Latest / Best of the NFL Podcast Network / The Season with Peter Schrager: Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles, Justin Jefferson Appreciation, and Peter’s Germany Adventure

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The Season with Peter Schrager: Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles, Justin Jefferson Appreciation, and Peter’s Germany Adventure · Best of the NFL Podcast Network

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schreeger as a production of the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with my Heart Radio. Yes, when that
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: music hits, I get very excited. I'm Peter Schreeger. I'm
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the host of Good Morning Football in the NFL Network,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and I am also the host of the Season with
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Peter Schreeger, just the podcast we do every Tuesday here
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: in New York City. My boy, my producer, my man,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Aaron Woon Kaufman. What is up, dude much? How you
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: don't welcome back from Germany. I'm back from Germany. Um?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Should I get right into it? Yeah? Yeah, I want
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to hear about it. So if you're wondering why I
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: wasn't in Germany and I was recording last week's podcast
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: with Jeff Perlman, uh from a Brooklyn apartment. I wasn't
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: sure I could talk about it last week because I
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: wasn't I was actually gonna get to Germany. I'll just
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: empty the bag right now and let everybody know. Uh.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to leave last Friday, got to the airport,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: had my bags packed, had my passport. My passport expires January.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I'm good. I went to London a month ago. I
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: had a great week. No one said much like just yeah,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: good luck. Here it's your ticket, go whatever. Get to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the Luftanza Airline ticket gate thing at Newark and the woman,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: with very very little room for negotiation or desire to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: have a conversation, um, is like, you cannot fly. I'm like,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: what do you mean I can't fly? Here's my ticket? Um,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: really important. I talked about football for a living. I
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: must go to Germany. It's a must, it's my right.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: She says, Uh, No, your passport expires in less than
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: three months. Doing the math, it was like November four,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: my passport expired January eleven, and yeah, in less than
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: three months, my past I didn't know this rule. Um,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know if anyone else knew this rule, but
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: in certain countries Germany included, you need uh to have
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: three months or more left on your passport. So I'm
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: sitting with Jamie Ertole, who's my lovely co host uncle
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Morning Football, and like it was almost like a scene
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: out of a movie like Home Alone or something like
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: she had to go to the gate and get on
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that plane. And I literally called an uber X from
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Newark Airport and it was like the saddest drive back
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: to Brooklyn just of like, you know, you had a
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: bad day, and it's just like I'm crying in the
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: back seat as everyone else gets to go to Germany
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: and I'm going home to Brooklyn. I compared it to
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: when I was in I guess my freshman year of
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: high school. I didn't play football, but all the guys
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: on the football team got invited to a to a party.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: And at this party, it was from uh the girls
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: from the the neighboring school, but it was just the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: football guys and I was friends alw these guys in
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: eighth grade. I didn't play football, and they all went
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: and it was like the first week at school and
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: it was all these new girls that I didn't know,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and they played like spin the bottle and um. All
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: these guys had stories for for months about this amazing
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: party that they were invited to. This is what that
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: felt like. Like. I was getting texts from from Kyle
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Brand and Jason mccordy and Jamie Ard all there, like
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: we're at this amazing beer hall. We're at Oh, it's
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the funniest thing. Like we're being treated like royalty because
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: we're football and we're at this amazing Uh, soccer game.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: We're at the Byron Munich match. Man, we miss you.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: And yet those techs started coming in less and less
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: as like the longer it became, and I was like
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: total fomo. Right. So Monday morning, UM, I was told
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: that you couldn't get an expedited passport if you go
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to this passport office in Lower Manhattan on like Barick
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Street and you get an appointment. We get an appointment,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: go in there. I tell him the whole story. They
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: don't give up about like you know, UM, NFL or
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: don't you know that Geno Smith is going to Munich?
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Someone needs to talk about it for five days on
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: a lightly viewed cable channel, you know, someone needs to
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: be there, especially election week, like we need to watch
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: it lightly view That was kind of not necessary. Well,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: we'll just say very highly viewed cable network, NFL network.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: We love what we do, UM, but it's a very
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: niche audience. The the audience that's tuning in on a
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Tuesday to see me breakdown Kenneth Walker's running style. UM
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: on election Tuesday in the middle of the first week
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: in November. So I wait there five hours. It's like
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: you're literally at like the Delhi. Uh, and you take
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: the ticket, you know, and it's like thirty one and
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: it's you know, you've got like sixty seven. Um, but
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: get my passport. The amazing Wendy Moyer, I'm gonna shout
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: her out. She works for the NFL network. She is
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: like on the phone with me throughout out this. We
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: book a flight, I get on the plane. Until I
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: get on the plane, I'm like, there's no way I'm
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: actually getting there. This thing isn't happening. Um, get on
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the plane, get there and literally land and run from
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the airport to the set. And I was on Wednesday morning, um,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and somewhere in between there. I don't even remember doing it.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: We did a podcast last week, Aaron, I'm not I'm
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: not assaulting you. I have no recollection of the Jeff
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Promon podcast. I'm sure it was great. I know he
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: was doing it from a car. It was raining. I
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: was checking my phone the entire time, like, am I
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Am I really getting this passport? Am I really going
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: on the flight? Got there? It was fantastic and an
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: amazing experience. And uh, I'm here today and you made
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: it back successfully too, Which is I mean with all
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the trouble you went through getting there. It's good that
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you got back. I did um four downs. You want
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: to do it, let's go, let's go experience bro Um
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: first down. Besides the travel, was Germany a success, US huge,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: huge success. Good Morning Football first of all was a
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: really big success. We set the stage for the weekend
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: that was to come. And I was there Wednesday and
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: it was awesome, and then Thursday was cool, and then
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Friday it was like the comparison I made was I
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: guess it was like Bourbon Street, not Marti Grab. But
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: when there's like a big college bowl game or when
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the Super Bowl was there, and it was like just
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: a celebration of sports. I could not walk through the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: streets of Munich without sing a Seahawks fans sing a
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Buccaneers fan. And at first glance it's like, oh, they
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: all flew in. Okay, I get it. Then you talk
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: to the people. They're German, they are German fans and
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: they love football. I was very, very ignorant to all
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: of this going in. I didn't know the history of
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Germany and football, but the NFL Europe really did have
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: a strong, strong footprint in Germany, so fans really fell
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: in love with the game, and then they stopped NFL Europe.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Some of those teams play in semipro leagues. The NFL
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: still has some sort of connection to that. But this
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: was the first ever game in Germany and the amount
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: of German fans who know the game loved the game.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: They were live at our show on like Thursday and
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Friday in the town square, which was incredible. But then
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: you saw the footage on Sunday. I have friends, um
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: who were there, obviously from the NFL network. I've got
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: another buddy, my buddy, Mike Carella lives in Amsterdam full
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: time with his family and he does that for a
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: corporate job. And he came and met me in Munich
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and then he went to the game on Sunday and
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: he's taking photos of this and it's like this felt
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: like the Super Bowl. And it wasn't gimmicky, it wasn't kitch,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: it wasn't this like you know, Wacky's anything. It was
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: a legitimate game between two division leaders, and the fans
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: knew what was going down, and it was a celebration
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: of football. And I mean this and that Brady did
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a lot of postgame sound and was calling it epic
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and everything. Brady went on his podcast with Jim Gray
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and Larry Fitzgerald on Monday night and it was like
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: he was like it was awesome and it was really
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: important for me. And I think and this is like
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: bringing it back to the football stuff, Like I think
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Brady needed this, Like it's been a rough couple of months,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: obviously with the divorce, but also the team being terrible
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and not like reaching expectations. I think the last thing
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: you would have told Tom Brady that he needed was
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: to go on a on a forty eight hour trip
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: to Germany. But like he seems like he's at ease,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: he's at peace, he was energized, and the fans love
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: him so much over there that it was such a
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: cool experience to see. I don't know if you watched
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the game, errand, but with about two minutes left, you know,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the game is on the broadcast on and Eisen and
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the boys are doing the and it's in the background
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: you here country Roads Take me, and You're like what,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: And there's a huge chant of John Denver's Country Roads.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: And I don't think they know what West for Gin.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: It is, like, I don't know if they know it.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: And the West Virginia Mountain Mama, and I'm like what,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and then it's Sweet Caroline. And then the game ends,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and uh my buddy who works for the Bucks text
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: me a video and he's like, check this out. Thirty
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: minutes after the game, the Bucks team comes back onto
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the field and seventies six thousand fans are still there
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: doing a karaoke sing along to like American Like American
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Pie by Don McLean. Um. I don't know. I'm pretty
