In this episode, Middlekauff looks at Dak passing on Dallas' $30 million per offer, why Jerry should pull the offer sheet, why Antonio Brown needs to produce at a high level to justify his dumpster fire behavior, if violent hits are making a comeback, the opposite philosophies coaches around the league have about playing starters in the preseason, and answers listener questions in Middlekauff's Mailbag. Follow John on twitter @JohnMiddlekauff and go to theherdnow.com to find the latest content. Subscribe now!
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Episode Transcript
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(01:45):
the Carlos Cologne Arena in San Juan, and we would
watch American wrestling and Lucha wrestling pretty much every date,
and she, as did many back then, was fully convinced
that wrestling was one hundred percent. Listen to the Michael
Duda podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(02:07):
or wherever you listen to podcasts. What is going on
My people Football is back three and out pod. That's
this with John Middlecoff. That's me I consume football from
(02:31):
basically Thursday night or just start for a lot of Friday,
multiple games Friday, and then a lot Saturday. And it
was glorious. It really was. Did I watched something? Was
there game on Thursday? I don't even know now when
I say glorious. First half of preseason games were watchable
the second The second half can be a challenging watch
(02:53):
for sure, But when you have been deprived of football
for when was the last game? I mean, if you
count the I don't count the af SO, the Super
Bowl up until basically last week the Hall of Fame game,
which I don't count. At least Mahomes and the Cowboys
were playing their first team defense as a vander Esh
crushing people. Jalen Smith looks like Patrick Willis, so you
(03:17):
know it's it's back kinda but you know, the NFL,
there's a lot going on today. I am so fired
up to do to do this show right now. Dak
Prescott asking for forty million dollars. Then Mortenson says, it's
not quite forty million dollars, it's more like thirty four.
A lot of a lot of opinions on our boy,
(03:38):
Dak here and the money Antonio Brown. Since I last
talked to everyone, he had had the foot issues he
had disappeared. Turns out it was all really over a
helmet that the league ruled that he wasn't able to wear.
So he instagramed that he's coming back. I guess he's
(03:59):
gonna wear the new moment. But that's just some thoughts
on Antonio Brown. Big hits. Something I noticed this weekend.
I think hits and the violence, which I know that
I love as part of football, is making its way
back to the NFL, Thank you Jesus. And then just
some thoughts on the preseason. I mean, there's different coaches
(04:20):
that are really successful approach it so many different ways,
and I'm just fascinated by what the right or wrong
way is to do it. I don't I don't even
know if there is an answer, but I kind of
want to dive into just, you know, the way that
Belichick does it, the way that Andy does it, the
way that they all kind of have different styles, the
way they attack the preseason. And then of course the
(04:41):
Milcoff mailbag slide up into my dms on Instagram. I'm
active on Instagram doing a couple videos a day right now,
just any topic, anything that comes up post a video.
But I always check your DMS, or I mean I
check my DMS, interact with you there, and then I'll
answer your questions here on the podcast. But I want
to open up and start with the Dallas Cowboys. How
(05:03):
about them Cowboys, Dak Prescott, Zeke Elliott, and Mary Cooper.
I talked about it on the last podcast that was
a little unlucky. They have three players. Two happen to
be a free agent, one day go at the end
of this year. One day acquired in the middle of
the season last year in Amari Cooper, and then as
(05:23):
the season went on his value grew exponentially. The other one,
they're running back, which is holding out in Cabo Saint Lucas,
is under contract for two more seasons. Like it's not
like Zeke was. They had three guys who were going
to be a free agent, and then their quarterback, who
clearly they are making substantial offers to, is offended. And
(05:47):
I think there are so many different elements with Dak,
so I kind of want to hit them all on
the most basic level. Someone posed this question to me
today and it got me thinking, what do players owe
the team? And I started like, what does anyone owe
anyone in business beside what you're contractually obligated to do
for someone. I heard a great quote today. I'm reading
(06:10):
Shoe Doog reading would be strong. I'm listening, and that's
how I consume my books. I'm a millennial, consume my
books audio, audio book, the film Night Book. And he
had a good quote in there that business is war
without bullets. And most of you listening are in some
form of fashion, in some different line of business, and
I think that resonates with many people. Obviously, people do
(06:33):
not die in business, but it ruins people's lives. People
get laid off, people get fired, Companies get overtaken, companies
get wiped out by the competition. Our capitalistic society is
very aggressive and you can benefit greatly from it, and
you can also get destroyed from it. And so when
(06:54):
I hear what do players owe the team? What does
the team owe the players? What does anyone anything besides
like your wife, your parents, your kids, to separate personal
relationships just strictly professional relationships. And the answer is nothing
beside what you're contractually obligated to do for that person
(07:15):
on whatever agreement you're in and football. Dak Prescott's in
a four year contract at whatever the number was being
a fourth round pick, and it wasn't much. Now the
going rate for his position is really high, and he's
a good player. I've defended Dak, but he's not that good.
And then you go to the element, am I paying
(07:37):
for what you've done or what I think you can do?
Because when you look at let's say Russell Wilson, it's
a combination of both. I'm paying him for what he's
done and I'm paying him for what I still think
he can do. Say with Andrew Locke, say with Aaron Rodgers,
Carson Wentz, who I would imagine an NFL contracts are
all about comes, Unlike I think in the real world,
(08:01):
contracts aren't necessarily public besides like CEOs and stuff. But
I'm just saying, like, if you're a sales guy and
you're working at a company, you don't I mean, there's
word of mouth and you know what the going raid is.
But in football the Union, all the contracts are public
for the players and their agents and the teams. Dak
(08:21):
Prescott has word for word the actual contract if he
wants it. Of Carson Wentz, so when he's going well.
Carson Wentz, who is yet to play in a playoff game.
I've been to the playoffs three different times in my career.
It or excuse me, two different times in my career
in my three years, Carson's yet to go, and the
one he's been injured twice. I've been more successful just
(08:45):
because I've played more. He would be right, but the
man on the moon knows that Carson Wentz's potential, his
ceiling is that superior. It's probably not even a conversation
and Dak's part of Dak's big arguments are intangibles, leadership,
(09:06):
how cool he is under pressure, stuff that you can't
really measure. Because you go Dak, you struggle hitting just
basic routes. You're not a consistent player in just games.
Now you make klutz plays. I think look back on
Russell Wilson several years ago, not this contract, but his
first one. It was a complicated deal because you went,
(09:27):
how good could Russell really be? Well at the time,
I know I was much more bullish on Russell's ceiling
than I am Dak. I think Dak can get, you know,
incrementally better, but he kind of is what he is
and what he is is a good player. If you're
on a loaded team, you can win games with him.
(09:48):
I actually think the right comparison for Dak is probably
like Jim Harbaugh level Alex Smith. Alex got better as
years went on. I don't know if Dak could be
as good as Alex was his last couple of years
in Kansas City, but he clearly if he's your starting
quarterback and your team's loaded, you're gonna be in the playoffs,
and you can give you a shot. Now, maybe in
the playoffs, Dak would be a little better than Alex,
(10:13):
a little more physical as a runner, if you could
ever figure out the deep ball. But that's what we're
dealing with here. So when I see the numbers he's
asking for forty, that to me means nothing. But would
I just see that he turned down thirty? And if
I would imagine the guarantees, you know, I don't know.
I would struggle guaranteeing him over eighty eighty five million dollars.
(10:34):
I've said all along, I think a very very fair
deal for Dak Prescott would be four years, eighty five
million dollars and guarantee every penny. Now I get his
agent wants that number to be in the nine figures
because they want to get their grubby little hands on
the points. I understand that, but I go dak a
couple of things. One, your owner is your general manager.
(10:57):
He wants to pay everyone. And this notion of like
get the bag. I saw a Trey Wingo today like,
why are people counting people's money? Well, I don't know, Trey.
This is a salary cap league, and what guys make
kind of impact the team. If you're not talking about
people's money in the NFL, go sit at the little
(11:18):
kid's table and talk about players, because at the big
kids table, money is a huge factor when you're building.
You know this thing we call a team because there
is a there's a set number. I think the number
this year's one eighty eight. And unlike basketball, where they
have this thing called a soft cap, in the NFL,
it's hard and you can't go over it. So when
(11:41):
you have a team like the Cowboys with a lot
of us sending players that are going to demand a
lot of money, it's hard to keep them all. So
anyone that's saying why are we counting people's pennies? One,
you're an idiot and two, you just can't have the
conversation without talking about contracts. So when I and the
thing that makes is very complicated is he has two
teammates that he's very dependent on one handing them all
(12:04):
off to the running back who is damn good. Dak
needs that guy and the receiver. We saw what he
looked like before a Mari showed up, and it wasn't
very good. I promise you one thing I had Gruden
liked himri and not trade him the Cowboys. I'll promise
you we're not talking about Dak Prescott and anywhere in
the world of thirty million dollars a year. I also
(12:27):
think there is an element to the Cowboys and people
have DM me this and tweeted at me. He when
I forget whoever was the old was a cam was
the yogurt spokesman, whatever the yogurt company is. If Dak
Prescott was the quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals or the
(12:48):
Jacksonville Jaguars, he would not have that spot. Being the
quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys generates you exponentially more money
off the field, and when you're the when you're the
starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, and they are good
cheching cha ching, unlike those other guys like Zeke's probably
(13:12):
this next contract is his final contract. Amari receivers can
play a little longer, but you just never know. For Dak,
let's say he signed a four year, ninety million dollars
every penny guaranteed if he was just solid. He's getting
another big contract one million percent, so he's gonna be
(13:32):
able to make the most amount of money off the field.
He'll make a lot of money on the field, and
he'll have success because his teammates will be around him.
Like you're taking and just asking for thirty two, thirty four,
thirty five million dollars, you're hurting yourself. And in an
area like Dallas where there's no state income tax, where
twenty two million is actually like relative to where I live,
(13:55):
would probably be the equivalent of like twenty eight twenty nine.
Till your team's good and you need the teammates and
your owner is trustworthy, you know he's gonna pay these
other guys he wants to. So you're basically saying by
demanding thirty five million dollars, you don't give a shit
if your team's good. So I'm not gonna feel bad
for in a couple of years when you're on a
six and ten team because you're not good enough to
(14:15):
carry that. You're not Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson can take
an average roster and take him to the playoffs. Dak
Prescott's not doing that. Hell, we saw it last year
before Maury showed up. They were headed towards the lottery.
They would have been a team drafting in the top ten.
That's what was so crazy about the Maury trade. It's like, hey, guys,
you're three and five. You're trading the first round pick
for Mary Cooper. Now it ended up saving the season.
(14:37):
Maybe they were three and four, but it was they
were headed towards six and ten year. We all saw
it coming. So and here's the curveball. Let's say this,
because I think this is an element. If I was
Jerry and Stephen, I'd go, you know what, Dak, the
offer's not on the table anymore. Let's play this season out.
(14:57):
And I would then have to actively make an aggress
of offer get a mari to sign a contract, so
I don't have to worry because I can't franchise them
both or let's just sail a Mari one time all
franchise a Mari. Where is Dak Prescott finding a big
deal this offseason? I looked through all the teams. Half
(15:18):
the league has a quarterback hunder twenty five. They ain't
budging off that guy. Then a large majority of the
quarterback has established older guys like even like a Roethlisberger
who makes thirty million dollars. Well, they can't pay Dak Rogers,
Luck Russell Wilson, the Jimmy Garoppolos, Derek Carrs. Where is
(15:39):
Dak finding thirty million dollars a year? So worst case scenario,
I have to franchise tag Amari Cooper, I let Dak
okay Dak. Let's let's openly negotiate against the market. Part
of the reason Kirk Cousins market was so big he
had three teams in a line offering just stupid mind.
(16:01):
He had the New York Jets offering more money than Minnesota,
who would even come close to offering Dak this offseason?
Jimmy Garoppolo money seventy million dollars a year. I'd argue,
you know what, the smart business would be yanked the offer.
