In this episode, John give his thoughts on Tim Tebow re-uniting with Urban Meyer in Jacksonville and discusses NFL players falling in line for OTA's after pushback from high profile players, the constant dilemma of taking talented players with character issues and team chemistry, the biggest factors that determine schedule strength in the first 17-game season. He also answers listener questions in the Middlekauff Mailbag. Follow John on Twitter and SUBSCRIBE now to get all the latest content!!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:22):
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the battle in all states or situations? What is going on? Everybody?
(00:43):
John Middlecop three and Out podcast, Welcome back, Hope everyone
had a great weekend, had a good Mother's Day. You
take care of your mom, your wife, your baby's mama,
whatever you had to do. Went out at dinner with
my mother and my brother and his wife and his
young son. David also goes by DJ. He is a terror.
(01:07):
I like him. He's got a he's got a large upside,
a big personality, big smile, like his energy level. But
obviously We're here to talk football, and that is what
we will do. I have some talks. Because talks, I
have some thoughts. For a while, it looked like OTAs
we're gonna be canceled. But it looks like the Union
(01:27):
elites and those super rich players have been outvoted and
something that would never happen in society, but it happened
in the NFL, and it really stood out to me.
The schedule release is this week. The schedule release the
great part of the NFL. We literally know whatever team
that you root for, who your team is playing, and
(01:49):
where the games are. We just get to find out
what week those games are and obviously the primetime games
Thursday night games. So I just have a couple of
things I'm looking for with every team. I mean, the
first thing that stands out to me, I saw something
Tom Brady has already reached out to Kyle Trask, and
I just had some overall thoughts as we kind of
move away from this draft on, just some philosophies I
(02:11):
would have type guys I would look for when pulling
the trigger on draft picks. Definitely high high draft picks
for sure. Then just some other little things will dive
into of course Middlecoff Mailbag at John Middlecoff is my
Instagram and if you slide in that Instagram you get
(02:32):
your questions. I answered here on the Middlecoff mailbag. Also,
if you could, I know many of you have, and
I greatly appreciate it, subscribe the Three and Out podcast
separate from Colin's feed. Also, if you could on that
three and Out feed leave a review. It helps us
with selling this show. It helps us with just everything
we're trying to do here in the Three and Out
(02:52):
podcast world. Quick opinion on the news of the day,
Tim Tebow after I saw field Yates tweeted has now
played or been on an NFL team in over three
thousand days, almost eight years ago. Is back and my
take was over the weekend. I think as this thing
started gaining steam, if he's able to make the team
(03:14):
at thirty three years old at tight end, after taking
years off to play baseball and work in the media,
it would be his most incredible athletic achievement to date.
That includes at Florida, that includes winning a playoff game.
That would be incredible. If he can catch, get open
and block defensive ends, I would bet against him. My
(03:35):
first take would be I think it's an incredible, incredibly
difficult ask. I get whether they're doing it no harm,
no foul, whatever. I do think if he somehow is
able to pull this off and he's like decent and
he starts in time, I guess he wouldn't start. But
even if he just plays one, they would move the
(03:57):
needle immediately. In a college area, right, the South is
owned by college football even here, Like you know what,
Drew Brees, Sean Payton. They're able to be relevant in
a college town, that's great. They say the same thing
about Atlanta Falcons, like it's difficult, it's hard. The only
time Tampa's ever relevant is when they win the Super Bowl.
So for Tebow, listen, I would bet against him making
(04:18):
the team. It's just thirty three years old, never played
the position, Like, come on, let's just be realistic. And
I'm not like I'm betting against the human being. I understand, Like,
I think he's an impressive guy. But if he were
to make the team and they have Tim Tebow one
of the most famous college players easily of my lifetime,
definitely in the South, probably top two or three in
(04:40):
the history of the sec Urban Meyer one of the
more fascinating, winning, and polarizing coaches of my lifetime. Trevor Lawrence,
Travis ETN. Two of the better players on one of
the current dynasties in college football. And they're in the
South like that, that place would be buzzing. I don't
know if they're gonna be any good or not. But
if you tell me Urban Meyer Tebow ETN. And Trevor
(05:04):
Lawrence on the same team like that, that team is
getting eyeballs. That team is getting people that typically are
just much more focused on college football that are going
to pay attention. My guess is he does not make
the team. I just I don't I'm kind of indifferent.
I just whatever. I have no issue with you signing
the guy. It's definitely gonna bring some media attention. Not
(05:27):
that they care about that, but like you're you're not
necessarily doing this for football reasons, right unless you truly
believe he can make the team, And maybe Urban believes that.
Maybe he does, but their teams not good enough to
worry about. Like, is it gonna ruffle some feathers in
the locker room? Are people gonna think that Tebow's the
teacher's pet? Like? Who gives a shit like, of course
(05:49):
Urban loves Tebow. You know who Urban likes more, Trevor Lawrence.
That's a starting quarterback. Is Tebow repping with the threes
or is he like repping with the ones? The back
What I said, if he makes the team at in
his early thirties, after he not played an NFL down
or snap or put on pads in years, be incredible. Man,
(06:10):
It's just he won't go away. I will give Tebow
many of that. He keeps just creating content. I wanted
to dive into what's going on right now with the NFLPA,
which is the union verse the teams and for a
(06:30):
long period of time. Obviously last year the offseasons were canceled.
There was no practice, there were no mandatory mini camps,
there were no workouts and team facilities. It was understandable.
We had a lot going on last year, a lot
of unknown This year. It felt like the NFLPA led
by the richest players. Last year, I think universally we
(06:53):
all agreed easier go virtual, no big issue this year
to the most outspoken people Aaron Rodgers, who might not
have showed up regardless, and Tom Brady, who was on
a call with the NFLPA last week and said, it's
not like baseball ask guys in December to throw ninety five. Tom,
(07:13):
I don't know if that's necessarily true. They don't do
it with the team, but they definitely train on their
own now. Tom's point was, why can't we just train
on our own now? Baseball season, I used to go
to spring training when I worked in radio. That bad
boy starts in about early February and it goes if
your team's any good, well into October, long period of time.
Football seasons clearly much shorter. But OTAs are happening. We
(07:36):
had rookie mandatory mini caamps last weekend. We're gonna have
them again this weekend. It looks like all the mini
camps are on like Donkey Kong, and definitely the mandatory
mini camp, which, as someone who's gone to OTAs now
for a decade, you get used to. There are three
or four OTA sessions. They usually start middle of the
end of May and go through you know, early middle June.
(08:00):
Only one is technically mandatory, the others are voluntary. Most
of these teams get just the majority of guys to
show up. Well, I think for the first time and
this represents a little bit of society. The middle class,
the lower class, the poor guy never has any saying.
Look at the coronavirus and the shutdowns and the lockdowns.
Do you know who had no say, the middle class worker,
(08:23):
the middle class business owner. They were told what they
could and couldn't do. You knew never had a shutdown?
The rich elites, right, I mean Walmart, Target, the internet
companies where I live. One of the richest individuals in
the state of California, Mark Benioff, was the loudest individual
(08:43):
pounded the table for lockdowns. Shut it down, lock it down.
Easy for him to say, he's a billionaire. During the
lockdowns in the winter, his company bought Slack for over
fifteen billion dollars. Lockdowns were incredible for his business. Yet
Billy or James or Susie that owns a small restaurant,
(09:04):
it wasn't up to her shut down. You think so
you want to shut down. I remember being at a
restaurant in Walnut Creek right before in California we had
to get We had a second wave of lockdowns in
the winter for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Hanka and everyone had to
shut down. Beside obviously you know, Target, Walmart, the big boys,
But restaurants shut them all down. They got shut down
(09:26):
for three months. And I remember being at the best
restaurant or a best bar in where I live, and
I was talking to the owners like, yeah, I mean
I got no fucking pull here. Obviously business is booming
right now. We don't want to shut down, but we
have no choice. And if we don't do it, they'll
pull my liquor license. And anyone in that business knows
one liquor license. They're expensive, you know, depending on where
(09:48):
you live, can be seventy five, one hundred and fifty
grand because they have a limited amount. And two he's like,
even if I tried to, you know, break the rules,
there'd be no guarantee I could ever get my liquor
license back. And if I don't have a liquor license,
I don't have business. They were treated like yo yos.
But the thing that always bothered me the most is
the working class people had no say. It was like
they were just told what they had to do by
(10:10):
the super rich people. Mark Benioff's like, shut it down. Meanwhile,
his company's making twenty billion dollar purchases during the lockdown.
It's like, well, fuck, business is good for you. It's like,
I don't have children, but I obviously that was a
point of contention the last twelve months, Like I don't
care what your opinion is on whether my kids can
go to school or not. If you have a stay
at home nanny or no pair, like or you have
(10:31):
a seven thousand square foot home, Yeah, it's pretty easy.
You got you got a nanny. You know a lot
of people. I'm sure many people are listening. It was hard,
it was difficult, Like it's okay to have a strong
opinion whether your kids should be to go back to school,
but as you know, you had no say You're say
was irrelevant. Well, that's typically how any the world works.
The rich people set the tone, they get to decide everything.
(10:52):
That's how society works. And I thought ultimately these OTAs
would be shut down. I was like, they're not gonna
happen because Brady Rodgers they got on the poll, but
because they're way more like in society, they're way more
middle class and poor people than there are rich people.
I know, you get on social media like rich people
did small percentage, there are way less Tom Bradys and
(11:13):
Aaron Rodgers and guys making ten plus million dollars in
the NFL. Then there are guys on veteran minimum salaries.
Then there are guys on rookie contracts. That is the
majority of the league. And those people in the majority
of the league, they need to work because that's how
they survive. If I owned a deli and you were
telling me I can't stay open, I might go under Hell,
(11:33):
a lot of people did. Where I live in California.
There are businesses left and right that are shut down.
Those people had no choice. If you tell me that
I can't go to OTAs when the coach wants me
to go there, there's a chance that I'm not gonna
make the team. It's easy for you to say, making
twenty million dollars a year, It's another thing for me, like,
this is my shot, this is my opportunity. I'm a
(11:53):
six round pick. How do you think I'm gonna get
a look? And this was for the first time seeing
all the middle class guys like Tom Brady and Aaron
Rodgers lost. You know why because their opinion. I hate
to say, it shouldn't really matter. If you guys don't
want to show up to practice, don't show up to practice.
But if you don't think that the fifth, sixth, seventh,
and late round and obviously undrafted free agents and guys
(12:15):
on veteran minimum salaries need this work to one show
their bosses that they can play too, just to learn
the offense, because ultimately, when training camp hits the limited
reps they're gonna get. It's hard to impress if you
don't know what the hell is going on, and those
guys outnumbered the rich guys, and they clearly are not listening.
Now listen. I'm not pro or anti union, I don't
(12:39):
really care. I'd probably lean more anti union, but obviously
every industry is a little different. The union in football
does play a role, but like they don't speak for everybody.
Like when Demorris Smith is saying to cancel these OTAs,
that is not speaking for the majority of the league.
That's speaking for the rich people, right, that's speaking for
(13:01):
his ruling class. And in society, what the ruling class
wants is what they get because they're the ones paying
for everything. They have all the fucking pool. In football,
that's not the case. Ultimately, if you want to show
up to work like Tom Brady can't do anything about it,
and the pushback is like Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, like
you guys don't necessarily need the reps and you definitely
(13:22):
don't need to impress anybody, but we do. This is
how we feed our families. And the only opportunity I
have to make a living in pro football is probably
to get into OTAs if I'm an undrafted free agent
and show out, because there's a chance. If there are
no OTAs and all I get a trading camp and
I'm a seventh rounder, I'm an undrafted free agent, I
might not get a real rep. I don't mean you
(13:44):
won't get a rep in practice, but a rep that
is taken seriously, and that non rep may lead me
to not getting the opportunity in a preseason game. Maybe Allen,
they get five preseason plays instead of if I had
the opportunity in an OTA, I make some plays. Then
all of a sudden we get to the preseason game
and I may get a quarter. I may get that
(14:06):
last game a half, And that's how I show out
to Belichick, to Andy, to Sean Payton, to Pete Carroll
to whoever I can play, and they keep me. Hell
I make the roster or maybe it comes down to
a practice squad spot between me and another guy, and
my five plays or my ten plays extra make the
team and now allow me on a practice squad make
(14:28):
a ninety grand where I would have been out of
a job that out of the difference this year. And
I think it's cool to see because it never happens
in society. It never happens, and no one consistently gets
more screwed than the middle class guy. He pays a
large percentag, especially in my state in taxes, has no
say in fucking anything. That's typically like the sports usually
(14:50):
works that way too. But they've had enough in this
situation and they're just showing up. The rookies are going
to practice. Zach Wilson I turned on. I'm like, God,
the Jets are practicing. You think the NFL PA one
to Zach Wilson show up, But no, he didn't listen.
