Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / O-Zone Podcast: Pete Prisco, Part Two

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O-Zone Podcast: Pete Prisco, Part Two · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ozone podcast featuring Jaguars dot Com Senior
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: writer John Osher and Jaguars executive producer Dave de Candis.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: This week, we're continuing last week's Those Own podcasts. We
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: talked to Pete Crisco, NFL senior columnists for CBS and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a long time Jaguars radio voice, has been on our broadcast.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: He covered the Jaguars with me for the newspaper for
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: six seven years when it first started. Last week with Pete,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: we talked about how Pete kind of got started in
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the business, trying to give people an idea of how
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: he got to Jacksonville, what he did before covering the Jaguars,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: which he has been known for for a long time,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and we talked about him covering the team in terms
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of its expansion process in terms of how the Jaguars
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: got to Jacksonville, which if you haven't heard it and
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: are listening to this one, I would highly recommend listening
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to some of what Pete said about how he covered
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the team as it came to fruition, as the Jaguars
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: got the team. I was working with Pete at the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: paper at the time and it was fascinating to hear
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: him talk about some of the stories. It's not an
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: easy process covering an expansion process, especially for this team,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: this town at the time. So that's a really good listen.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: If you have heard it, go ahead and listen to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: this one. We talked last week's about a lot about
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Tom Coughlin and a lot about the dynamic there, and
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I think people would go back and listen to that
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: will be fascinated by it. But one thing that we
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: haven't talked about over the years, even personally together very
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: much for four years when we covered this team, especially
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: nine nine, we covered what I think most people will
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: consider the glory days of the franchise, and I wrote
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: a book on it, and for me, it's one of
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: my better professional memories that time. What I wanted to
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: ask you, first of all, I forget a little bit.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I think after there was a feeling the team was
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: moving in the right direction. But did we think that
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: that team had a chance to be good? Because I
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: can't really remember it that well. No, we did not.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: We thought they'd be better. We thought they'd be better,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: but we didn't think they'd be that team. And and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: you know it's funny, I actually went back it was
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: tweeted out. And rewatched the Denver playoff game last week.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Did you see it? Somebody tweeted it out and they
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: actually had the full copy of that the NFL. The
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: NFL put that on their site. It was available, and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I watched it. And the amazing thing is is that's
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: considered one of the biggest upsets in the NFL, and
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: it was from a point spread standpoint. They dominated them
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: after the first quarter, dominated him, did not. They had
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: one of the most remarkable things in that game. And
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I know we talked about it. They got behind twelve
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: nothing and then scored and kept the Broncos from scoring
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: on five straight possessions of each team. It was an
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: absolute domination and you didn't feel it because they weren't
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: supposed to be doing it. But when you look back
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: at the I've looked. I happened to have the playback
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: play sheet of that game, and I'm speaking to your point.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: It was remarkable how they dominated that game and it
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: was really not an upset if you watch the game,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: if they haven't seen any sense, no, And and that
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: team was growing up, it grew, it grew up at
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the end of the year. And remember they lost a
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: ton of close games early in the season and weird games.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: They lost that in New England on remember Willie Jackson
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: got tackled at the one yard line or whatever it
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: was on that Hail Mary. They lost in St. Louis
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: when Brunelle turned it over a bunch and they threw
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: for over five hundred yards and Willie Jackson didn't go down.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Remember he didn't go down. Yeah, he wouldn't go down.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Everybody remembers at game teat they lost in New Orleans
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: in the exact same way. So they were they were there,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: but they were still four in seven. And then guys
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: were growing up. They started getting better and you could
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: see it happening. And you know, that line was good
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: by the end of the year. You know, you know
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: in that Denver game, people forget that was Mike Cheever
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: start right. I mean, he he was gonna be a
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: good player if he hadn't heard his back, he was
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: gonna be a big time center in the NFL. And
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: that that line was playing well at the end of
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the year. So I think they grew up. I mean
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: they look at the past fus they had Brackens who
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: in that game. By the way, I don't think he
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: got a sack in that game, if I remember Craty,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: but any time he came in he didn't start. But
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: remember the left tackle was Gary Zimmerman, who's in the
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. The other guy on the other side
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: is a better tackle when he was better in that game.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: By the way, I wanted to specifically watch those two.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Rackins went around Zimmerman a couple of different times in
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: that game. Clyde had his trouble with zimmermove, but Brackens
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: beat him u pretty good. And then they had log
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Himan who was a good pass rusher, and Smeggy could
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: rush the passer, and they had bodies. They had waves
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: of guy Yorkovich and all those guys on the inside.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: They had bodies in there, and it showed up and
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: they played fast and they were good on offense. So
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: it really when you it was a major upset. But
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the way the game played out, and when you look
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: back on it in time, you know, it's almost like
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: that Ohio State team that beat Miami in college football
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: that one year on the end zone call that wasn't made.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Everybody said, oh my god, Miami. Well, that Ohio State
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: team was loaded too. When you go back and you
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: look at it. So I think that's what that's what
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: happened in the playoffs, and that's what happened. They got
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: hot at the right time. The the play that's time
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: to fascinate me out of this game. Everybody remembers the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Jimmy play. Everybody remembers the market now play again, the
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Keenan catch. When I was talking to players about the
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: twenty five seasons last year, it was the selling who
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: reminded me that of the key and catch, and Tony said,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: go back and watched that catch. The Keaton catching the
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: touchdown is one of the best catches in franchise history.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And you know what, you're right, but it's also a
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: pretty damn good throw by a guy on the move.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Remember he had got flushed out of the pocket by Romanowski,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I think, and got outside made that play, did H
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: And I remember being aware of how big that was,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: but I don't think I realized when that was happening.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe I hadn't cover the league long enough how good
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: that Jaguars team really was. And I need six Jaguars team.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: It was not any way of flute that they wound
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: up winning double digit games the next three years that
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: was turning into a good team. Yeah they're not better,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: they weren't better than them, but but they were starting
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: to grow up that playoff run and should have went
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: to the super Bowl and no business losing that Patriots team.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: I don't think they would have beat Green Bay, but
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: they had no business losing the Patriots team. That Patriots
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: team was not better than that, No, but it it
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: just sort of felt the whole game that the jag
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Warrens had woken up a little bit. There was I mean,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, they made some weird mistakes and it was
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: almost like the moment was too big for him. Yeah,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and that's what it felt like. They had the weird
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: fumble in the first half in conformation, and yeah, it
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: just sort of felt like, whoa are we really supposed
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: to be here? And I never got any players to
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: say that, but that's how it felt. And Jimmy ran
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the wrong route and Willie Clay picked off Mark Ron
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: on the end zone. Jimmy had never admit that, but
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: he did. And I can remember it or not, but
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: after that game, we had to walk around looking for this,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: looking for the car, Foxboro Stadium, looking for the car
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: because Gene fre net had parked in the wrong place
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: and the tow truck had moved his car behind the dumpster.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Remember how cold it was that day too, And so
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: finally it probably took us forty five minutes. And finally
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: remember Gene walking around or somebody walk around, going, jeez,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: that's your car and it had been moved and it
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: was behind a dumpster. How we ever founded I have
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: no idea. I remember that. I remember how cold it
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: was because that place was a dump and a rector
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: set remember the press box. It was freezing. And for
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: people who don't remember, that was one of the old
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: NFL stadiums back in the mid nineties there were still
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: we had gone from covering well mile high still wasn't
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: that great? I mean it was three old stadiums went
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to play it the worst stadium they ever played in
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: by far, though, you'll remember it. Which one was that Baltimore? Oh?
