Steve Hartman & Geoff Schwartz Reflect On Chiefs & Preview SB 56

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports. Yes, living the Drain once again.
It is Fox Football Saturday Harbor and Shorts with you
from our Fox Sports radio studios. And yes, I feel
like the official countdown is underway to Super Bowl fifty

(00:22):
six in Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles Ramps on
their home field, will be hosting the Cinderella Cincinnati Bengals.
And you know, Jeff, we were sitting here a week
ago today previewing the conference championship games, and I don't
think that either one of us really felt like the

(00:44):
Bengals had a ghost of a chance to beat the Chiefs,
especially after surprising the Chiefe during the regular season. Another way,
they they sort of show their warning, Hey we got
some legitimacy Chiefs on their home field. They're not gonna
lose this game. And early on it looked like blowout city.
And yet here we are with the Cincinnati Bengals, who

(01:05):
prior to this season had not won a playoff game
in thirty one years, had never won a road playoff game.
They did it back to back weeks. And uh, I
know that you. I'm gonna say this right now, you,
Jeff Schwartz, are still in a state of shock. Well,
I am good afternoon, and yes we we feel like that.
The countdown those starts tomorrow for the Super after the

(01:28):
Pro Bowl ends today, which I might not. I guess
i'll watch some of it. I don't plan on watching
a lot of it. Um, it's on now, isn't It's tomorrow? Yes,
I have the Pro Bowl tomorrow. It feels like we
started Super a week. Look, here's anything about the Bengals.
And look I was right for half again with with
the Chiefs. I mean in the first half, Steve, they
got every yard but one right that final yard of

(01:49):
the first half they failed to get. And I'm fine
with the play call as long as Mahomes has to
throw the ball away, which he denty made. A mistake
happens and they're going to halftime, and my mindset would
have been like, all right, well out shucks, we didn't score,
we get the ball out the half, Like who cares,
let's just go ahead and um and just take care
of business. And I am a Chiefs fan. My brother

(02:10):
play with Pat Mahomes. I like Pat Mahomes. I don't
know him personally, UM, I know people that work with him.
I So all that being said, Holmes had a terrible
second half. It was the worst time of his career
to have the worst half of his career in a
moment like that, he did not play well. Um and
the Bengals deserve credit for going to this drop eight coverage,

(02:33):
But basically they rush, you know, you rush three guys.
If you're the Bengals, you drop a in the coverage.
But there were guys open, and Mahomes just didn't make
the throws or he missed guys like I have. I've
never seen a high level quarterback have two halves, one
half where it looks like you are the best player
in the sport and another half looks like you're a

(02:53):
replacement level player. And all that being said. All that
being said, they were first in five under two minutes
left nia touchdown to take the lead. First down, they
run the ball. The Bangals called their last time out.
On second down, they run a r appeal run past option.
Hardman is open, Homes doesn't throw the ball, takes a sack.

(03:15):
Now the clock is running. It's third and nine from
the nine yard line, third and goal. Two guys are
opening the play. Travis Kelsey is open, pringoes open late,
doesn't throw the ball, whether or not it's because he
was worried about throwing in reception, the clock stopping, whatever
the reason was, he just didn't make the throws. And
part of that is I think in the red zone
his mechanics need to be cleaned up a little bit. Um,

(03:37):
and they settle for a fifteen yard loss with that fumble,
go to overtime and don't win the game. And um, yes,
the Bengals are here. It's hard to explain really how
fifty nine pressures they've allowed, fifty nine Steve, fifty nine
pressures they've allowed. They've scored five off at a touchdowns

(03:58):
and three playoff games. Um, they've had an interception or
a turnover force. I think it's three interceptions though, three
interceptions in the last minute or overtime of a playoff game,
you know, one score to a one score playoff game.
They had three of those the last three games. In
Brady's career, in forty five playoff games, he's had to

(04:18):
happen twice to his teams. So they've had, they've they've
it's just there's something happening that they're they're not being
themselves and they're waiting for other teams to beat themselves.
But all that being said, I'm still kind of in
belief that we're here now. And the worst part about
all this, if you're a Chiefs fan, I really a
fan of the NFL, in my opinion, is the discourse
on social media about Mahomes is out of control. Guys, Guys,

(04:42):
he's still good, He's still the same point. He had
won bad half of football. It happens. It's the NFL.
I am I'm shocked by the discourse after this game.
It's really it's not surprising, but it really still is
surprising to me. Well, it's amazing. And you mentioned the
first half because at one point he was seventeen and
nineteen two yards, three touchdowns and no picks, and Rich

(05:04):
Arnberger and I were here on the Fox Sports Radio
network basically saying, this guy has never looked any better.
I mean, the first touchdown pass that Tyreek Hill was
an unbelievable you know, pass and catch, then the scramble
to set up the short touchdown pass and Travis Kelsey,
I mean, it was vintage Patrick Mahomes at that point.

(05:24):
The play at the end of the first half just
somehow his wiring was off. I'm still not clear on
what exactly happened because we're watching that right so we're
debating they had no time outs left. Do you give
it one more shot at the end zone? Do you
take the field goal with five seconds left? And they
decided to run to play and he throws a pass

(05:47):
to Tyreek Hill. There were two Bengals defenders there. He
wasn't anywhere near the sideline when he caught the ball
and there was no way for him to get out
of bands. And then they flashed back to Mahomes trying
to signal for a time out. So I was thinking,
what what what happened here? Did did he think they
had a time out? Then we found out that Andy
Reid basically said that he wanted to go for the

(06:10):
field goal to go up fourteen, but mom said, no,
let's let's go for this. I got the play and
he and that one play. Because you mentioned they had
the ball first in the second half, boom three and out,
I mean that that first drive went absolutely nowhere. The
Bengals started picking up all the momentum second half eight
of eighteen fifty five yards, two picks sacked four times,

(06:35):
three points in overtime. A second half of the overtime.
So when when you talk about social media saying, hey,
what's going on here? What like you just said, you've
never seen a quarterback of this caliber, certainly not in
a game of this magnitude pull a Jacklin hide the

(06:57):
way Patrick Mahomes did in that game. Never seen it before, um,
especially coming after coming off of what happened the last
time they played the Bengals, and and just after you
playing against Buffalo. I mean, they come out on that
in that first half. Man, again, they had every yard
possible for them for themselves until obviously they didn't on

(07:17):
that final play. And again so the final place interesting
in the first half. So you know when he threw
that ball, Eli Apple was nowhere near Tyreek Hill. But
the timing of the throw and the the location just
didn't really help. But we I think we've seen you know,
we've seen Tyreek Hill over the years. Um, just make
a bunch of those plays. So so I get why
he did it, But again I think you have to

(07:38):
be smart in that situation just to throw the ball away.
I don't really have as much of issue about that
as I do the end of the game, because again,
for as bad as they played, there were guys open
to be had. So why I mean again, okay, so
so here's here. So here's what I've said. You said
their guys were open and he just wouldn't pull the tray.
So here's why not. So here's my easiest explanation for this. Um,

(08:02):
you're you're a baseball fan. You know this happens to baseball.
He had the yips, like, I don't know other any
other way I say it because, Um, he lost his confidence,
and that's what the yips are, right, you lose your confidence. Um,
he lost his confidence, and that that's what That's what
it was. You know. I think at times when guys
struggle catching the ball, you see his confidence waiver a

(08:23):
little bit. Um, And that's what happened. And I also
think at the end there was a thought and he said, like,
let's not stop the clock, right because in the in
the in the back of his mind, we we have
we we you know, we wet at the minimum, we
have a field goal in our pocket. So let's not
give the Bengals opportunity to come back down the field
and score to win the game in regulation. But I

(08:43):
just think he lost his confidence. Steve and Um, he's
had moments this year where he didn't play well, but
I never felt like he lost himself. Right. He was
still slinging the ball down the field, he was still
trying to make plays. But he just lost his confidence
in those moments. And it happens. I need to re athlete, right.
Not every athlete is perfect all the time. And it

(09:03):
hurts because the Chiefs were there to make this happen. Right.
It wasn't like didn't have me. Look Joe Burrow through interception,
he almost to a second interception the fourth quarter. I
mean the defense was if you had told me the
defense on twenty four points, I would have been like
sweet Chiefs the one that game right, Um, and it

(09:26):
twenty four points of regulation, I should say. So he
just he lost his fastball. Man, he just lost it
for a little bit of time. And unfortunately he lost
it in a winner, go home game. And if this
had been a week sixteen, he has week seventeen to
figure it out. But now he has all off season
to sit on this game and look, if either gonna
make the team better, there's gonna be. Obviously, roster changes

(09:48):
are every year, they'll make them worse. Um, But that
game was a summary of the chief season. We talked
about this every single Saturday, right the Chiefs can either
look like like a team that's invent sable that can't
be beaten, or look like the words in the NFL
in any given week. And it showed in that game
and and that they need to. I never bought the

(10:09):
dynasty talk. I think that's silly. I also don't compare
you know, teams to Tom Brady's teams and Tom Brady.
That feels silly to me. Tom Brady is unique and
there'll never be anyone in my opinion, like him and
like like what the Patriots did. But to keep this going,
and there's little mini thing they have going on with
the fourth straight NC championship games, they're gonna I hope
they used this game in this season as a motivation, like,

(10:30):
hey man, we can't have these moments where our team
just goes dead from multiple drives. At the time, well,
with the emergence of Josh Allen and Joe Burrow and
Justin Herbert and some of the other young quarterbacks in
this a f C, don't be surprised if my Homes
and the Chiefs never returned to a super Bowl. Don't

(10:50):
be surprised. And then I said, I don't not look
at Damn Marino. I never we never thought there was
a possibility when Marino got to the Super Bowl. His
set in year that he would never get back to
the super Bowl, and he never did. What's more, what's
more likely the Chiefs Andy Reid never get back or
the Bengals and Joe bar would never get back. Well,

(11:11):
and in the biggest games of his career. Andy Reid
is now four and eight. He said that, and that
that definitely is and this is what he's gonna have
to love. He's had and I've been part of him.
I was on the thirty eight to ten Chiefs team
that lost him. He's not exactly money in the bank
when it comes to big games. So here's I love
Andy reid Man. Actually I played with him. My brother
was there. I love Andy. He's not money in the bank.
The one thing that I that I'd like to see

(11:33):
um at times. And I'll explain um what I mean
by this, but you know you have to. And I
think Andy Reid is one of the best coaches ever
and adapting and evolving year to year, right like in
you know, between next this year, next year, he will
find new offense to run, new things to do, and
ever evolves his offense. The one part of his game

(11:56):
I think he has to evolve is trusting the run game.
And it's not something where it's an entire season thing,
because that's silly, right have Pat Mahomes, You shouldn't have
to trust the run game. But the Chief's offensive line,
they were averaging six yards to carrygains Cincinnati, and there's
something to the idea. And of course I'm a phone
offensive lineman. You work with Richard, you know the way
we think, and you know the way the game's played.

(12:17):
When you're offense is struggling, there is there is a
value and saying, hey, you know what offense, We're going
to win this drive with our offensive line. And you
run the ball three times in a row, you get
twelve yards of first down. Then you run the ball
again and maybe you get four yards, and you play
actually passed it's a one read boom pass first down,
and then you run the ball again, you run the

(12:38):
ball again, and then short third and short boom first down.
And that not only makes your offense more confident, but
it makes your whole team feel better right when there's
a physicality in the game. And I think in that moment,
the Chiefs didn't need to run the ball. To run
the ball. They need to run the ball for that reason.
Right the Bengals are rushing three defenders, Let your offensive

(12:59):
line do work, right, Like I get there's an irrational
confidence in Pat Mahomes and the way that offense is
going to be run because for four years now you've
had the ability to say, hey, you know what, in
any moment, it doesn't matter what it is, pack you
winning for us. And I think the evolve, the evolving
part of of of Andy's play calling is in down
moments is being able to trust the offensive line that

(13:22):
they built. I mean, they did a great job butting
the offensive line and just saying, you know what, we're
gonna physically win this game with our unit. I think
that that would have been the counter to the second
half of play is just hey, man, offensive line, go
go mall the bank because they were mall on them
that they they watched about six times for thirty few
yards and the second half they were all of them.
Just just evolve that little bit of evolution. I think

(13:45):
we'll unlock because we had that problem in like we
run the ball, well, we're up against the Banals and
we stop running the football. And that is I think
one way to unlock that little itty bit that's left
I think for it kind of his evolution is a coach.
Well again, four and eight in conference championship game slash
super Bowl games, not money in the bank. And no

(14:08):
matter how you spin it, that is one of the
most catastrophic losses by a team in NFL history at
home packed house at Arrowhead against a Bengals team that
had five straight losing seasons, who had only won one
road playoff game in their entire franchise history, and to
blow that game again, they blew the game. And that's

(14:29):
on Andy Reid, that's on Patrick Mahomes, that is on
the entire Chiefs team. All right, let's put them in
the rear view mirror. Coming up, we're gonna have much
more on Super Bowl fifties six, this game between the
Bengals and the Rams. But we do have to address
some business that happened this week in the NFL. And
now the commissioner has spoken out and more people on

(14:50):
social media are laughing about these comments. We'll give you
the latest on what's spinning around the NFL. Is it
a real problem for this league or is it something
that can be resolved. We'll tell you coming up next.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app

(15:12):
search f s R to listen live. Hey, this is
Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning on my podcast,
Straight Fired with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports
pod pushing the same tired narratives down your throat every day.
Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest
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(15:34):
the sports book, and all the best guests. Do yourself
a favor and listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever
you get your podcasts. Steve Irbag, Jeff Schwartz, this is
Fox Football Saturday. All right, So I want to give
a little update for people listening out there around the country,

(15:57):
around the world. If you're making the trip to law
So Angeles for Super Bowl fifty six, I got a
lot of good news for you. Let's start with the weather.
Starting on Tuesday through Sunday, the weather will be highs
from the low to mid eighties. Okay, So I don't
know what the weather is around your neck of the

(16:18):
woods these days, but in l A from Tuesday through Sunday,
the highs each day in l A will be anywhere
from the low to mid eighties. Now where you are
right now, Jeff, How's how's the weather this morning? How's
how is it? It's upper forties today, it's been in
So I'm looking forward to I saw, I saw the

(16:40):
weather already. I'm looking forward to Los Angeles, all right. Now,
here's the other thing that people have to be aware
of a couple of quick things here. Secondly, we live
under a different COVID code here in California than anywhere
else anywhere you're listening right now. We have a mask
mandate in Los Angeles through the fifteenth of February. What

(17:00):
does that mean? That means any place you go indoors,
any place you go indoors, a mask is necessary, so
you better bring your mask. You will not be allowed
into a store or anywhere indoors without wearing a mask. Restaurants,
whatever it may be you must wear a mask indoors

(17:20):
um as far as COVID protocol for the game itself. UM,
you have to be fully vaccinated. You have to have
a proof of your vaccine. You will have to wear
a mask going into the stadium. Now, as we saw
from the governor of California and the mayor of Los
Angeles who said he held his breath when they took
off their he just held his breath while they were

(17:42):
taking pictures of magic Johnson. Uh And having been to
so Fi Stadium myself, I can tell you this. We
wore a mask going in. I was there with my sons.
Once we got inside, we never put the mask back on.
And the place was packed with people. I heard last
weekend there was a half heard attempt to check vaccination
status entering the well. They barely look. Here's what you do.

