The Inner Circle
A new era of conversations. Real access, untold stories, and behind the scenes perspectives from those who played the game, cover it, and shape it.
The Inner Circle
ESPN's Adam Schefter
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This week one of the most plugged-in and respected insiders in all of sports media, Adam Schefter, enters the circle.
Schefter joins the show fresh off breaking news, which is exactly how this episode begins... with plenty of laughs about his late arrival after being pulled into the nonstop chaos of NFL insider life. From there, the conversation turns into a fascinating, candid look at what it really takes to be the man at the center of the NFL news cycle.
Adam opens up about the relentless pace of his job, the pressure of being first versus being right, and how information truly moves around the league. He explains why the public often misunderstands where stories come from, why there is no simple go-to person for sourcing, and how relationships with teams, agents, owners, coaches, and players all matter at different times of the year.
The guys also dive into the realities of modern media and social media, including how breaking news has changed forever in the age of X, why misinformation spreads so quickly, and the challenge of maintaining trust and credibility when everyone is racing to post first. Schefter shares stories from behind the scenes, including trade talks that surprised him, moments when stories came together faster than expected, and the personal toll of living in a world where the next major NFL development can happen at any second.
Aaron and Todd bring their own unique perspectives to the conversation, making this much more than a media interview. Todd breaks down how major NFL news impacts players, agents, and negotiations in real time, while Aaron talks about the “gift and curse” of living a career so fully that it consumes your life. The discussion expands into work ethic, balance, family, and the sacrifices that come with striving to be great in any profession.
Schefter also reflects on his longevity, his love for the work, why he still thrives on the adrenaline of a big story, and whether he can ever really turn it off. There are funny moments, honest moments, and plenty of insight into the business of football, journalism, and relationships at the highest level.
This episode is part insider masterclass, part life conversation, and part locker room hang... packed with stories, laughs, and real talk about the NFL, media, trust, timing, and what it takes to stay at the top.
As always, thanks for you support and enjoy the latest episode of the Inner Circle Podcast
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Hey, how we doing everybody? Zach Klein here on the Inner Circle Podcast. This week on the show, we are joined by one of the most influential and respected journalists in any genre, someone who just happens to dominate the insider game in the National Football League. It is Adam Schefter, who, of course, was a little late to this week's show because he was doing what he does, breaking news. So we start off this week's episode by having fun with Shefty for being a little late and bumping this show for the McAfee show. Hope you enjoy Adam Schefter on this week's edition of the Inner Circle Podcast.
SPEAKER_01Busy man, busy man. No, no, no. No kicking to the curb in this business. It's just kind of reorganizing things and reshuffling things so we could be here now without an issue.
SPEAKER_04No issues at all. Welcome to the Inner Circle, man. Much love. We appreciate what you do. Is that the life of Adam Schefter right there? You got to schedule something.
SPEAKER_01What's amazing to me is that with all the success that Aaron and Todd have had, that they have to do a podcast here to generate more revenue. What's up with that? Explain that to me.
SPEAKER_03It's Aaron. He's retired. He's retired. He's looking for new sources of income.
SPEAKER_01What's up with that? What's up with that? I like honestly, like, can't you guys sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor?
SPEAKER_03Says Adam Schefter, who makes like a hundred million dollars a year. I love that. And I didn't mean to lowball you. I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. I ain't no Todd France. I've never sold my business five times, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_03Okay, skip for Zach. Let's get into it before we start. Now you want to start talking about Podcast.
SPEAKER_01We want to talk number.
SPEAKER_04We're going to talk number. Yep. What's the pace, man? Yeah, thanks for thanks for joining us and spending some time. Um, is that just a perfect example of the chaos of your life?
SPEAKER_01I know. I guess, yeah. Like, I mean, I knew that there had been some conversations, but I wasn't expecting that trade to be made this morning, you know. And then once the trade comes down, I wasn't expecting Pat McAfee to reach out and say, we need to go on at 12.05. Like, we had planned to come on here at noon and do this. So now we're pushed back, you know, 15, 20 minutes, and I appreciate you guys accommodating me. But I guess that is an example of how it works. You could be out to dinner, you could be planning to do something. And as my grandfather always used to say, people make plans and God laughs.
SPEAKER_05So I got so I got a source. I got a source that said, you know, that told me that you were probably doing some grown-up things at the time and you had to get a phone call, you had to stop what you was doing to handle business. Was my source true about what I heard about that situation? I'm trying to say, not say too much without saying enough if you understand what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01I think I know what you're talking about, Aaron. Like, someone once asked me, someone wants to ask me a stranger spot that I once. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that is that yeah, and and and and boy, like I thought I answered in a very polite, diplomatic way. I said something without saying anything, and the thing went viral. Like, and the great part about that was, you know, my wife is not on social media, she doesn't pay attention to podcast, nothing. And so somebody saw the comment, they're like, What's your wife gonna say about that? And I'm like, She's not she's not gonna see it, like whatever. It's just a kind, it's just a benign comment. You know, and an hour later I get a call, yo, asshole.
SPEAKER_05Oh, I wanna get the it was all it's old stuff, it's the past.
SPEAKER_03It was old stuff, so we're just bringing up old stuff that when you're talking about like you gotta flip and you know, things happen when you don't expect them. It's the same thing. It's like I don't look at Twitter because I'm like doing it for fun. It's just things become news is constantly, the cycle is constant. You never know when something's happening. And for me, you you're trying to break it and stay on top of it. Me, I have to see how it impacts from an agent perspective, how it has a ripple effect. Like, for example, Jalen Waddell goes, boom. I had just signed a receiver from the Cowboys, Jalen Tolbert, to the Dolphins. And the only other receiver on the roster that was legit gonna take some reps from him was Waddle. So now he's gonna be all fired up about the opportunity opening up. I'm sure they're gonna backfill it, whether it be the draft or go sign others, whatever, but it's still a huge piece that that isn't there anymore. So everything affects everything, and so it's like you got to stay on top of it.
SPEAKER_01Well, two things that right away. First of all, my first question to you would be do you have any idea that Jalen Waddle could be dealt when you sign Jalen Tolbert there?
SPEAKER_03I mean, you do just because you have an assumption of like the roster is not anything and they're moving and and trying to build capital and rebuild with the whole new regime. You didn't know if it would happen or when it would happen, and you definitely can't count on it, but you knew it was a possibility.
SPEAKER_01Okay, and here's my second question. Does Devon Achan now get dealt?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, that's that's a good question, too.
SPEAKER_01Right? In fact, let's text somebody and just say let's text someone and find out.
SPEAKER_04Let's make things happen. I you know, I love the fact that AD is already one for one in his sources. Had a source, confirmed it with Adam, and next thing you know, things are true.
SPEAKER_05He confirmed without confirming, though. We ain't trying to get him in no trouble.
SPEAKER_04So he did confirm without confirming. He's a busy man knocking out. I remember uh talking to one of the best insiders in baseball, Shefty, and I asked him, you know, where his pie of information comes from. And he says, you know, the agent world is the majority, the team side is probably the second tier. And he threw out, you know, the the players association and the players themselves. Is that would that be your biggest pie as well?