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I like that though, because that was the old Memorial Stadium. Yeah,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: but it was a it was a dump, but there
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: was something about this was nineties seven of the old clock.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Remember the old wasn't the Laungenes clock? Is that what
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: it was? A lunging Yeah, it was, remember it was
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a dump. It was terrible, there was no doubt. But well,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I wanted to tell people. We wrote after that season.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: A couple of weeks after, we got a call from
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: a literary agent and I used literary very loosely, but
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: a call from an agent to write the book that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: became Jacks Riches. And every day throughout the offseason you
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: would go work out, you go to Smoothie Kane and
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: then we'd sit there and in the office at my
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: house in San Marco, we would write that book and
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: probably did that way six seven weeks. Yeah, yeah, and uh,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: and then they became Jacks Riches. Yeah, and it was
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: too late coming out. By the time it came out,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the season had already started in nine remember. Yeah, it
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: was an impossible turnaround, it was it was. That was
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: a tough turn around. That was fun, though, and we
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: got to remember a lot of stories in our hands
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and that was the good thing about out it. Yeah.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: The thing I always always regret a little about that
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: book is we were under the constraints of the t
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: U at the time, and they really didn't want anything
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: in the book that hadn't been in the paper. If
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: you recall, there was a little bit of So there
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: was a limit in terms of time to how much
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: we could go back and talk to players and really
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: get deeper than we had gotten a newspaper. And I've
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: always kind of thought that if we could have gone
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: back and spent some time reporting it, re reporting it,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: that it could have been really good. Maybe for another day,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: maybe for another time we do that. But it was, Yeah,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: we weren't allowed that they were. They put so many
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: restrictions on us that it was like, you know, they
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: almost remember, they almost weren't being to let us even
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: do it. It was close and and I think that
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: again speaks to it being such another time. News papers
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: were different in the day. They were very territory. I'm
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: not saying these things to blame invators of the paper then,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: because the paper it was a much different era for papers,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and they ruled their markets and they they ruled the
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: people who worked for him, and like we did, a
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: lot of it did include a lot of the stories,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: background stuff that we could have put in there when
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: we weren't right, but we couldn't put it. We could
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: have been right, we if we were allowed to rereport
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: that book and put a lot of the stuff that
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: we had and we knew in that book it would
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: have been ten times better. No question. How should that
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: season be remembered, right, it's it's clearly the season I think,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: maybe even more than the fans. The fans remember, But
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: why did it happen? They were a bunch of young
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: guys and kauf and brought them together and they just
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: kind of became mature or maturing at the right time.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: That's why that happened. And you had a great mix.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: You had had the young athletic quarterback, you know, the
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: wide receiver turning into a star, the other wide receiver
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: who could make catches like in run routes like nobody else. Uh.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: You had a big, physical offensive line with two star tackles.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: You had a running back in naturel means who got
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: hot at the right time. And then we go to defense,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: and you know I mentioned that in the first segment
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: we did on the front. The front was athletic as hell,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and Brackens was an emerging star as a pass rusher.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: By the end of the season, he was a star
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: as a pass rusher even though he's only playing situationally.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: And then you look at that, you know, the rest
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: of those guys are growing up as well, so I
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: think the one week link of that team was probably
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: the secondary, right, But they were that was a good
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: football team by the end of the year. And I
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: think you're right it was how it kind of was
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the impetus to get them going where you know, people
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: expected in the next year to be good, and then
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: they expected him the next year to be good, and
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: then the next year to be good. And they weren't
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: as good as they should have been. I don't think
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: in ninety seven, but in ninety nine that was the
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: team that was clearly the best. I thought they were
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the best team in the league for me, I'll be
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: honest with you, they kind of run together. And when
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: I think about them and talk to players about those teams,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: because for Jaguars dot Com I did some flashback type stories,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I don't remember that many details and all kinds of runs. Again,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: what do you remember about the two years between if
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I ask you about this, Yeah, I think I'll be
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: honest with John, I think they underachieved in those two seasons.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, they won the division, right, they tied,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: and they tied with the Steelers that one year, and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Steelers won the tiebreaker or something in in ninety seven. Yeah,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: they split the two they wanted and seven they had
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: to be. They were a wild card. They ran into
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the buzz saw, remember, because they went to Denver and
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: they're still running for a hundred yards every back that
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: they throw in there. Remember they ran for over ground. Yeah,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: that was well, that was the game that we always debated.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Remember because the Jaguars fell behind in that game and
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: they had come back and there was a key play
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the game that went the Broncos way,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: and I thought they were going to come back and
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: upset them again. And then after that everything just the
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: fourth once the Broncos got it didn't matter who they
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: had three I think they had three backs. Derek Lavell
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: came off the bench and rushed for over a hundred
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and the fourth quarter. But the resilience of those years,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I think is what stands out to me. Maybe I
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: had just never covered a team before enough to know,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: but looking back, to get to the championship game, come
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: back and keep improving year after year after year, I'm
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: not sure the era as a whole the teens get
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: enough credit for. You know, it's not easy to win
