Latest / 3 and Out with John Middlekauff / Colin Cowherd Podcast - NFL’s Toughest Schedules, Expectations For Aaron Rodgers? Expanded College Football Playoff

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Colin Cowherd Podcast - NFL’s Toughest Schedules, Expectations For Aaron Rodgers? Expanded College Football Playoff · 3 and Out with John Middlekauff

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  Speaker 1: hymns dot com slash cow hurt. I wanted to talk
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: some football because we haven't. We haven't talked in a while,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and I thought it was really interesting. One of the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Albert Brewers on my show the other day and it's
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: like I learned this years ago. Uh. He was a
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: writer at USA Today, John Saracino, and this was like God,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: this was in the like nineties, and we were talking
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: one time about journalism and he goes, you know, you
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: can write the same story two ways. You know, if
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: people treat you poorly, you know, over the course of
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a journalism career, if somebody just consistently is a pain
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in the ass. You know, you're a human being, you
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: can write the same story two different ways. And I
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: think the NFL has always done that schedules are not
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: even even though the hardest and the weakest with you know,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: New England's last year was historically weak, but you know
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: it's not as statistically the gap isn't the Grand Canyon,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: but the Niners playing thirty eight times of fifty eight
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: time zones and coming from Australia and then not getting
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a Monday night game an extra day's rest while the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Rams do. Did you kind of feel like Albert Breer
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: brought this up that, you know, Kyle being outspoken. NFL
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: does not like friendly fire. They never have. They will
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: punish you if if you don't fall in line. I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: mean they do it with networks when John you may
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: not remember this, maybe you do remember Playmakers.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, I watched it in my freshman year in college.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: He was my favorite show on television. Column.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: There is no question NFL punished ESPN five years in
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: a row, gave them crap games, punished them, and it
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: was their way of slapping their hand and saying, don't
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: glamorize the ugly parts of our game, which are allegations
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: to begin with, probably most at some point were true.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: You know, on some steroids, you know, performance enhancing stuff.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I don't remember exactly.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Call it it was the league. I mean it basically
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: paralleled what was going on in the NFL at the time.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: It was real, but it was just fake.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: And so and I worked at ESPN and I set
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: it on the air when I was there, I'm like, Oh,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: we're being punished, there's no question. So do you think
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: they punished the Niners in Kyle Shanahan.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Well, I think we got to go back to Belichick.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: He was always at those league meetings. He refused to
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: take the picture. He was the one guy that always
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: really got after it. And I'm not even talking about
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the suspensions and this stuff. He always had a big
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: beef with the people in the league office. Had never coached,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: most of them have never played. They did not know
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: what it was like to try to operate the thing
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: making the money. And it's where he always butted heads,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: and he took it to the end degree. I do
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: you think Kyle, I mean, Kyle's had money since he
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: was a kid, you know, so Kyle carries himself and
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: now he's really successful. I don't think he's afraid to
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: piss people off, right, He's not afraid to piss people off.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: In his own building. He is not happy with the
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: international travel and specifically this game. I don't discrew them.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: I think Australia. I think we could talk big picture
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: like I'm not one of those people. I know you're
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: not either. I'm not just like anti successful people. You're
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: either growing or dying. The NFL. I think it is
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: it tapped out domestically. How much bigger can it get?
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: You know, no one wants to just well, they're making enough.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: That's not how people think. Now. Is this gonna work
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: in twenty thirty years we'll look back. I don't know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: but I could see Australia. I mean, these two teams
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: have to fly sixteen years. I thought when he was
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: at the owner's meetings with Florio and Lafleur kind of
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: poke them. His main beef was with the Rams. You
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: lived in Los Angeles for a long time. The forty
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: nine Ers have all their home games at Levi Stadium,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: and they have two other home games in Los Angeles
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: where they have I went to a game there once.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: It felt like seventy nine fans absolutely same deal. Here
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: in Arizona they have multiple Niner home games. So the
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Rams when they were gonna get one of their games
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: they found out they're going to Australia, they start going
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: to the league. You know, Kevin Deemoff very well connected.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: We want the Niners, and so Kyle's going well. Of
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: course they want us because at their home game they
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: got to go on silent count. So but I also
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: think Kyle's much more in the school of a Bill
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: or Sean Payton, where he's not afraid to piss people off.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: It doesn't mean, like Andy Reid, just because he's a
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: nice guy, isn't making his displeasures known. I actually have
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: no problem with the no Monday Night game because I
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: thought the league did give him a solid They do
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: get the Dolphins and the Cardinals. Yes, this Australia game
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: is huge. Whoever wins that game, I think we would
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: both agree is gonna feel like three wins because of
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: the travel. But if you do lose it to get
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: the Dolphins and the Cardinals, if you're the Niners, I
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: think it's a pretty easy two home games. I actually
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: think the Monday night game, if you told me, I
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: could get the next week the Dolphins at home, because
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: by the time they land, it'll be like Friday night.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: They do get Saturday Sunday to get back, because once
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: you go the Monday night game, then it direct, you know,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: just get you off a little bit. Now, if you
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: win the Australia game, it won't necessarily matter. You'll be
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: feeling pretty good. But I don't think the Niners necessarily
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: got screwed with that. You could argue Colin the Rams
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: and the Packers playing that Wednesday Thanksgiving it they don't
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: get a bye. Their bye is the previous week where
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: usually you get another week till you play on Sunday.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: That's their bye from minor. Unless I'm misreading everything that
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: I saw, I might correct on it. And then they
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: play the next that Wednesday, so they get the week
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: off like they play on Sunday, week off, and then
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: they play on Wednesday because the league because of those rules,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: couldn't play the previous weekend on Saturday because of college
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: and high school football. Right, So I'd argue the Rams
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: they don't just get a normal buy throughout the Packers do,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: like that sucks. You don't think they're displeased with that,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Like this is this is what happens with the expansion
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: the international game. Yes, these teams, you know a lot
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: of these gms talk through these coaches, they are furious.