(18:04):
You don't actually have to have a physical vaccine card.
You just show you. They have a picture of it
on your phone. They barely look at it. But there
is a checkpoint. They will there's multiple checkpoints. This is
the other thing I want to mention quickly here. If
you've never been to Sofi Stadium, give yourself plenty of time,
because obviously it's going to be a zoo around a
Super Bowl, But there is no signage around this incredible

(18:29):
facility of actually how to get to certain sections because
the majority of the seats are below ground level, so
depending on where you're sitting, you might be on a hunt.
And this place is so huge it's almost indescribable. And
what's amazing about this place is it's huge. I mean,
it's gigantic. But the acoustics, Jeff, are insane. The crowd noise.

(18:53):
I don't know how they pull this thing off. I
don't know if they're cranking up the volume, but I'm
telling you that place is loud. So there there's gonna
be a few things also getting Let's say you look
at a map right and you say, wow, I get
out of the airport right at L A X, and
it's right down the road Inglewood. Yeah, there's only one

(19:14):
road in basically you can go down Century Boulevard. There's
only a couple and these are these are city streets.
So congestion getting in and out of that stadium is
almost indescribable. But I will say this, once you're in
that stadium, and once you've actually found your seat. You're
gonna have a good time because that stadium is uh

(19:37):
is a marvel, no question about that. Yeah, look, it
should be a lot of fun, um, you know for
Bengals fans and Rams fans obviously the Bengals are haven't
been there a long time. UM, and you know the
seats are seems like the ticket prices are ridiculous, I mean,
not unexpected for Super Bowl in Los Angeles, but I
think the game will be great. I'm glad you know
Los Angeles is slable to host this. Um. I mean

(19:59):
there's logistic really just a lot of different things happening
in the week in l A. We will be next
Saturday right Third Street Promenade doing our show from the
Santa Monica area, which again the weather is going to
be spectacular. Uh. Fox Sports Radio is gonna have a
stage set up uh in the Third Street Promenade, Santa
Monica obviously absolutely beautiful, all kinds of great places to go.

(20:22):
It's gonna be packed. We know that I'll be on
radio road doing my show with Rich Hornberger on Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday. I'm sure I'll see you out there
at some point. When are you coming into town Town
I will be there Tuesday and then um, I will
beat radio Roath Wednesday Thursday doing work for serious. We
have our show obviously Saturday. I'll be at Fox Studio

(20:42):
on Sunday for um some coverage of the game, and
um yeah, then I go to Dallas. I'd shoot my
my my offensive line show. So I mean we go,
we go right from you know, from the NFL season
into draft seas were already do now and the Senior
Bowls on now we had Theast West Shrine Game and
so you know, for for thirty teams right now, teams

(21:03):
right there all looking at um at the draft. Yeah,
they're thirty teams looking at the draft right now, and
um that's that's uh, that's what their attention is at.
Obviously two teams left aren't really there. The Ramsey don't
have draft picks. It does it matter for them about
the draft? Um, and uh yeah, we're transitioning pretty fast
right from end of the season too, looking forward to
next year. Well that's the beauty of the NFL three

(21:24):
hundred sixty five days of year. On the other side, though,
we're gonna be speaking with Dan Lass, sports attorney about
this Brian Flores suit against the NFL and some of
the NFL teams. But first let's find out what is
trending right now as we welcome in Mr David Gascon. David,
how are you. I was thinking about you last night, Yeah,

(21:45):
I was you. You are one of the few people
that makes a small mention of being a Heisman Trophy winner.
I rarely mentioned that I have a Heisman vote. Um,
I did you know that, Jeff, that I have a
Heisman vote? But you never before you. So I had
to enlighten the rest of the country. And I thought
about you last night because in the mail last night

(22:07):
I received a giant vanilla envelope from from SAG and
it had all the movies. I was like, Steve Hartman
probably has that collection, like DVDs, all the all the
movies and whatnot. So the first time for voting, Well,
you're right, so you get to vote. Yeah, well you
would lead to lap we're always talking about. Yeah. So

(22:28):
I've been doing the voting as a member of SAG
for many many years. And uh, well I was with
After and then we merged, and all of a sudden,
the big thing about being in SAG after is that
they had the SAG Awards, and they said, you all
the movies and you get to sit down and watch
them and make an educated vote. So there you go.
Excited about it. Um, excited about you, guys. Super Bowl

(22:51):
week is is upon us. Obviously, a lot of things
to chew on. College basketball is here right now. Auburn
is squeaked by Georgia today, seventy four to seventy two.
They were up by twelve at the end of the
first half and Georgia went on a run. Number four
per Due was on Fox right now, leading Michigan seventy
six to seventy two. Jan Nivey has got twenty points

(23:11):
so far for the boiler Makers. De Paul upsets twenty
feet ranked savior on the road six five Texas hammers
Iowa State sixty forty one was the final. Marcus Carr
at fourteen points and eight assists for the Longhorns and
number fourteen Texas Tech survives West Virginia winning on the
road sixty to fifty three is the final score. You guys,

(23:32):
watching much, if at all, any Winter Olympic Games, no ceremonies.
When I've been like doing radio a little bit, um
like kids have watched something like they like it, but
I mean, I don't have it much interested. And I
do like Curling thought, yeah, okay, you would have been

(23:52):
dynamited curling, Jeff, I don't like. He still can't be
What are you talking about. That's the thing. You don't
really have to be in peak condition. Let age out
of it. There's some shooting things on right now. It's
the bath I think, yeah, there they are watching that
as well. All right, well, let's let's talk about what
was a very eventful week in the National Football League.
And we got some legal cases being brought against this

(24:15):
league joining us right now. Some and I talked to
all the time. It seems like he's a sports attorney.
He's the host of the Conduct Detrimental podcast. He is
Dan lust Dan, how are you doing today? I'm good, guys.
Let's just say it's been a very busy week in
in the sports law universe over here. All right, let's
start right now. The commissioner of the NFL made a

(24:36):
statement saying that the league is going to do a
much better job and looking into their hiring practices as
far as viable minority candidates are concerned for front office
and head coaching positions. He also says there's gonna be
a full investigation in these allegations that coaches were offered
money to dump on games. Uh already, I see the

(25:00):
attorneys for Brian Floores are laughing that off is nothing
more than a pr move. So how much trouble is
the NFL potentially in right now with this lawsuit? Dan?
You know, I guess as an initial point, I'm not
sure why the NFL didn't put out this statement on
Tuesday instead of the one that said that the claims
are without merit. Right, So these are night and day

(25:22):
two different statements. The first one says we don't have
a problem, these claims are without merit, and the second
one says, Houston, we have a big problem. We have
to call him the dogs and put out a Saturday
morning statement. That's gotten that bad. Um. So you can
read into what you want. But the NFL has really
done in about space. So I think that's the NFL
telling you we might be in trouble here. Um. From

(25:43):
an optics standpoint, Um, you know, if we thought the
Colin Kaepernick case was bad, this is a case that
is specifically about race. Remember the Colin Kaepernick case was
about mealing um was, if anything, a political demonstration. This
case is about race number one and number two. It's
set up a the class action lawsuit, So it's not
a one you know, the Colin Kaepernick versus thirty two

(26:04):
the NFL. This could potentially be tends. It's not maybe
even a hundred, right, former coaches, general managers applicants for
those jobs. Um, So this could be something legitimately from
a volume standpoint, something that we've not seen in sports.
So yeah, I think the NFL has a lot to
be worried about from an optics standpoint and obviously from
the legal standpoint as well. It seems that Brian flores

(26:25):
a specific claim to to the Giants was about the
text that Bill Belichick accidentally sent him and instead of
Brian Dable. And I guess the question I have about
that is how would Belichick know what the Giants are doing?
Did they tell him beforehand? Like this? Could that just
be speculation, like he's just kind of understands how this works?
Is that is that the issue that he understands how
this works? And Brian Dable was going to be the

(26:47):
lead runner no matter who the Giants interviewed. Yes, so
I've said this from day one. You know Bill Belichick
who is he's the head coach of the New England Patriots.
He doesn't work for the Giants, and from a legal perspective,
he's not take the well of speaking for them. If
this was a text with owner John Mara or you know,
or Shame the general manager, it's a little bit different.
But Bill Belichick, right, he might have heard something. But

(27:09):
unless that text said hey, Brian, congrats, I heard you
accepted the job. I think the Giants, right and their
their statements are saying, yeah, well, check doesn't speak for us.
And Florida's was in consideration until the eleventh dour so
you know, um, at least that you know, I want
to want to be clear. I think Brian Flores could
have the case. I don't necessarily think he has a
strong case with respect to the Giants. UM. I think

(27:32):
the Giants have a lot of viable defenses here. But
the reason this is a scary proposition for the NFL, right, Uh,
he's putting a spotlight on all of the history, right,
the last twenty years of the of the Rooty rule. UM,
So that that's more of a scary point. I think
Jeff to your point, I think he has some valid
defenses or I think the Giants have some valid defenses here.
I think the fact that they hired Brian day ball um,

(27:52):
you know, he's one of one of its, not the
hottest coaches on the market. I certainly think the Giants
could argue that that decision had nothing to do with
braces fit by any means. Well, and we spoke earlier
this week, Dan, you you expressed surprise of the timing
of this. At that point, only four of the nine
vacancies have been filled. Since then, one more vacancy has
been filled, but there's still four coaching vacancies. And we

(28:15):
all felt that Brian Flores, after what he did the
last couple of years with the Dolphins, is going to
be on the short list for any one of these
teams to move on to another team. But um, give
us your thoughts about why he may have decided to
move forward with this and has he essentially eliminated and
withdrawn himself from any of these other coaching vacancies by

(28:39):
filing this suit against the league and these teams. So
the last thing I heard, he's a finalist for the
Texans job. I'm not sure how close he used to
getting the same job I've I've been hearing he at
least was the front runner for the Texas job. So
you know, I don't know if this is a controversial take,
but I I just feel a little bit uncomfortable. Um.
If Brian Floyds, which he said he I would like

(29:01):
to coach again in the NFL, but I understand by
filing this I might not be able to. Um. Certainly
this was a decision made between Floras and the lawyers,
and I think there was a world right. If I'm
his lawyer, Floras, I would have said, maybe we'll wait
a week, right, Let's see how the Texan job shakes out.
Let's see the same job staked out. Maybe, Brian, if
you're so incensed by this tech, which I get it

(29:22):
right and uses the words humiligated, maybe there's a world though,
where you can have your cake and eat it to
get named the head coach of the Houston Texans, and
then you can still file this lawsuit. We've had cases
in our country where someone is sued a current employer.
I mean that's not unheard of. UM. I just I
just don't know why the suit had to be filed
ahead of time. No one, No one's gonna tell me
that there's a you know, a strategic reason from a

(29:44):
legal perspective, Um, I know it certainly brings more attention
to the case, but I mean, listen to what we're
talking about. This is a huge lawsuit. It would have
been just as big if you filed it, you know,
a week later. Right, Doug Peterson just got named the
head coach. There's a world where Brian Flores was named
the head coach of the Texans this week. Um, and
now I'm not sure we see that anymore. So Yeah,
I do think the timing is interesting. Uh. And from

(30:06):
an optic standpoint, right, if the same name a head
coach that is not Brian Floors, that will be news.
The same thing with the Texans. So you know, the
lawyers won the headlines were right at what cost? Um,
maybe Brian Floyd's coaching career. So that that conversation makes
me feel a little bit uncomfortable. If the lawyers right,
we're behind us. If it's Floyer's decision, I guess I'm
I guess I'm okay with it, But as his attorney,
I probably would have advised him, um to wait a

(30:27):
week I don't. I don't know what the rush was
to do it. The NFL very clearly has a problem.
I mean, they have the Rudy rule in place because
they know they have a problem. How would Flores kind
of go about having concrete evidence. Let's let's just say
this gets to deposition and gets the actual trial, which
I think we all believe it would never get there,
but it gets there. How does he prove that him

(30:49):
specifically was not hired because of his race. I mean,
I guess we can. We can just I mean speculate here. Right,
that's so we know radio the truth. The truth is right.
All cases are won and lost and discovery unless you
have a true smoking gun before you file the lawsuit, right,

(31:10):
which rarely you do, right, rarely you have something like this.
I don't you know, you guys know my thoughts of
the text mesters from Bill Belichick. I don't. That's not
your smoking gun. Um, you're gonna need some type of emails. Right.
You heard John Elway statement that said, hey, we might
have even if we did show up late to the meeting,
we had an interest in hiring you. Uh, And then
I saw John Mayer's statement. You know, Brian we called you, uh,
two days after you were fired from Miami. Obviously we

(31:31):
had an interest you in the head coaching position. Those
that think are strong responses. But then again, if you
ask me that question, Jeff, a year ago, I'd be like, yeah,
there's you know, NFL is a billion dollar business. They're
not going to have emails like there that show these
horrendous thoughts about racism and right now it's not gonna exist.
And then again, we just saw from the John Gruden
saga that there was a guy that went to the

(31:52):
top of the NFL head coaching ranks and you know,
existed there for years, right one a Super Bowl, and
there's a guy that had those thoughts and have emails
to that extent. So I don't think it would shock
anyone if there were emails like that out there. And Jeff,
that's that's what you're looking for. You're hoping to show
a court that you have a colorable and a plausible
case to get in and conduct discovery and conduct depositions.

