Dak’s Down on Dallas, Saquon’s Stunning Leap, Kelce vs a Fan and Kurt Warner Joins the Show!

Is there a surprise, a takeaway so far, quarterback play, anything that sticks out to you?

Yeah, quarterback play I think is terrible right now.

Guys trying to come from college to play our game, it's faster.

You know, good athletes in college are not good athletes in the NFL, so to speak. You got to know what you're doing.
You got to know what you're seeing. I'm going to another episode of Throwbacks, everybody.
However you're taking in the show today, we appreciate it. Subscribe to us on YouTube.
Follow on Apple and Spotify and rate and review. Do all those things.
Hit us up on social at Throwback Show. We've also been throwing our

Throwback 3 every week, so you guys

can let us know what you're thinking. And we do

respond to you, as always.

Matt Leinert,

how's it going today, buddy?

Whether they like us or not.

It's going good, man.

We are a week removed

from Halloween. First show in November.

First show in November. First show in November.

First show in November.

Just a little Halloween recap. How was it? I'll tell you what.
Were you a Grinch? I know you're a little bit little Grinchy. No, I wasn't a Grinch.
So we're doing our Throwback 3 today. We have a really good category.
I'm going to say my Halloween recap is in the thing that stuck out to me is in my Halloween recap with the Throwback 3. I will say, though know i got my first my brie my lovely wife who was on last week mentioned elf on the shelf to me yesterday and i put my ears and ran i just ran i'm not ready well the thing is is both of our wives have agreed i think that november 15th is his doomsday it's an embargo we have an embargo it's the day you and and I are going in the attic and just starting to, yeah, like we're little elves.
We're Santa's elves. I know.
Gosh, if they team up together, we are screwed, dude. We got to stay strong, bro.
No, I think we have it in a good place. November's great.
You got the college football last couple weeks, a great race, playoffs. everything starts to heat up in november you know baseball's over basketball's picking up i think you know nfl we're halfway through we're starting to see some of these division races kind of heat up some of the teams that that we said were shit a couple weeks ago are starting to make a run i mean so we're are one.
Bengals are one. Like, that's why we love football, man.
Speaking of the Rams and also your former team, Arizona Cardinals, we got Kurt Warner joining us today. Greatest show on turf.
I mean, listening to that dude and the way he talks about quarterbacks, you're going to learn something. I think he's calling the game two in Germany, the barn burner that will be Giants-Panthers.
That's what we want Europe to see. Giants-Panthers.
What is that? I'm going. I'm going.
Yeah, right. Imagine I called you.
I'm like, Matt, I'm on the plane to Germany. I would be like, why? I would be like, why? Bree would not allow that to happen.
I'm excited to talk to Kurt because for a lot of reasons, you know, Kurt and I played together in Arizona for four years and it's such a fascinating like quarterbacks and quarterback rooms and veterans versus rookies and like quarterback play, which Kurt, there's no one better to talk quarterback play than Kurt. So I think he's going to be fascinating, but also just going back to our time, you know, we don't really get a chance to talk that much because of lies and busyness and all that.
But like, it was a crazy time, you know, me getting drafted and taking his spot and me being labeled what I've been labeled, but having a chance to really learn from him. And like, you know, we really became really close in that quarterback room and really became friends.
So I'm excited kind of to peel back those layers a little bit

of memories.

And also, dude, he was a part

of some of the best teams that ever played.

Like, he's... I mean,

listen, if you love football and you want

to hear stories, this is

your episode because he's going to be great.

Well,

you mentioned also basketball. It's November.
basketball starting. How are the Knicks doing, by the way? Can I have 20 seconds? I'm not going to crush you with basketball just yet.
Can I have 20 seconds? Okay, 20 seconds. You can have 30.
Yeah, I'll give you 30. 30 seconds.
All right, Knicks off to a rough start. Not rough start, the 500 team, they're figuring things out.
But I more so, I'm waiting.. Chris Mannix one of my favorite reporters, one of my favorite journalists.
Love him for boxing basketball that's my opinion. He made this whole take of Mikkel Bridges changed his shot.
Someone's going to get Mikkel Bridges is shooting the same way he shot last year I'm waiting for the follow up Chris you said you were going to be following this Mikael Bridges shooting hitch story real closely. You talked a bunch of shit on opening night in warm-ups.
You haven't said a word since. Just waiting.
Where's the follow-up? Where are you going to report? Hey, his jump shot looks fine. Everything's fine.
He's shooting the same exact way he did last year. Josh, I'm nuts.
He obviously hates you. Do you have a relationship? I know Chris for a long time.
Cause the way you talk about him, it makes me feel like you want to punch him through your Twitter fingers, Matt. He fired the first shot and maybe it's my Italian blood.
If I have like a vendetta, I was minding my business one day and my Twitter account blew up because Chris Mannix said it's nick fans fault that jalen brunson's not starting in the all-star game that whole i'm like okay yeah we debated it that's a stretch but he he he did a drive-by on me he just he didn't text me that he tweeted me that drive drive-by so now i drive by him every single after every nicks game I at him and I post at him. I would love to get him on the pod.
Anytime. Yeah, let's get him on the pod.
And he's from Boston. He can handle me talking shit to him.
He's not offended easily. Yeah, but I would just stir the hell out of that pod.
I want to see you guys end up yelling at each other. I can't stand his basketball takes.
Maybe it's because he's a Celtics fan too. He's a really good journalist.
I cannot stand his basketball takes. You gave me like 90 seconds there.
I love you for it. The Knicks are what? What are they, 4-4? Going into tonight, well, by the time this episode airs, they're 3-3 right now.
They'll either be four and three or three and four. So nothing to write home about just yet.

It's early.

Let's talk about the NFL really quick,

the things that stuck out.

And I always try to think,

what are the things I need to talk about with Matt?

Obviously, the Cowboys, everyone loves to talk about them,

but Dak getting caught on camera saying we fucking suck.

I want to ask you that. He's not wrong.
Well, my first thought is that's like a tale as old as time meaning i i only played sports up until like sophomore year of high school so i'm not the best reference point but i can remember being 10 years old in little league baseball on a bad team and striking out and going back to my bench be like we fucking suck and everyone's like yeah we kind of do i saw nothing terrible about that right it's like it's like people forget like athletes are human athletes are playing a sport with most of us all played sports growing up like you said you played sports growing up and it's like yeah when you call an ace is you know a spade a spade it's like dude we fucking suck we're not like we're not fucking good we're not a good team and just because we're the Dallas Cowboys and like there's all these expectations we're in the media it's like we are shit like what are they two and six I mean they're like like that is bad and I'm telling you what man I've been on bad teams and the Cowboys are like it's you can't win because they are just like I mean they're not I don't even they're America right? That's what they're labeled. But they're just always in the media, good or bad.
It's gotta be exhausting after a while. It's gotta be exhausting.
And now that you're bad, and this was a team that was coming in that was like, hey, talent on paper, you know, this and that. It's a playoff team.
It can go south really quick. And that's just frustration.
There's with that they suck they they do and i don't know like and he said it to someone he didn't mumble it to himself there was a few players with an earshot so clearly you can't even say oh the locker room's falling apart no they all agree they fucking suck cowboys andrew thank you cowboys are three and five but i mean that's five well three and five three and five halfway park dak doesnac doesn't seem and dac's as well dac's out for a little bit yeah look i think it's it's we're seeing a little bit of division right in some of these locker rooms and teams and i'm telling you man when when you lose at that level people start i say like you can catching some stray bullets, dude. Like, locker room kind of becomes divided.
You know, quarterbacks get a lot of heat if they're not playing well. You got guys start chirping online.
Like, it's just, when you lose... Is that what's happening with the Saints? To me, I just thought you described the New Orleans Saints.
Yeah, you got Michael Thomas taking shots. What is up with that? That bothers me.
It bothers me because there's a time and a place for that. And I look like Derek Carr might not be playing to maybe the expectation, what he's making, all of those things.
No, he's been in and out of the lineup. He missed a bunch of games.
We can say that. I think Derek Carr is a good dude.
He works hard. I think he's won a lot.
He's had a lot of success in the league as well. I hate that type of stuff.
If you got a problem with a dude, you go to his face, you go in the locker room, and you confront him. And you hash it out within the walls because that's what a team is, right? And so when people get online, and we saw, I mean, God, we saw this with Jason Kelsey this past week with a fan.
But like when people- We'll get to that, yeah. Yeah, when people get to a point, and this is an athlete, right? Just like using this platform just to talk shit.
And then it's like, then you got to, the quarterback's got to answer it in the media. It becomes a national story where guys like us now talk about it.
It's like, grow the fuck up, dude. Honestly, that's my thought on it.
So it pisses me off. And maybe it's because I've been in that situation before, but it's like, if you got a problem with me, come to my face and tell me.
And that's fine. And we can talk like men.
We're not going to talk via X. Well, that does go on.
But also, you're trying to say he got Olave hurt. Obviously, not intentionally.
But he's so bad that he just gets his wide receivers hurt. If that's a thing, I mean, there's lots of quarterbacks that probably threw some passes that are like, shit, I left my guy out to dry, and they got crushed.
I don't think that's unique to Derek Carr or intentional. Yeah, that was...
It's just like, for what? But that's the world. That's this internet culture that we've created where just people think there's free reign without consequences.
Yeah. Dude, scare him, panic, and just throw the ball.
That's what he said.

