September 10, 2024 • 45 mins
The San Francisco 49ers beat the New York Jets last night on Monday Night Football without the help of RB Christian McCaffrey and Dan wonders about the timing of when the Niners revealed his status for the game. Former NFL QB Alex Smith joins the show to weigh in on last night’s game and Aaron Rodgers’ performance in the Jets’ loss. And Los Angeles Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh stops by to remind Dan and the Danettes; who has it better than we do?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Watching the Jets last night primetime games. It's you know,
we do over react to primetime because we all collectively
are watching a game, then we all collectively have an opinion.
And with the Jets last night, Aaron Rodgers didn't look good,
never got settled in. He threw for under one hundred
and seventy yards. Breece Hall averaged less than three and
a half yards per Garrett Kerry. Garrett Wilson looked good
(00:27):
in the first half, shut down on the second half,
and then all of a sudden, a guy named Jordan
Mason comes in for Christian McCaffrey and look like Christian McCaffrey.
It's one game. Yes, it's Aaron Rodgers coming back. He's
forty years of age. I expect that defense to be formidable.
And you have Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson, who are
(00:48):
you know they can change a game? And do I
still think that they're going to be a playoff team? Yes?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I do.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
By the way, the over under with wins after the
loss by the Jets to DraftKings, the over under for
the Jets wins is nine and a half, but I
will say this, odds to win Comeback Player of the Year,
Aaron Rodgers is the big winner so far, followed by
Joe Burrow, Anthony Richardson, Sam Darnold, and Kirk Cousins. What
(01:16):
did Sam Darnold come back from obscurity? Average n that's weird.
And Jim Harbaugh. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know that.
Odds to win Coach of the Year, He's the favorite
right now, followed closely by Matt Eberflus, Mike McDonald of Seattle,
and then Gerrod Mayo after the Patriots had their big win,
(01:38):
and Kevin O'Connell after the Vikings had their big win.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Seaton.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
What's the Paul question we're going to go with today
at least the first hour.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Yeah, if we started going with biggest overreaction right now,
Sam Darnold might win because he's on his way to
becoming a Hall of Famer, well maybe a Pro Bowl quarterback.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I think Marvin said that he would be the starter
and the Pro Bowl. That is our hot take, and
I meant that, yeah, of course you did.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
They played the Giants.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Every week, Yeah, yeah, every week? All right, So what's
pull question? First down.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Well, we could start off with one here from Todd
Aaron Rodgers and the Jets are gonna be just fine.
It's one game on the road versus a great team
or in big trouble.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
They didn't have the ball enough. But give credit to
San Francisco. Their offensive and defensive lines were wonderful. And
you know, Rock Perty didn't do much, didn't have to
do much. Jordan Mason undrafted there, a third year player,
but free agent. So you have the highest paid running
(02:41):
back not playing, and then you have the cheapest running
back in the NFL. And once again, you don't want
to say players like Christian McCaffrey are interchangeable, just saying
with a really good offensive line and a few other
weapons to focus on, he was able to have a game.
Now here's the thing that was tricky for me last night.
(03:04):
If I'm a gambler, when is Christian McCaffrey ruled out
of this game? So right before kickoff, thirty minutes before,
all of a sudden, Mothership comes on the air and
it was in Oh, by the way, Like, I was
really surprised at how Joe and Troy came on the
air and then it was they got around to Christian
(03:26):
McCaffrey isn't playing. That should have been the first thing
we saw was Jordan Mason. And you even say to
your audience, why are we showing you Jordan Mason. He's
starting for Christian McCaffrey. That should have been the first thing.
Not It's a glorious night in the bay And now
I don't care. This is about news that was breaking.
(03:50):
Now that's also the tricky part. Did we know should
we have known Friday or maybe Saturday Christian McCaffrey wasn't playing.
When did the Niners know that Christian McCaffery was not
going to play?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Now?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but
fantasy owners also gamblers, you need to know this is
full transparency. And that became a little tricky because Kyle Shanahan,
the Niners head coach, was asked this question.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Jordan said, have to give me his hold.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
On Friday night, he was gonna start.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
When did Christian start feeling cry?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I never told Jordan was going to start. Told me
he had to be ready a bunch.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
But I might have been Bobby or somebody trying to
pump him up, but I knew he was gonna have
to play a lot. I told him that he was
going to have to wasn't going to be like usual.
He's going to be a number two back that was
splitting a lot of the time.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
For now. He didn't know he for sure was doing
that till the day. Okay, Jordan Mason rushed for one
hundred and forty seven yards in the win, the most
rushing yards by an undrafted player since Austin Eckler a
couple of years ago had one hundred and seven three yarns.
But you know, you're watching this happen right in front
(05:05):
of you, and then all of a sudden, we're You're like,
who's Jordan Mason? And how long is Christian McCaffrey going
to be out? You know, there were I'd seen an
update on Friday that McCaffrey was still bothered, you know,
that calf injury, and it'd been lingering in I guess preseason,
and all of a sudden, you're just going, wait a minute,
what's going on here? And then they eventually get into
(05:29):
the story and then you realize, Okay, he's going to
be out of the game. This guy is going to play,
and this is the season opener for the NFC Chams,
and it's the best running back, one of the best
players in the NFL. It was treated a little too
casually for me. It should have that should have led
the broadcast that it was that important. It's that important,
(05:51):
and if I'm a gambler, I want to know. I
don't know what that did to the betting line. I
don't know if people all of a sudden said, you
know what, I'm going to take the four and a
half with the Jet because of that. But it's tricky
and you have to have that information available to gamblers
and fantasy. Now, in some fantasy leagues, you can replace
one of your players if another player is playing on
(06:13):
either one of those teams, at least I've been told that.
So if you had somebody on the Jets, you had
somebody on the Niners, you could replace Christian McCaffrey with
them because they were playing in the game or their
teams were playing in that game. Yes, Pauline, it's different
at different betting sites.
Speaker 7 (06:30):
But when the McCaffrey news was announced, the forty nineers
went from four point favorites to three point favorites and
the over under went from forty one and a half
forty two and a half to forty one and a half.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, so it did have an impact here, and it
sounds like somebody knew something on Friday. Now, Kyle Shanahan
is never going to admit that he told Jordan Mason,
you're going to get the start, Christian's not playing, because
then the NFL would probably be dialing up Kyle's hand
hand to say, Kyle, we can't do that. We can't
(07:05):
even give the perception that something was a little aire Haywire,
a wall something. Yeah, Seeden, So.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Not to go all tinfoil hat on you, but it's
just a coincidence that then they told the kid on Friday,
even though nobody was supposed to know that he was starting,
and then ESPN completely downplayed the news that Christian McCaffrey
wasn't starting.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well. Watching the broadcast last night, right, I mean, that's
the first thing. I don't care what the weather, and
it's a sunset and a beautiful night and electricity in
the air. It's you got breaking news. Christian McCaffrey is
not playing in the game. That's I mean, you get
a pregame show that actually has some news to it.
(07:54):
I was just shocked that they didn't treat that like
it was something more important than what it was. And
you got this guy who was an undrafted free agent,
third year player. You have no idea who he is.
We found out who he was watching the game, and
he played an integral part in them winning this game.
So I was just surprised. But I don't know if
(08:16):
the NFL is going to follow up on this. But
if you tell me I'm starting my first game, I
think I'm going to remember that conversation. I don't know
if it was a hey, get ready, you're going to
play a little bit now. That's not starting. That's called
be ready. Like my college coach would always say to me, hey,
(08:38):
be ready as I continue to sit on the bench.
He didn't say you're starting. I would remember that. So
it was a little surprising last night from a couple
of different angles there. All right, let me see, here's
Aaron Rodgers on what went wrong.
Speaker 8 (08:58):
Yeah, you know, we're just bad one first and second down,
I think for a lot of the game, and then
you know, we had a couple of drives, we converted
third downs, but overall, you know, we we we I
feel like we didn't have any third and ten pluses tonight,
so that's always a good thing. We look in the
stat sheet, but we didn't convert those third mediums. You know,
we had a drop, we had a couple penalties, had
(09:20):
a bad throw, so not the correct but overall, I feel,
you know, I feel good about our guys that the
protection was really good tonight. We just would a little
bit off in the in the run game, couldn't give
brist coh and couldn't give them enough space. But a
lot to build on.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, it's not time to panic yet. I mean, this
is what we want to do. We want to overreact
to it. It's the Niners. The Niners were supposed to win.
I was surprised the betting line wasn't a little more
closer to six points, but it was four and a half,
then went down to three. McCaffrey's not playing, and you know,
(09:55):
Rogers had some weapons looked good early, but the defense
got man handled last night. That was the big surprise
for me. Panic not yet. Now. I think they have
the Titans next week. Does that sound right?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (10:08):
Todd at the Titans host the Patriots and then host
the Broncos.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Is it an okay? They could easily be three and one,
and then we're gonna move on to another topic here,
by the way, Jordan Mason salary this year nine hundred
and eighty five thousand dollars. All right, that's a good, good,
good salary. Christian McCaffrey's game check for last night, forty
(10:34):
thousand dollars. Stat of the day, Sat of the day,
that past stat of the day, stat of the day.
Here comes that what stat of the day? Stop stat
of the day. Brought to you by Panini America, the
official Trading cards. Alex Smith will join us. Coming up,
former NFL quarterback Jim Harball once again top of next hour.
(10:58):
I didn't know much about Jordan Mason, and was he
Georgia Tech? Nice? Okay, I was gonna give you a hint.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
Fantastic uniforms, a good running back.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, Jordan Mason. So was he there before
Jamiir Gibbs?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
He was?
Speaker 7 (11:15):
He overlapped with the Gibbs era lightly. Actually, he took
over after Gibbs went to Alabama. He was eighteen nineteen
twenty twenty one. He started off great and had some
injuries his last few year.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Fritzy wants to change the spelling I guess of Christian
McCaffrey's last name, So it was being kicked.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
Around the room.
