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August 8, 2024 • 11 mins
John Michaels from 680 The Fan down in Atlanta joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the interest for him in preseason football with the Falcons, the various UW Huskies connections on their roster, and the hype surrounding Michael Penix right now.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our non stop coverage joke. Seahawks training camp continues from
the Virginia Mason Athletics Center, brought to you by Northwest
Handling Systems and the twenty twenty four Bowing Classic, Gaga's
fifth through the eleventh. Now Beck to Saftian Dick Gunn
Sports Radio ninety three point three KJR FM.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
All right back here at the Virginia Mason Athletics Center
for Day thirteen of Seahawks training camp. Preseason game number
one is going to be on Saturday at SOFI Stadium
in LA. You know what the best part about Saturday's
game with the Chargers will be.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Dick, any idea that it's not against our own team.
After this is done, there's only two of them left. Yes,
that too.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
And I was talking to you about this today and
he was asking me. He actually asked me, would you
rather go to a Dodger game in LA or a
preseason game against the Seahawks in LA? And I said,
I'd take the Dodgers ten times out of ten. I'd
rather watch the sewer drain in the Dodger Stadium parking
lot than go inside and watch the Chargers and Seahawks.
And a scrimmage on Saturday night because I think I

(01:01):
despise the preseason now more than ever.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
I do too. What isn't the game early? Ish?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I think it's like seven o'clock on Saturday night?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Okay, I thought for some reason, I.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Don't have my hand in the Indy. See pocket schedule here,
that's four five, four h five are time?

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Okay, there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
I'm not doing You're not catching me dead inside at
four oh five on sun on a Saturday afternoon when
it's eighty degrees at are you.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Four o'clock on Saturday afternoon? Watching there is Chargers. Look,
I'll watch it. I will watch it on four I'm
going to fire through the commercials.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Absolutely, I'll watch it at nine out o'clock when the
sun goes down. I'll have myself a cocktail and watch
it in like an hour.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
By the way, is there any better radio than guys
complaining on the air about preseason football? I mean, like,
on the on the list of things that people love
to hear old people like us, what's bitching about preseason
football has got to be number one?

Speaker 3 (01:46):
So what's the answer.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I'd rather if you tell me your NCAA tournament bracket
or your famish.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Fantasy football league. How about if I call you and
ask at four o'clock while the Seahawks are on, I'll
just say, hey, Dave, can do you spend an hour
with me going through which guys I should pick?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
No, I'm not doing it.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
So how do we fix this? Because it is literally
the worst thing about the best league in the.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
World to not play them. That's how you do it
at all. Don't just do the just do the like
the titles have joint practices and you play eighteen or
whatever twenty regular season games. I mean, look, I get it.
They want to put on a show people will pay for.
The ratings are going to be great for the game
on Saturday. They always are. I mean even for preseason games,
they'll still outdraw like every other sporting event besides regular

(02:28):
season games in the city. So I'm trying to I mean,
this preseason game on Saturday will likely outdraw some Husky
and Cougar games this year.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
I'm trying to think. But one of the reasons they'll
outdraw it is because tons of people are buying it
for three dollars a piece.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
No, I'm talking about ratings. Oh, the actual ratings on TV,
The ratings on TV will be better than some regular
season hustle.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
So when it comes to for tickets, is there any
other entity that says, here, by season tickets to this,
whether it be the opera of the Fifth Avenue, whatever,
by season tickets to this, but you have to buy.
You have to buy the tickets to this crap we
put out over here, or else we won't.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Give you, Like dus does that much The Fifth Avenue
says you got buy preseason hockey?