(32:13):
And then right if you get into discovery, you don't
know what you're gonna find. Right there, there might be
emails out there, and that's why there's this you know
this ground swell to Halstag, you know, like release the emails,
released the Washington emails, or released the report. Um, you
could really truthfully draw a straight line between you know,
the Washington investigation, that John Gruden lawsuit against the NFL,
and now Brian Flores. They we're all trying to get

(32:35):
those you know, messy emails behind the scenes. Uh So,
you know, if you're wondering why the NFL is and
the headline so much, it's really the same reason. If
they want to know what's going on behind the scenes,
and it looks like the NFL or Dan Spider, everyone
seems to try to be running interference over here. Dan,
could you clarify something I read about the NFL maintained

(32:55):
that all of these cases will be decided in arbitration.
This is something that the NFL has in all their
contracts any kind of disputes from members of the lay
what or whether I mean, are they saying this is
not going to go to court, that they have an
arbitrator to finally resolve some of these differences. Obviously they
have the claims against Stephen Ross offering bribes. Of course,

(33:18):
he came out and said that these allegations are false, malicious,
and defamatory. But is this something to be decided through arbitration?
It might be. I mean the closing referencing is in
standard contracts that if there's a dispute stemming from the
contract or dispute stemming from something relating to the game,
that it's gonna be sided arbitration. The question is, which

(33:39):
I think is yet to be determined, right, Does a
widespread allegation of racial hiring and fire really stem from
the nature of someone's contracts? Is it a normal, you know,
disagreement that's contemplated by that arbitration close? And I wouldn't,
you know, personally be as if today I'm not sure,
right because I don't know. This is kind of an
unprecedented lawsuit. Um, truly, they're gonna have that. They're also

(34:00):
going to have to fight as to whether this case
should be dismissed. We just saw in the John Gruden case. Guys,
that's what the NFL did. They moved to dismiss the
case or otherwise move it to arbitration. And we have
not yet heard a decision on that. But I wouldn't
read too much into the fact that they're moving to
dismiss and move for arbitration. That's it's basically the NFL's
m O. Major League Baseball does a similar thing. You know,

(34:21):
the NBA. It's just about money, right, You go for
the home run swing, get the case knocked out of quarter,
move it to arbitration. If you lose it, big deal,
and you just go onto the normal discovery track. So yeah,
I you know it's the NFL's m O. We I
can almost tell you almost with guarantee, they're going to
do that the next you know, thirty to sixty days
right around there. Last question from me, The allegations that

(34:41):
Stephen Ross offered money to to lose games, essentially fixed games,
throw games, to me, might have the most immediate outcome
an impact on the NFL, because if this is proven
to be true, he has to sell his team, right,
I mean, there's no other there's no other response in
my opinion, would would be appropriate? Is that what will
happen if this is proven to be true? Yeah? I

(35:02):
mean to put it this way, I think if you've
proved that this allegation was true, it doesn't win the lawsuit.
I think they're completely I don't think it's relevant to
the law, So I don't know necessarily could need to
be in the complaint, but you asked the question. You know,
we joke about Dan Snyder, you know, having being forced
to sell his team, or James Dolan, the head, you know,
the owner of the Knicks. I'm from New York, I
hear it all the time. But we have rules in

(35:23):
these leagues that are put in place to remove an owner,
and it's never been used. Even with Donald Sterling. The
NBA didn't have to get there. Um, I don't know
why you have these rules if not for something like this,
where this or an individual has caused the league right
shot to its core at an integrity level. So I'd
have to imagine that this is on the table. If

(35:43):
it was on the table for Donald Sterling, right, you know,
that made the league look really bad from a racist standpoint,
it's got to be in the league for Stephen Ross
if this is established. Um, you know, I think it
maybe was on the table with respect the Hugh Jackson's allegations.
But I think, as you guys both saw Hugh Jackson
Brican did with respect to the as family, that he
was also paid to lose games. So all I squarely

(36:04):
on Stephen Ross at this point, I think just as
big of a story as the racial discrimination element. Right,
there's two big bombshells that come from this lawsuit. Um,
and yeah, I don't I don't think Stephen Ross's team
is safe at this point. All right? Follow them on
Twitter at sports law LUs. Dan, I feel like I
talked to every other day. I mean, it's just unbelievable,
but that's what's going on in this crazy world sports. Dan,

(36:24):
We really appreciate the time. Thanks so much. Always a pleasure, guys.
That is Dan Lust. Great stuff there. Uh. And on
the other side, Jeff, I got a question for you,
specifically as a former NFL player, when it comes to
coaches being paid off two dump games? Can they actually

(36:45):
do it? We're going to find out from Jeff. Coming
up next, Steve Harmin, Jeff Schwartz. This is Fox Football Saturday,
all right. Leading up to the NFC champion Kiship, jeff Well,
Kyle Shanahan and Sean mcveigher asked questions about that winning
streak the forty Niners had against the Rams, and Shanahannon

(37:08):
was asked, you know, are you and Sean mcveigh's head
and Sean McVeigh was asked as Kyle Shanahan is your
head and they both basically had the same answer was
you're giving us way too much credit, Like we're just
the head coach of the team, all right, So now
I want to ask you this question. Let's say Jeff
Schwartz becomes an NFL head coach and the owner of
the team comes to you and say, hey, Jeff, how

(37:29):
would you like to make some extra money? Like, sure,
love to make some exture money, all right, I needed
to dump some games? Great, I'll take it, all right.
So now you've agreed with the owner to accept money
to dump games as a head coach, how exactly are
you going to guarantee losses for your team? How does

(37:49):
how would a head coach go about dumping a game?
If being paid to dump a game? Well, I think
first off, he was only get paid a thing actually lost, right,
Like if they tried to lose and didn't lose, it
wasn't even get paid for that. So I've been on
a team that was taking panthers. We were two and fourteen, um,

(38:10):
and we're talking about taking all the time. The way
to take a game, take a season is with your
roster right Monday through through Saturday. Right, you just have
a bad roster, and no matter how hard you go,
you go play on Sunday, you're just very limited roster wise.
So it looks like you're trying your best, but you
just lose. Okay, that happens all the time. The difference

(38:30):
about purposely throwing a game from the coaching perspective would
be a couple of things. It might just come into
my mind. One obviously, is you just don't go for
a fourth down, right, Uh, we're gonna put this ball
right field goal. Yeah, long field goal. Probably not gonna
make it, but long field goal. Right. Um, you know
there's decisions on on you know, you know, let's look,

(38:52):
let's you know, let's run the ball, butch with bat off.
It's a line like, let's just run the ball again
third and long and try to batter away that way.
Um you abab. We can't do anything on defense, I
mean because the players thing about it too. The players
can't know about it, right, because the players will not
be in on it unless you you're gonna pay them
to lose two Because guess what, we have films like

(39:13):
it doesn't matter if we are losing. No one's watching
our film scouts, but oh well they shorts on a
bad team. That's why he's not playing well. No, no, no, no,
no no, We're still you have to find a way
to do this. Well, we're still playing hard on Sunday.
And the way you do that is what I mentioned, right,
it is um, it's uh, it's you know, fourth down decisions,
game plan. Um. You know, maybe you call bad play

(39:36):
on defense on third and eight or something like that
and you hope it works out well where you know,
someone miss an assignment. I mean, there's ways to do
it from that perspective. But more I think about just
like coaching decisions, it's you know, it's it's okay, fourth
and three from the thirty seven, you know, all right,
let's punt the ball. You know nowadays, if you did that,
you'd be crucified, right, you get you must well go

(39:56):
for it. That is where I think that that that
comes into play, by the way, very quickly here final
game of the NFL season. Tampa needed a loss in
their last game against the Saints at home to guarantee
the number one pick in the draft. They were leading
twenty to seven and a halftime and then mysteriously never
scored again. Bench several players in the six half lost

(40:17):
that game and got Jameis Winston. All right, much more
on the got down to Super Bowl fifties six coming
up next. Rolling along here on this beautiful Saturday, I
like to think we are the official starting point for
the countdown to the Super Bowl. All right. I know
you're talking about tomorrow's Pro Bowl that nobody cares about.
Although people watch the Pro Bowl because it's the NFL,

(40:41):
doesn't matter that it's almost a glorified touch football game
these days. And the fact that you had I don't
know another thirty replacement players. They get designated as a
Pro Bowler as replacement guys. It's absurd, it's ridiculous, but
it is the NFL. Uh. It's gonna be a busy
week next week, but JFF and I are gonna be
hanging out on radio Row and the next Saturday, we're

(41:03):
actually gonna be broadcasting for the Third Street Promenade UH
in Santa Monica. So if you're coming to town, we're
gonna be out there. They're gonna have a big stage
out there. Jeff, you like to be on a big stage, Jeff,
you know where people are eyeballing you shade. Yes, it
is going to be warm. Uh. It is definitely gonna

(41:24):
be in the eighties next week in Los Angeles, which
if you're coming from a very cold area, is going
to be shocking to your system. But for us here
in southern California and Jeff here so call guy. Uh,
We're used to it. That's that's the world we live. People.
You can get the offshore breeze, that's not that won't
be bad. Instead is going to be much Santa Monica

(41:47):
will probably be seventy with a little breeze. It'll be
beautiful out there. So we're gonna be out there next
Saturday doing our Fox Football Saturday show the day before
the Super Bowl. UM, I want to ask you about
the guy that really has been the talk of the Bengals,
and that's Evan McPherson. Their kicker is twelve for twelve

(42:07):
and field goal attempts in this postseason. UM, including the postseason,
he has now had twelve field goals of fifty or
more yards. That has never been done in the history
of the National Football League. Before even the show, Gascon
asked me, is it possible a kicker could walk away
with a Super Bowl m v P award. We had

(42:29):
a return guy, do it remember Desmond Howard as a
return artist, pulled it off for the Packers. Brett Farves
only Super Bowl win back in the day gets the
New England Patriots. But let me ask you this, as
a position player, at the end of the game, if
they were to hand a kicker the Most Valuable Player award,
would that bother you at all? I mean, if we were,

(42:51):
I don't think anything. Okay, so it doesn't matter if
they want. I mean, could you see I mean we
had Vinitary obviously had a couple of game the Bengals
have scored five touchdowns and they had twelve field goals.
In the post's contection, I mean he had they have
to win the game, like fifteen to ten and he
has five field goals can be considered for this, right.

(43:12):
I mean, I just don't expect that to be that
type of game. Um, I actually expect that. I think
that the Bengals could score fifteen eighteen points. I have
the Rams are over twenty um, so it would be
a game that I very I just don't expect. Me.
Even when the Patriots won thirteen to three, you know,
the MVP was that was element right, it wasn't even

(43:34):
like a normal So I think there's almost no way
kase here wins MVP and less again, you know, maybe
it's eighteen points, right, it's six field goals, Um, that's possible,
and two of them were fifty yards. I guess in
that situation they might try to give it to Joe
Burrow or two uh wide receiver who had a good game.

(43:54):
I think it's unlikely, but it's possible. I guess, well,
I mean, I guess it brings up a question about
the value of special team ers kickers in particular. Um.
McPherson was a fifth round pick. I mean, he was
drafted and obviously he has delivered a big way for
the Bengals, a big reason why they're in the Super
Bowl right now. The reason I mentioned this is during
the week, I had a chance to interview Mattareza, the

(44:15):
San Diego State punter who won the Ray Guy Award.
He was being honored that night. Um. By the way,
he was also the place kicker for San Diego State,
and he made it clear to us he wants to
get tested out. He's going to go to the Combines.
He wants to be tested for everything. But does this
kind of success for a rookie kicker like McPherson maybe

(44:37):
elevate the stock for other potential kickers or punters in
terms of the upcoming draft. Does their stock go up
because somebody emerges with this kind of performance in the postseason?
I don't think so. Um, you know it matteris is
a better prospect than Evan McPherson. Just we've seen what
he can do. Right. Um. You know, maybe you look

(44:59):
at and say and and the Bengals of myn dude,
we're mocked we're taking a kicker in the fifth round.
Um and if they didn't get this far, then probably
we'll be mocked for that can still So, um, I
can't imagine just like, look, every team's gonna find them
trying to find this aus a Deebo Samuel. Now there's
one Diego Samuel. Right, So I think teams might say, hey,

(45:22):
maybe we take a kicker in the six or seventh
round maybe because of this, but you know, any thing,
but the Bengals, like you would have thought, hey man,
you know we need offensive line, we need defense, like
we need someone to help us at a position of
more value, but it's paid off because Madals kicks in
the post season. All Right, let's stay with the Bengals
for a moment here and talk about Joe Burrow. Joe

(45:44):
Burrow has already done something that's never been done before,
and that is a quarterback who was the number one
overall pick taking his team to the Super Bowl in
his first two years in the league. That has never
been done by a number one overall pick, UH in
the NFL draft. You mentioned the fact that they've only
had five touchdowns here. It's not like he's putting up

(46:05):
the kind of numbers that we saw in those back
to back games earlier this year when he lit up
who was it? Uh was its chief and the Ravens
right at where he had almost a thousand yards passing
in a two game span. But he's played well enough,
and we've been talking plenty about Joe Burrow and his
swag and just sort of a certain attitude about him.

