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HR 1: Live from Training Camp · In the Locker Room presented by Neighborhood Ford Store (Pittsburgh Steelers)

0:01
Speaker 1: This is live coverage OLP dot twenty twenty six Steelers
0:05
Speaker 1: Training Camp on the Steelers Audio Network, presented by bud Light,
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Speaker 1: number three. We don't go to the office, We build it.
0:49
Speaker 2: Well. Thanks very much for being with us in the
0:51
Speaker 2: locker room here, Day nine of training camp in Latrobe,
0:55
Speaker 2: Saint Vincent College under Grace guys under Doug Blugregg over Scott.
1:00
Speaker 2: The four horsemen rode again, just two of us though Miller.
1:06
Speaker 3: Of us there is four of the Yeah, we got
1:09
Speaker 3: four horsemen that we can delegate, so makes it easy.
1:13
Speaker 3: But yeah, you're right, absolutely, Grace guys over there, and
1:16
Speaker 3: abundance of caution. That's why fans weren't allowed to come today, right,
1:20
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean this.
1:22
Speaker 2: Looks like lightning weather. I'm not even gonna lie to you,
1:24
Speaker 2: and I'm not looking forward to driving west later. So yes,
1:31
Speaker 2: which we'll get to in a minute. We're watching practice.
1:35
Speaker 2: I don't know how much we can talk about what
1:37
Speaker 2: we're watching here.
1:38
Speaker 3: It's a team period with human beings and differing color
1:42
Speaker 3: jerseys performing athletic feats of a football nature.
1:45
Speaker 2: Okay, that pretty well describes what's happening here. Yeah, yeah
1:50
Speaker 2: it is.
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Speaker 3: This is a closed practice, so we can't tell you
1:54
Speaker 3: if a guy has made a catch or a flag
1:56
Speaker 3: has been thrown.
1:57
Speaker 2: None of that field too, that's true. We are Yeah,
2:00
Speaker 2: we have middle.
2:01
Speaker 3: Middle, middle field here at Saint Vincent, so a little
2:05
Speaker 3: bit further view for us. Reasoning behind that, I can't tell.
2:09
Speaker 3: The reasoning behind that is because of the weather. You
2:13
Speaker 3: don't want to damage the main field, because this is
2:16
Speaker 3: the appointment viewing fan friendly field.
2:18
Speaker 2: The main thing is the main thing. The main thing
2:20
Speaker 2: is the main thing.
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Speaker 3: Field two doesn't really get that much teamwork done. So
2:26
Speaker 3: when you have questionable weather, whether the grass can be
2:28
Speaker 3: prepared or not out for field two, and then when
2:31
Speaker 3: an absolute desperation, go to the field three, which I
2:34
Speaker 3: think I've done maybe a handful of times in my
2:36
Speaker 3: career where we've had to utilize field three. And then
2:39
Speaker 3: then also the turf field. Yeah, there's a turf for
2:41
Speaker 3: turf field on the.
2:42
Speaker 2: Far side is also available. Haven't seen them.
2:45
Speaker 3: Go down there at all in training camp, but that
2:49
Speaker 3: was some place we used to go all the time
2:51
Speaker 3: if the field was kind of wet or questionable. Of course,
2:53
Speaker 3: also you trudge down the hill and then you go
2:57
Speaker 3: through all the sloggy stuff on the sidewink.
3:00
Speaker 2: Is it still track it onto the field the turf field.
3:02
Speaker 2: So it's pretty funny. We thought that the dun Lap
3:04
Speaker 2: Center might get used today, that beautiful new facility here
3:07
Speaker 2: on campus. And so, uh, the when I when I
3:13
Speaker 2: came in this morning, fans are being turned away. They
3:15
Speaker 2: had they had, uh you know, they'd ushered everybody out.
3:20
Speaker 2: It was like gandalfstyle.
3:22
Speaker 3: Was there, like somebody in the middle with like a
3:23
Speaker 3: big staff saying you shall not.
3:25
Speaker 2: Yes, there was a little bit of that. And then
3:27
Speaker 2: I rolled down my window and I said, I'm sorry,
3:29
Speaker 2: but I have to pass, and they said, okay, yeah,
3:32
Speaker 2: you can go through. But everybody was the exception to
3:34
Speaker 2: the rule. I was the I was the salmon swimming
3:37
Speaker 2: upstream as far as everybody leaving.
3:40
Speaker 3: Like a golden ticket ticket pasted or it was like
3:42
Speaker 3: Willy Wonka, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie and Chocolate Fact Charlie Yep, yep.
3:49
Speaker 2: What was the original? Was it Willie Wonka and the
3:51
Speaker 2: Chocolate Factory. I think that was the original with Gene Wilder. Yes,
3:55
Speaker 2: the bridge was called Charlie and the Choco Factor. The
3:58
Speaker 2: movie was called Willy wonk Uh yeah, I I I
4:01
Speaker 2: never did have the heart to watch the The other
4:05
Speaker 2: one was who was in it? Really good young actor
4:08
Speaker 2: Timothy Schallaman, Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, Timothy Schallamy, He's tremendous.
4:12
Speaker 2: But Gene Wilder, Man, there's just there, especially that role.
4:17
Speaker 2: Oh perfect.
4:18
Speaker 3: I mean like there's certain people who fit roles yes,
4:22
Speaker 3: and you're just like, can it be redone that way?
4:25
Speaker 2: Because like you know, it was.
4:26
Speaker 3: It was Johnny Depp was coming off kind of kind
4:29
Speaker 3: of creepy with the perfect teeth and everything's dead.
4:31
Speaker 2: Was a dentist or whatever, and the whole story.
4:33
Speaker 3: But I did I didn't feel connected, like when I
4:35
Speaker 3: watched Willie Wonker like like I think Gene Wilder immediately, yes,
4:40
Speaker 3: and it's like one of those where you're just like, yeah,
4:42
Speaker 3: that was his role and everybody else is like second
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Speaker 3: fiddle to.
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Speaker 2: That when you think about it. He had a few
4:47
Speaker 2: roles like that. Yeah, the Blazing Saddles, which does not
4:51
Speaker 2: endure as well over time as it as it once did.
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Speaker 2: But he his role is tremendous. My favorite movies. His
5:00
Speaker 2: all is tremendous. And uh yeah that's right.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's exactly right, left it Yeah look good to me. Yeah, yeah,
5:12
Speaker 4: there's there's anyway. I don't know how we got down
5:16
Speaker 4: this this tangent.
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Speaker 2: But because we're talking about people getting turned away. Oh yes,
5:19
Speaker 2: we're rolling back down. So there are no fans here.
5:21
Speaker 2: There are no fans here. So media is here, family
5:24
Speaker 2: is here, but no fans are here. Do you get
5:27
Speaker 2: used to it to a point where there's a little
5:30
Speaker 2: less adrenaline? I mean, you you must feel the crowd
5:33
Speaker 2: here and feel the cheering, but I mean all season
5:36
Speaker 2: long when you practice, there's no fans, right, correct, yeah, facility, Yeah,
5:41
Speaker 2: you sort of get used to that.
5:42
Speaker 3: We get a couple of people peeking over from the building,
5:45
Speaker 3: right that's right behind it kind of sits above the train.
5:48
Speaker 2: So we do get random random peekerers over there, yes,
5:53
Speaker 2: but but nothing audible.
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Speaker 3: There's no cheering, so obviously they would give away their position, right,
5:58
Speaker 3: So I would.
6:00
Speaker 2: Think that the Dunlap Center it would be a much much,
6:07
Speaker 2: much better place to have practice, you know, for for
6:10
Speaker 2: anybody that played say high school football, and you can't
6:13
Speaker 2: practice outside and you have to put on your sneakers,
6:16
Speaker 2: uh maybe they even put your pads on or whatever,
6:18
Speaker 2: and you have to practice it. It's it's always almost
6:22
Speaker 2: almost it always felt like a waste of time to me,
6:25
Speaker 2: like it'd have been better off just saying go home
6:27
Speaker 2: and we'll see tomorrow. Guys, let's just watch the film
6:30
Speaker 2: and then, right, exactly exactly did you feel that way
6:33
Speaker 2: when you were a player and you think there was
6:35
Speaker 2: some uncertainty? I mean, look, even in practice, you got
6:39
Speaker 2: to get geared up a little bit, right, I mean
6:41
Speaker 2: it's not a game, but you got to gear yourself
6:43
Speaker 2: up physically and mentally for a practice.
