NFL Preview With Field Yates, College Football Is Back, Deion Sanders Has Receipts And Who's Back Of The Week

Speaker 1 Hey, pardon my take, listeners. You can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.
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Speaker 1 On today's part of my take,

Speaker 1 we have our good friend Field Yates.

Speaker 1 Actually, a recurring guest because he helped us prank Mike Florio a couple years ago. Good friend of the program.
He

Speaker 1 actually, it's kind of weird, PFT. We got guests changing their flights for us.
So Jerry O'Connell on Friday flew into Chicago. Field Yates extended his stay in Chicago just to be on the show.

Speaker 2 Let's not book Mark Wahlberg on the show. We could have another National Security.

Speaker 1 That's true. That's true.
Field Yates was great, though. We did an entire preview of the NFL.
He gave us some fantasy little sleepers here and there.

Speaker 1 Very smart guy, knows the league. Get us ready for football being back this week.

Speaker 1 We're going to talk some college football, a lot of great college football the last, whatever it was, five days in a row.

Speaker 1 Who's back of the week? week? The boys are back. We remind her: we have a show today.
We have a show Wednesday, then we have a show Friday. When cool, creamy ranch meets tangy, bold buffalo.

Speaker 1 The whole is greater than the sum of its sauce. Say howdy, partner, to new Buffalo Ranch sauce only at McDonald's for a limited time.
At participating, McDonald's. Okay, let's go.

Speaker 1 Now in the street, there is violence,

Speaker 1 and then a lot of sound work to be done.

Speaker 1 No place to hang out or washing,

Speaker 1 and then a candy game all on the sound. Oh no, we're gonna rock it down to Eli, Trick I Benju.

Speaker 1 And then we'll take it higher.

Speaker 1 Oh, we're gonna rock it down to Elaine Trake. It's part of my take isn't about March to a sports.

Speaker 1 Welcome to part of my take. Today is Tuesday, September 5th, and PFT

Speaker 1 college football is back.

Speaker 2 Football is back, baby. Football is back.
I have a question for you, big cat. Yes.
Do you believe now?

Speaker 1 Yeah, oh, I believe now. Do you believe now? So I wanted to start with Deion, but I wanted to even take it to a macro level.
The Pac-12 is back. Oh, okay, fully.
So the Pac-12.

Speaker 2 Did Dion switched the the balance of college football.

Speaker 1 The Pac-12 is dead. We know that.
But for one last year, they're back. You ready for this, Stat? This is from Greg

Speaker 1 Miraz, M-R-O-Z.

Speaker 2 Greg Maraz. Like Justin Miraz?

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. Since 1980, no conference has ever won their first 13 games of the season.
The Pac-12 did it this year. That's pretty special.
That's pretty insane.

Speaker 1 The last year of the Pac-12 and the Pac-12 went 13-0 to start the season. Yeah, it's pretty good.

Speaker 2 I mean, shout out Deion, though. Yeah.
Nobody believed in Deion. We believed in Deion.

Speaker 1 Love it. I know we picked him.

Speaker 2 Off air. We talked about it off the air.
We didn't say it on the air, but we believe. We believe in Deion.
I believe in Travis Hunter.

Speaker 1 I believe in Travis Hunter. 129 snaps.

Speaker 2 So he played 129 snaps. He had 11 catches for 119 yards on offense.
On defense, he had two tackles and an interception. Now, their defense wasn't spectacular, but they did enough to win.

Speaker 2 This is a crazy stat here. You ready? The last two players with 20 receptions and three interceptions in a season are Chris Gamble and Champ Bailey.

Speaker 2 Travis Hunter already has 11 receptions and one interception. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It hasn't been done. Wild.
What he did hasn't been done in 20 years.

Speaker 1 Shadur Sanders was incredible. 510 yards, four receivers with 100 yards or more.
Shout out Sean Lewis, the OC. He's a badger from Kent State.
He went, you know, he was the head coach of Kent State.

Speaker 1 He was like, I'm going to go to Colorado. I'm just going to fucking turn this thing up with these guys.
That game was awesome. Dion

Speaker 1 pisses people off so much. I love Deion Sanders so much because he makes our job easy because he starts.
Deion

Speaker 1 is basically

Speaker 1 the tree of life in Avatar for takes. So people get so upset at what Dion's doing and Deion also like the receipts and going and just attacking reporters, which I love.

Speaker 1 Then we had an entire discussion about reporters being fanboys and how Deion's wrong for saying that people doubted him. That's not their job.
And it's like, well, no, Deion's pumping himself up.

Speaker 1 This is what Deion's doing to get his team motivated, to get his school motivated, to get his program motivated, to going from a one-win season to then beating

Speaker 1 the national title runner-up as a 20-and-a-half-point underdog at their home stadium week one. It was shocking and awesome, and everything.
So, Dion,

Speaker 1 the takes that I saw, I have two that I want to share with you, PFT. One is from

Speaker 1 Sed Golden, who, when we started the discussion about fanboys in college football and people being like, Well, we're not supposed to say that, you know, Dion, like Dion's calling out receipts.

Speaker 1 That's not our job. Our job is to objectively report.
And it's ridiculous that he would like say this.

Speaker 1 Sed Golden said, Don't get me started on the blurry line between fans and journalists. Wearing the team's colors to the game saying we we during reports, et cetera, makes me physically ill.

Speaker 2 You know what he is?

Speaker 2 He's wefended by that.

Speaker 1 Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 Shout out to Jim Harbaugh for the great offense. We don't have offense, defense, we have wefense.

Speaker 1 Jim Harbaugh, who passed away tragically

Speaker 1 on the weekend.

Speaker 2 His players went out there and lined up information for him in remembrance of the legacy that left behind at Michigan.

Speaker 1 It was tragic. They were wearing free Harbaugh shirts getting off the bus.

Speaker 2 They should have wear the black patch.

Speaker 1 He did self-impose that punishment. I know that it's bullshit.

Speaker 1 We stand with Jim Harbaugh against the NCAA, but that was by the technical ruling, he suspended himself.

Speaker 1 And they're like free Harbaugh.

Speaker 2 In the big metaphor, this it was Suey season for Jim Harbaugh. And then they lined up to remember their coach.
And held fours. Held their fours up for them.

Speaker 1 Held their fours in his formation. But yeah,

Speaker 1 the journalists are very upset. It's physically ill.

Speaker 1 Said Golden has his head next to Ben Verlander in the toilet right now.

Speaker 2 I'm going to be sick.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they're like, here, you hold my hair.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I hold yours, Shohei, and people rooting for journalists rooting for team.

Speaker 2 So I don't mind what Deion did, which is basically took some questions. And then if he didn't like what the journalist had written, he'd be like, I saw what you wrote about.

Speaker 2 He basically said, your fake news, next question.

Speaker 2 And if the reporter prognosticated this game, got it wildly incorrect, what was going into it, then Deion has every right to be like, you don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 1 And again, he's using it as motivation for himself. This is how Deion runs.
Like, this is what you get. He's very transparent with who he is, and it works.

Speaker 2 And the funny part is, you'll get people that stand up for the journalists because, you know, journalists overall have an important job to do in society, I would say, if they do it correctly and they do it well.

Speaker 2 But you can't get mad at Deion Sanders for not answering questions when you then get to go ahead and you write 700 words about Deion Sanders not answering questions

Speaker 2 because

Speaker 2 you're fulfilling your own content right there.

Speaker 1 Exactly. Back to the Deion Sanders is a tree of life.
Yes. For stakes.

Speaker 1 He keeps the world going. Yes.
So

Speaker 2 he's well within his rights to be like, I'm not answering your question. It's like when Marshawn Lynch before the Super Bowl was like, I'm just here so I don't get fined.

Speaker 2 And all the reporters are like, I can't believe this guy won't let us do our jobs.

Speaker 1 I know what I'll do.

Speaker 2 I'll write 2,000 words about how he won't let us do our jobs. Boom.
He gave it to you. When Cam Newton, when he didn't answer questions after the Super Bowl,

Speaker 2 what a classless piece of shit that guy is. I can't believe I can't follow a column.
I'm on deadline. Oh, wait.

Speaker 2 I'm currently typing my take right now about how Cam Newton is a classless piece of shit.

Speaker 1 Yes, Deion, journalists should be thanking their lucky stars that Deion Sanders is part of college football because he makes it more fun.

Speaker 2 I'm sure it doesn't feel good not to have a warm, fuzzy relationship with the coach of the school that you cover. Should have said they were going to win.
You should have just sucked his dick.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you should have said it. You should have put on a jersey and said they were going to win.

Speaker 2 It's not rocket science what you have to do here. There's a reason why we just kiss all of our friends' asses all the time.

Speaker 1 We come and we come and we came. Yeah.
I think Deion said that afterwards as opposed to that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's Vinny, Vinny, Vinny. I came, I came, I came.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 The other one, this one was great. So there was also like Dion obviously said something about how he pisses people off because his blackhead coach with 75% African-American team.

Speaker 1 I think he, again, I think Dion is using everything just to motivate himself and his team, which I love because it works. That's what he does.
So then there became a whole discussion about that.

Speaker 1 And there were videos of tcu students saying fuck you deon sanders before the game there also was a video that was incredible of the of tcu student section saying throw it to hunter throw it to hunter and then travis hunter made the goal line interception which was an incredible play which that was beautiful beautiful karma credit to the person that was taking that video too because they had the presence of mind to reverse the camera angle right after the interception and all the kids were like just stone faced like oh my god and then somebody goes like who said that yeah who said i think it was the guy who was holding the camera said it he's like who said it put your hand up.

Speaker 1 So, anyway, a big discussion started. And then Clarence Hill Jr.
tweeted this out,

Speaker 1 which he then deleted because he got just dunked on royally. But he said, you think opposing fans tell Nick Saban or Mac Brown F-word U? He wrote out word.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 F-word you before the game, or is that reserved for Deion Sanders? I've been on sidelines before and I haven't heard it. The very first reply was from 2014 when on

Speaker 1 the CBS game of the week, the loudest fuck you Sabin chant was happening in Baton Rouge. And then he was like, oh, whoops, I probably fucked this up.
But again,

Speaker 1 Deion Sanders take machine. Like, I love that everyone, no matter everyone has a feeling about him, and they're like, let me get some takes off.

Speaker 1 And they're usually wrong and stupid, but they're great for the ecosystem.

Speaker 2 And he's great for the sport. Yeah.
He's awesome for the sport. We love having these polarizing coaches that you can get your takes off about.
So I'm glad. I'm happy to see what Deion did.

Speaker 2 You know what? I think they're going to win by 30 next week in Nebraska. I'm just going to say that.
That way, Deion, you hear me saying this. You can't get mad at me.
I'm on your side.

Speaker 2 You're going to win by 30 against Nebraska.

Speaker 1 It's also the minute, like, I don't think Colorado is going to go undefeated. I probably shouldn't say that, but I do.
I have a very tough schedule, okay? I think they will.

Speaker 1 Already, Deion has proven that he's turned this whole thing. They won one game last week.

Speaker 2 Well, so a lot of the conversations about Deion, rightfully so, but his son, Sean, who is incredible, is one of the best quarterbacks in the country now, it looks like.

Speaker 1 And everyone was asking, can he take the step up? And he did that

Speaker 1 more so than we all expected. But

Speaker 1 people will, when Deion takes his first loss, the world will come at Deion, and that's how this goes. It's just a pendulum that's going to swing back and forth that's going to be so much fun to watch.

Speaker 1 And we are Deion guys. I'm hoping they go undefeated.
It'd be sick. But you know that's coming.
But Deion doesn't care. No, he doesn't care.
He knows that that's coming. He knows that he talks shit.

Speaker 1 But he backs it up more times than not.

Speaker 2 That's going to give him more motivation once they do start losing.

Speaker 1 They're going to have to come again.

Speaker 2 They're going to get better once they start losing. It's going to be wild.
So, yeah, people are saying that I saw a lot of takes out there about how TCU's defense sucks and how

Speaker 2 this isn't indicative of what they'll be able to do for the rest of the year. And they have the recency bias of the last game that TCU played where they got smoked in the natty.

Speaker 2 But according to Jim Nagy, who runs the senior bowl, they've got like three or four future NFL players in their secondary. Right.
So they're actually not that bad of a defense.

Speaker 2 They're a a little bit undersized up front, but that's wait, if you're talking about like their secondary, they're very talented. Yes.

Speaker 1 This was not. They're 25 point favorites.
Yeah, this was not a fluke.

Speaker 2 Shador Sanders is a fucking monster as a quarterback.

Speaker 1 He's very, very good. Really good.
Yes. All right, so other stories.

Speaker 2 Also, those white Colorado uniforms looked awesome. So good.

Speaker 1 Now

Speaker 2 they look like shit when they're getting their asses kicked. But when they win wearing those, they look really good.

Speaker 1 It's also very funny, and this isn't supposed to be against Nebraska because they should have won that game against Minnesota. That was unfortunate.

Speaker 1 They somehow figured out a way to get Matt Rule, who is going to probably write their program and then just play the most Scott Frost game ever.

Speaker 1 Uh, they got to just flush that out of their system, but it is very funny that Nebraska and Colorado, which used to be like a great, great rivalry, uh, that's going to be a huge, huge game on Saturday.

Speaker 1 And Colorado's back before Nebraska is. Yeah, like they somehow beat them back.
A team that had no hope and was like in utter despair has beaten Nebraska to the back meter.

Speaker 1 And maybe Nebraska can win on Saturday and that they get more back.

Speaker 1 But right now, Colorado is more back than Nebraska.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Now, if Texas wins on Saturday, they're more back than Colorado, I think.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Texas and Tuscaloosa for sure.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 1 We're on back watch right now. Yes.

Speaker 1 Other big moments, Florida State is back. That was an incredible second half against LSU.

Speaker 1 Listen,

Speaker 1 we love the people of Louisiana. We love the fans of LSU, but this is the same conversation we had last year.

Speaker 1 You got a coach that is probably the least likable person in the world outside of maybe Urban Meyer. And so when they lose, like I feel bad, yeah, Bill Cosby, maybe like

Speaker 1 it's a short list. Yeah, in terms of football coaches, though, he's probably the most least likable football coach in college football right now.

Speaker 1 So when you lose, I can't feel bad because I just, Brian Kelly is so unlikable as a person.

Speaker 1 And I do feel bad for LSU fans because I love LSU fans, but this is the, you went from like the most likable guy in Cocho to Brian Kelly.

Speaker 1 And so when you lose on a national stage, there's a little bit of like, ha ha, look at Brian Kelly and his mad face. For sure.

Speaker 2 It was, it was an ass kicking in the second half. LSU came out the gate strong when they didn't score on that first drive where they had, they got down to the goal line pretty much.

Speaker 2 That was that was a bad miss. It went downhill from there.
Their offense didn't look good for the rest of the game.

Speaker 1 That was stupid analytics, by the way. That was just going four downs and only running it on first down.
Yeah. Come on.
Come on, guys.

Speaker 2 Come on. I was watching it with Hard Factor Will, who is an LSU alum.
He went with us to the national championship that they won down in Louisiana.

Speaker 2 And he very unironically was screaming at halftime, like, fire Brian Kelly's ass. Get his ass out of here.

Speaker 2 I don't know if that's the majority opinion of LSU fans, but I do know that like they're, they don't like losing with Brian Kelly as their coach.

Speaker 2 They can tolerate losing with Coach O as their coach, as long as they're building towards something. But any small mistake by Brian Kelly is going to be magnified.

Speaker 2 They're like, this fucking carpetbagger coming down here and ruining our football program. Get the fuck out.

Speaker 2 They don't want him out. It's not the vast majority opinion.
But I do think that

Speaker 2 if he doesn't have a big season this year, you will hear some serious discussion about how much will it cost to get rid of him.

Speaker 1 It's the winning cures all.

Speaker 1 If you're an LSU fan, you suck up the fact that you're hiring Brian Kelly, who's not likable, to basically be like, we're going to win a national title. But you did win a national title with Coach O.

Speaker 1 So it's like, fuck.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And they won one with Les Miles, who is likable.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So they're Sabin somehow.

Speaker 2 There's a reason why Les Miles stuck around year after year of just the most

Speaker 2 like the hugest brain farts ever at the end of multiple games per season. And that was because they liked him down there.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm rooting.

Speaker 2 I said Louisiana liked Les Miles.

Speaker 1 I'm still rooting for LSU in spite of Brian Kelly. That's how much we like LSU.
Yes. But Florida State was incredible.
That turnaround's been awesome. Keon Coleman,

Speaker 1 who

Speaker 1 I did have to tweet out Tuck Cummins because that's tough.

Speaker 1 He transferred from Michigan State. He looked incredible.
Three touchdowns. High point King.
He was just high pointing the ball all over LSU's cornerbacks.

Speaker 1 And then his mom afterwards had one of my favorite quotes ever. So Ross Dellinger wrote about this in Yahoo.

Speaker 1 Keon Coleman's mom said, because he's from Louisiana. He's from not too far from Baton Rouge.

Speaker 2 He wasn't even offered. Wasn't offered.

Speaker 1 Wanted to play basketball and football.

