The Season with Peter Schrager: Chris Long

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Schreeger as a production of the
NFL in partnership with I Heart Radio. What's Up, Everybody?
This is Peter Schreeger and this is the podcast The
Season with Peter Scheger. We're not entering the Divisional Round

(00:29):
of the playoffs, and this is my favorite weekend of
the football calendar. You know, football is now a fifty
two weeks season, and I always say wild Card Round
is a nice appetizer, kind of a play in game feel.
Divisional Round you of your best eight teams and you
have four games and it's clean and it's simple too.
On Saturday too, on Sunday, and then we're into Championship

(00:50):
week and away we go. And gosh, I look at
this NFC slate and can I just say, from like
a fan slash TV slash media perspective, when those logo
show up, there's a certain feel about out different teams.
Two years ago, the Buccaneers, here's Tom Brady and this

(01:10):
great deal and Brady and the Bucks and god, she's
he's getting Gronk out of retirement too, and it was
a cool story. But when you show me four logos
and it's the New York Giants, which goes back to
the thirties, and it's the Philadelphia Eagles and all their
history and the birth of the NFL and when the

(01:32):
league offices used to be in Philadelphia and what Philadelphia
means the NFL. Then you give me that Cowboys star
and what the Cowboys mean to the NFL. And then
you're throw in the forty Niners and their history. You're
telling me those are the last four teams. Look, the Steelers,
rich franchise, the Packers, of course, but I'd say in

(01:54):
the top ten are those four teams as far as
national fan bases. That logo mattering Aaron, my producer, I
love you, buddy. I I gotta think. I don't know
about your generation, but when you see those war logos Giants, Eagles, Cowboys,
forty Niners, does that that could just get you out
of your chair or are you more of Well? I

(02:15):
like the stories and the players and it would be
cool Like to me, I don't know, I get those
four national brands getting up, let's go. Yeah. I think
all four of them, like you're saying, have like historical significance.
That's really great. But also even with they all have
as a franchise, great storylines in the past five ten years,
so like you know, Shanahan and the forty Niners, like

(02:37):
watching that go up and down, and like now potentially
having this big resurgence. Like even if I am a
fan of certain players or you know, like a bunch
of people who are like fantasy focused are gonna follow
certain individuals, they're great storylines for each one of these franchises.
So you got those four, which I agree. Then on
the a f C, it's like quarterback Heaven and you're

(03:01):
talking about Mahomes, Alan Borrow, and then maybe the next
dude is Trevor Lawrence. Look, I work for the NFL,
I work for Fox Sports. I work for I heart.
Of course it's in my best interest for high ratings
and for great fit. But if you're telling me pick
eight teams, pick two matchups in the a f C

(03:25):
this weekend, Pick two matchups in the NFC this weekend,
seed the teams, if you asked me to do that,
I might draw it up this way. I might draw
it up as an old school NFC East battle between
the Giants and the Eagles, And then Sunday you get
that classic rivalry going back to you know, even before
the catch. There's a famous stallback game against the Niners.

(03:45):
But then you got the catch, and you got the
two NFC Championship game, the NFC Championship game, the ninety
five NFC Championship game. I heard up till last year
they had a great divisional round or wild card round
game where Dak you know, the clock went out. Gosh,
that's awesome. And then in the a f C, you're
getting four quarterbacks that are the future of the sport.
And you could have interchanged Herbert with Lawrence whatever. I
out of taking either one of them. But this is

(04:06):
how it's should be. These are the eight teams. No
complaints here. Uh, the networks have to be thrilled. The
NFL has got to be thrilled. Great great games, great
great logos, and some amazing stories. And if you're in
for the Brock party story, it's there for you. If
you're in for the Mahomes story, it's there for you.
If you're in for the Buffalo Bills incredible roller coaster

(04:26):
season story, it's there. And then how about this the
Rams their home watching the Bengals, everyone said, well, it's
hard to to to get back to this rule. Bengals
have won eight straight games and look good and there
and there on the on the precipice. So I'm here
for it. I think the divisional round is gonna be awesome.
But before we get to, you know, any more matchups
on that, I wanted to talk about some of the

(04:48):
coaching stuff and some of the news that I made,
and gosh, I was not I was not expecting. Um
Cliff Kingsburry and I are are friends. And after he
got let oh, we talked for a while, and then
we talk some more. And then I had multiple teams
reach out to me and say, oh, I know your
friends with Cliff, Like, what, what's his deal? We might

(05:09):
have a job available for him, and ever, here's his number,
So I would pass cliff number a long, you know whatever.
Um Cliff had already booked ticket to Thailand, where he
was going on vacation. Uh. He talked to I'm sure
some people whether he was interested or not. I'm sure
we'll get to that in a couple of weeks or
a month when he returns whenever it is, and maybe

(05:32):
he will be working next year. We'll see. But Cliff's
mindset was I'm going to Thailand. It's been a brutal
last twelve months. I need to clear my head. And
you know, a guy with no kids, guy who's been
coaching every day since he was finished as a player's
been fired already at Texas Tech, took the the O
C job at the USC, then got offered the head

(05:53):
coaching job at at the CAR. It's been a whirlwind,
and he's just taken some time for the first time
in maybe twenty years, he's taken some time for himself.
I put that story out there, which I did on
the podcast last week. Also, I said he's going away
and he's gonna collect. I did it on the podcast,
but I put it out there on Sunday on Fox
Aaron It was a number one trending story on Saturday.

(06:13):
On Sunday Yesterday, the New York Post, Ryan Glasspiegel does
a whole piece about it with pictures of his girlfriend Veronica,
and they're in Thailand and it's a profile on her
and it's Tuesday, and recording this, I had no idea
this story would take off the way it did. And

(06:35):
the initial response was how awesome? Like how awesome? In
a cutthroat world of of you know, go go Go
go doo doo doo do. I think they're the response,
And it came from all angles. It came from people
in the coaching community who are like good for him,
people who are fans saying gosh, I wish I could
do that to my employer and just say, you know,

(06:56):
screw it, I need to take some time for myself
or former employer. And then also like I think even
in like you know, circles of like mental health, like
I got I got texts and tweets from people in
the mental health field being like what a beacon, what
a what an amazing precedent to set that, Like, hey,
it's okay to do you, especially after you know, coaching

(07:18):
through a pandemic, coaching through uh, the Kyler Murray situation
this year, coaching through a GM who who took some
time away for his own health reasons. Like I don't know,
there's a lot of negative. Actually should said there wasn't
a lot of negative. There was some skeptics, there are
some people and like I got, oh, yeah, a little
upset when people were like, yeah, but you know, he's

(07:40):
a middle finger to the NFL and you don't do that.
I don't think that's what it was I think Clip
has been through a lot and he just needs some
time away, and he's taken that time away. And I
don't think anything of it. But Aaron, when I say
the tweet that was put out from Fox and the
tweet that I put out, I'm not like, Look, I'd
be a lot wealthier and in a lot better position
if I was an Instagram superstar or a YouTube influencer

(08:02):
or a Twitter machine. I'm not. I've report news and
I give my it's this one. I mean I think
I had Like I mean, I'm not kidding. The video
from Fox had like eighteen million views of me just
saying that the head coach is about a one way
ticket to Thailand. Were you surprised it took off that
much or you saw this when you heard me say
it to you, were you like, oh that's juicy. Yeah,

(08:22):
when you said it, I was, I was like, oh
that's a like I'm that's a good nugget. And then Saturday,
I remember like opening NFL Reddit and being like oh
my god, like here it is and like so busy. Um. Yeah,
I mean I can't blame him. Uh. I think you know,
you go to Thailand, you get some of the best
street food in the world. Like he's gonna have a

(08:43):
great time. He's gonna have some amazing food and like
beautiful scenery, good break. I like it. Yeah, he's a
great dude, and he's a world traveler and he's one
of these guys that that does this and we'll take
advantage of the moment. But he's also not a disrespectful guy,
So I don't want it to come off as him like,
you know, saying, you know what, screw the NFL. That's
not it. I wouldn't be shocked if he was coaching again. Um,

(09:05):
maybe not this year, maybe this year. I don't know,
like not knowing, Like there are a lot of people
who love Cliff in this league that they say, hey,
I actually think he's a really good play designer. Like
you can come work for us, and you don't have to,
you know, be here in February working on draft boards.
You can come in July or August or whatever. Uh
so to to tie the lupe so I so, of