Make him play it out if he's being just over
the top. I think thirty million dollars is ridiculous. For
(16:23):
him to meet twenty five makes me hesitate. Where is
he finding this money on the open market? I just
do not see the team. The Houston Texans, the Arizona Cardinals,
the forty nine ers, the Seattle Seahawks, just go. I
mean even Tampa. You think Bruce Arians wants a guy
that struggles with a deep ball. Have you followed Bruce
arians career? No chance, even like the Jaguars, they gave
(16:47):
Fulls fifty million dollars. They're in bed with him for
at least a couple of years. I just do not
see the Dak Prescott market. So, yeah, Dak doesn't owe
the Cowboys anything, and I'd argue the Cowboys don't owe
him much either. They put his ass on the met app,
they made Dak Prescott and they're and they're actively trying
to pay him, probably overpay him. So if anything, I
(17:09):
think the Cowboys are nuts for even offering him a
contract sniffing thirty million dollars a year. Unless that guaranteed
money's like fifty million, then I call him geniuses. But
I think the whole curveball on this. You got to
try to actively sign a mari Zeke doesn't really have
that much leverage because we're just gonna go he's under contract.
But Dak Prescott, I would not be afraid. Just look
(17:30):
at the landscape of the league, especially with some of
these young quarterbacks coming out this year like Tuah Herbert
and from him, and there's always a guy or two
that kind of comes out of nowhere, a Daniel Jones
type of midst rubisky. Who's paying Dak. I'll tell you
nobody beside the cowboys. This clip is brought to you
(17:51):
by State Farm. At State Farm, they know it's important
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(18:14):
com for a quote today if you could talk to
me a little bit about the process you went through.
And I think it's good to not pat yourself on
the back, but to put it out there so other
people can kind of hear what it takes like I
don't know. I always look at like this, like what
do I want? I wanted to be at WW Superstar,
all right, what does it take to be at WW Superstar?
(18:35):
What are the tools I will need to give me
every possible opportunity I can get? And so I took
the tools of acting classes, improv classes, wrestling school, everything
I possibly can to knock on the door of the
people of the Everyone on that Real World show would
wear my T shirts would always ask me to submiss
like they were so supportive, Like you don't get it
(18:56):
that very often really don't. Listen to the Michael Dura
podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to podcasts. This clip is brought to
you by State Farm. At State Farm, they know it's
important to ensure the things you love. They also get
that everyone has a budget. That's why they have options
(19:18):
like ensuring your car and your home, getting you great
rates on both. It's a good idea to consider State
Farm for surprisingly great rates. Like a good neighbor, state
Farm is there, call or go to state farm dot
com for a quote. Today, I can post a picture
that a girl that is way skinnier than I am,
(19:41):
A size two, a size four, the same exact picture,
and I look vulgar because I'm thicker. But if a
thinner girl does it, it's not that much of a
big deal. And that's what I'm not okay with because
why why? Because I have stalulite, because I have thick thighs,
I can't do that. I can't feel sexy in my
own skin. And that's those are the things that I
(20:01):
want to break because there are so many women like me,
and I want to be and represent us. You know,
obviously there's always room for improvement. I always want to
look better, I want to work out, I want to
lose weight, but in reality, this is the body God
gave me, and I've never really been skinny. Listen to
the Michael Dua podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This clip
(20:25):
is brought to you by State Farm. At State Farm,
they know it's important to ensure the things you love.
They also get that everyone has a budget. That's why
they have options like ensuring your car and your home,
getting you great rates on both. It's a good idea
to consider State Farm for surprisingly great rates, like a
good neighbor. State Farm is there call or go to
(20:48):
state farm dot com for a quote today. In high school,
I never really was like dating around or anything like that.
And then I got into a long term relationship and
was dating someone for a few year years, and then
after getting out of that relationship, I think these this
past year or so or whatever whatever it has been
like meet like actually living life as a single person.
(21:10):
It's very hard, and I think it's what do you mean,
not like not hard, I should say, but like it's
very different knowing nothing but long term relationships and then
moving into like the single lifestyle. That's like quote dating
around and like feeling people out. That's kind of been
something interesting to navigate. Listen to the Michael Dua podcast network,
(21:34):
available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to podcasts. Okay, let's let's dive into Antonio Brown.
I don't know if you had a chance to see
Once upon a Time in Hollywood with Pitt and Leo.
It's really good. And you know, in the history of Hollywood,
(21:55):
just like in the history of musicians rock stars, there's
a percentage of them that are divas that are big
pains in the asses, right, same with TV stars, same
with movie stars, musicians, just anyone who is uniquely talented.
Not every one of those people are normal. Some of
(22:16):
them can be a royal pain in the butt. But
if they are really good, and we're talking about we're
talking about the Brad Pitts, the Taylor Swifts, whoever, occasionally
you get a massive diva and a massive pain in
the butt. But you know what they also are. They
are cash cows and they are not replaceable and typically
(22:37):
in the peak of their powers. Whether you're a team,
whether you're that person's manager or agent, whatever it is, right,
whether it's movies, whether it's sports, whether it's music, you
deal with them. Why Because they produce, because they dominate,
because they make everyone around them a lot of money,
a lot of money. And listen, Antony, the Raiders, I
(23:01):
don't think quite knew what they were signing up for,
but they had a decent idea. You don't find elite
talents like this available for a third round pick randomly.
It was the baggage, it was all the craziness, and
no one could have predicted that he'd burn his feet
off now, knock on what he's gonna be? Okay. I'm
(23:21):
not a doctor. I didn't go to medical school. I
don't have any clue about frostbite. Beside like when people
go to Mount Everest or the Donner Party or coming
to the over the Oregon Trail, I don't even know
how long you're out what I've read some doctors on
Twitter that think he's gonna be okay, So assuming his
feet are gonna be oh, you know whatever. The helmet
(23:42):
story is very diva ish, it's very Terrell Owens. It's
very I don't even know a musician that was a
royal diva. We've all seen the movies of screwing up
hotel rooms and just being a pain. That's what Antonio is.
He is a pain. But you know what he also is,
he's one of the best wide receivers we've ever seen.
He said, six or eight years of over one hundred
catches in a thousand yards. I think he's one year
(24:04):
away from tying Jerry Rice's or maybe that did tie
Jerry Rice's record, if he does it again this year
with the Raiders, which probably be a little difficult. He'd
told the record by himself. He's an elite player. He's
a dominant player. He is a royal pain. And when
you sign up for a guy like this, it puts
your organization somewhat in a tough spot. Because Gruden went
(24:25):
out of his way after the preseason game on Saturday
complimenting him, thanking him, basically speaking to him like you
would a little child. And then the team posted it,
and then they linked his Twitter account to the post,
and you know what, I gave them credit. I'm like,
that's smart. He is sensitive. You need to speak through
him through social media. It's where the guy lifts on
(24:47):
social media. I get it. I would have done the
same thing the moment they acquired him. Though. They're all
in on Antonio Brown. They're building their offense around him.
They're gonna acquiesce to his demands. They're gonna let his
trainer on a actors field, which is not normal. They're
gonna let him do whatever he wants, and as long
as he produces at the highest level, you'll deal with it.
(25:08):
The moment, and he's already started to become a problem,
but you give him, like a guy like a year.
If he can dominate, you just deal with his problems
the moment this site starts becoming like a seventy catch
guy in an eight hundred yard a season guy and
doesn't give you ten touchdowns a year, When that ten
or when that hundred, one thousand and ten, just put
it in the bank, locking in in sharpie pen on
(25:32):
the wall that goes to, you know, seventy seven, eight,
seventy five and four touchdowns, his actor's tool. It's over
because in this entire league, and none of us knew
anything about these helmets unless you probably work in the league.
I didn't. I had no clue they were implementing these
new helmets. Why because no one talked about him. Everyone
(25:54):
just yeah, I'll wear him. Brady talked about it. I
think yesterday. A lot of players don't like them, but
you know what they are. They're safe. You do who
agreed to it? The players union and the league like
they're not doing it to try to make players look
stupid or not be comfortable. It's all about safety, something
that we heard over and over and over forever. Safety. Safety, safety.
(26:15):
So the league is given it and they said, Antonio,
you can't wear you're skinning a little ten year old
helmet anymore. What did Antonio do. Somehow he found a
guy at either like a body shop or some paint
or to paint over and he got caught because as
you read in some of those silver tweets that the
league says, listen, if you do not follow the rules,
(26:35):
you will be in trouble. So what do the teams do?
They put all the pressure on the equipment guy. So
what does the equipment guy when he sees this guy
wearing the wrong helmet? He freaks out, tells on him,
tells him you can't do this, and then it creates
a freak out. Well, guess what Antonio Brown does. A
lot freaks out over just innocuous crap, over stuff that
even a player that's uncomfortable to be like, okay, I
get it, like I oh, everyone in the league's doing this.
(26:57):
Oh yeah, okay, I understand, like we all are sensitive
to certain things in life, but a lot of us
can just kind of understand like yeah, it's easier, and
some of us can't. And Antonio is in the small
smaller percentage of everything is a problem with him. It's
always something, But for these last six or seven years,
he's been so freaking good. They're just like okay, whatever.
(27:20):
I mean. The Steelers just came to the end of
the line after he threw the ball in Ben's face
and he's bitching him, moaning he wants more money, and
they just say and then he freaks out, he said
that wants to trade, and there's like, okay, go away,
just we'll just rid our hands of you. But and
more than likely they got the best six years that
Antonio Brown will ever have out of them. In a
(27:41):
perfect world, though they would have liked him for a
couple more years because he's so good now they can
probably replace him. They look James Washington, some of the
guys they had looked like they have a chance. But
I you know that there's a narcissistic, just something about
a diva that is hard to handle, and it's really
hard to hand them. For coaches, you know, it's one
(28:02):
thing if you're an agent and the dude's a rock
star or a movie star. It's another thing if the
dude is playing a team game and it's like, bro,
you do have a meeting room with other teammates, with
guys in your position, with guys on the side of
the ball. You answer to a coach, You answer to
a position coach. The problem once you get Antonio Brown,
like who does he really answer to? As he's shown
(28:24):
only the league can get him to say yes, because
doesn't really listen to Gruten He's not really listened to
anyone else on the team. It just kind of it
just kind of is what it is. And as long
as he's healthy, he's gonna be a really good player.
Now that puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback
and Derek car to play well because if Antonio Brown
is healthy and he puts on the right helmet, it's
(28:45):
a make or break here for Derek. Like this guy
is a massive, massive curveball for the Raiders, especially their
head coach. Like one of the things with their head coach,
he's not just a head coach, he's the offensive coordinator.
He's an offensive guy. What do you think he's been
doing since he acquired Antonio Brown? When he's up at
four in the morning and he's going to bed at midnight,
he's drying place all the time for eighty four, Like
(29:08):
they really need this guy now, the curveball on this
is he a lock to play Week one? Is he
gonna be healthy again? We've never really seen to my knowledge.
Before Antonio Brown frostbite in the NFL, usually guys were shoes,
guys were socks. Guys just protect their feet. So I'm
not sure. I don't know, but if he is healthy,
(29:31):
he's gonna be good because I've seen the practice that
he did have and you guys have seen it too.
On hard knocks. The Raiders defensive backs are not bad.
While their defense their front seven is horrendous. They have
the worst defensive line in the NFL on paper, not
close linebackers below average. Their dbs are good. And he
(29:52):
showed up with frostbitten feet and ran circles around them
all like he's a dominant player, but he's not to
somewhat get his head right. Now he's proven that he
can play with not his head right, but he has
to get his feet right. So now that helmet gate
is behind him, he's given in, though he's not happy.
He'll wear the new helmet or try to find an
older helmet that fits under the new regulations. They have
(30:16):
to find a way to get his feet right. That's
really the only thing matters. And this diva that you've acquired,
like that's not going to change. It'll be something in
week seven, it'll be something. Week ten, it's always going
to be something. But as long as he plays at
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Events and Adventures dot com. I noticed something this weekend,
combined with what ab in his helmet gate brought to light,
and it kind of made a light go off for
(33:08):
me and if this potentially happens, I will be very happy.
In a couple of games on Friday and Saturday, I
notice big hits, big legal hits, safeties and linebackers leading
with shoulder pads but elevating, you know, launching themselves in
the air, but hitting below the you know, below the
(33:30):
below the neck area and doing it cleanly and no
flags were thrown. And then with Antonio Brown and helmet gate,
you realize the big push they're they're moving into the league.
Are these bigger safer helmets And clearly, you know, five
or six years ago and CTE was taken off and
the media just it felt like wanting football the crumble,
(33:53):
which is weird because so many people in the media
make so much money because of football. But you know,
I get it. I mean, I don't necessarily relate to
the hate and wanting to see football go away. But
I'm not a journalist either. I'm a businessman, so I
like the league doing well. It's good for anyone involved
in the football business. Though CTE very bad thing. I'm
(34:16):
not a PROCTE guy and I'm not some CTE truther
acting like it doesn't exist. It clearly was an issue
the league needed to adapt. They have been overaggressive, you know,
over the last three or four years. If anything, they
went too far the other way. And I do think
with these bigger helmets that violence might come back to
the sport. And I think at the end of the day,
(34:38):
I know Twitter will tell you peace, love and happiness.
