Latest / 3 and Out with John Middlekauff / Thursday Night Football Preview, J.J. McCarthy Starts for the Giants, Josh Jacobs Return Update & Middlekauff Mailbag

Transcript

Thursday Night Football Preview, J.J. McCarthy Starts for the Giants, Josh Jacobs Return Update & Middlekauff Mailbag · 3 and Out with John Middlekauff

0:01
Speaker 1: The Volume. What is going on, my people? How are
0:18
Speaker 1: we doing? John Middlecock, The Renown Podcast. Hopefully you are
0:20
Speaker 1: doing well, enjoying life. We have a big show coming up.
0:24
Speaker 1: We got a lot going on. We got a game tonight.
0:28
Speaker 1: Bears hosting the Patriots. Pretty good one. Some thoughts on
0:31
Speaker 1: that one. Uh, JJ McCarthy, the return of JJ McCarthy
0:35
Speaker 1: cannot hold the former Wolverine down long. He's starting for
0:39
Speaker 1: the giants. Josh Jacobs has returned international madness. We'll do
0:44
Speaker 1: some mailbag questions. Notre Dame's always coming up. People are
0:48
Speaker 1: pissed off that they are just playing nobody. And then
0:50
Speaker 1: when they do play somebody, they lose. Uh, You guys
0:54
Speaker 1: know the drill. At John Middlecoff is the Instagram fire
0:56
Speaker 1: in those DMs. But if you listen on Coward's feed,
0:59
Speaker 1: make sure you subscribe to Three and Out. We're up
1:02
Speaker 1: on Netflix. You can hit the alert button, never miss
1:04
Speaker 1: an episode. And we throw a bunch of stuff on
1:07
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel. Appreciate everyone that's subscribed there. Let's just
1:10
Speaker 1: dive into a little Thursday Night Football. I have a
1:14
Speaker 1: pretty simple philosophy when it comes to these games. Obviously,
1:18
Speaker 1: week one, we now have Wednesday and Thursday games. I
1:21
Speaker 1: don't count that midweek game as a disadvantage for anybody.
1:25
Speaker 1: You're coming off training camp. You can manipulate the schedule. Now,
1:30
Speaker 1: the cutdowns, you have multiple weeks. It's a normal game.
1:34
Speaker 1: It's honestly no different playing on Sunday. It's an advantage
1:36
Speaker 1: if you play the next Sunday because you get a
1:39
Speaker 1: longer rest, especially when you win. But to me, once
1:42
Speaker 1: you make it past the end of September into October on–
1:46
Speaker 1: The Thursday road team is at such a big disadvantage.
1:51
Speaker 1: It's borderline immeasurable. I mean, you saw it last week
1:54
Speaker 1: with Seattle coming off a game against San Francisco. The
1:57
Speaker 1: disadvantage they were at playing on a short week is
2:01
Speaker 1: you don't get to practice. Veteran players talk all the time.
2:07
Speaker 1: As you get older, sometimes... you need more time to
2:14
Speaker 1: take care of yourself physically, right? I, we all notice
2:18
Speaker 1: if you go to the gym, sometimes you'll look over
2:20
Speaker 1: and you'll see like the 70 year old guy before
2:22
Speaker 1: he does anything. We'll spend a lot of time on
2:23
Speaker 1: the mats. just stretching it out. He can't just hit
2:28
Speaker 1: the weights like he probably could when he was 35
2:31
Speaker 1: years old. Well, it's no different as a veteran player
2:34
Speaker 1: if you're a 34-year-old defensive lineman or wide receiver. You're
2:39
Speaker 1: seeing it with Mike Evans every single week. He's not
2:41
Speaker 1: even able to practice. He can just play in the games.
2:45
Speaker 1: You're not even ready to go by Wednesday's practice of
2:48
Speaker 1: a normal week. Players say it all the time. As
2:51
Speaker 1: their career goes on, What I have to go through
2:54
Speaker 1: to just feel semi-normal for Wednesday's practice on a Sunday
2:58
Speaker 1: week gets pretty intense. Well, on these weeks, the Patriots
3:04
Speaker 1: fly on Wednesday. And you get no practice really because,
3:09
Speaker 1: especially a team like that, they have a million injuries.
3:11
Speaker 1: Lost a wide receiver. AJ comes back. They lose Dobbs.
3:14
Speaker 1: They lose multiple offensive linemen. They lose a corner. They
3:16
Speaker 1: lose multiple safeties. So now you have these guys that
3:20
Speaker 1: aren't used to starting that are starting, that you have
3:22
Speaker 1: to implement the game plan and you only practice a walkthrough.
3:26
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and you're playing another good team. Now this
3:28
Speaker 1: philosophy goes out the window a little bit if it's
3:30
Speaker 1: like a shitty team against a high-end team. Like a
3:32
Speaker 1: couple years ago, I think the Dolphins hosted the Bills. Yeah,
3:36
Speaker 1: I mean, I like the away team. But when you
3:39
Speaker 1: tell me it's the margins between the two squads are
3:42
Speaker 1: relatively even, two playoff teams, two eight-win teams, obviously division games,
3:48
Speaker 1: the Browns are involved. But I love the Bears in
3:52
Speaker 1: this spot. And I think the home situation is a
3:56
Speaker 1: huge reason for it. Losing a bunch of defensive backs
4:00
Speaker 1: against Caleb. We've seen two of his three games. Minnesota
4:03
Speaker 1: fans get so offended when you go, yeah, week two
4:06
Speaker 1: was weird. It was an awful weather game. Here's a newsflash.
4:10
Speaker 1: If there's an awful weather game and the Minnesota Vikings
4:14
Speaker 1: are involved, it's advantaged them. Because if you're playing the 49ers,
4:19
Speaker 1: if you're playing the Chiefs, if you're playing whoever, because
4:22
Speaker 1: your defense, the way you play, and that game's going
4:24
Speaker 1: to neutralize the quarterback. So your offense doesn't need to
4:29
Speaker 1: be great because it's going to be a low-scoring game
4:30
Speaker 1: no matter what, and that's how you play. So it's like,
4:34
Speaker 1: all I've gotten was like, you just don't give the
4:36
Speaker 1: Vikings any credit for it. No, I'm saying that played
4:38
Speaker 1: right into their hands. If that game had been in Minnesota,
4:42
Speaker 1: based on what we saw week one and what we
4:44
Speaker 1: saw last week when Caleb's playing, fucking advantage the Bears
4:48
Speaker 1: because their offense is unreal. So, and I give Vrabel
4:52
Speaker 1: a lot of credit. He's got some issues. You know,
4:55
Speaker 1: he's not the most faithful man it looks like. You know,
5:00
Speaker 1: likes to smoke cigarettes, can't be healthy for you. But
5:04
Speaker 1: the guy psychologically knows human beings. And this goes back
5:08
Speaker 1: to when he was a Patriot captain to now dealing
5:11
Speaker 1: with Drake May. Because as that confidence started wavering, you're like, ugh,
5:15
Speaker 1: this thing could get weird. And he fixed it right away.
5:18
Speaker 1: And it's not exactly like he's throwing to Edelman and Gronk.
5:21
Speaker 1: I mean, A.J. Brown's been gone the whole time. Romeo Dobbs,
5:23
Speaker 1: his Patriot career has not gone well. And now he's injured.