(09:27):
course me if you if you have listened to the
podcast and you you know me and Aaron sometimes when
we have a good interview with a coach, I'm like,
maybe we shouldn't put that out. It might not put
them in the best light. Like I had a pit
in my stomach, like a real pit in my stomach,
and I'm like, do I reach out to Cliff, like
I didn't know this would go this way. He's here
on a vacation, like if this looks like I was
being selfish like putting this out as like my news
went in truth, it's about him and he needs to

(09:48):
get some time away and the last thing he wants
to do is turn on his phone and be trending
on Twitter. This dude is such a good guy. He
reaches out to me and says, hey, I saw saw
the stuff. Don't sweat it. You're a good man, You're
a good soul, Like just you know, I hope you're
doing great and keep on crushing the NFL season and
do the best job you can. And I'm like, oh
my god, I could wrap my arms around him. I'm like,

(10:09):
that's such grace because a lot of a lot of
guys in my position, and I like all those guys
like I don't know how they sleep with it. Sometimes
when it's like here's the gossip, this coach is getting fired,
and it's like God, there's a human element to it,
and it's like the wind of reporting that versus the
like the stress of like the guy's family finding out

(10:30):
on Twitter or your bottom line ticker and gosh, like
they're so good at what they do. I think schefter
and rap report those two right now are like the
day to day like you know, breaking the news and
stuff like that, and it's it takes a lot of
you know, it takes a lot of negotiating in your
head what to report one not to report this one
to me, I thought was like a fun, silly piece.
I wasn't firing Cliff Kingsbury. And yet when it went

(10:53):
as viral as it did, and like the amount of
people that reached out, I'm talking like celebrities like that
I don't know tweeting me. And then you know coaches
that I don't have relationships with with like unknown numbers
being like hey it's blank saw the Kingsbury thing. F Yeah,
like finally someone and it's like I was blown away
by it. Um, But Cliff, as we record this is
still in Thailand. If you're if you're over in Thailand

(11:15):
and you see him snap a pick just to give proof. Um,
we'll see how that all plays out. The other story
that I had that that kind of went pig was
that mcveigh's coming back, and I broke that one in
a so many ways on Friday, but then on Saturday
on The Fox Show, explained that there's going to be
staff changes made. I talked to Sean for a while yesterday.

(11:38):
This is Tuesday. He talked to him yesterday. He's invigorated,
like he's back. He's he I thought he's gonna take
three months. He took three days. He's just wired in
a way that's like I can't I can't give up
on these guys, and I just don't want to be
that guy who quit when the going got tough. And
I explained it on this podcast that he's been through
so much on a personal level and not talking real

(12:00):
stuff like I went up to get into all the details,
but real stuff death of family members and and his
in law's family in in the Ukraine, like real stuff.
He's he's dealing with that too, um. But his whole
thing was he wanted to find the joy and football again,
and he not that he had lost it, but like
he had this like feverish pursuit in Seen and eighteen

(12:22):
and then they won it last year, and like he
still has that desire to have that same joy, and
it was kind of like, so one of the things
that he's gonna be working on is building up a
different staff. And there's nothing against the guys who helped
him win the Super Bowl title, and some guys who
were in the building last year that weren't with Super
Bowl title that are gonna be elsewhere moving forward. But

(12:42):
I think he just is like, I need to surround
it with myself as different guys. I need to mix
it up. I'm gonna take some time, um, and I'm
gonna take a lot of time on me, which sounds
selfish or it sounds like, you know, everything opposite of
team sports. But um, in the last few years, Mcveisman
spread very thin. He's burned it on both ends, and
the result was just a burnt out cat who you know,

(13:04):
was trying to muster up every piece of energy. He
can't to coach a team that was obviously injured and undermanned,
and he's like, I didn't like the person I was,
I didn't like the coach I was, and I just
need to be cognizant of it. So I think we've
talked in mental health with Cliff Kingsbury. I think there's
a mental health aspect to how Sean McVeigh approaches um
the future of his coaching career. And I'd be very

(13:25):
surprised if if he wasn't open and honest and vulnerable
and how he's approaching that and how he can have
more of a work life balance and uh, be a
better coach, be a better man, be a better friend,
be a better fan member, all that stuff, and not
be so obsessive. And because the only way he's known
it is it goes back to like the gruten way.
It goes back to his grandfather's way of like you're
in at two thirty in the morning and you're grinding

(13:46):
tape and you're just going, going, going, going, And he
realized he wasn't happy doing that. So I don't think
i'm speaking out of turn. I asked him to come
on the podcast this week. He said, Uh, that time
will come. He's still taking some time to just kind
of lay low um, which I appreciate. The last piece
and then we'll get to to our guest, who's gonna
be awesome. By the way, the last piece is the

(14:06):
Sean Payton sweepstakes as I will update this as if
I'm like following Panda Watch or something. Um, it is
officially January seventeenth, which on your calendar might be the
day after Martin Luther King Day. It might be the
second or third Tuesday in January, or it's Sean Payton
can interview Day. He can officially do interviews today. I

(14:27):
don't know if it's reported or not. Denver I believe
is on the docket and they will be coming to him,
which I think is uh kind of a boss move.
You got these new owners up in Denver and they'll
be flying to l A to meet with him on
his grounds always like there's always like little stuff like this.
It's almost like a chessboard and I'm like, oh, that's interesting. Um.

(14:47):
He will meet with the Houston owners Cal McNair and
I believe Nick Serio, who is the current GM and
from what I gather from everything we're here in to Houston,
Nick's job is not in jeopardy. After they fired love
It it it was like Nicks might be gone, but it
sounds like Nick is gonna be okay and safe and
at the end of the week he will be flying

(15:09):
to New York to interview with David Tepper, the owner
of the Carolina Panthers, which is interesting because the Saints
are in the same division as the Carolina Panthers. The
Saints have to trade Sean Payton to whoever he goes
to and have to get draft picks back. The question
I have is, are the Saints offering are asking for

(15:32):
the same stuff from the Panthers that they would from
the Texans or from the Broncos. The Broncos and the
Texans they are non threats to the New Orleans Saints.
The Carolina Panthers they will face twice a year and
their fans have to watch Sean Payton and Panthers at
I'd be intrigued to see how those negotiations go down,
if they even get to that point. Um two other

(15:54):
teams were they were thinking it was gonna be Arizona.
They just hired their GM and there's been no official
word as to when he is interviewing with Arizona. I
believe they asked for permission, but I haven't heard anything
about that. In the Indianapolis, Colt seemed that there was
nothing there. So right now it looks like three teams,
and as we record this on Tuesday, Brandon Staley seems

(16:15):
to be the head coach of the Chargers that kind
of blew up big on Saturday night after that all
time collapse, and then Sunday everyone was waiting for the
other shooter drop. Then Monday everyone was waiting for the
other shooter drop. Staley is still the coach right now,
and as much as Sean Payton in l A is
a perfect fit because of the young quarterback, but also
he's already living there now and he loves it. Trust me,
he loves it. Um. He talks about his life in

(16:38):
Manhattan Beach to me often and he and his wife
sky Lean are like as as happy as could be
living in l A right now. Um, I don't think
that job is going to be open as of now.
As we record this on Tuesday, they did they just uh,
news just broke that they fired Lombardi. So I assume
that means stay. I think so. I think so good nugget. Ironically,

(17:02):
Lombardi was one of Peyton's old offensive coordinators in New Orlean. Um, yeah,
that was the expectation they'd make some staff changes. But
I think Brandon's okay and the players came out like
really positive on Brandon Staley. Afterwards, we chose, you know,
pleasant surprise after that kind of loss, and then the
other ones to Cowboys, how do you fire Mike McCarthy,
like everyone thought if they you know, absolutely blew it,

(17:24):
that that might be a conversation. Mike McCarthy has had
a perfect performance. We'll see how what happens in Sancisco.
I'm never gonna count anything out, but I don't know
if Jerry's looking to fire Mike McCarthy after two thirt
win seasons and two straight years to the playoffs, a
playoff win, Like, I don't know. It seems like the
Cowboys have a pretty good coach and to have to
trade for Sean Payton, pay out McCarthy, pay mcpayton what

(17:47):
he wants. That doesn't seem as likely now as it
might have might have seemed a couple of weeks ago
after they lost like the Washington Commanders in a Week
eight team game. So that's the lay of the land there. Um,
we're gonna hit Lamar Jackson later in this podcast. We're
gonna hit some Tom Brady, We're gonna hit Mike McDaniel.
Was he vaping or not. Um, we're gonna hit all that.
And our guest is one of my favorite people in

(18:09):
the NFL. It's a guy that I used to love
covering as an analyst. It's amazing my path to him.
His dad took me under his wing a little bit
at Fox Sports when I was uh brought over from
the sidelines of the studios, like really good dude, his father,
and then I got to meet his son, and I
think we're like kindred spirits from a different time. Uh.

