Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome everyone to SI Media with Jimmy Traina. Thank you
so much for listening. We have an excellent show for
you this week. Kevin Burkhart Greg Olsen the number one
team at Fox. I'mbren NFL team at Fox call playing
Packers Niners on Saturday Night and they have the NFC
title game. They joined me for a wide ranging conversation
about broadcasting and their work together and NFL stuff with

(00:25):
Greg and really good stuff from the number one duo
at Fox. And then following Kevin Burkhart and Greg Olsen,
Salakotta joins me for our weekly Train of Thoughts segment
where we talk about the NFL playoffs and Sal's house
hunting which everyone is into, and a bunch of other
topics before we get to it. If you missed it

(00:46):
last week, Jim Miller, the man who wrote the book
on ESPN, was on the podcast talk about all of
the controversies there recently with Pat McAfee, Aaron Rodgers got
into the Sopranos twenty fifth anniversary Curb Your Enthusiasm Coming
Back bright Forth discussed all that with Jim Miller, who
is an expert on ESPN and HBO. So if you
missed it, listen to that podcast and if you're not

(01:08):
a subscriber to SI Media with Jimmy trying to hit
that subscribe button, leaver review on Apple as well. All right,
let's get to it, Kevin Burkhart and Greg Olsen, followed
by Salakata and Train of thoughts all right here, right
now on SI Media with Jimmy Tranner all right joining
me now. Wanted to get them together all season, finally
making it happen here before the divisional round, Fox's number

(01:31):
one NFL broadcast team. They have Packers Niners this weekend.
Kevin Burkhart, Greg Olsen, gentlemen, thanks for coming on. How's
it going good.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
I was gonna say you should talk to your booking
agent to get us on earlier, but that's you, so
I guess just talk to yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh the stories I have from booking this podcast. This story.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
A bigger microphone, I know, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
It's just so I know it. It used to be white.
It stood out more now it's not as bad, but
I gant it because I used to have a smaller one.
But this is supposedly like top of the line, Top
of the line, you're a.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Top of the line guy. So that's I mean, it
sounds great. It sounds great. It it is enormous, so
it should sound great.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
I would say, I listen to like the top podcast.
They sound like shit. I'm like, nobody cares what it
sounds like. They just be entertaining. No one cares.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I care what it sounds like, because I turn off
podcasts when it sounds like shit. I gotta tell you,
I do.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Do you guys? Have you guys ever had like a
massive technical glitch calling the game, Calling.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
The game, I sat on the mute button once.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Oh yes, I remember that.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
I remember that was that was That was my fault.
That wasn't a glitch. Uh, we got a better memory
than me, keV.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Not with you, I hadn't, but I had one with
Charles Davis in the preseason. This was ship I don't
remember what year this was, but we're doing a preseason
game and we had, you know, we had like a
brand new remote truck, like a state of the art
and all these things that I don't understand, but something
blue right for the game and we couldn't hear each
other like during the game. It was wild. So like

(03:07):
Charles and I had to had to stand next to
each other and like just kind of like talk to
each other over the crowd. It was wild, but like
at home, you didn't really know, so like we pulled
it off, but it was the craziest thing ever. You
couldn't hear it. Our headphones were like dead for half
the game.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I mean, when you think about it, it's kind of amazing.
There's whatever it is, sixteen games every Sunday and prime time,
and there's really glitches like you would think it would
happen more often eighteen weeks. But I don't want to
jinx you guys.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
But let's avoid that that discussion, right, Let's not put
that out exactly.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well, we'll get we'll get to the kicker jinks, we'll
get to playoff stuff, broadcasting stuff, whole list of things.
I want to start with Greg on this. Everyone said
about the Cowboys, the Cowboys, the Cowboys. You you got
into it on Twitter with some people. McCarthy this, McCarthy that,

(03:59):
to me, the ego collapse is such a bigger story
than the Cowboys losing in the playoffs. Maybe I'm wrong.
I get it. It's America's team from your assessment, though,
what the hell happened to the Eagles.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, the Eagles is definitely an interesting bird because no
pun intended. You know you did, yeah, unintended. I'm not
that smart, you know. It's just it's very rare in
today's day and age to see a team that's wildly talented,
that has success over an extended period of time. Right,
This wasn't like a four week sample size where they

(04:35):
started out four and oh, five and oh, came out
of nowhere and then came back down to reality. We
see that all the time. I think what was so
jarring about the Eagles was every team has their time
when they fall into a little bit of a rut.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
Right.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
You think back early this season. San Francisco is on
top of the world and they lose three straight going
into their by. They come out of the buy, they regroup,
and here they are. What was weird about Philly was
not that they were ten to one and then went
on a tough little stretch. It's that they weren't able
to get out of it. They weren't able to fix it.
They weren't able to kind of rally the troops and say, okay, guys,

(05:12):
all hell's broken loose, let's get back to what we are.
They've got great leadership. I mean, think of the leaders
in that locker room, right, you got Lane Johnson and
Kelsey and Brandon Graham. On defense, I mean, they got
some really experienced, really well respected, good players, and it's
just it's very it's very hard to explain. You just

(05:33):
don't see preunniallygue we can call them a great team.
I mean, they're a possession away from being the Super
Bowl champion and then carry it right into this year,
which is not easy for the Super Bowl loser, and
then just fall off the face of the earth. I
mean in that playoff game, they weren't even competitive against Tampa.
Who's you know, it's I think they have a lot

(05:53):
of questions to answer. I think, you know, there's some
reports out that they're trying to figure out the coordinator
situation obviously on defense that you got to imagine that's
going to have a pretty significant change. But uh, it's
hard replacing coordinators. It's hard replacing both coordinators at the
same time. That's why a lot of teams now are
hiring head coaches who do call the players, because then
you don't lose the coordinator. Ever, it's a there's a

(06:15):
lot going on there, and I agree with you. I
think it's a much bigger collapse than what we saw
with Dallas. And that's a whole other conversation. I'm glad
I'm on the record that I think Dallas made the
right move for their guys. I got no dog in
the fight, but I think moving on for Mike McCarthy
would have been would have been emotional.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, I want to get to that last thing on Philly.
I feel like it's going to be a situation where
we end up hearing some stories about the locker room,
the coaches on it. It does feel like there's something
there that we don't know about. Would you think that's
what the case? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (06:49):
I don't. Yeah, I don't think it's a football I mean,
the defense was a situation that was a football thing.
You do a mid they're replacing Jonathan Gannon with Sean Decide,
Sean Decie running Gannon's defense, that's hard to do from
the jump. Then you replaced de Si with Patricia who's
now running like two defenses removed. It's just that that

(07:09):
was definitely a football thing. But I would not be shocked.
I don't know what it is I hate to speculate, yea,
yea yeah, it just something seemed off, there's no question.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
And then you were basically the only person in the
media who didn't think Mike McCarthy should get fired. What
was your logic in that, well.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
I think I think it's twofold. I think we live
in a society where it's better for content. It's a
better weekly radio, a better weekly talk show. It's better
on those you know, those programs we see on TV
all day during the week. It's better if Mike McCarthy
is fired. That is better business for them, right, It

(07:50):
is better business for the Dallas Cowboys job to be available,
to be rumored that Bill Belichick's going to go there
and Jim like those are amazingly fun storylineanes, but those
are emotionally driven narratives that when you boil it down
to football, which I'm not a talk show host, right,
even though in the second half of games when we
call blowouts, Kevin and I turn into talk show hosts.

(08:13):
My job is to give opinion on what's best to
run football teams from my perspective, and when you have
the three year run that they've had with Mike McCarthy,
and you lead the league in scoring, and you have
a top five defense, and you win the division, and
you're on your quarterbacks going into his last year of
his contracts. So are you going to pay dak on
his best year and then change his play caller? Well,

(08:33):
that doesn't make a lot of sense. So then if
you change his coach in assuming his play caller, you
can't give him a new contract because you want to
see what he does with the new play It just
the defense scored more points than in history. It seems
like an ever right defensive special teams. The defense always
is going to regress. Defensive regression is by the you know,
as true as any factor in the NFL. It's just natural.

(08:58):
So do you want to start all over again? Do
you want to change it on your quarterback who just
had an MVP type season? Do you want to it
just that there's no sound argument, there's no sound argument
that the new coach was gonna take you to the
No one could answer the question, and I posed it,
and nobody decided to respond. Give me a guy, and
give me a reason that leads you to believe that

(09:19):
next year, same roster that coach is the difference between
them making the super Bowl? Well, what said answer? So
wide fire the coach?

Speaker 1 (09:28):
No one said Belichick.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
What of the last four years tells you Bill Belichick's
taking that team.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
To the super Bowl?

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Well, who's his coordinator?

Speaker 1 (09:38):
He'd find someone who?

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Why am I fight the last four years?

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Well, he didn't have a quarterback the last four years.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
I just think to say, over the last three four years,
just take those four years sample size. Would you rather
Mike McCarthy's track record or would you rather build Bill
Belichick's results? Which which one?

Speaker 1 (09:56):
I'd rather have Bill Belichick as my head coach than Mike.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Karthy based off what super bowls with Tom Brady five years?
No greater than six years ago? Yes, all right, we
beg to differ. I think we all get caught up
in the moment. I think we all get caught up
in the in the immediate moment, and saying change for

(10:21):
the sake of change is going to lead to better results,
and it's it's almost proven to a certainty that it
very rarely does.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
What's what's funny about the Cowboys is, you know everyone
was going crazy about them losing last week, and you know,
if you're not a Cowboys fan, you sort of root
for them to lose, you know, their quote unquote America's team,
But for you guys and the networks Fox, especially because
you guys have the two NFC games these next week's
CBS as a super Bowl. The Cowboys drew forty million

(10:54):
viewers last week in a game that was terrible. You know,
we know what they drew on Thanksgiving and the rate
they aren't good for business to keep them in the postseason.
I mean, I know you guys don't at the end
of the day, you don't care who's in the game,
But can you imagine the numbers of Cowboys NFC title
game would do? And you know, do you a you

(11:16):
is your mind ever go there?