Get him the F out of here.

He is so ass.

Well, he might not be wrong about that,

but I don't think a lot of his injury had anything to do with that.

There's a time and place, and I've been in those locker rooms,

where you're like, if your QB's not playing well,

he gets all the glory, gets all the shame, all that stuff,

and that's part of the position.

That's why you make $50 million a year. You got a problem.
You address it. You address it within the walls.
The quarterback takes responsibility. I've been in, I've been in meetings where QBs come up and say, I'm not playing well enough for this team.
I'll get better or whatever. And that's just how you handle that shit.
Like you're grown men handling it. It's a, it's a job, it's a business, but unfortunately it's just a different world, man.
It's a different world that we live in. Well, we also saw what a job and a business it was from my guy, Saquon Barkley.
I still don't love, I still don't get the Giant fan bitterness, but I just, I just have, I didn't share this on Twitter. I saved it for this.
Watching that play, which we've seen him do amazing things with the Giants. I know some shows and people in the media are trying to name the move, whatever that backward reverse spin is.
For me, it's just called the heartbreaker because not that I'm mad at him because he's in Philly. Do you know what it was like, Matt? It was like going on Instagram and your ex-girlfriend, you see her and now she's like in Bora Bora with her very handsome, wealthy new boyfriend.
That's what it felt like. You're on Instagram and you look at it like, oh man.
It's like the revenge body. Yeah.
And all of a sudden it's like, oh man, she's in Bora Bora. What are they doing in Bora Bora? Oh, they're at the Four Seasons.
They got one of those huts over the water. Yeah, and then you start scrolling and deep diving on accident.
Yeah, he's an entrepreneur. You accidentally like a photo and you start to sweat like he's on his fourth business he sold his fourth business wow that guy looks great definitely better than me that's all i felt like happy for him that move would have been the bright spot of the giant season the whole season that would have been we would have dined out on that move if that was in a giant's jersey he's just just, dude, he's just, he's an incredible athlete.
Like it's just, it's hard. It's, you can't really, it's especially in football because it's so hard because all of these athletes, the best part, and this was, and, and, you know, the best part about this was the, all of the videos now of the Eagles reactions, all his teammates.
And like the whole thing was like, these are grown men, grown athletes, the best at what they do, watching their buddy do the same thing to the best athletes in the world and they are like in awe. It would be like, I was like Saquon reminds me of like Bo Jackson but it's two different eras but the build and the athleticism and like just the things you could do.
It's like this dude is hurtling guys, spinning, hurtling backwards getting like get up and get back in the huddle and run next week and nothing happened. it's like this dude is hurtling guys spinning hurtling backwards get it like like like like get back and get up and get back in the huddle run that's like nothing happened it's like it's like sometimes you need to stop and just appreciate like holy shit like this dude is different it's hard to see new things even the like the garrett wilson catch was awesome yeah but i i've seen that before you know and it's always compared to like oh odell and then like is this the greatest different it's slightly different but we've never seen that before we've never seen that before you know and it's always compared to like oh who odell and then like is this the greatest different it's slightly different but it's in the same family we've never seen that before we've never seen that before that catch no saquon oh saquon never see and then the only other thing i've seen this year in football i haven't seen before i'm forgetting the the dude on alabama the receiver who had that yeah that crazy i've never seen that i've just never seen a human body do that those are the two things this year that i've never seen before and i hope we continue to get it but we're running out of stuff by the way dude i'm just hoping not to pull i'm just hoping not to pull a hammy just shooting horse in the in our shootout that we're gonna have at usc in a couple i mean we should start pumping that up dude because it is on i by the way i'm creating a lot of hoopla.
Yeah, we have our three-point shootout. When was the last time you shot a basketball? This is a great question because I was playing a little bit in the summer and then I shot something at Madison Square Garden where we were shooting a little bit.
I don't want any excuses. There's no excuses.
I'm the underdog. You have time.
If you don't shoot, that's on you.

I'm going to get out there.

Well, I'm flying to LA actually this week,

but I'm going to get out.

I'm going to get,

I need two days to get some shots up.

That's all.

We're not playing like a five on five

where I got to run 90 feet back and forth.

But you're playing.

And it's not a timed three-point shootout, right?

We're not timing it.

No, we're not going to time it,

but you might have people watching you there.

Buddy, I've been having people watch me for 25 years. Ain gonna scare me now i failed in front of more people i've failed and lost the things in front of more people than that will be at wherever we're shooting um i can't wait i can't wait well you mentioned kelsey earlier and i know a lot almost everyone has commented on it but i do think we need to talk about it because I think there's a bigger picture with all this stuff.
Kelsey and beat, even the stuff we were talking about with Mike, with Michael Thomas and Derek Carr, but we saw Jason Kelsey and the smashed phone and the home, but we, we, we saw it. We know what happened.
We don't have to rehash. I just feel like, and I'd love to get your opinion.
I just feel like it's a slippery slope, no which way you go. Because on one hand, I'm old school in a sense of like, oh, you want to make that joke on Twitter? I don't know who you are.
You got me. You want to make it to my face? That's a different story.
And all the rules are gone. But in the same boat, Kelsey is a very, very public figure right now.
He showed and lost restraint in amazing ways at the same time. Breaking the phone is a complete loss of restraint, but then him kind of getting pushed and not smashing the guy's face after that is amazing restraint.
So I do think that crossing this line where you get that close to, in this case, a former player, but now big big personality and you get to say that stuff. I don't know.
I, I, I worry. He should have punched him in the face and it would have been justified, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's a fine line and I'm, but, but I'm glad it happened in that sense because we talk about this internet culture and, you know, you can hide behind a screen and you can type away because now you have access to, you have direct access to athletes, public figures, politicians, whatever it is.

Like you can communicate with them.

And if they choose to communicate back with you, like you are literally speaking to that person.

So you can tell them whatever the hell you want, good or bad. And you do it without consequence.
Zero. You don't got to work.
Zero. Zero.
We call it Twitter fingers and you can hide behind a keyboard, but that's what people do. So when it happens, and it very rarely happens, I think in person, like we saw with Kelsey.
I'm kind of glad it happened in a sense because a lot of these people, they need to be reminded that there are consequences at times for this shit. If you do that, you are lucky he didn't beat the hell out of you.
Now, maybe they want that because then they can sue and they can do all these things. That's the shitty world we're in.
I think it just reminded... I thought he handled it perfectly great, honestly.
Probably better than a lot of people because as you said, he lashed out with the phone, which by the way was great. Didn't put his hands on the guy, but don't mess with me.
And then he showed the patience and the restraint to be like,

say what he said and he moved on.

