
Wildcard Weekend Preview, NFL Predictions Revisited & Storytime with Dave Wannstedt
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Did we ever find out with Turtle how he made his money?
It was a tequila, right?
But do we ever really know?
We don't know.
We never knew how much he actually made.
No one knows.
He definitely has more money than Vince.
And I'm convinced right now, if we ever do the reboot, Turtle's broke now. All right, welcome to another episode of throwbacks it's kind of a road game road trip baby it's a road trip for your boys matt i'm not i don't see the same manhattan beach garage set up with the cash app sign where are you well dude we're actually pretty close to each other.
I'm in Miami. I'm in my, I've been in Miami all week for the orange bowl that is going to be played tonight.
Penn state, Notre Dame. So I got inducted into the orange bowl hall of fame, man.
And I, and honestly, I just, I want to shout out, you know, my teammates, but I also want to just shout out the Oklahoma fans, you know, who just absolutely freaking love me online. Shout out to the Sooners, Boomer Sooner.
We whooped that ass about 20 years ago, 5519 right here down the street. But yeah, in Miami this week, a little bit of a vacation, but you're on a family vacation, dude.
Where are you, by the way?
You look like you're in a fucking phone booth, bro.
What are you doing?
One of us is getting inducted into a Hall of Fame,
while the other is putting on a Hall of Fame dad performance
in the Kid Water Park down in Baja Mall in the Bahamas.
Yeah, I'm in my room, so the backdrop,
you don't want to see the other side of this. Well, my room's super dark, but whatever.
Yes, but I am looking out at the ocean. This is the same place where Derek Jeter, I've talked about that golf tournament, where he has that golf tournament.
Let me just say, it's a little different being down here with kids when it's just usually Bree and I walking around, Hank partying with Johnny Damon. And now
I'm in bed by nine o'clock. So, uh, how many times, how many times have you been down the water,
the water slide? It's the best. It's the best.
There's, there's a, there's an adult part that I keep sneaking off to. Like, where did, where did dad go? I keep going on this one slide.
That's adults only. It's time to go get a coffee.
And I come back a half hour later, soaking wet. My boy was in Arizona this week and they had one of the hotels had a big water slide and he got a, he had a sinus infection and he was telling me his wife was all like giving him shit for snoring.
And he's like, he's like the other night. Cause he couldn't breathe.
He's like, well, if you wouldn't have me fucking go down the water slide a thousand times with the girls, I would be all right. I was like, dude, those water slides.
It's like, again, daddy, again, daddy. Oh, man.
One thing before we move on to my three-year-old, you know, Baja Mar is obviously a casino. There's a lot of gambling down here.
My three-year-old last night sprinted through the casino, bumping into people, throwing dice, tried to sit at the blackjack table. Dude, you gave him the bug, bro.
Took his shirt off. He turned into Frank the Tank this weekend.
Well, his dad's a little bit of a degenerate gamble, so his apple doesn't fall that far from the tree, dude. So we have a really good show.
Later coming up, we have, I mean, someone that you've worked with, but someone we all know know maybe one of my favorite coaches to watch coach dave wanstad's gonna be joining us so so coach is the best man like like and also too because where we're at in the nfl season with all these coaching firings hirings the carousel coach has been in that position he covers the bears so i'm excited to kind of hear what he thinks about the bears, but also just the coaching, almost in a way like the epidemic, because we've seen first-year coaches get fired. Like there's no like, hey, two or three years anymore.
So it's such an interesting time. And then just when you look at like Coach, if you look at his resume, you're like, holy shit, like Super Bowls with Dallas, coached at the U with Jimmy Johnson and won, one there, uh, Oklahoma state pit head coach, Miami dolphins, head coach, uh, Chicago bears.
Like, like he's a living legend. He's seen a lot.
Um, I wanted to have him on, man. Cause he's just got the best stories like, and he's a storyteller.
Uh, it's going to be fun to talk to me. He's a great friend of mine and you're going to love him.
He was defensive coordinator, right? On that Miami, like the Catholics versus con game, the documentary about, yeah. With Notre Dame on tonight too.
He was in that. Um, yeah.
I mean, he and Jimmy Johnson are like best friends to, I mean, both of those guys, you get them in the same room. It's like one of those things, like you probably maybe get it at Jeter's event, right? Where you sit at a table and you just hear people talk.
But like, he's one of those people. He's this big, like pit guy, 6'4", commands a room.
The minute he sits at a table, you're like, you're just like, okay, here we go. That's the guy I talk to.
He holds shop. And he, I'll tell you what, man, he's got some stories.
I hope he tells some of them because he's he's a legend but yeah dave's coming on well coach will be on there's a lot of coaching vacancies too which we're going to talk about with him probably and we'll chat about in a second we have a good throwback three being that the nfl playoffs are among us this weekend we're going to talk nfl playoff runs not just upsets but who went on a run some that you might even least likely expect. But also, before we really dig in, you know, we're both, you're outside of L.A.
right now. I'm away from home, lived in L.A.
for a very long time, too. We have to take a second and just wish everybody well out there with the fires going on because it looks, you know, watching along, it looks, it looks pretty crazy.
So we're really
hoping and praying everybody's okay. Yeah.
Just obviously the, you know, the first responders,
the firefighters, everybody that's helping. Um, and then as you know, like we've talked kind of
this week, just like, uh, I'm not there, but like, you know, power went out by our house. We're okay.
Our area is okay. But we know a lot of people up in the Palisades area and just in that valley
where you you're familiar with, obviously in all of the mountains. And it's just a very dangerous man when fires get going there and heartbreaking, devastating.
We're thinking about everybody and hope everybody stays safe, man. So hopefully they can get this thing under control.
I wanted to ask you, do you, for the Orange Bowl Hall of Fame, you get a jacket? Like, what do you get to get like a plaque, a jacket or something I could borrow from you put in my office? What do you, what do you get? Anything? You don't even know. I don't have no idea.
I thought we got a jacket, but I tell you what, you know, when the orange ball committee is somewhere because they had their bright ass orange jackets. I do want to say this.
I do want to shout out the hospitality this week has been A-plus, first class, the events, the people. They put on just a great week for us.
It's me, Vince Woolfolk is in, and Coach Meyer, who obviously is pretty fun. So, you know, he's obviously one of my close buddies.
So the three of us are getting it. I think we get a big plaque because I looked at a couple of pictures from last year.
So I think it's a pretty big plaque with a, like, it's pretty cool looking. So if you want it, dude, I mean, I'll ship it to you.
If you want to put it in the game room, it might go up in my setup at the house, in the garage. We'll see.
I was kind of hoping for the jacket, but let you know something else that was cool too we had my nephew on last week and he's texting me too he just happened to unlock you in madden ultimate team 85 in the picture they use of you you're you're running quarterback in that picture you're clear clearly they have me they have me mistaken for somebody else they i was an 85 overall it whatever, Matt, you got the liner card on Mutt, and it's your 85. By the way, you're winning a Super Bowl with me at 85.
Easily. Definitely me, too, the way I run an offense.
But you sent me that picture, dude, of me. It was me running.
I'm like, what the fuck? What is wrong with these people? It says field general. That's how they categorize you.
But you're sprinting like you're Michael Vick.
Listen, listen.
I will say this.
My Madden rating should be like a 50-something. My CFB rating probably going to be like maybe a 99, though, I think.
Oh, it's flawless. Flawless.
All right. So it's a big – the weekend's here.
I'm still getting used to the fact that we'd have a Monday playoff game, but that's a story for another day. We've all looked at the slate a pretty long time.
We're not here to give the full, like, here's our picks because everyone's going to be doing that. I'm looking at these games and I'm trying to figure out, okay, number one, what game am I just most excited to watch as a fan? Obviously, my Giants are not in any of this.
And for me, I'm curious to hear your... I'm really, really excited about that Steelers-Ravens game.
I don't think... Well, I don't think the Steelers are going to win.
I just think that... The Steelers are so boring, man.
But for me, I think... I guess third time.
Third time. And I think Lamar, I think, because, you know, we're not really, we're not getting Mahomes.
You know, he's on a bye. Josh Allen we're going to get, but I don't think he's going to have too much problem with the Broncos.
Dude, the Broncos are pretty good, dude. The Broncos are pretty tough, that defense.
So what game are you most excited for then, to watch? To watch as a fan, Commanders Bucks. Interesting.
Honestly, because one, I love Baker.
And two, to me, those are just two very exciting offenses. Obviously, the Bucks can soar with the way they've been playing,
but the Commanders with Jaden Daniels.
I think they squared off week one or week two early on,
and Jaden Daniels is a much different player than he was then.
So I think that one's just exciting to watch. I i think there's gonna be a lot of points scored in that
one um i don't like chargers like jim harbaugh first year back he's in the playoff obviously
vikings rams is an interesting one monday vikings coming off that loss yeah now everybody well we
talked about this by the way last week sam darnold now everybody's saying he sucks literally
everybody is saying like oh he told you so we're like. We're like, well, wait a minute, dude.