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  Speaker 2: Now a lot of them don't have the juice or
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  Speaker 2: the equity to say what Kyle's saying. Well, they're all
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: thinking it. Yeah.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: And I will say this that the International Games used
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: to get Jacksonville. I think the NFL has looked at research,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: looked at merch sales, and said, guys, we got some
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: momentum here. We are really building something. So I will
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: give the NFL credit. And I mean, you know, I
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: own the volume. I mean I know. The understanding is
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: you don't stand pat or you get gobbled up. You
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: have to grow. Yeah, that's the reality of business. You're
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: trying to create. Scale makes you more powerful, you can
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: buy better shows. If you stand patent any business, you're dead.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: So the NFL, and I'll tell you something. When I go,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: I go to Europe. I try to go every year
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: with my son. It's our kind of dad something we
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: try to If he goes and he's still in college,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: he'll go over do a class abroad every year in
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the summer, and I'll go over early with him. His
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: mom will go over late. And I see NFL stuff,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: not a ton of it, but I see some of it.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: And so it's like, oh yeah. I mean you'll go
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to a sports bar, you go to a pub, and
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: you'll see stuff and it's like, oh, look at that.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: And so I'm going to defend the NFL and the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: international games.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: I you know, Brazil felt like, wow, that is just that.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Remember the Packers Eagles went over there. But you know,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I just I always pushed back. I'll give you an example.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: College football playoff. It's gonna maybe go to twenty four.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Everybody freaks out, John, Well, the regular season won't matter. Well,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the college football playoff was twelve last year and the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: ratings were up from previous years. They so they tripled
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the size of the playoff or actually had a playoff
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and the ratings went up. Well, nobody will care about
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Auburn Alabama, folks. Auburn versus Alabama is gonna matter in
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: that state for the rest of my life. Texas Oklahoma,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: those teams could be zero to five. Texas Oklahoma's gonna matter.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I grew up in Washington State. The Apple Cup. Some
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: years it was insane because somebody was going to the
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Rose Bowl. It was I went to several. It was
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: ohways huge. So I mean that's and we can circle
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: back to that later. But my point is I think
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: international is just part of it.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Well, I'll give you one the forty nine ers. They
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: played two games right Australian Mexico City. They want to
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: go to Mexico City. I think if you just asked Knserl,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: guy who's got the biggest Mexican fan base, they could
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: be like Cowboys Raiders I've been if you quantified it,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: the Niners would be every bit as big, if not bigger.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: They actively wanted to play that game in Mexico City.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: They did a couple of years ago. I think ownership wise,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know. If Kyle, they'd probably do it every year,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: you know, kind of like Jacksonville with London, right, and
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: I think you know, Kyle salary and John salary keeps
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: going up. They're like, hey, we'll go to Mexico City
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: every other year. They want that. They have no problem
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: with that game. I think the Australia, the Brazil, like
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: I clearly anyone that's met some from Australia, they love
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: sports over there. Yes, I do think the time zone,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: you know is someone that likes golf and you watch
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: it sometimes when time zone gets off look, they have
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: to play that game at ten thirty five Australian time
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: to kick off. Now for them, they'll acclimate weird time
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: for the people over there. Like I understand the UK, London, France,
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: they've expanded into Germany. Yeah, sixteen hour flight, Collin, I
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: mean you've been on some long flight. That's a long time, man,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: that's a long What would you guess if they're playing
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: that game technically Thursday for US Friday, that they leave
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Saturday the previous week.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Honestly, it's I've never gone to Australia. I once asked
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Lachlan Murdoch. You know the Murdocks are from Australia. Yeah,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: and lock Lachland obviously owns Fox. I asked him once, Hey,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: you know I was thinking about going to Australia. Locklan's
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: a really nice guy. I mean, just really really cool guy.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you're around him, it's he had a
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: party of this house once I was invited to. I
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: walked in. He's knocking down Australian beer. He's just a
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: regular guy. Yeah, yeah, I mean he's just he's got
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: just a cool set up in his house. But he said,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: it's like you live in Manhattan Beach, don't you. It's
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: it's just like Manhattan Beach.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Don't go.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: So I think for a lot of the West Coast players,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: you know, California has sort of an Australia feel to it.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Now if you take you know, I I don't know.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I people grumble about change and growth, but I gotta
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: tell you, if I was a pro player and I
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: got to play in Brazil or Australia, I think maybe
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: if I was a veteran, I wouldn't love it, But
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: if I could open my season there, I think it
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: would be kind of cool.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I think players in general are less faced, right, no
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: different than like I think sometime employees or whatever are
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: less faced by than management. Like I think everyone looks
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: at it through a different lens. I think this is
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: something that keeps coaches up at night and front offices
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: up at night. Sure do you think Christ McCaffrey's lost
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: much sleep about it. He's probably already got some hyperbaric
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: chamber that will travel in the travel case. You know,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Matt Stafford, They're already prepared and sending food over there.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: So if it doesn't you know that the players they adapt.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: I remember working for Pat Hill He's like, players adapt
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: so much faster than coaches. Believe, you know, pro college,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: you name it. You could play on the moon tomorrow.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: They'd be like, Okay, where do I put my cleats?
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: And I think sometimes and we talk a lot about
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: it because the coaches talk all the time, so we
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: react to them. Then you hear the players, No big deal,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: We'll be ready. And you know what I found fascinated
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: about the Rams is, you know, whenever I come down
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: to do your show and I'm in Los Angeles. Obviously
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: I spent most of my life in California, but I'm
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: from northern California. You know, in northern California, the Giants,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: the Warriors under Steph has become this huge brand. And
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: obviously the Niners are like the Yankees of football up there.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: LA has that it's just the Lakers and the Dodgers.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: The Rams are one of the rare. They're way bigger nationally,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: yeah than they are Like you go locally, yeah, you
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: go locally. The Dodgers feel like the Yankees down there,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: right yeah. And the Lakers are just have historic, ingrained
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: soul to the people. The Rams just don't and people,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: you know, some people push back It's like guys say,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: they would in Saint Louis for a long time, and
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: they were one of the Super Bowls.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: They were the Orange County team that was really if
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: you looked at LA was Raiders, Territory, Chargers was San Diego.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: The Rams. I remember Bob Starr was the play by
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: play guy. You know, the Rams never felt like LA.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: The Raiders felt like LA. So you know, I I mean,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I just I mean, I think they've
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: done a great job in Los Angeles to build I mean,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: how lucky are they They have Stafford and McVeigh and
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Stan Kronke, and there's a lot I see during the season.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: You see a lot of La Ram stuff in the city.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: But I don't know, you know, the other schedule. It's
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: funny people say, you know, the toughest schedule was the Bears,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, I think Kansas City schedule having to
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: face Josh Allen, Matt Stafford, Joe Burrow three weeks in
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: a row, all in the road, followed by Drake May
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Justin Herbert brock Purty. I'm like, that's six pro Bowlish
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: quarterbacks in a row. If you go five hundred, I
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: mean honestly, you'd feel good about that. The Bear schedule
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: is fascinating to me. So I do believe the NFL
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: takes teams and wants to make sure that certain markets.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, we always think the NBA is market sensitive,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: but Chicago is a massive television market and a huge
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: sports town and was dormant in the NFL. It felt
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: like for fifteen years, the Bears are supposed to have
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the hardest schedule, zero teams off of Bye Carolina, Minnesota
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: to start, not brutal. At the end of the year,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: they get Green Band Detroit, both at home. Again, that's
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: about as good as you're gonna do in Division. The
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: toughest games Seattle, they get extra rest, and then they
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: get Jacksonville, New England. You know those are go either
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: away games, both at home. I looked at their schedule,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: then I looked at Denver's for six games or Kansas
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: City's Gauntlet of Quarterbacks. I just for all the advertise
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: last year New England had the easiest schedule. It was ridiculous.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I remember looking at it. The Niners schedule last year
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: just jumped off. It jumped off your phone. You're like, Jesus,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: this is just bad. Quarterback after bad quarterback. I don't
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: think the Bear schedule is that bad at all.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, unlike college football, you know, Notre Dame's
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: getting crushed. They go, well, we scheduled Michigan State ten
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: years ago and they were good. Now they suck in.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: The NFL just rotates. So part of the reason I
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: think if you look at the NFC West and the
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: AFC West, they're playing each other this year, so those divisions,
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: it's like, are already good and then it's like, oh,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Seattle's play Kansas City has played Denver. Denver plays the Niners.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: And the other thing with the Bears last year is
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: two of their three wins were against the Packers, a
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: team that they just couldn't beat forever, and now they
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: have momentum and confidence against them. The other thing is
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: if you just pull up their schedule that week three
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: at night, Monday Night football against the Eagles jumps out.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: I watched that game on my couch on Black Friday
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: last year. Ben Johnson destroyed the Philadelphia Eagles and Vic
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Fangio's defense ran it right down their throat. So to me,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: the Giants and the Commanders got a lot of respect.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: They're both getting four I think combined eight primetime games. Yeah,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Jade Daniels had one of the great rookie seasons we've
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: ever seen, but last year he was banged up. He slim.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: It's like, is there coach any good?
