January 9, 2023 • 34 mins
Rachel Bonnetta and company are back for a brand new episode of Benched with Bonnetta! To start, Rachel is joined by Kyle Brandt and they discuss Damar Hamlin and the past week (1:23). Then they share who they think should fill all of the newly open head coach positions (13:23).
After the break, Rachel opens her DMs to hear some miracles in people's lives (21:18). Finally, Rachel tells you the best and worst thing she saw this week (29:00).
Note: timecodes approximate.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
And when I woke up this morning, I was feeling
pretty dangerousness tonight. They are what we thought they were
wet about. Hello, you plenty to win the gate. They
want you to cook the dinner. At least they ought
to let your shop for some of the grocers. And
on the way up, we're gonna buy a kneecap off playoffs.
You're kidding me. I'm just here so I won't get fine.
(00:27):
How could he not be romantic about football? Oh? I
feel like I was playing that in my head last night?
How could you footballman? When Aaron Rodgers was seemingly walking
out of lambo for the last time. Welcome to bench
with Banetta, baby, guys, what a freaking week. Um. We
(00:50):
canceled our podcast last Thursday out of respect for Tomorrow
Hamlin and his recovery. We have got some. We've had
good news all week, all weekend, from Friday to now. Um,
Tomorrow is discharged from the hospital. We find out as
we are recording this podcast. I get to tell Kyle
(01:10):
Brandt to his face. We celebrate. UM. So let's get
to the interview A. S. A. P. We recap the
week that has been crazy in the NFL and talk
about black Monday. So with that further Ado, KB, what up? Okay,
welcome to the show. Another beautiful Monday Tuesday, wherever and
whenever you're listening to this show. Kbe Wolf is all
(01:33):
I have to say. What a week that we've all
just experienced in the football community. UM, I was watching
you guys all last week. You did a phenomenal, phenomenal
job this entire network did. To be honest, I was
like sitting there on my couch. I'm never a part
of like newsy things. You know. I bring the laughs,
I bring the gags and the giggles. UM, I was
(01:55):
so impressed with our network. We are giving NFL network
their flowers to We're giving you your flowers and g MFB.
You guys did a great job covering the Bills into
Marrow Hammon last week. I just wanted to ask you,
you know, take us through the process of dealing with this.
You are so close to the Bills community. You called
out their draft pick this year. You go up there
(02:16):
plenty of times. I saw you wearing the Bills gear
all last week Monday to Friday or Tuesday to Friday. Rather,
so just walk me through you know what were the emotions.
How what was your experience? Like, WHOA, we're recording this
Rachel on Monday, so it's really the one week anniversary
of that terrible night in Cincinnati, and listen, I went
through what everybody went through in some sense that I remember. Um,
(02:40):
I went to bed on about midnight on Monday night
and it was like in the middle of the Vent
Peltz Show, and people rememberance as one of these infamous
nights and sports and I went a bit at midnight
and I have to wake up at five, but like
every forty five minutes, I woke up and I would
check my phone because I was you know, how many
times can you say this as a sports fan, like
I was scared. I wasn't nervous. I was legitimately scared
(03:02):
that I was gonna look at my phone and there's
gonna be some tweet from some NFL insider that says
terrible news. Unfortunately, Dadada has passed has passed away that
I can just say, we thought that we were gonna
lose them. And then I wake up in the morning
on Tuesday, I'm scared. I walk into the Good Morning
Football set and our plan is just like it was
the strangest showever we've done shows or something. There's never
been a weirder one than that, because there really was
(03:23):
no plan. It was just sit down and be prepared
to talk about anything and hope for the best, but
genuinely be prepared for the worst because we could be
in the eight D segments and we get news that
we there's been a terrible piece of news from Cincinnati,
and you guys just react to it on live TV.
So holy crap. First of all, thank god it did
not come, and it hasn't come, and from the sounds
(03:44):
of it, it it never will come. But you just sit
around and talk, and you talk through it pitt in
your stomach, and you try to make it fresh and
try to make it relatable because you have your own
job to do. But at the same time, I was
just so scared the whole time, and I had to
to your point. You know, I know a lot of
well not only who live in Buffalo, but her with
the bills, And you know, I'm not texting them being
(04:04):
like give me the inside scoop at all. They're just
texting me because they see me on TV and they're like,
we're really nervous and we're really scared. Um. It was
a tough time. But I'll end my answer with really
the end of this phase of the story. I got
texts and tweets from people after Nihim Hines returned the
opening kick, and They're like, I've been coming to games
in this stadium for thirty seven years. It's the loudest
(04:27):
I've ever heard it. And he hadn't even crossed the
twenty yard line yet going in, and people are like
crying and hugging and jumping up and down, and it
was the most joyous moment because, you know, Josh said
it after the game, depending on how you feel philosophically,
like some people thought that was like a divine intervention
and that that was like God's plan and that type
(04:48):
of beautiful thing. And so people were really emotional about it,
and I have say, it's even a week later, I
am too, It's so crazy. I mean, the first time
that I was on TV last week, I mean a
bunch of things got canceled during the week out of
respect or Damar's recovery. This podcast got canceled on Thursday.
None of us were able to really, I wasn't in
this building until the following Friday, and still a few
(05:08):
days removed, this building was still pretty quiet, even though
by then by Friday we had gotten the news that
he was awake. Um, maybe there was. I think at
that point he had faced timed into his uh into
the locker room, said love you boys, and all of
these incredible things have come out. I think everyone was
just so shook up the entire week that it was
like that almost happened. That was absolutely terrifying. I mean,
(05:32):
do you remember, I mean we've both been covering sports
for a really long time. Do you remember a point
in your career that anything besides like Kobe passing, that
there was a week like this that people came together
in the way that they did. I think it was
I think it was Damar actually that tweeted out sometime
this week. And then it doesn't matter your religion, doesn't
(05:53):
matter where you are from. This is like it brought
people together all across the board. Do you remember anything
like this? Kobe is a good one because I remember
it happened on a Sunday in the Pro Bowls for
the Super Bowl. It was crazy. Yeah, and um, Joe
Testa tour was on the call of the Pro Bowl
and there was this account that people went, they went
(06:14):
into the locker rooms where all these NFL stars were
and told them that like Kobe Bryant had died, and
then they went and played the game, which is such
a bizarre game anyway, And then watching the broadcast, he
announces it really really strange, you know, And and even
Kobe such a different conversation than the Damar Hamlin conversation,
which is this young kid whose whole life and career
in front of him and we're just getting to know him.
(06:36):
So I can't think of something like this in sports.
There's been other things like this where everybody where it's
candle light vigil esque and you're hoping for something, but
this was truly unique. And the fact that happened on
Monday night football. And listen for me. When you see
a player down, he say outcrap of players injured and hopefully,
you know, he hope for the best, and he gives
us the thumbs up, and I guess he's done for
(06:56):
the night. You know, that's too bad. How's this gonna
affect the bill? Second Arry? And then I will never
forget the rest of my life. When Joe Buck said
they're administering CPR and then for all of us, that's
when I started to get really scared. And then, um,
that feeling did not subside for like three days when
they said, you know, he's opening his eyes and communicating.
So it turns out to be this beautiful story. But man,
(07:18):
for a few days there was ter It was digs
for me. Digs just like you just see, like the
t his face was just like wet from crying. And
then the moment that Burrow went over and hugged Josh,
I was like, you know, the whole I was with
a few people. Everyone was just like, oh no, this
is it's not good. Have you had the chance to talk.
(07:39):
I know you and Josh are tight. He comes on
Kyle Brand's basement once a week. Have you been able
to reach him or talk to him at all? Yeah?
We we We texted a few times. And um, all
I can say is that Josh Allen is is the
let me how do I put this? He just he
is more so than all of his peers. He loves
(08:00):
football and loves the brotherhood and loves the teammates like
that is what he was put on this planet for.
