S7 Training Camp Intro

Scott, Cardone, Giant Mike and Novak discuss the beginnings of camp and if that means anything worth a damn. We also talk about the New York Knicks run to a Championship. Novak will talk about the Jets and what to expect from them this season. !. We also air our Pet Peeves and then finish up with listener questions.  

We have kicked off Season 7 and look forward to another fantastic year!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Alright, so that was uh John Harbaugh talking about camping in West Virginia this year because uh Giants are redoing their facilities, so they're in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia, and it's a new attitude for the Giants, and uh I think it's a new attitude for us. We are angry football fans, but uh at least on the Giants side of the ball, we got some things to look forward to this year with with John Harbaugh and a couple of draft picks and a lot of exciting stuff. So we'll we'll talk about camp, we'll talk about some non-football things like the New York Knickerbockers. Um we'll talk about our pet peeves, and we got a lot of questions. This is uh season seven of the Three Angry Giant fans of the Jet fan podcast, and uh we're looking forward to a lot of uh good things in the season. So we'll we'll talk about that as we get into it. But uh boys, I know we did a couple episodes in the offseason, but it's really good to be back in the fold now that training camp started. We're in training camp ourselves. We might make some mistakes.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Yeah, and just like uh any good NFL player, I have uh neglect I've neglected to come to the facility for the first couple of weeks of the of our uh season. So uh now it's official, it's mandatory, I guess, because I'm here, so um I won't be uh missing anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

I want to assure our listeners though, Mike did not get a bump in pay.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

No, I did. I didn't. I uh I held out and uh it turns out that our base pay, which is zero, is not negotiable.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Yeah, I was thinking about holding out, so um uh but uh glad my uh you know my my my aging and we were able to work things out. So uh just looking forward to uh season seven with uh with you guys. Uh let's uh let's get it started. And uh once the calendar flips to August, that's finally when we can start thinking about football, right? Um I know we're gonna talk about the Knicks. That was what a run that was. And if anything, if we could take any momentum, either one of our New York teams going into the fall from what the Knicks did in the spring would be uh just unbelievable. Uh just it what what the what an amazing feeling to feel like a champion again. So we were, I think we we've we've talked off air about where the hell is our next championship coming from as far as our sports teams and uh man that the Knicks deliver. So if we could roll any of that, uh gets take some of that energy fervor and uh uh you know good vibes into uh our Giants and Jets seasons, uh, we'll have a hell of a year, guys. So looking forward to it. Um let's get it started, man.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Yeah, I mean, it was just the the most incredible feeling. Now you guys have experienced it with the Giants quite a bit and the Yankees for Scott and and Cardone, but I really hadn't since 1986. Maybe you can put the 94 Rangers in there, and you would think like I wouldn't be as into the Jets this year, but it kind of motivated me more to like want them to be good. I thought maybe I would not feel as into it, but I'm more into it because I'm like, man, I want that feeling back because it was unbelievable. Like, I can't, yeah, it was just wild.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

It was, and you know, it's funny, Cardone mentioned it. We had been talking about where's our next championship coming from, right? So if if by the way, if this were the uh three angry Knicks fans podcast, there would not be the need for and a Nets fan. We every one of us here is uh is a Knicks crack. So um, so that would fix that little little problem we have. But but no, I I think statistically at the time we were saying that it was the Knicks, but I don't think any of us actually thought it would be the Knicks. Uh so that's pretty cool. Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Uh you know what too, Mike? You just touched upon it though. It is the only team that all four of us unanimously pull for. That is true. Yeah, so and you know, I mean, like Cardone likes the Devils. Uh, you know, there we we all pull for a different team in one of the major sports, except for the Knicks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yeah, and we got to watch a couple of the games together, and that was a ton of fun. And you know, that's the only thing that will be would be different for me if the Jets were ever to win, which they won't. Um, I feel a lot more isolated, but in a way, it would be a more about me. Like it was more of a community win. Every everyone I know is a Knicks fan. Like so many guys that I grew up with from New Jersey, and um, so it's which was really exciting and a great way to do it, and just what a wild, incredible, never see it again run uh that we saw there. I mean, we just won't see anything like that again.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Dude, I would we so I was in Norway on vacation uh in June. You know, like so a good you know, quarter of the way around the world, and freaking the Knicks were global, man, because there were guys over there, people I was running into in Norway that were uh we were we were because the they the Knicks had they had just won. I remember so telling you guys that so I obviously had that vacation planned, you know, months in advance, however long it was, and I and you know, didn't not thinking the Knicks would be in a in the finals. How are you supposed to predict that kind of stuff? And um, I remember telling you guys, I'm like, holy shit, if the Knicks, if that gave, if that goes game six or seven, I'm gonna be in Norway uh while you know over there. How the hell am I gonna watch the game and all that? I was worried about well somehow the Knicks need to pull it off in five or four, not really believing that would happen. And man, did they pull it out, you know? So for me, I had that my own uh you know personal reasons to uh finish that seat that that series off and and they did it, and we're still gonna live off that for a year, guys. So you know we went easily for a year.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

We all watched game one together at Cardone's place, and then I much like Cardone went on vacation, but I went earlier than him. So I was in Prague for game four.

SPEAKER_04 5:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

So I missed I missed the the miraculous game in terms of of you know seeing yeah, seeing seeing the tipping, and then the clincher. I I I saw the first part of it and then and then fell asleep because it was like three in the morning out there. Um, but as soon as I got to Vienna, which was the next city we went to, get on the elevator to go up to our room, and there's a guy in there with a Knicks jersey on, and I said, Nick's fanny's like, yeah, man, I'm I'm I'm from New York. He goes, I can't believe I missed it. So uh, you know, like a bunch of us were commiserating, but it was still a great time. I had a great time with you guys. We were in the New York airport before flying out to Prague, and and uh there are people in the airport, just it was uh bringing everyone together. I was like, Go Knicks, go Knicks, even though you know no one was wearing Nick's stuff uh necessarily, just people were saying it, walking down the uh concourse, which is awesome. So uh, you know, we had a lot of downloads this offseason. I think people were checking out the podcast, you know, even though we didn't have really fresh material. I mean, we did do a draft recap, we did a free agency recap, but uh we got a shout-out to give out. So uh this comes from the great state of Texas. So hello, McKinney, Texas. Population 207,500. It's a suburb of Dallas, it's the third largest suburb. And McKinney was founded in 1848 and was an agricultural powerhouse. They had corn, wheat, and oats, and for that time they had four cotton gins going on. Um, now they focus on industry with uh Raytheon Aerospace as the largest uh employer, and it's the home of William Calhoun. Do you guys know who William Calhoun is better known as? Sounds familiar, but I don't know. Any relation to Art Vandele, who's he is he is haystake, haystack Calhoun. Oh for wrestling. Um, it's also the home of Tom Kite, who always looked more like a CPA than a golfer.

unknown 7:43

Tom Kite.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Tom Kite was the oddest looking man ever. He really was. Those big ass glasses and the curly hair and the stupid visor. I mean, he just what a weird dude.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

He looked like he was wrapped in saran wrap or something, didn't he?

SPEAKER_00 7:57

His face, yeah. Yes. It's like pushed in, like he got hit in the face with a pan. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

He just always like defined white guy for me. Just when I thought of white guy, I thought of Tom Kite.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Just like just there were some golfers back then that just did not look like athletes. And you know, golf's not necessarily an athletic sport, but back then you had guys that really looked like they could have been your insurance.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

I mean, everyone remembers John Daly, but you gotta go go back a little further. And Stadler was the best. Craig Stadler, aka the walrus. Go Google a picture of that guy in his prime. Him and Hel Cabrera used to pack like he would smoke a pack of Marlborough's on the course. Awesome stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

So uh training camp has started, like I mentioned before. We got quite a bit of stuff to look for out in Giants Land. So, you know, neighbors is back practicing. He's off pup. A lot of people thought he'd start the year on pup. Uh, there's a lot of information in the offseason about his injury not healing so well. Well, he's out there, he's cutting, he's playing. Uh the neighbors watch is on. I don't know if he'll play in the preseason necessarily, but he's out there practicing and he looks ready to go for week one. You added, you know, Arvel Reese in the in the draft, so that you add him to Tibbs and Carter. And now you're, you know, you're looking at a pass rush there. And Tibbs is a guy who probably has a lot to prove. Um, Carter, I'll I'll talk about a little bit later uh when we when we have uh a couple questions because I do want to talk about Carter and Dart. Um actually it comes up in my pet peeve. Um Scadabow is is is back and healthy enough to do backflips uh when he doesn't need to. And uh we probably have a couple camp battles here at defensive line and and and defensive back, two week areas for us, and it'll be interesting to see how they rotate Theo Johnson and Isaiah Likely at tight end. Uh but guys, it's good to see camp start. I I don't get so caught up in in the day-to-day uh reports. Um that will be part of my pet peeve. Um, so I'm just here to make sure there's no one getting injured. Want to make sure that we're seeing, you know, just growth more so when the season starts than than preseason in camp because you never really know who's who's doing well. And remember that remember a couple preseasons ago, Davis Webb like had like five incompletions the entire preseason, had like 200 yards every game. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

You don't know. We we get into that every year, and I'm I'm sure we will again, but it's just a reminder for people that man, you just can't put too much into that. I I will say, just to kind of call back the end of our shout-out there, it is astounding how much Craig Statler looks exactly like Mike Holmgren. Oh yeah, yeah, two guys are interchangeable.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's hilarious. I think his son plays.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

I think I was gonna say his son is on the tour, Corn Ferry somewhere, right? I've got to or something.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

His son was on like the long driving tour, I think, too. Like he was doing one of those. It's Kevin Saddler. Kevin Sadler, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love getting um headlines from training camp, right? We're still what almost uh uh barely two weeks away from the Giants first game. I know the Hall of Fame game is this week, right? I think with the the Panthers actually. Um, that's must see TV right there. Jesus. Um, but I saw one headline. I love how it's already dramatic. Like, Giants offense looks sloppy today. And I'm like, what what offense? Aren't they in fucking shorts? Like, what do you mean? Like, what offense? There's guys where they're wearing shorts and throw like throwing a ball around with seven guys on the field. I gotta so I already have to be worried about the giant offense. They look sloppy, sloppy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

How about trying to break down the running game when they're they're not even in pads? People like, oh, there's there's holes that are gigantic for scatterbo to run through. Well, no one's in pads. What do you what do you what do you got going on there?

