3 & Out - Ben Johnson gets his start, Justin Field CARTED OFF, Is UNC the NEXT Colorado - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
What is going on my people? Happy Fugazi Friday. Hopefully
everyone's doing well and getting ready for the weekend. Today
we're gonna talk a little thing we like to call football,
because training camps have officially started all over the league.
All over the league. We had a scare today justin
Fields carted off. Turns out he's okay, just a toe injury.

(00:38):
Ben Johnson is pissed off. He's on Caleb in the offense,
Kyle Shanahan actually had some very interesting comments in terms
of the way he runs and calls plays for his
offense and what he allows the quarterback to do in
why he does it. So we'll talk about that and
play some audio from Kyle. Nick Cassio, who was the

(01:01):
leader in the conversation because he fully guaranteed a second
round Picks contract, gave a press conference yesterday and discussed
the reasoning behind that, so I do want to touch
on that. And then Belichick had his press conference today
at ACC Media Days. Turns out ESPN plans on treating

(01:23):
the Tar Heels like they did Colorado two years ago
with Dion Can. Belichick and the Tar Hills bring the
same ratings bonanza to the four letter Network, the North
Carolina tar Heels. Are they going to be fun enough?
We will discuss that mail bag at John middlecoff Instagram.
Fire in those dms, I'll hit up with a couple
of fougazis and we'll have a long mail bag. Other

(01:46):
than that, just getting ready for ball, baby, Just getting
ready for ball. But make sure you subscribe. If you
listen on Collins Feed, subscribe to the podcast three and out.
Appreciate everyone that has as well as the YouTube channel.
Got you covered on YouTube, make sure you subscribe vibe
to that channel. All of our content is up there,
go check it out. But before we dive in to

(02:06):
any football, you know, I got to tell you about
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I wanted to start with Ben Johnson because I think sometimes,
you know, you hear a lot the different generations gen X,
Gen Z, Millennials and how we're all wired different. And

(03:09):
obviously we've all had different experiences as children depending on
the years we were growing up. But I think there
is a consistent theme with any young person who is
a high achiever and to make it into the NFL,
especially as a guy like Caleb Williams, you have to
be wired a certain way. There is a certain amount

(03:30):
of God given talent that people possess, right. It's a
reason that they're better than you at high school. It's
a reason they get into a college. But once you
get at the highest level, you have to take it
to another level, not just physically, but mentally in terms
of work ethic, in terms of training. It takes a
lot to last and to be a good player. You

(03:52):
can't fake your way into that. It's why coaching in
football has really separated than the other sports. Like in basketball,
you're not even allowed to the players anymore. They tell
you what to do, and when they want you fired,
you're gone. In football, you could go and do every
position group in the NFL and in college, and the
position coach in that room is typically wearing guys out,

(04:15):
and a lot of times the star player. It's just
the nature of the business. And watching hard knocks last year,
I was like someone was missing with Eberflus, He's just like,
this is a Saban guy. This guy was team captain
for Saban's team. What And it was just like for
a defensive guy, he just felt kind of soft. He

(04:37):
just honestly, he just felt completely over his head. And listen,
anytime you become a head coach from being a coordinator,
there is no guarantee you're gonna know what you're doing.
And clearly Eberflus is never gonna be a head coach again.
But Ben Johnson people have been begging for him to
take their job for a long time. I mean Washington
was flying to Detroit a couple of years ago. I
think pray and he'd take the job. Clearly worked out

(04:58):
for them landing Dan Quinn. But listen, we're not all
our wives' first choice. And when I saw Ben Johnson
is not only like kicking the first team offense off
the field and yelling at guys and on guys and
the intensities bringing to the practice field, but how hard
he's riding Caleb, I went, you know, this might have
a chance, because, let's face it, the number one through

(05:21):
five reasons the guy was hired was to fix Caleb
Williams and coach the offense which can't run without him.
And I saw that he gave Caleb Williams going into
the off season a list of things that he had
to work on over the summer, from studying the playbook
to thirty to forty minutes a day to working on

(05:41):
his just footwork, which clearly needs to get better. Having
goals of trying to complete seventy percent of his passes.
But even something as simple as like when you are
training in the summer, make sure you were working on
the throws to your left, because you were terrible at
those during OTAs. And I will say this, whether you're
Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, to Caleb Williams, to any

(06:04):
position player who's any good in the league, they want
to be coached hard, They want to be pushed because
that's the only way to get better. The only way
to improve is when someone is willing to tell you
you need to do this, that or the other thing
because what you're currently doing is not working. And in
the world of football, sometimes that's very aggressive, and there

(06:26):
are several swear words attached with the message. Guys are
used to it. And I think one thing Caleb, it's
fair to say, has lacked over the last several years,
even going back to college, is no one was telling
him anything like Lincoln Riley. Isn't exactly I would say
viewed as a guy hard on his players, right, No

(06:48):
one's getting him confused with Nick Sabin or Kirby Smarter,
Brian Kelly. That's not really his mo. And then obviously
eber Flus was a dead man walking the moment Caleb
Williams showed up. Ben Johnson, he's got some gravitas, he's
got some juice because he now more than Caleb, is
viewed as the most important guy in the organization. But

(07:11):
if he's going to have success, he needs this player
to be good and he needs to write him. I
saw headline today, Dan Campbell kicked everyone out of practice,
started practice over like it's furious, right, So where did
Ben Johnson learn this from? And we're all products, you know,
definitely in football, whether it's audio or radio or podcasting

(07:32):
of people we've worked with, people we've worked for, people
we've been around, and taking things that we like that
they do into our own world. And clearly Ben Johnson
I think is instituting some of the stuff that Dan
Campbell is really good at. Writing these guys and writing
them hard. Now, you can't just scream at a guy
to scream at him twenty four to seven. You got

(07:53):
to love him up a little bit, but you gotta
coach him hard. Football will never change. I don't care
what happens in society. They're the best coaches are always
the guys that demand the most and are the most intense.
You'd be like, why Andy Reid gets along with everyone.
Ask any player, any coach, anyone in that front office
about their operation through training camp through the season. One

(08:17):
they have the most physical training camp, and two in
season there's not I'm just taking this practice off to
go in the training room. That doesn't fly. And I
think if Ben Johnson wants to have success, he knows
he's got to be the hardest on Caleb Williams to
get the respect of all the other players on the team.
One thing that I never could kind of get over

(08:39):
when I was working in football was in camp, in practice,
in any scenario, even the game, when a guy would
just get injured and he would be laying there on
the ground and then the cart would come pick him up,
and the coaching staff had no choice. Just like the
position groups and the position coaches and the coordinators, we

(09:00):
had to relay this message, We're gonna keep going, We're
gonna figure out a way to win. It's like, coach,
we just lost our two best players in the first quarter.
It's like, coach, we just are starting left tackle just
tore his ACL On the seventh day of training camp,
we are double f't yet as a coach, you have

(09:21):
to almost be numb two injuries, Like you can't be
phased and let it derail you. You have to have
like this false sense of confidence that you can figure
it out even though there is no overcoming certain individuals.
That's why Peyton Manning once famously said, or the coaches
for the Colts, when John Gruden asked, like, why does

(09:41):
Peyton Manning take all the reps? And I think Tom
Moore answered simply, well, if Peyton Manning misses a game
or gets injured, were fucked and we don't practice fucked.
And I was like, I appreciate that realism, but you
don't get that from many coaches, and you don't get
that from many gms that they try to talk almost
like we'll figure it out, X man up. Well, there's
no next man up when you lose an all Pro player.

