07-09-25 Hour 1 of Broncos Country Tonight

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That's been all right here with you. Short show post

(00:02):
Rockies edition. I hope you guys are having a good
week so far. I always hate these East Coast swings
because we have the we have the game sandwiched in
between us and in KA sports, and it sort of
messes up a little bit of the rhythm that you
get going with this stuff. But that'll be be done

(00:23):
after this week and we'll be back to regular schedules tomorrow.
Full show myself Nick ferguson Live Start at six pm
for Ruggles Country Nights. You guys want to be here
for that. Appreciate you obviously being along for the ride.
Got a couple of different stories I want to get
to today. The main one is about that story that

(00:46):
we talked about a little while back about the NFLPA
and the NFL and the collusion and how babblatory fat
out about some stuff. Well, there's there's some more to that.
I'll get to that in just a sacking, but right now,
what I wanted to get to you right off the
bat was something that came out of the mini start
tributing today, and that is Vikings linebacker Dallas Turner was
scammed out of a quarter million dollars. He wired two

(01:11):
hundred and forty thousand dollars to scammers. The Start Tribunes
reporting the police have identified several suspects that are moving
toward filing charges in about one percent of the money,
less than twenty five hundred dollars has been recovered. According
to court records, Dallas Turner got a call on February
nineteenth from an individual impersonating a JP Morgan Chase banker,

(01:36):
and the caller claimed someone was attempting to impersonate him
at a Chase Bank branch in Arizona. The caller convinced
Turner that to prevent that person from fraudulently withdrawing money,
that he should transfer his money to two separate business accounts.
Turner then went to two different Chase branches and did
each of them transferred a hundred twenty thousand dollars to

(01:56):
fraudulent business accounts. Only later, when talking to a relative
about what happened to him, to turn to begin to
spect suspecting been the victim of a scam. Neither Turner
or the Vikings have commented publicly on the matter, and
his attorney declined to comment, but police have asked JP
Morgan Chase whether it's internal investigation indicated that any bank
employees could have played a role in the scheme. Turner,

(02:19):
who of course was taken seventeenth in the last year's
NFL Draft, had a fully guaranteed four year, fifteen point
seventy seven million dollar contract that he signed. And the
reason I bring this up is it is it's tangentially.
Obviously it's football related. But if somebody calls you and
they're saying stuff like that, or somebody calls you about
bank information anymore, if you have anything going on with

(02:42):
your banking, your credit cards, any of that kind of stuff,
shut it down on the phone, immediately shut it down
via don't respond to the email, don't click any links
in the emails. If that's happening, go the next morning
to your local branch. Take a print out of that
email with you or that phone call. You know that
you that you know, take that information with you, but

(03:02):
go inside your branch. Don't get see. Too many people
these days are getting scammed out of fake help emails,
emails that talking about somebody did something to reset your
password whatever. Don't respond, don't click any of that kind
of stuff. Don't don't do any of that kind of stuff.
Go directly into your bank branch on that or delete
the email. Then go back and open a new browser,

(03:27):
like shut the browser down, open a new browser, go
to you know, if it's Google, go to Google and
reset your password if it's a Google thing or whatever.
Don't ever click through something or leave an existing browser
tab open, because that's they send you these fake sites.
They get you use name and password, and that's how
they scam me on this stuff. So that's my my
public service announcement for today. If anybody is ever claiming

(03:48):
there's a problem with your banking, your money, your crypto,
your finances, whatever, shut down whoever is saying that immediately
and go to your bank and find out. You're going
to go inside the brand, so'll call them, go inside
the branch and find out. Most of credit cards and
and and bank accounts these days have an app uh

(04:08):
and in that app most of them, for instance by
credit cards and my my banking have these have a
a toggle switch in there if you you find it
where you could lock your card. So if you think
that you know somebody's using your card number any that
kind of stuff, you can lock that and then go
into the bank and these days, I mean banks will

(04:29):
will pretch out a new uh, a new debit card
on the spot, most of them will, and then you know,
you know, you don't have to wait for something in
the mail and throw your whole thing off, all that
kind of stuff. So just uh, you know, be vigilant.
A lot of people out there scamming, and those scammers
get more and more sophisticated every year, trying to get
better and better. They're trying to get your money, so
easy way to do that. And we saw how Dallas

(04:49):
Turner here just got conned at a quarter million dollars,
you know, thinking he was doing the right thing. And
so just something to you to to keep your eye on.
The NFL has hired six new officials to replace the
six who were retired or not retained after last season.