Speaker 9 (11:31):
McCaffrey made with a name like that, we should have
known that he might run into problem.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Thank you, calv mcalf mcaffe.
Speaker 9 (11:37):
And if you played with the yellow jacket, shouldn't there
be some buzz around Jordan Mason before?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Already here all night. Probably would have held off on
the last one.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Get your waitresses.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, ten dollar cover trick. Pretty good game by Brock, wasn't.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
It Dan.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
McCaffrey than calf? Uh? Okay, So what's the pole question?
We're going to go with hour one? Then we'll take
a break.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
I think we're gonna go with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Actually, what about Can I put up something.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Along the lines of the timing of the announcement of
Christian McCaffrey's injury story or not a story?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, but I'm looking at this from a TV perspective
of this is breaking news. It should have been played
up larger than what it was. But you know, for
the league and betting, and I don't know, maybe I'm
making too big a deal of it, but it was
breaking news and it wasn't treated that way. It was
(12:39):
we're going to get around to. Hey, let's go down
to Laura Rutledge, Laura Christian McCaffrey not playing. Okay, yeah see,
let's see.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
I find it more interesting the discrepancy between the player
and the coach. Well, the players like, yeah, they told
me on Friday, And then all of a sudden, the
player has to go back up onto the front and be.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Like wow, well, I mean and I don't.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Because he just got everybody in trouble.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I felt bad for him because, well, he has his moment.
Now he's going up saying this is why I don't
like the media anyway. Dude, you just had your moment.
It's not our fault. They're just asking the right question.
When did he know? When? Did you know Friday?
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (13:22):
Mark?
Speaker 10 (13:23):
Is that going to be awkward because in that postgame pressor,
Kyle Shanahan mentions Bobby that's Bobby Turner, the running backs
code for the forty nine ers, Like wait, wait, did
you tell him that he was going to be starting
with Friday?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
But Bobby's not interviewed. You don't talk to the assistant coaches.
So I'm going to have to take Kyle's word for
it that he wasn't told on Friday that he was
going to be starting Okay, maybe nothing to see here.
I uh's it Friday? Did I say start?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
No?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
It's Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup
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Speaker 11 (14:06):
Live, Hey gang, listen. Is Jay Glazer, host of Unbreakable,
a mental Wealth.
Speaker 12 (14:11):
Podcast, and every week we will have on leaders from
sports entertainment like Sean McVay, Lindsay Vaughn, Michael phelf, David Spade,
Guy Fiemi, and also those who can help us in
between the ears, anyone from a therapist to someone like
Ed Milett for John Gordon. We've all been through some
sort of adversity to get to the top. We've all
used different tools.
Speaker 11 (14:33):
Listen to Unbreakable with Jay Glazer and Mental Wealth podcast
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Former NFL quarterback number one overall pick by the Niners
back in five He's Alex Smith, co host of a
new podcast, Glue Guys with former NBA player Shane Battier,
and they take a deep dive into sports, great teams
across sports, to and business. You can tune in on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or your preferred podcast player. Look at you, business sman,
(15:08):
Alex Smith, how'd you get partnered up with Shane Battier?
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Shane and I have a mutual friend, you know, good
buddy of mine, Robie Gupta, who I live in the
same small town here in the Bay Area, and he
just happens to be a fellow doochie and went to
school with Shane, and so I've gotten to know Shane
through him and we just kind of hit it off
and you know, somehow stumbled into this. It's a great question, Dan,
you know, I think it, to be honest, it's all
(15:34):
Shane's fault. I'm gonna I'm gonna blame it on him.
You know, he's been known as the no stat All Star.
You know, Michael Lewis wrote this famous article about him
that did why why does every team that he's on win?
You know, and necessarily a guy that doesn't necessarily have
the stats that go with it, at least the stats
that we think of, and what goes behind that, right, Like,
what's behind being a great teammate and a great leader
(15:55):
and these winning cultures, and I think sometimes there's these
fallacies around all those things, and so we kind of
have fun digging into it and chopping it up. And
I'm unfortunate enough. Listen, I get asked to talk a
lot about my journey, my career, mentoring, you know, coming
back from my injury, and I think the same thing, like,
there's these sometimes people think they're they're disney Ish, you know,
(16:16):
this is this idea of like resiliency, and it's, uh,
it's not. You know, I've been fortunate enough to be
a part of great teams. I never would have done
any of the things that I was able to do
without being a part of a great team. And certainly
my comeback was a part of that, you know, an
amazing medical team that helped me get back out on
the field.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So the two people come up to you randomly and say,
can I see your scars?
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Yeah, oh yeah, that's not especially if I have shorts on.
If I got shorts on, yeah, I get I get
very curious minds coming up to being inspecting my leg.
Well it's gnarly looking. I mean, I don't blame them.
It is it's much prettier than it used to be though.
It's come a long way. But I don't blame them, Listen,
it's uh. I actually appreciate the questions.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Sometimes kids don't bring you to show and tell.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
And oh, I think my kids are numb to it.
They saw it when it was really crazy. So yeah,
I think they and I hope they don't think that
like that's just what a broken leg looks like. You know,
I think that they think that that's normal. No, I
think they're pretty numb to it. It's just dad's leg
at this point, that's how he walks.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, but if they skin their knees, they can't really
complain to you after what you went through, you know.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Well, I think they do.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
You know.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
That's certainly a part of what we even talk about
on the pod is like, I mean, parenting is a
team too, right, It's a great big team and we
all have different roles in it. And how does that work?
Speaker 7 (17:36):
And so.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
Yeah, I mean I think there's things I constantly, the
things I've gone through, I find myself pulling, you know,
harbiisms out on my kids occasionally, you know, which is
is just funny.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So do you have a fall story. We got him
coming up top of next hour? Is there one do you? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (17:54):
I got yeah, I got plenty. I got harboss stories for.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Days, Dan one, I haven't heard that, would I can
I can bring back to Jim.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
To Jim all right, Yeah, I mean I got a
few men. First off, Like I'll never forget when I
first met him, you know, like I was we were
in the building. It was actually right before the lockout
was going on. I was getting ready to have my
first child. So I'm kind of sneaking in. I'm getting
ready to be a free agent.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Dan.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
There's no way that the Niners are going to keep me,
and I'm not sure I really want to be back
with them either, you know, and so but I meanwhile,
they still let me in the building to work out.
So I'm coming in the building. I'm kind of sneaking
in the ground floor and working out and getting out
of there. And Jim comes down one day and you see,
I've been doing this for a couple of weeks, and
I think he maybe caught when he catches me down there,
(18:40):
and he like he immediately comes up and introduces himself,
but he starts he's sizing me up immediately like just
I mean like literally not even being very discreet about it,
literally sizing me up. I can tell he's like looking
at my body, how tall I am? Oh, you're bigger
than I thought, like kind of taller than I thought.
And then he's like, hey, put your hand up. I'm
like what, So I put my hand up and he
(19:01):
puts his hand up next to mine. So we're hand
to hand, right, and he's measuring my hand. I mean,
I haven't met him this, it hasn't been two minutes.
And so he's looking at my hand. He's like all right,
like this, it's I mean, this full inspection. He's like, hey,
you want to go play catch? Sure, sure, let's go.
So he goes in and he tap. You know, he's
(19:22):
got this gnarly looking pinky on his throwing hands, so
he tapes up his pinky and just Jim and I
go out on the practice field at the at the
Niners and we play catch and we start, you know,
he start just normal throwing right, so like we're ten
yards away and tossing the ball to each other, and
after a few dan he starts like I can tell,
he's like humming them at me right, like so it's
(19:42):
like okay, and he's kind of like, come on, bringing on,
and so I start humming. I'm back at him. Right
here we are again, like I swear it hasn't been
ten minutes since I met the guy, and we're playing
like Pepper ten yards apart out in the practice, just
humming balls at each other as hard as we can,
kind of who can catch them, who can throw harder.
(20:03):
Then he's like okay. Then we go walk over and
we start throwing. Were playing these games, these throwing games
at goalposts, and he's like moving me around, and he
was obviously a lot younger. I mean, this was a
long time ago. He's you know, he can still throw it.
And so we're playing all these throwing games at goalposts
and trying to do all these contests. Hey do this now,
see if you can do this. This lasts about twenty minutes,
(20:24):
twenty five minutes, and he's like all right, okay, you know,
we walk in. That's enough. Doesn't say anything. I got
no feedback at all on like how this went. I mean,
I remember coming home to my wife and I'm like
telling her about what happened, and she said, well, what
did you think I'm like, I had no idea, no idea. Luckily,
a couple of days later, you know, I go back
into work out, you know, Jim pops back down again
and says, hey, you want to go play catch again?
(20:46):
So this repeated. He and I go play catch for
several weeks, just Jim and I playing catch and playing
stupid games and Pepper out on the field, you know,
And all of a sudden this kind of led to like, hey,
what do you think about coming back? And that's just
the way Jim is. And he's one of a kind
and he's all ball, all ball. I say this on
(21:07):
the podcast, Like Jim, he would tell the team this.
He's like, damn, his life aspirations were to play football
as long as he could and then coach football as
long as he could and then die.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
You now, that's Jim Jim, and it's real, you know.
So But you know what I was wondering about this.
I don't know if you'll get the analogy. He's like
ted Lasso, Like he just has kind of corny sayings,
he's his own pert, he's unique, you know, positivity, all
of those things. It just feels like if there's a
ted Lasso in the NFL, It's Jim Harriball now.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
There is there is and I think that's It's kind
of the one thing I think people ask about leadership
all the time, you know what makes a leader, and
certainly in the NFL world where it's a bunch of
his alpha dogs, right, like the biggest, bad biggest, baddest
dudes on the planet. But at the core of being
a leader, like, you got to be authentic, right, You can't,
you can't be s anybody. And Jim it's authentic, Like
he just loves football. He genuinely he is doing what
(22:05):
he's meant to do. And as quirky as it is,
like I think, I know, I always just appreciated the
honesty in it, like he just is who he is.
