Bookkeepers & Ballers: How NFL Fine Money Became Feast Night

 The guys kick off Episode 5 with locker-room fines and how players keep each other in check, before diving into Micha Parsons' return in the Cowboys–Packers game. AD thinks Dak Prescott is playing MVP ball.  He also breaks down the grind of facing double teams week after week, while Matt explains how devastating it is for a young QB (Jaxson Dart) to lose his top weapon (Malik Nabors) so early in the season. Todd pulls back the curtain on how contracts, bonuses, and injuries really work, while the crew debates the impact of international games and whether they’re worth the routine shake-up. Cam Ward’s blunt honesty about losing sparks a raw conversation about leadership on struggling teams, and the panel reacts to Robert Saleh’s accusations and the heated sideline confrontation that followed. From Alabama’s big-man trick play to AD’s Defensive Player of the Week pick, the show balances football IQ with fun. The episode wraps with a rapid-fire two-minute drill, and an epic Pitt–BC helmet bet. Drop us a comment and let us know what you think!

Transcript

Zach Klein (00:00)
music's bumping. AD's got the flow. Matt's got the head bob. Todd's got absolutely nothing. Welcome to episode five of the Inner Circle podcast. Zach Klein, Todd France, Matt Ryan, Aaron Donald. A busy weekend all around the football world. Matt, you were in Kansas City, my old stopping grounds. How'd KC treat you, man? I'm a KU Jayhawk. Hopefully they lost, Chiefs look like they're back to being legit. have fun, KC?

AD (00:00)
huh.

Matt Ryan (00:21)
We had a good time. Kansas City is cool spot and have been out there a couple times now. Was there for AFC Championship game last year and played out there a bunch, but we had fun. We stayed, you know, in the lows down there, which Travis and Kelsey, Travis Kelsey and Pat had just opened up their restaurant, I guess a couple weeks before. So we went there Saturday night. Shout out to them for for letting us come in and have dinner. It was really good. It's a cool spot. They've done a good job. So we had a blast out there.

How was your guys weekend? I took care of it. I took care of it. No, man, you're pink. Thank you, Todd. Thank you, Todd.

Zach Klein (00:47)
leave him with the tab? Alright, you should have left him with the tab.

AD (00:51)
Big money, big money.

Zach Klein (00:53)
you

Todd France (00:57)
Yeah, that's great. Zach, by the way, you started already trying to push my button. So get ready for this show.

Zach Klein (01:01)
Yeah, I'm back. You know, I survived last week took a lot of heat on social media everybody Atlanta still loves Matt and the quarterback situation we can talk about Micah Penick's representing 313 and change the

Matt Ryan (01:14)
Hey, let's

start there, Zach. Should there have been a competition last week or should there be a competition this week? What's up?

Zach Klein (01:18)
No

AD (01:18)
I was gonna ask that. I wanted to ask

Zach Klein (01:20)
competition.

AD (01:20)
that.

Zach Klein (01:21)
should always be competition, just not competition for QB1. So we're on the record.

Todd France (01:25)
For the record, for

the record, Aaron, Matt and I were texting all weekend and just coming up with all these, we just ripping on you all without you, just letting you know. Every time Pennix made a completion, AD and Matt were on the text.

AD (01:27)
Eat them words.

Zach Klein (01:32)
That's fair. Bring it. Just so we're clear.

AD (01:32)
You

Zach Klein (01:37)
He

balled. Listen, he was fantastic. And we can start there. We had a fun thing with Bijan. I'm to play this. This is after the game, because in that game, Bijan got caught from behind for a, which would have been nearly about an 80-yard touchdown reception from Penix. It was a beautifully thrown ball. And in this situation, he gets caught from behind. So we asked him about getting caught from behind. And he said, yeah, I'm going to get fined for that. So I want to hear your thoughts on this.

So they got Tyler Algier says he's in charge of the fines. AD and Matt, what's the code? What's the locker room code? Break down the fine situation formula. You guys had some fun with it your teammates.

AD (02:27)
Yeah, that's just having some fun. I know in the D-line room we had some fines for some guys. If you out there getting bullied, if you getting pancakeed or something like that, you're going to get your ass ripped and you're going to definitely get a little fine. And it could be whatever the guy want to put. You can have a little fun with it, you know, but you know, nothing too crazy, but.

Todd France (02:43)
Is it

like $100 or is it like $1,000?

AD (02:45)
It depends how we feel that day. There you go.

Matt Ryan (02:47)
Yeah.

Zach Klein (02:47)
Hahaha.

Todd France (02:49)
or what the guy's contract's worth, AD, you were getting $1,000, you know what, you actually never got fined, actually.

Zach Klein (02:54)
He wasn't getting pancaked.

Matt Ryan (02:54)
So

yeah, this is just players only, Like, so yeah, it's players only. And each room typically has kind of a system for how they do it. I know, like in our quarterback room, was just usually three of us. So we had like no fines in our quarterback room, right? It was just laughing about every other group that was doing it. The offensive line in our building, they were probably the most detailed. So they had the fines on the whiteboard ⁓ in there and what the dollar amount was for each fine.

AD (02:58)
Yeah.

Zach Klein (02:58)
Players

only, yes.

AD (03:09)
you

Matt Ryan (03:22)
And they kept a kind of running pot for the year and then would do a big dinner at the end of the year with all of the fine money. Same went for our wide receivers, running backs, tight ends. They had a big book and we had a different bookkeeper each year. And so we would be on the sideline at certain times. Like if Bijan got tackled inside the five, that was a fine in the running back room or the wide receiver room. And we'd be coming to the sideline, hopefully after we scored a touchdown, but they were like, put them in the book, put them in the

Zach Klein (03:49)
Hahaha!

Matt Ryan (03:50)
And so I can't remember what the fine was for getting tackled inside the five, but I have to tell a funny story. So Michael Turner, my rookie year, I think Mike Jenkins had like, he must've had like eight or nine completions where he got tackled inside the three, right? And Micah Turner would come to the huddle every time afterwards with his big high pitched voice laugh. And he'd be like, thank you. Thank you.

AD (04:14)
You

Matt Ryan (04:15)
And Micah Turner had like, I forget how many touchdowns he had that year. He had like 20 some touchdowns, most of which were inside that three yard line. And most of them came off of Micah Jenkins getting tackled inside the five. not only did Jenkid find, he gave Micah Turner an incredible season that year too.

Zach Klein (04:31)
That's fantastic. Good, good fun. All in the yeah. So Bichon's getting fine. Tyler Algear is running point on that. A good way for the Falcons ahead into the bye week. All around some pretty good football. And starting with that Sunday night game, the Cowboys and Packers, Micah's return. I don't know how you guys feel, but I think at the end of that game, nobody wanted to see it going

AD (04:50)
Well, you get five quarters to try to get it done. I'm pretty sure them guys didn't want another quarter of that. If you can't get it done by then, it's like you don't want to do like college football and keep going and going until somebody win. You know, I think they, it was a hard fought game, man. I'm going to start off by tipping my hat to my dog, Dak, man. He had a day. He's playing some good football right now. The Cowboys defense is still having some struggle. I think both sides of the ball was a great defense, but the Cowboys is still giving up a lot and for Dak to keep

Matt Ryan (04:53)
Yeah.

AD (05:18)
Belling them guys out, playing the way he's playing, man. If the defense can pick it up a little bit, I think they can go on a little run with how Dak playing right now. He's at an MVP level. I think they did good with containing Micah. I think Micah had some good rushes that he got close, but he did good with getting the ball out of his hands and chipping him, trying to find ways to slow him down. So I think they had a great game plan that they stuck with and had it going, man.

And I don't think I never, that I probably did play an overtime game. I don't remember. I'll have to look back and see if I ever played an overtime game. Not sure, but I know if we played five quarters, I wouldn't want to do another quarter after playing five if we don't get it done, man.

So, which, what?

Todd France (05:55)
A-A-

Zach Klein (05:55)
I'm not asking

Matt about his overtime game, so we'll just move on from that. I was trying to...

Matt Ryan (05:57)
Yeah, I was gonna say, Zach, what are we doing?

AD (05:59)
No, no, no, I want to

know. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. don't know.

Matt Ryan (06:02)
oh, come on, AD. So I played in a couple of overtime games, one being the Super

Zach Klein (06:03)
We'll save that for another

episode.

Matt Ryan (06:11)
went differently and Honestly, I wish the rules were different at that time too, right? That both teams got an opportunity to get the ball, but that's neither here nor there in the regular season I played in it once In Indy my first game in Indy. We tired. I think it was yeah my first game in Indy We tied the Texans in overtime. That was a weird way to start the year, you know, like you go out there

AD (06:13)
We ain't gotta talk about that one. We ain't gotta talk about that one.