(10:05):
I'd even argue when you lose your starting quarterback, it
can really derail you. Now, how good Justin Fields is.
I'm not sure he's that good. And I'm someone that
loved him coming out of college. But when I woke
up this morning and saw that he got carted off
the field, My first thought is like, obviously, is that
a season ending injury. And typically when stuff like that

(10:26):
happens in training camp, no one can focus. It's really
hard to function, and I've been whether I worked in
the NFL or been going to practices for a long
time when I lived in the Bay Area, it just
derails the practice. Now, luckily, luckily, news has come out
that he just dislocated his toe, and all signs point

(10:46):
to him being okay. It's not like he shattered his foot,
it's not like he tore his acl or tour an achilles.
Dislocated a toe, which I can't imagine felt extremely painful
and probably shit sent chills up his body and pain
that he'd never felt. So he's laying on the ground.
Who knows what he thought happened, right, which sometimes happens

(11:08):
when a guy is carted off the field. The initial pain,
they freak out and they think it's devastating. It turns
out it's just gonna be okay. The sick part is
of this business. When a guy's laying on the field,
especially if there are people huddled around him, you just
pray it's not one of your better players, and you
just hope especially during training camp. It's someone on the

(11:28):
roster from seventy five to ninety that, while that sucks,
you don't want to lose anybody. You would rather sacrifice
that individual than a guy that's gonna be a starter,
a guy that's been a three Pro Bowls, a guy
that you're gonna depend on to help lead you to
the playoffs, whether it's a quarterback, whether it's an offensive
or defensive lineman, or was it one of the skill guys.
And it's just a huge part of training camp. We're

(11:49):
already seeing a bunch of guys go down. I actually
had a conversation with a guy who played in the
NFL for a long time. We wait a phone call
the other day because he wants to get into scouting
and then ultimately get into coaching. And this guy's won
a Super Bowl, really high level guy, and I talked
to him about, you know, the situation of going to

(12:11):
these practices, and you know, he's like, you know, I
got my shot because someone got injured. And that's the
huge part of the business. These guys get their opportunities
and become consistent players because either in camp or during
the season, someone shatters their leg, someone tears their tricep,
someone breaks their collar bone, and all of a sudden,

(12:34):
a guy that was a practice squad guy that you
thought at the end of July or early August that somehow,
with an injury made the team as a backup, becomes
a starter. And then you look back five years later
and he's got a second contract and he's been to
a Pro Bowl. And that's how fast things happen, all
because of injuries, which in this league happened at crazy rates.
But we also talked about is like and he started

(12:56):
in an era when it was a little more physical.
During training camp, they were a double days. I am
a firm believer, and he agreed with me. Is football
is a lot like boxing or UFC or any sport
where practice really matters. And because it's a physical sport,
training your body to take that level of physicality really

(13:20):
obviously has a huge impact in playing in the games.
So building the calluses during the off season make it
easier to just start week one when you're just going
full go, And I think nowadays you basically go six
months since the season ends, right because OTA's are a
joke that they don't they barely exist. I mean the

(13:42):
practices on OTAs. You've never worn pads in the pros,
but once upon a time they were a lot more
physical and they were a lot more intense. Now, most coaches,
because one the rules to your your players will turn
you in. They don't even try. It's not even worth
And you're paying guys so much money, you're kind of

(14:03):
nervous that like tarran acl or tarran Achilles, so OTAs
and the spring ball have turned into a country club.
It's why I've always been so critical of some of
these players. Like if you have a two hundred thousand
dollars bonus one hundred and fifty thousand dollars bonus, and
you're training and you can't just dedicate a month to
just go to your facility to get that money, I

(14:23):
don't care. If you're making ten, fifteen, twenty million dollars
a year, you're an idiot. You are just wasting money
because you're literally doing the same thing. And then when
you are on the field, it is not very difficult.
But once you come to training camp and this first
practice happens, the actual training camp part, even before pads
turns into what OTAs used to be. Fifteen twenty years ago.

(14:44):
It's pretty intense, So all of a sudden you get
these guys that get injured because you're going like zero
to one hundred, and I just I think we're a
little off kilter. We're never going back. We're never going
to get to a point where the double days are
a part of this, where there's physicality in the offseason.
But I do think that directly leads to some of
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Speaker 2 (16:59):
Okay, let's Kyle Shanahan, which is had an awesome run
as the Niners coach last year sucked, but overall, multiple
super bowls, ton of NFC championship games, a ton of
big wins, a ton of playoff wins, has proven to
be one of the better offensive coordinators in the league.
And to me, his defining attribute is being able to

(17:20):
win without like a top five, six, seven quarterback. He
can win with a good player. I mean, Jimmy Garoppolo
was a top twelve quarterback early on when he got
to the Niners. Party's like somewhere between eight to twelve.
And he can win, and he can win playoff games.
He can beat really good teams in the regular season.
He can compete to win a Super Bowl with those
type guys. And in the local market and people that

(17:44):
you know cover individual teams, they get hard on their
coach for things that maybe nationally aren't as discussed. And
one thing with Kyle has always been, why don't you
allow your quarterbacks to do more at the line of scrimmage?
And he was recently on with Tim Kawakami, a good
buddy of mine, who's one of the better I would

(18:06):
say local media guys in the country, probably second to none,
especially with the versatility to be No one knows the
Niners and the Warriors better than Tim, and he's really
really good at forging relationships with Steve Kerr, Jim Harbaugh,
Kyle Shanahan, Mark Davis, Jed York and he just gets

(18:26):
really good interviews. And I thought Kyle talking and discussing
about why he does so much as the coach instead
of letting putting it on the quarterbacks plate was really
fascinating conversation. Let's take a listen, how is your offense mine?

Speaker 4 (18:44):
I think that's too overwhelming for guys, and I think
they can be more successful if you can take a
lot of that off the plate and don't make them
think as much on that, so they can play faster
and play a position that to me, only like ten
people in the world can play it at the right
level anyways. And so when you put that all on
a guy, I think it makes it harder for them
to play like Peydon Manning did that Peydon Manning was

(19:05):
also in one formation his whole career, and they better
have the right guys. Peyton's one of the best of
all time. But that's how he had done it his
whole life. You add some more stuff in there and
he won't be able to do it. But he was
a leade at what he could do, which was enough.
Matt Ryan my first year with him, He's like, Hey,
can I audible and get out of this. I'm like, dude,

(19:26):
you can do whatever you want. I think he'll start
to trust that. Hey, you're normally audible on that play
in the past. Well, us when we have that, look,
we have a contingency plan right there, So you can't
just throw it to him and not think and have
to change your and just react.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
That's an option.

Speaker 4 (19:44):
If we don't put that there, I'm not going to
put you in a bad situation. So now I'm going
to have you call two plays. If you see that,
I'm gonna have you touch your ears and go to
the second play.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
So we've already given you the option.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
You don't have to make it up in your head
in the middle of the game and look for everything,
or I don't have the second option. I don't have
a contingency plan. We're going to coach you up on
all week because you are responsible here. This is a
play with a lot of issues. If we get the
right look, please run it. If not, get to something else.
You Like, if I say that to a quarter they'll
be like.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
What are you doing? Are you gonna work this week?

Speaker 4 (20:17):
Like I'm out here doing all this stuff and you
can't give me a good answer.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Don't you watch film all night? Oh?

Speaker 4 (20:21):
Yeah we can, And so it's all it's weird. I
have as much confidence in Brock, and I get more
and more each year. He was doing all this stuff
his first year when he came in as a third
string quarterback and only played seven games. So it's we're
not going to add stuff just to add it if
we think it helps us win.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Hell yeah, if Brock can do anything.

Speaker 4 (20:42):
If I tell Brock not to do something because I
think it'll hurt us and he does it anyways and
it works, I'm gonna be the first person chest bumping
and when he comes to the sidelines, and then I
can ask him Monday, like what were you thinking there?
And if you say something smart, I'm gonna be like, dude,
why don't you bring that this up earlier in.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
The week, like that would have helped us.

Speaker 4 (21:00):
But that's that doesn't happen much because we have a
plan and there's not many situations.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
His plan is to not have one hundred thoughts.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
It's to be locked into your job and when this
little happens, you can have one other thought, touch your
ears and run the other thing. And I try to
make guys as decisive as possible and clutter the noise
in their head.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, he's not pushing for this stuff that I can
mend right. He's not saying, God, damn it, Kyle, let
me call in two minute here, or is he.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
I've never had a quarterback really be like that.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
I remember Kirk Cousins took over for Robert and there's
like three games left in the year and there was
a third downplay and Dallas was running a blitz that
made us hot, and my answer was, Hey, when you're hot, just.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
Throw that slant.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
But I was gonna call it on third and eight,
and the guy was gonna have to run a good
route to get eight yards.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
If I called on third and six. It was an
easy answer.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
He goes, Hey, Kyle, if you call it on third
and eight, just because he might not get the first
down or uk if I change the protections and get
it all and then go for the deeper play. Yeah,
just can you You're in your second year, you're comfortable
doing that. And he goes, yeah, do it all the time.
He studied it all week. It happened three times in
the game. He got one of them right. The other

(22:11):
two he messed up on. I wasn't mad. It was
all right at the end of the game. The next
day he came to my office Monday morning, he goes, Hey, Kyle,
do you mind if I don't.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Do that anymore? He goes, I go why.

