Trope Alerts Abound at NFL OTAs

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The Heed the Call Podcast

put on 10 pounds of muscle in the offseason.

Oh, wait.

No, no, they ate 10 pounds of muscles.

Dang.

So stupid.

Terrible show.

Welcome to Heed the Call.

Dan Hands is here with Mark Sessler,

as well as the great Connor Orr,

Justin Graver on the ones and twos.

Hope everybody had a great Memorial Day weekend.

We took a little break.

We are refreshed and we are ready.

And Mark, this is the,

this week, you know, everyone, last week and this week is now the offseason is over on one level because OTAs have begun and the programs that lead up to the start of the 2025 regular season.

And I'm just guessing that you've been diving in on all of the reporting around the country.

On some of it.

Yes, attempting to.

I'm very plugged in.

You know,

over the Memorial Day holiday, what I try to think about are veterans and

respect what they've been through.

And then this morning,

Thank you, Justin.

As we are preparing to dive back into what is the ramp-up session,

Justin and I receive a text from Dan that says, be back.

I'm getting a skin peel right now.

I just want to ask,

what is happening?

Was that real?

What are we, what's going on here?

I wrote that.

Yes, you said, yes, I'm getting a skin peel.

Be right back.

B-R-B-R, you said that.

That was a joke about my mom potentially appearing on a later show.

Yes.

No, am I wrong?

That's what it was.

I misread it thinking that you were out on the town getting a skin peel.

And that's why I asked the question.

Can we even post put like screeching breaks on the top of the show as as momentum for Mark Sesler?

It was an open question.

Anyway, thank you, Mark, for neatly allowing me to seg into the first topic today.

Yes, OTAs and

the news reporting all around that.

I could always count on my partner, my dynamic duo.

Yes, it is Trope Alert season.

And it's the one thing you can really count on

is the reporting.

Connor, you have been in the field for many years.

You were a beat reporter before you were a national columnist.

Is that your title?

What is your exact title over there at SI?

Powerful.

Senior Writer.

Senior Writer.

Unbelievable.

So you know your way around at NFL Trope.

And, you know, it's funny.

This is something we all have, we've been in the business long enough where, you know,

you don't have to always be filled with humility as I am.

You know, like sometimes you can take credit for things.

I like to say when you see out there in the Discourse now people talking about tropes and things.

I wrote an article on nfl.com seven years ago called NFL Trope Season is Here, the finest in recycled themes.

You'll notice as I went to pull it up this morning, you'll notice something missing here.

It's a byline.

So thank you to NFL.com for scrubbing 14 years

of writing from the website, keeping the content, but eliminating the credit on the byline, which I don't even know.

Connor, you're a Syracuse-trained journal.

Is this legal?

Can they even do this?

Can they take my work and scrub my name from it?

I don't know, but if you want to pursue action, I have some very similar concerns about.

Like literally half a decade of my writing career that seems to have gone up in smoke on that website.

So, yeah.

So, like, are long forms, they've been now suddenly a robot wrote my long forms as well.

I mean, that whole company became an enemy of the creative as we, the longer we stayed there.

So this is just a natural next step to the process is to eliminate the idea of humans, which it sounds like they might even be doing.

Anyway, so to that point,

it's when

I think I invented that idea of the trope alert in the spring portion of the NFL calendar.

And I just want to share a few of them that I've seen.

thank you and i also remember the troops during memorial day weekend oh i didn't doubt that i just you know wait i think we assumed wait wait okay

i may have forgotten the troops sorry do you know how much i support the troops

you tell us

And I do.

I mean, sincerely,

we're not that show.

We do understand the sacrifice and the protection of our nation.

My brother-in-law, Tanner, served in Afghanistan multiple tours.

And I was watching a Yankee game, and Major League Baseball, like NFL, they will,

they are, yes.

I think it's appropriate the reaction of the crowd.

Just like the NFL may or may not look to profit on the troops by pretending to support the troops with various merch, MLB does the same thing, too.

They had something mysteriously titled Armed Forces Weekend, like three weeks ago, and all the Yankees were wearing a camo hat with a backward American flag on the side and the New York logo.

So I went on MLB.com backslash shop.

and purchased, I found out the size of my brother-in-law's head from his wife, and and I purchased a fitted Yankees hat for way for it, $47.

Hit it, Justin.

Good job, Gravy.

Anyway, I don't know where we're at.

Oh, well, I would say one thing, one quick note on Tanner.

I mean, this is a multi-talented individual.

He came to the, was it the Minneapolis Super Bowl with us, I believe,

and put on quite a show.

I would just say that towards the end of, you know, as the week

long.

Yeah.

Of all the Super Bowls we went to, and we always were benefiting.

And now I'll say something nice about the NFL.

When you work for the NFL as a full-time employee,

if you get invited to cover it, you get to take guests two tickets.

You get to the game.

Awesome.

Okay, let's be real.

There are a lot of great things about working for that company.

That was one of them.

And

Connor, excuse me, Kevin, my brother, and Tanner are the only two people in the history that were up when we got back from the stadium at 4 a.m.

They were at the

TGI Fridays at the wherever we were staying, the hotel they put us up in in the outskirts of like a Hilton Inn or something.

Yeah.

And they were

loud and proud in that moment still drinking and tossing back tostado nachos at a TGI Friday.

So let's give it up for Let's give it up for Tanner and my brother, Kevin.

All right, let's get into it.

So

trope alerts.

Here are the ones that that I've seen this year.

And if you don't know what a trope alert is, as an example, although I haven't seen this one reported out there yet, second-year player colon, the game has slowed down for me.

And then you'll see across all different beats, whoever slots into that trope, and then you bang out what?

Kind of, you bang out 800 words on it, and away we go.

Is it kind of that thing?

Not even, probably at this point.

I mean, 400 at this, you know,

are winnowing here.

So

400.

Anyway, so, but here's some that I have seen so far this year.

And if you've seen any, let us know

in the comments on YouTube.

How about that?

We've never done that before.

Let us know in the comments.

Justin, that was

a player added 10 pounds of muscle in the offseason.

We mentioned that.

We have actually Marvin Harrison Jr., Colin.

This is now these are real headlines.

I definitely put on some muscle this offseason.

Troy Palad.

Will McDonald IV of the Jets gains 15 pounds this offseason.

Troy Palad.

Okay.

Here's another one.

Player X using non-traditional methods, open parenthetical, probably dancing or something, close parenthetical.

Nicobi Dean used ballet training to help come back from knee injury.

Troy Palette.

Very good.

Very good.

How about draft bust X?

Looks like he's ready to turn the corner.

And we have Xavier Legette honing in.

on catching the ball

after Costley drops as a rookie.

Troy Palette.

I'm working on that.

That's a tough one.

Honing in.

That's a tough headline.

That is called hedging your bets.

How about new quarterback slash wide receiver tandem enjoy insane Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton on Friday night lights like chemistry?

And sure enough, Justin Jefferson and J.J.