(05:13):
And there's a bigger story about that at some point that
we're going to have to find a way to find
a way to get to because there were some the
NFL did quietly get rid of some officials because they,
you know, they were subpar in their in their officiating.
Marcus Woods from the ACC is an umpire down Judge

(05:35):
Andy Werner from the Big Twelve, Lion Judge Quentin Gibbs
in the Big Twelve, mPire Larry Smith from the Big Ten,
Umpire Brandon Ellison from the ACC and back judge Courtney
Brown from the Mountain West are the newest additions to
the NFL officiating crews. Alex Moore, who is entering his
fourth NFL season, is being promoted to referee. He is

(05:58):
the tenth new referee in the past eight seasons, replacing
Trey Blake, who was reassigned to umpire. Blake will serve
on the crew of Sean Smith, two veteran officials, Umpire
Paul King, back judge Greig Meyer. They're going to serve
as swing officials. They'll move between cruse different crews throughout
the season. Field Judge Rick Patterson side Judge Boris Cheek

(06:21):
both will officiate their thirtieth NFL season, becoming only the
eighth the ninth officials to last at least that long.
Boris Cheek currently owns the record for most NFL games
officiated at four hundred and sixty five, including the prost season.
Just a little bit trivia in case you everyone to
know that the NFL also hired five new replay assistants

(06:44):
from the college ranks, Randy Roseberry from the Big twelve,
Daniel Boldrick from the Sun Belt, Chris Raper from the
ACC Bryan Smith the Big ten, and Marty Abestian from
the Sun Belt will be joining the league as well.
There are the crew's the new cruise and I guess

(07:10):
I can run these down for you real quick. I
could give you the rundown. He's Brad Allen. He is
going to be heading one crew. He's in his twelfth
season as a referee. His crew will have Marcus Woods,
Sarah Thomas, Walter Flower for Patterson, Chad Hill, Tyree Walton,
Kevin Brown, Randy Roseberry, Cleete Blakeman, who's in his sixteenth
season as a referee, is going to have Scott Campbell,

(07:32):
Andy Warner, Kent Payne, coreated tofer, James Coleman, jonaman Roe,
Chad Adams and Amber Cipriani. On his Carl Cheffers his
eighteenth season as a referee, we'll have Derek Anderson, Daniel Gallagher,
Quentin given State, Jones, E, Gene Hall, Martin Hankins, Brian
Matrren and Daniel Buldrick on replay. Land Clark's crew, which

(07:57):
he's his sixth season as a referee. We'll have Mark Pellas,
Tom Stephen, Jeff Hutchins, jamiro Walker, Dominie Pander, Brad Freeman,
Cheryld Frye and Chris Raper. Alan eck Is his third
season as a referee, and we'll have Tab Slaughter, David Oliver,
Greg Bradley, John Jenkins, Dale Shaw, gratest Bell, Joe Wallen
and Larry Hanson. Adrian Hills in his seventh season, and

(08:18):
he'll have Roy Ellison, Derek Bowers, Julian Mapp, Trey Boger,
h Clay Rodard, Greg Steve, Bob Hubble and Dirwood Manley,
Shawn Hockeley, son of Ed Hockeyley. We'll have Larry Smith,
Patrick Holt, Tim Petroza, Jason leed It, Jim Quirk, Jimmy Russell,
Jamie Nicholson and Adam choke On there John Hussey in

(08:40):
his eleventh season, we'll have Dwayne Hyte, Max Causey, Carl Johnson,
Anthony Fleming, Allen Baines, Matt Edwards, Andrew Lambert and Sabrina Brunson.
Alex Camp in his eighth season, Brandon Ellison might call
Rusty bain Sean Petty, Low, Van fam Scott Halverson, Tim
England and Julie Johnson, h Clayton Martin. This in his