(46:27):
Are we about to see because we talked earlier about
Mahomes falling off the cliff in the second half of
the a f C Championship game. When when you look
at Josh Allen, when you look at Patrick Mahomes. When
you look at it, justin Herbert with the Chargers young
quarterbacks that we're already recognizing as elite, do you think
Joe Burrow is gonna be the best of the lot.

(46:47):
Do you see that in Joe Burrow that I'm not
gonna say anybody's the next Tom Brady, but I'm talking
about a guy who could be that elite quarterback to
just take a step up above all the rest. Look,
the way I feel about these type of conversations is
I'm very much into kind of a wait and c

(47:09):
mode from most of these, right, Like I like to
tear my quarterbacks. I don't like one to five. Um.
But the closest one to that now is Pat Mahomes.
He's been to four Change Championship games, he's a Super
Bowl MVP, he's a League MVP, and in his worst
season of his career, he threw yards and they were

(47:30):
the two seed, right, the worst season of his career,
like right, like Okay, So the closest to that is
presently speaking is Pat Malmes. Now, Burrow wins this game
and he throws for three yards, and he's the reason
why the Bengals winning the next year they go back
to the same spot again. He's the same reason why
then we can elevate Burrow above Mahomes. But Burrow right

(47:52):
now is above in my opinion, justin Herbert at the moment,
he physically is not. But I think the thing that
Burrow does best, hands down is two things. One is
he makes his teammates believe. It's very important they believe
they belong, they believe they can win any game that
they can win, and obviously it's worked so far in

(48:13):
the playoffs. And two is that he doesn't really beat
himself and he doesn't. He doesn't, they don't, he doesn't
make and his office doesn't make those those those backbreaking mistakes.
Now against Kansas City though he threw the fourth pin
interception and then the ferry next drive he threw a
ball running the linebackers and that was dropped. So there
are you know, of course, not perfect, no one's perfect.

(48:35):
But he the Bengals just haven't beat themselves, right. There
haven't been bad turnovers, Burrow hasn't been inaccurate. He's made
the place he's had to make. He's very good against pressure,
and those are very important qualities to be a quarterback.
But Steve. He has not won a Super Bowl yet.
People are talking like he has won a super Bowl already,

(48:56):
and they're talking that they like he is the reason
why they've won a super Bowl. We don't. I think
the Rams win, honestly, and then Stafford obviously gets elevated
to a different level. And I think the the the
conversation we have about Stafford. But like I am always
of the opinion, and it's the way I've been forever.
I get in trouble for this because I never I

(49:16):
don't move off my opinions very quickly, because I like
to see the entire body of work before I decide
just to name some of the next Tom Brady. So
to me, Burrow can get there. But he's had one
year now of success, and I need to see it
in Sunday, in two Sundays, Like, dude, this is the
The Bengals this year have played one defense in the

(49:38):
top ten. The entire season. They played one defense and
that right the leven the Browns. They lost both those games.
Now again one of them, the starts, didn't play, so
they're owing to this year against the two best defenses
they played, the Rams. The best defense they played the
entire season. Come on, like, let's see it against that, right, Like, let'
let's see this is it? Right? This is the time
we're apnointing him the next Tom Brady. Guys, Like, let's see.

(50:00):
I just to me, I will wait personally on making
that announcement for five years from now. I'm fine with
doing that. I don't even call Pat ma Homes next
Toime Brady because there's no next Tom Brady. He's his
own quarterback. He's his own guy. I'm telling you right now,
there's no team in NFL history that's gonna have six
titles in in eighteen seasons or whatever it was in

(50:21):
Green in in in England. Not gonna happen ever again
in the NFL. Never gonna happen. I might be long
and dead before that happens again. Like, stop comparing these
quarterbacks to to Tom Brady is not gonna happen. Uh.
One quarterback I did not mention, who's actually a month
younger than Joe Burrow is Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson is

(50:43):
one month younger then Joe Burrow, which seems incredible, right,
but he is. And here's a guy just a couple
of years ago there was revolutionized in the game. And
we're not talking about Lamar Jackson anymore. He's not in
the conversation with the Josh Allen's, or the Patrick Mahomes
or the Joe Burrows or even the Justin Herbert's. I

(51:06):
mean it can and I don't know if Lamar is
never going to get there. He's still doing unique things
in this league. But he is a month younger than
Joe Burrow. Do you know? So it's Joe Burrows twenty
five years old already, like Mahomes is twenty six and
he's in his sixth fifth season right already. Uh, Lamar's
twenty five and he's in his fourth season. Josh Allen's

(51:28):
in his fourth season already at twenty five years old,
Burrows and old. I didn't realize that till I heard
that standard then a couple of days ago. He's much
He's very much older. Um. No, I think the FC
hierarchy of quarterbacks, if you're like trying to draft them, um,
it would be it would be I think it would
go Mahomes. Um. I think people would would have kind

(51:50):
of their staying on Alan or Burrow probably next right, Um,
people would probably go Herbert maybe with the arm. Next
in Lamar five, I think I think at times Lamar
could be anywhere as high as two or three. UM
sometimes he like this part of the season. I think
early the year's playing like the best quarterback in all
the a f C Conference. But I think if you're

(52:12):
if you're redrafting them right now, and I think you can.
I think people would make the case to take Herbert too,
But I need to see more of Herbert in big
games having success, uh to feel that way about Herbert.
I think it's physically. His physical skills probably put him
number one in the a f C U I go
Mahomes probably Burrow Alan I picked your choice on that one.

(52:33):
Herbert four and Lamar five. On the other side, we're
gonna talk about the other quarterback in the Super Bowl,
a guy who languished in Loserville, which has been where
the Lions have resided for so many years. The Rams
took a big risk, they traded a lot to get
Matthew Stafford, and now they're one win away from the

(52:57):
Super Bowl championship. We'll talk about how much of an
impact Matthew Stafford has had on this Rams team. Coming
up next, Steve Harvey Jeff Schwartz Fox Football Saturday, the
Los Angeles Rams will become the second consecutive team to

(53:17):
play the Super Bowl in their home field. Worked out
beautifully for the Buccaneers last year, We'll see how it
works out for the Rams coming up a week from tomorrow.
When Sean McVeigh took over the Rams, the Rams had
had ten straight losing seasons. They had had thirteen consecutive
seasons without a winning record. In five years with the Rams,

(53:40):
his record is fifty five and twenty six regular season,
six and three in the postseason. Former assistance Matt Lafleur
now in Green Bay, Zach Taylor, who will be coaching
against him in the Super Bowl, Brandon Staley with the Chargers,
and I guess Kevin O'Connell is soon to be the
head coach of the Vikings. I mean, this is quite
a resume for a young coach. The one thing missing,

(54:02):
of course, is winning a Super Bowl. And that's why
he insisted that we need to make a change of quarterback.
Let's get that guy who's never won a playoff game,
who's played in a lot more losing games than winning
games over the course of his career. That being Matthew
Stafford in his thirteen season. This year in the NFL

(54:23):
a little bit of a roller coaster ride during the
regular season, Jeff, But in the postseason Stafford is delivered.
He hasn't made a lot of mistakes. He's only thrown
one interception and three postseason games. What's your guests, I mean,
are they going to finish the job here? And will
their deal in which they've sacrificed all their drafts coming

(54:45):
up pretty much? And by the way, I'm a big
believer in playing for the now rather than the future,
so behind that decision. But do you get a sense
now that they're vindicated and giving up these multiple one
picks to get Matthew Stafford. So not only that they
went and traded picks for Odell right for von Miller.

(55:07):
Now Odell was much cheaper than von Miller obviously, Jalen
Ramsey like, they've gone very very in on trying to
trying to have, um, you know, a championship caliber team,
and I would say most time in sports, it rarely
pays off doing that, but here it did and let's
have the upgrade quarterback. I've been very critical of matt

(55:29):
staff for this year. He has made me eat my words.
He has been fabulous. But he's been better than Joe
Burrow in the playoffs like he just has been. And um,
you know, I would imagine he will play well again
this weekend. Um. But he's doing great things with the ball.
You mentioned, turnovers have gone way down, which is fantastic
and good to see. He did throw that armpunt that
was you know, luckily wasn't caught, which is good news

(55:51):
for them. But he's been very efficient with the ball.
He's done a very good job and he deserves a
credit that that he's been given. And this is exactly why,
by the way, the Rams went ahead and got rid
of golf and brought in a new quarterback because they
wanted someone to trust to make all these throws in
the offenses. Dude, he's making throws that Jared Goff can
only dream of making. And this is why they made
the deal. And they're vindicated by making the deal. And

(56:13):
Matt now, Matt Staff has the biggest game of his life.
And and and remember this is what he asked for,
right He wanted to be traded to play in these games,
in these big moments. And I'm very excited to see
him in this and you know, get this opportunity and
make this happen, and so um, it should be a
lot of fun to watch this game. I think the Rams,
just initially speaking, if they can avoid a bad Matt

(56:36):
Stafford turnover, they're gonna win this game. Um, at some
point it has to matter that you can rush the
that one team can rush the past, or one team
really has trouble blocking for the quarterback. It has to
matter at some point, and I think it matters this weekend.
Um so so so to me, yes, it's paid off.
It has absolutely paid off. Now. They don't win then

(56:56):
and obviously didn't pay off, and that's obviously something they
have to they have to figure out on their own.
They can run it back, I believe next year maybe
and and feel better about it. But this is this
is a chance to make this happen. You're you're at home,
which is not it's not a big home food advantage.
I get that in Los Angeles. But you're at home,
you're in the visiting locker room, which is kind of
funny enough, but this is the year to do it.
You're playing the Bengals team that's just okay, right, They're Okay,

(57:21):
they're not great, They're not a special team. This is
your opportunity right now to get that championship and shut
people like me who do not believe in Matt stafford
h to shut us up and UH show everyone that,
hey man, my plan had worked. We have one and
we're you know, we're trying to run it back next year,
but it has to be done this year though. All right,

(57:42):
I want to ask you about I mentioned the coaching tree.
Un McVeigh, la Fleur, Zach Taylor, Brandon Staley, Kevin O'Connell
probably is going to be named after the Super Bowl.
Is the new coach of the Vikings. Um we always
talk about Belichick's coaching tree has been a miserable failure overall, uh,
in terms of winning games as head coaches. Is this
overplay when we talk about a a coaching tree. I know,

(58:06):
like Mike Holmgrin was a guy that had several assistants
who became the Andy Reid's, the John Rudens, Maruchi, guys
like that that went on to have some success as
head coaches in the NFL. But when you when when
we play this up about wow, that guy's coaching tree,
I mean he must be brilliant because everyone that works
under him becomes a star. Is that legit? Is that overplayed?

(58:30):
Is that that just a sign that maybe he's recognizing
good assistant talent that done does become head coaching material.
I mean, I think that's I don't think it's overplayed.
I think you're able the ability to recognize good coaches
and have them on your staff, the ability for to
recognize players um agreemely coaches that can relate to players.
That's what I meant to say. Um, those are all

(58:52):
valuable to It's why they keeps winning, right. It's why
Andy Reid his coaching tree has been successful because he
hires coaches again who players relate to, who can teach right.
Part of coaching is teaching um and I think that's
all the reason why this has worked out for Sean
mcveigh's assistance. It's, in my opinion, in matterin belichicked all

(59:14):
his coaching tree tries to be Belichick right. I've talked
a lot about this with Andy Reid. Where Andy Reid
tells everyone coaches players too. He tells everyone to show
your personality, right, show your personality. And that is why
I think that his coaching tree has done well. And
why Sean would imagine Sean McVeigh just listening to him,

(59:35):
I'm sure with his coaching staff and his players. Hey, guys,
be yourself, but yourself. Sean mcveigh's himself. You beat yourself
as well, and that relates to players, and it obviously
relates into into winning. Obviously, they hired another another Sean
McVeigh guy. Um, and look, the coaching in college football
and the NFL starting to trend a little bit younger.

(59:56):
Look at the hires of Notre Dame, of Oregon, of
even USC. Look and Riley is a young as on
the younger side of coaching. Um, it's kind of a
young man's game now. And the coaches that are being
hired by by other teams that come from are younger. Again,
they relate to players, in my opinion, Um, and they're
able to bring out the best and the guys they're coaching.

