05-21-24 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to it. Broncos Country tonight, but with all Brian Dick Ferguson Grant
Smith five six six' nine zerois the text line short show Tonight,
Colorado Rockies The Guys. The KASports Show had Charles Barkley on earlier.
We'll get to some of those cutshere in just a little bit. Had
some interesting news around the sports worldtoday. I want to get to.

(00:24):
I don't know if you saw thedonation thing at Florida A and M.
Now I'll get to that admitted.First of all, the first story I
want to get to is coming outof Joe Bruno from WSOCTV in North Carolina.

(00:44):
Apparently, an eleven year old waswaiting outside the Spectrum Center after the
Hornets Purple and Teal day wanting anautograph from LaMelo Ball. His mom said
that Ball did not sign anything forhim. He sped off in his car,
actedly driving over the eleven year old'sfoot and breaking it. A lawsuit
has been filed. The mother issuing Charlotte Hornet. Story of Labello Ball

(01:08):
and the team Angel Joseph was elevenat the time, nice twelve, so
apparently this happened, you know,just a little bit back in October seventh,
but to Mario mcrasis, Yeah,October seventh, after a Charlotte Hornet's
event, fans outside the arena goingup to the players as they left,
Angel was like, LaMelo, Ilove you, I love you. Sign
my whatever it was, give meyour autograph. Can you sign it for

(01:29):
me? And apparently instead of doingthat, he got in his car here
and so yeah, didn't sign anythingand drove it for anyone and drove off.
He said, I had just seenmy son kind of go down.
I thought maybe he had dropped something, but she says he had not dropped
anything. Ball had driven over hisfoot, breaking it. This is his

(01:52):
hero is Idol got a run over. Gray says her son has spent months
recovering in more ways than one.For a while, I couldn't evencognize who
much was depression, not being ableto go outside and play, and you
see your children heard it hurts you. It's it's just interesting. I don't
know how how do you how doyou fans get into the players parking lot

(02:14):
like that? Like there's you know, I mean you've been out of the
you know obviously the Nuggets you understandhow the cars like segregated there and you
can't, like, there's no wayfor you to do that. Yeah,
And I wonder if since it waslike an off season event, which it
sounds like. I looked it upand it's an open scrimmage allowing fans to
watch the Hornets players and coaches inaction before the start of the start of
the sea the purl down. Maybea little more open than than a normal

(02:38):
game. But man, what abad luck for the face of your franchise
if you're the Hornets. Yeah.So I thought that one was Uh.
I thought that one was interesting,but probably not the the most funny story
of the day, not that it'sfunny if somebody breaks their foot, but
definitely was interesting. But a wildstory out of Florida A and M.

(03:02):
Some guys showed up donated a twohundred and thirty seven million dollar check,
but the check, in fact,is just stock in his company, which
does not trade publicly and nobody elsehas ever appraised. Basically, AI ranking
Florida and M official resigned last weekafter fallout from the university's recent announcement of

(03:25):
a dubious campaign donation. Shawnta FridayStroud resigned as Tallahassee's School VP for University
Investment Executive Director. This is thissole story is like a Scott's Totts kind
of thing. And if you've everwatched The Office, you know what I'm

(03:46):
talking about. Giving a school agiant novelty check for a quarter billion dollars
that aren't liquid and may not technicallyexist is some extremely wild energy, Like
I don't I don't even know howyou how you do this? How does
somebody show up with like a giantcardboard check that says two hundred and thirty
seven million dollars that it literally meansnothing. I was just thinking about that

(04:11):
Office episode, say Scott's Talks wherehe promises all the kids free college and
then you know it takes out therethe school. That day he showed up
with a giant check to the Floridaand it for two hundred and thirty seven
million, uh seven hundred and fiftythousand dollars for academic initiative, student Success
and Athletics from the Isaac Batterson FamilySeventh Trust And apparently the money is uh,