He is the son of a farmer from Fireball California,
who's known since he was a little kid that he
wanted to play pro football And this is so real
to him and it is so special, and he is
he just wants to be with his teammates all the time.
It's what he is into. He likes movies, and he
(08:21):
likes his girlfriend, and he is into bleep in football seven.
So for this, it just cut him so deep. And
even texting with him, like kind of was just phrasing
his words a little differently, and like you could just
tell he was just shook. And you know, then he
goes out Rachel and he and corks three touchdown passes
(08:41):
against the Patriots and it's like, oh yeah, that's stressed down,
Like he still has like that ability. And it's it's
been a crazy week with him too. And I'll talk
to him tomorrow for an extended time on camera. Been
in the last week or so, we've just texted. Well,
everyone should definitely be tuning into that. I will be
watching that absolutely Kyle Brand's basement. Um, I I have
to ask you, speaking of bleeping, you tweeted something. Now
(09:04):
the only thing left to do is win the whole
bleeping thing. Listen, we talk about miracles, we talk about
religion and believing in a higher path. There's been a
lot of that this week, but Gosh, I am behind
you on that, like they gotta go do it now, right,
there's nothing I can't imagine another ending to this story. Right. Well,
(09:26):
one of the things that Josh has said is that
he knows, and this is before tomorrow Hamlin's incident, he
already knows what his speech is going to be if
they win the super Bowl, that he's had it planned
for years. He knows what he's gonna say. He has
a special bottle of whiskey in his bar that he's
saving from the super Bowl. He's got the speech, he's
got the drink, he's got it all. And so you know,
(09:49):
one of the questions I'll ask him tomorrow is is
that speech gonna be a little different now because of
what you guys have been through? And I'm expecting his
answer to be yes. So, Um, they're really really tight,
and it's you start to if you believe in the destiny,
believe in the higher calling. Of course, now listen, let's
let's put the cards on the table. There is no
motivational thing that is going to guard Kelsey in the
(10:10):
title game if they have to play him. Kelsey is
a is a mother, and there's gonna be a gauntlet
in these an f C playoffs, So I know they
have everything going for him, but man, they're gonna need
all of it. I am just so pumped up for
playoffs and the super Bowl and it's getting real. Rihanna's
tweeting about it. Well, let's go, baby, Okay, not to
(10:32):
take a left turn again. Everyone wants to interview with
Josh Allen coming up. I'm so excited about it. Aaron Rodgers, Okay,
got beat by the Lions last night. There was this
whole kind of Jamal Williams asked for his jersey, he said,
I think I'm gonna keep this one. He had to
walk out in the tunnel with Cob. He seemed very
reflective his postgame interview. I'm sure you guys have all
(10:54):
heard the sound by now. He's not making any decisions,
but he could definitely leave. What are your thoughts on
all this, KBE. I feel like for the past few
years he's been winning m v p s and we're
all like, yeah, this has been probably the last that
you're going to see. If Aaron Rodgers, but this one,
I don't know. It kind of feels a little bit
different or am I wrong? Are you saying the same same?
No Isaac on this, I actually I think he's gonna
(11:16):
come back. I do, um and I just I haven't
heard anything compelling that tells me he's going to leave,
other than just we're just kind of watching and there's
this feeling of I think it's over, but that's nothing.
I Listen. I think the walk off with Cobb was
very deliberate, pushing the camera out of the way. Let me.
(11:37):
I think that was about Cobb because that's like his
best friend. It's been his friend for years, and I
think he knows that Randall Cobb will not be back.
So I think that was the saying goodbye to his friend.
Who does Rogers come back with the Packers or does
he go elsewhere and kind of do something like like
Tom Brady ask, No, I think it comes back to
the Packers. Listen. I hate to put it like this,
(11:57):
but let's just call it what it is out there.
He like he's gonna make fifty million bucks if he
comes back next year, Like even if he hated the
football and was done with it like that is even
for him is a massively significant figure to come back
one more time and chuck that old piskin at Christen
Watson a few times, let's see what happens. So yeah,
I think he's gonna He did make some comment about
(12:18):
like main generational wealth, and I'm so thankful hopefully I've
earned a little bit of that. But like, yeah, money's money, baby,
show me that Monday. If you were two time MVP
and you were Aaron Rodgers, how would you retire? Like
would you do the big bend thing of like circling
the stadium and waving at everyone? Would you have a
spicy offseason? Will he? Won't he? Would you have a
(12:40):
decision lebron Eske situation, how would you do it? KB? No,
I can't do that. Listen. Rogers will go and find
some rainforest, there's some geyser or some glacier, and he'll
be there on an alpaca or whatever the hell he is,
and it will be in the gonna see a meteor, Yeah,
it'll be. It'll be rioting in full then ninja monk
(13:05):
ob one canobid and he'll say farewell, and he'll have
this message or this quote and it will be beautiful,
but I think it will be probably Okay, all right,
fair enough, okay, before you let we let you go.
There are a few We're recording this on Black Monday,
the day after the regular season, where all of these
coaches get let go. Tom pallisera tweeted this out earlier today,
(13:27):
and by the time you're listening to this on Tuesday,
I don't know, there might be more. There are now
five NFL head coaching vacancies, the Panthers, the Colts, the Broncos,
the Texans and the Cardinals KB since the Colds hired
Jeff Saturday this year, anything's possible, Okay, anybody could fill
these coaching vacancies. So I went through those five teams
(13:48):
and I picked the people across a variety of different occupations.
X players, maybe some slebs, maybe some asters. I'm gonna
pitch you on them. If you've got some ideas, would
love to hear them. But I want to hear of
your thoughts on maybe some potential fill ins for these
coaching vacancies. We're gonna start with the Texans. I think
that this is easy. J. J. Watt, freshly retired. He's
(14:10):
gonna take the offseason gonna be like, listen, I missed
that football field. He had nine seasons with the Texans.
Maybe his body doesn't want to play football anymore. But
I mean, this guy clearly had a hard time retiring.
He was emotional. The brothers came out and celebrated him yesterday.
Um J J. Watt tell me, do you hate this? No,
(14:32):
he said, he's always going to be a Texan's and listen,
he never got to play with his brothers. So I
think in a little bit down the line, then you
have Derek Watt come and be the offensive coordinator and t. J.
Watt the defensive coordinator, and you team him up like
that beautiful. That defense is unstoppable. Then Okay, Panthers, I'm zigging.
(14:54):
I'm zigging. I'm zagging. Will Smith, huge Panthers fan. Apparently
he's maybe are we going to see him acting again?
I don't know post slap. Okay, we covered it on
g MFB as soon as it happened. That was one
of the greater TV experiences that I've had. Good at
motivational speaking. Okay, you know he's going to lift those
guys up. What say you, Will Smith? You lost me
(15:17):
at this Why Why is Will Smith, who's from Philadelphia?
Why is he a Panthers fan? Is an Eagle googled
slab football fans and Will Smith had a Panther's jersey
on it. Okay, so don't fact check me on this,
just roll with it. It's called nerdy retort that I had.
But I will still disagree. If there's gonna be any
any Panthers, especially one who will will not afraid to
(15:41):
show emotion, I will stay wrong Smith, but I would
go Steve Smith Senior. We're going to do the Jeff
Saturday about Steve smiththing you the greatest Panther of all times.
I actually really love that in this weird little website
that I found, which is clearly not accurate. According to
Kryle Brant, uh Diddy is a huge Panthers and so
maybe I don't think anyone I would actually want to
(16:02):
see that we get into that, we don't have to
get into the situation. We don't have to get into
a huge l a rams fan Beneff like, what what
maybe if you maybe the malware that you've been picking
up from going to Wicked. This podcast isn't for facts, Okay,
this is supposed to be the one for fun all right?
(16:24):
Next up Colts? I mean, come on, I think it's
pretty easy. Peyton Manning, who's saying no to that? Four
teen seasons with the Colts. Everyone would buy into this KB.
