2024 Schedule Release and Reaction

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Around the NFL podcast, The NFL Always waits.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to another edition of Around the NFL. Yes, the
NFL always does. Win May fifteenth schedule release, blowing up
the sports where old Dan Hans is here with heroes
Greg Rosenthal and yes, Mark Sessler, And that is what

(00:32):
we are all about on tonight's episode. We're taping this
Wednesday evening here on the West Coast, Mark Sessler, the
schedules out. We're gonna go through all the interesting nugs
that we can dig up on short notice. And I
know I can see the goosebumps through my monitor right
now looking at you, Bud.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
I mean, you know, I was thinking though that back
when I was in like seventh and eighth grade, that
there was a very special day each I think it
was back in April back then where USA Today would
print and it was breaking news as a newspaper back then,
like the entire NFL schedule, and like my brother and
I would have a wrestling match over like who got
to look at it first? So it is historically has

(01:15):
meant a lot to me. I think now I'm surprised
that it's not taking place over four or five or
six days. As a week long event, because I think
that's probably where we're heading with it at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
For some reason, like when Mark started telling that story,
I expected it to be like and then the Milkmen
came over and totally from.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
The time of their radio he's older. Yeah, it's funny.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
I huge fan of the NFL, you know, since I
was probably about ten or eleven years old, but I
don't remember the NFL. Obviously they didn't handle it at
all the way they do now is in terms of
a blowout event the way it is now, But even then,
I feel like when the NFL schedule dropped, you would
find it I don't know, and like the backpage or

(01:59):
deep in the sports section when it was released, and
there would obviously be your local football team or teams.
The Beat reporter would hammer out eight hundred words on
it maybe. But now as everything is tied to the NFL,
it is it is a huge to do and while
we and this is a good time when you think

(02:19):
about our great late friend Chris Westling, we like to
keep it in perspective and not be one of those
shows or people that cover the game that put too
much into these schedules and look at them and actually
try to figure out, Oh.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
This team's gonna be good, this team's gonna be bad, and.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
You're gonna see a lot of that over the next
few days and weeks and months.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
But also it's fun.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
It's still fun to look at what's going on and
I think, GREGGI what And I'm gonna give you the
last word before we jump into it, before we look
at week one. That's a good thing to remember too,
Like it's all fun and maybe it's a little bit
over the top and overdone a little bit on some level,
but at the end of the day, it takes us
one step closer to a new season, and that's exciting.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yes, it was my role, I feel like back in
those shows with Wes to just subtly needle and be like, hey,
let's lighten up there, Larry and have a little fun
with football. They'd be like, you already know the schedules,
you know who's home and away. You just started like
saying win the games.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
There.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
It's like, yeah, okay, but but then you see see
the week one schedule and it does get my blood
flowing and yeah, like Walker could not have been more excited.
So now I feel like I'm reliving what it was
like to be a fan. Not that we had this,
but he immediately starts looking at the schedule and doing
the win loss thing for various teams, which is like,
that was the number one columnist slash beat writer move

(03:42):
back in the eighties and nine.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Well, they've got an NFL segment that copies that exact
same friend, and maybe he can step right in and
fill that role if they won't.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, the Falcons a corner. By the way, I think
that's Rank's corner. You better watch out. Rank could be
somebody that will He'll go after you if you come
toward his corner.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
Watch out.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
He gave the Falcons at thirteen and four to start Walker,
and I'm like, okay, you gotta you can't just make
every team twelve and five. It doesn't work that way.
You gotta wait the Falcon balance and I know, I mean,
you got to balance it out. It doesn't make sense.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
Why the Falcons.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Why did he he started in alphabetical order. He's gonna
do every team.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
Listen.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Now, far be it from me to ever doubt what
Terry Fonteneau could do. You know, the brain trust over there.
Fourteen seems like a better number. Let's start with week one, Yes,
and we're gonna go through. We'll go through yes week
one because that's the next week of football games, and
we'll check out the primetime slate, we'll check out the
international games. For the listeners out there that love that

(04:42):
and maybe or maybe not you saw. I was on
social media talking with Handsome Hank Henry Hodgson, and he
gave me one of those things, which I love it.
He's like, hey, do a promo read where it's you're
giving away the tickets. It's like, I have two tickets
to Jets Vikings October sixth, and you give them to

(05:03):
the audience.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
I was like, I love that.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
That felt like a career checkpoint, like a check mark,
like like I've always wanted to do something like that,
So win Dan's tickets.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Like that's nice.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
I like me, I'm giving two o'clock here in La
when I, you know, logged on my phone for about
the six hundredth time today and noticed that that had dropped,
and I thought, I know Dan is enjoying this moment
because it is it's kind of like a you're a
contest announcer at that point, that's you are.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Terry Bradshaw.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
Shut up?

Speaker 2 (05:32):
All right, Yes, the Holiday games, what's on NFL Network,
all that Stuff're gonna get to. But let's start start
with week one. And how about this Greg as a
way to get into it. Because you are I say
this begrudgingly, but it is what it is. You are
the defending locks champion. So when we do get to
that first Thursday show ahead of week one, the Thursday

(05:54):
Show will do on September fifth, you'll have the first pick.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Two time defending locks champion, four out of five. I
don't forget enough enough.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
You took it. It's late at night. We don't need
to hear that right now.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
You will have the first pick. As a result, what
would be the game? And if you don't know, if
you're new to the show or just a little hazy
on how we do it, we don't draft island games.
But what would you take in a non island game
draft Week one?

Speaker 4 (06:24):
Pick one?

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Oh, that's a spicy question, because I'm going to take
one that I don't think you guys would want, but
I want it. It's Texans Colts. Actually I want Anthony
Richards and c J. Stroud like I think, Please please
lock yourself into that pick. Okay, first of all, and
second I love it. First of all, the best games
in Week one are the primetime games. We know that

(06:48):
the kickoff game is great. Ravens, Chiefs, Packers, Eagles is
in Brazil on Friday night. That's incredible. The Sunday night
game is delicious, that's rams, Lions. Your Jets are back
in primetime on Monday night again in Week one, and
to be those are like the four best games of
the week. Actually, so the draft is a little different.

(07:09):
And yes, I'm all about quarterbacks. And the one hundred
like twenty minutes of complete games that Anthony Richardson played
last year, to me were just so electric and I
love me some CG Stroud like that that or like
Caleb Williams would be where I would probably go because
I just want to see you right away.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, that's a great one. I would have the second pick,
and h hell, let's do it. Hmm tough.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Can I tell you what the other one I was debating?

Speaker 4 (07:37):
Yeah, what's the other one?

Speaker 1 (07:38):
You were thinking Falcons Steelers just because it's either Russell
Wilson or Justin Fields with the Steelers and it's Kirk
Cousins with the Falcons.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
To me, that's why this is a classic Reg move
to pick multiple games when he's already picked a game.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Sorry, you know what's funny because I would do just
to either I would leverage it for a trade or
I would take it just to get the season off
and on a horrible foot Cowboys at Browns and Mark,
you texted me about what the news that came out.

Speaker 4 (08:05):
So I think that's a really good game. I think
it's an interesting game.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
It's the late Fox game, and who is on the call,
Mark Sessler, for that particular game.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
That's why I think it's just incredibly spicy and we're
all going to be watching it. But it is the
debut of Tom Brady, and you know, I think that's
something that you know, Greg and I the booth as
the number one guy, the number one guy for Fox.
Greg and I had been on a beat wondering if
this would ever occur. It's clearly happening at this point,
and Greg Olsen has been bumped to the second booth,
which I think is I did a segment about that

(08:35):
earlier in the offseason.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
Feels unrighteous to me.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
They're loaded Foxes loaded, But of course you're gonna want
to watch that game and just see how does Brady
handle a the Cowboys and the Browns. But like I
texted Greg's saying, like I am legitimately surprised with all
the teams you could have found to play the Cowboys
in Week one and have Tom Brady announcing. I know
the Browns were a playoff team, but that to me
felt like an upset that the Cleveland got that spot

(09:00):
at home for Tom Brady's first game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Kind of a strange pick, but that was where That's
where I would have gone with with the number two
the Cowboys.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Listen and we all know the Cowboys having him been
to the guy super Bowl in over a quarter century,
but that they always do the biggest number, and Fox
is like, put Tom on that game and and cross
their fingers and see what happens.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
I mean, I mean Cleveland, though it could have been,
you know, the Eagles versus Dallas or something, but they're
going Cleveland Versusallas. The Cleveland side kind of threw me,
But why.

Speaker 4 (09:30):
Not, I'm changing.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
I'm going to take it just to annoy Mark and
I do want the Tom Brady factor.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
So that's a big one too.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Late, too late in fact, that I kind of picked it,
I think, or maybe I traded into Mark for seven
number ones to be named later. I do, Uh, it's
there's plenty of good games there to pick from. I
I do think it's a little you know, that guy
Greenberg on ESPN, they they kind of use him as
the Jets fan mascot, and it's a little over the
top to me, to be honest, every time I try

(10:00):
to read a story about the Jets on ESPN dot com.
You know, I like Samini as a beat reporter. He's
the longest tenured beat reporter in team history, and so
he writes from a perspective that's unique on the beat.
And I can't scroll down without a giant picture of
a video still of Greenberg's eyes bugging out, and I'm like,
what is he?