6:44
Speaker 3: At this point of the year, absolutely, because there's a
6:48
Speaker 3: calousing that comes with putting on the pads, taking off
6:51
Speaker 3: the paths, right, the pad burn, you get on your shoulders,
6:53
Speaker 3: right right, Yeah, you gotta get used to that because
6:56
Speaker 3: you don't want it to be something that's new when
6:59
Speaker 3: you get to the stadium. So these moments are it's
7:02
Speaker 3: a part of the callousting process, and coming outside is
7:05
Speaker 3: a good exercise. Like you said, there's plenty of options
7:08
Speaker 3: for outside, right, they had field two, even field three
7:12
Speaker 3: at the drainage wasn't great. On field two, you had
7:14
Speaker 3: another option, there's a redundancy for redundancy, Okay, well, let's
7:18
Speaker 3: just go to the turf outside just so we can
7:20
Speaker 3: get the element.
7:20
Speaker 2: You can still feel it.
7:22
Speaker 3: And then the indoor facility now is now a fourth
7:27
Speaker 3: option outside of field one. Because it used to be
7:30
Speaker 3: if you couldn't practice on the fields, we were up
7:32
Speaker 3: in the gym right above the locker room over in
7:35
Speaker 3: the over in.
7:36
Speaker 2: The main athletic complex. I guess you could still call
7:38
Speaker 2: it that, and you're right it was.
7:42
Speaker 3: It was sneakers and shoulder pads and the like, how
7:45
Speaker 3: are we gonna hit somebody? Because now we're on hardwood.
7:48
Speaker 3: So guess what. When the sweat hits the ground, it
7:51
Speaker 3: doesn't absorb into the true So now after a couple minutes,
7:56
Speaker 3: especially in the old line sex. You know, we've been
7:58
Speaker 3: front and sweating and anything else. It's like a pool
8:00
Speaker 3: of water over there. So now you had to like.
8:02
Speaker 2: Really just step step get to a position like you
8:05
Speaker 2: can't even like a dancing ten because you're.
8:07
Speaker 3: Gonna slip because water on hardwood does not do well
8:12
Speaker 3: with rubber souls.
8:14
Speaker 2: No, no, it doesn't. So they're outside, they're able to practice,
8:18
Speaker 2: they're able to get a good day's work in, and
8:20
Speaker 2: that's a really good thing because you know, Mike McCarthy
8:23
Speaker 2: has talked about this being hump week. He's mentioned at
8:25
Speaker 2: the last couple of mornings, this is hump week. This
8:28
Speaker 2: is the installs, as they say, for all the material
8:32
Speaker 2: that they're they're working on the different drills. So can
8:35
Speaker 2: you explain to people what the installs are and why
8:38
Speaker 2: they're so important and why this would be hump week
8:41
Speaker 2: unless that's a separate category, because probably hump week for
8:45
Speaker 2: the for the coaching staff and hump week for the
8:47
Speaker 2: players might be slightly different things.
8:49
Speaker 3: That might be a slightly different thing. But I'd say
8:51
Speaker 3: from a player's perspective, you know, hump week means it's
8:55
Speaker 3: heavy dialogue, meaning there's new package names, there's new fours,
9:00
Speaker 3: there's new personnel groupings, there's new things as keys, because
9:05
Speaker 3: you're now getting into non traditional formations and defensive structures.
9:11
Speaker 3: I say that dime comes in like, dime is not
9:14
Speaker 3: a normal sub package, right, Your normal dime is what
9:17
Speaker 3: we call nickel. So nickel is five defensive backs. Right,
9:21
Speaker 3: Nickel one two, three, four five five DB's term as
9:23
Speaker 3: nickel dime is the six DV quarter them become seven dbs.
9:29
Speaker 3: Those are non traditional because the traditional structure is you're
9:32
Speaker 3: gonna go three wides, right, that's the base personnel for
9:35
Speaker 3: sub and also you know base operating personnel for a
9:37
Speaker 3: lot of the league. Now, and when you get outside
9:41
Speaker 3: of that nickel sub or base, which is your regular
9:44
Speaker 3: we run a three four. Some teams running four to
9:46
Speaker 3: three three down linemen versus four down linemen. So those
9:50
Speaker 3: are your base structures four three, three four nickel. However,
9:54
Speaker 3: you get to know nickel three three, nickel four two
9:56
Speaker 3: whatever nickel is, you know it's five dbs in Those
9:59
Speaker 3: are all base structures. Now you're getting the dime, nickel
10:03
Speaker 3: and goal line big packages. Now you go, are you
10:06
Speaker 3: a five to three defense or are you a six
10:07
Speaker 3: to two defense? Right, six down linemen across the board
10:10
Speaker 3: or five and you have three at the second level.
10:13
Speaker 3: Just depends on the team's perview and what their nature is.
10:16
Speaker 3: And so this is what they're getting this week and
10:19
Speaker 3: today because they're getting ready for game on Thursday. You
10:21
Speaker 3: have literally a week left, less than a week to
10:24
Speaker 3: get ready for the game against the Green Bay Packers
10:26
Speaker 3: on Thursday. Opportunities are now minimizing because obviously Wednesday is
10:31
Speaker 3: gonna be a walk through kind of dress rehearsal type
10:34
Speaker 3: of day to go through game day operations. So you've
10:37
Speaker 3: got literally today, Tomorrow off, Sunday, Monday Tuesday, so then
10:43
Speaker 3: you're on the field playing. So today and this week
10:46
Speaker 3: is now about those situations. Mike McCarthy said in the
10:49
Speaker 3: press conference, we're gonna we're gonna install red Zone Package two.
10:52
Speaker 3: Didn't even know this red Zone Package one, but we're
10:55
Speaker 3: at two already. And then also goal line is getting
10:57
Speaker 3: installed today, so we're seeing some of that kind of
11:01
Speaker 3: go in. So it's gonna be a little bit more
11:03
Speaker 3: knowledge based and the individual drills kind of dictated going
11:07
Speaker 3: through this so that you can operate live. And they
11:09
Speaker 3: also talked about the scoreboard system that they're gonna utilize today,
11:14
Speaker 3: was that they're gonna have a red zone line up
11:16
Speaker 3: on the twenty five go in. I thought the red
11:18
Speaker 3: zone was twenty but apparently last twenty five high red zone. Yeah,
11:21
Speaker 3: high red zone. Once again, it just keeps expanding. Right,
11:23
Speaker 3: we're just gonna say the plus side of the field
11:25
Speaker 3: red area.
11:26
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying? Forty nine and in right, Well,
11:27
Speaker 2: when you think about it, really, I mean the way
11:29
Speaker 2: kickers have improved so much, I mean the scoring, the
11:32
Speaker 2: scoring area has expanded. That is true, That is true.
11:35
Speaker 2: You're absolutely right.
11:36
Speaker 3: So so now we're seeing this where it's competitive. There's
11:39
Speaker 3: gonna roll the plays out and then defense gets a
11:41
Speaker 3: certain point based on something, offense gets a point based
11:43
Speaker 3: on something. Sure, touchdowns will weigh heavier, and you'll get
11:47
Speaker 3: the opportunity to try and score. So those are some
11:50
Speaker 3: different things. Some competitive periods built into this practice and
11:53
Speaker 3: will be probably built into the rest of the week.
11:56
Speaker 3: I mean, tomorrow night we will have Saturday night lights
11:58
Speaker 3: over at latrob Stadium, and then that'll be a different atmosphere,
12:02
Speaker 3: that'll be a different dress rehearsal for the town and
12:06
Speaker 3: some competitive periods and then and imagine you'll probably see
12:08
Speaker 3: more of what you didn't get to see today as
12:09
Speaker 3: a fan. You'll see it tomorrow at at the at
12:13
Speaker 3: the stadium.