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: pessimistic a lot of times. I live in a negative
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: like mindscape a lot. And then especially with the way
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: things are going in America, it's easy to get down.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: And you know, now there's a recession, there's inflation, the
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: crypto markets have blown up, all this stuff and all
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: anyone tells you that the world is terrible and all that,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: you see a bunch of seventy six thousand people in
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: arm and arms singing country roads in Germany, You're like,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: all right, that was kind of cool, Like that was
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: a fun moment. And I think for Brady it was
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: like a brief reef rest bite of like a moment
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: where it was like, all right, I love football, this
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: is awesome. I got to experience this, and I think
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: for Goodell in the league, speaking to people there, they
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: were overwhelmed. I don't think anyone that's exceeded expectations beyond
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: anyone's wildest dreams. And we had Commissioner Goodell on Good
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Morning Football on Friday and he threw it out there.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: He's like, I think we're gonna have multiple games here,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: um over the next few years. I don't think it's
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: just gonna be Munich. I think we're talking Frankfurt. I
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: think eventually Berlin. I think eventually, you know, Cologne. I don't.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not well versed in the history of
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: German football. But what was a cool deal American football
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: in Germany. A cool deal was talking to a native
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: German UM, this guy Alex, who worked at our hotel
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: that we were staying at, and he said, what's what's
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: interesting is, you know, obviously there's the NFL Europe and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: there was the World League and all this stuff, and
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: there was this great, like little seed of this German
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: uh love for football. Then in like two thousand and ten,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: there's a TV station called Free TV, which I equate
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: to like ESPN, I guess, and one game a week
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: they have an NFL game. One on Sunday, they play
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: one game. And he said, for the majority of like
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the two thousand and two thousand twenties, for whatever reason,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of that was Seahawks. So the Seahawks have
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: a huge fan base there, but a lot of them
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: are also Chiefs and of course Patriots. And he said,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: the biggest fan bases are Seahawks, Chiefs and Patriots, and
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: they are real fans. They go to sports pubs, they
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: go to like Irish bars in Germany, and they go
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and watch the games. Um. I can't speak enough about
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the experience. From a personal standpoint, I thought it was
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: really eye opening and really cool. But I think from
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: a league standpoint, and maybe later on in the season,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: we'll bring on Peter O'Reilly who runs all the events
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: for the league, or um, you know, Henry Hodgson does
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: some of the international stuff, and I would like to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: get their perspective. But gosh, just from these these two eyes,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: it was it was spectacular alright. Second down from the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: German fan base is celebrating their teams. To me, lamenting
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: my team, Are you as concerned as I am with
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the bills? After these two losses. Well, I know you too.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: For the listeners, Aaron comes from a family of Bills fans.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Let me first, you know, swing it around to you.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Two losses to the Jets and Vikings, both in weird fashion.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Are you concerned with your Bills? I mean, yeah, a little.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I think I just said to you before we started recording.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: It's it's tough being involved in the quote unquote game
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: of the year two years in a row and losing
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: both of them. Uh, it was a great fight, and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: you know, Josh Allen did really well except for these
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: red zone interceptions. It's not my favorite stats to lead,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: but um, yeah it was. It was rough and suddenly
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the Bills are in the wild card race now I
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: mean wild correct to the six seed. This went from
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: me saying like no one and I went on Bill
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Simmons's podcast, I'm like to literally before the Jets game,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I don't think the Bills are gonna lose in the
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: game this season. I don't. They got through Kansas City
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: like they'll roll over the Jets, they'll beat the Vikings.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Then after they lost to the Jets, I was like,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: all right, but they won't lose a home game all
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: season and they already have the tiebreaker over the Chief,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: so they'll be fine. And they lose to the Vikings
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and what was just epic fashion. Now what worries me
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: is that Allen continues to make these strange decisions in
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: these plays, like which I'm I'm baffled by because I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: thought we got over that. And then their defensive backfield
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: it's just riddled with injuries. So no Trey White still,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know where he is. I don't know if
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: he's coming back. Jordan Poyer is like the captain of
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: that defense. He wasn't out there. Michael Hides not coming back.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Elm the rookie who's been playing well, he wasn't there.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: See have Dane Jackson, and you've got this Christian Benford,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: who's a lovely young man. He's a sixth round pick
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: out of Villanova, but like that's a big spot and
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Justin Jefferson just eight and Kirk Cousins picked him apart.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: And if this thing is going through Buffalo, I still
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: like the Bills out of the a f C. But
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: right now it's not. And my reason for concern is
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: it's a really hard thing to go on the road
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs. And it's a really hard thing to
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: win an Arrowhead and they've done it now twice in
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: the regular season. But like, I have no confidence that
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: this Bill's team is going to go on one of
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: these stretches where it's like, say that to play in
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Miami and then they got to go, you know, to
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Baltimore whatever it is, and then you know, I call
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: it the Arrowhead Invitational, you know that an f C
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: championship game in Kansas City. Like, I'm not sure that's
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: a that's a no brander anymore, a catastrophic loss. And
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: that fumble, it's like Bills fans have been through so
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: many heartbreaking losses that fumble. I don't think it's up
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: there with Scott Norwood. And I don't think it's up
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: there with last year's to the Chiefs. I don't. I
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: don't think it's up there with that stuff. But like
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: that's it's just enough of a wacky doesn't happen type
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: thing that you're like, we are just doomed, like we
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: are just cursed and we are not allowed to have
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: nice things like that. That play is you run that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a thousand times, that happens one time, and it happened
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: and it didn't just happened. They scored a touchdown, so
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: that you have to come all the way back and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: get the field goal. Um, I'm not concerned about Alan,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: He'll figure it out. I think they're a playoff team
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: for sure. Obviously. I am concerned that this puts them
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: in a position where they have to dig out of
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: a hole. And I don't want to see the Bills
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: in Kansas City. If I'm a Bills fan, I'd rather
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: be home for that playoff game. Ye. Same, alright, third down,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: we're a week remove now. He talks about Jeff Saturday
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: last week. Now, what's your take after they win against
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the Raiders? Something? Right? So I had a take that
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I thought was like hot fire on this podcast thing.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I didn't like the higher because of multiple reasons. I
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: didn't realize that I was just like dipping my toe
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: in the shallow and compared to some of the takes
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: that were coming out. We had Joe Thomas on uh
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Good Morning Football in Germany on Friday and literally on
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Thursday night, Joe is wearing ederhosen, drinking beers, all smiles,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: like having the greatest time at the Huffbra House, which
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: is one of the great beer halls there and we're han't.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: He's like the almost happiest, go lucky, like loving fun
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: guy I've ever like hung with. And he's talking about
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: how he owns a farm and he's never been so
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: content and his family was in Paris. And then this
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: topic comes up on Good Morning Football and Joe's entire
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: tone changes and his take was this, when you hire
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: your drinking buddy to be the head coach of an
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: NFL football team, it is one of the most disrespectful
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: things I've ever seen in my entire life to the commitment,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: the lifestyle, and the experience that it takes to be
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: an NFL coach, any coach, much less the head coach
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: of the Indianapolis Football Colts. You have got to be
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: kidding me that this is something that Jim Orsay and
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Jeff Saturday, who's not blameless for accepting the job, could
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: have talked and decided that this was the best thing
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: for the Indianapolis Colts at this juncture of the season.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I was happily eating some fine French food and drinking
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: French wine because I was in France with my kids
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: earlier in the week. But when I saw this, I
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: thought it was a joke. I thought maybe I had
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: a little Google translating. I all of a sudden, I'm
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: in the wrong calendar and it's April first or something
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: going on. It was the most egregious thing I can
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: ever remember happening in the NFL. And I went one
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: in thirty one. Sure enough, Sunday morning, I'm on my couch,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: excited for some football, and the you know, the Brady
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: thing just ends in Munich. I flipped forward to CBS
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: and there's Bill Kauer and he's on the CBS show
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: and he comes out and he called it a disgrace,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: a disgrace. What about the assistance on this staff right now,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the guys that were there in training camp, the guys
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: that were there early in the morning and late at night,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the guys have gone through the first six weeks in
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: that building, Guys like Gus Bradley, Scotty Montgomery, John Fox.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Don't they deserve the opportunity for an owner to hire
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: a coach who's never been an assistant at the college
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: level or the pro level and overseeing a very much
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: a lot of candidates. They are qualified for that job,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: as we see in Steve Wilkes, an opportunity to build
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: a resume. It's a disgrace to the coaching profession in
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: regardless of how this thing plays on. What happened Indianapolis
