Two for the Win
Mike is a U.S. Navy Veteran and Bryan has more than a decade of civil service experience. Together, these blue collar guys dissect the latest sports headlines and events.
Two for the Win
Two For The Win - E14 - Remembering Bob Uecker and Navigating Sports' Shifting Landscapes
What happens when a baseball legend's humor transcends the game, leaving an indelible legacy? We honor the iconic Bob Uecker, whose recent passing at the age of 90 leaves a void in sports and entertainment. Remembering his unique broadcasting style with the Milwaukee Brewers, his comedic brilliance on "The Tonight Show," and memorable roles in films like "Major League," we reflect on how Uecker's charm and wit made him a beloved figure beyond the baseball diamond. We also acknowledge his diverse talents with a nod to his WWE Hall of Fame induction, showcasing how his influence spanned multiple realms.
As Major League Baseball's free agency unfolds, we're presented with the age-old struggle between resource-rich teams and their smaller-market counterparts. We scrutinize how teams like the Dodgers and Royals navigate this uneven playing field, and propose potential solutions for increased competitive balance. The episode also touches on the changing landscape of college sports, where NIL deals are empowering athletes with newfound financial independence and reshaping their collegiate journeys. A particular focus is given to WWE's groundbreaking NIL agreement, which could redefine talent acquisition strategies in wrestling.
The NFL's action-packed climate is dissected through playoff recaps, coaching changes, and predictions for upcoming games. From the Eagles' playoff challenges with injuries to player health impacting strategies, we discuss the factors influencing teams' postseason fortunes. Delving into the quarterback free agency market, the episode navigates through potential trades and draft prospects, while also highlighting the ongoing drama within teams like the Jaguars and Cowboys. As the offseason looms, we wrap up with a heartfelt appreciation for our listeners, promising more engaging conversations in future episodes of Two for the Win.
January 16th 2025. Welcome back, everybody. Thank you for joining us again. I'm Brian with an eye and I'm Mike, and we are two for the win, and tonight we have a lot of juicy things on the agenda. Mike, what's coming up?
Speaker 2:well, we're going to talk some Major League Baseball news, we're going to touch in on the college football playoffs and national championship game coming up, and we're going to touch on the NFL race for the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:Oh man things. We were already in the heat of it, but it's getting hot now. We'll get to those things here shortly.
Speaker 2:But unfortunately we're opening the show today with a bit of sad news. Bob Uecker, broadcaster for the Brewers organization and known for more than just being a broadcaster, passed away at the age of 90, unfortunately, this morning. Bob Uecker for those of you that may be fuzzy on who he is those of us who grew up in the 80s or, you know, 80s, 90s, might remember him kind of a little bit for this particular sound bite that I'm about to play.
Speaker 1:Coming right up here, and this is while Mike's pulling that up.
Speaker 2:Just a bit outside. He tried the corner and missed.
Speaker 1:Ball four, ball eight Low, and Vaughn has walked the bases loaded on 12 straight pitches.
Speaker 2:So Bob Uecker, if you don't recognize that clip, that was from the movie Major League where he was the drunken announcer for a struggling Indians organization. And not only was he a big-time announcer for the Brewers, where many people they remember him for summers with the game on the television or on the radio and just hearing his voice. He's got a very recognizable voice. You know he had a short stint playing in the majors. I say short. He had a 14-year career, mostly as a backup, and he used to joke about himself. He used to say you know, when he turned 90, he said hey, I finally reached my batting average.
Speaker 2:You know, so then he used to get asked questions like you you know how is it catching the knuckleball? He said, well, you just wait for it to stop rolling, you pick it up and throw it back you know, I mean bob uker this guy very funny.
Speaker 2:I mean he, he had an acting career along with his playing career. I mean he was in Mr Belvedere, you know, a sitcom that ran for about six years. And you know he made stints in other TV shows and you know his broadcasting career spanned 54 years. And you know he was offered big time money to go elsewhere and be an announcer for one of the bigger clubs. But that wasn't him. He didn't want to leave Milwaukee.
Speaker 2:You know he played for the Milwaukee Braves and that's not a misspeak. The Braves used to be in Milwaukee and he was a Milwaukee Brave. He was born and raised in Milwaukee, so hometown kid who wanted to stay with the organization that brought him in. I mean he played for four different teams in his career, only had 14 home runs during his entire career, won one World Series with the Cardinals.
Speaker 2:To kind of give you an idea of kind of the cut up he is, they had a team picture they took the same year and he's sitting there in the front row with Bob Gibson and he reaches over and holds Bob Gibson's hand and the two of them are just have this really cheesy grin on their face and the team makes up all these pictures that they're going to hand out, you know, to fans or sell to different newspapers or whatever. And the organization, at the last second, looked down and see that the two of them are holding hands in the front row and they're like we can't sell this, we can't put this out there. We got to retake this picture, redo, so they both got fined for their actions.
Speaker 1:We need a mulligan here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, bob. I mean he did Miller Lite commercials because you know the Brewers and Miller Lite have a thing, but he would joke on himself. He's like, you know, fans love me, you, you know, being an ex-mob player, and he's sitting there going to try to sit in the front row and the the guy's like that's not your seat, get out of here yeah he's like okay, I guess they're moving me to the front row.
Speaker 2:and then he's up in the bleachers, up in the very, very top of the stadium, screaming out they missed the tag, they missed the tag, they missed the tag.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, bob Uecker, very beloved. This man, like Mike just said, wore many hats. He was a very dynamic man. I really admire this guy because he was one of the living examples of just go do it, uh, you know, follow your dreams. You know, uh, he was an actor. He had a long sports cast career. After his you know athletic career, you know, he was even inducted into the wwe's um, you know special hall of fame. Uh, for announcers. He had done some announcing for them. I mean, this guy just seemed to be everywhere he wanted to be and I really admire him for as dynamic as he was yeah, and he was a common guest on the tonight show.
Speaker 2:You know he would uh, go on with johnny carson and just cut it up and there's, you know he would go up there and just be himself and kind of tell jokes. There's comedians at the time that didn't get to be on the show as much as he was. If there was anything baseball that Johnny wanted to talk about, it's bring Bob Bucher on and Bob Bucher would just have you cutting up. He's just one of those guys. He even did a skit on Saturday Night Live with Billy Crystal, where Billy Crystal is his son and he's cutting him from the Little League team and then he goes. No, no, no wait, son, your mother and I discussed it. We're cutting you from the family as well. You need to go live with the Martinez's now.
Speaker 2:He definitely had a good affinity for making people laugh and even when he was being honored with the Ford Seafrick Award for announcers, he has the legends that he's played with and the people that he knew from his time. In announcing he had them cutting up. He'd say I'd come up with two outs in the bottom of the ninth bases, loaded down by a run, and he goes. I knew the team had so much respect for me when I came up to bat because I'd look in the dugout and they'd be in their street clothes already.
Speaker 1:They knew the game was over. It was already gone.
Speaker 2:He said I'd look over to my third base coach and he'd turn his back on me. What's the sign? But yeah, I mean. He said I got a $3,000 bonus with the Braves, but my dad didn't want to pay that much for me to play.
Speaker 1:So you know, he just seemed like an overall wonderful man and you could just see his true colors all the way through, just true to himself, and you could see that in their reactions he got and the jokes he told and the way he did things he did.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, this past playoffs the Mets eliminated the Brewers. And he said, because he was on the broadcast, he said this one, this one hurts, almost foreshadowing that he was done calling Major League games. I don't know if he thought the end was near or if he was just done calling games. It just kind of really really bites that that was kind of his last call. I mean, he really did truly love the Brewers organization, loved the team, the team loved him. They oftentimes would wear, you know, these outlandish dress coats to kind of honor him. The whole team would, because that's kind of how he was, you know, he was a character, he was kind of how he was. You know it was a, he was a character, he was a lot of fun, you know. And so I strongly encourage you, if you, if you don't know the man, just take some time, look up some of his old clips and some of his old broadcasts and just kind of get yourself familiar with him, because he's he's worth, he's worth taking the time to know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Very good read. You just can't read enough about this guy and you know. Rest his soul and condolences and our best wishes out to his family as well. Just an absolutely tremendous man and one that got to be in the spotlight. You love to see those kind of people out there, yeah. So again, best wishes to his family. May God rest his soul. Rest in peace. And what a hell of a life, as well as a hell of a career on so many different levels.
Speaker 2:Rest in peace, mr Baseball, mr Baseball levels. Rest in peace, mr Baseball, mr Baseball. So, speaking of other baseball news, we know that Sasaki is narrowing his options. As you know, one of the top international players, he's from Japan. He's narrowed his options down to the Dodgers, the Padres and the Blue Jays. Now I kind of have a little heartache here.
Speaker 1:Okay, I feel like heartache makes great debate.
Speaker 2:I really hope that he doesn't go to the Dodgers and I say that not because I have anything against the Dodgers necessarily Don't lie to me, mike, don't you lie to me? No, I'm not lying, I know you're lying. Look, okay, hear me out. Last year, the Dodgers got the number one pitching prospect coming out of Japan. This year they signed the number one free agent pitcher in Blake Snell. They signed the number one free agent pitcher in Blake Snell, so they're also going to get the number one prospect from Japan as well.
Speaker 1:Sounds like they're gunning for it.
Speaker 2:Look, they're already paying out a bunch of money to a bunch of players, but they're going to also go ahead and get this guy as well. I mean, come on, man, this is. This is like the, the yankees in the 90s, that they basically would just pluck up every good player they could and then win a championship and be like, hey, look, how great our team was, we did so great. Yeah, it's signing everybody. You know, building your team off of like a, a video game. Let me just get this best player and that best player was it.
Speaker 2:Mimicry is the greatest form of compliment look what that is a Steinbrenner ball and that's such bs, yeah, like, how about? How about scouting and development? How about we develop some players? Yeah I mean sign a free agent or two, but you shouldn't get the top free agent every single year and shouldn't get the top free agent, both the top free agent pitchers, like it's come on man. Like like come on, I mean it's just won the world series it's a two-way street.
Speaker 1:These players are also wanting to come there.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what? I think the commissioner needs to grow a pair and stand up in front of them and say, look, you guys can't do this, you're not getting him, he's going to another team.
Speaker 1:Why can't they do it? Is it because there'll be a powerhouse?
Speaker 2:Okay, let me put this in terms that anybody can understand. This is like you're you have a job and you and another person are competing for this job, but the boss takes the other person out to lunch and they do it two, three times a week. They hang out, they're buddy-buddy and then they get the job. Wouldn't you feel some sort of way about it, like, hey, you just gave your buddy the raise, you just gave your buddy the advantage in the job market? No, I mean, wouldn't you be upset?
Speaker 1:I mean, that's how free agency goes, though, because isn't that he's?