12:13
Speaker 2: You know, you brought up something that I think is
12:16
Speaker 2: we've touched on a little bit, but it got specific
12:19
Speaker 2: with a question of Mike McCarthy. Camera was yesterday or
12:21
Speaker 2: today during his morning get together, and you know, he
12:24
Speaker 2: was asked about you know, you talked about what's your
12:27
Speaker 2: subpackage going to be? Goal on is going to be
12:28
Speaker 2: six two, is going to be fifty three. Some of
12:30
Speaker 2: that may be what are you playing? Who are you
12:33
Speaker 2: playing as an opponent, but some of it is also
12:36
Speaker 2: something Mike McCarthy was asked about with Peyton Wilson, like,
12:39
Speaker 2: how is Peyton going? I love his intensity, love the thing,
12:41
Speaker 2: and he said, Peyton. You know, somebody said, well, Peyton's
12:43
Speaker 2: trying to be a three down linebacker and Mike McCarthy said,
12:48
Speaker 2: that's great, but you're not just competing with other linebackers.
12:51
Speaker 2: You're also competing against a defensive back. So you're trying
12:55
Speaker 2: to prove that, you know, if you were and you know,
12:58
Speaker 2: he was asked about, you know, defensive lineman and now
13:01
Speaker 2: when you've got a when you have a four man front, well,
13:03
Speaker 2: that's gonna be for sure, you know, and obvious passing downs.
13:07
Speaker 2: I know it's sub packaged football, but obvious passing downs
13:10
Speaker 2: that's definitely gonna be two outside linebackers, probably gonna be
13:13
Speaker 2: two outside linebackers almost regardless. So you're competing with you know,
13:17
Speaker 2: if you're a nose that's bumping out, well, you're competing
13:19
Speaker 2: with other guys. But you're also trying to show that, hey,
13:22
Speaker 2: I should be on the field and not maybe in
13:24
Speaker 2: a rush situation that third outside linebacker who's coming in right.
13:28
Speaker 2: So Peyton Wilson was that he was asked about him
13:30
Speaker 2: in specific. Now Peyton is trying to show, hey, listen,
13:34
Speaker 2: the nickel package with me in it is superior to
13:37
Speaker 2: the dime package with me out of it, because I
13:40
Speaker 2: can do this that the dime And then you know,
13:43
Speaker 2: of course, it's not that easy, even even under the
13:46
Speaker 2: best of circumstances, are sliding scales where we're gonna use
13:49
Speaker 2: you forty percent or sixty percent.
13:50
Speaker 5: But you want to at least show that receiver out
13:53
Speaker 5: of there by yeah, you want you want to, yeah,
13:56
Speaker 5: but you want to show the coaches, Hey, listen, this
13:58
Speaker 5: is a because they'll just don't just go away.
14:00
Speaker 2: From it if you don't prove you can play, if
14:03
Speaker 2: you don't prove your sub package that you're part of,
14:06
Speaker 2: yeah is good, which means the whole unit being good
14:09
Speaker 2: as well obviously too.
14:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, And that's what it is. It's all about
14:13
Speaker 3: how do you feel. You know, we've kind of talked
14:15
Speaker 3: to this camp and Micha McCarthy made this this kind
14:19
Speaker 3: of analogy to the offensive line, but it really applies
14:21
Speaker 3: to the entire team.
14:22
Speaker 2: What are the best combinations on the field?
14:25
Speaker 3: And you know, for offensive line has been two and
14:26
Speaker 3: three man combinations has been talking about, but really deepenses
14:29
Speaker 3: and as you hit on, packages matter, Right, if I
14:33
Speaker 3: got five d linemen and I got six defensive backs
14:36
Speaker 3: or five defenders in six cover guys, what.
14:40
Speaker 2: Does my best five look like? Right? That's right? What
14:43
Speaker 2: is that best five combination that's good?
14:45
Speaker 3: Like a Swiss army knife for any situation that a
14:48
Speaker 3: team might throw because obviously you're going to get in
14:51
Speaker 3: the four wide receiver sets, you're gonna have a lot
14:54
Speaker 3: of mismatches. Sometimes you might even have a double running
14:57
Speaker 3: back set, you know, and you know, maybe some guys
15:00
Speaker 3: are better carrying guys out of the backfield than others,
15:02
Speaker 3: and maybe when we adjust in the nickel, who that
15:05
Speaker 3: second backer is might dictate that. So if you're Peyton Wilson,
15:09
Speaker 3: I gotta show him I'm built for any situation, right.
15:11
Speaker 2: Better be able to cover a running back coming into
15:12
Speaker 2: the backfield. Better be able to cover a tight end.
15:15
Speaker 2: Otherwise we got.
15:15
Speaker 3: A big receiver that comes over in motioning back alone.
15:19
Speaker 3: There's a lot of things to indicate and work out, right,
15:23
Speaker 3: And again it's raining.
15:24
Speaker 2: Again by the way. Oh again, some of that is
15:28
Speaker 2: who you're playing against in their personnel, but some of
15:30
Speaker 2: that is what you've shown that you're capable of doing
15:32
Speaker 2: as well, and how that looks to your coaching staff.
15:34
Speaker 2: So again we talk about that as position battles, you know,
15:38
Speaker 2: unit battles, roster battles. All these things come down not
15:42
Speaker 2: just to necessarily your position group, but other people as well.
15:46
Speaker 2: So we're going to take a break. Much more to come.
15:49
Speaker 2: Max is going to a very very very special place.
15:53
Speaker 2: Max has got a prestigious Max has got a golden ticket.
15:56
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about that when we continue in
15:57
Speaker 2: the locker room here on this year, there's audio network.
16:00
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16:05
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16:50
Speaker 2: And welcome back to Latrobe. And look they're milling around
16:54
Speaker 2: a little bit there in field too. It looks like
16:55
Speaker 2: that might be it that they called it. Call'd be
16:59
Speaker 2: it for practice, But I think s fiend Sports are finished. Yeah.
17:07
Speaker 3: I'm getting ready for a Mexico trip next year. I'm
17:10
Speaker 3: just willing it into you.
17:11
Speaker 2: Are okay? All right? Going to Mexico City. Yeah, I
17:14
Speaker 2: h the We love to talk. We love to see
17:18
Speaker 2: our Spanish speaking broadcaster friends. Right, listen our truro and
17:24
Speaker 2: Alvaro will be very excited that I just said that. Yeah,
17:27
Speaker 2: so Alvaro told me about a and I just I
17:32
Speaker 2: mentioned it because it just first of all, because you
17:34
Speaker 2: spoke Spanish, and secondly because it came up yesterday. I
17:38
Speaker 2: don't know why, but in nineteen seventy two, do yourself
17:41
Speaker 2: a favor and check this out. I can't remember the
17:43
Speaker 2: guy's name. He was an Italian singer. You can find
17:45
Speaker 2: it easily on YouTube. And he impersonated an American singer
17:54
Speaker 2: singing like a kind of a funky you like a
17:58
Speaker 2: funk you know, sort of R and B kind of
18:01
Speaker 2: rock and roll kind of song. And except none of
18:04
Speaker 2: the words are are English, even though it clearly sounds English,
18:11
Speaker 2: it sounds like he's speaking our language, Like clearly like
18:15
Speaker 2: if somebody were you know, if somebody were to impersonate
18:17
Speaker 2: a German, right and I'm half German, and they were like,
18:20
Speaker 2: you know, un speeders and grub and auschina, you know
18:23
Speaker 2: that sort of sounds German. I forgive my My sister's
18:27
Speaker 2: a German teacher. She right now, I'd be in a
18:29
Speaker 2: lot of trouble. I'd be in a lot of trouble,
18:31
Speaker 2: you know. But it's like that, only it's it's English
18:35
Speaker 2: and it's and it's clearly when you listen to it,
18:37
Speaker 2: it's it's very funny because it sounds English to my ears,
18:41
Speaker 2: even though there's no words, there's no words in the
18:43
Speaker 2: English language of that. It's really funny. So do yourself
18:46
Speaker 2: a favorite too. It told me about that, and Aravro
18:48
Speaker 2: told me about that, and I went and checked it out.