We just live in a utopia. Look at the progressive NBA.
You know what people like with their football violence And
I have numbers to back me up to this day.
Seven years later, or maybe a little less than that.
Six years later, but in the history of the league,
the Seahawks versus to forty nine Ers was as violent
(34:59):
of a football game in twenty fourteen, the NFC Championship
game I've ever I've ever witnessed thirty four years old,
been watching football pretty consistently that I can remember now,
you know, for I don't know, twenty five years. That's
as good as it gets. Top to bottom. Just vicious violence.
And these last couple of years they went over the
top of the other way. You couldn't touch a soul
(35:20):
or a flag got thrown out. Well, now that they've
kind of neutralized the CTE problem, they're even studies coming
out that you can get ct in other walks of life.
I think the media jumped the shark a little bit.
We just the information is not out clearly, football is violent,
not good for your long term health. There's some things
that the league needs to work on for healthcare for
its foreigner players. That's a conversation for another place. But
(35:41):
I think they had to bring in the big hits back.
And I'm not talking big hits where you're head hunting
and leaving guys injured on the field, but where guys
get lit up across the middle, where the wide receiver
fears going over the middle that he may be tackled,
where the vernacular ends that he's a defenseless player. It's
possible to be a defenseless player if you're a wide
(36:02):
receiver because you're running over the middle where you know
defensive backs are. Now, if you want to convince me
you're a defenseless apartment jurn standing there waiting for the
punt to come down because you're looking at high at
the air, I'll hear you there. But to me, a
wide receiver is not defenseless. And I noticed some big
time hits this weekend, no flags throne and then obviously
these bigger helmets. I think violence is coming back. And
(36:25):
I know this. Every human and definitely every male likes violence.
We're drawn to it. Think of when you're young and
like junior high in high school, when there's a fight
on campus or on school or at a party, everyone
runs to watch. It's our natural inclination. I'm someone like
I like my violence kind of regulated, like I like boxing.
(36:47):
I've always been a little comfortable watching MMA. Now I
have I admire how tough those guys are. I went
to college with Chad Mendez, who was the baddest one
hundred four pounder I've ever seen. He used to beat
up dudes on the football team. He couldn't be stopped.
It wasn't shocking that he went to the MMA and
(37:08):
was successful. You know. When I was at cal Poly,
Chuck Ladell, who also had gone to cal Poly, was
in his prime in MMA. But I get a little
uncomfortable sometimes I'm watching it. These guys just beat each
other to a pulp like I'm not looking for that,
I am. I do like a good boxing match where
dudes are getting blasted, but I love a good football hit.
I've always been more of an offensive guy, but I
(37:29):
appreciate the Ronnie Lotts, the Brian Dawkins like I like
that type player, the Ray Lewis. I want to see
guys get blasted legally. And I think the league realizes
that the whatsification of football is not a positive big picture,
and I'm separating two things here. Protecting the quarterback as
a must. The league is only as strong as his quarterbacks.
(37:52):
The league is now loaded with good quarterbacks. You gotta
take care of him. So I am okay with overregulating
sacks not throwing the flag. I can live with that,
I really can. It's gonna piss whoever off, you know,
a fan of a team on a given play. Every
once in a while, we just gotta deal with it.
Where I can't deal though, is when a guy's going
(38:12):
over the middle and a safety destroys him and he
hits him, you know, in the chest or the stomach,
and the dude throws a flag, like, what's he supposed
to do to hand touch him like that? That's where
the league became embarrassing. I thought these last couple of years,
that's where I thought the league was play kating to
what they thought Twitter wants. And when you play kate
to what you think Twitter wants, you get the NBA
(38:33):
and you get historically low ratings for a season. Play
kate to what the fans want, the consumer want, what
we're used to seeing. What helped make the NFL such
a big product was the ultimate combination of intellectual coaches
and quarterbacks playing mind games against defensive coordinators against this
just violent action of these defenders trying to take out
(38:56):
the guy with the ball in his hands, but you
can outthink him the scheme do it. The ultimate combination
of team games. But there's a toughness element of football
that's blended into the team element and the smart element
that makes it such a special game. It's why to
go along with the urgency of the sport. You only
play once a week. It's the ultimate combination. Perfect for
(39:17):
gambling on, perfect for watching. It's a great television product.
The talent still really high, the coaching level is still
really high. It's got it all. But when you take
away one of the elements which is a huge fundamental
part of the sport, the violent tackling, which is legal,
that has been happening forever, it hurts the sport. And
I thought it's really hurt the sport for the last
(39:39):
couple of years, and I thought they overreacted to things.
But I understand why they overreact. I am, at least
my theory that it kind of feels like it's coming
back makes me happy, and I'm gonna keep my fingers
crossed that the big hits come back, because I think
that's what the people want, that's what the consumer wants.
And you're only as strong as a league and as
powerful as the league as you are the fans, because
(40:01):
the fans essentially pay for everything. The coaches don't mind
the big hits. The hell the defensive coaches and defensive
players would pay to get them back. It would give
them a fighting chance in a league that leans the
offensive ways. So if you're gonna give all these advantages
to the to the offense, you can't mug him more
than five yards down the field right most of the
quarterback you can't really touch him anymore, which I think
(40:24):
even the defensive guys at this point in time would understand.
You gotta be able to at least mess with the
wide receiver, at least have it in the back of
his mind. You know what might happen. You might get
laid out. And in the history of this great game,
a lot of guys have gotten laid out and they
get back up because when you're hit cleanly, yeah, you
get your win knocked out of you, you shake it off,
(40:44):
you get back up, and you keep playing. That's that's
the reality. And now with these bigger helmets, maybe one
of as many head injuries, that's you know, that's behind
it all, right, So I think we got big hits
coming back. I think we're gonna have that that will
lead to a much more fun NFL season. We're clearly
down the home stretch of the preseason. The four preseason
(41:08):
games like it's been openly talked about. Right with this
new CBA four preseason games, they're gonna be a thing
of the past more than likely, my guests, It's not
like I don't know anyone in the league office, but
just reading the tea leaves of what the people in
the know are saying, it kind of feels like we're
headed to two. I know Kyle Shanahan said last week
he wouldn't mind seeing zero. Now they're a little biased that.
(41:31):
I think the the Niners literally right now lead the
league in injuries. They have thirteen and many of those
are starters, so that they can't figure out training camp.
I mean, they don't know what to do. Hell, they
can't figure out the season. They just lose a lot
of players. But I was fascinated on one night, would
that have been Saturday night? I had the Chiefs game
(41:53):
on NFL Network and I had the forty nine Ers
game on my local television. And the forty nine, I mean,
the guys who didn't play was more than half the team.
They didn't play any starters. Somehow they still managed to
lose multiple players. I mean they lost their backup swing tackle.
They're a debacle. They didn't play anyone, and they still
(42:14):
had major injuries, Like they lost a guy that's gonna
be on their their fifty three man roster for the
season more than likely. So they don't even know they're
kind of at a loss. But I look up to
my top TV. Yeah, I got two TVs. You know
you can't. You can't follow sports for a living and
have one TV. Now I'm lucky that in my condo,
(42:36):
I can put it in my living room one day,
get a family or whatever. And the hard part is
real estate in the Bay Area so expensive. I'm gonna
need a man cave and I'm gonna get like I
already have it kind of mapped out in my mind.
It's gonna be glorious. But that's a little ways away.
So I'm looking up at the top TV and I
see Patrick Mahomes and I'm like, oh, Mahomes is in
(42:58):
and he's lead them down the field, lead him down
the field, and they're they're on like the fifteen yard line,
and all of a sudden, Mahomes takes off outside of
the pocket, makes a guy miss, kind of cuts back
and he's running at the goal line. Turns out there
about two defenders at the goal line, waiting to just
kill them. And I even like kind of gasp like,
oh my god. And Mahomes slides kind of like falls,
(43:21):
hits the ground. They don't hit him. And then he
looks over at Andy and he smiles, and I would
imagine Coachree didn't smile back because anyone watching kind of gas.
But then I'm looking at the other TV and the
Cowboys Jason Garrett, besides Zeke who's in Cobo, and Amar
who's dinged UPPI has a bad heel. He's playing all
(43:41):
of his starters. So and he's playing all the starters.
I'm watching the Cowboys play all their starters, and I'm
watching the Niners play nobody, And I go, what is
the right thing to do? You know, if Mahomes is playing,
why can't Jimmy play? If if all the Cowboys guys
are playing, And then I and then I got the
Raider game on on another TV, and well, actually I
(44:03):
had to flip them on for the Chiefs game, and
all of a sudden, I realized nobody's playing in that game.
Because Sean McVeagh the forty nine ers have kind of
copied him. He plays nobody. Gruden for whatever reason, didn't
really play anyone either, And I started thinking, like, what
is the right or wrong way to do this? How
is the right way to approach this? Because you look
(44:25):
at Belichick, he doesn't really play anyone, but he does
he averages two joint practices a year, so he gets
all this extra work out of these joint practices. And
I think joint practices are a smart thing to do
if you're comfortable with them. But if you're not comfortable
with people seeing in your plays or even seeing your roster,
I'm not opposed to doing things like Jason Garrett Nandy
(44:47):
and just playing your players in the preseason game and
getting them live reps. Now, obviously Belichick can do these
joint practices because he's gaining a huge advantage from the
other team. I don't think the other team is smart
and letting him joint practice with them, because he's stealing
ship from you. He's stealing stuff on your players, he's
stealing stuff on your schemes. I would not do a
joint practice with Bill Belichick. It's like I would not
(45:09):
do a trade with Billy Bean, Like, I don't know
if that's a great idea. And I get he's got
Vrabel and Patricia and all of his little minions out there.
He's taking advantage of he used to do a chip.
He's killing them. I mean, he really is. I would
not do a joint practice, but I understand why he
does the joint practice because then he doesn't have to
do as much in the preseason game. He gets really
good work for all of his guys. He gets in
(45:31):
the competitive environment and they doesn't have to show anything
in the preseason game. But like last year for the Rams,
I would always said, playing No. One in the preseason
is pretty risky because your guys do need some live
reps against other teams just to feel the speed of
the game, even if it's just a couple series in
the second and third preseason game, even if you're not
(45:52):
going to play him a half, I would have said,
that's crazy. You got to play him a little bit.
And then Sean McVay didn't play a soul all preseason
and he ends up in the Sea. So I think
there are a lot of coaches. You can do a
lot of different studies, see how all these different teams
are doing it, Like eight teams are doing it eight
different ways, and there's not necessarily a right or wrong
way to do it. And I think that's why at
the end of the day, these coaches are gonna come
(46:14):
together and the preseason is gonna be gone. And what
I think is gonna be fascinating in a couple of
years if there are only two preseason games, are teams
more inclined to let your starting quarterback and you're starting
offense and you're starting defense playing these preseason games, because really,
the only reason you're not doing it is just risk injury.
That's the only reason. Because there are a lot of positives,
(46:35):
get some live reps, get a feel for it, get
the preparation of a game day. Because I'm watching the
Niner game and I'm like, holy hell, vanderash and Jalen
Smith are kicking ass and taking names. Jalen Smith looks fantastic.
He looks awesome. I mean just killing people, just destroying folks.
And look at mahomes is flying around and there are
(46:56):
a first team offense Travis Kelsey first play the game,
I think, kids a sweet pass down the sideline. It's
like whoa you know that? Get that live rep, get
that feel, and then you take off your pads at
halftime and you're good to go. But I'm fascinating to
know once they do go to two preseason games, are
we gonna see a lot more joint practices? Are we
gonna see less joint practices? Are we ever gonna see
(47:16):
anyone playing the preseason? Because if they do go to
two preseason games and teams no teams are playing anyone?
Why do we even have any preseason games? Why don't
we just kind of like college? What do they do well?
For three three and a half weeks leading up to
Week one? They practice against themselves, They do live scrimmages,
they do you know, they do practice with themselves. It's
(47:37):
a little different because the roster is bigger, but I
guess not that much bigger. I mean, an NFL roster
nowadays is ninety people. So maybe the more I think
about it, maybe there's a chance they just get rid
of preseason games all to begin with. Now, I do
think the NFL likes having inventory, television inventory. They need
some games, but the preseason is a disaster right now.