There would be nobody. I mean, listen, we love him
on Monday Night Football with Eli. We love all of
the We love that he started the production company, that
you your your podcast belongs to Okay, you can, you
(16:45):
can do that stuff. On the side, he could still
do dabble in the off season, that the players would
respect him, the fans would be pumped up to have
him back. Who's saying no, He already has a statue.
I thought maybe we would go with like acid Indianapolis
Colts fan Jennifer Lopez. Maybe maybe I don't know. Let
me check this website. Oh, it turns out Jay Loo
(17:06):
is not a fan of the Colts. What know? For Colts?
I would say, um, you know who actually is a
Colts fan? Who? I think it'd be a great coach
And David Letterman. I'll go with with David Letterman. My
great perspective. He's funny. None of the kids know who
he is, so they won't think he's a commedian, it
wouldn't be weird. Huh. I actually love that, But I
do like his name show on Netflix. I don't want
(17:27):
to get beat. Okay, Broncos, you're gonna hate this. I
went on the same website d I saw Tiger Woods
there with his ex girlfriend Lindsey Vonn. Lindsey Vonn is
actually the Broncos fan, but Tiger Woods was at a
game once. And then the more that I thought about it,
how cool would that be? Tiger Woods incredible athlete, incredible dedication.
(17:51):
I don't even know if he is a big NFL fan.
I saw him with a Stanford sweater on. We know
he likes college ball. Um, I think he could dedicate
enough time pick it up and uh, that would be incredible. Um.
Any time that I've talked to an athlete or seen
someone else talk to him and the question comes up
about you know what other athletes out there do you
(18:11):
really respect? Who do you admire? I'm telling you nine
out of ten times they say Tiger Woods, it could
be a football player, basketball player, baseball player, NASCAR driver.
These guys love Tiger for his domination, for how much
money he makes, and just because he's an icon. So
I think that would immediately work for something that athletes
are obsessed with Tiger and they would he would have
their bronco's country. Let's ride okay, and then finally the
(18:34):
Cardinal's position. Cliff was let go Kyler. Kyler should be
forced to do both. He did it in the preseason.
He made some calls, he called some plays. Uh, he
did a pretty decent job there. He is right there
calling some plays. Cliff I think did this as like punishment,
but then he was actually like somewhat teasing at it.
Kyler should do this. He he needs to. I know
he's injured, He's gonna hopefully be better and ready to
(18:56):
go next season. Um. I think he could learn a lot.
I can grow up a lot if he was trying
to to to double dip here, what do you think now?
Do you mean like he would be? He's doing both? Baby,
This is never seen before. This is a fake world
we're living in where Will Smith is a Panthers fan.
Kyler Murray can coach the Cardinals as well as play quarterback.
(19:19):
There's the thing that used to do, like back in
the nineteen twenties, where there was the player coach, where
the where the players were actually one of the coaches
and it's totally archaic, but it's a beautiful thing. And
like the coach would check himself into the game and
then call the plays and stuff like that. I don't
know if if I look at Kyler Murray is the
one to bring that back. It's weird of the punishment.
I think, yeah, that the coaching game is hard. It's
(19:42):
like one of the worst quality of life professions on
the planet. So um, yeah, somebody has to coach the Cardinals.
And if if none of the coach doesn't get along
with Kyler, maybe has to do it himself. Okay, Kbe,
We're going to send you off with the best news ever.
Are you ready for this? I don't even think people
have seen this. I I'm going to tell you this live.
Tomar Hamlin has been discharged from the hospital is returning
(20:07):
home to Buffalo. Per the physicians at the University of
Cincinnati Health. Baby, he is doing well and this is
the next stage of his recovery. Yeah, it's incredible. I mean,
this is a week is he gonna start against the
Dolphins this weekend? Is amazing. Back, Oh my god, what
(20:28):
great news, Kabe. We love you. Thanks for spending time
with us. And you know what DeMar Hamlin said this week,
go out and tell people that you love them. Kyle Brandt,
we love you on this show. Thank you for showing up.
WHOA see you next week. And I love you guys
as well. Thank you for listening. Thanks to Kabe, Thanks
to our crew for putting these shows together every single week.
(20:49):
Love love, love all right, coming up after the break,
we talk a lot about miracles this week because we
saw a few of them. And I opened my d
m s and ask you guys, what miracles that you've seen.
This is gonna be cheesy. Is gonna be cheesy, a
little zey, but it's very cute. So stick around full
(21:20):
January Sunday and week eighteen, as New England and Buffalo
are about to meet. And here's hands on the run
back breaking a tackle and taken it past midfield and
time to say that, he goes this is a a story book.
They don't kick off return for tomorrow, Hamlet, and this
place is absolutely going wild. You just said this is
(21:43):
a story book. This is almost bag. I just can't
believe it just happened to Dound the same thing. After all,
that's happened in these last six days. I don't believe
what we just saw here. It's so in of all
I almays forgot we were doing a podcast, like I
just got caught up in watching that again because it
(22:04):
was it was so amazing. So just to get a
sense of like how my Sunday works, I get off
the morning show literally at ten am. So by the
time I get home, it's like ten thirty. I'm like
missing the front half of the game. This happened obviously immediately.
And I was walking down the hallway and I walked
by the Red Zone studios, which you never hear. You
(22:25):
never hear loud things coming out of there, um and
all I air was yelling, and I was like, Scott
Anson has lost his mind today? What is going on?
And then by the time I get back into the
locker room to get changed, get ready to go home,
my phone had blown up and I saw what had happened,
and Cynthia Freedom and I just sat there and rewatched
it and rewatched it, and we were like, oh my god,
(22:49):
it is I mean, I think I speak for all
of this is one of the most incredible things I
think I've seen in sports, just it's you know. Josh
Allen went on to say, like it's you know, hard
to not believe in in something going on. I don't
want to get into all of that. I'm not religious,
you know. Um, whatever you believe in is whatever you
believe in. But sometimes when things like this happen, you
(23:11):
gotta believe is something's going on, Song's going on, people
are looking out, something funky's happening. That was incredible. That
was the greatest thing that I have seen in sports.
So it made me want to open up my d
m s and ask you, guys, I don't know, just
in this mood, I'm just in this emotional mood right now.
I wanted to ask you if there was like a
miracle that you had witnessed in or out of sports,
it didn't matter, you know. Did you see somebody get
(23:32):
out of their wheelchair and go, hallelluyah can walk again?
I would love to see that. That sounds magical. Um.
And I got a lot of d m s. And
to be honest, if you want a little like Pep
in your step today, go and just read this thread.
I got d m s and then I got just
people commenting on my Twitter and there's a lot of
really incredible stories, So I'm gonna read a couple of
them to you guys right now. Obviously, one that came
(23:55):
to mind immediately was um D Gordon hitting a home
run after Jose Fernandez died in a boating accident. So
let me just read this to you. I just like
ripped it off of Wikipedia. A left handed hitter, Dee Gordon.
He took the first pitch of his at bat as
a right handed batter, imitating Fernandez's batting stance with Fernande's
(24:17):
batting helmet in honor of his late friend. Uh the
picture out of respect. Through the ball, he just like,
you know, here you go. Uh. Then Gordon switched to
the other side and he got his right stands out.
He some nashed it. He said after the game that
he had never hit a ball that far, even in
batting practice. Okay, this is a guy that hit I
(24:40):
think eighteen home runs in his entire career. I think
he's a blink. Eighteen home runs and he hit one
on that day. This is not a guy. This is
not like fourth on the batting order. He's not He's
not playing clean up. He hit an incredible home run.
That's magic. You can't ignore that. That is magic. Um,
I love this. This brought me into tears this morning. Uh.