(09:00):
eighth season as a referee, Stephen Woods, Gerard Phillips, Brian Perry,
Dave Hawkshaw, Alonzo Ramsey, Greg Wilson, Briant Thompson and Artenzia
Young Siegler in theirs. Alex Moore this is his first
season as a referee. His crew consists of Terry Killings,
Dana McKenzie, Tom Eaton, Merle Robinson, Anthony Jefferies, Terrence Miles

(09:21):
and Tyler Sarah Melly and Desiree Adams on replay. Scott
Novak seventh season. For him, We'll have Mike Morton, Bryan Sakowski,
Mark Stewart, Terry Brown, Donalder, Tony Jocelyn Matt Sunshine Sunstein
Sorry and Brian Davies. Brian Rodgers in his seventh season,

(09:42):
Brian Neil, Patrick Turner, Kevin Cody, Joe blue Ball, David Meslow,
Greg Yet Did He's Croud up, Brian Smith, Shawn Smith's
in eight season, and he'll have Trey Blake, j billbo
Jeff Seaman, Delroy Priloo, Boris Cheek, who again is the
record holder for most games officiated. He's the side judge there,

(10:03):
Dino Paginelli, Mike Wimmer, Larry Hill junior on that crew,
Rod Torbert who's in his twelfth season, Barry Anderson, Franklin Block,
Brian Bollinger, Ryan Dixon, Keith Washington, Courtney Brown, Kevin Stein,
and Marty is a Bestian in his first year as
a replay assistant, Bill Vinovic seventeenth season as a referee.

(10:27):
We'll have Scott Walker, Dale Keller, Trip Sutter, Aaron Sante,
Jimmy Buchanan, Todd prou Cop, Chad Wakefield, and Jimmy Van Geffen.
Craig Worldstad his twelfth season as a referee. We'll have
Brandon Cruz, who was on Carl Cheffer's crew last season,

(10:49):
Danny Short, Brett Bragman, Jeff Shears, Frank Stator, the Rich Martinez,
Gavin Anderson, and Ken Hall. And then as we mentioned before,
or Paul King and Greg Meyer will be the swing officials.
They'll go through, you know, and sub in for anybody
that's needed. Senior staff. Perry Fuel is the senior VP

(11:12):
of Officiating Administration. Ramon George the VP Officiating Training and Development,
George Stewart the VP Officiating Training and Development, and Mark
Butterworth the other VP of replay Training and Development. The
trainer coaches are Tom Hill, Mark Kittner, Bill Schuster, and
Geene Sterator. Greg Adams is the director of College Scouting

(11:33):
for referees, and the officiating coach coordinators Gary Arthur, Fred
Bryan Walt Coleman, Garth DeFelice, Doug Rosenbaum, and Rob Vernatacci.
So tons of referee stuff. They're all the Typically the
gamblers want to know that information. So there you go,
there's tons of I've got more information on all that.
If you guys want one of those talk about the refs,

(11:54):
like you ever want to know what they do in
the real world when they're not being referees, I have
all that information. I'm happy to share that with you.
Like you know, I think most people know Cleave Blakeman
is an attorney. You know, there are plenty of different
plenty of different career, varied careers that a lot of

(12:17):
a lot of these guys come from. So just you
know something too, if you ever want to know, I
can certainly help you with that. Oh we got I've
got a ton of other stuff. I wanted to get
to the CBA thing. I'll probably do that in the
next segment, just because it's it's a lot we're talking about.
The Vikings player got scammed. Well, the Vikings in the

(12:40):
Will family, not scamming. They committed five hundred thousand dollars
to the rescue and recovery efforts in the Texas flooding.
The team announced the move this mornings and quote, we're
deeply saddened by the continued devastation loss of life in
the Texas Hill Country and can't imagine the pain some
many you are facing. We are praying for peace for

(13:01):
the families who have lost a loved one, strength for
those who continue to risk their lives leading the rescue
recovery effort. It's an impressive gesture by the Vikings. Hopefully
it'll cause other teams to fallow suit. Texas obviously a
hot bit of football at the high school. At collegiate levels,
it's Friday Night lights as a feeder system for broad
away of college programs, and obviously a lot of those

