August 22, 2019 • 37 mins
Doug discusses the Cowboys offering Ezekiel Elliott a contract that would make him the second highest paid RB in the NFL and why Elliott is starting to look ungrateful. He also tells you why Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have made no decision about Brady’s retirement entering this season. Plus, NFL analyst Danny Kanell joins the show and explains why he thinks NFL players are jealous of NBA players.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
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(00:21):
of the Doug gotli Show on Fox Sports Radio. What up,
Stug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Coming to you from
beautiful sunny southern California. Hope you're having a great day.
It is National Burger Day. National Burger Day. I have
(00:43):
a plan in place for how to speak about in
loving terms your and my favorite burger, but I'll do
so upcoming. Can also tweet us at Gottlieb Show. The
Doug Gotland Show is brought you by Farmers. At Farmers,
we've seen almost everything, so when I cover almost anything,
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to the game put their experience into play. At Farmers
(01:03):
dot com, we are happy National Burger Day. Here's what
I wants you to do. There's that want you to
do um all of us on the show, we'll talk
about our favorite burgers. What I do I will not
allow you to do is beseechs the name of other burgers.
(01:26):
I don't know how we've gotten to this part in
our culture, right, Like, if you like five guys, somehow
in and out sucks. If you like what a burger?
How could you possibly like Wendy's, If you like Tommy's,
this West Coast Chili, on every sort of burger, you
can't possibly like fat burger? Okay, why just tell me
(01:50):
your favorite burger and why you love that burger specifically
go into intricate detail. I I there are very few
cartoon characters I can relate to as much as I
can relate to Whimpy, because Whimpy loved Hamburgers, and I
(02:11):
love Hamberg's. Also love tacos, but I love burgers. So
do you guys all understand the premise here. I'm not
saying you can't love your burger. I'm saying you don't
need to go to negative town and tell me why
some other burger stinks. Well, you know I loved it.
Whopper arkor Whopper Joel Mike better than the Big Mac
(02:36):
there's no need to be disrespectful. Speaking of disrespect, that's
what Ezekiel Elliott felt was coming from the Cowboys camp,
going back to last Saturday, when Jerry Jones said, Zeke
who and of course, Jerry, we played it for you yesterday.
Jerry's like, I have earned the rat. Write this down.
(02:58):
I have earned the rat. I have earned the right,
much like you know your grandpa is, like I have
earned the right to be called Mr scottli Right. I
have earned the right to joke about Zekiel Elliott. So,
the latest in the Cowboys versus their running back saga
(03:19):
is this Edward or he always has more? Edward or
Who's back at the mother ship? Right? Edward Or tweeted
out that the latest contract offer between the Cowboys and
Ezekie Elliott falls somewhere below that of Todd Gurley, above
that of Levyan Bell, and they are at an impast.
(03:43):
Now I'm guessing, and this is an educated guest, but
still a guess, that the tweet came from sources within
the Dallas Cowboys. Right, The tweet game from sources within
the Dallas Cowboys, because there is kind of an exact
amount in terms of dollars but we kind of get
a sense and falls between the thirteen and the fourteen,
(04:05):
and it does paint the picture of Jerry Jones having
reached his limit and he feeling disrespected. Matter of fact,
I'm sure he feels like Ezeke Elliott is. But one
of the things that no one wants a child to be,
No one wants an employee to be. No one wants
a friend to be. No one wants a lover to be.
(04:27):
No one wants anyone to be ungrateful, ungrateful. Now, what
happens in our PC culture is if I tweeted out
that Zeke Elliott is ungrateful, I would get a response
from the far left idiots of Twitter that would say
(04:51):
a typical white billionaire owner wants black football player to
kiss his feet and take less than he demands and
wants him to be grateful for the pennies He's penny
is spending him. But the true context of this is
Jerry stood by all his guys. You go back and look,
(05:13):
Michael Irvin stood by him even post retirement, and Dion
Sanders playing for other teams, Deon Sanders stood by him.
There have been players said negative things about Jerry and
Jerry has not come out and crushed them Jack. Jerry
stood by Romo during his first season, and by the way, rightfully,
so they should have played Romo and not Dock in
(05:35):
the playoffs. Jerry has stood by his guys through thick
and through thin, through knuckle head and solid citizen. And
for Zeke Elliott in the context of this story, he
built a system so that Zeke could be successful. And
(05:55):
I'll grant grant you that it's not Jerry as the architect,
but he we're gonna give Jerry any credit. We should
give him credit for fostering a system that that has
allowed the growth of his running backs. Nothing happens in
the football or the business office the Dallas Cowboys without
at least the express approval of Gerald Jones I n c. Additionally,
(06:21):
when the commissioner wanted to take a season away from
Ezekiel Elliott, he went to the mattresses. Jerry Jones, did
you gonna go to the mattresses? Mattresses is a Godfather reference.
If you don't know it, I feel really really bad
for you. Need to go watch The Godfather. It's not
too dated a reference. He went to the mattresses. He
tried to get Roger Goodell fired. It was a coup deta.
(06:49):
That's what they tried to do. They tried to usurp
the power of the world, usurp, usurp the power of
the commissioner of the National Football League, unsuccessfully, And of
course the retort from the commission was he got a
contract extension. I like them apples, Jerry Jerry Jones went
(07:10):
to the mattresses for Zeke Elliott. And by the way,
I'm sure he went back to the mattresses after the
nonsense in Vegas that happened over the off season as well.
By the way, we're in a We're in a time
of the me too movement. We're in a time where
finally men have locked arms with women and said enough
(07:32):
of domestic violence. Keep your hands to yourself. If not,
you can't play professional sports. He went against all political correctness,
all culture and stood by his guy. And now he
offers him slightly less than what everyone deems to be
(07:52):
a bad contract. But Todd Gurley, and though it's at
the same time that Todd Gurley got his deal done
last year, it's also a year later after we've seen
Todd Gurley not produced nearly at the level he should
in the playoffs. A matter of fact, they found C. J.
Anderson off the street, but he he didn't have to
(08:15):
do this with Zeke. Zeke's under contract this year, under
contract next year. We're not even getting into the franchise tag.
This is not a Levy on Bell situation where Levyan
Bell was a free agent. Nope. And so, while Zeke
let it out that he felt disrespected by a joke
that everyone knew to be a joke about Tony Pollard
(08:35):
making um allowing the Cowboys for at least a game,
to forget about the talents of Zeke Elliott, Jerry feels
even worse than being disrespected. He feels like Zeke Elliott
is ungrateful. If there's things you want to teach your
(08:57):
kids to be, peach him to be a spectful, teach
them to be grateful, like my greatest pride as a
parent and my greatest pride as a coach. Last night
I had tryouts for my basketball program. I had twenty
two or so kids uh in one session, and I
(09:20):
would say about thirteen of them came up and said,
thank you, coach. That's all you really Wane, that's all
you really One I gave up two hours of my
time with my family. My three kids are still on
vacation before summertime to work some kids out, to to
continue to to load up and help just teach basketball.
(09:42):
I don't make I try not to lose money, but
I don't make money on the deal. You know you
wanted someone to be grateful. Jerry has taken the Dallas Cowboys,
America's team, from the brink of bankruptcy to being those
valuable franchise in all of American sports. He's built a
palace to both play in and another palace to practice him.
(10:04):
He takes care of his guys on and off the
football field, during and after they play, and when they
get into a kerfuffle, even with the commissioner of the
National Football League, he has their back. And in an
effort to paint the picture of what's really going on,
he signed Jalen Smith to talk about the size of
the path not as much pie left. And now he
(10:29):
lets us in on the fact that, look, we didn't
offer to be the top paid running back, but the
second highest paid running back above that of Levian Bell,
and we don't actually even have to do this deal.