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: in this league, it's not easy to make the playoffs,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: and those teams did it. There was some impressive insistency,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I thought from Tom keeping that thing going. Yeah, well,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: think about that's the first year they won the division, right,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: So they won the division and they were they were
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: the first expansion team I think to make the playoffs
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: three of the first four years, correct, because Carolina didn't
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: do it. Carolina made it twice and then dropped. Remember
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: they beat New England in the first home player. Think
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: about that. They went to the playoffs to to two
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: seasons and didn't play a home playoff game you get
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: and played four of total. That's pretty amazing when you
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: think about it, because they played three on the road
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: in ninety six and played one of the road played
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: right the playoff game when they beat the Patriots here, right,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and then then they lost to the Jets. The When
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I look back at that four year run, the overwhelming
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: feeling I have was this feeling of inevitability. And I'm
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: not sure i'm gonna I'm not I'm not sure i'm
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: gonna phrase this the right way, but in covering it,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: it always felt like they were on the five year
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: plan and nine they were getting better. They were adding
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: in free agency, are adding in the draft, they were
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: keeping core guys, and it was all building towards and
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: that team for seventeen weeks felt like it was fulfilling
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: that how good was and why well they they? Well,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: first of all, they had Fred Taylor on that team.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: He was special. I mean the things he could do
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: out of the backfield because he's scared the daylights out
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: of defenses, and that changed, you know, nature means was
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: a nice runner, but he was he didn't scare you.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Fred Taylor right here, So he defended the team differently.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And not only that, Brunelle had grown up a little bit.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Jimmy was a star by that time. I'm gonna star,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: one of the best in the league. And then you
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: had those tackles in that offensive line. That's defensively, your
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Brackens by then was a star and you know in
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: today's game he would be he would be four teen
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: sack guy and consistently. So they had a correct that
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: person That team had personality too, you know, the ninety
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: nine team had you know, Fernando, remember he had the personnel.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: They had more personality after started the show off and
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: let him show it. A little more and they played
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: looser other than when they played the Densie Titans. I
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: mean they played so tight against that team. Every time
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: they played them. They were tight no matter what. Did
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Tennessee not caused that a little bit? I think Tennessee
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: it was the classic case and it wasn't exactly accurate either.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Jacksonville was perceived as a past team soft, um, you know,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: not physical, where Tennessee was perceived as the pounded team
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: with Eddie George and they were physical and defense. Now
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: maybe that's the case, but Jacksonville could be physical when
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: they needed to be too. I just think that there
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: was something in their head when it came to Tennessee.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: It's something whether they couldn't tackle Steve McNair. They never
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: could tackle Steve McNair, right, And and you know, because
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: lining up and playing Eddie George run the football, it's
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: not going to scare you. But when you got a
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: quarterback and get outside the pocket and throw tacklers off
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: them for thirty yard games, that does so. And plus
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I think it got in their head think about it.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: They should have beat him the first time that they
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: could should have won. You I mean, not the opener
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: of the September game here right, because remember it was
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: pouring and Coughlin called for the pass and the end
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: zone and samari Roll picked it off and then they
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: took the safety and won by a point. Uh. Then
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: you had the game in late in the season in
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Nashville where they were basically it already clinched almost the
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: number one seed and the number one the division, and
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: it didn't really They got to ambush by the tight end.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Remember every tight end on the field caught eight passes
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: against him. Frank White check running down the middle of
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: that field wide open, all that I don't open. And
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: and Aaron Kinney I think even caught a bunch in
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: game it would destroyed. And then and then in the
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: playoff game, I'll swear to this day that if they
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: don't fumble at the end of the half, they win
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: that game. They were they even as bad Brunel through
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: that band interception to Marcus Robertson, in the end, they
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: were the better team. And remember it was fourteen seven
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and Reggie Barlow fumbled and they turned that into the
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: field goal. And in the locker room they started fighting.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Remember the fight who wasn't it was Larry Smith and
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: got into it. Reggie Barlow and the offensive guys got
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: into it, Larry Smith and the defensive guys, and it
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: was a fight at halftime, and they came out and
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: then when they got the sack, the sack is still
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: and it would have been a touchdown if they don't
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: blow the assignment on the right side, Jimmy Smith is
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: open for ninety nine yard touchdown. The complexion of that
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: game changes entirely. Instead, he gets sacked. They kicked off
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Derek Mason upset twenty three on answer points. They were
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: never the same. They were never the same as a franchise.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: That's what's amazing, is it. But we'll get to that
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: in a second. I wanted to ask you about the
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: That's when I thought some names of some players from
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: that era, and have you comment on him. First of all, Fred,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: You just mentioned Fred to me, He's a Hall of
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Fame running back who never gets the credit. He's, dude,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: I agree, one of the truly special runners the league
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: has ever seen. When you think about it, he was
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty two pounds and ran away from
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: people and was strong and tough and could catch it.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: I still, you know, to this day, one of the
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: great the Ravens team that set the scoring record for defense,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: did they did? Jaguars blistered them that year, remember for
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: thirty six points and it wasn't right. Yeah, but remember
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the one game where Fred Taylor lined up against Rod
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Woodson and ran by him for a nine d R
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: was a e d yard touchdown reception or whatever it was.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: That was Fred's rookie year and he cut a seventy
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: five eight. It just ran by with him right, and
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: then and then and then they did that to them
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: the next year and what two thousand? That was right?
