The Season with Peter Schrager: "What's a Head Coach Interview Like?" with Scott Pioli

Peter opens the podcast with some thoughts on the Rams' Herculean effort Monday in Arizona, from folks both on the field and off. He, then, weighs in on why Deion Sanders and the Cowboys isn't as crazy as it sounds.

Scott Pioli joins to take us step by step into what a head coaching search is like. Scott, a three-time Lombardi winner, takes us into "the room where it happens", and goes through the many people, questions, and politics involved in a head coaching search.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Schreeger is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's up, everybody, Welcome to
the Season with Peter Schreger. I'm Peter Schrager. I'm on

(00:27):
Good Morning Football Monday to Friday and the NFL network.
I'm on Fox NFL Kickoff on Sundays. We're not during
the divisional round of the playoffs. But before we get
to all that, and to our guests, I just wanted
to really go a little deeper on what occurred on
Monday in Arizona and what the Rams and the Cardinals
pulled off. I say the Cardinals because I think they
were the ones who didn't get any credit in this

(00:48):
whole situation for executing what was an incredible seventy two
hours and putting on an NFC Wild Card game in
a stadium that wasn't involving either team. The Cardinals sent
their team planes. We saw that. That's from the owner.
That's cool. How about the Cardinals PR staff led by
Mark Dalton and Chris Melvin and those guys. They thought

(01:10):
their season was over. They were preparing for the combine
and for the draft, and they were put into action
and were not only working with the Rams and the
league in credentialing media members, but they were on site
providing all the media elements that you need when you
arrive at a game as a media member working it.

(01:31):
The Cardinals opened up their building, they opened up their arms,
and they embraced a division rival in the La Rams,
and did so with no complaints and with no second thoughts.
As for the Rams, incredible, incredible in that on the
Tuesday prior, they are in many cases evacuating their homes.

(01:52):
As so many of those RAM staffers live on the
West side of LA and many live in Malibu and
some I know live in the Palisades and Altadena. They
were evacuating their homes in many ways, and if not,
they or at least involved in what was going on
in Los Angeles that we were all on the East
coast watching from AFAR. They leave early for Arizona, they

(02:16):
do so as a team, and they go on Friday.
They have a practice in Arizona, which I was later
told before the game that it was their best practice
of the season. Now that's why probably a lot of
people say, oh, you say that every time, especially after
the fact. No, no, no, they were dialed in, They
were ready, and there was this weight of we know
what we have to do. McVeigh preaches something, and he

(02:37):
preaches it always be your best when your best is required,
meaning when you need to be your best, be your
best show up that day. And what I see sense
is this wasn't just the players and the coaches being
their best on Monday night. The staffs from the sides
of the business side, from the staff of the in

(02:59):
game experience, from PR, from marketing, from everybody who helped
board the buses of several buses leaving from LA and
driving six hours to Arizona, to the folks who actually
brought their in game entertainment. They brought their team dj
they brought their team graphics, They brought everything that they

(03:22):
had on their JumboTron and brought that as like almost
like a mobile experience to Arizona. They installed that and
they practiced for seventy two hours of getting that right,
so it at least felt like a Rams home game,
and then the Rams fans actually showed up. You have
to understand Minnesota. As much as this was a home
game for LA, Minnesota is the home of many many

(03:44):
Vikings fans but in the winter time states Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa,
A lot of those people's people, they don't camp out
in Florida as snowbirds. They go to Scottsdale and they
go to that Gilbert, Arizona area. So from what I
was told, a lot of Vikings fans were like, Oh,
I know, no intention of going to a Vikings playoff

(04:05):
game in LA, but crap, it's in It's in Scottsdale,
it's in Glendale, it's in Phoenix. I'll get there. That's
a day. That's a cool activity. So there was a
lot of added Vikings fans that weren't going to be
there in LA that ended up going actually from Arizona.
The execution of Monday from a game day operations standpoint,

(04:25):
to make that feel like a Rams home game took
so many hands. And we've had Kevin dem Off, the
team president on we haven't had the Rams, you know,
head of marketing, this woman Kat Frederick, who's fantastic, But
all the all the stuff that you saw in game,
whether it be Warren g performing, whether you see their
team D day, I just know what it took and

(04:47):
what it meant to those players and what it meant
to that coaching staff that the entire organization was was
ten toes down and we're all hands on deck, and
they were able to actually pull it off. You saw
Aaron Donald there, you saw the really cool Andrew Whitworth
address to LA and then you see the game. And
that's where McVeigh stands alone in my eyes as far

(05:10):
as seeing the big picture here. They were widely criticized
for not playing their starters in Week eighteen, and the
criticism came because it essentially cost them the three seed
and they ended up being the four seed instead. If
they win that game, as the way it all went down,

(05:32):
and if it worked out a way that they could
have happily been the three seed in Tampa the four seed,
and they would have played the Commanders, which seemed like
a way inferior opponent to the Vikings. But McVeigh said,
I don't care when we play these teams. If we're
going to where we want to go, it doesn't matter
who is playing us and when we play them. If
the Vikings are really this team or the Lions at

(05:54):
the time, who they thought they might have to face
this really this team, we're going to have to square
off against them at some point. Anyway, Rams come into
this thing, they rest their week eighteen players, where everyone else,
including the Vikings, had had to play because they had
something to play for. And they come in and Karen
Williams led the NFL in rushing attempts. He didn't touch

(06:16):
the ball for thirteen days going into this game. Stafford
looked cooked. At the end of the season, Cup looked cooked.
Of course, you look at Pukinakua and the way he
plays so aggressive, seeking out contact. To have that week
off was so important for the Rams, and then what
do you know, the injury report comes out All week
twenty two starters started for the La Rams in that

(06:37):
playoff game, and then they kicked the snot out of
the Minnesota Vikings. Which is a conversation we're going to
be having for the next several weeks because I think
Sam Donald might have cost himself twenty to thirty million dollars.
And I don't say that to be you know, salacious,
or to cause the headline. I think Sam Donald cost
himself a lot of money in that game. I thought

(06:57):
Kevin O'Connell the last two weeks of the season. It
doesn't affect a Coach of the Year votes, He's going
to get Coach of the Year votes, going to win
Coach of the Year. He's gonna accept that, and it's
going to be very weird because we saw how the
season ended with those two games. Dan Campbell at the
end of that Week seven, Week eighteen game leans in,

(07:19):
It's like, we'll see you in two weeks. Couldn't have
been further from the truth. Nine sacks Sam Darnold took
through the intercept, had the fumble obviously on the team,
and then it got to a fumble recover for her score,
just looked out of sync, went eighteen of forty one
in the biggest game of the season in Week eighteen
against the Lions, and then played even worse against the Rams.