Speaker 2:not, he's not necessarily he's. He's a free agent to an extent I mean, look at the nfl, these guys court these guys yeah, but there's a cap in the nfl yeah, salary cap to prevent teams from doing what MLB can do, which is as long as your owner wants to pay extra money to be over the threshold, which is what the Dodgers love doing. They don't care.
Speaker 1:So they have a cap, but they really don't have a cap.
Speaker 2:No, they don't, and see, here's the problem. So your Kansas City Royals of the league don't have money like that. Your athletics don't have money like that. Your teams that don't have the cash to spend like that, they just have to field a team with whatever they can. Yeah, I see where you're going with this. Not only, not only did the dodgers last year they get the number one pitching prospect from japan. They also got the number one free agent last year as well, and tyler tyler glass now. So now you're going to let them get the number one free agent pitching prospect and you're going to get the number one Japan pitcher again. You already have Shoei Hatani too, and Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.
Speaker 1:That means.
Speaker 2:Dude like seriously, this is getting absurd.
Speaker 1:Dude like seriously, this is getting absurd, like you can't just let a team just continue to get every single agent. I mean there, there has to be some kind of level playing field right now. Going back to your example, the royals, why don't they just not as big of market? Is their owner just not as rich? Uh, are they unwilling to go above a market? Is their owner just not as rich? Are they unwilling to go above a certain threshold?
Speaker 2:I mean the owner's not as rich. It's Kansas City. Well, let's see, you could live in Los Angeles or you could live in Kansas City. There's more money in Los Angeles. Yeah, there's more of a lot of things in Los Angeles. There's more money in Los.
Speaker 1:Angeles yeah.
Speaker 2:There's more of a lot of things in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1:Including fire.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which, by the way, we're not going to make light of that. That is a pretty serious situation. It is a serious situation, it's pretty crappy and to those that are out there, we really hope that your family is safe and that if you did lose your home, so sorry for you. Hopefully you can get back on your feet soon and all those firefighters and people helping the firefighters out there big kudos and major respect.
Speaker 1:So definitely, definitely, 100% hope that everything yeah, I think we should take a minute to pause and address that, because I I wasn't making light of their situation, but that is a consideration to consider, as you know, your environmental factors. It was a slight jab of humor but wasn't meant to be as humorous well, the situation, but I agree like it is very serious out there.
Speaker 1:This is one of the worst natural catastrophes in the history of the US and it's even worse because people are, you know, they're losing coverage, they're losing their homes, they're losing their lives. And I mean we won't delve too deep into it. Yeah, we're not diving too deep onto that. We're not a political show.
Speaker 2:Well, no, it's not even that we're trying to bring. You know we'd like to bring positivity and a distraction. In case you are in those kinds of situations. We would like for you to be able to listen to us and not be reminded that horrible things have happened. Listen to us and not be reminded that horrible things have happened. You know we could sit here and debate and argue over sports and stuff and kind of hopefully provide a little levity and help people kind of have a distraction from life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're here to keep it light. We're here to help with the distraction, provide the distraction. We do know these things are going on and we have a we have the utmost respect for everybody, the utmost respect, but we also send our deepest condolences as well to these people, everyone involved, top to bottom, left to right on that. But yeah, again getting back to what we were talking about. So Rob Sasaki sasaki has some options.
Speaker 2:He's narrowing down and, as you say, you know, the dodgers goes throwing money out there I mean everybody's kind of suspected he was going to go to the dodgers because his friend shohei otani is already there and then you know, the last picture they signed was also with them on the Japanese team when they whooped everybody's butt in the World Baseball Classic. So it would kind of make sense that he wants to hang out with his friends, but at the same time it's kind of like come on, they can't have every free agent.
Speaker 1:I go back and forth on it right, because I also look at other sports and in general, whether there's a cap or not. Sometimes your team's just not in a good financial position to go out and get somebody, but the flip side of it is, like you're saying, when it becomes egregious. That's where you got to start figuring out where the line is right I, I can.
Speaker 2:I just told you where the line is no, I know I get the top two pitching prospect. Top two best pitchers yeah, top three agents.
Speaker 1:Yeah, come on. Yeah, back-to-back years top two free agents and a lot of people. Yeah, it might upset a lot of people, but it really.
Speaker 2:The rest of baseball.
Speaker 1:The rest of.
Speaker 2:Anybody that's not a Dodgers fan. Yeah, everybody else is going to be pissed. Everybody else is going to be pissed Because I could tell you their rival, the Giants, they put in a bid too. They tried to go after him too, and you know what he said Nah, I'm good, I'm going to go talk to these other teams.
Speaker 2:I'd be pissed I mean I'd be upset too, your rivals constantly getting the best pitchers available, and your team is trying, but you can't seem to ever get any edge now I'm not a giants fan, but you know well, I can see the frustration of you know the teams in your division are getting all of the best free agents and your team is trying, but just not well, this is part this is part of effective recruitment too right?
Speaker 1:you know you got to sell this guy to come to your team over that team. He's already dead set in his mind why he's going to the dodgers.
Speaker 2:It's your job to change his mind, and granted, everything revolves around money especially in sports these days, then the Padres and the Blue Jays need to pull out all the stops of why he should go to them and not the Dodgers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree. And you say these teams are out here courting guys, I say, you know, do the same thing, take them to dinner.
Speaker 2:This is where you've got to be creative.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Kind of like the athletics. The athletics they just went ahead and they signed a 17-year-old player. Was he 17 or 18? He's a kid, he's out of high school, he's 17. They signed a. Japanese player he's skipping being professional over in Japan and becoming the first.
Speaker 1:Toro Mori.
Speaker 2:Yes, becoming the first player to go straight to the MLB from high school.
Speaker 1:Right out of high school.
Speaker 2:But for a Japan player, for a Japan player, he was out of Japanese high school.
Speaker 1:He's in.
Speaker 2:Japan, Not an American player. We've had plenty of American players go straight to playing in the majors. I mean Bryce Harper comes to mind when you think of stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know, this is a first, you know for this to happen. And he's not the only teenager making news. I mean, we have a 17-year-old.
Speaker 1:Blades Brown yeah.
Speaker 1:He's going straight to the pga and actually actually he is going to be going to college as well, but he's doing college on the pga tour. Good on him. And I agree look bro, I'm born in the wrong time. Okay, these kids are making. If all you gotta do is make it to college, or if all you gotta do is, you know, have like, at this point, like you say, like in you know Shitora Mori's case, you don't even have to make it to college, you know, and then you have the potential for, you know, digital streaming and stuff like that I see why these kids don't want to work.
Speaker 1:These days. There's too much opportunity to make money easier ways, especially if you're good at sports and athletics oh yeah, you get.
Speaker 2:Get nil deals.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, like now you can get paid before you even get out of college, and I, yeah you know this.
Speaker 2:You know what the the good consequence that might come out of this is. You might have, finally, instead of one and dones in college, you might have more players stick around. So now you're going to get the players that you know back in the day, when you would have, like, tim Duncan stay for majority of his time, or you know Jordans or the Patrick Ewing's or the players that would stay in college, and you got to know the players before they went pro and it made for building a program a lot easier back then. But you're not wrong, nil is becoming a big deal, not just in the world of basketball or football, it's all over the place.
Speaker 1:Shoot, I'm about to go back to college and get me an NIL deal.
Speaker 2:Here's an interesting one that happened recently, where you think NIL, you're thinking okay, like a booster or maybe a car dealership throwing some cash to a kid to come make an appearance, assign some autographs, or a restaurant saying, hey, come in here, we'll sponsor your party or whatever, but the WWE doing NIL deals.
Speaker 1:Now.
Speaker 2:This is a first.
Speaker 1:Now we're in New Horizons, okay.
Speaker 2:So, if you guys don't recall or don't follow wrestling, there was a wrestler back in the day by the name of Scott Steiner and he used to wrestle with his brother, rick, as a tag team. But Scott Steiner had a pretty lengthy wrestling career and was good in his own right. But this former wrestler, his son. He has two sons and one of them is already breaking out in the WWE. It's Brock Reisteiner, very German name. He's already in there. He's premiered and featured through the WWE as it stands right now, but his brother is getting an NIL deal while he is still in college. He is still in college playing football and his brother, I believe, plays for Jackson State, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I believe it's Jacksonville State. He's playing for them and he's a wide receiver.
Speaker 1:but the WWE is already paying him money with the hopes that he will come and be part of the wwe when he's done yep, and that's a game changer uh for something like wrestling, the sport of pro wrestling, because this being the first of its kind, it's gonna gather it's gonna garner a lot more attention. I can see uh, the pro wrestling uh world growing exponentially from something like this. Uh, because right now you really just have, I mean, wwe is the biggest name, but now AEW is coming up, you got a couple other ones, and then you have a bunch of regional-based indie companies, and all of them are really well put together Don't get me wrong Just because they're not big name brand like WWE or AEW. I mean, some of these companies really put on a good show.
Speaker 2:So I misspoke. Brock is the one who has the NIL deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:His other son is Braun Breaker, who is in the WWE right now. So, Braun Breaker's in the WWE. His brother, Brock, is getting ready to be in the WWE after this. So pretty interesting that an NIL deal is now being put out for a future. So they're paying him with the hopes that he'll come in and be a star in WWE just like his father and his uncle.
Speaker 1:This is big for wrestling. This is big for wrestling. This is big for other sports too, because everybody stays in a box until you realize you can step out the box and now you have more options and more diversity. Right? Who said NIL is only for football? Nobody.
Speaker 2:Or basketball for that matter.
Speaker 1:Or basketball, for that matter, or basketball or baseball.
Speaker 2:Well, and who said it has to be a booster necessarily?
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Now that you're seeing organizations like the WWE playing a football player, because, think about it, a lot of football players go go into wrestling I mean, they do actually about brock lesnar being one of the bigger name rock lesnar the rock, former football players goldberg
Speaker 2:goldberg former football player and and all of them played college ball. Some of them even made it to the pros and played a little pro action and some of them go into acting. I mean Terry Crew. Terry Crew who used to play for. Washington back in the day he became an actor and it was by happenstance. He just happened to be somewhere and they put him on set, put him in a scene and it took off.
Speaker 2:Those are the good ones too yeah you love to hear about stories like that but it's just showing how the college landscape for athletes has changed from the days when we're not going to pay our players yeah to now.
Speaker 1:We're going to give money to the players honestly I like it name, image and likeness, and especially in today's economy and then today's society, right, first of all, you're paying through the nose just to go to college. So if you can land an nil deal and get paid in college, because when you get to college you're starting to kind of feel your way into the workforce, because you're either going to have to do some kind of trade program or you have to do an internship, you're going to have to get experience somehow, or you're just going to have to figure out how to survive because you're in an entirely different town from where you grew up. So I think having the opportunity to begin to make money, a significant amount of money, in college is going to be a huge driver. It already probably is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's changing.
Speaker 1:It's changing.