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: is a travesty. That clip was courtesy of CBS Sports.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: In the NFL today, I mean, people were really really
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: upset about the Saturday thing, and then there comes this
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: moment where all right now he has to go coach
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: a game, and sure enough, because this is how this
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: thing works, like they go and they win, and then
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: there's everyone looking for receipts afterwards that it's saying, you know,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: eat it, Joe Thomas and eat it Bill Kawer. And
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: my whole thing is this that team. It was awesome
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: watching that Colts team rally around Jeff Saturday and his
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: postgame comments were eight and Ursa was so fired up.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: But that team is a good football team. If that's
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: what it takes, then shame on me, egg on my
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: face that I was wrong and saying that I would
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: have rather seen another guy get the opportunity then than
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Jeff Saturday. If that's what it takes too to have
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: someone have you know, the stones to say what we're doing,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: starting Sam Ellinger when we've got Matt Ryan under contract,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: and he's a former MVP and he still wants to
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: play like Matt Ryan's our quarterback. That's what it takes
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to see Quentin Nelson, uh, you know, block his ass
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: off and look like the twenty million dollar offensive guard
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: that he is. Then great, you know, bring in Jeff Saturday.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: If that's what it takes to see Stefan Gilmour play
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: like the number one corner that we know he is
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: and has been awesome, I stand corrected if I said that,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: You know, I would have liked to have seen one
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: of the younger guys, and I wasn't one who is like,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: give John Fox the job. I don't think that would
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: have done anything. I was talking about guys like Bubba
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Cotrone or Kato June or Scott Montgomery or you know.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: But then again, there's this guy, Parks Fraser, who's a
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: thirty year old, you know, offensive coach no one knows
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: much about him. Goes in there, Colin plays and he's
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: dialing it up and it's like, here's Parks Fraser's moment
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: as the play caller. And I don't know if he
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: gets that opportunity of Frank Reich and Uh, Marcus Brady
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: are there, and I don't know if he gets an
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: opportunity if you just hired Gus Bradley or John Fox
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: is the interm. My big takeaway is long term. I'm
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: not sure how this whole thing plays out, but hey,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: I picked the Coast to win the an FC South
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: before the season. That team that I saw and Jonathan
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Taylor actually running the football, Yeah, that's the team I
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: thought we were gonna get this season. So if it
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: takes Jeff Saturday to get that team on my TV screen,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Jeff Saturday, welcome. Alright, fourth down? Who do you want
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: to shout out this week? Can I give a shout
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: out to Colton McCoy. Um, This is part personal, part objective. Quote.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: McCoy is one of my favorite people in the NFL.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I've gotten to know cult McCoy very well over the years.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Culte McCoy has been a starting quarterback in this league,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: but he's also been a backup quarterback to Kirk Cousins,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: to Robert Griffin, the Third Uh, to Daniel Joe, to
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Kyler Murray, to you name it. He has been around
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of young quarterbacks and they all love him.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Kyler Murray grew up in Texas when the University of
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Texas football was everything, and Kyler Murray grew up loving
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Culte McCoy. So sure enough they bring him in and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: he is now his backup and it's like Murray's not alone.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Murray is is one of many young players in this
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: league who look at cult McCoy as that dude, because
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: he have his college career, of course, but also because
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: he's one of the best people to have in a
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: locker room. Cliff Kingsbury rolls out Colt McCoy and like,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: I would have bet, like my life that they were
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: winning that game, just knowing how the teammates respond to Colt,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: and to see a J. Green make plays, to see
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Rondel Moore with the one handed catch, and to see
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Colt under centertor's doing his thing, like Culte McCoy wins games.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: And here's the crazy thing. Quote McCoy is now three
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and one as a starter for the Arizona Cardinals. The
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: rest of the team loves him, They rally around him.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: There's suddenly a we're in sixth team. They've got a
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Monday night game in Mexico City coming up, and like
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: if I'm Cliff. I don't know, like, do I rush
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Kyler back from my amstring injury or do I say,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: let's see how this thing goes. Let's roll the dice. Now.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: When I say it's a I've got a bias towards Cole,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: it's because I've really really enjoyed his company. I've got
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: to know him really well over the years as a reporter.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: He's always wonderful to us in the media. He's always
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: very gracious with his time. This past summer, I attended
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Sean mcveigh's wedding out in l A name drop. They
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: would only PLoP that one right in here at our table,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: my wife Eric and I, we're sitting next to Colt
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: McCoy and his wife, and we're sitting next to Kingsbury,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: and it's Brandon Staley and his wife, and Kevin O'Connell
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: and his wife, and this gentleman, Chaz Gasner. Everyone google
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Chaz Gasner, that dudes, the man. Chazz Gasner played for
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Belichick in the Patriots and then was coached by Sean
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: McVeigh when Sean McVeigh was the h head. It was
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: one of the offensive coaches for the Florida Tuskers in
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the UFL. Yep, we're going back that way. Anyway, We've
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: got this great table of great time. Coult McCoy and
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: my wife hit it off in a way that at
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the end of it, I'm like, all right, chill out
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: with talking to Colt. I'm here, I'm your date, all right. Uh.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Just an awesome, awesome guy, his wife awesome. Another thing
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: that Aaron, you'll like about Colt, which I always appreciate.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Coulte McCoy, Uh, play for the Giants for one year,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: won a huge game for them in Seattle, and people
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: love it. Coulte McCoy chose to live with his I
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: want to say, four kids and his wife in Manhattan
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: when he played for the New York Giants during COVID,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: and I was like, why would you live in Manhattan.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: You've got to drive an hour out and two hours
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: back from the facility. Why would you live in Manhattan?
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: And Coulte McCoy's whole thing was like, well, I knew
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I wasn't living here the rest of my life. I
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: knew so once in a lifetime experience. I wanted my
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: daughters to experience living in New York City. So every
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: day they would go to the Central Park and they
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: can go in the rest of their life and say,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: like I had to, I had that experience. Life's all
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: about the experiences. And uh, that's four minutes on Coulte McCoy.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: But gosh, if you can't tell what a fan I
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: am of that guy and how happy I am for him.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: And again, this is on Tuesday, and recording this, everyone
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: is assuming Kyler is back on Monday and performance are not.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Don't be shocked if I see McCoy under center in
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Mexico City next Monday night. Now you're shoutout fourth down, Aaron,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: take us home. Wow, I I love that called McCoy story.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: You were right like them wanting to live in Manhattan. Um. So,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: my fourth down is Christian Watson, who his parents are
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: in the news to his mom coming out, she talks
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: so much about him, she defends him on social media
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: all the time. And Christian Watson the rookie receiver for
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Green Bay. First game, he has this big drop Rogers
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: throws in the ball. He doesn't get it. It's he's
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: wide open that that could be such a setback, and
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: instead this week he took over the game for them.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: UM four receptions on eight targets, but he had a
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: hundred seven yards and he had three touchdowns, including a
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: thirty nine yard and a fifty eight yarder. And in
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the fourth the Packers were down in the midst of
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: a five game losing streak. Watson was like the X
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: factor that helped force overtime and then they eventually win
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the game. Um, we had to talk about Tom Brady
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: like feeling rejuvenated, kind of felt like Aaron Rodgers, Like
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: you see Rogers flexing, Rogers flexing, he like found his
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: new ride receiver maybe here, and and you know, earlier
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: in the year Romeo Dobbs. Dubbs was like the big
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: rookie for them. But Watson is a pretty incredible athlete.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you something about that game, because he
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: dropped two balls early that he has the big touchdown
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: and then Rogers goes back to him again and he
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: drops it, and Greg Olsen's on the call and he's like, yeah,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: he wasn't looking in the right direction, and it's like, alright, dude,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: he had one. Yeah, Rogers has lost faith. And then
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Rodgers goes to him twice in the clutch and he
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: makes the plays and he was so fired up. You're right.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: We had him on Good Morning Football last year before
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the draft. He's a tall drink of water. This dude
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: is like six five, skinny, play with Trey Lanson College.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: So a lot of questions were, like, you know, we
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: thought Watson would go third, fourth round, he goes early, second,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't going well the first few weeks. To
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: your point, and to see the emotion, to see it
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: like if Rogers finally trusts one of these young guys,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: that might be all it takes for that offense to
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: change and gosh, what a win for them. Um, great
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: fourth down? Are we ready for our guest? I think
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: we are. Yeah, who do we have today? I am
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: so excited for this. He is the thirty seven year
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: old first year general manager of one of the most
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: historic franchises in all of football, the Chicago Bears. I'm
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: so fired up to bring on their GM, Mr Ryan Poles. Now,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: he's a thirty seven year old first year general manager
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: in the NFL and he's having an outstanding first campaign
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: over there in Chicago as the general manager of one
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of the most historic and legendary franchises in our fine league.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: It's the Chicago Bears general manager and a man that
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: I've been wanting to get on the podcast since we
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: started this thing, Mr Ryan Poles. Ryan, what's up man?