(04:46):
it doesn't exist. The dean oftheir business school was involved in this,
and you can go through five minuteson Google and figure out that the
company has no business li license,owns no property. This whole ceremony,
like this whole thing and the schoolstuff. I somehow thought they were getting

(05:10):
a quarter billion dollars. I justI don't I don't even understand how something
like that comes about. Larry Robinson, Florida and M president, said the
donor was previously recognized as a keynotespeaker at a graduation ceremony. I wanted
it to be real and ignored thewarning signs along the way. You think,

(05:35):
no kidding. I don't even Imean, I don't even begin to
know how somebody starts that con letalone gets that far with it. How
do you count a university? Imean, like, what did he get
out of it? Yeah? Like, what's the what's the benefit for him
other than this myriad name afterwards?Right, other than hilarity? Yeah,

(05:58):
I don't know, and then thebig store. Georgia quarterback Jaden Rashada is
suing Florida head coach Billy Napier andtop Gators booster Hugh Hathcock for fraud,
among other allegations, over a failedthirteen point eight million dollar nil deal.
Also former staffer Marcus castro Walker.The bombshell lawsuit features an unprecedented action of

(06:24):
an active SEC quarterback suing a sittingrival head coach. Might be the most
notable NIL related lawsuit to date,and in many ways, Rashada has become
the face of the caatuk nature ofearly NIL that was full of big promises
with little oversight on the heels ofthe Florida deal Falling apart how much was
it worth? Thirteen point eight million, The lawsuit details a number of counts

(06:48):
alleging that Napier, Haythcock, andothers fraudulently induced Rashata, who was then
a highly regarded high school quarterback prospect, to attend Florida with no intention of
following through other financial promises. Specifically, the lawsuit claims fraudulent misrepresentation and inducement
aiding in a betting fraud, civilconspiracy to commit fraud, negligent misrepresentation,

(07:09):
tortoise interference with a business relationship,and and a betting tortoise interference. Hathcock
on behalf of himself and Velocity Automotive, Castro Walker and coach Napier orchestrated and
executed a fraud upon Jayden and weresubstantially and knowingly assisted by one other in
carrying out the fraud. Each oftheir individual schemes would not have succeeded without

(07:30):
assistance from one another. Obviously,the university said we don't comment on ongoing
litigation. Rashata has enlisted well knownHouston area attorney Rusty Harden, who has
had a bevy of notable athlete alliancebefore, including Roger Clemens, Adrian Peterson,
and of course Deshaun Watson, totry the case. Harden has been

(07:51):
involved in potential litigation against Napier andothers since January of twenty twenty three,
when Rashata's agents, Jackson Zager andTommy Thompson first reached out inquiring about legal
option after Florida Boosters allegedly went backon the word on a multimillion dollar ANIL
deal. At the crux of theargument are the actions of coach Billionapier Hathcock
and his company which has lost theautomotive, and then Castro Walker convincing Rashada

(08:15):
to walk away from a nine anda half million dollar deal to attend Miami
in favor of coming to Florida.Rashata committed to play football Miami in June
under the terms of that deal,but the loss of alleges Florida employees and
Boosters never backed off. Their pursuitincludes allegations that Hathcock told Arshadow, whatever
Jade needs to come to UAF,Hathcock would make it happen. It alleges

(08:35):
that his father, Harlan Reshada,was told he would get a job in
the security industry during a recruiting visit, which again, direct contract with a
recruit during an on campus visit bya booster is against NCAA rules, So
Hathcock and then they offered thirteen pointeight million dollars, with five point three
to five million, including a fivehundred thousand dollars signing motist to come through
the Automotive Group and the rest throughGator Guard, which is the Nil collective.