Speaker 2:I mean, the landscape of college sports is changing so much it is, and it's a good thing, but it's still in its infancy. Things are going to change. We're going to see this, you know, drastically change over the next few years, because players that once, like I said, were one and dones, are probably going to stick around longer, because why go to the NFL and make less if you can stay in college? Yeah and more. And I know, you know, it's not even just professional. I mean, I mean, christ, uh, olivia dunn, she's making bank as a gymnast and she's not even the top ranked gymnast, she's just and it is to be very attractive and a gymnast and it gives these kids.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, um, I lost my thought for a second, but uh, it gives them a way to make money where they didn't well, yeah, it gives a way to be not struggling, although it gives these, well, I know what I was gonna say it gives these lesser.
Speaker 1:Well, I would say that it gives these prospects, these athletes, you know, who might not have a career in the nfl, who might not have a future. You know, you play college ball but you might be like, yeah, I'm, I know I'm not gonna get drafted. Or you might be like, oh, I might not be good enough to get drafted, but here you are with an opportunity to get paid while you're in college, right, playing football.
Speaker 1:That is very, that's a very fulfilling feeling, especially for a young individual they're becoming professional sports and not just and you can be we're giving you a scholarship, so be thankful yeah, and like, if you're somebody like quinn ears, who I know just declared for the nfl draft, but jumping ahead, man, I'm not trying to jump ahead, but I'm just declared for the NFL draft.
Speaker 1:But I'm not trying to jump ahead, but I'm just saying for an example like oh you, you, a lot of guys spend their life trying to get to the NFL or get to a pro level sport and they bank on college being that ticket and then when they don't get in and they have to fall on, fall back on what they went to college for. Sometimes it's disheartening so to be able to get some kind of monetary value out of that, even if you don't go pro.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's not like they didn't get money in the past, it just wasn't on the up and up. In the past you'd come back to your apartment and there'd be a bag of money sitting on your door. The bag man would show up, you know, or you. You'd come back. You come up to a dealership and the guy would leave some keys in your hand and be walk away and be like you know, you just have a car, you're driving around for the dealership sounds like some mafia shit.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, it will, I mean that's how it was back in the day excuse me, but speaking of college, let's talk about this college championship game we have coming up man, we just saw two really good games to figure out who's going to be in this championship game, and we called it right bro.
Speaker 1:All right, we sure did, man. First of all, I had a feeling notre dame was going all the way, since before we got to this point, now.
Speaker 2:Now, granted, this was a very, very competitive game and in the beginning, penn state came out hot and it looked like penn state was going to own this game yeah, they were owning in the first half in the first half.
Speaker 2:In the first half it was Penn State's game, but Notre Dame came back in the second half and really showed some true grit and competed and, you know, played some, really had some really good coaching moments that allowed them to get to this win, because they kind of ran down the clock, got themselves in position to get this kick and their kicker came through.
Speaker 2:He nailed the kick to send them to the championship game yeah and this is the first time you're having a coach in the championship game. That is not a white dude, so it's kind of a big thing.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and that's, you know, not not to get off on the wrong. You know I don't want to say wrong, but it is significant seeing more African-American head coaches as well as African-American professional quarterbacks more.
Speaker 2:He's also Asian too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's half Asian.
Speaker 2:So you're getting somebody. That's not only showing that there's more diversity in the sport and more opportunity. It used to be back in the day you would watch this stuff and you'd be like I don't see for other ethnicities. They would see these things and be like, well, I don't see where I'm represented here, and that's not the case anymore. You're starting to see more people breaking these ceilings and making a footprint for people for the future, where you're starting to see people go well, hey, I look like them.
Speaker 2:Honestly they did it, I can do it.
Speaker 1:I'm in favor of the diversity, I'm in favor of you. Different ethnicities, different cultures, uh, you know, I'm I'm in favor of all these things getting equal and similar opportunities, because diversity, uh, breeds competition and competition breeds results. And that's when you get your best okay, that's when you put the best product out when you're competing, because then you're always trying to do something better, right?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean back to the back to the competition.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, back to the competition but different mindsets and different cultures bring different ways of teaching and doing things. And you know what's going on here with Marcus. What's his last name? I'm not hitting tonight, man. Anyway, I lost my notes so Ohio State and Texas Marcus.
Speaker 2:Freeman yes.
Speaker 1:Well, he's, yeah. Go ahead and say what you're saying, mike, my bad.
Speaker 2:So Ohio State and Texas, that was kind of a one-sided affair, it felt like, because Texas just didn't seem like they really got anything going. I mean, yeah, the score shows they were only down by two scores, but it just seemed like Ohio State's game the whole way.
Speaker 1:I know that everybody's ready for Archie time and they're they're not happy with how Texas performed. But let me tell you something Ohio is red hot coming into this game. Okay, texas was nothing to shake a stick at either. Texas was pretty hot, but I think Ohio even though they're ranked lower, I think Ohio was probably the better built team.
Speaker 2:Well, to be honest, when you get to this point, you didn't get there by mistake. No, to be honest, when you get to this point, you didn't get there by mistake. No, you got there because you got there because your team played hard, played well, won your games and and made it up the bracket to get to this point where you're almost in the championship yeah, I mean at this point they shouldn't.
Speaker 2:I know they're going to feel bad, but they shouldn't feel bad I don't think they should feel bad yeah and you alluded to earlier, that, uh, quentin Ewers has already declared for the NFL draft and I think this is a very smart move on his behalf.
Speaker 2:Yes, he was looking at possibly making some NIL money by staying and going to another college, but it's coming out that it wasn't nearly as much as he thought. So he's going to the NFL and it's honestly a smart move on his part, because I'm sure his agent told him like look, this is a weak NFL draft for quarterbacks. You go in there, we can start promoting and showing that you're the third-best quarterback and probably get you moving up boards and probably get you to a point where you get drafted by a team, a better team. You know where you could probably wind up being a guy that falls down into the bottom part of the draft and gets drafted by a team that's not dysfunctional. You know where you're not winding up with the. You know browns or you know one of these teams that hasn't done anything forever. So I think that the move makes sense for him, based on where he's at, because, yeah, texas already wanted to start moving on to Archie, so it's not a they've been calling for a little bit now well, it's not it's.
Speaker 2:It's not to say that yours isn't good, it's just, you got archie sitting on the bench and he's he's honestly better. So you can't just scrap yours. Necessarily, I mean they were going to let him walk to another college, but this is honestly the better move, I think, for him in the long run. Yeah, it's going to be better for his draft stock. It's going to be better for his draft stock. It's going to be better for his position and you know, out of these two games we're getting a hell of a national championship game.
Speaker 1:We really are With Ohio.
Speaker 2:State and Notre Dame, and that's going to be on Monday night at 7.30 on ESPN. So, don't miss that game. It's going to be a really good national championship game.
Speaker 1:Both of these teams are full of fireworks here and while we're talking, I had a note here, but this is going to be an absolute wild thriller, mike, who do you have winning this actually?
Speaker 2:I honestly feel like I feel like Notre Dame is the more complete team overall If they can hold down the Ohio State passing game like they did with Penn State, because, let's face it, Penn State didn't have a single reception by any of the receivers.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean, I'm not saying they can do that to Ohio State, but if they can limit their passing game, that's going to make it really tough for Ohio State to beat them. Now, ohio State's not necessarily anything you can be like oh, they're a pushover because they're not. They made it this far because they're a good team. They've been getting hot and they've been playing like a complete team.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I just think that as long as they can get their run game going on Notre Dame's side and, you know, kind of do like they did against Penn State in the second half of their last game, it's going to be a hard team to beat.
Speaker 1:I think so I agree. Yeah, I think you know number eight and number seven. I'm big on Notre Dame, but I like Ohio as well. Myself, I'm going to be in Notre Dame's corner for this one.
Speaker 2:Well, notre Dame, you know being the independent team, not in any conference or anything. All the money they're making off this they're bringing that in for themselves $21 million in the last round.
Speaker 1:I mean, and this is why they're independent, as you said before.
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't say it on air, but yes.
Speaker 1:No, you didn't say it on air, but we do have pre-air conversations, just so you know we do talk about this. But all the I know it doesn't sound like we kind of just shoot from the hip, but yeah, they.
Speaker 2:But they're independent. They've been independent for years and going to any conference.
Speaker 2:It would cause them to have to split the pot up amongst all the other teams in their conference, so for them to stay independent. And not only stay independent for that reason, but they also have television contracts that allow them more money that they can also then keep to themselves instead of having to spread the pot amongst other teams. So it does have a downside. It does have a downside. It does have a downside. They can't be any higher ranked than fifth in the spot of the bracket. So when they do the playoff bracket they can't be any higher than the fifth spot. So that means no automatic buy. They're just automatically going to have to play a game in order to move on, which.
Speaker 1:I don't know if that's a bad thing, because a lot of the teams that have buys they didn't fare well yeah, I mean honestly, I don't think that's a bad trade-off, especially when you have a program as wildly successful as notre dame's. You're probably looking at that first round buying eh, we're good. And I know a lot of people are wanting some heads to roll. They're saying you shouldn't even be in the bracket if you're not part of a conference.
Speaker 2:I don't necessarily agree with that. Remember earlier when I said things got to get figured out as far as NIO and other facets of college sports. Yeah, this is kind of falls into that yeah, these things. It's it's been in play for years. I don't know that it's going to change, but it would take a lot to get them to negotiate out of being an independent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now they have a lot of perks for being independent. Are there any perks for joining a conference Aside from I mean there's really no perks for me. I mean you got to split all the money. Well, to be honest, Competition is a little more limited.
Speaker 2:Well, if you're in a conference depending on what conference that is your team could look more favorable when it comes time to placing you in position amongst the other teams so you could have a higher status in the playoff or just in the rankings in general if you're part of a conference, Because if you play well in your conference and you play well above the people in your conference, it helps boost your existence within the rankings. So there's a give and take, I mean, and when you're having a down year, you're still getting money. So if you happen to be a team that's in transition and you're just doing horribly, your team will still getting money. So if you happen to be a team that's in transition and you're just doing horribly, your team will still get money because the top team in your bracket made money, presumably.
Speaker 1:I guess there comes the risk factor of being an independent is you must stay successful or you're going to have some hard times ahead of you.
Speaker 2:Speaking about being independent, carson Beck, he's transferring, isn't he?
Speaker 1:Carson Becky Beck, beck Beck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Georgia quarterback is going to be transferring where?
Speaker 1:He is transferring to Miami.
Speaker 2:Transferring to Miami. Yeah, man, that's big time.
Speaker 1:That's a big deal, honestly.
Speaker 2:I mean assuming that his elbow gets better.
Speaker 1:I know he's dealing with the elbow, the speculation is his girlfriend had something to do with that. But hey, be it as it may, my man's moving and he got an $8 million NIL deal out of it too. Life's rough.
Speaker 2:Hey, back to million NIL. Deal out of it too, Life's rough.
Speaker 1:Hey back to the NIL right.
Speaker 2:I would love to have them problems.