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: They destroyed them and the team that year. But Fred
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: was remarkable and what he could stop and start and
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: cut and explode out of the cuts and again four
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: point six four point five per more. I think it
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: was an eight straight seasons per carry. There aren't a
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: lot of guys that have done that, and that that's
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: why he's truly special. The only knock on him is
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: in my mind is the touchdowns. But we know why
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: that happened, because James Stewart got all his touchdowns. They
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: took him out. It's still believe me, I bring it
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: up with Fred. It's still a point of contention. With him.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: He doesn't like it as well as Sydney. Jimmy Smith.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: For three years, he was as good as anybody not
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: named Jerry Rice in the NFL. And in fact, those
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: numbers he had for that three year span or comparable
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: to Jerry Rice. He was one of those guys when
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: you talked to the the corners around the league. He was
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: so strong that if you put your hands on him,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: he'd get him off him and he'd run by it
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: the fear when they line up. I worked with Brian
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: McFadden played for the Steelers, and he were, you know,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: talking about Jimmy and he said everybody, every corner in
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the league feared Jimmy because he was so strong. And
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: remember he didn't go over the middle that much, are
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: they at all? Yeah, So that tells you how great
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: he was as a receiver on the outside, he'd beat
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: surrounding two routes. He ran and out and if you
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: guarded that he gets get his hands on her on
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the faint. Yeah. And you know what's too amazing is
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: it's it's sad that it was cut short because Jimmy
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Smith legitimately had a chance to be a Hall of
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Famer if he plays out his career. He has a
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: chance to be a Hall of Fame receiver, which would
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: have been an incredible story considering where he came from. Well,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: let's remarkable about that if he plays it out it
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: or if he played his first three years right, because
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: he didn't play until in Jacksonville, he would in in
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: in didn't play. Told what, he didn't play almost at
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: all in that season. Then in ninety six when they
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: cut Andre Rise and he became a starter. He was
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: drafted in ninety three. Right. Remember he has the first
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: two years in the Cowboys, right, So he didn't really
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: start his career until four years after he's drafted. And
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Jimmy will be the first one to admit now he
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: had he had substance abuse issues that throughout his entire career.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: And you know, I was able to play through it
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: and play with it and was star with it. But
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: eventually it caught up to him when he got in
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: trouble with the league. So, um, you know, I still
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: to this day and I like Jimmy a lot, but
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I remember I bumped into Jimmy after he was suspended
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: and he came over to me and he said, come on, Pete.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: You know me. You know I didn't do that. And
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I said, Jimmy, I know you from covering you. I
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: don't know anybody. I don't know what you guys, what
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: you do in your own time. And it was sad
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: and and Jimmy has turned his life around and and
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I'm happy for him, and I will always enjoy having
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: covered him. He was always stand he'd stand up. Remember,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: he'd always show up. One thing about Jimmy, he'd show
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: up after games, good or bad. I wrote the first
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: big story in the Times Union about Jimmy and it
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: was when he probably two threeks after he had signed.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Didn't know much about him, had been covering colleges and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: he had just signed as a street free agent. Remember,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: and you told me, he said, Johnny, need to do
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: a story in Jimmy Smith. And I didn't know who
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: he was. And the story at that time was basically
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: how he had been sick with the Cowboys and was
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: trying to restart his career. And that was in So
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: that was it was a year and a half away
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: from him being anything good or not. But he truly
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: started from nothing when he got to the Jaguars. Ron Hill,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: by the way, who worked in the front office had
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: to convince Tom Coughlin to take a look at Jimmy Smith.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: That's how that happened, right, And remember his mom was
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: sending out clippings to everybody trying to get him a job. Yeah,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: he was a great player, A great player. Keenan one
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: of my all time favorites still is to this day.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I loved interacting with Keenan, good or bad. Uh. You know,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: I always joked with Keenan that he was that the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: happier receiver when he caught seven for one twenty rather
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: than when he caught two and if he got seven
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: from him twenty and they lost, and he caught two
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: for seventeen and they won, he was happier when he
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: caught seven for one twent You, you and me would
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: both agree on that. There's no doubt about that, right. Yeah.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't. Actually we recorded one of these with
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Keena and a couple of weeks back. It wasn't that
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: he was selfish on that front, because when you say that,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: that makes him sound like he didn't care about winning.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: He cared about inning, but he cared so intently about
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the craft, about being great. I mean, it's common today
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: for people to talk about players to play with the
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: chip on their shoulder. He played with the chip that
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: he never forgot. So there was something in him that, yes,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: he wanted to win, but he wanted to contribute and
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: he wanted to matter in it. And you know what
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I'm saying, like I never got can person care about
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: because he made himself into a player. He was nothing
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and and and I always say this, People ask me
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: who are the best route runners You've ever seen? And
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: I say, Isaac Bruce was one of them, and Keena
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: McCardell's the other one. Those two. You know, Steve Largent
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: was a great round road, but those two. Keena McCardell.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I can remember sitting in the team meeting room doing
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: a story with him, talking about how to run the
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: post corner because he was great at it. Guys barely
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: even run that route anymore. He was great at it.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: And I think him being able to teach that his
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: shows off with the other wide RECEI was have grown
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: up a little bit of Jacksonville d J CHARKI you
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: can see the difference in DJ Chark because of Keenan,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: and Keenan was always that guy who worked at it.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: UM my favorite Keenan. He would remember you remember this,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: He'd title over and go one in one a right,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: and we go yeah, maybe more like one and two Keenan,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: but it's a good right, yeah. He uh. It was
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: interesting in the last podcast when I was talking to him,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: him and Jimmy are obviously will be forever linked, and
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: we talked a lot about just what an incredible fate
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: or whatever it was. These are two guys who became
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I think one of the best receiving combinations in NFL history.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Although you have a tough time convincing people that, but
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: if you look at the numbers in terms of when
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: they played and and they literally both came from nowhere,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Neither one of them should have been in the league
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: at the time. They had the talent to be it,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: but they were both many reasons why they shouldn't have
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: been in the league at that point. Keenan didn't start
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: reaching potential until even six years in. But they pushed
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: each other, and I'm not sure that without the other
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: one either was either one of them would have had
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the careers they had, no without questions. I mean, they
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: complimented each other perfectly, perfectly. I mean, when you look
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: at it, Jimmy had eight hundred sixty two catches, right,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I mean eight hundred and sixty two catches, had eight
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: three between them and their careers. I mean, you gotta
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: look long and hard to find duos that played as
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: long together as they did that put up those kind
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of numbers. You know, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne they
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: did it, um. But they're considered one of the best
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: receiving combos in the league. And they also played in
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a different like the nineties were
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: not the mid to late two thousands in terms of
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: how of how often people through. It was a little
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: different by then. No, Bruce and Holt, they they're they're
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: they mix in there. Sure, yeah, but but they're in
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the comment that you're you're right though, John, And they're
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: in the conversation, and and and when you look at it,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: particularly when you know, I'm just looking at Jimmy's number,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Jimmy had he did nothing. So at ninety six he
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: did half a year. So he had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: eight seasons where he played sixteen games eight and the
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: only year in there. There's a streak with Jimmy. And
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I'm not looking at the stats. The only year he
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: wasn't over a thousand for like an eight or nine
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: year period was the year he only played twelve games. Yeah,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: he went eight. Remarkably consistent, productive player in this league. Yeah,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: he only started nine games in ninety six and had
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: twelve hundred yards receiving. He went and two these are
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: sixteen thirty six, twelve, thirteen, thirteen, seventy three, thousand, twenty seven,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: eight oh five when he was hurt, even seventy two
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: and thousand and twenty three. That's pretty. And then the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: yards per catched two it was fifteen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: He had one years thirteen, fourteen, nine fifteen. I mean yeah,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I mean incredible what he did in terms of the numbers,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: and that three years span I always talk about is
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: one sixteen for six hundred. The best part to me
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: about the ninety nine season with Jimmy, that was his
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: best seen. That's when he caught sixteen hundred balls or yards.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: In November of that season. Our editor at the t
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: U made me right, a what's wrong with Jimmy Smith story?