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Well, they do the like, oh, the quarterback was seven out of seven for seven on seven. What? Like, what freaking hard is that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

The running game holes were opening up against the practice dummies.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:25

Bags of sand.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Well, we'll talk about this where we have a question coming up about our podcast and you know how what our style is. And guys, I've listened to a few podcasts out there from different teams, not just the Giants, but they're already in depth talking about training camp. And I'm like, what do you what are you really taking from training camp? Are you really gonna put stock in how Kyler Murray looks versus someone else and everything else in different camps? It's like, come on, come on.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Especially this day and age camp, at least 30 years ago, they used to, it used to be kind of real. You heard stories about, I remember the one of the most famous ones came from Jeff Hostetler. The first time he was taking reps uh when he was first drafted by the and and it was live, and he got hit by LT like live in in practice, you know, in training camp. They're not doing that kind of stuff anymore. You know, they're doing like the guy the start, like these guys don't even they're not even on the field at training camp. Nothing goes on. There's no, right? I mean, there's you're very little is there, is there is you know contact or um I'd love to watch one of these. You know it's funny, we're talking about uh training camp. I did, by the way, I was I said before we came on, I wasn't even aware the Giants were in West Virginia till till just recently, just a few days ago. I I saw something and a report from West Virginia, the Giants. I'm like, what what West Virginia? Like where the so Mike, you said before we came on a little bit uh little rusty, a little off season. Yeah, I guess so. There you go. I'm like, they're in West Virginia?

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Uh we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Novak, what do you what are you looking for for Jets camp? Any any any storylines there that are popping out? Uh I I see Cade Klubnick looks amazing already.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

I have a thing on Kate Klubnick later, but um, you know, there's really the the the crazy thing is if they had had any semblance of a a quarterback, which you know, okay, Geno Smith might be okay. This offense all of a sudden has gone from one of the worst in the league to they got a lot of a lot of uh stars. I mean, not stars necessarily, but a lot of skill position players. When you look at Garrett Wilson and Sadiq and Cooper and A.D. Mitchell and Brees Hall and you know Mason Taylor, I mean, they they're pretty loaded, believe it or not. They just have no one to throw them the ball unless Gino if Gino can revert back to what he was two, three years ago with the Seahawks, and he could just be top 20 quarterback in the league. I'm not asking for him to be top 10. Can you be top 20? He'll be competitive. I mean, that and that's kind of what I'm hoping for. And they're really the only storylines are um is Aaron Glenn um going to be able to coach this team and is he gonna last the year? Um he did say in the offseason that uh play calling is his superpower. So great that he said that. And then the other day in the press conference, he said he's not a butthole. So he's had a wonderful offseason. But again, so we've got those things going for us already. So he just can't get out of his own way. So, yeah, a couple defensive um, you know, battles in at cornerback just like you guys, defensive line, but overall, it's pretty I could pick the 53-man roster today if I needed to. Um, so there's not really many battles going on, which I think is a positive sign.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Can I can I add one little uh nugget there, Novak? I gotta give Novak credit for on our thread earlier today. Uh he threw out there uh the Jets got an interception in camp today. Does that count on the words ending their streak? So as a reminder to our listeners, the New York Jets somehow, in a 17th game, mind you, was unable to secure an interception on defense last year, which is just I put fill in your own adjective for that. This is mad libs right now. The Jets are so whatever, fill it in. So that got us laughing. So Novak, I appreciate that comment. So midseason form right there, my man.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

You need to get Darren on the on the on the horn to see how many games back before that previous season they didn't have an innovation on.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Oh, yeah, what that streak actually is.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

That'd be interesting.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

It's uh I'm on it. Darren is on it. He's handed me the sheet of paper here, and the uh the last interception by the Jets was the last regular season game of 2025, a January 5th against the Miami Dolphins.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Okay, so it's that would that would have been a great game.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

It was by uh Ashton Davis, and he actually had two in the game.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Wow, wow, don't remember.

SPEAKER_03 16:59

They were on uh they were both intercepted off of Tyler Huntley.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Pro Bowler Snoop Huntley, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Pro bowler Snoop.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

So yeah, that's what that's gonna be a storyline once the season starts. How many games are you gonna go until they get one? I mean, and you know the mocking cheer they're gonna get if they do it in Met Death, you know, if they finally get it.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

Unless they get it on the first pass of the first game, then that place will go wild.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

You know what I hope, Novak? I hope, I mean, I don't really hope this for you, but I can see I would love to see like as as you know, the DB's running it back, there's a flat, you see the little yellow flag box, and there's gonna be some phantom ropping the passer or something, it's not gonna count. Oh my god. I wonder if it's the guy's running back, you can just see like that little yellow uh flag box comes up that all gives us you know just a stroke when we see it, right? It's gonna pop up on the return. It's gonna pop up.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

To Mike's point, that would have been interesting to know. Did they get an interception last year and it was wiped off because of penalty, or did they not have any at all?

SPEAKER_00 18:04

No, they did not do that. I I can answer that question for you.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Yeah, I I think for me, what I'm what I'm really excited for for the Giants is seeing the Harbaugh offensive effect, where I think we're gonna see a lot of two tight ends set with likely and and Theo Johnson, as well as a power running game with Scatabow, Tracy, and and I'm guys, everyone's talking about Patrick Ricard. I I am just I am pumped for this.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Yeah, they gotta be uh it's it's just seeing Harbaugh on the sidelines. I know it sounds uh you know, a little uh I just seeing they're gonna be they're gonna look so much different from the last couple years. I think you know, Dart his second year, obviously. Um just a different he now now Harbaugh has to work on his uh locker room speeches, evidently, right? See, I'm sure we've all seen clips of that, and it was sort of uh like it was like an insurance, like Del Griffith had an insurance seminar or something like that. But uh um yeah, Scott, I think it's the health, right, of neighbors and scatterbo and those guys, but you know, the offense is going to be much improved. And then defensively, that front four. I'm already a little tired of hearing about how good they are before they actually even uh you know get to week one. But that front four, if a if they can play as advertised and as you know, the talent that we think they have, we know about some of the guys, and we filled in a couple more, you know, in the draft and such with uh uh Reese and such. But um, yeah, man, it's uh it I'm just looking forward to real football and and and the Giants are um you know, they they did a lot to improve their roster, of course. And um, you know, well, I'm not we'll get into predictions and things like that, but it's gonna look a lot different, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Well, you you guys lost four games last year from coaching alone, right? Yeah, Den Denver, Dallas, Chicago, and New Orleans, I think are the four that jumped to mind for me that I remember that you can absolutely pinpoint coaching as the reason you lost. And, you know, can you win two more with neighbors in a couple Giants should be a 9-10 win team. I'm sorry, they should be. Should be. I don't know if they will, but they should be.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Yeah, don't don't forget that game against the Lions, too, or the Giants should be a lot of the first. It was uh it was a frustrating year last year in that regard, and it's and and that is gonna be one of my pet peeves, too, is talking about the the perception of some of the players on the team just because of the one loss record that we had. So uh we'll talk about that. Um guys, looking around the league, uh what's intriguing to me is there are a lot of players that switch teams that I had not even noticed yet. You know, I'm starting to get ready for fantasy football, and I did one of those like uh best ball drafts or whatever I had free on on DraftKings, and and I picked I picked uh in an early round, I picked the uh the the the Steelers running back Warren, and then like you know, a few rounds later, I'm I see Michael Pittman out there. I pick him too, not realizing Michael Pittman is now a Steeler, so there's a lot of of swapping going out. Um, you got well, Debo Samuel signed with the the the 49ers, he was a free agent, but Tyreek Hill is still out there. There's guys out there that I think are going to be um you know on a roster week one. And I'll tell you a guy who might not be on a roster week one, and he's a giant, is is Odell. You know, I mean you got guys out there who who just the arc of their career is ending. So to me, uh what's interesting around the league right now is not only seeing the player movement, but the quarterback battles that are going on. Like I I want to see who comes out on top in Cleveland, I want to see what happens in in Atlanta, I want to see what happens in all these different places where you have, you know, guys that are competing for the job. Minnesota, I guess. Uh ki is it Kyler Murray or or or J J.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

Who's in who's

SPEAKER_00 22:01

No, I'm gonna say and kind of going along with that, there's a lot of movement, but there's a lot of teams that like two, three years ago you thought they were on the up uptick, right? That you saw them ascending and they didn't do a whole lot this offseason. You look at Tampa and Detroit and um who's the other one I was thinking of? But there was one other that I'm like all oh um, I guess it was those two that came to mind, but there's a bunch of those. And that's you know, I I don't know how that happens, and you decide what you're just gonna not go for it. I mean, look what the Rams did. I mean, Miles Garrett is gonna just destroy. I mean, that team is uh who's beaten them?

SPEAKER_02 22:39

And if Errol Aaron Donald comes out of retirement, which seems like a huge possibility. Yeah. I you know, you brought up the Buccaneers. The Buccaneers are one of those teams to me, and there's there's already, you know, grumblings from Baker Mayfield in the offseason. I think that team, they have the division at their disposal if they want it, and they're not gonna take it. I think that team is going, I think they're gonna go down in flames this year.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

I think Todd Bowles is the first uh the first coach fired. Personally. Now I could be wrong, but I could see him, he's on the biggest hot seat other than Aaron Glenn. But I think Todd Bowles is a bigger hot seat.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yeah, that's a good prediction. That's a good prediction.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

It'll be interesting what happens uh, you know, as as as we start to progress, you know, and as we get get in the first preseason game and and and some of these quarterback battles, of course, in a preseason game, let's say Kyler Murray does better than JJ in the first series. You're gonna hear Viking fans go nuts and everything else. And that's what what I love about the preseason, the overreactions and and and how that that translates to the regular season. Um, if you guys can see Novak's background from the uh video part, we have a live show this year. It's gonna be September 2nd. Uh, it's a Wednesday. We're we're gonna be at the Carolina Beard Temple in Matthews, North Carolina. It's our third year in a row of doing the live show. And this year we're actually uh there's a band after us playing, Donkey. So uh we got live music coming up, we got jokes and and and football talk before then. It's gonna be a fun time. And just in the pod in general this year, we're gonna move, I think, to a live streaming format. So we're gonna change it up a bit. We're gonna have more guests on this year, we're gonna be more interactive. So uh this is our this may be the last show we do on on the current format, but we'll see. We got some technology upgrades coming on if if the funding comes in and Darren can get us set up. So we'll we'll see what happens. But I'm looking forward to it. This is uh this may be elevating our game. We instead of being the three and thirteen, three and fourteen teams we've been, maybe maybe we go into the middle of the pack of eight and eight. Eight and eight and nine. Nine and eight.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Can't do the 17 math. I can't do it. Impossible.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

It doesn't sound right when you say three and fourteen.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

No, I was looking up uh Joe Joe um Joe Judge earlier. Don't ask me why. Wow. Um, but it said he went he went six and ten in his first season, and I was like, is that that sounds right to me? Like, why does it like six and ten? That's what it's something a football team can do, right? Six and ten, not six and eleven. That's not right. That's just still hasn't made its way to my brain.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Just just put the 18th game out there NFL already. We know what's coming.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yes, just do it. And then don't have a stupid random team from the A NFC that the Jets have to play. That just put another AFC team in there. Why do I gotta play another team from the NFC? It's so stupid.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

You're gonna go to that 18th game schedule and then move to a two-game preseason. And think about that. You're gonna have camp. Is camp gonna have to start the same time? Is it gonna be pushed back or the ri regular season gonna be moved up? I I don't know how this will work logistically. Are we gonna have Super Bowl in in end of February?

