The Big Suey: The League of Leagues (feat. Dave Dameshek)

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Welcome to the Big Sue,

presented by DraftKings.

Why are you listening to this show?

It's a podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Lebatard podcast.

I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that.

In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging.

I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's prize that if they're just there.

That hasn't happened to you guys.

I've done it.

And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar.

Today's episode is presented by DraftKings.

DraftKings, the crown is yours.

We got football last night.

We had a couple preseason games.

We got a bunch of football tomorrow.

Dolphins, home preseason game.

First and only home preseason game.

Oh my God, you're out there.

When you were playing Hawk, when you were playing the preseason,

did you ever look up in the stands like, man, these suckers, they love football so much?

Not a single time.

Why are you here?

It's the fourth, it's the third preseason.

Not one iota of a second did I ever look up and be like, man, these are real love, real life ball lovers up there.

No, never.

I was told,

you know, I was too focused on trying not to to be sent home to live with my mom.

Preseason was always,

I never had like the preseasons where like, oh, this doesn't matter.

It was the extra.

Like you were in sweats and like a shirt.

Do you never had those preseas?

Nah, man.

I always like, even the moments where it was like, y'all, you're a veteran.

I had to act like I didn't care, like I didn't know the lane for me to get cut and be sent home.

So it was always a very important game.

It was always 18 game seasons for your boy.

It was every one of them.

So Dolphins tomorrow.

Dolphins are hosting the Jaguars, but we got a lot of games, all right?

And this season, new MetalArc Media, Football America.

And, of course, our pal is Dave Damaszek.

You got a new episode of Football America today.

And then, once season starts, we're doing Mondays and we're doing Fridays.

We're recapping the week of games.

We're setting you up for the week of games.

Dave, how are you doing?

Good to see you.

I'm doing well.

I got a belly full of Thai food and I'm ready to talk football.

Let's jump into it, shall we?

I heard you guys guys talking about Jameis Winston.

Fun anecdote.

A few years back at NFL Honors on the Red Carpet, I used to give inconvenient gifts to guys as they would walk into honors to have to carry around a, you know, a 36-pack of double roll toilet paper and giant balloons and a cello and a chandelier and everything else.

I once gave Jameis

a goldfish in a bowl.

And he loved it and he took it home.

I'd love to get an update on how that goldfish is doing.

Just taking care of the goldfish in the bowl for the rest of the night.

I can almost guarantee he didn't, that goldfish didn't make it out that weekend.

You know, I've had a beta fish for like a year and a half.

Really?

Beta fishes don't normally last that long.

Me and my wife, like, we're expecting it to go anytime now.

Yeah.

Yeah, but we're still doing it.

Look at us.

Good first fish for a little kid.

Yeah, yeah.

That's a good job out of you there.

Dave, can you remember a scenario like this with Jameis Winson, number one overall pick?

I mean, by all accounts, he was a bust, and yet is still so popular everywhere he goes.

I was trying to think if there's any comparison to it, and I really can't come up with one.

I mean, here's a bad answer for you, but Todd Blackledge is now decades and decades later still broadcasting big-time football games, and he was a gigantic bust for the Chiefs in the draft that, of course, included Dan Marino, among others.

How are you feeling about your Steelers?

Last night, obviously, they beat the Panthers.

Who cares?

And we haven't seen Aaron Rodgers yet.

How you feeling?

Listen, you know, we've been over it.

Preseason football is the OGAI.

I mean, it's just all fake nonsense.

None of it matters once the real thing gets going here.

I think the defense is going to dominate.

I really do think that they're built to do that.

I think it all comes down to the offensive line.

Aaron Rodgers is a first ballot Hall of Famer, obviously, but he's 41 also.

And so he is not.

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and Drew Brees have set a weird level of expectation for guys that depend upon athleticism.

And Aaron Rodgers is one of those guys.

And his ability to move the way he did in his prime no longer exists.

So if you're anticipating Aaron Rodgers to be the positive difference maker that gets the Steelers over the hump, I think you're being overly optimistic.

Has anything, yes, it's preseason football, of course, but has anything stood out to you as a bit of a surprise these first few weeks?

I really do try to turn away because it is a month-long lie for your eyes, what you see.

What I do anticipate, though, is that the Bears are going to be, I, you know, spoiler alert, like you mentioned, we have Jeff Schwartz on Football America today.

We're going to seed both conferences one through seven.

And I did not have the Bears.

That's the one thing I'll say.

I don't have the Bears in the mix, and I'm already sort of devil's damage

that decision.

I don't know if maybe I should have put Caleb in there.