(18:31):
That guy's Chris Long. We're gonna have Chris Long on
the podcast after this. As I mentioned earlier, it's one
of my favorite people I've met in the NFL. I
initially got to know his father really well, and then
now we've got a really cool friendship. I think he's
got as good insights as anybody, and it's often on Twitter,
it's also on his podcast. Uh, and just says a

(18:53):
fresh look at the game from an ex player's perspective,
which is crazy to say because he is an ex
player now a couple of years removed. Uh, let's welcome
in the man, Chris Long. Chris how you doing man?
How are you? I'm doing great? You know there's so
many fun storylines to the games, but I always find
myself fixated on, like some of the offseason stuff that

(19:14):
is already percolating. Uh. I said in my intro here
my monologue, I broke the Kingsbury story, and I didn't
in a million years, Chris, I didn't think that thing
was going to go as big as it did. And
I almost had this pit in my stomach that like
I was violating some trust with Clift, even though I
know he has no problem with it. We've texted since.
Why did that story take off so much that a
head coach was going to Thailand and going on a

(19:36):
one way ticket? Why do you think that blew up
the way it did? Because I'm still coming to grips
with why that was such a fascination everywhere. Okay, there's
a few factors. Number one, he's young, he's good looking.
That's what they say. Um, it seems like a fun
place to go. Uh. It's also a very un NFL
head coach like thing to do. Like, we have certain

(19:57):
things that governed the schedule in our year, and woman
was like, you get fired, you want to work the phones,
you you want to be close to home. The whole thing.
I can remember being in in East Africa, climbing kilimanjar
Oh as a free agent using a SAT phone, trying
to trying to get ahold of people. And I knew
that when I went on the trip, uh, there was
a good chance that maybe I get passed up for

(20:18):
somebody because I was asleep, or I couldn't get to
the sat phone or they can't reach me. And you know,
like sometimes you just make decisions where you're like, I
need to put myself in my peace of mind first.
And it sounds like Cliff, who is probably justifiably burnt
out and uh and and and needed some space just said,

(20:39):
which I think is such a different thing to do
for an NFL head coach or a guy who just
got can So I thought it was cool. I think
everybody fantasizes about just getting out of dodge, right and
like the dude actually did it, and uh, I don't.
I'm sure he's still in contact with teams over there
and that sort of thing, but it's it's not traditional

(21:01):
um And and Thailand also, I think is has become
a place of intrigues and the hangover. I think there's
a whole lot of factors that lead to that being
a pretty provocative story. Um, but it's not what you
imagine we were texting. I was imagining he was over
there just partying and you know, just letting loose and um,

(21:22):
you know, he just is getting some space and and
needed a trip. So and I love it too, and
I said. The amount of responses I got them were
positive from funny people on Twitter with memes and all
that stuff. But the coaching community, so many coaches reached
out to me, guys whose numbers I don't have where
it says like unknown number and it's like high Peter.
I'm blank blank, and I am the special Teams coordinator

(21:45):
with Team X. I just want to tell you, if
you speak to Cliff, tell him hell, yeah, that is awesome.
Like everyone like using me as a conduit to like
thank him for it. The other aspect was like a
strong like mental health community like outreach of like yes
and today's day and age, Yes, it's okay to just
And that's what every everybody's got, that anim where they

(22:05):
fantasize about just getting out of dodge. I know I
do all the time, but we have things to constrain
us and keep us home. And keep us busy. And
so I think a little part of everybody did a
fist pump when they heard that Cliff was on a
flight to Thailand. And then also meme culture. You know,
it's just fun to imagine Cliff Kingsbury. You can people

(22:25):
were putting up graphics Cliff Kingsbury to Thailand. You know,
Cliff Kingsberry on a flight to Thailand, one way ticket,
that sort of thing. So it was like fun and
it was like good for the guy. I mean, it's
so easy I feel like now to just be so
hard on coaches, like he didn't do a good job,
he got canned, there were there were factors there that

(22:47):
that were probably out of his control. It didn't seem
like a joy to coach Kyler Murray at times. UM.
But the bottom line is these are people, and I
think sometimes we can go so hard on these people,
um that that it can be kind of ugly. Uh.
And I feel like for Cliff uh to just get
away from it and not hear the noise and be

(23:09):
somewhere else is it's also not a bad a bad strategy.
I also like, you know, another head coach called me
and was like, you know, anyone who's like, because there
was a small contingent and some you know, sports media
people and some NFL writers being like, it's a it's
a real f you to the league, and it's not

(23:29):
fair to all the different guys who don't have that,
and like, why would you do that? Why would why would?
Why would you boast about it? And he didn't boast
about it. I reported, and I don't. I sort of
regret doing it even I don't really I'm having a
weird time with it, to be honest, because times sometimes
saying something that's true, uh, and and feeling like I
shouldn't have been the one to say it, you know,
and I feel like I've betrayed um. So he's got

(23:50):
such such an amazing heart and grace, like I'd sit
in the bottom proactively. He he texted me, it was like, dude,
this thing went wild. It's all good. I love you, brother, Like,
I can't wait to see what. So he's he's cool.
But I didn't. I didn't feel great, like how was
in the middle finger to the league. So there's thoughts
that like you should be rushing back to be the
quarterback coach of the New Orleans Saints or something. And

(24:12):
that was my point. It's like he just got fired.
There's no rule that you have to be the offensive
coordinator of the Patriots if you're fired as a head coach,
especially not a week afterwards. So you have to have
two head coaches fired to be the offensive coordinator of
the Patriots. That's right. You have multiple guys just kind
of working both levers um, he's awesome. He'll come back

(24:35):
from Thailand, he's not living there, and he'll be back
and maybe he'll work next time. He might, he might.
I think he's coming back, but maybe he'll work next year.
And like he's got enough friends in the league where
if he needed to, you know, it's scratch that itch. Fine,
but Cliff does not want to be in like draft
meetings right now. He does not want to be talking
about free agent meetings. So do you do your thing?
I just it blew me with Chris. It was the

(24:56):
number one trending story for like three days and any time,
but any time that happens, and you're a reporter and
this is a close friend and also a source, and
all that stuff that you might say, and I the
amount of things that I don't share online, like the
mass if I don't share on Fox because I want
to maintain the relationship to think that I might have
hurt him in some way or burned him in some way,

(25:17):
or change the way that people look at him. But
for the most part, it seems pretty positive. No, But
I definitely get the same way. And you deal a
lot more in information than I do. And so, like
just I put myself in y'all shoes. Sometimes it's a
really crazy business, like you know, and and sometimes information
can be hurtful to people, and sometimes seemingly benign information

(25:38):
can be hurtful to people. And that's what I always
worry about. And so I definitely took my cap to
you for having to navigate those waters, because it'd be
hard for me. I kind of like just sitting here
in the game. Our podcast is all you know, we
deal in some information, but mostly what we deal in
is like some guys with maybe a little more knowledge
in the average person on the couch watching games, you know,

(25:59):
and just be awesome with your buddies. But like when
I get in your situation where we have to make news,
I getting anxiety and it's and it's putting food on
the table for me. So you know, McVeigh was an
interesting one because we talked daily and I knew every
step of the way, and he's asking me, so let's
just not make this a thing. Let's be l LOO

(26:20):
And then, like, you know, to her credit, Diana Russini
breaks it on Friday, and I'm like, good for Diana,
you know, like good for her, Like that's cool. I
didn't feel comfortable coming out and being like McVeigh is
coming back because I also know he's firing coaches and
like the tone is all weird. So it's weird. It's
definitely weird, and I understand like and you know, more
than me obviously talking to him, being tight with him.
I'm a big fan of Sean mcveigh's um. I've met

(26:42):
him before. I thought everybody that I worked with in St.
Louis that then went to l A has been a
big fan of his. UM. I just thought he was
I in a TV job that maybe didn't work out.
That was my That was my like you know, outside
looking end view of it. But I do think the

(27:02):
l A job as we were, because one day we
ranked the attractiveness of jobs is not as far down
as you think. If and this is what I would do.
I would trade Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald and I would.
I would, I would start over, I would get you know,
like I would. I would take the year with a bridge,
see how close to Caleb Williams I could get, and