Like, it's one game. He didn't play great, obviously, in that game.
But, like, everyone is now, like, saying, oh, I told you so. I'm like, dude, the body of work speaks for itself.
But the Rams are dangerous. I feel like we've kind of been saying that.
It's just like if they get in the playoff, they're dangerous. But is this not – this for a second because i know you're not a massive college football guy the playoffs have helped me the playoffs okay is this not the greatest week in football history if if you think about it you have playoff game tonight uh penn state notre dame you got ohio state texas this weekend and then got all of these NFL games like four, what, four straight days or five straight days, Thursday, Texas that Friday, I think that's Friday, isn't it? So Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, five straight games, five straight days of playoff football.
You know me, I love it. You already called me out for being a degenerate gambler, which you're by far not wrong.
I also am looking at this slate of which games am I excited to bet on. Yeah, so which one? Are you betting any college football games? Oh, for sure.
I got Ohio State going the whole way, so I'm just going to keep riding that. But for me, with the NFL playoffs, obviously I'm going to pick winners and stuff.
I love the prop bets. I just look at it like I don't really see anything on that.
I'm excited to watch Steelers-Ravens. I'm not excited to bet on that game.
I would stay away from that game. The NFC has all – because I'm not an unders guy.
I don't like betting under. I know that's the best bet.
It's the smarter bet. But I like to root for scoring.
All the NFC games are the ones I'm going to be all
over. Cause even like you said, Vikings, Rams, commanders, bucks, Packers, Eagles, which that, that one's an, that one's an interesting one, dude.
I'm telling you one, I would not be surprised if the Eagles lose that game before we move on. What's your, what's your best bet? Like, what are you betting on? What's the best bet this, this week? that's tough i i do in the end i am gonna be uh i'm gonna have a nice wager on the bucks not only with some of their props but i think the bucks are gonna pull it off uh i i think that the bills are gonna absolutely wallop the broncos so i don't know if i'm gonna but i might not it's a lot of give.
So I might just try to figure out a way to do a money line parlay bucks, bills, and I might throw the Steelers in there with the points. Cause I do like that amount of points.
Maybe even do an alt line and maybe tease it up a little bit more to like 13, give up some juice there. So, but I tell you like anytime touchdown stuff, which is my favorite, favorite.
So great.
I try to put a – I don't know.
We don't have – oh, yeah.
I can't bet in the state of Florida right now.
Well, I'll tell you it was rough flying down here.
I have a nine-person anytime TD score I was putting together last night.
I was juicing this thing up.
I'm in a good state. i'm in a good state for
that so if you ever have any of those give it to me i'll get it in i might i might i might i might
look at it later today it did suck too on the plane ride to the bahamas i was on the plane
watching nick's thunder last week which was a great game two of the best winning streaks in
the nba going and then right when we crossed into like international waters, just cut the feed right off. Okay.
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and i made a few interesting predictions and grades and stuff like that i think it's only fair if we revisit some of the things we said before the nfl season started i think that's more than fair dude i i don't yeah so like i don't think we were far off on some of these but then
based on again now we know what some of these guys did obviously throughout the year i'm thinking
like all season acquisition we were pretty freaking stupid we didn't pick a running back
go ahead what so what do we got man what do we did uh the first one likely to lose his starting
job so who'd you have qb most likely to lose his starting job. So who'd you have? QB most likely to lose his starting job.
I went with the obvious choice, and the one I actually won was Daniel Jones. That was the obvious one, and it happened.
Do you remember who you went with? Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson.
Weird one. I'm not counting it fully as a loss for you because he sat out the first four games of the year, but fields didn't do enough in those four games to still be.
And then, and then Wilson ended up with 16. I mean, Wilson's played great really and got him to a playoff, 16 touchdowns, five picks was in the MVP conversation for a little bit there when, um, before they obviously they got a four game losing streak to end the season.
But yeah, Russell Wilson ended up. All right, this one's not going to be great for you.
Team most likely to bounce back from a down year. I had your Arizona Cardinals, which that's a loss, but I do think there was a moment where the Cardinals were.
No, no. They were atop the NFC West at one point.
You never, you never watched the Cardinals and said, man, that's a playoff team. You never watched that.
True. You never watched that.
You never. But it was alive for the first 10 weeks.
It was alive. And then it died.
And they were death, which they always do. Well, it's not going to be worse than the T you pick the jets to have a bounce.
That's a big,
I'm living,
I'm just dying on the Hill with the jets.
I had Aaron Rogers,
MVP,
Jets,
you and Shay,
by the way,
Aaron Rogers,
making the MVP jets,
making the AFC title game.
You wearing a,
a Joe LMB Jersey courtside at the Knicks all for nothing,
dude.
So a couple,
a couple of teams that I made notes, the Vikings, obviously seven and 10 last year finished 14 and three with Sam Darnold chargers were a massive, um, team in the Broncos. I mean, both of those teams, all three of those teams, playoff teams bouncing back from, uh, you know, chargers are the worst one chargers five and 12 and 23 higher Harbor go 11 and six.
I mean, that just shows you how great of a coach that dude is, man. Like, everywhere he goes, he wins, which is just bananas.
You know, I often think about this. This is what happens in Hollywood a lot.
It varies from, okay, there's times where the stars have the power, right? And then there's times, there's been eras where the agents were actually so powerful that it mattered more who the agent was of the clients. And it always goes in circles.
I think similarly in sports, like NBA we had, well, it was the big three. Now we're back kind of down to you need two guys and then a bunch of really good role players.
NFL quarterback has been king for so long and still is. I don't think you're ever going to dethrone quarterback from being the most important thing, but has there ever been a more obvious, and you've been saying it since we started this podcast.
Has there ever been a more obvious? Yes, of course you have to have a quarterback, but it's kind of pointless if you don't have a coach who knows how to progress. And man, I know it's that most obvious thing in the
world, but I feel like this is the first time where coaches have entered into that conversation where you could really turn things around with your coach. Isn't it? It's unbelievable, man.
You would be shocked. And we've all, and I think any player, Any former player, current player, be careful, but would tell you how shockingly bad coaching is at the highest level, right? Just, just universally, whether it's some position coaches, not everybody, but I've been around some teams.
And again, they could say, oh, well, you were like, I just been around, I've been around great coaches. I know what that looks like.
And I've been around shitty coaches. I know what that looks like.
You would be surprised how many shitty coaches there are at the highest level. And to your point, when you have a Harbaugh or, uh, you know, obviously like O'Connell, like there's a lot of, there's a, there's a lot of very good coaches in the NFL as well.
Um, when you just have guys, man, and they just get it. And it's one of those things, it's hard to explain.
Like if you, if, if I compared it to like your world of acting, It's like you just have guys man and they just get it and it's one of those things it's hard to explain like if you if i compared it to like your world of acting it's like you
just have like you have a director who you just everything he touches it could be he could have
a shitty cast he could have a shitty script somehow some way he's going to turn it into
like just a hit or something yeah i mean like they just have that they have a feel
they know how to control the room they know how to manage they know then they know how to
Thank you. like just a hit or something yeah I mean like they just have that they have a feel they know how to control the room they know how to manage they know then they know how to create and do all
of these things like the same with a guy like Harbaugh who's just like it's just wild man you
go all the way back to San Diego you go to Stanford you go to I mean Niners everywhere he's been he's
won and it's it's a testament to him.
And again, to your point, like, and to your point,
I'll say this is kind of funny.
I was on one team where it wasn't the coaches and it wasn't the quarterback.
It was our fricking kickers who ran our team.
Really?
Oh, wait.
The Oakland Raiders, bro.
Seabass.
Sebastian Janikowski and Shane Leckler,
who I was just texting with Shane Leckler
I'm sorry. that is oh wait oh the oakland raiders bro c bass sebastian jenikowski and shane leckler who i was just talking i was just texting with shane leckler the other day because uh texas a&m his former school played sc actually i should text him back because we beat them but um we were we were texting and he he's maybe hall of fame punter like he's one of those that might that potentially might get in um when i when i went there and i remember carson telling me this because carson was the quarterback and carson the quarterback's the leader but carson's like bro i i've never seen anything like these kickers run the show here that's probably never happened before or ever it's just i think ever like it was like and but like it was just like holy hell like these guys, it's just like, that's, that's CBass.
You don't fuck with him. He kind of runs the team.
He's obviously played a long time. That's Leckler.
He's a hall of fame punter. He's, he's not like your traditional kicker.
Like a lot of these kickers are kind of different cats. Like Shane was a dude, man.
Those guys were awesome guys. Yeah, man.
It was, it was wild. That, that team was definitely not run by the coaching.
Sebastian.ackatsky was still around, I probably wouldn't have so many tweets eviscerating kickers and how annoyed I am by every kicker. We're going to have him on.
Oh, that would be great. Oh, dude.
We got to get him in person if we could. I don't know where he is in the world.
I'd rather go through the screen. He scares me, dude.
So some other ones. What else do we have? Yeah.