And this guy hasn't shown up to work out. My
guess is that Jerry Jones has gotten to the point
where he feels like Eazeke Elliott is ungrateful, and that
(10:52):
is a hard thing to a race. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Doug Dot Leap Show week
days in noon eastern three Pan Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. There's a report
out there from Adam Schefter, and it's, uh, it's really
important that I want to point out. I've worked with Scheft,
(11:16):
I know him personally. I think it's a good dude,
and you have to understand that while his report is
based upon quality sourcing, I will tell you I will
explain why I why I disagree with in a moment. First,
here's Adam Schefter. You know, people forget that people have
lives and they have families, and sometimes you know, you
(11:38):
want to do it's best for your wife or your kids.
And Tom's forty two now, I'm sure that his family
has sacrificed plenty for him to do what he's done
and to be as dedicated as he is to his
job to do it at the level he has. So again,
if it's me just looking at it from the outside.
I'm just reading the signs right. He's homeless for sale,
(11:58):
He's on a contract of which it's just saying that
this has the potential one way or another for this
to be his last season in New England. It has
the potential. I'm not telling you will be. The elements
are in place for it to be. But isn't that odd?
All those things like doesn't that make you go, hm,
that's interesting? That is what's called informed speculation from Adam
(12:23):
Schefter on w e I in Boston. Should be pointed
out that Brady has previously addressed this on w e
I in which he said there will be a time
to which we can discuss this tone peg. Now is
not the time, right But but but here's the thing,
I don't necessary. I don't It's not that Tom Brady
(12:44):
won't retire at the end of this season, but this
would be one of the most off brand decisions that
he and frankly the Patriots have ever made. Right. What
is the secret to the Patriots success? There isn't one offense.
(13:06):
The offense is morphed as they figured out one what
they have and to what the defense has to match
up with them. Last year, they became a power running team.
They didn't have great threats outside the number, especially after
uh Josh Josh Gordon was suspended. They they Gronk was
(13:28):
not the same weapon as injuries deteriorated his ability to
beat people, and Tom Brady isn't the same guy, so
they drafted running back in the first round. They became
a power running team who occasional would find a mismatch
for Gronk or they'd find a back out of the
backfield to throw the football to. Right. That's who they became.
(13:51):
There's not one style of defense that they played last
years before Patrick Chung got caught with Booker Sugar. Last year,
they play three safeties, more than any team in the
National Football League. They evolved to a different defense, but
it wasn't one defensive style. The secret of the Patriots
(14:12):
is very complex and very simple at the same time.
They will do whatever it takes to win this week.
They are the ultimate pragmatists, the ultimate pragmatists. And now,
if if they need to run it, they will run it.
If you need to throw it, they will throw it.
If you need to play up tempo, they will keep
(14:33):
in mind when they played the Chargers. They did something
they hadn't done all season long. You know what that is.
They took the opening kickoff. They took the opening kickoff,
They marched down the field, they got a seven and
nothing lead. They're a team that makes a living on
scoring late in the first first half. No one flips
(14:53):
a game better than the Patriots. And by flipping a game,
it means they have the ball as time is wanting
down the first half, they score, and then they get
the ball back because they deferred when they won the kickoff.
The first time they did it all year was in
the second round of the playoffs. Excuse me, the divisional
round of the playoffs. When the Chargers came to down,
they chose to take the kickoff. They marched down the field,
(15:16):
they scored seven, then they got it, then they got
the ball back. Then they're up fourteen, Then they got
the ball back. Then they're up twenty one, and the rest.
As they say, his history. So if the working philosophy
of the Patriots, and the working philosophy of the offense,
and the working philosophy of Tom Brady is we don't
(15:39):
have to worry about February. When we're in August, we
gotta worry about August when we're August in September, We're
in September and October, etcetera, etcetera. Only now they're gonna
make a predetermined decision as to how Tom Brady is
going to feel at the end of this season. I
don't buy it. Do I think it's weird that he's
selling us house? Sure? Sure, I think it's weird that
(16:03):
he's telling his house. Do I think it's a possibility
that he can retire at the end of the year, Sure,
but why would he do that? Why would he possibly
do that, make that decision and not have retired already?
They just won the damn Super Bowl? What the greed
of going back for more? That greed should have been
(16:24):
satisfied after they lost the previous year to the Philadelphia
Eagles and they won last year against the l A Rams.
That doesn't make any sense. My guess is that Tom
Brady is getting the pool from Giselle to shut it down,
and he's done that. He's gotten that for the last
five years. My guess is that Tom Brady likes his life,
(16:45):
likes his fame, likes the fact that he still has
his faculties and can do and and can do other
things outside of football. A man leading a team and
winning a Super Bowl is in fact a drug. And
while right now the idea might be get to a
super Bowl and win your seventh, which would put him
ahead of Michael Jordan's all time in the modern era
(17:06):
for most championships, what happens if they don't win. They
will cross that bridge when they get there, right, that's
the ultimate and pragmatism. We'll cross that bridge when we
get there. We'll discuss that when it's time. When we
get to week four, we'll talk about week four. When
we get to week eighteen, we'll talk about week nineteen.
(17:28):
I mean this is this would be think about major
corporations and the things that they do that have been
off brand. It was like when ESPN did the phone.
I had the ESPN Phone. Honestly, it was really cool.
The problem is that the phone was super expensive for
most people, and it was before right before the iPhone launched,
(17:51):
right before the iPhone launched. When the iPhone launched, it
was less expensive, more informative. And had it been the
ESPN I own, had they partnered with somebody who did
sell service, who made better phones, you'd still have it today,
you would, But they went off brand. They try to
do it themselves in cold gates. Frozen meals failed to
(18:16):
find a niche consumer. The conventional wisdom here was to
hear people think col Gate, they think toothpaste, not frozen meals.
They went off brand, and then they went they went
off brand. And when when Atlanta got a hockey team,
how did that work? How is Phoenix's hockey team worked?
(18:38):
Not great? You go off brand, you run the risk
of dealing with all sorts of unintended consequences. You had
no idea previously existed. And for the last essentially twenty years,
essentially twenty years, the doing a Patriots have operated in
(18:59):
the will worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow, Let's win the day.
Let's do our job. And just because he's selling his house,
by the way, it doesn't mean that the house actually sells.
It's a forty nine million dollar house. It is a
sick house. And just because he might not want to
(19:21):
live there again doesn't mean one they couldn't buy another
place too. He couldn't have a place in Foxboro, you know,
have a place close, or have a place in Boston
and live in New York might come down to where
he wants to send his kids to school, what he
wants to do post career. But that doesn't mean that
that career comes in. It doesn't mean it doesn't. But
(19:43):
just putting together the tea leaves and saying that this
decision has already been determined, that's a dangerous path to
go down, because that's not how Tom Brady has ever
rolled previously. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Doug dot Leap Show week days in New Eastern three
pm Pacific. All right, let's talk some Tom Brady. Guy
(20:05):
knows what it's like to be a quarterback in the
National Football League. Danny Cannell joins us from CBS Sports
and Coast off the Bench with Rajah Bell. He's also
involved in an online sports memorability memorabilia auction that benefits St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital. Donate at St Jude dot org
slash CBS Fantasy. You can check out the memorabilia up
(20:25):
for auction at eBay dot com slash str slash CBS
f f T. It's a lot of slashes. We'll tweet
it out because it's a lot to remember. Danny um
Schefter came out today is like, Hey, look, not saying
sources here, but I'm just putting two to two together.
Brady's contract expires are avoidable, and he's selling his house
(20:49):
and he's been doing a long time. He's forty two,
and his wife probably wants him home. I think it's
his last year. What do you think? Yeah, I mean
really does? I mean all those reasons you mentioned it
does seem to just make sense, right, But I also no,
Brady and his competitive spirit and how he wants to
(21:12):
dominate everything he does, would also love nothing more than
to go off, right off into the sunset with a
Super Bowl, Right, John Elway, did it pay Manning? Did it?
