Latest / The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast / NFL Combine with Mel Kiper Jr.

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NFL Combine with Mel Kiper Jr. · The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Favorites, the podcast from the Action Networking Today,
0:14
Speaker 1: a very special NFL combine betting episode with a superstar guest.
0:22
Speaker 1: Let's get right to it. Let's get to the main thing.
0:26
Speaker 1: The main thing to as the weight. We got a
0:30
Speaker 1: live one knock it out Alvin Kamara. I didn't know
0:35
Speaker 1: much about it and I put his tape in and
0:36
Speaker 1: I almost fell over. Okay, here's Barkley Pound Vertical twenty
0:41
Speaker 1: nine on the bench breast. That's a creative player on
0:44
Speaker 1: Matt Wow. I mean that is just nutty. No webs
0:49
Speaker 1: a new record older it is John Ross. I saw
0:52
Speaker 1: two or three scouts look at their stop watch and
0:55
Speaker 1: show other scouts as if, hey, did you get that?
0:58
Speaker 1: Am I reading this right? You know, many many years ago,
1:05
Speaker 1: when I first got out of college, my first job
1:07
Speaker 1: was as a fact checker at Sports Illustrated. My assignment
1:11
Speaker 1: was to fact check everything Peter King, the legendary NFL writer,
1:17
Speaker 1: wrote for the magazine. And over the course of the
1:20
Speaker 1: first couple of years I was working at Sports Illustrated,
1:22
Speaker 1: Peter and I became close and he would send me
1:24
Speaker 1: out on assignments, and one year he was unable to
1:27
Speaker 1: go to the NFL Combine, And at this time, the
1:29
Speaker 1: Combine was not a promptime event televised over multiple days
1:33
Speaker 1: by the NFL network. It was a rinky dink operation
1:37
Speaker 1: run out of the Holiday Inn in Indianapolis where they
1:41
Speaker 1: bring players out and you could maybe talked to him
1:44
Speaker 1: for ten minutes and there were maybe thirty people covering it.
1:48
Speaker 1: But Peter would go over a year. It's how he
1:49
Speaker 1: became so good at what he's done. And he couldn't
1:52
Speaker 1: go one year. So he told me, you got to
1:54
Speaker 1: go to the NFL Combine. You're gonna talk to agents,
1:56
Speaker 1: You're gonna talk to players, are gonna get as much
1:58
Speaker 1: as you can. You're gonna tell me everything you hear.
2:00
Speaker 1: You're gonna go to St. Almo Steakhouse, You're gonna sit
2:03
Speaker 1: at the bar, you're gonna cozy up the GMS. They're
2:05
Speaker 1: gonna whisper sweet nothings in your ear, and it's gonna
2:08
Speaker 1: be the greatest thing you've ever experienced. And I gotta
2:11
Speaker 1: tell you, he was totally, incompletely right. And since then,
2:14
Speaker 1: the NFL Combine has become everything I said it was.
2:16
Speaker 1: It is an NFL prime time extravaganza and more than
2:19
Speaker 1: anybody else over the past thirty five years, there is
2:22
Speaker 1: one person who is more responsible for turning the NFL
2:26
Speaker 1: draft into something that people care about. It has become
2:30
Speaker 1: something that five people are showing up in Nashville to
2:33
Speaker 1: see live. It is something that people are betting on
2:36
Speaker 1: the NFL Combine. There is one man who had the
2:39
Speaker 1: foresight to see this can be content that people are
2:42
Speaker 1: interested all year round. He is my guest today from
2:46
Speaker 1: ESPN legendary draft analyst, Mr mel Kuyper Jr. And tell
2:52
Speaker 1: me about your experiences with the combine in the early days.
2:57
Speaker 1: Never went, Never went to the combine chat, which would
2:59
Speaker 1: shock a lot of people because you couldn't get in.
3:01
Speaker 1: And there was no way I was gonna waste my
3:03
Speaker 1: time being at an event where you couldn't get in
3:06
Speaker 1: because there's too many juniors to evaluate, and I was
3:09
Speaker 1: back home. I'd get all the numbers and all the
3:11
Speaker 1: official measurements and three tones and broad jumps and verticals
3:14
Speaker 1: and ten yards splits and everything. You get all those numbers,
3:17
Speaker 1: So why be there if you can't get in to
3:19
Speaker 1: even see the event? So I stayed here and evaluated
3:21
Speaker 1: all the juniors. Got a head start on that and
3:24
Speaker 1: was really ahead of the game, and I'd get the
3:25
Speaker 1: print out and be moved forward with it. So last
3:28
Speaker 1: year we were at the combine. This year will be
3:29
Speaker 1: there again. But up until then, chet, I had never
3:32
Speaker 1: attended a combine in my life, going back when I
3:34
Speaker 1: started this thing in ninety eight. By the way, that
3:37
Speaker 1: is such a great lesson for people because it tells you,
3:39
Speaker 1: tells every It tells people everything they need to know
3:42
Speaker 1: about how to approach content, how to approach something you love,
3:47
Speaker 1: and that you don't have to be on the scene
3:49
Speaker 1: if you think you can find an advantage of doing
3:52
Speaker 1: it differently. You just said you got into this in
3:54
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy eight. Why did you even decide to start
3:57
Speaker 1: doing it in well? As I finished, you know, high school,
4:01
Speaker 1: I was doing all the things that the kids do
4:03
Speaker 1: back in those days, but unlike a lot of high
4:05
Speaker 1: school kids, I was sending reports to the NFL, and
4:07
Speaker 1: I was giving my reports to Ernie of Coursie was
4:09
Speaker 1: the gym of the Baltimore Colts and had worked in
4:11
Speaker 1: the Cold organization, so I was able to do that.
4:13
Speaker 1: Got a head start on everything. Thought there would be
4:16
Speaker 1: a market for this type of thing because there was
4:17
Speaker 1: no way to improve your football team chat from year
4:20
Speaker 1: to year, and the only way there was hardly any trades.
4:22
Speaker 1: There was no free agency. If your team was going
4:23
Speaker 1: to improve from seventy nine or Night one, the only
4:27
Speaker 1: way was via the NFL draft. There was no other
4:29
Speaker 1: way to do it. So you knew how critical this was.
4:31
Speaker 1: Was twelve rounds, it was seventeen rounds and it became
4:34
Speaker 1: twelve rounds. Think about that. So people who were home
4:36
Speaker 1: didn't have a chance to know anything about these players,
4:38
Speaker 1: couldn't see any of these players. Very few games were televised.
4:41
Speaker 1: So if you could provide this type of information to
4:44
Speaker 1: the college fans, the NFL fans, then I thought there
4:46
Speaker 1: could be a business here, a good opportunity. Ernie encouraged
4:50
Speaker 1: me to do it. I had the support of my family.
4:52
Speaker 1: My father helped me immensely get the business started. Yet
4:54
Speaker 1: all the business acumen, I had the football acumen. So
4:57
Speaker 1: we put it all together and we got it going.
4:58
Speaker 1: And like I said, Ernie was want to encourage me
5:00
Speaker 1: to make an available to public. Said the public craves
5:02
Speaker 1: this type of information. So through Ernie is a push
5:05
Speaker 1: and his support. What I said, the sport of my
5:07
Speaker 1: family I was able to come to fruition in ninety
5:10
Speaker 1: one when we've made it public and we started putting
5:13
Speaker 1: out the draft reports and setting them out to everybody,
5:15
Speaker 1: and it grew from there. In the eight three eighty
5:16
Speaker 1: four is when I started with the ESPN. But why
5:19
Speaker 1: was Ernie of Coursie, who was a legendary GM and
5:22
Speaker 1: then went on to do the GM of the Giants
5:24
Speaker 1: and helped build what eventually be kidding those Super Bowl teams.
