3 & Out - Salary Cap goes up, Darnold could move on from Vikes, Fugazi Friday

John dives into the news of the day that the salary cap is going to be going up and because of the rise in cap money each year the NFL has made so many millionaires because of the "money-maker" that it is. Next, he dives into the plan for the Vikings to let Sam Darnold test our free agency. Lastly, the return of "Fugazi Friday".

Later, John answers your questions during this episode's mailbag segment.

4:27 - Business of the NFL

21:59 - Sam Darnold will hit free agency

29:31 - How to fix college football

33:01 - Fugazi Friday

40:19 - Mailbag

Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. #Volume #Herd

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?

(00:21):
It is a couple hours before the United States America
takes on Canada in a little rematch from last week,
which is one of the great supporting events I've ever watched,
so very very I've just been sitting at my desk,
so many things to do, getting ready for this, wedding,

(00:43):
bills up the wazoo, hoa fees, late fees. I'm like,
let's just let's just gamble on American hockey and talk
a little football. So that is what I have decided
to do. So I started looking around the internet. I'm like,
let's talk to some football I want to get excited.
And I sent myself an article that I saw last
night when I was eating dinner about something I wanted

(01:06):
to talk about today, and I think it ties into
just the booming business of football right now. A couple
stories that came out over the last I don't know,
twenty four hours in regards to the NFL business, and
then we will just rapid fire through some other football
stories on this fu gazy, as the Italians like to say,

(01:26):
foo gazy Friday, I like to say foughazi, but fugazy
Fugazi Beautiful Friday, and I actually thought about this. Listen.
It was a fougazy when I was young, and it
might be becoming one again because of the time. So
we will dive into that, one of my favorite shows
of the week. But other than that, next week we'll

(01:47):
be exciting the Combine, which I've been the last couple
of years, but because my wedding is the following week,
I just I got too much stuff to do, couldn't go,
So we will not be at the Combine next week,
though I am excited. A lot of stories come out,
so it's a fun week to record podcasts, whether you're
there or not. So we will look forward to that

(02:08):
and kind of kicks off. I've been saying it all week.
Free agency, maybe get some buzz and some trades. I'm
ready because I already miss the games, but like, there's
nothing you can do about that, so we will just
enjoy what we got when we got it. Let's start
with this is I've thought about this for a while

(02:30):
and listens, it could be factually incorrect, but I can't
imagine a business has made more millionaires than the NFL
over the last thirty forty years. Now, maybe there are
companies that are invested in you know, like Apple, you
know some of the major companies in America that a

(02:52):
bunch of pensions are involved with. But just in terms
of people actually working for that company. W two's the
thirty two NFL teams, and i'd probably include the league office.
The NFL business is pretty insane right now. Obviously, the
players have never been richer and they've never made more money.

(03:13):
Same thing goes for coaches. You know, Jerry Jones when
he stole the show at the Brian Schottenheimer press conference,
he said that the reason he didn't get into coaching
because remember, you know, a lot of especially younger listeners
and viewers, don't realize Jerry Jones, once upon a time
was on the Arkansas team that won the national championship

(03:35):
in college. Like, Jerry Jones has a national championship ring
as a player in college, so he wasn't just some
Joe Schmoe business man. Like this guy played college football
at a really, really high level. Granted times were a
little different. Offensive lineman might have weigh two hundred and
forty pounds, but still at the time, it's all relative.
He was on an Arkansas team that wasn't won the Natty,

(03:57):
and Jerry said that, like a lot of my friends
went into coaching, but I always aspired to live in
bigger houses and drive nicer cars. And essentially, if I
would have known what these guys are making now, I
might have got into coaching because I see what we're
paying them. And it's not just head coaches making eight, ten, fifteen,
twenty million dollars. I would imagine it changes per team,
but two to four coaches a staff, non head coach,

(04:20):
are making seven figs. Obviously, general managers make a lot
of money, and the amount of people making millions of
dollars associated with the NFL, it's pretty nuts. Listen, Indirectly,
I didn't make very much when I worked in the NFL,
but I've made a lot of money, a lot more money,
you know, being in this business just talking about football.
And you know, the biggest sports podcast, I mean the

(04:42):
biggest sports podcast right now, pardon my take, is an
NFL football show, you know, Pat McAfee. It's a football
driven show, like football is the cash cow. And nothing
speaks more of that than the news that came out
yesterday that the NFL salary cap will be somewhere between
two hundred and seventy five and two hundred and eighty

(05:04):
two million dollars. And that number one just sounds massive,
But when you put it into context ten years ago
twenty fifteen, so not that long ago, NFL was doing well,
then the salary cap was one hundred and forty million dollars. Hell,
three years ago the salary cap was barely over two

(05:24):
hundred million dollars. It has risen over seventy million dollars
in the last three years, and honestly, if you look
at the last five years, it would have gone a
lot higher if it wouldn't have been for twenty twenty
and twenty twenty one, where the salary cap actually went
the wrong way for a year in twenty twenty one
because of the diminished revenues because of the Rona. So

(05:48):
football right now, like you know these players, it is
not just the super high end guys, the Justin Jeffersons,
the Micah Parsons, the Miles Garretts, obviously relatively speaking, Reggie White,
Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Brett Fahr, Peyton Banning whoever at
the time was always making a lot of money, right

(06:08):
but it's the mid tier guy. I remember last year
when guards, when good starting guards were getting eighteen million dollars.
It's like, holy shit. You know, the NBA, the average
salary is twelve million dollars. And clearly there are a
lot of guys making thirty forty fifty million dollars. It's
only twelve guys on a team, right, there are only
seven eight guys that actually play, so given the size

(06:30):
of the roster of fifty three guys, I mean the
veteran minimum when you're like a seventh round pick. Even
Brock Purdy, who was the last pick in the draft,
by his like third year, he was making a million
dollars and everyone's like laughing. He makes nothing, and relative
to his position, he does not. But relative to being
the last pick in the draft, even if you hadn't
become the starting quarterback, if you had just made the team,

(06:50):
you've been making a million dollars, you know. So it's
it is a great time to be involved in football
and the good thing. And this is why the other
story I saw is that Jed York and he's not alone,
but we'll just use him as example. The NFL passed
the rule recently that you could sell pieces of your
team to private investors, right, private equity, venture capitalism, Right,

(07:15):
you could get Hey, you don't actually get anything. You
don't get to decide when I hire a fire coach.
You have no say in free agency or the NFL draft,
but you get to say like you're part owner. Brady
somewhat unique is that Mark Davis actively wants him to
be involved. But most of these guys that are just

(07:36):
money dudes cutting checks have no juice. I mean none.
When I was at the Super Bowl, it was with
somebodies from the Eagles, Like I remember, we had minority
owners and they're still involved in the same guys are
still around and it has been very lucrative for them
to be involved with the Philadelphia Eagles for the last
twenty twenty five years as minority owners for Jeffrey Leary.