5:29
Speaker 1: So I just don't think that the Patriots... can score
5:36
Speaker 1: with the Bears. Because we've seen the Bears when they're on,
5:38
Speaker 1: I mean, they're scoring 24 points and a half. You know,
5:42
Speaker 1: they were up 31-7 last week against a team that
5:46
Speaker 1: had been fucking rolling. So if you tell me Caleb's healthy,
5:51
Speaker 1: at home, Thursday night game, like two and a half,
5:54
Speaker 1: three points, I'm hammering the Bears. And listen, that's no,
5:58
Speaker 1: and I don't hold anything against you, like, New England
6:01
Speaker 1: go on win 11 games, compete to win the division,
6:06
Speaker 1: be the five seed. I don't think anything of you differently.
6:11
Speaker 1: Even Seattle last week. I don't think Seattle sucks. I
6:15
Speaker 1: think that's a spot that anyone in their situation coming
6:19
Speaker 1: off the Niner game loses that game. I think we
6:25
Speaker 1: have to be very careful, and I'm guilty of this,
6:28
Speaker 1: writing the obituary of someone's career. And I'd argue this
6:32
Speaker 1: for young people in general. Sometimes, you know, the road
6:38
Speaker 1: to where you want to go is pretty windy. Not
6:42
Speaker 1: everyone is just like Mike Tyson or Tiger Woods on
6:45
Speaker 1: top of the world at 20 years old, right? Even
6:48
Speaker 1: successful people, it takes years, years to kind of get
6:54
Speaker 1: it going. And I think playing quarterback, it's easy to
6:58
Speaker 1: do this and I'm guilty. You could have any time
7:01
Speaker 1: in your life things don't go well, you can make
7:04
Speaker 1: an excuse for it. You can say, oh, that guy
7:06
Speaker 1: fucked me. You know, this situation hadn't happened. Oh, I
7:10
Speaker 1: had this job lined up and, you know, the 08
7:14
Speaker 1: financial crash happened and they yanked the offer and I
7:16
Speaker 1: didn't have a job and I was unemployed for the
7:18
Speaker 1: next three years. You can blame anyone for anything at
7:22
Speaker 1: all times. We're all guilty of it. And it's the
7:25
Speaker 1: easiest thing to do in life. You can do it
7:27
Speaker 1: with JJ McCarthy. They didn't give him enough time. Kevin
7:31
Speaker 1: O'Connell wasn't open-minded enough. Kevin O'Connell didn't change his offensive
7:35
Speaker 1: philosophy to build on the strengths that JJ brought to
7:39
Speaker 1: the table. He just coached his scheme for JJ. And
7:43
Speaker 1: it was kind of a weird mix. They should have
7:46
Speaker 1: stuck with him. They should have given him the benefit
7:48
Speaker 1: of the doubt over Kyler and old Carson Wentz. You
7:50
Speaker 1: can make a million excuses for him. But the bottom
7:54
Speaker 1: line is if they hadn't traded him to the Giants,
7:56
Speaker 1: he was never going to play this year. And now
7:59
Speaker 1: he gets an opportunity to start for a team that
8:01
Speaker 1: won because of their division, which is in shambles. They
8:05
Speaker 1: have a very good chance to win it if he
8:07
Speaker 1: is just okay. And this is actually not an awful
8:11
Speaker 1: spot to be the quarterback. They have Malik Nabors. They
8:14
Speaker 1: have Isaiah Likely. Like, a couple weeks ago, those two
8:17
Speaker 1: guys combined, I think, for 22 catches. You would say
8:20
Speaker 1: Isaiah Likely. I mean, I'm trying to think of, you know,
8:25
Speaker 1: Kelsey's older now. Kittle's an all-around tight end. You know,
8:30
Speaker 1: you'd say Bowers is kind of the cream of the crop.
8:36
Speaker 1: But I would say likely he's a top two or
8:38
Speaker 1: three just receiving tight end. Just pure route runner, getting open, playmaker.
8:43
Speaker 1: I think he's pretty special. That was a fantastic signing. Honestly,
8:48
Speaker 1: I do wonder if the Ravens had a redo, would
8:52
Speaker 1: they have just found a way to get rid of
8:53
Speaker 1: Mark Andrews and just kept him? I think they have
8:56
Speaker 1: to want to do over on that one. But it's
8:59
Speaker 1: too late. And now he gets a chance to just
9:03
Speaker 1: shut everybody up. And think about the NFL. especially in 2026,
9:08
Speaker 1: there's so many injuries. Your career, you're always a broken ankle,
9:13
Speaker 1: a ripped knee, especially a quarterback. Once a backup comes in,
9:17
Speaker 1: if you're the third string quarterback, three or four picks
9:21
Speaker 1: from that guy, an implosion in a quarter from you
9:24
Speaker 1: getting in the game. And then once you get in
9:26
Speaker 1: the game, it's on you to figure it out and
9:28
Speaker 1: make the most of it. Now, this is, in theory,
9:30
Speaker 1: a tough spot. You're playing the Texans, a massive underdog.
9:33
Speaker 1: This Texas defense doesn't exactly parallel last year. They have
9:37
Speaker 1: been getting smoked on a weekly basis by the other quarterback.
9:40
Speaker 1: They've given up a ton of big plays. You can
9:43
Speaker 1: throw on them. You can be successful. So, the other
9:47
Speaker 1: thing is, J.J. gets to go to a guy who's, like,
9:52
Speaker 1: John Harbaugh knows what he's doing. They also have Matt Nagy,
9:55
Speaker 1: Greg Roman, and Brian Callahan. So... you can nitpick all
10:01
Speaker 1: of them individually, but, like, as a group, that's a
10:04
Speaker 1: pretty good offensive melting pot of experience of guys who
10:09
Speaker 1: have seen some different shit. I mean, Roman, both Harbaugh brothers.
10:13
Speaker 1: Nagy spent forever with Patrick Mahomes. And, you know, Callahan
10:19
Speaker 1: wasn't that long ago was coaching Joe Burrow. So I
10:23
Speaker 1: just think sometimes we write an obituary for a career. Like,
10:28
Speaker 1: it's over. Dead. It's done. It's like, well, what if
10:32
Speaker 1: he starts the rest of the year and actually is okay?
10:35
Speaker 1: His career is just immediately resurrected. It happens that fast.
10:40
Speaker 1: When you're young, it's like sometimes you've got to play
10:42
Speaker 1: the long game. And J.J. didn't even have to. You know,
10:45
Speaker 1: his career was over and then boom, he's starting for
10:48
Speaker 1: a team that actually might not be bad. I saw
10:51
Speaker 1: Matt Stafford today. I hate when players do this. Stafford
10:57
Speaker 1: on the Rams rash of injuries. He said, everybody sees
11:00
Speaker 1: these and they're on their fantasy team or whatever. And
11:02
Speaker 1: they're like, ah, I got to trade this guy in
11:05
Speaker 1: and out now. And we're like, well, that guy's worked
11:08
Speaker 1: his ass off for this the last 18 months to
11:10
Speaker 1: get this opportunity. And I'm just reading the quote. I
11:15
Speaker 1: didn't see the audio, so he could have been tongue-in-cheek
11:19
Speaker 1: a little bit. But I do think players, and then
11:22
Speaker 1: I think the media agrees with them about fantasy and
11:26
Speaker 1: gambling and prediction markets and everything has been the downfall
11:30
Speaker 1: of the way people talk. It's like, I've watched the
11:34
Speaker 1: Rams for a decade treat their franchise like a fantasy
11:38
Speaker 1: football team. of all the teams in the sport of football.
