January 10, 2023 • 38 mins
The reigning NFL’s Executive of the Year sits down with Peter and sheds light on the many people who’ve played major roles in assisting Damar Hamlin in his moments of need. He also takes us into the building and what it was like when Buffalo returned a kick for a TD to open Sunday’s game versus the Patriots. Plus: Peter's friend Todd joins to preview the NFL's Super Wildcard Weekend.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
The season with Peter Schrager as a production of the
NFL in partnership with my Heart Radio. What's off Everybody? Uh,
this has been one of the wildest weeks I can
remember in NFL history. Uh, And what started off as
(00:31):
a Monday night catastrophe really that we all lived through together.
I would say it was a traumatic event, sort of
had a I hate to say happy ending, but gosh,
Naim Heinz returns that kick to start the game in
Buffalo on Sunday, and I think we all exhaled, celebrated,
and even Patriots fans had to say that was pretty cool. Um.
(00:55):
The week that we've had watching from Afar and covering
it is one thing. The week that Buffalo Bills general
manager has had is something entirely different. I wanted to
have Brandon No. He has done a ton of media
and he's gonna be so gracious to join us in
a moment. Uh. It's one of my favorite guys in
the league. He's a NFL Executive of the Year. He
(01:15):
has built a juggernaut in Buffalo and Uh he was
more or less bedside with DeMar hamlin Um in the
most trying of times. He's He's given us a couple
of minutes right here, and uh, why are we wasting
any more time? Brandon Bean, GM and the Buffalo Bills
right now? All right? As I mentioned, Uh, this next
guest is a very special person to mean, we've become
(01:38):
uh friends. You know, obviously we work in the same world,
but we become friends. And most of our conversation, I'd
say it is not about football and not about careers,
and it's more about life and family and the important things.
And I think, uh, everybody in America got a chance
to get to know his name and sort of the
stuff that he's about. As last week was one of
the most trying weeks that our league has ever had,
and uh, it comes out on the other end of it,
(02:00):
and the person who is right there by, DeMar Hamlin's side,
happens to be the team's general manager, and we've got
him here on the podcast, Brandon being thanks for coming
on the show man. Always uh, always good to chat
with you, Peter, whether it's uh, um in Indianapolis at
breakfast or or just uh wherever you think you had
(02:22):
one of our games or this year the Dolphins game. Yeah,
that's right. It was a Dolphins game the last time,
the last time um for for wings and beer, so
now always always gonna catch up money. Yeah, you know,
the tone of this is a little different than it
was last week where I started off the podcast and
it was Tuesday, and it was gosh, like I just
don't know what to say and my hopes and prayers
(02:44):
and that things do work out. But you know a
lot of the the initial raw reaction. We're now week
removed from the hamlin Um play and Brandon like, it's
been a week. I don't even know the question. I'm
just gonna serve it up to you, like where are
you at now mentally, emotionally and gosh, take us take
(03:05):
us there. Yeah, I mean it's definitely been a roller
coaster um of a week, you know, just um, like anything,
you go to a game and you know, you know,
you always pray that no one gets hurt, um, but
you're always more thinking of someone may hurt their knee
or concussion or you know which you don't want those,
(03:27):
but you're never you know, I've said I've been in
the least since I've never seen anything like that. I've
never even I thought that that was you know, really
gonna ever happen, and you know, sitting and you know,
I'm sitting with Mr Pagoula in the box and we're
watching the game, and it's just like you could see
the stress. Um. You know, I grab my binoculars always
(03:50):
doing somebody's injured. I'm trying to see what are they're
working on and and I'm looking at my binoculars and
I'm like, I see one of our medical person and
I'm like, man, something, something's up. And then I'm seeing
more and I'm just um. You know, a young lady
named Kelsey Harkins who she works in our player engagement department,
(04:11):
but she was actually a trainer for us, and she
moved over just to try something different and we had
a we had a full time spot for she was
a two year long season in for intern. But on
game days she kind of flips that hat and goes
back to a trainer and she's a hustler and I
just see her out there hustling and she's normally not
(04:31):
doing stuff on the field. And so you know, I've
never I've never come down from the box for a
game since I've been here. And you know, ron Ricculia,
who's our CEO. He solved my look and he went
and grab security and it was like help him get down.
And so I went running through the went a different
way than you're even supposed to be, cutting down steps
(04:52):
and a concourse to get down to that field. And
you know, when I got out, there was probably about
halfway through when they were still working on him, and
it was just man eerily, eerily silent. When I kind
of slow walked out of the um, you know, fast
walked out of the tunnel to get on in the
field and just you know, try and find out what's
going on and try to console you know, some of
(05:15):
our guys. At that point, I saw, I felt the
emotion that was going on and and you know, obviously
I couldn't ask all our doctors and everyone's so I'm
just right there. I'm just saying prayers to myself of
please let the mar b okay, Please let the marb okay.
And and you know, from there, you kind of know,
you know what's next as far as the game gets postponed,
(05:37):
we get into the hospital and then you know, once
we got all our ducks in a row, you know,
we head over the hospital to be with him. You
mentioned Kelsey Harkins. That's the first time I've heard Kelsey's
name that I get that right, Kelsey Harkins. Yeah, Kelsey Harkins.
You know, I think that's one of the beautiful things
that's going to come out of this. Everyday employees that
you work alongside became heroes in a moment where you know,
(05:59):
they never thought they'd have to come to they did.
They rose to the occasion. You see it. You were
alongside these people. I'm gonna give you the platform here.
Can you take us through some of the individuals in
the Bills organization that you think deserve a little I
don't know, National acclaim a little mentioned. They would never
want it. They're not raising their hands. I even saw
(06:22):
Denny Kellington get that ball and you could see he
was embarrassed or almost bashful to get the ball from
Nihim Heinz or from whoever gave it to him after
that or there with John Brown. Um take a moment. Yeah, yeah,
and UM, you're right. These people they love what they do.
They don't want credit. Um, you want to talk about
team And I told a bunch of them when I
(06:43):
got back here from Cincinnati. I pulled some of them together.
The docks were not here because they work somewhere else.
But um, I said, listen, when good teams win games,
it's when they execute at a high level at the
most critical point in the game, the critical plays. And
I said, you guys went out there without practice, without
walk through. You do this once in a while, but
(07:04):
it's not something they're repping every week. And you went
out there and you had a plan and you executed
at a very high level, such a high level that
Damar is going to survive this thing. And they executed
flawlessly at the most critical point of the game, which
is the game of life, and they saved his life. So, um,
it was cool for them as a team to have
(07:26):
the team of trainers and you're you know, it's led
by Nate Breski, or head athletic trainer. Um Nate did
a great job. He's you know, he's leading that at first,
before we get some of the medical doctors that show
up at every game that the league has, the airway
management guy and just all them. You know, we can
get to them. But um Nate did a great job.
(07:46):
You know, I know Denny's had a claim and you
know of the CPR and but you know, and to
be fair to all, multiple people did CPR. You know
Dr White, who's one of our team internals, he rotated
with Denny I thinking, along with another person Cincinnati, you know,
given him CPR. So uh, Danny did a great Um. Um.
(08:07):
Tobanni Richards, who Tabani has stayed with DeMar the whole time,
flew back with him yesterday and he didn't win. Coach
and I went over there yesterday to see tomorrow. To
Banni is just so attached the situation and is just
trying to protect He didn't. He's back in his home city.
(08:28):
Would think you that man, Let me just go get
the shower and mate, he had place and he's like, no,
I'm I want to make sure he's good. I'm here.
We were kind of getting updates from the medical doctors here. Um.
You know, to Banni, you know he wrote the ambulance
with him there. I mean, obviously he's he's right. He's
been bear by the side the whole time. And Tabanni
(08:49):
helps set up our zoom call with the team last week,
which was amazing. Um. You want to talk about bone
chilling hair stand up when he started giving signs and
doing his thing, and just love man. It was uh
tears of joy going going crazy. But our team kneed
did that has been just you know, just such an
(09:09):
up and down. But um, you know our Marissa uh
figure oh she is, Remember I talked about Kelsey. Marissa
is our two year intern and this is her second year.
She was. She was right there as well. Just our
docs Les Boissan, who's our head team position, right there
with Nate making sure he didn't have a cervical issue.
