
their hand because you forget because of how poor my
professional career was, how much sacrifice and how much greatness
went into the first 22 years of my life.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
It's always thrown to the.
Speaker 10 (26:15):
Side because of what the professional thing happens. People always
ask me the question, do you wish you would have
never played professional football? Because then you would have this
great legacy. And I'm like, why would I have wanted that?
I wanted to be the best. I wanted to get
to the NFL. It's just how it happens.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
It's life. But when you tell them what happened to
you after football, and I don't know if they look
at you like, well, that's not going to impact me.
You know how kids are. They look at you like that.
They look like, that's not going to happen to me. Yes.
Which part I say.
Speaker 10 (26:44):
The part where you're going to be the second pick
in the NFL draft or the part where you're going
to end up in a prison cell. It can happen
to anybody at any point. We just had the young
man who called in to you. I mean, I'm sitting
in your green room. That was 10 years ago that
I came on this show. And that guy heard that
that day. You talked about it just a little bit
ago in your confessional about that platform. And maybe you
(27:06):
weren't ready to talk about it. But you had me
on your show.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Yes.
Speaker 10 (27:10):
And I was talking about it. And that allowed it
to grow and become something. And you then took hold
of that. And now you can speak to that. And
so I think the impact that I am having would
have never been the case if I had been a
Super Bowl winning quarterback that didn't get that education.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
But would winning have kept you away from prescription drugs?
Speaker 5 (27:39):
I don't know.
Speaker 10 (27:39):
I mean, the failure and the judgment led to that.
I didn't use it while I was playing. It was
a coping mechanism, like you talked about with the Tony
Romo and Tiger Woods conversation. You're trying to hide something.
And so I never had that problem while I was
(27:59):
playing in college. You were never interested in payment. I
never took a drug. The only drug I've ever taken
in my life is Vicodin. I didn't have my first
drink until my 18th birthday. I probably can count on
two hands how many times I've been drunk in my life.
Like it's not, you know, competition was my drug of choice.
I competed at everything. And now I've found that later
in life. And, you know, I was talking to Andrew
(28:20):
Perloff back there and I've been sober longer now than
I ever was using, which is, that kind.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Of snuck up on me. How many years?
Speaker 4 (28:28):
14 years.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Yeah. And previous, in my using years, it was, I think,
I don't know, 12, 8 to 12.
Speaker 10 (28:33):
I think it was. So- you know, we're even past
that point. It's not something I think about on a
daily basis.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
It's a, there's no reminder or something that you know,
that feeling, you know, or that you get that feeling
and then you have to like coping mechanism behavior.
Speaker 10 (28:52):
I think behavior is a real telling sign of that.
If you see old Ryan behavior, you know, entitlement, um,
you know, um, But that's not a smell or a
situation or anything? Movies was a thing for me. I
would always go to movies and I would take them.
You'd take Vicodin and go? And I would disappear. I
(29:12):
would just numb myself out. And so I always thought
it was going to be hard to go see movies again.
And I love to go see movies. And so when
I got into treatment, one of the things that the
therapist had me do was we all went to a
movie as a group and I got to see it
in a sober environment. and it was still the greatest, right?
And I remembered that. And so, you know, I take
(29:35):
my kid to the movies, my wife and I go
all the time. That was the one thing I thought
was going to trigger. And you find a way to
get past all that stuff. And then you use the
tools that you learn through the process to not be
influenced by those things. And, you know, I've had a
couple surgeries since I got sober, and there's been a
(29:57):
plan in place. It's always about transparency, talking to your doctors,
talking to people. My wife says I've built my house
out of glass over the last 12 years. And she's
got a point. Everybody knows my stuff. I'm not afraid
or worried that somebody may know it. And this has
zero to do with any sort of redemption for me.
Like there are so many people who have been infected
(30:18):
by the justice system, mental health or substance use that
have gone through this, conquered it and are thriving, but
no one has them on the Dan Patrick show. No
one has them on a podcast, and certainly not on
the platforms.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
It's life. And it just was public for me, and
that's it. What was that feeling like when you took
a pain med for your surgery? It was great, right?
Speaker 10 (30:43):
I mean, it's... Dangerously great? Dangerously great, yeah. I remember, oh, God, yeah.
I remember how this feels. I love this. I love
not feeling, you know, negative feelings, painful feelings. the things
that you're supposed to feel as a human being. But,
you know, we just had a plan in place, you know,
(31:04):
my wife handled them. We took them for a couple
of days and then we didn't think about it again.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
I had knee replacement surgery and I said to my wife,
you know, they gave me a boatload of Percocet and
I said, I don't want to take it. You know,
I have an addictive person. I just, I said, no,
I don't want to. She said, you haven't had problems
with this before. I said, I know that, but this
is knee replacement, and I was in terrible pain.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
That's smart.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
And I caved in. I said, Hundlon, let me have half. Listen,
they're invented for a reason, right?