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: What's going on? How you doing? I'm doing great. As
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: we're doing this, you are currently in your office at
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: like Hollis Hall. Uh, we're now eleven weeks into the season.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Does it Does it ever sink in that? Oh? My,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: I am the general manager of the Bears. Yeah, it's
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: it's it's awesome. It's a dream come true with just
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: working for a franchise like this with you know, a
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: lot of history. It means a lot. It's all over
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: the walls, it's in the entrance like we talked about
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: back in the combine, So you're reminded often and uh,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: you know you feel the way to that too, which
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: is which is good. I love it. I love the challenge. Yeah,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and I love the fact that you're in there and
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: it's it's a Tuesday and you're like, Okay, here's what
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: we got now, but we're building. We're building. When you
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: walked into those interviews, what was your selling point to saying, Hey,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: i might be in my thirties, but I've been around
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: some really good builders. And I've got some really forward
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: thinking ideas I want to bring to this franchise. What
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: did you tell the McCaskey family, and really what was
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: your selling point saying, hey, take a shot on me. Yeah, listen,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I've been fortunate, right, I've been. I've worked from some
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: really good general managers and coaches, and I think the
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: key part was I've been through this journey from the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: ground floor all the way to the top, um and
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: those challenges along the way, and each organization is gonna
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: be a little bit different. You can get different wrinkles, um,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: but you've learned to adapt and adjust. You've learned what
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: really good football players look like and how they can
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: help your team. You've learned, you know, different schemes and
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: making sure that their scheme fits. You've had some really
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: good cultures. You know, some really good locker rooms, so
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: you know what kind of guys you need to add
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: to that room to be a championship level team. So
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: you know, I was up for the challenge, and I
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: think they knew that because I've been through it in
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: my past and I've been able to learn a lot
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: so I can apply this, you know, to this job
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and get this organization backward belongs. Well, let's go through
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: the resume. I think everyone loves like, Okay, so how
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: do I become an NFL general manager? It doesn't happen overnight. Um,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: let's go back to Boston College where who was your
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: quarterback when you played offensive line for the for the
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Boston College. Yeah, Mattie Eyce, Matt Ryan. You were Matt
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Ryan's offensive lineman in college you play. Did did you
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: have dreams of being a player or was it always hey,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I'm either go into coaching or being in the front
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: office back then? Yeah, No, it was it was definitely
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: being a player. That was the first and foremost. Um
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: had a pretty good career, you know. Unfortunately, I think
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: it was like late October my senior year, fifth year,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: senior year, we go to Notre Dame and I ruptured
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: my achilles. So at that moment when I found out,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, you know, this is gonna be a
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: tough journey. So, you know, I think it's it's just
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: how I've been ray is that I rehab that worked
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: my butt off to get back, which brought me to
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Hollis Hall, you know, to have an opportunity to be
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: an undrafted free agent trying to make the team. Unfortunately,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: you know that didn't work out. Wasn't talented enough, really
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: wasn't in the right shape. You're just coming off that injury.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: But there's cut of years this since j Cutler years,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: like who was like, what was the team? Then? Yeah
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: it was Jay and they were like rotating with Rex too, Okay, yeah,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Devin Hester just seeing him run around with old and crowds,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: just how he held down the old line room and
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Lance Briggs and and Ur Lockers. So there's some special
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: special guys on this team. So you don't make the
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: team and then what Yeah, So I was trying to
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: get my mind right. I had a buddy from BC
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: who was like, I know where you're at mentally. You
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: want to go to Alaska with me? So we jump
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: on a plane and go to Alaska. Really oh yeah, Anchorage,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: but listen to this. We go to Anchorage, then we
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: go to Kodiak Island. Then we take a boat to
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: another island and we helped one of his dad's friends
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: shut down this camp fishing camp before the winter comes.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: So really cool time. Something like if you get a
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: chance to do something like that, I've never heard just
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: piece and quiet like that in my entire life. So
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: we fished. It was good just to get some how.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: I was about ten days, ten days of just serenity,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: no football, no life like, no career. Just I mean,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: first of all, I live in New York City. There's
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: no chance we're going to Anchor to Alaska unless my
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: career goes sideways and there's there's some job at local news.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: But I would say that you get there and like
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: you had that piece of mind moment, you had, that
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: moment is in yeah, yeah, great moment collecting myself for
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: you know that next phase, um, and this was I
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: get back. I'm living with my wife Oupen at the
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: time of my girlfriend in Vermont. I get a call
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: from Boston College is, hey, do you want to come
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: and be a graduate assistant? And really that was the
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: first step that that set me up because you go
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: from playing ball and going to school. You've never had
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: that in office field before. So I don't I'm stabling
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: papers all messed up and like just so tighten that up.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Just the administrative thing, like how do you work in
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: the office with others? How do you you know, work
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: in the computers and things that you just don't get
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: a chance to when you're playing. So UM, I was
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: able to meet some really cool scouts that came through
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Scott Prioli, John Dorsey. Uh, and that kicked off the
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: idea I want to get into scouting, so semi resume out,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: had a bunch of interviews, and that brings me to
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Kansas City, which was what thirteen fourteen years ago, and
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: that kind of started my journey in the scouting Yeah.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: And well fast forward through those Kansas City years. So
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: many great NFL executives you mentioned p Reli of course,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: but Dorsey and then you get to work you know,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: alongside and and under Brett Veach and that front office
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: is often looked at as like the gold standard of
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: teaching you from the ground up and giving you other opportunities.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: What were those opportunities within that chief's organization over the
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: course of fourteen years, different hats that you wore. Yeah,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: and if my career was just you know, open puzzle
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: that still needed pieces dropped in, those three guys really
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: um gave me some really big parts to to build
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: who I am. And Scott with just the detail how
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: to run the office, how to lead UM with Dorsey
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: just an unbelievable. Like talent evaluator, how do you evaluate talent?
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: How do you run meetings? We run meetings just like
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: we did there, which goes all the way back to
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Round Wolf, which I put probably should say too loud
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: around here with the Green Bay connection, but um, it's
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: it's a really good way to scout when you build
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: a draft board as well as free agency and then
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: reach like you know, each it's just his brains always going.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: It's it's who doesn't stop. No, it's four steps down
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: the road because you have to be on your toes
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: and anticipate because whatever you think is gonna happen, it's
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: gonna change and you've got to be able to adapt
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: and adjust and kind of have those next plans put
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: to put in place. So really just to have those
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: three kind of build me up and build that foundation.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Who was a big, big part of me being here today.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: You know, we had Joe Shane on a couple of
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: weeks ago and I said, when you were scouting Josh Allen,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: what did you see? And he told a great story.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: They played Nebraska and Allen threw four interceptions and Joe
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: gave him an a plus grade because he's like I
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: just said that, I've never seen in somewhere with a
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: cannon like that. So you're in Kansas City, it's sixteen,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: it's seventeen, you get this thing that, Hey there's this
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: kid from Texas Tech. Um, what was your initial impressions
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: of Patrick Mahomes. What were the conversations had there in
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Kansas City? And how did you guys keep that quiet?
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Because I don't think anyone in the league knew that
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: you guys were hot on him. Yeah, no, you know,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: And I give I give each a lot of credit
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: because he was excited about that guy for a long time. UM.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: But I'll never forget sitting in the room and with
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Coach Reid and breaking down that tape and all of
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: the guys that year. And although the stat sheet said
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: one thing with interceptions like Josh Allen, what you saw
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: was a guy out there just slinging it and making
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: it work with what he had. UM. And there was
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of There was accuracy, there was arms strength,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: there was ability to add live and just make it
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: happen when it really wasn't there. UM. So to see
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: that from that moment and see a play out to
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: to who he is today, it's incredible, but that journey
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: was awesome to uh, to go through with those guys.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: When Mahomes first got there, obviously, Alex Smith was the
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: quarterback and we've talked about it a lot on our
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: show Good Morning Football. So we had Paul Rudd on
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: earlier season. He was like, Alex Smith deserves so much
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: credit for just being secure enough and who Alex Smith
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: is and to be willing to show Patrick the rope.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: But that first year, when he only played in that
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: final game against Denver, did you have an idea like, Oh,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: this dude's gonna take the league by storm next season? Yeah,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: you had an idea. I mean there was I have
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: clips still on my phone today from like a little
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: kid like at practice, like did he just do that?
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: And you're like you take a clip of it and
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: like send it to one of the scouts on the road, like, Bro,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: this dude's a real deal. Um. So yeah, you you
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: had a sense of it. But are exactly right what
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: Alex brought to him? You know? I was thought they
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: were kind of opposites, Like what Pat didn't have in
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: his game, Alex was really good at and he had
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: to show him how to manage the game, when they
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: take chances. When not to take chances, Um, when it's
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: okay to check it down, you know, and play the
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: safer route so you can just continue to move the
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: chains and protect the ball. So um. And then obviously
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: being a pro, that's one thing. You know, we have
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: a really young team here and you're learning to be
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: a pros hard. You gotta take care of your body,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: you gotta take care of your mind. You have to
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: eliminate distractions. Um, you gotta be a master of your craft,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: you know, at this level if you want to be good.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: So Um, Alex was definitely able to show Pat that,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: which was really cool. It's cool. And then you get
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: an interview with Carolina last offseason. You prepared for that,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: you don't get that job. Walking out of that situation,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: did you feel like, Okay, the next interview, the next opportunity,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna crush this night. Yeah. Yeah, clearly a confidence builder.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: You walk into a situation that you don't You're unaware
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: of what it's gonna look like. Um, there's a little
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: you know, question like am I ready for this? Like
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: am I really ready for this? And you go through
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: the steps, you go online and do your your your
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: Skype or your zoom interview and like, damn right, I
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: can do this. And then in person, Yeah, you go
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: in person and share your philosophy and how you want
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: to do things and what you believe in. And again
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: you walk out the room like, if I don't get this,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: the next opportunity, you know, I'm gonna be ready and
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a really good job too. So definitely
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: was a great experience. Get my foot in the door
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: for that first interview. Um, gave me a ton of confidence,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: gave me some directions. I think the big thing is
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: like where are my holes at? Like what do I
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: what was that not comfortable answering? All right? Now? How
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: do I go fill that? Right? How do I develop
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: myself in some spaces that I'm not good enough right now?
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: And you do that and you fill up on it,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: and you educate yourself and you meet people that are
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: really good at it, and you just try to build
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: as a person. Then you know, that's something I tell
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: my staff here. I want them to continually develop their
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: weaknesses so as a group will get stronger and stronger.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: You know, It's funny because a lot of times there's
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: a young coach and there's almost like a rolling of
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: the eyes. Like I remember when McVeigh was thirty, it
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: was almost like I would get text from thirty one
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: of their coaches being like, who is this hot shot?