(09:05):
But before the deal was finalized,Hathcock conformed rashatas Reps that he no
longer wanted to route the payments throughhis company because he planned to sell it,
and instead they proposed the money comingdirectly from him and the rest coming
from the Gator Collective. The dealwas officially signed November tenth, and the
first five hundred thousand dollars payment toRashot. It was due a December fifth,

(09:26):
but the lawsuit claims Hattack never hadany intention of making any payment,
and everyone involved, including the apaerknew that the collective never had and he
never had the money to begin with, according to their finances. And so
there's a huge, huge deal here. The day after the five hundred thousand
dollars payment was due, they senta termination letter to Rashata on the thirteen
pointy five million dollars deal and paidhim nothing. So anil money, ail

(09:54):
money. And in this wild Westthat we sort of talked about when this
stuff, when the dam broke onthis this news, and you know,
it's something that I've you know,I'm not railing against it. I just
think they had to have a betterplan for this, and they didn't have
a plan at all. And nowyou've got universities who are taking advantage of

(10:15):
kids. You've got so many kidsin the portal that think they're just going
to go school to school and cashchecks and it's and it's just the NCAA
is a toothless organization anyway when itcomes to enforcing any of its own rules
and everybody knows it, and sothat's kind of how you get away with
stuff like this. But it'll beinteresting to see where this lawsuit goes and

(10:37):
whether or not we're shot as successfulin recouping any or some or any of
that thirteen point eighty five million dollars. I wonder how many more stories will
come out like this now that thisone's so public. Well, there's several
out there. This is just thebiggest name one, I think to date,
and the most money, well rightin the most money. This is
a quarterback and a highly sought eftericquarterback, and so that that was going

(10:58):
to be the one that was gonnahave to be the attention for this kind
of stuff to begin with five six, six nine year olds of text line,
you guys want to get involved inthe conversation, three or three says
we're gonna have to find a biggerbank. Charles Barkley was was on the
KIWI Sports show earlier talk with theguys, and I thought he had a

(11:20):
pretty good point about what the Nuggetsneed to do this offseason. Like I
say, you don't have to gofind some two or three guys on the
bench. So this staring unit isfine. I mean I can say they
got the best player in the world. You guys got the best player in
the world residing in the Rocky Mountains. You went to Game seven in the

(11:43):
conference semifinals, so you're not faraway. You just won a championship last
year. Joker still young, JamalStiel young. Uh, you know,
the rest of the players are young. Use but you gotta find some guys
coming off the bench. And Ithought that was really, in my opinion,
the difference that was the different thatthe lack of depth for the Nuggets.
But like I said, even withthe lack of depth, because of

(12:05):
the greatness of a Joker. Uh, you guys feel what seven games with
a team that really I think thedepth made them better than you guys.
But listen, you can find guys. I mean, it's easy to find
guys on the bencent starters. It'sa lot easier to do that. Yeah,
it certainly is easier to find,you know, depth, But with

(12:26):
Michael Malone use it. I mean, we saw we talked to George Daniel
last night and we saw how hereturned to the eight man bench during the
playoffs, the man the man lineup, and really it was a seven man
lineup and they'd hope to get fiveminutes or so whoever was eighth. Michael

(12:46):
Malone has shown a propensity for notwanting to play young players, typically going
with veterans. Yeah. He alsobrought up an interesting point how he thought
the Nuggets would go back out andget Bruce Bund when he got traded uh
during the during the season to bolstertheir bench again. And I thought that
was a great point, like whywouldn't they go do that because they knew

(13:11):
that they were going to run intothis situation in the playoffs. Yeah,
it's gonna be interesting next year tokind of sort of see how this shakes
out. I you know, I'veher comments on you know, Casey P's
got the opt out. You've gotto you know, Michael Porter sitting on
the contract that he's sitting on,and it's not you know, people,
it's funny because you get so manypeople that are talking about the window with
Nicolo at all that us stuff.He's twenty nine years old. Yeah,