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Ben Johnson's a star and clearly Caleb his ceiling. Who
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: knows if hit it, but he's damn good, right, cand
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: jaydon even stay on the field. What does Caleb ever
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: get hurt? Either? Is Washington's roster that good? You know?
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: The Giants? Who doesn't like John Harbaugh? It's been very impressive,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: same resume as McCarthy. We all think McCarthy and the
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Steelers think, you know, we'll see John Harbaugh jolted back
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: when he got Lamar Jackson one of the most talented
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: players we've ever seen. So I feel really confident about
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: the Bears carrying it over. Those are the two teams
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: that are getting the same treatment in terms of prime
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: time games. It's like, I don't know, you know, can
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Jackson Dart stay on the field the whole time? Last
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: year he was runn around, he got hurt. Yes, The
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: one thing you feel good about is like Caleb and
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Ben Johnson, you know, I would buy more stock in
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Ben Johnson if he was on the SMB. And clearly
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Caleb ssould just improve because his improvement isn't on stuff
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: that's very tough to reach. His improvement is like hit
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: a wheel route, hit the out route on time. I'm
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: not high on Minnesota. I've had Viking sneak. You have
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: a big fan base. I hear from them a lot.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Oh no, no, John In the last twenty five seasons, we've
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: had like five bad seasons. They are a very consistent organization.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: This quarterback situation though, you know, the JJ situation. If
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: he doesn't win that job. To me, he wanted to
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: be on the team week one. Kyler's just a pretty
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: fickle guy. He can look good, he can get injured.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Oh you know, you've watched him in Arizona.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they gave him a couple million dollars that Carson.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Carson Wentz didn't just get a veteran minimum no money.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: They guaranteed him seven figures. He's gonna make three million dollars.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: That's like the going rate for kind of like an
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: older veteran backup. So they're heads in their bet a
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: little bit like this could go. Now they have an
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: excellent coaching staff, but to me, Minnesota is a little
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: bit on tilt. Yeah, I'm betting against him, same now
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: i'm betting before Kyler.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I kind of feel like he's not gonna be Sam
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Darnold good because I think Donald's better. But I'm kind
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: of rude. I've always been a Kyler fan, understand all
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the nonsense, and if he fails in Minnesota, then it's
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: on everybody else that attains him. I do think he's
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: gonna play well. He's a motivated player, and I do
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: think he's talented as hell. And they went out and
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: got you know, Juwan Jennings, Like they have real players here.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: I think they're somewhat limited. Although it should be noted
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: that Vikings last year in division were foreign too. That
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: division's weird. It's a weird division.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like the North. You look up on
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Thursday Night football and the Browns or beating the Bengals
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: or the Steelers, They're like, what's going just because it
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: is that Northern element of football to me is like
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: anytime those six teams play each other or I guess
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: eight teams in the AFC and NFC North, you're never
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: shocked with an outcome. The schedule that by far to
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: me is the hardest, and we knew it because again
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: we knew who everyone was playing. We said, know the days.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: That's what the crazy part about the NFL is, it
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: makes a big deal of something we already knew. Is
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: the Patriots schedule is all brutal.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I mean they are on the road every third week
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: for a long trip.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: And they just it's a lot of Seattle's and you know,
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Bears and Packers and Lions and Chargers. Obviously they play
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: the Bills twice, the Chiefs, the Broncos. I do think
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: the Jets, who were an absolute laughing sock last year,
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: do have a lot of good players. If they're gone.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Their offense, if you put if I said, Sam Donald
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: goes back to New York and they had a good coach.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Look at the Jets offensive, I mean they got both
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: tackle set, running back, wide receiver, tight end. They actually
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: have whoever the next quarterback is is walking into a
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: great space.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: They're assuming Gino is just not just completely shot. They're
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: probably more likely a five or six win team than
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: like a two win team. Yeah, you know it's hard.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: I mean we've seen a lot of Jim tom Sula
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: won five games. You know, sometimes I think people underestimate,
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: you know, like the season the Raiders and the Jets
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: have that doesn't happen to even bad franchises. That's a
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: once in five years you have awful You go six,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Ask Andy what six and eleven? Six and eleven feels brutal? Right,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: so you you have the two or three win seasons,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: that's as bad as against the Patriots. To me, I
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: mean that that opening night at Seattle into that place,
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: that place is gonna be just It's gonna feel like
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: an sec game. You won't be able to hear yourself
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: think that team is the Seattle is clearly more talented.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: That's gonna That's a tough started spot on Wednesday night.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Godspeed Mike.
• 21:28
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• 22:58
  Speaker 1: gambling problem called one eight hundred g ambler. So Aaron
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Rodgers signs a one year deal with the Steelers. You
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: know I was thinking about this today, is that if
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: you go back, you know, Aaron's career has had so
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: many parallels with Brett Farve's. It's so weird, even though
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: they're very different people that you know, the career's end
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: and you're like, yeah, I kind of thought they'd get
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: more Super Bowls. They both got kind of rigid at
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the end in Green Bay, right like they didn't want
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: to learn, you know, they just didn't love their situation.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: They were both talked about retirement in Green Bay. They
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: both end up going to the Jets. It doesn't work
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: for either of them, and then they go to better franchises.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Aaron goes to the Steelers and Farv goes to the Vikings. Well,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Farv's first year in Minnesota is one of my favorite
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: years ever. He goes thirty three and thirty three touchdown,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: seven pick. It was a magical year. It's one of
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the great NFL stories the last fifty years in the league.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: It was in I would rooting for them so hard
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: that year until that terrible pick against was it Arizona's
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: awful gofful But you know, I look at Aaron coming
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: back for a year. The older you get, Tom Brady
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: would tell you this, the more committed and obsessed you
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: have to be. Lebron would tell you this, because you're
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: just your body doesn't react, it needs extra rest. It
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: just the reality is you age easier to get injured.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: You think there's a chance, I mean, DK metcalf is
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: on the slide, still not a great o line. What
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: kind of year do you think Aaron has? His quarterback rating?