Teams most likely to disappoint. We were both wrong on this.
You said Packers, which I was with you on that. I did not see the defense being as strong as they are.
I think the defense is pretty good, obviously. I said the Chiefs, which I'm going to defend myself in a minute.
LaFleur, LaFleur, greatur great coach i mean that's another i mean they won the games yeah case of point malik willis won some
games um finished 11 and 6 in the playoff so i mean yeah he's a hell of a coach let me just yeah
the chief let me just defend this for a second i said the chiefs would disappoint and if i go back
to it i i didn't i wasn't saying oh the chiefs going to miss the playoff. I didn't go full hot take and say the Chiefs are going to miss the playoffs.
But wouldn't you say if you were either just a fan or a sports better or whatever, they have been disappointing? Not with the record. They're playing a different game.
They are only caring about the Super Bowl, which is a great thing to do. Which is all that matters.
I agree. And by the way, have you seen their offense the last couple of weeks? Like outside the last week they sat their guys.
But would you say the Chiefs have been disappointing this year? Just not with results, but with the way they've played because i know how hard i know how hard it is to win man it's i don't and and for them to do it at this it's like the patriots dude it's like like it's like your yankees man you know how hard it is just to win year in a year out like things happen like injuries happen and attrition happens and scheduling happens and then you run into whatever whatever, like other teams are getting better, you know, like, and they still found a way to finish with the one seed, like a month's all that. And I guarantee you, and we've said this, and this is, everybody said, you don't want to see them in the playoff, dude.
And they started, they started turning it on a little bit there in the end of the year with the offense, like they're getting and you got patty mahomes so like is it a disappointment no like it is so hard to win
football games in the nfl i don't care how good you are i knew it wasn't by the way
no not even close dude and all the and all the fans like dude you got a one seed locked up and
home field advantage throughout the playoff you're you're fine josh allen has to come to kansas city
lamar jackson has to come to kansas city where it is very very difficult to win in the in the playoff. You're fine.
Josh Allen has to come to Kansas City. Lamar Jackson has to come to Kansas City, where it is very, very difficult to win in the playoffs.
Off-season acquisition, most likely to pay off. You were right for like five weeks with Kirk Cousins.
You had a run there where it looked, we were talking, I think he was one of our Wendy's saucy players of the week. You had it for a second.
I had Stefan Diggs,
which that wasn't even
I mean, he also tore his ACL too.
Why didn't we
pick Saquon or Derek Henry?
I think we were trying to go with the less
obvious. Those were no-brainers.
I think we were trying to dig a little deeper.
Here's one that you had that
I was not on board with that worked
out really well. Player who's not on your
radar now, but will be
about it. brainers.
I think we're trying to dig a little deeper. Here's one that you had that I was not on board with that I, that worked out really well player who's not on your radar now, but will be by the end of the year.
I went Hollywood Brown and Nick Chubb. I was trying to go bounce back from injuries.
It didn't really happen. You went Khalil Shakir.
Third and yak in the league. Third and yak.
Shout out. Led the bills with 76 catches, 800 yards.
Again, going back to the whole supporting cast, that's Josh Allen's best player. Shout out to your nephew.
But he had a hell of a year. And I will say this.
When I was doing all my fantasy football, shout out to Peter Schrager. Peter Schrager, who's fantastic.
Good buddy. He was hell bent on Khalil Shakir being like a fantasy breakout star and just having a breakout season, which he did.
I mean, he didn't have eye opening numbers, but he was their best player on the outside. And yeah, so I stand by that.
A couple honorable mention, guys. Who did you have, by the way? For well, my breakout player.
No, the breakout player. I think I had.
Well, it was how do we word it? We worded uh players not up not on your radar but will be by the end of oh you had oh you already said you already i kind of went like i was trying to go hollywood brown because i thought he was healthy and would really which was a good one but he just didn't get healthy here here a couple i got a couple uh sam darnold obviously jameer gibbs had almost 2 000 yards from scrim. Bucky Irving, no one would have thought that.
Trey McBride, over 110 catches. Brock Bowers, Brian Thomas, Malik Neighbors, Jerry Judy.
How about Jerry Judy's bounce back here? I, not to bring up fantasy, I drafted Jerry Judy every single year until this year. I finally cut bait, and then he's like fourth in the league in receptions and yards.
Really, the Jameis games just opened everything up for Jerry Judy. Dude, anytime Jameis is in there, he's slinging that rock, dude.
Well, before we also get coach on, you know, end of season, there's, there's now six coaching vacancies and we checked, we had, we looked around, I think the most ever was 10. So we're not close to the record amount of coaching vacancies.
And we'll talk to coach wants that about it too, but anything really surprising to you? Not for me, even like the Mayo thing, people were, I could definitely say that's probably unfair to him, but not necessarily surprised. I kind of thought that was just an interesting hire from the get-go.
You're always rooting for former players. Sometimes some of these hires feel so fast.
It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, really? It's's not surprising man this is the time of the year it's it's equivalent to like like cut day and at the end of training camp like you just know it's coming it's going to happen for a lot of these coaches too obviously not as big as cut day because there's hundreds of players and all that but um yeah i don't think there's any big surprise i don't think the raiders i don't think any of these teams I think everyone is trying to chase for for like that young like like you know the biggest name is going to be Ben Johnson for the Lions you know he was one that turned down a job last year to stay which I think was smart continues to build his worth obviously this year with the offense and he's going to be he's going to be the prize get I think I think everybody's going to go after him I think Doug Peterson is a really good football coach I think that's a shitty ass situation up there you can kind of see like like actually Jerry like this is a perfect example we've always talked about like being in alignment right from the owner to the GM to the all of that like kind of hearing this week with all those guys talk like it's a a shit show over there, you know? And so like Doug Peterson is going to get hired by someone too.
I think he's a really good football coach. So that one's not surprising.
I think sometimes
coaches are better off leaving places and going fine somewhere else. You know, I think the biggest
surprise is probably that my guy coach Dable and Shane are still with the giants. It's probably the
surprises that they're still there. And the fan base is certainly not thrilled about it.
Are you thrilled? What do you think? Look, I can't say I know enough to tell you. You could spot a good coach way easier than I could, right? But for me, I think we've now seen the great year under Dable where he got so much out of players with a team that had no real expectation.
And now we've seen the flip side of that where it's been as bad as it could be. So I do think that how are you supposed to fully judge? I do think the third year is necessary to tell i think he deserves that much as far as shane goes again i i don't think if hard knocks happened and we had that inside i was about i was about to say that yeah i think it did not it did not see that if we don't publicly see that i don't think there's as much of an uproar that oh that guy should lose it's the fact that we saw the saquon stuff and all that but everything else yeah yeah yeah dude but that's like it's part of it you got to take that's part of it you got to be accountable and i yeah i just i it's tough man it look i think when you bank you look at your your head coach your gm you're tied to your quarterback i mean that's what you in the nfl you're tied to your quarterback if your quarterback plays well or shows enough like you're gonna have a job for a long time it's literally that simple in the nfl and they've just kind of been flirting with fire i think with danny dimes over the years like like you said they had that playoff gave them all the money obviously let's say kwan go, man, it's just so.
So I like it. I got to be honest.
I think Dable's a good coach. I think maybe now they have a little bit of a reset.
We'll see who they get in the draft. Obviously, they don't have the number one pick.
So it's going to be interesting. All right.
Well, should we do money moments? I think it's time for some money moments because a lot of fun things happen with contracts and stuff. So right now we're going to do money moments presented by our friends over at Cash App.
Sending, spending, saving, splitting, tipping, donating, gifting, or just type in numbers, all with the number one finance app in the App Store. That's money.
That's Cash App. Lord knows I've been sending a lot of cash down in the bottomamas.
Not a very inexpensive place. But Matt, we saw all the crazy incentives and met and missed ones this past weekend.
Which ones, if any, stuck out to you for a money moment? I have a few. Yeah.
So it was a wild. I mean, a lot of people see the contracts are fascinating.
A lot of people see the guaranteed money and the size, right? Like, oh, five years, 100 million, 60 guarantee. But they don't see all the incentives, which is pretty like there's I mean, there can be hundreds like some you'll never hit some you'll hit.
um and this week i don't remember a week in football where it was like just so publicized
and so like everybody was talking about it like oh if they hit this or they hit this or they hit that um i i think it's awesome as a former player i mean you know like and trust me players think about that shit like like like you want your money even if you're making 15 million a year, you want that extra mill. So the one, I think the one awesome one was Mike Evans.
Um, and he earned say, or what? 3 million by crossing the thousand yard mark on the final play. They got him.
Yeah. Then they got him now.
So shout out to the block. Shout out to Baker, the coach, every, like, that was one thing like, but that's also like the record, too.
What he beat, Jerry Rice's record of, what is it, 12 straight, 1,000-yard. Unbelievable.
So for me, to me, that was more about just seeing a record, seeing his record. Mike Evans is a great dude, but the $3 million.