Speaker 1 And his mom said after, oh, it was good, especially against LSU. God is blessing him.
God says to make your enemies your footstool. He did it.

Speaker 1 I never heard that. I never heard God say that.

Speaker 2 I had that note. He did.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's actually in the Bible.

Speaker 1 God is no different than like hazing at Sigma Chi.

Speaker 1 Make your enemies your footstool.

Speaker 2 God says they hate us because they ain't us.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I just like, I might get that as a tattoo. God said, make your enemies your footstool.

Speaker 2 There's a lot of parts of the Bible that we don't hear about that much that they just don't teach you.

Speaker 1 No, I missed that one, but I mean, it's a great quote. I'm going to look at it.
Shout out God for saying that. Like, that's fucking.
No, respect.

Speaker 1 God had, I mean, I don't even know they had that type of furniture back then.

Speaker 2 He's the original top G.

Speaker 1 God said, go to West Elm, get a fucking footstool of your enemies.

Speaker 2 Psalm 110, verse 1, the Lord says to my Lord, sit right, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Speaker 1 Bang. It's a bar.
Let's go. Let's go.
So yeah, Florida State, though, looks for real. And Jordan Travis is very, very good.

Speaker 1 All right. Other, so we started with talking about the Pac-12.

Speaker 1 The Pac-12 on Friday officially, officially is dead because Stanford and Cal and SMU are joining the ACC, which is basically like these three schools were like, we need a home so badly.

Speaker 1 They're taking way less money. I think SMU is not taking any TV dollars for the first nine years.
And Cal and Stanford are taking like half TV dollars for the first like seven or eight years.

Speaker 1 They basically just like, we need a home. And even SMU, there was a quote that SMU was picked because for Olympic sports, they'll meet in the middle and compete in sports.

Speaker 1 So SMU is literally like, okay, well, we found a place that they can just like split it halfway. They're going to just compete in Dallas? Yeah, they're going to do it.

Speaker 1 They're going to do like swimming in Dallas. Okay.
Yeah. So, I mean, you know, know,

Speaker 2 there are a lot of sports that Stanford is really good at that don't include basketball and football.

Speaker 1 They win that cup, whatever the fuck it's called.

Speaker 2 I don't know what cup.

Speaker 1 There's like a champions cup. Capital One, I think.
Yeah, the dumbest thing ever, where it's like if it's how many sports you win a national title. Yeah, yeah.
You have cross-country.

Speaker 2 They're like the best athletic school in the country in sports that nobody really pays that close attention to. Correct.
And it's funny because they're joining the ACC.

Speaker 2 I think we first speculated on that a few weeks ago and how ridiculous that would be to have like the ocean ocean conference where it's just the coastal conference meeting each other.

Speaker 2 And then I was looking at a map and I was like, you know, oceans don't have boundaries. Like it's all one body of water.
That's true.

Speaker 1 It's all one water.

Speaker 2 They're touching each other. They're touching each other.
Who's to say what's Atlantic, what's Pacific? It's all the same ocean.

Speaker 1 Except SMU. Who's

Speaker 1 there in the middle?

Speaker 2 They're just there in the middle for swimming.

Speaker 1 For everyone to get there and compete.

Speaker 2 I'm looking forward. So if you look up the stats, women's soccer, UNC, Stanford, two best programs in the history of college sports.

Speaker 1 It's going to be great. Who said conference realignment was bad?

Speaker 2 The rivalry's back on.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 the only other wrinkle that I'm just hoping this happens. So Oregon State and Washington State are now screwed.
They're totally left out. There is a rule in NCAA

Speaker 1 where you have to have at least eight members of your conference to continue being a conference, but you get a two-year grace period to try to figure it out. They need to just do the PAC-2 next year.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It would fucking rule.

Speaker 2 North Division and South Division.

Speaker 1 They They have to do this. They have to keep the PAC 2 alive for at least one year.

Speaker 2 And they should have a championship game. Yeah.
They should have a conference championship.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they should just play a round robin at the end of November.

Speaker 2 Do you get an automatic bowl qualification if you win your conference?

Speaker 1 Sure. That's great.
I don't think so, but yeah, maybe.

Speaker 2 If you win your conference championship.

Speaker 1 And then you still have to be.

Speaker 1 Well, no, now they make polls like five and seven get a bowl. Some of them do, yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Unless you transferred into Division I in the last two years, then you're not allowed to.

Speaker 1 But we need that. We need that.
All right.

Speaker 1 Other big stories. I have a horniest dudes.

Speaker 1 If you can make a decision on this, horniest dudes that we saw on Saturday. Urban Meyer getting caught,

Speaker 1 hitting on a co-ed at halftime, right before he was supposed to go live.

Speaker 1 We have Hugh Freeze getting himself back in the mix right away, wins one game against UMass, and starts replying to women on Twitter, being like, come on, it's War Eagle all the time.

Speaker 1 When I think some reporter, Madison Gilbert, said, like, like, who should I root for, LSU or Florida State? And he's like, why not Auburn? Like, okay.

Speaker 1 That wasn't the question, Hugh.

Speaker 1 And then we have South Carolina, Shane Beamer.

Speaker 1 He was, he somehow didn't blame himself whatsoever to the point that he blamed the chain gang for eating a hot dog at halftime and not being set for their on-site kick, which they did recover.

Speaker 2 So I heard that that was some sort of tradition where they eat hot dogs at halftime there.

Speaker 1 I don't know. Shane Beamer.
All I know know is in a horny world, Shane Beamer was just watching another dude angrily eat a hot dog, yeah, and then blame them.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and then the last one is uh, myself for and Quiggs for uh Sam Pittman's tits. I don't know if you guys saw, I didn't see Sam Pitt's tits.
I'll text you right now, okay.

Speaker 1 Were they popping? Uh, more than popping, PFT.

Speaker 2 Like, he's got a great set.

Speaker 1 I think, I think Quiggs said Sam Pittman's tits got me barking, and I was like, Yeah, you're right, dude. They are, it's,

Speaker 1 I'm a little worried. Like, they're so big that I might, I don't know what's going on.
We are Sam Pittman guys, but uh, here, I just texted the group text. Zoom in on Sam Pittman's tits.

Speaker 1 He's with the Huckabees, too, so you'd think that he wouldn't have the biggest tits. Let's see, he's he's got some tits.
Yeah, oh, wow, he's got a rack, dude. Like, he's stacked.

Speaker 1 Look at that Mincy build.

Speaker 1 You think he was a bra? I don't know, but because I can't see any nipples. I saw when I zoomed in, I was like, wait, am I horny for Sam Pittman's tits? I think I am.
Mike Huckabee looks old.

Speaker 1 Those are tits, though, dude.

Speaker 2 Huckabee looks like a mix of old Mike Huckabee and Kenny Rogers.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 So who's horniest dude?

Speaker 1 I'm going to go with Urban.

Speaker 2 A Lifetime Achievement Award and Being Horny goes to Urban Meyer.

Speaker 2 He was just chatter up. He was risen her up.

Speaker 1 I do like Hugh Freeze just being like, now that I'm back, I'm all the way back.

Speaker 2 Now that I'm not at Liberty anymore,

Speaker 2 I am at Liberty to be horny as hell.

Speaker 1 You know, Euphree is feeling himself. He's like, oh, this is good.

Speaker 1 I got my swagger back.

Speaker 2 He's in a hospital bed for prior prism. Just give him a thumbs up.
Four hours ain't shit.

Speaker 1 All right. Other things I wrote down.
Oh, Iowa, first opening touchdown,

Speaker 1 opening drive touchdown pass to start the season since 1991.

Speaker 2 That's pretty impressive. That's insane.
Let's go.

Speaker 1 They scored a touchdown on their first two drives. Then they just went back to Iowa offense.

Speaker 1 And for people who don't know, one of the best storylines this year is Brian Ference, the son of Kirk, their head coach. He's the offensive coordinator.

Speaker 1 Max just dropped everything.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 in his contract, Iowa has to win seven games this year, and they have to average 25 points a game. Can be defensive too.

Speaker 1 And if he doesn't do that, he loses his job. So it's basically,

Speaker 1 they scored 24 this week. So that's tough

Speaker 1 when you need that

Speaker 1 first week of the season. You need to put up some points to kind of

Speaker 1 pad the stats. But it's a great storyline to watch.
To have that type of... He's on

Speaker 2 Iowa.

Speaker 2 I have a fuckhead of the week.

Speaker 2 There are no nominees. There's just one person.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Thomas Fernelli.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Recurring guest, a part of my take. He came on, gave his week preview, week one preview,

Speaker 2 and he gave a game of the year, right? He said he wanted to make it a game of the year.

Speaker 1 He didn't go all the way to game of the year.

Speaker 2 He gave Texas Tech to whomp Wyoming. He said, I bought it at 10, I bought it at 11, I'm buying it at 14, I'll buy it up to 20 if I have to.

Speaker 2 They go to Laramie and they lose, and they lose, and they lost, and it was bad. And it was a bad game.
It was a bad call. Now, Tom does have a notes app apology to his credit.

Speaker 2 If nothing, he's a man with integrity.

Speaker 2 The title of the notes app was just, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 I would like to issue an apology to the the Big Cat, PFT, Max, Jake, and the AWLs for saying game of the year in relation to Texas Tech minus 14 during my appearance on part of my take.

Speaker 1 Lost out right. He didn't mention Hank.

Speaker 2 Oh, he did. Interesting.
Well, it was the same person. This is totally on me, and I accept responsibility.

Speaker 2 I also acknowledge that Texas Tech had a 17 to nothing lead and totally blew it, so it's really their fault. But this is on me.
I accept my four-day suspension.

Speaker 2 It was, I believe,

Speaker 2 I said that it was an all-Italians suspension. We're banning Italians from part of my take

Speaker 2 for four days beginning Saturday.

Speaker 2 So starting on Wednesday, we can have Italians back on the show if we have to.

Speaker 1 Yes,

Speaker 1 I banned him for Monday's episode. So he can't listen.
He couldn't listen to Monday's episode, the lost tapes. The only thing that makes me feel better is that

Speaker 1 it is Tom's job, and he went, I think, 1 in 11 on Saturday.

Speaker 1 So it made me feel a little better that he, you know, like if he, there's nothing worse than someone giving you a pick, it losing, and they'll be like, whoa, dude, I went like 10 and two.

Speaker 1 What are you talking about? But Tom also, like, I do believe in Tom. I trust the process.
He's going to have a good season. He even went out tonight and he gave out a pick.

Speaker 1 Clemson over 34 and a half team total. And the score right now is Duke 21, Clemson, seven.

Speaker 2 Well, it's only like the first quarter, right?

Speaker 1 No, there's 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Oh, shit.

Speaker 2 Fuck. All right.
So

Speaker 2 what's her plan? Because it's very rare that you get an opportunity to either tail somebody entirely. No, the pendulum swings, are we going to fade all of his picks next week?

Speaker 2 No, you have to tail him.

Speaker 1 Listen, I got

Speaker 1 my teeth kicked in on Saturday. It was like, I actually had a moment

Speaker 1 that I'm not very proud of because I told my wife, I was like, I'm not in football shape. And she's like, what do you mean?

Speaker 1 And I was like, my eyes just hurt so bad from watching all this football today. Like, and I lost so many bets.

Speaker 1 I got to get back in football shape and she was like what are you talking about so i i feel the pain that tom felt in a different way i had different picks but they all lost as well i think you gotta you gotta you gotta follow him next week i i gotta tail i actually kind of agree with that because it's gonna be a lot it's gonna be a lot of fun if i tail him and he goes like 0-13 again right you can't he will correct he will correct tom's good it's it's it's time to hop on and it's also just like that that's how gambling works it's week one for bloggers too also shout out all the people who for the three years that Penn owned us, claimed that I lost on purpose so that people would lose money.

Speaker 1 One week into the college football season, I think I'm down 15 units. So, ha ha, gotcha.
Looks like I'm just a bad gambler. It wasn't a bit.

Speaker 1 It would have been great, though, if I went scorching hot and everyone was like, dude, you were doing that as a bit. You were losing money as a bit.

Speaker 1 No, I lose money every Saturday and Sunday as

Speaker 1 probably

Speaker 1 my favorite hobby. Yeah, I mean, It's my favorite hobby.

Speaker 2 Listen, I've never had so much fun losing money as I did on Saturday. It's mostly due to Tom.

Speaker 2 I did go nuclear on that play, but overall, it's hard to win in week one. You haven't seen anything yet.
You got nothing but, you know what? I blame the media.

Speaker 2 I blame the media for losing almost every bet week one because I listened to their advice and their offseason takes.

Speaker 1 And also, shout out, like, my whole day was just trash. I watched games start to finish

Speaker 1 from starting at 11 a.m. all the way till the night games.
and the Penn State James Franklin still running his offense at the end of the game to cover against West Virginia. He knows.
I like smiled.

Speaker 1 I was like, this is why I do it as I counted how much money I lost that day, but I was like, but I won that one.

Speaker 2 He knows. And that's the thing.
It's not against the law if you're a coach to have in the back of your mind the understanding that your alumni are betting on you to cover the spread. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And then you keep your offense on the field to cover the spread.

Speaker 2 You're not betting on it, but you are establishing an enormous amount of job security if they can trust that you'll push them over the edge whenever they back you.

Speaker 1 Yes, Drew Lair is very, very good. Max, Max is back, by the way.
We'll talk to Matt.

Speaker 1 Let's save the Mount Rushmore talk and vacation talk for after Field Yates, but Drew Lair is awesome.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 1 best quarterback, Penn State quarterback I think I've seen in my lifetime. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 2 Christian Metenberger. Okay.

Speaker 1 Todd Blackledge.

Speaker 2 Christian Hackenberg, he was, was he a second-round pick?

Speaker 1 I think so. To the Jets.
That's insane. I mean, he was just, he was prototypical, big 10, big, tall, strong-armed guy.

Speaker 2 That is insane that he was a second-round pick.

Speaker 1 Well, he was supposed to be the next Peyton Manning out of it. He stayed a year too long.
Or I don't know if he could have even left. No, but

Speaker 1 I remember him being like having all the hype and then him staying and be like, whoa, what is this?

Speaker 2 Did he ever play? Did he take a snap in the NFL?

Speaker 1 I think he did for the Jets, right? I don't think he did.

Speaker 2 He has second-round pick, 51st overall.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he started. Oh, no, he didn't play.
His middle name. He started three games in the AAF in 2019.

Speaker 2 His middle name is Blaze.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's fucking

Speaker 1 second-round pick right there. Yeah, Drew Aller better.

Speaker 2 Got to take a shot.

Speaker 1 Oh, Drew Aller's awesome.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it doesn't look like he played.

Speaker 1 Jets.

Speaker 1 That's funny, memes.

Speaker 1 All right, yeah, other things.

Speaker 1 I don't want to root for... All right, Hank,

Speaker 1 you're doing your bar Big Ten thing, right? So you're going to go to a different Chicago bar for a Big Ten team starting at some point. Probably this weekend.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I want to just throw this out there. I know you probably don't care about it.
Indiana, I didn't know this till

Speaker 1 today or yesterday. Indiana has a McMahon on their team.
Shane McMahon's son is on Indiana. He's, what are you doing, Jake?

Speaker 2 Jake wanted my laptop charger for for something. Okay.

Speaker 1 Indiana has a McMahon on the team, and Shane McMahon gifted Indiana a takeaway belt, like a real wrestling belt. So that has to help a little bit.
Definitely.

Speaker 1 They're not good, but having a McMahon makes them awesome. And I saw, like, there was a picture, some fan took a picture of Shane walking into the stadium in like Indiana gear.

Speaker 1 And I was like, I fucking kind of like Indiana now. That's how much I love Shane O'Mac.

Speaker 2 It'd be very funny if Hank moved all the way here from New Jersey and just picked Rutgers.

Speaker 1 Oh, they looked good. They did.
Well, they beat my Wildcats. They looked really good.

Speaker 2 They beat my Wildcats. I was heartbroken.

Speaker 1 It was weird. I didn't.

Speaker 1 Did you tweet about the Wildcats at all?

Speaker 2 No, I frankly, I think that what happened with our football team this last season was disgusting. Okay.
So I don't enjoy talking about my.

Speaker 2 The only time I'll talk about my Northwestern Wildcats will be to admonish them, admonish the entire football team.

Speaker 1 Because I noticed you hadn't tweeted about him, so I was like, oh, he and Ravel must have done a vow of silence on Sunday. Oh, Ravel also did not tweet about them.

Speaker 2 That's what what we do. Very weird.

Speaker 1 That's what we do. Very weird.

Speaker 2 We're boycotting it.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Isn't that interesting?

Speaker 2 It is interesting. Isn't that interesting? I'm on the group chat right now.
It's me, Ravel, Mike Wilbon, and Greenie.

Speaker 2 And Greene's got his hands full right now.

Speaker 2 He's got Ankh walking in the studio.

Speaker 2 He's got a whole thing going on in the seaport. So Greene's, he's focused on the Jets.

Speaker 2 That's what we're saying right now. Greenie's in NFL mode.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. Other things.
I mean, I really am. I do think the Pac-12 won the weekend

Speaker 1 because Washington looked awesome. Oregon put up a fucking billion against Portland State.
DJ Ungule

Speaker 1 looks good.

