Superbowl LVI Preview 2/11/22

The big game is just a few days away! James (Eagles) is joined by his cohort MJ (Falcons) to preview the Rams vs the Bengals. Is it time to annoint Burrow? Can anyone stop Aaron Donald? Listen, and find out!

We begin, however, with a look at the coaching carousel. The NFL players are majority minority. So why are coaches overwhelmingly white? And what do we make of the new hires? This an ongoing discussion, and we aren't shying away from it.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Can you guys hear me? Sorry, hold on, fan, I couldn't
understand the world over saying every angleof the NFL covered, the name and
the hurricane Hurricane. This is NextFan Up. We're live, bro.

(00:26):
Greetings and salutations. Welcome to ourSuper Bowl edition of the Next Fan Up.
The podcast Four Fans by fans.I am James, your Eagles representative,
joined this week by MJ our FalconsFan and MJ. How are you
sir going into this week? Iam having an excellent week and I am

(00:49):
hoping it is capped off with anexcellent Sundale football. Well, if the
conference championships and the Division A roundsof any indication, hopefully the Super Bowl
plays up to about the same standardas that. A little bit of house
keep him out the way before wejump into a little bit of news and
notes. Fans, if you wantto reach out to us, call us

(01:11):
chuckle heads, or disagree with anythingwe say here today or any other show,
you can always reach us by emailat Next Fan Up at gmail dot
com, or on Facebook or Twitterat Next Fan Up. MJ. Let's
get started on the heels of lastweek's show. The remaining five head coaching

(01:32):
vacancies were filled by the following.The Vikings hired or will hire Kevin O'Connell,
the offensive coordinator of the La Rams. He has a game to coach
on Sunday, so when he's donewith the Rams after Sunday, whether win
or lose, he will be officiallythe head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.

(01:52):
Former Eagles head coach Doug Peterson,who basically was off this past season,
is now the new head coach ofthe Jacksonville Jaguars. The New Orleans Saints
promoted their defensive coordinator Dennis Allen totheir head coaching spot vacated by Sean Payton.
The Texans, in a move thatis we're going to talk about a

(02:16):
little bit more in depth in afew minutes here, decided to go ahead
and hire their defensive coordinator Levey Smithas their new head coach. After all
their shenanigans came to light, andthe Miami Dolphins hire Mike McDaniel, the
San Francisco forty nine ers offensive coordinator, as their head coach. For those

(02:39):
you keep account of the nine vacanciesthat were available, two minorities Mike Daniel
identifies as by racial and Levey Smith, who was black. Of the nine
positions are filed so to one morethan last year. UM, MJ,

(03:02):
how did you How do you feelabout this coaching cycle in general? UM?
And just off the heels of willbe discussed last week briefly going forward
with coaching and just diversity. UM. As far as coaching and diversity goes,

(03:25):
UM, they're still doing what Iwould consider, um a not not
a good job at all. UM. The league has got a lot of
ground to cover if they truly willhave a diverse head coaching staff in the

(03:46):
NFL. UM, because I thinkat this point now with these last two
hires, we are now at whatfive black minority and two black coaches,
which three depending on how you lookat McDaniel absolutely, which that's definitely progress.

(04:12):
But I don't know. I'm Ithink, I honestly believe leadership in
any organization should be representative of thepeople who make up that organization. That's
just honestly how I feel. UM. And when you look at the fact
that the league is roughly seventy percentblack, we've only seven uh okay,

(04:38):
I'm sorry, seventy three and we'veonly got uh five minority head coaches.
That's that's uh, what about maybefifteen percent? Maybe fifteen percent if that's
pretty, that's pretty sad um andthat that's pretty he's sad. Of the

(05:01):
coaching hires, I am the mosthappy, and I will temper that happiness
considering who he's coaching for, LoveySmith, because I have always been a
fan of Lovey I love his demeanoron the sideline, I love his demeanor

(05:24):
and interviews. He's one of themost even killed head coaches I've ever seen,
and honestly, I would say probablysay not even so much even killed,
because when you look at how hedeals with the press, minus the
sarcastic nature of Belichick's replies, LoveySmith reminds me a lot about a lot

(05:47):
of Belichick and the fact that we'regonna talk about the game. We're not
going to talk about the foolishness orwhatever may or may not be going on.
We're gonna talk about the game,how well we did or how well
we didn't do. And I've alwaysappreciated that about him. So again,
I am definitely the happiest for LoveySmith. When I see some of the

(06:10):
other coaches or not necessarily coaches,one of the hires that I'm a little
surprised by, and only because ofwho didn't take the job was the Minnesota
Vikings coach, because obviously will neverknow just how true it is, but
everything I've heard says that Harball turnedit down. Yes he did. Harball

(06:34):
did turn it down at the eleventhhour. I guess he was one of
the finalists coming in. And itwas a big stinker because the day he
was in for the interview with theVikings was National signing day for high schoolers
to commit to colleges. So whileMichigan's waiting to see what their incoming class

(06:56):
of freshman's going to look like,he's in he's in Minneapolis doing his interview
with the Vikings. So part ofthat had something to play with him going
back to ann Arbor in coach Michigan. Um, but ultimately we'll never know
the complete well, let's put hisway, we won't know the complete story
anytime soon. Um. Maybe we'llknow from his perspective why he decided to

(07:21):
ultimately go back to college at alater date, but in the in the
immediate future, we probably won't know. Yeah. Um. Josh McDaniels and
the Raiders I yeah, I don'tknow. I don't, I don't.

(07:44):
I don't know that I believe heshould be a head coach again, but
it's the Raiders, and the Raidershave been doing crazy things the last few
years, so we'll see how thatturns out. Um. Yeah, the
McDaniel one is a bit considering whathe did the last time. He was
basically given a job and I dointently use the word given because the Colts

(08:09):
at the time had zero intensions onhiring anyone else except for McDaniel. The
job was his and he basically saidno, like he was all set to
accept the job. And again,this is one of those things will probably
never know about until the parties involvedare either out of football or passed away.

(08:35):
But something happened with New England inthe background that had him return to
New England for the job and look, for all intents and purposes, the
Colts did a quick pivot what Istill deemed a panic higher and when after
former Eagles offensive coordinator current head coachFrank Reich. I'm not saying it was
a pity higher, but Frank Wrightwasn't in their initial interview process. For

(08:58):
whatever that was at the time,they really wanted Josh McDaniel, and they
had his verbal commitment and didn't heup and didn't. Wasn't there somebody else
involved who left a position that theyhad and moved to the Colts heir to
Indianapolis on that verbal commitment. IfI'm not mistaken, I can't think of

(09:22):
who it was, but I knowthere was somebody else that was really upset
at himself, upset with his counterdecision. I'll call it because they had
up and moved their family and that'sjust not something you do. If I
know, I'll look at them seeif I can remember who it was.
But yeah, so whenever Josh McDaniel'sname comes up, it's just I still

(09:45):
think about that foolishness with the Coltsand I'm like, yeah, really,
that's who you're gonna hire. Yeah, And to pull back the curtain here
for our listening audience, this issomething we talked about over the last couple
of several coaching cycles in our chatgroup that no one has expected any other
club to even consider Josh McDaniel becauseof what he did with the coach,

(10:09):
like that was such a stain onhis record, if you will, that
teams pretty much were like, yeah, he may be a hot name out
there, but no one wants himbecause of that. It's like you did
dirty to your own so to speak, like, that's not what you do.

(10:31):
So the power, the hiring powersthat be in the league, it
looked like they had rallied to thepoint of we're not touching him, and
for the Raiders to go ahead andgive him the head coaching job. Hey,
Monty, good luck. It isall I have to say about that.
I will read this from our Saintsfan who says Alan was the best

(10:56):
possible choice out of who was leftafter McDaniel signed with Miami. Alan's defense
has been great the last few years, and the team rallies around him.
He's also keeping the culture and ninetypercent of the staff intact. The Saints
are still a good team, sozero reason to blow things up now.
And look, he makes a pointthere. If they want to keep things

(11:18):
as is and feel that they canstill be competitive depending on what they want
to do in the future, andnot blow things up, then yeah,
he's the best hire because he's alreadyin there. Your defense stays the same.
If he's retaining even the majority ofthe offense of the staff and probably
promotes, you know, somebody inthe staff to be the OC if they

(11:39):
don't step away and do something else. But if he keeps the entire staff
intact and he just ascends the headcoach, then there's no reason to think
the Saints can't be again relatively competitive. There were nine in eight this past
season. And we'll see what happenswith Jamis Winston in the off season,
because his contract is up and hewas pretty much the best thing for them.