Speaker 4 (22:21):
He goes, that was so stressful for me all week.
I had to study all this stuff. I was looking
for it on every play the whole game. He goes,
I was always thinking about that, and I didn't fucking play.
I'm like, yeah, dude, we're gonna I don't want you
to think you have to do that stuff. Trust like,
we're working so you don't have to do that.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
When we talk over and over about the power and
what good coaches bring to the table, especially in this
modern day sport, you know, football, college or pro, when
offenses at such a premium. I think Kyle just laid
out to you why his value is so high, because

(23:00):
what he essentially said is, I want I'm the guy
playing chess against the defensive coordinator and their players because
it actually makes it easier on my quarterback. And when
you put too much on the quarterback one, most guys
aren't Peyton Manning, And in a weird way, he gave
like a backhanded compliment to Peyton. He's like, listen, Peyton

(23:20):
was a genius, one of the great players of all time,
but he was essentially in the shotgun all like every
play of his career, and it wasn't that varied, so
he could control it pretty easily whether he wanted to
check into a run or a pass or audible to
line of scrimmage. But in this offense, where we are
shifting and motioning and doing a million things every single play,

(23:41):
it's actually easier on the quarterback just to call the
play because my skill is to be able on every
one of our plays. Obviously I'm not going to be
one hundred percent, but to have an answer for anything
we see, and obviously it's going to be inevitable. Sometimes
you're going to need the quarterback to add lib, which
actually pretty canned because he's a pretty good athlete. But

(24:03):
this is me playing chess versus them, and my quarterback
just needs to execute it. So I was told a
long time ago when one of Kyle Shanahan's assistants interviewed
for an offensive coordinator job, his pitch was, really, listen, One,
we plan on running the ball a lot, and two,
we aren't gonna ask the quarterback ideally to throw at

(24:25):
forty to fifty times. Ideally, we'd like that number to
be from twenty five to thirty. And out of that
twenty five to thirty passes, hopefully fifteen plus so over
half of them are gonna be layup throws, and then
potentially another ten of those thirty so we're at twenty five.

(24:45):
There are gonna be schemed openings for him to hit
as long as he executes, and then a small percentage,
let's say around ten percent of the passes he's going
he might need to add a libd make some plays,
but for the most part, the scheme will help carry
the player, and you have to be really good to
function at that level. And this is why the forty

(25:06):
nine ers like for as shitty as last year was
for the Niners. They were terrible because of their defense. Offensively, statistically,
they actually weren't that bad. I think in a lot
of offensive categories they were in the top ten. The
one thing that killed them was the red zone offense.
But under Kyle Shanahan, their offense has been pretty unreal.
And I think what he just said tells you why.

(25:28):
Because it's Kyle playing the defense. He just needs Purdy
or Jimmy or Matt Ryan. Like, no one's gonna get
Matt Ryan confused with Tom Brady, with Peyton Manning, with
Aaron Rodgers, with you know, Brett farv or John Elway
or Steve Young. But when Matt listened to Kyle, what happened.
He won the MVP of the fucking league. Another topic

(25:51):
that I found pretty interesting because it kind of became
a big story. It was something no one was talking about.
And then as like we got closer to training camp
and all these second rounders weren't signed, Everyone's like, wait,
are all these second rounders holding out for fully guaranteed contracts?
And it turns out most of them were not because
most of them were not getting that. But a lot

(26:14):
of people thought that the reason and the catalyst for
that conversation was Nick Cassario in the Houston Texans signing
the Iowa state wide receiver that I think they drafted
pick thirty four overall to a fully guaranteed contract, and
I did a little digging and asked around on why.
But I think Nick Cassio laid out his reasoning on

(26:39):
why he made the move that I think became a
huge talking point for the last several weeks around the NFL. Yeah,
I would.

Speaker 5 (26:48):
Say it's really much ado about nothing. I think it
was a kind of fabricated story. Let's just take a
step back and again, when you're reading about like this
in a Wall Street journal, you know, like everybody's got
too much I'm.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
On your hands.

Speaker 5 (27:01):
But just philosophically, when you look at like say, contracts
in the second round specifically, so when you look at
the top of the second round last year, I want
to say, like those contracts were like ninety two to
ninety three percent fully guaranteed. Right, So let's just kind
of fast forward adjust for inflation a little bit. There's
probably going to be some marginal increase. So let's just

(27:23):
say the number is, you know, three to five percent, right,
So that small margin that's left, it's a difference of
it's not that much. I mean, you guys are all smart,
you to do the math. So again we're trying to
get ahead and stay ahead on trends. Eventually, it was
probably going to get there anyways, So we just felt
like that was the right thing for us to do.

(27:44):
And I think what happened after that. Honestly, it was
a non story that was made into a story. But
I mean everything kind of worked itself out. I think
all of us in the league, myself included, have anticipated
you know, at some point, you know, probably the first
four or five you're going to end up at that
spot anyways, So why wait around, why kind of bicker
back and forth, go back and forth on the agents,

(28:04):
like get to a resolution. I mean, I think people
that kind of know me and that negotiate with me,
I'm kind of a bottom line guy, so let's get
to the bottom line.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
That's not him and hallm.

Speaker 5 (28:13):
You know, if we think everybody's comfortable with it, then
we're going to go ahead and move forward. It didn't
really impact ursery, you know, which is part of the
second round. I think that was more of some other
factors that led to kind of the stall there. So
we're always going to handle business however we see fit.
Try to do it logically, be pragmatic about it, try
to do it in a responsible way. So again, the

(28:36):
off season, not a lot of people, There's not a
lot of things to talk about. So when I start
being routed in the Wall Street Journal, like, I mean,
you know that, like this is kind of it's a
nothing deal.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
To me. The most important point the Casario just made,
and I would give this as advice to any human being.
Whenever you're negotiating, whether it's car, whether it's a home,
whether it's your salary. I think sometimes and I've had
a front row seat. I've been in negotiation since I
left radio, doing them for myself, whether it's advertisers, whether

(29:08):
stuff with the Volume, whether it's stuff before that with
Colin Hell just did some stuff with Fox Sports. I
enjoy it, and I think I'm better at it because
I spend less time arguing over little things, And I think,
seeing my wife, who's in real estate, the amount of
people that spend energy and effort and ego and just

(29:33):
time arguing over five thousand dollars on a million dollar home.
It's like, what are we talking about here? And I
think what Nick Cassario just said is I sent him
to a fully guaranteed contract. But when you actually factor
in the numbers last year was ninety three percent of
the guy in the same spot was fully guaranteed. If
you factor in inflation over the course of a year,

(29:56):
that number is well over ninety five percent of the
contract is going to be guaranteed. So if I fully
guaranteed the contract, people acted like I went from well,
you went from fifty percent to one hundred. That's not
the case at all. I actually just realized that, yeah,
we're talking about two or three percent potentially here. So
am I gonna lose sleep? Or am I gonna worry

(30:18):
about a negotiation of two or three percent with a
player that I just drafted at pick thirty four? That
if you tell me right now, when I use a
pick like that, that is one of the most valuable
assets in the league that historically you can get first
round talents but pay them second round money, and you
would never draft a guy at thirty four. Now, you
won't know until it plays out, but you think that

(30:40):
guy is a chance to be like a Pro Bowl player,
you definitely think that guy is a chance to be
a second contract guy on your team, So to fully
guaranteed his contract is not that crazy. And then he discussed, well, yeah,
we had another second rounder later in the in the
round who didn't get a fully guaranteed contract. Why because
the money was way bigger. You know. I think once

(31:01):
you start getting fifty fifty five pick sixty, well seventy
five eighty percent of their contract was guaranteed. So when
you talk about even factoring inflation, you're still going up
fifteen eighteen percent to fully guarantee that contract. You're not
going to do that. But you typically don't get an
eighteen percent raise in a twelve month span. But given

(31:22):
a guy a two or three percent raise, which is
essentially what he did guaranteeing of his own contract, I'd
argue this smart business. And I think the way Nick
talked about it shows you this league. Now, I think
there was just a story that four hundred and fifty
five plus million dollars got distributed just from the media deal.
So the Packers, they don't even have an owner, made

(31:45):
well over seven hundred million dollars in revenue last year.
These businesses now are so big the day and age
of just meathead people running these organizations, you have no shot. Now.
It doesn't mean every gm is is some great financial wizard. Obviously,
guys lean on whoever is running the finances in the operation,

(32:08):
your contract negotiator, your team president, like you have people
that master in that, right, But you better be pretty
well versed on economic structures as we move forward, because
the numbers are just too big, and if you spend
time arguing over the little stuff, your job's gonna be.
Your job's already difficult enough. So I give I thought

(32:31):
the way Cassario kind of defined it right there not
only made a lot of sense, but just made life easier.
And I think it's not shocking at all that the
Texans are going to be projected to win their division
again and be one of the better teams in the
AFC for the third traight year. Okay, end on this.