But I hope

it's a wake-up call for people, man.

It's one thing online

and you can do this and all that, but

when you're in person and dudes mind

your own business and you're walking and you're going this

and you maybe have a couple drinks

and all of a sudden you're like, oh, I'm feeling pretty tough

today. Well, you're not.
You're not. You're not.
And by the way, that could have ended very, very badly for you. So, well, I have this one, I'm not going to mention his name, but this, this actor friend of mine, and he's done pretty well in his career.
It's not anyone from Entourage, so don't worry. But he's definitely, you know, was the kind of person where a lot of people, if, you know, maybe would talk shit to him in the same way, almost as an athlete, even though he wasn't an athlete and he was an actor.
And he had, when we're talking one day about like, this is like insurances and stuff. And he has like an umbrella policy.
He used to call his knockout fund. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, well, someone says some shit to me.
I knock him out. They sue me.
That's why I carry extra insurance. But I want that ability to be able to handle it.
And that rocked me to my very core. I'm not about that life.
But yeah, so you almost wish Dana White started the slap. You almost wish Dana White, like, hey, imagine that incident happens and Dana White pops out.
And it's like, all right, we're going to do contracts real fast. Sign.
Sign up. Okay, you're not going to sue him.
He's not going to sue you. You guys got beef.
You called him a slur. Ready? Go.
Like, you wish it could happen that fast. Because that would stop it all.
It would stop it all. And look, I'm all for the, like, hey, Jason, you suck as a center.
You you were terrible which is not true i when it gets personal you lose me whether you're playing pickup basketball or you're playing in the league when you get personal like that as a fan or whatever someone trolling which is getting more and more popular you lose me which brings me to the imbeed situation okay and look he put he put his hands on the reporter in that case Marcus Hayes and that shouldn't have happened no matter what because you got a shorter restraint but just for me and again I'm no Joel Embiid I I have one percent notoriety that he's ever had but I've been in situations where someone in media said some not nice things and you try to redirect it but I have also been in the situation this wasn't a nefarious thing where I think it was like Rosie O'Donnell where I was doing like an interview and she innocently mentioned my father who died 40 years ago okay and it was he didn't go out he went out there's a story behind how he went out but i wasn't prepared for it right she asked me about it and i just like panic you saw i visibly got shook up and i guess that's my point there's a golden rule if your personal life is affecting something on the field if you get in legal trouble and you're not playing because you're suspect all right that's fair game that's a story and it's affecting your performance and it's like a legal thing but i i get into a lot of i get into i don't know it just hits me a different way no i agree i don't know what his angle was what he was trying to say like you're you're failing your son like whatever it was yeah i mean he lost a family member and yeah it's just like bring it up don't even bring it up there's the personal professionalism sport person like like you can't blend the lines because there's no story there there's no story if you want to talk about him not playing back-to-backs you want to talk about his injury like you like like those are that's fair game he can answer it how he wants and react but that's fair but like when you make it personal or you use that as an analogy to whatever, it's like, dude, no, like this is not okay. And that's like the golden rule.
Like for me being an athlete, like that was always we talked about locker room. It's like, you know, you got to be a big boy.
Like you're getting paid a lot of money. You got to be able to handle criticism and all that.
But like when you talk about a family member member or a personal issue and all that that you're going through like you don't know what these dudes are going through like you know like you don't know what they're going through outside of of basketball and yeah you can't even reference if you reference that my friend who passed away 20 years ago like even if you just bring him up in a nice way i still have to go go off in the corner and fight back tears. So to make that into a story, it's so weird, Matt, and we could wrap it

up and move on, but I was thinking about it like this too. And I don't even know how you feel as

being a professional athlete, but we are all in this together in our own way, meaning the athlete,

the fan, and the media member, regardless of how athletes feel about media, I get it, or how fans feel about some athletes, I get it, but this whole thing works. We're doing this show because of that revolving door.
We are in business together, whether we like it or not, okay? The fans pay money and watch and consume. Athletes get paid for your love, but you're playing playing a game you love and you're making a living doing it and the media is supposed to highlight the stories and and on and on we go and i just feel like it's in the weirdest place that it's ever been and twitter's been around long enough now that we can't say it's just social media it's been around long enough but it but it's social but it's again i just go back back to the access and just like this feeling that fans and people have that they feel like they can, like, they feel like they're as invested as the players so that they can have all these opinions and you suck and this and that.
And it's like, you can't coexist that way. And I get it.
Like, you get frustrated. I get it.
But I would tell you, the players are just as frustrated they're living in it and and everyone's like well i i always this is a little bit off talk but i always hated like well they're making millions of dollars okay yeah dude like they are they're still human this is what this is what they chose to do this is the path they're they're they're elite in what they do it doesn't mean that they're robots, dude. They're still putting a roof over their kids' head.

They're still dealing with real shit at home.

All the things that we all deal with as people,

and I think that's sometimes what's forgotten

from a fan or a media and all of that.

And again, it's hard because it's like,

well, shoot, you make 10 mil.

Come on, man. Grow a pair.

That's not it. It's just not it.
So I get it. Like it is a full circle.
Like it's all interwoven fans make the, make sport great. Media allows sport to be watched.
Like we give athletes, give fans what they want. Like how do you coexist? And just recent.
And again, also not to get too deep here. Like we're, we're in a, we're in a place right now with a divided country, man.
Like we need to like, and sport is actually the one thing that brings everybody together. You would think, yeah, you would think, you know what I mean? So I'm with you, man.
That's why I don't mind. I don't mind Kevin Durant up in the wee hours of the morning, tweeting back at people.
That to me is healthy. I think that is healthy.
I love listening to Draymond Green on this podcast. I don't always agree, definitely about his Nick stuff, but I love athletes, current and former, having their own platforms to tell the story their way.
But don't get it twisted. It is a cycle.
Look, my limited experience, I am, there was a reporter one time who was following me and the entourage guys around when the movie came out and was going to do this like exclusive stories and follow us out for two days. And we all got along real great, thought the guy had a great time.
We were there working and the guy shit on us for like 10 pages, right? It sucks. And there's things I could say to people.
Look, that's part of it, but it wasn't really personal. It never got personal.
So you accept it and you move on. But yeah, it does suck.
And we were making good money for that movie and we had to deal with it. So I don't know.
I don't know where to go from there. I just, I just, I feel like it could all get better.
All right. Thanks Jerry.
Sorry. Sorry.
I'm a deep thinker today, but you know what? Let's highlight something good, huh? Let's do it. Let's pivot out of that stuff and let's do our, uh, let's do the can't get enough sauce at the moment brought to you by Wendy's.
I know exactly who mine is this week. It was one of the easiest decisions I've had.
But every week, Matt and I are going to highlight a player on or off the field or court doing something we love and especially something that's saucy. Matt, it's a quarterback.
I guess this is the quarterback episode that we're doing in general. Did we do the same quarterback? You didn't have Kirk Cousins, did you? No.
Okay, I have Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins? Last two games, he has seven touchdowns, 500 yards.
Last five games, he has 13 touchdowns and almost 1,500 yards and only three picks. 4-0 in the division, 3-0 on the road.
Basically cemented the Falcons. I mean, they'd have to have a pretty big breakdown for anyone to catch them with the injuries that the bucks have the guy does it everywhere he goes he's gonna win comeback player of the year he has to be the favorite i love nick chubb i love the sam darnold story again he's the comeback play the guy blew out his achilles last year and he's putting up monster numbers and, Matt.
I'm listening. I know the Falcons have some defensive problems, but I love where that offense is at.
Obviously, we hope Drake London comes back. I was going to say, they have more problems than the defense.
That's big right now. Dude, I love Kirk Cousins.
He saved Kyle Pitts. The very people who draft Kyle Pitts every year in fantasy, it's happening now.
Competency saved Kyle Pitts.