(07:57):
But they have absolutely no say. They get a little
cea in the draft room. They show up to some games,
but in terms of like Nick Sirianni status, no one
cares what they think. And that goes for all these
teams and Jed York who think about this. Eddie de Bartelow,
who got the money from his father, might had some
mob dives in Youngstown, Ohio. Bought the forty nine ers

(08:20):
in nineteen seventy seven for thirteen million dollars, which I
wasn't alive in nineteen seventy seven. I would imagine thirteen
million dollars was a lot of money, and obviously the
power of TV the revenue like it wasn't It's so
easy to look back and go no brainer at the time.
It's I can't imagine the NFL with some full proof

(08:40):
business that was like recession proof and like a great
viewed as a great investment. But thirteen million dollars thirteen
million dollars, and that's what he paid for it. And
on the current valuation, it has a potential to be
almost nine billion dollars. So Jed York, who was thinking
about selling ten percent of the team, is in play

(09:01):
to get between. You know, we'll see where the valuation falls,
but between eight and nine hundred million dollars of a
cash infusion to his business, and he can obviously do
whatever he wants with that money. And I think Jeffrey
Lourry's gonna do the same. John mar is gonna do
the same. The advantage of being able to do that is,
and we had Jake Rosenberg on the podcast, who was
Howie Roseman's like right hand man and salary cap negotiator

(09:25):
for a long long time. Is you can get around
salary cap situations when you're willing to sign enormous signing
bonuses and what do you need to sign, you know,
a signing bonus cash. So some teams and Jed and
Jerry Jones and even Robert Kraft have taken a lot
of shit up, like they actually don't spend as much

(09:46):
cash as the wealth of their franchise. Where Jeffrey Louriy's
running circles around them, he puts a lot of cash
into his contracts and that's how they're able to sign
all these good players because you can manipulate it. And
I would imagine Jed Yorke is going to do the same. Now,
it doesn't mean you can't buy one hundred million dollar
yacht or whatever, but where you can really take advantage

(10:09):
of the value of your franchise is reinvested into the
business and sign players to contracts because of signing bonuses
that gets them on your team even though you might
not have quote unquote the salary cap space. But think
about where we're at in the business of the NFL,
that you can sell a percentage five to ten percent

(10:31):
and get an infusion of five hundred, six hundred eight
hundred million dollars and give up absolutely nothing. I've never
been the biggest shark tank watcher, but it's just on
so often. I just found myself over the years watching
some episodes, and as I got older, I appreciated partnerships

(10:51):
and business and who owns the revenue a lot more
from thirty five to forty than I did when I
was twenty eight, So you know, I could relate a
little bit more at least to the conversations. And usually
when it's like, hey, my business is worth a million dollars.
If you want twenty percent, it's gonna cost you two
hundred grand, And then they would negotiate back, and usually
it's like, yeah, I'll give you two hundred and fifty

(11:13):
thousand dollars, but I want you know, say, I want
board seats and I want a lot of juice. You
get none of that with this NFL investment. You basically
just get to say I own a piece of TMX.
It's why the league made such a big deal of
the Raiders and Tom Brady. When they felt like Mark
Davis was giving Tom Brady a deal just because he

(11:36):
wanted him as part of his operation. It's like, Mark,
you can't sell him a lower percentage of the actual
valuation and give him a higher percentage of the buy
And the league pushed back on it and they had
to like redo the deal. And I think part of
it is Tom Brady. Listen. I don't know how much
actual tangible cash he gave through, but he clearly came

(11:59):
in with other investors that have a lot more money
than him. Because the price of admission to get five
or ten percent, you're talking half a billion dollars minimum.
A lot of these franchise, even the shitty ones, right,
the forty nine ers are obviously one of the more
valuable franchises in the NFL, given the market size, given
the fan base, given just the financial backing that they

(12:22):
have in the region, with Silicon Valley literally right in there,
I mean that's where they are. I don't love the
location of the stadium, but that's because I'm you know,
born and raised way farther up north. Right, there's a
big difference. Even if it's only forty five to fifty
miles from where I live. For a decade, I fucking
hated driving down there, but that is where most of

(12:44):
the money is, and Jed York was no dummy when
he moved it down. And I think it's led to
a franchise being worth eight nine billion dollars, But a
lot of these franchises are giants, probably similar seven to eight.
You know the Cowboys, obviously we were nine ten. Help
the Raiders, who haven't won a playoff game in multiple decades,
given Vegas, given the stadium, given the no state income tax.

(13:07):
If Mark Davis put the Vegas Raiders up for sale,
I think at minimum he would get eight billion dollars.
So then, listen, can this maintain forever? I've often thought,
like I've lived long enough to know the NFL probably
the next forty years of my life. Knock on woods,
I go that far, like when I'm eighty years old,

(13:28):
are they still the dominant property? You'd be crazy just
to feel confident saying that, But right now they feel
pretty untouchable. And listen, we can go back and forth,
and we will during free agency. This guy's getting screwed.
This guy's getting screwed, Like T Higgins, he's really getting screwed. Well,
even if they franchise him again, which listen, I think

(13:49):
franchising a guy back to back years is moronic business.
Like you're bad at the business of the NFL if
you franchise a guy back to back years mainly because
you clearly want him on your team. And if you
franchise te Higgins back to back years, you're basically paying
him forty eight million dollars and both the lump sums
of twenty one and now twenty six million dollars hits

(14:12):
all of your cap. Meanwhile, you got like the AJ
Browns and these other guys making big money in their
cap hit is way lower T higgins total. Like, if
you would have signed him last year, you probably could
have got him for seventy five million dollars guaranteed. Instead
you're paying him on a yearly basis. That's impacting your
Like it's just stupid. It's to me, it's just low
level business. But like listen, like T. Higgins won't love

(14:36):
getting franchised, and I'm sure like go back and forth
in you know, publicly like oh this bullshit, we're getting screwed.
He will have just made almost fifty million dollars and
guaranteed cold hard cash in his bank acount after taxes,
whatever that comes out to. But still like he will
have made a boatload of money. I bet there are
great wide receivers in the two thousands and definitely in

(14:59):
the nine that never sniffed making fifty million dollars. Like,
let's just let's just look up Jerry Rice's career earnings.
My guess would be, I'll go forty eight million dollars.
I was high. It was forty three point five million

(15:20):
dollars and Jerry Rice obviously was drafted in eighty four,
but he played at a Pro Bowl level up till
the early two thousands. Now, forty five million dollars back
in the nineties was a lot of money. But relative
to what these guys are making, it's it's a completely
different world. And like I said, franchise stagging a guy
back to back years to me is just is poor management.

(15:41):
It's poor ownership, poor GMing. Like I don't put that
on T Higgins, And I don't know even if they
had an offer, You never know quite know what to believe.
But if you're willing to franchise him a second time,
and I would say this for any player, wide, receiver, tackle, quarterback,
you name it. You might as well have just signed
him to the long term deal because you pay a

(16:02):
little bit more total in the guarantee, but you're able
to manipulate the cap and have a better football team.
And look back in the day with Dan Snyder in
the Redskins with Kirk Cousins like that was stupid to
franchise him twice. You should have just extended him, and
clearly that would have been the right move at the time.