McCarthy, this is a real headline, are quietly building something special.

Tropilat.

Quietly.

These headlines.

And here are some of my favorites that I have not seen yet, but I'm really looking forward to

Player X ready to break out after good slash okay final two games of previous season.

Let's see.

This one, I need to find who the new person is because I wrote that originally in 2018, Tavon Austin will be a weapon in Team X's offense.

Who's the new Tavon Austin?

Keep an eye on that.

And finally, the one that I really, I've always enjoyed this one because it speaks to the optimism that's inherent to man, right?

Player X, colon, I'm better now than I was before.

Devastating lower body injury.

Who will it be?

Who will it be?

I will say, and this is not to, because your list and

your mastery of the genre

is unquestioned, and not to suggest any additions to it, but I would say that you're missing one very important one that has become so incredibly important over the last few years.

And that is, you have no idea how injured I was last season.

So I'm writing it down.

I played last season with a torn ass, right?

It's like, and you didn't know that, right?

So

that's why I fumbled the ball six times in the NFC championship game.

Cause

I'm adding it right now.

No,

this is a living document, and I always welcome great additions like that.

And I'm putting that under the category that also has soft spoken star ready to take on vacant leadership role um quarterback x reminds veteran player y of brett favre

um

player x uh would mention the game has never

slowed down for me there's also player y the offense has never been faster

coach x we're extremely impressed by camp body y slash faded vet z

and yes as connor is now uh oh there's also established franchise quarterback will be something totally different now I always like that one.

Yes.

And then one from this usually pops up in Cleveland Browns mini-camp mark.

Hopeless Team X will shock the world.

Well, I mean, the, you know, draft, but draft, you know, bust X will break out sounds like a Cleveland Browns narrative, too.

Um, a weathered one.

All right, let's uh well, it's been a few days.

Uh, this is episode 150, Justin.

Wow, how about some applause?

Gravedigger,

Yeah, okay.

We got the gravedigger drop right on time.

Sorry, I had to re-loop it from back in the beginning there.

Oh, yeah.

So, episode 150, there are no reverse gears in this tank.

Let's hit the news.

That's what I'm talking about.

Good action right there.

I'm wet.

I'm dirty.

Oh, my.

Stuff all over the place, and here comes Bunsen again.

I mean, I'm torn on that one because it's a great choice as our news dropped Justin Graver.

But also it reminded me that the Knicks are on the precipice of defeat.

But Kevin Harlan, I mean, Mark, anytime Harlan could say something absolutely queasy in terms of analysis, you got to pump your fist.

We were lucky enough to have him on our previous show.

He's a poet.

Like, he just does things a little bit different.

I think he's a little bit strange, like, in a good way, like, verbally.

And, like, he'll come up with things that are like, where did this is not a normal play-by-play guy, right?

They all seem like they're a little robotic, and he's just coming from a little bit of a different place.

And appreciated.

I will hear that.

I can't believe anyone else in the radio.

He's

one more time.

I'm wet.

I'm dirty.

Oh, my.

Stuff all over the place.

And here comes Brunson.

I'm wet.

I'm dirty.

Oh, my, there's stuff all over the place.

What else?

How else are we supposed to read into that, by the way?

And then smoothly transitions.

And here comes Brunson,

right back into the action.

I love that guy.

All right, let's get into the news.

So, yeah, like we said, OTAs have kicked off.

So there's a lot, a lot to dig through here.

A lot of press conferences and, you know,

light check-ins on practice.

For instance, I saw over in New York Giants camp, it was reported that, yep, Jackson Dart has aura.

It's like, okay.

Right, we saw that a few times.

We're not necessarily hearing the deepest of analysis, but there's

analysis on what's going on in these fields as teams are knocking off the rust, and then the press conferences.

And then, you know, there's the Pittsburgh Steelers.

We'll start here.

The Steelers.

Oh, man, the Steelers.

Like, who's the quarterback?

Who is the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Because as we all know, and as we all could predict, there's a certain veteran that is taking them for a ride right now and just won't give any clear timetable for an arrival.

So, in the meantime,

there are people like Mason Rudolph who are quietly wondering, am I starting quarterback in the NFL?

Well, here is Rudolph from his presser at Steelers OTAs.

It's great.

I've been a part where you jump on the losing train late in the spring, and then you're also here from the jump.

So

I learned to adapt to both, but it's obviously good to be wanted.

Yes.

Well, that is good to be wanted.

And you might be needed, Mason Ruff, because there's Aaron Rodgers, of course.

And Rodgers is still, you know, he's in the wilderness, literally and figuratively.

But then he'll pop up occasionally.

And here is a quote that he gave, I believe, last week.

And Justin, if you'd tell me where this came from, that would help.

Aaron Rodgers,

actually, what was the background on this, Justin?

Help me out on this one.

Yeah, so he was like answering questions at a fan event, I think.

It sounds like you're just making things up.

Aaron Rodgers was at a fan event

as he blows out weed smoke.

It was a recent Q ⁇ A with fans,

and why this was happening is a mystery to even the articles that reported on this.

Like, Aaron Rodgers doesn't strike me as the type of guy that's like, oh, I'm going to the old pigskin fan fest in Madison.

No, he doesn't.

I'm going to do three hours with the fans and just stay in touch with people.

I'm not sure that was actually factual, what we just heard from Justin.

I can't get enough of Dick and Dee.

That was a recent QA session at a Mike Studd concert in Austin, Texas.

Mike Studd?

Who's Mike Studd?

What is a Mike studd?

Sound off in the comments.

Who's Mike Studd?

American rapper, singer, and former baseball player.

Okay, here we go.

Let's hear what

the hints that Aaron Rodgers gave, the smoke coming up from the chimney at the Vatican.

Will Erin Rogers ever go to the Bears?

Oh, boy.

Security, we'll get her out of here.

I need some security.

Security can.

Can you take it easy on her?

No, but I believe there's a team that might play in Chicago this year.

I don't know.

I'm not sure.

Really?

Well, are the currents in code?

I love Chicago, though.

Way more than they love me.

Shut up.

Shut up.

Go to the football camp where the team is playing.

Correct.

Just go and shut.

Shut up.

Shut

up.

Stop playing FTSE

and working under the impression that we all

cannot wait to find out how this ends.

We all know how this is going to end.

You average ass bum.

You are not allowed to do this anymore.

You can't play two years as a 39- and 40-year-old quarterback below your Achilles on the fourth play of the first year, and then play absolutely averages to a times good in the second year, but act like you're MVP Aaron Rodgers and play this game.

Just shut up.

Go, if you're playing for the Steelers, don't tell some 11-year-old girl, like, oh, well,

I don't know about that, but there might be a team.

Shut up.

Go play football or go away.

I mean,

you've got guys like Cam Hayward, like, I don't even know if I want this guy on my team with the way he's treated this entire thing.

And now, like,

we're trying to overly nuance a response to

a female youth.

Like, we're trying to fool her with a response.

