Steve Hartman & Geoff Schwartz On New NFL Covid Policies & Pats vs. Colts

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listening to Fox Sports Living the Drain once again
on a fabulous Football Saturday, Hartmann and Schwartz with you.
This is Fox Football Saturday from our Fox Sports Radio studios.
We got a lot of bowl games a very few
people care about going on today, and we got a

(00:23):
disjoin a week in the NFL, and we're gonna try
to break down as best week can. Jeff, how are
you today? Well, we have a football Saturday, and a
football Sunday, and a football Monday and football Tuesday. This
week we got football every day of the week. Even
that's right obviously with bowl games and Steve you speak
for yourself, there's a lot of money to be made

(00:43):
and some of these bowl games today, so we're watching
with a with a keen eye right now. All right, Well,
let's let's let's let's say let's say one thing here.
We had a record performance today by Bailey Zappy, the
Western good tucky quarterback that no one taught ACKed about,
and I had him on my radar, by the way,
very quickly. My final Heisman boat it was exactly the

(01:07):
top three. It was only the third time in the
twelve years of the award that my and I had
said going in, I like Matta Rise of the San
Diego State Hunter if they were to win their last game,
but they got blown out thanks for COVID outbreak. I
wanted to not vote, but at the end I just
I remember this. Remember, I said, what did you do
in the biggest game of the year. And to me,

(01:28):
the two most significant games pre Bowl game, pre playoff
were Alabama's victory over Georgia in the SEC Championship game
and Michigan's victory over Ohio State. To me, those were
the two most significant wins of the year. Of course,
Alabama ended up number one Michigan number two in the
rankings going into the bowl game. So that's why I

(01:50):
had Aiden Hutchinson number two for three sack performance against
Ohio State that day, and I looked at Kenny Picket
and I said, look, did anybody have pit winning the
A C C anybody? No? Forty two touchdowns? So it's
only a third time in twelve years I voted where
my one to three was the same. But Bailey Zappy
today set to all time FBS records for most passing

(02:15):
yards in the season. He almost got the six thousand
by the way b J. Simmons a one year wonder
at Texas Tech back in those days under Mike Leach
had the previous record back in OH three. And he
has sixty two touchdowns, breaking Joe Burrows record of sixty.
Said a couple of years ago, this is a guy
that played four full years at Houston Baptist and then

(02:37):
you know, because of the COVID year had one extra
year to use. He goes to Western Kentucky. They win today. Uh,
he put up over four in new yards passing six
touchdowns today. But congratulations Bailey Zappy who sets to all
time FBS passing records. Yes, and I was thinking during
the game, like maybe we can petition for one more

(02:59):
year eligibility, put on the green and yellow of Organ
Ducks and come out West and it would be It
would be nice because we need a quarterback in the
worst way for next season. Yes, look the Bowl games
obviously for most things. I mean you TEP and Freslan
was on right now. Freslan State's got their entire staffs
going to Washington. So you know who's playing this game
who's not. I don't know, you TEP. I've watched zero
seconds at the end of the season, Um, you know,

(03:21):
we we got B y U and U A B.
Tonight we got organ State Utah State. I mean, yeah,
there they mean something to the people that are gambling
on them and the fans of either of a lot
of the teams, but look, a lot of draft picks
are not playing. You mentioned Kenny Pickett. Um, I think
he's the first guy I've been surprised as sitting out
a bowl game so far. He made it made it

(03:43):
clear that he will sit out his bowl game. You
think that that could have changed his draft right now? No,
I don't think it's gonna change it. But the reason
why I'm surprised is because this is a New Year's
six bowl game for team that, if I'm correct, has
not been There's just two thousand four or your Bowl.
So typically this is one of those games were like
you you want to play this game? Right? And now

(04:07):
he doesn't have much to gain from it, which I
think is part of the reason why he might not
want to play in it. It's probably has almost only
to lose, right, Um, But I was surprised he's the
first one and being like, Okay, now I support all
the guys doing this, So it's not like I'm I'm
against it, but it just kind of surprised me because you're, like, oh,
New year Six Bowl for a team that really hasn't

(04:27):
been to a lot of those New Year's six Bowl games.
Quarterback as surprising that he would sit out. But look,
it didn't matter last year to anyone being drafted, right,
Jamaar Chase. And this is why I've been telling you.
By the way, we're brought to you by one of
our favorite cities, Las Vegas, the greatest arena on Earth.
Playing your trip today if it's the Las Vegas dot com.
That's why I told you. If they if they were
to expand the playoffs, when you suddenly have a third round,

(04:49):
maybe even a fourth round to the playoffs, even if
you're a playoff team. But let's say you're not the
one seed. Let's say you're a five or six seed,
potential four games. If you make a run and you're
quarterback of that team, and you're project to be a
top five pick, see you later, see you later, good luck,
good luck, good luck. We'll have a good time out.
I mean, this is a precursor of that. That's how

(05:11):
little these Bowl games, even if you've expanded I'm not
talking about the current playoff format, but an extended playoff.
Oh yeah, I could definitely see a quarterback saying you
know what, four more gat No, No, I I don't
think that's gonna happen. I wish you guys all, but
I know you mentioned that last week to me, and
I just don't. Um, I just didn't. I didn't believe you.

(05:33):
But maybe maybe it's maybe, um so it'd be you'd
be curious to see. But you know, the bowl season is, UM,
I told you my favorite ball game was this Monday
because it's at like two o'clock Eastern and it's Old
Dominion Tulsa like into the most non descript ball game
of all time. Um, it was. It was a week.
You know, this was a week that that changed college

(05:54):
football with recruiting and what happened. So it's it's a
fun time to be all right. We got we got
a million things to cover today and we're gonna do so.
By the way, Shannon Spake is gonna be joining us.
She's gonna be working that Cowboys Giants game. At least
for now. It's tomorrow. Is that rights have they changed?
I think I think canceled now think now during our

(06:14):
show we might have some game canceled or moved, but
the NFL changed their COVID policies, which should eliminate any
of these for the issues, all right, I'm gonna I'm
gonna say this a little bit later on because I
was at the Chargers Chiefs game at so FI Stadium,
my first trip to so Far. I'm gonna get into
this in detail later on in the show because again
it will be hosting the Super Bowl this year. I'm

(06:36):
gonna tell you some of the pluses and the definite
minuses of a six billion dollars stadium at that place
is all about. But you mentioned recruiting right now, and
all this hullabaloo about this cornerback slash athletes sort of
a Dion Standers, a mini version of Dion uh six
ft one sixty pound player rated by many is Uh,

(06:58):
if not the top recruit in the country's certainly in
a very shortlist that at the last second flip from
Florida State. Do you give a verbal, by the way,
a verbal to Jackson State. I don't know if they
have a signing period for FCS schools. How that all
works as far as recruiting is concerned. But obviously this
is a big story of Travis Hunner. So I'm gonna
get your thoughts. I mean, there's a lot of noise

(07:20):
about this. This guy is ruining his life, He's making
the mistake of his life. He's destroying his future in football.
Is that true? Um? So theref many things to to
get to here. This was a historic recruiting coup by
Deon Sanders and Jackson State. Dan. Dean Sanders is the coach.
Uh they had just they were eleven and one. They

(07:41):
just lost their bowl game today. Um. But nonetheless, Yeah,
an incredible job by Dion doing this. And you know,
people pointed to the expansion of name, image and likeness
is the reason why you know, Deon Sanders works for barstool.
Until there was thoughts about maybe that Travis got some
deal with barstool, and Dan said, it doesn't has happened maybe,
well maybe it won't to me. To me, it doesn't matter.

(08:04):
But the point of this is that I kind of
like kids go in different places, right And if it
was n I l related good for him because you
should be allowed to make money offer name him you
like this. Now people have said, oh, is a smart
business move. You know you're thinking about the NFL. I
don't know. I feel like, if you're good enough anywhere
that you drafted right. If he's that, if he's the

(08:26):
best player in FCS because of his talent, who go
in the first round? Look at the people forget Just
a couple of years ago, the eighteen uh NFL Defensive
Rookie of the Year Darius Leonard went to South Carolina State.
He went to South Carolina State. He was a second

(08:48):
round pick. Not only was he the defensive rookie of
the area's first team All Pro is a rookie has
not did not hurt his standing going into draft that
he played at South Carolina State. Look, if you have talent,
I mean, Trey Lance played one year of FCS football
and he was the third overall pick in the draft.
I don't understand why they You think the NFL cares

(09:11):
where the talent played. All they're doing is projecting. Does
this guy have the talent? Now? People say, well, what
if he gets hurt or what if he's underperformer? That
the underperformed there. He would underperforming Fororida State too, right,
That's why I would say, well, if he would if
he's an underperformer at Jackson State. The most likely he
would have been an underperformer at Florida State. The reason

(09:32):
why I like this, I just mentioned many of them.
Another one is that you know we've talked about parody, right,
and like what is parody? And all these top kids
go in the same schools. Well, now one didn't, right,
So you you can't be the one who argues, well,
we need to we need to have you know, Florida State.
And the best example can't be recruiting as well, but Alabama,
Ohio State, clemsy. They have to stop giving all the

(09:53):
best players. Okay, here you go, here you go. Right,
one of the best players in college in high school
football is not going to a power, It's going to
Jackson State. So good for Dion, good for Travis. Travis
enter his his his signing day press conference was very funny. Um,
he took a hat of I think it's like Alabama, Georgia,

(10:14):
Florida State like threw him on the ground individually and
then like picked up the Jackson State had. It was
kind of funny and he did like it with some flare. Um.
So yeah, I am uh, it's a it's a different day.
It's a new world in college football, and IL matters
a lot. It's changing the way that uh, that team's
recruit they're able to recruiting. Something wrong with that, In
my opinion, it's I do not understand. I'll never understand

(10:37):
the argument why you would allow someone or you'd be
okays should say, with someone on a violin scholarship to
Oregon going out and playing, you know, concerts and teaching
and making all this money on their own YouTube videos,
TikTok's wherever you want to. You're totally fine with them

(10:57):
doing that, but the second athlete wants to do it,
it's all of a sudden a bad thing. Right, we
can't have this happen. We're in the integrity of the game,
like get out here going well, the integrity of the
control of the Power five conferences what we're talking about
right now. And so in a year in which we
get a group of five school into the playoff and
now have a top top five star recruit opt out

(11:17):
of the FBS entirely, maybe it is good that we're
seeing some changes in the landscape college football. All Right,
we got a lot of college football news. We're gonna
get you updated on but we got a lot of
NFL news as well. Joining us Fox Sports NFL sideline
reporter Shannon Spake. She's gonna be at the Cowboys Giants game.

(11:37):
We'll talk to her coming up next. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. You want NFL experience, then this

(11:58):
is the show for you. This is is up on
game with Labarrei, ted T, J hush Manzana and Plaxico Burress.
Did you hear that? LaVar Arrington, t J Hudgmnzana, Plexico Burs.
It's a show with three of the best to ever
do it on and off the field. And now here's

(12:19):
Pro Bowlers Lavarrei, ted T, J Hushmnzana and Super Bowled
champion Plaxico Burres, Steve Hartman, Jeff Schwartz with you here

(13:20):
on this Fox Football Saturday. Alright, craziness around the NFL.
We got breaking news, We've got shifting of games, and
there's only one person we know that can break it
down specifically, bit by bit by bit. She works the
sidelines for Fox NFL. She's gonna be at that Dallas

(13:40):
Giants game, which is still tentatively scheduled for tomorrow. We
don't know day to day. Shannon Spake is back with us,
all right, Santa. First of all, we always appreciate it
coming on. We also told you now that you're gonna
be a Regularners show due to your deep friendship with
Danny g uh and Jeff By the way, um, now,
how you're going to be responsible for explaining everything that

(14:03):
actually is going on in the NFL. So let's let's
talk about the new news today about basically asymptomatic players
being given the green light. This is what it breaks
down to, asymptomatic players being given the green light to
play on Sunday. What do you make of all this?

(14:24):
It's so changing every second, right, And I don't know
what to make because I'm not a doctor. I'm not
a scientist. This virus is obviously rapidly spreading. Uh. I
just guys, I have no idea what to make of it,
because do we continue to change these protocols to get
guys back on the field, which makes the most sense, right,

(14:45):
but also kind of keeping people safe? How do you
balance that and obviously, you know, again I'm not a scientist,
but the boosters are needed. It's it's all a crazy
world that we're living in. I know that we have
nine total players on the Giants AID or positive one
is a those contacts that eight, most of them are
on the secondary. Patrick Graham said like he just was
joking and said he doesn't know who he's going to

(15:06):
have out there this weekend. Um, he's going to have
some some guys in the blue helmet. And then I
just saw the release come through that Dallas had two
two additional guys added to their covid um reserve. And
who knows how many more we might have in the
next twenty four hours. Um, It's crazy to think that
last year that everything would just shut down, right, We
were completely shut down for stuff like this, and I

(15:27):
think it is getting to that point. I was just
talking at Danny g I don't know what the number
is of positive cases. It seems like the games that
have been postponed or removed our twenty plus uh and
right now it looks like we have a very much
less than that on the Dallas Giants game. But it's
all ever changing because we just don't know what we
don't know about this thing, and um, yeah, it's crazy.

(15:48):
I wish I I'm glad I'm not the commissioner on
this whole thing for sure. So the NFL and NFL
p A have worked together to form some of these protocols,
but it feels like here the NFL decided to do
kind whatever they wanted to because the union was fighting
for more testing. They're now doing less testing, but did
feel like there was pushback from the players about all
the testing they wanted to go to cover a no

(16:10):
testing regiment. Um do you know any players are you've
talked to anyone that kind of was favoring the end
result here, no testing and let's just play. No. I
certainly haven't had those conversations with these guys and preparing
for these games. It's more like, hey, what do you
think about this Dallas defense? You know Michael Parsons, what

(16:31):
kind of damage is he gonna do? We haven't gotten
deep into those questions, obviously. I'm gonna talk to Mike
McCarthy tomorrow. One of the questions I want to know
if if he plans on maybe quarantining uh, these players
wants the playoffs hit because I mean, is that the
biggest fear that these guys are gonna go and you're
gonna lose Zek or you're gonna lose Dak, or you're
gonna lose any one of your Micah Parsons right um

(16:52):
to you know, to COVID right when the playoffs hit.
And I'd be interested to see if that was even
something that they've considered at this point, because it is
so rapidly making its way through these these facilities. And
I don't know what that has to do with, right,
does that have to do with I think Baker said, like, hey,
I got tested in the afternoon after practice instead of
when I arrived at the facility in the morning. UM.