(09:29):
UM also helping with you know, the airway and holding
his head the right way. And Mark Feinberg I mentioned
Tom White earlier who was helping Denny Rotating doing the
compressions on the CPR UM. Mark Kim is another intern
as Dr Mark Kim. He was He was there as well,
and he also was in the ambulance with Tabani UM
(09:52):
initially to go there to Mark did fly back with
the team, but he was there when he got to
you know, do you see medical center to you know,
to the trauma center. UM. And then one other guy
who's not in our training room, but he's an equipment
guy names Corey Reblin. And Corey had to get his
face mask off and you want to talk about I
mentioned it last week and my press like he had
(10:14):
to get that also, that they can get the airways
going in and think about the pressure on him, I mean,
think up out in that moment you're talking about kicking
a field goal from sixty yards. Yeah, what's his name again,
it's it's Corey Reblin. And we we you know, this
weekend's game, we honored the medical staff, but we also
honored Corey because you've got those little fine tools, you're
(10:35):
trying to get the screws out, and you're watching a
man right on the other side of your hands. Uh,
that's struggling for life. And to do that as flawlessly
and quickly as Corey did, Um, he's a he wrote
to he he handled the moment, a critical moment, one
he didn't expect to have and and and did a
great job. So, um, you know a lot of people
(10:56):
in our organization, you know, did great things. But um,
Joe Collins on our staff, Joe Mika, some other trainers, Chiro,
you know, they do all sorts of stuff. Worse, they
were there as well, helping with whatever was needed, you know,
right by his side. So it was it was a
group effort. Um, here and then you know, at some
(11:17):
point here, Peter, you know, I'll take your lead, but
we need to acknowledge all the people in in Cincinnati
and what a job they did from the time we
got him. They you know, the people that helped get
him intubated, get him oxygen um, get his pulse back,
get his you know, the a D the heart restarted,
to the ambulance, the paramedics, and then obviously the team
(11:39):
waiting for him, you know, in the trauma room. And
and again we're talking about a week ago. We were
worried about him, you know, whether he would make it
or not. And now today he's he's back in a
Buffalo hospital, which is uh, which is a blessing. And Uh,
as I've told many people, got is good and prayer
is powerful thing. You You are amazing man, Like I
(12:00):
just I feel it. I hear the exhaustion in your
voice first of all, but I also the pride is
so real. And these are people you work with every day.
And you haven't even mentioned the players are the coaches
who have been outstanding, but the people that were on
the ground and reacted and we're able to do so
in such an amazing fashion. Uh, you want Executive of
the Year, You've had personal accolades. You go back this
(12:22):
last week, though, Has this changed your perspective on the
NFL and football as all? Well? I think, um, the
NFL family, um, as much as we go after each
other and we compete, and you know, things can get
said and obviously you can get physical on the field,
but you know, behind the scenes, I think, Um, you know,
you saw unity across the league and across our country
(12:44):
and what sport We always talked about what sports can
unite people. And you know, I can say I've never seen,
as I was telling Tomar's dad this, I've never seen that.
I can remember all thirty two teams celebrating one player
on another team, you know, with their social media lighting
their cities and their stadiums and scoreboards pray for Tamar
(13:07):
and three and um, maybe I've forgot about it or
I was not aware, but I mean every social media
thing had that thing of pray for tomorrow three and
just um teams we compete against every week, and who
would have thought something like that would have happened. And
it's not what you want, but you know, and his
(13:27):
dad really and there is some positive that's really come
out of this. And and I think the other part
of that is, you know, for fans to see that, Um,
you know, this is a band of brothers. You saw
our team the emotion of and I'm gonna get choked up.
I talked about too much, but the emotion of our
players seeing a brother whose life is in the balance
(13:50):
and you know what it was doing to him. And
I've never seen a game not played for an injury
like this. I'm not saying it hasn't in the history
of the game, but in my lifetime, I've never seen
a game that you can't play. But we we knew
you can't put these players back out there for really
for either team after what they've all witnessed. And so, um,
(14:12):
I think it's it's there's again. These are not robots,
These are people down there, and they're not glad. I mean,
there is a gladiator sport, but um, these are people
that have normal human problems and human lives and and
hopefully you know fans saw that. Yeah, they bleed, they hurt,
just like the rest of us as we go through
life struggles. Tell me real quick or as long as
(14:34):
you want to through about the Hamlin family. I know
that the uncle was there. I know that the mother
and father were there, Like, we don't really have a
window into that you were there at the hospital with them.
Who are the Hamlins? Yeah, I mean, you know, I
want to start with you get to know your players.
You know, at this level, you don't always know the
parents as well. We meet him some here and there,
but you don't spend you know, you don't spend that
(14:55):
much time with him, whereas maybe you did if you
were recruiting them in college. And so going back to
Damar and you know who he is and who we've
gotten to know, and we obviously we heard great things
out of him. His pit from coaching, our doozy and
the staff, they're a pit. But then you get to
know him, he's yours and and being around him this
last you know, a year and nine months since we
(15:17):
drafted him. You know, in the previous draft, you just
see a you know, a smiling, refreshing face kid who's excited.
You tell him to be on special teams. He's gonna
do special teams. You tell him you need him to
go out and filling from Micah Hyde. He's gonna be
ready for his team. And you just He's a kid
that you you don't see negative energy from him, You don't,
(15:38):
you know, you know, if he's having a bad day,
which every all, we're all humans, Um, he doesn't show it.
He's always walking with a good vibe, a good feeling.
And so that takes me to Mario and Nina, his parents,
and salt of the earth. Um, you know, I said
at my press comes the other day, they should write
a manual on how to handle, you know, a situation
(16:02):
to where your child is in a life threatening situation,
because they were you know, I got two boys, and
as I was in there, I was thinking, Man, how
would I be if I was in Mario and need
issues right now? If that was one of my boys
in the condition that that themar was in and the
strength that they showed, Because when doctors come out, Peter,
(16:24):
you know this, and we've all had loved ones that
have been in tough situations. They give you best case
and they give you worst case. And every day, even
though it was getting better, there was always worst case.
And so you know, I'm sitting there and some of
these medical means with the docs. Sometimes they were with us,
sometimes they weren't, but they were getting the same information
(16:44):
and just sometimes you look over at him like how
they're doing, how they you know it, should I go
over and get a hug, like whatever, Like just the
strength and Mario especially he would always once it he
digested it. I always noticed that he would start a
conversation again, and just it was always about the positive.
(17:05):
Themar is gonna be this to mars not like he's
he's got that, He's gonna be fine. And you know,
the funniest thing of all this thing was Mario said
the next morning, so we we were that was Monday
night game, Tuesday, middle of the night. We went home
and slept for a few hours. You know, what's home hotel,
(17:27):
rumor on the floor in the hospital hotel. So we left,
me and Nate and Mario and his parents stayed the
whole night. Me and Nate and Tobanni left about three thirty.
They got us a room at a hotel across the street,
and so we we we went over there, um and
we didn't get great sleep, but laid down for a
(17:48):
little bit. You know, you keep checking your phone. Everything
good and uh, so we came back over there early
next morning to get an update. How's he doing? Got in.
You know, I'll never forget. At some point that morning,
Mario saying, you know what he's gonna say when he
wakes up. You know, he gonna asked somebody if we
want the game, and I was like, we were laughing
(18:09):
about I was like, you're probably right, but you really don't.
And a night nurse who was not proving to this conversation,
who none of us really saw much because it's not
visiting hours, told the docks the next morning. By the way,
he wanted to know who won the game, and she
didn't even know that he had said that already. She
didn't know that Mario had said that. We didn't even
really get to interact with her because again, she was
(18:32):
there generally during non visiting hours, so she was unaware
of that. It's been an incredible we can I'd say
a roller coaster. I but that's almost too simple. To
put you through this um. Just to cap this off,
take me through Hines returning the opening kick off and
what was going on, sir? Come on, I look, I've
(18:52):
worked for the NFL. I said to my wife, the
fix is in. There's no way it's it's uh. If
if you had any questions that God is real. Um
that play man, And here's Hines on the run back,
gonna tackle and taking it past mid field and down
the side. He goes, this is story pot. They don't
(19:13):
Putty kickoff re Terry for tomorrow. Hamlet in this place
is absolutely going wild. I literally when when I knew
he was gone, like I felt a tear count down
the right side of my face, like, and I just
I didn't know what to say, Like I'm in there
with Terry Babula and Brian Gaine and Terence Gray and
and I you know, I could hear them cheering, but
(19:36):
I was just like, man, I couldn't even talk, Like
it was just like nothing was coming out. I was like,
I can't I can't believe it. I literally like, am
I dreaming here? This just and I can't hear anything,
you know, we we ever went to It's it was
chaos and and somebody posted on Twitter yesterday they got
sent to me. Um one of the local reporters who
(19:57):
films the game from you know, the local news stations.