18:50
Speaker 2: So looking forward to seeing those guys do a phenomenal job.
18:53
Speaker 2: By the way, not that I can understand the words,
18:56
Speaker 2: but the excitement level of the energy. No, no, no, Friar,
19:01
Speaker 2: move exactly exactly down. Yeah, that's right down. Good stuff.
19:10
Speaker 2: He's a phenomenal player. Oh he's so good, so good.
19:15
Speaker 2: I mean, just an absolute top notch broadcaster. Uh So,
19:19
Speaker 2: A couple of running backs signed to big time deals yesterday,
19:23
Speaker 2: so it was one right after the other, and you know,
19:27
Speaker 2: and I think when the day ended, so we see
19:30
Speaker 2: Jonathan Taylor get a new contract extension. Whoa, that's a
19:32
Speaker 2: lot of money. And then all of a sudden, by
19:34
Speaker 2: the by the time the day's over, that's not even
19:36
Speaker 2: the biggest money deal. That belongs to Jamier Gibbs for
19:39
Speaker 2: Detroit and frankly it's it's a part of it. And
19:44
Speaker 2: then got it. Yeah, got a huge deal, right. I
19:48
Speaker 2: think Gibbs is though. I think Gibbs has got the
19:51
Speaker 2: I think you said it was the largest in NFL history,
19:54
Speaker 2: but it might just be annual side. Maybe B John's
19:57
Speaker 2: was longer. But you know what it it does my
20:01
Speaker 2: heart good. I love the running back position and it
20:04
Speaker 2: is part of the cycle that just keeps going, the
20:08
Speaker 2: circle of life that is the NFL. Right you you
20:12
Speaker 2: know we've we've talked about this before. It's you know,
20:15
Speaker 2: it's the fun bunch, right. So okay, so we have
20:18
Speaker 2: a bunch of we have a bunch of little corners.
20:20
Speaker 2: You're a little receiver, so we better get a little
20:22
Speaker 2: quick corners. Okay, well, good, you're gonna do that. Let's
20:24
Speaker 2: come with some massive receivers. Good luck. And then you
20:27
Speaker 2: have to you know, you have to adjust back and
20:29
Speaker 2: the different you know, we're going with lighter personnel to
20:31
Speaker 2: keep up with all the spread on defense, to keep
20:34
Speaker 2: up with all the spread offenses. Well, guess what now
20:36
Speaker 2: the age of the running back is back and those
20:38
Speaker 2: little guys are gonna get run over. Right, So you
20:41
Speaker 2: know it was not long ago that the running back
20:44
Speaker 2: position seem to have been devalued. Now, some of that
20:48
Speaker 2: comes with this sort of sabermetrics community and football saying, look,
20:53
Speaker 2: you can find uh, these guys approximations of most guys late,
20:58
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody well, I think some people would
21:01
Speaker 2: even go so far as to say the special guys
21:03
Speaker 2: aren't worth it. Well, I think we're finding out that
21:06
Speaker 2: the NFL values those special players at that position. Whether
21:11
Speaker 2: it is more than that's you know, quote unquote sabermetric community,
21:14
Speaker 2: whether that community has come around to the NFL's way
21:17
Speaker 2: of thinking, I'm not really sure, but it's clear that
21:19
Speaker 2: these guys are really really valued.
21:22
Speaker 3: Oh and they're elite because I mean the guys you name,
21:25
Speaker 3: these are three down backs, you know, back in the
21:28
Speaker 3: day when you could devalue them.
21:30
Speaker 2: Well, he only runs the football.
21:31
Speaker 3: And then there's a third down back that comes in,
21:33
Speaker 3: and that's the receiving back. You know, he's not a
21:36
Speaker 3: running back, he's the receiving running back. And you know,
21:39
Speaker 3: we don't need you, you know, but for half the
21:43
Speaker 3: half of what the offensive players will be because there'll
21:45
Speaker 3: be more you know, of a workload and the sub
21:48
Speaker 3: and the and the passing game, so we can devalue
21:51
Speaker 3: you uh uh insert b John Robinson inserted Derek Henry.
21:56
Speaker 3: Do you think Derek Henry, you think they really care
21:57
Speaker 3: that Derek Henry doesn't catch as many.
21:59
Speaker 2: Balls out of the back field.
22:00
Speaker 3: Absolutely not, because he's gonna give you twelve hundred yards
22:03
Speaker 3: a year right on the ground and you're not gonna
22:05
Speaker 3: get in as many third down situations if you hand
22:07
Speaker 3: it to him first and second down, especially late in
22:10
Speaker 3: the game. So you're seeing that emphasis really kind of
22:13
Speaker 3: shift back in that perspective. And like you said, Bijon Jamir,
22:18
Speaker 3: I mean, yes, he's been a juggernaut for the Detroit
22:21
Speaker 3: lines and count Taylor has just been that guy outside
22:24
Speaker 3: of injury years, has been the guy that's really kept.
22:26
Speaker 2: The Colts afloat.
22:28
Speaker 3: And no matter who's been the quarterback, Jonathan Taylor's been
22:31
Speaker 3: a constant.
22:31
Speaker 2: In that back you know. And as you look at
22:33
Speaker 2: each of those three guys like Jonathan Taylor, I don't
22:36
Speaker 2: know if there's anybody quite like him. It's interesting to
22:39
Speaker 2: me because he doesn't look like, you know, physically, like
22:43
Speaker 2: a power back, but one guy doesn't bring him down.
22:46
Speaker 2: He doesn't look like the nifty footed guy, and yet
22:50
Speaker 2: he makes guys miss. He doesn't look like the fastest guy,
22:53
Speaker 2: and yet you don't see him caught very often. He's
22:55
Speaker 2: a really interesting running back. I think, you know, there's
22:59
Speaker 2: there's more to him than you might think at first
23:01
Speaker 2: glance just watching him, way more to him than you
23:04
Speaker 2: might think at first glance watching him play. No, he's
23:06
Speaker 2: he's a ballplayer. He's a ballplayer.
23:08
Speaker 3: And I think for Jonathan Taylor especially, you know, he's
23:12
Speaker 3: one of those guys. He has a great feel for
23:14
Speaker 3: the game, and his speed is predicated on the situation,
23:19
Speaker 3: Like he could turn it up and he could beat
23:20
Speaker 3: you down the sidelines. But then also he can run
23:22
Speaker 3: between the tackles. Right, But it wasn't a combination. You
23:25
Speaker 3: had to either or type of situation. Willie Parker did
23:28
Speaker 3: not run between the tackles. But guess what if he
23:30
Speaker 3: got to that outside edge. Goodbye, Mama, that's right, right.
23:33
Speaker 3: You gave him, You gave him a perfect opportunity. He's
23:36
Speaker 3: going to take advantage. And then you have Jerome Bettis, right,
23:39
Speaker 3: who could run between him.
23:40
Speaker 2: A douce.
23:40
Speaker 3: Staley was kind of a little bit more of a hybrid,
23:42
Speaker 3: but still there was a top end on him.
23:45
Speaker 2: So now you're seeing guys.
23:46
Speaker 3: That are more multifaceted in that approach where they are
23:52
Speaker 3: becoming more of your do it all type of backs,
23:55
Speaker 3: where it's like, you know, the bell cow phrase comes back.
23:59
Speaker 3: You know he's a bell coow. We can keep him
24:00
Speaker 3: in all three downs. What Mike McCarthy wants out here
24:03
Speaker 3: is a bell cow back, but he wants two of them, right.
24:06
Speaker 3: He's like, listen, I don't, he said specifically, I do
24:09
Speaker 3: not want to have to worry about who is in
24:12
Speaker 3: on third down behind my quarterback or next to my quarterback.
24:15
Speaker 3: I want to be able to play with the same guy,
24:18
Speaker 3: go fast, be efficient, and they can do it all.
24:21
Speaker 2: Same thing with his receivers. I need my receivers to
24:23
Speaker 2: not only play X, they gotta play Z. They gotta
24:25
Speaker 2: play why.
