“Is This Real?” NFL Questions and Summer Scuttlebutt With Dianna Russini

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The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where you can find a new episode of The Rewatchables coming on Monday.

We're doing one-name movie month, and we're doing RoboCop on Monday.

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It is Kyle Brandt.

I really, really enjoyed revisiting this movie, and I learned some stuff.

Hopefully, you'll learn some stuff too.

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Movie Month.

So, Diane Rossini is coming on a little bit to talk about NFL.

There's some lazy summer stuff I just wanted to go over really fast.

Nothing even worthy of a full segment, but just stuff that I was amused by over the last couple of days.

Number one is the Yankees.

who got swept by Miami this week.

All my Yankee fan friends are going bonkers.

We had Jacko on last week going nuts about it, and it's somehow gotten even worse because they made all these trade deadline moves and it

beefed up their bullpen, and then Miami kicked their butt.

I was thinking about it.

I'm actually worried that they're going to fire Aaron Boone now, and I don't want them to fire him.

I actually want them to extend him and give him more money in longer years.

But I want them to keep Boone and Cashman for the rest of the decade.

And if you told me in November 2003,

right after the devastating alcs game seven loss

that in 2025 22 years later less than 22 years later that the red sox would win four world series that i'd somehow still not like the red sox owners even after four world series and that aaron boone felt like we had installed a mole to ruin the yankees I probably wouldn't have believed any of that.

But that's where we are with the Yankees.

I hope they continue to lose.

I think they're 21 and 28 in their last 49.

It's bad.

I love it.

I love it.

Between that and the Red Sox punted on the trade deadline and somehow swept the Astros, which

was great.

It's not like the movie Major League because they've spent money in the team, but it's just funny that they needed one more starter.

The owners were like, yeah, whatever.

And then

they ripped through the Astros.

So great times.

And Roman Anthony got a walk-off, the Roman Empire.

Anyway, that's one thing.

I was reading this week because I was debating whether it was worth doing a segment on ESPN buying the NFL network and all the NFL media stuff.

And they're getting the red zone.

Are they going to screw up the red zone?

I don't understand this deal.

And I texted and asked a few people and nobody seems to understand the deal.

I guess they just acquired some assets.

We'll see what they do.

At one point, somebody mentioned that it's going to be like their relationship with the SEC network, this network that lives on its own, but they're going to beef it up with more talent.

And I'm thinking like the NFL network is going to be like the SEC network?

How does that make sense?

So I don't understand a single piece of it.

The NFL network was trying to, or the NFL is trying to get out of the NFL network for a while.

And

now this feels like you give us stuff, we'll give you stuff, but nobody's that excited about it.

I don't get it.

Hopefully there's a piece in the next 72 hours that will understand what this is.

Like what's going to happen to the NFL network shows?

Is the red zone going to have commercials?

Are you only going to be able to get it on that ESPN flagship, whatever the F that thing is called?

I just feels like kind of an important sports story of the NFL seasons in five weeks, five weeks, six weeks, whatever it is.

I'd kind of like to know what's happening.

So, somebody figure out how to report this in a way that I understand all the basics.

Next one, Fantastic Four.

So, it bombed in the second weekend, it was out, or it might not have bombed.

And then all the movie people are excited because this might be the official end of the mass and capes era.

That's what I'm calling it.

Where Marvel's in some trouble.

We've just made too many of these now.

And now there's a feeling that the less and less successful that these movies become,

the more they'll actually spend money on good and original movies and IP and things like sinners and giving really good directors more money to make cool stuff.

I'm dubious.

I think they're going to keep rolling out the capes and the masks and making excuses for this.

But I like that we're at least having the conversation about maybe we need more good movies.

So I'd like to plant my flag in the let's make more good movies that aren't superhero movies.

Next thing, Steve Pagliuka, who lost out, he was a minority owner of the Celtics at the end of the 2010s.

almost bought the Nets and kind of didn't get his stuff together in time.

Had Josiah as a minority partner, dragged his feet a little bit and then ended up, it was the Nets, it was the Liberty, and it was Barclays getting all of it.

Josiah ended up saying, screw this.

Why do I need this guy?

Buys all of it himself for $3.3 billion.

So Pags doesn't get that.

Then he's in on the Celtics sale and had the third highest bid.

I think he bid $5.5 billion.

And that finished third in the rankings.

And the Celtics ended up going for $6.1 billion.

So now he's bought the Connecticut Sun for $350 million

and isn't even, it's not even clear if he can move them to Boston or not.

But this is just a classic, man, just spend the money in the Nets.

Five years later, you have the Connecticut Sun for one-tenth the price.

You could have had the Liberty as part of the deal.

Wow.

A lot of texts this weekend about what the hell was going on with this whole thing.

But the Connecticut Sun going for $350 million in a league.

That is highly leveraged.

and the players are about to probably go on some sort of strike lockout.

God only knows what happens a year and a half from now.

Good luck on all of that.

The Lakers, so they announced the Luca extension.

It's basically a two-year deal.

He has a player option for the third year, and it sets himself up to make a kajillion dollars in 2028.

And then LeBron's over there, and he's texting or

Instagramming out his workouts.

And the whole thing is just bizarre to watch.

LeBron James, who's been in control of every situation he's ever been in basketball-wise, who has always held the cards.

And this is the first time ever where that's not the case.

And now the Lakers, it's almost like watching somebody move in their younger, hotter girlfriend, but the ex-wife is still living in the house taking selfies of themselves.

I'm riveted.

I can't wait to see.

how this plays out from a media manipulation standpoint over the next two weeks.

I have my fork, my knife, and my plate, my napkins ready to go.

And then, last but not least, I'm taping this before

the second part of SummerSlam, John Cena versus Cody Rhodes.

So I think it's going up, but this podcast will go up probably as that's happening.

But in part one,

the WWE executed one of the great fake injury moves.

I think maybe the greatest, where Seth Rollins got hurt a few weeks ago.

He was

supposed to wrestle CM Punk for the

second best title, the title that's not that title actually everyone cares about, but the other title, which people still care about, but not quite as much as the real title.

So it looked like he hurt his knee.

He sold it.

They squashed the match.

This was like three, four weeks ago.

And then he painstakingly sold it in every aspect of what he was doing that he hurt his leg.

Even I think he

guest hosted the Rich Eisen show.

and even sold it, like sold it there, took some fake flight to go see Dr.

James Andrews,

was on crutches and a huge brace everywhere he was to the point that everyone around WWE thought that he was actually hurt.

And then CM Punk finally wins the second best title at SummerSlam.

Good moment.

And then Rollins comes out and you hear his music.

You're like, oh, here you go.

Cause he has the money in the bank suitcase, which is one of the great gimmicks we've ever come up with, the money in the bank, where you can immediately challenge somebody to the title.

Comes out with the money in the bank suitcase, but he's got his braces on and his crutches.

And it's like, well, what the hell is he going to do?

Then he drops the crutches, takes the brace off, runs it in the ring.

CM Punk's exhausted, hits him over

with the suitcase a few times, and then

pins him and wins the title.

And it was the best injury swear I've ever seen in my life.

And it made me think, I just wish this could happen in other sports where,

you know, like.

So I tweeted this and then people were like, this did happen with Paul Pierce in 2008 when you got hurt in the wheelchair.

And I was like, all right, I didn't really have a comeback for that.

But it would be funny.

I guess teams do this with football injuries where they either hide how hurt somebody is, or, but it would be great if somebody was just supposed to miss the game and then all of a sudden showed up.

Like some playoff game where it's like, Josh Allen, he's out.

He's been scratched.

He's going to be the third quarterback.

And then he just runs out 100% healthy and just fucks with the other team.

I loved it.

I loved the Rollins thing.

WWE is having a really, really strong comeback year from a storytelling standpoint, even though it was doing well for the whole decade.

But I think this has been a really good year for them.

I think that's it.

Oh, the Cowboys doc, which comes out, I think, August 19th, which I was lucky enough to see seven episodes, and it's fantastic.

And just get ready.

I'll probably do something on the podcast about this, but really made me nostalgic for the days.

when we just had madness somewhere out on football and and we didn't overthink a lot of this stuff, we didn't have the 24-7 internet talk cycle and you just kind of watched the games and teams won and lost.

And

you thought you had a dynasty and they didn't or somebody got hurt.

And you were just on the roller coaster ride and we just kind of enjoyed it and we didn't overthink it.

And it made me nostalgic for that.

It also made me nostalgic to talk about the Dallas Cowboys and what a mess they are, which we're going to do in one second with Diana Rossini.

I'm going to take a break, throw it to Pearl Jam, and then NFL talk next.

All right, we're taping this on a Sunday afternoon.

It's a special day.

Diana and Rossini, who's never been on this podcast before, I think you've been on all the other podcasts, but just not this one.

And we got you to turn your techs off for an hour, which has anyone, have you ever done that for anybody before?

Nope, not even when I was in labor.

So I do it for here.

You've had the tech son in labor?

Are you kidding?

The doctor that was delivering my sons was my first one.

was asking me about the Steelers while I was pushing.

I was like, dude, are you kidding right now?

He later said he was doing it to keep me calm.

He's like, I just know you like to talk football.

So I figured if I just asked you about the teen that, you know, you would think about that and not the pain, because like the left side of my body wasn't taking, it wasn't taking the medication.

So I wasn't numb.

So I could feel a lot of it.

Oh, no.

So that was his way around it.

But I mean, I gave him great intel.

I remember thinking that I was like, I mean, you're getting a lot right now from

this delivery.

I have a hard time believing that other mothers are giving you this information.

But yeah, so I'm psyched to be here.

I turned off the text.

So I figure if there's breaking news, someone will call.

That would have been the weirdest video football podcast anyone ever did.

Pushing out a baby, talking to the doctor, answering Steelers' questions.

Tay, would you take breaks during that?

Let's take a break here from a couple of sponsors.

I'm going to take more medication in my body.

I'd love to get that sponsor.

That'd be smart.

I'm sure the doctor would find a sponsor because they cost a lot of money.

They don't, by the way, I don't know.