(27:24):
then that job in a year looks a lot better
than it did. Um, you know a week or two ago.
I mean, I'm not sure how much capital you could
you could recoup for two pieces like that, but it's
got to get you close to back on track. And
out of respect for Aaron Donald, who I think is
gonna play next year, you have very good reason to
believe that. Um. I know there was the Twitter bio thing,

(27:46):
but as a former teammate who was his mentor and
saying and mentor, but I definitely, I definitely was there
when he was a kid. Uh and and uh, I
just think the fire in him to to finish strong
and and to to to reach these heights man that

(28:06):
so few have reached. I mean he he is within
striking distance of a lot of legendary players. I think personally,
before it's all said and done, he's the best inside
guy of all time. And I think it's like me
and Joe Green and you can go through all the
guys but John Randall, but he was ahead of John Randall.
His pace was ahead of John Randall. And you know,

(28:28):
if you talk about me and Joe Green, like you know,
it's hard to adjust for arras, but me and Joe
Green was to seventy five. I was just talking to
my dad about this, Like Aaron Donald, who actually ironically
probably is two eight five, so can wet now at
this point in his career. And it's just a different game.
And so like when you when you evaluate him against it,
I say all that to say, he's got an opportunity
to just go to heights that people haven't been. And

(28:49):
you know, I don't think a rebuild because at least
in the the immediacy, it is a reset. I don't
know about a rebuild, but it's a reset. However you
want to just you know, uh, separate those two words. Um,
I don't. I don't think he deserves that at this
stage in his career. I would love to see him

(29:09):
on the move, like I would love to see him
go back to Pittsburgh. You know that's that there have
to be some like hey, I'm going to win, or
there's some nostalgic, you know reason, you know, like, um,
Pittsburgh will be fun. I don't know what Fletcher Cox's
deal is going to be in Philly. You can never
count Howie Roseman out of making a move for somebody. Um,
there's gonna be these It's such a cool offseason because

(29:32):
of stuff like this. And I'm not saying Jalen's gonna
get moved or Aaron's gonnat moved, but all this stuff
is on the table. Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson, Tom Brady,
like this might be the wildest offseason. Um, and the
league hasn't figured out with the calendar. The calendar it's
it's it's just so it's so phased in correctly, so
you're always watching. And this offseason even expanding the season

(29:55):
one season, pushing Super Back one one week, but keeping
the combine the same week instead of a three week lag.
It's super Bowl weekend off combo. It's like you don't
even it's it's it's NonStop. It think you get a breath.
Back to Aaron Donald, I honestly think this and Sean
and I even talked about the players and the roster
and all that stuff. The TV thing is interesting. I

(30:17):
think he's definitely entertained that last year. I don't think
I think he knew going into it that those seats
were filled, And it's not like he was fixated on that.
This year. I think it was more just the burnout
factory all that stuff that we were talking about with Cliff.
But um, Aaron Donald last year I think was a
lot closer to retiring than people realize. And I also think,

(30:38):
and you tell me you know him, but this is
from what I hear from people in l A, like
he does have an eye on some day being like
the Rock, or some day being in action movies like
your Father and being in Firestorm or some of that stuff.
Like it's not like some funny gag. I think Hollywood
has suited him. Well. The question is that was last
year after they won the title. He's shirtless on the state,

(31:00):
you know. Does he come out and be the Rock
this year or does it have to be give me
one more season somewhere else or whatever it is, or
with the Ram said, let they build that back up.
And I think the world, Aaron, I think he's he's
just such a I mean for somebody who's so powerful,
you know, like physically, his his persona, the whole thing.

(31:20):
His humility is incredible. Um, his work ethic is incredible.
I can remember him in St. Louis. I tell this
story a lot where you know I was usually I'd
stay after in camp and watch film, and you know,
the parking lot would be kind of empty, and you know,
obviously he didn't have a car yet, so I'd look
out in the parking lot. It would be no, no

(31:41):
cars there. I would go down to the line room
try to watch Film's one place we watch film be
eight at night. And I repeatedly, over the course of
the first week camp had to go in and decide
whether I was gonna unseat this rookie who's trying to
get better. He was in there in the dark room,
he's the only guy in the building, or was I
going to get my time. And I'm not an iPad guy,

(32:01):
But what I do is I just say I'll go
watch my iPad because I was so impressed by this
kid and his work ethic. He was immediately a pro,
and everybody in the d line room knew that he
was gonna be Hall of Famer the first week. So
you know, you give guys this much talent, this much power, um,
this much you know, gravitas. I mean, he's one of

(32:23):
the most iconic players in the last decade in our league,
and most of them kind of abuse it. I just
feel like it's such an easy thing to get drunk
on your success, and he's he's never been that. He's
still hungry, you know. I do think the retirement thing
almost happened, But I think this year was so tough,
and obviously the end of the season with an injury

(32:43):
for him, which is kind of unheard of. I think
he wants to finish strong, and I think he I
think sometimes like winning a Super Bowl can make you
feel like, yeah, and I want to walk away. I'm
so tired. You know, he's never been on a run
like this. When he was in St. Louis, we finished
in January and you go to l A. They're bad
in the beginning. You don't get to feel like what
this calendar feels like to go deep into the postseason.

(33:05):
You know, he he's got a little fan Emily. You know,
his wife Eric is awesome. They're just great people that
can It's like J. J. Watt had a baby boy
and then he's like, I'm out yeah. I mean, like,
and that happened for me late in my career where
it was like by design we waited to have kids
because my dad played thirteen years. I know, hear him
talk about what it was like to come home and
be kind of checked out for me, you know, and

(33:25):
so like part of that is the burnout of the
moment you're transitioning in your life into having a family
and all that stuff. Like I believe this year, being
hurt sitting there watching it had to make him want
to play more. And if I'm Aaron Donald, I probably
don't want to go through a rebuild at the same time,
you know, because when you get older, you're like I

(33:46):
can kind of pick I can call my shots a
little more. Look, you, you stuck it out with some
you know, struggling St. Louis teams, but you end your
career with the Patriots and with the Eagles and hoisting Lombardies.
But no one was like, who's this mercenary. No, Like,
you were a free agent, you signed with these teams
and you played big roles. The thought of Donald going
somewhere else is fascinating, um, but all look at all

(34:09):
those veterans on the Rams, like, you're right, like it's
gonna okay, So they bring everybody back and their ten
and seven in there a while they're still I don't
think they're gonna because I I don't believe Stafford's got
got got it in him physically anymore. And that's not personal.
I'm not like taking I love Matt Stafford, but the

(34:29):
guy's been through hell on Earth. Like before he got
to l A, he was he was like Buddy Lee
in Detroit for a decade, dude, like you know, And
it felt like the way their offense went, they were
back to being the Detroit Lions. The offensive line was decimated.
He had one trans you know, target, but outside of that,
they were just throwing to guys that like, and I

(34:51):
felt like he had to do too much. And I
just don't. I don't see them next year being in
the position to make the playoffs is so early. I
just think about the cap, the draft capital, all that stuff.
You look at Jalen Ramsey, he played so well in
the last game to the season, was really good against Yeah,
you know, like he's got that guy deserves to be

(35:12):
playing football, meaningful football somewhere. How about send him to
Jacksonville you know, let him finish, send him back, you know,
like I'm just working my my you know, my fantasy.
But yeah, I mean like it could be such a
fun offseason and for l A, the job could could
flip pretty quickly into being Hey, it ain't so bad.
You know. It looked like we were in capell look

(35:32):
like we we didn't have any capital. But maybe we
can move some pieces and take a break for a year. Yeah.
The Caleb Williams thing is interesting because he's the first
real transcendent quarterback in the last couple of years. The
other guy is the North Carolina kid whose name is May.
I believe I hear so much about him. There's always
already this thing, and I remember it when it was
with Griffin and Luck. It's like everyone thinks that it's

(35:53):
this guy, but the real guys to do it at
U N see and that that'll be fun for the
next year. Question quickly, before we wrap your take on
the Lamar situation, let's take it from Lamar standpoint, how
the season ended and where that where that situation lies
right now. Well before the season, I went on ESPN
and I got murdered because I said that to a
can't throw the deep ball. I don't. I still don't

(36:14):
feel that way. Um. And and I said that I
think you could see Lamar in Miami before it's all
said and done, which I think would be a lot
of fun. Okay, So like I'm saying that to say,
it's interesting when you look at certain teams that might
be suitors for Lamar, because I do think it's he's
played his last game in Baltimore. I mean, do you
really do you don't think that every bridge is and