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Looking for him to fail? I'll think it's not the
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: same with you, Like I feel like maybe it's the
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: fifteen years or the ten thousand hours you've put in,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: but you are universally respected and really well liked by
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: these other general managers. And one of the things I
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: think that was really respected was you came in with
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Chicago and you guys had to hire a new head coach.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: And tell me if I'm wrong here. You didn't have
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: much history with Mattieberflus. You didn't just hire a buddy.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: You didn't just go the safe route. You guys had
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: a real search and you hired the head coach and
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: you thought was best for the Chicago Bears franchise, not
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: who's gonna make it most comfortable for you. Correct. I
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: think the other thing too, was I've learned quickly it's
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: you have to do this. You know, you gotta have
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: a criteria. It's for the head coach, if it's for
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: a player or even decision making, and you gotta believe
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: in that and you gotta act on it. You know,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of times there the noise from the outside
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: is telling you to do one thing or the other
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: or what's popular. You gotta do what's right for the
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: football team and what's right and what matches the philosophy
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: that you think is gonna win, because at the end
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: of the day, you know, sometimes decisions look great the
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: day that you make them, but it's really how how
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: does the playout. That's how you're gonna be judged at
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: the end of the day. So um, I love my
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: interview with Matt. You know, the leadership. I talked about
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: it all the time because I have to the emotional
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: intelligence to be demanding but also love guys up to
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: let them know that you're demanding for a reason. What
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: does that mean? I think that's such an important thing,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: especially in two in the way that we're mental health
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: plays a bigger role, I think in the conversation. And
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: we know when we grew up, coaches were not as
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: warm and fuzzy as these coaches. But Matt's not a
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: warm and fuzzy guy. But you also see that the
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: players love playing for him. Maybe the compassion is what
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: is what it's there and just say what does that
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: mean to you? And I think as we move along here,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: the athletes coming in from college, they think a little
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: bit differently than what we thought. I just when I
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: was coaching you, you did what you were told to do.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: You didn't ask why, But now you have to give
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: the why. You know, why are we doing what we're doing.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Why are we practicing so hard? Why are we practicing
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: lighter um? Why are we fanatical about, you know, punching
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: the ball out and things like that. Well, we're gonna
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: give statistics about turnovers and how they leave the win wins.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: So he does a really nice job laying everything out,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: but what we want to be, what our standards are,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: and then the why behind it and how it's gonna
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: make us successful not only now but but down the road.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: So his ability to tie that together is it's outstanding.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: It's genuine. I love our team meetings, every team meeting
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: is I wish I could take all of them because
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: he's a special guy in front of the room and
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: it's authentic, it's real, it's not fluffy. You walk out
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: with direction. Everyone has a direction when they leave and
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: they feel good about it. It's funny because your team
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: is not necessarily the top of the standings. But I
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: think there's a universal, like good vibe around the Bears
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: right now, and that includes a very critical fan base
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: that has been through a lot of different tenures and
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: a lot of different down years. But like even the
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: loss to Detroit and we could go through all that
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: that that we're coming out of, it's like, yeah, we lost,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: but gosh, that was there were some moments and I
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: think I would be doing the fans are great disservice
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: if I didn't just ask the leaps and bounds that
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Justin Fields has taken over the last few weeks. I'd
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: say coming out of the bye week and that New
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: England game was really the kickstart. UM. I know you're
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: the general manager. You might not want to speak necessarily
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: too much in the weeds, but you gotta admit this
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: has been a sensation the last month of football. Yeah,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: I think you got a compartmentalize and things like obviously,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: like if you talk to me if this was yesterday,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been very like fun to talk to. UM.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: We expect to win games. That's our standard. UM So
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: just kind of being Okay, we're losing. It is really
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: not gonna fly around here. But you do have to
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: take the time to look at the little victories that
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: you do have. UM, and Justin's one of them. Justin's
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: playing really, really well. I give credit to him buying in.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: I mean that this dude works his butt off. He
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: puts time into it. So to get results, um, you know,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: on individual performance and as an offense, UM means a
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: lot to me, to him, to our coaching staff. I
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: think a lot of credit needs to go to get
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: to as well. I mean, he adjusted, he adapted to
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: strengths and weaknesses, and he is able to put together
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: some really good performance by our you know, by our offense,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: and we're continue to get better and we're learning about
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: what we have and the guys that we have. And
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: we have a young team, so it's exciting to see
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the direction that we're going. Your first big decision during
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the season, of course, was the ro Quan trade. It's
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: very well documented, You've spoken on it. It was one
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: of those deals where, from what I'm putting words in
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: your mouth, you love the player, but there was an
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: impast with with what was going to happen, so let's
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: get some picks in exchange. When you make that decision,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: is that one of those where you say, I gotta
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: block out the noise with the fans like you were saying,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: and just do what's best for this team, and I
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: wish the player the best moving forward. Yeah, And that's
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: that's the tough part about this this position is you
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: constantly have to balance today versus down the rope um
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: and a lot of times those decisions are gray. You know,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: they're there, it's not black and white. It's not easy. So, um,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: we really took a lot of time with that. We
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: just felt like it was in the best interest too
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: to do something now that could benefit our team moving forward. Um.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: It is really really difficult, you know, to move a
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: guy that's a leader in your locker room. Um. But again,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: that's why I have this job, as I gonna make
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: hard decisions that I hope we'll benefit our team for
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: a long time. So we did that and and you
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: know that helped us acquire Chase, you know, Claypool, who's
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: coming along as learning offense right now, and um, again
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: that should enhance our offense, enhance you know, our quarterback
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: and get our team better as we move along. You're
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: the youngest GM in the league. Um, A lot of
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: people look at you and say, hey, that's the path forward.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: There there there is a place for me in the
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: NFL on that level, on that executive level. That's a
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: that's a that's a heavy burden for you to say, Hey,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna, you know, start setting the path for a
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: lot of people who are younger than me and saying
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: this is this is possible. You can do this. You
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: can be an NFL general manager. If you've got an elevator,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: say it at the combine with a twenty five year
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: old man or woman who looks at you and says, Ryan,
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: what would be your piece of advice if I want
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: to get into this profession and I want to someday
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: be where you're at, what would be your learning lesson
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: and what would be your you know, your elevator speech
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: for them? Yeah, I think it would be you gotta
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: send your foundation up um to me. If I didn't
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: have the experience I had as a graduate assistant at
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: at Boston College, I wouldn't be here today. If I
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: didn't have to grind and do hard things as a
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: scouting assistant. I mean running, get coffee, airport runs. I'm
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: learning how to multitask because you had It's crazy. I
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: think back to it, which is nuts because I I
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: had to hire my first scouting assistance and I had
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: this like flashback of when I was hired in Kansas City.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: But you know, I want them to be able to multitask.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: You know, you have a lot of things you have
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: to do, but you also have these responsibilities like airport
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: runs and waiting at a doctor's office for physical to end.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: And you learned quickly, well, if I'm sitting at the
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: doctor's office, I probably bring my computer and I can
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: knock out, yeah, three tasks while I'm there. And you
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: learn a multitask and juggle different things and then you
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: fast forward to where I am today. It is I
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: mean it is you juggle, man, You juggle a lot
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: and um, but you gotta do it with detail. You
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: gotta do you know, I gotta be dependable to everyone
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: else so they can trust you and I can trust
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: everyone else. So UM, set that foundation up and don't
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: be afraid to do hard things that really gives you
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: those galluses so that you can withstand you can take
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: on more as you grew up and go through the ranks. So, um,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: that's kind of the pitch I would give to set
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: that foundation for sure. I got a couple more of
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: them and let you go. Sunday, I'm watching the game
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: and there's an undrafted free agent at a Wisconsin Jack Sandborn,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: a linebacker just all over the field, wearing fifty seven.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: I'm looking up on my media guide, I'm like, where
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: did he go? Oh, Wisconsin? I remember that name. You
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: see a guy like that, an undrafted guy is do
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: you get more of a reward at a scene that
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: happened on the field or when it's the first round
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: pick having success or is it all equal to you?