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Kevin Well? I mean, they've been there, amazingly, They've been
there once since Fox has been in the NFL business,
which is kind of hard to believe.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Really, look, I mean we obviously the Cowboys are a
big draw, right, I mean we've seen it. We've we've
been involved in a lot of their games and ship
we did them ten times this year, so we know
that team like the back of our hand. We know
the players, the coaches, all that stuff. They're fun regardless
because there's an emotion there. People either love them or
hate them, right I I yeah, of course that would

(11:46):
be a story if they got to the championship game.
I mean, but I think just the it just goes
to show you the NFL just how monstrous the NFL is.
Forty million, two iconic brands, two franchises that have electric,
you know, fan base as it spanned the country. They're
not just regional fan bases. And I think you get
caught up and as many people want to see the
Cowboys win, there's just as many across America they like

(12:08):
to see him lose. Yeah, So that's why that's that's
the kind of the beauty and the fun of doing
their games. There's always stuff, there's always drama, whether they're
playing great or whether they're not playing great. You know.
And just to add to Greg's thing on McCarthy, you know,
the one thing is doing them as much as we've
done them in the last two years and getting really
known them. Dak Prescott, remember, Dak was close, really close

(12:31):
with Kellen Moore. He swears by Mike McCarthy, swears by him,
had his best year of his career. So I think
that's part of the equation too. That when your quarterback
who was like best friends with the guy who left
and then all of a sudden the guy that replaced them,
he swears on his career on him, you know, kind
of hard to move off from that.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
I think. So you guys have a Packers not Diners.
That game is Saturday night at eight fifteen. Ask you this.
I'm gonna sound like a total dope, and I get it,
but we'll get Greg to like analyze how much of
a dope I am with this. I get that Jordan
Love has played really well lately, not saying he hasn't,

(13:13):
but like I have a hard time with him going
into this game being like he's a sure thing based
on what happened with the Cowboys, because I can't recall
ever seeing a game where the receivers with that open
on almost every single throw he made, Like, can we
take anything from Jordan Love out of that game? Because
it seems like any quarterback would have been able to

(13:35):
complete those and the Dallas defense wasn't anywhere near any
receiver on almost all of those throws.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
You watched any of the last eight games he played before,
That's what I was.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
I did. I did, but the playoffs are a whole
different story. You know that in San Francisco, that defense
like this is going to be another level here, don't
you think.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
I think the team is another story. But I know, Greg,
I mean, we've talked about it. I know what we
both think, and you're the opinion that You're the opinion
that matters. You think he's the real deal.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah, I think. I think what we have to be
careful is, even though it's gonna happen, if Green Bay
goes out there this weekend and loses significantly, Right, just
for the sake of this conversation, let's say they struggle early,
San Francisco gets out to the front, and it just
the game does not align the way they wanted to
like it did last week, and and that's how their

(14:27):
season ends. The reaction is going to be from people
sitting there waiting to, you know, indict Jordan Love saying, see,
I told you, I told he's not that good, right, Like,
people are gonna sit around and they want everyone to fail.
They were excited after Brock Purty threw four picks or
three whatever it was against Baltimore. But if three of

(14:48):
those balls that were tipped fall to the ground. People aren't.
It's we live in a society where everyone's waiting to say,
gotcha right, They're waiting for everyone to fall, They're waiting
for everyone to fail. Well, to Kevin's point, last week
was not a mirage. Last week was not a coming
out party for Jordan Love. Maybe it was to forty
million people because it's the most that have watched the

(15:10):
Packers play this year, but it wasn't for us who
watched him on Thanksgiving dismantle the Lions at Detroit on
Thanksgiving morning. We called that game. We walked out of
that stadium saying, that's as good a quarterback performance as
we've seen from anybody all the year. I don't care
who it is, right, So the last eight games of
the season, nine whatever it was, I mean including the
playoffs now, so that'd be the ninth game, eight regular

(15:32):
and now a wildcard. He's got twenty one touchdowns in
one interception. This is not a flash in the pan.
Regardless of what happens against San Francisco, it does not
undo the run of football we've seen from this quarterback.
Making his first full time as a starter, with outside
of Aaron Jones, his entire skill group. Prior to this year,

(15:55):
no one including all of us, had ever heard of them.
Right their first and second year guys operating Matt Lafleor system.
Matt Lafleur is one of the best offensive mines in
the league. We can't hold it against them that the
plays worked. We can't hold it against Jordan Love that
everybody was open. We got to give credit to Jordan
Love on the touchdown to Wix on the cover zero blitz.
He checked the protection, brought the motion and got them

(16:17):
in the perfect play to run in and beat beat
man coverage on the outside. That had nothing to do
with the play call. That was high level quarterback play.
So I think we have to be careful when guys
throw to open receivers, using that as an indictment against
the quarterback. When between that, there's a million plays that
don't succeed or don't even get called if it wasn't
for what the quarterback does. That's why we try to

(16:40):
point it out and spend so much time on it
during the broadcast, because the fan and the viewer deserves
to see the little things, and I think that's what
our broadcast tries to do. Maybe a little bit differently,
a little bit of a different take than the others.
We don't just follow the ball. We're going to show
how the whole thing ties together, and a big story
coming out of Dallas and frankly, the last half the
season was Jordan Love.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah. Yeah, And I don't mean it's an indictment. I'm
not that much of a dick. I'm just saying every
receiver seemed to be open all day long in that game.
So it was it's like, all right, let me see
him go into San Francisco now and face that defense,
and I.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
Don't want to and he might struggle. And I've seen
the best quarterbacks in the league struggle against San Francisco.
I've seen, you know, we can go down the list
of the teams that San Francisco has played this year
and the amount of quarterbacks should over the last three
years that they've made look foolish. So I think we
have to be careful to say, Okay, in order for
us to take Jordan Love really serious, he has to
go throw for four touchdowns and no picks in three

(17:37):
twenty against San Francisco or else he's a fraud. It's like, well,
this is arguably the best defense of the last three years,
So I think we have to make sure we're mindful
of If it was Patrick Mahomes going in against them,
we'd say, Okay, there's a chance he might throw pick.
There's a chance they might I mean that these kind

(17:58):
of defenses are very challenging. I don't care if you've
played ten years or if you're making your first full
season as a starter.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
All right, fair enough. Now, one of the things Love
and the Packers will have going against them is you
two calling the game. And I'll tell you what I
mean by that. I did a little research, and I
think I'm accurate here. You guys have called nineteen games
this season. You've only had five games decided by a

(18:28):
touchdown or less out of that nineteen, and you've had
nine of those nineteen games be decided by twenty or
more points. How frustrating is that? As a play by
play guy.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Kevin, Oh, we're well aware. So this was our I
guess this was our penance. Like we get an all
the time super Bowl and it's like, Okay, we're going
to give you an all time super Bowl. It's going
to come down to the wire and then you're going
to have like four competitive games next year. It's been
wid I mean some of the we've had great games
on the schedule that just haven't worked out right, like

(19:03):
San Fran Philly, Dallas, Buffalo. I mean, who wouldn't have
signed up for those games. It's just it's been weird.
We kind of laugh about it, uh now. And yes,
as Greg said, we have, we have definitely honed our
talk show skills in the second half of these games.
So I I really would like to have a close, kid, Greg,
wouldn't it be wouldn't that be cool to have a

(19:23):
have a really down to the wire.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Spread on the great on the game is nine and
a half and now you two are calling it. So
it makes me think, you know, San Fran thirty, Green
Bay three.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
But you know, here's what we're gonna We're gonna We're
gonna go in and think we're gonna change the philosophy. Greg,
We're gonna go in and say, you know what, it's
gonna be a fucking blowout and then it's gonna be
a nail better. What do you think?

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yeah, I think at this point we laughed so we
don't cry. We've walked out of more stadiums this week
this year, dejected and we look at each other and
we're like, I think we did good. I'll be honest.
The whole fourth quarter, I'm sitting there trying to talk
about AFC playoff pictures and it's week seven, Like you
know what I mean, Like it just it's so out

(20:08):
of hand, and the game is so out of reach.
It's the backup quarterbacks, it's you know, and you're in
You're just scrambling, you know. But listen, our job is
to call the game that plays out in front of us.
And I think that's the beauty, especially in my short
time of doing this, obviously Kevin a lot longer. That's
the part I've come to enjoy. It's very similar to

(20:28):
as a player, where you can prepare all you want
you can. You can think you have the game nailed,
you can have all the scenarios in your mind played out,
but until that ball's kicked off, you have no choice
but to be at the mercy of the game. And
that's the part that I find fun, right. I find
the challenge is, yeah, we we can call it close,
come down to the wire. How to manage a two

(20:50):
minute timeout usage? Should you go for two boom boom.
We can call that with our eyes closed. That shit's easy.
That's that's in the moment everything's on the line. I
feel we lay that out better than anybody. It's carrying
the broadcast. When the game's out of reach and nobody
cares about why such and such teams run game is

(21:10):
doing so well, they just pop a run for twenty.
I'm not going to spend the next fifteen seconds talking
about the great pompo block by the right guard. It's irrelevant, right.
So that's been the one positive of this year is
we've now covered every game on the spectrum. You can't
give us a game that we haven't experienced as far
as highly contested, overtime or a blowout after the first quarter.

(21:32):
And now we're just filling three quarters of airtime like
it's you know, Monday morning talk radios. It's been a
learning experience and I don't wish for it to continue.
We've got two more games. We would do anything right
now for a competitive down to the wire like every
other network seems to get.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Do you have your subjects ready to go in case
it's like thirty to ten, Sam Fran in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
We're always ready we're always we were ready.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
We embrace it, we embrace it. Let's go.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
We canna call that game tonight.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
A lot of Christian McCaffrey for MVP talk and all
that stuff.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Right, well, he should win Offensive Player of the Year,
but easily. If anyone doesn't vote for him, they're lying.
They should lose their vote.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
Yeah, it's that trade went so sort of when it
happened last year, did not get the attention it should
have gotten because he was he was hard, He was
always hurt. Now when he's not hurt, you see, the
guy is just yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
I mean, but yeah, for sure, I think him being
banged up that that you know, twenty one, twenty one
season into twenty two, whatever the heck the years were.
But I mean I was there for his thousand thousand
yard season in nineteen. I mean there was no there
was no mistake around the league just how talented that
guy was and what he was capable of. And his
injuries were all minor. They were all little nicks and

(22:55):
soft tissue stuff like nothing earth shattering. And man, you
talk about put in the perfect talent in the perfect
system and just hit and play and go. It was
made to play in a Kyle Shanahan's system, and you
got to give credit to John Lynch and Shanahan. They
knew exactly what they were doing. They didn't care what
they had to do to get them and I think

(23:16):
the results speak for themselves.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Second best trade in NFL history for kretaut Aloud, I mean.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Seriously, right behind no doubt.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Well herschel Walker was pretty good, I think for Dallas.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, I don't know how closely you pay attention to
the betting stuff. I don't think you do cut out
of it. But like McCaffrey's like minus three point forty
to score a touchdown in the game, like in the
gambling world, that's an insane number, Like it's crazy, but
that's that should be the number.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
I mean, well, he's he's scored thirty four touchdowns and
thirty games, so I mean it makes sense. I mean,
it's the most touchdowns anyone's ever scored in their first
thirty games with the team. It's insane. I mean, he
scores every game, if not one too, it's one. I mean,
it's it's credible.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Do you guys do is your prep any different for
a postseason game or it's the same as weeks one
through eighteen.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Same for me. I don't know. I think Greg's is
the same. I think you just keep everything the same,
like routine, the same, you know, prep, the same. I
don't know. We get this last year when we're doing
the playoffs, you know, together for the first time, and
going through the whole run of the Super Bowl. It's
like I I, I don't know. You work hard to
do this routine that works the whole year. I don't

(24:30):
know that now is the time to change it, you know.
I think the only thing different is you look at
a lot more minutia maybe that you have to sort
through because you know, there's less games, so everyone's kind
of focused on all these games and all these stats
and everything. But yeah, I do the same exact thing. Jimmy,
I can't change. I'm too old and brumpy to change
my ways now. Man, jeez, what about you?