Speaker 1 He had like 20 seconds on every pass, but he still looks good.

Speaker 2 You know, Clemson's offense could use somebody like that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they could. Clemson, Dabo, hot seat.
I'm saying it.

Speaker 2 Well, okay, so I would toss Dabo into the conversation of least likable college football coaches.

Speaker 1 Oh, yes, that's right. We did miss him.
Yeah. Yeah, we went sideways when you said Cosby.
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 Because then I was like, wait, Brian Kelly, urban meyer cosby yeah cosby would i mean if he coached temple

Speaker 1 it would be a discussion um and then last thing georgia memes would you like to disavow

Speaker 1 oh the driving yeah so georgia had uh a staffer jarvis jones got a speeding uh ticket and that is their 15th

Speaker 1 speeding or reckless driving charge since the terrible tragedy that happened in January. 15.
That's pretty insane.

Speaker 2 Well, he got arrested.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but that's pretty insane.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. It wasn't just a ticket.
He got arrested.

Speaker 1 I'm like, 15

Speaker 1 after an accident.

Speaker 1 Kirby Smart denied that there was a problem in March, and then in July was like, yeah, there's a problem.

Speaker 1 We have way too many speeding tickets.

Speaker 2 SEC speed, baby.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Like, so, memes?

Speaker 1 Yeah, they got to do driver's head. Okay.

Speaker 1 Like, can they put like a, can they put something in everyone's car that it can't go, like, just give golf carts?

Speaker 2 Golf carts, yeah. Golf carts is the movie.

Speaker 1 Or mopeds. Yeah.
Mopeds don't go fast like

Speaker 1 45, yeah.

Speaker 2 You should have the defense just getting around campus on blades.

Speaker 1 Bikes. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay. It was fun, though.
College football's back. It was very, very fun to watch.

Speaker 1 Also, Mizzou's head coach, oh, he could have been in horniest as well because he was talking about one of his players, and he was like,

Speaker 1 when my daughter becomes of age, I would love for her to date him.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's always a weird thing to say.

Speaker 2 You remember, was, it was, um, I want to say the national championship where it was Florida and Oklahoma, and

Speaker 2 maybe it was Herb Street or Fowler, whoever was calling that game, just went on a diatribe about how much he would, you want your daughter to date a guy like Tim Tebow. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Which you can kind of understand that because he's not going to have sex with her.

Speaker 1 But yeah, very weird. Very strange.
Say like, oh, yeah, my underage daughter, I can't wait till she turns 18 and then maybe she'll date him.

Speaker 2 Yeah, very strange.

Speaker 1 That's the highest compliment you can give a guy, I guess.

Speaker 2 I guess so,

Speaker 2 but it's also kind of, it's also kind of a diss.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's like, oh, you're not, you're not a threat.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah, you're a nice guy.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Um, did you? Okay, so yeah, I think that's it. I think that's we got some who's back that we're gonna do, and then we have field yates.

Speaker 1 What we needed that uh same faces, different places, PowerPoint for college football. I mean, it's insane the amount of transfers, uh, Emer Jones, Cincinnati, yeah, yeah, J.T.

Speaker 2 Daniels, Rice,

Speaker 1 Keton Slobis on BYU, Yep.

Speaker 2 How many schools has JT? Is this J.T. Daniels' fourth school?

Speaker 1 He's played in every school in FBS. Good for him.
Yeah. And Keodon Slovis, who's a recurring guest, also has played on a lot of schools.
He was at West Virginia last year. No, he's at Pitt.

Speaker 1 He was a Pitt. JT Daniels was at West Virginia.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And now he's on Rice. Yep.
Yeah. Crazy.
It is. The transfer portal does get a little confusing with all these names.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 2 Do you want to do a moment of silence for Jimmy Buffett?

Speaker 1 Yeah, that was sad.

Speaker 2 Very sad to me. That was sad.
Friday night, old Jay Buff passed away.

Speaker 1 He did go out at the end of summer. He did.

Speaker 1 Fitting. He did.
Although we talked about this, dying right before football season is the worst.

Speaker 2 If I died the week before football season started, like the dude from Smash Mouth has got to be just turning over right now.

Speaker 1 Jimmy Buffett saw Nebraska, Minnesota.

Speaker 1 That was it. That's awful.

Speaker 2 But maybe Saints, Team of Destiny. Jimmy Buffett, huge Saints fan.
He's on the sidelines for like

Speaker 2 all their home games every year. True.
Jameis Winston put out a fire tweet just like R.I.P. King of him and Jimmy.
Jimmy Buffett was just an all-time good dude.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he was

Speaker 1 a dudes rock dude.

Speaker 2 He made billions of dollars off just having fun and just like telling people, hey, I like to have fun and drink.

Speaker 1 And the best part is he was like a workaholic. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But he worked hard. He worked so hard.

Speaker 1 But he slowed hard. I did.

Speaker 2 He worked so hard at vacationing. Right.
I would like to see that out of Hank. Yeah.
Right now, you kind of go on vacation. You take a vacation from your vacation while you're on it.

Speaker 1 Jimmy Buffett's also one of those guys,

Speaker 1 you can't put on one of his songs and not be in a good mood. No, it's like it's just the minute it hits, you're like, man, that's fun.
I want to drink.

Speaker 2 I tweeted out the story about Jimmy Buffett, which I learned this last summer. I was in Jamaica for a wedding.
I think you'll appreciate it. It's a crazy, like, it's the ultimate Jimmy Buffett story.

Speaker 2 He was flying, he was a pilot, right? So he was flying his little plane around through...

Speaker 2 through Jamaica, and he had Bono on the plane with him. And he was like, hey, Bono, I know this great jerk chicken shack that we got to stop by.
It's right off the bay, right off Montego Bay.

Speaker 2 So Jimmy Buffett lands his plane in the bay so that they can get out and get some chicken.

Speaker 2 As they're landing, the Jamaican military opens fire on his plane and tries to shoot him down with automatic rifles and shit. He lands the plane.
There's bullet holes everywhere in it.

Speaker 2 And they all hit the deck. They get boarded by the Jamaican military.
And they get on the plane and they're like, oh, fuck, we just shot at Jimmy Buffett and Bono.

Speaker 2 And so they were like apologizing so hard. They were afraid that they were going to all lose their jobs, probably go to jail.
And Jimmy was like, you know what?

Speaker 2 I've gotten away with a lot of dumb, illegal shit that I've done in my life. This is just kind of like a little bit of karma.
It's probably good if I don't go at them for this.

Speaker 2 I'm just going to write a song about it. And he wrote a song called Jamaica Mistaka.
Love it. And it was a fucking smash hit.

Speaker 1 Perfect.

Speaker 2 And he just went on with his life.

Speaker 2 And then everybody from that point on, Jamaica, they're like, oh, Jimmy's back in town. Let's make sure we treat him right and not try to shoot his plane out of his song.

Speaker 1 Jamaica Mistaca. It's also rise.
Yeah, it does.

Speaker 2 It's also crazy to think that back then, people would try to shoot your plane down if you thought you had weed on it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I know, especially going to Jamaica. Yeah.
What the fuck? Wild.

Speaker 1 Yeah, Jimmy Buffett, though, all-time guy. All-time dudes rock guy.
Yes. Like just a king of vacation, of good times, of just feeling good.

Speaker 1 Like when you, like I said, when you hear the song, you're just like, I was at the Cubs game and he did this.

Speaker 1 He did, they, they replayed his seventh inning stretch, which is a nice tribute, but they were playing Jimmy Buffett throughout the game. And 5 o'clock somewhere came on.

Speaker 1 I was just like, I was with my son. I was like, I want to get fucking blacked out right now.

Speaker 2 I want to drink.

Speaker 2 It's fantastic stuff. So I had a great time at his Margaritaville Times Square Resort.
Went with Donnie about a year and a half ago. And I know they just shut it down.

Speaker 2 But if you're listening to me, if anybody knows where the giant 30, 40-foot statue of Liberty that they had inside in the foyer that had

Speaker 2 a margarita glass instead of the torch with sharks swimming around in it. If anybody knows where that is, I'd be very interested in purchasing it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, we'll put it in the new office. In the new office.

Speaker 2 We have more than enough space. I can't imagine that there's a big market out there for that, but I want to throw my name in that.

Speaker 1 Yes, absolutely. I will help fund that.
We will absolutely buy that.

Speaker 1 No question.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's do who's back. And then we have Field Yates with a big-time NFL preview.

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Speaker 1 Who's back of the week? Hank.

Speaker 1 Who's back of the week? It's diarrhea. Oh, yeah.
Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 There was a Delta flight this weekend going from Atlanta to Barcelona, and it had to turn around because someone had, quote, diarrhea all the way through the plane,

Speaker 1 which I don't even really understand.

Speaker 1 No, I think it's shit everywhere. Like, it was just leaking down the aisle.

Speaker 2 I think you're like going to the bathroom, and it's falling out of your pants.

Speaker 1 I think you shit on, like, people. I think you shit on things.
I think shit everywhere. Those coming out of this.
Did you hear the call? It was great.

Speaker 2 Oh, I got to try to find it. It's like a, you know, when you rob a bank and they put the die pack in there and the purple explodes all over the money? That's the inside of the plane, but brown.

Speaker 1 Yeah. And it was a biohazard.
It was a biohazard, yeah. Yeah, which makes me feel like next time I diarrhea, I'm just like, yeah, that's a biohazard.

Speaker 2 Watch out. I saw our good friend Scott Van Pelt tweet it out that

Speaker 2 which would you rather be on a plane with the You're Not Real Girl or the one that has explosive diarrhea? I mean, you're not real.

Speaker 2 If the You're Not Real Girl had had explosive diarrhea on a plane, they'd be able to sell those plane seats for thousands of dollars.

Speaker 1 Please also, it's Tiffany Gomez, our queen. Yes, our queen.

Speaker 1 Let's put her name.

Speaker 2 Come on the pod to discuss Tiffany Girl.

Speaker 1 I can't wait for this person to reveal themselves. I don't think they ever will.

Speaker 2 Actually, we should, Jake, you should do a video like the Tiffany Gomez video.

Speaker 2 Get all dolled up in makeup, like part of my cheesesteak shoot, and just be like, I'm just here to say that what I've gone through over the past week has been hell.

Speaker 1 It wasn't. Stop online cheese steak.
Yeah, it it was not. All right.
Here's the call. It's so good.
Hold on. This is the official call when they had to call back to the airport.

Speaker 1 It's just a biohazard issue.

Speaker 1 We've had a passer who had diarrhea all the way through the airplane.

Speaker 1 All the way through.

Speaker 1 No, I think he just, I think he probably was wearing shorts, maybe no underwear. It's hot out.
It's summer. And it was just diarrhea leaking everywhere.

Speaker 2 Maybe went to Magic City, maybe got the lemon pepper wings.

Speaker 1 Video Video evidence of this.

Speaker 1 Anytime anything crazy happens on a plane, there's video events. I don't know, dude.

Speaker 1 But if someone's running up with diarrhea, I don't think, I think you're like, holy shit, get out of the way. He's going to have diarrhea on me.
Not, holy shit, I need my phone.

Speaker 1 If it was running down the aisle, one person of the hundred and something is going to diarrhea. I don't know.
I think you have to take care of yourself in that shit.

Speaker 2 No, I agree with Jake.

Speaker 2 It's a little odd to me that there's absolutely no video footage of this.

Speaker 1 We should just put out. Jersey Jerry's catastrophe.
Be like, live footage. Yeah, live footage.
It's definitely someone that was on the flight that fell asleep, asleep, too.

Speaker 1 Like, all right, going to Barcelona. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Wait, they were going to Barcelona? Yeah. Holy shit.
How mad would you be?

Speaker 2 You're about to go on an awesome vacation to Barcelona. Barcelona.
You have to turn around because somebody's got diarrhea.

Speaker 1 Everywhere. Everywhere.

Speaker 2 It was everywhere. They should have shot the plane down.

Speaker 1 It was everywhere. Yeah, he should have just jumped out.
Yeah. He should have been like, all right, enough for me.
I'd rather not live with this.

Speaker 1 All right, good. Who's back? Thank you.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 PFT.

Speaker 2 Great who's back, Hank. Thank you.

Speaker 2 My who's back of the week is Indianapolis Colts fans. Yes.

Speaker 2 So as we promised on this podcast, when Jim Ursai went after Dan Snyder, I said I would become a Colts fan in the AFC and purchase season tickets if Ursai's push ultimately led Dan Snyder to sell the team.

Speaker 2 A man of my word.

Speaker 2 I bought Colts season tickets. Big Cat is matching.
So we have a total of four tickets to give away to Indianapolis Colts fans for every home game this year.

Speaker 1 Also, I should just say

Speaker 1 I matched and then I fucked up the match because they tried to get me to have Colts tickets for life. There was a box I couldn't unclick that would give me Colts tickets for life.

Speaker 1 So I looked in my email and I thought I had them.

Speaker 1 I don't, but I'm buying two tickets for every game, which actually will work in someone's favor because like Christmas time, I'll probably buy like, you know, 100 level tickets.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so we have-it's going to be 600 levels, but I have my two tickets.

Speaker 2 So we have a total of four tickets to give away. I do have the season tickets.
And also, shout out to the Colts because they reached out. This is pretty awesome.

Speaker 2 They heard the podcast and they said, we appreciate you guys becoming season ticket holders.

Speaker 2 We're going to throw in two VIP sideline passes pre-game.

Speaker 1 Wait, we need to up that to four.

Speaker 2 So you can go.

Speaker 2 I can ask. I can ask.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 2 right now, we have two VIP sideline passes for the pre-game, as well as the two tickets for me and two tickets from Big Cat. So we have to figure out how to give them away.

Speaker 2 If you're an Indianapolis Colts fan, here's what we're doing for week one.

Speaker 2 I want to see youngsters go to this game. I want to see youngsters get these tickets that wouldn't be.
Not in a creepy way. Not in a creepy way.

Speaker 2 But I'd like to see the best Jim Ursai look-alike youngster, baby Ursay.

Speaker 2 If you're an Indianapolis Colts fan, maybe you've got a son or a daughter, wants to get dressed up like Baby Ursae, send us pictures of a baby Ursay, and we will give you free tickets to go see the Colts.

Speaker 2 We have four of them.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so winners and second place.

Speaker 2 Winners and second place both receive tickets, and then at least two VIP sideline passes for pre-game. Not sure if we're going to have four, but we do have two.

Speaker 1 We'll just give them to both the baby Ursus.

Speaker 2 Just the kids.

Speaker 1 Yeah, they'll just go themselves.

Speaker 2 So, how do we want to do this? Tweet at part of my take?

Speaker 1 Well, people might not have Twitter slash X. Should we do the PMT intern email? Yeah, sure.
PMT intern at Barcelona Sports. And we'll tweet out the winners.

Speaker 2 But we will tweet out the winners.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but if people don't have Twitter.

Speaker 2 Okay, so

Speaker 2 either tweet them at us or email to PMT intern at barstallesports.com. PMT intern at barstallesports.com.
And we'll select four winners. So giving back.
It feels good to give back to the community.

Speaker 2 Feels great. My other who's back of the week plug god is Pup Punk.

Speaker 2 So if you're in Columbia, South Carolina, Pup Punk is going to be playing at the Bojangles in Columbia, South Carolina, as we've always wanted to do.

Speaker 1 Don't be eating a hot dog in front of Shane Beamer.

Speaker 2 Don't do it. We're going to be eating Boberry Biscuits in front of Shane Beamer because the Bowberry Biscuit is elite.
It's an elite fast food treat.

Speaker 2 So we're going to be there on Friday, free concert at nine. That means me, Roan, Frankie, Robbie, Caroline, Nick.
We're going to be there. We're going to play, I think, for an hour.

Speaker 2 So come out, say hi.

Speaker 2 I love the Cox. Yeah.
I love the Cox.

Speaker 2 I want to see a bunch of Cox show up to that concert at the Bojangles.

Speaker 1 Also, and then Saturday, the college football show is going to be in Tuscaloosa for the first time. So I'll be in Tuscaloosa.
Huge. Four o'clock, I think, is the time.
So everyone come out to that.

Speaker 1 Texas, Alabama.

Speaker 2 I did hear some people saying Malik Murphy. I heard people saying Malik Murphy for Texas.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 1 Why, Quinyurs?

Speaker 2 Quinn Euros looks like.

Speaker 1 He looks like

Speaker 2 a very good average quarterback. That's what Quinn Euros looks like to me.
Yeah. I don't know, Malik Murphy.
He's a fucking monster.

Speaker 1 Also, Quinn Euros cut his mullet.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's a problem.

Speaker 1 It was a very big problem. He cleaned up big time.

Speaker 1 Okay, Mi Who's back.

Speaker 2 I got a couple.

Speaker 1 The first is the Water Dogs in the semis. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Good for them. It's the semis? Two wins away.
Yep, two wins away. Okay.
I'm so hands-off I went to the Cubs game instead of watching them. Yeah.

Speaker 1 knew that they were going to win. I didn't need to.