SPEAKER_01First of all, I I think the biggest misperception is that there's a pie in general. Like there there are different um different people that you talk to at different times of the year for different reasons. And do agents have an inordinate amount of say and pull and information the week of free agency? Absolutely. Do agents have as much say the week when coaches are being fired and hired? They do have some, but not as much as owners and front offices and coaches themselves. What about in season? What about at the trade deadline? Sometimes agents know, sometimes they don't. I mean, Todd Todd knows this. So I think it's I think it's um lazy, and I think it's a justification, a rationalization of people to say, oh, the information comes from agents. No, there's no pie. You know, somebody that does their job the right way is connected to everybody. Can call people on every team, can call different agents, can call different players. Like to just say that it comes that way.
SPEAKER_04I didn't say it came just that way. I'm just saying a majority of the information.
SPEAKER_01There's that perception, like, oh, an agent text, and that's that it's just not how it works.
SPEAKER_03I think you have to have healthy conversations with a lot of people in the league to get a feel for what's going on and the difference of opinions and things like I think like you could have had literally an unsuspecting phone call with someone, but something comes out of that that triggers you because of another conversation you had with someone else that makes you go, huh, I wonder if, and then you start going down different paths. You're like trying to put a puzzle together all the time, and you're just using your common sense and things that you think might go down in general, and and just things come naturally through through conversations. I agree. I mean, do agents and media talk? Sure. But he talked, but you talk to owners, you talk to teams, you talk to GMs, you talk to players, just like we do. And everyone's talking to each other, and it's kind of that ebb and flow of information, and you just never know what's gonna pop out or when.
SPEAKER_01And and and again, there are different people that are more informed at different times of the year. In a free agent week, you know, of course Todd knows when a deal is gonna go down for his player. He's doing the deal, of course, right? But the team might know. A draft, he might have two of the top guys. He might have an idea of where the guy's gonna go, but he doesn't truly know where he's gonna go. Am I right, Todd?
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01But but a team might know where we're drafting this guy. You know, I I could think of so many conversations I've had with teams or coaches or GMs. Like there was one year where I knew like this one team was taking this one guy. Like I knew it. And he was just way higher than anybody else. And I didn't share that information with anybody. I was waiting, waiting, waiting. And it forms a lot of ideas that you have in your mind about things you're saying. You know, if you're talking about where a running back might go or a wide receiver or a quarterback, you know this guy's going no later than this spot. So that's gonna shape how the rest of the round goes. So it there's information that comes from all over the place. And uh just how it works.
SPEAKER_03Is it tough for you, Adam? Like you do have a a lot of information and you do get a lot of accurate information and a lot of accurate information early. But I find you to be very, you're very good with in the fact that you don't, you will not be rushed to be first. You want to be rushed to be right. And you've had to hold things in the past and others don't. And you know, you're you've built your name, built everything up by being first, by doing a great job, and being accurate and all these other things and being reputable and respectable and all those good things. Is it frustrating though when you're holding something because you were doing the right thing and then all of a sudden someone else who because there's no accountability with a lot of the people who have, you know, thumbs and phones, and meanwhile, you had it forever and you've been sitting on it because you had it from so many different sources. Is that tough?
SPEAKER_01Again, it it's the job, right? Like when it comes to the types of situations that you're talking about, Todd, you win some, you lose some. Often it works, sometimes it doesn't. And by the way, like you may know that these teams are talking about a trade, but there's no need to talk about that because many times things you know, they fall apart anyway. You gotta make sure that they're gonna happen. So, what's the sense in floating these things out there until they're more concrete and you know that there's a true path to making it happen?
SPEAKER_04I know it might be hard to quantify, Adam, but what percentage of the information do you know that you actually discuss?
SPEAKER_01I'll just say this. I mean, there are very, very few things that surprise me that come down. Very few. It does happen every now and then, but most often That was the last time.
SPEAKER_05I was about to say that was the last time.
SPEAKER_01Uh well again, I wasn't expecting the Jalen Waddell trade to be made this morning. I wasn't expecting that this morning. Okay? So this morning. But you knew it would be traded eventually. I knew that that that was out there, but I wasn't expecting it this morning. Whoa, that c it came together quicker than I expected. That's fair, right? And that happens. By the way, and there have been plenty of times I've I've been waiting on a trade to be made, and then a la Max Crosby. You know, it doesn't go through, right? Or talks break down. So that happens too. It's a fine line, like it's um it's not a simple thing to navigate. And every situation's different and you do the best you can. So so what's the hardest part about your job that people don't see? It it's just the relentless nature of it. It just never stops. You know, this morning, you know, uh it's been an especially busy uh ten or so weeks. I even said to my wife on Sunday morning, we sat down. It was Sunday morning. I love watching CBS Sunday morning. I love watching that show. It's just it's they do a great job. It's a great show. Uh, I love the stories they tell. And I don't get to see the show from basically August through the Super Bowl. And we sat down this past week, um, and it was Sunday morning, and we're through the free agent week, which that's like finals week of college, you know, you're getting ready for your final exams and you're just inundated. And I sat down on the couch Sunday and I said to her, This is the first time that I feel like a person in months, like months, that I could just sit here and not to sound like an old time I had an we had a newspaper, you know, the New York Times out, and and we're sitting there reading the newspaper and watching CBS Sunday morning and drinking coffee, like, wow. So this is what it's like to be a normal person on a Sunday morning, right? And that's not a life that I often get to lead. So uh when you say what's the toughest part of the job, like, look, I'm a football reporter, so let's not over-dramatize this, but I'm not in the field working. Like, there was a moment I had where it was in December, January, I'm crossing the street to go into our office building, and there was a guy wearing a hard hat construction and standing in the corner. I mean, the wind was whipping in the city. Whipping. And it was freezing, and it was this. And I'm crossing the street to go into the office after getting my coffee. And I said to this guy, I go, hey, uh, how long are you working today? He said, I'll be here till five o'clock. I said, So it's like eight hours, right? Nine hours? He goes, Yeah. And I said, Man, this guy's got it, this guy's tougher than me. Because I I quit, I I lasted five minutes outside. This guy's gonna be out there for hour. So what are we talking about? There are so many people that have jobs that consume their lives. But this this job is it's just relentless in its nature, but I think a lot of jobs are, you know? Yeah, that's what your job's not that way, Zach. Aaron, when you played, your job wasn't that way. Typically, Texas. You live the job. You live the job. That's how it is.