(25:01):
The year my dad passed away was the first season
I watched football in my entire life without him. We
are diehard Dolphins fans and notoriously hated the Patriots slash
Don Brady. Watching that Dolphins Pat's game that year, before
the final play, I said, Dad, if you're watching this
right now, please give me a sign. Then the Miami
(25:24):
miracle happened, the crazy lateral situation. I literally fell to
the ground crying and it's still shakes me up. Literally
after that kickoff, was like, if you're not watching sports,
what are you doing with your life? Because there there's
things that happened. There are these connections and these and
these beautiful, beautiful moments, um, and I'd like to share
a moment of my own. My dad passed away when
(25:48):
I was seventeen. I talked about it a lot, if
you haven't heard me talk about it, talk a lot
about mental health and and grieving and and all of those,
you know, uncomfortable things. But my dad was for eight years,
and Um, basically there was a point when we got
to the end of it that he was. We were like, okay,
this is it. He stopped eating and we all I
(26:09):
got pulled out up high school and um, it was
taken a little while for him to pass and we
make jokes about it. We were like, come on, was
going on? I gotta get I gotta go to prom. Okay, Um,
I can be darking about it because my experience. Um,
but he was taking a little while and it was
like five days down the road after we were told like,
this is it. And so I invited my friend over
(26:32):
for a sleepover, which sounds psychotic now that I think
about it as an adult. My father is about to
pass away in the next room, and I'm like, Whitney,
you want to come over and watch the o C.
She was like cashure. So we're up having like a
little slumber party and she falls asleep and I fall asleep.
And then at like two I think it was like
two fift am, Um, a picture frame comes flying off
(26:56):
of my wall. I swear this happened. Picture flame comes
flying off of my wall and smashes and it was
like a whatever picture. It was like me and a friend.
It wasn't anything significant, but it fell off right beside
my bedroom door. And then I woke up and I
was like, what the hell? And I noticed that there
was a small little sliver of light underneath my bedroom door,
which told me that my parents bedroom light was still on.
(27:20):
And you know, my dad was pulled out of the
hospital and brought home so that he could pass away
with with all of our families, so he was at
home with us, and uh, the bedroom light was on
and I was just like, whoa, why are they still awake?
And I go into my parents room and my brother
Jonas is standing over my dad and he was crying
and he looked at me and he said, he literally
just took his last breath a second before you got
(27:41):
in here. And I was able to have this final
moment with my dad instead of you know, waking up.
I'm sure somebody would have woken me up, but I
was able to have this final moment with him. And
I crawled into bed with him like a weirdo. That
seems No, it wasn't weird. It was beautiful and I
got to, you know, just hold onto him one last time,
(28:03):
and it's like you can't. You know, whatever you believe
and it doesn't matter. Um things, things happen. And that's
what happened with this game and Damar Hamlin's recovery and
the fact that he is a weeek. Literally today we
record this on Monday. He is out of the hospital
and on his way home, and man, I think all
of us are hoping that he can play football again.
(28:24):
We hope we see him next season, We hope. But
nothing but health for him above all else, football aside.
Who cares, um, But if you're going through stuff at
home and just you know, miracles happen every day and
beautiful things happen, and um, we're with the Buffalo community
and we're with Damar and U. Sports are a beautiful thing, baby,
(28:44):
Sports are a beautiful, beautiful thing. Okay, coming up after
the break, best and worst thing that I saw, I'm
gonna go crack. He's okay, the best and the worst
(29:05):
thing that I saw all week? What what a doozy,
What a doozy man that overtime game with Seattle Rams.
I wanted the Rams to win so bad. I have
loved cheering for the Seahawks this season and Gino and
that magic that's been incredible. They're in the playoffs and
coratulation Seattle. But we were this close to having the
(29:25):
Detroit Lions in the playoffs. Oh, that would have just
been beautiful. That would have been beautiful. Um. But instead
we don't happen to Troy Lions in the playoffs. But
we got one last parting SoundBite from my favorite player
this season, without question, Jamal Williams of the Detroit Lions.
Take it away a stout playing us. Man, we made.
(29:49):
We did a Detroit Lions. We did Detroit Lions. Stop
playing with us. I don't even watch TV, but I
heard everybody already pick their pick the Packers over us.
Stop playing with us. That's all I gotta say. Man,
don't let these tears for you. It's all dog around
his moat. Oh god, he is just so incredible and
at what a moment he came from the Packers. Now
(30:10):
he's on the Detroit Lions. You heard him. If you
said that like a year ago, we would have been like,
you know, I'm so, what what of it? You're on
the Detroit Lions. But now we're on the Detroit Lions.
You know, we would say it a little bit differently.
Jared got the top ten quarterback Watch where in Detroit,
Baby That's where I can't wait to see what the
(30:33):
Lions look like next season. Cannot wait. Oh, they are
going to be a contender hard Hard Knocks round two.
I'll just say, right now, get him back into the
groove because something worked. Um. Now, one of the worst
thing that I saw. People have some thoughts on Aaron Rodgers.
I'll just say that people have some thoughts on Aaron Rodgers. Um.
(30:56):
Post game, you know, Jamal was just like, hey, can
I have that jersey and goes anything, I'm gonna keep
this one, and then all of us we all started
paying attention. We all started paying very close attention to
what he did. And the next thirty to sixty to
two minutes, you know, um, he walked down the tunnel
out of Lambeau. He took his moments and looking around
(31:16):
O game, walks down the tunnel with Randall Cobb, and
he has this little run in with a camera guy.
Take a look. I mean, I kind of get it.
(31:37):
It feels like paparazzi esque. You know, he's having this
beautiful moment with Randall Cobb. Who Kyle. You know, We're
all like, oh, this is gonna be it for Aaron Rodgers.
But He's like, what's it for Randall Cobb. He's saying
about to his friend spicy okay, um, but I will
give Aaron Rodgers, you know, I'll give him some props.
He did have a beautiful moment, uh in the postgame
(31:59):
press conference where he kind of like gave his love
to everybody. It's pretty beautiful to look at this. I'm
gonna miss your questions TOI and Mike Clements taking ten
seconds to do it lead up and Pete angling for something,
and Bob writing stories about my personal life. You've been
(32:23):
good lately though, and Jason bringing it back home with
something that it's kind of heavy hitting. Stephanie Sutton coming
out of left field the good question, I missed the guys,
I missed the fans. Yeah, thank you. I don't know what.
(32:43):
I'm just emotional today, but everything's made me crying. So
he was asked like, you know, if this is it,
what are you gonna miss? And that's what he went
and said. He called out all the journalists and the
reporters that have been with him through a lot. You know,
he's not necessarily made their lives easy. You know. They
reported on everything from football to Ayahuasca in the last
(33:04):
twelve months, absolutely wild COVID everything. So I thought that
that was pretty cool that he took the time to
not only call them out by their first name, but
sometimes their last name, which is pretty amazing. You spent
a lot of time with those people, but a lot
of football players wouldn't take that time to get to
know them. Um, guys, that is our show, nothing but
love today. I'm just like feeling all the fields. Okay,
so I'm sending a hug to you good news about Tamar.
(33:27):
We are going to be back on Thursday, uh, sorry,
Friday or shows coming on Friday. How have I been
doing this for a year and I still don't know
when shows come out. Colleen Walver is gonna be joining
us and I'm very very excited to chat with her.
We're gonna be previewing uh Super wild Card weekend. We're
gonna be talking about the next month of our lives
as we gear up to cover the Super Bowl. I
cannot cannot wait, So make sure you're tuning back in
(33:49):
on Friday for that. And by the way, BT Dubs
NFL Plus is here, which means no matter where you are,
this is how you football. That you could dream wive,
blockle on primetime games on your phone or tablet, forty
five minute game replays with NFL Plus Premium, and more.
This is the NFL for every fan, This football freedom.
This is your game on the go. Go to Plus
dot NFL dot com and sign up now. Don't forget
(34:11):
to subscribe to the show. Follow us on Instagram and
Twitter at bench to Underscore Pod to see the videos
and clips we talk about each week with your own eyes.