(07:39):
A lot of things to unpack there, but I'm not
focusing on the negative. I'm focusing on the positive now.
The question is, as we spin it forward towards the
Eagles game, did they leave it all out there in Arizona?
Was that so much emotion, so much we're playing for La,
so much pent up, just desire to win and give
their fans and the residents of Los Angeles a moment
of glory that they don't have anything left for Philly.

(08:02):
It's possible. I was there in the Week twelve game
when Sakuon Barkley went for three hundred yards from scrimmage.
I was there. I saw it. It was a one
sided game. There's enough change in the time that's passed
that we can get a different result. Well, time will tell,
but I'll tell you this if and it sounds defeatus,
it sounds like I'm putting a rap on the Rams season.
If that's all we get. And that's all they did.

(08:24):
The Rams went from a one and four start, a
five and five record at one point, to getting to
the Divisional round in the final eight teams. And they
did so despite having La wildfires uproot just about everybody's
life and give them the giant curveball before a game
that they actually went out and played their best game
of the season. Pretty cool. Story. Shows you the power

(08:44):
of sports, shows you the power of coaching, shows you
the power of an organization that is all in and
knows what's at stake, especially when the entire city needs it.
That was the big story Monday. And then at halftime
Adam Schefter comes on and he has to address a
report online that Dion Sanders and the Cowboys are talking,

(09:06):
and Chefter's like, yeah, they are. There was a conversation,
and then he actually gets a quote from Dion which
was kind of hollow and that I respect Jerry Jones
and yet I still love Colorado. But it was on
the record from Schefter that Dion and Jerry have had
a conversation. And as we record this on a Wednesday afternoon,

(09:29):
I'm warming up to the idea a little bit more
every single day, not of the fact that I would
hire Dion Sanders as my coach if I was the Cowboys,
but that Jerry Jones might. Jerry Jones is eighty two
years old. Jerry Jones is always beat by his own drum.
Jerry Jones has hired two kind of vanilla coaches the

(09:50):
last two times around, and Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy
football men, and they're going to do what they do
and their contracts are going to expire and we're not
going to get further than the Divisional round in any
of those years. And that includes Wade Phillips when he
was the coach, and Dave Campo, and you go right
down the list, whoever else has been a head coach.
He's hired eight in his life as a Cowboys owner.

(10:12):
The three biggest splashes were Jimmy Johnson, were Barry Switzer,
and were Bill Parcells. All three of those big splash
coaches won games for the Dallas Cowboys and got them
to the playoffs and did things, and they were the
number one story in sports. He's eighty two years old, Folks.

(10:32):
If Jerry Jones wants to lift his eyebrows and make
a wave at this stage of his life and hired
Dion Sanders, I think he's the only owner that would
do it, and I don't think it's that crazy that
it would happen. Consider this, Dion can navigate that relationship.

(10:55):
He's known Jerry since he was a free agent signing
and a very highly decorated one at that. They did
a commercial on the golf cart together in nineteen ninety five.
That's how long this relationship goes. If there is any
coach that can handle the bright lights and lean in
of Dallas and what it means to be the head
coach of America's team, it is Dion. I'll also add

(11:17):
this other lever and layer to it. Dion Sanders was
the face of the NFL Network for like the first
twenty years this network existed. He was an on air analyst.
He was the biggest star. He was prime time and
having worked with him at Super Bowls and worked with
him at countless events, he is larger than life. He

(11:41):
is that guy. So you you have to realize that
a lot of people that worked at the NFL Network
worked with Dion and he was a gentleman and he
was great and when he acknowledged you and pumped you up,
there was nothing cooler. So you're not gonna get us
on NFL Network being critical of Dion Sanders, and you know,
throwing out you know, those relationships and knowing how inspiring

(12:04):
he is and knowing what he is, our initial reaction
is not going to be, oh, screwed, Dion. It's just
not going to happen. Whether that doesn't make us journalists
or not. I think coming at it as an open
mind is where we start, and then from there it
might be actually favorable coverage. Then you go to ESPN,
do you realize how many segments Stephen A. Smith and
Ryan Clark and Chris Russo and whoever else get out

(12:28):
of Dion Sanders being the coach of the Cowboys. Then
you add in the fact that it might go terrible,
and that almost adds to the to the drama. It
adds to the possibility of great debate, and it can
carry an entire offseason, let alone the football season. CBS
Guess who used to work on the CBS pregame show

(12:49):
Deon Sanders. Guess who has a great relationship with CBS
Deon Sanders ABC? Guess who was on Good Morning America
last week on stage with Michael Strahan. Dion Sanders, Fox?
Guess who is a show on two B right now?
On Sanders Guess what network owns to be? Guess who

(13:09):
is a huge, shining star and a part of Michael
Strahan's life and the represented by the same folks at
Smack Entertainment. Dion Sanders go go over to Amazon. I
believe there's a prime show on Amazon, which, no coincidence,
is called Amazon Prime as well. I think he's got
a television show currently with Amazon Prime. So if you're

(13:30):
waiting for this groundswell against Dion and you're looking for
us to all come out with our knives out, I
think everyone's gonna give it the benefit of the doubt
and oh, by the way, Dion comes and I believe
a lot of that stuff comes with him. If if
Jerry is gonna do it his way, Dion makes more
sense than anybody. If Jerry's doing it his way, Arthur

(13:54):
Smith is not the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
If Jerry's gonna do it his way. You know, Matt
Naggi is not going to be the next coach of
the Dallas Cowboys. From a football sense, I thirteen and
eleven at Colorado and getting blown out by BYU in
the bowl game isn't the greatest resume builder. But the

(14:15):
Arizona Cardinals hired Cliff Kingsbury after a losing record at
Texas Tech, and he was fired by the Texas Tech
rid Raiders. It's not unprecedented that a coach who didn't
necessarily win the national title gets an opportunity at the
next level. Matt Ruhle had some great bowl games and
did some great things at Baylor. I don't think everyone
was looking at Matt rules as Nick Saban or as

(14:37):
you know Bear Bryant when he was hired by the
Carolina Panthers. I don't have a problem with Dion. You
know his college record as a reason why. It's some
great knock on the resume. The only critique I have
is does he actually want to do this? Would he
do this without his son? And is it about more
the circus and the media attention and all the bright

(14:59):
lights and a potential series with NFL films and sky
Dance and all that stuff, or is it about getting
the Dallas Cowboys to the next level. I have no
problem with Deon Sanders as the head coach of the
Dallas Cowboys, and the more I think about it every
single day, it makes more and more sense that Jerry's
entertaining this idea and that Dion would entertain it as well.