SPEAKER_05But do you obviously, with that being said, the body of work you're putting in, do you love what you do, right? Is there an end goal for you? Like, how long you you say, Adam, you I'm the top dog. You we know all that. I've been doing it for X amount of years. Is there like, okay, I'm starting to come to my end, or are you like, I love doing this shit?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I I it's a great question. I love doing what I do. I love the network I work for, I love the people I work with. I'm sure there'll be a time where you don't want to do it, but I like it. I'm having fun. There now there are times, you know, last week that's that's hell week. Like that's that's not fun. Like, that's just insanity for a week. But by and large, I I love the adrenaline of Sunday morning. I love love a big like there's nothing that's juicier and gets me going more than a big story, like game day for you, Aaron, a contract for you, Todd, a big deal, Zach, same thing. You know, we're talking the same language. So, I mean, you you love that stuff. I still love it. And and and here's the other thing. I don't know what else I would do. What what else am I gonna do? Like I don't do anything else. I don't I don't garden. I'm not a good golfer, you know. I don't I don't um you know I don't travel very much. So I don't have a whole lot of hobbies and a whole lot of life outside of work. This this is what you come to know. And by the way, like, I don't know, that's not great either. Maybe you know, maybe I can find a way to incorporate some balance into what's an imbalanced livelihood. You know, it's why my good friend Woj left. Like he just he was done. He's like, I'm done, you know, waiting in the shower for Todd to text me back that the trades on the deals, like he didn't want to do that anymore. And I I understand that, but I I don't know what else I do, and uh I have bills to pay.
SPEAKER_03Same thing with me. Like, oh, at least I get to go, you know, part of my job is I'm watching football practice if it's an all-star game or whatever it might be. It's not sitting at a desk. But at the end of the day, you still have to, you're you're still a dad, you're still a husband, and and finding that balance is never easy. Um, and that's probably the biggest struggle is is is the drive is going to be there and it consumes you. But finding the balance to be there for everyone else and be present because your mind is not always in the moment. Your mind is what's happening or is this happening? And you're trying to listen to your wife and you're trying to pay attention to your daughter and all these different things. Can I turn it off? That's the tough thing for me because it's just never ending.
SPEAKER_01But by the way, how about this? Like it was two weeks ago, it was Friday night, it was about 6, 6:30. I said to my wife, you know, um, you know, we've attended to, we have two sick dogs. We lost one of our dogs last week.
SPEAKER_05I'm sorry. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and they're like our babies, they're like our kids. But but but the point is, we were sitting in a Friday night, and I said to her, You want to watch a movie tonight? Because I just figured that'd be. She goes, Ah, maybe, but I don't want to watch it with you because you're just gonna get phone calls and get interrupted. And I'm like, No, no, no, no, no, no. We're not there. That's next week. We're not there yet. It'll be a quiet Friday. You could pick a movie. She goes, You're gonna get phone calls. I said, Okay. She went upstairs. I'm downstairs. Long story short, 90 minutes later, Max Crosby traded to the Baltimore Ravens. Now I was dealing with that, you know, right after we spoke. And so once again, my wife was right. I would have been annoying, she would have been disappointed. She called it off before it even began. She understands what it's like, and this is the life that we've all chosen. Again, it's not a complaint. It's just what it is. Like it's a Friday night. Most people have left work. They're out to dinner, they're at happy hour, they're having drinks, they're going to the movies, whatever they want to do. These jobs don't know that because there are 32 entities out there that operate whenever they want to operate. They operate on Friday nights, they operate on Saturday mornings, they operate Sunday afternoons, they operate on holidays, they operate in the middle of the night. It doesn't matter, okay? When they operate, you have to operate. And there's 32 of them. 32 of them. So you could be on the Peloton trying to get into your first Peloton ride in a couple of weeks because of free agency, and Jalen Waddle could be traded to the Broncos. Just the way it is. That's the life you chose, Adam.
SPEAKER_04That's it. It's what he chose. You were a uh beat reuter for the Broncos back in the day, so you understand where my you know lens is coming from, being that hyper-local focus Falcons, Braves, Hawks, Georgia, Georgia Tech, etc. And you mentioned you got the 32 teams that you gotta worry about. So while my relationships are, you know, hyper-local, you have coast to coast uh for everybody that touches these teams. So how do you know, is it based on relationships, Adam, when uh a story is real versus being kind of told to you for leverage?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. I don't view it like that. Like I've done this job for 36 years, and uh I'm sure there are times when people are trying to leverage you, but I I try to think, and maybe I'm naive here, that I'm dealing with people that I've had long-standing professional relationships with. It's relationships. And I don't I don't think they're trying to use you. Like, I'm sure there are times that happens, it'd be naive to think it doesn't, but I just think by and large that we're dealing in the truth. Like, there might be something that I might be able to help with, there might be something I might not be able to help. But like, what's the deal? You know, I I just don't view it like that. Like you're being leveraged. It makes it sound like it's uh uh dirty and more sinister and more calculating than it actually is, I think.
SPEAKER_05That's fair, for sure. I mean it's it should be a dirty business. But it's just a dirty business. It can be I'm pretty sure somebody potentially did that. We don't know who, but I'm I'm just saying it's a it's a dirty business.
SPEAKER_01Of course I remember one time. I remember one time a team told me, hey, hey, we're gonna visit with this quarterback. Do you mind putting it out there? I'm like, you want it out there that you're visiting with this quarterback. They're like, Yeah, we're not gonna take him. But you could say he's visiting. I'm like, okay, well, they took him. Two weeks later, they took him. And I'm like, I call I'm like, I think so. You weren't, I know, but we, you know what? The guy came in, we really liked him, and when he was sitting where he was, it was a great value. So that then that's my point. These things change all the time. Like, teams change their minds, situations change. You could be having trade talks that don't materialize.
SPEAKER_04You can that's the hardest part of the job is that it happens in real time. When you and I started this thing back, you know, 20, 30 years ago, you waited for the six o'clock news, the 11 o'clock news, or you read about it in the morning newspaper and you had time to advance a story throughout the day before it was finally published. Now the shit's going down by seconds, right?
SPEAKER_01Right, right. People are we're getting play by play of trade talks, of contract negotiations, and sometimes they happen and sometimes they don't. And that's why, like, if I'm gonna report on, like, it's gonna be serious, it's gonna be on a path to happening. It's gonna be, I I don't want to get into, oh, they made an offer and now they're countering. And like, we'll be there hopefully, you know, when the deal's getting done, when the trade's getting close, when the parts are coming together. You know, before then, it's already a lot. We don't need to get into that world, in my mind. In my mind.
SPEAKER_03I think the most difficult thing of your job, Adam, is is the balancing of the information and the relationships and the trustworthiness that you have to have, that people have to have in you. You burn somebody, that source is gone, and your business thrives on sources and and the word earlier was relationships. And I I think that is a very you can't, I don't even know, you can't teach that. That's just a it's just a personality. It's just a I mean, obviously you can earn it over time, but it's it's something you can't teach to know how to navigate that path, talking to two different parties unrelated but to the same situation without divulging and without compromising what the end goal is, is not an easy thing to do.
SPEAKER_01No, there are all sorts of uh difficulties and challenging spots. And part of the problem is that there are more people vying for this information and the information is getting out faster than ever before. It's um again, we we go back to uh the earlier times where you get a story and it will be published in the next morning's newspaper seven, eight, nine hours later. Like, that's not the world we're living and operating in right now. It's a totally different world. Stuff happens in real time, it's a matter of seconds. So you know, Jalen Waddle trade could come in, and and you know that people are gonna have it like in moments. So you gotta go right now. And you can't be in the shower. You know, like it's it's it's crazy. It's crazy. You can't do it.