(36:35):
burn as a player, like once you go do this
stuff publicly, it's I think it's I think the bridge
was quietly burning for a long time, you know, but
then this was like, you know, just I do think
he was hurt. Obviously it was hurt. I think we've
been dealing in a lot of hypotheticals. Hey, we don't
know how hurt he is. Some of the quotes after

(36:56):
the game were like Lamar is walking around fifty He's
limping around the facility. Um. I also think after their
their season finale game against the Angles that reading the
quotes from the players, it was pretty telling. Isaiah likely
had a quote that was like Lamar will always be family,
Like what does that mean, that's a rookie in the

(37:17):
fourth round, Like who just got to know him? Like
already got his back? Yeah, it already got his back.
He's got his back. But always he's always gonna be family.
Sounds like like we kind of know, you know, how
players know stuff. And in the public out here we
think one thing, But in that building it's so tight
knit it's not getting out that maybe the you know,

(37:39):
the kind of the status quo is that, Hey, next year,
we're gonna have to we're gonna have to figure it
out because this bridge is burned, as you put it. Um,
I do think, you know, one of the things that
people talked about was why wouldn't at the game this
that in third he went to the Pittsburgh game the
week after he got hurt. There's something you could glean
from that. It's also like if you wanted to get

(38:00):
him back next week and he's this fluid in his
knee and all that stuff, like it's legitimately not the
best thing for him to be standing up. Sean Bayton
said to me, like any lower leg injury, you wouldn't
have that guy on the field. I don't care who
it is. If it's a captain, or if it's Tom Brady,
you would never put him on the field just about
the off chance that the he gets run into. Yeah,
you get thrown into, You get thrown into. Just the
standing around can really blow your knee up. Being on

(38:22):
the plane, even if it's only for an hour or two,
can really blow your knee up. You know. I'm sure
if they wanted him back the next week that he's
probably receiving treatment in Baltimore, where they have the best
modalities to do that in the best set up. So
I've tried not to jump out of the gym on
some of these anecdotal kind of sidebar conversations. But I
think from a football standpoint Baltimore, the Greg Roman thing

(38:45):
is run its course right. The red zone calls were bad. JK.
Dominds needed the ball, and I think it's legitimate to
gripe about the weapons that Lamar has had from the beginning.
And I'd hate to waste the generational talent because let's
face it, he's played the game a different way than
your average quarterback. I'm not saying he's not a pocket passers.

(39:06):
A pocket passer guy can sling it, but having him
in your design run game over course of five years,
carrying the ball, extending plays, like there's an attrition factor
to that that other quarterbacks aren't aren't enduring. So like
his window maybe not as big as we think it is.
And I think that, you know, the the impetus to

(39:27):
get him somewhere as a fan where he has the
weapons that we can enjoy him fully flourished. Like I'd
love to see it in the next in this next deal.
I don't want to see Lamar finally get um a
good set up at thirty one, you know, because like
I don't know what he's gonna look like. And so
someone texted me and said, and it was in the

(39:47):
guy in the league. He was like, from the Baltimore standpoint,
you've seen Lamar for five years. Do you put all
your chips or all your eggs in that basket if
you're not sure he's gonna be even better in the
next five years. And I go, you can't look at
it that way. I'm with you. I think baltim Or
it should have paid him whatever he wanted. And I

(40:08):
know that sounds crazy, and like, especially with the guarantees
and all that stuff, but I think it's gone really sour.
I'm gonna flip it to the sports media critique of
it because on my show, the one before Your Father's
Fox NFL kickoff on Saturday, Michael Vick and Charles Woodson
came out and they were pretty adamant, like, yeah, he
might be hurt, but if he could even go, it
would have been cool to see him go. And and
you know, people were bouncing back at Charles Woodson on

(40:30):
Twitter saying, yeah, but r G three's career and like,
you know, c wood does not give guys are playing
hurt every week now. Again, I want to couch this
with what we said earlier is like we're dealing with
hyper We don't have patheticals, so like, you know, I
don't know what Charles and Mike knew. But let's say
let's say he was a game time decision, truly like,
which which means you probably might be able to go,

(40:52):
but you gotta get out there and run around and
figure it out. Well, one, he'd probably be in since
he you know, warming up and out on the fee.
He hadn't even practiced. He hasn't practiced in five weeks,
you know. But hypothetically, let's say I think We've just
entered an era where fans and even media are so
removed from like how football players feel sometimes we think

(41:12):
for football players, and like the resounding kind of sentiment
is like, in this era of player empowerment, hey, if
you don't have your contract and don't play well, you're
also saying the other fifty two guys in that hypothetical scenario,
and the fans and the coaches and and hey, we're
in this era where that could be good business. But

(41:34):
you can't be surprised when football players feel like, hey,
if you can go in a playoff game, you probably should,
because that's the way. Like I remember Martellis Bennett calling
Jimmy G a because Jimmy G didn't play early in
the year that I was there, when Brady got Um injured,

(41:54):
Set came in. We had played the Dolphins, Jimmy G
got piled driven into the ground, his shoulder was about
to fall off. And the next week we play the
Bills and we get throttled a little bit and Jacoby play,
and a couple of years later, Marty's like, yeah, he
was for that, like this that in the third and
I think even some of you know, our former teammates
were kind of like, yeah, I would have liked to

(42:15):
have seen him play. Um. You know, I feel like
it kind of depends on the player, right the way
fans and the media react. Everybody's like, yeah, do you
hear what Marty B said about Jimmy G. That's not
a good sign for Jimmy G. That his teammates felt
that way about him. Well, not every teammate felt that way.
Not every I didn't feel that way. You know what
It's like, Yeah, I think there's a mixture in an

(42:37):
NFL locker room of like how guys feel that there's
the old school NFL guys and that generational like mccordy
on my show. Not anything ubrasive. It's just like he
doesn't have a contract. I don't for a second, and
because I played her. But I wouldn't spide him for
not I wouldn't him right, I wouldn't spite him in again,
like for anybody who's zoned out the last five minutes,

(42:59):
like I'm talking about a hypothetical, which I don't believe
was the case. I believe judging by everything that I
was reading, that you that you hear you put in
two and two together that he's not ready to play
when they played Cincinnati. It just wasn't worth it. Um.
But say, you know, it's one of those situations, bro.
I've had a high ankle my contract year, my contract

(43:20):
year in St. Louis, I had a high ankle sprain
that keeps guys out a month, you know, six weeks,
two weeks, whatever it is. I shot that up every
week because it was my contract year, and we I
couldn't walk during the week, I'd numb it up and
I'd go out and dragged that thing around. And that
was the best year in my career. Had thirteen sacks,
and I made the money that I'm still living off

(43:41):
of all my next deal, my next big deal with
the Rams. So sometimes risk works out and sometimes it doesn't.
Now the downside of that is my ankle was never
the same, and I truly don't believe that. Do you
still feel it? Well, yeah, but it's a little thing.
It's it's just you lose your ankle flexion you as
a rusher. That's huge. I mean, like on my inside

(44:02):
foot now I can't bend as well. So my game
changed a little bit. But I also had the money
at that point and you know, I still was a
good player, but but it just there were certain things
I could do in two thousand eleven that I couldn't
do anymore. And so like that's the inside looking too. Hey,
I'm sitting here, I'm on a big rookie deal. I
have the security of my big rookie deal. I want

(44:22):
to play because I want to make another big deal um,
and I'm having a great year. It's like halfway through
the season, I'm gonna keep sticking this thing out. Like
maybe I could have been I could have shut myself down.
But I was also an idiot too that in two
thousand and fourteen when I had ankle surgery, I rushed
back and I was terrible, and I do think it
affected my free agency stock in fourteen and fifteen, trying
to play with an ankle surgery and a broken leg um,

(44:44):
trying to be a hero. And the bottom line is
people don't care. Nobody's gonna help you if you look
like on film and your teammates who you you feel
so indebted to, and you feel awkward walking around the building,
you go out there and suit up. At the end
of the day, they're not gonna rescue you. Nobody's gonna
talk you up and convince other teams to sign you.

