Big Blue Kickoff Live 5/14 | NFL Draft Lottery?

Paul Dottino and Matt Citak discuss the idea of an NFL Draft lottery, talk about the Giants draft class, and take calls from fans.

:00 - NFL Draft chat

16:00 - Calls

28:00 - Cam Skattebo

37:00 - Jersey numbers

48:00 - More calls

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's time for a Big Blue kickoff Line.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Nobody can ever tell you that you couldn't do it
because you're.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
On Giants dot Com.

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You know what I saw to York Giant Crime.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
And the Giants Mobiles seventeen.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Fourteen, the Finals one Tundown.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
We are We're all tamped.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
They didn't well happen of the Giants Podcast Network.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Let's go on, Hell on the craze. Dog hasn't fun. Hi,
Get everybody and welcome to Wednesday's edition of Big Blue
Kickoff Line, presented by Cadillac, the official luxury vehicle of
the New York Football Giants. So glad you could be
with us. We're gonna be here for one hour on
this very rainy afternoon here in East Rother for New
Jersey to talk New York Giants and NFL football with you.

(00:45):
Are numbers two on one, nine three, nine four five
one three. We are from the Giants Podcast Studio presented
by Hackensack Meridian Health. Keep getting better. I'm gonna get
this this qualifier right out of the way. The getting
of the show. We know about all the reports and
all of the rumors that you're seeing on the internet,

(01:05):
because after all, the Internet is the home for all
rumors and hypotheticals. That's not what we do on this program.
League rules tell us in this building that no one
can discuss publicly, or for that matter, print publicly, anything

(01:26):
about the NFL schedule that comes out at eight pm
tonight Eastern time. That's a league rule. Has nothing to
do with Matt myself, John Lance, has nothing to do
with any of us. Pearson might have something to do
with it, well, he's busy buying Kleenex tissues these days.

(01:48):
Is that analogy of the fact that the Celtics are
getting squashed? I'm not sure, but in any event, it's
all in good fun. We love him. In any event.
The bottom line is the league has a mandate, and
they are very strict about it, that nothing can be
talked about regarding the NFL schedule until eight o'clock Eastern

(02:10):
time tonight. So I offer that to you right off
the top, because there's nothing we're going to say about it.
It's that simple, and if you want to tune out,
you can. I understand it's what everybody is talking about today.
I get that what we are going to do instead
is lead off this program and we'll take all your

(02:30):
phone calls anyway, We hope you have something else to say,
but we're going to lead off this program with a
thought about the NBA draft lottery and how it might
apply to the National Football League. Now, you folks understand
that the NBA draft lottery is weighted the bottom tier
of teams. Get well, it's ping pong balls now, but

(02:53):
at one point it used to be envelopes and ping
pong balls and everything else. There's a weighted percent based
on where you finish in the lower tier of the league.
That determines how many cracks you get inside that big
bucket of air when they throw the ping pong balls
in there and then they pull them out in reverse order,

(03:14):
and that determines how the draft order is going to be. Now,
the NBA did this many years ago because they were
sick and tired of people talking about tanking. It's not simple, Matt.
I don't know if you remember San Antonio when they
wound up losing games, not intentionally, but maybe it didn't

(03:38):
put one hundred and fifty percent effort into games to
land one Tim Duncan at the top of the NBA draft.
That's kind of where all this crap started and so
the league decided to use a weighted lottery formula. The
NFL still does not do that. They still go but

(04:00):
reverse order, including tie breakers, and that's why the Giants
landed with the third overall pick in this year's draft.
They won three games, they had to deal with tie
breakers and that's where they wound up. So we ask
you about this today because, as we know, the NBA
lottery for this upcoming draft just took place the other night.

(04:20):
The Nets actually lost two spots, as Matt will tell
you about in a moment. In fact, I'm gonna open
this up to him. I'm gonna let him go through
his spiel first, because you guys already know how I feel.
But I'll save that for later. So the Nets lost
two spots. They're eighth instead of sixth in the draft
process because they fell. As we all know, the Dallas

(04:43):
Mavericks wound up with the number one pick and they
jumped the whole slowest spots. Funny how that happened. Okay,
So in any event, you can lose, you can gain,
you can also stay the same. The bottom line is,
once you get thrown into that big jar of ping
pong balls, anything can happen. But what it does do,

(05:06):
it does prevent all of this constant chatter during the
last month of the season of NBA fans talking about
tanking for the number one pick. That it does do.
It enhances your percentage chance, but it doesn't automatically get
you that guy who you think is going to be

(05:28):
the overall number one pick. So, Matt, with that, I
open it up to you.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Yeah, well, for starters, just looking at the NBA Draft lottery,
since they adopted this new method, formula or whatever process,
whatever you want to call it, the team that has
finished with the worst record and hence the best odds
of winning the lottery, not a single time if they
actually won.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
The number one pick.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
So I'm not gonna say, sit up here and say that,
you know, with this draft lottery, the new method, that
NBA teams have stopped tanking, because I don't think that
would be a truthful thing to say. Based on how
some teams around the NBA have, you know, went structured
their rosters going into the season, how they've handled you know,

(06:15):
sitting certain star players or better players later in the season.
There definitely is still some you know, unofficial tanking, at
least attempted tanking.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Going on, not to the degree the Spurs did it though, No, no, no,
not to that degree that was.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
It certainly still occurs to some degree, but again it
has not led to that those tanking teams landing the
number one pick, which is obviously the whole reason why
those teams would do that tanking. Now, I do have
to say just about Monday night's draft lottery, and I've
gotten into some heated conversations about this upstairs yesterday. I'm

(06:57):
not gonna go ahead and say that the draft is rigged.
I'm not gonna say that, but I am gonna say
I do think it is. And I'm not the first
one or only one to say this. I do think
it's quite the coincidence that after the Dallas Mavericks participated
in what summer calling one of the most lopsided trades

(07:19):
in at least recent NBA history. M h, then all
of a sudden they jump up from what should have
they had the tenth best odds, so a one point
eight percent chance at winning the lottery, and they jumped
all the way up to the number one pick and
are now gonna get Cooper flag. Again, I'm not saying
the draft lottery is rigged. But I do think that

(07:41):
is a little bit of a funny coincidence that that
happened after all of the criticism that Mavericks GM Nico
Harrison has been getting for the last however many months
it's been, He's some now all of a sudden rewarded
with Cooper flag.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Funny how things happen.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
But in terms of the NFL adopting a draft lottery,
I'm fully on board with it because I don't think
it's it would you know, again, similar to the NBA,
it's not gonna take away tanking altogether from the NFL.
There are still teams that are gonna go out there,
especially that last month of the season, and all of
a sudden, their starting quarterback has some injury popped up