(32:52):
I saw a headline today that could the North Carolina
tar Heels be the Colorado Buffaloes of a couple years ago?
Remember Colorado wasn't even that good. I mean they didn't
even go above five hundred, didn't make a bowl game.
But you put them on national television on Friday night games.
On Saturday night games, they were doing like five or
six million people, and it was like, this thing is

(33:14):
a ratings bonanza. And then they were obviously a huge
conversation with Dion, with Shador, with Travis Hunter. It was
fun and it was a lot more fun last year,
especially if you're betting on them, because you get a
pretty good value of some of their games, and they
were much more entertaining to watch. But people said, hey,
ESPN is going to take the same logic they had
with Colorado and try to ride Belichick and they are

(33:38):
scheduled to be potentially ten of their twelve games could
be on the main channel, being like different primetime situations
and approached them like Dion and try to use them
to rate and to get a lot of people to watch. Now,
Belichick in North Carolina opens on Monday night football. I

(34:00):
think it's September first, that leads into Week one of
the NFL. The Eagles. His Eagles Cowboys play on Thursday night.
A lot of people are gonna watch that game. But
part of the reason we watched Colorado these last couple
of years one their quarterback was talented, so when you
just watched them on offense, like they had an opportunity

(34:23):
to be explosive on every drive. And then they had
one of the more transcendent players we've ever seen. They
had a guy going both ways, so it was like, yeah,
Deon Sanders, huge personality. But I didn't watch Colorado games
really for Dion, right. I watched it for shador In
Travis Hunter, like I saw Belichick the last three or

(34:43):
four years of his New England career. We didn't watch
Pat's game why they were unwatchable. So if North Carolina
is going to be a ratings cash cow and a
team's team that draws eyeballs and garners the interest of
casual fans, they're gonna need to be entertaining. And I

(35:07):
don't know if they're talented enough, right. I mean, they
have a transfer quarterback from I think South Alabama. The
best player on their team just left because he was
draft eligible and got drafted by the Chargers in the
first round. I don't know how good they're gonna be.
I hope they're good because I think it would be
an interesting story, but I don't know if the talent
is there. And you know, the one thing Bill could

(35:29):
do in the NFL is over the course of time
because he had Tom and some other core guys. Is
he could take random guys and have them over acheap
and develop them. But that is a lot harder in
college one simply you don't have the time. Like you're
not just majoring in football twenty four seven, three sixty five.
Some of these guys just have to spend some time

(35:52):
on academics, and there are certain rules in terms of
how often you can keep them on the practice field
and things that are going against you. But if I
was a betting man right now, like does this become Colorado,
I'd be a little surprised. Now. I think their first

(36:12):
year that could easily go above five hundred if you
tell me they went seven to five or eight and
four or even nine to three. But are they going
to be that entertaining? Like part of what made Colorado
fun is just the way they played. Right one, their
defense got a little bit better last year, their offensive
line was terrible. Shador had to run around and make plays,

(36:33):
but overall it was just kind of the wild wild
West watching that squad take the field. That is not
the way Belichick wants to play. I think in a
perfect world, Bill would try to win these games like
fourteen to ten, play defense, run the ball, slow down
the game. It would not shock me at all if
that is the style, because you would say historically that

(36:54):
is the way Bill vus football, right is just slow down,
out physical you, out mentally tough you, especially if Tom's
not around. This is like the poor man's mac Jones version.
So I'm fascinated to watch North Carolina if I was
a betting man, They're not gonna be as interesting as
Colorado was the last couple of years. Okay, we'll end

(37:15):
on this. It's Fugazi Friday and a couple things. One,
I haven't got that deep in terms of buying things
for my future child, but we did buy a stroller
and just looking at other stuff from car seats to

(37:37):
you name it, it is pretty crazy how expensive it
is to have a kid. And I'm not sitting here
to complain comes with the territory. But I'm just gonna
use this as a piece of advice if you're a
young person and you're just be very careful like before
you have it, Like I couldn't have done this ten
years ago. I'm forty years old. I couldn't have done this.

(37:58):
I couldn't afford it at three D. I don't know
how I could have afforded the things that are basically
like essentials. This isn't talking like get them the coolest
clothes or whatever. It is just insane how much stuff
costs in twenty twenty five for one child. I mean,
I know some of these people, some of these people

(38:19):
in our life. I would call them acquaintances that have
a bunch of kids. It's like, I just that I
don't think doing that well financially. I have no clue
how they're doing it, honestly, and props to everyone that
just there's a will, there's a way. I mean, you
don't have a choice once they're coming. But it's expensive.
I'll say that. I do want to just bring this

(38:41):
CEO Coldplay situation and just put this to bed, because
I don't never heard of this guy. Honestly, even the
company's name wasn't that familiar with I think everyone's first
reaction when these two people get caught in their embrace
at the concert is, oh, my god, what a scumbag?

(39:02):
What about his wife? What about her husband? What about
their family? My overall take would be this. If you're
willing to act like that in public, be that brazen
and just out in the open, especially I think they
were with other co workers. You fucking hate your significant other,

(39:25):
you don't respect them, you don't like them. There's a
difference of Obviously some people, I'm sure people listening might
have side girlfriend side peace. Have cheated in your life,
and it's not always just because you hate or you
don't have any respect. Whatever. The situation is a lot
of variables. Probably could hear a million different stories, right,

(39:49):
but in this situation, there is no way you can
convince me that these two people to do that at
a concert don't hate their significant others. So I would
say this for their significant others now if they are
just living in La la land and didn't see that
one coming, I would say that situation just to get

(40:09):
out of there, because why would you want to be
with someone that hates you? Because the cockiness to do
that in a public setting is one of the craziest
things in twenty twenty five, nineteen eighty seven, no camera phones.
Anyone that saw the Netflix show Missing Amy when this

(40:31):
girl disappears from a cruise, you know, back in like
the late nineties, there weren't cameras. It was just like
no one had any information because no one had camera phones.
In twenty twenty five, with cameras everywhere, camera phones, social media,
people just you play like three degrees of separation anywhere

(40:51):
you're at with every human in America. I just both
their husband and wives and families are better off separating
from these people because they did not like you. I
mean just that simple. They wanted to be with that
other person, and their actions set it all because that
is as crazy an of a public interaction, especially for

(41:16):
a guy that's you know, running the company with his
HR director. I also think this, you gotta be selfish
in life. And so many of you that work in
different corporations that have certain rules, there's so much and
as you get older, it's just impossible to not see
rules for rules for the not not me. So basically like, yeah,

(41:42):
I'm not following the rules even though I'm telling you
to do it. It just shows you. Obviously they had
specific requirements about what you could and could not do
with office relationships and the CEO the company is banging
the HR director. Sometimes you gotta be selfish, man. So
like when you get caught up in this thing, like
what is my company gonna think? Like, they don't give
a fuck, they would fire you tomorrow. You're meaningless to them.

(42:05):
And if you think the people that you know above
you on the ORG chart are following the rules, they're
probably not. Now, maybe not to this extreme, but man,
I've just I've never seen a situation go more viral
that I kept asking myself like what am I am?
I supposed to know these people? But my one conclusion

(42:26):
after a week was like, I just I think it's
hard to quantify how little respect and care that they
actually had for their family. So I think in a
weird way, and I'm not saying that their family should
be over it a week later, but big picture, best
thing that ever happened to them get out from under

(42:48):
these two people. Okay, mail back time at John Middlecoff
at John Middlecoff, fire in those dms on my Instagram

(43:10):
and get your questions answered on the show. I actually
just saw that the Raiders who gave Christian Wilkins I
think like eighty five million dollars guaranteed last year, gave
him one hundred and ten million dollars total. I mean,
he was the biggest free agent. I would have even
imagined he was bigger than any free agent this offseason.
He got a ton of money. He was a really
good player and had a bad injury. And I was told,

(43:34):
not by Spytech, who's came on this show probably three
plus months ago, that it was bad. Did the injury
was bad, the situation was bad. Now, I didn't really
know much was going on. I just assumed, you know,
Pete was asked about it a couple of days ago
and said basically like he's not even close to playing.
And then they cut him and they filed a grievance

(43:56):
or he filed a grievance and they're not gonna pay
him thirty five plus million dollars that he's guaranteed it's
gonna get pretty ugly. My overall take is this, this
would have been a tough situation for John spy Tech
and enter young first time head coach. I think a
lot of people and listen, I've been one of those
people that have been critical of the Raiders for a while,