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Because he only had well, he was struggling, remember, Yeah,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: there was something going on, and I remember having to
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: go to Jimmy and say, hey, Jimmy, here's what I'm
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: having to write. I gotta ask you about it. And
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: he gave me a look like what but alright, And
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: it again speaks the kind of guy who was. He
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: understood what was going on. I wrote it. He didn't
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: like it, but he still worked with me on it
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: so good and the story was actually, when you're looking
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: at it, he went to for eighteen, three for twenty one,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: six for sixty two, eight nine, four for seventy seven,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: seven for fifty two, which is probably when you wrote
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the story, and then he went nine for two twenty
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: and then ten. Remember at the end of the year
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: he went fourteen for one. Yeah, what happened after that?
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: There was more than just the cap. Well, the cap
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: was a big hit, but bad personnel decisions were also involved.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: You know, I go back to the you know, we
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: talked about the Titans and they couldn't cover the tight
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: end and Tom panicked and he wanted Randall godfre You
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: remember Randall Godfrey signed with the Titans. So who did
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: he end up with? Party knickers? He was a broken
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: down old man by that, and so that those kind
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: of moves coupled with the cap crippled them. The cap
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: getting out of hand at crippled Leon getting hurt in
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: two thousand crippled them a little bit too. Remember it
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: was it was a first early practice and training camp.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: He went out for the year. That's always the point
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: that I think about it. I wasn't there. The paper
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: had sent me to Miami because it's still in the
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: day where the NFL writer wrote other stories there and
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: were you calling me or something? Hey? Leon got hurt
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: and he was out for the season, and I never
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: played again. I don't think, um, And there was something
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: about that. It was just whatever magic it felt like
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: the ascension. It had been an upward graph before that,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: and it was never the same effort. Leon got hurt,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: And I know that's too simplist pick, but it's just
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: you never played again. You never played again after that.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Remember the Ravens signed, right, sound of the Ravens that
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: never worked? Is that? Um And I will some up
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: with a few more questions about that era because it
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: fascinates me. I think there's a lot of people who
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: are listening to this now that we think of that
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: time because we were young and covering it. But there's
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: people listening to it who all they do is read
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: about and what YouTube videos. But aside from not winning
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, which that's what you gotta do and
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: you have to get there, that team doesn't get credit
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: for being a really, really good team for an extended
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: period in this league. No, I mean it helped that
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: they had all those draft picks in the first year.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Let's be honest, when they have two in every round,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: john I mean, yeah, it's incredible. I mean and for
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: everyone they hit, they blew one right. Well, that what
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: it was. It was basally, which is Stewart was the
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: second first round pick. He wasn't bad, now, he was okay,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: But but if you draft James Stewart in the first
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: round and then four years later you gotta draft Fred
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Taylor in the first round, then you haven't done it right.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: That's the way, Okay, Brian de Marca was a washout
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: second round. Brian Schwartz could have been good, got hurt
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: and it's never the same Chris Hudson. They chased that
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: safety position eighty thousand times after that, so including the
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: next year when they picked Mike Logan, so he never
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: worked out. Rob Johnson ended up being a work working
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: out for him because he drafted Fred, he ended up
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: trading him to get Fred Taylor and Donovan Darius. Then
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the rest of that group wasn't so good. But ironically
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: the seventh round picked that year, his son is now
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: on a team, Curtis, and it really is you know,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: one of the first things you have to do when
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: you get back in there and get to talk to
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: cash his morris is tell him about his dad's first Mini.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Can't remember that. Remember when he was screaming and yelling
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: you can't cover me. You can't remember that. And then
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: you wrote the story when Curtis Uh talked about how
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: talented he was, right, because he was talented, and you
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: wrote what he said, and the other players are mad
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: at you for right and what he said, remember, yeah,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: and then they said wait till we put the pads on.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: Right ended up the coach too. He was a good
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: He was a good guy and a talented player. And
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: he was but like you know, every talking about the
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: fifth round picked that year, he never lived it down.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: They picked Ryan Christopherson before the Pickturell Day. Yeah, it
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: was not a great draft outside of the client him.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: The guys that staying around. So no, and and you
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: had two picks. I mean, it was just and so
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: I think that kind of stuff started to show up,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: and you know, did they ever solve certain positions? Like
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: I think Mike Cheever getting hurt really set them back.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: He's probably to me Pete the like every franchise has
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: their what if guy. And I know he played center
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: and he only played for a short time so and
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: never be remembered by the masses as such, but him
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: and maybe Tavian were the two what if guys at
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: that era. Well, when you think about it, John that
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: that nineties six draft was Hardy, Brackens, Chiever, Beasley first
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: four picks. Barlow was the fourth round pick. That's a
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: good drafted four beas. I forgot about that. Yeah, that's
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: a good draft. I mean you looked at on that
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: was really good draft. You get Hardy, Brackens, Chiever and
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Beasley and Barlow in your first five picks, that's a
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: good draft. But chie were getting hurt kind of set
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: it back, right because he was on his way to
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: be in an all. I don't know that he'd have
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: been to seally, but out of their draft picks for
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: linemen of that era, he was the guy. He was
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: the second round center or third round center in the
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: second round. Uh, he was draft in the second round. Yeah. Yeah,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: So that's a premium pick at center and he was
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: on his way to play and like it, and that
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: would have really solidified because they went out, went out
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: and had to find that new year later. Remember, they
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: started blowing. They started blowing. They weren't blowing the first
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: round picks because Tom was good with the first round picks.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: They started blowing picks on like James Hamilton's, Cordell Taylor,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Quinn, Larry Smith, the pre Anthony Sceario, the second
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: and third round picks who should have been guys that
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: were ready to take over when you had cap issues
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: and ready and then you had to sign guys to
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: replace those guys. You had to sign free agency replace them.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: So think about this draft at nine for Nando Bryant
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: who ended up being a good player, Larry Smith disaster,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: Anthony Cecerio god rest his soul disaster, Kevin landol disaster,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Jason Kraft was okay, or Marlo's Lee Roy. I mean
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: it wasn't a good draft. Yeah. They were always a
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: perfect example of the tween me Pete that if you
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: hit in the first round, you can and you have
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: a quarterback, you can make everything else okay, because there's
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: premium positions matter. But if you missed too often, yeah,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: it's it's tough to do it when you never hit
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: outside the first round. I remember the one a long
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: time for war receiver help. They drafted those last three