(17:14):
I think the vaccination, when you're vaccinated, the ability to
go back right away even though you may be asymptomatic
and might have it, UH, could be another indicator. Again, guys,
this is so rapidly changing it. Um. I have these
actisitions with people all the time. I feel like we
know now what we know now, but but all that
could change tomorrow. All right, let's talk a little bit
about this game you're gonna be working tomorrow, Shannon, And

(17:35):
that of course is the Cowboys at the Giants. Let's
talk about the worst of this, which is the Giants.
So after Tom Coughlin ended his twelve year run, Uh,
they've been going through coaches every couple of years. Mcindow
two and done, Shermer two and done. U is Judge,
Joe Judge dead man walking? Is that, in your opinion,
already been determined as a Giants are staring at their

(17:57):
sixth straight or fifth straight double dougit double digital last season. Listen,
I would I mean, obviously from the ten thousand foot view,
like looking down on it, you would say, yeah, performance
is everything. But it's so interesting when I talked to
the players that are on this team. We talked to
take Kuwon this week, and I talked to um uh
to some of the guys last week, and and the

(18:18):
and and even I talked to Nate's Solder, right, your
offensive lineman there, jack Um. The vibe and and sort
of the camaraderie is really strong within this team. Um
it's it hasn't broken. These guys are very much together,
very much enjoy working with each other, and I think
that has to do with the culture that is being
created there. So I don't know how much again, Nate's

(18:39):
older told me, yes, I know that winning and and
and putting up points and doing all these things is
the ultimate uh is the ultimate indicator of what's really
going on inside the clubhouse. But he said, what value
does do replace on the fact that we all really
like each other and we all really love being on
the field together and playing with each other. It's not
a fragmented team at all. So what value? I guess

(19:00):
that would be a question for you, Jeff right, Like,
what value does that put in moving forward with this
head coach? I played it on a tune fourteen Panthers
team in right, and we might have had the best
offensive line room I've I've ever enjoyed, Like we had
great veteran leadership. We weren't bad because of our offensive line,
and we were two and fourteen. They were head of everyone. Like,

(19:20):
do'sn't you winning and losing a matter? I mean, does
Nate Soldier think that he had more fun in New
England with more restrictive tat He did, Like, It's just
like I just think it's so stilling me because this
is the Giants are in this bottom ipen. I played
for the Giants. I like the ownership I like my
time there. I like Tom Coughlin, but I feel like
the ownership is so stuck in the past with with

(19:42):
like how we used to do things. I want to
build parcelves again, I wanted and like, yeah, like you
gotta we have a little more progressive, right. We think
about the fact that none of their playmakers have really
been on the field together. I mean, look Darius Tony,
uh you know, you look at Ta Kwan, you look
at Daniel maybe one second overall, I mean, like that's

(20:03):
part of this as well, too, right, Like so I
just think that I don't I'm obviously not. I don't
get it. But it's not my call and my ownership. Um,
so it doesn't really, it doesn't really my thought on
it doesn't really matter very much. But the idea of
like having fun, I mean, alright, cool, you guys have
fun together, but you don't win, like I think the

(20:24):
fans would rather you win and have fun together. Um,
look at the Cowboys very quickly, Um, why can't they
win without Toronto Smith at left tackle? Because if you
look at the splits when he's in the game, they're
like twenty over five hundred and he doesn't play there
below five hundred. I don't understand that because that's not
the way it is around the end. I mean, the
Charges play that left tackle the other night and they

(20:44):
were fine. I don't understand why the Cowboys can't play
that left tackle. Yeah, I again, did it start with
the fact that you're running backs, aren't you know? Are
Tony you know you've got banged up and and you've
got Obviously we've talked about Dac. I mean some of
the injuries. He swears that he'scent feels great, but is
he right from the calf injury. I don't know necessarily though.

(21:06):
Is it an offensive line? That's that's the question for you.
Right when I watched these games, like, I'm not digging
deep into what's going on, I know that those guys
can hold a block for a really long time and
give you know, give Dac and give those guys plenty
of time, or give Zeeke some lanes. I'm not looking
at specifics. I know you and Mark Shallaira have handled
that for UH, for me, but I you know it
this offense. I mean, hey, listen that the word slump

(21:27):
was thrown around so many times this week, and Uh
I talked to Zeke and he he actually kind of
got a little bit, kind of a little spicy. He's like,
I don't even know where that word came from. I
didn't want to tell him to Jerry Jones, Um that
brought that world up, actually, but he said definitely not
a slump. He said with listen, we know that we
have like the parks and pieces, and we know that
we have the capability and we haven't performed. They are

(21:49):
they're missing opportunities for sure, because this defense is so incredible.
Like to watch them, it almost feels like it's on
like a little bit of a fast forward when you
watch him, because they're so quick. Mike Parson's clothing speed
is incredible. Uh, They're just and and and obviously on
the back end was Bigs. He's just a monster um
and And they're not capitalizing off of the opportunities that

(22:11):
that defense is giving in whether it's the the offensive
line or the left tackle or or whatever it is,
they're not they're not capitalizing well. And that brings up
this point. So if the playoffs began Todaytion and the
Cowboys will be hosting the Rams in a wild card game,
which is a very losable game for the Cowboys. I mean,
Jerry Jones has made it infinite clear he recognizes his

(22:33):
clock is ticking big time right now and he wants
to win another Super Bowl, which is why he brought
in a coach that had a Super Bowl went on
his resume. How patient is he with Mike McCarthy if
they're a one and done in the playoffs? Is it
guarantee McCarthy's back in. You guys are trying to fire
all these head coaches, aren't you. Well, I'm just finding

(22:53):
on what the mindset is. It's not me. I'm just
like I said, I think it came up with a
pretty good case for Joe. Judge said, hey, everyone, I
see each other. I mean, how is it with the Cowboys?
I mean is he secure because there you have ownership?
Where again, the big guy, Jerry Jones is saying, I
want to win another Super Bowl? Yeah, and my time
is running out. I think that the Rams I could

(23:15):
lose that game as well. I mean, who do which
Matthew Stafford chose up for that game? You know, I
think it's it's a losable game for both of those teams. Um,
you know, based on what the turnaround that's happened this
this season with Dak Prescott, and because I covered some
Giants games last year and I know that you know
he was smashing watermelons in the locker room during halftime
to try to motivate these guys, and um, I'm doing

(23:37):
all sorts of things. I would say I would take
him another year, but I'm not. I'm not signing that paycheck.
I'm not Jerry Jones sitting in that owner's box watching
these guys. Uh goo. But personally, I think that that
he has had a huge turnaround this season. I think
dan Quinn is incredible what he's done with his defense,
and I do think the parks and pieces are there,
But I'm not I'm not Jerry Jones. Well, my point is,

(23:59):
you have dan Quinn lot of zeros after some of
those pay checks. But dan Quinn has done a great
job of that defense. And he's also been a head
coach that's been to a Super Bowl. Yep, yep, yeah,
I agree. I mean, listen, yes, it is all about
performance of what happens in the playoffs. I personally do
not think that this is Mike McCarthy's last season. If
they if they're a one and done in the playoffs. Um,

(24:20):
but I'm also you know, I'm I'm I'm giving him
the benefit of the doubts. How hurt is Dak Prescott
because it feels very clear watching employ that he's not.
I know he's not gonna admit you know how it hurts,
but it feels like everything go back from that. Calf
has been the same player he says he's not. When
we talked to him this week, we actually kind of

(24:41):
brought it up, like, hey, we know no one is
a percent this time of the year. We know everyone's
dealing with something. And he's like, I'm good, I'm good,
So I'll be interested to see him tomorrow. On field level,
I really kind of I feel like I have a
really good eye just doing athletics stuff myself. I can
kind of tell when someone's like walking around a gingerly

(25:01):
or favoring itself. I know that they try to hide
it really really well from the other guys on the
on the field. They won't show it when they're on
the field. But I will be interested to watch that
up posts and personal. All Right, we're gonna keep Shannon
here for the next two hours. We're gonna cover every
We're not, Shannon. We've gone over time and we appreciate

(25:21):
every second you join us today. Thanks so much, Shannon.
All right, take care that Shannon Spake Fox NFL silar reporter.
She'll be working that Dallas Giants game tomorrow. Let's find
out what's trending right now. And Ralph Urban in the house. Ralphie,
how are you today? I'm doing great in this NFL
spin job. It's just amazing because that's really what this

(25:44):
is is. Everything is talking about enhanced testing of symptoms.
They gotta get guys on the field. But the reality
is they're cutting down in the testing of COVID correct right,
But nowhere in their communications does it actually say we
will not be testing asymptomatic players who are But but
that is the case. They they are not going to
be testing asymptomatic players who are fully vaccinated. They are

(26:07):
going to be free to play and that will open
things up for sure. Now, some other news from the NFL.
The Arizona Cardino's place DeAndre Hopkins on the i R.
But they have activated running back Chase Edwards. The NFL
find Ezekiel Elliott and Lyle Collins ten thousand three dollars
each for unnecessary roughness following a late hit on Dak Prescott.
How late it was still to be determined. But the

(26:30):
NFL also in terms of COVID, they're enhanced protections. They
were put in place for all teams on Thursday. Those
will expire after the games this week, so unless there
is an outbreak within the team, those will expire. And yeah,
back to business as usual. Uh. And Minnesota quarterback the
Bashad Brenland had been listened as questionable for Monday night

(26:52):
by head coach Mike Zimmer. He is now out because
the team waived him, so he goes from starting for
the Vikings too out of a job that obviously things
not going quite right there. Uh. Friends, No State scout
scored ten straight points. They have a nineteen seventeen lead
over Utah fourteen twenty to play in the third quarter
of that contest, and the other college bowl game going

(27:14):
on right now, Alabama Birmingham has a fourteen seven lead
over Number B y U play in the first half
of that contest. As we sent it back, it is
a busy Fox Sports Saturday with Steve Hartman and Jef Squartz.
All right, well, thank you very much. We'll check in
with you a little bit later on. Alright, so I
want to share an experience I had on Thursday night.

(27:38):
Eighteen million people watch the matchup between the Chiefs and
the Chargers. By the way, that will be the last
game ever that Fox carries on Thursday Night football because
it's going to Amazon Prime next year. So all Thursday
night the only way, the only way you're gonna see
Thursday Night football moving on is with Amazon Prime. If

(27:59):
you and I have Amazon Prime, You're not gonna see
Thursday Night football. So this was Fox's last Thursday Night
game ever. Yeah, what a way to go out, right.
So I'm at the game, and of course Sofi Stadium,
much publicized six billion dollar stadium, will be hosting Super
Bowl fifty six coming up here in February. So I'm

(28:20):
gonna give you a report. Okay, this is a report
from someone that has been too many stadiums all over
the world, around the country and everything else. I give
you an update on it. Let me start with the positives.
First of all, Jeff, the sheer size of Sofi Stadium
is almost incomprehensible. You see from the outside this insane structure.

(28:40):
But what is amazing about it is when you walk
in you realize is that more than half of the stadium,
well more than half, about half the stadium's underground. So
when you walk in, you're at level three hundred, two
hundred level on level, and the field level, which are
all separate, are below ground. So when you get inside,

(29:02):
the sheer size of this place is almost incomprehensible. The
scoreboard and they wanted to take whatever they had in
Dallas or Arlington and go next level. They did. I
mean it is, but you can actually see this one
if you're a player, the one in Dallas. The problem
if you can't see anything, but the players can't see anything,
you can see everything. So that these are some of

(29:25):
the big positives. Um of course outside of and understand
this everyone. So one of the reasons the NFL was
so excited about getting an l A stadium build is
they're trying to build everything around it. So the NFL
network studios that big building, which by the way, the
top three flours are empty, so they've got plenty of
space to expand. I would imagine we're gonna see NFL

(29:46):
offices move out of New York and come to l A.
It makes sense they have like a man made lake
behind the stadium. I mean, it's it's quite a complex,
and of course they're going to continue to develop the
surrounding area in the what era. The Forum, by the way,
is a landmark, so it can't be torn down. And
the Clippers are gonna have their new arena built, which

(30:06):
is going to be across the street from the Forum.
And we're so fi stadium is so it's it's monstrous.
Okay that that is the positive. From a visual standpoint,
it is impressive. Problems. So they remember they've had an
NFL game there every week because it alternates either Rams
have a home game or the Chargers have a home game.

(30:27):
So when we're talking about this was a week fifteen
this week, so they've they've had plenty of practice of
getting people in and out of that stadium. Six billion,
spent six billion. So we're walking. We got there early,
so the gates opened at three o'clock for this Thursday
night game. Kickoff was at five twenty. We're there an
hour early. So we got there in plenty of time.