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Greg?

Speaker 3 (24:51):
Yeah, it's for sure. I think we're you know again,
I drawn a lot of my playing days as I
kind of learned this new craft. It's you don't ever
want to alter your ways based on the you know,
the magnitude of the situation. Right, That's where guys get
into trouble. You try to do too much, you try
to be a hero. I'd feel pretty good about my prep.
To Kevin's point, you get a lot more info. You know,

(25:13):
that research packet, instead of being fifteen pages, is twenty
five pages. You know, there's there's more access to information.
The teams are a little bit better in theory. Granted,
we call a lot of the top teams all year,
but in theory, the games are better. The teams are better.
There's a lot more talented players. There's a lot more
content and storylines, which I would argue makes the games easier.

(25:34):
You don't have to work as hard to just have
normal conversation about the season and their top players and
the ebbs and flows and what makes them good. They
typically have good coaches that are interesting. So the playoff
games to me, once you lay them out early on,
once you have a pretty good feel for Okay, here's
what team A should do, this is what they're up against,
this is what team B should do, this is what

(25:55):
they're up against, how both teams should adapt. Whatever. Then
all prep is just allows you to follow the game
and you're ready wherever the game goes. You're prepared and
comfortable to follow it. But yeah, I think the process
during the week is very similar that it's been for
a couple of years now.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Who are some of the best guys around the league,
coaches and players when you do get your pregame meeting.
We had talked about this, I think maybe before we
started rolling that you guys are still doing the meetings
on zoom you're not in person. But who are some
of the coaches and players who you love speaking to
before a game? Who will either be funny, who will

(26:33):
give you good information?

Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, I mean Shanahan's and Shanahan's incredible, honest, open, never
in a rush, always willing to really whether it's tell
funny stories or really dive into the matchup in the
game and give great insight. Dan Quinn, I mean we
did the Cowboys so many times. Dan and Mike McCarthy
were amazing to us, always open, unlimited time, gave us

(26:59):
really answers. They didn't give us like coach bullshit and
you know talk you know, talk circles. So those guys
were awesome.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
keV.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
Who comes to mind for you?

Speaker 2 (27:08):
I mean those obviously I really like Dan Campbell. I
think he's you know, I think I mean there's a lot,
there's a there's a lot of people who who are
great enjoyable to talk to. I think the biggest thing
you're looking for is just some openness and some honesty, right, Like,
you know, hopefully you build up enough trust now where
the you know, coaches may give you a little some
like hey, like this is going on, or you know,

(27:30):
this is some of our strategy. Obviously don't share it
and we wouldn't or you know, this person's not going
to play, but don't say it's just like it helps
our stuff, that helps our prep. Right, So I think
that and then and then you really, honestly, you'd be
Jimmy like a lot of this is just you're getting information,
for sure, but a lot of it's just shooting the
ship and telling some stories and and like sometimes that

(27:52):
debt kind of comes out on the air, right, you know,
but you're really getting to know these people. I think
that's really what it comes down here. Like we you know,
we did Dallas so many times, and we know Dak
so well. You know, we rotated and met with a
lot of their players and just got to know them
a little bit and get a little feel for them.
That helps us broadcast the game better I think so. Yeah,

(28:13):
there's a lot of great ones. I think those that
Greg said certainly come to the top of the list though.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
Yeah, and just to add what Kevin said, what's fun
is so much the guys that you talk to a lot,
especially the guys that are very comfortable and very confident,
you know, Lafloor and Shanahan and McVeigh and Campbell, like
the guys that you see a lot, and there's like
and it there's no like formal like hey, coach Greg, here,
look forward to it, like you don't have to talk.
They get it, They're in they're not distracted by other shit.

(28:41):
You know, this year alone like McVeigh and you know,
they bust my balls. But like during the fall, like
McVeigh and la Floor, like they're asking me about my
twelve year old team, my twelve year old Pop Warner team,
and I'm like holding my phone up to the thing
like showing the floor. I'm like, dude, I stole this
play from you and we ran it for a two
pointsion And then McVeigh is asking me about like what

(29:03):
offense we run or whatever. Then on like Saturday night
after a game, I'm in my hotel and I text
him a couple of videos. I'm like, coach, this was
our third down call, look what we ran in the
red zone. And he's writing me back like they there's
a humanside to it that I think the coaches enjoy.
I think in a week where they're just hit with questions,
hit with typical stuff in their press conferences and the

(29:25):
stress of the games and the pressure, I actually think
a lot of the guys enjoy the production meetings. I
think they enjoy me that we're not trying to like
pin them in a corner. We're not trying to make
them look bad. We're just looking to have open dialog
so we can present the game fairly and accurately, and
we're not looking to get you. We're not looking to
oh man, I burned you there. That we want this

(29:46):
to be where they look forward to our crew doing
these calls, and as Kevin said, you build that trust
as you go. It helps us be better. It helps
us be more fair presenting. Especially if that team's struggling
or having a bad season, we can say, okay, listen,
this is theirtruggles. We're not excusing it, but we can
give some backstory. I think I think that's the objective.
And the teams that we've had the most, I think

(30:07):
we've built really good relationships and rapport with To Kevin's point.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
It's cool hearing that about McVeigh and Chat. I mean,
I'm not shocked that those guys would be that way,
but you know, you have this image of coaches are
so straight laced and they're just worried about the game
and nothing else. And you know, i'd expect players to
come in and bust your chops. You know, a guy
like George Kittle seems like he'd be a riot, like
in a meeting or something like that. So it's good
to hear like the coaches, you know.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
I'll add one quick thing and I'll be fast.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
Yeah, But two years ago, we were getting ready to
call our first New England game. And obviously, again the
fact that I wouldn't want Bill Belichick to coach the
Cowboys today doesn't take in like he's still Bill Belichick, right.
He is the goat, he is the he is like
the godfather of coaching. So there's a lot of like
anxiety where I'm like, oh man, I got to make
sure I'm not like wasting his time. I asked him

(30:55):
a stupid question. He's going to like blow me off.
My most memorable moment was that first Bill Belichick press
production call. He couldn't have been more forthcoming, transparent. If
you ever need anything, don't feel free to reach out.
I remember going, like for a day, I like called Kevin,

(31:15):
I'm like, here are my questions. Do you think they're good?
Do you think he'll be okay? And he couldn't have been.
I remember hanging up from that call being like relieved.
I had like a week of anxiety over that call,
and he he couldn't have been more personable and relatable.
It was It was really I mean, I don't know
him that well other than playing against him and seeing

(31:35):
them so that the production calls come in all shapes
and sizes.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Do you think do you think he may have been
that way with you a little bit because you were
a great player.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
I don't know. I don't know Coach Belichick overly well.
I mean I've played against him a bunch and I've
always had obviously a lot of respect and said hello
to him after the games, and I don't know. But
again I don't want to say like I didn't have
I didn't want to say like I went in with
bad thoughts, but like I didn't know right, Well, I
know I've seen no I tell you the cult now

(32:09):
we've done them a handful of times since, and he's
been the exact same way. Like he couldn't have been
more like his time was unlimited. He wasn't. We weren't
annoying him, We weren't keeping him from something. He wasn't
in a rush. He was open, he was storytelling, He
was asking me questions about our career, Kevin, like it was.
It was one of the cooler experiences to get forty

(32:31):
five minutes to bend the year of Bill Belichick on
a call where you know, he doesn't owe us any
explanations or whatnot. So it's no, it was cool.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
No, what are we going to say?