Speaker 1 I don't show up to watch Water Dogs games unless they're already in the semi-it's the quarterfinals, you know?

Speaker 2 Like we expect to be there every year. That's that.

Speaker 1 We got rings, big cat. We have a tradition here at Water Dogs HQ,

Speaker 1 and it's, we don't watch quarterfinals. We have because we go to the semis and then we go to the finals and then we win the whole fucking game.

Speaker 2 We have high standards and we got to back. We got the final four coming up.

Speaker 1 If we don't go back to back, I hate this team. Who are you playing?

Speaker 2 Water Dogs versus Canon.

Speaker 1 Fuck the the cannon. If we don't go back to back, I'm throwing my Water Dogs ring into the Chicago River.
I'm going to.

Speaker 1 By the way, I brought it. Yeah, no, I see it.
Six weeks ago. Yeah, again, get ready.

Speaker 2 They're nice.

Speaker 2 I'm going to do it, but I'm going to, at the last minute, not throw it and then just throw a paper airplane that says, Thank you, Water Dogs.

Speaker 1 Oh, nice.

Speaker 2 I love those fake jersey burning ones.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 And then my other who's back,

Speaker 1 Hank, did you see the report about your wide receiver Juju Smith Schuster? Yeah, I mean,

Speaker 1 this was a Florio special it's it read like it was crazy it was i've never seen a report like this uh if you guys didn't see it it was juju smith schuster's knee could explode at any point

Speaker 1 and is a mess according to albert breer could explode at any point what the does that mean the plot to die hard couldn't anyone's

Speaker 1 knee explode at any point yeah right He's been practicing playing.

Speaker 1 I just saw it. I was like, what is I actually read it wrong wrong the first time.
I didn't read the word knee, and I thought it was just Juju Smith Schuster could explode at any point.

Speaker 1 And then I read it back. I was like, wait, what the fuck? I thought it was Buck Crack's ports.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Where was it from, Hank?

Speaker 1 It was Albert Breer.

Speaker 2 But that's not Florio.

Speaker 1 No. No, I know it read, but it read like a Florio.
It read like a Florio.

Speaker 2 So anything negative reads like a Florio.

Speaker 1 This is like you like seeing like the New Yorker cartoons and you're like, that's a Florio. I could see it.
I could see it right now.

Speaker 1 Shout out Florio, by the way.

Speaker 1 He did a book reading in Wheeling, West Virginia, and he said that one person asked him about his fantasy football team, and he refused to answer it because he thought the person had FaceTime us.

Speaker 1 So it's good that we just live in his head this time of year. It's the best.
We'll get him again at some point, but it's good that we've taken a break and just let him live in horror.

Speaker 2 He's just too ready for it right now.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Which is his own punishment.

Speaker 1 Right, exactly. He's just walking around flinching all the time.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay, Jake, your who's back. My who's back is the U.S.

Speaker 2 Open.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. Oh,

Speaker 1 yeah, Americans are cooking in this tournament this year. I don't know if you guys have been following it at all, but there's three American men in the quarterfinals.
Isn't it retired? I know, I know.

Speaker 2 I saw that. That was sad.
He was crying.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Some kid fucking gave me Isner as his bet

Speaker 1 on Wednesday morning. His retirement matching.
Best.

Speaker 1 Serve Goat.

Speaker 2 Serve Goat. Yep.
Andy Roddick is my serve Goat. What about Novaks?

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Rodgers.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Kings respecting Kings. Rogers went to the U.S.
Open and he had a picture of Novak and he said, shout out my guy, Novaks, and had crossed out Moderna, the ad that was on the U.S. Open.

Speaker 1 Listen, Rogers and I started to become very much alike.

Speaker 1 We both agree that Novaks is the goat.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
So the bottom half of the men's brackets, Three Americans and Djokovic. Of course.
Is it Tiafo?

Speaker 2 Is he still in? Tiafo's still in it. I like Tiafo.

Speaker 1 I still think he should come on the show. I think he's a very good fit.
Djokovic lost the first two sets on the Friday night.

Speaker 1 Everyone's like, oh, you've got to be in the middle of the day.

Speaker 1 I went to sleep and I had no care in the world. Of course, he was going to win.

Speaker 2 Jake, you have to keep reminding us every major tournament who these different tennis players are. Who's the one that gets upset all the time that people hate?

Speaker 1 Oh, Karios, but he's hurt. Okay, I like him.

Speaker 2 Wait, because people hate him.

Speaker 1 Wait, is Alcatraz not in it? He's the number one team. He's on the top half of the bracket.
Got it, got it, got it.

Speaker 1 So, wait, we're celebrating Americans being in the quarterfinals after we just talked about how the quarterfinals don't matter.

Speaker 1 It's the first time, I think, in over a decade that four men made the quarterfinals for round of 16.

Speaker 1 Let me me know when they actually get to the semis. Well, one's guaranteed.
Tiafo versus Blake Shelton. Okay, great.
So, one at least.

Speaker 1 That's not a story.

Speaker 2 Versus Blake Shelton?

Speaker 1 Ben Shelton. Okay, all right.
That would be very confusing.

Speaker 1 He's a Jewel athlete. You should smoke him.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Come on, Jake.

Speaker 1 We can't celebrate quarterfinals. Wait, aren't it

Speaker 1 on this pod? Are the Americans playing each other? Two of them. Yeah, so one's guaranteed and the one.

Speaker 2 Cannibalization, man.

Speaker 1 I don't like that.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But yeah, I'm pulling for Tiafo.
I think he should be on the show. I am too.
DC guy. Yep.

Speaker 1 Yeah, let me know when one of them wins it. The whole thing? Yeah, we suck at tennis.
Yeah, it's been a struggle. We haven't won one in how long? I think Roddick or Sampras?

Speaker 1 No, what was last time? Legacy, probably. Roddick never won a major, right? Yeah, he did.
I think. Did he?

Speaker 1 I thought he was supposed to be next up, and he never came.

Speaker 2 He just was the anti-Deon. He was a served God.

Speaker 1 Did he win a major?

Speaker 2 Did Roddick win a major? Look it up. I'm looking it up right now.

Speaker 1 I don't think Roddick ever

Speaker 1 won a major. He might be right.
Yeah. Jake, I know more television.
Yeah,

Speaker 2 no, he won the U.S. Open.

Speaker 1 Oh, he did? Yeah, 2003.

Speaker 1 Well, I thought that was a good one.

Speaker 2 So it's been 20 years. And then he was in the finals at Wimbledon for three years.

Speaker 1 So it's been 20 years since we've won one. And it's our tight.
Listen.

Speaker 1 If I ran for president, I'd be like, we always win the U.S. Open.
We just won't let anyone else play in it. It's just only Americans.
It's a U.S. Open golf and tennis.
We need to win this. Yeah.

Speaker 1 We have to. But Novak's going to win because he's a GOAT.

Speaker 1 Okay, good job, Jake. Thanks.
Quarterfinals.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Just keep us updated. I will.
I want to see one of them in the finals. Then I will root, unless it's against Novak.
Well, like I said, three Americans and Novak are the bottom half of the bracket.

Speaker 1 Oh, so yeah, he's going to waste them. He's going to waste them.
Never know.

Speaker 2 We went back-to-back 2002, 2003, Sampras, rottic and then nothing sampras all-time hairy dude very hairy just the hairy super greek so hairy also women's side coco goff

Speaker 1 still alive uh still alive yeah coco golf next up i think so okay yeah all right you said jimmy butler's been in her box

Speaker 1 whoa jeez

Speaker 2 respectfully

Speaker 1 damn

Speaker 1 that's what it's called in tennis like

Speaker 1 jimmy butler's been in her box. Whoa, a phrase that.
All right. I'm not wrong.
I didn't phrase it wrong.

Speaker 1 Well, yeah, you did. Yeah, you definitely.
That's exactly what you mean. You should have said sweet.

Speaker 1 You should have said he's attended the game.

Speaker 2 You should have said Jimmy Butler's been in her sweet box.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yes.
Yes. That would have been much better.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Let's get to Field Yates. Field Yates, great interview, NFL preview with Field Yates.

Speaker 1 Whether I'm hosting game day at my place or taking my talents to the tailgate, Boarshead is my go-to for a spread that's as exciting as the game itself. Their platters are a hit every time.

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Speaker 1 My personal favorite, the blazing buffalo chicken, hummus, or even one of their charcuterie collections for game-changing flavor.

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Speaker 1 Okay, here he is, Field Yates.

Speaker 1 Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest in person. Double Very is yet double very.
He was nice enough to change his flights around.

Speaker 1 He has been on

Speaker 1 to prank Mike Florio, but we thought we know Field Yates is a fan of the show. We know he knows football very, very well inside and out.
So let's get him on. Let's talk some ball.

Speaker 1 Before we talk ball, Schefter asked me to ask you what your middle name is. Oh, God.
Minister. What?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm a very non-religious person, so not exactly appropriate. My mother's maiden name.

Speaker 1 Okay, that makes more sense. So otherwise, it's my name's definitely followed me throughout my life.

Speaker 2 Because it could be Stolen Valor.

Speaker 1 Minister Yates.

Speaker 1 I've officiated two weddings, but no, not a particularly religious or something. Okay, that's not as cool.
The story Schaefer kind of led me down the wrong way.

Speaker 1 You know, the best part about having a name that's like something that's unique is that, like, you know, growing up, when a certain age kids did sort of have their thoughts on being named Field, and it's like, you have zero control over what your name is.

Speaker 1 That's true.

Speaker 1 That's true.

Speaker 1 What was the age? What was the age kids started making? That's probably like, I'm thinking like eight to ten. Okay.

Speaker 1 I remember, I will distinctly remember being like, I have an older brother, a younger sister, and picking up my older brother when he started at a new school.

Speaker 1 And I was probably around when he was probably 10 or so. So I'm thinking eight to ten.
Isn't that the worst? That first moment? I remember maybe when I was like seven or eight.

Speaker 1 Dan, get you some flat. No, no, no.
At a pool, one of my friends was like, hey, see if you can hold your hands together in front of you like this. And I did.
And he's like, look, you have tits.

Speaker 1 And I was like, God damn it.

Speaker 1 And that was it. It was just like, fuck.
Like, I never

Speaker 1 feel like they let me off easy by just saying, like, your name's weird. Right.
When you're young, you don't even think about these things.

Speaker 1 And that first moment you think about it, you're like, well, this will be something new.

Speaker 1 New insecurity unlocked for the rest of my my life content 30 years later though on the plus side yeah you got that going for you people remember it too yeah yeah no and you know what's weird isn't like you guys i'm sure you guys to the you know 100th degree uh deal with this but like you know working at espm it's a big company and you know i've been there for over a decade now and all the people like amazing people that work in like studio operations but like all the time you know it's a different uh crew every single day i'm like hey field how's it going you're like

Speaker 1 oh yeah i know like we've definitely said hello we've definitely introduced ourselves before but like that might have been eight years for all i know And it's like, hey, pal, did you guys do this recently?

Speaker 1 Like, you know, like the worst names to be called in a house. Buddy, just like that's kind of like sport way too much.

Speaker 1 You got a little older and you can do sport. Are you now? Are you subconsciously rooting for Justin Fields? Yes,

Speaker 1 not even subconsciously. Okay, just outwardly.

Speaker 1 Yeah, like, because you have to have a little bit of kinship there. Totally, yeah.

Speaker 1 And, you know, I'm not trying to like cater to the home team here now, but, you know, Ryan Poles and I, my first job out of college, I got hired by the Chiefs to go work as a scouting assistant, which is as entry-level of a scouting job as there is in the NFL.

Speaker 1 And we had, there were three desks in one room. And it was me, Ryan Poles, now the Bears GM, also hired at the same time.
And then a guy named Mike Borganzi.

Speaker 1 He's the Chiefs GM, Chief Assistant GM, excuse me. So like the three of us were in this fishbowl together for a couple of years.
And so, you know, you'd like to see people that you know do well.

Speaker 1 So if Justin Fields does well, then Ryan Poles might be the king of the city. Wait, I didn't realize you were.
How long were you in the NFL for? Two seasons with the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 So the first year was Todd Haley, right? Scouting assistant. And my second year, I was Todd Haley's right-hand man.
Oh, wow. That crazy something.
Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 I have very limited experience with Todd Haley. I've met him a few times, usually at the combine.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 We might take the story out. But last time I was hanging out with him, he just showed me pictures of his wife's tits.

Speaker 1 He was like, check this out. We're not taking that out.

Speaker 2 Seriously? Well, he didn't show it to me. He was showing it to

Speaker 1 a group of like, check them out. Pretty sure.
Sweet. I had a great experience.

Speaker 1 So my second year, is actually that like not the not to derail where this was going but so when i had uh so when i first got hired there was like five of us that got hired uh in the summer of 2009 three of us in the scouting staff the guys i mentioned and then uh one of the coaches was nick siriani so nick siriani now the eagles head coach was the quality control offensive coach or the offensive quality control coach he was like really at todd's mercy i was you know a little more It was like a slightly larger buffer.

Speaker 1 But yeah, Nick Siriani, and I love people are always like, yeah, so you knew back then, right?

Speaker 1 Totally. You know, like 22-year-old me knew that 23-year-old Nick Siriani was going to

Speaker 1 in his second year be a Super Bowl head coach and like have it all figured out. But yeah, it's been great to follow those guys.

Speaker 2 Was the goal to get to being like a head coach? Is that what you ultimately wanted to achieve? Or did you, were you like, I'm going to play the long game and

Speaker 1 make a lasting football?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, no, the goal was to be in football for a long time.

Speaker 1 The lifestyle is a little different than

Speaker 1 I'm from Massachusetts.

Speaker 1 And like moving out to Kansas City when I first got out there, like your first few years out of college between high school reunions, like five-year high school reunion, my friends who were on like the early adopters of getting married and like having kids.

Speaker 1 You know, like, shit, like, I'm three years out of college and I have not been to one significant life event. Right.
That probably weighed on me more than I expected it to.

Speaker 1 So I think it was more of a life decision.

Speaker 2 The

Speaker 2 five-year reunion is a crock of shit.

Speaker 1 Totally.

Speaker 2 You put so much weight into it at the moment. You're like, oh, I got to have my shit together.
I got some friends that are like making six figures in finance. Right.

Speaker 2 And in reality, the five-year reunion is basically, it's utterly meaningless.

Speaker 1 You're like the anti-Tylou. Rebro Tylu said that he missed six different funerals and everyone's like, dude, you had six funerals in like a month? And the Clippers sucked last year.

Speaker 1 So you're the anti-Ty Lou, but that's respectable. So two years of the Chiefs.
Yep. Then I came back.
I came back. I was living back in Massachusetts.

Speaker 1 I moved back in with my mom, which, you know, that's the kind of thing that'll humble you at whatever, 24, 25 years old.

Speaker 1 A little different than Todd Haley. A little different than working with Todd Haley every single day.

Speaker 1 uh my mom had slightly different priorities than todd did you know like uh and uh different schedule too so and then i started like the media thing i was like uh and not to date ourselves but like you guys remember like the days of having a blog i mean yeah you guys came into prominence you still obviously you guys still obviously have a very strong online presence but like Twitter was not in full force at that point.

Speaker 1 Obviously, Instagram and TikTok and all this stuff was not nearly where it was. So I started the blog.
And

Speaker 1 being in Boston, there's so many outlets there. So I had a million different places to try to reach reach out to.
And I had the same experience that most people do.

Speaker 1 Like, you know, no one responds to their emails. And then it was one person, a guy at ESPN Boston, Mike Reese who covers the Patriots for ESPN, who responded to my email.

Speaker 1 And that was the start of my ESPN career. Wait, so you're a genius.
Two years with the Chiefs, you get to put that on your resume and be like, yeah, I worked in the NFL for two years.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, that's the best part is people are like, that's incredible. So, like, you know,

Speaker 1 you're the Mahomes. Like, really, like.
If not for your contributions, Patrick Mahomes would not be a Chiefs.

Speaker 2 You never know. I mean, it is, it's the butterfly effect.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Like, maybe there was somebody else.

Speaker 1 Can you prove otherwise?

Speaker 2 You got Alex Smith the right smoothie. He went out there, played well, ended up in right the exact position to trade to draft.

Speaker 1 You know, we actually had a gem of a quarterback room when I was there. This was pre-Alex Smith.
So Matt Castle. Oh.
So, like.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, it was the baby Patriots.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yep.
So Castle, Vrabel got traded there that same offseason. Vrabel, absolute legend, obviously.

Speaker 1 And I swore, I was like, I was so positive he would never coach after football because he seemed like one of those guys that was like,

Speaker 1 you know, he was so like football clearly was like his entire life leading up to it but one of those guys that just felt like whenever it was time he was going to be so at peace and he had accomplished so much that you're like dude like you can't possibly go up from being a three-time champion and like whatever it was 12 catches for 12 touchdowns and here he is whatever a decade later and you know great head coach uh but brody croyle Alabama legend yeah third up pick a throw the ball a freaking mile it's great yeah um and Matt Castle and Tyler Palco Palco was there yeah threw that pass against the Bears to end a half Haley.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. I remember that.

Speaker 1 Not many lefty quarterbacks anymore.