(08:21):
out of nowhere and has some injury and is not
going to play the last.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Month of the season. That's still gonna happen, but.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
It sort of deincentivizes teams from doing that a bit
because you no longer would have the guarantee where if
you lose the last month of the season and finished
with the worst record, that doesn't mean you're necessarily getting
the number one pick. You could still end up with
If the NFL adopted the NBA's process and method, you
could still end up with the fifth pick despite having

(08:48):
the worst record in the NFL. So I do think
it will help, especially those late season games teams still
try to go out there win because let's say that again,
the NFL adopted the NBA's exact method, where the bottom
four was at the bottom three teams have the same
amount of odds, and you go into Week eighteen and

(09:09):
you are locked into that bottom three, You now, all
of a sudden, there's no incentive to lose another game.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
You're probably gonna want to go out there and try
to win.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Not that most teams, I will say, even in a
lost season, still go out there and try to win
games late in the season, even when their season is done.
I do think we have seen some instances have teams
around the NFL not exactly putting out their best potential
lineup when it comes to, you know, those Week sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen games in a lost season, in order to help

(09:40):
their draft stock their draft where they're where they land
in the draft order. I do think adopting this the
NBA's draft lottery, it would help keep teams trying to
win games late in the season because your season could
be lost, you could have nothing to play for. But
you're locked into that you know, bottom three already, or

(10:02):
you're blocked into the fourth best, fourth best odds at
landing the top pick, and you're going up against a
team that is fighting for a playoff spot. You're gonna
try to win that game. You're gonna try to keep
that other team out from the playoffs. Well, right now,
in that situation, the losing team would, right with how
things stand now, would probably just be like, yeah, we

(10:22):
don't really need this, like let's throw out our backup
quarterback or as we saw was it the week the
last game of the season. I want to say, in
the twenty twenty season, the Sunday night game with the
Eagles at.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Washington, don't bring that game up where all of a sudden, blood.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
Boy, all of a sudden, Jalen Hurts, who was having
a good first half, just sits the second half because
the Eagles say they want to evaluate Nate Sudfeld for
the last two quarters of the entire season.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Was the only time he played all year. Yeah, that
was clear tanking. It knocked the Giants out of the playoffs,
and it knocked the Giants out of the playoffs exactly. Now.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
Granted, the Giants would have made the playoffs that year
with like I think it was a six and ten record,
So it's not gonna say it's.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Not relevant to the story.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
But yeah, situations like that, we wouldn't see that at
least to the same degree as we see it now.
So I'm fully on board with that.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
I think.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
There are a lot of things at the NFL does
a lot better than the NBA most things, in my
personal opinion, But in terms of figuring out the draft
order for non playoff teams, I do think the NBA
has it right with the way that they do it.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Okay, I'm gonna go even further and not just talk
about the actual competition on the field. The perception and
the environment of the fan bases becomes incredibly tainted and
toxic when you actually have segments of a fan base
wanting to tank for X player the following season.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
Yeah, we saw It's horrific. We saw it here in
Week seventeen in the Colts game. We have told you
guys this time and time again. During many of these
Giants lose seasons over the past decade.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
That to be rooting for the team to lose over
the final couple of weeks of the season, when all
the players and all the coaches are doing the professional thing,
trying their butts off, bleeding, sweating, doing everything possible, going
through all kinds of pain and agony to finish out

(12:22):
their season by winning games, because that's what they're paid
to do and that's what they're here for. And then
I've got to get into a dispute with fans. Not
that you guys don't, but I get really animated. I
get really animated by it. I can't see that at all. Nothing.
Nothing makes me more angry than to hear somebody who

(12:44):
calls themselves a fan of a team saying that, oh,
I wish they would lose. I really want them to tank,
and then call up after the team wins, like when
the Giants beat the Colts in what was a really
fun game, a really fun game that was a heck
of a win. And I'm in that locker room after
every game. I know the pain that those guys feel

(13:04):
after every loss, and I know what it made them
feel like human beings again after they beat the Colts.
I know what that's like because I'm in the middle
of that beast. I see it, I feel it, and
I hear it. Nothing could be further from the truth
than to say that those guys should tank or are

(13:26):
better off if they do tank. It just defends me
to no end. I get angry by it.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
Yeah, I mean, look, we talked about it going into
that Colts game, and after that Colts game. This organization
is never gonna go into a game trying to lose
just to help their draft position.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
It's just never gonna happen, and nor should any team
do that. For that matter. There's nobody on the payroll
of any team that is paid to lose a game.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
Let me say I brought up that Eagles example, Well,
guess what, Doug Peterson got fired after that.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Yeah, and I'm sure it is.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
I'm not to go ahead and say it was because
of that, because I certainly don't know that for a fact.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
But that couldn't have helped him.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
Like the reports out there was that that Week eighteen
decision to take Jalen Herds out of the game sort
of led to him losing the locker room, at least
more so than I guess he already may have lost it,
and it definitely played.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
A factor in their decision. It goes back to the
premise that you're paid to do a job. And every
one of those people who suggests to tank, I ask
all of you, do you really get up in the morning,
go to your job and purposely, purposely not do your
job correctly, screw up and do horribly at your job

(14:42):
that day? Do you do that intentionally because you think
it's gonna benefit you some point down the line, of
course not. It's dumb. Yeah, it's dumb. It's stupid. So
if an NFL draft lottery is going to dispel that

(15:03):
kind of jipper jabber and that kind of garbage talk,
at least even just a little bit, then I'm all
for it, agreed. I'm with you, and I've never been
one to necessarily push for that, but I've heard enough
of it over the last several years. Put the gavel
down and put a stop to it. If it takes
an NFL draft lottery to do it, then do it,

(15:26):
because that conversation is for the birds. In the meantime,
what kind of conversation do you guys want to have?
Two oh one nine three nine four five one three.
Paul Tatino and Matt Sytek here on Big Blue Kickoff Live,
and let's see if we can go to the phones
and open up the lines and get our first phone
call of the day, and it's Mark from New Jersey

(15:47):
who would like to discuss the draft lottery.

Speaker 6 (15:49):
Hello Mark, Good afternoon, gentlemen, thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 7 (15:54):
Just want to press us to call.

Speaker 6 (15:55):
Not a Giants fan, but I used to call your
show quite a bit during the pandemic and great format.
I wish you guys would go longer than an hour
because I really feel.

Speaker 7 (16:02):
Like you give the voice.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
You're very kind for sticking.

Speaker 6 (16:05):
With us on the show, and I'm in lockstep with you, Paul,
from the sense of there's such a pain exchange that
happens during a football game. It takes a lot of
physical exertion, and for asked guys go out there and
just purposely just get beat up for sixty minutes by
men that weigh two hundred and fifty plus pounds to

(16:27):
three hundred, You're insane.

Speaker 7 (16:29):
That's that's crazy.

Speaker 6 (16:31):
And fans that do that, there's already fan bases talking
about doing that for Arc Manning. Oh sure, it's already happened.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
By the way, we don't even know what year he's
going to come out of school either. Yeah, I think
about how dumb that is.