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Speaker 1 (17:59):
A couple other stories story out of Minnesota. I saw
a beat rider and I think this is pretty clear
that this is gonna happen. They're gonna let it shows
you like it's my favorite part about sports, but specifically
like in basketball, it doesn't matter. Like I've seen guys
play bad and still get max contracts. It's like, wait,

(18:20):
you're paying him how much? Playing badly? Beailt like Zion Williamson,
he's been injured constantly and can't stop eating. You're gonna
give him two hundred million dollars? Is this good business?
And the answer is always typically no, But they still
do it in football like you gotta produce, and even
then we argue about business. But the moment you show
signs of like, h something off here, something a little weird.

(18:42):
And Sam Darnold no disputing the Lions game, he was adrocious.
I do think the playoff game him and the coach
could have been better. The coach called a poor game.
But regardless, Sam did not play like he had played
most of the season. And now all signs like, we're
gonna let he hit free agency and see what you get.
And I would imagine that some team, even if it's

(19:03):
just a couple of years, would give him, I don't know,
two years, sixty five seventy million dollars and by then
Minnesota probably just lets him walk and that's why they
signed Daniel Jones. But shows you how fast that changes,
because I remember doing the podcast with Colin ten minutes
after he made that unreal throw to beat Seattle at
Seattle on that Sunday afternoon game. You're like, Sam Donold

(19:26):
gonna win the fucking MVP. And everyone was watching those
last two games, two primetime games. Remember they played Sunday
night against the Allions and he was atrocious. And then
the playoff game. Now, granted the Rams defense was bringing it,
but listen, I think Vikings need to figure out their
offensive line. But listen, even if I understand, like regardless,

(19:52):
Minnesota can do whatever, Like I think, it's pretty easy
to justify. Listen, we drafted this guy high. Going at it,
you're going to depend on a player who was on
a dominant college football team, so his two years starting.
I bet when it's all said and done, you will
have twenty plus guys that he played with over those

(20:13):
two years as the full time starter that will be
starting in the NFL. A team that did not lose
many games. Right, The only games that I can remember
them losing now are TCU, which was an awful loss,
and that was it. I mean, they didn't lose a
game in the second year, and he was not tasked with, like, hey, bro,

(20:34):
this is gonna be one of those games. Our defense
is playing like shit and we're gonna need thirty five points.
And I know we got justin Jefferson and Jordan Adison,
but you're gonna have to carry us. You're gonna have
to make throws, blitzes, third and longs like buckle up, Buttercup.
He's never had to do that. And not saying that
he can't, because he can learn too, but like they're
gonna come in next season with goals of they just

(20:56):
were competing to be the number one overall seat and
now it's like, oh, we're just with what winning nine
games in hell though, like you have a team that
is ready made to just be competitive, and that's a
lot of pressure to put on a young player who's
never started an NFL game, And even in college, like
the one thing with Mahomes playing on such a shitty team,
it was like, bro, you got to carry us, right

(21:18):
for us to have a shot, you got to be elite.
Same Lamar Jackson, the same thing, like Louisville team, Like
he had to be awesome, right, Josh Allen just got
to do whatever he wanted in college. Just learn like
that's not how JJ McCarthy played. It was like Jim Harbaugh.
Another run outside, thirty six power, power again, power again.
Let's run thirty seven power this time. There's a lot

(21:41):
of risk involved and I'm fascinated to watch it play
out because I love you know, interesting stories in the NFL.
And you tell me JJ McCarthy is starting Week one
coming off the knee injury where you look like he
weighed one hundred and fifty pounds in that game against
the Lions when he was on the sideline. I'll be
tuning in Eagles in the Saints. These Saints have Doug
neuss Meyer, who I love. Doug ness Meyer. I've known

(22:04):
him my first year at Fresno State. He was our
offensive coordinator, and I saw him last year at the
Combine and he's always been a big supporter of me
and listens to my stuff and he's the man. So
it's cool to watch his son, who was I mean,
couldn't have been I don't know, three or four or
five Max when he was when he was the offensive

(22:28):
coordinator at Fresno State and he was running around. So
he's obviously the quarterback now at LSU. Doug was actually drafted.
He was a star player in Idaho and at the
time in the nineties they were like d one double
a like what Montana and North Dakota State is. He
was a fourth round pick and him and Callen obviously
have a really really close relationship, and leaves the Eagles.

(22:49):
I mean he went to Philly because of Kellen Moore.
He went to the Charge because of Kellen Moore. Now
he's the offensive coordinator and kind of getting the band
back together there. And Kevin Petullo I think I'm saying
that name right has who's worked with you know, Sirianni
over the years, has been elevated. This is a tough job,
you know. The thing with Kellen Moore, you know, I

(23:12):
got a buddy on the staff with separate from Nusts,
who actually thinks and I thought this last year, if
they were healthy, they are much better than people think.
Now they got cap issues and we'll have to see,
you know, Kellen, what they end up doing with Derek Carr.
Crazy connections. You know, Kellen Moore played against Derek in
college at Boise and Fresno. Nuss Meyer was like recruiting Derek,

(23:34):
who was a senior in high school when Doug was
at Fresne State. But the thing is, like, if you
keep Derek on the team, you pay him forty million dollars,
And like, listen, I'm not some Derek Carr hater, even
though I think he thinks, even though I've known him
for fifteen years, thinks I am blocked me on Twitter.
It was more like I was negative toward the Raiders
than him. But paying Derek Carr forty million dollars based

(23:56):
on the way he's played recently seems kind of crazy.
So up to see. But who else? What are they
gonna do? Go with Spencer Rattler? That seems pretty bold.
If I was a betting man, I guess you just
roll with Derek one more year. But who knows? The
NFL is crazy. I think the Eagles it's a tough job, man.
You know that. There's I know they've won obviously the

(24:19):
Super Bowl a couple of weeks ago, But it's just
one of those gigs where everyone's paying attention and it's
just a polarizing spot. And it's an intense spot, not
just because of the owner of the GM, but because
of the firepower you have, because of Jalen Like he's
just a polarizing player. You got you know, star wide receiver,
star tight end Saquon Barkley. It's just not an easy

(24:41):
spot to be, you know, especially when you're head coach
is an offensive guy, but he does not call the plays.
It just it's it's it can be good and bad. Right.
We saw in three years two guys became head coaches
and the other got fired and no one knows where
he's at. I would imagine Ryan Johnson's coaching somewhere. But

(25:03):
it just shows you how fast like two guys head coaches,
one guy fired and like no one's making him the
offensive coordinator. Shows you how like this job goes. There's
no middle grounds, Like oh yuh, he's doing pretty good.
He's like just solid. He's the type guy we'd want.
It's like, no, this guy fucking blows and he might
not even be that bad, but everyone thinks that. Or
you're just like you're just gonna become a head coach.