(47:59):
It's besides, like the series Mahomes plays or a couple
plays of Jalen Smith, it's really hard to watch, and
I'm a junkie. I know all the rookies and stuff.
I'm watching a little different than the casual fan, and
even I get bored in the second half. I get
really bored in the second half. So the NFL has
a problem. I don't necessarily have an answer, and clearly
(48:21):
the coaches don't necessarily either, because they're all doing different things.
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dot com for details. Okay, let's get into the Middlecoff
mail bag at John middlecoff My Instagram handle. DM's always
wide open slide in answer your questions here, like this
one from Ryan. Why is there no hype for Jacoby Brissette.
He's a Belichick product like Garoppolo, although not as good
(50:48):
and hasn't really had a chance to play and has
a way brighter future than Fitzmagic. Why hasn't a team
gone after him? He's got a brighter future than Fitzmagic.
Well they have, Uh, you know, the Colts traded for
when Luck was out, and right now Luck's out again,
and he's played so and I've just seen some highlights
from practice now, granted they're just clipped from like Colts
(51:11):
Twitter account. He looks pretty good. I like Jacoby Brissette. Yeah,
I'm pretty sure. He's scheduled to be a free agent
at the end of this year. You know, Luck still
hasn't practiced. They're at a pretty good spot where they
can just play out this season. You just never know
with Andrew Luck. Now when the season ends, he's gonna
get a job. Whether that's Cincinnati, I don't know. Actually,
(51:35):
you start thinking about it, where are the quarterback openings?
If Josh Rosen is just solid, he's gonna keep a job.
Who needs a quarterback? Even teams with terrible starters like
Eli Manning, they just drafted a guy. You just go
around the league. All these teams have young quarterbacks or
an established guy, even like the Steelers, Like, would they
(51:56):
signed Jakobe Brissette? Well, they're paying Ben a lot right now,
so I don't know. I like Jacobe Brissette. Obviously Belichick
liked him. He drafted him. I think what was that
a third or fourth round? I'm a fan. Can you
give us a list of players that are still playing
that if they retire now, they would be a first
ballot Hall of Famer with little in the no discussion
(52:16):
because it's so clear that they're Hall of famers. Well,
I think it's the quarterbacks. You know, Peyton Manning just retired,
he's a no brainer. Tom Brady no brainer, Drew Brees
no brainer, Aaron Rodgers no brainer. I think Russell Wilson
is going to continue to work himself to a no brainer.
I think if Andrew luck can stay healthy, he's a
(52:36):
no brainer. Anyone under thirty. I mean, I love Mahomes
as much as anybody, but it's a little early. When
you think position players, you'd go, it's a tough one
with some of the older guys. I might be forgetting.
This is kind of off the top of my head.
I think JJ Watt is probably another good year away
(52:57):
from being a pretty big no brainer in my opinion.
Like the Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas, I don't know
if they've quite done it. Long ago they were on
that trajectory. Larry Fitzgerald to me, first ballot, no brainer.
Julio Jones first ballot, no brainer. I mean, he's nuts,
But Antonio Brown's pale of an argument. You know, Khalil
(53:19):
Mack and Aaron Donald are on that trajectory. They have
two or three more seasons like they had. They're no brainers.
Jason Peters to me, he's pretty damn close to being
a no brainer. Again, this is off the top of
my head. So if I left your favorite player or
your favorite team out, I apologize. Trying to think of
(53:41):
some older guys that are still really good. I'm probably
missing some offensive lineman. I mean, I think Luke Keikley
at the end of the day is going to be
a first ballot Hall of Famer middlecoff. Do you think
any of this ab stuff is overblown or blown out
of proportion, or at least it seems like once Pittsburgh
radio show mentioned him not talking to the Raiders, story
started coming out of nowhere. Well, I think it's twofold.
(54:04):
Is it overblown? No, Because he's a superstar, he's a
pain in the ass, he does crazy stuff, so it
becomes a big story. I have heard that one element
that he went radio silent is not totally true because
a camera crew, because of Hard Knocks, has been with
him every day since the off season, like since the summer,
(54:26):
and they went with him again. This is a this
is a source who talked to a source. So but
it makes sense that the camera crew. When he left
to go see a specialist, a camera crew went with him.
So if the camera crews going with him, what does
that mean the raiders are gonna know where the camera
crew is. They knew where he was. I don't think
they didn't quite know when he was or like he
(54:47):
went radio silent. I do think the element of not
knowing when he was going to come back. I mean,
he left. It's Monday, August twelfth. He left like last Wednesday.
He's been gone a long time. This is training camp.
This isn't OTA's, this isn't you know, phase one of
working out in March. This is middle of August, So
(55:10):
just leaving for a while is a little weird. Though.
I do think they had people with him, and they
knew the helmet thing was a big issue. He was
freaking out about the helmet. He was making it really
hard on their equipment manager. I think he made it
hard on Gruden. They didn't know what to do. They
kind of felt for him, but he was being such
a diva. So yeah, I don't think it's necessarily overblown.
(55:32):
I do think it just takes the life of its own.
So what happens when you acquire a superstar. I mean,
Antonio Brown is a brand name superstar from one of
the biggest teams in the league, the Steelers, you know
who had one of the craziest off seasons we've ever seen.
Diet his mustache blonde, went on Lebron Show, was talking
shit about everybody, and it was awesome to follow. Not great,
(55:56):
you know, if you're a teammate or thinking about acquiring him,
because it's such a wild card in the life. If
Trent Williams is serious that he won't play, to the
Redskins medical staff, when does the team take a long,
hard look at all the injuries over the past two
or three years and start making some serious changes. Also,
I doubt Gruden his back next year because it seems
highly unlikely that they make the postseason. Do you think
(56:17):
Snyder will ever wake up and fire Bruce Allen as well?
It's a loaded question here. Trent Williams is fantastic when
he's healthy on the field. He's clearly one of the
best left tackles in the league, one of the best
athletes in the league, just an elite player. Clearly, the
Redskins have pissed off a lot of people, including Trent
Williams over the years. Do you know what's crazy for
(56:38):
the Redskins? Daniel Snyder didn't inherit the franchise. Someone didn't
hand him billions of dollars. He is a self made man,
isn't it wild? Bitting in America. Probably works his way
in any parts of the world, but in America where
you can become and most of our billionaires, most of
our richest people in this country start with nothing. So
(57:00):
it's a fact that's not an opinion. You can google it. Definitely,
the majority of billionaires are self made. And it makes
sense that there's a drive when you grow up with nothing.
And Daniel Snyder comes from nothing, creates this billion dollar
marketing empire. Yet he is so terrible at running a franchise,
and a big portion of it is he hires bad people.
(57:21):
I actually don't think Gruden is bad. I think Gruden's solid.
Bruce Down clearly not a good GM. Then the other
element is because he's kind of a marketer, he gets
involved in acquisitions and it often bites them in the ass,
like Josh Norman when he came available. He's I mean,
they've been doing it historically forever. I don't know I mean,
(57:41):
I don't know how you fix. You can't fix an
organization until you get rid of the owner. It's really
that simple. I saw it forever down the street from
where I'm living right now, where the Warriors used to play,
about fifteen minutes away Oracle Arena. The Warriors were historically
terrible for like thirty years, why because they had some
of the worst ownership in all of professional sports. In
(58:03):
twenty eleven or twelve or whatever the official date was,
Joe Lacob buys the Warriors. Everything changed everything. You notice
the Clippers with Steve Baumber, how much more legitimate they
are as a franchise. You know, it's a little different
in the NFL. We have a short period of time
to judge some of these new owners. But I'll tell
you this, I believe David Tepper will be better than
(58:25):
Richardson at this current time. Like Richardson had lost it,
it was time for a change. Jimmy Haslem Flying Jay
will reserve judgment on that one. That that one's still
still up for debate. But I think I think it
all starts with ownership, and there's no chance that Daniel
(58:45):
Snyder is selling the Washington Redskins, because when you own
a team, like if I owned a two billion dollar business.
Let's just say I owned a business that produced, like
a construction you know, some business that produced. I had
an exclusivity on the ability to proof, you know, provide
(59:07):
the shell that Apple makes their computers with. So when
Apple makes their computers, they buy the shell of the
laptop for me, and that just created a billion dollar
business for me. You know what, Absolutely nobody would know
who I was. You know, I'd be able to get
a date because I'm super rich, maybe see me every
once in a while in like CNBC, but no one
(59:27):
would really know beside like Apple, who I am or
care what I do. Just like when Daniel Snyder was marketing,
I don't know much about him. I mean, I've read
about him a lot in the past, but you know,
he was a marketing guy. People that live on that
side of the country you know much better. Obviously, if
you're a Redskins fan, you know about his history better
than I do. But when you just run a successful company,
(59:49):
unless it's a really really cool company like Apple or
Nike or something, you can there are a lot of
really rich people in this world that no one knows about,
and no one can hares about and for their ego.
When they get involved with something as famous and as
popular as like an NFL team, you get a level
(01:00:09):
of popularity that you didn't have as a normal, super
rich business guy. So there isn't much incentive beside like
Daniel Snyder, when did he buy the team? I mean
twenty years ago. He'd make a lot of money, But
what does all that money do for him? No one
talks about him anymore. He kind of is irrelevant. He's
just another guy with not another guy, because there's not
that many of them. A human with a billion and
(01:00:31):
a half or two billion or whatever you get after
taxes in the bank account, and no one gives a
shit what he's doing or what he says anymore. Now
I don't even know if he talks that much. But
the point is people, he's in the vernacular of everyone
that lives in the DC area. Everyone. You know, if
you just went to Dallas, or you went to San Francisco,
or you went to Seattle and you ran into the
casual football fan and you said the word Dan Snyder,
(01:00:53):
everyone knows who that is. If again, he had just
ran his normal company, not that many. He wouldn't know
what he does, so I think you're I think there's
a roundabout way of saying you're probably screwed. As long
as Dan Snyder runs a team, your team's gonna suck.
Here was a this is not even a question, but
Jonathan Abram is looking like an epic douche on hard knocks.
(01:01:14):
I agree Hard Knox wasn't the best look for him.
Let's see if I can Keikle or Wagner, what do
you think the LB would have been with Luke in that?
I think they win one more chip. It's a good question.
Bobby's a fantastic player. He's another guy that has a
(01:01:35):
case if he can keep going. He's right now a
four time first team All Pro. If he can end
that his career at probably seven, definitely six, he's gonna
have a chance for first ballot, probably a Hall of Famer,
but it might not be a first ballot. I think
Luke Keickley is just a better player. I think Luke
Keickley has been the best player on the Carolina Panthers
since he showed up. He's just just no way around it.
(01:01:58):
He's just an elite player. I would take Louke Keikley
every day of the week over Bobby Wagner. And that's
not a slide on Bobby Wagner. If anything, it's just
a compliment to Keikley. Purely speculation. Call me a Raider Homer.
Any chance that the Raiders organization reached out to the
Steelers organization about his old helmet during that transaction a
Steelers beat reporter got word, did his homework, and took
(01:02:21):
it to the woodshed. It just seems bizarre that nothing
was made of this month old story until HBO got wind.
I like to you know, I like a good conspiracy.
I think it's just I think people were starting to
get rumors of it. Yeah, I don't know. That's that
actually makes some sense. That's not That's not a crazy theory.
(01:02:41):
I'll give you. I'll give you that one. Hey, John,
what was your favorite position to scout? Probably running back
or wide receiver. I mean, I like offense more than defense.
I'm a sucker for talented offensive players. You know. I
even like a good tackle, like tight ends, probably any
position on offense, corps back, wide receiver, tight end, running back.
(01:03:03):
You know, centers and guards aren't as fun though. A
good center is fun to watch, like Rodney Hudson, Rodney Hudsons,
Jason Kelsey like that they are entertained to watch. But
I'd say any skill position, including quarterback, but probably at
the end of the day, I really like running back,
wide receiver, and I think you can factor in tight
end now that they are basically receivers. So it would
be one of those guys. Yeah, you can judge me.