He has a great I'm gonna send it to you.
He has a great camera view. He's kind of towards
the opposite ends on a where Nahim caught that kickoff
and he's got the whole thing. And so there's there's
no announcer, there's no gym um, you know, nancer, Tony Romo,
it's just the announcing is the electricity of the stadium.
(20:21):
And when when the people realized he was gonna go home, man,
it was you can feel it on the phone and
it's uh, it's I. I sent it to my family
and I've sent it to a few people. But uh,
if if that doesn't you know, you're not living and
(20:41):
you're not alive. If that thing doesn't move you, it's
pretty it's pretty cool. So what a moment? Um? Mario
texted me Um as soon as that happened. Uh, and
he said, tomorrow was you know, tomorrow was going nuts.
But what I guess the doctors yesterday and the press
(21:02):
conference said that he was sitting in a chair and
all the alarm arms and bells went off because he
jumped up and was his heart beating, his heartbeating. Everything nuts.
But you wouldn't believe it. You know, if if somebody
was writing a script, you'd say you can't, you can't
go that far and say they're gonna return the opening kick. Yeah,
maybe it's a third down conversion, but no, we can't
start the script off of it the opening kick. I
(21:23):
think that's not you know, people don't believe it. Um,
you're awesome, dude. I'm gonna let you go. You guys
have a week, you know, have to play the Dolphins
in a playoff game. I don't even want to get
into it. I just mylae, like, do you have I mean,
I know we were riding on high emotions here, what
do you personally have left in the tank? And I
guess my thought is just are are you I mean,
are you ready for this? You might go on like
(21:45):
this might be the ride right now after already you
guys have already been through you personally as the guy
who built this team? Are you ready for this? Like
this is a crazy month ahead? Yeah, you know, it's
just it's one week at a time and it's just
trying to re recalibrate. And there's definitely people that are
you know, it's it was a draining thing. Anytime your
emotions are moved up and down kind of the way
(22:08):
they were last week, that can be draining. But that's
why we we gave our players off yesterday and today.
Just just kinda get your rest, get your sleep, clear
your head. You know, big, big game. Third time you're
playing you know a division opponent, so they know you,
you know them. Both games were very close and and
(22:28):
we expect, um, we expect a similar battle this week.
And um, so one week at a time and we'll
see what happens, all right, buddy, UM, thank you. Brendan
being GM of the Bills has a million things going on,
has not slept in seven days, and was kind enough
to join us here on the season with Peter Schraeger.
I look forward to breaking bread with you, whether that
(22:49):
is at Cafe Patta Chew in Indianapolis at the Combine,
or if it's up in Buffalo and one of these
playoff games, if I'm sent down assignment, we will have
some wings and I will devour a pizza, and you
and your wife will look at me and say you
are one disgusting human being, and I will hug you
as a response. I look forward to water both those occasions. Uh,
Cafe Patache is always a staple I look forward to
(23:10):
every year. And INDI you're the best Brandon Bean GM
of the Buffalo Bills. Godspeed, my friend. You're an awesome guy.
Appreciate you, buddy. Thanks for having on Peter. All right,
here we are at the final portion of this podcast,
and we've had quite an emotional one. I thought, you know,
(23:30):
you start off with the monologue and I'm talking about
coaching hires. Then Brandon Bean comes on and goes moment
by moment, second by second of what his last week
was at the Moore Hamlin's bedside, as as he went
through what was maybe the most traumatic week of anyone's lives.
Who has been a part of the Buffalo Bills organization. Uh.
(23:52):
And now I'm bringing in my friend Todd, who is
gonna take it to a totally different place because Todd
is a lifelong Giants fan and his Giants are in
the playoffs for the first time since and I feel
there's a lot of optimism. I feel like there's a
lot of juice. But I am not one to speak
(24:12):
on behalf of Giants is and ticket holders, but this
man is Todd. Welcome to the podcast, Peter Schraeger, Thank
you so much for having me. Uh. I first just
want to make a quick note last week when you
were talking about maybe having me on it, became a
you know what, we're gonna do the full hour with
Sean Payton, who happens to be the hottest ticket in
coaching right now. Okay, no problem, I don't have to
(24:34):
come on this week. Talk about following up someone after
what you just discussed, and now you're like, hey, you
want to come on and scream about the giants? And
then it's I'm expecting next week for you to say, Hey,
so we're gonna have Pope Francis on before you, and
he's gonna be discussing Pope Benedict and him having just
recently passed away and all that. But then come on
(24:56):
after him and say, thanks a lot, your holiness. Now
we're gonna have Todd. I'll screw me about the giants.
Hey to, how you doing? But but thanks for having
me on. Yeah, I've got this. This little done guy
named Elon must coming on. Um, Todd, do you mind
following him on the podcast? Who would be who would
be the podcast guest that you at least want to follow?
And I put you on the spot right there. It
doesn't have to be anybody. I feel like that you
(25:19):
nailed it with the Pope. But I've got to think
that there's you know, like, okay, we're on here and
we've got Megan Markle on. Okay, Todd, let's talk about
the Commander's offensive line. It's I'm putting that tough spot here,
aren't I. I mean, you nailed it. If you said, hey,
we're gonna have you on after we do an absolute
no holds barred Tello with Prince Harry, then then we're
(25:39):
gonna have you on. And like, all right, I guess
I'm well about Daniel Jones for a little while. But
you know who am I following? Yeah? Alright, So Giants
of a playoff games Sunday, I said on Good Morning
Football there in the Madden Summer All spot for thirty
on Fox, it's almost surreal considering where we were in August.
What's your approach to this game as a Giants fan?
(25:59):
Is it like house money or are we like, hey,
let's let's go and do this thing. So that that's
a great question. How you house money there? Because when
the season starts, obviously and you're like, all right, we've
been the worst team in the league for five years.
Let's just let's get some player development going. Let's see
how we do we got a new coaching staff, new GM,
everything's brand new. See what we're gonna do about Daniel Jones.
(26:22):
You know, let's let's see how the season unfolds. And
then as the season starts to unfold and you start
winning games, I don't care what fan base you are with,
I don't care what team you're rooting for. When you
look up and all of a sudden, your team is
winning football games and you're rolling off win if the win,
if the win, and you look up and maybe you know,
if you're you're six and one or seven and two,
(26:43):
house money goes out the window. You know, we're seen
in two. The conference seems kind of wide open. The
Kansas City Chiefs don't play in the NFC, The Buffalo
Bills don't play in the NFC. Like, let's go for
this right now. There's no more house money. Like here
we are. We're here. I know what it's like to
stink for five years and have no hope of the playoffs.
(27:04):
Here we are. It looks like we might be able
to win a couple of games or make a little
bit of noise forget out money. Let's go out and
win Vikings I said today, they're thirteen and four on
the season, but they gave up more points than they scored.
Do you look at them as paper tigers? Are you like,
all right, here comes Jefferson. This guy beat us once before.
Do you look at the Vikings? Is like, thank god,
(27:24):
at the Vikings. We're not going to San Francisco. The
amazing thing is, if the Vikings were playing any other
team in the playoff tournament right now, I'd say, yeah,
they're paper tigers. They're not getting out of the first round.
But because they're playing the Giants, I can't just come
on and thump my chest and say all right, they're
paper tigers. We're gonna go on the road and absolutely
hammered them. I mean we we did just lose to
(27:45):
them three weeks ago. All right, it was a back
and fourth game and we lost on you know, a
ridiculous sixty one yard field. Go at the gun. But
you know, there's no team of thirteen wins out there
that has the best player on the field of Jefferson.
I can't just sit here and save paper tigers because
they're playing the Giants. But if they're playing anybody else,
I'd say, you know, thanks for coming out, Keys, we'll
(28:06):
see you next season. All right, that's a good game preview.
What we come to you for is some advice on
how to handle the weekend. This is a three day extravaganza.
It starts on Saturday late afternoon and it's not over
until the wee hours Monday night. How am I supposed
to do this? If I'm an NFL fan? How do
I pace myself? And I know that you've got things
(28:28):
going on in the household in the next couple of
weeks and you've got to focus on other things. How's
the American sports fans supposed to handle this weekend and
still be an attentive parent, father, husband, and friend. Fantastic question.
And and for those of your listeners out there that
have listened along the way, they'll remember what the journey
we went on right around Thanksgiving for that entire week
long stretch. This isn't quite the same, but this gets
(28:51):
you a sort of forty eight seventy two hour window
right in the middle of January. This is between this
weekend and next weekend to the divisional round of the playoffs.