24:25
Speaker 3: You got to be able to you have to know
24:27
Speaker 3: all of the responsibilities at the wide receiver position. So
24:31
Speaker 3: with that in mind and the spirit of that, this
24:34
Speaker 3: is the payoff for the guys that do have those
24:36
Speaker 3: skill sets. And that's where Jonathan Taylor fits in. He's
24:39
Speaker 3: He's really good at anything you need him to be.
24:41
Speaker 3: He's a chameleon there at the running back position. Same
24:44
Speaker 3: with Jamir Gibbs, same with b Jehan Robinson, all the
24:47
Speaker 3: guys that got those big extensions.
24:49
Speaker 2: For that for that group. Over the last couple of days,
24:50
Speaker 2: Jamiir gives to me is like liquid Mercury. I mean
24:53
Speaker 2: it just the way he runs. I mean he's just
24:56
Speaker 2: he just explodes and the and the speed. He's a
25:00
Speaker 2: really really fun guy to watch. Yeah, and we had
25:03
Speaker 2: him last year in Detroit, and yes, he did a
25:06
Speaker 2: great job on him.
25:06
Speaker 3: It was it was fun to watch him get stopped
25:09
Speaker 3: because we had watched film yet a time. Not many
25:11
Speaker 3: people have done that up to that point. So it
25:13
Speaker 3: was nice to see that type and have our running
25:16
Speaker 3: backs versus their running backs, right, you know, because like
25:19
Speaker 3: you said, you have a guy like Junior Gibbs, you
25:20
Speaker 3: wonder where's our team stack up. And Kenny Gainwell and
25:24
Speaker 3: Jayalen Warren had had phenomenal games as well, so it's like, okay, yeah,
25:28
Speaker 3: they got that one. And then Montgomery kind of fills in,
25:31
Speaker 3: you know, as a as kind of a reliever guy,
25:33
Speaker 3: but ours was, Yeah, both of our guys can go
25:36
Speaker 3: and they can do whatever we need. And Kenny Gamewell
25:38
Speaker 3: of course had like the catch.
25:39
Speaker 2: Of the year the red zone. Oh my gosh, that
25:42
Speaker 2: was a ridiculous catch.
25:44
Speaker 3: And then Jalen Warren broke off a couple of long,
25:46
Speaker 3: long yardage runs as well, So it was just it
25:49
Speaker 3: was nice to see the balance and like you said,
25:51
Speaker 3: bottle up a guy who is that contagious? Also like
25:53
Speaker 3: a Davon hh right, another guy who got paid as well.
25:58
Speaker 2: A little bit further back, but on a.
26:00
Speaker 3: Chain was that guy When he came into us, We're like, dude,
26:03
Speaker 3: he was on tear for like six weeks, right, like
26:05
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty plus two hundred total purpose yards.
26:08
Speaker 3: So you're like, man, how are we gonna stop it?
26:10
Speaker 3: And we stopped him.
26:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think if him as a speedback, oh and
26:14
Speaker 2: I think if I think if Gibbs is being a
26:16
Speaker 2: little more there, then a little more thunder than h Yeah,
26:19
Speaker 2: little I think. I mean again, I don't see a chain.
26:23
Speaker 2: You know, Detroit on National TV a lot, so we
26:25
Speaker 2: get we get an opportunity to see him play. And
26:28
Speaker 2: you know, obviously we scattered him both last year before
26:30
Speaker 2: the game, so we saw every game, every single game
26:32
Speaker 2: they played up until that point. But you know, their
26:35
Speaker 2: their Gibbs just seems to have sort of an it
26:37
Speaker 2: factor with a lot of different things that that he
26:39
Speaker 2: can do out in the field. And you know, the
26:42
Speaker 2: other the other guy I'm thinking of is you know,
26:44
Speaker 2: we were talking about his Bijon Robinson. When I think
26:47
Speaker 2: of Bijon, he's one of those guys. This is hard
26:50
Speaker 2: to quantify, but it seems to me like he runs
26:54
Speaker 2: the ball and you're like, Okay, not bad, pretty good job.
26:58
Speaker 2: Wait if he got six on that play. It just
27:01
Speaker 2: he just has that quality. He was very deceptive. Yeah,
27:04
Speaker 2: but I mean, and you know you're not. You know,
27:06
Speaker 2: he's fast also, and he's elusive also, and he's strong also,
27:09
Speaker 2: but just has that quality of like he got how
27:11
Speaker 2: many yards on that? That's what That's just that's your
27:14
Speaker 2: when I when I figure guys, and I'm trying to
27:16
Speaker 2: think of how I describe him and what buckets and
27:18
Speaker 2: categories I would put him into, even though they're obviously
27:20
Speaker 2: all individual. That's one that that's one that he strikes
27:25
Speaker 2: me is that you think you've done a good job
27:27
Speaker 2: and you look up, but he's got one hundred and
27:29
Speaker 2: twenty yards rushing in the receiving yards and all that stuff.
27:31
Speaker 6: Yeah, You're like man, Okay, we did a good he
27:34
Speaker 6: did what right exactly what two thousand? Yeah, on the
27:38
Speaker 6: season where and then you start watching it like, oh
27:41
Speaker 6: yeah he did do that.
27:42
Speaker 2: Oh yeah he did do that. Oh wow he did
27:44
Speaker 2: fall forward right. Oh, he hasn't had that many tackles
27:46
Speaker 2: for loss. Yeah, he's just well it's.
27:49
Speaker 3: Like the summation of but it's but it's deceptive how
27:52
Speaker 3: it comes throughout the year because it because he makes
27:54
Speaker 3: it look easy.
27:55
Speaker 2: It looks it looks smooth. It is smooth. He is
27:58
Speaker 2: really smart.
27:59
Speaker 3: It's not it's not dynamic. He's going to have those
28:01
Speaker 3: type of plays, but he gotta gets mixed in with
28:03
Speaker 3: everybody else and somebody will do something a little bit
28:06
Speaker 3: more dynamic. But he did just as great a thing.
28:08
Speaker 3: He just didn't have to break as many tackles because
28:10
Speaker 3: they weren't able to catch.
28:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll get We'll see him week one. Yeah,
28:15
Speaker 2: we saw him. The first time I'd seen him in
28:17
Speaker 2: person was the game we had a couple of years
28:19
Speaker 2: ago when uh, I think just did this was that
28:21
Speaker 2: the stud is open? I think it was down in
28:24
Speaker 2: that was the Yeah, where Boswell kicked six field goals. Yeah,
28:28
Speaker 2: it's good to have a boswall on your tea. It
28:30
Speaker 2: really is. But no touchdowns, no problem. Yeah. So I
28:33
Speaker 2: think when you think about like, you know, we started
28:36
Speaker 2: to see receivers making these huge, huge dollars, and still
28:39
Speaker 2: I don't believe any of the running backs are up
28:42
Speaker 2: at the same average salary as the top receivers. I
28:47
Speaker 2: could be wrong. I don't know, because they flowers just
28:48
Speaker 2: got a monster. Yeah. So you know, when when there's
28:52
Speaker 2: two ways to me to look at it. So on
28:54
Speaker 2: the one hand, like it never made sense to me
28:56
Speaker 2: because I looked at it in one way and the
28:59
Speaker 2: white the way I looked at it was okay, So
29:01
Speaker 2: do I want to pay the guy who's going to
29:04
Speaker 2: touch the ball six times? Or do I want to
29:06
Speaker 2: pay the guy who's going to touch the ball twenty
29:08
Speaker 2: two times. That's one way of looking at it. Of course,
29:11
Speaker 2: that's a simple way of looking at it. The other
29:13
Speaker 2: way to look at it is, okay, the guy who's
29:14
Speaker 2: getting the ball six yards or six times is getting
29:19
Speaker 2: just as many yards as the guy who car got
29:21
Speaker 2: it twenty two times, and then you have to account
29:23
Speaker 2: for him, you have to defend him differently. And you know,
29:26
Speaker 2: the interconnectedness of football is that if you have a
29:29
Speaker 2: great receiver, that's going to alter your defense and maybe
29:32
Speaker 2: make it a little easier for the running back. You know. Conversely,
29:36
Speaker 2: if you have a great running back, that could make
29:38
Speaker 2: things a little bit easier for the receiver. So I
29:40
Speaker 2: guess at the end of the day, there's still those
29:43
Speaker 2: those receivers there. I think that the feeling is there
29:48
Speaker 2: are a less There are fewer elite receivers and difference
29:53
Speaker 2: making receivers than there are elite running backs and difference
29:57
Speaker 2: making running backs. And those running backs are easier, you know,
30:02
Speaker 2: not the super elite ones, but the say, the really
30:06
Speaker 2: good ones that next year down are easier to replace
30:09
Speaker 2: than the really good receivers. That again, that's just a thumbnail.