(25:24):
So I don't obviously blame him for taking It wasn't
even a choice, Like you want the head coach, you
want the offensive coordinator job. Hell yeah, last story on football,
you know there was a meeting they had, like a
conference kind of get together convention of all the heavy
hitters in college football. I think this last couple of

(25:45):
days in New Orleans and clearly trying to figure out,
like how do we do better with the college football
playoff and the nil contract situation. Like, let's face it,
two things can be true. No one cares if these
kids get paid, Like, no one that matters, like just
pay the kids whatever, but nil this And I've seen

(26:08):
Dionce say this, like nil's bullshit, we need to stop
calling it nil. He's like, I see like three total
kids on commercials, right, this is just a salary. Like
I'm just giving you four hundred grand to be a
wide receiver. You're not on commercials. I'm not using your name,
image and likeness. I'm just paying you to play. But like,
for example, you me most people in a lot of industries.

(26:30):
I guess some of you listening aren't on quote unquote contracts.
You might be an apt Will employee, so you technically
get fired whenever. But for example, like I signed a
contract and we have parameters to the deal, and for
whatever reason, all the industries I've worked in post college
have been like that right, A one year deal, a
two year deal, three year deal, five year whatever, And

(26:53):
you can't just leave after you I couldn't just go
to the competition, right, I couldn't justa hey, they're offering
me five X. Maybe I could, but I have to
go to court if they wanted to fight it. And
that's clearly not the way that's happening in college football.
Like I can just be like, yeah, I'll take your
six hundred grand and then I mean, I've heard of
stories from people around college football that a guy will
take the nil early in role and you know, so

(27:16):
for the spring, this will be a high school kid
and then be in the transfer portal at the end
of spring ball. Like this we got to fix somewhat,
Like you don't need to just stay forever. And if
your coach ever leaves to a better job or gets fired,
no problem with you being allowed to leave. But if
I give you eight hundred thousand dollars, I can't sign
you to a multi year contract. That's the way it

(27:36):
works in the NFL. So clearly they got a lot
of work to do in spring ball, which is important,
you know, in college football because you wear pads and
especially for your younger players that have not played that
might become starters, like or even guys that are just
backups that are gonna be starters in the fall. Arch Manning,
this is an enormous spring. But Texas and USC and

(28:00):
I'm probably missing a bunch of other programs are not
having a spring uh spring game. Not because they don't
want to have a practice or a you know, simulated scrimmage,
because they don't want it to be on television for
you to watch and scout their players. Not because we're
gonna play you in the fall and I want to

(28:22):
know the strengths and weaknesses of the new right guard
or what what's the outside linebacker? What's he look like
coming off the edge? No, because I will poach that
guy and try to get him to go in the
transfer portal before the summer starts. So when that starts happening,
it's like we got we got fucking problems. And college
football for is awesome and the explosion and its importance,

(28:45):
and obviously it's the second biggest sport in America. It's
just in a weird spot and it's just it just
doesn't feel healthy, even though financially it would say otherwise, Okay,
let's uh, let's end with my fugazi gayzy Friday. I
was thinking about this because when I was a kid,
and I've talked about this for a long time, like

(29:07):
it was right in between the time of the Internet.
You know, computers were kind of hitting the scene, but
the Internet wasn't really strong, and then the Internet really
took off kind of righte my senior year in college
or senior year in high school, and then when I
went to college, but even when I was in like
online classes and stuff like that didn't really exist like
they would ten years later and definitely now. But I

(29:30):
remember like in high school writing papers and stuff that
were like incursive, right, instead of like I'm not a
great typer. Luckily my business, like I don't have to
type a lot in most of my notes that I
do for this business, I use on hand or just
like a note app on my phone. But looking back,

(29:53):
if you could have been forward thinking, everyone in my
high school classes, like in the majority of high school
classes should have been very singular focus toward technology. But
it was honestly kind of the opposite. And I was
listening to a podcast the other day, the all In
Podcasts and they're like, can you imagine how outdated? And

(30:14):
listen to some of you that have like junior high
kids and definitely high school kids, the just regular curriculum
is in school for what these kids are gonna do.
And normal people have been saying forever like shouldn't we
teach like financial literacy in starting in like junior high
and high school? Like why should we wait till college?

(30:35):
And then the answer is always, well, no, they kind
of want little worker beasts. They actually don't want you
to know that. And I think there's some truth to that.
But like with the explosion of artificial intelligence, which I
like most people in one way or another use all
the time, do we need to know what we used
to need to know when I can just type in
a question and immediately get the answer and listen. There

(30:58):
are some professions like becoming an architect building a bridge
where levels of math are geometry, calculus, Calculus one calculus
are going to be very important, right, No different than
being a doctor. There is a level of focused school
that you are going to need to go on to,

(31:18):
you know, repair my meniscus or if I you know,
break a clavicle or have a heart attack, you'd be
able to work on me, but most of us are
not going to do that. I remember my senior year
in high school there was a class called APR history.
The class was a fucking joke. Every single person got
an A. But in ap classes you would get like

(31:39):
an extra point, so it would be worth like, instead
of a four, I'd be worth a five, so it would,
you know, boost your GPA. So my GPA when I
was applying to college, instead of being like a three
four with the extra AP class and I remember, boosted
up to like a three eight, I was really probably
more like a two to five student. And I just
look back, like, why one this class was stupid. I
don't need to know any of this stuff, and if

(32:01):
I did, I could just look it up. So one
thing we are going to have to figure out is
and listen, I probably have kids here pretty soon, or
at least attempt to. We'll see if little swimmers can swim.
But uh, we got to rethink all this and technology,
and the thing they were saying on the all In

(32:21):
podcast is like, and listen, these really smart people way
smarter than me and clearly are in different worlds and
use this AI way more than me like it is
going to wipe out and make a lot of the
stuff you learn in school pretty irrelevant, and I think
we got to embrace it and embrace it pretty fast.
So I've often thought and listen, education for me, you're

(32:41):
talking with a guy with multiple degrees, pretty irrelevant to
my life. And besides, like going to college and socializing
with people I do not know and trying to date
girls that I have no background with and didn't grow
up around, I learned little to nothing that I apply
lie to in my adult life. So I and that

(33:05):
that's college, let alone high school where I learned nothing.
Beside again, I'm not anti like learning to read, right,
there are a lot of studies coming out that almost
like half of eighth graders can't read at a basic level.
Like obviously that's a problem, right, I mean, there are
some basic fundamentals that you need to learn in your youth,

(33:25):
and we need to teach kids. But there is a
lot of complete waste. And I was on this early
because I remember sitting in class like fourteen sixteen, like
this is so stupid. But I couldn't get bad grades
because my dad probably would kicked my ass, So I
had to attempt to try in high school or hustle
and find a way to get with good groups and
group projects. But I remember thinking it was BS twenty