(44:19):
like they've just been involved in a lot of crazy shit.
Since I got out of the league and was doing radio,
and even since I've been podcasting. But this is why
you hire credibility, Like, what are you gonna do? Pete
doesn't know what he's doing. Pete doesn't seen it all
like this. This isn't just some random Joe Schmoe, right,
So this is where credibility and listen, I don't have

(44:41):
the details to this, and the situation is is gonna
be an ongoing litigation league wide. Right, guy fighting for
his money. The Raider's not gonna pay him. But it's like,
this is where credibility experience, Like pizza, I got it.
I'll handle this situation. I've been here, I've had historic
players flip me off as they've left the field. So

(45:04):
it's like this is this is why the Raiders needed
some credibility, and Pete brings it. Whether I don't know
who's right or wrong in this situation, I just know
that Christian Wilkins is now no longer a Raider and
obviously had a bad injury. I saw someone just posted
a video of him dancing in the locker room or
the weight room a couple of days ago. Clearly the

(45:26):
Raiders can't stand this guy, Like there's nothing like the
best part about life when it comes to public situations
you can say whatever. Especially all these coaches right can
say can give cliche answers when you judge people by
their actions, like you just cut a guy on July
twenty fourth, after you've been together now with the Vets

(45:48):
for a couple of days, like you clearly hate this guy. Which, listen,
we all hate certain people. And this is you're not
my guy. We didn't sign you, you're not my player.
But this shit ain't flying here. And I would say
no franchise needs more of like this shit's over, like
this is not we're drawing a line in the sand.

(46:12):
No organization needs that more than the Dolphins, but the
Raiders for twenty plus years, the Giants are gonna need that.
There are certain teams, the Jags and all these people,
all these teams, you know, newer, younger coaches, first time
gms like Pete Carroll has Pete had a great line
the other day. I don't know. I think a lot

(46:32):
of people are gonna pick the Raiders to be really
good this year or to be like a be like
kind of like a trendy hipster ten win team. I
just don't know if they have the talent to do that.
They are clearly gonna be a lot better, and Pete's like,
I've been winning ten plus games for twenty years, Like
what am I planning on doing? I plan on winning.
And sometimes you know, if a young coach, like if

(46:53):
Liam Cohen or Ben Johnson just has this makes a
statement that's a little out of pocket, You're like, what, No, Pete,
you haven't just been winning ten games. You won like twelve, thirteen,
fourteen games a lot of the time. You know, if
you're under selling yourself, Pete. I do think this is
gonna be a difficult, definitely first year for Pete relative

(47:14):
to his typical standards. But I love it when someone
just comes into a place and starts rattling fucking cages.
Another question. I'm listening Wednesday to the pod right now,
and you mentioned Trevor Lawrence not living up to his
draft prospect hype, and it got me thinking, since Lway,
there have been four major draft quarterback prospects that are

(47:35):
mentioned in the same group, Manning, Luck, Lawrence, and Kayleb Williams.
I think that's four. Oh, and you're including Lway as well.
If you had to rank them all, I would say, Listen,
I was born in eighty four of the year Elway
was drafted, So I it's hard for me to put

(48:00):
him in context, but I think it's fair to say
John Elway is the best prospect at quarterback in the
history of the NFL. Now, maybe there have been better
prospects at other positions, but if all things are equal,
you would take the quarterback over any position. So I
think you could argue that John Elway, at twenty two
ish years old, is the greatest prospect in the history
of the league. I was in junior high when Peyton

(48:24):
Manning was coming out, but like I've I've watched enough
Peyton Manning, I've seen him live in the pros win
an MVP. Is like he's was an incredible player. It's
impossible to comp luck in Manning. Obviously, you know, Luck
quit seven years in. I think coming out of college,
I think you could make the argument that Luck was better.
His athleticism was so much better in Peyton's. Now, Peyton's

(48:49):
athleticism in college actually wasn't terrible. I think we view
him as like a bad athlete in the pros, which
I think he kind of became that as he got older.
But if you watch some Tennessee highlights. He could move,
but I think that Factory neither had a great like
Howitzer like Lway, So I would go one clearly Lway.
I would go like two A and two B. Luck

(49:10):
manning these are as prospects, I would have a huge
gap and go Trevor Lawrence than Caleb Williams coming out
of college. Longtime Fresno fan moved to the PAC twelve.
Do you see any impact? Also, the biggest obstacle for
the Raiders this season is it extremely competitive division? The defense?
Or is it Genal Smith? And do you think they

(49:32):
will be able to win a division like the AFC
or NFC South. I think their biggest obstacle now they
have a real coach. They got Crosby Still, they got
Colton Miller, they got Geno Smith, they draft Ashton Genty.
They're gonna be They just drafted a bunch of players.
Also with Ashton Genty, I think they had what couple

(49:55):
they had definitely had multiple threes and a two. The
wide receiver Texas Tech Beck. I think he was originally
at LSU, the Nojoron got fired and he transferred to Tech.
I think Tech could be a and m I'm pretty
sure as tech. But I think everyone just needs a
pump that breaks a little bit on the expectations, like
could they win the AFC South. The Texans are way

(50:18):
better than the Raiders. I think if they both played
the same schedule, I think the Texans are multiple games
better as they should be. Casario has been building it
up forever, right, It's like no shit, So I'd give
the Raiders. I'm giving them a little bit of a
pass this year. I think there was a chance they
go six or seven wins, but they look way better.

(50:40):
I mean last year was an embarrassment. I mean it
really was. They were unwatchable. Them and the Pats were
just not a watchable franchise. So I think this year
you should just be excited. And then another draft class
and then and I think big picture, it's like, you know,
Pete's seventy threeyears old, seventy four years old, so how

(51:02):
many years has he got this? Going three or four?
My thing is if by three or four it's actually
going kind of well, maybe they draft you know, their
version of and again I'm not saying they're gonna find
Russell Wilson, but like what changed Pete's life? With Seattle
was getting Russell Wilson. He's gonna be able to find
other players right at other positions. They're gonna him in spytech.

(51:23):
But finding the quarterback is hard, right, So if they
do find that guy, is Pete just gonna want to
quit at like seventy seven years old? It's crazy. Pete
Carroll's like two years older and Hulk Cogan Rip just
died absolute, I mean, legendary cultural figure in my youth, Ozzi.
I saw someone tweet out today that Ozzy outlived Hulk

(51:46):
Hogan by like five years going to the gym as overrated.
I would imagine they approached things a little bit different. Obviously,
they both had substances coming into their body in for
different you know, reasons. But you know Pete's youth. You
see him talk, he still looks and sounds like he
did ten years ago. That to me is where it

(52:06):
gets complicated. But that's a big picture thought. Why is
Jalen Hurts one of the most disrespected quarterbacks in the NFL.
He's the only quarterback to win the Super Bowl and
in that following off season get completely discredited for winning.
Do you think it's because most people doubted him coming
out of college, and people refuse to admit they're wrong.
You know what's funny is two years ago, when when

(52:28):
it looked like a forty nine Ers were gonna beat
the Chiefs. I remember texting with a buddy. He's like,
even if they win this game, the conversation on brock
perty isn't gonna turn into well, now he's one of
the best quarterbacks in the league, it's gonna be well,
it's just his team. It was just his coach, it
was just Trent Williams, it was just McCaffrey, it was
just Debo, it was just Fred Warner. That's the same
thing with Jalen. And this is I went on this

(52:49):
rant like a week ago. I just know it's not Jalen,
but everyone gets so caught up, which maybe I'm not.
I could be better at my job and just do
more like quarterback lists once a week. I just that
does nothing for me. I hate that stuff. Unluckily in
the podcast world, you don't necessarily have to do that.
But is Jalen a top five quarterback? He's not. Does

(53:11):
he benefit from playing with a great team? Of course
he does. So did Joe Montana, so did Tom Brady
when he was young. So did Brett Farv with Mike Holmgren,
Reggie White. I mean, it's like any good quarterback. John
Elway won two Super Bowls when he had Mike Shanahan,
Terrell Davis, Shannon Sharp in a sweet defense. Like usually,
this is not the NBA where it's like, well, I

(53:33):
was like the best quarterback in the league. My team sucked,
but we still won fourteen games and went to the
Super Bowl. That's not how it works. So it's just
he's a polarizing player because if you're winning a lot
and you're clearly not one of the elite guys in
the NFL and he's not that, you're just gonna be
just a major, major individual in the conversation because you

(53:56):
can't have the conversation, right, what else are you gonna
say about Mahomes? Like what's the point about Mahomes? And really,
what's the conversation now with Lamar and Josh Well? Can
they win a Super Bowl? That's really the only conversation
there's not like are they good enough? Can they throw
enough touchdowns? Can they make enough plays? Can you win
enough games? Like they've proved it all. So it just
is this not gonna end. It's just not gonna stop.