What would it be?

Smash cut to Terry Bradshaw's thoughts on this.

Guy won like four Super Bowls with the Steelers.

What do you think about possibly Aaron Rodgers being the quarterback?

That's a joke.

That is just to me is a joke.

What are you going to do?

Bring him in for one year?

Are you kidding me?

I mean, that's not the Steelers' way, right?

No, man.

That guy needs to stay in California and go

chew on bark and

whisper to the gods out there.

100%.

These guys on the show, Mr.

Bradshaw, know I'm not a fan of his.

We've been around each other because of the album.

He was was not a kind of Terry Bradshaw.

We don't like mindfulness meditation down here.

Don't think a lot of

California sentiment in those comments right there, too.

Terry Bradshaw doesn't even know where he is at this point.

And Terry Bradshaw is sticking the landing

on that comment.

I mean,

like, it.

It doesn't feel.

And if there's one thing you could say about Terry Bradshaw, like, that guy understands what it means to be a Steelers quarterback and

the way to handle the position.

And I don't see Terry Bradshaw, Connor, as some like major team builder, but he's kind of right there, too.

It's like, what are you, you're just going to bring this guy in here?

He's going to be here half the time, play for one year.

Like, how does that help you?

And we've been down this road, obviously, and discussed this, but like,

Terry's right.

In 2025, Terry Bradshaw said something right.

That's how crazy all this Aaron Rodgers shit is.

I've been trying.

I've been working to intellectualize it in some way, shape, or form just because I find it to be good sport.

But what Pittsburgh is doing and what they have been doing, really, ever since they hung on to Ben Rothesberger for three extra years that they should have, has made no sense to me.

It is just constructed mediocrity.

And I don't see how Aaron Rodgers gets you out of it unless, I mean,

really at this point, you're hoping for a season where like a couple years ago, where the NFC was supposed to be this quarterback gantlet and Deshaun Watson gets hurt and you know 90 of the great quarterbacks in the division get hurt and you hope that you're just kind of this detroit pistons tough around the rim team that ends up bouncing into the afc title game but that's a that's a very rare one one kind of in a million chance so i i don't know i i don't see what's happening is it a is it a um are we at the point because i think there are there's a pocket of steelers fans that have been agitated with the good but not great aspect of mike tomlin as head coach like what is the your head coach needs to be the one that looks for the quarterback, seeks the quarterback, works with the front office, and that's the only question you need to answer in the NFL.

If you can't answer that question, and they've been drifting, it's very weird to see the Steelers doing this, but they have been drifting for half a decade.

You know what it is, too?

It's the absolute picture of why certain owners are afraid to hire.

defensive head coaches because there is no reason that Pittsburgh should not be a destination for quarterbacks, right?

Much in the way that, I mean,

it's a stable franchise.

They treat people well.

They don't cut date early on on anybody.

They're always competitive.

They have a good coach, but it's that uncertainty at play caller every two or three years where you're rotating play callers.

And if you're a quarterback, you can't bank the next five years of your life on going there, even if you're Kirk Cousins, right?

You know, you have a couple years left.

So this is one of those interesting situations where they've really just wedged themselves between a rock and a hard place.

They sure have.

And if you didn't hear that quote, and that was, and you got a credit where credit is due, that was on the Morning Mayhem show on 103.7, The Buzz.

It's a great show.

But

yeah, Brad Shaw said that guy needs to stay in California, go somewhere and chew on bark and whisper to the gods out there.

But it's like, and the people that are listening right now might be annoyed to hear me go off on Rodgers because, oh, Dan, you were drinking the juice.

I was.

First of all, yeah, I was.

Two years ago, I was all in on the Aaron Rodgers idea.

Last year, I watched him play, and if you watched every game that Aaron Rodgers played, he still has something left to give as a player.

And with the right team, he could be the quarterback of a playoff team.

And

I guess that's what they're going for here.

And they're saying, if we could just get competent play from a veteran leader at quarterback, the rest of the pieces around the team could take us to a place where we want to go, which is, you know, hopefully deeper than the first round of the playoffs.

But where did we hear that before?

We heard that last year with the Jets.

And Rodgers, as time is undefeated, it stops for no one.

He's not going to be better as a player

in his 21st year or whatever.

And if he's not going to be fully committed, and he could.

He could rant against Aaron Glenn and the Jets all he wants on the McAfee show.

But this is exactly what Aaron Glenn sniffed out in their brief conversation before he was told, like, we're going in a different direction.

Like, you're either, you got to be all the way in or you got to get the f out.

And I think there's just a building frustration around this guy, both probably within the Steelers and people on dumb podcasts like ours.

That's just like, dude, you're not as big a deal as you think you are.

And it's frustrating from that point.

And every team's social media handles right now, this week and over the weekend, are posting promising players of the pictures and videos of the players and the quarterbacks that are there.

And Aaron Rodgers says at a fan fest in Deep Texas, like, it is time to plug in.

The last thing I'll say about this is I thought last year was a constructive proof of concept where, Dan, you'll remember this.

The narrative was, okay, he was there for most of the voluntary workouts.

What's the big deal if he skips mandatory camp to go to Egypt, which was like the stupidest thing ever at the time?

Because, oh, he's building the relationships.

He's working.

Like, how much time do you want him to spend with these guys?

More because Mike Williams was not on the same page with him.

And then there was the stare down in London.

And then he wasn't ready for the back shoulder fade.

And then they cut his ass and had a trade for Devontae Adams.

Like, more time.

You need more time.

He is notoriously freewheeling.

He likes to change plays at the line of scrimmage.

He likes you to know exactly what he's doing.

He likes you to think what he's thinking, which is a really hard thing to do.

And you have to spend time together.

And DK Metcalf is going to be, I don't know, wanting to bang his head against the wall halfway through this season.

And one last note, because in fairness, I believe one of the things he has said recently that there is

personal issues that have perhaps played a role in his decision.

I just don't know what's true and what's not with that guy, to be quite honest with you, because that's kind of a lever you could pull that can shut down criticism.

Oh, there's an illness in my family or a friend.

And then that almost doesn't it feel like potentially something like Aaron Rodgers would do to try to

have another couple months off.

Yeah.

He's still active and talking and creating these mysterious slash annoying narratives that we're discussing.

He's not hidden away and in theory dealing with something privately.

I mean, he could be, but he's doing all this also.

He's not the only notable player that's not around and the teams would like it to be otherwise, but that's reality.

The Buccaneers, they were the team that bit on Hassan Reddick

and said he was a stud in Philadelphia.

The Jets thing was a disaster.

It's like a lot of teams, I think, and this is not an unfair criticism because I think the Steelers are doing it with Aaron Rodgers as well.

Coincidentally, it's like, yeah, you know, last year wasn't so good, but, you know, the Jets.

So we're different.

Okay.

Hassan Reddick had a miserable,

miserably thought-out holdout last season where he missed a bunch of the season.

And then when he came back, he was obviously not in game shape and had zero impact on the Jets.