SPEAKER_01 26:03

Well, no, Super Bowl needs to fall on President's weekend. So that we we need to finally just secure cement that in the on the calendar, right? So whatever that it's the third month, President's Day is a third Monday in February. Let's let's move it back to one week and let's be done with it. So keep camp, like keep it where it is, or maybe they'd have to maybe, I don't know, because they're planning on eliminating, I think, a preseason week, isn't that also part of the the front end? So freak preseason games move move it move it back, move it later a week to hell with it, and just eliminate one of the preseason games, move the whole damn schedule back so it falls on Presence Day weekend. Let's why can't we just do that?

SPEAKER_03 26:42

Yeah, there's nothing else going on.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Like March Madness isn't going yet. There's nothing going on.

SPEAKER_03 26:46

Just do it. Especially if they're gonna add the 18th game. If you're gonna do something stupid like that, give us something back, and that would be fixing a long time wrong. That Super Bowl needs to be, we need to have a day off after the Super Bowl. It's been such a long time coming, and it's you know, they do everything else to expand the schedule or in the other direction or everything. Just just give us this one thing, and you know, we'll overlook the 18-game season, where essentially there's gonna be teams who take six weeks off at the end of the year, but whatever, you know, whatever. That's what you want. If you want to turn this into uh, what do they call it, like for LeBron when he takes his uh couple games off every now and then, it's yeah, we why not that? That's fun. Nothing like uh, you know, that that week 16 game when you're when you're leading your division by six games, no one's gonna get hurt. That you know, that's gonna be fine.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

There's no But I guess, yeah. But Novak, you were just mentioning about the um, you know, the sketch not and not playing the inner conference. I guess how would they do that though? Because you only you already have you're already playing the other, you know, let's say like last place, like you know, last place finisher in your conference, and then in the so you're playing the you know, the other you're playing a full division in your conference, full division interconference, those other two games are with so where would that where would that other game come from? It probably would have to come from AFC, I guess. So I would think interconference. Or what would you think what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_00 28:15

So here's how I would do it. I don't know if this is the right way to do it or not. So let's say the the Jets are in the AFC East are playing the AFC Central. Those are the four teams that you're playing those, right? Yep. I would take, let's say the Jets come in last place, which they will. You take the last place team from the AFC West and the last place team from the AFC, whatever the remaining division is, or South, thank you. Yeah, and and you play those two teams, and those are the two additional games. You come in second, you you get the second place.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

But they already do that, right? We already do that though. I guess you're right. So does that's where and then so that right, we're so we're already doing that. I was looking at it too. I'm like, well, what they would have to, okay. No, we're already doing that. So it's kind of tricky. It would have to be maybe it'd have to be one other maybe last place team in the other, you know, in the other conference, maybe.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Or you guys.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Why couldn't why couldn't you start doing like the like major league baseball does and you have yeah, your rivalry games. We play the Giants every year. That's not a bad idea.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

I was actually gonna bring that up about the rivalry games. That's that's good, but but it it gives some teams an unfair advantage. Correct. You know, because think about who you're you know, think about who the rivalry team is. You know, I mean, you might draw a terrible rivalry team. I mean, Giants Jets, I don't mind, but say they decide to make it the the Giants Bills. I mean, for right now, the Giants are getting screwed in that in that match.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

That's true. That is true. Uh it would just be more fun that way because we would play each other every year, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

Well, it would it would pretty much work out kind of like the opposite it does now, right? So right now we play the same place teams from one division in the other conference, right? So yeah, we just make that two, and then the rotation becomes the one that's off.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

Yeah. Yeah. The only thing that would suck is that if that extra game, like I was playing the the last place team in the West, so I can now I gotta go out west an additional game or something like that. So I don't know, that's that's tough, but I guess, you know, do we really care? I mean, I just if we're gonna get to 18 games, just give me another team, make it easy, make it equitable that I'm not playing a top team if I'm in last place or something like that. They've there, I guess there's a way to do it.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

I I kind of drilled down though on what Mike was saying earlier. I mean, you think about this. I mean, last year, we'll just take last year for an example because half the teams were really bad and you know the top part of the teams were pretty good, and there was a pretty clear delineation there. Like, like the I think the playoff teams were decided earlier than they've ever have been. And if you look at the Giants six week, I guess it would be week 16 game or week 17 game, whatever you want to call it, when they played the Raiders, that was their next to last game, and that game was meaningless for both teams. And now, how many more weeks ahead of that do you do you start getting meaningless games if we go to an 18-game schedule? It might be week 14, and you got guys uh you know shutting it down.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Or, right, they may they may get rid of the even the number one seed buy. I could see that happening, and they just go to freaking eight playoff seeds. Eight plays one, there's no buy. Because right now you have seven, and only the number one seed gets the buy. They may just get rid of that. I mean, that eight-one matchup you know is gonna suck, but it is revenue, it's TB revenue, it's all that bullshit. Um, they may just get rid of that, Scott. And they would say, so to your point, I mean, maybe so that way with that another wild card, it gets watered down even more, you know, as far as playoff teams, but to maybe um uh you know, solve that problem of even more teams seasons being over earlier, at least there's another wildcard spot there up for grabs. Yeah, I would like that.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Yeah, yeah, I don't hate that. I've never never been a fan, never been a fan of the bye for anybody. I'm I like the playoffs are are supposed to be a marathon, right? They're supposed to be a who survives, and if you got so more so than given one team like earning a week off, I get that, but then they get to they've only won two games to get to the Super Bowl. You know, you're like, really? Is that enough of a a grinder to prove you're the champion? You know, probably not.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

I do like the idea of a buy. Like I think Chris Kuhn sent this in his suggestion the middle of the season, everyone's off for one reason.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

I think I think that's the right white way to do it because that way no one has an advantage. There's just one week in the season, no one's there. Have a skills competition or whatever you're gonna do for like the Pro Bowl Ven.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Stupid, you know, and maybe maybe they have some agreement with college football or something that that's rivalry week. Maybe they have a crazy slate of college games, or why don't they do this? Have some college games maybe even on Sunday. Um there you go. Yeah, do college games uh the whole weekend, Saturday and Sunday. I just thought of that. I wasn't even it wasn't even on my head. It was just sort of like maybe they fill in that if there's an open Sunday, or Scott, you know, because no one's gonna the guys are gonna want off, Scott. Like they're they're if they're gonna just want a a week off, you know what I mean, as far as um you know the players and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Like, you know, you're sitting there from week four to week 13 or whatever it is now, there's always teams off, and it's a random number of teams, and you're like, well, why why not just have everyone off at the same time? It's fair.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Even buys they fucked up because like back in the day when they first started them, the whole NFC East would be off. And then it was the AFC East, and it was uh like you said, it was an equal number. It was all four teams in the division, so everyone, and then and now, like you said, you don't like it's you know, the the Giants are uh they're you know, them and them, the Raiders, the the Buccaneers, uh Falcons, and the the Chiefs, and the you know, uh the Titans, and then the following week, there's none, and then the following week there's only two, and then there's four, and then it's like, come on, yeah, yeah, they're overcomplicating it.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Yeah, see, we should be commissioners.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

AWS, the perfect schedule.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

About the time those two things align up. Once we got the perfect schedule, uh, that's when the buys started sucking, along with everything else.

unknown 34:18

Pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

One thing you eliminated is all that bullshit about like who's playing who off after a bye and all that. Well, we're all on a damn bye, so everyone's playing as off.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

So the only people that'll be pissed off at that are those waiting for the AFC South matchup that week.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

Yeah. Maybe we can just include a couple AFC South games during the bye.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

Didn't we already look week one? There has to be one week one, I think, right? I'm looking right now, guys.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

All right, I got I got the schedule in front of me right now.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

We know it's not the Titans because they got the Jets.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

The big Jaguars Colts game, week one. I think the Jets play the Browns.

SPEAKER_02 34:57

Um wait, I don't think there is.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Oh no, Tennessee plays the Jets. Unless the Texans play the Colts. No, Texas play Buffalo. Damn.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

They're on to us.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Yeah. Wow, that's disheartening. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

Disheartening.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

It doesn't happen week two either. They'll really try to screw us. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Oh, they're gonna be all bunched up in the middle of the season.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Oh, yeah, they're gonna really Houston and Indianapolis, week three.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Yeah, then they start rolling.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

Yeah, and then they'll be one a week through Christmas. Easily.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

You guys got anything, anything else from uh training camp around the league, any of that nonsense?

SPEAKER_03 35:42

No, I had not too much to add there. I think uh you guys talked about it on the pod I was off. I really do shut down the football stuff until about this time is when I start firing it back up, especially with the Knicks winning, as you guys talked about. I have been I didn't offer much to that part of our conversation because I have like Scott was talking about, you know, the players who change teams. I don't know at zero percent of that. Like I won't know that until I start looking at the fantasy football rankings and uh and I get my copy of Madden.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Well, Mike, listen again, I'm still I I'm remain retired from fantasy. So when you don't play fantasy, you don't know what you don't know where anybody is.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

Yeah, yeah. No idea. Yeah, we I I I had to brush up on a lot of stuff in the offseason because I was on a podcast about the draft, and then Novak and I were on that podcast with the the the berg the bird guys.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

Oh my gosh, those guys, holy crap! Yeah, they they know their stuff. I mean, they were in like mid-season form in April. It was like, what in the hell?

SPEAKER_02 36:41

Yeah, I will say this. We represented well, we did, we did, and we had we had a fun time doing it, but it's one of those things where you're all of a sudden like you're you're going through I'm doing a couple hours of research, like making sure I got shit that you know, so I don't look go on there looking like a babbling fool of the New York Giants, you know.

SPEAKER_03 37:00

It's like you guys certainly brought your A game. Cardone and I are out here dropping passes, pull pulling a hammy, like, ah no. I gotta stretch that out a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

I don't know if these are guys I want to hang out with, quite frankly. I need I need more well-roundedness, I need more stuff, I need some other like these guys are they're they're in that midseason form. I you know, I'm not sure if I want to hang out with these guys.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

The only thing I'll say is about as far as the off-season, I mean, no one had a better off-season than Jackson Dart. I just have to put that out there. This frigging guy is everywhere, he's in golf matches at Kentucky Derby, the president. He's throwing passes to someone on a uh jet ski, like 100, 200 yards. This friggin' guy is everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

You know, we went through this shit with uh with Beckham, and then now we have the tandem of Dart and Scatabout to a certain extent, where guys just tone it down, man. Tone it down. Dart Dart, if he if he wants to be the face of this franchise, he he's got he's got to know that all of these things are being scrutinized. And maybe he doesn't care. Maybe I shouldn't care.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

I mean, maybe it's gonna be fine. But I do I like I I think I said this in one of the other previous pods, you do put a little bit of a target on your back. There's there's guys that have been around this league for five, six, seven years who are not getting the pub that he's getting, and he won what what he win, two games? Yeah, as a starter, two, three? I think he had three.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Yeah, maybe three.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

I think he has three.