(12:03):
They won their early games, youknow, the first five victories they
had were with Winston at the helmbefore he got hurt, and they basically
had to piece Millet together with theother quarterbacks on the roster, Simeon and
Taysom Hill. So we'll see howthat goes. I do want to touch
on the Texans higher because I wantto limit my vitriol for this, and

(12:28):
like you said, I have nothingbut the utmost respect for Lovey Smith.
I think this is long overduey thathe got a second chance. But the
wackiness that the Texans went through fromthe time that they fired David Culley to
hiring Lovey Smith, it's something thatshould only exist in a prim time mini

(12:52):
series over the span of six weeks. Yeah, because to say that this
was the most asinine process I haveever seen in my life is grossly understated.
They conducted their interviews, and Iuse air quotes for the word interviews

(13:13):
because some of them were legit andsome of them were shams. You take
from that which you will. That'sjust my personal opinion. Ultimately, they
wanted Josh McCown, and I didn'tstutter when I said that. We have
mentioned this before. Josh McCown's onlyhead coaching experience is on the high school

(13:35):
level. High school and that's whothey wanted so much so that they were
begging the other eight teams with vacanciesat the time to give him an interview
so that their hiring of him wouldseem legit. Needless to say, no

(13:58):
one else even considered McCown. Wholast played in the NFL I want to
say roughly two to three years ago. His last official appearance in a football
game was the Eagles playoff loss tothe Seattle Seahawks because Carson Wentz got knocked
out on the third play of thegame. That was the last time we

(14:20):
saw Josh McCown in an NFL uniformright, and again he went home to
wherever he's from coach high school football, and the Texans wanted him to give
him the job. This is howmuch they weren't considering Lovey Smith. In

(14:41):
the initial aftermath of firing David Culleyand proceeding with their head coaching search,
the Texans only kept Lovey Smith aroundto help interview potential candidates. That's it.

(15:01):
They were going to let the newcoach come in whoever they hire,
and if they didn't want to keepLovey Smith, Lovey Smith was gonna be
gone. He was gonna be outof a job. But yet they kept
Levey Smith around to help interview thenew head coach. No guarantee Lovey Smith
is going to be retained as DC. And then last week happin with And

(15:24):
I'm not saying there's a direct correlationhere, but if you don't think that
the Brian Flores lawsuit played some role, no matter how minor, and the
Texans doing an about face and saying, well, why haven't we interviewed or
considered Lovey Smith, then you're crazy. And I have beachfront property in Nebraska

(15:46):
that I'd love to sell you becauseno one's going to convince me that that
lawsuit that Brian Flora is filed andwe're not going to go into details about
that. We talked about that onlast week, but you're not going to
convince me in any way, shapeor form that that didn't influence management with
the Houston Texans in some way.Now, will this be another one and

(16:10):
done like they did David Culley thispast season? Who knows. We will
have to wait till this time nextyear to see whether Lovey Smith gets a
fair shot at having his job formore than one season, because as far
as I'm concerned, while I'm happyfor Lovey Smith, I still feel that
the Texans didn't get the person theywant it because again, the person they

(16:33):
wont is Josh McCown. Now,I haven't seen anything recently about the rest
of who's going to fill out LoveySmith's coaching staff or who he's going to
retain, but don't be shocked ifLovey Smith hires Josh McCown as an offensive
assistant in some way, shape orform and forces whoever his OC is to

(16:56):
take on account. Because remember LoveySmith's last head coaching job at the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers, he was turning thatteam around. They had just drafted Jamis
Winston and MJ here's the name thatyou're familiar with because he used to coach
with the Falcons. Dirt Cutter wasthe offensive coordinator. Yep. And after

(17:18):
that first year Jameis Winston's rookie seasonin Tampa Bay, Dirt Cutter somehow became
one of the hottest names of offensiveminds that teams were going to ask for.
So the Buccaneers brass and some typeof panic decide, well, we
can't let this guy go away.He's got to groom our rookie quarterbacking and

(17:41):
get him to NFL prominence and makehim one of the best qbis in the
league. He had a phenomenal rookieseason, and Winston did have a very
good rookie season, and the TampaBay brass Fires Lovey Smith and promotes Dirt
Cutter the head coach. Every otherperson on the coaching staff state to keep

(18:07):
to keep an offensive coordinator who wasn'tgoing anywhere because no other team was looking
at dirt Cutter that that hiring cycleto claim him. The Buccaneers basically played
themselves by the way dirt Cutter wasfired two years later. That's how much
that blew up in their face.And Lovey Smith is just now getting another

(18:30):
head coaching job. That that thatthat, that's my big thing on the
coaching cycle. Thus far um allthe other hires, you know what,
congratulations on obtaining your jobs. Goodluck. We're now up, like you

(18:52):
said, MJ up to five minoritiesas head coaches in the NFL of thirty
two roughly roughly, so yeah,well we'll see how this goes. In
a comedic, laughable moment of MikeMcDaniel again, who I said earlier identifies
as by a ratio, so takefrom that which you will. His father

(19:17):
is black, his mother's white,um stuttered over look, if you want
to call it a sensitive issue,a question he wasn't expecting. But when
questioned about his race and his ethnicity, his background, he couldn't really find
the words, so to speak,and what came out of his mouth was

(19:41):
incoherent. And yeah, he probablywould have been better off saying I have
no answer to that question, orthat's not something I'd like to get into
at the time, he tried hisbest. It I'm not gonna say it
was nonsense. It's how he feels. But yeah, if you haven't seen
it, head to YouTube any othersports media site, you'll see it.

(20:07):
It's interesting to me it sounded asif he was struggling to give a very
politically correct answer very much though,one that he hadn't rehearsed, which to
me is a little Honestly, I'ma little surprised at how unprepared he was

(20:33):
for that question, because considering everythingthat's been going on in the last couple
of weeks with the NFL and coachinghires, you would think that a man
who has, as he says heidentifies as biracial, white mother, black
father, you would think someone withthat particular dynamic because I can't really think

(20:59):
of what the better words, thankyou, thank you, James racial background,
you would think he would at leasthave said, will let me be
prepared for when they ask about myparents and what am I? Because that
to me just and because honestly,I didn't know until it came up and
it started coming out, because whenI look at him, what I see

(21:23):
is a white man, which youknow that that doesn't really mean anything because
throughout history we've had tons of minoritypeople who would have one white parent and
their features allow them to pass topass to pass um, so I shouldn't

(21:45):
at all be surprised. But again, when I look at him, I
see a white guy, but youknow his mother, and then his mother's
white, his father's black. Asfar as a lot of people are concerned,
that makes him a black man,even though you may not see it
when you look at him. Thatstill, to me is kind of like
you should have known this question wascoming. I'm not saying you had to

(22:06):
have the greatest answer in the world, but I would think you'd be a
little bit more prepared for that question. Truan be the only other coaching hire
that I find somewhat laughable, AndI'm kind of sitting back showing popcorn,
waiting to see how this blows up. The Denver Broncos who hired Nathaniel Hackett,

(22:33):
who is from the Green Bay Packers. He was their offensive coordinator before
he took the head coaching job inDenver. And again, another discussion we've
had in our chat group with theother members who contribute here, there's not
a doubt in anyone's mind that thishigher was for the sole purpose of trying
to acquire Aaron Rodgers and however youwant to look at it, whether you

(23:00):
agree or disagree, that is denver'seplan A through L At this point,
I don't know what plans M throughZ look like, but A through L
higher Nathaniel Hackett get Aaron Rodgers.They got the first part down. I

(23:26):
don't know how they acquire Aaron Rodgers. So I'll throw this out at you,
James, And I'm sure you've probablyseen this headline across your news speed
there's a possibility that somebody is thinkingabout buying the Denver Broncos. Well,
yes, they are up for sale. The Denver Broncos are officially the Bowling

(23:52):
family have put the Broncos up forsale. They the team is according to
estimates worth or the price tag isif you will four billion with a B
dollars um. There is a wellknown person in the African American community Byron

(24:15):
Allen Um who has done any andeverything in television. If you if you
don't know, please google him,look him up see what he's done.
Um. But yeah, he's beena TV host, producer, show runner,

(24:37):
anything, every job that would withany job any anytime you see the
credits of a movie or TV showany of those like first ten to fifteen
names that are not actors and actressesin the film. He's held all of
those positions at some point in hismedia career. The dude know media absolutely,

(25:02):
so it just kind of has megranted. I don't know what his
sports fandom is. I don't knowwho he likes whom he doesn't like,
But it would be interesting if theyget Rogers Byron buys them. A couple

(25:26):
of years down the road we startto see more and more brown people in
the Broncos organization. Well, I'mnot saying that would that is what will
happen, but it's an interesting possibility. Now. Of course, we do

(25:48):
have to mention that the ownership allowshim to buy the team. That part
because you can't just buy a franchise, even if you're ahead of a financial
group that wants to come in andbuy a franchise, it has to be
approved the sale of the sale ofany team in any sport, doesn't matter

(26:12):
what sport it is. But inany sport, when a team is up
for sale and they see all thebids of the people who the people or
groups who want to buy said teamthat is up for sale, the current
list or the current membership of ownersor chairman, if you will have to

(26:33):
vote to approve said sale to newregime coming in and purchasing said franchise.
Happens in every sport. We sawit in basketball when Sterling was outted,
they had approved the sale to theClippers chairman. The same thing happened when
they forced out Richardson with the CarolinaPanthers. Here in the NFL, they

(26:55):
had to approve that sale. Sohere we are black man Um who has
definitely has the money, um,if not the group, the financial backing
to purchase this NFL franchise that isup for sale. Now we wait to
see if Look, let's call itwhat it is. It's good old boy
network of NFL owners because again ShotCon of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Pagoula.

