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O-Zone Podcast: Michael Silver · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:05
Speaker 1: The Welcome to the Ozone podcast featuring Jaguars dot Com
0:12
Speaker 1: senior writer John Osher and Checkuars executive producer Dave the Kennis. Dave,
0:19
Speaker 1: I guess the big news this week is that the
0:21
Speaker 1: schedule has come out. The NFL schedule has come out.
0:24
Speaker 1: And while we don't really know eventually what that's going
0:28
Speaker 1: to entail, how it's gonna actually come off, how things
0:31
Speaker 1: are gonna look. Uh, it does give you some excitement
0:35
Speaker 1: because it's a football field. It feels like it's coming back,
0:39
Speaker 1: and uh, whatever happens, the NFL is planning on this.
0:44
Speaker 1: I think the important thing is you've got to get
0:47
Speaker 1: a schedule and you've got to have a plan for
0:51
Speaker 1: if the plan doesn't happen. If you're gonna have contingencies,
0:55
Speaker 1: then you have to have a plan to have contingency
0:57
Speaker 1: is off of But everything I hear is the the
1:00
Speaker 1: NFL believes that this is what they're doing, and uh
1:03
Speaker 1: so I think that's exciting. I think it's fun and
1:06
Speaker 1: I still would be surprised if it doesn't come off
1:08
Speaker 1: the way they plan. So I'm gonna plan and is
1:11
Speaker 1: if that's what's happening. So, uh, I assume that that's
1:16
Speaker 1: how most people are looking at this. Yeah, I think
1:18
Speaker 1: so it's kind of how I I looked at It's
1:20
Speaker 1: kind of it gives you a little hope. I guess
1:23
Speaker 1: that some normalcy is gonna rehearn the big thing. Yeah
1:26
Speaker 1: at yeah, at some point. And the other thing for
1:30
Speaker 1: me when the schedule comes out, I like to look
1:33
Speaker 1: to where we're traveling and and I also like to
1:36
Speaker 1: look to know in the bye week so I can
1:38
Speaker 1: tell my wife and my family, hey, I'll be home
1:41
Speaker 1: this week weekend, so which which they get to look
1:44
Speaker 1: forward to that which is good. And uh, you know
1:47
Speaker 1: then this, you know, going back and forth with one
1:50
Speaker 1: of our producers. Another one producer's Patrick Kevinaugh. You've heard
1:55
Speaker 1: his name before, uh last night about the schedule and
1:58
Speaker 1: it's just kind of interesting. There's some good things like
2:02
Speaker 1: we're only on the road for two weekends in a
2:04
Speaker 1: row one time, which is big in church for the Jaguars.
2:09
Speaker 1: The bye weeks pretty much in the middle. You know.
2:11
Speaker 1: The other big thing that jumped out to me was
2:13
Speaker 1: for me personally, because that's what this is about, is
2:16
Speaker 1: there's a couple of cold, potential cold weather games there
2:18
Speaker 1: on the schedule, which you John gets to sit in
2:22
Speaker 1: the nice I'm controlled press box with all the food
2:27
Speaker 1: he could want, while I'm on the field shooting video
2:30
Speaker 1: of the game in the elements. So John doesn't care
2:33
Speaker 1: about the John, you don't care about the the weather
2:37
Speaker 1: aspect of it as much as I do. But I
2:39
Speaker 1: haven't covered a cold weather game and about thirty years day.
2:43
Speaker 1: So a mid November game in Green Bay is uh,
2:47
Speaker 1: is a little off putting for me, but we'll we'll survive.
2:51
Speaker 1: I doubt that will be that bad, uh, but I
2:55
Speaker 1: don't have to deal with it. But the good news
2:57
Speaker 1: is will be in the same elements in Minnesota because
3:00
Speaker 1: I'm inside and you're inside. Yeah, so that's good. You
3:03
Speaker 1: want to get to the interview, all right, James. So
3:05
Speaker 1: without further ado, and there's been some ado in this segment,
3:09
Speaker 1: we're gonna introduce our interview this week. It's a good
3:12
Speaker 1: friend of mine, a long time NFL writer, Michael Silver,
3:16
Speaker 1: who is now with the NFL Network, but many long
3:19
Speaker 1: time fans known to Yahoo First New Sports Illustrating is
3:23
Speaker 1: one of the best writers of the NFL that I've
3:26
Speaker 1: ever been around, and uh, you know now talks and
3:29
Speaker 1: writes it in this quarantine. He's doing it virtually like
3:32
Speaker 1: all of us. Welcome in, Michael Silver, and I appreciate
3:35
Speaker 1: you doing this. Thank you John. I did have facial
3:38
Speaker 1: hair and unfortunately with my wife's birthday, so I could
3:43
Speaker 1: not survive that. She was not a huge fan, but
3:46
Speaker 1: uh yeah I was. I respect your your look. It's
3:49
Speaker 1: it's very it's very impressive. Well, I'm not sure how
3:52
Speaker 1: much my wife is gonna last through it, but uh,
3:54
Speaker 1: we'll see. And I guess the first thing I wanted
3:56
Speaker 1: to ask you, Michael Um, we talked a little bit
3:59
Speaker 1: about before we came on the quarantine. In your job,
4:02
Speaker 1: I mean, people are fascinating because they see what they
4:05
Speaker 1: see behind you, they see when you're doing your spots.
4:07
Speaker 1: But how has this change what you do? How has
4:11
Speaker 1: it changed how NFL Network covers the NFL made Well,
4:15
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting. This would be a time of
4:17
Speaker 1: year where, you know, other than the pre draft and
4:19
Speaker 1: draft stuff, where you know, it's it's relatively lighter for us.
4:23
Speaker 1: Um and I do spend a lot of time at
4:25
Speaker 1: home during those times anyway, so in some ways it
4:29
Speaker 1: hasn't been crazy different. I do have a home camera.
4:32
Speaker 1: There's a team can just like you guys have at
4:35
Speaker 1: the jag Wars facility. We are not totally operational because
4:39
Speaker 1: of the California guidelines and the fact that our our
4:42
Speaker 1: facility in in l a Is uh is not open
4:46
Speaker 1: right now, so we're kind of working around and getting
4:48
Speaker 1: some stuff on the air. Sometimes we have to use
4:51
Speaker 1: the headphone. I actually use the bows headphone for that
4:54
Speaker 1: of course. But uh, and you saw in the draft
4:57
Speaker 1: telecast that was largely in the ESPN joint production. Yes,
5:02
Speaker 1: but ESPN centric because the Connecticut guidelines are different and
5:05
Speaker 1: they're building is more operational. So um. But but honestly,
5:11
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, you know, a lot of what
5:13
Speaker 1: I do is being around people, trying to break red
5:16
Speaker 1: with people, getting people in relaxed context. So certainly that
5:21
Speaker 1: is you know, is different for me. But um, this
5:26
Speaker 1: time year laying low, it really hasn't been a huge
5:30
Speaker 1: adjustment for me. It's really more watching. Uh you know
5:33
Speaker 1: how it's affecting people in my family. Uh. You know,
5:36
Speaker 1: you and I were talking with our first child around
5:38
Speaker 1: the same time. I have a kid who just is
5:41
Speaker 1: just out of college recently, a kid who's in college
5:43
Speaker 1: at a high school senior, and you know, and that
5:45
Speaker 1: one's particularly hard to watch with all the you know,
5:49
Speaker 1: with what's been lost, and we know it's way bigger
5:51
Speaker 1: than us, and and obviously we have it really really
5:54
Speaker 1: good compared to most. But you know, I honestly just
5:59
Speaker 1: trying not to drive my kids crazy. What My wife
6:02
Speaker 1: is a clinical psychologist, She's able to do a lot
6:04
Speaker 1: of videotherapy from home. Um, so it's really more that's
6:09
Speaker 1: been the bigger adjustment than my actual job so far. Now,
6:13
Speaker 1: it's funny you mentioned earlier that so much of your
6:16
Speaker 1: job and I've been around you when you're working, and
6:18
Speaker 1: you're very good at getting to no NFL people, getting
6:22
Speaker 1: the comfortable as part of the job as a reporter.