5:27
Speaker 1: Why was he even listening to you, like some high
5:29
Speaker 1: school punk like in Baltimore who left the dast well.
5:32
Speaker 1: I think, you know, the information has to be something
5:34
Speaker 1: that he feels is something that shows that you took
5:38
Speaker 1: time to do it. You obviously looked at the players,
5:40
Speaker 1: you studied the players. You had information he felt was
5:44
Speaker 1: something that could be important to him, and he offered
5:47
Speaker 1: me a job with the Baltimore Colts. It led to
5:49
Speaker 1: before I started the ESPN. It's a crazy story how
5:52
Speaker 1: this all went in the timetable of a Chad because
5:54
Speaker 1: it all tied into the Baltimore Colts moving to in in
5:56
Speaker 1: the Annapolis. Ernie was the GM. He called me in
5:58
Speaker 1: ninety three, said this was in like February of eight three,
6:02
Speaker 1: said I'd like you to come to work for me
6:03
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Colts, you know, got approved by the NFL.
6:06
Speaker 1: Ready to go, He said, well, i'll announce you in
6:08
Speaker 1: late July when camp open. Just go through the draft,
6:10
Speaker 1: do what you're doing, go down the convention center and
6:12
Speaker 1: do your thing with the Bottomware Colts a sponsor of
6:15
Speaker 1: the thing at the convention Center with Bob Leffler, and
6:17
Speaker 1: he said, just go down there and talk to the
6:19
Speaker 1: fans and promote your books and do what you do.
6:21
Speaker 1: So I did that, went through and then were remember
6:23
Speaker 1: John Elway was traded without Ernie's knowledge. There was talk
6:26
Speaker 1: to the team possibly moving. And he called me that
6:29
Speaker 1: June and said, I'm not cannot bring you in with
6:31
Speaker 1: the circumstances the way they are. Just continue doing what
6:33
Speaker 1: you're doing. No harm, no found, nobody even knew you
6:36
Speaker 1: were even gonna be coming to work for the Cults.
6:37
Speaker 1: I may be leaving soon. And six months later I
6:40
Speaker 1: got a call from the ESPN. The company interviewed for
6:42
Speaker 1: the job and started with the ESPN that draft in
6:44
Speaker 1: nine four. So I had Ernie not cared enough to
6:47
Speaker 1: say don't come here, and I had gone there I
6:50
Speaker 1: had never had the ESPN job, I wouldn't have been
6:52
Speaker 1: in the NFL much longer because the Coults ended up
6:54
Speaker 1: moving and things change. And if you're not that guy's person,
6:57
Speaker 1: like Ernie was the one that Brewed have brought me in,
6:59
Speaker 1: then I'd probably would have been out doing something else
7:01
Speaker 1: right now, and the history of draft coverage would be
7:05
Speaker 1: entirely different, no joke, you know. I I think somebody
7:08
Speaker 1: else would have stepped into that role, And that was
7:09
Speaker 1: when Bud Wilkinson retired with the legendary coach. I feeled
7:12
Speaker 1: that position that somebody else would have jumped in there
7:15
Speaker 1: to give those with an opportunity to know these players.
7:17
Speaker 1: So when they were drafted, they had an idea of
7:19
Speaker 1: what was who you know, who could play, who couldn't,
7:21
Speaker 1: whether they could help their team, whether they were steels,
7:23
Speaker 1: where they were reaches. All those things were not known
7:26
Speaker 1: because people couldn't see these players. Though I had any
7:28
Speaker 1: idea around a country about who some of these players weren't,
7:30
Speaker 1: what they could or couldn't do. Remember, you weren't getting
7:32
Speaker 1: one to two James on television every Saturday in those days, Chad.
7:35
Speaker 1: But this way when I needed to stat when a
7:37
Speaker 1: player I had to call that school. I got to
7:39
Speaker 1: know all the sports information directors, the football contacts very well.
7:43
Speaker 1: I spent three to five hours a day just calling
7:46
Speaker 1: schools just to get basic statistical information. That that was
7:49
Speaker 1: the only way you could get it. But that allowed
7:50
Speaker 1: me to get relationships going get to know these people,
7:53
Speaker 1: that a lot of them. I still talk to you today.
7:54
Speaker 1: If you can believe that, your long distance bill must
7:57
Speaker 1: have been massive, like a phone book. But hey, that
8:00
Speaker 1: was what we had to do. By the way, the
8:02
Speaker 1: way you describe having to call around sports information directors
8:06
Speaker 1: to get stats, that's what old school gamblers used to do.
8:09
Speaker 1: Like I know so many guys, honestly, you know, they
8:11
Speaker 1: would raid around the airport to see when travelers came
8:15
Speaker 1: into Vegas early in the morning from East coast cities,
8:17
Speaker 1: and they discard their newspapers to see what the box
8:20
Speaker 1: scorers were saying, and they would call, Like I know
8:22
Speaker 1: a guy who used to call the scores table to
8:26
Speaker 1: get lineups in real time before the game started so
8:30
Speaker 1: he could know how to make That's like all that
8:32
Speaker 1: old school investigative shoe leather. That's exactly what gamblers used
8:35
Speaker 1: to do. You did things. Then, in a way, chad
8:38
Speaker 1: word allows you to find out things that I wouldn't
8:41
Speaker 1: say people get lazy because of technology. But I just
8:45
Speaker 1: think when you're talking to somebody on the phone, I
8:47
Speaker 1: might have been calling about a basic stat that I
8:49
Speaker 1: needed and all of a sudden something would come to
8:52
Speaker 1: light that I didn't even know. Well, also, I'll remember
8:55
Speaker 1: this player might have this. He might have last month
8:57
Speaker 1: his numbers weren't that good, but he was bothered by
8:59
Speaker 1: his high ankle spring, or he had a little bit
9:01
Speaker 1: of a shoulder, or he did this, or he was
9:03
Speaker 1: battling the flu, or you think that you would have
9:05
Speaker 1: never known. So those phone calls, while they were tedious
9:09
Speaker 1: and they were sometimes called, I didn't necessarily feel like
9:11
Speaker 1: making one a daily basis you had to make, and
9:14
Speaker 1: it really helped you get to know a lot about
9:16
Speaker 1: these players. You know what I've always loved about you,
9:18
Speaker 1: mal Is. And I don't say this to like stroke
9:21
Speaker 1: your ego, but I remember when McShay was coming up
9:24
Speaker 1: and he was writing for ESPN, the magazine I was
9:26
Speaker 1: editing Mick Shay, and slowly he started to appear on
9:30
Speaker 1: television more and more. It was getting harder and harder
9:33
Speaker 1: to get him in the magazine. I used to call
9:35
Speaker 1: the TV Todd because he'd call up the magazine and
9:37
Speaker 1: be like, I got a story for you, and like, oh,
9:39
Speaker 1: look who it is. It's TV Todd wag and in
9:41
Speaker 1: with something to do, And like, in all these years,
9:44
Speaker 1: you have never once acted competitively with him, And like
9:48
Speaker 1: you owned this space and could have gone out there
9:50
Speaker 1: and just tried to take this guy's knees out. Instead,
9:54
Speaker 1: he's become like an important partner to you in this
9:57
Speaker 1: whole thing. Were you ever concerned that this guy is
10:00
Speaker 1: gonna come in and take your job? Well, first of all,
10:02
Speaker 1: you applaud anybody that works hard at what they do,
10:05
Speaker 1: and he did, and you want people like that's the basic.