Just like, hey, let's just get this dude the ball.

Right, but having someone who can get him the ball also helps.

So Kirk Cousins, you are my can't-get-enough-sauce moment of the week.

I love that we're on the same page.

I'm going with – who do you think I'm going with?

Honestly, I don't know because Kirk Cousins to me –

oh, you're going with Joey B?

I'm going with Joey B. Yeah.
I'm going with Joey B. Five tutties against the Raiders last week.
Quietly having an MVP season. I was going to say a big one tonight against the Ravens.
They've won three or four. We spent the first three episodes just talking how bad the Bengals were.
And they were. They were.
They won three or four. Everyone talked about, ah, he's not that good.
I heard a lot of these people on media be like, ah, he's got good players. He's not as good as what they paid him, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
All of a sudden, you don't blink. And what you just said, 20 touchdowns, four interceptions this year.
I think Baker's the only one. Like 80% completion percentage.
It's like the numbers are ridiculous. It's saucy.
An under-the-radar MVP candidate. And also this past week, he was talking a little smack on the guy on the bench.
You can see it. I love this shit because you can see it.
Joe B is always serious. He's always serious.
It's almost like, dude, loosen up a little bit, but you can tell, right right and like yelling at the guys sitting down i still don't even know the backstory of that but like he's locked in dude he's locked in the bangles win against the ravens they're what five what are they four and five right now three whatever they're right in the mix they're right back in the mix dude saucy with the side of extra sauce shout to Wendy's. And yeah, the Bengals are coming, man.
And he has my best quote ever. Like, what would you tell a young player? Don't put workout videos on social media.
Yeah, he's the best. Shout out to Joey B.
Those two guys can't get enough sauce moment of the week. All right.
Thank you to Wendy's as always. And we're going to take a quick break.
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Only available with TurboTax Live full service. All right, joining us now, two-time MVP, key figure in what is known as the greatest show on turf, which I miss, by the way.
I miss watching that every weekend. He's enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and you can hear him every week on West With One's call on Monday Night Football.
He does a great job with that. I was listening to it the other night.
The legend, Kurt Warner, joins us. Kurt, thank you for coming on.
We appreciate it. You got it.
Great to be on with you guys. And just the white beard.
Just letting yourself go. You look so handsome.
I think I'm the only one on TV that has gray hair, and I'm'm trying to figure that out how these guys get to be 45 and 50 and they don't have gray hair but um you know i can tell you how well yeah well no exactly but what are you gonna do my wife likes it uh so we figure we try to age gracefully the best we can by the way happy wife happy life man isn't that it couldn't be more true someone just asked me the other day if i if i colored my beard'm actually, it's short today, but I'm like, no, I don't color my beard. I haven't hit the gray yet.
No, not at all? Okay, that's good. No, a little bit.
I'm hiding a little bit up here. But let's start just today's NFL, buddy.
And just like we're halfway through the season and you're calling games, you're fully invested in it is there you know is there a surprise a takeaway so far quarterback play anything that sticks out to you well yeah quarterback play I think is terrible which um it's it's rough I mean you know you cover college football it's that it's such a different game and these guys trying to come from college to play our game, it's just different. It's faster.
You know, good athletes in college are not good athletes in the NFL, so to speak. Right.
You can't live in that world in the NFL. You got to know what you're doing.
You got to know what you're seeing. And, you know, I think some of these guys are in bad spots because they're getting thrown in before they're ready to play just because they're supposed to be or because they're grafted high.
But that's probably my biggest takeaway is that the game is evolving to me in the wrong direction. It's becoming everything at the line of scrimmage, a bunch of bubble screens, a bunch of quick throws, oftentimes because these guys can't see it.
It's become a lot of pure progression stuff, which I'm not a proponent of it because I think it hurts quarterbacks as much as it seems to make sense. And I'm sure you see it all in college football.
Hey, we've got to get the best athlete on the field right now and we've got to play him. So the best way is to just throw him out there and say, hey, this is one, two, three, four, five, no matter what coverage you see.
But it's just, it's hard to play that way in the NFL, in my opinion opinion and I see that hurt quarterbacks every week so um so that's kind of to me kind of the bummer of things because I think we have some really good young quarterbacks um but they're not being put into situations to succeed or they're not being given the chance to sit a little bit and learn and now they have to survive you know like you know look at justin fields is that you know they threw him in in chicago and it was just survive you got to try to win while you're surviving without knowing what to do anthony richardson i think is the same way here go you know you're a great athlete figure it out while you go and you can't learn that way you just survive that way and so that's probably the biggest takeaway for the most part how would how would you describe because because we come it's it's crazy how much the offense has evolved and i was just telling telling jerry before like if you completed over 60 of your throws like and you you had one i mean you and like drew breeze and some of those guys in that era were like 65 closest but now it's like you see guys 75 and it's a different, it's, it's different. How, how would you describe for everybody that will listen,

how the quarterback position was taught when you played the way you helped me learn it as opposed

to what you just said now, like what is the biggest difference in, in, in simple terms?

Sure. Uh, yeah.
I mean, first, you know, it was funny. We, we looked like a couple of years ago.