I am, I really do love the robbing Peter to pay Paul effect of taking Ben Johnson away from the Lions and putting him on a division foe.

I do think that that could actually tilt that whole division.

Huck, did you care for Caleb Williams' performance in his debut last week?

I think he's going to be really good.

I think he looked good, man.

I think the way he was making decisions, he seemed decisive.

You can tell he was going through a process.

Like when I judge a coach, I look at the players and I say, okay, can I find the thing that they're harping on?

And when you watch that offense in those first couple of drives, like he's making big throws down the middle, but watch the O-line.

Watch how they like, after the play is thrown, they're chasing the ball, going, it gets set.

There's a tempo to him.

The receivers, the quarterback seems like he's in control.

He doesn't seem like he's guessing.

He's saying, okay, I'm making this decision.

I'm making this play on to the next.

That comes from coaching.

So, yeah, I absolutely loved what I saw.

He still had a couple of moments.

I remember, I think, on the

like, you know, off script through to a running back where he almost got him murdered on the field.

But if he can continue to eliminate those, I saw a track where there was progress from what we saw a year ago, which means to me, the Lions are going to have trouble without Ben Johnson early on and how they kind of respond to that will determine what their ceiling looks like.

I mean, and practically too, by the way, fellas, you know, 40% of their offensive line is gone.

That's bad for a team that is predicated on beating the crap out of teams.

I mean, that's not a small matter to lose both coordinators.

Really,

the analog to me is to use a fancy word is the Philadelphia Eagles, who everybody is trying to mimic.

If you don't have the superhero quarterback, you try and offset that

by physical ball and all that.

And that's what the Lions have done and that's what the Eagles have done in two Super Bowls out of the last three.

The Lions are a year or two behind where the Eagles are.

Remember what happened to them in between those two Super Bowl runs, which was they lost both of their coordinators.

And it wasn't like in week one, they immediately fell off a cliff.

It was a gentle slide over the course of four months.

I think that's what's going to happen to the Lions.

Dave, what do you make of Indianapolis right now?

Anthony Richardson, I mean, he's got to be done in Indianapolis, right?

I guess he's done, but you know,

you're talking about all these busts who then re-emerge as halfway decent.

And I guess that list starts with Jim Plunkett, and you have Alex Smith this millennium.

And so I don't think necessarily, what is Anthony Richardson at this point?

I'm going to guess 23 years old.

I don't think you need to throw dirt on him just yet.

I like the Colts, though.

I know that that's crazy, but I think Lou Anarumo didn't get enough buzz in Cincy because it's not like it was a dominant defense on the other side for Joe Burrow and company to lean on, but it was good and it was relevant enough that they went to that one Super Bowl and just about got to a second one, both going through Arrowhead.

Now he goes over to Indy and I just invoked the Eagles.

Vic Fangio's effect on the Eagles' defense a year ago.

I wouldn't be stunned if the Colts are sort of a poor man's version of that with Anarumo now taking over the defense.

Plus, Jonathan Taylor, they can beat you up a little bit running the ball in a relatively soft AFC South.

I like the Colts.

Okay,

I'm going to take a local spin here.

All right.

I'm going to be very,

I'm going to selfishly ask you about the Dolphins, Dave.

The Dolphins, to me, I don't think there's a middle ground.

I could see, you know what?

Maybe there could be like an 11-win team.

Things go right.

Offense gets back on track.

Big-time pass rush or

big-time cannon for hot mess team, like four wins.

Yes.

I don't think there's a middle ground there.

What do you make of that?

I think that there are teams every year that sort of fit that description.

And yes, where it seems where McDaniel is in this experience, that the spiral effect could take over there.

I completely agree.

We talked about it, Zaz, previously.

You know, the idea that the Dolphins have no shot this year requires that you have amnesia from what happened two years ago.

Last year, kind of with the whole, you know, Tua and the fencing all again and tyree kill and jalen watt all the injuries on the defense once again i think you just skip past what happened last year and instead focus on two years ago the critical game in the mcdaniel era i i don't want to get hyperbolic but the critical game was that monday night game against the tennessee titans if they would have just held on in that game they win the east that year then they don't have to go to arrowhead where it was minus 200 degrees that night and so they had no shot when they took took the field.

For that one, things feel very different.

If they beat the Steelers, they probably host Pittsburgh in the wild card round with a division crown.

They probably beat Pittsburgh in that one.

And then we regard Mike McDaniel and Tu and all the rest of it very differently than we do right now.

Of course, the reality is the reality.

Hey, is Chris in there?

I wanted to give him a shout out.

I'm here.

Great idea.

Don't do that.