The biggest one, and I didn't realize this this weekend, how about Geno Smith i still is that i still can't i don't i don't six million so and so so i got so he needed over 185 passing yards for a two million incentive so he hit that so that was part of it but then maybe by reaching career highs and passing yards completion percentage and and 10 wins. So like, think about that in his, in his contract was like, if you have a career high and passing yards, a career high and completion centers, and you win 10 games this year, you're going to get six mil.
I know, but are you a little mad if you're the owner? Cause you're probably thinking 10. Oh yeah.
You're mad. You're mad.
You're mad at the owner, but that's why you got a lot of shady owners out there, man. They don't want to see some of these guys hit those.
Cooper Rush, Cooper Rush going to hit that? They sat him. I don't think he would have hit his bonus.
I don't know. Trey Lance played 77 plays.
I think he had to play 70 or 72 plays to hit it. What I mean, though, is if you're the Seahawks owner, you're probably doing the 10 win incentive because you think 10 wins gets you into the playoffs.
He hit the 10 wins and it's a missed playoff. And he's $6 million.
And he's 6 million lighter. There were, there were a couple, um, I thought like Kyler Murray needed 50 yards rushing and a rushing touchdown for a $750,000 incentive hit.
He didn't hit that. Um,'s a lot of misses too, but it was wild.
It was hard not to go back to my entourage years when I saw the Geno Smith one because I could hear my character saying, Turtle saying to Vince, if Aquaman hits 100 mil, what are we going to get? And I could hear Vince say, oh, if we hit 100 million, y'all getting something sick. I'm hoping Gino got the O-line and the receivers something sick.
Oh, dude. Oh, that's a – yeah, that's like Christmas just came.
That's another present. By the way, did we ever find out with Turtle how he made his money? It was a tequila, right? But do we ever really know? We don't know.
We never knew how much he actually made. But one thing we decided on before doing the movie was he definitively has more money than Vince now, which is really all you have to say to make it funny.
It could be 100 mil. It could be 50, 40, whatever.
No one knows. He definitely has more money than Vince.
And I'm convinced right now, if we ever do the reboot, Turtles broke now. I think all i i he might have lost like an nft or something is there is there is there is there so are there i know there's like are there incentives in the acting world and like i know like the best part is like residual checks right when your ship plays for years and years you get that but like are there like if you get a nomination or if you get, if you get a certain amount in a box office, like, do you guys get kickbacks for that? Is that in a contract or how does that? So with television, uh, the, uh, the incentives that I didn't even know about, I remember Entourage got, and I was just had the golden globes this past weekend.
Entourage in season one, surprisingly got a Golden Globe nomination. I don't think we were
expecting to get nominated, especially that early. And I remember my lawyer called me and was basically asking me where I wanted my nomination check to go.
And I'm like, what are you talking about? Well, you know, the show gets nominated. You get this.
If you get nominated personally, I'm like, well, how much? I'm thinking, all right, was it five grand, 10 grand? This is great. 50 grand for the best comedy
nomination.
And I think for wins, I don't remember. I obviously didn't win, but Piven won three in years in a row.
I think it either might be double that or even more. So you do get in TV, at least we did with HBO, we always got incentives for nominations.
With movies, it's all different. The incentives are box office, right?
And the two things to decipher between are
there's first dollar gross
and then there's sort of back-end net points.
You have to be a certain kind of actor
to get those first dollar points.
What that means is if the movie makes a dollar,
you get 10 cents or whatever your percentage is.
Even if a movie only made 10 million is considered a failure, you're still getting a percentage of that 10 million. On the flip side, actors like me maybe would get back end where, hey, once the movie makes all its money back, makes this level profit.
I remember with Think Like a Man, the movie I did with Kevin Hart early on, it had all these incentives. It
hits 15 million, you get this. If it hits 20 million, you get this.
So I'm getting all these emails. All these incentives start rolling in.
So it did very much feel like an NFL contract. The best, so the way the playoffs work in the NFL, so you get, maybe it's more now, but when I was, when we went, you know, Arizona, Houston,
so you get like 25 for the first round, 25K, I think it was. And that's everybody on the team.
So that's practice squad too. So it was really cool for those guys because they're making more in a couple of weeks than they would all year.
And then you make it next. It was 50.
Then you make it to the conference championship, 75. And then you make it to super bowl to 100 so that's amazing super bowl you made we made a 250 grand bonus just by going and that was everybody so everybody got feels so good everybody it feels so so good so we're and we were like you cash those checks baby let's go um but so like for I know before we take a break like for because like so for acting because obviously my wife was an actress and all that so you can get paid like on a tv show for like entourage you're getting paid per episode per episode yeah and then and then you and then you guys obviously can negotiate every year and then the only way you make incentive that is basically by nominations.
For the most part with TV, like if you see an actor like so many now that you see actors or producers, they could get back end points. Like typically when Entourage sells into syndication, right? That really is for, you know, Doug and Lev and Wahlberg, like three guys who made the show happen.
That's how they really get. Where we get the money in the episodes, they don't get as much for the episodes.
They get more in great success. But yeah, for actors with TV, you don't really, the incentives really are just that.
But this whole new Netflix model, if it actually comes to fruition where it's they you know they want to do it performance based so and really quick I wanted to hit just some of the funnier contract stuff of all time that stuck out I don't even know if you could do this in today's generation but the Eddie Lacey and even Boris Diao had weight clauses left and right like 105 Glenn Baby Davis weight clauses i couldn't do that now maybe i don't know that's real by the way and if you missed weight you get fined like you get fined for every pound like thousands of dollars i've seen i've seen players like that my favorite one because this is a hundred percent what i would do moe harkless had a 500 000 incentive for shooting 35 from three end of the year, he got to 35%, didn't shoot a three for the last three games, which is 100% what I would do. Hell yeah, dude.
I get it. You don't think that dude knew exactly what he was doing? Of course.
I wouldn't even stand outside the three-point line. There's been so many fun ones.
This isn't an incentive thing,
but the Bobby Bonilla thing in history
is still one of the craziest contract
whatever's of all time.
I think he still gets a million bucks
with an 8% interest rate per year.
Shoutouts
to all the players who hit their incentive. Better luck
to the players who missed it, but hopefully
you hit it next year. Take a quick break.
We're going to come back with Coach Dave Wanstead. Business taxes.
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You said you're in Chicago. It's five degrees out, so we're going to try and warm things up in here for you.
Well, good luck. Matt will get it boiling before I'm done, I'm sure.
Coach, I'm in Miami. It's about 65 degrees here.
The beach is right outside. I know you're a pit guy, though.
I know you're tough. You don't like the beach and the water and shit.
I'll be in Naples Friday. I finish all my commitment to all my NBC and Bear stuff up here, and I'll be down there Friday.
So I forward to that. Yep.
Coach. Well, we, it's good to see you, man.
We appreciate you coming on. We were, Jerry and I were just talking about, um, just like the NFL coaching, as you know, this time of the year, it's, I think we said there's six vacancies this year.
Yeah. Obviously you're Chicago bears and you do a lot of work with the bears still.
Um, I just a bigger bigger picture question, kind of like an epidemic with coaching. Obviously, we had a couple first-year guys get fired this year.
Just kind of the process of what that's like. What are these guys going through? And is that a bigger problem you're seeing in the NFL? Well, yeah, it is.
But I think the reason is twofold. one you got a younger generation thinking of media from a standpoint of there's so many other outlets now everybody wants to you know have a story everybody wants to kind of have the shock treatment story of your team to keep their job and keep their interest up and i think that owners are a little bit younger now for the most part new guys coming in back in the day it was the old guard you know and and those guys you know used to kind of be a little bit more patient i think and the other thing too i'll be quite honest with you we we didn't when i got my job with the uh bears it was kind of a role an unwritten roll of thumb that you didn't even get an interview for a head coaching job in the NFL unless you were a coordinator on a playoff team.
And the majority of the jobs that went out went to coordinators of Super Bowl teams. And the thinking behind this, and that's what I'm banging the table on.
I do two radio know, two radio shows here in Chicago and I'm, excuse me, and I'm saying, I want to see a history of a guy. And that's the, and that's why I think those coaches had a little bit better chance.
You could see a guy calling plays. You could see a guy relating to the players.
You could see a guy relating to the media over a period of a couple years and uh i think
you know now there's guys getting head coaching jobs that haven't even called plays that haven't
been a coordinator and now you're going to stand up in front of the entire team and you're going
you're going to start setting a culture and you're going to start you know implementing a foundation
uh i i hope the bears don't work you know i hope they go for somebody that's two or three years
Thank you. implementing a foundation, I hope the Bears, you know,
I hope they go for somebody that's two or three years doing his job so we all know here exactly for the most part what we're getting as a head coach.
You know, that word that you said, culture, that's a word even us as fans hear so much,
and I know what it means, but for you, someone who's coached at the highest level,
What's the problem? That's a word even us as fans hear so much, and I know what it means, but for you, someone who's coached at the highest level, what does that word mean to you? When you're going into a situation, they say, oh, we need someone to change the culture. That's a good thing to say, but how do you actually do it? Yeah, it's overused, and there's no question about that, Jer.