(01:00:18):
That to me matters. Well, I'll tell you what also
matters for any coach quarterbacks? Well, of course, yeah, I
mean you know, Matt Lafleur has Aaron Rodgers, Zach Taylor
has Joe Burrow, Brandon Staley has Justin Herbert, It's amazing
how much better you are. But I will say this
for Sean McVeigh. He inherited a number one overall pick

(01:00:38):
quarterback who was about as bad as a rookie as
any quarterback that we've ever seen, that was the number
one overall pack and flipped him in one year and
had back to back big years with him. So yeah,
Sean McVeigh, um, I'm sure would love to reverse course
on his first Super Bowl appearance when he got schooled

(01:00:59):
by the Master that day and the Rams were held
a pathetic three points and an embarrassing performance. He's out
to prove to the world that he is now the
hottest head coach in this league. And it's gonna be
hard to argue if the Ramps come up with a
big win a week from tomorrow. Well yeah, I argue that,

(01:01:19):
But I mean, think about what this does for In
my opinion, this does more for Stafford's legacy than mcveigh's legacy. McVeigh,
in my opinion, we'll be back into the Super Bowl
at some point right in his coach a career. He's
like thirty six years old. He's right, No, no guarantees
on those Super Bowls. I know there's I know there's
no guarantees, but we just talked about how good he
is as a coach. A lot of these good coaches

(01:01:42):
go to multiple Super Bowls, right, I mean, we talk
about Andy Reid's record. He's been to four Super Bowls, right. Um.
Obviously Belichick's been a billion, Mike Thomas. Actually, Andy Reid
has been to three. He lost one with the Eagles,
and he's won on one with the Chiefs. He's been
to three, he lost one with the Chiefs. He's one
of two super bowls. Um. Belichick, obviously that's the outlier.
But what Tomlin has been to to to um, Coughin

(01:02:05):
went to two. Um. You know again, there's not a
lot of coaches that have been beyond two. A lot
of them aren't coaching anymore either because well that's because
they couldn't. I mean, I'll put it this way. The
winning has coached in the history of the NFL. Don
Shula did not win a Super Bowl in his last
twenty two years in Miami, but he still but he
still they wanted two super bowls, lost them both. But

(01:02:28):
he did not win a super Bowl in his last
twenty two years. Uh, in my just saying that, I'm
just saying that. I'm not saying he'll win an those
Super Bowl, but I think he'll go back to Super Bowl.
Let's say this might be this might for Stafford, right,
like this might this is this and this might be
the I don't know, Hall of Fame talking so far away,
but this might be the you know kind of like

(01:02:49):
the if he plays well in this game eventually, this
is the you know, the argument that they put up
for the Hall of Fame. Well, I mean, he's on
par with guys like it's statistically like Matt i In
and Philip Rivers Matt Robin who went to a Super
Bowl did did have an m v P Award. Obviously
Stafford will not have that on his resume, but that
would be trump by winning a Super Bowl, and of

(01:03:10):
course Rivers has neither, uh and people put him in
the conversation. On the other side, there's another big factor
here for the Rams if they were to win the
Super Bowl. We'll get to that in a moment, but
first let's find out what's trendy once again with the
one and only Mr David Gascon, who, by the way,
is gonna be a very busy man in the days ahead, Jeff,

(01:03:32):
I mean he's gonna be doing play by play from
just about every college basketball game over the next several months.
Kind of awesome. Yeah, he's he's sitting the road. He's
finally getting his due. Very happy about that. Are you
who are you calling for? Got the Fresno State tomorrow
and Wyoming yeah? FS one, yeah, vast Yeah, un l

(01:03:57):
V and Boise State next Friday. Yeah, those are on deck. Yeah,
he's doing it. Sean Payton only one super Bowl? Yeah,
one super Bowl. He went to one super Bowl. Yeah,
and then he talked about and being a Hall of
Famer one super Bowl. I think Sean McVeigh, Sean Payne
tony to this before. Um, he's underachieved in New Orleans,

(01:04:22):
like the super Bowl success compared to what how we
talk about the successes and now he resurrected a franchise
and it was terrible. He obviously did a great job
of getting him through you know, Katrina and being able
to put a winner on the field, but they lost.
His last four playoffs were all ended at home. Four
straight home playoff loss. Now, to be fair, though one

(01:04:43):
was a brutal call against his team alright, they had
the ball first and overtime. Um, I gotta ask Jeff
because you mentioned since today it sounds like to me,
I think there are just an average team. But when
you look at them, they've won seven games this year
and one score differences. Yeah that that that typically like

(01:05:05):
the next season, that's gonna be not as good. But
if you look at their offense, elited quarterback, elite wide
receivers in the outside, then Joe mixed in the backfield
I did. Those guys would start on the majority of
teams in the National Football League, don't you two beds
zero of their offensive lineman start any team in the
National Football And maybe, But when you look at the

(01:05:25):
a f C Championship game, Joe Burrow was sacked once
my homes four times. Yeah, the saxon Mahomes happened eight
seconds into the play sixteen times. I'm just telling you, man,
like the race like this is the best delone they
played so far in the play. Like if you think,
if you think Aaron Donald is missing you after being

(01:05:46):
the right card like Chris Jones did, I'm sorry, it's
not gonna happen. And then you have by the way,
von Miller playing like he's you know, his his Hall
of Fame himself, Like it's a really really tall task
for Bengal's offense. That's just been okay the play. Don't
five touchdowns in three games. Yeah, the idea of Aaron
Donald against this offensive line, it's gonna be fun though,

(01:06:08):
because they moved Donald to the outside against Tampa in
that divisual round game, So don't move them wherever he
can do the most damage. But against that Bengals offensive
line a lot, it's gonna matter inside, outside, He's gonna
have his way. He is wow, I mean, but he
plays to make against that linebacking crew guys, speaking of
plays being made right now. College basketball scene going on

(01:06:31):
right now. Unranked Rutgers on FS one is leading thirteen
Frank Michigan State, forty seven Southern Kala's in the desert
taking on Arizona and two sons. Seventeen seventeen is a
score there. Kansas tenth rngth of the nation, is blasting
number eight Baylor sixty three to thirty six the tally
and that contest, and number one Auburn survived late at

(01:06:53):
Georgia push seventy four to seventy two. Jeff, I forgot
to ask you do you have Do you have any uh?
Do you have any taste tomorrow on the Pro Bowl?
Any any little dabble? No, I don't have. I don't
have a dabble on the Pro Bowl at least now
take the under take the under in the game. I

(01:07:13):
have what it is. I only asked because a group
of friends and I had a little bit of a
wager on the Royal Rumble last week, and I thought, like,
how can you we drawing something that's already predetermined like
that just to find out? We we had like we
picked money or we put money in a into a
bin and then we plucked names out of a hat.
So we just got some contempts. That's so, I know,

(01:07:35):
limits on those are low. So like you can't you know,
you can't wage your two hundred thousand dollars. But like
what what stops a wrestler before the you know, before
the match, like in the locker room being like you
know what, I know I'm losing. I'm gonna bet on
the other guy. Fitts McMahon. It has enough money. I
don't think you would rest doing the like that's just fixed.
It's it's quality. To me, you can bet on something
that's the results been determined beforehand, right, that's the way

(01:07:58):
it works a lot crazy, right, mean we can work
on the national anthem, right, yeah, there's exactly the over
under on the national anthem. You don't think they can
control it by two or three seconds? Quite dragging it
out right at the end. Come to the lady. So
the lady who's singing, I did not even know who
she was. I maybe I feel old on this, but
we looked us up from my podcast. I have it

(01:08:19):
right here. Okay, so, uh, Mickey Guidan's doing the national anthem.
The over under this year is a minute and forty
five seconds. That sounds the two times she has sung it. Yeah,
a minute three, a minute thirty one. That is really quickly,
like two minutes. Yeah, last year was one nine. So

(01:08:39):
the year before that was you remember the the controversy
with with Gladys Knight the double brave one and two minutes,
two minutes, two minutes, two minutes over two minutes, So
very low number for the anthem. If we're getting into
it's the fix was in when Gladys Night, are you
now come on? But she said brave twice that she

(01:09:00):
did suspensions house rules whether or not they count the
first brave is the ending or the last brave is
the ending, And that was a lot of fun to
I mean, if they drag out the final note, I mean,
come on, and you're like on the clock about I
got the again, it depends on what like for that
specific one. So you're not saying that you're one wager

(01:09:21):
here is gonna be on the under on the anthem?
Is that what you're saying you're going on? I mean,
you close. I might, I might do that. I'm not
settled yet on but I'm sure I'm gonna write about
this though. All Right, Um, I want to I wanna
uh sound off Kevin dem Off, the CEO of the Rams.

(01:09:45):
Um he's got he's got quite a record people in St. Louis, Hey, Kevin,
Kevin dem Off, understand this. When you're a CEO working
under a zillionaire like Stan Cronkey, who, as you knows,
wife is actually worth way more money than him because
she his heir to the Walton Walmart fortune. Uh So
there's a lot of money to be had there. So

(01:10:06):
you've got a cushy job as a CEO. But much
like the commissioner of the NFL that has to take
all the slings and arrows because he's getting paid by
the owners. It's very similar for Kevin Kevin dem Off,
but I thought it very refreshing after their victory in
the NFC Championship Game that Kevin dem Off admitted that
the Rams have a long way to go to really

(01:10:28):
say that they've embraced or Los Angeles has embraced them. Uh.
In fact, let's hear from the CEO of the Rams,
Kevin dem Off, about the rams current state in l A.
There's so many fans who grew up without a team
to root for. Now that we are back in Los Angeles,
that is not the case. But there's so many parents

(01:10:49):
and people who moved here in that time frame who
for other teams as they should. It's not about flipping
someone who's a Pittsburgh Steelers fan who grew up in
Pittsburgh and moved to Los Angeles and me coming Rams.
That's great if it happen, but that may not be
a realist. What it's about is their kids who were eight, nine,
ten years old growing up wearing Cooper cuptures. Yeah, you know,
I grew up I The Rams came to Los Angeles

(01:11:11):
from Cleveland. If people don't know this, uh in nineteen
forty six, twelve years before the Dodgers arrived in l A.
So they were l A's team, the Rams. By the
time I came around the late fifties as a kid.
In the sixties into the seventies, the Rams were everyone's
team in Los Angeles. It was undisputed. When they moved
to Orange County in nineteen eighty, I abandoned them. They

(01:11:33):
might as well have moved to Buffalo for all I
was concerned. They were no longer the Los Angeles Rams.
They could have called themselves the Los Angeles Rams, which
they did, but believe me, they were not. In fact,
Eric Dickerson will be one to tell you he never
played for Los Angeles Rams. He played for the Orange
County Rams, which is a whole different entity. But I
like the idea that it's gonna take a lot more
than winning. I go back from my own experience working

(01:11:55):
for the Raider organization, Jeff, after they won the Super
Bowl in their second years, the l A Raiders tenants
was big. The Raiders were a hot ticket, but when
they couldn't sustain the winning like overnight like people left,
and I begged Mr Davis when I left the organization
that he had to do more. There's a reason why

(01:12:15):
the Dodgers and the Lakers whether the storm when they
have bad teams, because they're so entrenched in the community.
Winning is great, but it's not the only thing, and
has to be even more than that for a city
to fully embrace the idea, because otherwise what you got
his bandwagon fans, those are not really fans. There's gonna

(01:12:38):
be a plenty of people in l A decked out
in their RAMS gear. Guess what if they lose this
game of the Bengals, It's gonna go on the trash.
So I'm gonna be very interested to see moving forward
for this RAMS organization. And they've done a lot of
things well. Certainly the hiring of Sean McVeigh was sheer brilliance.
But it's gonna be interesting moving forward what the RAMS
can do if they can actually do it to get

(01:13:00):
themselves on the level of the Dodgers and Lakers in
the city of Los Angeles. So I live in a
city that's a perfect example of this. I live in
Charlotte and the Carolina Panthers have been here now over
twenty five years, and when they showed up, and I've
been here to twos eight, so it's not been all
the twenty five years when they showed up and still now,
everyone that had the bosses and tickets for the Panthers

(01:13:23):
was not a Panthers fan. They were a Bills fan,
a Cowboys fan, a Washington football team fan. They were
typically from the North Philly fan right, a lot from
the northeast. And when the Panthers were playing any other
team besides their favorite team, they wore their Panthers jersey
and they cheered for the Panthers when they played the Steelers,
the Bills, you know, the Cowboys unfortunately had you know

(01:13:45):
the and and and the Bill. I probably mentioned the Eagles,
whoever was the wahootball team. Everyone will take off the
Panthers jersey and put on their you know, their home
team jersey, right, the Steelers whoever else? Okay, now as
their kids, right, like my kids are of that age
of when those parents were buying those season tickets, they
grew up Panthers fans, right, because that's what the football

(01:14:07):
team they had in their city. It's like my son
for example, likes the Panthers because that's the team in
this city. Yeah, we were for the Chiefs, sure, but
all his friends as people, they were for the Panthers.
We go to Panthers games. Right, So it's that it's
in Kevin said it, right, it's that next generation that
really has And now that we're twenty five years in
with the Panthers here there are people buying season tickets

(01:14:29):
in their thirties. They only know really the Panthers being
in Charlotte, and they are true Panthers fans, right, And
so the Rams are gonna have to do that. But
that's also with the distraction of the Dodgers being good again,
the Lakers and Lebron, I know, the Clippers just made
a trade there now, I mean they don't really ever
win anything, but the Clippers are exciting at times. Uh,
the King's usc football now you see, like basketball's back,

(01:14:52):
like it's all there are things are there in Carolina.
We have you know, we have Ducan in the North
Coulic basketball, but they're you know, they're different, hundred miles
away from US. Um we have the Hornets, Okay, you know,
so the Panthers can kind of reign supremeoum in l a, man.
You have to win, sustain your winning, and also get
fans away from these other sports to really want to
invest their money in in in your product. And that's