(15:21):
All right, so Dion's one coaching potential hire, and we
can break that down and sure do great clicks and
all that. But there are other teams too. Jacksonville's got
an open opening that hasn't been filled. The Saints, we
obviously know the Jets, and we know the Bears. There
are coach openings and there are still no hires made

(15:42):
and we are now nearly two weeks after the regular season.
So I got a text from a guy who was
on the podcast couple of weeks ago, and that was
my friend Danny, who is Danny from Lotty who we've
gotten such great feedback from that podcast, a Jets fan
and along with Joe Caparoso who's a you know, the
bad Lands producer for the Jets podcast, we got great

(16:04):
feedback on that. And Danny said, you know what hasn't
really been done and I don't know if you can
set it up or do it as like a mock
interview whatever. Like the one thing we don't have access
to in a Hard Knocks age and an age of
Amazon all in what goes on in the room when
they're actually interviewing these guys, Like what questions are asked
and who's asking them, and what's the process of picking

(16:27):
who gets to interview where and why? And can I
can actually win the job in an interview. It's a
great question. It hasn't been done, and I think it's
it's a fantastic podcast topic. So we're gonna go in
the room of hiring a head coach, and we're gonna
do it with a guy who's done it before and
has Lombardi trophies behind him and on his resume. We're

(16:47):
gonna go through a head coaching interview, and we're gonna
do it with Scott Pioli, the former personnel executive from
the Patriots and GM of the Kansas City Chiefs. Pioli's
got the Lombardes. He's also got those head coaching interviews
under his belt. It's also interviewed four GM jobs. So
we're gonna go into the room where it happens. A
little shout out to our guy lin manuelmur and we're
gonna do so after this, very excited for our next

(17:18):
guests at our conversation. So two weeks ago, as a callback,
we had on the leading Jets podcast host who does
a Jets fan podcast and a Jets season ticket holder
who just walked away from the scene tickets and we
went through their dream lists of Jets coach and GM
just being fans and not being in the room. And afterwards,

(17:39):
one of those guests, guy Danny, who goes by Danny
from Latti, who is very active, and said he's giving
up his season tickets based on another season that was lost.
He gave up the PSLs.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
He texted me.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
One off and said, you know what's something none of
us actually know what happens in the room. And to
cite our guy lin Manuel Miranda, do you want to
be in the room where it happens. And there's no
man who's been in maybe more influential rooms that I
deal with on a daily basis than Scott Pioli. Scott
is the NFL network's front office voice. He also is

(18:15):
a three time Lombardi winner. He also has been a
part of multiple coaching searches and has been to big
places with different teams both Kansas City and Atlanta and
Scott Pioli's our guests this afternoon, Scott, what's up.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Man, Peter? Thanks for having me man. I love the
Hamilton reference right out of the gate, but there's so
much true to that man, so much. Let's think we
can cheer up Danny from Where's Danny from?

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Dannis from Lotty. Now he's originally from Hewlett, New York,
but now he is a you know, you're out there
in those Hofstra days at the Jets camp. That's that's
where he's out from that world. But to that point,
there's so many different job openings right now, and if
you're trying to look at some of the trackers of
who's interviewing with who, it feels like it's one of

(19:00):
those CVS receipts that just goes on and on and
on and on, and the question is from the fans,
what I actually happened. So let's use your Atlanta experience
as a part of the key group that hired Dan
Quinn way back when when he was the Atlanta head
coach that was hired after their Super Bowl runs in Seattle.

(19:21):
Take us through how the individuals were selected, who get
to be a part of the process to even get
in the room to interview head coaches.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, you know, in that particular situation, Peter, Again, I've
been in part of this in so many different places
and everything is so organizational specific, right. It's however the
owner wants it, who the key players are to the
owner and who has the owner's year. But in the
Atlanta situation, you know, the decision was being made by
Thomas de Mittroff and Thomas de Mitroff and Arthur Blank,

(19:54):
that's it. But Thomas wanted some other people around, so
Rich McKay was involved, Kim Shruck and Goss who was
an important, you know, leader within Arthur's orbit, a gentleman
by the name of Dean Stimulus, who worked for Russell Reynolds,
but was also good friends with Thomas and with Arthur.
Dean's one of the most amazing people that I know.

(20:15):
Dean was actually involved in the process when the chiefs
hired me in my interview process, and you know, and
then then I Thomas asked me and Arthur asked me
to be a part of it. So it was a
small group who spent most of the time, and sometimes
those interviews were in the office. Sometimes we actually did
him in Arthur's living room, at Arthur's office at the

(20:38):
family offices. But as we collected names, we were using
some names that were gathered by, you know, a an agency,
and then some folks meaning a search firm agency, not
an agent, and then folks that we all knew and
had relationships and people who were hot names. So the

(20:59):
list was comprised of both you know, assistants, former head coaches,
college head coaches. It was a very very big list
and we had to start narrowing that down.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
Okay, so that's the initial list, and it's this long list,
and you reference the search firms. Corn Ferry's a search firm,
Jeff Hughes the search firm, Mike Ford is a search
firm for the listener at home. We all know the NFL,
and if you're working at an NFL team, you know,
it's not that hard to say, hey, you know, go
interview Liam Cohen and Ben Jonson and Cliff Kingsbury, like

(21:33):
we know it. But what are these search firms do
and what's their role beyond just presenting a list?