(13:33):
but he could also just say I'mdone whenever he wants. And that's someone
I mean, he's not someone wholives and breezes basketball. You know,
he he doesn't care about his legacy. If he's done in five years,
he's done in five years, whetherhe could still play or not. Yeah,
and I agree with that. ButI also think, you know,
he understands generational wealth and he understandsall that kind of stuff, And I
don't think he's walking away from fromthat necessarily one hundreds of millions of dollars,

(13:58):
right. I think he cares abouthis legacy to an extent. I
mean, I don't think that he'syou know, he's he's not sitting there
caring about the Joker brand per se. But you know, he does definitely
care about uh, you know,care about his his legacy per se.
You know, Jamal Murray's what twoyears younger than him, you know,

(14:18):
Porter, I think he's three yearsyounger. They've got I mean, it's
not like they're old. And theoldest guy on the team has got to
be DeAndre Jordan, right, Yeah. And he didn't even see a minute
in this last series, all right, he saw five minutes in the playoffs,
I think total. You know,he was in the No, he
was in that last time when theygot blown out. Oh okay, no
meaningful minute, right, No meaningfulminutes, but he was he was in

(14:39):
there for a few to get youknow, to get those those bench minutes
or whatever. But you know,what we didn't see in the playoffs was
probably guys we needed to see,you know, I mean, Jalen Pickett's
a rookie. Strawther is a rookie. Probably needed to see. Get those
guys a little little seasoning. Youknow, didn't see much of much of
hot and you know, it's it'sgoing to be interesting to kind of see,

(15:03):
you know, where they go fromhere. I don't know that Michael
Porter Junior is the max contract playerthat they need to get back there.
Yeah, he contributes, you know, he contributes points from the three and
uh, you know, and andrebounds from the three. But you know,
you can you can get a shooter. You know, the league is
a litter with shooters. You know, you can you can get a shooter.

(15:24):
The question is what does he providein terms of, you know,
defense, and is he able toproduce points other than at the arc?
And you know, getting to therim is sort of been a problem for
Porter. Yeah, I mean hekind of gets bullied every time he gets
down there amongst any of the biggerguys that he's going against right, and
it's not I mean, you know, I mean he is kind of he's

(15:46):
a thinner guy. I mean he'ssix' ten to eighteen. To put
that in perspective, Christian Braun sixtysix to eighteen. You know, Yokish,
who is only an inch taller thanin Porter at six eleven, is
too eighty four. That sort ofgives you an idea of just just how
thin that that frame that he hasis. You know, Porter, for
whatever you think of Michael Porter,and I don't want to hang what has

(16:11):
gone on with his family members onhim because he's his own. You know,
different people are all different people.Everybody's different, and he's found a
way to be successful and not fallto the trappings that you know, his
brothers have fallen too. But Iwonder how much of a distraction that has
sort of been. It has tobe some. I mean, with all

(16:32):
the stories that came out during hisfam during the postseason about his family,
it's got to take some toll onyou, even if you aren't showing it
right. And and kudos to himfor weathering that and appearing to be dialed
in, but you got to wonderhow much of that you know he carries
with him, and whether or notthe Nuggets need to make a decision there,
you know, whether or not movingon from him can bring in a

(16:53):
body or maybe two bodies that cando what he does and and and help
them in a more specific role.We come back, Ryan Michael's going to
join us. We'll talk a littlebit about Peyton Manning and the post Peyton
Manning impact quarterback play with the DenverBroncos U This Nebroncos Country Night on k
Welcome back to it Broncos Country Tonight. Benjamin ol Bright, Nick Ferguson,

(17:15):
Grant Smith here with you. Runright out to the e KA Commas periald
Health Hotline. THO, I'll bringour good buddy, Ryan Michael. Ryan,
how you doing this evening? Doingwell? Ben Grant? How you
guys doing pretty well? First ofall, congratulations sir on your uh your
the next thing that you've added toyour impressive CV sheet as you are now
working for the Barcelona Dragons. Ibelieve, yes, sir, thank you.