So for a few years I led the league and completion percentage, 65, 66, whatever that was. And we looked a few years ago and there were 20 guys, like we went back to one of the years that I led the league.
There were 20 guys in the league that had a higher completion percentage than I had when I led the league back in the day. And so it is so completely different.
But just to kind of expand on what we were talking about, I'm a guy that believes in defender read. And so what I mean by that is that if I put Jerry on a deep route and I put you on a short route, I'm basically reading both of you at the same time because I'm reading the defender that I'm putting in conflict.
Like if he deep, I throw it to Matt. If he goes short, I throw it to Jerry.
That's how I was taught how to play the game is that the defense always has to tell you where to go if you've got a good concept. If I have a concept where I just send Jerry deep and then I send you somewhere else on the other side of the field, there's nothing that tells me where to throw it.
Like, I'm just like, okay, is Jerry open? No. Okay.
Is Matt open? No. Okay.
Like, and so to me, it slows the game down. Whereas if I can read two guys at one time, so, you know, we always talk about reads, right? This guy's number one, this guy's number two.
Like if both of my guys are number one, like the game's faster. If I have to get all the way back to number five by going one, two, three, four, five, it's going to be impossible in this game.
And so that was the first part. The second part is, you know, we do this pure progression, which kind of becomes this thing where we have guys all over the field running and we're hoping that the timing plays out.
After I look at number one, now number two is coming open. Now number three is coming into my vision.
You know how we played, Matt. It was like everything was really a half field read because I can't see 11 guys.
I don't really care what the guys on the backside are doing as long as the front side read stays on the front side. And so really most concepts are that way anyways.
Even if you're doing a pure progression type thing, it starts on one side. And so the way I always like to play and when I coached and how I like to design things is I'm going to give you a play on both sides, Matt, in most situations.
So now I'm going to give you the key to look for to the left. Okay.
If the corner's off to the left, go ahead and read this. And you're reading the outside linebacker, bang, bang.
Somebody's going to be open. If the corner rolls.
Now I want you to go back to the right-hand side and you're reading this guy and you're going one, two, three. And so we never really have a four and a five because you can't get there because the game's too fast.
Like you're not getting there anyway. So we're done.
We're not going to waste guys. And so that to me in kind of simplest terms is a, I want you to read a defender.
So that defender, he goes in, you throw it out. He goes out, you throw it in.
He goes high, you throw it low. So you know, as a quarterback, if you're looking at the right guy, he's going to tell you where to go with the football and you don't have to make it up as you go.
And so that to me is one of the biggest differences. And again, I think it's very much in college, a lot of this pure progression and it started to trickle into the NFL.
So these college guys can play. And I just see it every week.
And, you know, I think I text every Monday after I watch film, I hate pure progression. Like I hate it.
I see how it hurts quarterbacks every single week. And I feel for these guys because it's like, you know, like if number three is doing something that's not going to get open for four seconds, I can't go to number three right now.
Like I can't get there faster. You know, if I know that we're number one and two aren't open, I still have to wait for number three to run his route before I can get there.
So it just slows the process down and it hurts the game and it hurts these quarterbacks and their development. And, um, and I don't know the reason.
So something I want to ask you, cause I'm pretty fascinated. And I think my team is probably going to be involved in this, right? You know, drafting quarterbacks in the first round, especially early within the top 10, 15 picks.
It seems like one of the best mysteries in football. Like how do you truly know? And people lose their jobs over picking the wrong player, or then these guys go and resurge somewhere else so it's like maybe i was right so if you were gm or head coach uh throw the giants in there but i don't want to make it specific for you but if your job our team needs a quarterback this year kurt yeah what are the things that you would be looking for as a gm as a coach someone someone you're bringing in a kid from college who we just, you just broke it down.
So amazing. I'm going to listen to that all back because I don't want to miss anything.
What would you be looking for in that war room? Yeah. I mean, let's first just say you don't know until you know, and you know, like we can assess them in a million different ways, but the game is different and the speed is different.
And I've seen great college quarterbacks that haven't been able to make that same type of, you know, transfer to the NFL because the game's just faster. And so, you know, they can be the same quarterback that they were in college five or six years into the NFL, but it's not good enough to excel in the NFL.
And then you see guys like a Tom Brady that was, you know, okay, college quarterback, you can say good, but he wasn't a great college quarterback. And then he just continues to go like this because he gets better and he gets better and he gets better.
And I say that every year, like every college quarterback that comes into the NFL is going to have to get better. They are going to have to be better in the NFL than they were in college.
So you can be great in college. That's not good enough to be great in the NFL.
So that's the first thing is, is we're not ever going to know until they're under center and whether they can do it. But the, but the one thing that I would focus on is kind of the things that I'm talking about.
I would sit in a room with them and give them a play and ask them why. Why would you read it here? What would you be looking at? Where would your eyes go if they gave you this coverage? Because that's what I want to know is I want to know how they think the game.
Now that doesn't mean, you know, because Matt, you know, this as well as me. I've been with some quarterbacks that you put them on a board and you ask them that, and they sound like a genius.
And they can give you, you know, if you give them three minutes, they can give you every scenario. But the bottom line is I need you to give me every scenario in four seconds.
Like, when it really comes down to it, you've got to do all the stuff you just told me and be able to see it and process it in four or five seconds. And that's the thing that's such an unknown.
And why when we see a Jaden Daniels, we're all blown away because it's like, my gosh, you know, it seems like the game's slow for him. Like he sees everything and he can make every throw and he's so poised.
And that's because the mind is working as fast as it needs to work. And that's where I think it's so hard to assess these quarterbacks because A, the game is so different different.
Right. I watch college and I like I don't know how this is going to translate.
Like they're not going to be doing any of this stuff in the NFL. So I don't know.
And then, you know, I don't get a chance to sit down and talk to most of them. But that's what I would be doing is I would at least try to see if they could fully understand how to simplify the game, understand what they're looking for, have been taught from that perspective to a degree where I felt like, okay, the physical and the mental are both there.
Now I need to take it and hone it and get them to the next level. Kurt, can you imagine just running an RPO? Me and you in practice, just an RPO and keep it, and the defensive end goes down.
I mean, it's so wild.

I know, because I actually ran some in arena football,

but it was simplified.

But for me and you, it would be, we're throwing the ball.

Dude, when you used to run in Arizona, we were like, oh, get down, dude.

Well, me too, but like both of us.

Oh, I know.

Imagine what I was thinking.

Well, I was a little faster than you,

but when you would take off and run, we would be like, oh, God, just get down, dude. Just don't get down.
You know, the funny thing is, Matt, is like we played basketball. We played other – I told Jerry you were a hell of a basketball player.
He told me you were, of course, good at basketball. I'm actually a really good athlete.
You're a great athlete. The weird thing is when I got on the football field, it was like my mind told me, you're not an athlete anymore.
Your job is to read the defense and throw the football. And so even when I would run, Matt, I'm like, what am I? I felt like I was a form, like a fear.
Like, what am I doing? I'm so out of sorts. It felt weird for me too.
And it was so much of the mindset where it's like, that's not my job. You know, my job is not to try to do that.
Catch, throw, get the ball to the guys that actually can run. But you're exactly right.
You were saying what you were seeing on the sideline is what I was thinking in my mind. Like, what are you doing? Go down, you know, hope you can get three yards.
But my kids laugh about it all the time too. Like, dad, what are you doing slow i know i felt well i used to i used to always tell everybody like like and again this is like going back like you're a hall of famer right so you have the last laugh but it's like you know like i didn't have the greatest arm i was like you know he doesn't have the greatest arm it doesn't it doesn't come out pretty all the time he can't run but my god that that dude he will place the ball wherever he needs, and he's the smartest dude I've ever been around.
And that was you. And, I mean, that's what you were the best at.
And now you've got a gold jacket. And that's what you've got to try to figure out, right? Yeah.
What's your strength? I realized I couldn't do everything, but what could I do? And let's become the best at what we can do. And so when I do work with young quarterbacks, that's the first thing I ask them is like, we all want to believe, Hey, you know, I can be Patrick Mahomes and I can throw all the, and it's like, at some point it's like, I can't, I can't do that.
I can't run, can't throw it like that. So if you want to separate yourself, what can you do? And that was, and I knew that, and I understood that.
So I got to become really good at processing. I got to be accurate with the football.
I got to have a quick release. Like those are the things that, that I knew I had to do.
So those are the things I worked on. I didn't, I didn't spend time.
Like we're laughing about the fact that I didn't run. I didn't spend time doing that.
Like I didn't spend time in the off season trying to get faster. Like it's not worth it.
It's not going to, it's not going to do me any good. Let's focus on things you're good at you know i i i like flinched earlier in the year when the saints won their first two games someone tried to reference like the saints team's really fun they they have like potential to be you know a great turf tee i i heard like just great and turf in the same sentence and i like recoiled you're not allowed to say that and obviously it has panned out that way.
And we referenced it earlier, but for me, and I'm a Giants fan, but watching you and the Rams and the greatest show on turf, you guys made it look so easy. Obviously, I know it's not easy, but as a fan, it just looked like you could get whatever you want, whenever you wanted.
Looking back on that, what would you say to me when you're thinking what made that offense work so well because i know it's not one thing what to you if you had to sum it up in a few one or two things like what just made that offense so effortlessly efficient and great to watch well i mean let's start with the fact that we were talented like right you know you, you got to start with talent all over the place. You know, I always say this for quarterbacks, too.
And Matt will know this. Like, he was in a couple of different.
The system fit me perfectly. Like, what I did well was throw the ball down the field.
Like, that's where I could really separate myself was kind of that, what we call chunk throws, right? 15 to 35 yards down the field, like, you know, making those throws. And so the offense was built that way.
Like this offense that we see now in the NFL, like, Hey, you're five yards. Like I would know we were going to attack you and we were going to threaten you.
And we were going to put the fear of God and you want every play. Um, you know, the, the way that we played, we had a coach that had the same mentality.
Right. And so, you know, we talk a lot about interceptions in this NFL.
I could care less if I threw an interception. My mindset was my coach is going to give me shots to make plays.
I'm going to make a mistake here, here or there, like that's going to happen. But I promise you, I'm going to make more plays than I'm going to make mistakes.
And those plays that we make are going to be touchdowns because we're going to attack down the field. So that was our mentality.
So it was aggressive, attack, attack, attack. I think you've said this before, Marshall Falk.
And I'm actually curious, and we both play with Larry, who I think Larry is, I almost don't think he gets enough credit for what he did in his career as one of the best to ever do it I think you've said Marshall Falk is the best football player you've ever played with just elaborate on that and just how great you know like we see Christian McCaffrey and some of these guys now and how good Marshall was the original guy and then Larry like you know we both a little bit. Like, he's a goof, but he was as good as they come.
Like, those two guys are right up there. Yeah.
I mean, you know, I was looking at something recently. And so in 99, you know, I won the MVP in 99.
But you look at Marshall's stats, and he had 1,000-plus rush yards, 1,000-plus pass yards that year. And you're just like're just like this is ridiculous I mean it's ridiculous um but I say that because there was nothing that Marshall couldn't do first of all you know just physically like he was a the the prototypical three down back like if you needed if you were in third and one and you needed a power run to be made give it to Marshall if you needed to a toss where you needed the speed to get outside, give it to Marshall.
If you're going to throw the ball on third down and he had to pick up a blitzing linebacker in the A-gap, put in Marshall. Like if you wanted to put him out wide and have him run a wide receiver route, I mean, we ran everything with Marshall.
We ran skinny posts in the red zone. We ran still slant and goes, double move.
Like there was nothing he couldn't do. And so no disrespect to Christian McCaffrey, who I think is one of the most versatile backs in the league.
He can't do what Marshall could do. He can't run routes and do those things like Marshall could do.
And then Larry, you know, I agree with you that I don't think he gets the credit he deserves. And, you know, a big part of that is he played in Arizona.
You know, both of us got there. Arizona had never won anything.
Nobody expected us to win anything. We were never on primetime TV.
Like, nobody ever saw Larry play. So he went four or five years of his career without anybody ever seeing him play.
And then finally we make that Super Bowl run and everybody goes, oh, Larry's pretty good. Like, you know, he sets all these these regular like, Oh my gosh, you know, I'd heard about this guy, but I'd never seen him.
And again, you know, it's different because I used to say this when I was in or when I was in St. Louis, being open was about space.
Like when I could see space between Torrey Holden, Isaac Bruce and the defender, it was like, Oh, those guys are open. Being open for Larry Fitzgerald was not about space.
So when I got there, I remember Josh McCown saying, oh, no, that's open. And I'm like, what do you mean it's open? The guy's like, you know, Velcro on his back.
But he's like, trust me, throw it to his outside number. That's open because he will catch it and nobody will be able to get to the football.
So you had to realize how he played the game was different. But his understanding of spacing, like I've never seen anybody able to track the football.
Yeah, he was incredible. Like Larry, that made the difficult look routine every single day.
Yeah, I always look at it like as the game changes and you discussed how different it is now, but what would those guys be like today? What would Marshall Falk be like in the NFL now? What would Larry Falk be like? They would dominate. I think there's several teams right now that would want to put a jersey on Fitz and just say, give us what you got.
Even if you're not in that shape, let's try it. I'm going to set the table for a second and I might just get out of the way.
Well, look, I was super excited as a Giants fan when you came there. And then, you know, Eli's there and that whole thing.
And then you go to Arizona in 05. And then shortly after that, another young punk named Matt Leiner comes in.
This young punk. I get to call him that now that I know him.
And I just think it's cool seeing you two after all these