To the NFL. This is it, guys, Your your conference championship.
Sunday is a completely different beast to get one day
to find out who's going to the Super Bol, But
this weekend and next weekend. I hate to just say, hey,
(29:12):
you have to embrace it, but you really just have
to embrace the fact that you get six really good
NFL games. The NFL, that's the schedule makers. They know
what they're doing right now. They know that have to
sort of ease you into the wild card weekend. They
give you a Seattle San Francisco for thirty Saturday afternoon.
That's the old Texans Bangles window right there, that was
(29:34):
always on j Yates exactly. I'll watch this wild Card
game because I'm home on the couch. But if my
wife says, hey, do you want to grab an early dinner,
maybe I'll go out and and I'll be able to
see the game like a last year, and last year
it was Raiders Bangles. But for years it was like NBC,
or it was like Mike Mayock on the call, Andrew
(29:57):
Breeze was on the call. This year, I think it's
like Atlas Fox. I think it's Moose and and Joe Davis,
which would be great, but like and then you get
that that second crew or you get that crew that
hasn't done NFL, but they've got another game on the network.
You're like, okay, let's se who else NBC has got
on the bench. Oh yeah, before that would be Tom Hammonds.
They would call it a NBC and before that they
(30:19):
would send out Mike Patrick and Paul McGuire to call me.
And you know, all right, I'll watch it because I'm home.
It's the middle of January and it's freezing outside. But
I'm not dying to get into a game like that.
It'll be similar in this sense, you know. I mean,
the forty nine is should probably steam roll them, and
and you know, it is what it is. But it's
NFL playoff football and there's only a finite amount of
(30:41):
games left for that, so you have to just sit
and enjoy it. You have all day to run your errands.
The game doesn't start until four thirty, So what you
have to do run your errands. Don't tell me you're
not running errands on a Saturday in January. Everybody's running
errands on a Saturday boarding in January. They're they're lying
to themselves if they say that they're not. Take us
(31:02):
then from there to a Jaguars Chargers Sunday Night, Lawrence
and Herbert, most of them. America watching for the first
time has never seen any of these guys exactly. Imagine that.
Here we are a wild card weekend and you're gonna
turn the game on, and unless you're tired NFL, then
you're gonna look at the Jags and say, Wow, the
Jags made it to the playoffs. Yeah, the Jags are
a playoff team. Like that, That's how it goes. This
is your another typical sort of Saturday night wild card game.
(31:25):
But again, it's Saturday night in January. You don't have
to go you don't have to go out for some
crazy party or do anything. We're real obligation. Stay home,
ordering get a couple of large fives, and to lead
a bottle of soda. Settling this. This is what you
wait for Saturday night prime time playoff games. Because that's it.
I got news for you. You don't have many more
after this, so just and enjoy the favorite. And then
(31:47):
we have the three the three games in a row.
You've got an emotional opening to that Bill's Dolphins game,
then you got Vikings Giants, and then you got the
nightcap with Bengals Ravens and can you could take me
through it. But I'm also curious what's your thoughts on
the Lamar situation as we record this. He hasn't practiced
in five weeks. They don't know if he's gonna play.
Is this a power played by Lamar tod or is
(32:10):
this just you know, he's gonna try to play, just
physically can't do it. It's weird when you really think
about it. When when you think about a quarterback in
this league that has been a league m v P,
that is the face of the franchise. He's taking his
team to the playoffs multiple times, you know, everything that
that you'd want. It's very weird to hear that that
(32:30):
quarterback has been injured, let's say, you know, for the
past five or six weeks right now, and there's no
update on anything. Usually it's oh, no, that this guy
has a broken collar bone. He's gonna be out another
eight weeks or you know, torn MCL whatever it might be.
He's done for the season. But this is thoughways just
been Yeah, he's got this sprain. We're not really sure
(32:52):
when he's coming back. We don't even know when he's
gonna be practicing. I don't understand what's happening here. From
an informational standpoint, it can't just be gamesmanship where all
of a sudden Sunday night, NBC opens up and Mike
Tarito is, you know, narrating something and Lamar Jackson shuited
up and he's throwing passes and there it is like
that that can't possibly be it that they've decided that
(33:13):
he wouldn't play until the wild card round against the Bengals.
That that can't be. It's fascinating that there's been no
leaks of any information from any side about how he's doing.
That doesn't make me sense to me, I know, and
I feel like I'm doing a bad job as a
reporter because I'm coming on Good Morning Football. I'm like,
not only is there not a report, I don't think
harbor those and what kind of it can't be Lamar
(33:36):
Jackson saying you know what, Hey, if you guys don't
want to pay me the money, this is what your
offense looks like. There are fifty two other guys in
that locker room right now, and if you're just gonna
look at them and say hey, sorry, guys, go out
there without me and see what you can do. How
are you supposed to come back Sunday or next year
and say, yeah, I know I abandoned you guys for
(33:56):
a month, but now I'm making Jordian fifty millions. So
you know, everybody line up and let's play. How do
you earn their trust and respect back? These are guys.
They count on you to be out there running backs
to receivers. Everybody counts on you to be out there
on offense because you make everybody better, which, of course
that means everybody eats, which means everybody can go in
(34:16):
and negotiate for more money and all sorts of new contracts.
When you're not out there and no one's catching touchdown
passes and no one's freaking long runs, and you look
like the offense is stuck in the mud and no
one has the actual statistics to back up what they
want to be paid accordingly for. It really is a
bad look for you that that can't be what he's doing.
(34:37):
This is tasty, and let's end it with Buccaneers Cowboys
your approach. Monday, I gotta pace myself. I'll be exhausted.
I'm gonna be flying back from l A. I'm gonna
do a whole show Good Morning Football, and then we've
got like the best playoff game of of the entire
weekend on Monday night. I'm still not used to it.
I think I'll tell it like it is. Last year
it was Rams Cardinals. I was like, all right, I'm
gonna stay up. Rams started blowing him out. I think
(34:59):
I went to bed in the third quarter and I
was no worse for the wear. This year, I can't
do that. I completely agree with you. And and look,
let's let's just look at the big shining obviously can
in front of us. On one hand, Okay, you got
Brady at home, prime time under the lights, you're watching.
On the other side of the ball, you have the
Cowboys on the road in prime time in the playoffs.
(35:22):
You know you're gonna gear up and tune in to
watch that whole game, whether they're winning or they're losing.
If it's a Cowboy blowout of the Cowboys are winning,
you're you're you're sort of hate watching it, unless you're
a Cowboy fan. And if you're watching that game and
the Bucks are up in the Bucks are winning and
the Cowboys laying egg like they did this past week
against the Red Sox. You're watching that game the Socks,
(35:42):
not the Commanders, the Red Sox. You called him the
Red Sox. Unle, you caught me right there. This is
what happens when I start going so crazy, Like you know,
if the Cowboys got lay another egg like they just
did last week. You're watching that game really happily, and
you're laughing, and you know that throws the pick six
(36:03):
year and McCarty blows all three time outs early. You're
he's challenging places that shouldn't be challenging for we're going
forward from his own thirty anything like that. You're watching
that game and you're laughing and you're enjoying it. So
there really are two sides here that are pulling you
into this incredibly intriguing game. You've gotta be sitting down
to watch this because that's it. After this game is over,
(36:26):
you don't either you don't have Brady next weekend or
you don't have the Cowboys next weekend. And those are
two big chess pieces taken off the board for next weekend.
Yeah alright, And closing, Todd, thank you. I just want
to tell you we have a new sponsor. And guess
what the sponsor is Draft Kings. Let's go love it,
love it. I'm in go for those moonshots on DraftKings.
(36:47):
That's that's that's the only that's the only way that
I hate to say, that's the only way you should
be gambling. But go ahead and find yourself one of
those twenty leg parlays that dollars of it is. There
are a lot more fun than watching one game hoping
that one team covers No, no, no, take the moon shot.
It sounds like we've got a show that you might
have to have a spinoff podcast where we talk moon shots. Uh.
(37:07):
I appreciate you, Todd, and I appreciate everybody listening to
the podcast this week on behalf of Todd on behalf
of Brandon being the general manager of the Buffalo Bills,
Jason English, Aaron Wong Kaufman, our guy, Jason Kleinman, who
does such a great job on the digital side pumping
out these clips from l A who gets them up there,
Jack RhoD Our music man. Everybody, thank you for listening,
(37:30):
and uh, we're kicking but over here on the podcast.