(17:37):
Yeah, it's something I'm incredibly excitedabout. I had this fortune of
having his opportunities with a number ofELF teams, but really In the end,
Barcelona I felt was far and awaythe best fit for me, and
they really won me over. Theculture there, the professionalism, the commitment
to winning, and you know,from our owner and managing director Jason Robinson,

(18:02):
our head coach David Shelton, andthe rest of the coaching staff Sean
Cooper, Darien Simmons, Jason Hillery, we have such an expansive staff and
it's a group of guys who arepassionate high football like you, hard working,
committed to helping our peer succeeds.You know, my role on the
staff is small, but I'm excitedto be a small part of it,

(18:22):
and I'm excited for the twenty fourseason. Yeah, I'm excited for you
as well. One of the quarterbacksthat they have on the team, Connor
Miller, is actually an American.Went to the Florida Atlantic, was undrafted
in twenty nineteen, so I don'tknow if he's still own the roster there
or not, but he was withthe Dragons, I believe was last year.
I knew him through a friend ofa friend, so I'm not sure

(18:45):
if he's still there or not,but you know, he used to be
small world, Yeah, LEVI Lewisis going to be our starting quarterback this
year. He's a guy who spenttime with the Seattle Seahawks, and you
know a lot of people have describedhis style of play as a fusion between
Russell Wilson Andler Murray. I believeis really his own man, and I
think he's going to be the perfectfit for the up tempo offense that we're
going to be running. So we'reexcited to get at it. Yeah,

(19:07):
that'd be really cool. You know, can you stream it from the website
or I mean, I'm trying figureout how anybody would get a chance to
watch the European football like that.Yeah, you can sign up for the
ELF season pass, and then we'rereally excited about how that's going to help
us reach fans in a way withgrowing technology that we didn't necessarily have during

(19:29):
NFL Europe. So it's it's definitelya league that's on the rise, and
we're very excited to connect with ourfans and definitely tune in. It's going
to be some exciting football. Willyou tell coach if he needs a slow,
over forty white, short Dad bodtype wide receiver that I am.
I am there for him. Allright, you got it? Oh my
goodness, yes, good stats aboutPeyton Manning out there today on the net

(19:53):
yards per at tapt at how theBroncos kind of sort of fell off a
cliff once Peyton man as it were, fell off a cliff and then and
then departed. What could the Broncosdo? First of all, how bad
was that? Because, I mean, and they went from basically first in
the league to the bottom third ofthe league. But what can the Broncos
do to turn that around? Now? With Sean Payton and ostensibly bon Nicks,

(20:15):
I mean, Peyton Manning was trulya unicorn in terms of what he
did well. And really him andDan Marino were the two toughest the sad
quarterbacks in the history of professional footballby some distance. Through Breas in my
view, would have been third there, but he would have been a distin
third. And so if you lookat the stats that I posted earlier this
evening, the Tim Tebow era Broncostwenty ninth in that yards per attempt,

(20:37):
so you're factoring in the yards lost, the sacks. And then we went
on a run three consecutive years theBroncos finished first place with Peyton and then
you know, obviously injuries caught upwith him during our Super Bowl year in
twenty fifteen, and since then we'vedefinitely been in the bottom third of the
league. You know, Bonnicks beinga guy who was sacked and only one
point one percent of his dropbacks lastyear at Oregon is going to be that

(21:00):
perfect fit. I know. It'ssomething that coach Kayden was frustrated about last
year in terms of the number ofsacks that he took. So, you
know, we brought in a guywho doesn't make a lot of mistakes,
an accurate passer, whose pocket prisenceis really one of the greatest strengths of
his game. So we're certainly hopingto see some improvement in that department.
Is going to be a first placefinish, I wouldn't bank on that,
but are we going to improve fromwhere we were twenty fourth and twenty twenty