Speaker 4 (31:42):
Yes.
Speaker 10 (31:42):
They're for acute physical pain. There's a reason why there's–
that's a me problem. That's not a pill problem. I
used to think football was the problem. No, it's a
me problem. Football was never the problem. Football gave me everything.
I had to figure it out. That's why with the
Tony Romo statement that we just saw, I thought it
was a very good statement. Didn't need the part about
(32:05):
having debilitating back pain and stuff like that. Take that
whole paragraph out.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
You don't need any of that.
Speaker 10 (32:09):
You chose to do this, and it's cost you this,
and you're going to admit to it, and you're going
to find a way to get better. That's It's almost
like the saying when you say something, but.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (32:21):
Everything after the but is meaningless to me. And I
was reading it with my wife yesterday and I was
just like, oh no, you don't have to say that part.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Everybody's had surgeries.
Speaker 10 (32:30):
Everybody who's going through debilitating pain, you know, don't, you know,
I play on a golf tour with him. He was
always out there on a golf tour playing. So I'm like,
if you're in such pain, why the hell are you
out there playing golf all the time then? That's not
helping things.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
You know, and to your.
Speaker 10 (32:43):
Point, you know, you could see, you could see the
thing starting to unravel. You know, being around people outside
the celebrity in the game of football.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
But don't mask what the problem is by telling me
that you've gone through surgeries.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Same thing with Tiger Woods.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
You're masking these things.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
You know. Let me bring you back. I'm going to
talk some actual football here. Yeah, let's do that. We'll
continue with Ryan Leaf right after this.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsportsradio.com. And
within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Continuing our conversation with Ryan Leaf, he's the lead Pac-12
analyst for USA Sports. And he'll be in the booth
on Saturday, Colorado State hosting Wyoming, the border war rivalry,
6.30 Eastern on USA Network. And then you got Memphis
at Boise State the following week. You look at the
(33:43):
number of teams that can win the national title. How
many would you say, let's say, get to a national
title game?
Speaker 10 (33:51):
As of right now, I would argue there's many more
than what we think because I don't think anybody has
any idea what's about to trot onto the field this Saturday.
With the way that rosters change so much in the offseason,
the preseason rankings are absolutely bunk in my mind. Should
be ripped up completely after week one. You know, when
(34:13):
my Cougars go beat Washington in week one and Washington's
a 15, you know, whatever, they're 15 ranked, it.
Speaker 5 (34:19):
Gets ripped up.
Speaker 10 (34:21):
And Washington State probably should be in the top 25
then if you look at it that way. Yeah, but
this is for TV. I understand why we do it.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
I get it.
Speaker 10 (34:26):
But the point about this is that I don't think
you could have any rational conclusion on how many teams
are viable options for a national championship right now.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
But give me a ballpark. 30. 30 have a chance
to go to the national title? Yes, I believe so.
30 for the playoffs, not national title game. I would
say you probably have.
Speaker 10 (34:48):
I think when you get into that playoff, you have
a chance.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Wait, well, are you suggesting that we could have another
Indiana this year? Um, definitely. But who would be Indiana
this year besides Indiana? Ole Miss.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
Okay.
Speaker 10 (35:04):
Oh, Ole Miss. I, I think Trinidad Chambliss is maybe
arguably the best in the business. Um, my Heisman front
runner is, is John Mateer at Oklahoma. Maybe Oklahoma could
be that team that comes out of nowhere. Um, because
I think they have the best quarterback and, you know, realistically,
if you have the best quarterback in, At any level,
you have a really good shot of making that. So
(35:26):
I think there is definitely a team out there that
could win the national championship that you are not talking.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
About right now. I think Miami has a really good
chance of going back to the national title.
Speaker 10 (35:36):
I think Mario Cristobal, I've known him for a long time.
He's been an incredible coach, a recruiter. He's back home.
He got to taste a little bit of it last year.
He continues to build a program that is rooted in winning.
So I wouldn't be surprised at all if they're back
in that That realm, once again, the ACC is such
a foreign conference than what the other three are when
(36:00):
you're talking about the power four. So, yeah, I suspect
that they could be right in the mix again.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
And Mensah, they get a really good quarterback who would
be a Heisman Trophy candidate. The number of analysts who
think C.J. Carr is the best quarterback in college football. Yeah,
water's wet. You know, they're not going out on a
very far limb there to make that. Well, but Arch
Manning was the anointed and even Dante Moore. But I
(36:31):
think that you say Notre Dame, CJ Carr, I think
Arch Manning, Dante Moore. I think all those guys can
could be in that that that realm. I like I said,
I think John Mateer is the. You think he's the
best quarterback in college football?