Zach Klein (06:14)
That's what I'm saying. ⁓

Matt Ryan (06:34)
you're ready, you're geared up, you do all this stuff, you play five quarters of football and then you're like, what the, you know, like we're OO and one, you know? So was a really strange way to start the year. But I sort of agree with AD. think, you know, given the length of the season, the number of guys available on the roster, you know, 45, 46 on game day, I just don't think it's feasible to play more than that, right? And so.

AD (06:40)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (06:58)
Inevitably these things come up like this is going to be a tiebreaker or some kind of thing. You talk about what's going on in the NFC North with the Packers and the Lions and the separation now that starts to take place in the month of October and November. Like these are huge at the end of the year. So I think it's the right thing. think it's ending it. It sucks. You don't want a tie, but I think ending it at the end of that fifth quarter is appropriate.

Todd France (07:21)
AD, I got a question for you. You talked about Mike is getting double teamed and chipped all night long and like everyone on the telecast was showing all the replays and everything about the game plan, which I thought was a great plan. But you live that life every week. Two players, double team, triple teamed. I've seen pictures of you being double and triple teamed and all that type of stuff. Like, what's the mindset? Like, how do you deal with that? We can week out. And since they're game planning to

not let you be the one that ruins the game for them. How do you game plan the opposite way to make sure you still have an impact? I'm very curious about that, other than like a crazy mindset.

AD (07:56)
Yeah,

well, it's frustrating for sure. Definitely when you, you you want to be a guy to be out there to be productive. You want to get them opportunities, get them one-on-ones, but the more success you have, obviously, the respect factor you get, right? Guys don't want you to find ways to, you know, to ruin a game. So I think it becomes, as you get older, I know what I did was I started to, you know, sit down with my position coach.

with my D coordinator and really come up with different schemes and things we can get, can do to try to get more one-on-one opportunities that I see even doing exotic blitzes and things like that. Or obviously running games with my defensive line from test games, gut games, things like that. Depends how exotic you want to get, but it get harder, right? It's going to continue to get harder for them. think them continue to come up with good ways of trying to get them messed up. And at the same time,

you kind of dictate where the slide protection is going to go when you got your guy, you know they're going to slide the protection to him. So you're able to do a blitz off the backside and maybe get somebody to come free, right? Or, you know, have an overload on one side, have him more on the back, the weak side where he can get a true one-on-one and he get that one-on-one opportunity, you're gambling and hoping he going to get that win for you. So there's a lot of different things you can do. Mentally, it's exhausting, but...

It's a lot more just studying the offensive linemen, trying to find tendencies. Now you got to understand that you're to get chipped. You're going get the slides, right? How can I find ways to defeat this? What games can I do? The more he played with his defensive line, it's going to be a natural reaction where he can just look at a guy and be like this. Like I would look at Kobe my last year and I look at him and I give him a nod. He already know we running the game. I know they sliding the protection. Let me get out this this slide protection. Let me try to wrap around, get free, make something happen. So.

The more you play the game, the more that he gonna play with the guys, they'll pick it up. And obviously talking with the D coordinator, trying to find ways to continue to get you freed up and trying to still be productive and be the guy you wanna be.

Matt Ryan (09:48)
I think from the offensive perspective, like when you're playing against Micah or you're playing against AD, whatever, the only way you're going to get out of those double teams is if other guys step up, right? Like other guys have to go win. Other guys got to win their one-on-one matchups when they get it so that you can't just account for him the entire time, right? And so the two ways I see it, right? Other guys got to win or you got to get the numbers right. Meaning

AD (09:59)
Exactly.

Matt Ryan (10:11)
You know you've got to send five or six guys in terms of pressures, so it's six on six, right? That's the only way to get one on ones is to get the numbers right. So defense has to send as many as the offense has in protection or other guys gotta go out there and win and you watch that. And honestly, that's what Green Green Bay's done a good job of that. You know, throughout the season, other guys winning Roshon Gary on the other side winning. But you know, that's that's the number one way to get guys out of that.

AD (10:36)
Yep.

Zach Klein (10:39)
My ad, it seems to me I can't fathom the mental strength one must have for week after week, game after game. You know you are going to be double or as Todd said, triple teamed. So do you play like a game within a game for yourself where you know you might not get the sack total or the tackles for loss that you want? But is there like I don't know. I guess how do you power through that when every single game every single year, you know, you're not going to go one on one.

AD (11:03)
You just play ball. That's all you can do. And hopefully, knowing that the D coordinator gonna draw us up, get you them opportunities. And like Matt said, hoping the guys around you gonna start being productive, making them plays to the point where like, all right, let's show a little attention to this guy over here, right? And then that's when you get your one-on-one opportunities, right? So it ain't just baiting and making all focus on just one person. If they continue to do that, then other guys around you should be eating heaven today, right? And just, you know, living in a backfield. So you gotta depend on guys around you. You gotta depend on the D coordinator drawing up the...

exotic bliss is the different things you can do to overload fronts you can do put you on the backside of the overload for to get your one-on-one so It's a lot to go into it man. I I Played the top a million times calling Todd about that when I was playing like god damn I can't get no freedom over here. It's like it's a headache man, but you know them

Todd France (11:49)
And then I told you, just

don't worry about it. Keep taking care of three guys so Leonard Floyd can get paid. Right. And that's exactly what happened. I said, you already got your contract, man. Let Leonard get his money. So I was like, just that's not what you wanted to hear. No, I'm kidding. You did. You did complain, but like it wasn't really a complaint. was frustration. But like it's like every star, like whether it was Michael Jordan, like everyone didn't want him to beat him either, but somehow the best of the best do what they do. And that's what you did. And clearly the double teams and triple teams didn't work. Or you can give all the credit to your D coordinator, however you want. But at end of the day,

AD (11:53)
So anyway. ⁓

Zach Klein (11:54)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

Matt Ryan (11:54)
Hehehehehe

Zach Klein (11:58)
And he did.

AD (12:01)
Yeah.

Zach Klein (12:01)
No.

Todd France (12:18)
You were making things happen, which was amazing.

Zach Klein (12:20)
Talk about guys who need to step up. Wide receivers in Miami, wide receivers in New York guys have to step up. A brutal weekend for Malik neighbors and Tariq Hill. Just feel for those guys and their families and what they're going through with obviously looks like season ending injuries. know, Matt for a quarterback. mean, losing one of your guys has got to be brutal, but in your world, losing a Roddy or a Julio Jones, how do you overcome that?

Matt Ryan (12:44)
Well, I think you talk about two of those football teams and you're talking about two quarterbacks that are in wildly different parts of their career, right? And so I think it's exponentially more difficult as a young player for Jackson Dart to lose kind of that one-on-one safety blanket that's out there. I would always feel like when you have one of those elite wide receivers, it makes things simple.

you know that like AD is getting double teamed all the time, you know that these guys are going to have help over the top, right? And so that's opening things up for, for other guys, but it makes things simple in that when you do get those one-on-ones, you don't have to overthink it. Go give them a chance, put the ball up in the air, give them an opportunity to make a play. And so, you know, when you lose a guy like Malik neighbors and you're a young quarterback, I think, I think it's, I think it's going to be difficult to overcome. I really do.

And they've got some pieces like Wondell Robinson's good player. You know, they've got some other pieces at the wide receiver position, but they're guys that are unproven that are going to need to step up. so I think, you know, I watched that game last week and I think, you know, I they able did a good job of running the football, like using Jackson Dart, you know, getting

AD (13:53)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Ryan (13:55)
outside the pocket or kind of design QB runs. And I think you're going to see a steady diet of that throughout the year, but that's tough. I never had to go through that really, you know, like season ending injury early. We had stretches where we missed, you know, Julio for three or four weeks here or there, or Roddy for, you know, three or four weeks. I remember he had a high ankle sprain one time to start the year. So like it's tough. But you know, that's, that's the league, right? Like the league is

guys are going to get injured, right? And depth is so important. you know, I will say this though for Jackson Dart. I think the one thing that's nice as a young player is when you don't have that bona fide number one, you don't feel pressure to kind of over target him, right? And so there's this sense of, okay, like that burden, that weight is off. It's a good weight to have, it's a good burden to have, but that weight is off. And so now I just go, you know,

Wherever I'm supposed to go in terms of my progression or whatever. I just let it rip I'm not worried about trying to over commit to one guy

AD (14:56)
So how y'all thought that the young quarterback did and the Giants with his debut? You feel like he looked like he's the future? He looking good? What's your thoughts?