Speaker 4 (10:20):
What is he fired up about? Now?

Speaker 2 (10:22):
In a performance based a pure performance, Like, I know,
this isn't how he actually feels like when I'm talking
about the Jets. It's how I actually feel. It's not
it's not for the cameras or the microphone.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
What a joke? What a joke? Point being wow, hit
piece on Greenberg in a big spot.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
I know was like, what did he actually say?

Speaker 4 (10:39):
But he said he was.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
He stood up on his morning show and was screaming
that why are the Jets in primetime again Monday night
Football to start the season.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
I don't know why.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
I guess bad juju because of what happened with Rogers
last year. I think it's I think it's fun and exciting,
and it's going to be obviously a reset for the
for that team, and damn, I think it's gonna be
a lot of fun to see the Niners and the
Jets in that spot. The Jets are that great defense,
the Niners with the unstoppable offense at home. I think

(11:09):
that's a great game. I'm really looking forward to it.
And I'll throw one game that could be sneaky great.
How about nobody's talking about the Jaguars this year? How
about the Jaguars at Miami? Maybe a nice little shootout
with two quarterbacksam playing in the warm weather.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
I'll give you one.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Like not all the matchups are great, but I would
think that a second round draft pick in one of
our drafts. Like I want to see Jim Harbaugh's Chargers
in their debut.

Speaker 4 (11:35):
They're playing the Raiders.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
The Raiders aren't that sexy to me, But like, I
can't think of a team that I'm more interested to
check out early on is just where the Chargers are
right out of the gate and what they become. And
it's like, go play the Raiders in Week one and
be something different than these past Chargers teams.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
I think they will be.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
I mean, if the Chargers at home against I think
that's gonna be a bad Raiders team. Like if they
can't beat the Raiders in the Jim Harbor homecoming game,
I mean, Chargers fans are gonna be like, are you
kidding me?

Speaker 4 (12:01):
Is this happening again?

Speaker 1 (12:03):
I know there's like, yeah, there's varying levels of excitement
about the teams around them, but to me, like Jaden Daniels,
you want to see his first start. That's against the Bucks,
so that's at the same time as the Cowboys. If
JJ McCarthy's starting, he gets the Giants in an early
game and Bo Nicks, We're gonna have so many damn
rookie starters. It's kind of outrageous he starts in Seattle.

(12:25):
But the primetime slate though that might be the best.
I was kind of looking through it that might be
the best primetime slate of any week all season. On paper,
those are pretty much I mean, and you can't ruin
it with injuries, hopefully, you know, praying to the football gods,
you can't ruin it at least with bad records, like
we know they'll all be zero and zero going into it.
That is a like four bangers in a row to start,

(12:47):
So good job, Bite.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
It's a good point though, because these networks, they especially
this past year, are just getting absolutely banged over and
oh every week by matchups that looked amazing in May
that are dog poo by November because of the injuries.
And you definitely give yourself more coverage by front loading
these schedules, so we'll be ready for that. Now, let's

(13:10):
move to Monday Night Football. Let's go through the some
of the primetime Island games. We'll start with MNF. I
guess I could start Mark, depending on your perspective. I
could start with T and F because it's kind of
the first game of the week. But I've already said Sunday.
We've talked Sunday, so now we've gone to Monday first.
I think was that a mistake.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
I don't know if we've made a mistake.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
I do think it's interesting that, like, while you just
ripped Greenie a new one, he probably, like you know,
minutes later, is wondering who this Jets guy is giving
away Jets tickets in London.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
So I think there's just a rivalry there. But anyways,
we can move on. You don't think Greenie knows who
I am? Now that that hurts no.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
I think I think he's he's probably now you've heard
seen you, he's probably dismissing you to the level that
you're dismissing him. Because Jets fans in the media don't
like other Jets fans taking their spot. I have noticed
that in like over the years. I think that's a thing, so.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
I would like it. I would love some examples.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
By the way, I mean, that's a deep cut into
our Culver City newsroom. I know exactly who Dan is
talking I mean, who Mark is talking about. I know exactly.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
And for the record, you know, Greenie is legit a
legitimate Jets fan. I just think they've kind of leaned
into his Jets fandom in a bit of a overly
performative way.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
But that's that is what it is.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
All right now, you don't think he knows me Monday
night football, I do. All right, here we go. So
we talked about Jets at Niners. Week two, we have
Falcons versus Eagles, so we're gonna get have the Falcons do.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
By the way, with primetime games.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
I'm glad you asked that they are in primetime three
of the first five weeks. We're going big on Kirk
Early at Philly Monday Night. We two for Kansas City
Sunday Night. Week three, we'll get to the Sunday night games,
and then they got an Amazon game Tampa week five.
So it is it's a lot of Kirk Early we

(15:12):
got that. I'm with that.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
We also have three Monday which I've never been a
fan of, Mark, and I know you feel this, especially
three Monday night football double headers Week three when you
have Jags Bills and Commanders Bengals, Week four Titans Dolphins, Seahawks, Lions,
and Week seven when you have Ravens, Bucks, Chargers, Cardinals.

(15:35):
So you get three of those in a four week stretch,
in a five week stretch, and you also get another one.
This feels is that it might be tied to the holidays,
but Week fifteen, you're gonna get Bears Vikings and then
the Falcons again versus the Raiders. Week seventeen, by the way,
you have a epic showdown potentially in NFC Championship Showdown

(15:58):
preview between the Lions and the Niners. So ever since
Joe and Troy hit the scene and the the the
rights in terms of just what ESPN pays for Monday
Night football and then what they're paying for that booth,
these games are so good now. Sunday night football is
always going to be king, but Monday Night football now
is a very respectable silver medalist.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
I'd say this like, we are veterans of watching multiple
games at the same time on Sundays, so if anything,
we have the skills to watch these Monday night doubleheaders.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
I just I kind of it's just marked that's that
energy in October. Okay, no, I'm saying I like that.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
It's the classic sense that Monday night football used to
be like the sporting event of the week, and they're
competing against themselves with everything else at this point. So
I at some point you got to give up the
ghost and be like next year, there'll be five of
them in the years after that.

Speaker 4 (16:47):
They'll be seven or eight, so you got to just
roll with it.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
At least I'm glad they didn't do it in week one.
There should be an asterisk though, Like when you're looking
at all the teams, it's like shows how many primetime
games each team has. But then you're you know, like
the ESPN Plus game for the Arizona Cardinals Chargers as
part of a double header, It's like, that shouldn't count
as a full prime time game. That's a half of
a game for the Cardinals. Sorry, you didn't even really

(17:11):
get a David Zaslov over here. Now it's the same thing,
like you can kind of see it. It's like, oh,
let's give the Titans one prime time game, but it's
the it's the ESPN game when ABC has one that
that's better. On that same Monday night, Monday Night got
one of the games. I was keeping an eye on,
where's it going to land on the schedule, The Harbor

(17:32):
Little Jim Jim and John John coming to LA on
Monday night after Thanksgiving. So it's it's a big football weekend.
And then you get a little Harbor v. Harbaugh in
Week twelve. I'm intrigued by that. You know you remember
the awkward press conferences.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
It's fine.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Oh, I'm sure modern day Jim Harbaugh is going to
handle that extremely well with the daily pressures of the
gig at the place he is at now emotionally otherwise.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
It's not just another day, it's two day, all right.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Why don't we take a look at Sunday Night Football?
Less have been any other MNF takes.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
The only one that stands out to me also though,
is Bengals Cowboys Week fourteen. It's my main note there
is like, can we please still have Joe Burrow at
that point? That's some of these games I would like earlier,
just for what we talked about before. But if everyone's healthy,
that is, you don't. I can't really remember a Bengals
Cowboys game of much note in my lifetime.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
I'm honestly like Burrow, sure, you always want to make
sure he's on the field.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
I don't know. Are the Cowboys even gonna be good
this year? I don't know. I got a weird feeling
about the Cowboys.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Fourteen would be shocking to me. But you're right, I'm
with you on the are the Cowboys going to be good?

Speaker 4 (18:45):
All right?