Speaker 10 (36:45):
Yeah, I think if he doesn't get hurt a year ago,
there's a much different conversation being had. He was the
best quarterback in all of college football his final year
at Washington State. He just was stuck in Pullman and
not playing against the right kind of opponents. So, yeah,
I think he's the best player. I think he's got
one of the best play callers in all of football,
and Ben Arbuckle calling plays that he's very familiar with.
(37:05):
So they've got to be good on defense, and that's
Brent Venable's area, so hopefully that makes Oklahoma– They've got
a difficult schedule, but yeah, that's my guy. The prep
work leading up to being drafted now, because these kids
are programmed when they're in grade school, high school, seven-on-seven,
(37:26):
all of these things. But we're getting back to quarterbacks
being under center in the NFL, which I kept thinking,
why would you take that away? that the defense doesn't
know what I'm doing in those seven steps. If they
just see me in the shotgun, I've taken away, I
think a weapon of deception here. And so why are
(37:48):
we getting back to these quarterback? Like Mendoza has never
taken a snap under center. I've taken more snaps under
center than Mendoza.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
So why are we getting back to quarterbacks under center?
Speaker 10 (38:01):
Well, I think college coaches didn't care that, they weren't
preparing them for the NFL. They were trying to win
a national championship and get themselves paid in the process.
Now these players are being paid a lot of money.
So what the coaches have had to shift and pivot
to is that you come play for us. Not only
will you get paid this, that, or the other, we'll
make you and get you ready to be an NFL quarterback.
(38:22):
And to be a great NFL quarterback, you better be
knowledgeable and you have the ability to be under center,
to read a defense while you drop back, and make
things difficult when you run play action. That's what a
pro-style quarterback who has success in the NFL is able
to do. But why wouldn't that help you in college
if you're a coach? Because I think a lot of
(38:42):
college coaches, and I think this was stemmed by Chip Kelly,
it was speed and it was basketball on turf. It
was not necessarily.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
So like Loyola Marymount basketball back in the 90s.
Speaker 10 (38:55):
Chip believed that if we could outrun you to the perimeter,
if we could outleverage you with numbers, that was the difference.
And it still is that way. I mean, when you
scheme up an offense, that's what you're up against. You're
running into the A gap or the B gap on
the defense. And if you can get a double team
and get to the linebacker and the safety all in one,
you're going to have leverage.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
You're going to have the victory there. But when you
put a quarterback.
Speaker 10 (39:16):
Under center and remove him from that and put him
in the shotgun, especially if you put a back to
the right of him, or the left of him, you
pretty much, for a defensive coordinator, you're giving him so
much leeway. Now, that's why when the pistol came in,
I really liked that, because at least you put the
back behind you in that and you made it difficult
for the defensive coordinator to scheme that up. You in
the shotgun and put a running back to one side,
(39:39):
like you are cutting the field in half in terms
of what a defensive coordinator can do, and he's going
to thank you in his postgame speech.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
How did J.J. McCarthy fall?
Speaker 10 (39:48):
Well, I think he got injured. I don't think he
played all that bad last year, to be honest with you.
I don't think that they were very good offensively, unfortunately.
Having one of the best wide receivers out there and
not getting into the football, that's something else. I think
a lot of it goes into what Sam Darnall was
(40:10):
able to do a year ago, what Daniel Jones has
been able to do, two guys that were on that
roster and a decision by the you know, by the
Vikings organization to go with JJ McCarthy. And in this
day and age, like if you don't go out and
have an immediate success, people are ready to throw you
out with the bathwater. And that's just something that I don't,
I don't really appreciate. I wanted a competition. Kyler clearly
(40:30):
walked in there and won it.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
I will say this.
Speaker 10 (40:33):
I love Kevin O'Connell, but I'm telling you right now,
if this team doesn't win this year with Brian Flores
as the defensive coordinator, there's gotta be a real conversation
that maybe he's better as an offensive coordinator, as a
quarterback whisperer than he is as a, a guy overseeing
an entire organization when this is all said and done.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
They have to win this year. Plain and simple. Ryan Leaf,
USA Sports lead, Pac-12 analyst, and he'll be in the
booth on Saturday at Colorado State in Wyoming. That'll be
6.30 Eastern on USA Network. And then the following week,
Memphis at Boise State. Great to see you. Thank you
for sharing, as always. Robert Griffin Jr. III will join
(41:10):
us coming up in about 25 minutes. Marvin will be
in the confessional today. So two hours in the books
on this Wednesday, one more to go. Todd is here,
bandage and all, incredible. Dylan, Marv, Paula, yours truly in
the back room, guys. We say goodbye to Ryan Leaf.
We'll say hello to you coming up next hour.
Hosts And Creators
Todd "Fritzy" Fritz
Dan Patrick
Patrick "Seton" O'Connor
Paul Pabst
Marvin Prince
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