Kind of hang it up to go off in the sunset.
If he doesn't, if they come up short, or it's
an uglier season and one would project, and yet he
is still performing at a high level, then I wouldn't
(21:33):
be surprised if he gave it one last to Rod
came back again. But yeah, if considering all those things,
and if they were able to win again, which you
know is very much a question mark, then I think
you could say, all right, let's make that assumption. But
if they lose, just like knowing kind of what he
you know, brings the table and his mindset. He doesn't
want to go out with that taste in his mouth.
He wants to go out with a wind. So I
(21:53):
think it depends on the way the season unfolds completely.
I completely agree with you. I think it's interesting if
you want to go out with the Super Bowl tho,
why didn' you go out of the end of last
year shop? Maybe it was that twenty Maybe he wanted
to get twenty years. I mean, there is something about
that that's pretty cool. Maybe he feels like, I mean,
remember how we were looking at this team in December, thinking, oh,
they're not that good there. Maybe he thinks this year's
(22:15):
team is better, you know, and he's like, hey, we
won this this year with a team that kind of
scraped it together, didn't play that great, didn't have that
many weapons, and all of a sudden, I'm gonna go
out there and you know, maybe Gronks retiring, but maybe
we're gonna put some things on there that are better
than Gronk and we can figure things out. So I
think maybe that's what entice him to come back. But
you the one thing you did hit on there. If
(22:37):
you watched his um Tom versus time on Facebook that
he put out there, you know, the little documentary. Gizell
definitely wants him to hang it up that but but
he's he's been able to get his way, So there
are some there's some pressure mounting on him his contract
that you know, it does look like it's closer to
the end, but again it depends on how the season ends.
(22:59):
I agree to Patrick Chung call it booker sugar. How
how much does this hurt the Patriots'll heard him. You
gotta see what happens as far as what the league
does um with you know, penalties wise there. I mean,
there's there's something about Bill's Belichick. There's just a trust.
I mean, they didn't have Julian Edelman last year for
four games at the beginning of the season. If they're
(23:20):
without them, you know they've been at without him before
for injury. It's not the most alarming thing. And again,
you gotta remember the thing with the Patriots, any issues
that they have Brady getting older, look at their division.
It's still and this is when people talk about the
Tom Brady is the Goat discussion or the Patriots dynasty.
There is It's not an asterisk but it should be Well. Yeah,
(23:42):
they did have a pretty easy road through their division
for most of the last decade, which is kind of
nuts when you think about it. This year, Do you
have any faith in Miami? Probably not. You can write
them all. The Jets. Yeah, we have high expectations for
Sam Donald Adam Gates taken over. They built some weapons
around them, but they're not You still wouldn't take them
to win it. Build similar situation Josh Allen here too.
(24:05):
You know they've been getting better, but they're still not
staying class as the New England Patriots. So even if
the Patriots have deficiencies and they still have to kind
of figure things out in the regular season, you just
kind of trust Brady and Belichick to get it done somehow.
And even if they're nine and seven, that's probably still
enough to win their division, which is all they need.
Then once they get a spot at the table and
the playoffs, anything goes, and that's all they want is
(24:28):
a chance. Danny Cannell join us on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
The The new report from Edward Or is that the
Cowboys offered to make Ezeki Elliott the second highest paid
running back in the National Football League. My guess is
that that report comes out, it's coming from the Cowboys
line drawn in the sand. What do you make of
(24:48):
the report and what it actually means? So you have
to consider the source. Love Edward or He's been in
the Dallas area for a long long time. He's a
reliable source. I trust him. I do think the Cowboys
gave in that information to put more pressure on Zeke.
But as far as the actual numbers, I'm very curious
(25:08):
to know. Yeah, well, it might look like it on
paper that he's going to be the second highest running back,
but where is the real money? Where what is the
real money going to be? And that when I do
think it will probably be backloaded. There will probably be
some contingencies there for Zeke if he if he gets
into trouble, and they'd be foolish if they didn't consider
some of his issues that he's got off the field.
(25:28):
But again, what is the real money? And the Cowboys
are playing this out very publicly, you know, the way
Jerry's been talking, Steven Jones has been talking. They've been
floating out these things, different reports. The first it was
top five paid running back. All of it is to
make it look like we're doing everything we can to
get Zeke in here, which is making Zeke look greedy.
(25:51):
You know, the first time it was top five, why
wouldn't he take that? But yet, if you look at
the top five running backs, most people looked at and said, well,
there's a significant drop off between the top three and
the next two. Now bumping it up another level does
put some pressure back in Zeke's camp. But again, is
it real money or is it fake? Because unlike the
Major League Baseball NBA, the only thing you can rely
(26:12):
on is the guaranteed money in the contract, assigning bonus
or whatever lest they might have structured in there. Every
single contract, there's inflated money on the back end that
makes it look good at that opening press conference for
the agent, he looks like he gets to win. But
look at the real numbers. And that's when I'm more
curious than the second paid you know, running back in
the league. I tend I tend very much to agree
(26:33):
with you, um, but I also think that there was
a reason they did the Jalen Smith deal first. There
was a reason that he said there's less pie to
go around, Like you know, in the context of all
of these different things. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's it's
not like other deals. Um, the running back is a
position of declining value. He's still under contract. They've gone
(26:57):
to the mattresses for him, even with the commission, and
they do have to pay several other young players. Um,
and his only leverages. Hey, I'm your I'm your way
to get to a super Bowl. But there he is
only way to get paid. So they Do you think
this is the last and final offer? No, I don't.
I think Jerry. I think this will get done ultimately.
(27:18):
I think there will be compromised compromises made on both sides,
and the Cowboys will probably pay a little bit more
than they wanted to. But I don't think Zick is
going to max out as much as he thinks either.
And again, as far as the public, Jerry, Jerry Jones
is a savvy, shrewd businessman. That's why he's a billionaire.
That's why he's the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. He
is These are chess moves that he's making in the
(27:40):
media to play a certain narrative. And the thing that
I do appreciate him playing. I do believe this he
is trying to get Zeke and Dak and Amari Cooper,
who we haven't even really talked about. Um, he's trying
to get them to buy into the team mentality. Hey,
sacrifice a little bit so that we can be at
at our team. And that is a genius move because
(28:01):
it plays well publicly and it makes players look selfish.
And I'm not I'm always pro player, but there is
a mentality and nowadays, and a lot of it does
come from the players agents. You have to maximize when
you have the opportunity. You have to get what you
can get. Screw the team, screw anybody else, you have
to get yours. I do think as far as the
(28:22):
guys we're talking about, I think Dak Prescott would take
that day. I think he would buy into it. Yep,
you know what, I'm gonna take a sacrifice. I'm still
gonna be I'm gon still gonna get a really nice
pay day. Maybe not the forty million that's been float
it out there, but I did think thirty million is
probably realistic expectation. It's in market value. Zeke is the
one that I just don't know. I don't know if
(28:43):
he's ready to say, yeah, I'll sacrifice, sure, sign me
up for that he does in his agent. I do
think it's probably in his ear saying you can max
it out, you can take this thing to the next level.
But all of this is just posting until we get
to week one, which is still a couple of weeks away.
Then you're going to see the stress levels amp and
I think it will be more likely on the Cowboys
(29:05):
side than it would be on Zeke side. Even though
he does have two years left, he doesn't have much leverage.
I do think Jerry in the back of his mind
does know what Zeke means to that team. Yeah. Um,
but they play the Redskins, the Giants, and the Dolphins.