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Let's pause real quick take our first break and when
we come back, more schedule talk.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
All right, let's check out Sunday Night Football.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
So I just said that Monday Night Football's slate is
always you know, okay, and then it to good and
then now that Joe and Troyer involved that now it's great.
But nothing ever touches Sunday Night Football it is, which
is funny, like speaking of Mark, you're.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
Talking about the old days.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Uh, you know, checking out the agate in the back
of the sports section in ninety one to see what
the brown schedule was. But you know, Sunday Night Football
used to be a total afterthought.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
On some level.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
It was almost like why does this game exist? Monday
Night Football was the marquee game. There was no Thursday
night football. Sunday Night Football was this kind of weird
ESPN telecast. I remember it was like Joe thigh, what
was it thise minute? Paul McGuire was on the call,
Paul McGuire and was it McGuire Paul McGuire, Yeah, Paul
McGuire was on the call, and the games were sometimes.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Why am I suddenly like making only comments about the
eighties and nineties, like I do have takes about this generation.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
I think you're just correcting me there. Don't don't beat
yourself up about that, and that was actually very important.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
That was very important.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
But anyway, so Sunday Night football back then was not
the place to be.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
Now it is.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Let's check it out Sunday Night Football twenty twenty four,
and remember at a certain point, and it's earlier than
ever now, Greggie, I know you'll have the details.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
These games can start to be flexed out.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
That could happen with other primetime nights as well now, but.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Sunday Night Football opens.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
We mentioned rams lines a rematch of that great one
point Wildcard showdown in Detroit in January. Week two, Chicago, Houston.
Oh give me all you got with that.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
I love that. That's creative. I think that was like,
we're gonna put Caleb in primetime maybe a couple times.
Let's do it right off the bat and Sunday night.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
That's juicy, right because especially the Bears obviously a huge market,
huge hype around them, but they could still suck. I mean,
they have a rookie quarterback well within the range of outcomes,
but in Week two ill sexy and there's no stink
on them if stink were to potentially exist down the line,
and then you get CJ.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
Stroud Chiefs Falcons.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
The leaning into the Falcons thing is interesting to me,
but it is what it is. Bill's Ravens week four.
Who that's nice, Cowboys Steelers week five. I'm just gonna
go through the Bengals Giants week six, Jet Steelers Week seven,
Cowboys Niners week eight, and I'll pause here after Jaguars

(21:30):
Eagles Week nine. Any thoughts in the first half of
that slate, keep it up, please.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
The one thing I noticed that I love about this
season is that you've got the AFC North where you've
got four potential playoff teams against the NFC East that
it doesn't really matter how good they are their primetime goal.
So it's like there's all every week is dotted with
these North versus East showdowns, and I'm looking up and
down this Sunday night slate. I don't see a bad

(21:55):
game outside of a couple a couple teams in a
little suspect, it's like there's not a game on the
sleep right.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
You can flex games starting Week five. I mean, it'd
be sad if you had a Week five game and
you got flexed out of it, but maybe it would
be a big injury a maximum of two between weeks
five and ten, and then you can flex whatever you
want after that eleven and on as much as you want.
What strikes me, Dan is your is your boys. You

(22:22):
know they're not living on Sunday Night where they never
used to get any action. But they're just in. We
might as well mention it here. They're just in primetime
all the time. They got a Monday Night game Week one,
Thursday Night game week three, they're in the Hot Toddy,
which is an island game, week five, Monday Night week six.
You mentioned the Steelers on Sunday Night week seven. They

(22:44):
got another Thursday and another Sunday coming up in weeks
nine and eleven. That's outrageous. They are in. They are
in primetime more than any team in the NFL. I
think they're tied with the Chiefs, but they're all also
in the first eleven weeks for whatever reason, and then
and then it dies off. So it's just get ready.
They are not They're not America's team, but they're just

(23:05):
gonna be the conversation, like among the leaders in conversation
week after week after week.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
I think America's time team might be the team with
six standalone games, which is the Lions. We live in
a world now where the Jets and Lions have a
combined thirteen standalone games and they lead the league.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
That is an unusual place to be. Yeah, it's not
about the Jets. It's about Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
And if you look at Aaron Rodgers, how many primetime
games he's had, I would imagine no one's had more
primetime games in the last fifteen years than Rogers.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
He's bankable.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
And last year, you know, Jets fans had it the
worst and Rogers had it the worst the way it
all played out, But then everybody got dinged as well
with all those games that showed up. So it's almost
like the networks in the NFL had a decision to make,
which was do we, you know, sit on the Jets
a little bit and move away from them, or did

(23:57):
last year just not count in a lot of ways,
And this is the route they went.

Speaker 4 (24:01):
So I'll get it.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
I'll get the frustration of the Jets disappoint and they
keep popping up, But there's also a very good chance
when you look at their roster that they are going
to be a team that is a competitive playoff team.
So I get the consternation if it's out there, but
it makes sense to me with.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Rot, that makes sense. It makes sense, all right.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
In second half of Sunday Night football, Lions Texans dogey.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
There's a lot of Texans too. Yeah, they're betting big
on the Texans, which makes sense.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Colts Jets.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
So the Jets are back again and week eleven, hopefully
Anthony Richardson's back as well. Him against that defense makes
some sense. Eagles Rams week twelve, Niners, Bills week thirteen.
This is a who's who in the NFL, at least
where we stand in May Chargers Chiefs Week fourteen, Packers Seahawks.

(24:58):
Seahawks get a prime time game in a Sunday night
that makes sense. They get it week fifteen, Bucks Cowboys
week sixteen. Week seventeen a game mark that potentially could
have huge ramifications in the AFC playoff picture, the Finns
and the Brownies. And then Week eighteen is TBD VTBD.

(25:23):
They always try to make that one either a win
or go home game or a game that otherwise has
big playoff ramifications.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
The one thing I see, because if you look across
these like primetime the only they used to you know,
TNF used to be a way to you know, wedge
the dirt nap teams at some point into the primetime schedule.
And only the Panthers weren't given a primetime game this year,
which I think when it's only one team, that's a
real slap in the face.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
I hope I was.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Saving that nugget when we got through the primetime games.
But oh yes, while we're here, Yes they are not
Monday night or Sunday Night, and they won't be Thursday
night either, the only team without a primetime game.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
But man, you go to and.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Fifteen and you know what, I don't know if the
NFL is thrilled with the operations in Carolina and how
things have been handled in the last year or so,
so you might have a little bit of a slap
on the wrist there as well. It doesn't not make
sense to me, But if you're bryce young, you were
the toast of the town one year ago today, and

(26:25):
now you're on a team that doesn't even get a
single primetime game when the NFL is probably about fifty
nine percent primetime games now. So it does tell you
a lot.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
So one thing I noticed looking at this NBC schedule
is the Chiefs are on NBC like four or four times,
and we don't see it if you're looking at the
graphic on YouTube. There's also a Saturday game, which is
a new little wrinkle that's part of the NBC schedule.
Sometimes was I think on the NFL network, I think

(26:59):
CBS as a game and it's this it's Saturday Week sixteen,
But NBC has it, and it's like going up against
college football a little bit. You know, some bulls are
going on by then, and it's a big time game.
It's Texans Chiefs, so it's not surprising that they're leaning
into the Chiefs. But like the Chiefs are of the
Sunday Night Football are like the NBC team which a

(27:20):
lot of Tariko and Mahomes, well.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
Well it's Collinsworth in Mahomes sure, and Mark.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
I get the frustration of people not wanting to hear
the folksye wisdom of Collins Earth screaming about Patrick Mahomes
for the ninth straight season.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
But I really do hope.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
I have a lot of concerns based on the current
construction and the roster and the uncertainty around Rashi Rice
and the amount of pressure being put on a rookie
wide receiver and Hollywood Brown to be big time stars,
that we might have another somewhat ground and pound type
Chiefs team that maybe they're not as fun to watch

(27:59):
in prime time. But certainly you can't complain about the
Chiefs being a prime time they're the back to back champs.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
No, but that's not one of my top fifty concerns
about the upcoming season is the Chiefs being unwatchable.

Speaker 4 (28:12):
I know what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
I think they have a better wide out cores already
without even if you miss Rice for a big chunk
of the season potentially wise, and they did last year.
And my issue is more with Tony Romo and Mahomes
and this is taking some of those Mahomes moments and
big matchups away from Tony Romo and giving them too
Chris Collinsworth. So you're right, you're there's more to consider there.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, that Saturday thing is weird. It was a little
twist because now I'm looking at it and we'll get
to the Wednesday Christmas games. But they put the Ravens
and the Chiefs both on that Saturday game, two big
time games. The other game is Steelers Ravens and that
one's on Fox. And so that that's just a little
new wrinkle. They're trying to take out college football. I mean,
they're coming for everyone, putting big time games on those

(28:53):
days and then putting the big time quarterbacks, making them
go from Saturday to Wednesday, you know, on a Christmas wind.

Speaker 4 (29:00):
When does it end? Who? I mean, where when do
the slaughters? See?

Speaker 1 (29:05):
There's no such thing as enough enough, as it does
not exist.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
All right's take a break and we'll take a look
at that Thursday night football schedule.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
Yeah, right, welcome back. In case you're just joining us.
Would be weird.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
But maybe you wanted to jump ahead of the ads
and then you went too far and you were like,
I'll just start here, you know, like I'm sure that happens.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
Sometimes people have a lot.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
Of min thirty minutes. How bad are they at pressing
the thirty second forward?

Speaker 2 (29:37):
You know, it's just it was a decision they made,
and you know, they didn't lose sleep about it.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
They're not going to lose sleep about it. Anyway.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
We are going through the NFL schedule release that went
down on May fifteenth, that is today's taping. And you know,
I just think we're throwing up these graphics. You could
watch this on YouTube. Check out the program on YouTube.
Uh if you want to get another viewpoint and how
this show looks and operates and throw up like throw

(30:08):
up Thursday night football right now at ETP because I'm
see that there's it's an issue because it's covering up
Greg right now. And it is there a way to
make let's play with our our head shots? Is there
a way to get all take it down? Take it
down a second?