(54:33):
A couple my closest buddies are some fellow bald headed brothers.
Love to see the community flourishing. I totally agree we
are having a great run. I do think the internet
age has been good to us. My question relates to
the Dolphins in the city of Miami itself. Do you
ever see Miami becoming a powerhouse like the Chiefs or

(54:55):
the Brady Bill Patriots or are there just too many
distractions all these early twenty year olds. I'm starting to
wonder if a coach like Tomlin or Mike Vrabel would
even make a difference. I don't think it's possible to
overcome it nowadays. I really don't. And you know, pat Riley,

(55:16):
basketball is easier in the sense that you only have
to corral I mean, your rotation in the playoffs seven guys, right,
your team's twelve. And I've seen some clips from like
U Donnis Haslam and Mike Miller's podcast where like Ud
would tell guys like, hey, guys, you're going late to
these clubs, Like Pat will call you into his office

(55:38):
the next morning, he'll know you're there. They know everything
that's going on everywhere. I think it was Mario Chalmers
was like pat Riley called him into his office and
he was like, why are you at the club last night?
Like four point thirty in the morning, and Mario's like,
how did this guy know this? And it's just easier
to do with basketball. It also is pat Riley. You know,

(56:00):
Jalen Ramsey wouldn't even listen to Mike McDaniel. Honestly, I
don't not defending Jalen because I do think there's just
a level of someone's paying you twenty plus million dollars,
show up on time and listen. I'm scarred from my youth.
My dad is just big. I mean, we didn't have
that many rules as a kid, right, stand up straight,

(56:22):
look people in the eye, shake hands, be on time.
I would say my house was closer to like Tom
Coughlin rules, like kind of five minutes early. Especially to
any serious situation like a team meeting, you should probably
be there on time. So I just think that the
respect matters. Like if Andy Reid was the coach of

(56:42):
the Dolphins, or Mike Tomlin or the Hardbob brother was
a coach of the Dolphins, it would be way more
buttoned up for sure, but I do think it's pretty
difficult obstacle to overcome. Me and Colin were talking about this,
like La like things California don't stay open all night.
New York City, Yeah it stays open all night, but
no one lives in the city. San Francisco. Everyone lives

(57:04):
in San Jose. San Jose fucking blows like this. Arizona
they practice out in the middle of nowhere, So it's
like some of these situations. I've always thought that with
like Arizona State, it was hard to overcome kind of
the party aspect here, and the standard for the football

(57:25):
program was not like some elite program, but it was
always really hard. Then you kind of come and if
you're a college football player. There's just a lot of
talent in this area, some of the most talented areas
in the country probably right here. Some would argue this
is number one, and Miami has an aspect of that

(57:45):
with this like international flavor of like no rules, kind
of the wild wild West. Obviously if you have money
like these guys do, so I do buy into that,
I really do. The Lions lost both their coordinator. They
have a very hard looking schedule. Ragnow retired. Now they

(58:06):
lose LEVI will miss the season with an ACL. He's
a pass rusher. Is it on the board that they
missed the playoffs? I think that would be pretty stunning.
I do think that would be pretty stunning. But for
thirty five plus years on, at minimum four teams have
turned over, and sometimes like five or six. So now

(58:30):
we got seven teams of conference, so he got fourteen teams.
So of those fourteen teams, we know that four will
be new minimum this year. And if you just start,
it's like, well it's Ravens, Chiefs, Bills, Eagles Commanders. Like

(58:52):
someone's there's gonna be someone. I mean last year was
the Niners. No one saw that coming and it happened
the Bengals too, So you just you never know. I
would never say never, like any team in the league
can miss the playoffs this year if you tell me, obviously,
for one of the main teams, Ravens, Chiefs, Bills, you

(59:12):
would need a major quarterback injury. Right. Their teams are
just too good, their operations are just too good. The
Bengals proved last year Joe Burrow can throw forty five touchdowns.
I can miss the playoffs. Herbert would probably have to
get hurt as well, just because the way the Chargers
are gonna play, because yeah, something's gonna happen. As a

(59:36):
college football coach myself, you're one of the few people
that actually know what they're talking about. So I appreciate
I like this guy is Riley. I know it will
never happen, but fun to think about. If Sabin wanted
to just coach ball and not deal with the nil
and all that he should coach D three football, no idea,

(59:57):
No athletic director is gonna give any shit, coach a
lot of technique and turn a D three into a powerhouse.
Your thoughts, like in theory, I get what you're saying,
there's like a purity to just coaching football. I do
think when you've been at the level in which him

(01:00:19):
even used Bill as an example, because a lot of
people thought, like, let's use last year as an example.
When Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, who were like tight
at the hip for multiple decades, right three and a
half decades, because they they've known each other for forty years,
they coached together, they're boys, it was like, you know what,
if Bill couldn't get an NFL job, he could just

(01:00:39):
coach high school and it made sense, like he just
loves ball. Well, he's also been making fifteen to twenty
million dollars for a decade, been playing in games where
twenty thirty million people watch, coach the greatest most famous
player in the history of the sport, been to nine
Super Bowls, Saban coached, how how many first rounders over

(01:01:01):
the last fifteen years, played in the highest rate of
games in front of seventy eighty ninety thousand plus people
for fifteen plus years, and who is very wealthy? So
neither of these guys need the money. But like ask Bill,
do you think's his juices are gonna get flowing Monday
night football against TCU? Would it be the same if

(01:01:22):
he was coaching Davis High School or D three? And
I have no shade at any different division. I just
think for those guys, it's really really difficult, Like it's,
let's face it, it's hard for Tom Brady to date
someone who's not famous and probably famous slash has money
because how can they What are they talking about? Like

(01:01:44):
how could he just date some thirty two year old
good looking check that just sells insurance? Like they beside,
like if she was a ten. Okay, great, we can
we can bang. It would be fun, but like this
ain't gonna be serious. You kind of got to be
on my level. So for Nick, I think you kind

(01:02:07):
of need the juice of if Nick were to come back,
it's my thing. If he were to come back to college,
you could count on one hand the programs. One he'd
never go West and he'd never go like, you know,
Michigan in that conference isn't really fit. So it's only
the South. So it's basically maybe a couple of those

(01:02:29):
ACC schools maybe even though it'd be like Texas Florida.
He's not going back to Bama because they can't buy
out the bor Brian Kelly elis you would he go back.
It's like three or four schools. So I just think
that I think once you've seen the bright lights, like

(01:02:50):
it has to be hard if you are a musician
and a band and once you start like for example,
Morgan Wallen just came and he sold out last year.
He played at the Diamond Chase Field, just like he
played a lot of I don't want to say smaller venues,
but like baseball stadiums, NBA arenas. This year he's selling
out football stadiums, which yet is selling out football stadiums.

(01:03:13):
It's one thing to do like a one off in
a venue for four thousand people, but it would not
feel the same just doing a tour for four thousand
people one just the reactions, the money, the whole thing.
So to me, these guys have been at this level,
Like Pete Carroll's a good example too, Like why did

(01:03:34):
Pete want back into the NFL? Because that's how they
get their juices flowing. I'm a Charger fan. Is Rivers
a Hall of Famer. He was behind maybe the worst
offensive line in four years four years. He sort of
reminds me of Burrows trajectory, though his is still developing,

(01:03:55):
but in a dysfunctional situation, put up in same numbers
and drug his team to wins. I think the best
compliment you give Philip Rivers, like in the prime of
his career as a if you loved football and he was,
you know, Chargers were your squad. You felt really good
just going into war with Philip Rivers as your quarterback.

(01:04:16):
I saw the clip it was really I mean the
clip he did where he's interviewing He's being interviewed at
his house, you know, talking about retiring, which I think
we all thought he retired like four or five years ago.
And he gets emotional and it's just kind of a
moving thing. And then his like four offensive lineman Nick
Hardwig McNeil, a couple other guys came in. It was cool.

(01:04:37):
I mean, it was a really but I saw the
clip of his last game ever for the Chargers. He
gave this postgame press conference where he was in tears
and basically just talked about like I never did this
for the stats. I never cared what my numbers were.
I just wanted to win the game. It's like this
guy I always thought Philip Rivers was a badass Hall
of Famer. I think he's right on the line now.