(30:49):
I with are my two boys there and twenty three
young men, and so we took you know, we wanted
to walk around the stadium, want to make severs all everything,
which we did. So we're looking a our tickets and
there's nothing on our tickets about which gate to enter
for the section that we're in, so I don't really

(31:09):
don't know what it was. Yeah, we had him on
the phone, you know that. Is that normal to have
the gate entrance on the ticket? I don't know, Well
I didn't. I didn't know because I'm we're walking around
because there's no signs outside of the stadium that's say
all right, if you're in this section, this is the
gate to go in. There's nothing. We walked the entire stadium.
Danny g can get out on this as well, because
Danny has been out there as well. So Danny, you

(31:31):
go around the stadium. There's nothing. I mean, there's entrances
that are V, I, P or not. Signage, no signage,
so there's there was an information booth though, so the
the entrance that we decided all right, we're gonna go
in here because it was cold and wet. By the way,
quick note here, this is not a dome stadium. This
is a roofed stadium. It was fifty degrees outside, it's

(31:52):
fifty degrees inside. Okay, let me they get clear. This
is not a dome stadium. It is a convertible with
the top of the windows down. Yeah, this is a
roof stadium. So whatever temperature it is outside is the
same temperature inside. But most people figure that out anyway.
So there's an information booth right there in the entrance. Like,

(32:12):
so we walked up to this guy saying, all right,
we're in section two thirty two. Is this the right gate? Sure?
Go in? All right, great, perfect, So we get in.
That's the three level, Jeff. Right. So that's the ground levels,
the three hundred levels, so we have got to go
down to level. We had to walk around everywhere to
try to figure out how to get down, but finally
we found some steps to go down to the two level. Right,

(32:34):
So we're at the two D level. Come out, I
see like two oh eight. I'm like, oh, well, it's
on the other side, but we'll just walk around. Can't
walk around because at the basically between the thirty yard
lines on both sides it's cut off for this V
I P section and they will not let you go through.
So we go to another information guy, Well, how do

(32:55):
we get to the other side. You got to get
back up to the three level. All right, So we
go back up to the three level and there's no
way to go around on the three und level. So
now I go to another guy, said how do we
get over here? And he goes, you're gonna have to
exit the stadium and then go back through, which by
the way, requires proof of vaccination. I d you know,

(33:17):
go into your pockets and take it to my I'm
losing it, Jeff, I have very little patients for this. Unbelievably,
I go to this gate where people are being let
in because we can't go out. There's not even an exit, Like,
how do we get out? We get even get out?
So I walked up to this guy, young guy, and
I said, look, we're in section two thirty two. We've
been told we would have to exit the stadium to

(33:38):
get to these seats. He looks at me without hesitation.
I don't think he knew I was. He says, I
will take you to your seats. So he breaks away
and literally passes us through three checkpoints on the three
under level. We never would have gotten through without him,
all the way finally to this unmarked escalator that took

(33:58):
us down to the set action to actually get a
start seats. I thank this guy profusely. He looked at
me and goes, You're not the only one having problems.
It is unreal. They give us six billion dollars, saying, now,
imagine chaos at a Super Bowl. Oh my. Um. The
other thing is the food is as bad as advertised,

(34:22):
and so bad so we're in this big section. The
seats I had were great. They were in the second level,
second row, right behind the goal post, so half the
game we got it right below us. You know, all
the action going on. Okay, so the seats were good,
but no one was eating food. I mean when when
when have you been to a full football stadium when

(34:43):
everyone's got loaded up with hot dogs and nobody had
any food. They were loading up on alcohol though, at
fifteen bucks of beer. Um it was they got a
lot of dogs. They it's yeah. When I went, there
was a season ticket holder sitting next to me and
he said, you'll find out the only thing worth ordering

(35:05):
here is the burrito. And we're like, yeah, we messed up.
We got pizza and the sliced pizza was sixteen dollars
and fifty cents personalize, and I don't mind. I don't
mind if it's delicious, but Jeff, it was like a Stauffer's,
like a French bread pizza, and it was as hard
as a rock. Alright, how about this. We had pizza,

(35:27):
but we figured this. So we are at three beers.
My boys and I had fifteen bucks of beer, okay,
and and fifteen bucks of beer, and then we figured
chips in caso, right. I mean it was like you
could count the chips. There were like twenty chips with
some ca soo poured over it, and like half a

(35:47):
dozen halapenos on the side. And then and then my my,
my younger son, he was always hungry, he went up
to get some popcorn. The salt level on this popcorn
was unreal. Course understandable because they want you to drink
more beer at fifty bucks of beer. Now here's some
hope for you for what's to come. They are going
to build some restaurants right outside of the stadium, and

(36:10):
there's also gonna be food trucks that line up out there.
Nobody was eating food in there. It was I've never
been to a game ever where of the people had
no food. I remember when they first when they did
like this, in the preseason, they did a whole thing
on the food. It's so far, like, yeah, they brought
these outside people in one group to sort of oversee

(36:31):
a unique menu. No one is ordering the food. The
alcoholic consumption, the bathrooms were a mess, but so so
even like hamburgers and hot dogs, like just like basic,
Like no, there's nothing basic there. If you just want
to stand up, no, not happening. So they tried to
get way too cute with everything and it's a total ball.
It's absolutely backfired. I'm giving you an example down in

(36:53):
San Diego, Like if you had a Petco Park or
this new Aztec Stadium, they have local restaurants fully up,
you know, so you know that you know the straight.
But this was a complete They blew it absolutely blood.
They'll have to figure this out for next season. So
I will forewarn you if you're gonna be going to

(37:15):
the super Bowl this year and you're gonna be impressed
by the size of this place, it is staggerings. But
but some of the logistics are an absolute nightmare, all right.
So that's that was the thing. The game itself was unbelievable,
and I will say this to Brandon Staley. The young
Chargers coach who who did not kick three field goals

(37:39):
three gimmes went for it on fourth time, four down
all three times and missed, and any one of those people, Yeah,
but any one of those early three would have won
the game because it wouldn't have gone to overtime. He
doubled down triple down after the game, basically saying, I
don't care if we lose every game. I will not
change my way. Well that's great, because you just literally

(38:00):
throw away the a f C West Championship, which they
probably would have won with home games coming up against
Houston and Denver and a roady against the Vegas Raiders. Uh,
they throw away, literally throw away a f C West championship.
You you let the a f C West runner up
coach do whatever he wants, okay, because that is obviously
has helped the Chiefs. No. Look, this is the new

(38:23):
wave of football, right, And you think to yourself, you know,
if he had gotten three of the five, and I
guess the probably implied probability of saw was three five,
Like that's what based off of the analytics, would have
been the amount of times that he had gotten. You know,
he had gotten those Uh, those conversions, and he hits
three or five, he wins the game, probably right said
he hit two or five. But remember the first game

(38:45):
they won because he was aggressive game they tried against
the Ravens. Blew up in their face. This thing is
backfire and it looks and the Chiefs had one too, right,
they had They had a Mahome's dick at the ball
right on throat out to hardman Um. He did not
look good, by the way until that. Until he did though,
he didn't look all right. Hold on the other side, Yeah,

(39:10):
we got a lot to cover here. Because all right,
we'll continue on. We'll break this down. The Chiefs, by
the way, are currently the one seed in the a
f C. Are they the best team in the conference.
We're gonna tell you coming up next, Steve Irvan, Jeff Schwartz,
Fox Football Saturday. All right, we don't have a lot
of time coming up to the top of the let's
continue after the Chiefs. Miraculous, by the way, I had

(39:33):
the Chiefs to cover and the over in that game.
I look dead on both of those and came away
a double winner. So that was had. The Unders were
scored in the last quarter in a in a drive
I had over under on fifty four I had on
that game, Chief's minus three and I covered both. So
there you go. It was a nice, big, big night
for me, especially being at the game. Um, I'll put

(39:54):
it this way. The numbers were pretty spectacular at the end,
but being at the game and watching uh my homes
throw the ball, he's got some problems. He's he's still
not right, Jeff. I'm telling you. The numbers look good
and a lot of what were some breakdowns in the
Chargers defense that you know, accounted for two long receptions
for Travis Kelsey. But it wasn't just the one miss

(40:17):
throw to Hardman, which was almost inexplicable. Remember they could
have gotten a first down. They had fourth and half
a yard and he throws the ball halfway across it was.
It was unbelievable. Um, So I I I'm still I'm
still not sold on the Chief's right now. Something to
me still seems a miss. Yeah, he's not back to
where he was last year. That's very clear, right, he

(40:39):
just he's just not um. But but the seven percent
of what he is is good enough for three seventy
five yard Touchdohn drives back to back to back and
win a game on the road like this, right, Um,
And if you just assume that every one of these games,
he just sort of gets a little bit closer to

(41:01):
being what he was, which is what I think is happening. Right,
This is the best the offense has looked non Raiders
quick on you allized Derwin James went down. How many
catches Kelsey had before he went down? One? He had nine? Afterwards,
Chargers had nobody to cover Kelsey. Well, the Chiefs think
leaves the NFL and quarterback pressures not play like I okay,

(41:23):
like everyone has injuries, right the Chief's best corner was
out and their best pass rusher and they're they're back
to their third string right tackle. I mean, like you
over the Patriots right now? Yes? I would. Wow. Um,
that's that's what football was like. You have to overcome
injury sometimes. The Chiefs did it on the road gets
a really good team Chargers are. I think Herbert is

(41:44):
going to be one of the best quarterbacks to ever
play this game, right, I mean he has all the
physical tools. Um. But in the end, right, he had
an opportunity with a minute ten left, two time outs.
You mean about forty yards just didn't just didn't do
it right. This is why I don't know Crime River
for this over time purest stuff. Like you, guys, you
don't care about overtime rules. You just care that the

(42:06):
quarterback you like or you like watching it doesn't get
a chance to win the game. No one ever says
Davis Mills didn't get a chance to win the game.
You always say about Tom Brady and Rogers and Herbert.
Come on, guys, be honest. All right on the other side,
I agree, I got more to fall upon that, by
the way. Plus we'll break it all down the whole
new schedule Week fifteen in the NFL coming up next.
All right, rolling on on, This a been big Saturday.

(42:28):
We got all kinds of college football going on today.
We got a big NFL game we're gonna get to
later on this evening, Patriots on the road against the Colts.
We got an adjusting NFL schedule. We're gonna get to
one quick note here. We just watched the end of
the Montana State South Dakota State FCS semifinal game. Montana

(42:49):
State moves on to the FCS championship game, and this
game is a Montana You know they have home field.
That's how it works there. And you just see massive
crowd on the field, no mask in side. Obviously the
uh the interview is being done face to face in
the quarterbacks leaning in because you can hear because there's

(43:10):
so many people packed around them. And I feel like
here in l A, I'm I'm like living in an
alternate universe. Like people who are going to come to
l A, whether let's say they're coming to the Rose
Bowl or if they're coming to the Super Bowl, and
it's gonna be like a time capsule, like what year
is this? Because what's going on here is obviously not

(43:32):
going on anywhere I'm seeing right now. I guess maybe
in parts of New York, um, but there doesn't seem
to be any of this going on anywhere else. I
don't know what's making us special New York City, but
right now, California is the only statewide mandate. Statewide mandate
for mask wearing that started on December fifteenth, will go

(43:56):
until January. I understand, knowing that you work well with
the PAC twelve network, how's that going to work for
all those Utah fans are gonna be coming out to
the Rose Bowl? Are they are ready to be massed up,
show their I D show their vaccination cards, get tested
and everything else. So theyre all ready for that. Well,
my co host on my pack of Today radio show

(44:18):
Money through Friday on Sirius xm Um, he's a Utah
gratty lives in Salt Lake City and there they've sold
thirty one thousand tickets on the Utah site alone. That
so that doesn't count, you know, uh, secondary market tickets
or anywhere else that Utah fans are getting their tickets.
So Utah fans first ever Rose Bowl right there, traveling
to Pasadena, and it's gonna be a great time for

(44:39):
them and a great opportunity experience. And you know, Sean
is worried that there will be even worse than a
mass mandate. Um, you know, that the game will be
without fans. I think that's a little bit too much.
I mean, it's already December eighteenth. I don't think they're
gonna limit outdoor fans. But maybe there's there's there's limitations
on gatherings of Utah Lum and other parties that are

(45:01):
set up for the weekend. But yeah, I mean Utah
obviously it's not what what California is, and I think
people are gonna be and I'm sure I guess I
probably could go in Utah's athletic website and see what
they're telling their fans. The conditions of the ticket sales
are right as far as hey, these are the you
know what you have to comply with when you go
to California. But I think it's a real concern for

(45:22):
Utah fans that they are just not They're not like,
they're not California right now, and they're not used to
the regulations in California has and they obviously want to
code the game. They want to they want to celebrate,
they want to enjoy their time there, and I am
I'm worried about that for for them, um well, I
mean again, and like I just say so. The state

(45:43):
wide mandate they went in last Wednesday. In San Diego,
no one wears mask. I I live in San Diego
during the week, go to the gym, there's nobody has
a mask, and there's no requirement of anything going on.
And all of a sudden, as suddenly everybody around San
Diego was scrambling to find their mask because unless they've
been coming up to the l a area. They haven't

(46:04):
worn a mask in about seven or eight months. Ralph
wants to jump in here, Ralph Irvan, Well, just one
thing related to what Jeff saying. They did have requirements
for everything in at the patchwelve Championship in Las Vegas. Well,
the conference did. But this is not a conference event, right,
I mean there is it a conference? Well no, but
I'm saying, like, you know events that were Allegiance Stadium,

(46:26):
you had to show proof of vaccination and all these
other things. Well, I'm sure you're gonna have to do
at the Rose Bowl, but of course, yeah. But my
point is, like, right Cycle Stadium, you haven't had to
do that. I was in Vegas. I was in Vegas
or that NFF College Football Hall of Fame. UM, they
wanted people to wear a mask. Not everybody did. They
didn't ask for This was an indoor event, over two

(46:47):
thousand people in a room. Nobody wore a mask. No
one was asked to show any vaccination cards, and no
one thought anything of it because you had people coming
from all over the country where there are no requirements.
So that was a week and a half ago. That
was at that event put on, by the way, by
the National Football Foundation at some point, obviously there has

(47:07):
to be a return to life, right at returned normal
life and finding a way and so, um, I don't
know what the solution has. Just followed my local, my
local rules in Charlotte, North Carolina. I think you're still
wearing a mask. I see the requirements. I put it on.
I'm going to Vegas, um the new year. Uh, I'll
follow the rules there if they have them. And if

(47:28):
I go to California and it's just what I'm I'm
used to have to wear in Charlotte still, So that's
but yeah, if you're not, if you hadn't warn a
mask in a while, you hadn't show your past. You know,
my my wife was in New York City last weekend, um,
and yeah that to show the vaccine, the vaccine card everywhere.
So yeah, but I just hope, you know, for for again,
for Utah fans and for Ohio State fans, everyone at
the Rose Bowl, I hope it still goes on as

(47:51):
as it shouldn't then the Super Bowl. Right, let me
let me ask you this. Okay, the NFL is all powerful, right,
and we we all agree on that the NFL has
powers way beyond normal humans. Um, so let's say the NFL.
Let's let's say California extends their mask mandates for another
month all of a sudden that runs into Super Bowl week. Um,
we don't know. Is there're gonna be a radio row.