Speaker 6 (16:46):
Whoa Peyton Manning did that in ninety seven. He's like,
you stay in the seat, yep, But I do want
to refresh your memory on one thing, Paul. Yeah, David
Robinson broke his foot games into.

Speaker 7 (17:00):
That yes, first season. Yes, and the.

Speaker 6 (17:03):
Other players that were on that team. I mean, who
was the best player on that team, Vinnie del Magro.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
It wasn't a great team. It was not a great team.

Speaker 6 (17:10):
Yeah, I don't think. I think maybe at the end
they were just playing the backups and the lower end guys.
But I don't think they went into that season intended
to do that, much like the Colts didn't. I mean,
what was that Peyton Manning had three neck surgeries and
they just fell into Andrew.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
Luck the Spurs at that time over the course, and
you know what, maybe I should have looked up their
stats and see exactly what their one lost record was
in the last month of that season. I didn't bother
doing that. I just remember living it and knowing that
there was a predominant conversation around the NBA, and they
have actually been many articles over the years since then

(17:48):
citing that one as one that really gave the NBA
cause to think about a draft lottery because there were
many of accusations flung at the Spurs that down the
home stretch of that season they were not doing everything
they could to win games. Now, you happen to be right,
Robinson was injured. I'm not saying he wasn't. They were

(18:09):
not a very good team, But there is such a
thing as putting it all out there on the floor
and not doing it.

Speaker 7 (18:16):
Oh definitely.

Speaker 6 (18:17):
But within basketball, you can play the game and not
feel any pain, unlike football where you're.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Going no question. That's why I'm you know, that's why
I get so angry about it in the NFL. With
the NBA, I don't necessarily foam with the mouth over
the situation, But when it comes to the NFL and
I know what these guys are going through and what
it costs them each and every week to get through
the rigors of a season, oh yeah, I get really mad.

(18:46):
I get really mad on their behalf that they would
have to deal with fans for their team screaming the
tank I know. I just have no tolerance for it.

Speaker 6 (18:56):
Yeah, well, you have a front row seatball unlike the
everyday fan. You see the guys in the training room,
you see the guys limping around the facility. Fans r
they just they just see a name on a roster.
They just interact with these guys to a touch cern
set on a Sunday.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
That's why I try to bring that to the forefront,
you know.

Speaker 6 (19:14):
And and people don't think about that. And to be
quite honest with you, a lot of the fans watch
these games inebriated and they're not going to be in
the right frame of mind because their emotions are so heightened.
But anyway, I do not think the NFL they've been doing,
do everything the opposite the other leagues do. And that's
why you're the ten thousand town.

Speaker 7 (19:34):
Gorilla in the room. Not in.

Speaker 6 (19:37):
Implement a draft lottery, because we all we all know this.

Speaker 7 (19:41):
There's enough people who.

Speaker 6 (19:43):
Already think these games are rigged, the games, they think
the calls are And now.

Speaker 7 (19:48):
You have the league did this to themselves.

Speaker 6 (19:51):
You have gambling. Gambling is everywhere. They sponsor it. Before
the league wouldn't touch it. They would run down an
old lady run a running a Super Bowl a box
at her church if she was doing it back in
the day. Nowadays they've opened their arms, they've sold their soul.
So don't do it, because look what happened a few

(20:13):
nights ago. Everybody thinks it was rigged.

Speaker 7 (20:15):
It smells that.

Speaker 6 (20:17):
It doesn't pass the smell test. Just like Matt cited before,
it's very odd that such a lopsided trade would be
reciprocated with such a reward like that. Because that kid
the face, you can put him on the front of
your your your season ticket package. You can do Cooper
Flag My god, what a marketing gold mine, no doubt,

(20:38):
led alone before he touches a basketball, no doubt. Yeah,
it's it's really don't do it, NFL. Just whatever one
hundred park.

Speaker 8 (20:48):
As and Sea Caucus is doing.

Speaker 7 (20:50):
Day away from it.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
Thanks for taking Michael, I could appreciate that. Mark. Thank
you so much for the call. Thanks Mark.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
The one thing I will say is, obviously I said
what I said before, But.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Reality is.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
The NBA Draft lottery is not actually rigged. I was
joking about it. If that wasn't clear, it is a
funny coincidence.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
There are those people who think it is.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
No, no, no, for sure, there are a lot of people
that think it is. But I will say, at the
end of the day, like NBA is not gonna lose
viewership because the Mavericks won the draft lottery unless it
comes out, like for real, that it was rigged, which
m hmm, I don not think is going to end
up actually happening.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Unless that does, it's not gonna really change things.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
People are gonna honestly have conspiracy theories about anything. So like, yes,
I agree with Mark, where if the NFL adopted that
the draft lottery and some sort of situation like what
just happened with the Mavericks occurred, there would definitely be
a lot of fans being, oh, the NFL is rigged,
they rigged the lottery. But at the end of the day,

(21:56):
unless it comes out that that's actually true, it's just
more speculating and rumors and conspiracy theories that honestly, the
leagues don't really care too much about as long as
viewership numbers are still lie well. And I don't think
you know a team doing a trait like a lopsided
like if the exact thing that happened with the Mavericks
happened in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
I don't think all of a sudden people are gonna,
you know, boycott the NFL. Let me ask you this,
do you do you remember the Patrick Eweing draft? Do
I actually remember it? No?

Speaker 4 (22:28):
Little, because I was not born, But I have read,
I have heard speakers talk about it.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
In my master's program.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
I literally had someone that used to work for the
NBA at that time, who was high up, came in
and I asked him about that exact thing, and obviously
with a big talking point of course for the last
forty years, which.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Which of course one of the greatly concocted rumors is
that the envelope was in the refrigerator, had a bend
corner on it, or it was refrigerated so that it
was it was freezing, and that you know, when when
the commissioner reached in, he knew which one to give
the Knicks the number one pick. So that's why they
went to the ping pong bulls shortly thereafter. But again

(23:10):
because the envelope thing was being questioned by so many people. Again,
but that was forty years ago.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
Nothing there's been nothing that has come out that has
said for the last forty years that it was actually
rigged in any sort of way. In fact, I you know,
have heard numerous people that were heavily involved with the process,
you know, like could not argue more saying there was
legitimately zero sketchiness. There was nothing here that was out

(23:37):
of the ordinary. It just happened the way it happened.
Coincidences happened sometimes, okay.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
And the Spurs were four and fifteen over their final
nineteen games of the season, and not only did they
lose a bunch of games, they got blown out in
a bunch of those games. Yeah, I mean, what at
the seventy six ers this year?