I love it. Yeah, And if he really wants to
ride it and say, hey, let's put the pressure on Zeke,
(29:26):
let's show him what we can do without him, good,
then do that. But and we do this in the
media all the time. How many times do we sit
here in the off season and you look at everybody's
schedule and you say, chalk it up for a win,
right the doubt and the Cowboys should be favored in
those first three games with or without Zeke. But what happens,
just what happens if the Giants come in and Eli
(29:48):
capture some magic, and the Giants come in and their
defense looks a little bit better and they're able to
shut down Um. The run game and meetings are all hypotheticals,
but what if imagine the leverage that Zeke has all
of a sudden, right, because then Cowboys fans who were
really on Jerry Joe side, now it's pretty amazing. And
that's that's why he's played this out publicly. All of
(30:09):
a sudden, that pressure comes on Jerry, and it gives
about Dak Prescott. All a sudden is more pressure on him.
So it is. It's an incredibly high stakes game of poker,
and I love it in our business watching it play
out because it is fascinating. But again, I don't think
Jerry's willing to take that risk just in case they
happen to lose one of those first three games, because
then that narrative shifts really really fast. It's amazing though,
(30:31):
like uh, levy on Bell is the only guy to
sit at last guys, first guy to sit out in
like a decade. He lost a year's salary, He didn't
get as much as he thought he'd get in the
open market. The g M who signed him, got fired
after signing him to the contract, right, Like, I'm not
misremembering any of this stuff, and and and and Levon
(30:53):
Bell was actually a free agent, whereas Dak is. I mean,
Zeke is not. He is not close to a free agent.
And yet I mean it really is crazy. Like I'm
Jerry Jellies, I'm like, dude, I'm done. You know it
up fine, But the other question you can't even mention either.
Todd Gurley kind of that before lady On he set
the bar and it's been a map, you know, it's
been pretty much a disaster disappeared. Yeah, So I mean
(31:16):
it is, man, the running backs are getting screwed. That's
where I do feel bad for him. It's you know,
you look at them there the second or third lowest
paid by position, um, and it's only they're getting paid
more than long snappers and uh like fullbacks. You know,
like it's insane how low there, how underpaid they are,
and they do a lot of the work. It's just
(31:38):
today's systems and the perception of running backs is that
you can replace them easily, and there is some truth
in that, but they really need to do something in
the next collective Barty in agreement, the running backs need
to step up to the table and say, hey, we
are the position that's getting screwed. But especially if your
first round pick, we are under contract, we don't have
much leverage, so that you don't have these situations playing
(32:01):
out like Melvin Gordon who probably is going to miss
playing time and doesn't have much leverge either. Yeah, but
I'm I'm gonna disagree with you here in terms of
what they're what they're worth. I mean, the problem is
that C. G Anderson came out the couch and was
a better player, right, I mean, and and like Zeke
and what Zeke makes this year, Like he made sixteen
million in his first year because of where he was drafted.
Like we do do a little disingenuous with what guys
(32:23):
make per year. Um, you know, there's still average salary,
there's still and and look at part of it is
the rules as well, because there's no rules that have
changed in between the tackles. All the rules help the
wide receivers. All the rules help the quarterbacks and maybe
even the tight ends more than than they help. Uh.
Then here's where here's where I would I would push
(32:43):
back just a little bit when you hear fans and
I'm sure you get a lot of people chime in
on Twitter on your show call in, fans are all
and I've I've heard a lot of this myself. Fans
are like, hey, he's being greedy. You know, he's he's
got two year left on his contract. He should play.
What do you think would have happened if the if
the Cowboys draft him in the first round comes in,
he's overweight, He does okay as rookie year, his second
(33:06):
year comes back overweight, rush is for four hundred yards
and even starting. What do you think the Cowboys are
gonna do? They're gonna pay, Yeah, they're gonna cut him. No,
but it's a no hold on hold on day that
it's these are guaranteed contracts. The rookie contracts are on
first round picture guaranteed being the bigger picture though. Anybody,
anybody else's contract rookie so regardless any contract, you come
(33:29):
in overweight and I'm supposed to keep paying you like
that doesn't make right? Like right? I actually think the
I actually think the NFL gets it more right than
anybody else. Plus, it's a sport where you're literally one
hit away one move away from not just being out
for a year, but for your career dramatically changing, unlike
other sports. Like, we're agreed, and I see, here's why
(33:49):
the NFL has the best product because the players do
have to perform. You have to earn their money. Is
that fair? I don't like it. I was left out
of a lot of money because I got cut didn't perform.
But hey, those are the brakes, Like that's the way
it was negotiated. And how many times do we see
in an NBA guys get paid and they kind of
coast for a couple of years and then their deals
up and they turn it on again. Same thing in baseball.
(34:11):
We've seen two hundred million dollar contracts to hand it
out and guys kind of disappeared, they fizzled out. It
is why the NFL is the best product. As a
former player, I hate it, but I do see it's
the genius of the owners saying they have to perform
for us or we're getting rid of them, you know.
And that's where I do understand guys trying to maximize
when they do feel they have leverage. And Zeke feels
(34:34):
like he has leverage because if they don't and maybe
he's willing to take it to the for the HILP
like lady On did they I'll sit out of here,
I'll sit out to whatever. Long after you sit out,
you guys are gonna eventually come back calling to me.
I don't think he wants to go there, and I
don't think the Cowboys do either, though I don't think
they do, but I mean, think of the president. It
(34:54):
sets if they were lent for a guy under contract,
what that does for the rest of their locker room.
Last thing? Uh, you're a floora real quick? Can I
follow up on that? Because I do think a lot
We've seen Melvine Gordon, We've seen lady On last year,
we saw Zeke this year. We did see Michael Thomas
hold how he got paid. I do think NFL players
(35:15):
are jealous of NBA players. They are delusional also in
thinking they can pull a Kawhi Leonard. They can they
can force their way out of situations. They're watching the
national landscape and professional sports. But I do think they're
misled and delusional when they try to do that. But
some of them are getting it to done, so you're like,
(35:36):
all right, maybe this is the start of the shift.
Of the way football does business. D K last thing. Uh,
you're a Florida guy. You got Miami. I know you're
a Florida state guy, but you're a State of Florida guy.
Miami new coach taken on the Gators first weekend of
the season. I feel like this is a massive mismatch,
(35:57):
just a massive mismatch, you know. I mean Mark Rick,
whether he retired, he got blown out of there. You know,
many Diaz hasn't had enough time to really get after
it in recruiting and replenish very much in transition. And
as much as Dan Mollens hasn't been there a long time,
he was already in the SEC are recruiting that area.
(36:18):
It's it's been much. It was a better run program
that he took over. I feel like this is a
misspens this weekend. Tell me I'm wrong. I think you're wrong. Uh.
If jarn Williams to Manny Diaz Um named as the
starter plays steady, now that's a big task for a
redshirt freshman, really the biggest start um you know, in
(36:39):
his career going against me SEC defense in Florida. But
I do think Miami defensively has maybe one of the
best linebacking corps in the country. Uh, they got d J.
Dallas in the backfield, a pretty good running back. They
do have some talent, and I also think Florida is
a little bit over hyped now. Florida has an incredible quarterback,
Felipe Frank's physically he's x five, two thirty five pounds.
(37:02):
He can sling it, he can run it. Who knows
who He's gonna sling it too, though, right and he
mentally he's a little bit fragile when he faces adversity.
If Miami can keep it close, that pressure mounts on
Florida throughout the game. I do think it will be ugly.