30:13
Speaker 2: I that's about as deep as I've thought about it.
30:15
Speaker 2: But I think that the when you see what they're getting,
30:18
Speaker 2: that's again follow the money. That's what I think the
30:20
Speaker 2: league is telling us about those two positions.
30:23
Speaker 3: Well, they are, but I think you are seeing more
30:25
Speaker 3: of a value coming back absolute position, and I think
30:28
Speaker 3: rightfully so, yes, because it is one of the two
30:31
Speaker 3: elements in your offense. You know, you can only be
30:34
Speaker 3: two dimensions right, running, passing, right at the end of
30:37
Speaker 3: the day, it's still half of what's your team.
30:40
Speaker 2: Now, whether you do it more or less and it.
30:43
Speaker 3: Gets to sixty forty fifty five forty five, you know,
30:46
Speaker 3: I don't think you know, some cases you might even
30:48
Speaker 3: get down to a seventy thirty split. But I think
30:51
Speaker 3: it is about where are you amassing the most amount
30:55
Speaker 3: of yards? Is it in your ground game, is it
30:57
Speaker 3: in your air game? The potential for higher air game
31:02
Speaker 3: miles is going to yield for their wide receivers over
31:05
Speaker 3: the running unless that running back is a receiving running
31:08
Speaker 3: back and he could catch out of the back and
31:09
Speaker 3: he's adding to that.
31:11
Speaker 2: So then he becomes more value. He bleeds into that
31:14
Speaker 2: and becomes a bigger cross section of your team success.
31:17
Speaker 2: And you think about Atlanta.
31:19
Speaker 3: Yeah you have Drake London, Yeah you have Kyle Pitts,
31:21
Speaker 3: but Bjohn Robinson's right there top three and catches every
31:24
Speaker 3: year as well as your number one runner.
31:27
Speaker 2: On the team.
31:28
Speaker 3: So now his value kind of changes because he's having
31:30
Speaker 3: a more more access to potential yards and he's giving.
31:35
Speaker 2: You more yards on your score sheet from week to week. Yeah,
31:38
Speaker 2: so he might touch it, say thirty times in a
31:41
Speaker 2: game that top notch receiver might touch it six to
31:43
Speaker 2: eight times in a game, but it still goes back
31:45
Speaker 2: to that guy who's touching it every time in the game.
31:48
Speaker 2: Who's gonna make the most money of course, and that,
31:50
Speaker 2: of course is the quarterback unless you're running, unless you're
31:52
Speaker 2: running the wildcat, I get it, But that guy's touching
31:55
Speaker 2: him all every single time. Yeah, Or unless you're the
31:58
Speaker 2: Miami Dolphins like that week.
32:00
Speaker 3: Stress right where it's like, all I'm doing is touching
32:03
Speaker 3: the ball, but I'm literally handing it off the day
32:05
Speaker 3: by eyes.
32:05
Speaker 2: That's right, That's exactly right. All right, stick around. Max
32:08
Speaker 2: got a very special journey ahead of him that we
32:10
Speaker 2: all want to share with him, and we will tell
32:13
Speaker 2: you about that when we continue in the locker room.
32:15
Speaker 2: Here on the Steelers Audio Network.
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33:10
Speaker 2: And welcome back to the trobe as we are continuing
33:14
Speaker 2: on here in the locker room. And so Max, Uh,
33:18
Speaker 2: you are going to Canton. Correct? What a what a
33:24
Speaker 2: wonderful thing to be able to say. Now it's a
33:26
Speaker 2: long time you got but you are going to Canton, Max,
33:31
Speaker 2: How good is that?
33:32
Speaker 3: I'm excited? I mean, you know, we got a good
33:35
Speaker 3: preview of it last night with the game is this?
33:38
Speaker 3: Is this better? I got to lower it because the
33:42
Speaker 3: other one was we got new headsets for everybody there.
33:45
Speaker 3: And this new one kind of has like a snow
33:47
Speaker 3: cone at the end of it, but you have to
33:49
Speaker 3: talk directly to the snow cone, whereas the old one
33:52
Speaker 3: was a bigger ball, so you just had to have
33:54
Speaker 3: it in front of your mouth.
33:55
Speaker 2: But this one's a little bit different. So I was
33:57
Speaker 2: just looking at the adjustment.
33:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so the adjustment, So I mean I literally
34:00
Speaker 3: have to turn it kind of up here so I
34:02
Speaker 3: can kind of catch it a little bit, catch in
34:04
Speaker 3: your mustache, Yeah, a little bit.
34:05
Speaker 2: That's when I shake my head a little bit. That's there.
34:09
Speaker 2: But you know, people don't realize. I mean that some
34:12
Speaker 2: of the difficulties of this job, like when the microphone,
34:15
Speaker 2: when the fuzzy microphone kind of tickles against your face.
34:18
Speaker 2: Tough to that, and then you gotta battle through because
34:21
Speaker 2: some guys.
34:21
Speaker 3: Actually like where the microphone is, like like you're like
34:24
Speaker 3: you're about to inhale it.
34:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like right on their mouth. I can't stand that.
34:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I like it a little bit away, but
34:29
Speaker 3: like you said, it's getting used to where the right
34:31
Speaker 3: point is. So you guys can hear me loud enough,
34:34
Speaker 3: so you're going to Yes, I'm going back to going
34:36
Speaker 3: back to that. Yeah, going going in and we saw
34:39
Speaker 3: it last night, great preseason game between the Panthers and
34:44
Speaker 3: the Cardinals.
34:44
Speaker 2: Of course, why do you have.
34:46
Speaker 3: Those teams there because oh, by the way, there's two
34:49
Speaker 3: guys going into the Hall of Fame that are gonna
34:52
Speaker 3: have bus created by them that played for those teams.
34:54
Speaker 3: One guy, I believe the Western PA Faithful and all
34:58
Speaker 3: Hill Pitt would recognize Larry fitz Gerald going into the Hall.
35:02
Speaker 3: Also Luke Keikley, a longtime linebacker with the Carolina Panthers,
35:06
Speaker 3: going in along with Roger Craig, which I mean, let's
35:10
Speaker 3: face it, in the eighties, I was a young kid
35:13
Speaker 3: who didn't want to be Roger Craig. Right, thousand yards passing,
35:16
Speaker 3: thousand yards receiving, rushing in the same scenes we're.
35:19
Speaker 2: Talking about threat running backs. Yeah, he was the first.
35:22
Speaker 2: He was. Yeah, I was gonna say he's one of
35:24
Speaker 2: the first, but maybe he was.
35:25
Speaker 3: He was the first running back to ever get a
35:27
Speaker 3: thousand thousand Yeah, so he is the prototype that everybody
35:31
Speaker 3: now aspires to be.
35:33
Speaker 2: Those high knees too, Oh yeah, exactly. He was going through.
35:37
Speaker 3: You weren't going to just you know, let tackle him.
35:39
Speaker 3: You had to hit him up high. And so you know,
35:42
Speaker 3: kind of thinking about like that, like like I thought
35:45
Speaker 3: he'd already be in the Hall of Fame.