(48:14):
I mean there is as of now, but yeah, I
don't know if he'll remain and I think they would
just wear a mask. And the only reason I have
a radio row is if people actually come to radio row.
Otherwise I can do phone interviews without having all my
ass up to l A. That would be quite easy.
What do you think the NFL would jump in and say, look,
l A, come on, let's get serious here. We're the NFL,

(48:35):
this is the Super Bowl. If you want to lose
your Super Bowl, we'll move it quite quickly here. So
I don't care what the rules are for the rest
of the world, but we're the NFL and we set
the rules for ourselves. So yeah, that you adhere to
our rules that will lay down or we're just gonna
move the game. So here's my guess. A lot of
NFL stadiums this year requiring vaccines, so I don't think

(48:58):
they're going to mind if they make people at the
Super Bowl require a vaccine to wear a mask? Now
are they going to enforce the mask waring? It's the question,
right if they say, hey, radio Row, you must wear
a mask at Radio Row, which is might be a
reasonable thing to they ask, I think that's your point.
Probably gonna happen. But are they gonna enforce people not
wearing a mask? Because it doesn't matter if you have

(49:21):
a rule, are you going to force the rule? Right?
I mean, we're both parents, right, we can tell our kids,
but we don't actually enforce what we tell our kids.
We don't have there's no consequences for setting boundaries, setting rules.
They're gonna break the rule, right, And so the question
is whether or not at Radio Row. Let's use that
for example, for those of whom know at Super bowls
uh for media, essentially there's a giant convention center all

(49:43):
radio stations and now fans are I wonder if that
might change this year for fans. Well, First of all, again,
like I said, radio role is only a good use,
and I don't do it anymore because it's wasted time
and I haven't done it in years. I gave up
because there's no reason have for you. Most of the
people that are gonna go to Radio Row, they don't

(50:03):
even go anymore. That was pre pandemic. They're not gonna
show up there have to wear a mask or whatever,
especially not like in l A like Fox to studio.
No one's gonna from Fox and exactly. So now I like,
I like going now to just mingle with friends, like
I've you don't. Yeah, We're like I don't have to
do Like the first first couple of years times out

(50:24):
of the NFL, I did like fifty interviews on Radio
Row just to kind of get my name out there.
But like I've gone to point now we're just to
go hang on with my friends. So I get to
see over years, I've covered twenty six why I was
I was coming super Bowls before there was a Radio Row. Actually,
Mike and the Mad Dog and My show where the
original Radio Row super Bowl twenty six in Tampa. They

(50:46):
had a table and I had a table set up
next to them. That was Radio Row. That was the
entire Radio Row way back in the point is the
NFL is gonna do whatever they can't take. They're not
They're not gonna make it because there's gonna be a
lot of people around the NFL saying what are they
doing in l A. No, I don't think so now
where we come from. Uh, And their NFL is gonna

(51:07):
put their foot down saying, look, you either play by
our rules, um, or we're just not gonna have a
Super Bowl here. How's that gonna work for you? Um?
And so we'll see how that plays out. But right now,
the Rose Bowl is definitely the one that's in the
in the web because the current mask mandate for the
state of California runs until January. So we'll see how

(51:28):
that plays out. All right, all right, On the other side,
I want to start breaking down the game tonight, the
New England Patriots on the road against the Indianapolis Colts.
Two teams coming up. Buys, we're talking earlier about the Chiefs.
You said right now the Chiefs are indeed the best
team in the a f C and your opinion, So
where does that put New England? Will break it down

(51:51):
the big Saturday night game coming up next, Steve Rben,
Jeff Schwartz, This Fox Football Saturday. Now, normally we've been
talking a lot of college football, and we have some
college football today, but the main game today is in
the National Football of course, we were supposed to have

(52:11):
two games today. Uh So the original schedule this week, Jeff,
We're gonna have one Thursday game, to Saturday games, twelve
Sunday games, and one Monday game. Now we have one
Thursday game, one Saturday game, ten Sunday games, two Monday games,
and to Tuesday games. So the Raiders Brown's game that

(52:31):
was supposed to be played today has been moved to
Monday and then to Sunday games. Seahawks at the Rams
and Washington at the Eagles have been moved to Tuesday.
But that does give us all the spotlight on one
game tonight, and that's the Patriots on the road against
the Colts, the Colts team that has favored at home.

(52:52):
I've been waiting for your breakdown on this one thing
about the Colts. You got the hottest running back in
the league. I think he deserves to be in the
m VP conversation. This guy ends up the year with
at twenty three touchdowns, you know, two thousand yards. How
could he not be in the m v P conversation.
And the amazing stat about Carson Wentz to me is
twenty two touchdowns, five picks. He's taking care of the

(53:15):
football unfortunately for the Colts the three and four at
home this year. Meanwhile, you have a Patriots team with
a rookie quarterback who is yet to taste defeat on
the road. So give us the Jeff Schwartz breakdown Patriots
at the Colts. What's gonna happen tonight? Jeff, Well, here's
one thing that I know. Um, when Belichick has time,

(53:38):
he's very good. Right, He's a He's ad two weeks
prepaired for this game, so it was a cold culture
by two. And what Belichick does best is he takes
away your best option in offense. Right, So he's a
defensive coach obviously, And what what what do the teams
that a lot of teams he's played, they have done
best this year's run the football. And when he's faced

(53:58):
one of these top rushers in her four net Zeke,
Elliott uh and Alvin Kimara, he's allowed less than than
nine yards all those guys. So the Cults are very
reliant on John Jonathan Taylor being their guy, right, And
and the kind of the offense runs through him that
makes Carson wentz is life a lot easier. So what
happens if you take away that option. What becomes of

(54:21):
Carson Wentzon and this Colts offense. And that's why I
think the Patriots win this game is because I just
don't still trust Carson Wentz susan at best an average
quarterback right now, to beat New England. I trust Matt
Jones in a very controlled game plan. He's talking to
the ball three times, but in a kind of run
the football, play action, passed, take care of the football

(54:42):
to be a low scoring game in my opinion. But
I just I get the better coach, the more kind
of controlled game plan. We've seen over and over again
what Belichick does when given given rest, like I said,
and when given the opportunity to take away you're not
You're number one. You have to be able to do
two things well most often to beat a good Belichick team.

(55:03):
Right Kansas City has done it right. They can They
can run and pass. You know we saw obviously going
back to Super Bowl when when Carson went to the
Eagles pudding right running pass. You gotta be able to
be more dynamic Cowboys this year, right running pass um.
I just don't know if Wentz is that good enough
to make it this a Wentz game to to win
if John the Taylor gets gets seventy five yards. All right,

(55:27):
it's a cliche, but it's a cliche because it means something,
and that is defense wins championships. And right now, in
their last five wins, and the Patriots came in on
a seven game winning streak, they have given up a
total of thirty six points total. Actually, yeah, thirty six

(55:49):
points in the last five games six seven, zero and ten.
And those weren't all dog teams. I mean they one
at the Bills, they beat the Titans at home, beat
the Rounds at home. Their defense is playing at that level.
So I want to go back to this whole idea
of Chiefs versus Patriots. You just made the point that
the one thing that Belichick does better than any other

(56:12):
coach out there is to take away your number one option.
If he takes away the number one option with the Chiefs,
which is Patrick Mahomes, how are the Chiefs going to
score against a defense as good as this Patriots defense is. Well,
it's not so easy as taking away just Pat Mahomes, right,

(56:32):
because we've seen when they've played before. You know when
you have it's not just Pat Mahomes, right, it's Travis
Kelsey and it's Tyreek Hill. You you take away both
those guys and then take away Mahomes and then take
away Hardman or a running game. Right, I mean, if
you take away Jonathan Taylor, you don't have Travis Kelsey
and Tyree Kilt deal with on the other side, right,

(56:54):
you have Carson Wentz and t Y Hilton and Jack Doyle. Right,
it's a little different situation. Um, But as you mentioned, defense,
the Chief's defense is pretty good and playing really well
right now. And I just think that that you have, again,
if they were to play in the Exchanging game or
whatever that was, you have a better quarterback and better
personnel just overall with with Um with the Chiefs. And

(57:18):
so that's why I would take the Chiefs. Yeah, I
I not so sure. Here here's again why I always
get back to Belichick and you know, just again close
your eyes and imagine that Tom Brady is still the
quarterback right now instead of Mac Jones. The formula for
their success is in place. They usually get better as
the season rolls along. I mean that's sort of been

(57:39):
the ammal for the Patriots why they would always end
up as a one or two seed. And by the way,
being the one seed now means everything because you're the
only team that gets a by. Let me ask that
they'll stop there for a second. Okay, being a one
or two seed and getting that first round by wasn't
always a good thing. We saw the Ravens just a
couple of years ago be the number one overall seed

(57:59):
and they get bounced in the first round by the Titans.
In fact, over the history, Uh, you didn't have a
lot of one versus one's matched up in Super Bowl
over the years. Can it be a detriment or a
major advantage either the Chiefs or Patriots. Sorry Titans fans
on not putting here in the conversation right now to
be the one seed and get that by as opposed

(58:21):
to opening Uh, you know I have an opening game
at home against the seventh seed. I mean that much
of an advantage. I think it depends what team you are.
I'd say for Kansas City, they could go on the
road and win a bunch of playoff games. For New England,
I the NBA supreme advantage to to have a week
off and only play at home like that feels. You know,

(58:41):
it depends, So you're ignoring the fact that there's six
and oh at home or on the road, and there
are three and four on the at home this year
the Patriots. If you if you are, if you're a
Patriots fan right now, would you rather have to have
to win three playoff games or two playoff games to
make a super Bowl? Well, here's my question. Overall, look
through fourteen week so this NFL season, Jeff, road teams

(59:02):
have won the majority of games. Now thet's stop. Right
through fourteen weeks, road teams have won the majority of
the games. The page also had the Cowboys and and
the and the Bucks at home too, right, so some
of that is just the opponents they played. Um, I
think if you're a Patriots fan, you'd rather have only
two games to make a super Bowl than three. If

(59:22):
you if you don't have the bye, you have to
win three games. Kens City would would take the buy
if if the Pagrits don't want it, hey give it
to Kansas City. They'll they'll gladly take a bye. Um
and and Steve. Until last season, um, we hadn't seen
a super Bowl with a team we didn't have a
bye since because remember to two teams out of buying

(59:43):
and so it's still very important. It's rest, it's recovery,
it's just allows you to take a deep breath. So
it's still you should still strive for that, by all right.
So the boy means something you believe that's still and
you have all the numbers bear it out. Like I said,
when you had a one and two seat both and
joined a bye week, the majority of them since twelve,

(01:00:03):
all of them were either one or two seats getting
to the Super Bowl. Um, as far as the Colts
are concerned, Jeff, So right now, the way the standings
are in the a f C. You got the Chiefs
got their win this week against the Chargers, so they
pretty much have wrapped up the a f C West.
You got the Patriots, Titans, and Ravens right now leading
their divisions. Ravens, you feel like they're teetering on disaster

(01:00:25):
at this point there. It's just the injuries are too
much for them. By the way, they're only one in
three in their division. But still, you got the Chargers
at eight and six. You got the Colts, the Bills,
the Browns, the Bengals, and the Broncos all at seven
and six, and they have the Steelers at six, six
and one. So of all those seven and sixteens, only
two get there. So let's eliminate the Steelers, Colts, Bills, Browns, Bengals, Broncos.