SPEAKER_05So what you said, you don't wash it, you don't get time to wash your ass.
SPEAKER_01We try to do that. We try to make sure we're clean, Aaron. Okay, just check it. We try, we try to make sure we're clean. Always.
SPEAKER_03Do you do you remember breaking the Aaron Donald story when his contract, his last contract?
SPEAKER_01His last contract? I remember there was a time he had a big holdout, and I do remember I was two meter years back-to-back holdouts. Yeah. And I remember there was a time that he ended his holdout in late August. And I do remember I was in Michigan taking my son to college, and I was trying to move him in. And it was the same day I think like Teddy Bridgewater was traded somewhere, like, and it was happening as we're trying to move him into the dorm. And that's that that's what I'm talking about. We're trying to move my son into the dorm. You think like there's a you know, a big deal, it's an emotional time. And we got Aaron Dahl reporting to back to camp. We gotta we gotta get on that. You know, you're screwing my time. You didn't consult me on the time that you could do that, Aaron. Come on. Not bad, man. That's not bad. Hector times, man. Hectic times. Yeah, that that's uh but and but that's the thing. Like, there's always like an Aaron Donald reporting or a Teddy Bridgewater being traded or something. It's just amazing. And it really does uh it takes over a lot a large part of your life. Like I said, you get I think to do any job, any job the right way, I think whether it's in finance or law or education or government or whatever you want to I think to do any job the right way, you have to live that job.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And won't consume you.
SPEAKER_01Here's the thing you don't have to live it, but it's not gonna be good.
SPEAKER_05Well, that's the difference from good and great. That's the difference from good and great, right? And you're all the way in it, committed to it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, to to be as good as you could be in any job, you gotta live it. Correct. If you don't want to live it, no problem. Like you you could go do a nine to five job, that's great. I I just can't imagine that anybody could be as great as they could be if they're just not immersed in it at all. And by the way, it's not a great thing to be like that either. I'm not saying that that's it's a gif and a curse. It's a gif and a curse. It's a blessing and a burden. It's a blessing and a burden.
SPEAKER_05Correct. Correct.
SPEAKER_04Complete this sentence for me. If Twitter didn't exist, it's cost X now. Yeah, yeah, exactly. X did not exist.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I that was probably the game changer. You know, I and I I I think that what what's so amazing to me now that I think about it is I left NFL Network to join ESPN in two thousand nine, in the spring of two thousand nine. So uh some seventeen years ago. When ESPN hired me X and Twitter, I did not have an X and Twitter account. It was just underway. So they hired me without an ex and Twitter account. I just can't even believe that's how different the world was when I got hired at ESPN. So to complete the sentences, what was the s what was the question act that I have to answer?
SPEAKER_04Like Just complete it. Yeah. If Twitter did not exist, dot dot dot.
SPEAKER_03He wants to say life would be a lot more enjoyable, but he can't because here's the problem.
SPEAKER_01Here's the problem. Then we'd be posting on Instagram or Facebook or threads, like or if social media didn't exist. Social media didn't exist. By the way, if social media didn't exist, our kids would be a lot healthier, their mental health would be better, the country would be stronger. And so uh social media is great in many ways, and it's incredible the information that's at your disposal at the tip of your fingers. But in a way, it's been a huge setback to many people.
SPEAKER_03Adam, what's more difficult covering and figuring out the draft season or f free agency? Obviously, draft season is a lot longer, and there's so many different possibilities, and free agency is a quicker hit.
SPEAKER_01What's interesting to me, I've always said this to people like there are four, well, I always said there were three, three times in my year that I I just, you know, you don't want to be around me.
SPEAKER_03Number one was I love being around you during all these times.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I appreciate it. Up to free agency and during free, like you know, the two, three-week period then.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01That was always number one. Number two, I I would always say is at the end of the regular season when coaches are being fired and hired, and the playoffs are starting, and we've got pregame shows Saturday, Sunday, sometimes Mondays. Instead of having just one pregame show a week, you got pregame show Saturday and Sunday, and so like two or three times the work, not to mention all the firings and hirings. That's crazy. And then the draft. Those are the three times of the year peak periods. But I actually really think now, and it it I I can't even believe a fourth has creeped into the conversation, but it has. The NFL trade deadline in recent years, that that's been crazy. Like that day, it's like a day of free agency, you know, and and leading up to it is the same kind of thing with all the rumors and trades that are going down. So now it's it's not even about the the end result, but some of the stuff might not even happen, but you're still working and checking out so to and to me that like we'll just say the two weeks leading up to the trade deadline, that has become to me as significant and as overwhelming as those other three periods are. The draft to me, of the four, the draft is easily the most pleasant because very few people are gonna really tell you the God's honest truth. Like, oh yeah. They're very I I like it when they do, because their seat their secrets are safer. So like when these other teams are called, hey, what do you what do you hear this team's doing? If they're being honest, I'll be like, hey, I I could see them being in the safety market, I could see them being the linebacker, but I won't be like, oh, they're taking Kyle Hamilton. You know, I'm just I'm you know, I'm making this up. And whereas if a team says we're taking Kyle Hamilton, we love this guy, I would never share that. I would never share that. But if they don't, all fair and game. But the draft but the bottom line is the draft, it's a lot of speculation, it's a lot of conjecture, it's a lot of wondering. And by the way, like a teammate plan to take this guy and he goes anyway, no one knows exactly how it's gonna go. So the draft of the four NFL reporting milestones in my mind, the draft is the easiest and most pleasant by far. The other three, free agency is a beast. I bossed free agency's gotta be the first one. Yeah, free free agency is a beast, and I think the trade deadline is now second. And then firings and hirings, because you know it's gonna get fired and hired, although all of a sudden you could get a firing three days later. Whoa! I didn't know they were firing that guy. Whoa. So that happens too. It's all and with the NFL, everything's a big deal because so many people love it and care about it. So that that's the other part. So it could be March 17th, we're taping this, and things might be slower and quieter a little bit, and we're getting ready for the NCAA tournament and the baseball championship and spring training and everything else that's going on in the world. But if Jalen Waller gets traded because that's a trade, that's the biggest thing when that happens. Just like next month, if there's a big thing, you know, some team signs Brandon Aubrey to an offer sheet that the Dallas Cowboys aren't going to match, and they pay Brandon Aubrey$10 million a year, as I think that they should, right? That becomes the biggest thing on that day. The biggest thing. Because everything in the NFL is the biggest thing when it happens until the next thing comes along, and then that's the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_04You work for the most dominant sports network in our country, covering the most dominant sport in our country, and you have earned the right to ask for certain things. I know you covered the NBA back in 2017 doing some sideline stuff, which I'm sure was a thrill for you. Well, if you were to go to man what what do you want to do? Is there anything out there that you have not done that at your point of your career, Adam, that you would like to cross off that journalistic bucket list?