35:46
Speaker 2: But it isn't that amazing about the Football Hall of
35:50
Speaker 2: Fame more than any other Hall of Fame. Yeah, you think,
35:54
Speaker 2: wait a minute, he's not in the Hall of Fame
35:55
Speaker 2: and they put in, you know, eight nine guys a
35:59
Speaker 2: year it always shocks me who's not in the Hall
36:01
Speaker 2: of Fame exactly and how long it takes some guys
36:04
Speaker 2: to get into the Hall of Fame.
36:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, because once you get out of like a certain
36:07
Speaker 3: period of where you've been a semi finalist or a
36:09
Speaker 3: finalist for a number of.
36:10
Speaker 2: Years, then you get kicked to the senior kid. Because
36:12
Speaker 2: he went in the senior category.
36:14
Speaker 3: Incredible, And when you think about all the guys that
36:16
Speaker 3: are still there, like you, and here's me here here,
36:20
Speaker 3: here's kind of my personal thoughts probably why I'm not
36:22
Speaker 3: a Hall of Fame voter. If you make an All
36:25
Speaker 3: Decades team, yes, totally agree with you should totally be
36:30
Speaker 3: in there because that means you were the best person
36:32
Speaker 3: for whatever segment was of a ten year span, you
36:36
Speaker 3: dominated a majority of it, right. So the fact that
36:39
Speaker 3: he's an All Eighties Decade team member making it in
36:44
Speaker 3: and also this kind of goes to my chagrin because.
36:46
Speaker 2: My uncle was also an All Eighties Decade team, but
36:49
Speaker 2: that's a different story.
36:51
Speaker 3: Roger Craig goes in Adam vini Eri, how did it
36:56
Speaker 3: take this long for Adam Ventiy to get in when
36:58
Speaker 3: he literally has the most points in NFL history. I
37:01
Speaker 3: don't like literally the most points, so that that should
37:06
Speaker 3: automatically be a shoe. I don't care if it was
37:07
Speaker 3: a kicker or not. If you score the most points
37:10
Speaker 3: in a game that's very tough to score points, and
37:12
Speaker 3: you have the most of them and over one hundred
37:14
Speaker 3: years of history, probably should go in a little bit
37:17
Speaker 3: quicker in that process.
37:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, so those are the main guys
37:20
Speaker 2: going in. I'm going. I'm not going for any of
37:23
Speaker 2: those guys.
37:25
Speaker 3: I am going because my agent, Dean Grossman, his dad,
37:29
Speaker 3: Sandy Grossman, is getting the Pete Roselle Award, which is
37:33
Speaker 3: kind of the broadcaster production side of things. Like Joe
37:39
Speaker 3: buck Is in has gotten the Pete Roselle Awards for
37:43
Speaker 3: just for into the purpose of a person that's prominent
37:45
Speaker 3: that you might know.
37:45
Speaker 2: He went into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year too. Yeah,
37:48
Speaker 2: see he went. He went to all of those.
37:50
Speaker 3: So Sandy Grossman is one of the first directors I
37:53
Speaker 3: think him and Fred Goodelli went in Who's a long
37:56
Speaker 3: Time with NBC. But Sandy Grossman what he's famous for
38:00
Speaker 3: or is he was the director for in You and
38:04
Speaker 3: I talked about this the greatest duo in football broadcasting history.
38:10
Speaker 3: And we could argue overall broadcasting history, yes, because that's
38:15
Speaker 3: a different story. But John Madden and Pat Summer all phenomenal.
38:18
Speaker 3: So the guy who was who was the man in
38:20
Speaker 3: the chair for those guys, and how revolutionary he was.
38:24
Speaker 3: So just to give you kind of a peeking insight
38:26
Speaker 3: into what Sandy Grossman not only did for John Madden
38:30
Speaker 3: and did for Pat summerl and that crew and they
38:31
Speaker 3: were together for twenty one years, but he's the one
38:34
Speaker 3: that also widened the angle of the of the lens
38:38
Speaker 3: so you can see outside backers during a football game broadcast. Wow,
38:42
Speaker 3: he was the first guy.
38:43
Speaker 2: To do that. I didn't I didn't think he was
38:45
Speaker 2: about that.
38:45
Speaker 3: And he was also the first guy to introduce the
38:47
Speaker 3: ISO camera in a game where you could zoom in
38:50
Speaker 3: on a player because.
38:51
Speaker 2: Everything was just far away, overarching stuff or just really tight.
38:56
Speaker 3: He actually did the individual ISO player cam, so we
38:59
Speaker 3: used a guy on the field like Aaron Rodgers sitting
39:02
Speaker 3: under center about to call a snap. That's the isocam.
39:05
Speaker 3: He did that. He also did the off camera stuff,
39:07
Speaker 3: so not necessarily just tracking the ball, but if there
39:10
Speaker 3: was a key matchup like watching wide receivers like you know,
39:14
Speaker 3: fight at the at the break point or or an
39:16
Speaker 3: outside line, but like Lawrence Taylor, right, Lawrence Taylor going
39:19
Speaker 3: against the tackle so that even though the play would
39:21
Speaker 3: be there and then you could show.
39:22
Speaker 2: It on the replay.
39:24
Speaker 3: That's what That's what he revolutionized for the way we
39:27
Speaker 3: watch football.
39:28
Speaker 2: So he also has the record. He's called the most
39:30
Speaker 2: Super Bowls.
39:31
Speaker 3: He's called ten, he's called nineteen NBA Finals, he's called
39:36
Speaker 3: six Stanley Cup playoff. Well directed, and then he's done
39:41
Speaker 3: a number of Olympics, so he's been he's one of
39:44
Speaker 3: the first super directors, and obviously that kind of gets overlooked.
39:48
Speaker 3: He's like, who's the director. But that's what he brought
39:50
Speaker 3: to the game, and that's why he's getting the awards.
39:51
Speaker 3: So I'm going there on behalf of my agent. He's
39:55
Speaker 3: gonna he's gonna present his dad and give the speech tonight,
39:57
Speaker 3: so I'm going to support him.
39:58
Speaker 2: So I just want to quickly mentioned this.
40:01
Speaker 3: Uh.
40:01
Speaker 2: I took my son, UH and wife. We went to
40:05
Speaker 2: the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, and of course
40:08
Speaker 2: I'm talking about in the locker room cub reporter Schaefer King.
40:11
Speaker 3: We went to a junior reporter. Actually he was junior
40:14
Speaker 3: at the time. He's not senior report.
40:18
Speaker 2: So there's a room in the Hall of Fame in
40:20
Speaker 2: which you can see little videos of the players. So
40:25
Speaker 2: my son is going to Troy Polamalo and players of
40:29
Speaker 2: that he grew up, watch his area. I'm going to
40:32
Speaker 2: players of my error or even later. So I'm giggling.
40:36
Speaker 2: I'm giggling it like like Dick Knight trade lane, you know,
40:40
Speaker 2: close lining guys. It was just it was just it
40:43
Speaker 2: was it was legal to cross the middle of a guy,
40:46
Speaker 2: just closed lining to the ground, you know. And uh
40:49
Speaker 2: so we we refused. I said, you know, my so,
40:54
Speaker 2: now my wife's out. She's like, okay, I'm I'm leaving.
40:57
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go get I'm gonna go get the car
40:58
Speaker 2: pulled around front and I was like, Shaeffer, we cannot
41:01
Speaker 2: leave until somebody we see video of somebody getting absolutely trucked,
41:07
Speaker 2: I mean trucked. Yeah. So we're dashing around hitting the
41:11
Speaker 2: little thirty second videos. Dick bud Is, Dad, that's not
41:13
Speaker 2: good enough, you know, Raid, that's not good enough. You know.
41:16
Speaker 2: So finally we came to I came to Jerome Bettis
41:20
Speaker 2: and I hit Jerome Bettas, I'm like, Shafer, get over here, man.
41:23
Speaker 2: We got our we got our winner. It was it
41:26
Speaker 2: was a low angle shot. I think they were playing
41:28
Speaker 2: I'm almost positive they were playing Baltimore and some uh
41:33
Speaker 2: some defensive back came up and I think I think
41:37
Speaker 2: the dB may have even been nudged by a blocker,
41:41
Speaker 2: so he was a little off pounced. It was phenomenal.