He just showed up. The rest of his teammate showed up.
And I think it's a big win just for the
league as a whole. It's healthier this way, and it's
the right thing to do because, like listen, I've never
(15:13):
played in the NFL offseason OTAs aren't that hard. You're
also getting paid anyway, And as I read, a per
diem is like two hundred dollars a day. For some guys,
that can be a thousand dollars a week. Well, if
you're an undrafted free agent or a late round pick,
that money might help. I mean it really might. Yeah,
to Tom Brady, to Aaron Rodgers, to the good players,
that means nothing. But to a lot of these guys
(15:35):
whose career we know are going to be two to
four years, fighting for every penny, fighting for every rep matters,
and the offseason activities in the sport of football matter.
And clearly, you know, the rich Pro Bowl elites they
didn't win in this case. Fox Sports Radio has the
(15:56):
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Forest Service and the AD Council. Before we dive into
the schedule release, I wanted to hit on something that
jumped out to me. And I've been putting these philosophies
(17:44):
together when I was in recruiting and you know, around
the team a lot in the NFL, the type guys
you want on your roster, Right, it's no different than
the type people you want to associate with in life. Right, Positive, ambitious,
more good people, high character people. Your life is better
(18:04):
off when you have optimism and high character around you
then when you have negativity and bad guys around you. Right,
this is pretty basic. It's not that complicated. You keep
happier people around you, probably gonna be happier. You keep
a close circle of negative downers, you probably gonna be
pretty miserable. Right. It's a big reason I've kind of
(18:26):
tried to stay away from the Twitter dot com because
that is just a miserable place. I like to be happy.
I like to be positive, and it doesn't come naturally
for me. So it's easy to drown down there. A
team's no different one bad Apple can ruin a locker room. Definitely,
you know, a big personality, bad Apple. But I saw
(18:47):
it had been reported last week that Tom Brady immediately
reached out to Kyle Trask and told him, hey man,
let's get together a throw And it was like, I
can't amad what Tampa just the vibe of their franchise.
Obviously they just won a Super Bowl, but even before
in Corona, having Tom around, reaching out to those guys,
(19:10):
staying on those guys, whether it be Mike Evan, whether
it be Chris Godwin, and just what he's meant obviously
to Antonio Brown's career. Antonio Brown was done. It was
over without Tom Brady. His career's done. Playoff Lanny never
happens if Tom doesn't pound the table for that. And
I'm not even talking about like what Rogers and Russell
want more personnel. I'm talking about, don't worry, guys, all
(19:33):
handle this. It's less about I need this guy. It's
him looking at the GM, looking at the coach and going,
I gotta guys, I can handle it. And that's rare,
and ultimately going into the draft, you want to draft
good guys, right, Ideally you would want sweet players who
are high character guys. That's what every team would ideally pick.
(19:55):
If you could get a great player, super high character,
you never have to worry about are great player, total shit,
heead bad guy, can't trust. I think we all know
which one we choose, But sometimes you get in these
positions where you go, he doesn't even have to be
that bad of a guy. There's just a lot of
questions and you go, I don't really want to take
this guy, but he's the most talented guy on our board.
(20:17):
And I think the best part about team building is
trying to balance who you bring in and who you
already have there. And I remember when I was with
the Eagles, the New York Giants took JPP really high,
and there are some question marks coming out about JPP
and obviously not even like bad but just maturity stuff,
and it kind of played out right, but he was
(20:38):
a really talented player. What they had though with that
franchise was a great infrastructure of high level guys. Started
with Eli, but justin Tuck and and Osie, like those
two guys were super high level and they just thought
we bring this guy around those guys, we can shape,
we can mold him. And it worked. I think the
first year they drafted them, they won the Super Bowl.
(21:00):
And that balance of going, we have a good group.
Let's say you're the Packers and you go, we have
Davante Adams, doesn't it make sense for us to kind
of potentially reach and ideally you just get another good
guy that's a good player. But if we get a
question mark, put him around that guy, or just get
a young guy and put him next to him and
(21:21):
let him learn from him. Because clearly Jimmy Garoppolo learned
from Tom Brady. Trey Lance's first call or text message
that he received from a forty nine er was Jimmy G.
Now obviously Jimmy G trying to, you know, repair the
whole package. Right, it's a good look, but he learned
from Tom that's what you're supposed to do. And I
(21:45):
talked about it last week with the Colts and Frank
talking about he used a quote that was basically like,
I got no problem using a risk or taking a risk.
Let's take a risk. But why would we when we've
worked so hard to build this infastry structure and they
really have right Quentin Nelson, They trade for DeForest Buckner,
who Kyle Shanahan said was everything they wanted into forty
(22:07):
nine er, and they even some of the Darius Lennard
super high character guy. I think he had a tweet.
Was it a year ago, might have been this year,
I can't remember. It was basically like, if you're a
free agent and you're thinking about coming here and you're
not a grinder and you don't practice hard every day,
we got no fucking room for you. This is a
place for grinders. And that's I mean, he's one of
the best players on their team. And then last year
(22:28):
they take two really impressive young guys in Michael Pittman
Junior and Jonathan Taylor. Like they've developed a pretty good infrastructure.
What were they able to do this offseason? And I
think it works for the draft and just team building
acquisition in general. They got Carson Wentz, who has some
quote unquote personality questions. Is he getting along with everyone?
Is he a good fit in your locker room? Those
(22:49):
were legitimate question marks that people in the league, that
people like me, that people listening that we're all asking like,
what is going on? Do you know why they feel
really good. We have an unreal landing spot. We don't
have a bad seed in this room. We're full of
high character, hard working, good players. If you can't succeed here,
you can't succeed anywhere. And it's a balance like there's
(23:13):
never a right or wrong time to do it. Think
about the Bills last year with Stefan dis one thing.
I never got too down on digs. Even though there
are questions like isy a diva or whatever. He always
played hard. Whenever you watch the Vikings, he not only
played hard, they were winning, so that meant he was
a productive, winning player. Sometimes we have that question mark
(23:35):
with guys on bad teams. What's he gonna look like
when you put him in the right environment Jamal Adams,
Jalen Ramsey. Once you can see both those guys are
so competitive you put them on good teams. They're good
that they belong in that environment. Now, sometimes it doesn't
go that well. But the Bills get Stefan Dis he
immediately hits it off with Josh Allen, zero issues. They
pay him and he's awesome as an All Pro Pro
(23:56):
Bowl type season. Now, we've seen many instances in the
past when it goes wrong and it can go off
the rails. But these are the balances, and this is
why you get paid so much to be a GM
or a head coach, because ultimately these decisions are on you.
Everyone just thinks it's about like just a draft or No,
(24:16):
it's about everything. It's about do we feel comfortable. That's
what so much of the draft process is. Even in
free agency. I remember going to meetings, we talk about
their personality stuff, right, I mean, obviously we have the
information from when they were in college, but reaching out
to coaches that were on the stabs, that've been around
them on various teams, you're constantly worried because I'm like
(24:38):
most businesses. If you're making a fifty million dollar acquisition,
if you're making a one hundred million dollar acquisition, it's
usually a business. It's usual, just like an entity. So
you're just bringing over the product, right. Obviously there are
people within the buildings that make the product, but you're
ultimately just trying to buy the product and keep the
cash flow going. In pro sports, but specifically football, you're
(24:59):
buying a player and putting them into a large group
of people. Like in basketball, you only got twelve guys
on the team, right, technically fifteen, but only seven or
eight play on. Any team's worth a ship. Maybe some
teams played nine, but definitely wants the playoffs. You have
a clear hierarchy in football. Everyone's kind of partaking, even
if you're just a random like special teamer, Like you
(25:22):
play a role, if you're a gunner, your kickoff guy,
if you get into a Pence the guy, if you're
dressing on game day, you're just an injury or two
away from playing on offense or defense. So you have
to be very, very careful. And I think ideally, when
you can set your franchise or set the tone where
your best players are, your best guys and best workers,
you have a blueprint to build a powerhouse team. Now,
(25:45):
obviously those guys got to be good players, but I
think sometimes when you see bad teams, and definitely it
happens in basketball and in football too, where you get
guys that think more highly of themselves than they actually are,
Like they're not as good as they think, and they're
not great teammates, and it's why you lose. Right, it's
(26:06):
to me, the best teams everyone understands their role. Like
look at last year with the Patriots, or excuse me,
with the Bucks. Let's even take Brady out. Let's put
in Grenkowski. Grenkowski shows up. He's gonna be a first
ballot Hall of Famer. He's arguably the best tight end
of all time. Go down, as you know, one of
the great, truly great players of all time. Not one
(26:28):
issue in Tampa. Just comes in, helps guys out, help
guys learn the offense, help guys get used to Tom
never complains about his role and just seamless transition. That's
hard to do. Like I wouldn't even blame him, like
JJ Watt this year with the Cardinals. He's gonna come in.
He's got a lot of pelts on the wall. I
would imagine he comes in to be pretty seamless transition.
(26:50):
But if it doesn't, if worst case scenario and I
don't expect it to be like this, but a guy
with a long history of a lot of success, what
if he comes in he walks in like his don't
stink the other guys on the team, like bro, we've
been here for a little while. You know that that metching.
That is pretty hard. Aj Green think about some of
those big names you bring it when you bring in
a big name. When you sign a big name, how
(27:13):
they enter the workforce in football, unlike most of our
normal jobs, like when you hire someone, I mean most
some of these guys making a middle manager might make
a couple hundred grand. Most employees aren't making that much money.
That's why it's easy to get rid of hire and
fire people. Where in sports you not only know the
person's resume, but you know how money they're making. You
(27:34):
know about their like what they've done in other places,
a very public job. And the good teams they understand
this and they build their culture and they build their
players or their team around those type players. The ones
that don't know what they're doing, don't have a vision
and end up with just a bunch of random guys.
And even if you have talent, it's why it doesn't
(27:56):
usually equal wins. Chemistry matters. Even the the advance of
analytics and the power of numbers, which is a real thing, right,
and we've always used numbers. I think it's actually a
little overblown. But I'll never forget. When I first got
a job in radio, we had the Oakland Ace and
they had a really good team at the time, and
(28:18):
they had guys like Josh Donaldson who won an MVP,
Yoana Cespedist, who was a badass. They just had some
badass players. I remember going into the locker room in
spring training. Got to go to spring training. It's pretty cool.
I had worked in the NFL, But when you get
to do something like that and go sit in the
locker room and watch games, it was like this badass
hanging out like Bruce Bochi and you know, meeting Bob
Melvin and Bob Melvin saying he liked the show is
(28:39):
really cool kind of felt which I don't. I'm kind
of numbed all this stuff. Sometimes it felt like a
little kid again going into I'm in the big league
clubhouse and just seeing the way all these guys interacted.
They ended up winning. Did they win the division? Yeah,
they won the division, hosting playoff games like it was clear.
And Billy is known as this like forefather right of us,
(29:00):
and I truly believe he's one of the greatest general
managers ever. I know he's never won a World Series.
His owner is a joke. Without Billy Bean, that franchise
would have gone bankrupt. They're a clown show. Yet every
year google their record right now they win and he's
doing it with like the third iteration of group of
players because his owner won't pay anybody in the last decade.
(29:23):
And I'll never forget talking to people on the staff,
on the scouting staff and the coaches how much they
valued chemistry and they truly truly believed in it, because
I remember when the Warriors in the Rockets became big rivals,
the warriors chemistry was elite. Ultimately, the Rockets didn't have
a great chemistry, and the Warriors always got over on them.
Even the times when the Rockets probably shouldn't have won,
(29:43):
there was always a little bit missing because you know what,
the numbers can't quantify how much I liked the guy
standing next to me, how much I care about his family.
Am I legitimately friends with the person? In most of
our businesses, it helps, but it's not mandatory right now,
I you think it helps, Like if you're gonna go
on a sales call with another human, if you guys
have good chemistry and your friends, probably easy to sell
(30:06):
if you're working as a tandem, but if you're just
doing cold calls and cubicles, like, who cares if you
like everyone or not? In football and basketball and baseball,
when you're standing next to the guy, when you're playing
with the guy every day for months on months in
a public job with a lot of scrutiny, your character matters, right,
Your emotional intelligence matters. Obviously mature as you go on.
(30:27):
Who you have looking up like, who you have as
stable veterans for your young guys to look up to matters.
Can you imagine Kyle trash Now, Kyle trast is coming
from the SEC. He just was a starting quarterback at Florida.
I bet when Tom Brady texts him like, bro, let's
throw soon, that had to be one of the coolest
text he's ever got in his entire life. Like, that's
(30:49):
that's what high level people do. Now, obviously he's one
of the best players ever, but that happens all over
the league with the good players and the high character guys.