(21:22):
two twenty first last year? Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing some improvement
in that metric for sure. Wellit goes into that metric for the fan
at home when we reference that number, what does that mean? So the
fan at home can unpack that.Sure, So netyards per attempt or ny
over A is really just a metricthat factors in the yards per passing attempt,

(21:44):
and it accounts for the yards lostto sacks. And something that a
lot of people may not be awareof is that sacks or drive killers,
at almost the same rate as interceptions, are automatic drive enders. So if
it's third and fifteen and a quarterbackwants to present his passer rating and he
throws a three yards slant, thatdoesn't help us anymore than Brett faarv chucking
adeep. Maybe it gets picked off, but that's not really any different than

(22:07):
a punt in that instance. So, you know, given the reality that
touchdowns are heavily influenced by field positionand interceptions as well, you know,
if you're a quarterback playing with abad defense and you're down seventeen points,
you're going to be facing some loadedcoverages and you're going to throw more picks.
And so I like to hone in. Net yard per attempt is one
of my favorite stats because it's agreat reflection of the value that a quarterback

(22:30):
brings per drop back, and it'ssomething that isn't necessarily impacted by touchdowns and
interceptions. Adjusted net yards per attemptis a more comprehensive measure for those things.
But in terms of both adjust thenet yards per attempt and net yards
per Tempayton Manning was the best playerin the history of professional football. Well,
if he was the best player,what was his or what was the

(22:52):
best season in the history of professionalfootball using that number? That is a
good question, and off the topof my head, I don't have a
ranking through net yard per tempt alone. In my view, I would say
in the top two seasons in thehistory of pro football at the quarterback position
are both paid many seasons two thousandand four, in terms of efficiency,

(23:12):
he threw a touchdown pass on anearly one out of every ten attempts.
You're never going to achieve that happenever again, especially with a sample size
throwing as many passes as he did, and so his efficiency wasn't quite what
it was in two thousand and four. By the time we got to twenty
thirteen, there was greater volume.But when you consider the reality of the

(23:33):
injuries that he came back from,and you considered the reality that he threw
fifty five touchdowns four hundred and seventyseventy yards in fifteen and a half games.
Do you remember they pulled him athalftime in the season finale against Oakland.
He could have thrown another four touchdownpasses in the second half perceivably,
so his volume numbers and also efficiencythrowing that many passes when you factor in

(23:57):
what he had to come through tomake his return to professional football. And
you know, he joked about ithimself that Grady might break next year or
if not that, the year after. And here we are, Dak Prescott
like the NFL with thirty six touchdownslast year in a seventeen game schedule.
No one has touched the fifty fiveafter my homes throwing fifty and twenty eighteen

(24:17):
is the only thing even remotely close. Yeah, and it's weird how that
looks almost like an aberration now,I mean, you know, it's funny
because you thought the extra games wouldpad the numbers as far as that goes,
but as you're absolutely right, DakPrescott was far far below that with
the benefit of an extra game.How did the injuries affect their trajectory of
Peyton Manning's career because you know,we saw, you know, the big

(24:40):
injury with the Colts there and atthe time you know, it was kind
of like, hey, he's onesneeze away from being a quadriplegic, but
then he comes back to have someof the most statistically significant seasons ever.
I think that his comeback to theto the Broncos, to professional football,
signing with the Denver Broncos is arguablythe most impressive thing I I've ever seen

(25:00):
at the quarterback position. Because clearlyI'm not a doctor, but a lot
of folks have made the argument thatgiven the severity of his injuries, he
should have never returned to pro football, And there's a difference between being capable
of returning and is this a goodthing to do for your long term health.
I can't speak to that, butwhat I can tell you is when
he came back in twenty twelve,and twelve arguably was even more shocking to

(25:23):
me than twenty thirteen, because heimmediately jumped into a new team with a
new system, a new coaching staff. Led the NFL in success percentage fifty
four percent, led the AFC,and passer rating one to five point eight
led the league in net yards perattempt and adjust the net yards per attempt,
as we had just mentioned, setBroncos franchise records for touchdown passes and