SPEAKER_03 38:36

Yeah, I mean, it's a good point, and it's you know, it's everything Parcells used to talk about. And who knows, to your guys' point. I mean, who knows if this is the world's just changed, and this is where we now have to accept it, or if this is is gonna bite him really hard eventually. But you know, it's again, you know, we're we're all spoiled by Eli Manning here, at least the Giants fans are. And this was just he was the consummate professional, never gave billboard material, never wore a target on his back. Um, and maybe the world's just just changing around us.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

But and the craziest thing about Eli is he was like that in a in a public way, but in the locker room, like he was the guy putting icy hock hat in your jack, you know.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

Yeah, yeah, he was a yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Like, I don't disagree, Mike, but I mean he had a target on the back, but he didn't put it there.

SPEAKER_03 39:24

No, he was nothing he did, right? Exactly. Yeah, nothing he did made it go there, right? Well, then it's interesting. Go ahead, Scott.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

No, my quarterback, um, you know, is a choir boy for seven years, comes back to the Jets. He's gotten two speeding tickets, he's got his baby mama screaming on social media about him. Like, what are you put on Jet Green and all of a sudden you gotta revert back to what you were 15 years ago? Like, what is going on? He he was on the other side of the locker room, it was fine. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

He didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

It was like he was you didn't even know he was there.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

No, no, the only time I knew he was there was when he was relieving Eli.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

Yeah, unceremoniously uh stepping in for Eli. That was his big moment.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

Yeah, I I Novak, I think that's one of the storylines that that will it will go away if the Giants win, and it will keep popping up if the Giants lose or struggles.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Yeah, you know, I totally agree. Same with Scattabu. Same thing.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Yep. If they if they're good, no one will care, no one will say one word about the offseason. But if he has a sophomore slump, he's gonna be getting it in New York. I mean, that's not gonna sit well.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

Every bit of it will come back, every bit of it will be weaponized against him, and you know, it's I I like it. I like the energy that they're bringing to what's been pretty dull around here, but I also I don't want to be known as the NFL's frat house. I don't want to be, you know, I don't I won't want to take it that far, but um, you know, just get to business, get winning, get serious, and and let's go here.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

I don't see John Harbaugh on the steps going to so uh let's let's go let's move to pet peeves and uh I'm gonna start with uh I'm gonna put him on the spot since he wasn't here for a couple of the episodes. Put Mikey, Mikey on the spot.

SPEAKER_03 41:25

Yeah, I got it. I got one here. Speaking of the Knicks, it's not about the Knicks, but I just something that's been on my mind all off-season, football off season anyway, is the I guess it's uh I in my opinion, the unearned love of Victor Wembanyama. And I I don't even know if I just said his name right. I don't care. I I honestly don't care. Um this guy, I mean, I I could talk about this forever, but this guy, I had never seen him play. I I've seen snippets of him and highlights here and there, but I had never really seen him play until the last two series of the of the playoffs. I wasn't impressed, guys. I I didn't see Grace, I didn't see, you know, got where all the slam dunks and people just wanting to do a documentary about everyone. The guy's armpit starts six inches below the rim. I mean, big deal. He he's tall, and I think that's all he got. I I don't see him any less, you know, gangly and awkward out there than Kiki Vanderway or or anybody else who's been who's played, you know. He looks like a tall, gangly guy with not much muscle on his bones, who the Knicks are able to effectively push around and absolutely dominate out of a series. But it's it's not just that, right? Because that part of it is not really his fault, per se. It's just who he is, and he's being elevated by by others. But the things about him are there as well, and the things that turn him overnight into the face of the league into the biggest villain in the league. The guy's a whiner, he's a baby, he's intentionally obviously trying to hurt Knicks players out there, and that went back into the Oklahoma City, uh Oklahoma City series as well. Like he's visibly stomping at people's ankles, he's easily frustrated, he made giant, giant head mistakes in key moments of games, you know, not just the one everyone thinks of where he threw the ball off uh his teammates' back, but the turnovers, you know, I I didn't see it. I didn't see it all series. He's a guy I was terrified going into the series about by game three or game four. I just said this guy, and I think Carto Weaven mentioned it sitting there at your house talking about it in game one. Why are we afraid of this guy again? But he scores six points in game one or something. I I mean, this this has got to be deserved. And this is the kind of thing that happens now, and I and I don't really think again, it's not necessarily always the the athletes' fault. But Wemby is just doubling down. On it, you know. Uh after they lost in five games unceremoniously, you know, he comes out and says we dominated the series. There's no way to lose a series in five games that you dominate. It's physically impossible. And and people point to game four. And why is the beginning of game four automatically who those teams are? Why is the beat why is the first half of game four automatically the source of truth for who the teams are? Because if you get up by 29 and then you lose by two, that means you got outscored by 31 in the second half of a basketball game. It doesn't mean you gave up a 29-point lead. And and the whole and they're like, oh, they led all but six seconds of that game or whatever. Well, big deal. That the whole second half of the game that they led during, they were being dominated. It just so happened that the score was lopsided. So don't give me that shit. I I mean I saw immediately after the series a bunch of stats about for how many minutes uh the uh the Spurs led and how that indicated some sort of domination. It didn't because in in the like I said, in the games where they had big leads from the moment they had their biggest lead for the rest of the game, the Knicks dominated those games. Period. And and for some reason we're choosing to say, well, the first half is the source of truth. That's who the teams really are. The second half is are flukes. And I I think that's a bunch of bullshit. I it a lot of people said if that were a 10-game series, the Spurs wouldn't have lost another game, and if it was blah blah blah, this if if if if and no, I I think if it were a 10-gate 10-game series, the Knicks would have won 8-2. I I don't I I that team was we were so in their heads, no lead was ever safe. I you know, I I just I don't see it. I don't see Wembenyama. It's too late, he's already the face of the league, he's already on covers. But if he keeps playing like that, he's it's gonna be a not-for-long thing with him because the media and the vision he they give people can only last so far. And the the dude is I didn't I had to look this up. I didn't know this. He has never won anything on any level. He he didn't win in high school, he he didn't win in college, he didn't win in the French leagues, the team he was on won a title, he was injured for those playoffs. Um he's never won anything on any level. I don't think he's a winner. I he certainly showed us he's not a closer. And and I just think this guy goes away. I think he's gonna be a footnote in in NBA history, and maybe he turns it on from here and be and matches up with his current status. I don't see it. I just don't see it.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

Well, I don't I don't understand why why does the NBA want him to be the face of the uh the NBA? He's he's a bore. Like yeah, you you want to put Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, like say what you want about LeBron. He's you know, I can't take him, but he's clearly awesome. He's a great player to watch if you could just take his personality out of the mix. Like, those are the kind of guys that you want to be the face of the league. He is a boar. Like it's not exciting to watch. He doesn't have like and he has some skill, I guess. I guess it's unique because he's like 7'10 or whatever he is. But like, I I just don't I don't understand why him.

SPEAKER_02 47:22

Well, and yeah, and I don't think there's been a person that's done themselves as much of a disservice as him in one playoff series. I if you think about it, he was on the trajectory of being like a Stefan Curry, and and all of a sudden now he's like a bad guy, and he's only a bad guy because he's doing bad guy shit, like throwing people down the floor in headlocks, stepping on their ankles, whining every time, flopping. If he had just gone about his business as normal, people would be like, ah, you know, Wendy, he he's a good player, he he he didn't win, but he'll be back. But now people are like, this guy's a fucking idiot, you know, like the way he ended that one press conference by like uh you know, see you never, it and you know, just some of the stuff he did, like he he it's almost like he intentionally wants to be a villain. Yeah, it's a good point. He could be Tim Duncan, he could have been Tim Duncan.

SPEAKER_01 48:19

Maybe I mean I'll I'll just chalk it up to he's he's a young guy, right? He's only 22, 23, something like that. So okay, he's got a lot of maturing to do in that regard. He literally is like a you know a young kid almost you know, compared to you know, some of these are veterans of this league. But what that showed me for in in two sides, right? What you know, the uh yeah, Wimpy, as I I saw you know, his name written a couple times, which I I I now call him. So Wimpy is is a great nickname for this for this uh chop. Yeah, it is what it comes down to, guys, and like, and then you get to go to the other side with Brunson, right? Um, the the leader for the Knicks, and the really the Knicks as a team, the way they played. Um, it's and I hate to always bring it up because it's always like Cardinal, stop with Eli Manning all the time or something. But it's it's in it's similar in a way where like it it's when the we always talk about the guys that get it done in crunch time and when the pressure's on, when the game's on the line, who's that guy? Who's well, all right, and why is it like you said, Mike, I don't care what you know you don't want to fall behind by 29. You don't want to fall behind in any game, but like when when when the game's on the line, who is the who elevates their game? That's the stuff that you can't measure on a fucking stat sheet. We know that. Everything anybody we we watch every sport, we watch all the we know the names of the guys that like that are the clutch players. We always like look for that as far as fans, analysts, whatever. And then it's like, okay, when so why like in this, it just seems like it's always my whenever my team wins a championship, it's always like because the other team, it's never my like we didn't win it, you know. I mean, like Jalen Brunson somehow has to still uh justify like his greatness, if you will. Yeah, you know, and it's like, well, the guy is tough as fucking nails. He's he's been doing it since you guys know I'm a Villanova basketball fan. Like, I've saw this already in college. People may not have have known Brunson's winning DNA at the college. Now, on the flip side, guys, here's a guy who won at every level in his life so far. There's winners and there's just losers. And this Wimpy Wimpy right now, I mean, he's got many years to come, but what I want to see guys now, I the the great thing about that series and not only the Knicks winning a championship, but I love the fact that now I have this guy to hate and root against. I want him to never sniff a championship in this league. I hope that that's something that I'm gonna be looking for. The Knicks aren't gonna win it every year. That's we know that. But then it's one of those things where like, and I don't care about the San Antonio Spurs, right? As far as, but to your point, Mike, I didn't know who this guy really was. I don't watch the NBA that much. I certainly don't watch the Western Conference. So when I saw this guy in the playoffs, I'm like, this guy's a punk. Who is he? So it's it comes down now, and when when the when here's the thing, guys, when when when the Spurs, because they're gonna be good, they're gonna be right back in the playoffs and all those things, and they're gonna be in position to win series and this and that, and they may get to the finals and all that. Now it's like, well, what's the pressure gonna be like in a close game? And is he gonna be able to deliver? That's the difference. He may not, he may not be able to. There's guys, look at like a Lamar Jackson. I'll just throw out a random name, right? Lamar Jackson, all the everything, the MVPs, regular season, all the stuff he's done. Doesn't he look a little different in the playoffs when the when it's crying? He looks he doesn't look too comfortable out there. He doesn't look too sure of himself, he doesn't look too confident, he looks rattled. Wemby looked rattled, and now I'd love to see what's gonna happen in the years to come when you have the difference. Knicks are gonna be a confident team. I don't care what the Sixers did, I don't care what anybody did in Easter conference. Knicks are gonna be we like we're the champions. You gotta beat us, you know. So um, we're going off on a tangent here with the you know Knicks and basketball. That's what happens sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 51:54

I think you you touched on a couple of great points there, Cardo, and that I didn't bring up. And and one of them was exactly what you said about Brunson, and I think that's why the Wemby stuff was so obvious during the finals, because you had a guy on the other end of the floor who was the exact juxtaposition of Wemby. He's a guy Wemby's been told nothing but you're going to be a star, probably since he was 14 years old. Everyone's doubted Brunson. No one's told him he's going to be a star. Everyone said you're too short. You know, Wemby is born 7'11, however tall he is. So to see Brunson at the other end of the floor.