Speaker 4 (23:55):
Once Embiid got hurt, all of a sudden, every Maxi
got hurt, Paul George got hurt. They lost seemed like
every single one of their last like twenty games, and it,
you know, kind of paid off for them because they
ended up with the fifth best odds. They've jumped up
to the number three pick in a draft that there
is a consensus top three, maybe top four players, and

(24:16):
they were able to help push themselves up into it.
That is a situation where I guess tanking somewhat got rewarded,
but again, it's all it's just odds saying.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
The interesting point though, Mark Mark tried to give us
the other side of it. You know, we're not into
dealing with the whole tanking environment because quite frankly, it smells, right,
the whole thing smells. That's where my anger lies. He
then said, well, but I don't want to see a
lottery because I don't want them to be accused of

(24:49):
fixing the lottery, which is the other side of the coin.
When you have a lottery like the NBA does, there
are still people who think that that lottery's fixed. So
you're damned if if you're doing you're damned if you don't.
I personally would almost rather have that scenario though, have
somebody accuse the lottery of being a little smelly. I'd

(25:12):
almost rather have that then go through the final month
of a season where you've got some of the fan
base just soaked up with tocsin screaming for Tank. I No,
I just I can't. I can't deal with that. For me,
it's not even so much of what the fans are,
you know, clamoring for it.

Speaker 4 (25:32):
Well to me talking about I'm talking about more of
actual teams, and they're like roster decisions in the final
months of seasons in lost seasons again the seventy six Ers,
Like that was a very very clear and obvious we
are going to our season's lost. We lost our best player.
Let's us tank and try to get the best pick possible.
Like there's not a single person on planet Earth that

(25:52):
could tell me otherwise with how the seventy six ers
season ended.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
That is the thing that bothers me.

Speaker 4 (25:58):
The most when teams that have fans paying to come
to their games try using their hard earned money to
come watch their favorite team, their favorite players play, and
teams are just deciding we're gonna try to help our
draft position, We're gonna sit our best players. That is
what bothers me the most, and that is what I
want to see taken out of all sports. I hate

(26:19):
that clear and obvious taking from teams because I know
that there are fans that go out and spend the
little bit of money that they can to go see
their favorite team play, regardless of the sport, and they
want to see their team win. The fans that showed
up to that Giants Colts game at Week seventeen, they
wanted to see the Giants win.

Speaker 9 (26:38):
I heard it.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
We all heard it.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
That was a loud building. That was a very loud building.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
And you cannot tell me if you were at MetLife
Stadium that the overall fan base did not want the
Giants to.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Win that game, because I heard it from the press box.
It was very loud.

Speaker 5 (26:52):
You know.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
When the league scored that long touchdown, everyone was going
absolutely crazy.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
I don't think you and I have ever been more
in agreement than on this topic, or Mason Graham. We
are totally in lockstep on this, and it's really good.
It's really good. I like to see that.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
I teams doing clear and obvious tanking, especially like sitting
guys that are healthy just for the sake of helping
their draft position.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
That is what really bothers me.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
It's one thing if a season is lost and one
of your better players has been fighting through an injury
and then you decide to sit him, that I totally understand.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
But if a guy is healthy and usually decide we're
gonna sit him because we.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
Want to help our draft position, that is what grinds
my gears. Two on one nine three nine four five
one three. We go to Mike in Long Island wants
to talk about a former Giant, Doug Coder, remembering very well,
number forty four.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
How are you, Mike? Hi?

Speaker 10 (27:47):
Guys, how are you good to talk to? You?

Speaker 7 (27:48):
Are you well?

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Uh?

Speaker 10 (27:50):
Listen and guys, you guys do a wonderful job on
the draft. And you know I couldn't ask for anything more.
I mean I was totally knowledgeable about almost every player
that was drafted. But anyway, we're talking about number forty
four and missed the Scott a bow. And as soon

(28:13):
as I saw that number, and I figured he would
pick that number, I thought he didn't pick it, Giant.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
He didn't pick it. He was given forty four, he
didn't pick it, and told us he's not sure if
he wants to keep the forty four once the regular
season gets here. Remember now, just to reiterate the NFL rules,
and I've posted this and I've talked about it on
the show, numbers are not locked in stone by the
league until one week before opening day. Then those numbers

(28:40):
are locked in and the players cannot change their number
from that point forward. So between today and one week
before opening day, any of the numbers that you see
on the roster can be changed.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
Yeah, it's just important for everyone to keep in mind
that by the time the rookies actually joined the team,
the Giants, every team across the NFL have added free
agent like veterans in free agency for over a month.
They added, you know, guys right after the season to
reserve future contracts, and all those guys get their numbers
before the rookies are even part of the team. So

(29:14):
by the time the rookies come, I mean, a lot
of the numbers that the Giants rookie class currently have
are doubled up with numbers of veterans that are on
the team.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
So obviously that is not going to stand. You can't
have two guys with the same number.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
So that is why you know, a week right around
the end of training camp, when the Giant the roster
goes down to fifty three players, that's when you see
the rookies really get their numbers that they're actually gonna
stick with, at least for their rookie years. Guys can
change their number after a year, as we saw with
Deontay Banks.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Mike. I'm sorry to digress here, but just two days ago,
there was a young lady who posted on Twitter how
happy and excited she was she got a Jackson Dart
Giants rookie jersey with number six on it, and I
was shaking my head, and I was thinking to myself,
haven't you listened to what we've tried to tell you?
Thought himself said he wasn't sure if he was going
to accept that number six. He wanted to know how

(30:06):
it looked on video and in photographs, and at some
point he's going to tell the Giants what number he
would like. But this is a case where this young
fan decided, oh, he won number six. We saw it
during the rookie mini camp. I want to buy the jersey,
and they went and they bought a jersey. For some reason,
they didn't wait. And now what happens when Jackson Dad

(30:27):
comes to veteran mini camp in a month and decides
he wants a different number, or for that matter, he
might not be able to do it that quickly because
there were still too many guys on the team, But
by the time they get to the final cutdown, well
even the preseason games, there's always a possibility that that
number could change. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
Off the top of my head, I can remember at
least two members of last year's draft class that changed
their number after training camp Malik obviously yeah, or was
that that might have been before the end of trading.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Well, Malik originally had the number nine, right, and that
came one.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
He came one at family allowed it, yeah, and then
THEO Johnson changed his number.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
Yes at end the training camp. There might have been
others like those two could have popped my I don't
even pay attention to it anymore because I don't care
about their numbers in April. It's it's in May. It's irrelevant.
We see it every year.

Speaker 4 (31:16):
I mean even right now with the number with the
number forty four. Yes, camp Scataboo was assigned the number
forty four, but one of the veteran free agents of
the Giant side was also given the number forty four,
so both of them obviously can't have numbers.