(25:44):
passer rating, and he was afirst team All Pro selection immediately his first
year back, and he was againat first team All Pro selection his second
year. His seven first team AllPro selections are far and away the most
in the history of the quarterback position. Tom Brady won three of those in
one seasons. Peyton Manning won twoin his first two years in Denver alone.
So what he was able to doreally for the first two and a

(26:06):
half years in Denver he is unseekablybrilliant. But eventually, and this shouldn't
have been a shock to anyone,the injuries caught up with him, and
my my read on the situation itwas was that he had limitations in arm
strength due to the neck injury.He couldn't run away from that, and
that led to greater demand on hislegs because he had to generate torque and

(26:27):
Peyton Manning's passing mechanics were damn nearperfect, but the collective wear and tear
of basically using your legs to gerryarm strength that wasn't there anymore led to
his quads tearing in twenty fourteen,and then you know, you follow that
through the twenty fifteen he tears hisplane of fashion, has left foot and
just the injuries became too much tokeep up with. So what happened there,

(26:49):
and a lot of quarterbacks will tellyou the first thing to go with
their legs. Their arm could continuefor a few more years, but when
you lose your legs, especially inManning's case, it really pacted his pass
accuracy, which was the strongest aspectof his game. But what I will
say for Payton, even in thatlast year, I mean most Broncos fans
are familiar with the fact he threwnine touchdowns seventeen interceptions, so the efficiency

(27:14):
marks weren't good. He averaged morepassing yards per game on the road than
Brady did to eighty three point fourBrady had two eighty two point three.
That year. He had six gamesaveraging seven point six yards per attempter more
and put them into contact. Sevenpoint six would rank seven per months tall
NFL quarterbacks. In twenty twenty three, he finished top ten and sack percentage

(27:36):
again. He led the league infourth quarter comebacks if you include the postseason,
and certainly that two touchdown zero interceptionperformance against Brady in the pass in
the AFC Championship game, gave vonMiller and the defense the opportunity to really
tee off on Tom for the restof that game. So I always say
that twenty fifteen is the greatest badseason in pro football, which is a

(27:57):
weird backhanded complement. But the Testamentdo all the things that Peyton Manny could
still do well at a high levelupstairs, right. I don't know if
you know this, but the BarcelonaDragons have a history of going out and
being innovators in a sense. Theybrought Michael Sam back to football, the
first openly gay player to enter theNFL drafts, have been out of football
for for several years, and we'vebrought back as a defensive line coach.

(28:21):
Now ever since moved on, he'smoved on, I believe, to a
Polish team. I can't remember offthe top of my head, but you
know, I didn't know if youknew that or not. I did.
Yeah, and absolutely a number ofbig names have actually come through Barcelona Denver
Broncos. Connection would be jerryus Jackson, Yeah, playing quarterback for US.
Yeah. He spent a few yearsplaying for the Barcelona Dragons and then later

(28:42):
ended finding great success in the CFL, winning a couple of great cups.
So definitely a lot of great NFLCFL connections in Barcelona, for sure.
Got to always got gotta love that, and I love the fact that that,
you know, American football has becomea global sport, you know,
in a lot of ways and andall that. What I don't want to

(29:03):
say what got you into that position? But how did you find out about
the positions availability and how did youcome about getting on with the staff there?
Sure, so I keep an eyeon professional football across the globe.
I spent the year working for theHamilton Tiger Katz of the CFL as a
staff writer, and you know,just seeing what the ELF has done overseas,

(29:25):
it's far and away the best professionalfootball that you're going to find over
in Europe. And one of thecoolest parts is the fact that a lot
of the original NFL you're a franchisesare now Barcelon Dragon's being one of them,
of course over there in the ELF. So it provides great opportunities not
just for American players to display theirskills overseas, but really to develop a