I mean, I know your kids are a lot older than mine, but I'm sure you remember when they were born.

We just, we could not believe how little our doctor did.

Like our, the nurse that we had,

she, she did the work.

He came in.

He was like, oh, yeah, push.

Oh, yeah, it's a boy.

You know, you know, is Ben coming out of retirement?

You know, like,

here's the thing.

I think they're more there for something.

for like the if something goes wrong aspect of it.

When everything goes right, it's just basically like the guy coming in to kick the extra point.

It's like, oh, that seemed easy.

But then you just got to make sure, oh my God, the penalty pushed us back to the 40.

Now I actually need somebody to make this.

Yeah, then the panic sets in.

I will say my first,

I delivered Michael in 12 minutes, which is pretty cool.

So Joey minutes?

Yeah, 12 minutes.

I also made it competitive because my sister-in-law did it in 10.

So

I just, the whole time I was looking at the clock, like, I can't be the girl in the family.

How do you start the clock though?

So when you start pushing, right?

So you're 10

centimeters dilated.

And they're like, okay, let's do this.

We're going, you know,

which by the way, the ladies out there that have been in labor for days, like, God bless you, you know, like, I was like, come on, like, let's do this thing.

It's unbelievable to think how women do this.

I listen, it was the single most impressive thing I've ever seen in my life.

And I was in awe of it the entire time and felt completely useless, which then continued for the first couple months of the actual child being out.

We're just kind of there.

Yeah, we're just kind of there.

We're sitting picks, grabbing a couple of rebounds.

We're not doing anything.

Nobody's calling plays for us.

That is true.

I wound up having my second

13 months later.

And

same doctor, same nurse.

It was awesome.

They're like, hey, look who's back.

How the move Steelers doing?

And I don't know,

we were probably about 18 minutes in.

And my doctor's like, hey, come on.

He's like, my shift is actually ending in a half an hour.

We got to do this.

So shout out to Dr.

Migliaccio.

Wow, you went two-minute offense.

Yeah, I don't know what happened.

We took a step back.

It's like we had the Super Bowl hangover with Joey.

We just,

we lost our step.

I don't know.

Maybe I was tired because I gave birth to two babies in the span of a year, essentially.

Sorry.

All right.

Now I have to tell tell you my labor story, even though it wasn't me in labor.

Our daughter, Zoe, our oldest kid.

So it was like on a Friday, and my wife thought she went into labor, and we drove in.

We're like, here we go.

It's time.

And

it wasn't happening.

It was like, they're like, yeah, it's not.

And she was like, it's so weird.

Like, this baby's dying to come out.

go home.

We have the whole weekend.

And she's like incapacitated.

She's just like lying.

So we watch an entire season of 24

and we eat like spicy food.

We do all the stuff you're supposed to do to like, you know, grease the fetus up.

Sunday night, nothing.

Monday morning, she's like, I'm feeling a little something.

I'm like, now I'm like the boy who cried wolf.

I'm like, all right, we have to go back.

Like, are you, is it,

is it happening or not?

I don't know.

Maybe we should just go back.

So we go back, but I haven't had coffee yet.

And I stop and I'm like, can I stop at Starbucks quick?

Cause I need to, like, if we're in there for a while.

Like, she's like, all right, fine.

Go in.

And I'm in there.

And there's, I don't know if I've ever told this story.

There's an actress who used to be a 902-0 in line ahead of me at the coffee who played Lucinda Nicholson, Brandon's

girlfriend who was married in season four.

And I'm just like, this is so weird.

Like there's a 902-0 care.

I can't wait to tell my wife.

get the coffee, come back in.

I'm like, you're not going to believe 20 questions who's in there.

And she's like, get to the hospital.

Like it's somehow in that five minutes, the baby, and all of a sudden she was really in labor.

And now this story comes up all the time that I had to stop for coffee, that she was in labor.

And it's like, it's twisted.

Do you do this in your, in your relationship?

Do you twist the stories where there's like truth in the story?

But now, now it's like seven levels beyond what actually happened in the story.

Now it's like she was in labor, but I had to stop for coffee and she was in the front seat.

Like it's just been completely exaggerated.

I like to defend myself.

It's like changed the actress too, but you're like, Yeah, but you know, it was, it was Jenny Garth.

Yeah, now it's Tori spelling.

As the years pass, it's Jenny Garth and Tori spelling.

I don't know.

Yeah, um, I would say if my husband was asked something he hates about me, that would be a top, a top three.

Uh, it'd probably be the phone first.

Uh, second would be that I do do that to the stories, and some of it's just my memory, right?

Like, as you know, like, I don't know what it is, especially, you know, since the theme so far has been birth.

Something happens after

you deliver a child.

It's like the baby comes out with your brain.

It's like, it's like gone.

I'm like, oh, there's a boy in half of my left lobe.

Because I do it all the time where I'm like, I don't even remember that.

The worst is if I run, God forbid, I run into someone that I know well and I'm like looking at them like, no idea who you are.

You've like face Alzheimer's.

Yeah.

It's horrible.

The fact that I'm even at that point, you know,

well, you know,

when we become, when it becomes like our moms,

then it's like you just start merging two different stories that have no relation and they become some sort of super story.

It's two different things that happen at a restaurant, but they were two different nights and two different years and they become a super, a supersized version of some story.

It is wild, though, how you can vividly remember the day, the morning, the night, whatever it is when your child's or children, if you're fortunate, are born.

I know every aspect of it.

All of it, right?

I remember the temperature.

I remember the the smell.

I mean, my son's three and two.

It didn't happen.

They're little.

It's not like they're your kids' ages.

But yeah,

they're great memories, hopefully.

Hopefully for people out there.

It was definitely a highlight of my life for sure.

Well, I think you remember it because it's so completely terrifying the entire time.

At every aspect of it, you're doing something,

a situation you've never been involved in before.

There's this human life coming out.

You're in charge of it.

You have no idea what the kid's going to look like, if the kid's going to be healthy, if there's going to be some sort of terrible thing that happened.

Like, there's just all these variables.

And then, when it actually happens,

so I don't know how you wouldn't remember every aspect of that.

Yeah.

And it's one of those things I do think because people have children every single day that you kind of just think it's common.

And it's like, yeah, yeah, they had a,

it's a shock to the body for a million reasons.

I don't know why I thought I had to be tough when I started to feel that I was contracting.

Yeah.

But I FaceTimed my sister in my living room and I was on all four.

And she's like this really pleasant personality.

She's a fourth grade teacher.

She's just like sweet.

And she answers the phone.

And I was like, and you know, it's like a weird angle, right?

Cause I'm like, I'm on all four.

Right.

She's like, die.

I was like, hey,

I don't know.

I'm feeling pain.

She's like, yeah.

You're in labor.

Go to the hospital now.

I'm like, no, no, I'm good.

I'm good.

Because I think I didn't want to be be embarrassed you know you don't want to be the person that shows up so early and then you're just like sitting there and your husband's like oh are you kidding like i wanted to i wanted to go if i'm going to go to the hospital which was down the street from my house too like we're going um so yeah the the whole thing the it's it's definitely an experience and

something i will never forget well the second time is almost more impressive than the first time because you know the second time

what's in store.

The first time you don't know.

You're like climbing some mountain you've never climbed.

You have no idea what's happening, what's going to happen to you physically.

The second time, you know, what's going to happen.

You're still doing it.

I think that's worse, right?

Correct.

Absolutely.

I remember thinking, I cannot believe I have to do this again.

I mean, it's probably why I didn't have a third.

That's why we didn't have a third.

My wife is like, I'm out, not never doing this again.

Yeah.

I know.

Someone just said to me over the weekend, actually, was like, hey, if I just put a baby in your hand right now, would you want a third?

I'm like, absolutely.

Even though, like, my house is a tornado at all times of the day

with, you know, two working parents and, you know, I don't have a schedule, right?

Like when you're a reporter covering the NFL, you don't, you know, you're just, you just got to be on all the time.

Yet I'm still like, if I just didn't have to carry that baby again and go through the trauma of pushing that baby out, like game on, let's do this thing.

And by the way, I was, I mean, not saying that this should make a difference, but I was a division one athlete, you know, like it's not like I went in there overweight or, or, you know, just the bomb that hasn't like worked out in 40 years.

Like, like, I'm fairly fit.

You know, I was like, this can't be that bad, but I guess 12 minutes isn't so bad.

I shouldn't probably be so hard.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

Well, my kids are way older than yours.

I'm at the point now where I wish I had appreciated all of it more.

I wish we had had more kids.

My wife's always like, well, we never would have had three.

So it's not like you were carrying it.

She's doing that whole thing.

And it's like, all right, I get it.

But I wish we had a third one come to the come to the beach with us this next this upcoming week and just spend spend two hours with a three and two year old you'll be you'll be running back to your kids kissing them hugging them having a cocktail with them like i love you um i know i do feel that sometimes on an airplane when you see the that vacant terrif terrified look on the parents faces because they're flying with their little kids And they just kind of, it's almost like they, they're, they just have dark eyes.

They're just like dead inside because they're like, this is going to be five hours.

Everyone on the plane is going to hate me.

My one kid hair is already melting down.

Just shoot me in the head.

And I know that look because I had it many times.

Tight butt season is what we call that.

Like your butt is tight the whole time because you're just, you don't even know what it's going to be, but you know what it's going to be and you're embarrassed.

And it's just all you're hoping for the miracle that nothing happens in the plane, but you know something's going to happen.

The thing that I've been experiencing is like if I see a football fan, like someone that wants to talk football when we're traveling, and now I'm horrified because I just talked to this person, right?

They either follow or they've read stuff or they see me on TV and that's cool.

But now they're going to probably judge me as a mom.

And Mikey and Joey are lunatics.

Like you would think they drink coffee as kids.

So then I get just even more tense because,

you know, it's the whole, the whole mix of it.

is really stressful.