And the guy's the quote unquote get it. That's why
some teams win and some teams lose. Schedule release week,
Let's go baby. I used to laugh at this, Now
I take it really seriously. Part of it I'm a
(31:11):
content creator. The other part is, you know, I just
I get excited and I wrote down five things that
I'm looking for. You know, whatever your team is, but
just the things that jump out to me when the
schedule is released. Now, we already know who your team
is playing, We know the seventeen games, every single one
of them home and away. We just don't know the order.
(31:34):
So let's go. One is the first thing I jotted down,
When is your bye? I think we all look for that.
We always did well they added a game, so wouldn't
you imagine the bye is much more important this year now?
I think ideally you've always rooted for your by to
be somewhere between like seven, week seven and nine, somewhere
(31:55):
in the middle. Most people get really pissed when their
buy is like week four. Not want your buy week four.
You would much rather have your bye week ten or
eleven than week four or five, So that to me
is always a key. Now. I do think one day,
as they probably eventually get to eighteen games, implement two buys,
(32:17):
but that's kind of irrelevant because we're not there now
and we're in a one buy seventeen week system. So
to me, you want your bye week eight on. If
your buys a little earlier, it's just not ideal. Number two. Now,
maybe this impacts you know, us out on the West
(32:38):
more than some of you guys. Definitely, the Midwest probably
doesn't have as big of an impact. And if you
are on the East Coast, when you play out on
the West Coast, you gain time, so there is no
better feeling. I know when I lived in Philadelphia and
would come out here for work or vacation, it was
incredible getting hours back where it is really difficult. And
the first time it really hit me working in football
(33:00):
was when I worked at Fresdent State. We played Wisconsin
my first year, I guess it would have been my
second year at an eleven am kickoff, which was a
nine am kickoff for US West Coasters, and you know,
you get up five hours or four hours before the game,
so you're eating breakfast on your body clock at like
(33:21):
five in the morning. So it's difficult for West teams
to go east and the Niners, Seattle, Arizona, the Rams,
the Chargers, Denver, any kickoff against any of the Eastern
Seaboard teams or the Eastern you know, time zone teams
that are ten am are not easy. They are hard
on the body clock and a massive advantage for the
(33:44):
East Coast team. I think it is much easier for
the East Coast teams to come out west because those
games are also at one o'clock right on the West,
so really it's four o'clock like they're wide awake. So
the time zone games for the West Coast teams. Your
Thursday night game, every team has one. They're unavoidable. The
(34:07):
first thing you look at is the game homer away
you would every you know, you would much rather have
the Thursday home game. Clearly right, it's much easier. But
even if you have the Thursday night home game, the
first thing I look for, what's your week before? It's
very very difficult for teams that have to play a
road game, and maybe they have a new rule. Maybe
(34:28):
this is the rule. You can't come off a road
game and then play a Thursday night game, even though
if I remember correctly, that's definitely happened recently. But who
are you playing before? Is the big time game? Are
you playing like a Sunday night marquee game? And then
you have a Thursday night game, even if it's a
home game. Who you play before the Thursday night game
does matter? That clearly is probably not as hard of
(34:51):
a game as we once kind of talked about four
or five years ago. I think guys have gotten more
used to it. But it doesn't matter what time of
the season. Talking about the bye, you would much rather
have to buy later. I would much rather have my
Thursday night game week three or four. Right, I'm fresh,
I'm into the season. I basically get an early You know,
(35:12):
if you win that Thursday night game, it's like a
three day weekend, right, you get Friday, Saturday, Sunday off.
It's an incredible little mini buy. It can be used
as a huge advantage. So when is a Thursday night
game on your schedule, who are you playing the week
before your Thursday night game? Homer away, That to me
really factors in. Obviously, love the primetime games, the Sunday
(35:37):
night games, Monday night games are a big deal. They
just are you know, Monday night football I think is
having somewhat of a little bit of a renaissance. It's
kind of back. We're feeling good about it again. Who
even called Oh it's Riddick and those guys. It's now flexible.
So who you play on Monday night football? Maybe I'm
of a generation where it still means everything. Obviously everyone
(35:59):
older than me. It still matters. Like Monday Night Football batters,
you're Marquee, you're by yourself. Do you get a couple
of Monday Night games? Sunday Night game? I think after
week eleven is flexible this year, Monday Night is flexible two.
But Sunday Night, it just depends. If it's September October,
you're playing that Sunday Night game. If it's you know,
late November, your team better be good. Oh, they'll kick
(36:21):
you out of there, and they don't care who you are.
I'm pretty sure they They flexed a Dallas Cowboy game
last year, like they will flex anybody. Because the great
part about the NFL, it's a national sport. If your
team is good. If the Jags are a twelve win team,
they will get flexed into Sunday Night. It will happen
if they suck. We like, we're not gonna watch the
(36:43):
Texans this year. We're probably not gonna watch much of
the Jets this year. The bad teams are just we're
not gonna watch much of the Lions this year. But
if you win, if the Lions somehow or ten and two,
they will get flexed. So the primetime games for the
no on like Kansas City's one. Question Mark two is
(37:05):
Rogers Packers Chiefs, Like that was gonna be probably the
best game on paper on the schedule release. Is Rogers
gonna be on the team. I don't know what would
you do if you're the NFL. If I was Roger,
I would say put it in primetime game, make it
later in the season so it's flexible if somehow the
(37:25):
Packers trade Rogers and Jordan Love and the team doesn't
turn out to be good. But if if it, we
just put it in a flexible spot. Even if they
trade Rogers, if they're still good, the Packers are a
massive brand. I Packers Chiefs. I'm good with that. I'd
say the biggest game on the schedule release, probably just
on paper, is gonna be Tom Brady returning in New England.
(37:48):
That game feels like an absolute lock. I'd probably go
Monday Night. You could Thursday Night feels like a little
bit of a rush. I would put that on Monday Night,
non flexible. I would probably have that Monday Night football
in September. I would have that early on. And remember
Tampa gets the first Thursday Night game because they won
(38:09):
the Super Bowl, so that probably game is going to
be against I saw Dallas some of the good teams
that they play, so Dallas Tampa could be the opening
game this week and then the other game. Again, this
impacts us a little more on the West Coast just
because we have nice weather but cold weather games. You know,
(38:30):
if you're a Steeler fan, like you're just you're playing
cold weather games, Patriot fan, Jets fan, whoever? For us,
like if you're the Rams, the Chargers, the Cardinals, the Niners,
the Raiders, just these West Coast teams that do not
even the Colts. Do you have two or three potential
snow games in December? Do I have to go to
Baltimore in late December? Do I have to play at
(38:54):
lambeau Field in November December? Philadelphia, Washington, the New York's,
New England like that matters? Cleveland, Cincinnati, like those plays
are cold? Miami every year when their schedule comes out, well,
their division all plays in cold weather cities. All of
them are outdoors. Do I gotta go to Chicago December
(39:14):
twentieth or whatever? So to me, cold weather games, especially
for certain players, Let's face it, some quarterbacks, you feel
more comfortable in a windy, cold weather game than others.
Derek Carr and Jared Gopps record in cold weather not good.
I don't really trust Matt Ryan in a rainstorm. I
(39:35):
like my chances more with Russell Wilson, right, Tom Brady,
Aaron Rodgers. These guys are good in the cold. So
I'm going when your by the time zones the Thursday
night game week and who you play before primetime games?
And then of course I've actually got my air conditioning on.
It's a little chilly. I had to put on slippers
(39:56):
because I had sandals on, and I was like, I'm cold.
You know, it's sixty nine in de Grease. So us
guys out West, we're a little soft when it comes
to weather. We like our sun. If you love to
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Brought to you by the AD Council. Welcome Out in
the Machines. Middlecoff mail Bag at John Middlecoff Instagram, fire
in there. You get right here on the pod. I
(41:44):
also throw this up on YouTube John Middlecoff's the page.
I throw a bunch of the podcast content up there
as well, easy for people to find. Try to try
to get, try to be with the times. You know,
twenty twenties, new decade, heading into a brighter time, hopefully.
Quick question for you, do you think Fitzpatrick is getting
a little overhyped. The dude has never won. The dude
(42:05):
has never made the playoffs in a sneaky old thirty eight.
He'll be thirty nine this season. He is very streaky
and not everyone can play lights out into their late
thirties and early forties, like Brady and probably Rogers. The
Washington football team has a great defense, but it's hard
to keep the defense that good every season. I agree.
(42:25):
Do you think Washington has a real chance to win
the division? I like chant. Dallas's chance is better. I
think who wins the NFC East, I'm with you. The
Eagles just have a lot of moving parts. New coach.
If Washington gets the Ryan Fitzpatrick from Miami, yes, they
will win the division. Dallas offense is gonna be awesome.
(42:49):
Their defense is in shambles. Now, should it be better
with Dan Quinn? Yes, in theory, but have we watched
the Falcons defense? They were atrocious. They were were terrible.
The Giants a little bit like Washington is just solid.
But as Daniel Jones any good, I could envision all
three of those teams winning it. Now on Fitzpatrick, he
(43:12):
was awesome last year. I mean it was just from
the eye test. I have to pull up his bio,
but I don't know if it was the best statistical
season of the year. I test it's as good as
he's played I've ever seen since maybe that one Buffalo
Bill season. He was he was lights out. He came
to Levi Stadium in the Bay. I remember the guy
looked like Dan Marino. It was at every time Tool
(43:35):
would get benched, he'd come in and they'd be awesome.
He was fantastic. But I'm with you, not only is
he streaky, he's kind of like an overachiever. And I
do think it's hard when you're an overachiever in sports
in life, like you can fail whatever, get knocked down.
If you're an overachiever, you ain't gonna stay down long.
It is really easy to kind of regain yourself even
(43:56):
in tough times for overachievers, because that's the mindset in sport.
It's like ultimately you need your body to cooperate. So
one thing, like in the business world, if you just
have your mind, your mindset, your will, your ambition, like
you just keep charging, like Ryan Fitzpatrick is always charged.
It was just sometimes his talent it's not good enough.
He doesn't have a great arm and eventually father time
(44:18):
catches up with you. So it's a risky move. I
don't know what else they were supposed to do, though.
My question is about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kevin Colbert and
the front office seemingly hits home runs every draft, especially
on the offensive side. Why does it seem that they
cannot figure out the not so distant future of the
(44:41):
quarterback position. Their backup quarterbacks have been marginal at best,
and they bring on a known problem with Haskins. It
at least appears that they think Big Ben is gonna
last a lot longer, or they have a little faith
in their backups. Well, they make the playoffs every year,
so their first round pick is never high. They never
(45:03):
even have like a three or four or six win
season where they draft like tenth and the one year
when they went eight nate they traded their first round
pick from Menca Fitzpatrick. But even when you go eight nate,
you draft eighteenth. So it's a tough spot to get
a quarterback. You saw it with Washington this year. They
decinally needed a quarterback. They would have loved to take
Trey Lance or Justin Fields. They're drafting too far away.
So the Steelers are almost a victim of their own
(45:25):
success when it comes to quarterbacks, and they've drafted mid
round guys Mason Dobbs. Now, I never liked Dobbs. I
didn't know that much about Mason. I watched him play
him not that big of a fan as a player.
I just don't what are they supposed to do? Now
what I might have done. I would have taken a
flyer on Sam Darnold, but maybe Kevin Colbert says, I
(45:47):
don't like Sam Darnold as a player, so I would
trust his, you know, professional opinion. He's arguably the best
GM in the league, one of them. But part of
being a GM, he's got to figure this situation out.
It is hard to acquire him. Right. I'm with you.
I'm not touching Dwayne Haskins with a ten foot poll.
But their organization has always been a little bit like
(46:08):
a more buttoned up Raiders. They take chances because their culture,
their infrastructure, Mike Tomlin, they mold you you're either shape
in or they shape you out, and most guys shape in.
So if Dwayne Haskins can't make it in Pittsburgh, he's
out of the league. It's over. But I'm with you, like,
I don't think that's gonna do much for him. Yeah,
(46:31):
I just I don't think there's an easy answer. I
guess this is my ultimate take here. I don't think
they had an easy, no brain er option. I mean,
they thought about cutting men, but they're just so financially
tied to them they had to stick it out. What's up? John?
I listen to the podcast every time there's a new
one available. I'm twenty seven and I live in Central Florida.
(46:55):
I am wondering if going into scouting is even possible
at this point. Also, would it be worth it to
leave a job I'm at to get into scouting Right now,
I'm making thirty five k a year, So how much
of a loss do you think I would have if
I tried to get into scouting. Well, my first year
with the Eagles, I was twenty five or twenty four.