41:45
Speaker 2: So if you ever get to the Hall of Fame
41:47
Speaker 2: and you go into the room, check out Jerome bettters
41:49
Speaker 2: and they still have the same video and then we're like,
41:52
Speaker 2: all right, now we can leave. It was great. So
41:53
Speaker 2: that was my that was my Hall of Fame.
41:55
Speaker 3: And he has so many, oh so many, so many videos,
41:59
Speaker 3: but you know, low angle.
42:00
Speaker 2: It was low angle, so it was like you talk
42:02
Speaker 2: about different angles. That's part of what made me think
42:04
Speaker 2: about it. Like, so you're seeing the high angles and
42:06
Speaker 2: the game appears to move slower at those high angles
42:10
Speaker 2: when you see it down low, it is moving in
42:12
Speaker 2: Jerome game times. It was. It was so much fun.
42:16
Speaker 5: Yeah.
42:16
Speaker 3: Now, the other one that I love that I see
42:18
Speaker 3: I see, you know quite frequently the Erlacker play in Chicago.
42:23
Speaker 3: Here in Pittsburgh, Yes, and in the in the O
42:25
Speaker 3: five season. I mean when he absolutely trucked Brian Urlacker,
42:30
Speaker 3: who at that time was the beasy He was the
42:32
Speaker 3: linebackers linebacker, right, that's right, he's your favorite linebacker's favorite linebacker, yes,
42:37
Speaker 3: and for and when you watched a low angle version
42:40
Speaker 3: of that, like it's almost like a kind of a
42:41
Speaker 3: cross diagonal field, like from the opposite sideline looking into
42:44
Speaker 3: the play.
42:46
Speaker 2: That's what.
42:46
Speaker 3: So thank you Sandy Grossman for giving us the availability
42:49
Speaker 3: to have those.
42:50
Speaker 2: Type of shots shot live.
42:52
Speaker 3: And then like Steve Sables another one NFL films get
42:54
Speaker 3: into the Hall of Fame, right, but he was another one.
42:56
Speaker 3: When you talk about we think about the rights of Autumn,
42:58
Speaker 3: we think about the classic appisode, the little pictures, like
43:01
Speaker 3: he was a guy that was filming that secondary It
43:03
Speaker 3: wasn't for the television broadcast, but for archival purposes that
43:07
Speaker 3: you can go back and have those moments. He was
43:09
Speaker 3: another guy that was an innovator in that world with
43:12
Speaker 3: NFL films.
43:13
Speaker 2: So everybody, by the way, every play by play guy
43:16
Speaker 2: in television owes something to Pat summerl who is a
43:21
Speaker 2: kicker of renown played a little wide receiver too, but
43:24
Speaker 2: a kicker of renown for the New York Giants, and
43:26
Speaker 2: every color guy owes something to John Madden. They were
43:30
Speaker 2: that revolutionary. Both wasn't one or the other, it was
43:33
Speaker 2: both of them.
43:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, the combination was the most golden combination of all time.
43:38
Speaker 2: So if you're listening to a game on the radio,
43:41
Speaker 2: the play by a play person has to describe everything
43:45
Speaker 2: that's going on, so you have to and is trying
43:47
Speaker 2: to paint a picture in your mind of what's happening.
43:50
Speaker 2: That's why he's describing a player going in motion, and
43:54
Speaker 2: you know what's happening. Is the crowd on its feet?
43:56
Speaker 2: What is the defense doing? Are they creeping up? All
43:58
Speaker 2: these things? And when football on TV started, they grabbed
44:05
Speaker 2: radio play by play guys and so these guys were
44:08
Speaker 2: describing everything that you were seeing. Pat Summerow was the
44:12
Speaker 2: first guy to really understand they can see it. And
44:15
Speaker 2: if I say, you know, if I say Bradshaw swan touchdown,
44:22
Speaker 2: that's enough. You saw Bradshaw take the snap and get
44:26
Speaker 2: out of trouble and throw it down the field. You
44:28
Speaker 2: don't have to explain that to somebody that you do
44:30
Speaker 2: on radio. So that made him innovative. And then of course,
44:34
Speaker 2: John Madden, the way he brought football to everybody, the
44:36
Speaker 2: way he described it. There's not a single guy I
44:39
Speaker 2: don't think, who has done color since the and there
44:42
Speaker 2: isn't a single guy who does TV play by play
44:44
Speaker 2: who shouldn't be influenced by both of those guys. Absolutely no,
44:48
Speaker 2: I completely agree.
44:49
Speaker 3: And when you think about it like that, that's the
44:51
Speaker 3: Mount Rushmore right of play by play and color analysts.
44:55
Speaker 2: If you're putting the top duos.
44:57
Speaker 3: On Mount Rushmore's first name, that has to come up
45:01
Speaker 3: regardless of sport, regardless of sport, because you know when
45:06
Speaker 3: you can endear and you, like you said, it's almost
45:08
Speaker 3: like when when an artist in the musical genre crosses over.
45:12
Speaker 3: I was just thinking, as that cross they had that
45:15
Speaker 3: crossover appeal.
45:15
Speaker 2: You cross over them. Yes, and I think I think
45:18
Speaker 2: they influenced people beyond their own sport. But I also
45:20
Speaker 2: think when you're talking about that, it's funny because the
45:23
Speaker 2: Beatles popped into my mind, like the Beatles were to
45:25
Speaker 2: rock and roll with. These guys were announcing. Somebody may
45:28
Speaker 2: have come along and did that, but they're the ones
45:30
Speaker 2: who did it, and everything that comes after is informed
45:33
Speaker 2: by what they.
45:33
Speaker 3: Did exactly they they changed the course of how you
45:36
Speaker 3: viewed that subject matter. And I mean the telestration. I
45:41
Speaker 3: mean we could go on and on the telestrations, you know,
45:43
Speaker 3: the on the field interviews, you know, the traducan I mean,
45:46
Speaker 3: there's so many traditions and things that you must do
45:51
Speaker 3: because of what for me, John Matten did to the game.
45:55
Speaker 2: What are you What are you doing on PlayStation exactly Madden?
45:58
Speaker 3: Right, you're not You're not playing fl Football twenty twenty six,
46:01
Speaker 3: You're playing Madden twenty twenty six.
46:03
Speaker 2: I mean, it's so that's just that's but that's just good.
46:06
Speaker 2: He had All Madden.
46:07
Speaker 3: Team, All mad the man had his own Pro Pro
46:10
Speaker 3: Bowl team that are all Pro team that he got
46:12
Speaker 3: to pick. Yep, and my uncle won four of those.
46:14
Speaker 3: So I have one of those. Nice, I'm blessed. I
46:16
Speaker 3: mean I I I look at that, I'm like, I
46:18
Speaker 3: have it All Madden Trophy. I would not it, but
46:20
Speaker 3: my uncle was in the fact that somebody I know
46:22
Speaker 3: was on that trophy, Uh is pretty special. So they'll
46:25
Speaker 3: never be another John Madden. Nope, And they'll never be
46:28
Speaker 3: another Pat Summer all and all of us can hope
46:31
Speaker 3: to get the nod that John or Pat would approve
46:34
Speaker 3: of what we did for sure.
46:36
Speaker 2: That's the ultimate acknowledgement in our business. Max, safe travels,
46:39
Speaker 2: my friend, Thanks Bud, I appreciate it, having a great time.
46:42
Speaker 2: We'll be back tomorrow. We will be back tomorrow. I'm
46:45
Speaker 2: still here. Max is on the road. Uh, safe travels Max.
46:48
Speaker 2: Wes Euler peering around the corner and bench hitting. Now
46:51
Speaker 2: now that's our that's our senior cup reporter around. That's right,
46:54
Speaker 2: he's gonna he's gonna come around the corner there we
46:58
Speaker 2: go to a little heartface. Yeah that's right. Yeah, So
47:03
Speaker 2: Max say, travels, my friend, thank you, and wes Uler
47:06
Speaker 2: will join me next and we continue in the locker
47:08
Speaker 2: room here on the Steeler's Audio Network.