So that's why I don't know if you're like this when you travel, but when I'm traveling without them and I see moms, like I just, i try not to look if the kids are crying i try to help them like pizza whatever i can do just send the vibe like dude you got this you got this we we traveled my buddy joe house got married i think in 08 so my daughter was not even

now she's three and a half my son was maybe one

and on the way back we he got married at martha's vineyard in the Martha's Vineyard airport and my daughter pulled the fire alarm

and it was just and then started crying and it was loud.

And then my other son started crying because it was loud, but she was crying because she thought she was going to jail.

And I was like, this has to be it.

This is has to be a 10 out of 10 for worst travel experience.

We hadn't even flown anywhere yet.

And we had already started like a

Cape Cod incident.

Hey, speaking of panic, how about that transition?

We're going to play a game called For Real.

I'm going to give you different storylines.

And then at the end, you're going to give me two.

But

I want to start with Pan.

I didn't put this in the docket for you but there was a clip today of caleb williams looking just terrible um

so my first for real is caleb williams panic time is this for real are you by are you buying this yet give me your take

i'm gonna say not real for now um i think first of all it's early okay this is his third play caller that we've seen him have right if you count the interim situation there that we saw with thomas brown when he took over um and look this is a player that thrived so much right on those freelance kind of off script plays at usc we saw it that's that's probably why he went number one overall so i just think now the challenge is going to be

can he conform right can he adjust to that detailed structure of the plays the timing the quick decisions, the things that we saw Ben Johnson do so well with Jared Goff, right?

Which is, I think you've seen too, like a lot of stories now being said, like the Chicago Bears offense is not going to be the Detroit Lions one.

I think the Chicago Bears coaching staff is purposely saying that because I don't think they're going to be equipped just yet to look like that.

I think the idea is there,

it's just going to take a little bit more time.

So

I don't think it's time to panic.

I just think Chicago Bears fans are just going to need a little bit more patience because the details that Ben Johnson

needs to, the details that he needs Caleb Williams to pay attention to and be good at, I just think it may take a little bit more time.

Whereas we're going to constantly compare him to Jaden and Drake, even what's a little bit more time.

Is that

two months or is that two years?

I guess that's the question for me.

I think two months.

I think, look, the guy is probably guzzling this coaching in terms of taking in so much, right?

We got to give him a chance to understand it, compute it.

This is too rational of an answer.

I mean, I admire it.

I know.

I don't know if you wanted me to come on and be like, oh, by the way, I'm not sure.

You should be panic because he ain't the brightest guy.

Let me know.

You're pulling me back.

You're pulling me back to reality.

Like, chill out.

Chill out.

All the Bears fans I know are losing their minds right now.

Like all of them.

And it wasn't just like the training camp.

It was the stuff from the Wickersham book.

And there's just some kernels of like, you know, Jared Goff, you're basically accentuating the strengths he has.

You're making him like this

somewhat of a system quarterback, right?

Caleb's like, as you said, like this freelancer, really exciting.

He's almost like an NBA player.

You just kind of clear out and he goes one-on-one with everybody.

So how does that fit in a Ben Johnson offense?

I don't know.

I have some questions.

I like them as a possible playoff team this year, though.

Now I'm nervous.

Well, I think it's because Bears fans are going, like,

his physical talent is unique, but can he play quarterback?

I think that's

what's scaring them, right?

It's like, okay, we get it.

We see it, but can you do that?

And then can you execute with a really good play caller head coach?

Can this marriage work?

Can you be consistent?

Can you inspire the teammates that you have?

Do you pass the car keys test, the Trent Trent Doper test?

Would your teammates toss you the car keys because they want you to drive them?

Here's the thing.

It's all corny as hell.

Yeah.

But I just sat with Bonix in Denver.

Yeah.

And

we were talking about how

I was sitting with him exactly the same time last year.

He was a rookie.

And he's just got this swag to him now.

And he physically looks bigger too.

But I was like, okay, so tell me now the truth.

Like when we were talking, remember, I was like, what's Sean like?

What's this playbook like?

How overwhelmed are you?

And you kind of like acted as if you had it all under control.

Like, did you?

He's like, no.

It's not at all.

I was so uncomfortable.

He's like, I didn't understand any of it.

I memorized it all because I didn't.

comprehend the why behind it all.

I didn't get why we were doing this, the plays.

I didn't understand

the importance of the time between when Sean was giving me the play and snapping the ball.

You know,

it was all of these small parts of playing the quarterback position that was moving so damn fast that's now slowed down in year two.

And so it's all these

small details that make up a great quarterback.

And

for Caleb Williams, we have to give him an opportunity here to learn Ben Johnson because as we know, and as Seth Wickersham's piece revealed so well, and even some of the reporting at the athletic, said he wasn't getting that kind of coaching.

Right.

So now he's got what I think is a great coach.

And I say think because I just, I'm going to go based off what we saw in Jared Goff, because Jared Goff will be the first to say, and I think he did say it, that Ben Johnson's a big reason for his success.

Let's see if he can apply it.

Yeah, it's a weird one because.

And you said you played.

What sport did you play in college, by the way?

Soccer.

What position?

I played at George Mason University.

What position were you in?

Let me guess.

Left back.

Everyone guesses that.

Why?

I don't know.

Speed, top top.

What was it?

I was a striker.

You were a striker?

Oh, my daughter's a striker.

But when you were saying about Caleb,

I saw this with both of my kids when they played sports, but especially my daughter, because you go up these little levels and every year they're like, it's fine, fine, I got it.

And then a year later, they're like, remember last year when I thought I had it, and I didn't have these nine different things?

It is true.

It's like, no, no, I'm in great shape.

Oh, actually, I'm not in that as great shape as I thought I was.

This year, I'm actually in really good shape.

So, I wonder with Caleb, is this going to be as no, no, I'm fine, I got it.

And then you're now like, Oh, I didn't totally get it.

No, like your Bo Nick's example, which brings me to the Broncos, by the way.

Oh, let's go.

So, this is this is, I think, the team I'm adopting as, I don't know, I'm not picking them to win the Super Bowl, but I think every year a team takes the leap from either borderline playoff team or lower-level playoff team to like actual full-fledged contender, right?

And I think this is going to be the team.

I think some people are sniffing it out.

It's weird, the gambling odds, like some of the stuff on FanDuel hasn't really moved that much.

But in general, I think a lot of people who are studying this stuff, when you look at their schedule, when you look at the free agents they added, the defense,

some of the guys they hit oil on last year, year three is Sean Payton, Bo Nix in his second year.

They improved the skill positions.

And it seems like the people that go to their training camp are coming away going,

there's something going on with this team.

So ironically, you were at the training camp.

So what did you see?

Something's going on with this team.

Okay, so just backstory real quick.

I'm started at ESPN.

I'm an NFL reporter.

I'm lost, though.

like i'm i'm i'm swimming with the sharks and i'm out here in the field and i i don't know what i'm doing and at the time they gave me the saints that was like the team they wanted me to focus on um so i'm around drew brees marking ram alvin kamara uh and sean payton and this this is the year they they were good um well they were good a few years but this is where they really had a breakout season yeah and so because i was around them i i got to know sean payton really well and so I used to ask them all these questions, but when I tell you I ask them questions, I'm talking basic stuff that you don't ask a future Hall of Fame coach, you know, texting, like, hey, why did your corner do this on this situation?

Like, he's like, so eventually he's like, I don't have any time for you.

Like, you're a lovely person.

I can tell you're trying hard, but you need to go meet other people to talk to you about football because I'm running a team.

Yeah.

So I was like, well, I don't really know that many people.

He's like, well, there's this guy called, I don't know, Bill Parcells.

Call him.

So I

cold call Bill Parcells and he hangs up on me.

He's like, Oh, this is Bill.

I'm like, Hi, Bill.

My name is Diane Rossini from ESPN.

I'm an NFL reporter.

Click.

I'm like, this guy sucks.

Like, everyone says he's so great.

Like, I don't think he's that great.

My boss calls me from ESPN.

He says,

did you call Bill Parcels?

I'm like, yeah.

He's like, why?

What do you want?

I said, well, I need a mentor.

I need someone to help me with football.

I need to get better at this if I want to be great.

He's like, I don't know, Di.

Like, I don't think Bill Parcells has time to do this with you.

I said, can you just tell him my intention?

So my boss calls him back and says, all right, look, this girl wants to do this.

And at the end, he goes, you know, she's a Jersey girl.

He goes, why didn't you tell me she was a Jersey girl?

She calls me back.

He goes, Diana.

Why didn't you lead with that?

You're an Italian girl from Jersey?

What are you doing this weekend?

I said, oh, I don't know.

He said, come up to Saratoga.

You like horses?

I'm like, Oh my gosh.

So I drive up, I spend, I don't know, eight hours with this man.

Um,

and that's where I learned about who Sean Payton is through Bill Parcells, truly.

So I take all that because, um,

by understanding Bill and learning football through that lens, I've been able to understand Sean Payton.

And so, because of that, I've been so grateful to Sean for saying, hey, go call Bill Barcelona.

So I so when you say you understand him, though, you're so you understand both what he's trying to do with building a team, but also if he likes the team.

It's,

I just, you understand

why he does the things he does and how he operates and when he's in love and he's in love with this team right now.

Like even the summer.

Coach like reached out to me a few times checking in and I missed the call, which, you know, how do you miss a head coaching calling you?

But it happens.

And he just left me a voicemail.

I got to see if I still have it.

All he's, this is what he said, ready.

So I don't have a message, just like a beep.

And it's just Sean Payton go, I love my cue.

And he hangs up.

Just, I love my corner.

Like, who does that?

Um, so when I saw him, we caught up.

I was like, what's going on?

He's like, die, I love this team.

I just, I love this.

We to see me, we to see Greenlaw.

We to see him out here.

Like, we're in pads today you're gonna love what he sees this front five um and and look he he can he can sell the best of them but

he was right when i watched it and you know i got an opportunity to sit with patrick sertan obviously defensive player of the year and

you know how we always ask quarterbacks like to list your you know we ask the other quarterbacks in the league to list the top five quarterbacks you know we just do the rankings all the time um i was like oh let's just ask we should ask patrick like what who the top five quarterbacks are So he, he does what we all do.

That he named the ones that we all think of.