(45:05):
Those teams are going off that ape. So everything is
a calculus based on the individual in the context around
the situation. And I also think the arrow were in
factors into how we receive it. Dude, that was beautiful. Great.
Mccordy was big on the tape stuff too, saying hell, no,
you don't want to put out any bad tape. It
doesn't doesn't know especially if a Yeah, last question for

(45:26):
you was Mike McDaniel vaping, Right, So we were talking
about this. I I'm big on like giving people the
benefit of the doubt in situations. If if if you
brought that to court and you had twelve jurors, do
you really think that there's enough evidence to charge him

(45:47):
guilty of the jewel on the sideline too? You know?
And also my whole thing was like people were like, well,
he's he he's vaping for sure. I go, Okay, Well
you've never seen him in a cloud of jewel smoke.
No one's ever caught him. Because if it can happen
in the playoff game, it can happen any week. You
really think that, like somebody on Fox didn't zoom in

(46:10):
on him if he if he's a jewel guy all
season long? No gloves in Miami, right, no gloves like
to you know, because he had the black gloves on
you you're gonna tell me we just missed it all year? Okay.
Then somebody was like, oh, well, he was just really
nervous for the playoffs. If you're so nervous for the
playoffs that you gotta hit him any cigarette, then maybe

(46:31):
you shouldn't meet coaching, you know. I mean, I don't
think he was. I think it was a highlighter. And
then they turned away just after we would have seen
an exhale, so like, we don't know for sure. I
texted him, I know Mike, well, I love Mike. He
hasn't responded, and granted they might have some coaching stuff,
but I think it's a pretty important You thought that Kingsbury,

(46:53):
Thailand was big. If I could break the news that
Mike McDaniel was in fact vaping on the sideline, that
would be a good school. Would do me a favor
and tell Mike McDaniel that I I I am sticking
to my guns. Everybody thinks he's jeweling, but there's one
guy in the media. That's Long. Yeah, I got his back.
He was not jeweling. There's not enough evidence to indict

(47:13):
him on on smoking like a teenager on the sideline.
It just getting it in, getting it in, dude, thank you.
Where can we find your podcast? Who are your partners
on that podcast? And where can we just follow the
Chris Long experience? Okay, so green Light pod you can
find it anywhere you can find your podcast right now.
I got my brother Kyle working with me. We do

(47:34):
our Monday show with one of my high school buddies,
Making Gunner, who's a real estate agent but he really
knows ball. Um. Then you know, I've got another former teammate,
Nate Collins working with the green Light team. And Bo
Allen who just left town. So little groups growing. We've
had Nicole our Back joining us through the season talk
college football. Uh. We just we love to bus and

(47:55):
just kind of keep it simple. So um, yeah, I
don't do the hard stuff like you. Peter. Yeah. I
think it's interesting because you could have a chair on
any of these shows. Your father obviously is the all
time legend, if not one of the all time legends.
Your brothers doing CBS. Um, You've chosen to kind of
do things on your own terms. I find it really inspiring. Yeah,
it's a little bit of a self sabotage thing. I'm

(48:16):
pretty good at that. Uh you know, like sure I
maybe could work towards having one of those good jobs,
but I also I understand that there's a big process
with that, and like you never want to say, like
I could just you know, because there's guys going to
broadcast boot camp and move into places. And I think
I've been in a crossroads at times, like in as
a media guy where I'm like, should I just do that?

(48:39):
And if I got to ask myself, then I don't
really want it, you know, like if if if I
gotta if I if I'm like, damn, I gotta take
a flight up there every week to do that study,
I gotta get suits I gotta do, then I don't
really want to do that. And honestly, the couple of
times I've been on TV, I don't like the attention. Really,
So you said you got like blown up on ESPN
because he said that, And like I fly from New

(49:01):
York to l A every week and put on a
suit and you see me on Good Morning Football Show,
put me in that with that tie, and I'll get
up there and I'll and I'm Mr NFL Insider, and
even there sometimes I'm like, God, this doesn't feel normal.
But like that's what Fox does. That's a CBS does,
that's an NBC does. You're sitting right now in a car,
hard hat, chilling with a bunch of bobble heads behind you.

(49:21):
I can't like it looks pretty good on the podcasting
has gotten better, like where the money is very good, Like,
you know, maybe i'd be making a little less money
starting out doing studio stuff. You know. For me, it's
just like I do not like I am over, whether
it's Twitter or whether it's like a guy on the street.
I'm over arguing with people and NFL fans. You can't

(49:42):
give a take without a million people. I thought I
felt bad for Mike Vick on Saturday, and I'll talk
to him. He's been great on our show, but like
he comes out with that take and he's just coming honestly,
he's like I played on a on a spring to
mcl it sucked, but like if he can go, I
would love to see him go because I never want
a super Bowl and it's the ultimate whatever and Mike.
You know, Mike got my got crushed crushed for it,

(50:03):
you got skewered, And I'm like, well, look, it's very
low hanging fruit to just come out there and be like,
Lamar should do what's best for him or Lamar, we
don't know if he's like my kind of take. And
if you have a take on TV, you're gonna get cobbered. Yeah,
and I and you know, it's it's just being on TV,
having your face there. I get really uncomfortable performing and

(50:24):
I don't like performing, and I don't like being told
what to say, and so like here that never happens,
you know. So I mean, for the most part, I
think find your groove in this in this side of
things is just having conversations. And that's why I know
you like doing the podcast. You know, it's like a
night and a nice change of pace. So I love it.
I love Good Morning Football because I feel like we're
the closest thing to a podcast where it's just for people. Yes,

(50:46):
and you guys do a really good job. And by
the way, mccordy is great or at all is great.
Like we've talked about this before, Like you guys have
not missed a beat. I mean, it was just really
well respected. And I'm especially excited to see McCarty because
I know I know Jason a little bit and he's
just's he's fun to see on there. Yeah. Um, I
appreciate you so much, man, I think you're a unicorn

(51:07):
in the sports media landscape, but also just a great dude.
And hopefully you'll be at Super Bowl this year, party
on a party on a rooftop like last time. Let's
do it, man, you'll be a little warmer, I think
I know. All right, Chris Long, great stuff, man, Thank you,
Thanks Peter. Chris Long was great, and I have a
feeling our next guest is going to be great as well.

(51:28):
All right, So if you listen to the podcast every week,
we've got an NFL guest of some sort of coach
at GM, of a current player, a former player. And
then we also will have on a friend of mine
who doesn't work in the NFL. It could either be
a friend from college, from high school, friend from elementary school.
In this case, it's a buddy of mine from Baltimore.

(51:49):
And oh yes, we're talking Ravens. We're gonna do a
Ravens deep dive with my buddy, Jeremy, Jeremy, how are
you doing? I'm doing great. Peter, how are you this morning?
Are you great? You don't sound great when you're texting
me all night on Sunday about play calls? Like, what
is the what is the feel of Ravens fans right
now as it's Tuesday morning after that loss? Well, I
can't lie. I do have some relief after all the

(52:11):
drama that we experienced towards the end of the season. Um,
this has been after being a Ravens fan for twenty
plus years. This was the most joyless playoff experience that
we've had the last part of the year. You know,
the lack of excitement. It just felt like one of
those TV shows that used to be really good, but

(52:32):
you just you know it's bad and you're still finishing
out the episodes because you're such a fan of the
of the series at one point. Yeah, Like I felt
like Homeland had a really good first three seasons and
then we kind of teetered out at the end, But
you just watched it at a commitment because of the
joy you used to have. Let's get into it, Um,
where do you want to start off first? Because you're
critical of everybody, and I love that about you. Do

(52:54):
you want to start with Lamar Hardball the play call?
Where do you want to go? I think we should
start with the longest standing person, that's John Harball. So
you know, I think you have to take a back
and look at the lack of playoffs success over the
past ten years and the lack of the ability to
adapt to modern NFL passing offense. So you know, Hardball

(53:18):
pretty much had a rookie quarterback. There was an m
v P on a rookie deal. Um and his brother
said at Michigan that's like starting on third base, right,
I mean, how many gms start their job, right, how
many gms start their job with an NFL m v P.
That's a quarterback on a rookie deal. And this what

(53:39):
you saw, you know against Since on Sunday Night. That
was the result of building a team with those advantages,
you know, So I mean for me, that's you know,
that's where I would start. When you see Hardball being
a little short with Melissa Stark on on Sunday Night,
and you see some of the play calls offensively from
Greg Roman, it starts opening wounds for a lot of

(54:02):
Ravens fans, and I heard from them all the time
when I'm on the show, saying, fire Roman, Fire Roman.
Do you blame Roman for what's going on and how
this last few years have gone? Yeah, I mean I
blame Greg Roman. Obviously Roman should have been replaced years ago.
I mean you're looking at the playoffs right now. Do
you think the Bills are the Niners regret replacing Greg
Roman at this point? Look at them, both of them

(54:22):
fired Bret Roman in the past ten years, and look
at them. They're not suffering. Um, even the Eagles. You know,
people say hardball is not replaceable. The Eagles fired Andy Reid,
won a Super Bowl, fired that coach, and now we're
back in the top seats. So I think Baltimore is
afraid of change at some level. Um. I think Hardball
answering those questions and getting very short with Melissa Stark,

(54:45):
who by the way, is also of Baltimore uh product herself,
I believe, uh so she knows Hardball very well over
the years. Um. And you know, I think that Hardball
is uncomfortable answering questions when he gets out of the
castle and doesn't have full control over betting of questions.
I mean, that's what it is. I mean a lot

(55:06):
the issues with Harball over the past few weeks with
lamar Um, he could have just answered honestly, like he
put it out there at the Rich eyesend that you know,
he could play with the Brace against the Browns instead
of just being honest saying, you know, maybe he's more
hurt than we anticipated. I don't know, but he made
it much worse. And this is not the first time
Harball has had this issue with you know, going over injuries.