(01:05:00):
For me, as someone that likes Philip Rivers a lot,
I think Philip Rivers is a better quarterback, had a
better career in terms of like the aggregate year in
year out than Eli Manning. But like Eli Manning's gonna
get in one day because he has two playoff runs
where he beat Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in the
Super Bowl. Philip rivers best run he got to the

(01:05:22):
AFC CHAMPIONSI Game. Not all his fault, But like I'd
argue both guys, you know, I just think the Hall
of Fame should be set for Peyton Manning, Tom Brady,
Aaron Rodgers, Walter Payton's, Lawrence Taylor, Reggie White, Deon Sanders,
like Jerry Rice, the best of the best. But that's

(01:05:44):
not the case. So if Philip Rivers gets in, like
I'm not gonna lose sleep over it. My first reaction
is no. Though I respect the shit out of him
and I liked him a lot, and when I was
doing Raiders stuff, even with the Eagles, I saw him
play a bunch live. I thought the guy was a guy,
was a ward daddy, very old school guy. A question

(01:06:08):
for the bag. Everyone knows the worst team in the
NFL would destroy the best team in college. However, the
only thing I'd pushed back on that one depending on
the time of the year. If we're talking like December
and it's like a winless team and they're on some
shitty quarterback with a bunch of injuries to their roster.

(01:06:29):
Because even the worst team in the NFL in theory
of healthy probably has a couple of Pro Bowl level
guys that could dominate against college But if you have
a bunch of injuries and a bunch of practice squad
guys playing. We've seen some pretty bad NFL teams towards
the end of the year. And if you're getting like
a USC at Georgia and Alabama or LSU that has

(01:06:49):
like twenty twenty of their twenty two starters or NFL guys,
ten of them are like future Pro bowlers, I'd like
to see it. However, could the best college team beat
the worst Canadian football team? I definitely think a team

(01:07:10):
like the nineteen LSU team could beat a UFL Canadian
They LSU teams like that would kill the UFL. I
think the UFL would get smoked. I don't watch Canadian football.
When I worked in the NFL, I scouted it a
little bit. It's a completely different game, right, the rules,
like you get running starts, so it's not like apples

(01:07:32):
to apples. The way they play. It's not like cricket
versus baseball. But there is the down and distance, right
they only play you only get two downs to get
and third down you gotta punt or go for it.
So I just think I haven't watched Canadian league in
a long time, but it's not. They're not playing American football,

(01:07:54):
so I don't it'd be an advantage and a disadvantage
if you're just both playing the same game. I'd have
to text some people in the NFL that like kind
of stay up on this more that could like break
down like, oh yeah, they got like ten NFL guys
on their roster. Because my first reaction wants to be like,

(01:08:15):
if they are playing the same sport, would I take
like last year's Ohio State. Would Canadian be able to
get to them? I mean, typically the best player on
a Canadian league team, or let's just say the best
NFL prospect in the Canadian League. Let's say he's a
pass rusher every once in a while. The Dolphins used

(01:08:39):
to have this pass rusher like fifteen years ago that
was really good. They came from CFL. But for the
most part, it's like a rotational guy maybe. And if
you're playing a team like LSU twenty nineteen, like they
have a dB that is gonna cover Jamar Chasey Justin Jefferson.
So my first reaction is no, I would take the

(01:09:02):
college team. Could be wrong. Don't feel great about that though.
A question for the bag, why do you think the
analysis of teams varies so much between the regular season
and the off season. For example, I'm a Packer fan,
and last year I'm watching every game thinking they're starting

(01:09:23):
slow and need to be better on second and medium.
But in the off season we talk about teams getting
better by plugging holes in the roster. When the offense
is at a rhythm, we're talking about how Matt Lafleur
isn't using Jacobs enough in how we need more tight
end or whatever depth. Yet in the off season the
media will be saying, how we better upgrade our DN cornerback.

(01:09:46):
I think the conversation changed dramatically. One A huge conversation
during the season is the coaching right, how are they
using a player, how the offense is doing, how shitty
they are in the red zone, how they got no
pass rush. In the off season, you don't have the
weekly game to go to judge and create I hate

(01:10:10):
the word narrative because if you have no sacks for
a month, like you're bad your d line sucks, right,
But in the off season sometimes you go, well, overall
defense isn't bad, and you start talking about the roster
in kind of like a in a macro perspective. In season,
it's very micro. You're dissecting individual position groups, you're dissecting

(01:10:32):
individual players, you're dissecting individual coaching. In the off season,
it's more just about the sixty guys in their contract, right,
who's a free agent, who we can add, how this
guy can help, So it's kind of bigger picture stuff.
The conversation dramatically changes from basically, let's say in two weeks,

(01:10:52):
once we really start playing some preseason games, looking at
the roster still kind of stays, i would say, with
an off season kind of tone, but once you start
playing the games, then it shifts to coaching staff, OCDC
and individual players slash units. Got our linebackers suck? They

(01:11:12):
can't make any they can't make any tackles. Was that
a coaching thing? Is that a scheme thing? Is that
a personnel thing? So then it kind of you can
kind of talk about it from every angle. But as
we sit here right now, where every team's just on
the field in shorts and a T shirt, it's kind
of like, well, how's the roster. Are we good enough? Like,
if I'm a Packer fan, is our defensive line good enough?

(01:11:35):
Is our receiver group gonna be good enough? Are these
guys healthy? What's the status of some of these guys?
Can Jacob say healthy? You're just kind of talking big
picture stuff. But like an in Week four and Jordan
Love's only thrown two touchdowns, You're like, what is going
on with our passing offense? Why are we throwing so
many deep go routes that aren't working? Hey, Matt, can
we can we run some quick game? Can we throw

(01:11:58):
the ball out the running back? Like you can't You're
not having that conversation right now. And the thing with
like basketball right that I was listening to Bill Simmons
podcast and he was talking about the Clippers and like
they basically put together a twenty sixteen All Star team,
but like you got an idea like James Harden's gonna

(01:12:19):
do this, and if Kawhi Play's gonna do this, and
Chris Paul can bring you this, it's like you kind
of know their team now in the playoffs, like why
are they gonna be healthy? What can they run? How
can they adapt? Right? In football? Even year to year,
It's like, well, what if I told you Jordan Love
has the best deetball accuracy in the league. This year,
or if he's the worst right then that becomes we

(01:12:39):
just don't know, and it kind of changes year to year.
Beside a small handful of players that you know exactly
what you're gonna get. I've been listening for the last

(01:13:02):
eighteen months since I moved to the States from Australia
for work. It's a big move, bro. My question is
about the Glaziers who owned the Bucks. How are they
viewed around the league? Do they spend money on facilities,
free agents, coaches and are happy to give out big contracts.
I asked because I'm a massive English Premier fan and
I love Manchester United, which the Glaziers own. Their dad

(01:13:25):
bought the club twenty years ago, threw a leverage takeover
and since then they haven't spent a penny on their
own of their own money on the club. They take
dividends out of the club and have loaded it with
billion pounds of debt and refuse to clean any of it.
They are despised by most of the United fan base,
so just wanted to know how they are viewed around

(01:13:46):
the NFL. I don't have enough knowledge on this. I
would assume they don't live in Europe and they live
in America slash South Florida, So again I could be
wrong on this. I do wonder if it would be
easy to own a bunch of teams like I think
the Cronkeys do too, if you own them in America, Right,

(01:14:08):
if I own the San Fransco Giants, or I own
the LA Lakers or the Dallas Cowboys. Even if I
don't live in doubt, I can't really hide if I'm
doing aka not spending money being cheap, I'm gonna get
fucking crushed, right, and I can't avoid it. Well if
I live in the States and this is going on, like,
for example, I follow sports really closely right social media, Like,

(01:14:29):
I'm pretty dialed in, even I don't watch that much baseball,
even I definitely don't watch nearly as much basketball as
I used to. But I got a pretty good idea
what's going on and when big stuff happens, especially with
the big brands, I'm not gonna miss the story. Yet
most of this stuff internationally, I never know. I never
hear any about anything about it unless someone fords me

(01:14:50):
the story. So if you're these guys, I think it's
pretty easy to avoid the criticism. I would say they're viewed.
I mean, they've spent a lot of money the last
couple of years. It feels like on their team, it
feels like they're pretty good NFL owners once they have
the right people in place running the operation. They've had
Jason Lytt and they've supported him and give him him

(01:15:12):
money and he's kind of excelled. First, you mentioned you
don't do merch. I think you should. It's a big
picture play, I would say twenty twenty six to my question,
you mentioned you love drafts, and with the Major League
Draft just recently happening, I had thought, how do you