Speaker 4 (30:25):
It's obscuring Greg that doesn't see Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
All right, try a different grouping of the images for video.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
Okay, now throw it up?

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Good?

Speaker 4 (30:33):
I like that?

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Oh yeah, this one like that.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
This works, but this is ridiculous. Then I'm now I'm blocked.
And that works for you.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
But it's cleaner and it's actually even tighter on Dana
looks good.

Speaker 4 (30:44):
It looks good.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
Yeah, Eric said he was going to fix it. I
don't see how this is how I would label it.
I mean, I you know, I can understand for some
of the listeners of the viewers, but I'm completely off
the screen now.

Speaker 4 (30:55):
So nice work.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
This is accellently kind of amazing, just hearing marked disembodied
voice behind a you know, Broncos versus.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
Slowly getting more angry like that I.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
Need to do. Do I need to discuss Thursday Night
Football still?

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Or you know, it would be good if we could
do in post production the literal steam starting to come
out from on the sides of the schedule for Thursday
Night Football, so pictable. All right, No, you could go
back to the original one, because Mark's gonna be get mad.

Speaker 4 (31:23):
So all right, let's let's go.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Let's go through Thursday Night because Thursday Night is again
it used to be the redheaded stepchild of the primetime slate.
But then the NFL network sold or NFL Media sold,
or NFL sold it to Prime, and and now Prime says, no,
you got to give us some good games. So we've

(31:45):
gotten better games as a result. So what we found
in a lot of ways here is that the Sunday product, ironically,
which is you know what it's all about. Because of
the business side of the NFL, so many games now
have to be farmed out to these primetime slots. Mark
that Sunday doesn't always have the best games anymore, and

(32:09):
usually doesn't, except when you take out Sunday Night Football.
But the plus side is these Island games have gotten
a lot better over the years.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
Thoughts on that, Well, yeah, I still think that that
four PM slot, whether it's Fox or CBS, will continual
to have major bangers because they're paying a ton of
money for that. But you're right, like the best games
on paper when we're looking at it now, each one
of these primetime venues are solidified. There isn't like one
that's just sort of floating stinkers out there like TNF

(32:38):
used to be. So I see on this one we
can get into it. But on this slate for TNF
this year, yeah, they're leading hard into divisional rivalries and
they got a lot of good divisional games, especially late
in the year.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
You know, I agree with everything you're saying, Dan, but
this is the spot where you sneak in a couple teams.
So we get the PAI. The Patriots get one primetime game.
Oh how the Mighty have fallen? You know, they got
the international game, but they have one prime time game.
You do it early before their record Maybe is too bad?
Is Drake May? And isn't it funny? Now? The Jets
are the big team lifting up the Patriots for their

(33:13):
old only primetime game, and then you kind of see
it here. It's like the Bucks didn't get a lot
of primetime love even though they won their division three
street times. Let's sneak them in here. It's like the
Broncos and Saints don't get a lot of love. Now
let's do the Sean Payton revenge game. And I don't
know if it's revenge, but Sean Payton comes to New
Orleans and so that's like a fun game. So some
teams still this is like where they slide.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Absolutely, it's still of the of the island slots. Thursday
is still going to be the landing spot in that sense.
But I mean, I've been with the company for the
entire run of Thursday Night Football, and it used to
be it used to feel like the Jaguars and Titans
played every week, and if it wasn't actually the Jaguars
and Titans, it was those type of matchups almost every Thursday.

Speaker 4 (33:56):
And now we got Bangers.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
So let's go through a Week two because obviously Week
one is the kickoff game and that.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
Goes to NBC.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
You have Bills, Dolphins, and then you have a rivalry
game Pats Jets with new quarterbacks in the mix, Cowboys, Giants, Bucks, Falcons.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
So Mark, you're dead on.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
These are big time division rivals, Niners, Seahawks. Now we
have an intra inter conference Broncos Saints Week seven, Vikings
Rams Week eight, Texans Jets, Big Showdown Week nine, Week ten,
Bengals Ravens Week eleven, Commanders Eagles Week twelve, o Markie Steelers,

(34:37):
Brownies Week fourteen, So I think we got Thanksgiving their
week thirteen, Week fourteen, Packers Lions, Week fifteen, Rams Niners
Week sixteen, Browns are back against the Bengals, another big
primetime game. And then week seventeen, two teams that are
hoping to be in the postseason race Seahawks and Bears.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Like that week takeout, Week eleven, Commanders Eagles. I mean,
we don't know where we're gonna be about with the Commanders,
But ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, those are megaton matchups
between playoff teams, Like that's that's unusual for TNF six
years ago.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
To your point, Yeah, Packers, Lions and Rams Niners fourteen
and fifteen back to back. The Bengals Ravens.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
It is.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
This does seem like they're doing everything they can to
keep al as invested as possible in this last year,
potentially on this contract.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
So the Panthers are the only one. Yeah, that that
feels a little personal. It should have been like twelve,
two teams, then you're not alone, you know.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
Oh yeah, but me though, GREGI like, if it's two teams,
then you can say, well, you know, there's a reason
and there's only so much space.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
But when it's just the one team, I'm.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
Just saying the Cardinals had only ESPN plus the Jags
get the international games, but they only have one sort
of secondary Monday Night football. Actually, now they have a
couple of my Now, you're right, it's it's not great,
but they were you could they were truly an abysmal team.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah, all right, let's check you You know, we have
a ton of listeners overseas, so why don't we check
out the international game schedule as you know, and that
the Zuzzer is giving away two of his own tickets
the Jets Vikings October sixth about at the Hot Toddy.
Check out social on NFL UK and Irish NFL side

(36:35):
of things, and of course my own handles where you can.
All you got to do, by the way, on that
post is comment and tag a buddy and you could
get those tickets.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
I'm gonna do that. There's no there's nothing. I watched
the video. Nothing in the video says that Mark and
I are you know.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
No literally in the video and says yeah, you you
must be a resident of the United Kingdom or Ireland.

Speaker 4 (37:01):
So we are not eligible.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
But we can hopefully if we're at you know, that game,
we can meet those fans that I like.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
Where Greg's head is out though, I mean that was
that's I would have done there too, if there were
no stipulations.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
I like, I like us being involved in like a
quiz show level scandal over this. That feels like a
nice way, Like of all the ways that we could
exit the company. That feels like the best version of
our out of our ouster.

Speaker 4 (37:31):
Hot take.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
God Saved the Queen better song than God Saved the King.
The lyrics had just hit harder. I thought, lyrically, it
was a better song.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
He had a great run.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Yeah, let's check out the schedule. I mean, King Charles,
they just had his portrait. Do you see that he
looks like Vigo from Ghostbusters too, like what are we doing?

Speaker 4 (37:54):
They made him look he looked relatively youthful and hotter
than I believe he is today, by my per just
my personal take, but he looked a little more fiery
and youthful.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
But well, the reason it looks more fiery is because
you could see it as what it would feel like
to be in hell. I mean, that's all. It's it's
quite red, that's all all right. Let's see the schedule.
Nice king talking a big spot, A little king breakdown.
International schedule, sen Paolo, Brazil, Friday Night, Week one. You

(38:29):
know what, I've come around on this. I came around
on this pretty quickly. I bet this is going to
be an awesome vibe, great energy, and a great game.
Jordan Love coming off his breakout twenty twenty three season
against the Eagles, who obviously are the offseason champions as
they always are, but they have some doubters to prove

(38:50):
wrong now as a new season kicks off and they
get a fresh start in Brazil and then we get
three games in London. I mentioned that the Jets Viking
October sixth at the Hot Toddy.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
You have Jaguars.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Doing the back to back as they are wont to
do Jaguars against Bears, so you're getting again, you're getting
Caleb Williams. Hopefully the Bears are the real deal and
they're a good team or an entertaining team by the
middle of October and the Jaguars bounce back after a
rough ending to their previous season, and then the next

(39:26):
week you get the Pats who It's interesting, Greggy. The
Pats people might not know this people in the United
Kingdom do, but and surrounding territories that the Patriots, because
of their winning ways, were the most popular team in
that region when we first made our trips to London

(39:48):
about five years ago. I wonder what kind of hold
they have now that they've had some down years post
Tom Brady. It's just interesting, but they are there obviously
for a reason. They want to keep a foothole in
the market. They get the Jaguars. That game's at Wembley Stadium,
so let's talk about the London games.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
I think they have a huge foothold just based on
social today because I saw the announcements for these games
and every other reply just about where Patriots fans being
like five make say yeah, like we're so excited because
they actually haven't played in the UK. They were in
Germany last year, but they haven't played in the UK,
I believe in a decade, so it's been a while.
So these are popular team. Bears are a very popular

(40:28):
team in the UK. That's a fun matchup.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
I like it.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
We got we gotta get to the Hot Toddy. I
guess we're going to see your team, you know, if
we were picking one. I don't know if we're going
to any of these, but I feel like if we
were going to one, we're probably aiming for that Jets game.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
They do get Aaron Rodgers, you get you know in
theory JJ McCarthy, that's another rookie.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
And I think.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Aaron Rodgers versus Sam Darnold at the Hot Toddy, pinch me.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
I've woken up and gone to have.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
I think they're trying to squeeze least one win here
for the Jaguars based on the opponent, and because you know,
they only have seven games in Jacksonville, so I feel
like a home game.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
Am I crazy? I feel like they play well over there.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
They've been good overall. Last week, last year, yeah, last year,
turned their season around really at least for a while
until until it didn't. They you know, reached the new
stadium deal, which I was wondering how that would affect London,
but as stipulated and it's not completely agreed to, there's
there's a lot of stuff going on. But they still

(41:33):
be coming to London one game a year. I don't
think they'll be coming to anymore, or at least according
to that deal, that they'll be still planning to do
the one game in London. Uh even when that starts,
which won't be for another five years.