10:08
Speaker 1: Anything you can do to help people like that or
10:10
Speaker 1: give them any encouragement or any advice, now something, just
10:13
Speaker 1: don't continue on with it. There's side there's some kids
10:15
Speaker 1: I thought would be able to move on and continue,
10:17
Speaker 1: but you know, things happen in the life of lives
10:19
Speaker 1: change and they get a job and gotta pay your dues.
10:22
Speaker 1: And when I started out, we were losing money. We
10:24
Speaker 1: lost money for the first four years in this business. Okay,
10:26
Speaker 1: in terms of putting out draft reports. My father lost money.
10:29
Speaker 1: We did ever knew if we make a dollar, but
10:31
Speaker 1: you keep going. I always tell kids three words should
10:33
Speaker 1: be on your chest. Pay your dues. When I started
10:36
Speaker 1: the ESPN, I made four hundred dollars for the whole year,
10:38
Speaker 1: four hundred dollars. But don't give up one any of
10:41
Speaker 1: this stuff. If you think you have something that's gonna
10:43
Speaker 1: be a positive and it's gonna work, you keep in
10:45
Speaker 1: with Todd. In terms of myself, I always wanted somebody
10:49
Speaker 1: to give me a different opinion. If you disagree, tell me.
10:52
Speaker 1: All those years I was on there and it was okay,
10:55
Speaker 1: hyper's the last word whatever. I didn't want that. I
10:57
Speaker 1: just wanted somebody else that to take a different approach
11:00
Speaker 1: and have a different viewpoint. And Todd came in. He's
11:03
Speaker 1: a lot younger, all fired up about what his opinions,
11:06
Speaker 1: and he brought it. He brought the enthusiasm, he brought
11:08
Speaker 1: the knowledge, and I encouraged that and we became very
11:11
Speaker 1: good friends. Like doing I can to help him, and
11:13
Speaker 1: I have a long the way I've ends up been
11:14
Speaker 1: pushing and pushing for Todd to keep moving up and
11:16
Speaker 1: be there on the desk with me, on the set
11:18
Speaker 1: with me, and uh, he's done a great job. Daaniel
11:21
Speaker 1: Jeremiah is a good friend. Mike Mayock was a good
11:23
Speaker 1: friend or is a good friend out he's with the team.
11:24
Speaker 1: Now you don't say he was. He's out the NFL
11:26
Speaker 1: network anymore. But Mike is gonna be a lifelong friend.
11:28
Speaker 1: I was ripped and criticized for even doing this. Every
11:32
Speaker 1: article was written was why is this idiot from Baltimore
11:35
Speaker 1: putting this stuff out? Who cares about anything? He says?
11:37
Speaker 1: Are rights? And some of these guys that wrote these
11:39
Speaker 1: articles are good friends of mine now. So that's the
11:41
Speaker 1: way it was back in those days. And I noticed
11:43
Speaker 1: in the nineties things started to change. Everybody's be a
11:46
Speaker 1: little more positive. And I kept saying, what's going on here?
11:49
Speaker 1: And he just noticed the tide turn, because guess what,
11:52
Speaker 1: when everybody was now interested, all the critics had to
11:55
Speaker 1: shut up. Howet everybody's loving the draft and loving everything
11:58
Speaker 1: about and everybody's participating that even the naysayers had an
12:01
Speaker 1: out buy in. That attitude of people is a little
12:04
Speaker 1: bit like the difference between doing Gambly coverage in two
12:07
Speaker 1: thousand ten and doing Gambly coverage in two ex I
12:11
Speaker 1: want to get out of the next segment. I'm gonna
12:13
Speaker 1: want to talk about betting on the NFL combine. Before
12:16
Speaker 1: we get to that, Michael Calla Bracy, one of our contributors,
12:20
Speaker 1: is going to share a heartwarming story about a funeral,
12:24
Speaker 1: a bar, a million dollar bet, and a thirteen year old.
12:31
Speaker 1: So I go to a funeral with my father and
12:34
Speaker 1: I'm thirteen years old, and afterwards we end up at
12:36
Speaker 1: the bar. Let me sit at the bar. Everyone's smoking
12:39
Speaker 1: inside of the bar. On the TV. St John's is
12:42
Speaker 1: making a run there in the Elite eight led by
12:43
Speaker 1: ron Or Test coached by Mike Jarvis, as well as
12:46
Speaker 1: a Temple team coach by John Cheney. So that just
12:48
Speaker 1: sets the stage for how long ago this was. On
12:51
Speaker 1: top of this, not only is our party from the
12:53
Speaker 1: funeral there, but also there's another group that just finished
12:56
Speaker 1: a week and there's a gentleman at the end of
12:59
Speaker 1: the bar and he looks and credibly distraught. So I
13:01
Speaker 1: kind of whispered my father, you know, did he lose
13:03
Speaker 1: his wife? You know, was you know what happened? And
13:06
Speaker 1: the bardsender, you know, very Long Island ask kind of
13:08
Speaker 1: nonchalantly goes by, Oh no, he's he's fine. He just
13:11
Speaker 1: has Gonzaga in his final four entry. So I get
13:14
Speaker 1: read in on this situation. And there was a ten
13:16
Speaker 1: dollar pool run out of a little bar in Staten Island,
13:19
Speaker 1: and you only picked the final four teams, the champion,
13:21
Speaker 1: and the total score of the championship game. The special
13:24
Speaker 1: thing about this was they had such an incredible volume
13:26
Speaker 1: that if you won, you were set to walk away
13:29
Speaker 1: with over a million dollars in cash. Two years previous
13:31
Speaker 1: they hit a record one point five million cash money.
13:35
Speaker 1: So this guy, you know, he's we're being told if
13:38
Speaker 1: Gonzaga wins, he will have all final four teams. It
13:41
Speaker 1: won't even matter who wins the championship game. He's already
13:43
Speaker 1: got locked up. So this poor zone of a bitch
13:46
Speaker 1: is pacing back and forth. He looks like Jerry Tarkanian.
13:49
Speaker 1: He's got the towel in his mouth, he's rubbing his eyes. He's,
13:52
Speaker 1: you know, living and dying with every possession. Final minute.
13:55
Speaker 1: It's sixty three sixty two, Yukon, they foul collit. El
13:58
Speaker 1: Amine goes the line, hit both all shots and Gonzaga's
14:01
Speaker 1: got the ball, chance to tie it up. Matt Santangelo,
14:04
Speaker 1: who had an incredible run right up there on the
14:06
Speaker 1: level of Wally Zerbiac in that tournament. He misses a
14:09
Speaker 1: leaner with ten seconds ago, they tap it out, Ukon
14:11
Speaker 1: gets fouled. They went buy five, but very quickly the
14:14
Speaker 1: conversation goes, well, you know that that's a real shame.
14:16
Speaker 1: But like, how much did he hedge? Of course, see
14:18
Speaker 1: how to hedge this. He had zero dollars on a
14:21
Speaker 1: ten dollar bet to win one point five in cash.