(01:15:13):
I mean. Look, if USC football gets back, the Rams
will never catch US football as far as popularity. If
USC football becomes as good as they hope it hope
it is, it's just the way it's gonna be. But
the Rams can still pull in fans. But it's gonna
take twenty years. Man, It's not gonna happen overnight. It
is absolutely great point. It's gonna take a generation. And
Kevin Kevin dem Off recognizes that. All right. On the

(01:15:34):
other side, the coaching vacancies are being filled around the NFL.
Still four out there and no minority hirings yet. Is
that gonna change? We're gonna tell you coming up next,
Steve Iroman, Jeff Schwartz. All right, I want to get
right to this here, Jeff, before we get to the
top of the hour. Five coaching vacancies have been filled

(01:15:56):
in the NFL, all white coaches. The latest, of course,
is the guy that well, he won a Super Bowl,
so I guess he's a legitimate higher, no question about that. Uh.
Two vacancies that seem to be ready to be filled
are the Vikings Kevin O'Connell, the current UH coordinator offense
coordinator for the Rams, and Josh McCown. Is that for

(01:16:18):
real as the next coach of the Houston Texans even
though he's never been a coach before. Who cares? UM?
That would leave the Saints and the Dolphins ironically of course? UM?
I mean if if this goes nine for nine, um
without a single minority hiring as a head coach, how

(01:16:41):
devastating is that for the NFL? Uh? Not good? Um?
Especially when there's plenty of candidates that are very qualified, right.
I mean, you look at Jim Caldwell. I just don't
get why Jim call is not a head coach. I
just don't get it. You know, Byron Leftwich turned down
an opportunity to be the Jaguars head coach. It was Pierre,
but I understand he wasn't gonna get the general manager

(01:17:03):
to work with he wanted to. I understand why he's like,
I don't want that job. And now there's two general
managers in in UH, in UH, in Jacksonville. I shall
get why he turned that down. Um, you know, Verhea
Morris has been you know, been rumored to Patrick Graham
did a nine interview with the Vikings and somehow I
wasn't able to get that job. And now he's the
defensive coordinator for the Raiders going and you know there'd

(01:17:29):
been me things interesting because you know, he's obviously been
on the job market a lot longer than Byron Leftwich
or Morris has been kind of the second go around,
right or I think even Jim Caldwell the call, uh
the matter something like that one doesn't make sense to
me because you know, you're the coordinator of one of

(01:17:49):
the best offenses in the last four years. Now he
doesn't call the place who cares it doesn't he doesn't
not gotten Doug Peterson. Remember when Peterson was hired by
the Eagles, it was mocked, bucked the the Eagles that
made the worst tire of any teams because he's not
the play caller under Andy Reid, and he answer when
he is. Super Bowl Kevin o'connellen called the plays in

(01:18:10):
Los Angeles, right, Um, it's just a silly thing. And
it's funny, funny how how people try so hard to
make it seem like Eric b. Enemy is the play
caller who cares. It doesn't matter because it doesn't matter
if other coaches either, Like the excuse of him not
being the primary play caller is a bad reason anyway,
it's not hiring him. So let's not make a bad
argument and even worse argument by saying things that just

(01:18:31):
aren't true. Right, that should not matter at all to
hiring Eric Enemy. Can you coach? Can you be a
leader of men? Can you be a head coach? To me?
Eric the Enemy? The answers yes, and so you know.
But again, if he doesn't, if he gets passed up again,
that one feels different than all the other ones. I
can't explain three straight years where he's been through the
interview process. I've asked people and they say, well, you

(01:18:54):
know his resume. Is there no question about that he
does an interview? Well, I don't. I don't know. There
are some things from the past that's a long time
ago now, rights like thirty years I something like that
years ago. I don't know. It just seems his his
seems odd. Coldbill too, like, I don't understand the Coldwell

(01:19:16):
hire why he's not hired yet. I just don't anyone
doesn't make sense to me. I don't get it. Well, again,
this is a league that's gonna have to answer questions,
and it's something we could talk about, you know, for
three straight hours. The legitimacmate legitimacy of the Rooney rule
and how it works. You know as well as I
know that once the Rooney Rule was put in about
having to interview a certain amount of minority candidates, a

(01:19:39):
lot of it was window dressing. We knew that, we
knew that there were the same suspects or they would
interview minority candidates from inside. Right, Well, you have to
you have an interview to minority cancer outside the building. Now,
you remember the John grew In hiring with the Raiders
and was ready done. And I know we don't much.
I'm like, I state Flor's anger of doing a nine

(01:20:01):
hour interviewer interview and then the next day that hire
Brian Dable. Look, I understand that that's wrong. That has
to change in the NFL. All right, Well, we'll talk
about change in the NFL. Also talk about Super Bowl
fifties six. It's the Rams and the Bengals. Much more
coming up next. Oh, once again, here we are in
this beautiful Saturday, Fox Football Saturday, Hartmann and Schwartz, eight

(01:20:25):
days away from Super Bowl fifty six. It'll be the
Rams on their home field at SOFI Stadium taking on
the surprising Cincinnati Bengals. Uh. The number of people listening
out there will be making the journey to Los Angeles
for the Super Bowl. Jeff, you you will be making
this trip to Los Angeles coming home. Let me ask

(01:20:48):
you this, if you were to recommend coming to Los Angeles,
because I used to do this all the time. In fact,
I would still do this whenever I travel. And I've
you know, been in this industry as you know, you
do a lot of traveling. And if I have that
night where I can go out to dinner, I'm I
always want to make sure I'm going out to some
place I can't eat. If you know I was in
either l A or San Diego, you know, you go

(01:21:10):
to the hotel, you ask a cab guy, give me
a place, give me a place, And more often than not,
I've been told about places that lived up to the hype,
like they know the places to go, right. So if
you were to recommend for people listening out there, that
might be making the first trip to l A. And
and maybe you do this when you come back to
l A every once in a while, like I got

(01:21:32):
to eat there, Like this is like a place like
I mean, I know it's a long list. You can
eat just about any kind of food where you can
eat any kind of food in the Los Angeles area.
But but give me, give me, give me a couple
of places like you would say, oh yeah, you got
to check this out. Jeez. I think that anytime any
place you can find authentic Mexican food. Yes, you're not

(01:21:53):
going to find that any other city. You know, most cities, right,
I mean you might find it in San Diego in York,
but you're not finding in the Midwest like you most
have you a funny in Cincinnati. Okay. And by the way,
when you say Mexican food, you're talking authentic Mexican food.
This is not Americanized Mexican food. We're talking about the
real deal. Let's say the place to have a have

(01:22:16):
a be in the window. But that might be a
little people, but I think I think, um, yes, you
know the yes where, Yes, that that's where you go,
and if you ask around, you'll be able to find
that I mean that again, everyone's gonna staying everyone. The
people staying in angle Wood, well, you can't stay angle
What I should say that the people staying at the airport, right,
the people staying out imagine on the west side, downtown

(01:22:38):
l A. I don't think the valley, but maybe so
like there's each area is gonna have. Like if you're
on the west side, Um, you know, don Antonio's is
not bad on the west side, right, If you're in
downtown Elcholo, right, like that's a great place to be. Um,
I think it's like it just depends on where you are.
I don't have a great recommendation for the airport area
or Manhattan. Well, I mean, are you one of those

(01:23:00):
guys that you know, say, oh you gotta check out
Tito's Tacos and Colver City. Yeah, yeah, you're not a
Titto's guy. Seat, I'm not waiting in line for an
hour for that. Like that's that's that's part of it too.
It's so too touristy, is what you're saying. I've seen
there's plenty of other places to go to get really good. Uh,
you're not going to Pink's hot Dogs, is what you're
saying no, I'm not doing that. I will say, though, guys,

(01:23:22):
in and out it's very good. Yeah, do you make
it and out run every time your return to SoCal?
Not every time? I've had it so many times. I
know it's not like on my list of things to
get um. But I have a place. Oh man, there's
a place. There's a brito place where my parents house. Yes,
it's like it's unbelievable. And the owners, the same owner
is right. So if I go in there, say I've

(01:23:43):
been there, going there for I'm thirty five, twenty years
over longer. Probably Look, so I was tan. I just
walk up there and get a brito and they're like,
welcome back, Jeff, where are you been? And how's the family?
One time, one time the sun was was making the
brito and the dad who owned the walked out one
time saw my brito didn't have enough stuff, and he
opened it back up and threw more meat and rice.

(01:24:04):
And there they know here I mean, is there like
thee I would say ten years ago when I was
going to California more often they would know. But what
here's what they do, guys. This is important. Listen to this,
very important. So I don't wat Chipotle. They after they
fill your burrito, they put it back on the grill
to melt the cheese. That's the key. That's the key, everybody.

(01:24:26):
So you have to melt the cheese in the barrita.
That's what you have to do. So I think that
you really there's so many options in Los Angeles. Just
like it's so funny to me when people go to
like New York City and go to like sub Burrows
or all of Garden. It's like, guys, I get it.
I never do that, you know, It's like you go, Yeah,

(01:24:47):
I've covered a lot of sporting events like well, first
of all New Orleans and New Orleans. But like in Miami, right,
I go Cuban, I go a lot of different ways.
I go to places. My rule has always been the same,
no matter New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Seattle, wherever I'm going,
I'm gonna eat local. I want to eat a place
that I can't eat in Southern That's what I've done

(01:25:08):
when I when I played Saturday nights, we get a
little bit of time in the NFL to go get dinner.
It's less now with COVID whatnot, but we used to
get about three three and a half hours. You get
into your hotel most every between three thirty four. Your
first meetings about seven thirties, so you kind of a
couple of whoever we went. So if it was St. Louis,
I went and got ribs. If I was in New Orleans,
I went to draw Goos every single time I was

(01:25:28):
in New Orleans, and I remember I ordered one time
the first time I was there, I ordered a cup
of the seafood gumbo and the waitress was like, you
sure you want a cup? I was like, yeah, I
got a game tomorrow, I don't want to And then
and then I had any so I had one by
the cup I said, I said, I'll take a bowl
place one night, drop it off, took it, but I

(01:25:48):
was like, ma'am, excuse me, ma'am, I'll take a bowl
of this thing right here. UM call the growed oysters
there are so good. And then you know Buffalo trying
to find a winging place. Or if I was in California,
I remember time in college who went down to um
to uh the hotel. My parents brought me el pot loco.
I mean it's very local. UM, I just wanted pot
Loco and you know, I've had Andy read and we

(01:26:10):
went to we went there. You know, we had in
and out um and you just wherever I was at.
I try to find a local place to eat. Again.
L A has so many things, so many varies. Just
don't go tourist. Guys like not go tourist. See there's
a lot of independent eats. They've been featured on all
the shows. So you just ask somebody. Believe me. The
drivers whoever they know, believe me. They they're well versed,

(01:26:32):
and check out the whole scene. We're very excited because
next Saturday, you and I are going to be out
there at the third Street Promenade. Fox Sports Radio is
gonna have a big stage out there and we are
gonna be on full display for people to gok at.
The weather's gonna be spectacular. I'm gonna look. I bet
it's like seventy six with a breeze, because we're right,
we're right in midday. I see a little bit of

(01:26:53):
a cover. I need a little Scotts. We took a
little a little cover going here. I used to do
my radio show years and years ago, back in the
early nine Street promenade. Every day I had the worst
Farmers tan ever. So I would I would be sitting
on this patio area of this this place that was
literally on the Third Street promenade and um, and I

(01:27:16):
would be out there with my arms. You know, you
can imagine like you got a short sleeve shirt on
my face, I mean from the neck up, my arms down,
and then I take it is like wow. And it
was every day. So it was. It took years for
that baked and Farmers to finally get out there. So anyway,
we're looking forward to We can't wait. It's gonna be

(01:27:37):
a big week. We're both gonna be very busy throughout
the week, um, doing our coverage of this Super Bowl
matchup between the Rams and the Bengals. We've talked about
all this NFL news going around the league. You and
I have not talked yet about the retirement, the re retirement,
let's say, of Tom Brady. So last Saturday, you and
I right as we won on the year, the story

(01:27:59):
was out that it was breaking his Tom Brady's retired,
and then all of a sudden, it was not so fast.
We had all these stories from the Buccaneers and from
the agent and from his father saying I don't have
no idea where this story is coming from. He has
not announced his retirement. He hasn't made up his mind.

(01:28:19):
And then Tom Brady, and I love how he did this.
He goes on his podcast, right, Jim Gray, his weekly podcast,
and so he gets on the record saying, look, I
haven't made up my mind yet. I know a lot
of people are interested in this. I understand a lot
of people's lives sort of revolve around my decision. But
I assure you I have not made up my mind yet. ESPN,

(01:28:40):
of course, is the one that broke the story that
he was going to retire. They had to print it
up the next morning. There was that he hasn't made
up his mind yet, and then literally at six forty
five in the morning that morning, West Coast time, he
puts it out, Yeah I've retired. Um, the way he
handled this was just classic Tom Brady. And then immediately

(01:29:02):
we get the Brian Flores story and Brady was wiped
off the map. But I do want to get your
thoughts here now that it is official about the whole
Brady retirement. Um, you know, it's been an interesting thing
because he snubbed the Patriots organization and again, nothing with
Brady is by accident. He had put crafted this statement

(01:29:24):
purposely leaving Belichick, the Patriots and everybody else out of it. Now,
later on he came on and said, oh yeah, shout
out to the Patriots fans out there. I've talked to
some people that cover the Patriots over the years about this.
Just how bad was the situation when he was shown
the door by the Patriots organization. They all seemed to say,

(01:29:44):
it was very real? Is that petty? I mean, what
what did what did you make of the whole final
statement by Brady about his retirement from the NFL. I
know last weekend we questioned chef during darlingto but they
were absolutely right. They getta they get out of Boy,
they were right. I don't. I think that's very clear.
We were discussed batically for three hours last week about
who leaked that out. I think it was someone who

(01:30:07):
produced the final show of his of Man the Arena.
It feels like that's gonna be the episode where that
comes out, and that was leaked out and then Tom
Brady eventually had to announce it via social media. So
those guys, they got it right. Good for them. Um,
the Patriots thing is so silly, man. Come on, Patriots
fan stopping so salty guests. Who he retired from, right,
the Buccaneers, not from the Patriots, retired from Tampa Bay.