(13:22):
great players make it to the NFL regardless of whether
other teams jump in. It's a great gesture from a
team that quartered a long way away from of the
floods happening, and so it's a reminder that while we
all live in our own individual states, we are all Americans.
The Falcons and Michael Pennixt a chance to talk a

(13:42):
little bit. The release of Quarterbacks on Netflix has shifted
attention away back to the falcons decision to turn Penis
into their starting quarterbacks this season, and Kirk Cousins is
one of the subjects of the show. Then Cousins came
out and said he felt the Falcons misled him by
drafting Pennis early in the first round after signing Cousins
as a free agent earlier in the season. A draft

(14:04):
choice meant Cousins days is the starter in Atlanta were
obviously numbered, and Falcons made the move with three games
left in the season. Didn't leave much time for Patics
to get his feet wet. But he's not looking at
twenty twenty five as a delayed rookie season. During an
interview with former Falcons quarterback Michael Vick for the team's website,
Pennix made it clear that he'll only view the coming

(14:27):
year as a success if it ends with the team
playing in its first playoff game since the twenty seventeen season.
Pennix was quarters saying postseason, got to get it into
the post scene, seeing the dirty bird nest and all
the little highlights and fans. Man, they get rocking whenever
we're winning, so I definitely want to get back to
that winning football games so we can have the city turned.

(14:47):
The twenty seventeen season was also the last time the
Falcons finished a year with a winning record, so making
good on his goal would put Pennix on the right
track in terms of that and becoming the leading man
in I don't know if he's going to be successful
at it. I didn't see a whole lot from Penix
last year that led me to believe that he was

(15:09):
going to morph into that. But we'll see and have
a full offseason, guy, and we'll see real quick. Here
the Giants are selling ten percent of the team, and
the player who used to wear number ten was initially
interested in making a purchase, Now not so much. Eli
Manning told CNBC Sports, Basically, it's too expensive for me.
These numbers are getting very big. A one percent stake

(15:31):
of something valued at ten billion turns into a very
big number. Eli also pointed out the purchase would create
a lot of conflicts with the other things he does,
including his broadcasting gig at ESPN. Maybe that was a
shot at his nemesis, Tom Brady, who knows. Speaking of Brady,
the fact that the Giants wouldn't give the two time Super
Bowl winner a sweetheart deal underscores the cool friend discount

(15:54):
Brady got from Raiders owner Mark Davis. Brady bought his
piece of a team he never played for it an
embarrassing lee low three point five billion dollar valuation, which
is roughly a third of the number that Eli Manning
was floated for any potential purchase in the New York Giants.
That yeah, Tom Brady get the homeboy discount from Mark Davis.

(16:17):
And you know, I mean, I think he just wanted
his name in there. I think that's to add a credibility.
I don't think that that was Certainly Mark Davis is
a way to sell the Raiders for three point five
billion when he could get double that. So we come back,
we get to the CBA thing. You guys listen to
Broncos Country to night right here on Kawa. Welcome back

(16:40):
to a Broncos Country Tonight Benjama all Bardy with you
and I talked about it before we into the break,
and we've talked about it previously, I think a couple
times on this show about the Pablo Tory and Mike
Florio sort of the crux of the confidential agreement the

(17:07):
NFLPA and NFL head in terms of its its collusion case.
Now that that's out there, it looks like the Players
Association might be engaged in a little uh cover of
your backside. So here we are, two weeks after uh
pabulatory finds out peel back to curtain on the outcome
of a collusion grievance at both the NFL and NFL

(17:28):
Players Association. It buried for more than five months. The
nfl PA made a decision, and according to Don Van
Natta Junior Kayln Kaylor of ESPN, the Players Association, led
by executive director Lloyd Howell Junior, decided to seek an
appeal of the ruling on Tuesday night. That information came

(17:54):
from an unnamed senior union source who told ESPN dot
com the appeal is a reflection of our obligation to
enforce the CBA and our commitment to protecting our players'
interests will do what's best for players and will exhaust
our options in doing so. Officially, the union declined to
answer questions from ESPN about the lag and the filing