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Is it as bad as the NFL? I don't know
what I mean, Like the preseason hockey. I would assume
they probably play a lot of their starters in the
preseason game. Yeah, I don't know how the NBA they
play starters out a lot.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
I don't know how many guys play. Just know that
you got to buy those preseason tickets with your cracking
season tickets. And I'm sure that's the way it is
around the NHL. But look, I mean, I I I
get I'm just talking from my personal selfish, you know, scarred,
stupid old man perspective that I can't stand it, and
I think it's the dumbest thing in sports. And I
think we're all suckers for being a part of it.
But I also understand there's people out there that can't

(03:45):
afford to get to a regular season game, or can't
get tickets to a regular season game. And I know
that because when I was a kid, like five six
years old, my dad would take me to preseason game.
I thought they were the coolest thing ever, honestly, And
now I'm fifty one, in the hell with it? Let's
find that with John Michael, John Michael's morning show, Superstar
Atlanta is with us on the radio show. John, we're

(04:06):
discussing the value and the attractiveness of preseason football. Dick
and I are old, crotchety fifty year olds, and none
of us want anything to do with the preseason.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
What do you think, Well, I'm an old crotchety forty
nine year old about to be fifty this year, and
having worked in the NFL for ten years, I get
the value of it. But it was the worst thing
prefeven game number four. Back in the day, we would
play games on the announced crew in the third and
fourth quarter because nobody cared. It was guys that were
going to be working at tack and save an hour

(04:38):
from now you know they were going to be cut
before the plane even landed, and for the fans in
the NFL to get absolutely robbed, Like the league does
a lot of great things for the fan base, but
when you charge full price for that awful product that
you put on the field for these three games, I
have no interest. You can go to twenty games for
all I care and get regular season games started immediately

(04:59):
to get rid of the stupid preseason.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
But at least back in the day, John, when we
had four and the players actually played, you were excited
for the first one because you knew you'd see some
of the starters, and then each game after that, numbers
two and numbers three, you were gonna see the starters
play even longer. And then the fourth we're like, okay,
I get it, we're gonna bench the starters, but it's
it's a camp battle for the last There seem to
be a storyline for each one of those games. What

(05:21):
is the storyline for the for these preseason games in
twenty twenty four.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
That's a great question, because you know, down here I
could say we're gonna get to see Michael Pennix for
three games, which we're super excited about I was at
their practice a couple of days ago and he throw
I mean, you guys know that guy just throws an
unbelievable football and he's the future. But our storyline is
Kirk Cousins has already said he's not gonna play. You know,
why would you play Bijon Robinson or Kyle Pitts or

(05:47):
Drake London. There's no need for that. I think the
only one that has any intrigue is maybe preseason two,
because I think that's kind of the tune up game
if I if I read to what they've done over
the last couple of years. So maybe you see your starters,
maybe you see, you know, some of the guys that
you're gonna be looking for to in the regular season.
And for a team like us that's got a whole
new coaching staff, maybe we get an idea of what

(06:09):
Jimmy Lakes defense is gonna look like, what our offense
is gonna look like under Zach Robinson. But other than that,
I don't know what the storylines are. I just know
if I'm a team that's got a superstar that's making
a lot of money, I'd put them in bubble wrap.
And I don't open it up until September gets here
when the games really matter.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
John Michael's from Atlanta with us on the air. And
by the way, tickets for the Charger Seahawk game Saturday
at Venue Kings or three bucks just for giggles. I
was looking at you guys have a game against the
Jaguars in Week three in Atlanta. They're five bucks for
your game down there with Jacksonville, So yeah, it's ridiculous.
But you mentioned a couple names there, and Michael Pennock

(06:47):
and Jammie Lake. I know Bralyn Trice is with you
guys as well, the former Husky edge rusher. But I
think when you and I first spoke on draft night
about Michael Pennix, you were a little bit kind of
confused and didn't really understand what the hell was going
on down there with the Cousins contract and the Michael
Pennock selection. Have you do you feel the same way?

(07:07):
Are you still angry about it? Do you feel differently
about it? What's your take on the Falcons drafting Michael
Pennock's number eight now four months later?