Speaker 1 And then he had that game. He started on Monday Night Football against the Patriots, actually.

Speaker 1 So Palco Hayes. What a legend.
Great back. Yeah, great dude.
Yeah, that's a solid quarterback, bro.

Speaker 2 That's just great names. I remember those Chiefs.

Speaker 2 They had a lot of people from the Patriots organization in the front office, right?

Speaker 2 And my theory has been that Belichick sends his disciples across the league to destroy other teams and then come home to tear down franchises from the inside.

Speaker 2 Did you get that vibe when you were there?

Speaker 1 I mean, it's hard to argue otherwise, right? Yeah. Look at the track record, yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, how many head coaches, like if you consider Brable a disciple, I feel like that's kind of

Speaker 1 stretching, right? He played for him. That feels different to me.
Like, is Kevin O'Connell a disciple? He played for Belichick, right?

Speaker 1 Like, uh, but yeah, it has not been, I wouldn't say the track record is exactly Sterling in the post-Patriot.

Speaker 2 Are you

Speaker 2 a part of this? My other theory is that you're a mouthpiece for the New England Patriots. Is Is that fair to say?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'd say that's pretty much like how you're doing. Well, you're afraid of Belichick, right?

Speaker 1 So prior to my Chiefs' time, I spent four,

Speaker 1 it's hard to call it an internship because I don't, like, there's not like an online application that you go and you apply to like, you know, Patriots sort of like scouting intern.

Speaker 1 But I spent four summers and then I went to college in Connecticut. So getting home during winter break was easy.

Speaker 1 I went to like every for like four straight years, basically.

Speaker 1 I was at every Patriots training camp during the, when I was back home for any kind of of breaks i was over the patriots facility i go to all the games home and road games which is awesome for me and uh like the the super bowl they lost against the giants it's the perfect season there's like this infamous photo that friends send to me whenever it pops up me like like gnawing on my long sleeve shirt right behind belich yes thank you very frank the tank style um

Speaker 1 and uh yeah so uh four years four years with the patriots which is kind of like my that was like my i call it like my rosetta stone right like that was where i kind of learned it all um so yeah i mean Belichick may or may not have had a conversation with me on the way out the door.

Speaker 1 I was like, I think Kansas City will treat you well, you know, like haven't really infiltrated the Midwest yet.

Speaker 1 Let's give it a couple of years and see what happens.

Speaker 2 They're building something up.

Speaker 1 You're out of work. I would have been the person that snapped your lead, right?

Speaker 1 He's just getting ahead of it, right?

Speaker 2 It is like they've got Tyler Palco and Brody Croyle. They're up next.

Speaker 1 I want you to destroy that franchise. But his Belichick son, Steve, the one who's now their defensive play caller and I, same age.
So we were right there together. It was great, had a blast.

Speaker 1 Great, great dude. Would be a great PMT guest one day.

Speaker 1 I know, I know, he's like one of your white whales. Yeah.
You have to do a double double.

Speaker 2 Does he have the same Bill Belichick voice or does he put that on just to mess with the media?

Speaker 1 That is a carbon copy. That's awesome.
It's like a little bit like

Speaker 1 it's disjarring where it's like, it's just jarring. You're just like,

Speaker 1 disarming. It's like.
That's awesome. They are the same people.

Speaker 1 Minus the hair. Yeah.
All right, let's talk some ball. Let's do it.
I want to start with a thought starter. Give me the seven teams that are going to the playoffs in the AFC.
You know what?

Speaker 1 I was hanging out with a buddy today here in Chicago, and he was like, have you guys talked about what you're going to discuss? And I was like, I figure we'll just crank it up. Talk ball, yeah.

Speaker 1 And then he was like, well, who's making the playoffs in the AFC? So we had this conversation over here. Okay, you got division winners.
Bills, big time all the way in. Bengals,

Speaker 1 Jaguars, Chiefs. Okay.
I would say nothing surprising there.

Speaker 1 You're a Titans guy.

Speaker 1 I feel like this is a classic Vrabel spot where everyone's forgotten the Titans. It's definitely a Vrabel team.
And they had that losing streak last year where Tannehill was out for some of it.

Speaker 1 And this will be the year that everyone's anointed the Jaguars. And it's like, oh, shit, we forgot about the Titans.
Also, I don't know if you guys have the same experience watching quarterback.

Speaker 1 Mahomes talking about the Titans in the week leading up to their game was like, this was like Malik Willis was starting. And that game went to overtime.
It was like Willis' first start.

Speaker 1 And he kept like, the defense is so tough. And like one of the hardest groups we'll face all season.
You're like, you do sort of forget the variable effect.

Speaker 1 But yeah, and then

Speaker 1 Jets, Dolphins, Ravens. So three teams from the AFC East.
Okay, so that means no Chargers. No Chargers.
That means no Browns.

Speaker 1 That means no Steelers. No Steelers, yeah.
I think the streak comes to an end this year.

Speaker 1 It's so that I ask that because it's crazy how stacked the AFC is that you do the seven teams and then you leave out like three or four teams that

Speaker 1 it's not inconceivable some of those teams could be in the Super Bowl. But the Chargers, the Jets, like those.
They want, I mean, they all think they're going there this year, right?

Speaker 1 I always, the question I always ask people is: so, if you put the Steelers in the NFC South right now. Oh, my God.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 The Saints are going to be legit, obviously. I think they're going to be good.
But, like, don't you feel pretty good about the Steelers competing for at least a wild card spot in the NFC? Yes.

Speaker 2 I mean, but you think that they're not going to be 500 this year.

Speaker 1 I think this week comes to an end. Wow.

Speaker 2 That would be sad. That would be a good thing.

Speaker 1 Which sounds crazy coming off the. No, I am after the preseason, too, right? Five touchdowns on five drives.
I'm sure Steelers fans ever will be thrilled about this.

Speaker 1 You know, if you look at that stretch, like the last month of last year,

Speaker 1 or five and nine at one point, like the quarterback, and you play on the schedule, I'm not trying to say they have any influence over that, but like that was like that was getting by the skin of their teeth last year.

Speaker 1 And they're obviously incredibly well coached, and they do have tons of like individual talent. Just that, like, someone has to be last in that division, right? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And you think that's the Steelers, not the Browns. Are you backing on Deshaun Watson as a human? So, like, I try to

Speaker 1 start there.

Speaker 1 Pass on that one.

Speaker 1 So, like, what's the more representative sample size? Is it five seasons or is it one season?

Speaker 1 My brain wants to say it's five seasons where he was, you know, this amazing top five-ish quarterback. And then last year falls off a cliff.

Speaker 1 It's been like this preseason was pretty ugly from the Browns. Yeah.
And, like,

Speaker 1 I feel like, and I could be wrong here. I feel like during the training camps, like, beat writers probably tend to have like a much more, like a much rosier outlook on the teams they cover.

Speaker 1 I feel like every team, you know, we're days away from the season starting. Best shape of their life.
I kind of feel like everybody's going to be better than they're actually going to be right now.

Speaker 1 But even like the Browns reporting's been pretty downtrodden about Deshaun's performance this summer. Like

Speaker 1 more questions than answers. Like not totally sure this is going to pay off.
And for a franchise that's had as many failures at the quarterback spot, like this would by far take the cake.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it'd be the crown jewel. When you look at the contract that they gave him.
Yes. But this is absurd.
But don't like this is the team, and I think they wear this crown now.

Speaker 1 It may be that for a while, the Chargers were there, maybe the Broncos were there previously, but like every year the Browns roster looks good. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, where's the major weakness for the Browns this year? I don't have a team, a spot that I'm like, well, they don't, you know, they have, you know, they got wide receivers now.

Speaker 1 The offensive line's good. Nick Chubb's the man.
Like, defensively, it's like every level, they've got a player who could be a legitimate Pro Bowl or defensive player of the year, like Miles Garrett.

Speaker 1 So it's hard to pinpoint like

Speaker 1 that part as a major weakness for them.

Speaker 1 But until they prove it, it's like they have that sort of stink on them that the Chargers in recent years and even the Broncos, which we thought would go away last year with Russ, I have had in the past half decade.

Speaker 1 So why Chargers no playoffs?

Speaker 1 Just a bold take. I like it.
Just vibes. Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 Vibes may be a little bit contributing to it. They always get injured.
They always get injured. It's like it's just a thing, right?

Speaker 2 The second half of that Jaguars game, that was the ugliest football.

Speaker 1 I've never been angry a team than i have when i was uh when i was watching the chargers just blow that yeah and i feel like uh and right when uh i think right after herbert signed his extension like they they had a like a video that had been pre-made and like it somehow like it referenced that game and i'm like

Speaker 1 that's going right now like dude we just got the guy signed up he's now signed for seven more years i'm like i don't need to hear about it was great great first half um no like the chargers like i think that um the argument against a team uh any team that you like in the afc not making the playoffs is much more an argument about teams that you do like.

Speaker 1 Right. Like,

Speaker 1 Ravens, I think, are a sleeping giant.

Speaker 1 I think they're, like, at this point, you can't call them a sleeping giant, but a team that probably is not discussed as much as Buffalo, Kansas City, and Cincinnati, I think, is awesome.

Speaker 1 They've got, they always, like, they always like punch above their weight. And Tyler Huntley almost beat the Bengals.
Like, we used to be Pro Bowler. Yeah, Pro Bowler, Tyler Huntley.

Speaker 1 But, like, the vibes are legit, like, legitimately. Like, has a team changed how you felt about them more from the start of the regulars, the offseason to right now?

Speaker 1 Like, there was a time where it felt like Lamar was done, like would never play there again. They had no wide receivers.

Speaker 1 And all of a sudden, you're like, Lamar, five years, great, fired up to be there.

Speaker 1 Last year was just bizarre at the last time. Like, it was.

Speaker 1 I know it was an injury, but I think we'd all be naive if we think that like his contract and his just general frustration with the organization was not contributing to it. So

Speaker 1 I love the Ravens this year. And then I'm having a hard time, like the Jets and the Dolphins.
Like I'm having a hard time finding a way to differentiate between the two of them.

Speaker 1 Like the Jalen Ramsey injury doesn't help, but they should be so much better. Dude, Vic Fangs.
I forgot Vic Fangio was there.

Speaker 1 He's so good. He's a walking top 10 defense.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it reminds me a lot of what McVay did when he brought in Wade Phillips. Yeah, it's like you got the new school guy, you got the old school guy running the show on defense.

Speaker 1 It tends to work. Yeah.
He'll get the most out of him. That's just what Vic Fangio does.
Like coming into last year, it wasn't lack of talent that betrayed them on defense.

Speaker 1 Like they just didn't play well at all last year defensively.

Speaker 1 And, you know,

Speaker 1 with the Jets, like, you know, the offensive line will be discussed a million different ways.

Speaker 1 And what makes me nervous about any of the teams that I picked is that if you just go through, and I try to do this for every single team, but like the Jets' first four games, Bills, Cowboys, Patriots, Chiefs.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, if you go one and three there,

Speaker 1 0-4 is possible, then the whole season has, you know, that's like, it's. You fight an uphill battle.
It's impossible. I mean, it's basically impossible.

Speaker 1 But, yeah, so Chargers, the argument's probably less about them and more about just like the strength of the Ravens, Jets, and Bills. You're doing this.

Speaker 2 It's not you, it's me.

Speaker 1 For any team that you're leaving out of the AFC. There are a lot of people that listen to this podcast.
I got to make sure that I protect myself. There's no little Mr.
Chargers.

Speaker 1 No, no one will get mad at you. That's fine.

Speaker 2 Have you ever had a Chargers fan in real life?

Speaker 1 I've met one. Yeah, well, we have Shane.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 One of our producers is.

Speaker 1 There's my first.

Speaker 2 So how about this? Let's do give me your top six quarterbacks in the NFL, and then we'll delete one of them. Okay.
And we'll put it on a graphic so one fan base will get really angry at you.

Speaker 1 Oh, okay. And we won't tell you which one.
Okay. All right.
So delete Mahomes. Well, we'll.
No, no, no. We won't tell you.
Okay. All right.

Speaker 1 Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, and

Speaker 1 man, it's hard to not have Aaron Rodgers on this list even after last year, but I will go with Lamar Jackson. Okay.
So you are a believer in Aaron Rodgers this year because we had a discussion.

Speaker 1 Hank and PFD think Deshaun Watson is going to have a better year than Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 2 I didn't necessarily say that.

Speaker 1 I don't think that's exactly what you're saying. I might have said.

Speaker 2 I forget. I say a lot of things.

Speaker 1 That was the exact bet. I just think that is,

Speaker 2 I think that it's always more difficult than you think to just transfer into a brand new organization. But he brought it all up.
Everything is going to be the same.

Speaker 1 I got sucked in by hard knocks. Like,

Speaker 1 this may not be like a vintage hard knock season.

Speaker 1 No, I know, me too. I'm now a full-on believer.

Speaker 1 You know, like, it's such a ridiculous and oversimplified way of analyzing football, but it's like, yeah, he just seems so enthused and happy again, right?

Speaker 1 Like, but it makes me think more and more that while Aaron Rodgers got that extension a couple of years ago in Green Bay and played nice for an extra year or two,

Speaker 1 he wanted out. And this has energized him in a way that could legitimately impact a product on the field.
So if the Jets can protect Aaron Rodgers, that'll be fine.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I also think that's a big if, though.

Speaker 1 It is a huge if because he goes from Green Bay, which is maybe the best offensive line in football, or at least, you know. One of the three best offensive lines in football to the Jets, who

Speaker 1 like there's like one-fifth of the offensive line, I I feel definitely really good about it. Oh, give us top five offensive lines.
Ooh, this is good. This is important.
Eagles? Eagles, number one.

Speaker 1 I will go with Packers, Chiefs,

Speaker 1 Cowboys, and

Speaker 1 I'm trying to think of Lions.

Speaker 1 Ooh, Lions, good one. Yes, thank you for answering that for me.
Lions right there in the mix as well. Browns would be another one that I would consider.

Speaker 1 Not to get too football nerdy here, but there's like an epidemic right now of

Speaker 1 offensive line depth. That was one of the biggest things that I remember.
Like during preseason, I'm like, holy, like, you're one injury away from like a serious problem arising right now. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Why do you think that is? I mean,

Speaker 1 there are people who feel like the influence of the spread offense in college has led to

Speaker 1 these offensive linemen are playing. Yeah, I mean, they're playing from a two-point stance every single snap, right?

Speaker 1 And like the habits, this is like some of my scouting buddies will talk about how like there are offensive linemen that we draft.

Speaker 1 And the first thing we have to do before we can like train them in our system is untrain them in their system.

Speaker 1 It's like a two-step process where the development period is a lot longer and we've never had more inpatient GMs or owners really in the NFL that like you whiff on a third-round pick and it's like you're held accountable in a way that you probably weren't a decade ago.

Speaker 1 And it also, that's interesting because it does

Speaker 1 like

Speaker 1 my answer for the AFC is basically whichever seven teams are going to be the healthiest. And I know that sounds very reductive and like no duh.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but it's so loaded that it's like whichever team can basically avoid the huge injury bug of this list of 11, 12 teams that you could say are like have a legitimate chance will be the teams.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And there's like three teams maybe in the AFC that I'm like, I have a really tough path. Like I think like Houston, it's going to be a really tough path to get to the playoffs.

Speaker 1 Indy's going to be like a really tough path to get to the playoffs. Maybe like I'm not there with the Raiders, right? Like sort of a weird, they're in this weird,

Speaker 1 not quite an identity crisis right now as a franchise, but like they spent a quarter of a billion dollars a year ago.

Speaker 1 And this offseason, it was like trading away players like Darren Waller and sort of like keeping the band back together and trading away, you know, or cutting Derek Carr.

Speaker 1 Like, I don't know that on paper, I think they're like a much better team than they were last year when they were, whatever, six and 11.

Speaker 1 So other than those three, like, I think every other team is kind of telling itself right now, like, yeah, we plan to make the playoffs this year. Yeah.

Speaker 2 What about one guy I'm very excited about? This might just be from watching too much, you know, too many YouTube videos on watch out for this guy.

Speaker 2 He's going to be the biggest weapon that you don't see coming. And Justin Ross on the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Like they basically got what should have been a first-round pick and they got him for nothing. And I just saw one highlight where the Chiefs tweeted out like, you just got Ross.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And he looks unstoppable. And with him and Patrick Mahomes together, I feel like that's going to be, he's going to be a touchdown machine.

Speaker 1 Fantasy brain to me has spent way too much time this offseason talking himself into every Chiefs wide receiver.

Speaker 1 You could put the least talented receiver in the NFL and the Chiefs and I'd be like top 25 outcome. Like upside is there, right? Like you have Mahomes, you got a chance, right?

Speaker 1 But dude, like Justin Ross in college, his freshman year was like one of the best players in the country. He had some really scary neck issues during college, which kept him off the field for a while.

Speaker 1 And that was part of the reason why he went undrafted.

Speaker 1 But like finished off his college career on a high note and definitely has like, you know, like some of the unteachable stuff, like size and speed.

Speaker 1 I'm trying to like sort of probably the biggest thing that's allowed me me to contain the hype is just that like last year they didn't have a dominant receiver and Mahomes still had the NFL and passing yards.