14:24
Speaker 1: He didn't hetge, So the lesson was learned. It's been
14:27
Speaker 1: baked into me. My closest friends and family know me
14:29
Speaker 1: as Mikey hedges. You don't go through a passion play
14:32
Speaker 1: like that and not come out at it with a
14:34
Speaker 1: learned lesson. Always heads you pour soun of a bitch, Michael,
14:41
Speaker 1: thank you for that very tender moment. Okay, let's move
14:44
Speaker 1: on to the next thing. The next thing, all right,
14:49
Speaker 1: I want to bring in Matthew Freedman, who's our own
14:51
Speaker 1: NFL draft expert. He's been dispensing expert advice about fantasy
14:56
Speaker 1: and rookies for the Action Network for the past couple
14:58
Speaker 1: of years. Now, I'm going to make a very inside
15:00
Speaker 1: reference here from our ESPN days. Think of him as
15:02
Speaker 1: our very own Chris s brow your ESPN editor, your
15:05
Speaker 1: first draft podcast co host. He knows everything there is
15:08
Speaker 1: to know. Freedman, say hello to Mel, one of your idols.
15:13
Speaker 1: It is awesome to be on the show, and Mel,
15:14
Speaker 1: I assure you you have no need to feel intimidated
15:17
Speaker 1: by me, matt And he mentioned of Chris Sprowl that
15:19
Speaker 1: you should be as a compliment, a huge compliment, Matthew.
15:22
Speaker 1: So I've heard a lot. I know a lot of
15:24
Speaker 1: you do a great job, but your interest and everybody's
15:26
Speaker 1: interest in this whole draft process is pretty amazing. Freeman,
15:29
Speaker 1: What kind of opportunities do you think they are going
15:31
Speaker 1: to be when markets start getting posted for the combine?
15:34
Speaker 1: So people tend to want to bet on something to happen,
15:37
Speaker 1: especially if they can do it at long odds. So
15:40
Speaker 1: if you're willing to lay some big juice, there's value
15:42
Speaker 1: in betting, specifically on betting for records not to be broken,
15:46
Speaker 1: whether that's the forty or dash, the bench press, the
15:48
Speaker 1: vertical jump. And then people also want to bet on
15:51
Speaker 1: their favorite college players to have big combined numbers. That
15:54
Speaker 1: generally means there's value if you bet on some of
15:57
Speaker 1: the big names to underperform. And that's really true for
16:00
Speaker 1: the forty time. For a lot of these prospects. You
16:02
Speaker 1: can find their forty times as recruits or what they
16:05
Speaker 1: did at spring pro days, and bookmakers and betters tend
16:08
Speaker 1: to rely on those times. But the thing is a
16:10
Speaker 1: lot of those are hand timed, whereas the combine has
16:13
Speaker 1: an electronic time, and so that means a pro day
16:16
Speaker 1: forty is about point oh five seconds faster than a
16:20
Speaker 1: combine forty. And we're gonna talk about this with rugs.
16:23
Speaker 1: If a guy runs a four point to five at
16:25
Speaker 1: a pro day, that equates roughly to a four point
16:28
Speaker 1: three at the combine. So there's a difference between the
16:30
Speaker 1: hand times and electronic forties, and that tends to create
16:33
Speaker 1: value on the over for the forty combine times. Now,
16:37
Speaker 1: listen to that breakdown about betting on the NFL combine.
16:41
Speaker 1: It was a great rundown, Matthew. I had never thought
16:42
Speaker 1: it would come to that, but hey, it's interesting stuff.
16:44
Speaker 1: And so we're there and you get the times. And
16:48
Speaker 1: remember last year when Devin Bush and Devin White ran
16:51
Speaker 1: you know, right, four four two four four three whatever
16:54
Speaker 1: was almost identical forties and you like both those players,
16:56
Speaker 1: and that's that validation you want. Uh. The thing is
16:59
Speaker 1: when you don't really have a high opinion of a
17:01
Speaker 1: player and he runs great ory test grate, that's almost said,
17:04
Speaker 1: well I missed something. Remember last year that I keep
17:06
Speaker 1: bringing up Devin Singletary running that was like a four
17:09
Speaker 1: six six and everybody, oh boy, what happened? I can't
17:11
Speaker 1: go as high as we thought. I mean, I must
17:13
Speaker 1: have overrated him. What did imit? And I'm having a
17:16
Speaker 1: great rookie year with Buffalo? Uh, you know, so forty
17:18
Speaker 1: times albe can Comarra didn't have a great forty time
17:20
Speaker 1: when he came out, but he had a great vertical
17:22
Speaker 1: and a great broad jump, so his explosive skills were there.
17:25
Speaker 1: He didn't have the big time forty round four or
17:27
Speaker 1: five six ju Smith Schuster the year to John Ross
17:30
Speaker 1: round four to two, Smith Schuster round four, five four
17:33
Speaker 1: and at a thirty two and a half vertical, Ross
17:35
Speaker 1: had a thirty seven vertical. So forty times, while they
17:38
Speaker 1: are critical, you just have to be careful. You just
17:41
Speaker 1: had to be really careful of over adjusting negatively or
17:44
Speaker 1: positively based on these numbers alright, TV Todd McShay, he
17:48
Speaker 1: has rated twenty wide receivers for rounds one through three.
17:52
Speaker 1: I think Daniel Jeremiah he put that number at twenty seven.
17:56
Speaker 1: The number of wide receivers that thoughts Bet has said
18:00
Speaker 1: would be drafted in round one, they put it at
18:03
Speaker 1: four and a half live receivers. They put that total
18:05
Speaker 1: of four and a half over under four and a half. Now, yeah,
18:08
Speaker 1: four Again, these numbers are right there from all the
18:10
Speaker 1: deal what they look at. They look at all these
18:12
Speaker 1: different mock drafts, and they see that you have Jerry
18:14
Speaker 1: Judy and Ceedee Lamb and Henry Ruggs the third and
18:16
Speaker 1: Tee Higgins on most his guarantees. So they put into
18:19
Speaker 1: four and a half. Okay, you want to go under,
18:20
Speaker 1: you wanna go over, you gotta get Leaviska Chennault Jr.
18:23
Speaker 1: You're in there from Colorado. You'd have to get you know,
18:25
Speaker 1: a kJ Hamdler in there, a Justin Jefferson from l
18:28
Speaker 1: s U Handler, Penn State, Jalen reagor TCU all borderline.
18:32
Speaker 1: So you need one of those borderline guys to follow
18:35
Speaker 1: in there. And it's gonna Jefferson is certainly gonna be
18:37
Speaker 1: important to see what that forty time is. Channault Jr.