years together and talking, cause it was a magical run that you guys were both on. So just, let's be honest, dude, you hated me when we got drafted.
It's fine. I hated that we drafted him.
I did not hate Matt in any part of the process. And here's the thing is that what I came to realize over the course of my career is that we all just want to play.
And I'm not, you know, like, so ultimately when I got benched and Matt took over, yeah, did I want to be playing? Yeah. Did I feel like I was the better quarterback at the time? Yeah.
But was I mad at Matt for going in and trying to seize the opportunity and excel?

Absolutely not.

Because everybody would do the same thing.

And that to me, you know,

I used to hear about these quarterback rooms

where guys didn't talk to each other.

And, you know, it was me against Matt.

And it was, you know, I don't like him

because he's trying to take.

And I always just, you know, thought to myself,

I just want to be in a situation where the best guy would plays like just make it a fair competition if Matt's better than me then he should play and I'm not going to be mad at him for that if I'm better than Matt then I should that's all I ever wanted in the NFL was that kind of situation and so I never looked at it personal right you know even though you know again did want to play. And, you know, and I'll even say that we all have human nature too.
And so you got to fight that when Matt's playing and I want to be playing to not, you know, hope Matt throws an interception. So like at the end of the day, you know, when I sign on the dotted line to be a part of a team, I sign on the dotted line to be the best teammate that I can be, to be the best for that team that I can be.
Not just when I'm starting and not just when everything goes my direction, but if I end up finding myself on the bench, then I need to be the best teammate for Matt to help him succeed. And I couldn't be mad at him for trying to do exactly what I would have done in the same situation.
Like, you know, if I got put in, I'm going to try to succeed and never let Matt get on the field either. Like, which is what you did, which is what you do.
And so, which is what you did to hold that against somebody is, is ridiculous. And so, um, so I never tried to take that approach, but yeah, I mean, I didn't want us to draft somebody because I wanted to play and felt like I could still play.
But I think the beautiful part too was we were able to coexist. You know, Matt wanted to play.
And, you know, I go back to the first year when he did play. And we lost so many stupid, crazy games because Matt played really well over that period of time.
But we lost like 10 straight games or something. I know.
Like that Chicago game, you know. They are who we thought with, I mean, Kansas city the week before.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, 400 yards in, in, in a game, like you played really well, but we weren't very good. Like that's the other thing that's hard for people to understand is like, still a team sport, very good in Arizona.
And so, you know, you could play well as a quarterback, but that didn't correlate to wins a lot of times because we weren't built the right way and we didn't have those pieces. And so, you know, that was the bummer for Matt because he had such a really good rookie year where it was like, you know, this kid's going to be going to be good.
And then obviously it played out with the competition. And I, you know, actually he played in 07 before you got hurt.
And then once you got hurt, I played really well down in 07 and then it became the competition from there. But, you know, but that's, you know, again, it works out for me.
So it's obviously a huge blessing for me, but I think it was a bummer for Matt because I saw the potential in what he had done early in his career. And then all of a sudden, boom, it stops.
And, and, you it, you know, he's got to sit back and watch for three years. And again, you can, you can benefit from sitting back and learning and doing that stuff, but you're also missing time.
If you can be successful to kind of get your career going, you know, in the right direction. I would say before we let you go, Kurt, we appreciate the time.
Just in response to that, I get, it's crazy, man, because I get asked all the time and I've been labeled a certain way. And honestly, it doesn't bother me because I do believe everything that happened got me to where I am now.
And I love what I'm doing and all these things. Gosh, I go back and I think about the rookie year and I'm like, gosh, what if we win those first two games? Or what if I don't, you know, hurt my AC joint that last game? There's, you know, what ifs, there's always what ifs.
And it's so interesting because you and I were so different, um, like with your background, with my background. And after those first couple of years, it was, the first few years were really difficult for me.
And then, you know, the pictures came out and all this bullshit that was like, man, like, I really want to play how I didn't know how to play. I tell everybody, I'm like, I didn't know how to be a professional at the time.
I knew I wanted to. I knew that I thought I had enough talent for sure.
And it just didn't work. And I really, I say this to everybody, I really enjoyed when I felt less pressure on me when you took over.
I really enjoyed those years with you because I really felt like I learned a lot more from you then because I was like, this is Kurt's team for me to, for me to, to prolong my career. I need to, I need to look at what is Kurt doing? We didn't have the same game.
How does he prepare all of these things? And I really believe that helped me, um, when I got to Houston and again, that system fit me with what they did with, with Kubiak and Shanahan and all of that. That's, that's more what I, I just felt like a thriving.
And honestly, before I got hurt again, I was, I felt the best I've ever felt, but you were really a big part of that. Like early on, it was tough on me.
Um, and then those last two years, like, like I, I saw what it was like to be a professional quarterback and a Hall of Fame quarterback. If I want to do anything in this league, this is how you prepare.
This is how you hold those film meetings. This is how you talk to the receivers.
This is how you lead a football team. And Jerry was asked, do you guys cross paths and talk? I'm like, me and Kurt, man, if we saw each other tomorrow, we'd hug it out and talk and tell stories and talk shit.
And we used to hoop and all those things. But it's so good to see you, man, on this video.
And you're crushing, dude. You're doing great.
And also, too, we're both like our kids are all grown up. And just to see that part, it's awesome to see your kids playing college ball.
And my son's going to play college ball, which is crazy. So I love you, buddy.
It was tough at the time, but I appreciate what you did for me in my career. For sure.
I appreciate you saying that. And I think it's a great point because, you know, I reach out to a lot of young guys now and very few guys ever really respond or get back to me.
And one thing that I always say, and I think it speaks directly to your point is most of us don't know what we don't know. And what I mean by that is so many guys come in kind of like yourself, very talented, had great success in college.
And you think like, I got this, like, like I know, you know, I know what I need to do. I know enough to be able to thrive, but you don't know what you don't know.
And so being able to sit back and go, Oh, Oh, this is what it takes. Or, Oh, or I could do this or, or this is how Kurt looks at it because no one's ever taught me to look at it like that.
And even if you don't end up, you know, taking that on as a part of your personality, it's giving you perspective on how the whole thing works and how other guys do things. And that's the thing that disappoints me so much with the young guys now.
And again, I know they have a million things going on and I know they don't have to call me and listen to me, but I wish they would. And I wish coaches would simply to challenge where you're at, challenge what you know, challenge what you're doing.
Challenge why you think what you think. Maybe there's a different perspective, right? So that's what I'm always trying to do is I always want to hear and learn.
Like I'm very convicted in what I believe, but tell me why you believe something else and let me challenge that. Because then if I can challenge that, it either A, makes me more convicted in what I believe, or B, it opens myself up to, wow, never thought about that before.
Like nobody ever taught me that before. And so I appreciate you saying that because I think it is so true with a lot of these guys, is that when I talk about surviving, they're just going out there and doing the best they can do with what they know.
And now you give them a chance to step back and learn and realize, man, there's more to it. Oh, man, I could make this game easier if I just saw it this way.
Well, I know we got to let you go because you're hopping the flight. You're off to Germany.
Two players I think that should call you. Daniel Jones, Bryce Young.
The man's going to be calling the game. You're going to get me through this game, Mr.
Warner, by the way. I will get you through it.
Let me just start with this. Let me just start with this that I know, and I'm not going to sit here and say that I believe Daniel Jones should be paid as one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
But after the first game of the year this year, I actually think Daniel Jones has played pretty good football this year. It's a tough situation.
They're still trying to figure things out, but he's actually played pretty good football. If they can build a team around him again, I don't know if he'll ever be one of the best in the league, but I believe he's better than a lot of people.
You know, when you look at every down, every snap, every decision better than a lot of people are saying that he is. Um hopefully I'll get a chance to express that.
But so don't go crazy. They got work to do in New York without a doubt.
But but but I like the way Daniel has been playing the last few weeks. Well, he's he's already gone crazy.
So I can't thank you enough. We appreciate you, man.
Really appreciate you. Guys, great.
Great to be on with you. I look forward to doing it again.
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All right, coming back. And I just want to point out really quick too, Kurt Warner was very gracious with his time.