Really, you're just setting the foundation. To me, it's on when you're practicing the tempo of the practice, the meetings.
Are we going to be on time for meetings? Are we going to, you know, off-season program? What's going to be the domain? So you're setting kind of the foundation on how you want to run your program on a day-to-day basis and you have to have all your assistant coaches exactly talking the same language every time they walk out of there and you know i get so sick of hearing this we need leadership here we need you know when i was at the dolphins i only and even at pit you know when i was Aaron Darnold and Shady and some of those guys, you know, I had always a group of leaders, and I would meet with those guys. And one time I remember specifically it was Sam Madison, you know, who was a corner for me at the Dolphins.
He's coaching at Dolphins now. And, you know, the locker room was a mess.
I would always walk through the locker room going to practice. I wanted the players to see me.
I was not going to be hiding upstairs and show up and run back up after practice. I wasn't one of those type of guys.
So I would walk through it, and I called Sam and a couple guys, and I said, what's this shit? You know, I said, this place looks like a dump down there. And Sam says, you know, Coach, I agree with you.
I said, well, do something about it. And went off and the next day in the meeting and just threatened to whip guys you know and just went crazy and that was the end of it you know so to me leadership has yeah the coach has to set the foundation but your players have to buy in and and be leaders on the great teams you know every national championship team I've coached in three games and Super Bowls.
I mean, we've always had leaders that kind of carried the torch of the culture, carried the torch of the foundation. So the head coach sets it.
He's got to reinforce it. But if you don't have your guys behind you, you've got no chance, I do want to get into Pitt and Shady because you coached obviously some of the great players and had some good years over there.
If you're the Bears, because I know you're close to the Bears organization in Chicago, what do you need? What do you need at the Bears? What type of coach do you need? Well, we need, and I'm not going to use the word culture we just need somebody with a plan a winning plan i'm going to say that and and then the whole thing is with with you need to have somebody that's going to work with the general manager all right as far as priorities on the team uh we couldn't run the ball last year and i'm and i know guys up there. And supposedly there's a couple assistants that were banging the table.
We got to use a fullback and we got to be able to run the football with time. Coach, you're not using a fullback? Come on.
Okay. This isn't the 1980s, Coach.
This is a quarterback talking, though. Let me tell you something, Matt.
Okay Matt. I said this to you 10 years ago when we worked together.
The best teams in football right now are running the football. Detroit.
Philadelphia. Chargers.
Chargers. Baltimore.
I want to use a tight end movement. There we there we go.
We're running out of the shotgun, man. Come on.
Okay, 49ers, Kyle Shanahan. What's he know? He doesn't know anything, right? Why would they keep a fullback? But, you know, so your best teams in football right now run the ball.
Yeah, you're right. And somebody's passing gurus, their light's going on.
Oh, my God. What happened to Philadelphia?
Well, they were running the ball about 30 percent of the time when they were getting their ass kicked.
And now they're running the ball almost 60 percent of the time.
Oh, my God. We're winning games.
I mean, it's it's not a it's not a secret.
Detroit beat Minnesota because they ran the football.
Isn't it isn't it funny how like the game?
I mean, I know, Coach, you and I joke about this all the time.
And I was telling Jerry about like you're obviously old school, but defense still wins championships. Line of scrimmage still wins championships, even at the college level.
Even though the offenses and all the RPO and it's all spread out and that's the game now. You still, if you run the football and you win the line of scrimmage, you're going to win a Super Bowl or you're going to win a national championship.
It never goes away.
I agree.
You throw the ball to score points, you run the ball to win games.
I probably said that 15 times over my eight or nine years at Fox,
but nobody listened.
But I – no, I agree with you.
And that's when going back to the Bears, what Jerry said, Caleb Williams, okay, we built this thing kind of backwards. We go out and sign Keenan Allen and we draft the dunes.
I was banging the table. There was a center from Oregon that I love and a center from West Virginia, Frazier, that went to the Steelers.
They're both starting and they'll be all pros for 10 years. And I said, we need an offensive.
We need an Olin Kruitz on this team. We've got to get with that knife pick.
I wanted to take an offensive lineman. We didn't.
We took this kid who's hopefully be a good player from Harvard, okay? Matt, you know my gym. No, Roma Dunze? He went to Washington.
Yeah. No, no, no.
I said I wanted to draft an offensive lineman here with a knife did but by the way jim harbaugh everyone gave the charges shit for drafting joe alt they should have drafted malik neighbors and look at all these are freaking all pro already at left tackle so exactly yeah so yeah so it's uh yeah and i and i'm the wrong guy and i say this all the time up here on these shows that I do. I say I'm the wrong – I mean, because I probably – I got fired for running Ricky Williams 356 times.
You know, the longest game in Pitt history, Notre Dame – and the longest game in Notre Dame history, I'm going to give you a little trick, was when Pitt – we played them up there in South Bend. This game was so long, and it was like the fourth overtime, that the sprinklers came on because they were on a timer during the game.
True. And they turn the sprinklers off, and we get the ball, and our quarterback was a freshman, and he throws a ball, it bounces off a defensive backhand.
Same thing. And I said to Matt Cavanaugh, Matt, that's it, man.
Shady. No one gets a ball except Shady.
Was that Palko? No. Palko had graduated.
But I would have done the same damn thing with Palko. Trust me on that.
And he knows it. He knows it.
My man, Tyler. But so the point was, yeah, I had a short fuse.
And by the way, we call 36 power. Same thing.
We need about three yards to kick a game-winning field goal with soft bet. And we call 36 power, which was our best running play.
And I call a timeout, and Shady comes over. I said, hey, Shady, we got to run that thing.
We're going to block down. We're going to poke it.
You got to run that thing up in that B gap as hard as you can and get us three yards. Can you do that? Yes, coach.
I got it. Okay.
They know what's coming. We're coming.
Shady takes two steps. He starts running to the sideline.
didn't want inside coach come on he he takes it outside their safety comes up i forget his name he was a fourth round pick shady gives him a move runs it down to the 15 we take the field goal win the game afterwards i call him i said shady come here my man i said why did you not why did you run outside on 36 power? And he says, because nobody was there, coach.
That's a good answer.
I learned a lesson that day.
Yep.
Coach, speaking of Shady, what was it like coaching him,
recruiting him?
I know you got some good stories.
Yes, that's where I was going next too, coach.
Once you can tell. Once you, Coach.
Once you can tell.
Once I can tell.
Okay.
Next subject.
Shady was NIL before NIL was NIL.
No, no.
I will say this.
Shady was on the cover of Parade Magazine.
He was the number one player in the country.
Yeah.
And I – I will say this. Shady was on the cover of Parade Magazine.
You know, he was the number one player in the country.
Yeah.
And I had him, Don.
They had a great team up there.
Bishop McDemott.
I think they won the state championship,
but we're in it again this year in Pennsylvania.
Private school, you know, kind of one of those St. Thomas Aquinas.
I don't know what it would be in L.A., but anyway. so i have him and about four of his teammates down to my summer camp and i'm introducing him and he's standing in the back and here's this guy and i know who he is obviously and he's standing there and he's got a hat on sideways and he's got sunglasses you know the gold chain and i said what's your name young man and he says they call me shady i said i know who the hell you, you know, the gold chain.
And I said, what's your name, young man? And he says, they call me Shady. I said, I know who the hell you are, you know.
But then he told me up front, he says, Coach, I'm not going to visit Pitt. I'm going to visit USC.
Coach, I hosted him on his recruiting trip. I wasn't paying him like you were paying him, though.
Yeah. No.
Well, he knows. So what happens is he doesn't even visit Penn State.
Yeah. You know, and he's from Harrisburg.
Harrisburg's an hour from college, and it's farther from Pittsburgh, about two hours, two and a half. So long story short, I still continue the recruiting process because we signed a couple of guys from their team.
So every time I'd go by to school, I'd see to games see his mom see his dad brother okay so now don't you know i get a call from the coach he breaks his leg and his mother calls me and says coach he's not he's not going to school he's not going to school anymore classes he's not he's gonna flunk out or whatever. So I said, I'll go by and talk to him.
So I went by and he was laying in the nurse's office.
You can tell him this if you see him out there.
He had the shoe pulled up over his face.
Okay.
I said, what are you doing?
And he says, yeah, coach, you know, I can't play anymore.
Got a broken leg.
I'm done.
Pete Carroll, you know, I can't go to USC. He was going to go.
Matt did a fabulous job recruiting him. He told me, he said, but now I'm out.
So long story short, I end up taking him under my wing, and we get everything. We get the leg worked out.
We get the school worked out. And the rest is history.
The rest is history. We'll leave it at that.
Something I love, too. You really have coached some of the more interesting players, I think, in the history of football.
Just to throw three at you, Ricky Williams, who we talked about a little earlier, Charles Haley. You coached Charles Haley, right? Jim Harbaugh.