18:40
Speaker 1: Has got real good versatility. Some though, think he's the
18:42
Speaker 1: second round pick, not at first. So I had five,
18:44
Speaker 1: so I would go over, but there's no guarantee freedom
18:47
Speaker 1: and what are you gonna land at? So Judy Lamb Higgins,
18:50
Speaker 1: they're all locked in for me. I've surveyed a lot
18:54
Speaker 1: of mock drafts out there from guys who historically have
18:56
Speaker 1: been pretty predicted, pretty accurate, and Laviska Chenault is a
19:00
Speaker 1: first rounder in all of them. And I gotta say,
19:02
Speaker 1: in all of these drafts, I've seen at least five
19:05
Speaker 1: wide receivers go in all of the first round mocks
19:09
Speaker 1: a lot of times six And so I think Channault
19:12
Speaker 1: is locked in there. And then you have a question Jefferson, Ruggs,
19:15
Speaker 1: reagor those three guys, does wanted them do well enough
19:18
Speaker 1: at the combine to jettison himself to lock himself into
19:21
Speaker 1: the first round. And I think so, I think Rugs
19:24
Speaker 1: is the guy who's gonna do it, And honestly, Jefferson
19:26
Speaker 1: could do it too. I think Ruggs more so Rugs
19:29
Speaker 1: because of that speed. Round four to five Matthews. You know,
19:31
Speaker 1: four to five in the spring. He wasn't happy with
19:32
Speaker 1: the start. So anytime you've run four to two, four
19:35
Speaker 1: to five and your Alabama and you've got some Prugs here,
19:37
Speaker 1: you're gonna go. I mean, you're gonna go Chanel. I
19:40
Speaker 1: need to talk about people in the league. That's who
19:42
Speaker 1: you talked to this and some there are some that
19:44
Speaker 1: think he's more of a two. So I know the
19:45
Speaker 1: mocks have him and the once still very early for Macon.
19:48
Speaker 1: You have my mock two point oaks On matt had
19:49
Speaker 1: him in mock one. But we'll say about Chenal. I
19:52
Speaker 1: think that's why I think with Jefferson's borderline. But if
19:55
Speaker 1: you're gonna say Rugs is in which I think he is,
19:57
Speaker 1: that's four. I went with Jefferson. You could go Chanal,
19:59
Speaker 1: so I would say five. So on over four and
20:01
Speaker 1: a like I can say, there's no guarantee because we're
20:03
Speaker 1: only agreeing on four. We haven't agreed on five. So
20:06
Speaker 1: that's why they put at four. And after there's no
20:09
Speaker 1: free lunches in Vegas for anything they put out. All right,
20:11
Speaker 1: So Ruggs is the key, like everyone thinks, if he
20:14
Speaker 1: runs that four to five, then he's a fish under.
20:17
Speaker 1: It's no guaranteed, no question. The projection on him is
20:20
Speaker 1: four three oh five. That's the forty time, that's the
20:23
Speaker 1: that's the total that the market has set right now. Now, Keiper,
20:28
Speaker 1: do you see him running over or under the four
20:30
Speaker 1: three oh five. He's going under four three. I would
20:33
Speaker 1: think if he ran four to five in the spring,
20:36
Speaker 1: as we all know, and he said he didn't get
20:37
Speaker 1: off to a good start, and he's expecting to run
20:39
Speaker 1: four to two, he's expecting to run what Ross ran,
20:43
Speaker 1: He's expecting to run a blistering forty. So I would say,
20:46
Speaker 1: you know, as he runs four to nine, four to
20:48
Speaker 1: eight for him, it would be disappointing. So if it's
20:51
Speaker 1: four three, I would say under four three. Let's talk
20:53
Speaker 1: about quarterbacks for one second, because Joe Burrow yesterday blew
20:56
Speaker 1: up the world by tweeting about his nine inch hands
21:00
Speaker 1: and that he's going to think about retirement and sort
21:02
Speaker 1: of in a fun way, sort of mocking the conversation
21:06
Speaker 1: that happens around the way that everybody sort of focuses
21:11
Speaker 1: on these details at the NFL combine. Now, if you're
21:15
Speaker 1: looking at this, and I remember we did this years
21:17
Speaker 1: ago when used to in the magazine, there is a
21:20
Speaker 1: specific stat that is the best indicator of success at
21:25
Speaker 1: the NFL level for a quarterback. What is the stat
21:28
Speaker 1: you look at most that is the best indicator for success. Well,
21:32
Speaker 1: I think it's it's not just one stat and it's
21:34
Speaker 1: certainly not you know, now the arm obviously strength, we
21:38
Speaker 1: know what we talked about that it gets better once
21:40
Speaker 1: you're in the licks. You can't worry too much about that.
21:42
Speaker 1: The obviously the height that's been destroyed, and that whole
21:45
Speaker 1: talking to you gotta be a certain Russell Wilson opened
21:47
Speaker 1: that door. I said he was going to be the
21:48
Speaker 1: test case once runtil Russell Wilson was successful at five
21:51
Speaker 1: ten and and blow under five eleven. Then had opened
21:54
Speaker 1: the door for Kyler Murray to be the number one
21:56
Speaker 1: pick in the draft. So you needed that success. If
21:58
Speaker 1: you talk about intelligent of a quarterback, I'm not gonna
22:01
Speaker 1: just just intelligence in the classroom, but football intelligence and
22:05
Speaker 1: also being a great leader. And I talked about I'd
22:08
Speaker 1: say the single most importance competitiveness. If you said, what's
22:11
Speaker 1: forgetting the competitiveness is everybody's a competitor. But are you
22:14
Speaker 1: at ten plus are you a seven? So they're all competitive,
22:18
Speaker 1: Josh Allen, I think silence skeptics and doubters who didn't
22:21
Speaker 1: like him coming out of Wyoming because he's an incredible competitor,
22:25
Speaker 1: best competitive, most competitive player at Craig Bowl ever coached
22:28
Speaker 1: the coach Carson Wentz. So when you you see what
22:31
Speaker 1: he's doing in Buffalo, the players gravitate to him. That
22:33
Speaker 1: competitiveness is huge. The's talking about the hand size, Well,
22:37
Speaker 1: you can't be under a nine, right, Well, Joe Burrows
22:40
Speaker 1: and nine, Patrick Mons was nine in a quarter Jared
22:42
Speaker 1: Golf was nine, so you know, not much bigger than
22:45
Speaker 1: Burrow was. Was Sam Darnald and Aaron Rodgers and Tom
22:48
Speaker 1: Brady and so you can go one, but you can't
22:49
Speaker 1: be under nine. But be having a big hand doesn't
22:52
Speaker 1: mean anything because there's a lot of busts of that
22:54
Speaker 1: huge hands. Okay, and give you a lot of names
22:56
Speaker 1: of guys who did not pay out that Cody Kessler,
22:58
Speaker 1: Mark Sanchez at a big hand. You sure are at
23:00
Speaker 1: a big hand. Paxton Lynch had a huge hand. Christian
23:03
Speaker 1: Ponder had a big hand. E j Manuel. You know
23:05
Speaker 1: there's a lot of quarterbacks that big hands that did
23:07
Speaker 1: not pan out. So again, competitiveness is huge, football intelligence
23:12
Speaker 1: is huge. Forty time means nothing, Tom Brady. The slow
23:15
Speaker 1: US forty time of any quarterback of written up in
23:17
Speaker 1: in uh in forties five years or forty two years,
23:19
Speaker 1: whatever it is. UH second slowis with Ryan Mallett. So Brady,
23:22
Speaker 1: you and then and then send the worst vertical jump
23:25
Speaker 1: of any quarterback every rose and don't care about vertical
23:26
Speaker 1: jumps for quarterbacks. Don't care about forty times for quarterbacks.
23:30
Speaker 1: In the end, a lot of it is the yet
23:31
Speaker 1: factor and does a quarterback habit where he doesn't uh? So,
23:35
Speaker 1: to answer the question, evaluating a quarterback is the toughest
23:38
Speaker 1: thing organizations have to do. And I'll give you an example.