It's different, yeah, but like again, he loves what he's doing,
he's grateful for it, and I think that it really
sets a tone for the building and the team.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I'm talking to Alex Smith, the three time Pro Bowler,
Comeback Player of the Year and co host of the
new podcast Glue Guys with former NBA player Shane Battier.
What did you see with the Jets offense last night
that would concern you?
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Oh, to be honest, I wasn't real concerned about the offense.
I mean, listen, Aaron hasn't played a whole lot of
football in the last year and a half. Right, four plays,
It's to be expected that they were going to It
wasn't gonna be smooth. They're going on the road on
Monday night and playing one of the best teams in football. Like,
I thought, it was just such a ridiculous task, to
be honest, I thought their defense didn't show up. I mean,
(22:57):
this is supposed to be their calling card, is this
defense and no Christian McCaffery. And you know, I thought
maybe they'd have a chance to keep him in this game,
and they did for the first two drives, and then
that and that went away. I thought Aaron looked good.
I mean, there's processes in your comeback, right, Like, this
guy hasn't he hasn't played in the preseason. He hadn't
(23:17):
been tackled again four plays in the last year and
a half. I thought he moved around well. I thought
he threw the ball well. I think they're gonna be
okay again. The defense was probably my bigger concern. Really
kind of out outplayed in this game by by that
Niner offense and Kyle Shanahan, and so I mean, I
think they'll have a chance to write the ship here
this week against Tennessee. But a little bit I thought
(23:39):
it was an overwhelming task to put him back on
Monday night a year after what happened again on the
road at the defending NFC champions.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Tom Brady, you talked about these rookie quarterbacks and he
used the word I think tragedy that they're being ushered
in to start, and you know, you got a dumb
down offenses, And I disagreed with because it feels like
these rookie quarterbacks, most of them have played for two
different universities, two different offenses. They've gotten money with nil.
These offenses in college are so much more intricate than
(24:11):
they used to be. Now you're gonna struggle. Bo Nick struggled,
Caleb struggled. Jaden Daniels had moments where he looked pretty
electric there. So what's your reaction to what Brady had
to say and then base that off what you saw
week one with these rookie quarterbacks.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Yeah, generally speaking, you know, I aligned with Tom, like
I think if you're taking a quarterback in the first round.
I think you should do everything in your power to
make sure that when they take the field, like they
are ready to roll. I mean, I just think I've
heard coach Saban talk about it, and I lived at
the expectations on a first round quarterback. It's so much,
it's so heavy, the game is so different, and that
(24:52):
it's like the worst success rate in the NFL if
you look at a position basis, like of drafting positions,
the lowest hit rate in the NFL for first round
picks is quarterback, And so I I generally think that, like,
why not have them over prepared? Listen, if you waited
a little too long, could Patrick Mahomes have played earlier? Sure?
Absolutely right, But like, what's the what was the fault
(25:14):
of him waiting you know, almost all the season and
then you hitting, Like, what's the what's the what's the
worry about? You know, Jordan Love waiting a couple of years.
The important thing is to hit on it. And I
think you're making such a big investment in these guys.
I think you want to again ensure that they have
the best chance to succeed. With that all being said, Dan,
(25:34):
I completely agree with you. This year's class. This year's
class is an exception to the rule.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
True.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
I mean, these guys have played more football and are
more prepared as a class that I can ever remember.
I mean, Bo Nicks has literally played more football than
any college football than anybody Jane Daniel's five year starter.
I mean, these guys are very, very accomplished. Even Caleb Williams, Like, listen,
we've known he's going to be the number one pick
for a couple of years now. I mean, this guy's
been dealing with XP dictations since high school. He's played
(26:02):
college football at the hight level. Even he's he's I think,
really well prepared for this. And I don't think we
can judge this off of one week, right, I mean,
it's the opening week. This game's a blur there. They're
not even gonna remember this game several years from now. Dan,
So like, I kind of tend to agree with you
in this, in this instinct and not. I think the
other thing, too, is one rule, doesn't you know once
(26:24):
you doesn't fit everybody in this thing. You know, you
look at CJ. Stroud and what he did last year,
obviously overly prepared and ready to take that over. I
think you have to look at that, you know, the
other ten guys in the huddle, the entire team as
a whole, and then obviously the individual like what system
have they been in? What kind of football are they playing?
What are we asking them to do? And then go
off of that. But yeah, this is an interesting year
(26:45):
and interesting class and I think they are ready to go.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Do you remember a specific time when you realize that
Patrick Mahomes was going to be Patrick Mahomes, whether practice game,
did you have that kind of oh where you go
home and you tell your wife, uh, oh.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
You know, I think the thing list. I mean about
halfway through the year he started to make some plays
on the scout team, like some of the you know,
the throws that we see on Sundays. You know then
you know, no looking like a twenty yard dig route.
I mean, you know, as a rookie, like who's doing that?
Who even has that? Like the guts to do it
and they let alone pull it off? But I think
(27:26):
more so than that, and what gets lost with Patrick
a lot of times is like I mean, Patrick beat
me into the building almost every day that entire year, right,
you know, and it wasn't he didn't do it for
a week. He didn't do it for the first month
of the season. It was just all year and incredibly curious.
He's just a grinder, like a guy loves ball. He's
(27:46):
obsessed about it. He you know, it is again he's
doing what he's meant to be doing. And yes, he
has these spectacular talent, but like, more so than that,
like this guy I got. I got the opportunity to
be in camp with them this this last training camp,
and I sat in meetings again for days, and I'm
been in that kind of environment with Patrick. You know,
I've seen him. I played golf with him, you know,
over the last few years, but I haven't sat in
(28:08):
a meeting with him since his rookie year. And to
watch him operate in the meeting room, Dan, I can't
tell you how blown away I was, like leaving there,
like how detailed he was, like we want we went
through protections. I mean, this guy's on every aspect of
his game, and I think sometimes that gets lost with
the wold plays that he makes, you know, and again
(28:29):
how obsessed he is about his craft, being the best
quarterback in the NFL. And and so I think if
there was a thing that entire year It was also
that like again that he he beat me in every
single morning, right all the way till the end. The
guy just loves football, loves competing. You know, he wants
the ball in his hand. He's not afraid of the moment.
So I think all those things kind of over the
(28:50):
year showed, you know, showed their head. And then certainly
when he started the last game against Denver, very very
apparent that he was ready to go.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
You can keep a secret. I got to give you
credit because I'll go back to the Super Bowl in
Minnesota where we had you in studio and I'm asking
where you're going. You stay, and you're going. Six hours
later you signed the deal with Washington. It could have
helped me out that day.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
That was a weird day, Dan. I remember that day. Well,
it was a very strange day. You know, I felt
like I was not sure what I could and couldn't
say as these are like I knew we were kind
of in the you know, the eleventh hour of negotiations
and close, but very strange. I apologize for that, you
know now being on this side of the you know,
the media, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Know, well, what was the other team?
Speaker 5 (29:42):
Was there?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Another team that was in the mix here that you
were going to go to.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
There were other teams in the mix. There certainly wasn't
They were very close in my opinion, you know, like
you can tell me I wanted to go, you can
tell me no, to be honest, like it wasn't even
you know, my trade, my trade from San Francisco was
probably far more competitive my trade from Kansas City. It
was very clear that the lease in my eyes, that
Washington was the best destination and where I wanted to go.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Well, good luck with the podcast. We'll check in with
you during the year, and great to see you again,
Dan Gray.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Seeing you man.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio WAP.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
We make way for Jim Harbaugh for a season, Charger's
head coach. Who has it better than we do nobody.
How about that We're getting a lot of mileage out
of that That story you told us when you and
your brother and sister are walking what a mile to
wherever and your dad made it seem like got the
greatest life in the world.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
They sure did, Dan, It came out one day. We're
living in Iowa City, Iowa, and we had a dealer car.
But for some reason, that dealer car wasn't there that day,
and uh, my dad said, no car today. Boys, we're walking.
(31:07):
John grab a basketball hundred with the right, then a
hundred with the left. Jim get a basketball hundred with
the right, hundred with the left.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
We're walking.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Who's got it better than us? Nobody? Dead? Nobody? Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Now do you say that? If you say that to
your team, do they they look at you and go, Okay,
I don't know what this means, but you certainly seem
enthusiastic about it.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Yeah. No, it's it's the uh, there's a couple of
layers of it. Uh, you know, the it's just a
way of looking at something, right, I mean, who's got
it better than us? Nobody? That's a perspective. And then
it also has the layer of there's there's of anchor
weights of you know, sometimes you don't think you have
(31:52):
it good or somebody else has got it better, but
it's actually the thing that's that's uh, you know, making
you overcome something that makes you better. For example, you know,
I grew up you know as a kid wanting to
be a major league shortstop, you know, until Pribor at
the time I was seventeen years old, I was I
was destined and born to be.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
But it turned out that you know, there was there
was kids in the Dominican Republican who had it a
lot better than I did. You know, they didn't have
a field. They their their ball glove was was a
milk carton. Uh. So there was a lot of bad hops.
Turned out that they had it better than I did
because I had a glove and I had a had
a decent field. And then it's the it's the it's
(32:38):
the thing that I really say. My dad said to
us as a family, and I thought what he was
really saying when he said, you know who's got it
better than us, you know, Jim and John, he was
really telling us that, you know, he he was the
lucky one to have, you know, to be a dad
and have these you know, this family. And when we
said nobody back then, what we were really saying was,
(33:02):
you know, we loved it. We loved being in this family.