(33:46):
years ago. I can't even imagine now technology like if
you are, If everything isn't technologically based for most of
these people, I think we're wasting our time. So you
talk about a fugeesi. If the ain't and let's face it,
a lot of these people they don't like to change,
We're gonna have problems coming down the pike. Okay, let's

(34:19):
dive into a little thing we like to call the
middle Cough mail bag at John Middlecoff is the Instagram
firing those dms, Get on the show again mail bag,
just my name at John Middlecoff, firing those dms, get
your questions answered here. Let's start with Garrett question for
the bag. I'm a Cowboy fan that understands how much

(34:44):
of a disaster our team is right now. But I
have a lot of confidence in Dakota Prescott. It just
seems to me that even though we have problems, people
forget how good we can be when he's healthy. His
last full season, he was the runner up MVP to Lamar.
He had much better stats and we had twelve wins.
So my question is where do you rank Dak out

(35:06):
of all the quarterbacks in the NFL. He's the highest
paid quarterback, and even though he shouldn't be, he's paid
large for a reason. Yeah. I mean, I think the
problem for Dak Prescott is he had the three year
stretch with McCarthy where he was really good and I'm
pulling up his stats right now, and then he shit
the bed in the playoffs. I mean, those two Niner

(35:29):
games were pretty bad, and the Packer game wasn't great either.
So basically from twenty one to twenty three, he was
thirty seven and ten, twenty two, Actually he wasn't great
twenty three and five, but he got injured that year,
and then then he was thirty six and nine. So
like two of those three years twenty one, thirty seven

(35:50):
and ten and thirty six and nine, like that's a
really high level season, it really is, like that's that's
really good, and then they lose in the playoffs. So
I think the problem is he can have stretches. Remember
was it two years ago when did he beat Philly
at Philly the year that they won the division. I

(36:15):
think it's the playoffs just really leads. Leads leaves a
bad taste in people's mouths. And so it's like when
we talk about Dak, it's hard to talk about thirty
seven and nine or thirty six and ten or whatever
his great seasons under McCarthy, and it's more like what
happens in these big games when he looks like a

(36:37):
shell of himself and he turns the ball over a lot.
I mean to go in twenty twenty three, thirty six
and nine, and then it wasn't all his fault in
the Packer game, but the thirty seven and ten year,
I think he threw two picks, so he threw He's
thrown five interceptions in that three year stretch with McCarthy

(37:01):
making the playoffs. It's pretty bad, it really is. I
think when he's right, yeah, he's somewhere between six to
ten ish, he's good, and then he just turns into
a different player in the playoffs. Like that's not really
debatable at this point. Griffin, What up? Diehard? Trojan fan

(37:26):
fight on got into your podcast? Listen to you on
the Herd. I hear a lot of people asking the
question about Sam Darnold, and as someone who has always
supported him and the program enough. So where I get
Tommy Trojan tattooed on me? Wow? Where do you see
the trajectory of the program going up compared to other

(37:46):
powers in the sport, Oregon, Ohio State and other contenders?
One thing? Living in Arizona. Your lips just get destroyed here.
Very dry, you know, very very dry. I would say
you guys are in a bad spot, no way around it.
When you bring up Ohio State and Oregon, they feel

(38:09):
like they're in a different universe than you guys, like
a different universe. I think the Trojan situation is not
good and not good at all, so I have little faith,
to be honest with you, I think one main issue

(38:32):
is in this new world that the Trojans find themselves in.
I mean, in their last two years eight and five
and seven and six, you were six and six this
year before the bowl game, I would not be very excited.
And Colin and I have talked about this. There is
an energy and an effort that Ryan Day, that Sark,

(38:53):
that Dan Lanning, that Kirby bring to recruiting. Saban brought this.
He was very serious about recruiting. I feel like Lincoln
was pretty serious about it at Oklahoma. But Oklahoma, like
when he took it over, it was kind of like
a you know, it's like a tesla drives itself and
he puts some effort in, but they were just recruiting

(39:14):
the league guys, no matter what. And then he goes
to USC like this program's in disarray. You kind of
got you gotta fucking grind, you gotta get in the mud.
Like when Pete Carroll took over USC, like it was bad.
You know, you gotta take it to the next level. No,
you got to just get it rolling again. And I
just don't know if he knows how to do that.

(39:35):
So I'm not very confident. I'm really not that conference.
Oregon's rolling, Ohio State's a juggernaut. Michigan that's gonna be
their worst team in years moving forward. Penn State is loaded.
So at the high end of the conference, it's just
so good. Let me let me look up USC twenty

(39:59):
twenty five schedule. The hard part is, even if I
you know, give you like win win win, you guys
lost a lot of games that most people would have
said that this is such a joke. And I'm not
blaming USC, but to open up against Missouri State their

(40:20):
first two games, Missouri State in Georgia Southern. I mean,
give me a break. That is this is where college
football needs of someone to step in. Purdue, Michigan State
at Illinois, Michigan at Notre Dame, at Nebraska, Iowa, Oregon, UCLA.

(40:41):
I would say nine and three feels like a pretty
good year. A disgruntled Cowboy fan, My question is should
the Cowboys move off Parsons and stock up on draft
capital to strengthen to strengthen their weakness levels of personnel.
Would think you could get at least one one first
round pick and some later round pick. No, you would

(41:03):
get multiple first round picks. If you trade Micah Parsons,
the minimum you would get would be two ones in
a two. Anyone that doesn't want that, you hang up.
Michah Parsons nets you two ones in a two. How
old is MICHAEH. Parsons twenty five years old? Michael Parsons
is twenty five years old. He is one hundred percent.

(41:29):
I would say, uh, I mean thirteen sacks, thirteen sacks,
fourteen sacks, twelve sacks. I mean he's just an elite
pass rusher. He's just a really good player. I mean,
I think he's two ones in a two. I think
that's what you're getting. So you know, I wouldn't be
in the business of trading Micah Parsons like players. I mean,

(41:49):
the whole reason you draft is to land guys like him,
And looking back, you got pretty lucky that a guy
like him, because you know the COVID year he sat
out and and fell, you know, out of the top ten.
What was he eleventh pick? I think Michah Parsons was
the twelfth pick in the draft. And now it's like,

(42:09):
who's his comp? You know, a dual carter like his
comp is Micah Parsons. A lot of similarities Penn State eleven,
bend the edge, It's like, where's that dual carter gonna
go one? It's like number one overall. I think clearly
if you redid the Micah Parsons is a top two
or three draft pick if he's playing. And I know
he was like off the ball a little bit, but

(42:30):
still I would say if you trade Micah Parsons like
it's I wouldn't even entertain it. If it two ones
a two and a player would be like my minimum.
I think Zach Martin I just saw retired, So two ones,
A two and maybe a guard. Absolutely love the pod.
Have a question for the mail bag. Do you think
we'll ever see more crossovers between gms of different sports?