Speaker 2 (21:37):
You know, this is a great question because I believe
in input from search firms, But I think what happens sometimes
depending on the organization and the strength of the organization
and or the strength of the owner. There's some teams
allow the search firm process to go too far and
lead them in too many directions, and the tail begins

(21:59):
to wag the dog, when in reality, when you're hiring
an individual to lead the club, you have to make
sure that all the fit and that it doesn't end
up being the search firm favorite person or the search
firm's relationship with an agent or you know, the six
guys that come from one particular agency, because the search
firm has a relationship with the agent at this agent,

(22:22):
you know, talking about the formal type. Yeah, so they
have a tremendous amount of value, but again, you have
to understand it's like analytics right within football. I believe
in analytics in football, but you have to watch the dynamics,
the human dynamics, because it's an interdependent The game is

(22:43):
a game of eleven interdependent relationships on every single place.
So there's this human element that is not just analytics.
You have to watch film. It's different but very similar
when you're trying to find a head coach and it's
so critical to make sure that the tail doesn't wag
the dog.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Logistics wise, again, I'm going real deep with you because
you know who's scheduling. You know this guy can come
in at this time. This guy's going to be remote.
Now the rules have all changed since that dan Quinn hire.
It's been you know, ten years or whatever, and now
the league has really structured it and done a I
think a fine job in delaying a lot of these
interviews for the coaches that are still in the playoffs.

(23:20):
But the logistics part of it wo a search firm
do that? Is there a clerical assistant that works for
the owner? Like how does that all go down? Well?

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Again, most interviews are done around the owner's schedule. Again,
depending on the organization. Some owners say hey, listen, you guys,
go handle it, And the logistics are usually handed by
someone within your football ops program. It's either the head,
the general manager's assistant, the president's assistant, the owner's assistant.
The assistants are all collaborating getting that done, contacting people,

(23:51):
the individuals that you're going to interview, and their agents.
So it's a lot of people working together. And again,
depending on the organization and who has the juice right,
whoever's closest to the owner, that's usually where a lot
of that ends up coming. You know, Peter, we could
have an entire podcast conversation about the dynamics of and

(24:11):
the psychology behind Again, who's influencing the owner and the
owner's decision based on what's best for the team and
what people are being territorial and possibly you know, protecting
their own turf based on who's hired.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
So let's get to that a little bit without naming
any teams or any individuals, Like, there are going to
be candidates that are either personal friends of people who
are doing the interviewing in the room or are just
hot names. But like, is there if you pick the
right guy and you push for the right guy and
he gets selected and you go on to success. Is

(24:47):
that like a notch to the owner, like, hey, I
was I was influential in pushing for this guy. Is
that the win in the room.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
This is a great question because you know, one of
the things I learned early in my career, and I
remember Parcels talking about, is don't keep score. Yeah right, right,
it's like if you don't make decisions and keep sc
or because we all have to serve one another. And
this is what happens within the competitiveness of football and business. Right,
there's a lot of us that mostly dudes who have

(25:16):
too much testosterone and make this about a competition in
trying to be right or trying to be the person
that gets closer proximity or more love and influence with
the owner, when that's not what it should be about. So,
those those dynamics are real things. As silly as it
may sound to an outsider that no, that doesn't go on.

(25:36):
People are human and that stuff does happen. Unfortunately, it
shouldn't be about. It's about getting it, not getting it right,
not trying to be right yourself.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah, all right, so you mentioned ourselves and you have
all these lessons and stories from ourselves. But I would say,
do you have notes on that Atlanta search? I like
using it as a case study. Do you know, can
you mention who the other head coaches were that you
got your candidates that you guys actually met with in person.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
Everyone knows who they were. They were mostly made public.
We're very transparent organization. I know Doug Maron was one
of the people that was interviewed. I know that we interviewed,
you know, again along longest Rex Ryan was. That was
an epic interview.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
This is post Jets or post bills, Rex Ryan.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
This is Oh my gosh, this has got to be
This is twenty fifteen, so this is this is post bills.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, so he's already done the Jets. Yeah, got fired
and I worked for the Bills for two years and
was looking for a third bite at the Apple. Okay, Yeah,
and you know.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Here's what I'll say. You know, Rex was a terrific interview.
Rex is a you know, I've actually I've known Rex
since when I was an offensive line coach at Murray
State University and he was the defensive coordinator at Moorhead
State Man. He his defense wore us out and we
became friends back then and I got to know him

(27:02):
as you know, more as his career went on and
mine went on. And when he came in an interviewed.
He did a terrific job for us. And you know
a lot of people see the The Rex it's on
TV and the show that he gives. Does he have
a little pet barnum to him? Absolutely, he embraced that.
But let me tell you what that dude is smart,

(27:23):
I mean crazy smart. It was a terrific interview and
you know, I remember there were some people in the
room that were there. This is pretty good. This was
pretty good, all.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Right, so Rex Marone dan Quinn. Just to have the
different list who else was in that?

Speaker 2 (27:38):
In all gosh, I should have had notes prepared because
you asked if I have notes, dude when I'm gone.
You know, I like to my wife and daughter call
me a hoarder. I like to fancy myself as more
of a historian. Yeah, so I save a lot of things,
a lot of notes. I want to say that we
coach called Well was a part of that, because I

(27:59):
know he was part of you know, because I've been
through so many different head coaching searches that they're they're
kind of running together right now in my mind at
this moment.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
So Dan Quinn walks in, and he of course was
had his history with Pete Carroll and there's a great
resume to him and they just fresh off the Super
Bowl loss. Dan Quinn comes in. What do you remember
from the questions you guys asked, not only him but
all the candidates, Like what were you asking in? What
does a what does a room? Because I'm picturing the

(28:30):
combined interviews which we've seen where it's a circular room
and people are peppering questions. But again, every team is
different and every interview is different. How do they usually
go down? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Here was Here's what I remember. Here's the funny part.
What I remember about Dan's inery when he you know,
I only knew Dan a little bit, but we got
to know when we had we'd intersected with so many
common people and relationships, and I know Thomas was really
positive about Dan and going in we're looking forward to
this one, Tom Petral And here's what I remember though,

(29:03):
is Dan was exhausted right they were on a run.
He came in, We finally got a chance to get
him and I want to say he came in on
the red like a red eye, or maybe we sent
the play but he was exhausted. Now picture this, we
all know Dan Quinn and what he looks like, right,
dudes wearing a ball cap backwards. Dan shows up in
his suit, so suit doesn't fit up. Shirt doesn't fit them,

(29:26):
you know. And it was hilarious. And I remember the visual.
And once we loosened up, I said something to him
off there, and we just started busting up. He says, Man,
I can't believe I'm in his suit. But Dan did
a great job in the interview. Because you know, we
talk about analytics, we talk about psychological tests, because we

(29:49):
do psychological testing with all the candidates. Depending on your organization,
you do it differently, depending on if you're working with
a search firm. Some search firms have their own tests
that they give. But one of the most important things,
even with combined interviews, I mean, Peter, you interview people
for a living. Yeah, you've spent so much time with people.
You can pick up bs right, you can pick up

(30:11):
when things are authenticity and see.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Authenticity is the number one factor in me.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
J and and and that's I think something that that
can't be picked up. Now, I'll say this, I think
there were a group a couple of people in that room. Thomas.
Thomas has a very good ability to evaluate who's full
of it and who's not. Arthur Blank has an amazing ability.