(47:19):
In two ten, I think I made twenty five thousand
dollars and that was the lowest position in the franchise
in the scouting department, twenty or twenty five. I think
it was twenty five because I remember thinking hearing the
stories about the guys in New England who were called
twenty for twenties, twenty hours a day, twenty thousand. I
(47:39):
was like, I'm making more in those guys. But yeah,
you don't make much, so you would take a pay
cut and listen. I also was coming from college football,
so if you just if you wanted your in and
you didn't have a background, you might have to take
like an unpaid internship, assuming that you could even get
in the door. So yeah, I mean, you're not your
first year, if you have no experience, you're gonna be
(48:00):
making thirty five grand. Promise you that. But I advise
every single human that I ever meet through this, follow
what you want to follow. Take a swing. You'll never
live with regret. But you're not making a hundred grand,
so you're not giving up. Ultimately, that much like you
can find another job whatever you're doing, if you really
(48:21):
want to try it out and something you think about,
put all your chips in the middle of the table,
and if it doesn't work out, so be it. And
if it does, it's the best thing that you'll have
ever done. But you can't be afraid, especially in your twenties,
to take a huge swing. Now's the time because hopefully,
if things deep going on in life, you're just gonna
keep making more money and it's gonna be definitely hard
(48:41):
to ever make the jump. So if you're thinking about
it right now and you got an in or you
know someone or whatever, you're just gonna just put all
your chips in the middle of the table or just
start working the back channels now, and if you get
the opportunity, take it. Then you can never live with
regret or say, you know, I didn't try this one
thing I wanted to do, because life does get away
from you. Once you start making a certain amount of money,
(49:05):
whatever that number is for an individual, or have a
kid or get married, life becomes more complicated, that's for sure.
So I would recommend if it's something that itches at you,
scratch it. Scratch that itch, baby. Is it just me
or the Dolphins put to in a lose lose situation
last season coming off a busted hip with no offseason
(49:27):
to their then tanking over the starting job of a
quarterback who was playing winning football. Also, could people quit
acting like Preston Wilson is some great talent. Guy is
average at best. POD's awesome. Appreciate it, Jacob, Yeah, I
mean it was a tough situation. But Ryan Fitzpatrick looked
(49:49):
good when he was in as we just talked about it.
He didn't just look good, he looked really good, like
maybe not Pro Bowl good, but like fringe Pro Bowl.
He had some games where I was like, this guy
is play like a high end starter. So once they
benched him, the bar was kind of high. And then
Tua comes in, Like you said, he had come off
an injury. He was a rookie. It's not easy, but
(50:11):
he looked dramatically worse than Ryan Fitzpatrick. Now you could
if I was countering it. Ryan Fitzpatrick's been the league
for fifteen years. Of course, Ryan Fitzpatrick's gonna be more comfortable, true,
But then as the season went on, it felt like
TWA got a little worse. And I'll never forget the
Raider game. I think it was a Saturday night game
or Thursday night game, Saturday and Fitzpatrick comes in and
(50:32):
saves the game. And that was later on in the season.
It's like TWA wouldn't let it rip. Now we could
argue did they have great weapons? Of course not. But
you know, I think it's okay to go listen. I'm
not gonna make an overall judgment of Tua that he's
good or he sucks, but I think it is fair
to say not an ideal start. Now. Life football not
(50:56):
about where you start how you finish. So he's getting
a good start now, right. They just drafted Jalen Waddle
number six overall, didn't they sign will Fuller? Like they
just added some speed. Now. Will Fuller gets injured a lot,
but time to put up her shut up down and
not put up or shut up, But like he should
(51:17):
show that he's a pretty good player this year, following
the big guy around all day to day, I think
he means Bryson d. Shambo. Do you think his roller
coaster of emotions will prohibit him from winning frequently? Or
when he's riding high he can just kill it, love
the pod. Heard you on Colin's feed, picked up you
(51:39):
in Guys podcast. I appreciate it. If you're talking d Shambo,
I would say that he basically missed the cut, flew
back and still finished top ten. If he is hitting
his driver straight, he's easily one of the best players
in the world. He's an unsolvable force. But when you
hit the ball three hundred and seventy yards, and if
(52:00):
he's not hitting it straight, and in the course like
Quail Hollow where it's got some thrick some thick trees
and it's if you're off the beaten path, you're kind
of screwed. It can look ugly. And I bet on him.
I put one hundred dollars on him. The first couple
of days. He was all over the map. He's not
gonna play well at these hard courses when he's in
the trees. But when he's hitting fairways. I mean, Rory
(52:21):
was hitting in three fifty and he was hitting fairways
and he was unsoppable. If Bryson hit fairways all week
like he would have been right there with Rory. I
think his high ends really high. And yeah, he's emotional.
John Rom's emotional. A lot of golfers, like Justin Thomas,
pretty emotional. One thing I think Rory really been at.
Rory's become pretty even keel, Dustin Johnson very even keel.
(52:42):
If you get really emotional in golf, it's hard sometimes
Bryson gets. Yeah, I mean, he's got to learn to
gather his emotions. But he's pretty freaking good. So he
wons seven eight times. He already got a major twenty seven.
Like to me, he easily could win another major this season.
I'm a big Charger fan, and I can't understand why
(53:02):
we don't go all out to surround Herbert with talent.
I know this fan of his family has historically been
labeled as cheap. However, surely every NFL GM has a
license to use the full cap, rendering that narrative redundant.
We are the golden window, great quarterback talent plus rookie contract.
We need to get aggressive. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm
(53:25):
with you. I don't think that's gonna change. Though your
owner pinches pennies. He's one of the cheapest guys in
the league. It's not even just he operates cheap. He
thinks cheap and when you think cheap. It's hard in
a league full of absolute ass kicking rich guys who
think aggressive, who think about spending, who think they'll do
whatever it takes to win. There's a reason the Chargers
(53:48):
always under achieve. It's not the owner. Ultimately he has
the money, they have cash, it's his mindset. What's crazy
is I've known a lot of rich people that have
inherited some wealth. Sometimes they tend to be pretty aggressive
and then get you in trouble. It's to me, it's
weird when you inherit a bunch of wealth and you
get really tight and cheap. I don't understand that. The
(54:11):
Steinbrenners are kind of like that. And even though they're
a much much higher level than the Spanos, but they're
not like their dad. You think George, George has been
spend way more money. They'd have way more money. Part
of the reason all these owners spend way more money
out they have an unlimited amount of wealth. Spanos is
such a small time thinker that it's just it's kind
(54:32):
of sad because I'm with you. They should have emptied
the kitchen sink, which I mean, they added a couple
offensive linemen. Their general manager is good. They always hire
coaches also that feel like they're cheap. Even though Brandon
Stateley might become a really good head coach, he definitely
was not very expensive. They never ever swing for the fences,
(54:53):
like they would never hire a Lincoln Riley. An Urban
Meyer thought of the perfect traite scenario for the Packers
and would love to know your thoughts. Trade Jordan Love
to Atlanta straight up for Julio Jones solves both teams problems.
Green Bay gets a top flight receiver and gets rid
of Jordan Love to appease Rogers. Atlanta fixes their cap
(55:16):
problems and gets potential air to Matt Ryan and Arthur Smith.
If I was Arthur Smith and I love Jordan Love
coming out, I would be intrigued by that. I really would.
He's cheap, we can develop them, I would. Now, the
Packers don't necessarily have the cap room, so I think
they would have to cut somebody. But I've been saying
(55:39):
all along, whether they trade Jordan Love for Julio, the
Packers should be all over Julio Jones. What does it
take to get them? Because all of a sudden, Okay, Rogers,
I get it, you're pissed. You hate Grudikins. How about this, Davante,
Aaron Jones, Julio Tanyan, let's fucking rock and roll. What
are you gonna do? So you want to go to
the Raiders over Julio and Davante, Come on, but the
(56:01):
Packers actually gotta do it? Are they going to pull
the trigger? I think we'd all bet against them not
doing it. Thirteen year old in New York. I like
the young demo. I want to hear your rundown on
the Giants offseason and draft. Thanks. I love your pot
and keep up the good work. I think the Giants
on paper are pretty solid, right. They get se Quon
(56:22):
coming back, they add Gala Day, they add Tony in
the draft, smart move by Gettleman at a first rounder.
Their defense is solid, They retained all their coaches. I
mean to me, it comes down to simply, is Daniel
Jones any good? Is Daniel Jones someone you'd pick up
his fifth year option? Is Daniel Jones someone you would
think about giving a contract extension. If he is, they
(56:43):
should win nine games. If he's not, they could be
a five or six win team. Again, and complaining that
the Eagles, you know, bench their quarterback. I think their
coachs look solid. It feels like they got a solid
group of guys. Leonard Williams resigned him. Lennard Williams was
really good. Give Gettleman credit on that. I thought that
(57:04):
was kind of a weird trade. It was good he
had a breakout season with all the sacks. He was
a guy that could never land the quarterback. Gettleman believed
in him and it was proven right. I look at
the Giants and the Washington football team very very similarly.
Both of them have a very very solid core of
(57:25):
just tough, physical minded guys, good defensive players. Can they
get a good quarterback play? Now, I'd bet on Fitzpatrick
being better than Daniel Jones. But if Daniel Jones can
just have a Ryan Fitzpatrick type season, Giants could win
the division. I totally agree the NFL shouldn't move a
franchise to London, and they would be competitive free agent
(57:45):
disadvantage and the fan interest would wane and the novelty
factor of new visiting teams keep the current rotation approach. Secondly,
the international image of the league is moving toward high
profile players rather than teams. Is there a concern that
the league moves towards an NBA player power model, where
(58:06):
the strength of the team franchise is diminished in order
to maintain interest in their star names. Cheers UK based listener, God,
I love the international listening. I need to get to
the UK. It feels like just a cool place. Never
been there, would love to go. I don't think that's
the case, because I think basketball has failed that way.
(58:28):
At the end of the day, if you grew up
in LA, you're a Laker fan. You love Kobe because
he became a Laker and spent his whole career as
a Laker. You like Jack when he was on the Lakers.
Once he started bitching and moaning, you traded him away
like he wasn't your guy anymore. One of the reasons
the NBA, to me, has had a precipitous drop off
and fan interest. They stop putting the fan first. Fans
(58:48):
care about teams. Wherever you grew up, you watch the Lakers,
the Mavericks, the Knicks, whoever. You care about the team first. Obviously,
if your team has a great player, you for that player.
But when your team sucks, would all these players leave?
That sucks? Like even if you love James Harden when
he was on the Rockets. Once he demands a trade
and says, screw you to the city Houston trades, what
(59:09):
are's supposed to do? Just follow him wherever he goes.
Your team then sucks. That's awful for the fan. Like ultimately,
my think most Packer fans want Rogers to come back,
but they're gonna keep rooting for the Packers. They just
really are. Because I think right now, if you're a
Packer fan, you'd go Aaron, your team's pretty freaking good.
You've had it pretty awesome. I'd say Tom Brady is
(59:31):
somewhat of an outlier. He brought them six championships. Six
So if you're a new England fan like Listen, Tom
was forty two years old. He wanted a new start,
a new team, we get it. So I'd say Tom's
an out He brought us the greatest twenty years we'll
ever have. We can't thank him enough. He's a legend.
But he's our guy and I'm gonna root for him
in Tampa. To me, the way he didn't handle like
(59:53):
Rogers either. He was a free agent, he left, it
was clear Balchick wanted to move on from him. Rogers
is like destroying the franchise. So I don't think that'll
be the case, because I think deep down we root
for the team first. Now the players come with the team,
but fans or team first, because usually you root for
(01:00:15):
a team where you live. You care about where you're from,
even if you leave. I'm someone who's left come back,
and I live, you know, an hour forty five minutes
depending on traffic, away from where I grew up. I
take pride and where I grew up, right, I mean,
I grew up a big King's fan, and I still
kind of subtly root for them. Not really, but if
(01:00:37):
they were good, I'd be a fan again. I doubt
you have time to read all your dms, but it
would be willing. Would be so awesome to meet you
and ask you a few questions. I live in northern
California and can come to you. My dream is to scout.
I would like to pick your brain. I'll buy we
(01:00:57):
can go to any restaurant you choose with Chris Flemings.
I'm just kidding. Yeah, I'll shoot this guy. DM. Well,
I get this question a lot. The best thing you
can do you gotta get involved in football. If you
truly want to work in football, you just gotta get involved,
whether that means starting at the high school level, whether
that means getting involved in the college level. You gotta
(01:01:18):
get in football because you can't just be not in
football and have no football experience. Besides, maybe you like
played in high school and be twenty six twenty seven
and think you're gonna get an in because they're like, well,
do you know what you're talking about? Just because you're
a fan or whatever. You gotta get involved. That would
be my number one recommendation. Find a way into a
college program. And it might be working for free. It sucks,
(01:01:40):
but I did it when I was at cal Pali
and it helped kind of open doors and get me
in places like Frezlo State. And I would never have
worked in the NFL if it wasn't for Frezlo State.