Matt Ryan (15:05)
I mean, it's a small sample size AD, one game, one game.

AD (15:07)
I know I'm saying he looked

this strong running the ball, but I'm talking about as far as throwing the ball. What's your thoughts on some of them passes he was picking out there?

Matt Ryan (15:14)
Yeah, I think they did a good job. They didn't overexpose him, right? Like they didn't put too much on him too early. And I think that's gonna be their recipe for success of not putting too much on him too fast. I thought the throws he made, looked good. I think more so than anything, his body language, right? We've talked about this on the show, like for a handful of weeks in a row, right? I think a young player's body language, right, AD? And like, yeah, exactly. And I think that's the spark. Yes.

AD (15:17)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

He bring the juice. He bring the juice. Yeah. He brung it. He brung it. He brung it. He brung a swagger to him. Energy. All that

Zach Klein (15:35)
Yeah, he was hyping everybody up.

AD (15:41)
good shit. Yeah, man. I like it.

Matt Ryan (15:43)
And so,

I take away that from watching his performance. I think that's as significant as anything. I think, AD, you can speak to it, right? You feel that, you feel that on the other side of the ball. You feel that in the locker room. You feel it on the flight home. You feel that energy from those guys. And I think that's something that's good as a young player.

AD (15:55)
feed off it,

Mm-hmm.

He'd definitely bring a spark to that locker room for sure.

Zach Klein (16:05)
Hey Todd, what is...

Yeah, speak to that, AD. know, what, I guess on the defensive side of the ball, when an offensive star goes down, do you feel more burden, more pressure to step it up knowing that your guys on the other side are hurting a little bit?

AD (16:19)
Well, you want to we always say next man up, right? You trust that the next man is going to be up and be prepared. But you do feel like, all right, let's let's step it up a little bit more. We got to do a little bit more this time. One of our dogs is down, one of our soldiers is down. I know it's on the offensive side, but same thing if it's on the defensive side of the ball. We got it. We got to step up and do a little bit more now. But, you know, I think they're looking good, man. I think they got a nice little spark going on in that locker room, something to feed off, something to look forward to. And I think hopefully they go on a little run. But we're going to see.

Zach Klein (16:45)
Todd, when a player goes down with an injury, whether it's they're out for a week or two, or in this case, you know, season ending injuries, how does that affect their contract?

Todd France (16:53)
Yeah, that's a loaded question because the contracts aren't all vanilla. They're not all the same across the board, but like, you know, there was a tweet out there. I don't know if you saw it, but it talks about, you know, Tyreek Hill has $1.8 million in, in per game roster bonuses. And now he's going to lose, you know, 1.4 of it. And what that means is basically he was making around a hundred thousand, $105,000 a game for every game he's dressing. Well, obviously he's out for the season, so he's not dressing the rest of the time. So 105,000 times.

whatever it is, 14 games or whatever, it's about 1.4 million that he will lose as opposed to having that money just in your paragraph five salary contract paragraph five refers to the contract, but basically in your base salary and whether you're playing or not playing, you get that money. So you much rather have it in the actual base salary as opposed to in per games. But you got to remember these teams, they're set up to, they literally hedge against their bet. They, they hedge their bet on the player. They put in language.

to recoup money if there's a possibility to recoup it, like maybe put fine language in there to where guarantees void. They put structure in there to where the contract guarantees don't kick in at a certain point. They have the clawback on the per games if a guy gets hurt, and all those different things. And that's the NFL, and that's the job of the agent, right? To put the best possible contract together to make sure in all scenarios, all situations, your player's gonna get paid and actually see the money, because the headline is irrelevant. The devil is in the details on these deals.

AD (18:12)
Mm-hmm.

Zach Klein (18:17)
Yeah. Well, you mentioned the guarantees, right? Because that's all everybody says. Focus on the guarantees. It could be a five-year, $200 million contract, but only $20 million of it is guaranteed. Obviously, it's a little extreme, and I'm making that up. But I was reading conflicting reports about Tyreek's contract that he's set to make fully guaranteed $11 million next year. that whether he's back in time or from what you can gather, is that accurate?

Todd France (18:17)
You know, that is.

So yeah, there's different things out there, I haven't looked at it, but my guess is that he's got 11 million guaranteed, but that's for a guarantee that becomes guaranteed in March of 2026. And when you have a contract structure that way, then basically what has to happen before March of 26, the Dolphins make a decision. And if their decision is to move on from him, then yeah, he doesn't get that 11 million and the team can walk away from him. However,

AD (18:51)
F is...

Mm-hmm.

Todd France (19:07)
the player does have an opportunity to file for injury protection, which is basically $2 million, I think, next year. So he can get 2 million bucks if he doesn't play football next year at all. If he plays football, then he can't get that. But that 11 million is only, quote unquote, guaranteed if he's on the roster next year. So again, another example of a team putting a structure together where instead of guaranteeing it like in a perfect situation, and I'm not second guessing anyone's contracts or structure because everyone's situations are different, but

You know, for me, when I'm doing a contract, if I have guaranteed money in year three of a five year deal, I don't want that guarantee to become guaranteed in year three. I want that to become guaranteed either from day one or at a worse case, vest the year before. in year two, year three already becomes guaranteed. And the only way a team can get out of paying that third year guarantee because year one and year two are guaranteed is cut in before year two, which means they're paying them one year, a gazillion dollars. They can't do that.

Zach Klein (19:45)
early.

Matt Ryan (19:49)
you

Todd France (20:02)
It wouldn't work that way. again, teams are smart, agents are smart, and have to structure things the right way to make sure that the player's actually gonna see the money versus what the headline is, because the devil's in the details and what the headlines are aren't always what reality is.

AD (20:16)
It was,

Zach Klein (20:16)
Let me ask you a quick follow

up on the injury settlement that he could get, you know, $2 million. He was set to make roughly 30 million. So is it a percentage of what the client, what the player will make in the upcoming year? Or is it structured by position? How does the injury set? Okay. So you're going to make 30 and you get hurt. That's devil's in the details, man. That guarantee money upfront, man. That's brutal.

Todd France (20:32)
It's a set number in the CBA without getting too complicated.

AD (20:41)
Let Todd do that contract, baby. He would have got it all. He would have got everything, baby. He gonna structure that thing, make sure you good, you know?

Matt Ryan (20:43)
No.

Todd France (20:48)
I mean, listen, as an agent, you for me, when I think about it, like, I got to sleep at night and I got to think of all these worst case scenarios for you guys. I can't assume that you're going to get a second deal. I can't assume you're going to make it to year three. I actually assume the exact opposite, that you're never going to get another deal and you're not going to see year three. And how is my guy going to be set up for life? Because at the end of the day, that's the pressure I put on myself is how does my player set up financially for life? Because there are no do-overs in this business. This isn't monopoly, it's real money.

Real business, millions and millions and millions at stake and you gotta do it right.

AD (21:18)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (21:21)
I remember signing my third contract with the Falcons. Todd was a part of that and the deal gets done, right? And, you know, at the end of this deal, you know, they're just saying, just be patient. We're getting the details right. We're doing all of this. The numbers are agreed to whatever. We're just making sure everything's set up correctly. I didn't have any like injury void or like any of that stuff. Basically, it was just, you know, the guaranteed money was a guaranteed money and it was.

However, Todd and Tom Condon at the time had it set up. So I had all of this guaranteed stuff, but there was an insurance agent that came to me and he was like, hey, I've gone through this and the only thing that you're not guaranteed to get all of this money for is death. so he's like, we need to ensure that in case you die, like you get all of this too. And I'm like, man, I don't think I'm gonna die before the end of this contract, but like.

AD (22:08)
Rock on wood.

Matt Ryan (22:13)
The level of detail that these people will go to to make sure that it comes to

Todd France (22:16)
I think at that point I would have said to the insurance guy, I'm self-insured by the amount of money I've already made in my life. I'm good. I don't need to do that stuff.

Zach Klein (22:22)
My family's got a lot

more problems than they collected on that final year of the deal. That

Matt Ryan (22:27)
⁓ my

Zach Klein (22:28)
First ever NFL regular season game in Dublin over the weekend. What do you guys think of that? You guys? know, Matt, I covered you overseas. It was a lot of fun traveling, experiencing different cultures in different cities, different foods. But as a player, man, it did. I mean.

Rogers was pretty adamant about wanting to get over the early and throwing you out of your routine. So just your overall thoughts on taking a game, a home game away from your home fans and going international.