Speaker 4 (07:15):
I mean, I'm still confused. I don't think I will
ever get any real clarification I know our owner Arthur
Blank spoke maybe about two weeks ago, and you know,
he said pretty simply he didn't want to get caught
without a quarterback and out a succession plan like they
did at the end of the Matt Ryan era. So
I get why they did it. There were just so
many other needs that it really was, you know, kind
of confusing as to where you're gonna go. But watching

(07:38):
Michael Pennistick practice, and we've been there a couple of days.
They had an open practice at Mercedes Benz Stadium on
Friday night, and I was lucky to be in one
of the legend suites with some former players and getting
to see him field level. I did get a picture
with him. I didn't really get a chance to talk
to him very much because he was running off the field.
But the kids, the real deal, Braylan Price, we are
all super excited for you know. I know here in

(08:00):
Southeast Country, a lot of people didn't get to see
Washington play very much until it got laid into the season. Obviously,
the Pac twelve championship game, the semifinals, in the finals,
and I told people I played college fantasy, which kept
me up a lot of weight nights watching PAC twelve
after dark because I had offensive players all over the place,
but seeing Braylan Trice, that kid is the real deal.

(08:22):
And right now he's second on the depth chart for us,
but we're super excited to see what he can do
and early returns on Jimmy Lake. They've got a couple
of joint practices with the Dolphins the last couple of days,
and the Dolphins beat writers that said, the Falcons defense
has completely confused Mike McDaniel's offense because they never knew
where everybody was coming from in a blitz scenario. And

(08:42):
I like that. The Falcons need to create pressure. Raylan
Trice is going to be one of the guys that's
going to do so. So all in all, we're happy
Michael Pennix is the future. I hope the future doesn't
happen for about three years because that means Kirk Cousin
has got us to the playoffs a couple of times.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
Absolutely, and let's talk about that. Not a battle, not
a quarterback battle, but a quarterback situation right there. How
has Pennix looked in comparison to Kirk Cousins.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
I mean, Cousins is the consummate professional and just you know,
I'll rewind two years having to see Marcus Mariota for
one year and then Desmond Ridder for another. Any competent
quarterback was going to look better. But Kirk Cousins is
a guy that puts the ball exactly where you want
to have it. And I'll give you an example. We
had a fourth and three. They had like a goal
line drill going on on Friday night, and Kirk Cousins

(09:29):
hits that third foot on the ground where as he
goes into his back and immediately fires the ball where
only Drake London can catch it right at the front
pylon for a touchdown. That's a ball a year ago.
And I know it's a simple throw for a lot
of quarterbacks, but if that's a ball a year ago,
the Falcons just could not make Michael Pennix throw a
laser down the middle of the field. And I'm talking
about stepping into the throws that you guys saw over

(09:51):
and over again over the last couple of years. And
it's a way. It was one of those wow throws
in between a couple of safeties, right on the money,
right on the hands of Drake London. It ends up
being about forty five yard game right down the middle.
So they're in really good hands for the next couple
of years at quarterback and hopefully for the next ten
if things go well. It's Kirk for two, maybe three,
and then Pennant's takes over. Allah Jordan Love and the

(10:13):
Falcons have a quarterback going until I'm in a sixties
and I'm really crotchety.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
I love it, man, We we like a crotchety John
Michaels from six to eight to the Fan in Atlanta,
great stuff.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
Man.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Uh, hey, tell Jimmy that we said.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
He allow.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
He's a big fan of mine, by the way, so
tell him. The Softie said, all right, why do I have.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
A feeling that is tongue in cheek.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, I mean, honestly, I have no idea what kind
of reaction you'll get. You might get a great reaction,
you might get a bad reaction. But I'm if you
see him and you say, hey, we have a mute,
you know what, say we have a mutual friend, Dave
Softy Mother kJ R Radio Seattle, and then you you
you report back to me and tell me what he says. Okay,
I got you, all right, man? John Michael's from Atlanta.

(10:56):
We've got a break. Olympics update from Paris, Mike Florio
coming up, and about half an hour right here on
ninety three three kJ r f M
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