Zero chance, no chance, zero, I mean, it would not
have happened. So you gotta find a way in that.
That's always my yeah, my number one advice. Appreciate everyone listening,
(01:02:03):
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the battle in all states or situations? What is going on? Everybody?
(00:43):
John Middlecop three and Out podcast, Welcome back, Hope everyone
had a great weekend, had a good Mother's Day. You
take care of your mom, your wife, your baby's mama,
whatever you had to do. Went out at dinner with
my mother and my brother and his wife and his
young son. David also goes by DJ. He is a terror.
(01:07):
I like him. He's got a he's got a large upside,
a big personality, big smile, like his energy level. But
obviously We're here to talk football, and that is what
we will do. I have some talks. Because talks, I
have some thoughts. For a while, it looked like OTAs
we're gonna be canceled. But it looks like the Union
(01:27):
elites and those super rich players have been outvoted and
something that would never happen in society, but it happened
in the NFL, and it really stood out to me.
The schedule release is this week. The schedule release the
great part of the NFL. We literally know whatever team
that you root for, who your team is playing, and
(01:49):
where the games are. We just get to find out
what week those games are and obviously the primetime games
Thursday night games. So I just have a couple of
things I'm looking for with every team. I mean, the
first thing that stands out to me, I saw something
Tom Brady has already reached out to Kyle Trask, and
I just had some overall thoughts as we kind of
move away from this draft on, just some philosophies I
(02:11):
would have type guys I would look for when pulling
the trigger on draft picks. Definitely high high draft picks
for sure. Then just some other little things will dive
into of course Middlecoff Mailbag at John Middlecoff is my
Instagram and if you slide in that Instagram you get
(02:32):
your questions. I answered here on the Middlecoff mailbag. Also,
if you could, I know many of you have, and
I greatly appreciate it, subscribe the Three and Out podcast
separate from Colin's feed. Also, if you could on that
three and Out feed leave a review. It helps us
with selling this show. It helps us with just everything
we're trying to do here in the Three and Out
(02:52):
podcast world. Quick opinion on the news of the day,
Tim Tebow after I saw field Yates tweeted has now
played or been on an NFL team in over three
thousand days, almost eight years ago. Is back and my
take was over the weekend. I think as this thing
started gaining steam, if he's able to make the team
(03:14):
at thirty three years old at tight end, after taking
years off to play baseball and work in the media,
it would be his most incredible athletic achievement to date.
That includes at Florida, that includes winning a playoff game.
That would be incredible. If he can catch, get open
and block defensive ends, I would bet against him. My
(03:35):
first take would be I think it's an incredible, incredibly
difficult ask. I get whether they're doing it no harm,
no foul, whatever. I do think if he somehow is
able to pull this off and he's like decent and
he starts in time, I guess he wouldn't start. But
even if he just plays one, they would move the
(03:57):
needle immediately. In a college area, right, the South is
owned by college football even here, Like you know what,
Drew Brees, Sean Payton. They're able to be relevant in
a college town, that's great. They say the same thing
about Atlanta Falcons, like it's difficult, it's hard. The only
time Tampa's ever relevant is when they win the Super Bowl.
So for Tebow, listen, I would bet against him making
(04:18):
the team. It's just thirty three years old, never played
the position, Like, come on, let's just be realistic. And
I'm not like I'm betting against the human being. I understand, Like,
I think he's an impressive guy. But if he were
to make the team and they have Tim Tebow one
of the most famous college players easily of my lifetime,
definitely in the South, probably top two or three in
(04:40):
the history of the sec Urban Meyer one of the
more fascinating, winning, and polarizing coaches of my lifetime. Trevor Lawrence,
Travis ETN. Two of the better players on one of
the current dynasties in college football. And they're in the
South like that, that place would be buzzing. I don't
know if they're gonna be any good or not. But
if you tell me Urban Meyer Tebow ETN. And Trevor
(05:04):
Lawrence on the same team like that, that team is
getting eyeballs. That team is getting people that typically are
just much more focused on college football that are going
to pay attention. My guess is he does not make
the team. I just I don't I'm kind of indifferent.
I just whatever. I have no issue with you signing
the guy. It's definitely gonna bring some media attention. Not
(05:27):
that they care about that, but like you're you're not
necessarily doing this for football reasons, right unless you truly
believe he can make the team, And maybe Urban believes that.
Maybe he does, but their teams not good enough to
worry about. Like, is it gonna ruffle some feathers in
the locker room? Are people gonna think that Tebow's the
teacher's pet? Like? Who gives a shit like, of course
(05:49):
Urban loves Tebow. You know who Urban likes more, Trevor Lawrence.
That's a starting quarterback. Is Tebow repping with the threes
or is he like repping with the ones? The back
What I said, if he makes the team at in
his early thirties, after he not played an NFL down
or snap or put on pads in years, be incredible. Man,
(06:10):
It's just he won't go away. I will give Tebow
many of that. He keeps just creating content. I wanted
to dive into what's going on right now with the NFLPA,
which is the union verse the teams and for a
(06:30):
long period of time. Obviously last year the offseasons were canceled.
There was no practice, there were no mandatory mini camps,
there were no workouts and team facilities. It was understandable.
We had a lot going on last year, a lot
of unknown This year. It felt like the NFLPA led
by the richest players. Last year, I think universally we
(06:53):
all agreed easier go virtual, no big issue this year
to the most outspoken people Aaron Rodgers, who might not
have showed up regardless, and Tom Brady, who was on
a call with the NFLPA last week and said, it's
not like baseball ask guys in December to throw ninety five. Tom,
(07:13):
I don't know if that's necessarily true. They don't do
it with the team, but they definitely train on their
own now. Tom's point was, why can't we just train
on our own now? Baseball season, I used to go
to spring training when I worked in radio. That bad
boy starts in about early February and it goes if
your team's any good, well into October, long period of time.
Football seasons clearly much shorter. But OTAs are happening. We
(07:36):
had rookie mandatory mini caamps last weekend. We're gonna have
them again this weekend. It looks like all the mini
camps are on like Donkey Kong, and definitely the mandatory
mini camp, which, as someone who's gone to OTAs now
for a decade, you get used to. There are three
or four OTA sessions. They usually start middle of the
end of May and go through you know, early middle June.
(08:00):
Only one is technically mandatory, the others are voluntary. Most
of these teams get just the majority of guys to
show up. Well, I think for the first time and
this represents a little bit of society. The middle class,
the lower class, the poor guy never has any saying.
Look at the coronavirus and the shutdowns and the lockdowns.
Do you know who had no say, the middle class worker,
(08:23):
the middle class business owner. They were told what they
could and couldn't do. You knew never had a shutdown?
The rich elites, right, I mean Walmart, Target, the internet
companies where I live. One of the richest individuals in
the state of California, Mark Benioff, was the loudest individual
(08:43):
pounded the table for lockdowns. Shut it down, lock it down.
Easy for him to say, he's a billionaire. During the
lockdowns in the winter, his company bought Slack for over
fifteen billion dollars. Lockdowns were incredible for his business. Yet
Billy or James or Susie that owns a small restaurant,
(09:04):
it wasn't up to her shut down. You think so
you want to shut down. I remember being at a
restaurant in Walnut Creek right before in California we had
to get We had a second wave of lockdowns in
the winter for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Hanka and everyone had to
shut down. Beside obviously you know, Target, Walmart, the big boys,
But restaurants shut them all down. They got shut down
(09:26):
for three months. And I remember being at the best
restaurant or a best bar in where I live, and
I was talking to the owners like, yeah, I mean
I got no fucking pull here. Obviously business is booming
right now. We don't want to shut down, but we
have no choice. And if we don't do it, they'll
pull my liquor license. And anyone in that business knows
one liquor license. They're expensive, you know, depending on where
(09:48):
you live, can be seventy five, one hundred and fifty
grand because they have a limited amount. And two he's like,
even if I tried to, you know, break the rules,
there'd be no guarantee I could ever get my liquor
license back. And if I don't have a liquor license,
I don't have business. They were treated like yo yos.
But the thing that always bothered me the most is
the working class people had no say. It was like
they were just told what they had to do by
(10:10):
the super rich people. Mark Benioff's like, shut it down. Meanwhile,
his company's making twenty billion dollar purchases during the lockdown.
It's like, well, fuck, business is good for you. It's like,
I don't have children, but I obviously that was a
point of contention the last twelve months, Like I don't
care what your opinion is on whether my kids can
go to school or not. If you have a stay
at home nanny or no pair, like or you have
(10:31):
a seven thousand square foot home, Yeah, it's pretty easy.
You got you got a nanny. You know a lot
of people. I'm sure many people are listening. It was hard,
it was difficult, Like it's okay to have a strong
opinion whether your kids should be to go back to school,
but as you know, you had no say You're say
was irrelevant. Well, that's typically how any the world works.
The rich people set the tone, they get to decide everything.
(10:52):
That's how society works. And I thought ultimately these OTAs
would be shut down. I was like, they're not gonna
happen because Brady Rodgers they got on the poll, but
because they're way more like in society, they're way more
middle class and poor people than there are rich people.
I know, you get on social media like rich people
did small percentage, there are way less Tom Bradys and
(11:13):
Aaron Rodgers and guys making ten plus million dollars in
the NFL. Then there are guys on veteran minimum salaries.
Then there are guys on rookie contracts. That is the
majority of the league. And those people in the majority
of the league, they need to work because that's how
they survive. If I owned a deli and you were
telling me I can't stay open, I might go under Hell,
(11:33):
a lot of people did. Where I live in California.
There are businesses left and right that are shut down.
Those people had no choice. If you tell me that
I can't go to OTAs when the coach wants me
to go there, there's a chance that I'm not gonna
make the team. It's easy for you to say, making
twenty million dollars a year, It's another thing for me, like,
this is my shot, this is my opportunity. I'm a
(11:53):
six round pick. How do you think I'm gonna get
a look? And this was for the first time seeing
all the middle class guys like Tom Brady and Aaron
Rodgers lost. You know why because their opinion. I hate
to say, it shouldn't really matter. If you guys don't
want to show up to practice, don't show up to practice.
But if you don't think that the fifth, sixth, seventh,
and late round and obviously undrafted free agents and guys
(12:15):
on veteran minimum salaries need this work to one show
their bosses that they can play too, just to learn
the offense, because ultimately, when training camp hits the limited
reps they're gonna get. It's hard to impress if you
don't know what the hell is going on, and those
guys outnumbered the rich guys, and they clearly are not listening.
Now listen. I'm not pro or anti union, I don't
(12:39):
really care. I'd probably lean more anti union, but obviously
every industry is a little different. The union in football
does play a role, but like they don't speak for everybody.
Like when Demorris Smith is saying to cancel these OTAs,
that is not speaking for the majority of the league.
That's speaking for the rich people, right, that's speaking for
(13:01):
his ruling class. And in society, what the ruling class
wants is what they get because they're the ones paying
for everything. They have all the fucking pool. In football,
that's not the case. Ultimately, if you want to show
up to work like Tom Brady can't do anything about it,
and the pushback is like Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, like
you guys don't necessarily need the reps and you definitely
(13:22):
don't need to impress anybody, but we do. This is
how we feed our families. And the only opportunity I
have to make a living in pro football is probably
to get into OTAs if I'm an undrafted free agent
and show out, because there's a chance. If there are
no OTAs and all I get a trading camp and
I'm a seventh rounder, I'm an undrafted free agent, I
might not get a real rep. I don't mean you
(13:44):
won't get a rep in practice, but a rep that
is taken seriously, and that non rep may lead me
to not getting the opportunity in a preseason game. Maybe Allen,
they get five preseason plays instead of if I had
the opportunity in an OTA, I make some plays. Then
all of a sudden we get to the preseason game
and I may get a quarter. I may get that
(14:06):
last game a half, And that's how I show out
to Belichick, to Andy, to Sean Payton, to Pete Carroll
to whoever I can play, and they keep me. Hell
I make the roster or maybe it comes down to
a practice squad spot between me and another guy, and
my five plays or my ten plays extra make the
team and now allow me on a practice squad make
(14:28):
a ninety grand where I would have been out of
a job that out of the difference this year. And
I think it's cool to see because it never happens
in society. It never happens, and no one consistently gets
more screwed than the middle class guy. He pays a
large percentag, especially in my state in taxes, has no
say in fucking anything. That's typically like the sports usually
(14:50):
works that way too. But they've had enough in this
situation and they're just showing up. The rookies are going
to practice. Zach Wilson I turned on. I'm like, God,
the Jets are practicing. You think the NFL PA one
to Zach Wilson show up, But no, he didn't listen.
He just showed up. The rest of his teammate showed up.