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Yep, I was gonna say. Then, you know, you're asking
us the guys that we an, You have guys, you know,
we're telling about the guys that we know and deal with,
any of guys like this year we did Miami. None
of us knew Mike McDaniel. Certainly we all knew enough
people that know him, and you know, talked to people
and ask some things about him, and but we had
we don't know of us knew them, and so we
get on and you know, the cool thing for me

(33:03):
is I sit, you know, Greg starts the meetings and
they just talk football, you know, and we all have
like a little bit different like line of questions sort of,
but Greg's just talking ball and breaking down the game really,
and so I could see I could sit like a
fly on the wall just listen for hours. I love it.
So he and McDaniel going back and forth, and Mike
again we don't know him. He's like, you know what, Greg,

(33:26):
I didn't know I'd like you this much. And it
was just so fucking funny, like we all cracked up,
like but I mean, you know, we were talking him
for like an hour and we used we used the
smidge of it on the broadcast, but the rest of
it was just kind of like you know, building a relationship.
It was cool.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Well that he's definitely one of the characters of the league.
There's not doubt about that, right, I want to get
into it's funny because Greg said McCarthy is great in
the meetings. So now now we know why Greg didn't
want McCarthy five. You know, can I tell you what
I loved about the whole thing with you and McCarthy.
That is the first time I saw any greg Olsen

(34:03):
backlash ever on social media. I mean, everything is greg
Olsen is great. Greg Olsen is the best analyst. Greg
Olsen is a pleasure to lizit it and all of
a sudden there was greg Olsen.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
You dive into that Cowboys, hornets nest.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
It gets wild, I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
And and again I will go back to the beginning.
We don't need to beat a dead horse because I think, listen,
no one agrees on who the perfect coach is. No,
you know there's a reason these owners hire and fire
and go. And this is not an exact science, right,
Mike McCarthy could win six games next year. None of
us know. No one predicts the future. We just go

(34:42):
off of what we know in the moment. We try
to make good decisions that are emotionally driven and rash
in response to something negative. Right. I think that leads
to It doesn't lead to guaranteed positive outcomes, but I
think it increases your chances in all aspects. But I
think it goes back to what I said earlier. I
think the cowb Boys are a lightning rod. They dominate

(35:03):
so much of the content we absorb during football season.
It seems like they are the leading story every single
day on every single show, television, radio, social media in between.
So I think when you dive into a debate involving
the Cowboys, you're throwing yourself into the fire of tomorrow's
headlines and tomorrow's block a of whatever show. And that's okay,

(35:28):
And they don't all have to agree with me. Turned
out that Jerry Jones agreed with me, but which is
all that matters. But he could win, he could lose
next year, and they could not even make the playoffs,
And right, I just the Cowboys are unique. But I
also feel like, to Kevin's earlier point, we've covered them
so much and feel like we have a very good

(35:50):
idea of what makes them tick and what their processes are,
and by no means are they perfect. Have we criticized
them at times this year? Absolutely, We've been the first
on air and have Dallas Cowboy fans and saying you
hate the Cowboys, we want Troy and Joe back. You
guys hate, and that's okay too, But like we got
to call it like we see it. I think in
seventeen years, Mike McCarthy's track record as a head coach

(36:13):
is pretty good.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
I put all that football stuff aside. Though. You're not
a big tweeter, but you made sure to tweet and
get your victory lap in when it was official that
McCarthy was staying like, how sweet was that you waiting
for that? You had that tweet ready to go fired up.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
I'm an inconsistent Twitter exer whatever the word.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Is now, I just say Twitter. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
I'm not a huge social media guy, right. I don't
get wrapped up in a lot of it. I think
it can be an exhausting place to exist, if you
I know, some guys are like daily video breakdowns. Look
at me. Great. We get three and a half hours
every Sunday to break down a game and have thirty
million people follow us. I don't need to rehash it

(36:54):
during the week, but there are a few times where
I need that. I just feel like I have to
enter my voice into conversation because what needs to be
said needs to be said. And there are certain things
I feel very strongly about, and I don't like when
people speak out of turn. I don't I'm not saying
I'm always right, but I don't like when people say
reckless things about games or on call and come from

(37:17):
a place of misleading the public. I don't know. I
pick and choose my battles. I don't need to win
every battle, but it's a lot nicer when you do.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
You enjoyed hitting send on that one last night? Yeah,
I admit it.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
I needed to pick me up. It had been a
long day.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Up now kay.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
Now.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Ironically enough, Kevin again never really gets any negative publicity
or any negative press. Everyone loves Kevin. Cowboys again. You
jinxed the Kicker, Brandon Aubrey. What was that backlash? Like?

Speaker 2 (37:50):
This was? This was the reason why this was fun
was because Olsen was having a heart attack the night
before we were talking about we were talking about Jinks
and the Kicker. He's like, what are you gonna do?
I was like, I'm gonna say, he's made thirty five
straight kicks. That's what he's done. He's like, you can't.
I don't want to be the one to jinks him.
I'm like, listen, man, like I'm not. I don't care.

(38:12):
I'm not one of those guys when you're doing a
baseball game, like oh, don't mention no hitter. He's doing
a no hitter. I'm gonna mention it. Sorry, I have
no bearing on it if he gives it up or
if the kick is missed or whatever. So we're dying
at dinner, we're laughing and we're having this back and forth,
and then the situation comes up, and not only do
I say it, but we put the graphic on the

(38:33):
screen and Alsten's like grabbing my arm in the booth
that he's like I and then he said on the
air like I don't want any part of this or
something like that, and then forget about like the kick,
like you know, maybe grazing the post or slightly missing it,
gets blocked and nearly returned for a freaking touchdown. So
he is like losing his mind in the booth. I'm like,
I can't believe that, like, seriously, can't believe that just happened.

(38:54):
So then it became a thing, and then you know,
then of course, then he misses again. And I'm thinking
back to Dallas last year when Brett maher like kind
of had the yip situation at the end of the
year and it became like a problem. And then I
was like, oh, man, I hope this kid makes a kick,
Like you don't, right, Like, I hope he comes on
and makes a kick. And so he comes on. The
last time they got they kind of kept their throwing

(39:16):
the ball to gave another kick and it was a
fifty yard kick and I said, well, Greg, he's nine
for nine from fifty this year. Eddie i Olsen almost
tore my bicep off like he's grabbing me, Like what
the effort you do? Like, stop, You've already done enough.
And then he hits the kick. And then to be honest,
I was like, oh, that was thanking.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
Close call. Close call. I don't know if you guys
do this, especially Greg, can I get a Super Bowl
like matchup prediction out of you?

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Guys?

Speaker 1 (39:47):
What do you think is going to be?

Speaker 3 (39:49):
You know what? And I know the AA, I know
the NFC better than I know the AFC. I feel,
I don't know. I don't love picking the games before
I go because the fans already think that we have
our favorites and that we like against them. If you're
asking me who on paper I think has been the
best team in the NFC for a pretty much the
entire year would be San Francisco. Now, does that mean

(40:09):
that they're going to win this weekend? No, I don't
you know, I'm gonna I think they're the best team.
I think they have a great roster. I think they
have all you know, everyone knows San Francisco. Does that
mean that I would bet my life that they're going
to make the playoffs? No, I mean make the super Bowl. Like,
I don't get into the prediction thing. I look at
it from a football standpoint. I think they're an amazing

(40:30):
football team. I'm not hoping they make the super Bowl
so that I can say I was right. I'm not
hoping Green Bay makes the super Bowl. We are praying
that this game is close in the fourth quarter. So
everyone listening to this podcast, we don't give a shit
who wins. We want close games, we want drama. The

(40:50):
outcome is relevant to us. So I'm not going to
go there.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
And I believe you, and I'm glad you're not doing
Tampa Bay Detroit because then I would push back because
I think everyone has to root for Detroit, Like how
could you not root for Detroit after what that franchise
has been through, Like it's such a great story. I
love seeing that, Like you want them to keep going
just because of the story of it and those fans and.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
Yeah, yeah, no, for sure, And we're all human, right,
we all all tied up in the humanity of all this. Coaches,
you have friends on certain teams, but during the broadcast,
and obviously Kevin can speak for himself, but my philosophy
during the broadcast, right, if Christian McCaffrey has a great play,
he gets he gets a ton of praise, understand me.

(41:35):
So if Christian mccafrey is one of my best friends
in the world, if he has a bad play where
he misses a block and stuff, like, I can't ignore it,
nor would he expect me to. So, like we have
to make sure that yes, as cool as the Detroit
story is and oh my god, they're in the NFC Championship,
that city would be insane. But like we it's not
fair to the work that Todd Bowles has done in

(41:56):
Baker Mayfield story and this and Tampa Bay being able
to regroup from Ray leaving and now here they are
left for dead and they're back in the divisional round,
Like maybe not the story of Detroit, but equally a
great story, like they owe the same approach to their
journey to get here for that game that we would
give Detroit or San Francisco, whoever. Like we need to
call the game that plays out in front of us,

(42:18):
next week's matchup, tomorrow's matchup, the super Bowl and all that,
Like we need to be fair to both teams, both
good and bad, present the game in a fun and energy,
in an entertaining manner. But like if you get wrapped
up into like pushing for outcomes and pushing for certain teams,
it comes across on the broadcast, and I personally, I
don't try to get into all that. Like we want drama,

(42:42):
we want close games. That's it.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
I feel bad for you guys. I really not you
too specifically, but all all people who do what you do,
because no matter what you guys say, no matter what
I say, I write it, fans don't believe that. It's
kind of crazy. It's kind of like one of these
like I've always said, like sports fans are deranged, and
I put myself in that category because I'm like, we
have just these mental things, like sports fans do not

(43:07):
believe that you guys don't root. It's kind of crazy.
Like no matter like every single play by play guy
and analyst what I have on this. So they always say,
we want close games, we want close games, we want
close games. They also but like every fan is convinced
that every announcer roots. It's it's kind of bizarre.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
You don't even you just don't even think about it.
Like that's the number one question I always get, is
it hard not to root? Look, I'm into this industry
because I'm a diehard sports fan, of course, Like It's
all I did was root for teams growing up. But
you you just you just never it never even crosses
your mind, like when the lights go on. I I

(43:42):
don't know how else to explain it. You know, you
feel you feel good for people when things are done
or results are done, or if you're home watching the
game that you're not working certainly, but like I don't know, Jim,
like you just it just never enters your mind. You're
seriously just hoping for great drama and great storylines and
all that stuff. So but I mean, yeah, of course,
that's like the reason why I got into this, because
I'm just like you, we're dying with my teams, right,

(44:04):
That's so I get the aspect of it.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Yeah, there was. There was something that happened in college
this year when Georgia, no, Alabama beat Georgia, and Fouler
and Herbstreet will call in a game for ESPN, and
ESPN had a camera in their booth and showed them
reacting to Alabama beating Georgia, and Herbstreet was like going
crazy because it came down to like the final play,

(44:27):
and all these people were like, see Herbstreet roots Alabama
like I went to a high state. Like it doesn't
even make any sense.

Speaker 3 (44:36):
It's a losing battle. But listen, I don't blame fans.
I think the passion of fans and how allegiant they
are to their own to their own team, is what
makes all of us have a job right. It's what
makes all of this so interesting. So I don't hold
it against people. I don't take it personal. I understand
the blind passion of fans, and frankly I encourage it.