(01:03:24):
I'm a little softer, you know I'm not. I'm not
claiming to be ed Rita scouts here. Do you think
Philip Rivers is trying to single handily fix the Chargers
attendis problems with his kids. It's as Bill Simmons would say,
these are my listeners. That's a that's a hell of
a question. We'll enjoy your week. I'll see a little
later this week. We'll probably discuss hard knocks on the
next one and whatever else crazy happens in this crazy
(01:03:47):
league throughout this week. And football is almost back. Regular
season isn't too far away, and I will talk to
you guys soon. Do you own or rent your home?
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had posters on her wall of old school matches at
(01:45):
the Carlos Cologne Arena in San Juan, and we would
watch American wrestling and Lucha wrestling pretty much every date,
and she, as did many back then, was fully convinced
that wrestling was one hundred percent. Listen to the Michael
Duda podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(02:07):
or wherever you listen to podcasts. What is going on
My people Football is back three and out pod. That's
this with John Middlecoff. That's me I consume football from
(02:31):
basically Thursday night or just start for a lot of Friday,
multiple games Friday, and then a lot Saturday. And it
was glorious. It really was. Did I watched something? Was
there game on Thursday? I don't even know now when
I say glorious. First half of preseason games were watchable
the second The second half can be a challenging watch
(02:53):
for sure, But when you have been deprived of football
for when was the last game? I mean, if you
count the I don't count the af SO, the Super
Bowl up until basically last week the Hall of Fame game,
which I don't count. At least Mahomes and the Cowboys
were playing their first team defense as a vander Esh
crushing people. Jalen Smith looks like Patrick Willis, so you
(03:17):
know it's it's back kinda but you know, the NFL,
there's a lot going on today. I am so fired
up to do to do this show right now. Dak
Prescott asking for forty million dollars. Then Mortenson says, it's
not quite forty million dollars, it's more like thirty four.
A lot of a lot of opinions on our boy,
(03:38):
Dak here and the money Antonio Brown. Since I last
talked to everyone, he had had the foot issues he
had disappeared. Turns out it was all really over a
helmet that the league ruled that he wasn't able to wear.
So he instagramed that he's coming back. I guess he's
(03:59):
gonna wear the new moment. But that's just some thoughts
on Antonio Brown. Big hits. Something I noticed this weekend.
I think hits and the violence, which I know that
I love as part of football, is making its way
back to the NFL, Thank you Jesus. And then just
some thoughts on the preseason. I mean, there's different coaches
(04:20):
that are really successful approach it so many different ways,
and I'm just fascinated by what the right or wrong
way is to do it. I don't I don't even
know if there is an answer, but I kind of
want to dive into just, you know, the way that
Belichick does it, the way that Andy does it, the
way that they all kind of have different styles, the
way they attack the preseason. And then of course the
(04:41):
Milcoff mailbag slide up into my dms on Instagram. I'm
active on Instagram doing a couple videos a day right now,
just any topic, anything that comes up post a video.
But I always check your DMS, or I mean I
check my DMS, interact with you there, and then I'll
answer your questions here on the podcast. But I want
to open up and start with the Dallas Cowboys. How
(05:03):
about them Cowboys, Dak Prescott, Zeke Elliott, and Mary Cooper.
I talked about it on the last podcast that was
a little unlucky. They have three players. Two happen to
be a free agent, one day go at the end
of this year. One day acquired in the middle of
the season last year in Amari Cooper, and then as
(05:23):
the season went on his value grew exponentially. The other one,
they're running back, which is holding out in Cabo Saint Lucas,
is under contract for two more seasons. Like it's not
like Zeke was. They had three guys who were going
to be a free agent, and then their quarterback, who
clearly they are making substantial offers to, is offended. And
(05:47):
I think there are so many different elements with Dak,
so I kind of want to hit them all on
the most basic level. Someone posed this question to me
today and it got me thinking, what do players owe
the team? And I started like, what does anyone owe
anyone in business beside what you're contractually obligated to do
for someone. I heard a great quote today. I'm reading
(06:10):
Shoe Doog reading would be strong. I'm listening, and that's
how I consume my books. I'm a millennial, consume my
books audio, audio book, the film Night Book. And he
had a good quote in there that business is war
without bullets. And most of you listening are in some
form of fashion, in some different line of business, and
I think that resonates with many people. Obviously, people do
(06:33):
not die in business, but it ruins people's lives. People
get laid off, people get fired, Companies get overtaken, companies
get wiped out by the competition. Our capitalistic society is
very aggressive and you can benefit greatly from it, and
you can also get destroyed from it. And so when
(06:54):
I hear what do players owe the team? What does
the team owe the players? What does anyone anything besides
like your wife, your parents, your kids, to separate personal
relationships just strictly professional relationships. And the answer is nothing
beside what you're contractually obligated to do for that person
(07:15):
on whatever agreement you're in and football. Dak Prescott's in
a four year contract at whatever the number was being
a fourth round pick, and it wasn't much. Now the
going rate for his position is really high, and he's
a good player. I've defended Dak, but he's not that good.
And then you go to the element, am I paying
(07:37):
for what you've done or what I think you can do?
Because when you look at let's say Russell Wilson, it's
a combination of both. I'm paying him for what he's
done and I'm paying him for what I still think
he can do. Say with Andrew Locke, say with Aaron Rodgers,
Carson Wentz, who I would imagine an NFL contracts are
all about comes, Unlike I think in the real world,
(08:01):
contracts aren't necessarily public besides like CEOs and stuff. But
I'm just saying, like, if you're a sales guy and
you're working at a company, you don't I mean, there's
word of mouth and you know what the going raid is.
But in football the Union, all the contracts are public
for the players and their agents and the teams. Dak
(08:21):
Prescott has word for word the actual contract if he
wants it. Of Carson Wentz, so when he's going well.
Carson Wentz, who is yet to play in a playoff game.
I've been to the playoffs three different times in my career.
It or excuse me, two different times in my career
in my three years, Carson's yet to go, and the
one he's been injured twice. I've been more successful just
(08:45):
because I've played more. He would be right, but the
man on the moon knows that Carson Wentz's potential, his
ceiling is that superior. It's probably not even a conversation
and Dak's part of Dak's big arguments are intangibles, leadership,
(09:06):
how cool he is under pressure, stuff that you can't
really measure. Because you go Dak, you struggle hitting just
basic routes. You're not a consistent player in just games.
Now you make klutz plays. I think look back on
Russell Wilson several years ago, not this contract, but his
first one. It was a complicated deal because you went,
(09:27):
how good could Russell really be? Well at the time,
I know I was much more bullish on Russell's ceiling
than I am Dak. I think Dak can get, you know,
incrementally better, but he kind of is what he is
and what he is is a good player. If you're
on a loaded team, you can win games with him.
(09:48):
I actually think the right comparison for Dak is probably
like Jim Harbaugh level Alex Smith. Alex got better as
years went on. I don't know if Dak could be
as good as Alex was his last couple of years
in Kansas City, but he clearly if he's your starting
quarterback and your team's loaded, you're gonna be in the playoffs,
and you can give you a shot. Now, maybe in
the playoffs, Dak would be a little better than Alex,
(10:13):
a little more physical as a runner, if you could
ever figure out the deep ball. But that's what we're
dealing with here. So when I see the numbers he's
asking for forty, that to me means nothing. But would
I just see that he turned down thirty? And if
I would imagine the guarantees, you know, I don't know.
I would struggle guaranteeing him over eighty eighty five million dollars.
(10:34):
I've said all along, I think a very very fair
deal for Dak Prescott would be four years, eighty five
million dollars and guarantee every penny. Now I get his
agent wants that number to be in the nine figures
because they want to get their grubby little hands on
the points. I understand that, but I go dak a
couple of things. One, your owner is your general manager.
(10:57):
He wants to pay everyone. And this notion of like
get the bag. I saw a Trey Wingo today like,
why are people counting people's money? Well, I don't know, Trey.
This is a salary cap league, and what guys make
kind of impact the team. If you're not talking about
people's money in the NFL, go sit at the little
(11:18):
kid's table and talk about players, because at the big
kids table, money is a huge factor when you're building.
You know this thing we call a team because there
is a there's a set number. I think the number
this year's one eighty eight. And unlike basketball, where they
have this thing called a soft cap, in the NFL,
it's hard and you can't go over it. So when
(11:41):
you have a team like the Cowboys with a lot
of us sending players that are going to demand a
lot of money, it's hard to keep them all. So
anyone that's saying why are we counting people's pennies? One,
you're an idiot and two, you just can't have the
conversation without talking about contracts. So when I and the
thing that makes is very complicated is he has two
teammates that he's very dependent on one handing them all
(12:04):
off to the running back who is damn good. Dak
needs that guy and the receiver. We saw what he
looked like before a Mari showed up, and it wasn't
very good. I promise you one thing I had Gruden
liked himri and not trade him the Cowboys. I'll promise
you we're not talking about Dak Prescott and anywhere in
the world of thirty million dollars a year. I also
(12:27):
think there is an element to the Cowboys and people
have DM me this and tweeted at me. He when
I forget whoever was the old was a cam was
the yogurt spokesman, whatever the yogurt company is. If Dak
Prescott was the quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals or the
(12:48):
Jacksonville Jaguars, he would not have that spot. Being the
quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys generates you exponentially more money
off the field, and when you're the when you're the
starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, and they are good
cheching cha ching, unlike those other guys like Zeke's probably
(13:12):
this next contract is his final contract. Amari receivers can
play a little longer, but you just never know. For Dak,
let's say he signed a four year, ninety million dollars
every penny guaranteed if he was just solid. He's getting
another big contract one million percent, so he's gonna be
(13:32):
able to make the most amount of money off the field.
He'll make a lot of money on the field, and
he'll have success because his teammates will be around him.
Like you're taking and just asking for thirty two, thirty four,
thirty five million dollars, you're hurting yourself. And in an
area like Dallas where there's no state income tax, where
twenty two million is actually like relative to where I live,
(13:55):
would probably be the equivalent of like twenty eight twenty nine.
Till your team's good and you need the teammates and
your owner is trustworthy, you know he's gonna pay these
other guys he wants to. So you're basically saying by
demanding thirty five million dollars, you don't give a shit
if your team's good. So I'm not gonna feel bad
for in a couple of years when you're on a
six and ten team because you're not good enough to
(14:15):
carry that. You're not Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson can take
an average roster and take him to the playoffs. Dak
Prescott's not doing that. Hell, we saw it last year
before Maury showed up. They were headed towards the lottery.
They would have been a team drafting in the top ten.
That's what was so crazy about the Maury trade. It's like, hey, guys,
you're three and five. You're trading the first round pick
for Mary Cooper. Now it ended up saving the season.
(14:37):
Maybe they were three and four, but it was they
were headed towards six and ten year. We all saw
it coming. So and here's the curveball. Let's say this,
because I think this is an element. If I was
Jerry and Stephen, I'd go, you know what, Dak, the
offer's not on the table anymore. Let's play this season out.
(14:57):
And I would then have to actively make an aggress
of offer get a mari to sign a contract, so
I don't have to worry because I can't franchise them
both or let's just sail a Mari one time all
franchise a Mari. Where is Dak Prescott finding a big
deal this offseason? I looked through all the teams. Half
(15:18):
the league has a quarterback hunder twenty five. They ain't
budging off that guy. Then a large majority of the
quarterback has established older guys like even like a Roethlisberger
who makes thirty million dollars. Well, they can't pay Dak Rogers,
Luck Russell Wilson, the Jimmy Garoppolos, Derek Carrs. Where is
(15:39):
Dak finding thirty million dollars a year? So worst case scenario,
I have to franchise tag Amari Cooper, I let Dak
okay Dak. Let's let's openly negotiate against the market. Part
of the reason Kirk Cousins market was so big he
had three teams in a line offering just stupid mind.
(16:01):
He had the New York Jets offering more money than Minnesota,
who would even come close to offering Dak this offseason?
Jimmy Garoppolo money seventy million dollars a year. I'd argue,
you know what, the smart business would be yanked the offer.
Make him play it out if he's being just over
the top. I think thirty million dollars is ridiculous. For
(16:23):
him to meet twenty five makes me hesitate. Where is
he finding this money on the open market? I just
do not see the team. The Houston Texans, the Arizona Cardinals,
the forty nine ers, the Seattle Seahawks, just go. I
mean even Tampa. You think Bruce Arians wants a guy
that struggles with a deep ball. Have you followed Bruce
arians career? No chance, even like the Jaguars, they gave
(16:47):
Fulls fifty million dollars. They're in bed with him for
at least a couple of years. I just do not
see the Dak Prescott market. So, yeah, Dak doesn't owe
the Cowboys anything, and I'd argue the Cowboys don't owe
him much either. They put his ass on the met app,
they made Dak Prescott and they're and they're actively trying
to pay him, probably overpay him. So if anything, I
(17:09):
think the Cowboys are nuts for even offering him a
contract sniffing thirty million dollars a year. Unless that guaranteed
money's like fifty million, then I call him geniuses. But
I think the whole curveball on this. You got to
try to actively sign a mari Zeke doesn't really have
that much leverage because we're just gonna go he's under contract.