I'll say it just for entertainment value of, you know, Alan,

Josh Allen, Joe Burrow,

Lamar.

Um,

who are we missing there?

The fifth one, the fifth one gets exciting because you could make a Daniels case.

He threw Herbert in there, actually.

He threw Herbert in there.

Herbert, which wow,

he loves 500 quarterbacks.

I know we could, I was

so then I threw in Jalen Hurts, which I got no response,

which, again, in the moment, I wish I was like, why didn't you say anything?

But he just didn't say anything.

And he goes, the one that's right in there, I'm telling you, is Bo Nicks.

Wow.

What?

So

going against them every day in practice.

I just read a story about that, about how they make each other better with testing each other.

Yeah.

And, and look, but Bo is great.

We talked to him too, or we had an opportunity to interview him.

And

he was just talking about all

the post-snap stuff, the understanding of it all,

how much he studied Sean's playbook this year and the comfort level he has, how quick he's moving now through it.

Just, it's really a language and understanding it.

The other thing too, that was really interesting from his perspective,

he hasn't had the same.

So obviously he played college.

for five years.

And I know we joke that he's like 52 years old, but

he's only had the same play caller to two years in a row one other time and that was when he was a junior in high school wow but think about how many years of football he's been playing and he's never had the same play caller two years in a row so he's kind of talking like this young kid of like it's great to have sean payton in my ear again this year because i'm not used to having that

So I just think that that's a good component.

He almost like had an AAU experience where he's just bouncing around on different teams.

I can't decide how good he is because I thought I really liked some of the stuff he did last year.

And I definitely thought it wasn't crazy that he was the quarterback of a playoff team, but he also had a couple of moments where you're like, ugh.

But he also didn't have very many skill guys.

He had Sutton, and that was basically it.

If Jaden Daniels doesn't take this team to the NFC

championship,

you could make an argument: Bonix is rookie of the year, right?

Like

he threw for more touchdowns than Jaden.

he threw for more yards he took less sacks which that's like a big sean payton thing which is why he didn't like russell wilson right he hates hates quarterbacks who take sacks i mean you want to piss him off talk about that right um

so you know healthy offensive line this year

loving greenlaw ufanga i mean this

I think they're the best defense in football.

I mean, look, I get it.

And people are listening like this chick from Colorado.

I'm not.

It's just

they have something there.

You go to these camps and you just feel it, you know it.

And it's a, it's the, it, it's the Sean Payton programming and they're buying in.

And that's half the battle.

I was, I always do these player ranking things before every year.

And I was shocked by how high Denver was.

where I do like blue chippers, red chippers, pink chippers, and assign different points.

And I had seven guys on their defense that got at least one point out of the 11 starters.

And then the coaching is a top four or five coaching staff, right?

But then they have one of the best four offensive lines.

And the big thing last year was their, their skill position guys, you know, were pretty weak, except for Son, which they tried to beef up.

I've been reading all the R.J.

Harvey stuff, trying to figure out he's a 24-year-old rookie.

Could he give them some juice?

He had some big run yesterday that they were all excited about, but I just didn't think their running backs were very good last year, which is

really the easiest thing to improve in the NFL.

There's a million like decent running backs.

So

I also the schedule thing is in their favor too, because I think they go AFC South, NFC East.

It is.

And they have the third place schedule.

So I just, there's a lot of signs pointing to them.

And their over-under is still nine and a half wins, which I think is crazy.

I'd be like, I'd be genuinely shocked if they didn't win 10 games.

Oh, same here.

That would be a disappointing year.

It would mean somebody got hurt.

It would would be like Bonix got hurt and they played a backup quarterback for half the year.

Oh, Jared Stiddam.

That's what's going on.

That's right.

I mine Stidham.

Yep.

Look, Stidham is the type of quarterback you want because when he's on your team, your quarterback stays healthy.

He's been like, good luck.

But I asked Sean about the whole weapon situation because

I remember during free agency

trying to figure out who they were going to go after.

Yeah.

Because I was like, they're going to want to get this kid somebody.

and he's like, My weapon is our run game now.

I'm like, all right, right.

So that, that, that's how he's

done Ingram.

So hopefully he can catch some balls for them.

But I like the way they look.

Like, if you go roster versus roster with them and KC,

they're right there

talent-wise.

It's just KC is the infrastructure.

You're talking Super Bowl there, by the way.

Not against it.

A little dirty secret for you.

I was on a runway in Chicago coming home from the sports collectors convention, and we didn't, we were were just kind of stalled for 15 minutes.

I went on FanDuel and I started because I was going to hold off, I was going to wait until end of August to make some NFL features.

I was like, I can't hold off on the Broncos anymore.

I'm getting some of these in.

I'm getting some Broncos bets in, and I'm shorting Miami in a couple of different ways.

Were the two things I did?

Well, I am.

Maybe this is kind of ironic because I feel like

Parcells is the one who kind of always was in my head when I was just when I was younger, learning how to cover this game of you know, the teams that are the ones that are loud, screaming that stuff are usually the crappy ones, yeah.

But I've now seen it two years in a row where I've had teams be really vocal about it, like Andy Reid last year.

He said to me, He said, We're going for three.

I'm like, First of all, Travis Kelsey said that to me after they won the second when we were running off the field, like, you know, when the reporters like run after them to ask some questions, I was doing that, and I was like, you know, whatever boring question I asked, like, how you feel, you know, whatever.

He's like, going for three.

I'm like, three, what?

I'm like, oh, three in a row.

What?

You just won.

Like, chill.

But Andy was like, I love them talking about that.

Like, I want them.

Obviously, they lost, but,

you know, so you got them doing it.

You got Denver doing it out.

They got, they've, they've got some survivors.

They're definitely headed into this season confident.

So

I get why you like the Broncos.

You have them over the Chargers?

Yes.

Yeah, I think so too.

Let's take a break and then we'll do a couple more for reals.

This episode is brought to you by Yahoo Fantasy.

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That's me.

All right, third, is this real?

Is the Micah Parsons hold out whatever the hell we're doing for real?

It certainly got a

lot of news, and we don't have to hash over all the things.

I want to give you my theory.

Okay.

So there's this Cowboys documentary coming out on Netflix, and it's actually really good, and I think it's going to be a big deal.

And it's about the Jerry Jones 90s Cowboys and the celebration of this really meaningful team that I think everybody remembers.

And you have guys like Aikman and Irvin and Emmett, who even after, and Dion, after they played for the Cowboys,

they've still stayed really relevant, as has Jerry.

Part of me wonders, does he just do this sometimes with these holdouts just to get people talking about the Cowboys all month when he knows this is how this is going to end?

They're not trading Micah Parsons.

Nobody's doing that.

That'd be the,

like if the Patriots offer them Keon Wade and two first-round picks and a third for Micah Parsons, like, oh, that's a lot.

You're not doing it.

You're keeping, he's one of the most, seven most important guys in the league.

You're not trading him, especially in the salary cap era where you could just push this money into this interminable amount of years and it, you know, it doesn't actually hate you.

It's not like the NBA.

I'm convinced that he does this shit sometimes just so like first take will lead with the cowboys and people write the stories.

I don't believe this for a second.

Do you think this is real?

I don't think it's real that Micah Parsons is going to get traded, but I do think the beef is real.

Really?

I think sometimes in negotiations,

everyone's like, all right, you're doing what you need to do to get your money.

I get it.

Or you're doing what you need to do to protect the team.

I get it.

Wink, wink, wink.

But we're all going to be together.

La-dee-da.

This feels personal.

This feels like it's Jerry versus Micah.

This isn't the Dallas Cowboys front office or the Dallas Cowboys in general versus Micah.

Yeah.

It feels,

and I think a lot of it has to to do with what Jerry's been saying publicly.

He's gone a little overboard on this stuff.

And I don't ever really get crazy about negotiations and how people are talking about stuff because I know how it goes by now.

But this with the, you know, not knowing who Micah's agent is from leaving his name out to not contacting him this whole time

to talking about his injuries.

So it just, it doesn't feel great.

And

the other day, so the story broke Friday.

So I guess it was Thursday morning.

Somebody tipped me off on it.

Was like, Michael Parsons has in his drafts a note that basically says, I don't want to be a Dallas Cowboy anymore.

And his agent's aware of it.

And they're basically just waiting to pull the trigger because

you don't ask for a trade out of Dallas.

Nobody does that, right?

We've seen in Washington, we've seen in almost every organization.

most want to be a Dallas Cowboy because of all the benefits of playing for, you know, America's team.

So what are those benefits, just out of curiosity?

They haven't won the Super Bowl in

literally three decades now.

And I would say they've been one of the least successful NFL franchises.

That, you know, you have your Browns level.

They're obviously not there, but it's not like they've been rolling in success these last,

I don't know, Michael Parsons' entire life.

The Cowboys have never never been good, like in the, in a Super Bowl contender way.

It feels like it, though, when you're around them, when you're there, they don't,

they're not ugly looking, they're not, they don't have ugly uniforms, they don't have an ugly stadium, they get so much attention.

Cool arena,

they're treated like they're premiere, but they're not, and maybe some of them

like living in the limelight of that, of the celebrity of being a Dallas Cowboy versus, you know, actually being able to win it.

Um,

isn't it better to be in the limelight of winning, though, if you're Micah Parsons?

Maybe the hope is that they, maybe what it is, they believe that they can do that, right?

I mean, because this is a team that's built on star power based on deals.

Never weren't.

They're the Kardashians.

It's like all sizzle and no steak.

Although the Kardashians are very successful.

But you kind of look at it and you go, what are the talents here?

And the Cowboys, same thing.

It's like,

what are the talents here?

What is the Jerry Jones?

Like, as soon as they got rid of Jimmy Johnson, and by the way,

I totally forgot about the Emmett Smith contract holdout where he actually missed games.

Yeah.

You know, because now as you get older, you start, some of this stuff falls through the cracks in your brain.

But he went to the precipice with Emmett Smith and it was not going to be resolved until the replacement guy kind of stunk in the first two games and the Cowboys fan base went nuts.