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: We don't talk about QBR much. He's been in the
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: like twenty third, twenty sixth, twenty fifth in the league.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: What kind of year do you think he has?
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Tom Brady that forty five year old season just no
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: longer wanted to get hit the team. That team was
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: way more talented. They had younger core players that once
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Baker got there, the next couple of years was making
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: playoff runs were a legitimate Remember Tom at toe to
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: toe with the Rams.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: He didn't want to get guys in rhyme. Stafford's the
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: only old quarterback is willing to stand in. I was
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: talking to one of his best friends last night. I
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: was in LA I flew to Chicago and Hit. One
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: of his best friends was at a party I was
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: at and I said, you know, tell Matt I have
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: nothing to do care. I said, I really respect the
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: fact that Matt is the last old guy in the
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: league that will let go of the ball knowing he's
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: going to get drilled. Aaron doesn't want it, Brady. The
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: last year Tom didn't want it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: How could you? I mean, at that point in time,
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Tom had forty five? Like what am I doing this for?
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: Aaron did last year with that once his wrist broke
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: to battle through that is he going to do that
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: again for a team that now he has evidence that, Yeah,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: our ceiling's only so high. He used the Minnesota example.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: I just pulled up their stats. Adrian Peterson, who was
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: one of the great prospects of all time was in
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: like year two had eighteen touchdowns. Pretty sure they had
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: just traded with in the last couple of years. For
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Jared Allen, who'd go on to have a Hall of
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Fame career, he was all he was like TJ. Watt
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: five years ago, that that team was just so much
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: more physically gifted with young guys in their prime than
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: this Steeler operation. Remember him and McCarthy like had a
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: bad breakup, and you know, time heals all wounds. And
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: now I say, maybe you forget you.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Know this, this this is funny. Like I remember.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Everybody was fired after the Arizona game and that was
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: very unlike Green Bay to fire a coach in season,
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: and it was pretty ugly. They lost to a terrible
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: Arizona team at home, like thirteen to three or something.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Mike was fired on Monday morning.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: I remember when Facebook was younger as a company.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Now it's meta.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: And there was a story I read somewhere about, you know, hookups,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: face hookups from high school or hookups from college, people
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: that dated for years and years. Now they were in
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: their forties, they go on Facebook and reconnect, they reconnect
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: and that that it was like and I don't forget
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: what the article was, but the article was your memory
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: are much greater than reality, Like your memories are, oh,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: you know, the sex was good, or oh, I might
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: had so much fun with her, and then you reconnect
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: on Facebook and after about two days you're like, oh god,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: this is why I dumped him or I dumped her.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: And it's the same way as people want to pretend
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: that Mike and Aaron it wasn't that bad. It was bad.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I had two players on the Packers that I had
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: this really well sourced. They're like, Aaron couldn't stand Mike,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: like the play would come in from the huddle. Aaron
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: was like Aaron I think one year with Mike maybe
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: it was the last year led the NFL and throwaways.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Basically he would just if Mike called a play didn't like,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: he would get the ball, look around, throw it out
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: of bounce. It was awful. And by the way, they're
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: not the same guy. One guy looks like a Milwaukee cop.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: One guy looks like an actor, you know, like they're
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: just not Their sensibility is totally different. When guy's a
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: little and I think Mike's underrated as a coach. I
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: think Aaron maybe is overrated a little bit now in
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the last several years of quarterback. But this idea that was, okay, Aaron,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: you know, who are we hitting here? Aaron can be difficult.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: I mean I've known three four people with the Packers.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I've known players, coaches. Aaron's moody. Aaron's difficult, and that's fine.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: He has every right to be a unique personality. But
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: this idea they were kumbai a is just bullshit.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: No, he got really bad. Remember there was a lot
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: of staff movement those last couple of years, a lot
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: of pressure about some underachievements in some of their playoff runs.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: The defense was pretty embarrassing. But again, that's what twenty eighteen.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're almost halfway through twenty twenty six. So,
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: like you said, the separation, clearly they've rekindled a little
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: bit over the years, just bsing. There's a big difference
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: of someone you know, I'm glad I don't work with
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: you anymore, but you could be Internet friends or texts
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: here and there. Right then, to spend the amount of
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: time the offensive play caller and the quarterback in the
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: NFL in an operation, say one thing about Mike mc arthy,
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. He's not
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: taking the Jags and the Cardinals job. I mean, this
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: is those are three of the most glamorous jobs in
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: the history of American sports. This this is a team
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: that is under the microscope. Their fan base is massive.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: You saw the pressure cooker a little bit last year,
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: and that's where I think Aaron took pride and like
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: I'm playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, play hurt even though
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: they had no shot. I guess I'm not surprised. I mean,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: by all accounts, it looks like he got a race right,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: which is clearly why he was holding out. But I
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: think this thing, if you were betting the likelihood that
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: it kind of goes like last year a little bit
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: better or could go worse, you just bet on the
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: odds that forty two year old quarterback goes worse.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Well, Also, do you think as Mike McCarthy built his
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Pittsburgh staff. Okay, so it was ugly at the end,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: and the feeling was Aaron won and got Mike whacked. Okay,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: you don't think people hold little grudges, I mean a
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: little bit. What do you think Mike's been sick because
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't think Mike. I think Mike would
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: like to play Will Howard and Drew Aller.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: I really do.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: I think Mike McCarthy wants to he wants to go
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: to I don't think the owners let it go.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: I don't.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: And Omar Khan's powerless, He's irrelevant. I think the owners
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the routies want to compete. Omar Khan is, in my opinion,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: one of the weaker gms. He didn't have any say here.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: What I believe to be true is if you and
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: I had a terrible break up last couple of years
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and we came back and I hired a staff, and
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: I didn't know where you were, and then you eventually
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: came back. Don't you think over the course of the
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: months where I didn't know where you were, I'd be saying, well, yes,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: this is what John does. Just guys, just you got it.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: You know, boy, he's this guy. You know, he's a
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: lot of work, he's you know, super talented. But now
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I just think it's human nature. As Aaron disappears and
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: is mysterious that McCarthy in private meetings with his new staff.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Remember the Steelers don't fire coaches. John McCarthy's going to
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: be there probably until he retires. He's gonna be there
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: eight years.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: Aaron get it. He's gonna get his own quarterback one
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: in the next five years.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: So Mike's there for a nurse seven to eight years.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Aaron's there for one year. So Mike is probably, you know,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: in closed door meetings over coffees, like, listen, we play nice,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: we say nice stuff publicly the owners. Why, I honestly
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: believe deep down Mike's like, listen, this is what the
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: owners want, the Rooney family. Let's just let's just be