Matt Ryan (22:50)
I mean, listen, I think it's good for the league overall. ⁓ you talk about ways to find growth and as players, know, ways you want contracts to continue to go up and numbers to be higher and all of those things. I think this is one of those ways. So I do think it's good for the league. I don't know about you, AD, I feel like playing in LA, having to go to those international games has to be way more difficult. From the East Coast, it's not that bad, right? Like if you're going to London or you're going to Dublin, the flight isn't that bad.

AD (22:53)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (23:18)
the time change kind of sucks, but it's not that bad, right? And so I always felt like as a player from the East Coast, wasn't like, I enjoyed both of my experiences over there. One time we went for the entire week and it was cool to kind of be there and experience that for the week. The other time we left on a Thursday night and both times by game time, I felt good to go and ready to go. I'm curious though, AD, like coming from the West Coast and having to go to London, because the Rams got that coming up in a couple of weeks,

AD (23:46)
years in a row. So we play.

Todd France (23:46)
Jacksonville? Didn't you go to Jacksonville? Because I remember coming down to visit you in Jacksonville before you were going to London maybe, is that right?

AD (23:52)
Yeah,

we played Jacksonville, then we stayed out Jacksonville, then from Jacksonville we flew to London. So I think it's good. I just don't like it because it get my routine, right? You kind of got your own little structure, what you want to do for the week, your massages, your steam room. You just got a routine that you do every single week and kind of like throw that off. I don't know for you, Matt, it ain't never felt like you threw out your routine and felt like a little uncomfortable with like your norm.

Zach Klein (24:16)
I'm just saying a proper agent

would have had that prepared for you when you landed in London. There'd be some steam rooms or massages set up.

Matt Ryan (24:20)
Yeah,

AD (24:22)
It's just, I just wasn't with my norm.

Matt Ryan (24:22)
I don't know what the Rams were doing. We had like our massage therapist, everybody came. So for us...

AD (24:29)
But

it wasn't in my own environment. It wasn't like my norm. know, I'm out my, yeah, like, I'm a homebody guy. ⁓ Like, I need to be in my own space, man. I want to see my family, hug my kids. Like, they didn't travel with me when I did that. So it's just kind of throw me off. I know, and I ain't, when I went out there, I wasn't going on like, going dinners and going to go see the town. I'm strictly there for business, right? So it was just, for me, that's just my-

Matt Ryan (24:32)
my bad. Yeah, yeah. You didn't have the vibe. You didn't have the same vibe that you're... Got it. Got it.

Zach Klein (24:35)
The aura of his.

Todd France (24:35)
Well, AD has his own spa. He's got his own spa inside his house. And so it wasn't

his own spa.

Zach Klein (24:41)
casa.

Matt Ryan (24:46)
No, that's yeah. 100%.

AD (24:57)
I like to be in my comfort zone, man. It was a little out of my comfort zone for me.

Matt Ryan (25:01)
This is where the NFL is so different from other professional sports, right? In the capacity, we don't travel. When you're talking about NBA players or NHL or baseball, these guys are on the road in the NBA, 40 plus games a year and back to backs and gone for stretches of a week, 10 days, two weeks. Like don't think people realize when you're in the NFL, if you don't have a London game or something like that, you're gone nine nights a year.

AD (25:14)
Yeah... Yeah...

Matt Ryan (25:26)
Right? Like your your eight road games or your nine road games and whatever it is in the preseason, you know, and you're in and out. So we're really I do think I do think that's the difficult thing because I think guys are creatures of habit. Right? Like you get into your routine. We travel so rarely that that it's a little bit different. But, you know, all in all, I think I think everybody would say they're positive experiences.

AD (25:38)
Yeah, exactly. That's all it is for me. Yeah.

Todd France (25:48)
Do

the teams still keep like, is it the same, like if you're going somewhere, is it the same food? Like I know if you travel personally, like food is different, right? But like at the hotel, do they try to like, I don't know, bring food from back in the States? Like how is that? Or is it just more local stuff and just not quite the same type of burger or whatever it might be?

AD (26:04)
One year we was eating whatever was out there in London and I ain't like the food at all. think, our last year we did it, it just, I don't know, it was the seasoning or something with it, it just wasn't right for me. It just wasn't good. But I think our last year we did, I think they did a better job with like, our food was a lot better. I don't know what they did, what they brought, where they got it from, but it was a lot better than the prior years when we was out there. So, what up?

Zach Klein (26:11)
No fish and chips for AD?

Todd France (26:29)
Is it cool at different

stadiums? you you've played at most NFL stadiums, but like you might be playing at a soccer venue or whatever it might be. Is it cool or is it just another stadium you don't even pay attention?

AD (26:38)
See, the thing with me, I love the environments. I love going to different environments. I like the loud stadiums that's packed even in the Moway games. I feed off energy. So if I'm in a stadium, it's loud as hell, like, that just get me juiced up, right? I feed off that type of energy. It's just, you know, for me, I always liked that type of environment. It's just, you know, the traveling away from my family, not to my normal schedule kind of thing. So it was a off for me. What about you, Matt?

Matt Ryan (27:02)
Yeah,

I thought the stadiums were awesome. We played in Tottenham, the Hotspur Stadium. That stadium's unbelievable. mean, it's as nice as any NFL stadium. Locker room's unbelievable. They have it built specifically for NFL games coming over there. So, I mean, it's not small, it's massive. It's an incredible place to play. And then the other time we played at Wembley, and I feel like...

Todd France (27:13)
Locker rooms too?

AD (27:15)
Yeah, that was nice.

Todd France (27:19)
wow.

Matt Ryan (27:27)
You know, there's so much history in terms of soccer and all of the things and incredible games that have been played there. So I thought both stadiums were really good. The grass in Wembley kind of sucked, but it's different. I'll tell you a funny story. the year we went over for the entire week, we practiced at Arsenal, their training facility. And I mean, unbelievable training facility. You drive in, they've got this little building and then this

AD (27:39)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (27:53)
this tree-lined road and it's just soccer pitches like for almost a mile. I don't know how long it went, but it's all of these soccer pitches that you drive by. And we went to like the last field and they must water their, in soccer, they must water the grass like all the time to keep the ball skidding and all of that. And we got there for the first practice and we're flying all over the place. And Mike Smith is like, fuck this, we're done. Get off the field.

We're not practicing and we basically walk through. We did like walk through the entire week, which was like huge for the players. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, walk through body was fresh, getting ready to go into that game. But it was cool. It was cool to see. It's really cool to see all of the kind of infrastructure for these English Premier League teams and their setups.

Zach Klein (28:37)
I was at the covering you guys with the Tottenham Hotspur facility. And to Matt's point, it's this billion something dollar Mecca, you know, stadium in the middle of a neighborhood. And what was cool from a journalistic standpoint is that when you cover the games in the United States, like the press boxes are like the worst locations everywhere because you want to have those prime real estate for sponsors or club suites, et cetera. But the way they do it in English Premier League soccer is just because it's based on tradition. They have media seats.

AD (28:37)
Hi.

Zach Klein (29:06)
think of it in the NFL, kind of between like the 30 yard line. So between the 30 and the 30 down low and everyone in the media sits in that section. So there you are maybe 15, 20 rows from the pitch, 20, 30 rows from the field and you're not sitting up in the corner in the nosebleed. So there was a lot of fun covering those guys overseas.

AD (29:25)
Yeah, wanted to ask you about, like, how was your experiences with the crowd? Cause I know when I was there, like, it's so loud. don't know what they cheering for. They just yelling. Like, as a quarterback, like, how was it for you to have to deal with that,

Matt Ryan (29:34)
Nodda.

It was, mean, like they have no, you're exactly right. Cheering at like weird times, right? And so I feel like the communication, you'd like throw a touchdown pass and there would be like no cheering, right? And then they kicked the extra point and it'd be like going wild. And you're like, all right, like I think the first part was more important, but it was, it was, the atmosphere was awesome.

AD (29:41)
Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Todd France (29:50)
Ha ha.

Zach Klein (29:51)
You

AD (29:58)
Mm-hmm.

Matt Ryan (29:58)
⁓

It wasn't necessarily like football, but it was like an awesome atmosphere and environment to be in. But it was strange timing, like the cheering and all that stuff was strange timing. yeah, it was a blast.

AD (30:09)
Yeah, man.