(27:30):
Who is Um? I know it'sshe's an Asian woman. I can't remember
what specifically, which country, butshe is the owner of the Buffalo Bills.
Those you're two minority owners in theNFL. M wait are there only
two? I thought they were.I thought there were four at one point.

(27:55):
M M, there was, wellthere are are. Let's put this
away. There are several women,yes, who are the heads of minority
of ownership groups for certain teams.But if you're talking about one soul individual
who owns a franchise, the majorityof them are white men. Again for

(28:18):
the teams that are owned by groups, for some of them, there are
women who are at the forefront ofthat because they're the face or representative of
said ownership group. But um,yeah, they those are your only two.
Kim Pagola, excuse me, that'sher name, Kim Pagola. So

(28:45):
will we have a third minority ownerbecause again, and I'm minority by race,
not sex or gender. Um,fair point, fair point, But
yeah, so Cohn Pagoula, wecan cross our fingers and hope Byron Allan
gets the gets the Broncos sold tohim. But again, well, the

(29:11):
rest of the inner NFL ownership groupagree to that, which leads me into
my next point or next news item. Since this is Super Bowl Week,
Commissioner Roger Goodale often does a stateof the League press conference to kick off

(29:32):
media day at the Super Bowl,and this week started off much like last
year, with the lack of minoritycoaches, particularly black head coaches, and
people in the front office for therespective NFL ball clubs, and he was

(29:55):
peppered with those questions again, JimTrotter, if you we can't play it,
but it definitely go on YouTube orTwitter, find it, look at
it. Jim Trotter found asked hima very poignant question because Jim Trotter works
for NFL Media, like the mediaoffice at NFL headquarters too. Jim Trotter

(30:19):
works for and Goodell Fall Intents andPurposes, is his boss, and he
questioned his boss because he said themedia office is also lacking in diversity,
that the people who make the decisionsare all basically white men, from the
top man all the way through theexecutives and who hands out assignments and like

(30:42):
you know, yeah, a handfulof them get to choose their stories or
whatever like that, but all thedecision makers in the NFL media office are
white. And he was questioned aboutthis in conjunction with adversity through coaching staffs,

(31:03):
general managers, and team president's ownership, because again, seventy of the
players in the NFL are black,and Roger Goodale's response, which is somewhere
between forty five seconds to a minutelong, was a cluster blank of dribble

(31:27):
and nonsensical rhetoric to which my onlyresponse is to paraphrase a quote from a
movie. What you just said isone of the most insanely idiotic things I've
ever heard, and no point inyour rambling, incoherent response or even close
to anything that could be considered arational thought. Everyone in this room is

(31:49):
now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and
may God have mercy on your soul. Yes, I'm paraphrasing the principle at
the end of Billy Madison because that'show I felt listening to Roger Goodell respond
to Jim Canada's question. It wasnonsensical bullcrap, and it sounded like it

(32:12):
was a cross between lip service andnot caring. And he tried to put
the words out there like, yeah, we're we're trying to do things,
but they're they're really not. Andlook, I get it. When it
comes to the individual teams, there'sonly so much you can do because the
onus is on them to make thesehires and it's not like you can sanction

(32:36):
them. They're trying to incentivize theseteams to do more things. But he
didn't even touch on that it wasjust dribble like he might as well say
it. Our hands are tied,I have no idea what to do,
and we're at our wits ends tryingto come up with ideas, but to

(32:59):
fade some type of intelligent response likeyou're you know, this is an ongoing
process and you're still working on itand we don't know what to do.
Yeah, nah, I'm sorry.JR. Thoughts on it Roger Goodell over
the years, I truly believe Goodellmeans well. I really do. I

(33:29):
really honestly believe he means well.No, no debating that, but the
I was explaining it to a friendof mine not too long ago. Goodell
maybe the NFL commissioner, but theowners are his boss. So there's only

(33:53):
there's only so much that he cansay before his leash gets tugged on.
Um. But no, you're butyou're right. That response was it was
just bad. Um. It couldhave been so much better, but it

(34:16):
just wasn't. Again it's it's it'show are you this unprepared when you know
what's currently of discussion of the NFLexactly? How are you just unprepared?
Um? But yeah, see,and like I said, I genuinely believe

(34:37):
that, believe that he means well. But because he's got to say the
right things for the ownership to renewhis contract, there's only so much he
can say. Again, he can'tget out there and just completely badmouth his
bosses and think that he's going toget to keep his job. There's only
and I believe that ownership is willingto let you say only so much before

(35:07):
you get a phone call and it'slike, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, now lo youroll. We get it. You're trying
you. We want you to preventthe best image possible of the league,
but be mindful of what you sayabout your thirty one bosses. And I

(35:29):
think, well, I say thirtyone just because Green Bay is a publicly
owned quote unquote publicly owned team,So that's thirty one bossy. But yeah,
no, his his his answer wasdefinitely incoherent. It wasn't prepared.
And again I'm not saying you hadto give the best answer in the world,
but you had to have known thiswas going to come up, especially

(35:57):
when you kind of opened the doorfor it with some of your own opening
statements. So yeah, he justdid not do a good job not to
mention, Yeah, not to mentionthe NFL tweet that he put out this
past Saturday, which contradicted the immediateresponse to the Florist lawsuit. And when

(36:23):
I say immediate, I mean newsbroke of the Florist lawsuit and no less,
no more than thirty minutes went bybefore the League office, which is
the commissioner, put out a responsesaying that the lawsuit had no merit.
But then he comes out on Saturdayand says, we take the issues of

(36:44):
diversity very seriously. Well, whichone is it? Did you take the
issues of diversity very seriously? Ordoes a lawsuit have no merit? Because
you ain't wait five minutes before youwas like, hey, he's wrong about
this, And to me, yousay, well, you know, we

(37:05):
do take this issue seriously and we'retrying to do things better and we're still
working on it. Go ahead.One of the things that irritates me the
most and that that quick response thatthey had. If Flores's lawsuit has no
merit, we wouldn't need the Rooneyrule that part. So yeah, and

(37:34):
again that's not that's that that thatright there is the example of there's only
so much the League is gonna letyou say before they fall on your leash,
like, hey, remember remember whosigns your paycheck, that that and
and and you know what. Toyour point, he does have to remember
who's who you know awards him hissalary every year. Because what was it

(37:54):
last summer to summer before where youhad the video that was put out on
Twitter that had um Dak Prescott,Ezekiel Elliott, Shawn Watson, um who
Patrick Mahomes, Uh, Derek Henry, I think, um, Tyron Matthew.

(38:21):
It was something like a dozen prominentblack NFL players in the aftermath of
the murder that were happening that summer, Yeah, wanting the NFL to take
a hardcore stance, and Goodale prettymuch sat back and let it happened because

(38:43):
I mean, what can he do? Like you said, now, the
owners did get in him immediately after, he did admit because he went and
did a couple of shows um andstate that, yeah, a number of
the owners and he says a numberof He's probably not trying to let it
be known, but I would sayat least half of the owners, most

(39:06):
of them white men, did callhim to be like what the hell is
this and what are you going todo about it, right, So the
tepid response that he put out afterwardswas just that tepid because again, his
bosses wanted him to do something,and he felt that was the best thing
to do in the immediate aftermath.And I find it funny that there was

(39:30):
no further discussion with the players insaid video. Now, obviously one of
them has his own other legal issuesgoing on, but the remainder of those
players, they were asked about itthrough the course of that following season,
and to this point, nothing hashappened as far as conversation between them and

(39:51):
the league office or anything, youknow at all. So here we are,
new year, same problems, prettymuch. And again it goes back
to what I said on last week'spodcast and I and I will definitely be

(40:12):
sure to incorporate Meal's correction of whatI said. I do not believe the
problem will change until there are moreowners who are black, female, trans,
non non binary, all of theother marginalized communities that we have in

(40:39):
this country, Until they also arepart of the makeup of league ownership.
I really do believe most of whathappens is just going to be lip service.
Yeah, unfortunate but true. Well, we're going to leave our news
and know it's there for the timebeing and move on to this thing that's

(41:04):
happening Sunday. Uh. In caseyou've been under the rock for the last
two weeks, there are two teamsplaying this thing called the Super Bowl.
What's that? It's this football gamethat happens at the end of the year,
big hooplah party, celebration. Celebritiescome in to send no no,
no, no, no, nono. That that was this past Sunday.