(01:15:33):
think the NFL draft would work under these rules? It's complicated,
So I'll attach a summary of the rules. Well, I'm
not gonna break down the rules. I actually got a
buddy we played golf probably three months ago. He was
out here to like scout I don't know low A
or rookie ball, but he also scouts college and high
school players. And he was telling me of this one

(01:15:54):
high school in La Corona. I think the number one
player that was drafted number one over from I think
they had three guys that were I don't know if
they all three got drafted in the top ten. But
three guys on a high school team predicted to go
potentially in the top ten or top fifteen, two of
them are gonna go in the top five. It's like
Jesus in high school, I think, and he was telling

(01:16:17):
me he was having to play some calls to some guys,
like how much money they would need to sign. I
think it's too complicated. I think one thing, baseball one.
In fairness to them, their draft, College baseball is not
some national products, so we don't know the prospects. But
I'll use let's use the NBA. The NBA got this
new CBA that no one besides like Bobby Marks and

(01:16:40):
Bob Myers can understand. That's not good for your fan base. Like, honestly,
let's keep this stuff pretty simple. Even as these numbers
get outrageous, look at the NFL, it's still kind of complicated.
It's like, well, how much guarantee, how much is a
cap hit. It's not super black and white where it's
like everyone can fall along. But for the the most part,

(01:17:01):
I know, if you're drafted in the third round, probably
have ninety five percent chance to make the team. And
I know you don't cost that much money. I know,
if you're drafted in the first round, you're gonna get
a four year guaranteed contract, and if you're good, you're
gonna get your fifth year option picked up and they'll
give you a big extension. It's like, just not that complicated.
And I think the more you complicate this stuff, the

(01:17:21):
more it drives people away. I think baseball really dealt
with this over the course of the last couple couple decades.
Is obviously stats play a big role, but I remember
being a kid and picking up the newspaper and just
looking this is you know, we didn't have cable TVs
like mid nineties, who led the league in home runs,
in RBIs, in doubles, in strikeouts and wins like that.

(01:17:46):
Stuff used to matter And I get it, like the
front offices don't care and some of those stats are overrated.
But the more and more became more complicated with numbers
and statistics, I do think it drove people away. The
deals with that a little bit, though, like points rebounds,
they still really matter. I think their salary cap and

(01:18:07):
the way you can build the team is way too
complicated now. But this is entertainment, so you just you
want to make this as easy as possible for a
show and check on my podcasts appreciate it. Question for
the pod. I'm a Pats fan. Obviously, we have the
highest level of hope we've had in years going into
the season with Vrabel and McDaniels combos seemingly a young,

(01:18:28):
developing quarterback hopefully taking the next step. My question is
about Drake May. What do you think his ceiling is.
Most seem to agree that he is capable of leading
a team to a playoff, but do you think he
can become a top quarterback? I do wonder a little
bit like Herbert, who's a better player. Obviously, with Harbaugh,

(01:18:51):
I think there are gonna be some similarities in the
way this team's gonna want to play. Like in the
next couple of years, they get better talent, They're gonna
try to be a defense first, running the ball, slow
down the game. I have a hard time envisioning this
team is led by Mike Vrabel trying to throw at
fifty times a game, forty times a game. They're gonna

(01:19:11):
want to be a top five team in the league
in rushing and have a really good defense. And to me,
if he can be you know what, Ryan Tannehill was
to Rabel what Alex Smith was to Jim Harball with
the forty nine ers. But he's more gifted than those guys,
then like, yeah, you can become a really really good player.

(01:19:33):
So do I think they're ever gonna play like Patrick
Mahomes or Josh Allen. I don't. I don't. I don't
think that's gonna be the case. But you know, obviously
he's really physically gifted. I think his ceiling's pretty high.
But I also think the ceiling in which they're going
to construct the team and approach games like Mike Mike

(01:19:58):
Vrabel's not gonna play like game any Reid. He's not
gonna operate like Lane Kiffen, I mean, or Lincoln Riley.
That's it's not how he envisions playing football now this year.
Depending on how talented they are, they'll do whatever it
takes to win. But like, as they build this thing up,
I think there's a specific way they're gonna want to play.
They're gonna want a guy that's or a unit competing

(01:20:20):
to lead the league in rushing, and they're gonna want
a top defense that's gonna come first. Before turning Drake
May into a star and then it's ideally when you
play like that, your quarterback gets better and better. So
I'd be high. I'm gonna pick you guys to make
the playoffs. Here's the last question. My proposal to fix
college football scrap conference system entirely reorganize teams into four

(01:20:45):
national divisions based solely on football spending, no geography, no
legacy rivalries. Stay intact. The twelve team playoff format remains unchanged.
Each division has a salary floor in cap that includes
anil Payals Legacy Division twenty five to forty million blue
buds blue bloods with big budgets and title pedigree. Champion

(01:21:09):
Division fifteen to twenty five million, high quality programs with
serious investment and upside. Founder's Division five to fifteen gritty
regional powers and respected mid majors. I like the I'd
watch a lot of Founders. Frontier Division one million to
five million developmental tradition or small market teams. Teams play

(01:21:30):
ten indivisional games, one projected rivalry game tech sou Army, Navy,
and one flex game. Relegation happens every two years, based
strictly on spending, not wins or losses. This model keeps
games competitive, protects tradition, and gives school a clear path
to grow into elite status. Well here's the thing. Part

(01:21:53):
of the spending on football is based on the television contracts.
So the reason obviously you know Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Oregan,
these programs have a lot of money. But like Iowa
or Minnesota or some of these programs in the SEC

(01:22:13):
can spend a lot because they're getting a lot from
their television. So based on the spending, like if you
put Alabama in the Big twelve, I'm just using this example,
like they're getting a lot of money from TV. So
part of the money it's not just coming. I get
what you're saying, but like all this money, I don't
have the forty million to spend if I don't have

(01:22:37):
a eighty million dollar television contract a year. That gets
you know, every team gets eighty I'm just using that
an example. So I hear what you're saying, and I agree.
That's where I think it gets more. The TV partners.
I would even change it. The TV partners just picked
the big brands. And then you know the Oregans, the Bamas,
the Texas' is, the Oklahoma's, the Florida States, the Florida's

(01:23:01):
and they get all the money. I do think the relegation.
I think relegation gets discussed a lot because it happens
in European sports. It is never happening here college or
the pros. Zero chance. Now it happens sometimes in college,
like when USC Oregon, Washington and UCLA just leave in

(01:23:23):
Washington State and Oregon State get fucked. But it's not
because you didn't win enough games, because Oregon State and
Washington State have been better football programs than UCLA for
fifteen years. But no one signs up for that in
America because we're spending so much money on stuff. I

(01:23:44):
hear this sometimes in pro sports. It's like, guys, David
Temper spent four billion dollars, whoever spent ten billion dollars
to buy the Lakers or whatever the numbers are. They
are never agreeing. Hey, if it doesn't go out at
four years, you get kicked out of the league. It's like,
then I'm not buying you would never a huge part

(01:24:08):
of the prices that people are spending. And this is
where it's going to come in with the venture capitalist
money which are sniffing around college football is knowing you
can't go anywhere. So like Alabama, clearly they don't have
the boosters of Oregon, of USC of Texas. But if
I was a venture capitalist, I'd go, hey, can I
become a booster there, get a piece of the profits

(01:24:29):
because I know you have the infrastructure, the fan base,
and the ability to generate revenue, but you don't have
any boosters. You need my funds money. But if it's
like well, if because I know they can't go anywhere,
and I know if I support you, even if you
don't win national championships, like we're gonna make a lot
of money. If there was a risk they're like, hey,

(01:24:51):
three straight years of less than eight nine wins, you
might get booted. You would never get investment there. Like
Texas Tech got this billionaire to give them bunch of
money that like everyone's gonna get fired if they win
seven games This year, I was watching Josh Pate had
on Danny Knell. I was watching them on YouTube, and

(01:25:12):
I thought Danny had a They were talking about Texas
Tech and you start giving huge amounts of money like
you gotta win. Like part of the reason Phil Knight's
been pretty happy with Oregon for twenty five years at football,
they've been pretty good. They've won a lot of games,
won a lot of games, so I hear what you're saying.
I just think a lot of the money in college

(01:25:35):
comes from the TV or three or four programs have
like one individual that pumps a lot of money, but
for the most part, it's all based on the TV money.
So I just think it's a little more complicated than
I think. Sometimes the way it's discussed, the volume

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3 & Out - Ben Johnson gets his start, Justin Field CARTED OFF, Is UNC the NEXT Colorado

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}3 & Out - Ben Johnson gets his start, Justin Field CARTED OFF, Is UNC the NEXT Colorado