6:24
Speaker 1: And yet on Twitter you're the king of the block.
6:27
Speaker 1: Tell me how that is true. It's obviously part of
6:29
Speaker 1: your staking, part of your brand. Some people won't block,
6:32
Speaker 1: and you have no problem with it. Oh, I'm I mean,
6:35
Speaker 1: the only reason I wouldn't block is if I decided
6:37
Speaker 1: to mute instead, which you know I mean. I I
6:40
Speaker 1: tried to exploit it one time about Twitter, so I
6:43
Speaker 1: said something like, I'll block you if you're disrespectful or
6:49
Speaker 1: or whatever. And there's no reason to ever have a
6:51
Speaker 1: conversation with you, I'll mute you if I'm going to
6:55
Speaker 1: become completely annoyed, but you know, like muting it to
6:59
Speaker 1: me is more like this is not gonna end. Well,
7:02
Speaker 1: we're just gonna get blocked. I just I'm just exhausted.
7:05
Speaker 1: And if they don't know and I don't know, it's
7:08
Speaker 1: probably better. So you know, for me, it's it's interesting.
7:11
Speaker 1: I mean, uh, you know, I come from an arrow
7:16
Speaker 1: where you know, what I write in, the content I
7:19
Speaker 1: provide is my source of revenue. And uh, there's no
7:23
Speaker 1: pretty press anymore. But I still feel like, you know,
7:26
Speaker 1: I work for a company h NFL Media that is
7:30
Speaker 1: paying me to do those things. No one's paying me
7:32
Speaker 1: to be on Twitter. I'm happy to solve promote on it,
7:35
Speaker 1: and honestly, I'm happy to use it as a diversion.
7:39
Speaker 1: What used to be writing a paragraph and the getting
7:41
Speaker 1: up and shooting nerf hooks might be you know, screwing around,
7:45
Speaker 1: uh with my mentions or maybe if I'm stuck in
7:47
Speaker 1: a line somewhere at the airport. You know, I used
7:52
Speaker 1: it for those purposes, but um, I just never you know,
7:58
Speaker 1: I'm not like a I'm not tweeting for anyone else
8:01
Speaker 1: other than myself. A lot of times I'm trying not
8:04
Speaker 1: to bore but to bore myself. Um. I tend to
8:08
Speaker 1: be over the top in general, and like people who
8:10
Speaker 1: take me literally. It's kind of like, you know, Greg Williams.
8:14
Speaker 1: I think when people take me literally, it's usually not good.
8:17
Speaker 1: And I just, uh, what really started was I just
8:22
Speaker 1: couldn't understand the people questioning journalistic integrity as though it
8:27
Speaker 1: were a acceptable or normal thing, because you know, you
8:31
Speaker 1: do you understand this is like, we take that so
8:34
Speaker 1: so seriously. And I'd be like on Twitter and be like, well,
8:36
Speaker 1: you just made that up. I'd be like, huh, you know,
8:40
Speaker 1: you don't understand what you're what you're saying to me,
8:42
Speaker 1: and and I'm not work at it. And how much
8:48
Speaker 1: we care and how how much we would hate ourselves
8:52
Speaker 1: at each other if we ever felt that one of
8:56
Speaker 1: us ever did anything to violate you know, those prints
9:00
Speaker 1: moths we hold dear and so you know, and this
9:03
Speaker 1: is not just I want to distinguish it from what
9:05
Speaker 1: one one thing I loved about Twitter is one follower
9:09
Speaker 1: I stole from her, uh, the term fans plaining. Uh,
9:13
Speaker 1: And that's fans plainting. That's different. It's like uh people
9:18
Speaker 1: explaining to you, like it's someone telling you John on
9:21
Speaker 1: Twitter more about what the Jaguars were thinking when they
9:27
Speaker 1: drafted uh C. J. Henderson, As though because they've seen
9:32
Speaker 1: things on the Internet or you know, on TV or
9:36
Speaker 1: read something somewhere that they would know as much as you,
9:40
Speaker 1: it would be it's I mean, it's disrespectful and that
9:44
Speaker 1: we talked to players, coaches, owners and scouts and those
9:47
Speaker 1: people all the time, and so of course we know more.
9:50
Speaker 1: And it's also weird. It's like if I went to
9:54
Speaker 1: the dentist then it was like, oh, what bother you?
9:57
Speaker 1: I said, well, there's this you know, it really hurts
9:59
Speaker 1: up here and they and he said, okay, well what
10:01
Speaker 1: you're gonna need as a root canal? Because that's and
10:03
Speaker 1: I was like, come on, everyone knows that's just a filling,
10:06
Speaker 1: you know, Like I mean, we do have like some
10:10
Speaker 1: degree of expertise. So I'm not either you don't anything. Yeah,
10:15
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about that. I'll just clown those people.
10:17
Speaker 1: I'm talking about blatant questioning of my journalistic integrity, and
10:22
Speaker 1: that could be anything from you know, you're I actually
10:27
Speaker 1: have a great story about this boat, but you know,
10:29
Speaker 1: you have it out for my team, but but like
10:31
Speaker 1: in a inscituous way, like you're trying to take down
10:33
Speaker 1: my team or you made that up or I I
10:37
Speaker 1: just I don't have to stand for it. I won't
10:39
Speaker 1: stand for it, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry if people
10:43
Speaker 1: don't understand it. But really, what's the penalty? I mean,
10:46
Speaker 1: it's I mean, in real life would be like killing someone.
10:49
Speaker 1: But you can't do that of course in a civilized society.