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: good stewards to the franchise. I don't think that's conspiracy theory.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I think that's what's happening. And you play nice to
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the cameras and you say the nice stuff, but ask
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: let me ask you, if you were the coach of
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: the Steelers and you knew you had a long runway,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: wouldn't you just want to see if the young guys
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: can play. Just let's just see what they can play.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: To the moment that they Tomlin quit or whatever. And
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Rooney did the press conference and he says, we don't
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: because he was kind of getting like, isn't it time
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: to maybe just rip the band aid off, a just
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: kind of reset for a year. And I think it's
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: art the third or the fifth or that's not what
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: we do here. We come and they are They are
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: the opposite of the Sam Hinky, you know, tank sixers,
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: and which I can respect. But let's say they go
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: eight to nine or nine and eight and either missed
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: the playoffs by game or get bounced. You're just in
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: the same situation next year. But Aaron, it's not like
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: he's going to come back for a third year, right,
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: And who's to say that Aaron can even make it
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: through the year. Here's the other thing. Older players, historically,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: guys and the quarterbacks at thirty five started breaking down.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: Now that number has been pushed back with health, and
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Aaron clearly takes it seriously. But over the last couple
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: of years, a guy that's not exactly exactly Lamar Jackson anything,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: has a torn achilles, He broke his wrist, so he
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: doesn't move around as well anymore. Their offensive line last year,
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: you know, their left tackle is in a neck issue.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: They just declined his fifth year option. They just invest
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: did in somewhat of a project offensive tackle. Who's to
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: say that he's gonna make it through the season in
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: play seventeen games. It's just it's he's had two pretty
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: major injuries over the last because that older players, you're
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: just a little more brittle. You definitely don't move as fast.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: One of aaron superpowers was always being able to get away,
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: even when you think about far from those Minnesota That
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: last year in Minnesota, he was excellent. The next year
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: I worked for the Eagles, he got hurt when we
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: were supposed to play him, and obviously was never the same.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Remember he got slammed in like the goal line and
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: a Sunday night football game. You just cause you're just
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: not quite as quick even though your body goes, well,
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: I've made this move a million times, well the same
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: twenty seventeen or this isn't twenty twenty one. So I
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: would just bet on the health to me would be
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: a major, major question. That's the same thing with any
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: of these older quarterbacks. That's why Stafford, you know, kind
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: of got to pick your spots. You gotta sit in there.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Maybe when you're playing the Niners in Seattle, but if
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: we're playing some random team, like it's just hit the ground.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: Peyton Manning did a really good job of that throughout
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: his career. Look at him by the end of his
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: career is neck and shoulder didn't work. It's a it's
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: a brutal where there's nothing. There's nothing like this that
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: the hits these guys take, and Erron's taken a lot
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: over the years.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I did want to address the college football thing.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: So it looks like they're going to move in the
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: direction of the twenty fourteen playoff. And again, I did
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: not grow up in a traditional family, you know, blah
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: blah blah. So I like change, I don't like all change.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Don't screw the Masters, don't screw with March madness. I mean,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: there are some things I just think are I mean
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I literally watch every shot the last couple of days
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: of the Masters, like I just don't screw with it.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: And I and I think there are some things you
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: can tweak. I think sports think rules are very tweakable.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: But when people say, you know, college basketball colin, I mean,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: it's it's there's so many teams in the tournament. It's
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: made college basketball regular season irrelevant. Well, college basketball is
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: regular season is three times as long as the twelve
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: game college.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Football regular season games right right.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Also, in college basketball, with sixty eight teams, we don't
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: have really, I mean, anybody with life. We don't really
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: argue on selection Sunday. You know about a legitimate team
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: not getting in. In college football, we went to a
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: twelve team playoff. Notre Dame had an argument to get
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: in like that, that was a real argument. Now, I said,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: I thought Miami deserved more than Notre Dame, but Notre
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Dame had their argument, right, Like, that's just with twelve.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: If you go to twenty four, like college basketball, you're
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: going to get out of legitimate, big time arguments. The
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: second thing here is college football is more popular than
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: college basketball, and it's not particularly close college basketball. I
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: remember telling Doug gott Lead this. He admits it now,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: but at the time he because he'd loved college basketball.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: He said, college basketball he's got three week sport. College
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: football is a four month sport. Now with a playoff,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: it's a five it's almost you know, September, October, November, December.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: It's a four and a half month sport. So college
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: football can doesn't have to play by college basketball rules.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: I understand that people say it can ding the regular season,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: but the way college football ended my entire life, and
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: I've been a fan of college football. It's the first
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: sport I really fell in love with baseball and college football.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: John it used to be sports writers voted on who
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: should be number one. Then it was the stupid BCS system,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: and then it was I mean, it was just an
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: it's gone. It was computers, it's been sports writers. It's like, guys,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: we've all thought college football was the best movie with
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: a ludicrous ending, so now we're just going to have
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: a longer ending. And the outer knock I have on
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: college football as a gigantic fan is there's always been
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: this kind of scarcity of big games where like the
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Labor Day weekend, you're like, ooh, I want to watch it,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: and you're like, there's only two great games because with
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: a twelve team playoff, Notre Dame almost guaranteed to be in,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: and to James Madison's you're like, well, then it's like
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: a nine team playoff, nobody wants to play big games.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: You get to sixteen to twenty four, Okay, now now
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: I'm willing to play that tough Notre Dame out of
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: conference game. By the way, Notre Dame's Pete Bovaqua knows
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: he's for the expansion because he knows in his conference
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: he needs USC, he needs a Texas he needs. They
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: have Texas scheduled in a couple of years, although the
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: game is very fluid. So my take is college football's
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: ending always underwhelmed. It was it got very sec It
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: was always like, well, there should be more teams involved.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: So I don't have a problem changing the ending to
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: a movie when nobody really liked the ending to the movie.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: I would only be okay with it if we just
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: remove all the crappy regular season games. Then you are
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: mandated to only play other Power four teams. Maybe you
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: get one non Fresno State or whatever. Yeah, you no
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: longer get to play the Sisters of the Poor before
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: the Auburn game. You no longer you know, USC has
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: scheduled some UC Davis types, which I understand even though
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: I hate it. Now I get why they do it.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: That that has to go away. Yeah, in the NFL,
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: the uh, you know, the forty nine ers don't get
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: to schedule Birmingham in the UFL Week three. Let's you
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: play other teams at your level? Are they just gonna
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: you know you and I are just some D one