(42:53):
Am I thinking back to last year when the Commanders
hired Warriors GM Bob Myers to help lead their head
coaching search, and even back a few years ago Mickey
Loomis ran the Saints and the Hornets. Going off of
that question, how long do you think it would take
a good NBA GM to become a good NFLGM? Well,

(43:15):
Bob just helped you know one thing. A good at
an NBA, A good GM in general, they can evaluate people,
whether that's a player, whether that's a coach, whether that's
an executive, whether that's a scouting director. Like they're just
around those people all the time. So like Bob Myers,
he's a people guy. Bob Myers was an agent, right,

(43:37):
Bob Myers represented like Andre Gudala, you know, I mean
he was representing players, so he knows how to negotiate
and he knows people. Now, you do have to have
some idea of football players and football value, so it
would take a long time, Like there's not a player

(43:58):
in the NFL. I would say every single starter, like
Howie Roseman or John Lynch or Less Sneed or John
Spytech or Jason Light could tell you something about like
a lot about. So it's like you developed this war
chest of information that that would be really hard to accumulate.

(44:21):
The relationships with agents you could develop relatively quickly, but
the contracts are a lot different. Dealing with players are
a lot different. I actually don't think there are that
many similarities. My buddy Ethan Strauss, who runs one of
the best substacks and all the sports, sometimes I'll just
calin pick his brain. He's got good ideas and like

(44:42):
he's tied into the NBA world, and he knows a
bunch of gms, including Bob. He's like, all these gms
are miserable. It's not a fun job because basically the
role is just completely different. What like how much roster
do you really do in the NFL, Like you have

(45:03):
massive turnover a year to year massive, So it's I
would imagine baseball and basketball gms would have an easier
time than it would like if Bob Myers just became
the GM. Like if let's say Let's say Washington had
just hired Bob Myers, Like, I don't think he could
do the job. I think he could attempt to to

(45:24):
build around, but like a huge part of the job
is like setting boards. Now, you could argue he could
just hire the best quote unquote like scout and make
him his pro personnel department. But then that guy would
essentially be picking the players. You know. The one thing
with Howie is like how he not only watches tape,
like he just knows players pretty well. Like how how

(45:47):
could Bob not that Bob would even want to But
I think it would be difficult. Lifelong Steeler fan, at
this point, I know better than to expect Pittsburgh to
do anything exciting in the offseason. I've suggested blowing the
whole thing up and seeing what we get for what
Micah and Pickens. It's been a full three year since
Roethlisberger retired and we still have done nothing to find

(46:09):
a long term answer at quarterback. With possibly both Wilson
Field's gone and some recent reports linking the Steelers as
a potential landing spot to Kirk Cousins, Daniel Jones or
forty one year old Aaron fucking Rogers, I added the
effort in there. Sorry, kids, it's just more of the
same Patrick Roster building year after year. Am I too extreme?

(46:31):
I don't think you are. Man, It's just I guess
you could catch lightning in a bottle on Rogers. Like
to me, Cousins makes no sense. He can't move. Cousins
can't move. I would not mess with Kirk Cousins. Rogers
in theory makes some sense. But like he does not

(46:52):
want to get hit, he wants no part of contact.
I don't blame him. Tom Brady the last couple of
years didn't want to get sacked. They're in there, they're
super rich, they still feel and look good like you.
You don't want to take these huge hits from Michael Parsons.
I mean it's you don't want Jalen Carter slamming you
into the ground. Totally get it. Well, when I think
the AFC North like, you get hit, and you get

(47:13):
hit pretty hard. So like the younger version of Rogers,
no doubt about it. This version, I don't know. So
I think you're screwed. But I'm done saying like you know,
I think, uh, I think Tomlin and the Steelers should
just get a healthy divorce and start dating other people.
You get a new coach, Tomlin, you coach someone else.

(47:34):
I'm done saying that because it's never gonna happen. So
it's like pointless exercise. And like you said, should they
do it? Yeah, are they going to? No chance they're
gonna keep doing the same thing like see nine games. Well, yeah,
we get it. You're you're a well run business. You
are never going to suck. No one thinks you are
ever gonna win. Be the Jacks, You're never gonna draft third. Overall,

(47:56):
we understand that, though, like you said, it'd be hell
if you did one year. I feel like I'm like
many other people. I love playing golf. Maybe go once
a week during the summer. I'm twenty three, gotta work.
I feel you, Doug, but hate watching it on television.
I'd love a weekly segment on good bets, bets you're
making to get me interested. Maybe a season long record

(48:18):
on how you've done predicting things. Try to include that
into the golfing. We try to include golf gambling. I
dabble a little bit on the Mexico Open this week
based on your personal experience and what you've heard through
your connections in the league. Can you give us a
bit more inside of what we normally hear that happens

(48:40):
behind the scenes in the offseason, particularly the draft, the combine,
free agency, etc. Second part, do you think there's any
reason why it seems somewhat often players leave their team
to join someone in the division. I'm sure every signing
has layers and reasonings, but just curious if you had
any thoughts on the first part. I think we'll dive

(49:04):
into that at each stop along. Try to kind of
look inside the combine, the draft, the free agency, try
to give, like, you know, the inner workings of how
these things work. I mean, there are a lot of
layers if you want me to like break down like
how teams meet and go over the board, set the board,
free agency, well kind of we'll discuss a little bit

(49:26):
of that next week probably And your second question, money,
I mean, it's just the almighty dollar. It has always
and probably will always unless we just go to digital
currency and it just becomes a bitcoin, which essentially be
the same thing. You know, people do things for more money.

(49:50):
That's why people leave jobs, that's why people move, It's
why people you know. I remember thinking when I was
looking to buy a house, and everyone's like, well, it's
just the interest rates are too high. You can't buy.
Is like, And I remember had a buddy that has
been in business a long time. He's like, John, things
always change. People die, people have kids, they need upgrade,

(50:11):
people change jobs. There are circumstances in humans' lives that
change no matter what. Just because you have a four
percent interest loan, I'm never leaving. Well, all of a sudden,
you have you have one kid, and then your next
kid is twins, and you like, we don't have a
big enough house. You don't have a choice, right, Or
maybe you or your wife get a job offer for

(50:31):
triple the money and you leave. So all of a sudden,
it's like we're never moving. All of a sudden that
house is on the market. So I think things change
really quickly when more money is involved. Now, sometimes you
make a decision not based on money, and sometimes you
make a decision based on your family where you're comfortable.