SPEAKER_04 52:31

Every time we talk about it, nine foot six, this guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

You know, but to have Brunson on the other end of the floor and just, you know, not only not fading at the end of these games, but absolutely taking them over while Wemby's out there rumbling, bumbling, stumbling all over the place. It was so obvious.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

And it just shows that's what makes like it's not easy to win championships. It's not so that's why, even and I'm going to take this over to like especially the quarterback position, right? Because it's the most important position in sports. Um, winning Super Bowls is not easy. So take Sam Darnold last year. Like, I I know up to that point, his career has been unspectacular, all those things. Say what you want about you know, darn the guy, like when you get it done, you like you have that, like you're a winner. You I don't care. Like people want all the defense won it, or this wanted. I no, no, no, no, no. Guy won a fucking championship. That's it. He's now in that club, and now the guy that means he's you're c he's capable of winning a championship. He did it. That's what you want to see. Like Jackson Dart as a Giant fan. I don't know yet what he has at this level. I just want to be able to know if this guy in the crunch time and when the game's on the line, is he gonna crumble under the pressure or is he gonna rise above the pressure and win games and just and win games? Maybe they shouldn't, the giants shouldn't win. Maybe it starts this year. Who knows? But that's the difference in professional athletes and college. It the the guy when the game's on the line, does he crack or does he absolutely have ice in his veins? And that's the stuff you cannot see on the stat sheet, you can't see in a combine, you can't see it.

SPEAKER_02 54:05

Yeah, well, and Cardone, I you know, I think I replayed the helmet catch like thousands of times. I just was was on loop like watching that. And then if you look back at the OG Tippen, that's a that's a play. I know all of us have talked about this, so all of us have watched that ad nauseum, but it's one of those plays where you're just watching it and you're like, this is what led the Knicks to destiny, or whatever you want to call it. And you're watching it and you're like, that's a hell of a play. That's a hell of a play. That's a hell of a play. Wemby didn't make a single play like that in those playoffs. No, he had he he had a very nondescript playoff. So you're about the only thing he was known for was drawing at uh bullshit technical and whining and pushing people around. That that's about it, and and and fucking up at the end.

SPEAKER_03 54:56

And then Wemby said recently somebody asked him a question about the OG play. He said, I don't know, I didn't see the ball go in. But if you sit there and watch the clip, Wemby is like four feet behind OG, staring at the rim with his mouth open, like he's saying, Please don't go in. Yeah, and so the guy's full of crap. You know, I'll I'll put a bow on it. With here's what bothers me the most the media treats every success as proof of his greatness, and every failure is just another precious learning moment for the young Wemby. And so that's very true. You know, he gets the praise of a champion, the protection of a superstar, and the patience of a developing prospect all at the same time. Like, who gets that treatment? No one. I don't know. And when he does win, he's the alien. When he loses, it's like, well, he's only 22, you know?

SPEAKER_02 55:49

Like the alien. The the alien with that. And and you know what? He better cash in now because guys that are that tall outside of Kareem Abdul Jabbar traditionally don't last that long. It's true.

SPEAKER_03 56:02

I agree with you. I think if I'm if I'm him, you mean in the NBA or on this earth?

SPEAKER_02 56:06

Like, what are you talking about? Yeah, well maybe it's maybe well Kareem's still around, but you know, Wilt's gone, you know. Uh there's there's a lot of them. Yao, Yao Ming, you know. I mean, you know, there's some of them are gone, you know.

SPEAKER_03 56:19

Man, I think the media will be a little tougher on him now after that series. I I think the the media's gonna be a good idea. Manu Bull did die, didn't he?

SPEAKER_02 56:29

Yes, he did. And so did Kembi Matombo, you know. I mean, there's quite a few out there. Novak, pet peeve?

SPEAKER_00 56:38

Uh yeah, I got a couple. One isn't really a pet peeve, but one, it's someone that I have has been the ire of my pet peeve multiple times that I have to I have to take this opportunity to bring it up. Because part of me is a little sad that he's gonna be gone, but part of me is like F U U A-hole, Ryan Clark. I am so glad that this guy got knocked out of ESPN, he doesn't have a job, and he went and played that podcast he did afterwards where he was like crying and saying he just wanted to be. This guy is such a phony, and I am so glad that he is finally kicked to the curb. And guess what, Ryan Clark? If you're watching, we can we can help you on uh how to do a podcast because that's all you got left. You're not even on the network. So have fun uh trying to get advertisers because it's a it's a great living for you.

SPEAKER_02 57:27

We can have Mani, he's former giant Ryan Clark.

SPEAKER_00 57:30

I wouldn't have Ryan Clark on for anything.

SPEAKER_01 57:33

I think I knew his name was gonna come. I have Ryan Clark written down on my my notepad here, so I was waiting to get to this clown, but uh so I I figured one of us was gonna get to him sooner or later. So thanks, Novak. Yep, but so he's a clown and not a job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:49

He's all of it. You can be both I had to at least mention it because I was I was so thrilled when he got fired, and the aftermath was just disgusting, it was vomitous, all the crap that he was saying. Like, get over yourself. He called himself the best analyst in the world. Says who? Your two best friends?

SPEAKER_03 58:07

How predictable was everything he said from the moment he got fired?

SPEAKER_00 58:11

Come on.

SPEAKER_03 58:11

I mean, if you had heard he got fired and wrote down 10 things that he's gonna say, he checked every box. It was so predictable.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

Yeah, you know, you know what my do you guys have any quotes from what Carl Ravage said when he was fired? No, because he's a decent human being. Exactly. Yeah, nothing. And Carl Travis to me is he's like he's like the voice of of baseball for me sometimes. No doubt 33 years.

SPEAKER_01 58:36

Yeah. No, but with Clark, the one thing I we uh right, which I love Traeger, by the way, was awesome in that one clip that went fire. We know that was like last year or whatever, like that, but that was uh you know one of many, you know, that kind of led to uh you know Clark's demise. And uh, but um I my take was sort of like, you know, oh, that's the non-player? Well, like, okay, Mr. Clark. Well, uh, you being as the as a as a former player, what what are you what's your credentials of being an analyst in studio? Like, this is I'm not on a football field telling you how to tackle a guy. Like, where's your communications degree? Where's your journal journalism degree? Where what's your resume to show that you can do this job? You're in my space and environment now, dude. We're sitting at an analyst desk at ESPN. How what's your that's the non-analyst in you, Clark? That's what you know. Like every time he he went off on some stupid tirade, oh, that's the non-analyst. You're you know, what do you know? That's what you throw back in the guy's face. What are you doing on the set? You're a football player, you're not you're not an analyst.

SPEAKER_03 59:36

Great, great talking point there. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 59:40

Show me your communications degree.

SPEAKER_03 59:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 59:43

I got one from Ramapo College.

SPEAKER_00 59:49

Well, I mean, we can leave it there. I don't my other one's not that big. The only thing I'll say that is uh annoyed me today is that um the Jets took a day off because yesterday they went full throttle. What happened to the third? Already, and they have off on Monday. So, like, and and Aaron Glenn said, well, analytics are telling us that recovery days are more important now. What happened to the days when you had two days and these guys were getting their asses handed to them? And I know someone's probably watching this going, well, you're just an old 55-year-old man. What do you know about football? I don't. I didn't play the game, but but I can sit here and say that like it that used to be different back in the day. And it's it's what what a bunch of the pusification, right, Cardone?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:32

I mean, Oh, the pusification is running wild, running rampant, there's no stop to it, it's gaining momentum. Listen, Novak, should we be surprised? This is the day and age where pitchers are getting pulled with no hitters going. No hitters in the seventh, eighth inning, and these guys are getting yanked because they've thrown 97 pitches or something. Like so, well now how can we be surprised that there's there's days off already in the first week of training camp.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:59

Did the Jets have at the bottom of like their training camp announcement the the the the phrase all gas, no break? That was solar.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:07

Oh, that's the Jets at least Glenn did not have a phrase this year because I'll just say this one time. So one year, the year that um Rogers tore his Achilles, the their phrase for that camp was now what? And so I remember them walking off at halftime, and right there it said now what? And I'm like, could that be any more perfect?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:29

It's like someone saw that coming. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:31

I I actually that that's one of uh of the pet peeves I have, not not for tonight, but I hate that phrase, all gas, no break. It really is one of those that's like it you have to have a break, you can't go full throttle.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:45

Doesn't that mean you just crash into a tree?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:47

And you and man, this is that what that must have been Tony Romo's motto when he was driving uh the other day. Tiger Woods, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:54

You went better than me. I was gonna go Pelly Lindbergh.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:59

Pelly Lindbergh.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:05

You guys went went much much better than I did. Although Tiger Woods is a very good one.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:12

Good stuff. So was that your second one? Yep, I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:16