Zach Klein (30:10)
One thing in one fan base and one team that's not having a blast, the Tennessee Titans. They're 0-4. And AD, I want you to keep it real with me right now. So we're going to play something from Cam Ward who said, if we're keeping it buck right now, you're going to educate me on what that means. We're going to keep it buck right now. So here is Cam Ward, the quarterback, the rookie quarterback for the Tennessee Titans after their game, after falling to 0-4.

All right, it's the rookie. If we're keeping it real right now, if we're keeping it buck right now, we're ass.

AD (30:56)
He's keeping real. He said it. We ass. Ain't no more you can say. He said it. Playing straight to the point. I'm keeping it real with y'all. We're ass. We're playing bad football right now. He said it. That's crazy though.

Zach Klein (31:07)
They lost 26-0

to a previously winless Houston Texan team at.

Matt Ryan (31:11)
Yeah,

I mean, I don't really have anything to add. I appreciate Cam being as candid and honest as he was. ⁓ my gosh, that was funny. That was funny.

AD (31:14)
That was funny as hell.

You

Zach Klein (31:24)
We need

to rewind that reaction on the socials for both you guys. That was classic.

Matt Ryan (31:29)
man, he's not lying either. They don't look good. They don't look good. Offensively, they don't do anything. They don't do anything. I will say this, Tennessee's defense is not bad. Did you guys see the sack? Jeffrey Simmons hat?

AD (31:30)
ass. like it all.

Zach Klein (31:40)
Hmm.

AD (31:41)
They try to trap, I don't know if they try to trap him or whatever they try to do. He's shot back there so damn fast.

Todd France (31:41)
Hold on, hold on, hold on.

My client, Jeffrey Simmons, keep going, what? Okay, sorry, thank you. Thank you for the PR, I like it.

Matt Ryan (31:47)
Yeah, that's correct. That's correct. Okay. Yeah. We'll shout out.

Zach Klein (31:47)
⁓

AD (31:48)
That guy, that guy, that guy.

Matt Ryan (31:51)
We're impartial to who their agent is. Okay, Todd, but it just happens to be. Yeah, it just happens to be. Dude, that was one of the best sacks I've ever seen, AD.

Zach Klein (31:53)
It just happened to be.

Todd France (31:53)
I'm not though. Yeah, that's fine. That's fair.

AD (32:00)
Yeah, like they tried to trap

him. He did a swim, up field before they even got close to him. Quarterback was still dropping back and got him. That's what them was gonna play. Yeah, do so. I like it though. I like it, I like it.

Matt Ryan (32:06)
No doubt, no doubt. Change up the cadence, CJ. CJ, he was on it.

So that play was not ass. That was a good play.

Zach Klein (32:13)
So Todd, you say anything? That was a sick play. Yes. That was great. Speaking of your guy, mean, they're crushed. mean, he's crushing it, but the team's getting crushed. What do you tell him to keep his spirits up? You talk to him, you text him this week.

AD (32:16)
Hahaha!

Todd France (32:24)
Well, it's

not necessarily just him. I'll just say players in general at going through times like that. I mean, there's always something to play for, whether it's personal pride, whether it's your current contract, whether it's your future contract. I mean, it's a business. The guys, you know, you have to always look at it as are you an athlete or are you a professional athlete? And at the end of day, these guys are professional athletes. So they find it. They understand it's a business and they're playing, you know, the record, obviously it makes it.

a little more enjoyable as you guys would think, going to work every day knowing you have a chance to win or winning. But at the end of day, these guys are professional athletes and there's a lot to play for. So just keep their head up and keep grinding. at the end of the day, whatever it is you got to find your motivation, find your motivation.

Matt Ryan (33:05)
I 100 % agree. like, AD, you and I both been on teams that were not very good. We've had years that were struggles. you find out more about guys during times like that, more about teammates and coaches and what they're all about in times where it's like, there's nothing to play for, right? Like we're out of the playoffs and you might have five or six games left in the season, but there is a professional pride, right?

AD (33:10)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Matt Ryan (33:30)
you know, I would tell guys all the time, you know, whether whether you think this matters or it doesn't matter, like it matters because whether you're to be here, whether you're going to be somewhere else, whether you're going to hang around in this league, like what you put on tape ⁓ is is so like it matters every snap. And so, you know, how you show up regardless of record, I used to learn a lot about teammates.

Todd France (33:45)
percent.

AD (33:50)
Yep.

Matt Ryan (33:55)
And I kind of respect Cam Ward for laying into it too, right? And being real about, we're quarter of this season in and we haven't done anything and we've got three quarters of the season to go if not more. And like, we got to turn it around. he's, you know, I think as a young player too, you know, we're talking about Jackson Dart earlier in his body language. I think guys hear that tone too, right? Like they're going to see that clip AD and he seemed like he was no bullshit right there.

AD (34:07)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (34:20)
This has got to get corrected. It's got to get corrected now.

AD (34:20)
He look like a leader.

He look like a leader of that team, A little story time. don't know if you remember this, Todd. In 2016, obviously, first two years in St. Louis wasn't good as a team. Our first year in LA didn't do good. Ended up head coach getting fired before the end of the season. And I remember talking with Todd and him on the phone. And we're going to start talking to the Rams about a contract now.

extending the contract. And I remember telling them like, I don't think I want to be here. that's nothing bad towards the organization. I don't think I never shared this at all, but I just wanted to win, right? I had, obviously I was having a lot of individual success and getting accolades and things like that. But I'm like, I want to be a part of a winning team. I want to have a chance to, you know, experience some good things at the top of the pinnacle as a team. And I just didn't see it at the time with the Rams, right? We didn't have a head coach. Didn't know who the head coach was going to be.

So I'm like, let's hold off on the contract talk. Let's figure out what's going on here. Cause I was trying to get out, you know. ⁓ It wasn't nothing towards the organization. I just didn't see the vision. I didn't know who was going to be there longterm as the coach obviously was a great decision to stay. Obviously had the great Sean McVay that came changed everything around. But I know how frustrating it can be by losing. Like I said, you just got to go out there and keep playing it. They lost four, it's all four, right? It's a long season. Anything can happen.

keep stacking on wins, stacking on wins, keep playing, right? I think the leadership on that team, War, think is showing as a young guy, he look like a captain of that team, right? He's speaking, holding people accountable. He's speaking out on guys that need to do better, holding themselves accountable. I gotta do better, right? I think as long as you got good leadership like that, obviously, you gotta believe in something. You gotta keep finding ways to be productive, keep going out there and playing the game, man, cause...

Losing, it's a horrible thing. I've been a part of some losing teams, winning teams, but it ain't easy.

Todd France (36:10)
Matt

and Aaron, like, you guys can only do your job though if everyone else is doing their job. like keeping people together and keeping the glue and making sure that everyone's going the same way is very important. Cause if you do see a guy giving up, let's say it's another D lineman or let's say it's an offensive lineman who's not doing the extras or not studying the film or doing what he's doing, that affects you. So like, how do you jump on those guys?

AD (36:30)
Yeah, I wouldn't want to want to fill with me.

I don't want to, I want to, you let him know, I don't want to want to want to fill with me if he's like that. If you half-ass and get that, get the fuck out of here, bye. We don't need that because you're not going to win like that. That's not a winning culture. As a leader, you got to hold everybody accountable. So if I'm at practice going 100 miles per hour and I got all these accolades and things that I accomplish, follow lead, lead by example. If I'm going 100 miles running full speed to the bar at practice, you do the same thing. If you half-ass and I'm going to call you out about that, uh-uh, you got to pick it up.

Matt Ryan (36:32)
You let him.

AD (36:57)
You know, you got to do more. You ain't going be out there with me. I don't trust you on the side of me if you out there half-assing and ain't doing what you need to do for us to be a successful team. So that's the way I went about it. I don't know how you went about it, Matt, but it's about, I always talk about holding people accountable, right? As a leader, setting the tone, what you want the high practice to be, how you want the game to be, you know? And typically the young guys is going to follow behind you anyway, right? When you do the extra rep in the weight room, you ain't telling them to come with you. Like when I worked out, I did three workouts during the day when I played, right?

in the morning with the team and after practice or before practice. I never told the young guys to come and train with me, but over time they just naturally started to come in that weight room when I was in there, right? When I was doing extra reps, now they want to do the extra reps. So you setting a standard that guys are going to just naturally follow, right? And that's what you need. You need the leaders to be leaders. You need to people accountable and you're trying to, you know, be that team that had a success that you want to have. So...

Matt Ryan (37:49)
when your best players are the ones who are doing it the right way, it tends to everybody else follows suit. But I think you're so right, AD, like guys in the locker room, and I say this about my young boys too, like my sons, they see better than they hear, right? And so like you can, know, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, tell them all you want and you need to say those things, but your actions, like you doing it, like that stuff.