I'm with you. I think Florida wins, but I think
it'll be closer than you think. I don't think it's
a blowout. Great stuff, d K Dany Danny Cannell. Check
(37:22):
him out on CBS sports dot Com and of course
the show is called Off the Bench. Don't forget to
check out their online sports Menability auction, with the proceeds
benefiting St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. T K. Thanks for sing,
Thanks so much. You gotta dog have a going
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for The Doug Gottlieb Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:21):
of the Doug gotli Show on Fox Sports Radio. What up,
Stug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Coming to you from
beautiful sunny southern California. Hope you're having a great day.
It is National Burger Day. National Burger Day. I have
(00:43):
a plan in place for how to speak about in
loving terms your and my favorite burger, but I'll do
so upcoming. Can also tweet us at Gottlieb Show. The
Doug Gotland Show is brought you by Farmers. At Farmers,
we've seen almost everything, so when I cover almost anything,
but it's game time. Haven't experienced player help you say
to the game put their experience into play. At Farmers
(01:03):
dot com, we are happy National Burger Day. Here's what
I wants you to do. There's that want you to
do um all of us on the show, we'll talk
about our favorite burgers. What I do I will not
allow you to do is beseechs the name of other burgers.
(01:26):
I don't know how we've gotten to this part in
our culture, right, Like, if you like five guys, somehow
in and out sucks. If you like what a burger?
How could you possibly like Wendy's, If you like Tommy's,
this West Coast Chili, on every sort of burger, you
can't possibly like fat burger? Okay, why just tell me
(01:50):
your favorite burger and why you love that burger specifically
go into intricate detail. I I there are very few
cartoon characters I can relate to as much as I
can relate to Whimpy, because Whimpy loved Hamburgers, and I
(02:11):
love Hamberg's. Also love tacos, but I love burgers. So
do you guys all understand the premise here. I'm not
saying you can't love your burger. I'm saying you don't
need to go to negative town and tell me why
some other burger stinks. Well, you know I loved it.
Whopper arkor Whopper Joel Mike better than the Big Mac
(02:36):
there's no need to be disrespectful. Speaking of disrespect, that's
what Ezekiel Elliott felt was coming from the Cowboys camp,
going back to last Saturday, when Jerry Jones said, Zeke
who and of course, Jerry, we played it for you yesterday.
Jerry's like, I have earned the rat. Write this down.
(02:58):
I have earned the rat. I have earned the right,
much like you know your grandpa is, like I have
earned the right to be called Mr scottli Right. I
have earned the right to joke about Zekiel Elliott. So,
the latest in the Cowboys versus their running back saga
(03:19):
is this Edward or he always has more? Edward or
Who's back at the mother ship? Right? Edward Or tweeted
out that the latest contract offer between the Cowboys and
Ezekie Elliott falls somewhere below that of Todd Gurley, above
that of Levyan Bell, and they are at an impast.
(03:43):
Now I'm guessing, and this is an educated guest, but
still a guess, that the tweet came from sources within
the Dallas Cowboys. Right, The tweet game from sources within
the Dallas Cowboys, because there is kind of an exact
amount in terms of dollars but we kind of get
a sense and falls between the thirteen and the fourteen,
(04:05):
and it does paint the picture of Jerry Jones having
reached his limit and he feeling disrespected. Matter of fact,
I'm sure he feels like Ezeke Elliott is. But one
of the things that no one wants a child to be,
No one wants an employee to be. No one wants
a friend to be. No one wants a lover to be.
(04:27):
No one wants anyone to be ungrateful, ungrateful. Now, what
happens in our PC culture is if I tweeted out
that Zeke Elliott is ungrateful, I would get a response
from the far left idiots of Twitter that would say
(04:51):
a typical white billionaire owner wants black football player to
kiss his feet and take less than he demands and
wants him to be grateful for the pennies He's penny
is spending him. But the true context of this is
Jerry stood by all his guys. You go back and look,
(05:13):
Michael Irvin stood by him even post retirement, and Dion
Sanders playing for other teams, Deon Sanders stood by him.
There have been players said negative things about Jerry and
Jerry has not come out and crushed them Jack. Jerry
stood by Romo during his first season, and by the way, rightfully,
so they should have played Romo and not Dock in
(05:35):
the playoffs. Jerry has stood by his guys through thick
and through thin, through knuckle head and solid citizen. And
for Zeke Elliott in the context of this story, he
built a system so that Zeke could be successful. And
(05:55):
I'll grant grant you that it's not Jerry as the architect,
but he we're gonna give Jerry any credit. We should
give him credit for fostering a system that that has
allowed the growth of his running backs. Nothing happens in
the football or the business office the Dallas Cowboys without
at least the express approval of Gerald Jones I n c. Additionally,
(06:21):
when the commissioner wanted to take a season away from
Ezekiel Elliott, he went to the mattresses. Jerry Jones, did
you gonna go to the mattresses? Mattresses is a Godfather reference.
If you don't know it, I feel really really bad
for you. Need to go watch The Godfather. It's not
too dated a reference. He went to the mattresses. He
tried to get Roger Goodell fired. It was a coup deta.
(06:49):
That's what they tried to do. They tried to usurp
the power of the world, usurp, usurp the power of
the commissioner of the National Football League, unsuccessfully, And of
course the retort from the commission was he got a
contract extension. I like them apples, Jerry Jerry Jones went
(07:10):
to the mattresses for Zeke Elliott. And by the way,
I'm sure he went back to the mattresses after the
nonsense in Vegas that happened over the off season as well.
By the way, we're in a We're in a time
of the me too movement. We're in a time where
finally men have locked arms with women and said enough
(07:32):
of domestic violence. Keep your hands to yourself. If not,
you can't play professional sports. He went against all political correctness,
all culture and stood by his guy. And now he
offers him slightly less than what everyone deems to be
(07:52):
a bad contract. But Todd Gurley, and though it's at
the same time that Todd Gurley got his deal done
last year, it's also a year later after we've seen
Todd Gurley not produced nearly at the level he should
in the playoffs. A matter of fact, they found C. J.
Anderson off the street, but he he didn't have to
(08:15):
do this with Zeke. Zeke's under contract this year, under
contract next year. We're not even getting into the franchise tag.
This is not a Levy on Bell situation where Levyan
Bell was a free agent. Nope. And so, while Zeke
let it out that he felt disrespected by a joke
that everyone knew to be a joke about Tony Pollard
(08:35):
making um allowing the Cowboys for at least a game,
to forget about the talents of Zeke Elliott, Jerry feels
even worse than being disrespected. He feels like Zeke Elliott
is ungrateful. If there's things you want to teach your
(08:57):
kids to be, peach him to be a spectful, teach
them to be grateful, like my greatest pride as a
parent and my greatest pride as a coach. Last night
I had tryouts for my basketball program. I had twenty
two or so kids uh in one session, and I
(09:20):
would say about thirteen of them came up and said,
thank you, coach. That's all you really Wane, that's all
you really One I gave up two hours of my
time with my family. My three kids are still on
vacation before summertime to work some kids out, to to
continue to to load up and help just teach basketball.
(09:42):
I don't make I try not to lose money, but
I don't make money on the deal. You know you
wanted someone to be grateful. Jerry has taken the Dallas Cowboys,
America's team, from the brink of bankruptcy to being those
valuable franchise in all of American sports. He's built a
palace to both play in and another palace to practice him.
(10:04):
He takes care of his guys on and off the
football field, during and after they play, and when they
get into a kerfuffle, even with the commissioner of the
National Football League, he has their back. And in an
effort to paint the picture of what's really going on,
he signed Jalen Smith to talk about the size of
the path not as much pie left. And now he
(10:29):
lets us in on the fact that, look, we didn't
offer to be the top paid running back, but the
second highest paid running back above that of Levian Bell,
and we don't actually even have to do this deal.