(44:57):
I love it. You should live and die with your team.
You should not like when your quarterback gets you know,
pointed out for throwing a bad pass or you I
get it. But if if Josh Allen makes a great
throw and they're up thirty five seven on you it
can't be. Oh my god, how much does Olsen love

(45:18):
Josh Allen? Yeah, he's up thirty five seven, he's doing
pretty good.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
You know the stuff about Romo. There's a lot of
stuff I saw about Romo this week saying he's gonna
look like he doesn't know who to root for Alan
or Mahomes because everyone thinks he roots for both. So
now he's like, like, people, Yeah, those.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
Two guys games. Yes, they're going to dominate the conversation.
They're two of the best players in the entire league.
What commentator team would not be spending a lot of
their time highlighting what Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson or
Josh whoever, those are the stars of the NFL. Of
course they're going to get talked about. And when Josh
Allen throws two picks, we're going to do a replay

(45:57):
and show why he threw two picks.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
I do like, though, like what you say.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
This week, I'm not jinxing him Bill's fans. I don't
mean this week, I mean in general.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
I do like when you get that you didn't say
anything good about this team, Well, they had eleven yards
at the half, kind of hard.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
What did you want us to say, and I mean Jesus.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Kevin and I talked about this briefly before you jumped on.
You know, I said, you love these two weekends. These
are by far the two best weekends of the season.
You have the four games this week, championship game, the
Super Bowl, to me is nonsense. That's for like the
fringe fan, not the diehard fan, but the guy and
gal who's in it every week for eighteen weeks, like
these are the two weeks for them. But it's also

(46:37):
depressing because it's like it's over soon's it's a bummer.
Like Kevin at least he does baseball. And you know,
in a couple of months, do you get depressed about
it ending? Or are you like, give me the offseason.
I'm ready to go on a beach somewhere and relax.

Speaker 3 (46:53):
You know, it's mixed feelings. It's it's similar when there's
a player, right, there's a when the season was done.
The thing now is we get to go on our
own terms.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
Right.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
I never had a season in fourteen years ever end
with a parade, right, you know, we we had one
shot at it, playing a couple of championship games, one
Super Bowl, it didn't go ourway. But like once you
got past how the season ended and you know, disappointment
or the good season individual whatever it was, there's always

(47:23):
like the deep breath where were like, it's done. I'm
not on the road every weekend. I get to catch
my breath during the week, I get to be around.
So I think it's very similar to that. Albeit we
get to walk out of the last game and say great,
like we're you know, no bearing to us that NFC
championship game. They go on to the super Bowl somebody else,
you know, CBS obviously calls it. We go about our

(47:44):
merry way. But yeah, I think just it's a long season.
You know, you're on the road every weekend. You're gone,
you're missing family stuff. You're during the week you're watching
film and staring at your computer. And you know, now
the spring comes and you get a little more free time.
You get to go out and and do stuff that
maybe you've been pushing off and and whatnot. But I
love the season. I always did as a player. I

(48:05):
still do it. Loving this the grind of it, the week,
the week process. I like, you know, we wouldn't do
it if we didn't like it. So I'm not sitting
here saying, you know, a pion park.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
But I do think it's the best weekend as a
fan of this weekend though, because I I used to
think that before I got into this, and then like
just from a pure like if football, like when you're
a football not like you know, we all are, Jim,
you and I are obviously like you just sit on
your couch the entire weekend and eat as many cheese
balls as possible, and you've just got NonStop games and

(48:38):
usually the divisional round is really really good. Like our
game is Saturday night. I cannot wait to wake up
Sunday and stay in my pajamas and just watch football
all day. I Am not going to leave the damn couch, house, door,
dash pizza like it's going to be great. So it's yeah,
I think this.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
Is the Yeah, this is the weekend. I would not
be doing my job if I didn't ask this one question.
You guys have two games left. You have this week.
You have Green Bay and Sam Franz Saturday night, and
then you have the NFC title game. Fox has this plan.
Tom Brady's supposed to come in next year. A lot
of people didn't think he was ever gonna do it.
Now people think he's gonna do it. Have you thought
about this could be your last two games together. Has

(49:16):
that been on your minds any conversations about that?

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Who would you say? I just suck it? You know, guy,
Here's what I think.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
Here's some random dude.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
We've been asked this question every single day since the
beginning of last year. And I think, if I'll speak
for me, if I thought like that, like oh my gosh,
like I would have been in the fucking nuthouse. Finally,
I think we are going to do what we have
always done and go out and enjoy the heck out

(49:46):
of it, have a great time, and let the cards
fall where they may. I truly I can't imagine doing
it edding a way or thinking any other way than that.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Fair enough, Yeah, yeah, And and obviously for me being you know,
directly impacted, you know, one way or another. To Kevin's point,
you know this this is nothing new, right, This is
nothing new in this you know, this career path, and
it was nothing new when I was a player. You know,
I had been tried to be replaced and been replaced
and traded and cut and you know whatever, all all

(50:20):
in between. It's the life we all sign up for.
You know, we're all big boys. We all understand that
all aspects related to the NFL is a very competitive
environment that a lot of people want to get involved in.
It's a it's a fun it's a lucrative business. It's
it's all those things. So you know, when we when
when everything went down and we knew that Kevin and
I were going to start, you know, call the Slady

(50:41):
Game starting last year, which obviously was going to end
in a super Bowl, there was no bigger magnifying glass
on two guys in the booth than us. There was
no story covered more on a week to week. And
then it picked up when it went to the playoffs.
You know, how are they going to handle the big
moments in the playoffs? This is different than you know,
one o'clock on Sunday. And then the two week leading
up was all right, how are these guys going to

(51:02):
call it super Bowl? Neither one of these guys has
ever called the Super Bowl. And all we do and
all we have ever done to Kep is exactly what
Kevin just said. We just keep calling our game. We
just keep doing the game the way we see it
the way we talk about it and the way that
we find maybe he's a little bit different new We
point out things that maybe not everyone's pointing out. We

(51:23):
dive into subjects of the game that are kind of
a little more new age and a little more analytics,
and you know, just little sprinkles of stuff that Kevin
and I find interesting. And we think, now, if they're
doing it for two years with this team, we feel
like a lot of people find it interesting, and we
feel like a lot of other people now are starting
to talk about those things when maybe they had no ways.
So we're going to keep doing us. Whatever team I'm

(51:43):
on next year, whatever my future holds, wherever I am,
so be it. Obviously I'm on the record about how
much I respect Tom. I understand the situation. He's the
greatest football player of all time. I get it. I
understand what we all sign up for. But it is
not going to alter one thing we do, and it
does not take away one thing from what we've done.

(52:05):
All we've done is continue to deliver, and the ratings
and all metrics show it.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Well, you said whatever you're doing next year, because didn't
you recently say you were looking to maybe get into coaching.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
Yeah, I mean there was obviously rumor and speculation, you
know about the Panther job. Obviously, I live here in
Charlotte and played the bulk of my career there.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
I don't want interrupt. Would you be able to go
right into a head coaching job. I'm just curious because
that you can, no problem.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
I mean in my mind I could. Okay, And again,
I'm glad you brought it up. But I think the
word experience gets thrown out a lot, right, everyone is
so worried about experience.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Well, everyone flipped out over Jeff's Saturday. That's why I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
And I don't know Jeff, and every case is different.
And obviously Jeff's a Hall of Fame type player and
had an amazing career and I get all that. So
this is nothing for me or Jeff. I'm just talking
in theory. We have this idea that in the football
coaching no other coaching, right, we saw former players that
have never coached today become managers in baseball or you know,

(53:06):
head basketball coaches in the NBA, like we see guys
raise that rise up fast in the other sports. But
for whatever reason, the NFL has this narrative that unless
you brought the offensive coordinator cups of coffee for five
years and slept on your couch and started as the
assistant to the assistant to the assistant. There's guys now
that are head coaches that I was in my fifth

(53:28):
sixth year of the league. I was already making Pro
Bowls playing and they were the assistant to the assistant
tight end coach. And I say, okay, from the from
then to now and again, I'm hypothetically it's not like
any exact person or anything, but like their journey in
the NFL is no longer, in a lot of cases
is shorter than my experience in the NFL. So just
because I didn't start out, just because I was always

(53:48):
a player, but I didn't start out as you know,
quality control or whatever, that it makes me more or
less qualified to be a coach. I think we put
too much stock in that. I think John Lynch is
built the best roster in football and he was kept.
He was sitting next to Burkhart the year before. I
think we see it in all industries, me and Burkhart.
You know, people said, oh, how are you going to do?

(54:10):
Going straight from calling games to calling a Super Bowl.
I think we did. Okay, So, I think the game
of football is something that a lot of people know
and a lot of people can do at a high level.
And frankly, there's a lot of coaches that have coached
for thirty years that are some of the worst football
people I've ever been around. I think we excuse. I

(54:30):
think we confuse time and experience with competence, and they're not.
Sometimes they're directly related, and oftentimes rightfully so, but not always.
And I think we The idea is to get the
right person, not the person who's been doing it the longest.
Those are not always the same thing.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
Yeah do you so? Would you only do it to
become a head coach? Would you become an offensive coordinator
if a team one? Did you?

Speaker 4 (54:55):
No?

Speaker 3 (54:56):
I would only and again I would never leave my
current job, right, So I just want to be clear there,
Like if Fox told me, hey, you can, you're going
to call the A team for the next twenty years,
there would be no coaching job on the planet that
would replace that in my mind. Oh okay, doing what
I'm doing now is the dream. This is the best situation.

(55:16):
It's the best work life balance. It's fun, it's engaging.
I've learned more about football in the last three years
than maybe I did while I was a player for fourteen. Like,
it is a really cool experience. So, by no means
is this something I would do this job forever. But
as we all know, circumstances change, situations change. That's been
well chronicled. I don't know what my you know, I

(55:38):
don't know. It's impossible to predict what that holds. So
if that opportunity did present it and I wasn't sitting
in the chair next to Kevin, who wouldn't entertain that
but only head coach. Yeah, I'm I'm not going to
be a position coach and sleep in my office and shit,
no chance.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
I like that. I like that. That's good. That's good.
All right, Well, I appreciate you guys coming on. I
know it's a crazy busy week. Packers Niners Saturday eight fifteen,
and then I I'm saying this, not the guys, but
like a Lion San Fran NFC title game, that would
that would be tremendous for you guys. No disrespect to
the Bucks with the pack The Packers are they're a

(56:16):
brand name, but like the Niners have been the best
team all year. The lions of the story, Like, that's
a hell of an NFC title game. But you guys,
I know, are not rooting for anything. But I just
wanted to say that.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
I'm just I'm just rooting for something to be within
one score with you know, in the second quarter, I'm
gonna I'm gonna vote for that.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
That's that's nine games decided by twenty or more is insane.
What was the worst game? What was the worst game?

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Was it?

Speaker 1 (56:43):
I see Giants Dallas forty nine to seventeen, New England
Dallas thirty eight to three. Was there one way you
guys looked.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
At each other like that New England game was pretty bad?