AD (37:55)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Matt Ryan (38:14)
people see that and people are watching all the time. and, ⁓ you know, I kind of like, I like that cam ward clip too, because it doesn't look like he's any confidence has been shaken from him. You know what I mean? Like they're own for their this or that it doesn't look like, like he's defeated in any way, right? Like he, he, he's not taking his foot off the gas. And so like, I think guys are going to feel that too. And, ⁓ I liked it. I liked that clip.

AD (38:28)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Zach Klein (38:41)
I want to

follow up with one thing, Todd, with Aaron telling that story for the first time about maybe not wanting to return to LA. AD1, was there a moment that you're like, all right, I trust the process, I'm going to stay here? And Todd, what was your advice to AD back in the time to just be patient and understand his frustrations, but also guide him on what you thought would be best for he and his family?

Todd France (39:04)
I mean, you always wanna hear what the player has to say, and it's your client and your job is to fulfill what they want. But at the same time, you're not a robot and you're not just a yes guy. You wanna give them the other side of the coin too. And the grass isn't always greener and that type of stuff. And you gotta be careful what you ask for. And it doesn't mean you necessarily get to go somewhere and where you wanna be or it's gonna be any better. So at the end of the day, you gotta have patience. And number one thing, the absolute number one thing is don't have that conversation right after a game.

AD (39:18)
You know, that's what he said. That's what he said.

Todd France (39:32)
like give it hours, let the emotions come down because when you start talking out of emotions, you're not talking rational and that becomes a non-productive conversation. So have the conversation, let it sit, maybe go through another game, have another conversation. Things can completely be different, you know, six days later, a week later. you know, again, but hear what they have to say also, but again, not be that robot and share back other sides of things and other examples to where they need to look at it from a different, you know, different set of lenses.

AD (40:00)
Yeah, well what changed for me was this young coach by the name of Sean McVeigh. I remember going into the four seasons to meet

and they was in this meeting room. I remember walking in like, where the coach at? I see this young guy get up walking up to me. I'm like, there's no way he gonna be the head coach. He about 30 years old at the time, little, look young as hell. He comes up to me, I'm like.

Matt Ryan (40:14)
You

AD (40:19)
He like, Coach, Sean McVean, I'm like, how you doing? He said, yeah. And we was just talking, I'm like, there ain't no way this young ass coach is gonna be able to do this, man. But talking to him, he talked about holding people accountable, right? He just had a standard to him, right? He said everything he was supposed to say, but you just never know until you on the field with him, you get to experience these things. And fast forward to 2017, right? Our first year, my first defensive player of the year, our first year, going to the playoffs, we we lost to Matt and those guys.

F y'all. ⁓ But, you know, but he changed the culture, right? Prior to him coming there, you know, during practice, know, guys was laying on the bags while the offense is on the field, defense is laying on the bags. We talking, right? And then that culture changed to when the offense is on the field, everybody's standing, paying attention and tuned with what's going on, right? That's the little things when it pertains to having a winning team, right? And he brought that culture to us and changed everything around and the rest was history from there, man. So obviously, like Todd said, the same things he was saying, he said to me and...

Matt Ryan (40:47)
That's right.

AD (41:14)
⁓ As a young guy just being frustrated not knowing what the future is going to hold. know the coach that you know drafted you there now he's fired. It's like everything is just going downhill right and it's like not knowing what to expect and then you know everything played out how it was supposed play out for the best man. We did some special things together man and he's still doing some great things so it's tough but you know that's football for you.

Matt Ryan (41:36)
Zach, we'll

put a bow on the Cam Ward on this one, but like, I'm curious when you have something like that, somebody drops an F bomb, somebody says something, and I don't think Cam has to apologize for anything he said, I think he's fine. But there are certain situations like that, right? Where a media, you're in there, somebody says something. Is there ever conversations, like, are the Falcons ever reaching out to you being like, hey man, it'd be great if you didn't use that, or like,

Can we talk about this like before or an agent's calling you or something like that?

Zach Klein (42:05)
Well,

two things are funny.

Todd France (42:09)
And so

do they do that one and two, do you listen to them if they do?

Zach Klein (42:13)
No, never listen to him, too. But if we go back to the beginning of this podcast, when we were talking about the fines and we had Tyler Algier, when he said, can I talk about this? And you had David Bassett, the vice president of communications for the Falcons say, no, you cannot. He's shaking his head in the background. So Algier is one of the BYU guy. He swears all the time in our interviews. sometimes you get guys that are in their normal conversation. They're dropping ⁓ swear words, which is always refreshing and fun. But I would love to have that real talk that you had with Cam right there, man. He kept it real.

AD (42:13)
I'm about to no.

You

Zach Klein (42:41)
so honest and to your point about the leadership and guys feeding off that in the locker room like, shit, man, we might be 0 and 4, but my guy's got some swagger and he's got some confidence. So no, they don't reach out. They don't try to tell you to shelve it. They do on other certain things, but language is not one of them.

Matt Ryan (42:56)
I was gonna say, about playing time or any of those? Is there ever conversations that they call you and are like, hey, we'd really appreciate, I mean, I would think only maybe personal issues that are going on. Yeah.

Zach Klein (43:12)
for sure. And, you know,

listen, we try to do them a solid because I'll get I'll get heads up on certain things that the guys are having off the field and I'll reach out to the head of security or reach out to them and say, listen, this is what's going on. It's a personal issue. We found out about it, you know, deal with it. And then if there's something you want to add for context or color, if you guys do want to make it public, then, you know, work with me or something like that. What I try to do with everything we talk about, guys, is if I get a nugget or a storyline, I'll reach out to the team or the.

GM, the head coach, whoever it might be. I say, listen, anything you want to add on the record, anything you want to add on the off the record or anything you want to add on background. And there's been times where, you know, the guys have asked me to hold the story, but to me, it was not relevant to what's going on. wasn't an injury to a Matt Ryan or an Aaron Donald. That would be, you know, very, very noteworthy information to be something just dumb.

and I would put a team who was important. So we would shelve that. So it's part of the information game. I know Todd plays it all the time with his guys that he has throughout the league. It's a very important part of the process. You play the game. ⁓ huh.

Todd France (44:07)
Please, I don't play any games. I don't play any games. I play very straight, direct. There's no

AD (44:10)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (44:11)
Todd plays no games.

Todd France (44:15)
riddles in everything I say. So what about it for like the 49ers and the Jaguars, where you have that little head coach and defensive coordinator kind of going at each other? Would a team ever say something to you about that? Number one and number two, my question would be if you could interview only one of them, the head coach or the D coordinator, who would you want to interview after the game?

AD (44:16)
He said, uh-huh.

Zach Klein (44:17)
Yeah.

yeah, so this is great.

With the ad mad you guys see this. So OK so for those of us for those of you who are listening on audio devices were shown video right now from our sister station in Jacksonville action sports Jax that grab video following the Jaguars 49ers game of the San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Sala who earlier in the week was talking about the Jag saying they got legally.

AD (44:37)
Yeah, I've seen it.

Matt Ryan (44:37)
Yes.

Zach Klein (44:58)
a really advanced signal stealing type system where they're always finding a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation. So he says that they're cheating, but it's legal respect to them. And then after the game, we're going to show the video again for those who watching this on YouTube, the two Liam Cohen, the head coach for the Jags and. All right, so to.

AD (45:14)
You lay on my guy, that's my guy. He was with the Rams for

a few years early in his career. That's my dog.

Zach Klein (45:19)
Now, listen, I don't think Liam wants anything to do with with Robert right there. I mean, well, you notice he said, keep my keep my name out of your mouth. then, but yeah, you notice he bows up to Salah like when he's got six guys between them, like he wasn't talking shit when he was right next to the guy.

Matt Ryan (45:22)
Hahaha

AD (45:23)
you say that? He wanted to smoke. He said so. He said so. He said so. Keep my name out your mouth. Keep my name out your mouth.

Matt Ryan (45:37)
Yeah, but he's got a lot of offensive linemen around

AD (45:37)
It's cool.

Matt Ryan (45:39)
him, and he had a lot of big dudes next to him.

Zach Klein (45:42)
Yes he does.

AD (45:42)
Yeah,

he ready to go to war, man. My dog ready to go to war, man.

Todd France (45:46)
That's the equivalent

of me talking shit standing behind Aaron Donald.