So he lost several million dollars and then lost any leverage on the open market.

So he signs essentially a prove-it deal with the Bucs, but the Bucs still see him as an important part of their defense.

He's not at the first OTA.

Here's Todd Bowles on Hassan Reddick.

I'm sure one of these days we'll see him.

He is peeved.

Sometimes Sometimes it's like, how do you, you want to get into this into the heads of some of these guys, like Rogers.

It just seems nonsensical.

Like, Hassan Reddick, you have to have some level of awareness.

Like,

it's a turn-the-page season for you.

Like,

get into OTAs and be part of this team from Jumpstreet.

I don't know.

Anyway, and also in, oh, no,

Joey Bosa over at Bill's camp pulled his calf and will be out for the foreseeable future, all the way up until training camp potentially.

And Sesse, I remember us having some words around the signing and making certain guarantees that the Joey Bosa signing is not what it looks like on paper.

The Bills gave him, you know, the old West saying: you know,

you got to

get

the game, not the name.

And Bosa, this is a foreboding start to his Bills career at the same time that Sean McDermott said that all players were present for OTAs except for running back James Cook, who obviously wants a new contract.

So Bosa not around injury, Cook not there looking to get paid.

I think the Bosa thing, it's like, look,

if you're wise about the signing, you get him for like 10 or 11 games, right?

You just want those games to be deep in January where he makes one of those plays that only he can make that changes everything and catapults you into the Super Bowl.

Will he be there for 95% of the season?

History tells us he will not, and he's certainly not there right now.

But I can see why the signing occurred.

It's just, it has to be at the right timing.

You can't lose him in the key, most, you know, the most key moments.

12.6 million one-year contract, by the way, he's saying.

That's a lot of money for a guy that probably doesn't have the juice that he once did and can't stay on the field.

It's a bad signing, in my opinion.

We'll see.

I would say at least they hammered.

the defensive side of the ball in the draft, right?

I think it was the first five rounds.

I think you had an edge and multiple defensive tackles.

They have not repeated previous mistakes, which is like, oh, we got Von Miller.

Everything's fine.

It's like, okay, it'd be great if we have this guy, but we need four or five guys in the rotation behind him to at least be adequate by the time November rolls around.

In other news,

you know, former Bill Stefan Vick.

Should we check in on the Stefan Diggs thing?

This popped up.

This popped up right before we came on.

Well, I don't know when it popped up, but Connor, you brought it to my attention, at least.

This is, let's play it and check this out on YouTube.

Sound off in the comments.

But seriously, subscribe on YouTube.

That would be very helpful to the Heed the Call brand

as we make our march toward a certain number.

Stefan Diggs has been dating rap star Cardi B for a bit.

He showed up courtside at Knicks games.

He showed up at the Met Gala.

And now he's on a boat.

Let's check this out.

Let's dig into what's going on here.

Connor, can you narrate what's happening?

What are you seeing?

Three women in bathing suits

clamoring over

clamoring over something.

They're like shaking his hand like a toddler who wants like a Z-bar from the snack cabinet.

And Stefan Diggs is wearing an ascot, a black hat, and I think a bathing suit trunks, but

design is money on them.

And then he flips open what looks like a package of orbit gum, but is very,

very likely some sort of a party drug.

Something that sent you into orbit, perhaps, Gunner.

Possibly.

My knowledge of modern party drugs is not what it used to be, certainly.

And so

I could be behind the times here.

But he also, I can't quite make out what he's saying, but he does have them call him daddy at one point, and then he corrects them as Mac Daddy

and then relays the relays, whatever the substance is.

Because again, I don't want to get myself into issue with litigation here.

You know, maybe it should, maybe it just is gum.

Maybe everybody's had a, maybe they've had a garlicky appetizer and they all just need to cleanse their breath.

You know, there is some, this is not our reporting, but there is like um suggestions that it's a newer street drug called pink cocaine.

I kind of love what's happening here in general.

I don't, you know, I don't know.

I think I saw you on the boat too, Mark, in a different angle.

Listen, we've had it.

It's been a long weekend.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No,

let's check in with Mike Frabel.

This is where you don't want it to go when you're the player because, as you know, Diggs signed a, you know, sizey contract with the New England Patriots to be one of the most important parts of their offense.

And he's also, you know, coming back from a torn ACL, I believe it was, in his lone season in Houston.

So when you're Diggs,

you don't want to come up in the press conference when you're handing out the pink baggies or whatever to the babes on the boat.

Here's Mike Vrabel.

A man,

I've seen it.

I've seen it in person.

Mike Vrabel likes to have a good time, too.

That is correct.

But maybe he don't roll like this.

Here's Mike.

Stefan Diggs has gotten a lot of traction in the last 24 hours or so.

He's on a boat having a good time.

But the question comes in as to a certain substance that people are guessing what is and isn't.

Is this something that the team has to look into?

Well, it's something that we're aware of, and obviously we want to make great decisions on and off the field.

And we're hoping that with our time here on the field today, and that when we don't have a script and we're on the call-up periods, that we're making great decisions.

And so the message will be the same for all our players that we're we're trying to make great decisions and any conversations that i've had with stefan will remain between him and i and the club

i talk to our players every single day the ones that are here and the ones that are not that is uh

you you get the sense you get the sense that the conversation he had with stefon diggs was a little different than what we heard not there yeah you get it exactly exactly doesn't sound like a very pleasant conversation between Stefan Diggs and Mike Rabel.

And yeah, Diggs is not present and was not present for Wednesday's voluntary voluntary.

You stress that, but the NFL's, Connors, we know, famously weird about that, the way the coaches view voluntary and the way other people might view that word.

But he was not at the voluntary organized.

He's volunteering for something.

We understand that.

One day after the video of the wide receiver surfaced on social media in which he was on a boat and flashed an unidentified pink substance while surrounded by three women.

That is a pretty good little free one for you guys out there who are going to be picking fantasy team names in August.

Unidentified pink substance is pretty good.

There's a great post

on Twitter about this.

I just looked it up because I wanted to credit her.

Her name is Victoria Zeller, and it just says, it's so funny that they had to ask Mike Vrabel about the Steph Diggs video.

Yes, I saw my $63 million receiver distribute mystery neon pink party drugs to bad bitches on a yacht after demanding they call him daddy.

Yes, I do find it concerning.

Like if you're a coach in that moment, it's just like, yeah, like I don't, I don't like this.

I prefer to stop too, you know?

All right, let's take a break and then we'll be back with some more news.

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Welcome back.

We have developing news on the Stefan Diggs boatfront

unidentified pink substance.

Connor, you say you may know what it is.

I feel so old and pathetic right now.

So

I'm going to kind of say it like my mom probably would.

So I looked it up.

First, it was somebody was saying pink cocaine.

So I looked up pink cocaine.

And then that brought me to a page call where I initially pronounced it as tussie

T-U-S-I

but then I saw on Twitter that the number two and the letter C are trending.