Speaker 2 (56:52):
So you know what it is? Like, let me let
me say this first. Yeah, yeah, we're not digging dishes here.
Like we have fun with it no matter what, right,
Like we're so lucky to have so don't don't misconstrue that,
and we enjoy it and we we always have fun
with it no matter what the score. But I think
sometimes there are games, like sometimes you just have bad
games that happens. I think sometimes the games are the

(57:13):
games that surprise you. Like for me, Greg, we did
Lions Baltimore in October. I was in the middle of
doing baseball level and we were so jacked about this game.
We thought it was such a cool game, such a
fun game, you know, and it's also cool for us
when we do different teams, so we don't get to
see Baltimore very often, so that was cool get to
see Lamar and and that whole crew. And then they

(57:35):
got their doors blown off, I mean, and it was
going a matter of seconds and we looked at each
other like a second quarter, like what the hell just happened?
Like those are the games that I think are part
because you're expecting like a great game and then it
like you know, sometimes you have a matchup where it's like, ah,
this might not be so great and it turns out
it's not great.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
But when you think it's thirty eight six was that game.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
And it was over in ten minutes like so that
that to me was the one this year that really
shocked me.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
That's a good one. There's so many, hard to remember
them all.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
Hopefully for everybody's sake, yours, the fans aready, we get
a close one and uh in San France on Saturday, when's.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Going to make a guest appearance here. I mean it
was too big to.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
Come on, and like he's on every week, He's on
every now a week. That was great though. When he
texted you for something and you didn't right back and
I told you and then you texted him that he can't,
he was happy about that.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
It was pretty funny because he you know how like
sometimes you get a text and you see it and
maybe maybe you get distracted, and then like once for me,
once the text is unread, I don't remember. Three minutes later,
I don't remember it. Yeah, if I have to get
back to it, I have to remember to go and
mark it like unread, because otherwise it's gone for my life. Yeah,
So it was pretty funny considering Sal and I go
so far back that he thought I was ignoring him,

(58:48):
because I would never do that to him.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
He's starting it up here in New York, that's for sure.
I'm the fan now every day. He's always always something
going on in here, and you with the fan, that's
for sure. All Right, guys, appreciate it. Have a great
game on Saturday. We'll be watching and uh and then
enjoy the NFC title game. Appreciate all right, Take care
all right, joining me now as he does every week

(59:11):
for our Train of Thoughts segment from WFN Radio in
New York s n Y TV in New York. My
buddy Salakata, sal, how the hell are you.

Speaker 4 (59:21):
Good? I feel like we haven't done this in a while.
Maybe it's just because we're recording later in the week,
but it feels like we haven't done it in a while.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
I think we recorded on Tuesday last week, and now
it's Thursday, so we had an extra extra.

Speaker 4 (59:34):
Couple of days, all right, extra day's rest.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
Yeah, but uh, did you enjoy the football last week?

Speaker 4 (59:47):
I did? I did enjoy it. I mean I don't
think the games were the best. Obviously the Lions and
Rams team was the best game. But I still love it.
I mean, one great and maybe we disagree on this
and one of the games, there's nothing to you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
Do about it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
The band Weather had it moved. Monday night does not
feel like playoffs to me. It feels like a Monday
night football game. So I missed the I want all
the games on the weekend. That's what I would prefer.
I know it's not gonna happen. That would be my
one gripe with everything.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
I actually agree with you that the Monday Night doesn't
feel like a playoff game, but I wonder if that's
because of the teams that were in it, I mean
in the game. But I see. I like having the
Monday because I'm all for as many days. So give

(01:00:37):
me football, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, I'm happy instead of just
Saturday Sunday. But I do agree that the Monday night
doesn't have that playoff feel like Saturday and Sunday did.
I do agree with you on that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
I think so it hurt. I would prefer Saturday one
for eight, Sunday one for eight, booth obviously, snowstorm whatever
you move to Monday. But I'm talking about Wildcard weekend.
Give me three Saturday, give me three Sunday, and that
it's one weekend a year. We're gonna go nuts with

(01:01:07):
the three. You know, the lineup from one to four
to eight. Just do that instead of spreading and Mondays.
The week is over like the weekend. Once the weekend ends,
that's it. You're onto the next week. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
No, see, I like having the extra day. I think
the biggest issue is that the games are just terrible. Yeah,
except for the Lions I think watch I watched.

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
The Steelers Bills a little bit more than the late one.
I really didn't even know, Like, I wasn't locked into
the late one, and it's a playoff game. I'm usually
locked into everyone, so the maybe it is your right
the Bucks Eagles, but still, I just think any playoff
game should be feel special. I didn't have that feel.
And the broadcast is great, it's not those guys. I
just the Monday night work week. I don't know. I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Well, now you'll now you will have just Saturday and Sunday, right, but.

Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
It's not one four eight. You get the two you know,
the two games in any state, which is great, but
it's still not the special hit you with the one
four eight?

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Right? Which game are you looking forward to the most
this weekend?

Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
Good question? Probably the Bills Bill's chiefs. I mean, I
think this is finally the time where the Bills get
over the hump. I'd be curious to see my homes
on the road. I think that's going to be fun. Uh,
That to me is the best matchup. I know Saturday
Night's going to be a fun one too, But if
I had to pick one, you know, I don't love
the Texans Ravens.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Don't get me wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:02:38):
I know it's a big game, and I'm curious about Lamar,
but I don't love that matchup as much as I
do Bill's Chiefs. That's the premier game.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Yeah, by far, and uh I I love the the
storyline of Mahomes on the Road. I think that adds
a lot to it. Hopefully Taylor up and ruin everything again.
I like how you're not allowed to say that, like now,
like if you say like she annoys you, Oh my god,

(01:03:06):
the backlash. It's crazy everyone out there, stephen A Smith
and these two. I believe her, like it's annoying.

Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
Sorry, but I mean I'm indifferent. I took offense that
I'd rather like, Okay, you're gonna give Taylor Swift all
the love that how come with the Lions Rams game,
I wasn't seeing Eminem every five seconds, like I want
to see his reaction.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
Well, because he's not the biggest pop star on the
planet right now.

Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
Oh come on, Well, it depends who you ask. I mean,
I understand what Taylor's.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
No, it doesn't depend who you ask. It doesn't no, no, no,
I'd rather.

Speaker 4 (01:03:40):
See Eminem and Taylor Swift any day of the week.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
Right but right, but right, that's fine. But she's the
biggest pop star on the planet. He's just the way
it is.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
It can't be.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
I mean, you're not being serious right now.

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
His peak well as big as Taylor's, Okay, but.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
It's not nineteen ninety eight. It's twenty twenty four, and
he was not as big as that. And he was
never as big as Taylor Swift. Come on, ever, come on,
His audience just is not the same size. It's not
even close.

Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
But he's an actual Lions fan. Like that's got to
count for something too. I actually hear his reaction because
the Lions fan. I wanted to see his reaction.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
My beef with the Taylor Swift thing more. I mean,
it's annoying. That's my biggest beef. But also I want
them to show her when he's out there dropping passes
left and right, show me that. Yeah, he that's what
I want to see.

Speaker 4 (01:04:40):
Ye, he's not been the same player, No, he is not.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
He dropped one was over his head, but old Travis
Kelsey would have caught it, and then one was just
right in the numbers and he dropped it. They don't
go show it. They don't go show it when that happens.

Speaker 4 (01:04:56):
No, but she did have a nice jacket. I mean,
and by the way, when showing college college use Check's
wife on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
Night again that anyone's wife because they're not her, Like
that's you know, but she makes great jackets. I mean,
are you I don't even know if you're being serious
right now?

Speaker 4 (01:05:18):
I am. Have you looked her up? No?

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
No about great jackets? Like who gets a ship?

Speaker 4 (01:05:24):
Oh? Come on, like it's a big pop culture thing
right now. Even guys is a fan of being like,
oh just see those jackets. We got to get someone.
I'm like, God, not so fast. I don't know if
I wear it, but I do think they're cool.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
I mean, you're being serious right now with me. People
are talking about the jacket's wife about her jackets.

Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
Dude, dude gets a phenomenon.

Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
Yes, I had not the one that she I know, jacket,
I didn't know. People are like, oh my god, they've
gotten I know she made the.

Speaker 4 (01:06:02):
Five hundred thousand followers.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
Yeah right, well, yes, those fans are little model, but
I didn't. But again, if you're trying to say that
Kyle us Check's wife is hot. Okay, I understand that
part of it, even though you're not supposed to say
that these days. But you're telling me that, like people
are going crazy for this jacket. I haven't met anyone
in my world going crazy for a jacket of tail.
I don't I don't know what. I don't know. I'm lost.

Speaker 4 (01:06:26):
I would bet I guarantee you Saturday night, his wife
use Check's wife will be showing on TV. I guarantee it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
That's fine. I don't have an issue with that. I
haven't met either that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:37):
I'm just I'm just saying that i'd rather see that
she's she's gonna be wearing some of her clothing line,
and I'm sure there's gonna be a storyline a little
bit not the storyline, but you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Know, I mean, I don't know I'm supposed to care
about her clothing line. I don't know. I'm so lost
right now. It's not even funny. Who cares? I don't know.
This was not in my world this week. Yeah, And
I just want to say one thing about the peacock
thing quickly, because I put out a tweet. I should

(01:07:05):
read out the tweet because my god, not everyone, but
so many people misinterpreted it, read into it more than
it was, So let me just and then I get
people like saying, like I should shut up about Peacock.
What else do you want me to talk about, like
I'm supposed to cover like media stuff, and the NFL
putting a playoff game on a streaming service is a

(01:07:27):
big media story. So you know, people want me to
like give it up, but I'm not going to give
it up. Well, I just got I'll say, let me
just read what I tweeted, and it was my fault
for not being fully clear of what I meant with
the tweet. So I'll clear up now, although I did

(01:07:47):
try to. Okay, so before I read the tweet, just quickly,
I'll give you a little heads up here. Packers Cowboys
drew forty million viewers and the game was terrible. The
Rams and the Lions drew thirty six million viewers. The

(01:08:07):
Bills and the Steelers on Monday four thirty drew thirty
two million viewers. The Rams and the Lions drew I
said that thirty six, and the Browns and the Texans
drew twenty nine Okay, So Browns Texans twenty nine million,
thirty two million, for Bills, Steelers, thirty nine for excuse me,