So it's it's carried on, you know, from one generation
to the next. And when I say it, I say
it about my two I say it to my two
great loves, my family at home and my my family
at work. You know, there's no coach that could could
have it better and be coaching.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
You know this in this organization with these players and
these coaches. And I said, when I say it to
my kids, I say it the same way, like I'm
the luckiest dad there is.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Tell me about you gave each of your players a
work shirt with their name, the patch, the lightning bolt
logo on there. So something an auto mechanic might wear.
Why do you have the Do you have the shirt there?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Oh? I got it?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Okay, my blue collar shirt right here, so it is
blue collar. Our gas station guy might wear something like
that old school.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yeah, yeah, you know interesting you mentioned that at that.
Uh yeah, obviously it's a some motivational shirt. It's uh,
you know it honors and honors work, and that's that's
the first layer of that. Then the second layer, you know,
for me and and really everybody is uh, I'm honoring
(34:18):
the people in my life that did the did the
dirty work, you know, and everybody's got it. You got it,
I've got it.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Some people goes back one generation to their parents. Uh,
or it goes back to their grandparents. Maybe they're great grandparents.
Not very often, but there's somebody in your family, Dan,
I know that, uh, you know did maybe did a
job that they didn't love to do, but they did
it to put a roof over the family's head. And
(34:47):
and uh, in my case, that's that's uh my two grandparents.
Joe sph Pedi, that's my mom's dad. And uh, in fact,
he he he went to work. He's had a full
time job since he was in the sixth grade. He
had to, uh, he had to leave the sixth grade
and go work for his family. Came over from Italy
when he was four years old. And uh, in fact,
(35:09):
he worked in a in a filling station. You know
that that was that was his job. And then he
became a he became a self taught mechanic and uh,
before before he was done, he got so good at
being a mechanic that he was he was treating treat
teaching mechanics at Cleveland Trade School. And he wore shirt
shirt like this just exactly like this. I remember growing
(35:31):
up and his said Joe on it. And my dad's dad,
Bill Harbaugh, he was a breakeman on a train. Uh.
And he wore the wear the wore the same kind
of shirt and he said bell. Uh. And he he
became an engineer. And but the bottom line was he
got he got my He got my dad and his
(35:51):
kids to college.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
My dad went to Bowling Green State University. My mother,
Jackie also went to Bowling Green State University. That's where
they met. My dad played football and my mom was
a cheerleader. Both became educators after after college. And as
Michelle Obama says, I mean, the closest guarantee you have
(36:15):
uh to success in life is education. I believe that.
But and and that's what allowed my my mom and
dad to do do a job they love. My dad
became a coach and uh and then uh yeah that
but I look back and I honor I honored job
Joseph p Ede and Bill Harball for doing the job,
(36:36):
the dirty work to uh for for their family. So
that's that's the second piece to that to that to
that work shirt. Thanks thanks for asking that. That's uh,
that's something very important too to me and our family.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Jim Harball. The Chargers won their opener beat the Raiders.
Next game will be coming up next Sunday, they'll face
the Panthers. You got the game game ball? How many
how many game balls have you ever received? You seem
kind of surprised emotional after the game.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
That was you know, that was a great moment. There's
a you know, it's one of the it's one of
the best feelings there is. Uh, when you're when you're
part of a team and you're you know, you're working
so hard for for for your team to have success,
you know, the betterment of the organization, the betterment of
of all of its members, and uh yeah when it
(37:30):
when it comes together, and uh, that's that's a tremendous
feeling of victory, feeling of winning. And and mister Spanos
uh gifted myself and and Joe Hortis uh a game
ball and that was that was that was that was
cool to be a part of.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
I know you talked about winning multiple championships with the Chargers.
Let me go back to you leaving Michigan the landscape
of college football. What role did that play, if any
in you wanting to leave college football to go back
to the NFL.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Well, so it was it was, uh, you know, it's
just a piece a piece to the uh, the puzzle,
I think, I think, uh, I think what you're asking me.
Maybe maybe I'm getting that wrong, but uh, you know,
the uh the chance to win a win a super Bowl,
win a championship, to just simply be known as uh
as world champions. That's that's. Uh, that was That's definitely
(38:24):
a piece to the puzzle.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
But ni L transfer portal didn't have an adverse effect.
You know, Nick Saban's talked about this some of these
other you know, high profile coaches that you want to coach.
Now you got to be worried about how much money
uh kids constantly transferring in and out? Is the NFL simpler?
Speaker 3 (38:44):
I always looked at that as uh as real positives,
uh change that needed to be made. Uh. You know
that's taken you know, fifty some years for for there
to be revenue sharing. Still not there yet, but uh
you know, in in my opinion, that that needs to happen.
But that's that's Uh. It's week two. It's week two
(39:08):
for the uh Los Angeles Chargers, and you know, all
the all the focus and attention is is really there.
But yeah, it's just uh, if you had won.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
A Super Bowl, would you have gone back to the
NFL if you had already won.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Well, that's a great question. The other piece of the
puzzle is like, this is the highest level. You know,
I want to I want to see if I if
I uh, if I measure up, if I can come
into this tremendous organization and and add value. Yeah. That Uh,
that's a that's a piece of it too. I you know,
I love the challenge and this this uh, this league,
(39:46):
as you know, I mean, you've heard heard a thousand
million people say it. I mean it's it's really hard
to get a win. Uh. And it's it's uh, it's
it's really it's really special to win itchampionship. I haven't
done it. To your question. I remember, I remember. It's
almost like it's like the Field of Dreams movie.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Remember Bert Lancaster. You know he was talking about his
playing days and uh and he said he walked off
that field thinking there'd be other days. But there were
no other days. And I walked off that Super Bowl
field in uh in New Orleans thinking there'll be another day.
(40:29):
There'll be another day. You don't know if there is
going to be another day. So uh, to have that
opportunity to be back back in position to be in position. Uh.
You know, I'm su're gonna attack it with an enthusiasm
unknown to mankind.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
We just had Alex Smith on last Hour and I said,
give me a hardball story and he said, you know
that guy. He says, all I wanted to do was
play football, coach football, and then die.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
That's true. I've said that. I thought that. I've Uh.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
So you believe that you play football, You're going to
coach football, and you're gonna coach until you die. That's
the plan.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
That's that's been the plan. That has been the plan.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Yeah, does your wife know that's the plan.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
That was Uh, that's been the plan since I was
five years old. I I I must admit that I
remember being in Bowling Green. My dad was coaching at
Bowling Green at the time, and uh, I was getting
off the kindergarten bus to go to uh to go
to school. And I used to I used to like
visualize that I was like like my dad like uh
(41:40):
when he was with his team and he would get
off the bus, you know, uh and the players would
get off the bus. So I used to just picture
being on the on the team bus, you know, getting
off the bus and like I was walking into the
the stadium and uh kind of make the little hairs
on my arm stand up because I've you know, just
been been able to do that, you know, pretty much
(42:00):
my whole life, you know, since then. And I had
that thought as a five and a half six year old, like, yeah,
that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna I'm gonna play
as long as I can, then coach and then then die.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
That was h Yeah, it's it's genuine to me.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Well, I remember Brent Musburger saying that to me about
Joe Paterno. He said he will never retire. Joe Paterno
will die. I kill coach until he dies. And you know,
he said that's my fear with Joe Paterno. And he
pretty much did that until they kind of, you know,
kicked him to the curb.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
I just have so much gratitude Dan, uh, you know,
just for for you know, being able to do what
I love and uh. And it's have a job, you know,
to be able to work, you know, work to me
is uh he probably saw it and that uh you know,
some of it in the work shirt there, but there's uh,
(43:02):
and that's that that work ethic I get from from
watching my my dad and my mom and my grandpa's
and my and my and my my family. Uh you
know that's faith, family football. That uh that is uh
you know that's that's core. So uh, just you know,
keep keep praying that you know, I can I can
(43:24):
have one more data to uh work on work on football,
you know, work on uh going to Carolina and seeing
if we can uh get win number two. We're can't
be can't be two and o unless you want to
know we're there now.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
It's now that is actually true. You can't be too
and unless you're want enough. So just saying that.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
I just have a lot of gratitude to be able
to do this. I mean uh, I mean, uh, I'm
just gonna just gonna keep going. And uh and my wife,
you know, Sarah, nobody nobody's got it better then I.
Uh you know you.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
I thought you were gonna say nobody's got it better
than she does because she's married.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
No, No, I'm the lucky one again. I got I
drew the long straw there, mister Patrick.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
All right, before we let you go, we're gonna play
the What did Jim Harbaugh have for breakfast. All right, Todd,
you guess first.
Speaker 5 (44:16):
Some kind of yogurt with granola.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
Okay, okay, Seaton, I think just a little eggs and bacon.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Okay, that's old school Midwest Marvin turkey and egg whites.
Turkey and egg whites.
Speaker 7 (44:29):
Wow, PAULI coach has no time for breakfast at Homies
shot out of a cannon. I think a staffer leaves
a banana on his desk efficiency get back to coaching.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
I'm gonna say no breakfast.
Speaker 13 (44:39):
Yet, you're right. You were both right. There's been there's
been no breakfast. There's no time a diet coke, die
coke or die PEPSI.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Yeah, all right, let's see it. I would have thought
steak and eggs, but you know you don't like a
glass of milk, a nice glass of milk.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
We're up, We're uping at it, attacking.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Okay. Uh, good luck against Carolina. Good to talk to
you again, and thanks for joining.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
Mister Patrick. I Uh, I was just I'm just waiting
for you to bring up the two foot putt. I
missed it at Lake Nona. Uh back in the nineties.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
I'm trying to I was trying to keep it positive.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Every interview you've ever done, You've always brought up the
two foot No. No, you're on to Carolina.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
I'm on to Carolina. I'm I'm Belichick. We're not going
to go back. We're going forward here. Thank you, thank you.
That's Jim Harbaugh, who has it better than we do.