Tell your friends about it and let's keep on building
until next week. Enjoy wild Card Weekend. Everyone. The Season
(37:54):
with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL and
partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
wherever you get your podcasts.
The season with Peter Schrager as a production of the
NFL in partnership with my Heart Radio. What's off Everybody? Uh,
this has been one of the wildest weeks I can
remember in NFL history. Uh, And what started off as
(00:31):
a Monday night catastrophe really that we all lived through together.
I would say it was a traumatic event, sort of
had a I hate to say happy ending, but gosh,
Naim Heinz returns that kick to start the game in
Buffalo on Sunday, and I think we all exhaled, celebrated,
and even Patriots fans had to say that was pretty cool. Um.
(00:55):
The week that we've had watching from Afar and covering
it is one thing. The week that Buffalo Bills general
manager has had is something entirely different. I wanted to
have Brandon No. He has done a ton of media
and he's gonna be so gracious to join us in
a moment. Uh. It's one of my favorite guys in
the league. He's a NFL Executive of the Year. He
(01:15):
has built a juggernaut in Buffalo and Uh he was
more or less bedside with DeMar hamlin Um in the
most trying of times. He's He's given us a couple
of minutes right here, and uh, why are we wasting
any more time? Brandon Bean, GM and the Buffalo Bills
right now? All right? As I mentioned, Uh, this next
guest is a very special person to mean, we've become
(01:38):
uh friends. You know, obviously we work in the same world,
but we become friends. And most of our conversation, I'd
say it is not about football and not about careers,
and it's more about life and family and the important things.
And I think, uh, everybody in America got a chance
to get to know his name and sort of the
stuff that he's about. As last week was one of
the most trying weeks that our league has ever had,
and uh, it comes out on the other end of it,
(02:00):
and the person who is right there by, DeMar Hamlin's side,
happens to be the team's general manager, and we've got
him here on the podcast, Brandon being thanks for coming
on the show man. Always uh, always good to chat
with you, Peter, whether it's uh, um in Indianapolis at
breakfast or or just uh wherever you think you had
(02:22):
one of our games or this year the Dolphins game. Yeah,
that's right. It was a Dolphins game the last time,
the last time um for for wings and beer, so
now always always gonna catch up money. Yeah, you know,
the tone of this is a little different than it
was last week where I started off the podcast and
it was Tuesday, and it was gosh, like I just
don't know what to say and my hopes and prayers
(02:44):
and that things do work out. But you know a
lot of the the initial raw reaction. We're now week
removed from the hamlin Um play and Brandon like, it's
been a week. I don't even know the question. I'm
just gonna serve it up to you, like where are
you at now mentally, emotionally and gosh, take us take
(03:05):
us there. Yeah, I mean it's definitely been a roller
coaster um of a week, you know, just um, like anything,
you go to a game and you know, you know,
you always pray that no one gets hurt, um, but
you're always more thinking of someone may hurt their knee
or concussion or you know which you don't want those,
(03:27):
but you're never you know, I've said I've been in
the least since I've never seen anything like that. I've
never even I thought that that was you know, really
gonna ever happen, and you know, sitting and you know,
I'm sitting with Mr Pagoula in the box and we're
watching the game, and it's just like you could see
the stress. Um. You know, I grab my binoculars always
(03:50):
doing somebody's injured. I'm trying to see what are they're
working on and and I'm looking at my binoculars and
I'm like, I see one of our medical person and
I'm like, man, something, something's up. And then I'm seeing
more and I'm just um. You know, a young lady
named Kelsey Harkins who she works in our player engagement department,
(04:11):
but she was actually a trainer for us, and she
moved over just to try something different and we had
a we had a full time spot for she was
a two year long season in for intern. But on
game days she kind of flips that hat and goes
back to a trainer and she's a hustler and I
just see her out there hustling and she's normally not
(04:31):
doing stuff on the field. And so you know, I've
never I've never come down from the box for a
game since I've been here. And you know, ron Ricculia,
who's our CEO. He solved my look and he went
and grab security and it was like help him get down.
And so I went running through the went a different
way than you're even supposed to be, cutting down steps
(04:52):
and a concourse to get down to that field. And
you know, when I got out, there was probably about
halfway through when they were still working on him, and
it was just man eerily, eerily silent. When I kind
of slow walked out of the um, you know, fast
walked out of the tunnel to get on in the
field and just you know, try and find out what's
going on and try to console you know, some of
(05:15):
our guys. At that point, I saw, I felt the
emotion that was going on and and you know, obviously
I couldn't ask all our doctors and everyone's so I'm
just right there. I'm just saying prayers to myself of
please let the mar b okay, Please let the marb okay.
And and you know, from there, you kind of know,
you know what's next as far as the game gets postponed,
(05:37):
we get into the hospital and then you know, once
we got all our ducks in a row, you know,
we head over the hospital to be with him. You
mentioned Kelsey Harkins. That's the first time I've heard Kelsey's
name that I get that right, Kelsey Harkins. Yeah, Kelsey Harkins.
You know, I think that's one of the beautiful things
that's going to come out of this. Everyday employees that
you work alongside became heroes in a moment where you know,
(05:59):
they never thought they'd have to come to they did.
They rose to the occasion. You see it. You were
alongside these people. I'm gonna give you the platform here.
Can you take us through some of the individuals in
the Bills organization that you think deserve a little I
don't know, National acclaim a little mentioned. They would never
want it. They're not raising their hands. I even saw
(06:22):
Denny Kellington get that ball and you could see he
was embarrassed or almost bashful to get the ball from
Nihim Heinz or from whoever gave it to him after
that or there with John Brown. Um take a moment. Yeah, yeah,
and UM, you're right. These people they love what they do.
They don't want credit. Um, you want to talk about
team And I told a bunch of them when I
(06:43):
got back here from Cincinnati. I pulled some of them together.
The docks were not here because they work somewhere else.
But um, I said, listen, when good teams win games,
it's when they execute at a high level at the
most critical point in the game, the critical plays. And
I said, you guys went out there without practice, without
walk through. You do this once in a while, but
(07:04):
it's not something they're repping every week. And you went
out there and you had a plan and you executed
at a very high level, such a high level that
Damar is going to survive this thing. And they executed
flawlessly at the most critical point of the game, which
is the game of life, and they saved his life. So, um,
it was cool for them as a team to have
(07:26):
the team of trainers and you're you know, it's led
by Nate Breski, or head athletic trainer. Um Nate did
a great job. He's you know, he's leading that at first,
before we get some of the medical doctors that show
up at every game that the league has, the airway
management guy and just all them. You know, we can
get to them. But um Nate did a great job.
(07:46):
You know, I know Denny's had a claim and you
know of the CPR and but you know, and to
be fair to all, multiple people did CPR. You know
Dr White, who's one of our team internals, he rotated
with Denny I thinking, along with another person Cincinnati, you know,
given him CPR. So uh, Danny did a great Um. Um.
(08:07):
Tobanni Richards, who Tabani has stayed with DeMar the whole time,
flew back with him yesterday and he didn't win. Coach
and I went over there yesterday to see tomorrow. To
Banni is just so attached the situation and is just
trying to protect He didn't. He's back in his home city.
(08:28):
Would think you that man, Let me just go get
the shower and mate, he had place and he's like, no,
I'm I want to make sure he's good. I'm here.
We were kind of getting updates from the medical doctors here. Um.
You know, to Banni, you know he wrote the ambulance
with him there. I mean, obviously he's he's right. He's
been bear by the side the whole time. And Tabanni
(08:49):
helps set up our zoom call with the team last week,
which was amazing. Um. You want to talk about bone
chilling hair stand up when he started giving signs and
doing his thing, and just love man. It was uh
tears of joy going going crazy. But our team kneed
did that has been just you know, just such an
(09:09):
up and down. But um, you know our Marissa uh
figure oh she is, Remember I talked about Kelsey. Marissa
is our two year intern and this is her second year.
She was. She was right there as well. Just our
docs Les Boissan, who's our head team position, right there
with Nate making sure he didn't have a cervical issue.