Or was it Billy?

I forget who it was, was talking about making trades in fantasy.

Oh, Billy.

I think here, I was in a league a couple of years ago.

I thought it was me.

It was, it was the league of leagues and you could, it was a fantasy league.

It was NFL, it was major league baseball, and it was NBA.

I'm going to throw it out here right now.

Let's do a whole network, one of these, and you can trade.

And in fact, to inspire it, you guys in Miami,

I'm a Pittsburgh fan.

I'm in LA.

But what if you had a general manager, not just for your one team in the city, but for all the teams in the city, so that we could really open things up?

Wouldn't it be nice if I could float the idea of maybe Paul Skeens to you guys?

What's the city of Miami willing to give back to the city of Pittsburgh in exchange for the greatest asset in Major League Baseball?

Okay, hold on a second.

All right, because there was a lot that you just threw out there.

Hold on a second.

Let's go back to the beginning there.

You were in a league where it's multiple leagues that are in the league.

multiple sports, multiple sports that are in the league,

yes, league of leagues.

And

yeah,

it was dynamite stuff.

And the best part was the draft because you're kind of like, do I go Kevin Durant here?

Or do I go, you know,

Shoey Atani?

And those sorts of debates.

Or Jamar Chase.

Yeah, that kind of stuff is

trading.

I started with this idea.

Like a year ago, I had this idea of like trading teams and cities and trading players like all right kansas city we'll send you sandy alcantara and whatever other players we have for the for the baseball team but you send us back patrick mahomes who's a gm inner city trades is what i call who's the gm the south florida would be bill zito for all we're not letting riley ruin this one this this one

it's got to be bill zito not chris greer

no

Well, I'm taking, I assume Hawk gets all of the state of Ohio.

Is that right?

I'm sorry, Hawk.

I'm going to claim Western Pennsylvania.

I know you would like to have it.

Yeah, you can have it.

It's okay.

Even though I am also from Western Pennsylvania.

I know.

I know.

But you wore that nice Alouette uniform, but more importantly, you wore both orange hats.

You're right.

As long as we establish that I'm also from Western Pennsylvania, along with you, went to the same high school as Jack Ham, who I know you know who Jack Ham is.

I don't know if anyone here knows who Jack Ham is.

Is that John's brother?

Yeah.

Yeah.

People don't know who 59 is, the hammer.

They don't know who's great.

They don't know, Dave.

One of the great OLBs

in football history.

You know what?

They're not real ball knowers like you, Dave.

And speaking of John Hamm, weren't you in the John Hamm Fantasy League when you guys kicked the guy out on draft?

I still am, and the draft is upcoming.

That's my favorite story.

Everybody's on pins and needles, right?

My favorite draft rule that I've ever heard is that when you guys tell that story, like no one knows who's going to get kicked out the day of the draft.

You guys know this?

We did it a couple of weeks ago with Dave.

Sorry about that.

I don't know.

It's always so much fun when your head's on.

hawk.

It's my head's on the chopping block, and I can assure you that it is not fun.

It's not fun.

I hope you sound scared.

In that seat, I once saw Jack Ham, my sister Amy, and I saw Jack Ham at a Penguins game, and we said, ooh, we got to go get his autograph.

We were little kids, and we went over to him and said, hey, big fan, Mr.

Ham, can we get your autograph?

And he said, sure thing.

And they went like, went like.

And he went like,

sorry, your pen doesn't work.

And that was my Jack Ham experience.

That was my Jack Ham experience.

Did he like try to shake the pen a little bit?

He's like, that's not working.

You got to put the tip on your tongue.

Maybe you try and get the ink going like that, right?

An old move.

I should have done that.

Hey,

there he is.

Level 59 for the viewer.

Hey, nice eyes.

Folks, listen up.

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Hey, it's Mike Ryan.

Those sprinklers are starting to slowly come up on the football field.

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I'm sure you're already doing that thing where you're going through your photo album, flipping through the photos that you've taken this summer, already reminiscing about the good times that you have.

I know I did.

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Don Lebatard.

Where the motherfucker Roiz at?

Bring his ass on here.

Where's the motherfucker?

Roiz is a great question.

Stugats.

Running, huh?

He's running today, huh?

I'm ready.

This is the Don Lebatar show with the Stugats.

Hawk, I start with you.

This is a question that

we're going to dip into a little bit.

And in fact, I heard you guys on the show the other day talking about this.

The idea of America's team.

Now, of course, from a marketing perspective, the Dallas Cowboys pounced on that decades ago after the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dan Rooney, said, Do you want to be America's team?

I think it was an NFL Films concoction.