11:43
Speaker 1: In basketball, Daryl Morey's done it forever. Baseball, the big
11:47
Speaker 1: market teams, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Red Sox, Phillies, whatever.
11:52
Speaker 1: But in football, typically, it's pretty organic. Even if you
11:57
Speaker 1: look at the Eagles over the last couple years, most
12:00
Speaker 1: of the guys, their core group of guys, Jalen draft pick.
12:03
Speaker 1: Their entire offensive lineman, homegrown draft picks. Saquon was an addition,
12:08
Speaker 1: but he didn't cost that much. Goddard drafted, Devontae Smith drafted,
12:13
Speaker 1: the DBs drafted, all the defensive linemen drafted, including Fletcher
12:18
Speaker 1: Cox and Brandon Graham, who'd been there forever. Football is
12:22
Speaker 1: a lot different than these other sports. Yet the Rams
12:25
Speaker 1: treat everyone like they're a widget. And then Stafford is
12:29
Speaker 1: going to be like, well, fans don't give a fuck.
12:31
Speaker 1: They just see this guy, like take this guy out,
12:33
Speaker 1: trade this. No, I'll promise you this. The fans look
12:37
Speaker 1: at your roster differently no differently than your coach and
12:40
Speaker 1: your GM, who have proven year after year after year,
12:46
Speaker 1: they don't give a flying fuck. I mean, they don't
12:50
Speaker 1: care at all. Literally this offseason, because one of the
12:53
Speaker 1: guys you just lost was Devontae Adams, who looked like
12:56
Speaker 1: ripped a hamstring pretty bad. They had to tell Devontae, actually,
13:00
Speaker 1: hey buddy, we might trade you for A.J. Brown. You
13:06
Speaker 1: mean the guy that was just an all-pro pro bowler? Well,
13:09
Speaker 1: he's actually coming off a year where he kind of
13:11
Speaker 1: quit on his team and demanded a trade. That's pretty weird,
13:13
Speaker 1: but that's who we're going to trade you for. Even
13:16
Speaker 1: though high character, team leader, just led the league in touchdowns.
13:22
Speaker 1: So if this goes down, you're gone. And then the
13:26
Speaker 1: fans get lectured that they don't give a shit about
13:28
Speaker 1: any of these people? Your own front office has proven that.
13:32
Speaker 1: That they don't care. Which again, I'm not saying it's
13:36
Speaker 1: right or wrong. This year is clearly backfiring in their face.
13:40
Speaker 1: Making all these moves, right? Going the wrong way fast.
13:44
Speaker 1: But this notion that the fans that play fantasy football
13:48
Speaker 1: care any less than like less need. They would trade
13:52
Speaker 1: everyone on this team in a heartbeat if they thought
13:54
Speaker 1: they could upgrade. They don't give a shit about any
13:56
Speaker 1: of you. I mean, Jared Goff's a great example. They
14:02
Speaker 1: just got rid of four of you. And I'll promise
14:05
Speaker 1: you this, if they could trade you for Jared Goff
14:08
Speaker 1: right now, because he's younger and playing well again, and
14:11
Speaker 1: they could have him for the next four years back,
14:14
Speaker 1: they would. Because it looks like your career is going
14:17
Speaker 1: the wrong way. How do you think they're talking about
14:19
Speaker 1: you behind closed doors? I'll promise you this, it was
14:22
Speaker 1: a great guy, great family. Just, yeah, it's going awesome.
14:26
Speaker 1: Do you think that's what they're saying? I doubt it.
14:29
Speaker 1: I actually know for a fact they're not, because that's
14:32
Speaker 1: not how people talk. And the fans always get such
14:35
Speaker 1: a bad rap in this stuff. Where it's like all
14:38
Speaker 1: the GMs... All the coaches... Talk the exact same. I've
14:42
Speaker 1: said forever. I think one reason it was so easy
14:47
Speaker 1: for me to transition... And I'm a born media guy.
14:50
Speaker 1: I'm a born... I was born to do this. I
14:52
Speaker 1: just took a detour... Before I got into this part
14:56
Speaker 1: of my career. But... The conversations I've had with my friends...
15:05
Speaker 1: the conversations I have on this podcast are no different
15:09
Speaker 1: than the conversations I had when I worked in college
15:12
Speaker 1: in NFL football. The conversations are all the same. What
15:16
Speaker 1: do you think those people talk about? What do you
15:20
Speaker 1: think Les Snead and Sean McVay talked about today? How
15:24
Speaker 1: well Stafford's doing? Or like, are we fucked? I mean,
15:29
Speaker 1: we've seen them before. Of all the teams in the league, like,
15:33
Speaker 1: Could we do something crazy? Your team is basically run
15:39
Speaker 1: like a fantasy football team. The Packers better hope that
15:43
Speaker 1: video never gets out. Because I watched Josh Jacobs talk today.
15:47
Speaker 1: I watched Matt LaFleur talk today. Without saying the words,
15:51
Speaker 1: he hit her. They both basically said, mistakes were made. Three,
15:55
Speaker 1: four seconds can change your life. Morally, like I've said forever,
16:00
Speaker 1: I don't watch football for them to teach me life lessons.
16:03
Speaker 1: I'm not going to have my son watch the NFL
16:07
Speaker 1: to teach him how to live his life, to be
16:10
Speaker 1: a mentor for his life. That's my job as a father.
16:14
Speaker 1: The NFL's job, and I'll teach him this young, and
16:16
Speaker 1: I've known this now for a while, has two main agendas.
16:21
Speaker 1: Make more revenue and win football games. If Josh Jacobs
16:26
Speaker 1: was a backup, a practice squatter, He would never get
16:29
Speaker 1: a second chance. But his talent outweighs his problems. And clearly,
16:35
Speaker 1: this video, they feel pretty confident it's never going to
16:38
Speaker 1: get out. Because if there is something damning on the video,
16:43
Speaker 1: they won't have to fold their franchise. They'll just eventually
16:45
Speaker 1: have to cut them because of the PR nightmare. But
16:47
Speaker 1: they clearly feel like they don't care. Because the reason
16:50
Speaker 1: they don't care is Matt LaFleur, he's got to win games.
16:54
Speaker 1: That's his only job right now is how do I
16:57
Speaker 1: win more games? How do I get us to the playoffs?
16:59
Speaker 1: Because if I don't, I could get fired. So I
17:02
Speaker 1: could take a moral stance and be like, I don't
17:04
Speaker 1: stand for that, which I don't actually think he does. Like,
17:07
Speaker 1: do I think Matt LaFleur is like, I'm pro hitting women?
17:10
Speaker 1: Of course not. But his role, his job, success and
17:16
Speaker 1: failure are determined by wins and losses come Sunday every
17:20
Speaker 1: week and sometimes Thursday where they play multiple Thursday games.
17:24
Speaker 1: And he also coaches in organizations whose standard is extremely high.