(09:29):
UM also helping with you know, the airway and holding
his head the right way. And Mark Feinberg I mentioned
Tom White earlier who was helping Denny Rotating doing the
compressions on the CPR UM. Mark Kim is another intern
as Dr Mark Kim. He was He was there as well,
and he also was in the ambulance with Tabani UM
(09:52):
initially to go there to Mark did fly back with
the team, but he was there when he got to
you know, do you see medical center to you know,
to the trauma center. UM. And then one other guy
who's not in our training room, but he's an equipment
guy names Corey Reblin. And Corey had to get his
face mask off and you want to talk about I
mentioned it last week and my press like he had
(10:14):
to get that also, that they can get the airways
going in and think about the pressure on him, I mean,
think up out in that moment you're talking about kicking
a field goal from sixty yards. Yeah, what's his name again,
it's it's Corey Reblin. And we we you know, this
weekend's game, we honored the medical staff, but we also
honored Corey because you've got those little fine tools, you're
(10:35):
trying to get the screws out, and you're watching a
man right on the other side of your hands. Uh,
that's struggling for life. And to do that as flawlessly
and quickly as Corey did, Um, he's a he wrote
to he he handled the moment, a critical moment, one
he didn't expect to have and and and did a
great job. So, um, you know a lot of people
(10:56):
in our organization, you know, did great things. But um,
Joe Collins on our staff, Joe Mika, some other trainers, Chiro,
you know, they do all sorts of stuff. Worse, they
were there as well, helping with whatever was needed, you know,
right by his side. So it was it was a
group effort. Um, here and then you know, at some
(11:17):
point here, Peter, you know, I'll take your lead, but
we need to acknowledge all the people in in Cincinnati
and what a job they did from the time we
got him. They you know, the people that helped get
him intubated, get him oxygen um, get his pulse back,
get his you know, the a D the heart restarted,
to the ambulance, the paramedics, and then obviously the team
(11:39):
waiting for him, you know, in the trauma room. And
and again we're talking about a week ago. We were
worried about him, you know, whether he would make it
or not. And now today he's he's back in a
Buffalo hospital, which is uh, which is a blessing. And Uh,
as I've told many people, got is good and prayer
is powerful thing. You You are amazing man, Like I
(12:00):
just I feel it. I hear the exhaustion in your
voice first of all, but I also the pride is
so real. And these are people you work with every day.
And you haven't even mentioned the players are the coaches
who have been outstanding, but the people that were on
the ground and reacted and we're able to do so
in such an amazing fashion. Uh, you want Executive of
the Year, You've had personal accolades. You go back this
(12:22):
last week, though, Has this changed your perspective on the
NFL and football as all? Well? I think, um, the
NFL family, um, as much as we go after each
other and we compete, and you know, things can get
said and obviously you can get physical on the field,
but you know, behind the scenes, I think, Um, you know,
you saw unity across the league and across our country
(12:44):
and what sport We always talked about what sports can
unite people. And you know, I can say I've never seen,
as I was telling Tomar's dad this, I've never seen that.
I can remember all thirty two teams celebrating one player
on another team, you know, with their social media lighting
their cities and their stadiums and scoreboards pray for Tamar
(13:07):
and three and um, maybe I've forgot about it or
I was not aware, but I mean every social media
thing had that thing of pray for tomorrow three and
just um teams we compete against every week, and who
would have thought something like that would have happened. And
it's not what you want, but you know, and his
(13:27):
dad really and there is some positive that's really come
out of this. And and I think the other part
of that is, you know, for fans to see that, Um,
you know, this is a band of brothers. You saw
our team the emotion of and I'm gonna get choked up.
I talked about too much, but the emotion of our
players seeing a brother whose life is in the balance
(13:50):
and you know what it was doing to him. And
I've never seen a game not played for an injury
like this. I'm not saying it hasn't in the history
of the game, but in my lifetime, I've never seen
a game that you can't play. But we we knew
you can't put these players back out there for really
for either team after what they've all witnessed. And so, um,
(14:12):
I think it's it's there's again. These are not robots,
These are people down there, and they're not glad. I mean,
there is a gladiator sport, but um, these are people
that have normal human problems and human lives and and
hopefully you know fans saw that. Yeah, they bleed, they hurt,
just like the rest of us as we go through
life struggles. Tell me real quick or as long as
(14:34):
you want to through about the Hamlin family. I know
that the uncle was there. I know that the mother
and father were there, Like, we don't really have a
window into that you were there at the hospital with them.
Who are the Hamlins? Yeah, I mean, you know, I
want to start with you get to know your players.
You know, at this level, you don't always know the
parents as well. We meet him some here and there,
but you don't spend you know, you don't spend that
(14:55):
much time with him, whereas maybe you did if you
were recruiting them in college. And so going back to
Damar and you know who he is and who we've
gotten to know, and we obviously we heard great things
out of him. His pit from coaching, our doozy and
the staff, they're a pit. But then you get to
know him, he's yours and and being around him this
last you know, a year and nine months since we
(15:17):
drafted him. You know, in the previous draft, you just
see a you know, a smiling, refreshing face kid who's excited.
You tell him to be on special teams. He's gonna
do special teams. You tell him you need him to
go out and filling from Micah Hyde. He's gonna be
ready for his team. And you just He's a kid
that you you don't see negative energy from him, You don't,
(15:38):
you know, you know, if he's having a bad day,
which every all, we're all humans, Um, he doesn't show it.
He's always walking with a good vibe, a good feeling.
And so that takes me to Mario and Nina, his parents,
and salt of the earth. Um, you know, I said
at my press comes the other day, they should write
a manual on how to handle, you know, a situation
(16:02):
to where your child is in a life threatening situation,
because they were you know, I got two boys, and
as I was in there, I was thinking, Man, how
would I be if I was in Mario and need
issues right now? If that was one of my boys
in the condition that that themar was in and the
strength that they showed, Because when doctors come out, Peter,
(16:24):
you know this, and we've all had loved ones that
have been in tough situations. They give you best case
and they give you worst case. And every day, even
though it was getting better, there was always worst case.
And so you know, I'm sitting there and some of
these medical means with the docs. Sometimes they were with us,
sometimes they weren't, but they were getting the same information
(16:44):
and just sometimes you look over at him like how
they're doing, how they you know it, should I go
over and get a hug, like whatever, Like just the
strength and Mario especially he would always once it he
digested it. I always noticed that he would start a
conversation again, and just it was always about the positive.
(17:05):
Themar is gonna be this to mars not like he's
he's got that, He's gonna be fine. And you know,
the funniest thing of all this thing was Mario said
the next morning, so we we were that was Monday
night game, Tuesday, middle of the night. We went home
and slept for a few hours. You know, what's home hotel,
(17:27):
rumor on the floor in the hospital hotel. So we left,
me and Nate and Mario and his parents stayed the
whole night. Me and Nate and Tobanni left about three thirty.
They got us a room at a hotel across the street,
and so we we we went over there, um and
we didn't get great sleep, but laid down for a
(17:48):
little bit. You know, you keep checking your phone. Everything
good and uh, so we came back over there early
next morning to get an update. How's he doing? Got in.
You know, I'll never forget. At some point that morning,
Mario saying, you know what he's gonna say when he
wakes up. You know, he gonna asked somebody if we
want the game, and I was like, we were laughing
(18:09):
about I was like, you're probably right, but you really don't.
And a night nurse who was not proving to this conversation,
who none of us really saw much because it's not
visiting hours, told the docks the next morning. By the way,
he wanted to know who won the game, and she
didn't even know that he had said that already. She
didn't know that Mario had said that. We didn't even
really get to interact with her because again, she was
(18:32):
there generally during non visiting hours, so she was unaware
of that. It's been an incredible we can I'd say
a roller coaster. I but that's almost too simple. To
put you through this um. Just to cap this off,
take me through Hines returning the opening kick off and
what was going on, sir? Come on, I look, I've
(18:52):
worked for the NFL. I said to my wife, the
fix is in. There's no way it's it's uh. If
if you had any questions that God is real. Um
that play man, And here's Hines on the run back,
gonna tackle and taking it past mid field and down
the side. He goes, this is story pot. They don't
(19:13):
Putty kickoff re Terry for tomorrow. Hamlet in this place
is absolutely going wild. I literally when when I knew
he was gone, like I felt a tear count down
the right side of my face, like, and I just
I didn't know what to say, Like I'm in there
with Terry Babula and Brian Gaine and Terence Gray and
and I you know, I could hear them cheering, but
(19:36):
I was just like, man, I couldn't even talk, Like
it was just like nothing was coming out. I was like,
I can't I can't believe it. I literally like, am
I dreaming here? This just and I can't hear anything,
you know, we we ever went to It's it was
chaos and and somebody posted on Twitter yesterday they got
sent to me. Um one of the local reporters who
(19:57):
films the game from you know, the local news stations.
He has a great I'm gonna send it to you.