(01:00:50):
Right now, which which two of those five do you
feel are destined for a postseason? I think it's likely
the Colts could win the division store right, I mean
I don't know. I think does that depend on how
if they win tonight or not. Well, let's look at
the rest of their schedule. So let's assume and as
you predict, they lose tonight, then they end up they
have at the Cardinals that side of gimme Raiders at

(01:01:11):
home at the Jags. So they have one brutal game
on the road against Arizona. If you still think that's
a brutal game, well they if they lose tonight, they
need Tennessee to lose to Pittsburgh to stay alive. I
mean Tennessee is that they're so beat up to I'm
not I'm not sure they win this weekend? Okay, So, um,
what happened in the Bills. The Bills have now lost

(01:01:32):
three of their last four, four in their last six.
They're at the Patriots next week. Well, what what happened
with them is offensively, they they they thought Josh Allen's
improvement last year was going to be what he is
for the rest of his career, and he has played
more like he did in twenty nineteen. They stopped bringing
the football because that's not what they do well. Their

(01:01:53):
offensive line is not really built to run the football,
so they just kind of stopped doing it. Um, and
they're very well to mention offense, it's defensively they've played well, um,
but they've played kind of bad teams until they finally
played a good team this past weekend and we saw
what happened their. Dude, their year is very odd. So
if you look at their at their their wins and
losses outside the Colts game where they got blown out,

(01:02:17):
which is the outlier of the entire season, they've either
lost close games by three points, by four points, by
three points, or they've won by fifteen plus points. Those
are like the two options they have, UM, and so
they're very kind of up, up and down that manner.
It's just theyre offensively not as good and then they
had some bad Like, dude, there their plus a hundred
and thirty eight in point differential there's seven and six

(01:02:38):
Atlanta six and seven, and they're minus a hundred and
eight and point potential. So I had a little one
liner about the Falcons like how are they still alive?
And they're and and the Falcons are thirty second inefficiency,
so like there's just a lot of of oddity with that.
So it's not you know, I must record wise. Right now,
they're tied for the final spot in the NFC. That

(01:03:00):
so you're asking you what the a f C. Okay,
so I think the Browns win the division in the FC.
So you have them beating the Raiders now they have
they have a coming road games coming up. They are
not exactly easy. The Browns have coming up here back
to back road games against the Packers. The Packers and
then they have the Steelers, who they should beat in
the end with the Bengals, Um, it's not gonna be

(01:03:21):
the Steelers. The Ravens are too beat up. They cannot
continue to win. Hardback give him a ton of crad
for what he's done. And the Bengals to me. Um,
the three point dogs this weekend against against the Broncos
still have the Chiefs to play in the Bengals might
finish one and one and three to end the season.
There's a little trumpossibility for that, so I think it's
default the Browns. Alright, So Broncos Bengals. Did you like

(01:03:43):
in that game? Broncos Broncos. Well that they get that,
they get date in six. Now their last three games
would be all division games at the Raiders and at
this point, who knows what the Raiders mindset is. Then
they're at the Chargers the game the Chargers should win,
and then the Broncos hosts the Chiefs. So that's what

(01:04:04):
they got left. But they would be in control of
their own destiny still to get into the postseason. Do
I mean? Well, seriously, I'm both conferences right now, going
into this week fifteen, it is bunched together like I've
never seen before. I mean, we mentioned in the a
f C you've got five teams sitting at seven and six.
In the NFCU five teams at six and seven. It

(01:04:29):
is very bunched. But how many teams are you would
you put your money on to win the Super Bowl
right now? None of my money I'll put your money
up though, So there's really there's really three teams I
trust right now to win the Super Bowl, maybe three
and a half teams. All right, well, we'll get to
all of that on the other side, but first let's
find out what's trending right now. As we welcome back

(01:04:53):
ralph whatever, Ralphie, we will have NFL football, don't worry
about that and win, and it's more and more likely
thanks to new COVID testing procedures. That's gonna focus on
asymptomatic players. Symptomatic players, Are you sick? Are you not?
They're redefining the definition of sick and as such, if

(01:05:14):
you're asymptomatic, you're not going to be tested. Therefore, you're
not testing, You're not going to test positive. You're gonna
be able to play on Sunday's right now. You can
keep an eye as players continue to be activated on
NFL teams as they have gone through the procedure, so
we will see how that progresses. I reported you guys
earlier about Minnesota quarterback but Shod Brelan. Turns out that

(01:05:36):
he was involved in a scuffle in practice that involved
him taking off his cleats yelling at players. Coaches. Players
tried to calm him down, he swung at them, and
as such, he was fired. He was waived on the
spot today and uh that is done. So uh he
has waived goes from starter too unemployed that quickly not

(01:05:58):
worth Yeah, it uh bad scene there in Minnesota. Now
good scene. It's college bowl season, of course, that's great. Uh.
The New Mexico Bowl is eight twenty four to play
in the fourth quarter Fresno State at lead over you
tap and what's been a very entertaining game again minutes

(01:06:18):
to play, you tap with the ball deep in their
own And meanwhile at the Independence Bowl Shreveport, Louisiana, well,
let's just say that it's going on. The computer doesn't
want to tell us what's going on there is Uh
it is h u a B with a lead over
number thirteen B y U. That game is at the

(01:06:40):
half earlier today, big performance from Western Kentucky baby Appalachian
State fifty nine thirty eight and on the college hardwood,
eleven fifty four to play in the second half, Number
two Duke rolling against Elon. Number ten Southern calif One
lead over Georgia Tech eight fourteen to play in the
second half. There in eleven forty to play in the

(01:07:01):
first half, Number Xavier lead over Mark Kit As we
sent it back now it is Steve Hartman, Jeff Schwartz,
plenty of football to talk about on this December Senturday. Well, Ralph,
you're absolutely right. The question is how much football we
are gonna see. We are teetering on disaster around the

(01:07:23):
NFL with the major outbreak of COVID cases. The Washington
football team, Jeff came out one of their doctors and
said the twenty one of the twenty three players that
had tested positive for COVID were perfectly healthy, that they
could have practiced. There was absolutely nothing wrong with him,
one out of three. By the way, this just came out.
So the NFL has basically said, you know what, forget

(01:07:46):
it if you if you don't show any symptoms, you're
you're gonna play, whether you test positive or not. However,
the NFL says that Monday at two o'clock Eastern, any
quote unquote high risk layer who wants to opt out
because they're not comfortable with the new rules can opt
out for the rest of the season. Okay, I don't

(01:08:07):
think many will do that now, so how many players
will do that? Look, this is all about your money
games coming down the stretch. Obviously, the playoff games. Can
you imagine if they had not implemented this rule. And
let's go back to the idea that the Super Bowl
is being played at so Fi Stadium in a state
that is hardcore as far as testing and adhering to

(01:08:28):
rules when it comes to COVID mask and everything else.
Imagine literally on a Wednesday or Thursday, because he's COVID
test could pop up at any point and you have
let's say chiefs uh Tampa repeat in the Super Bowl
and Tom Brady and uh Patrick Mahomes either test positive
or due to COVID protocol rules, would not be able

(01:08:51):
to play in the game. Okay, so that's not happening,
and the NFL is jumping on this as quickly as possible.
Any concerned it is moving forward? Uh? Do you think
any players are really concerned about it? Because by and large,
the overwhelming majority of players are vaccinated and the overwhelming
up amount of players who are testing positive have been vaccinated.

(01:09:15):
So UM, any concerns moving forward? As far as the
overall health of this league, I am not concerned about it. Um,
you know I am. I've been precautionary during the pandemic.
I have not gotten COVID I have gotten my booster.
I've done what it's asked of me. I've tried to

(01:09:36):
be the best I can if everyone else, right, so
we can kind of get back to to life. And
this is it feels like COVID is gonna be here, right,
different variants of different waves, and you know, people, no
one changed their mind on what their beliefs are about COVID, right,
and so at some point you have to figure out
the best way, the healthiest way to continue to live
life with COVID. And the NFL is determined a that

(01:10:00):
they can all make their money as well. That's a
part of this. Let's not be naive about it, right
that uh, and that's what college football has done this
season as well, so you're not the only one to do.
This is that if you're if you're vaccinated, that's the key, right,
If you're vaccinated and you're asymptomatic, they will not test you.
They will not test you because right now they've been
doing that, right, I've been testing everyone once a week

(01:10:20):
if you're vaccinated. If you're unvaccinated, every day and then
have you become a close contact, they will test you
as well. So they're saying, look, we're going. We're doing
what college football has done. We're doing what our doctors
tell us is, Look, if you're asymptomatic and you're vaccinated,
you're not as likely to spread COVID, you're not as

(01:10:40):
likely to infect others, and so you can continue playing.
And if to see it's c y, A, it's c y,
but it's also a way to start moving towards finding
the best way possible to live with COVID. You might
not like that answer everybody. You might not like it,
you might love it. I don't know, but I just
know that the NFL is trying to do two things.

(01:11:01):
Play their games, make their money. That's the same thing.
And I'll phously find the healthiest way for this to continue.
And well it's also interesting to meet Jeff here. Just
to jump in is that on Thursday, going into week fifteen,
they had implemented all these new roles, no indoor meetings,
indoor mass role players, no more than players President And

(01:11:22):
in one weekend, a matter of two days, everything that
was adopted on Thursday going to week fifteen is now
off the books as soon as week fifteen is over. Yeah,
I just I think they did a complete one eight
on this in a forty eight hour span. Well, here's
here's the thing that that it's kind of frustrated me
about the way we've talked about There's many things, but

(01:11:42):
one thing about just in just in general, not even
just for COVID. But you have you have one way
you approach something and there's a set of facts, or
you have an opinion about something, and then you're presented
with new data and you change that opinion. You change
that the way you operate, you change your product calls,
and everyone says, oh, you changed so quickly, how dare you.

(01:12:04):
It's like, well, I got new data. Of course you'd
be flexible, right, You have to change when new data
is shown up. And the NFL, I think, said hey,
we have a huge outbreak. Let's just kind of lets
everyone just not go to the facility, right, Let's let's
go back to what we did. Let's slow everything down,
let's try to stop the spread. That took two days.
They got their doctors together, they got the team personnel together,

(01:12:26):
they got the NFLPA together, and they figured out what
their protocols will be moving forward, and said, okay, we're
done with doing that. This is what we're doing now
let's go play football. That's what they did when when
they had time to sit back think about what they're doing.
So one of it originally was like, Okay, we're a
little panicked. We're gonna go back to last year's protocols.
It's not that hard to do virtual meetings. Everyone did

(01:12:47):
it last year. We're gonna wear masks, we're just away
from each other, and we're going to make sure that
we figure out a way to proceed with the season.
They did. They eliminated what they had put in place
Friday or a teeming on Wednesday, and now the this
is the new reality of football. Is there going to
have again unvaccinated players tested every day a symptomats? Vaccinated
players with no symptoms are never going to be tested

(01:13:10):
unless I guess you're asked for it. I don't know, well,
I guess their the idea here is is that they
are going to step up now. I don't know if
they're gonna adhere to this U as far as observing
whether or not somebody has symptoms, testing to see you,
taking your temperature or whatever, you know, I mean, it's
pretty clear if someone has the sniffles in the locker

(01:13:31):
room when they did the day before. I mean, we're
not dummies. I mean people could see. Did that ever
bother you when back in the days of pre COVID
and a guy is like hacking up a lung and
they if you had the flu, they would send you
home because they didn't want the flu that spread through
the right. Yeah, so well no they didn't. They Did
you ever line up against somebody that was sniffling hacking

(01:13:53):
up a long You're like, dude, come on, man, are
you serious? No? No, not during a game? No, No,
I never saw that. No, I saw other things. I
was like to choose alright, but every buddy, um, but
never never. So look again, the NFL is not perfect, um,
and they're trying to find a way to get through
this as best as possible and play other games. Yet
it's how college football did it this year. The NBA

(01:14:15):
might go in that direction. By the way, the irony
today of the Kyrie Irving thing is just it's beautiful, um,
And it's just, uh, the NBA might do this as well,
and maybe there'll be you know, And I was talking
to my wife about this too, right, she's in healthcare,
and and you know, they don't they don't test unless
you're and everyone have to be vaccinated at her job.
They don't test unless you're symptomatic too, right, So that

(01:14:36):
is how other companies are doing it. And it's interesting
because the union actually asked for more testing, right, the
union is one they want more and more. Well, the
the union does, but it feels like the players are
kind of against Like the players are like I think
a lot of us, Steve, that are like, you know what,
I'm just done with this, right, Like we it's here,
Let's find the best way to make it work. It's

(01:14:59):
like we can't. We gotta figure out what to do
in life. Man, we can't just let this be. Um,
it's here, It's not going anywhere, all right, we all
agree there's still a lot of gray area when it
comes to COVID. I'll tell you where there's no gray area.
That is the future of Urban Meyer as the coach
of the Jacksonville Jaguars that is now etched in stone.

(01:15:19):
He is now an x NFL coach. What went wrong
everything Jacksonville get away with not paying him another set?
We'll get to that up coming up next. Steve Harbin
Jeff Schwartz brought to you by one of our favorite cities,
Las Vegas, the greatest arena on earth. Every game, match, race,
and competition it is always on whoever you root for,

(01:15:42):
whatever sports you love to watch, The biggest games are
even bigger in Vegas, So make sure to plan your
trip today at visit Las Vegas dot com. One guy
that could be there soon is Urban Meyer. He's got
a lot of time on his hands after one of
the most infamous runs. Short Runs is an NFL coach.
In his story, this was a disaster from day one.

(01:16:03):
It almost appeared to me in the end that he
was doing everything possible to get fired from this job,
knowing that he had this long term deal. But now Jacksonville,
you know, doing their homework saying no, no, no, no,
we got cause I can't wait to see how this
plays out. It'll end up a settlement or whatever. He
won't maybe get the full term of his contract. He's

(01:16:24):
still gonna get plenty of money from Jacksonville. But what
what do we learn about this hiring of Urban Meyer
by Jacksonville That sounds the warning to any other NFL
coach and may have similar thoughts on which direction to
go with their next head coach. Um, that just make

(01:16:44):
sure they want the job. I think I think that's
to understand that this is not college football, right, is
that these are adults you're dealing with, and you can't
have the controlling power that you have in college football
over these adults and over the code. Just by the
way he has coaches, I know he braided them. First
of all, you you hired them, right, so you're braiding

(01:17:04):
coaches that you hired, but also also that you know
some of the coaches he had as we are super
Bowl winners, they want super bowls, were theyve been anf
C A, f C NCY championship games. Like, we're all
adults here, man, we're all trying to win. We're all
in this goal together. And being someone who is who
is hard is fine, but there is a fine line
between that, right, And so, um, you have to be

(01:17:26):
able to be you know, tough and motivating and and
but also understand that there's some compassion you did in
this right and there needs to be I understand that
this is a it's you're working together even though you
are the boss. He just kind of never got that.
And with some of his hires and personnel moves and things,
and understand that things you say as a coach camera

(01:17:49):
when when you say when you draft a running back
in the first round and say, yeah, we draft him
to be our third down running back, It's like, do
you understand the job? Because that that is what you
do in college with your fourth five star running back, right,
because songs do in the NFL. In the NFL, you
you don't waste a first round traffic on a third
down running back. There's no value in that, right, And

(01:18:09):
so it just spiral downwards and downwards. Util obviously it
was no longer able for me keep his job. But
he actually just did an interview with Ian Rapport of
NFL Network, and so there's some quotes that have come
out from this Um and just kind of took no
accountability a little bit, which kind of, um, not surprising,
I guess, but uh just you know, said like, you know,

(01:18:31):
some of the things that were put out of him
weren't true. Um spoke nicely about about Lawrence as well. Um,
but this it just it didn't He says, I think
I think the college has changed quite a bit, he said,
just society has changed. You know, how hard you're pushed.
I believe there's greatness and everyone. It's a coach's job

(01:18:52):
to find the greatness. However you do it positive encouragement,
pushing them to be greater, making them work harder, identifying flaws,
and trying to when I think everything so fragile right now,
that includes coaching staffs. When I got into coaching, coaches
weren't making this kind of money, they didn't have agents.
Everything is so fragile where it used to be team, team, team.
I remember talking about it in staff meetings three days ago.