(30:39):
I'm telling you what. Two people that that I worked
with that that have I think superior ability the BS
meters in terms of owners. Arthur Blank and Robert Craft
are terrific in terms of seeing people and reading through nonsense.
And I think, you know, I'm not saying this. My

(31:01):
skill is more in the area of exactly this. With
Dan's interview, you could see feel here. You know, I
listen with my eyes right and yeah, my dad told
me when I was a kid, two eyes, two ears,
one mouth, use him in the proper proportion. And Dan

(31:22):
you could tell was the real deal. And it was
an energy and authenticity. And also I think of positivity
because you know, we used to joke about, you know,
the leadership group there's gonna be around the football program.
Thomas is very positive, but he also has a history

(31:44):
of where some things are. It's so positive, you know,
same with me. Dan was bringing it all the time
and he was just a regular dude, and you don't
sit in these interviews and talk about x's and owers.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
I was going to ask that, do you ask, like,
all right, your defensive coach, what's your offensive scheme?

Speaker 2 (31:59):
Here's what you need? To be more specific? And coming
from interviews that are personnel people, you say, what do
you need out of a right tell us a little
bit about your defense? Tell us what you want at
your right defensive end, at your left defensive end. And
we grew up in a school, Thomas and I, where
we were very system specific, so we would ask, okay,
what does the three technique need to be able to do?

(32:23):
And what does he need to look like? And why
does he need to look like that? So when in
terms of x's and o's, you know, we're all serving
one another. So the personnel department we needed to understand
only enough about what DQ or whatever other coach was
going to do, because we're the ones that have to
go out and find the players. Yeah, so for us

(32:44):
to dive into x's and o's and try to act
like we know x'es and o's as well, or know
what the hell of coach is talking about is ridiculous.
And you know, I understand, Hey, I played football my
whole life. I coached for four years, but I can't.
I don't know what they know need. So I think
sometimes it's kind of to do your job mentality, don't

(33:06):
get into their business, But then you start throwing things
at them. Ask them questions about Ask them about certain
specific situations that they were involved with with players that
might have been problems or if they weren't a head coach,
things that went on, how it was handled, and what
their feelings were and how they would to hand would

(33:27):
have handled it. You know, what is their fine system
with players? What do they believe that you know? Ask
them how they're going to handle certain situations. Ask them
about their their family dynamics, anything that is public about
them that is not positive. Ask for an explanation. That's
kind of like we do with the combine, Right. Ninety

(33:48):
percent of the questions we ask it the combine or
the answers to right, and we want to hear what
they have to say about it and what's their excuse?
You know, ask them who's your staff?

Speaker 1 (34:01):
That's what I was going to ask, So I know
there's the legendary like who's in your book? Like these
agents prepare this book. It's a binder or it's a
one pager or whatever it is. But so many coaches
talk about preparing their book and I'm prepping my book
and I say, well, what does that mean? Well, here's
who I will bring with me as my two coordinators.
Here's who I'll bring with Well, do you have commitments
from those guys? Well? No, but this is my dream scenario.

(34:24):
I'll have a list of three. Like, so, what's realistic
in there? When these guys come in and you say, okay,
well we like you, but you're you know, in dan
Quinn's case, you're a defensive coach, Like, who's your offensive coach?
How does that all go down?

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Yeah? Well you ask those questions and then to your point,
which you just said, Peter, you asked the question, who
are your top two or three offensive coordinators? Okay, who
are you going to get? How are you going to
get them? Because the reality is this, they've talked to people.
We can't talk to people because you're with another club,
but they've talked to people, and they better have it

(35:00):
figured out. And are you certain you can get the guy?
But here's the other part. Okay, you're certain to get
the guy, what's it going to cot?

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Lost us?

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Right, So you have to talk about the whole coaching budget.
But I also love the question. I think an important
question to ask the coach is Okay, when you are
putting together your staff, show us and I give us
an idea of what your budget's going to look like.
Who were the top three or four most important coaches
and why? And what you're really hoping to hear is

(35:28):
offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, special teams, offensive line.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Coach, offensive line Right off.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
I have sometimes put the offensive line coach.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
Over some of the others.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Yeah, because if you watch this game and the teams
that performed, it's not a mistake. People talk about coaches
and past protection and players. Well, you know, I was
so blessed in my NFL time I work. Kirk Ferrans
was our offensive line coach. Our assistant offensive line and

(35:58):
coach at the time was Pat Hill. Those are two
great coaches, right, and I was there with them in
Cleveland and Baltaroo. We go up to the Jets, We've
got Bill Muir, who was unbelievable. We go to the
Patriots and we've got Dante Scarnekia. You talk about being spoiled.
Then when we went to the Chiefs, we had Bill
Murr again. Yeah, So the certain positions that are so

(36:19):
important because those kind of positions, they're actually going to
help you in the development of your quarterback and the
protection of your quarterback and the development of your entire team.
So the staff thing is important, you know, Peter, I'm
like gassed up here on Kathy. And this is a
fantastic because you go back to the book too. The

(36:41):
book is a fascinating thing because I remember someone telling
me very early in my career, if someone comes in
with a book, right, be a little bit skeptical because
if that person put that book together by themselves, well,
they were spending too much time preparing that, preparing that
rather than doing their job. And if their agent did
and that's what happens. A lot of agents do it now.

(37:03):
And I know in interviews talking with coaches that you
ask him a question and they have no idea where
it is in their book because they didn't put it together.
And it's you know, sometimes owners or and and you
will take these books and give them to other people
in the organization to take a look at. Do you
help refine some of the informations come out of there

(37:25):
and it's it's too much. Sometimes Beware the coach or
or general manager. Beware the person with a big book.
It's probably not a lot of what they've done.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
What's interesting to me is that, you know, it's very
easy for us on the outside to say, Okay, former
head coach, he's had success, we know what we're getting.
Or here's the hot coordinator. It's his time and we're
going to give him an opportunity. Very so often you
know that's the case. Then there are these outliers. There's
a Sean McVay who is thirty years old and wowed

(37:59):
in the room. Or there's a Mike Tomlin who no
one expected to be the next Steelers head coach, but
beats out Russ Grimm for that job because he had
his outstanding interview? What what is an outstand Have you
been blown away by an interview that's an outstanding interview
from a guy who maybe you didn't think was ready
or a guy that you didn't think was going to
be the favorite walking in Oh wow?