And this guy hasn't shown up to work out. My
guess is that Jerry Jones has gotten to the point
where he feels like Eazeke Elliott is ungrateful, and that
(10:52):
is a hard thing to a race. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Doug Dot Leap Show week
days in noon eastern three Pan Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. There's a report
out there from Adam Schefter, and it's, uh, it's really
important that I want to point out. I've worked with Scheft,
(11:16):
I know him personally. I think it's a good dude,
and you have to understand that while his report is
based upon quality sourcing, I will tell you I will
explain why I why I disagree with in a moment. First,
here's Adam Schefter. You know, people forget that people have
lives and they have families, and sometimes you know, you
(11:38):
want to do it's best for your wife or your kids.
And Tom's forty two now, I'm sure that his family
has sacrificed plenty for him to do what he's done
and to be as dedicated as he is to his
job to do it at the level he has. So again,
if it's me just looking at it from the outside.
I'm just reading the signs right. He's homeless for sale,
(11:58):
He's on a contract of which it's just saying that
this has the potential one way or another for this
to be his last season in New England. It has
the potential. I'm not telling you will be. The elements
are in place for it to be. But isn't that odd?
All those things like doesn't that make you go, hm,
that's interesting? That is what's called informed speculation from Adam
(12:23):
Schefter on w e I in Boston. Should be pointed
out that Brady has previously addressed this on w e
I in which he said there will be a time
to which we can discuss this tone peg. Now is
not the time, right But but but here's the thing,
I don't necessary. I don't It's not that Tom Brady
(12:44):
won't retire at the end of this season, but this
would be one of the most off brand decisions that
he and frankly the Patriots have ever made. Right. What
is the secret to the Patriots success? There isn't one offense.
(13:06):
The offense is morphed as they figured out one what
they have and to what the defense has to match
up with them. Last year, they became a power running team.
They didn't have great threats outside the number, especially after
uh Josh Josh Gordon was suspended. They they Gronk was
(13:28):
not the same weapon as injuries deteriorated his ability to
beat people, and Tom Brady isn't the same guy, so
they drafted running back in the first round. They became
a power running team who occasional would find a mismatch
for Gronk or they'd find a back out of the
backfield to throw the football to. Right. That's who they became.
(13:51):
There's not one style of defense that they played last
years before Patrick Chung got caught with Booker Sugar. Last year,
they play three safeties, more than any team in the
National Football League. They evolved to a different defense, but
it wasn't one defensive style. The secret of the Patriots
(14:12):
is very complex and very simple at the same time.
They will do whatever it takes to win this week.
They are the ultimate pragmatists, the ultimate pragmatists. And now,
if if they need to run it, they will run it.
If you need to throw it, they will throw it.
If you need to play up tempo, they will keep
(14:33):
in mind when they played the Chargers. They did something
they hadn't done all season long. You know what that is.
They took the opening kickoff. They took the opening kickoff,
They marched down the field, they got a seven and
nothing lead. They're a team that makes a living on
scoring late in the first first half. No one flips
(14:53):
a game better than the Patriots. And by flipping a game,
it means they have the ball as time is wanting
down the first half, they score, and then they get
the ball back because they deferred when they won the kickoff.
The first time they did it all year was in
the second round of the playoffs. Excuse me, the divisional
round of the playoffs. When the Chargers came to down,
they chose to take the kickoff. They marched down the field,
(15:16):
they scored seven, then they got it, then they got
the ball back. Then they're up fourteen, Then they got
the ball back. Then they're up twenty one, and the rest.
As they say, his history. So if the working philosophy
of the Patriots, and the working philosophy of the offense,
and the working philosophy of Tom Brady is we don't
(15:39):
have to worry about February. When we're in August, we
gotta worry about August when we're August in September, We're
in September and October, etcetera, etcetera. Only now they're gonna
make a predetermined decision as to how Tom Brady is
going to feel at the end of this season. I
don't buy it. Do I think it's weird that he's
selling us house? Sure? Sure, I think it's weird that
(16:03):
he's telling his house. Do I think it's a possibility
that he can retire at the end of the year, Sure,
but why would he do that? Why would he possibly
do that, make that decision and not have retired already?
They just won the damn Super Bowl? What the greed
of going back for more? That greed should have been
(16:24):
satisfied after they lost the previous year to the Philadelphia
Eagles and they won last year against the l A Rams.
That doesn't make any sense. My guess is that Tom
Brady is getting the pool from Giselle to shut it down,
and he's done that. He's gotten that for the last
five years. My guess is that Tom Brady likes his life,
(16:45):
likes his fame, likes the fact that he still has
his faculties and can do and and can do other
things outside of football. A man leading a team and
winning a Super Bowl is in fact a drug. And
while right now the idea might be get to a
super Bowl and win your seventh, which would put him
ahead of Michael Jordan's all time in the modern era
(17:06):
for most championships, what happens if they don't win. They
will cross that bridge when they get there, right, that's
the ultimate and pragmatism. We'll cross that bridge when we
get there. We'll discuss that when it's time. When we
get to week four, we'll talk about week four. When
we get to week eighteen, we'll talk about week nineteen.
(17:28):
I mean this is this would be think about major
corporations and the things that they do that have been
off brand. It was like when ESPN did the phone.
I had the ESPN Phone. Honestly, it was really cool.
The problem is that the phone was super expensive for
most people, and it was before right before the iPhone launched,
(17:51):
right before the iPhone launched. When the iPhone launched, it
was less expensive, more informative. And had it been the
ESPN I own, had they partnered with somebody who did
sell service, who made better phones, you'd still have it today,
you would, But they went off brand. They try to
do it themselves in cold gates. Frozen meals failed to
(18:16):
find a niche consumer. The conventional wisdom here was to
hear people think col Gate, they think toothpaste, not frozen meals.
They went off brand, and then they went they went
off brand. And when when Atlanta got a hockey team,
how did that work? How is Phoenix's hockey team worked?
(18:38):
Not great? You go off brand, you run the risk
of dealing with all sorts of unintended consequences. You had
no idea previously existed. And for the last essentially twenty years,
essentially twenty years, the doing a Patriots have operated in
(18:59):
the will worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow, Let's win the day.
Let's do our job. And just because he's selling his house,
by the way, it doesn't mean that the house actually sells.
It's a forty nine million dollar house. It is a
sick house. And just because he might not want to
(19:21):
live there again doesn't mean one they couldn't buy another
place too. He couldn't have a place in Foxboro, you know,
have a place close, or have a place in Boston
and live in New York might come down to where
he wants to send his kids to school, what he
wants to do post career. But that doesn't mean that
that career comes in. It doesn't mean it doesn't. But
(19:43):
just putting together the tea leaves and saying that this
decision has already been determined, that's a dangerous path to
go down, because that's not how Tom Brady has ever
rolled previously. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Doug dot Leap Show week days in New Eastern three
pm Pacific. All right, let's talk some Tom Brady. Guy
(20:05):
knows what it's like to be a quarterback in the
National Football League. Danny Cannell joins us from CBS Sports
and Coast off the Bench with Rajah Bell. He's also
involved in an online sports memorability memorabilia auction that benefits St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital. Donate at St Jude dot org
slash CBS Fantasy. You can check out the memorabilia up
(20:25):
for auction at eBay dot com slash str slash CBS
f f T. It's a lot of slashes. We'll tweet
it out because it's a lot to remember. Danny um
Schefter came out today is like, Hey, look, not saying
sources here, but I'm just putting two to two together.
Brady's contract expires are avoidable, and he's selling his house
(20:49):
and he's been doing a long time. He's forty two,
and his wife probably wants him home. I think it's
his last year. What do you think? Yeah, I mean
really does? I mean all those reasons you mentioned it
does seem to just make sense, right, But I also no,
Brady and his competitive spirit and how he wants to
(21:12):
dominate everything he does, would also love nothing more than
to go off, right off into the sunset with a
Super Bowl, Right, John Elway, did it pay Manning? Did it?