17:28
Speaker 1: They're used to winning the division and making the playoffs
17:31
Speaker 1: all the fucking time. And his best chance is with
17:35
Speaker 1: Josh Jacobs at running back, not these other scrubs that
17:39
Speaker 1: they've been rolling out all year. Which is a bad
17:41
Speaker 1: job by the personnel department to not have other just
17:43
Speaker 1: credible running backs. But I don't blame LaFleur for going,
17:50
Speaker 1: we're going to accept this guy back. I don't look
17:54
Speaker 1: at the NFL through some lens of purity. I look
17:59
Speaker 1: at the NFL no different than any entertainment operation. That's
18:04
Speaker 1: all it's there to do. And on their side, it's
18:06
Speaker 1: about money and their entertainment is based, you know, success
18:10
Speaker 1: on wins and losses. And that's definitely what his job
18:13
Speaker 1: is there to do. But, you know, there's been enough
18:16
Speaker 1: smoke about him, the legal action behind the scenes to
18:19
Speaker 1: make sure this video never comes out. I would not
18:22
Speaker 1: trust that. We have seen these videos. There's always a price.
18:25
Speaker 1: TMZ and these people are willing to pay. If you're
18:28
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears, I mean, shit. If I was a
18:31
Speaker 1: team in the division like the Lions or the Bears,
18:35
Speaker 1: I would be utilizing my Dom-type guy to be like,
18:38
Speaker 1: how do we get this video public? That's the world
18:41
Speaker 1: we're in. I mean, it's a dirty game. I mean,
18:45
Speaker 1: what do you think Belichick would have done 10 years ago?
18:49
Speaker 1: If the team that he was worried about beating him
18:51
Speaker 1: out for the division was in that situation. They would
18:54
Speaker 1: have done everything humanly possible to make that video come out.
18:58
Speaker 1: I say this all the time about the Vrabel-Russini thing.
19:01
Speaker 1: Who do you think sent the PR? Vrabel's not divorced.
19:05
Speaker 1: Doesn't look like Russini's divorced. That news would have got out.
19:09
Speaker 1: So I think it's fair to say that it wasn't
19:10
Speaker 1: one of their significant others. Probably someone in the league.
19:16
Speaker 1: If it's not one of those two, they're significant others, which,
19:21
Speaker 1: you know, if I was going to do that to
19:23
Speaker 1: embarrass my significant other, if she was cheating on me
19:26
Speaker 1: and I sent a PI to get that, that would
19:30
Speaker 1: have been the icing on the cake of the divorce.
19:33
Speaker 1: You wouldn't do that and then stay with her, right?
19:36
Speaker 1: So I think it's fair to say there's a decent chance,
19:39
Speaker 1: assuming both wife and husband stayed with Vrabel and Rossini,
19:44
Speaker 1: that it was someone in the NFL. So if I
19:47
Speaker 1: was involved in the NFL with one of these other teams,
19:50
Speaker 1: why wouldn't you do everything possible to make this video
19:52
Speaker 1: leak and make it so this guy has a short-lived
19:56
Speaker 1: career with the Packers? Because I don't think they would
19:58
Speaker 1: have a choice. But again, they don't care what's on
20:01
Speaker 1: the video. They don't. Just like no one in the
20:04
Speaker 1: NFL cares. And again, that doesn't mean they're pro-beating women
20:09
Speaker 1: or hitting women or whatever happened on this video. We
20:11
Speaker 1: don't know. It is suspicious when he's actively making sure
20:16
Speaker 1: that video doesn't become public. Because if it was just
20:18
Speaker 1: like an arguing match and, you know, obviously if there's
20:22
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20:26
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Speaker 1: regulated exchange and clearing organization. If you and I were
22:18
Speaker 1: going to international travel right now, like, hey, you want
22:21
Speaker 1: to go somewhere? Let's go somewhere internationally. It feels like
22:25
Speaker 1: France would be last on that list. It would be,
22:28
Speaker 1: France feels like it would be one of those places
22:31
Speaker 1: currently with the riots and the just mayhem going. You'd
22:36
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, probably avoid that right now. Probably not
22:39
Speaker 1: somewhere I'd want to go. Maybe skip it. Maybe we
22:44
Speaker 1: could circle back a year from now, right? The NFL
22:47
Speaker 1: is like, Steelers Saints, head to play a game. This
22:52
Speaker 1: is Jalen last week. I was reading an article. Jalen,
22:55
Speaker 1: the hospital he went to and the doctor he saw
22:58
Speaker 1: is in charge of some of their international soccer teams, right?
23:02
Speaker 1: The high price. I don't know exactly what soccer teams
23:05
Speaker 1: he works with, but let's just assume the big ones, right?
23:08
Speaker 1: With multi-million dollar players. I was reading my guy Ethan Strauss'
23:13
Speaker 1: substack today and he brought up a good point. The
23:16
Speaker 1: doctors that deal with Manchester City, Manchester United, whoever, you know,
23:20
Speaker 1: you pick the teams. Probably a little different vibe when
23:29
Speaker 1: looking at some of these soccer players than some of
23:32
Speaker 1: the football players that end up at the hospital. Anyone
23:36
Speaker 1: that watched the Falcons game last week, when a guy
23:39
Speaker 1: got stretchered off and I had it on mute and
23:43
Speaker 1: Maria had the audio on in the house and I
23:45
Speaker 1: went back in, I'm like, I think a guy just
23:46
Speaker 1: broke his neck. She said, I guess they said that
23:49
Speaker 1: he moved his hands. And then Stefanski says, back at
23:51
Speaker 1: practice today. Obviously the Dante Moore play, whatever, three or
23:57
Speaker 1: four weeks ago. Looks like he's dead. And in all
24:01
Speaker 1: these towns, in all these cities where we play football,
24:04
Speaker 1: college and pro, the main hospital there that is connected,
24:08
Speaker 1: I would say has a large experience of seeing all
24:11
Speaker 1: sorts of shit. Players come in there that are like
24:15
Speaker 1: in bad shape. That's just not the case in soccer.
24:19
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you can't have a serious injury in soccer,
24:22
Speaker 1: but But there's a violence in football that just doesn't
24:25
Speaker 1: parallel fucking the EPL. Let's be real. And I said
24:30
Speaker 1: this a couple days ago. Are we in this situation
24:35
Speaker 1: if Jalen Hurts is in a normal hospital that's used
24:38
Speaker 1: to dealing with NFL and college players? I think it's
24:41
Speaker 1: fair to say maybe not. I don't know for sure, right?
24:46
Speaker 1: Are we in a situation where I would imagine most
24:50
Speaker 1: of these players are If you polled every single guy,
24:54
Speaker 1: 53 guys, 53 guys, all the coaches, do you want
24:57
Speaker 1: to go to France this week? What would the poll
25:01
Speaker 1: be back? Especially if it was anonymous, so they didn't
25:03
Speaker 1: piss anybody off. Would it be 100 to 0? 100%?
25:07
Speaker 1: Let's stay in the States to 0. Let's not travel there.
25:12
Speaker 1: And this gets back to the Packer thing. Packers aren't alone.
25:16
Speaker 1: Every single team is like that. Every single one. If
25:20
Speaker 1: this guy can help you win, they will look past stuff.
25:24
Speaker 1: So that's what we're dealing with here. The NFL. Because
25:30
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this today. Do they want to
25:32
Speaker 1: build a fan base in France? The answer is no.