And I think it's a big win just for the
league as a whole. It's healthier this way, and it's
the right thing to do because, like listen, I've never
(15:13):
played in the NFL offseason OTAs aren't that hard. You're
also getting paid anyway, And as I read, a per
diem is like two hundred dollars a day. For some guys,
that can be a thousand dollars a week. Well, if
you're an undrafted free agent or a late round pick,
that money might help. I mean it really might. Yeah,
to Tom Brady, to Aaron Rodgers, to the good players,
that means nothing. But to a lot of these guys
(15:35):
whose career we know are going to be two to
four years, fighting for every penny, fighting for every rep matters,
and the offseason activities in the sport of football matter.
And clearly, you know, the rich Pro Bowl elites they
didn't win in this case. Fox Sports Radio has the
(15:56):
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Forest Service and the AD Council. Before we dive into
the schedule release, I wanted to hit on something that
jumped out to me. And I've been putting these philosophies
(17:44):
together when I was in recruiting and you know, around
the team a lot in the NFL, the type guys
you want on your roster, Right, it's no different than
the type people you want to associate with in life. Right, Positive, ambitious,
more good people, high character people. Your life is better
(18:04):
off when you have optimism and high character around you
then when you have negativity and bad guys around you. Right,
this is pretty basic. It's not that complicated. You keep
happier people around you, probably gonna be happier. You keep
a close circle of negative downers, you probably gonna be
pretty miserable. Right. It's a big reason I've kind of
(18:26):
tried to stay away from the Twitter dot com because
that is just a miserable place. I like to be happy.
I like to be positive, and it doesn't come naturally
for me. So it's easy to drown down there. A
team's no different one bad Apple can ruin a locker room. Definitely,
you know, a big personality, bad Apple. But I saw
(18:47):
it had been reported last week that Tom Brady immediately
reached out to Kyle Trask and told him, hey man,
let's get together a throw And it was like, I
can't amad what Tampa just the vibe of their franchise.
Obviously they just won a Super Bowl, but even before
in Corona, having Tom around, reaching out to those guys,
(19:10):
staying on those guys, whether it be Mike Evan, whether
it be Chris Godwin, and just what he's meant obviously
to Antonio Brown's career. Antonio Brown was done. It was
over without Tom Brady. His career's done. Playoff Lanny never
happens if Tom doesn't pound the table for that. And
I'm not even talking about like what Rogers and Russell
want more personnel. I'm talking about, don't worry, guys, all
(19:33):
handle this. It's less about I need this guy. It's
him looking at the GM, looking at the coach and going,
I gotta guys, I can handle it. And that's rare,
and ultimately going into the draft, you want to draft
good guys, right, Ideally you would want sweet players who
are high character guys. That's what every team would ideally pick.
(19:55):
If you could get a great player, super high character,
you never have to worry about are great player, total shit,
heead bad guy, can't trust. I think we all know
which one we choose, But sometimes you get in these
positions where you go, he doesn't even have to be
that bad of a guy. There's just a lot of
questions and you go, I don't really want to take
this guy, but he's the most talented guy on our board.
(20:17):
And I think the best part about team building is
trying to balance who you bring in and who you
already have there. And I remember when I was with
the Eagles, the New York Giants took JPP really high,
and there are some question marks coming out about JPP
and obviously not even like bad but just maturity stuff,
and it kind of played out right, but he was
(20:38):
a really talented player. What they had though with that
franchise was a great infrastructure of high level guys. Started
with Eli, but justin Tuck and and Osie, like those
two guys were super high level and they just thought
we bring this guy around those guys, we can shape,
we can mold him. And it worked. I think the
first year they drafted them, they won the Super Bowl.
(21:00):
And that balance of going, we have a good group.
Let's say you're the Packers and you go, we have
Davante Adams, doesn't it make sense for us to kind
of potentially reach and ideally you just get another good
guy that's a good player. But if we get a
question mark, put him around that guy, or just get
a young guy and put him next to him and
(21:21):
let him learn from him. Because clearly Jimmy Garoppolo learned
from Tom Brady. Trey Lance's first call or text message
that he received from a forty nine er was Jimmy G.
Now obviously Jimmy G trying to, you know, repair the
whole package. Right, it's a good look, but he learned
from Tom that's what you're supposed to do. And I
(21:45):
talked about it last week with the Colts and Frank
talking about he used a quote that was basically like,
I got no problem using a risk or taking a risk.
Let's take a risk. But why would we when we've
worked so hard to build this infastry structure and they
really have right Quentin Nelson, They trade for DeForest Buckner,
who Kyle Shanahan said was everything they wanted into forty
(22:07):
nine er, and they even some of the Darius Lennard
super high character guy. I think he had a tweet.
Was it a year ago, might have been this year,
I can't remember. It was basically like, if you're a
free agent and you're thinking about coming here and you're
not a grinder and you don't practice hard every day,
we got no fucking room for you. This is a
place for grinders. And that's I mean, he's one of
the best players on their team. And then last year
(22:28):
they take two really impressive young guys in Michael Pittman
Junior and Jonathan Taylor. Like they've developed a pretty good infrastructure.
What were they able to do this offseason? And I
think it works for the draft and just team building
acquisition in general. They got Carson Wentz, who has some
quote unquote personality questions. Is he getting along with everyone?
Is he a good fit in your locker room? Those
(22:49):
were legitimate question marks that people in the league, that
people like me, that people listening that we're all asking like,
what is going on? Do you know why they feel
really good. We have an unreal landing spot. We don't
have a bad seed in this room. We're full of
high character, hard working, good players. If you can't succeed here,
you can't succeed anywhere. And it's a balance like there's
(23:13):
never a right or wrong time to do it. Think
about the Bills last year with Stefan dis one thing.
I never got too down on digs. Even though there
are questions like isy a diva or whatever. He always
played hard. Whenever you watch the Vikings, he not only
played hard, they were winning, so that meant he was
a productive, winning player. Sometimes we have that question mark
(23:35):
with guys on bad teams. What's he gonna look like
when you put him in the right environment Jamal Adams,
Jalen Ramsey. Once you can see both those guys are
so competitive you put them on good teams. They're good
that they belong in that environment. Now, sometimes it doesn't
go that well. But the Bills get Stefan Dis he
immediately hits it off with Josh Allen, zero issues. They
pay him and he's awesome as an All Pro Pro
(23:56):
Bowl type season. Now, we've seen many instances in the
past when it goes wrong and it can go off
the rails. But these are the balances, and this is
why you get paid so much to be a GM
or a head coach, because ultimately these decisions are on you.
Everyone just thinks it's about like just a draft or No,
(24:16):
it's about everything. It's about do we feel comfortable. That's
what so much of the draft process is. Even in
free agency. I remember going to meetings, we talk about
their personality stuff, right, I mean, obviously we have the
information from when they were in college, but reaching out
to coaches that were on the stabs, that've been around
them on various teams, you're constantly worried because I'm like
(24:38):
most businesses. If you're making a fifty million dollar acquisition,
if you're making a one hundred million dollar acquisition, it's
usually a business. It's usual, just like an entity. So
you're just bringing over the product, right. Obviously there are
people within the buildings that make the product, but you're
ultimately just trying to buy the product and keep the
cash flow going. In pro sports, but specifically football, you're
(24:59):
buying a player and putting them into a large group
of people. Like in basketball, you only got twelve guys
on the team, right, technically fifteen, but only seven or
eight play on. Any team's worth a ship. Maybe some
teams played nine, but definitely wants the playoffs. You have
a clear hierarchy in football. Everyone's kind of partaking, even
if you're just a random like special teamer, Like you
(25:22):
play a role, if you're a gunner, your kickoff guy,
if you get into a Pence the guy, if you're
dressing on game day, you're just an injury or two
away from playing on offense or defense. So you have
to be very, very careful. And I think ideally, when
you can set your franchise or set the tone where
your best players are, your best guys and best workers,
you have a blueprint to build a powerhouse team. Now,
(25:45):
obviously those guys got to be good players, but I
think sometimes when you see bad teams, and definitely it
happens in basketball and in football too, where you get
guys that think more highly of themselves than they actually are,
Like they're not as good as they think, and they're
not great teammates, and it's why you lose. Right, it's
(26:06):
to me, the best teams everyone understands their role. Like
look at last year with the Patriots, or excuse me,
with the Bucks. Let's even take Brady out. Let's put
in Grenkowski. Grenkowski shows up. He's gonna be a first
ballot Hall of Famer. He's arguably the best tight end
of all time. Go down, as you know, one of
the great, truly great players of all time. Not one
(26:28):
issue in Tampa. Just comes in, helps guys out, help
guys learn the offense, help guys get used to Tom
never complains about his role and just seamless transition. That's
hard to do. Like I wouldn't even blame him, like
JJ Watt this year with the Cardinals. He's gonna come in.
He's got a lot of pelts on the wall. I
would imagine he comes in to be pretty seamless transition.
(26:50):
But if it doesn't, if worst case scenario and I
don't expect it to be like this, but a guy
with a long history of a lot of success, what
if he comes in he walks in like his don't
stink the other guys on the team, like bro, we've
been here for a little while. You know that that metching.
That is pretty hard. Aj Green think about some of
those big names you bring it when you bring in
a big name. When you sign a big name, how
(27:13):
they enter the workforce in football, unlike most of our
normal jobs, like when you hire someone, I mean most
some of these guys making a middle manager might make
a couple hundred grand. Most employees aren't making that much money.
That's why it's easy to get rid of hire and
fire people. Where in sports you not only know the
person's resume, but you know how money they're making. You
(27:34):
know about their like what they've done in other places,
a very public job. And the good teams they understand
this and they build their culture and they build their
players or their team around those type players. The ones
that don't know what they're doing, don't have a vision
and end up with just a bunch of random guys.
And even if you have talent, it's why it doesn't
(27:56):
usually equal wins. Chemistry matters. Even the the advance of
analytics and the power of numbers, which is a real thing, right,
and we've always used numbers. I think it's actually a
little overblown. But I'll never forget. When I first got
a job in radio, we had the Oakland Ace and
they had a really good team at the time, and
(28:18):
they had guys like Josh Donaldson who won an MVP,
Yoana Cespedist, who was a badass. They just had some
badass players. I remember going into the locker room in
spring training. Got to go to spring training. It's pretty cool.
I had worked in the NFL, But when you get
to do something like that and go sit in the
locker room and watch games, it was like this badass
hanging out like Bruce Bochi and you know, meeting Bob
Melvin and Bob Melvin saying he liked the show is
(28:39):
really cool kind of felt which I don't. I'm kind
of numbed all this stuff. Sometimes it felt like a
little kid again going into I'm in the big league
clubhouse and just seeing the way all these guys interacted.
They ended up winning. Did they win the division? Yeah,
they won the division, hosting playoff games like it was clear.
And Billy is known as this like forefather right of us,
(29:00):
and I truly believe he's one of the greatest general
managers ever. I know he's never won a World Series.
His owner is a joke. Without Billy Bean, that franchise
would have gone bankrupt. They're a clown show. Yet every
year google their record right now they win and he's
doing it with like the third iteration of group of
players because his owner won't pay anybody in the last decade.
(29:23):
And I'll never forget talking to people on the staff,
on the scouting staff and the coaches how much they
valued chemistry and they truly truly believed in it, because
I remember when the Warriors in the Rockets became big rivals,
the warriors chemistry was elite. Ultimately, the Rockets didn't have
a great chemistry, and the Warriors always got over on them.
Even the times when the Rockets probably shouldn't have won,
(29:43):
there was always a little bit missing because you know what,
the numbers can't quantify how much I liked the guy
standing next to me, how much I care about his family.
Am I legitimately friends with the person? In most of
our businesses, it helps, but it's not mandatory right now,
I you think it helps, Like if you're gonna go
on a sales call with another human, if you guys
have good chemistry and your friends, probably easy to sell
(30:06):
if you're working as a tandem, but if you're just
doing cold calls and cubicles, like, who cares if you
like everyone or not? In football and basketball and baseball,
when you're standing next to the guy, when you're playing
with the guy every day for months on months in
a public job with a lot of scrutiny, your character matters, right,
Your emotional intelligence matters. Obviously mature as you go on.
(30:27):
Who you have looking up like, who you have as
stable veterans for your young guys to look up to matters.
Can you imagine Kyle trash Now, Kyle trast is coming
from the SEC. He just was a starting quarterback at Florida.
I bet when Tom Brady texts him like, bro, let's
throw soon, that had to be one of the coolest
text he's ever got in his entire life. Like, that's
(30:49):
that's what high level people do. Now, obviously he's one
of the best players ever, but that happens all over
the league with the good players and the high character guys.
And the guy's the quote unquote get it. That's why
some teams win and some teams lose. Schedule release week,
Let's go baby. I used to laugh at this, Now
I take it really seriously. Part of it I'm a
(31:11):
content creator. The other part is, you know, I just
I get excited and I wrote down five things that
I'm looking for. You know, whatever your team is, but
just the things that jump out to me when the
schedule is released. Now, we already know who your team
is playing, We know the seventeen games, every single one
of them home and away. We just don't know the order.