So I think Tussie I'm now learning is pronounced Tusi.

Oh shit.

And

it is sort of a

Okay, yeah, phonetically similar to Tusi.

I didn't make it further down on Wikipedia.

Combo of looks like of ketamine, MDMA,

cocaine, meth, oxycodone, caffeine.

So those are all together baked into one.

Yeah.

So that, and for those that might not be familiar with

addictive stimulants or wherever this would categorize,

that is something that you take to keep the party going on the boat and maybe even level it up.

That's an upper.

That sounds like an upper.

Yes or no, Connor.

I had like two espresso the other day and cowered in a corner.

Like my wife had to help me up.

And I just can't imagine what this feels like.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Maybe, maybe that's a good

Patreon episode you can do this summer.

Connor, try to see.

Let's just all try and just turn the cameras on.

Just

to be fair, like, you know, a lot of people, when you get on a boat, like, it's rocky, you might not feel great to begin with.

Like, adding this to the bloodstream and then you hit some waves and stuff.

Like, I don't know what to do.

Is that how I helped you when you were on that boat?

Also, Mark?

Well, I'm here.

Yeah, thank you.

We appreciate you.

Joe Burrow

is the quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengal.

He also had some takes

on the NFL schedule and

the nature of the schedule and whether it is fair

after learning that the Cincinnati Bengals will travel to Baltimore to face the rival and AFC Superpower Ravens in primetime for the fourth consecutive season.

So, Burrow was on record saying he did not feel that it was fair.

Here's a little bit from Joe.

You know, playing in Baltimore for the fourth straight primetime

year isn't ideal.

Maybe we could get one of those in Cincinnati next year, please.

Maybe an international game next year, too.

What kind of hairstyle?

What was going on with the hair there?

I don't know with Joe.

Have we talked about this?

I'm not judging Joe, and Joe's like a guy.

You want to talk about somebody that has aura, okay, as the kids say.

Burrows got it.

That's what it used to be.

You used to say, old heads would say, I don't know what it is, but he's got it.

Now they just say, oh, yeah, he's got aura, a major aura, right?

So, like,

us, especially us commenting on his hair is rich because we can never possess the level of charisma that that man has.

And wouldn't you do the same if you were this like superstar quarterback and good-looking guy that had, was fashion-minded and liked to take certain risks in the follicle department?

Can't judge him, but sometimes I'm looking at him like,

I kind of want to write the film Mushnikal.

I'm like, is this guy focused on ball?

Well, yeah,

from that angle, you're correct.

I'm not trying to take him down a notch.

I just more had a question.

I would like him to just say, what are we going for here?

Is it midstream or is there more to go?

Are we going to be a late summer situation where we've grown it out a little more?

It looked like something from like 1991 that

was a vibe of like the fourth guy in Tony, Tony, Tony or something.

It's like, there's definitely like an early 90s R ⁇ B type energy to him.

Like

color me bad.

Like he, like, yeah, can we see a shot of that again?

He kind of looks, if you are, if you're of a certain age, you'll know who Color Me Bad was.

He kind of has a Color Me Bad energy to this style.

And, and last year, it was the bleached blonde hair, right?

It was kind of more in the Eminem,

you know, you know, 2000s MM energy.

So the guy takes, he takes risks.

He takes risks.

And he can.

Anyway, Mike North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling, we'll take all that out of the show, told the Bengals official team website that he understands Burrow's criticism, adding that if he could, quote, wave a magic wand and change one part of the schedule.

I mean, you're

Mike North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling.

Don't tell me about a magic wand that you wish you could wave.

You could.

Anyway.

So if he could change one part of the schedule, he'd tweak that Thanksgiving night game, which is the Ravens Bengals.

It's fair.

It's not a one or two years sort of league where you fix every problem every other year or every two years.

Once you start getting to the same thing three years in a row or four or five years in a row, whether it's a short week, Thursday, on the road or opening on the road, when trends like that emerge, we probably have to adjust them at some point.

You know what that tells me,

Connor, that the Bengals are going to get the softest possible schedule next year.

They're going to try to make up for it any way they can.

There are certain limitations because the opponents are the opponents.

But I think North and that scheduling,

they're going to put Cincinnati in a different column next year when they're thinking about things.

And from that perspective, good job, Joe Burrow.

You've succeeded.

Well, yeah, you have to, it's almost like late quarterback hits or any other issue where if you're a player, you have to find an artful way of expressing it publicly so that it's out there in the ether and then it puts the ball in the league's court.

I don't understand Mike North saying that if this was the one fix that he could have made, that that's it.

The scheduling process is pathetic.

And obviously, it kowtows to their corporate overlords.

We know that.

There's a way to make the schedule where you can funnel teams together and you want teams to end.

Like you'd want most teams to end up nine and eight or eight and nine.

That would be great.

But last year, the San Francisco 49ers got absolutely torpedoed a negative 22 net rest differential.

That ruined their season.

And now this year, it's like, okay, well, here.

Now here's a great schedule.

But Christian McCaffrey's a year older.

You lost Debo Samuel.

Like these are one-year windows of time that matter greatly to everybody and they're just all sitting here like discussing narratives like they're a media columnist and being like oh it's gonna be sick and like christmas to have like the red team play the green team like just do your damn job and put everybody in a position where there's some semblance of fairness like put a hard game and then an easy game and a hard game and an easy like don't just absolutely blast teams into saturn on week three and then just double middle fingers See you later.

But we'll give the Steelers nine cupcake games through the first couple weeks of the season so that we can legitimize an end-of-year Aaron Rodgers game because hopefully he'll still be standing by then.

Like, it's just, I don't know.

This schedule is ridiculous.

And there used to be like, like, we used to want fair things.

We used to want things to work out so that there would be some sort of fairness of play.

And like, you end the season being like, okay, we tried.

Now it's just like, what's up on Amazon next?

It's the Beta Buzz versus the Cuba Buzz.

That is it.

You hit on it.

God almighty.

And we've talked about it on the show.

And we are not, this isn't just like, let's rip the NFL, but it has to be held accountable that there is a price for doing business with all these different platforms because you have all these different mouths to feed.

And for those companies to justify their massive hundreds of million dollars of investment with the NFL to get into bed with the NFL, the NFL has to give them things to make sure it's fair and equitable and keep these monies teams or these companies paying the NFL.

And who loses ultimately are the players and the teams.

And you know what their biggest solution will be, Connor, ultimately?

More games.

Yeah.

More games.

More another week of this schedule.

That will be, that's how they'll come out.

How are you, by the way, Connor?

We want to check in with you real quick

because Mark and I, as we do, we're always thinking about the show.

We're always plotting.

You know, it's not just when we turn on the lights and the mics.

We were like, all right, we put a show on the books.

We're like, all right, let's tape on Wednesday morning, Pacific time,

early p.m.

Eastern time.

But let's get Connor on the horn and just make sure the schedule works with him.

And, Mark, what happened was, well, why don't we do a little reenactment of the phone call?