25:37
Speaker 1: But they can't play in London every single week. But
25:40
Speaker 1: what do they want? They want an international package with 15,
25:46
Speaker 1: 16 games that start at 6.30 in the morning. And
25:50
Speaker 1: what do they get this week in France? Pittsburgh at
25:54
Speaker 1: New Orleans in France, 6.30 in the morning. Which, when
25:59
Speaker 1: you have a baby and you live on the West Coast,
26:02
Speaker 1: you never miss a kickoff. It's a long day of football.
26:05
Speaker 1: But that game's not terrible. Not great. I mean, we'll
26:11
Speaker 1: dive into the slate tomorrow, but there's a lot of
26:13
Speaker 1: Cleveland at Tennessee, Miami at New York. So, yeah, man,
26:18
Speaker 1: I just... I don't know what to say. These international games.
26:23
Speaker 1: What a pain in the ass if you're in the league.
26:26
Speaker 1: I'll bang out a couple quick mailbag questions. Speaking of
26:29
Speaker 1: bad teams, this is from Mike. Mike Isola. I wonder
26:34
Speaker 1: if that's Frank's kid. How would you go about fixing
26:37
Speaker 1: the Jets? The team has shown signs of improvement this year,
26:40
Speaker 1: but I still question if Glenn is the guy. I
26:43
Speaker 1: do think an offensive-minded coach would elevate the team since
26:47
Speaker 1: we have invested multiple first-round picks on offense, What do
26:50
Speaker 1: you think of Darren Mugisi? I actually think you have
26:55
Speaker 1: a lot of good players. Your running back room is good.
26:58
Speaker 1: Brees is one of the better running backs in the league.
27:01
Speaker 1: Didn't he just sign a contract this offseason? And Braylon
27:04
Speaker 1: Allen is just a really good backup. Garrett Wilson is,
27:10
Speaker 1: I would just say, a very, very solid NFL player. Superstar, no,
27:14
Speaker 1: but he's good, right? He's not like Justin Jefferson or
27:17
Speaker 1: Jamar Chase, but he's in that next tier. If he's
27:20
Speaker 1: on every team in the league, he'd start for every
27:22
Speaker 1: team in the league. You draft Sadiq. Omar Cooper, last
27:26
Speaker 1: week I look up and Geno's throwing him a bomb. Actually,
27:29
Speaker 1: underthrew him a little bit. Touchdown. I'm not a huge
27:33
Speaker 1: Donnie Mitchell guy. You kind of have to catch to
27:34
Speaker 1: play a receiver. Just Cooper and Sadiq, two young pieces.
27:40
Speaker 1: And Garrett Wilson, how old is Garrett Wilson? He's 26
27:43
Speaker 1: years old. So they got a core running back and
27:47
Speaker 1: their weapons pretty good. Offensive line's not bad. They just
27:50
Speaker 1: need a quarterback. And they need a lot of help
27:52
Speaker 1: on defense, obviously. But the Aaron Glenn thing, I would
27:57
Speaker 1: imagine he would get fired. But I think one big
28:02
Speaker 1: difference this time than some of the other guys they've
28:05
Speaker 1: ran through, part of Sala, Woody hated him. Woody didn't
28:09
Speaker 1: hire him. They never hit it off. Something about their personalities.
28:13
Speaker 1: And it didn't work. And I do think that Woody
28:19
Speaker 1: and this guy get along well. I don't know if
28:22
Speaker 1: there's some connection there that he played forever for the Jets,
28:26
Speaker 1: but it does feel like there's a little respect. Now,
28:31
Speaker 1: does that mean if you go five wins that you survive?
28:35
Speaker 1: Probably not. The other thing is, look at Munkin. I
28:41
Speaker 1: would say the two Browns and the Jets, they feel
28:43
Speaker 1: like they have some young nucleus, some young players. Both
28:47
Speaker 1: have some limitations, but Todd's doing a pretty good job.
28:51
Speaker 1: And it does feel like Aaron Glenn. You always get
28:55
Speaker 1: to a point where when does Mugie try to jump
29:00
Speaker 1: off the boat with Aaron Glenn or shove him overboard?
29:08
Speaker 1: if he thinks that the owner's turning on him and goes, well,
29:11
Speaker 1: I got it handled. We got some picks coming up, right?
29:13
Speaker 1: Because they have, they have the best cowboy pick, which
29:19
Speaker 1: I mean, if the Cowboys keep playing like they're playing,
29:21
Speaker 1: that could be good. I don't know if there's necessarily
29:25
Speaker 1: a quarterback that saves them and they're too good. Like
29:28
Speaker 1: they're not going to get the number one overall pick.
29:31
Speaker 1: So if you look at the quarterbacks that are going
29:33
Speaker 1: to be in this draft that I feel confident are
29:36
Speaker 1: going to be in the mix to be top Five picks.
29:40
Speaker 1: you would say Trinidad Chambliss who plays the Texans, not
29:43
Speaker 1: the Texans, but the in Texas this week, the Texas Longhorns,
29:49
Speaker 1: which I think he is going to, you know, Colin
29:51
Speaker 1: Simmons is out. He's going to look good. I think
29:54
Speaker 1: when the dust settles, he would be now that now
29:58
Speaker 1: the quarterback's out for Jeremiah Smith, My bet would be
30:01
Speaker 1: Trinidad Jambliss winning the Heisman Trophy. I would say Jeremiah
30:04
Speaker 1: Smith was going to win it, but the quarterback situation
30:07
Speaker 1: could derail his hopes. And Mensah would be the other
30:11
Speaker 1: guy to keep a close eye on to be like
30:13
Speaker 1: a top five pick. Dante Moore is in major question
30:16
Speaker 1: right now. Like... If that's a devastating concussion and cost
30:21
Speaker 1: him a season, do you feel comfortable? One, he wasn't
30:24
Speaker 1: even playing that well. To draft him really high? I'm
30:27
Speaker 1: not saying it derails his opportunity to be a top pick,
30:31
Speaker 1: but it definitely calls everything into question. Who else is
30:34
Speaker 1: in the mix to be a high pick? Mestemaker at
30:37
Speaker 1: Oklahoma State. I had an executive tell me, he's been
30:41
Speaker 1: starting in college football for a year and a half.
30:43
Speaker 1: He never started a high school football game. Can we
30:46
Speaker 1: just let everything breathe for a second? Obviously, Arch, no chance.
30:51
Speaker 1: You watch Josh Hoover the other game against Ohio State? Honestly,
30:55
Speaker 1: if you watch him this season, he's kind of been
30:57
Speaker 1: hit or miss. I think the quarterback play is in
31:01
Speaker 1: major question. So you can just keep building this team. Yeah.
31:11
Speaker 1: I think that's the main problem. Quarterback and coach. You
31:15
Speaker 1: can have good players. Look at the Bears. Like, Imagine
31:21
Speaker 1: if you just put Glenn and Geno Smith on the
31:26
Speaker 1: Bears and you gave Ben Johnson and Caleb to the Jets.
31:29
Speaker 1: What would you say? What would every Jets fan say?
31:33
Speaker 1: We're fucking going to the playoffs. I'd give you a
31:36
Speaker 1: chance at two and four if you just inserted those
31:38
Speaker 1: two guys. And we would all bet against the Jets.
31:42
Speaker 1: So the importance of those two guys, I've told this
31:44
Speaker 1: story before, but someone on the Jets staff told me
31:49
Speaker 1: that early on in Joe Douglas' career when he made
31:52
Speaker 1: all these trades and they hit on a bunch of picks.