Kind of hang it up to go off in the sunset.
If he doesn't, if they come up short, or it's
an uglier season and one would project, and yet he
is still performing at a high level, then I wouldn't
(21:33):
be surprised if he gave it one last to Rod
came back again. But yeah, if considering all those things,
and if they were able to win again, which you
know is very much a question mark, then I think
you could say, all right, let's make that assumption. But
if they lose, just like knowing kind of what he
you know, brings the table and his mindset. He doesn't
want to go out with that taste in his mouth.
He wants to go out with a wind. So I
(21:53):
think it depends on the way the season unfolds completely.
I completely agree with you. I think it's interesting if
you want to go out with the Super Bowl tho,
why didn' you go out of the end of last
year shop? Maybe it was that twenty Maybe he wanted
to get twenty years. I mean, there is something about
that that's pretty cool. Maybe he feels like, I mean,
remember how we were looking at this team in December, thinking, oh,
they're not that good there. Maybe he thinks this year's
(22:15):
team is better, you know, and he's like, hey, we
won this this year with a team that kind of
scraped it together, didn't play that great, didn't have that
many weapons, and all of a sudden, I'm gonna go
out there and you know, maybe Gronks retiring, but maybe
we're gonna put some things on there that are better
than Gronk and we can figure things out. So I
think maybe that's what entice him to come back. But
you the one thing you did hit on there. If
(22:37):
you watched his um Tom versus time on Facebook that
he put out there, you know, the little documentary. Gizell
definitely wants him to hang it up that but but
he's he's been able to get his way, So there
are some there's some pressure mounting on him his contract
that you know, it does look like it's closer to
the end, but again it depends on how the season ends.
(22:59):
I agree to Patrick Chung call it booker sugar. How
how much does this hurt the Patriots'll heard him. You
gotta see what happens as far as what the league
does um with you know, penalties wise there. I mean,
there's there's something about Bill's Belichick. There's just a trust.
I mean, they didn't have Julian Edelman last year for
four games at the beginning of the season. If they're
(23:20):
without them, you know they've been at without him before
for injury. It's not the most alarming thing. And again,
you gotta remember the thing with the Patriots, any issues
that they have Brady getting older, look at their division.
It's still and this is when people talk about the
Tom Brady is the Goat discussion or the Patriots dynasty.
There is It's not an asterisk but it should be Well. Yeah,
(23:42):
they did have a pretty easy road through their division
for most of the last decade, which is kind of
nuts when you think about it. This year, Do you
have any faith in Miami? Probably not. You can write
them all. The Jets. Yeah, we have high expectations for
Sam Donald Adam Gates taken over. They built some weapons
around them, but they're not You still wouldn't take them
to win it. Build similar situation Josh Allen here too.
(24:05):
You know they've been getting better, but they're still not
staying class as the New England Patriots. So even if
the Patriots have deficiencies and they still have to kind
of figure things out in the regular season, you just
kind of trust Brady and Belichick to get it done somehow.
And even if they're nine and seven, that's probably still
enough to win their division, which is all they need.
Then once they get a spot at the table and
the playoffs, anything goes, and that's all they want is
(24:28):
a chance. Danny Cannell join us on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
The The new report from Edward Or is that the
Cowboys offered to make Ezeki Elliott the second highest paid
running back in the National Football League. My guess is
that that report comes out, it's coming from the Cowboys
line drawn in the sand. What do you make of
(24:48):
the report and what it actually means? So you have
to consider the source. Love Edward or He's been in
the Dallas area for a long long time. He's a
reliable source. I trust him. I do think the Cowboys
gave in that information to put more pressure on Zeke.
But as far as the actual numbers, I'm very curious
(25:08):
to know. Yeah, well, it might look like it on
paper that he's going to be the second highest running back,
but where is the real money? Where what is the
real money going to be? And that when I do
think it will probably be backloaded. There will probably be
some contingencies there for Zeke if he if he gets
into trouble, and they'd be foolish if they didn't consider
some of his issues that he's got off the field.
(25:28):
But again, what is the real money? And the Cowboys
are playing this out very publicly, you know, the way
Jerry's been talking, Steven Jones has been talking. They've been
floating out these things, different reports. The first it was
top five paid running back. All of it is to
make it look like we're doing everything we can to
get Zeke in here, which is making Zeke look greedy.
(25:51):
You know, the first time it was top five, why
wouldn't he take that? But yet, if you look at
the top five running backs, most people looked at and said, well,
there's a significant drop off between the top three and
the next two. Now bumping it up another level does
put some pressure back in Zeke's camp. But again, is
it real money or is it fake? Because unlike the
Major League Baseball NBA, the only thing you can rely
(26:12):
on is the guaranteed money in the contract, assigning bonus
or whatever lest they might have structured in there. Every
single contract, there's inflated money on the back end that
makes it look good at that opening press conference for
the agent, he looks like he gets to win. But
look at the real numbers. And that's when I'm more
curious than the second paid you know, running back in
the league. I tend I tend very much to agree
(26:33):
with you, um, but I also think that there was
a reason they did the Jalen Smith deal first. There
was a reason that he said there's less pie to
go around, Like you know, in the context of all
of these different things. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's it's
not like other deals. Um, the running back is a
position of declining value. He's still under contract. They've gone
(26:57):
to the mattresses for him, even with the commission, and
they do have to pay several other young players. Um,
and his only leverages. Hey, I'm your I'm your way
to get to a super Bowl. But there he is
only way to get paid. So they Do you think
this is the last and final offer? No, I don't.
I think Jerry. I think this will get done ultimately.
(27:18):
I think there will be compromised compromises made on both sides,
and the Cowboys will probably pay a little bit more
than they wanted to. But I don't think Zick is
going to max out as much as he thinks either.
And again, as far as the public, Jerry, Jerry Jones
is a savvy, shrewd businessman. That's why he's a billionaire.
That's why he's the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. He
is These are chess moves that he's making in the
(27:40):
media to play a certain narrative. And the thing that
I do appreciate him playing. I do believe this he
is trying to get Zeke and Dak and Amari Cooper,
who we haven't even really talked about. Um, he's trying
to get them to buy into the team mentality. Hey,
sacrifice a little bit so that we can be at
at our team. And that is a genius move because
(28:01):
it plays well publicly and it makes players look selfish.
And I'm not I'm always pro player, but there is
a mentality and nowadays, and a lot of it does
come from the players agents. You have to maximize when
you have the opportunity. You have to get what you
can get. Screw the team, screw anybody else, you have
to get yours. I do think as far as the
(28:22):
guys we're talking about, I think Dak Prescott would take
that day. I think he would buy into it. Yep,
you know what, I'm gonna take a sacrifice. I'm still
gonna be I'm gon still gonna get a really nice
pay day. Maybe not the forty million that's been float
it out there, but I did think thirty million is
probably realistic expectation. It's in market value. Zeke is the
one that I just don't know. I don't know if
(28:43):
he's ready to say, yeah, I'll sacrifice, sure, sign me
up for that he does in his agent. I do
think it's probably in his ear saying you can max
it out, you can take this thing to the next level.
But all of this is just posting until we get
to week one, which is still a couple of weeks away.
Then you're going to see the stress levels amp and
I think it will be more likely on the Cowboys
(29:05):
side than it would be on Zeke side. Even though
he does have two years left, he doesn't have much leverage.
I do think Jerry in the back of his mind
does know what Zeke means to that team. Yeah. Um,
but they play the Redskins, the Giants, and the Dolphins.