SPEAKER_01No, I I uh, you know, we have the Super Bowl this year, which will be exciting. So I get to work on a Super Bowl broadcast in LA. Look forward to that. But I you know, I don't think about it like that, Zach. It's not like I aspire to go do something like go cover the Masters or go cover the Olympics or I I don't care. Like, whatever you want me to do, I'm happy to be included. I think that that's the biggest thing is that when people include me and I'm a part of something, I love to be a part of a team, feel a part of a team. Like, you know, our Sunday countdown team. I love hanging with those people. We do the show on Sunday, we watch all the games together, we bring in food. It's our version of having a professional locker room, I guess, right? Like you love that.
SPEAKER_04But knowing your work ethic, if you go all in on something, you could be the quarterback of a show where you are now, you know, anchoring ESPN's coverage of a Masters or a Wimbledon, your Scott Van Pelt or something like that, not as opposed to just the football guy.
SPEAKER_01But but I'm but I'm but that's not my job. Like I'm not I'm not a quarterback, like there are hosts who are great at what they do, and that's not where I have um practiced my craft. Now, I I've done my podcast, the Adam Shifter Podcast, for that reason alone. Um, I wanted to gain experience in a different format hosting and transitioning and asking questions and discussing just to give myself a little bit more uh I don't know versatility, more fun, a little, you know. Versatility, right? It'll be like if all of a sudden Aaron Donald's catching passes, you know, on summer or training, and they're gonna use him on the goal line, or he's playing special teams. They should have. They should have ludicrously using him on the damn goal line. Right, yeah, the more you can do. So um yeah, I've I've loved doing the podcast like that, but I I I'm not gonna be a better host than Laura Rutledge or Scott Van Pelt or Mike Green. Like that's not happening. So, and they're they're great at what they do. And I'm not, I don't want to be, and I don't try to be. Again, I'm happy to be included in whatever ESPN wants to include me in. And I love being a part of the teams, whether it's Sunday countdown, Monday night countdown, NFL Live, Sports Center, get up, whatever it may be, that I'm on. That that to me, it's fun when you feel like you are included.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you're always working, right? So we talked about this past in the podcast. Like, what's what's considered your off season? Do you like your off time that you can kind of like shut down for a minute? But I know you say you're always working, but everybody needs some type of time to reload, uh a couple of days, a week, whatever it is, a weekend. Yeah, what is that time for you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we we go back to like I said to my wife on Sunday morning, we're sitting there, and I'm like more than a day, Adam. More than a day. You can get at least three days. Aaron, I will say this. When we get past the draft, right, and get to May one or so, if I'm gonna be completely honest, May and June, I'm working, I'm on alert, my antenna's up. But if you're not gonna take a moment then to decompress and unwind, then you're probably not doing it right. Like I'm gonna be 60 years old this year. 60 years old. And uh, like I said, I love what it's like.
SPEAKER_00You look good, man.
SPEAKER_04I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_01Oh, his head looked good, man.
SPEAKER_04Hey, better not you better not have a 60 uh blowout celebration and answering. You don't look 60, but that's crazy.
SPEAKER_01You don't look 60 at all. Actually, my family and I were gonna go away for a few days, the four of us kind of celebrate them, but we'll we'll do that at a point before the craziness begins. Um and and we and we never do that. Never like before my 50th, a decade ago, my family had never been to Colorado, and Colorado is such a part of my soul having spent 16 years there. I took them out to Colorado to stay there for a few days. They'd never been, and it was very nice. So we're gonna do something similar this year. But it's gonna be, I think it may be yeah, we'll see where we'll we'll see where it ends up being. But we're gonna do something similar this year, um, and that'll be nice. Okay.
SPEAKER_05Damn, Adam, you 60? You don't look like that, man. You look good, man. You're old as hell, Jordan. How would you? You're old as hell, but you look good. You look good. Todd looks older than me, right?
SPEAKER_01No, yeah, Todd looked good too. I you know, I ain't gonna shit on my guy, man. I can't show him. How old are you now? Todd, we're about the same age, no? Uh you got me by six years. Well, so it's okay.
SPEAKER_04All right. Todd, I want you to guess, in AD, I want you to guess how many text messages do you think Adam gets a day?
SPEAKER_03And then he's gonna tell us the answer. He wouldn't even know. He's never counted, but I don't even know.
SPEAKER_05I get a lot of text messages. Yeah, easy over a hundred. I have never a day.
SPEAKER_01Easy.
SPEAKER_05That's easy.
SPEAKER_01I I just think there's certain peak periods. Like last week, woof, we could go through and count it. It'd be a lot last week, a lot. Um, you know, this week it'd be quieter. You know, you get some, but you're not overwhelmed by them. Yeah. I think again, everybody gets a lot of text messages in in various lines of work. I'm not special or unique there.
SPEAKER_04You respond to everything? Because I know Todd is the 80s great at responding. Matt Ryan, awful. Todd, he's good, but you get back right away.
SPEAKER_01I am, people, my friends will tell you. Again, I don't have many gifts in life. I'm not as strong and tough as Aaron. I'm not as smart as Todd. I'm not as good looking as Uzak, but I am the quickest responder to everybody always.
SPEAKER_03Even in your personal life, even friends?
SPEAKER_01Anybody that texts me gets an answer within seconds, unless, like I am on a podcast or I'm on TV. If you don't get a response within seconds, it just means I'm but I would say 97, 98% of the people that text me have a response within seconds. My friend, I have friends that laugh, they're like, We have a bet, you know, if they're if the response will come in in under five seconds. Like, it's just that's what I do. I don't know.
SPEAKER_05You always get back to everybody, you know.
SPEAKER_04I don't know you, Shafty, but I I I think I know you in terms you seem like you're just good people, right? And you know you don't get to where you're at in life without having strong relationships with people. And to me, it's the hardest part of the job is getting close to people and then having to do a story on them or their franchise or their you know whatever they might be dealing with. Um is is that the quote unquote hardest part for you?
SPEAKER_01Well, again, it it doesn't happen very often like that, where like I I I don't know, Zach, you're getting close to somebody and then I'm making this up, they're arrested for DUI, right? Like, I I don't know. Like if they do if somebody does something and they're they're in tr then they're gonna get reported on. Like, don't do that.
SPEAKER_04But you you are but you report on it, but you also you know, you break down things. So if you're if you're tight with a coach or an agent or or something like that, and then you know you're critical of them, right?
SPEAKER_01My job isn't to be critical, my job is to present facts. It ain't personal, it's just business. My job is to be is to, okay, like by the way, you know, uh there were people that were highly critical of the Bolton Ravens last week. So I presented other people's side and I presented the Ravens' side, and you decide what you think is right on that trade. Like, I'm not taking a side. Here's what other teams think. They think that the Ravens got cold feet and backed out. Well, the Ravens did get cold feet, but here's why they got cold feet. And you make the decision, right? So I'm not siding with P. I don't, I don't, I don't, I, I, I try, I try not to do that. I try to just present factual information. You can't go wrong presenting the truth.