(55:28):
It goes back to Brashad Perriman who had a week
to week injury than would lost a year. Um. Even
Dobbins this year, and we can get to him in
a second with the usage of Roman and Dobbins this weekend,
which was a huge problem. But you know, Dobbin's got
a surgery this year to clean up his knee, and
even people in the organization weren't really supportive of that.
He said, um, and he's been pretty candid lately. So

(55:50):
you know, Harball has come out there and it's kind
of he hasn't said it directly, but he's blamed a
lot of these players for not getting back out there faster,
even Ronnie Stanley, you know, over the past few years,
and you know, he leaves a lot of trust issues
within the players and the fans. And that's where those
type of interviews are interesting for us to see because
he gets some real, you know, fastballs instead of the

(56:13):
softballs you get to the castle. All right. The Lamar
situation has been dissected by everybody and their mother. And
it's interesting because this week on My Fox show on Saturday,
Michael Vick and Charles Woodson actually came out and said,
put a brace on it, you know, like these are
guys who played hurt and they said, I'd like to
see him try and they got killed online and everyone said,

(56:36):
you can't talk about another man's health. And I think
there's a generational thing with the ex players where you know,
Vick and Woodson are from a generation before some of
the current players and maybe Jason mccordy on my show
on Good Morning Football. And I hate to generalize because
I know every player is different, but mccordy was, you know, help,
no way you play if your if your knee is
and you don't have a contract. You don't know what
to them, like, hell no, you don't play, And he said,

(56:58):
I played hurt, but I wasn't Lamar Jackson, and in
a lot of ways, I didn't have two million dollars
laying in the balance. What has come out over the
last few days is that like Lamar put that tweet
out himself with the injuries, and then the Ravens obviously
weren't thrilled that he did that and didn't go through
their communication channels. Then he doesn't travel with the team,

(57:20):
and we don't know still even today on Tuesday, whether
it's team policy that you traveled the team or not.
He did travel to Pittsburgh a few weeks back and
had his arm around Tyler Huntley. Uh, you know the
entire game. So gosh, I'll ask this. He's a free
agent right now as the season ends. Would you be
devastated if Lamar Jackson never puts on a Ravens jersey again? Uh? Yeah. First,
the first thing I wanted to say is I thought

(57:41):
the VIC piece was interesting because he could argue no
player lost more earnings in his career than Michael Vick
over the course of his career right with with his
decision making. So that was interesting for Vic to speak
out so strongly. Um, I think most Ravens fans would
be devastated with, you know, losing Lamar, especially the guys
twenty six years old and you've never seen him in

(58:04):
any other offense but you know, basic running offense the
Roman has put out there. So you know, I think
that to lose a player without even seeing an absolute
superstar in another system would be a real like devastating
blow for a lot of Ravens fans. But I also
think that there are sub Ravens fans now that feel

(58:25):
like too many bridges have been burned and you have
to move on at this point, which, you know, which
is a you know, a pretty valid take, except for
the fact that you don't replace superstars. You don't replace
guys like this, like you were talking about last week
with Kawai Leonard in the NBA having trust issues and
he moved on from the Spurs. But you know, the
Spurs are in last place and Kwai Leonards won a title,

(58:48):
so you know, you can't really move on from these
guys and not have any uh, you know, repercussions and
even sticking with the n b A, I mean, part
of the main issue with a lot of fans, are
you know, even Michael Jordan and Steph Curry needed coaching
changes and regime changes to get to where they wanted
to go, and so sometimes you need to do that

(59:08):
and you just haven't seen it with the Ravens. So
I think you would have some regret from a lot
of fans that they didn't try doing this before year
five or six with Lamar. Yeah, it's a great point, dude,
And I know, like I bring you on as like
the Ravens fan, and you think it's gonna be some
hysterics or some sports talk radio stuff, like you make
really good salient points, and the one I would make
when you say about the bridges being burned. I thought

(59:31):
it was interesting that a lot of the players came
out and supported Lamar after the game and they weren't
like hell, I played on like you know, an injury,
like no. Marlon Humphrey was out there saying like Lamar
is hobbling around the facility like what. So I thought
that because to me, it's when you lose the locker
room and they're like we just let let it all
on the line and you just decided not to play,

(59:51):
like that could be cancerous or worrisome. But from what
it sounds like not a single Ravens player has thrown
Lamar under the bus. No. I mean, you just had
that brief take with Sammy Watkins last week and which
I think was weird, Like I don't think Sammy was
coming at Lamar. It was a strange quote and Sammy,
I don't think I had any intention of like questioning

(01:00:13):
Lamar Jackson's like, you know what I mean, Yeah, it was.
It was interesting to get it from Sammy Watkins, who
hasn't even been around the team the whole year and
kind of just had a brief stint for one year
the year before. But you know, all the players love him.
I mean, that's the thing. And uh, you know, I
think that whatever you end up doing, it's gonna be
very tough to replace him, uh, you know, especially when

(01:00:36):
he's covered up for so many deficiencies for hardball and
to costa over the years, you know. And and I
think that, you know, if they rebuild, if they decided
to rebuild, do you think that they can even do it? Really,
you look at everything they've done since they've had Lamar.
They didn't sign him when he was you know, eligible,
and then they keep loading into the defense, and then
you know some people would ask this year if he

(01:00:58):
was holding out, why would he hold out in the
middle of the year, right, And you know, I don't
think he was. I think he was really hurt. But
you know, when Shot Bateman goes down, what do they do?
They go trade for a linebacker, you know, that's what
they do. That's their answers, They trade for a linebackers
on that O'Dell talk this year, and I'm like, I
can give you thirty one teams that O'Dell will sign

(01:01:19):
with before he'll sign with the Ravens. This he's end
den inside with any But like, that's not that's not
that wasn't a place for Odell Beckham because it's just
receiver is not a priority for the Baltimore Ravens. No,
it's not, I mean it's not. I mean, you know
they have great Roman there, who they if he wasn't
being effective and they couldn't score, they also had t
Martin sitting in the wings. And why not give him

(01:01:40):
a chance? You know, he interviewed with the Bills last year.
I don't see Roman getting interviews anywhere, you know, so
why not give him a chance while he's there? What's
the downside, you're you know, they didn't score twenty points
since Thanksgiving. The last time they scored over twenty points
was when Lamar played at the Jaguars. Do you expect
to win playoff games and the modern NFL scoring fifteen

(01:02:01):
to seventeen points? Do you think that? I mean, that's
not going to happen. This is so the is why
it's so depressing as a Ravens fan, Like you know,
this has been You're a joyous guy. You're one of
the happiest people. I know. Your joyce and it sounds
like this is therapy right now. Yeah, yeah, I mean
it's it's been a long few years, especially dealing with this,

(01:02:23):
you know, and now they're stuck with this situation. So
here we are, all right, So let's let's wrap it
with this. Then I'm gonna give you three scenarios. Tell
me which you would be. You would choose a Lamar walks.
You don't get anything from him, You cut the bridge,
whatever be your franchise, tag him, and you shop him,

(01:02:43):
and all of a sudden, all offseason there's trade rumors.
There's that see you sign Lamar Jackson for what I
believe he wants two million dollars with a lot of
that guaranteed, that Deshaun Watson deal. You have to pick
one of those three. And knowing between what is the
Ravens fan perspective on that, you know, I can't speak
for a lot of the casual fans out there, but