Speaker 4 (41:46):
You'll be kind of an awesome move.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
If Shotkun's Sun still had the neck brace in October.

Speaker 4 (41:54):
You got to lean into it. I think he I
think that'd be incredible.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Or maybe even like maybe he's more injured, maybe he's
in the you know, the old what's funnier or more
pathetic than the neck brace whenever someone's in the full
body cast, when you have it on the arms and
the legs and you're in the wheelchair, you're just a
human disaster and stuff ramp it up. And finally, the
international game in Germany this year in Munich is.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
Against the Panthers, so.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
They get a stand alone game.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
They do, they get I guess they give them that,
yet keep on, they bury the Panthers somewhere in Eastern
Europe and uh and and they get they do get
a nine thirty am Eastern Germany game. So Okay, I
didn't know that. I didn't realize that. So so they can.
So let me just walk back what I said a
little bit earlier, like they didn't get nothing, you know

(42:49):
what I mean. They got, Oh, we're sending you, we
are And imagine the phone calls like no, no, no,
you can't be upset. We're sending you to Germany. That's
an incredibly important and ferociously growing territory for US, and
we've chosen you, mister Tepper, to represent us there. So
they're covered a little bit there. That gives them a

(43:10):
little bit of back end coverage from this perspective.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
Also, I mean, that's how you grow a German fan base.
There could be a bunch of seven to nine year
old first time football observers and they fall in love
with the Panthers, unknowing of what state they sit in
the NFC South at the moment.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Maybe they'll be much better. It does make me think
about the Germany game last year, though I know there
was two. One of them was called Pats. But I
saw the little the graphic for this one, you know, Giants,
and I'm excited. Those three London games and the Germany game.
They're all our NFL Network games. That's our time to shine.
But I remember the graphic for last year's game in

(43:50):
Germany and it was Tyreek Hill and Patrick Mahomes and
in this time it was you know, Bryce Young and
Dexter Lawrence. And I actually had to google because I'm like,
that's probably Dexter Lawrence, but I'm not really sure what
his face looks like. He's he is the best player
on the Giants, and it was kind of a beefy face,
but I had to make sure it was Dexter Lawrence.

(44:10):
It was Dexter Lawrence.

Speaker 4 (44:12):
Nice. Well done, by the way, Yes, good point. Mark.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
Because these European football fans, they are they have long memories.
I mean the fact that the Bears are a popular team.
The Bears have done like nothing in forty years. But
a certain age of a football fan that came up
in the in the mid eighties, when the NFL's first
started trickling through and getting across the sea. That's why
there's a lot of Marino and dolphin fans like Handsome Hank,

(44:41):
And then there's a lot of people are like my
favorite players, Refrigerator Perry.

Speaker 4 (44:46):
What a specimen nut Perry was over there? So that
makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Oh my god, from one yard out, why didn't Walsh
a python get the ball? All right, let's check out
the holiday games back here in the States. Thanksgiving twenty
twenty four, can't wait, maybe my favorite holiday outside of Christmas.

(45:13):
Love Thanksgiving November twenty eighth. We got Bears lines in
the early game. And again there's you know, Marky, there's
a lot of pressure on the Bears not to suck
when as we go through these island games here on
schedule release day, because if the Bears are fun and
Williams is ahead of pace and I did see. We

(45:34):
had our first trope alert around a rookie quarterback that
popped up on social media earlier today, some type of
beat report. I don't think it was a beat report.
It might have been a TV reporter. I actually don't
know who it was. I think he was a fan
more or less a fan account was It said I
know I shouldn't say this, but Caleb Williams as he's
just throwing warm up tosses on you know, Slants, is like,

(45:57):
he looks so comfortable, he's ready for this, Like ope, alert,
Holy God, can we just let the guys get a
little more deep into the summer at least before we
start with that business anyway, Bears Lions on CBS, and
then you have Giants Cowboys, And I'll be fair here,
you know, I try to be positive about the g Men,

(46:17):
but we need the Giants not to be one of
the worst teams in the league, which they could be.
That game, of course, is always going to be in Dallas,
so that game could be a dog potentially, and then
the Thursday Thanksgiving night game Dolphins versus Hackers. We're outside
of the Super Bowl September Dolphins at this stage, so

(46:38):
the idea is this game in Green Bay. Yes, I'm
a little nervous about the Miami Dolphins in late November
giving us a show, but maybe this.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Year is different, or or it's a way to show
us that, like in the fridge or that temperature bay,
they can survive. But this slate throws me just a
little bit because I think I feel like, you know,
it's this always seemed like a place for like Ravens
Steelers or something that just like absolutely had, like you know,
conference title game implications. I just don't see that with

(47:11):
this slate. But I kind of love the idea that
we could get a really spicy Bears team here, Giants
TBD and Dolphins Packers. Is uh, that's intriguing and it's
just a little atypical for Thanksgiving to me.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
I do like sacking the Giants and the Bears both
to be good might be a lot, But if one
of those teams is feisty, then then I could live
with it.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
I love Dolphins Packers. You're right though, I saw that
and I was like, oh, that is a It doesn't
feel like a Thursday night game, but it does are
a Thanksgiving night game. But Green Bay like Lambeau on
Thanksgiving Night. There is something spicy by that. And I
was thinking about the Giants Cowboy because they had this
game just two years ago. The Giants were pretty good
two years ago. But this is usually the most watch

(47:53):
game of the year. Is that game or it's the
lie the two most watch games of the year Our
Lions Early you know, Thanksgiving and then the next Cowboys won,
and it's like maybe they just feel like it's it's
team proof. You can you can throw anyone in there,
you throw in a big market or whatever. But it's
like people are watching that no matter what. I'm not
I'm not turning it off.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
If it's a blowout, maybe they should actually, you know,
because at this point they're like, we dominate the ratings
no matter what.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
Let's put Panthers Jags in there and see what happens.
Kind of number we do.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
Maybe that's yeah, that's a that's a bridge good concept
and I take that to the top of the network.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
I'm sure I'm gonna say it. It is my favorite,
and that is the best holiday. It's past Christmas for
me now? Is that because my family leaves me like
three nights before Christmas and we have to pretend it's
Christmas the week?

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Greg Rosenthal, so whatever we saw, Hi, I feel like
for you and Jeneral, it.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Always was as a kid, we we always celebrated the
twenty fifth, it was Presence Day, but yes, Thanksgiving wins.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
They said President's Day.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
I was like, oh, you celebrate the US President's on
December twenty fifth.

Speaker 4 (49:02):
President Day.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
All right, let's check out Christmast further ado, somehow we
made it happen because the NFL defeated days. Now Christmas
falls on a Tuesday, I think Tuesday or Wednesday.

Speaker 4 (49:14):
It's a Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
And in fact, to your point, like the one little
nugget about the team that we want, like the Chiefs,
who we're gonna they play on every day of.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
The week this season except for Tuesday. Every day of
the week except for Tuesday, I read. I mean, if
you go look at it, because this game seals it.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
But well they don't play out of Friday though, but yeah,
but close, there's that one Friday game.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Anybody else that gets funny Like when we were kids,
like every game was on Sunday and maybe one Monday
night game. And now you have the defending champion playing
what six days a week?

Speaker 4 (49:44):
Greg they play on blacks, Oh my god, they do.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
I'm so they play.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
Every day of the week except for Tuesday. Like that's
never happened to an NFL team in the history of
our of the earth.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Never.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
You just laid out another challenge for Mike North in
the Park Avenue, like how can we make ca we
get all seven they'll do it.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
They'll figure it out. They got the Black Friday Game.
They really you know, it's not quite to the level
of NBA where like the players like if Lebron or
Curry's on, it's just like that's why, that's why they
talk about them so much. That their games just like
do double other games. But Mahomes and the Chiefs are
kind of like that now that they're just like, anytime
we need a big spot like Amazon, tell us the

(50:24):
one thing you want the most this year, we want
Patrick Mahomes on that Black Friday game. I swear, I
bet bet that was it. And it's like, okay, we
can make all that.