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: At this point as a general manager, I feel like
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: there's gotta be some great pride in being like, yeah,
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: we got that guy to sign here, we liked him
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: out of college, and he's making making an impact as
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: a rookie. That's pretty cool to see. Yeah, I think,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: you know, as undrafted free agent, to see those guys
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: kind of rise up and get opportunities and take advantage
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: of him is one of the more exciting things that
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: we could do as a general manager, because as you
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: go through the draft and you're evaluating, you're really honing
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: in on just a couple of traits. You know, I
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: knew Sandborne's variant. Thank you for player. UM. So you
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: you bring in your building and you watch him develop
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: and then he gets an opportunity. That's why, like over
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: the last few years, I've learned not to freak out
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: from you know, injuries or trades because sometimes behind the
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: door there's some really cool things that happened and guys developed.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: UM and Jack's on his way, man, I mean that
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: last game he was everywhere. UM, two sacks, double digit tackles,
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: should have had an interception, should have had to pick.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: We will talk about it. The league is very sensitive,
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: UM kidding area. UM. So I love seeing you know,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: those things and those guys stand out. So I'm pumped
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: for him and the direction he's going. Alright, Historically you
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: mentioned my homes when you were on the road doing
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: the college things, like we talked about this we're talking
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: about with Shane and I always talked about with these gm. Um.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: Sometimes there's that player that like your eyes linked up with,
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: and then the draft comes around and you're sitting in
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: John Dorrise's office or you're sitting in Brett Beach's office
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: and it's fourth fifth round talk and it's like, this
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: is my guy. I'm gonna bang the table. Was there
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: a bang the table guy for you in Kansas City
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: that you go back on You're like, hey, that was
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: my dude, And you know, whether he panned out or not,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: there was a guy that you really were like, I'm
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: gonna be as biggest advocate in the room. UM. I
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: would say, it's hard to like put your finger out
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: like one player over the years. But I think one
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: of the things that I take a lot of problem
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: being a part of UM was going from losing the
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Super Bowl against Tampa UM and PA getting pressured all
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the time, and then sitting down as a group with
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: Beach and Borganzi and tell Us and Bradway and being like,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: we can never let that happen again. And and then
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: going to work and coming away with Tray Smith, Creed Humphrey,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: Joe Tuney, Orlando Brown, you know, and flipping that thing
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: quick in all those overnight like literally one offseason, you
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: guys went from the you know, this is the Achilles
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: hild the team to be in one of the strengths
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: of a team, right and I think we really leaned down,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: like what do we stand for? Like what do you
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: want that group to look and feel? Like? Those dudes
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: are smart, tough, and dependable. Um So, really just taking
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: your values using free agency, trade and draft in the
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: beginning and the end and kind of putting that thing
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: together was a huge accomplishment that I thought was like
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: the bowl on the on the top for me leaving.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: Not only that, I my last game was that Buffalo game,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: but like, yeah, that that was really cool walking away
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: from at least being a part of that. You're beloved
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: in Kansas City. I mean I talked to all those
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: guys and it's still like, you know, and now Chicago
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: is starting to get to know why you are the
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: badass that you are and you make decisions and you
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: go for it and you go with your gut, but
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: you do it backed on research. As we wrap this,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: if you have one message to Bears fans as we
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: head towards the final months of the season and then
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: of course your first official big off season where it's Hey,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: I'm running point on everything and it's my guys in
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: those decisions of power, decision and all that. What would
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: be your message to the fan base who is just
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: thirsting for Bears football to be on top once again. Yeah, well,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: first I gotta just correct you a little bit. I'll
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: say this. You know, the biggest part of me is
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: it's not just about me. It's it's my crew. I
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: got an unbelievable group of scout who's the crew, Let's
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: shout him out? Who we got you? I don't even
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: know you're I don't even know who you brought with me?
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: And Cunningham who was it? The Giants? Right, Eagles with
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Philly in Baltimore. Um, Jeff King who's been here, he
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: was a player, Love Jeff Trey Cozy, Carolina Panther, Jeff King, Yeah, yeah, okay,
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: Tray cozil Um. Those are kind of my my top
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: cabinet there. Matt Finstein who worked in the league. He
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: house with Cap and at cliff Stein. So that's kind
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: of my main cabinet, and a bunch of really good
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: scouts under them as well. So it's not just about me,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: but in terms of this program getting to where it
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: needs to go. Listen, there's a lot of really cool
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: stuff going on. I'm we're all about winning here, So
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: it stinks not having more wins and we've been close,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: but there's progress being made. We're bringing the right people
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: or quarterbacks developing. Um. So I'm excited and just know
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: that this group, like I said, our coaching staff, our
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: front office were relentless in acquiring talent and development players.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: So it's gonna come together. I'm excited about it. You know,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: the future is right and we're gonna get this this
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: place cranked up. So you know what I liked. I
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: like seeing r Lacker involved. I like seeing Lance Briggs
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: get it like a little bit of a I know
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: Peanuts gonna be like that's my heir, and I know
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: it's I know there was the eighty five Bears, and
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: I almost always say this on Good Morning Football. I
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: like Bears fans deserve like you know, because eighty five
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: is a long time ago now, right, And I have
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: a certain sentiment for that oh six super Bowl team.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: And I love Erlacker and Tillman they both worked with
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: me at Fox and love those guys. And I actually
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: got to know Cutty pretty well and he's a cool
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: dude also. But like there's like a youthful exuber into
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: this Bears team, and I think it starts with you
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: and Matt obviously, but from the quarterback on down, Dude,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: I think the Bears are in good hands. And I
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: can't thank you enough for joining us during the season
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: and and doing our podcast to kind of give the
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: the blueprint on how the Monsters of the Midway return
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: to dominance in the NFC North. It feels like you
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: was just yesterday. We're at Mikado Sushi. Huh do you
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: want to do? We want to talk about it because
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: this is where it all begins to get to the
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: color episode. Okay, So at the combine I mentioned this.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: I got breakfast with Joe Shane a few years ago
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: at Patache, which is like the breakfast spot. But we
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: had a table and I don't know if we want
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: to go the names, but each was there a bunch
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: of the Chiefs guys, and you and I hit it off.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: And it was at a sushi restaurant in Indianapolis, Mikado,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: a landlocked city that I don't think has probably the
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: best access to good sushi. Yet I was stuffing my
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: face with that yellowtail. Bro. You were probably a little
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: disgusted with how I went. I went to town Um,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: but you and I hit it off and I'm so
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: proud of you. You're doing all this stuff now and
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: Chicago isn't in any better hands and than having you
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: at the grips, no problem. Awesome, Ryan Paul's the season
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: with Peter Schreeger. Thank you for joining us. Bro. How
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: good is Ryan Poles? Aaron? I mean that was that.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Dude is the real deal. When you listen to him talk,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: do you not feel like the Chicago Bears are in
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: great hands? It makes me more excited for them. Yeah,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: it's been great watching them and then just hearing him
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: talk about the vibe with the whole team and the
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: coaching staff. I love it. He's learned from some of
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: the greats, um and he's been made smarter by some
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: of the greats. And that's a great segue to our
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: next segment. We do a segment on this podcast called
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: make Me Smarter. I have amazing access to some of
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: the smartest minds in football, and a lot of them
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: work for the NFL Network research team. One of them
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: is the great Taylor Kyle's I get Taylor's emails a lot,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: and I use a lot of that content on air,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: and it helps make me sounds smarter on television. But
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: It also helps describe the game in a different way
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: than just listing stats their historic perspective. There's insight and
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of opinion as well. With no further ado.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: This week's guest on Make Me Smarter, Mr Taylor Kyle's Taylor,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: what's up man, I'm excited to be here. Peter, thank
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: you so much for having me. Man, you are great
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: at what you do and we've got to give you
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: some love on the season with Peter Schrager. And I
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: asked this to to you and to to Aaron when
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: I started this week's prep, I'm like, all right, now
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: there's there's unit. It seems more like unanimous that Justin
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: Jefferson is that dude. He's the number one receiver. And
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: then we go through all these historical things and it's like,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: all right, no one has done more in his first
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: three years and this guy, no one has had, you know,
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: a greater first two years. Make me smarter? Just how
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: historically amazing is Justin Jefferson two and a half seasons
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: into his NFL career. Alright, So if we're going by
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: the numbers, all right, there's a lot of really big
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: names that he's on list with. So you want to
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: look at most receiving yards per game all time, you
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: got Justin Jeffery Sen above Julio Calvin, Jamaar Chase another
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: young stud obviously l s U teammate, and Antonio Brown.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Then you get most receiving yards in his first forty
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: two games. Only person who's had more the great Odell
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: Beckham Jr. And then Justin Jefferson is right behind him.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: And then most games with the hundred plus yards and
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: a player's first three seasons since he got Justin Jefferson
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: above Randy Moss oh b J again, and then there's
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: four guys tied right behind them. So I mean he's, uh,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: he's doing pretty well, I'd say in his first few seasons. Yeah.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: And then Sunday's performance is like National TV. If you
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: hadn't watched him do all this work on these vikings
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: teams that weren't playoff squads the last two years, you're
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: now seeing him do it on an eight in one
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: squad putting up these numbers. What do you see personally
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: as a student of the game, what do you see
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: that makes him so special? And what are his skills?
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: Because he's not he's not Calvin Johnson. He's not six
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: ft six and he's not Randy Moss running a four
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: to forty out there, right. So really, what it is
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: is it's impossible to get this guy at the line
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: of scrimmage. The only time you're really going to be
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: competitive with Justin Jefferson is if you get your hands
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: on him, because if you're an off coverage when he
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: gets to the top of the route, he can shake you.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: He's really good at getting in defender's blind spots, which
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: basically means they can't see him, uh, and he gets
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: right behind him and he's able to break off routes.