I wonder if he'd be willing willing to do that again, to actually go into the season, not paying him to see what happens.

You have to go so hard.

I'm curious to see if there's any self-reflection from him of maybe I didn't do this right, right?

Because

even just talking to people over the last few days about it, of like, what do you think?

You know,

you know, and most will tell you, well, Jerry's done these deals before with players.

It's, he's notorious for these, whether it's,

I guess, Tony Rome was the famous one, where he tries to do do these deals with players.

Right.

Bypass all the people around them.

Yeah.

Whereas it's like, first of all, it's illegal.

You need to have an agent do those contracts.

I think Kraft, right, with Brady is maybe the only other owner I know of that kind of did that, where they have a conversation and then, you know, they kind of agree to it.

And then the agent comes in and does the paperwork, I guess.

Listen, all Patriot fans have agreed for the rest of our lives never to talk about whatever private under-the-table stuff Kraft and Brady had.

As just like, we don't talk about it.

We don't care.

No, we don't talk.

I never felt like the salary number was 100% all the money that was going to Brady, but we looked the other way.

No way.

We looked the other way.

You know all the stuff these guys can do.

Like use the plane whenever you want.

There's like a million different

workarounds.

Here, invest in this thing we're investing in.

You should do this.

It's going to make this.

Oh, yeah.

It's a lot of stuff you can do.

I just had a conversation with an owner over the offseason about that, of things that they

lay out for their players,

this specific organization in terms of investment, things that they have set up for relationships that the owner and the organization have with these investment groups

that help the players make money.

It's like, it's the best way to help your team

with the salary cap by taking less money and then still be able to make all the money that you probably could get on the open market.

I don't think Jerry Jones is doing that with Michael Parsons.

I don't think he's doing that with Michael Parsons.

I think he's sitting Micah Parsons down for a day and a half and talking to him what he thinks is just a conversation.

You know, Micah's perspective, as we know, he thought it was a conversation.

Jerry thought that was a deal.

And look, I think the Cowboys' perspective on it, or at least Jerry Jones' perspective on it, is like, look, I've done this with other players.

I asked Dak to do it with me.

And Dak said, no, talk to Todd France, my agent.

And that's how they did it.

And Micah never spoke up.

Micah never said that.

And I think that's how Jerry sees it.

Whereas obviously Micah Parker.

He's in his mid-20s.

How does he know how to do

a deal with the owner who's made a Kajillion deals?

Like, that's ridiculous.

It's shady.

And it's shady.

That's why I think this is

the original question was, is this real?

I'm with you.

I don't think they're trading him.

I have spoken to teams who have already reached out to Dallas and it's not even like they're having a conversation.

Yeah, they're just getting hung up on.

You're just like, whatever.

It's like, we can talk about other players.

Is three first crazy for you?

No.

Just out of curiosity?

Because I, you know, I'm in, I have the NBA DNA where people get traded all the time.

The picks and the trades have gotten crazier and crazier and crazier.

We don't really see it ever with the NFL.

Like we'll have like the occasional Khalil Mack trade.

But for the most part, teams just don't do it that way.

And if you have one of these guys, the way the cap works, where you can just keep pushing that money way down the road and almost like this dinner bill that you just get to keep putting on credit, you never have to pay.

Um, like the Parsons thing to me is easy, just pay them.

Who's the team that trades for Micah Parsons and cousin Sal just like jumps off a bridge?

The best for the podcast for me and Sal is the Patriots.

That would be the absolute funniest outcome

of all of this.

If he, if, and then he was just awesome on the Patriots and we went like 12 and 5.

And I was wearing a Parsons jersey for every five.

That's just for content, that would be the most fun for me.

That's a good one.

First of all, like there were teams mentioned when people make up the fake trades, like, guess what?

They're not trading him to Washington or Philadelphia or the Giants.

Like that, like, just cross those teams off.

They're not trading with those teams.

And they would probably trade in the AFC if they're trading him, but they're not trading them.

So it's a moot point.

How fun it would be if it was just like a lame team, you know, like the Titans.

You know, like the Jacks.

So the Jacks don't have anything left.

All right, so we agree.

I still feel like Jerry milks this stuff because

he

I think he likes when people are discussing the Cowboys.

What's interesting is I actually kind of thought I had them like right in the six to eight seed range in the NFC.

Like they do have talent.

Dak's back.

It wouldn't surprise me if they, with their schedule, if they went like 10 and seven.

But if they don't figure the Parsons thing out, they're not going to.

Yeah, I'm interested to see.

Here's the other thing too.

Because Micah is repped by such a powerful agent, it's the same agent that repped Deshaun Watson, that I wonder if the philosophy there is like, once you ask for a trade, like this is, we want out.

Whereas, well, we're sitting in Washington with Terry McLaurin.

Yeah.

I don't think Terry wants to leave Washington.

No, they're not trading.

They're trying to win the Super Bowl.

What are they going to get?

I'm Happiest guy.

Yeah.

Terry's the best, right?

Like, he's just like walking around, talking to his quarterback's mom, just like, hey, everybody.

I just want to make 31, 32.

Come on, please.

I know I'm going to be 30 next week, but just pay me.

Well, the Trey Hendrickson thing is interesting because he seems like he wants to stay.

He's kind of TMIing some of the information.

He's going to be doing long dissertations about his worth and his feelings about the Bengals.

But I mean, talk about a cheap franchise.

And he's the only, you know, the only really good defensive player they have.

So I assume he will come back.

Parsons, though, who knows?

If Parsons is like, I'm not coming back for it.

It's, do you have the stomach for it?

I think that's what it is.

It's uncomfortable.

It's weird.

It's these guys,

most good players are taught that it's about the team, despite the fact that it is a business.

They're coming from the culture of it's about the good things in sport.

And I do think Trey Hendrickson, who, you know, I talked to him.

I've been in touch with him a lot during this.

And you're right.

Like he spends a lot of time making sure you know and the public knows that his intentions here are to just get the money he's worth.

His family's feelings seem hurt.

Oh, well, wouldn't it yours?

Yeah.

Well, especially if Max Crosby gets taken care of.

You didn't own your company and the owner of your company was paying everybody else who was a star on the other side of the ball, but didn't didn't want to pay you and give you the guarantees that you wanted.

And it's not like he's asking for anything so outlandish because I've done kind of some of the back work on that.

I'm just like asking other teams, like, would you give Trey two years guarantee?

And everyone's like, yes.

Like, it's, it's, it's not that hard to do.

But Cincinnati is just one of those teams that don't operate like Cincinnati, that don't operate like Philly.

They don't operate like Houston.

They don't operate like LA.

They don't get ahead.

Well, that leads to the next for real: is Cleveland the worst 2025 team for real?

And I bring them up because it's

a little bit dysfunctional along the lines of the Bengals.

The Bengals have more talent, but same kind of like you are who you are behind the scenes.

And then the NFL that always comes back to bite you.

I look at Cleveland, the quarterback thing's already a mess.

The Watson thing is one of the biggest cap cripplers we've had in a long, long time.

And

I don't see a scenario where they win like four games.

And they like to me, if you were saying who's going to have the worst record in the league, which is always a fun one to bet on when

people put those odds up, I would go either Cleveland or New Orleans.

I think are just the most obvious two.

They seem New Orleans, at least like there's some good buzz about, oh, they have some good young players and the new coaching staffs in place.

And maybe they'll be like a little bit frisky.

I don't see it at all with Cleveland.

Joe Flacco's not doing it for you.

No.

No, he's not.

I thought he was terrible last year.

Yeah.

He wasn't terrible when he was with Stefansky the last time.

That was two years ago.

I mean, they went to the playoffs in 23.

So he's in his 40s now.

In general, I'm blind out on all 40s quarterbacks.

And I think Brady messed up everybody's brains.

I've talked about this before.

Brady was an anomaly.

I'm like, I'm in your 40s.

I woke up with a stiff neck the other day.

I'm like, what is happening to me?

And I Googled it and I have meningitis and i'm going to be dead in 15 hours like i was like what what is happening

um

but yeah which i do that all the time which is such an obnoxious thing to do like as a you self-diagnose on google yeah battle that but also i like try to like think of myself as the player you know at my age if the player's close at my age and i'll just feel like your 40s you have to because you watch you watch stuff start to go by the wayside every year it's like oh i can't see as well anymore what happened or i do it with my parents, right?

Like my dad's 72 and like, I'll see like Belichick, for example.

And I'm like, my dad

just watches Judge Judy all day.

Like there's no way any 21-year-old or 22-year-old

is even looking his way, nor would he even know what to say to her.

He would be like, can we take a nap?

You know, three times a day.

So I, it's just like, I can't help myself, but I do it all the time.

So to your point with Joe Flacco, like, yeah, like.

It's same for Rogers.

It's like, that's why I'm not going to get excited about Rogers.

Like, these guys are in their 40s.

It's not raising.

He's an outlier.

He's an outlier.

He doesn't eat strawberries, for God's sakes, you know, like he, he is special, committed.

He did, you know,

you know, the whole thing.

So, yeah, I, I have concerns.

Look, a lot of it, I was around the Browns a lot last year during training camp.

And I just,

look, Deshaun was there at the time.

It was different.

He's there now, but.

We know that's the situation there.

Look, I like the idea that they've been consistent with keeping Stefanski there and Andrew Berry.

I do think they're a good tandem together, but there's just this juice missing in Cleveland.

I, you know, how I just was talking about Denver, right?

And I was like, God, these guys are just like drinking the Kool-Aid and they're rolling on it on their identity and who they are and the culture and what they're trying to accomplish and the details.

And they got stubs on all sides.

Like, I don't.

I don't, I never felt that in Cleveland.

I haven't been there yet.

I can't, but just seeing what I'm seeing and reading what I'm saying, like I'm not, Mary Kay Cabot right now seems to be the biggest star out of Cleveland with her comments at the Hall of Fame

celebration.

What did Mary Kay Cabot say?

What?

I somehow missed this.

It's the weekend.

Bill, this was so good.

Not that I'm expecting you to like follow all Mary Kay, but Mary Kay is obviously exceptional.