SPEAKER_04Well said, brother. AD, what do you think, man? You gonna get in the insider game?
SPEAKER_05I can't. That he got Adam got that, man. He got that on luck, man. He got all that on luck. You know, he got that. You know, I keep hearing that.
SPEAKER_01It never stops. And it happens in an hour or two.
SPEAKER_03We appreciate you. Uh I do appreciate you coming on, um, giving us some time. I know that you had that McAfee thing. You're awesome. Appreciate the relationship we have, and you do do an unbelievable job. Trustworthy, respectable, bust your ass. Ever all the success you have, you deserve, and then some. We appreciate you jumping on with us. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01I'm honored to be with you guys. You all do a great job in your own respective fields, and it's an honor to be with all of you today. Uh hey, I'm glad we didn't get interrupted too many times here. It's very nice.
SPEAKER_03Appreciate it. Enjoy your afternoon, man. Hope you get some time off.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thank you very much, guys.
SPEAKER_05Hard work pays off, big guy. Hard work pays off. Keep it up.
SPEAKER_03I have no imminent news for you uh immediately. So just so you know. Hopefully, something sooner. Yeah, I got you. Thanks, guys.
SPEAKER_04Nice job, AD. You got him going. You confirm what sources told you about Adam Schefter breaking news in Bay.
SPEAKER_05He answered it without answering. Once he's run the wife up, I left it alone. I was like, I don't want to get nobody in trouble at the house, man. That's that's the worst because you gotta deal with something at the house. Your house is your safe place, you don't want no problems at the house. That's right.
SPEAKER_04Hey, you didn't rat on him. He was the one who brought it up on uh in a national podcast.
SPEAKER_05That's why I tried to ask it without asking it. Like, you know, you try to jump, jump around the question a little bit, you know. You understand what I'm saying? You know, but you know, it was good, man. High energy, it's like it's all over the place. It's like I only can imagine, like, shh. So I like Adam. That was my first time I felt like really talking to Adam. So that was he was great.
SPEAKER_04You know, and Todd, I know you go back with him, right? I mean, all these years. So how do you deal with a guy like that who's super trustworthy and you know the the the information's rock solid? And then you had these other guys out there that just seem to sometimes at times throw stuff to the wind that see what will stick, and then what ripple effects does that cause with your world, your agency's world, when that information's not correct?
SPEAKER_03Well, you know, it's funny. First of all, yes, Adam does do a great job. And with the media, like I am not known to be a media guy. Generally speaking, if you ask all of your beat writer type guys in their cities that are doing their jobs, I respect that. I'm non-responsive. I'm sure it sucks. I'm sure I'm annoying. I'm sure they hate me, and I'm sure they're frustrated. And I get it. They're trying to do a job. I'm trying to do a job also. And I don't necessarily see the benefit of winning the battle and losing the war by coming out and putting information out there that can potentially upset what I'm trying to accomplish. At the end of the day, all I want to accomplish is getting the deal done for the player, whether that be a trade, whether that be, you know, his draft situation, whether that be a contract. So I don't really engage much with them. But there's the times you catch me, and I may have not been in a good mood or something like that. And it happened multiple times actually in Indianapolis. And probably one of the most infuriating, and I don't even know why I let it bother me because most of the time I just let it roll off, but it was just everywhere. And I actually posted it on Instagram, shockingly, um, which was me walking to meet the Dallas Cowboys on their bus because there were so many rumors that I allegedly asked for$10 million a year for Brandon Aubrey. And it's just like copy and paste, copy and paste, copy and paste, and just ends up everywhere. And eventually, you know, I called out one of the writers who said something and he came out on Instagram or whatever and apologized or whatever. But there's still others that are still saying the same thing from that market that oh, the agent asked for this, and it's it's infuriating that there's no accountability. I can't sit there and go attack each one, but but it's really annoying because they have agendas and and and it's really obvious how they operate. What is a what do you know?
SPEAKER_04Wait for it. It's just Todd's Instagram.
SPEAKER_03It's the motherfucking eagle double table. No, that was not my idea.
SPEAKER_04So when Todd walked out with his Instagram post, that was the music in the background in it. No, it was not.
SPEAKER_03No, it wasn't. No, I don't know, dude. It was I'll show it to you. Yeah, you're wrong on that. I love that song. I love the song, but that was not it, pal. Here, this is this.
SPEAKER_02Like, how do you Zach doesn't know what he had for lunch today? So just he's he's a typical reporter, false reporting. Just so on cue, so on cue. I'm literally telling him how false reporting drives me nuts. And he literally, while I'm sitting here in front of me, false reports.
SPEAKER_04I just think I'm still blown away that the fact that Todd posted A on Instagram and B went with like a really good song to somebody posted before. Somebody posted it forward.
SPEAKER_03Someone posted it for me. I don't know. I don't know how to I don't know how to post. I said I would song I wanted though. I feel like I started from the bottom and and so I felt that that applied. And since it was about my guy Brandon Aubrey, I feel like he started from the bottom and he's here. So I I felt like it would that was appropriate as I was walking onto the Dallas Cowboys bus to have a lot of. It was great. It was an awesome post.
SPEAKER_04If you haven't seen it, I I highly recommend everybody checking out Todd Shadows. It was it was like very artistic, you know. You got the dark shadow going to the table. It wasn't meant to be.
SPEAKER_03It wasn't meant to be. It was just doing a video walking onto a bus. Oh, it was great. My Instagram. But no, it it it is irritating. And so you do respect the Adam Schefters of the world. Um, and there's others like him that are have accountability, actually care about what they put out, don't want, I mean, he wants to be first. He wants to break things, just like you know, Ian Rappaport does, or whoever does, they all want to be, but like to hold off and not do it if it's not right, or to make sure, and that maybe that extra minute to make sure and verify is what made him not be the first one, but he's okay with that because he'd rather be right. And that's why he is where he is. This misinformation out there and this just putting stuff out there so the talk shows can have conversations and they never verify, and you know, or and they just take the one-sided story, it drives me nuts. It just uh actually, I shouldn't say it drives me nuts. It's unfortunate. I sometimes it bothers me, but most of the time you have thick skin and you just roll with it. But that Aubrey stuff that was just constant during free uh Combine Week was just so annoying and so inaccurate. Um, and they corrected it and then some did correct.
SPEAKER_05It's just you know what I'm saying. Wouldn't they just make the shit up or somebody and with the front office just put something out to make a quick little, you know what I'm saying? That's what I think it'd be more than I'm just making up something.