Speaker 1:That's all I'm saying that don't seem like problems to me, Mike. Look, those are white-collar problems.
Speaker 2:There's high-dollar problems where it's like I gotta go to miami now. Um, I'm gonna get all this money and have a girlfriend. She's probably hot because I got money. Life's rough damn so let's talk about some nfl, let's get on to it.
Speaker 1:We only got a couple more weeks left, and then we have to find some actual material for our show.
Speaker 2:No, no, nfl just eats a chunk of it because, let's face it, people love the NFL.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then we could talk about the XFL. We got football year-round. We're so damn spoiled over here People getting paid in college. We get football year-round. We're so damn spoiled over here People getting paid in college, we get football year-round.
Speaker 2:Can life get any better? Hold on, hold on. We are spoiled because, look, these kids don't understand how easy it is to watch sports now. I remember growing up and you didn't have a choice. There may have been one or two games on TV and that's it. There was no such thing as a Sunday ticket. There was no such thing as oh, let me watch this out-of-market team. No, no, you didn't. Whatever, the team is closest to you.
Speaker 1:You weren't tracking fantasy football stats. You waited and watched ESPN because NFL Network didn't exist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you were watching Dude. Espn didn't exist. Espn didn't exist for a long ass time.
Speaker 1:You were waiting on the nightly news to see it, and if you missed it you were done. You just didn't catch it.
Speaker 2:Go find the newspaper and read it.
Speaker 1:There was a time where you were like, how many teams are in the NFL? Information just wasn't readily available and you couldn't be as confident.
Speaker 2:Not just NFL. Man nfl man basketball same way basketball, baseball.
Speaker 1:They were all those.
Speaker 2:Maybe got for all the sports you maybe got two games a week you could watch on television yeah you know. So it's like, and there was now, now you could just pull out your phone and watch a game wherever you're at.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you always don't even need to go. That's why the stadium experience is struggling well, Well, I mean to be honest.
Speaker 2:it's a different atmosphere when you go to a game, so it's a lot of fun, I believe.
Speaker 1:It is fun.
Speaker 2:But we're getting off topic.
Speaker 1:No, we're not getting off topic, man. This is a casual conversation. This is what we do, man, and our listeners. Hopefully you're enjoying it, maybe even talking to yourselves while you're trying to talk to us. We can't hear you, but you can hear us, and that way you can partake.
Speaker 2:Well, they might be just calling us idiots, which that's okay too.
Speaker 1:Either way, I approve the efforts and the proactiveness and I appreciate your ear and listening to us. So even if you just make fun of us, I'll take it. You got to start somewhere, bro, but let's get on here. Man Chargers fall hard to the Texans, bro. What happened?
Speaker 2:They couldn't stop throwing picks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they did. The Chargers got a turnover problem.
Speaker 2:This game they did. I don't know what team that was, but the Chargers looked horrible. Justin Herbert throwing four picks in that game, and they weren't pretty. I mean he overthrew his rookie receiver, Ladd McConkie. He overthrew Ladd McConkie.
Speaker 1:How can you forget that name, man?
Speaker 2:Hey look, I'm horrible with names.
Speaker 1:So the fact that I came up with it.
Speaker 2:You should be happy.
Speaker 1:We need the screen in front of us, because I'm guilty of it too.
Speaker 2:So he overthrows him and gets picked, and this just all game long. Just, he did not play well, the whole team didn't play well and, if anything, this shows that they need to draft some help for him. Yeah, the number one thing they need to be looking for in this draft get a tight end, you know, find this man a safety valve and draft a running back because jk dobbins and and uh, what's the other running back saying see, here we go again.
Speaker 1:I'm horrible with the rookie or the one that got injured. No, not jay gus edwards gus edwards.
Speaker 2:That's it. So both those guys a little long in the tooth and had stints where they were hurt, you kind of need to get yourself a nice third one. You know, draft you running back, receiver tight end. Those should be drafted this next, this next year yeah they need them bad. Maybe some offensive line help yeah, I'd say probably some line help too.
Speaker 1:I mean, honestly give it up to up to Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers for making the playoffs this year, but yeah this team still has some work they gotta do Pretty good turnaround for basically the same team they had last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much, and they got some work to do on both sides of the ball, but they're not in bad shape. I think they should be upset about this loss. I don't think they should be upset about this loss. Definitely I don't think they should be upset about losing in the playoffs. I think they should be upset about how they lost.
Speaker 2:Well, you can't win the Super Bowl if you're not in the playoffs. Yeah, so they made it to the playoffs.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying you should be like oh you know, participation trophy. I'm not saying, I mean, if you played a hard game, played a clean game, didn't have okay they didn't play a hard or clean game. They didn't at all, which is why I'm saying this so like if they did all those things their game was hot mess yeah, if it yeah. Emphasis on the hot part but oh, I was.
Speaker 1:I mean more on the messy part, but okay if they did those things instead of played the shitty ass game, you could then be proud of the performance, but right now, all you can be proud is just the simple fact you made it well, speaking of just making it.
Speaker 2:You know, sorry state of affairs, we get the same same result from the steelers. You know, know, if you're a Steelers fan, you've got to be saying to yourself why does this feel like Groundhog's Day? We're having the same thing. We play well all year, we get into the playoffs and we get knocked out in the first round.
Speaker 1:Look, this is the thing with the Steelers, right? Okay. First of all, they came skidding into the playoffs on a five-game losing streak okay, horrible. Secondly, they get their annual above 500 record and then they're done. Now don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2:I still think, mike.
Speaker 1:Tomlin's an okay coach.
Speaker 2:So here's the thing. Here's the thing. This is just status quo for them. And here's the problem with status quo every time you do this, where you get good enough, you get in the playoffs you wind up with a crap draft pick. So you're now in the back end of the draft. Yeah, so you're nowhere near where you could draft a quarterback, because if you're not in the top 10 you don't have a, and especially in a crappy quarterback draft. Now I say that because the quarterbacks they had this year and Russell Wilson and here we go again. Bad with names, oh boy, with the backup, justin Fields Both of them are free agents.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So neither one of them has to come back. I mean, russ will probably come back because you know, know, you're slim on options.
Speaker 1:But I think russ will be back I think he probably will, but both might be back to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:The problem is if you keep doing the same crap, expecting a different result. That's the pure definition of being stupid.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you're just doing the same thing, don't do the same thing, expecting the same result. I tell you what I think the Steelers should do. They won't do it, but I think they should do it and I think Mike Tomlin should feel the same way. Mike Tomlin, he should go to them and say, look, it's time. We've been doing this for so long and we're just having the same outcome. And he's still a good coach. He just needs a different scenery. Sometimes a change in scenery just changes everything for both parties involved.
Speaker 2:I think what they could do and this is this is one team that should be banging on their door right now. The bears should be going to the steelers banging on their door, not taking no for an answer, saying, look, we want mike tomlin, we're in the top picks. We'll give you mike tomlin for our draft pick in the first round to move you up. You keep your first round. That gives you two first round picks. You come up here, take our pick, get up here in the top picks, start rebuilding your team, get you a good quarterback and let mike Tomlin go coach a young quarterback, a young team, and get a fresh start. I mean, look, the Bears love strong defensive coaches. What is Mike Tomlin? A strong defensive coach. Look at his Steeler teams. They're defensive teams.
Speaker 1:They slip when they don't have a good offensive scheme he would be great for the culture in that building.
Speaker 2:He would be great for that team as far as look at all the divas he's dealt with and all the this stuff that we find out after the fact when these players go elsewhere the antonio browns, the levion bells, the, the dante johnsons, deontay johnsons, you know when all these players go elsewhere and all of a sudden they start acting the fool and it's like hey oh how did he keep that under wrap? You think he can't go over to the bears and start reigning in some of the stuff going on?
Speaker 1:I can't rein in. I think he could. He would be, he'd be strong over there and there's been some trade wins swirling around him, because he's not really the kind of coach who just cut loose. No, but he's been doing relatively well. I mean, the team is a playoff competitive team year in and after year.
Speaker 2:I feel my Steeler fans are ready for him to leave. I feel like I think they are I think. I think it's.
Speaker 2:They're tired of status quo yeah, they want to see better, because I mean watching your team try to run the ball and they can't run the ball very well. They do run, but they don't get much out of it, yeah. And when they do run, but they don't get much out of it, yeah, and when they do pass, it's kind of like a oh my God, he threw the ball. Oh, okay, okay, he caught it. He caught it.
Speaker 2:You know like ah he threw it to the right guy. Okay, okay, he didn't throw a pick. He didn't throw a pick. Yeah, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank goodness. So the problem is stop going for status quo. Shake it up, do something different.
Speaker 1:Come on, yeah, because the Ravens are obliterating you right now. You're in the division.
Speaker 2:with Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson, you can't have the worst quarterback in your division. You also can't sit here and keep doing the same thing and going. Why aren't we beating them? Because you're doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and the Ravens took it to them a couple times this year. I mean, oh yeah final score 28-14. 28-14. And they're out, and they're out, and they're out.
Speaker 2:And, speaking of out, they were never really in. But Buffalo beat on the Broncos.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Broncos. It was a good year. This is the only team I feel like that should feel good about what they did, Even though they got bounced.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You came in with a rookie quarterback, a very young team, bringing these pieces together and making a run and getting into the playoffs your very first year with Bo Nix. They should feel proud of this.
Speaker 1:I agree with you there, because the Steelers are closer to a train wreck, the Broncos are closer to a Cinderella story Ascension they're more on an upward trajectory yeah, they're going upward.
Speaker 2:They add pieces and they'll keep going.
Speaker 1:Honestly, bo Nix I mean Sean Payton's got that guy playing lights out in his first year.
Speaker 2:That's who he wanted.
Speaker 1:I mean that's who he wanted. He wanted Bo Nix. I'm not knocking it, it's great. I'm just trying to think. I mean, really, if they had had a little more success early on, bo Nix might be In the Rookie of the Year conference I mean he is in it, but he might be the top candidate Instead of Jaden Daniels right now.
Speaker 2:I think it's Jadenden's award, but I think I think jayden ran away with it because there's a.
Speaker 1:We'll get to that in a second. Let's go down the list here. But the broncos, like you say well, great season.
Speaker 2:The eagles and packers game wound up being 22 to 10. As most of you know, jaylen hurts didn't look like himself in this game. I still think he's dealing with a bit of the concussion.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he cleared protocols. But having suffered concussions, I can tell you that these symptoms, they can linger.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You can have a long concussion. You can have a concussion that lasts you months. Yeah, it can even be overcussion that lasts you months yeah. You know, it can even be over a year.
Speaker 1:The side effects can last even longer.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying. And the problem is, once you've had one, you're more susceptible to getting another. I've had multiple in my life and I can tell you right now concussions are no joke, they suck.
Speaker 1:I'm certain I've probably had a few, just based on my cognitive abilities.