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: that well, you drafted Barlow, but then they drafted Doring,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Jones and span remember that late think one of them
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: end up being a player. Yeah, yeah, during stuck around
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: a little while, but just not here. That's that. Then
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: it just ended in two thousand, had just ended. That
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: was the end of it. It started on round. It was.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: It was. It's always been interesting to me because the
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: it was almost like that first four or five year
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: period that was how long it was meant to last.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: From a personal point of view. You know, you left
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: in late two thousand. I left in two thousand one,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: but that four or five year Jaguar period, probably because
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm colored by being around it being so young.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: But I'll always think of that as you know, probably
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: the best time that I've had covered in the NFL
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: and where I learned the most, and I look back
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: and think, boy, what a unique time it was to cover.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: And that's why whenever people criticize Coughlin, to me, I
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: sort of stepped back from it. Think, you know what,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: say whatever, Say whatever you want about the man, but
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: he was the blood of the franchise at that point.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: If you're following, there was no question about it. That
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: two and two teams, and you know that was one
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: of the best coaching jobs. And people still around the
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: league tell me that because that team was terrible, terrible,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: and he got six weeks with the Colts. By then
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: they were in the same division, and the Colts at
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: the end of that season we're playing the Jaguars with
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: the possibility of the playoffs at stake. I think the
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: way it played out, the Colts had already clinched, but
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: they were just starting their run. It was Dungee's first
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: year and they were trying to get in as a
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: wild guard. I think they quenched it on like a
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Saturday victory by somebody else or whatever. But I can
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: remember Poleon and a couple other people at the Colts
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: that week. The game scared them for one reason because
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Tom Coffin was coaching that team. So if it had
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: been anybody else, they would have thought they had it
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: in the bag. But I heard from the Colts people
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: that week, Pete, the same thing that you heard around
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: the league that year. It was a it was a
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: decimated franchise in terms of talent, but he was still coaching.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: So that day the weird and I think what happened
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: at the end of that game was was a current
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Jaguars player development guy, Marcus Pollard. I think he caught
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: the winging touchdown, but that it was. It was such
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: a strange thing for me, Pete that game, because we
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: all knew Time was getting fired. I'm already covering the
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Colt so where it wasn't my team anymore. But the
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: idea of Tom not coaching the Jaguars at that point
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: was surreal, And because he had been the franchise and
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: I had always sort of assumed very illogically, but it
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: it always felt to me like he would always coach
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: the franchise like he was an unfirable Again, of course,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: nobody's unfirable, but it was to the point, Pete, when
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: I came back in two thousand eleven, I hadn't been
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: inside the offices since I had left in two thousand one,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: and when I walked in in two thousand eleven, I
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: couldn't have verbalized it, but I was walking around still
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: looking for Tom to come down the hallway. Asked me
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: why I was in there. Yeah, because that's how much
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: in those early days they were inseparable. And it's every coach,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: but he was in the walls. Man, he was in
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: the wall. Nobody, no coach in NFL history, and I'm saying,
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: including Belichick had as much authority as Tom Coughland had
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the building. Belichick might have the football authority. Tom Coughlan
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: had the entire higher building authority. Remember that's what it was.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: He used to complain about ticketing in this and see
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: he'd worry about the dumbest stuff and he shouldn't, but
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: he did. I'll give you without that, you don't get
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: the rest. I'll give you one. Guess. There's no way
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: you're gonna do it because I don't remember. But the
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: kicker for Jacksonville in that last game a man because
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: he came around the next year. I had nothing. Danny
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: boyd Danny boy in the thirty two yard field goal
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: in the yards. Yeah, we could have. There will be
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: people who say that these podcasts I went on forever,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: because we've talked a long time. We could have really
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: gone on forever. And I never gotten Danny Boyd. No,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: I don't remember Danny. I had left, but I don't
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: remember Danny Boyd. Well, Pete, we could talk about the
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: old Jag stuff forever, and I'm sure there's stuff we missed,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: but uh, you know, we'll wrap it on that. And
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: I certainly enjoyed this. I hope to do it again
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: with you at some point, but I hope people enjoyed
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: it because there was something really magical about those times.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: And it feels to me like even the people in
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: the city who covered or maybe be covered, but who
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: watched those teams sort of still feel it. So hopefully
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: listening to these people got a little insight and a
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: little look back on him and Beat. I appreciate you
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: doing it. Yeah, and the facility of the hall. Tom
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Coughlin will be in the hall, hopefully Fred will get
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: there and maybe even Jimmy Subday, because all four of
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: them deserved to be in the whole thing all for
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: them should be no question. Pete, thank you, my friend.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: You go to take care, Dave. I'm always I can
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: talk to Pete all day about the Jag because obviously,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: for five or six years it is our life. We
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: would talk to each other on the phone back when
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: we had landline. Uh, we would talk to each other
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: on the phone at nine thirty at night, nine ten o'clock,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: talking about the next day, talking about what happened that day.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: So we lived it. It was our world in the
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: way that the Jaguars now is our world. The people
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: who work in our in our department with the Jags.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: But I'm curious when you're listening to Pete. You were
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: a fan of this team growing up, and Pete covered
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: him in the Glory Days. Do you remember anything about
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Pete that time reading his stories? Were you aware of
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: who he was, and if so, any memories of that
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: time for you? Oh yeah, I knew if he was.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: It's funny, actually have two funny stories. It's like, you know,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: working in kind of you know, I worked worked at
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: a local TV station before I worked for the Jaguars,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: and then before that I worked all over the place,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: all over the country. And two times where I was
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: just a little bit star struck meeting a media guy
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: was when I met when I was in college and
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: I went to school in U c. F. In Orlando.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: I met Bianche. I was like, oh, it's Bianchi. I
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: was like, I used to read the Bianchi column all
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: the time. And then the other was Pete Prisco. When
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I moved back to Jacksonville to work in oh eight
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: or oh nine, it was somewhere around the stadium, and
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: I remember going up. I used to read you when
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: I was a kid, And of course he made some
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: snide comment about me being young at the time of
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: the Left. But but yeah, I knew who he was.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: I read him all the time. You know you guys
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: used to do at the times Junion used guys put
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: out like the special edition on Sundays where I know you,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: which you worked on a lot. I remember basically I
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: would read that cover to cover, um, you know, every
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: every Sunday morning, and and uh after that. And actually