(01:08:34):
thirty six for Rams, Lions, forty million for Packers, Cowboys,
The Chiefs and the Dolphins did twenty three million. So
that's six million less than the lowest game. And it
was a sexy matchup with the Chiefs malms all that
against the Dolphins. So this is what I tweeted. Despite

(01:08:55):
NBC bragging about twenty three million on Peacock for Dolphins, Chiefs, Browns,
Texans twenty nine million, Rams, Lions thirty six million, Packers,
Cowboys forty million. NFL probably cost itself ten to twelve
million with Peacock money grab. Some people interpreted that tweet
as I meant that the NFL lost ten to twelve
million dollars. No, I meant viewers, because based on the

(01:09:20):
numbers of all the games, Chiefs Dolphins on NBC would
have gotten thirty million viewers easy with that matchup, sod
it got twenty three ye And then people were like,
well they did it to get subscriptions. Yes, I know that.
Other people like I won't to know how many people
signed up and canceled. Well, yeah, I'd like to know it,
but I my only all I was doing is making

(01:09:40):
one observation. My only point. My only observation was by
putting the game on streaming, they probably lost ten million
viewers that would have watched it if it was on NBC.
That's it. And that twenty three million that watched it,
I'm not saying someone's lying, but I'm going to say
that I don't fully believe that number. First of all,
the number I think is more like twenty million, because

(01:10:01):
the local Kansas City and Miami markets got it over
the air, not on Peacock. But in November, Peacock had
twenty eight million subscribers in November, twenty eight million. You're
gonna tell me, now, twenty three million people watch that game.
Something aint kosher there. Let's all say about that.

Speaker 4 (01:10:21):
But my only point, no, wait, why would you say that?
So you're saying that there's no way that percentage of
subscribers would watch the game.

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
Yes, if they had twenty listen, I'm sure millions of
people signed up on Saturday. I don't know how many.
But I'm saying, if you're a streaming service with twenty
eight million people subscribing, you can't convince me that twenty
three million watch something, right.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
Even if it is an NFL playoff game, they would
have had to increase the subscriptions, which I'm sure they did.

Speaker 5 (01:10:57):
Of course, absolutely, yeah, right, and then other people like,
oh no, by the way, I had a caller call
in and say that he doesn't have Peacock but he
watched the game on his phone, and we're like, no,
you didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:11:09):
It was exclusive on Peacock. And then we found out
that you could have watched it on your tablet or
phone through some kind of NFL app.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Or NFL Live NFL Live app, which is bullshit.

Speaker 4 (01:11:22):
Is it exclusive or not? I don't understand.

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
Well, no, but you have to pay for the NFL
Live app. It's not free.

Speaker 4 (01:11:30):
So these people already had the NFL Live app. But
so then I'm confused by that whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
So I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
I don't think that caller is accurate. I think you
you had to have some subscription I think to watch
the game. I shouldn't say, because I don't one hundred
percent no, but I do know if you have the
NFL Live app, they show the primetime they show the
games on there, but you have to pay for that app.

Speaker 4 (01:11:57):
So I don't know. My only My only down, like yeah, good.

Speaker 1 (01:12:02):
No, no, My only point was that ten million people
give or take a couple would have watched the game
on NBC that didn't watch it because it was on Peacock.
I understand. The NFL doesn't need the money, the NFL
doesn't need the viewers. The NFL could do what they want.
The NFL is setting up for the future of streaming.
I get all that. I was just making that observation.
And then people and here's and the bottom line for me,

(01:12:26):
you are so dumb if you don't think there's going
to be an NFL playoff game next year on Paramount
Plus and maybe ESPN Plus in addition to Peacock. They're
all gonna have playoff games. This is where it's going.
It's gonna happen, and you just everyone just keep paying
and paying and paying. That's all pay, pay.

Speaker 4 (01:12:45):
Pay, well, pay, what would you suggest we do?

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
Pay? That's all you can do. Pay you don't watch it,
Everyone's gonna pay. The NFL can do what they want.

Speaker 4 (01:12:54):
But well, you either not watch it or you pay
to watch it, and you just pay for a month
like their little gimmick. Their little gimmick is not They're
thinking that people are gonna sign up and be like
oh wow, look at this great service and all these
different options that they have, or forget to get out
of it. So we have to be smarter and say, Okay,

(01:13:14):
I'll pay the six bucks or the ten bucks or
whatever it is for the month, and then I'm canceling
and I'll do it again next year. So when you
look at it, if you had to pay thirty bucks,
let's say the worst case scenario to watch three playoff games,
you do that, You do it and you move on.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
But I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:13:29):
I'm not going twelve months and I'll have yes, but
you're the.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
Type of person that'll make sure you cancel. There's a
lot of people that end up not canceling, which is I.

Speaker 4 (01:13:37):
Don't understand how you just sign up for something and
let it go. Like why.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
I think people just forget it because it's not that
much money. It's like six dollars a month, so they don't.
I think they just don't think about it. That's my assumption.
But there's gonna be playoff. And then I had some
idiots on Twitter say to me like, well, how come
you didn't complain. You don't complain about the Thursday night
Amazon game. Well one I did complain about it when
it happened. And two, you can't compare a Thursday night

(01:14:06):
regular season game when an NFL playoff game. Putting the
playoff game on the streaming service is what the slap
in the faces.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
Right, because whether it's the Yankees on Prime or Apple TV,
whether it's a regular season NFL game on Prime or
Amazon or whatever or Peaca like that, you could miss
those and survive it can miss the postseason game in
the NFL exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
And they put Dolphins Chiefs on there, which was a
sexy matchup, did you know, and still only got twenty
three million. All right, I want to talk to you
about this awful announcing. They do this. They do like
a survey every year of every NFL announced team and
it's from the readers. It's from the awful announcing readers.

(01:14:57):
I just want to read you and I get your
thoughts and I'll in here. So this is what the
the awful announce sole awful announcing readers. They do it
on a grading system. The number one team that got
the highest grade was Buck and Aikman. So I have
no issue with that. Okay with that Number two was

(01:15:19):
Iron Eagle and Charles Davis.

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
Love it okay.

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
Number three was Kevin Harlan and Trent Green. Number four
Barcart and Olsen, number five Tarico and Collinsworth, six, Nansen Romo,

(01:15:45):
seven Joe Davis, Daryl Johnston, eight, Kevin Coogler, Mark Sanchez, nine,
Al Michaels, Kirk kurb Street, ten Catalan Tiki Barber, Matt Ryan.
So you have any initial thoughts on that top ten?

Speaker 2 (01:16:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:16:08):
I don't anyone too low anyway? All right, go ahead?

Speaker 4 (01:16:11):
Uh, I would not have had Harlan number three. I
think the Catalan team is way too low. I think
Al Michaels way too low, and I think t Rico
Collinsworth also too low.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
Yeah. I My biggest issue here is Joe Davis and
Darryl Johnston at number seven. I mean, can't tell me
that that it's a better team than Al Michaels, kirkurb Street,
than Catalan An Tiki and and and Matt Ryan. Come on, yeah,

(01:16:51):
I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:16:52):
That the fact that Al's that part. I think to
Rico Collinsworth need to be up there. I think Al
needs to be up there. And I wouldn't have all
on Ryan and Tiki last no chance.

Speaker 1 (01:17:05):
Well, no, there's seven. I read you the top ten.
There's seventeen in total. Yeah, yeah, yah, yeah, yeah because
the rest of I'll give you the rest of the
rest of us quickly. Eleven Fowler Orlafsky and Riddick. They
only did four games.

Speaker 6 (01:17:18):
So got twelve Adam seventeen, twelve Adam Aman and Marsh
loreth thirteen, Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma, fourteen, Tom McCarthy,
James Lofton and Jay Feely fifteen, Spirodidas and Adam Archialetta sixteen,
Rich Eisen and Kurt Warner.

Speaker 1 (01:17:38):
And then last was Chris Myers and Robert Smith.

Speaker 4 (01:17:41):
Oh, I can't. I can't knock the bottom two there,
although I put Fowl in the bottom three that those
teams are probably the bottom three. I'll want to organize them.

Speaker 1 (01:17:51):
Yeah, a lot of people like Mark Sanchez. I think
he's good too, But Joe Davis and Daryl Johnston at
seven is they shouldn't. They're not a top ten team,
That's the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:18:01):
Sanchez is, fine, you can't rank them ahead of a Yeah,
and now, and I think Catalan Tiky and Matty Ice
are Now maybe I'm a little biased, But even if
you take out Tiki and Matt Ryan won biased for
I think Catalan's better than a lot of those guys

(01:18:21):
that they mentioned that were ranked ahead of them.

Speaker 1 (01:18:25):
Yeah, I'd love to see Catalan in a in a
two person booth with like an a list analyst and
I'd love to see I think that would be a
great team. You know, Matt Ryan's in his first year,
Tiki's in his first year, three man booth. I don't love,
but yeah, the al Michaels thing now is becoming like Romo,
where people are just bashing to bash.

Speaker 4 (01:18:42):
I think, I mean, come on, it's so disrespectful that
list give me a.

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
Break love it? Did you see?

Speaker 4 (01:18:54):
I would have killed to listen to al Michael's to
do a game this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:18:57):
What are you kidding me? Come on?

Speaker 1 (01:18:58):
That's all right. I agree with that one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (01:19:02):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
We talked a little bit earlier about Taylor Swift and
eminem your thoughts on the now. The super Bowl, as
we know, is not for us. The super Bowl is
for the fringe fan. Yes, and the NFL announced today

(01:19:22):
the national anthem will be sung by Reba McIntyre. America.
The Beautiful will be sung by post Malone, and Lift
every Voice and Sing will be sung by Andre Day.
Any of those do it for you?

Speaker 4 (01:19:42):
No, didn't Reba McIntyre sing like the anthem at WrestleMania
six or something like? I'm pretty sure she did some
kind of wrestling thing many years ago, if I'm not mistaken.
But come on, I mean, what are we doing here?
Post Malone? I like, I don't know if I need
him to sing the anthem at the super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
He's not doing the anthem. He's doing America the Beautiful.

Speaker 4 (01:20:04):
Oh whatever, America the Beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
Yeah, I don't understand why we sing America the Beautiful
at these games, but that's a whole other issue. I
don't say why we sing the anthem either, but that's
another issue.