Speaker 2:Well, I can tell you this much being able to not walk normally because your balance is just so far gone and it's because of a concussion, is horrible, and I didn't get it being on the football field. So these guys are on a football field.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you can just imagine the impact.
Speaker 2:You can just imagine the severity of their concussions.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, but getting past that, the Eagles are moving on and they're looking like a complete team, but they did wind up with a loss in this game, and in the form of they lost dean, their linebacker. He wound up injuring his knee. He has a torn I think a torn patella tendon patella, yeah so he's out for the rest of the playoffs.
Speaker 2:And now that dean vaughn pair is down to just vaughn, so they're they're they're losing an aspect of their defense where, you know, they kind of relied on dean to cover, you know, the bulk of the work, while they would send vaughn in for for pass rush. Yeah, so they might lose that element of being able to send Vaughn in for pass rush with Dean being out. So their entire scheme might be changing up because of the loss of this one really good linebacker, unfortunately having gotten hurt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a blow. And speaking of blows Green Bay, I know they're out. Dontavion wicks us down. They can't stay healthy for nothing.
Speaker 2:And not also that, but when there's some news about Jair Alexander.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, jair Alexander, you know he was asked after the game to speak to the media. He actually declined because he doesn't know if he's going to be back with the Packers next season. He said he didn't have anything good to say. This is not a good look for the Packers locker room and if you look at how sluggish they've been and what they've dealt with, this kind of gives you an inside look into what is going on. Uh, because for somebody like jair alexander to just straight up be like y'all I don't know if this team's for me anymore well, like it might also be that the fact the contract was, you know, when you're not getting the contract you feel you deserve or you're not.
Speaker 2:You're not being shown good faith and saying, hey, we're going to sign you an extension. You might have some feelings and, to be honest, the NFL is not fair to these players. You just lost a big game here. Let me put this mic in front of your face and ask you some hard questions while you're still upset about the game.
Speaker 1:Of course, some players are going to be upset.
Speaker 2:I mean like give them some grace. You know, sometimes players I mean like give them some grace. You know, sometimes players I mean we've already seen this with AJ Brown earlier in the year he was pissed off, he wasn't getting receptions because, they weren't throwing the ball to him.
Speaker 2:And then what happens? Next week? He gets a bunch of passes to him and then everything's hunky-dory because they won and he got his touches. Yeah, he got his jellies off. You don't really know unless you're in the situation or dealing with the things that they deal with. Just give them some grace. They're young guys. Give them some space sometimes. Let them be hot for a minute and let them calm down and then talk to them. Give them some time. Don't just stick a mic in their face.
Speaker 1:Yeah, unfortunately that's the media, and it's not just in sports, that's pretty much everywhere. It could be in politics. It could be everywhere. Next game, personally everywhere. Um, next game and my personally, I think this was the best, most competitive game of the series this weekend. Um, that's not just because I'm okay, I'm commander's fan. Oh, here's a stat for you real quick. Okay, there's only been, uh, one team in history okay to play. There's's been Okay. So let me restart here.
Speaker 1:There's only been three games in NFL history led by a rookie quarterback that did not result in offensive punts, meaning they played on fourth down. Washington had three of these games this season, one of them this last week against the Buccaneers. That is an NFLfl record. Uh, that's never happened before in nfl history. That is a huge feat. And let me tell you what. These guys played the game the way they needed to. I said it all along keep play, ball, control, play, keep away, lock down. Evans didn't do a great job locking down ev.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say Evans had a touchdown, so there's no way that they locked him down. I mean Lattimore's locked him down in the past, but not this game.
Speaker 1:No, Lattimore did not look well against Evans this game and I'm not trying to knock you, Lattimore, I think your emotions were running a little high on this one and maybe you weren't totally 100%, but. But once they made that switch.
Speaker 2:Nobody's really 100% in the playoffs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, maybe once they made that switch, things started to improve significantly. But I think they had to play aggressive, they had to play keep away. They did just that and they needed a crucial play and they got it.
Speaker 2:They did Baker with that missed handoff. That really helped them out that really helped them.
Speaker 1:Honestly, if they hadn't gotten the ball back there, I don't know if they would have been able to pull it out or even get to overtime, because it just was starting to look bleak before that happened.
Speaker 2:Hey, you know sometimes this happens. You know your season comes down to one play and if you're not on the right side of it you could be out.
Speaker 1:And let me tell you what man Washington, going to the number one seed Detroit Lions now. This team won four games last year.
Speaker 2:okay, it just shows the way that you can turn a team around if you draft well and you hire well, which they have.
Speaker 1:I've done yeah, and the last time they were in the playoffs, the last couple times, I mean it really wasn't a decisive playoff entrance, right, I mean they lost obviously, but you kind of felt like they really didn't belong you realize that the last time your team being being the Washington Commanders won a playoff game, there was no such thing as Facebook. Yeah, exactly Bro. I don't even. I'm 36 years old. I don't even know how to act right now. I can't even act right. We have you know.
Speaker 2:That's okay. Accepted, that's okay.
Speaker 1:We've become accustomed.
Speaker 2:I can show you the way. Okay, we've become accustomed, I can.
Speaker 1:I can show you the way To. We've become accustomed.
Speaker 2:I can also show you the hurt Of losing in the Super Bowl A bunch of times too, being a 49ers fan.
Speaker 1:We've We've become accustomed To a losing style and it is Balanced. Here and now we're winning and I don't know how to deal with it and I don't know how to deal with it and I don't know how to act and I feel like I have the same conversations 10 times a day. But I love it because I talk to so many different people.
Speaker 2:Hey, that's part of winning.
Speaker 1:But it is, and congratulations to them. Moving on Next game this is probably the big this was.
Speaker 2:It wasn't much of a game.
Speaker 1:It was not much of a game Now.
Speaker 2:So hats off to the rams, because they played an excellent defensive scheme where they were constant pass rush on donald and they. They used what everybody knows about donald if you've watched him play he holds the ball a tick longer than most quarterbacks yeah only him and joe burrow hold the ball, as long as they do so when he holds the ball.
Speaker 2:That yeah yeah, so hard for him to get a read off, because not only was the front side playing well, but the back side was playing tight man coverage and holding that tight man coverage. So the Rams came out with a great, great scheme. The offense they did okay. They wound up with 27 points, beating the Vikings 27-9. But this is a weird feel to it because Darnold was looked at like we got to figure something out. You know this man is playing like he's our quarterback of the future for a while. You know we need to pay this man keep him in house for a while. You know we need to pay this man, keep him in house. Every time this man was sacked which he was sacked nine times I saw him kind of like Sonic getting the rings knocked out of him, except this was him getting the cash knocked out of him. Every time he got sacked it was like bang, there goes another million or so out of his pocket.
Speaker 1:Now, despite this performance, okay, darnold is still considered to be one of the top free agents on the market. Now I know the Vikings may or may not keep him. What do you think this means? Because they've already come out publicly and said they're keeping Daniel Jones as a backup. Do you think they're going to re-sign Darnold? Do you think they're going to keep JJ?
Speaker 2:I think the Vikings have done something smart here. They brought in Darnold for a reason. They got him on the cheap right. He's a veteran quarterback. Now you know he's not going to be your starter either way, but if you lose Darnold and you keep JJ as your starting quarterback for next year, you have a veteran backup.
Speaker 1:Daniel Jones.
Speaker 2:Yes. So if you do keep Darnold and have JJ sit and learn, which is common practice or used to be a common practice in the NFL have the young guy sit, learn for a year or two, and then you thrust him in as a starter. They have that option too. What they have done is afforded themselves options for one or the other, Now being that Darnold had two really bad games back to back, and they're kind of seeing the error of his ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now, granted, it's not all on him. The offensive line was almost nonexistent in that game. You don't get sacked nine times because you had a great offensive line play. You know some of them. You can kind of put half of those on Darnold and half on his offensive line. So I feel like the move for them, in my opinion, don't keep Darnold, let him go JJ time, get him thrusted in there, and you can use Daniel Jones as your safety net, just in case.
Speaker 1:Well, Darnold has played himself into a contract. Do you think he has any trade value?
Speaker 2:Well, he's a free agent, but they can tag him and trade him. He has played himself into a contract. Do you think he has any?
Speaker 1:trade value. Well, he's a free agent, but they can tag him and trade him.
Speaker 2:I don't think they're going to tag him. I don't think they're going to tag him either, because that puts a $40 million price tag on him.
Speaker 1:Yeah and we don't.
Speaker 2:I don't think they're going to do that. I think Darnold has played Darnold. He played himself out of a big payday. He's more in the Baker Mayfield kind of contract where he's going to be in the 30s and I think this opens up a lot for him as far as windows. So there are plenty of teams that I think they should take a run at him, Raiders being one. I think they should take a run at him. If they don't wind up drafting a quarterback in this draft, he wouldn't be a bad stopgap, a guy to kind of fill in and be your guy for a few years while you bring in a new quarterback as a rookie and get them trained up and ready to go. The Steelers Darnold is 10 times better than what you have, Honestly, I, With an aging Russell Wilson who will be another year older next year.
Speaker 1:I like it with the Steelers, especially if Tomlin is still there, because, look, you got guys, this is a pretty decent quarterback class coming up here. Okay, oh, jackson Dart, who was just declared. I mean, I know Shadur doesn't really have a high draft grade, but he brings a lot of charisma.
Speaker 2:The problem is none of these quarterbacks coming out in this draft are hands down. Turn over the keys to them. He's ready to go. None of these quarterbacks are a Pey. None of them. None of these quarterbacks are a peyton manning none of these quarterbacks are are an andrew luck. None of these quarterbacks are dan marino. None of them are hands down. No question, throw them in. They're your starter. It's you draft them. You throw them in hope that they can be what you want them to be Well there's rumors People are thinking Jackson Dart.
Speaker 1:I saw this the other day. There are some speculations that he could have, especially when it comes close to around workout time, draft time, combine time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's talks that Jackson Dart could have a rise up the chart similar to what jayden daniels had, because he's well, you know, okay. So so what happens is these quarterbacks move up the board because teams are so needy for quarterbacks yeah so that's why they move up.
Speaker 2:It's not because they all of a sudden, you know, played so much better. I mean, look, I can put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and throw a ball downfield and look. Okay, you know these guys. They're sitting here doing all these combine drills and it looks great. Put the pads on them. Look at the game tape and you will see who they really are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because they're not going to suddenly change. Well, yeah, and they do look at the tape too. But yeah, I agree, they just want to. I mean, when you're paying that much money on that level, like these teams and coaches, they just they look at everything. They look at the way you blink okay.
Speaker 2:They look at the way they eat your food the way you blink, okay, the look of the way they eat your food, the way they do, they do all kinds of things. There used to be this thing, that that the nfl team well, I don't remember which nfl team used to do it, but there used to be a team that they would. They would give a playbook to the player and ask them to go read the playbook and come back with notes.
Speaker 1:So yeah, what they used to do, the combine well what they used to do.