(18:16):
of the appeal. The NFL also declined to comment to
ESPN on the matter. Beyond the obvious question of whether
the union would have made the decision to appeal the
ruling but for the reporting on its existence, which was
previously secret, is whether the Players Association has blown the

(18:36):
deadline for filing an appeal the decision, which was issued
on January fourteenth of twenty twenty five. Article fifteen of
the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which sets forth the procedures conducted
BIA System Arbitrator, has a clear and frankly short deadline
for activating the internal appeal process from Article fifteen section

(19:00):
for those of you who care quote. Any party seeking
to appeal in whole or in part, an award of
the System Arbitrator must serve on the other party and
file with the System Arbitrator a notice of appeal within
ten days of the date of the award appeal from Obviously,
more than ten days have passed since January fourteenth. Now
it's possible that the side deal the league and the

(19:23):
union struck to keep it secret preserved their ten day
window for filing a nose appeal. Under such an agreement,
which we don't know exists, the ten o'clock would potentially
not begin to tick until both sides jointly released the
full and official ruling, either of which has actually done that.
It's also possible, in theory that the union filed a

(19:45):
notice of appeal in order to preserve the ability to
pursue the full appeal and most applett procedures. However, filing
a notice of appeal isn't an OpenD placeholder. It's the
activation of a formal sequence of events culminating in a
full blown appeal. Regardless, the union will be appealing a
decision that the union had previously kept secret, and it

(20:05):
seems inevitable that the NFL or the NFLPA will be
releasing the full official text of that decision. So to
break that down in Layman's terms, I guess the Players
Association is appealing the ruling, which on January fourteenth, Arbitrator
Christopher Droni ruled that there wasn't sufficient evidence of collusion

(20:28):
by owners and contract negotiations with quarterbacks after the record
fully guaranteed contracts signed by Deshaun Watson back in twenty
twenty two, and obviously any collusion would keep salaries down,
violate the CBA between the NFL and the union, et cetera.
But Droni concluded that the NFLPA showed by a clear
preponderance of the evidence that commission Roger Goodell and the

(20:51):
league's General counsel Jet Pash had urged owners to restrict
guaranteed money and player contracts, and we saw that in
what was released from the of the Publotory podcast when
they published the document, the sixty one page document and
created frankly a stir among union members. Now some players

(21:14):
had turned around to come out and told ESPN everybody
else they were surprised by the details in the ruling
and they didn't understand why the union hadn't shared that
ruling with them. So on Tuesday night, which would be
last night, nearly six months after Drony's decision, the NFL
Players Association and Lloyd Howell just decided to seek an

(21:39):
appeal of the ruling. The arbitration case is centered on
discussions among league exacts and owners that after the Browns
signed Deshaun Watson to the record two hundred and thirty
million dollars five year guaranteed contracts back on March eighteen,
twenty twenty two, and whether the talks affected negotiations with

(22:07):
quarterbacks like Kyler Murray, Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson, who
was at the time seeking a contract from the Denver
Broncos we later got one. Droni included text exchanges and
emails among league execs and owners, and his ruling saying
that concerted action was contemplated and invited at the March
twenty twenty two owners meeting. Now, the union declined to

(22:29):
answer questions about why its decision to appeal took six
months or what it supposes that its grounds for appeal are,
but under the CBA, it will be heard by a
panel of three arbitrators. Attorney Peter Ginsberg, who has represented
many NFL players for decades, said that he was stunned

(22:53):
to hear about the confidentiality agreement. Ginsburg, who's a lawyer
at Moscowitz Coulson, Ginsburg and Schulmann, said quote as the
head of the union, Lloyd has an obligation to protect
the best interests of the players, and by agreeing to
a confidentiality agreement, the union purposely blocked the players from
receiving crucial information about the operations of the NFL. The

(23:15):
NFL and the Union should not be conspiring to gather
to keep important information from players end quote. So the
union's decision to appeal a nearly six month old decision
comes at a time when Howell's leadership deployed. Howe's leadership
has come under scrutiny on multiple fronts. Several sources related

(23:36):
to ESPN that the union last month hired Ronald C.
Mackin of the law firm Wilmer Hale to work with
the Special Committee of Players to review Howell's activities as
the executive director. Macinndeclined to comment on that when asked.
According to multiple sources talking to ESPN, the macint led

(23:57):
inquiry was triggered by ESPN reporting in May at the
FBI and federal prosecutors are investigating the union's financial dealings
related to a multi billion dollar group licensing firm, One
Team Partners. The firm was co founded in twenty nineteen
by the NFLPA and the Major League Baseball Players Association,

(24:18):
Howell and MLP executive director Tony Clark are on the
one team board. Under the terms of the confidentiality agreement
between the union and the NFL, the sixty one page
arbitration ruling was to be shared only with the league
and new lawyers and a handful of senior union and
league executives while the NFLPA is considering its next legal move.