(01:19:12):
I got into this profession because I had the greatest
high school coach. Was all about team, all about the huddle.
That's Urban Meyer. By the way, the twenties seventeen Jacksonville
Jaguars are going down in history. Is one of the
greatest anomalies in the history of the NFL. Think about this.
In the last eleven years eleven through the Jacksonville Jaguars

(01:19:35):
have lost at least ten games every single year except one.
And not only did they win ten games that year,
they actually made it all the way to the conference
championship game. It was also a year in which they
were fifth in the league in points allowed end points scored,
second in the league in total offense and total defense,
and you have all the years leading up to that year,

(01:19:55):
and every year since they've been near the bottom in
both that. I I don't know if I've ever seen
a year standout quite like that one year when they
convinced themselves that hey, Blake Bortles actually played pretty well
in the postseason, we'll keep him. Um, I don't know
what to say. I mean, you have an owner that
obviously wants to win, but everything he's done has been

(01:20:17):
a disaster, and I don't know how they recover. Look,
you couldn't. The biggest, biggest danger moving for Jacksonville was
the development of Trevor Lawrence. After throwing four picks in
his last start and getting shut out of that game,
you can't do any more damage to this guy. He
is your future. So now what do you do? I mean,
if you're Jacksonville, if you're advising this owner of what's

(01:20:40):
the next new move to make after this disaster? Which
direction are you going? So there's a couple of directions. Um,
Byron Leftwich right, Tampa Bay's offensive coordinator. Who who does
call the place in Tampa Bay? Right? We will talk
about this is part of you know what he calls
the place and right. Um, Jim Caldwell has been mentioned.

(01:21:01):
Jim cal was a fantastic head coach. He has a
winning record career. How many guys are walking around his
ex coaches actually have a winning record, and he wanted Detroit. Yeah,
I played with him for a very short time in Destroit.
Love Caldwell. I don't hire him in a heartbeat. You know,
Eric the Enemies a possibility as well, But this higher
should be made very simply in the best interest of

(01:21:24):
Trevor Lawrence. No one else on the roster. Whenever you
hire is in the best entrance interest of that young quarterback.
End of story. So if it's Jim Caldwell, if it's
if it's Byron Left which if it's Eric the Enemy,
if it is, um, I'm trying to have a Joe.
I mean, Joe Brady's not getting the job, but Joe

(01:21:45):
Brady right, like, just just just an offense someone specifically
who could be a head coach obviously, but to work
with Trevor Lawrence, that's what you have to do. You
mentioned Jim Caldwell, He backed about nine and sevens right
his last two years. Indeed, Troy nine and seven nine
and seven since then, six and ten, three, twelve and one,
five and eleven, one, eleven and one, uh, since they

(01:22:07):
jettisoned Jim Caldwell in coach man like, I don't know why.
So so there's options out there, but you know, you
have to just hire like it's sometimes that's okay to
hire Jim cab was not a flashy guy, but he's
he's a guy that people respect and he's a winner.
Okay to hire those guys. Would you bring in Urban
Meyers a college coach at this point, I don't know

(01:22:28):
where he would want to go be. The only job
I could think of that that's remotely would be open
at some point would be Texas as of right now.
I mean, like USC is not gonna be open for
years to come. No, Dame just hired a new coach.
I just don't see him going anywhere outside of of
a top level job. And maybe if Stark doesn't work out,
the Texas is the way for him to go, all right.
Coming up on the other side, we're gonna get a
little countdown early countdown to the college football Playoff, plus

(01:22:51):
a big NFL Sunday coming up next well, now, just
any Saturday Oh no, no, this is Fox Football Saturday,
Harvan and Shorts with you from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
We got NFL football tonight. We got ten games tomorrow
in the NFL, two games on Monday, two games on Tuesday.

(01:23:14):
You know down the road we're gonna have Tuesday Night football.
You do know that we're gonna probably every night of
the week. Yeah, pretty much every night of the week.
Too much money to be had. We're gonna get much
more into the NFL with our insider Adam Kaplan coming
up here shortly. Um. I do want to follow up though, Jeff,
because we have not spoken since it became official as
far as you know college football playoff as concern, and

(01:23:36):
you know, the teams that are all there. We we
we talked about it last week, but you know now
that we've had a little bit of time to digest
it as we get ready for the eventual showdowns between
Alabama Cincinnati as well as Michigan taken on Georgia. We
spoke last week of the fact that three of the
five power conferences were left out of this playoff. You've

(01:23:58):
got two SEC teams, you've got had a Big ten team,
and then you have a group of five team in Cincinnati. Uh,
just start right there. Do you feel any more fallout
of that in terms of more pressure being put on
for the expansion of the playoffs, because a week ago
we were hearing just the opposite that they seem further

(01:24:18):
apart in trying to expand the playoffs and ever before
you you're obviously well connected with the PAC twelve network.
Where are we going with that? With three of the
five power conferences getting left out of this year's so
called playoff? Well, I certainly think that we're getting a
big disparity and how some of the conferences want this done? Right?

(01:24:39):
The Pack twelve of the big ten, you know, they
want automatic qualifiers, right, they want if you win your conference.
You're in sec of course doesn't want that, right because
that helps them out that that guarantees them probably at
least one more spot. I mean, they're gonna probably have
three or four teams in each year where automatic qualifiers
takes that out of out them, right. But I understand

(01:25:00):
if you win your conference, and there should be some
reward for winning your conference, and that's the way it
probably should be. But that's the whole up in my
opinion right now, is the automatic qualifier question of who
gets in who doesn't get in. UM. But you know,
with with recruiting this past week, with all the coaching changes,
I almost forgot that we have a playoff coming up, right,
I mean all the NFL news as well the last

(01:25:22):
couple of days. Um. But yeah, we we have a
playoff coming up and we have some big spreads as usual. UM.
I think that Alabama, given the time, is gonna you know,
is maybe it'll make us think twice about wanting to
have a group of five school in the playoff. Maybe
I'm maybe I'm wrong. It's the Sandy beats him. I
think that's very unlikely. Alabama winning is my favorite playoff.

(01:25:44):
Not not much recovering, but at least winning the game
is I think outright is surely gonna happen. Uh. And
I think people are just resigned, Steve to the fact
that this is probably gonna be a Georgia Alabama championship
and we're gonna see that again. And if that's the
best two teams said, Okay, I'm good with that. I'm not.
I'm on an SEC hater. I'm fine with it. Those
are two best teams, and those are two best teams. Well,

(01:26:05):
I find the Georgia by the way going I I
go NFL A Vegas insiders sort of a consensus line
right now. Uh And this varies a little bit, but
you know, right now they have a consensuve line of
Alabama thirteen and a half against Cincinnati, which seems low. Uh.
And they have Georgia seven and a half against Michigan,

(01:26:27):
which seems high to me. Are we too quick to
dismiss Michigan because I know one thing about Georgia. They
didn't look like the team we thought they were against Alabama.
I just never did I see Alabama maybe winning the game? Yeah,
maybe not really, but the way Alabama handled Georgia, they

(01:26:51):
just something was missed there. And you just feel like
Hardba has got a lot of momentum going into that game. Uh.
For Michigan right now, because they follow up a big
win against Ohio State by smashing Iowa. That could have
been a trap game. It wasn't. They just absolutely smashed
and obliterated them. I don't know, I feel like the
chains are off with this Wolverines team right now. Yeah.

(01:27:15):
I think that. I think that the thing that worries
you if you are on the Michian side here is,
you know, if they face a defense that can really
make them one dimensional and say, hey, you know what, Okay,
you want to run the football five, but you're not.
You know, you're just not gonna pass the football. We're

(01:27:35):
not gonna let you do that. Um, you know, are
they able to have a sustainable offense throughout the game
if their defense doesn't give them shorter field and isn't
able to get off the field, can their offense do enough? So?
I think I think this line is fair. I think
seven is about rights in this game. Um, you know,
Georgia just ran up against Alabama team that is faster
than them at wide receiver. The album's offensive line plan

(01:27:58):
add this world is the probably. We broke down that
game plenty going in. We all the things that happened.
You know, Bryce Young throwing for four D and three.
We never that was never in the conversation. So obviously
they found out something about Georgia that they didn't just exploit.

(01:28:21):
They beat it down. They had five hundred and thirty
six total yards against that Georgia defense. Either Georgia's defense
was way overrated or Alabama's offense was way underrated. I
I still don't know, and again you're giving you're giving
Jim Harball a lot of time to digest. I'm sure

(01:28:41):
what it was that Alabama was able to exploit in
that Georgia defense. Now they don't have Bryce Young, I'll
start there, but they got some weapons. I I don't
know something. I just it was such a shocking game
to me that it was as one sided as it was.
I'm gonna pull the numbers here. I think that everyone is.

(01:29:01):
It's gonna the public is gonna very heavily way during
Michigan here, and I'm gonna make sure I'm right on
this because I just want to make sure that I
don't have this right before. I just started blabbing away
about where the money's at for this game. Yes see,
every everyone has been on Michigan and the line hasn't budged,
And like, I think that they're telling you that the
sharp money is sticking with Georgia on this one for

(01:29:23):
for for They just they think Georgia, you know, they
had one loss of one blip um that this is
probably not who they are and so they're just not
going to back off. What do you think of on
the other side, Alabama. A lot of people thought this
line was gonna be like eighteen nineteen against Cincinnati, and
it's two touchdowns and it's it's holding somewhere in that area. Now,

(01:29:50):
you look at Cincinnati, obviously they have players. I mean,
they only lost one game over the last couple of years,
so they're they're they're very good football team with a
veteran quarterback and ridder When you look at that game
on the service, and by the way, the over under
is a monster. That's a big number. I mean, do

(01:30:10):
you see a shootout game. Let's Cincinnati is gonna be
able to put up twenty four points, twenty eight points
on this Alabama defense. No, probably not um, but I
think Alabamama score a lot like that's maybe why this
is where it's at. Um. Look, I I just I
look at this game very very simply. Obviously Cincinnati, it's

(01:30:32):
it's college football, it's sports. Anyone can win anytime. But
there's one player in Cincinnati they could play for Alabama.
It's one of their corners. Right. It was all American
corner right. I think I think he won the award
for Best corner Back in the College Football Award ceremony
Other than that, there's not a single since any player
would start for Alabama. And so I don't really know
what the path is to beating Alabama, Like what what

(01:30:53):
are you gonna do? Because eventually in the matchup wart
it's the talent is so different. The team with the
more talent wins the game, especially when you're playing for something, right,
This is not like the Sugar Bowl right where where
where the loser of that SC championship game is playing Cincinnati.
This is the playoff or this what Bama plays for

(01:31:15):
each year. They won't be shy at the moment, they
won't be called off guard by the moment, and they're
playing for a championship. They know what they're doing here.
So I just don't know, like, what's the path force
a bunch of turnovers? Okay, well that that's always the
path to win, right, Uh get pressure and Bryce Young? Okay, sure?
But yes, okay, well exactly, I think I just don't

(01:31:38):
know what I can tell you the path for Michigan
and Georgia winning those games, I can tell you the
path for Bama just be Alabama. I don't know as
an analyst what I can say other than like, yeah,
since I just plays really good at Bama. I guess
just doesn't play well this game, Like there's no schematic
advantage since and he has there there's It's one of
those things where of course they can win, right, Organ

(01:32:00):
beat Ohouse States a fourteen point dog, they could win,
they could win. Organ took advantage of matchups against Ohio States.
But this is not It's not Ohio States cover one
of defense, right, it's Nick Saban. So I don't know,
I just don't I don't know what the path is. Steve. Yeah,
you know, when I'm thinking back, when I'm looking at
scores over the years of the semifinal games, we've had

(01:32:20):
so many blowouts, and it just seemed to me that
teams that were big dogs, and maybe I just always
remembering Notre Dame, any team that's they've been blowout city,
they've been really bad, um and and and teams that
are substantial underlogs like Cincinnati. Maybe I'm wrong on this,

(01:32:43):
but it seems to me like if you're a dog
big going into the semifinals, you're gonna you're gonna lose
worse than the spread, Like it's gonna be even a
bigger blowout than you can imagine not not not all
these bloss by the way as the favor covered. I mean,
we've had some upsets that turned the other but I
think back all the way back to like Alabama Michigan State.