But Dak Prescott, I would not be afraid. Just look
(17:30):
at the landscape of the league, especially with some of
these young quarterbacks coming out this year like Tuah Herbert
and from him, and there's always a guy or two
that kind of comes out of nowhere, a Daniel Jones
type of midst rubisky. Who's paying Dak. I'll tell you
nobody beside the cowboys. This clip is brought to you
(17:51):
by State Farm. At State Farm, they know it's important
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(18:14):
com for a quote today if you could talk to
me a little bit about the process you went through.
And I think it's good to not pat yourself on
the back, but to put it out there so other
people can kind of hear what it takes like I
don't know. I always look at like this, like what
do I want? I wanted to be at WW Superstar,
all right, what does it take to be at WW Superstar?
(18:35):
What are the tools I will need to give me
every possible opportunity I can get? And so I took
the tools of acting classes, improv classes, wrestling school, everything
I possibly can to knock on the door of the
people of the Everyone on that Real World show would
wear my T shirts would always ask me to submiss
like they were so supportive, Like you don't get it
(18:56):
that very often really don't. Listen to the Michael Dura
podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to podcasts. This clip is brought to
you by State Farm. At State Farm, they know it's
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(19:18):
like ensuring your car and your home, getting you great
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Farm is there, call or go to state farm dot
com for a quote. Today, I can post a picture
that a girl that is way skinnier than I am,
(19:41):
A size two, a size four, the same exact picture,
and I look vulgar because I'm thicker. But if a
thinner girl does it, it's not that much of a
big deal. And that's what I'm not okay with because
why why? Because I have stalulite, because I have thick thighs,
I can't do that. I can't feel sexy in my
own skin. And that's those are the things that I
(20:01):
want to break because there are so many women like me,
and I want to be and represent us. You know,
obviously there's always room for improvement. I always want to
look better, I want to work out, I want to
lose weight, but in reality, this is the body God
gave me, and I've never really been skinny. Listen to
the Michael Dua podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app,
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(20:25):
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state farm dot com for a quote today. In high school,
I never really was like dating around or anything like that.
And then I got into a long term relationship and
was dating someone for a few year years, and then
after getting out of that relationship, I think these this
past year or so or whatever whatever it has been
like meet like actually living life as a single person.
(21:10):
It's very hard, and I think it's what do you mean,
not like not hard, I should say, but like it's
very different knowing nothing but long term relationships and then
moving into like the single lifestyle. That's like quote dating
around and like feeling people out. That's kind of been
something interesting to navigate. Listen to the Michael Dua podcast network,
(21:34):
available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to podcasts. Okay, let's let's dive into Antonio Brown.
I don't know if you had a chance to see
Once upon a Time in Hollywood with Pitt and Leo.
It's really good. And you know, in the history of Hollywood,
(21:55):
just like in the history of musicians rock stars, there's
a percentage of them that are divas that are big
pains in the asses, right, same with TV stars, same
with movie stars, musicians, just anyone who is uniquely talented.
Not every one of those people are normal. Some of
(22:16):
them can be a royal pain in the butt. But
if they are really good, and we're talking about we're
talking about the Brad Pitts, the Taylor Swifts, whoever, occasionally
you get a massive diva and a massive pain in
the butt. But you know what they also are. They
are cash cows and they are not replaceable and typically
(22:37):
in the peak of their powers. Whether you're a team,
whether you're that person's manager or agent, whatever it is, right,
whether it's movies, whether it's sports, whether it's music, you
deal with them. Why Because they produce, because they dominate,
because they make everyone around them a lot of money,
a lot of money. And listen, Antony, the Raiders, I
(23:01):
don't think quite knew what they were signing up for,
but they had a decent idea. You don't find elite
talents like this available for a third round pick randomly.
It was the baggage, it was all the craziness, and
no one could have predicted that he'd burn his feet
off now, knock on what he's gonna be? Okay. I'm
(23:21):
not a doctor. I didn't go to medical school. I
don't have any clue about frostbite. Beside like when people
go to Mount Everest or the Donner Party or coming
to the over the Oregon Trail, I don't even know
how long you're out what I've read some doctors on
Twitter that think he's gonna be okay, So assuming his
feet are gonna be oh, you know whatever. The helmet
(23:42):
story is very diva ish, it's very Terrell Owens. It's
very I don't even know a musician that was a
royal diva. We've all seen the movies of screwing up
hotel rooms and just being a pain. That's what Antonio is.
He is a pain. But you know what he also is,
he's one of the best wide receivers we've ever seen.
He said, six or eight years of over one hundred
catches in a thousand yards. I think he's one year
(24:04):
away from tying Jerry Rice's or maybe that did tie
Jerry Rice's record, if he does it again this year
with the Raiders, which probably be a little difficult. He'd
told the record by himself. He's an elite player. He's
a dominant player. He is a royal pain. And when
you sign up for a guy like this, it puts
your organization somewhat in a tough spot. Because Gruden went
(24:25):
out of his way after the preseason game on Saturday
complimenting him, thanking him, basically speaking to him like you
would a little child. And then the team posted it,
and then they linked his Twitter account to the post,
and you know what, I gave them credit. I'm like,
that's smart. He is sensitive. You need to speak through
him through social media. It's where the guy lifts on
(24:47):
social media. I get it. I would have done the
same thing the moment they acquired him. Though. They're all
in on Antonio Brown. They're building their offense around him.
They're gonna acquiesce to his demands. They're gonna let his
trainer on a actors field, which is not normal. They're
gonna let him do whatever he wants, and as long
as he produces at the highest level, you'll deal with it.
(25:08):
The moment, and he's already started to become a problem,
but you give him, like a guy like a year.
If he can dominate, you just deal with his problems
the moment this site starts becoming like a seventy catch
guy in an eight hundred yard a season guy and
doesn't give you ten touchdowns a year, When that ten
or when that hundred, one thousand and ten, just put
it in the bank, locking in in sharpie pen on
(25:32):
the wall that goes to, you know, seventy seven, eight,
seventy five and four touchdowns, his actor's tool. It's over
because in this entire league, and none of us knew
anything about these helmets unless you probably work in the league.
I didn't. I had no clue they were implementing these
new helmets. Why because no one talked about him. Everyone
(25:54):
just yeah, I'll wear him. Brady talked about it. I
think yesterday. A lot of players don't like them, but
you know what they are. They're safe. You do who
agreed to it? The players union and the league like
they're not doing it to try to make players look
stupid or not be comfortable. It's all about safety, something
that we heard over and over and over forever. Safety. Safety, safety.
(26:15):
So the league is given it and they said, Antonio,
you can't wear you're skinning a little ten year old
helmet anymore. What did Antonio do. Somehow he found a
guy at either like a body shop or some paint
or to paint over and he got caught because as
you read in some of those silver tweets that the
league says, listen, if you do not follow the rules,
(26:35):
you will be in trouble. So what do the teams do?
They put all the pressure on the equipment guy. So
what does the equipment guy when he sees this guy
wearing the wrong helmet? He freaks out, tells on him,
tells him you can't do this, and then it creates
a freak out. Well, guess what Antonio Brown does. A
lot freaks out over just innocuous crap, over stuff that
even a player that's uncomfortable to be like, okay, I
get it, like I oh, everyone in the league's doing this.
(26:57):
Oh yeah, okay, I understand, like we all are sensitive
to certain things in life, but a lot of us
can just kind of understand like yeah, it's easier, and
some of us can't. And Antonio is in the small
smaller percentage of everything is a problem with him. It's
always something, But for these last six or seven years,
he's been so freaking good. They're just like okay, whatever.
(27:20):
I mean. The Steelers just came to the end of
the line after he threw the ball in Ben's face
and he's bitching him, moaning he wants more money, and
they just say and then he freaks out, he said
that wants to trade, and there's like, okay, go away,
just we'll just rid our hands of you. But and
more than likely they got the best six years that
Antonio Brown will ever have out of them. In a
(27:41):
perfect world, though they would have liked him for a
couple more years because he's so good now they can
probably replace him. They look James Washington, some of the
guys they had looked like they have a chance. But
I you know that there's a narcissistic, just something about
a diva that is hard to handle, and it's really
hard to hand them. For coaches, you know, it's one
(28:02):
thing if you're an agent and the dude's a rock
star or a movie star. It's another thing if the
dude is playing a team game and it's like, bro,
you do have a meeting room with other teammates, with
guys in your position, with guys on the side of
the ball. You answer to a coach, You answer to
a position coach. The problem once you get Antonio Brown,
like who does he really answer to? As he's shown
(28:24):
only the league can get him to say yes, because
doesn't really listen to Gruten He's not really listened to
anyone else on the team. It just kind of it
just kind of is what it is. And as long
as he's healthy, he's gonna be a really good player.
Now that puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback
and Derek car to play well because if Antonio Brown
is healthy and he puts on the right helmet, it's
(28:45):
a make or break here for Derek. Like this guy
is a massive, massive curveball for the Raiders, especially their
head coach. Like one of the things with their head coach,
he's not just a head coach, he's the offensive coordinator.
He's an offensive guy. What do you think he's been
doing since he acquired Antonio Brown? When he's up at
four in the morning and he's going to bed at midnight,
he's drying place all the time for eighty four, Like
(29:08):
they really need this guy now, the curveball on this
is he a lock to play Week one? Is he
gonna be healthy again? We've never really seen to my knowledge.
Before Antonio Brown frostbite in the NFL, usually guys were shoes,
guys were socks. Guys just protect their feet. So I'm
not sure. I don't know, but if he is healthy,
(29:31):
he's gonna be good because I've seen the practice that
he did have and you guys have seen it too.
On hard knocks. The Raiders defensive backs are not bad.
While their defense their front seven is horrendous. They have
the worst defensive line in the NFL on paper, not
close linebackers below average. Their dbs are good. And he
(29:52):
showed up with frostbitten feet and ran circles around them
all like he's a dominant player, but he's not to
somewhat get his head right. Now he's proven that he
can play with not his head right, but he has
to get his feet right. So now that helmet gate
is behind him, he's given in, though he's not happy.
He'll wear the new helmet or try to find an
older helmet that fits under the new regulations. They have
(30:16):
to find a way to get his feet right. That's
really the only thing matters. And this diva that you've acquired,
like that's not going to change. It'll be something in
week seven, it'll be something. Week ten, it's always going
to be something. But as long as he plays at
the level in which we're now accustomed to him playing,
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Events and Adventures dot com. I noticed something this weekend,
combined with what ab in his helmet gate brought to light,
and it kind of made a light go off for
(33:08):
me and if this potentially happens, I will be very happy.
In a couple of games on Friday and Saturday, I
notice big hits, big legal hits, safeties and linebackers leading
with shoulder pads but elevating, you know, launching themselves in
the air, but hitting below the you know, below the
(33:30):
below the neck area and doing it cleanly and no
flags were thrown. And then with Antonio Brown and helmet gate,
you realize the big push they're they're moving into the league.
Are these bigger safer helmets And clearly, you know, five
or six years ago and CTE was taken off and
the media just it felt like wanting football the crumble,
(33:53):
which is weird because so many people in the media
make so much money because of football. But you know,
I get it. I mean, I don't necessarily relate to
the hate and wanting to see football go away. But
I'm not a journalist either. I'm a businessman, so I
like the league doing well. It's good for anyone involved
in the football business. Though CTE very bad thing. I'm
(34:16):
not a PROCTE guy and I'm not some CTE truther
acting like it doesn't exist. It clearly was an issue
the league needed to adapt. They have been overaggressive, you know,
over the last three or four years. If anything, they
went too far the other way. And I do think
with these bigger helmets that violence might come back to
the sport. And I think at the end of the day,
(34:38):
I know Twitter will tell you peace, love and happiness.
We just live in a utopia. Look at the progressive NBA.
You know what people like with their football violence And
I have numbers to back me up to this day.
Seven years later, or maybe a little less than that.