(41:27):
We talked about this coming Sunday.Oh okay, okay, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry because I thought the mine. Yeah, they switched out a
number of years ago. The ProBowler is now the week before the Super
Bowl instead of after all right,all right, all right, alright,
alright, alright. I know,I know it's confusing. It's a lot
to deal with, But the CincinnatiBengals are playing the Los Angeles Rams.

(41:52):
Um, yeah it look, don'task me for a sports line. I
haven't really felt like looking one up. Again. I'm hoping that as good
as all four divisional rounds and bothconference championships were as far as entertainment value.
Even though I didn't get any ofthe outcomes I wanted. I hope

(42:15):
this game is just as close andas entertaining as those six games were.
The Bengals come in with a tenand seven record, having won all three
of their playoff games to win theroad against the top two seeds in the
AFCED first the Titans and the Chiefsin the conference championship. The Rams come

(42:36):
in with the twelve and five recordwinners of their division, doing what no
one thought was possible by beating theBuccaneers in Tampa Bay to be the second
team in a row to play theirSuper Bowl at home. The injury report
is very light. The only thetwo biggest names on the injury report are

(43:00):
each team's respective starting tight end.Cj Uzama for the Bengals is questionable.
He was limited in practice on Thursdaywith his knee injury, and Tyler Higbee
for the Rams with his knee injurydid not practice on Thursday. Heat is
questionable. So um both of theseteams passing games and in some cases their

(43:22):
ability there you know, their blockingabilities in the run games. If we
get that much running from the backsin this one will be sorely missed.
If neither of these guys can goto to to to address those two from
the injury report, and I wishI didn't get a chance to look it
up, but I heard it thismorning on the way to work. I

(43:45):
don't remember which coach spoke about theirperspective their respective tight end, but somebody
said if he doesn't practice, he'snot playing in the game on Sunday.
And I didn't get a chance tolook up which coach said that about which
tight end, And I'm sorry thatI didn't, but I thought that was

(44:07):
interesting to come out and say.I don't know if it was meant legitimately,
if we're already doing a little psychologicalwarfare, but I thought it was
an interesting statement to come out andmake. Well based on that statement and
who's practicing who's not, Uzama looksto be on track to play while Higbee

(44:30):
doesn't. But again, you gotyour Friday practice and your Saturday walk through,
so deeping eye on both Higbee andUsama to see what's what as far
as that playout, MJ. Igot some useless stats. I'm gonna go
through here as quickly as possible becauseit's a ton before we talk about x's
and those This is the fourth instancein Super Bowl history between opposing starting quarterbacks

(44:55):
who wear the same jersey number.Starbuck and at Shaw did it twice,
and then Starback and Greasy did itonce. Matthew Stafford is one of five
first overall picks to play more thanone hundred regular season games before making their
first Super Bowl appearance. Each ofthe previous four won that Super Bowl.

(45:20):
Joe Burrow will be the first secondyear QB to start the Super Bowl since
Russell Wilson in twenty thirteen he wonSuper Bowl forty eight. Burrow will be
twenty five years sixty five days oldon the day of the Super Bowl,
exact same age as Russell Wilson whenhe won that Super Bowl. This is
the first Super Bowl since the NFLstarted seeding postseason teams in nineteen seventy five

(45:45):
that does not feature at least oneteam that was a number one or number
two seed in their respective conference.Both of these teams were the fourth seed.
Wide receiver comparison, Cooper cup onehundred seventy receptions, two thousand,
three hundred thirty three yards twenty receivingtouchdowns all led the NFL this year,

(46:08):
and rookie phenomen Jamar Chase one hundredand one receptions, seventeen hundred thirty four
yards, fourteen touchdowns per Pro FootballFocus, von Miller and Aaron Donald have
the two highest career postseason pass rushgrades in the Pro Football Focus era,

(46:29):
which is two thousand and six minimumof two hundred playoff pass rushing snaps.
The Bengals are the fifth team tohave a rookie lead the team in receiving
during the regular season and reach theSuper Bowl. Each of the previous four
teams lost the Super Bowl. Teamhistory and Super Bowls. The Rams have

(46:52):
a one in three record in SuperBowls, averaging fifteen and a half points,
giving up twenty points, a minuseighteen point differential, minus one turnover
differential, and minus nine sack differential. The Bengals are owing two in Super

(47:13):
Bowls, scoring eighteen and a halfpoints, giving up twenty three points,
minus nine point differential, minus twoturnover differential, minus five sack differential.
Teams wearing white jerseys have won fourteenof the last seventeen Super Bowls. The

(47:35):
designated home team is twenty three andthirty two in Super Bowls, losing eleven
of the last fifteen. The Bengalsare the designated home team in this game.
Since Week fourteen, including the playoffs, Matthew Stafford has a seven and
one record with seventy percent of seventypercent completion percentage, two hundred and seventy

(48:00):
two and a half passing yards pergame, seventeen touchdowns, nine picks for
one oh two passer rating. JoeBurrow has a six and one record,
seventy two point eight completion percentage,three hundred and thirty one yards per game,
fifteen touchdowns, two interceptions, oneeighteen passer rating. Stafford and burrows

(48:22):
thirty one combined regular season interceptions arethe most by opposing starting qbs in the
Super Bowl era since Tom Brady andHall of Fame er Kurt Warner's thirty four
in two thousand and one. MatthewStafford has a forty eight and a half
passer rating and six picks in gameswhen pressured nine plus times this season including

(48:44):
the playoffs, Stafford has been pressurednine plus times in nine of the last
twelve games, zero in the firsteight. Joe Burrow is seven and zero
in his career in postseason games datingback to college. The Rams are the
second team in NFL history to playin the Super Bowl at their home stadium

(49:04):
again. The Buccaneers did it lastyear. The Bengals are the fourth team
in NFL history to make the SuperBowl after having fewer than five wins in
the previous season. They were foureleven and one last year. Matthew Stafford
is the fourth quarterback over the lastforty seasons to start a Super Bowl in
their first season with a new team. Brady Delme and Dilfer are the others.

(49:29):
The Bengals are one of five teamswith multiple Super Bowl appearances and no
wins both their previous appearances, theylost to San Francisco in eighty eight and
eighty one. Per Pro Football Focus, Jalen Ramsey has allowed sixty plus receiving
yards in primary coverage of a singlewide receiver once this season. That was

(49:50):
Mike Evans, to whom he gaveup ninety seven yards in a Divisional round.
Joe Burrow was sacked fifty one timesin the regular season, most in
the NFL, the most by QBto make the Super Bowl in NFL history.
The previous high Roethlisberger with forty sixin two thousand and eight. He
won the Super Bowl forty three andlast stat here, Matthew Stafford has finished

(50:13):
with a losing record in eight seasons, the most by any quarterback prior to
a Super Bowl start. All time, all starting qbs from each of the
past five Super Bowls had combined sixlosing seasons. The last time these two
teams actually faced each other was Octobertwenty six of twenty nineteen, and the

(50:34):
Rams won twenty four to ten inl A. MJ. Your thoughts on
this game and how you think isgoing to play out. I think we're
definitely in for a good game offootball to watch the Bengals go from two
years ago being the worst team infootball to play in the Super Bowl and

(51:00):
beans and I didn't and I didn'trealize until you just now said that they're
the home team. I'm like forthe Rams or the visiting team in their
own stadium. That yes, Um, But because I think it alternates every
year as far as NFC afcfs,who's which representative is the home team?
So this year the AFC representative isthe home team. Next year the NFC

(51:22):
team will be the home team.Yeah. That that. I think we're
gonna have a good game. Um. The I've given Matthew Stafford a lot
of crap deservedly so have I.Um some of us deserved some of it.
As I look back on things nowand again, i'm I'm a Georgia

(51:46):
tech guy. He went to UGA, so I try to be objective,
but you know, I also tryto be objective about the Anks players when
I talk about them, and thatnever really had. However, I really
think this might be Stafford year becausehe has done some really matt Stafford like

(52:13):
things to try and not get tothe super Bowl, and he has gotten
to the super Bowl. The manhas won every playoff game he's played in
since he left the Lion, andI know there's only been one season,
but still he's won more playoff gamesnow than he ever won in Detroit.