She's been around forever, covers the Cleveland Browns.

So she was inducted in the Hall of Fame, Sportswriter Hall of Fame.

So she goes up there and she talked about the start of her career and her delivery was fantastic.

So she's up there and she says, you know, Bill Belichick calls me up once and he's given me a hard time.

And I said, Bill, you know,

I hope you talk to the men the same way you talk to me.

Essentially, like, treat me just the way you treat the men.

And I hope you say the shit you say to me, you say to the men.

She goes, and then, you know, years passed and I was a young 28-year-old reporter.

And I realize now Bill Belichick just couldn't relate to a 28-year-old because I was too old.

Oh, no, she said that in the speech.

Yes.

And I've known Mary Kay forever.

Like, Mary Kay is spicy and she's great at her job, but she's not like that.

Like, she doesn't like

Belichick taking strays.

That's pretty good.

I had some really funny

and punchline.

It was, it was fantastic.

And I was, here's the thing: somebody sent the clip.

And you know how all of our attention is so limited?

Like, I can, I can only watch like five seconds of a clip.

Yeah.

And so the person that tweeted it, like, made it like this clip is going to wow you.

And I thought the funny part was just that, like, she was tough with Bill.

Yeah.

You know, I was like, good for Mary Kay.

And I was thinking that,

you know, way to go.

And then I was, whoa,

go, MKC.

Well, I think part of the problem with the lack of belief with the the Browns,

and this is like the eighth time they've pivoted since Haslam bought the team, I think in 2012.

So now it's like, hey, we have our shit together finally.

The Watson thing, he's taken a lot of accountability for the Watson.

What a disaster that was.

But that shocked me when he said that.

I was at the owners' meeting when he said that.

I was like, whoa, that was a shocking thing.

He's done it though.

I was reading up on him and he's done it a few times when he's fired people, like GMs or coaches.

And he'll just publicly say, like, he does the Aaron Boone thing.

He's like, we we got to get this right.

It's all ahead of us.

We got it.

We got to, everything's in front of us.

We just got to keep moving.

We've made some mistakes, but it's just really bad at owning a team.

And they're just clearly the most dysfunctional of all the NFL teams now.

And have been for a while.

That's the hard part.

It's when the owners are that involved.

You're like, you're part of this operation all the time.

And it's still bad.

It's very similar to what's happening with the Phoenix Suns with Matt Ishbia,

where just

changing to pivot, another splashy thing.

Oh, I changed again.

Oh, it was this guy's fault.

Hey, I'm learning.

And the problem is, Haslam is now in like year 14 owning the Browns.

And it doesn't seem like there's light at the end of the tunnel, at least with David Tepper, who made a lot of the same mistakes.

At least that's been quiet for a year.

I don't know if he's a good owner or not, but he's at the same time.

I think they've been very

conscious of what it's looked like.

I don't, yeah, these people don't change, Bill.

You think Woody Johnson is now going

since I let my sons run it all?

I'm not going to do that anymore.

Like, no,

you can't, they can't help who they are.

Yeah.

And look, and I think there's some instances where an ownership having

some say in things is okay.

I actually just talked to Greg Penner, the owner of the Broncos, on the sideline the other day about that.

It was the exact question I asked him.

I said, how do you know when to step in like how how involved are you on the day-to-day how do you know to go i need to say something here yeah you know and he and he even he's like it's not easy because you got to let your football people do it but

if you disagree with something that and you're watching this or let's say you're an owner like josh harris right like who's got experience with bad deals

right um

you know, it's got to be hard for him to go, all right, I'm just going to let Adam Peters do this.

There's no way.

Of course he's going going to influence it, especially if they've been down that road before and they've made those mistakes.

They're not going to allow some new GM making those mistakes, which is why I'm curious to see how the Terry McLaurin thing shapes out.

Because you know, you know, the owners involved in that.

That's not just Adam Peters.

No way, no way.

He's, I'm not worried about that one.

So, you is there a worse team than Cleveland for you?

The Titans,

yeah, they're on the list.

I just

don't know what they are and they have an easier division they do and no one pays attention to them so they don't have to deal with the heat i feel like you know cleveland browns fans are nuts they're so into it and and they're so crushed every year and the watson thing hanging over it's all of it i just think for tennessee it's there's just been so much change ownership has gone through so much different yeah um variety you know whether it's getting rid of rand carthon john robinson mike brable all those

um to now they've they're they're trying to settle this thing down.

And I've heard great things about Cam Ward.

But I think between Cleveland and Tennessee, and I'm with you on New Orleans,

I don't think they're going to have any exceptional years.

The Dolphins, too.

I'm worried about them.

I already have all their unders.

The Giants would be the fifth one, but at least the Giants.

You can point to them and go, hey, they might be able to rush the ball.

I mean, rush the passer.

Hey, they might be able to make a couple of big big plays with their receivers.

Like, there's a few things there.

Tennessee, I don't know what the case is.

Let's take one more break and then we'll do the rest of these.

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is tom brady actually really involved with the raiders for real in your opinion that was my for real Oh, I stole your for real?

He stole my for real.

But I was going to, I was going to do it and then answer it.

Answer it

what's the answer he is involved in everything

everything

first of all it's tod brady

what does he care about nevertheless have ownership in something and just goes oh i want nothing to do with that of course of course he's involved in this and this just even goes back to the offseason um so at the bezos wedding he's like hold on guys i gotta step out we're having an issue with our six round receiver like i i don't know i don't know if i'm buying no i i don't think it's i think he's informed daily of things that are happening and he has a say and i think he's in contact with the stars of that team i say stars but like outside max crosby right um

like brock bowers i get

the is there they train with alex the alex program is there like alex

he's there how did i miss this yeah alex guerrero is there go to the website raiders.com wow he's back he's back if alice Guerrero there is there, Tom Brady is there, right?

And look, I know he lives, he still lives in Florida.

But when they were going through that coaching search,

you think it was just Mark Davis on the phone with these coaches?

No,

it was him.

Ben Johnson took the interview because Tom Brady called him.

He didn't want to go there.

Seems like he's done a lot of traveling, a lot of dating.

And he's also going to be calling NFL games on Fox this year.

And I just, if I'm another like gm slash thinker in the nfl and this is a team i'm competing against i'm probably excited that tom brady is kind of half in half out

i i i don't think he is i think he's in i i get he's busy i don't think tom brady wants to be embarrassed by saying he's the owner of a team that's going to be a dump he's going to make sure that it's at least at a level of respectable at least try to figure out a way to get it there i don't know if he has that ability to do it, right?

Because I've never seen him in a position that he's in now where he's running a team.

But

I don't think the Sophia Verghera,

you know, makeout sesh should count as a distraction towards Tom Brees

focus.

I'm okay with that couple.

I like that couple.

I thought that was, that was cute.

It was.

I like her.

I think she seems very charming.

I don't think it's worked.

It fell apart already.

I don't know.

I don't think they're getting engaged.

I think they're in the early stages.

I'm interested to see how involved Brady is because I think Brady's done a good job of the perception.

I say this as in

as somebody who brought me and the other Patriot fans six rings.

We love Tom Brady, but he just seems very spread out all over the place.

And the better thing is that he was involved with the Pete Carroll hiring.

And, you know, whether Pete has two decent years left or five, I don't know, but at least he's a real head coach who has a culture in place and is going to try to uh make them seem like professionals which was not the case the last few years i don't know i think you're in denial i think you just don't want tom to be associated with a team that's not going to be that good i didn't like seeing him in the raiders stuff the other day

it was weird right i didn't like it i think he should not wear raiders stuff just wear like generic

um

I know he has to.

Yeah, it's still, it's weird.

It's a weird one for me, especially that was the team that launched his career effectively with the in the snow game other people call it the tuck roll game

so what's harder for you was it

seeing was it was it was it seeing the report that bill belich called the jets for the job or seeing tom green no the belichek thing belich was just how weird is that i think he was just kicking every tire possible he was so but you made the key point you said your dad watches judge duty all day like at some point you're in your mid-70s.

You probably shouldn't be coaching the NFL team anymore, would be my expert take.

It's a hard job.

My dad's not a plumber anymore.

Thank God.

You're competing against Ben Johnson, who's like, what is he, like 38?

Oh my God, the energy level of these guys running around.

He's like sleeping four hours a day.

He doesn't care.

Is oh, this is a good one.

Oh, boy.

Actually, I'll save it.

Let's do an easy one for real.

You believe in the Vrabel bump?

Is the Vrabel bump for real?

no

just kidding i just wanted to get you nervous yeah that would hurt my feelings i know i know you're very pro-rebal i get it yeah i read everything every day everybody's just like the accountability is bad it's a lot it's a lot well people are telling me

barely barely had a coach last year

i get it but they're they're kind of going a little overboard on it like it's like we're going to shove vrabal down your throat so much that you're going to forget about drawn mail

Like, we're going to somehow make you not remember those final years with Belichick and whatever that situation was going, was.

And, um, and look, I get it.

It's, it, it is.

And, and I get it.

He's the perfect person.

Obviously, the, the history there, and, and the fact that he actually is a good coach, right?

Like, this isn't smoke and mirrors.

They're not just like getting a rah-rah guy in,

which is probably the thing about him that gets misunderstood most from covering him so many years.

I think people think he's just like a tough guy that like cheers on guys and motivates well, but he

has a plan.

He's a detailed psycho.

His game management is

some of the best in football.

He cares about dumb shit

that I think is dumb, but I get why he does and why he's his entire staff is obsessed over things.

Like I remember in Tennessee

on Fridays, they like basically put together a tape called dumb shit, I think is what they called it.

And

Braves would have his assistant pull all the dumb stuff from the week prior, from that Sunday prior, of mistakes teams were making, like self-inflicted shit, you know, and then show it to the team.

Yeah.

And it's a great learning tool, right?

Of like, hey, this is what they did in this situation.

We don't do that.

So I don't know.

I just just think, I think the entire organization is energized with him being there because there's a plan.

He knows exactly what he is.

He knows exactly what he wants the team to be.