AD (45:49)
⁓ I know if I'm a player, I'm clowning it. If I was with the Niners, I'm gonna just talk stuff, just get shits and giggles. Talking shit to the damn, you gonna let that man come up to you, check you like that? And if I'm with the Jaguars here, cause I'm laughing at him like, damn, big dog, I don't want no pro-

Zach Klein (45:49)
⁓

Matt Ryan (45:51)
No doubt, no doubt.

Todd France (46:03)
Hahaha

Matt Ryan (46:08)
Yeah, yeah. Did you see the offense alignment tap him on the shoulder? Like after he turned and walked away, that shit was hilarious. He gave him the little, hey, it's good, man, it's good.

AD (46:12)
Yeah!

UGH!

Zach Klein (46:18)
and we're watching

it one more time. You gotta check it out. It was great stuff,

Matt Ryan (46:21)
Who would you rather talk to after that?

Zach Klein (46:23)
Right after the moment was when I would rather talk to Robert Sala because he was obviously heated up and they lost. Yeah, I I would ask him what was said and if no one was between you and Liam, what was going down?

AD (46:26)
What you saying? What you asking? What you asking?

Hahaha!

Who you think winning? ⁓ man.

Zach Klein (46:36)
The odds of him telling me. Yeah, we would have.

Matt Ryan (46:37)
He might've lost it right there, man. He had the craziest look in his eye.

Todd France (46:41)
And then he would have Zach, which would have gone viral, it have been unbelievable.

Zach Klein (46:45)
Yeah, he was fantastic. That was great stuff. I

want to talk a little college football here. I was at the Georgia game in Athens over the weekend when they took on Alabama and, you know, give it up to what Kaelin DeBoer and the Crimson Tide were able to do. They've now locked off Georgia 10 times in 11 games. And during the first half, I don't know if anybody saw this, Caden Proctor is a six foot seven, 366 pound offensive tackle.

AD's already smiling. Do you see this play AD? Okay, so we're going to show it right now on YouTube. You can check it out on audio. basically they're Ty Simpsons, their quarterback. The big fellow lines up at the top of your screen in a wide receiver motion and then the rest is history. Just watch and observe.

AD (47:14)
Yeah, I've seen it, I've seen it.

Yeah.

They don't want none of that. They don't want none of that.

Zach Klein (47:36)
So the big fella takes it down inside the five yard line. They've been practicing this, practicing this for a long time. So, so many questions, you know, AD for you. Did you ever talk to McVeigh, the boy genius and say, listen, you know, I got hands, you know, I got some athletic ability, get me in on offense. Let's have a lot of fun. Throw me the rock.

AD (47:52)
I my whole career. My rookie year, had something with Coach Fish. We had a Gold Line playing for me where I get the ball, hand the ball off at the fullback. I would run it. And then another one, I go to the flat and I'm right here and we practiced it and everything. We never ran it. And with Sean, I used to beg Sean all time, let me get a Gold Line and play coaching. Like, uh-uh, get your ass out there.

Matt Ryan (48:02)
You running it? Hand off, running it?

AD (48:13)
We can't afford for you to get hurt. I'm like, man, pick me in coach, put me in. I just never got that love, man. I wanted to get me a touchdown, but it's all good. Shout out to the big guy,

Matt Ryan (48:17)
Yeah, yeah.

Let me explain to you

how this works with defensive guys. They chirp you, they tell you all the time. And then you finally go to the coordinator and you're like, hey, just put it into practice. We'll tell them it's in the game plan. That shit's really not in there. All right. He's going to feel better about it. He's going to think this thing is coming all the time. Have his helmet ready on the sideline when we get down to the goal line and then never hear the personnel grouping.

AD (48:25)
Hahaha

Zach Klein (48:30)
Ha

Todd France (48:30)
Hahaha.

AD (48:31)
Hahaha!

Man, Sean, he ain't even ever draw up for me. He never drew nothing up for me. He said, no. He ain't even gave me the time. But then I'm like, God, leave, man. Let me just get one touchdown. That's it. That's all good. I still love him.

Matt Ryan (48:44)
He didn't even give you the time of day.

I love that.

Zach Klein (48:53)
about you, Matt?

If a favorite trick play for you.

Matt Ryan (48:55)
My favorite trick play was a touchdown pass we hit against the Buccaneers to Ty Cimbrelo. ⁓ we got a cute up right here. We got the big man going down the seam right here. He scores from like 30 yards out. we had, this is like solid sign stealing or whatever, but this is, we had a key on these guys. We put in a jumbo tight end. We put Ty in as a jumbo tight end. And when you put somebody outside of them, they just.

AD (49:07)
UGH!

Right up.

Matt Ryan (49:22)
discounted them in the passing game, assuming he was blocking or something like that. So we put that little action in and Dirk Cutter was our coordinator at the time. He's like, man, this is going to work. It's going to work. And like it, you know, I get there under center. Yeah. Good hands. Good hands. Yeah. It was the only time we ever ran it was right here. We put it with, had the run action.

Todd France (49:33)
Great hands by the big man, great hands.

AD (49:35)
Was that the first time you ever ran that? that's why, okay. I'm like, he's just running up the field by

his, he ain't see him running out. He ain't gonna show no respect.

Matt Ryan (49:45)
Exactly, the linebacker

would blitz when they were in 11 Jumbo or whatever, they would bring it on, so we showed a little run action. In my head, I'm like, there's no way this is gonna work, right? Like, of course somebody's gonna be there. So like, when I fake this handoff and I'm really like riding this to my left and see him wide ass open, I'm like, my God, this is awesome.

Zach Klein (50:05)
So number 80

on the right of your screen, you're watching this on YouTube, audio, check out the YouTube version. So that's the tight end. But don't you have to declare, don't you have to declare number 74 eligible? So.

Matt Ryan (50:10)
That's a tight end.

He was, yeah,

AD (50:14)
Yeah, he

did. They they didn't pay attention to him, probably.

Matt Ryan (50:14)
he came in declared eligible. yeah, exactly. We had run so much of this kind of weak inside zone or outside zone right there off of that set. And they were firing the backer through who was responsible for him and man coverage. We got the look, it was awesome. Ty was all fired up. So that was probably the best trick play we ever had.

AD (50:30)
⁓ I

can guarantee you in every meeting room, we was definitely preparing for that play. If they came up, you would have came up to that again, they would have been ready for that. Everybody, ⁓ hey, they ran it one time, they got a touchdown, but if they come out of this, make sure y'all pay attention to that guy going out, So that's crazy.

Matt Ryan (50:38)
No doubt. No doubt. You only get it once. Yeah, you only get it once.

Zach Klein (50:47)
So AD, when somebody, when

an offensive lineman declared themselves eligible, were you paying attention to it? You're like, I mean, can he gonna catch a pass?

AD (50:53)
Well, you got that, you practiced

it, but there was times we got, I think Titans beat us with one of those before. You you practice those things if you see it on film and get prepared for it. So you prepare yourself for it, but sometimes them little DBS fall asleep when them big guys going out. Don't think that, he ain't catching nothing on me and then he get a touchdown in your ass and then we clowning you. got it, you know what mean? So that's one of those types of things, man.

Matt Ryan (51:10)
Yes.

Zach Klein (51:11)
Awesome.

Matt Ryan (51:12)
Shout out

to Ty. I haven't seen him in a long time. That was a cool touchdown. No doubt. He definitely got a game ball. No doubt.

Zach Klein (51:16)
Gameball worthy for sure from that moment right there. Speaking of gameballs, that was right?

AD (51:16)
That was a 30 yard or two.

Zach Klein (51:21)
Took it to the house. AD, who you giving out a defensive gameball for week four?

AD (51:25)
Man, there was a lot of good defensive players this week. I'm gonna just get some love to some guy. I TJ White played good, a sack of interception. Jerry Verse was playing physical five, I mean, six tackles, one sack, one forced fumble was getting some good

shout out to my guy, Cam Curl. He had two interceptions. Burns, man, from the Giants. That boy playing some good football. And that celebration, I don't know how he can be, how he been like that. I don't get it. don't know how he can do that with all them pairs on. But my top guy this week, man, I gotta give it to Hutchison with Detroit. I think he had a day. Four tackles, two sacks, one forced fumble.

He had a bunch of quarterback pressures where he affected some big third downs, got him off the field early, man. So he's playing some good ball right now. I know the season started off slow for him, but he's heating up right now, man. And Detroit's on fire and that guy Hutchinson, he's on fire right now. So, hey, hat off to him, man. Let's go. Clap him up. Good shit, boy. Let's keep it up, Hutchinson. Keep it going, big dog. Keep it up.