Speaker 5 (45:41):
Nobody
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Watching the Jets last night primetime games. It's you know,
we do over react to primetime because we all collectively
are watching a game, then we all collectively have an opinion.
And with the Jets last night, Aaron Rodgers didn't look good,
never got settled in. He threw for under one hundred
and seventy yards. Breece Hall averaged less than three and
a half yards per Garrett Kerry. Garrett Wilson looked good
(00:27):
in the first half, shut down on the second half,
and then all of a sudden, a guy named Jordan
Mason comes in for Christian McCaffrey and look like Christian McCaffrey.
It's one game. Yes, it's Aaron Rodgers coming back. He's
forty years of age. I expect that defense to be formidable.
And you have Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson, who are
(00:48):
you know they can change a game? And do I
still think that they're going to be a playoff team? Yes?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I do.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
By the way, the over under with wins after the
loss by the Jets to DraftKings, the over under for
the Jets wins is nine and a half, but I
will say this, odds to win Comeback Player of the Year,
Aaron Rodgers is the big winner so far, followed by
Joe Burrow, Anthony Richardson, Sam Darnold, and Kirk Cousins. What
(01:16):
did Sam Darnold come back from obscurity? Average n that's weird.
And Jim Harbaugh. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know that.
Odds to win Coach of the Year, He's the favorite
right now, followed closely by Matt Eberflus, Mike McDonald of Seattle,
and then Gerrod Mayo after the Patriots had their big win,
(01:38):
and Kevin O'Connell after the Vikings had their big win.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Seaton.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
What's the Paul question we're going to go with today
at least the first hour.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Yeah, if we started going with biggest overreaction right now,
Sam Darnold might win because he's on his way to
becoming a Hall of Famer, well maybe a Pro Bowl quarterback.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I think Marvin said that he would be the starter
and the Pro Bowl. That is our hot take, and
I meant that, yeah, of course you did.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
They played the Giants.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Every week, Yeah, yeah, every week? All right, So what's
pull question? First down.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Well, we could start off with one here from Todd
Aaron Rodgers and the Jets are gonna be just fine.
It's one game on the road versus a great team
or in big trouble.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
They didn't have the ball enough. But give credit to
San Francisco. Their offensive and defensive lines were wonderful. And
you know, Rock Perty didn't do much, didn't have to
do much. Jordan Mason undrafted there, a third year player,
but free agent. So you have the highest paid running
(02:41):
back not playing, and then you have the cheapest running
back in the NFL. And once again, you don't want
to say players like Christian McCaffrey are interchangeable, just saying
with a really good offensive line and a few other
weapons to focus on, he was able to have a game.
Now here's the thing that was tricky for me last night.
(03:04):
If I'm a gambler, when is Christian McCaffrey ruled out
of this game? So right before kickoff, thirty minutes before,
all of a sudden, Mothership comes on the air and
it was in Oh, by the way, Like, I was
really surprised at how Joe and Troy came on the
air and then it was they got around to Christian
(03:26):
McCaffrey isn't playing. That should have been the first thing
we saw was Jordan Mason. And you even say to
your audience, why are we showing you Jordan Mason. He's
starting for Christian McCaffrey. That should have been the first thing.
Not It's a glorious night in the bay And now
I don't care. This is about news that was breaking.
(03:50):
Now that's also the tricky part. Did we know should
we have known Friday or maybe Saturday Christian McCaffrey wasn't playing.
When did the Niners know that Christian McCaffery was not
going to play?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Now?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but
fantasy owners also gamblers, you need to know this is
full transparency. And that became a little tricky because Kyle Shanahan,
the Niners head coach, was asked this question.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Jordan said, have to give me his hold.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
On Friday night, he was gonna start.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
When did Christian start feeling cry?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I never told Jordan was going to start. Told me
he had to be ready a bunch.
Speaker 6 (04:31):
But I might have been Bobby or somebody trying to
pump him up, but I knew he was gonna have
to play a lot. I told him that he was
going to have to wasn't going to be like usual.
He's going to be a number two back that was
splitting a lot of the time.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
For now. He didn't know he for sure was doing
that till the day. Okay, Jordan Mason rushed for one
hundred and forty seven yards in the win, the most
rushing yards by an undrafted player since Austin Eckler a
couple of years ago had one hundred and seven three yarns.
But you know, you're watching this happen right in front
(05:05):
of you, and then all of a sudden, we're You're like,
who's Jordan Mason? And how long is Christian McCaffrey going
to be out? You know, there were I'd seen an
update on Friday that McCaffrey was still bothered, you know,
that calf injury, and it'd been lingering in I guess preseason,
and all of a sudden, you're just going, wait a minute,
what's going on here? And then they eventually get into
(05:29):
the story and then you realize, Okay, he's going to
be out of the game. This guy is going to play,
and this is the season opener for the NFC Chams,
and it's the best running back, one of the best
players in the NFL. It was treated a little too
casually for me. It should have that should have led
the broadcast that it was that important. It's that important,
(05:51):
and if I'm a gambler, I want to know. I
don't know what that did to the betting line. I
don't know if people all of a sudden said, you
know what, I'm going to take the four and a
half with the Jet because of that. But it's tricky
and you have to have that information available to gamblers
and fantasy. Now, in some fantasy leagues, you can replace
one of your players if another player is playing on
(06:13):
either one of those teams, at least I've been told that.
So if you had somebody on the Jets, you had
somebody on the Niners, you could replace Christian McCaffrey with
them because they were playing in the game or their
teams were playing in that game. Yes, Pauline, it's different
at different betting sites.
Speaker 7 (06:30):
But when the McCaffrey news was announced, the forty nineers
went from four point favorites to three point favorites and
the over under went from forty one and a half
forty two and a half to forty one and a half.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah, so it did have an impact here, and it
sounds like somebody knew something on Friday. Now, Kyle Shanahan
is never going to admit that he told Jordan Mason,
you're going to get the start, Christian's not playing, because
then the NFL would probably be dialing up Kyle's hand
hand to say, Kyle, we can't do that. We can't
(07:05):
even give the perception that something was a little aire Haywire,
a wall something. Yeah, Seeden, So.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Not to go all tinfoil hat on you, but it's
just a coincidence that then they told the kid on Friday,
even though nobody was supposed to know that he was starting,
and then ESPN completely downplayed the news that Christian McCaffrey
wasn't starting.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well. Watching the broadcast last night, right, I mean, that's
the first thing. I don't care what the weather, and
it's a sunset and a beautiful night and electricity in
the air. It's you got breaking news. Christian McCaffrey is
not playing in the game. That's I mean, you get
a pregame show that actually has some news to it.
(07:54):
I was just shocked that they didn't treat that like
it was something more important than what it was. And
you got this guy who was an undrafted free agent,
third year player. You have no idea who he is.
We found out who he was watching the game, and
he played an integral part in them winning this game.
So I was just surprised. But I don't know if
(08:16):
the NFL is going to follow up on this. But
if you tell me I'm starting my first game, I
think I'm going to remember that conversation. I don't know
if it was a hey, get ready, you're going to
play a little bit now. That's not starting. That's called
be ready. Like my college coach would always say to me, hey,
(08:38):
be ready as I continue to sit on the bench.
He didn't say you're starting. I would remember that. So
it was a little surprising last night from a couple
of different angles there. All right, let me see, here's
Aaron Rodgers on what went wrong.
Speaker 8 (08:58):
Yeah, you know, we're just bad one first and second down,
I think for a lot of the game, and then
you know, we had a couple of drives, we converted
third downs, but overall, you know, we we we I
feel like we didn't have any third and ten pluses tonight,
so that's always a good thing. We look in the
stat sheet, but we didn't convert those third mediums. You know,
we had a drop, we had a couple penalties, had
(09:20):
a bad throw, so not the correct but overall, I feel,
you know, I feel good about our guys that the
protection was really good tonight. We just would a little
bit off in the in the run game, couldn't give
brist coh and couldn't give them enough space. But a
lot to build on.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, it's not time to panic yet. I mean, this
is what we want to do. We want to overreact
to it. It's the Niners. The Niners were supposed to win.
I was surprised the betting line wasn't a little more
closer to six points, but it was four and a half,
then went down to three. McCaffrey's not playing, and you know,
(09:55):
Rogers had some weapons looked good early, but the defense
got man handled last night. That was the big surprise
for me. Panic not yet. Now. I think they have
the Titans next week. Does that sound right?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (10:08):
Todd at the Titans host the Patriots and then host
the Broncos.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Is it an okay? They could easily be three and one,
and then we're gonna move on to another topic here,
by the way, Jordan Mason salary this year nine hundred
and eighty five thousand dollars. All right, that's a good, good,
good salary. Christian McCaffrey's game check for last night, forty
(10:34):
thousand dollars. Stat of the day, Sat of the day,
that past stat of the day, stat of the day.
Here comes that what stat of the day? Stop stat
of the day. Brought to you by Panini America, the
official Trading cards. Alex Smith will join us. Coming up,
former NFL quarterback Jim Harball once again top of next hour.
(10:58):
I didn't know much about Jordan Mason, and was he
Georgia Tech? Nice? Okay, I was gonna give you a hint.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
Fantastic uniforms, a good running back.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, Jordan Mason. So was he there before
Jamiir Gibbs?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
He was?
Speaker 7 (11:15):
He overlapped with the Gibbs era lightly. Actually, he took
over after Gibbs went to Alabama. He was eighteen nineteen
twenty twenty one. He started off great and had some
injuries his last few year.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Fritzy wants to change the spelling I guess of Christian
McCaffrey's last name, So it was being kicked.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
Around the room.
Speaker 9 (11:31):
McCaffrey made with a name like that, we should have
known that he might run into problem.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Thank you, calv mcalf mcaffe.