And he knows how to press buttons.

The clips I've been watching where he's, he's just barking back at some of these guys, which I think is fun, right?

He's gone after a couple of the reporters already.

He just, if he doesn't like a question or if he feels.

Somebody, I think it was last week, somebody asked a question that somebody else had asked and he just like went right after the guy who asked it.

He just was like, I don't have time for this.

Well, he's another one.

Like, if he doesn't like you,

like, it's not a secret.

You know, like, I've battled with him over the years on things.

Like, I remember doing something stupid in a press con.

I asked, I asked a bad question.

Yeah.

It was about injuries, which he doesn't talk injuries.

And I known at that point that he doesn't like to do it, but I did it anyway because I think it was the playoffs.

So he like, he just like ices you out for a while.

It's just how he is.

Um,

but he gets it too, though.

Like, he gets me.

He, he's, he's, he, everyone thinks he's like Belichick, and he is a little bit when it comes to injuries in media.

Um,

but it, but he gets it.

I just think

my expectations aren't as high as everybody else's for this team,

but I understand it.

Like, I, I get

why Patriot fans are feeling this like euphoria right now.

Watching

a week ago, they're what you see that made you peak.

I think think that some of the stuff coming out with the rookies who have been i think more up and down and less reliable than we were hoping is they hit the jackpot with the third round guard wilson but campbell's been a little up and down kyle williams the receiver who i i think everybody thought was going to play he's been dropping balls and um so i don't know if the we'll see this is where braibel's gonna have to work his magic but i I thought the draft was going to be like an A plus for them, and it might be like a B plus or a B.

I don't know.

Well, Campbell, Campbell's gonna start.

Jared Wilson's gonna start.

Henderson Williams Wilson.

The Pats beat writers are saying that Campbell's gets beat at least twice a practice.

So,

people, people I've been talking to say, I needed the cool-off.

I have heard

if there was a bright spot of New England right now, it's actually the offensive line.

So, but by the way, don't go by us idiots on the ground sometimes because I've made this mistake.

Yeah.

Whereas I do that, and then the coaches will tell me later, like, you didn't even know what we were doing.

Like, you had no idea what that drill was.

You thought it was something else, and there's a reason.

Like, we actually tied his arm behind his back, and you just didn't see it.

Like, you know what I mean?

Um, so yeah, look, I love the Pats Beat Reporters, they're actually my favorite group.

Um, we have great beat reporters, they are.

I'm just listening, I was ready to predict 12 and five a week ago.

Now I've calmed down.

That's all I'm saying.

We'll see, we'll see how Drake takes this step.

It all hinges on that.

I agree.

Okay, here we go.

Is this real?

The Rodgers-Tomlin Love Fest,

including a big piece I read, I think it was in The Athletic by Michael Silver

about this relationship they've forged.

I just always have my guard up with all Aaron Rodgers' content the last couple of years.

I never know what's real and what's not real.

And this is a great example.

Is this real?

Do the Steelers actually think Aaron Rodgers is going to take them to like the AFC championship game?

Do they think this?

I think the relationship question is real.

Okay.

I think part of Mike Silver's piece was that Aaron kind of fell for Tomlin because

when Mike was sitting with him, his recall was really good.

Like,

I mean, to me, it sounds like basic listening, but I guess people weren't listening to Aaron Rodgers or something because it was like sensitive stuff, personal things that I guess Aaron was sharing with them.

And Mike asked him about it and stayed in touch with him about it.

To me, it's like, yeah, of course he listened to you and stayed in touch with you because he didn't have a quarterback.

Like,

why are you so excited that the head coach of a team that paid a gazillion dollars for a wide receiver,

you know,

is calling Aaron Rodgers, who could potentially be the answer.

Yeah, but I guess Colin was on that.

He was on the long drive where there was no stop for food with hungry kids in the backseat.

And at some point, you just kind of settle for the sandwich shop you've never heard of.

And Rogers was the sandwich shop.

It's like, I need to feed my kids.

Yeah.

Rogers like, he looks like a quarterback.

He's famous.

I guess we're going to have to roll the dice with him.

I thought he was bad last year.

I know the stats say otherwise.

There's good advanced stuff.

I didn't think he wanted to get hit anymore.

I'm always going to think that.

I don't think he wants to get hit anymore.

There's a couple factors.

I never thought that the Jet situation, I initially thought the Jets situation was smart.

I thought that was a great move by New York at the time for where they were at.

But I quickly learned that he needed the right personality at that head coach position.

And I don't think Robert Sala was good for him,

which I think we all learned that.

And look, the injury thing is a whole nother story.

I do think the Mike Tomlin personality is great for an Aaron Rodgers because Aaron Rodgers needs to be told, we know you have an opinion.

We know this is what you think, but this is what we're doing.

Yeah.

Right.

There, it's essentially

maybe even making him feel like he's part of it.

But at the end of the day, Mike Tomlin's calling the shots.

And I think Rogers respects him enough to go, okay, I'll shut up.

We'll do what you say.

And Arthur Smith's the same way.

Arthur's tough.

Arthur's like, I don't know if you've ever seen him in interviews, like he's a nice guy,

but he's sharp.

And

he'll

he'll make it work for Aaron, but he's not going to let Aaron push him around on this is what we're going to do because I'm Aaron Rodgers.

So from a fit standpoint with the personalities of those guys there, I like it.

I think it works.

But I still don't know if he has enough in him at the age, the injury still

to really take this team to the playoffs.

Maybe I'm too old, but I just feel like I've been down this road with the famous athletes that are past their prime, but you can kind of get excited about it, tuck yourself into it.

The best case scenario is Farf.

The first, he sucked on the Jets.

The first Vikings year, they were actually good.

Well, he didn't suck with the Jets, he

sucked and he got hurt.

But I mean,

what'd they go?

Like 5-11, whatever happened.

They were, I think, didn't they go to the playoffs?

So they were about to go to the playoffs, and then he got hurt.

So,

anyways, it didn't work.

Well, he left.

I thought it didn't work.

Well, as we said earlier, like, we can't remember things anymore.

The Jets thing, whatever.

He went to Minnesota.

They almost made the Super Bowl, but then the next year was bad.

When's the last time we saw, like outside Brett?

When's the last time an old player joined a team and we were like, like Odell Beckham with the Rams that one year?

Like, I'm trying to think of like an old player that you're like excited about and they're actually good.

What about in Washington?

They're old.

They're pretty good there.

It's tough with quarterbacks.

In basketball, it gets tough.

We see this like when like Carmelo Anthony got older.

It's like, Oklahoma City has added Carmelo Anthony.

And it's like, it's not Carmelo Anthony anymore.

He's at a different point of his career.

Like when I guess Brady going to the Bucs is the best all-time kick, but Brady almost doesn't count in these because he's Brady.

It doesn't.

But yeah,

the Emmett Smith going to the Cardinals.

Like, I don't know.

It's just, you kind of know how it's going to go each time.

In this case, like their offensive line, I think is, it seems like it's going to be pretty good this year.

John Miller.

It's great, but pretty good.

Bad, right?

I'm thinking baseball.

Sorry, I switched sports in my head.

I'm thinking, like, in baseball, who's like the old folk that you believed in?

And hockey had like Gretzky was on three more teams than I think people remember.

Near the end, he's just started like bouncing around.

Jerry Rice was on, but he was after the Raiders.

I think he did he go to the Redskins?

Like, there was one other thing.

Yeah.

Like, he kind of kept going.

Um,

yeah, I'm not seeing it.

Um, my last one for you is uh,

this is from a Jets fan friend of mine who I always kind of trust with the Jets.

And

they said, Listen, I don't know how good we're going to be, but we have an identity this year.

I know what this team is.

We're going to play defense.

We're going to run the ball.

And Fields is going to run the ball a lot.

We have a good offensive line, and we're going to be in these ugly games.

And

I at least know what this is.

And I actually think it's going to be okay.

And I think we might, we're not going to be dangerous, but we might be, you know, a little frisky.

What are your are the Jets frisky, frisky Jets for real for you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

He's got a good pulse on it.

He must be reading Zach Rosenblatt from The Athletic, who does a good job of just

laying it out.

Like, Zach's not scared.

Like, he's just like, this team stinks or this seems decent.

And everything he's been writing from there has been that.

And I talk to him a lot too.

Look, I think they were lost.

The Rogers experiment was a disaster for a lot of different reasons.

And they just cleaned house.

And I know some of it was a little uncomfortable, a little prickly at times with all this change.

But I think at least I don't know if Aaron Glenn is going to be a good head coach.

Okay.

Just like, I don't really know if Ben Johnson's going to be a good head coach.

I just know from talking to people around the league that these guys were great at coaching their units.

That doesn't always mean that they're the best CEOs, you know?

And

I don't like the fact that Aaron Glenn isn't doing the coaching that he was so great at in Detroit.

That is the only reason why I'm like a little bothered by New York, because if your head coach's greatest strength isn't being used,

then why is he there?

Like that, that is what I, that's the reason why I thought New York hired.

But I think as they figure it out as they're coaching, they start putting their tentacles around and figuring out how to sprinkle in their little fairy dust.

Yeah.

The things they know.

And he's a big Parcells disciple, obviously, and he has already mannerisms of him.

And I've heard some things that it's just like a very Parcells way of conducting things, meetings, dealing with the coaching staff.

He also wanted to coach the Jets, which isn't any small thing.

Like he actually wanted the job.

He wasn't leveraging them.

He wasn't like, oh, you're my last chance to get hired.

He's like, I like the Jets.

I want to be your coach.

So they went from having complete instability with coaching.

QB to now at least, whether you like the QB or not, I'm not a huge fan of Fields, but I think if you're going to use them the way they're going to use them, it might

be hard to play.

They're going to pull off like two upsets this year, and people are going to be like, oh my God, the Jets are beating the Chiefs or whoever, you know, some giant favorite.

Just because I live in Jets Giants land,

if you had to pick a team, who are you picking?

For wins?

Yeah.

Jets.

And me too.

Because the division, obviously, but also, I mean, not that, who knows?

Your pass could

be a a problem.