SPEAKER_03It's like I'm not gonna say what I think it is, but you can kind of you're not you're not office.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Listen, I know what kind of happened then. There's teams that leak stuff out. There's teams that don't leak stuff out there because you know they want they want the player to look like he's greedy to the fans and the fans turn on him and all that stuff. Listen, everyone's got their strategies. I just try to stay stay quiet and do the right thing and the fair thing for a player and get them the right deal. I can't worry about all the riff-ref and all the noise. At the end of the day, I know the good news is I really keep my clients in the loop. So the obvious case, in this case, yes, you do too. They knew what we were doing, what we were asking for, what so they were very well aware of what was real and not. Can you imagine if you didn't do that and the map came out and then they were like, oh my god, why are you, you know, that's crazy. And now all of a sudden they're mad at you. Like, no, educate, communicate, and make sure everyone's on the same page. Because that's exactly what you do. Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_05I mean how many times you and I were doing zooms on every on fucking breaking down to a T. Like, this is I'm like, I'm like, I love this shit. Okay, you get because you get a better understanding of what's going on, with how to break down a contract, how you can get it over the you know what I'm saying? So it was it was it was great to do that, get that knowledge and be like, oh, all right, let's all right, this is you know, eight yeah, let's do that, or you know what I'm saying? So I know you communicate, and everybody's on the same page before you say anything or pink bring anything to the table, period. So yeah, so if something came out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, what's best for your guys too? And if something can came out wrong, you would know, and you'd be like, Yeah, that's that's some bullshit.
SPEAKER_04Yeah well, that's why I asked Shefty about the leverage game, people leaking something to him that it gets out there and leverage, and he didn't he doesn't fall for that based on relationships. But the point is that there are people that do, and it seems like something was leaked to the word leverage.
SPEAKER_03The word leverage is is is wrong. Will they use the media in a way that is advantageous for themselves in a non-like, I'm not trying to be so villainistic, yeah. But do they have an agenda with what they're doing? Is there a method behind the madness of their information leak? A thousand percent. But I wouldn't say it here, and I wouldn't want Adam or anyone else to sit here and think that they're being leveraged.
SPEAKER_04I think people think deception, no. But the team could say, listen, we want to pay wide receiver X, where in reality, they don't want to really give it to that person because they want to go with the second player. So they're gonna talk to the media, they're gonna get it out there. Hopefully, maybe a deal does or doesn't come through so they can go down to what they really, really, really want to do.
SPEAKER_03That and then everyone else can just do what they want. They can guess. If you have two thumbs or fingers and you can type and you have an account, then you can put stuff out there and you can even get a blue check now. I mean, so like you know, it doesn't you can buy one the in yeah, the information is out there is wrong. I actually feel bad for the average person who reads that just doesn't understand that what you're reading is not necessarily true or actually could be completely false. Because back in the day when you read things, you assumed it was what it said it was. I mean, look, I've had misinformation out there, you know, um, in this case I just told you about. And it's frustrating, but you also just have to navigate and you have to know how to navigate. Just like Adam knows how to navigate his field to figure out what news is coming down around the corner before it comes out. That's what he's trying to do. Those things happen if you're a good agent. You're navigating in your conversations with the media and with teams and players, and just to try to get the most information to be able to navigate and put the pieces of the puzzle together because all every piece of puzzle that gets put together has a ripple effect on something else. All moves affect something else. It's just like I was saying about the dolphins wide receiver. Yeah. I mean, uh and if I'm not on social, if I don't know about that, and I did find out about that actually from Shefty, because he texted me about the trade and said, I gotta get on McAfee. And I was like, What trade? He told me I was a boom. You know, I want to make sure. I let my guy know that in real time. I don't want to be a guy who calls my guy seven hours later, you know, especially because it could have been that if if if my guy had just signed in Denver and then Waddle was traded to his team, it would be a negative impact on my guy, right? He just signed, he was hoping opportunities, and boom, they just traded for a big receiver. See, that's the thing.
SPEAKER_05That's the thing that kind of like I never experienced free agency or nothing like that. But as far as like being on a team and you just as a player not even knowing you're gonna be traded, then you get traded somewhere else, and then you get a phone call. That's how that shit be working.
SPEAKER_03It can. If you're not if you're not an agent, you're not on top of it. You you gotta be on top of it. I think I talked to you about the Akeeb Talib story. I mean, I had a conversation with LA, you know, when they knew you know we were looking to move Akib, and I said, work with me, work with me on it. And he did a deal with somebody else, and and we didn't want to go there. And that GM, when they called me, we were all excited. Hey, can you put me on with your player? I'm like, he's not coming there, he doesn't want to be there. And the trade fell apart. I got the trade to fall apart because the new GM doesn't want a guy who doesn't want to be there. And then we did the deal with you guys with the Rams. But so a good agent's gonna be on top of it. You gotta have an idea where your guys are. And also if you have if you have enough relationships, your the GMs know that they should be talking to you and working through you on it. The reason they don't, and I think I said this before, the reason they don't is because if Aaron Donald is my guy and they don't and they're trying to trade you, and Zach's the GM, and the deal doesn't fall and the deal falls through, but I knew about it and you then found out about it, you're gonna feel some sort of way that they were trying to get rid of you, type of thing. Right. And so they don't want that to happen because, like Adam said, deals fall apart. So, I mean, you can imagine what the Crosby situation, how he feels or doesn't feel, and I'm sure that's all fine. But at the end of the day, you don't want to necessarily know a team's shipping you out if they don't ship you out and then you're stuck being there, and then they look at you a sort of way, you got to be in the building every day. A lot of GMs don't necessarily want to have that communication with an agent, unless it's someone they trust and respect. I'm like, bro, I'm gonna work with you. I'm not trying to do something to have my player feel bad by being at work either. Don't get me, don't get me wrong. But it also helps me understand if they're trying to get rid of him, even if they don't, it shows what they think of his future. Uh it makes me realize that that's not our home, whether it's now or later, and it helps me start strategizing too.
SPEAKER_04Aaron, play the hypothetical game with me. You're with the Rams, you had an epic run. You ask for a trade. The Rams trade you to the Baltimore Ravens. You post on your Instagram thanking everybody in LA for an unbelievable run. It's time for the next chapter. You show up in Baltimore on the jet, you go through the walkthrough, the physical, you're feeling great. And the next thing you know, the trade doesn't go through, and you got to go back to the Rams. What do you think Max Crosby's feeling? And how would you have reacted if that went down with you?
SPEAKER_05I don't know what Max is feeling, but I can for me if it'll be a little awkward. I feel like it's like you you move on, then you go back to the it's like I I'll feel a little uncomfortable on it because it's like y'all didn't want me. We we made the trade, and then whatever, however it fell through, it didn't fall through, and now I'm back back in your household again. It's for me, I'll feel uncomfortable. Now I don't know how I'll feel like would I want to be there, would I want to stay there? I'll be like, I'll kind of be more trying to figure something else to trying to go elsewhere, somewhere else. That's just for me. I don't know how Max feels, but me personally, I I don't know if I'll be comfortable in that building. That's just me.
SPEAKER_03You could look at it the other way, Zach. You said, you know, they didn't want him, right? How how about that maybe they did want him? Maybe that they just had enough respect for him because he's been such a long-tenured guy there, and he wanted to be out, and they are in a rebuilding phase, so they honored his request to go out.