And they said to the Rooney, do you want this?

And he said, no, no, we're not America's team.

We're Pittsburgh's team.

That's right.

That's what he said.

Black and gold over red, white, and blue.

All right.

But okay, the Cowboys had no dignity and they embraced it.

And so now they still claim it.

But if we can have a new American Idol every year, I think we can have a new

America's team every year.

And I think we should vote on it every year.

Hawk, I mean, are the Browns in the running for that?

Would you float them as an option?

I would float the Browns as an option.

Now, look,

I don't know how you would determine America's team on a year-to-year basis outside of the Super Bowl, right?

That feels like the easiest way to determine it.

But if it's going to be a delineation between that and how we're determining who America's team is, I would say the Browns are in that running.

Here would be my argument, Dave.

Because

what team gets talked about more consistently on a year-to-year basis with less on-field success.

Like most teams

in that size market with that lack of success never get talked about.

But routinely, the Browns are a topic year in, year out, damn near week in and week out.

This is more of the guys they bring in, though.

Like they brought in Johnny Menzel.

They bring in Shadir Sanders.

Oh, this is, I'm telling you, they're about Deshaun Watson.

Yeah, and Sean Watson.

Of course, but still, it's still crazy.

Even when they were losing like one in 15, 0 and 16.

I think you're right.

It was continual, like, it's continual coverage.

I think Haslam.

Haslam likes the guy.

He likes the, you know, let's take a chance on this guy.

And then

it's even before Haslam.

I'm 10.

Well, I think it's also, I would suggest talk.

Why is that?

Is because they are, they are.

generally pretty dreadful sincerely.

They're usually so bad that they draft high, so they're relevant because you talk about them all spring.

Who are the Browns going to take first overall?

They have the third overall pick.

They're always in the mix, so you're always buzzing.

And then you have the lag of four months after they're drafted.

How's this guy going to do?

Is he going to erase the curse?

Spoiler alert, he's not going to erase the curse.

He did whoever he did.

Whoever you're talking about didn't do it.

But my point, Dave, is there's other dreadful organizations and teams with the same level, if not like more lack of success than the Browns over the last 20 years.

But the story, the lore of like Cleveland being one of those like football towns paul brown comes from there he gets sent over to cincinnati starts a new franchise they take their team and go to baltimore it's like people empathize with cleveland so much that if they ever did become like perennially successful everyone would be on that train

we have a breaking news here mike What do we got?

We have a formal trade proposal from South Florida to Los Angeles to bring back LeBron LeBron James.

Whoa.

Whoa.

So not news at all.

I'm in LA, but I am not the ambassador.

I am not the general manager for LA.

I know it's confusing.

I am the general manager of the banks of the three.

Not right now.

Right now, you're running LA.

Okay.

Wait, what do we have to get to get?

Wait, if this is all about like your area and you're in LA, why would you be the Pittsburgh GM?

You're literally as far away from Pittsburgh.

It sounds like Hawk wants Pittsburgh.

Yeah, you want Pittsburgh.

You gave me Ohio without any.

And Hawk tried to talk about how he's Mr.

Cleveland and Mr.

Pittsburgh while he sits in South Beach.

I mean, what are we talking about, friend?

You should flip a coin or something.

Don't get me angry.

He's trying to see.

This is trying to see.

A really good franchise.

All right.

LeBron James.

Okay.

Let's throw in Austin Reeves, too.

Okay.

I like that.

And Ricky Pooge from the LA Galaxy.

I don't know that fool.

Oh, he's really good.

I think I've got the perfect answer for you.

I think it's easy peasy.

Four, Tyreek Hill.

Sandy Alcantar.

Wow.

Andrew Wiggins.

That's a haul.

Evan Rodriguez.

We're giving up too much.

And Manu.

Oh, wow.

Cesta Cyclone.

You guys don't know how good Ricky Pooch is.

Best backquarter in the league, Manu.

This is very interesting because also the Evan Rodriguez departure clears up money for the Panthers, which is going to be needed when Matthew Kachuk comes off long-term IR.

Dave, your thoughts?

Evan Rodriguez, middle sixer.

We can survive without him here on the Kings.

We do not claim the Ducks here.

No one pays attention to the Ducks in Southern California.

So I'm going to make LA's hockey team.

I don't want to play fast and loose with this very important game we're playing here.

And I am not going to claim Orange County teams here.

I like it.

You could go.

I love the deal.

It's a haul.

I think you're trying to overwhelm me with a bunch of names.

Easy peasy, Tua to the Rams is the answer because we don't know what's going to be with Stafford.

You get the...