Speaker 9 (11:37):
And if you played with the yellow jacket, shouldn't there
be some buzz around Jordan Mason before?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Already here all night. Probably would have held off on
the last one.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Get your waitresses.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, ten dollar cover trick. Pretty good game by Brock, wasn't.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
It Dan.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
McCaffrey than calf? Uh? Okay, So what's the pole question?
We're going to go with hour one? Then we'll take
a break.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
I think we're gonna go with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Actually, what about Can I put up something.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Along the lines of the timing of the announcement of
Christian McCaffrey's injury story or not a story?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, but I'm looking at this from a TV perspective
of this is breaking news. It should have been played
up larger than what it was. But you know, for
the league and betting, and I don't know, maybe I'm
making too big a deal of it, but it was
breaking news and it wasn't treated that way. It was
(12:39):
we're going to get around to. Hey, let's go down
to Laura Rutledge, Laura Christian McCaffrey not playing. Okay, yeah see,
let's see.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
I find it more interesting the discrepancy between the player
and the coach. Well, the players like, yeah, they told
me on Friday, And then all of a sudden, the
player has to go back up onto the front and be.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Like wow, well, I mean and I don't.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Because he just got everybody in trouble.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I felt bad for him because, well, he has his moment.
Now he's going up saying this is why I don't
like the media anyway. Dude, you just had your moment.
It's not our fault. They're just asking the right question.
When did he know? When? Did you know Friday?
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (13:22):
Mark?
Speaker 10 (13:23):
Is that going to be awkward because in that postgame pressor,
Kyle Shanahan mentions Bobby that's Bobby Turner, the running backs
code for the forty nine ers, Like wait, wait, did
you tell him that he was going to be starting
with Friday?
Speaker 2 (13:33):
But Bobby's not interviewed. You don't talk to the assistant coaches.
So I'm going to have to take Kyle's word for
it that he wasn't told on Friday that he was
going to be starting Okay, maybe nothing to see here.
I uh's it Friday? Did I say start?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
No?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
It's Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup
in the nation. Catch all of our show at foxsports
Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR
to listen.
Speaker 11 (14:06):
Live, Hey gang, listen. Is Jay Glazer, host of Unbreakable,
a mental Wealth.
Speaker 12 (14:11):
Podcast, and every week we will have on leaders from
sports entertainment like Sean McVay, Lindsay Vaughn, Michael phelf, David Spade,
Guy Fiemi, and also those who can help us in
between the ears, anyone from a therapist to someone like
Ed Milett for John Gordon. We've all been through some
sort of adversity to get to the top. We've all
used different tools.
Speaker 11 (14:33):
Listen to Unbreakable with Jay Glazer and Mental Wealth podcast
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Former NFL quarterback number one overall pick by the Niners
back in five He's Alex Smith, co host of a
new podcast, Glue Guys with former NBA player Shane Battier,
and they take a deep dive into sports, great teams
across sports, to and business. You can tune in on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or your preferred podcast player. Look at you, business sman,
(15:08):
Alex Smith, how'd you get partnered up with Shane Battier?
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Shane and I have a mutual friend, you know, good
buddy of mine, Robie Gupta, who I live in the
same small town here in the Bay Area, and he
just happens to be a fellow doochie and went to
school with Shane, and so I've gotten to know Shane
through him and we just kind of hit it off
and you know, somehow stumbled into this. It's a great question, Dan,
you know, I think it, to be honest, it's all
(15:34):
Shane's fault. I'm gonna I'm gonna blame it on him.
You know, he's been known as the no stat All Star.
You know, Michael Lewis wrote this famous article about him
that did why why does every team that he's on win?
You know, and necessarily a guy that doesn't necessarily have
the stats that go with it, at least the stats
that we think of, and what goes behind that, right, Like,
what's behind being a great teammate and a great leader
(15:55):
and these winning cultures, and I think sometimes there's these
fallacies around all those things, and so we kind of
have fun digging into it and chopping it up. And
I'm unfortunate enough. Listen, I get asked to talk a
lot about my journey, my career, mentoring, you know, coming
back from my injury, and I think the same thing, like,
there's these sometimes people think they're they're disney Ish, you know,
(16:16):
this is this idea of like resiliency, and it's, uh,
it's not. You know, I've been fortunate enough to be
a part of great teams. I never would have done
any of the things that I was able to do
without being a part of a great team. And certainly
my comeback was a part of that, you know, an
amazing medical team that helped me get back out on
the field.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So the two people come up to you randomly and say,
can I see your scars?
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Yeah, oh yeah, that's not especially if I have shorts on.
If I got shorts on, yeah, I get I get
very curious minds coming up to being inspecting my leg.
Well it's gnarly looking. I mean, I don't blame them.
It is it's much prettier than it used to be though.
It's come a long way. But I don't blame them, Listen,
it's uh. I actually appreciate the questions.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Sometimes kids don't bring you to show and tell.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
And oh, I think my kids are numb to it.
They saw it when it was really crazy. So yeah,
I think they and I hope they don't think that
like that's just what a broken leg looks like. You know,
I think that they think that that's normal. No, I
think they're pretty numb to it. It's just dad's leg
at this point, that's how he walks.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, but if they skin their knees, they can't really
complain to you after what you went through, you know.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Well, I think they do.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
You know.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
That's certainly a part of what we even talk about
on the pod is like, I mean, parenting is a
team too, right, It's a great big team and we
all have different roles in it. And how does that work?
Speaker 7 (17:36):
And so.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
Yeah, I mean I think there's things I constantly, the
things I've gone through, I find myself pulling, you know,
harbiisms out on my kids occasionally, you know, which is
is just funny.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So do you have a fall story. We got him
coming up top of next hour? Is there one do you? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (17:54):
I got yeah, I got plenty. I got harboss stories for.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Days, Dan one, I haven't heard that, would I can
I can bring back to Jim.
Speaker 5 (18:03):
To Jim all right, Yeah, I mean I got a
few men. First off, Like I'll never forget when I
first met him, you know, like I was we were
in the building. It was actually right before the lockout
was going on. I was getting ready to have my
first child. So I'm kind of sneaking in. I'm getting
ready to be a free agent.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Dan.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
There's no way that the Niners are going to keep me,
and I'm not sure I really want to be back
with them either, you know, and so but I meanwhile,
they still let me in the building to work out.
So I'm coming in the building. I'm kind of sneaking
in the ground floor and working out and getting out
of there. And Jim comes down one day and you see,
I've been doing this for a couple of weeks, and
I think he maybe caught when he catches me down there,
(18:40):
and he like he immediately comes up and introduces himself,
but he starts he's sizing me up immediately like just
I mean like literally not even being very discreet about it,
literally sizing me up. I can tell he's like looking
at my body, how tall I am? Oh, you're bigger
than I thought, like kind of taller than I thought.
And then he's like, hey, put your hand up. I'm
like what, So I put my hand up and he
(19:01):
puts his hand up next to mine. So we're hand
to hand, right, and he's measuring my hand. I mean,
I haven't met him this, it hasn't been two minutes.
And so he's looking at my hand. He's like all right,
like this, it's I mean, this full inspection. He's like, hey,
you want to go play catch? Sure, sure, let's go.
So he goes in and he tap. You know, he's
(19:22):
got this gnarly looking pinky on his throwing hands, so
he tapes up his pinky and just Jim and I
go out on the practice field at the at the
Niners and we play catch and we start, you know,
he start just normal throwing right, so like we're ten
yards away and tossing the ball to each other, and
after a few dan he starts like I can tell,
he's like humming them at me right, like so it's
(19:42):
like okay, and he's kind of like, come on, bringing on,
and so I start humming. I'm back at him. Right
here we are again, like I swear it hasn't been
ten minutes since I met the guy, and we're playing
like Pepper ten yards apart out in the practice, just
humming balls at each other as hard as we can,
kind of who can catch them, who can throw harder.
(20:03):
Then he's like okay. Then we go walk over and
we start throwing. Were playing these games, these throwing games
at goalposts, and he's like moving me around, and he
was obviously a lot younger. I mean, this was a
long time ago. He's you know, he can still throw it.
And so we're playing all these throwing games at goalposts
and trying to do all these contests. Hey do this now,
see if you can do this. This lasts about twenty minutes,
(20:24):
twenty five minutes, and he's like all right, okay, you know,
we walk in. That's enough. Doesn't say anything. I got
no feedback at all on like how this went. I mean,
I remember coming home to my wife and I'm like
telling her about what happened, and she said, well, what
did you think I'm like, I had no idea, no idea. Luckily,
a couple of days later, you know, I go back
into work out, you know, Jim pops back down again
and says, hey, you want to go play catch again?
(20:46):
So this repeated. He and I go play catch for
several weeks, just Jim and I playing catch and playing
stupid games and Pepper out on the field, you know,
And all of a sudden this kind of led to like, hey,
what do you think about coming back? And that's just
the way Jim is. And he's one of a kind
and he's all ball, all ball. I say this on
(21:07):
the podcast, Like Jim, he would tell the team this.
He's like, damn, his life aspirations were to play football
as long as he could and then coach football as
long as he could and then die.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
You now, that's Jim Jim, and it's real, you know.
So But you know what I was wondering about this.
I don't know if you'll get the analogy. He's like
ted Lasso, Like he just has kind of corny sayings,
he's his own pert, he's unique, you know, positivity, all
of those things. It just feels like if there's a
ted Lasso in the NFL, It's Jim Harriball now.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
There is there is and I think that's It's kind
of the one thing I think people ask about leadership
all the time, you know what makes a leader, and
certainly in the NFL world where it's a bunch of
his alpha dogs, right, like the biggest, bad biggest, baddest
dudes on the planet. But at the core of being
a leader, like, you got to be authentic, right, You can't,
you can't be s anybody. And Jim it's authentic, Like
he just loves football. He genuinely he is doing what
(22:05):
he's meant to do. And as quirky as it is,
like I think, I know, I always just appreciated the
honesty in it, like he just is who he is.