He went a little long with the interview.

So if you want to go to our YouTube page,

the full video and the full interview will be up on there.

Might be some things that we leave out of this episode

that can live on their own.

So go check that out.

But Matt, I mean, I really do think young players should call Kurt, right?

I would call Kurt if I was a young player and just heard that.

He's just, he's so, he's so, he's, one, he's a gold jacket.

He's one of the best to ever do it. He's so knowledgeable, you know, and the way he, the way he sees the game, the position is just so unique and it's such a different game now.
So like, I would encourage any young quarterback, gosh, it could be high school, whatever. loves talking to kids yeah so so if you have if you have people like that at your disposal reach out and just learn something it could it could help you man and um great memory too because i also thought he brought me back in time and he really if you go back and even look at your situation yeah i just thought the way he remembered it so specifically in detail and i think it lined up for you the same way right it's yeah it's cool because people you know like like those are quarterback battles and everybody wants to know like what's it what's it like in the quarterback room and you know do you like each other do you hate each other like kurt and i genuinely got along and and we genuinely, and I said that like the second half of my four-year career there, we became a lot closer because it was kind of solidified.
And I just realized like, Hey, I got to learn. I got to learn from this guy.
And he, he helped me a lot. The first couple of years it was battling and that you were lighting it up, man.
People, people, people forget, but it's okay. You know, it didn't work out the way.
But he's incredible, man. His mind is incredible for the game, the quarterback play, and it was good to see him in his white beard.
That's for sure. He's ready for Christmas.
Jesus, dude. All right.
I teased it earlier, throwback three. I realized I don't actually tell the audience what the topic's going to be, but this week it's Matt's turn.
Dude, this one's so good. And I'm fired.
This one has been hard for me. I'm patting myself on the back.
Do you want to let everyone know? Let's get into it. So we're going.
Last week we did our Halloween candy, and I got crucified for that with candy corn. That's fine.
We don't need it. We can move on.
Top three fictional sport characters in movies. All right.
So if you think about that, right, you think about some of these great characters in all-time sports. I mean, there's a thousand, dude.
Yes. There's a thousand.
Okay. I have a list of 20.
Yeah. So I'm going to start with my number three.
This one was hard, but it's maybe my favorite top two sports movie of all time billy hayes billy hayes from white men can't jump sure billy ho billy ho billy ho um i i don't know i just like i the movie's so great he and wesley snipes are phenomenal the storyline's great he's just like you know he's a hustler like it's all those things i just think his like it's it's it's it's an all-time basketball movie and both of those guys sydney sydney like they're they're both incredible characters so i'm going with billy ho so billy hoyle billy hoyle so but for you i wonder because you're tall and athletic and you played basketball at a high level in high school, you never walked onto a court where you were able to be like, all right, we'll take a light. Everyone knew you were good, right? What are you saying? Because I was white.
That's why I'm saying. I'm saying you're unrelatable to Billy Hoyle.
I am way more Billy Hoyle than you. Yeah.
You're not unsuspecting. What I'm saying is you're not unsuspecting.
Like, I've never walked on a court and been like, they look at me like I'm a chump. Like, basically.
Like me? Yeah, like you. Okay.
Well, your game is still debatable. We're going to find that out pretty soon.
Okay, Billy Hoyle. I'm going Billy Hoyle, White Man Can't Jump, number three.
What's your three? Okay, my number three easily could have been number one, but this is tough. But I'm just, we leave out the obvious all the time because you want to try to make it eclectic, but I have to, it's Rocky Balboa.
Yeah. Easily could be number one.
One of the best fictional characters that you almost, he really is not even fictional at this point. You believe he's real.
You believe he was like, yeah. All those fights were real.
We crushed statues with Dwayne Wade last week and all that stuff. You know what statue was made correctly? The Rocky Balboa statue by the steps with his arms up.
That's a perfect statue. And also, fun little thing.
I like to play these games with movies. So we know Rocky won.
He loses to Apollo in a split decision, 12- decision 12 round thing and then going in so he's a pretty big heavy underdog but he proved himself going into rocky 2 the rematch with apollo creed i asked my guy john ewing if you don't follow john ewing on twitter you should does great stuff with betting i asked him what do you think just make a guess what rocky's odds would have been in that rematch fight against apollo creed do you care to venture a guess or do you want me to just tell you just what do you think apollo and okay so this is the rematch yeah he said public definitely on the underdog so the line might have moved on he likes 75 of the bets on Rocky plus 500 plus 90% of the money on