You got to throw someone else in.

If you're throwing Tua in, you got to throw someone else in.

Do you understand how the refrigerating works?

Do you want to replace Tyree?

He wants Tua?

Yeah, he wants to say LeBron for Tua straight up.

Tua.

And Tyreek.

Tua and Tyreek.

Oh, that's too much.

That's too much.

Wow,

that's too much for LeBron and Austin Reed.

LeBron's 41.

Wait, Miami does this, I think, to bring LeBron back.

Of course they would.

You wouldn't purge the Tua contract?

Obviously, you you would.

I can't believe I'm already getting this angry about this.

Wow.

Tua for LeBron.

Throw in Stafford.

Throw in Safford.

Okay.

Okay.

All right, we're good.

Okay.

Okay.

You get to the over-the-hill game.

I don't think Rams fans are going to be happy with me negotiating on their behalf.

But yes, it does make sense to me.

We'll give you a rosy.

This is Stafford have one more year.

Stafford's got one more year.

This is a good deal also.

Sandy's going to be like the number four on the Dodgers.

You get Rosier to make the the cap work.

Yeah, yeah, you gotta take him.

Do what you want with him, but you gotta take Rosier.

All right.

It sounds like we got something cooking there, Dave.

Dave, I want to play something for you here.

So, I'm not sure if you're aware, but in Dallas, there is a contract situation going on right now.

I heard about this.

Yeah.

Maca with Micah Parsons.

And so, Jerry Jones yesterday, Hawk, I don't know if you heard this yet.

So, Jerry Jones appeared yesterday on Michael Irvin's.

I think it's a YouTube channel, YouTube show.

And Jerry Jones appeared on the show with Michael Irvin.

And give this a listen here.

This is Jerry explaining the details of what's going on with Michael Parsons.

When we wanted to send the details to the agent, the agents told us to stick it up in our ass.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Wait, now see, I was saying, you're clear.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, what do you mean?

So, so wait, well, what do you mean?

Because people and I

talked.

Mike and I talked.

Yeah, Mike and I talked, and then we were going to send it over to the agent.

And we had our agreements on term, amount, guarantees, everything.

We were going to send it over to the agent, and the agent said,

don't bother because we've got all that to negotiate.

Well, I'd already negotiated.

I'd already moved off my mark over several areas.

And so the issue, very frankly, is

we've had the negotiation in my mind.

Hawk, you want to go first as a former player.

Yeah.

Jerry is saying that not just that like he threw a number at Micah.

He's saying they negotiated him and the player, which is weird because the player has representation for a reason.

But they negotiated and then they sent over the terms to the agent, who is David Mulligetta.

And Jerry claims that Mullageta told him to stick it up his ass.

Yeah, that's what the agent should have told him because that's, I mean, just being honest for a second, that's such bullshit.

Like, that is not how business works, and that is not why Micah is paying his agent in the first place, right?

Because now if you're going to negotiate the contract directly with him without telling his agent, you should also pay back the 3% that he's given to his agent on top of whatever it is.

Add that 3% into the contract on a guaranteed basis in year one or whatever the hell it is.

It's just a, it's a very old school and archaic way of doing business.

And it's not good business, it's bad business.

And I think that's Jerry's problem is that he's stuck in this era where it's almost a zero sum game.

Either I win or you win or me showing my dominance in a deal is what makes me a good business person as opposed to it being a deal that we both feel good about so much so at the end of three years we want to go back into business together and he alienates these star players and he drags it out because he feels like he has to be the dominant one in the deal and the reality is he loses every damn deal he does because he waits to the last second in this hope of like well maybe they're going to approach this like it's still 1972 and david mullagetta who i have no connection to don't know him personally, except for he represents some of the biggest names in all of professional football.

Obviously, that's not going to fly with him because he's seasoned in this area.

So that's Jerry's problem, and that's why it is an issue.

And I hope they stick to their guns on it because most times when players do, Jerry loses the deal.

And then not only does he lose the deal from a terms perspective, he also has a disgruntled player.

who then approaches the organization a lot differently because they don't want to reward them them for what they've put in the first three or four years of that contract.

Yeah, it feels like the Cowboys, because of Jair and company, now have a certain stink on them.

And it then is bad for the organization going forward because,

you know, this sort of modeling with a guy who is a franchise player who should be there locked up for the next decade or more.

Now that bad experience, now other free agents, I assume, does that.

I have a question about all that to get to the end of the story here, Hawk.

Very quickly, though, back to the GM hat.

Paul Skeens for Micah Parsons, Jason Robertson, CeeDee Lamb, and Dak Prescott.