(52:34):
And I think that is something thatpeople don't pay enough attention to. And
as I said at the start ofright and as I said at the start
of the season, this seventeenth gamethis year is going to have some odd
effects now that I know it wasgoing to end up having the worst team

(52:58):
from two years ago play against theguy in the Super Bowl who's never won
a playoff game. Didn't have aclue I just knew the seventeenth game was
gonna throw everybody off and it wasgonna be an odd year. Yeah,
um, I really like Stafford andthe Rams chances to win this year.
Um. I would love to seeAaron Donald finally get his ring, because

(53:23):
that dude is a defensive beast.He deserves nightmare m right, and and
and and people and again. Hedoesn't play a sexy position, but he
plays a very needed position because thegame is won in the trenches and Aaron

(53:45):
Donald is in the trenches on everysingle snap. So yes, I would
love to see Aaron Donald and theRams get a ring this year. However,
there is one potentil Chel stat thatwe should throw out there is the
Bengals win this year. Joe Burrowswill be in a very elite club that

(54:10):
well, if they win, theclub will then have three members. Which
club is this? Who won theHeisman, a National Championship, and a
Super Bowl. As of right now, the only quarterbacks who have done it

(54:30):
are Montana and Nameth. Wow,Yeah, that that's elite company right now.
If he does it, I'm justgonna sit here and be like,
it will be really really interesting forthe only three members in this club to

(54:50):
all be named Joe Joe. I'mjust saying that would be really really that
will be a really funny stat tohave. But again, I'm definitely thinking
this is gonna be an amazing game. I don't know who I think is

(55:12):
gonna win, who's gonna lose,but I'm definitely rolling with the Rams and
Aaron Donald. My concern ever sincethey beat the Titans for the Bengals and
will remain until the outcome of thisgame, as you've already touched on,

(55:37):
is the Bengals offensive line. Ithink that how they hold up in past
protection versus Von Miller and Aaron Donaldand the rest of the Rams front will
ultimately decide how close this game is. Yeah. Look, even though they

(55:59):
lost, the Titans tied a playoffrecord with nine sacks of Joe Burrow.
They tied the record, still lostin a game that again came down to
the wire and was still decided bya last second basically a game expiring field
goal to win it by the Bengalsif they can't keep Burrow upright, because

(56:22):
this is an issue that remembered twoyears ago when they had the worst one
of the worst records in the leaguethat allowed them to draft Jamar Chase,
this unit of Theirs, this offensiveline. These ultimately got Joe Burrow knocked
out for the season with torn aclin a game against Washington, I believe

(56:43):
in mid to late October of thatseason, because they couldn't hold up in
pass protection, and they have struggledto do it at times this year,
which is why their record is tenand seven. It's also why they're not
completely dominating teams the way one wouldexpect. Now, look, it helps
that you know Burrow has a guyhe knows from college and an all around

(57:09):
solid receiving corps with Chase, Higginsand Boyd And in the case of Chase
sometimes he can just drop back flatfooted and errantly throw chuck the ball up
in the air. But unlike theprevious twenty games he's played this season,

(57:30):
playoffs included Sunday, more than likely, I believe the Rams will have Jalen
Ramsey's shadow, Jamar Chase. Andlook, you heard the stat earlier about
Ramsey and how Mike Evans in thedivisional round was the only receiver to go

(57:52):
off against him, if you wantto call that going off ninety seven yards.
I believe he had a touchdown ita game as well. But Allen
Ramsey is a monster at corner.Yeah, definitely one of the best in
the game today, without question.Very physical. He definitely likes to get

(58:15):
both in the face of the widereceiver, typically on his side because it's
very rare that he shadows, buthe likes to get in the face both
literally with his hands jabbing at thelot of the scrimmage and figuratively by playing
mind games and sometimes frustrating the widereceiver he's covering to take them out of

(58:37):
the game. He's done it morethan once. So um and I've already
heard on a clip either today oryesterday where they were talking to and he
said and he was like, yeah, of course I won't Jamar Chase.
I'm gonna shut him down. No, I'm sorry. He didn't say I'm

(58:58):
gonna shut him down specifically, hewas of course I want him, I
want the best. If we're gonnasee what's gonna happen. So I'm like,
yeah, he's he's already talking,and I'm like, this is the
media hype leading up to this gamehas been it often is now. Yeah,
I try to temper myself when itcomes to the media hype because again

(59:21):
I get it, this is thechampionship game. The last few games have
been to say, exciting, withthe exception of Patriots Rams, but um
quite the you know with that whennotwithstanding, I would say the last four
or five Super Bowls coming down tothe wire have been somewhat of nail biters.

(59:42):
Um yeah, because it really hadno clear cut This team is definitely
gonna win. Honestly, I Idon't even have a pick for this game
at the moment um gun to myhead. I just take the bullet on
a sleep because I can't call thisgame. I can't call this game because

(01:00:02):
on the flip side, Stafford isstill my question mark because he hasn't really
for the games that they the threegames that they played in the NFC playoffs,
he hasn't done anything really to convinceme he is still the guy now.
Granted, yes, congratulations on finallymaking a Super Bowl and yeah,

(01:00:24):
for the majority of us. Basicallythe entire time he was in Detroit,
he was dubbed the stat compiler whomade Arrant throws at the most inopportune times.
Look, you can look at hisnumbers. There are very few times
when he's thrown fifteen or less interceptionsin a season, the majority of the
time, it's it's over that.I mean even seasons when he's putting up

(01:00:46):
high touchdown numbers, it's still ahigh number of interceptions. So yeah,
but how many of those are legitimatelyhis fault? Oh, they're his fault.
You watch Detroit through the years andyou're looking at the games that they've
played and just look at their record, and quite a few of those are

(01:01:07):
his fault. Where they have theball late, they're driving down to get
the go ahead or game tying score, and for whatever reason he's throwing the
ball to the other team, whetherit's pressure, the wrong read or whatever.
But it's not the type of thingwhere he's hitting the receiver in the

(01:01:27):
numbers and the ball is tipped.These are clean picks. Now, I'm
not saying every single interception he's thrownas a clean pick. No, I'm
just talking about in those final minutesituations where you're driving on the field the
Detroit Lions need to win the gameto maintain playoffs seating or hopes of making

(01:01:49):
the playoffs, whatever have you.He's throwing the ball to the other team
and look the drives look great becausethey started his own. Whatever he's moving
down, they cross midfield, theyget around the opposition's thirty thirty five yard
line, and that fifteen yard inthe route heat where he should be taking

(01:02:09):
a checkdown, he's throwing it,safety jumps it, dB gets there before
the ball before the receiver does whateverhave you. I mean, these aren't
tip drills. No, and sadlywe don't necessarily will say sadly, but
what you're describing reminds me of anotherquarterback that I know. Story for another

(01:02:34):
time, But look, Stafford iskey for the Rams offense, and yes,
he's had You want to call ita good season, I don't call
good seasons. Leading the league ininterceptions, all right, is a stampoint.
That is a stampoint. And Idon't subscribe to the notion of this

(01:02:59):
talent his eye popping numbers this season, but ignore picks. No. Picks
are very crucial to quarterback stat line. And it's nice that he completed sixty
seven percent of his passes for overforty eight hundred yards and forty one touchdowns,
but he threw seventeen interceptions and mostof these picks came in the last

(01:03:19):
eight games they played nine to beexact, nine of these interceptions came in
the last eight games they played.Even with all of that being true,
and you're I mean, I mean, those are stats. You can't debate
that, I know. I look, I get it, famous sound babies
a half here stats for loses.It still says something that they're playing in

(01:03:44):
the Super Bowl. True. Nowwhat is that exact something? I don't
know. But it's not by happenstats that they're here. I don't think
it's a boy happenstance. Let mesay it that way because they think about

(01:04:08):
it this way. One of thegreatest quarterbacks in NFL history is also the
leading also holds the NFL record formost interceptions Throne. Oh you mean average
Brett Farth. Yes, I meanso, all I'm saying is, yes,

(01:04:32):
you can't ignore the interceptions. Youhave to factor them in, especially
when they happen. But again,the league leader of interceptions is arguably one
of the better quarterbacks that the leaguehas had. And I say arguably because

(01:04:54):
I know everybody has their own opinion, but you have to put him in
the comm versation. So again,just because he threw the highest number of
interceptions this season, he still gothis team to the Super Bowl. True,

(01:05:15):
but I do think there's more pressure. I think there's more pressure on
him and the Rams to win thisgame than there is the Bengals. Oh.
Although, no, there's definitely morepressure on him in the Rams,
because the Bengals are the Cinderella story. You know, if if they don't
win, nobody's gonna look at themand say, well, you got here

(01:05:38):
because you were lucky, or yougot here and you did exactly what we
thought you were gonna do. TheBengals are playing at a there. I
don't I don't. I don't wantto say carefree, but I don't believe
there's much pressure on them in thisgame. They're playing with house money.
Basically, yeah, thank you exactly. They're playing with how that's money.