10:52
Speaker 1: But I can kind of kill you on Twitter. You'll
10:55
Speaker 1: never see what I ever tweet again. I mean, but
10:58
Speaker 1: like really, like get over my bio literally says I'm
11:01
Speaker 1: followed me, Like it can't be that important. But I
11:03
Speaker 1: do have one great story because back at Yahoo, I
11:06
Speaker 1: used to do pics and um, you know, to me,
11:11
Speaker 1: picks are amusing and I obviously don't. I was that
11:14
Speaker 1: good at it. I could just move to Vegas and
11:17
Speaker 1: you know, make money, I guess, but I'm not, you know,
11:20
Speaker 1: but I I did well, not against the spread usually Yeah,
11:23
Speaker 1: who like I, I, you know, try to beat up
11:26
Speaker 1: Jason Cole or Charlie Less Carpenter. You know, we're just
11:30
Speaker 1: scooping around having fun. And I but people would take
11:34
Speaker 1: the pics as a you know, as a referend about
11:37
Speaker 1: what I wanted to happen, which is weird at a
11:40
Speaker 1: sign that I was against your team, which, by the way,
11:44
Speaker 1: other signs that I was against your team was I
11:46
Speaker 1: didn't rank them high enough in my rankings, or I
11:50
Speaker 1: reported something true that you didn't like, or I expressed
11:54
Speaker 1: an opinion about that happened there that you didn't like.
11:58
Speaker 1: All of those are clear evidence that I haven't out
12:01
Speaker 1: the top four, right, and those are really tough four.
12:04
Speaker 1: But but I the picks were all you know, the
12:08
Speaker 1: picks were weird to me because it's like people are
12:09
Speaker 1: seeking affirmation and listen, I'm a I'm a I'm a
12:13
Speaker 1: crappy fan, just like every other fan of it's redundant.
12:16
Speaker 1: I know, I'm a Cal fan, and you know, we
12:19
Speaker 1: we there's a lot of heartbreak and we haven't been
12:22
Speaker 1: to the Rose Bowl in my lifetime, and I'm horrible,
12:25
Speaker 1: just like every fan. But I do think there's some
12:27
Speaker 1: distinctions in that I don't want affirmation. I don't care
12:31
Speaker 1: who you picked to win, but so these fans really
12:34
Speaker 1: want affirmation. And I used to do email reply still
12:38
Speaker 1: a yeahoo because Twitter hadn't really taken over totally and
12:41
Speaker 1: and I had a lot of fun with it, and um, somebody,
12:46
Speaker 1: a Jaguars fan told me how I had it out
12:49
Speaker 1: for the Jags, and you know, it was very, very
12:52
Speaker 1: sure that I thought the Jags were trash and they
12:55
Speaker 1: had made this nice renaissance late in the season. I
12:58
Speaker 1: think it was in the Del Rio years and might
13:00
Speaker 1: have been the might have been the I don't think
13:02
Speaker 1: it was the year they stuck into the playoffs with Garre,
13:04
Speaker 1: but it was a year where they had a pretty
13:05
Speaker 1: good run late in the season and we're winning some games.
13:09
Speaker 1: And so the fan actually said in the email, like,
13:13
Speaker 1: I think the second reply, you've picked against us every
13:17
Speaker 1: single game, And it was like it was like mid December,
13:22
Speaker 1: and I laughed, and then I like a couple of
13:25
Speaker 1: hours later, I was like, well, we do have a graphic,
13:27
Speaker 1: like I could go back and go week to week
13:30
Speaker 1: and actually see my picks, and there's no way that
13:33
Speaker 1: I picked against some every single week. I mean, that's crazy.
13:36
Speaker 1: And I went and I started looking at I'm like,
13:38
Speaker 1: oh my god, And literally the fan was right. I
13:41
Speaker 1: had picked that I had picked against the fifteen times
13:46
Speaker 1: in a row. Well, I'm stubborn, you know, And and
13:49
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, so of course what happened.
13:51
Speaker 1: I picked the if, picked him to win the last
13:53
Speaker 1: two games that they lost moment and so I I
13:55
Speaker 1: you know, but but so yeah, maybe some consciously, maybe
14:00
Speaker 1: I do you know, have it out for someone's We
14:04
Speaker 1: will definitely hit on the story, which was outstanding out
14:06
Speaker 1: a draft weekend. I want to ask you one more thing.
14:08
Speaker 1: Obviously we've gone through your history a little bit. California
14:12
Speaker 1: guys started out at a newspapers in California, Sports Illustrated
14:17
Speaker 1: Dan Yahoo. Um. It was always intriguing to me is
14:20
Speaker 1: that you worked in s I in an era that's
14:23
Speaker 1: really different than now. Meaning when you wrote a story
14:26
Speaker 1: for s I and it was on the cover, that
14:28
Speaker 1: thing mattered, and it mattered. There's probably not anything that
14:32
Speaker 1: has reached like that anymore. UM. I always remember the
14:36
Speaker 1: Broncos story in nine is sort of the Yeah, that's
14:43
Speaker 1: the one that stands out as having the most impact reaction.
14:48
Speaker 1: Or just tell me which one aside from Rodman, which
14:51
Speaker 1: is a different issue. I was going to say that
14:52
Speaker 1: one up there, Yeah, you know that was up there. Um,
14:57
Speaker 1: the Rodman one I had gotten Si ninety or and
15:01
Speaker 1: Rodman in ninety five was getting super weird to really
15:06
Speaker 1: feel comfortable, and he was on the Spurs and they
15:08
Speaker 1: sent me to l A as he was about to
15:10
Speaker 1: close out a series against the Lakers, and I went
15:12
Speaker 1: on a four day, all night, three state drunken honesty
15:18
Speaker 1: with him and wrote in real time at his house
15:22
Speaker 1: while all night while exotic birds chirped, and he and
15:26
Speaker 1: a stripper in the next room made brighter meeting subject
15:30
Speaker 1: and it all making sense. It was really it was fortuitous.
15:34
Speaker 1: But yeah, so there that was there. Um uh. The
15:38
Speaker 1: Broncos story was one of those. And it's interesting. There
15:41
Speaker 1: was a back to back in the second part of
15:44
Speaker 1: the back to back. I'll get to that was Kurt Warner,
15:47
Speaker 1: which is up on my wall. Out of Nowhere, the
15:50
Speaker 1: out of Nowhere sensation early in the season for the
15:52
Speaker 1: ramp so I had. I had known Mike shadah had
15:58
Speaker 1: since I was covering the forty nine or Is Daily
16:00
Speaker 1: in n when he became the offensive coordinator um I covered.