(24:42):
Multiple sources said droning the arbitrator was aware of the
confidentiality agreement. Droney also declined to comment to ESPN. Not
long after the agreement was struck, Howell briefed the executive
committee of ten active players and union president Jalen Reeves.
Maven was a Detroit Lions linebacker in a conference call, and,

(25:03):
according to sources briefed on that meeting, Howell informed the
committee that the NFLPA had lost its collusion grievements, but
did not share any details of Droney's findings or share
copies of the ruling with the players, and instead blamed
his predecessor, d Murray Smith for wasting resources on the
three year league battle. It was Stemurray Smith who filed

(25:25):
the grievance back in October of twenty twenty two. Multiple
sources familiar with the union's history say they're not aware
of the union previously striking a confidentiality agreement with the
NFL that kept arbitration rulings from being shared with the
union's executive Committee and thirty two player representatives. Despite the
CBA stating that members of the Executive Committee and player

(25:46):
reps have the right to receive copies of all arbitration rulings,
that did not happen in this case, last March the
nflpa's annual meetings held in Hawaii, Copies of the rulers
were not shared with the nflpa's thirty two player representatives.
Multiple union sources have come out and said during Smith's
fourteen year tenure as executive director, he and union lawyers

(26:09):
routinely shared copies of arbitrators rulings with members of the
Executive Committee and player reps. Four Executive Committee members or
in Brooks Berks excuse me, Thomas Morstead, Ted Carris, and
Cameron Hayward were reached out to by ESPN. The all
declined to comment. Hayward declined to talk because the situation

(26:32):
at the union was dicey. That's the reason he gave.
An NFLPA player rep who spoke on the condition of anonymity,
told ESPN that in the week after the really became public,
the union did not send out any communication to its
player reps regarding the arbitrator's decision. Veteran NFL agent Mike McCartney,

(26:53):
who is the son of legendary CU football coach Bill McCartney,
who negotiated the first multi year or fully guaranteed NFL
contracts back then for Kirk Cousins, said Drony's conclusion that
management Council encouraged teams to reduce guaranteed money would have
been useful to players and agents working to negotiate deals
the past six months. Quote. In the end, transparency protects

(27:18):
everyone players agents in the integrity of the process, McCartney said.
Lorenzo Alexander, a fifteen year NFL veteran who serves on
the Executive Committee from March twenty fourteen through March twenty
twenty one, told ESPN that during his tenure, quote, there
typically was some type of communication or updates as far
as what's going on, this is what we're doing, especially

(27:40):
with the president. The Executive committee members might not have
been called up for the day to day stuff, but
typically the president and executive director worked pretty closely. From
his experience end quote. One former player rep who has
not to be named, questioned the union's silence about the
arbitrator's ruling, saying, my first reaction was like, why in
the heck would they not tell the players or not

(28:00):
what this to be public? What's going on? The player said?
And then I thought, well, the strategy makers for the union,
they do tend to keep a lot of things pretty
buttoned up. So my hope is there's a good reason
why they did it. End quote. According to the CBA,
appeals to arbitration decisions have to be filed within ten days.

(28:23):
We already covered that right. People familiar with the matter
said the confidentiality agreement contained language that allowed the union
to exceed that deadline and also allowed the league additional
time to seek reimbursement of its legal costs. Today, a
source familiar with the league office said the NFL notified

(28:44):
the union of its intention to seek legal fees and
costs and excess of twelve million dollars. The union elected
Howell as executive director back in June of twenty twenty three,
and he was paid three point four million last year.
According to a source who heard Howles pitch the executive committee,
he ran on a platform of quote fresh ideas and
transparency And for those who don't understand, the easiest way

(29:10):
to say it is this. Basically, when the Browns offered
Deshaun Watson the fully guaranteed contract, the other owners around
the league were alarmed, thinking this was going to be
the new norm, and relayed that to Commissioner Roger Goodell,
who in turn re relate it to other owners, pointing
out that they do not want this to become the norm.