(01:06:00):
But when I look at the Rams, between Stafford Ramsey, Aaron Donald and
Cooper Cup the deck, I think, while while the pressure is on them,

(01:06:26):
I also think the deck is stackedin their favor. Oh of course,
of course, because the Rams haveput this team together over the last
and granted, Cooper Cup and AaronDonald are the only star players they drafted
because you know, be a tradeof free agency is how they got Ramsey
von Miller, Um Stafford, whoelse? And Odell Beckham Jr. It's

(01:06:53):
how they got all forgot about OdellBeckham. Yeah, so that's how they
got those four players via free agencyand trades. I mean, look,
they don't have a draft pick thatyou know, first round coming up.
They pretty much mortgaged the future yearsago to get to this point. Again,
Um, what if they win itall? Everyone will say it was

(01:07:15):
worth it? Oh, of course, of course, because I mean they
can't sustain paying everyone what they're due. You know, we we joke behind
the scenes. How is this?How are they able to field a team
that actually plays at a competent levelby maintaining all their star players Because I
mean, look and give them credit, all the Jimmy's and Joe's when the

(01:07:39):
depth chart their roster behind these starplayers will play with these star players,
Um, they learned quickly, Theyadapt, They find the right people to
put in these positions who don't commanda high salary that you know, so
I mean getting one cool, Butyeah, I mean this is pretty much

(01:08:00):
make or break for like the lastthree four years. And another question that
I've got for you do you knowif between those heavy hitters that we just
named out for the Rams, doany of them have contracts that end this
season? Not to my knowledge,so Beham, probably Beckham because they signed

(01:08:25):
him in the middle of the season. Because Beckham did clear waivers. Ramsey
got an extension I want to say, last year, so he's on the
contract for a while. I believeStafford's deal or no, yeah, because
it was a trade for Stafford,so I don't know when his contract is
up. Donald. Of course,they're going to re up every three to
four years when his contract comes upbecause they can't afford to lose him.

(01:08:48):
He's pretty much everything to the defense. Miller. Miller was a trade and
he had just gotten a fat extensionfrom Denver. So so the fact so
so the fact that all of themstill have multiple years on their contracts.
They've got no cap space, none, none, They've got and and I

(01:09:15):
want to say they might be maxedout. They are. I don't know
what they're gonna do to pay whateverrookies they draft this season, but rookies
off. Sorry, if you're absolutelyright, you're absolutely forgot. Yet you're
right, because they more just thefuture. But again, if they win,

(01:09:35):
it will be worth it because ofcourse you still have everybody under contract
for a couple more years. Atleast as some of these contracts start to
expire, you start to get alittle bit of cap space back. It's
still becomes well, at least wedid get that one super Bowl that year.
Now let's see what we can doto start working on number two.

(01:09:57):
Yeah, look, the salary capissist suggestion. UM teams have found the
way to get around it by turningentire seasonal upcoming seasonal salaries into UH signing
bonuses or sense of bonuses that theywill definitely make no matter what, like,
oh yeah, if you start uhfourteen of eighteen seventeen games, you
make this bonus. Oh well that'snot hard. If you run for five

(01:10:19):
hundred yards this season, you'll getthis bonus. Oh that's not difficult.
You know, consider it's a starter. So that you know, silly things
like that they tie up in andsense of bonuses that they know they're going
to hit to swing it over thatway to make sure they get paid.
Yeah, just to say against thecap. And to some extent they can

(01:10:39):
do that with some of the salary. They can convert some of the base
into a signing bonus. But Ithink there's a limit on how much or
what percentage of it they can do. UM see that, look that I
do think this offense is potent enoughbecause look, before Stafford, it was

(01:10:59):
gone who's out there whipping the ballaround him? He had solid seasons as
their quarterback, minuses last year whenhe was injury riddled. Um. I
think the Bengal's biggest challenge will begetting to Stafford and losing track of Cooper
Cup too, to which I'm tryingto understand. How you know, I'm
still miffed that the Buccaneers lost thatconference title game because how do you I

(01:11:23):
don't I don't know what was goingon in the secondary. And I said
this then I'm going to repeat itnow. How do you lose track of
Cooper Cup? I'm sorry you're upsetwho lost that game? Again, No,
I'm not upset they lost the game. I'm upset they lost track of
the biggest wide receiver threat on theopposite on the on the offensive side of

(01:11:46):
the ball. How do you losetrack? That's like, that's like playing
the forty nine ers in the midto late eighties and losing track of Jerry
Rice. I'm not saying good.I'm not saying you a compassed Jerry Rice.
You saying. All I'm saying isthis is the guy him. Plenty
of times we lost track of him, plenty of times. I just don't

(01:12:10):
see how how would you lose trackof the one guy you can't let go
off like all right, oh bJ, beat you cool. He just
got there Tuesday again. I watchedit happen twice a year every year in
the eighties and some of the ninetieswhen we were in the NFC West.

(01:12:32):
It can happen. Oh again,the game is on the line. I'm
gonna need a secondary to know whatCooper Cup is that thatwithstanding, um,
there are some members of our grouphere next man up who were clowning the
signing of Trey hendricks Trey Hendrickson,and Hendrickson has been bawling. He's pretty

(01:12:55):
much the top guy on the defensiveline for Cincinnati getting at the quarterback,
and he has reeks some havoc.The AFC Championship, he was the main
guy getting after Patrick mahomes on almostevery single pass play, you know,
with the exception of being gas atthe end because Casey would do that to
you, but he can be amonster and a handful in and of himself,

(01:13:16):
and looked at, secondary has beenpiecemeal together with guys who bolted from
other teams. I don't think there'sa single member of the starting secondary that
the Bengals have drafted. I believethey've all come from other teams and they're
hungry that they're hungry to prove something. So I think they're they're going in
here with a chip on the shoulderbecause there's not a lot of household names

(01:13:40):
in that group. You know,everyone talks about Burrow, Higgins, Boyd
and and Chase along with Dixon.They're running back, so everything all the
hype for the Bankers has pretty muchbeen in the offense. But I don't
think the defense gets enough credit.They can get a few stops to make

(01:14:00):
things interesting. They got a goodshot of winning this, but honestly,
I, like I said, Ican't call it on a final prediction.
Um, what do you have again? I'm I on paper. I'm picking
the Rams on paper because the Ramshave the firepower. They are a I

(01:14:29):
think a better put together team.However, there is something to be said
for what the Bengals have managed todo. Um Borrow has been a beast
this year. He has done everythingthat the Bengals needed him to do on

(01:14:50):
that field to get them to thispoint. So, like I said,
on paper, it's the Rams inthe actual the plane of the game,
I just don't know. Um,I just don't know. If you put

(01:15:11):
a gun in my head and makeme pick a team, I'm I'm gonna
go with the Rams. Um.I'm a number I'm a numbers kind of
guy. Don't get me wrong.There's a lot to be said for heart.
My heart is just one of thosethings that you can't exactly predict.

(01:15:32):
So yeah, I'm I'm gonna gowith the Rams, you know what,
Just to be contur and I'm i'mI'm I'm oh, I know, I
know, I know, like Iwant to pick them, But like so

(01:16:01):
I basically bought it onto this.If for whatever reason, both offenses come
out flat, which defense do Itrust more? It's the Rams. Yeah,
Like, if you to tell meboth offenses are gonna come out and
completely just stink up the joint andnot look like what they look like in
the regular season, and you toldme one of these defenses are going to

(01:16:25):
carry their team to victory. Andagain this is not the crap on the
Bengals because again they've been balling thispostseason. I gotta go with the Rams
because they're a defense. Look,we talked about up front. We talked
about the secondary, the two linebackersthey play over the middle, or speedy

(01:16:46):
rangy guys, even though they're nothousehold names, they get zero acknowledgment whatsoever
or that unit. It's literally justa secondary and the pass rush. I
believe they can get it done ifpushed them to shelve. And it had
to come down to which defense Itrust most, and that's the Sadden fact.