(50:52):
But in an NFL free agency, the only reason to
leave a team if you like your spot is because
that other team is offering you wait more money. And
in football, where your career can end literally any moment,
it's really really hard to not take the most money possible,
So I think that's why it happens. A question for

(51:13):
the mailbag. You mentioned recently you were somewhat neighbors with
Dontrell Willis. Was an existing connection through the sports business
or did you one day see him around? Definitely a
cool story. He likes something one time on Instagram, probably
like a year ago, maybe something me in Colin did.
Then I followed him, he followed me. We DM back

(51:34):
and forth. And a mutual buddy that is a member
at the country club where Dontrell is that works out
at the gym that I go to, Jeff, who's listened
to the podcast. I actually haven't talked to Jeff in
a little while. Is He's good buddies with him, and
I told him, like, I want to play golf with him.
He gave him his number and I hit him up.
I haven't talked to him. I haven't texted him in

(51:54):
a while. I need to do that. I think Dontrell's
daughter plays soccer at Colorado Shocker. He's got good genetics athlete.
Uh so, yeah, I gotta try to make that happen here.
Maybe after the wedding play some golf on camera with him.
I think he's a pretty good player. It's crazy. I mean,

(52:16):
there are just a lot of athletes that live in
my general area. I mean it's Scottsdale in general, but
a lot of them, you know, baseball players and hockey players,
a lot of them here. A lot of them here,
baseball players because so many come for spring training, right
if you play, I mean half the league comes here
for spring training, and a lot of them buy houses
here and when they retire they just live here. And
obviously golfers as well. It's kind of a hub. It's

(52:38):
kind of why. You know. One of the reasons, you know,
that inspired me to move here is there was like
from the business I'm in, there was like this energy.
I remember coming here like five years ago, and I
mean I didn't know anybody, but you could just kind
of feel it. And then you start kind of doing
the research and following different people on Instagram, like there's

(53:00):
a lot of shit going on. It's like Silicon Valley
for athletes and sports and obviously golf bigger reason. I
picked up my shit and I came here. Loved every
minute it was that a couple of summer days when
it's a little hot. What are your expectations for the
new England Patriots. I have a lot of respect for
bra Bull as a coach, and I thought May showed

(53:22):
a lot of potential in his first year. I think
they could be a playoff playoff competitors right away because
of the coach and quarterback. Do you agree or you
think nine to ten wins is too ambitious? Well? Whatever
would they win this year? Where they drafting third or fourth? Fifth?

(53:43):
I mean fourth? Maybe? Obviously your season last year was
a joke. I mean it was probably most unwatchable team
in the NFL. You had moments when Drake May was
playing pretty well, but I would say that Jacoby Brissett
time when he was playing unwatchable and there were games
Drake May was like this, this is bad. So I

(54:06):
just if I just go. I believe in Verrabel. I
think you can be really competitive next year. Eight to
ten wins not unrealistic. Now, who is on the team right, Like,
what's your offensive line? Who are your skill guys? Does
the defense dramatically improve? Who do you draft? I mean,
let's face it, these next couple of months are pretty
big for the Patriots. You were gonna have I don't know,

(54:29):
six seven. I would imagine like impact guys and definitely
guys you pay some money, guys you draft high. Who
are they? Then I think we can have a better
idea of like, Okay, this team could get to nine wins,
but right now we're just going nine wins. We got
to know who clues on the team. We're just betting
on Vrabel and Josh McDaniels. I recently had an argument

(54:50):
with my friends about Jalen. They don't understand what makes
them a good quarterback, and they'll point to other quarterbacks
who have better stats and so forth. After being in
scouting for a bit, do you think that the average
fan doesn't really know what quote unquote talent is at quarterback?
What would you define this talent? That's a good question,

(55:10):
you know. I think a lot of times talent is
not like how many touchdown passes do you throw? It's
more like, well, how big are you? How strong are you?
How fast are you? How strong is your arm? Right? Like,
Josh Allen has a has a insane amount of talent, right,
Lamar Jackson has an insane amount of talent RG three

(55:34):
before his leg snapped or whatever. Crazy amount of talent.
Michael Vick insane amount of talent. I think Jalen is
talented because he's a really good athlete. He throws a
good deep ball, but he doesn't have a great arm.
You know, it's weird. He's a good runner, but he's
not like a you know, like a twitchy fast you know,

(55:57):
Lamar and Kyler are much more explosive. There's like they're
changing direct you know. Jalen's just a smooth runner. I
would say he's he's a talented player. Obviously you're in
the NFL, but like he was a second round player
for a reason, right, I mean, I wouldn't say he

(56:17):
has elite immense talent relative to the elite guys. Right,
mahomes very crazy arm, excellent thrower on the run, right
can make crazy throws at every level over the middle, outside, Like,
Jalen's a great deep ball thrower, but he's not great
over the middle. He's accurate. One talent that he has

(56:42):
that is like I don't know if it's all God given,
but he clearly works at it in the weight room.
Like that strength that he possesses is pretty special. A
long time listener cannot stress how big of a fan.
I am of you. I usually agree with ninety percent
of the things you say. However, Aaron Rodgers to Amazon

(57:03):
as a play by play guy is your worst take
by far. Herbstreet is the best play by play guy
in the world at the moment. He does the biggest
college game every week, and he does an NFL game
that is twenty million viewers each week. He's smart, he's professionabal,
he's likable, and advertisers love him. Economically speaking, it would

(57:23):
be suicide to hire Rogers. He attacked Big Pharma, who's
let let's be real runs the world. I don't think
we have to be real. I mean add a lot
of fucking juice. One of the only countries that let
him advertise on television, and they make a shitload of money.
Advertisers would not run to Amazon to back a product
run by Rogers. He's extremely controversial. Nobody knows what is

(57:45):
going to come out of his mouth. Aaron Rodgers, while
not great, is still a top twenty quarterback in the world.
He would be an upgrade for a bunch of teams.
Blah blah blah. Okay, let's hit each one. Herbstreet is
not the best play by play guy in the world.
He is the best college guy. Totally agree with you.
Professionaal likable, great for advertisers, but like he's not great

(58:08):
on the NFL and twenty million people like you or
I could call the Amazon game this notion that like
Tom Brady obviously's really famous. It's you know, he's the
most famous guy. Probably do you ever call football games
when you factor in, like Michael Jordan ever called games
Tiger Woods as a new broadcast. I think they tried

(58:28):
Joe Montana back in the day and it failed. But
if Tom Brady did not exist, even if it wasn't
Greg Olsen, let's just say they threw Mark Sanchez on
Eagles Cowboys, it wouldn't change the viewership at all. I
feel pretty strongly about that. Maybe it helps on some
random games, but all the playoff games doesn't change it

(58:48):
one iota. I think that now Tom's impact for business
advertisers totally agree. But like from an NFL standpoint, I
think Collinsworth is better. Troygman's definitely better. They're just better
at the NFL, and that's no. I like Kirkharbstreet Collins College.
I don't really love them calling the NFL. Aaron Rodgers

(59:12):
just played for Woody Johnson. Johnson and Johnson, Now I
get it. It's different, right, Woody Johnson's not an advertiser.
He's trying to get him to win games. I honestly
don't think it really matters. Amazon's in the business. You're
looking at it like from a broadcast television standpoint. Amazon's
in the business of getting you to sign up for
Amazon Prime and you to spend money on what I

(59:36):
would say is the most impressive website in the history
of America. I can press a button and have everything
from a fucking razor to a vacuum cleaner to you
name it delivered to my house within potentially five hours
to twenty four hours. It is incredible how dominant they are.
I one, I haven't liked going to the store in
a decade. Now, why would you go to the store

(59:57):
beside getting a couple things you do not need to
They have dominated because of their efficiency. That is the
business there in And I would say this about Aaron
like he does. He's just he's an easy listen, now,
I'm with you. He could say some off the wall shit,
but like this is entertainment and Amazon is not dependent

(01:00:18):
on Pfizer advertising on a streaming service. They are dependent
on John Middlecoff and you and Bill and James and
Craig and Julie buying things on that thing constantly. So
I think it's less. I would agree on Fox. Yeah,

(01:00:41):
it could be a problem if he said something and
they an advertiser left, it would not be good. That's
not really the business amazons in, are you gonna stop
using Amazon? What are you gonna do? You want to
walk your ass target and go sit in fucking line
with seven million people in that thing on a Tuesday afternoon. Well,
I'm gonna press the button to have it delivered to
my the front of my house as I eat a sandwich.