Speaker 4 (50:32):
And by the way, I hope, I hope you the listener.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Have the financial wherewithal to have multiple streaming options because
it continues to build up what you need to watch
all these key games.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
Because the Christmas games this year are on Netflix. That's
a new.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
One, and the next two years also they would get
for that.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
They're great.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
So the Christmas Day games, which again is a Wednesday,
but now football's played on Wednesdays. Chiefs versus Steelers one
pm Eastern, and then you have Ravens versus Texans gorgeous
four thirty pm Eastern. A little bit surprised that they
don't have a Christmas night game.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
I wonder why Wednesday. I think that's why even two.
I saw that there was two. I felt like that's
a stretch, just because.

Speaker 3 (51:25):
I think it's because you had these but these teams
mishmash and play each other the Saturday before, so you'd
have to get another two teams.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Right, because the turnaround is so brutal, you have to
at least do an earlier game to do a primetime game,
which you can't give all these I guess you could
figure out a way. What I'm curious what the Ravens
and Texans have the week after Christmas? Right, but it's
after byes, so they're both playing, so that that is
tough Jesus, I mean that is.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
That's tough. So we had Puka Akua on NFL Network.
I'm using the the NFL network. We and he said
they asked him what he thought about the schedule, and
he said, all I look for is that is the
Thursday night games, because it's like that's the that's the
weeks you have to sort of almost plan ahead to
prepare my body and that's just going to be a
totally crazy different week than any other week. That's on

(52:18):
the player's minds first and foremost.

Speaker 4 (52:22):
Think about that. Think about the by the end of the.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
Regular season, the physical toll of these games and these
these two teams, I mean four teams playing on Wednesday,
that they then have to turn around and I'd have
to go before I kind.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Of well, they go Saturday, they go Saturday to Wednesday.
So it they those four teams. As Mark pointed out
that that weird Saturday I was talking about before that's
now going to be on major networks. Those teams will
then flip and also play on Wendes.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
Think about this though, because I mean, you know, this
isn't huge to us, but even from like a fantasy angle,
if the game is on Wednesday versus even Thursday or
the next Sunday, there's a handful of players that might
be like, well, I could have played on Sunday, but
I can't get out there on Wednesday. And there's teams
that don't even really add a lot of like schematical
intricacies for Thursday night games, or don't even practice they

(53:15):
just do a walkthrough. So it kind of truncates everything
in a way that we haven't really seen outside of
that Raven Steelers Wednesday game during Corona when half the
Broster's route with Corona.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Now, the flip side is that's like Fantasy playoffs, and
you got people who like their dfs and they like
watching the games for gambling reasons or whatever, and that's
kind of fun to add an extra day of that,
you know, and don't Saturday and add the Wednesday of that.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
I'm glad we're talking about this though, because if you
really want to dig in and like, what does matter
in the middle of May when you look at these schedules,
the turnarounds and which teams have these brutal turnarounds does matter?
So And I'm citing because you know Florio, I mean,
how many he's written, probably fifty five articles today about

(54:03):
the schedule he has won. Here he mentions that there
was a rule for many years that the NFL acquired
teams to play only once per year with a four
day turnaround. They got rid of that before last season,
and now multiple teams play multiple games with only three
days off between games.

Speaker 4 (54:20):
This year, thirteen teams do it twice.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
So the Jets that is a flip side of having
all that, you know, the spotlight on you is that
you have a lot of short weeks. The Jets, the Niners,
the Seahawks, Rams, Bengals, Browns, Dolphins, Cowboys, Giants, Bears, Steelers,
the Ravens, and the Texans all have multiple games with
only three days off.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
Basically last year's playoff teams plus the Giants and the
Giant those are all good teams.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
So the two New York teams and then playoff teams,
so you know, you could you could kind of figure
that out. For Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Houston, one short week
happens between Sunday and Thursday, and the their lands on
US Saturday to Wednesday for Christmas. The Chiefs also have
a five day turnaround to Black Friday and a four
day turnaround between Saturday, December twenty first and Wednesday, December

(55:11):
twenty fifth. There are studies that the league has done
that short week football injury rate is not higher. But
you also listen to the players and they and as
you just said, they have to wrap their head around
it and plan and be prepared mentally as well as physically,
because it's very challenging, all right, anything else, guys, before

(55:38):
we do a little news and say goodbye, anything about
the schedule that jumps out to.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
We get Russell Wilson returning to Denver's week two if
he make if he has a job. I did think
like the teams that and this is more of a
schedule thing, if you were ever going to try to
get into this schedule of like what's helpful. I feel
like the team's divisions that play the NFC South, that's helpful.

(56:06):
So the NFC East plays the NFC South or vice versa,
that that's helpful. The AFC West, the Chiefs. The Chiefs
to me have one of the even though they have
the quick turnaround and they have the first place schedule,
they actually have one of the easiest schedules because I
think that division's pretty lame, and they play the NFC
South out of division, So you know, did the victor
go the spoils? I guess Chiefs.

Speaker 4 (56:27):
We also get Chiefs Niners week seven in that four
to twenty five slot, so not everything's on prime time.
I can't wait to see that one.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
That's good. That's fun.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
Let's see the NFL research department. Who I am, as
you boys are quite fond of.

Speaker 4 (56:45):
They have.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
Some great tidbits in their schedule released research packet. They
take a look at They have a whole section.

Speaker 4 (56:56):
Here on revenge. Throw some revenge games at you. You'll
love revenge.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Right, this is where Chris's eyes would especially glaze over.

Speaker 4 (57:09):
Let me see, let me see if I can find this.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
Let's take a break real quick, and then I'll find this,
and then we'll hit a little bit of news and
say goodbye.

Speaker 4 (57:18):
Be right back.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
All right, we are back as promised. And I know
people were just.

Speaker 4 (57:26):
They couldn't.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
I mean, they wanted to respect the sponsors, so they
didn't fast forward through the commercials. But it must have
felt like an endless weight to get to the to
the top ten revenge games of twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
I want to hear them. I guys ready that the
rust I mentioned has to be on there. I spoiled
one of them.

Speaker 4 (57:42):
I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Etp give me some like revenge background music. Okay, all right,
Saquon Barkley versus the Giants, saqua and you know what
I'm sick of, like being critical of the Eagles and
taking a little break from that.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
But also Saquon did not cover himself in glory.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
He was sitting courtside at Sixers games during that Sixers
Knicks series. It's like he was like trying to taunt
Giants fans because some Giants fans were mean to him
on Twitter. Buddy, just you know what, live along and
prosper my friend Star Wars reference. Just you know, have fun,
enjoy yourself. You don't need to tweak Giants fans. They
didn't want you to leave. That was management that decided

(58:25):
to sign Daniel Jones. Bizarre anyway, saquon Giants week seven
and eighteen, we mentioned Russell Wilson at the Broncos Week two.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
He throw magical, He.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Turns into twenty fourteen Russell Wilson and lights up Sean
Payton for four seventy and four touchdowns.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
That's like legit revenge. That's a real revenge game if
it is but dark.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
But Russell Wilson was like, if you have to come
from the angle that Russell Wilson was done really wrong
by the Broncos.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Like it.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
He didn't come in there and shine and then was
ingloriously cut. It was like a disaster that they had
to to walk away from.

Speaker 4 (59:01):
No, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
Him and his coach didn't get along. His coach showed
him up a little bit.

Speaker 4 (59:05):
You know.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
They were the late season benching, which was financially justifiable,
but was also you know, for a guy of Wilson's
stature in the league was it was a tough one
to swallow. He was released. I'm just looking at this
written down. It's still crazy when you look at it.
Wilson was released after two seasons into a five year,
of two hundred and forty five million dollar contract he
signed in twenty twenty two. Stefan Diggs versus the Bills

(59:30):
in Week five.

Speaker 4 (59:31):
I'm sure he's gonna want to have many catches in
that game. We'll see if he can get open still.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Kirk Cousins at Vikings in Week fourteen. Aaron Jones versus Packers,
Week four and seventeen.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
Derek Carr versus the Raiders.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
Oh, I kind of like that.

Speaker 4 (59:47):
That's good. Well that's in week seventeen. Let's see where
Derek Carr exists in our life at that point. That's fair,
that's fair.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
It could be Spencer Rattler versus the Raiders.

Speaker 4 (59:56):
All Right, this one, I'm gonna have to I'm gonna
swing by the U.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
I'm gonna swing by the research department to say we
need to remove this one. Calvin Ridley versus the Jaguars.
I can't, I can't go there.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
They just needed a round ten number. Let's get Jakobe
Brissette versus Washington or something.

Speaker 4 (01:00:16):
Montes sweat at.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
The Come on, I mean they needed ten fine.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
Sweat at Commanders. Brian Burns at Panthers. Ooh la la
from Germany, im Germany.

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
Revenge.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
I love Dexter Lawrence, but yeah, give give the Burns.

Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
We will have revenge up. Bryan Burns.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Hacktung Baby forty nine Ers versus chiefs Ah because of
the Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:00:53):
Wait, what order is this list in that's not buried below?
Derek Carr versus the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Oh my god, I love our research department. They have
honorable mention. Let's keep going. Bills at Rams, Tredavious White
versus the Bills.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Hell, yeah, okay, Rams.

Speaker 4 (01:01:11):
You know, Devin White versus the Bucks.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Ravens tox somesh on on Devin White back in the day.
So that's real revenge.