(01:17:08):
For me, it's the Ramps.Though I won't be rooting for him
on Sunday talk about a game whichI have zero rooting interests. I just
want to enjoy a good game.That's it, all right, m J.
Let's wind this down now with someshenanigans here and prop bets and not

(01:17:32):
the typical point spread. Which receiver, running back, quarterbacks is going to
do x y. Forget the statsand x's and old prop bets. I
don't care about those. Let's talkabout some crazy off the wall prop bets.
But first, um, I dowant to get a couple of game
stat ones going out here. Mpat Our, Patriots fan, did send

(01:17:59):
in and that one of the propbest that he likes is Tyler Boyd over
fifty one and a half receiving yards. He does mention he felt better about
it when he thought c. JUzama was definitely out, but since it
sounds like he might be playing,doesn't feel too good about it. He

(01:18:20):
does feel like the Rams defense isgoing to key in on both Chase and
Higgins and be watching for Mixing,so Boyd could easily get some of those
yardage provided that he's won. He'snot covered by Jalen Ramsey in two Zama's
probably not on the field at thesame time. Another one, Sony Michelle

(01:18:40):
scores a touchdown. Again, thisis one he thought better about when he
figured that cam Acres was going tomiss the game. But cam Acres is
not going to miss this game,so so those are two prop bets that

(01:19:01):
he likes. The gatorade color helikes is yellow. Okay, so the
gatorade at the end that's doubtst onthe winning head coach. He feels that
the gatorade color will be yellow someof his prop bets. Other prop bets
not actually game related, have todeal with halftime, and he thinks,
without a shadow of a doubt,California Love is the first song that's played

(01:19:26):
at halftime because it's the first timethe first time the super Bow has been
in LA since the nineties with abrand new stadium, which means the first
rapper to speak or rap will beDoctor Dre, although if they start the
song like the typical starts, thatmeans Tupac is technically the first to speak
and rap, and I'm tempted towager that he shows up as a hologram.

(01:19:48):
I definitely think we see Tupac insome form, but it will probably
be a video and not a hologram. So California Love the first song of
the halftime show, with Doctor Dreto be the first speak. He is
the headliner of the show, followedby Eminem, then Snoop, then Mary
then Lamar. So that that's histake on the prop bets. Anything that

(01:20:10):
you have, Um, I don'tthink we're gonna see part I don't think
you're gonna see two podcasts on hologram, not considering the way him and Drake
fell out back in the day.Now we won't see podcasts off of them.
Um wow, my prop bet you'retalking about a little bit now again

(01:20:30):
the way him and Drake fell out. I just don't see it, Okay,
I just I just don't see it. Um my prop bet is that
Mary Jane cusses first out of everybodyperforming in that halftime show. My money

(01:20:56):
to Mary j cusses first. Well, okay, so you we do know
they'll have to do the clean versionsof their song because this is one network
TV. I mean the Justin timberLake and Jannet Jackson. No no,
no, no one, no no, no one told the network that was

(01:21:17):
in the plans. They kind ofcame up with that. Off the cuff
is telling them that she's gonna becussing the first Well, okay, so
I mean you know what now,Now, the other thing to think about
that is the other thing to thinkabout is what time do you think we'll
get the halftime show? Because remember, after a certain time you can be

(01:21:44):
a little loose with what you sayon television. Yeah, that's typically around
eight or nine pm Eastern time.The game starts at six thirty. We
got all the pageantry, Well,kickoff is around six thirty. Kickoff is
aroun six thirty, so to thegame will probably start being televised at six

(01:22:04):
you know, we get provided.I mean, no way, no,
in no way, are you beingkickoff six thirty or the start is at
six thirty? Good question. Theyhave six thirty start time, so right,
that doesn't mean kickoff. It's possible, that is true. That is

(01:22:27):
true if if it's after a certaintime, she can cuss and get away
with it. Obviously, you knowshe can't get on there. I don't,
I don't. I don't think therules would allow her to get on
there and drop an F bomb onanybody. No, there are other things
that she can see, like um, yeah, you get away with yeah

(01:22:47):
TV. Yeah. So so that'swhat I'm saying is I think she's the
first one because it's gonna because thereit's they're gonna be in California. You've
got Dre Snoop, Eminem, KendrickLamar, You've got this amazing halftime show
that honestly, I'm still trying tofigure out how did Mary J. Blige

(01:23:11):
get to the show and not tobe a West Coast singer. Don't get
me wrong, I love not toBlige as an artist, but the mixture
just seems a little off to me. So again, you can thank Jay
Z in his entertainment group for that. Oh my goodness, Oh did you

(01:23:34):
forget that? That's how there wassomething I saw about there earlier today that
I'm just kind of like, I'mso disappointed. But that's that's another story.
That's another story. Again. AllI'm saying is if the halftime show
is after a certain time, theycan be a little looser with what they
say. And my prop bet isMary j is the first one to cuss.

(01:24:00):
Here's the one that caught my attention. Will Snoop Dog smoke on stage
during the halftime show? Yes?Yes, oh guys, yeah, that
that one definitely caught my eye therelike it, Like you said, it's

(01:24:21):
Callie Um. A lot of thepromotional well, quite a few of the
promotional commercials hyping up the Super Bowlhave him voicing over Um talking about it
being in his hometown. So notonly but there was I wish I could

(01:24:42):
remember who it was that was doingthe interview, but they talked about how
when Snoop would be on ESPN everyso often, they were like, we're
Snoop Oh, he's out back takinga break, and we all know what
he's out back taking a break doing. So no, not at all.

(01:25:04):
He's probably catching, you know,catching his breath thinking about the next segment.
Um, okay, yeah, Soto me, it's not even a
question of whether or not he's goingto smoke. How much and how long
would be my question? Ah yeah. The other one problem, one thing

(01:25:31):
that I would want to know isis Eminem gonna find a very slick way
to make some reference to him beingthe only white guy performing with this entire

(01:25:55):
black halftime show but the NFL can'tget there together with black head coaches.
Eminem has said some quite prolific thingsthroughout his career. Prolific, that's a
nice way of putting it. That'sthe word prolific. So does he find

(01:26:20):
a way to kind of take thatjab after NFL while I'm performing at the
halftime show, because what does hehave to lose? He's not employed by
the by the NFL. The worstthing they could do is say, well,
we won't bring you back for halftimeanymore, to which Eminem will be

(01:26:43):
like, okay, oh gosh,that that is a goal one. You
know, I can't even tell becauseif it you know what, considering halftime
is a scripted show and it's inthis's a super Bowl, it's a longer
show than a normal game. Becausehalftime during the regular season and even a

(01:27:06):
playoff game is roughly fifteen minutes.Halftime for the Super Bowl is like half
an hour, forty five minutes.Forty five minutes. Yeah, like these
teams pretty much have a long breakbetween als. Um. It is quite
possible that he comes off the cuffand says something that catches the censor's off

(01:27:30):
guard. He's more liable than thanMary J. Blige. I would say
that here's another one who will appearin the Super Bowl commercial. First,
Buzz Budweiser's Clydesdale or Fido lays MegaStallion, Meg the Stallion. No,

(01:27:53):
you want to see Meg the Stallionfirst? That's what about are with you
at all? Just saying, soyou're putting your money on Mega Stallion shows
up before the buddewives of Clidse Dellin the commercial. Honestly, I wouldn't

(01:28:15):
be the least bit surprised if they'rein a commercial together. Oh goodness,
gracious. Another prop bat or commercialswhich will be shown first during any Super
Bowl commercial, rocket, moon,astronaut or an alien? Which which will

(01:28:40):
wait? Which will we see first? Yes, in a halftime commercial,
a rocket, a moon, themoon, an astronaut or an alien alien?
Uh, let's see first. Tospeak, we are recovered that we
are recovered the first song for thehalftime. Oh, I've got one for

(01:29:02):
you. Since we're talking about commercials, but who has the worst commercial?
Ooh, the worst commercial? Worstcommercial? Considering they haven't done it in

(01:29:27):
years and it's pretty much lost asluster, I don't see them doing it.
But my first choice would be,uh, Budweiser. If they do,
if they try to re rehash theBud Bowl, because remember, we
haven't seen a Bud Bowl commercial probablyabout five plus years. Yeah, and

(01:29:50):
they and they pretty much just camedown to here's the score of Bud Bowl.
They even stopped showing like actual bottlesor cans going up and down the
field and helmets. They stopped doingthat altogether. So I feel like if
they if someone behind the scenes societythis is a good year to bring back
Butt Bowl, that would be theworst commercial. If not, then I

(01:30:12):
feel like one of the freedo laysDoritos commercials is going to fall flat because
it did last year. Like everysingle Doritos slash Freedo La commercial last year
was a yawn. None of themhit. And granted there were worse commercials
than that, but they were thebiggest brand to have the worst commercials,

(01:30:33):
especially considering what these companies pay outfor ad space during the Super Bowl.
I mean, I the last yearwould have been Super Bowl twenty twenty one,
but from the twenty twenty season,right we were COVID. COVID was