(29:32):
The Players Association had fired a grievance suggesting collusion and
the reasons that Kyler Murray, Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson
did not receive fully guaranteed contracts. All three had initially
sought that In their initial ask, Russell Wilson had asked
first seven million like two hundred and fifty million dollars deal,

(29:53):
which I mean that was the starting point in negotiation.
Now they fairly looking at the communication, they fairly convincingly
can included that there was no collusion with regard to
the Broncos not giving Russell Wilson a fully guaranteed deal.
Russ ultimately signed a deal that did get him a
lot of money that Broncos fans I think are less
than happy with, but that comes off the books after

(30:14):
this year Kyler Murray, there was some communication between Cardinal's
owner Michael Bidwell and the Spanhouses, who owned the Chargers.
After Kyler Murray was signed to a deal that was
definitely not fully guaranteed and had some interesting clauses in

(30:34):
it about doing his film homework versus playing video games
and those kinds of things. Bidwell received messaging from the
Chargers saying congratulations. Bidwell shot back, yeah, we got him
at a you know, a great deal for the team,
and the span Houses sent back a message saying thank you.

(30:55):
This is going to make it much easier for us
to sign Justin Herbert, who was up for a contract
the next year Lamar Jackson, and there was no collusion
found there, although the discussion afterwards makes it sort of
seem like the you know, the Chargers are at least
eternally grateful for precedent resetting by the Cardinals. Lamar Jackson's

(31:16):
a wildly different situation. Because Jackson represents himself, he does
not have an agent, and his entire process with the
Multimore Ravens where he asked for a fully guaranteed deal
multiple times. He was the one that pressed for it
more than the other two. Made it difficult to be
able to teams didn't even have his number to be
able to reach out to him, and it made it

(31:37):
difficult because what exactly is tampering if you're repping yourself?
Can you know? Can I have direct contact if you're
not exactly a free agent yet? Do I need I
need permission from the team? Et cetera, et cetera. There
were a lot of reasons. There were one or two
teams that were interested in Lamar Jackson. But once word
got out that the Ravens were going to match any

(31:58):
offer than anybody gave Lamar Jackson, which was the tag
they had on him, there was no point in teams
pursuing Lamar Jackson. And so at that point it wasn't collusion.
It was simply the Ravens had the structure to be
able to keep other teams away and not negotiate against

(32:23):
themselves and drive up the price of Lamar Jackson. Now,
whether or not you believe the league has colluded in
other areas. And I think if you talk to anyone
who's ever played in the league, they certainly believe that
or harbor that there's some such sentiment of that, whether

(32:44):
or not you believe they do or don't. In this
particular situation, the Players Association lost because they couldn't prove it. However,
there's a ton of damaging to the league correspondence that
was brought up in this and so the big stink
now is players wondering why the Players Association signed a
confidentiality agreement with the league so as not to release

(33:06):
this stuff which would have been potentially beneficial to its
members and the agents representing them, Because even if owners
didn't collude, it does show what they're worried about. It
does give a lay of the land that puts everybody
on equal footing in terms of knowing what it is
that owners want, knowing what it is how they want
to do things, what they want they want to avoid,

(33:27):
and how agents and players can attack that to get
a bigger piece of the pie. And so now you
have a Players Association that has lost faith in its
leadership and Lloyd Howell, who may have a conflict of
interest because of the co branding deal that he signed
with Major League Baseball on which he is a part

(33:49):
of the board in one team. And so there's a
lot that's that's coming out of this the appeal. We
still don't know the grounds that's on and we'll wait
to find that out till that's officially filed. But that's
what this is, sort of taking interesting turns as it
moves along, and that's something that will will definitely be

(34:11):
keeping you updated on you guys listening to Broncos country
tonight right here on KOA