Six years later, but in the history of the league,
the Seahawks versus to forty nine Ers was as violent
(34:59):
of a football game in twenty fourteen, the NFC Championship
game I've ever I've ever witnessed thirty four years old,
been watching football pretty consistently that I can remember now,
you know, for I don't know, twenty five years. That's
as good as it gets. Top to bottom. Just vicious violence.
And these last couple of years they went over the
top of the other way. You couldn't touch a soul
(35:20):
or a flag got thrown out. Well, now that they've
kind of neutralized the CTE problem, they're even studies coming
out that you can get ct in other walks of life.
I think the media jumped the shark a little bit.
We just the information is not out clearly, football is violent,
not good for your long term health. There's some things
that the league needs to work on for healthcare for
its foreigner players. That's a conversation for another place. But
(35:41):
I think they had to bring in the big hits back.
And I'm not talking big hits where you're head hunting
and leaving guys injured on the field, but where guys
get lit up across the middle, where the wide receiver
fears going over the middle that he may be tackled,
where the vernacular ends that he's a defenseless player. It's
possible to be a defenseless player if you're a wide
(36:02):
receiver because you're running over the middle where you know
defensive backs are. Now, if you want to convince me
you're a defenseless apartment jurn standing there waiting for the
punt to come down because you're looking at high at
the air, I'll hear you there. But to me, a
wide receiver is not defenseless. And I noticed some big
time hits this weekend, no flags throne and then obviously
these bigger helmets. I think violence is coming back. And
(36:25):
I know this. Every human and definitely every male likes violence.
We're drawn to it. Think of when you're young and
like junior high in high school, when there's a fight
on campus or on school or at a party, everyone
runs to watch. It's our natural inclination. I'm someone like
I like my violence kind of regulated, like I like boxing.
(36:47):
I've always been a little comfortable watching MMA. Now I
have I admire how tough those guys are. I went
to college with Chad Mendez, who was the baddest one
hundred four pounder I've ever seen. He used to beat
up dudes on the football team. He couldn't be stopped.
It wasn't shocking that he went to the MMA and
(37:08):
was successful. You know. When I was at cal Poly,
Chuck Ladell, who also had gone to cal Poly, was
in his prime in MMA. But I get a little
uncomfortable sometimes I'm watching it. These guys just beat each
other to a pulp like I'm not looking for that,
I am. I do like a good boxing match where
dudes are getting blasted, but I love a good football hit.
I've always been more of an offensive guy, but I
(37:29):
appreciate the Ronnie Lotts, the Brian Dawkins like I like
that type player, the Ray Lewis. I want to see
guys get blasted legally. And I think the league realizes
that the whatsification of football is not a positive big picture,
and I'm separating two things here. Protecting the quarterback as
a must. The league is only as strong as his quarterbacks.
(37:52):
The league is now loaded with good quarterbacks. You gotta
take care of him. So I am okay with overregulating
sacks not throwing the flag. I can live with that,
I really can. It's gonna piss whoever off, you know,
a fan of a team on a given play. Every
once in a while, we just gotta deal with it.
Where I can't deal though, is when a guy's going
(38:12):
over the middle and a safety destroys him and he
hits him, you know, in the chest or the stomach,
and the dude throws a flag, like, what's he supposed
to do to hand touch him like that? That's where
the league became embarrassing. I thought these last couple of years,
that's where I thought the league was play kating to
what they thought Twitter wants. And when you play kate
to what you think Twitter wants, you get the NBA
(38:33):
and you get historically low ratings for a season. Play
kate to what the fans want, the consumer want, what
we're used to seeing. What helped make the NFL such
a big product was the ultimate combination of intellectual coaches
and quarterbacks playing mind games against defensive coordinators against this
just violent action of these defenders trying to take out
(38:56):
the guy with the ball in his hands, but you
can outthink him the scheme do it. The ultimate combination
of team games. But there's a toughness element of football
that's blended into the team element and the smart element
that makes it such a special game. It's why to
go along with the urgency of the sport. You only
play once a week. It's the ultimate combination. Perfect for
(39:17):
gambling on, perfect for watching. It's a great television product.
The talent still really high, the coaching level is still
really high. It's got it all. But when you take
away one of the elements which is a huge fundamental
part of the sport, the violent tackling, which is legal,
that has been happening forever, it hurts the sport. And
I thought it's really hurt the sport for the last
(39:39):
couple of years, and I thought they overreacted to things.
But I understand why they overreact. I am, at least
my theory that it kind of feels like it's coming
back makes me happy, and I'm gonna keep my fingers
crossed that the big hits come back, because I think
that's what the people want, that's what the consumer wants.
And you're only as strong as a league and as
powerful as the league as you are the fans, because
(40:01):
the fans essentially pay for everything. The coaches don't mind
the big hits. The hell the defensive coaches and defensive
players would pay to get them back. It would give
them a fighting chance in a league that leans the
offensive ways. So if you're gonna give all these advantages
to the to the offense, you can't mug him more
than five yards down the field right most of the
quarterback you can't really touch him anymore, which I think
(40:24):
even the defensive guys at this point in time would understand.
You gotta be able to at least mess with the
wide receiver, at least have it in the back of
his mind. You know what might happen. You might get
laid out. And in the history of this great game,
a lot of guys have gotten laid out and they
get back up because when you're hit cleanly, yeah, you
get your win knocked out of you, you shake it off,
(40:44):
you get back up, and you keep playing. That's that's
the reality. And now with these bigger helmets, maybe one
of as many head injuries, that's you know, that's behind
it all, right, So I think we got big hits
coming back. I think we're gonna have that that will
lead to a much more fun NFL season. We're clearly
down the home stretch of the preseason. The four preseason
(41:08):
games like it's been openly talked about. Right with this
new CBA four preseason games, they're gonna be a thing
of the past more than likely, my guests, It's not
like I don't know anyone in the league office, but
just reading the tea leaves of what the people in
the know are saying, it kind of feels like we're
headed to two. I know Kyle Shanahan said last week
he wouldn't mind seeing zero. Now they're a little biased that.
(41:31):
I think the the Niners literally right now lead the
league in injuries. They have thirteen and many of those
are starters, so that they can't figure out training camp.
I mean, they don't know what to do. Hell, they
can't figure out the season. They just lose a lot
of players. But I was fascinated on one night, would
that have been Saturday night? I had the Chiefs game
(41:53):
on NFL Network and I had the forty nine Ers
game on my local television. And the forty nine, I mean,
the guys who didn't play was more than half the team.
They didn't play any starters. Somehow they still managed to
lose multiple players. I mean they lost their backup swing tackle.
They're a debacle. They didn't play anyone, and they still
(42:14):
had major injuries, Like they lost a guy that's gonna
be on their their fifty three man roster for the
season more than likely. So they don't even know they're
kind of at a loss. But I look up to
my top TV. Yeah, I got two TVs. You know
you can't. You can't follow sports for a living and
have one TV. Now I'm lucky that in my condo,
(42:36):
I can put it in my living room one day,
get a family or whatever. And the hard part is
real estate in the Bay Area so expensive. I'm gonna
need a man cave and I'm gonna get like I
already have it kind of mapped out in my mind.
It's gonna be glorious. But that's a little ways away.
So I'm looking up at the top TV and I
see Patrick Mahomes and I'm like, oh, Mahomes is in
(42:58):
and he's lead them down the field, lead him down
the field, and they're they're on like the fifteen yard line,
and all of a sudden, Mahomes takes off outside of
the pocket, makes a guy miss, kind of cuts back
and he's running at the goal line. Turns out there
about two defenders at the goal line, waiting to just
kill them. And I even like kind of gasp like,
oh my god. And Mahomes slides kind of like falls,
(43:21):
hits the ground. They don't hit him. And then he
looks over at Andy and he smiles, and I would
imagine Coachree didn't smile back because anyone watching kind of gas.
But then I'm looking at the other TV and the
Cowboys Jason Garrett, besides Zeke who's in Cobo, and Amar
who's dinged UPPI has a bad heel. He's playing all
(43:41):
of his starters. So and he's playing all the starters.
I'm watching the Cowboys play all their starters, and I'm
watching the Niners play nobody, And I go, what is
the right thing to do? You know, if Mahomes is playing,
why can't Jimmy play? If if all the Cowboys guys
are playing, And then I and then I got the
Raider game on on another TV, and well, actually I
(44:03):
had to flip them on for the Chiefs game, and
all of a sudden, I realized nobody's playing in that game.
Because Sean McVeagh the forty nine ers have kind of
copied him. He plays nobody. Gruden for whatever reason, didn't
really play anyone either, And I started thinking, like, what
is the right or wrong way to do this? How
is the right way to approach this? Because you look
(44:25):
at Belichick, he doesn't really play anyone, but he does
he averages two joint practices a year, so he gets
all this extra work out of these joint practices. And
I think joint practices are a smart thing to do
if you're comfortable with them. But if you're not comfortable
with people seeing in your plays or even seeing your roster,
I'm not opposed to doing things like Jason Garrett Nandy
(44:47):
and just playing your players in the preseason game and
getting them live reps. Now, obviously Belichick can do these
joint practices because he's gaining a huge advantage from the
other team. I don't think the other team is smart
and letting him joint practice with them, because he's stealing
ship from you. He's stealing stuff on your players, he's
stealing stuff on your schemes. I would not do a
joint practice with Bill Belichick. It's like I would not
(45:09):
do a trade with Billy Bean, Like, I don't know
if that's a great idea. And I get he's got
Vrabel and Patricia and all of his little minions out there.
He's taking advantage of he used to do a chip.
He's killing them. I mean, he really is. I would
not do a joint practice, but I understand why he
does the joint practice because then he doesn't have to
do as much in the preseason game. He gets really
good work for all of his guys. He gets in
(45:31):
the competitive environment and they doesn't have to show anything
in the preseason game. But like last year for the Rams,
I would always said, playing No. One in the preseason
is pretty risky because your guys do need some live
reps against other teams just to feel the speed of
the game, even if it's just a couple series in
the second and third preseason game, even if you're not
(45:52):
going to play him a half, I would have said,
that's crazy. You got to play him a little bit.
And then Sean McVay didn't play a soul all preseason
and he ends up in the Sea. So I think
there are a lot of coaches. You can do a
lot of different studies, see how all these different teams
are doing it, Like eight teams are doing it eight
different ways, and there's not necessarily a right or wrong
way to do it. And I think that's why at
the end of the day, these coaches are gonna come
(46:14):
together and the preseason is gonna be gone. And what
I think is gonna be fascinating in a couple of
years if there are only two preseason games, are teams
more inclined to let your starting quarterback and you're starting
offense and you're starting defense playing these preseason games, because really,
the only reason you're not doing it is just risk injury.
That's the only reason. Because there are a lot of positives,
(46:35):
get some live reps, get a feel for it, get
the preparation of a game day. Because I'm watching the
Niner game and I'm like, holy hell, vanderash and Jalen
Smith are kicking ass and taking names. Jalen Smith looks fantastic.
He looks awesome. I mean just killing people, just destroying folks.
And look at mahomes is flying around and there are
(46:56):
a first team offense Travis Kelsey first play the game,
I think, kids a sweet pass down the sideline. It's
like whoa you know that? Get that live rep, get
that feel, and then you take off your pads at
halftime and you're good to go. But I'm fascinating to
know once they do go to two preseason games, are
we gonna see a lot more joint practices? Are we
gonna see less joint practices? Are we ever gonna see
(47:16):
anyone playing the preseason? Because if they do go to
two preseason games and teams no teams are playing anyone?
Why do we even have any preseason games? Why don't
we just kind of like college? What do they do well?
For three three and a half weeks leading up to
Week one? They practice against themselves, They do live scrimmages,
they do you know, they do practice with themselves. It's
(47:37):
a little different because the roster is bigger, but I
guess not that much bigger. I mean, an NFL roster
nowadays is ninety people. So maybe the more I think
about it, maybe there's a chance they just get rid
of preseason games all to begin with. Now, I do
think the NFL likes having inventory, television inventory. They need
some games, but the preseason is a disaster right now.
(47:59):
It's besides, like the series Mahomes plays or a couple
plays of Jalen Smith, it's really hard to watch, and
I'm a junkie. I know all the rookies and stuff.
I'm watching a little different than the casual fan, and
even I get bored in the second half. I get
really bored in the second half. So the NFL has
a problem. I don't necessarily have an answer, and clearly
(48:21):
the coaches don't necessarily either, because they're all doing different things.