Speaker 10 (31:29):
Go ahead, I mean, I mean, I get it, guys,
But I just wanted Paul to talk about Doug Kotar
and what kind of player he was, blue.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
Collar player, undersized. He was the kind of guy who
gave you one hundred and seventy five percent on every play,
whether it was running a pass route, whether it was
picking up a blitz, or whether it was running up
the middle between the tackles. Even though the Giants did
not have good offensive lines during those years, they just
did not this This is going back into the mid seventies, folks,

(32:02):
just so you know what we're talking about. Coder came
to the Giants. He was originally a Pittsburgh Steeler, was waived,
wound up coming to the Giants, and became their starting
running back. Tailback in those days, we used to call
them tailbacks, you know, as opposed to calling them half
backs on full backs or running backs. A lot of times,
we call them tailbacks because they lined up in the
furthest part of the backfield. They also lined up in

(32:25):
a pro set in those days, where the two running
backs would line up side by side, one to the right,
one to the left behind the quarterback. That was the
standard pro set in those days. Coder was not very big,
he was not very strong. He just had to heart
the size of the Empire State Building. And this guy
would get pounded on and beaten on game after game

(32:48):
after game, and he was one of the very few
bright spots for the Giants offense for a number of years.
You know, we're talking about Yale Bowl and then coming
coming to the Meatallelane obviously say stadium first for a
year in seventy five. But Coder was a guy that
you had to love because he was undersized and gave

(33:10):
so much of himself and kept getting the stuffing beaten
out of him, and he was as durable as could
be for the amount of punishment that he took and
unfortunately wound up with a brain tumor that took his life.
And the story at the end isn't I'm gonna start
crying if I talk about it, because it's a sad,

(33:31):
sad story. But to know this, when he was on
his deathbed, Harry Carson went out you know, Captain emeritus,
Captain for life, Harry Carson, because that's the kind of
guy he is. Harry went out there to visit him
when he was on his deathbed, and the whole bunch
of the Giants teammates went out there for his funeral.
And it was just heartbreaking in every way possible. Horrible, horrible,

(33:53):
horrible story at the end, But to never diminish what
he was as a player, blood and guts, blue collar guy.
Parcels would have loved him. I'll tell you that. Yeah,
had he been had he been here with the Parcels era.
Parcells would have loved him, Kaflin would have loved them.

Speaker 10 (34:11):
But well, when I see Scotti bout Run, i'm him.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Well, two totally different players though in terms of style.
You know Scattaboo. Scataboo is a bulldozer. Coder was an
undersized guy who just gave, gave everything with his heart.
There's a big difference between the two. He Coda did
not have the tools that Scattaboo has. He did not.

Speaker 10 (34:38):
Well, thank you for your time, doing a great job.
I appreciate it, Mike Bress, Doug Kotar, Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Thank you so much for the phone call. I always
left talking about some of the old Giants legends, and
I do consider Coda a legend. Even though his his
lifetime numbers with the Giants did not rank him up
among the top leaders of all time. It was the
kind of he was. He was so much loved by
his teammates because of the way he put it all
out there and in all honesty. Again, think about this.

(35:10):
You know, Steelers discard him and the Giants pick him
up and he becomes their starter for several years. You
know this, this guy was he was beating all odds,
and that's why we all thought. And you know, I
wasn't covering the team at the time, but I certainly
grew up knowing who he was. Everybody thought, well, he's
beating every odds that there were thrown in front of
him to this point, he'll beat the brain. Come he'll

(35:32):
beat the brain tumor two. He didn't. Unfortunately.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
Yeah, Well, just based on how you're describing him as
a player, I mean it sounds similar to how you know,
Camp Scataboo is kind of described not the play style,
but the hard.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Nosed physical attitude, attitude exactly.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
So the attitude that I, for one, I mean we
had that whole you know, conversation about numbers not being official.
I for one am very I hope that he ends
up somehow keeping number forty four because whether it's the Kotar,
a Mod Bradshaw, you know, the number forty four, running
backs wearing the number forty four bring back some good

(36:12):
positive memories for Giants fans, regardless of the era of
Giants football.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
You want to think about.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
So it may not end up being up to him completely,
but I for one would love to see him stick
with that number and continue to bring, you know, pride
to the number forty four at the running back.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
They listed on Pro Football Reference Coder and we Kotar.
It's spelled Kota R, but we always knew him as Coder,
that that was the way you pronounced it. They list
him at five eleven two oh five, and I still
think that's a little much. If you watched him, you
knew that was a little bit inflated. But for those
of you who have not looked it up the years,
was seventy four to eighty one he was with the Giants,

(36:51):
and you know, just he did everything that the coaches
could possibly ask of him and just just a joy
watching him as a Giants fan. All Right, we go
to James from Georgia. You're next on Big Blue Kickoff Live.

Speaker 9 (37:06):
Hello, Okay, what's going on, guys?

Speaker 2 (37:09):
Good to talk to.

Speaker 9 (37:11):
A couple of things. Ducting about the numbers. Is it
customary like a Giants practice or is it just like
something that the teams to where somebody wore numbered a
year before or something on offense that they change it
to defense. Is that something that they just don't and

(37:32):
a couple of times or is that something that they
normally practice. I think you would know.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
I'm a little lost as to the question. I'm not
sure I get it, So, like, you know, give me
an example, Yeah, give me an example. Sure, go ahead, if.

Speaker 9 (37:46):
They played on offense one year, right, okay, and so
this one and I guess we've just seen it this
year where twenty six changed from running back to running back.
So that there goes my question. There, I guess I
just answered my own question. Do they change it from
offense to defense?

Speaker 10 (38:04):
Like?

Speaker 9 (38:04):
Well, they give a player who was wearing like twenty one?

Speaker 4 (38:07):
Like when.

Speaker 9 (38:10):
What was the safety's name, Jim Briltin.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
Jendon Collins. All right, all right, here, here's where i'm
gonna go. Here's here, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm
going to give you the rule. The NFL rule changed
a couple of years ago. There used to be a
set of numbers that each position had to get right,
like linebackers were fifties, offensive linemen were sixties and seventies,

(38:36):
defensive linemen were nineties. They used to have a restricted
amount for it. This was on for This went on
for decades where they used to restrict the parameters of
the position with a number group A couple few years ago.
I want to say, hanimy, it was four years ago
now when they opened it up. I believe it was

(38:56):
four I think it was four years ago. The league decided, okay,
you know what players wanted, individuality. They wanted to be
able to pick their own numbers. A lot of guys
have numbers that made no sense at all according to
the NFL guidelines when they were coming out of school.
And it's like, well, I want my number that I

(39:16):
used at school. That's how I became an All American,
that's how I became a first round draft pick. I
want to have my number in the pros. I'm superstitious.
It's a tribute to Sterling Shepherd, remember, changed his number
because it was a tribute to his dad, and so
he took a single digit number. Okay, So the league
decided that they were going to accommodate those types of

(39:38):
feelings and they opened up the numbers to everybody. And
so now the only dispute you have is if your
team has already retired a number, you now have to
figure out, well, what are you going to do about that?
You're going to ask and you're not going to ask,
or they're going to give permission. They're not going to
give permission. They're going to go to the family. They're
not going to go to the family. It opens up
a different can of soup, if you will. But they

(40:00):
opened up the numbers across the board from zero to
ninety nine. So in answer to your question, there really
is no such thing as an offensive defensive number anymore.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
There's still some restrictions. It's not like you could just
choose any number zero to ninety nine.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
There are some are there. Yeah, honestly, I didn't know that.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
I'm almost positive they loosened the restrictions pretty significantly when
they made their changes a couple of years ago.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
But I mean, Ryan Burns to be zero, a quarterback
to be five. A quarterback, you know, can't wear the
number sixty four, for example. Like, there are still some restrictions.
I'm glad to hear that. Like I think a quarterback
still has to be like zero through nineteen zero or
something like that. Yeah, find that receiver receivers can be

(40:49):
in the eighties or zero through nineteen I believe. But
they definitely loosen them up, for sure. Here we go,
Here we go. I got it, I got it. Hold
on you don't go ahead, go to your next point.