Also follow me on social media because I'm often asking
you guys questions for the show and opening my d ms.
We've got some amazing stories this week about miracles, so
go check those out there all over my Twitter. Love
you guys. We will see you next week, right before
(34:31):
Super wild Card weekend playoffs
And when I woke up this morning, I was feeling
pretty dangerousness tonight. They are what we thought they were
wet about. Hello, you plenty to win the gate. They
want you to cook the dinner. At least they ought
to let your shop for some of the grocers. And
on the way up, we're gonna buy a kneecap off playoffs.
You're kidding me. I'm just here so I won't get fine.
(00:27):
How could he not be romantic about football? Oh? I
feel like I was playing that in my head last night?
How could you footballman? When Aaron Rodgers was seemingly walking
out of lambo for the last time. Welcome to bench
with Banetta, baby, guys, what a freaking week. Um. We
(00:50):
canceled our podcast last Thursday out of respect for Tomorrow
Hamlin and his recovery. We have got some. We've had
good news all week, all weekend, from Friday to now. Um,
Tomorrow is discharged from the hospital. We find out as
we are recording this podcast. I get to tell Kyle
(01:10):
Brandt to his face. We celebrate. UM. So let's get
to the interview A. S. A. P. We recap the
week that has been crazy in the NFL and talk
about black Monday. So with that further Ado, KB, what up? Okay,
welcome to the show. Another beautiful Monday Tuesday, wherever and
whenever you're listening to this show. Kbe Wolf is all
(01:33):
I have to say. What a week that we've all
just experienced in the football community. UM, I was watching
you guys all last week. You did a phenomenal, phenomenal
job this entire network did. To be honest, I was
like sitting there on my couch. I'm never a part
of like newsy things. You know. I bring the laughs,
I bring the gags and the giggles. UM, I was
(01:55):
so impressed with our network. We are giving NFL network
their flowers to We're giving you your flowers and g MFB.
You guys did a great job covering the Bills into
Marrow Hammon last week. I just wanted to ask you,
you know, take us through the process of dealing with this.
You are so close to the Bills community. You called
out their draft pick this year. You go up there
(02:16):
plenty of times. I saw you wearing the Bills gear
all last week Monday to Friday or Tuesday to Friday. Rather,
so just walk me through you know what were the emotions.
How what was your experience? Like, WHOA, we're recording this
Rachel on Monday, so it's really the one week anniversary
of that terrible night in Cincinnati, and listen, I went
through what everybody went through in some sense that I remember. Um,
(02:40):
I went to bed on about midnight on Monday night
and it was like in the middle of the Vent
Peltz Show, and people rememberance as one of these infamous
nights and sports and I went a bit at midnight
and I have to wake up at five, but like
every forty five minutes, I woke up and I would
check my phone because I was you know, how many
times can you say this as a sports fan, like
I was scared. I wasn't nervous. I was legitimately scared
(03:02):
that I was gonna look at my phone and there's
gonna be some tweet from some NFL insider that says
terrible news. Unfortunately, Dadada has passed has passed away that
I can just say, we thought that we were gonna
lose them. And then I wake up in the morning
on Tuesday, I'm scared. I walk into the Good Morning
Football set and our plan is just like it was
the strangest showever we've done shows or something. There's never
been a weirder one than that, because there really was
(03:23):
no plan. It was just sit down and be prepared
to talk about anything and hope for the best, but
genuinely be prepared for the worst because we could be
in the eight D segments and we get news that
we there's been a terrible piece of news from Cincinnati,
and you guys just react to it on live TV.
So holy crap. First of all, thank god it did
not come, and it hasn't come, and from the sounds
(03:44):
of it, it it never will come. But you just sit
around and talk, and you talk through it pitt in
your stomach, and you try to make it fresh and
try to make it relatable because you have your own
job to do. But at the same time, I was
just so scared the whole time, and I had to
to your point. You know, I know a lot of
well not only who live in Buffalo, but her with
the bills, And you know, I'm not texting them being
(04:04):
like give me the inside scoop at all. They're just
texting me because they see me on TV and they're like,
we're really nervous and we're really scared. Um. It was
a tough time. But I'll end my answer with really
the end of this phase of the story. I got
texts and tweets from people after Nihim Hines returned the
opening kick, and They're like, I've been coming to games
in this stadium for thirty seven years. It's the loudest
(04:27):
I've ever heard it. And he hadn't even crossed the
twenty yard line yet going in, and people are like
crying and hugging and jumping up and down, and it
was the most joyous moment because, you know, Josh said
it after the game, depending on how you feel philosophically,
like some people thought that was like a divine intervention
and that that was like God's plan and that type
(04:48):
of beautiful thing. And so people were really emotional about it,
and I have say, it's even a week later, I
am too, It's so crazy. I mean, the first time
that I was on TV last week, I mean a
bunch of things got canceled during the week out of
respect or Damar's recovery. This podcast got canceled on Thursday.
None of us were able to really, I wasn't in
this building until the following Friday, and still a few
(05:08):
days removed, this building was still pretty quiet, even though
by then by Friday we had gotten the news that
he was awake. Um, maybe there was. I think at
that point he had faced timed into his uh into
the locker room, said love you boys, and all of
these incredible things have come out. I think everyone was
just so shook up the entire week that it was
like that almost happened. That was absolutely terrifying. I mean,
(05:32):
do you remember, I mean we've both been covering sports
for a really long time. Do you remember a point
in your career that anything besides like Kobe passing, that
there was a week like this that people came together
in the way that they did. I think it was
I think it was Damar actually that tweeted out sometime
this week. And then it doesn't matter your religion, doesn't
(05:53):
matter where you are from. This is like it brought
people together all across the board. Do you remember anything
like this? Kobe is a good one because I remember
it happened on a Sunday in the Pro Bowls for
the Super Bowl. It was crazy. Yeah, and um, Joe
Testa tour was on the call of the Pro Bowl
and there was this account that people went, they went
(06:14):
into the locker rooms where all these NFL stars were
and told them that like Kobe Bryant had died, and
then they went and played the game, which is such
a bizarre game anyway, And then watching the broadcast, he
announces it really really strange, you know, And and even
Kobe such a different conversation than the Damar Hamlin conversation,
which is this young kid whose whole life and career
in front of him and we're just getting to know him.
(06:36):
So I can't think of something like this in sports.
There's been other things like this where everybody where it's
candle light vigil esque and you're hoping for something, but
this was truly unique. And the fact that happened on
Monday night football. And listen for me. When you see
a player down, he say outcrap of players injured and hopefully,
you know, he hope for the best, and he gives
us the thumbs up, and I guess he's done for
(06:56):
the night. You know, that's too bad. How's this gonna
affect the bill? Second Arry? And then I will never
forget the rest of my life. When Joe Buck said
they're administering CPR and then for all of us, that's
when I started to get really scared. And then, um,
that feeling did not subside for like three days when
they said, you know, he's opening his eyes and communicating.
So it turns out to be this beautiful story. But man,
(07:18):
for a few days there was ter It was digs
for me. Digs just like you just see, like the
t his face was just like wet from crying. And
then the moment that Burrow went over and hugged Josh,
I was like, you know, the whole I was with
a few people. Everyone was just like, oh no, this
is it's not good. Have you had the chance to talk.
(07:39):
I know you and Josh are tight. He comes on
Kyle Brand's basement once a week. Have you been able
to reach him or talk to him at all? Yeah?
We we We texted a few times. And um, all
I can say is that Josh Allen is is the
let me how do I put this? He just he
is more so than all of his peers. He loves
(08:00):
football and loves the brotherhood and loves the teammates like
that is what he was put on this planet for.
He is the son of a farmer from Fireball California,
who's known since he was a little kid that he
wanted to play pro football And this is so real
to him and it is so special, and he is
he just wants to be with his teammates all the time.
It's what he is into. He likes movies, and he
(08:21):
likes his girlfriend, and he is into bleep in football seven.