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: he was on the radio forever in town here. I
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: remember listening to him him all the time then then
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: to um like and this is honest, which it sounds
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: funny now since I've been around Pete now eleven years.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: Is in some capacity, it's like I was starting a
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: little starstruck when I first met him, because he was
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: my you and and you're you're kind of part of
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: the as a fan. They're your conduits to the team
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: right there, who gives you the information and and somehow
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: you think they're on the inside. They're on the inside,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: and you know, and they're as much as part as
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: the team as as the players on the team in
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: some weird way. He always had a real grasp of that.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: My role at the time was a little different, obviously
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: it is now. I covered the Jags and I was
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: pizza back up. But a lot of what I did
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: they would send me, like when they beat Denver in
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: the playoffs that year in the Times Union sent me
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: to Denver. I flew out, I think the Tuesday morning
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: before the game, spent Wednesday Thursday going to the Broncos,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: and it was it was a very fascinating time in
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: my career. I did the same thing. I went to
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: do a Rob Johnson story the first year he came
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: back and play the or ninety eight after you've been traded.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: It's a fascinating thing and it's it's incredibly satisfying professionally,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: But I wasn't really the Jaguars guy the way that
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Pete was. When you're the beat guy, there's something about
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: that connection with the team. You're inside it every day.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: You're the one calling agents, you're the one dealing with it.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: And Pete always had a real awareness. He was a
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: fantastic beat guy. I learned more from him in five
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: or six years. I was only on the Jaguars beat
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: is the main guy a short time, but I've always
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: respected the job Pete did and knowing what the fans
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: wanted to read, knowing how to get that information from
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: the players, knowing how to go to the right people.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: It's it's not not rocket science. It's not the hardest
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: job in the world. But people who do it well
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: are a little different than the people who were just
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: there doing it. Pete was fantas astic. He had a
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: way of working with players and interesting about Pete and
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: this maybe a little football one oh one inside baseball,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: but that's what podcasts are all about. Pete was really
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: as much as Pete is, a confrontational guy, and I
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: think most people who've met Pete he doesn't mind getting
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: in an argument. He was great covering Tom Coughlin because
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: he would not get intimidated. I was a young guy
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: at the time, I was twenty six. If I had
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: been on the beat alone, it would have taken me
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: a few weeks, months, whatever to really get used to
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: dealing with Tom because he could intimidate people. I was
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: a young guy, probably would have needed time to get
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: used to that. Pete was ready boy and he never
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: backed down with Tom. He was very good. But the
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: thing about Pete that separated him from a lot of
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: beat guys, and maybe people who listened to him on
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: the radio don't quite grasp that he could be confrontational,
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: but it was never personal with Pete. Meaning a beat
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: guy who gets into it with the head coach and
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: then whole it's a grudge, or a beat guy who
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: won't go talk to the head coach after they've had
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: a confrontation. Well, who does that hurt? That hurts the reader? Right?
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Pete could. He had a knack and even with Coughlank
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: and remember times they would get into it, they would
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: be yelling. We would walk to the rubber hallway. For
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: people who don't know, the media conferences were on one
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: end of EverBank Field or it was it was out
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: all statement time. T I Bank field now and you'd
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: walk this long rubber hallway, which I'm sure most war
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: fans have heard reference to, and they'd get down to
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: the coach's office and it'd be a four or five
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: minute walk, maybe not that long, but a long walk,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: and they would argue. They'd beat it to other's throats.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Most of the time. By the end, Pete would have
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: Tom laughing about something, or if it was over, Pete
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: would laugh or he always knew that it was about
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: getting the story. And he's deep down a really good guy.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: And you've been around today. He can argue with the Sally.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: It's the reason Besselian Priscoe's show works. They can argue
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: and argue and argue, but you know, deep down there's
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: a respect there, and you know that Pete gets it.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: He's having fun. He doesn't come out and rip for
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: no reason. You never get the idea that's malicious if
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: you follow me like, he's not trying to you know,
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: ruined careers or Vendetta's. He just calls it as he
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: sees it. But again, I think people can tell on
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: my tone. We go back a long ways. My best
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: friends in the business, my best friends world. I had
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: a great time talking to him. I think, you know,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned, Dave, Uh, it's one that I think
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: if we talked to Pete on a podcast once a year,
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: I don't think we ever get born because he's a
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: fascinating guy, fascinating stories. But the Pete prison, I guess,
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: sort of ends our off season podcast day. I mean
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: it's We've talked to Dave Calbover, talked to Michael Silver,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Peter King. Everything so far has had a very uh
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: off season covid The off season is different than the
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: radio season. It's off. It's different than the training camp.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: Now we're getting into training camp. I believe our next
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: podcast will be with Bucky Brooks NFL Network. It's gonna
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: be a lot of football out of now, a lot
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: of stuff in the present. The podcast will change, Dave,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: because we're getting into this thing now. Yeah, whatever this
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: thing is gonna be. Um right, it still feels like
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: there's a lot yet to be determined, but players are
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: in town, players have gotten tested for COVID um and
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: then we'll kind of see what that leads to. Um.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: It's it's weird. It Uh, you probably can talk about this.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: It's it's weird. So just a little behind the curtains.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: Some of our staff has gone back to the stadium,
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: uh John and some other people are still working from home,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: so we're still divided, and we're doing this half virtually,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: and usually by now we're much further into what our
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: schedule is gonna be and what practice is gonna be
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff, and that's still yet
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: to be determined. But I know as of now, we're
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: gonna have a football season, and we're gonna have a
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: training camp and we'll see what it is. I'm it's weird,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: it's I'm anxious a little bit um, but I'm kind
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: of excited this. Not excited, I'm interested to see what
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: what this is gonna be and how different it's gonna
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: be and how different it's gonna feel. Yeah, And I think, Dave,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: you know, I get that. It's so hard to to
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: me anyway, It's so hard to get your mind around
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: COVID and sports because so much about sports and everything
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: you analyze you have to draw from past experiences, and
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: there's no past experience with this. So I kind of
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: get how fans and observers and even the players who
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: haven't really seen up close what teams are doing to prepare.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: I sort of get how there's a lot of skepticism,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: then a lot of wow, this is never gonna come off.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: You know, we're privileged a little bit, especially you guys,
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: to be behind the curtain to see what teams are doing.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: For some reason, I have a higher confidence that this
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: thing is gonna work. I think it's gonna be weird.