Speaker 1 So I'm like, yeah, Mahomes, like Justin Ross could be a healthy scratch or he could like not be on the team in week three and they'll probably still average 32 points per game.

Speaker 1 He's also some wide receivers. Yeah.
Pretty much. He also gets the benefit of, I'm going to think that he's John Ross, who I still believe in.

Speaker 2 He's so fast. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So fast. I know.
When he retired, it was, I think that was like a month ago. I was like, that like took a little piece out of my heart.
Yeah. I was like, what the hell? That guy, how'd he fail?

Speaker 1 He was so fast.

Speaker 1 And like now, watching these college football players getting ready for the like the 2024 draft already i'm already like i i'm gonna fall like there are certain things that are just incredibly difficult to not be totally like enamored by and like a guy who can run a four like there's always a soft spot in my heart for a 14 guy yes john ross different yes different um let's talk about somebody you don't really spend that much time on on esp and hank's favorite team the dallas cowboys yeah i know so big year for them you guys don't really discuss them that much they're flying under the radar a little bit it's so funny you say that like so i've been uh so i spent so laura rutledge the the host of NFL Live, was on maternity leave for the summer.

Speaker 1 So I spent four months sitting in for her. And I'm not exaggerating.

Speaker 1 It's just like part of the calculus, right?

Speaker 1 It makes sense. Dude, it would be production negligence to not talk about LeBron.
People get mad at us when we talk about LeBron. It's like, but people want to hear about LeBron.

Speaker 1 Oh, they want to hear about it. That's just a fact.
We find a way. So we find a way every day.
It's like, and just, and I'm telling you that, like, the numbers would bear out.

Speaker 1 That, like, if you did an extremely nuanced conversation about like, you know, the, hey, like, I think the, uh, you know, the

Speaker 1 Vikings, like, you know, front seven's, like, really looking strong this year. And like, you broke down each player individually.
And then it was like, will Dak improve or regress this year?

Speaker 1 Does Dak suck? Will Dak throw left-handed this year? Like, you know, and we'll do that for seven minutes. That's a good segment.

Speaker 2 Let's talk about, does Dak suck?

Speaker 1 No, Dak doesn't suck. I think he sucks.
No, he sucks. He sucks.
He sucks. Daz Prescott sucks all the time.
He sucks.

Speaker 1 He is a byproduct of the star on his helmet. I'm a big, you know what? He sucks.
I've become like.

Speaker 2 He got beat up at Panama City Beach on spring break. It sucks.

Speaker 1 That was probably the point that we knew is a little bit of a question about this future. No,

Speaker 1 I am a dat guy.

Speaker 1 What does that mean? What does that mean? Yeah, I mean, like,

Speaker 1 seriously.

Speaker 1 You know what's funny? It's a good question. All right.

Speaker 1 So here's the answer: is that, like, I feel like so much, the NFL is not like the NBA, where I feel like the NBA, so much of our interest is the offseason, right?

Speaker 1 Like, we're just as, like, James Harden's next team is just as interesting as what he's doing that current season,

Speaker 1 I feel like with the NFL, it's really not the case, except for when it comes to quarterback futures, right? It's like going into this season,

Speaker 1 every year three quarterback. It's like, hey, if Mac Jones doesn't ball out this year, are the Patriots in the, like, could they be a Caleb Williams team next year?

Speaker 1 It's like, they haven't played a game yet. Justin Fields, if the Bears have two first-round picks, like, could they be the team, right?

Speaker 1 They have that fifth-year option that you have to pick up after this year.

Speaker 1 So quarterback's the only spot where I feel like a quarterback's future is is a 365-day topic for us, even in the heat of like, hey, it's week seven, we're coming off of an epic Monday night game.

Speaker 1 So, I keep, I think, what I am predisposed to think about is like,

Speaker 1 even after trading for like the Cowboys did not trade for Trey Lance to replace Dak Prescott next offseason, right? Like, they're going to keep Dak around.

Speaker 1 And by the way, at some point, I expect Dak to sign like a pretty unbelievable extension, like probably $50 million or more per year. And it's going to be crazy.
The internet's going to hate it.

Speaker 1 No, I'm a Dak. I wish I was a shitty quarterback.
I'm a DAC guy.

Speaker 1 I think that

Speaker 1 this will be a bounce back DAC season.

Speaker 1 A bounce-back DAC season.

Speaker 1 Write the quote. All right.
So bounce back.

Speaker 1 Give us the seven NFC teams.

Speaker 1 Probably, in a weird way, as hard as it is with the AFC, it might be harder for the NFC. Yeah, because you have to find something.
You have to find the dig for those six and seven.

Speaker 1 Division winners, Eagles. NFC Normans, I don't like.
I took the Vikings previously, and I couldn't

Speaker 1 warm up to that pick that strongly.

Speaker 1 But Eagles, vikings saints i feel good about that one and then four niners okay seahawks make it back this year okay cowboys lions for the seven okay all right yeah lions get it so giants out yeah but interesting but like they're gonna be better than they were like they're more talented team than they were last year but you go back to last season and there's very few things that you can like definitely count on year over year in the nfl one thing you can count on is like close game luck will not persist yeah which is one of the reasons why the vikings are like a close call even after going 13 and 4 But

Speaker 1 was it every game, except for two last year, was a one-score game in the fourth quarter? Yeah, couldn't you say that? 11-0.

Speaker 2 If you win a lot of close games and you do it consistently, wouldn't you say like Brian Dable has something to do with that? They're doing the small things correctly to

Speaker 2 make the ball bounce their way. I know you can't control fumble luck.
That's one of our favorite things to look up is fumble luck.

Speaker 1 There are like certain places in sports where I buy that.

Speaker 1 It's like Chris Paul, I mean, in a prior, like a prior iteration of Chris Paul, like was his teams were always great in like clutch time, like, you know, plus minus or whatever.

Speaker 1 But like there are very few like teams that I think have shown themselves capable of keeping it up year over year.

Speaker 1 Even the Chiefs, a couple of years ago, like I think it was the year after like the Mahomes breakout, maybe it was the second year.

Speaker 1 I mean, Mahomes is so ridiculous that every year feels like a little bit like more of a breakout, but they started the season like three and four because it was like after winning every close game.

Speaker 1 Now it was Mahomes' second season. They like, They didn't cover, but they won like 12 straight to end the season, but they didn't covered one of those 12.

Speaker 1 And then the following year, they started 3-4. It's just like hard to, the Braiders are the evidence of this last year.

Speaker 1 The Vikings will be evidence of this this year, but going from 13 to 4 to like 10 and 7 is still.

Speaker 1 So, yeah,

Speaker 1 the Giants definitely had some fourth quarter favor last year that is difficult to replicate.

Speaker 2 Talk about the officials and the commanders, Giants can. Potentially.

Speaker 1 You said it, not me?

Speaker 1 Is that Monday Night Football? It's Sunday Night Football. That was such bullshit that remembers.

Speaker 2 Terry McLaurin lining up and the judge throwing a flag on him, even though he checked.

Speaker 1 That was bad. Vibes are high right now with your commander stuff.
They are. Extremely high.

Speaker 2 I've been telling people,

Speaker 2 we have the system. We have Patrick Bahman's system now.

Speaker 1 Also,

Speaker 1 usually when a quarterback goes in the fifth round and we're talking ourselves into him, I'm kind of like, he still went in the fifth round, right?

Speaker 1 Like, it's still like, I probably happened for a reason.

Speaker 2 You didn't see Steven Chase's mock draft the way too early one.

Speaker 1 Yeah, no.

Speaker 2 We had Sam Howell number one overall.

Speaker 1 I was starting to, for something I'm working on right now at ESPN, I started to look back at, because I was looking at at some stuff for this upcoming year, and you're looking back at the first mock drafts from prior years, and it's just a reminder of like how much can change from year to year.

Speaker 1 And I saw Sam Howell, like number one overall.

Speaker 1 And like North Carolina's, they got, I mean, Beyond Drake May, like they've got two receivers, like they're loaded this year and skill position players on offense, but they went, they had like that baby drought during Sam Howell's final year at North Carolina that

Speaker 1 I think maybe the NFL ever thought of on Sam Howe. Yeah.

Speaker 2 If you were to redraft Sam Howell right now,

Speaker 1 amongst the second-year quarterbacks? Yeah. So it's Kenny Pickett, Malik Willis, Sam Howell, and who am I forgetting?

Speaker 1 I'm sure there's somebody. Oh, Brock Purdy.
Yeah. Bailey Zappi.

Speaker 1 Matt Corral. Matt Corral.
Yeah. Still in the mix.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think Kenny Pickett will be one, and then I think it would be a comment. I think Sam Howe will be two.

Speaker 2 There we go. There we go.

Speaker 1 So we're already moving up to the next one.

Speaker 2 So maybe moved up to a second-round pick.

Speaker 1 Oh, you know, I got a fan of Fortnite fans. I'm sure I'll throw it that.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 it's a Brock Purdy-Sam Howell conversation. Brock Purdy is going to be a fascinating player this year, too, because don't want to take away from a kid who helped them win a ton of games last year, but

Speaker 1 that is as brilliant of a coaching system as there is right now.

Speaker 2 He's got expectations now for him.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I saw that. I loved going back to preseason.
I think it was the final Fortniteers preseason game.

Speaker 1 Brock Purdy threw a four-yard out to Brandon Ayuk, who ran like 47 yards for a touchdown.

Speaker 1 Football aggregators have definitely taken over Twitter these days, right? And one of them posted the, like, just took the clip from the NFL and just posted it all caps, Brock Purdy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Respect.

Speaker 1 I respect the dedication to Brock Purdy loyalty.

Speaker 1 That?

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Speaker 2 Do you think that John Lynch and Kyle Shannon should be fired for drafting Trey Lance?

Speaker 1 I think I'm going to have to to side with Will on that one.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You know,

Speaker 1 you could go through every NFL GM, every head coach, and find like several flaws.

Speaker 1 I think that what I it was a bad pick, obviously it was a major whiff. Like they should have stuck to their guns, which

Speaker 1 if they had I truly feel like the internet persuaded them. Really?

Speaker 1 When they made that trade, the trade was made in like March. Yeah.
Which you don't see a lot of trades made that early before the draft.

Speaker 1 A lot of them are day of the draft or even the Bears trade with the Panthers last year was fairly early. That was, I think, the Friday before free agency.

Speaker 1 Usually, it's the days or the hours leading up to the draft. They made that trade in March.

Speaker 1 And at that point, we all knew Trevor was going one, but it was probably leaning heavily towards that going two.

Speaker 1 But there was still some question mark about who the Fortiners would have at their disposal at pick three.

Speaker 1 And Shefty, who, of course, is as dialed in as anybody, was like, yeah, the intention is to take Mac Jones.

Speaker 1 And then, like, that had, I don't know, maybe a week's worth of momentum and everybody was like how could you take mac jones third overall even though he had just thrown for like 5 000 yards let out lay into a perfect season and like was absurd um and then it became like you know the upside of trey lance my football buddies talk about this all the time whenever they're like in meetings when they're talking about players on a different team they can always talk themselves into the upside of a guy more so than they can their own team right like you know this guy like you know we're sitting here like examining he got cut he's on the waiver wire today the upside's kind of intriguing like, dude, he got cut from like the worst teams defense in the NFL.

Speaker 1 Like the upside probably is what it is, right? Like the upside is like probably, you claim him, and then he's cut in like two weeks. So

Speaker 1 people think they can fix a problem. Of course.
Right. I used to, I used to, I mean, not that

Speaker 1 you love Jay.

Speaker 1 So I used to talk about this with Jay Cutler all the time is that like coaches are built with like a certain, and I say this like in a, in a way of, of admiration, they have an arrogance about them, which is part of the reason why they're successful.

Speaker 1 Jay Cutler was like the litmus test for that, right? Because Jay was so talented, talented, right? But hadn't experienced a ton of team success.

Speaker 1 But every coach who coached him was like, this guy can be, like, I can make this guy great. Like, our team can be great with him.

Speaker 1 And by the way, Adam Gates was like rewarded for that in Miami that year when he got him out of retirement and like helped him win a lot of games.

Speaker 1 But that's, I think, the case often with quarterbacks. As you see, you know, you don't bother with quite as much of the downside as you do by being enamored by the upside.

Speaker 1 And I don't know what the future is for Trey, Trey Lance, but when you factor in being the Cowboys backup for at least this year and probably next as well, that's going to be five full seasons, basically, if not playing football.

Speaker 1 Not playing football.

Speaker 1 How can you expect that guy to be like

Speaker 1 in 2019? Actually, six, because he only played one game in the COVID. Well, four of the NFL and one of college.

Speaker 1 They had that central Arkansas game his final year at North Dakota State. And you're like, so

Speaker 1 five full years. And is anybody going to be, unless Dak gets hurt and Trey plays,

Speaker 1 now that that we talked about him glowingly,

Speaker 1 like, is Trey going to have a market to become a starter in 2025? There will be a coach that's like someone will dislike Trey Lance. He was picking, what, third overall? I fall for that all the time.

Speaker 1 I mean, even the Cowboys trading for him, I was like, of the teams that I had thought about, can guarantee, I put zero seconds of effort into the Cowboys.

Speaker 1 I had all the same usual suspects as everybody else, right? Like, would the Bucs do it? Would the Vikings do it? Would the teams that have a question mark after this year?

Speaker 1 Would they consider doing it?

Speaker 1 And the Cowboys never registered for me.

Speaker 1 This is a tough question, but you're a smart guy. What's the next

Speaker 1 zag on in the NFL? Like, we've seen it, you know, obviously passing is king now. Now you've seen a lot of teams play cover two, and we had that whole discussion.

Speaker 1 Like, oh, can Mahomes beat this, like, you know, dinkin' duncan down the field? What's the next thing you see coming, whether it be defense or offense, that teams are going to start to do?

Speaker 1 I think we're seeing this. Like, the Giants are probably the best example of it right now with the approach they have, but positionless defense, baby.
Let's go. Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the Amoeba defense. I like the old Rex Anser.
Special. But

Speaker 1 so the Giants made a trade in the preseason for Isaiah Simmons, who you guys remember from Clemson. I mean, freak.

Speaker 1 I remember I was at the combine the year that he was coming out, and it was like jaw-dropping. Everybody was talking about him and only him amongst the 250 guys that were there.

Speaker 1 And you're like, it doesn't matter where he plays. He's going to be insane.
Right.

Speaker 1 And instead, he goes to the Cardinals. And the problem was that he was like never good enough anywhere to ever stick.
So that's why he got traded for

Speaker 1 a seventh round pick.

Speaker 1 But Wink Martindale, their defensive coordinator, is just crazy enough to do, like, just be like, you know what? He's played safety, linebacker, slot corner. He's going to be a nose tackle for us.

Speaker 1 And next thing you know, he's going to have like, you know, eight sacks and make, you know, like make the Pro Bowl. We're all going to be like Wink friggin Martindale.

Speaker 1 So, but we're seeing more and more of that now.

Speaker 1 Like, I remember being at the Senior Bowl Bowl this past year and seeing like 220 pound linebackers or like these defensive ends who look wiry, but they can like they're just unblockable for these tackles that aren't Trenton Williams type athletes.

Speaker 1 So that could be one that I we could see.

Speaker 1 There's a kid from Iowa, Cooper Dejean, the defensive back who's like ball hawk. I don't know if he's a safety corner linebacker in the NFL, but just finds the ball.

Speaker 1 And like we're seeing, I think we're like, that's one example of many of the defensive players in this upcoming draft that are going to be more and more in vogue these days in the kind of love that I remember the Steelers with their zone blitzes.

Speaker 2 They used to drop James Harrison back into coverage sometimes.

Speaker 1 Yeah, dude, James could do it all.

Speaker 2 He was a monster.

Speaker 1 Also, the only person like that, I think the only person that trains harder after they've retired.

Speaker 1 Yeah, terrifying. Makes no sense to me.
Well, J.J. Watt now.
JJ.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he's doing a lot of those 16-ounce curls.

Speaker 1 During those Guinnesses.

Speaker 2 What about on the offensive side?

Speaker 1 The NFL is due to pay more of a tight end tax.

Speaker 1 One of the things that I will never understand, and I think he would certainly have a leg to stand on if he decided to make this his fight.

Speaker 1 Travis Kelsey would be like the 27th highest paid wide receiver if you just made him a wide receiver right now.

Speaker 1 It's absurd that a guy who, how many wide receivers are you right now unquestionably taking over Travis Kelsey for this season? Like you could trade Travis Kelsey. Three, maybe?

Speaker 1 Yeah, like maybe Jefferson, Jefferson, Marshall Chase. And like DJ Moore.

Speaker 2 Maybe Tyreek.

Speaker 1 Maybe. Have a conversation.
Yeah. Have a conversation.
Yeah, seriously, right? Like the Chiefs kept, you know, they kept

Speaker 1 Travis Kelsey, but like you can make a conversation around like maybe three or four of them. He makes like half of what Tyreek Hill makes.
Yeah. And it's hard.
You know,

Speaker 1 there's obviously only so many of these good tight ends, but we're due for a little bit of a tight end tax because there are guys like Brock Bowers from Georgia this year is going to be a problem.