It was a three-way phone call.

And I'll play myself on the phone call, and Mark will play Connor Orr.

And what you're about to hear, with the help of Justin, on the production, is exactly this is not an exaggeration.

This is what Mark and I heard.

I had texted Connor ahead of time, and I said, Connor,

are you free to talk?

And he said, Yeah, give me 15 minutes.

And then he followed up with, Actually, I'm good now.

So

hit, here we go.

I'm picking up the phone.

I'm calling Connor.

Here we go.

And actually,

Connor?

Hello.

Connor, are you there?

Yeah,

I am.

Are you in a car right now?

You sound...

Yeah, driving through the streets in New Jersey, late for a track meet.

What?

What did you say?

You're late for what?

A track meet.

It seemed like a good time to talk, but...

Hey, can you do the show tomorrow?

We'll let you get back to it.

Can you do the show?

I think so.

I will call you back soon, or we can talk soon.

All right, just be safe, okay?

Okay, thank you.

All right,

I mean the TNC, Connor, which has been a bastion for you in terms of finding peace in your life.

In this case,

I'm worried about like the pace of life now with all these children is maybe sullying the peace of the town and country.

My wife and I actually talked about this.

We were driving home from PA the other day, and our newborn hates the car.

So she's crying.

And then

my kids have what's called a Tony box, which is like a little Bluetooth stereo that plays

a story of some kind.

And so they had a Paddington Bear thing on full throttle, like 19 volume.

And then another one of my kids is just like,

do you think we're going to stop for ice cream?

Do you think we're going to stop?

And like the sheer amount of different noises as loud as they could possibly go.

And I turned to her and I was like, it's amazing how good we've gotten at just letting it all like, I don't even hear it anymore.

And it's so bad to say that.

I'm an attentive parent, but at some point or another, the massive noise becomes almost like a New York City person sleeping through the subway sleeping through the subway.

It's just like

and it just goes.

And so for me, it's not abnormal for me to take phone calls now where I know that it's just basically going to sound like a Metallica concert behind me because I think that's just the volume of my daily life.

I mean,

after we got off the phone, I was like, I so wish we recorded that because it was like one of the craziest moments you've experienced.

I mean, that's like a guy

in the shit.

Like, it was like calling a guy that was in Vietnam

and was just fighting it out with the Viet Cong at like the highest levels.

He was like, I hope he gets through this on the other side so I can send him a Armed Forces weekend hat.

Like, you know, is it weird that I love, like, I love it, though.

I would not, like, that's, that is the volume, that is the volume of my life.

And that is, I honestly would not have it in the world.

You thrive, the chaos, you thrive in the chaos.

It propels you like an unidentified pink substance almost.

That pink substance being your daughter.

Maybe I do need some Tucsie after this week.

Imagine, yeah, oh, God, Tucsie.

We got to get our hands on this.

Is that way?

Can we even say that?

Okay, anyway.

So I think I didn't say anything.

On a recent Friday fun show, we

we talked about poor Cam Ward,

who, was it a fun show or was it on the regular HTC?

It doesn't matter.

But we talk about Cam Ward being kind of not getting the juice and Titans fans as an extension that they and he deserves as being the number one overall pick and a quarterback and a guy who could change the temperature of an organization and build a skyline and all that, right?

He's Cam Ward.

He's the first pick.

And then he was at the rookie symposium event and Shador Sanders, a fifth-round pick, as you may know.

Cam Ward, and it's caught on camera.

It's very awkward.

They're both holding their rookie jerseys.

And Cam Ward, the first overall pick, asked Shador Sanders, the 200th overall pick or thereabout,

hey, let's swap jerseys.

And Shador Sanders says no to Cam Ward.

And then Shador says, I can't.

I need money.

I need money.

That was kind of what he said, right?

It was along those lines.

And

that leads me to the discussion that we're going to have, which is like, I don't think Shador Sanders needs money.

I think he should have given poor Cam Ward that jersey and not

pretended like he needed to hawk his Browns jersey.

In fact,

there was a video out there that Shador Sanders had a $500,000 Rolls-Royce

dropped into his driveway.

And

so, you know, this is interesting, Mark.

This flies in the face of a man that couldn't even give up a jersey because he needed to sell that to put food on the table.

This kind of flies in the face of that, perhaps a conflict in terms of honesty.

I see a conflict.

I don't know if the food on the table was something we bought to believe.

We didn't buy into that to begin with.

But

look, this is someone with generational wealth.

I mean, I don't think money has been the issue here.

It's not been the core need.

And.

Oh, wait.

We're checking in with Shador Sanders PR flak, Mark Zessler.

Go on, Mark.

I am saying I think this is someone that after he was drafted in the fifth round and tumbled down the draft board,

ran across a massive estate and jumped into a luxurious, beautiful pool.

So it's like, I don't know.

That set the tone for me that said this person has been rich their entire life.

I think if you're Shador, this is the right move because you can't go the other way, right?

And there were two moves.

There was a fork in the road when he got drafted, and you either go full Kirk Cousins and you buy a minivan and you appear totally humbled, or you do the rich kid during freshman year of college thing, which is to have a freezer full of gray goose to flaunt your money and to be like, I am the center of all of this.

And I'll pay for all the rookie dinners and I'll take everybody out and I'll buy you a Lambert.

You want a Bentley?

I'll buy everybody a Bentley.

I don't care.

And that's the way that you win friends.

And I think that that's the move for him, right?

Because a locker room is like high school.

And there's, I think it's inauthentic of him to go in humbled.

It's just like, nah, man, I'm going to drive a Bentley with like robot tires on it right to camp in the first day.

What exactly are robot tires?

Sorry, Conrad.

I'm not a car guy.

I understand technology.

You know, like they drive it, they drive you and you can just, you can drink rosé in the back or do some, maybe some two.

But the only thing is that everything he said verbally looks like he was trying to go in the other direction of humble, of don't look at me, don't look at my family.

And then this car image, this massive, incredible car has dropped off.

It kind of like is going in two different directions.

What's the Deshaun Watson, right?

It's like, I'm sorry.

Psych, definitely not sorry at all.

You know, like that's the, that's the move, right?

Shadura's brother, Deion Jr.,

came to his brother's defense or attempted to clarify the situation, said, why would y'all think this was Shadur's?

Who said anything about this being Shadur's?

Starting with, why would y'all say, why would y'all think this was Shadur's?

Who said anything about this being Shadur's?

Nobody said that.

Y'all just made your own story and ran with it.

It was delivered to me as a sample because, you know, I don't like that color.

I like black or red.

Of course, we all know Deion Sanders Jr.'s as his taste in cars are different than that.

Deion added that

you could drive the sample of that car for up to 30 days and is deciding between that or a Bentley Mulsane, which depending on the model can cost up to $350,000.

So I think, I don't know, I think we could close the book on

Shador as a scrappy rookie just trying to get by on his meager fifth-round salary.

I feel good about that one.