Speaker 9 (41:05):
Well, I've missed like a couple of first minto the show.
Did y'all say, we're not talking about any leak schedule
stuff today, okay?

Speaker 2 (41:14):
And so with the.

Speaker 9 (41:18):
Okay, just thanking and all the draft lottery stuff, like
y'all said, the GM, especially nowadays, even if he's like
the first year GM or whatever, he's not guaranteed that
second year if he tanks. So these guys, the GM,

(41:39):
even if they try to like purposely put bad players
on the team or go or the coaches like, yeah,
we're lost for the season. We're just gonna give some
other guys, you know, like intentionally put in worse players
like that was saying one that that doesn't you know,
it's not veryn't happen much in the NFL because there's

(42:02):
so many other variables, and the guys that are you know,
playing the game or playing so hard like it, that's
them a disservice too for them to you know, to say, hey,
we're just that we're none of these guys are injured,
but we're not going to play them just because we
don't want to get an evaluation of our younger guys,
we're just not going to play any of our better

(42:23):
guys that I don't think that that works in the NFL.
And also I think the draft lottery would be good.
But also, like I just said, guys are playing playing
hard and you just lose games. Just not a very
good team. And despite what the fans think on tanking,
if you lose, you know, there should be some type

(42:43):
of you know, reward system for being at the top
of the draft or you know, for being the bad team.
Because the players aren't thinking the same ways of the fans,
no matter how much they're.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yelling, they don't know tank and all that.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
So right, I mean, I.

Speaker 9 (42:58):
Always, even bad seasons, I always want to see a victory.
Even if I've called before, I'm like, yeah, these were
meaningless wins. I always want to see a victory. I
never want to sit three hours a game that's to
watch my team get tumbled. You know, if we win
in a dog fight, in a close game and we lose,
we lose, it happens, you know. But to not be
competitive sometimes, I think that's where a lot of us

(43:21):
fans we've been at the bottom for so long, especially
a giant team, and that such a long lineage of
winning and things like that. So I appreciate y'all picking
my call.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
James, thank you.

Speaker 9 (43:33):
Listen to the number thing up the air.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
You're around the record and we appreciate your phone call. Thanks, James,
thank you so much. All right, you were correct, so
I stand corrected on this. Since twenty twenty three, the
following positions can pick anything between zero and forty nine. Punters, placekickers,
running backs, tight ends, wide receivers. They you also can pick. Oh,

(43:59):
this is crazy. Punters and place kickers can also go
between ninety and ninety nine, as ky, as can linebackers,
who also can go anywhere between zero and fifty nine.
These rangers are so incredibly wide, like the Grand Canyon.
It's almost like, why do we even bother with this?
It's crazy. Wide receivers can also be between wide receivers,

(44:21):
running backs and tight ends can also be between eighty
and ninety nine. Defensive backs are only allowed to be
between zero and forty nine. Quarterbacks can only be between
zero and nineteen. That may be a tip of the
Captain Johnny uniteds. I don't know, uh of Defensive linemen
have to be between fifty and seventy nine, and defensive

(44:44):
linemen can also be between fifty and seventy nine or
ninety and ninety nine. Okay, we've now given you the
jibber jabber that the NFL has given about the number
of parameters, and it's ridiculous to.

Speaker 4 (44:59):
Be a honest looking at that. The only one, the
only position that should have a specific range where players
have to choose numbers between whatever you know, X and
y is offensive lineman because like when an extra offensive
lineman comes onto the field, when the six lineman comes,
he's got to announce himself to the refs. You can't
just run on the field and pretend to be a

(45:20):
wide receiver. Offensive linemen are the only not that they would,
you know, be confused by a receiver with their size.
But offensive line is the only position where you really
do need to have a number range, So you know,
like if a guy in that number is on the field,
that means he's an offensive lineman.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Other than that I think a player should be.

Speaker 4 (45:39):
It might look weird, it might take them getting used to,
but if a quarterback wants to wear you know, forty,
who cares. It's not going to change anything. The only
thing that really matters to meately was forty two.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
There you go. The only thing that actually rand fable
about him.

Speaker 4 (45:55):
The only thing that actually matters is the offensive lineman's numbers.
And that's just for established establishing themselves when they come
under the field, when an extra lineman comes under the field.
Outside of that, Honestly, again, who cares if a guy
wants to wear a number as long as it again,
does it not in a way to try to confuse
the opponent? What does it really matter?

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Every other sport you can wear whatever number you want. Okay,
So I guess I'd be okay with that. Your proposal
will make some sense to me. I see some logic
in that, so I'd be okay with it. Either that
would go back to the old system, but one that
they have now this is crazy. SIT's all over the place,
all over the place. I mean, stay between the lines

(46:41):
at least for goodness sakes. Don't be driving off the
road into a swamp.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
It's just like veering in. And like the defensive lineman.
You can wear fifty to seventy nine. You can't wear
eighty to eighty nine, But then you can wear ninety
to ninety nine.

Speaker 7 (46:53):
What are we doing.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
It's funny to look at it and never looked at
this the stare table that you're looking it's crazy. It's
crazy all right. By the way, folks, just before we
get back to our phone calls, we should tell you
that the Giants podcast, The Huddle Podcast with all of
your big time interviews with NFL and Giants personnel John

(47:18):
Schmoke does a great job hosting that program. It is
available for you on all your favorite podcast platforms. Go
to Giants dot com, Slash podcasts, and of course don't
forget if you are an Apple podcast, leave a positive review.
So we know that we should keep the show going.
I know later on tonight you and John will be
talking about the schedule, so that'll be cool. We'll obviously
talk about that tomorrow on Big Blue Kickoff Live as well.

(47:41):
Giant season ticket memberships at MetLife Stadium are also going
to be available. With a membership, you can stay connected
to the team all year round, not just on game days,
with exclusive member access and benefits. To learn more about
a Giant season ticket membership, visit Giants dot com slash.
All right, we go back to the phone lines and

(48:03):
let's see who was next on the program, Johnny Mack,
You're gonna punch up line number two and it's coach
Marvin and Delaware. Hello, coach, I think I know where
you're going to be on this issue.