All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:16

All right, all right. So so I'll go next. I I I have a couple as well. And the first is hey, you guys know I'm the resident guy that has been following soccer. So I I was following the World Cup. Um, Novak, I know, had had troubles following the World Cup, but guys, the the flopping in the World Cup, this happens every four years. And and and and the things that happen in the flopping in in the World Cup are are outrageous. I mean, there's guys there's guys that are hitting the shoulder and they start grabbing their face and they roll around on the ground and and they're down for like five minutes. And you know, the ref has to call us a stoppage to play because it could be a head injury and everything else. And there's never any ramifications for the guy that that that fakes it. And there was one particular play that did stand out. There it was Argentina versus Switzerland, and a guy for Switzerland was on a yellow card, and he got tripped by an Argentinian who was shown a yellow card, and they went to the replay system and they said, Well, you were never touched. So they ended up reversing the yellow card on the Argentinian, which meant by rule they had to give the Swiss guy a yellow card, which was a second yellow, and it was a red, which he was disqualified. And I just kept thinking to myself, this is what's happening because people were talking about how unjust this was. And this is what's happening now in the in in the rest of sports. We we saw it in the basketball playoffs with OKC. We saw we see it in football week after week with wide receivers. And this flopping that happens to me, it's it's cheating. It it's it's going above and beyond the rules because you are intentionally trying to influence the referee's decision in your favor. And that's the part that I don't get is that it's not it's not gamesmanship, it is an intentional try to gain a penalty, gain an advantage. And there has to be an equilibrium there where you balance this out. And I don't see that very often. You know, it happened in in soccer, and after as soon as that guy got the red card, everyone's like, Oh, that's really harsh. You had to kick a guy out for that. Yeah, but he he he fell with no one even touching him, grabbing his leg for 10 minutes in pain, and when they went to the video, they saw that no one even touched them. So, what are you grabbing in pain? When when a basketball player falls down to the ground, you know, writhing, that that that's bullshit. You know, and hockey's the one that that gets away with it because hockey, you don't see people faking it. If if you're down on the ice in hockey, they have to bring a stretcher out to get you out of there. Or you or they're picking up teeth. And with football, in general, if you're like a lineman and you go down, you're down and you don't get up and just start walking it off and limping. You you you you leave the field for a period of time. I just don't get the I don't get the I don't want to call it the culture, but the culture of flopping. Punish the floppers, and you'll get rid of this right away.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:29

Almost every sport already has a rule in there they could easily use. Like if if the NFL flopping gets too bad, start calling receivers for delay game. Exactly. It's over. It's a call like five receivers for it, they'll stop. Um you know, they should do that in soccer as well. You know, soccer has a benefit if they entrust a lot into their video replay system. If you can tell someone's out there flopping and there was no contact made with them at all, delay game or additional yellow card, whatever they do in in soccer. I don't know how The rules work, but um there's most sports have a penalty on the books that would handle it just fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:07

Like you said, Scott, I I love when they show the the the replay in slow motion and the guy's holding a part of his body or his leg that wasn't even that didn't even come in contact with the guy. You know, the contact will be up around the knee, let's say, and all and the guy's like riding around holding his like his ankle. I mean, that part you weren't even hit there, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:26

Knock it off. Anytime you're down on the ground for more than 30 seconds, and you can get back up and run like there's no one, nothing happens. That that's bullshit. That's completely.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:43

Yeah. So true. Talk about it again.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:46

Goodbye. It was it was nice while it lasted for a month. Go away and be irrelevant again.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:51

Not fast enough. Yeah, the NHL polices itself, because you pull that shit in the NHL, there's gonna be a goal score behind you. So you better get your ass up and get back on defense. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:03

And even the NHL, you know, like you get a high stick, the guy's looking for blood, but if they can't find blood, that's it. You know, that that's about all they did. You don't you don't see guys flopping.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:14

That should be the tolerance for all sports injuries. Hang on, are you bleeding? No, get back in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:22

So I had a second one, and this one's sort of what I was talking about before. It's it's the hot takes you see either in preseason or as a result of of the previous season. So, you know, there's a lot of stuff out there if you look at at Twitter about Jackson Dart. And and if you look at it based on the record of the Giants had last year, the prevailing pro of opinion is that he sucks. And I'm surprised about this because I had a very positive view uh of Jackson Dart last year. You know, put the put the off-field stuff uh uh aside that we were mentioning before. But you know, like people are like Jackson Dart needs to prove that he can he can be a quarterback, he he's nothing right now but a guy that that just runs the ball. And to me, that that that does a disservice to what Jackson Dart did versus the other quarterbacks who were there. It particularly shows when you talk about Abdul Carter. So there are people out there talking about Abdul Carter saying he needs to recover from his disappointing rookie season. He had a rookie season where people are judging him on sack numbers. He had the he had the most pressures of any rookie, and he had among the league lead in pressures, hits, and what they call quick pressures, which I think is a pressure within two seconds or two and a half seconds, one of those things. So the guy is is is putting up the numbers, but he's not putting up that one number people want from an edge, and that's sacks. And I hate the reliance on sacks. We could I could have gone on on the tangent on that instead. But it to me, instead, it's like people looking at a season last year saying this guy sucked, or this guy needs to do a lot better. To me, Abdul Carter, he he could do exactly what he was doing last year and have 10 sacks this year. Sacks are not a a function of of like what you're doing. Or they're not a function of the stat, they're a function of what you're doing and the and the the work you're putting in.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:29

Yeah, there's no doubt. Michael Strahan, uh, you know, I I won't call him uh the one-time single-season sack leader because I'll get a face from Novak, but um a person whose career is built on the sack, I'll put it that way, for many reasons. He's the first one to say sacks are the most overrated stat in sports. They they don't really mean that much. You can impact the game as an edge without getting sacks. Um, you know, if you're if you're bottling up the run and turning people back up inside, if you are getting close enough to cause pressures, but the quarterback's getting rid of the ball haphazardly because he knows you're there um and he knows you're coming. I mean those are all good things for a defense.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:15

Well, there was actually a a stat out there that Abdul Carter had five pressures that led to intentional groundings last year. Yeah. So you don't get a sack for an intentional grounding, but in essence, those five plays functioned as a sack. You brought the ball back to where the the the quarterback was.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:37

Yep. There's that, and of course, you know, just the quarterback dumping the ball off, which is buying a down for us. He, you know, he may have someone wide open on that play, and Carter's you know, got one hand on his uh chest and about to come. And so this quarterback's just dumping the ball off to the flat or whatever. Um, even on completions, he completely affected that play. He saved a touchdown. So it's it's really doesn't make much sense to just look at stats, but I know that's the that's a base level fan, a lot of people are, and and it's seeped from fanhood into media, which is unfortunate.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:08

Well, if you know, if if I wasn't a giant fan and didn't watch one snap of Jackson Dart's rookie season, I'm looking at his stats right now, and I guess I didn't look at him closely at the end of last year. They're actually really good. Uh in terms for a rookie, um, yeah, just throw a couple out there. I mean, he you know, his he completed you know just under 64%. Pretty good. If you count his rushing touchdowns, the guy had 24 touchdowns and five interceptions. Did he 24 to 15 or 15 and nine, right? He had 15 passing, nine rushing, and then five interceptions. That's I mean pretty good. I'm gonna count those because you know we would count those for Cam Newton, right? I mean, so like Newton counts those. I'm gonna count them for Jackson Dart. Why not? Like, so the guy went 24 to 5 touchdowns, interceptions. What he had it like just you know, under a little under a 92 rating. He also had uh carry, you know, his rushing, you know, almost six yards of carry. What what do who what are we supposed to what do we want from this guy in year one with still a shitty offensive line?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:15

I mean, people are nuts. Like what they really are nuts, and you know, the I wouldn't classify him as a running quarterback uh any more than I'd classify some of the other ones out there, but there is no doubt that the one thing he brought to this offense that it needed badly because of the offensive line was just someone who could keep a play alive more than 10 seconds, you know, like or like that's way long, I'm saying you know, more than three seconds. Um, because Daniel Jones was what a lot of people would want to call a running quarterback, too, in that there were runs designed for him, just like there were for Dart. But uh But Daniel Jones, I mean, you know, I feel about the guy, I don't mind him at all. I'm glad he's found success elsewhere, but he couldn't he didn't have the skills to keep a play alive with his feet. Um, you know, not and he played behind some terrible offensive lines, too. But he wasn't running around left and right back there looking for a receiver, he would just take off. Um, we you see that when Lamar Jackson does it, and people absolutely love it. Now, I I'm not comparing Jackson Dart to Lamar Jackson, although they won exactly the same amount of playoff games, I believe. Um maybe, maybe Lamar's got a couple playoffs.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:29

I think Lamar's got one, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:32

Um but uh but yeah, it's I mean that's a skill you cannot you just can't find everywhere. And I don't even know if the Giants knew they were getting it. When I started seeing that is when I realized, okay, he's gonna be good. Because there's other times he stood in the pocket and delivered a pass that I I don't, you know, that Eli Manning would have trouble making sometimes. He you know, to play on his last name, he he threw some absolute darts and some dives in a couple of situations, both on the run and from the pocket. Carno if that if that's the appetizer we're getting for this guy's career, pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:12

Sure, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:13

I agree.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:14

Carnop Paves? Uh real quick, I got uh just one. It kind of just was something I was looking at this morning. So it was uh just something that kind of came across the uh my TV screen. Uh of course I'm going with to the uh week uh preseason one here, what uh going to the media kind of thing. And um I can't stand because at this point in uh in training camps, games have preseason games haven't started. It's nothing but question marks, right? So everyone's sort of just trying to figure out uh who our team is, what the roster is gonna be like, and they try to make those somewhat like predictions in terms of uh you know who's gonna go from worst to first and all that kind of stuff. And and what I can't stand are those play on words. It sounds this is just a silly pet peeve guys, but whenever it's the Giants, I'll just use the Giants, of course. Um there was a little segment on like get up this morning, I wasn't which I don't plan to watch uh that much of this shit, but um uh it was the old giant expectations for 2026. Uh are the Giants ready to take a giant step forward? And then there's another one where like they were using the you know the Bears, and it was like Chicago needs to bear down on their, you know, their their offensive, you know, there's something with their playbook. And I'm like, stop it with those little play-on words. I it I don't know why, it's just a stupid one, it drives me crazy. And with the Giants, it's always the same one. Giant, it's always giant, and then fill in the blank. Giant this, giant that. So right now we're looking at giant expectations. Um, it's what you know, you guys know what I'm talking about. Whenever there's with the Giants, that's they always use that as the adjective, and then whatever the thing that's going on. So uh that's it. That's all I got for Pep Peeves. A short one, uh, but I'm just just just the stupidity.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:50

So right, right on.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:51

Yeah, just the stupidity of like so I'm just tired of seeing the Giants explain, you know, when whenever their little segments coming up, like giant question marks in New York, you know, whatever if they're if something's uh not going good, or you know, giant exuberation, uh, you know, what it's just I'm tired of just figuring out will the Jets get their season airborne this year, or are they gonna be stuck on the runway? You know, that are they taking off or are they or are they crashing? Exactly, crash and burning. Exactly. Yeah, I heard I heard that Chicago needs to bear down.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:19

So I'm like, yeah, I just stop it. Yeah, everyone's got to outclever the the next person, right? Even even with the next thing you saw like Taylor Swift was t-shirt was like Stevie Nick's K-N-I-K-S, R T K S. Like, stupid is that? Play on words. I just stop it. Taking off.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:35

We we could have done a pet peeve on the the fact they had the uh wedding at Madison Square Garden. What does that have to do with either of them? But uh so uh we got a bunch of questions tonight. Um one came in from a listener that that Novak gave us. So uh this is a good question. What is a realistic best case scenario for the Jets and Giants this year?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:56