So for this, it just cut him so deep. And
even texting with him, like kind of was just phrasing
his words a little differently, and like you could just
tell he was just shook. And you know, then he
goes out Rachel and he and corks three touchdown passes
(08:41):
against the Patriots and it's like, oh yeah, that's stressed down,
Like he still has like that ability. And it's it's
been a crazy week with him too. And I'll talk
to him tomorrow for an extended time on camera. Been
in the last week or so, we've just texted. Well,
everyone should definitely be tuning into that. I will be
watching that absolutely Kyle Brand's basement. Um, I I have
to ask you, speaking of bleeping, you tweeted something. Now
(09:04):
the only thing left to do is win the whole
bleeping thing. Listen, we talk about miracles, we talk about
religion and believing in a higher path. There's been a
lot of that this week, but Gosh, I am behind
you on that, like they gotta go do it now, right,
there's nothing I can't imagine another ending to this story. Right. Well,
(09:26):
one of the things that Josh has said is that
he knows, and this is before tomorrow Hamlin's incident, he
already knows what his speech is going to be if
they win the super Bowl, that he's had it planned
for years. He knows what he's gonna say. He has
a special bottle of whiskey in his bar that he's
saving from the super Bowl. He's got the speech, he's
got the drink, he's got it all. And so you know,
(09:49):
one of the questions I'll ask him tomorrow is is
that speech gonna be a little different now because of
what you guys have been through? And I'm expecting his
answer to be yes. So, Um, they're really really tight,
and it's you start to if you believe in the destiny,
believe in the higher calling. Of course, now listen, let's
let's put the cards on the table. There is no
motivational thing that is going to guard Kelsey in the
(10:10):
title game if they have to play him. Kelsey is
a is a mother, and there's gonna be a gauntlet
in these an f C playoffs, So I know they
have everything going for him, but man, they're gonna need
all of it. I am just so pumped up for
playoffs and the super Bowl and it's getting real. Rihanna's
tweeting about it. Well, let's go, baby, Okay, not to
(10:32):
take a left turn again. Everyone wants to interview with
Josh Allen coming up. I'm so excited about it. Aaron Rodgers, Okay,
got beat by the Lions last night. There was this
whole kind of Jamal Williams asked for his jersey, he said,
I think I'm gonna keep this one. He had to
walk out in the tunnel with Cob. He seemed very
reflective his postgame interview. I'm sure you guys have all
(10:54):
heard the sound by now. He's not making any decisions,
but he could definitely leave. What are your thoughts on
all this, KBE. I feel like for the past few
years he's been winning m v p s and we're
all like, yeah, this has been probably the last that
you're going to see. If Aaron Rodgers, but this one,
I don't know. It kind of feels a little bit
different or am I wrong? Are you saying the same same?
No Isaac on this, I actually I think he's gonna
(11:16):
come back. I do, um and I just I haven't
heard anything compelling that tells me he's going to leave,
other than just we're just kind of watching and there's
this feeling of I think it's over, but that's nothing.
I Listen. I think the walk off with Cobb was
very deliberate, pushing the camera out of the way. Let me.
(11:37):
I think that was about Cobb because that's like his
best friend. It's been his friend for years, and I
think he knows that Randall Cobb will not be back.
So I think that was the saying goodbye to his friend.
Who does Rogers come back with the Packers or does
he go elsewhere and kind of do something like like
Tom Brady ask, No, I think it comes back to
the Packers. Listen. I hate to put it like this,
(11:57):
but let's just call it what it is out there.
He like he's gonna make fifty million bucks if he
comes back next year, Like even if he hated the
football and was done with it like that is even
for him is a massively significant figure to come back
one more time and chuck that old piskin at Christen
Watson a few times, let's see what happens. So yeah,
I think he's gonna He did make some comment about
(12:18):
like main generational wealth, and I'm so thankful hopefully I've
earned a little bit of that. But like, yeah, money's money, baby,
show me that Monday. If you were two time MVP
and you were Aaron Rodgers, how would you retire? Like
would you do the big bend thing of like circling
the stadium and waving at everyone? Would you have a
spicy offseason? Will he? Won't he? Would you have a
(12:40):
decision lebron Eske situation, how would you do it? KB? No,
I can't do that. Listen. Rogers will go and find
some rainforest, there's some geyser or some glacier, and he'll
be there on an alpaca or whatever the hell he is,
and it will be in the gonna see a meteor, Yeah,
it'll be. It'll be rioting in full then ninja monk
(13:05):
ob one canobid and he'll say farewell, and he'll have
this message or this quote and it will be beautiful,
but I think it will be probably Okay, all right,
fair enough, okay, before you let we let you go.
There are a few We're recording this on Black Monday,
the day after the regular season, where all of these
coaches get let go. Tom pallisera tweeted this out earlier today,
(13:27):
and by the time you're listening to this on Tuesday,
I don't know, there might be more. There are now
five NFL head coaching vacancies, the Panthers, the Colts, the Broncos,
the Texans and the Cardinals KB since the Colds hired
Jeff Saturday this year, anything's possible, Okay, anybody could fill
these coaching vacancies. So I went through those five teams
(13:48):
and I picked the people across a variety of different occupations.
X players, maybe some slebs, maybe some asters. I'm gonna
pitch you on them. If you've got some ideas, would
love to hear them. But I want to hear of
your thoughts on maybe some potential fill ins for these
coaching vacancies. We're gonna start with the Texans. I think
that this is easy. J. J. Watt, freshly retired. He's
(14:10):
gonna take the offseason gonna be like, listen, I missed
that football field. He had nine seasons with the Texans.
Maybe his body doesn't want to play football anymore. But
I mean, this guy clearly had a hard time retiring.
He was emotional. The brothers came out and celebrated him yesterday.
Um J J. Watt tell me, do you hate this? No,
(14:32):
he said, he's always going to be a Texan's and listen,
he never got to play with his brothers. So I
think in a little bit down the line, then you
have Derek Watt come and be the offensive coordinator and t. J.
Watt the defensive coordinator, and you team him up like
that beautiful. That defense is unstoppable. Then Okay, Panthers, I'm zigging.
(14:54):
I'm zigging. I'm zagging. Will Smith, huge Panthers fan. Apparently
he's maybe are we going to see him acting again?
I don't know post slap. Okay, we covered it on
g MFB as soon as it happened. That was one
of the greater TV experiences that I've had. Good at
motivational speaking. Okay, you know he's going to lift those
guys up. What say you, Will Smith? You lost me
(15:17):
at this Why Why is Will Smith, who's from Philadelphia?
Why is he a Panthers fan? Is an Eagle googled
slab football fans and Will Smith had a Panther's jersey
on it. Okay, so don't fact check me on this,
just roll with it. It's called nerdy retort that I had.
But I will still disagree. If there's gonna be any
any Panthers, especially one who will will not afraid to
(15:41):
show emotion, I will stay wrong Smith, but I would
go Steve Smith Senior. We're going to do the Jeff
Saturday about Steve smiththing you the greatest Panther of all times.
I actually really love that in this weird little website
that I found, which is clearly not accurate. According to
Kryle Brant, uh Diddy is a huge Panthers and so
maybe I don't think anyone I would actually want to
(16:02):
see that we get into that, we don't have to
get into the situation. We don't have to get into
a huge l a rams fan Beneff like, what what
maybe if you maybe the malware that you've been picking
up from going to Wicked. This podcast isn't for facts, Okay,
this is supposed to be the one for fun all right?
(16:24):
Next up Colts? I mean, come on, I think it's
pretty easy. Peyton Manning, who's saying no to that? Four
teen seasons with the Colts. Everyone would buy into this KB.
There would be nobody. I mean, listen, we love him
on Monday Night Football with Eli. We love all of
the We love that he started the production company, that
you your your podcast belongs to Okay, you can, you
(16:45):
can do that stuff. On the side, he could still
do dabble in the off season, that the players would
respect him, the fans would be pumped up to have
him back. Who's saying no, He already has a statue.