Uh, they got to face the bills.

They got dealing with Josh coming off an MVP season.

It's a pretty good, it's a pretty good division situation.

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What was your for real?

Because we got to wrap up.

All right, my for real.

the minnesota vikings seem thrilled about jj mccarthy that he's the guy okay

is this real

what else are they gonna say

it's a lot

he didn't play football for a year

There was that story about how my buddy House loved this, how Kevin O'Connell talked to him for for an hour to try to simulate last season, simulate the process they would have when he was a starting QB.

But he's coming off a major injury and he hasn't played football in two years.

Like, I'd be nervous if I was a Vikings fan.

It's not great.

First of all, House, that was my story.

Which one?

I remember doing that.

I did that for one of my insider notes of every week.

Kevin O'Connell spends an hour with me.

Look at House is quoting him.

This is great.

But it's funny to hear it back because it's so stupid.

I wish I wrote that.

I wish I wrote,

like at the time, it felt productive.

Like, look at this hands-on coach, including the young.

I wouldn't mind it.

I just don't know if that's going to make sense.

He's going to be a quarterback.

You're using virtual reality.

You're doing all this.

And, you know, then he lost all the weight.

But, but really, what House is saying is.

He lost the reps.

That's what he, you need the reps on scout team, right?

Whether, whether he was starting or not, he needed to be out there and he lost all of that, as well as the weight, which he seemed to, you know, he's back and he, from what I heard, had an awesome spring.

But look, this is team, they are built to win.

They are built to win.

They let Sam Darnold walk.

They let Daniel Jones walk.

They let Aaron Rodgers walk.

And they stuck with him because they believe in him.

So

they know something we don't.

Right.

Well, where they took him in the draft, like he kind of has to be good.

Their whole setup was meant for them to win a title with a quarterback on the rookie scale.

A little like Denver, actually, although Denver is playing with 30 million less than the salary cap.

I guess you have to make that move.

Like if you're the owner, you're looking at it, you're going,

yeah, we're going to, we're going to stick with the guy we drafted.

Yeah.

But from like a win now, I don't know.

I bet you we could debate it.

The question for me is how much is he going to have to do?

Because their defense, they have, you know, a top five coaching staff.

They have good defense.

They should be able to block, we think.

They have Jefferson.

They hopefully have Addison.

Hawkinson full year.

Could he, could he just kind of steer the car?

Does he have to actually get on the highway and go into the carpool lane and start dodging around?

I'm going to be down there or out there in Minnesota next week.

I'll let you know.

But I'm my guess, they're going to keep it simple with him.

Well, I mean, it's, but a lot of this is going to be Ken the quarterback.

Keep it simple.

As much as Kevin O'Connell is fantastic and the staff is great, but sometimes these, look at how he was, how he played in college, right?

Like, I wouldn't call that simple.

The schedule, I remember

not being happy with it

because, especially, like, they play the,

well, they play the second place one but they start out with like the two night games in a row home since he then they go to dublin and london in the first five weeks like for a guy who's just trying to get his his sea legs in this position it's just not a normal first five weeks so that that would make me nervous about them but um i i weirdly like that more than green bay though A lot of people are high on Green Bay, and I don't know, that was the other for real I was going to ask you is do you, we're now, it's, it's year two of this is going to be Jordan Love's Love's giant breakout season.

He got hurt at the beginning of last year, and now we're playing all the hits again.

Um, I don't love his receivers at all.

I know they spent a lot of capital on him, but I don't think he has a reliable receiver.

Jacobs, whatever, there's a lot of good advanced stats about him not being as good as the actual stats were.

Their offensive line's fine, um, but I don't some people think like he's going to become a top five quarterback this year, and I don't know if I don't know if I'm down with that one.

I'm taking Minnesota over Green Bay right now.

I think I'm with you from a,

I just think what they're coming off, like, I understand they,

they

shit the bed against the Rams, but two straight weeks.

Look, here's the thing with, with that season too, from

looking back on it and even just talking to some people there.

It

kind of reminds me.

So in high school, I ran track and my goal was to win the counties.

Yeah.

And I won the counties, which is cool.

And I was new to track, so I didn't know.

So stupid.

I didn't know after counties, you go to states.

So all season long, I'm training.

I'm like, I want to win counties.

I want to win counties.

I win the counties.

And then when you win the county, you got to go play, you got to go run in the state.

Yeah.

And I got my ass kicked.

Like, I came in like 27th place, like embarrassed Bergen County.

Because my head never

thought big.

And I think for the Vikings,

I think they did that, that, which I so such a ridiculous analogy, but it's, I kind of understand it.

Their goal was they were so locked in game to game, they weren't thinking big enough.

And I think at times it hurt them last year, and they poured everything

in to that one game.

And that when they play the Rams, it was just like

not good enough because they were like spent,

which we've seen before in playoff games, you know, where you see them all ready to go for the championship game and they come to the Super Bowl.

They're not, they're not prepared because they're all jammed up for the divisional game or the championship game.

Oh, go ahead.

But for right now, where I'm at and how I feel about these situations, I just have more confidence in Minnesota.

The McCarthy thing makes me nervous.

So you're traveling to a bunch of training camps over the next couple of weeks, I assume.

Yeah, I got a little Minnesota.

I'm going to see your Patriots soon.

Go to go to Washington.

I'll ring up House if he's around.

Is there a team that we didn't talk about that you're just intrigued by that you feel like people are sleeping on?

The Houston Texans.

I think they've got a really good defense.

Yeah.

I have, I had concerns offseason about that offensive line.

Obviously, they traded Laramie Tunsell to the Washington commanders, but Casero's got that patriot way, right?

Yeah.

Where like he always gets rid of players before they peak.

yeah um so that was like

uh no right before they peak oh no right after you're right yeah just as they peak and then he's like yeah we're good he's selling selling two years or a year and a half too early but it's not actually too early it's the perfect time but nobody realizes it

yeah so i think they were a team i was hot on last year i was not predicting that sophomore slump from cj especially i was at camp with them in fact good news for you

i remember diggs i remember cj telling me about diggs last year just like how competitive he is and intense and like what a leader and it's funny too because diggs is one of those guys like on social media and obviously the cardi p stuff and all the ridiculousness um you think he's probably not locked in but even just talking to people in new england like they love him up there yeah love him they wanted like some sort of alpha set set the example

forge relationships with people, some sort of veteran connective tissue, but somebody who's actually good.

Yeah.

It's something that the veterans, but they actually have to be good in the drills.

They have to be good in the practice, which is the second piece of it.

And I also think that's kind of a verbal thing, too, of like he needed his kind of dudes there to like push the message of what he needs and wants.

And I think Diggs is, I don't know if they had a relationship prior, but I'm going to guess he did his work on them.

They're not bringing him in unless they think.

Well, look at the personalities they brought in, like Spilane,

Will Campbell, Diggs.

Like, they have these dudes now that are walking around with their chests out, like alpha dudes, which I think that was the biggest thing he wanted to change.

Um, can you make your own meat sauce?

Yes, I can.

Every Sunday, I do.

What's your, what's your number one Italian meal that you make?

Um,

I probably, I like, what's my best?

Yeah, what's your, what's your, yeah, what's your number one?

So it's neck and neck.

Um, I make a really good linguine and clam sauce.

And interesting.

My husband would say, my chicken par.

He loves my chicken par.

He gets that when the Eagles lose because I always feel bad.

I also try to do it to make him happy because a miserable Philadelphia fan is my hell.

So you make the belly happy.

He can settle down.

And they have the most talented team this year.

I FaceTimed him after they won because I was at the game.

Yeah.

And,

you know, he's crying, which is so freaking weird, but he's crying.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

And so he's like, going to the game with me.

And I'm rushing, by the way.

I got to do a job, you know, but I was just doing, I love him.

And, you know, he loves his Eagles probably more than me, but you got to work.

Yeah.

I got to go do my thing.

And so he starts talking to me about like, what do you think we're going to do at corner next year, though?

Like, I'm like, what?

Oh, he already moved to next season?

Jesus.

He kind of Travis me.

You know what I mean?

Like, he's already like thinking that.

I'm like,

not now.

Like, not now.

I probably started thinking at halftime because the game was over.

So I already think about next season.

It's true.

Nuts, right?

I know.

It's just the second,

but that's what makes Philadelphia great is like, they're just never satisfied and they're just not.

They don't even care about that Super Bowl now.

Yeah, that's how you have to be.

That's the Tom Brady.

What's your favorite Super Bowl?

The next one.

All right.

Diana Rossini, thank you.

This is great.

You can, by the way,

can read your stuff at the athletic, but also Scoop City is the podcast if you want to go check it out.

Well,

house reads my column because he's he's pulling quotes out of there.

Apparently, he does.

Yeah, he's quoting you.

He's impressive.

Subscriber of the athletic.

I love it.

By the way, a little funny inside thing.

So

obviously, when you're putting out information all the time, people in the league like to read your stuff and they check it out.

I can't tell you how many head coaches and general managers will text me, hey, saw your article.

And I'll write, oh, thanks, or whatever, or usually, actually, it's more, I don't like what you said about this.

And they'll send me like a clip of something.

And I'm like, that's not like from the website.

What is that?

They won't subscribe because they don't want to spend the money.

They can't charge it to the team?

Like, you're millionaires.

I don't know.

It's the most common thing.

Even players.

Like, I'll send a player if I do like a good feature on them.

Like, hey, check it.

I'm like, oh, they'll be like, sorry, I'm not a subscriber.

I don't like to like add up to, I don't like to have so many subscriptions in my account.

Like,

the hell, this is why they're so rich.

All right.

Thank you.

Good to see you.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Appreciate you.

All right.

Thanks to Diana Rossini.

Thanks to Gahau and Eduardo as well.

I am not sure when the next episode of this podcast is going to be.

Could be any.

I'll keep you on your toes.

We'll see.

We'll see if

actual sports stuff happens over the next few days.

But odds are you will see me in a week on Sunday, barring something super fun.

Don't forget, Rewatchables Monday Night, RoboCop, and I will see you down the road.

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