He has a great camera view. He's kind of towards
the opposite ends on a where Nahim caught that kickoff
and he's got the whole thing. And so there's there's
no announcer, there's no gym um, you know, nancer, Tony Romo,
it's just the announcing is the electricity of the stadium.
(20:21):
And when when the people realized he was gonna go home, man,
it was you can feel it on the phone and
it's uh, it's I. I sent it to my family
and I've sent it to a few people. But uh,
if if that doesn't you know, you're not living and
(20:41):
you're not alive. If that thing doesn't move you, it's
pretty it's pretty cool. So what a moment? Um? Mario
texted me Um as soon as that happened. Uh, and
he said, tomorrow was you know, tomorrow was going nuts.
But what I guess the doctors yesterday and the press
(21:02):
conference said that he was sitting in a chair and
all the alarm arms and bells went off because he
jumped up and was his heart beating, his heartbeating. Everything nuts.
But you wouldn't believe it. You know, if if somebody
was writing a script, you'd say you can't, you can't
go that far and say they're gonna return the opening kick. Yeah,
maybe it's a third down conversion, but no, we can't
start the script off of it the opening kick. I
(21:23):
think that's not you know, people don't believe it. Um,
you're awesome, dude. I'm gonna let you go. You guys
have a week, you know, have to play the Dolphins
in a playoff game. I don't even want to get
into it. I just mylae, like, do you have I mean,
I know we were riding on high emotions here, what
do you personally have left in the tank? And I
guess my thought is just are are you I mean,
are you ready for this? You might go on like
(21:45):
this might be the ride right now after already you
guys have already been through you personally as the guy
who built this team? Are you ready for this? Like
this is a crazy month ahead? Yeah, you know, it's
just it's one week at a time and it's just
trying to re recalibrate. And there's definitely people that are
you know, it's it was a draining thing. Anytime your
emotions are moved up and down kind of the way
(22:08):
they were last week, that can be draining. But that's
why we we gave our players off yesterday and today.
Just just kinda get your rest, get your sleep, clear
your head. You know, big, big game. Third time you're
playing you know a division opponent, so they know you,
you know them. Both games were very close and and
(22:28):
we expect, um, we expect a similar battle this week.
And um, so one week at a time and we'll
see what happens, all right, buddy, UM, thank you. Brendan
being GM of the Bills has a million things going on,
has not slept in seven days, and was kind enough
to join us here on the season with Peter Schraeger.
I look forward to breaking bread with you, whether that
(22:49):
is at Cafe Patta Chew in Indianapolis at the Combine,
or if it's up in Buffalo and one of these
playoff games, if I'm sent down assignment, we will have
some wings and I will devour a pizza, and you
and your wife will look at me and say you
are one disgusting human being, and I will hug you
as a response. I look forward to water both those occasions. Uh,
Cafe Patache is always a staple I look forward to
(23:10):
every year. And INDI you're the best Brandon Bean GM
of the Buffalo Bills. Godspeed, my friend. You're an awesome guy.
Appreciate you, buddy. Thanks for having on Peter. All right,
here we are at the final portion of this podcast,
and we've had quite an emotional one. I thought, you know,
(23:30):
you start off with the monologue and I'm talking about
coaching hires. Then Brandon Bean comes on and goes moment
by moment, second by second of what his last week
was at the Moore Hamlin's bedside, as as he went
through what was maybe the most traumatic week of anyone's lives.
Who has been a part of the Buffalo Bills organization. Uh.
(23:52):
And now I'm bringing in my friend Todd, who is
gonna take it to a totally different place because Todd
is a lifelong Giants fan and his Giants are in
the playoffs for the first time since and I feel
there's a lot of optimism. I feel like there's a
lot of juice. But I am not one to speak
(24:12):
on behalf of Giants is and ticket holders, but this
man is Todd. Welcome to the podcast, Peter Schraeger, Thank
you so much for having me. Uh. I first just
want to make a quick note last week when you
were talking about maybe having me on it, became a
you know what, we're gonna do the full hour with
Sean Payton, who happens to be the hottest ticket in
coaching right now. Okay, no problem, I don't have to
(24:34):
come on this week. Talk about following up someone after
what you just discussed, and now you're like, hey, you
want to come on and scream about the giants? And
then it's I'm expecting next week for you to say, Hey,
so we're gonna have Pope Francis on before you, and
he's gonna be discussing Pope Benedict and him having just
recently passed away and all that. But then come on
(24:56):
after him and say, thanks a lot, your holiness. Now
we're gonna have Todd. I'll screw me about the giants.
Hey to, how you doing? But but thanks for having
me on. Yeah, I've got this. This little done guy
named Elon must coming on. Um, Todd, do you mind
following him on the podcast? Who would be who would
be the podcast guest that you at least want to follow?
And I put you on the spot right there. It
doesn't have to be anybody. I feel like that you
(25:19):
nailed it with the Pope. But I've got to think
that there's you know, like, okay, we're on here and
we've got Megan Markle on. Okay, Todd, let's talk about
the Commander's offensive line. It's I'm putting that tough spot here,
aren't I. I mean, you nailed it. If you said, hey,
we're gonna have you on after we do an absolute
no holds barred Tello with Prince Harry, then then we're
(25:39):
gonna have you on. And like, all right, I guess
I'm well about Daniel Jones for a little while. But
you know who am I following? Yeah? Alright, So Giants
of a playoff games Sunday, I said on Good Morning
Football there in the Madden Summer All spot for thirty
on Fox, it's almost surreal considering where we were in August.
What's your approach to this game as a Giants fan?
(25:59):
Is it like house money or are we like, hey,
let's let's go and do this thing. So that that's
a great question. How you house money there? Because when
the season starts, obviously and you're like, all right, we've
been the worst team in the league for five years.
Let's just let's get some player development going. Let's see
how we do we got a new coaching staff, new GM,
everything's brand new. See what we're gonna do about Daniel Jones.
(26:22):
You know, let's let's see how the season unfolds. And
then as the season starts to unfold and you start
winning games, I don't care what fan base you are with,
I don't care what team you're rooting for. When you
look up and all of a sudden, your team is
winning football games and you're rolling off win if the win,
if the win, and you look up and maybe you know,
if you're you're six and one or seven and two,
(26:43):
house money goes out the window. You know, we're seen
in two. The conference seems kind of wide open. The
Kansas City Chiefs don't play in the NFC, The Buffalo
Bills don't play in the NFC. Like, let's go for
this right now. There's no more house money. Like here
we are. We're here. I know what it's like to
stink for five years and have no hope of the playoffs.
(27:04):
Here we are. It looks like we might be able
to win a couple of games or make a little
bit of noise forget out money. Let's go out and
win Vikings I said today, they're thirteen and four on
the season, but they gave up more points than they scored.
Do you look at them as paper tigers? Are you like,
all right, here comes Jefferson. This guy beat us once before.
Do you look at the Vikings? Is like, thank god,
(27:24):
at the Vikings. We're not going to San Francisco. The
amazing thing is, if the Vikings were playing any other
team in the playoff tournament right now, I'd say, yeah,
they're paper tigers. They're not getting out of the first round.
But because they're playing the Giants, I can't just come
on and thump my chest and say all right, they're
paper tigers. We're gonna go on the road and absolutely
hammered them. I mean we we did just lose to
(27:45):
them three weeks ago. All right, it was a back
and fourth game and we lost on you know, a
ridiculous sixty one yard field. Go at the gun. But
you know, there's no team of thirteen wins out there
that has the best player on the field of Jefferson.
I can't just sit here and save paper tigers because
they're playing the Giants. But if they're playing anybody else,
I'd say, you know, thanks for coming out, Keys, we'll
(28:06):
see you next season. All right, that's a good game preview.
What we come to you for is some advice on
how to handle the weekend. This is a three day extravaganza.
It starts on Saturday late afternoon and it's not over
until the wee hours Monday night. How am I supposed
to do this? If I'm an NFL fan? How do
I pace myself? And I know that you've got things
(28:28):
going on in the household in the next couple of
weeks and you've got to focus on other things. How's
the American sports fans supposed to handle this weekend and
still be an attentive parent, father, husband, and friend. Fantastic question.
And and for those of your listeners out there that
have listened along the way, they'll remember what the journey
we went on right around Thanksgiving for that entire week
long stretch. This isn't quite the same, but this gets
(28:51):
you a sort of forty eight seventy two hour window
right in the middle of January. This is between this
weekend and next weekend to the divisional round of the playoffs.
To the NFL. This is it, guys, Your your conference championship.