I love it. Yeah, And if he really wants to
ride it and say, hey, let's put the pressure on Zeke,
(29:26):
let's show him what we can do without him, good,
then do that. But and we do this in the
media all the time. How many times do we sit
here in the off season and you look at everybody's
schedule and you say, chalk it up for a win,
right the doubt and the Cowboys should be favored in
those first three games with or without Zeke. But what happens,
just what happens if the Giants come in and Eli
(29:48):
capture some magic, and the Giants come in and their
defense looks a little bit better and they're able to
shut down Um. The run game and meetings are all hypotheticals,
but what if imagine the leverage that Zeke has all
of a sudden, right, because then Cowboys fans who were
really on Jerry Joe side, now it's pretty amazing. And
that's that's why he's played this out publicly. All of
(30:09):
a sudden, that pressure comes on Jerry, and it gives
about Dak Prescott. All a sudden is more pressure on him.
So it is. It's an incredibly high stakes game of poker,
and I love it in our business watching it play
out because it is fascinating. But again, I don't think
Jerry's willing to take that risk just in case they
happen to lose one of those first three games, because
then that narrative shifts really really fast. It's amazing though,
(30:31):
like uh, levy on Bell is the only guy to
sit at last guys, first guy to sit out in
like a decade. He lost a year's salary, He didn't
get as much as he thought he'd get in the
open market. The g M who signed him, got fired
after signing him to the contract, right, Like, I'm not
misremembering any of this stuff, and and and and Levon
(30:53):
Bell was actually a free agent, whereas Dak is. I mean,
Zeke is not. He is not close to a free agent.
And yet I mean it really is crazy. Like I'm
Jerry Jellies, I'm like, dude, I'm done. You know it
up fine, But the other question you can't even mention either.
Todd Gurley kind of that before lady On he set
the bar and it's been a map, you know, it's
been pretty much a disaster disappeared. Yeah, So I mean
(31:16):
it is, man, the running backs are getting screwed. That's
where I do feel bad for him. It's you know,
you look at them there the second or third lowest
paid by position, um, and it's only they're getting paid
more than long snappers and uh like fullbacks. You know,
like it's insane how low there, how underpaid they are,
and they do a lot of the work. It's just
(31:38):
today's systems and the perception of running backs is that
you can replace them easily, and there is some truth
in that, but they really need to do something in
the next collective Barty in agreement, the running backs need
to step up to the table and say, hey, we
are the position that's getting screwed. But especially if your
first round pick, we are under contract, we don't have
much leverage, so that you don't have these situations playing
(32:01):
out like Melvin Gordon who probably is going to miss
playing time and doesn't have much leverge either. Yeah, but
I'm I'm gonna disagree with you here in terms of
what they're what they're worth. I mean, the problem is
that C. G Anderson came out the couch and was
a better player, right, I mean, and and like Zeke
and what Zeke makes this year, Like he made sixteen
million in his first year because of where he was drafted.
Like we do do a little disingenuous with what guys
(32:23):
make per year. Um, you know, there's still average salary,
there's still and and look at part of it is
the rules as well, because there's no rules that have
changed in between the tackles. All the rules help the
wide receivers. All the rules help the quarterbacks and maybe
even the tight ends more than than they help. Uh.
Then here's where here's where I would I would push
(32:43):
back just a little bit when you hear fans and
I'm sure you get a lot of people chime in
on Twitter on your show call in, fans are all
and I've I've heard a lot of this myself. Fans
are like, hey, he's being greedy. You know, he's he's
got two year left on his contract. He should play.
What do you think would have happened if the if
the Cowboys draft him in the first round comes in,
he's overweight, He does okay as rookie year, his second
(33:06):
year comes back overweight, rush is for four hundred yards
and even starting. What do you think the Cowboys are
gonna do? They're gonna pay, Yeah, they're gonna cut him. No,
but it's a no hold on hold on day that
it's these are guaranteed contracts. The rookie contracts are on
first round picture guaranteed being the bigger picture though. Anybody,
anybody else's contract rookie so regardless any contract, you come
(33:29):
in overweight and I'm supposed to keep paying you like
that doesn't make right? Like right? I actually think the
I actually think the NFL gets it more right than
anybody else. Plus, it's a sport where you're literally one
hit away one move away from not just being out
for a year, but for your career dramatically changing, unlike
other sports. Like, we're agreed, and I see, here's why
(33:49):
the NFL has the best product because the players do
have to perform. You have to earn their money. Is
that fair? I don't like it. I was left out
of a lot of money because I got cut didn't perform.
But hey, those are the brakes, Like that's the way
it was negotiated. And how many times do we see
in an NBA guys get paid and they kind of
coast for a couple of years and then their deals
up and they turn it on again. Same thing in baseball.
(34:11):
We've seen two hundred million dollar contracts to hand it
out and guys kind of disappeared, they fizzled out. It
is why the NFL is the best product. As a
former player, I hate it, but I do see it's
the genius of the owners saying they have to perform
for us or we're getting rid of them, you know.
And that's where I do understand guys trying to maximize
when they do feel they have leverage. And Zeke feels
(34:34):
like he has leverage because if they don't and maybe
he's willing to take it to the for the HILP
like lady On did they I'll sit out of here,
I'll sit out to whatever. Long after you sit out,
you guys are gonna eventually come back calling to me.
I don't think he wants to go there, and I
don't think the Cowboys do either, though I don't think
they do, but I mean, think of the president. It
(34:54):
sets if they were lent for a guy under contract,
what that does for the rest of their locker room.
Last thing? Uh, you're a floora real quick? Can I
follow up on that? Because I do think a lot
We've seen Melvine Gordon, We've seen lady On last year,
we saw Zeke this year. We did see Michael Thomas
hold how he got paid. I do think NFL players
(35:15):
are jealous of NBA players. They are delusional also in
thinking they can pull a Kawhi Leonard. They can they
can force their way out of situations. They're watching the
national landscape and professional sports. But I do think they're
misled and delusional when they try to do that. But
some of them are getting it to done, so you're like,
(35:36):
all right, maybe this is the start of the shift.
Of the way football does business. D K last thing. Uh,
you're a Florida guy. You got Miami. I know you're
a Florida state guy, but you're a State of Florida guy.
Miami new coach taken on the Gators first weekend of
the season. I feel like this is a massive mismatch,
(35:57):
just a massive mismatch, you know. I mean Mark Rick,
whether he retired, he got blown out of there. You know,
many Diaz hasn't had enough time to really get after
it in recruiting and replenish very much in transition. And
as much as Dan Mollens hasn't been there a long time,
he was already in the SEC are recruiting that area.
(36:18):
It's it's been much. It was a better run program
that he took over. I feel like this is a
misspens this weekend. Tell me I'm wrong. I think you're wrong. Uh.
If jarn Williams to Manny Diaz Um named as the
starter plays steady, now that's a big task for a
redshirt freshman, really the biggest start um you know, in
(36:39):
his career going against me SEC defense in Florida. But
I do think Miami defensively has maybe one of the
best linebacking corps in the country. Uh, they got d J.
Dallas in the backfield, a pretty good running back. They
do have some talent, and I also think Florida is
a little bit over hyped now. Florida has an incredible quarterback,
Felipe Frank's physically he's x five, two thirty five pounds.
(37:02):
He can sling it, he can run it. Who knows
who He's gonna sling it too, though, right and he
mentally he's a little bit fragile when he faces adversity.
If Miami can keep it close, that pressure mounts on
Florida throughout the game. I do think it will be ugly.
I'm with you. I think Florida wins, but I think
it'll be closer than you think. I don't think it's
a blowout. Great stuff, d K Dany Danny Cannell. Check
(37:22):
him out on CBS sports dot Com and of course
the show is called Off the Bench. Don't forget to
check out their online sports Menability auction, with the proceeds
benefiting St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. T K. Thanks for sing,
Thanks so much. You gotta dog have a going
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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