(01:30:29):
He's already thanked you guys. He might you know, I
can imagine at some point that there's gonna be a
you know, a one day contract signed in New England.
Like the guys, Come on, Patriots fans, It's okay, don't
be this sensitive. He's already thanked you guys. But he
retired from Tampa Bay, not from New England. He's not
gonna thank you guys, so don't I I just think

(01:30:53):
they're reading too much into this. Um. Him and Belichick
had that long conversation, uh this year the airs, something
that I would imagine, and I'm sure Brady has a
fund um you know, fond spot in his heart for
Robert Craft and the Patriots and Bellichick and everything. He
just didn't mention, you know, come after he was retiring
from the Bucks. Yeah, but he made a point of this.

(01:31:14):
And again, I mean, he can do whatever he wants
to do. He is Tom Brady. I mean, later on
he did, please. He goes shout out to all the
Pats fans out there and everything else and all is
good with him and Belichick, but he he wanted to
make a statement, no question about that. Plus you know
when he put it out there was him in a
box uniform. But to be here he was returning again

(01:31:34):
from the Bucks. Yes he was, but two years of
the Bucks, twenty years of the Patriots. I guess that's
why Patriots fans are a little upset. And on the
other side, we're gonna check in with a guy we
depend on to give us the real word of what's
happening around the National Football League, not only the lead
up to Super Bowl fifty six, but all the controversies
surrounding the league all throughout this week and in two

(01:31:54):
weeks ahead. Adam Kaplan our Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider
will join us. Coming up next, Steve Irman, Jeff Schwartz. Here,
this is Fox Football Saturday, and Johnny says he does
every week to give us his insight on everything and
AFLs our Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider series x M NFL.

(01:32:17):
Adam Kaplan, Well, there's quite a week for the NFL.
Adam Uh, Normally we're always concerned about stretching out our
Super Bowl coverage over two weeks. We didn't have to
worry about that because I can tell you my Monday
through Friday show with Rich Rmburger, we made no mention
of the game because we had so many other things
going on with the re retirement of Tom Brady on

(01:32:39):
his own terms. Uh, and then all of a sudden,
all this breaking news of Brian Flores and everyone else.
So obviously I want to get your thoughts on where
we're going with this civil suit against the league. Uh,
you know by Brian Flores, a number of accusations about
hiring practices, about briberies to lose games. Uh, what do

(01:33:00):
you think is gonna come of this? Well, the the
because of the accusations, let's look at it, Steve. The
the big one is, uh the tagging accusation, which is
not a secret, but the the bounty that was offered
as a strict no no. So the legal check into that,
they they clear. They claim it's going to be independent. Okay,
So we'll have to take them at their word because

(01:33:21):
we know so many things they've done in you know,
in the past, has not been independent and why certain
things just don't get done the right way. So we'll
see what happens there clearly, and then you know the
commissioner's memo which I got a hold of. Look, they
say the the issue of of the Rooney roll in
hiring practices must be better, but they say this seemingly
every couple of years, but nothing seems to change. And

(01:33:43):
quite frankly the biggest issue. When I was at the
Senior Bowl this week, this came up with several coaches
I know quite well. We were all talking about it.
Number One, you could an owner is gonna hire who
he wants to hire that you can't tell them who
the hire. For instance, last year, ever Meyer is gonna
be hired by the Jaguar shot Common is gonna hire him? Okay,
this is the fact though he said that concept today
that they were going to talk to Douck Peterson if

(01:34:04):
he wanted to coach, but he didn't. But nevertheless, he's
gonna hire Meyer. Obviously that was a bad mistake. But nevertheless,
so why even go through with the two minority interviews?
If if this is who the guy wants to hire? What,
why go through what? And and and really Florence's right
their sham interviews because they're not getting the job. So
if we understand that this is what's happening, right, and

(01:34:25):
obviously the NFL admits, you know that there is a
problem if they have the Rooney rule, right, and the
rooty was supposed to get exposure for these coaches. But
it doesn't matter for rip enemy, right, it didn't matter
for the nine hour interview that that Patrick Graham had
for the Vikings, did not matter for Brian Flores with
the Giants. So let's just say that because look, there's
of course an owner is gonna want to hire who
they want to hire. They have their their favorites. How

(01:34:48):
do we get the favorites to be minority coaches? Right?
Like that? That's that's the way that this changes, right,
because you can't you can't force ownership to hire someone
they don't want to hire. So how do minority candidates
become those favorites? So we have this talk. It's funny
you mention this, Jeff. So we have this talk this week. Um,
you know, over some drinks at the Senior Bowl. So

(01:35:10):
Wednesday night, we a couple of guys and I came
up with it some NFL assistants. So I love this idea.
I'm just gonna I'm just gonna use it because I
think it's smart. Every NFL general manager should submit they
should be required to submit a minority candidate list from
his coaching staff that that that they're overseeing. Obviously they
head coach oversees it, but he has, you know, sometimes
he has input and who who's hired and fired. They

(01:35:33):
should just be required to turn in got minority candidates
who they think are potential head coaching candidates, you know,
in the future, because those are the guys, quite frankly,
who are gonna make a decision where they head coaches
fired and fired by either they get the control of
it or they suggested to the the owner. Because other
than that, Jeff, on your question, there's really not much
they can do because the league has it does an

(01:35:55):
awful job identified minority candidates. You notice a lot of
the same guy's interview every year, at least half of
them are this it's the same recycled names. We've got
some new ones this year, which is good, but the
fact that they're not getting jobs, and I don't want
to criticize some of the guys who have been hired,
but I'll just say this, Believe me, there's some minority
candidates are just as good, if not better than some
of the guys have been hired. But that's just the

(01:36:16):
way this league is because they do not do a
good enough job of identifying minority candidates. Period. Out of story.
And then of course there was a story about bribery
to lose games. I found I was laughing when Hugh
Jackson jumped into this. Now he's backing out of it
because I'm thinking, well, if you were bribed to lose
games and you go one and thirty one, you're like
a billionaire exactly. I mean, whop, He's probably the richest

(01:36:37):
man in the world after that. Now he's backed off
this statement, but it really is bringing up a bigger point.
Adam and a lot of people are suggesting that maybe
you should change the draft system so that you don't
put teams in a position to dump games to improve
their draft position. We've heard everything like all eighteen teams
that don't make the playoffs are on equal playing field,

(01:37:00):
or maybe there's a suggestion about a salary cap for
rookie money to be spent where the worst team has
the most money. But you still are you don't really
have a draft all these rookies are free agents. Do
you think that the NFL would explore any possibility of
altering their draft to prevent the possibility of teams dumping

(01:37:21):
games to improve their draft position. It's never been discussed.
I mean, I've I'd be stunned if they did that,
because the league loves the system that's in place, Like
teams like the Jagguers, if they could ever get it
right for finishing last all the time or second to last,
maybe they'll actually get it right. I'd be shocked if
they went to an NBA system. You know, the NBA
has done their best to prevent tanking because we know

(01:37:42):
the Sixers did it um, but there's been no talk
of it. I mean, it goes in what I call
they never say never bucket, you never. You never know
what in owners means. If if several owners bring it
up and they're just look if if this if the
Steven Ross situation, if if it's proven, and then we'll
obviously he'd be in a whole boatload of trouble starts
up being an owner if it's proven that he did

(01:38:04):
solicit that that hunt grand to Flora's Look if if
this if the Lake thinks that this could be a
potential shore this has actually happened, that's a different story,
but right now we're not close to being there because
it's not been discussed yet. Here's the thing, though, is
that you know, teams trying to tank by roster decisions,
though you know it seems, are still playing hard on Sundays,

(01:38:26):
and sometimes the you know, the best laid plans of
taking don't actually work. And that's why a lottery system
might not be you know what if there's injury. I
just think the large system works. How would this idea?
Dave damage? That photos to me, and I love the
idea you credit for it. You have a loser's ball.
Want the worst team and the second worst team play

(01:38:48):
a game wild Card weekend. The winner of that game
gets the first pick, so you incentivize having to win
after trying to lose for so many weeks. Um, well,
here's the other question. Who's the coaching staff? I think
it'd be you think, because they're generally gonna be fibrate. Honestly,
I kind of like that, Jeff, that's a good idea,
but it never happened. But I look, I'm fascinating to

(01:39:12):
see what happens. I gotta tell you though, I was
at the see you know, I was at the Senior Bowl.
So Tuesday, this broke mid afternoon in Central Time, and
Dolphins reporter showed it to me, and I could he
didn't have that, you know, the Belichick text messages and
most of it, but it's I was like, Okay, then
we'll see where this goes. And then when everything came
out and I read the document I just read, I
went through the lawsuit. I was done about twenty pages.

(01:39:33):
I'm like, this is unbelievable. You know, the NFL has
a history of not doing anything until something bad happens.
I'm very interesting to see what how Roger Goodell reacts
to this going forward, and what else comes out. And
and by the way, listen, well, we're gonna find out
the other coaches that Flora says here that are going
to be named. We're we're gonna find that out relatively soon,

(01:39:53):
I would think, over the next couple of months. And
that's gonna be fascinating to see what happens here. Because
the NFL loves things that died out love they they loved.
To to make sure things don't get out and to
keep things quiet because of the explosiveness of this lawsuit,
it's only gonna get worse and they have to address it.
We were talking earlier about Joe burrows status here already

(01:40:15):
has made history the first number one overall pick uh
to lead his team to the Super Bowl within his
first two years. But we also mentioned the fact that
you have what five touchdowns and twelve field goals so
far in this postseason, so they they've been really been
right in the leg of their young kicker. But are
you ready to annoy Joe Burrow as the next IT

(01:40:36):
quarterback in this league? Or do you say you need
to see more right now? I would say no, he's there.
In terms of what I always like to do is
talk to advance scouts, you know, people do who look
at tape, you know, in advance of them playing the Bengals,
And this has come up that he's super gifted and
he's super aggressive. When you have a young quarterback like that,

(01:40:57):
they're going to toll their ball over once in a while.
You're gonna live with that. But the other talking mobile
this week is is that this Bengals team, and look,
they actually could certainly win the Super Bowl. The Rams
are not infallible. They look they they're a team that
you can beat. So they're a team next year. The
Bengals roster isn't that good. It wouldn't shock anyone if
they make the playoffs next year. That that's how unlikely

(01:41:19):
their rise to prominence is. I mean, no one saw
this coming. I mean, although an age and I won't
mention his name, who has a prominent player in the
Bengal showed me over drinks on a Wednesday night that
he did pick the Bengals to make it to the
Super Bowl. I I, I couldn't believe it, but it's true.
I don't know why. I asked him, like, how did
you come up with that? And he said, oh, there
were astered offense is good, but again it is and

(01:41:41):
they're very gifted, but they have a terrible offensive line,
which is they're getting away with it a lot. And
their defense is better than it was last year. I'm
still shocked that they're there. But look, anything could happen
what the rams very quickly before you get out of here.
So it paid off, right, at least it's sort of
paid off to play one more game. But going all in,
Stafford and O'Dell and Von Miller and Janale Ramsey. Going

(01:42:03):
back a couple of years now, do you think other
teams will try to follow this blueprint of going all
in or do you think this was unique to the
Rams because they kind of had everything in place, it
just needed a quarterback. You know, it's very unique. I think, Jeff,
it's very Remember what do they give up six future
ones there for like four years? Yeah, so no, it's

(01:42:26):
definitely exclusive to them. It's not popular. Um. Teams hate,
as you know, Jeff, teams hate giving up draft currency.
It's not like the NBA. It's all different where the
first round picks don't meet as much. You know, if
you don't have a lottery pick, it's like the teams
don't care about their first round picks. It's it's way different.
No one's been willing to do it, and I know
that they're there's one team in particular that really did

(01:42:48):
not like what they're doing. In fact, I was just
talking about that a couple of a couple of weeks ago,
but we were examining the roster and how they've built it. Though.
I would tell you they certainly have built a lot
of sort of secondary players on the roster from players
that they draft did so that it's not like they
it's all been through trades and free agent signs and
so forth. But it's it's it's kind of like they're
all in. They've got a window, and they're gonna have

(01:43:09):
to extend Stafford's contract after the season. They're not gonna
have much of a choice. But it's fascinating. It is fascinating.
It's it's it's just not been done before. It's been
frown upon, quite frankly, what less Need and Sean McVeigh
have done. And you gotta give him credit for Stafford.
This is and we can all argue stats and his
forty is forty touchdowns how real it is. But he
certainly had a great season. But until you you know,

(01:43:30):
you're not considered great until you you've least gotten there.
And he is there. And look, Dan Marino didn't win
one and he's in the super Bowl. I think people
criticized marian for not winning one, but you only have
so much control over that, you really don't we expect
next Saturday at him you'll be on stage with us, hope,
so you know, I hope, so I will be promenade
in Santa Monica and we had a big it's gonna

(01:43:52):
give me a ride. Yeah, because I'm on TV once
Tha Thursday and Friday and radio. But I was not
scheduled to go over there Saturday. Yeah, that's gonna be
Jeff and I will be together on this big stage.
I'm not coming over for one more segment. Come on,
we gotta do like County Adam Will, I'll do as
much time as we can with you. Always love the input,

(01:44:12):
appreciate it. We'll see you next week. All right, that's
Adam Kaplan our Fox Sports Radio NFL Insider. Now let's
find out what's trending as we turn back to Mr
David gas Gun. You gonna be careful when you're out
there in Santa Monica, Steve. Yeah, there's a lot of
history out there with me, by the way, Yeah you
got some wandering eyes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I used to

(01:44:37):
live in the Santa Monic area, both on the good
side and the bad, so I used to broadcast. I
have a lot of history in Santa Monica, by the way,
A lot gonna be paying for someone else's college tuition
maybe if things go right. Look, come on, I've got
enough on my got enough on my plate these days.
Right now, You just wait, Jeff, Yeah, wait till it

(01:44:57):
is insane. Did you tell Jeff about your your recent find?
So remember last week we were talking about Brady Brady.
Brady stuff is hot right now? Okay? And I found
online multiple tickets from Tom Brady's first ever college football game,
which was against U C. L A. And tickets were

(01:45:17):
going from five to seven thousand dollars tickets, stubs, or
a hundred six thousand plus of that game. I found
my press credential for that game. And there is no
sighting of a single press credential from that game online,
not one. And I showed Gascon a picture of it.