Speaker 1 Like there's some legit college prospects that give me some hope that the tight end spot can get closer in line. It was why when the running back and everybody, like that was like a great

Speaker 1 June to early July conversation was running back markets and how we need to like fix the system.

Speaker 2 You can't really fix the system. The way that it's set up, it's like...

Speaker 1 My buddy's in the league with this. The GMs are doing.

Speaker 1 They're just like, you guys are the,

Speaker 1 what a waste of your time. You guys are the biggest fucking idiots talking about the system.
Like, it's never going to happen. Like, we're not going to undo the CBA to like just correct

Speaker 1 running

Speaker 2 CBA.

Speaker 2 Next time we can talk about something different with a franchise tag, you can use it.

Speaker 1 Sure, if you want to talk about that and apply it to all positions, that's fine. But people are saying running backs should deserve, they deserve the chance to renegotiate as soon as after one season.

Speaker 1 Patrick Mahomes should deserve to negotiate after one game.

Speaker 1 If we're just going to bend the rules, right?

Speaker 1 That should be how it is.

Speaker 1 Ooh, I like that, though. After one game.
All contracts are game by game. That could be

Speaker 1 complicating, but good. Yeah.
Yeah. Salary cover manager February would love that, right?

Speaker 2 I have no idea how the draft works in this respect, but if you're a top running back coming out of college and you just, maybe it's after your junior year, you don't declare for the draft until after the draft's over.

Speaker 2 And then... Go for the supplemental draft? Yeah, go for the supplemental draft.

Speaker 1 Or I don't know.

Speaker 2 Is there a way that you can

Speaker 2 get that supplemental draft pick used on you, and then the contract's going to be different so you hit free agency a little bit faster? I don't know. It's a bad idea.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there are some ways to game the system.

Speaker 1 Probably your best bet would be fake an injury because you'd become an undrafted free agent. I'd be awesome at that.
Undrafted free agents are eligible to extend after two seasons.

Speaker 1 So you could be up to something here.

Speaker 2 You just gotta, you gotta eat shit for two years, but then you get that big contract.

Speaker 1 Who do you think it's a different year this year, but like, who do you think is a, and it's early, but do we have any like the best back in college football right now? Braylon Allen.

Speaker 1 Brillin Allen probably is on the short list, right? The kid from Notre Dame, pretty damn good. He looked pretty damn good.
Week one, week zero.

Speaker 1 Will Shipley from Clemson's going to be a really good player.

Speaker 1 The back from Arkansas Rocket, what's his last name right now? He's gonna be a good player. But like maybe one of them has to have the gumption, like bowl game,

Speaker 1 like during media availability. You just get up there and just crumple on stage.
Twist an egg, walk up the steps. It's got to be more than that.
And then you're out for 18-month recovery. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You're not going to have me until like maybe the following year. Okay.
And then instead be good, like Kevin Nash style. After the draft, I'm good.
I'm good. Who's taking me? Yeah, who wants me?

Speaker 1 Two years from now, I'm extension eligible. All right.
We're figuring this out. I like it since we're talking dumb rules.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So we're going to run this the Tuesday or Wednesday after Labor Day, but this is, as we're taping it, cut day.
Yep.

Speaker 1 What if you just didn't cut anyone?

Speaker 1 Would the NFL stop you?

Speaker 1 If you're like, nah, we're just going to have 65 guys. We're just going to keep them all.
Yeah, I think that might be. Someone should call their bluff.
I actually don't know what, because

Speaker 1 you have to be roster and cap compliant every day. Yeah.
The NFL says that. But I know what the repercussions are.
Yeah, everybody that checks that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, like every day there is someone who is like with a fine-tooth comb going through and being like, do you have, you know, during the offseason, 90 or fewer players? Are you under the salary cap?

Speaker 1 And this offseason, like, the Chiefs have been dancing with like.

Speaker 1 There was a time where the Chiefs a couple of years ago, and this is what happens when you have a lot of good players, they had $141 left in salary caps. That's awesome.
$141.

Speaker 1 They're like the drill tweet with their budget. Yes.

Speaker 1 And so, and like somebody is sitting there, and it's like, you can't, like, you can't make a move until you do several other things.

Speaker 1 And they ended up, you know, the NFL salary cap is obviously so, you can manipulate it so much that they ended up at one point with like 30 million after that 141 bucks.

Speaker 2 Yeah, the Chiefs are the Saints have been in cap hill for like five years.

Speaker 1 You know, I feel like this, like one day I'll, like, this will be like the hill that I die on is that like you can do what these, like what the Saints do and what the Eagles do.

Speaker 1 You just have to keep doing it in perpetuity. It's getting off the train that's really tough.

Speaker 1 Like going back to the middle, which is what the Bucs and the Rams are both dealing with right now, right? They went all in. They won a Super Bowl each.

Speaker 1 Now the Bucs want to get back to their approach, and it's really hard.

Speaker 1 Like besides Baker and Mayfield, they had a very quiet offseason because they had no resources to work with, and they wanted to get back to where they had been prior to that. So

Speaker 1 you can do it. You just have to be committed to it forever.
Tell one of your guys, just don't cut anyone. I just would like to see what would happen.
I feel like that's.

Speaker 1 If you're like a college team and you just show up with 90 guys on the first week,

Speaker 1 you have to duplicate some numbers? Probably. Yeah, but we've seen some of that in the NFL now.

Speaker 1 Especially with all the new jersey number changes, I feel like we're seeing so many, like it always cracks me up when some team

Speaker 1 unknowingly issues, I don't know, like the star wide receiver's jersey number to like a undrafted rookie safety. And the receiver's like, dude.

Speaker 1 Like, I'm 17. Like, that's, like, that's my territory.

Speaker 2 That guy's going to get cut. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Dude, like, we promise you it's not going to be an issue in like two weeks. Ted Bridge started wearing 50.
Ugly. Yeah, terrible.

Speaker 2 But he's got a lot of people.

Speaker 1 He's like, I'm just going to get another number if I make the team. I mean, sure.
But

Speaker 1 was there nothing else available? I don't know. Like, was there nothing between 1 and 19 that they couldn't double issue?

Speaker 2 What's to stop an owner from just

Speaker 2 writing extra checks or sending Venmos to guys?

Speaker 1 Wasn't that always the Dirk Novitsky theory? Yeah.

Speaker 1 He started taking a bunch of like, you know, he took like the, I think the last, or one of his last deals with the maps was like, I don't know, a third of his market.

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's like, hey, listen, we can't give you a big contract because of the salary cap.

Speaker 1 Right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But I can Venmo you $50,000 every three days.

Speaker 1 You have a very rich owner now for the Commanders. This could be it.
Yeah, go cheat.

Speaker 1 I'm all about cheating.

Speaker 1 You should just work on handshakes first.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well,

Speaker 2 Joe Buck set him up.

Speaker 1 If I go like that, Field, what do you do? Oh, you're a couple of people. You're reaching in, like, hey, let's get it.
Exactly. I will say this one.

Speaker 2 Joe Buck's a piece of shit.

Speaker 1 He should be ashamed of himself. And I remember like, it was one of those moments where you're watching it.

Speaker 1 And like, definitely, as you got, you guys imagine, I spent a lot of time on Twitter, but like, that was one of those moments where I was like, I was not watching, I was just watching the game, like, not on social media.

Speaker 2 I was like,

Speaker 1 that, like, that happened. That happened, right?

Speaker 1 I need to get to Twitter. I figured one of you guys would have this covered.

Speaker 1 And it was like, you know, within moments, you're like, oh, all right, the entire like, I didn't, like, that actually did happen here.

Speaker 2 So to me, I think that that was a masterstroke by Josh Harris to deflect any conversation about the fact that he was wearing a burgundy polo shirt that did not have the name Commanders on it

Speaker 2 because I think he might be changing the name. He didn't want to be on camera and have everybody talking about, oh, they're changing the name.
That's why he's not showing it.

Speaker 2 So I'll just do this weird, awkward handshake and I'll laugh at myself and people talk about that instead.

Speaker 1 I'm big time, I'm football team all the way through when they do change it.

Speaker 2 Football team's good. Football team, that was a magical season.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it just grew on me very quickly. It just makes sense.
It was uncomfortable for a little while and then it like, it totally

Speaker 1 plays football.

Speaker 2 We don't need a cartoon bird telling us to cheer.

Speaker 1 We were fucking football team.

Speaker 1 I just sort of just felt like it all, like it all, it all worked. Okay, so you said the Ravens that you're high on them.
What are the other teams that you're high on that NFC or AFC?

Speaker 1 Field Yates is stamping approval of like, watch out for these guys. I think the Seahawks are going to be really good this year.
Really? Yeah, their offense.

Speaker 1 I mean, Jackson Smith and Jabba getting hurt in the preseason wasn't perfect, but I was talking earlier about how there's like no offensive line depth.

Speaker 1 The Seahawks are one of those few teams that actually has a formidable first five and like a little bit of depth, too.

Speaker 1 So they could be really good this year. And obviously Gino is going to be the pendulum for them.

Speaker 1 But like I thought that what he did last year was, as I've thought about it more and more, I started to wonder like, was he just like a, was some, not all, but was some of the first decade of his career more circumstanced than it was ability?

Speaker 1 Yeah. Right.
Like if I were a backup quarterback, I don't think I would have signed to be Eli Manning's backup. I know that he did snap the streak eventually, but it's like,

Speaker 1 like, Eli Manning's backup. He never misses time.
He never misses a game due to injury in his career, right? Like, that to me feels like the wrong place to wind up.

Speaker 1 And then going to Seattle was the same thing. Up until,

Speaker 1 I think it was like the second to last season with Seattle, Russ never missed a game due to injury. He got that thumb injury off of Aaron Donald's helmet.

Speaker 1 You're like, yeah, this would, like, that would be the last place I'd want to go, except for the fact that it's probably great job secured. Right.

Speaker 1 Because, like, he just kept getting re-signed to a one-year deal in Seattle. But I'm more in than out.

Speaker 1 Like, accuracy is quantifiable in the sense of like completion percentage, but I think there's also like a different side side to it. And like, Gino, his ball placement is like

Speaker 1 some of the very best in the NFL. He was absurd last year.

Speaker 2 It's very funny, too, that Russell Wilson leaves the Seahawks and then their offensive line gets amazing.

Speaker 2 Because for a long time, the knock against how Seattle was building the roster was like they just get fat tight ends and they just put whoever in.

Speaker 2 Like Tom Cable would build an offensive line out of duct tape and string.

Speaker 1 Be like, here you go, Russ. Go out there.
Make it work. And they sometimes did.

Speaker 1 Russ, also, I'd like not to take the offensive lineman off the hook.

Speaker 1 I I feel like with those quarterbacks, like the only downside to the super athletic quarterbacks, I think, is that we don't like parse out sacks as like an offensive line or a quarterback issue.

Speaker 1 It's always the offensive line, right? Right. No one says like the quarterback allowed 62 sacks last year.
It's like the offensive line did.

Speaker 1 And it's like for as great as the mobility can be, it also, like, he'd run into someone. Yeah, he'd be like, all right, you know, like.

Speaker 1 Might have just like thrown the ball away and been fine there. Like second and 10 is okay, sometimes better than second and 21.
So that was part of it.

Speaker 1 But yeah, but it was a much different approach for Seattle this past year. Yeah, Pete Prisco will always tell you, Russ just runs out of clean pockets all the time.
Yeah, it's a.

Speaker 2 He watches the film.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Do you watch the film?

Speaker 1 I probably not him on Pete's level, but Pete's a film. No one watches Russia.
No one's on Pete's level.

Speaker 2 He's like clockwork orange in his office. He just tapes his eyes open.

Speaker 1 With some of the stuff that I'm going to be doing now, more at ESPN, more in the college film than the pro film, because, you know, obviously on Sundays, I have to work and then I'm watching as many of the games live as we can.

Speaker 1 We have a great setup that allows us to watch all the games.

Speaker 2 Did you get to watch with Chris Berman?

Speaker 1 One of the coolest things over the past few years. So

Speaker 1 the past few years, ESPN's had Southern NFL countdown from New York City. But there are a few shows that still emanate out of Bristol.
Ours, Fantasy Football Now on Sunday mornings, is on ESPN 2.

Speaker 1 And then

Speaker 1 Primetime, which has been reborn over the past few years, has been on ESPN Plus, but in Bristol. So Boom and I got to sit next to each other for the past like three years.

Speaker 1 And it went from probably 50 people in the room to, in like a post-COVID world, like maybe 12 or 16 of us. And so I'm like, like every boom, who

Speaker 1 everything you'd imagine it would be and more.

Speaker 1 Like he still walks in with like his briefcase. He's got like several different newspapers.
You know, like he's like, yeah, I comb, you know, he's a Connecticut guy.

Speaker 1 So I comb the globe, I call the time. He's got like all, he's got everything.
He's

Speaker 1 digested all of his information. He's got all the lines ready.
You know, he's got the entire Ivy Ivy League rundown from Saturday.

Speaker 1 I browned it, Boom.

Speaker 1 Tough one for the boys yesterday, but we're bouncing back. And he's the best.
That's awesome. I mean, you guys, I don't need to tell you guys how great he is.

Speaker 1 Does he let out a little every now and then?

Speaker 1 The best is, you know, when something happens that like involves with Damian Woody in the room. So if there's something Jets related, like, you know, it just goes nods.

Speaker 1 Boog is in the room, Booger McFarlane, like, he just got his certain teams. Lions, like, Lions has always been a big one for Boom.

Speaker 1 He's always had a special place in his heart heart for the Lions, but they've been so good recently that

Speaker 1 didn't Jared tell you that the best pass of his career was a touchdown to a Monroe St. Prime Minister of the game.
Yeah, that moment, Boom, like, couldn't contain himself. It's like, I just

Speaker 1 for like 30 straight seconds, right? Just like getting up and walking around. And yeah, he's the best.

Speaker 2 He owes us a brock and roll all night and purdy every day. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Just remind him of that. He reminded me that one.

Speaker 1 Him workshopping a nickname for me, like, was like in front of my, at the time, girlfriend and now wife. She was like,

Speaker 1 did that just happen right now?

Speaker 2 Field of dreams, Yates. I'm sure.

Speaker 1 Fields forever.

Speaker 1 Yeah. All right.

Speaker 1 You could do Field Yates a hell.

Speaker 1 TJ Yates together. Yeah.

Speaker 1 That happens often now. Like, I've gotten to know TJ mostly because the internet has asked us, like, has thought we were related.

Speaker 1 I went down for something in New York recently, and I got in the car from, they had a car service from ESPN and MBD, MBD, but it was pretty sweet. And he was like, Yeah, so

Speaker 1 like, how's your post-playing career treating you?

Speaker 1 I don't know what you're referring to. He's like, Yeah, weren't you in League for a few years?

Speaker 1 And I was like, Oh, yeah, you know, like, I thought he was, I was like, that's a pretty like good knowledge of like my background working for the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 And he was like, No, like, didn't you play for like Houston for a couple, like a couple seasons? And I was like, oh, okay, I think you've like gravely mistaken me.

Speaker 1 But I immediately texted TJ, who's now coaching, who's coaching for the Falcons now. He's doing a great job, and we've become friendly because of that reason.

Speaker 1 So there was, for a while, there was like a cross-section of the internet that thought we were related. Probably some people probably still.

Speaker 2 We should just keep that. Yeah, let's keep it coming.

Speaker 1 I'm good with it. Yeah.
The more successful. He's got like a couple of cousins now.
We're playing college football.

Speaker 1 So the Yates family. You have a couple cousins.
I have a couple cousins. That's correct.

Speaker 1 A couple of us. Yeah.
So there's some Yates out there that have some athletic ability. And then there's...
D3Me.

Speaker 1 What position did you play? Oh, it was a safety.

Speaker 2 Oh, what was your game like?

Speaker 1 Bad. I I started one game.
I played two seasons. I played two seasons of football and four seasons of lacrosse.
I think I had like maybe one start combined. Oh, no wonder Belichick loved you.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Well, lacrosse. Yeah, lacrosse.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Like, I'm a football player, but really, lacrosse. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I got to get this guy. I say, people are like, yeah, so tell us about your lacrosse group.
I'm like, you know, I was.

Speaker 1 I was a great teammate. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hey, yeah. Blue guys.
Made a lot of good friends.

Speaker 1 I spent the day out here in Chicago with one of my college teammates.

Speaker 1 It doesn't matter how many, how many starts I did or didn't have. It's more like, would this relationship exist if I hadn't played lacrosse with you, right?

Speaker 2 This is the embodiment of the Belichick meme from the Combine where he's got the binoculars. He hears about you this fucking guy.

Speaker 1 I can work with him. Hell yes.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Say few special teams players. I tell people.

Speaker 1 Because when you say special teams, no one can like really check the box score on you. Yeah.
Big time core special teams. So, yeah.

Speaker 1 I have one last question. I think PFT has a couple last ones, too.

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Speaker 1 This has been great having you on.