Sunday is a completely different beast to get one day
to find out who's going to the Super Bol, But
this weekend and next weekend. I hate to just say, hey,
(29:12):
you have to embrace it, but you really just have
to embrace the fact that you get six really good
NFL games. The NFL, that's the schedule makers. They know
what they're doing right now. They know that have to
sort of ease you into the wild card weekend. They
give you a Seattle San Francisco for thirty Saturday afternoon.
That's the old Texans Bangles window right there, that was
(29:34):
always on j Yates exactly. I'll watch this wild Card
game because I'm home on the couch. But if my
wife says, hey, do you want to grab an early dinner,
maybe I'll go out and and I'll be able to
see the game like a last year, and last year
it was Raiders Bangles. But for years it was like NBC,
or it was like Mike Mayock on the call, Andrew
(29:57):
Breeze was on the call. This year, I think it's
like Atlas Fox. I think it's Moose and and Joe Davis,
which would be great, but like and then you get
that that second crew or you get that crew that
hasn't done NFL, but they've got another game on the network.
You're like, okay, let's se who else NBC has got
on the bench. Oh yeah, before that would be Tom Hammonds.
They would call it a NBC and before that they
(30:19):
would send out Mike Patrick and Paul McGuire to call me.
And you know, all right, I'll watch it because I'm home.
It's the middle of January and it's freezing outside. But
I'm not dying to get into a game like that.
It'll be similar in this sense, you know. I mean,
the forty nine is should probably steam roll them, and
and you know, it is what it is. But it's
NFL playoff football and there's only a finite amount of
(30:41):
games left for that, so you have to just sit
and enjoy it. You have all day to run your errands.
The game doesn't start until four thirty, So what you
have to do run your errands. Don't tell me you're
not running errands on a Saturday in January. Everybody's running
errands on a Saturday boarding in January. They're they're lying
to themselves if they say that they're not. Take us
(31:02):
then from there to a Jaguars Chargers Sunday Night, Lawrence
and Herbert, most of them. America watching for the first
time has never seen any of these guys exactly. Imagine that.
Here we are a wild card weekend and you're gonna
turn the game on, and unless you're tired NFL, then
you're gonna look at the Jags and say, Wow, the
Jags made it to the playoffs. Yeah, the Jags are
a playoff team. Like that, That's how it goes. This
is your another typical sort of Saturday night wild card game.
(31:25):
But again, it's Saturday night in January. You don't have
to go you don't have to go out for some
crazy party or do anything. We're real obligation. Stay home,
ordering get a couple of large fives, and to lead
a bottle of soda. Settling this. This is what you
wait for Saturday night prime time playoff games. Because that's it.
I got news for you. You don't have many more
after this, so just and enjoy the favorite. And then
(31:47):
we have the three the three games in a row.
You've got an emotional opening to that Bill's Dolphins game,
then you got Vikings Giants, and then you got the
nightcap with Bengals Ravens and can you could take me
through it. But I'm also curious what's your thoughts on
the Lamar situation as we record this. He hasn't practiced
in five weeks. They don't know if he's gonna play.
Is this a power played by Lamar tod or is
(32:10):
this just you know, he's gonna try to play, just
physically can't do it. It's weird when you really think
about it. When when you think about a quarterback in
this league that has been a league m v P,
that is the face of the franchise. He's taking his
team to the playoffs multiple times, you know, everything that
that you'd want. It's very weird to hear that that
(32:30):
quarterback has been injured, let's say, you know, for the
past five or six weeks right now, and there's no
update on anything. Usually it's oh, no, that this guy
has a broken collar bone. He's gonna be out another
eight weeks or you know, torn MCL whatever it might be.
He's done for the season. But this is thoughways just
been Yeah, he's got this sprain. We're not really sure
(32:52):
when he's coming back. We don't even know when he's
gonna be practicing. I don't understand what's happening here. From
an informational standpoint, it can't just be gamesmanship where all
of a sudden Sunday night, NBC opens up and Mike
Tarito is, you know, narrating something and Lamar Jackson shuited
up and he's throwing passes and there it is like
that that can't possibly be it that they've decided that
(33:13):
he wouldn't play until the wild card round against the Bengals.
That that can't be. It's fascinating that there's been no
leaks of any information from any side about how he's doing.
That doesn't make me sense to me, I know, and
I feel like I'm doing a bad job as a
reporter because I'm coming on Good Morning Football. I'm like,
not only is there not a report, I don't think
harbor those and what kind of it can't be Lamar
(33:36):
Jackson saying you know what, Hey, if you guys don't
want to pay me the money, this is what your
offense looks like. There are fifty two other guys in
that locker room right now, and if you're just gonna
look at them and say hey, sorry, guys, go out
there without me and see what you can do. How
are you supposed to come back Sunday or next year
and say, yeah, I know I abandoned you guys for
(33:56):
a month, but now I'm making Jordian fifty millions. So
you know, everybody line up and let's play. How do
you earn their trust and respect back? These are guys.
They count on you to be out there running backs
to receivers. Everybody counts on you to be out there
on offense because you make everybody better, which, of course
that means everybody eats, which means everybody can go in
(34:16):
and negotiate for more money and all sorts of new contracts.
When you're not out there and no one's catching touchdown
passes and no one's freaking long runs, and you look
like the offense is stuck in the mud and no
one has the actual statistics to back up what they
want to be paid accordingly for. It really is a
bad look for you that that can't be what he's doing.
(34:37):
This is tasty, and let's end it with Buccaneers Cowboys
your approach. Monday, I gotta pace myself. I'll be exhausted.
I'm gonna be flying back from l A. I'm gonna
do a whole show Good Morning Football, and then we've
got like the best playoff game of of the entire
weekend on Monday night. I'm still not used to it.
I think I'll tell it like it is. Last year
it was Rams Cardinals. I was like, all right, I'm
gonna stay up. Rams started blowing him out. I think
(34:59):
I went to bed in the third quarter and I
was no worse for the wear. This year, I can't
do that. I completely agree with you. And and look,
let's let's just look at the big shining obviously can
in front of us. On one hand, Okay, you got
Brady at home, prime time under the lights, you're watching.
On the other side of the ball, you have the
Cowboys on the road in prime time in the playoffs.
(35:22):
You know you're gonna gear up and tune in to
watch that whole game, whether they're winning or they're losing.
If it's a Cowboy blowout of the Cowboys are winning,
you're you're you're sort of hate watching it, unless you're
a Cowboy fan. And if you're watching that game and
the Bucks are up in the Bucks are winning and
the Cowboys laying egg like they did this past week
against the Red Sox. You're watching that game the Socks,
(35:42):
not the Commanders, the Red Sox. You called him the
Red Sox. Unle, you caught me right there. This is
what happens when I start going so crazy, Like you know,
if the Cowboys got lay another egg like they just
did last week. You're watching that game really happily, and
you're laughing, and you know that throws the pick six
(36:03):
year and McCarty blows all three time outs early. You're
he's challenging places that shouldn't be challenging for we're going
forward from his own thirty anything like that. You're watching
that game and you're laughing and you're enjoying it. So
there really are two sides here that are pulling you
into this incredibly intriguing game. You've gotta be sitting down
to watch this because that's it. After this game is over,
(36:26):
you don't either you don't have Brady next weekend or
you don't have the Cowboys next weekend. And those are
two big chess pieces taken off the board for next weekend.
Yeah alright, And closing, Todd, thank you. I just want
to tell you we have a new sponsor. And guess
what the sponsor is Draft Kings. Let's go love it,
love it. I'm in go for those moonshots on DraftKings.
(36:47):
That's that's that's the only that's the only way that
I hate to say, that's the only way you should
be gambling. But go ahead and find yourself one of
those twenty leg parlays that dollars of it is. There
are a lot more fun than watching one game hoping
that one team covers No, no, no, take the moon shot.
It sounds like we've got a show that you might
have to have a spinoff podcast where we talk moon shots. Uh.
(37:07):
I appreciate you, Todd, and I appreciate everybody listening to
the podcast this week on behalf of Todd on behalf
of Brandon being the general manager of the Buffalo Bills,
Jason English, Aaron Wong Kaufman, our guy, Jason Kleinman, who
does such a great job on the digital side pumping
out these clips from l A who gets them up there,
Jack RhoD Our music man. Everybody, thank you for listening,
(37:30):
and uh, we're kicking but over here on the podcast.
Tell your friends about it and let's keep on building
until next week. Enjoy wild Card Weekend. Everyone. The Season
(37:54):
with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL and
partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
wherever you get your podcasts.
Host
Peter Schrager
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