31:56
Speaker 1: Garrett Wilson, Brees Hall, Sauce, some of the offensive linemen,
32:02
Speaker 1: Quinn and Williams, they were just hitting on dudes. But
32:05
Speaker 1: he's like, if we do draft a quarterback high and
32:07
Speaker 1: we miss on that guy, so of eight guys, we
32:10
Speaker 1: go seven of eight, but the quarterbacks are missed, we're
32:14
Speaker 1: all going to get fired. But if it's reversed... We
32:18
Speaker 1: hit on two guys of the eight or nine, and
32:22
Speaker 1: one's the quarterback. We're getting extensions. That's the power of
32:26
Speaker 1: this business. And the Jets and Browns are good examples.
32:29
Speaker 1: You can't watch them. If I just got Kyle Shanahan
32:34
Speaker 1: on the phone, I said, hey, look at the Jets
32:37
Speaker 1: and Browns today. You could have five of their players.
32:40
Speaker 1: It would probably be a hard decision just picking which
32:43
Speaker 1: players he'd want. Because they both have a ton of young,
32:47
Speaker 1: sweet guys. But when your quarterback is bad, you know,
32:53
Speaker 1: Munkin knows, like Munkin's a real coordinator. And even you
32:56
Speaker 1: watch him and Deshaun, like there's only so much he
32:58
Speaker 1: can do. If either team could get a solid quarterback,
33:03
Speaker 1: they'd be okay. It kind of seems like Hertzkamp might
33:07
Speaker 1: feel a little jaded or at least disappointed by how
33:10
Speaker 1: they handled the health with the blood clots. Could he
33:13
Speaker 1: be a sleeper pick to trade to the Vikings if
33:17
Speaker 1: he does not want to play for the Eagles again
33:19
Speaker 1: after this situation? I, they would not, if they were
33:24
Speaker 1: at all, okay, the way that I perceive this, I
33:28
Speaker 1: have no inside information. I haven't talked with anyone with
33:30
Speaker 1: the Eagles since this happened. Probably not a good time
33:33
Speaker 1: to reach out. Who do you think was one of
33:35
Speaker 1: the guys pushing the hardest to play? My guess would
33:39
Speaker 1: be Jalen Hurts. I'm giving everyone the benefit of the doubt.
33:44
Speaker 1: No one knew how serious the blood clots were or
33:46
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have let him play. But again, I can
33:48
Speaker 1: never discount, never been to London. If my life was
33:52
Speaker 1: on the line, not where I'd want to be. I
33:56
Speaker 1: could pick about 50 hospitals in America that I would
33:59
Speaker 1: choose to go to before I went to this London hospital.
34:02
Speaker 1: Not saying they got a bunch of idiots. But if
34:05
Speaker 1: I was in a situation like Jalen, and I would
34:07
Speaker 1: imagine Jalen would agree, that wouldn't be the first hospital
34:11
Speaker 1: he would choose to go to if all options were
34:13
Speaker 1: on the table. But the one thing about Jalen is
34:16
Speaker 1: he's not just, he wants to play no matter what.
34:19
Speaker 1: Because it goes back to his entire career. I don't
34:23
Speaker 1: think that he views the Eagles, again, this is just
34:26
Speaker 1: from the outside, his agent would not have done a
34:30
Speaker 1: joint statement with the Philadelphia, he wants to be the
34:32
Speaker 1: quarterback for the Eagles. I believe that Jalen Hurts will
34:36
Speaker 1: desperately want, whenever he can come back, to continue to
34:39
Speaker 1: be the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. Whether that's a
34:43
Speaker 1: different coach, whether that's different teammates, I think that's where
34:47
Speaker 1: he wants to play. I also think Jalen's kind of
34:49
Speaker 1: like a bright lights, big city, kind of likes the pressure. Look,
34:53
Speaker 1: played in fucking Alabama for Saban. Then he transferred to Oklahoma.
34:59
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying Minnesota's not a pressure-packed environment, but
35:02
Speaker 1: Philly's kind of a one-on-one. I think if they were
35:05
Speaker 1: truly at odds, and Jalen thought that they royally fucked him, like,
35:10
Speaker 1: hey guys, I got a blood clot, and they're like,
35:12
Speaker 1: no you don't, you're playing, I do not think they
35:14
Speaker 1: would have come out with a joint statement. Could be wrong,
35:17
Speaker 1: could be naive, but I don't think Jalen's side would have. Like,
35:21
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel, as of I'm recording this, like Jalen
35:24
Speaker 1: and his side is about to sue the Eagles. Now,
35:29
Speaker 1: maybe things change, but... Where I'm sitting, my guess is
35:34
Speaker 1: when he can get right, he wants to play for
35:36
Speaker 1: the Eagles. I know that seems crazy to some people,
35:40
Speaker 1: but that's what I believe. I keep hearing the narrative
35:43
Speaker 1: around the Eagles is, quote, the division is still winnable.
35:46
Speaker 1: What incentive is there for them to win the division,
35:49
Speaker 1: to get bounced in the first round, and have a
35:51
Speaker 1: worse draft pick? The thing about the NFL, and college
35:55
Speaker 1: is no different, but no one's trying to lose any
35:58
Speaker 1: games right now. The Eagles are not thinking about draft picks.
36:05
Speaker 1: That's just not factoring in. Howie, in the back of
36:12
Speaker 1: his mind, has the 28 draft with the 2-1s and
36:14
Speaker 1: the 2-2s. But this game against the Cowboys, Monday Night Football, right? Yeah,
36:21
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. Home game, Dallas, Philadelphia. the Eagles are going
36:26
Speaker 1: to desperately try to win. Now, maybe they just suck.
36:29
Speaker 1: Maybe this Tanner McKee's awful. But if you don't think
36:33
Speaker 1: that Howie, Sirianni, Vic Fangio are going to do everything
36:38
Speaker 1: this week to try to win that game, I don't
36:42
Speaker 1: know what to tell you. So it's not even about
36:44
Speaker 1: winnable division. I don't even think they're thinking about winning
36:47
Speaker 1: the division right now. They're just thinking about how can
36:50
Speaker 1: we beat the Cowboys? Where I think in basketball, you
36:54
Speaker 1: would just pivot and start tanking. Or do a soft tank.
36:58
Speaker 1: There is no soft tank in Philly. One, it's just
37:02
Speaker 1: not how they operate. It's not how any of these
37:04
Speaker 1: teams operate. Even the Dolphins, if you watch Halfley's press conferences,
37:12
Speaker 1: he's trying to win these games. They're just not good enough. Tampa.
37:18
Speaker 1: It's like, well, Tampa should just mail... You think Todd
37:20
Speaker 1: Bowles is mailing this in? Todd Bowles tried to go
37:23
Speaker 1: up three touchdowns in the games like Todd kicked the
37:27
Speaker 1: field goal. He's like, fuck this. Showing everybody. That's just
37:30
Speaker 1: not how any of these guys think. Which is why,
37:33
Speaker 1: or partly why, I think football kind of resonates with us.
37:38
Speaker 1: There's no quit or tank in anybody in October. Not
37:41
Speaker 1: in the NFL. It's too hard. You work too hard.
37:47
Speaker 1: The days are too long to just mail it in.