(29:45):
lot of homegrown talent across the globe. We've seen the NFL do wonderful things
with the International Games coming every year, and that continues to expand. So
I think it's very clear that thereis a strong demand for American fo all
over in Europe. I think thisis really just the tip of the iceberg.
Well, I'm looking forward to it. I'm gonna you got a subscriber

(30:06):
out of me, So I'm gonnaI'm gonna be keeping an eye on Barcelona
this year. Just just just foryou, my guy. By the way,
you know, our own Nick Fergusonplayed dec Canadian football, not with
the tie Cats, always with Saskatchewanand the Ryan Fire and the Winnipeg Blue
Bombers. As the text line isreminding me at this moment. We were
talking earlier about you know, PeytonManning and you talked about twenty fifteen being
the greatest bad season of all time. But you know, the Broncos are

(30:30):
looking forward. Peyton Manning is thestandard. I guess that they want to
get back to it. That's avery lofty standard, if not the greatest
indeed, but when you're a franchisethat has a John Elway and a Peyton
Manning on the books, and evento an extent that Jake Plummer on the
books. You know, it's it'stough as a quarterback not to be compared
or viewed through the filter or thelens that we saw those quarterbacks through.

(30:52):
What can bow Nis expect for agrace period, you know, like early
on, because everybody's going to hewas drafting the first people are going to
expect greatness. I think that theNFL world is a lot different now than
it was when John played with US. I mean truly, if you look
at John's numbers from when he wasa rookie in eighty three all the way
through eighty nine, they were somewherearound league average, and he had some

(31:15):
really good years mixed in with somereally tough years. But he wasn't a
quarterback who stepped into the starting lineupand played at an elite level quickly.
That's something we almost take for grantedbecause we see it in the NFL today.
But as you and I have talkedabout, then, you know,
when we're seeing young quarterbacks really stepinto that starting role and having really strong

(31:37):
starts in almost all cases, AndrewLugkin twenty twelve would be one of the
few exceptions. But in almost allcases they're surrounded by tremendous support, if
not on one side, oftentimes bothsides of the football. And so the
Kansas City Chiefs are a great exampleof this. They had great success for
Patrick Mahomes stepped into the starting roleout Smith led the NFL and Towns during

(32:00):
mahomes rookie year, and Mahomes isan entirely different caliber of quarterback than Alex
Smith God does, but the Chiefshad tremendous success before Mahomes. So when
you miss tremendous talent with tremendous situationand get tremendous results, we have to
be realistic. We're coming off ineight win season and we're coming off an

(32:20):
eight year run where we really havenot lived up to the standard that Peyton
Manning, John Lway, Nick Fergusonand a lot of the Broncos that came
before both set for us. SoI think as far as Grace period,
you got to give him a solidtwo seasons at least to get his seat
wet, to really learn sean systemthat's not an easy system to learn,

(32:40):
so there are going to be alot of bumps and bruises, but to
really give him an opportunity to developand give the recipient of great coaching.
That's what we hired Jillan Payton todo, and so you know I would
temper our expectations. And for me, I'm looking to see what bo Nix
looks like as a quarterback in twentytwenty five. I'm definitely definitely with you

(33:01):
on that. Ryan. We appreciateit as always at the Ryan Michael on
Twitter, the contributing writer and analyststhe Pro Football Fame of course, our
official unofficial statistician and on new nowan offensive defensive analyst with the Barcelona Dragons
of the e LF will be payingattention. Man, appreciate him absolutely,
take care. I always love havingRyan on and now it's gonna be fun.

(33:23):
I got a whole new football leagueto watch. Hey, I'm a
Barcelona Dragons fan. Let me getsome merch. Now, let's see what
we see. This is what wedo. We try to see if we
get some merch out of them,see, we can make this happen.
We've got Rockies baseball cot up next, cal Quandrille taking on Aaron Brooks,
Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, JackCorgan, Jerry Shimbolo on the call.
Coming up next