Speaker 8 (48:15):
What you're what are you're thinking?

Speaker 7 (48:16):
Problem with you?

Speaker 2 (48:18):
I'm thinking, I'm good. How are you coming? I'm thinking
the tanking offends you as much as it offends me.

Speaker 7 (48:24):
It offends me.

Speaker 10 (48:25):
You hit me.

Speaker 8 (48:25):
We know too, we know each other too well, indeed
we do. But real quick, I was talking about the numbers.
That doesn't bother me. I agree with pretty much with Matt.
I don't want to see a quarterback when number forty, Matt,
I don't want to. It's not sexy at all. That's
not a struct that's not a sexy number. And I
don't want to see Dexter Lawrence in the number three.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
No, I don't want to.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
He's too big, too.

Speaker 8 (48:52):
Big, And but I kind of agree with most of
everything Matt was saying, and that doesn't really bother me.
But the tanking is killing me, killing me, that's a
I don't want to say. All media is it's more
fan and sometimes media people are fans too. So I'm

(49:12):
gonna just say fans, word, players and coaches. We don't
don't go into games say you know what, guys, we're
gonna tank this. We're gonna fumble a few times and
throw a couple of interceptions and make sure we lose
this game. It is a sticky situation.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
I think what.

Speaker 8 (49:30):
Happens that matt was talking about the Philadelphia seventy six
ers this year. I live in this area. They didn't tank.

Speaker 7 (49:38):
They what happened.

Speaker 8 (49:39):
They had injuries and the decisions they made and be
shouldn't be playing and they and they made that decision
for his health to sit in So I can understand
why their organization decided to.

Speaker 7 (49:51):
Sit their players. Matthews.

Speaker 8 (49:54):
Matthews, he also got hurted and they sat him. And
Paul George is always hurt, so I think he got
hurt at a drinking tea one time. So he's always
heard so tanking, that word is very Maybe they don't
put the best players on the field, their best players
on the field at time. So when we use the

(50:15):
word tanking, do we want to say Kansas City tank
last year a little bit, Oh well, let's just lose
the game. Or do we say they rest their players.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Coach, you know, what a problem is. You don't have
this at the high school of the college level because
there's no draft lottery that is weighted in favor of
the worst records. You do have that in the pros
and that's why the concept, well, the conversation that fans
will have about tanking is only going to be at
the pro level.

Speaker 8 (50:45):
Yes, and I agree with that, And that's why I
didn't use my experiences. I'm using I'm looking at what
I see in the NFL, and I think you can
tell when it happens. You have to look at the
whole concept of it. What actually happened, Did it have
an injury to a key player like a quarterback or
something like that? And then and then sometimes at the
end of the season, you have to ask you a question.

(51:07):
Do you really want to see your young players on
the field when you're down to your last two games?
You want to see what they looked like? You think
about this if we're losing, If we're losing games, I'm
not saying we're going oh on seventeen, but if we're
not at five hundred and we get to the last game,
wild anybody have a problem with Jack Jason Dark plays

(51:29):
get to get a.

Speaker 10 (51:30):
Look at him.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
If he's ready. No, if he's ready and the coach
believes that that's an important part of his growth, I
would not have a problem with it. And trust me, coach,
they're not going to put him in unless he's ready.

Speaker 8 (51:43):
Well, you don't want to put anybody in full unless
they ready.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 8 (51:49):
The game is so dangerous you cannot say, you know what,
let's so Bobby in the game and see how funny
he look getting blasted. He can't And then in this
sport you're talk talking about what one percent of the
world that can play this sport.

Speaker 7 (52:05):
So all of these guys are.

Speaker 8 (52:06):
Coming in making the team. They can play, regardless of
based on how high they can play, what standard we
hold them to, if they're a superstar not but they're
on the team. They can play. These guys can play.
They've been playing all their lives.

Speaker 7 (52:23):
They can play.

Speaker 8 (52:24):
They may not be up to the standards of the
top ten, the top fifty guys on the field, but
they can play. I mean people criticize them sometimes like
they can't play at all. I mean, I hear on
our calls some of our callers old day bo can't coach.
It's like, who's where are these people getting this information from?

(52:44):
Day Bo's been coaching all his life. Davo is a
damn good coach, and those kind of statements are just
it's just it's just irritating at times because people just
I don't know if they stand it out of anger
or what They're not seeing the whole picture.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
Coach, you should sit in these seats one day, you
would you would understand the kind of stuff that we
got to put up with.

Speaker 8 (53:08):
Oh. I listened to it, Paul. I listened to what
you guys go through. Y'all do a great job dealing
with them and letting them speak their minds, but sometimes
you have to educate them, and I know y'all.

Speaker 7 (53:20):
Do y'all best try to do that.

Speaker 8 (53:22):
We try to take the people, yeah, because you don't
want people hanging up with those beliefs.

Speaker 7 (53:27):
No work for the Department of.

Speaker 10 (53:29):
Justice, conspiracy theory.

Speaker 8 (53:31):
I can't take it. My own family can do it
sometimes and I have to tell them that's not true. Okay,
people are walking around giving that information.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Coach. Coach. I appreciate you as always. I love taking
your phone calls. Be well, okay, we'll talk to you soon.
We go back to Lewin, Texas. You're next on the show.

Speaker 11 (53:50):
Hello, Hey guys, how's it going today?

Speaker 8 (53:52):
Hi?

Speaker 2 (53:53):
Good?

Speaker 3 (53:53):
Are you good?

Speaker 11 (53:54):
Couple quick things, So first, on this year's draft, I
am so impressed Shane did not reach for one place.
It seemed like every single player was underdrafted, not overdrafted,
and the one player. And I'll say, I'm not a
college football fan, but when I saw Scataboo's tape against Texas,
I want to run through a freaking wall. Two of
the quick things. Number one is I do not want

(54:17):
to be a quarterback against the Giants. And it's third
and twelve that that is something that was sched to
live in daylights out of me. And I want to
put on the record Giants will win ten games this season?

Speaker 3 (54:27):
React ten?

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Wow? Okay? And how many in the division?

Speaker 11 (54:33):
I think at least I think four?

Speaker 2 (54:36):
Four in the division? Wow? Four? I like your optivism?
Will I appreciate that? I mean, you don't hear too
much of that roster.

Speaker 11 (54:45):
Everybody, all these punties are saying Giants have the worst roster.
Giants have the worst roster. Let's go through position by position.
They don't have the freaking worst roster. I don't care
what anybody says. Russell wisdoms is an upgrade. That defense
is going to be dominating. So that's why I'm going
out there on a limb, I said, I know him
my topic. I know I'm being like a Cowboys fan,
but you know what I'm going ten wins.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
All right, Well, hey, I guarantee if people in this
building would be very happy, that is for sure. Have
a great day. Thanks for calling, all right, guys, take
it easy. Thanks little two on one nine three nine
four five one three. We got time for one or
two more callers if you guys want to want to
chime in here on Big Blue Kickoff Live. Uh. The
schedule release comes your way eight o'clock tonight, Eastern time.