Speaker 2:One of teams, I don't remember which one it was they would put $100 in the playbook between some of the pages and wait for the quarterback to either come back and give them back the $100 and say, hey, this was in the book, or open up the book once it was returned to them and find out the $100 is gone. So it was kind of like, well, it kind of gave you two things. Did they actually read the book and what kind of character do they have?
Speaker 1:I'm reminded of a movie.
Speaker 2:You know. So it's not a practice anymore. I mean, they have that one test now whatever I forget what it's called, but they have this test that they make in quarterbacks.
Speaker 1:It's like the magic whip or something like that. I forgot. Wonder lick, wonder lick the wonder lick. That's it. It ain't licking nothing on me.
Speaker 2:Well, they take the wonder lick test and it's supposed to tell them how good they're going to be.
Speaker 1:I wonder how those licks are, are they good?
Speaker 2:licks. Here's the thing they had. Cj Stroud, take this and he did poor they usually do Would anybody say that CJ Stroud hasn't played well in the NFL? I wouldn't hold this test in so much high regard.
Speaker 1:I don't think they do anymore. I think they still do it, but I don't think they really hold it. I think it's kind of like a tiebreaker. So they're like, okay, how'd he do on the Wunderlich? Okay, he's got a little edge, we'll take it.
Speaker 2:I think CJ Stroud just showed that the Wunderlich is not exactly the benchmark for if you're going to be good in the NFL.
Speaker 1:And there's been a number of prospects that that have proven that over the years as well. Down here and with personnel moves and talking about what the potential is for Darnold moving forward and everything, will I get into playoff matchups or will I get into personnel?
Speaker 2:Let's keep going down the playoffs, because we just talked about all the teams that are moving on Starting out the game. Who's playing when?
Speaker 1:Starting out the game 18-19. Okay, so we got two games on the 18th and two games on the 19th, all right, the early game, which I believe is at 4.30 Saturday, that's Kansas City and the Chiefs playing in Kansas City, and then at 8 o'clock you got Detroit and Washington playing in Detroit. Sunday, I think the games start at 1 o'clock the first game.
Speaker 2:So here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go. Yeah, so Texans and Kansas City will be playing at 4.30 on ESPN that one. On Saturday and Washington will be playing Detroit at 8 o'clock on Fox Saturday, and these are all Eastern Standard Time. So Sunday at 3 pm we'll have the Rams playing against the Philadelphia Eagles and that will be on NBC, and the Ravens and Buffalo will be playing on CBS at 630 on Sunday.
Speaker 1:And these are. I'm excited actually.
Speaker 2:I'm honestly more excited for the late games than I am the games in front of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you there. I think both late games on both days they're going to be fireworks. I hope the Rams take it to Philly because I really I kind of want the opposite. I'm not saying that we're going to beat Detroit, but if we do, I really don't want to take on Philly in the playoffs. But then again the Rams are playing. They beat the pants off the Vikings. Maybe we don't want to see the Rams in the playoffs.
Speaker 2:I don't want to see the Rams win. That's not because I'm a Niners fan, that's just because I don't like the Rams period.
Speaker 1:Here you go with these lies, Mike. What can I tell?
Speaker 2:you about that? No, it's not my bias coming through, man. I don't like the Rams, I don't like Stafford.
Speaker 1:I don't care for Stafford either, I'll give you that one.
Speaker 2:Look, you can't go on a vacation to the same resort as your future head coach and it not look a little suspicious? Come on now. Out of all the places you can go on vacation, you go to the same place that this coach does and you just happen to sit down and talk, but you're on vacation. I don't know about you, but if I go on vacation and I'm there with my girlfriend and we're out together, she's going to get pissed. If I go talk with somebody and not spend time with her, especially if she may well, maybe she was aware you try to tell me this isn't collusion.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe they were in on it, Maybe she was aware, Maybe he said hey, honey, we're taking a vacation so I can go collude with Sean McVay and get traded out of this fucking city.
Speaker 2:I don't know All. Collude with Sean McVay and get traded out of this fucking city. Yeah, I don't know. All I know is it just reeks of some bad pool. Yeah, especially since a lot of other teams put in trade bids for Matthew Stafford and were giving up a lot more than the.
Speaker 1:Rams were yeah, so either way, the Lions did let Stafford dictate to some extent where he went.
Speaker 2:Screw the Rams, hope they lose.
Speaker 1:Anyway. Moving on, I feel the same way about the Eagles man. We agree to disagree on this one.
Speaker 2:Hey, they can't both lose.
Speaker 1:Yes, they can. It's called a tie.
Speaker 2:No, it's called. One of them moves on and loses to the next team.
Speaker 1:So hope they both lose.
Speaker 2:That one right there, or should.
Speaker 1:I say Rams Honestly Brian's bold prediction of the week. I'm taking Texans over the Kansas City Chiefs. You heard it right here on Two for the Win.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, you can go there, but I'm going to stay for that. I want to. You can go there. I want to see the MVP race.
Speaker 1:I think whoever wins between Buffalo and Baltimore, whichever quarterback has the better day, I think that's who's getting MVP.
Speaker 2:Isn't MVP a regular season award, not a playoff award? That's why there's a playoff MVP.
Speaker 1:Yeah, playoff MVP. Yeah, playoff MVP. Have they already named MVP already?
Speaker 2:No, it's no surprise that a lot of times the playoffs does weigh into it, but Lamar has won it multiple times, even though he's had first round knockouts the years he did. So I don't know that it's going to weigh too much into it as far as the mvp goes, but it's going to be one hell of a matchup and and here's- the thing, here's the thing I know they played earlier in the year and ravens kind of owned that matchup.
Speaker 2:The buffalo bills didn't have both their starting middle linebackers, didn't have one of their nickel corners and they got those guys back. They were missing four people on defense and they got all four of them back. So they're healthier. And same thing on offense. They were banged up on offense but they're now healthier on all facets and they're playing in buffalo and it's supposed to be cold as all get out.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, the Buffalo game. Do you know it is supposed to be? I think 21 degrees, 19 to 20 degrees. During that game they have and a possibility of snow and, yes, snow. They have life-threatening warnings in place and you know how Buffalo is okay. These guys go with no clothes on.
Speaker 2:Oh, the Bills, Mafia.
Speaker 1:Bills Mafia. These guys be in the stands with no clothes on. Okay, In the snow and this is supposed to be one of the this is bringing ice cold.
Speaker 2:The Bills Mafia is crazy, but it's a good kind of crazy. It's the kind of crazy that's like yo look at this over here. It's the kind of your buddy says hold my beer, watch this. It's kind of crazy. The kind that you pull out the camera phone and go oh, I got to get this, Watch this. Watch this guy. He's about to.
Speaker 1:I kind of admire it to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:It's funny, it's funny.
Speaker 1:I just want to see the crowd when that's on TV, when that game is on TV.
Speaker 2:Oh man.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to see some of those people. Don't be dumb Dress warmly. Yeah, do dress safely, dress warmly, but we know you're not going to listen because all the alcohol in the world is going to make you warm.
Speaker 2:They're crazy. Bill's Mafia is crazy, so yeah. We'll see what happens with that?
Speaker 1:And then, of course, washington, detroit. I'm going to let you make the pick, because I have a bias here.
Speaker 2:I know you have a bias and I hate to tell you, my friend, I'm sorry. One team has clearly they're in the number one spot for a reason and I'm sorry, but I kind of think Detroit's going to win that one Now am I saying? You guys have no shot. No, I'm not. What I'm saying is you're going to have to get the cleanest game out of your team in order to beat the Lions.
Speaker 1:Clean and aggressive, just like in Tampa Bay, which by the way If you make them have to chase you.
Speaker 2:If you guys win the coin toss, take that ball. And if you get that ball you need to go down and score immediately. If they score immediately, then force the lions to have to answer back. And if the lions get stopped at some point and have to punt and you guys go down and score again to be up two scores and you make them have to chase you. Dan campbell has shown he's a go-forward guy, so if he starts doing like he did against the niners?
Speaker 1:I'm not. I don't think we're gonna see a punt in this game if he does like he did against the Niners last year.
Speaker 2:I don't think we're going to see a punt in this game. If he does like he did against the Niners last year going for it, because that's his mentality and he starts making them go for it in situations where they clearly should punt, it puts a little more pressure on them and less pressure on y'all. So if you guys can get out to a lead and keep that lead, then yeah. But personally I'll tell you what I would like to see. I would kind of like to see a lions buffalo super bowl, because then somebody is winning their first super bowl yeah and then also, too, one starving franchise that has never tasted.
Speaker 2:The success ever is going to be elated and happy.
Speaker 1:And I would like to see that there are soup kitchens open for your hunger. Washington needs a ticket to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2:Because screw the Rams, they don't need one, the Eagles have one. You guys have multiple. Yeah, I mean, that's long ago, but you do have multiple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to get another one too, so why?
Speaker 2:not let it be a Super Bowl of hope for two desperate organizations and fan bases.
Speaker 1:I like the soft Cinderella story. I'm not going to lie and I'm not totally disagreeing with you on the outcome of the Lions game, because I agree with you and because I don't want to see the Chiefs win another one either because screw them. I think I mean Detroit is a very explosive team and Tampa Bay beat Detroit in the regular season, but Tampa Bay beat us in the regular season, but we just beat Tampa Bay. So it's a trifecta of fuck going on right now.
Speaker 2:Look, all games in the beginning of the season are not created equal at the end of the season Just because you beat a team earlier in the year, doesn't? Mean you're going to beat them at the end of the year? Because they have shown once you have played a team, especially in your own division. If you've played a team a third time, it's more likely that you're going to lose.
Speaker 1:How many punts do you think we're going to see in this game? I don't think we're going to see any punts in this game. I don't know. I don't count punts. I didn't start counting punts until last week when I realized that we didn't see a single one from our team. But I don't think we're going to see any, Because Dan Quinn and Dan Campbell are very similar in the way they call games. They're very aggressive and when they want to win, they want to win.
Speaker 2:They like to gamble.
Speaker 1:They like to gamble, but it's not unfounded. If it's short and you're already up to the goal line. Yeah I say go for it, because you might not be able to make that up on the next round and you might miss the kick or doink it in on accident.
Speaker 2:Bottom line is we got some really good games and I'm really excited for it.
Speaker 1:We got some good stuff coming up. It's going to be a good week. Let's go ahead and hit on some personnel moves here. The Bears are hiring anyone and everybody. It's becoming a punchline at this point.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not that they're hiring everybody.
Speaker 1:They're interviewing everybody.
Speaker 2:They're taking an interview for anybody who has anything to do with any NFL team that has ever existed. They're just pulling everybody, even people, off the street. I mean Pete Carroll's getting an interview.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean Arthur Smith, Adam Stinovich.