23:40
Speaker 1: When the Dallas Cowboys drafted Dak Prescott, they tried to
23:43
Speaker 1: get Paxton Lynch, They tried to get Connor Cook, then
23:46
Speaker 1: they settled for Dak Prescott. When the Kansas City Treats
23:49
Speaker 1: drafted Patrick Mahomes the year prior to that, they tried
23:53
Speaker 1: to get Paxton Lynch. Had they've been successful in getting Lynch,
23:56
Speaker 1: Patrick Holmes is not a Kansas City chief the next year.
23:59
Speaker 1: So that's how fragile and how crazy and how tough
24:02
Speaker 1: it is, what a guessing game it is in terms
24:04
Speaker 1: of evaluating quarterbacks. Guys look like their geniuses, but they
24:07
Speaker 1: also considered some major bus that had things worked out differently,
24:11
Speaker 1: what would what would Andy Reid's status in Jansas City
24:13
Speaker 1: be a Paxton Lynch was there and not Patrick Mahomes.
24:16
Speaker 1: So again, sometimes you know, good luck, good fortune overrides
24:19
Speaker 1: great analysis. All right, So the guys that everyone was
24:22
Speaker 1: talking about now, the potential Paxton Lynches of this draft,
24:25
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow to uh Justin Herbert. Right, there's a line
24:29
Speaker 1: out there that says four and a half is the
24:31
Speaker 1: total number of quarterbacks that will be taken. Other guys
24:35
Speaker 1: that people are talking about, Jordan's Love from Utah State,
24:38
Speaker 1: Jacobieson from Washington, Jake from from Georgia. Do you see
24:43
Speaker 1: any of those guys, two of those guys sneaking into
24:46
Speaker 1: the first round to put that number over five? I
24:49
Speaker 1: would say no, Matthew can take your shot at I
24:51
Speaker 1: think three. Obviously three or guarantee the fourth I think
24:54
Speaker 1: could beat. Jacobieson thought it was Jordan Love talked to
24:56
Speaker 1: a lot of people about it. Jacobison is getting Sammy
24:59
Speaker 1: that cannon arm and size as either loveries and not both.
25:02
Speaker 1: I don't think both. And that's gonna be in that
25:04
Speaker 1: late first round area where you have New England possibly.
25:06
Speaker 1: I don't think the Saints will would take some hill.
25:08
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens there and it will team trade
25:11
Speaker 1: in there. That happens, We've seen that before. So if
25:14
Speaker 1: you think they trade in for one, not two, So
25:17
Speaker 1: I would say four quarterbacks max, not five in the
25:20
Speaker 1: first round. Absolutely agree. This is an egregious line. It
25:23
Speaker 1: should be three and a half. If you look at
25:25
Speaker 1: the number of quarterbacks taken in the first round over
25:28
Speaker 1: the past twenty five years, let's say even the past
25:30
Speaker 1: thirty five years, only twice has it gotten over four
25:33
Speaker 1: and a half. Happened two years ago when Lamar Jackson
25:37
Speaker 1: had to sneak into the first round. Is the number
25:39
Speaker 1: thirty to pick for us to get five? And then
25:41
Speaker 1: it happened in when we had that loaded quarterback class
25:44
Speaker 1: with three guys going in the first three picks, Tim Couch,
25:47
Speaker 1: Donovan McNabb at Killy Smith. You had Dante Colepepper in there.
25:50
Speaker 1: But other than that, and then that class we just
25:52
Speaker 1: talked about. Other than that, it just doesn't happen. Five
25:55
Speaker 1: is an extremely high number. I think we're closer to
25:58
Speaker 1: three than we are to or even if you were
26:00
Speaker 1: to set this line, I think this is really bad.
26:03
Speaker 1: I think out of all the combined props, you could
26:05
Speaker 1: bet this is the one that offers the most value. Yeah,
26:08
Speaker 1: and other than this echo what Matthew was saying a chat.
26:11
Speaker 1: As far as Jacob Eison, there is mixed opinion. And
26:13
Speaker 1: like I said, you talked some teams don't happen in
26:15
Speaker 1: the first there was that you talked something to do
26:17
Speaker 1: so again. But Jordan loved the same thing. And Jordan
26:20
Speaker 1: Love didn't had a great Senior Bowl game. He you know,
26:22
Speaker 1: he didn't have a great year because of all the
26:24
Speaker 1: personnel was taken from him. In terms of the offensive line,
26:26
Speaker 1: top five receivers which included Darwin Thompson are running back
26:29
Speaker 1: and and uh the tight end as well. So I
26:32
Speaker 1: don't think you, like I said, at this stage, neither
26:34
Speaker 1: Love nor Eastern or guaranteed ones their borderline. So to
26:37
Speaker 1: get to borderline first into the first is going to
26:39
Speaker 1: be very difficult. It's not impossible. So three are guaranteed. Uh,
26:43
Speaker 1: the fourth may happen, but not to get the four
26:46
Speaker 1: to five, which would put obviously the under four and
26:48
Speaker 1: a half very much in play. So much of the
26:51
Speaker 1: draft and the process, And I think this is what
26:53
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow was talking about a little bit with his
26:55
Speaker 1: comments about the hand size has been fetishized, right, like
26:59
Speaker 1: every measurements so uh, microscopically examined. Looking back, like Mel
27:05
Speaker 1: you were so in on Isaac Bruce, you were so
27:08
Speaker 1: in on Curtis Martin, famously not in on trev Albert's.
27:12
Speaker 1: Like thinking about guys who have come out of the
27:15
Speaker 1: combine and shot up draft boards because of the combine.
27:18
Speaker 1: Who are people that you look back on and think, yeah,
27:22
Speaker 1: that was worth it. These guys were amazing because of
27:25
Speaker 1: what they were able to do with the combine. Well,
27:27
Speaker 1: I think if you look positionally and I go back
27:29
Speaker 1: to you know, the various spots, going to go back
27:32
Speaker 1: even the two thousand and thirteen DeAndre Hopkins didn't have
27:35
Speaker 1: a great forty times there was two pounds. I remember
27:38
Speaker 1: talking to Clemson and they raided the bat. Two kids
27:41
Speaker 1: work ethic. His hands never dropped the pass. Uh, you know,
27:46
Speaker 1: had a good vertical thirty six, but enormous hands and
27:50
Speaker 1: so consistent catching the ball. And I think you know,
27:52
Speaker 1: I've made mistakes on taking chances on guys that weren't
27:55
Speaker 1: consistent catching the ball, thinking well, you know more better
27:59
Speaker 1: constant creation. Okay, you know they make the spectacular catch,
28:03
Speaker 1: they dropped the ease when it's like the short stop
28:04
Speaker 1: that boots the routine groundball. But he goes in the
28:07
Speaker 1: hole when he makes the play if he's not consistent.
28:09
Speaker 1: I'm not making any more excuses. I learned on my
28:12
Speaker 1: lesson on that one. So guys like Hopkins and may
28:14
Speaker 1: not have that didn't have the elite forty times Tabon
28:17
Speaker 1: Austin went high. Remember that dread went much higher than
28:19
Speaker 1: the DeAndre Hopkins. Austin ran four three four, you know
28:22
Speaker 1: at five eight and have one seventy five. So again speed,
28:25
Speaker 1: I would say it's overrated in terms of running backs.