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: He's great at manipulating defenders. But one thing you saw
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: a lot in the Bills game, and this is a
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: tendency I've noticed, is in critical situation, so third down,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: you know, two minute drills, when you really need to play,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: what they'll do a lot of the times is they'll
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: put him outside the numbers. Now usually he's inside, so
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: you don't know if he's gonna break insider out, which
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: is what makes him so dangerous because he's such a
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: great route runner. But at the same time, he's also physical,
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: and like you said, he's he's that guy. He's him,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: so what you really need as we saw making that
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: crazy catch that, in my humble opinion, was even greater
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: than the Odell a few years back. I agree fourth
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: and eighteen the context matters. O'Dell's was on a worthless
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: Sunday night game for a bad Giants team that got
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: on out by the Cowboys. And then and then you got, uh,
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: you got Justin Jefferson doing it on fourth and eighteen,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: and it got to have a situation. And what they
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: did in a lot of those third downs they put
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: him outside so they had true one on one matchups
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: because the Bills since the Chiefs game, they went from
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: being a zone heavy team where they just wanted everybody
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: to throw underneath and they come up and rally and tackles,
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: playing a lot more man. So the Vikings knew that,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: so they put Jefferson all the way outside, so we
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: had that one on one matchup. Obviously, the Bills are
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: struggling in their secondary with injuries, and they were just like, hey,
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: win on go balls, win on you know, uh deep
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: in cuts, and he was doing it. He was roasting
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: those guys. And then sometimes they put him in the slot,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: have him run a corner route. And that's a scary
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: thing about Jefferson is he can run all these routes
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: down field and he can win. It doesn't matter if
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: you're right on his hip, doesn't matter if you're trailing
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: behind him. You make up. He's extremely competitive and he
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: can catch anything on top of being able to separate
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: from anybody. It was. It was an amazing performance, it
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: really was. And you know, you go through that draft
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: class of all those Vindory receivers that were taken and
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: in the order that they were taken, and I thought,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: for you know, for the next decade we debate like
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: Ceedee Lamb or Brandon aiyuk or, and it's like, hey,
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: I'll due respect to Jerry Judy and the rest, Like
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: it's justin Jefferson. Then it's a huge gap to even
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: Ceedee Lamb as the next guy. Absolutely, And it's it's
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: the big moments, you know, it's all right, he got
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: all these great receivers. Of course, and obviously team matters
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: being in position to actually be able to capitalize and
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: make those plays. But I mean it's it's the Buffalo Bills.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: You've got the game of the year. Obviously, hindsight is
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: but uh, it was a competitive game and in all
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: the clutch moments, justin Jefferson making all these plays, and
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: he's already putting together a resume obviously beyond the numbers.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: If you just look at the guy, it's hard to
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: say that anybody, especially in that talented draft class, is
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: really doing more than he is. Taylor, you made me smarter,
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: You made us all smarter. Where can we find you
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: on Twitter if we want to follow your stuff and
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: get all your information? Yep? So I am at t
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: K y l E S thirty nine on Twitter? Thirty
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: nine because of Stephen Jackson. Thirty nine. Why what's thirty nine?
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: Danny Woodhead? Actually Danny Woodhead fan? Let's go? Dron stated,
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: Did I say it right? I don't even know I
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: what made you a Woodhead fan? Because that guy was
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: a jet, a charger and was a raven. It was
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: just like the ultimate, Like we need six yards on
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: a screen fast, he's getting a seven. Well, I mean
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: he exploded once he left the jet, So I mean
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: that kind of made it one of my favorites immediately.
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: But actually did he would start really watching football until
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: about and that was when wood Ed was having his
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: breakout year. I remember just anytime I watched the Pats game,
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: you got this guy who's the shortest one on the
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: field making these crazy plays, just juiced up, so hard
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: guy not to fall in love with. And yeah, I've
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: been a Danny Woodhead fan ever since. I was sad
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: to see him go, but I cheered for him even
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: when he was on the Ravens and the Chargers. We
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: gotta we gotta tag Danny Woodhead to this clip. That's incredible. Other,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: thank you, Bro, so good as always, and we'll bring
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: you on next week or the week after that and
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: we'll get a little smarter from you. Awesome brother, Thank
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: you so much. Taylor was awesome and Justin Jefferson is too.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: And now to the final part of our podcast. One
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: of the most popular things that we're doing to end
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: each one of these podcast is I'm bringing on a
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: friend of mine, either someone i've worked with professionally or
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: someone I grew up with who's got a take and
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: it's a take on anything. And so far we've talked
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: about everything from Game of Thrones to to whether or
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: not it's morally right to give up baseball. Back to
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: Aaron Judge, who happens to be a five million dollar
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: man and doesn't necessarily need the money anyway. Takes are
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: what we're here for, and I'm bringing out one of
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: my best friends from childhood, my buddy Deetro, who was
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: made for this podcast because Detro texted me with a
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: little preview of something and he had to take around
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: it that it might be the best of something that
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: we've ever seen. Deetro. Welcome to the season with Peter Srigger.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: How are we doing this morning? Peter? How are you, sir?
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: It's great to see you, great great to hear from you.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: It's amazing to hear. And we've known each other more
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: than thirty years. You're one of my dearest friends. We've
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: grown up together. And when you come in with a take,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: you come in piping hot, and you come in well researched,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: and you very often come with a ton of knowledge.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna see the floor to you, Detro, what's
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: your piping hot take for this week? Here's what I
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: want your listeners to understand that there are fifty two
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: weeks in a year. Everybody knows that, and most of
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: the time, when a great week happens, you tend to
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: look back on that week and say, God, I wish
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: I would have known that that was gonna be a
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: great week. I would have engraced everything a little bit
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: more and really sort of sunk my teeth into it
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: a little bit more, because that turns out to be
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: a great week. What I want everyone to know is
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: that starting this Saturday, November nineteen, running through the following
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: Sunday November, that is your absolute prime, pinnacle week of
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: two thousand and twenty two. And I want everybody to
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: be prepared for it now because you need to embrace
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: it now. Don't look back on it and say I
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: wish you What do you mean? What do you mean?
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: Just a great week explained? Let me walk in through
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: this week. So, first of all, you go into this
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: weekend Saturday, you get a full slate of college football games. Now,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna sit there and try to convince you
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: that is the best slate of college football games. I
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: get you don't want to watch Alabama, Dustin pay don't
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: watch it. But you get a full Saturday of college
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: football and there aren't many of those left. So enjoy,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: embrace it, have a fantastic Saturday. But then we go
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: into this Sunday and you get your full NFL games
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: right there. And if you're starting off, there's a couple
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: of intriguing games on Sunday. You gonna want to You're
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: gonna want to tune into. You got Bills hosting Browns.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: There was a twenty year spending between our lives, you
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: know where Bills hosting Browns. I wouldn't watch a single
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: snap of that game. But now, coming off that ridiculous
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: Bills lost this past Sunday, you're gearing up for Bills
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: Browns because you want to know are the Bills for real?
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: Are they're gonna bounce back? Because are they this juggernaut
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: sixteen and one team that they looked like, or are
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: they gonna try to sort of, you know, back in
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: its week into the playoffs, whatever it might be. You've
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: got Jets going up to New England for a certain
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: section of the country. That's a fantastic game to watch
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: this Sunday. A lot of playoff amplications on that one.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: Me and myself, I'm a giant fan. I know you
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: don't want to watch Giants, Lions don't watch it. I
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: get it, But then you get you four thirty matchups
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna take you out to Minnesota Ultimate promo. Look,
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: this is this is part of the week. You better
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: get ready to embrace it because you've got Vikings Cowboys
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: this Sunday. Somehow this game ends up on CBS. It
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: used to be somewhere all in Madden or prostam. All right,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: I'll take Nance and Romo. It is what it is.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: But that game has enormous playoff complications stretching all the
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: way to who's gonna be the number one seed coming
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: out of the NFC. So that's a fantastic game right there.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: That gets you through Saturday and Sunday and now you
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Week is starting. You get Monday. For those of
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: you that work in office, everyone's starting to mentally check
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: out right around. That's just how it goes. You're out
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: of office, message starting to come back to you. Nobody's
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: planning big conference calls and big meetings in the conference
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: room Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday next week. So you're you're rolling,
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: You're all free. But from a from a sports standpoint,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: Monday afternoon, writing is starting to mentally check out. You
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: get the Men's World Cup, Men's World Cup, you get
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: Usa playing Whales. I know Wales that may sound may
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: not matchup. And you only get the World Cup every
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: one four years, so it's not the most populous sport
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: here in the Cup. But Men's World Cup you're in.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: And if you don't think Wales is a big deal,
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: well the former Prince of Wales is now the King
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: of England, so wills it pretty big? Then you're home
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: through Tuesday and Wednesday next week, which if you again,
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: if you're working for a company in an office setting,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: you you have zero meetings, zero conference balls. Everybody is
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: on cruise control, heading out, heading out the office. Companies
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: are closing early on Wednesday. If you're a teacher, you're
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: not starting any new planned lessons on Tuesday or Wednesday
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: next week. You're you're making macaroni necklaces in the classroom.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: You're putting the week on a knee, and that that
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: that that's just how it goes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: next week from a professional standpoint. But then you get
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: to Thursday, then you actually get to Thanksgiving. I'm not
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: gonna sit here and do some sort of buzz feed
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: list of top ten side dishes anything like that. You
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: don't need to hear that from me. I think we
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: all generally agree the meal and the keating on Thursday
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: are phenomenal to the top two day of the year
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: to eat. We don't have to go down that road.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: But from a sports landscape, what are we have on Thanksgiving? First,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: you get your bills at Lions. That's an intriguing game.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: Obviously Bill spot it is to watch that one. But
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: you know the Lions always show up and fight on Thanksgiving.