Speaker 2:The only one they've done so far that kind of makes sense for them is Mike McCarthy. They interviewed Mike McCarthy. Now, granted, let me say this Mike McCarthy albeit a lot of people have a bad image of him the man has winning seasons in the nfl mccarthy has won a super bowl and he has proven that he can maintain a locker room. Yeah, because, yeah, look at how many years he dealt with roger's ego and in packerville and kept it kind of under wraps.
Speaker 1:No, I agree. I think McCarthy is a good. I think he's on the same level as Tomlin right. He hasn't had a horribly great ton of success, but he can still be successful and he knows how to manage a locker room.
Speaker 2:Well, they both have a Super Bowl win, albeit that Tomlin's Super Bowl was more so winning with the team that was left for him.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But that's not taking anything away from the man. You've still got to make it through the entire season. Now I know there's some chatter about them interviewing Marcus Freeman as the Notre Dame coach as possibly being their head coach. This is his first season coaching. I don't know that he would be necessarily the best fit To me. You don't want to try to be happier than happy. When you have a good thing going, you don't necessarily need to up it up Right now. Marcus Freeman, he's got a good thing going. He's about to play in a national championship game. College football could be a champ in college football. Now he does that. He has just cemented him being at Notre Dame for years because that gives you a long runway and he's shown he can bring in players yeah, he can become a perennial college coach exactly in the stay in the college game now granted.
Speaker 2:this will get you a runway of probably four or five, maybe six years. It's a good chunk and you've already shown you like being in the college game. You're doing well in the college game. Why would you want to go from where you have a little more control over your players and a little more control over your program to then go into the NFL where you're not dealing with college-age kids, you're dealing with professionals?
Speaker 2:Now granted, I'm not saying they're going to be hard to control or get going in the same direction. I'm just saying that it's a different environment and now the pressure is upped because you're coming into a situation where they expect results. They expect that you're going to get this team into a super it's. We have the quarterback, we have the team, we want a Super Bowl win. Do it now. And in the NFL they've shown they're not patient. They will fire a coach after one year. So do you want to go into a situation where you're there for one year, maybe two, and then they boot you out and then you don't have a head coaching job in the NFL or a coordinator?
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I was just getting ready to add to what you're saying. We've seen how temperamental the NFL is, and I hate this about the NFL because you can come in as a first-year head coach, have a relatively decent year or even have a good year, and if the ownership or the fans or somebody decides, nah, you're not the guy, you can be gone just like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not every organization is like the Steelers and can have just three coaches. Over the last 30 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's very temperamental in the NFL. Like you know, the sky is blue today. Tomorrow it might be purple.
Speaker 2:Case in point the 49ers back when they had hardball they tended to listen to trent bulky, kept trent bulky because him and hardball were button heads and they kicked out hardball. So hardball goes back to college, wins the national championship, being the coach of michigan after a few years of being there now he's back in the afl and he's got a team in the playoffs already with the same people. Now we fired Trent Bulkey later on, thank God, because he's a cancer. Look, if you go everywhere and you're constantly having issues and you're constantly having headaches with everybody you run into, yeah, the problem's you, it's not everybody else, it's you and I guarantee you right now that is hurting the Jacksonville Jaguars' chances of landing a good coach. If they want to land a good coach, bulky's got to go because people don't get along with that guy. And if you want, the only reason he's there is because the owner doesn't know much about football and is relying on Trent Bulky to kind of guide him, and that's majorly bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because he's not okay. Can he hit on draft picks once in a while? Sure, but he is personality-wise. He's no good Because just look what he's done. He's had what three different coaches there since in his time, each time kicking out the coach because the coach is the problem even though he's not the one, he's not drafting what the coach needs. I mean, come on, man, like, let's wake up.
Speaker 1:I mean you don't get fired like that, for no reason yeah, and then you know, going back, there's the Gerard Mayo situation. There are some reports that came out after that, mike Vero first of all. This is starting to feel like Mayo may have just been a placeholder until they could get their hands on Vero.
Speaker 2:Because the contract it was written in his contract that he would be the coach in waiting when Bill Pelichick left and because of the fact that craft had odds with belichick, they had to up that timeline yeah, not knowing, because I mean craft likes gerard. Yeah, the problem was well, gerard wasn't ready for it. According to some of the reports coming out that you know, there may, you know, some dissension as far as, like, well, he tension and he didn't enforce.
Speaker 1:He didn't enforce player discipline very well, like exactly he would. He would say OK, you know he wouldn't follow through on punishment and I think even after the last game one of the games they lost, not the winning one, one of the last games they lost instead of reviewing film with other coaches, he was in the back of the plane playing cards with the players.
Speaker 2:More like a friend than a coach.
Speaker 1:So the lines between a coach and a player's coach had been blurred, it seemed, with him.
Speaker 2:And I hate that because Gerard Mayo is a very good person and he probably is a pretty good defensive coordinator. You know, but I hate to see it for him because it kind of feels majorly like he was done dirty.
Speaker 1:And he might have been that way because he might have seen it himself, right.
Speaker 2:That he was probably out.
Speaker 1:Things change. When you realize you don't have much of a future, you say you know what? Let me go hang out with the guys for a little bit. I ain't going to be here much longer.
Speaker 2:anyway, this is true, you know, that's a good point. He might have decided well screwed, I'm out anyway. And maybe that's why Vrabel wasn't picked up last year. Because he knew he just had to sit on the sideline for a year and get picked up by the Patriots.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he had to fall in out with Tennessee. They got rid of him and obviously Tennessee did not do better without him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, no wonder their GM got fired and Vrabel is a hell of a coach.
Speaker 1:He is a. He is a Dan Quinn or Dan Campbell in waiting uh, vrabel, what do you mean?
Speaker 2:in waiting? He was.
Speaker 1:He was that before Dan Campbell well he was that before Dan Campbell, because he had Tennessee playing really well, um, for what they were. But you know I gotta give. I hate seeing people shoved aside nonchalantly, right, I don't feel like. I feel like DrawBear should have at least gotten a second year.
Speaker 2:Well, at least you know. So you say shoved aside. It makes me think of the Mike McCarthy Dallas situation, where it seemed like they weren't going to bring him back and it kind of felt like you know, when you're dating a girl and you don't want to break up with her, but you kind of want her to break up with you.
Speaker 1:They kind of just ghosted each other. Yeah, we're going to save the best for last. Don't worry, dallas, we're getting to Dallas here.
Speaker 2:I got a lot to say about Dallas. Well, here's the thing, not necessarily bad either. Here's the thing they sat down and had an interview with him and nothing came of it. They didn't make any deal. They didn't talk about deals, they just came in and talked and it was quite apparent they weren't going to offer him anything.
Speaker 1:You think Dak has anything to do with this?
Speaker 2:Here's the problem. Jerry, playing this little game, screwed himself because they missed out on the opportunity to interview any of the coaches that are still in the playoffs right now, because everybody else, everybody else is getting an interview in.
Speaker 1:They can. It's just Jerry ain't got no Rolodex and he's the only one leading the charge right now. They've interviewed three people and only one of them is probably legitimately an option.
Speaker 2:I don't think. To be honest, I don't think Robert Sala is going to be the next head coach.
Speaker 1:No, I agree with you. I don't think he is either. I don't think that's going to happen. There's too much dysfunction.
Speaker 2:Well, Kellen Moore is more of a possibility than Robert Salah.
Speaker 1:Well, Kellen Moore was the offensive coordinator for them just a couple years ago. Well, yeah, he's in Philly now, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's OC in Philly. He was their OC. After his player career ended he went and joined Dallas' coaching staff, so he's familiar with Dallas. But I don't think Kellen Moore is a head coach candidate. Okay, oh, I know Sean McVay, the youngest head coach. He's a one-off bro, I don't know how he did it. Oh, not saying it can't be done again, but I don't see Kellen Moore the same way as Shanahan tree. It absolutely is. Look at how many head coaches came from that staff. There's at least seven of them, right?
Speaker 2:now Shows the dysfunction of the Snyder era to have that many coaches that were competent in your staff.
Speaker 1:And you just let them go and your team didn't function well enough. Look, we're focused on the present and the future. Mike, we're not worried about the past anymore.
Speaker 2:You just don't want to talk about it because that was your team's worst, worst situation, being under the dance night every single day, not even every single week.
Speaker 1:Every single day was a new scam or bad news, breaking news like I'm like dang snyder what are you doing, bro? They're just coming out hitting you. Every day was a new story.
Speaker 2:I don't know why anybody does business with him if he's that dirty.
Speaker 1:No, he's hanging out on his super yacht in France's lake because they won't let him in the country either.
Speaker 2:Because he got all that money. But yeah, back on the dallas scenario. I mean, jerry, I don't think that he he wants relevancy. You know he drops the news of these things that he's doing during the playoffs while the games are going on look that's not happenstance. He's doing that because jerry wants the cowboys to be talked about, regardless of what's going on you don't eat the fruit the same day you plant the seed.
Speaker 1:Okay, you gotta grow this thing. You gotta do it right if you want a sustainable program and consistent winning and a pro and a you know continuity. You have to do what notre dame has. You have to do what Notre Dame has done. You have to do what the Eagles have done. You have to do what the Chiefs have done. They have built from the ground up. They've kept continuity in the house, even during bad times. Okay, I know some of those teams were the greatest example.
Speaker 2:Just bear with me, Mark.
Speaker 1:I see the look on your face. Okay, the Ravens might be a better example.
Speaker 2:I think what you're meaning to say in all of this, to kind of sum it up, is your team needs to be stable. Yeah, stable All aspects your drafting, your player development, your coaching, your assistant coaches all has to be stable.
Speaker 1:One thing it took me forever to realize that I was just never going to realize as long as we had the culture we had. I know I'm talking about Washington here, but I'm trying to relate this to the Cowboys situation, right, and any other losing team situation.
Speaker 2:Jerry's the problem.
Speaker 1:Look, ownership it's top down. Okay. If you don't have a very well-managed organization, you're not going to be a winning team. It doesn't matter how good your coach is. We had a lot of great Hall of Fame coaches and we never got there because ownership and administration wasn't hidden Pride is the fall of the cowboys yeah jerry's pride yeah, I agree with that what it is is.
Speaker 2:Jerry falls in love with his picks. He wants to pay the people that he picks up and he pays them absurd money. You know Dak is not worth the money they are paying him and now it is hurting the team Beyond just his play. It's hurting the team as a whole. They can't draft every single position to fill their needs because they need to bring in free agent veterans too, and they can't do that.
Speaker 2:They have to rely 100% on the draft, and Jerry has shown that he can get some hits in the draft. But once you start getting further into the draft, these guys are just hit and miss.
Speaker 1:You don't know.
Speaker 2:I mean, you can get into the fifth round and you have a guy on the board that you say, oh, he's a second-round talent, but why is he still there? There's a reason why players fall.
Speaker 1:Tom Brady did not have even a. I think he had a fourth-round draft pick on him. They took him in the sixth round. Maybe not even that he had a low draft grade him. They took him in the sixth round, maybe not even that he had a low draft grade. I'm going to hit you with a little hypothetical here, a little devil's advocate. It's kind of double whammy. First of all, part one. There's two parts to this. You think Coach Prime's coming to Dallas, do you think there's a shot of it?