So first with Harbaugh, was that someone you coached that you thought, oh, this guy would make a good coach one day? Or was that not even on the table? Was he always as strange as you – because coach is a different cat. I thought that Jim was going to be a linebacker.
Okay?
That was my first question.
He's tough as nails, man.
Oh, God.
Tough and competitive.
In my first year at the Bears, we were talking to Tommy Waddle the other day.
Tommy Waddle was a receiver we had here from Boston College.
He played a long time in the league.
He was the only veteran.
And I had Ryan Wetnight, a free agent tight end from Stanford. Terry Obey, a free agent slot receiver from Oregon.
Curtis Conway was my first pick of the draft. Yeah.
SC. C-Way.
And then Waddle, who was like he was a mummy. He used all the tape that we had in the training room.
And we were 7-5 seven and five my first year guys and we are battling and we we can't throw the ball it's blizzard out you know it's one of those deals and jim comes over and he screams you know he's screaming coach no one's getting open and i said i know i'm watching the game what do you want me to do you know and and and uh but that but then when he got the michigan job and i really hadn't and then jim left after that you know his contract was up he left uh we signed eric kramer and uh he uh and i so i didn't have much contact with him and then when he takes the michigan job mad i'll remember their first game was against ut Utah in Utah. And John Ence, who was our vice president then at Fox or president, I don't know what John's title was, he called me and says, we're doing this Michigan game, and Jim refuses to do interviews.
He says, we're trying to get Colin Tower to go on. He says, the only guy he said he talked to is you.
Wow. So I said, okay.
So I fly up to Ann Arbor, and I had a heck of a story. This is the strangest.
And then after that, Jim and I would talk up until we took the job with the Chargers. In fact, even after he took the job, him and I would stay in touch, text him and so forth.
forth we still do love jim but he so i'm going to tell this story that when i was at usc i coached at usc jer i don't know if matt me probably don't want me being associated with usc but i did coach at sc and we took our defensive staff uh into michigan to visit them in the sprint and talk with their defensive coaches. And back then, coaches, that's the only way.
I don't know how these guys get better. They sit in their office, and nobody talks to anybody.
So we went out there to watch how they practice, and what can we learn, and exchange ideas. That's kind of how you did it back then.
So I'm watching practice. Jim's the quarterback.
Bo schumacher's the head coach and jim throws the first pass and it's three feet over the guy's head throws the next pass it like behind him you know next one he throws it bounces off somebody a defense slaps it down bo blows the whistle i've never seen this in my life and he screams
if we can't throw the ball any better than that
give me the football with no air
and the manager
opens up this chest
I'm being serious though, he opens up a chest
like it's not the first time he heard it
and he pulls a football
out to deflate it
the first deflate gate
and he starts running
onto the field and
Thank you. he heard it and he pulls a football out to deflate it.
The first deflate gate. And he starts running onto the field and Coach Schumacher says, put the ball down.
Let's go full speed. Well, obviously they can't throw it.
So the defense is like, you know, 15 guys at the line of scrimmage and they hand it off and it's just by buying with a ball. That's right.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. And then Bo says, okay, bring the football out.
Bring the one with air out. And he puts it down, and he says, now, if we can't throw the ball any better than we did, then we're coming back to the other one.
So Jim goes it. So I'm telling this exact story, and I'm telling you guys to Jim.
On the air, boxed. I'm thinking this is going to be a great story.
I'm going to break the ice. We're going to laugh.
He looks at me and says, Coach, that is an unbelievable. That's a great story.
I says, there ain't a story. You were the quarterback.
He doesn't remember any of it. He kind of looks and says, yeah, I was, wasn't I? That.
Yeah, so that never made the error, but I was so excited that I had a great, funny story to break the ice with, you know, on an interview with Jim his first time, and it didn't work. Didn't work.
Coach, I think you told me, we got a couple minutes left, man. I think you told me.
Well, okay, we got some time. What was uh didn't you had a funny running with charles haley didn't you tell one time when you were first coaching yeah i did and and again charles and i we had a super bowl reunion a few years ago and and i and we're good yeah you guys are good no i know that yeah yeah but now but so would, at the end of training camp every year, Jimmy and myself, and at that time it was North Carter, we would get together and, and, and have some drinks and we would just say, okay, where are we at? You know, what do we got to do moving forward here? Camp's over with.
And so, you know, we're talking offense, we got to do this. And then defensively, I said, Jimmy, you know, we – and we had some good guys up front.
I mean, we had Jim Jeffcoat, you know, but I said, we –
I said, we don't – it's hard to get to the pass with Jimmy.
It's hard.
We could use another pass rusher.
He says, oh, boy, you know, money and this and that.
And so, we're all fine.
About two days later, he comes in and he says, hey, you know who just did some crazy stuff out in San Francisco? Was this Charles Haley? I may be able to do a deal with that thing. I said, boy, he'd help us.
So four hours later, Jimmy comes in and says, well, Charles is coming. Now keep in mind, we're opening up that week, Sunday night, ESPN against the Washington Redskins at that time, who had just won the Super Bowl.
We're going to open up against them. And Jimmy said, we can get Charles in here tomorrow.
And he says, you think you can get him ready to play? And this was Tuesday before the game. I said, get get him in here we'll get him ready to play
but charles shows up give him the playbook and you know the defensive lineman always sat in the back row of our defensive meeting room so i'm up there and back then it wasn't all just the screens now and you know all the stuff i mean you you wrote the game plan down i did anyway so i would write it on the board explain what we we were going to do. Players were taking notes.
And it was kind of like the old-fashioned classroom stuff. Matt's lived it.
Yep. So I'm putting in the game plan for Washington.
And I hear this laughing and horsing around. I turn around, and Charles is sitting between the best kid we got on a team, Chad Henning.
He was out of the Air Force, right? But the Cowboys drafted him back then, but he had to do his four-year stint with the military because he was coming out of the Air Force Academy. So he was over there doing fighter jets, but he was bigger than me.
He was a monster. And we used to laugh about how he fit in those jets.
So now he's back with us. the guy's like a month he's 300 some pounds no fat discipline you're talking about culture shutter yeah there's your culture so charles and i said say charles you know come on we don't do that stuff here you know cut it off turn around because i know chad's writing down every word chad's like this you're looking at the board and Charles, I don't know if he's opened his notebook yet, probably not.
So I turn around, and I start adding to the board. Same damn thing starts.
So I turn around, and I say, hey, Charles, and now I kind of go off on him. You know, this, boom, boom, cussing, bullshit, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Silence. Meeting ends.
I'm cleaning the board off. Everybody's leaving.
All of a sudden, the door closes. I turn around.
Everybody's gone except Charles. Now, Charles said, I'm 6'4", and Charles Haley's taller than I am.
Legit 6'5". He gets this far from my face, and he says, Coach, I'm just going to tell you, you are lucky that I've matured or I'd kick the shit out of you right now.
And I says,
Charles, I'm so
happy you've matured too and we got to be
on the field in 10 minutes. Let's go.
Well, here's the punch
line. Jimmy
is so excited that he got
this Charles Haley done.
He's standing outside the door like a little kid at Christmas, right, going to open his present. The door opens.
Charles goes kind of flying by Jimmy. And I come walking out, and Jimmy says, how'd it go with Charles? I said, fantastic.
And I just kept walking. And not until we were long gone years after that I ever tell the story but i think he and he threatened me in the uh nfc championship game now now i take that because on the sidelines no no no we were playing san francisco up there it had nothing to do with me and we had another guy on a team that was a little on the edge.
Tony could see us. And Tony was like my son.
I recruited him.
I stayed at his house trying to get him to come to Oklahoma State.
He went to RU with Switzer.
You can tell Switzer that story, too.
I was sleeping in his house.
It still didn't work.
Tell Barry that.
You're going to laugh like Elvis.
And so now he's got some problems at Atlanta.
He was the first pick in a draft.
And he's got problems. So we'll He was the first pick in a draft.
He's got problems, so we'll
take him.
We'll take him.
We bring him in at halftime
and George Seifert,
they were running 36
power. I swear
it was one of those rainy,
muddy, gray
clay days in
San Francisco, old candlestick. And we come in at halftime.
And Jim Jepcoat was our one starting thing. And his uniform looked like this white tablet.
And here comes Charles. And he walks in and he is covered from mud from head to toe.
they are running every power play because we used to on block down we would wreck it with the defensive end and kick it to the perimeter and run it down that's how we played he is a mess and he comes in and we got you know 12 minutes at a halftime this is to the Super Bowl. And he gets this close from me again and says, Coach, they are killing me out there.
And it's just see for them. They wanted to run every play at Haley to get back at them for whatever.
We'll teach you. And I says, Charles, I don't know what to – so him and I start getting into it.
I got stuff, but I got to go over. So I tell Tony Casillas, talk to him.
Get him. So Tony grabs him, and they start wrestling.