28:28
Speaker 1: That really is EMMTT Smith didn't have a good forty
28:30
Speaker 1: around four second lady on Bell was four six. Okay,
28:33
Speaker 1: go back to Camara talked about what he ran, but
28:34
Speaker 1: his vertical and his Broadway good. Uh yeah again, running backs,
28:37
Speaker 1: you're really gonna worry about, like said Curtis Smart and
28:39
Speaker 1: you're really gonna worry about what a running backs for
28:41
Speaker 1: Devin Singletary with at four six six, Are you kidding me?
28:44
Speaker 1: Be like, oh is that kind of how many times
28:46
Speaker 1: as a running back round in a straight line? Anyway?
28:48
Speaker 1: So to me, that's a very overrated. Part of the
28:51
Speaker 1: running back evaluation is forty yard dash time. So you'll
28:53
Speaker 1: learn from that wide receivers. I mentioned to Juice Smith
28:56
Speaker 1: Schuster at four or five four other guys were running
28:58
Speaker 1: a lot faster. I don't care about an offensive lineman's
29:02
Speaker 1: forty times now if it's phenomenal or Toronto Arms that
29:04
Speaker 1: had that Matt you remember Arms that coming out of
29:06
Speaker 1: Arkansas Pine Bluff had an incredible combine if you like them,
29:10
Speaker 1: and then you saw him go there and while everybody
29:13
Speaker 1: and do better than all these major college stars, and
29:15
Speaker 1: you put you liked them in the way it dominated
29:17
Speaker 1: the small college level. Sure you know you can would
29:19
Speaker 1: that that validated it. But you don't take a player
29:22
Speaker 1: your giffe on and all of a sudden jump is
29:24
Speaker 1: great way up just because of a great combine. And
29:27
Speaker 1: you certainly don't, you know, downgrade a guy on the
29:30
Speaker 1: offensive line if he runs a bad four. I can
29:32
Speaker 1: give you so many examples of offensive tackles around slow
29:35
Speaker 1: forties that turned out to be great players. It's the
29:37
Speaker 1: laundry list of names. So I think if you study
29:39
Speaker 1: the positions, you realize what you place importance on and
29:42
Speaker 1: which you don't. Who do you think is the biggest
29:44
Speaker 1: combine bust the last decade. That's a great question. I
29:50
Speaker 1: don't have to really go back. Everybody brings up like
29:52
Speaker 1: Momola going way back, coming out of Boston College, whatever
29:55
Speaker 1: year that was, who had production and it had the
29:58
Speaker 1: great combine and all of a sudden you saw what
30:01
Speaker 1: happened there. I try to kind of focus one of the
30:03
Speaker 1: the guys who were really good rather than the ones
30:05
Speaker 1: who were disappointments. I'll go to Darius Heyward Bay from Maryland,
30:08
Speaker 1: great speed and but was inconsistent feeling the theme of
30:12
Speaker 1: being inconsistent with hands and not natural catching the football.
30:15
Speaker 1: Watched them a lot here being in the backyard here
30:17
Speaker 1: of College Park, and he went in the top ten
30:20
Speaker 1: to the Raiders. He had a very disappointing career. Alexander Wright,
30:23
Speaker 1: wide receiver out of Auburn, tracted by the Dallas, was
30:26
Speaker 1: a speed burner, had incredible forty times, don't remember what
30:29
Speaker 1: it was, but it was blazing in the four three range,
30:32
Speaker 1: but Auburn limited receptions were inconsistent, disappointing player. So I
30:37
Speaker 1: think those are guys that I just remember, you know,
30:40
Speaker 1: just to say names that just come to mind immediately. Matthews,
30:43
Speaker 1: I'm sure you have names over the last ten fifteen
30:45
Speaker 1: years of have been bus from the combine. Yeah, Darius
30:48
Speaker 1: Heyward Bay was the clear one that I was thinking
30:50
Speaker 1: of for all the reasons you mentioned. I mean, I
30:52
Speaker 1: think his combined performance edisoned him into the top ten,
30:55
Speaker 1: going ahead of Michael Crabtree, who seemed destined to be
30:59
Speaker 1: a Raider and eventually happened, but I didn't work out
31:02
Speaker 1: right away. And then another guy who comes to mind,
31:03
Speaker 1: linebacker a J Hawk who was just explosive at the
31:07
Speaker 1: combine and people assumed that would translate to production on
31:10
Speaker 1: the field for the Packers and that just never happened. Yeah.
31:14
Speaker 1: Like Tim McShann and I were talking about with about
31:16
Speaker 1: Richard Sherman, you had a thirty eight vertical that had
31:19
Speaker 1: the great forty time. He's a former wide receiver and
31:22
Speaker 1: you see what he's been able to develop into you
31:24
Speaker 1: look at at they say that the guys who were
31:26
Speaker 1: the disappointing guys that that just didn't perform to the
31:29
Speaker 1: level of their talent. But again, what's gonna prevent you
31:31
Speaker 1: from having players that don't live up to it? Did
31:34
Speaker 1: they perform well in the field. That's why Mamula was
31:36
Speaker 1: a very very tough evaluation because he had production at
31:40
Speaker 1: Boston College, but he had a late first round grade
31:43
Speaker 1: that became an early first round situation when the Eagles
31:46
Speaker 1: drafted and based on the combine working in conjunction with
31:49
Speaker 1: the productivity. And let me just say the Matthew know
31:52
Speaker 1: this and Chad, there's no perfect formula. You can say
31:55
Speaker 1: you have a system in place, even for for gambling,
31:58
Speaker 1: you might have a system, right, it's not a d percent.
32:00
Speaker 1: You can't deviate best based on outliers. Outliers can't change
32:04
Speaker 1: your system or change your formula. Is nothing as perfect.
32:07
Speaker 1: So you can always go to a quarterback that I
32:09
Speaker 1: liked or receiver that I missed on it. You missed
32:11
Speaker 1: your miss You can't let that bother you, and you
32:13
Speaker 1: can't let that change the value of that. Now, if
32:15
Speaker 1: you can learn something from it, maybe you put too
32:17
Speaker 1: much stock in a combine or a pro day. But
32:20
Speaker 1: sometimes he checked all the boxes and he was still
32:22
Speaker 1: not good. That just happens, that that will happen. You're
32:24
Speaker 1: going from college to pro you can't beat yourself up
32:26
Speaker 1: for mistakes like that. Coming up next, we've got a
32:29
Speaker 1: very special NFL combined edition of Listener Trivia. But first,
32:34
Speaker 1: Matthew Mitchell, our intrepid producer, has a little story to
32:39
Speaker 1: tell about his favorite pastime, daytime betting. Afternoon. Thanks Chant.