(01:33:03):
That game was a thirty eight nothing zip over. The
first everone was was you know, was Oregon beating Florida
State fifty to twenty. And then you had Alabama House
State that year o House State one by seven. The
next year the semifinal games clems in one by twenty
as the one see Alabama as a two seedbat Michigan
State thirty eight nothing. The following year was seven and

(01:33:25):
thirty one nothing. The next year. The next year was
the double overtime game at the Rose Bowl but in Georgia.
That was a great game. And then the other game
that year was twenty four to six Alabama upset Clemson
there um. And then the next year Alabama beat Oklahoma
by nine and climbs a beat nore Dame by seven,
and then l s you remember murdered Okahoma clemes in

(01:33:45):
one close against Ohio State that was but but and
then last year blowout Alabama Notre Day blow But here's
the thing, who are the upset team so far, Alabama
clemes In. Those are two teams that in Ohio state.
Al Right, the first year tells me playing if you're
playing smart money, right, and you're trying to play smart money,

(01:34:05):
thirteen and a half is not nearly enough. I just
I don't see how Cincinnati stays close. All right, we'll
have more on that a little bit later on, but
we have plenty of time coming up as we're gonna
break down all the new NFL news, all kinds of
new protocol for COVID, getting good players back on the field,
and adjusting schedule Week fifteen. Adam Kaplan, our Fox Sports

(01:34:27):
Radio NFL insider, will join us. Coming up next, Steve Harbin,
Jeff Schwartz, Fox Football Saturday. All right, we got NFL
football tonight, Colt Soul seeing the Patriots ten games tomorrow Sudden,
we have two games on money in two on Tuesday.
The craziness of the NFL Week fifteen, and join us

(01:34:47):
right now to sort it all out for us as
our Fox Sports Radio NFL insider, Adam Kaplan. Alright, So, Adam,
before we get to specific games, let's talk a little
bit about a complete one eighty on proto call that
was put in a place on Thursday that by weekends
in is completely gone. So what happened in the last

(01:35:07):
forty eight hours for the NFL to make the ultimate
decision to completely reverse course on their COVID protocol. Well,
there's several things that have happened this week. Um, actually,
but just to sumone up, because we don't have an
hour here, what's gonna happen here is because so many
teams are complaining that their players who are fully vaccinated,
and the players are also complaining, and coaches are complaining,

(01:35:30):
and owners are complaining that these players are fully vaccinated
and are asymptomatic, are testing positive and are not able
to play. And this is absolutely impacting matchups. And I
think the league listened, particularly to the owners who joined in.
Remember there was an owners meetings in Dallas this week,
and I had heard from a very good source who
was there back on Tuesday or Wednesday, that we're gonna

(01:35:51):
have some changes to this. Um, they're gonna be some
strange things that happened us, a little bit stranger than
I thought. But yeah, you're right, Um, it's just look
they I get it, but I don't know that this
makes it safer because an any symptomatic person could carry
the virus, which is what we learned a year and
a half ago, folks. Let's not forget about that. So
this does worry me a little bit. They did this

(01:36:15):
change with the testing against the wishes of the union,
and so far they've done a lot of things with
the union, right, they've done UH protocols put in place.
How upset is leadership about about that? And secondly, speaking
about leadership as well, there's gonna be some backlash with
with j. C. Treader Um being being the president, will
also being on a team that had to move their games.

(01:36:37):
So two questions there about the p A, Well, Jeff,
my understanding was this is a joint This is this
is absolutely UH together with the NFL p A. And
they remember the players, Let's not forget the players are
a lot of them are upset that they're unable to
play because they're fully vaccinated and they had no symptoms
or a symptomatic No, this is a totally joint situation,

(01:36:59):
unlike some of the things you've been referring to, which
I'm aware of, where the the NFL said, hey, we
could we could exercise all right, here. We don't need
your voice on it now. This is one that absolutely
negotiated with them. Now. J. C. Trader is the president
of the NFL Players Association. He happens to be a
starting center for the Cleveland Browns. Oh, their game that
was supposed to be play tonight is being moved to Monday.

(01:37:20):
The Raiders were not happy about that. The Raiders, who
are fighting for their playoff lives, who have an outside
shot at six and seven the a f C oh
G the Browns who or seven and six. They feel
like they're getting competitive avantage. Oh, by the way, the
Washington team got a major competitive advantage as of yesterday
and now they've some guys have come off, including practice
squad players. The Washington team had twenty three players on

(01:37:42):
the COVID list. The Eagles had to The Eagles are
not happy. I'm not going to repeat some of the
language that was used. Um, I'll just summing up for you.
They're not happy. There was a competitive avantage here and
one and again, what have happened Monday? Monday? Remember now
the game is on Tuesday. What if Washington has fifteen
players that come off the COVID list of money, that's
a competitive advantage. That's what the Eagles are complaining about

(01:38:04):
and other teams are Adam, I was at the Thursday
night game, I first trip to SOFI. I don't have
to rehash how well it was. It's a nice, big place.
Trying to get in and find your seats was near impossible. Uh.
And even people that work their sympathize with me saying, yeah,
we get a lot of that. Um. So I would
forewarn people going to the Super Bowl. But I I
also looked at the situation here in l A where

(01:38:25):
we're living under an alternate universe from the rest of
the world right now, as far as mask wearing, COVID testing,
and everything else. And I just wonder if we are
in a similar situation approaching the Super Bowl where they've
had to reinstitute certain protocol and everything else. Knowing it's
l A and the Super Bowl, do you think the NFL,

(01:38:45):
which obviously has now invested a lot of money in
l A, whether it's the home of NFL Network, the
NFL offices a six billion dollars stadium, whether they would
step in and say, you know what, we understand what
your rules are, but they don't really apply to us. Okay,
if you don't want to if you don't want to
lose your super Bowl, you need to adhere to our rules.
We're not gonna take any chances here. I mean just house.

(01:39:07):
I mean, the NFL has been very good in terms
of you know, sticking with rules. But now they did
a big one eighty. How much of this could play
with potential problems down the road of having l A
as the home of the Super Bowl. Well, they're not
gonna They're not gonna go against any any local laws.
If if the players and coaches have to wear masks
all the time and go on the intensive protocols, they'll

(01:39:29):
do that. That's not gonna be the issue. Uh, The
issue is testing and for way, as we were just
talking about fully vaccinated players, and now if if local
officials in l A have a problem, that they'll have
to speak up. Um. And then the other thing is
the NFL. And then the big reason why this is
all happening is because when they put that statement out
of which I should have mentioned earlier, this is actually
very important, when they threatened teams for four fits and

(01:39:52):
so forth. This is what I was told earlier this
week when they put this statement on in late July.
They said, look, this is if you don't it here,
if we think you didn't adhere to the protocols, you
could potentially not only get fine, you could forfeit well
what they also put in there depending on conditions, conditions changing. Well, oh,
Macron is the big reason that the league, that I

(01:40:14):
was told privately, is why they've done They've done this
because they didn't know that when they put the statement
out it's still formed COVID. Now you fast forward to
l A. We don't know what will be happening in February.
In fact, I just booked my trip about a week ago.
Now this happened, and I'm thinking, you know, should I
be going? Last year? I did not go for the
first time in twenty years. Um, I'm kind of I
think we're all kind of know what the what the

(01:40:36):
rules of engagement are. If you want to go somewhere
that's a big event, you're gonna have to wear a mask.
That's kind of where we're at. Speaking about Los Angeles,
Brandon stalely win for every fourth down imaginable against Chief.
He defended it right. He gave a very eloquent reason
why I feel like players are on the side of him.
Analys is on the side of him. Old football minds

(01:40:58):
are are are not? Um? Hydn't this played around the
league though, because his players love it. X players you
know they may or may not like it, But I
think this this plays around the league. So, Jeff, I'm
sure I know you saw the video from several weeks
ago when he talked about running the ball in the
physic meality of it. This is probably the one coaches
video that people would reach out to each other see

(01:41:20):
did you see this? I love this guy and they
don't even know him. Now, this one, the one knock
it he has got from analytics people is the the
well actually more from old schoolers. I would say that
less analytics was not going for the field goal in
the first half when everyone is screaming, why don't you
go for field goaler? You gotta take it? No, it's
you want your guy to be aggressive. What the problem
is is their inability to score inside the five, which

(01:41:43):
inexplicably I don't understand how in the world you could
do they dominate, We could say whatever you want the
game want, just like anyone who knew the Chiefs well
without Chriff Jones is gonna be a problem. They around
the ball well, but here's the problem. When they got
inside the ten, they had trouble scoring. That's why they lost.
And this goes to show you what my friend Joe
Banner told me, the former president of the Browns and Eagles.

(01:42:04):
He said, Lineman, Will d Lineman will tell you that
they're fine with you running the ball a day. They
don't want to chase you. They don't want to chase
the quarterback. They don't want to chase a team that
could throw the ball all day. And that's and and
this is the way the league is playing. If if
you notice, Jeff, teams are playing so much zone coverage
in too deep. They're like, go ahead, please run. We're
not putting safety in the box. We just don't you
want you to throw it over their heads. We'll get

(01:42:26):
our We'll get a red zone defense in there. You
could run it all day and get great time possession.
We just have to stop you when you get in
south the red zone. And guess what that's happening. Well,
the Chargers dominated that game. I saw it. And passing
on those field goes literally costs on the f c
WES Championship because had they won that game, they would
have had the tiebreaker with home games against Houston, Danver.
In a road game against Vegas, they threw away the
f C West time. I would disagree though in one area. Um,

(01:42:48):
when you have the lead, you you close the deal
with your defense or defense in the end did not
stop long well, and and it was breakdown. Derwin James
was out and suddenly and Travis Kelsey suddenly you know,
two big plays, one where he was unguarded, the other
one when he ran through the entire time for yeah,
so I mean um and speaking of the cheese though,
so so tonight. You know, Adam, we got the Patriots

(01:43:10):
on a roll, seven straight wins. They haven't lost a
road game all season long. I asked Jeff earlier. Uh,
he says, oh yeah, Chiefs are better than the Patriots.
What do you say right now? Who do you think
is the best team currently in the a f C
The Chiefs. I still believe the Chiefs are better than
the Patriots. I'll take if they play each other all day,
as long as the key players are healthy, I'm going

(01:43:31):
Chiefs all day down tonight, I believe the Patriots will
win this game. Um, I'm pulling for the Colts. I
like to see an upset here, but it's the way
that the Patriots are playing now what I'd like to
see because this weather will not be a factor though
what of course, once has a good game well Bill
Belichick and Josh McDaniels, Josh McDaniel's calls the plays, will

(01:43:52):
they doll up more pass plays? Because they have a
very controlled game that they're a big running team, they
don't ask Mac Jones to win games for them. He's
played very well, you know, not to be mistaken, He's
it's been efficient. But I'm curious to see what would
happen if they got behind because we saw him duel
Dak Prescott pretty well and Dallas went into New England.
That surprised me. He played very well in that game,
but again they rarely asked him to throw the ball

(01:44:13):
lot And this is a good, good game and now
I'm looking forward to it. Outside of Green Bay and
Tampa Bay in the NFC, is there someone else you
would put money on to win the conference? See, I'm
not a Green Bay believer. I'll be honest with you.
I mean, I've had to I've had a kind of
own up to it, But is there a team that
could get there from the NFC. I'm a little bit

(01:44:37):
just I'm a little bit worried about DeAndre Hopkins in
terms of his surgery. What what will be like when
it comes back? Is there? You know what? Yes, I
know Dallas right now. His offense is a little bit suspect.
Their defense is outstanding, They're they've gotten healthier. I'm I'm
obviously concerned about me that that does That's an issue
in Tony Polodge of Plano Fascia. But don't sleep on Dalla.

(01:45:00):
That would be the team. The Rams worry me with
their lack of depth. The Raiders told me when they
practiced them with them in the training camp, there are
twenty two player team. Like if they had any injuries
and we don't know about the COVID situation, they're gonna
have a problem. I give him credit. That what an
unbelievable when in Arizona. That definitely surprised me. But Dallas
would be that sleeper team that no one's talking about
their America's team. But nobody thinks they can get anywhere

(01:45:21):
in the playoffs because they seem always choke. But I
do believe they could make a run if everybody's healthy.
So where would you rank? Urban Myers hiring and firing
is among the greatest misfires in NFL history. It's right
up there. That's a great one. I in fact, I
wish we had more time. Maybe next next week. We're
on next Saturday. I'd like to go over that list

(01:45:43):
of failed college coaches who were great college that Steve
Spurrier's right up there. I'd say Spurrier is my top three.
This is again, I didn't know you're gonna ask me this,
but it's an awesome discussion I like to spend some
time on. I would Myers gotta be my top two? Well,
you let me throw it back at you, guys. Could
you think of anything worse than this? That guy got
cannon his first year? No, and and well, and it's

(01:46:06):
not just that. And Jeff and I obviously have chronicled
this like everyone else. I mean, it was day one.
I mean, and I thought I thought Jeff put it
best here Adam when he said, if you're going to
hire a coach, first of all, you need to have
to hire someone that wants the job. Did it really
seem like Urban Meyer one of this show? Well, it
was a unique challenge. He here's why he took the job.

(01:46:27):
I think he got full personnel control. And the way
he handed himself not he's fired. I'll give you a
little nugget here, the way that he was disrespectful to
a lot of people in that building. He acted like
he didn't need any help, that he had all the answers,
and at some point, at some point, the words going
to get out that you're not doing a good job
and you're not treating people the right way. I'm glad
the stuff that came out of out of for Medical

(01:46:49):
Network got out there. Um, that's only like ten percent
of it. There's there's a lot of stuff that could
come out. If you think that Iran is gonna have
fun trying to recover his money, is gonna be interesting.
Wait to see if some if so one writes the
real story about what went on in there. The guy
is an absolute mess and he and shot Kan I'm
a big fan of. If he's ever gonna learn how
you run an NFL franchise, If he doesn't learn here,

(01:47:10):
he'll never learn because this is he did an awful job.
Hiring this guy did no harmork on him. By the way,
did no background check. Obviously, if he checked into what
happened in Ohio State never would have hired him, but
he clearly did not. But Urban, I'll say this about him,
He's a great broadcaster. I loved him on Fox College Football.
But as an NFL head coach, an absolute disaster. And
I agree from day one. You know, for me, it

(01:47:31):
just felt like from the beginning, he just didn't quite
understand the job right. When when when you look at
the strength coach hire, the comments he may after drafting
and running back in the first round, he just had
the best, you know, the best undrafted running back season
as a rookie NFL history, it just felt like he
never he just never kind of got it right. I
don't know, he just never mentally, I think, grasped what

(01:47:53):
the NFL is about, which it's it happens to coach
this is now. He's not the first coach that that,
more than anything else, felt like the the undoing I
would say, well, I would say his entitlement and going
back to what you just mentioned Chris Doyle. When he
hired Chris Doyle, I remember being on with our friend
Dan Buyer. We talked about I said, this is a
very bad sign that he thought he could sneak And

(01:48:13):
Chris Doyle, who was forced out of Iowa due to
allegations of racism and and mistreatment of his players, do
you think that's Jeff, You play this game, you play
the NFL. Do you think this is gonna go over? Well? No,
And and just like the Tebow thing, we talked about that,
which is another one. Well, I think it's but I
think the Tebow thing was about him. The idea was