Creed He likes 75% of the bets on Rocky plus 500, but 90% of the money on Creed. And he had Apollo Creed as minus 700 favor.
Minus 700. So think about that.
A couple of guys laying big money, knowing Apollo is going to win again, minus 700. Just lose it.
I don't even know if that's Buster Douglas Tyson level upset, but it's got to be up there. You can't bet against Rocky Balboa.
We know how this movie ends. I don't know.
You would have said the narrative would have been Apollo didn't take him seriously. In the first fight, he's going to train harder.
We're going to really see why Apollo creates the goat and Rocky's not going to make it three rounds. Rocky IV, arguably one of the greatest movies of all time.
Bigger underdog, though, against Drago? By far. Ivan Drago.
Did you see the way he worked out in that? Did you see that? Juiced up, steroid head. Juiced up, machines.
The dude, what did Rocky... But Rocky was the champ at that point.
Maybe you can make the case Rocky's a little bit older. He took a lot of shots to the head.
Or you look at Ivan Drago, who's 6'5". It looks like a machine in Rocky's 5'7".
I like that one. Okay, I'm going number two here.
Number two. Happy Gilmore.
Good one. Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore.
Shooter McGavin, great character, great character by the way as well could be a little bit of a villain um great movie apollo creed in that movie as well yeah that's right that's right yeah yeah uh what was his name he had chubbs chubbs chubbs um i mean so good they're finally making a part two that's how you have a good fictional great bob barker cameo i mean just It's a great movie. I mean, I'd be're finally making a part two.
That's how you know you have a good fictional athlete. The great Bob Barker cameo.
I mean, just a great movie. I mean, Happy Gilmore is awesome, man.
So my putter head cover, us golfers, we love our head covers and our gear. My putter head cover is the Price is Right logo, but the line on it says the price is wrong, bitch.
That's what I have on my- I'm going Happy Gilmore I just, anytime that movie's on, man, I'm, I'm, I'm glued to the TV. I am going, and I, I could have put numerous characters from this movie.
It's my favorite football movie of all time. I think it's the best football movie ever made.
So if I, but I have to pick one, I'm going to give you the guy that I always think of first. It's Lattimore from the program.
I mean, first of all, the program ahead of its time. I'm old enough to remember going to the theater and kids, if you like the program, there was a scene cut out of the program famously where I believe Joe Cain probably intoxicated, lead the team to do this laying down game of chicken on the highway.
I think it was Disney pulled the movie, edited it out because they didn't like what it said to kids, and then put it back in the theaters. I saw the original scene in theaters, but everyone's so quotable in that movie.
But Marcus Lattimore juiced up. Alvin Mack.
I think people need to understand. I talk about this movie movie all the time it is one of those movies that you could watch today and 18 year old kids would be like that was a great movie like like like i think people forget about how great the a young halle berry right young halle well you can make the case darnell jefferson i mean he darnell jefferson and he gets holly berry at the end yeah, he starts a little tutoring, and he steals the starting running back's girl.
Like, it was awesome. All right, real quick.
So you are on one of, if not the most famous college football team of all time. How do you put the program, though, up as just a, okay, college football life? Now, it's a little before your time.
You weren't in college yet,

but you know, like Darnell Jefferson

carrying around the football

and the entire team.

By the way.

Just to poke it out during class.

By the way,

I think Pete Carroll was inspired.

This is a true story.

Pete Carroll,

I got to make this brief.

Pete Carroll's,

his whole thing was,

mantra was the ball,

the ball, protect the ball,

protect the ball.

If you protect the ball, we win.

Defense, if you get the ball, we win, right? That was like it. So my, I was his first recruiting class.
We had a ball, the normal ball. And he said at any point during training camp, you need to present the ball to me.
Obviously he would be like, Hey Matt. And I was a quarterback.
So I was tasked with being the leader. So basically what he was doing is like the whole freshman class would get together.
We would hide it. We would protect it.
We would carry it around. And the rest of the team, it was fair game.
I love that. Like the program.
You could rip it out. You could hold it.
We would hide it up in the rafters of a ceiling. We would do all these things.
But basically, he was forcing us to work as a team and work together as a team. But I promise you that he got that from the program because when he rocks, he fumbles in the class and everyone's there and he jumps and he has it.
That's what we used to do at USC. Also, James Caan, underrated coach.
I thought he did a good job as the coach. I never heard the snot bubbles thing before or after.
which hit him so hard. You get snot bubbles.

That's a real thing?

I mean, yeah.

All right.

Well, that's my number two,

but it could have been many characters from that movie.

Great movie.

Great movie.

All right.

Number one.

Number one, my all-time favorite sports movie,

my all-time probably top three movie general,

no matter what the genre is, Major League. And there's a lot of characters in Major League, but I'm going with Ricky Wild Thing Vaughn.
Wild Thing! Ricky, you want Vaughn? And also, we were talking about this, the most quotable movie of all time, one of them. Ricky Wild Thing Vaughn, one of my favorite characters, just a badass, just gets all the ladies, comes out of the bullpen to Wild Thing, has the hair, the glasses, talking about hooking up with Dorn's wife.
He didn't know. I didn't know.
I love that scene. I didn't know.
How do you not know that your teammates went? By the way, how did you not know that? They made like, because it was Ricky Vaughn. He didn't care.
They made like three or four major leagues. They didn't do it justice.
The original major league is the greatest sports movie of all time. And I will say that.
We're going to do a throwback three sports movie, and that's going to be my throwback three. And it's so interesting too, because like obviously they're no longer the Cleveland Indians.
So now there's like time capsule element. It's like there will be kids maybe 20 years from now.
I'll be like, wait, they were called the Cleveland Indians and they have this chief Wahoo logo. So when the Indians or when the Guardians hit that home run against the Yankees, all over social media was when Serrano, Pedro Serrano hit that.
And it was was like they were doing all these flashbacks of bolt it was awesome i think uh once a month at some point and it's usually on the golf course i say well if you don't do it fuck you joe boo i do it myself that's one of my favorite sport fuck you joe boo the best one of the best quotable movies of all time all right buddy who do you got man all right uh this was tough uh too many to to leave off. I have to unlock the inner throwback kid in me.
Mine is Benny the Jet Rodriguez. The Sandlot was such an impactful movie for me.
I tried to show it to my kids. I'm not quite interested yet.
But I will say the thing I didn't appreciate about Halloween last week, right after the Dodgers victory over the Yankees, I'm with my kids walking and I start seeing like three or four kids with Dodger jerseys on. This is in Cleveland in a suburb.
Like what the hell is going? Benny the Jet Rodriguez jerseys. That's who they were for Halloween.
So there was an extra little knife dig for me with that win. But yeah, it's a perfect movie.
That movie makes me try to think about, okay, I don't think we're going to get many sports movies anymore. I think documentaries, we'll go on forever.
But scripted stuff, the only world I see it though is for kids, like Sandlot, nostalgic type sports movies. But Benny the Jet, man, when he put on the Flyers, that was one of the biggest moments in movie history for me.
I have one honorable mention. Do you have any honorable mention? Like who was close to making your cut? Honestly, Willie Mays Hayes from Major League was close.
Danny LaRusso from Karate Kid. That was my off the beaten path one.
Put him in the body bag, Johnny. I guess it's an

karate. Certainly, you have to be

an athlete. So that was my one.
I wanted

to make sure I just mentioned, but didn't make my list.

Ricky Bobby.

It was pretty close. Just more fun.

But yeah, I mean,

there's so many, man. So many.

I had some of the

Mighty Ducks guys. Gordon Bombay.

Not my favorite, but that... I had Youngblood.
Youngblood. Youngblood is sick.
Youngblood is crazy. Youngblood, I haven't heard Youngblood.
Go rewatch. Take it on the plane with you when you go for big noon.
Go watch Youngblood. I'm making that note right now.
Yeah. And of course, let us know yours.
We'll put it up on social, social but for us it's at throwback show on all social platforms

let us know your top three fictional

sports movie characters

you got Matt's you got mine

hell of a show buddy

hell of a show we're in November

we have a couple of weeks till the tree comes out

but yeah thanks everybody for listening

we'll be back next week