It's different, yeah, but like again, he loves what he's doing,
he's grateful for it, and I think that it really
sets a tone for the building and the team.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I'm talking to Alex Smith, the three time Pro Bowler,
Comeback Player of the Year and co host of the
new podcast Glue Guys with former NBA player Shane Battier.
What did you see with the Jets offense last night
that would concern you?
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Oh, to be honest, I wasn't real concerned about the offense.
I mean, listen, Aaron hasn't played a whole lot of
football in the last year and a half. Right, four plays,
It's to be expected that they were going to It
wasn't gonna be smooth. They're going on the road on
Monday night and playing one of the best teams in football. Like,
I thought, it was just such a ridiculous task, to
be honest, I thought their defense didn't show up. I mean,
(22:57):
this is supposed to be their calling card, is this
defense and no Christian McCaffery. And you know, I thought
maybe they'd have a chance to keep him in this game,
and they did for the first two drives, and then
that and that went away. I thought Aaron looked good.
I mean, there's processes in your comeback, right, Like, this
guy hasn't he hasn't played in the preseason. He hadn't
(23:17):
been tackled again four plays in the last year and
a half. I thought he moved around well. I thought
he threw the ball well. I think they're gonna be
okay again. The defense was probably my bigger concern. Really
kind of out outplayed in this game by by that
Niner offense and Kyle Shanahan, and so I mean, I
think they'll have a chance to write the ship here
this week against Tennessee. But a little bit I thought
(23:39):
it was an overwhelming task to put him back on
Monday night a year after what happened again on the
road at the defending NFC champions.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Tom Brady, you talked about these rookie quarterbacks and he
used the word I think tragedy that they're being ushered
in to start, and you know, you got a dumb
down offenses, And I disagreed with because it feels like
these rookie quarterbacks, most of them have played for two
different universities, two different offenses. They've gotten money with nil.
These offenses in college are so much more intricate than
(24:11):
they used to be. Now you're gonna struggle. Bo Nick struggled,
Caleb struggled. Jaden Daniels had moments where he looked pretty
electric there. So what's your reaction to what Brady had
to say and then base that off what you saw
week one with these rookie quarterbacks.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Yeah, generally speaking, you know, I aligned with Tom, like
I think if you're taking a quarterback in the first round.
I think you should do everything in your power to
make sure that when they take the field, like they
are ready to roll. I mean, I just think I've
heard coach Saban talk about it, and I lived at
the expectations on a first round quarterback. It's so much,
it's so heavy, the game is so different, and that
(24:52):
it's like the worst success rate in the NFL if
you look at a position basis, like of drafting positions,
the lowest hit rate in the NFL for first round
picks is quarterback, And so I I generally think that, like,
why not have them over prepared? Listen, if you waited
a little too long, could Patrick Mahomes have played earlier? Sure?
Absolutely right, But like, what's the what was the fault
(25:14):
of him waiting you know, almost all the season and
then you hitting, Like, what's the what's the what's the
worry about? You know, Jordan Love waiting a couple of years.
The important thing is to hit on it. And I
think you're making such a big investment in these guys.
I think you want to again ensure that they have
the best chance to succeed. With that all being said, Dan,
(25:34):
I completely agree with you. This year's class. This year's
class is an exception to the rule.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
True.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
I mean, these guys have played more football and are
more prepared as a class that I can ever remember.
I mean, Bo Nicks has literally played more football than
any college football than anybody Jane Daniel's five year starter.
I mean, these guys are very, very accomplished. Even Caleb Williams, Like, listen,
we've known he's going to be the number one pick
for a couple of years now. I mean, this guy's
been dealing with XP dictations since high school. He's played
(26:02):
college football at the hight level. Even he's he's I think,
really well prepared for this. And I don't think we
can judge this off of one week, right, I mean,
it's the opening week. This game's a blur there. They're
not even gonna remember this game several years from now. Dan,
So like, I kind of tend to agree with you
in this, in this instinct and not. I think the
other thing, too, is one rule, doesn't you know once
(26:24):
you doesn't fit everybody in this thing. You know, you
look at CJ. Stroud and what he did last year,
obviously overly prepared and ready to take that over. I
think you have to look at that, you know, the
other ten guys in the huddle, the entire team as
a whole, and then obviously the individual like what system
have they been in? What kind of football are they playing?
What are we asking them to do? And then go
off of that. But yeah, this is an interesting year
(26:45):
and interesting class and I think they are ready to go.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Do you remember a specific time when you realize that
Patrick Mahomes was going to be Patrick Mahomes, whether practice game,
did you have that kind of oh where you go
home and you tell your wife, uh, oh.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
You know, I think the thing list. I mean about
halfway through the year he started to make some plays
on the scout team, like some of the you know,
the throws that we see on Sundays. You know then
you know, no looking like a twenty yard dig route.
I mean, you know, as a rookie, like who's doing that?
Who even has that? Like the guts to do it
and they let alone pull it off? But I think
(27:26):
more so than that, and what gets lost with Patrick
a lot of times is like I mean, Patrick beat
me into the building almost every day that entire year, right,
you know, and it wasn't he didn't do it for
a week. He didn't do it for the first month
of the season. It was just all year and incredibly curious.
He's just a grinder, like a guy loves ball. He's
(27:46):
obsessed about it. He you know, it is again he's
doing what he's meant to be doing. And yes, he
has these spectacular talent, but like, more so than that,
like this guy I got. I got the opportunity to
be in camp with them this this last training camp,
and I sat in meetings again for days, and I'm
been in that kind of environment with Patrick. You know,
I've seen him. I played golf with him, you know,
over the last few years, but I haven't sat in
(28:08):
a meeting with him since his rookie year. And to
watch him operate in the meeting room, Dan, I can't
tell you how blown away I was, like leaving there,
like how detailed he was, like we want we went
through protections. I mean, this guy's on every aspect of
his game, and I think sometimes that gets lost with
the wold plays that he makes, you know, and again
(28:29):
how obsessed he is about his craft, being the best
quarterback in the NFL. And and so I think if
there was a thing that entire year It was also
that like again that he he beat me in every
single morning, right all the way till the end. The
guy just loves football, loves competing. You know, he wants
the ball in his hand. He's not afraid of the moment.
So I think all those things kind of over the
(28:50):
year showed, you know, showed their head. And then certainly
when he started the last game against Denver, very very
apparent that he was ready to go.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
You can keep a secret. I got to give you
credit because I'll go back to the Super Bowl in
Minnesota where we had you in studio and I'm asking
where you're going. You stay, and you're going. Six hours
later you signed the deal with Washington. It could have
helped me out that day.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
That was a weird day, Dan. I remember that day. Well,
it was a very strange day. You know, I felt
like I was not sure what I could and couldn't
say as these are like I knew we were kind
of in the you know, the eleventh hour of negotiations
and close, but very strange. I apologize for that, you
know now being on this side of the you know,
the media, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Know, well, what was the other team?
Speaker 5 (29:42):
Was there?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Another team that was in the mix here that you
were going to go to.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
There were other teams in the mix. There certainly wasn't
They were very close in my opinion, you know, like
you can tell me I wanted to go, you can
tell me no, to be honest, like it wasn't even
you know, my trade, my trade from San Francisco was
probably far more competitive my trade from Kansas City. It
was very clear that the lease in my eyes, that
Washington was the best destination and where I wanted to go.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Well, good luck with the podcast. We'll check in with
you during the year, and great to see you again,
Dan Gray.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Seeing you man.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio WAP.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
We make way for Jim Harbaugh for a season, Charger's
head coach. Who has it better than we do nobody.
How about that We're getting a lot of mileage out
of that That story you told us when you and
your brother and sister are walking what a mile to
wherever and your dad made it seem like got the
greatest life in the world.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
They sure did, Dan, It came out one day. We're
living in Iowa City, Iowa, and we had a dealer car.
But for some reason, that dealer car wasn't there that day,
and uh, my dad said, no car today. Boys, we're walking.
(31:07):
John grab a basketball hundred with the right, then a
hundred with the left. Jim get a basketball hundred with
the right, hundred with the left.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
We're walking.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Who's got it better than us? Nobody? Dead? Nobody? Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Now do you say that? If you say that to
your team, do they they look at you and go, Okay,
I don't know what this means, but you certainly seem
enthusiastic about it.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Yeah. No, it's it's the uh, there's a couple of
layers of it. Uh, you know, the it's just a
way of looking at something, right, I mean, who's got
it better than us? Nobody? That's a perspective. And then
it also has the layer of there's there's of anchor
weights of you know, sometimes you don't think you have
(31:52):
it good or somebody else has got it better, but
it's actually the thing that's that's uh, you know, making
you overcome something that makes you better. For example, you know,
I grew up you know as a kid wanting to
be a major league shortstop, you know, until Pribor at
the time I was seventeen years old, I was I
was destined and born to be.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
But it turned out that you know, there was there
was kids in the Dominican Republican who had it a
lot better than I did. You know, they didn't have
a field. They their their ball glove was was a
milk carton. Uh. So there was a lot of bad hops.
Turned out that they had it better than I did
because I had a glove and I had a had
a decent field. And then it's the it's the it's
(32:38):
the thing that I really say. My dad said to
us as a family, and I thought what he was
really saying when he said, you know who's got it
better than us, you know, Jim and John, he was
really telling us that, you know, he he was the
lucky one to have, you know, to be a dad
and have these you know, this family. And when we
said nobody back then, what we were really saying was,
(33:02):
you know, we loved it. We loved being in this family.
So it's it's carried on, you know, from one generation
to the next. And when I say it, I say
it about my two I say it to my two
great loves, my family at home and my my family
at work. You know, there's no coach that could could
have it better and be coaching.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
You know this in this organization with these players and
these coaches. And I said, when I say it to
my kids, I say it the same way, like I'm
the luckiest dad there is.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Tell me about you gave each of your players a
work shirt with their name, the patch, the lightning bolt
logo on there. So something an auto mechanic might wear.