Speaker 4 (01:01:22):
Ravens versus Bengals. Geno Stone versus the.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Raven Chiefs at Bills twenty twenty two AFC Divisional Round rematch.

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
We're losing. Momentum Ravens versus Steelers, Patrick Queen. Patrick Queen
goes and makes a ton of money and it's his
revenge game.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
And finally Marky me arc Jerry Judy versus the Biancles.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
Me Ork, I don't Jerry Judy to me? Is like
if like the Broncos won that one.

Speaker 1 (01:01:55):
See they they clearly are focused on players that change
teams this last year. Yeah, but I'll circle another one
for you. Week thirteen, Danny Boy, Yeah, Gino Smith at
the New York Jets, let's go.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
Okay's got that? I buy?

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
That feels like the water is way under the bridge
at this point, but it's fine. It could probably replace
Geno Stone versus the Ravens. I think it could probably
edge out.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
In met life Gino shows you proud of me?

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
No, Dad, I could probably. I know this sounds crazy, Greg,
but I could probably. Not one Jets fan has ever
thought to themselves if only we had Gino Smith this
whole time?

Speaker 4 (01:02:34):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
News Jared Goff, Yes, the Lions have six primetime games.

Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
How about that?

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
And Jared Goff will be the quarterback if the fates allow,
and he's going to be the quarterback there for multiple
years to come. Because right after we finished recording and
I thought, I thought we declared vengeance, by the way,
the whole industry to do this. But not an hour
after we left the studio on Monday, GoF and the

(01:03:05):
Lions four year, two hundred and twelve million dollar contract
extension got out there. He was heading into the final
year of a four year extension. He originally signed with
the Rams back in twenty nineteen, traded, of course, to
the Lions in twenty twenty one. Listened to this show
at that time, listened to anything at the time. It
was widely assumed that GoF was a bridge to whatever

(01:03:28):
came next to quarterback for the Lions and nothing more
than that. But instead GoF returned to playing at a
high level like the early days with the Rams and
became a beloved figure in Detroit, almost the rare Greggie
underdog figure for a guy that was a number one
overall pick who had been to a Super Bowl before
he got to Detroit. So now he is amongst the

(01:03:51):
highest paid players in football. He will receive one hundred
and seventy million and guaranteed money on this new deal,
contract runs through twenty seven, an option to remain with
the team through twenty eight. It's a remarkable comeback story
in a lot of ways, a unique one because the
circumstances are so different than a typical comeback story. But

(01:04:12):
it is a comeback story. Don't get it twisted.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
You're absolutely right. There isn't quite a perfect comp to
anything like this happening in NFL history, partly because we've
never had these sort of contracts, but a player that
was traded as a distressed asset, where goff last contract,
which was very similar, I've actually believe depends on how

(01:04:38):
you slice it up. I think the numbers are a
little fluffed up. But there's one way to look at it.
With the new money that he's like the second highest
paid quarterback in new money per year average. And that
was what he was when he signed the huge deal
with the Rams, that he was the second highest paid quarterback,
and that contract proved to be so bad that they
had to trade him essentially as a like with negative value.

(01:05:01):
And yet here he is just a few years later
signing the equivalent to that contract. Again, it's remarkable. Basically
the first three years of this are more or less guaranteed,
so he he is locked in at least three twenty
twenty six, which and for huge, huge money.

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
Yeah, because I think, like you always wait a couple
of days to find out like if there's Fugezi elements
to some of these deals. Like it's a lot of
real money that he is getting, and I mean it
is interesting to see what happens with him the player.
But in twenty twenty six, he has like a nearly
seventy million dollar cap hit, So I mean it's it's

(01:05:38):
just like it, I think. But in general with the cap,
like these deals don't concern you the way that they
would have in the past.

Speaker 4 (01:05:45):
There's just a way to get through these.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
But this is like not they this is full belief
in a player that the general manager knew going in
and like took a chance on. And even at the draft,
it's like the roster loves him, the town loves him.
He's getting paid, and it's one of the it's one
of the better stories because you're right, Dan, like I
used to make I used to just use words to
describe Jared Goff as one of the most dull to

(01:06:07):
the eyes quarterbacks around and he's completely transformed the way
that we look at him over the past two seasons.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
Can I have like a medium hot take on this,
Like this contract might not be great, Like even in
a best case scenario, we are in this weird spot
where like the top thirteen or fourteen quarterbacks all get
to be about the highest paid quarterback in the league

(01:06:34):
for a little while, but they're not even Like the
fact that Jared Goff essentially is getting the same contracts
as Joe Burrow and Josh Allen and stuff, and think
he's nowhere near as good a player, Like that's that's
not that helpful to the Lions. I don't think you
want to. You maybe just don't have a choice. But

(01:06:56):
like he's significant, Like his numbers are very poor against pressure,
they always have been. He needs things to be right.
He's somewhere in like the eight to twelve range, and
that's great. They he stabilized them. He's perfect for them.
But like just as a pure like analytical numbers thing,
like it's not great for them that they basically have
to give him Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow's contract when

(01:07:17):
he's nowhere near as good as those players. I mean, Kelly,
it's worth noting, right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
I mean, who's the big the biggest winner or all
these quarterbacks that are better than him? Like right, Like,
well they just raised the floor. So if you're now
I eight even feels strong. I like golf a lot,
but I feel like, and we'd have to do and
we'll do this exercise, We'll do little Dalton scale at
some point this offseason. But I would say he's in
that ten to twelve range maybe, And and if he's

(01:07:45):
getting paid this outrageous sum, that just lifts it up
for everybody else. I feel like, ultimately, though, in a
lot of ways, like the Lions were in a tough
spot because what are you gonna do? You're gonna play
hardball with GoF You're gonna move on from golf like
you're gonna or are you gonna try to keep this
the ship which is running on very the fuel is

(01:08:05):
like high octime, high octane, good vibes in Detroit and
a lot of you know, a lot of feeling about this.

Speaker 4 (01:08:12):
This could be the year.

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
Hey the quarterback, you heard it, You heard those fans
hens of that, hundreds of thousands of Detroit or is
chanting his name. It's they overpaid, I'm sure, but if
if you're a quarterback that could play at a high
level in that offense, there are worse ways to spend
your money.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
I also like the Lions are, and not like in
an annoying way that I think, like the Eagles get
on your radar, Dan obviously, but like they just kind
of Brad Holmes and the whole front up, they do
things their own way, and they kind of they believe
what they believe and they've been proven correct building this team,
and it's like they got this done before, like Dak
Prescott gets paid or too.

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
I mean there's other quarterbacks sitting out there.

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
There's a Trevor Lawrence sitting out there and other dudes
Jordan Love where it's like these contracts are should have
happened in some cases, I think twos is a is
a mysterious one. How to handle that, But like now
it adds like a little heat to all of those
deals as well.

Speaker 2 (01:09:07):
By the way, it's the coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles
that I have a problem with, not the Eagles themselves.

Speaker 3 (01:09:12):
Well, but I mean when they're like the Eagles think
differently It's like, I think the Lions think differently, but
it's not on everyone's radar because they're probably closer to
being America's team than the Cowboys for many.

Speaker 4 (01:09:23):
And one other transaction.

Speaker 2 (01:09:26):
Marquez Valdez Scantling, formerly of the Chiefs who won a
Super Bowl, made a few plays there on the way
to the Lombardy has signed with the Bills. And you know,
we did that exercise a couple of maybe last week
looking at some position groups and I pulled the Bill's

(01:09:48):
depth chart and trying to make sense of it in
a post Digs world, And yeah, MVS is just like
yet another guy in that room.

Speaker 4 (01:09:57):
It's you take a look at this Bill's depth right now.
This is listen.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
We're putting a lot of faith in Josh Allen. The
offensive line is good, and the running back broke out
last year, James Cook. So we're not gonna say the
Bills are gonna have stroke struggle scoring points.

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
But he's probably their wide receiver for although I think
he actually adds some value just because they didn't really
have like an outside burner.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
Usually he keeps on signing with the right quarterbacks. I'll
get I have to give MBS that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
He's usually good for like four hundred yards in the
regular season, but then suddenly it's the AFC Championship game
and he's like two for seventy five with a game
winning play, and so maybe he'll keep that going. But yeah,
your your depth chart would be what there's no one.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
This is awesome. They are the just the guy all stars.
Here we go. Curtis Samuel, I know we like him.
We got the rookie second round pick, Kean Coleman, who
knows what he's going to give you a year one,
you got Khalil Shakir. You have you have Chase Claypool's
in the building. You have kJ Hamler in the building.
You have Andy Isabella in the building. You now have
Marcuzveldez Scantling in the building. Mac Hollins is in the building,

(01:11:09):
Quintes Cephas is in the building.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
What a motley crew. They just need to tell those
guys the pop.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
It just reminds me of like the last team MBS
was on a bunch of guys in the wide receiver room.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
Yeah, a little better a little bit. Shakir is a
nice player, Damuel's a nice player. They're a little similar though, But.