And they kind of work their way to the back of the thing, and they're wrestling around them, screaming. I'm on the board.
I swear. Half time of the conference championship game.
I love it. And by the time Jimmy, the head coach coach, everybody up two minutes, they finally come up.
Neither one of those guys heard a damn word I said. And we go out and win the Super Bowl.
So Charles, we wouldn't have won it without Charles. He's telling you right now, what was the difference? And we ended up with the number one defense in the NFL in most categories and wouldn't have done it without him.
Coach, is there a game this coming weekend that you're looking forward to or do you have a good feel for these playoff games? Matt and I were talking about it earlier before we let you go. It's like there's some really good matchups, but also some of these games could go truly either way.
I remember in the playoffs, like you had these dominant, the Cowboys,
the Niners just knew what you could expect.
And this week, to me, this weekend is going to be pretty wild.
I like you with the running teams was my thoughts earlier.
You know, the team that I want to see, and I like it to see if they respond, the Houston Texans. I mean, I'm, you know, they've been disappointment.
Did they win their division? Yes. Did they have, you know, I mean, you can, they had a, people would be happy to win their division.
Sure, of course. But CJ Stroud didn't have the same type of year.
I think their defense has. And they added one of my favorite backs, Joe Mixon.
That's your boy. We were talking Joe Mixon.
Hey, Jerry, I used to say, I said, why do you like him? I said, me and Frank Thomas used to bet. Because Frank and I would fly out together when he was doing baseball.
Yeah. I see Frank.
Frank still does some shows here. I see him in Chicago here.
And he was always saying, P. Ryan's the guy.
I said, P. Ryan, he's a great player.
Still playing.
I said, but when he gets the ball, does he make me get out of your chair?
And Frank said, I said, when Joe Mixon gets that ball, coach, okay.
You've been buying it for a show.
Yeah, you have.
Ever at all at the Oklahoma days.
You love your running backs.
So that may add him to the mix out there.
Are you... getting you've been right yeah you have ever all at the oklahoma days you love so now running backs so that may add him to the mix out there at houston and um i'm anxious to see if they can
come alive and if cj strout matt you would know more than than anybody about the quarterback
because he hasn't had a great year can he just turn that switch on and get back to where he was
last year because if he can their defense is good enough to make a serious run here but i don't know
I'm not sure is the best. He's one of my favorite human beings.
I want to say this right now. I would love to have you on every once in a while just to tell stories.
Cause we're here. We do this every, every week of the year, coach.
I know you might get a little bored there in the off season. So we want to have you back on to tell some stories.
I'll come to Naples. I'll play some golf with you and we'll tell some stories.
It'll be great. I, uh, the other college game too, real quick, Notre Dame, Penn state, I'm taking Penn state, but it's going to be a tough one.
That's a tough, that's a tough call, but I can't. I do a TV show with the big 10 network every week.
So I'm, I'm as up on the college stuff here. Coach, do you like Ohio State to win it all? I do.
Yeah, me too. Me too.
I do. When they got over that Michigan game, I'm so sick of the SEC and hearing all that stuff.
I know. I really am.
When they just dominated Tennessee and sent them home, you know, to me, that – That's a message. Brian Day did a great job because I wasn't sure how they were going to respond after that Michigan loss.
You know, it really wasn't. So you got Penn State, Ohio State in the championship with Ohio State winning the All-Big Ten.
I love it, buddy. Yeah.
Give my best to Jan, please. Appreciate you coming on, buddy.
We'll talk to you soon.
Okay.
All right.
Sounds good.
Jerry, good talking to you, buddy.
Good talking to you, too.
All right.
Now it's time for Dynamic Duos
presented by Wendy's.
Two faves for just seven bucks.
Got to be Wendy's.
Terms apply.
So we're doing something fun now here.
Each week at Throwbacks,
we're going to pick a category,
and Matt and I are going to name our all-time favorite duo pertaining to that category. For instance, if it was NBA duo, I doubt any of us would say Stockton and Malone, but that would maybe be in there some way.
You would do John Starks and Patrick Ewing. Exactly.
For sure. So this week in honor of the Golden Globes, we are going to do our dream hosting duos.
So this won't be a duo you've seen before. We're making this duo up brand new.
So Matt, if you were going to attend an awards show and you're getting honored this weekend, what's a hosting duo, say for the Golden Globes, you would love to see? Okay, so Gold Globes is what? TV? Yeah, well, it's everything. Movies, TV tv that's the party one too that's not dry that's a drinking party that's a drinking show dude this was actually a lot of fun because i just like obviously this is not you know this is more your lane so i have i'm just gonna throw a couple i i want to get your reaction to a couple guys okay this one is just one is just more for shock value.
Okay. Will Smith and Chris Rock.
Don't you kind of want to, don't you kind of want to see like, see what would happen again? Like it's already been played out, but that would be a huge ratings boost for all award shows. That is a great first start.
So, so, so, okay. But my favorite, my favorite one, and this is arguably my favorite movie of all time is wedding crashers.
So I want to, I want to bring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson back and I want that. I know.
And, and, and maybe Bradley Cooper makes a cameo from the crowd, right? So you have all three and then that was like Bradley Cooper's kind of sendoff, right? Wasn't it? Yeah, for sure. That's where he burst on in the scene.
Yeah. He kind of burst on the scene.
Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson doing some type of like bit in the monologue to open up about like weddings. Wouldn't that be freaking hilarious? That'd be amazing.
Yeah. I like yours almost better than mine.
Yeah. That would be my number one would be Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.
It's just like, there's a million, dude, like duos that would be cool, but that's my all-time favorite movie.
So I really tried to think if
I was going to attend, say,
the Golden Globes, which I've had the
pleasure of going to. So
the first guy I'm going to bring
up, he's never hosted the Golden Globe Awards. He's
hosted some things, and we just saw
his Netflix special. To me,
this man would be the greatest host for any award show because of his talents, Jamie Foxx. Yeah, he's a beast.
Jamie Foxx does comedy, he's an Oscar-winning actor, and does unbelievable impressions, and musically he's unbelievable. That's the perfect host.
So he's in my anchor chair almost. He's the guy in guy in there but who you bring in with him yeah you know who's gonna come in and eat up some innings just to fuck shit up we're bringing back ricky gervais we all know ricky gervais is opening monologue we see it on twitter and on instagram at shocking all the guests lots of pearl clutching going on in the audience so jamie foxx is gonna lead us through for the entertainment but then when we want to really all the guests.
Lots of pearl clutching going on in the audience.
So Jamie Foxx is going to lead us through for the entertainment.
But then when we want to really hit the casuals who maybe wouldn't watch the award show,
Ricky, they'll show up for Ricky Gervais.
Dude, it's Ricky Gervais coming in like full, just guns blazing like he did last time. Throwing heat.
Just the Hollywood elite just cringing in their seats all time, dude.
That was, I don't really watch the Golden Globes a lot. I actually watched them this past week a little bit.
Nikki Glaser did great, too. She was awesome as a host.
Yeah, and Chalamet, right? Our boy? Chalamet. Chalamet, he's...
We gotta get hit. Let's reach for the stars, dude.
Let's get him on. He's a sports fan.
Jamie Foxx is great. His special was great.
Glad he's healthy again. It was unbelievable.
That'd be a fun duo. You're right.
That'd be a fun duo. And go watch his special if you haven't already.
Trust me. You'll laugh.
You'll cry for sure. It's very emotional.
And he put his whole heart into it. All right.
He really did. Time for throwback three.
The NFL playoffs is upon us. We're going to look at some of our throwback three of just NFL playoff runs.
And whatever that means to you, it could be upset driven. It could be just favorite driven.
It could be player driven. NFL playoff runs.
Matt, would you like to start first with your throwback three? Yeah. So my third, I'm actually a little disappointed in this one, but you're going to be happy.
Eli Manning, 2011 Giants. Okay? Yeah.
I wanted your reaction. I wanted to see your reaction.
I didn't know which year you were going, but I had to imagine one was being there. Basically, quickly beat Falcons, Packers, Niners, and then Super Bowl against Tom.
A little trivia question for you, because when I was doing some research here, there was actually a couple of trivia questions that came out of my throwback three. Nine and seven record going into the playoffs became one of three teams to reach the Super Bowl with under 10 wins at the time.
Can you name the other two? Can you name the other two? Well, definitely your Arizona, you said reach the Super Bowl, your Arizona Cardinals. Yep.
And I want to say a team that I'm going to start off with as my number three, I'm guessing here. So I'm previewing the 2001 Pats? No? They won 10 games? 79 Rams.
Yeah, old school. 79 Rams.
But obviously, I think it was kind of Victor Cruz's's Victor Cruz's kind of coming out party that year. Victor Cruz for sure is Ahmad Bradshaw in the backfield, Derek Ward, uh, the defense with Justin Tuck and oh yes.
Yes. Straight straight hand and just retired, I think the year before.
So like Tuck was like, it was just like one of those years where I don't think anybody really thought they were going to be that good. And then they ended up going on a run at nine and seven.