(01:48:35):
Tebow was supposed to spread the gospel in that locker, right,
I mean, it's that's why it wasn't there to make
the team the gospel. No one agreed in the personnel
staff that Tibo should come in. It was Urban has
personal control, can do what he wanted someone in that
locker room. It was gonna tell everybody how great Urban
mind didn't like he just didn't really understand the vibe

(01:48:59):
of a locker room, right, the NFL locker room, and
kind of what was needed and how players who have power, right,
I mean, we're paid, we're adults to how we want
to be treated. And I guess again, you talk gonna
be a tough coach and hard coach on players. I mean,
coaches are hard on players, but there has to be
a respect level even though you're our boss. We are
adults with families and we all have one goal of mine,

(01:49:19):
which is winning. Everything should be done. And you know,
even if a coach is hard on you, but you
believe you're going in the direction of women. Look, Dan Campbell,
I can't imagine is is a is an easy coach, right,
and he's a former player. He's a imagine he's a
very physical coach. But but players seem to really like
him because he gives off as feeling of wanting to

(01:49:39):
do everything in his power to win. Yeah, that's fair.
I just think that Irvin Meyer, and this goes what
you were saying, I would definitely grant this point that
he never really understood the responsibility be an NFL head coach.
This is not college football. As another general manager told me,
he and I were talking about this a couple of
days ago. It's like when you come into our business,
there's a certain decorum and respect. You have to show
the job, just the players to the job. He thought

(01:50:02):
he was better than everyone else, and I said, yes,
that's the in totalment. And I know from talking to
people who have worked for Urban Meyer in that building.
He never got it from day one and he look
it should have he should have been fired. I think
we would all agree when those videos came out. How
in the hell shot con did not fire him, I'll
never understand. And he had caused, by the way, absolutely

(01:50:23):
caused to fire him. Should he should not have waited?
That was a mistake. All right, Adam, we'll look forward
to in the coming weeks. Have you leaking out just
a little more sordid information to see? This is what
we look forward to. Uh much? Uh? All right, we'll
enjoy all the football this weekend, Adam. As always, we
appreciate the time. We'll talk to you next week. Sounds good, guys,
Thank you, Adam Kaplan, Fox Sports Radio in NFL Insider.
All right, wow, we could go all day with Adam,

(01:50:44):
but now let's find out what's trending. Never too late
to hear more of Ralph IRV and Ralphie. Well, we've
already talked plenty about the NFL and they're changing COVID policies.
If you're asymptomatic and vaccinated, well you don't have to
worry about taking a COVID test. Right now in the NFL.
Now in the NBA news, not good for the Lakers.

(01:51:06):
Anthony Davis left mcl sprain and m R I reveals
he will be out four weeks at a minimum. So
once again, Anthony Davis has never been here before. Never, Yes,
I know. Uh. Tonight Brooklyn hosts Orlando. The Nets are
without eleven players? Isn't a roster fifteen players? How's that?

(01:51:29):
I this one is? I don't know how they're gonna
try to. They have eleven players in the COVID protocol,
including James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Uh ten
COVID or ten code players. And then Nick Claxton is
out as well. So I don't know, don't know what
white there are playing the Nets? Who are what they?
Year five? Orlandosi probably still beat him. Yeah. So Bowl

(01:51:54):
game action, New Mexico Bowl goes to Fresno State four.
At the Independence Bull it's a good one number thirteen
b y U trailing with six seventeen to play in
the fourth quarter. It's you a b up thirty one
at and to play in the first quarter. At the
lending Tree Bowl, Liberty a thirteen three lead over Eastern

(01:52:15):
Michigan and the Mets have hired Buck Showalter as they're
a new manager. But now I said it back, it's
Steve Hartman and Jef Schwartz. All right, well, thank you
very much, Rolph. You're all excited about your new coach
at Oregon. I am, yeah, very I like five year
old guy who went to a small college as a linebacker,
graduated oh seven. Apparently his his ticket into the coaching

(01:52:36):
ranks was Todd Graham. Uh. He was a high school guy,
and he met Graham at a coach's clinic and then
talked him into hiring him as a grad assistant, sort
of following him ended up at Georgia, and then of
course Tucker left and he became coordinator, and now thirty
five years old, with no head coaching experience, he takes
over your Oregon program. Yeah, and he hired a thirty

(01:52:57):
one year old offensive coordinator in a thirty four year
defensive coordinator. But he just hired uh an incredible director
of football operations away from Texas A and M who.
There was an article this past week about the best
football operation guys in college football. He was second and
second on the list. Now he's an Oregan um and
so there's some of the rumors about about other hires. Yeah,

(01:53:18):
I'm not. You know, this is a young man's coaching game.
Now if you look across the NFL at some of
the young upcome coaches. Um, I just I'm fine with it,
I really am. There were no other options, like, I'm
not like an old retread coach, Pat, I'll pass on that.
And there really is no right answer. Mark Cristo Ball,
he tried his best at f i U. It was
it was an unwinnable job and he didn't win as

(01:53:40):
much as people expect it. But again it's a very
tough job. He did great at Organ. Chip Kelly was
the o C New Hampshire, became the O C at
Oregon and eventually WI and seven as a coach, the
first time he's ever been head coach, you know in football, Like,
there's no right path to this. But he understands recruiting,
He's putting the other good staff and I'm excited for

(01:54:01):
for we still have a bowl game. You see, here's
the problem. And I means I'm stuck with Chip Kelly
and the worst defensive coordinator in the country. I mean,
how much longer. I mean, you see, I'll put it
this way, if they get smoked by NC State in
the Holiday Bowl, there's no guarantee once that buyout clause
is lifted in January that Chip Kelly is gonna be

(01:54:22):
around long term, especially if it consists on hanging onto
his defensive coordinated and just has failed everywhere he's been. Yeah,
I do wonder if there are changes made on defense. However,
the doing Gabriel transfer should be helpful better than dtr
Oh absolutely. I mean, by the way, do you saw
Rattlers going to go to South Carolina? Yep? That was

(01:54:43):
an interesting play with South Carolina because I think Biemer
was at Oklahoma, right, They kind of you know, know
each other there. Um. Yeah, it's interesting recruiting. You know,
Oregan kind of got kind of got you know, just
had some issues because of the decommits with Mario left
Bubble excited for Dan Lannie everything. I know some of
his peers. I've talked to people that have coached with
him and worked with him, and they, you know, this

(01:55:06):
is private conversation, so they could tell me if he
wasn't any good, right, And I've just got an all
all rave reviews so I'm excited for the Dan Lanning era.
We again, you have to test the guy out see
if he can be a head coach. I mean, that's
that's the point. And woids can you be a great
recruiter apparently checks that box, you know, defensive cord to
everything else. But Canny be a heck. But we we
don't know if he can be a head coach, so

(01:55:27):
he doesn't like but like you know, everyone's like, wow,
you gotta hire someone experience. All right, Well everyone starts
the devil. Sweeney wasn't head coach, so he was a coach,
like that's part of it. Yet you gotta learn how
to be a head coach. And people might say Organs
not the place to do that. I don't know. It work.
It worked for Chip Kelly, worked for Mike Balodi and
Rich Brooks like they weren't the body might have been

(01:55:48):
a head coach like Chico State beforehand. Um, but which
is not? Which is I don't think. I mean it's
a head coach, I guess, and and some in in
some respects. But it's okay, all right, hold I do.
I have been speaking of USC people and they are
absolutely convinced now Lincoln Riley. They will own the conference forever.
O they were, No one will touch USC now that

(01:56:09):
Lincoln Riley's the head coach, nobody, just like no one
would would win the Big twelve with Lincoln Riley's coach. Right, Um,
all right, well cool? I mean have they have they
improved their offensive defensive lines yet today? Just tell any
of what they got the best coach ever? So Riley,
I've obviously debated this a lot on my Pack twelve show.

(01:56:29):
Clay Helton brought in classes that were ranked two, four, four, ten,
eight in the country, ontol in the country. USC has
had good players. They have to be coached up now
and Riley can do that. Now the issue again, for
the hundred thousand time, where are there off at the
defensive lineman at? Did they sprinkle some some some some

(01:56:51):
some some like? Where they at? Where are their lineman at? Yeah? Well,
from the recruits, he says, Oregon will be like the
free spot on the bingo board. It'll be a walkover
next year. They're talking about potential matchups in the Pack
twelve championship game. All right, on the other side, it's

(01:57:14):
that time now Jeff is gonna break it all down
it's feeling good now some momentum his NFL picks? Am
I speaking correctly? Did Jeff? I? Actually I've been the
last three weeks. I've actually been on fire. I told
you I had the Chiefs and the over in that
Thursday game. He will give us his Becks picks on
tonight's game Monday Sunday. Monday Tuesday. It's all NFL. Jeff

(01:57:38):
Schwartz will have his best picks coming up next Steve
Hartman and Jeff Schwartz. By the way, next Saturday is
Christmas Day and we'll both be here. How about that.
I mean that's being being Jewish is helpful for that. Yes.

(01:57:59):
By the way, are we going to have live streaming
video of your wife tearing down the Christmas tree on
Christmas Day? If you would like there to be? Okay?
So we we we had several requests because you mentioned this.
She will be She'll be doing it. Yeah, I mean
I normally I normally, Uh, there's no live like periscope
is not a thing anymore, right, So I don't know where.
Maybe go Instagram live or something. I'll take a video

(01:58:22):
of it, for sure. It's like she's just very prideful
about it very very prideful to tear it down. Iowa, Sam,
you're one of those who want to see that next Saturday.
I I can't get over the day of day of
My family does the same thing. By the way, we
have artificial free this year. Well, okay, that's easier. You
just kind of hold it down, put in the box.
My family would leave it up for like a month,
and that thing would be a it would be a yeah, yeah,

(01:58:45):
we already had up for a month. We had up
to day before Thanksgiving. Yeah, we were the late family.
We'd get up two weeks before and then tear that
now and it's a real tree, right, Jeff, Yeah, so
that thing has to be How do do you saw
it up? Take it to the I'm still worry we've
do on the side of the road and then they
take it away our neighborhood does I don't know. I
don't know, but like they don't do it like they

(01:59:07):
do it on like one day, like in January. It
just sits out there for Jeff. Does she at least
put on like gardening gloves before she drags it out
of the house like a dead animal? I don't know.
I'll ask her see that's why we want to watch
the video footage. You've Danny, you've been on the show
when I when like she's done it before. Oh yeah,
I mean I've heard all about it and it's funny

(01:59:28):
every year, but we've never got to the great tradition. Yeah,
I've heard it. I want to see it now. I will.
But it's gonna be you won't even be awake. It's
it's it's it's it's gonna happen like five am Pacific.
What literally doesn't like we get up. The kids have
like Christmas presents, but I don't even know, Like it's
like they're not listening right now. It's like socks and
underwear that and I think they got like a one

(01:59:50):
toy or something, and then she just rips that thing down.
It's on the side of the road. It's on the
side of road by nine am, Chris their pajamas, playing
with their one toy and they're watching They already had
eight days of Hanukah. They have enough toys, don't need

(02:00:10):
this December. Yeah, but those a lot of good toys.
It was early this year. Those things are long December already.
I will tell you guys, what time the true and
down last year. I documented, of course, Um it's okay December.
Maybe didn't talk ument last year, but I documented so

(02:00:33):
many times. It's like it's just it's poor little suckers
on the side of the road. Right. So no later
though than nine o'clock your time Christmas Day, that thing
is gone. Oh here, it's right here. It was on
the road. Oh a little later last years. Okay, so
the picture alright, we'll be looking for So she started
last year taking it down alright. I want to thank

(02:00:57):
Danny obviously, we love to thank Ralph. Roll is held today,
all right. I want to get enough time in to
get a few picks. By the way, between now and
next Saturday, any bowl games stand out for you this week?
Anything you like bowl game? I like the Beavers tonight. Um,
so that that's that's happening to play Utah staying that
Jimmy Kimmel label. Yes, Um, I mean look at the

(02:01:19):
other bowl games that I How about the U T
s a versus San Diego State in the Frisco Bowl
on betting on CEO State And I'm not either on
those teams. Um, Hawaii is at home getting seven and
a half against a really young Memphis team on Friday.
That feels that feels like a good spot to take
Memphis right there. Um, I don't know. I think I

(02:01:46):
would take Oklahoma minus the four and a half against Oregon. Um. Alright,
they're a little a little disarrayed. Okay, so tonight I
don't really like anything tonight. I think the under is
the best play tonight and tomorrow. So I like I
like the Giants Cowboys under both teams, especially without Toron Smith. Uh,
Cowboys struggle to um to score in my opinion in

(02:02:07):
this game would be cold kind of you know, it's
in that life stadium. I love. It's not the thirteen. Now.
I love Buffalo minus thirteen against Carolina took up a
minus eleven. I think it was what I had a
mid twelve. And I love Buffalo. I love Buffalo and
about the Packers, So the package are great tease right
from minus six down to down to basically minus a

(02:02:28):
point point that that one, because look, the Packers are
going one direction, They're going up, they're getting healthier, and
the rain wins are downsliding. How about this one though?
How about how about Atlanta plus nine a half on
the road at Sanrancisco Kyle Shanahan is a favorite thirty
four percent against the spread. It's a home favorite, home favorite,

(02:02:49):
four fifteen one against the spread. They played eight games
this year within eight points. Falcons have lost all five
games at home, have won six or seven on the road.
So Atlanta to Atlanta, I feel like it's a good
spot nine and a half points. How about other points?
Saints have won three straight regular season games against the
Buccaneers or eleven alf point dogs. Yeah, I don't think

(02:03:10):
it's gonna happen this game. No, Seanpagne backup quarterback. Tampa's
one and covered four in a row. They've covered I
think eight of nine at home. Now, I might waiting
in that game, but I'm not. I wouldn't take New
Orleans if that was the side of that. Hi, what
craziness from week to week? We don't know. We just
don't know. I mean, it could be a whole new

(02:03:31):
protocol next week for the NFL. Jeff, great job as
always today. I will talk to you on Christmas Day.
I can't wait to talk about taking away the tree.
Give it up. Fox Sports Radio

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