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be they are going to be
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: bubble points or whatever you call them, where they are concerns.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: There's going to be I don't call him crisis, but
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be moments to deal with. But I get
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: the idea that they're going to be able to pull
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: this off. They're gonna be able to have a season.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: It's going to be incredibly, as you said, fascinating to follow.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: But I have a feeling. I don't have a feeling
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: that we're ramping up for nothing. I have a pretty
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: strong feeling that no matter how it takes place, whoever
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: is on the road with the team, whoever is doing it.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: However many COVID reserve lists there are maybe you know,
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: you know me, Dave, not really the eternal optimists. But
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: I just I don't get the feeling that this is
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: going to be a season cut short. I think they're
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: gonna figure out a way to make it work. And
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna look back on and go, wow, what
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: a weird, fascinating season, sort of for me, I look
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: back in the nine season and think, boy, I was
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: lucky to be there. It's a season unlike any other.
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Because of the expansion process. You get the feeling that
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: you're never going to forget the COVID season. Yeah, I
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: would agree with that. And right like you said, it's
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: like even being around the building and and seeing some
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: of the the protocols and processes that are in place,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: it does give me confidence, you know, it does give you.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: It sounds like they're trying to think of every angle
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: on this and and I think a lot of like
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: the delay and stuff is they're trying to use every day,
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: every minute, every hour to kind of figure out what
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: the white way to do things are well, and they
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: have every day. That's the important thing to know to
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: your day. You know, we're in a world where everybody
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: wants answers now because of Twitter, because of social media,
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: and I've had to answer a lot of my ozone questions.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: The text dozone mail bag of Hey, you know, stay
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: tuned on this one will tell you when we know.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: And you know that's a lot of COVID because they
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: do have time to feel. It's not that they're not
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: trying to figure it out. They're trying to get the
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: best and right answer. There's no intentional fit foot dragging.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: But you've got time, and I fully anticipate you have
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: a better feel forth tonighty because you've been in the building.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: I fully anticipate some of the protocols they've got. Now
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: when players get back in, they'll probably figure out something
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: they want to do differently because they'll see something that
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: doesn't work or that hey, whoa, we could do this
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: for you. Better be able. I'm sure you've seen this
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: since you've been back in. You better be able to
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: adapt coming in at uh ten o'clock in the morning
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: one day and something's different than it was the day before,
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: and that's okay right now because are trying to get
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: the best answer. And I think the big thing to
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: people are gonna have to remember is like the preseason
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: is going to be a different animal than the regular season.
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: Home games are different animals than than road games. And
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be the situation where you know, the NFL
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: is so much about schedule and players being comfortable and
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: coaches being comfortable with Okay, on Mondays, I do this
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: on Tuesday's under this and was it. And I think
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: the team that adapts the best to change is going
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: to do the best. And I've been around teams where
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: the routine call from was this way our media time, Dave.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: And the last year, if a coffining was two thousand,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: I showed up the exact same time to cover the
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: team and left the exact same time six years later.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: A lot of coaches regimes they do the exact a thing, day, year, month, whatever.
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: NFL players, because of the number of people that are
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: around NFL teams have to do that. I agree with
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: you that will be the biggest thing that anybody associate
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: with the NFL has to adjust it. Yeah. And then
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: also I think it's a matter of the team that
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: manages COVID the best. It's like if everyone follows the directions,
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: follows the protocols are supposed to do, whereas masks, you know,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: social distances, they they're responsible when they're not in the building.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: I think that's gonna go a long way and deciding
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: how successful you are this season. Yeah, the the Coach
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: the Year trophy this year might have a little mask
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: on it. How you handle the whole thing. Yeah. In
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: the strike years, for example, I consider Joe Gibson as
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: a Redskins fans as a Joe Gibs fanger, and if
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: I considering the best coach NFL history, because he won
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: three Super Bowls and three different quarterbacks. But it's not
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: a coincidence that they won in strike years because they
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: handled if you read about those teams, they handled the
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: difference things, They handled surprises, all the players say better
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: than anybody. That will certainly be a factor this year
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: won't be so much x As and those coaching. It
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: will be the coaches who can keep guys on the
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: same page, keep that you keep their hand on the rudder,
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: and keep the ship straight if you will so well.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: Obviously there's a lot it has been along those own podcasts.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: A because I could talk to Pete forever and be
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: because the second topic with the COVID, there's so much
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: to cover. I know on all of our broadcast will
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: be going in depth on this ad nauseum. But I
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: want to thank fans who have listened so far to
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: the first Ozone podcast. I think I'm happy with the
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: way they've gone. I think we've had good guests, and
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: I thank everybody so far. Looking forward to get into
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: the regular season routine. We're not quite sure what the
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: training camp schedule with the Ozone podcast will entail. We
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: know Bucky Brooks will likely be next week. Moving forward,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: we're gonna try to get into this thing and make
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: it as routine as possible. Until we get into a
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: Regulas season routine, we'll keep you updated. I want to
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: thank Joe Fortunado for making me sound better and I
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: actually am. I want to thank Dave. You can just
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: hope we didn't stuck and we'll see you next week.