Since I since since I had this question, I'll go first. Um because I think what the way that he asked the question was obviously we're not gonna say win the Super Bowl. Like that would just that's stupid. So what I would say is the the Jets on week six or seven, I think they play the Patriots. Someone knocks Geno Smith out, and in comes a guy named Kay Klubnik to to do the Tom Brady thing in reverse. And next year we have three first round draft choices without having to take a quarterback, and this team just gets stockpiled, loaded with talent in the the best draft in the history of the NFL, they say, coming up next year. So that's that's that's what I want. Look at Novak.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:38

Novak hated Kate Club. I do, and I think now he's gonna be any good. Now he wants him as a savior.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:44

Well, of course I do. Why wouldn't I? I mean, I'm probably wrong that he sucks. I mean, I've uh you know, I could be wrong that he sucks, but that's that's mine.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:53

I I'll say this. You know, guys, look look at the Seahawks last year. No one before going into the season said the Seahawks are gonna win the Super Bowl. So to me, best case scenario is still a Super Bowl. Now, now that being said, I think the best case scenario for the Giants is probably a 10-win season, 11-win season. Make the playoffs, make a little bit of noise and try to do what you can. But the way the NFL is now, you can go from worst to first pretty easily. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:29

Yeah. Well, if I could add on that, I heard also this morning, and I think we kind of knew about this as far as the you know, the the the new teams making playoffs every year. So I don't know if you guys knew this. I did not. I don't think I knew it in this in these numbers. It's been 36 straight years. Let me say that again. 36 straight years that at least in the NFL where there's been at least four new playoff teams from the year before. It's half the league. It's half I mean, there's eight divisions.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:57

So 36 straight years. That's another one. And Cardone, I think it's like 75% of those years, more than half of the teams have have uh flipped over, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:08

Yeah. So I mean, yeah, my so my answer, you know, that question specifically would be um making the playoffs. Giants making a playoffs, because that you know, if there's at least four new teams, um, you know, there's what there's only 16 teams in um you know in the conference, whatever, but uh Scott, I don't know, could could they win? I I don't I don't have their record yet in my head, you know, but they're you know obviously best case would be uh just a playoff spot, you know, just giving great, just sneak in somehow as a seven seed, something like that. That's the best case for the Giants this year. Yeah, uh just I I like your answer. I can't top your answer on that one for the Jets.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:47

Yeah, no, that was really well done. Yeah, I I think that's it. I think if it's realistic expectation, I don't think it's unrealistic to think that the Giants, the way they're constructed right now, they stay healthy, could make the playoffs. And I don't maybe I'm putting too much in a new experienced coach, but every time teams do this, they win immediately. They don't always continue winning. But when teams bring in a coach who's established, you know, and in his game and has come off recent success and all that, they get better right away. Now, sometimes that lasts, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes that's a that's a flash in the pan. So yeah, and I fully, you know, everyone's calling the next draft the um one of the best NFL draft classes ever. So of course the Giants will win 10 games and pick, you know, late mid to late teens uh in in that draft. Of course they will. So yeah. Um I I think that's realistic. I also I also think realistic falls back in the realm of four to five wins. I I just don't know. But um, you know, if you're out there right now saying it's impossible for the New York Giants to take to make the playoffs, not only I think are you understating the talent on the team a little bit and understating the impact of a of a good solid head coach, but you're also just ignoring league history, as Cardone just said. You're kind of ignoring it right in the face that most years half the teams flip over. And we'll go back to one of our famous things. We said it before the Knicks playoffs started. We say it every year for the Giants and Jets. Why not us? Why not us?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:19

I'll just add real quick. My other thing would be that either the Colts, Cowboys, or Packers are the worst team in the league, because then the Jets get the number one pick.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:28

There you go. So we got a question from Joe P. He said he saw the pod in the offseason. We have a great rap report, and uh, we're funny, hilarious. Uh, but what sets us apart from other podcasts, and what do we think of the co-host turnover in the other Giants podcasts? So I'll address that second part first, but and what sets us apart? I think we get a variation of this question every year. And for us, guys, if you give us a listen, even the first time, you're gonna see a couple of things. First off, is that we are very comfortable with one another, we go into a range of subjects. Um, none of us know exactly where a podcast is going. So, one of the things I have on, I have a shirt that says the the Regal Beagle, and the Regal Beagle actually comes from one of our better bits, Cardone. In a in a I think it was a question and answer scenario we had with you know something about classic TV. We started talking about the hotness of Mrs. Roper, which I I don't want to get too into. Roper? Was it Mrs. Roper?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:34

I don't know. Mrs. Roper was not hot, that was a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:37

I don't know if it was Roper, but happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:38

Mrs. Furley.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:40

No, Furley was single.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:42

Yeah, it was talking about maybe it was Lana.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:46

I think it was Lana. Might have been Lana. Whatever. Yeah. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:50

We're going on about that. And and and like we just go off on tangents. This is a podcast that doesn't take ourselves too seriously. We talk about football, we will break it down to where we need to, but we're not gonna go into every individual play. You guys don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that, especially when our teams are three and 14. We want to talk about you know positive stuff. We want to jovial it up, so you know, and I'll leave it with this. You know, as much as we we talk about football and we talk about everything else, we are the angry football fans for a reason. We we hate the NFL and a lot of stuff that goes on with it. And uh I thought it was Mrs. Roper, but if it isn't Mrs. Roper, I will leave it with this. There is at least one of us who loved Joe from Facts of Life. So that that's that's right. That's one thing that we we you never thought you'd have a podcast that would talk about Joe from the Facts of Life.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:52

Well, we we also are talking about a show that has Suzanne Summers on it, and Scott went right to Mrs. Roper.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:58

Because I think that's I think that's what Cardone said. I hope to hell I'm pretty sure it wasn't hot, but no, it wasn't that she was hot, it was that she was something about the bathrobe. I'm I'm not I I'm gonna replay it at one of these times, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:14

Yeah, she uh she wanted she wanted to get busy quite often, I'll put it that way.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:20

Her sexual ferocity is maybe what I was referring to. Yeah, perhaps. But if I if I could answer, if I may chime in on this question, I I I thought about this in a way that um uh I could I could point back to one episode, maybe I forget, maybe in season two or three, Giants were coming off of a brutal Thursday night loss, I want to say, to our rival, the Eagles. And I came on and I think we can went back and counted, and I dropped 82 F bombs in one podcast. So um I challenge anybody out there to find a podcast where uh one guy drops 82 F-bombs within in an hour uh as as you know, over a distraught loss by their team. So I listen to a lot of other pods, I try to get us some ideas. I gotta be frank, I I think they're boring. I I I gotta be honest. I think a lot of them are boring. Uh after five, seven minutes, I'm done. I quit. Um, you know, like it's like Scott said, our take is to uh you know, we do a little bit of um a little bit of everything here. I think, you know, so we'll break down the game. We we I like to think I pretend to know a little bit about the game of football that we can talk about the game itself. But um anyone who knows me, I'll drop in a Seinfeld reference every chance I get, do that, and we'll talk about all the other stuff on and off the field throughout the week. And um, so we just try to get our listeners laughing and uh you know, just try to um laugh ourselves, really. I try to make you guys laugh while we're doing this.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:42

That's the challenge, make each other laugh. I mean, I think that's probably the the root of the success here is I love saying something and see you guys crack up. I mean, that is uh the fun part of it. And I I love uh I love also, and speaking of the turnover um another podcast with the hosts, it's probably like we have the best host in the business, there's no doubt. And even though he can't pronounce rapport and he sees it on a written Michael Rapopor is kind of on a podcast. We just give him the bifus and we move along.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:15

He gets nine out of ten shout-outs completely wrong.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:19

We don't have a drink limit on on uh the the three in your giant uh so you can yeah. There's no last call, just keep firing them back.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:27

No, just keep going. So I I will say this about the uh the the turnover for other other Giants podcasts. Um there have been a couple Giants Insider, Giants Nation. Uh both of them lost their their co-hosts, they brought other co-hosts on. Uh don't know the particulars behind it necessarily, but uh, but I'll go back to what Cardone said. Look, guys, we're here to entertain. We entertain and we educate. We're we're not here to tell you the breakdown of the of the film from you know the defensive backs point of view is saying he should have had yeah, the all 22 that he should have had an interception on this play. You guys can see that. You can see it in live terms. We're here to talk about what we dislike about our teams, what we dislike about the NFL, and what we like about the NFL. And and the the best thing about us, too, is I don't think we're ever going to switch hosts because we we enjoy one another. It's not a this isn't a Beatles situation or you know where a band's breaking up. We're we are our friends, and we do this because we we we like each other. And I'll tell you what, we're looking forward to seeing some of the games this season. Like week one, we are going to be together to watch the Jets, Titans, and the Giants and the Cowboys. No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:50

Rough day.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:51

It's gonna be a long day.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:52

That's gonna be a long fucking day.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:54

Yep. So uh Peacock corners here.

unknown 1:27:59

Peacock.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:00

Says, uh, how should Jets fans feel about Salah running his mouth about a Titans win week one versus the Jets? So uh he's jumping right into the uh the Jets part.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:12

I could give two craps what he says about the Jets. He sucked as a coach here. He says he's gonna kick our ass. Great. We'll see what happens on game day. I don't I don't put a lot of if the Jets need bulletin board material by Robert Salah to win a game, then they have they are bigger losers than I thought. Well said. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:36

He could run whatever he's got. Yeah, running whatever he's got.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:39

I don't know if Dave's has said anything, actually. Dave's has not done done much at all.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:43

Well, we are gonna have a Titans fan on here, and one thing I will say to him is so the the Titans way to become a good team is to is to pluck the coaching staff and the players off the two worst teams over the last 15 years. I mean, come on. That sounds great. That sounds like a great way to go to respectability.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:06

So uh Peacock also asks, um Dart jumping off a boat this summer and uh running with uh running head first in defenders, how many games does he actually play this year? Um it's a concern, Peacock. I I will I will say that. Like I think uh I think Dart needs to calm it down, and hopefully Harbaugh will get him to do so. Um I'm gonna put his his season at 15 to 17 games.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:36

Yeah, he'll clean that shit up. Um he's heard enough, obviously, this offseason about sliding and voiding those extra hits and all that. So there, I'm sure they it's something they talk about constantly. He's heard enough of it. He's gonna clean that shit up. So I think I think so too. I think now long season, right? He may miss I can probably the same thing. He's gonna I think he's gonna play most of the season. He may miss a game or two just because of a random industry injury injury, something like that. But I see him playing a full slate. I think he's uh I think he'll be all right.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:06

Yeah, I mean that that girlfriend of his needs Instagram pictures when he's playing, not riding the bench.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:12