Speaker 2 (38:20):
I go back to the dan quinn interview. Blew me
away and dan Quinn, when all is said and done,
at some point in time is going to be labeled
a great coach in the NFL. You know, it's funny.
I remember doing some mock interviews also with some people,
whether they were real or mocked. You know. It was

(38:42):
something that DQ had asked me and Thomas had asked
me to do with some assistant coaches. So I remember
Raheem Morris's Yeah, was really really good. I'll tell you
Jim Caldwells was outstanding. Again I mentioned Rex Ryan's was
really good. I believe it if you filter and when

(39:04):
you get Rex when he's you know, so some of
what he does is real. Everything he does on air
is real, but he puts in some entertainer. But when
you get that dude talking ball and being about ball,
holy smokes, he's good.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Well, I can tell you this knowing it from Jet sources.
Everyone rolled their eyes when they were interviewing Rex Ryan.
It's been years since he coached here. What are we doing?
Rex interviewed on a last Tuesday. I want to say
he came in there and for three hours told them
I don't want to be the coach of the Saints.
I don't want to be the coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
I want to be the New York Jets coach because
I love this team. I love this franchise, and here's

(39:41):
what I will do. And whether or not he gets
the job, I would say it's unlikely. They came out
of there and they were like that was very refreshing,
and holy crap, does Rex still have the juice which
goes a long way.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
He has juice, and he has he garners trust from
his players. That's the other thing, and that's one of
the most important things if you can find ways and examples,
because the most successful coaches have players that trust them.
And when I say trust them, they trust that the
coach is going to put them in a situation where

(40:14):
they are going to better themselves, right, because let's face it,
when we peel all this stuff apart, is you know,
players want to have successful careers. They want to win,
and they want to make money. Making money comes from
being prepared, being developed, and making sure that you're in
a situation to be successful. So finding coach that knows

(40:36):
how to teach, and I think that was another element,
you know, when when when I interviewed, you know, in
coaches in Kansas City, and then when we did it
in Atlanta. Some of the opportunities I had, I wanted
to have, and I requested that we had to coach
teach us something right, something that we didn't know.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
Like i'm the board, Like teach us a scheme or
teach anything anything.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
To teach us something.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
And teach me how to how to or agami it
could be anything or a simple player or teach me
how you think the relationship and and everything that you're
listening to when you ask them about their relationships with
the other people in the organization, they're teaching you there.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
So all right, you think it's important to have a
really good relationship with the trainers, but with this, so
tell me how you do that, right, because that's the
other thing I think you have to do. As part
of the interview, you're asking the head coach, you know,
what are your expectations of managing all of the football folks,
the trainers, the video player, engagement equipment. Who's going to

(41:42):
do that? Do you want to do that? Do you
want the general manager to do that? Do you have
you know a Steve Scarneka who's going to be doing
that for you? Or do you have you know or
do you want the GM to handle it. So I
think there's so many different ways that and the way
that organizations operate. I think one of the most important

(42:07):
things you can do is ask questions and get answers
to things that will allow everyone to manage expectations. So
the head coach can their expectations are managed of what
the president's role is, what the GM's role is, with
the direct vice president, player personnel's role, and with the
owner's role. And each person that I just mentioned also

(42:30):
has to understand what their expectations are because that's where
some of the problems can generally start.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
There's examples in recent years. I would look at Joe
Shane and Brian Dable where there's a fresh slate for
the giants hiring a GM and a coach and they
go to Buffalo and they say, these guys know each other, well,
we're going to bring them in. There's time and time
again that's happened. Then there's these blind marriages like in
Chicago where Ryan Poles did not know Matt Aberfluss from
but he'd loved his interview and those guys were paired together.

(43:10):
How much do you make and I guess there's a
clean slate in Vegas right now, there's a clean slate
in New York with the Jets, And I guess with Dallas,
if you want to say they're going to bring in
someone else, so they might at GM or not. What
do you make of bringing in two guys who actually
worked together before and kind of implanting them and be
on the same page from day one because they have
a relationships.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
Wow, there's another question that could go a lot of
different ways.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
You know.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
I think it's important that there's a I think that
it's important that there's a history and understanding of the
top leaders. Again, when I look at our situation in
New England, we went to New England, Bill and I
went there together. We went there with some other people
that knew Bill had worked with Bill. But here was

(43:57):
the other dynamic that I've never really talked about publicly,
and no one's really when we all went there, we
were signing up for our last job, right.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
What do you mean by that?

Speaker 2 (44:11):
What I mean like by that was, you know there
was Bill had had a tough go in Cleveland, and
after Cleveland, you know, he did some things to to
to prepare himself for the next job. And who was
going to be his personnel department. He knew that he
was going to delegate a lot more. He's going to
delate delegate to his coordinators, and he was going to

(44:32):
bring certain people, myself, Ernie Adams, Charlie White, people together.
And when we all went there, here's one of the
things I think that was so important because the general manager,
that or that, whoever the person, call the personnel person,
whatever you want to call him, the personnel person and
the head coach have to be in lockstep. That doesn't

(44:53):
mean that they that they get along on everything and
that they're best friends, but they have to be chasing
the same thing. And when we went there, many of
us that went there that left the Jets, including my
you know myself, Eric Manngini. I mean I left my
father in law to go take this job, right, and
he and Bill were not in a good place right,
So we knew if we didn't succeed there, it was

(45:14):
whether anyone admits it now or not. Charlie Weiss was
part of the lawsuit, right, So many of us went
up there knowing that if we didn't succeed, we were
all done. And there's something about that that created this
togetherness and this this situation, circumstances, whether it was going

(45:34):
to be no cracks, there's no looking back.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
We have to rely on each other and got and
we're Brown Us Island together.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
Let's go rock, amen. And it was that old mentality
one die, All die. Yeah, right, And I bring that
up because there's something about that psychology of togetherness to
answer your question about two people coming together. The other
thing is whoever the personnel person is again, whatever you
want to call that title, that person's job is to

(46:03):
serve the head coach. Even when I was in Kansas
City and I was overseeing the entire football operation. As
soon as I hired the head coach, whoever that head
coach was, and the second time after Todd it was Romeo,
I get out of the way and I go find
players that fit them. That's my job to serve the coach.
And so I think, Peter, that idea of people knowing