(01:03:06):
for fans of most of them, wouldn't let go of
the kind of talent Lamar is. There's a lot of
casual fans who say trade them, but I would resign Lamar.
I would change their offensive ecosystem to something in like
the modern NFL you know has, and I would go
from there. I think that's your best chance of competing
with mahomes Alan and Burrow moving forward period. I am

(01:03:28):
with you, bro, and I think you do pay him
what Deshaun Watson makes and you deal with it like
that's the market to have Lamar Jackson, who's the face
of the Baltimore franchise, that's the market. Look, Kyler took
a little less, but Lamar is way more accomplished than Kyler.
In the NFL, they gave all that money to Shawn Watson.
You can't blame Lamar Jackson for Cleveland doing that and

(01:03:50):
hold it against him. That's what the market is. So
it's really tough pill to swallow. I know, I know
they offered him something or they were talking about offerings,
and he like kind of didn't want it that I
don't know all the details, but he wasn't as as
previous like I think you've give him what he wants,
especially because right now it's ugly and it's like if
he leaves and God forbid he leaves and goes to

(01:04:11):
another team and goes and has great success. That might
be one of the great blunders in NFL history, letting
Lamar Jackson at twenty six years old walk out the door.
I agree. I mean the markets. The market. You know,
you may not want to pay something for a house
in a certain neighborhood, but guess what if that's the market,
that's what it is. So you can either live there
or you don't. Okay, Now that the Raven season is over,

(01:04:31):
I know you're a die hard terms fan, You're a
die hard Wisconsin Badgers fan. Where do you turn all
that energy to sports wise after the season is over?
You know, I'm I'm already looking at the NFL draft.
The terms are in to rebuild. I you know, I
started looking at quarterbacks. Uh, you know for the following

(01:04:53):
few years, especially looking at the teams I think Lamar
could go to. And you know, it's it's rough. It's depressing, man,
it's really depressing when you think about trying to look
for another quarterback when you have a twenty six year
old m v P very quarterback prospect or prospect at
all in the college game that you have your eye
on that we could all just say. On January sevent
Jeremy said, hey, circle, this guy, he's going to be

(01:05:15):
a draft steal. Well, I mean, you know, not this year,
but I like the kid from USC who's actually a
local product for next year. That's the problem. So you know,
this quarterback class is not as strong as I think
some think it will be, but you know it's still Listen,

(01:05:36):
I think that the kid from Alabama it is a
you know, an exception to the role with his size.
But I like Stroud the best. If if I had
to pick a quarterback, I picked Stroud. He's, you know,
I got the prototypical size and and he's played with
a lot of good receivers over the years and has
put the ball where he needed to be. C. J. Stroud.
All right, Jeremy, thank you. Um, I wanted to get

(01:05:58):
the pulse of the Ravens fan and if I could
just do some quick takeaways, let me to sum it
all up. Romans gotta go, Hardball has to get checked
in some way, and Lamar needs to stay. If we
can do all that, I think you're gonna be really
happy in a couple of weeks. Right, yeah, I'd be
very happy. I'd be very happy to see Romans contract
not renewed and then move forward with a modern NFL team. Buddy,

(01:06:22):
thank you, you gotta pass. I just can't. It does work.
We didn't even get to J. K. Dobbins. We didn't
even get to Dobbins. I know we didn't get there,
but I mean his comments spoke for themselves, right, I mean,
the guy hasn't had seventeen more than seventeen carries in
his career, ridiculous. Yeah, he wanted the ball there, But
you know what, if we can dive over, if only

(01:06:44):
can dive over from four yards out an entire chwo people,
and it would have it would have worked. It would
have been fine. Yeah, but you know, Hardball had no
problem throwing him under the bus, right, away right saying
he should have burrowed under the line. You know, that's
he had no problem doing that. And then you know
when Huntley said something about the Ravens and the in
this postgame press conference, the Ravens you know left that

(01:07:08):
out of their media piece. No, not many people saw
they the transcripts. What did he say? I love this?
That's what is this story? So yeah, Hanley said something,
you know, it would have been nice for Lamar to
have been here, if he could be here, meaning I
don't know if they didn't let Lamar go for a distraction,
who knows, but they scrubbed that from the post game

(01:07:29):
media transcript. I thought that was very interesting, you know,
sure is yeah interesting. All right, buddy, thank you, appreciate you,
thank you. All right, now, let's get into the playoff
preview presented by our friends at Draft Kings Sports Book.
I mentioned it last week. We got a sponsor, and
I am thrilled that it is Draft Kings because I
go back years with Draft Kings. They were sponsors of

(01:07:51):
Good Morning Football. Uh, myself and Nate Burlison did a
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(01:08:13):
Book are Niners are favored by three and a half
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(01:08:34):
I look at this matchup, and I cannot wait for
this freaking game. I'll tell you something. If you asked
me on Monday morning how feeling about a potential Cowboys
Niners game, I'd say, well, it's gonna be Niners in
a in a in a like Niners in a in
a walk. Niners look so good on on Saturday and
they're rolling and the defense got going and perty got

(01:08:54):
those early jitters out and looked as good as anybody.
Do you know who looks better than the Niners? The
Cowboys on Monday night. I've never seen Dak play like that,
and I know Dak has had huge wins in his
regular see is in career and Dak put up forty
in Minnesota this year. Dak Prescott was unbelievable on Monday Night.
And and it wasn't just it was with Kellen Moore

(01:09:15):
calling all the right plays. And how about Mike McCarthy.
Can I give Mike McCarthy some love right now? Mike
McCarthy who is often parodied online and has treated like
some punching bag, and all the fourth quarter decisions and
all the weird game management stuff and the time out mismanagement,
and are they going forward? Are they not going for it?
Why is he going for it? Why is he not
going for it? We get a third and goal up

(01:09:39):
six nothing after the kicker missed the extra point in
the last touchdown, and they get stuffed. Everybody and their mother,
including Troy Aikman on the calls like I would take
the points here, just go up nine nothing, the defensive
rolland just go They go for it on fourth down
and have one of the slikest play calls of the
entire week, a little play action rollout scrambled by Dac

(01:10:00):
and he runs the touchdown in and like they showed McCarthy,
and it was like, hell yeah, dude, drop the mic.
I'm going with my gut. I'm going authentically with what
I believe in, and I'm going with what I want
to do, not what the social media people tell me
to do, and not worrying about what the critique will
be if this fails. McCarthy seems like he's he's he's

(01:10:23):
coached the best playoff game he's coached in and maybe
a decade going back to like some of those Packers
wins that they had in big moments in the in
the mid two thousand's with Rogers. Uh, what a moment
this is for these two head coaches. I know everyone
talks about the players, but you know, I love the
coaches and I look at them. Kyle Shanahan, you think
about the three loss when he was the offensive coordinator

(01:10:46):
of the Falcons. You think about the Super Bowl loss
when they're up ten in the fourth quarter of the Chiefs.
You think about last year's NFC Championship game when they're
up ten and Jakoski tart drops that interception and then
Cooper Cup scores and then away we go for the
for the Rams. All those heartbreaking losses by Kyle Shanahan
coach teams. Then you look at McCarthy fired a joke,

(01:11:07):
treated like like some buffoon on Twitter, where two coaches
we validated with a Lombardi Trophy this season more than
Mike McCarthy and Kyle Shanahan. Gosh, I can't wait for it.
Cowboys versus forty Niners, Bring it on. I hope. I
wish it was a Thursday night game. I'm ready for
it now, but it is Sunday. It's the last one
and it's the main event that, my friends was the
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(01:12:16):
Eligibility in terms of sports Book dot Draft, Kings dot Com,
slash football terms, and guys, that's the podcast for the week.
It's my favorite football weekend of the year. This beats
the Draft, it beats Wildcard Round, it beats Opening weekend.
It's divisional Round. You've got eight teams, you've got four games.
It's wall to wall. It's great logos, it's great quarterbacks,
it's great stories, and it's great for the NFL fan.

(01:12:40):
I want to thank Aaron Wong Kaufman. I want to
thank Jason English. I want to thank Jason Kleinman. I
want to thank Matt Schneider. I want to thank all
the folks who work at I Heeart and NFL Network
and helping putting this thing on. And I also want
to thank our maestro Jack Rudd, who does the music
for this thing. Guys, we'll see you next week. We're
gonna be down to four until then, enjoy the games.

(01:13:06):
M H the season with Peter Schrager is a production
of the NFL and partnership with I heart Radio. For
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(01:13:27):
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Season with Peter Schrager: Chris Long

1. Stuff You Should Know