No doubt. Yeah, I I hope they can clean it up because it's you know, it's funny, it's the the types of stuff he does aren't typically the I mean, people ignore this all the time. We talk about injuries a lot on this program, but the types of things he does are not really the types of things that usually get people knocked out of games, but they fed the narrative last year, and it's as usual that's frustrating. Um, you know, as we witnessed with him, once you get that reputation in the league, man, the refs were stopping the game every time he was down on the turf, and several times he got up like what? And you know, they're telling him he's got to leave the field for a play, and that's only because of who he is. And so if for no other reason he's he's gotta stop that than just to avoid the appearance of a of a big hit, even if he thinks I barely felt that. It's it's just something we don't need, you know, and I and I know that it's gotta be the hardest thing in the world the competitive drive on third and one to just throw your body out there to to get a first down. But dude, it's the first quarter of a nothing to nothing game. Punt the ball, it's fine. Um you know, there are times for that sort of play, and there are times to keep it in the bag a little bit. You gotta preserve your health.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:25

Yeah, I hope he learns that too. Yeah, so uh he Peacock asks a final question. This is a really good one. The top two head coaches in the league and the bottom two head coaches in the league. Um, since I've seen this question, I I'll I'll respond here. I think the top two head coaches in the league right now, and and this one, the first one's conditional on what ends up happening. Mike Vrabel to me is a top head coach. He's one of the best head coaches in in the league.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:55

Um I'm sure she does.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:00

Uh and I also think that uh Jim Harbaugh, John Harbaugh could be two, but Jim Harbaugh is one of the best top two in the league. Um I'm gonna let you guys do your best before I get into my my worst. So let's let's do best first.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:16

I will say Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVeigh.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:21

Kyle Shanahan to me. Yeah, Kyle Shanahan's a no-brainer to me on that list. I I don't agree fully with McVeigh, although I do think he's a very good coach. But um I'm thinking uh you know who I think is an underrated coach, and and Novak will slap me, but I think Todd Bowles is a pretty good football coach, but I don't think he's in the top. I'm looking at the list here, trying to see when that that really jumps out at me. Rabel's a really good choice there, despite what's happened with him lately. And along the same lines, I think Dan Campbell's probably a pretty good head football coach, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:55

That's where I was going. I was uh I love McVay with the Rams. Um, I love everything about the guy. Uh Shanahan's up there, I think. Um Andy Reed, just because of his uh, you know, just his his longevity and his championships and all that. But I was I was thinking Dan Campbell too. I know he's um you know hasn't had the the the play, the full playoff run and all that, but I just I I he's another guy that um and and his questionable go for it on every goddamn fourth down, of course, you know, but um he just seems like the kind of guy I would love to play for and and root for if I was a Lions uh fan. So Dan Campbell, one of my top guys for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:33

So when you when you add those, you're top two. I mean, like I'm looking at the bottom two.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:38

I actually if you say two NFC East coaches, Scott.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:42

No, no, I'm not. I'm gonna put I'm gonna put Campbell in there. Um and the reason I'm putting Campbell in there is because I think the Lions have had a ton of talent over the last couple years, and I think it's Dan Campbell's consistent like reliance on this go-for-broke strategy that that has screwed them. So to me, he's one of the bottom coaches. Um, and then the other one, I it's tough for me to pick another coach because I think a lot of them are gone now. Like uh, you know, I I didn't like a lot of the guys that were fired. Um I'm not even sure who who's the who's the Falcons coach now?

SPEAKER_01 1:34:24

Um is it Raheem Morris?

SPEAKER_02 1:34:28

Oh Stefanski just got it. Um it's not him. Um I I don't even know where I'd go with the the the next worst coach. I I I think I'd have to go with um I mean I think it's pretty pretty simple.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:41

But Aaron Glenn and Robert Sala. I mean come on.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:45

Yeah, but they're I I don't know about that. I I I still don't know what to make of uh of Aaron Glenn. You know, I I really don't.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:52

I Robert Salah is awful. I mean, he's terrible. He's gotta be one of the worst.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:59

It could be one of the worst. Oh, I'm gonna have to punt because I don't I don't really know who another one would be because I I like a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:08

Don't you want to say Ben Johnson kind of you hate him?

SPEAKER_02 1:35:10

I I I actually I hate Ben Johnson the person. I think he's probably a pretty good coach.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:16

Yeah, he is.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:17

You know, I I got one. How about five? I I think Mike McCarthy sucks.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:22

I do too, but but he hasn't done it. Mike McCarthy sucks to prove that, you know, it's like that's true.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:27

I I that's where I was getting getting ready to go, was McCarthy.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:31

Um he didn't, I you know, I yeah, I kind of had to look at a little, I didn't even have to like you know look it up. I was just like right right away. I'm like, I think McCarthy, I just think he sucks. I just don't think he brings anything.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:42

Well, here's one of the worst things is one of the best coaches, I think, is uh Mike Tomlin. He's not coaching the team right now. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:50

Yeah, you know, I I there's a guy that everyone talks about and loves, and I thought he looked a little in over his head uh last year a couple times, which is his first year head coaching, so I'll give him that. Same with Aaron Glenn. He looked over his head sometimes, but hard to pick a first year guy and say they're the worst out there, I think. But um, and they did this team got better near the end of the year, but I think Kellen Moore looks a little lost out there as a head coach. Yeah, that's true. Um overrated, he certainly isn't in the bottom two, but I a coach that I think is really overrated in the NFL is Matt LaFleur uh for Green Bay. That's a good one. I just think he's wildly overrated.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:28

Yeah, overrated's a good one. I don't know if he's the worst, but he's definitely overrated.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:32

I think he's probably a decent coach. I don't I don't think he's down there um in the bottom five or whatever, but I I do think he's a little overrated.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:42

That's a good question because it's that's a good question. It's tough to pinpoint those bottom two, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:47

It's always a good question if if like one or two people give one guy as an example of this is one of the two or three best, and another guy puts him in one of the two or three worst. That means that's a really good question.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:57

I mean, Aaron Aaron Glenn is a self-described butthole.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:00

So I mean, there's I mean that he's got I noticed we didn't put Siriani in anywhere on the on either list.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:05

So yeah, I don't think he's a very good coach, but it you can't argue with the W's.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:10

I think Siriani's right in the middle. You know, yeah, yeah. I I would have said the same about Doug Peterson had he not gone to Jacksonville. So it's like this time last year, we might have been making fun of the Jacksonville guy with Duval. That's right. That he went out and made the playoffs.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:31

Can't say Lean Cohn, he's all he's done is won 13 games.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:35

Mike had his name. I I could you you gave me 20 minutes. I I don't think I would have pulled his name out without Googling it. So uh we have a guy, Trevor, who asks a question and Novak almost answered this anyway. Why does Geno Smith get out of control when he becomes a jet? Is that the only way you notice? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:59

I mean, there's no point in going back over that. We we know, but yeah, good question.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:04

So uh my friend Mike uh he asks a couple questions, and and this one's for Novak too. Do you agree Aaron Glenn sounds more calm than this time last year? And is that a good thing?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:18

100%. I mean, last year he was telling all the the writers that you know I'm not gonna ask you, I'm not gonna answer your questions and being all you know, trying to be parcels up there. And this year he's calling, like I said, calling himself a butthole. He, you know, says that, you know, he he's just very calm and no phrases, no nothing. So yeah, they're going about it more workman-like this year, which I like.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:42

And then his uh second question was uh which QBs now on other rosters might shake loose that you guys might be interested in picking it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:53

I wouldn't mind picking up Baker Mayfield. Um who they're shaking loose? Well, I don't know that he's gonna shake he's not gonna put, but but I think that whole contract situation is something to look for. Do I think that there's a chance that they might decide to cut bait and start over and let bowls be fired in the first ten games? Yeah. Um that team probably needs to break it down and start back up. And so if that's the case, do I would I want the Jets maybe to take a run at Baker Mayfield? Maybe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:21

Then there's um who would you really consider other quarterbacks who might be find a way to shake loose? Like uh like JJ McCarthy or or Tyler Murray, Deshaun Watson, Shadow Sanders, no brassett.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:39

I mean, uh we're talking like starters, like we could all go backups, and that doesn't really matter.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:45

Did Kirk Cousins retire?

SPEAKER_00 1:39:48

He's Kirk Cousins.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:50

He's he's on a roster somewhere, isn't he?

SPEAKER_00 1:39:55

Yeah, yeah, he's on Raiders.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:57

Yeah, he's gonna be the he's gonna be the starter, right? Did I just hear that? That he's really starter, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:01

Yeah, he was now the starter.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:04

Um Mike also asks one final question, and I I have the answer that I could look at here, but I don't know what it is yet. Um, which giant starter is an acclo uh is an accomplished musician and what instrument does he play?

SPEAKER_03 1:40:23

Is that a trivia question?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:25

Yes. I knew Bernie Williams with the Yankees playing the guitar, but I think guitarist.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:30

I know this. Is it Juju Smith Schuster? Guitar? I I haven't looked yet. I'll I'll look in a second. I think it's Juju Smith Schuster. I I want to say I saw something about that. Um I might be wrong, but I thought I thought that's who it was.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:44

It is not.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:45

Okay, who is it?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:47

It is Andrew Thomas who has the piano and drums. Really? No. I would not have gotten that. No.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:55

No, had no idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:56

No, no. Cool. Huh? You guys got anything else for tonight?

SPEAKER_03 1:41:02

I wonder what they mean by accomplished, an accomplished musician. Like, does he play in Carnegie Hall? Like, what's a accomplished musician being?

SPEAKER_02 1:41:13

That's a good that's a good one. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:15

It's like when Costanza asks, what do you need to do? Like, how do you qualify to be a buff? You know, like, oh, he's a civil war buff. Well, how do you become a buff? How do you know you're gonna be a buff? Who tells you you're a buff? How do you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:41:28

So we are the angry uh football fans. Uh this is the end of our first uh, I guess it'll be pre-camp because uh we we really don't have well well pre-preseason because we haven't had preseason games. The uh to Mike's point earlier, we have the uh Hall of Fame game of this week. That's the uh Carolina Panthers versus the Arizona Cardinals.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:52

I can't wait for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:54

But then after that, we'll have our games that are starting. So uh we're we're getting back in the swing of things. Um, as I mentioned before, we're gonna have some guests from other teams here. So uh stay tuned and uh and and keep us around. So uh guys, any any last parting comments? September 2nd.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:10

About that uh about that Hall of Fame game. I wouldn't watch that if it was week 17, winner make the playoffs. So there's no chance I'm watching it in the pre season.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:22

No, that is a brutal watch. I mean, what WNBA game is on that night? I'll be watching that.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:29

Or the Liberty on.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:31

Yeah. No, I'll just end with September 2nd, Carolina Beer Temple. There will be trivia. Uh this year we're gonna do it differently. And Donkey is a really good band that's for you know, right in our demographic 80s and 90s rock. And so uh really good band. So um yeah, looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:51

All right, guys. We'll see you next week. Uh until then.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:57

So yep.