16:05
Speaker 1: He gave me incredible access in nineties six when they
16:07
Speaker 1: ended up having the league's best record and lost the
16:10
Speaker 1: uh first round playoff game to Mark Bourdell and that
16:14
Speaker 1: that great Jags team that reached the conference championship gave
16:18
Speaker 1: UM and UM he let me actually twice that year
16:24
Speaker 1: because they lost the first time so we couldn't run it,
16:26
Speaker 1: but twice gave me all access for a week and
16:29
Speaker 1: team play and everything was awesome. And uh, and then
16:33
Speaker 1: they won Super bowls UM and I um Elway retired
16:42
Speaker 1: and they tried to make Buffy Brisk the guy with
16:44
Speaker 1: young Brian recently waiting on the wings, and UM, it
16:48
Speaker 1: was going real bad and they were owing three. And
16:50
Speaker 1: I went out there. Usually when I showed up in
16:52
Speaker 1: your town for Sports Illustrated and your team with high
16:55
Speaker 1: expectations was oh and three, it was a lot of
16:58
Speaker 1: subtlety about what I was. Therefore, I wasn't there that
17:02
Speaker 1: to celebrate UM and I knew a lot of guys
17:06
Speaker 1: on that team. I got incredible access before the game,
17:08
Speaker 1: kind of got the lay of the land. Um. They
17:11
Speaker 1: not only lost and yanked Bubby Brister for Brian Greasy,
17:15
Speaker 1: but they're best player. Torell Davis, future Hall of Famer,
17:18
Speaker 1: blew out his knee turned out to be a career
17:20
Speaker 1: altering injury, and uh, you know, blew out his knee
17:24
Speaker 1: was done for the year. Um, and so now they're
17:26
Speaker 1: owing for and they just lost the best player and bench,
17:29
Speaker 1: the quarterback, and um. Starting in the locker room, I
17:34
Speaker 1: started to get players coming up to me going, oh,
17:38
Speaker 1: TV's done, We're done, it's over. And I knew him,
17:41
Speaker 1: I knew him really well. And obviously it was heat
17:43
Speaker 1: of the moment and they were upset, but um, you know,
17:47
Speaker 1: I understood what they were saying. And a couple of
17:50
Speaker 1: players invited me out to a place called the chop House.
17:52
Speaker 1: And now we're drinking beers, and you know, it's post
17:56
Speaker 1: game and there's a lot of players there are probably
17:58
Speaker 1: about twenty, and now it's gallows humor. Now people. A
18:01
Speaker 1: guy takes a fork and says, I this in me.
18:05
Speaker 1: We're done. And another guy points to the bear takes
18:08
Speaker 1: because it was a brewery and said, see that take.
18:11
Speaker 1: I'm going in that one right there. It was. And
18:14
Speaker 1: I recognize that just because I'm out with players, it's
18:17
Speaker 1: not necessarily all fair game. It is a gray area.
18:20
Speaker 1: But you know, they knew what I did, and I
18:22
Speaker 1: thought I could write that story, and I wrote it
18:25
Speaker 1: all night. Um, as I did most of my stories,
18:28
Speaker 1: I thought I could write that story conveying the gallows
18:31
Speaker 1: humor that yes, this is um. They're saying this, but
18:37
Speaker 1: obviously they're just trying to, you know, make light of
18:40
Speaker 1: a bad situation, and they're not literally saying they're gonna
18:42
Speaker 1: try to lose every game. But you know, I didn't
18:46
Speaker 1: know that the cover, which I didn't control, was gonna
18:49
Speaker 1: be a picture of Terrell Davis with a quote that said,
18:53
Speaker 1: We're finished the Broncos season. The Broncos season is over.
18:57
Speaker 1: Just asked them. I mean, I'm not saying I was
19:00
Speaker 1: mad about it, but I didn't know. And uh, I
19:03
Speaker 1: forgot that it was a two newspaper town, one of
19:05
Speaker 1: the last great to newspaper towns, competitive town, Adam Schefter,
19:10
Speaker 1: and I think Alex Martvez gone at it, and uh,
19:15
Speaker 1: you know, um, all of a sudden, it's Tuesday night,
19:19
Speaker 1: which is when the magazine closed, and we would send
19:21
Speaker 1: out the or Tuesday nights one we'd send out the
19:23
Speaker 1: press releases, usually just to the two cities in question
19:27
Speaker 1: to their media, and then Wednesday it would go out
19:30
Speaker 1: to the world on the newsstands. And I get a
19:33
Speaker 1: call at home Tuesday night and it's a breathless voice
19:36
Speaker 1: from Denver Cable. Look can you come on? And I
19:40
Speaker 1: just thought it was another typical Denver radio station. Chery
19:43
Speaker 1: I'll come on. And I realized about three seconds in
19:46
Speaker 1: an interview was a voice call on live television on
19:49
Speaker 1: the evening news at you know, ten o'clock Pacific eleven
19:54
Speaker 1: Mountain to lead the news. And I'm like, oh boy,
19:57
Speaker 1: So um yeah, it became a big, big thing. And
20:01
Speaker 1: you know, I there were some bruised relationships for a while.
20:08
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this. I made a point that next
20:11
Speaker 1: training camp I told my bosses. They said, where do
20:13
Speaker 1: you want to go? I said, I want to start
20:15
Speaker 1: in Greeley. I want to start with the broncos. I
20:16
Speaker 1: want to take my medicine. You know, they're still mad.
20:19
Speaker 1: And you know, I believe that there's a real you know,
20:22
Speaker 1: that's part of the journalistic ethos. You know, you can
20:25
Speaker 1: you can write. I've been a columnist, I've been an
20:27
Speaker 1: opinion guy. I've written before, I've written on popular things.
20:30
Speaker 1: You've got to show up and that's part of it.
20:33
Speaker 1: And um, I said, I want to go to Greeley first.
20:36
Speaker 1: So they said, okay, start Greeling. So I I I
20:41
Speaker 1: landed uh at Denver National Airport. I think it was
20:46
Speaker 1: opened by the nut Stable T. Yeah. I landed D
20:48
Speaker 1: A A and I I go to the little island
20:52
Speaker 1: with the Hurts bus. Wait for the Hurts bus. I
20:55
Speaker 1: get on the Hurts bus and it's just me the
20:58
Speaker 1: summer day. It's like a July day and just me
21:01
Speaker 1: on the bus. And back then you had to tell
21:03
Speaker 1: the drive of your name and uh, you know, it's
21:05
Speaker 1: just said Silver and uh he's said okay. And I
21:09
Speaker 1: got on the bus and might have made a little
21:12
Speaker 1: small talk, might not have really talked to him and
21:14
Speaker 1: kind of a you know, it's like a seven minute ride.
21:18
Speaker 1: Bus stops at the thing and I go to grab
21:21
Speaker 1: my bag and I say thank you, and he said, hey,
21:23
Speaker 1: you're welcome. Stay out of the chop house this time.
21:26
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh my god. So now I drive.
21:30
Speaker 1: Now I drive an hour and agreely I get there.
21:33
Speaker 1: You know, all the beat writers and the electronic people
21:37
Speaker 1: want to interview me. Oh my god. You know Silver
21:39
Speaker 1: showed up. I'm like Rod Smith is literally I putting
21:45
Speaker 1: out a stream of expletives in my direction. During practice,
21:49
Speaker 1: we all lined up on the field and running routes
21:52
Speaker 1: is bliep and Bliep and bliep and bliep and uh,
21:55
Speaker 1: you know we overcame it and uh, but yeah, that
21:58
Speaker 1: that was that was a memorable one. And so what
22:00
Speaker 1: was amazing was the next that came out on Wednesday.