37:51
Speaker 1: I heard you say everyone had a price last week
37:54
Speaker 1: or the week before. I don't know if they can
37:57
Speaker 1: even listen, but what's the price for Kirk Cousins? What's
38:05
Speaker 1: the price on Kirk Cousins for the Raiders? And you
38:09
Speaker 1: think people like the Eagles are calling. I think Kirk
38:15
Speaker 1: Cousins stays on the Raiders this year. I don't definitely–
38:19
Speaker 1: if you're the Eagles, you just roll out Tanner McKee,
38:21
Speaker 1: see what you got. They drafted a dude from North
38:24
Speaker 1: Dakota State, I think. You'd play him. If you're the Eagles,
38:28
Speaker 1: you're not trading for Kirk Cousins. To me, a team
38:32
Speaker 1: that would trade for Kirk Cousins would be like if
38:36
Speaker 1: Jared Goff went down or the Chiefs. It's like a
38:40
Speaker 1: team that was trying to make the playoffs. A team
38:43
Speaker 1: like the Eagles, you just play– you have young core guys–
38:48
Speaker 1: Tanner McKee's been on the team for years. You're not
38:51
Speaker 1: trading for Cousins. At what point do we demand? Honestly,
38:55
Speaker 1: I don't think Cousins has that much value around the league. Like,
38:59
Speaker 1: is it worth it to them to get rid of Cousins?
39:04
Speaker 1: To me, if I ever start Fernando Mendoza, I'd want
39:07
Speaker 1: to keep Cousins around. And I mean this year, right?
39:11
Speaker 1: Like in three weeks. Let's say the Raiders keep losing games.
39:15
Speaker 1: They're just not good enough. I'd kind of want him
39:19
Speaker 1: there for mental support. I would argue if I'm the Raiders,
39:23
Speaker 1: Cousins value in that room, starting and then if I
39:26
Speaker 1: got to transition the last month or two of the season,
39:29
Speaker 1: to just to kind of be by his side is
39:31
Speaker 1: pretty valuable. Giving him away for like a fifth round pick,
39:36
Speaker 1: I don't think that's worth it. At what point do
39:40
Speaker 1: we demand Notre Dame joins a conference? Seems like every
39:43
Speaker 1: season is the same. They play nobody and dominate and
39:46
Speaker 1: get elevated to the top five team. I feel like
39:49
Speaker 1: we all here with college football is how we need
39:53
Speaker 1: to get things under control, change, and expand the playoff.
39:57
Speaker 1: But I think the current state of college football is
39:58
Speaker 1: producing the best games I've ever seen. Yes, the big
40:01
Speaker 1: programs can just buy elite players for smaller programs, but
40:04
Speaker 1: also high recruits that aren't getting playing time have the
40:08
Speaker 1: ability to go to smaller schools. I saw someone recently,
40:14
Speaker 1: I think, commented on either something a post we had,
40:18
Speaker 1: like a social post, or maybe I saw this somewhere else.
40:23
Speaker 1: It was definitely something I said. And basically talking shit
40:27
Speaker 1: of like, financial independence is what everyone in our country
40:33
Speaker 1: strives for. And I think because I ripped Notre Dame
40:36
Speaker 1: for like having, oh, something I did with Coward. They,
40:39
Speaker 1: you know, the volume posted like a clip. And I
40:42
Speaker 1: was ripping them like, yeah, they have all this financial independence,
40:45
Speaker 1: but they're not a normal human being. They're in a business,
40:55
Speaker 1: financial independence, which at least with the 12 team, 24, whatever,
40:59
Speaker 1: but it cost them last year. Their financial independence last year, yeah,
41:05
Speaker 1: they got richer, but they got left out of the
41:08
Speaker 1: playoffs because the two teams, the only two good teams
41:12
Speaker 1: they played that made the playoffs, they lost to. And
41:16
Speaker 1: that could easily happen again. BYU could be a playoff team,
41:19
Speaker 1: and definitely Miami's going to be a playoff team. And
41:21
Speaker 1: if they lose both those games, they could easily get
41:24
Speaker 1: left out again. Even if they truly are one of
41:27
Speaker 1: the best 12 teams. But, yeah, they get more money.
41:32
Speaker 1: They're an operation. Like, BYU's a good example. Now, they
41:37
Speaker 1: don't have the television market in terms of the fan
41:39
Speaker 1: base that Notre Dame does. Like, Cowboys, Yankees, Lakers, whatever. But, like, financially...
41:45
Speaker 1: BYU ain't hurting. Like, they financially, their pockets, because of
41:51
Speaker 1: the church, go a little deeper than, example, the Big
41:54
Speaker 1: 12 school that's 30 minutes away from where I'm sitting.
41:58
Speaker 1: Arizona State or Arizona or Colorado, right? But the power
42:02
Speaker 1: of them being in the conference and every single year
42:06
Speaker 1: playing the other conference games, which on a given year,
42:09
Speaker 1: Oklahoma State could be good, Utah could be good, Arizona
42:13
Speaker 1: State or Arizona could be good. If you play Texas Tech,
42:17
Speaker 1: obviously it rotates every year. You don't play every team.
42:19
Speaker 1: But my point is, being in the conference is the power.
42:23
Speaker 1: The unity of the NFL. Does Jerry Jones need the
42:27
Speaker 1: Arizona Cardinals or the Jacksonville Jaguars to make money? Of
42:30
Speaker 1: course not. But as a unit, they pool their money,
42:36
Speaker 1: pool their resources, and make more big picture. And Notre
42:41
Speaker 1: Dame just playing the schedule on NBC against a bunch
42:45
Speaker 1: of 10 of the 12 games being fucking awful. And
42:51
Speaker 1: then the big games they have, they lose. And we're
42:54
Speaker 1: supposed to feel sympathy? It's like, well, they got their
42:56
Speaker 1: financial independence. Well, yeah, they're not like a retail company.
43:02
Speaker 1: They're not a deli. They're not a human being with
43:05
Speaker 1: three kids. They're a college football team. who competes against
43:09
Speaker 1: these other college football teams who are not independent, who
43:12
Speaker 1: are in these conferences that share the revenue for the
43:16
Speaker 1: greater good of their own resume, right? Like, let's face it,
43:21
Speaker 1: Ohio State, do they need fucking Rutgers or Maryland? No.
43:26
Speaker 1: But does their resume look better when they play Indiana
43:29
Speaker 1: and Michigan and, you know, typically Penn State and Iowa,
43:32
Speaker 1: the teams that are good every year? Of course. Where
43:35
Speaker 1: Notre Dame just picks and chooses. And then because of
43:38
Speaker 1: the luck of the draw, they have to schedule years
43:40
Speaker 1: in advance. Like yeah, Michigan State a decade ago would
43:44
Speaker 1: have been a good game. In 2026, it's a terrible game.
43:49
Speaker 1: North Carolina game actually is aging a little better because
43:51
Speaker 1: Belichick is doing a pretty good job. But like some
43:54
Speaker 1: of these games that you schedule, like Wisconsin 20 years
43:57
Speaker 1: ago would have been an incredible game. Now it's not
44:01
Speaker 1: as bad, but if they end up 7-5, not great.
44:07
Speaker 1: So I just think Notre Dame, this is bigger than
44:12
Speaker 1: Notre Dame though. This is simply, we watch football on
44:15
Speaker 1: Saturdays and we watch football on Sundays. And on Sundays,
44:20
Speaker 1: everyone plays everybody. Like look at this week. The Colts
44:24
Speaker 1: play the Vikings. The Vikings are in the NFC North
44:29
Speaker 1: and the Colts are in the AFC South. But every
44:31
Speaker 1: year what happens? You rotate divisions. You get strength of schedule.