(46:26):
each other is important. Again, I go back to you know,
I made sure and knowing when we were bringing in
Bill Belichick type players that was critical, not only schematically,
but players that I understood Bill. I've known Bill since
I was a sophomore in college. I know who he
is and I think I'm going to talk out of

(46:51):
the other side of my mouth now because I also
watch Peter and you're very aware of this. I watch
these circumstances and situations right now where head coaches and
general managers have the same agent and they're being packaged
and forced on owners.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
It's the dirty side of this that no one actually
talks about on TV. I mean Tom Pelasero and Ian
Rappaport and Mike Carrafellow can report all these things, but
no one will say and is represented by this guy,
and that's why he's getting an interview, And this is
why this person's getting a favor because the agent represents
the GM and they know each other, Like there is
this disgusting part of it that not necessarily is mentioned

(47:27):
when we do.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
This absolutely or the favor or it's a favor or
you know, the head coaches well, yeah, I'm prepared for
this job, but I don't know who my GM is.
And the agent's like, oh, this guy, you know, Joe
Gret has been working for me. He will be loyal
to it. Because again, I think that the agents believe
that that is what's in the best interest of the

(47:49):
coach and the GM. For them to be partnered because
they'll be able to broke or some sort of you know,
they'll be able to broke when the marriage starts to crumble,
that they'll be able to broke or something. But there's
also this part that they know the percentage is the
percentage and that's not a criticism this model. That's that's
their job. So if they can get two people hired

(48:10):
making seven figures, god bless them. And what happens though,
is and I know this for a fact, that there
are certain coaches that haven't been brought to interviews because
owners are leveraged. And it's amazing. As I sit back
and as I was a part of watching some of
watching billionaires be leveraged by agencies, it's absolutely fascinating. And

(48:34):
so I think when people come together as a package
that it may start out with all the best of intentions,
but it does it come to fruition.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
The better you better be willing to bank on, like
you said, your last job on this person, Like you
gotta look at it that way. If I'm going down,
is this guy gonna be going on the ship with me?
Is he going to sell me out to the owner
The first second we get in the room.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
But and what usually happens unfortunately, because it's human nature, right,
And this is the other thing, Like I said, we
could talk about this forever. It's human nature. When the
start thinking human nature is to be a survivalist. I'm
going to save myself and my family. And as I've
learned in life, sometimes or most of the times, the
things the best things that we can do in life,

(49:22):
we need to resist human nature in order to do
the best things in life for ourselves and our families.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Good answer, Okay, so let's go back to the dan
Quinn interview process where you guys decide he is our man?
How is that news delivered? And who broke that news
was it? Was it a Falcon's tweet or did that
go to Chefter first? And how does that work?

Speaker 2 (49:43):
I think you broke it, man, I don't remember who
broke it first, because I think this is one of
the beautiful things that I learned, one of the many
beautiful things I learned from working with Thomas, because we're
so much the same but different in other ways. Thomas
reminded me he's like Scott, we could keep this, try
to keep this as secret as much we're wasting energy

(50:05):
by trying to keep this secret because you know it's
not about even anyone internally in your organization that's going
to leak it, right, because you've got to call agents,
and you've got to negotiate with agents.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
You got to talk to the guys who didn't get it.
You want to give them a heads up.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Exactly right. There's people that aren't going to get it,
so to waste time and energy. It's one of those
funny things that I really had to undo. But anyway,
I don't even remember how it broke. But what I
do know is everyone was on board with that hire.
Everyone in that everyone in that group was on board.

(50:45):
Some of us were more excited about it.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah, let's wrap with with kind of spinning it a
little bit more till today's times. Belichick just took this
job at North Carolina. There's an opening in Dallas, there's
an opening in New York. Like, there's all these different
things and moving pieces. Which job to you is the
most intriguing If you look at the vacancies right now

(51:10):
in New York, in Chicago, in Dallas, in Vegas, and
you could even go GM in Tennessee if you want
as well or Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
One of the ones that intrigues me is the Chicago
and I think it's because I'm too close.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Yeah, talk about your relationship with Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
The Poles. You know Poles. I hired Poles in two
thousand and nine. He was working as a graduate assistant.
He and Borganzi were working at Boston College. Borganzi was
like head of recruiting or something and and and you know,
wanted to get in the NFL poll. Same thing too.
I think he'd been there for a year. His NFL
career just ended. So I stole both of those guys

(51:50):
from BC. And I remember Barry Gallup was frustrated. He's like, Scott,
you're taking But I had known those guys. I had
just come from the way.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Can we just take a second, because I don't think
he will realize this. They might not know any of
these names. But Mike Borganzi four year starter at Brown
and a great all ivy fullback.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Right yeah, yeah, full back exactly right back when people
used fullbacks. Yeah. He was with James Perry, who was
a terrific coach. And you know, Brown has pumped out
some decent football people. Billy O'Brien played outside linebacker defensive
end there.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
But uh, you know, he's known Ryan forever forever and Poles.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Here's what I know about Poles. He is so smart,
He has conviction. He has as much empathy as a
football tough guy as I know, and he doesn't always
show it. So the reason I bring this up is
because they've got good cap space. Poles has built an infrastructure,

(52:48):
and this is one of the things that so many
people on the outside don't see. They see the result, right,
And I'm a processed guy. I believe in processes and
and some of the best coaches I know, Nick Saban's
all about the process, Belichick is ourselves, Andy Reid. There's
a process. Poles has set up an infrastructure internally in
that organization, and a process that should lead to success.

(53:14):
Why it hasn't happened. There's a lot of reasons it
hasn't happened. And they have cap room, they have an infrastructure.
They have a very talented quarterback. Now I don't know
how good this quarterback is going to be. I don't
know that right because tools and talent don't always translate
to success or winning. But again, I'm a big believer

(53:38):
in player development. Poles has a good infrastructure and idea
and concepts of player development. He needs the right people
developing now, and so I find that that job very,
very intriguing. And again I'm trying not to be biased
in this answer. Yes, I think the world of the guy,

(54:00):
but again I've seen the guts of that organization. I've
seen the and I know the guts of some of
the other organizations. As leaders, one of the most important
things you can do, or one of the most important
things you need to do, is eliminate distractions. And some
of those other organizations that you mentioned can't help themselves
and can't get out of the way and not create

(54:20):
their own distractions that impact the product.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
Last point here and we'll wrap. It's an interesting process
this year, and that if you're not employed by a team,
you can meet in person before January twentieth, But if
you're currently employed with a team, even if you didn't
make the playoffs, you can only do a zoom interview
until January twentieth. Then January twentieth, the deadline's done, and
if you're still in the playoffs, you can't. But then
if you're not you can, and you can meet in person.