(55:30):
It'll be on NFL Network. It will also be on
the Giants website. Do you know the plans for what's
being posted right a way?

Speaker 4 (55:36):
I do.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Please let let the people know.

Speaker 4 (55:38):
Well, there's a lot of content coming out tonight, a lot,
you know, some analysis, some other stuff.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
I don't I can't get into.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
Details, but at eight o'clock there will be a lot
of things out on giants dot com, the Giants Mobile app,
different social platforms, keep an eye out. There's been a
lot of hard work being done by Yeah, we will
John and I will have a Paul mentioned before, We
will have a Giants Huddle schedule reaction that will come

(56:07):
out either at eight or soon after eight o'clock. But
there's been a lot of hard work done by a
lot of people, both upstairs in my group, in the
production group, getting ready for tonight. We obviously hope everyone
enjoys all of the content. We think you will, but
we'll see. But yeah, there's a lot of stuff coming out.
I know everyone's you know, anxious about wanting to know

(56:29):
the schedule and stuff. At this point, I'd say, it's
what six and a half hours.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
You've made it this long, you can make it another
few hours. And besides, you want the truth. You want
the facts of the schedule. You don't want to just
be going by web reports. I mean, heck, you have
no way to know about the validity of anything that's
been posted so far. Yeah, that's true, So why why
do that? Just wait till the real facts come out.
When the facts come out, the facts come out, and

(56:56):
then you know for sure one hundred percent. Hey, by
the way, we'll talk about on the schedule release tomorrow,
of course on Big Blue Kickoff Live when we come
your way once again at twelve thirty pm Eastern time.
John and I have I think we're going to be
on tomorrow, so we'll take your calls then as well
as tomorrow night. Now special announcement folks, coming up tomorrow

(57:17):
night on WFAN here in New York. That's six sixty
AM and one oh one point nine FM the Fan.
John and I are going to be doing a live
two hour Giant special. We'll talk about Mini Camp, the
Rookie Mini Camp in particular, and the Giant schedule release.
So we invite you to tune in. I believe not

(57:37):
only will it air on WFA and tomorrow night at
ten o'clock, a two hour show from ten to midnight,
I believe it also will be on the Audissey app
as well, So that is another place where you're going
to be able to consume some really great Giant stuff.
We're going to have some audio we're going to play
back from key personnel involved in what happened during Giants
Rookie Mini Camp, some of the high draft picks. We'll

(57:59):
talk out the schedule, we'll have it all for you
tomorrow Tomorrow night again ten pm Eastern Time, Tomorrow night,
two hours Live, a special edition of a Big Blue
Kickoff Live on the fan in New York City w
fa N. Back to the lines. On this program, we
go to Kurt in New Jersey. You are on Big
Blue Kickoff Live.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Hello, Hey, what's going on? Guys? Hi, first time Pauler.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Thank you, thanks for calling.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
Kurt, been a big fan for for many years. The
last couple of days, I just try to get through
to the is and I finally was able to do it.
Now there's just a couple of things I want to say.
You know, some of the fans out there.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
We're gonna let you go. We're gonna let you do
it because you're the last caller on the show.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
So just go for bled. I always believe that, you know,
every player goes out there and plays for the love,
goes out in place for the love of the game,
and uh, you know, they go through the older aches
and pains. I'm just say and I want to see
them playing. I want to see win or lose, regardless
of draft status. And then the other thing I wanted

(59:05):
to hit on real quick is the last caller he's
gonna go out on the limb with ten. I confer
with that. I believe the Giants have a good chance
of either breaking five hundred or hitting a ten. That
ten win Mark and I also said the same thing.
Four wins in the division this year. That's all I

(59:26):
really have to say. But like I said, I'm a
big time follower. I know I only got it like
a minute or so, so I just wanted to throw
that out there. Fans love the game regardless if they
lose or win held the draft position, and ones that
can't can't get on board with that, they should go
follow badminton in Vietnam.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
All right, well, thank you so much for the phone call.
Please call again soon. Thanks. We appreciate your input. We'll
get a variety of opinions there on the potential of
an a old draft lottery. Not that anything is brewing
over at Park Avenue, because it's not. They're not talking
about that. But this was just a hypothetical, And as

(01:00:07):
you know, I don't really care for hypotheticals too much,
but in this particular case, because of the NBA Draft lottery,
it kind of lent itself to the topic. Yeah, no,
it made sense.

Speaker 4 (01:00:16):
For today's conversation, and I just want to say real quick,
you touched on this earlier, and then we'll lend the
show talking about that the Colts game that Kurt just
brought up.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Sure, as you said, we were in the locker room all.

Speaker 4 (01:00:29):
Season, whether it's in this building during the week, in
the locker room after the games on Sundays, the atmosphere,
the feeling in the locker room after that Colts game
was light years different and better than it had been
in just about any other postgame locker room at least

(01:00:50):
in a while last season. No one's gonna argue that
last season, you know, was not rough for everyone, but
the team, the play, the coaches. They you could feel
their excitement and joy after the performance in that Coatch
game because it was an all around dominant performance, one

(01:01:11):
that we were obviously all wanting to see all season,
and we sh it obviously would have come a little sooner,
but we'll take it. Nonetheless, those guys that are in
the locker room that putting their blood, sweat and tears
into this game, it is their profession. They're gonna go
out there and try to win. Every single time we
spoke about this late in the season. We'll continue to

(01:01:32):
speaking to it as long as we're sitting up here.
Those guys that are going out there fighting for their jobs,
for their livelihoods every week, they are never, ever, ever
gonna step on the field and just lay down and
let the other team walk all over them. It's never
gonna happen. I never want to see it, and I
know that people in this building never want to see
that either.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
That game in that locker room proved that the phrase
play for pride still exists. Yeah, it did. And it's
not just fans.

Speaker 4 (01:01:59):
I've seen today with this whole NBA draft lottery, should
the NFL adopt it? I've seen NFL reporters be like, oh,
what's the need for a draft lottery. There's one guy
I'm not even gonna say his name who said two
of the last three years a team has won a
meetingless game late in the season and cost themselves the
first pick, basically saying they should have just lost on purpose.

(01:02:21):
And these are guys that are credentialed NFL reporters even
saying it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
I hate I hate that folks that'll do it. For
this edition of Big Blue Kickoff Live presented by Cadillac,
the official luxury vehicle of the New York Football Giants.
Thank you so much for being with us again. Schedule
release information, all kinds of content dropping at eight pm
Eastern Time right here on Giants dot Com. We invite

(01:02:47):
you to consume the product. We will be back to
talk to you again tomorrow right here on Big Blue.
Kickoff Live at twelve thirty pm Eastern Time for another
hour of fun filled conversation from Matt Sidetech on Paul Theatine.
We'll see you again next time.