Speaker 1 You now have to be a recurring guest

Speaker 1 more often, but we do have to ask a fantasy football question. If you must, you are a fantasy football guru, although it sounds like you're going to be a draft guy now.

Speaker 1 We'll do some draft now in the future, too, which will be exciting. Beautiful.
Go to the show. I'm looking forward to that.
Thank you. Yeah.
Squeezed out Todd McShay, no big deal.

Speaker 1 Jeez. I mean, he's our friend.
He's the best. I love Todd.
Why are you coming for your child?

Speaker 1 We didn't say that. You said, but you pushed him out.
Todd and I did a show together for several years.

Speaker 1 I love Todd. We're both Massachusetts guys.
We go way back. Todd is the best.

Speaker 1 All right. So, fantasy sleepers? You know, I feel like when we did this with Florio a couple of years ago, this was the one fantasy question you asked.
All right, so give me like 15 seconds.

Speaker 1 Just like the reality of sleepers is that like if you're listening to this show, you probably know most of the names that

Speaker 1 you don't consider. You don't think so? Nope.
All right. All right.
I'll try a couple here. Say some names and we'll tell you the same thing.

Speaker 1 So like what I consider a sleeper is like, all right, hey, like 12th round and beyond in your fantasy draft, everything in the 12th round and beyond. It's like, that's a sleeper test.

Speaker 1 That's when I go to auto-draft. Right.
So, yeah. So, like, Jordan Addison, who I know you guys know, he's a first-round pick, right? But, like, he's going like way too late in drafts right now.

Speaker 1 Very fast. Zay Flowers from the Ravens as well.
Matt Collins for the Falcons, who was good last year and has become this sort of hidden gem of a character

Speaker 1 for the NFL these days. Like, he'll be more productive.
Like, the Falcons' wide receiver core is too thin for him to not have a legitimate role there. Elijah Moore for the Browns.

Speaker 1 And then with running backs, you have to find the running back room that you're not totally positive that the starter is going to keep his job for the full season.

Speaker 1 So like I think Alexander Madison is going to be a good player for the Vikings, but until he's shown it for like an extended period, there's like the non-zero chance that Ty Chandler, the drafted a couple years ago at a UNC, is going to be eventually become the starter.

Speaker 1 Roshan Johnson for the Bears, right? Like Herbert looked good in the preseason, Khalil Herbert. Deontay Foreman, like, has, was a good player for the Panthers last year, but like,

Speaker 1 would you be totally surprised if Roshan had a real role at some point? This is some good strategy. Yeah, but like, you know, all the others, like, all the starting running backs are known, right?

Speaker 1 Like, so you have to find the guys that just are one.

Speaker 1 Not even an injury. Everybody's an injury away from being useful, but like one sort of slump away from being fumble.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then, you know, Kenny Pickett was once a quarterback sleeper, but I think he's generated too much steam in the the preseason.

Speaker 2 What about Gibbs up in Detroit?

Speaker 1 Yeah, he's going so high in fantasy drafts now that

Speaker 1 people are just all in. Is Bijan going in like the first round? First round.
Jesus. I bet people who are listening right now saw Bijan go first overall.
Because in fantasy,

Speaker 1 definitely. Fantasy, we like things that we know and we like things that are shiny objects.
Mahomes, best player in the world. He's going like 13th in fantasy.
I do two quarterback league, though.

Speaker 1 Okay, so he deserves to go, right?

Speaker 1 But like, when there are like the variance between like Patrick Mahomes over the course of the season and like the 15th best quarterback is not nearly as significant as the variance from whether it's Christian McCaffrey or Austin that quote at the top of the running back ranks and the 15th best running back.

Speaker 1 Like at the end of the season, you're going to be like, wait, like, how was, you know, whatever, like Pierre Thomas, who's been retired for seven years, the 15th best running back in fantasy this season.

Speaker 1 So quarterbacks tend to go earlier because of name value and Jameer Gibbs, who is awesome. And

Speaker 1 like in fantasy, I think one of the traps that people fall into sometimes is like just wanting to not be last, which is, you know, it sucks to be last.

Speaker 2 But I fall into that trap for a baseball league.

Speaker 1 So I've heard.

Speaker 1 You listen to that? Holy fuck, Field. I get a lot of Jesus Christ.
A lot of walks in the morning.

Speaker 1 You live in the city.

Speaker 1 They're playing dingers-only draft in Guantanamo, right? I'm impressed.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 the,

Speaker 1 like,

Speaker 1 playing for like fourth or fifth, like, that's fine. Like, fourth or fifth is respectable and like no one's going to like comment on you positively or negatively.

Speaker 1 But like Jameer Gibbs is the kind of player that like, I don't think he's going to just going to be average. Like I think he's either going to be

Speaker 1 like, holy crap, why did the Lions use a 12th overall pick on a guy and then not use him that much? Or he's going to be Alvin Kamara 2.0. Right.
Right.

Speaker 1 And you'll be like, holy crap, like this guy, like. Kamara as a rookie had 13 touchdowns, 81 catches.
Like he was absurd. It took a little time to get there.

Speaker 1 But from week six or seven on, his rookie season was like the best running back in fantasy.

Speaker 1 And I feel like Jameer Gibbs, especially with no Jamison Williams, the first six weeks, like after Amon Ross St. Brown, that's it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Amon Ra moved up in my rankings after he came on PMT, by the way.

Speaker 1 He's intense. Seriously.
Is he the most alpha dude in the entire NFL? When I told him I was a Bears fan, I thought he was going to jump the table. Yeah, he was crazy.

Speaker 1 I texted a couple of my buddies at the Lions after that, and I was like, I got to be honest with you.

Speaker 1 I was like, I don't like when people react, overreact too much to just stuff they hear or see in the media, like I do with hard knocks sometimes.

Speaker 1 But I'm like, I think I'm, like, I think I'm ready to run through a brick wall for Armando.

Speaker 2 The fact that he's got every team that passed on and who they drafted.

Speaker 1 The 16 receivers is like, he's the biggest dog in the entire locker room. This guy is an absolute beast.

Speaker 1 He is the son of Mr. Universe.
Like, that is what, like, to a T, he is literally, but also, like, embodies what you'd imagine somebody would be if they pretended their dad was Mr. Universe.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 What about for

Speaker 2 rookie quarterbacks? Yeah. Are you a Stroud boy or are you in Bryce?

Speaker 1 I'm a Stroud boy for fantasy. Because in fantasy football, you got to remember how valuable running quarterbacks are.

Speaker 1 They set this unbelievable floor. Like Daniel Jones last year, even in years prior to that, had

Speaker 1 flashes where he was legit in fantasy.

Speaker 1 He played much better last year. But a big part of the reason why he's going in drafts higher than Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins right now is that he is a legit rushing quarterback.
And

Speaker 1 I feel like it's pretty normal for coaches to spend time talking about how

Speaker 1 their quarterbacks are going to run less. The Bills, I feel like for three years have been telling us like, yeah, we're going to protect Josh more and then he just keeps running.

Speaker 1 The Giants have sort of alluded to like, yeah, like Daniel running for us is a huge weapon.

Speaker 1 And like, why like take that away from an offense that will be better with Darren Waller and some receiver investments, but they're not, you know, they're certainly not, as far as like explosive plays go, like top five or anything in the NFL.

Speaker 1 So Daniel Jones, way more valuable in fantasy, even if you take a step back this year in real life. Okay.
Yeah. Good answers.
Good answers. Well, Phil, this has been awesome.
It's great.

Speaker 1 Appreciate you moving your schedule for us.

Speaker 1 It's like an extra night in Chicago. Yeah, I mean, now we got the rapport.
You're going to come back on. We can do Zoom next time.
Yeah. I'll back for the event next year.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but you are, we'll definitely have you back on during the season. Just give us some good answers.
You pass the test. Yeah.
Pass the test. And I didn't know you were, yeah.
I mean,

Speaker 1 you're watching all the college tape now, too. Say, that's the only thing about

Speaker 1 traveling these days is like, usually I don't like to get away from my family for too long. It's just like the logistic.
We were talking about this.

Speaker 1 I'm sure this is riveting for everybody, but like now you get the tape to grind. Like I was sitting there in the airport this morning.
Oh, you're doing the Orlofs. I'm sitting there, yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm not sure if I'm going to jerk it off.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Nice. Are you allowed to be? In the middle of the Harvard airport, yeah.

Speaker 2 Are you allowed to be in a room with a woman who's not your wife?

Speaker 1 I believe so, yes. That's confirmed.
You have the Mike Pence rules, the Orlovsky rules.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, Jake probably wants to fuck fuck you right now jake and i are gonna we're after this we're gonna hang out and talk through i'm telling you one day jake will be my boss and i have little doubt about that i want to i mean i i don't know what the sport we'll call together but we'll find a way to make something happen yes in a different life i truly believe like i could have had like a very jake approach to my like career i told you guys i'm i i get so proud watching him every time on the PLL or any of your guys events like it's legitimately cool yeah we are we are proud of Jake We have to bust his ball so he he cheats and golfs he's too much of an alpha so we have to bring him down yeah he came off he had a good day in the the course today.

Speaker 1 Don't believe it, don't believe it.

Speaker 1 I saw one that's his vice. His one vice is just fake hole in one.
I'm just jealous of how much him and Hank can play these days.

Speaker 1 It's kind of nice. I mean, hey, look at Hank.
Hank looks like a lobster right now. Hank, he got some colors.
He's beat up by the sun. I wasn't going to say anything, but he got some good.
He got some.

Speaker 1 I'm jealous of it. I'm envious.

Speaker 2 Jake, did you offer Hank sunscreen today? I know you brought a lot out.

Speaker 1 You didn't? Oh, wow. Oh, man.
Man. Brutal.
All right. Well, Field, thank you so much.
Thank you guys. Thanks, Field.

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Speaker 1 Okay,

Speaker 1 end of the show.

Speaker 1 Max is back. Max, how was your vacation? Vacation was really nice, necessary.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 13 days. Do you think it was necessary?

Speaker 2 It was not 13 days.

Speaker 1 It was how many days? Count the days.

Speaker 1 Well, we were working

Speaker 1 on Saturdays.

Speaker 1 We were working Thursday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.

Speaker 1 You're counting weekends. Weekends don't count.
It was five days. We do the weekend start max.
Oh, you missed out to me. Yeah, no, that was.
No,

Speaker 1 I backed my guy Hank, and sometimes you just got to let him cook.

Speaker 2 Do you think that Hank let you down with his Mount Rushmore performance? Because you guys did lose. The final tally's out.

Speaker 2 You guys are going to have to spend 24 hours in a box together, in Hank's box, in his sweet, sweet box. Do you think he let you down?

Speaker 1 No, I mean,

Speaker 1 I was sending out picks too.

Speaker 1 You didn't take

Speaker 1 it was bad. It was a

Speaker 1 bad end of the summer. But I'm excited to be in the box.
Yeah, ready to go to the box.

Speaker 1 I'm really good at all of these bets that we do on this show.

Speaker 1 Well, Max is running away with dingers only. I don't know if he's going to be able to do that.
Yeah, congratulations.

Speaker 1 The one thing that I'm actually good at. Wait, so Max.
The one thing I'm going to win.

Speaker 1 Are you mad at Hank? He literally literally just gave up he gave up

Speaker 1 i he win as a team loses a team where

Speaker 1 but you you won by yourself and then you i know what you're trying to do here i'm not you handed the ball to hank and he's like i don't want to play anymore i don't true that's not true that is absolutely true the numbers say otherwise blamed being hungry the wednesday the wednesday show you maybe you maybe didn't want to be there anymore but that's fine but you were still alive well that's because they were gonna yeah yeah what you were gonna rig it.

Speaker 1 You were mad about a pre-rig that we weren't even discussing.

Speaker 1 It's fine. It is what it is.

Speaker 1 I'm a vacation supporter, enthusiast,

Speaker 1 whatever you want to call it. There's probably some science

Speaker 1 to the fact that we took these vacations at the end of the summer and the team chemistry just wasn't there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know what? I think there might be something to the fact that when you don't have the other guy in the studio and Billy left. You don't have the background of a guy having your back immediately.

Speaker 1 Like, yeah, good pick, you know? Although, it does.

Speaker 2 Although, yeah, Max, that's a good point. When Hank was out, you did really well.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and it does feel like the Jerome Bettis pick was the start of the decline. Yeah.
And you were very adamant that that was a good pick. It was a good pick.
It was a good pick.

Speaker 1 It lost you that bad pick.

Speaker 1 What did he win, PFT?

Speaker 2 He won Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Speaker 1 I think

Speaker 1 no one cares about Jerome Bettis on the rank.

Speaker 2 He was also first team all-pro big cat.

Speaker 1 Old people did.

Speaker 1 Old. As a rich.
Old. Old.

Speaker 1 First team all-pro.

Speaker 2 They only choose one of those guys.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true. So it's good to have you back, though, Max.
I missed you. I said that out loud.
I was like, I miss Max. I miss having him around.
I missed you guys.

Speaker 1 And the Phillies and Cubs are on a collision course. I know.

Speaker 1 That would be something. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I don't think Jerry knows.

Speaker 1 Jerry thinks Max likes to titty fuck. That's okay.
Just let him say that. We let him know.

Speaker 1 Sometimes you got to let Jerry go. We let him go.
It was so fucking funny.

Speaker 1 Someone said it perfectly. They're like, in the year 2023, Jerry O'Connell did a cranky anger of Max, and it was awesome.

Speaker 2 I think mostly what it was about was just he was mad at you for making him visualize you too.

Speaker 1 You titty fucking, yeah. But I said, I don't, I don't like it.

Speaker 2 But you still had to talk about like you having a titty fucking session and hating it.

Speaker 1 So, so, which is also gross. Talk me through that, Max.

Speaker 1 You're on vacation and you pull up your, you're not listening to the show, and you pull up your Twitter on Friday morning, and you're like, what the fuck? So, Friday was our big trip.

Speaker 1 We went snorkeling. We went

Speaker 1 it was nice oh

Speaker 1 i get back they have an extra lifeguard for you i don't know what that means how burned you don't think is your back swimmer is your back super burned uh no i'm italian skin you know yeah i get

Speaker 1 you get olive yeah i get a little olive although i i was worried whatever um but yeah i get back to look at my phone and for i just have 10 texts from like my friends being like oh my god the titty fucking segment the titty i was was like, what could possibly, how could there possibly be this big of a topic in the fantasy football preview with Jerry?

Speaker 1 Like, that doesn't, that makes no sense to me.

Speaker 2 Well, Jerry gave us a great preview for fantasy football. He said, Justin Fields and Darren Waller, no matter what, we got neither one of those guys.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So we just went sideways.
We got all Bengals.

Speaker 2 We got all Bengals.

Speaker 1 So that's good. We know we stacked Bengals and I think Jaguars.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So

Speaker 1 I mean, he's the best. We love having Jerry on.
But yeah, I did enjoy seeing you tweet that, Max, being like, it's got to suck to me, Max, on vacation right now. It's okay.
I'm titty fucking.

Speaker 1 It's okay.

Speaker 1 All right. Anything else? Oh, you, Jake, did you not want to bring up your wild from over the weekend? Giannis and his brothers? Oh, yeah.
He signed with the team, all three of them.

Speaker 1 I love that Giannis was like, the Bucs have to do the right thing for me to stay. And really, he meant just sign all my siblings.

Speaker 2 The Nuggets should do that. Yeah.
Jokic. Yeah.
My fun stat is that we have one more part of my take until NFL football is back.

Speaker 1 Yes. Yes.

Speaker 2 That's a fucking awesome stat.

Speaker 1 We made it, boys. Not yet.
Not yet. Yeah, we could.
Not yet. Jimmy Buffett.

Speaker 2 Yep. You never know.

Speaker 1 I don't want that to happen. Yeah.
Also, Jake, sorry, I know that you had your Yankees big board for free agency. Oh, yeah.
And Julio Orias was your number one target. No.
So

Speaker 1 disavow. I know you wanted him.
You said D'Amigo Herman and Julio Orias would be great on the staff. You were saying that on Friday.
But you didn't have to say it on the show.

Speaker 1 Look at Jake going along with bits. Way to go, Jake.
Turn the corner.

Speaker 1 All right. So the lottery ball machine, I don't even know when we're getting it, but I know we're getting the old one shipped to us.
So we will have that back.

Speaker 2 Did Clemson score 30 more points?

Speaker 1 They lost 28-7. I mean, that's bad.
It's bad.

Speaker 2 I feel like a coward for not taking Duke Moneyline.

Speaker 2 I hit on that a little rescue bail-me-out on Monday night, but should have gone Moneyline.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I know. I mean, look at Duke football.
Duke football back. Some are saying it's a football school now.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think it always was.

Speaker 1 Coach K is going to have to come back and save it. All right, numbers.
Means you ever gotten this?

Speaker 1 Nope. 18.
Three.

Speaker 1 One.

Speaker 2 69. 77.
20.

Speaker 1 30. God damn.
Also, last week I forgot to say that it was the third birthday of the lottery machine.

Speaker 1 Oh, thank you, Jake. Very cool.
How could you do that? How could you do that? You're never going to be able to do that. I did it last year.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. See everyone tomorrow.
Love you guys.

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