I thought maybe we would go with like acid Indianapolis
Colts fan Jennifer Lopez. Maybe maybe I don't know. Let
me check this website. Oh, it turns out Jay Loo
(17:06):
is not a fan of the Colts. What know? For Colts?
I would say, um, you know who actually is a
Colts fan? Who? I think it'd be a great coach
And David Letterman. I'll go with with David Letterman. My
great perspective. He's funny. None of the kids know who
he is, so they won't think he's a commedian, it
wouldn't be weird. Huh. I actually love that, But I
do like his name show on Netflix. I don't want
(17:27):
to get beat. Okay, Broncos, you're gonna hate this. I
went on the same website d I saw Tiger Woods
there with his ex girlfriend Lindsey Vonn. Lindsey Vonn is
actually the Broncos fan, but Tiger Woods was at a
game once. And then the more that I thought about it,
how cool would that be? Tiger Woods incredible athlete, incredible dedication.
(17:51):
I don't even know if he is a big NFL fan.
I saw him with a Stanford sweater on. We know
he likes college ball. Um, I think he could dedicate
enough time pick it up and uh, that would be incredible. Um.
Any time that I've talked to an athlete or seen
someone else talk to him and the question comes up
about you know what other athletes out there do you
(18:11):
really respect? Who do you admire? I'm telling you nine
out of ten times they say Tiger Woods, it could
be a football player, basketball player, baseball player, NASCAR driver.
These guys love Tiger for his domination, for how much
money he makes, and just because he's an icon. So
I think that would immediately work for something that athletes
are obsessed with Tiger and they would he would have
their bronco's country. Let's ride okay, and then finally the
(18:34):
Cardinal's position. Cliff was let go Kyler. Kyler should be
forced to do both. He did it in the preseason.
He made some calls, he called some plays. Uh, he
did a pretty decent job there. He is right there
calling some plays. Cliff I think did this as like punishment,
but then he was actually like somewhat teasing at it.
Kyler should do this. He he needs to. I know
he's injured, He's gonna hopefully be better and ready to
(18:56):
go next season. Um. I think he could learn a lot.
I can grow up a lot if he was trying
to to to double dip here, what do you think now?
Do you mean like he would be? He's doing both? Baby,
This is never seen before. This is a fake world
we're living in where Will Smith is a Panthers fan.
Kyler Murray can coach the Cardinals as well as play quarterback.
(19:19):
There's the thing that used to do, like back in
the nineteen twenties, where there was the player coach, where
the where the players were actually one of the coaches
and it's totally archaic, but it's a beautiful thing. And
like the coach would check himself into the game and
then call the plays and stuff like that. I don't
know if if I look at Kyler Murray is the
one to bring that back. It's weird of the punishment.
I think, yeah, that the coaching game is hard. It's
(19:42):
like one of the worst quality of life professions on
the planet. So um, yeah, somebody has to coach the Cardinals.
And if if none of the coach doesn't get along
with Kyler, maybe has to do it himself. Okay, Kbe,
We're going to send you off with the best news ever.
Are you ready for this? I don't even think people
have seen this. I I'm going to tell you this live.
Tomar Hamlin has been discharged from the hospital is returning
(20:07):
home to Buffalo. Per the physicians at the University of
Cincinnati Health. Baby, he is doing well and this is
the next stage of his recovery. Yeah, it's incredible. I mean,
this is a week is he gonna start against the
Dolphins this weekend? Is amazing. Back, Oh my god, what
(20:28):
great news, Kabe. We love you. Thanks for spending time
with us. And you know what DeMar Hamlin said this week,
go out and tell people that you love them. Kyle Brandt,
we love you on this show. Thank you for showing up.
WHOA see you next week. And I love you guys
as well. Thank you for listening. Thanks to Kabe, Thanks
to our crew for putting these shows together every single week.
(20:49):
Love love, love all right, coming up after the break,
we talk a lot about miracles this week because we
saw a few of them. And I opened my d
m s and ask you guys, what miracles that you've seen.
This is gonna be cheesy. Is gonna be cheesy, a
little zey, but it's very cute. So stick around full
(21:20):
January Sunday and week eighteen, as New England and Buffalo
are about to meet. And here's hands on the run
back breaking a tackle and taken it past midfield and
time to say that, he goes this is a a story book.
They don't kick off return for tomorrow, Hamlet, and this
place is absolutely going wild. You just said this is
(21:43):
a story book. This is almost bag. I just can't
believe it just happened to Dound the same thing. After all,
that's happened in these last six days. I don't believe
what we just saw here. It's so in of all
I almays forgot we were doing a podcast, like I
just got caught up in watching that again because it
(22:04):
was it was so amazing. So just to get a
sense of like how my Sunday works, I get off
the morning show literally at ten am. So by the
time I get home, it's like ten thirty. I'm like
missing the front half of the game. This happened obviously immediately.
And I was walking down the hallway and I walked
by the Red Zone studios, which you never hear. You
(22:25):
never hear loud things coming out of there, um and
all I air was yelling, and I was like, Scott
Anson has lost his mind today? What is going on?
And then by the time I get back into the
locker room to get changed, get ready to go home,
my phone had blown up and I saw what had happened,
and Cynthia Freedom and I just sat there and rewatched
it and rewatched it, and we were like, oh my god,
(22:49):
it is I mean, I think I speak for all
of this is one of the most incredible things I
think I've seen in sports, just it's you know. Josh
Allen went on to say, like it's you know, hard
to not believe in in something going on. I don't
want to get into all of that. I'm not religious,
you know. Um, whatever you believe in is whatever you
believe in. But sometimes when things like this happen, you
(23:11):
gotta believe is something's going on, Song's going on, people
are looking out, something funky's happening. That was incredible. That
was the greatest thing that I have seen in sports.
So it made me want to open up my d
m s and ask you, guys, I don't know, just
in this mood, I'm just in this emotional mood right now.
I wanted to ask you if there was like a
miracle that you had witnessed in or out of sports,
it didn't matter, you know. Did you see somebody get
(23:32):
out of their wheelchair and go, hallelluyah can walk again?
I would love to see that. That sounds magical. Um.
And I got a lot of d m s. And
to be honest, if you want a little like Pep
in your step today, go and just read this thread.
I got d m s and then I got just
people commenting on my Twitter and there's a lot of
really incredible stories, So I'm gonna read a couple of
them to you guys right now. Obviously, one that came
(23:55):
to mind immediately was um D Gordon hitting a home
run after Jose Fernandez died in a boating accident. So
let me just read this to you. I just like
ripped it off of Wikipedia. A left handed hitter, Dee Gordon.
He took the first pitch of his at bat as
a right handed batter, imitating Fernandez's batting stance with Fernande's
(24:17):
batting helmet in honor of his late friend. Uh the
picture out of respect. Through the ball, he just like,
you know, here you go. Uh. Then Gordon switched to
the other side and he got his right stands out.
He some nashed it. He said after the game that
he had never hit a ball that far, even in
batting practice. Okay, this is a guy that hit I
(24:40):
think eighteen home runs in his entire career. I think
he's a blink. Eighteen home runs and he hit one
on that day. This is not a guy. This is
not like fourth on the batting order. He's not He's
not playing clean up. He hit an incredible home run.
That's magic. You can't ignore that. That is magic. Um,
I love this. This brought me into tears this morning. Uh.