22:04
Speaker 1: And I think later that day, as all hell was
22:08
Speaker 1: breaking loose in Denver and Adam Schefter was calling the
22:12
Speaker 1: chop calling Chop House, the Chop House manager to try
22:15
Speaker 1: to I d which players had been there, which you know,
22:19
Speaker 1: there were a lot of them. Didn't prove, didn't prove
22:20
Speaker 1: that my source was was ridiculous. But as all hell
22:24
Speaker 1: was breaking loose by uh, one of my bosses called
22:27
Speaker 1: and said, hey, we got another story for you this week.
22:30
Speaker 1: This guy in St. Louis Kurt Warner. We know, you know,
22:34
Speaker 1: we don't even know who he is. And he's leaving
22:35
Speaker 1: the League of Touchdown Passes. There there four and oh
22:38
Speaker 1: or three and oh like um, I was like, oh good,
22:42
Speaker 1: a happy story. And uh. I called Rick Smith, the
22:45
Speaker 1: PR director, and said, dude, I want to come out
22:47
Speaker 1: on Friday and I want to hang out with Kurt
22:49
Speaker 1: order And he said, well, he doesn't really hang out.
22:52
Speaker 1: He's he's got the wife and these two young kids
22:55
Speaker 1: and he's really really into his faith and he doesn't
22:59
Speaker 1: really do anything to go to church. And you know,
23:01
Speaker 1: the light bulb went off and I said, go to
23:03
Speaker 1: the church. Okay, this is it's gonna a tone, it's
23:06
Speaker 1: gonna cleanse me. And you know I ended up that
23:10
Speaker 1: was That was also one of the more memorable stories
23:12
Speaker 1: I wrote, because it turned turned out to be the
23:16
Speaker 1: season of Kurt Warner and also was the season the
23:20
Speaker 1: Jags went and oh against the rest of the league
23:24
Speaker 1: and oh and three against the Titans, including the NFC championship. Yeah,
23:30
Speaker 1: still very painful memory for our Jag Warys fans. I
23:32
Speaker 1: appreciate you bringing that up. I can talk Were's illustrated forever,
23:38
Speaker 1: but let's talk about the Jags a little bit. Um.
23:42
Speaker 1: You spent some virtual time with Dave Calbo during the draft.
23:46
Speaker 1: You've spent time with Tony Cohn, you spent time with
23:48
Speaker 1: the con and called Well, Um, for fans who maybe
23:53
Speaker 1: don't quite get what the dynamics all about right now
23:57
Speaker 1: is people thought this bunch was getting fired. They thought
24:00
Speaker 1: it was different. Tell me about your perception of the
24:04
Speaker 1: direction right now and what they're doing. Well, it's interesting. Um,
24:10
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a big fan of what the cons
24:12
Speaker 1: have done. And um, I think, like a lot of
24:16
Speaker 1: very well meaning newer owners, they don't always know what
24:21
Speaker 1: the right thing is. And they've got a million people
24:23
Speaker 1: in their ear of course, because that's the nature of it.
24:25
Speaker 1: They've been wildly successful in other businesses and their instincts
24:29
Speaker 1: are usually pretty good, I feel like, but the NFL
24:32
Speaker 1: is a complicated beast, and um, you know, and sometimes
24:37
Speaker 1: you do the right thing and the ball gets tipped
24:39
Speaker 1: and you lose and you think it was the wrong thing.
24:41
Speaker 1: Or sometimes you're you know, everything's going down the right
24:45
Speaker 1: path and a bad call changes things. And it's just
24:48
Speaker 1: it's hard to it's hard to separate outcome from process.
24:53
Speaker 1: And you've never if you've never done it before, you
24:55
Speaker 1: don't always know. And so you know, And I think
24:58
Speaker 1: the Pagolas are going through the and in Buffalo too.
25:01
Speaker 1: And I would even say that you know Daniel Snyder,
25:04
Speaker 1: who I would criticize a million times for things, and
25:08
Speaker 1: I think it would be fair. He at least is
25:11
Speaker 1: a guy who he means well and that he cares
25:14
Speaker 1: desperately about winning, and some owners really don't. UM. And
25:18
Speaker 1: so that I know the cons want to win and
25:22
Speaker 1: want to do it the right way. And I know
25:24
Speaker 1: their instincts are good, and I know they've made a
25:26
Speaker 1: lot of decisions for the right reasons. I think, like
25:29
Speaker 1: any new owners in the NFL, sometimes that you know,
25:33
Speaker 1: they make decisions that they think are right that they
25:36
Speaker 1: later say, Okay, maybe they're not so. At the time
25:40
Speaker 1: when they brought in Tom Coughlin, a lot of people
25:42
Speaker 1: were saying, you should bring in a football's are you know?
25:43
Speaker 1: Tom Coughlin's out there. He just wants to Super Bowls.
25:46
Speaker 1: He is the reason the Jaguars, you know, got on
25:49
Speaker 1: the map in the first place, and you should have
25:52
Speaker 1: a talk with them. And so they brought him in,
25:55
Speaker 1: and it felt like the right move, and UM drafting
25:59
Speaker 1: letter before Nett at the time felt like the right move.
26:02
Speaker 1: UM the run they went on with a lot of
26:07
Speaker 1: free agents that you know, in fairness Dave Caldwell had
26:10
Speaker 1: had signed UM, you know, I felt like the right move.
26:15
Speaker 1: And they were ten points ahead and not that much
26:20
Speaker 1: time to go of one of the greatest players of
26:23
Speaker 1: all time, one of the greatest coaches of all time,
26:25
Speaker 1: and looked like they were going to the Super Bowl.
26:27
Speaker 1: And and as that was all happening. Shaan Kom publicly
26:32
Speaker 1: said something the effect of Tom is the reason, and
26:36
Speaker 1: in retrospect, I think he would have said, that's overstated.
26:40
Speaker 1: All right, there were a lot of reasons, and obviously,
26:45
Speaker 1: by the time things played out the way they did
26:48
Speaker 1: late last season, I think Sean Cohn was essentially saying
26:52
Speaker 1: by his actions, Tom is the reason. Now, will we
26:55
Speaker 1: look back and say that was an overstatement? Will we
26:58
Speaker 1: look back and say, um, you know it wasn't all
27:03
Speaker 1: Tom Coughlin, and you know you're by keeping Dave Caldwell
27:07
Speaker 1: and Doug Morone, you're oversimplifying the downside of that. Um.
27:13
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I know that I can understand
27:16
Speaker 1: what their thought process was it And honestly, I think
27:19
Speaker 1: people maybe and maybe maybe you guys get this, but
27:23
Speaker 1: I think those of us who we're looking at this
27:25
Speaker 1: from afar may not have appreciated how important those last
27:29
Speaker 1: few games were. When Minshew came back and beating the
27:33
Speaker 1: Raiders in Oakland was not a small thing. That was
27:37
Speaker 1: a huge, huge, huge game for the Oakland Raiders. They
27:41
Speaker 1: really really wanted that for their fans and that they
27:45
Speaker 1: were abandoning and it meant a lot to the coach
27:47
Speaker 1: and to the players, and that was a that was
27:51
Speaker 1: a you know, pretty impressive thing for them to do.