Can I have a Rolls-Royce just dropped off at my house for 30 days as a sample?

Like, that feels like a different level of lifestyle.

True.

I thought he was going to rationalize it like your delusional friend who buys like a $90,000 pickup to be like, well, it fits the kids in the back, and we needed a bigger car, and which is why we bought this.

It's like, oh, Shadur needed it to carry his pads to practice.

It had a bigger back seat than the other Rolls-Royce we had.

I'm looking up Deion Sanders Jr.

What do I need to know?

Yeah, what's his deal?

He's 31 years old.

He's 5'7 ⁇ .

Whoa, that's tough.

He did play for...

Well, you just think he's the father, a son of Deion Sanders that he would be 6'1.

I don't know how...

Maybe Deion wasn't that tall either, actually.

But anyway,

no disrespect to the 5'7ers out there.

Including like two on the show right here.

Here.

So I guess we're learning here that Deion Sanders Jr.,

he's the one getting the $500,000 Rolls-Royce or choosing between the Bentley or that.

So, and what does he even do?

Right, does he have any semblance of a productive career?

He has run social media accounts for Deion for a long time, dating back to any Titans fan will remember he famously

quoted a Kevin Byer tweet saying, who even are you?

And Titans fans are like, How does Deion Sanders not know?

who Kevin Byer is one of the youngest, like best young safeties in the league.

And it turned out it wasn't Deion Sanders.

It was Deion Sanders Jr.

running the social account for Deion.

And he's done a bunch of social stuff with Colorado since Deion got there.

And

that's how he's made his living.

Hang on.

I'm on Deion Sanders Jr.'s LinkedIn profile.

He is self-employed.

He is the owner of Well Off Media.

Why is everything?

All right.

Well Off Media.

And he's also the founder and CEO of a clothing line called Well Off to promote physical and emotional well-being of people.

Well, that's I think maybe we take a step back now.

That sounds

good.

He's making sweatpants that make people feel better about themselves.

Shadur Sanders made a reported $5.1 million in NIL money during his time in college, which is larger than the value of his entire four-year rookie contract.

So

let me ask you a question then.

He's got money.

He's had money.

As a Titans fan, because I know it's got to grind your gears.

Why wouldn't he give him the jersey?

Why would he do that to Cam?

I don't know, honestly.

And I said this when we talked about it, but they're like friends.

They train together.

They chit-talk together and they push each other competitively.

I do think there must be some kind of bit underlying.

I think it was a bit of a bit.

There's just too much history of them kind of going at each other like friends.

Like, I don't think it's like a, it wasn't a total diss to a stranger.

All right.

This is something that came up a couple days ago or last week, but we didn't get a chance to hit it with the little holiday break we took.

NFL owners have approved a proposal for players to participate in flag football at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The vote Tuesday at the Spring League meeting in Minneapolis was unanimous, a source told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.

The resolution needed to be approved by 24 of 32.

Rog said in a statement, it's an incredible honor for any athlete to represent their country in the Olympics, which is the pinnacle of the global sport, blah, blah, blah.

Okay, so the league still needs to negotiate with the NFL PA, Olympic officials, and national governing bodies on the specifics of letting NFL players participate.

I think it's cool.

I'm looking forward to it.

I have a feeling.

that Connor Orr has some kind of take.

And he might even have a thousand words up on SI.com that I missed because I was celebrating the troops this weekend.

But Connor, tell me why you either love or hate this, and there's no in-between.

Show of fans, who here has watched Olympic-style flag football?

No hands going up for the audio audience.

Okay, it's not

sound off in the YouTube comments.

It's not the same sport.

And so here's what we're doing.

We're assuming that a group of NFL players is just going to be able to be dropped in here like they're playing beach volleyball and dominate a sport that has been in existence.

And everybody is shitting over the quarterback of the current U.S.

flag football team being like, who's this guy?

What a piece of shit.

And him saying that he wants to be in the Olympics.

He should.

It's not the same sport.

It's like, if you've ever watched like sprint flag football or any of these other things, which I have, it is a mess.

It's like the dolphins' offense on cocaine.

It's just constant like...

motions and tossing and flea flickers and throwing the ball around and sharp cuts.

Yes, would a couple NFL players be good or maybe valuable in that situation?

Yes.

But if we want to win a gold medal, we should probably send the U.S.

flag football team.

Wait a second.

Wait a second.

That's who we should send.

Wait a second.

So you're telling me, Connor, you could say to me with a straight face

that if we sent the Philadelphia, if we picked, I don't know how many guys are on a flag football team, let's say 11, whatever, 12, 15.

If you took the 15 top athletes from the Philadelphia Eagles, the Super Bowl champions, and and put them and gave them, let's give them six weeks to learn the nuances.

Six weeks flag football.

And you put them up against the current existing amateur Olympic or the team that was going to go to the Olympics as the flag football representatives of the United States of America.

You're saying the Eagles get cooked.

I don't think the Eagles win that game.

And you're assuming that.

That's insane.

And you're assuming that over the course of

okay they're not getting six weeks first of all they're going to be dropped in like right before training camp and been like here are all the rules that you don't know and here are all these situations that you can do in a game that you can't do in olympic style flag football and all these other things that you can't aren't going to be able to do that you're used to doing to gaining an edge and gaining separation and like why it's It's so frustrating to me because it's like we kind of tried to drop like has-been players into three-on-three basketball in France and then just got absolutely steamrolled.

We need to put three-on-three players in there.

It's a specialty.

It's a different group of players who are good at different things.

Flag style Olympic football is not football.

It's totally different.

I don't know.

I recognize that point, Connor.

Just like in the NBA and

the Olympics basketball, we've been beaten once, I believe, but since the NBA players are allowed to do it.

And they were beaten because in large part, the game was shifting.

The rules are different.

The strategy is different.

And in the case of the NBA,

the level of talent level outside the United States has grown and it's boomed, right?

And it became this thing.

But then once in that case, the NBA was like, that was the wake-up call to the Americans, right?

And they hired a head coach.

I think it was, what, Shashevsky?

And they...

They found the right players for the right system and learned how to play it.

They started winning the gold again.

I think the NFL would never, ever want to put themselves in a position to get a black eye and lose this tournament or this Olympic event.

So I think they would put in the necessary work to understand the nuances of it.

And beyond that, I'll stand by my initial thought, which is just like the overwhelming amount of physical talent that they'll have at their disposal, I think will cover up any blemishes they would have for the nuances of the sport.

I tend to think I'd rather, I would, I would tend to favor like A.J.

Brown versus like a French cornerback on a flag football team.

Here's the thing.

Mark my words, Mark.

Literally.

If we think that we're just going to fart loaf in here like a month before the Olympics and drop like a 36-year-old Justin Jefferson

We think we're going to drop like a 36-year-old Justin Jefferson onto the flag football team and walk into the finals.

This is going to be our reverse 1980 Soviet U.S.

moment.