Zach Klein (52:20)
salute. Clap them up.

Matt Ryan (52:21)
I love it. I love it.

How about...

How about a little honorable mention to Dexter Lawrence? Did you see him returning that one where he got tackled right? He was close. He was close. It was a nice pick. Good hands from the big man. Yeah, big sexy Dexter, man. Big man balling right there going down the field. That was cool. That was cool.

AD (52:28)
⁓ I forgot to pick. my God. Hey, what they call them? Big sexy Dexy. big. ⁓ Good shit, big dog. Good shit, Yeah.

Zach Klein (52:37)
You

Two minute drill time. Matthew, what do we got this week?

Matt Ryan (52:43)
Good player.

Okay. Our order. We're going to go. Zach, why don't we start with you? Why don't we start with you? I'm going to get my clock queued up right here. Make sure we're staying on time. Everybody can see it. We're starting here. All right. Ready, Zach? It'll go Zach Todd, AD Zach Todd, AD. All right. Here we go. Zach. Hey, Ryder Cup was this past weekend. We were talking about tie ball games. Should the Ryder Cup, if it were to end 14 14, should it end in a tie?

Zach Klein (52:49)
Let's do it.

Ugh.

No, I would love it for have either a chip off a drive off or something like that. The worst part about the whole thing. And I know I'm taking a lot of time is that when Victor Hovland had that injury, he had to pull. Oh, I apologize. All right.

Matt Ryan (53:18)
Oh, that was gonna be my next question. We'll go right to it. Well, no, what do you think? should they get a point? Should you

AD (53:21)
Yeah.

Matt Ryan (53:25)
get docked a point if somebody gets injured or should it be a half like it is? Lose the point.

Zach Klein (53:29)
You should lose the point.

I think it was you. What do you think? You're the big golfer.

Matt Ryan (53:34)
No, you are too. I don't know. We could spend all two minutes longer than two minutes, but we'll move on. All right, here we go. Todd. Todd. What are trade deadlines November 4th? Usually activity starts to pick up between now and then. Any crazy, crazy trade you see happening in the month of October.

Zach Klein (53:36)
You shouldn't split it for sure. Yes.

AD (53:39)
Come on, two minutes, come on, let's go.

Todd France (53:40)
The

worst two minute drill ever.

No, it's too hard to predict, too early.

Matt Ryan (53:55)
Too hard. Okay. AD, Pit BC this weekend. All right. Who you got? Number one.

AD (54:01)
H2P held a pit. We got that all day. Pit holding it down.

Matt Ryan (54:04)
Okay,

all right. What is the action here? What are we doing on this game? What is the loser got to do?

AD (54:09)
shit, I don't know. Let me think about that for a second. Would you got an idea?

Zach Klein (54:10)
Hmm.

Oh, Matt's props!

Matt Ryan (54:16)
I think you gotta wear this thing next week. think you gotta wear this thing next week. BC gets it done. You're in this helmet.

AD (54:18)
go, let's go.

I got a pit helmet for you to put on there. Let's do that. You got,

Todd France (54:25)
Are you guys gonna

send it to each other?

Matt Ryan (54:27)
I could.

AD (54:28)
Let's do that and we gotta wear for least a good amount of the podcast next week. You gotta wear it the whole time we doing the damn podcast. Fuck it, let's go. Fuck it, let's go, I like it, let's go. I take that back.

Matt Ryan (54:35)
You gotta do a whole segment in the helmet. You gotta do a whole segment in the helmet. All right? Okay, it might it might

Todd France (54:40)
Never been more interested in the pit BC game ever.

Zach Klein (54:42)
let's go!

Matt Ryan (54:44)
take two weeks to get this done. So it may not be next week's episode, but we'll send the helmet out to you, whatever. This shit ain't gonna fit on your head. By the way, the two minutes over, two minutes is over. You only get one question today.

AD (54:48)
But let's get it done. There you go.

Todd France (54:50)
Matt, Matt, was that your helmet? The two minutes that that was the worst two minutes

Zach Klein (54:51)
Yeah.

Todd France (54:56)
ever. Matt, is that was was the is that your helmet?

AD (54:59)
What size helmet is it? What size helmet is it?

Matt Ryan (54:59)
Yeah, that's my helmet, man, from college.

My helmet, it's like a large. This thing's not gonna fit on your head, dude. It's fucking tight as shit on mine.

Todd France (55:05)
not going to be comfortable.

AD (55:05)
That shit, I gotta

look dumb as hell. This gonna be like. ⁓ Like that, ⁓ man.

Matt Ryan (55:10)
Just like this, just like this.

It'll be funny when you send me yours too, cause it'll be swimming on my head. I'll look like a little kid. I'll look like a little kid. All right, we went, we went 202 this week. So you only get one question each, but I thought they were good questions.

AD (55:15)
That shit gonna be loose this head.

Zach Klein (55:22)
Those are good questions. Yes. We'll

AD (55:23)
Alright.

Zach Klein (55:25)
For those of you out there who want to get involved in the show, like, comment, hit us up on all our socials and ask the guys the question. All four of us are here for you. It's a part of the family, the Inner Circle fam. So a much love for you supporting the show. We did get someone reaching out on Instagram or Melissa. She says, I love my Rams, but I feel so bad for AD Mitchell who lost the ball, was going across the goal line in that game.

⁓ Is there a process to see a sports psychologist for each team? I would say yes, right? And how important are they? What are the roles of them? And how often would you guys go to see them when things are going well? And obviously an 80s situation when you turn the ball over at the goal line.

Matt Ryan (55:53)
Yes, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Todd France (56:03)
Mental health is a real thing in the NFL and in life, whether you're a player or just a regular person and the teams are very well equipped with therapists and that type of stuff to help the players for whatever's going on, whether it's an on-field situation or it's a personal situation. I mean, there's definitely, the help is there for sure.

AD (56:05)
It is.

Matt Ryan (56:20)
Yeah, and it's not only the organizations. I reached out to Todd recently ⁓ about recommendations for somebody that I had met that was looking for help in that space. And I mean, it's agents, it's everywhere. So yeah, I mean, but I know every organization I was a part of had somebody there during the week that you go to with anything that you had on your brain.

Todd France (56:25)
yeah.

Zach Klein (56:41)
Thank you for the question. And again, if you guys and gals out there have more spore AD, Matt, Todd, myself, just hit us up on all of our pages and let us know how we can connect with you guys throughout the show. As we wrap up this episode five of the Inner Circle podcast, what are we looking forward to this week? Todd wants all those guys to stay healthy. I'm looking for a little rest. Matt, AD, what do you got going on? No. Really?

Todd France (56:59)
Well, time out, I have something I'm very much looking forward to. Yes. So again,

yeah, Zach, so don't speak for me. I'm very much looking forward to nothing on Sunday. I mean, obviously Sunday, but really Saturday. I'm looking forward to this Pitt BC game. I want to be tuning in and I can't wait to see what happens for sure. And on our, on our.

Matt Ryan (57:12)
Yes!

AD (57:14)
you

Matt Ryan (57:15)
Nobody's

more fired up for one in three Boston College taking on two and two Pitt than Todd France.

Todd France (57:21)
Hey,

in our three-way group text, me, you, and AD, Zach will let you know what happens. I'm sorry, go ahead, Matt, what do you got?

Matt Ryan (57:25)
you

Zach Klein (57:25)
Yeah, left

out of that. Thanks, boys. Appreciate you, man.

Matt Ryan (57:30)
No, I'm looking forward to it. Listen, it's week five, beginning of October, week five. I feel like you know your football teams at this point. You know, you've kind of figured out who you're going to be, who's healthy, who's not healthy. I think this is where the season really starts to take off and you see teams, you know, starting to become themselves. So I'm looking forward to a great weekend of football, both college and NFL, but looking forward to being back in the studio. We've had a weird couple of weeks on NFL today on CBS. And so this week's just normal week, which is.

AD (57:36)
Yup.

Matt Ryan (57:58)
It's going to be fun back into the routine. AD?

AD (58:01)
Yeah, it's a rival week. Thursday night football, Rams and 49ers baby. So I'm tuned in ready for my guys to do work, man. Nice rival week, man. So let's go Rams! And hail the pit!

Matt Ryan (58:12)
Get ready AD, get ready

AD, get ready.

Zach Klein (58:15)
So good. BC Pitt, Rams, Niners, T. France, hanging out doing nothing but watching some college football. A lot of fun, gents. Thanks for hanging out with us on the Inner Circle. Much love. We'll see you guys soon.

Matt Ryan (58:26)
See you boys.