27:54
Speaker 1: And then to to win again, uh you know at
27:58
Speaker 1: the end, and to have Min's you look good and
28:01
Speaker 1: and they clearly it could have been laying down at
28:05
Speaker 1: that point, yeah, or even just you know, we weren't
28:09
Speaker 1: good enough. We didn't lay down, but we weren't good enough.
28:11
Speaker 1: And I think that would have probably provoked a different
28:16
Speaker 1: type of you know, yeah, probably changed the coach too,
28:19
Speaker 1: and maybe change the GM two and start over. But
28:24
Speaker 1: they came out of that thinking, you know what, maybe
28:27
Speaker 1: we have something to build around here. Um. Dave Cobble
28:31
Speaker 1: did get us to that point in seventeen where we
28:35
Speaker 1: felt like we were on the verge. What we can
28:39
Speaker 1: get rid of the players that we think are not
28:42
Speaker 1: you know, part of the culture we want to establish.
28:44
Speaker 1: We can stockpiled draft picks and cap space, and if
28:49
Speaker 1: we hit in the draft and we make some smart
28:51
Speaker 1: moves and Minshew is what we think he is, um,
28:54
Speaker 1: then maybe will be better quicker than people think. And
28:59
Speaker 1: and and Doug has proven something us to what we
29:02
Speaker 1: saw in So that's I think that's what the that's
29:06
Speaker 1: what they're thinking. But um, you know, I think they
29:10
Speaker 1: get now and probably got then, but now they get
29:13
Speaker 1: even more now that even if you're smart and well
29:17
Speaker 1: meaning and aggressive, you don't always know, and a lot
29:20
Speaker 1: of it sometimes is out of your control even if
29:22
Speaker 1: you do know. So I think, if anything, they've shown
29:25
Speaker 1: that they're willing to cut their losses and change course,
29:28
Speaker 1: and and they didn't come the fact that they didn't
29:32
Speaker 1: completely blow it up. Time will tell whether that was
29:35
Speaker 1: the right decision. But I at least respect the philosophy
29:39
Speaker 1: because it's the easiest. The easiest thing to do always
29:42
Speaker 1: is to blow it up, and I think that's what
29:44
Speaker 1: fans and media people gravitate toward because we get frustrated.
29:48
Speaker 1: I said a couple of more and even more than
29:50
Speaker 1: Janus with your time, so I appreciate it. I know
29:55
Speaker 1: you know the cons well from covering the league. I
29:58
Speaker 1: think the thing that's always impressed you that then, Michael,
30:01
Speaker 1: is um their ability to listen to people within the league,
30:06
Speaker 1: and their ability to not think that they know everything
30:09
Speaker 1: about the league. Yeah, as many owners as you, but
30:12
Speaker 1: I've been around people who have been around owners. That's
30:15
Speaker 1: not that common a trait amongst some owners. Isn't no,
30:19
Speaker 1: and and and I think some owners go too far
30:22
Speaker 1: the other way. I think there are owners who have
30:24
Speaker 1: been known for whoever the last person who got in
30:28
Speaker 1: their ear about something is what they'll usually uh end
30:33
Speaker 1: up trying to do. And that's not healthy either, right.
30:36
Speaker 1: I mean, you want to listen, and you wanna believe
30:39
Speaker 1: in your people and get input, and you want to
30:42
Speaker 1: I know, the cons listen to some very very smart
30:44
Speaker 1: people outside the organization and and you know, all of
30:48
Speaker 1: that is is great, but you also want to have
30:52
Speaker 1: you know, you also want to have a sense of
30:54
Speaker 1: who the important voices are and what you believe in
30:58
Speaker 1: at your core. And um, you know, I think they are,
31:04
Speaker 1: so I would give them credit for both. I think
31:06
Speaker 1: they do listen and they're open to things, but they're
31:09
Speaker 1: also not just like, you know, completely malleable when somebody
31:14
Speaker 1: says something, I trust me. I know I've tried to,
31:17
Speaker 1: you know, say things to them just how I feel,
31:21
Speaker 1: you know, not like, oh, you're not like you should
31:23
Speaker 1: fire your coach. I mean that's not my business. But
31:25
Speaker 1: you know, I believe that this team that you're saying
31:28
Speaker 1: is such a good model is actually more dysfunctional than
31:32
Speaker 1: you do because of what I think. And I think
31:35
Speaker 1: they've politely kind of said, you know, well I see
31:39
Speaker 1: it differently. So UM, yeah, I think I like if
31:45
Speaker 1: you give me aggressive, trying to win and well meaning, Um,
31:51
Speaker 1: I think that goes a long way. I think the
31:53
Speaker 1: rest can be you know, over time, can be can
31:57
Speaker 1: be groomed. A final question, he spent some time with
32:00
Speaker 1: him virtually during the draft. Um, what is it you
32:04
Speaker 1: saw in what they were doing and steadying the team
32:07
Speaker 1: that maybe you like that Maybe some fans don't see
32:11
Speaker 1: his fantasies aren't sure about it's been it's been a
32:13
Speaker 1: tough couple of years. Anything that you saw that you
32:18
Speaker 1: like about their direction. I think Dave as the chief
32:23
Speaker 1: decision maker the second time around is more certain, and
32:28
Speaker 1: I don't I think swag is probably the wrong word.
32:31
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you want your GM having swag,
32:33
Speaker 1: you know, like like May I probably came in with
32:36
Speaker 1: swag and then all of a sudden he had the
32:38
Speaker 1: Star Wars crazy receiver. We're yelling at each other. So
32:41
Speaker 1: but I just think, um, if you know, Dave was
32:45
Speaker 1: the first time GM, and he was obviously um, you know,
32:49
Speaker 1: communicating with ownership and trying to build it the right way,
32:52
Speaker 1: and then he got put in a different position when
32:54
Speaker 1: Tom was there, still got to you know, do a
32:57
Speaker 1: lot of GM things, but you know, wasn't the buck
33:01
Speaker 1: didn't stop there always? Well now it does, and he's
33:04
Speaker 1: been given a second look at that, and I think,
33:09
Speaker 1: you know, he's like, I think he's in a good space. Like,
33:12
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be scared. You know, I might get fired,
33:16
Speaker 1: probably will every GM does eventually usually, but I'm not
33:20
Speaker 1: going to live in fear of making the wrong choice.
33:23
Speaker 1: I know what I know, I know what I believe in.