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Double A guys. They have a twenty four team playoff.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: It's pretty simple. You start right after the regular season ends.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: But in D one Double A you don't have conference
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: championship games, and then they have a twenty four teams
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: make it. The top eight teams get a buy. Sixteen
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: teams play at home venues, and you could only honestly
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: go two home venues. Because I think one thing that
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: pops you know better than me, the economics of these
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: neutral site games for the broadcast partners, the home venue
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: games pomp on. To remember a couple of years ago
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: when Signetti came out of nowhere playing Notre Dame on
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: that night game like this is incredible. Penn State at SMU.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: I think they played during the day, but anytime this
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: year Alabama hosted or Oklahoma hosted Alabama at night on
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Friday night.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Huge, that works.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: So to me, if you go multiple games at home,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: I don't need expansion. But if it's inevitable, I'm just
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: gonna get behind it because I'm gonna watch it. You
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: gotta start right away. None of this. These coaches. Dan
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: Lanning has been talking about this. Kirby let's just play
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: none of these huge breaks. And to me, you would
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: just start immediately.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: I've been saying forever if they were going to stay
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: the same, because it was clear last year and it
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: kind of became evident a couple of years ago. But
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: last year I have a lot of respect for Ohio
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: State in Indiana. Both teams did. They both could have
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: just said we're not playing this conference championship game, but
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: not only did they play, they played it like it
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: was the national champion. I would turn that conference championship
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: game because clearly it's a huge money maker for the
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Big ten the SEC. You take two teams, especially in
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: the twenty four it's like an elimination game. You got
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: to win that game to get into the dance. That
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: was my thought with the twelve team playoff. Maybe I
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: don't know if that would change in the twenty four
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: but what happened to the conference championship game in a
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: twenty fourteen playoff? Why would anyone want the extra mileage
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: if you're going to have to go even further. Yeah,
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: that'd be one question that they have to figure out.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: These commissioners already talking about it like, yeah, it's pretty
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: it's pretty clear that changes are on the horizon with
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: these championship games. If we keep headed down this because
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: a team could happen this year, we're not playing in it,
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: and you couldn't even blame them.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean one of the things that small colleges
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: like I went to Eastern Washington and their argument is,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: you know, we need that game against Washington State. And
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: I've always like pushed back and said, listen, if your
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: school needs a blowout LAE loss to have a sports program,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: maybe you shouldn't have a sports program. And I say
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: that to somebody that went to Eastern Washington University. My
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: take is, if you can't make the economics work without
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: playing Tennessee and losing fifty six to ten, then you
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have sports. You shouldn't have that sport at your school.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: But this all gets back though, colin to the Title
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: nine thing. It's like football could afford at Eastern Washington
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: to pay for itself, they can't have all the other athletics.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: That's where the business model of college athletics gets a
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: little funky. It does not parallel pro sports at all,
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: even though now football is being run like a pro operation.
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: So it's that, to me, is the elephant in the
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: room as we move in this economic kind of windfall
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: that football and basketball is bringing in. Is tennis teams
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: are getting cut. I mean, are all these are none
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: of these going to exist? That all just exists at
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: the club level. I think that's very possible in the
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: next ten years.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Again, this has been si'vetak I have friends who are
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: you know, have kids playing tennis at college, and I've said,
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: it's just not sustainable when your business model is Listen,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: we're hemorrhaging money, but we feel like we're better humans
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: because we have fencing. It's like, guys, that's not going
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: to last. We're seeing it across with AI, We're seeing
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: it across all business models. A lot of stuff that
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: we just said, you know, it's just, you know, it's
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: just it's getting more severe more bottom line with sports,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: just like the NFL, you guys are gonna go overseas,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: You're gonna have to deal with seventeen games. We're gonna
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: move to eighteen games. Everything grows over time, everything grows
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: you just and if you're one of those people that's
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: uncomfortable with it, I understand it. There's a lot of
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: traditionalists in this country. I get it, but it's going
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: to be a rough If you're a sports fan, good god.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, baseball now drives me nuts, Like if the
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: Yankees are playing, it's like what where? I mean? Like honestly, like,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: I think baseball's kind of lost itself a little. It's like,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: you know, Baseball. I don't love all your tradition, but
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: it was nice when you were mostly a network product.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: People are bitching about Amazon Prime has the game seven
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Calves and Pistons. Now Amazon NBA would say, well, they
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: have five times as many subscribers as a network does,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: so like, what are you a cable I.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: Don't understand the argument of Amazon. I've never met a
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: human that doesn't have Amazon. My mother in law was
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: just here for the week. She asked me, She says,
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: do you guys ever go to the store? I said, Jennifer,
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: why would I go to the store when I could
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: order everything from hammer to a toothpaste to you name
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: it with one press of a button and they delivered
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: to my house in five hours. Amazon's one of the
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: most remarkable companies what they're doing right now, And I
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: wanted to ask you the Thursday night schedule. It's not
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: that long ago. When that schedule was, it felt like
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: the London game, a lot of Jags. You could argue
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: that is the best lineup. And it's been this way
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: for a couple of years. Are they treating Amazon now
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: like as big of an equal if not their number
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: one part? Or that Thursday night schedule was mind blowing.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: I thought it was better than Monday Night Football. Actually
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: I thought, well, you know, it's funny. So remember when
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: Fox had it. Briefly, Fox had the Thursday Night five
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: years ago and Fox just couldn't make the numbers work.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: But Fox really leaned on the NFL. I think I
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: can say this now and said, guys, if we're going
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: to do this, the quality has to be better, and
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: we also need more rivalry games. So is it possible
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: that you know, we could get like same time zone teams,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: like we'd love to have a Steelers Ravens, not Steelers Chargers.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: And so I think, you know, Fox really went back
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: and forth with the league and said, you know, we
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: like Thursday, it's getting expensive, but can we have some
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: more rivalry games in that? And I think the NFL obliged.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: I think they did a much I think Fox in
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: the NFL worked. It was really bad for a while.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Fox got the league to give them some rice, really nice.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: You know, you're Steeler Raven kind of level games. And
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: I think Amazon now with the deepest pockets of any
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: of the broadcast partners because of Jeff Bezos.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: And I mean, they're a three trillion dollar company, Colin.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think the reality is you're setting it
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: up for the next contract. And I mean you and
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: I I love Thursday night games because when you know,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, let's be honest, When I go on FS
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: one Friday, my first hour of my show. If it's
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: a good game, I got a game to talk my
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: show is always easier any sport. When I've got a