(25:01):
The year my dad passed away was the first season
I watched football in my entire life without him. We
are diehard Dolphins fans and notoriously hated the Patriots slash
Don Brady. Watching that Dolphins Pat's game that year, before
the final play, I said, Dad, if you're watching this
right now, please give me a sign. Then the Miami
(25:24):
miracle happened, the crazy lateral situation. I literally fell to
the ground crying and it's still shakes me up. Literally
after that kickoff, was like, if you're not watching sports,
what are you doing with your life? Because there there's
things that happened. There are these connections and these and
these beautiful, beautiful moments, um, and I'd like to share
a moment of my own. My dad passed away when
(25:48):
I was seventeen. I talked about it a lot, if
you haven't heard me talk about it, talk a lot
about mental health and and grieving and and all of those,
you know, uncomfortable things. But my dad was for eight years,
and Um, basically there was a point when we got
to the end of it that he was. We were like, okay,
this is it. He stopped eating and we all I
(26:09):
got pulled out up high school and um, it was
taken a little while for him to pass and we
make jokes about it. We were like, come on, was
going on? I gotta get I gotta go to prom. Okay, Um,
I can be darking about it because my experience. Um,
but he was taking a little while and it was
like five days down the road after we were told like,
this is it. And so I invited my friend over
(26:32):
for a sleepover, which sounds psychotic now that I think
about it as an adult. My father is about to
pass away in the next room, and I'm like, Whitney,
you want to come over and watch the o C.
She was like cashure. So we're up having like a
little slumber party and she falls asleep and I fall asleep.
And then at like two I think it was like
two fift am, Um, a picture frame comes flying off
(26:56):
of my wall. I swear this happened. Picture flame comes
flying off of my wall and smashes and it was
like a whatever picture. It was like me and a friend.
It wasn't anything significant, but it fell off right beside
my bedroom door. And then I woke up and I
was like, what the hell? And I noticed that there
was a small little sliver of light underneath my bedroom door,
which told me that my parents bedroom light was still on.
(27:20):
And you know, my dad was pulled out of the
hospital and brought home so that he could pass away
with with all of our families, so he was at
home with us, and uh, the bedroom light was on
and I was just like, whoa, why are they still awake?
And I go into my parents room and my brother
Jonas is standing over my dad and he was crying
and he looked at me and he said, he literally
just took his last breath a second before you got
(27:41):
in here. And I was able to have this final
moment with my dad instead of you know, waking up.
I'm sure somebody would have woken me up, but I
was able to have this final moment with him. And
I crawled into bed with him like a weirdo. That
seems No, it wasn't weird. It was beautiful and I
got to, you know, just hold onto him one last time,
(28:03):
and it's like you can't. You know, whatever you believe
and it doesn't matter. Um things, things happen. And that's
what happened with this game and Damar Hamlin's recovery and
the fact that he is a weeek. Literally today we
record this on Monday. He is out of the hospital
and on his way home, and man, I think all
of us are hoping that he can play football again.
(28:24):
We hope we see him next season, We hope. But
nothing but health for him above all else, football aside.
Who cares, um, But if you're going through stuff at
home and just you know, miracles happen every day and
beautiful things happen, and um, we're with the Buffalo community
and we're with Damar and U. Sports are a beautiful thing, baby,
(28:44):
Sports are a beautiful, beautiful thing. Okay, coming up after
the break, best and worst thing that I saw, I'm
gonna go crack. He's okay, the best and the worst
(29:05):
thing that I saw all week? What what a doozy,
What a doozy man that overtime game with Seattle Rams.
I wanted the Rams to win so bad. I have
loved cheering for the Seahawks this season and Gino and
that magic that's been incredible. They're in the playoffs and
coratulation Seattle. But we were this close to having the
(29:25):
Detroit Lions in the playoffs. Oh, that would have just
been beautiful. That would have been beautiful. Um. But instead
we don't happen to Troy Lions in the playoffs. But
we got one last parting SoundBite from my favorite player
this season, without question, Jamal Williams of the Detroit Lions.
Take it away a stout playing us. Man, we made.
(29:49):
We did a Detroit Lions. We did Detroit Lions. Stop
playing with us. I don't even watch TV, but I
heard everybody already pick their pick the Packers over us.
Stop playing with us. That's all I gotta say. Man,
don't let these tears for you. It's all dog around
his moat. Oh god, he is just so incredible and
at what a moment he came from the Packers. Now
(30:10):
he's on the Detroit Lions. You heard him. If you
said that like a year ago, we would have been like,
you know, I'm so, what what of it? You're on
the Detroit Lions. But now we're on the Detroit Lions.
You know, we would say it a little bit differently.
Jared got the top ten quarterback Watch where in Detroit,
Baby That's where I can't wait to see what the
(30:33):
Lions look like next season. Cannot wait. Oh, they are
going to be a contender hard Hard Knocks round two.
I'll just say, right now, get him back into the
groove because something worked. Um. Now, one of the worst
thing that I saw. People have some thoughts on Aaron Rodgers.
I'll just say that people have some thoughts on Aaron Rodgers. Um.
(30:56):
Post game, you know, Jamal was just like, hey, can
I have that jersey and goes anything, I'm gonna keep
this one, and then all of us we all started
paying attention. We all started paying very close attention to
what he did. And the next thirty to sixty to
two minutes, you know, um, he walked down the tunnel
out of Lambeau. He took his moments and looking around
(31:16):
O game, walks down the tunnel with Randall Cobb, and
he has this little run in with a camera guy.
Take a look. I mean, I kind of get it.
(31:37):
It feels like paparazzi esque. You know, he's having this
beautiful moment with Randall Cobb. Who Kyle. You know, We're
all like, oh, this is gonna be it for Aaron Rodgers.
But He's like, what's it for Randall Cobb. He's saying
about to his friend spicy okay, um, but I will
give Aaron Rodgers, you know, I'll give him some props.
He did have a beautiful moment, uh in the postgame
(31:59):
press conference where he kind of like gave his love
to everybody. It's pretty beautiful to look at this. I'm
gonna miss your questions TOI and Mike Clements taking ten
seconds to do it lead up and Pete angling for something,
and Bob writing stories about my personal life. You've been
(32:23):
good lately though, and Jason bringing it back home with
something that it's kind of heavy hitting. Stephanie Sutton coming
out of left field the good question, I missed the guys,
I missed the fans. Yeah, thank you. I don't know what.
(32:43):
I'm just emotional today, but everything's made me crying. So
he was asked like, you know, if this is it,
what are you gonna miss? And that's what he went
and said. He called out all the journalists and the
reporters that have been with him through a lot. You know,
he's not necessarily made their lives easy. You know. They
reported on everything from football to Ayahuasca in the last
(33:04):
twelve months, absolutely wild COVID everything. So I thought that
that was pretty cool that he took the time to
not only call them out by their first name, but
sometimes their last name, which is pretty amazing. You spent
a lot of time with those people, but a lot
of football players wouldn't take that time to get to
know them. Um, guys, that is our show, nothing but
love today. I'm just like feeling all the fields. Okay,
so I'm sending a hug to you good news about Tamar.
(33:27):
We are going to be back on Thursday, uh, sorry,
Friday or shows coming on Friday. How have I been
doing this for a year and I still don't know
when shows come out. Colleen Walver is gonna be joining
us and I'm very very excited to chat with her.
We're gonna be previewing uh Super wild Card weekend. We're
gonna be talking about the next month of our lives
as we gear up to cover the Super Bowl. I
cannot cannot wait, So make sure you're tuning back in
(33:49):
on Friday for that. And by the way, BT Dubs
NFL Plus is here, which means no matter where you are,
this is how you football. That you could dream wive,
blockle on primetime games on your phone or tablet, forty
five minute game replays with NFL Plus Premium, and more.
This is the NFL for every fan, This football freedom.
This is your game on the go. Go to Plus
dot NFL dot com and sign up now. Don't forget
(34:11):
to subscribe to the show. Follow us on Instagram and
Twitter at bench to Underscore Pod to see the videos
and clips we talk about each week with your own eyes.
Also follow me on social media because I'm often asking
you guys questions for the show and opening my d ms.
We've got some amazing stories this week about miracles, so
go check those out there all over my Twitter. Love
you guys. We will see you next week, right before
(34:31):
Super wild Card weekend playoffs
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