44:36
Speaker 1: You get this 17th game that rotates out of conference.
44:39
Speaker 1: So it's like the Chiefs are playing the Seahawks. Why?
44:42
Speaker 1: Because the AFC West and the NFC West play each
44:45
Speaker 1: other this year. Right? Then you get like the Packers
44:48
Speaker 1: and the Lions and the Cowboys and the Eagles. That's
44:50
Speaker 1: like Tennessee-Bama. That's like Indiana-Ohio State or Oregon-USC. And it just,
44:58
Speaker 1: it's always that way. That there's no, well, you know
45:00
Speaker 1: who the Texans are playing this week? Uh... The Birmingham Stallions,
45:06
Speaker 1: you know? No! You just play other NFL teams. And
45:10
Speaker 1: in college, you're playing some FBS teams, you're playing some
45:13
Speaker 1: FCS teams, you're playing some Power 4 teams, and then
45:16
Speaker 1: Lane Kiffin's like, oh, the ninth schedule. How about everyone
45:19
Speaker 1: just play everybody? And everyone make more money? But instead,
45:23
Speaker 1: you have all these competing ideas, all these universities that
45:26
Speaker 1: think differently, and you get all this chaos. It's fucking laughable.
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47:22
Speaker 1: Terms and conditions apply. We'll end on this. Thank God.
47:34
Speaker 1: Chris Ballard's reign of terror has ended. I understand that
47:38
Speaker 1: Luck retired and he cooked the Colts. But we have
47:41
Speaker 1: wasted what seem to be amazing rosters on short-term 8-9, 9-9,
47:46
Speaker 1: no playoffs. I hope the future turns around. I think
47:49
Speaker 1: Shane has till the end of the season. You know
47:53
Speaker 1: what's funny is I always liked him. I've never met him.
47:57
Speaker 1: Never talked to the guy. There was a clip going
48:00
Speaker 1: viral yesterday where... The Colts, and you know this, Colts
48:05
Speaker 1: do a great job in the offseason of doing these
48:08
Speaker 1: behind-the-scenes videos, the combine, the draft prep. It's elite. I
48:14
Speaker 1: watch a lot of this throughout the league. You could
48:16
Speaker 1: argue theirs is the best. And Chris is very present
48:20
Speaker 1: in these videos and good. He's interactive. It's excellent. But, like,
48:25
Speaker 1: you look back and you go, he had a comment
48:28
Speaker 1: when they got Latu, the kid from UCLA. I think
48:31
Speaker 1: he was a Miami transfer. And he was, like, laughing
48:35
Speaker 1: that we got the best pass rusher in the class.
48:39
Speaker 1: And I think Byron Murphy, who is easily one of
48:41
Speaker 1: the best defensive linemen in the league, was, like, the
48:43
Speaker 1: next pick. And, you know, they play– one's an edge rusher,
48:47
Speaker 1: one's a defensive tackle, but– If you just were going
48:49
Speaker 1: to take one of the two players, standing here today,
48:52
Speaker 1: every person in the league, including Ballard, would take Murphy.
48:57
Speaker 1: But the point is that you watch that. He was very,
49:01
Speaker 1: very confident about the moves and the decisions he would make.
49:06
Speaker 1: And a lot of them just started backfiring. And I wonder,
49:10
Speaker 1: you know, the Anthony Richardson thing was forced by the
49:13
Speaker 1: old man. He didn't necessarily want to take him, but
49:16
Speaker 1: he did. And, but he also did things. like a
49:20
Speaker 1: Donnie Mitchell where I had people in the NFL. I
49:22
Speaker 1: was like, I would never draft that guy. You're like,
49:25
Speaker 1: why can't catch, you know, doesn't have good hands and
49:28
Speaker 1: he plays wide receiver. It's like, that's probably a problem,
49:33
Speaker 1: you know? And I think some people thought he was
49:37
Speaker 1: arrogant in like, uh, He was arrogant in a humble way.
49:41
Speaker 1: Part of it was like that kind of Southern, I
49:45
Speaker 1: don't even know, it's like a Southern Midwestern kind of draw.
49:50
Speaker 1: He just had a, when you heard him talk, you
49:52
Speaker 1: knew it was Ballard, right? And the quarterback situation, you
49:58
Speaker 1: can only hold on to like, hey man, I got fired.
50:03
Speaker 1: You just got fired? Well, no, like eight years ago
50:06
Speaker 1: I got fired, but haven't worked since. Like that's kind
50:08
Speaker 1: of on you. Right? It's like, yeah, man, I got
50:10
Speaker 1: a divorce. Fuck, I'm down and out, bro. Man, you
50:14
Speaker 1: just got a divorce? No, I got a divorce like
50:16
Speaker 1: 17 years ago. It just derailed my life. Like, eventually,
50:20
Speaker 1: it's on you to figure shit out. Right? Something awful
50:24
Speaker 1: happens to you tomorrow, you get a little grace. If
50:27
Speaker 1: something awful happened to you seven years ago, like, seven
50:30
Speaker 1: years later, it's time to fucking pull up your bootstraps
50:33
Speaker 1: and figure some shit out. It's like, I've heard about
50:35
Speaker 1: Andrew Luck for a long time. Andrew Luck's been retired forever. Forever.
50:41
Speaker 1: Josh McDaniel screwed you, which in a weird way was probably,
50:47
Speaker 1: he probably did you a favor. But still, you plan
50:50
Speaker 1: on hiring him, he committed, and then he backs out.
50:53
Speaker 1: That was 2017. I mean, that was almost a decade ago.
51:00
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying Ballard's even using this as excuses,
51:02
Speaker 1: but every time he was talked about, it's like, well,
51:04
Speaker 1: it's like this happened, this happened. That was like 2017,
51:07
Speaker 1: 18 range. It's 2026. October. It's almost... We are... We're
51:15
Speaker 1: about 70 days away from 2027. I don't want to
51:20
Speaker 1: hear about 2019. No one cares. I think Caleb Williams
51:26
Speaker 1: is like in high school then. What are we talking about? So... Yeah,
51:31
Speaker 1: I mean, good for you guys. It's just time for
51:34
Speaker 1: a change. I think the question's going to be, how
51:38
Speaker 1: desirable is this bad boy? Are you getting the best
51:41
Speaker 1: and the brightest? Are people lined up? I also think
51:44
Speaker 1: it's going to depend, like, who are you competing against?
51:47
Speaker 1: Who are you competing against? And, like, what are our options?
51:52
Speaker 1: I would say Sean McDermott. I think a guy like
51:55
Speaker 1: Sean McDermott, just get a guy that knows what they're doing.
51:59
Speaker 1: You guys kind of just need to get the train
52:01
Speaker 1: back on the tracks. I would say he would make
52:03
Speaker 1: a lot of sense. I would imagine a guy like
52:06
Speaker 1: that is going to have a very, very good chance
52:09
Speaker 1: of getting the job. Actually, if I had to guess
52:14
Speaker 1: right now, Sean McDermott's the next coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
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52:29
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Speaker 1: mentioned this guy earlier and you got to be very
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52:47
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52:51
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52:54
Speaker 1: Got soft benched. They claimed he was injured. It got weird.
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