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: huge game to talk about, it fills an hour of
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: my show.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: The game now feels I would say football has never
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: been more popular. That's sitting here right now, and that
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: game feels more like appointment viewing than it ever has.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: So it's it's a timing of the league's popularity growth. Again,
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: I think so many people have the Amazon it's a
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: pretty easy thing to click on. I talk to people
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: in the league. They love I mean, the crew of
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: guys from Carissa to Richard to Whitworth to fin they
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: got a good crew like Amazon's done a pretty good
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: It's an easy.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Watch and they fight and they've gotten I just talked
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: to CHRISA. Thompson. I saw her last night at a
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: party in LA and we talked. I said, you know,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: the first year, I texted her the first year she's
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: the host, and I said, your coverage is loose. It's
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: not there yet. I said, you're close, but it's just
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: everything feels loose. And she's like, yeah, we're kind of
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: getting there, getting there. And then and then I thought
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: by year two it's like, Okay, you know it's hard,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: you're starting. I mean literally, remote television in cold weather
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: is hard. So I thought Amazon for about a year
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: was a little clunky, but I thought by year two
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: they kind of hit it. I'm not a fan of
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: so far necessarily what Netflix Sports division I don't like
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: as much as I like Amazon. But Amazon's been doing
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: it longer and I think they found their footing.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: One thing Amazon has is when you win that game,
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: especially as the season gets going and they are real stakes,
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: it feels like a really big freaking deal because you
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: just have a couple of days rest you won the game.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: I mean they have the star player on the set.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: It feels like they just won a bowl game or something,
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: you know, I mean, it's so the game. Every once
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: in a while, you get like a Bills against TUA
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: in Miami. You know, you have it's inevitable. It's not
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: every game's perfect, but there are some games where there
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: feels like big stakes or big stories. Remember was it
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: last year when Flacco got traded from the Browns to
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: the Bengals and then beat the Steelers And you're like,
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: I'm watching something that matters. And I don't remember that
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: being the case. When I first got in the league,
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: Roll app who's the PGA guy, they were just starting
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: trying it out. There'd be like three games throughout the
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: year randomly. They'd be like a game week four, game
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Week nine. I remember we played it. We played Seattle.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: And that's back to what you're saying. Philadelphia Eagles should
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: not be playing Seattle on a Thursday night football games, right,
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: Philly should play Washington. Seattle should play the nine at.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Ramos argued for, like, you know, let's get better fresher
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: teams that don't have a seven hour flight for.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: Sure, and it was just kind of a one off,
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: weird deal. Now everyone knows how to handle it. They
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: no longer mandate everyone playing on the games, right because
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, how many teams, what are their five.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Or sixteen Arizona Cleveland? You know, For the record, I
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: never understood that goes back to our argument ten minutes ago. Ultimately,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: business wins. It used to be not long ago, everybody
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: gets a primetime game. NFL's like kick that thing to
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: the curb, like, get out of here, Cleveland, you're not
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: on TV. Jets, you're not on TV. That's the reality
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: of what's happening. And by the way, the holiday schedule
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: Christmas and Thanksgiving, I thought was by far and away
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: the best holidays, the best games of the year, of
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: the year, even the international Games, A couple of those
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: games would be the best game of the week. I
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: think it's just even if you're well run as a business,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: it takes you time. It took Amazon like a second
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: or third year to get their it takes the NFL.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: It's taking the NFL. I think they've always been pretty
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: intentional with their scheduling. I think over the course of
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: the last three to four years, they've just gotten smarter.
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: I'm actively rooting for the NFL to be successful until
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: I die. It's been great for my career. It hopefully
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: continues to be great. You get you know, you see
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: this a lot online like is could it ever is
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: getting too big? Or are they getting too It's like
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: I'd be trying these things out to I know this,
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: my wife, my fan walk the Netflix games. The Amazon
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: games will be on all the holidays, and they will
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: be in everyone's home the Wednesday game. Like, as you
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: get older, you're not just. You're not a twenty four
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: year old kid going out. You're at home on Wednesday night,
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: you're watching the game.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: I was talking about this, probably a year or two
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: ago with a sports writer and I said to the
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: sports writer, I said, you guys are just I said, remember,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: you guys write about yesterday. I'm a broadcaster. We broadcast
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: about today and tomorrow. You write about what happened yesterday.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: You love the past, you love history. You kind of
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: cling to it. ESPN Classic everybody thought, oh, I want
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: to watch old games. Nobody watched. And I said, I said,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: newspaper people are cynical. You guys can poke holes through
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: the NFL. This was somebody that was kind of an
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: anti kind of anti Thursday anti you know, pro tradition,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: and I said, the English Premier League, it doesn't matter
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: ifho owns the teams. When Man United's playing, people care,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: like we are too often in the weeds about it.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: The bottom line is in this country, I'm buying Peacock
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: because I want to watch a Saturday game at the
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: end of the year with a backup quarterback. And I
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: know I work in the business, but when you look
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: at the numbers of what these streamers are getting, people
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: are signing up may cancel two days later, but the
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: people love sports, you know. Interesting when the rating system
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: has changed now they count out of home viewing, which
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: it didn't make any sense my entire life. The big
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: argument in my industry was how the hell do you
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: not count bars? Who watches games by themselves, especially like
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: World Cup, NFL World Series, March Madness? Who's ever watched
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: March Madness sitting in a basement by themselves? Like there
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: are certain things we watch collectively, like World Cup. I've
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: never watched the World Cup game by myself. Like you're, oh,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: it's a celebration, it's the Olympics. You're watching with family
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: or friends. If you look at the numbers, the only
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: thing that works on television is sports. Ninety seven out
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: of one hundred of the highest viewed television programs are sports.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: The NFL, for the rest of my life will be
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: king and will get massive numbers.
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: Oh and I don't fall soccer really at all, but
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: I know soccer. They don't play every day. So when
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: Man you or Man City, when they play once a
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: week or once every other week, depending on this game,
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: it's a really big deal. When the NBA Playoffs started,
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: I remember clicking it because I knew the Lakers were on,
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: and I went to ESPN. First, wasn't on. Then I
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: tried whatever Amazon Prime wasn't on. It was on Peacock
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: Basketball and baseball. It's not appointment. I'm just used to
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: kind of going TNT. It was on forever. In football,
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: everyone's like, oh, you can't put the Chiefs Dolphin game
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: on Peacock. You can put it wherever you want. You
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: have a week lead up, they're not playing the next day.
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: You have a week to build up. And that's football.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: It's just the most suited for an economy where our
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: attention is so tiny that it's hard to miss something
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: because you have so many days to not miss it.