Speaker 4 (01:20:14):
I don't get into that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:15):
Yeah. Well, well yeah, I thought those were you know,
I'm not I don't know. If I'm like, I'm gonna
make sureman in front of the TV for any of
those performances.

Speaker 4 (01:20:29):
I'd be the only one that intrigues me even slightly
is post Malone? Yeah? Can you real quick?

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:20:38):
I want to see if Reeba McIntyre did something at
a Unless I'm mixing her up with something like isn't
she an older country singer? Yes, I'm pretty sure she
did something like an old school WrestleMania.

Speaker 1 (01:20:51):
If I'm not, you are correct. She's sang America the
Oh wait, she's sang America the Beautiful at WrestleMania something,
WrestleMania eight eight. You she did the anthem, she did
the old No. Now I'm getting okay, wicked. This says
here she did wrest There's some things on Twitter saying

(01:21:12):
she did the star Spangled banner, and there's something saying
she did America the Beautiful. So she did one to
wrest correct, So okay with the memory.

Speaker 4 (01:21:24):
Right, So so think about this. The super Bowl is
now stealing a bit that Vince McMann used from WrestleMania
fucking eight.

Speaker 1 (01:21:35):
I'll tell you know who the best one ever was
at at a WrestleMania was Aretha Franklin. Oh that was
that was That was all I believe it? Well, yeah
they won in Detroit. Yeah, well Andre and Hogan. Yeah,
Aretha was like no, like so good.

Speaker 2 (01:22:00):
That was great.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
One more musical thing I thought of you when I
saw this story last night, because you are currently a
New York City commuter. I was a New York City
commuter for like twenty years. And we'll get to Sal's
house update, don't worry. And I saw that Jimmy Fallon
did it for his show, did some bit where Green

(01:22:22):
Day did an impromptu performance on a crowded subway. And
my first thought I saw it was if Sal was
on that subway, would he be livid? Would he be
would it all depend on who the artist was or like?

(01:22:43):
Because I know if it was me, if it was
my favorite, like, I don't care who it was, I
would be livid because once the crowd forms, then I
would have a panic attack from the claustrophobia. But if
you were on a subway and the impromtuo concert started
breaking out with a legitimate A list group, what would
you think?

Speaker 4 (01:23:05):
I think it probably Well, it depends on two things.
One who it is. Two how fast do I need
to get to wherever I'm going? If it's home, it's
going to be a problem. You know, if I'm late
for a show, it could potentially be a problem. If
if I'm just like, yeah, you know whatever, you know,
I have some time to kill. I wouldn't mind it.
If it were the right.

Speaker 1 (01:23:26):
Act like I love the idea of surprising people and
giving people like a free thing and doing something for
fans and all that, but like, can we maybe just
stay off the subways well even with subway platforms, Like.

Speaker 4 (01:23:44):
Yeah, well it's it's just chaos and the best thing
I've ever seen on a subway. And I think this
guy was like somewhat like subway Internet famous. I wish
I remember his name, maybe something Joe. He he played
nin Hando themes on his guitar.

Speaker 1 (01:24:04):
And on the subway.

Speaker 4 (01:24:05):
Great like Super Mario Brothers. He's playing the thing on
his guitar, and I'm like, this is awesome. I wish
I could have bought the album. That was the best
entertainment that I've ever seen on the on the subway car.

Speaker 1 (01:24:21):
Okay, I'm just looking because I want to be If
they didn't do it on the subway, they did it
at the Rockefeller Center subway station. Okay, but when you
see the pictures, I mean there's hundreds of people. Hundreds
of people at a subway station makes me very very nervous.

(01:24:41):
Yeah yeah, not into that, all right, So everyone wants
to know Peter Schreger hitting me up left and right,
Andy Gray doesn't stop the latest with the house.

Speaker 4 (01:24:58):
We now last I told you we're gonna have to
frantically go see this house on Thursday last Thursday, right,
I think, right? I gave you that on the air.

Speaker 1 (01:25:08):
Yeah, you're going during the week, during the day after
a show. Then you had to get back for us.

Speaker 4 (01:25:12):
And why I get there Thursday, we have already made
a blind bid without seeing We rushed to see the house.
As we're walking up the driveway, our real estate agent
says to me, I don't think our blind bid, which
was already one hundred and fifty k over ask She said,

(01:25:34):
I don't think that's gonna do it. So now I'm
already pissed off.

Speaker 1 (01:25:38):
She couldn't tell you that before you got to the house.

Speaker 4 (01:25:40):
That's they there were cars lined up of people to
see it. I'm like, I wanted to say, just take
back to you offer and I'm going.

Speaker 2 (01:25:47):
Back to work.

Speaker 4 (01:25:47):
I didn't want to do this, but already there, so
I take that in stride, even though I might now
have a frown on, like I whatever. We see the house,
very nice whatever, not like the greatest house that we've
but it's in.

Speaker 2 (01:26:00):
A great area.

Speaker 4 (01:26:01):
Obviously a desirable area, which is why so many people
going nuts. We leave there, talk about with my wife, Okay,
what are we gonna do? And we give our max
On offer our real estate and says, can you go
a little bit higher? I'm like, what is this? Like?
All right, fine, in mistake of putting everything that we've
got into it, and let's just get this fucking thing

(01:26:24):
over with here. You are best offer that we could do,
even exceeding that to a certain extent, and it was
over two hundred and twenty thousand over the ass, which
is like, I can't even believe it. And then the
best part is she said we should have an answer

(01:26:45):
at some point today nothing, and then the next day,
hopefully by noon, nothing. And this is dragging on until
finally I get a text at nine o'clock at night. Sorry,
I have some bad news. You were close, but you
were second. There was a higher roll.

Speaker 1 (01:27:01):
Oh my god, but is that better in the long run?
Do you really want to go two twenty over?

Speaker 4 (01:27:07):
It's not necessarily the amount over because then to me,
it's just what I said was I don't mind losing.
What I hate was the process frantically having my wife
and I go there Thursday, having to blind bid a
ridiculous number, like the bidding war, the blind bid, waiting
for them to come back. Had they just said, like
houses available on Saturday, best and final offer on Sunday,

(01:27:29):
decision on Monday, it would have been fine, we put
it on our bid, we win, we lose.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
Whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:27:33):
This was like, it was chaos, we overextended, and that
wasn't even half of it. I'm doing a radio show,
I'm getting text oh, can you send me this from
your bank account? This and that, and they want proof
and I'm like, it's my head like this, it is
what it is like, either take it or fucking leave it.

Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
But I couldn't.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
They left it.

Speaker 4 (01:27:51):
Yeah, well I couldn't do that because even me, who
is ultimately blow the whole thing up, take it or
leave it, I didn't do it because they said, well this,
I'm not going to do that to my wife. I'm
just gonna sit out, ride it out, even though I
knew in my gut that it was not right, and
we wrote it out and ended up losing it anyway.
So ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (01:28:12):
Plus, now that you revealed how much over you went,
I'm thinking you're paying next time we go to Marines. Yeah,
but you know a man's kitchen on sound, you're going
two twenty over.

Speaker 2 (01:28:23):
Ye on you.

Speaker 4 (01:28:25):
Here's what happens. They put it at a lower price,
and then everybody's like, oh my god, I love this house.
And then you realize, well, yeah, it's not what they
said it was going to be. It really should have
been listed one hundred and fifty higher than what it was.

Speaker 1 (01:28:38):
Maybe there's nothing worse than the game playing. It's all
playing games, like, just tell me the amount, and now
put like, why do we have to play games I hate?

Speaker 4 (01:28:46):
I guess I said, after all, I'm not doing it anymore.
I'm not doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:28:49):
I still rent.

Speaker 4 (01:28:50):
I don't care if they come back to it now
and say the first part till out. I'm not paying
a penny for that house anymore. I'm done with that,
and I'm not doing this game anymore. I'm doing it normally.

Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
It's the games. It's the game. Can we eliminate the games? Right?
You know what? It's like, It's really not like this
at all, but I'm going to say it anyway. It's like,
this is why when I'm anti encore, when I go
to a concert, don't make me have to stand up
and clap, and then you come out again. Just play
the whole set list. Why do we have to go
through this game of your Oh thank you, good night,

(01:29:21):
you go away, everyone claps for five minutes, you come back.
Just do the set list without the games. Why do
we have to play the games? Now they're playing games,
they're they're putting the price lower. You're going over. Well,
just give me the amount, not pay it ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (01:29:36):
It is so ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
And honestly, did you did you look at houses Saturday
and Sunday?

Speaker 2 (01:29:43):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:29:43):
Because that was supposed to be the house we were
going to see on Saturday, but because we saw it
on Thursday, we didn't have to go Saturday. There was
really nothing else to go see. And plus we were
still like recovering from the death blow of getting that
news lead Friday night.

Speaker 1 (01:29:59):
Will you go see houses this Saturday and Sunday?

Speaker 4 (01:30:02):
Nothing? Nothing up yet as of this Thursday, there's nothing
to go see.

Speaker 1 (01:30:08):
Let's go, let's go to Let's go to Maureen's kitchen
on Saturday before the before the football. Yeah, I'll be
around all right, good, but you can see me and
Sal will be at Mareens on Saturday all right, well,
I'm sorry to hear that. I think it's good. Take
take this week off, NFC AFC title games the next

(01:30:29):
weekend on Sunday, so we have all day Saturday. If
you have to look for houses, then then then there's
that week off in between before the super Bowl. That
week off you go look for houses, recharge the batteries.
This weekend you have all you have the Saturday free,
no football. That in the following weekend there's no football.
Then you have the super Bowl. So you'll get it.
You'll get it. I think in the next I think
in the next three weeks it comes to an end.

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
I hope.

Speaker 4 (01:30:51):
So, because that is like we basically have a deadline.
It's either mid February or boss. We're gonna have to
rant at that point. But I'll keep you posted, all right,
hanging there, all right, dolculate it, all right, take care,
all right.

Speaker 1 (01:31:05):
My many thanks to Kevin Burkhart and Greg Olsen. You
can hear them on the Packers Niners this Saturday. Enjoy
chatting with them, and my thanks to Salakata for his
weekly segment. If you are not a subscriber to simdiate
with Jimmy Train to hit that subscribe button, leave review
on Apple. Give us last week's show with Jim Miller
covering all of the ESPN controversy. Check that ad out
as well in the archive. All Right, that wraps it up.

(01:31:27):
We'll see you next week. Stay safe and take care.

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