Speaker 4 (01:11:28):
They're leaning on a rookie to do a lot quickly too.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
You're gonna lean on Dalton Cancada. I think they're hoping
at least yeh.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Finally, in the news, I don't know if you saw this,
but Tom Brady has come out and said he regrets
the Netflix roast mark that you attended last weekend.

Speaker 4 (01:11:48):
He said that he on.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Some level misread it and he didn't realize the effect.
Let's see, he was on the Pivot podcast and he
was upset about how it impacted his children, the people
he cares about most in the world. So he has regrets,
and I should I should throw out there that I
was texting with a friend of the podcast, Nicki Glazer,

(01:12:13):
who was the breakout star of the roast, and we
were just commiserating about this. Nikki, who was on the
show super Bowl week, had no connection to the sporting
world and then shows up at this roast and her
career goes through the stratosphere and becomes linked to Tom

(01:12:34):
Brady kind of forever as a result.

Speaker 4 (01:12:36):
Can someone say sneaky back door flashpoint focus?

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
Yes, I.

Speaker 4 (01:12:44):
Think so. She I mean, I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
She noted to us at the Super Bowl and she
said this since when people asked about you know, why
she did the Roads, but that she had no connection
football at all and was it was it was Taylor
Swift that got her involved. And you know, she she
wrote a lot of the her own stuff. She she
went through a lot of her material on Stern that
she didn't use. Got a little bit of help too.
But like I think I texted you guys during the show,

(01:13:17):
this was the runaway hit from the night. There was
a lot of good stuff, but she was the runaway hit.

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
But as for Tom Brady, like I mean, yeah, you
see the reaction and you didn't want to do it,
but you knew what was gonna come up.

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
I would imagine topically during that during a rose.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
I listened to it, and I don't think he totally
had like wrapped his head around it for whatever reason,
just that like he said, it affected his kids, and
I guess he just like for some reason didn't connect
the dots of like, oh, yeah, they're going to bury
me related to my divorce and that that's gonna hurt
my kids, he said. He said, the rest of it

(01:13:54):
was fine. Everything was about me was fine. It was
a fun night, Like I love comedy all this stuff. Like,
I don't think he even fully said that I regret
doing it, but he he does regret that part of it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:05):
Oh, I think he regrets doing it. Gregory, Yeah, I
guess you're right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
I wouldn't he said, he I wouldn't do that again
because of the kids, and yeah, shout out. You know Nicky,
you know, the the AFC couldn't stop Tom Brady, but
Nicki Glazer did, you know?

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
And like, Nicky and I go way back, and we
would joke about how like I was like a sports
guy and she didn't know anything about sports and didn't
care about sports. And then I said, isn't it ironic
that like being involved with this sports event like changed
your career forever and sent you into the stratosphere. She
kind of had a monoculture moment out of it, which

(01:14:45):
is just so crazy. But you know, Tom, I don't know. Listen,
Tom lost thirty million on Crypto. Tom has made some
some strange decisions in his life, and this is another one.
He's gonna fascinating guy to track. Now He's going to
go into the Fox booth. Is that going to be
a similarly similarly disastrous decision?

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
We shall see a.

Speaker 1 (01:15:06):
Little bit of a like a wandering soul.

Speaker 4 (01:15:09):
I think, so, I think there's something going on there.

Speaker 1 (01:15:12):
But I do want to say, as much as you know,
I love everything I've worked on, when it comes to
the flashpoint focus, I do want to say, like, as
executive producers, I would have thought if that was a
flashpoint focus now, we probably should have. We should have
probably mentioned, as you're talking about Mark and I, yeah,

(01:15:32):
I'm talking about you guys that what would you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:35):
Have done differently? Greg, you tell us.

Speaker 2 (01:15:37):
I mean would usually it's not the gaffer's role to
be sharing this, but go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
I would have maybe mentioned or said the word flashpoint
focus at some point in the Nikki Glazer conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
No, I think Mark, I think I called it a
uh sneaky back door flashpoint focus, which I think it was,
And they have industry wise, they have backdoor pilots things
like that where it doesn't seem like it in the moment,
but you look back and like, oh okay, and I
see they had something cooking.

Speaker 4 (01:16:06):
The whole time. I knew what you were saying.

Speaker 1 (01:16:08):
I think up a sneaky backdoor flashpoint focused song with
Las said, all right, good show.

Speaker 4 (01:16:20):
Get up. We'll be back on Monday.

Speaker 2 (01:16:27):
Oh before we say goodbye, Mark, Uh, do you want
to share with the audience why you weren't here on
Monday's episode?

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
I want to compliment uh some of our listeners because
someone sent me a link to there he goes to flute.
People were like, oh, what's the flute about? Because we
had talked about floutests and flutes during the you know,
big Funk song. But someone connected the dots that I
went to a Los Angeles Renaissance fair.

Speaker 1 (01:16:58):
Wait, how did someone who are the who is setting up?

Speaker 3 (01:17:01):
Because I think these are like the the It was
a thread of people trying to guess and I was
like stunned that someone pieced it together.

Speaker 4 (01:17:09):
Uh that in the LA region that they start? What
the I don't know. It wasn't It wasn't like.

Speaker 1 (01:17:16):
This. This was on the Reddit board.

Speaker 4 (01:17:18):
Yeah, like it was not.

Speaker 3 (01:17:19):
It was just someone pieced together and someone else like, Wow,
that's a really interesting like theory or something. I was like,
how did how did they possibly know that? But I
went with some friends. I had never been to one
in my life. I had no idea what it would
be like. It was about ninety six degrees out with
a burning sun. I just was happy to get out
of there without a sunburn. But it was a it
was an experience, and I made sure that no photos

(01:17:41):
leaked because I did. I was given a slight costume
slash outfit to wear. It never arrived, it was It
was sent to my building, but then was either stolen
or the package was put somewhere in correct, so I
had to buy something else on Hollywood Boulevard on the fly.

Speaker 4 (01:17:57):
And it was an absurdist looking thing that I'll have
to share with the audience.

Speaker 3 (01:18:02):
I really don't even know if I have a photo,
because like I said, it was ninety like eight degrees
and this was like a furry like tunic that was
so hot that I was dying.

Speaker 4 (01:18:12):
So it wasn't on me for long. But I will
if I can find it. If I can find a photo,
I will, out of honor, I will provide you.

Speaker 2 (01:18:20):
Wearing I like to picture furry tunic is probably what
I would have guessed. A veil of flowers and then
like pantaloons and then kind of like moccasins that like
kind of curled up almost like a like a like
an elves.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
No I imagine like the puffy pirate shirt from Seinfeld, that
sort of thing.

Speaker 3 (01:18:41):
It wasn't that furry, But like I made, I with
a good attitude. I decided to not be like the
only one not in our group dressed up.

Speaker 4 (01:18:49):
But there was there was a there was a limit
to it to it, that is for sure. You know,
I can't believe I'm telling you this. I could have
said that the incredible story.

Speaker 1 (01:19:00):
No, I like this is the new Mark. He's yeah,
you're on a journey Mark and you're.

Speaker 4 (01:19:06):
Going through like new adventures.

Speaker 3 (01:19:08):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:19:09):
And you know, as as someone who is now you know,
married for a long time.

Speaker 4 (01:19:15):
I just celebrated my twelfth anniversary.

Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
You know, the idea of not having to do things
I don't want to do is something that I really
one of the best, very best things about weddings. But
you're not You're not there right now with your life.
So but I'm I'm I'm hoping you made the most
of an event.

Speaker 4 (01:19:33):
I would say this, it was definitely for adults. I
would put it that way.

Speaker 3 (01:19:37):
It was not like there were some kids running around,
but it was for adults in many ways, and I
found that angle of it to be intriguing.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
I also believe that Mark is a man who does
what he wants, and that you might not want to
be dressing up in a furry tunic.

Speaker 4 (01:19:56):
Dan.

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
I know I'm not, but I think Mark Mark probably
enjoyed it. If he did it, he wanted to on
some level.

Speaker 4 (01:20:03):
I was like, I'm just gonna apply thank you. I
was like I'm going to do.

Speaker 1 (01:20:07):
It, and so naive.

Speaker 4 (01:20:08):
Greg. No, it was enjoyable, had a good time.

Speaker 2 (01:20:11):
Maybe the Renaissance Fair is something because I could see Mark, you.

Speaker 4 (01:20:15):
Know, Mark pre spirit and he float around.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
I could like, I get picture Mark. Oh yeah, I'll
float around like the the fair grounds for a few hours,
like on a Sunday.

Speaker 4 (01:20:28):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
You know some of these events, it's like, Wow, Mark
went to this, Mark went to the roast Tomorrow, Mark's
going here, Mark's going there.

Speaker 4 (01:20:35):
It's like the roast was connected to our career on
some level.

Speaker 1 (01:20:40):
I think roast was very normal. I'm not gonna a
lot of people were at the roast.

Speaker 4 (01:20:47):
O Greg, all right? Anything else? Anything else? No? All right?
In that case, we'll be back on Monday. What we're
going to talk about? What do we talk about after
the schedule.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
I'm sure there's some OTAs and you never know, so
make sure you check out the show. We'll certainly find
something fun to chatter about with the league. Thank you
for checking this show out. Until next time, beat the Call.

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