33:26
Speaker 1: I think I'm pretty good at this. Um. I like
33:28
Speaker 1: the people I work for. I have a good relationship
33:31
Speaker 1: with my head coach, and we're gonna take a swing
33:33
Speaker 1: at building it the way we think and not getting
33:37
Speaker 1: caught up in the noise. And and that is kind
33:39
Speaker 1: of a liberating thing. So um, I mean, ay, the
33:42
Speaker 1: fact just that he had me in there, and by
33:44
Speaker 1: in I mean by in I mean literally his poor
33:49
Speaker 1: selfless wife Joel was spending a lot of time holding
33:53
Speaker 1: up her phone on the house party app and letting
33:56
Speaker 1: me in that way. But just the fact that he
33:59
Speaker 1: trust me to do that because I've been in war
34:02
Speaker 1: rooms and it's you know, there's a lot of trust
34:04
Speaker 1: and and honestly, the big I think people who have
34:09
Speaker 1: let me and understand that I'm not looking to burn
34:13
Speaker 1: them after the fact that I'm trying to write as
34:15
Speaker 1: much inside stuff as i can without something that's going
34:19
Speaker 1: to compromise their ability to do business. And you saw
34:21
Speaker 1: that in my story where one of the guys they
34:23
Speaker 1: considered it at twenty was still on the board and
34:27
Speaker 1: so it made sense not to mention him in a
34:29
Speaker 1: story coming out before the second round. It turned out
34:31
Speaker 1: to be Xavier McKinney, the the Alabama defensive back, and
34:35
Speaker 1: they didn't end up taking him, and it was fine.
34:38
Speaker 1: But I think people get that. But what's what's really
34:42
Speaker 1: trustworthy is to say to a journalist, I'm going to
34:47
Speaker 1: give you a sense of what we're trying to do
34:49
Speaker 1: going in and trust that when all these other gms
34:54
Speaker 1: and coaches that I know you know, and I know
34:56
Speaker 1: you talked to and I know you are close with,
35:00
Speaker 1: are hitting you up to see, hey, what are the
35:02
Speaker 1: Jags doing or what do you hear that you're going
35:04
Speaker 1: to go into a code of silence and and I
35:07
Speaker 1: know rationally Dave knew that when I told him I
35:10
Speaker 1: would do that, that that I'm a man of my word,
35:12
Speaker 1: and he's not one of those people on Twitter questioning
35:15
Speaker 1: my journalistic integrity. But it's still a leap of faith
35:18
Speaker 1: to come out and say, hey, this is what in
35:22
Speaker 1: a perfect world I would I would look to do
35:24
Speaker 1: this type of thing, or this is a vague sense
35:26
Speaker 1: of of what we're trying to do here, and so
35:31
Speaker 1: it is. And I think just so, just the fact
35:35
Speaker 1: that he did that in the first place, I think
35:37
Speaker 1: tells you that he's got a comfort zone that you know,
35:41
Speaker 1: he's healthy, I think. And and secondly, um, I think
35:46
Speaker 1: that you know, there's a little bit of it I'll
35:50
Speaker 1: show you to him, which you know you don't want
35:53
Speaker 1: that to be reckless, but I think he's I think
35:56
Speaker 1: he and Tony and Sean and Doug all you know,
36:00
Speaker 1: are kind of looking forward to that moment where they
36:02
Speaker 1: could say, hey, by the way, we're not we're not
36:05
Speaker 1: as atrocious as you. You guys, you know me included
36:08
Speaker 1: expected you to be. And and yeah, I hope for
36:11
Speaker 1: their sake they get to have a little bit And
36:13
Speaker 1: I mean, first of all, I hope we play games
36:15
Speaker 1: and that it's it's safe to do so, but to
36:18
Speaker 1: the extent that we have a season and if and
36:20
Speaker 1: when that is, um, I hope they have some moments
36:22
Speaker 1: where we can all because I'll be the first one
36:25
Speaker 1: to say, like, dude, I didn't like I wouldn't I
36:27
Speaker 1: wouldn't expect you to actually be good. Like I get
36:30
Speaker 1: that you're rebuilding, and I get that you're, you know,
36:32
Speaker 1: trying to create a culture and build it back up,
36:35
Speaker 1: but I didn't know, like you could actually like beat
36:39
Speaker 1: the Titans or something. You know, that would be cool, Right, Michael,
36:42
Speaker 1: I could do this all day and they don't have
36:43
Speaker 1: time to do that. But I can't thank you enough.
36:45
Speaker 1: I enjoyed this, so it's not before five minutes. I
36:48
Speaker 1: look forward to doing it again at some point and
36:50
Speaker 1: I stay safe and best to you and yours. Well,
36:53
Speaker 1: it's my pleasure, and uh, I hope that I can
36:57
Speaker 1: once again become an annoyance in the Jaguars sillity to
37:01
Speaker 1: some of the people you worked with, and trying to
37:03
Speaker 1: push my way into you know, out of balance places
37:07
Speaker 1: instead of doing it virtually. But in the meantime, I've
37:11
Speaker 1: stoked that I got to a big part of the Drive.
37:14
Speaker 1: I'd like to thank Michael for giving us some of
37:16
Speaker 1: his time. Uh As I said, I've known Michael for
37:19
Speaker 1: twenty five years. He was one of the best writers
37:21
Speaker 1: on Sports Illustrated. I thought, I thought what was interesting
37:25
Speaker 1: about what he talked about with us, Dave was the
37:28
Speaker 1: Broncos story was always fascinating because I distinctly remember that story.
37:32
Speaker 1: The Jaguars were good and the Broncos were the team
37:36
Speaker 1: everybody was watching to see if they were going to
37:37
Speaker 1: maintain that year, and they went off the rails and
37:40
Speaker 1: you knew they weren't gonna be very good. When Trrell
37:42
Speaker 1: Davis got heard was it was happening like that Elway
37:44
Speaker 1: was gone. But that story came out and it just
37:49
Speaker 1: had a different feel in terms of he was at
37:52
Speaker 1: dinner with these players. He got them talking off the
37:56
Speaker 1: record a little bit, saying really brutal things about their season,
38:00
Speaker 1: and you just knew there was going to be fallout.
38:02
Speaker 1: So that was interesting at a time where s I
38:04
Speaker 1: had that sort of impact, and I like to hear
38:06
Speaker 1: what he had to say about the Cons. I think
38:08
Speaker 1: people forget that they've really only owned this team for what,
38:12
Speaker 1: in NFL terms, is a short period of time, and
38:16
Speaker 1: I've always talked to different people who have talked to
38:18
Speaker 1: the cons. I know the conversations I've had with the
38:21
Speaker 1: cons is one thing is I went the team. But
38:23
Speaker 1: in talking to national people who know a lot of
38:27
Speaker 1: different owners, they are very willing to listen and they
38:31
Speaker 1: are very willing to try to learn what it takes
38:35
Speaker 1: to win in this league. That can take some time
38:38
Speaker 1: when you're coming in new and I've always believed in Dave.
38:41
Speaker 1: You and I talked about it. We know Tony. He's
38:43
Speaker 1: closer to our age, closer to your age. I'm older
38:45
Speaker 1: than Tony, but I've gotten to know him through different things,
38:49
Speaker 1: seeing him at combines, seeing him around the office, and
38:53
Speaker 1: I just truly believe that as as Tony grows into
38:57
Speaker 1: the overall ownership role, and that's the thing that takes
39:00
Speaker 1: time over an arch, that the time that he has
39:04
Speaker 1: put in learning the league, listening to people, getting to
39:11
Speaker 1: know people around the league, learning the ins and outs
39:14
Speaker 1: of it, uh, how equipment works, how personnel works, how
39:20
Speaker 1: this works. A lot of owners never see the nuts
39:23
Speaker 1: and bolts of a franchise the way Tony Khan has,
39:26
Speaker 1: and I think as time goes on, that's going to
39:27
Speaker 1: serve this franchise very well. That's just my little soapbox
39:30
Speaker 1: about that. But I've always believed that since I've seen
39:33
Speaker 1: him get into the league. It's impressed of the the
39:36
Speaker 1: effort and the granular knowledge that he's developing on a
39:39
Speaker 1: lot of different fronts. I think it's gonna be cool
39:41
Speaker 1: to watch him mature as an owner. Yeah, and going
39:43
Speaker 1: back actually kind of change gears a little bit. Is
39:46
Speaker 1: with the Broncos arcle with Mike Silver, So that came out.