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: Where these other sports it's every day you're playing. Every
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: day you're playing for the first time. Now, Basketball, whenever
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: they played tonight, they'll just have four teams remaining, so
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: it's pretty easy to kind of follow. But early on
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: in the playoffs, you got three or four games going
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: to night. They're on different networks. It's you know, football,
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: once the playoffs start, there's only one game going at
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: a time. Even look at basketball, which Adam got a
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: lot of credit for tripling his deal. Well, clearly the networks,
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: this is not they don't get treated like the NFL
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: that networks do whatever they want. They had games that
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: were that were one game would start and then an
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: hour later the other game would start, Like the Laker
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: game would be at five thirty when the other game
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: tipped off at four thirty. My entire life in the NBA,
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: it would be four four thirty and then the other
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: game would start. When that thing ended, Well, those days
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: are done because they go, well, we paid this much.
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: If I get the Lakers or the next I'm throwing
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: them on the prime time. Yeah, I don't blame them.
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: I'd be doing the same thing too. But clearly if
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: the NBA surely doesn't want that, they want everyone to
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: be able to watch both the games, well that's no
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: longer the case.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: You know another example, John, of the NFL, you know,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: looking forward, if not an agenda, they have a plan.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of questions whether because NBC went
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: heavy into the NBA and you know the NFL's attack
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: the NBA. Just look at the Christmas schedule, so there
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: are some questions about is the NFL going to remain
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: on NBC. So if you look at the Thursday night schedule,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: I mean there's some games here, John, you know, Minnesota,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: San Francisco, like you could throw on ten Niner games
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: that were more interesting than that. Houston Pittsburgh, there's no
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: rivalry there.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: The Atlanta Falcons playing the Ravens. That one's weird to me.
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: I know, Carolina was in the playoff team. How about
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: this isn't the cam Newton Carolina Panthers.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: Here, Jacksonville at Dallas of all the Cowboy games, Jacksonville
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: one of the smaller brands in the league. I mean,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: they don't have real traditional rivalries. I mean Detroit at
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: Carolina doesn't that feel a little bit to you, Like,
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: like the NFL watched NBC take a big part of
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: their sports budget, protect themselves and say, hey, we're going
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: to go NBA in the NFL going okay, all right?
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: Because the Thursday schedule now is better than the Sunday skip.
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: Is there a chance that Amazon could own Thursday Night
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: and Sunday Night in the next go round?
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Absolutely?
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, That's what you know because clearly Netflix, they're CEO.
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: He's talked, he's been adamant, we don't want a full package.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: They've been big on Jake Paul fights, this Tom Brady roast,
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: the Christmas Games. Like their track record is pretty consistent
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: with what they've said, the way they've built separate from
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: the belt, the dude that climbed the did you watch
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: that thing in Tokyo whatever, the tallest building they like
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: doing stuff like that. Thursday Night Football is going really well.
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: You know, we talked about this popularity. Why wouldn't they go,
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: We'll take Thursday and Sunda Night football again? Three trillion
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: dollar company, but we're in Netflix here at the volume.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: They're very successful company. They're three hundred billion. I googled
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: it the other day so three hundred billion three, like
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: Amazon is gigantic and getting bigger, and.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: I I don't think and I say this, and I
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: know I'll get pushback. I don't think the NFL would
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: ever screw Fox. I think Fox has been a great partner.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: I think I think Fox does a great job. I mean,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: Fox puts Tom Brady on the games, then it's Greg
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: Olsen on the games. The quality of Fox's broadcast in
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: my lifetime, our Super Bowl coverage has always been unbelievable.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: Like I think Fox feels like the NFL. Honestly, if
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: I if you said Fox, I'd be like, oh, Simpson's.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: And he's just CBS. I would say the Masters.
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: Well yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. See. By the way, for
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: a long time CBS I was like, oh March Madness Masters, NFL.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: To me, Fox is sort of like NFL Simpsons World Series.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: I mean that's I mean, an American idol for a
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: long time. So I don't think. I think that's a
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: relationship that will be embolden for years to come. NBC,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: you know, going back and saying we're gonna do NBA.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: What is the messaging?
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: But you've talked about this before, don't most people in
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: the industry believe that they got overly aggressive on the
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: amount of money they paid the NBA. So how do
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: they get into a bidding war for what has been
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: for a long time? The Sunday Football has been, for
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: a long period of time the number one television hoone
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: in America? Right, So why wouldn't Amazon if they see
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: what Thursday night Football, which forever was viewed as a
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: throwaway was like, Oh, Brian roll after genius, he just
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: created something out another. Sunday Night football is the marquee
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: game typically of the day everyone you know, depending on
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: the week. Obviously Fox has good afternoon or CBS can
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: have a great afternoon game, but the Sunday night game
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: is the highest rate of game of the day typically
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: on Sunday listen.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: I don't think NBC. First of all, they could never
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: outbit Amazon for obvious reasons. The second thing is they're
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: gonna be They're gonna hemorrhage on the NBA. ESPN will
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: be fine because they were the incumbent. They don't have
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: to build a new remote unit, so espn'll be fine.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: Amazon's fine because they're Amazon. NBC is a traditional broadcaster.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: They have peacock I just I think they're gonna lose
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: a billion dollars. I think it's so hard to create
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: a remote unit to travel. I mean, it's just the
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: whole day, and it's like it's any business that starts up.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: You see this all the time. You over these AI companies.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: You're not gonna get a lot of this money back.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot of losers and very few winners.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: AI people just spend like crazy. And I think NBC
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: is in a survival mode now. The Ellisons are connected
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: to CBS. You know, the Murdocks have done well with Fox.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: You've got Amazon, Netflix. Even though scalability wise, Foxes is
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: not gigantic. But their relationship to me with the NFL,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: it just feels deep and it feels respectful. And I think,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: and I'll say this, I think Fox is really good
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: on the NFL.
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: Think how many times, over the course of just my
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: life things when I was a kid, we didn't have
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: cable up until like right when I went to high school.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: I did not know there was a Sunday night football
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: game until I went over to my grandma's house and
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: Paul McGuire remember in Thiasman, it used to be on
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: ESPN Sunday Night Football and Monday Night FOOTBA at the
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: time was on ABC. So these networks in terms of
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: the prime time it's always rotated a little bit when
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: it came up to television deals, who bid on what package?
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: If I was a betting man right now, just looking
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: at the way the schedules have played out, because Monday
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: Night Football was bad years ago, ESPN changed their messaging,
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: got back and good with the NFL. They had writers
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: wanting the NFL to burn to the ground, so it's like, well,
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: the company probably would go along with it if that happened.
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: A great business. They have done a good job building
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: that thing back, and now Monday Night Football and Thursday
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: Night Football, especially this year, feel like the Marquee Knights.
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: And if I was a betting man, I'd say Sunday
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: Night Football, I would guess on Amazon. I would say
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: Amazon owns Thursday and Sunday Night Football, and Box and
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: CBS has all the games, uh, you know on Sunday
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: morning and Sunday afternoon.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: John Middlecoff, former NFL scout three and out, can see
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: anybody