(31:34):
So let's go. One is the first thing I jotted down,
When is your bye? I think we all look for that.
We always did well they added a game, so wouldn't
you imagine the bye is much more important this year now?
I think ideally you've always rooted for your by to
be somewhere between like seven, week seven and nine, somewhere
(31:55):
in the middle. Most people get really pissed when their
buy is like week four. Not want your buy week four.
You would much rather have your bye week ten or
eleven than week four or five, So that to me
is always a key. Now. I do think one day,
as they probably eventually get to eighteen games, implement two buys,
(32:17):
but that's kind of irrelevant because we're not there now
and we're in a one buy seventeen week system. So
to me, you want your bye week eight on. If
your buys a little earlier, it's just not ideal. Number two. Now,
maybe this impacts you know, us out on the West
(32:38):
more than some of you guys. Definitely, the Midwest probably
doesn't have as big of an impact. And if you
are on the East Coast, when you play out on
the West Coast, you gain time, so there is no
better feeling. I know when I lived in Philadelphia and
would come out here for work or vacation, it was
incredible getting hours back where it is really difficult. And
the first time it really hit me working in football
(33:00):
was when I worked at Fresdent State. We played Wisconsin
my first year, I guess it would have been my
second year at an eleven am kickoff, which was a
nine am kickoff for US West Coasters, and you know,
you get up five hours or four hours before the game,
so you're eating breakfast on your body clock at like
(33:21):
five in the morning. So it's difficult for West teams
to go east and the Niners, Seattle, Arizona, the Rams,
the Chargers, Denver, any kickoff against any of the Eastern
Seaboard teams or the Eastern you know, time zone teams
that are ten am are not easy. They are hard
on the body clock and a massive advantage for the
(33:44):
East Coast team. I think it is much easier for
the East Coast teams to come out west because those
games are also at one o'clock right on the West,
so really it's four o'clock like they're wide awake. So
the time zone games for the West Coast teams. Your
Thursday night game, every team has one. They're unavoidable. The
(34:07):
first thing you look at is the game homer away
you would every you know, you would much rather have
the Thursday home game. Clearly right, it's much easier. But
even if you have the Thursday night home game, the
first thing I look for, what's your week before? It's
very very difficult for teams that have to play a
road game, and maybe they have a new rule. Maybe
(34:28):
this is the rule. You can't come off a road
game and then play a Thursday night game, even though
if I remember correctly, that's definitely happened recently. But who
are you playing before? Is the big time game? Are
you playing like a Sunday night marquee game? And then
you have a Thursday night game, even if it's a
home game. Who you play before the Thursday night game
does matter? That clearly is probably not as hard of
(34:51):
a game as we once kind of talked about four
or five years ago. I think guys have gotten more
used to it. But it doesn't matter what time of
the season. Talking about the bye, you would much rather
have to buy later. I would much rather have my
Thursday night game week three or four. Right, I'm fresh,
I'm into the season. I basically get an early You know,
(35:12):
if you win that Thursday night game, it's like a
three day weekend, right, you get Friday, Saturday, Sunday off.
It's an incredible little mini buy. It can be used
as a huge advantage. So when is a Thursday night
game on your schedule, who are you playing the week
before your Thursday night game? Homer away, That to me
really factors in. Obviously, love the primetime games, the Sunday
(35:37):
night games, Monday night games are a big deal. They
just are you know, Monday night football I think is
having somewhat of a little bit of a renaissance. It's
kind of back. We're feeling good about it again. Who
even called Oh it's Riddick and those guys. It's now flexible.
So who you play on Monday night football? Maybe I'm
of a generation where it still means everything. Obviously everyone
(35:59):
older than me. It still matters. Like Monday Night Football batters,
you're Marquee, you're by yourself. Do you get a couple
of Monday Night games? Sunday Night game? I think after
week eleven is flexible this year, Monday Night is flexible two.
But Sunday Night, it just depends. If it's September October,
you're playing that Sunday Night game. If it's you know,
late November, your team better be good. Oh, they'll kick
(36:21):
you out of there, and they don't care who you are.
I'm pretty sure they They flexed a Dallas Cowboy game
last year, like they will flex anybody. Because the great
part about the NFL, it's a national sport. If your
team is good. If the Jags are a twelve win team,
they will get flexed into Sunday Night. It will happen
if they suck. We like, we're not gonna watch the
(36:43):
Texans this year. We're probably not gonna watch much of
the Jets this year. The bad teams are just we're
not gonna watch much of the Lions this year. But
if you win, if the Lions somehow or ten and two,
they will get flexed. So the primetime games for the
no on like Kansas City's one. Question Mark two is
(37:05):
Rogers Packers Chiefs, Like that was gonna be probably the
best game on paper on the schedule release. Is Rogers
gonna be on the team. I don't know what would
you do if you're the NFL. If I was Roger,
I would say put it in primetime game, make it
later in the season so it's flexible if somehow the
(37:25):
Packers trade Rogers and Jordan Love and the team doesn't
turn out to be good. But if if it, we
just put it in a flexible spot. Even if they
trade Rogers, if they're still good, the Packers are a
massive brand. I Packers Chiefs. I'm good with that. I'd
say the biggest game on the schedule release, probably just
on paper, is gonna be Tom Brady returning in New England.
(37:48):
That game feels like an absolute lock. I'd probably go
Monday Night. You could Thursday Night feels like a little
bit of a rush. I would put that on Monday Night,
non flexible. I would probably have that Monday Night football
in September. I would have that early on. And remember
Tampa gets the first Thursday Night game because they won
(38:09):
the Super Bowl, so that probably game is going to
be against I saw Dallas some of the good teams
that they play, so Dallas Tampa could be the opening
game this week and then the other game. Again, this
impacts us a little more on the West Coast just
because we have nice weather but cold weather games. You know,
(38:30):
if you're a Steeler fan, like you're just you're playing
cold weather games, Patriot fan, Jets fan, whoever? For us,
like if you're the Rams, the Chargers, the Cardinals, the Niners,
the Raiders, just these West Coast teams that do not
even the Colts. Do you have two or three potential
snow games in December? Do I have to go to
Baltimore in late December? Do I have to play at
(38:54):
lambeau Field in November December? Philadelphia, Washington, the New York's,
New England like that matters? Cleveland, Cincinnati, like those plays
are cold? Miami every year when their schedule comes out, well,
their division all plays in cold weather cities. All of
them are outdoors. Do I gotta go to Chicago December
(39:14):
twentieth or whatever? So to me, cold weather games, especially
for certain players, Let's face it, some quarterbacks, you feel
more comfortable in a windy, cold weather game than others.
Derek Carr and Jared Gopps record in cold weather not good.
I don't really trust Matt Ryan in a rainstorm. I
(39:35):
like my chances more with Russell Wilson, right, Tom Brady,
Aaron Rodgers. These guys are good in the cold. So
I'm going when your by the time zones the Thursday
night game week and who you play before primetime games?
And then of course I've actually got my air conditioning on.
It's a little chilly. I had to put on slippers
(39:56):
because I had sandals on, and I was like, I'm cold.
You know, it's sixty nine in de Grease. So us
guys out West, we're a little soft when it comes
to weather. We like our sun. If you love to
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Brought to you by the AD Council. Welcome Out in
the Machines. Middlecoff mail Bag at John Middlecoff Instagram, fire
in there. You get right here on the pod. I
(41:44):
also throw this up on YouTube John Middlecoff's the page.
I throw a bunch of the podcast content up there
as well, easy for people to find. Try to try
to get, try to be with the times. You know,
twenty twenties, new decade, heading into a brighter time, hopefully.
Quick question for you, do you think Fitzpatrick is getting
a little overhyped. The dude has never won. The dude
(42:05):
has never made the playoffs in a sneaky old thirty eight.
He'll be thirty nine this season. He is very streaky
and not everyone can play lights out into their late
thirties and early forties, like Brady and probably Rogers. The
Washington football team has a great defense, but it's hard
to keep the defense that good every season. I agree.
(42:25):
Do you think Washington has a real chance to win
the division? I like chant. Dallas's chance is better. I
think who wins the NFC East, I'm with you. The
Eagles just have a lot of moving parts. New coach.
If Washington gets the Ryan Fitzpatrick from Miami, yes, they
will win the division. Dallas offense is gonna be awesome.
(42:49):
Their defense is in shambles. Now, should it be better
with Dan Quinn? Yes, in theory, but have we watched
the Falcons defense? They were atrocious. They were were terrible.
The Giants a little bit like Washington is just solid.
But as Daniel Jones any good, I could envision all
three of those teams winning it. Now on Fitzpatrick, he
(43:12):
was awesome last year. I mean it was just from
the eye test. I have to pull up his bio,
but I don't know if it was the best statistical
season of the year. I test it's as good as
he's played I've ever seen since maybe that one Buffalo
Bill season. He was he was lights out. He came
to Levi Stadium in the Bay. I remember the guy
looked like Dan Marino. It was at every time Tool
(43:35):
would get benched, he'd come in and they'd be awesome.
He was fantastic. But I'm with you, not only is
he streaky, he's kind of like an overachiever. And I
do think it's hard when you're an overachiever in sports
in life, like you can fail whatever, get knocked down.
If you're an overachiever, you ain't gonna stay down long.
It is really easy to kind of regain yourself even
(43:56):
in tough times for overachievers, because that's the mindset in sport.
It's like ultimately you need your body to cooperate. So
one thing, like in the business world, if you just
have your mind, your mindset, your will, your ambition, like
you just keep charging, like Ryan Fitzpatrick is always charged.
It was just sometimes his talent it's not good enough.
He doesn't have a great arm and eventually father time
(44:18):
catches up with you. So it's a risky move. I
don't know what else they were supposed to do, though.
My question is about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kevin Colbert and
the front office seemingly hits home runs every draft, especially
on the offensive side. Why does it seem that they
cannot figure out the not so distant future of the
(44:41):
quarterback position. Their backup quarterbacks have been marginal at best,
and they bring on a known problem with Haskins. It
at least appears that they think Big Ben is gonna
last a lot longer, or they have a little faith
in their backups. Well, they make the playoffs every year,
so their first round pick is never high. They never
(45:03):
even have like a three or four or six win
season where they draft like tenth and the one year
when they went eight nate they traded their first round
pick from Menca Fitzpatrick. But even when you go eight nate,
you draft eighteenth. So it's a tough spot to get
a quarterback. You saw it with Washington this year. They
decinally needed a quarterback. They would have loved to take
Trey Lance or Justin Fields. They're drafting too far away.
So the Steelers are almost a victim of their own
(45:25):
success when it comes to quarterbacks, and they've drafted mid
round guys Mason Dobbs. Now, I never liked Dobbs. I
didn't know that much about Mason. I watched him play
him not that big of a fan as a player.
I just don't what are they supposed to do? Now
what I might have done. I would have taken a
flyer on Sam Darnold, but maybe Kevin Colbert says, I
(45:47):
don't like Sam Darnold as a player, so I would
trust his, you know, professional opinion. He's arguably the best
GM in the league, one of them. But part of
being a GM, he's got to figure this situation out.
It is hard to acquire him. Right. I'm with you.
I'm not touching Dwayne Haskins with a ten foot poll.
But their organization has always been a little bit like
(46:08):
a more buttoned up Raiders. They take chances because their culture,
their infrastructure, Mike Tomlin, they mold you you're either shape
in or they shape you out, and most guys shape in.
So if Dwayne Haskins can't make it in Pittsburgh, he's
out of the league. It's over. But I'm with you, like,
I don't think that's gonna do much for him. Yeah,
(46:31):
I just I don't think there's an easy answer. I
guess this is my ultimate take here. I don't think
they had an easy, no brain er option. I mean,
they thought about cutting men, but they're just so financially
tied to them they had to stick it out. What's up? John?
I listen to the podcast every time there's a new
one available. I'm twenty seven and I live in Central Florida.
(46:55):
I am wondering if going into scouting is even possible
at this point. Also, would it be worth it to
leave a job I'm at to get into scouting Right now,
I'm making thirty five k a year, So how much
of a loss do you think I would have if
I tried to get into scouting. Well, my first year
with the Eagles, I was twenty five or twenty four.