What a haul, right?

Yeah, that's not bad.

You got to make that deal, though.

You still got to make that deal if you're Dallas, right?

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Don Lebatard.

World RAR 3.

Stugats.

We're going to get that off the air.

World RAR 3, colon.

Our group chat has a pretty good feeling about this one.

This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

Pittsburgh contingent should pump the brakes on making any deal until they hear the formal offer

from Team Miami.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Well, I mean, we're out there now.

Listen, there's no, because we're in a negotiation doesn't mean who's the jammer, though.

Is it Hawker?

Well, you can both weigh in on this.

Pittsburgh, here's what we want.

We want Sidney Crosby and we want Mike Tomlin.

I mean,

we.

Here's the offer.

You're going to want to hear this offer.

We.

For Messi.

We have no interest.

What do you mean?

River Hills.

The River Hounds.

Become a River Agent League right away.

Well, listen,

I know that there would be no way that

the plan would be allowed to land

down near Miami with Roy there standing in the way.

He would get out on the runway and not allow 87's plan to hit soil there in the in the sunshine state so it's a non-starter i like i like messi and what he does to the economy in western pennsylvania send messi to isn't he 42 i mean what does it matter he's 39 it's the same deal that miami signed with him like hey we just need you as a mascot crosby's old it's not like we give you billions you got it's not like these are young bucks mike tomlin and sydney crosby they're at the end of their run over in pittsburgh you get messy and you become a major league soccer town for you know a couple of years This is huge for the River.

We'll throw in Otto Lopez.

Somebody turn off Mike's mic.

Because, I mean, I'm not going to indulge this talk about dealing away 87, not in the twilight of his

singular career.

All right, you can keep it in HM.

All right, we'll throw Spo in, but he can do any sport you want because you guys don't have basketball.

Hey, Pitt Panthers, you're getting an upgrade.

Hey, but Hawk, Jump to the end for the fans because I think this is the funny thing.

There's always, I think as human beings, we understand.

I think most of us will side with the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, even if it is multimillionaires in the proletariat that we're talking about here.

But as the football season is nigh, and now that we can see it out on the near horizon.

fans start to turn and they worry about what their team is going to do once the thing kicks off here.

Is Micah Parsons really going to skip games?

Do you think it's conceivable that he doesn't, he's not in uniform in week one?

Because, you know, I think that it looks to me like he's not going to be in uniform.

Yeah, I don't think he will.

And I don't think he should be.

There's nothing to prove for Micah Parsons.

Micah Parsons can sit out the entire season and somebody will pay him because we know exactly what he is as a player.

And we know he's not even close to reaching his full potential.

And that's the scary part about Micah Parsons because he's so talented and he is still ascending as a player.

There's no value to him suiting up in week one and risking getting hurt again, especially for a team whose success so hinges upon him being who he is, right?

That's where the leverage point of Jerry Jones is like, you have none because there are players that are worse than Micah

that have signed the highest paid player in the NFL absent of being a quarterback.

And we know that's where Micah's trajectory is.

We know that is the contract he is going to sign what he deserves.

And you should go out of your way to try to work this out and not try to get a discount on that because the precedent has been set.

But the leverage is, you say Jerry doesn't have any leverage.

Micah is young, but look at a recent holdout, hold in with Cam Hayward, and now he's shown up at Steelers camp, and it seems like they're going to move forward there.

The leverage is your career is very limited, how many years you're getting to be out there.

Cam Hayward has maybe one or two years left.

Micah Parsons has a decade probably, but still,

that is the inherent leverage you would think is like, you really going to waste a season of your career, man.

You're really going to sit out a prime year of your deal.

And I think it's a little bit different.

You talk about 1972.

The rhetoric was always hawk.

When you were playing, it was like, oh, a player misses a season.

He'll never be the same.

again.

If you sat out a season, you just, you got to be in football all the time or else you just lose something from it i don't think that's true anymore i think there are a number of examples of a guy sitting out years and coming back and being fine and maybe even refreshed so i think micah parsons could sit out the season the leverage is for what it matters is that the america's alleged teams sizable fan base really villainizing demonizing micah parsons for not showing up that's what i'm getting at like this most of the season people like micah you're ruining it this offense is the greatest and we need you out there and we could maybe make some hay in the NFC East, but you're not there and you're being selfish.

And I think where it helps, Micah, is that selfish is the norm in Dallas.

Like

to go on a podcast and say crazy stuff is what you're used to with the Dallas Cowboys.

It's different with L'Aveon Bell.

Pittsburgh isn't used to having bad headlines with their organization or people being disgruntled with the Rooney or anybody there.