(01:01:05):
But I hear you, and I'm maybe he wouldn't be good.
I mean there's but like I said, I don't think
it necessarily matters because I don't think Tom Brady's any good.
The same amount of people watch Okay, a couple more questions,
diehard Green Bay Packer fan, and I wanted to know
your thoughts. Honestly, I want more controversial people on television.

(01:01:27):
I want more people like sometimes you watch these games
and this is why, like Akman, like you know, Gruden
was like this bad, and they'll just say some romo.
I just appreciate every once in a while saying some
off the wall shit like I'm trying to be entertained.
Some of these guys say nothing. It's like, I can't
tell you how many texts I get from buddies in
the NFL scouting buddies that are around like watching games,

(01:01:48):
like this guy doesn't even know what he's talking about.
It's awful. It's just bad. And I don't mean just
controversial to say something off the wall, to say something
off the wall, but have some balls, like have some
fucking stones to say like that was awful. And Aikman's
one of the rare guys who will be critical of
things that happened that we're all watching and things everyone

(01:02:10):
else it's like a love fest. I mean, let's face it,
you couldn't pay Tom Brady to be really critical, and
I know he's not really allowed to, but even if
he was, I don't think he would be. That's kind
of what the consumer wants. And at least Rogers potentially
might say some crazy things about like eh, that was stupid.
He might rip some coaches That's all I want. You

(01:02:31):
don't even need to rip the players, like guys fumble guys,
throw a pick? Can you rip some coaches because we're
all doing it some business we're in all the fans.
None of these guys do it. It's like, ah, I
love the offensive coordinator. I've known him for decades. A
great guy. Yeah, terrible play caller again, probably not gonna happen.
So mood point uh, Packer fan, honestly done. Wide receivers.

(01:02:55):
Packer fans, you guys, You guys are living pretty good.
Your team's good. Your wide receiver room yeah, drives you
little nuts. Still really talented. I know we got an
ACL injury and a concussion problem. You guys will be fine.
Like your problems compared to the Steeler problems, like two
historic franchises both consistently win. You guys feel like you

(01:03:17):
are much closer to competing for Super Bowls than they are.
So you ey are gonna be okay. I promise Packer
fans you're gonna be okay. If the Packers were a stock,
I think technically they are the way they're invested in
with the fans, but you know what I mean, Like
if I could buy them on the Nasdaq or the
S and P. I would purchase Packer stock. They would
actually have been one of the more lucrative stocks the

(01:03:38):
last like thirty years. Every year it kind of works, Okay,
last question. The earliest I can remember listening to the
show was when I was a sophomore at UGA in
twenty eighteen. I appreciate it. Uh, I'm a huge Falcons fan.
If you're obviously from Georgia, go dogs. It drives me

(01:03:59):
absolutely that they seem to refuse to build the defensive line,
even though that's been a glaring problem for my entire life.
I was wondering why you think teams refuse to build
from the lines out and what do you think their
main issue is. It doesn't seem like Blank is some
crazy medaling owner or an idiot, and I can't figure
out why they can't figure it out. Also, I understand

(01:04:20):
their dogshit franchise in general, but recently they've been pretty
close to making the playoffs, but they keep putting themselves
in cap hel hiring mediocre coaches and old players. They
went through that stretch. I think last year with the
Pennix Cousins thing is one of the more head scratching
moves in recent memory, and to me it just shows

(01:04:41):
how from an organizational standpoint, no one's on the same page.
Like one of the big advantages the Super Bowl teams,
the Eagles and the Chiefs have is like and listen
and even how he defended Sirianni, He's like, I work
really close to this guy for the last four years.
Like that, there is a pretty strategic Jeff Larry Howie
whoever the coach is like philosophical belief, Andy Reid veach

(01:05:06):
hand in hand. The Ravens, Harbaud, DaCosta, Ozzy whoever like
big time like one vision, but the Buffalo Kyle Shanahan
and John lynch worked really close less need Sean McVay
feels like, is there any cohesion the Cousins. Michael Pennock's

(01:05:28):
thing was laughable. Now, thank god they drafted Like I
was never against drafting Pennix, but they never should have
signed Cousins. They should have used that money to sign
a couple defensive alignment. Christian Wilkins. I know he got hurt,
but like that would have been a guy to sign.
So I think it just gets back to listen, you

(01:05:51):
can't convince me, and I understand guys can still be
sharp of a as attack like in their eighties and nineties.
You know, the Charlie Mungers, Warren Buffetts, most human beings
like You're just not gonna be the same. And you
can't convince me that the owner's age, the amount of
money they've made that it just doesn't feel like their

(01:06:14):
standard is quite as high. I mean, the guy put
himself in the Falcons Hall of Fame last year. Honestly,
I thought that was a pretty embarrassing moment, especially in
a season where you just pay a quarterback off an
Achilles one hundred million, you got to bench him by
the end of the season. I would just I would
sell stock in the Atlanta Falcons. I bet against it
from the jump last year. Now I picked the Saints

(01:06:36):
instead of the Bucks. But my whole point was everyone
is picking this team. How in what world? The other
thing is? Like being a good defensive coordinator when Sean
mcvay's your head coach does not mean that you're gonna
be a good head coach. Brandon Staley, Raheem Morris, it
does not mean that you're gonna be a good head coach.
Now Raheem seems infinitely more likable down to earth than

(01:06:58):
a normal human than Brandon Staley. So if I had
to pick one of the two, I would take Raheem Morrise.
But like when you work for Sean McVay, they draft well,
they have good players, and there's just a well run operation.
So it's like that doesn't just equate to you kicking
ass and taking names when you leave them. It's really difficult.
So I guess it's a long winded way of saying

(01:07:21):
I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer here, but I
would not be very bullish on your guys operation. Have
a great weekend and enjoy yourself. Just have a smile,
have a few cocktails, maybe you're not drinking, get a
good workout in, go for a walk, enjoy your loved ones.
Talk to you soon. Peace. The Volume