(54:50):
They also capped it at three hours per interview because
there's a legendary story about last year there was a
guy who didn't get a job and it went on
for nine hours, nine hours, and I wanted a team
or the candidate, but it was nine hours and it
was reported to the league like this can't happen. Then
I didn't get the job, and it was just ridiculous.
As we get towards this this flurry of action right here,

(55:10):
do you think the league, and this includes maybe the
Rooty rule and how they've operated, do you think the
league is doing the best job possible and trying to
set these parameters so that you're not affecting the competitive
landscape of the playoffs, but you're also giving teams enough
time to interview these coaches and get them in place
before the combine.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Yeah, Peter, I'll say this. I think it's better, and
it still needs more tweaks and improvements, and you can't
be reactionary to every single thing that isn't working out
or isn't good or isn't positive. So to me, the
answer is it has gotten better. There's still some things
that need to be addressed in terms of time and timing,

(55:49):
you know, and I know some people say, well, there
should be no interviews until everyone's done playing, But to me,
I mean that's a joke because the tampering will be
will run rampant, and then people are keeping secrets. So
you know, you've got to be careful. I think what
it's like anything, It's like with your children, right, You've
got to be careful of the rules that you put

(56:10):
in place because you know some of them are going
to get broken. So just don't create so many rules
that you present another host of problems that'll become embarrassing
to the league. So it's gotten better, it's still not perfect.
I think the version that we're in right now is
better than what was You mentioned the Rooney rule. That's

(56:34):
another full show that we should talk about it because
you know, you know where I stand on so much
of this this work.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
Peter put your heart and soul into trying to elevate
some candidates that in recent decades probably wouldn't have gottenn opportunity.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
And I believe in it, and and but I still
know that there's people that whether it's intentional or unintentional,
there are systems that have been in place for decades
and centuries that that aren't alone allowing the right things
to happen, and there are still people that are circumventing
those rules and it's disappointing. That's not down though. Man,

(57:20):
We've gotten better, gotten better. We're in the right direction. Uh, Scott,
thank you. This was awesome.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
I feel like we got some insight that we have
never had before as far as how these coaching interviews go,
how the process goes. And I'm like you, I am
curious with Chicago, like a sneaky one last night, and
everyone just writes it like David Shaw interviewed for Chicago.
Like to me, like David Shaw, David Shaw is awesome,
and like that's the higher that I think fans will
be like David, That's like no, no, no, you don't understand,

(57:48):
Like there is there. There is a lot more to
these candidates than their most recent record, you know, of
their teams and what was going on in those situations.
And then there's a there's a bunch of candidates that
maybe aren't considered the hot names that one of them
will get a job, and it's because of what they
bring to the table and how well they did in
the room.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
Yeah, well, I'm not going to let you end it here,
David Shaw. So I used to make sure every year
that I went and spent time at Stanford intentionally because
every time that I spent time around David Shaw, I
learned something. I learned football. I learned evaluation. Because David Shaw,
people forget or don't They either forget or don't remember

(58:26):
because there's so much recency bias. David Shaw has coached
in the NFL. Yeah, Baltimore's other coach. This guy knows
the NFL, and he was uber successful at Stanford. And
I'm telling you what you want to talk about. A
guy that players trust, and he also holds players accountable.
Like sometimes players like coaches because it's not a great

(58:47):
deal of accountability. They love those coaches until the team sucks. Right,
David knows how to hold people accountable. He's not only smart,
he's thoughtful. He knows the game, and he also hires
a lot of good coaches around him.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Interesting, all right, Scott, good stuff as always, man, Thank
you so much much for doing this.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Thanks for having me, Peter, It's been a blast.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
Scott Pioli was great. I hope that gives you a
better idea of what's going on these next two weeks
and what's been going on in the last two weeks
for these teams trying to hire a coach. One of
the key things I take away from that is, as
you might be skeptical, as so, why is this guy
getting an interview? Is that a fit? Yeah, yeah, there's
favors being done. This isn't a pure process, and this
isn't a clean process. And if an agent has multiple

(59:42):
clients and says I'm going to steer my client's interview
with you, but you got to interview this guy also,
that happens and then the whole tandem stuff. But the
GM that's all real. So that's the ugly truth to it.
And in a lot of ways us in the media
are complicit with it as well, because we ourselves, you know,
know this stuff, and it's not ever called out and saying, well,
the same agent has this guys. I mean, look, it's

(01:00:04):
entertainment in the NFL, but it is big business. And
if you don't think they're people scratching backs here and
there just to get their guy in the room, you
got another thing coming on. You're too much of a purist.
On that note, who talk about pure this podcast, it
is time for delivering results presented by Uber Eats. Let
me discuss a team or a player who delivered on

(01:00:26):
last week's games. I want to shout out, in no
short order a guy who I thought played his best
game as a professional and did so on the biggest
of stages, and that is Nick Bond, the linebacker, splash
special teams guy for the Philadelphia Eagles who has elevated

(01:00:47):
his game to not only Pro Bowl level to one
of the best linebackers in the sport. One of the
coolest stories, Bond signed a one year deal after being
discarded by the Saints, and in this one year he's
gone on to be a Pro Bowl linebacker. He's worn
the green dot for the Eagles when Nakobe Dean is
down calling out the place, and on Sunday against against

(01:01:08):
the Packers, had not only an interception that was huge,
he also had the big special teams tackle late in
the game that helps seal it for them. Nick Bonn
has been a huge piece to the Vic Fangio defense,
and Nick Bonn has been a huge piece of the Eagles' success.
Number fifty three. Nick Bond has been delivering results all
season long. And he saved his best for the Wildcard

(01:01:29):
round against the Packers. That was delivering results by Uber Eats,
where you can get the best deals on game day
food all season long. It's the official on demand delivery
partner of the NFL. Order Now, guys, four great games
up ahead. The Final eight is here and where you
get some coaching news in the next few weeks as well.
Enjoy the joy the weekend everyone, It's my favorite weekend
of the year. The Divisional round is here. Thanks for listening.

(01:01:57):
The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
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