(01:45:38):
How did it look to you? Gas? Look good? There's
only two small little creases on the edge of How
many of those these things still exist? The game was
over twenty five years ago, I say, keeps their press
credentials zero? Well, I mean you know how I'm I'm
gonna talk to Mike Harmon. Mike Harmon is like our resident.
Uh you know, he's a car junkie. Yeah, he knows

(01:45:59):
he he knows value. So I'm gonna show the picture
and if his eyeballs pop out of his head. Maybe
maybe I'll put it out there. It was like like
one of those guys that should be in storage wars. Yeah,
oh yeah, because he just has you know, cards, Becketts.
He knows people also. I mean he's that you know, like,
you know, give me that thing, let me see what
I can. You know, I'll throw it out there some

(01:46:22):
cash man. Yeah, why not. I got a lot of
dispenses with you know, kids in college, right, insane guy.
Speaking of college today, Kansas blasted number eight Baylor eighty
three fifty nine. Was the final Jillan Wilson in fifteen
points for rock shot because they win it. Michigan State
got upset at Rutgers eight four to sixty three. Arizona

(01:46:44):
tied right now with USC forty seven apiece, same Wildcats
team that beat Steve's Bruins a few days ago. Quickly
out of the gates, Number nine Duke Is taken into
North Carolina on the road eight nine minutes gone in
the opening half, Wisconsin seventeen seven over pit and then
SCC actually now unranked Vanderbilt leading l s U seventeen

(01:47:06):
Earlier today, Auburn avoided an upset a bad one too.
They beat Georgia by two seventy four to seventy two.
So Steve, do not take anything less than I don't
know he's gonna take nothing less than six figures, right,
can get that again if it's the only one that exists. Yeah,
but it's a press credential. That's the whole point. It's

(01:47:29):
not a game ticket. Is a press credential. It's got
all the information about the game, the date, the teams
to participate. I don't know. I mean it's about you know,
demand versus you know. I don't know. I just don't know.
It's not laminated, which is good. No, it's not laminated. No,
I mean I I really don't know. Maybe my carmelill have.

(01:47:49):
I mentioned it to Mike last week and then you know,
he sort of looked at me like because I I
mentioned I don't know what it is, Jeff, I I
have I've kept my credentials. This goes back to my
days that you c l A in the seventies. I
have credentials. I kept all my credentials. I mean I've
covered twenty six Super Bowls and fifteen Final fours or

(01:48:11):
sixteen final fours, Baseball Star Game. I mean I've covered
all these amazing events over the years, and for some reason,
I just have always kept credentials. So might Bay off
handsively now? I don't know. I mean they'll find out. UM.
All right, well, David, thank you very much for that. UM.
I want to pick up on something that Adam said
when we're talking about the Rooney rule, and honestly, it's

(01:48:33):
a question I've had for years, and that is, how
do you control who an owner wants to hire? I mean,
it was obvious when the Raiders were going to make
their move to Las Vegas that Mark Davis wanted to
make a splash and he wanted to hire Jon Gruden.
I mean that's who I want. Now do I have

(01:48:55):
to go through a process before I hired John Gruden?
I don't care who I'm interviewing. My mind is already
made up. It was similar to the situation in Jacksonville
with Urban Meyer. So when when the league says they
need to uh it's NFL diversity efforts, you know, we
have to do a better job of it. How can

(01:49:17):
you change the system where the ultimate decision really comes
to the ownership of the team who they want to be,
because this is your head coach the face of your franchise. Um,
if I knew, and if other people knew, they'd have
better answers right to fix it. People have said, well,
you need more minority owners. Okay, great, Um, but there's

(01:49:39):
one spot open now in Denver and okay, well, then
a minority owner who can afford it should go ahead
and buy the team, right. I mean, that's you know,
but that feels like a very narrow path to um
to gaining more more minority coaches. I liked Adams thought about, Hey,
each general manager has to submit names, but that sort

(01:50:00):
of feels like the Rooney rule a little bit, right,
Like we're just so many names to a list that
doesn't doesn't change to the owners. Well, it has to
be a conscious change from ownership from general managers. And
I don't know what the impetus is to do that.
They're gonna Look, I think we all know that in
the end, the brought forest cancer is going to be settled, right,

(01:50:20):
and they're never gonna get to any sort of issue
of discovery. It's going to be an arbitration case. They'll
just keep They'll just I'm not even sure I I
who the NFL. That's the first argument the NFL always
makes in these cases that it's in the contract, it
goes to arbitration. So so okay, So I just it's
never so what how Why would the NFL make a change? Right,

(01:50:42):
there's gonna railroad this through, get it done and move
on and probably never talk about it again. There has
to be a change. They have to want to make
a change, and I just don't know how you force
them to do that, because the NFL owners don't really
make changes um against their world very often for anything.
I had a conversation with Amy Trask, my dear friend

(01:51:03):
and of course former CEO of the Raiders, and I
asked her because she was in those owners meetings for
over twenty years, I mean, and much of that time
she was the sole female in the room, And I
asked her, being around all these men all those years,
was there a sense of uh invincibility that they did? There?
Was there a sense in the room that we can

(01:51:25):
pretty much do anything we want that, I mean, no
matter how much outside noise there may be, or how
many complaints about the way the NFL runs its business.
Was there an air of invincibility in that room? And
she said, well, from those that you know, really step up.
Not every owner is really all that you know outgoing,
but from those that really sort of control the room

(01:51:47):
absolutely because they have put so many things in place
to shield them from a lot of outside noise. And
even if it's temporary, whether it's you know, the Kaepernick situation,
sation taking a knee, or spousal abuse or p E
D S or what I mean, whatever it may be,

(01:52:09):
They've always been able to deflect things. And I don't
think that it's going to be any different here, right
or wrong with this Brian Flores situation. Right again, there
there has to be something to make the owners change
their minds. And guess what bad press doesn't do that.
NFL just had a bonanza and TV ratings still making

(01:52:31):
so much money. And I applaud Brian for as and
the bravery it took to put this lawsuit out. And
you know, maybe end his coaching here as a young coach,
Maybe this end his coaching career. I don't. I don't
know if it does. As far as the head coach,
it might any He'll still be work as an assistant.
I can't imagine. You just never gets tired. You can,
even though it's totally possible without happened with we Colin Kaepernick, right,

(01:52:53):
she never got hired again. Um so uh. But what
this has done this week is it's made the NFL
have to answer questions about a policy and about their
hiring practices. It has made us in the media discussed
it all week. That has made fans of the NFL
who consume NFL media have to think about the rooty

(01:53:15):
rule and and you know the the replies always, well,
let's just hire who they want, right, best man for
the job, guys? I mean, is Josh McDaniel is really
the best man for the job, and and is he
better than Jim Caldwell for the job? An archie gym
call was better? Right, So like, come on, come on guys.
So um uh, that's what this is doing now again

(01:53:37):
in six months after as we begin next season, people
will tweet about it if if, if only, if only
one one one one black head coach. I know we
have Ron Riverison's two minorities. Um, but like, how why
is the NFL gonna change man? Well, the only when
you think about it, the only scandal that had legs

(01:53:59):
they carried over was the flake Gate because involved Tom Brady.
That one carried on for quite a while, did it not.
I mean, as as it was, it carried on because
of the Brady name, and of course eventually led to
a four game suspension of Tom Brady. By the way,
does that disqualify him from being uh considered him and

(01:54:20):
him and bonds um um. All right, Look, obviously I
want want to mention one last thing here, So there
is a little bit. It's interesting when when you see
there's a little bit of a riff between Roger Goodell
and the ownership, right because the NFL ownership came out
with a statement three days ago saying like this has
no merit. Did Roger Goodell came out of his own

(01:54:41):
state and saying like, hey, you know, we need to
look into this, like we need to like we need
to do this. So but it's always kind of been
that case, especially with Colin Kaepernick as well. I feel
like Roger Goodell acknowledge the NFL there was some wrongdoing
by the NFL, but the NFL ownership obviously was never
gonna admit any wrongdoing on their part. Um. And I
feel like this is the situation with ROGERO understands because

(01:55:01):
he talks to coaches and assistant coaches and people in
the NFL more than ownership does, right, more than you know,
the Giants ownership. John Mars not talking to other coaches,
talking to his coach, right, So, godell, here's these issues
from coaches and from players, I would imagine, And so
he understands there's a problem, but there's just a different
tone from him specifically than the people who are his bosses. Well, again,

(01:55:25):
he is asked to deliver a certain tone. We don't
know if this was all in cahots between what the
owners said initially and what he ultimately said. The bottom
line here is the future of the NFL is not
going to be threatened in any way. Promise you that
all right. On the other side, uh, the big Pro
Bowl game tomorrow, Jeff's gonna break this game down in
depth and get his early thoughts. More than a week

(01:55:46):
away from the Super Bowl between the Rams and the
Bengals coming up next Steve Irman, Jeff Schwartz, Fox Football Saturday. Yeah,
we are gearing up for a very busy the week
in the countdown to Super Bowl fifties six. Want to
thank the guys today, Iowa, Sam, kind of sad time,

(01:56:08):
isn't it, guys. It's like there's only one game left
and you're like, okay, you'll watch it will come and
go and then yeah, but the beauty of the NFL
is it never ends. And the second the game's over,
we're already gearing up for box score guy and I
like to watch raft stats, free agency and you know,
and and how dare you ignore the Pro Bowl? Well,

(01:56:30):
we're we're gonna get to the Pro Bowl in the second.
Danny g of course, is brilliant producer. And uh he
By the way, um, you just heard what Jeff had
to say about the hiring of Josh McDaniels. That that
is at a better higher than you know, Jim Caldwell.
I mean, we're all on a wait and see approach

(01:56:51):
with that one. I like Ziggler coming in as the GM.
I like who was tabbed as the new defensive coordinator.
So we'll see how much Josh McDaniels learned. He said
he learned a lot as far as dealing with players
and people. Well, immediately I thought of Mike Shanahan, who
failed miserably in his first try as a coach with
the Raiders and then had success, obviously winning a couple

(01:57:13):
of Super Bowls with the Broncos, and of course David
Gascon who's gonna be on the road all over the place, uh,
doing the play by play for every single college basketball
game the rest of the season. I don't know how
he's gonna do it, but he's gonna find the time. Um.
All right, let's let's talk about this Pro Bowl for
a secondary because Danny insisted on it. I'm gonna give
you the consensus Vegas line. Now this, I've never seen

(01:57:36):
anything like this. Okay this I go to Vegas Insider
dot com. They had like the consensus. So this game
opened up with the NFC is a three point favorite.
Now the a f C is a one point favorite.
By the way, twenty four players who originally picked four
the Pro Bowl will not be playing this game. Twenty
four alternates now can say they were Pro bowlers this year.
But here's the shocker. The over under in this game

(01:57:59):
open at forty five and a half. It's now sixty
two and a half. And that's that's quite a swing. Um,
so that's where we're going right now. A f C
is a one point favorite. Over under is sixty two
and a half. Which way you leaning in this game.
M yeah, that's a gamble, but trobably not this much. Um.

(01:58:24):
Uh then that sounds like a big number sixty two
and a half. Wow, I mean not if no one's
tackling or playing. Um, I guess I would lean under
just because everyone's probably been in the over. Um. Yeah,
the NFC now has Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson joining

(01:58:46):
Kyler Murray as the quarterback, says both Rogers and Brady
are out. I mean the the a f C has
Mahomes now. I mean, like, yeah, they do. Mac Jones
ended up replacing Lamar Jackson. Yeah. I would say, um,
what you do tomorrow at the three pm Easter you
take the money you're gonna wager on that you just

(01:59:07):
don't okay. Uh, let me get you early thoughts on
the game that actually matters, because there has been some
movement on this line. Uh. And obviously we'll wait till
next week to get your final prediction. But the Rams
open is three and a half point favorites consensus, it's
now up to four and a half. Cincinnatia, the over
under opened at fifty and a half. It's down to

(01:59:27):
forty eight and a half. So money is going in
on the RAMS, money is going on the under. Are
you intrigued by those trends? I mean I like RAMS four. Um. Look,
at some point, not being able to block for your
quarterback has to matter, and I think it matters this
this weekend. Alright, Well, I'll tell you what hold that thought,

(01:59:48):
and we'll be at the third, three prominent next week.
Gave me first Super Bowl

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