Speaker 2:Man. I think that okay. Personally, I think Prime should stay in college, and that's not saying because Prime can't do the job in the NFL. But what did I say before about don't try to be happier than happy? Prime has a good thing going right now. He's showing progress in his college rank. He is losing his quarterback, he is losing his best receiver and defender in Travis Hunter, Yep. But you already have recruits set up that are coming in and a lot of them top star talent that they want to come play for prime they don't want to come play for colorado.
Speaker 2:They want to play for prime they want to play for prime and if you just up and go to the nfl, yeah, jerry's gonna give you a little bit of a runway yeah because he gave mike mcc McCarthy a runway. He gave a lot of coaches a runway, but you're getting something that Jerry wants if you go. What Jerry wants is to be relevant. He wants to make a splash. He wants people talking about the Cowboys.
Speaker 1:He wants people to have. He wants to stay America's team.
Speaker 2:Well, he wants to stay in the limelight. Now, unfortunately, he has to try to do one of these big moves because, let's face it, dallas has a lot of dysfunction and has a lot of needs on their team that they can't fill in free agency. They can't fill but anything in the draft. Now they have to hit on draft picks and they have to hit on draft picks and they have hit on some. Like I said before, they've hit on some and it's been a very lean draft cycle for them. You know their older players on their offensive line are aging and moving on to other teams. Their young guys are not picking up the slack. Moving on to other teams, their young guys are not picking up the slack. They're just not functioning like they need to be in order to be a team that can just say, hey, we're going to pay a huge chunk of money to this quarterback who's a B, b plus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now let me interrupt you. Part B to this devil's advocate thing with the Cowboys. I saw this report. I thought it was fake news. I thought it was blasphemy. I did a little more digging. Let's just say there's some weight to it. Okay, there's been a number of executives around the NFL. Maybe they're not executives, maybe they're just contacts.
Speaker 1:There's belief that Jerry is open to the idea of eating the $104 million cap hit on Dak Prescott to trade him, to secure a pick, to be able to pick up Shadur and hire Deion Sanders. Which is why I asked you if you think Coach Prime might possibly be coming out of college and even more possibly to Dallas, because there's a thought process going around, especially with Jerry going renegade and acting on his own here with this, that maybe there might be a play-in to A move Dak eat the cap space. I think it'd be a horrible idea. A move Dak eat the cap space. I think it would be a horrible idea and I don't think. I don't think, you know, I don't think it. I think it would be a horrible idea. I don't ever think eating dead cap money is a good idea and I don't think Dak Dak's not necessarily a bad quarterback, but I don't think Dak is necessarily worth trading for either Not in the first round anyway If Dallas was to trade Dak.
Speaker 2:The only way that happens is if the Cowboys eat a chunk of the salary.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I was saying. They said that he is going to have to eat the entire $104 million.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know that Dallas wants to eat that much in cap salary.
Speaker 1:I agree, you're trading him.
Speaker 2:If you trade him, you're trading him in order to free up room to get a quarterback which right now they're not in range of getting one.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:So, in order to get up to where you can get, but they think Shadur is going to fall though.
Speaker 1:They don't think Shadur is going to fall, though they don't think Shadur is going to be in the top 10. They think Shadur is going to slide.
Speaker 2:I don't foresee that because of the fact that we have too many teams in the top that are quarterback needy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And one of those being the Raiders.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and then you have a lot of drama around it. Now, like Coach Prime is saying no, my son's not playing for the Browns, he's not playing for the Jets.
Speaker 2:Prime. He said he wants to coach his sons.
Speaker 1:Sons Plural.
Speaker 2:Meaning he wants to bring. Not only he wants Shador there, but he wants his other son, shiloh, there as well, which he's not a high draft grade yeah you know. So you're asking the team not only draft my, my son, who could be a talent in the NFL, but draft my other son, who might not even be a practice squad guy they, they might, even he might be an unrestricted free agent or unrestricted draftee free agent.
Speaker 2:Which would be the better move for the team. But Deion's not going to see it as a better move for his son because when you're unrestricted free agent, signed out of college, you're not making any money.
Speaker 1:Now what if the Jets or the I'm not going to give the Browns as much credit what if the Jets land a head coach? Some things change at the front office. Shadur had the chance to get drafted by the Jets, but they go on and have a great next season without him.
Speaker 2:You know, the Jets did interview Rex Ryan and he didn't get the job yeah he didn't get the job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't even know why they wasted their time. They've already been down this road once.
Speaker 2:Headlines, yeah, headlines, that's all it was.
Speaker 1:It's smoke season.
Speaker 2:Look, it's smoke season. This bottom line. Right now, the NFL with these coaching, hires and stuff, they're basically doing Tinder dates here.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They're swipe swipe, swipe swipe, swipe, swipe, no.
Speaker 1:We go swipe her, her, her, just to throw off the scent. Oh, we're going to go interview this one.
Speaker 2:It's like yeah, yeah, we're interested, we're interested, we're interested, we're interested. And then super like no, we're interested, and then super like no. So right now you've got a lot of teams that are in desperate need of a coach and it's, I don't know, being okay. For instance, ben Johnson. He's the hot candidate. He can pretty much choose his spot. I think he's going to Raiders. I think that the Raiders would be a good spot for him because of the fact that they have a long runway.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Meaning. They're not expecting you to have it overnight success. They're expecting you to build, develop and mold their team, as long as you can show the team progressing in the right direction, little at a time, that'll go so far.
Speaker 1:Tom Brady is now a limited partner in the Raiders, so they're not going to want some run-of-the-mill coach. They're going to want the best that they can find.
Speaker 2:Speaking of I don't know why, because we were talking about the Raiders. I guess this is why this popped in my head. Jerry Jones has even gone as far as to say that he would bring in John Gruden. Yeah, I heard some Gruden rumors coming up as well.
Speaker 1:It is definitely smoke screen season already, yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know that he's gonna go for gruden, I'm just saying like there there is so many, I think, parts here and here's another thing. I would have told you before and I think I have said it before that ben johnson would make a lot of sense for the jacksonville jaguars, but he's not going to want to work with Trent Bulkey. Trent Bulkey is abrasive and not good.
Speaker 2:I mean, I do know that they have. Well, I've heard these things that there is a possibility, there is a scenario that if the owner wants Ben Johnson that he is willing to move Trent out of the GM role and bring in who Ben wants to be the GM and move Trent Boelke into an office position where he has no say over personnel and no say over anything other than being an in-between guy.
Speaker 1:If that's the case, watch outhington, because newman's out. Newman's gonna follow johnson to the race.
Speaker 2:Exactly. That is the.
Speaker 1:That is the guy they suspect will be the gm, if they move for ben johnson being down there yep, and that it'll be a hard loss for us, but it won't be the end of the world, and I can, and I could very much see that diners can tell you that they've lost many a coach and many a coordinator and kept things rolling, and many front office people too yeah, so and and newman's part of a nucleus for this season.
Speaker 1:We sucked this season, yeah well, newman's part of a nucleus, so there's multiple people, so you're not losing the one and only person, right? So there's? There's still contingencies here, and that's part of why how I like how they've got this team set up in washington, but um well, I mean there's.
Speaker 2:There's so many teams that need a coach yeah, you know the raiders need a coach. The new england already got their coach, and then you also have teams that also need to fill coaching positions. I mean, okay, saints is another one, jets is another one.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I like Aaron Glenn in New Orleans. That is a perfect fit to me.
Speaker 2:That you know, that kind of that feels like a good fit. And you know he said because he was interviewed recently where they asked him you what, what, how do you feel about this? Uh, this thing over defensive coaches and offensive coaches when it comes to being a head coach, how offensive coaches have looked favorably, where defensive coaches are not looked as favorably? Yeah, and his response was I'm a coach yeah period. He said I just happen to coach defense yeah you know, yeah, I love that response.
Speaker 2:I love that response meaning I'm in there. If I'm the head coach, I'm riding the ship. I will get my offense to be I'm riding the ship. I will get my offense to be run by my offensive coordinator and get my defensive coordinator to run my defense. Because, really, as a head coach, you're like a CEO. You just got to run the ship, make things go in the right direction and have everybody on the same page.
Speaker 2:And when they're not come down there and be like get right. So yeah, I think that'd be a good fit I think, that aaron glenn would be a great fit for new orleans the jets, I don't even know.
Speaker 1:I could see them hiring arthur smith, bobby slowick would be a good fit for them I think slowick would be a better fit than arthur smith.
Speaker 2:Arthur smith has already been a head coach and we've seen what that looks like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not I'm excited for slowick. I could see slowick landing with the jets and, honestly, if he does, I I give the jets a really high chance to turn around even what about matt naggy?
Speaker 2:another good one coordinator from from thes.
Speaker 1:But he's been around the league and he's got good experience. He's got good knowledge.
Speaker 2:Exactly Nagy would be another good one, but honestly, it might bring a couple of those other Chiefs coordinators along with him.
Speaker 1:They have, yeah, and they have some good stuff going on. My favorite is Bobby Slowik here. I mean, I'm starting to put coaches just where I see them at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's people interviewing for head coaches that are still interviewing for assistant jobs elsewhere, Like Salah's interviewed with the Niners for the defensive coordinator position.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I know the interim coach for the Jets. He interviewed for somebody for their defensive coordinator position recently soleil sally. No, no, no uh joe, uh albert yes, yes, albert, he interviewed for somebody's defensive coordinator position.
Speaker 1:I forget who, but yeah, just going down the list here, I don't. I didn't see it in this part of the list yeah, it was recently.
Speaker 2:But the point being, teams are. Teams are in need and of not just one thing or another. I mean I think the bangles need a new defensive coordinator, so do the the the colts. They need a new defensive coordinator because they fired the the colts. They need to do new defensive coordinator because they fired gus bradley, which may be justified because that defense has some pieces, but they were playing like garbage.
Speaker 2:But yeah, we're just. We're in a point in the year where we really need things to shake out, and they're not going to until the super bowl is over, and then we're going to start having mad dash on people figuring out their free agents, and then we'll get into a pause because the draft will be coming. So yeah, I mean, we just got to see how this all shakes out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's smoke season for the ones not in it anymore, and it's fire season it's go time for the ones not in it anymore, and it's fire season, it's go time for the ones that are in. It's amazing to see how teams on two sides of the playing field right now, where they're at as far as their mindset Teams are getting ready for the offseason and next season. Some teams are still in this season right now. So it's just hot right now. Man, with that, we're going to wrap this up. We'd like to thank everyone again for your ear, for your attention, thank you for your interaction and thank you for your support. Once again, I'm Brian with an I.
Speaker 2:And I'm Mike.
Speaker 1:And we are Two for the Win.
Speaker 2:Thanks everybody.