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dot com for details. Okay, let's get into the Middlecoff
mail bag at John middlecoff My Instagram handle. DM's always
wide open slide in answer your questions here, like this
one from Ryan. Why is there no hype for Jacoby Brissette.
He's a Belichick product like Garoppolo, although not as good
(50:48):
and hasn't really had a chance to play and has
a way brighter future than Fitzmagic. Why hasn't a team
gone after him? He's got a brighter future than Fitzmagic.
Well they have, Uh, you know, the Colts traded for
when Luck was out, and right now Luck's out again,
and he's played so and I've just seen some highlights
from practice now, granted they're just clipped from like Colts
(51:11):
Twitter account. He looks pretty good. I like Jacoby Brissette. Yeah,
I'm pretty sure. He's scheduled to be a free agent
at the end of this year. You know, Luck still
hasn't practiced. They're at a pretty good spot where they
can just play out this season. You just never know
with Andrew Luck. Now when the season ends, he's gonna
get a job. Whether that's Cincinnati, I don't know. Actually,
(51:35):
you start thinking about it, where are the quarterback openings?
If Josh Rosen is just solid, he's gonna keep a job.
Who needs a quarterback? Even teams with terrible starters like
Eli Manning, they just drafted a guy. You just go
around the league. All these teams have young quarterbacks or
an established guy, even like the Steelers, Like, would they
(51:56):
signed Jakobe Brissette? Well, they're paying Ben a lot right now,
so I don't know. I like Jacobe Brissette. Obviously Belichick
liked him. He drafted him. I think what was that
a third or fourth round? I'm a fan. Can you
give us a list of players that are still playing
that if they retire now, they would be a first
ballot Hall of Famer with little in the no discussion
(52:16):
because it's so clear that they're Hall of famers. Well,
I think it's the quarterbacks. You know, Peyton Manning just retired,
he's a no brainer. Tom Brady no brainer, Drew Brees
no brainer, Aaron Rodgers no brainer. I think Russell Wilson
is going to continue to work himself to a no brainer.
I think if Andrew luck can stay healthy, he's a
(52:36):
no brainer. Anyone under thirty. I mean, I love Mahomes
as much as anybody, but it's a little early. When
you think position players, you'd go, it's a tough one
with some of the older guys. I might be forgetting.
This is kind of off the top of my head.
I think JJ Watt is probably another good year away
(52:57):
from being a pretty big no brainer in my opinion.
Like the Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas, I don't know
if they've quite done it. Long ago they were on
that trajectory. Larry Fitzgerald to me, first ballot, no brainer.
Julio Jones first ballot, no brainer. I mean, he's nuts,
But Antonio Brown's pale of an argument. You know, Khalil
(53:19):
Mack and Aaron Donald are on that trajectory. They have
two or three more seasons like they had. They're no brainers.
Jason Peters to me, he's pretty damn close to being
a no brainer. Again, this is off the top of
my head. So if I left your favorite player or
your favorite team out, I apologize. Trying to think of
(53:41):
some older guys that are still really good. I'm probably
missing some offensive lineman. I mean, I think Luke Keikley
at the end of the day is going to be
a first ballot Hall of Famer middlecoff. Do you think
any of this ab stuff is overblown or blown out
of proportion, or at least it seems like once Pittsburgh
radio show mentioned him not talking to the Raiders, story
started coming out of nowhere. Well, I think it's twofold.
(54:04):
Is it overblown? No, Because he's a superstar, he's a
pain in the ass, he does crazy stuff, so it
becomes a big story. I have heard that one element
that he went radio silent is not totally true because
a camera crew, because of Hard Knocks, has been with
him every day since the off season, like since the summer,
(54:26):
and they went with him again. This is a this
is a source who talked to a source. So but
it makes sense that the camera crew. When he left
to go see a specialist, a camera crew went with him.
So if the camera crews going with him, what does
that mean the raiders are gonna know where the camera
crew is. They knew where he was. I don't think
they didn't quite know when he was or like he
(54:47):
went radio silent. I do think the element of not
knowing when he was going to come back. I mean,
he left. It's Monday, August twelfth. He left like last Wednesday.
He's been gone a long time. This is training camp.
This isn't OTA's, this isn't you know, phase one of
working out in March. This is middle of August, So
(55:10):
just leaving for a while is a little weird. Though.
I do think they had people with him, and they
knew the helmet thing was a big issue. He was
freaking out about the helmet. He was making it really
hard on their equipment manager. I think he made it
hard on Gruden. They didn't know what to do. They
kind of felt for him, but he was being such
a diva. So yeah, I don't think it's necessarily overblown.
(55:32):
I do think it just takes the life of its own.
So what happens when you acquire a superstar. I mean,
Antonio Brown is a brand name superstar from one of
the biggest teams in the league, the Steelers, you know
who had one of the craziest off seasons we've ever seen.
Diet his mustache blonde, went on Lebron Show, was talking
shit about everybody, and it was awesome to follow. Not great,
(55:56):
you know, if you're a teammate or thinking about acquiring him,
because it's such a wild card in the life. If
Trent Williams is serious that he won't play, to the
Redskins medical staff, when does the team take a long,
hard look at all the injuries over the past two
or three years and start making some serious changes. Also,
I doubt Gruden his back next year because it seems
highly unlikely that they make the postseason. Do you think
(56:17):
Snyder will ever wake up and fire Bruce Allen as well?
It's a loaded question here. Trent Williams is fantastic when
he's healthy on the field. He's clearly one of the
best left tackles in the league, one of the best
athletes in the league, just an elite player. Clearly, the
Redskins have pissed off a lot of people, including Trent
Williams over the years. Do you know what's crazy for
(56:38):
the Redskins? Daniel Snyder didn't inherit the franchise. Someone didn't
hand him billions of dollars. He is a self made man,
isn't it wild? Bitting in America. Probably works his way
in any parts of the world, but in America where
you can become and most of our billionaires, most of
our richest people in this country start with nothing. So
(57:00):
it's a fact that's not an opinion. You can google it. Definitely,
the majority of billionaires are self made. And it makes
sense that there's a drive when you grow up with nothing.
And Daniel Snyder comes from nothing, creates this billion dollar
marketing empire. Yet he is so terrible at running a franchise,
and a big portion of it is he hires bad people.
(57:21):
I actually don't think Gruden is bad. I think Gruden's solid.
Bruce Down clearly not a good GM. Then the other
element is because he's kind of a marketer, he gets
involved in acquisitions and it often bites them in the ass,
like Josh Norman when he came available. He's I mean,
they've been doing it historically forever. I don't know I mean,
(57:41):
I don't know how you fix. You can't fix an
organization until you get rid of the owner. It's really
that simple. I saw it forever down the street from
where I'm living right now, where the Warriors used to play,
about fifteen minutes away Oracle Arena. The Warriors were historically
terrible for like thirty years, why because they had some
of the worst ownership in all of professional sports. In
(58:03):
twenty eleven or twelve or whatever the official date was,
Joe Lacob buys the Warriors. Everything changed everything. You notice
the Clippers with Steve Baumber, how much more legitimate they
are as a franchise. You know, it's a little different
in the NFL. We have a short period of time
to judge some of these new owners. But I'll tell
you this, I believe David Tepper will be better than
(58:25):
Richardson at this current time. Like Richardson had lost it,
it was time for a change. Jimmy Haslem Flying Jay
will reserve judgment on that one. That that one's still
still up for debate. But I think I think it
all starts with ownership, and there's no chance that Daniel
(58:45):
Snyder is selling the Washington Redskins, because when you own
a team, like if I owned a two billion dollar business.
Let's just say I owned a business that produced, like
a construction you know, some business that produced. I had
an exclusivity on the ability to proof, you know, provide
(59:07):
the shell that Apple makes their computers with. So when
Apple makes their computers, they buy the shell of the
laptop for me, and that just created a billion dollar
business for me. You know what, Absolutely nobody would know
who I was. You know, I'd be able to get
a date because I'm super rich, maybe see me every
once in a while in like CNBC, but no one
(59:27):
would really know beside like Apple, who I am or
care what I do. Just like when Daniel Snyder was marketing,
I don't know much about him. I mean, I've read
about him a lot in the past, but you know,
he was a marketing guy. People that live on that
side of the country you know much better. Obviously, if
you're a Redskins fan, you know about his history better
than I do. But when you just run a successful company,
(59:49):
unless it's a really really cool company like Apple or
Nike or something, you can there are a lot of
really rich people in this world that no one knows about,
and no one can hares about and for their ego.
When they get involved with something as famous and as
popular as like an NFL team, you get a level
(01:00:09):
of popularity that you didn't have as a normal, super
rich business guy. So there isn't much incentive beside like
Daniel Snyder, when did he buy the team? I mean
twenty years ago. He'd make a lot of money, But
what does all that money do for him? No one
talks about him anymore. He kind of is irrelevant. He's
just another guy with not another guy, because there's not
that many of them. A human with a billion and
(01:00:31):
a half or two billion or whatever you get after
taxes in the bank account, and no one gives a
shit what he's doing or what he says anymore. Now
I don't even know if he talks that much. But
the point is people, he's in the vernacular of everyone
that lives in the DC area. Everyone. You know, if
you just went to Dallas, or you went to San Francisco,
or you went to Seattle and you ran into the
casual football fan and you said the word Dan Snyder,
(01:00:53):
everyone knows who that is. If again, he had just
ran his normal company, not that many. He wouldn't know
what he does, so I think you're I think there's
a roundabout way of saying you're probably screwed. As long
as Dan Snyder runs a team, your team's gonna suck.
Here was a this is not even a question, but
Jonathan Abram is looking like an epic douche on hard knocks.
(01:01:14):
I agree Hard Knox wasn't the best look for him.
Let's see if I can Keikle or Wagner, what do
you think the LB would have been with Luke in that?
I think they win one more chip. It's a good question.
Bobby's a fantastic player. He's another guy that has a
(01:01:35):
case if he can keep going. He's right now a
four time first team All Pro. If he can end
that his career at probably seven, definitely six, he's gonna
have a chance for first ballot, probably a Hall of Famer,
but it might not be a first ballot. I think
Luke Keickley is just a better player. I think Luke
Keickley has been the best player on the Carolina Panthers
since he showed up. He's just just no way around it.
(01:01:58):
He's just an elite player. I would take Louke Keikley
every day of the week over Bobby Wagner. And that's
not a slide on Bobby Wagner. If anything, it's just
a compliment to Keikley. Purely speculation. Call me a Raider Homer.
Any chance that the Raiders organization reached out to the
Steelers organization about his old helmet during that transaction a
Steelers beat reporter got word, did his homework, and took
(01:02:21):
it to the woodshed. It just seems bizarre that nothing
was made of this month old story until HBO got wind.
I like to you know, I like a good conspiracy.
I think it's just I think people were starting to
get rumors of it. Yeah, I don't know. That's that
actually makes some sense. That's not That's not a crazy theory.
(01:02:41):
I'll give you. I'll give you that one. Hey, John,
what was your favorite position to scout? Probably running back
or wide receiver. I mean, I like offense more than defense.
I'm a sucker for talented offensive players. You know. I
even like a good tackle, like tight ends, probably any
position on offense, corps back, wide receiver, tight end, running back.
(01:03:03):
You know, centers and guards aren't as fun though. A
good center is fun to watch, like Rodney Hudson, Rodney Hudsons,
Jason Kelsey like that they are entertained to watch. But
I'd say any skill position, including quarterback, but probably at
the end of the day, I really like running back,
wide receiver, and I think you can factor in tight
end now that they are basically receivers. So it would
be one of those guys. Yeah, you can judge me.
(01:03:24):
I'm a little softer, you know I'm not. I'm not
claiming to be ed Rita scouts here. Do you think
Philip Rivers is trying to single handily fix the Chargers
attendis problems with his kids. It's as Bill Simmons would say,
these are my listeners. That's a that's a hell of
a question. We'll enjoy your week. I'll see a little
later this week. We'll probably discuss hard knocks on the
next one and whatever else crazy happens in this crazy
(01:03:47):
league throughout this week. And football is almost back. Regular
season isn't too far away, and I will talk to
you guys soon. Do you own or rent your home?
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dot com today. That's Geico dot com. If you work
in IT, you'll want to check out Changemakers, a podcast
profiling IT industry leaders. We dive deep into IT profiles
and learn what it takes to drive large scale IT
transformations for successful businesses. Visit Changemakers dot freshworks dot com. Hey, singles,
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