32:50
Speaker 1: As you know, before I enjoined our little sports gambling
32:53
Speaker 1: fantasy factory here, I expect many years working a very
32:56
Speaker 1: ordinary job, cubicles, water coolers, the whole deal. And like
33:00
Speaker 1: many ordinary jobs, it was often very boring. Now, being
33:04
Speaker 1: bored and having an unquenchable thirst for action not a
33:08
Speaker 1: great combination. So I remember one afternoon looking out the
33:11
Speaker 1: window to a dreary Wisconsin winter, and I was thinking
33:15
Speaker 1: to myself, surely, somewhere in the world somebody is preparing
33:21
Speaker 1: to sports it up against somebody else, and if that's true,
33:25
Speaker 1: I can nay nay, I must gamble on it. And
33:29
Speaker 1: it was true. But but if you think spending seven
33:33
Speaker 1: years were of Tuesday afternoons sweating your ass off over
33:36
Speaker 1: you know, White Sox Royals unders was a walk in
33:40
Speaker 1: the Park. Yeah, you could think again. It may sound easy,
33:43
Speaker 1: but it will test your head and your mind and
33:47
Speaker 1: your brain too. And what I got promoted to management,
33:50
Speaker 1: it only got harder. I don't know if you know this, Chad,
33:52
Speaker 1: but a good manager leads his team. He doesn't monitor
33:56
Speaker 1: free throws. In the Missouri Valley Conference tournament game, I
34:00
Speaker 1: remember our head of HR. It looked like Laura Dern
34:02
Speaker 1: that you called me into office and she broke it
34:04
Speaker 1: all down for me. You will always be held to
34:06
Speaker 1: a different, higher standard, and it's fucked up, but that
34:10
Speaker 1: is the way it is. Yeah. She was worried some
34:13
Speaker 1: harmless daytime gambling could become quote too distracting. But I
34:17
Speaker 1: had an airtight response ready to go. What if the
34:20
Speaker 1: founding fathers found it too distracting to ride their horses
34:23
Speaker 1: to Independence Hall and signed the Declaration of Independence? Huh,
34:27
Speaker 1: well you know what about that? Unfortunately that response fell
34:30
Speaker 1: on deaf ears. But now I'm here in action, I
34:32
Speaker 1: don't have these problems anymore. If I find something to
34:35
Speaker 1: bet on while the price is right and still on TV,
34:38
Speaker 1: all the heads around me not in approval, which is nice.
34:41
Speaker 1: And for most of the year I have plenty to
34:43
Speaker 1: choose from Oh but Oh, how swiftly the clouds of
34:47
Speaker 1: glory pass Chad. This week, the landscape is especially barren,
34:52
Speaker 1: and I've turned. I've been pretty desperate. And you know
34:54
Speaker 1: what they say about that desperation is a stinky cologne. Yes,
35:00
Speaker 1: I've turned to soccer. The deformed tutsie roll at the
35:04
Speaker 1: bottom of the sports gambling Halloween bag. Every time I
35:07
Speaker 1: do this, I think of my hero coach Pete Bell
35:09
Speaker 1: from Blue Chips, who knows exactly how I feel about
35:12
Speaker 1: betting soccer. Every time we get ready to play, I
35:15
Speaker 1: just want to throw up. So the press I don't
35:17
Speaker 1: even want to talk about it sick. I'm wanting you
35:20
Speaker 1: guys play Just how bad can it get? But desperate
35:24
Speaker 1: times desperate measures, and I'm betting a Champions League match.
35:28
Speaker 1: They actually call it that because every team that plays
35:31
Speaker 1: in it is a champion of boring your ass to
35:34
Speaker 1: death all afternoon, I can calm down. Gets soccer. It's soccer.
35:38
Speaker 1: Juventus visits Leone on Wednesday afternoon and I'll be on
35:41
Speaker 1: the visitors here. The only thing I know about Juventus
35:44
Speaker 1: is they have Cristiano Ronaldo and we were born within
35:47
Speaker 1: the same week of each other, and we've achieved about
35:50
Speaker 1: the same level of professional and personal success. So the
35:53
Speaker 1: next time I see him on the continent at some
35:55
Speaker 1: sexy gala, I'm sure he'll be tickled that I bet
35:58
Speaker 1: on him here. But win or lose it definitely beats
36:00
Speaker 1: working all afternoon because when you bet during the day, Chad,
36:03
Speaker 1: you're already a winner. Joining us now for our listener trivia,
36:08
Speaker 1: Let's see if they can stump our NFL Draft NFL
36:11
Speaker 1: Combine experts, producer of the Full Slate podcast, Alex Uplinger, Alex,
36:18
Speaker 1: how are anybody? Hey? How's it good on guys? Alex
36:21
Speaker 1: gonna be with you, Alex, share with us your trivia question.
36:25
Speaker 1: All right, so we all know the Action Networks own
36:29
Speaker 1: Dan Rouvel. His famous forty was ran at six point
36:34
Speaker 1: nine nine seconds. I was wondering if you could name
36:38
Speaker 1: the player who ran the closest time to that in
36:41
Speaker 1: the combine T six point was that Orlando Brown's time
36:47
Speaker 1: slow and that it was a nonfensive tackle from Cincinnati
36:51
Speaker 1: back in the day. Jason Sobini had a very good career.
36:53
Speaker 1: In his numbers at the combine, we're not good, but
36:56
Speaker 1: beyond that, that's my best guesses. I honestly have no
37:00
Speaker 1: guests on this, but I think it would have to
37:01
Speaker 1: be an offensive lineman or Leano' brown sounds as good
37:04
Speaker 1: of a guest as any. Alright, Alex, give us the answer.
37:08
Speaker 1: Isaiah Thompson, offensive lineman from Houston in two thousand and
37:13
Speaker 1: eleven ran a six. Oh wow, Okay, very good. It
37:20
Speaker 1: is not every day you can get someone on the
37:21
Speaker 1: phone that can stump Melt both Melk Keeper and Matthew Freedman.
37:26
Speaker 1: That is fantastic, Alex, thanks for the trivia question. That's
37:30
Speaker 1: gonna do it for this episode of the Favorites. My
37:32
Speaker 1: thanks to Matthew Friedman and the great Milk Kuiper for joining.
37:36
Speaker 1: Before we go, let's check in with Action Network CEO
37:39
Speaker 1: Patrick Keene. See what he thought of today's show. What gentlemen,
37:47
Speaker 1: what I sham? What kind of a show are you
37:49
Speaker 1: guys putting on here today? All right? Thank you for
37:53
Speaker 1: that inspiration, Patrick Keen. And before the music plays us
37:57
Speaker 1: out to all our listeners and followers, we would like
38:01
Speaker 1: to take a moment to apologize to Joe West. Last year,
38:04
Speaker 1: one of the Action Network's former employees, Paul Laduca, who
38:08
Speaker 1: used to be a catcher in Major League Baseball made
38:10
Speaker 1: certain statements about Mr West during a podcast affiliated with
38:14
Speaker 1: the Action Network. First, Mr Lauduca stated that he had
38:17
Speaker 1: been thrown out of fifteen games in his life and
38:20
Speaker 1: that eight or nine of them were by Mr West. Second,
38:24
Speaker 1: Mr Laeduca asserted that at a game against the Philadelphia
38:27
Speaker 1: Phillies in two thousand six or two thousand seven where
38:29
Speaker 1: he was the catcher, Billy Wagner was one of the
38:32
Speaker 1: pictures and Mr West was the home plate Umpire luduc
38:36
Speaker 1: asserted Billy Wagner told him that Wagner lends his nineteen
38:40
Speaker 1: fifty seven Chevy to Mr West and Mr West opens
38:44
Speaker 1: up the strike zone for him. The Action Network does
38:46
Speaker 1: not have any evidence to support either of those statements.
38:48
Speaker 1: The Action Network apologizes to Joe West for any harm
38:51
Speaker 1: caused by those statements. These statements are hereby retracted and
38:55
Speaker 1: the podcast has been removed from our website. This has
38:59
Speaker 1: been the Favorites from the Action Network downloaded from iTunes
39:04
Speaker 1: and Apple podcasts, from Spotify from wherever you get your podcasts.
39:10
Speaker 1: Until next time, I Love You Yeah,