So that's, let me ask before I give you my number three, uh, the polarizing thing quickly, but Eli, Eli's a hall of famer to you, right? First ballot. Okay.
I know, but to you for your, for your money, yes, 1,000, there's not an argument against him in my opinion, being in the hall of fame. I love argue.
That was one of my favorite Twitter arguments back in the day. That's going to be gone now soon.
But yes. Okay.
So yeah, my number three was the 2001 Pats and basically the entrance into the greatest quarterback of all time. That was a run just week by week, grinding out those games all go and then going against the greatest show on
turf.
So 2001 past easily could be number one here,
but that is a run because no one thought a,
uh,
Tom Brady led pats was going to win a super bowl that year.
So that's my number one.
And started maybe the greatest dynasty in the history of sport.
If you,
if you think about it,
um,
all right,
number two,
kind of a no brainer, Nick Foles, Philly Eagles. Absolutely.
I know Andrew's pumped. 2017, just a little bit of numbers, averaged 324 yards per game.
I got it in my notes, six touchdowns, one interception. They ran through Atlanta, Minnesota, and then obviously the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
He beat Tom Brady. Not a lot of people have beaten Tom Brady in the Super Bowl.
Carson Wentz goes down toward the end of the year. I think it was week 14 or 15.
And Foles comes in and just like they don't miss a step, man. And he takes it.
And then obviously the Philly special, which was the incredible where he catches the touchdown. And again, this is my other trivia question.
Got some good stuff.
I'm just turning this into trivia.
I know this is great.
Three quarterbacks to catch a reception in the Super Bowl.
Only three.
He's obviously one of them.
Can you name the other two?
Oh, man, that's.
They came before him, so he was the third quarterback to catch a ball in the Superbowl,
not a touchdown,
just a reception.
These other two.
Yeah.
I mean,
you'll just take a wild guess.
I don't have,
I was there.
They're both hall of famers,
not big Ben,
right?
No.
Okay.
I give up tapping out.
Uh,
Jim Kelly and John Elway.
Elway.
I gotta be honest.
I don't know.
I don't know the game.
That was just popped up.
Thank you. Tapping out.
Jim Kelly and John Elway. Elway.
I got to be honest. I don't know.
I don't know the game. That was just popped up.
But shout out to Nick Foles. Eagles that year.
Foles had a great career, man. I remember him coming out of Arizona.
I think it was. But Eagles, Rams, Chiefs.
Went back to the Eagles for that Super Bowl run. Jags, Bears, Colts.
Played for a lot of teams. teams now he's like a professional pickleballer which I'm jealous of because he's a stud but uh what a great run man that was incredible anytime a backup quarterback leads to to a Super Bowl win it's got to go down as one of the greatest runs ever so my number two okay this is my list okay so you could you could insult it as much as want.
I'm just giving you one in recent memory that stood out. It did not result in the Superbowl.
Uh, but to me, as far as there was a team making a run, it didn't fully get to the Superbowl. But do you remember the Vrabel Titans run on the road, beating Brady and the Pats? Yeah.
Yeah. Then going into, I think's Tannehill, then going into Baltimore as like we're seeing this week, Baltimore is almost a 10 point favorite versus they went into Baltimore, 10 point underdogs and beat the shit out of Lamar and the ravings.
That was the one where I think Ravel said, if we win this game, I'll cut my off and eat it. Something like that.
He said to the players, he said something ridiculous like that. I know it's a weird one for number two.
There's another one I would have put in, but I'm leaving it for you. I think you're going to say it.
Maybe you won't. I don't know.
But that one just stuck out to me in recent memory. And I didn't want to make this all Giants.
I didn't want to go 1990 Giants on you. The greatest day of my life was when the Giants...
When they beat the Niners in the NFC Championship game with that Matt Barr field goal, my uncle and I were so excited. He took me right...
This is the greatest 10-year-old day. Giants win the game to go to the Super Bowl and my uncle takes me to the movie theater to see Home Alone.
That all happened in one day for me. What a fucking day.
That was a day. But I don't want to make this giant porn for you.
You just talked about Home Alone. You made a dick joke and the Titans and Ray Ball all in one sentence.
It's a wild show today. Good for you, buddy.
All right, number one. Now, you're not going to...
This is... When you look at this, it's obvious.
But actually, after talking to Coach Wanstead, I'm going with the 1985 Chicago Bears. OK, let me give you a little history lesson here, Jerry Ferrara.
OK, coach coached by Mike Ditka, right? Fifty to one record. The only loss came to the Dolphins that year.
The defense was led by who? The Singletary and oh, uh buddy ryan oh the coordinator yeah which then the 46 defense which is the bear defense was sort of revolutionized right and that's when we play mad and you see the 46 the bear defense for everybody listening is when the no when the center and both guards are covered that is the bear defense and then it allows other guys on the outside so when the center and both guards are covered, that is when you get a bear defense or the 46 defense back then they gave up 12 points per game. They had 54 takeaways that year.
Okay. But here's the greatest playoff run of all time for defense in three playoff games.
They gave up 10 points. They beat the Giants 21-0 in the divisional round.
They beat the Rams 24-0. And then they beat the Patriots 46-10 in the Super Bowl.
The greatest, arguably the greatest team to ever do it. Yeah.
The 1985 Bears with the greatest playoff run of all time. Okay, I'll shut up now.
Who you got, but really quick. I know you didn't win the super bowl, but you live, you played through a run.
Like you, you just didn't want to, was that you don't want to be selfish and say the 2008 Cardinals. Well, by the way, the 2000, that's an amazing run, amazing run.
And Larry Fitzgerald had an incredible run that for, so I think Fitz average, like 150 yards receiving a game that run. He was incredible.
Had the big super bowl. Um, we went in, I told this story before real quickly that year we were, I think we finished eight and eight or nine and seven.
We were terrible, but we, we won our division. Um, we played Philly on Thanksgiving.
We got our ass kicked. We played new England in late November in a blizzard against Matt castle and Randy and Wes Walker.
We lost like by 35, um, we limped into the playoff and then we made the run and I'll, and I would set this set this run up. I think we played Atlanta, um, or green Bay one.
And then we ended up Carolina was the number one seed or the number two seed. We beat Carolina that year in Carolina.
They did not scare us. And we're like, dude, we're going to beat that.
I think we beat them. Is that Delone? It was Jake Delone.
And we handled them up in Carolina. And then the way it worked out is Philly made the run as a wild card.
So we ended up hosting an NFC championship game at nine and seven or whatever. Nine and seven against McNabb and the Eagles who are really good.
They were on their run and we beat them in the NFC title game. And then we ended up playing Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl.
And honestly, we should have won if should have won. Yeah.
Anyway. Oh, yeah.
Great Anyway. It was a great run.
I left that one for you because that easily would have been my number two. I don't have good members with the Cardinals.
It's the 07 Giants. I feel like you probably left that one for me.
You did do 2011. I appreciate that.
What made that run so special, of course, was beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl, but then that final week game, the thing that stood out was this whole play starters, don't play starters. Giants could not improve upon their seed that year.
They were locked in at whatever it was, six seed, whatever it was, five seed. But the Pats are going for undefeated.
So Coughlin had that choice choice should i just rest my starters or should i play them and try and take out this undefeated season and he played all his starters and it was a great game the giants it was like it's like a moss 50 yard touchdown that iced it but that was a game wasn't that's what the giants learned was that the mario manningham catch down the side yes no no no no that was from the playoff run that was a super That's the playoff run, which to me, that's the Giants learned. Was that the Mario Manningham catch down the sideline? Yes.
No, no, no. No, that was from the playoff run.
That was a Super Bowl? No, that was a playoff run. To me, that's the most underrated throw.
Unbelievable. Because that thing is in the only spot that only Manningham could have caught it.
So that propelled the Giants. But the thing that always stood out to that run was it was all on the road.
They just were all on the road in that game against Green Bay when I think it was Tines misses like field goals. I could have ended the game.
And then it's just the best. It's the best run.
Sorry to do it. And if you have better ones out, it really is a great, by the way, it's a great run.
You're absolutely right. And you give it to Eli, but it's hard to give it to just Eli because that team had so many things going on.
So somehow, some way New York giants find their way.
I just don't like,
I,
I,
I will replace my Vrabel Titans trying to be cool pick with the 2008 Cardinals.
I thought you were going to take it.
I left it for you.
No,
I,
I had it.
I,
it was in my honorable mention,
but it was like,
eh,
you know,
I should have,
I should have not had the,
and hitting incentives the whole way,
right?
Each round,
getting them checks.
We all made a couple
hundred Gs that year.
And sold my Super Bowl tickets.
Shout out there, too.
I won't say to who, but I made a good amount of money
on my Super Bowl tickets. One day, I'll
get that out of you, who you sold that to.
Listen, enjoy
the playoffs, everybody. Enjoy college
and NFL playoffs. And again,
thoughts to everybody out there in LA
please stay safe and uh yeah everyone be safe out there