So it was like he turned his whole fan base who loved him because he was a part of their organization against him because it was so against what they're used to.

Dallas is different.

Like, no one is going to cry for Jerry Jones because Micah Parsons takes him takes the players, right?

That's even the same.

The thing that undid Levy and Bell, the thing that ruined the situation, Levian Bell had every intention of coming back to the team in week three or at latest week eight or nine.

And I know a lot of the stuff that was going on week to week in that situation.

And he was what really made him raw was the team saying stuff, guys in the locker room, like, well, Levian should be here and all of that.

And that's what hurt his feelings.

I don't know if the Cowboys players are saying that.

No, absolutely not.

They're going to be like, man, I'm glad somebody did it.

Yeah, I went through the same thing.

I know exactly because CD understands.

Zach Martin understands.

Dak Prescott understands because he does this every year.

And it's like, well, Micah has the most leverage out of all of them, in my opinion, right?

So, yeah, I don't think he'll lose anything by losing games, like as far as public perception or in the locker room.

Let me play the other side for a moment here.

Jerry should not be negotiating with players without their representation.

Obviously, like it's a dirty move.

He's trying to trick Micah Parsons if you're doing that.

Like, I remember Bill Parcells pulled that one time.

Was it with Ricky Williams, maybe here in Miami?

Parcells slid the napkin with an offer to Ricky.

He's like, What are you doing?

You got to talk to his agents, you know?

So it's a dirty move, and Jerry knows that.

But Jerry's making it sound like he and Micah negotiated, that they talked about a bunch of different things.

And that part to me is weird.

Like I can understand Jerry trying to make an offer and Micah's like, yeah, that sounds good.

Talk to my agent.

But Jerry is making it sound like they sat down and negotiated things.

And then he sent the paperwork to the agent who told him to stick it up his ass.

And now Jerry refuses to talk to the agent because it's like he's essentially trying to sun him where it's like, no, this is already done.

Because there was a comment on the screen up here.

It's right there.

Look, there's only three entities involved in the Micah Parsons deal that really count.

This is from jerry jones micah me and sitting out there about a mile back is that agent so he's clearly he clearly does not want to have any kind of business dealings with this agent what do you do now yeah well and then you're gonna miss games and it's screw jerry jones if i'm the agent if i'm micah like that is not how business is done it is predatory and everybody understands it's predatory and again it's this is not 1970 where you can get that kind of dumb shit off like you purposely are are going into it that way.

Micah Parsons is not an agent.

He has not had enough life experience to negotiate the best deal he possibly can, even if you thought it was a negotiation, because the reason why I have an agent, the reason why I have a financial advisor, the reason why I have a realtor, and so I can just be like, yeah, that sounds good.

Talk to them, right?

Like I'm getting rid of it.

Otherwise.

I wouldn't be paying them to do that service in the first place.

I'm off putting, I'm offloading it to a person who is an expert and I'm willing to pay what comes with that because I want to just focus on getting sex.

Well, you know, Dan talked about this earlier in the week and I kind of sort of agree with him or at least float the question, is Jerry Jones the face of the NFL?

And, you know, you talk about leverage and is it more important for Jerry to maintain his spot, his perch, or is it the reverse of what I mentioned a second ago about Cam Hayward at the tail end of his career?

Jerry Jones is at the tail end of his career, at least.

I mean, how desperate is he to make this work?

Because if Micah Parsons is not playing for the Cowboys this year, they have no chance.

I mean, I don't actually think they have much of a chance anyway.

But I mean, if you buy the idea that this team can do something, that ends with Micah Parsons sitting the season out.

Dave, if we can move it along here, Travis Hunter, what do we make of him trying to play both sides of the football?

I have a very hard time believing that he's going to be able to do that at the NFL level.

I mean, listen, you and me,

I'm not sure.

I mean, I only spent eight years in the NFL and, you know, was fairly limited at that.

Zaz, I can't remember

your time spent in pro football.

But either way, we always, what gets in the way is people who throw up roadblocks.

The cynics, the vapid cynics ruin a lot of stuff in society and specifically with pro football.

All we heard about for decades was like well you could never run the option in the nfl i mean you could never have a running quarterback and succeed in the nfl the guys are too fast at that level and then michael vick made the scene and any number of other guys made the scene and then oh voila yeah that's the way you you should be um

you should be trying to uh to do things and the thing that gets in the way now is like well you can't yeah how can you play both sides of the ball it's just not it's not plausible to do that and there is an example in roy Green back, I don't know, talk to get deep dive, uh, Hawk.