39:51
Speaker 1: I remember when that came out. I remember reading that
39:53
Speaker 1: article and I was like probably fourteen or fifteen that time,
39:56
Speaker 1: so I was in like super sports Illustrated sports mode
40:00
Speaker 1: where I couldn't think enough. I just it was so
40:03
Speaker 1: cool for me to hear kind of the background behind
40:05
Speaker 1: it and how it all happened, and him just being
40:09
Speaker 1: around the team where the guys got comfortable. It's just
40:11
Speaker 1: kind of interesting where it almost feels like a different
40:14
Speaker 1: era of covering the NFL even back entirely different. So
40:19
Speaker 1: so Mike always took a different approach. Like Mike would
40:22
Speaker 1: come into town and he would go out to eat
40:24
Speaker 1: with a couple of the players, and he was always
40:27
Speaker 1: very good at getting to know guys. Teams didn't always
40:30
Speaker 1: love that you. I mean, there were certain teams and
40:33
Speaker 1: coaches who weren't really sure about what he was all about.
40:38
Speaker 1: But as you know, you you told him and meeting
40:41
Speaker 1: things like that along with me. He's very good at that.
40:44
Speaker 1: He's very good at getting to know people, getting people
40:46
Speaker 1: to trust him, and it's why he's one of the best.
40:48
Speaker 1: And he's also, I think what people don't quite get anymore.
40:53
Speaker 1: He's a fantastic words smith once the words go on
40:57
Speaker 1: the page or online as it were now, so he
40:59
Speaker 1: knows what to with the information once he gets it.
41:01
Speaker 1: But you know, he's very good at kind of taking
41:05
Speaker 1: you behind the scenes. And again I can remember being
41:09
Speaker 1: in the business when that story broke and talking to
41:11
Speaker 1: him about at the time, and it was one that
41:16
Speaker 1: as much access as he always got, that one was
41:20
Speaker 1: a little bit different and a little bit of a
41:23
Speaker 1: it was. It was a shocking story at the time. Uh,
41:28
Speaker 1: And you're right, it was cool to hear him tell
41:30
Speaker 1: the tale of it. But my job is to do
41:32
Speaker 1: what Dave I answer fan questions. So that's what we'll
41:37
Speaker 1: do now to close out this second edition to Your
41:40
Speaker 1: Zone podcast. That's what you do, John, Here we go.
41:44
Speaker 1: So this one is from John and he's from from Jacksonville.
41:50
Speaker 1: Does anyone believe that Joan won't play for the Jags
41:53
Speaker 1: this season? The franchise has all the power. Other teams
41:57
Speaker 1: don't want to pay the price, and it would be
41:59
Speaker 1: a really stupid for Yanda lose many more millions of
42:03
Speaker 1: dollars this season on top of the millions he lost
42:07
Speaker 1: last season. What I think is interesting about this, it's like,
42:11
Speaker 1: we're not like at the point of this whole unique
42:13
Speaker 1: and Guay saga where it's the river is gonna meet
42:16
Speaker 1: the road here in a few short months. It's what's
42:18
Speaker 1: interesting to me is like I get the principal principal guy,
42:23
Speaker 1: and I get not everyone's motivated by money, But after
42:26
Speaker 1: what happened last year, and based on what he's potentially
42:29
Speaker 1: gonna get paid under the franchise tag this year, you
42:32
Speaker 1: gotta at some point, don't you just have to go
42:35
Speaker 1: with it for for the year and and make your
42:37
Speaker 1: money while you can, because you don't have that many
42:39
Speaker 1: years left our years in the NFL to do make money,
42:43
Speaker 1: you would think. And I paused there, because I get it,
42:46
Speaker 1: and I get what everybody's saying about you can't walk
42:48
Speaker 1: away from seventeen or eighteen millions, but he sort of
42:52
Speaker 1: did it last year. And the one thing that I've
42:56
Speaker 1: always from being around Yon is interesting is he's a
43:00
Speaker 1: hard guy to predict, and I don't necessarily know that
43:04
Speaker 1: the logic that we all look at it, he's gonna
43:08
Speaker 1: play that much. Maybe he looks at it from a
43:11
Speaker 1: Lady on Bell perspective and says, you know what, I'm
43:14
Speaker 1: going to get paid at some point, and by definition,
43:18
Speaker 1: I'm going to save my body and therefore I have
43:22
Speaker 1: more earning years. I'm not sure that's the way I
43:24
Speaker 1: would go. But you've been around him a little bit.
43:28
Speaker 1: I like you on a lot, and I like talking
43:31
Speaker 1: to him, and I've always had a good relationship with him,
43:34
Speaker 1: and we've talked about different things at times. But I
43:39
Speaker 1: don't know that he's a guy who's necessarily going to
43:42
Speaker 1: say just because everybody else is saying I have to
43:44
Speaker 1: do this, means I have to come in and do this.
43:47
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think he will eventually play this season,
43:51
Speaker 1: but it just wouldn't shock me if he does. As
43:54
Speaker 1: someone who's around the team, I hope he's there because
43:56
Speaker 1: I like him and actually and he's a great play here,
44:00
Speaker 1: and I just hope it gets worked out, uh, for
44:04
Speaker 1: not only his sake but also the team's sake because
44:07
Speaker 1: we could use him in the fall. So yeah, and
44:11
Speaker 1: I don't know that he's I'm with you. I hope
44:14
Speaker 1: for his sake that he works it out and makes
44:16
Speaker 1: the right decision because he did a key point in
44:19
Speaker 1: his career. He deserves to get paid, and you just
44:23
Speaker 1: hope that he's not hurting himself financially over the long haul.
44:27
Speaker 1: We've got a long way to talk about this day
44:29
Speaker 1: because I guess it's going to be a topic for
44:31
Speaker 1: a long time around here, and I wish it wasn't
44:34
Speaker 1: because I'm worn out on it. All right, Well that
44:36
Speaker 1: did for episode two of the Ozone Podcast, when I
44:39
Speaker 1: thank Michael Silver again for joining us, Thank Joe Portnado
44:42
Speaker 1: for putting all this together, Thank Dave Mechanis for being Dave,
44:45
Speaker 1: and uh, I won't thank me. I don't need thanks,
44:48
Speaker 1: but I appreciate everybody to listen and hope it didn't
44:51
Speaker 1: stop