SPEAKER_05That's what I'm saying. So it's a mutual thing. So it that's like that's like me being like, okay, I want to, I wanna, I don't want to be here. I appreciate the organization, I appreciate everything I did. I just want to go somewhere. I want to win. I don't want to go through the rebeat rebuilt and stage, find me somewhere to go. You ship me out. We we agreed to it. They I'm gone now. And then whatever didn't what whatever happened, the physical thing didn't fall through, and now I'm back with that team again. It's like, I don't want to be there. We already agreed that we we gonna separate, and now I'm back at in, you know, we're back in this relationship again. Like, I for me, I'll be like, I'm calling Todd, like, let's figure somewhere else to go. Like, these are the teams that I will I would like to play for that I feel I can win with. Um, I don't know. Let's just try to make something work. I I that's just me though. I don't know how Max feels, how but that's just how I will feel towards the situation. It ain't no bad blood, like oh, he's mad at the like the Raiders and nothing like that. It's just business. It ain't nothing personal, it's just business.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and just to be clear, when I said they, Todd, I was talking about they being Baltimore, didn't want Max because it led me to this question about physicals, right? So let me ask you about this. Is there a way? Because we've talked about this. When you do, you know, you're shaking your head, you know where I'm going with there. Is there a way to do physicals where it's kept quiet, that's done beforehand? You know, what can you do if you were representing AD to make sure that these things coming off an injury that it can be done, everybody knows it's going down before the trade or even it gets out there. It can that be done?
SPEAKER_03I don't know anything, so I'm not opining on this specific situation. But in general, people are like, oh, you know, you know, they knew he had surgery. Yeah, they did. But if I was guessing, I don't think there's an I mean, I guess one issue could be God, he's way behind on where they thought he would be on that recovery, where he should be. But I doubt it's that. I think he's probably where he's supposed to be, and they knew that and they expected that. And they're okay. If I was a betting man, I would say when the doctors looked at his stuff, again, an opinion, no information whatsoever, but just a general thing that maybe a team sits there and says, you know what? Yeah, he'll he'll recover from this and he'll be ready for camp. But he's got degenerative knee and arthritic and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And if we're giving two first round picks, they don't want him for just this season. They're wanting him for four years uh at least, or you know, three or four years. I mean, shoot, I I'd argue more than four years because you give up two ones, right? I mean, it's a first-round pick. If you're gonna invest in a guy like that, it's four plus a team option. So you got to be thinking we want this guy for four or five years of solid football. If they feel medically that his something in his body, whatever it, whether it be the knee that he had the thing on, whether it be a different knee, whether it be something, that he's not gonna be that guy that he is today in two or three, four years down the road because of arthritis or whatever, I'm gonna pull that trade off. It isn't about the immediate recovery of his knee today, it's about the big picture long term for what I'm giving up and what I need to get. That to me, if I was a betting man, what I would say is going on with a trade situation where a guy's like, ugh, no, we're not gonna go for that. That's my opinion. And again, I don't know anything, but it wouldn't, it wouldn't surprise me.
SPEAKER_05And and what year is this for Max? This is year 10, 11?
SPEAKER_04He's 28. The first uh year was 2019, fourth round pick.
SPEAKER_03So he's this is his age 29 season, is how the league looks at it. His birthday's in August. So you would want him 29, 30, 31, 32.
SPEAKER_05This is like his eighth, this is like his eighth year in the league. I mean, I think I'm wrong. Oh, he's still young.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I mean you got four four years.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think he'd be good though, but I thought he would leak like like year 10, 11. He's still young. Year eight, that's still.
SPEAKER_03It's just more about medically. Do they think that's gonna be an issue?
SPEAKER_05But I know it's their opinion, it's what they did. Uh I'm not saying he will or won. I just never know. Yeah, you just never know, though.
SPEAKER_03I could be completely wrong. I'm just saying in general, teams will look and say, Yeah, correct, this is a guy. I mean, no different than the draft. Guys will drop down in the draft. They'll be either medically rejected off of a team's board, won't touch them. Could be a guy who gets downgraded and goes down around because they think he's a guy that might need to be managed medically, right? We limit his reps, we gotta be careful with him during practice, we can't run him into the ground. And then there's others that they say he's gonna go down even further because for us he's he's a not a second contract guy. Meaning we're gonna get him and we'll be fine for the X years, but we're not gonna be able to keep him, you know, for a second deal because we just don't think medically the knee or whatever it is is gonna hold up. I'm just saying, if Max was with the damn Ravens, it would have been that's also probably why they pay that's probably why they that's probably why they paid a premium. They thought that maybe they're one player away, and that player was the difference maker and making a run. That's why they probably did it.
SPEAKER_05But it's different from uh Crosby, not saying Henderson, he's a good guy, he's gonna get you double digit sets, but it's it's different when you got a dominant player that can affect the game in so many different ways consistently. That's what I look at it. It's like, you know, Henderson, a good football player can rush the parish, but Max can do it all. He's he's a game. It's different.
SPEAKER_03Can we go? Can we go back for a second? I just had a thought. Did Aaron Donald ask Shafter, does he not wash his ass? Like, did he say that?
SPEAKER_05Because he said he don't got time to share. He said, I can't even get it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but how about you dirty? Is your hair dirty? Like, what did you go straight down to like what you say?
SPEAKER_05You don't you don't wash your ass? That's what you're telling us right now. I mean, what was that? I just need to understand because I'm I gotta at least shower two things.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm with you on that. That was like my ADD kicking in. I just literally it flashed back in my head. I had to go back to that.
SPEAKER_05Oh, I ain't got time to shower. So what you doing, big guy?
SPEAKER_04Taking hoe baths. Hey, one quick one quick question. Do do teams have to tell you, Todd, what part of the physical they failed?
SPEAKER_03No, I don't think they have to tell you. I don't believe. I would find out a thousand percent. And I'd get all the images and all that for sure. Probably already knew that. Right. I mean, if my if it is a knee and my guy was having knee surgery, I would have talked to the doctor and not only found out about the current prognosis, but I'd find out big picture and I probably would have known if it was something like that. But I'm not even saying it is. It could have been, by the way, could nothing to do with the knee. It could be some other body part, it could be that, or maybe they, you know, you just never know. They just got go free. Who knows? I'm just saying if it was something like that, I see it being more not the immediate situation. I see it being the bigger picture.
SPEAKER_04No, it's uh it's just interesting. Um AD, you remember you were talking about before the combine about all the probing and probing. Everybody kind of gets you with the physicals. Well uh one of the Georgia football players, Oscar Delp, was gonna go through drills. He goes through the medicals the next day, and they found a hairline fracture in his foot that he didn't know he had and played the entire season with. So you know, they do their homework to your point. They always they you know, they're they're they're figuring out what's going on. They're finding their, you know, if anything impossible could be going wrong.
SPEAKER_05They're gonna find it out before they invest their money in it. Makes sense.
SPEAKER_04Good show, gentlemen. Yeah, it was Todd A D, go take a shower, gentlemen. Enjoy the day. We appreciate everybody's time. Thanks for hanging out with us on a fun episode with Adam Schefter on the Inner Circle Podcast. Hit the like, subscribe button, and we'll see you next week here on the Inner Circle Pod. Much love, everybody. Talk soon.