(01:30:54):
much worse. But yeah, Icould see, I could, I could
Yeah, yeah, yeah, therewere something I'm just thinking in my head
as to why those commercials were sobad. And yeah, COVID protocol and
all of that kind of stuff.Things were still much more restrictive than they
are now. True. Yeah,yeah, yeah, we definitely had some

(01:31:15):
really bad commercials last year. Yeahthis year, up, would you find
no, No, I'm just laughing. Yeah we did. We did have
bad commercials. Yeah, just agreat I'm gonna put a lot of that
on COVID. But yeah, BudBowl, Oh that would be so bad,
Like because I don't think you're goingto capture the entertainment of a generation

(01:31:42):
now that you know at least yourtarget audience of the youngest drinking age possible
twenty one, twenty under thirty.Legally, um, that would be interested
in a bud Bowl commercial. ButI still feel like somebody behind the scenes
at at bud Wise or whatever it'sgonna be like, this would be a

(01:32:02):
great year to bring back. That'sthat that would definitely be something an older
person working there would want to bringback. Because yeah, I mean because
because because again being at I workon a college campus. The things that
I hear some of the kids,and I say kids, I'm sounding like

(01:32:25):
an old man at this point,But the things that I hear some of
the some of the kids on onthe college campus talk about these days,
it's never bud Wise. And Idon't really here much about beer per se.
It's all it's it's it's a lotmore of these sugary alcohol drinks that

(01:32:47):
everybody is mixing and making. Now, um, where you know they've got
like I don't know, we'll justsay, like a big tub for all
these different candies and they're soaking themin in in a lot of different alcohol.
I don't hear them talking much aboutbeer, So I just don't see
that particular demographic really caring much aboutbeer, and the when I do hear

(01:33:13):
people talking about beer, it tendsto be that hipster crowd that I don't
feel like they care very much aboutfootball, so they probably aren't watching the
Super Bowl anyway, and then they'remore into craft beers and not you know,
your typical football kind of beer.You trude, tru indeed, reel.

(01:33:40):
You sound like an old man talkingabout the kids on the college campus.
I mean you are an old man, and to us they are kids
on a college campus. Goodness,any other prop bets you want to go
over before we get out of here, that or not? Because I don't
want to talk, I am ahead? Who do how do? How do

(01:34:04):
I want to? How do Iwant to work this? Of the players
on the two teams playing in theSuper Bowl, which team do we see
with one of their players in acommercial? First snap? Because I don't.

(01:34:27):
I don't think there are any rulesagainst the players being in any Super
Bowl commercials, not that I'm awareof, no, but um, off
the top of my head, Iknow Aaron Donald has the Bridged one Tires
commercial which he's wearing them. Thethe optical camouflage suit. Yo. I

(01:34:50):
love that commercial so so that that'sone commercial. Um, you think that,
you think as many times as we'veseen it, that they'd spend the
extra money to have it during theSuper Bowl. Possibly, you know what,
since Aaron Donald was playing in theSuper Bowl, it might be worth
it. Yeah, so I'd probablysay the Rams because on the flip side,

(01:35:14):
the only marketable names are Burrow andChase. And while I wouldn't put
it past either than to being aSuper Bowl ad, I think Donald is
the biggest name in this game period. Like Aaron Donald is the household name.
Like, yes, I know thatthe league wants to push quarterbacks and
we have Burrow and Stafford here,But if you asked anybody to name a

(01:35:38):
player or any player on either team, just a general average person in this
country, name a player on eitherof these two teams, Aaron Donald is
more than likely the first name that'sgoing to be mentioned. That's fair,
that's fair. So okay, Yeah, what about what about Jamar Chase in

(01:35:59):
a commercial as in Chase Bank.I know it's cheesy. I know it's
cheesy. Oh very cheesy. JamarChase and a Chase Bank commercial, I
feel like that would have been doneby now. Okay, okay, like
I really do, considering like whathe's done this season, like that,

(01:36:24):
that's something they would have capitalized onby the midpoint of the season at least.
And I know that Jamar Chase andJoe Burrow played on the same LSU
team that they get drafted the sameyear, No one year apart. Okay,
this is Chase's rookie year and Burrowsextended rookie year um technically his second

(01:36:50):
year. But remember halfway through lastseason, the previous season, his rookie
season. It's wary tourist acl right, ye, so but yeah, and
of course they always prop bet howlong do you think the national anthem will

(01:37:13):
go? Mostly over unders? Mostlyover unders? I have seen are two
minutes? Do we know who's seenit yet? The national anthem is being
sung by Mickey Guyton. I don'teven know who that is, so the
google might go real quick. Um, considering the track she'll be playing too,

(01:37:40):
unless it's a live band, thereis typically under two minutes. I'm
gonna go with the under. That'sagain, that's typically unless she has a
live band on field playing with herand they go with the audio track of
the music with her singing to that, I can't see it being under because

(01:38:06):
if everything is live there on thespot, like I said, if the
band is there and she's singing over, if she's singing to it, she's
a country singer. Huh. Idid not know that, Like I said,
again, I didn't even know whoshe was, right, But like,
yeah, so I will say audiotrack of the music that she sings

(01:38:29):
to under live band playing with herover. But also remember they got a
time her hitting that Home of aBrave with the flyover. Yeah, so
it's not much she can do asfar as ad lib and I know for

(01:38:54):
there was a long period of timein which the league prohibited the artists.
Unless the artists themselves were musicians likethey played in the instrument, they did
not allow them to play to livemusic. They had the audio recording of

(01:39:15):
the music that was already played ata certain length, so that when they
hit the end, when they hitHome of the Brave, the flyovers happening
in the fireworks are going off becauseit's all time to happen that, see,
you know, simultaneously. So whetherthey're still doing that or not,
I don't know, but yeah,that that's my guess on that. Oh,
I'm not as young as I thoughtshe was. She was born in

(01:39:38):
eighty three. And the other propbet here that I find interesting is what
would be the main or dominant colorof her outfit when she sings the national
anthem? And little yeah, theysaid, A quick Google search of guiding
didn't return a lot of photos dressedin white. But you never know if

(01:40:00):
an event of the magnitude of theSuper Bowl will aspire a performer to break
from the norm. So she's fromTexas, so I wouldn't be the least
bit surprised if it's a play onwell know, because the Texas flag,

(01:40:23):
it is the Texas flag, red, white, and blue, just like
the American flag. Yep. Idon't know, man, I was I
was hoping something. I don't know. I just I see her doing something
to play up and not necessarily playup in a bad way, but just
to represent Texas. Mm hmm,all right, and my last one here,

(01:40:55):
uh. First, first, nonNFL athlete, Yeah, who will
see in a commercial? Steph Curryshow had tiny first, I mean not
non athlete, non NFL player,excuse me, that we'll see in a

(01:41:17):
commercial? Um? And I knowit's a lot to choose from, because
it could be any number of anyother sport athlete that we can see um
in commercials who are not football related. Yeah, that's gonna I'm gonna go

(01:41:43):
Freddie Freeman. Your bias is showing, Your bias is showing. I mean,
he's the MVP for the Major Leaguechampionship team. How how would bias
in my showing? James, howam I showing biased by picking the MVP
for the team who won the pennant? How where is my bias? Uh?

(01:42:06):
What team does he play for?Oh? This sound this this this
little ball club in Atlanta. Ohthis little ball club in Atlanta. Okay,
yeah, sure you no, no, no, no, he doesn't
play for a little ball club inAtlanta. Technically they're not in Atlanta.

(01:42:27):
Oh Lord, have mercy for thepeople who live outside of the state of
Georgia. That little ball club you'rereferring to plays in Atlanta, you know.
Okay, Sam, I'm still goingwith Freddy Freeman being the first non

(01:42:47):
football athlete we see. Okay,any final thoughts on the upcoming weekend,
the game itself before we get outof here, and just I'm looking forward
to having a good game of football, because this has been a pretty interesting

(01:43:08):
season, and I think this willbe a super Bowl to be remembered because
we're either gonna get between the twoteams playing either whichever quarterback wins, because
we know they're going to be focusedon the quarterback unfortunately, to be an
amazing story to tell, either Burrowjoins this elite club with the other two

(01:43:33):
Joes or Stafford finally gets one afterleaving Detroit. Indeed, indeed, all
right again, you want to reachout to us, complain about us or
anything we said earlier today, orcontribute some thoughts and opinions. Next Man

(01:43:54):
Up at gmail dot com is ouremail address, and again Facebook and Twitter
at next fan up for MJ.I'm James. We're signing off and Roger
Goodell, you could do better tryingto do the challenge of finding the mysterious
pond? Is this somebody else here? Now? Do jesus? Nice dude,

(01:44:15):
let's go get out of my face. I'm running out of breath and
also out of energy. I'm goingto see you later. Bye.