(47:19):
In two ten, I think I made twenty five thousand
dollars and that was the lowest position in the franchise
in the scouting department, twenty or twenty five. I think
it was twenty five because I remember thinking hearing the
stories about the guys in New England who were called
twenty for twenties, twenty hours a day, twenty thousand. I
(47:39):
was like, I'm making more in those guys. But yeah,
you don't make much, so you would take a pay
cut and listen. I also was coming from college football,
so if you just if you wanted your in and
you didn't have a background, you might have to take
like an unpaid internship, assuming that you could even get
in the door. So yeah, I mean, you're not your
first year, if you have no experience, you're gonna be
(48:00):
making thirty five grand. Promise you that. But I advise
every single human that I ever meet through this, follow
what you want to follow. Take a swing. You'll never
live with regret. But you're not making a hundred grand,
so you're not giving up. Ultimately, that much like you
can find another job whatever you're doing, if you really
(48:21):
want to try it out and something you think about,
put all your chips in the middle of the table,
and if it doesn't work out, so be it. And
if it does, it's the best thing that you'll have
ever done. But you can't be afraid, especially in your twenties,
to take a huge swing. Now's the time because hopefully,
if things deep going on in life, you're just gonna
keep making more money and it's gonna be definitely hard
(48:41):
to ever make the jump. So if you're thinking about
it right now and you got an in or you
know someone or whatever, you're just gonna just put all
your chips in the middle of the table or just
start working the back channels now, and if you get
the opportunity, take it. Then you can never live with
regret or say, you know, I didn't try this one
thing I wanted to do, because life does get away
from you. Once you start making a certain amount of money,
(49:05):
whatever that number is for an individual, or have a
kid or get married, life becomes more complicated, that's for sure.
So I would recommend if it's something that itches at you,
scratch it. Scratch that itch, baby. Is it just me
or the Dolphins put to in a lose lose situation
last season coming off a busted hip with no offseason
(49:27):
to their then tanking over the starting job of a
quarterback who was playing winning football. Also, could people quit
acting like Preston Wilson is some great talent. Guy is
average at best. POD's awesome. Appreciate it, Jacob, Yeah, I
mean it was a tough situation. But Ryan Fitzpatrick looked
(49:49):
good when he was in as we just talked about it.
He didn't just look good, he looked really good, like
maybe not Pro Bowl good, but like fringe Pro Bowl.
He had some games where I was like, this guy
is play like a high end starter. So once they
benched him, the bar was kind of high. And then
Tua comes in, Like you said, he had come off
an injury. He was a rookie. It's not easy, but
(50:11):
he looked dramatically worse than Ryan Fitzpatrick. Now you could
if I was countering it. Ryan Fitzpatrick's been the league
for fifteen years. Of course, Ryan Fitzpatrick's gonna be more comfortable, true,
But then as the season went on, it felt like
TWA got a little worse. And I'll never forget the
Raider game. I think it was a Saturday night game
or Thursday night game, Saturday and Fitzpatrick comes in and
(50:32):
saves the game. And that was later on in the season.
It's like TWA wouldn't let it rip. Now we could
argue did they have great weapons? Of course not. But
you know, I think it's okay to go listen. I'm
not gonna make an overall judgment of Tua that he's
good or he sucks, but I think it is fair
to say not an ideal start. Now. Life football not
(50:56):
about where you start how you finish. So he's getting
a good start now, right. They just drafted Jalen Waddle
number six overall, didn't they sign will Fuller? Like they
just added some speed. Now. Will Fuller gets injured a lot,
but time to put up her shut up down and
not put up or shut up, But like he should
(51:17):
show that he's a pretty good player this year, following
the big guy around all day to day, I think
he means Bryson d. Shambo. Do you think his roller
coaster of emotions will prohibit him from winning frequently? Or
when he's riding high he can just kill it, love
the pod. Heard you on Colin's feed, picked up you
(51:39):
in Guys podcast. I appreciate it. If you're talking d Shambo,
I would say that he basically missed the cut, flew
back and still finished top ten. If he is hitting
his driver straight, he's easily one of the best players
in the world. He's an unsolvable force. But when you
hit the ball three hundred and seventy yards, and if
(52:00):
he's not hitting it straight, and in the course like
Quail Hollow where it's got some thrick some thick trees
and it's if you're off the beaten path, you're kind
of screwed. It can look ugly. And I bet on him.
I put one hundred dollars on him. The first couple
of days. He was all over the map. He's not
gonna play well at these hard courses when he's in
the trees. But when he's hitting fairways. I mean, Rory
(52:21):
was hitting in three fifty and he was hitting fairways
and he was unsoppable. If Bryson hit fairways all week
like he would have been right there with Rory. I
think his high ends really high. And yeah, he's emotional.
John Rom's emotional. A lot of golfers, like Justin Thomas,
pretty emotional. One thing I think Rory really been at.
Rory's become pretty even keel, Dustin Johnson very even keel.
(52:42):
If you get really emotional in golf, it's hard sometimes
Bryson gets. Yeah, I mean, he's got to learn to
gather his emotions. But he's pretty freaking good. So he
wons seven eight times. He already got a major twenty seven.
Like to me, he easily could win another major this season.
I'm a big Charger fan, and I can't understand why
(53:02):
we don't go all out to surround Herbert with talent.
I know this fan of his family has historically been
labeled as cheap. However, surely every NFL GM has a
license to use the full cap, rendering that narrative redundant.
We are the golden window, great quarterback talent plus rookie contract.
We need to get aggressive. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm
(53:25):
with you. I don't think that's gonna change. Though your
owner pinches pennies. He's one of the cheapest guys in
the league. It's not even just he operates cheap. He
thinks cheap and when you think cheap. It's hard in
a league full of absolute ass kicking rich guys who
think aggressive, who think about spending, who think they'll do
whatever it takes to win. There's a reason the Chargers
(53:48):
always under achieve. It's not the owner. Ultimately he has
the money, they have cash, it's his mindset. What's crazy
is I've known a lot of rich people that have
inherited some wealth. Sometimes they tend to be pretty aggressive
and then get you in trouble. It's to me, it's
weird when you inherit a bunch of wealth and you
get really tight and cheap. I don't understand that. The
(54:11):
Steinbrenners are kind of like that. And even though they're
a much much higher level than the Spanos, but they're
not like their dad. You think George, George has been
spend way more money. They'd have way more money. Part
of the reason all these owners spend way more money
out they have an unlimited amount of wealth. Spanos is
such a small time thinker that it's just it's kind
(54:32):
of sad because I'm with you. They should have emptied
the kitchen sink, which I mean, they added a couple
offensive linemen. Their general manager is good. They always hire
coaches also that feel like they're cheap. Even though Brandon
Stateley might become a really good head coach, he definitely
was not very expensive. They never ever swing for the fences,
(54:53):
like they would never hire a Lincoln Riley. An Urban
Meyer thought of the perfect traite scenario for the Packers
and would love to know your thoughts. Trade Jordan Love
to Atlanta straight up for Julio Jones solves both teams problems.
Green Bay gets a top flight receiver and gets rid
of Jordan Love to appease Rogers. Atlanta fixes their cap
(55:16):
problems and gets potential air to Matt Ryan and Arthur Smith.
If I was Arthur Smith and I love Jordan Love
coming out, I would be intrigued by that. I really would.
He's cheap, we can develop them, I would. Now, the
Packers don't necessarily have the cap room, so I think
they would have to cut somebody. But I've been saying
(55:39):
all along, whether they trade Jordan Love for Julio, the
Packers should be all over Julio Jones. What does it
take to get them? Because all of a sudden, Okay, Rogers,
I get it, you're pissed. You hate Grudikins. How about this, Davante,
Aaron Jones, Julio Tanyan, let's fucking rock and roll. What
are you gonna do? So you want to go to
the Raiders over Julio and Davante, Come on, but the
(56:01):
Packers actually gotta do it? Are they going to pull
the trigger? I think we'd all bet against them not
doing it. Thirteen year old in New York. I like
the young demo. I want to hear your rundown on
the Giants offseason and draft. Thanks. I love your pot
and keep up the good work. I think the Giants
on paper are pretty solid, right. They get se Quon
(56:22):
coming back, they add Gala Day, they add Tony in
the draft, smart move by Gettleman at a first rounder.
Their defense is solid, They retained all their coaches. I
mean to me, it comes down to simply, is Daniel
Jones any good? Is Daniel Jones someone you'd pick up
his fifth year option? Is Daniel Jones someone you would
think about giving a contract extension. If he is, they
(56:43):
should win nine games. If he's not, they could be
a five or six win team. Again, and complaining that
the Eagles, you know, bench their quarterback. I think their
coachs look solid. It feels like they got a solid
group of guys. Leonard Williams resigned him. Lennard Williams was
really good. Give Gettleman credit on that. I thought that
(57:04):
was kind of a weird trade. It was good he
had a breakout season with all the sacks. He was
a guy that could never land the quarterback. Gettleman believed
in him and it was proven right. I look at
the Giants and the Washington football team very very similarly.
Both of them have a very very solid core of
(57:25):
just tough, physical minded guys, good defensive players. Can they
get a good quarterback play? Now, I'd bet on Fitzpatrick
being better than Daniel Jones. But if Daniel Jones can
just have a Ryan Fitzpatrick type season, Giants could win
the division. I totally agree the NFL shouldn't move a
franchise to London, and they would be competitive free agent
(57:45):
disadvantage and the fan interest would wane and the novelty
factor of new visiting teams keep the current rotation approach. Secondly,
the international image of the league is moving toward high
profile players rather than teams. Is there a concern that
the league moves towards an NBA player power model, where
(58:06):
the strength of the team franchise is diminished in order
to maintain interest in their star names. Cheers UK based listener, God,
I love the international listening. I need to get to
the UK. It feels like just a cool place. Never
been there, would love to go. I don't think that's
the case, because I think basketball has failed that way.
(58:28):
At the end of the day, if you grew up
in LA, you're a Laker fan. You love Kobe because
he became a Laker and spent his whole career as
a Laker. You like Jack when he was on the Lakers.
Once he started bitching and moaning, you traded him away
like he wasn't your guy anymore. One of the reasons
the NBA, to me, has had a precipitous drop off
and fan interest. They stop putting the fan first. Fans
(58:48):
care about teams. Wherever you grew up, you watch the Lakers,
the Mavericks, the Knicks, whoever. You care about the team first. Obviously,
if your team has a great player, you for that player.
But when your team sucks, would all these players leave?
That sucks? Like even if you love James Harden when
he was on the Rockets. Once he demands a trade
and says, screw you to the city Houston trades, what
(59:09):
are's supposed to do? Just follow him wherever he goes.
Your team then sucks. That's awful for the fan. Like ultimately,
my think most Packer fans want Rogers to come back,
but they're gonna keep rooting for the Packers. They just
really are. Because I think right now, if you're a
Packer fan, you'd go Aaron, your team's pretty freaking good.
You've had it pretty awesome. I'd say Tom Brady is
(59:31):
somewhat of an outlier. He brought them six championships. Six
So if you're a new England fan like Listen, Tom
was forty two years old. He wanted a new start,
a new team, we get it. So I'd say Tom's
an out He brought us the greatest twenty years we'll
ever have. We can't thank him enough. He's a legend.
But he's our guy and I'm gonna root for him
in Tampa. To me, the way he didn't handle like
(59:53):
Rogers either. He was a free agent, he left, it
was clear Balchick wanted to move on from him. Rogers
is like destroying the franchise. So I don't think that'll
be the case, because I think deep down we root
for the team first. Now the players come with the team,
but fans or team first, because usually you root for
(01:00:15):
a team where you live. You care about where you're from,
even if you leave. I'm someone who's left come back,
and I live, you know, an hour forty five minutes
depending on traffic, away from where I grew up. I
take pride and where I grew up, right, I mean,
I grew up a big King's fan, and I still
kind of subtly root for them. Not really, but if
(01:00:37):
they were good, I'd be a fan again. I doubt
you have time to read all your dms, but it
would be willing. Would be so awesome to meet you
and ask you a few questions. I live in northern
California and can come to you. My dream is to scout.
I would like to pick your brain. I'll buy we
(01:00:57):
can go to any restaurant you choose with Chris Flemings.
I'm just kidding. Yeah, I'll shoot this guy. DM. Well,
I get this question a lot. The best thing you
can do you gotta get involved in football. If you
truly want to work in football, you just gotta get involved,
whether that means starting at the high school level, whether
that means getting involved in the college level. You gotta
(01:01:18):
get in football because you can't just be not in
football and have no football experience. Besides, maybe you like
played in high school and be twenty six twenty seven
and think you're gonna get an in because they're like, well,
do you know what you're talking about? Just because you're
a fan or whatever. You gotta get involved. That would
be my number one recommendation. Find a way into a
college program. And it might be working for free. It sucks,
(01:01:40):
but I did it when I was at cal Pali
and it helped kind of open doors and get me
in places like Frezlo State. And I would never have
worked in the NFL if it wasn't for Frezlo State.
Zero chance, no chance, zero, I mean, it would not
have happened. So you gotta find a way in that.
That's always my yeah, my number one advice. Appreciate everyone listening,
(01:02:03):
have a great week, Audios. If you love to be
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Colin Cowherd
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