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: What do we say? They're frisky and and they're extra
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: frisky on Thanksgiving. It's one of those games where it's
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: thirty five thirty one in the fourth quarter and I'm
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: texting you, would you look at these Lions? Where where
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: different Lions teams been all season long? They should be
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: seven and three right now. That's kind of how that
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: plays out. Then ready to getting ready to sit down
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: to eat on Thanksgiving? Where we're going. We're going down
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: to Dallas. You've got Cowboys, You've got Giants. That's an
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: old fashioned NFC each NFC East slug fest. That's a
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: fantastic game. That's a lot of fun. There's a few
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: segments of of the NFL fan base out there either
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: you're a diehard Cowboys fan. You're a pump for that game.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: You're a diehard Giant fan. You're a pump for that game,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: or your every other NFL fan out there that basically,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: let's just say you hate the Cowboys, you're pumped to
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: watch that game. You know, that's the type of game
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: that does a monster rating right there, Like it's a
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: playoff game. Love that you get into Thursday night. Now
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: the week is you know, you're still rolling tron in
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: this week. You get it the Thursday night, you've crushed
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: twenty calories. The fatigue it starts, You've watched seven hours
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: of football. You get ready to sit down. What do
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: you got? You got Tariko, you got NBC. You got
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: the Vikings hosting the Patriots, which is another intriguing that's
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. You gotta if you're able to
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: stay away to watch that whole game because you've been
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: up all day eating and drinking and you're exhausted. That's
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: a fun one big playoff implications. Then you go to
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: sleep that night, you wake up Friday, all right, you
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: may think Friday is a little slow. I'm gonna take
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: it easy today, ease into the day, after Thanksgiving. I
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: haven't checked my work email in three days. It's fine.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: And what do you have on Friday afternoon? At two o'clock?
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: You get team USA playing England in the Men's World Cup.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: Gets set get ready. It's been two forty six years
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: since we've declared independence. Here we go. That's a fan.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: You can't plan a better day after Thanksgiving than to
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: settle in for USA England in the Men's World Cup.
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: I couldn't name a single player on either team, and
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: I'm incredibly excited for that game. Can't wait for that one.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: Give me a little you ninety seconds? Your take, guys
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: for listeners detros the guy that will text me be like,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: have you seen blank on the History Channel? And so
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: give me a little US England, Give me a little
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: revolutionary war take ninety seconds? All right? Well, I mean, look,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: this game is not exactly being played in Yorktown. I
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: get it. My my take on it is that no
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: matter how much time passes from the eighteenth century when
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: that all happened, there's always gonna be in USA England
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: sort of first cousin the kind of battle and half hatred,
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: half love and can't wait to play you and can't
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: wait to beat you kind of thing that that that's
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: just how it goes. So when they match up on
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: an international stage, I'm in that game ends. That that
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: game ends. You've had you leftover turkey sandwich. It's Friday,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: you're exhausted, your spouse has been crushing Amazon Prime. Everything
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: is going crazy. Right now, you take it easy for
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: the rest of that night. I'm sure there's a couple
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: of other a little you know, there's there's some college
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: football games that maybe you can tune into, a basketball
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: tournament in Maui. There's always something like that. Always. But
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: then the next day, now you got Saturday morning and
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: you wake up and what do you have. First of all,
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: you have at noon on FOPS Ohio State Michigan. Well,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I can handle all this sports.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: There's just so much sports. That's why I'm giving you
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: a few days right now to prepare to mentally with
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: the palette, because come sa Saturday at noon for Ohio
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: State Michigan. You may think you've had enough sports, but
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: you're getting two undefeated teams. This game is everything. This
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: game is college football playoffs. I mean, you don't get
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: a better matchup than that if you're looking to watch
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: college football next Saturday, it just doesn't happen. That's what
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: you get. You get The rest of the slate of
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: college football is also great. I'm not gonna walk you
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: through this game back game, but later on that night
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: you do get noted Dame at usc which is always
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: a fun one. That's always an intriguing one. Seven thirty
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: that that that's always a fun game, regardless of if
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: you're a fan or not. It's a fun college football
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: game to be watching. And then we get it a Sunday,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: another football Sunday. You got another full slate of football Sunday.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: I feel like a glutton right now. You gotta keep going.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: You gotta keep going. The appetizers come out of Would
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: you excuse me if I didn't watch football on Sunday
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: next week? Thanks, I'm just like you know what, I'm
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: football out. I did the soccer thing on Friday. I mean,
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: you know how these husbands are gonna be explaining to
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: their wives that like, oh no, no, no, I actually
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: needed another nine hours today and I need another nine
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: hours today. Get back on Amazon, Pride taed in there?
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: Do you a holiday shopping? That's what has to do.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: If this is the time when they got to go
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: out and buy all the Christmas presidents to do that,
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: that's fine, But let's face facts. It's a football Sunday,
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: and that's just how it works. If you gotta run
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: some marans early in the morning, you run your errands,
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: But come one o'clock the games are kicking off. You're
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: not just gonna say, okay, well you know what, I'll
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: give up football today. I'm not gonna watch it. You're
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: gonna settle in from one o'clock through the night game
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: and do an entire football Sunday. And by the time
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: Sunday night comes rolling along and you have Steelers Colts
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: that kick off, or excuse me, Sunday night at night
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: is Packers Eagles, which is a incredibly intriguing game to
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: finish off the week. Yeah, you're gonna be on your couch.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: You may take your phone out, look to see if
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: a single work email has come in over the past
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: six days, which it probably hasn't. And here we are,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: it's Monday night. You're settling in Packers Eagles, you're exhausted,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: you've gained ten pounds. But if you realize, oh my god,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: what an unbelievable week that just passed. I wish I
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: would have embraced it a little bit more. That's why
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you now, get ready to embrace it now.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: Because a week like this, with the NFL and college
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: football and the men's World Cups wriggled in when you
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: get to USA Games life from Qatar, that's it. Get
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: ready and embrace it now because weeks like this don't
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: come along very often. You're gonna look up in three months.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be that third week of February. It's gonna
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: be a long, cold, dark, bleak week in February. There's
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: no NFL, there's no college football. Baseball with the pitchers
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: and catchers are barely showed up the training camp. You're
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: gonna be miserable, and you're gonna say, jeez, I wish
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: you would have embraced that week in November a little
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: bit more. What an unbelievable week. I wish you would
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: have known that it was gone now, you know God,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: thank you. I'm gonna finish up with this because are
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: This podcast is three hours long and you're the best
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: part of it. Um really quickly the listeners at home,
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: you hear how this man is a master of words.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: He can talk, he's an incredible salesman. Um, just real quick,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: let's go. You're you're a married man now, but let's
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: go back a few years, maybe a decade, the Wednesday
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: night before Thanksgiving? What's that mean to a single man?
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: Totally different ball game. Where you're at, where I'm at
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: right now in life, and where maybe ten fifteen years ago,
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: the night before Thanksgiving it's night and day. But for
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: your single guys out there, let's say between the ages
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: of I don't know, three to thirty five Thanksgiving, this
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: is it. Get ready, get your plans set, get to
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: the A T M Machine early. Make sure you have
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: your credit card refreshed and ready to god, your credit
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: cards are fresh. You gotta get ready to go. You
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: bet in the show, but the bar you get, the climb,
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: you try to buy a you gonna You're gonna buy
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: an old fashioned round of I don't even know what
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: the park is drinking apple APW because they they give me,
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: give me, give me twelve yeager bombs, and they gave
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: you a bill for a hundred and twenty dollars and
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: your credit card can't afford that. You're gonna you're gonna
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: be laughed out of the room. So get ready to
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: go get your hair cut on Wednesday morning, get your
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: fresh out, reading rock, have your plans set, know what
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: you're doing, because this is the night. This is what
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: I just talked about, Peak week coming in right there. Well,
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: for a certain age group, this is peak night. This
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: is it. People say it's for amateurs, It's not for amateurs.
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: News Eves for amateurs, Thanksgiving Eves for professionals. Show Off.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, that was amazing. I love you, buddy,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: I love you. Thanks for having me on. I will
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: and and gosh. That's how we're gonna end the podcast.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: That was fantastic. Um, we went from being denied passports
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: at the airport to Ryan Pole's giving us a very
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: studied take on why the Chicago Bears are in good hands,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: to lesson on Justin Jefferson, and then a lesson on
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: why we should appreciate the following days if you're a
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: sports fan, and then why you really got to get
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: after it the Wednesday before Thanksgiving if you're a single man.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: All this is what we do on the season with
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: Peter Schreeger. Guys, until next week. Aaron Jan Kaufman, the Best,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: Jason English, the Best, I Heart NFL, Jack Run on
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: the on the one, twos were on Fire. Let's Go
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schreeger is a production of the
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: NFL and partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.