We are going to get punked by a bunch of athletic, insanely disciplined Japanese flag football players at zero hour in like the bronze medal game.

And we play football.

We're just total assholes.

I'm just compelling from Connor.

Like, I think it's a compelling

angle to live.

I know there are times that I sound like a contrarian just to be a contrarian,

but I promise you that I believe all these things in the core of my being.

I think we would get absolutely flamed.

But that would be kind of cool, wouldn't it?

Like, it'd be amazing to watch like a bunch of NFL players get destroyed.

Graduate podcast and all content.

Okay, okay, perfect example of this generator.

Perfect example of this.

When Sean Payton went to go coach flag football when he was suspended for a bounty gate, he had to call like nine other coaches for help to design an offense because he was getting his ass whipped by people who knew how to coach flag football.

It's a different sport.

Yeah, but he wasn't the player.

It wasn't like Sean Payton had the Saints players with him.

She just were children, weren't they?

They were children, boys and girls.

But it's not the same.

You're not just

rolling in there with your West Coast offense.

I see what you mean by that.

I mean, it's a

teams do the loudest.

I think where we are definitely separated on this is the assumption that the governing body of the United States faction of flag football are not going to take it seriously seriously in terms of preparing the players for the game and the strategy.

I think that's part and parcel of what this whole thing is.

And if they do, to your point, if they do just drop them in there and like go win and represent the country,

they deserve whatever would come to them.

But I still tend to think they'd win anyway, to be honest with you, just through sheer athleticism and size.

Okay, so yeah, the NFL never just throws its dick down on something and assumes that it's going to work out.

No, it's possible.

I understand understand that side of it.

And so and so we have two things here because I agree with you that we obviously have the best athletes that play football in the world.

So either we have to take them all out of off-season training and take them all out of training camp or whatever it is from right after they finish a punishing NFL season in December or January.

By then there's going to be 31 games.

So, you know, mid-February.

And then they're going to have to go right into flag football specific training in March, in April, in May, in June, in July, and hope that they don't have any soft tissue issues, and then hope that they've absorbed the rules and hope that they're ready, and then drop them into a sport that other people have been playing for half a decade, other coaches who have been studying this.

It's like literally their life.

And I hope it works out.

I mean, obviously, I love when we win gold medals.

I love, I love all that stuff, you know?

But I think that the NFL is like kind of, you know, a little high on the horse here to think that we're just going to walk into the world.

No, the nfl not them

like there's an arrogance to this and i i totally support uh i totally support the current u.s flag football team who are asking for their spots on the roster because i believe that they deserve it and i think that that team would win a gold medal i don't think we need help okay now you're hitting on something that i i like

i can get on board with you on that conner which is it reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of the simpsons homer at the bat where where George Burns makes, not George Burns, Montgomery Burns makes, Mr.

Burns,

the heel of Springfield and the owner of the power plant, makes a million-dollar bet with a rival

over the company softball game.

And the Springfield softball team was really good, and Homer was the star of it.

But for Burns, he decided to import all of the MLB stars of the era.

And Homer was the only guy they left that kept on the team, and he never played.

I feel for the Homers in this situation, okay?

I understand that.

And I just want you to know that I want you to know that I empathize with those men.

Justin?

Thank you.

Like somebody.

Somebody out there calling me an asshole for all this stuff.

You guys are the assholes because at the root of everything, I am taking up for people like us, like the guys who didn't have it all, the guys who didn't go D1, the guys who had to grind their way through Virginia Wesleyan, and then they saw a flyer in the mail for U.S.

flag football, and they decided that even though all of their friends are making fun of them and getting business degrees and doing all this other stuff, that they're going to learn this obscure, strange version of it so that in the hopes that they can one day be Olympians because it's not even Olympic sport yet.

Those are the guys that I'm taking up for.

100%.

Applause, please, Justin.

I mean, slightly less applause than last time.

Like, side note, try telling like the Stefan Diggs of the world, like,

you can't go on that boat.

Sese.

But

you can't go on that boat.

You got to go do this instead.

During his 2012 suspension from the NFL, Sean Payton served as the offensive coordinator for his son Connor's sixth grade team in Argyle, Texas.

Payton used a simplified version of the Saints playbook, and the team went unbeaten until they suffered a loss near the end of the regular season to a team that ran the single wing, which his team was unable to stop.

Since he believed he would face that team again in the league's playoffs,

he obtained video that the father of one of his players had recorded.

He spygated him

and then contacted his mentor, Bill Parcells, to help him break down the opponent's offense.

The teams indeed faced one another in the league's finals.

Peyton's team lost a considerably closer game in which they were able to slow down the opposing offense.

That's very weird.

That's what I'm telling you guys.

Like, it is,

go watch the sport.

It's a lot of fun.

It's considerably slowed down.

the opposite offense.

It's a lot of fun.

It's different.

And I'm just, like, I think that I will pull some people over to my side.

I do.

I hope so anyway.

This has now turned to the point where, like, on the Reddit board, Dan, you and I are going to get destroyed because people are going to say, like, you know, Connor's made such a compelling argument about the nature of this amateur.

Here's my counterpoint to that, Mark.

I don't give a shit.

But tune into the next episode of It Came from the Subreddit coming up soon.

When are we doing that, Justin?

When's that back?

Next week.

Ah, oh,

yes, it came from the subreddit, which is a deep dive into the fandom of our show and thoughts on the show, both positive and negative.

And perhaps this will be something we touch on.

Connor tends to hit the third rail when he gets after the international aspect of football.

But in this case, it seems to be more

a pulpit where he's supporting

the common man and

laughing at the folly of the arrogant American super corporation, the NFL.

So I think you will dodge criticism in this case, Gunnar.

I would think so, too.

By the way, there's a few posts on the subreddit I'd like to address at some point.

You are always welcome, as you know, Mark.

And it came from the subreddit.

Anything else before we say goodbye?

This is the platform.

Rock horn.

Mark, what do you got?

It's good to be back.

I don't like taking long Memorial Day breaks, except for the fact that

observing the the wonderful nature of our troops.

That's what I did for, you know, 72 hours.

I'm wet.

I'm dirty.

Oh my gosh, stuff all over the place.

Unbelievable.

All right.

Connor, you have something to add?

I would say that just this, that May is the is the end of mental health awareness month.

I work for a charity called the Creator Newark Holiday Fund.

And while we do a lot of different social service stuff, so much of our resources now are poured into counseling services, mental health services for people in need.

Check out that charity.

Check out Mental Health Association in your own state.

Donate, donate, donate.

There's needs for bilingual counselors all across America, especially in underserved communities.

So I would be remiss if I didn't address that before we turn the page from May to June.

So thank you for that.

You're a good man, Connor, or unfortunately, because of the way it might reflect on Mark and I, we're going to have to cut that out of the show.

That needs to be sliced.

Goodbye.

All right, everybody.

Check us out on the Patreon on our next Friday fun show

coming up later this week.

And we'll be back on Monday.

Until then,

he the Call.

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