Roy Green back in the 80s started out as a DB and he, and he was a good kick returner, punt returner, and then started catching passes wearing the number 25 in a time when you didn't

have 25 catch them.

That's right.

Yeah, that's another great example of that.

There are guys that, right, that's a more recent example that people can relate to, right?

And Deion Sanders and Rod, you know, a lot of guys have done it.

So I don't think it's as big an issue.

And by the way, it's one thing if it's the Eagles or the Chiefs and it's like, this is all about getting to January in the best spot.

If you're the Jacksonville Jaguars, you know, Travis Hunter,

you want the sideshow of Travis Hunter.

You're in SEC country.

It means less pro football down there.

It just means less in SEC country.

Play Travis Hunter.

Get some attention, right?

That's got to have great value in Duval County, which isn't exactly a pro football hotbed.

Hawk, my son walked into the kitchen the other day, my younger one, my 13-year-old, and he doesn't know much about Travis Hunter.

He doesn't follow college football.

And he's like, why is he so good?

You know, I said, well, he's trying to play both sides of the ball.

He's going to play offense and defense.

And my son literally goes, what?

When's he going to rest?

Yeah, that's a great, great question.

He should be the head coach of the Jaguars.

Here's how I view Travis Hunter's situation.

And I'm down here in South Florida for the listeners.

I'm new to this place.

I'm an in-plane.

I came here about three years ago.

And I am now entrenched in youth football here.

12, 11, 13-year-olds.

So few percentage of them play both ways, which is different than how I grew up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

If you're good, you stay on the field.

Kickoff, kick, return,

offense, defense, you grab the waters, whatever is necessary.

So it is very unique at the pro level where it's never been a both sides of the ball thing in the day and age of football where everybody is kind of specialized.

For Travis Hunter, do I think he has the ability to play both sides of the ball?

Absolutely.

That's not the question.

The question becomes,

is he going to be the best receiver he possibly can be if he's playing corner?

Is he going to be the best cornerback he possibly can be if he's playing wide receiver?

And I don't think that's humanly possible.

Not because he doesn't have ability.

It's just because if you are splitting those times and because you're putting more reps out there, you're putting more wear and tear in your body, you're doubling your percentages of possibly getting hurt, and your stamina and win, no matter how great a shape you are is diminishing because you're putting more out than what has ever been typical in the nfl that means you're not going to have that same energy to devote to one thing and for the jaguars the question becomes okay is 75 of travis hunter at receiver and 70 of him at cornerback better than 100 of the options that we have at both and if that's the case you plan both ways but he will lose in himself not lose because if that's what he's okay with he's okay with he won't be the best version of either one of those things by doing both.

Not a bad thing, not a good thing.

It's just a reality.

Do you mean intellectually?

I'm sorry, Zaz.

Like, is it like, do you mean he can't?

I'm not intellectually or

attention or whatever.

It's not the physical attrition.

It's both.

It's both.

Because, again, I can't run a gold ball in the fourth quarter as fast as I can run it in the first quarter as a receiver.

Now, if I'm playing cornerback, maybe that time where I get a little slower in the fourth now becomes the third quarter.

And maybe if I'm going against somebody who is a little faster or has more juice or has more stamina at that point, it's a little harder for me to get open.

And eventually it will catch up intellectually as well.

You spend the whole week trying to gather as much information as you can to help yourself play as fast as you can on Sunday.

So how are you splitting your meetings?

Are you the kind of person like Tom Brady that's going to spend 24 hours?

Tom Brady is the best ever, not just because of his physical gifts, because he was willing to to do more than anybody else for the amount of time he had to be the best.

And that's what it's going to take from Travis.

Yeah, but he sucked at receiver to prove your point.

You saw him get that one chance catching a pass in the Super Bowl and

he blew it.

So, yeah, maybe going

both ways isn't the best idea.

Yeah,

it's interesting to consider, too, his style of play and how that would impact things.

He is kind of like Deion, right?

He's a burner.

He's not going to be banging around on either side.

Even if he's a a corner, he's not going to be a physical guy.

He's not Rod Woodson over there, right?

I mean, he's like, you can kind of, what you're talking about is go balls.

Like, you always hear that with Randy Moss.

Like, oh, I had to take plays off.

Every play was me running 50-yard sprints.

And so obviously I was a little gassed at some point during the game, but right?

I mean, but he's not, at least he's not, he's not getting the crap beaten out of him playing on defense and then being asked to go play receiver, right?

Football American.

New episode today.

Dave Damachek, Damachek Monday and Friday every week during football season.

Great job, Dave.

Thanks, man.

Thai food.

Hey, it's Mike Ryan.

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