Why do you have the Do you have the shirt there?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Oh? I got it?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Okay, my blue collar shirt right here, so it is
blue collar. Our gas station guy might wear something like
that old school.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yeah, yeah, you know interesting you mentioned that at that.
Uh yeah, obviously it's a some motivational shirt. It's uh,
you know it honors and honors work, and that's that's
the first layer of that. Then the second layer, you know,
for me and and really everybody is uh, I'm honoring
(34:18):
the people in my life that did the did the
dirty work, you know, and everybody's got it. You got it,
I've got it.
Speaker 5 (34:26):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Some people goes back one generation to their parents. Uh,
or it goes back to their grandparents. Maybe they're great grandparents.
Not very often, but there's somebody in your family, Dan,
I know that, uh, you know did maybe did a
job that they didn't love to do, but they did
it to put a roof over the family's head. And
(34:47):
and uh, in my case, that's that's uh my two grandparents.
Joe sph Pedi, that's my mom's dad. And uh, in fact,
he he he went to work. He's had a full
time job since he was in the sixth grade. He
had to, uh, he had to leave the sixth grade
and go work for his family. Came over from Italy
when he was four years old. And uh, in fact,
(35:09):
he worked in a in a filling station. You know
that that was that was his job. And then he
became a he became a self taught mechanic and uh,
before before he was done, he got so good at
being a mechanic that he was he was treating treat
teaching mechanics at Cleveland Trade School. And he wore shirt
shirt like this just exactly like this. I remember growing
(35:31):
up and his said Joe on it. And my dad's dad,
Bill Harbaugh, he was a breakeman on a train. Uh.
And he wore the wear the wore the same kind
of shirt and he said bell. Uh. And he he
became an engineer. And but the bottom line was he
got he got my He got my dad and his
(35:51):
kids to college.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
My dad went to Bowling Green State University. My mother,
Jackie also went to Bowling Green State University. That's where
they met. My dad played football and my mom was
a cheerleader. Both became educators after after college. And as
Michelle Obama says, I mean, the closest guarantee you have
(36:15):
uh to success in life is education. I believe that.
But and and that's what allowed my my mom and
dad to do do a job they love. My dad
became a coach and uh and then uh yeah that
but I look back and I honor I honored job
Joseph p Ede and Bill Harball for doing the job,
(36:36):
the dirty work to uh for for their family. So
that's that's the second piece to that to that to
that work shirt. Thanks thanks for asking that. That's uh,
that's something very important too to me and our family.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Jim Harball. The Chargers won their opener beat the Raiders.
Next game will be coming up next Sunday, they'll face
the Panthers. You got the game game ball? How many
how many game balls have you ever received? You seem
kind of surprised emotional after the game.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
That was you know, that was a great moment. There's
a you know, it's one of the it's one of
the best feelings there is. Uh, when you're when you're
part of a team and you're you know, you're working
so hard for for for your team to have success,
you know, the betterment of the organization, the betterment of
of all of its members, and uh yeah when it
(37:30):
when it comes together, and uh, that's that's a tremendous
feeling of victory, feeling of winning. And and mister Spanos
uh gifted myself and and Joe Hortis uh a game
ball and that was that was that was that was
cool to be a part of.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
I know you talked about winning multiple championships with the Chargers.
Let me go back to you leaving Michigan the landscape
of college football. What role did that play, if any
in you wanting to leave college football to go back
to the NFL.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Well, so it was it was, uh, you know, it's
just a piece a piece to the uh, the puzzle,
I think, I think, uh, I think what you're asking me.
Maybe maybe I'm getting that wrong, but uh, you know,
the uh the chance to win a win a super Bowl,
win a championship, to just simply be known as uh
as world champions. That's that's. Uh, that was That's definitely
(38:24):
a piece to the puzzle.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
But ni L transfer portal didn't have an adverse effect.
You know, Nick Saban's talked about this some of these
other you know, high profile coaches that you want to coach.
Now you got to be worried about how much money
uh kids constantly transferring in and out? Is the NFL simpler?
Speaker 3 (38:44):
I always looked at that as uh as real positives,
uh change that needed to be made. Uh. You know
that's taken you know, fifty some years for for there
to be revenue sharing. Still not there yet, but uh
you know, in in my opinion, that that needs to happen.
But that's that's Uh. It's week two. It's week two
(39:08):
for the uh Los Angeles Chargers, and you know, all
the all the focus and attention is is really there.
But yeah, it's just uh, if you had won.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
A Super Bowl, would you have gone back to the
NFL if you had already won.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Well, that's a great question. The other piece of the
puzzle is like, this is the highest level. You know,
I want to I want to see if I if
I uh, if I measure up, if I can come
into this tremendous organization and and add value. Yeah. That Uh,
that's a that's a piece of it too. I you know,
I love the challenge and this this uh, this league,
(39:46):
as you know, I mean, you've heard heard a thousand
million people say it. I mean it's it's really hard
to get a win. Uh. And it's it's uh, it's
it's really it's really special to win itchampionship. I haven't
done it. To your question. I remember, I remember. It's
almost like it's like the Field of Dreams movie.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Remember Bert Lancaster. You know he was talking about his
playing days and uh and he said he walked off
that field thinking there'd be other days. But there were
no other days. And I walked off that Super Bowl
field in uh in New Orleans thinking there'll be another day.
(40:29):
There'll be another day. You don't know if there is
going to be another day. So uh, to have that
opportunity to be back back in position to be in position. Uh.
You know, I'm su're gonna attack it with an enthusiasm
unknown to mankind.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
We just had Alex Smith on last Hour and I said,
give me a hardball story and he said, you know
that guy. He says, all I wanted to do was
play football, coach football, and then die.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
That's true. I've said that. I thought that. I've Uh.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
So you believe that you play football, You're going to
coach football, and you're gonna coach until you die. That's
the plan.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
That's that's been the plan. That has been the plan.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Yeah, does your wife know that's the plan.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
That was Uh, that's been the plan since I was
five years old. I I I must admit that I
remember being in Bowling Green. My dad was coaching at
Bowling Green at the time, and uh, I was getting
off the kindergarten bus to go to uh to go
to school. And I used to I used to like
visualize that I was like like my dad like uh
(41:40):
when he was with his team and he would get
off the bus, you know, uh and the players would
get off the bus. So I used to just picture
being on the on the team bus, you know, getting
off the bus and like I was walking into the
the stadium and uh kind of make the little hairs
on my arm stand up because I've you know, just
been been able to do that, you know, pretty much
(42:00):
my whole life, you know, since then. And I had
that thought as a five and a half six year old, like, yeah,
that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna I'm gonna play
as long as I can, then coach and then then die.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
That was h Yeah, it's it's genuine to me.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Well, I remember Brent Musburger saying that to me about
Joe Paterno. He said he will never retire. Joe Paterno
will die. I kill coach until he dies. And you know,
he said that's my fear with Joe Paterno. And he
pretty much did that until they kind of, you know,
kicked him to the curb.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
I just have so much gratitude Dan, uh, you know,
just for for you know, being able to do what
I love and uh. And it's have a job, you know,
to be able to work, you know, work to me
is uh he probably saw it and that uh you know,
some of it in the work shirt there, but there's uh,
(43:02):
and that's that that work ethic I get from from
watching my my dad and my mom and my grandpa's
and my and my and my my family. Uh you
know that's faith, family football. That uh that is uh
you know that's that's core. So uh, just you know,
keep keep praying that you know, I can I can
(43:24):
have one more data to uh work on work on football,
you know, work on uh going to Carolina and seeing
if we can uh get win number two. We're can't
be can't be two and o unless you want to
know we're there now.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
It's now that is actually true. You can't be too
and unless you're want enough. So just saying that.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
I just have a lot of gratitude to be able
to do this. I mean uh, I mean, uh, I'm
just gonna just gonna keep going. And uh and my wife,
you know, Sarah, nobody nobody's got it better then I.
Uh you know you.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
I thought you were gonna say nobody's got it better
than she does because she's married.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
No, No, I'm the lucky one again. I got I
drew the long straw there, mister Patrick.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
All right, before we let you go, we're gonna play
the What did Jim Harbaugh have for breakfast. All right, Todd,
you guess first.
Speaker 5 (44:16):
Some kind of yogurt with granola.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
Okay, okay, Seaton, I think just a little eggs and bacon.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Okay, that's old school Midwest Marvin turkey and egg whites.
Turkey and egg whites.
Speaker 7 (44:29):
Wow, PAULI coach has no time for breakfast at Homies
shot out of a cannon. I think a staffer leaves
a banana on his desk efficiency get back to coaching.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
I'm gonna say no breakfast.
Speaker 13 (44:39):
Yet, you're right. You were both right. There's been there's
been no breakfast. There's no time a diet coke, die
coke or die PEPSI.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Yeah, all right, let's see it. I would have thought
steak and eggs, but you know you don't like a
glass of milk, a nice glass of milk.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
We're up, We're uping at it, attacking.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Okay. Uh, good luck against Carolina. Good to talk to
you again, and thanks for joining.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
Mister Patrick. I Uh, I was just I'm just waiting
for you to bring up the two foot putt. I
missed it at Lake Nona. Uh back in the nineties.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
I'm trying to I was trying to keep it positive.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Every interview you've ever done, You've always brought up the
two foot No. No, you're on to Carolina.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
I'm on to Carolina. I'm I'm Belichick. We're not going
to go back. We're going forward here. Thank you, thank you.
That's Jim Harbaugh, who has it better than we do.
Speaker 5 (45:41):
Nobody
Hosts And Creators
Dan Patrick
Paul Pabst
Patrick "Seton" O'Connor
Todd "Fritzy" Fritz
Marvin Prince
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